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Genesis

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Genesis 1:2  The earth had no shape, and it was empty. Darkness lay over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:3  And God said, "Let there be light." And there was light.
Genesis 1:4  God saw that the light was good. And God divided the light from the darkness.
Genesis 1:5  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
Genesis 1:6  And God said, "Let there be a firmament in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."
Genesis 1:7  So God made the firmament. He divided the waters under the firmament from the waters above the firmament. And it was so.
Genesis 1:8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
Genesis 1:9  And God said, "Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so.
Genesis 1:10  God called the dry land Earth, and the waters gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:11  And God said, "Let the earth bring out grass, and plants that make seed, and fruit trees that bear fruit of their own kind, with their seed inside them, upon the earth." And it was so.
Genesis 1:12  The earth brought out grass, and plants that make seed of their own kind, and trees bearing fruit with their seed inside them, of their own kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:13  And the evening and the morning were the third day.
Genesis 1:14  And God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night. Let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years."
Genesis 1:15  "Let them be lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth." And it was so.
Genesis 1:16  God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
Genesis 1:17  God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Genesis 1:18  and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
Genesis 1:20  And God said, "Let the waters bring out great numbers of moving creatures that have life, and birds that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven."
Genesis 1:21  So God created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought out in great numbers, each of its own kind, and every winged bird of its own kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:22  And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, and increase, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds increase on the earth."
Genesis 1:23  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
Genesis 1:24  And God said, "Let the earth bring out living creatures of every kind: cattle, and creeping things, and wild animals of the earth, each of its own kind." And it was so.
Genesis 1:25  God made the wild animals of the earth of their own kind, and the cattle of their own kind, and everything that creeps upon the earth of its own kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:26  And God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth."
Genesis 1:27  So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created him. Male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful, and increase, and fill the earth, and take charge of it. Rule over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."
Genesis 1:29  And God said, "Look, I have given you every plant bearing seed, which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They shall be your food."
Genesis 1:30  "And to every wild animal of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so.
Genesis 1:31  And God saw everything that he had made, and look, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Genesis 2:1  So the heavens and the earth were finished, and everything in them.
Genesis 2:2  On the seventh day God finished the work he had done. On the seventh day he rested from all the work he had done.
Genesis 2:3  God blessed the seventh day and made it holy. For on that day he rested from all the work he had created and made.
Genesis 2:4  This is the story of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
Genesis 2:5  No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet grown. For the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to work the ground.
Genesis 2:6  But a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
Genesis 2:7  The LORD God formed man out of the dust of the ground. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:8  The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed.
Genesis 2:9  Out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to look at and good for food. The tree of life was also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Genesis 2:10  A river went out of Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became four branches.
Genesis 2:11  The name of the first is Pison. It flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
Genesis 2:12  The gold of that land is good. There is bdellium there, and the onyx stone.
Genesis 2:13  The name of the second river is Gihon. It flows around the whole land of Ethiopia.
Genesis 2:14  The name of the third river is Hiddekel. It goes toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
Genesis 2:15  The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden, to work it and to keep it.
Genesis 2:16  The LORD God commanded the man, and said, "You may freely eat from every tree of the garden."
Genesis 2:17  "But you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For on the day you eat from it you will surely die."
Genesis 2:18  The LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him."
Genesis 2:19  Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air. He brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. Whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.
Genesis 2:20  Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was found no helper who was right for him.
Genesis 2:21  The LORD God made a deep sleep fall upon Adam, and he slept. He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
Genesis 2:22  From the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man, he made a woman, and brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:23  Adam said, "This at last is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
Genesis 2:24  For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall hold fast to his wife. And they shall be one flesh.
Genesis 2:25  They were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed.

Genesis 3:1  Now the serpent was more crafty than any animal of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Has God really said, 'You must not eat from every tree of the garden'?"
Genesis 3:2  The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden."
Genesis 3:3  "But about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You must not eat it, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
Genesis 3:4  The serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die."
Genesis 3:5  "For God knows that on the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like gods, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:6  The woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:7  Then the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Genesis 3:8  They heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:9  The LORD God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?"
Genesis 3:10  He said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked. So I hid myself."
Genesis 3:11  He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
Genesis 3:12  The man said, "The woman you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate."
Genesis 3:13  The LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
Genesis 3:14  The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every animal of the field. On your belly you will go, and you will eat dust all the days of your life."
Genesis 3:15  "I will put hatred between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. It shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
Genesis 3:16  To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your sorrow and your childbearing. In sorrow you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
Genesis 3:17  And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree that I commanded you about, saying, 'You must not eat from it,' the ground is cursed because of you. In sorrow you will eat from it all the days of your life."
Genesis 3:18  It will bring forth thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
Genesis 3:19  "By the sweat of your face you will eat bread, until you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken. You are dust, and to dust you will return."
Genesis 3:20  Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 3:21  The LORD God also made coats of skins for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Genesis 3:22  The LORD God said, "Look, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. And now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever."
Genesis 3:23  So the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to work the ground from which he was taken.
Genesis 3:24  So he drove the man out. And at the east of the garden of Eden he placed Cherubims, and a flaming sword that turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Genesis 4:1  Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, "I have gotten a man from the LORD."
Genesis 4:2  Then she gave birth to his brother Abel. Abel kept sheep, but Cain worked the ground.
Genesis 4:3  After some time, Cain brought some of the fruit of the ground as an offering to the LORD.
Genesis 4:4  Abel also brought an offering. He brought the firstborn of his flock and their fat. The LORD looked with favour on Abel and his offering,
Genesis 4:5  but he did not look with favour on Cain and his offering. Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
Genesis 4:6  The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why has your face fallen?"
Genesis 4:7  "If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And to you shall be his desire, and you shall rule over him."
Genesis 4:8  Cain talked with his brother Abel. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Genesis 4:9  The LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?" He said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?"
Genesis 4:10  And he said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground."
Genesis 4:11  Now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
Genesis 4:12  "When you work the ground, from now on it will not give you its strength. You will be a wanderer and a homeless man on the earth."
Genesis 4:13  Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is greater than I can bear."
Genesis 4:14  "Look, today you have driven me out from the face of the earth, and I will be hidden from your face. I will be a wanderer and a homeless man on the earth, and anyone who finds me will kill me."
Genesis 4:15  The LORD said to him, "Then whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over." And the LORD put a mark on Cain, so that no one who found him would kill him.
Genesis 4:16  So Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:17  Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain built a city, and he named the city Enoch, after the name of his son.
Genesis 4:18  Irad was born to Enoch. Irad was the father of Mehujael, and Mehujael was the father of Methusael, and Methusael was the father of Lamech.
Genesis 4:19  Lamech took two wives. The name of one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah.
Genesis 4:20  Adah gave birth to Jabal. He was the father of those who live in tents and keep cattle.
Genesis 4:21  His brother's name was Jubal. He was the father of all who play the harp and the organ.
Genesis 4:22  Zillah also gave birth to Tubalcain, who taught everyone who works in brass and iron. The sister of Tubalcain was Naamah.
Genesis 4:23  Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say. For I have killed a man for wounding me, and a young man for hurting me."
Genesis 4:24  "If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech will be avenged seventy-seven times."
Genesis 4:25  Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth. "For God," she said, "has given me another child in place of Abel, whom Cain killed."
Genesis 4:26  A son was born to Seth also, and he named him Enos. Then people began to call on the name of the LORD.

Genesis 5:1  This is the book of the family line of Adam. On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.
Genesis 5:2  He created them male and female. He blessed them, and called their name Adam, on the day when they were created.
Genesis 5:3  Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and was the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image. He called his name Seth.
Genesis 5:4  After Seth was born, Adam lived eight hundred years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:5  So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.
Genesis 5:6  Seth lived a hundred and five years, and was the father of Enos.
Genesis 5:7  After Enos was born, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:8  So all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.
Genesis 5:9  Enos lived ninety years, and was the father of Cainan.
Genesis 5:10  After Cainan was born, Enos lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:11  So all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years, and he died.
Genesis 5:12  Cainan lived seventy years, and was the father of Mahalaleel.
Genesis 5:13  After Mahalaleel was born, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:14  So all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died.
Genesis 5:15  Mahalaleel lived sixty-five years, and was the father of Jared.
Genesis 5:16  After Jared was born, Mahalaleel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:17  So all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred and ninety-five years, and he died.
Genesis 5:18  Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and was the father of Enoch.
Genesis 5:19  After Enoch was born, Jared lived eight hundred years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:20  So all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died.
Genesis 5:21  Enoch lived sixty-five years, and was the father of Methuselah.
Genesis 5:22  After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:23  So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
Genesis 5:24  Enoch walked with God, and he was not there any more, for God took him.
Genesis 5:25  Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and was the father of Lamech.
Genesis 5:26  After Lamech was born, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:27  So all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.
Genesis 5:28  Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and was the father of a son.
Genesis 5:29  He called his name Noah, and said, "This one will comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed."
Genesis 5:30  After Noah was born, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and he had more sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:31  So all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died.
Genesis 5:32  Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah was the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6:1  People began to grow many in number on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them.
Genesis 6:2  The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful. They took wives for themselves, any that they chose.
Genesis 6:3  And the LORD said, "My spirit will not always strive with man, for he also is flesh. His days will be a hundred and twenty years."
Genesis 6:4  There were giants on the earth in those days, and also after that. The sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men of old, men of renown.
Genesis 6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth. Every plan his heart thought of was only evil, all the time.
Genesis 6:6  And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth. It grieved him in his heart.
Genesis 6:7  And the LORD said, "I will wipe man, whom I have created, off the face of the earth. Man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the birds of the air. For I am sorry that I have made them."
Genesis 6:8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Genesis 6:9  This is the story of Noah. Noah was a just man, blameless among the people of his time, and Noah walked with God.
Genesis 6:10  And Noah was the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Genesis 6:11  The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Genesis 6:12  And God looked at the earth, and look, it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted its way on the earth.
Genesis 6:13  And God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. Look, I will destroy them along with the earth."
Genesis 6:14  "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch."
Genesis 6:15  "This is how you are to make it. The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits."
Genesis 6:16  "You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top. Set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third floors."
Genesis 6:17  "And look, I myself am bringing a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh that has the breath of life in it from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die."
Genesis 6:18  "But with you I will establish my covenant. You shall come into the ark, you, and your sons, and your wife, and your sons' wives with you."
Genesis 6:19  "And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female."
Genesis 6:20  "Birds after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the earth after its kind. Two of every kind shall come to you, to be kept alive."
Genesis 6:21  "And take for yourself some of all the food that is eaten, and gather it to you. It shall be food for you and for them."
Genesis 6:22  Noah did this. He did everything just as God commanded him.

Genesis 7:1  The LORD said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and all your household. For I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation."
Genesis 7:2  "Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, the male and his female. And take two of the animals that are not clean, the male and his female."
Genesis 7:3  "Take also seven of every kind of bird of the air, the male and the female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth."
Genesis 7:4  "For in seven days more I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. And I will wipe out from the face of the earth every living thing that I have made."
Genesis 7:5  And Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him.
Genesis 7:6  Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth.
Genesis 7:7  Noah went into the ark, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:8  Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth,
Genesis 7:9  two by two they went in to Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:10  After seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.
Genesis 7:11  In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Genesis 7:12  And the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:13  On that very day Noah went into the ark, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them.
Genesis 7:14  They went in, and every wild animal after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.
Genesis 7:15  They went in to Noah into the ark, two by two of all flesh that has the breath of life in it.
Genesis 7:16  Those that went in were male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.
Genesis 7:17  The flood was on the earth forty days. The waters rose and lifted up the ark, and it was raised high above the earth.
Genesis 7:18  The waters grew strong and rose greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.
Genesis 7:19  The waters grew stronger and stronger on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered.
Genesis 7:20  The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered.
Genesis 7:21  And all flesh that moved on the earth died: birds, and cattle, and wild animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man.
Genesis 7:22  Everything on the dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.
Genesis 7:23  Every living thing on the face of the ground was wiped out: man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the birds of the heaven. They were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left alive, and those who were with him in the ark.
Genesis 7:24  And the waters stayed strong on the earth a hundred and fifty days.

Genesis 8:1  And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters went down.
Genesis 8:2  The springs of the deep and the windows of heaven were shut, and the rain from heaven was held back.
Genesis 8:3  The waters kept draining away from the earth. After the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters had gone down.
Genesis 8:4  In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Genesis 8:5  The waters kept going down until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains could be seen.
Genesis 8:6  At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made.
Genesis 8:7  He sent out a raven, and it went back and forth until the waters were dried up from the earth.
Genesis 8:8  He also sent out a dove, to see if the waters had gone down from the face of the ground.
Genesis 8:9  But the dove found no place to rest her foot, and she came back to him in the ark, because the waters were over the face of the whole earth. Then he reached out his hand, took her, and brought her in to himself in the ark.
Genesis 8:10  He waited another seven days, and again he sent the dove out of the ark.
Genesis 8:11  The dove came back to him in the evening, and look, in her mouth was a fresh olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had gone down from the earth.
Genesis 8:12  He waited another seven days, and sent out the dove. She did not come back to him again.
Genesis 8:13  In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. Noah took the covering off the ark and looked, and the face of the ground was dry.
Genesis 8:14  And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Genesis 8:15  And God spoke to Noah, saying,
Genesis 8:16  "Go out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons' wives with you."
Genesis 8:17  "Bring out with you every living thing that is with you, all living creatures, both birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Let them breed freely on the earth, and be fruitful, and increase on the earth."
Genesis 8:18  So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him.
Genesis 8:19  Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, each by its kind, went out of the ark.
Genesis 8:20  Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Genesis 8:21  And the LORD smelled a sweet smell. The LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for what man's heart imagines is evil from his youth. I will not again strike down every living thing, as I have done."
Genesis 8:22  "While the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Genesis 9:1  God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, "Have many children, and increase, and fill the earth."
Genesis 9:2  "Every animal of the earth will fear you and dread you. So will every bird of the air, and everything that moves on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand."
Genesis 9:3  "Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, now I give you everything."
Genesis 9:4  "But you must not eat meat that still has its life in it, that is, its blood."
Genesis 9:5  "And I will surely demand a reckoning for your own lifeblood. I will demand it from every animal, and I will demand it from man. From each man, for the life of his brother, I will demand the life of a man."
Genesis 9:6  "Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man his own blood will be shed. For God made man in his own image."
Genesis 9:7  "As for you, have many children, and increase. Spread out over the earth in great numbers, and increase in it."
Genesis 9:8  God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him. He said,
Genesis 9:9  "Look, I am making my covenant with you, and with your children after you,"
Genesis 9:10  "and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every animal of the earth that is with you. It is with all that came out of the ark, with every animal of the earth."
Genesis 9:11  "I will make my covenant with you. Never again will all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood. Never again will a flood destroy the earth."
Genesis 9:12  And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant that I am making between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all generations to come:"
Genesis 9:13  I set my bow in the cloud, and it will be the sign of a covenant between me and the earth.
Genesis 9:14  When I bring a cloud over the earth, the bow will be seen in the cloud.
Genesis 9:15  Then I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all flesh.
Genesis 9:16  "The bow will be in the cloud, and I will look at it. Then I will remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
Genesis 9:17  And God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant that I have made between me and all flesh that is on the earth."
Genesis 9:18  The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham is the father of Canaan.
Genesis 9:19  These are the three sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was filled with people.
Genesis 9:20  Noah began to work the ground, and he planted a vineyard.
Genesis 9:21  He drank the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered inside his tent.
Genesis 9:22  Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked, and told his two brothers outside.
Genesis 9:23  So Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it on both their shoulders. They walked in backwards and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked.
Genesis 9:24  When Noah woke from his wine, he knew what his younger son had done to him.
Genesis 9:25  So he said, "Cursed be Canaan. He will be the lowest of servants to his brothers."
Genesis 9:26  And he said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant."
Genesis 9:27  "God will enlarge Japheth, and he will live in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant."
Genesis 9:28  After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years.
Genesis 9:29  In all, Noah lived nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died.

Genesis 10:1  These are the family lines of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
Genesis 10:2  The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
Genesis 10:3  The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
Genesis 10:4  The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
Genesis 10:5  From these the coastlands of the Gentiles were divided up in their lands. Each had his own language, by their families, in their nations.
Genesis 10:6  The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan.
Genesis 10:7  The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtecha. The sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan.
Genesis 10:8  Cush was the father of Nimrod, who began to be a mighty one on the earth.
Genesis 10:9  He was a mighty hunter before the LORD. That is why people say, "Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD."
Genesis 10:10  The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Genesis 10:11  Out of that land went Asshur, and he built Nineveh, the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
Genesis 10:12  and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah. That is a great city.
Genesis 10:13  Mizraim was the father of the Ludim, the Anamim, the Lehabim, the Naphtuhim,
Genesis 10:14  the Pathrusim, and the Casluhim (from whom came the Philistim), and the Caphtorim.
Genesis 10:15  Canaan was the father of Sidon, his firstborn, and of Heth,
Genesis 10:16  and the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgasite,
Genesis 10:17  the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,
Genesis 10:18  the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Later the families of the Canaanites spread out.
Genesis 10:19  The border of the Canaanites went from Sidon toward Gerar, as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, as far as Lasha.
Genesis 10:20  These are the sons of Ham, by their families and their languages, in their countries and their nations.
Genesis 10:21  Children were also born to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder.
Genesis 10:22  The children of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram.
Genesis 10:23  The children of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash.
Genesis 10:24  Arphaxad was the father of Salah, and Salah was the father of Eber.
Genesis 10:25  Two sons were born to Eber. The name of one was Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided. His brother's name was Joktan.
Genesis 10:26  Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
Genesis 10:27  Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
Genesis 10:28  Obal, Abimael, Sheba,
Genesis 10:29  Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
Genesis 10:30  They lived from Mesha as far as Sephar, a mountain in the east.
Genesis 10:31  These are the sons of Shem, by their families and their languages, in their lands and their nations.
Genesis 10:32  These are the families of the sons of Noah, by their family lines, in their nations. From these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.

Genesis 11:1  The whole earth had one language, and everyone used the same words.
Genesis 11:2  As people travelled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.
Genesis 11:3  They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and bake them hard." So they used brick instead of stone, and tar instead of mortar.
Genesis 11:4  They said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top reaching to heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered over the face of the whole earth."
Genesis 11:5  The LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the children of men were building.
Genesis 11:6  The LORD said, "Look, the people are one, and they all have one language. This is only the beginning of what they will do. Now nothing they plan to do will be held back from them."
Genesis 11:7  "Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they cannot understand one another's speech."
Genesis 11:8  So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
Genesis 11:9  That is why its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of all the earth.
Genesis 11:10  These are the generations of Shem. Shem was a hundred years old when he was the father of Arphaxad, two years after the flood.
Genesis 11:11  After Shem was the father of Arphaxad, he lived five hundred years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:12  Arphaxad lived thirty-five years, and was the father of Salah.
Genesis 11:13  After Arphaxad was the father of Salah, he lived four hundred and three years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:14  Salah lived thirty years, and was the father of Eber.
Genesis 11:15  After Salah was the father of Eber, he lived four hundred and three years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:16  Eber lived thirty-four years, and was the father of Peleg.
Genesis 11:17  After Eber was the father of Peleg, he lived four hundred and thirty years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:18  Peleg lived thirty years, and was the father of Reu.
Genesis 11:19  After Peleg was the father of Reu, he lived two hundred and nine years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:20  Reu lived thirty-two years, and was the father of Serug.
Genesis 11:21  After Reu was the father of Serug, he lived two hundred and seven years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:22  Serug lived thirty years, and was the father of Nahor.
Genesis 11:23  After Serug was the father of Nahor, he lived two hundred years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:24  Nahor lived twenty-nine years, and was the father of Terah.
Genesis 11:25  After Nahor was the father of Terah, he lived a hundred and nineteen years, and he had sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:26  Terah lived seventy years, and was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran.
Genesis 11:27  Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah was the father of Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran was the father of Lot.
Genesis 11:28  Haran died before his father Terah, in the land where he was born, in Ur of the Chaldees.
Genesis 11:29  Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife was Milcah, the daughter of Haran, who was the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.
Genesis 11:30  But Sarai could not have children; she had no child.
Genesis 11:31  Terah took his son Abram, and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram. They went out together from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan. They came to Haran, and settled there.
Genesis 11:32  The days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 12:1  Now the LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father's house, and go to a land that I will show you."
Genesis 12:2  "I will make a great nation from you. I will bless you, and make your name great. And you will be a blessing."
Genesis 12:3  "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse the one who curses you. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
Genesis 12:4  So Abram left, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy‑five years old when he left Haran.
Genesis 12:5  Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all the goods they had gathered, and the people they had gained in Haran. They set out to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to the land of Canaan.
Genesis 12:6  Abram passed through the land to the place of Sichem, to the plain of Moreh. The Canaanite was in the land at that time.
Genesis 12:7  The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "I will give this land to your seed." So there he built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 12:8  From there he moved on to a mountain east of Bethel, and set up his tent, with Bethel on the west and Hai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and called on the name of the LORD.
Genesis 12:9  And Abram travelled on, still going toward the south.
Genesis 12:10  There was a famine in the land. So Abram went down into Egypt to stay there for a while, because the famine was severe in the land.
Genesis 12:11  When he was near to entering Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, "Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman to look at."
Genesis 12:12  "So when the Egyptians see you, they will say, 'This is his wife.' Then they will kill me, but they will keep you alive."
Genesis 12:13  "Please say that you are my sister, so that it may go well with me because of you, and my life will be spared because of you."
Genesis 12:14  When Abram came into Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.
Genesis 12:15  The princes of Pharaoh also saw her, and they praised her to Pharaoh. And the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house.
Genesis 12:16  Pharaoh treated Abram well because of her. Abram had sheep, and oxen, and male donkeys, and male servants, and female servants, and female donkeys, and camels.
Genesis 12:17  But the LORD struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.
Genesis 12:18  So Pharaoh called Abram and said, "What is this that you have done to me? Why did you not tell me that she was your wife?"
Genesis 12:19  "Why did you say, 'She is my sister'? I might have taken her to be my wife. Now then, here is your wife. Take her, and go on your way."
Genesis 12:20  And Pharaoh gave his men orders about him, and they sent him away, with his wife and all that he had.

Genesis 13:1  So Abram went up out of Egypt into the south. He took his wife and all that he had, and Lot went with him.
Genesis 13:2  Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold.
Genesis 13:3  He travelled on from the south as far as Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the first, between Bethel and Hai.
Genesis 13:4  He came to the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on the name of the LORD.
Genesis 13:5  Lot also, who went with Abram, had flocks and herds and tents.
Genesis 13:6  The land could not support them both living together, because they had so much. They could not live together.
Genesis 13:7  There was quarrelling between the herdsmen of Abram's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle. The Canaanites and the Perizzites were living in the land at that time.
Genesis 13:8  Abram said to Lot, "Please, let there be no quarrelling between me and you, or between my herdsmen and your herdsmen. We are brothers."
Genesis 13:9  "Is not the whole land in front of you? Please separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right. If you go to the right hand, then I will go to the left."
Genesis 13:10  Lot looked up and saw the whole plain of Jordan. It was well watered everywhere, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as you go toward Zoar. This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.
Genesis 13:11  So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of Jordan, and Lot travelled east. They separated from each other.
Genesis 13:12  Abram lived in the land of Canaan, and Lot lived in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
Genesis 13:13  But the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinned very greatly before the LORD.
Genesis 13:14  The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes now, and look from the place where you are to the north, and the south, and the east, and the west."
Genesis 13:15  "All the land that you see I will give to you and to your seed for ever."
Genesis 13:16  "I will make your seed like the dust of the earth. If anyone could count the dust of the earth, then your seed could be counted too."
Genesis 13:17  "Get up, and walk through the land, through its length and its breadth, for I will give it to you."
Genesis 13:18  Then Abram moved his tent, and came and lived in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built an altar there to the LORD.

Genesis 14:1  In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of nations,
Genesis 14:2  these kings made war against Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.
Genesis 14:3  All these joined together in the valley of Siddim, which is the salt sea.
Genesis 14:4  For twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.
Genesis 14:5  In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer came, and the kings who were with him. They struck down the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim,
Genesis 14:6  and the Horites in their mountain of Seir, as far as Elparan, which is beside the wilderness.
Genesis 14:7  Then they turned back and came to Enmishpat, which is Kadesh. They struck down all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who lived in Hazezontamar.
Genesis 14:8  Then the king of Sodom went out, with the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is Zoar). They drew up for battle against them in the valley of Siddim,
Genesis 14:9  against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar: four kings against five.
Genesis 14:10  The valley of Siddim was full of tar pits. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah ran away, and fell there. The rest fled to the mountain.
Genesis 14:11  The enemy took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their food, and went away.
Genesis 14:12  They also took Lot, the son of Abram's brother, who lived in Sodom, and they took his goods, and left.
Genesis 14:13  One man who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. Abram was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, the brother of Eshcol and the brother of Aner. These men were allies of Abram.
Genesis 14:14  When Abram heard that his brother's son had been taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen of them, and chased the enemy as far as Dan.
Genesis 14:15  By night he divided his men against them, he and his servants, and he struck them, and chased them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.
Genesis 14:16  He brought back all the goods. He also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, and the women too, and the people.
Genesis 14:17  The king of Sodom went out to meet him after he came back from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. They met at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's valley.
Genesis 14:18  Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of the most high God.
Genesis 14:19  He blessed Abram and said, "Blessed be Abram of the most high God, who owns heaven and earth."
Genesis 14:20  "And blessed be the most high God, who has given your enemies into your hand." And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Genesis 14:21  The king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the people, and take the goods for yourself."
Genesis 14:22  But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted up my hand to the LORD, the most high God, who owns heaven and earth,"
Genesis 14:23  and I have sworn that I will not take a thread or even a shoelace, and that I will not take anything that is yours. You must never say, 'I made Abram rich.'
Genesis 14:24  "I will take nothing except what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre. Let them take their share."

Genesis 15:1  After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision. He said, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, and your very great reward."
Genesis 15:2  But Abram said, "Lord GOD, what will you give me? I have no children, and the one who will take care of my house is Eliezer of Damascus."
Genesis 15:3  And Abram said, "Look, you have given me no children. So a servant born in my house will be my heir."
Genesis 15:4  Then the word of the LORD came to him. He said, "This man will not be your heir. Your own son will be your heir."
Genesis 15:5  He brought him outside and said, "Look up at the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And he said to him, "That is how many your children will be."
Genesis 15:6  And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 15:7  And he said to him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give you this land to be yours."
Genesis 15:8  And he said, "Lord GOD, how can I know that it will be mine?"
Genesis 15:9  And he said to him, "Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon."
Genesis 15:10  So he brought all these to him. He cut them in two down the middle, and laid each piece opposite the other. But he did not cut the birds in two.
Genesis 15:11  And when the birds of prey came down on the dead bodies, Abram drove them away.
Genesis 15:12  When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And a terrible thick darkness fell on him.
Genesis 15:13  And he said to Abram, "Know for certain that your children will be strangers in a land that is not theirs. They will serve the people there, and those people will treat them cruelly for four hundred years."
Genesis 15:14  "But I will judge that nation which they serve. Afterward they will come out with great riches."
Genesis 15:15  "And you will go to your fathers in peace. You will be buried at a good old age."
Genesis 15:16  "But in the fourth generation they will come back here. For the sin of the Amorites is not yet complete."
Genesis 15:17  Then, when the sun had gone down and it was dark, look: a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces.
Genesis 15:18  On that same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram. He said, "I have given this land to your children, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates:"
Genesis 15:19  "the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,"
Genesis 15:20  "the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaims,"
Genesis 15:21  "the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."

Genesis 16:1  Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a servant girl from Egypt, whose name was Hagar.
Genesis 16:2  Sarai said to Abram, "Look, the LORD has kept me from having children. Please, go in to my servant. Perhaps I may get children through her." And Abram listened to what Sarai said.
Genesis 16:3  So Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. This was after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 16:4  He went in to Hagar, and she became pregnant. When she saw that she was pregnant, she looked down on her mistress.
Genesis 16:5  Sarai said to Abram, "The wrong done to me is your fault. I gave my servant into your arms. Now she sees that she is pregnant, and she looks down on me. May the LORD judge between you and me."
Genesis 16:6  But Abram said to Sarai, "Look, your servant is in your hands. Do to her whatever you think is right." Then Sarai treated her harshly, and Hagar ran away from her.
Genesis 16:7  The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring beside the road to Shur.
Genesis 16:8  He said, "Hagar, Sarai's servant, where have you come from? And where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai."
Genesis 16:9  The angel of the LORD said to her, "Go back to your mistress, and put yourself under her hands."
Genesis 16:10  The angel of the LORD said to her, "I will greatly increase your descendants, so many that no one will be able to count them."
Genesis 16:11  The angel of the LORD said to her, "Look, you are pregnant, and you will have a son. You will name him Ishmael, because the LORD has heard your suffering."
Genesis 16:12  "He will be a wild man. His hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he will live in the presence of all his brothers."
Genesis 16:13  She called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are the God who sees me." For she said, "Have I here also looked after him who sees me?"
Genesis 16:14  That is why the well was called Beerlahairoi. It is between Kadesh and Bered.
Genesis 16:15  Hagar bore Abram a son. Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
Genesis 16:16  Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to him.

Genesis 17:1  When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am the Almighty God. Walk before me, and be perfect."
Genesis 17:2  "I will make my covenant between me and you, and I will greatly increase your numbers."
Genesis 17:3  Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying,
Genesis 17:4  "As for me, look, my covenant is with you. You will be the father of many nations."
Genesis 17:5  Your name will no longer be called Abram. Your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.
Genesis 17:6  I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you.
Genesis 17:7  I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, through all their generations. It will be an everlasting covenant, to be a God to you and to your descendants after you.
Genesis 17:8  "I will give to you, and to your descendants after you, the land where you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, to possess for ever. And I will be their God."
Genesis 17:9  God said to Abraham, "As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, through all their generations."
Genesis 17:10  This is my covenant, which you must keep, between me and you and your descendants after you. Every male among you must be circumcised.
Genesis 17:11  You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a sign of the covenant between me and you.
Genesis 17:12  Every male among you who is eight days old must be circumcised, in all your generations. This includes the one born in your house, and the one bought with money from any stranger who is not of your descendants.
Genesis 17:13  The one born in your house, and the one bought with your money, must be circumcised. My covenant will be in your flesh as an everlasting covenant.
Genesis 17:14  "Any male who is not circumcised, whose flesh of his foreskin is not cut, that person will be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant."
Genesis 17:15  God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you must not call her name Sarai. Her name will be Sarah."
Genesis 17:16  "I will bless her, and I will also give you a son by her. Yes, I will bless her, and she will be a mother of nations. Kings of peoples will come from her."
Genesis 17:17  Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed. He said in his heart, "Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? And can Sarah, who is ninety years old, have a child?"
Genesis 17:18  Abraham said to God, "If only Ishmael might live before you!"
Genesis 17:19  God said, "Sarah your wife will indeed bear you a son, and you will call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him."
Genesis 17:20  As for Ishmael, I have heard you. Look, I have blessed him. I will make him fruitful, and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
Genesis 17:21  "But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this set time next year."
Genesis 17:22  He finished talking with him, and God went up from Abraham.
Genesis 17:23  Then Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all who were born in his house, and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house. He circumcised the flesh of their foreskin that very same day, as God had said to him.
Genesis 17:24  Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Genesis 17:25  Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Genesis 17:26  On that very same day Abraham was circumcised, and Ishmael his son.
Genesis 17:27  And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from the stranger, were circumcised with him.

Genesis 18:1  The LORD appeared to Abraham on the plains of Mamre. Abraham was sitting in the door of his tent in the heat of the day.
Genesis 18:2  He looked up, and there were three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed down to the ground.
Genesis 18:3  He said, "My Lord, if I have found favour in your sight, please do not pass by your servant."
Genesis 18:4  "Let a little water be brought, please, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree."
Genesis 18:5  "I will bring a piece of bread, and you can refresh yourselves. After that you may go on your way. For this is why you have come to your servant." They said, "Do as you have said."
Genesis 18:6  Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, "Quickly, get three measures of fine flour ready. Knead it, and make cakes on the hearth."
Genesis 18:7  Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who hurried to prepare it.
Genesis 18:8  He took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree while they ate.
Genesis 18:9  They said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" He said, "There, in the tent."
Genesis 18:10  And he said, "I will certainly come back to you about this time next year. And look, Sarah your wife shall have a son." Sarah was listening at the tent door, which was behind him.
Genesis 18:11  Now Abraham and Sarah were old, far on in years, and Sarah was past the age of bearing children.
Genesis 18:12  So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "Now that I am worn out, shall I have pleasure, and my lord is old too?"
Genesis 18:13  And the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I really have a child, when I am old?'"
Genesis 18:14  "Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the time I have said I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."
Genesis 18:15  Then Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh," for she was afraid. And he said, "No, but you did laugh."
Genesis 18:16  Then the men got up from there and looked toward Sodom. Abraham went with them to see them on their way.
Genesis 18:17  And the LORD said, "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,"
Genesis 18:18  "since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?"
Genesis 18:19  "For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD, and to do justice and judgment. Then the LORD may bring upon Abraham what he has promised him."
Genesis 18:20  And the LORD said, "The cry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grievous."
Genesis 18:21  "I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether as the cry of it, which has come to me. And if not, I will know."
Genesis 18:22  The men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD.
Genesis 18:23  Abraham came near and said, "Will you destroy the righteous along with the wicked?"
Genesis 18:24  "Suppose there are fifty righteous people inside the city. Will you still destroy it? Will you not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it?"
Genesis 18:25  "Far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous are treated like the wicked. Far be it from you. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
Genesis 18:26  And the LORD said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous people inside the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake."
Genesis 18:27  Abraham answered and said, "Look, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord, though I am only dust and ashes."
Genesis 18:28  "Suppose the fifty righteous are five short. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?" And he said, "If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it."
Genesis 18:29  He spoke to him yet again and said, "Suppose forty are found there." And he said, "I will not do it for the sake of the forty."
Genesis 18:30  And he said to him, "Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there." And he said, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."
Genesis 18:31  And he said, "Look now, I have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there." And he said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of the twenty."
Genesis 18:32  And he said, "Let the Lord not be angry, and I will speak just this once more. Suppose ten are found there." And he said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of the ten."
Genesis 18:33  As soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, the LORD went his way, and Abraham returned to his place.

Genesis 19:1  Two angels came to Sodom in the evening. Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, and bowed with his face toward the ground.
Genesis 19:2  He said, "Please, my lords, come to your servant's house. Stay the night, and wash your feet. Then you can get up early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will stay in the street all night."
Genesis 19:3  But he urged them strongly, so they turned aside and went into his house. He made them a feast, and baked bread without yeast, and they ate.
Genesis 19:4  But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house. Both old and young, all the people from every part of the city were there.
Genesis 19:5  They called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, so that we may know them."
Genesis 19:6  Lot went out of the door to them, and shut the door behind him.
Genesis 19:7  He said, "Please, my brothers, do not do such a wicked thing."
Genesis 19:8  "Look now, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever seems good to you. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shadow of my roof."
Genesis 19:9  They said, "Stand back." And they said, "This one man came here to live as a stranger, and now he wants to be a judge. Now we will treat you worse than them." They pushed hard against the man, against Lot, and came near to breaking down the door.
Genesis 19:10  But the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.
Genesis 19:11  They struck the men at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out trying to find the door.
Genesis 19:12  The men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here? Your sons-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whatever you have in the city, bring them out of this place."
Genesis 19:13  "For we are going to destroy this place. The cry against these people has grown great before the face of the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it."
Genesis 19:14  So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who had married his daughters. He said, "Get up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy this city." But to his sons-in-law he seemed like a man who was joking.
Genesis 19:15  When morning came, the angels urged Lot to hurry. They said, "Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city."
Genesis 19:16  But he delayed. So the men took hold of his hand, and his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, for the LORD was merciful to him. They brought him out and set him outside the city.
Genesis 19:17  When they had brought them outside, he said, "Run for your life. Do not look behind you, and do not stop anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, or you will be swept away."
Genesis 19:18  Lot said to them, "Oh, not so, my Lord."
Genesis 19:19  "Look now, your servant has found grace in your sight, and you have shown me great mercy in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the mountain. Something terrible may overtake me, and I will die."
Genesis 19:20  "Look now, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a small one. Oh, let me escape there. Is it not a small one? Then my life will be saved."
Genesis 19:21  He said to him, "See, I have granted you this request also. I will not overthrow the city you have spoken about."
Genesis 19:22  "Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the city was called Zoar.
Genesis 19:23  The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
Genesis 19:24  Then the LORD rained down burning sulphur and fire on Sodom and on Gomorrah, from the LORD out of heaven.
Genesis 19:25  He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the people living in the cities, and everything that grew on the ground.
Genesis 19:26  But Lot's wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:27  Abraham got up early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the LORD.
Genesis 19:28  He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain. He saw the smoke of the country going up like the smoke of a furnace.
Genesis 19:29  So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham. He sent Lot out of the middle of the destruction, when he overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
Genesis 19:30  Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the mountain, and his two daughters with him, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. He lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Genesis 19:31  The older daughter said to the younger, "Our father is old, and there is no man on the earth to come in to us in the way of all the earth."
Genesis 19:32  "Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, so that we may keep our father's family line alive."
Genesis 19:33  So they made their father drink wine that night. The older daughter went in and lay with her father, and he did not know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
Genesis 19:34  The next day the older daughter said to the younger, "Look, last night I lay with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, so that we may keep our father's family line alive."
Genesis 19:35  So they made their father drink wine that night also. The younger daughter got up and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down, nor when she got up.
Genesis 19:36  So both the daughters of Lot were pregnant by their father.
Genesis 19:37  The older daughter gave birth to a son, and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day.
Genesis 19:38  The younger daughter also gave birth to a son, and named him Benammi. He is the father of the children of Ammon to this day.

Genesis 20:1  Abraham travelled on from there toward the south country. He lived between Kadesh and Shur, and he stayed for a time in Gerar.
Genesis 20:2  Abraham said about Sarah his wife, "She is my sister." So Abimelech king of Gerar sent for Sarah and took her.
Genesis 20:3  But God came to Abimelech in a dream at night and said to him, "Look, you are a dead man, because of the woman you have taken. She is another man's wife."
Genesis 20:4  But Abimelech had not come near her. He said, "Lord, will you kill a righteous nation too?"
Genesis 20:5  "Did he not say to me, 'She is my sister'? And she herself also said, 'He is my brother.' I did this with an honest heart and clean hands."
Genesis 20:6  God said to him in the dream, "Yes, I know that you did this with an honest heart. I was the one who kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not allow you to touch her."
Genesis 20:7  "Now give the man his wife back. He is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you will live. But if you do not give her back, be sure of this: you will certainly die, you and all who belong to you."
Genesis 20:8  So Abimelech got up early in the morning. He called all his servants and told them everything he had heard, and the men were very afraid.
Genesis 20:9  Then Abimelech called Abraham and said to him, "What have you done to us? What wrong did I do to you, that you have brought such a great sin on me and on my kingdom? You have done things to me that ought not to be done."
Genesis 20:10  And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What did you see, that made you do this thing?"
Genesis 20:11  Abraham said, "I thought, 'Surely there is no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.'"
Genesis 20:12  "And she really is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife."
Genesis 20:13  "When God made me wander from my father's house, I said to her, 'This is the kindness you must show me: at every place we come to, say about me, He is my brother.'"
Genesis 20:14  Then Abimelech took sheep and oxen, and male and female servants, and gave them to Abraham. And he gave him back Sarah his wife.
Genesis 20:15  Abimelech said, "Look, my land is before you. Live wherever you please."
Genesis 20:16  And to Sarah he said, "Look, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver. Look, this is a covering of the eyes for you, before all who are with you and before everyone else." So she was corrected.
Genesis 20:17  So Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his female servants, and they had children.
Genesis 20:18  For the LORD had closed up every womb in the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah, Abraham's wife.

Genesis 21:1  The LORD came to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised.
Genesis 21:2  Sarah became pregnant, and she bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the very time God had told him.
Genesis 21:3  Abraham named his son, the one Sarah bore to him, Isaac.
Genesis 21:4  Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Genesis 21:5  Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Genesis 21:6  Sarah said, "God has made me laugh, and all who hear will laugh with me."
Genesis 21:7  She also said, "Who would ever have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age."
Genesis 21:8  The child grew and stopped nursing. On the day Isaac was weaned, Abraham made a great feast.
Genesis 21:9  Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom Hagar had borne to Abraham, mocking.
Genesis 21:10  So she said to Abraham, "Send this slave woman and her son away. The son of this slave woman will not share the inheritance with my son, with Isaac."
Genesis 21:11  This troubled Abraham very much, because of his son.
Genesis 21:12  But God said to Abraham, "Do not be troubled about the boy and about your slave woman. Listen to Sarah's voice in everything she says to you, for your descendants will be named through Isaac."
Genesis 21:13  "I will also make a nation of the slave woman's son, because he is your offspring."
Genesis 21:14  Abraham got up early in the morning. He took bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar, putting them on her shoulder, and he gave her the child and sent her away. She left and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba.
Genesis 21:15  When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes.
Genesis 21:16  Then she went and sat down across from him, a good way off, about as far as a bow can shoot. For she said, "Let me not watch the child die." So she sat across from him, and lifted up her voice and wept.
Genesis 21:17  God heard the voice of the boy. The angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven and said to her, "What is wrong, Hagar? Do not be afraid. God has heard the voice of the boy where he lies."
Genesis 21:18  "Get up, lift the boy up, and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation."
Genesis 21:19  Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
Genesis 21:20  God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an archer.
Genesis 21:21  He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother got him a wife from the land of Egypt.
Genesis 21:22  At that time Abimelech and Phichol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do."
Genesis 21:23  "So swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me, or with my son, or with my son's son. Show me the same kindness I have shown you, and show it to the land where you have lived as a stranger."
Genesis 21:24  Abraham said, "I will swear."
Genesis 21:25  Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelech's servants had seized by force.
Genesis 21:26  Abimelech said, "I do not know who did this. You did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today."
Genesis 21:27  So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
Genesis 21:28  Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock by themselves.
Genesis 21:29  Abimelech said to Abraham, "What do these seven ewe lambs mean, which you have set by themselves?"
Genesis 21:30  He said, "You are to take these seven ewe lambs from my hand, so that they may be a witness for me that I dug this well."
Genesis 21:31  So he called that place Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath.
Genesis 21:32  So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech got up, with Phichol the commander of his army, and they went back to the land of the Philistines.
Genesis 21:33  Abraham planted a grove of trees in Beersheba, and there he called on the name of the LORD, the everlasting God.
Genesis 21:34  And Abraham lived as a stranger in the land of the Philistines for many days.

Genesis 22:1  After these things, God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham." And he said, "Here I am."
Genesis 22:2  And he said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will tell you about."
Genesis 22:3  Abraham got up early in the morning and saddled his donkey. He took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. He cut the wood for the burnt offering, and set out, and went to the place God had told him about.
Genesis 22:4  Then on the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place far off.
Genesis 22:5  Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there and worship, and then come back to you."
Genesis 22:6  Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He carried the fire in his hand, and a knife. And the two of them went on together.
Genesis 22:7  Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father." And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Look, here is the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for a burnt offering?"
Genesis 22:8  And Abraham said, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." So the two of them went on together.
Genesis 22:9  They came to the place that God had told him about. There Abraham built an altar and laid the wood in order. He tied up Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
Genesis 22:10  Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
Genesis 22:11  But the angel of the LORD called to him out of heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham." And he said, "Here I am."
Genesis 22:12  And he said, "Do not lay your hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not held back your son, your only son, from me."
Genesis 22:13  Abraham looked up, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead of his son.
Genesis 22:14  Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh. So it is said to this day, "In the mount of the LORD it shall be seen."
Genesis 22:15  The angel of the LORD called to Abraham out of heaven a second time,
Genesis 22:16  and said, "I have sworn by myself, says the LORD, that because you have done this thing, and have not held back your son, your only son,"
Genesis 22:17  I will surely bless you. I will surely multiply your offspring like the stars of heaven, and like the sand on the seashore. And your offspring will possess the gate of his enemies.
Genesis 22:18  "In your offspring all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice."
Genesis 22:19  So Abraham went back to his young men, and they set out and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.
Genesis 22:20  After these things, Abraham was told, "Look, Milcah has also borne children to your brother Nahor:"
Genesis 22:21  Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
Genesis 22:22  "and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlaph, and Bethuel."
Genesis 22:23  And Bethuel was the father of Rebekah. Milcah bore these eight to Nahor, Abraham's brother.
Genesis 22:24  And his concubine, whose name was Reumah, also bore Tebah, and Gaham, and Thahash, and Maachah.

Genesis 23:1  Sarah lived for a hundred and twenty-seven years. These were the years of Sarah's life.
Genesis 23:2  Sarah died in Kirjatharba, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her.
Genesis 23:3  Then Abraham stood up from beside his dead wife. He spoke to the sons of Heth and said,
Genesis 23:4  "I am a stranger and a visitor among you. Give me a burial place of my own among you, so that I may bury my dead out of my sight."
Genesis 23:5  The children of Heth answered Abraham and said to him,
Genesis 23:6  "Listen to us, my lord. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the best of our tombs. Not one of us will keep his tomb from you, so that you may bury your dead."
Genesis 23:7  Abraham stood up and bowed low to the people of the land, the children of Heth.
Genesis 23:8  He talked with them and said, "If you are willing for me to bury my dead out of my sight, then listen to me. Ask Ephron the son of Zohar for me."
Genesis 23:9  "Ask him to give me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him. It is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me for the full price it is worth, as a burial place of my own among you."
Genesis 23:10  Now Ephron was sitting among the children of Heth. So Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham where the children of Heth could hear, before all who came in at the gate of his city. He said,
Genesis 23:11  "No, my lord, listen to me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In front of the sons of my people I give it to you. Bury your dead."
Genesis 23:12  Abraham bowed low before the people of the land.
Genesis 23:13  He spoke to Ephron where the people of the land could hear. He said, "But if you will give it, please listen to me. I will pay you money for the field. Take it from me, and I will bury my dead there."
Genesis 23:14  Ephron answered Abraham and said to him,
Genesis 23:15  "My lord, listen to me. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between me and you? So bury your dead."
Genesis 23:16  Abraham listened to Ephron. He weighed out for Ephron the silver he had named where the sons of Heth could hear: four hundred shekels of silver, at the weight used by merchants.
Genesis 23:17  So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was in front of Mamre, was handed over. The field, the cave that was in it, and all the trees in the field within all its borders were made sure
Genesis 23:18  to Abraham as his own property, in the presence of the children of Heth, before all who came in at the gate of his city.
Genesis 23:19  After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, in front of Mamre, that is, Hebron, in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 23:20  So the field, and the cave that is in it, were made sure to Abraham as a burial place of his own by the sons of Heth.

Genesis 24:1  Abraham was old, far on in years. And the LORD had blessed Abraham in everything.
Genesis 24:2  Abraham said to the oldest servant of his house, who looked after all that he had, "Please put your hand under my thigh."
Genesis 24:3  I will make you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live.
Genesis 24:4  "Instead you will go to my country and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son Isaac."
Genesis 24:5  The servant said to him, "Perhaps the woman will not be willing to follow me to this land. Must I then take your son back to the land you came from?"
Genesis 24:6  Abraham said to him, "Be careful that you do not take my son back there."
Genesis 24:7  The LORD God of heaven took me from my father's house and from the land of my relatives. He spoke to me and swore to me, 'To your seed I will give this land.' He will send his angel ahead of you, and you will take a wife for my son from there.
Genesis 24:8  "If the woman is not willing to follow you, then you are free from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there."
Genesis 24:9  So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master, and swore to him about this matter.
Genesis 24:10  The servant took ten of his master's camels and left, for all his master's goods were in his care. He set out and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.
Genesis 24:11  He made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water. It was evening, the time when the women come out to draw water.
Genesis 24:12  He said, "LORD God of my master Abraham, please give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham."
Genesis 24:13  Look, I am standing here by the well of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water.
Genesis 24:14  "Let it be that the young woman to whom I say, 'Please let down your jar so that I may drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I will give your camels a drink too' - let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master."
Genesis 24:15  Before he had finished speaking, look, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She was born to Bethuel, the son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham's brother.
Genesis 24:16  The young woman was very beautiful to look at, a virgin; no man had known her. She went down to the well, filled her jar, and came up.
Genesis 24:17  The servant ran to meet her and said, "Please let me drink a little water from your jar."
Genesis 24:18  She said, "Drink, my lord." She quickly lowered her jar onto her hand and gave him a drink.
Genesis 24:19  When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, "I will draw water for your camels too, until they have finished drinking."
Genesis 24:20  She quickly emptied her jar into the trough, ran back to the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.
Genesis 24:21  The man watched her in wonder and said nothing, waiting to know whether the LORD had made his journey succeed or not.
Genesis 24:22  When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel, and two bracelets for her hands weighing ten shekels of gold.
Genesis 24:23  He said, "Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room in your father's house for us to stay the night?"
Genesis 24:24  She said to him, "I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son of Milcah, whom she bore to Nahor."
Genesis 24:25  She also said to him, "We have plenty of straw and feed, and room to stay the night."
Genesis 24:26  The man bowed his head and worshipped the LORD.
Genesis 24:27  He said, "Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham. He has not left my master without his mercy and his truth. As for me, the LORD led me on the way to the house of my master's relatives."
Genesis 24:28  The young woman ran and told her mother's household about these things.
Genesis 24:29  Rebekah had a brother whose name was Laban, and Laban ran out to the man, to the well.
Genesis 24:30  When he saw the ring and the bracelets on his sister's hands, and heard the words of Rebekah his sister, "This is what the man said to me," he went to the man. And look, he was standing by the camels at the well.
Genesis 24:31  He said, "Come in, you who are blessed by the LORD. Why are you standing outside? I have made the house ready, and a place for the camels."
Genesis 24:32  So the man came into the house. Laban unloaded the camels and gave them straw and feed, and gave water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him.
Genesis 24:33  Food was set before him to eat, but he said, "I will not eat until I have told my errand." And Laban said, "Speak on."
Genesis 24:34  He said, "I am Abraham's servant."
Genesis 24:35  The LORD has blessed my master greatly, and he has become great. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male and female servants, camels and donkeys.
Genesis 24:36  Sarah my master's wife bore a son to my master when she was old, and he has given him all that he has.
Genesis 24:37  My master made me swear, saying, 'You will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, in whose land I live.
Genesis 24:38  Instead you will go to my father's house and to my relatives, and take a wife for my son.'
Genesis 24:39  I said to my master, 'Perhaps the woman will not follow me.'
Genesis 24:40  He said to me, 'The LORD, before whom I walk, will send his angel with you and make your journey succeed. You will take a wife for my son from my relatives and from my father's house.
Genesis 24:41  Then you will be free from this oath of mine, when you come to my relatives. And if they will not give her to you, you will be free from my oath.'
Genesis 24:42  Today I came to the well and said, 'LORD God of my master Abraham, if you will now make my journey succeed,
Genesis 24:43  look, I am standing by the well of water. Let it be that when the young woman comes out to draw water, and I say to her, "Please give me a little water from your jar to drink,"
Genesis 24:44  and she says to me, "Drink, and I will draw for your camels too" - let her be the woman the LORD has chosen for my master's son.'
Genesis 24:45  Before I had finished speaking in my heart, look, Rebekah came out with her jar on her shoulder. She went down to the well and drew water, and I said to her, 'Please let me drink.'
Genesis 24:46  She quickly lowered her jar from her shoulder and said, 'Drink, and I will give your camels a drink too.' So I drank, and she gave the camels a drink as well.
Genesis 24:47  I asked her, 'Whose daughter are you?' She said, 'The daughter of Bethuel, Nahor's son, whom Milcah bore to him.' Then I put the ring on her face and the bracelets on her hands.
Genesis 24:48  I bowed my head and worshipped the LORD. I blessed the LORD God of my master Abraham, who had led me in the right way to take my master's brother's daughter for his son.
Genesis 24:49  "Now, if you will deal kindly and truly with my master, tell me. And if not, tell me, so that I may turn to the right hand or to the left."
Genesis 24:50  Then Laban and Bethuel answered, "This comes from the LORD. We cannot say anything to you, bad or good."
Genesis 24:51  "Look, Rebekah is here before you. Take her and go, and let her be the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has spoken."
Genesis 24:52  When Abraham's servant heard their words, he worshipped the LORD, bowing himself to the ground.
Genesis 24:53  The servant brought out jewels of silver, jewels of gold, and clothing, and gave them to Rebekah. He also gave costly gifts to her brother and to her mother.
Genesis 24:54  They ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and stayed the night. In the morning they got up, and he said, "Send me away to my master."
Genesis 24:55  Her brother and her mother said, "Let the young woman stay with us a few days, at least ten. After that she may go."
Genesis 24:56  He said to them, "Do not hold me back, since the LORD has made my journey succeed. Send me away, so that I may go to my master."
Genesis 24:57  They said, "We will call the young woman and ask her what she says."
Genesis 24:58  So they called Rebekah and said to her, "Will you go with this man?" She said, "I will go."
Genesis 24:59  So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men.
Genesis 24:60  They blessed Rebekah and said to her, "You are our sister. May you be the mother of thousands of millions, and may your seed possess the gate of those who hate them."
Genesis 24:61  Rebekah and her young women got up, and they rode on the camels and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and went on his way.
Genesis 24:62  Isaac came from the way of the well Lahairoi, for he lived in the south country.
Genesis 24:63  Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening. He looked up and saw, and there were camels coming.
Genesis 24:64  Rebekah looked up, and when she saw Isaac, she got down from the camel.
Genesis 24:65  For she had said to the servant, "Who is that man walking in the field to meet us?" The servant had said, "It is my master." So she took a veil and covered herself.
Genesis 24:66  The servant told Isaac everything he had done.
Genesis 24:67  Isaac brought her into the tent of Sarah his mother, and took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.

Genesis 25:1  Then Abraham took another wife, and her name was Keturah.
Genesis 25:2  She bore him Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah.
Genesis 25:3  Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan. The sons of Dedan were Asshurim, Letushim, and Leummim.
Genesis 25:4  The sons of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these were the children of Keturah.
Genesis 25:5  Abraham gave everything he had to Isaac.
Genesis 25:6  But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts. While he was still alive, he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward, to the east country.
Genesis 25:7  These are the years of Abraham's life: he lived a hundred and seventy-five years.
Genesis 25:8  Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man who had lived many years. He was gathered to his people.
Genesis 25:9  His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is near Mamre.
Genesis 25:10  This was the field Abraham bought from the sons of Heth. There Abraham was buried, and Sarah his wife.
Genesis 25:11  After the death of Abraham, God blessed his son Isaac. And Isaac lived by the well Lahairoi.
Genesis 25:12  Now these are the generations of Ishmael, Abraham's son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah's servant, bore to Abraham.
Genesis 25:13  These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed by their names in the order of their birth: Nebajoth, the firstborn of Ishmael, then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
Genesis 25:14  Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
Genesis 25:15  Hadar, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah.
Genesis 25:16  These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns and by their camps: twelve princes, one for each of their nations.
Genesis 25:17  These are the years of Ishmael's life: a hundred and thirty-seven years. Then he breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people.
Genesis 25:18  They lived from Havilah to Shur, which is near Egypt, as you go toward Assyria. And he died in the presence of all his brothers.
Genesis 25:19  These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Genesis 25:20  Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah. She was the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, and the sister of Laban the Syrian.
Genesis 25:21  Isaac prayed to the LORD for his wife, because she could not have children. The LORD answered his prayer, and Rebekah his wife became pregnant.
Genesis 25:22  The children struggled together inside her, and she said, "If it is like this, why am I this way?" So she went to ask the LORD.
Genesis 25:23  The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb. Two kinds of people will come out of you and be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger."
Genesis 25:24  When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
Genesis 25:25  The first came out red, and all over he was like a hairy garment. So they named him Esau.
Genesis 25:26  After that his brother came out, and his hand was holding on to Esau's heel. So he was named Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.
Genesis 25:27  The boys grew up. Esau was a skilful hunter, a man of the open country, but Jacob was a quiet man who stayed among the tents.
Genesis 25:28  Isaac loved Esau, because he ate the meat Esau hunted. But Rebekah loved Jacob.
Genesis 25:29  One day Jacob was boiling soup, and Esau came in from the field, and he was worn out.
Genesis 25:30  Esau said to Jacob, "Please let me eat some of that red soup, for I am worn out." That is why he was named Edom.
Genesis 25:31  Jacob said, "Sell me your birthright today."
Genesis 25:32  Esau said, "Look, I am about to die. What good is this birthright to me?"
Genesis 25:33  Jacob said, "Swear to me today." So he swore to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob.
Genesis 25:34  Then Jacob gave Esau bread and soup made of lentils. He ate and drank, then got up and went on his way. So Esau despised his birthright.

Genesis 26:1  There was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that happened in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
Genesis 26:2  The LORD appeared to him and said, "Do not go down into Egypt. Live in the land that I will tell you about."
Genesis 26:3  Stay in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and to your children I will give all these countries, and I will keep the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.
Genesis 26:4  I will make your children as many as the stars of heaven, and I will give your children all these countries. Through your children all the nations of the earth will be blessed,
Genesis 26:5  "because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws."
Genesis 26:6  So Isaac lived in Gerar.
Genesis 26:7  The men of the place asked him about his wife, and he said, "She is my sister." He was afraid to say, "She is my wife." He thought, "The men of the place might kill me because of Rebekah, for she is beautiful to look at."
Genesis 26:8  When he had been there a long time, Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of a window. He saw, and there was Isaac playing lovingly with Rebekah his wife.
Genesis 26:9  Abimelech called Isaac and said, "Look, she is certainly your wife. How could you say, 'She is my sister'?" Isaac said to him, "Because I thought I might die because of her."
Genesis 26:10  Abimelech said, "What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us."
Genesis 26:11  So Abimelech gave an order to all his people. He said, "Whoever touches this man or his wife will surely be put to death."
Genesis 26:12  Then Isaac sowed seed in that land, and in the same year he reaped a hundred times as much. The LORD blessed him.
Genesis 26:13  The man became great. He kept growing richer until he became very great.
Genesis 26:14  He owned flocks and herds, and a great many servants. So the Philistines were jealous of him.
Genesis 26:15  All the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had blocked up and filled with earth.
Genesis 26:16  Abimelech said to Isaac, "Go away from us, for you are much stronger than we are."
Genesis 26:17  So Isaac left that place and set up his tent in the valley of Gerar, and lived there.
Genesis 26:18  Isaac dug again the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had blocked them up after Abraham died. He gave them the same names his father had given them.
Genesis 26:19  Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and there they found a well of fresh, running water.
Genesis 26:20  But the herdsmen of Gerar quarrelled with Isaac's herdsmen and said, "The water is ours." So he named the well Esek, because they quarrelled with him.
Genesis 26:21  They dug another well, and they quarrelled over that one too. So he named it Sitnah.
Genesis 26:22  He moved away from there and dug another well, and over that one they did not quarrel. So he named it Rehoboth, and he said, "Now the LORD has made room for us, and we will be fruitful in the land."
Genesis 26:23  From there he went up to Beersheba.
Genesis 26:24  That same night the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the God of Abraham your father. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bless you and give you many children for the sake of my servant Abraham."
Genesis 26:25  So he built an altar there and called on the name of the LORD, and he set up his tent there. There Isaac's servants dug a well.
Genesis 26:26  Then Abimelech came to him from Gerar, with Ahuzzath one of his friends, and Phichol the commander of his army.
Genesis 26:27  Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from you?"
Genesis 26:28  They said, "We saw clearly that the LORD was with you. So we said, 'Let there be an oath between us, between us and you. Let us make a covenant with you,"
Genesis 26:29  "that you will do us no harm, just as we did not touch you, and did nothing to you but good, and sent you away in peace.' You are now the blessed of the LORD."
Genesis 26:30  So he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
Genesis 26:31  They got up early in the morning and swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them away, and they left him in peace.
Genesis 26:32  That same day Isaac's servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said to him, "We have found water."
Genesis 26:33  He called it Shebah. That is why the name of the city is Beersheba to this day.
Genesis 26:34  Esau was forty years old when he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite.
Genesis 26:35  They brought grief of mind to Isaac and to Rebekah.

Genesis 27:1  When Isaac was old, his eyes were dim, so that he could not see. He called Esau his oldest son and said to him, "My son." And he said to him, "Here I am."
Genesis 27:2  He said, "Look, I am old. I do not know the day of my death."
Genesis 27:3  So now take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field, and hunt some venison for me.
Genesis 27:4  "Make me tasty food, the kind I love, and bring it to me, so that I may eat. Then my soul will bless you before I die."
Genesis 27:5  Rebekah heard when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and bring it back.
Genesis 27:6  Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son and said, "Look, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother. He said,"
Genesis 27:7  'Bring me venison and make me tasty food, so that I may eat, and bless you before the LORD before my death.'
Genesis 27:8  So now, my son, listen to my voice and do what I tell you.
Genesis 27:9  Go now to the flock, and bring me from there two good young goats. I will make them into tasty food for your father, the kind he loves.
Genesis 27:10  "You will bring it to your father, so that he may eat, and so that he may bless you before his death."
Genesis 27:11  Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, "Look, my brother Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man."
Genesis 27:12  "Perhaps my father will touch me, and I will seem to him like a cheat. Then I will bring a curse on myself, and not a blessing."
Genesis 27:13  His mother said to him, "Let your curse be on me, my son. Only listen to my voice, and go and bring them to me."
Genesis 27:14  So he went and got them and brought them to his mother. His mother made tasty food, the kind his father loved.
Genesis 27:15  Rebekah took the fine clothes of Esau her oldest son, which she had with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.
Genesis 27:16  She put the skins of the young goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.
Genesis 27:17  Then she gave the tasty food and the bread she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.
Genesis 27:18  He came to his father and said, "My father." And he said, "Here I am. Who are you, my son?"
Genesis 27:19  Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me. Please get up, sit and eat some of my venison, so that your soul may bless me."
Genesis 27:20  Isaac said to his son, "How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?" And he said, "Because the LORD your God brought it to me."
Genesis 27:21  Isaac said to Jacob, "Please come near, so that I may touch you, my son, to know whether you are really my son Esau or not."
Genesis 27:22  Jacob went near to Isaac his father. He touched him and said, "The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau."
Genesis 27:23  He did not know him, because his hands were hairy, like his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him.
Genesis 27:24  He said, "Are you really my son Esau?" And he said, "I am."
Genesis 27:25  He said, "Bring it near to me, and I will eat some of my son's venison, so that my soul may bless you." So he brought it near to him, and he ate. And he brought him wine, and he drank.
Genesis 27:26  Then his father Isaac said to him, "Come near now and kiss me, my son."
Genesis 27:27  He came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his clothes, and blessed him, and said, "See, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed."
Genesis 27:28  So may God give you the dew of heaven, and the richness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.
Genesis 27:29  "Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you."
Genesis 27:30  As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had only just gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, Esau his brother came in from his hunting.
Genesis 27:31  He also had made tasty food, and he brought it to his father. He said to his father, "Let my father get up and eat some of his son's venison, so that your soul may bless me."
Genesis 27:32  Isaac his father said to him, "Who are you?" And he said, "I am your son, your firstborn, Esau."
Genesis 27:33  Isaac shook very greatly, and said, "Who then was it that hunted venison and brought it to me? I ate it all before you came, and I blessed him. Yes, and he will be blessed."
Genesis 27:34  When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with a great and very bitter cry. He said to his father, "Bless me, me also, my father."
Genesis 27:35  He said, "Your brother came with trickery, and has taken away your blessing."
Genesis 27:36  And Esau said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has tripped me up these two times. He took away my birthright, and look, now he has taken away my blessing." And he said, "Have you not kept back a blessing for me?"
Genesis 27:37  Isaac answered and said to Esau, "Look, I have made him your lord, and I have given him all his brothers as servants. With corn and wine I have kept him strong. So what can I do now for you, my son?"
Genesis 27:38  Esau said to his father, "Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me also, my father." And Esau lifted up his voice and wept.
Genesis 27:39  Isaac his father answered and said to him, "Look, your home will be away from the richness of the earth, and away from the dew of heaven above."
Genesis 27:40  "You will live by your sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will break his yoke from off your neck."
Genesis 27:41  Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had blessed him with. Esau said in his heart, "The days of mourning for my father are near. Then I will kill my brother Jacob."
Genesis 27:42  These words of Esau her older son were told to Rebekah. So she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, "Look, your brother Esau comforts himself about you by planning to kill you."
Genesis 27:43  So now, my son, listen to my voice. Get up and run away to Laban my brother in Haran.
Genesis 27:44  Stay with him a few days, until your brother's fury turns away,
Genesis 27:45  "until your brother's anger turns away from you, and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?"
Genesis 27:46  And Rebekah said to Isaac, "I am tired of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob takes a wife from the daughters of Heth, like these women of the land, what good will my life be to me?"

Genesis 28:1  Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him. He gave him this command: "You must not marry one of the daughters of Canaan."
Genesis 28:2  Get up, and go to Padanaram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father. Take a wife from there, from the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
Genesis 28:3  May God Almighty bless you, and make you fruitful, and give you many children, so that you become a great crowd of people.
Genesis 28:4  "May he give you the blessing of Abraham, to you and to your children after you. Then you will take as your own the land where you now live as a stranger, the land God gave to Abraham."
Genesis 28:5  So Isaac sent Jacob away. Jacob went to Padanaram, to Laban, the son of Bethuel the Syrian. Laban was the brother of Rebekah, the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Genesis 28:6  Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padanaram to take a wife from there. He saw that when Isaac blessed him he gave him this command: "You must not marry one of the daughters of Canaan."
Genesis 28:7  He saw that Jacob had obeyed his father and his mother, and had gone to Padanaram.
Genesis 28:8  So Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan did not please his father Isaac.
Genesis 28:9  Then Esau went to Ishmael. He already had wives, and now he married Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, and the sister of Nebajoth.
Genesis 28:10  Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran.
Genesis 28:11  He came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of that place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep.
Genesis 28:12  He dreamed, and look, there was a ladder standing on the earth, and its top reached to heaven. And look, the angels of God were going up and coming down on it.
Genesis 28:13  And look, the LORD stood above it, and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land you are lying on I will give to you and to your children."
Genesis 28:14  Your children will be like the dust of the earth. You will spread out to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your children all the families of the earth will be blessed.
Genesis 28:15  "Look, I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Genesis 28:16  Then Jacob woke up from his sleep, and he said, "Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."
Genesis 28:17  He was afraid, and said, "How full of awe this place is. This is nothing other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."
Genesis 28:18  Jacob got up early in the morning. He took the stone that he had put under his head, and set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on the top of it.
Genesis 28:19  He called the name of that place Bethel, but the name of that city at first was Luz.
Genesis 28:20  Jacob made a vow. He said, "If God will be with me, and will keep me on this journey I am taking, and will give me bread to eat and clothes to wear,"
Genesis 28:21  so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the LORD will be my God.
Genesis 28:22  "And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house. And of all that you give me I will surely give a tenth to you."

Genesis 29:1  Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the people of the east.
Genesis 29:2  He looked, and there was a well in the field. Three flocks of sheep were lying beside it, for the flocks were watered out of that well. A great stone lay over the mouth of the well.
Genesis 29:3  All the flocks used to be gathered there. Then the shepherds rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered the sheep, and put the stone back in its place over the mouth of the well.
Genesis 29:4  Jacob said to them, "My brothers, where are you from?" They said, "We are from Haran."
Genesis 29:5  He said to them, "Do you know Laban the son of Nahor?" They said, "We know him."
Genesis 29:6  He said to them, "Is he well?" They said, "He is well. Look, his daughter Rachel is coming with the sheep."
Genesis 29:7  He said, "Look, the sun is still high. It is not yet time for the animals to be gathered together. Water the sheep, and go and feed them."
Genesis 29:8  They said, "We cannot, until all the flocks are gathered together and the stone is rolled from the mouth of the well. Then we water the sheep."
Genesis 29:9  While he was still speaking with them, Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she looked after them.
Genesis 29:10  When Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother, Jacob went over and rolled the stone from the mouth of the well, and watered the flock of Laban his mother's brother.
Genesis 29:11  Jacob kissed Rachel, and he lifted up his voice and wept.
Genesis 29:12  Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's relative, and that he was Rebekah's son. She ran and told her father.
Genesis 29:13  When Laban heard the news about Jacob, his sister's son, he ran to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him, and brought him to his house. And Jacob told Laban all these things.
Genesis 29:14  Laban said to him, "Surely you are my bone and my flesh." And Jacob stayed with him for a month.
Genesis 29:15  Then Laban said to Jacob, "Because you are my relative, should you work for me for nothing? Tell me, what shall your wages be?"
Genesis 29:16  Laban had two daughters. The name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel.
Genesis 29:17  Leah was tender eyed, but Rachel was beautiful and lovely to look at.
Genesis 29:18  Jacob loved Rachel, and he said, "I will serve you seven years for Rachel your younger daughter."
Genesis 29:19  Laban said, "It is better that I give her to you than that I should give her to another man. Stay with me."
Genesis 29:20  So Jacob served seven years for Rachel. They seemed to him only a few days, because of the love he had for her.
Genesis 29:21  Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife, for my time is finished, so that I may go in to her."
Genesis 29:22  So Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
Genesis 29:23  In the evening he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him, and Jacob went in to her.
Genesis 29:24  And Laban gave his servant girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah, to be her servant.
Genesis 29:25  In the morning, there she was: it was Leah. So Jacob said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? Did I not serve you for Rachel? Why then have you tricked me?"
Genesis 29:26  Laban said, "It is not done that way in our country, to give the younger before the firstborn."
Genesis 29:27  "Finish this one's week, and we will give you the other also, for the work you will do for me for another seven years."
Genesis 29:28  Jacob did so, and finished her week. Then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife also.
Genesis 29:29  And Laban gave his servant girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel, to be her servant.
Genesis 29:30  Jacob went in to Rachel also, and he loved Rachel more than Leah, and he served Laban for another seven years.
Genesis 29:31  When the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb; but Rachel had no children.
Genesis 29:32  Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and she named him Reuben, for she said, "Surely the LORD has looked on my suffering. Now therefore my husband will love me."
Genesis 29:33  She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and said, "Because the LORD has heard that I was hated, he has given me this son also." And she named him Simeon.
Genesis 29:34  She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and said, "Now this time my husband will be joined to me, because I have borne him three sons." So he was named Levi.
Genesis 29:35  She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and she said, "Now I will praise the LORD." So she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.

Genesis 30:1  When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I will die."
Genesis 30:2  Then Jacob became angry with Rachel. He said, "Am I in God's place? He is the one who has kept you from having children."
Genesis 30:3  She said, "Here is my servant Bilhah. Go in to her. She will give birth on my knees, so that I too may have children through her."
Genesis 30:4  So she gave him her servant Bilhah as a wife, and Jacob went in to her.
Genesis 30:5  Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son.
Genesis 30:6  Rachel said, "God has judged me. He has also heard my voice and has given me a son." So she named him Dan.
Genesis 30:7  Bilhah, Rachel's servant, became pregnant again and bore Jacob a second son.
Genesis 30:8  Rachel said, "I have wrestled great wrestlings with my sister, and I have won." So she named him Naphtali.
Genesis 30:9  When Leah saw that she had stopped having children, she took her servant Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as a wife.
Genesis 30:10  Zilpah, Leah's servant, bore Jacob a son.
Genesis 30:11  Leah said, "A troop is coming." So she named him Gad.
Genesis 30:12  Zilpah, Leah's servant, bore Jacob a second son.
Genesis 30:13  Leah said, "I am happy, for the daughters will call me blessed." So she named him Asher.
Genesis 30:14  During the wheat harvest Reuben went out and found mandrakes in the field, and he brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."
Genesis 30:15  She said to her, "Is it a small thing that you have taken my husband? Would you take my son's mandrakes too?" Rachel said, "Then he shall lie with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes."
Genesis 30:16  In the evening Jacob came in from the field, and Leah went out to meet him. She said, "You must come in to me, for I have hired you with my son's mandrakes." So he lay with her that night.
Genesis 30:17  God listened to Leah, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son.
Genesis 30:18  Leah said, "God has given me my wages, because I gave my servant to my husband." So she named him Issachar.
Genesis 30:19  Leah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a sixth son.
Genesis 30:20  Leah said, "God has given me a good gift. Now my husband will live with me, because I have borne him six sons." So she named him Zebulun.
Genesis 30:21  Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.
Genesis 30:22  Then God remembered Rachel. God listened to her and opened her womb.
Genesis 30:23  She became pregnant and bore a son. She said, "God has taken away my shame."
Genesis 30:24  She named him Joseph, and said, "The LORD will add to me another son."
Genesis 30:25  After Rachel had borne Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Send me away, so that I may go to my own place, and to my own country."
Genesis 30:26  "Give me my wives and my children, for whom I have served you, and let me go. You know the service I have done for you."
Genesis 30:27  Laban said to him, "Please, if I have found favour in your eyes, stay. I have learned by experience that the LORD has blessed me because of you."
Genesis 30:28  He said, "Name your wages, and I will give them."
Genesis 30:29  Jacob said to him, "You know how I have served you, and how your livestock has fared with me."
Genesis 30:30  "You had little before I came, and now it has grown into a great number. The LORD has blessed you since I came. But now, when shall I provide for my own house too?"
Genesis 30:31  He said, "What shall I give you?" Jacob said, "You shall not give me anything. If you will do this one thing for me, I will again feed and keep your flock."
Genesis 30:32  Let me go through all your flock today, taking out from it every speckled and spotted animal, and every brown one among the sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats. Those shall be my wages.
Genesis 30:33  "So my righteousness will answer for me in the days to come, when you come to check my wages in front of you. Every goat that is not speckled and spotted, and every sheep that is not brown, will count as stolen by me."
Genesis 30:34  Laban said, "Look, let it be as you have said."
Genesis 30:35  That same day he took out the male goats that were streaked and spotted, and all the female goats that were speckled and spotted, every one that had some white in it, and all the brown ones among the sheep. He handed them over to his sons.
Genesis 30:36  He put a three days' journey between himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's flocks.
Genesis 30:37  Jacob took fresh rods of poplar, hazel and chestnut. He peeled white stripes in them, so that the white inside the rods showed.
Genesis 30:38  He set the rods that he had peeled in front of the flocks, in the channels of the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, so that they would mate when they came to drink.
Genesis 30:39  The flocks mated in front of the rods, and they gave birth to young that were streaked, speckled and spotted.
Genesis 30:40  Jacob separated the lambs, and he turned the faces of the flocks toward the streaked ones and all the brown ones in Laban's flock. He kept his own flocks by themselves, and did not put them with Laban's animals.
Genesis 30:41  Whenever the stronger animals mated, Jacob laid the rods in the channels before their eyes, so that they would mate among the rods.
Genesis 30:42  But when the animals were weak, he did not put the rods in. So the weaker ones were Laban's, and the stronger ones Jacob's.
Genesis 30:43  The man grew very rich. He had many animals, and female servants and male servants, and camels and donkeys.

Genesis 31:1  Jacob heard what Laban's sons were saying: "Jacob has taken away everything that belonged to our father. All this wealth of his came from what belonged to our father."
Genesis 31:2  Jacob also looked at Laban's face, and it was not friendly toward him as it had been before.
Genesis 31:3  The LORD said to Jacob, "Go back to the land of your fathers, and to your relatives. I will be with you."
Genesis 31:4  So Jacob sent word and called Rachel and Leah out to the field where his flock was.
Genesis 31:5  He said to them, "I see that your father's face is not friendly toward me as it was before. But the God of my father has been with me."
Genesis 31:6  You yourselves know that I have served your father with all my strength.
Genesis 31:7  Yet your father has cheated me. He has changed my wages ten times. But God did not allow him to harm me.
Genesis 31:8  If he said, 'The speckled ones will be your wages,' then all the flock gave birth to speckled young. And if he said, 'The striped ones will be your pay,' then all the flock gave birth to striped young.
Genesis 31:9  So God has taken away your father's animals and given them to me.
Genesis 31:10  At the time when the flock was breeding, I looked up and saw in a dream that the rams mating with the flock were striped, speckled and spotted.
Genesis 31:11  The angel of God spoke to me in the dream and said, 'Jacob.' I said, 'Here I am.'
Genesis 31:12  He said, 'Look up now and see: all the rams mating with the flock are striped, speckled and spotted. For I have seen everything that Laban is doing to you.
Genesis 31:13  "I am the God of Bethel, where you poured oil on the pillar, and where you made a vow to me. Now get up, leave this land, and go back to the land of your relatives.'"
Genesis 31:14  Rachel and Leah answered him, "Is there any share or inheritance left for us in our father's house?"
Genesis 31:15  Does he not treat us like strangers? He has sold us, and he has used up all the money paid for us.
Genesis 31:16  "All the wealth that God has taken from our father belongs to us and to our children. So do whatever God has told you to do."
Genesis 31:17  Then Jacob got up and put his sons and his wives on camels.
Genesis 31:18  He drove away all his livestock and all the goods he had gained, the livestock he had built up in Padanaram, to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 31:19  Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel stole the images that belonged to her father.
Genesis 31:20  Jacob slipped away without telling Laban the Syrian, for he did not tell him that he was leaving.
Genesis 31:21  So he fled with everything he had. He got up and crossed the river, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead.
Genesis 31:22  On the third day Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
Genesis 31:23  So he took his relatives with him and chased after him for seven days' journey, and he caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead.
Genesis 31:24  But God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night and said to him, "Be careful that you say nothing to Jacob, either good or bad."
Genesis 31:25  Then Laban caught up with Jacob. Jacob had pitched his tent in the hill country, and Laban and his relatives camped in the hill country of Gilead.
Genesis 31:26  Laban said to Jacob, "What have you done? You slipped away without telling me, and you carried off my daughters like prisoners taken with the sword."
Genesis 31:27  Why did you run away in secret and steal away from me? Why did you not tell me, so that I could have sent you away with joy and songs, with tambourine and harp?
Genesis 31:28  You did not even let me kiss my grandsons and my daughters goodbye. You have acted foolishly in doing this.
Genesis 31:29  I have the power in my hand to harm you. But last night the God of your father spoke to me and said, 'Be careful that you say nothing to Jacob, either good or bad.'
Genesis 31:30  "And now you have gone off because you longed so much for your father's house. But why did you steal my gods?"
Genesis 31:31  Jacob answered Laban, "I was afraid. I said to myself, 'Perhaps you would take your daughters away from me by force.'"
Genesis 31:32  "But if you find your gods with anyone, that person shall not live. In front of our relatives, look for what is yours among my things and take it." For Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen them.
Genesis 31:33  So Laban went into Jacob's tent, and into Leah's tent, and into the tents of the two maidservants, but he found nothing. Then he came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's tent.
Genesis 31:34  Now Rachel had taken the images and put them inside the camel's saddle, and she was sitting on them. Laban searched all through the tent but found nothing.
Genesis 31:35  She said to her father, "Do not let my lord be angry that I cannot stand up in front of you. The way of women is upon me." So he searched, but did not find the images.
Genesis 31:36  Then Jacob was angry and argued with Laban. Jacob said to Laban, "What is my offence? What is my sin, that you have chased after me so fiercely?"
Genesis 31:37  You have searched all my belongings. What have you found of all your household goods? Put it here in front of my relatives and your relatives, and let them judge between the two of us.
Genesis 31:38  For twenty years I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not lost their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock.
Genesis 31:39  I did not bring you what wild animals had torn. I bore the loss myself. You made me pay for it, whether it was stolen by day or stolen by night.
Genesis 31:40  This was my life: by day the heat burned me, and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes.
Genesis 31:41  For twenty years I have been in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, and you changed my wages ten times.
Genesis 31:42  "If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the fear of Isaac, had not been with me, you would surely have sent me away with nothing. God has seen my suffering and the work of my hands, and last night he rebuked you."
Genesis 31:43  Laban answered Jacob, "These daughters are my daughters, these children are my children, and these flocks are my flocks. Everything you see is mine. But what can I do today about these daughters of mine, or about the children they have borne?"
Genesis 31:44  "So come now, let us make a covenant, you and I. Let it be a witness between me and you."
Genesis 31:45  So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar.
Genesis 31:46  Jacob said to his relatives, "Gather stones." They took stones and made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.
Genesis 31:47  Laban called it Jegarsahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.
Genesis 31:48  Laban said, "This heap is a witness between me and you today." That is why it was named Galeed,
Genesis 31:49  and also Mizpah, for he said, "May the LORD watch between me and you when we are apart from each other."
Genesis 31:50  "If you ill-treat my daughters, or if you take other wives besides my daughters, remember that no one is with us. See, God is a witness between me and you."
Genesis 31:51  Laban said to Jacob, "Look at this heap, and look at this pillar, which I have set up between me and you."
Genesis 31:52  This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness, that I will not go past this heap to you, and that you will not go past this heap and this pillar to me, to do harm.
Genesis 31:53  "May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge between us." And Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac.
Genesis 31:54  Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his relatives to eat bread. They ate bread and stayed all night on the mountain.
Genesis 31:55  Early in the morning Laban got up and kissed his grandsons and his daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left and went back home.

Genesis 32:1  Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.
Genesis 32:2  When Jacob saw them, he said, "This is God's army." So he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Genesis 32:3  Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau, to the land of Seir, the country of Edom.
Genesis 32:4  He gave them orders: "Say this to my lord Esau: 'Your servant Jacob says, I have lived with Laban as a stranger, and I have stayed there until now."
Genesis 32:5  "I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants and maidservants. I have sent to tell my lord, so that I may find grace in your sight.'"
Genesis 32:6  The messengers came back to Jacob and said, "We went to your brother Esau. He is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him."
Genesis 32:7  Then Jacob was very much afraid and troubled. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two groups.
Genesis 32:8  He said, "If Esau comes to one group and attacks it, then the other group that is left can escape."
Genesis 32:9  Then Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who said to me, 'Go back to your country and to your family, and I will treat you well':"
Genesis 32:10  I am not worthy of the least of all the mercy and all the faithfulness you have shown to your servant. I crossed this Jordan with only my staff, and now I have become two groups.
Genesis 32:11  Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau. I am afraid of him. He may come and strike me down, and the mothers with the children.
Genesis 32:12  "And you said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted because there is so much of it.'"
Genesis 32:13  He stayed there that night. From what he had with him he took a gift for his brother Esau:
Genesis 32:14  two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
Genesis 32:15  thirty milking camels with their young, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten foals.
Genesis 32:16  He handed them over to his servants, each herd by itself, and he said to his servants, "Go on ahead of me, and leave a space between one herd and the next."
Genesis 32:17  He gave orders to the first servant: "When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, 'Whose servant are you? Where are you going? And whose are these animals in front of you?'"
Genesis 32:18  "then you shall say, 'They belong to your servant Jacob. It is a gift sent to my lord Esau. And look, he is coming behind us.'"
Genesis 32:19  He gave the same orders to the second servant, and to the third, and to all who followed the herds: "Speak to Esau in this way when you find him."
Genesis 32:20  "And say as well, 'Look, your servant Jacob is behind us.'" For he said, "I will calm him with the gift that goes ahead of me. After that I will see his face. Perhaps he will welcome me."
Genesis 32:21  So the gift went on ahead of him, and he himself stayed that night in the camp.
Genesis 32:22  He got up that night and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of Jabbok.
Genesis 32:23  He took them and sent them across the stream, and he sent over everything he had.
Genesis 32:24  Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
Genesis 32:25  When the man saw that he could not win against him, he touched the socket of Jacob's thigh. Jacob's thigh was pulled out of joint as he wrestled with him.
Genesis 32:26  The man said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." Jacob said, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
Genesis 32:27  The man said to him, "What is your name?" He said, "Jacob."
Genesis 32:28  Then he said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel. For like a prince you have had power with God and with men, and you have won."
Genesis 32:29  Jacob asked him, "Tell me your name, I pray you." And he said, "Why do you ask my name?" And he blessed him there.
Genesis 32:30  Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for he said, "I have seen God face to face, and my life has been spared."
Genesis 32:31  As he passed Penuel the sun rose on him, and he limped because of his thigh.
Genesis 32:32  That is why to this day the children of Israel do not eat the tendon that shrank, which is on the socket of the thigh. For the man touched the socket of Jacob's thigh at the tendon that shrank.

Genesis 33:1  Jacob looked up, and there was Esau coming, and four hundred men with him. So Jacob divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two servant women.
Genesis 33:2  He put the servant women and their children in front, Leah and her children behind them, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.
Genesis 33:3  He himself went on ahead of them. He bowed to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.
Genesis 33:4  Esau ran to meet him. He put his arms around him, threw himself on his neck, and kissed him. And they wept.
Genesis 33:5  Then Esau looked up and saw the women and the children. He said, "Who are these with you?" Jacob said, "They are the children God has graciously given your servant."
Genesis 33:6  Then the servant women came near with their children, and they bowed down.
Genesis 33:7  Leah also came near with her children, and they bowed down. After that Joseph and Rachel came near, and they bowed down.
Genesis 33:8  Esau said, "What did you mean by all that herd I met?" Jacob said, "They are to find grace in the sight of my lord."
Genesis 33:9  But Esau said, "I have enough, my brother. Keep what you have for yourself."
Genesis 33:10  Jacob said, "No, please. If I have found grace in your sight, then take my gift from my hand. For I have seen your face as though I had seen the face of God, and you were pleased with me."
Genesis 33:11  "Please take the gift I have brought you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough." So Jacob urged him, and Esau took it.
Genesis 33:12  Then Esau said, "Let us set out on our journey and go, and I will go ahead of you."
Genesis 33:13  But Jacob said to him, "My lord knows that the children are young, and that the flocks and herds with me have their young. If they are driven hard for one day, all the flock will die."
Genesis 33:14  "Please let my lord go on ahead of his servant. I will lead on slowly, at the pace the animals in front of me and the children can bear, until I come to my lord in Seir."
Genesis 33:15  Esau said, "Let me leave some of the men who are with me to go with you." Jacob said, "Why do that? Let me only find grace in the sight of my lord."
Genesis 33:16  So that day Esau went back on his way to Seir.
Genesis 33:17  Jacob travelled to Succoth. He built himself a house, and made shelters for his cattle. That is why the place is called Succoth.
Genesis 33:18  Jacob came safely to Shalem, a city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, when he came from Padanaram. He set up his tent in front of the city.
Genesis 33:19  He bought the piece of ground where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem's father, for a hundred pieces of money.
Genesis 33:20  There he set up an altar, and he called it Elelohe-Israel.

Genesis 34:1  Dinah was the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob. She went out to see the young women of the land.
Genesis 34:2  Shechem was the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the country. When he saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
Genesis 34:3  But his heart clung to Dinah the daughter of Jacob. He loved the girl, and he spoke kindly to her.
Genesis 34:4  Shechem spoke to his father Hamor and said, "Get me this girl to be my wife."
Genesis 34:5  Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah. His sons were with his cattle in the field, so Jacob said nothing until they came home.
Genesis 34:6  Hamor the father of Shechem went out to Jacob to talk with him.
Genesis 34:7  When Jacob's sons heard what had happened, they came in from the field. The men were grieved, and they were very angry, because Shechem had done a shameful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter. Such a thing ought not to be done.
Genesis 34:8  Hamor talked with them and said, "My son Shechem longs for your daughter with all his heart. Please give her to him as his wife."
Genesis 34:9  Make marriages with us. Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters for yourselves.
Genesis 34:10  "You shall live with us. The land is open to you. Live in it, trade in it, and get property in it."
Genesis 34:11  And Shechem said to her father and to her brothers, "Let me find grace in your eyes, and whatever you say to me, I will give."
Genesis 34:12  "Ask me for as large a bride price and gift as you like, and I will give whatever you say to me. Only give me the girl to be my wife."
Genesis 34:13  Because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, the sons of Jacob answered him and his father Hamor with deceit.
Genesis 34:14  They said to them, "We cannot do this thing. We cannot give our sister to a man who is not circumcised, for that would be a disgrace to us."
Genesis 34:15  We will agree with you on one condition only: that you become like us, and every male among you is circumcised.
Genesis 34:16  Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves. We will live with you, and we will become one people.
Genesis 34:17  "But if you will not listen to us and be circumcised, then we will take our daughter and go."
Genesis 34:18  Their words pleased Hamor, and Shechem the son of Hamor.
Genesis 34:19  The young man did not wait to do what they asked, because he delighted in Jacob's daughter. He was the most honoured of all his father's house.
Genesis 34:20  So Hamor and his son Shechem came to the gate of their city and spoke to the men of their city. They said,
Genesis 34:21  "These men are peaceable with us. So let them live in the land and trade in it. Look, the land is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters as wives for us, and let us give them our daughters."
Genesis 34:22  But the men will agree to live with us and to be one people only on this condition: that every male among us is circumcised, as they are circumcised.
Genesis 34:23  "Will not their cattle and their goods and all their animals be ours? Let us only agree with them, and they will live with us."
Genesis 34:24  All who went out of the gate of his city listened to Hamor and to his son Shechem. Every male was circumcised, all who went out of the gate of his city.
Genesis 34:25  On the third day, while they were in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword. They came against the city boldly and killed every male.
Genesis 34:26  They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the edge of the sword. They took Dinah out of Shechem's house and went away.
Genesis 34:27  The sons of Jacob came upon the dead and plundered the city, because they had defiled their sister.
Genesis 34:28  They took their sheep, their oxen, their donkeys, all that was in the city, and all that was in the field.
Genesis 34:29  They carried off all their wealth, and took captive all their little ones and their wives, and plundered everything that was in the houses.
Genesis 34:30  Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, "You have brought trouble on me. You have made me stink among the people of this land, among the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have only a few men. They will gather together against me and kill me, and I shall be destroyed, I and my house."
Genesis 34:31  And they said, "Should he treat our sister like a prostitute?"

Genesis 35:1  God said to Jacob, "Get up, go up to Bethel, and live there. Make an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau."
Genesis 35:2  Then Jacob said to his household, and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are among you. Make yourselves clean, and change your clothes."
Genesis 35:3  "Let us get up and go to Bethel. There I will make an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my trouble, and was with me on the road I travelled."
Genesis 35:4  So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had, and all the earrings that were in their ears. Jacob buried them under the oak tree near Shechem.
Genesis 35:5  Then they set out. The terror of God fell on the cities around them, so they did not chase after the sons of Jacob.
Genesis 35:6  So Jacob came to Luz, which is in the land of Canaan, that is, Bethel, he and all the people who were with him.
Genesis 35:7  There he built an altar, and he called the place Elbethel, because there God appeared to him when he fled from his brother.
Genesis 35:8  But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died. She was buried below Bethel under an oak tree, and its name was called Allonbachuth.
Genesis 35:9  God appeared to Jacob again when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him.
Genesis 35:10  God said to him, "Your name is Jacob. You will not be called Jacob any more, but your name will be Israel." So he called his name Israel.
Genesis 35:11  God said to him, "I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and increase. A nation and a company of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body."
Genesis 35:12  "The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give to you. And to your descendants after you I will give the land."
Genesis 35:13  Then God went up from him, in the place where he had talked with him.
Genesis 35:14  Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God talked with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it, and poured oil on it.
Genesis 35:15  Jacob called the name of the place where God spoke with him Bethel.
Genesis 35:16  They travelled on from Bethel. There was still a little way to go to Ephrath when Rachel began to give birth, and her labour was hard.
Genesis 35:17  While she was in hard labour, the midwife said to her, "Do not be afraid. You will have this son too."
Genesis 35:18  As her life was leaving her, for she was dying, she called his name Benoni. But his father called him Benjamin.
Genesis 35:19  So Rachel died, and she was buried on the road to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem.
Genesis 35:20  Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. That is the pillar of Rachel's grave to this day.
Genesis 35:21  Israel travelled on, and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Edar.
Genesis 35:22  While Israel was living in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve:
Genesis 35:23  The sons of Leah: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, and Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Zebulun.
Genesis 35:24  The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
Genesis 35:25  The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant: Dan and Naphtali.
Genesis 35:26  The sons of Zilpah, Leah's servant: Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Padanaram.
Genesis 35:27  Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, to the city of Arbah, which is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived as strangers.
Genesis 35:28  Isaac lived a hundred and eighty years.
Genesis 35:29  Then Isaac breathed his last and died, and was gathered to his people. He was old and had lived a full life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.

Genesis 36:1  These are the descendants of Esau, who is also called Edom.
Genesis 36:2  Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan. He married Adah, the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite.
Genesis 36:3  He also married Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebajoth.
Genesis 36:4  Adah gave birth to Eliphaz for Esau, and Bashemath gave birth to Reuel.
Genesis 36:5  Aholibamah gave birth to Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau, who were born to him in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 36:6  Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the people of his house. He took his cattle, all his animals, and all the goods he had gained in the land of Canaan. Then he went into another country, away from his brother Jacob.
Genesis 36:7  For they had too much wealth to live together. The land where they were strangers could not support them, because they had so much cattle.
Genesis 36:8  So Esau lived in mount Seir. Esau is Edom.
Genesis 36:9  These are the descendants of Esau, the father of the Edomites in mount Seir.
Genesis 36:10  These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz, the son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel, the son of Esau's wife Bashemath.
Genesis 36:11  The sons of Eliphaz were Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam, and Kenaz.
Genesis 36:12  Timna was a concubine of Eliphaz, Esau's son, and she gave birth to Amalek for Eliphaz. These were the sons of Adah, Esau's wife.
Genesis 36:13  These are the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah. These were the sons of Bashemath, Esau's wife.
Genesis 36:14  These were the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon: she gave birth to Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah for Esau.
Genesis 36:15  These were the chiefs among the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, Esau's firstborn son, were chief Teman, chief Omar, chief Zepho, chief Kenaz,
Genesis 36:16  chief Korah, chief Gatam, and chief Amalek. These are the chiefs who came from Eliphaz in the land of Edom. These were the sons of Adah.
Genesis 36:17  These are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son: chief Nahath, chief Zerah, chief Shammah, and chief Mizzah. These are the chiefs who came from Reuel in the land of Edom. These are the sons of Bashemath, Esau's wife.
Genesis 36:18  These are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife: chief Jeush, chief Jaalam, and chief Korah. These were the chiefs who came from Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife.
Genesis 36:19  These are the sons of Esau, who is Edom, and these are their chiefs.
Genesis 36:20  These are the sons of Seir the Horite, who lived in the land: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
Genesis 36:21  Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan. These are the chiefs of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom.
Genesis 36:22  The children of Lotan were Hori and Hemam. Lotan's sister was Timna.
Genesis 36:23  These were the children of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho, and Onam.
Genesis 36:24  These are the children of Zibeon: Ajah and Anah. This was the Anah who found the mules in the wilderness while he was feeding the donkeys of his father Zibeon.
Genesis 36:25  These were the children of Anah: Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah.
Genesis 36:26  These are the children of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.
Genesis 36:27  These are the children of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, and Akan.
Genesis 36:28  These are the children of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
Genesis 36:29  These are the chiefs who came from the Horites: chief Lotan, chief Shobal, chief Zibeon, chief Anah,
Genesis 36:30  chief Dishon, chief Ezer, and chief Dishan. These are the chiefs who came from Hori, among their chiefs in the land of Seir.
Genesis 36:31  These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the children of Israel.
Genesis 36:32  Bela the son of Beor ruled in Edom, and the name of his city was Dinhabah.
Genesis 36:33  Bela died, and Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah ruled in his place.
Genesis 36:34  Jobab died, and Husham of the land of Temani ruled in his place.
Genesis 36:35  Husham died, and Hadad the son of Bedad ruled in his place. He was the one who defeated Midian in the field of Moab, and the name of his city was Avith.
Genesis 36:36  Hadad died, and Samlah of Masrekah ruled in his place.
Genesis 36:37  Samlah died, and Saul of Rehoboth by the river ruled in his place.
Genesis 36:38  Saul died, and Baalhanan the son of Achbor ruled in his place.
Genesis 36:39  Baalhanan the son of Achbor died, and Hadar ruled in his place. The name of his city was Pau, and his wife's name was Mehetabel, the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
Genesis 36:40  These are the names of the chiefs who came from Esau, by their families, their places, and their names: chief Timnah, chief Alvah, chief Jetheth,
Genesis 36:41  chief Aholibamah, chief Elah, chief Pinon,
Genesis 36:42  chief Kenaz, chief Teman, chief Mibzar,
Genesis 36:43  chief Magdiel, and chief Iram. These are the chiefs of Edom, by the places where they lived in the land they owned. This is Esau, the father of the Edomites.

Genesis 37:1  Jacob lived in the land where his father had lived as a stranger, in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 37:2  This is the story of Jacob's family. Joseph was seventeen years old, and he was looking after the flock with his brothers. The boy was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought a bad report about them to his father.
Genesis 37:3  Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his other children, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a coat of many colours.
Genesis 37:4  When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him. They could not speak a kind word to him.
Genesis 37:5  Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers. Then they hated him even more.
Genesis 37:6  He said to them, "Please listen to this dream I have had."
Genesis 37:7  "We were binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf got up and stood upright. And look, your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf."
Genesis 37:8  His brothers said to him, "Are you really going to be king over us? Are you really going to rule over us?" And they hated him even more for his dreams and for what he said.
Genesis 37:9  He had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. He said, "Look, I have had another dream. This time the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me."
Genesis 37:10  He told it to his father and to his brothers. His father scolded him and said to him, "What is this dream you have had? Will I and your mother and your brothers really come and bow down to the ground in front of you?"
Genesis 37:11  His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
Genesis 37:12  His brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem.
Genesis 37:13  Israel said to Joseph, "Are your brothers not feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them." And he said to him, "Here I am."
Genesis 37:14  He said to him, "Go now, and see whether all is well with your brothers and well with the flocks. Then bring me word again." So he sent him out of the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem.
Genesis 37:15  A man found him wandering in the field. The man asked him, "What are you looking for?"
Genesis 37:16  He said, "I am looking for my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks."
Genesis 37:17  The man said, "They have gone away from here. I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.
Genesis 37:18  They saw him a long way off. Before he came near to them, they made a plan against him to kill him.
Genesis 37:19  They said to one another, "Look, here comes that dreamer."
Genesis 37:20  "Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We will say that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams."
Genesis 37:21  Reuben heard it, and he saved him from their hands. He said, "Let us not kill him."
Genesis 37:22  Reuben said to them, "Shed no blood. Throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him." He said this so that he could save him from their hands and bring him back to his father.
Genesis 37:23  When Joseph came to his brothers, they pulled off his coat, the coat of many colours that he was wearing.
Genesis 37:24  They took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Genesis 37:25  Then they sat down to eat bread. They looked up, and there was a company of Ishmeelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices and balm and myrrh, and they were taking them down to Egypt.
Genesis 37:26  Judah said to his brothers, "What do we gain if we kill our brother and hide his blood?"
Genesis 37:27  "Come, let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let us not lay a hand on him. He is our brother, our own flesh." And his brothers agreed.
Genesis 37:28  Then some Midianite merchants passed by. They pulled Joseph up out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.
Genesis 37:29  Reuben came back to the pit, and Joseph was not in the pit. He tore his clothes.
Genesis 37:30  He went back to his brothers and said, "The boy is gone. And I, where shall I go?"
Genesis 37:31  They took Joseph's coat, killed a young goat, and dipped the coat in the blood.
Genesis 37:32  They sent the coat of many colours and brought it to their father. They said, "We found this. Look at it now and see whether it is your son's coat or not."
Genesis 37:33  He knew it and said, "It is my son's coat. A wild animal has eaten him. Joseph is surely torn to pieces."
Genesis 37:34  Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth round his waist, and he mourned for his son for many days.
Genesis 37:35  All his sons and all his daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, "I will go down to the grave to my son, still mourning." So his father wept for him.
Genesis 37:36  And the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

Genesis 38:1  At that time Judah went down away from his brothers. He turned in to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah.
Genesis 38:2  There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shuah. He took her as his wife and slept with her.
Genesis 38:3  She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and he named him Er.
Genesis 38:4  She became pregnant again and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan.
Genesis 38:5  She gave birth to yet another son, and she named him Shelah. Judah was at Chezib when she gave birth to him.
Genesis 38:6  Judah took a wife for Er, his firstborn son. Her name was Tamar.
Genesis 38:7  But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD killed him.
Genesis 38:8  Then Judah said to Onan, "Go to your brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up children for your brother."
Genesis 38:9  But Onan knew that the children would not be counted as his. So whenever he slept with his brother's wife, he spilled his seed on the ground, so that he would not give children to his brother.
Genesis 38:10  What he did displeased the LORD, so the LORD killed him too.
Genesis 38:11  Then Judah said to Tamar, his son's wife, "Stay as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah is grown up." For he said to himself, "He may die as well, like his brothers." So Tamar went and lived in her father's house.
Genesis 38:12  After some time Judah's wife, the daughter of Shuah, died. When Judah had been comforted, he went up to Timnath to the men who were shearing his sheep. His friend Hirah the Adullamite went with him.
Genesis 38:13  Tamar was told, "Look, your husband's father is going up to Timnath to shear his sheep."
Genesis 38:14  So she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil, and wrapped herself up. Then she sat in an open place beside the road to Timnath. For she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she had not been given to him as his wife.
Genesis 38:15  When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, because she had covered her face.
Genesis 38:16  He turned aside to her by the road and said, "Come now, let me sleep with you." For he did not know that she was the wife of his son. She said, "What will you give me for sleeping with me?"
Genesis 38:17  He said, "I will send you a young goat from the flock." She said, "Will you give me something to hold until you send it?"
Genesis 38:18  He said, "What shall I give you to hold?" She said, "Your seal, and your cord, and the staff in your hand." So he gave them to her, and he slept with her, and she became pregnant by him.
Genesis 38:19  Then she got up and went away. She took off her veil and put on her widow's clothes again.
Genesis 38:20  Judah sent the young goat by his friend the Adullamite, to get back what he had left with the woman. But he could not find her.
Genesis 38:21  Then he asked the men of that place, "Where is the prostitute who sat openly by the road?" They said, "There has been no prostitute in this place."
Genesis 38:22  So he went back to Judah and said, "I cannot find her. And the men of the place said there was no prostitute there."
Genesis 38:23  Judah said, "Let her keep it, or we will be shamed. Look, I sent this young goat, and you could not find her."
Genesis 38:24  About three months later Judah was told, "Tamar, your son's wife, has acted like a prostitute. And look, she is pregnant by her whoring." Judah said, "Bring her out, and let her be burned."
Genesis 38:25  When she was brought out, she sent a message to her husband's father: "I am pregnant by the man who owns these." And she said, "See if you know whose these are: the seal, the cord, and the staff."
Genesis 38:26  Judah recognized them and said, "She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to my son Shelah." And he never slept with her again.
Genesis 38:27  When the time came for her to give birth, there were twins in her womb.
Genesis 38:28  While she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand. The midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it on his hand, saying, "This one came out first."
Genesis 38:29  But he drew back his hand, and his brother came out. And she said, "How have you broken out? This breaking out is upon you." So he was named Pharez.
Genesis 38:30  Afterward his brother came out, the one with the scarlet thread on his hand, and he was named Zarah.

Genesis 39:1  Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmeelites who had brought him down there.
Genesis 39:2  The LORD was with Joseph, and he did well in everything. He lived in the house of his master the Egyptian.
Genesis 39:3  His master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made everything he did go well in his hands.
Genesis 39:4  So Joseph found grace in his eyes, and he served him. His master put him in charge of his house, and gave everything he had into his hands.
Genesis 39:5  From the time he put Joseph in charge of his house and of all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian's house because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in the house and in the field.
Genesis 39:6  He left everything he had in Joseph's hands. He did not concern himself with anything, except the food he ate. Joseph was handsome and good to look at.
Genesis 39:7  After this, his master's wife looked at Joseph with desire. She said, "Lie with me."
Genesis 39:8  But he refused. He said to his master's wife, "Look, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put everything he has into my hands."
Genesis 39:9  "There is no one greater in this house than I am. He has kept nothing back from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?"
Genesis 39:10  She spoke to Joseph day after day, but he would not listen to her. He would not lie beside her, or be with her.
Genesis 39:11  About this time Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house were inside.
Genesis 39:12  She caught hold of his coat and said, "Lie with me." But he left his coat in her hand, and ran, and got outside.
Genesis 39:13  When she saw that he had left his coat in her hand and had run outside,
Genesis 39:14  she called to the men of her house and said to them, "See, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make fun of us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice."
Genesis 39:15  "When he heard me lift up my voice and cry out, he left his coat with me, and ran, and got outside."
Genesis 39:16  She kept his coat beside her until his master came home.
Genesis 39:17  Then she told him the same thing. She said, "The Hebrew servant you brought to us came in to me to make fun of me."
Genesis 39:18  "But when I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his coat with me and ran outside."
Genesis 39:19  When his master heard the words his wife spoke to him, saying, "This is what your servant did to me," he became very angry.
Genesis 39:20  Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were kept. So he was there in the prison.
Genesis 39:21  But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the eyes of the keeper of the prison.
Genesis 39:22  The keeper of the prison put into Joseph's hands all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.
Genesis 39:23  The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's hand, because the LORD was with him. Whatever he did, the LORD made it go well.

Genesis 40:1  After these things, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker did wrong to their lord, the king of Egypt.
Genesis 40:2  Pharaoh was angry with two of his officers, with the chief cupbearer and with the chief baker.
Genesis 40:3  He put them under guard in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was held.
Genesis 40:4  The captain of the guard put Joseph in charge of them, and he served them. They stayed under guard for some time.
Genesis 40:5  Both of them dreamed a dream in the same night, each man his own dream, and each dream with its own meaning. They were the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were held in the prison.
Genesis 40:6  In the morning Joseph came in to them and looked at them, and they were sad.
Genesis 40:7  So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him under guard in his master's house, "Why do you look so sad today?"
Genesis 40:8  They said to him, "We have dreamed a dream, and there is no one to tell us what it means." Joseph said to them, "Do not meanings belong to God? Please tell them to me."
Genesis 40:9  So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph. He said to him, "In my dream, look, there was a vine in front of me."
Genesis 40:10  "On the vine were three branches. It was as though it budded, and its blossoms came out, and its clusters gave ripe grapes."
Genesis 40:11  "Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh's hand."
Genesis 40:12  Joseph said to him, "This is what it means. The three branches are three days."
Genesis 40:13  "Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and give you back your place. You will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand, as you used to do when you were his cupbearer."
Genesis 40:14  "But remember me when all goes well with you. Please show kindness to me. Speak about me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house."
Genesis 40:15  "For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here too I have done nothing for them to put me in the dungeon."
Genesis 40:16  When the chief baker saw that the meaning was good, he said to Joseph, "I also had a dream. Look, I had three white baskets on my head."
Genesis 40:17  "In the top basket there were all kinds of baked foods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head."
Genesis 40:18  Joseph answered, "This is what it means. The three baskets are three days."
Genesis 40:19  "Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you, and will hang you on a tree. The birds will eat your flesh from off you."
Genesis 40:20  On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants. He lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and of the chief baker among his servants.
Genesis 40:21  He gave the chief cupbearer his place back, and he put the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
Genesis 40:22  But he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had told them.
Genesis 40:23  Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph. He forgot him.

Genesis 41:1  At the end of two full years, Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing by the river.
Genesis 41:2  Look, out of the river came seven cows, fine looking and fat, and they fed in the meadow grass.
Genesis 41:3  Then look, seven other cows came up out of the river after them, ugly and thin. They stood beside the other cows on the bank of the river.
Genesis 41:4  And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven fine, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
Genesis 41:5  He slept and dreamed a second time. Look, seven ears of corn came up on one stalk, thick and good.
Genesis 41:6  Then look, seven thin ears, dried up by the east wind, sprang up after them.
Genesis 41:7  And the seven thin ears swallowed up the seven thick, full ears. Then Pharaoh woke up, and it had been a dream.
Genesis 41:8  In the morning his spirit was troubled. So he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dream, but no one could explain it to him.
Genesis 41:9  Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, and said, "Today I remember my faults."
Genesis 41:10  "Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and he put me under guard in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker."
Genesis 41:11  "We each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each dream had its own meaning."
Genesis 41:12  "There was a young man there with us, a Hebrew, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he explained them to us. He told each man what his own dream meant."
Genesis 41:13  "And it turned out just as he had told us. I was put back in my place, and the other man was hanged."
Genesis 41:14  Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon. He shaved himself and changed his clothes and came in to Pharaoh.
Genesis 41:15  Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I have had a dream, and no one can explain it. I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream and explain it."
Genesis 41:16  Joseph answered Pharaoh, "It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace."
Genesis 41:17  Pharaoh said to Joseph, "In my dream, I was standing on the bank of the river."
Genesis 41:18  "Look, out of the river came seven cows, fat and fine looking, and they fed in the meadow grass."
Genesis 41:19  "Then look, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin. I have never seen any so bad in all the land of Egypt."
Genesis 41:20  "And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows."
Genesis 41:21  "But when they had eaten them, no one could tell that they had eaten them. They looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up."
Genesis 41:22  "I also saw in my dream seven ears coming up on one stalk, full and good."
Genesis 41:23  "Then look, seven ears, withered, thin, and dried up by the east wind, sprang up after them."
Genesis 41:24  "And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. I told this to the magicians, but no one could tell me what it meant."
Genesis 41:25  Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, "Pharaoh's dream is one dream. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do."
Genesis 41:26  "The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. It is one dream."
Genesis 41:27  "The seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years. And the seven empty ears dried up by the east wind will be seven years of famine."
Genesis 41:28  "This is what I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do."
Genesis 41:29  "Look, seven years of great plenty are coming throughout all the land of Egypt."
Genesis 41:30  "After them will come seven years of famine. All the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will eat up the land."
Genesis 41:31  "The plenty will not be remembered in the land, because of the famine that follows, for it will be very terrible."
Genesis 41:32  "The dream came to Pharaoh twice because the thing is fixed by God, and God will soon make it happen."
Genesis 41:33  "So now let Pharaoh look for a man who is careful and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt."
Genesis 41:34  "Let Pharaoh do this: let him appoint officers over the land, and take a fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven years of plenty."
Genesis 41:35  "Let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up corn under Pharaoh's hand, and let them keep the food in the cities."
Genesis 41:36  "That food will be a store for the land for the seven years of famine that will come on the land of Egypt, so that the land does not die in the famine."
Genesis 41:37  This seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.
Genesis 41:38  Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a man as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?"
Genesis 41:39  Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is no one as careful and wise as you are."
Genesis 41:40  "You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled by your word. Only on the throne will I be greater than you."
Genesis 41:41  Pharaoh said to Joseph, "See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt."
Genesis 41:42  Pharaoh took his ring off his hand and put it on Joseph's hand. He dressed him in clothes of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.
Genesis 41:43  He had him ride in the second chariot that he had, and they called out before him, "Bow the knee." So he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:44  Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without you no one shall lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."
Genesis 41:45  Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphnathpaaneah, and he gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:46  Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and travelled through all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:47  In the seven years of plenty the earth produced crops by handfuls.
Genesis 41:48  He gathered up all the food of the seven years that were in the land of Egypt, and stored the food in the cities. In each city he stored the food from the fields around it.
Genesis 41:49  Joseph gathered corn like the sand of the sea, so much that he stopped counting it, for it could not be counted.
Genesis 41:50  Two sons were born to Joseph before the years of famine came. Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah priest of On, bore them to him.
Genesis 41:51  Joseph called the firstborn Manasseh. "For God," he said, "has made me forget all my hard work, and all my father's house."
Genesis 41:52  He called the second one Ephraim. "For God has made me fruitful in the land where I suffered."
Genesis 41:53  The seven years of plenty in the land of Egypt came to an end.
Genesis 41:54  Then the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
Genesis 41:55  When all the land of Egypt was starving, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, "Go to Joseph. Do whatever he says to you."
Genesis 41:56  The famine was over all the face of the earth. Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold corn to the Egyptians, and the famine grew hard in the land of Egypt.
Genesis 41:57  And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn, because the famine was so hard in all lands.

Genesis 42:1  Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt. So Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you keep looking at one another?"
Genesis 42:2  He said, "Look, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die."
Genesis 42:3  So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
Genesis 42:4  But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers. He said, "Something bad might happen to him."
Genesis 42:5  So the sons of Israel came to buy grain along with the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Genesis 42:6  Joseph was the governor over the land. He was the one who sold grain to all the people of the land. Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
Genesis 42:7  Joseph saw his brothers, and he knew who they were. But he acted like a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. He said to them, "Where do you come from?" They said, "From the land of Canaan, to buy food."
Genesis 42:8  Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know him.
Genesis 42:9  Joseph remembered the dreams he had dreamed about them. He said to them, "You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land."
Genesis 42:10  They said to him, "No, my lord. Your servants have come to buy food."
Genesis 42:11  "We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants are not spies."
Genesis 42:12  He said to them, "No. You have come to see the nakedness of the land."
Genesis 42:13  They said, "Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. Look, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more."
Genesis 42:14  Joseph said to them, "It is just as I told you: you are spies."
Genesis 42:15  This is how you will be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
Genesis 42:16  "Send one of you, and let him bring your brother. The rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested, to see whether there is any truth in you. If not, then by the life of Pharaoh you are surely spies."
Genesis 42:17  And he put them all together in prison for three days.
Genesis 42:18  On the third day Joseph said to them, "Do this and live, for I fear God."
Genesis 42:19  If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be kept in the prison where you are held. The rest of you go and carry grain for your hungry households.
Genesis 42:20  "But bring your youngest brother to me. Then your words will be shown to be true, and you will not die." And they did so.
Genesis 42:21  They said to one another, "We are truly guilty about our brother. We saw the anguish of his soul when he begged us, and we would not listen. That is why this trouble has come upon us."
Genesis 42:22  Reuben answered them, "Did I not tell you, 'Do not sin against the boy'? But you would not listen. Now, look, his blood is being required of us."
Genesis 42:23  They did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.
Genesis 42:24  He turned away from them and wept. Then he came back to them and spoke with them. He took Simeon from among them and had him tied up before their eyes.
Genesis 42:25  Then Joseph gave orders to fill their sacks with grain, to put every man's money back in his sack, and to give them food for the journey. This was done for them.
Genesis 42:26  They loaded their donkeys with the grain and went away from there.
Genesis 42:27  At the lodging place, one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food, and he saw his money. There it was in the mouth of his sack.
Genesis 42:28  He said to his brothers, "My money has been put back. Look, it is here in my sack." Their hearts sank, and they were afraid. They said to one another, "What is this that God has done to us?"
Genesis 42:29  They came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him everything that had happened to them. They said,
Genesis 42:30  "The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and treated us as spies of the country."
Genesis 42:31  We said to him, 'We are honest men. We are not spies.
Genesis 42:32  We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more, and the youngest is with our father today in the land of Canaan.'
Genesis 42:33  The man, the lord of the country, said to us, 'This is how I will know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with me, take food for your hungry households, and go.
Genesis 42:34  "Then bring your youngest brother to me. Then I will know that you are not spies, but honest men. I will give you back your brother, and you may trade in the land.'"
Genesis 42:35  Then, as they emptied their sacks, each man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
Genesis 42:36  Jacob their father said to them, "You have taken my children from me. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you will take Benjamin away. Everything is against me."
Genesis 42:37  Reuben spoke to his father and said, "Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you."
Genesis 42:38  But he said, "My son shall not go down with you. His brother is dead, and he alone is left. If something bad happens to him on the way you go, then you will bring my gray hairs down to the grave in sorrow."

Genesis 43:1  The famine was very bad in the land.
Genesis 43:2  When they had eaten up the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, "Go again, and buy us a little food."
Genesis 43:3  But Judah said to him, "The man warned us plainly. He said, 'You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.'"
Genesis 43:4  If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food for you.
Genesis 43:5  "But if you will not send him, we will not go down. For the man said to us, 'You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.'"
Genesis 43:6  Israel said, "Why did you treat me so badly, telling the man that you had another brother?"
Genesis 43:7  They said, "The man questioned us closely about ourselves and about our family. He said, 'Is your father still alive? Have you another brother?' And we answered his questions. How could we know that he would say, 'Bring your brother down'?"
Genesis 43:8  Judah said to Israel his father, "Send the boy with me, and we will get up and go. Then we may live and not die, both we, and you, and our little ones as well."
Genesis 43:9  I will be the one who answers for him. You may require him from my hand. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame for ever.
Genesis 43:10  "If we had not waited so long, by now we would have come back this second time."
Genesis 43:11  Their father Israel said to them, "If it must be so, then do this. Take some of the best fruits of the land in your bags, and carry the man a gift: a little balm, a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds."
Genesis 43:12  Take twice as much money with you. Take back also the money that was put again in the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake.
Genesis 43:13  Take your brother too. Get up, and go again to the man.
Genesis 43:14  "May God Almighty give you mercy before the man, so that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I am robbed of my children, I am robbed of them."
Genesis 43:15  So the men took that gift, and they took twice as much money with them, and Benjamin. They got up and went down to Egypt, and stood before Joseph.
Genesis 43:16  When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the man in charge of his house, "Bring these men home. Kill an animal and make it ready, for these men shall eat with me at noon."
Genesis 43:17  The man did as Joseph told him, and he brought the men into Joseph's house.
Genesis 43:18  The men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house. They said, "It is because of the money that was put back in our sacks the first time. He wants to find a charge against us, and attack us, and take us as slaves, along with our donkeys."
Genesis 43:19  So they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and spoke with him at the door of the house.
Genesis 43:20  They said, "Sir, we truly came down the first time to buy food."
Genesis 43:21  When we came to the place where we stayed for the night, we opened our sacks, and look, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it back with us.
Genesis 43:22  "We have also brought more money with us to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks."
Genesis 43:23  He said, "Peace be to you. Do not be afraid. Your God, and the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money." And he brought Simeon out to them.
Genesis 43:24  The man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and they washed their feet. He also gave their donkeys food.
Genesis 43:25  They got the gift ready for when Joseph came at noon, for they heard that they were to eat bread there.
Genesis 43:26  When Joseph came home, they brought him the gift they had with them into the house, and bowed down to the ground before him.
Genesis 43:27  He asked how they were, and said, "Is your father well, the old man you spoke about? Is he still alive?"
Genesis 43:28  They answered, "Your servant our father is in good health. He is still alive." And they bowed their heads and showed him honour.
Genesis 43:29  He looked up and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son, and said, "Is this your younger brother, the one you told me about?" And he said, "God be gracious to you, my son."
Genesis 43:30  Then Joseph hurried out, for his heart longed for his brother, and he looked for a place to weep. He went into his room and wept there.
Genesis 43:31  Then he washed his face and came out. He held himself in, and said, "Serve the food."
Genesis 43:32  They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves. For the Egyptians were not allowed to eat bread with the Hebrews, because that is hateful to the Egyptians.
Genesis 43:33  They sat in front of him, the firstborn by his right as firstborn, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement.
Genesis 43:34  He took portions to them from his own table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.

Genesis 44:1  Then Joseph commanded the steward of his house, "Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack."
Genesis 44:2  "And put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack, along with his money for the grain." And the steward did just as Joseph had said.
Genesis 44:3  As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys.
Genesis 44:4  When they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far away, Joseph said to his steward, "Get up and follow the men. When you catch up with them, say to them, 'Why have you paid back evil for good?"
Genesis 44:5  "'Is this not the cup that my lord drinks from, and the one he uses to divine? You have done evil in doing this.'"
Genesis 44:6  So he caught up with them, and he spoke these same words to them.
Genesis 44:7  They said to him, "Why does my lord say such things? God forbid that your servants should do anything like this."
Genesis 44:8  "Look, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then should we steal silver or gold out of your lord's house?"
Genesis 44:9  "Whichever of your servants it is found with, let him die, and the rest of us will be my lord's slaves."
Genesis 44:10  He said, "Let it be as you have said. The man it is found with shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be blameless."
Genesis 44:11  Then each man quickly took his sack down to the ground, and each man opened his sack.
Genesis 44:12  The steward searched them. He began with the eldest and finished with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
Genesis 44:13  Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey, and they went back to the city.
Genesis 44:14  Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, for he was still there; and they fell to the ground before him.
Genesis 44:15  Joseph said to them, "What is this you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can certainly divine?"
Genesis 44:16  Judah said, "What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? How can we clear ourselves? God has found out the wrongdoing of your servants. Look, we are my lord's servants, both we and the one with whom the cup was found."
Genesis 44:17  But he said, "God forbid that I should do that. The man in whose hand the cup was found, he shall be my servant. As for you, go up in peace to your father."
Genesis 44:18  Then Judah came near to him and said, "Oh my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and do not let your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself."
Genesis 44:19  "My lord asked his servants, 'Do you have a father, or a brother?'"
Genesis 44:20  "And we said to my lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a young boy. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him.'"
Genesis 44:21  "And you said to your servants, 'Bring him down to me, so that I may set my eyes on him.'"
Genesis 44:22  "And we said to my lord, 'The boy cannot leave his father. If he should leave his father, his father would die.'"
Genesis 44:23  "And you said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.'"
Genesis 44:24  "When we went up to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord."
Genesis 44:25  "And our father said, 'Go again, and buy us a little food.'"
Genesis 44:26  "And we said, 'We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down. For we may not see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.'"
Genesis 44:27  "And your servant my father said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons."
Genesis 44:28  "'One of them went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces; and I have not seen him since."
Genesis 44:29  "'And if you take this one also from me, and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray hairs down to the grave with sorrow.'"
Genesis 44:30  "So now, if I come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us, since his life is bound up in the boy's life,"
Genesis 44:31  "then when he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. And your servants will bring the gray hairs of your servant our father down to the grave with sorrow."
Genesis 44:32  "For your servant promised my father that the boy would be safe, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father for ever.'"
Genesis 44:33  "So now, please let your servant stay as my lord's slave instead of the boy, and let the boy go up with his brothers."
Genesis 44:34  "For how can I go up to my father if the boy is not with me? I could not bear to see the evil that would come on my father."

Genesis 45:1  Then Joseph could not hold himself back in front of all those who stood by him. He cried out, "Send everyone away from me." So no one stayed with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.
Genesis 45:2  And he wept aloud. The Egyptians heard him, and the household of Pharaoh heard it too.
Genesis 45:3  Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were terrified at his presence.
Genesis 45:4  Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, I ask you." And they came near. He said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt."
Genesis 45:5  Now do not be grieved, and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here. God sent me ahead of you to keep people alive.
Genesis 45:6  For two years now the famine has been in the land. And there are still five years in which there will be no ploughing and no harvest.
Genesis 45:7  God sent me ahead of you to keep you alive on the earth as a people who live on, and to save your lives by a great rescue.
Genesis 45:8  So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Genesis 45:9  "Hurry, and go up to my father, and say to him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not wait."
Genesis 45:10  "'You will live in the land of Goshen, and you will be near me, you and your children and your children's children, and your flocks and your herds and all that you have."
Genesis 45:11  "'There I will provide for you, for there are still five years of famine. If not, you and your household and all that you have will come to poverty.'"
Genesis 45:12  "Look, your own eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that is speaking to you."
Genesis 45:13  "You must tell my father about all my glory in Egypt, and about all that you have seen. And you must hurry and bring my father down here."
Genesis 45:14  Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.
Genesis 45:15  He kissed all his brothers and wept over them. After that his brothers talked with him.
Genesis 45:16  The news of it was heard in Pharaoh's house. They said, "Joseph's brothers have come." This pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants too.
Genesis 45:17  Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Say to your brothers, 'Do this: load your animals and go to the land of Canaan."
Genesis 45:18  "'Take your father and your households and come to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.'"
Genesis 45:19  "Now you are commanded: do this. Take wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come."
Genesis 45:20  "Also do not worry about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours."
Genesis 45:21  The children of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he gave them food for the journey.
Genesis 45:22  To each of them he gave changes of clothing. But to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of clothing.
Genesis 45:23  And to his father he sent this: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and food for his father for the journey.
Genesis 45:24  So he sent his brothers away, and they left. He said to them, "See that you do not quarrel on the way."
Genesis 45:25  They went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father.
Genesis 45:26  They told him, "Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt." And Jacob's heart went faint, for he did not believe them.
Genesis 45:27  Then they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them. And when he saw the wagons Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father came alive again.
Genesis 45:28  And Israel said, "It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."

Genesis 46:1  So Israel set out with all that he had. He came to Beersheba, and there he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
Genesis 46:2  And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night, and said, "Jacob, Jacob." And he said, "Here I am."
Genesis 46:3  And he said, "I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down into Egypt. For there I will make you into a great nation."
Genesis 46:4  "I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will surely bring you up again. And Joseph will put his hand on your eyes."
Genesis 46:5  Then Jacob left Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
Genesis 46:6  They took their cattle and the goods they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt: Jacob, and all his children with him.
Genesis 46:7  He brought with him into Egypt his sons, and his sons' sons, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his children.
Genesis 46:8  These are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.
Genesis 46:9  The sons of Reuben: Hanoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.
Genesis 46:10  The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.
Genesis 46:11  The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
Genesis 46:12  The sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zerah. But Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul.
Genesis 46:13  The sons of Issachar: Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron.
Genesis 46:14  The sons of Zebulun: Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.
Genesis 46:15  These are the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob in Padanaram, together with his daughter Dinah. All his sons and his daughters were thirty-three people in all.
Genesis 46:16  The sons of Gad: Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.
Genesis 46:17  The sons of Asher: Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister. And the sons of Beriah: Heber, and Malchiel.
Genesis 46:18  These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter. She bore these to Jacob, sixteen people in all.
Genesis 46:19  The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife: Joseph, and Benjamin.
Genesis 46:20  And to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim. Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah priest of On, bore them to him.
Genesis 46:21  The sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.
Genesis 46:22  These are the sons of Rachel, who were born to Jacob. They were fourteen people in all.
Genesis 46:23  The sons of Dan: Hushim.
Genesis 46:24  The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.
Genesis 46:25  These are the sons of Bilhah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter. She bore these to Jacob. They were seven people in all.
Genesis 46:26  All the people who came with Jacob into Egypt, who were his own descendants, not counting the wives of Jacob's sons, were sixty-six people in all.
Genesis 46:27  And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two people. So all the people of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy.
Genesis 46:28  He sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph, to show him the way to Goshen. And they came into the land of Goshen.
Genesis 46:29  Joseph made his chariot ready and went up to Goshen to meet Israel his father. He came before him, and threw his arms around his neck, and wept on his neck a long time.
Genesis 46:30  And Israel said to Joseph, "Now let me die, since I have seen your face and you are still alive."
Genesis 46:31  And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, "I will go up and tell Pharaoh. I will say to him, 'My brothers and my father's household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me."
Genesis 46:32  "'The men are shepherds, for they have always kept livestock. They have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.'"
Genesis 46:33  "So when Pharaoh calls you and says, 'What is your work?'"
Genesis 46:34  "you must say, 'Your servants have kept livestock from our youth until now, both we and our fathers.' Then you may live in the land of Goshen, because every shepherd is disgusting to the Egyptians."

Genesis 47:1  Then Joseph came and told Pharaoh. He said, "My father and my brothers have come out of the land of Canaan, with their flocks and their herds and all that they have. Look, they are in the land of Goshen."
Genesis 47:2  He took some of his brothers, five men, and brought them before Pharaoh.
Genesis 47:3  Pharaoh said to his brothers, "What is your work?" They said to Pharaoh, "Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers before us."
Genesis 47:4  They said to Pharaoh as well, "We have come to stay for a time in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks. The famine is very bad in the land of Canaan. So now, please let your servants live in the land of Goshen."
Genesis 47:5  Pharaoh spoke to Joseph and said, "Your father and your brothers have come to you."
Genesis 47:6  "The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in the land of Goshen. And if you know of any able men among them, put them in charge of my cattle."
Genesis 47:7  Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Genesis 47:8  Pharaoh said to Jacob, "How old are you?"
Genesis 47:9  Jacob said to Pharaoh, "The years of my journeying are a hundred and thirty years. The years of my life have been few and hard. They have not reached the years my fathers lived in their journeying."
Genesis 47:10  Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from Pharaoh's presence.
Genesis 47:11  So Joseph settled his father and his brothers. He gave them land of their own in Egypt, in the best part of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
Genesis 47:12  And Joseph provided food for his father, and his brothers, and all his father's household, giving to each family what they needed.
Genesis 47:13  There was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very bad. The land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan grew weak because of the famine.
Genesis 47:14  Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in payment for the corn they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.
Genesis 47:15  When the money was gone in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, "Give us bread. Why should we die in front of you? For our money is gone."
Genesis 47:16  Joseph said, "Bring your cattle, and I will give you food for your cattle, if your money is gone."
Genesis 47:17  So they brought their cattle to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for horses, for flocks, for herds of cattle and for donkeys. That year he fed them with bread in exchange for all their cattle.
Genesis 47:18  When that year was ended, they came to him the second year and said to him, "We will not hide it from my lord: our money is all spent, and my lord has our herds of cattle. Nothing is left for my lord to see but our bodies and our lands."
Genesis 47:19  "Why should we die before your eyes, we and our land as well? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be Pharaoh's servants. Give us seed, so that we may live and not die, and so that the land may not become waste."
Genesis 47:20  So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. Every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was too hard for them. So the land became Pharaoh's.
Genesis 47:21  And as for the people, he moved them into the cities, from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other.
Genesis 47:22  Only the land of the priests he did not buy. The priests had a share given to them by Pharaoh, and they ate the share Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their lands.
Genesis 47:23  Then Joseph said to the people, "Look, today I have bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land."
Genesis 47:24  "When the harvest comes in, you shall give a fifth part to Pharaoh. Four parts shall be your own, for seed for the field, and for your food, and for those in your households, and for food for your little ones."
Genesis 47:25  They said, "You have saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants."
Genesis 47:26  So Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part. Only the land of the priests was not Pharaoh's.
Genesis 47:27  Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen. They gained property there, and grew, and became very many.
Genesis 47:28  Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the whole age of Jacob was a hundred and forty-seven years.
Genesis 47:29  The time drew near when Israel must die. He called his son Joseph and said to him, "If I have now found grace in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt."
Genesis 47:30  "But I will lie with my fathers. You shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place." And he said, "I will do as you have said."
Genesis 47:31  And he said, "Swear to me." And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.

Genesis 48:1  After these things, someone told Joseph, "Look, your father is sick." So he took his two sons with him, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Genesis 48:2  Someone told Jacob, "Look, your son Joseph is coming to you." Then Israel gathered his strength and sat up on the bed.
Genesis 48:3  Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and he blessed me."
Genesis 48:4  "He said to me, 'Look, I will make you fruitful and give you many children. I will make you into a great crowd of people. And I will give this land to your children after you, to belong to them for ever.'"
Genesis 48:5  "And now your two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine. They shall be mine, just like Reuben and Simeon."
Genesis 48:6  "But the children you father after them shall be yours. In the land they receive, they shall be counted under the names of their brothers."
Genesis 48:7  "As for me, when I came from Padan, Rachel died beside me in the land of Canaan, on the road, while there was still a little way to go to Ephrath. I buried her there on the road to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem."
Genesis 48:8  Then Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?"
Genesis 48:9  Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me in this place." And he said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them."
Genesis 48:10  Now Israel's eyes were dim with age, so that he could not see. So Joseph brought them close to him, and he kissed them and put his arms round them.
Genesis 48:11  Israel said to Joseph, "I never thought I would see your face again. And look, God has let me see your children too."
Genesis 48:12  Then Joseph took them from between his knees, and he bowed with his face to the ground.
Genesis 48:13  Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them close to him.
Genesis 48:14  But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head. He crossed his hands on purpose, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
Genesis 48:15  Then he blessed Joseph and said, "God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,"
Genesis 48:16  "the Angel who saved me from all evil, may he bless the boys. Let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. And let them grow into a great crowd in the middle of the earth."
Genesis 48:17  When Joseph saw that his father had laid his right hand on Ephraim's head, it displeased him. He took hold of his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.
Genesis 48:18  Joseph said to his father, "Not this way, my father. This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head."
Genesis 48:19  But his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his children shall become a great crowd of nations."
Genesis 48:20  So he blessed them that day, saying, "By you Israel shall bless, saying, 'God make you like Ephraim and like Manasseh.'" And he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
Genesis 48:21  Then Israel said to Joseph, "Look, I am dying. But God will be with you, and will bring you back to the land of your fathers."
Genesis 48:22  "And I have given you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."

Genesis 49:1  Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather round me, so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the last days."
Genesis 49:2  "Gather together and listen, you sons of Jacob; listen to Israel your father."
Genesis 49:3  "Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the first of my strength, highest in dignity and highest in power."
Genesis 49:4  "Unsteady as water, you will not be the highest, because you went up to your father's bed. Then you defiled it. He went up to my couch."
Genesis 49:5  "Simeon and Levi are brothers; tools of cruelty are in their homes."
Genesis 49:6  "My soul, do not enter their secret plans. My honour, do not join their gathering. For in their anger they killed a man, and to please themselves they broke down a wall."
Genesis 49:7  "A curse on their anger, for it was fierce, and on their rage, for it was cruel. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel."
Genesis 49:8  "Judah, you are the one your brothers will praise. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's children will bow down before you."
Genesis 49:9  "Judah is a lion's cub. My son, you have gone up from the prey. He stooped down, he lay down like a lion, and like an old lion; who will rouse him?"
Genesis 49:10  "The sceptre will not leave Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and the peoples will gather to him."
Genesis 49:11  "He ties his donkey to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the best vine. He washed his clothes in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes."
Genesis 49:12  "His eyes will be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk."
Genesis 49:13  "Zebulun will live by the harbour of the sea. He will be a harbour for ships, and his border will reach to Zidon."
Genesis 49:14  "Issachar is a strong donkey lying down between two loads."
Genesis 49:15  "He saw that rest was good, and that the land was pleasant. So he bent his shoulder to carry the load, and became a servant doing forced labour."
Genesis 49:16  "Dan will judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel."
Genesis 49:17  "Dan will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that its rider falls backward."
Genesis 49:18  "I have waited for your salvation, LORD."
Genesis 49:19  "Gad - a troop will overcome him, but he will overcome at the last."
Genesis 49:20  "Asher's bread will be rich, and he will provide food fit for a king."
Genesis 49:21  "Naphtali is a deer set free; he gives beautiful words."
Genesis 49:22  "Joseph is a fruitful branch, a fruitful branch by a well, whose shoots climb over the wall."
Genesis 49:23  "The archers have hurt him badly; they shot at him and hated him."
Genesis 49:24  "But his bow stayed strong, and his arms and hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. (From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.)"
Genesis 49:25  "It was by the God of your father, who will help you, and by the Almighty, who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lies below, blessings of the breasts and of the womb."
Genesis 49:26  "The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of my ancestors, reaching to the farthest edge of the everlasting hills. They will rest on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of the one set apart from his brothers."
Genesis 49:27  "Benjamin will tear like a wolf. In the morning he will eat the prey, and at night he will divide the plunder."
Genesis 49:28  All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them when he blessed them; he blessed each one with the blessing that suited him.
Genesis 49:29  Then he gave them this command: "I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,"
Genesis 49:30  in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is in front of Mamre, in the land of Canaan. Abraham bought it, along with the field, from Ephron the Hittite to own as a burial place.
Genesis 49:31  There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I buried Leah.
Genesis 49:32  "The field and the cave in it were bought from the children of Heth."
Genesis 49:33  When Jacob had finished giving these commands to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people.

Genesis 50:1  Joseph threw himself on his father's face. He wept over him and kissed him.
Genesis 50:2  Then Joseph told his servants the physicians to embalm his father, and the physicians embalmed Israel.
Genesis 50:3  This took forty days, for that is how long it takes to embalm a body. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.
Genesis 50:4  When the days of mourning for him were over, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh. He said, "If I have found grace in your eyes, please speak to Pharaoh for me. Say to him,"
Genesis 50:5  "'My father made me swear an oath. He said, Look, I am dying. You must bury me in the grave I dug for myself in the land of Canaan. So now let me go up and bury my father, and then I will come back.'"
Genesis 50:6  Pharaoh said, "Go up and bury your father, just as he made you swear."
Genesis 50:7  So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh's servants went with him, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
Genesis 50:8  and all of Joseph's household, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their little ones, their flocks and their herds were left behind in the land of Goshen.
Genesis 50:9  Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very great company.
Genesis 50:10  They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan. There they mourned with a great and bitter sound of grief. Joseph mourned for his father for seven days.
Genesis 50:11  When the people who lived in the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the floor of Atad, they said, "This is a deep mourning for the Egyptians." That is why the place beyond the Jordan was named Abelmizraim.
Genesis 50:12  So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them.
Genesis 50:13  His sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah. Abraham had bought that field from Ephron the Hittite to own it as a burial place. It lies in front of Mamre.
Genesis 50:14  After he had buried his father, Joseph went back to Egypt, he and his brothers and everyone who had gone up with him to bury his father.
Genesis 50:15  When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "Perhaps Joseph will hate us. He may pay us back for all the evil we did to him."
Genesis 50:16  So they sent a messenger to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave a command before he died. He said,"
Genesis 50:17  "'This is what you are to say to Joseph: Please forgive the wrong your brothers did and their sin, for they treated you badly.' So now please forgive the wrong done by the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Genesis 50:18  His brothers also came and fell down in front of him. They said, "Look, we are your servants."
Genesis 50:19  Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God?"
Genesis 50:20  You planned evil against me, but God meant it for good. He did it to bring about what is happening today, so that many people would be kept alive.
Genesis 50:21  "So do not be afraid. I will provide food for you and for your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Genesis 50:22  Joseph lived in Egypt, he and his father's household. Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.
Genesis 50:23  Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees.
Genesis 50:24  Joseph said to his brothers, "I am dying. But God will surely come to you and bring you out of this land, to the land he promised with an oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
Genesis 50:25  Then Joseph made the children of Israel swear an oath. He said, "God will surely come to you, and you must carry my bones up from here."
Genesis 50:26  So Joseph died, being a hundred and ten years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Exodus

Exodus 1:1  These are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt. Each man came with Jacob, and brought his household with him:
Exodus 1:2  Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah,
Exodus 1:3  Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin,
Exodus 1:4  Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
Exodus 1:5  All the people who came from Jacob's own body were seventy in number. Joseph was in Egypt already.
Exodus 1:6  Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and all that generation.
Exodus 1:7  But the children of Israel had many children. They increased greatly, and grew in number, and became very strong. The land was filled with them.
Exodus 1:8  Then a new king rose up over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.
Exodus 1:9  He said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more than we are, and stronger."
Exodus 1:10  "Come, let us deal wisely with them. If we do not, they will grow still more in number. Then, if war breaks out, they may join our enemies and fight against us, and go up out of the land."
Exodus 1:11  So they set slave masters over them, to crush them with hard work. The Israelites built store cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Raamses.
Exodus 1:12  But the more the Egyptians crushed them, the more they increased and grew. So the Egyptians were filled with dread because of the children of Israel.
Exodus 1:13  The Egyptians made the children of Israel work like slaves, without mercy.
Exodus 1:14  They made their lives bitter with hard slavery: work with mortar, and with brick, and every kind of work in the fields. In all their work the Egyptians drove them without mercy.
Exodus 1:15  The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives. One was named Shiphrah, and the other was named Puah.
Exodus 1:16  He said, "When you help the Hebrew women give birth, watch them on the birth stool. If the child is a son, then you shall kill him. But if it is a daughter, then she shall live."
Exodus 1:17  But the midwives feared God. They did not do what the king of Egypt commanded them. They let the boys live.
Exodus 1:18  So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, "Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?"
Exodus 1:19  The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women. They are strong, and they give birth before the midwives come to them."
Exodus 1:20  So God was good to the midwives. And the people grew in number and became very strong.
Exodus 1:21  Because the midwives feared God, he gave them households of their own.
Exodus 1:22  Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every son that is born you shall throw into the river, but every daughter you shall let live."

Exodus 2:1  A man from the family of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi.
Exodus 2:2  The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months.
Exodus 2:3  When she could not hide him any longer, she took a basket made of bulrushes and coated it with tar and pitch. She put the child in it and laid it among the reeds at the edge of the river.
Exodus 2:4  His sister stood a long way off, to see what would happen to him.
Exodus 2:5  Pharaoh's daughter came down to wash herself at the river, and her servant girls walked along the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and she sent her maid to fetch it.
Exodus 2:6  When she opened it, she saw the child. The baby was crying. She felt sorry for him and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."
Exodus 2:7  Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and call a nurse from the Hebrew women for you, so that she may nurse the child for you?"
Exodus 2:8  Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." So the girl went and called the child's mother.
Exodus 2:9  Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will pay you your wages." So the woman took the child and nursed him.
Exodus 2:10  The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and she said, "Because I drew him out of the water."
Exodus 2:11  In those days, when Moses was grown, he went out to his brothers and looked at their hard labour. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
Exodus 2:12  He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one about, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Exodus 2:13  When he went out the next day, he saw two Hebrew men fighting each other. He said to the one who was in the wrong, "Why are you hitting your companion?"
Exodus 2:14  The man said, "Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you mean to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Then Moses was afraid, and said, "Surely this thing is known."
Exodus 2:15  When Pharaoh heard about it, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses ran away from Pharaoh and lived in the land of Midian. There he sat down by a well.
Exodus 2:16  The priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
Exodus 2:17  The shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
Exodus 2:18  When they came to Reuel their father, he said, "How is it that you have come back so soon today?"
Exodus 2:19  They said, "An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock."
Exodus 2:20  He said to his daughters, "And where is he? Why have you left the man there? Call him, so that he may eat bread."
Exodus 2:21  Moses was willing to live with the man, and he gave Moses his daughter Zipporah.
Exodus 2:22  She gave birth to a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, "I have been a stranger in a strange land."
Exodus 2:23  After a long time the king of Egypt died. The children of Israel groaned because of their slavery, and they cried out. Their cry came up to God because of their slavery.
Exodus 2:24  God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
Exodus 2:25  God looked on the children of Israel, and God cared about them.

Exodus 3:1  Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, to Horeb.
Exodus 3:2  The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the middle of a bush. Moses looked, and there was the bush burning with fire, but the bush was not burned up.
Exodus 3:3  Moses said, "I will turn aside now and see this great sight. Why is the bush not burned up?"
Exodus 3:4  When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him out of the middle of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses." And he said, "Here I am."
Exodus 3:5  God said, "Do not come near. Take your shoes off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
Exodus 3:6  He said also, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.
Exodus 3:7  The LORD said, "I have surely seen the suffering of my people who are in Egypt. I have heard their cry because of their slave drivers, for I know their sorrows."
Exodus 3:8  "So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land into a good land, a large land, a land flowing with milk and honey; to the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites."
Exodus 3:9  "Now look, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me. I have also seen how cruelly the Egyptians oppress them."
Exodus 3:10  "Come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring my people the children of Israel out of Egypt."
Exodus 3:11  Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"
Exodus 3:12  And God said, "I will certainly be with you. This shall be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain."
Exodus 3:13  Moses said to God, "When I come to the children of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' they will say to me, 'What is his name?' What shall I say to them?"
Exodus 3:14  God said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM." And he said, "This is what you shall say to the children of Israel: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
Exodus 3:15  God said further to Moses, "This is what you shall say to the children of Israel: 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name for ever, and this is how I am to be remembered by all generations."
Exodus 3:16  "Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, 'The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me and said: I have surely come to you, and have seen what is done to you in Egypt."
Exodus 3:17  "'And I have said, I will bring you up out of the suffering of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.'"
Exodus 3:18  "They will listen to your voice. Then you shall go, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and you shall say to him, 'The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.'"
Exodus 3:19  "I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, not even by a mighty hand."
Exodus 3:20  "So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do among them. After that he will let you go."
Exodus 3:21  "And I will make this people pleasing in the sight of the Egyptians. So when you go, you will not go empty-handed."
Exodus 3:22  "Every woman shall ask her neighbour, and the woman staying in her house, for jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, and you shall plunder the Egyptians."

Exodus 4:1  Moses answered, "But look, they will not believe me. They will not listen to my voice. They will say, 'The LORD has not appeared to you.'"
Exodus 4:2  The LORD said to him, "What is that in your hand?" He said, "A rod."
Exodus 4:3  He said, "Throw it on the ground." So he threw it on the ground, and it became a snake. Moses ran away from it.
Exodus 4:4  The LORD said to Moses, "Reach out your hand and take it by the tail." So he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand.
Exodus 4:5  "This is so that they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you."
Exodus 4:6  The LORD said to him further, "Now put your hand inside your coat." So he put his hand inside his coat. When he took it out, look, his hand was leprous, white as snow.
Exodus 4:7  He said, "Put your hand inside your coat again." So he put his hand inside his coat again. When he pulled it out, look, it had become like the rest of his flesh again.
Exodus 4:8  "If they will not believe you, and will not listen to the voice of the first sign, then they will believe the voice of the second sign."
Exodus 4:9  "And if they will not believe even these two signs, and will not listen to your voice, then take some of the water of the river and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take out of the river will become blood on the dry ground."
Exodus 4:10  Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I am not a good speaker. I never have been, and I am not now, since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."
Exodus 4:11  The LORD said to him, "Who made man's mouth? Who makes a person unable to speak, or deaf, or able to see, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?"
Exodus 4:12  "So go now, and I will be with your mouth, and teach you what to say."
Exodus 4:13  And he said, "O my Lord, please send your message by the hand of someone else."
Exodus 4:14  Then the LORD became angry with Moses, and he said, "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart."
Exodus 4:15  You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth. I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you must do.
Exodus 4:16  He shall speak for you to the people. He shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him in the place of God.
Exodus 4:17  "And you shall take this rod in your hand, and with it you shall do the signs."
Exodus 4:18  Moses went back to Jethro his father-in-law and said to him, "Please let me go and return to my brothers in Egypt, and see whether they are still alive." Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace."
Exodus 4:19  The LORD said to Moses in Midian, "Go, return to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead."
Exodus 4:20  So Moses took his wife and his sons, set them on a donkey, and returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.
Exodus 4:21  The LORD said to Moses, "When you go back to Egypt, be sure to do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your hand. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go."
Exodus 4:22  And you shall say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the LORD says: Israel is my son, my firstborn.
Exodus 4:23  "And I say to you, let my son go, so that he may serve me. If you refuse to let him go, look, I will kill your son, your firstborn.'"
Exodus 4:24  On the way, at the lodging place, the LORD met him and tried to kill him.
Exodus 4:25  Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, and threw it at his feet, and said, "Surely you are a bloody husband to me."
Exodus 4:26  So he let him go. Then she said, "You are a bloody husband," because of the circumcision.
Exodus 4:27  The LORD said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." So he went, and met him at the mountain of God, and kissed him.
Exodus 4:28  Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him to do.
Exodus 4:29  Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel.
Exodus 4:30  Aaron spoke all the words which the LORD had spoken to Moses, and did the signs where the people could see.
Exodus 4:31  And the people believed. When they heard that the LORD had come to the children of Israel, and that he had seen their suffering, they bowed their heads and worshipped.

Exodus 5:1  After that, Moses and Aaron went in and said to Pharaoh, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Let my people go, so that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness."
Exodus 5:2  Pharaoh said, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and I will not let Israel go."
Exodus 5:3  They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days' journey into the desert to sacrifice to the LORD our God. If we do not, he may strike us with disease or with the sword."
Exodus 5:4  The king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you take the people away from their work? Get back to your loads."
Exodus 5:5  Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land are many now, and you make them stop carrying their loads."
Exodus 5:6  That same day Pharaoh gave orders to the slave drivers of the people and to their officers. He said,
Exodus 5:7  "You must not give the people straw to make bricks any more, as you did before. Let them go and gather straw for themselves."
Exodus 5:8  But you must still demand from them the same number of bricks they made before. Do not reduce it at all. They are lazy, and that is why they cry out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.'
Exodus 5:9  "Let more work be laid on the men, so that they have to work at it. Then they will pay no attention to empty words."
Exodus 5:10  So the slave drivers of the people and their officers went out and said to the people, "This is what Pharaoh says: I will not give you straw."
Exodus 5:11  "Go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it. But your work will not be reduced at all."
Exodus 5:12  So the people were scattered all through the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw.
Exodus 5:13  The slave drivers pressed them, saying, "Finish your work, your daily tasks, just as when there was straw."
Exodus 5:14  And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh's slave drivers had put over them, were beaten. They were asked, "Why have you not finished the number of bricks you were to make, either yesterday or today, as you did before?"
Exodus 5:15  Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried out to Pharaoh. They said, "Why do you treat your servants like this?"
Exodus 5:16  "No straw is given to your servants, yet they say to us, 'Make bricks.' Look, your servants are beaten, but the fault is with your own people."
Exodus 5:17  But he said, "You are lazy, you are lazy. That is why you say, 'Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.'"
Exodus 5:18  "So go now and work. No straw will be given to you, and you must still hand over the same number of bricks."
Exodus 5:19  The officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in trouble, when they were told, "You must not reduce the number of bricks in your daily task at all."
Exodus 5:20  They met Moses and Aaron, who were standing in the way as they came out from Pharaoh.
Exodus 5:21  They said to them, "May the LORD look at you and judge you. You have made us stink in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants. You have put a sword in their hand to kill us."
Exodus 5:22  Moses turned back to the LORD and said, "Lord, why have you treated this people so badly? Why did you ever send me?"
Exodus 5:23  "Since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people. And you have not rescued your people at all."

Exodus 6:1  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh. With a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land."
Exodus 6:2  God spoke to Moses and said to him, "I am the LORD."
Exodus 6:3  "I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob by the name of God Almighty. But by my name JEHOVAH I was not known to them."
Exodus 6:4  "I also made my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land where they lived as travellers and strangers."
Exodus 6:5  "I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep as slaves. And I have remembered my covenant."
Exodus 6:6  "So say to the children of Israel, 'I am the LORD. I will bring you out from under the heavy loads of the Egyptians. I will set you free from being their slaves. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments."
Exodus 6:7  "'I will take you to myself as my people, and I will be your God. And you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the heavy loads of the Egyptians."
Exodus 6:8  "'I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you as your possession. I am the LORD.'"
Exodus 6:9  Moses told this to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because their spirits were crushed and their slavery was cruel.
Exodus 6:10  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Exodus 6:11  "Go in and speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt. Tell him to let the children of Israel go out of his land."
Exodus 6:12  Moses spoke before the LORD and said, "Look, the children of Israel have not listened to me. How then will Pharaoh listen to me, since I have uncircumcised lips?"
Exodus 6:13  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, and gave them a command for the children of Israel and for Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
Exodus 6:14  These are the heads of their fathers' houses. The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi. These are the families of Reuben.
Exodus 6:15  The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul, the son of a Canaanite woman. These are the families of Simeon.
Exodus 6:16  These are the names of the sons of Levi, in the order of their generations: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Levi lived a hundred and thirty-seven years.
Exodus 6:17  The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimi, with their families.
Exodus 6:18  The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel. Kohath lived a hundred and thirty-three years.
Exodus 6:19  The sons of Merari: Mahali and Mushi. These are the families of Levi, in the order of their generations.
Exodus 6:20  Amram married Jochebed, his father's sister, and she bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived a hundred and thirty-seven years.
Exodus 6:21  The sons of Izhar: Korah, Nepheg, and Zichri.
Exodus 6:22  The sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan, and Zithri.
Exodus 6:23  Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab and the sister of Naashon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Exodus 6:24  The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah, and Abiasaph. These are the families of the Korhites.
Exodus 6:25  Eleazar, Aaron's son, married one of the daughters of Putiel, and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites, family by family.
Exodus 6:26  These are the Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, "Bring the children of Israel out from the land of Egypt, army by army."
Exodus 6:27  These are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt. These are that Moses and Aaron.
Exodus 6:28  On the day when the LORD spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt,
Exodus 6:29  the LORD said to Moses, "I am the LORD. Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything that I say to you."
Exodus 6:30  And Moses said before the LORD, "Look, I have uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?"

Exodus 7:1  And the LORD said to Moses, "See, I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet."
Exodus 7:2  "You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall speak to Pharaoh, so that he sends the children of Israel out of his land."
Exodus 7:3  "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and I will multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt."
Exodus 7:4  "But Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that I may lay my hand upon Egypt. I will bring out my armies, my people the children of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments."
Exodus 7:5  "And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out my hand over Egypt and bring the children of Israel out from among them."
Exodus 7:6  And Moses and Aaron did as the LORD commanded them. So they did.
Exodus 7:7  Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three years old, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Exodus 7:8  And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Exodus 7:9  "When Pharaoh speaks to you and says, 'Show a miracle for yourselves,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your rod and throw it down before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.'"
Exodus 7:10  So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did just as the LORD had commanded. Aaron threw down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.
Exodus 7:11  Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. And the magicians of Egypt did the same thing with their secret arts.
Exodus 7:12  For each man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.
Exodus 7:13  And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
Exodus 7:14  And the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuses to let the people go."
Exodus 7:15  "Go to Pharaoh in the morning. Look, he goes out to the water. You shall stand by the bank of the river to meet him, and you shall take in your hand the rod that was turned into a serpent."
Exodus 7:16  "And you shall say to him, 'The LORD God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, saying, Let my people go, so that they may serve me in the wilderness. And look, until now you would not listen.'"
Exodus 7:17  "Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: By this you shall know that I am the LORD. Look, I will strike the waters that are in the river with the rod that is in my hand, and they shall be turned to blood.'"
Exodus 7:18  "'And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall stink. The Egyptians will not be able to bear drinking the water of the river.'"
Exodus 7:19  And the LORD spoke to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Take your rod and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt, over their streams, over their rivers, over their ponds, and over all their pools of water, so that they may become blood. There shall be blood through all the land of Egypt, both in containers of wood and in containers of stone.'"
Exodus 7:20  And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded. He lifted up the rod and struck the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.
Exodus 7:21  And the fish that were in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. And there was blood through all the land of Egypt.
Exodus 7:22  And the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts. And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
Exodus 7:23  And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, and he did not take this to heart either.
Exodus 7:24  And all the Egyptians dug around the river for water to drink, for they could not drink the water of the river.
Exodus 7:25  And seven days passed after the LORD had struck the river.

Exodus 8:1  The LORD spoke to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may serve me.'"
Exodus 8:2  "And if you refuse to let them go, look, I will strike all your land with frogs."
Exodus 8:3  "The river will swarm with frogs. They will come up and go into your house, into your bedroom, and onto your bed. They will go into the houses of your servants, and on your people, and into your ovens, and into the bowls where you mix your bread."
Exodus 8:4  "The frogs will come up on you, and on your people, and on all your servants."
Exodus 8:5  The LORD spoke to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your hand with your rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.'"
Exodus 8:6  So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt. The frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.
Exodus 8:7  The magicians did the same thing with their secret arts. They brought up frogs on the land of Egypt.
Exodus 8:8  Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Beg the LORD to take the frogs away from me and from my people. Then I will let the people go, so that they may offer sacrifices to the LORD."
Exodus 8:9  Moses said to Pharaoh, "You may have the honour over me. When shall I pray for you, and for your servants, and for your people, that the frogs may be destroyed and taken from you and your houses, and stay only in the river?"
Exodus 8:10  He said, "Tomorrow." And Moses said, "Let it be as you say. Then you will know that there is no one like the LORD our God."
Exodus 8:11  "The frogs will leave you, and your houses, and your servants, and your people. They will stay only in the river."
Exodus 8:12  Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh. And Moses cried out to the LORD about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh.
Exodus 8:13  The LORD did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the villages, and in the fields.
Exodus 8:14  They gathered them together in heaps, and the land stank.
Exodus 8:15  But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
Exodus 8:16  The LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your rod and strike the dust of the ground, so that it may become lice through all the land of Egypt.'"
Exodus 8:17  They did so. Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and struck the dust of the earth, and it became lice on people and on animals. All the dust of the land became lice through all the land of Egypt.
Exodus 8:18  The magicians did the same thing with their secret arts, to bring out lice, but they could not. So there were lice on people and on animals.
Exodus 8:19  Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.
Exodus 8:20  The LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Look, he comes out to the water. Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may serve me.'"
Exodus 8:21  "If you will not let my people go, look, I will send swarms of flies on you, and on your servants, and on your people, and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of swarms of flies, and so will the ground they stand on."
Exodus 8:22  "But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people live, so that no swarms of flies shall be there. Then you will know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth."
Exodus 8:23  "I will put a division between my people and your people. Tomorrow this sign shall happen."
Exodus 8:24  The LORD did so. A terrible swarm of flies came into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt. The land was ruined because of the swarms of flies.
Exodus 8:25  Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, offer sacrifices to your God here in the land."
Exodus 8:26  Moses said, "It is not right to do that. What we sacrifice to the LORD our God is hateful to the Egyptians. If we sacrifice what the Egyptians hate right in front of their eyes, will they not stone us?"
Exodus 8:27  "We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he commands us."
Exodus 8:28  Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, so that you may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness. Only you shall not go very far away. Pray for me."
Exodus 8:29  Moses said, "Look, I am going out from you, and I will beg the LORD that the swarms of flies may leave Pharaoh, his servants, and his people tomorrow. But let Pharaoh not lie to us again by refusing to let the people go and sacrifice to the LORD."
Exodus 8:30  So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.
Exodus 8:31  The LORD did what Moses asked. He took the swarms of flies away from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people. Not one was left.
Exodus 8:32  But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time too, and he would not let the people go.

Exodus 9:1  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh, and tell him, 'This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: Let my people go, so that they may serve me.'"
Exodus 9:2  "'For if you refuse to let them go, and keep holding them back,"
Exodus 9:3  look, the hand of the LORD will be on your livestock in the field, on the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the oxen, and the sheep. There will be a very terrible disease.
Exodus 9:4  "And the LORD will make a difference between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt. Nothing that belongs to the children of Israel will die.'"
Exodus 9:5  And the LORD set a time, saying, "Tomorrow the LORD will do this thing in the land."
Exodus 9:6  The next day the LORD did that thing, and all the livestock of Egypt died. But of the livestock of the children of Israel not one died.
Exodus 9:7  Pharaoh sent men to look, and, look, not one of the livestock of the Israelites was dead. But Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he did not let the people go.
Exodus 9:8  Then the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron, "Take handfuls of ashes from the furnace, and let Moses throw them up toward the sky while Pharaoh watches."
Exodus 9:9  "They will become fine dust over all the land of Egypt. They will cause boils that break out in sores on people and on animals, through all the land of Egypt."
Exodus 9:10  So they took ashes from the furnace and stood in front of Pharaoh. Moses threw them up toward the sky, and they became boils that broke out in sores on people and on animals.
Exodus 9:11  The magicians could not stand in front of Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and on all the Egyptians.
Exodus 9:12  But the LORD made Pharaoh's heart hard, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had said to Moses.
Exodus 9:13  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning, and stand in front of Pharaoh, and say to him, 'This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: Let my people go, so that they may serve me."
Exodus 9:14  For this time I will send all my plagues on your own heart, and on your servants, and on your people. Then you will know that there is no one like me in all the earth.
Exodus 9:15  For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with disease, and you would have been wiped off the earth.
Exodus 9:16  But for this very reason I have raised you up: to show my power in you, and so that my name may be told through all the earth.
Exodus 9:17  Do you still lift yourself up against my people, and refuse to let them go?
Exodus 9:18  Look, tomorrow about this time I will send down a very terrible hail, such as has not been in Egypt from the day it was founded until now.
Exodus 9:19  "So send now, and bring in your livestock, and everything you have in the field. The hail will come down on every person and animal that is found in the field and is not brought home, and they will die.'"
Exodus 9:20  Among Pharaoh's servants, the one who feared the word of the LORD made his servants and his livestock run into the houses.
Exodus 9:21  But the one who paid no attention to the word of the LORD left his servants and his livestock in the field.
Exodus 9:22  And the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward the sky, so that hail may fall on all the land of Egypt, on people, and on animals, and on every plant of the field, through all the land of Egypt."
Exodus 9:23  So Moses stretched out his rod toward the sky. The LORD sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along the ground. The LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt.
Exodus 9:24  So there was hail, and fire mixed with the hail, very terrible. There had been nothing like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.
Exodus 9:25  Through all the land of Egypt the hail struck everything that was in the field, both people and animals. The hail struck every plant of the field, and broke every tree of the field.
Exodus 9:26  Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.
Exodus 9:27  Then Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said to them, "This time I have sinned. The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked."
Exodus 9:28  "Pray to the LORD, for it is enough, that there may be no more great thunder and hail. I will let you go, and you will stay no longer."
Exodus 9:29  Moses said to him, "As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread out my hands to the LORD. The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail. Then you may know that the earth belongs to the LORD."
Exodus 9:30  "But as for you and your servants, I know that you do not yet fear the LORD God."
Exodus 9:31  The flax and the barley were ruined, for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bud.
Exodus 9:32  But the wheat and the rye were not ruined, for they had not come up yet.
Exodus 9:33  So Moses went out of the city, away from Pharaoh, and spread out his hands to the LORD. The thunder and hail stopped, and the rain no longer poured down on the earth.
Exodus 9:34  When Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned still more, and made his heart hard, he and his servants.
Exodus 9:35  Pharaoh's heart was hard, and he would not let the children of Israel go, just as the LORD had said through Moses.

Exodus 10:1  The LORD said to Moses, "Go in to Pharaoh. I have hardened his heart, and the hearts of his servants, so that I may show these signs of mine before him."
Exodus 10:2  "And so that you may tell your son, and your son's son, what things I have done in Egypt, and the signs I have done among them. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Exodus 10:3  So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh and said to him, "This is what the LORD God of the Hebrews says: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may serve me."
Exodus 10:4  "If you refuse to let my people go, look, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your land."
Exodus 10:5  "They will cover the face of the ground, so that no one can see the ground. They will eat what is left over, what escaped the hail and still remains to you. They will eat every tree that grows for you in the field."
Exodus 10:6  "They will fill your houses, and the houses of all your servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians. Neither your fathers nor your fathers' fathers have seen anything like it, from the day they were on the earth until this day." Then Moses turned and went out from Pharaoh.
Exodus 10:7  Pharaoh's servants said to him, "How long will this man be a trap to us? Let the men go, so that they may serve the LORD their God. Do you not yet know that Egypt is ruined?"
Exodus 10:8  So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. He said to them, "Go, serve the LORD your God. But who are the ones who will go?"
Exodus 10:9  Moses said, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters. We will go with our flocks and with our herds, for we must hold a feast to the LORD."
Exodus 10:10  He said to them, "May the LORD be with you in the same way that I let you go, and your little ones with you. Watch out, for you are heading into evil."
Exodus 10:11  "No. You men go and serve the LORD, since that is what you asked for." And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.
Exodus 10:12  The LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come up over the land of Egypt and eat every plant of the land, all that the hail has left."
Exodus 10:13  So Moses stretched out his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind on the land all that day and all that night. When it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.
Exodus 10:14  The locusts came up over all the land of Egypt and settled in all the country of Egypt. They were very terrible. There had never been such locusts before them, and there never will be such again.
Exodus 10:15  They covered the face of the whole ground, so that the land was dark. They ate every plant of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left. Nothing green was left on the trees or on the plants of the field, through all the land of Egypt.
Exodus 10:16  Then Pharaoh hurried to call for Moses and Aaron, and he said, "I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you."
Exodus 10:17  "Now please forgive my sin just this once, and ask the LORD your God to take away from me this death, only this."
Exodus 10:18  Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed to the LORD.
Exodus 10:19  The LORD turned a very strong west wind, which carried the locusts away and drove them into the Red sea. Not one locust was left in all the country of Egypt.
Exodus 10:20  But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go.
Exodus 10:21  The LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt."
Exodus 10:22  So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.
Exodus 10:23  They did not see one another, and no one got up from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light where they lived.
Exodus 10:24  Pharaoh called to Moses and said, "Go, serve the LORD. Only let your flocks and your herds stay behind. Your little ones may also go with you."
Exodus 10:25  Moses said, "You must also give us sacrifices and burnt offerings, so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God."
Exodus 10:26  "Our cattle must go with us too. Not one hoof will be left behind. We must take some of them to serve the LORD our God, and we do not know what we must serve the LORD with until we get there."
Exodus 10:27  But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go.
Exodus 10:28  Pharaoh said to him, "Get away from me. Be careful. Do not see my face again, for on the day you see my face you will die."
Exodus 10:29  Moses said, "You have spoken well. I will never see your face again."

Exodus 11:1  And the LORD said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that he will let you go from here. When he lets you go, he will surely drive you all out completely."
Exodus 11:2  "Speak now in the hearing of the people. Let every man ask his neighbour, and every woman her neighbour, for jewels of silver and jewels of gold."
Exodus 11:3  And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Also the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants and in the sight of the people.
Exodus 11:4  And Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: About midnight I will go out into the middle of Egypt."
Exodus 11:5  "And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, even to the firstborn of the servant girl who is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of the animals."
Exodus 11:6  "And there will be a great cry through all the land of Egypt. There has never been such a cry, and there never will be again."
Exodus 11:7  "But among the children of Israel not even a dog will growl at man or animal. So you will know that the LORD makes a difference between the Egyptians and Israel."
Exodus 11:8  "And all these servants of yours will come down to me and bow down to me, saying, 'Go out, you and all the people who follow you.' And after that I will go out." And he went out from Pharaoh in great anger.
Exodus 11:9  And the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that my wonders may be many in the land of Egypt."
Exodus 11:10  And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh. And the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

Exodus 12:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt. He said,
Exodus 12:2  "This month will be the beginning of months for you. It will be the first month of the year for you."
Exodus 12:3  "Speak to all the congregation of Israel. Say to them, 'On the tenth day of this month every man is to take a lamb for himself, one for each family of their fathers, a lamb for a house."
Exodus 12:4  "'If the household is too small for a lamb, then let him and his neighbour who lives next to his house take one together, counting the number of people. You shall count for the lamb by how much each person eats."
Exodus 12:5  "'Your lamb must be without blemish, a male in its first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats."
Exodus 12:6  "'You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening."
Exodus 12:7  "'They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two door posts and on the beam above the door of the houses where they eat it."
Exodus 12:8  "'That night they shall eat the meat, roasted with fire. They shall eat it with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs."
Exodus 12:9  "'Do not eat it raw, and do not boil it in water at all. Roast it with fire, its head with its legs and its inner parts."
Exodus 12:10  "'You shall let none of it remain until the morning. Whatever is left of it until the morning you shall burn with fire."
Exodus 12:11  "'This is how you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand. You shall eat it in haste. It is the LORD's passover."
Exodus 12:12  "'For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night. I will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. And against all the gods of Egypt I will carry out judgment. I am the LORD."
Exodus 12:13  "'The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood, I will pass over you. No plague will fall on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt."
Exodus 12:14  "'This day will be a day of remembrance for you. You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD through all your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by a law for ever."
Exodus 12:15  "'For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall put leaven out of your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel."
Exodus 12:16  "'On the first day there shall be a holy gathering, and on the seventh day there shall be a holy gathering for you. No work at all shall be done on those days, except preparing what everyone must eat. That alone you may do."
Exodus 12:17  "'You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread, for on this very day I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. So you shall keep this day through your generations by a law for ever."
Exodus 12:18  "'In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the twenty-first day of the month in the evening."
Exodus 12:19  "'For seven days no leaven shall be found in your houses. For whoever eats what is leavened shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he is a stranger or born in the land."
Exodus 12:20  "'You shall eat nothing leavened. In all your homes you shall eat unleavened bread.'"
Exodus 12:21  Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel. He said to them, "Go and take lambs for your families, and kill the passover."
Exodus 12:22  "Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin. Put some of the blood that is in the basin on the beam above the door and on the two door posts. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning."
Exodus 12:23  "For the LORD will pass through to strike the Egyptians. When he sees the blood on the beam above the door and on the two door posts, the LORD will pass over the door. He will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to strike you."
Exodus 12:24  "You shall keep this as a law for you and for your sons for ever."
Exodus 12:25  "When you come to the land which the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service."
Exodus 12:26  "And when your children say to you, 'What does this service mean to you?'"
Exodus 12:27  "you shall say, 'It is the sacrifice of the LORD's passover. He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when he struck the Egyptians, and he saved our houses.'" And the people bowed their heads and worshipped.
Exodus 12:28  The children of Israel went away and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. That is what they did.
Exodus 12:29  At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of the cattle.
Exodus 12:30  Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians. There was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not someone dead.
Exodus 12:31  He called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, "Get up, and go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. Go, serve the LORD, as you have said."
Exodus 12:32  "Take your flocks and your herds too, as you have said, and be gone. And bless me also."
Exodus 12:33  The Egyptians pressed the people hard, to send them out of the land quickly. For they said, "We are all dead men."
Exodus 12:34  So the people took their dough before it was leavened. They wrapped their kneading bowls in their clothes on their shoulders.
Exodus 12:35  The children of Israel did as Moses had said. They asked the Egyptians for jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and clothing.
Exodus 12:36  And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they asked for. And they stripped the Egyptians of their goods.
Exodus 12:37  The children of Israel travelled from Rameses to Succoth. There were about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children.
Exodus 12:38  A mixed crowd went up with them as well, and flocks and herds, a very great number of animals.
Exodus 12:39  They baked unleavened cakes from the dough they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened. They had been driven out of Egypt and could not wait, and they had not prepared any food for themselves.
Exodus 12:40  Now the time the children of Israel lived in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Exodus 12:41  At the end of the four hundred and thirty years, on that very day, all the armies of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.
Exodus 12:42  It is a night to be carefully kept for the LORD, because he brought them out of the land of Egypt. This is that night of the LORD, to be kept by all the children of Israel through their generations.
Exodus 12:43  The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "This is the law of the passover: no stranger shall eat of it."
Exodus 12:44  "But every man's servant who has been bought with money may eat of it, once you have circumcised him."
Exodus 12:45  "A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat of it."
Exodus 12:46  "It shall be eaten in one house. You shall not carry any of the meat outside the house, and you shall not break a bone of it."
Exodus 12:47  "All the congregation of Israel shall keep it."
Exodus 12:48  "And when a stranger stays with you and wants to keep the passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then let him come near and keep it, and he shall be like one born in the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it."
Exodus 12:49  "There shall be one law for the one born in the land and for the stranger who stays among you."
Exodus 12:50  So all the children of Israel did this. As the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron, that is what they did.
Exodus 12:51  On that very day the LORD brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

Exodus 13:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Exodus 13:2  "Set apart for me every firstborn. Whatever is first to open the womb among the children of Israel, both of people and of animals, is mine."
Exodus 13:3  And Moses said to the people, "Remember this day, the day you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery. For the LORD brought you out of this place by the strength of his hand. No bread made with yeast is to be eaten."
Exodus 13:4  "This day you are going out, in the month Abib."
Exodus 13:5  "The LORD will bring you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. He promised your fathers with an oath that he would give it to you. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. When he brings you there, you must keep this service in this month."
Exodus 13:6  "For seven days you shall eat bread made without yeast, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD."
Exodus 13:7  "Bread without yeast shall be eaten for those seven days. No bread with yeast is to be seen with you, and no yeast at all is to be seen with you anywhere inside your borders."
Exodus 13:8  "On that day you shall tell your son, 'This is done because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.'"
Exodus 13:9  "It shall be a sign for you on your hand, and a reminder between your eyes, so that the LORD's law may be in your mouth. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with a strong hand."
Exodus 13:10  "So you shall keep this rule at its set time, year after year."
Exodus 13:11  "The LORD will bring you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and to your fathers, and he will give it to you."
Exodus 13:12  "Then you shall set apart to the LORD everything that first opens the womb. Every firstborn male that comes from the animals you have shall be the LORD's."
Exodus 13:13  "Every firstborn donkey you shall buy back with a lamb. If you will not buy it back, then you shall break its neck. And every firstborn among your sons you shall buy back."
Exodus 13:14  "In time to come your son will ask you, 'What is this?' Then you shall say to him, 'By the strength of his hand the LORD brought us out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery."
Exodus 13:15  "'When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of people and the firstborn of animals. That is why I sacrifice to the LORD every male that first opens the womb. But every firstborn of my sons I buy back.'"
Exodus 13:16  "It shall be a mark on your hand, and bands between your eyes. For by the strength of his hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt."
Exodus 13:17  When Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not lead them by the road through the land of the Philistines, though that way was near. For God said, "If the people see war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt."
Exodus 13:18  So God led the people around, by the way of the wilderness of the Red sea. The children of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt ready for battle.
Exodus 13:19  Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. For Joseph had made the children of Israel swear a solemn oath, saying, "God will surely come to you. Then you shall carry my bones away from here with you."
Exodus 13:20  They set out from Succoth and camped at Etham, at the edge of the wilderness.
Exodus 13:21  The LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light. So they could travel by day and by night.
Exodus 13:22  He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day, or the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.

Exodus 14:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Exodus 14:2  "Tell the children of Israel to turn back and camp in front of Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baalzephon. Camp there by the sea, facing it."
Exodus 14:3  "For Pharaoh will say about the children of Israel, 'They are trapped in the land. The wilderness has closed them in.'"
Exodus 14:4  "And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, so that he will chase after them. I will be honoured through Pharaoh and through all his army, so that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD." And they did so.
Exodus 14:5  The king of Egypt was told that the people had fled. Then the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, "Why have we done this? We have let Israel go from serving us."
Exodus 14:6  So he got his chariot ready, and took his people with him.
Exodus 14:7  He took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt, with captains over every one of them.
Exodus 14:8  The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he chased after the children of Israel. But the children of Israel went out boldly.
Exodus 14:9  The Egyptians chased after them. All Pharaoh's horses and chariots, his horsemen and his army caught up with them as they camped by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, in front of Baalzephon.
Exodus 14:10  When Pharaoh came near, the children of Israel looked up, and there were the Egyptians marching after them. They were terrified, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
Exodus 14:11  They said to Moses, "Were there no graves in Egypt? Is that why you brought us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you treated us like this, bringing us out of Egypt?"
Exodus 14:12  "Is this not what we told you in Egypt? We said, 'Leave us alone, so that we may serve the Egyptians.' It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness."
Exodus 14:13  Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see how the LORD will save you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again."
Exodus 14:14  "The LORD will fight for you, and you shall be still."
Exodus 14:15  The LORD said to Moses, "Why do you cry out to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward."
Exodus 14:16  "But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it. Then the children of Israel shall walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground."
Exodus 14:17  "And I, look, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will follow them. I will gain honour through Pharaoh and through all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen."
Exodus 14:18  "The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gained honour through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen."
Exodus 14:19  Then the angel of God, who went in front of the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from in front of them and stood behind them.
Exodus 14:20  It came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. It was a cloud and darkness to the one, but it gave light by night to the other. So neither side came near the other all night.
Exodus 14:21  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. All that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind, and made the sea into dry land. The waters were divided.
Exodus 14:22  The children of Israel went into the middle of the sea on dry ground. The waters were a wall for them on their right hand and on their left.
Exodus 14:23  The Egyptians chased them and went in after them into the middle of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots and his horsemen.
Exodus 14:24  In the morning watch the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and he threw the army of the Egyptians into confusion.
Exodus 14:25  He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove them with difficulty. So the Egyptians said, "Let us run away from Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians."
Exodus 14:26  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen."
Exodus 14:27  Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and as morning came the sea went back to its full strength. The Egyptians fled towards it, and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea.
Exodus 14:28  The waters came back and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all Pharaoh's army that had come into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them was left.
Exodus 14:29  But the children of Israel walked on dry land through the middle of the sea. The waters were a wall for them on their right hand and on their left.
Exodus 14:30  So that day the LORD saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptians. Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the sea shore.
Exodus 14:31  Israel saw the great work that the LORD did against the Egyptians. So the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and his servant Moses.

Exodus 15:1  Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the LORD. They said, "I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea."
Exodus 15:2  "The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare him a home; he is my father's God, and I will lift him high."
Exodus 15:3  "The LORD is a man of war. The LORD is his name."
Exodus 15:4  "Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has thrown into the sea. His chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea."
Exodus 15:5  "The deep waters have covered them. They sank to the bottom like a stone."
Exodus 15:6  "Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power. Your right hand, O LORD, has broken the enemy in pieces."
Exodus 15:7  "In the greatness of your majesty you threw down those who rose up against you. You sent out your anger, and it burned them up like dry straw."
Exodus 15:8  "With the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered together. The flowing waters stood upright like a heap. The deep waters became firm in the heart of the sea."
Exodus 15:9  "The enemy said, 'I will chase them, I will catch them, I will divide the plunder. My desire shall be satisfied on them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.'"
Exodus 15:10  "You blew with your wind, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters."
Exodus 15:11  "Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, to be feared in praises, doing wonders?"
Exodus 15:12  "You stretched out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them."
Exodus 15:13  "In your mercy you have led out the people you have redeemed. In your strength you have guided them to your holy home."
Exodus 15:14  "The peoples shall hear, and be afraid. Pain shall take hold of the people who live in Palestina."
Exodus 15:15  "Then the chiefs of Edom shall be amazed. Trembling shall take hold of the mighty men of Moab. All who live in Canaan shall melt away."
Exodus 15:16  "Fear and dread shall fall on them. By the greatness of your arm they shall be as still as a stone, until your people pass over, O LORD, until the people pass over whom you have bought."
Exodus 15:17  "You shall bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which you have made for yourself to live in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established."
Exodus 15:18  "The LORD shall reign for ever and ever."
Exodus 15:19  For Pharaoh's horses went into the sea with his chariots and his horsemen, and the LORD brought the waters of the sea back over them. But the children of Israel walked on dry land through the middle of the sea.
Exodus 15:20  Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand. All the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.
Exodus 15:21  And Miriam answered them, "Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and its rider he has thrown into the sea."
Exodus 15:22  So Moses led Israel away from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. They travelled three days in the wilderness and found no water.
Exodus 15:23  When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water of Marah, for it was bitter. That is why the place was named Marah.
Exodus 15:24  And the people complained against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"
Exodus 15:25  So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. He threw it into the water, and the water was made sweet. There the LORD made a rule and a law for them, and there he tested them.
Exodus 15:26  He said, "If you will listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and do what is right in his sight, and pay attention to his commandments, and keep all his rules, I will not put on you any of the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you."
Exodus 15:27  Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve wells of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there by the water.

Exodus 16:1  They set out from Elim, and the whole community of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which lies between Elim and Sinai. It was the fifteenth day of the second month after they left the land of Egypt.
Exodus 16:2  And the whole community of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
Exodus 16:3  The children of Israel said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread until we were full. But you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."
Exodus 16:4  Then the LORD said to Moses, "Look, I will rain bread from heaven for you. The people will go out and gather a set amount every day. In this way I will test them, to see whether they will walk in my law or not."
Exodus 16:5  "On the sixth day they will prepare what they bring in, and it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days."
Exodus 16:6  So Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, "In the evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt."
Exodus 16:7  "And in the morning you will see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaints against the LORD. What are we, that you complain against us?"
Exodus 16:8  And Moses said, "The LORD will give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread until you are full, because the LORD has heard your complaints which you make against him. What are we? Your complaints are not against us, but against the LORD."
Exodus 16:9  And Moses said to Aaron, "Say to all the community of the children of Israel, 'Come near before the LORD, for he has heard your complaints.'"
Exodus 16:10  As Aaron spoke to the whole community of the children of Israel, they looked toward the wilderness, and look, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.
Exodus 16:11  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Exodus 16:12  "I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them and say, 'In the evening you will eat meat, and in the morning you will be filled with bread. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God.'"
Exodus 16:13  That evening the quails came up and covered the camp. And in the morning the dew lay all around the camp.
Exodus 16:14  When the dew had gone, look, on the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as fine as frost on the ground.
Exodus 16:15  When the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "It is manna," for they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the LORD has given you to eat."
Exodus 16:16  "This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Gather as much of it as each person can eat, an omer for each one, according to the number of people you have. Each of you take for those who are in his tent.'"
Exodus 16:17  The children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less.
Exodus 16:18  When they measured it with an omer, the one who gathered much had nothing left over, and the one who gathered little had no lack. Each one gathered as much as he could eat.
Exodus 16:19  And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it until the morning."
Exodus 16:20  But they did not listen to Moses. Some of them left part of it until the morning, and it bred worms and smelled foul. And Moses was angry with them.
Exodus 16:21  They gathered it every morning, each one as much as he could eat. And when the sun grew hot, it melted.
Exodus 16:22  On the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each person. And all the leaders of the community came and told Moses.
Exodus 16:23  He said to them, "This is what the LORD has said: 'Tomorrow is a day of rest, the holy sabbath to the LORD. Bake what you want to bake today, and boil what you want to boil. Whatever is left over, put aside and keep it until the morning.'"
Exodus 16:24  So they put it aside until the morning, as Moses told them, and it did not smell foul, and there were no worms in it.
Exodus 16:25  And Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a sabbath to the LORD. Today you will not find any in the field."
Exodus 16:26  "Six days you will gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, there will be none."
Exodus 16:27  Some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, and they found none.
Exodus 16:28  And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?"
Exodus 16:29  "See, the LORD has given you the sabbath. That is why he gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Let each of you stay where he is. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."
Exodus 16:30  So the people rested on the seventh day.
Exodus 16:31  The house of Israel called its name Manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
Exodus 16:32  And Moses said, "This is what the LORD commands: 'Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'"
Exodus 16:33  And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot, and put a full omer of manna in it, and set it before the LORD, to be kept for your generations."
Exodus 16:34  As the LORD commanded Moses, so Aaron set it before the Testimony, to be kept.
Exodus 16:35  The children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to a land where people lived. They ate manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.
Exodus 16:36  Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.

Exodus 17:1  The whole company of the children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sin. They travelled stage by stage, as the LORD commanded, and they camped at Rephidim. But there was no water there for the people to drink.
Exodus 17:2  So the people argued with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." Moses said to them, "Why do you argue with me? Why do you test the LORD?"
Exodus 17:3  The people were thirsty for water there, and they complained against Moses. They said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt? Was it to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?"
Exodus 17:4  So Moses cried out to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me."
Exodus 17:5  The LORD said to Moses, "Go on ahead of the people. Take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take in your hand the rod you struck the river with, and go."
Exodus 17:6  "Look, I will stand in front of you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." Moses did so, while the elders of Israel watched.
Exodus 17:7  He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the children of Israel had argued there, and because they tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us, or not?"
Exodus 17:8  Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.
Exodus 17:9  Moses said to Joshua, "Choose men for us, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand."
Exodus 17:10  So Joshua did as Moses had told him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
Exodus 17:11  When Moses held up his hand, Israel won; and when he let his hand down, Amalek won.
Exodus 17:12  But Moses' hands grew heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other. So his hands were steady until the sun went down.
Exodus 17:13  And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Exodus 17:14  The LORD said to Moses, "Write this in a book, so it will be remembered, and say it aloud for Joshua to hear: I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven."
Exodus 17:15  Moses built an altar, and he called it Jehovahnissi.
Exodus 17:16  For he said, "Because the LORD has sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."

Exodus 18:1  Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard about all that God had done for Moses and for Israel his people, and how the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt.
Exodus 18:2  Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses' wife, after Moses had sent her back,
Exodus 18:3  and her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom, for Moses said, "I have been a stranger in a foreign land."
Exodus 18:4  The name of the other was Eliezer, for he said, "The God of my father was my help, and rescued me from the sword of Pharaoh."
Exodus 18:5  So Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came with Moses' sons and his wife to Moses in the wilderness, where he was camped at the mountain of God.
Exodus 18:6  He said to Moses, "I, your father-in-law Jethro, have come to you, and your wife with her two sons."
Exodus 18:7  So Moses went out to meet his father-in-law. He bowed down and kissed him, and they asked each other how they were. Then they went into the tent.
Exodus 18:8  Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake. He told him about all the hardship that had come upon them on the way, and how the LORD had rescued them.
Exodus 18:9  Jethro was glad for all the good the LORD had done for Israel, whom he had rescued from the hand of the Egyptians.
Exodus 18:10  Jethro said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the hand of Pharaoh. He has rescued the people from under the hand of the Egyptians."
Exodus 18:11  "Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods. In the very thing in which they acted proudly, he was above them."
Exodus 18:12  Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God. Aaron came with all the elders of Israel to eat bread with Moses' father-in-law before God.
Exodus 18:13  The next day Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning until evening.
Exodus 18:14  When Moses' father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, "What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone, while all the people stand around you from morning until evening?"
Exodus 18:15  Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me to ask about God."
Exodus 18:16  "When they have a dispute, they come to me. I judge between one man and another, and I make known to them the statutes of God and his laws."
Exodus 18:17  Moses' father-in-law said to him, "What you are doing is not good."
Exodus 18:18  "You will surely wear yourself out, you and this people with you. This work is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone."
Exodus 18:19  "Listen now to my voice. I will give you advice, and God will be with you. You stand for the people before God, and bring their cases to God."
Exodus 18:20  "Teach them the rules and the laws. Show them the way they must walk and the work they must do."
Exodus 18:21  "Also, choose out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth who hate greed. Put such men over the people, as rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens."
Exodus 18:22  "Let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they shall judge themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will carry the burden with you."
Exodus 18:23  "If you do this, and God commands you so, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will also go to their place in peace."
Exodus 18:24  So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said.
Exodus 18:25  Moses chose able men out of all Israel, and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens.
Exodus 18:26  They judged the people at all times. The hard cases they brought to Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves.
Exodus 18:27  Then Moses let his father-in-law go, and he went on his way to his own land.

Exodus 19:1  In the third month after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, on that same day they came into the wilderness of Sinai.
Exodus 19:2  They had set out from Rephidim and had come to the desert of Sinai. They set up camp in the wilderness. There Israel camped in front of the mountain.
Exodus 19:3  Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him out of the mountain. He said, "This is what you must say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:"
Exodus 19:4  "You have seen what I did to the Egyptians. You saw how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself."
Exodus 19:5  "So now, if you will truly obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you will be my own special treasure above all peoples. For all the earth is mine."
Exodus 19:6  "And you will be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words you must speak to the children of Israel."
Exodus 19:7  So Moses came and called for the elders of the people. He set before them all these words that the LORD had commanded him.
Exodus 19:8  All the people answered together and said, "Everything the LORD has spoken we will do." And Moses brought the people's words back to the LORD.
Exodus 19:9  The LORD said to Moses, "Look, I am coming to you in a thick cloud, so that the people may hear when I speak with you, and may believe you for ever." And Moses told the words of the people to the LORD.
Exodus 19:10  The LORD said to Moses, "Go to the people and make them holy today and tomorrow. Let them wash their clothes,"
Exodus 19:11  "and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai, where all the people can see."
Exodus 19:12  "You must set limits for the people all around, and say, 'Be careful not to go up into the mountain, or even touch its edge. Whoever touches the mountain must surely be put to death."
Exodus 19:13  "'No hand shall touch him. He must surely be stoned, or shot through. Whether it is an animal or a person, it must not live.' When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come up to the mountain."
Exodus 19:14  So Moses went down from the mountain to the people. He made the people holy, and they washed their clothes.
Exodus 19:15  He said to the people, "Be ready for the third day. Do not go near your wives."
Exodus 19:16  On the third day, in the morning, there were thunder and lightning, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet was very loud. All the people in the camp trembled.
Exodus 19:17  Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain.
Exodus 19:18  Mount Sinai was completely covered in smoke, because the LORD came down on it in fire. Its smoke went up like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain shook violently.
Exodus 19:19  The sound of the trumpet went on long, and grew louder and louder. Moses spoke, and God answered him with a voice.
Exodus 19:20  The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain. The LORD called Moses up to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
Exodus 19:21  The LORD said to Moses, "Go down and warn the people. They must not push through to the LORD to look, or many of them will die."
Exodus 19:22  "Let the priests also, who come near to the LORD, make themselves holy, or the LORD will break out against them."
Exodus 19:23  Moses said to the LORD, "The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai. For you warned us and said, 'Set limits around the mountain, and make it holy.'"
Exodus 19:24  The LORD said to him, "Go, get down, and then come up again, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people push through to come up to the LORD, or he will break out against them."
Exodus 19:25  So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

Exodus 20:1  And God spoke all these words. He said:
Exodus 20:2  "I am the LORD your God. I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."
Exodus 20:3  "You shall have no other gods before me."
Exodus 20:4  "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth."
Exodus 20:5  "You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the LORD your God am a jealous God. I punish the children for the sin of their fathers, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,"
Exodus 20:6  "and I show mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments."
Exodus 20:7  "You shall not use the name of the LORD your God in vain. For the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who uses his name in vain."
Exodus 20:8  "Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy."
Exodus 20:9  "Six days you shall labour and do all your work."
Exodus 20:10  "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work: not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor the stranger who is inside your gates."
Exodus 20:11  "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them, and he rested on the seventh day. That is why the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy."
Exodus 20:12  "Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land which the LORD your God gives you."
Exodus 20:13  "You shall not kill."
Exodus 20:14  "You shall not commit adultery."
Exodus 20:15  "You shall not steal."
Exodus 20:16  "You shall not give false witness against your neighbour."
Exodus 20:17  "You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant, or his maidservant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour."
Exodus 20:18  And all the people saw the thunder and the lightning, and heard the noise of the trumpet, and saw the mountain smoking. When the people saw it, they drew back and stood far off.
Exodus 20:19  They said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will listen. But do not let God speak with us, or we will die."
Exodus 20:20  And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of him may be before your faces, and you may not sin."
Exodus 20:21  So the people stood far off, and Moses came near to the thick darkness where God was.
Exodus 20:22  And the LORD said to Moses, "This is what you shall say to the children of Israel: 'You have seen that I have talked with you from heaven."
Exodus 20:23  "'You shall not make gods of silver to be beside me, and you shall not make for yourselves gods of gold."
Exodus 20:24  "'You shall make me an altar of earth, and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I make my name remembered, I will come to you and I will bless you."
Exodus 20:25  "'And if you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of cut stone. For if you lift up your tool on it, you have made it unclean."
Exodus 20:26  "'And you shall not go up to my altar by steps, so that your nakedness is not uncovered on it.'"

Exodus 21:1  "These are the laws you are to set before them."
Exodus 21:2  "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve for six years. In the seventh year he shall go free, and pay nothing."
Exodus 21:3  If he came in alone, he shall go out alone. If he was married, then his wife shall go out with him.
Exodus 21:4  If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall belong to her master, and he shall go out alone.
Exodus 21:5  But if the servant says plainly, "I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free,"
Exodus 21:6  then his master shall bring him to the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or to the door post. His master shall bore through his ear with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
Exodus 21:7  "If a man sells his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go free as the menservants do."
Exodus 21:8  If she does not please her master, who has taken her for himself, then he shall let her be bought back. He has no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt falsely with her.
Exodus 21:9  And if he has taken her for his son, he shall treat her in the way daughters are treated.
Exodus 21:10  If he takes himself another wife, he shall not cut down her food, her clothing, or her rights as a wife.
Exodus 21:11  And if he does not do these three things for her, then she shall go out free, without paying money.
Exodus 21:12  "Whoever strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death."
Exodus 21:13  But if he did not lie in wait for him, and God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place where he may flee.
Exodus 21:14  But if a man comes upon his neighbour on purpose, to kill him by trickery, you shall take him away from my altar, so that he may die.
Exodus 21:15  "Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death."
Exodus 21:16  "Whoever steals a man and sells him, or if the man is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death."
Exodus 21:17  "Whoever curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death."
Exodus 21:18  "If men quarrel, and one strikes the other with a stone or with his fist, and he does not die but stays in bed,"
Exodus 21:19  then if he gets up again and walks about outside with his staff, the one who struck him shall go free. Only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall see that he is fully healed.
Exodus 21:20  "If a man strikes his manservant or his maidservant with a rod, and the servant dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished."
Exodus 21:21  But if the servant lives on for a day or two, he shall not be punished, for the servant is his money.
Exodus 21:22  "If men fight, and hurt a pregnant woman so that her child comes out, and yet no further harm follows, he shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband demands of him. He shall pay as the judges decide."
Exodus 21:23  And if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life,
Exodus 21:24  eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Exodus 21:25  burning for burning, wound for wound, blow for blow.
Exodus 21:26  "If a man strikes the eye of his manservant or the eye of his maidservant, and destroys it, he shall let the servant go free because of the eye."
Exodus 21:27  And if he knocks out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth, he shall let the servant go free because of the tooth.
Exodus 21:28  "If an ox gores a man or a woman so that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall go free."
Exodus 21:29  But if the ox has gored with its horn in the past, and its owner was warned, and he did not keep it in, and it has killed a man or a woman, then the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death.
Exodus 21:30  If a sum of money is laid on him, then he shall give whatever is laid on him to ransom his life.
Exodus 21:31  Whether the ox has gored a son or gored a daughter, it shall be done to him according to this law.
Exodus 21:32  If the ox gores a manservant or a maidservant, the owner shall give thirty shekels of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
Exodus 21:33  "If a man opens a pit, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,"
Exodus 21:34  the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to the owner of the animals, and the dead animal shall be his.
Exodus 21:35  "If one man's ox hurts another man's ox so that it dies, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money from it. They shall also divide the dead ox."
Exodus 21:36  Or if it is known that the ox has gored in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead one shall be his own.

Exodus 22:1  "If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and kills it or sells it, he must pay back five oxen for the ox, and four sheep for the sheep."
Exodus 22:2  "If a thief is caught breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, no blood is to be shed for him."
Exodus 22:3  "But if the sun has risen on him, blood must be shed for him. The thief must pay back in full. If he has nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft."
Exodus 22:4  "If what he stole is found alive in his hand, whether it is an ox, or a donkey, or a sheep, he must pay back double."
Exodus 22:5  "If a man lets his animals graze in a field or vineyard, and turns his animal loose so that it feeds in another man's field, he must pay back from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard."
Exodus 22:6  "If a fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that stacks of grain, or standing grain, or a field is burned up, the one who started the fire must certainly pay back what was lost."
Exodus 22:7  "If a man gives his neighbour money or goods to keep safe, and they are stolen out of the man's house, then if the thief is found, he must pay back double."
Exodus 22:8  "If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the judges. They will see whether he has put his hand on his neighbour's goods."
Exodus 22:9  "In every case of wrongdoing, whether about an ox, a donkey, a sheep, clothing, or any lost thing that another man claims is his, the case of them both shall come before the judges. The one the judges condemn must pay back double to his neighbour."
Exodus 22:10  "If a man gives his neighbour a donkey, or an ox, or a sheep, or any animal to keep safe, and it dies, or is hurt, or is driven away, and no one sees it,"
Exodus 22:11  then an oath before the LORD shall settle it between them both, that he has not put his hand on his neighbour's goods. The owner shall accept this, and the other man shall not pay anything.
Exodus 22:12  "But if it was stolen from him, he must pay back the owner."
Exodus 22:13  "If it was torn in pieces by a wild animal, let him bring it as proof, and he shall not pay for what was torn."
Exodus 22:14  "If a man borrows anything from his neighbour, and it is hurt or dies while the owner is not with it, he must certainly pay for it."
Exodus 22:15  But if the owner was with it, he shall not pay for it. If it was hired, the loss is covered by the hire money.
Exodus 22:16  "If a man tempts a young woman who is not engaged to be married, and lies with her, he must pay the bride price and make her his wife."
Exodus 22:17  If her father completely refuses to give her to him, he must still pay money equal to the bride price for virgins.
Exodus 22:18  "You shall not allow a witch to live."
Exodus 22:19  "Anyone who lies with an animal shall surely be put to death."
Exodus 22:20  "Whoever sacrifices to any god, except to the LORD alone, shall be completely destroyed."
Exodus 22:21  "You shall not trouble a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
Exodus 22:22  "You shall not harm any widow or fatherless child."
Exodus 22:23  If you harm them in any way, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.
Exodus 22:24  My anger will burn hot, and I will kill you with the sword. Your wives will be widows, and your children fatherless.
Exodus 22:25  "If you lend money to any of my people who is poor among you, you shall not act like a moneylender to him. You shall not charge him interest."
Exodus 22:26  If you take your neighbour's coat as a pledge, you must give it back to him before the sun goes down.
Exodus 22:27  For it is his only covering. It is the clothing for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.
Exodus 22:28  "You shall not speak evil of the gods, or curse the ruler of your people."
Exodus 22:29  "You shall not delay to offer the first of your ripe fruits and of your wine. The firstborn of your sons you shall give to me."
Exodus 22:30  You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep. For seven days it shall stay with its mother. On the eighth day you shall give it to me.
Exodus 22:31  "You shall be holy men to me. You shall not eat any meat that is torn by wild animals in the field. You shall throw it to the dogs."

Exodus 23:1  "You must not spread a false report. Do not join hands with a wicked person by being a dishonest witness."
Exodus 23:2  You must not follow a crowd to do evil. When you speak in a case at law, do not side with the many and twist justice.
Exodus 23:3  And do not favour a poor man in his case either.
Exodus 23:4  If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey wandering away, you must bring it back to him.
Exodus 23:5  If you see the donkey of someone who hates you lying down under its load, do not leave it there. You must help him with it.
Exodus 23:6  You must not twist justice against your poor in his case.
Exodus 23:7  Keep far away from a false charge. Do not kill the innocent and the righteous, for I will not clear the guilty.
Exodus 23:8  You must take no bribe. A bribe makes the wise blind, and twists the words of the righteous.
Exodus 23:9  You must not oppress a stranger. You know the heart of a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 23:10  For six years you shall sow your land, and gather in its crops.
Exodus 23:11  But in the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie still, so that the poor of your people may eat. What they leave, the wild animals shall eat. Do the same with your vineyard and with your olive trees.
Exodus 23:12  For six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest. Then your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your servant woman and the stranger may be refreshed.
Exodus 23:13  Be careful to do everything I have said to you. Do not speak the names of other gods. Do not let them be heard from your mouth.
Exodus 23:14  Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me.
Exodus 23:15  You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you shall eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in that month you came out from Egypt. No one shall appear before me empty-handed.
Exodus 23:16  You shall keep the Feast of Harvest, with the firstfruits of your work, of what you have sown in the field. And you shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you have gathered in your work from the field.
Exodus 23:17  Three times in the year all your males shall appear before the Lord GOD.
Exodus 23:18  You must not offer the blood of my sacrifice with bread made with yeast. And the fat of my sacrifice must not be left until the morning.
Exodus 23:19  You shall bring the best of the firstfruits of your land into the house of the LORD your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
Exodus 23:20  Look, I am sending an Angel ahead of you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.
Exodus 23:21  Take care before him, and obey his voice. Do not provoke him, for he will not pardon your sins, because my name is in him.
Exodus 23:22  But if you truly obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to those who oppose you.
Exodus 23:23  For my Angel shall go ahead of you and bring you in to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off.
Exodus 23:24  You must not bow down to their gods, or serve them, or do as they do. You shall completely overthrow them and smash their images in pieces.
Exodus 23:25  You shall serve the LORD your God, and he will bless your bread and your water. And I will take sickness away from among you.
Exodus 23:26  Nothing in your land shall lose its young or be barren. I will give you the full number of your days.
Exodus 23:27  I will send my terror ahead of you. I will throw into confusion all the people you come to, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you.
Exodus 23:28  And I will send hornets ahead of you, and they will drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite and the Hittite from in front of you.
Exodus 23:29  I will not drive them out in front of you in one year, or the land would become empty and the wild animals would become too many for you.
Exodus 23:30  Little by little I will drive them out in front of you, until you have grown in number and take the land as your own.
Exodus 23:31  I will fix your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the river. For I will hand over the people who live in the land to you, and you shall drive them out in front of you.
Exodus 23:32  You must make no covenant with them or with their gods.
Exodus 23:33  "They shall not live in your land, or they will make you sin against me. For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a trap to you."

Exodus 24:1  And he said to Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel. Worship from far off."
Exodus 24:2  "Moses alone shall come near the LORD. The others shall not come near, and the people shall not go up with him."
Exodus 24:3  Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments. All the people answered with one voice, and said, "We will do everything the LORD has said."
Exodus 24:4  Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He got up early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the hill, and set up twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exodus 24:5  He sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed oxen as peace offerings to the LORD.
Exodus 24:6  Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins. The other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
Exodus 24:7  He took the book of the covenant and read it out so the people could hear. They said, "We will do all that the LORD has said, and we will obey."
Exodus 24:8  Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, "Look, this is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you about all these words."
Exodus 24:9  Then Moses went up, with Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel.
Exodus 24:10  They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire stone, as clear as the sky itself.
Exodus 24:11  He did not lay his hand on the leaders of the children of Israel. They saw God, and they ate and drank.
Exodus 24:12  The LORD said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain, and stay there. I will give you tablets of stone, and a law, and commandments which I have written, so that you may teach them."
Exodus 24:13  So Moses got up, and Joshua his servant with him. And Moses went up into the mountain of God.
Exodus 24:14  He said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we come back to you. Look, Aaron and Hur are with you. If anyone has a matter to settle, let him go to them."
Exodus 24:15  Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud covered the mountain.
Exodus 24:16  The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day he called to Moses out of the middle of the cloud.
Exodus 24:17  To the eyes of the children of Israel, the sight of the glory of the LORD was like a fire burning up the top of the mountain.
Exodus 24:18  Moses went into the middle of the cloud, and climbed up the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Exodus 25:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Exodus 25:2  "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to bring me an offering. You shall take my offering from every man who gives it willingly with his heart."
Exodus 25:3  "This is the offering which you shall take from them: gold, and silver, and brass,"
Exodus 25:4  "and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats' hair,"
Exodus 25:5  "and rams' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood,"
Exodus 25:6  "oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,"
Exodus 25:7  "onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate."
Exodus 25:8  "Let them make me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them."
Exodus 25:9  "You shall make it just as I show you, following the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furnishings."
Exodus 25:10  "They shall make an ark of shittim wood. It shall be two cubits and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high."
Exodus 25:11  "You shall cover it with pure gold, inside and outside. And you shall make a gold border around the top of it."
Exodus 25:12  "You shall cast four rings of gold for it, and put them at its four corners. Two rings shall be on one side of it, and two rings on the other side."
Exodus 25:13  "You shall make poles of shittim wood, and cover them with gold."
Exodus 25:14  "You shall put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark, so that the ark may be carried with them."
Exodus 25:15  "The poles shall stay in the rings of the ark. They shall not be taken out of it."
Exodus 25:16  "You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you."
Exodus 25:17  "You shall make a mercy seat of pure gold. It shall be two cubits and a half long, and a cubit and a half wide."
Exodus 25:18  "You shall make two cherubims of gold. You shall make them of hammered work, at the two ends of the mercy seat."
Exodus 25:19  "Make one cherub on one end, and the other cherub on the other end. You shall make the cherubims out of the mercy seat itself, at its two ends."
Exodus 25:20  "The cherubims shall spread their wings upward, covering the mercy seat with their wings. Their faces shall look toward each other. The faces of the cherubims shall be turned toward the mercy seat."
Exodus 25:21  "You shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you."
Exodus 25:22  "There I will meet with you. From above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are on the ark of the testimony, I will speak with you about everything I command you for the children of Israel."
Exodus 25:23  "You shall also make a table of shittim wood. It shall be two cubits long, a cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high."
Exodus 25:24  "You shall cover it with pure gold, and make a gold border around it."
Exodus 25:25  "You shall make a rim around it, a hand's width wide. And you shall make a gold border around the rim."
Exodus 25:26  "You shall make four rings of gold for it, and put the rings at the four corners, which are at its four legs."
Exodus 25:27  "The rings shall be close to the rim, to hold the poles for carrying the table."
Exodus 25:28  "You shall make the poles of shittim wood, and cover them with gold, so that the table may be carried with them."
Exodus 25:29  "You shall make its dishes, and its spoons, and its jars, and its bowls for pouring out offerings. You shall make them of pure gold."
Exodus 25:30  "You shall always set the showbread on the table before me."
Exodus 25:31  "You shall make a lampstand of pure gold. The lampstand shall be made of hammered work. Its base, its branches, its cups, its buds and its flowers shall all be one piece with it."
Exodus 25:32  "Six branches shall come out of its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side."
Exodus 25:33  "On one branch there shall be three cups shaped like almonds, with a bud and a flower; and on the other branch three cups shaped like almonds, with a bud and a flower. It shall be the same for the six branches that come out of the lampstand."
Exodus 25:34  "On the lampstand itself there shall be four cups shaped like almonds, with their buds and their flowers."
Exodus 25:35  "There shall be a bud under two branches of it, and a bud under two branches of it, and a bud under two branches of it, for the six branches that come out of the lampstand."
Exodus 25:36  "Their buds and their branches shall be one piece with it. All of it shall be one piece of hammered work of pure gold."
Exodus 25:37  "You shall make its seven lamps. They shall set up its lamps so that they give light in front of it."
Exodus 25:38  "Its tongs and its trays shall be of pure gold."
Exodus 25:39  "He shall make it, with all these vessels, out of a talent of pure gold."
Exodus 25:40  "See that you make them after the pattern which was shown you on the mountain."

Exodus 26:1  "You shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twisted linen, with blue, purple, and scarlet. You shall have a skilled worker make them with cherubims worked into them."
Exodus 26:2  "Each curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. All the curtains shall be the same size."
Exodus 26:3  "Five of the curtains shall be joined together, one to another, and the other five curtains shall be joined together as well."
Exodus 26:4  "You shall make loops of blue on the edge of the last curtain of the first set, along the edge where they join. Do the same on the outer edge of the last curtain in the second set."
Exodus 26:5  "You shall make fifty loops on the one curtain, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain in the second set, so that the loops match one another."
Exodus 26:6  "You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and join the curtains together with the clasps. Then it shall be one tabernacle."
Exodus 26:7  "You shall make curtains of goats' hair to be a tent over the tabernacle. You shall make eleven curtains."
Exodus 26:8  "Each curtain shall be thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. All eleven curtains shall be the same size."
Exodus 26:9  "You shall join five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and you shall fold the sixth curtain double at the front of the tabernacle."
Exodus 26:10  "You shall make fifty loops on the edge of the outermost curtain of the first set, and fifty loops on the edge of the curtain that joins the second set."
Exodus 26:11  "You shall make fifty clasps of brass, and put the clasps into the loops, and join the tent together, so that it is one."
Exodus 26:12  "The part of the tent curtains that is left over, the half curtain that remains, shall hang over the back of the tabernacle."
Exodus 26:13  "A cubit on the one side and a cubit on the other side of what is left over in the length of the tent curtains shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle, on this side and on that side, to cover it."
Exodus 26:14  "You shall make a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that."
Exodus 26:15  "You shall make upright boards for the tabernacle out of shittim wood."
Exodus 26:16  "Each board shall be ten cubits long, and each board one cubit and a half wide."
Exodus 26:17  "Each board shall have two tenons, set evenly, one opposite the other. You shall do this for all the boards of the tabernacle."
Exodus 26:18  "You shall make the boards for the tabernacle: twenty boards for the south side, facing south."
Exodus 26:19  "You shall make forty sockets of silver to go under the twenty boards: two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under the next board for its two tenons."
Exodus 26:20  "For the second side of the tabernacle, the north side, there shall be twenty boards,"
Exodus 26:21  "and their forty sockets of silver: two sockets under one board, and two sockets under the next board."
Exodus 26:22  "For the back of the tabernacle, toward the west, you shall make six boards."
Exodus 26:23  "You shall make two boards for the corners of the tabernacle at the back."
Exodus 26:24  "They shall be joined together at the bottom, and joined together at the top to one ring. It shall be so for both of them; they shall be for the two corners."
Exodus 26:25  "So there shall be eight boards, with their sockets of silver, sixteen sockets: two sockets under one board, and two sockets under the next board."
Exodus 26:26  "You shall make bars of shittim wood: five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle,"
Exodus 26:27  "and five bars for the boards of the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards at the back of the tabernacle, toward the west."
Exodus 26:28  "The middle bar, halfway up the boards, shall reach from end to end."
Exodus 26:29  "You shall overlay the boards with gold, and make their rings of gold to hold the bars. You shall overlay the bars with gold."
Exodus 26:30  "You shall set up the tabernacle according to the plan for it that was shown you on the mountain."
Exodus 26:31  "You shall make a veil of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen, the work of a skilled worker. It shall be made with cherubims."
Exodus 26:32  "You shall hang it on four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold, and they shall stand on four sockets of silver."
Exodus 26:33  "You shall hang up the veil under the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there, inside the veil. The veil shall divide for you the holy place from the most holy."
Exodus 26:34  "You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the most holy place."
Exodus 26:35  "You shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle. You shall put the table on the north side."
Exodus 26:36  "You shall make a screen for the door of the tent, of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen, worked with needlework."
Exodus 26:37  "For the screen you shall make five pillars of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. Their hooks shall be of gold, and you shall cast five sockets of brass for them."

Exodus 27:1  You shall make an altar of shittim wood. It shall be five cubits long and five cubits wide. The altar shall be square, and three cubits high.
Exodus 27:2  You shall make horns for it on its four corners. The horns shall be of one piece with the altar, and you shall cover it with brass.
Exodus 27:3  You shall make pans for taking away its ashes, and shovels, and basins, and forks for the meat, and pans for the fire. You shall make all its vessels of brass.
Exodus 27:4  You shall make a grating for it, a net of brass. On the net you shall make four brass rings at its four corners.
Exodus 27:5  You shall put it under the rim of the altar, low down, so that the net reaches halfway up the altar.
Exodus 27:6  You shall make poles for the altar, poles of shittim wood, and cover them with brass.
Exodus 27:7  The poles shall be put into the rings, and the poles shall be on the two sides of the altar, to carry it.
Exodus 27:8  You shall make the altar hollow, out of boards. As it was shown to you on the mountain, so they shall make it.
Exodus 27:9  You shall make the court of the tabernacle. On the south side, facing south, there shall be hangings for the court of fine twisted linen, a hundred cubits long for that one side.
Exodus 27:10  Its twenty pillars and their twenty sockets shall be of brass. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be of silver.
Exodus 27:11  In the same way, for the north side there shall be hangings a hundred cubits long, with twenty pillars and their twenty sockets of brass. The hooks of the pillars and their bands shall be of silver.
Exodus 27:12  For the width of the court on the west side there shall be hangings of fifty cubits, with ten pillars and ten sockets.
Exodus 27:13  The width of the court on the east side, facing east, shall be fifty cubits.
Exodus 27:14  The hangings on one side of the gate shall be fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three sockets.
Exodus 27:15  On the other side there shall be hangings of fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three sockets.
Exodus 27:16  For the gate of the court there shall be a curtain of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen, worked with needlework. It shall have four pillars and four sockets.
Exodus 27:17  All the pillars around the court shall have bands of silver. Their hooks shall be of silver, and their sockets of brass.
Exodus 27:18  The length of the court shall be a hundred cubits, and the width fifty everywhere, and the height five cubits, of fine twisted linen, with sockets of brass.
Exodus 27:19  All the vessels of the tabernacle used in all its service, and all its pegs, and all the pegs of the court, shall be of brass.
Exodus 27:20  You shall command the children of Israel to bring you pure olive oil, crushed for the light, to keep the lamp burning always.
Exodus 27:21  In the tabernacle of the congregation, outside the veil that is in front of the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall keep it in order from evening to morning before the LORD. It shall be a law for ever through their generations, on behalf of the children of Israel.

Exodus 28:1  "Bring to yourself Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel. They are to serve me as priests: Aaron, and Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar."
Exodus 28:2  "Make holy garments for your brother Aaron, for glory and for beauty."
Exodus 28:3  "Speak to all who are wise in heart, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom. They are to make Aaron's garments, to set him apart, so that he may serve me as priest."
Exodus 28:4  "These are the garments they shall make: a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered coat, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for your brother Aaron and for his sons, so that he may serve me as priest."
Exodus 28:5  "They shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen."
Exodus 28:6  "They shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, and of fine twisted linen, skilfully worked."
Exodus 28:7  "It shall have two shoulder pieces joined at its two edges, and so it shall be joined together."
Exodus 28:8  "The finely worked band of the ephod, which is on it, shall be of the same material and the same work: of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen."
Exodus 28:9  "Take two onyx stones, and carve on them the names of the children of Israel:"
Exodus 28:10  "six of their names on one stone, and the six names that remain on the other stone, in the order of their birth."
Exodus 28:11  "With the work of a stone engraver, like the engraving of a seal, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold."
Exodus 28:12  "Put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the children of Israel. Aaron shall carry their names before the LORD on his two shoulders, as a remembrance."
Exodus 28:13  "You shall make settings of gold,"
Exodus 28:14  and two chains of pure gold at the ends. Make them of twisted work, and fasten the twisted chains to the settings.
Exodus 28:15  "Make the breastplate of judgment, skilfully worked. Make it like the work of the ephod: of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, and of fine twisted linen."
Exodus 28:16  "It shall be square when folded double: a span long and a span wide."
Exodus 28:17  "Set in it settings of stones, four rows of stones. The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle. This shall be the first row."
Exodus 28:18  "The second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond."
Exodus 28:19  "The third row shall be a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst."
Exodus 28:20  "The fourth row shall be a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold in their settings."
Exodus 28:21  "The stones shall carry the names of the children of Israel, twelve, one for each name. Each shall be engraved like a seal with its own name, for the twelve tribes."
Exodus 28:22  "On the breastplate make chains at the ends, of twisted work of pure gold."
Exodus 28:23  "On the breastplate make two rings of gold, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate."
Exodus 28:24  "Put the two twisted chains of gold in the two rings that are on the ends of the breastplate."
Exodus 28:25  "The other two ends of the two twisted chains you shall fasten in the two settings, and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, at the front of it."
Exodus 28:26  "Make two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, on its edge, which is on the inner side of the ephod."
Exodus 28:27  "Make two more rings of gold, and put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the front of it, near its join, above the finely worked band of the ephod."
Exodus 28:28  "They shall tie the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord, so that it stays above the finely worked band of the ephod, and so that the breastplate does not come loose from the ephod."
Exodus 28:29  "Aaron shall carry the names of the children of Israel over his heart in the breastplate of judgment when he goes into the holy place, as a remembrance before the LORD always."
Exodus 28:30  "Put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim. They shall be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the LORD. So Aaron shall carry the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the LORD always."
Exodus 28:31  "Make the robe of the ephod all of blue."
Exodus 28:32  "There shall be an opening in the top of it, in the middle. Around the opening there shall be a woven binding, like the opening of a coat of armour, so that it does not tear."
Exodus 28:33  "On the hem below, make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, all around the hem, with bells of gold between them all around:"
Exodus 28:34  a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, all around the hem of the robe.
Exodus 28:35  "Aaron shall wear it when he serves. Its sound shall be heard when he goes into the holy place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he does not die."
Exodus 28:36  "Make a plate of pure gold, and carve on it, like the engraving of a seal, HOLINESS TO THE LORD."
Exodus 28:37  "Put it on a blue cord, so that it may be on the turban. It shall be on the front of the turban."
Exodus 28:38  "It shall be on Aaron's forehead, so that Aaron may carry the guilt of the holy things which the children of Israel set apart in all their holy gifts. It shall always be on his forehead, so that they may be accepted before the LORD."
Exodus 28:39  "Embroider the coat of fine linen. Make the turban of fine linen, and make the sash of needlework."
Exodus 28:40  "For Aaron's sons make coats, and make sashes for them, and make headpieces for them, for glory and for beauty."
Exodus 28:41  "Put them on your brother Aaron, and on his sons with him. Anoint them, and set them apart, and make them holy, so that they may serve me as priests."
Exodus 28:42  "Make them linen trousers to cover their naked flesh. They shall reach from the waist to the thighs."
Exodus 28:43  "Aaron and his sons shall wear them when they come into the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near the altar to serve in the holy place, so that they do not carry guilt and die. This shall be a law for ever for him and for his descendants after him."

Exodus 29:1  "This is what you must do to set them apart, so that they may serve me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without any flaw,"
Exodus 29:2  "and bread made without yeast, and cakes without yeast mixed with oil, and thin wafers without yeast spread with oil. Make them of fine wheat flour."
Exodus 29:3  "Put them all into one basket, and bring them in the basket, together with the bull and the two rams."
Exodus 29:4  "Bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water."
Exodus 29:5  "Take the garments, and put the coat on Aaron, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate. Tie the finely woven band of the ephod around him."
Exodus 29:6  "Put the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban."
Exodus 29:7  "Then take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him."
Exodus 29:8  "Bring his sons, and put coats on them."
Exodus 29:9  "Tie sashes around them, both Aaron and his sons, and put the caps on them. The work of the priest shall be theirs by a law that lasts for ever. So you shall set Aaron and his sons apart for me."
Exodus 29:10  "Have the bull brought in front of the tabernacle of the congregation, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the bull's head."
Exodus 29:11  "Then kill the bull before the LORD, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Exodus 29:12  "Take some of the bull's blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger. Pour out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar."
Exodus 29:13  "Take all the fat that covers the inner parts, and the covering above the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar."
Exodus 29:14  "But the meat of the bull, and its skin, and its dung, you must burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering."
Exodus 29:15  "You shall also take one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the ram's head."
Exodus 29:16  "Kill the ram, take its blood, and sprinkle it all around on the altar."
Exodus 29:17  "Cut the ram into pieces, wash its inner parts and its legs, and put them with its pieces and with its head."
Exodus 29:18  "Burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD. It is a pleasing smell, an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Exodus 29:19  "Then take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the ram's head."
Exodus 29:20  "Then kill the ram, and take some of its blood. Put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle the blood all around on the altar."
Exodus 29:21  "Take some of the blood that is on the altar, and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, and on his sons and on their garments with him. So he shall be made holy, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him."
Exodus 29:22  "Take also from the ram the fat and the fat tail, and the fat that covers the inner parts, and the covering above the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat on them, and the right shoulder. For it is the ram used to set them apart as priests."
Exodus 29:23  "Take also one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of bread without yeast that is before the LORD."
Exodus 29:24  "Put all of it in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD."
Exodus 29:25  "Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar as a burnt offering, for a pleasing smell before the LORD. It is an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Exodus 29:26  "Take the breast of the ram used to set Aaron apart, and wave it for a wave offering before the LORD. It shall be your share."
Exodus 29:27  "You shall make holy the breast of the wave offering and the shoulder of the heave offering, which are waved and lifted up from the ram used to set them apart, the part for Aaron and the part for his sons."
Exodus 29:28  "It shall belong to Aaron and his sons by a law that lasts for ever, given by the children of Israel. For it is a heave offering. It shall be a heave offering from the children of Israel, taken from the sacrifice of their peace offerings, their heave offering to the LORD."
Exodus 29:29  "The holy garments of Aaron shall belong to his sons after him. They shall be anointed in them and set apart as priests in them."
Exodus 29:30  "The son who becomes priest in his place shall wear them seven days, when he comes into the tabernacle of the congregation to serve in the holy place."
Exodus 29:31  "Take the ram used to set them apart, and boil its meat in a holy place."
Exodus 29:32  "Aaron and his sons shall eat the meat of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Exodus 29:33  "They shall eat the things by which atonement was made, to set them apart and make them holy. But a stranger must not eat them, because they are holy."
Exodus 29:34  "If any of the meat of the setting apart, or any of the bread, is left until the morning, you shall burn what is left with fire. It must not be eaten, because it is holy."
Exodus 29:35  "This is what you shall do for Aaron and his sons, just as I have commanded you. For seven days you shall set them apart."
Exodus 29:36  "Every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to make it holy."
Exodus 29:37  "For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and make it holy. Then the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall be holy."
Exodus 29:38  "This is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old, day by day, without ever stopping."
Exodus 29:39  "You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, and the other lamb in the evening."
Exodus 29:40  "With the one lamb offer a tenth part of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering."
Exodus 29:41  "The other lamb you shall offer in the evening. Do with it as you did with the grain offering and the drink offering of the morning, for a pleasing smell, an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Exodus 29:42  "This shall be a burnt offering offered without ceasing, through all your generations, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. There I will meet you, to speak with you there."
Exodus 29:43  "There I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be made holy by my glory."
Exodus 29:44  "I will make the tabernacle of the congregation holy, and the altar. I will also make Aaron and his sons holy, to serve me as priests."
Exodus 29:45  "I will live among the children of Israel, and I will be their God."
Exodus 29:46  "They shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might live among them. I am the LORD their God."

Exodus 30:1  "You shall make an altar for burning incense. Make it of shittim wood."
Exodus 30:2  "It shall be a cubit long and a cubit wide. It shall be square, and two cubits high. Its horns shall be of one piece with it."
Exodus 30:3  "You shall cover it with pure gold: its top, its sides all around, and its horns. And you shall make a gold border around it."
Exodus 30:4  "You shall make two gold rings for it under the border, on its two corners, on both its sides. They will hold the poles used to carry it."
Exodus 30:5  "You shall make the poles of shittim wood and cover them with gold."
Exodus 30:6  "You shall put the altar in front of the veil that hangs by the ark of the testimony, in front of the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with you."
Exodus 30:7  "Aaron shall burn sweet incense on it every morning. When he tends the lamps, he shall burn incense on it."
Exodus 30:8  "And when Aaron lights the lamps in the evening, he shall burn incense on it. This incense shall burn before the LORD always, through all your generations."
Exodus 30:9  "You shall not offer any strange incense on it, nor a burnt sacrifice, nor a food offering. You shall not pour a drink offering on it."
Exodus 30:10  "Once a year Aaron shall make atonement on its horns. With the blood of the sin offering of atonement he shall make atonement on it once a year, through all your generations. It is most holy to the LORD."
Exodus 30:11  And the LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Exodus 30:12  "When you count the people of Israel, each man shall give the LORD a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you count them."
Exodus 30:13  "This is what everyone who is counted shall give: half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary. (A shekel is twenty gerahs.) Half a shekel shall be the offering to the LORD."
Exodus 30:14  "Everyone who is counted, from twenty years old and older, shall give this offering to the LORD."
Exodus 30:15  "The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less, than half a shekel, when they give the offering to the LORD to make atonement for your lives."
Exodus 30:16  "You shall take the atonement money from the people of Israel and use it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. It shall be a reminder for the people of Israel before the LORD, to make atonement for your lives."
Exodus 30:17  And the LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Exodus 30:18  "You shall also make a basin of brass, with a base of brass, for washing. Put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and put water in it."
Exodus 30:19  "Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet there."
Exodus 30:20  "When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, so that they do not die. They shall do the same when they come near the altar to serve, to burn an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Exodus 30:21  "So they shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they do not die. This shall be a law for ever for them, for Aaron and for his descendants through all their generations."
Exodus 30:22  The LORD also spoke to Moses. He said,
Exodus 30:23  "Take for yourself the finest spices: five hundred shekels of pure myrrh, and half as much sweet cinnamon, that is, two hundred and fifty shekels, and two hundred and fifty shekels of sweet calamus,"
Exodus 30:24  "and five hundred shekels of cassia, by the shekel of the sanctuary, and a hin of olive oil."
Exodus 30:25  "You shall make it into a holy anointing oil, a mixture made with the skill of a perfume maker. It shall be a holy anointing oil."
Exodus 30:26  "With it you shall anoint the tabernacle of the congregation and the ark of the testimony,"
Exodus 30:27  "and the table and all its vessels, and the lampstand and its vessels, and the altar of incense,"
Exodus 30:28  "and the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the basin with its base."
Exodus 30:29  "You shall make them holy, so that they will be most holy. Whatever touches them shall be holy."
Exodus 30:30  "You shall anoint Aaron and his sons and set them apart, so that they may serve me as priests."
Exodus 30:31  "And you shall say to the people of Israel, 'This shall be a holy anointing oil to me through all your generations."
Exodus 30:32  "'It shall not be poured on anyone's body, and you shall not make any other oil like it, mixed the same way. It is holy, and it shall be holy to you."
Exodus 30:33  "'Whoever mixes any oil like it, or whoever puts any of it on a stranger, shall be cut off from his people.'"
Exodus 30:34  And the LORD said to Moses, "Take sweet spices: stacte, and onycha, and galbanum. Take these sweet spices with pure frankincense, an equal weight of each."
Exodus 30:35  "You shall make it into a perfume, a mixture made with the skill of a perfume maker, mixed together, pure and holy."
Exodus 30:36  "You shall grind some of it very fine, and put some of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you."
Exodus 30:37  "As for the perfume you make, you shall not make any for yourselves with the same mixture. It shall be holy to you for the LORD."
Exodus 30:38  "Whoever makes any like it, to enjoy its smell, shall be cut off from his people."

Exodus 31:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Exodus 31:2  "Look, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah."
Exodus 31:3  "I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with skill in every kind of craft,"
Exodus 31:4  "to design skilful works, and to work in gold, in silver, and in brass,"
Exodus 31:5  "and to cut stones and set them, and to carve wood, and to do every kind of work."
Exodus 31:6  "Look, I have also given him Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have put wisdom in the hearts of all who are wise in heart, so that they may make everything I have commanded you:"
Exodus 31:7  "the tabernacle of the congregation, the ark of the testimony, the mercy seat that is on it, and all the furniture of the tabernacle,"
Exodus 31:8  "the table and its furniture, the pure lampstand with all its furniture, and the altar of incense,"
Exodus 31:9  "the altar of burnt offering with all its furniture, and the basin and its stand,"
Exodus 31:10  "the cloths for service, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for serving as priests,"
Exodus 31:11  "and the anointing oil, and sweet incense for the holy place. They shall do everything just as I have commanded you."
Exodus 31:12  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Exodus 31:13  "Speak also to the children of Israel and say, 'You must keep my sabbaths. This is a sign between me and you through all your generations, so that you may know that I am the LORD who makes you holy."
Exodus 31:14  "'So you shall keep the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Anyone who defiles it shall surely be put to death. Whoever does any work on that day shall be cut off from among his people."
Exodus 31:15  "'Work may be done for six days, but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death."
Exodus 31:16  "'So the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath. They shall observe the sabbath through all their generations, as a covenant for ever."
Exodus 31:17  "'It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'"
Exodus 31:18  When the LORD had finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.

Exodus 32:1  When the people saw that Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, "Get up, make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him."
Exodus 32:2  Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me."
Exodus 32:3  So all the people took off the gold earrings they were wearing and brought them to Aaron.
Exodus 32:4  He took them from their hands. He melted the gold and shaped it with a tool, and made it into a calf. Then they said, "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
Exodus 32:5  When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf. Aaron made an announcement and said, "Tomorrow there will be a feast to the LORD."
Exodus 32:6  Early the next day they got up and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play.
Exodus 32:7  The LORD said to Moses, "Go, get down. Your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have ruined themselves."
Exodus 32:8  "They have turned aside quickly from the way I commanded them. They have made themselves a calf of melted gold, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and have said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.'"
Exodus 32:9  The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and look, they are a stiff-necked people."
Exodus 32:10  "So now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn hot against them and I may destroy them. And I will make a great nation from you."
Exodus 32:11  But Moses begged the LORD his God, and said, "LORD, why does your anger burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?"
Exodus 32:12  "Why should the Egyptians say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger, and change your mind about this evil against your people."
Exodus 32:13  "Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, your servants. You swore by your own self to them and said, 'I will make your descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your descendants, and they shall have it for ever.'"
Exodus 32:14  So the LORD changed his mind about the evil he had said he would do to his people.
Exodus 32:15  Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. The tablets were written on both their sides, written on one side and on the other.
Exodus 32:16  The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, cut into the tablets.
Exodus 32:17  When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, "There is a noise of war in the camp."
Exodus 32:18  But Moses said, "It is not the sound of those who shout in victory, and it is not the sound of those who cry out when they are beaten. It is the noise of singing that I hear."
Exodus 32:19  As soon as Moses came near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. His anger burned hot. He threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain.
Exodus 32:20  He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder. He scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.
Exodus 32:21  Moses said to Aaron, "What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin upon them?"
Exodus 32:22  Aaron said, "Do not let my lord's anger burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil."
Exodus 32:23  "They said to me, 'Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.'"
Exodus 32:24  "So I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let them take it off.' So they gave it to me. Then I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf."
Exodus 32:25  Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them get out of control, to their shame among their enemies.
Exodus 32:26  Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, "Who is on the LORD's side? Let him come to me." And all the sons of Levi gathered around him.
Exodus 32:27  He said to them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'Let every man put his sword by his side. Go in and out from gate to gate through the camp, and let every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.'"
Exodus 32:28  The children of Levi did what Moses said, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.
Exodus 32:29  For Moses had said, "Set yourselves apart today to the LORD, every man against his son and against his brother, so that he may give you a blessing this day."
Exodus 32:30  The next day Moses said to the people, "You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin."
Exodus 32:31  So Moses went back to the LORD and said, "Oh, this people have sinned a great sin. They have made themselves gods of gold."
Exodus 32:32  "Yet now, if you will forgive their sin -; and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written."
Exodus 32:33  The LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against me, him I will blot out of my book."
Exodus 32:34  "So go now, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. Look, my Angel shall go before you. But on the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin."
Exodus 32:35  And the LORD struck the people with a plague, because they made the calf, the one Aaron made.

Exodus 33:1  The LORD said to Moses, "Leave this place and go up, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt. Go to the land I promised with an oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, when I said, 'I will give it to your descendants.'"
Exodus 33:2  "I will send an angel ahead of you. I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite."
Exodus 33:3  "Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go up among you, because you are a stiff-necked people. If I did, I might destroy you on the way."
Exodus 33:4  When the people heard this bad news, they mourned. No one put on his ornaments.
Exodus 33:5  For the LORD had said to Moses, "Say to the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I came up among you for one moment, I would destroy you. So now take off your ornaments, and I will decide what to do with you.'"
Exodus 33:6  So the children of Israel took off their ornaments at Mount Horeb.
Exodus 33:7  Moses took the tabernacle and set it up outside the camp, far away from the camp, and he called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. Everyone who wanted to seek the LORD went out to the tabernacle of the congregation, which was outside the camp.
Exodus 33:8  Whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, all the people got up. Each man stood at the door of his tent and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.
Exodus 33:9  As Moses went into the tabernacle, the pillar of cloud came down and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.
Exodus 33:10  All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door. Then all the people rose and worshipped, each man at his tent door.
Exodus 33:11  The LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. Then Moses returned to the camp. But his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not leave the tabernacle.
Exodus 33:12  Moses said to the LORD, "See, you say to me, 'Bring this people up,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight.'"
Exodus 33:13  "So now, I pray, if I have found grace in your sight, show me your way, so that I may know you and may find grace in your sight. And remember that this nation is your people."
Exodus 33:14  And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."
Exodus 33:15  Moses said to him, "If your presence does not go with me, do not take us up from here."
Exodus 33:16  "How else will anyone know that I and your people have found grace in your sight? Is it not by your going with us? In this way we will be different, I and your people, from all the people on the face of the earth."
Exodus 33:17  The LORD said to Moses, "I will do this thing that you have asked, for you have found grace in my sight, and I know you by name."
Exodus 33:18  And Moses said, "I beg you, show me your glory."
Exodus 33:19  And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass in front of you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy."
Exodus 33:20  And he said, "You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."
Exodus 33:21  And the LORD said, "Look, there is a place beside me, and you shall stand on a rock."
Exodus 33:22  "While my glory passes by, I will put you in a crack in the rock, and I will cover you with my hand while I pass by."
Exodus 33:23  "Then I will take away my hand, and you will see my back parts. But my face shall not be seen."

Exodus 34:1  The LORD said to Moses, "Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke."
Exodus 34:2  "Be ready in the morning. In the morning come up to Mount Sinai, and stand there before me on the top of the mountain."
Exodus 34:3  "No one is to come up with you. Do not let anyone be seen anywhere on the mountain. Do not let the flocks or the herds graze in front of that mountain."
Exodus 34:4  So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. He got up early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and he carried the two tablets of stone in his hand.
Exodus 34:5  The LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him, and he called out the name of the LORD.
Exodus 34:6  The LORD passed by in front of him and called out, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, slow to be angry, and full of goodness and truth."
Exodus 34:7  "He keeps mercy for thousands. He forgives wrongdoing and rebellion and sin. Yet he will by no means let the guilty go free. He brings the wrongdoing of the fathers on the children, and on the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation."
Exodus 34:8  Moses hurried to bow his head toward the ground, and he worshipped.
Exodus 34:9  He said, "If I have now found grace in your sight, O Lord, then let my Lord go among us, I pray. These people are stubborn. Pardon our wrongdoing and our sin, and take us as your own possession."
Exodus 34:10  And he said, "Look, I am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do wonderful things, such as have never been done in all the earth, nor in any nation. All the people among whom you live shall see the work of the LORD, for what I will do with you is an awesome thing."
Exodus 34:11  "Keep what I command you today. Look, I am driving out before you the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite."
Exodus 34:12  "Be careful. Do not make a covenant with the people who live in the land you are going to, or it will become a trap among you."
Exodus 34:13  "Instead you must tear down their altars, break their sacred stones, and cut down their sacred trees."
Exodus 34:14  "You must worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
Exodus 34:15  "Do not make a covenant with the people who live in the land. They chase after their gods like unfaithful wives, and they sacrifice to their gods. Then one of them will invite you, and you will eat from his sacrifice."
Exodus 34:16  "And you will take their daughters for your sons, and their daughters will chase after their gods, and they will make your sons chase after their gods too."
Exodus 34:17  "You shall not make yourself any gods of melted metal."
Exodus 34:18  "You shall keep the feast of unleavened bread. For seven days you shall eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you, at the set time in the month Abib. For in the month Abib you came out of Egypt."
Exodus 34:19  "Every firstborn is mine, and every firstborn male among your animals, whether ox or sheep."
Exodus 34:20  "But the firstborn of a donkey you shall buy back with a lamb. If you do not buy it back, then you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall buy back. And no one shall come before me empty-handed."
Exodus 34:21  "Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. Even in ploughing time and in harvest you shall rest."
Exodus 34:22  "You shall keep the feast of weeks, with the first fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the end of the year."
Exodus 34:23  "Three times in the year all your males shall come before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel."
Exodus 34:24  "For I will drive out the nations before you, and make your borders wider. And no one will want to take your land when you go up three times in the year to come before the LORD your God."
Exodus 34:25  "You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice along with anything that has yeast in it. And the sacrifice of the Passover feast must not be left until the morning."
Exodus 34:26  "You shall bring the best of the first fruits of your land to the house of the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk."
Exodus 34:27  The LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for it is on the terms of these words that I have made a covenant with you and with Israel."
Exodus 34:28  Moses was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Exodus 34:29  When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, he had the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. As he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face was shining, because he had been talking with him.
Exodus 34:30  When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, look, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him.
Exodus 34:31  But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the people came back to him, and Moses talked with them.
Exodus 34:32  Afterwards all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commands everything that the LORD had said to him on Mount Sinai.
Exodus 34:33  When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Exodus 34:34  But when Moses went in before the LORD to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out again. Then he came out and told the children of Israel what he had been commanded.
Exodus 34:35  And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, and the skin of Moses' face was shining. So Moses put the veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.

Exodus 35:1  Moses gathered all the community of the children of Israel together. He said to them, "These are the words the LORD has commanded you to do."
Exodus 35:2  "Work shall be done for six days. But the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a sabbath of rest to the LORD. Anyone who does work on it shall be put to death."
Exodus 35:3  "You shall light no fire in any of your homes on the sabbath day."
Exodus 35:4  Moses spoke to all the community of the children of Israel. He said, "This is what the LORD has commanded:"
Exodus 35:5  "Take from among you an offering for the LORD. Let everyone with a willing heart bring it, an offering to the LORD: gold, silver and brass,"
Exodus 35:6  "blue, purple and scarlet cloth, fine linen and goats' hair,"
Exodus 35:7  "rams' skins dyed red, badgers' skins and shittim wood,"
Exodus 35:8  "oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the sweet incense,"
Exodus 35:9  "onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate."
Exodus 35:10  "Everyone among you who is wise in heart shall come and make all that the LORD has commanded:"
Exodus 35:11  "the tabernacle, its tent and its covering, its hooks and its boards, its bars, its pillars and its sockets,"
Exodus 35:12  "the ark and its poles, with the mercy seat and the veil that covers it,"
Exodus 35:13  "the table and its poles and all its vessels, and the showbread,"
Exodus 35:14  "the lampstand for the light with its equipment and its lamps, and the oil for the light,"
Exodus 35:15  "the incense altar and its poles, the anointing oil and the sweet incense, and the curtain for the door at the entrance of the tabernacle,"
Exodus 35:16  "the altar of burnt offering with its brass grating, its poles and all its vessels, the basin and its stand,"
Exodus 35:17  "the curtains of the court, its pillars and their sockets, and the curtain for the door of the court,"
Exodus 35:18  "the pegs of the tabernacle, the pegs of the court, and their cords,"
Exodus 35:19  "the clothes for serving in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, for serving as priests."
Exodus 35:20  Then all the community of the children of Israel went away from Moses.
Exodus 35:21  They came back, everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit made him willing. They brought the LORD's offering for the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all its service, and for the holy garments.
Exodus 35:22  They came, both men and women, as many as were willing in heart. They brought bracelets, earrings, rings and ornaments, all kinds of gold jewels. Every man who gave brought an offering of gold to the LORD.
Exodus 35:23  Every man who had blue, purple or scarlet cloth, or fine linen, or goats' hair, or red skins of rams, or badgers' skins, brought them.
Exodus 35:24  Everyone who gave an offering of silver or brass brought the LORD's offering. And every man who had shittim wood for any part of the work brought it.
Exodus 35:25  All the women who were wise in heart spun with their hands. They brought what they had spun, blue, purple and scarlet cloth, and fine linen.
Exodus 35:26  All the women whose hearts stirred them up in wisdom spun goats' hair.
Exodus 35:27  The rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod and in the breastplate,
Exodus 35:28  and spice, and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense.
Exodus 35:29  The children of Israel brought a willing offering to the LORD. Every man and woman whose heart made them willing brought something for all the work that the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.
Exodus 35:30  Moses said to the children of Israel, "See, the LORD has called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah."
Exodus 35:31  "He has filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge, and with skill in all kinds of work,"
Exodus 35:32  "to plan skilful works, to work in gold, in silver and in brass,"
Exodus 35:33  "in cutting stones to set them, and in carving wood, to make every kind of skilful work."
Exodus 35:34  "And he has put it in his heart to teach, both him and Aholiab the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan."
Exodus 35:35  "He has filled them with wisdom of heart to do every kind of work: the work of the engraver, the skilled workman and the embroiderer, in blue, in purple, in scarlet and in fine linen, and the work of the weaver. They do every kind of work and plan skilful designs."

Exodus 36:1  So Bezaleel and Aholiab worked, and every skilled man in whom the LORD had put wisdom and understanding. They knew how to do every kind of work for the service of the sanctuary. They did everything just as the LORD had commanded.
Exodus 36:2  Moses called Bezaleel and Aholiab, and every skilled man in whose heart the LORD had put wisdom. He called everyone whose heart stirred him to come and do the work.
Exodus 36:3  They received from Moses all the offering that the people of Israel had brought for the work of the service of the sanctuary, so that they could make it. And the people still brought him free offerings every morning.
Exodus 36:4  So all the skilled men who were doing all the work of the sanctuary came, each one from the work he was doing.
Exodus 36:5  They said to Moses, "The people are bringing much more than enough for the work which the LORD commanded us to do."
Exodus 36:6  So Moses gave a command, and they had it announced through the camp: "Let no man or woman make anything more for the offering of the sanctuary." So the people were stopped from bringing more.
Exodus 36:7  For what they already had was enough to do all the work, and more than enough.
Exodus 36:8  Every skilled man among those who did the work of the tabernacle made ten curtains of fine twisted linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet. He made them with cherubims, skilfully worked in.
Exodus 36:9  Each curtain was twenty-eight cubits long and four cubits wide. All the curtains were the same size.
Exodus 36:10  He joined five of the curtains to one another, and he joined the other five curtains to one another.
Exodus 36:11  He made loops of blue along the edge of the end curtain of the first set. He did the same along the edge of the end curtain of the second set.
Exodus 36:12  He made fifty loops in the one curtain, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain of the second set. The loops held one curtain to the other.
Exodus 36:13  He made fifty clasps of gold, and joined the curtains to one another with the clasps. So it became one tabernacle.
Exodus 36:14  He made curtains of goats' hair for the tent over the tabernacle. He made eleven curtains.
Exodus 36:15  Each curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits wide. The eleven curtains were all the same size.
Exodus 36:16  He joined five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves.
Exodus 36:17  He made fifty loops along the outer edge of the end curtain of the one set, and fifty loops along the edge of the curtain that joined the second set.
Exodus 36:18  He made fifty clasps of brass to join the tent together, so that it would be one.
Exodus 36:19  He made a covering for the tent of rams' skins dyed red, and a covering of badgers' skins above that.
Exodus 36:20  He made upright boards of shittim wood for the tabernacle.
Exodus 36:21  Each board was ten cubits long and one cubit and a half wide.
Exodus 36:22  Each board had two tenons, set the same distance apart. He made all the boards of the tabernacle this way.
Exodus 36:23  He made the boards for the tabernacle: twenty boards for the south side, facing south.
Exodus 36:24  He made forty silver sockets to go under the twenty boards: two sockets under one board for its two tenons, and two sockets under the next board for its two tenons.
Exodus 36:25  For the other side of the tabernacle, toward the north, he made twenty boards,
Exodus 36:26  and their forty silver sockets: two sockets under one board, and two sockets under the next board.
Exodus 36:27  For the far side of the tabernacle, toward the west, he made six boards.
Exodus 36:28  He made two boards for the corners of the tabernacle at the two sides.
Exodus 36:29  They were joined at the bottom, and joined together at the top with one ring. He did this with both of them, at both corners.
Exodus 36:30  So there were eight boards, and their sockets were sixteen silver sockets, two sockets under every board.
Exodus 36:31  He made bars of shittim wood: five for the boards on one side of the tabernacle,
Exodus 36:32  five bars for the boards on the other side of the tabernacle, and five bars for the boards at the far side of the tabernacle, toward the west.
Exodus 36:33  He made the middle bar to pass through the boards from one end to the other.
Exodus 36:34  He covered the boards with gold, and made their rings of gold to hold the bars, and covered the bars with gold.
Exodus 36:35  He made a veil of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen. He made it with cherubims, skilfully worked in.
Exodus 36:36  For it he made four pillars of shittim wood, and covered them with gold. Their hooks were of gold, and he cast four silver sockets for them.
Exodus 36:37  He made a curtain for the door of the tent, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen, embroidered with a needle;
Exodus 36:38  and its five pillars with their hooks. He covered their tops and their bands with gold, but their five sockets were of brass.

Exodus 37:1  Bezaleel made the ark of shittim wood. It was two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit and a half high.
Exodus 37:2  He covered it with pure gold, inside and outside, and he made a gold border around it.
Exodus 37:3  He cast four gold rings for it, to be set at its four corners: two rings on one side of it, and two rings on the other side.
Exodus 37:4  He made poles of shittim wood and covered them with gold.
Exodus 37:5  He put the poles into the rings at the sides of the ark, so the ark could be carried.
Exodus 37:6  He made the mercy seat of pure gold. It was two and a half cubits long and a cubit and a half wide.
Exodus 37:7  He made two cherubim of gold. He hammered them out of one piece, at the two ends of the mercy seat.
Exodus 37:8  One cherub was on the end at this side, and the other cherub on the end at that side. He made the cherubim out of the mercy seat itself, at its two ends.
Exodus 37:9  The cherubim spread their wings upward, and covered the mercy seat with their wings. Their faces were turned toward each other, looking down toward the mercy seat.
Exodus 37:10  He made the table of shittim wood. It was two cubits long, a cubit wide, and a cubit and a half high.
Exodus 37:11  He covered it with pure gold, and made a gold border around it.
Exodus 37:12  He also made a rim around it, as wide as a hand, and made a gold border around the rim.
Exodus 37:13  He cast four gold rings for it, and put the rings on the four corners, at its four legs.
Exodus 37:14  The rings were close to the rim. They held the poles for carrying the table.
Exodus 37:15  He made the poles of shittim wood and covered them with gold, so the table could be carried.
Exodus 37:16  He made the things that were on the table out of pure gold: its dishes, its spoons, its bowls, and its jars for pouring.
Exodus 37:17  He made the lampstand of pure gold. He hammered the lampstand out: its base, its stem, its cups, its knobs, and its flowers were all one piece with it.
Exodus 37:18  Six branches came out from its sides: three branches of the lampstand out of one side, and three branches of the lampstand out of the other side.
Exodus 37:19  On one branch were three cups shaped like almond blossoms, with a knob and a flower; and on another branch three cups shaped like almond blossoms, with a knob and a flower. It was the same for all six branches coming out of the lampstand.
Exodus 37:20  On the lampstand itself were four cups shaped like almond blossoms, with its knobs and its flowers.
Exodus 37:21  There was a knob under the first two branches, a knob under the next two branches, and a knob under the next two branches, matching the six branches coming out of it.
Exodus 37:22  Their knobs and their branches were all one piece with it. The whole lampstand was one piece of pure gold, hammered out.
Exodus 37:23  He made its seven lamps, its snuffers, and its snuffdishes of pure gold.
Exodus 37:24  He made the lampstand and all its vessels out of a talent of pure gold.
Exodus 37:25  He made the incense altar of shittim wood. It was a cubit long and a cubit wide, a square, and two cubits high. Its horns were one piece with it.
Exodus 37:26  He covered it with pure gold: its top, its sides all around, and its horns. He also made a gold border around it.
Exodus 37:27  He made two gold rings for it under the border, at its two corners, on its two sides, to hold the poles for carrying it.
Exodus 37:28  He made the poles of shittim wood and covered them with gold.
Exodus 37:29  He made the holy anointing oil, and the pure incense of sweet spices, made as a perfume maker makes them.

Exodus 38:1  He made the altar of burnt offering out of shittim wood. It was five cubits long and five cubits wide, square in shape, and three cubits high.
Exodus 38:2  He made its horns on its four corners. The horns were all of one piece with it, and he covered it with brass.
Exodus 38:3  He made all the vessels of the altar: the pots, the shovels, the basins, the fleshhooks, and the firepans. He made all its vessels of brass.
Exodus 38:4  For the altar he made a brass grating of network. It went under the rim of the altar, reaching halfway up.
Exodus 38:5  He cast four rings of brass for the four ends of the grating, to hold the poles.
Exodus 38:6  He made the poles of shittim wood and covered them with brass.
Exodus 38:7  He put the poles into the rings on the sides of the altar, so that it could be carried with them. He made the altar hollow, out of boards.
Exodus 38:8  He made the basin of brass, and its base of brass, out of the mirrors of the women who gathered at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Exodus 38:9  He made the court. On the south side, facing south, the hangings of the court were of fine twined linen, a hundred cubits long.
Exodus 38:10  Their pillars were twenty, and their brass sockets twenty. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.
Exodus 38:11  On the north side the hangings were a hundred cubits long. Their pillars were twenty, and their brass sockets twenty. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.
Exodus 38:12  On the west side there were hangings of fifty cubits. Their pillars were ten, and their sockets ten. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver.
Exodus 38:13  On the east side, facing east, the court was fifty cubits.
Exodus 38:14  The hangings on one side of the gate were fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three sockets.
Exodus 38:15  On the other side of the court gate, on this side and on that, there were hangings of fifteen cubits, with three pillars and three sockets.
Exodus 38:16  All the hangings around the court were of fine twined linen.
Exodus 38:17  The sockets for the pillars were of brass. The hooks of the pillars and their bands were of silver, and the tops of the pillars were covered with silver. All the pillars of the court had bands of silver.
Exodus 38:18  The hanging for the gate of the court was needlework, made of blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. It was twenty cubits long, and its height, in the width, was five cubits, matching the hangings of the court.
Exodus 38:19  Their pillars were four, and their brass sockets four. Their hooks were of silver, and the covering of their tops and their bands were of silver.
Exodus 38:20  All the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court all around, were of brass.
Exodus 38:21  This is the total for the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as it was counted at the command of Moses. It was counted for the service of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest.
Exodus 38:22  Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 38:23  With him was Aholiab, son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. He was an engraver, a skilled workman, and an embroiderer in blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.
Exodus 38:24  All the gold used for the work, in all the work of the holy place, that is, the gold of the offering, was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary.
Exodus 38:25  The silver from those of the congregation who were counted was a hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary.
Exodus 38:26  That was a bekah for each man, that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone who went to be counted, from twenty years old and upward. They were six hundred and three thousand, five hundred and fifty men.
Exodus 38:27  From the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary and the sockets of the veil: a hundred sockets from the hundred talents, a talent for each socket.
Exodus 38:28  From the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels he made hooks for the pillars, and covered their tops, and made bands for them.
Exodus 38:29  The brass of the offering was seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels.
Exodus 38:30  With it he made the sockets for the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, the brass altar, the brass grating for it, and all the vessels of the altar,
Exodus 38:31  and the sockets of the court all around, and the sockets of the court gate, and all the pins of the tabernacle, and all the pins of the court all around.

Exodus 39:1  From the blue, purple, and scarlet cloth they made finely worked garments for serving in the holy place. They also made the holy garments for Aaron, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:2  He made the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen.
Exodus 39:3  They beat the gold into thin plates and cut it into wires, to work it into the blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine linen, with skilful work.
Exodus 39:4  They made shoulder pieces for it, to join it together. It was joined together at its two edges.
Exodus 39:5  The skilfully woven band on the ephod was made of the same materials and in the same way: of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:6  They worked the onyx stones, set in gold settings, and engraved them as a seal is engraved, with the names of the children of Israel.
Exodus 39:7  He put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, to be stones of remembrance for the children of Israel, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:8  He made the breastplate with skilful work, like the work of the ephod: of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet, and fine twisted linen.
Exodus 39:9  It was square. They made the breastplate double, a span long and a span wide, when folded double.
Exodus 39:10  They set in it four rows of stones. The first row was a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle; this was the first row.
Exodus 39:11  The second row was an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.
Exodus 39:12  The third row was a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.
Exodus 39:13  The fourth row was a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were set in gold settings.
Exodus 39:14  The stones matched the names of the children of Israel. There were twelve of them, one for each name, engraved like a seal, each one with its name, for the twelve tribes.
Exodus 39:15  On the breastplate they made chains at the ends, twisted like cords, of pure gold.
Exodus 39:16  They made two gold settings and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate.
Exodus 39:17  They put the two twisted gold chains in the two rings on the ends of the breastplate.
Exodus 39:18  The two ends of the two twisted chains they fastened to the two settings, and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, at the front.
Exodus 39:19  They made two gold rings and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, on its edge, on the inner side next to the ephod.
Exodus 39:20  They made two more gold rings and put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, at the front, close to where it is joined, above the skilfully woven band of the ephod.
Exodus 39:21  They tied the breastplate by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a blue cord, so that it would sit above the skilfully woven band of the ephod, and so that the breastplate would not come loose from the ephod, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:22  He made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.
Exodus 39:23  There was an opening in the middle of the robe, like the opening in a coat of armour, with a border round the opening, so that it would not tear.
Exodus 39:24  On the hems of the robe they made pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, and twisted linen.
Exodus 39:25  They made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates on the hem of the robe, all round between the pomegranates:
Exodus 39:26  a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, all round the hem of the robe for serving in, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:27  They made coats of fine linen, woven, for Aaron and for his sons,
Exodus 39:28  and a turban of fine linen, and beautiful headdresses of fine linen, and linen trousers of fine twisted linen,
Exodus 39:29  and a sash of fine twisted linen, and blue, purple, and scarlet, embroidered, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:30  They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it, engraved like a seal, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.
Exodus 39:31  They tied a blue cord to it, to fasten it high on the turban, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:32  So all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished. The children of Israel did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses; so they did.
Exodus 39:33  They brought the tabernacle to Moses: the tent and all its equipment, its clasps, its boards, its bars, its pillars, and its sockets;
Exodus 39:34  the covering of rams' skins dyed red, the covering of badgers' skins, and the veil that screens;
Exodus 39:35  the ark of the testimony with its poles, and the mercy seat;
Exodus 39:36  the table and all its vessels, and the showbread;
Exodus 39:37  the pure lampstand with its lamps, the lamps set in order, and all its vessels, and the oil for the light;
Exodus 39:38  the golden altar, the anointing oil, the sweet incense, and the curtain for the door of the tabernacle;
Exodus 39:39  the bronze altar with its bronze grating, its poles and all its vessels, the basin and its base;
Exodus 39:40  the hangings of the court, its pillars and its sockets, the curtain for the gate of the court, its cords and its pegs, and all the vessels for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting;
Exodus 39:41  the finely worked garments for serving in the holy place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and his sons' garments, for serving as priests.
Exodus 39:42  The children of Israel did all the work just as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 39:43  Moses looked at all the work, and saw that they had done it as the LORD had commanded; they had done exactly so. And Moses blessed them.

Exodus 40:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Exodus 40:2  "On the first day of the first month you shall set up the tabernacle, the tent of the congregation."
Exodus 40:3  You shall put the ark of the testimony inside it, and cover the ark with the veil.
Exodus 40:4  You shall bring in the table, and set out on it the things that belong on it. You shall bring in the lampstand, and light its lamps.
Exodus 40:5  You shall set the gold altar for the incense in front of the ark of the testimony, and put up the curtain at the door of the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:6  You shall set the altar of the burnt offering in front of the door of the tabernacle, the tent of the congregation.
Exodus 40:7  You shall set the basin between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water in it.
Exodus 40:8  You shall set up the court all around, and hang up the curtain at the gate of the court.
Exodus 40:9  You shall take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and everything in it. You shall make it holy, and all its vessels, and it shall be holy.
Exodus 40:10  You shall anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all its vessels, and make the altar holy. It shall be a most holy altar.
Exodus 40:11  You shall anoint the basin and its stand, and make it holy.
Exodus 40:12  You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.
Exodus 40:13  You shall put the holy garments on Aaron, and anoint him, and make him holy, so that he may serve me as priest.
Exodus 40:14  You shall bring his sons and put coats on them.
Exodus 40:15  "You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, so that they may serve me as priests. Their anointing shall surely give them a priesthood that lasts for ever, through all their generations."
Exodus 40:16  So Moses did this. He did everything just as the LORD commanded him.
Exodus 40:17  In the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was set up.
Exodus 40:18  Moses set up the tabernacle. He fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars, and raised up its pillars.
Exodus 40:19  He spread the tent out over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent on top of it, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 40:20  He took the testimony and put it into the ark. He set the poles on the ark, and put the mercy seat on top of the ark.
Exodus 40:21  He brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil that screens it, and covered the ark of the testimony, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 40:22  He put the table in the tent of the congregation, on the north side of the tabernacle, outside the veil.
Exodus 40:23  He set the bread in order on it before the LORD, as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Exodus 40:24  He put the lampstand in the tent of the congregation, across from the table, on the south side of the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:25  He lit the lamps before the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 40:26  He put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation, in front of the veil.
Exodus 40:27  He burned sweet incense on it, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 40:28  He set up the curtain at the door of the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:29  He put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the tabernacle, the tent of the congregation, and offered on it the burnt offering and the food offering, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 40:30  He set the basin between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water in it for washing.
Exodus 40:31  Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet there.
Exodus 40:32  When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near the altar, they washed, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Exodus 40:33  He set up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the curtain of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
Exodus 40:34  Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:35  Moses could not go into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud rested on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
Exodus 40:36  Whenever the cloud was lifted up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward on all their journeys.
Exodus 40:37  But if the cloud was not lifted up, they did not travel until the day it was lifted up.
Exodus 40:38  For the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, where all the house of Israel could see it, through all their journeys.

Leviticus

Leviticus 1:1  The LORD called to Moses. He spoke to him out of the tent of meeting, and said,
Leviticus 1:2  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: If any one of you brings an offering to the LORD, you shall bring your offering from the cattle, either from the herd or from the flock."
Leviticus 1:3  "If his offering is a burnt sacrifice from the herd, he shall offer a male with no flaw in it. He shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tent of meeting, before the LORD."
Leviticus 1:4  "He shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering. Then it will be accepted for him, to make atonement for him."
Leviticus 1:5  "He shall kill the young bull before the LORD. The priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tent of meeting."
Leviticus 1:6  "He shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces."
Leviticus 1:7  "The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire."
Leviticus 1:8  "The priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order on the wood that is on the fire on the altar."
Leviticus 1:9  "But he shall wash its inner parts and its legs in water. The priest shall burn it all on the altar, as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD."
Leviticus 1:10  "If his offering for a burnt sacrifice is from the flocks, that is, from the sheep or from the goats, he shall bring a male with no flaw in it."
Leviticus 1:11  "He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the LORD. The priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar."
Leviticus 1:12  "He shall cut it into its pieces, with its head and its fat. The priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire on the altar."
Leviticus 1:13  "But he shall wash the inner parts and the legs with water. The priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD."
Leviticus 1:14  "If the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the LORD is of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or of young pigeons."
Leviticus 1:15  "The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off its head, and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be pressed out at the side of the altar."
Leviticus 1:16  "He shall pull away its crop with its feathers, and throw it down beside the altar on the east side, at the place for the ashes."
Leviticus 1:17  "He shall split it open by its wings, but shall not divide it into two parts. The priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD."

Leviticus 2:1  When anyone brings a grain offering to the LORD, his offering must be of fine flour. He shall pour oil on it, and put frankincense on it.
Leviticus 2:2  He shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests. The priest shall take from it a handful of the flour and of the oil, with all its frankincense. Then the priest shall burn this as the memorial part on the altar. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD.
Leviticus 2:3  What is left of the grain offering shall belong to Aaron and his sons. It is a most holy part of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
Leviticus 2:4  If you bring a grain offering baked in the oven, it must be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, or unleavened wafers spread with oil.
Leviticus 2:5  If your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan, it must be of fine flour without leaven, mixed with oil.
Leviticus 2:6  You shall break it into pieces and pour oil on it. It is a grain offering.
Leviticus 2:7  If your offering is a grain offering baked in the frying pan, it must be made of fine flour with oil.
Leviticus 2:8  You shall bring to the LORD the grain offering made of these things. When it is handed to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar.
Leviticus 2:9  The priest shall take the memorial part from the grain offering, and burn it on the altar. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD.
Leviticus 2:10  What is left of the grain offering shall belong to Aaron and his sons. It is a most holy part of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
Leviticus 2:11  No grain offering that you bring to the LORD shall be made with leaven. You shall burn no leaven, and no honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.
Leviticus 2:12  You shall bring them to the LORD as an offering of the firstfruits. But they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet smell.
Leviticus 2:13  You shall season every grain offering of yours with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be missing from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.
Leviticus 2:14  If you bring a grain offering of your firstfruits to the LORD, you shall offer for it green ears of grain dried by the fire, that is, grain beaten out of full ears.
Leviticus 2:15  You shall put oil on it, and lay frankincense on it. It is a grain offering.
Leviticus 2:16  The priest shall burn the memorial part of it, some of the beaten grain and some of the oil, with all its frankincense. It is an offering made by fire to the LORD.

Leviticus 3:1  If someone's offering is a sacrifice of peace offering, and he brings it from the herd, whether it is male or female, he must offer it without any flaw before the LORD.
Leviticus 3:2  He shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Then Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood on the altar all around.
Leviticus 3:3  From the sacrifice of the peace offering he shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD: the fat that covers the inner parts, and all the fat that is on the inner parts,
Leviticus 3:4  and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, by the flanks, and the covering above the liver, which he shall take away along with the kidneys.
Leviticus 3:5  Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt sacrifice, which is on the wood that is on the fire. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD.
Leviticus 3:6  If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the LORD is from the flock, male or female, he must offer it without any flaw.
Leviticus 3:7  If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall bring it before the LORD.
Leviticus 3:8  He shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it in front of the tabernacle of the congregation. Then Aaron's sons shall sprinkle its blood on the altar all around.
Leviticus 3:9  From the sacrifice of the peace offering he shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD: its fat, and the whole fat tail, which he shall take off close by the backbone; and the fat that covers the inner parts, and all the fat that is on the inner parts,
Leviticus 3:10  and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, by the flanks, and the covering above the liver, which he shall take away along with the kidneys.
Leviticus 3:11  The priest shall burn it on the altar. It is the food of the offering made by fire to the LORD.
Leviticus 3:12  If his offering is a goat, then he shall bring it before the LORD.
Leviticus 3:13  He shall lay his hand on its head and kill it in front of the tabernacle of the congregation. Then the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle its blood on the altar all around.
Leviticus 3:14  From it he shall bring his offering, an offering made by fire to the LORD: the fat that covers the inner parts, and all the fat that is on the inner parts,
Leviticus 3:15  and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, by the flanks, and the covering above the liver, which he shall take away along with the kidneys.
Leviticus 3:16  The priest shall burn them on the altar. It is the food of the offering made by fire, a sweet smell. All the fat belongs to the LORD.
Leviticus 3:17  This shall be a lasting law for all your generations, wherever you live: you must eat neither fat nor blood.

Leviticus 4:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 4:2  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: If anyone sins without knowing it, and does any of the things which the LORD has commanded must not be done, these are the rules."
Leviticus 4:3  "If the priest who is anointed sins, and so brings guilt on the people, then for the sin he has sinned he must bring to the LORD a young bull without any flaw, as a sin offering."
Leviticus 4:4  "He must bring the bull to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, before the LORD. He must lay his hand on the bull's head and kill the bull before the LORD."
Leviticus 4:5  "The anointed priest must take some of the bull's blood and bring it into the tabernacle of the congregation."
Leviticus 4:6  "The priest must dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil of the sanctuary."
Leviticus 4:7  "The priest must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation. Then he must pour out all the rest of the bull's blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Leviticus 4:8  "He must take away from the bull of the sin offering all its fat: the fat that covers the inner parts, and all the fat that is on the inner parts,"
Leviticus 4:9  "and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them by the flanks, and the covering above the liver, which he must take away along with the kidneys."
Leviticus 4:10  "This is done just as the fat is taken off the bull of the peace offerings. The priest must burn these parts on the altar of burnt offering."
Leviticus 4:11  "But the skin of the bull, and all its meat, with its head, its legs, its inner parts and its dung,"
Leviticus 4:12  "the whole bull, he must carry outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes are poured out. There he must burn it on wood with fire. It must be burned where the ashes are poured out."
Leviticus 4:13  "If the whole congregation of Israel sins without knowing it, and the matter is hidden from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done any of the things which the LORD has commanded must not be done, they are guilty."
Leviticus 4:14  "When the sin they have sinned becomes known, then the congregation must offer a young bull for the sin, and bring it in front of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Leviticus 4:15  "The elders of the congregation must lay their hands on the bull's head before the LORD, and the bull must be killed before the LORD."
Leviticus 4:16  "The anointed priest must bring some of the bull's blood into the tabernacle of the congregation."
Leviticus 4:17  "The priest must dip his finger in some of the blood and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, in front of the veil."
Leviticus 4:18  "He must put some of the blood on the horns of the altar which is before the LORD in the tabernacle of the congregation. Then he must pour out all the rest of the blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Leviticus 4:19  "He must take away all its fat and burn it on the altar."
Leviticus 4:20  "He must do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. So the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven."
Leviticus 4:21  "He must carry the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. It is a sin offering for the congregation."
Leviticus 4:22  "When a ruler sins, and without knowing it does any of the things which the LORD his God has commanded must not be done, he is guilty."
Leviticus 4:23  "When the sin he has sinned becomes known to him, he must bring his offering, a young male goat without any flaw."
Leviticus 4:24  "He must lay his hand on the goat's head and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD. It is a sin offering."
Leviticus 4:25  "The priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. Then he must pour out its blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering."
Leviticus 4:26  "He must burn all its fat on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings. So the priest will make atonement for him for his sin, and he will be forgiven."
Leviticus 4:27  "If any one of the common people sins without knowing it, by doing any of the things which the LORD has commanded must not be done, he is guilty."
Leviticus 4:28  "When the sin he has sinned becomes known to him, he must bring his offering, a young female goat without any flaw, for the sin he has sinned."
Leviticus 4:29  "He must lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering."
Leviticus 4:30  "The priest must take some of its blood with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. Then he must pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar."
Leviticus 4:31  "He must take away all its fat, just as the fat is taken away from the sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest must burn it on the altar as a sweet smell to the LORD. So the priest will make atonement for him, and he will be forgiven."
Leviticus 4:32  "If he brings a lamb for a sin offering, he must bring a female without any flaw."
Leviticus 4:33  "He must lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill it as a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering."
Leviticus 4:34  "The priest must take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering. Then he must pour out all the rest of its blood at the base of the altar."
Leviticus 4:35  "He must take away all its fat, just as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of peace offerings. The priest must burn these parts on the altar, with the offerings made by fire to the LORD. So the priest will make atonement for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven."

Leviticus 5:1  If someone sins because he hears a public call to testify under oath, and he is a witness, having seen the matter or known about it, but he does not speak up, then he must bear his guilt.
Leviticus 5:2  Or if someone touches anything unclean, whether the dead body of an unclean wild animal, or the dead body of unclean livestock, or the dead body of unclean crawling creatures, and it is hidden from him, he also is unclean and guilty.
Leviticus 5:3  Or if he touches human uncleanness, whatever kind of uncleanness it may be that makes a person unclean, and it is hidden from him, then when he comes to know of it, he is guilty.
Leviticus 5:4  Or if someone swears an oath, speaking carelessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a person may declare with an oath, and it is hidden from him, then when he comes to know of it, he is guilty in one of these ways.
Leviticus 5:5  So when he is guilty in one of these things, he must confess that he has sinned in that matter.
Leviticus 5:6  He must bring his trespass offering to the LORD for the sin he has committed: a female from the flock, a lamb or a young goat, as a sin offering. Then the priest will make atonement for him concerning his sin.
Leviticus 5:7  If he cannot afford a lamb, then for the wrong he has done he must bring to the LORD two turtledoves or two young pigeons: one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering.
Leviticus 5:8  He must bring them to the priest, who will offer the one for the sin offering first. He shall wring its head from its neck, but not divide it in two.
Leviticus 5:9  He shall sprinkle some of the blood of the sin offering on the side of the altar. The rest of the blood shall be drained out at the base of the altar. It is a sin offering.
Leviticus 5:10  He shall offer the second bird as a burnt offering, in the proper way. So the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven.
Leviticus 5:11  But if he cannot afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, then the one who sinned must bring as his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. He shall put no oil on it, and he shall put no frankincense on it, for it is a sin offering.
Leviticus 5:12  He shall bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take a handful of it as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar, on top of the offerings made by fire to the LORD. It is a sin offering.
Leviticus 5:13  So the priest will make atonement for him for the sin he has committed in any of these ways, and he will be forgiven. The rest shall belong to the priest, as with the grain offering.
Leviticus 5:14  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 5:15  "If someone commits a trespass and sins without knowing it, in any of the holy things of the LORD, then he must bring to the LORD as his trespass offering a ram from the flocks without any flaw, worth the value you set in silver shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering."
Leviticus 5:16  "He must make up for the harm he has done to the holy thing, and add a fifth to it, and give it to the priest. Then the priest will make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and he will be forgiven."
Leviticus 5:17  "If someone sins and does any of the things which the LORD has commanded must not be done, even though he did not know it, he is still guilty, and he must bear his guilt."
Leviticus 5:18  "He must bring to the priest a ram from the flock without any flaw, worth the value you set, for a trespass offering. Then the priest will make atonement for him concerning the wrong he did without knowing it, and he will be forgiven."
Leviticus 5:19  "It is a trespass offering. He has certainly trespassed against the LORD."

Leviticus 6:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 6:2  "If anyone sins and does wrong against the LORD by lying to his neighbour about something left with him to keep, or about something held in fellowship, or about something taken by force, or if he has cheated his neighbour;"
Leviticus 6:3  or if he has found something that was lost and lies about it, and swears falsely: if a man does any of these things, he sins in doing them.
Leviticus 6:4  Then, because he has sinned and is guilty, he must give back what he took by force, or what he got by cheating, or what was left with him to keep, or the lost thing he found,
Leviticus 6:5  or anything he swore falsely about. He must pay back the full amount, and add a fifth part more to it. He must give it to the one it belongs to, on the day he brings his trespass offering.
Leviticus 6:6  He must bring his trespass offering to the LORD: a ram from the flock without any fault, worth the value you set, as a trespass offering, and give it to the priest.
Leviticus 6:7  "The priest will make atonement for him before the LORD, and he will be forgiven for whatever he did that made him guilty."
Leviticus 6:8  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 6:9  "Give this command to Aaron and his sons: This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering is to stay on the altar, burning all night until morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning in it."
Leviticus 6:10  The priest shall put on his linen robe, and put linen undergarments on his body. He shall take up the ashes left when the fire burned up the burnt offering on the altar, and put them beside the altar.
Leviticus 6:11  Then he shall take off his clothes and put on other clothes, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place.
Leviticus 6:12  The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest shall burn wood on it, and lay the burnt offering on it in order, and burn on it the fat of the peace offerings.
Leviticus 6:13  The fire shall always be burning on the altar. It shall never go out.
Leviticus 6:14  This is the law of the food offering. The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the LORD, in front of the altar.
Leviticus 6:15  The priest shall take a handful of it, of the flour of the food offering and of its oil, with all the frankincense that is on the food offering. He shall burn it on the altar as a sweet smell, the memorial part of it, to the LORD.
Leviticus 6:16  Aaron and his sons shall eat what is left of it. It must be eaten without yeast in a holy place. They shall eat it in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Leviticus 6:17  It shall not be baked with yeast. I have given it to them as their share of my offerings made by fire. It is most holy, like the sin offering and the trespass offering.
Leviticus 6:18  "Every male among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. This is a law for ever, for all your generations, about the offerings of the LORD made by fire. Everyone who touches them shall be holy."
Leviticus 6:19  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 6:20  "This is the offering that Aaron and his sons shall offer to the LORD on the day he is anointed: a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour as a food offering, given regularly, half of it in the morning and half of it at night."
Leviticus 6:21  It shall be made with oil in a pan. When it is baked, you shall bring it in. You shall offer the baked pieces of the food offering as a sweet smell to the LORD.
Leviticus 6:22  The priest among his sons who is anointed in his place shall offer it. This is a law for ever to the LORD: it shall be burned completely.
Leviticus 6:23  "Every food offering for the priest shall be burned completely. It must not be eaten."
Leviticus 6:24  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 6:25  "Speak to Aaron and to his sons and say, This is the law of the sin offering. The sin offering shall be killed before the LORD in the place where the burnt offering is killed. It is most holy."
Leviticus 6:26  The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It must be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Leviticus 6:27  Whatever touches its flesh shall be holy. If any of its blood is sprinkled on a garment, you shall wash the thing it was sprinkled on in a holy place.
Leviticus 6:28  The clay pot it was boiled in must be broken. If it was boiled in a brass pot, the pot must be scrubbed and rinsed with water.
Leviticus 6:29  Every male among the priests shall eat of it. It is most holy.
Leviticus 6:30  "But no sin offering shall be eaten if any of its blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to make atonement in the holy place. It shall be burned in the fire."

Leviticus 7:1  This also is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy.
Leviticus 7:2  They must kill the trespass offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. Its blood shall be sprinkled all around on the altar.
Leviticus 7:3  He shall offer all its fat: the fat tail, and the fat that covers the inner parts,
Leviticus 7:4  and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, by the flanks, and the covering above the liver, which he shall take away with the kidneys.
Leviticus 7:5  The priest shall burn them on the altar as an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a trespass offering.
Leviticus 7:6  Every male among the priests may eat it. It shall be eaten in the holy place. It is most holy.
Leviticus 7:7  The trespass offering is like the sin offering. There is one law for them both. It belongs to the priest who makes atonement with it.
Leviticus 7:8  The priest who offers any man's burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering he has offered.
Leviticus 7:9  Every food offering that is baked in the oven, and all that is cooked in the frying pan or in the pan, belongs to the priest who offers it.
Leviticus 7:10  Every food offering, whether mixed with oil or dry, belongs to all the sons of Aaron, each one as much as another.
Leviticus 7:11  This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which someone shall offer to the LORD.
Leviticus 7:12  If he offers it to give thanks, then with the thank offering he shall offer unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of fine flour mixed with oil and fried.
Leviticus 7:13  Along with the cakes, he shall offer leavened bread with his thank offering of peace offerings.
Leviticus 7:14  Out of the whole offering he shall present one of each kind as a heave offering to the LORD. It shall belong to the priest who sprinkles the blood of the peace offerings.
Leviticus 7:15  The meat of his thank offering of peace offerings must be eaten on the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until the morning.
Leviticus 7:16  But if his sacrifice is because of a vow, or is a freewill offering, it shall be eaten on the day he offers his sacrifice. What is left of it may also be eaten the next day.
Leviticus 7:17  But whatever meat of the sacrifice is left on the third day shall be burned with fire.
Leviticus 7:18  If any of the meat of his peace offerings is eaten at all on the third day, it will not be accepted. It will not be counted to the one who offered it. It shall be a disgusting thing, and the person who eats it shall bear his guilt.
Leviticus 7:19  Meat that touches anything unclean must not be eaten. It shall be burned with fire. As for the other meat, everyone who is clean may eat it.
Leviticus 7:20  But the person who eats the meat of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which belongs to the LORD, while he is unclean, that person shall be cut off from his people.
Leviticus 7:21  And if anyone touches something unclean, whether the uncleanness of a man, or any unclean animal, or any disgusting unclean thing, and then eats the meat of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which belongs to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people.
Leviticus 7:22  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 7:23  "Speak to the children of Israel and say, 'You shall eat no fat at all, whether of ox, or of sheep, or of goat."
Leviticus 7:24  The fat of an animal that dies by itself, and the fat of one torn by wild animals, may be used for any other purpose, but you must never eat it.
Leviticus 7:25  For whoever eats the fat of an animal from which men offer an offering made by fire to the LORD, that person shall be cut off from his people.
Leviticus 7:26  You shall eat no blood at all, whether of bird or of animal, in any of your homes.
Leviticus 7:27  "Whoever eats any blood shall be cut off from his people.'"
Leviticus 7:28  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 7:29  "Speak to the children of Israel and say, 'Whoever offers the sacrifice of his peace offerings to the LORD shall bring his gift to the LORD from the sacrifice of his peace offerings."
Leviticus 7:30  With his own hands he shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire. He shall bring the fat with the breast, so that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the LORD.
Leviticus 7:31  The priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall belong to Aaron and his sons.
Leviticus 7:32  You shall give the right shoulder to the priest as a heave offering from the sacrifices of your peace offerings.
Leviticus 7:33  The one among the sons of Aaron who offers the blood of the peace offerings and the fat shall have the right shoulder as his share.
Leviticus 7:34  "For I have taken the breast that is waved and the shoulder that is lifted up from the children of Israel, from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and I have given them to Aaron the priest and to his sons as a lasting rule among the children of Israel.'"
Leviticus 7:35  This is the share for Aaron and for his sons, given at their anointing, from the offerings of the LORD made by fire, on the day when he presented them to serve the LORD as priests.
Leviticus 7:36  The LORD commanded that this be given to them by the children of Israel, on the day that he anointed them. It is a lasting rule through all their generations.
Leviticus 7:37  This is the law of the burnt offering, of the food offering, of the sin offering, of the trespass offering, of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings,
Leviticus 7:38  which the LORD commanded Moses on Mount Sinai, on the day that he commanded the children of Israel to bring their offerings to the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.

Leviticus 8:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Leviticus 8:2  "Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the clothes, and the anointing oil, and a young bull for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of bread made without yeast."
Leviticus 8:3  "And gather all the people together at the door of the tent of meeting."
Leviticus 8:4  Moses did as the LORD commanded him. The people were gathered together at the door of the tent of meeting.
Leviticus 8:5  Moses said to the people, "This is what the LORD has commanded to be done."
Leviticus 8:6  Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward, and washed them with water.
Leviticus 8:7  He put the coat on Aaron and tied the sash round him. He clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him. He tied the skilfully woven band of the ephod round him, fastening the ephod to him with it.
Leviticus 8:8  He put the breastplate on him. In the breastplate he put the Urim and the Thummim.
Leviticus 8:9  He put the turban on Aaron's head. On the turban, at the front, he put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Leviticus 8:10  Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tent of meeting and everything in it, and made them holy.
Leviticus 8:11  He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times. He anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the basin and its stand, to make them holy.
Leviticus 8:12  He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him, to make him holy.
Leviticus 8:13  Moses brought Aaron's sons forward. He put coats on them, tied sashes round them, and put headdresses on them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Leviticus 8:14  He brought the young bull for the sin offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull for the sin offering.
Leviticus 8:15  Moses killed it. He took the blood and put it with his finger on the horns of the altar all round, and cleansed the altar. He poured out the blood at the base of the altar and made it holy, so that atonement could be made on it.
Leviticus 8:16  He took all the fat that was on the inner parts, and the covering of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and Moses burned them on the altar.
Leviticus 8:17  But the bull, with its hide, its flesh and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Leviticus 8:18  He brought the ram for the burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.
Leviticus 8:19  Moses killed it, and sprinkled the blood on the altar all round.
Leviticus 8:20  He cut the ram into pieces, and Moses burned the head, the pieces and the fat.
Leviticus 8:21  He washed the inner parts and the legs in water. Then Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt sacrifice, a pleasing smell, an offering made by fire to the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Leviticus 8:22  He brought the other ram, the ram for setting the priests apart. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram.
Leviticus 8:23  Moses killed it. He took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.
Leviticus 8:24  He brought Aaron's sons forward, and Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then Moses sprinkled the blood on the altar all round.
Leviticus 8:25  He took the fat, and the fat tail, and all the fat that was on the inner parts, and the covering of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and the right shoulder.
Leviticus 8:26  Out of the basket of bread made without yeast, which was before the LORD, he took one flat cake, and one cake of bread made with oil, and one thin wafer. He put them on the fat and on the right shoulder.
Leviticus 8:27  He put all of it into Aaron's hands and into his sons' hands, and waved them as a wave offering before the LORD.
Leviticus 8:28  Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering. They were an offering for setting the priests apart, a pleasing smell. It is an offering made by fire to the LORD.
Leviticus 8:29  Moses took the breast and waved it as a wave offering before the LORD. It was Moses' share of the ram for setting the priests apart, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Leviticus 8:30  Moses took some of the anointing oil, and some of the blood that was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron and on his clothes, and on his sons and on his sons' clothes with him. So he made Aaron holy, and his clothes, and his sons, and his sons' clothes with him.
Leviticus 8:31  Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, "Boil the meat at the door of the tent of meeting. Eat it there with the bread that is in the basket for setting the priests apart, as I commanded, saying, 'Aaron and his sons shall eat it.'"
Leviticus 8:32  "Whatever is left of the meat and of the bread you shall burn with fire."
Leviticus 8:33  "You shall not go out of the door of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days for setting you apart are finished. For seven days he will set you apart."
Leviticus 8:34  "What has been done this day, the LORD has commanded to be done, to make atonement for you."
Leviticus 8:35  "So you shall stay at the door of the tent of meeting day and night for seven days, and keep what the LORD has charged you to keep, so that you do not die. For this is what I have been commanded."
Leviticus 8:36  So Aaron and his sons did everything the LORD commanded through Moses.

Leviticus 9:1  On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons, and the elders of Israel.
Leviticus 9:2  He said to Aaron, "Take a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, both without any flaw, and offer them before the LORD."
Leviticus 9:3  "And say to the children of Israel, 'Take a young goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both a year old and without any flaw, for a burnt offering;"
Leviticus 9:4  "also a bull and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the LORD, and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.'"
Leviticus 9:5  So they brought what Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting. All the people came near and stood before the LORD.
Leviticus 9:6  Moses said, "This is the thing the LORD commanded you to do, and the glory of the LORD will appear to you."
Leviticus 9:7  Then Moses said to Aaron, "Go to the altar. Offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people. Then offer the people's offering and make atonement for them, as the LORD commanded."
Leviticus 9:8  So Aaron went to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.
Leviticus 9:9  The sons of Aaron brought the blood to him. He dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the base of the altar.
Leviticus 9:10  But the fat, the kidneys, and the covering above the liver of the sin offering he burned on the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Leviticus 9:11  The flesh and the hide he burned with fire outside the camp.
Leviticus 9:12  He killed the burnt offering, and Aaron's sons handed him the blood, and he sprinkled it all around on the altar.
Leviticus 9:13  They handed him the burnt offering, piece by piece, and the head, and he burned them on the altar.
Leviticus 9:14  He washed the inner parts and the legs, and burned them on top of the burnt offering on the altar.
Leviticus 9:15  Then he brought the people's offering. He took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and killed it, and offered it for sin, as he had done with the first one.
Leviticus 9:16  He brought the burnt offering and offered it in the way that was commanded.
Leviticus 9:17  He brought the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar, besides the burnt sacrifice of the morning.
Leviticus 9:18  He also killed the bull and the ram as a sacrifice of peace offerings for the people. Aaron's sons handed him the blood, and he sprinkled it all around on the altar.
Leviticus 9:19  They also brought the fat of the bull and of the ram, the fat tail, the fat that covers the inner parts, the kidneys, and the covering above the liver.
Leviticus 9:20  They put the fat on the breasts, and he burned the fat on the altar.
Leviticus 9:21  Aaron waved the breasts and the right shoulder before the LORD as a wave offering, as Moses commanded.
Leviticus 9:22  Then Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people and blessed them. He came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings.
Leviticus 9:23  Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.
Leviticus 9:24  Fire came out from before the LORD and burned up the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Leviticus 10:1  Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer. They put fire in it, and put incense on the fire. Then they offered strange fire before the LORD, which he had not commanded them.
Leviticus 10:2  Fire came out from the LORD and burned them up, and they died before the LORD.
Leviticus 10:3  Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke about when he said, 'I will be treated as holy by those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.'" And Aaron said nothing.
Leviticus 10:4  Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, Aaron's uncle, and said to them, "Come here. Carry your brothers away from the front of the holy place, out of the camp."
Leviticus 10:5  So they came near and carried them out of the camp in their coats, as Moses had said.
Leviticus 10:6  Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, "Do not uncover your heads, and do not tear your clothes. If you do, you will die, and anger will come on all the people. But let your brothers and sisters, the whole house of Israel, weep for the burning which the LORD has started."
Leviticus 10:7  "And do not go out from the door of the tent of meeting, or you will die, for the anointing oil of the LORD is on you." And they did what Moses said.
Leviticus 10:8  The LORD spoke to Aaron and said,
Leviticus 10:9  "Do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you, when you go into the tent of meeting, or you will die. This is a law for ever, through all your generations,"
Leviticus 10:10  "so that you may know the difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean,"
Leviticus 10:11  "and so that you may teach the children of Israel all the laws which the LORD has spoken to them through Moses."
Leviticus 10:12  Moses spoke to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons who were left, "Take the grain offering that is left from the offerings of the LORD made by fire, and eat it without yeast beside the altar, for it is most holy."
Leviticus 10:13  "You shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your share and your sons' share of the offerings of the LORD made by fire. This is what I have been commanded."
Leviticus 10:14  "And the breast that is waved and the shoulder that is lifted up you shall eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you. They are your share and your sons' share, given out of the peace offerings of the children of Israel."
Leviticus 10:15  "They shall bring the shoulder that is lifted up and the breast that is waved, along with the offerings of the fat made by fire, to wave it as a wave offering before the LORD. It shall be yours and your sons' with you, by a law for ever, as the LORD has commanded."
Leviticus 10:16  Moses looked carefully for the goat of the sin offering, and look, it had been burned up. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, the sons of Aaron who were still alive, and he said,
Leviticus 10:17  "Why have you not eaten the sin offering in the holy place? It is most holy, and God has given it to you to carry away the sin of the people, to make atonement for them before the LORD."
Leviticus 10:18  "Look, its blood was not brought inside the holy place. You should have eaten it in the holy place, as I commanded."
Leviticus 10:19  Aaron said to Moses, "Look, today they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the LORD, and such things as these have happened to me. If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have pleased the LORD?"
Leviticus 10:20  When Moses heard that, he was satisfied.

Leviticus 11:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron. He said to them,
Leviticus 11:2  "Speak to the children of Israel and say, 'These are the creatures you may eat, out of all the animals that are on the earth."
Leviticus 11:3  "'Among the animals, you may eat any that has a split hoof, divided in two, and that chews the cud."
Leviticus 11:4  "'But of those that chew the cud, or that have a split hoof, you must not eat these: the camel, because it chews the cud but its hoof is not split. It is unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:5  "'And the coney, because it chews the cud but its hoof is not split. It is unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:6  "'And the hare, because it chews the cud but its hoof is not split. It is unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:7  "'And the pig, because its hoof is split and divided in two, but it does not chew the cud. It is unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:8  "'You must not eat their flesh, and you must not touch their dead bodies. They are unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:9  "'Of all that live in the waters, you may eat these: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas and in the rivers, those you may eat."
Leviticus 11:10  "'But everything in the seas and in the rivers that has no fins and scales, among all that move in the waters and all the living things in the waters, they are detestable to you."
Leviticus 11:11  "'They are to be detestable to you. You must not eat their flesh, and you must treat their dead bodies as detestable."
Leviticus 11:12  "'Whatever has no fins or scales in the waters is detestable to you."
Leviticus 11:13  "'These are the birds you must treat as detestable. They must not be eaten, for they are detestable: the eagle, the ossifrage, the ospray,"
Leviticus 11:14  "'the vulture, and every kind of kite,"
Leviticus 11:15  "'every kind of raven,"
Leviticus 11:16  "'the owl, the night hawk, the cuckow, and every kind of hawk,"
Leviticus 11:17  "'the little owl, the cormorant, the great owl,"
Leviticus 11:18  "'the swan, the pelican, the gier eagle,"
Leviticus 11:19  "'the stork, every kind of heron, the lapwing, and the bat."
Leviticus 11:20  "'All winged creatures that creep about on all four feet are detestable to you."
Leviticus 11:21  "'Yet of all the winged creeping things that go on all four feet, you may eat these: the ones that have legs joined above their feet, for leaping on the ground."
Leviticus 11:22  "'You may eat these of them: every kind of locust, every kind of bald locust, every kind of beetle, and every kind of grasshopper."
Leviticus 11:23  "'But all other flying creeping things that have four feet are detestable to you."
Leviticus 11:24  "'By these you will become unclean. Whoever touches their dead bodies will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 11:25  "'And whoever carries any part of their dead bodies must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 11:26  "'The dead bodies of every animal that has a hoof, but not split in two, and does not chew the cud, are unclean for you. Everyone who touches them will be unclean."
Leviticus 11:27  "'Among all the animals that go on all four feet, those that go on their paws are unclean for you. Whoever touches their dead bodies will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 11:28  "'And the one who carries their dead bodies must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening. They are unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:29  "'Among the creeping things that creep on the earth, these are unclean for you: the weasel, the mouse, and every kind of tortoise,"
Leviticus 11:30  "'the ferret, the chameleon, the lizard, the snail, and the mole."
Leviticus 11:31  "'Among all that creep, these are unclean for you. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 11:32  "'Anything that one of them falls on when it is dead will be unclean. This is true of any vessel of wood, or clothing, or skin, or sack. Whatever vessel it is that work is done with, it must be put into water, and it will be unclean until evening. Then it will be clean."
Leviticus 11:33  "'If any of them falls into a clay pot, everything in it will be unclean, and you must break the pot."
Leviticus 11:34  "'Any food that may be eaten, if such water comes on it, will be unclean. And any drink that may be drunk from any such vessel will be unclean."
Leviticus 11:35  "'Anything that any part of their dead bodies falls on will be unclean. Whether it is an oven or a stand for pots, it must be broken down. They are unclean, and they will be unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:36  "'But a spring or a pit where there is plenty of water will stay clean. Yet whatever touches their dead bodies will be unclean."
Leviticus 11:37  "'If any part of their dead bodies falls on any seed for sowing, that seed is clean."
Leviticus 11:38  "'But if water has been put on the seed, and any part of their dead bodies falls on it, it is unclean for you."
Leviticus 11:39  "'If any animal that you may eat dies, whoever touches its dead body will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 11:40  "'The one who eats any of its dead body must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening. The one who carries its dead body must also wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 11:41  "'Every creeping thing that creeps on the earth is detestable. It must not be eaten."
Leviticus 11:42  "'Whatever goes on its belly, and whatever goes on all four feet, and whatever has many feet, among all the creeping things that creep on the earth, you must not eat them, for they are detestable."
Leviticus 11:43  "'Do not make yourselves detestable with any creeping thing that creeps. Do not make yourselves unclean with them, so that you become defiled by them."
Leviticus 11:44  "'For I am the LORD your God. So set yourselves apart, and be holy, for I am holy. Do not defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Leviticus 11:45  "'For I am the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. So you must be holy, for I am holy."
Leviticus 11:46  "'This is the law about the animals, and the birds, and every living creature that moves in the waters, and every creature that creeps on the earth."
Leviticus 11:47  "'It is to make a difference between the unclean and the clean, and between the creature that may be eaten and the creature that may not be eaten.'"

Leviticus 12:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Leviticus 12:2  "Speak to the children of Israel. Say to them: If a woman conceives and gives birth to a boy, she will be unclean for seven days. She will be unclean just as she is in the days of her separation when she is unwell."
Leviticus 12:3  "And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy's foreskin shall be circumcised."
Leviticus 12:4  "Then she shall remain in the blood of her purifying for thirty-three days. She must not touch any holy thing, and she must not come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying are complete."
Leviticus 12:5  "But if she gives birth to a girl, then she will be unclean for two weeks, as in her separation. And she shall remain in the blood of her purifying for sixty-six days."
Leviticus 12:6  "When the days of her purifying are complete, whether for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, a lamb of the first year for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering."
Leviticus 12:7  "The priest shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for the woman who has given birth to a boy or a girl."
Leviticus 12:8  "And if she is not able to bring a lamb, then she shall bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons. One is for the burnt offering, and the other for a sin offering. The priest shall make atonement for her, and she shall be clean."

Leviticus 13:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said,
Leviticus 13:2  "When a man has a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot on the skin of his body, and it looks like the disease of leprosy on his skin, he must be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests."
Leviticus 13:3  The priest must look at the sore on the skin. If the hair in the sore has turned white, and the sore looks deeper than the skin, it is the disease of leprosy. When the priest has looked at him, he must say that the man is unclean.
Leviticus 13:4  But if the bright spot on his skin is white, and does not look deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, then the priest must shut the man away for seven days.
Leviticus 13:5  On the seventh day the priest must look at him. If the sore looks the same as before, and has not spread on the skin, the priest must shut him away for seven more days.
Leviticus 13:6  On the seventh day the priest must look at him again. If the sore has faded, and has not spread on the skin, the priest must say that he is clean. It is only a scab. The man must wash his clothes, and he will be clean.
Leviticus 13:7  But if the scab spreads widely on the skin after he has shown himself to the priest to be made clean, he must show himself to the priest again.
Leviticus 13:8  If the priest sees that the scab has spread on the skin, then the priest must say that he is unclean. It is leprosy.
Leviticus 13:9  When the disease of leprosy is on a man, he must be brought to the priest.
Leviticus 13:10  The priest must look at him. If there is a white swelling on the skin, and it has turned the hair white, and there is raw flesh in the swelling,
Leviticus 13:11  it is an old leprosy in the skin of his body. The priest must say that he is unclean. He must not shut him away, for the man is unclean.
Leviticus 13:12  If the leprosy breaks out widely on the skin, and covers all the skin of the one with the disease, from his head to his foot, everywhere the priest looks,
Leviticus 13:13  then the priest must consider it. If the leprosy has covered all his body, the priest must say that the man with the disease is clean. It has all turned white. He is clean.
Leviticus 13:14  But when raw flesh appears on him, he will be unclean.
Leviticus 13:15  The priest must look at the raw flesh and say that he is unclean. The raw flesh is unclean. It is leprosy.
Leviticus 13:16  Or if the raw flesh changes again and turns white, the man must come to the priest.
Leviticus 13:17  The priest must look at him. If the sore has turned white, then the priest must say that the man with the disease is clean. He is clean.
Leviticus 13:18  If a person had a boil on his skin, and it is healed,
Leviticus 13:19  and in the place of the boil there is a white swelling, or a bright spot that is white and somewhat red, it must be shown to the priest.
Leviticus 13:20  When the priest looks at it, if it seems lower than the skin, and the hair in it has turned white, then the priest must say that he is unclean. It is the disease of leprosy breaking out of the boil.
Leviticus 13:21  But if the priest looks at it, and there are no white hairs in it, and it is not lower than the skin, but has faded, then the priest must shut him away for seven days.
Leviticus 13:22  If it spreads widely on the skin, then the priest must say that he is unclean. It is the disease.
Leviticus 13:23  But if the bright spot stays where it is and does not spread, it is the scar of the boil. The priest must say that he is clean.
Leviticus 13:24  Or if someone has a burn on his skin, and the raw flesh of the burn has a bright spot that is white and somewhat red, or white,
Leviticus 13:25  then the priest must look at it. If the hair in the bright spot has turned white, and the spot looks deeper than the skin, it is leprosy breaking out of the burn. So the priest must say that he is unclean. It is the disease of leprosy.
Leviticus 13:26  But if the priest looks at it, and there is no white hair in the bright spot, and it is not lower than the rest of the skin, but has faded, then the priest must shut him away for seven days.
Leviticus 13:27  On the seventh day the priest must look at him. If it has spread widely on the skin, then the priest must say that he is unclean. It is the disease of leprosy.
Leviticus 13:28  But if the bright spot stays where it is, and has not spread on the skin, but has faded, it is a swelling from the burn. The priest must say that he is clean, for it is only the mark of the burn.
Leviticus 13:29  If a man or a woman has a sore on the head or in the beard,
Leviticus 13:30  then the priest must look at the sore. If it looks deeper than the skin, and there is thin yellow hair in it, then the priest must say that the person is unclean. It is a dry scall, a leprosy of the head or the beard.
Leviticus 13:31  But if the priest looks at the sore of the scall, and it does not look deeper than the skin, and there is no black hair in it, then the priest must shut away the person with the scall for seven days.
Leviticus 13:32  On the seventh day the priest must look at the sore. If the scall has not spread, and there is no yellow hair in it, and the scall does not look deeper than the skin,
Leviticus 13:33  then the person must be shaved, but he must not shave the scall. The priest must shut away the person with the scall for seven more days.
Leviticus 13:34  On the seventh day the priest must look at the scall. If the scall has not spread on the skin, and does not look deeper than the skin, then the priest must say that he is clean. He must wash his clothes, and he will be clean.
Leviticus 13:35  But if the scall spreads widely on the skin after he has been made clean,
Leviticus 13:36  then the priest must look at him. If the scall has spread on the skin, the priest need not look for yellow hair. The man is unclean.
Leviticus 13:37  But if the scall looks the same as before, and black hair has grown in it, the scall is healed. He is clean, and the priest must say that he is clean.
Leviticus 13:38  If a man or a woman has bright spots on the skin of the body, white bright spots,
Leviticus 13:39  then the priest must look. If the bright spots on the skin are a dull white, it is a harmless rash that has grown on the skin. The person is clean.
Leviticus 13:40  If a man's hair has fallen from his head, he is bald, but he is clean.
Leviticus 13:41  If his hair has fallen from the front of his head, he is bald on the forehead, but he is clean.
Leviticus 13:42  But if there is a white and reddish sore on the bald head or the bald forehead, it is leprosy breaking out on his bald head or his bald forehead.
Leviticus 13:43  Then the priest must look at it. If the swelling of the sore is white and reddish on his bald head or his bald forehead, like leprosy on the skin of the body,
Leviticus 13:44  he is a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest must say that he is completely unclean. His disease is on his head.
Leviticus 13:45  The leper who has the disease must wear torn clothes, and leave his head uncovered. He must cover his upper lip, and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.'
Leviticus 13:46  As long as the disease is on him he will be defiled. He is unclean. He must live alone. His home must be outside the camp.
Leviticus 13:47  If the disease of leprosy is in a piece of clothing, whether woollen clothing or linen clothing,
Leviticus 13:48  or in the warp or the woof of linen or wool, or in a skin, or in anything made of skin,
Leviticus 13:49  and if the mark is greenish or reddish in the clothing, or in the skin, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything made of skin, it is the disease of leprosy, and it must be shown to the priest.
Leviticus 13:50  The priest must look at the mark, and shut away the thing that has the mark for seven days.
Leviticus 13:51  On the seventh day he must look at the mark. If the mark has spread in the clothing, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in a skin, or in anything made of skin, the mark is an eating leprosy. It is unclean.
Leviticus 13:52  So he must burn the clothing, whether warp or woof, in wool or in linen, or anything of skin that has the mark in it. It is an eating leprosy. It must be burned in the fire.
Leviticus 13:53  But if the priest looks, and the mark has not spread in the clothing, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything made of skin,
Leviticus 13:54  then the priest must command them to wash the thing that has the mark, and he must shut it away for seven more days.
Leviticus 13:55  The priest must look at the mark after it has been washed. If the mark has not changed colour, and has not spread, it is unclean. You must burn it in the fire. It is eaten away, whether the bare place is on the inside or the outside.
Leviticus 13:56  But if the priest looks, and the mark has faded after it was washed, then he must tear it out of the clothing, or out of the skin, or out of the warp, or out of the woof.
Leviticus 13:57  If it still appears in the clothing, or in the warp, or in the woof, or in anything made of skin, it is spreading. You must burn with fire the thing that has the mark in it.
Leviticus 13:58  As for the clothing, whether warp or woof, or anything made of skin, which you wash, if the mark is gone from it, then it must be washed a second time, and it will be clean.
Leviticus 13:59  "This is the law for the disease of leprosy in clothing of wool or linen, in the warp or the woof, or in anything made of skins, to say that it is clean, or to say that it is unclean."

Leviticus 14:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Leviticus 14:2  "This is the law for the leper on the day he is made clean. He shall be brought to the priest."
Leviticus 14:3  "The priest shall go outside the camp. The priest shall look at him, and if the disease of leprosy in the leper is healed,"
Leviticus 14:4  "then the priest shall give orders to take, for the one who is to be made clean, two living clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop."
Leviticus 14:5  "The priest shall give orders that one of the birds be killed in a clay pot over running water."
Leviticus 14:6  "He shall take the living bird, with the cedar wood, the scarlet, and the hyssop. He shall dip them and the living bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the running water."
Leviticus 14:7  "He shall sprinkle it seven times on the one who is to be made clean from the leprosy. He shall declare him clean, and let the living bird go free into the open field."
Leviticus 14:8  "The one who is to be made clean shall wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and wash himself in water. Then he will be clean. After that he may come into the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days."
Leviticus 14:9  "On the seventh day he shall shave off all the hair of his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair. He shall wash his clothes and wash his body in water, and he will be clean."
Leviticus 14:10  "On the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one female lamb a year old without blemish, and three tenth measures of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil."
Leviticus 14:11  "The priest who makes him clean shall set the man who is to be made clean, and these things, before the LORD at the door of the tent of meeting."
Leviticus 14:12  "The priest shall take one male lamb and offer it as a trespass offering, with the log of oil. He shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD."
Leviticus 14:13  "He shall kill the lamb in the place where the sin offering and the burnt offering are killed, in the holy place. The trespass offering belongs to the priest, just as the sin offering does. It is most holy."
Leviticus 14:14  "The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering. He shall put it on the tip of the right ear of the man who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot."
Leviticus 14:15  "The priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand."
Leviticus 14:16  "The priest shall dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand. With his finger he shall sprinkle some of the oil seven times before the LORD."
Leviticus 14:17  "Some of the oil that is left in his hand the priest shall put on the tip of the right ear of the man who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the trespass offering."
Leviticus 14:18  "The rest of the oil in the priest's hand he shall pour on the head of the man who is to be made clean. So the priest shall make atonement for him before the LORD."
Leviticus 14:19  "The priest shall offer the sin offering and make atonement for the man who is to be made clean from his uncleanness. After that he shall kill the burnt offering."
Leviticus 14:20  "The priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. So the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be clean."
Leviticus 14:21  "If he is poor and cannot afford so much, then he shall take one lamb for a trespass offering to be waved, to make atonement for him, and one tenth measure of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, and a log of oil,"
Leviticus 14:22  "and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever he can afford. One shall be a sin offering and the other a burnt offering."
Leviticus 14:23  "On the eighth day he shall bring them to the priest for his cleansing, to the door of the tent of meeting, before the LORD."
Leviticus 14:24  "The priest shall take the lamb of the trespass offering and the log of oil, and the priest shall wave them as a wave offering before the LORD."
Leviticus 14:25  "He shall kill the lamb of the trespass offering. The priest shall take some of the blood of the trespass offering and put it on the tip of the right ear of the man who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot."
Leviticus 14:26  "The priest shall pour some of the oil into the palm of his own left hand."
Leviticus 14:27  "With his right finger the priest shall sprinkle some of the oil that is in his left hand seven times before the LORD."
Leviticus 14:28  "The priest shall put some of the oil in his hand on the tip of the right ear of the man who is to be made clean, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot, on the place where the blood of the trespass offering was put."
Leviticus 14:29  "The rest of the oil in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of the man who is to be made clean, to make atonement for him before the LORD."
Leviticus 14:30  "He shall offer one of the turtledoves or one of the young pigeons, whichever he can afford,"
Leviticus 14:31  "such as he is able to afford: one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, with the grain offering. So the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the man who is to be made clean."
Leviticus 14:32  "This is the law for the man who has the disease of leprosy and who cannot afford what is needed for his cleansing."
Leviticus 14:33  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron. He said,
Leviticus 14:34  "When you come into the land of Canaan, which I give you as your own, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house in the land you possess,"
Leviticus 14:35  "then the owner of the house shall come and tell the priest, 'It looks to me as if there is some kind of plague in the house.'"
Leviticus 14:36  "Then the priest shall give orders to empty the house before he goes in to look at the plague, so that everything in the house will not be made unclean. After that the priest shall go in to look at the house."
Leviticus 14:37  "He shall look at the plague. If the plague in the walls of the house is in hollow streaks, greenish or reddish, and they look deeper than the surface of the wall,"
Leviticus 14:38  "then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house, and shut the house up for seven days."
Leviticus 14:39  "The priest shall come again on the seventh day and look. If the plague has spread in the walls of the house,"
Leviticus 14:40  "then the priest shall give orders to take out the stones where the plague is, and to throw them into an unclean place outside the city."
Leviticus 14:41  "He shall have the house scraped all round on the inside, and the dust they scrape off shall be poured out into an unclean place outside the city."
Leviticus 14:42  "They shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones. He shall take other mortar and plaster the house."
Leviticus 14:43  "If the plague comes again and breaks out in the house after the stones have been taken out, and after the house has been scraped and plastered,"
Leviticus 14:44  "then the priest shall come and look. If the plague has spread in the house, it is an eating leprosy in the house. The house is unclean."
Leviticus 14:45  "He shall pull down the house, its stones, its timber, and all the mortar of the house. He shall carry them out of the city to an unclean place."
Leviticus 14:46  "Anyone who goes into the house while it is shut up shall be unclean until the evening."
Leviticus 14:47  "Anyone who sleeps in the house shall wash his clothes, and anyone who eats in the house shall wash his clothes."
Leviticus 14:48  "But if the priest comes in and looks at it, and the plague has not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall declare the house clean, because the plague is healed."
Leviticus 14:49  "To cleanse the house he shall take two birds, cedar wood, scarlet, and hyssop."
Leviticus 14:50  "He shall kill one of the birds in a clay pot over running water."
Leviticus 14:51  "He shall take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet, and the living bird, and dip them in the blood of the killed bird and in the running water, and sprinkle the house seven times."
Leviticus 14:52  "So he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, with the running water, with the living bird, with the cedar wood, with the hyssop, and with the scarlet."
Leviticus 14:53  "But he shall let the living bird go free out of the city into the open fields. So he shall make atonement for the house, and it will be clean."
Leviticus 14:54  "This is the law for every kind of plague of leprosy, and for scall,"
Leviticus 14:55  "and for the leprosy of a garment and of a house,"
Leviticus 14:56  "and for a swelling, and for a scab, and for a bright spot,"
Leviticus 14:57  "to teach when a thing is unclean and when it is clean. This is the law of leprosy."

Leviticus 15:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said,
Leviticus 15:2  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When any man has a discharge running from his body, that discharge makes him unclean."
Leviticus 15:3  "This is how his discharge makes him unclean: whether his body lets the discharge flow, or whether his body is blocked and it does not flow, he is unclean."
Leviticus 15:4  "Every bed that the man with the discharge lies on is unclean. Everything he sits on is unclean."
Leviticus 15:5  "Anyone who touches his bed must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:6  "Anyone who sits on something that the man with the discharge sat on must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:7  "Anyone who touches the body of the man with the discharge must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:8  "If the man with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, that person must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:9  "Any saddle that the man with the discharge rides on will be unclean."
Leviticus 15:10  "Anyone who touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening. Anyone who carries such things must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:11  "If the man with the discharge touches someone without first rinsing his hands in water, that person must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:12  "Any clay pot that the man with the discharge touches must be broken. Every wooden container must be rinsed in water."
Leviticus 15:13  "When the man with the discharge becomes clean from it, he must count seven days for his cleansing. Then he must wash his clothes and bathe his body in running water, and he will be clean."
Leviticus 15:14  "On the eighth day he must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons. He must come before the LORD to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation and give them to the priest."
Leviticus 15:15  "The priest will offer them, one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. So the priest will make atonement for him before the LORD because of his discharge."
Leviticus 15:16  "If a man has an emission of semen, he must wash his whole body in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:17  "Every garment and every piece of leather that has semen on it must be washed with water, and it will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:18  "When a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both of them must bathe themselves in water, and they will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:19  "When a woman has a discharge, and the discharge from her body is blood, she must be kept apart for seven days. Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:20  "Everything she lies on during this time will be unclean. Everything she sits on will be unclean as well."
Leviticus 15:21  "Anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:22  "Anyone who touches anything she has sat on must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:23  "If something is on her bed, or on anything she sits on, whoever touches it will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:24  "If any man lies with her and her monthly flow comes on him, he will be unclean for seven days. Every bed he lies on will be unclean."
Leviticus 15:25  "If a woman has a flow of blood for many days when it is not the time of her monthly flow, or if it goes on past that time, then all the days of her unclean discharge will be like the days of her monthly flow. She is unclean."
Leviticus 15:26  "Every bed she lies on during all the days of her discharge will be to her like the bed she lies on in her monthly flow. Whatever she sits on will be unclean, as in the uncleanness of her monthly flow."
Leviticus 15:27  "Anyone who touches those things will be unclean. He must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and he will be unclean until evening."
Leviticus 15:28  "But when she becomes clean from her discharge, she must count seven days, and after that she will be clean."
Leviticus 15:29  "On the eighth day she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Leviticus 15:30  "The priest will offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. So the priest will make atonement for her before the LORD because of her unclean discharge."
Leviticus 15:31  "In this way you shall keep the children of Israel away from their uncleanness, so that they do not die in their uncleanness by making my tabernacle unclean, which is among them."
Leviticus 15:32  "This is the law for the man who has a discharge, and for the man who has an emission of semen and is made unclean by it,"
Leviticus 15:33  "and for the woman who is unwell with her monthly flow, and for anyone who has a discharge, whether man or woman, and for the man who lies with a woman who is unclean.'"

Leviticus 16:1  The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, who died when they offered before the LORD.
Leviticus 16:2  The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to Aaron your brother. Tell him that he must not come at just any time into the holy place inside the veil, in front of the mercy seat that is on the ark. If he does, he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat."
Leviticus 16:3  "This is how Aaron shall come into the holy place: with a young bull for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering."
Leviticus 16:4  "He shall put on the holy linen coat. He shall wear the linen trousers on his body. He shall tie a linen belt around him, and wear the linen turban on his head. These are holy clothes. So he shall wash his body in water, and then put them on."
Leviticus 16:5  "He shall take from the community of the children of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering."
Leviticus 16:6  "Aaron shall offer the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his household."
Leviticus 16:7  "He shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Leviticus 16:8  "Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats. One lot shall be for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat."
Leviticus 16:9  "Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD's lot fell, and offer it for a sin offering."
Leviticus 16:10  "But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement with it. Then it shall be let go into the wilderness as the scapegoat."
Leviticus 16:11  "Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his household. He shall kill the bull of the sin offering which is for himself."
Leviticus 16:12  "He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it inside the veil."
Leviticus 16:13  "He shall put the incense on the fire before the LORD, so that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony. Then he will not die."
Leviticus 16:14  "He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat, on the east side. In front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times."
Leviticus 16:15  "Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil. He shall do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and in front of the mercy seat."
Leviticus 16:16  "So he shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their wrongdoing in all their sins. He shall do the same for the tabernacle of the congregation, which stays among them in the middle of their uncleanness."
Leviticus 16:17  "No one shall be in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goes in to make atonement in the holy place, until he comes out. He shall make atonement for himself, for his household, and for all the community of Israel."
Leviticus 16:18  "Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat, and put it on the horns of the altar all around."
Leviticus 16:19  "He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times. So he shall cleanse it and make it holy from the uncleanness of the children of Israel."
Leviticus 16:20  "When he has finished making atonement for the holy place, the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat."
Leviticus 16:21  "Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the sins of the children of Israel, and all their wrongdoing in all their sins. He shall put them on the head of the goat, and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man chosen for the task."
Leviticus 16:22  "The goat shall carry all their sins on itself to a land where no one lives. And the man shall let the goat go in the wilderness."
Leviticus 16:23  "Then Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation. He shall take off the linen clothes which he put on when he went into the holy place, and leave them there."
Leviticus 16:24  "He shall wash his body with water in the holy place, and put on his own clothes. Then he shall come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people, and make atonement for himself and for the people."
Leviticus 16:25  "He shall burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar."
Leviticus 16:26  "The man who let go the goat as the scapegoat shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may come into the camp."
Leviticus 16:27  "The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall be carried outside the camp. Their skins, their flesh, and their dung shall be burned in the fire."
Leviticus 16:28  "The man who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may come into the camp."
Leviticus 16:29  "This shall be a law for you for ever: in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall humble yourselves and do no work at all. This is for anyone born in your own country, and for the stranger who lives among you."
Leviticus 16:30  "For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, so that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD."
Leviticus 16:31  "It shall be a sabbath of rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. This is a law for ever."
Leviticus 16:32  "The priest who is anointed and set apart to serve as priest in his father's place shall make the atonement. He shall put on the linen clothes, the holy clothes."
Leviticus 16:33  "He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary. He shall make atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation and for the altar. He shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the community."
Leviticus 16:34  "This shall be a law for you for ever, to make atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year." And Aaron did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Leviticus 17:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 17:2  "Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them: This is what the LORD has commanded."
Leviticus 17:3  "If any man of the house of Israel kills an ox, or a lamb, or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp,"
Leviticus 17:4  "and does not bring it to the door of the tent of meeting to offer it as an offering to the LORD, in front of the LORD's tent, that man will be held guilty of blood. He has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people."
Leviticus 17:5  "This is so that the children of Israel will bring their sacrifices, which they now offer out in the open field. They must bring them to the LORD, to the door of the tent of meeting, to the priest, and offer them as peace offerings to the LORD."
Leviticus 17:6  "The priest shall sprinkle the blood on the altar of the LORD at the door of the tent of meeting, and burn the fat as a sweet smell to the LORD."
Leviticus 17:7  "They must no longer offer their sacrifices to devils, with whom they have been unfaithful. This shall be a law for ever for them, through all their generations."
Leviticus 17:8  "And you shall say to them: If any man of the house of Israel, or any of the foreigners who live among you, offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice,"
Leviticus 17:9  "and does not bring it to the door of the tent of meeting to offer it to the LORD, that man shall be cut off from among his people."
Leviticus 17:10  "If any man of the house of Israel, or any of the foreigners who live among you, eats any blood at all, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and I will cut him off from among his people."
Leviticus 17:11  "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul."
Leviticus 17:12  "That is why I said to the children of Israel, No one among you shall eat blood, and no foreigner who lives among you shall eat blood."
Leviticus 17:13  "If any of the children of Israel, or any of the foreigners who live among you, hunts and catches an animal or a bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust."
Leviticus 17:14  "For the blood of every creature is its life. That is why I said to the children of Israel, You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood. Whoever eats it shall be cut off."
Leviticus 17:15  "Anyone who eats an animal that died by itself, or that was torn by wild animals, whether he is one of your own people or a foreigner, must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. He will be unclean until the evening. Then he will be clean."
Leviticus 17:16  "But if he does not wash his clothes or bathe his body, then he shall bear his guilt."

Leviticus 18:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 18:2  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'I am the LORD your God.'"
Leviticus 18:3  "You must not do as they do in the land of Egypt, where you lived. You must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their rules."
Leviticus 18:4  "You shall do what I have decided and keep my rules, and live by them. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 18:5  "So you shall keep my laws and my judgments. If a man does them, he shall live by them. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 18:6  "None of you shall come near to any close relative of his to uncover their nakedness. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 18:7  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, or the nakedness of your mother. She is your mother. You shall not uncover her nakedness."
Leviticus 18:8  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's wife. It is your father's nakedness."
Leviticus 18:9  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your sister, the daughter of your father or the daughter of your mother, whether she was born at home or born away from home."
Leviticus 18:10  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your son's daughter or of your daughter's daughter, for their nakedness is your own."
Leviticus 18:11  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father. She is your sister."
Leviticus 18:12  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's sister. She is your father's close relative."
Leviticus 18:13  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister, for she is your mother's close relative."
Leviticus 18:14  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father's brother. You shall not come near his wife. She is your aunt."
Leviticus 18:15  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife. You shall not uncover her nakedness."
Leviticus 18:16  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother's wife. It is your brother's nakedness."
Leviticus 18:17  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of a woman and her daughter. You shall not take her son's daughter or her daughter's daughter, to uncover her nakedness, for they are her close relatives. It is wickedness."
Leviticus 18:18  "You shall not take a woman as a rival to her sister, to uncover her nakedness while her sister is still alive."
Leviticus 18:19  "You shall not come near a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is set apart because she is unclean."
Leviticus 18:20  "You shall not have sexual relations with your neighbour's wife, and so make yourself unclean with her."
Leviticus 18:21  "You shall not let any of your children pass through the fire to Molech. You shall not treat the name of your God as common. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 18:22  "You shall not lie with a man as with a woman. It is a hateful thing."
Leviticus 18:23  "You shall not lie with any animal and make yourself unclean with it. No woman shall stand before an animal to lie down with it. It is a perversion."
Leviticus 18:24  "Do not make yourselves unclean in any of these ways. The nations that I am driving out before you made themselves unclean in all these ways,"
Leviticus 18:25  "and the land is unclean. So I punish it for its sin, and the land itself vomits out those who live in it."
Leviticus 18:26  "So you shall keep my laws and my judgments, and you shall not do any of these hateful things, neither one of your own people nor any stranger who lives among you."
Leviticus 18:27  "(For the men of the land who were there before you did all these hateful things, and the land became unclean.)"
Leviticus 18:28  "Then the land will not vomit you out also, when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nations that were there before you."
Leviticus 18:29  "For whoever does any of these hateful things, those who do them shall be cut off from among their people."
Leviticus 18:30  "So you shall keep my rule, and not follow any of these hateful customs that were followed before you came, and you shall not make yourselves unclean by them. I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 19:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Leviticus 19:2  "Speak to the whole community of the children of Israel, and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy."
Leviticus 19:3  "Each of you shall respect his mother and his father, and you shall keep my sabbaths. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:4  "Do not turn to idols, and do not make gods of melted metal for yourselves. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:5  "When you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, you shall offer it of your own free will."
Leviticus 19:6  "It shall be eaten on the same day you offer it, and on the next day. If any is left until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire."
Leviticus 19:7  "If any of it is eaten at all on the third day, it is disgusting. It will not be accepted."
Leviticus 19:8  "So everyone who eats it shall carry the weight of his sin, because he has treated the holy thing of the LORD as common. That person shall be cut off from among his people."
Leviticus 19:9  "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap right to the corners of your field, and you shall not gather what is left behind after your harvest."
Leviticus 19:10  "You shall not go over your vineyard a second time, or gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:11  "You shall not steal. You shall not cheat. You shall not lie to one another."
Leviticus 19:12  "You shall not swear falsely by my name, and so treat the name of your God as common. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:13  "You shall not cheat your neighbour, and you shall not rob him. The wages of a hired worker shall not stay with you all night until morning."
Leviticus 19:14  "You shall not curse the deaf, or put something in the way of the blind to trip them. You shall fear your God. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:15  "You shall do nothing unjust when you judge. You shall not favour the poor person, and you shall not give special honour to the powerful person. You shall judge your neighbour in righteousness."
Leviticus 19:16  "You shall not go about spreading tales among your people. You shall not stand by when your neighbour's blood is at stake. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:17  "You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall certainly correct your neighbour, and not let sin rest on him."
Leviticus 19:18  "You shall not take revenge, and you shall not hold a grudge against the children of your people. You shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:19  "You shall keep my laws. You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed. You shall not wear a garment made of linen and wool mixed together."
Leviticus 19:20  "If a man lies with a woman who is a slave girl, promised in marriage to a husband, and she has not been bought back or set free, she shall be punished with whipping. They shall not be put to death, because she was not free."
Leviticus 19:21  "He shall bring his trespass offering to the LORD, to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. It shall be a ram for a trespass offering."
Leviticus 19:22  "The priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD, for the sin he has done. And the sin he has done shall be forgiven him."
Leviticus 19:23  "When you come into the land and have planted all kinds of trees for food, you shall count their fruit as forbidden. For three years it shall be forbidden to you. It shall not be eaten."
Leviticus 19:24  "But in the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the LORD."
Leviticus 19:25  "In the fifth year you shall eat their fruit, so that the trees may give you more and more. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:26  "You shall not eat anything with the blood still in it. You shall not use magic spells, and you shall not look for signs in the times and seasons."
Leviticus 19:27  "You shall not cut the hair round the sides of your heads, and you shall not spoil the edges of your beard."
Leviticus 19:28  "You shall not make any cuts in your flesh for the dead, or mark your skin with tattoos. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:29  "Do not shame your daughter by making her a prostitute. If you do, the land will turn to prostitution and become full of wickedness."
Leviticus 19:30  "You shall keep my sabbaths, and treat my sanctuary with reverence. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:31  "Do not turn to those who talk with spirits, and do not go looking for wizards, so that they make you unclean. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:32  "You shall stand up in the presence of grey hair, and honour the face of the old man, and fear your God. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 19:33  "If a stranger lives with you in your land, you shall not treat him badly."
Leviticus 19:34  "The stranger who lives with you shall be to you like one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 19:35  "You shall do nothing unjust when you judge, or when you measure length, or weight, or amount."
Leviticus 19:36  "You shall have honest balances, honest weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt."
Leviticus 19:37  "So you shall keep all my laws and all my judgments, and do them. I am the LORD."

Leviticus 20:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 20:2  "Say this also to the children of Israel: Anyone of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him with stones."
Leviticus 20:3  "I will set my face against that man, and I will cut him off from among his people. For he has given his child to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name."
Leviticus 20:4  "And if the people of the land close their eyes in any way to that man when he gives his child to Molech, and do not kill him,"
Leviticus 20:5  "then I myself will set my face against that man and against his family. I will cut him off from among their people, and with him all who follow him in chasing after Molech like a prostitute."
Leviticus 20:6  "And if anyone turns to those who have familiar spirits, or to wizards, chasing after them like a prostitute, I will set my face against that person and cut him off from among his people."
Leviticus 20:7  "So make yourselves holy, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 20:8  "You shall keep my laws and do them. I am the LORD who makes you holy."
Leviticus 20:9  "Everyone who curses his father or his mother must be put to death. He has cursed his father or his mother. His blood is on his own head."
Leviticus 20:10  "If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, that is, with the wife of his neighbour, both the man and the woman must be put to death."
Leviticus 20:11  "If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness. Both of them must be put to death. Their blood is on their own heads."
Leviticus 20:12  "If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them must be put to death. They have done a confused and shameful thing. Their blood is on their own heads."
Leviticus 20:13  "If a man lies with a man as he lies with a woman, both of them have done something detestable. They must be put to death. Their blood is on their own heads."
Leviticus 20:14  "If a man takes both a wife and her mother, it is wickedness. He and they shall be burned with fire, so that there is no such wickedness among you."
Leviticus 20:15  "If a man lies with an animal, he must be put to death, and you shall kill the animal."
Leviticus 20:16  "If a woman goes near any animal and lies down with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal. They must be put to death. Their blood is on their own heads."
Leviticus 20:17  "If a man takes his sister, his father's daughter or his mother's daughter, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a shameful thing. They shall be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered his sister's nakedness. He shall carry his own guilt."
Leviticus 20:18  "If a man lies with a woman during her monthly bleeding and uncovers her nakedness, he has laid bare her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood. Both of them shall be cut off from among their people."
Leviticus 20:19  "You shall not uncover the nakedness of your mother's sister or of your father's sister, for that is to uncover a close relative. They shall carry their own guilt."
Leviticus 20:20  "If a man lies with his uncle's wife, he has uncovered his uncle's nakedness. They shall carry their sin. They shall die childless."
Leviticus 20:21  "If a man takes his brother's wife, it is an unclean thing. He has uncovered his brother's nakedness. They shall be childless."
Leviticus 20:22  "So you shall keep all my laws and all my judgments, and do them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live does not spit you out."
Leviticus 20:23  "You shall not live by the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you. They did all these things, and so I hated them."
Leviticus 20:24  "But I have said to you, 'You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.' I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from other peoples."
Leviticus 20:25  "So you shall make a difference between clean animals and unclean, and between unclean birds and clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by any animal, or bird, or any sort of living thing that creeps on the ground, which I have set apart from you as unclean."
Leviticus 20:26  "You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy, and I have separated you from other peoples so that you should be mine."
Leviticus 20:27  "A man or a woman who has a familiar spirit, or who is a wizard, must be put to death. They shall stone them with stones. Their blood is on their own heads."

Leviticus 21:1  The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, 'None of you is to make himself unclean for a dead person among his people,"
Leviticus 21:2  'except for a close relative: for his mother, his father, his son, his daughter, or his brother,
Leviticus 21:3  'and for his sister who is a virgin and close to him, who has had no husband. For her he may make himself unclean.
Leviticus 21:4  'But he must not make himself unclean as a leading man among his people, and so profane himself.
Leviticus 21:5  'They must not shave their heads bald, or shave off the edges of their beards, or cut their flesh.
Leviticus 21:6  'They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the bread of their God. So they shall be holy.
Leviticus 21:7  'They must not marry a woman who is a prostitute or who has been made unclean, and they must not marry a woman divorced from her husband. For the priest is holy to his God.
Leviticus 21:8  'So you shall treat him as holy, because he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I the LORD, who make you holy, am holy.
Leviticus 21:9  'If the daughter of any priest makes herself unclean by acting as a prostitute, she profanes her father. She shall be burned with fire.
Leviticus 21:10  'The high priest among his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil was poured, and who was set apart to wear the holy garments, must not leave his hair uncovered or tear his clothes.
Leviticus 21:11  'He must not go near any dead body. He must not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother.
Leviticus 21:12  'He must not go out of the sanctuary, or profane the sanctuary of his God, for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 21:13  'He shall take a wife who is a virgin.
Leviticus 21:14  'A widow, a divorced woman, a woman who has been made unclean, or a prostitute - these he must not take. He shall marry a virgin from his own people,
Leviticus 21:15  "'so that he does not profane his children among his people. For I the LORD make him holy.'"
Leviticus 21:16  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 21:17  "Speak to Aaron and say, 'If any of your descendants in the generations to come has any defect, he must not come near to offer the bread of his God."
Leviticus 21:18  'No man with a defect may come near: no man who is blind or lame, or who has a damaged face, or any part of his body too large,
Leviticus 21:19  'or a man with a broken foot or a broken hand,
Leviticus 21:20  'or a hunched back, or who is a dwarf, or who has a defect in his eye, or who has sores or scabs, or whose testicles are crushed.
Leviticus 21:21  'No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect may come near to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire. He has a defect. He must not come near to offer the bread of his God.
Leviticus 21:22  'He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy food and the holy food.
Leviticus 21:23  "'Only he must not go in to the veil or come near the altar, because he has a defect. He must not profane my holy places, for I the LORD make them holy.'"
Leviticus 21:24  So Moses told this to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel.

Leviticus 22:1  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 22:2  "Speak to Aaron and to his sons. Tell them to keep away from the holy things of the children of Israel when they are unclean, so that they do not profane my holy name in the things which they set apart for me. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 22:3  "Say to them, 'If any man of all your descendants, in all your generations, comes near the holy things which the children of Israel set apart for the LORD while he is unclean, that person shall be cut off from my presence. I am the LORD.'"
Leviticus 22:4  "No man of the descendants of Aaron who is a leper, or who has a running discharge, shall eat of the holy things until he is clean. The same is true of anyone who touches something made unclean by a dead body, or a man whose seed flows from him,"
Leviticus 22:5  "or anyone who touches any creeping thing that makes him unclean, or touches a person who makes him unclean, whatever his uncleanness may be."
Leviticus 22:6  "The person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until evening. He shall not eat of the holy things unless he washes his body with water."
Leviticus 22:7  "When the sun has gone down, he shall be clean. After that he may eat of the holy things, because they are his food."
Leviticus 22:8  "He shall not eat anything that dies of itself, or is torn by wild animals, and so make himself unclean. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 22:9  "So they shall keep what I have commanded, or else they will bear sin for it and die for it, if they profane it. I am the LORD, who makes them holy."
Leviticus 22:10  "No stranger shall eat of the holy thing. A guest of the priest, or a hired servant, shall not eat of the holy thing."
Leviticus 22:11  "But if a priest buys anyone with his money, that person may eat of it, and so may those born in his house. They may eat of his food."
Leviticus 22:12  "If a priest's daughter is married to a stranger, she may not eat of the offering of the holy things."
Leviticus 22:13  "But if a priest's daughter is a widow, or divorced, and has no child, and has come back to her father's house as when she was young, she may eat of her father's food. But no stranger shall eat of it."
Leviticus 22:14  "If a man eats of the holy thing without knowing it, he shall add a fifth part to it, and give it to the priest along with the holy thing."
Leviticus 22:15  "They shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, which they offer to the LORD,"
Leviticus 22:16  "or allow them to bear the guilt of trespass when they eat their holy things. For I am the LORD, who makes them holy."
Leviticus 22:17  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 22:18  "Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, 'Anyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers in Israel, who brings his offering for any of his vows, or for any of his freewill offerings, which they offer to the LORD as a burnt offering,"
Leviticus 22:19  'must offer, of his own free will, a male without blemish, from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats.
Leviticus 22:20  'You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be accepted for you.
Leviticus 22:21  'Whoever brings a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfil a vow, or as a freewill offering from the cattle or the sheep, must bring one that is perfect, so that it may be accepted. There shall be no blemish in it.
Leviticus 22:22  'You shall not offer to the LORD anything blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a sore, or scurvy, or scabs. You shall not make an offering of such animals by fire on the altar to the LORD.
Leviticus 22:23  'A bull or a lamb that has any part too long or too short you may offer as a freewill offering. But for a vow it will not be accepted.
Leviticus 22:24  'You shall not offer to the LORD any animal that is bruised, or crushed, or torn, or cut. You shall not make such an offering in your land.
Leviticus 22:25  "'You shall not take any of these from a stranger's hand and offer them as the bread of your God, because they are damaged and have blemishes in them. They will not be accepted for you.'"
Leviticus 22:26  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Leviticus 22:27  "When a bull, or a sheep, or a goat is born, it shall stay seven days with its mother. From the eighth day on it shall be accepted as an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Leviticus 22:28  "Whether it is a cow or a ewe, you shall not kill it and its young both on the same day."
Leviticus 22:29  "When you offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the LORD, offer it of your own free will."
Leviticus 22:30  "It shall be eaten on the same day. You shall leave none of it until the morning. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 22:31  "So you shall keep my commandments and do them. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 22:32  "You shall not profane my holy name. I will be treated as holy among the children of Israel. I am the LORD who makes you holy,"
Leviticus 22:33  "who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. I am the LORD."

Leviticus 23:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 23:2  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: These are the feasts of the LORD, which you are to announce as holy gatherings. These are my feasts."
Leviticus 23:3  "Work may be done for six days. But the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy gathering. You must do no work on it. It is the sabbath of the LORD wherever you live."
Leviticus 23:4  "These are the feasts of the LORD, the holy gatherings, which you are to announce at their set times."
Leviticus 23:5  "On the fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening, is the LORD's passover."
Leviticus 23:6  "On the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread to the LORD. For seven days you must eat bread made without yeast."
Leviticus 23:7  "On the first day you shall have a holy gathering. You must do no hard work on it."
Leviticus 23:8  "For seven days you shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the seventh day there is a holy gathering. You must do no hard work on it."
Leviticus 23:9  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 23:10  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, and you reap its harvest, you shall bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest."
Leviticus 23:11  "He shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, so that you will be accepted. The priest shall wave it on the day after the sabbath."
Leviticus 23:12  "On the day you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb, a year old and without any flaw, as a burnt offering to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:13  "The grain offering with it shall be two tenth parts of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering made by fire to the LORD, a sweet smell. The drink offering with it shall be wine, a fourth part of a hin."
Leviticus 23:14  "You must eat no bread, no roasted grain, and no fresh ears of grain until that very day when you have brought an offering to your God. This is a law for ever through all your generations, wherever you live."
Leviticus 23:15  "From the day after the sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, you shall count seven full sabbaths."
Leviticus 23:16  "Count fifty days, up to the day after the seventh sabbath. Then you shall offer a new grain offering to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:17  "From your homes you shall bring two loaves to be waved, made of two tenth parts of fine flour. They shall be baked with yeast. They are the firstfruits to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:18  "With the bread you shall offer seven lambs a year old without any flaw, one young bull, and two rams. They shall be a burnt offering to the LORD, with their grain offering and their drink offerings, an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:19  "Then you shall sacrifice one young goat as a sin offering, and two lambs a year old as a sacrifice of peace offerings."
Leviticus 23:20  "The priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the LORD, together with the two lambs. They shall be holy to the LORD for the priest."
Leviticus 23:21  "On that very day you shall make a proclamation, so that it may be a holy gathering for you. You must do no hard work. This is a law for ever wherever you live, through all your generations."
Leviticus 23:22  "When you reap the harvest of your land, you must not reap right up to the corners of your field, and you must not gather what is left behind of your harvest. You shall leave it for the poor and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 23:23  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 23:24  "Speak to the children of Israel and say: In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath, a day to remember with the blowing of trumpets, a holy gathering."
Leviticus 23:25  "You must do no hard work on it. You shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:26  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 23:27  "Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement. It shall be a holy gathering for you. You shall humble yourselves, and bring an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:28  "You must do no work at all on that day, for it is a day of atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God."
Leviticus 23:29  "Anyone who does not humble himself on that day shall be cut off from his people."
Leviticus 23:30  "And anyone who does any work on that day, that person I will destroy from among his people."
Leviticus 23:31  "You must do no work of any kind. This is a law for ever through all your generations, wherever you live."
Leviticus 23:32  "It shall be a sabbath of rest for you, and you shall humble yourselves. On the ninth day of the month in the evening, from evening to evening, you shall keep your sabbath."
Leviticus 23:33  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 23:34  "Speak to the children of Israel and say: On the fifteenth day of this seventh month the feast of tabernacles to the LORD begins, and it lasts seven days."
Leviticus 23:35  "On the first day there shall be a holy gathering. You must do no hard work on it."
Leviticus 23:36  "For seven days you shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD. On the eighth day you shall have a holy gathering, and you shall bring an offering made by fire to the LORD. It is a solemn assembly. You must do no hard work on it."
Leviticus 23:37  "These are the feasts of the LORD, which you shall announce as holy gatherings, to bring an offering made by fire to the LORD: a burnt offering, a grain offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, each on its own day."
Leviticus 23:38  "These are in addition to the sabbaths of the LORD, and to your gifts, and to all your vows, and to all your freewill offerings that you give to the LORD."
Leviticus 23:39  "Also on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the fruit of the land, you shall keep a feast to the LORD for seven days. On the first day there shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day a sabbath."
Leviticus 23:40  "On the first day you shall take branches of fine trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows from the brook. You shall rejoice before the LORD your God for seven days."
Leviticus 23:41  "You shall keep it as a feast to the LORD for seven days each year. This is a law for ever through all your generations. You shall keep it in the seventh month."
Leviticus 23:42  "You shall live in shelters for seven days. All who are born Israelites shall live in shelters,"
Leviticus 23:43  "so that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel live in shelters when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 23:44  So Moses told the children of Israel about the feasts of the LORD.

Leviticus 24:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 24:2  "Command the children of Israel to bring you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning all the time."
Leviticus 24:3  "Aaron shall keep it in order outside the veil of the testimony, in the tabernacle of the congregation, from evening until morning before the LORD, all the time. This shall be a law for ever, through all your generations."
Leviticus 24:4  "He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure lampstand before the LORD all the time."
Leviticus 24:5  "You shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it. Each cake shall be of two tenth parts."
Leviticus 24:6  "You shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the pure table before the LORD."
Leviticus 24:7  "You shall put pure frankincense on each row, so that it may be on the bread as a memorial, an offering made by fire to the LORD."
Leviticus 24:8  "Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD, all the time. It is taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant."
Leviticus 24:9  "It shall belong to Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in the holy place. For it is most holy to him, from the offerings made by fire to the LORD, by a law that lasts for ever."
Leviticus 24:10  The son of an Israelite woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel. This son of the Israelite woman and a man of Israel fought together in the camp.
Leviticus 24:11  The Israelite woman's son spoke against the name of the LORD and cursed. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother's name was Shelomith, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)
Leviticus 24:12  They put him under guard, until the mind of the LORD should be shown to them.
Leviticus 24:13  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Leviticus 24:14  "Bring the man who cursed outside the camp. Let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him."
Leviticus 24:15  "You shall say to the children of Israel, 'Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin."
Leviticus 24:16  "'And the one who speaks against the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him. The stranger and the one born in the land alike shall be put to death when he speaks against the name of the LORD."
Leviticus 24:17  "'And whoever kills any man shall surely be put to death."
Leviticus 24:18  "'Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, animal for animal."
Leviticus 24:19  "'If a man injures his neighbour, then what he has done shall be done to him:"
Leviticus 24:20  "'break for break, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has injured a man, so shall it be done to him again."
Leviticus 24:21  "'Whoever kills an animal shall pay for it, and whoever kills a man shall be put to death."
Leviticus 24:22  "'You shall have one law for the stranger and for one of your own country alike, for I am the LORD your God.'"
Leviticus 24:23  So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and they brought the man who had cursed out of the camp and stoned him with stones. The children of Israel did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Leviticus 25:1  The LORD spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai. He said,
Leviticus 25:2  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land that I give you, then the land must keep a sabbath to the LORD."
Leviticus 25:3  "For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruit."
Leviticus 25:4  "But in the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath of rest, a sabbath for the LORD. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard."
Leviticus 25:5  "You shall not reap what grows by itself after your harvest, and you shall not gather the grapes of your untended vine. It is a year of rest for the land."
Leviticus 25:6  "The sabbath of the land shall give food for you: for you, for your manservant, for your maidservant, for your hired servant, and for the stranger who stays with you,"
Leviticus 25:7  "and for your cattle, and for the wild animals in your land. All that the land produces shall be food."
Leviticus 25:8  "You shall count seven sabbaths of years, seven times seven years. The time of the seven sabbaths of years shall be forty-nine years for you."
Leviticus 25:9  "Then on the tenth day of the seventh month you shall sound the trumpet of the jubile. On the day of atonement you shall sound the trumpet through all your land."
Leviticus 25:10  "You shall make the fiftieth year holy, and proclaim liberty through all the land to all who live in it. It shall be a jubile for you. Each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his own family."
Leviticus 25:11  "That fiftieth year shall be a jubile for you. You shall not sow, and you shall not reap what grows by itself, and you shall not gather the grapes of your untended vine."
Leviticus 25:12  "For it is the jubile; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat what the field produces."
Leviticus 25:13  "In the year of this jubile each of you shall return to his own property."
Leviticus 25:14  "If you sell anything to your neighbour, or buy anything from your neighbour's hand, you shall not wrong one another."
Leviticus 25:15  "You shall buy from your neighbour by counting the years since the jubile, and he shall sell to you by counting the years of harvests that are left."
Leviticus 25:16  "When the years are many, you shall raise the price; when the years are few, you shall lower the price. For it is a number of harvests that he is selling to you."
Leviticus 25:17  "So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God. For I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 25:18  "So you shall carry out my laws, and keep my judgments and do them. Then you will live in the land in safety."
Leviticus 25:19  "The land shall yield its fruit, and you shall eat your fill, and live there in safety."
Leviticus 25:20  "And if you say, 'What shall we eat in the seventh year? Look, we may not sow or gather in our crops,'"
Leviticus 25:21  "then I will command my blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth enough fruit for three years."
Leviticus 25:22  "You shall sow in the eighth year, and still eat from the old crop until the ninth year. Until its harvest comes in, you shall eat from the old store."
Leviticus 25:23  "The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine. You are strangers and visitors with me."
Leviticus 25:24  "In all the land you own, you shall allow the land to be bought back."
Leviticus 25:25  "If your brother becomes poor and has sold away some of his property, then one of his relatives may come to buy it back. He shall buy back what his brother sold."
Leviticus 25:26  "If a man has no one to buy it back, but he himself becomes able to buy it back,"
Leviticus 25:27  "then let him count the years since the sale, and pay back what is left over to the man he sold it to. Then he may return to his property."
Leviticus 25:28  "But if he is not able to pay him back, then what he sold shall stay in the hand of the buyer until the year of jubile. In the jubile it shall go free, and he shall return to his property."
Leviticus 25:29  "If a man sells a house to live in inside a walled city, then he may buy it back within a whole year after it is sold. Within a full year he may buy it back."
Leviticus 25:30  "If it is not bought back within a full year, then the house in the walled city shall belong for ever to the man who bought it, and to his descendants. It shall not go free in the jubile."
Leviticus 25:31  "But houses in villages that have no wall around them shall be counted as fields of the country. They may be bought back, and they shall go free in the jubile."
Leviticus 25:32  "But the cities of the Levites, and the houses in the cities they own, the Levites may buy back at any time."
Leviticus 25:33  "If a man buys a house from the Levites, then the house that was sold, in the city they own, shall go free in the year of jubile. For the houses in the cities of the Levites are the property they own among the children of Israel."
Leviticus 25:34  "But the fields around their cities may not be sold, for they are their property for ever."
Leviticus 25:35  "If your brother becomes poor and cannot support himself among you, then you shall help him. Yes, even if he is a stranger or a visitor, so that he may live with you."
Leviticus 25:36  "Take no interest from him, and no profit. But fear your God, so that your brother may live with you."
Leviticus 25:37  "You shall not lend him your money at interest, or lend him your food to make a profit."
Leviticus 25:38  "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, and to be your God."
Leviticus 25:39  "If your brother who lives near you becomes poor and sells himself to you, you shall not force him to serve as a slave."
Leviticus 25:40  "He shall be with you as a hired servant and as a visitor, and he shall serve you until the year of jubile."
Leviticus 25:41  "Then he shall leave you, he and his children with him, and he shall return to his own family and to the property of his fathers."
Leviticus 25:42  "For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. They shall not be sold as slaves."
Leviticus 25:43  "You shall not rule over him harshly, but you shall fear your God."
Leviticus 25:44  "Your slaves, both men and women, shall come from the nations around you. From them you may buy slaves, both men and women."
Leviticus 25:45  "You may also buy from the children of the strangers who stay among you, and from their families who are with you, whom they have fathered in your land. They shall be your property."
Leviticus 25:46  "You shall pass them on as an inheritance to your children after you, for them to own as property. They shall be your slaves for ever. But over your brothers, the children of Israel, you shall not rule harshly, one over another."
Leviticus 25:47  "If a visitor or stranger among you grows rich, and your brother who lives near him becomes poor, and sells himself to that stranger or visitor among you, or to a member of the stranger's family,"
Leviticus 25:48  "then after he is sold he may be bought back. One of his brothers may buy him back:"
Leviticus 25:49  "his uncle, or his uncle's son, may buy him back, or any close relative from his family may buy him back. Or if he becomes able, he may buy himself back."
Leviticus 25:50  "He shall settle the account with the man who bought him, from the year he was sold to him until the year of jubile. The price of his sale shall be counted by the number of years, as the time of a hired servant."
Leviticus 25:51  "If there are still many years left, he shall pay back for his freedom a matching part of the money he was bought for."
Leviticus 25:52  "And if only a few years remain until the year of jubile, then he shall settle the account with him, and pay back for his freedom according to those years."
Leviticus 25:53  "He shall be with him like a servant hired by the year. The other shall not rule over him harshly in your sight."
Leviticus 25:54  "If he is not bought back in these years, then he shall go free in the year of jubile, he and his children with him."
Leviticus 25:55  "For the children of Israel are servants to me. They are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."

Leviticus 26:1  "You must not make idols for yourselves, or carved images. Do not set up a standing image, and do not place any carved stone in your land to bow down to it. For I am the LORD your God."
Leviticus 26:2  "You must keep my sabbaths, and honour my sanctuary. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 26:3  "If you live by my laws, and keep my commandments, and do them,"
Leviticus 26:4  then I will give you rain at the right time. The land will give its crops, and the trees of the field will give their fruit.
Leviticus 26:5  Your threshing will last until the grape harvest, and the grape harvest will last until it is time to sow. You will eat your bread until you are full, and live safely in your land.
Leviticus 26:6  I will give peace in the land. You will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. I will clear the dangerous animals out of the land, and the sword will not pass through your land.
Leviticus 26:7  You will chase your enemies, and they will fall before you by the sword.
Leviticus 26:8  Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will put ten thousand to flight. Your enemies will fall before you by the sword.
Leviticus 26:9  I will look on you with favour, and make you fruitful, and give you many children, and I will keep my covenant with you.
Leviticus 26:10  You will still be eating the old harvest when you must clear it out to make room for the new.
Leviticus 26:11  I will set my tabernacle among you, and I will not turn away from you in disgust.
Leviticus 26:12  I will walk among you, and be your God, and you will be my people.
Leviticus 26:13  I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, so that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you walk upright.
Leviticus 26:14  "But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments,"
Leviticus 26:15  and if you reject my laws, or if you hate my judgements, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant,
Leviticus 26:16  then this is what I will do to you. I will bring terror on you, and wasting disease, and burning fever, which will destroy your eyes and fill your heart with sorrow. You will sow your seed for nothing, for your enemies will eat it.
Leviticus 26:17  I will set my face against you, and you will be struck down by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will run away when no one is chasing you.
Leviticus 26:18  "And if after all this you still will not listen to me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins."
Leviticus 26:19  I will break the pride of your strength. I will make your sky like iron, and your ground like bronze.
Leviticus 26:20  Your strength will be spent for nothing, for your land will not give its crops, and the trees of the land will not give their fruit.
Leviticus 26:21  "And if you walk against me, and will not listen to me, I will bring seven times more plagues on you, as your sins deserve."
Leviticus 26:22  I will send wild animals among you. They will rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number. Your roads will be empty.
Leviticus 26:23  "And if these things do not correct you, but you still walk against me,"
Leviticus 26:24  then I also will walk against you, and I will punish you seven times more for your sins.
Leviticus 26:25  I will bring a sword upon you, to take revenge for the breaking of my covenant. When you gather together inside your cities, I will send plague among you, and you will be handed over to the enemy.
Leviticus 26:26  When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women will bake your bread in one oven, and they will give your bread back to you by weight. You will eat, and not be satisfied.
Leviticus 26:27  "And if after all this you will not listen to me, but walk against me,"
Leviticus 26:28  then I will walk against you in fury. I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins.
Leviticus 26:29  You will eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters you will eat.
Leviticus 26:30  I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and throw your dead bodies on the dead bodies of your idols. I will turn away from you in disgust.
Leviticus 26:31  I will make your cities a ruin, and leave your holy places empty, and I will not smell the pleasing smell of your offerings.
Leviticus 26:32  I will make the land empty, and your enemies who live in it will be shocked at it.
Leviticus 26:33  I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out a sword after you. Your land will be empty, and your cities a ruin.
Leviticus 26:34  Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths, all the time it lies empty and you are in your enemies' land. Then the land will rest, and enjoy its sabbaths.
Leviticus 26:35  All the time it lies empty it will rest, because it did not rest in your sabbaths when you lived on it.
Leviticus 26:36  As for those of you who are left alive, I will make their hearts weak with fear in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a leaf blown by the wind will chase them. They will run as if running from a sword, and they will fall when no one is chasing them.
Leviticus 26:37  They will stumble over one another, as if fleeing from a sword, when no one is chasing them. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.
Leviticus 26:38  You will die among the nations, and the land of your enemies will eat you up.
Leviticus 26:39  Those of you who are left will waste away in their sin in your enemies' lands. They will waste away with them because of the sins of their fathers too.
Leviticus 26:40  "If they confess their sin, and the sin of their fathers, and the wrong they did against me, and that they also walked against me,"
Leviticus 26:41  so that I also walked against them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their stubborn hearts are humbled, and they accept the punishment for their sin,
Leviticus 26:42  then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham I will remember. And I will remember the land.
Leviticus 26:43  The land will be left by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies empty without them. And they will accept the punishment for their sin, because, yes, because they rejected my judgements, and because they hated my laws.
Leviticus 26:44  Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not throw them away, and I will not hate them so as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them. For I am the LORD their God.
Leviticus 26:45  "But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt while the nations watched, so that I might be their God. I am the LORD."
Leviticus 26:46  These are the laws and judgements and teachings which the LORD made between himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai, through Moses.

Leviticus 27:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Leviticus 27:2  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When a man makes a special vow, the people shall belong to the LORD at the value you set."
Leviticus 27:3  "Your valuation for a male from twenty years old to sixty years old shall be fifty shekels of silver, by the shekel of the sanctuary."
Leviticus 27:4  "If it is a female, your valuation shall be thirty shekels."
Leviticus 27:5  "If the person is from five years old to twenty years old, your valuation shall be twenty shekels for a male, and ten shekels for a female."
Leviticus 27:6  "If the person is from a month old to five years old, your valuation shall be five shekels of silver for a male, and three shekels of silver for a female."
Leviticus 27:7  "If the person is sixty years old or more, your valuation shall be fifteen shekels for a male, and ten shekels for a female."
Leviticus 27:8  "But if he is too poor to pay your valuation, he shall be brought before the priest, and the priest shall set his value. The priest shall value him according to what the one who made the vow can afford."
Leviticus 27:9  "If it is an animal such as people bring as an offering to the LORD, everything anyone gives of these to the LORD shall be holy."
Leviticus 27:10  "He shall not alter it or exchange it, a good one for a bad one, or a bad one for a good one. If he does exchange one animal for another, then both it and its exchange shall be holy."
Leviticus 27:11  "If it is any unclean animal, of the kind that is not offered as a sacrifice to the LORD, then he shall bring the animal before the priest."
Leviticus 27:12  "The priest shall set its value, whether it is good or bad. As you, the priest, value it, so it shall be."
Leviticus 27:13  "But if he wants to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to your valuation."
Leviticus 27:14  "When a man sets apart his house as holy to the LORD, the priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad. As the priest values it, so it shall stand."
Leviticus 27:15  "If the man who set it apart wants to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and the house shall be his."
Leviticus 27:16  "If a man sets apart to the LORD part of a field that he owns, your valuation shall be according to the seed needed for it. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver."
Leviticus 27:17  "If he sets apart his field from the year of jubile, it shall stand at your valuation."
Leviticus 27:18  "But if he sets apart his field after the jubile, the priest shall work out the money for him according to the years that are left until the year of jubile, and it shall be taken off your valuation."
Leviticus 27:19  "If the man who set apart the field wants to redeem it, he shall add a fifth of the money of your valuation to it, and it shall be made sure to him."
Leviticus 27:20  "If he does not redeem the field, or if he has sold the field to another man, it cannot be redeemed any more."
Leviticus 27:21  "But when the field is released in the jubile, it shall be holy to the LORD, like a field that is devoted. It shall belong to the priest."
Leviticus 27:22  "If a man sets apart to the LORD a field that he has bought, which is not part of the land he owns,"
Leviticus 27:23  "then the priest shall work out for him the amount of your valuation up to the year of jubile. On that day he shall give your valuation as a holy thing to the LORD."
Leviticus 27:24  "In the year of jubile the field shall go back to the man it was bought from, to the one who owned the land."
Leviticus 27:25  "All your valuations shall be by the shekel of the sanctuary: twenty gerahs to the shekel."
Leviticus 27:26  "But no one shall set apart the firstborn of the animals, because the firstborn already belongs to the LORD. Whether it is an ox or a sheep, it is the LORD's."
Leviticus 27:27  "If it is an unclean animal, he shall redeem it at your valuation and add a fifth to it. If it is not redeemed, it shall be sold at your valuation."
Leviticus 27:28  "But nothing devoted, which a man devotes to the LORD out of all that he has, whether person or animal or field that he owns, may be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy to the LORD."
Leviticus 27:29  "No person who is devoted may be redeemed. He shall surely be put to death."
Leviticus 27:30  "All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the LORD's. It is holy to the LORD."
Leviticus 27:31  "If a man wants to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add a fifth to it."
Leviticus 27:32  "As for the tithe of the herd or of the flock, whatever passes under the rod, the tenth shall be holy to the LORD."
Leviticus 27:33  "He shall not look to see whether it is good or bad, and he shall not exchange it. If he does exchange it, then both it and its exchange shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed."
Leviticus 27:34  These are the commandments which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel on mount Sinai.

Numbers

Numbers 1:1  The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting. It was the first day of the second month, in the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt. He said,
Numbers 1:2  "Count the whole community of the children of Israel. Count them by their families and by their fathers' houses, listing the names of every male, one by one,"
Numbers 1:3  from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go out to war. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
Numbers 1:4  With you there shall be a man from every tribe, each one the head of his father's house.
Numbers 1:5  These are the names of the men who shall stand with you: from the tribe of Reuben, Elizur the son of Shedeur;
Numbers 1:6  from Simeon, Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai;
Numbers 1:7  from Judah, Nahshon the son of Amminadab;
Numbers 1:8  from Issachar, Nethaneel the son of Zuar;
Numbers 1:9  from Zebulun, Eliab the son of Helon;
Numbers 1:10  from the children of Joseph: from Ephraim, Elishama the son of Ammihud; from Manasseh, Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur;
Numbers 1:11  from Benjamin, Abidan the son of Gideoni;
Numbers 1:12  from Dan, Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai;
Numbers 1:13  from Asher, Pagiel the son of Ocran;
Numbers 1:14  from Gad, Eliasaph the son of Deuel;
Numbers 1:15  "from Naphtali, Ahira the son of Enan."
Numbers 1:16  These were the men called from the community, the leaders of their fathers' tribes, the heads of thousands in Israel.
Numbers 1:17  So Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named,
Numbers 1:18  and they gathered the whole community together on the first day of the second month. The people declared their family lines, by their families and by their fathers' houses, and their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, one by one.
Numbers 1:19  So Moses numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai, just as the LORD had commanded him.
Numbers 1:20  The children of Reuben, the eldest son of Israel, were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted one by one, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:21  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Reuben were forty-six thousand five hundred.
Numbers 1:22  The children of Simeon were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Those who were numbered had their names counted one by one, every male from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:23  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Simeon were fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
Numbers 1:24  The children of Gad were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:25  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Gad were forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty.
Numbers 1:26  The children of Judah were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:27  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Judah were seventy-four thousand six hundred.
Numbers 1:28  The children of Issachar were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:29  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Issachar were fifty-four thousand four hundred.
Numbers 1:30  The children of Zebulun were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:31  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Zebulun were fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
Numbers 1:32  The children of Joseph, that is, the children of Ephraim, were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:33  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Ephraim were forty thousand five hundred.
Numbers 1:34  The children of Manasseh were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:35  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Manasseh were thirty-two thousand two hundred.
Numbers 1:36  The children of Benjamin were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:37  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Benjamin were thirty-five thousand four hundred.
Numbers 1:38  The children of Dan were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:39  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Dan were sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
Numbers 1:40  The children of Asher were listed by their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:41  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Asher were forty-one thousand five hundred.
Numbers 1:42  The children of Naphtali were listed through their generations, by their families and by their fathers' houses. Their names were counted, from twenty years old and upward, all who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:43  Those who were numbered from the tribe of Naphtali were fifty-three thousand four hundred.
Numbers 1:44  These are the ones who were numbered, whom Moses and Aaron numbered, along with the leaders of Israel, twelve men. Each man stood for his father's house.
Numbers 1:45  So all the children of Israel were numbered by their fathers' houses, from twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who were able to go out to war.
Numbers 1:46  All those who were numbered were six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.
Numbers 1:47  But the Levites, by the tribe of their fathers, were not numbered among them.
Numbers 1:48  For the LORD had spoken to Moses, saying,
Numbers 1:49  "Only you shall not number the tribe of Levi, and you shall not count them among the children of Israel."
Numbers 1:50  Instead, you shall put the Levites in charge of the tabernacle of the testimony, and all its vessels, and everything that belongs to it. They shall carry the tabernacle and all its vessels. They shall serve it, and they shall camp around the tabernacle.
Numbers 1:51  When the tabernacle is to move on, the Levites shall take it down. When the tabernacle is to be set up, the Levites shall put it up. Any stranger who comes near shall be put to death.
Numbers 1:52  The children of Israel shall pitch their tents, each man in his own camp and each man by his own flag, throughout their armies.
Numbers 1:53  "But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that no wrath may fall on the community of the children of Israel. The Levites shall keep watch over the tabernacle of the testimony."
Numbers 1:54  The children of Israel did everything the LORD commanded Moses. That is what they did.

Numbers 2:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron. He said,
Numbers 2:2  "The people of Israel are to camp each man by his own banner, with the flag of his father's house. They are to camp facing the tent of meeting, at some distance around it."
Numbers 2:3  On the east side, toward the sunrise, the men under the banner of the camp of Judah are to camp, company by company. The leader of the people of Judah shall be Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
Numbers 2:4  His army, those who were counted, numbered seventy-four thousand six hundred.
Numbers 2:5  Those who camp next to him shall be the tribe of Issachar. The leader of the people of Issachar shall be Nethaneel the son of Zuar.
Numbers 2:6  His army, those who were counted, numbered fifty-four thousand four hundred.
Numbers 2:7  Then the tribe of Zebulun. The leader of the people of Zebulun shall be Eliab the son of Helon.
Numbers 2:8  His army, those who were counted, numbered fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
Numbers 2:9  All who were counted in the camp of Judah numbered one hundred and eighty-six thousand four hundred, company by company. They shall set out first.
Numbers 2:10  On the south side shall be the banner of the camp of Reuben, company by company. The leader of the people of Reuben shall be Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Numbers 2:11  His army, those who were counted, numbered forty-six thousand five hundred.
Numbers 2:12  Those who camp beside him shall be the tribe of Simeon. The leader of the people of Simeon shall be Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
Numbers 2:13  His army, those who were counted, numbered fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
Numbers 2:14  Then the tribe of Gad. The leader of the sons of Gad shall be Eliasaph the son of Reuel.
Numbers 2:15  His army, those who were counted, numbered forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty.
Numbers 2:16  All who were counted in the camp of Reuben numbered one hundred and fifty-one thousand four hundred and fifty, company by company. They shall set out second.
Numbers 2:17  Then the tent of meeting shall move forward, with the camp of the Levites in the middle of the camps. They shall move forward just as they camp, each man in his place, by their banners.
Numbers 2:18  On the west side shall be the banner of the camp of Ephraim, company by company. The leader of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama the son of Ammihud.
Numbers 2:19  His army, those who were counted, numbered forty thousand five hundred.
Numbers 2:20  Next to him shall be the tribe of Manasseh. The leader of the people of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
Numbers 2:21  His army, those who were counted, numbered thirty-two thousand two hundred.
Numbers 2:22  Then the tribe of Benjamin. The leader of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidan the son of Gideoni.
Numbers 2:23  His army, those who were counted, numbered thirty-five thousand four hundred.
Numbers 2:24  All who were counted in the camp of Ephraim numbered one hundred and eight thousand one hundred, company by company. They shall move forward third.
Numbers 2:25  The banner of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side, company by company. The leader of the people of Dan shall be Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Numbers 2:26  His army, those who were counted, numbered sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
Numbers 2:27  Those who camp beside him shall be the tribe of Asher. The leader of the people of Asher shall be Pagiel the son of Ocran.
Numbers 2:28  His army, those who were counted, numbered forty-one thousand five hundred.
Numbers 2:29  Then the tribe of Naphtali. The leader of the people of Naphtali shall be Ahira the son of Enan.
Numbers 2:30  His army, those who were counted, numbered fifty-three thousand four hundred.
Numbers 2:31  All who were counted in the camp of Dan numbered one hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred. They shall go last, with their banners.
Numbers 2:32  These are the people of Israel who were counted, family by family. All those counted in the camps, company by company, numbered six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.
Numbers 2:33  But the Levites were not counted among the people of Israel, just as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 2:34  The people of Israel did everything the LORD commanded Moses. They camped by their banners, and they set out in the same way, each one with his family, by the house of his fathers.

Numbers 3:1  These are the family records of Aaron and Moses, from the time when the LORD spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.
Numbers 3:2  These are the names of the sons of Aaron: Nadab the firstborn, then Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Numbers 3:3  These are the names of the sons of Aaron, the priests who were anointed. He set them apart to serve as priests.
Numbers 3:4  But Nadab and Abihu died in front of the LORD when they offered strange fire before the LORD in the desert of Sinai, and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests while their father Aaron was alive.
Numbers 3:5  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 3:6  "Bring the tribe of Levi near, and set them before Aaron the priest, so that they may serve him."
Numbers 3:7  "They shall take care of his duties and the duties of the whole people in front of the tent of meeting, doing the work of the tabernacle."
Numbers 3:8  "They shall look after all the equipment of the tent of meeting, and carry out the duties of the people of Israel, doing the work of the tabernacle."
Numbers 3:9  "You shall give the Levites to Aaron and to his sons. They are given to him completely from among the people of Israel."
Numbers 3:10  "You shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall carry out the work of the priests. Any stranger who comes near shall be put to death."
Numbers 3:11  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 3:12  "Look, I myself have taken the Levites from among the people of Israel in place of every firstborn son who is first to open the womb among the people of Israel. So the Levites shall be mine."
Numbers 3:13  "For every firstborn is mine. On the day I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, both people and animals. They shall be mine. I am the LORD."
Numbers 3:14  The LORD spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai and said,
Numbers 3:15  "Count the sons of Levi by their fathers' houses and by their families. Count every male who is a month old or more."
Numbers 3:16  So Moses counted them at the word of the LORD, as he was commanded.
Numbers 3:17  These were the sons of Levi by name: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
Numbers 3:18  These are the names of the sons of Gershon by their families: Libni and Shimei.
Numbers 3:19  The sons of Kohath by their families: Amram, Izehar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
Numbers 3:20  The sons of Merari by their families: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites, by their fathers' houses.
Numbers 3:21  From Gershon came the family of the Libnites and the family of the Shimites. These are the families of the Gershonites.
Numbers 3:22  The number of them, counting all the males a month old and more, was seven thousand five hundred.
Numbers 3:23  The families of the Gershonites were to camp behind the tabernacle, on the west side.
Numbers 3:24  The leader of the fathers' house of the Gershonites was Eliasaph the son of Lael.
Numbers 3:25  The duty of the sons of Gershon at the tent of meeting was the tabernacle, the tent with its covering, and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting,
Numbers 3:26  the hangings of the courtyard, the curtain for the gate of the courtyard that surrounds the tabernacle and the altar, and its ropes, with all the work that goes with them.
Numbers 3:27  From Kohath came the family of the Amramites, the family of the Izeharites, the family of the Hebronites, and the family of the Uzzielites. These are the families of the Kohathites.
Numbers 3:28  Counting all the males a month old and more, there were eight thousand six hundred, who took care of the holy place.
Numbers 3:29  The families of the sons of Kohath were to camp at the south side of the tabernacle.
Numbers 3:30  The leader of the fathers' house of the families of the Kohathites was Elizaphan the son of Uzziel.
Numbers 3:31  Their duty was the ark, the table, the lampstand, the altars, the vessels of the holy place used in serving, the screen, and all the work that goes with them.
Numbers 3:32  Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest was chief over the leaders of the Levites, and he watched over those who took care of the holy place.
Numbers 3:33  From Merari came the family of the Mahlites and the family of the Mushites. These are the families of Merari.
Numbers 3:34  The number of them, counting all the males a month old and more, was six thousand two hundred.
Numbers 3:35  The leader of the fathers' house of the families of Merari was Zuriel the son of Abihail. They were to camp at the north side of the tabernacle.
Numbers 3:36  The sons of Merari were put in charge of the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, its bases, all its equipment, and everything used with it,
Numbers 3:37  and the pillars all around the courtyard, with their bases, their pegs, and their ropes.
Numbers 3:38  Those who camped in front of the tabernacle on the east, in front of the tent of meeting toward the sunrise, were Moses, and Aaron and his sons. They took care of the holy place for the people of Israel. Any stranger who came near was to be put to death.
Numbers 3:39  All the Levites who were counted, whom Moses and Aaron counted at the command of the LORD, family by family, all the males a month old and more, came to twenty-two thousand.
Numbers 3:40  The LORD said to Moses, "Count all the firstborn males of the people of Israel a month old and more, and write down the number of their names."
Numbers 3:41  "You shall take the Levites for me (I am the LORD) in place of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the cattle of the people of Israel."
Numbers 3:42  So Moses counted all the firstborn among the people of Israel, as the LORD had commanded him.
Numbers 3:43  All the firstborn males, counted by name, a month old and more, came to twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.
Numbers 3:44  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 3:45  "Take the Levites in place of all the firstborn among the people of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites in place of their cattle. The Levites shall be mine. I am the LORD."
Numbers 3:46  "And for the two hundred and seventy-three firstborn of the people of Israel who must be bought back, since they are more than the Levites,"
Numbers 3:47  "you shall take five shekels for each one. Take them by the shekel of the holy place (the shekel is twenty gerahs)."
Numbers 3:48  "You shall give the money, the price for buying back those who are more in number, to Aaron and his sons."
Numbers 3:49  So Moses took the money paid to buy back those who were more than the ones redeemed by the Levites.
Numbers 3:50  He took the money from the firstborn of the people of Israel: one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels, by the shekel of the holy place.
Numbers 3:51  Moses gave the money for those bought back to Aaron and his sons, at the word of the LORD, just as the LORD commanded Moses.

Numbers 4:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron. He said,
Numbers 4:2  "Count the sons of Kohath from among the sons of Levi, by their families, by their fathers' houses,"
Numbers 4:3  "from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, all who come to serve, to do the work in the tent of meeting."
Numbers 4:4  "This is the work of the sons of Kohath in the tent of meeting, about the most holy things."
Numbers 4:5  "When the camp moves on, Aaron and his sons shall come. They shall take down the covering veil, and cover the ark of the testimony with it."
Numbers 4:6  "They shall put on it a covering of badgers' skins, and spread over that a cloth all of blue, and put in its poles."
Numbers 4:7  "On the table of the showbread they shall spread a blue cloth. On it they shall put the dishes, the spoons, the bowls, and the jars for pouring. The bread that is always there shall stay on it."
Numbers 4:8  "They shall spread over them a scarlet cloth, and cover that with a covering of badgers' skins, and put in its poles."
Numbers 4:9  "They shall take a blue cloth and cover the lampstand that gives light, with its lamps, its tongs, its trays, and all the oil jars they use to care for it."
Numbers 4:10  "They shall wrap it and all its vessels in a covering of badgers' skins, and put it on a carrying frame."
Numbers 4:11  "Over the golden altar they shall spread a blue cloth, and cover it with a covering of badgers' skins, and put in its poles."
Numbers 4:12  "They shall take all the tools used for the service in the sanctuary, and put them in a blue cloth, and cover them with a covering of badgers' skins, and put them on a carrying frame."
Numbers 4:13  "They shall take the ashes away from the altar, and spread a purple cloth over it."
Numbers 4:14  "On it they shall put all the vessels they use at the altar: the fire pans, the forks, the shovels, and the basins, all the vessels of the altar. They shall spread over it a covering of badgers' skins, and put in its poles."
Numbers 4:15  "When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy place and all the vessels of the holy place, as the camp is about to move on, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry it. But they must not touch any holy thing, or they will die. These are the things the sons of Kohath must carry in the tent of meeting."
Numbers 4:16  "Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest has charge of the oil for the light, the sweet incense, the daily food offering, and the anointing oil. He has the oversight of all the tabernacle, and of everything in it, in the holy place and among its vessels."
Numbers 4:17  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron. He said,
Numbers 4:18  "Do not let the tribe of the families of the Kohathites be cut off from among the Levites."
Numbers 4:19  "Do this for them, so that they may live and not die when they come near the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in and give each man his work and his load."
Numbers 4:20  "But they must not go in to look at the holy things while they are being covered, or they will die."
Numbers 4:21  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 4:22  "Count the sons of Gershon too, by their fathers' houses, by their families."
Numbers 4:23  "You shall count them from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, all who come to serve, to do the work in the tent of meeting."
Numbers 4:24  "This is the work of the families of the Gershonites, what they shall do and what they shall carry."
Numbers 4:25  "They shall carry the curtains of the tabernacle, and the tent of meeting, its covering, and the covering of badgers' skins that is over it, and the screen for the door of the tent of meeting,"
Numbers 4:26  "and the hangings of the court, and the screen for the entrance of the gate of the court, which is around the tabernacle and the altar, and their cords, and all the tools for their work, and everything made for these things. This is how they shall serve."
Numbers 4:27  "All the work of the sons of the Gershonites shall be done as Aaron and his sons direct, in all they carry and in all they do. You shall give them charge of everything they carry."
Numbers 4:28  "This is the work of the families of the sons of Gershon in the tent of meeting. Their duties shall be under Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest."
Numbers 4:29  "As for the sons of Merari, you shall count them by their families, by their fathers' houses."
Numbers 4:30  "You shall count them from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, everyone who comes to serve, to do the work of the tent of meeting."
Numbers 4:31  "This is what they are to carry, and all their work in the tent of meeting: the boards of the tabernacle, its bars, its pillars, and its bases,"
Numbers 4:32  "and the pillars around the court, with their bases, their pegs, and their cords, with all their tools and all their service. You shall list by name the things each man is to carry."
Numbers 4:33  "This is the work of the families of the sons of Merari, all their service in the tent of meeting, under Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest."
Numbers 4:34  So Moses and Aaron and the leaders of the people counted the sons of the Kohathites by their families and by their fathers' houses,
Numbers 4:35  from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, everyone who came to serve, for the work in the tent of meeting.
Numbers 4:36  Those counted from them, by their families, were two thousand seven hundred and fifty.
Numbers 4:37  These were the ones counted from the families of the Kohathites, all who could serve in the tent of meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them as the LORD had commanded through Moses.
Numbers 4:38  Those counted from the sons of Gershon, by their families and by their fathers' houses,
Numbers 4:39  from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, everyone who came to serve, for the work in the tent of meeting,
Numbers 4:40  those counted from them, by their families, by their fathers' houses, were two thousand six hundred and thirty.
Numbers 4:41  These were the ones counted from the families of the sons of Gershon, all who could serve in the tent of meeting. Moses and Aaron counted them as the LORD had commanded.
Numbers 4:42  Those counted from the families of the sons of Merari, by their families, by their fathers' houses,
Numbers 4:43  from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, everyone who came to serve, for the work in the tent of meeting,
Numbers 4:44  those counted from them, by their families, were three thousand two hundred.
Numbers 4:45  These were the ones counted from the families of the sons of Merari. Moses and Aaron counted them as the LORD had said through Moses.
Numbers 4:46  All those counted from the Levites, whom Moses and Aaron and the leaders of Israel counted, by their families and by their fathers' houses,
Numbers 4:47  from thirty years old and upward until fifty years old, everyone who came to do the work of serving and the work of carrying loads in the tent of meeting,
Numbers 4:48  those counted from them were eight thousand five hundred and eighty.
Numbers 4:49  They were counted at the commandment of the LORD through Moses, each man according to his work and according to what he had to carry. So they were counted by him, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Numbers 5:1  The LORD spoke to Moses:
Numbers 5:2  "Command the children of Israel to put out of the camp everyone who has leprosy, everyone who has a discharge, and everyone who is unclean because of a dead body."
Numbers 5:3  "Put out both male and female. Put them outside the camp, so that they do not make their camps unclean, for I live among them."
Numbers 5:4  And the children of Israel did so, and put them outside the camp. As the LORD spoke to Moses, so the children of Israel did.
Numbers 5:5  The LORD spoke to Moses:
Numbers 5:6  "Speak to the children of Israel: When a man or a woman commits any sin that people commit, acting unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person is guilty,"
Numbers 5:7  "then they shall confess the sin they have done. He shall pay back in full for his wrong, add a fifth part to it, and give it to the one he wronged."
Numbers 5:8  "But if the man has no relative to whom the payment can be made, the payment for the wrong shall go to the LORD, that is, to the priest. This is besides the ram of atonement, by which atonement is made for him."
Numbers 5:9  "Every offering of all the holy things that the children of Israel bring to the priest shall be his."
Numbers 5:10  "Every man's holy gifts shall be his own. Whatever anyone gives the priest shall belong to the priest."
Numbers 5:11  The LORD spoke to Moses:
Numbers 5:12  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: If any man's wife turns aside and is unfaithful to him,"
Numbers 5:13  "and another man lies with her, and it is hidden from her husband's eyes and kept secret, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her, and she was not caught in the act;"
Numbers 5:14  "and a spirit of jealousy comes over him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled; or if a spirit of jealousy comes over him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is not defiled;"
Numbers 5:15  "then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring her offering for her, a tenth part of an ephah of barley meal. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of remembrance, bringing iniquity to mind."
Numbers 5:16  "The priest shall bring her near and set her before the LORD."
Numbers 5:17  "The priest shall take holy water in a clay jar, and he shall take some of the dust on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water."
Numbers 5:18  "The priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman's head, and put in her hands the offering of remembrance, which is the jealousy offering. The priest shall hold in his hand the bitter water that brings the curse."
Numbers 5:19  "The priest shall put her under an oath and say to the woman, 'If no man has lain with you, and if you have not turned aside to uncleanness with another instead of your husband, may you be free from this bitter water that brings the curse."
Numbers 5:20  "'But if you have turned aside to another instead of your husband, and you are defiled, and some man other than your husband has lain with you.'"
Numbers 5:21  "Then the priest shall put the woman under an oath of cursing, and the priest shall say to the woman, 'May the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell."
Numbers 5:22  "'And this water that brings the curse shall go into your body, to make your belly swell and your thigh rot.' And the woman shall say, 'Amen, amen.'"
Numbers 5:23  "The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall wash them off into the bitter water."
Numbers 5:24  "He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings the curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and become bitter."
Numbers 5:25  "Then the priest shall take the jealousy offering out of the woman's hand, and wave the offering before the LORD, and offer it on the altar."
Numbers 5:26  "The priest shall take a handful of the offering, its memorial part, and burn it on the altar. After that he shall make the woman drink the water."
Numbers 5:27  "When he has made her drink the water, then, if she is defiled and has been unfaithful to her husband, the water that brings the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. Her belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot, and the woman shall be a curse among her people."
Numbers 5:28  "But if the woman is not defiled, and is clean, then she shall be free, and she shall conceive children."
Numbers 5:29  "This is the law of jealousy, when a wife turns aside to another instead of her husband and is defiled,"
Numbers 5:30  "or when a spirit of jealousy comes over a man and he is jealous of his wife. He shall set the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall carry out upon her all this law."
Numbers 5:31  "Then the man shall be free from iniquity, and this woman shall bear her iniquity."

Numbers 6:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 6:2  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them: When a man or a woman makes a special promise, the vow of a Nazarite, to set themselves apart for the LORD,"
Numbers 6:3  "then he must keep away from wine and strong drink. He must drink no vinegar made from wine, and no vinegar made from strong drink. He must drink no juice of grapes, and eat no grapes, fresh or dried."
Numbers 6:4  "For the whole time he is set apart, he must eat nothing that comes from the grapevine, from the seeds to the skin."
Numbers 6:5  "For the whole time of his vow, no razor is to touch his head. Until the days are complete in which he sets himself apart for the LORD, he shall be holy. He shall let the hair of his head grow long."
Numbers 6:6  "For the whole time he sets himself apart for the LORD, he must not go near a dead body."
Numbers 6:7  "He must not make himself unclean even for his father or his mother, for his brother or his sister, when they die. For the sign that he belongs to his God is on his head."
Numbers 6:8  "For the whole time he is set apart, he is holy to the LORD."
Numbers 6:9  "If someone beside him dies very suddenly, so that the head he set apart is made unclean, then he must shave his head on the day he is made clean. On the seventh day he shall shave it."
Numbers 6:10  "On the eighth day he shall bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, to the priest, at the door of the tent of meeting."
Numbers 6:11  "The priest shall offer one of them as a sin offering, and the other as a burnt offering, and shall make atonement for him, because he sinned by being near the dead body. And that same day he shall make his head holy again."
Numbers 6:12  "He shall set apart for the LORD the days of his separation, and shall bring a lamb a year old as a trespass offering. But the days that went before are lost, because the time he was set apart was made unclean."
Numbers 6:13  "This is the law of the Nazarite when the days he is set apart are complete: he shall be brought to the door of the tent of meeting."
Numbers 6:14  "There he shall bring his offering to the LORD: one male lamb a year old without blemish for a burnt offering, one ewe lamb a year old without blemish for a sin offering, and one ram without blemish for peace offerings,"
Numbers 6:15  "and a basket of bread made without yeast, cakes of fine flour mixed with oil, and thin wafers without yeast spread with oil, together with their grain offering and their drink offerings."
Numbers 6:16  "The priest shall bring them before the LORD, and shall offer his sin offering and his burnt offering."
Numbers 6:17  "He shall offer the ram as a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD, with the basket of bread made without yeast. The priest shall also offer his grain offering and his drink offering."
Numbers 6:18  "The Nazarite shall shave the head he set apart at the door of the tent of meeting. He shall take the hair of the head he set apart and put it on the fire that is under the sacrifice of the peace offerings."
Numbers 6:19  "The priest shall take the boiled shoulder of the ram, and one cake without yeast out of the basket, and one thin wafer without yeast, and shall put them into the hands of the Nazarite, after the hair he set apart has been shaved off."
Numbers 6:20  "The priest shall wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. This is holy, and it belongs to the priest, along with the breast that is waved and the shoulder that is lifted up. After that the Nazarite may drink wine."
Numbers 6:21  "This is the law of the Nazarite who has made the vow, and of his offering to the LORD for his separation, besides whatever else he can afford. He must do as he vowed, following the law of his separation."
Numbers 6:22  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 6:23  "Speak to Aaron and to his sons and say: This is how you shall bless the children of Israel. You shall say to them,"
Numbers 6:24  "The LORD bless you and keep you."
Numbers 6:25  "The LORD make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you."
Numbers 6:26  "The LORD lift up his face toward you, and give you peace."
Numbers 6:27  "So they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them."

Numbers 7:1  On the day when Moses had finished setting up the tabernacle, he anointed it and set it apart as holy, with all its furnishings. He also anointed the altar and all its vessels and set them apart as holy.
Numbers 7:2  Then the leaders of Israel, the heads of their families, brought offerings. These were the leaders of the tribes, the men who were in charge of those who had been counted.
Numbers 7:3  They brought their offering before the LORD: six covered wagons and twelve oxen, a wagon from every two of the leaders, and an ox from each one. They brought them in front of the tabernacle.
Numbers 7:4  The LORD said to Moses,
Numbers 7:5  "Take these from them, so that they may be used for the work of the tabernacle of the congregation. Give them to the Levites, to each man according to his work."
Numbers 7:6  So Moses took the wagons and the oxen and gave them to the Levites.
Numbers 7:7  He gave two wagons and four oxen to the sons of Gershon, for the work they had to do.
Numbers 7:8  He gave four wagons and eight oxen to the sons of Merari, for the work they had to do, under the direction of Ithamar the son of Aaron the priest.
Numbers 7:9  But he gave none to the sons of Kohath, because the holy things they cared for had to be carried on their shoulders.
Numbers 7:10  The leaders brought offerings for the dedication of the altar on the day it was anointed. The leaders brought their offering in front of the altar.
Numbers 7:11  The LORD said to Moses, "Each leader is to bring his offering on his own day, for the dedication of the altar."
Numbers 7:12  The one who brought his offering on the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah.
Numbers 7:13  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:14  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:15  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:16  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:17  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
Numbers 7:18  On the second day Nethaneel the son of Zuar, the leader of Issachar, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:19  He brought as his offering one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:20  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:21  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:22  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:23  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nethaneel the son of Zuar.
Numbers 7:24  On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, the leader of the children of Zebulun, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:25  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:26  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:27  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:28  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:29  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliab the son of Helon.
Numbers 7:30  On the fourth day Elizur the son of Shedeur, the leader of the children of Reuben, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:31  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:32  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:33  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:34  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:35  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Numbers 7:36  On the fifth day Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai, the leader of the children of Simeon, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:37  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:38  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:39  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:40  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:41  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
Numbers 7:42  On the sixth day Eliasaph the son of Deuel, the leader of the children of Gad, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:43  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and a silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:44  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:45  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:46  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:47  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
Numbers 7:48  On the seventh day Elishama the son of Ammihud, the leader of the children of Ephraim, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:49  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:50  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:51  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:52  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:53  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Elishama the son of Ammihud.
Numbers 7:54  On the eighth day Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur, the leader of the children of Manasseh, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:55  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:56  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:57  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:58  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:59  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
Numbers 7:60  On the ninth day Abidan the son of Gideoni, the leader of the children of Benjamin, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:61  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:62  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:63  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:64  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:65  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Abidan the son of Gideoni.
Numbers 7:66  On the tenth day Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai, the leader of the children of Dan, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:67  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:68  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:69  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:70  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:71  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Numbers 7:72  On the eleventh day Pagiel the son of Ocran, the leader of the children of Asher, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:73  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:74  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:75  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:76  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:77  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Pagiel the son of Ocran.
Numbers 7:78  On the twelfth day Ahira the son of Enan, the leader of the children of Naphtali, brought his offering.
Numbers 7:79  His offering was one silver dish weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, and one silver bowl weighing seventy shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. Both of them were full of fine flour mixed with oil for a food offering.
Numbers 7:80  He also brought one gold spoon weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Numbers 7:81  one young bull, one ram and one lamb a year old for a burnt offering,
Numbers 7:82  and one young goat for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:83  For the sacrifice of peace offerings he brought two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five lambs a year old. This was the offering of Ahira the son of Enan.
Numbers 7:84  This was the gift of the leaders of Israel for the dedication of the altar, on the day when it was anointed: twelve silver dishes, twelve silver bowls and twelve gold spoons.
Numbers 7:85  Each silver dish weighed a hundred and thirty shekels, and each bowl seventy. All the silver vessels together weighed two thousand four hundred shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary.
Numbers 7:86  There were twelve gold spoons full of incense, each weighing ten shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. All the gold of the spoons came to a hundred and twenty shekels.
Numbers 7:87  All the cattle for the burnt offering were twelve bulls, with twelve rams and twelve lambs a year old, together with their food offering. There were also twelve young goats for a sin offering.
Numbers 7:88  All the cattle for the sacrifice of the peace offerings were twenty-four bulls, with sixty rams, sixty male goats and sixty lambs a year old. This was the gift for the dedication of the altar, after it was anointed.
Numbers 7:89  When Moses went into the tabernacle of the congregation to speak with him, he heard the voice of one speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim. And he spoke to him.

Numbers 8:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 8:2  "Speak to Aaron and say to him, 'When you light the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light in front of the lampstand.'"
Numbers 8:3  Aaron did so. He lit the lamps so that they shone in front of the lampstand, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 8:4  This is how the lampstand was made: it was of beaten gold. From its base to its flowers it was beaten work. Moses made the lampstand according to the pattern the LORD had shown him.
Numbers 8:5  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 8:6  "Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and make them clean."
Numbers 8:7  This is what you shall do to them to make them clean. Sprinkle the water of purifying on them. Let them shave off all their hair, and wash their clothes, and so make themselves clean.
Numbers 8:8  Then let them take a young bull with its grain offering, fine flour mixed with oil. And you shall take another young bull for a sin offering.
Numbers 8:9  You shall bring the Levites in front of the tabernacle of the congregation, and you shall gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together.
Numbers 8:10  You shall bring the Levites before the LORD, and the children of Israel shall lay their hands on the Levites.
Numbers 8:11  Aaron shall offer the Levites before the LORD as an offering from the children of Israel, so that they may do the service of the LORD.
Numbers 8:12  The Levites shall lay their hands on the heads of the bulls. You shall offer the one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to the LORD, to make atonement for the Levites.
Numbers 8:13  You shall set the Levites before Aaron and before his sons, and offer them as an offering to the LORD.
Numbers 8:14  In this way you shall separate the Levites from among the children of Israel, and the Levites shall be mine.
Numbers 8:15  After that the Levites shall go in to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation. You shall make them clean and offer them as an offering.
Numbers 8:16  For they are given wholly to me from among the children of Israel. I have taken them for myself instead of all who open the womb, instead of the firstborn of all the children of Israel.
Numbers 8:17  For all the firstborn of the children of Israel are mine, both people and animals. On the day that I struck down every firstborn in the land of Egypt I set them apart for myself.
Numbers 8:18  And I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the children of Israel.
Numbers 8:19  "I have given the Levites as a gift to Aaron and to his sons from among the children of Israel, to do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation, and to make atonement for the children of Israel. Then there will be no plague among the children of Israel when they come near the sanctuary."
Numbers 8:20  So Moses, and Aaron, and all the congregation of the children of Israel did to the Levites everything the LORD commanded Moses about the Levites. That is what the children of Israel did to them.
Numbers 8:21  The Levites were purified, and they washed their clothes. Aaron offered them as an offering before the LORD, and Aaron made atonement for them to make them clean.
Numbers 8:22  After that the Levites went in to do their service in the tabernacle of the congregation before Aaron and before his sons. As the LORD had commanded Moses about the Levites, so they did to them.
Numbers 8:23  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 8:24  "This is the rule for the Levites. From twenty-five years old and upward they shall come in to take part in the service of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Numbers 8:25  From the age of fifty years they shall stop taking part in the service, and shall serve no more.
Numbers 8:26  "They shall help their brothers in the tabernacle of the congregation, keeping watch over it, but they shall do no service. This is what you shall do with the Levites about their duties."

Numbers 9:1  The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai. It was the first month of the second year after they came out of the land of Egypt. He said,
Numbers 9:2  "Let the children of Israel keep the Passover at the time set for it."
Numbers 9:3  "On the fourteenth day of this month, in the evening, you shall keep it at the time set for it. You shall keep it by all its rules and all its ceremonies."
Numbers 9:4  So Moses told the children of Israel to keep the Passover.
Numbers 9:5  They kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month, in the evening, in the wilderness of Sinai. The children of Israel did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 9:6  But there were some men who were unclean because they had touched a dead body, so they could not keep the Passover on that day. They came before Moses and before Aaron that day.
Numbers 9:7  Those men said to him, "We are unclean because of a dead body. Why are we held back, so that we may not bring the offering of the LORD at the time set for it, along with the rest of the children of Israel?"
Numbers 9:8  Moses said to them, "Wait here, and I will hear what the LORD will command about you."
Numbers 9:9  And the LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 9:10  "Speak to the children of Israel and say, 'If any one of you or of your descendants is unclean because of a dead body, or is away on a long journey, he shall still keep the Passover to the LORD."
Numbers 9:11  "'They shall keep it on the fourteenth day of the second month, in the evening. They shall eat it with bread made without yeast and with bitter herbs."
Numbers 9:12  "'They shall leave none of it until the morning, and they shall not break any bone of it. They shall keep it by all the rules of the Passover."
Numbers 9:13  "'But if a man is clean, and is not away on a journey, and refuses to keep the Passover, that person shall be cut off from his people. He did not bring the offering of the LORD at the time set for it. That man shall bear his sin."
Numbers 9:14  "'If a stranger is living among you and wants to keep the Passover to the LORD, he shall do it by the rule of the Passover and in the way it is done. You shall have one rule, both for the stranger and for the one born in the land.'"
Numbers 9:15  On the day the tabernacle was set up, the cloud covered it, that is, the tent of the testimony. In the evening there was over the tabernacle something that looked like fire, and it stayed until the morning.
Numbers 9:16  So it was all the time: the cloud covered it by day, and what looked like fire by night.
Numbers 9:17  Whenever the cloud was lifted up from the tent, the children of Israel set out. And where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel put up their tents.
Numbers 9:18  At the command of the LORD the children of Israel set out, and at the command of the LORD they camped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they stayed in their tents.
Numbers 9:19  When the cloud stayed over the tabernacle for many days, the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD and did not set out.
Numbers 9:20  Sometimes the cloud was over the tabernacle only a few days. Then at the command of the LORD they stayed in their tents, and at the command of the LORD they set out.
Numbers 9:21  Sometimes the cloud stayed only from evening until morning, and when it was lifted up in the morning, they set out. Whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was lifted up, they set out.
Numbers 9:22  Whether it was two days, or a month, or a year that the cloud stayed over the tabernacle and rested there, the children of Israel stayed in their tents and did not set out. But when it was lifted up, they set out.
Numbers 9:23  At the command of the LORD they stayed in their tents, and at the command of the LORD they set out. They kept the charge of the LORD, at the command of the LORD given through Moses.

Numbers 10:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 10:2  "Make two trumpets of silver. Make them of hammered work. You will use them to call the people together, and to tell the camps to set out."
Numbers 10:3  "When both trumpets are blown, all the people are to gather to you at the door of the tent of meeting."
Numbers 10:4  "If only one trumpet is blown, then the leaders, the heads of the thousands of Israel, are to gather to you."
Numbers 10:5  "When you blow an alarm, the camps that lie on the east side are to set out."
Numbers 10:6  "When you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that lie on the south side are to set out. An alarm is to be blown when they are to set out."
Numbers 10:7  "But when the people are to be gathered together, you are to blow the trumpets, but not sound an alarm."
Numbers 10:8  "The sons of Aaron, the priests, are to blow the trumpets. This will be a law for you for ever, through all your generations."
Numbers 10:9  "When you go to war in your land against an enemy who troubles you, then you are to blow an alarm with the trumpets. Then you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies."
Numbers 10:10  "Also on your days of gladness, and at your set feasts, and at the beginnings of your months, you are to blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They will be a reminder for you before your God. I am the LORD your God."
Numbers 10:11  On the twentieth day of the second month, in the second year, the cloud was lifted up from the tent of the testimony.
Numbers 10:12  So the children of Israel set out from the wilderness of Sinai, going on their journeys. The cloud came to rest in the wilderness of Paran.
Numbers 10:13  This was the first time they set out at the command of the LORD given through Moses.
Numbers 10:14  First went the flag of the camp of the children of Judah, army by army. Over their army was Nahshon the son of Amminadab.
Numbers 10:15  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Issachar was Nethaneel the son of Zuar.
Numbers 10:16  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Zebulun was Eliab the son of Helon.
Numbers 10:17  Then the tent was taken down, and the sons of Gershon and the sons of Merari set out, carrying the tent.
Numbers 10:18  Then the flag of the camp of Reuben set out, army by army. Over their army was Elizur the son of Shedeur.
Numbers 10:19  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Simeon was Shelumiel the son of Zurishaddai.
Numbers 10:20  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Gad was Eliasaph the son of Deuel.
Numbers 10:21  Then the Kohathites set out, carrying the holy things. The others set up the tent before they arrived.
Numbers 10:22  Then the flag of the camp of the children of Ephraim set out, army by army. Over their army was Elishama the son of Ammihud.
Numbers 10:23  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Manasseh was Gamaliel the son of Pedahzur.
Numbers 10:24  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Benjamin was Abidan the son of Gideoni.
Numbers 10:25  Then the flag of the camp of the children of Dan set out. They were the rear guard of all the camps, army by army. Over their army was Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Numbers 10:26  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Asher was Pagiel the son of Ocran.
Numbers 10:27  Over the army of the tribe of the children of Naphtali was Ahira the son of Enan.
Numbers 10:28  This was the order of march of the children of Israel, army by army, when they set out.
Numbers 10:29  Moses said to Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We are travelling to the place of which the LORD said, 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will do you good, for the LORD has promised good things for Israel."
Numbers 10:30  But he said to him, "I will not go. I will go back to my own land and to my relatives."
Numbers 10:31  Then Moses said, "Please do not leave us. You know how we are to camp in the wilderness, and you can be our eyes."
Numbers 10:32  "If you go with us, then whatever good the LORD does for us, we will do the same for you."
Numbers 10:33  So they set out from the mountain of the LORD and travelled for three days. The ark of the covenant of the LORD went before them during those three days, to look for a resting place for them.
Numbers 10:34  And the cloud of the LORD was over them by day, when they set out from the camp.
Numbers 10:35  Whenever the ark set out, Moses said, "Rise up, LORD, and let your enemies be scattered. Let those who hate you run away from you."
Numbers 10:36  And when it rested, he said, "Return, LORD, to the many thousands of Israel."

Numbers 11:1  When the people complained, it displeased the LORD. The LORD heard it, and his anger was kindled. The fire of the LORD burned among them, and burned up those who were in the farthest parts of the camp.
Numbers 11:2  The people cried out to Moses. When Moses prayed to the LORD, the fire died down.
Numbers 11:3  He called the name of that place Taberah, because the fire of the LORD burned among them.
Numbers 11:4  The mixed crowd among them began to crave other food. The children of Israel also wept again, and said, "Who will give us meat to eat?"
Numbers 11:5  "We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for nothing, and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic."
Numbers 11:6  "But now our soul is dried up. There is nothing at all before our eyes but this manna."
Numbers 11:7  The manna was like coriander seed, and its colour was like the colour of bdellium.
Numbers 11:8  The people went about and gathered it. They ground it in mills, or beat it in a mortar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it. Its taste was like the taste of fresh oil.
Numbers 11:9  When the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell with it.
Numbers 11:10  Then Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, every man at the door of his tent. The anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased too.
Numbers 11:11  Moses said to the LORD, "Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? Why have I not found favour in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me?"
Numbers 11:12  "Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, 'Carry them in your arms, as a nursing father carries a baby at the breast, to the land you promised with an oath to their fathers'?"
Numbers 11:13  "Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they weep to me, saying, 'Give us meat, so that we may eat.'"
Numbers 11:14  "I am not able to carry all this people alone. It is too heavy for me."
Numbers 11:15  "If you deal with me like this, then kill me at once, I beg you, if I have found favour in your sight. Do not let me see my own misery."
Numbers 11:16  The LORD said to Moses, "Gather to me seventy men of the elders of Israel, men you know to be elders of the people and officers over them. Bring them to the tabernacle of the congregation, so that they may stand there with you."
Numbers 11:17  "I will come down and talk with you there. I will take some of the spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will carry the burden of the people with you, so that you do not carry it alone."
Numbers 11:18  "And say to the people, 'Make yourselves holy for tomorrow, and you will eat meat. For you have wept in the ears of the LORD, saying, Who will give us meat to eat? It was good for us in Egypt. So the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat."
Numbers 11:19  "'You will not eat for one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,"
Numbers 11:20  "'but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and you are sick of it. For you have despised the LORD who is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why did we ever come out of Egypt?'"
Numbers 11:21  Moses said, "The people I am among are six hundred thousand men on foot, and you have said, 'I will give them meat, so that they may eat for a whole month.'"
Numbers 11:22  "Shall the flocks and the herds be killed for them, to be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to be enough for them?"
Numbers 11:23  The LORD said to Moses, "Has the LORD's hand grown short? Now you will see whether my word will come true for you or not."
Numbers 11:24  Moses went out and told the people the words of the LORD. He gathered the seventy men of the elders of the people and set them all around the tabernacle.
Numbers 11:25  The LORD came down in a cloud and spoke to him. He took some of the spirit that was on him and gave it to the seventy elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, and did not stop.
Numbers 11:26  But two of the men stayed in the camp. The name of one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad. The spirit rested on them. They were among those who were written down, but they had not gone out to the tabernacle. They prophesied in the camp.
Numbers 11:27  A young man ran and told Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp."
Numbers 11:28  Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, "My lord Moses, stop them."
Numbers 11:29  Moses said to him, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit on them."
Numbers 11:30  Then Moses went back into the camp, he and the elders of Israel.
Numbers 11:31  A wind went out from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea. It let them fall by the camp, about a day's journey on this side and about a day's journey on the other side, all around the camp, and about two cubits high above the face of the earth.
Numbers 11:32  The people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails. The one who gathered least gathered ten homers. They spread them out all around the camp.
Numbers 11:33  While the meat was still between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD struck the people with a very great plague.
Numbers 11:34  He called the name of that place Kibrothhattaavah, because there they buried the people who had craved meat.
Numbers 11:35  The people journeyed from Kibrothhattaavah to Hazeroth, and stayed at Hazeroth.

Numbers 12:1  Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman he had married, for he had married an Ethiopian woman.
Numbers 12:2  They said, "Has the LORD really spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard it.
Numbers 12:3  (Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all the men on the face of the earth.)
Numbers 12:4  Suddenly the LORD spoke to Moses, to Aaron, and to Miriam, "You three, come out to the tent of meeting." So the three of them came out.
Numbers 12:5  The LORD came down in the pillar of cloud and stood at the door of the tent. He called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.
Numbers 12:6  He said, "Listen now to my words. If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known to him in a vision. I will speak to him in a dream."
Numbers 12:7  "My servant Moses is not like this. He is faithful in all my house."
Numbers 12:8  "With him I will speak mouth to mouth, plainly, and not in riddles. He will see the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"
Numbers 12:9  The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he went away.
Numbers 12:10  The cloud went up from the tent, and look, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. Aaron looked at Miriam, and she was leprous.
Numbers 12:11  Aaron said to Moses, "Alas, my lord, I beg you, do not lay this sin on us. We have acted foolishly, and we have sinned."
Numbers 12:12  "Do not let her be like one who is dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb."
Numbers 12:13  Moses cried out to the LORD, "Heal her now, O God, I beg you."
Numbers 12:14  The LORD said to Moses, "If her father had only spit in her face, would she not be ashamed for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp for seven days, and after that let her be brought in again."
Numbers 12:15  So Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days, and the people did not travel on until Miriam was brought in again.
Numbers 12:16  After that the people moved on from Hazeroth and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Numbers 13:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 13:2  "Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel. From every tribe of their fathers you shall send one man, and each one must be a leader among them."
Numbers 13:3  So Moses sent them from the wilderness of Paran, as the LORD had commanded. All those men were heads of the children of Israel.
Numbers 13:4  These were their names: from the tribe of Reuben, Shammua the son of Zaccur;
Numbers 13:5  from the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat the son of Hori;
Numbers 13:6  from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;
Numbers 13:7  from the tribe of Issachar, Igal the son of Joseph;
Numbers 13:8  from the tribe of Ephraim, Oshea the son of Nun;
Numbers 13:9  from the tribe of Benjamin, Palti the son of Raphu;
Numbers 13:10  from the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel the son of Sodi;
Numbers 13:11  from the tribe of Joseph, that is, from the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi the son of Susi;
Numbers 13:12  from the tribe of Dan, Ammiel the son of Gemalli;
Numbers 13:13  from the tribe of Asher, Sethur the son of Michael;
Numbers 13:14  from the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi the son of Vophsi;
Numbers 13:15  from the tribe of Gad, Geuel the son of Machi.
Numbers 13:16  These are the names of the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua.
Numbers 13:17  Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said to them, "Go up this way to the south, and go up into the mountain."
Numbers 13:18  See what the land is like. See whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many.
Numbers 13:19  See what kind of land they live in, whether it is good or bad. See what kind of cities they live in, whether they live in tents or in strongholds.
Numbers 13:20  "See whether the land is rich or poor, and whether there are trees in it or not. Be of good courage, and bring back some of the fruit of the land." Now it was the time of the first ripe grapes.
Numbers 13:21  So they went up and explored the land from the wilderness of Zin as far as Rehob, on the way to Hamath.
Numbers 13:22  They went up by the south and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
Numbers 13:23  They came to the brook of Eshcol, and there they cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes. Two of them carried it on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and some of the figs.
Numbers 13:24  That place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes that the children of Israel cut down there.
Numbers 13:25  After forty days they came back from exploring the land.
Numbers 13:26  They went and came to Moses and Aaron and all the assembly of the children of Israel, in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh. They brought back word to them and to all the assembly, and showed them the fruit of the land.
Numbers 13:27  They told him, "We came to the land where you sent us. It surely flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit."
Numbers 13:28  But the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are walled and very great. We also saw the children of Anak there.
Numbers 13:29  "The Amalekites live in the land of the south. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites live in the mountains. The Canaanites live by the sea and along the Jordan."
Numbers 13:30  Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take the land, for we are well able to overcome it."
Numbers 13:31  But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against those people, for they are stronger than we are."
Numbers 13:32  And they gave the children of Israel a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we went through to explore is a land that eats up those who live in it. All the people we saw in it are men of great size."
Numbers 13:33  "There we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, who come from the giants. In our own eyes we were like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes."

Numbers 14:1  Then the whole community lifted up their voices and cried out. The people wept that night.
Numbers 14:2  All the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron. The whole community said to them, "If only we had died in the land of Egypt. Or if only we had died in this wilderness."
Numbers 14:3  "Why has the LORD brought us to this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our children will be taken as plunder. Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?"
Numbers 14:4  And they said to one another, "Let us choose a leader, and let us go back to Egypt."
Numbers 14:5  Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of all the gathered assembly of the children of Israel.
Numbers 14:6  Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes.
Numbers 14:7  They spoke to all the company of the children of Israel and said, "The land we passed through and explored is an exceedingly good land."
Numbers 14:8  "If the LORD delights in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us, a land flowing with milk and honey."
Numbers 14:9  "Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection has gone from them, and the LORD is with us. Do not fear them."
Numbers 14:10  But the whole community said they should be stoned with stones. Then the glory of the LORD appeared in the tent of meeting before all the children of Israel.
Numbers 14:11  And the LORD said to Moses, "How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be before they believe me, after all the signs I have shown among them?"
Numbers 14:12  "I will strike them with the plague and drive them out, and I will make of you a nation greater and mightier than they are."
Numbers 14:13  And Moses said to the LORD, "Then the Egyptians will hear of it, for you brought this people up by your might from among them."
Numbers 14:14  "And they will tell it to the people who live in this land. They have heard that you, LORD, are among this people, that you, LORD, are seen face to face, that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night."
Numbers 14:15  "Now if you kill all this people as one man, then the nations who have heard of your fame will say,"
Numbers 14:16  "'The LORD was not able to bring this people into the land he promised them with an oath, so he has killed them in the wilderness.'"
Numbers 14:17  "And now, I beg you, let the power of my Lord be great, just as you have said:"
Numbers 14:18  "'The LORD is slow to anger, and full of mercy, forgiving sin and wrongdoing. Yet he by no means clears the guilty, but punishes the sin of the fathers in the children to the third and fourth generation.'"
Numbers 14:19  "Pardon, I beg you, the sin of this people, according to the greatness of your mercy, and as you have forgiven this people from Egypt until now."
Numbers 14:20  And the LORD said, "I have pardoned them, as you asked."
Numbers 14:21  "But as surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD."
Numbers 14:22  "None of those men who have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and who have tested me now these ten times and have not listened to my voice,"
Numbers 14:23  "surely they shall not see the land that I promised their fathers with an oath. None of those who provoked me shall see it."
Numbers 14:24  "But my servant Caleb had a different spirit in him, and he has followed me fully. Him I will bring into the land he went into, and his descendants shall possess it."
Numbers 14:25  (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites lived in the valley.) "Tomorrow turn back and set out into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea."
Numbers 14:26  And the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron and said,
Numbers 14:27  "How long shall I put up with this evil community, who complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel, which they make against me."
Numbers 14:28  "Say to them, 'As surely as I live, says the LORD, I will do to you the very thing you have spoken in my hearing.'"
Numbers 14:29  "Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness: all of you who were counted, the whole number of you from twenty years old and upward, who have complained against me."
Numbers 14:30  "You shall certainly not come into the land where I swore with an oath that you would live, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun."
Numbers 14:31  "But your little ones, whom you said would be taken as plunder, them I will bring in, and they shall know the land you have despised."
Numbers 14:32  "But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness."
Numbers 14:33  "And your children shall wander in the wilderness forty years, and bear the weight of your unfaithfulness, until your dead bodies are gone in the wilderness."
Numbers 14:34  "You explored the land for forty days. So for each day, a year: for forty years you shall bear your sin, and you shall know my breach of promise."
Numbers 14:35  "I the LORD have spoken. I will surely do this to all this evil community who have gathered together against me. In this wilderness they shall be finished, and there they shall die."
Numbers 14:36  The men whom Moses sent to explore the land, who came back and made the whole community complain against him by spreading a bad report about the land,
Numbers 14:37  those men who brought the evil report about the land died by the plague before the LORD.
Numbers 14:38  But Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, who were among the men who went to explore the land, stayed alive.
Numbers 14:39  Moses told these words to all the children of Israel, and the people mourned deeply.
Numbers 14:40  They got up early in the morning and went up to the top of the mountain, saying, "Here we are. We will go up to the place the LORD has promised, for we have sinned."
Numbers 14:41  But Moses said, "Why are you now breaking the command of the LORD? It will not succeed."
Numbers 14:42  "Do not go up, for the LORD is not among you. If you do, you will be struck down by your enemies."
Numbers 14:43  "For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there in front of you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, the LORD will not be with you."
Numbers 14:44  But they dared to go up to the hill top. Yet the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, did not leave the camp.
Numbers 14:45  Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites who lived in that hill country, and they struck them and beat them down, as far as Hormah.

Numbers 15:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 15:2  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into the land where you will live, which I am giving you,"
Numbers 15:3  "'and you make an offering by fire to the LORD, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice to keep a vow, or a freewill offering, or an offering at your appointed feasts, to make a pleasing smell to the LORD, taken from the herd or from the flock,"
Numbers 15:4  "'then the one who brings his offering to the LORD shall bring with it a grain offering of a tenth part of flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil."
Numbers 15:5  "'And you shall prepare a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering, together with the burnt offering or the sacrifice, for each lamb."
Numbers 15:6  "'Or for a ram you shall prepare as a grain offering two tenth parts of flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil."
Numbers 15:7  "'And for a drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, for a pleasing smell to the LORD."
Numbers 15:8  "'And when you prepare a young bull for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice to keep a vow, or for peace offerings to the LORD,"
Numbers 15:9  "'then he shall bring with the bull a grain offering of three tenth parts of flour mixed with half a hin of oil."
Numbers 15:10  "'And you shall bring half a hin of wine as a drink offering. It is an offering made by fire, a pleasing smell to the LORD."
Numbers 15:11  "'This is what shall be done for each bull, or for each ram, or for a lamb, or a young goat."
Numbers 15:12  "'Whatever number you prepare, you shall do this for every one of them, according to their number."
Numbers 15:13  "'Everyone born in the country shall do these things in this way, when he brings an offering made by fire, a pleasing smell to the LORD."
Numbers 15:14  "'And if a foreigner is staying with you, or anyone else among you in the generations to come, and he wants to offer an offering made by fire, a pleasing smell to the LORD, he shall do just as you do."
Numbers 15:15  "'There shall be one rule for you of the assembly and for the foreigner who stays with you. It is a rule for ever, through all your generations. As you are, so shall the foreigner be before the LORD."
Numbers 15:16  "'One law and one way shall be for you and for the foreigner who stays with you.'"
Numbers 15:17  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 15:18  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, 'When you come into the land where I am bringing you,"
Numbers 15:19  "'and you eat the bread of the land, you shall lift up a heave offering to the LORD."
Numbers 15:20  "'You shall lift up a cake made from the first of your dough as a heave offering. Lift it up as you lift up the heave offering from the threshing floor."
Numbers 15:21  "'From the first of your dough you shall give the LORD a heave offering, through all your generations."
Numbers 15:22  "'And if you make a mistake and do not keep all these commandments which the LORD has spoken to Moses,"
Numbers 15:23  "'that is, all that the LORD has commanded you through Moses, from the day the LORD gave Moses his commands and on through your generations,"
Numbers 15:24  "'then, if the wrong was done without knowing it and the assembly did not know about it, all the assembly shall offer one young bull as a burnt offering, a pleasing smell to the LORD, with its grain offering and its drink offering, as the rule says, and one young goat as a sin offering."
Numbers 15:25  "'And the priest shall make atonement for all the assembly of the children of Israel, and they will be forgiven, for they did not know. They shall bring their offering, a sacrifice made by fire to the LORD, and their sin offering before the LORD, because they did not know."
Numbers 15:26  "'And all the assembly of the children of Israel will be forgiven, and the foreigner who stays among them, since all the people did it without knowing."
Numbers 15:27  "'And if one person sins without knowing it, then he shall bring a female goat in its first year as a sin offering."
Numbers 15:28  "'And the priest shall make atonement before the LORD for the person who sinned without knowing it. Atonement will be made for him, and he will be forgiven."
Numbers 15:29  "'You shall have one law for the one who sins without knowing it, whether he is born among the children of Israel or is a foreigner who stays among them."
Numbers 15:30  "'But the person who does wrong on purpose, whether he is born in the land or is a foreigner, insults the LORD. That person shall be cut off from among his people."
Numbers 15:31  "'He has despised the word of the LORD and has broken his commandment. That person shall be completely cut off. His sin shall be on him.'"
Numbers 15:32  While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day.
Numbers 15:33  And those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the assembly.
Numbers 15:34  They kept him under guard, because it had not been made clear what should be done to him.
Numbers 15:35  And the LORD said to Moses, "The man must be put to death. All the assembly shall stone him with stones outside the camp."
Numbers 15:36  So all the assembly brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones, and he died, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 15:37  And the LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 15:38  "Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their clothes, through all their generations, and to put a blue cord on the tassel at each corner."
Numbers 15:39  "And the tassel shall be for you to look at, so that you remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them. Then you will not follow your own heart and your own eyes, which you have gone after like a prostitute."
Numbers 15:40  "So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God."
Numbers 15:41  "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. I am the LORD your God."

Numbers 16:1  Now Korah, the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, took men with him. So did Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and On, the son of Peleth, who were sons of Reuben.
Numbers 16:2  They stood up against Moses, along with some of the children of Israel: two hundred and fifty leaders of the assembly, well known in the community, men of great name.
Numbers 16:3  They gathered together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them, "You take too much upon yourselves. The whole community is holy, every one of them, and the LORD is among them. Why then do you lift yourselves up above the assembly of the LORD?"
Numbers 16:4  When Moses heard it, he fell on his face.
Numbers 16:5  He said to Korah and to all his company, "Tomorrow the LORD will show who are his, and who is holy, and he will bring that man near to himself. The one he has chosen he will bring near to himself."
Numbers 16:6  "Do this: take censers, Korah, and all your company."
Numbers 16:7  "Put fire in them, and put incense in them before the LORD tomorrow. The man whom the LORD chooses shall be the holy one. You take too much upon yourselves, you sons of Levi."
Numbers 16:8  Moses said to Korah, "Listen, please, you sons of Levi."
Numbers 16:9  "Does it seem only a small thing to you that the God of Israel has set you apart from the rest of Israel, to bring you near to himself, to do the work of the tabernacle of the LORD, and to stand before the community to serve them?"
Numbers 16:10  "He has brought you near to himself, and all your brothers the sons of Levi with you. And now do you seek the priesthood as well?"
Numbers 16:11  "So you and all your company have gathered together against the LORD. And what is Aaron, that you complain against him?"
Numbers 16:12  Then Moses sent to call Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab. But they said, "We will not come up."
Numbers 16:13  "Is it a small thing that you have brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? Must you also make yourself a ruler over us?"
Numbers 16:14  "What is more, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, or given us fields and vineyards to own. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up."
Numbers 16:15  Moses was very angry, and said to the LORD, "Do not accept their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, and I have not hurt one of them."
Numbers 16:16  Moses said to Korah, "You and all your company come before the LORD tomorrow: you, and they, and Aaron."
Numbers 16:17  "Let each man take his censer and put incense in it, and let each man bring his censer before the LORD, two hundred and fifty censers. You also, and Aaron, each with his censer."
Numbers 16:18  So each man took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it. They stood at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation with Moses and Aaron.
Numbers 16:19  Korah gathered all the community against them at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the community.
Numbers 16:20  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying,
Numbers 16:21  "Separate yourselves from this community, so that I may destroy them in a moment."
Numbers 16:22  They fell on their faces and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, will one man sin, and will you be angry with the whole community?"
Numbers 16:23  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 16:24  "Speak to the community and say, 'Get away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram.'"
Numbers 16:25  Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him.
Numbers 16:26  He spoke to the community and said, "Move away, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away in all their sins."
Numbers 16:27  So they moved away from around the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on every side. Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the doors of their tents, with their wives, their sons, and their little children.
Numbers 16:28  Moses said, "By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these things, and that I have not done them out of my own mind."
Numbers 16:29  "If these men die the ordinary death of all men, or if what happens to all men happens to them, then the LORD has not sent me."
Numbers 16:30  "But if the LORD does a new thing, and the earth opens her mouth and swallows them up with everything that belongs to them, and they go down living into the pit, then you will know that these men have insulted the LORD."
Numbers 16:31  As soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart.
Numbers 16:32  The earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah, and all their goods.
Numbers 16:33  They and all who belonged to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them. So they perished from among the community.
Numbers 16:34  All the Israelites around them fled at their cry, for they said, "The earth may swallow us up too."
Numbers 16:35  Then a fire came out from the LORD, and burned up the two hundred and fifty men who were offering the incense.
Numbers 16:36  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 16:37  "Speak to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest. Tell him to pick up the censers out of the burning, and to scatter the fire far away, for the censers are holy."
Numbers 16:38  "The censers of these men who sinned against their own lives are to be beaten into broad plates as a covering for the altar. They offered them before the LORD, so they are holy. They shall be a sign to the children of Israel."
Numbers 16:39  So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that the men who were burned had offered, and they were beaten into broad plates as a covering for the altar.
Numbers 16:40  This was a reminder to the children of Israel that no stranger who is not of the family of Aaron should come near to offer incense before the LORD, so that he would not become like Korah and his company, as the LORD had said to him through Moses.
Numbers 16:41  But the next day all the community of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, "You have killed the people of the LORD."
Numbers 16:42  When the community had gathered against Moses and against Aaron, they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation. Look, the cloud covered it, and the glory of the LORD appeared.
Numbers 16:43  Moses and Aaron came to the front of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Numbers 16:44  The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 16:45  "Get away from this community, so that I may destroy them in a moment." And they fell on their faces.
Numbers 16:46  Moses said to Aaron, "Take a censer, put fire in it from the altar, and put incense on it. Go quickly to the community and make atonement for them, for wrath has gone out from the LORD. The plague has begun."
Numbers 16:47  Aaron did as Moses commanded, and ran into the middle of the community. Look, the plague had begun among the people. He put on the incense and made atonement for the people.
Numbers 16:48  He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped.
Numbers 16:49  Those who died in the plague were fourteen thousand seven hundred, besides those who died because of Korah.
Numbers 16:50  Aaron returned to Moses at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and the plague was stopped.

Numbers 17:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 17:2  "Speak to the children of Israel, and take a rod from each of them, one for each family of their fathers. Take twelve rods from all their leaders, one for each family of their fathers. Write each man's name on his rod."
Numbers 17:3  Write Aaron's name on the rod of Levi. There shall be one rod for the head of each family of their fathers.
Numbers 17:4  Lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation, in front of the testimony, where I will meet with you.
Numbers 17:5  "Then the rod of the man I choose will blossom. So I will stop the complaining of the children of Israel, which they make against you."
Numbers 17:6  So Moses spoke to the children of Israel, and every one of their leaders gave him a rod, one rod for each leader, according to their fathers' families. There were twelve rods, and the rod of Aaron was among their rods.
Numbers 17:7  Moses laid the rods up before the LORD in the tabernacle of witness.
Numbers 17:8  The next day Moses went into the tabernacle of witness. Look, the rod of Aaron, for the family of Levi, had budded. It had put out buds, and opened blossoms, and produced almonds.
Numbers 17:9  Moses brought out all the rods from before the LORD to all the children of Israel. They looked, and each man took his own rod.
Numbers 17:10  The LORD said to Moses, "Bring Aaron's rod back in front of the testimony, to be kept as a sign against the rebels. So you will put an end to their complaining against me, and they will not die."
Numbers 17:11  Moses did so. As the LORD commanded him, so he did.
Numbers 17:12  The children of Israel spoke to Moses and said, "Look, we are dying, we are lost, we are all lost."
Numbers 17:13  "Anyone who comes at all near to the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all to be destroyed by dying?"

Numbers 18:1  And the LORD said to Aaron, "You and your sons and your father's house with you shall bear the guilt of the sanctuary. And you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt of your priesthood."
Numbers 18:2  "Bring with you also your brothers of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of your father. They shall be joined to you and shall serve you. But you and your sons with you shall serve before the tabernacle of witness."
Numbers 18:3  "They shall keep what you give them to do, and care for all the tabernacle. Only they must not come near the vessels of the sanctuary and the altar, so that they do not die, and you do not die either."
Numbers 18:4  "They shall be joined to you and keep charge of the tabernacle of the congregation, for all the work of the tabernacle. No stranger shall come near you."
Numbers 18:5  "You shall keep charge of the sanctuary and charge of the altar, so that there is no more wrath on the children of Israel."
Numbers 18:6  "Look, I myself have taken your brothers the Levites from among the children of Israel. They are given to you as a gift for the LORD, to do the work of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Numbers 18:7  "So you and your sons with you shall keep your priest's office for everything of the altar and inside the veil, and you shall serve there. I have given you your priest's office as a gift of service. The stranger who comes near shall be put to death."
Numbers 18:8  And the LORD spoke to Aaron, "Look, I have also given you charge of my heave offerings, of all the holy things of the children of Israel. I have given them to you because of the anointing, and to your sons, as a law for ever."
Numbers 18:9  "This shall be yours of the most holy things, kept back from the fire: every offering of theirs, every food offering of theirs, every sin offering of theirs, and every trespass offering of theirs, which they give back to me. They shall be most holy for you and for your sons."
Numbers 18:10  "You shall eat it in the most holy place. Every male shall eat it. It shall be holy to you."
Numbers 18:11  "And this is yours: the heave offering of their gift, with all the wave offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and your daughters with you, as a law for ever. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat of it."
Numbers 18:12  "All the best of the oil, and all the best of the wine and of the wheat, the firstfruits of them which they offer to the LORD, I have given to you."
Numbers 18:13  "And whatever is first ripe in the land, which they bring to the LORD, shall be yours. Everyone in your house who is clean may eat of it."
Numbers 18:14  "Everything devoted in Israel shall be yours."
Numbers 18:15  "Everything that opens the womb of all flesh, which they bring to the LORD, whether of people or animals, shall be yours. But you must certainly redeem the firstborn of man, and you shall redeem the firstborn of unclean animals."
Numbers 18:16  "Those that are to be redeemed you shall redeem from a month old, at the price you set, the money of five shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary, which is twenty gerahs."
Numbers 18:17  "But the firstborn of a cow, or the firstborn of a sheep, or the firstborn of a goat, you shall not redeem. They are holy. You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar, and burn their fat as an offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD."
Numbers 18:18  "And their flesh shall be yours, just as the wave breast and the right shoulder are yours."
Numbers 18:19  "All the heave offerings of the holy things, which the children of Israel offer to the LORD, I have given to you, and to your sons and your daughters with you, as a law for ever. It is a covenant of salt for ever before the LORD, for you and for your descendants with you."
Numbers 18:20  And the LORD spoke to Aaron, "You shall have no inheritance in their land, and you shall have no share among them. I am your share and your inheritance among the children of Israel."
Numbers 18:21  "Look, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel as an inheritance, for the work they do, the work of the tabernacle of the congregation."
Numbers 18:22  "From now on the children of Israel must not come near the tabernacle of the congregation, or they will bear sin and die."
Numbers 18:23  "But the Levites shall do the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and they shall bear their guilt. It shall be a law for ever through all your generations, that among the children of Israel they have no inheritance."
Numbers 18:24  "For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as a heave offering to the LORD, I have given to the Levites to inherit. That is why I have said to them, 'Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.'"
Numbers 18:25  And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
Numbers 18:26  "Speak to the Levites and say to them, 'When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer a heave offering of it for the LORD, a tenth part of the tithe.'"
Numbers 18:27  "'And this heave offering of yours shall be counted for you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and the full yield of the winepress.'"
Numbers 18:28  "'So you also shall offer a heave offering to the LORD from all your tithes, which you receive from the children of Israel. And from it you shall give the LORD's heave offering to Aaron the priest.'"
Numbers 18:29  "'Out of all your gifts you shall offer every heave offering of the LORD, out of all the best of it, the holy part of it.'"
Numbers 18:30  "Therefore you shall say to them, 'When you have lifted up the best of it, then it shall be counted for the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the winepress.'"
Numbers 18:31  "'And you may eat it in any place, you and your households. For it is your reward for your service in the tabernacle of the congregation.'"
Numbers 18:32  "'And you shall bear no sin because of it, when you have lifted up the best of it. And you shall not make the holy things of the children of Israel unclean, or you will die.'"

Numbers 19:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron. He said,
Numbers 19:2  "This is the rule of the law which the LORD has commanded. Say to the children of Israel that they bring you a red heifer without spot, with no blemish in her, and one that has never worn a yoke."
Numbers 19:3  You shall give her to Eleazar the priest. He shall bring her outside the camp, and someone shall kill her in front of him.
Numbers 19:4  Eleazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger. He shall sprinkle some of her blood seven times, straight toward the front of the tent of meeting.
Numbers 19:5  Someone shall burn the heifer while he watches. Her skin, her flesh, her blood, and her dung shall all be burned.
Numbers 19:6  The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet thread, and throw them into the middle of the burning heifer.
Numbers 19:7  Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water. After that he may come into the camp. But the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
Numbers 19:8  The man who burns her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he shall be unclean until the evening.
Numbers 19:9  A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer. He shall put them outside the camp in a clean place. They shall be kept for the community of the children of Israel, to make the water of separation. It is a purification for sin.
Numbers 19:10  The man who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and he shall be unclean until the evening. This shall be a law for ever for the children of Israel and for the stranger who lives among them.
Numbers 19:11  Anyone who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean for seven days.
Numbers 19:12  He shall purify himself with the water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day, then on the seventh day he shall not be clean.
Numbers 19:13  Anyone who touches the dead body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, makes the tent of the LORD unclean. That person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water of separation was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.
Numbers 19:14  This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everything in the tent, shall be unclean for seven days.
Numbers 19:15  And every open container that has no lid tied on it is unclean.
Numbers 19:16  Anyone who touches a man killed with a sword out in the open fields, or a dead body, or a man's bone, or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.
Numbers 19:17  For the unclean person they shall take some of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and put running water on them in a container.
Numbers 19:18  A clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water. He shall sprinkle it on the tent, on all the containers, and on the people who were there. He shall also sprinkle it on the one who touched a bone, or a man who was killed, or a dead body, or a grave.
Numbers 19:19  The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and on the seventh day. On the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water. In the evening he shall be clean.
Numbers 19:20  But if a man is unclean and does not purify himself, that person shall be cut off from the community, because he has made the sanctuary of the LORD unclean. The water of separation has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean.
Numbers 19:21  This shall be a lasting law for them. The man who sprinkles the water of separation shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of separation shall be unclean until evening.
Numbers 19:22  "Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean, and the person who touches that shall be unclean until evening."

Numbers 20:1  Then the children of Israel, the whole community, came into the desert of Zin in the first month. The people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there, and she was buried there.
Numbers 20:2  There was no water for the community, and they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron.
Numbers 20:3  The people argued with Moses. They said, "If only we had died when our brothers died before the LORD!"
Numbers 20:4  "Why have you brought the community of the LORD into this wilderness, so that we and our cattle should die here?"
Numbers 20:5  "And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place? It is no place for seed, or figs, or vines, or pomegranates. There is not even any water to drink."
Numbers 20:6  Moses and Aaron went away from the assembly to the door of the tent of meeting, and they fell on their faces. The glory of the LORD appeared to them.
Numbers 20:7  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 20:8  "Take the rod, and gather the assembly together, you and Aaron your brother. Speak to the rock in front of them, and it will give out its water. So you will bring them water out of the rock, and give the community and their animals a drink."
Numbers 20:9  So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, as he had commanded him.
Numbers 20:10  Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock, and he said to them, "Listen now, you rebels. Must we bring you water out of this rock?"
Numbers 20:11  Then Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he struck the rock twice. The water came out in plenty, and the community drank, and their animals too.
Numbers 20:12  And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, "Because you did not believe me, to treat me as holy in the eyes of the children of Israel, you will not bring this community into the land which I have given them."
Numbers 20:13  This is the water of Meribah, because the children of Israel argued with the LORD, and he was shown to be holy among them.
Numbers 20:14  Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom: "This is what your brother Israel says: You know all the hardship that has come upon us."
Numbers 20:15  "Our fathers went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians treated us badly, and our fathers too."
Numbers 20:16  "When we cried out to the LORD, he heard our voice. He sent an angel and brought us out of Egypt. Look, we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your border."
Numbers 20:17  "Please let us pass through your country. We will not go through the fields or the vineyards, and we will not drink the water of the wells. We will go by the king's highway. We will not turn to the right hand or to the left, until we have passed your borders."
Numbers 20:18  But Edom said to him, "You shall not pass through my land, or I will come out against you with the sword."
Numbers 20:19  The children of Israel said to him, "We will go by the highway. If I and my cattle drink your water, then I will pay for it. I only want to go through on foot, nothing more."
Numbers 20:20  And he said, "You shall not go through." And Edom came out against him with many people, and with a strong hand.
Numbers 20:21  So Edom refused to let Israel pass through his border, and Israel turned away from him.
Numbers 20:22  The children of Israel, the whole community, journeyed from Kadesh and came to Mount Hor.
Numbers 20:23  And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, by the border of the land of Edom. He said,
Numbers 20:24  "Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will not enter the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah."
Numbers 20:25  "Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up to Mount Hor."
Numbers 20:26  "Take off Aaron's garments and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there."
Numbers 20:27  Moses did as the LORD commanded. They went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the community.
Numbers 20:28  Moses took off Aaron's garments and put them on Eleazar his son. Aaron died there on the top of the mountain, and Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain.
Numbers 20:29  When all the community saw that Aaron was dead, they mourned for Aaron thirty days, all the house of Israel.

Numbers 21:1  King Arad the Canaanite lived in the south. When he heard that Israel was coming by the way of the spies, he fought against Israel and took some of them prisoner.
Numbers 21:2  Then Israel made a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will indeed give this people into my hand, then I will completely destroy their cities."
Numbers 21:3  The LORD listened to the voice of Israel and gave the Canaanites over to them. Israel completely destroyed them and their cities. So he called the name of the place Hormah.
Numbers 21:4  They travelled from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became very discouraged because of the journey.
Numbers 21:5  The people spoke against God and against Moses. "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread, and there is no water, and we hate this poor food."
Numbers 21:6  Then the LORD sent fiery snakes among the people. They bit the people, and many of the people of Israel died.
Numbers 21:7  So the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the LORD and against you. Pray to the LORD, that he may take the snakes away from us." And Moses prayed for the people.
Numbers 21:8  The LORD said to Moses, "Make yourself a fiery snake and set it on a pole. Then everyone who is bitten will live when he looks at it."
Numbers 21:9  So Moses made a snake of brass and put it on a pole. And if a snake had bitten someone, when he looked at the snake of brass, he lived.
Numbers 21:10  The children of Israel moved on and camped in Oboth.
Numbers 21:11  They travelled from Oboth and camped at Ijeabarim, in the wilderness that is in front of Moab, toward the sunrise.
Numbers 21:12  From there they moved on and camped in the valley of Zared.
Numbers 21:13  From there they moved on and camped on the other side of Arnon, which is in the wilderness that comes out of the lands of the Amorites. For Arnon is the border of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.
Numbers 21:14  That is why it is said in the book of the wars of the LORD, "What he did in the Red sea, and in the brooks of Arnon,"
Numbers 21:15  "and at the stream of the brooks that goes down to the dwelling of Ar, and lies along the border of Moab."
Numbers 21:16  From there they went to Beer. That is the well where the LORD said to Moses, "Gather the people together, and I will give them water."
Numbers 21:17  Then Israel sang this song: "Spring up, O well; sing to it."
Numbers 21:18  "The princes dug the well, the nobles of the people dug it, by the direction of the lawgiver, with their staffs." And from the wilderness they went to Mattanah,
Numbers 21:19  and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
Numbers 21:20  and from Bamoth in the valley, which is in the country of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks toward Jeshimon.
Numbers 21:21  Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying,
Numbers 21:22  "Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into the fields or into the vineyards. We will not drink the water of the well. We will go along by the king's high way, until we have passed your borders."
Numbers 21:23  But Sihon would not allow Israel to pass through his border. Instead Sihon gathered all his people together and went out against Israel into the wilderness. He came to Jahaz and fought against Israel.
Numbers 21:24  Israel struck him down with the edge of the sword and took his land, from Arnon to Jabbok, as far as the children of Ammon. For the border of the children of Ammon was strong.
Numbers 21:25  Israel took all these cities. And Israel lived in all the cities of the Amorites, in Heshbon and in all its villages.
Numbers 21:26  For Heshbon was the city of Sihon the king of the Amorites. He had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all his land from him, as far as Arnon.
Numbers 21:27  That is why those who speak in proverbs say, "Come into Heshbon; let the city of Sihon be built and made ready."
Numbers 21:28  For a fire has gone out of Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon. It has burned up Ar of Moab, and the lords of the high places of Arnon.
Numbers 21:29  Woe to you, Moab. You are ruined, O people of Chemosh. He has given his sons who escaped, and his daughters, into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.
Numbers 21:30  "We have shot at them. Heshbon is destroyed as far as Dibon, and we have laid them waste as far as Nophah, which reaches to Medeba."
Numbers 21:31  So Israel lived in the land of the Amorites.
Numbers 21:32  Moses sent men to spy out Jaazer. They took its villages and drove out the Amorites who were there.
Numbers 21:33  Then they turned and went up by the way of Bashan. And Og the king of Bashan went out against them, he and all his people, to the battle at Edrei.
Numbers 21:34  The LORD said to Moses, "Do not be afraid of him. For I have given him into your hand, and all his people, and his land. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon."
Numbers 21:35  So they struck him down, and his sons, and all his people, until not one of them was left alive. And they took his land.

Numbers 22:1  The children of Israel moved on, and camped in the plains of Moab on this side of the Jordan, near Jericho.
Numbers 22:2  Balak the son of Zippor saw everything that Israel had done to the Amorites.
Numbers 22:3  Moab was very afraid of the people, because there were so many of them. Moab was filled with dread because of the children of Israel.
Numbers 22:4  So Moab said to the elders of Midian, "Now this crowd will lick up everything around us, the way an ox licks up the grass of the field." Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time.
Numbers 22:5  So he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is by the river in the land of the children of his people. He called for him and said, "Look, a people has come out from Egypt. They cover the face of the earth, and they are camped right in front of me."
Numbers 22:6  "So come now, please, and curse this people for me, for they are too strong for me. Perhaps then I will win, and we can strike them down, and I can drive them out of the land. For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed."
Numbers 22:7  So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian set out with the payment for divination in their hands. They came to Balaam and told him Balak's words.
Numbers 22:8  He said to them, "Stay here tonight, and I will bring you back an answer, whatever the LORD says to me." So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
Numbers 22:9  God came to Balaam and said, "Who are these men with you?"
Numbers 22:10  Balaam said to God, "Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me and said,"
Numbers 22:11  "'Look, a people has come out of Egypt, and they cover the face of the earth. Come now and curse them for me. Perhaps I will be able to defeat them and drive them out.'"
Numbers 22:12  God said to Balaam, "You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed."
Numbers 22:13  In the morning Balaam got up and said to Balak's princes, "Go back to your own land, for the LORD refuses to let me go with you."
Numbers 22:14  So the princes of Moab got up and went to Balak, and said, "Balaam refuses to come with us."
Numbers 22:15  Then Balak sent other princes again, more of them, and more honoured than the first.
Numbers 22:16  They came to Balaam and said to him, "This is what Balak the son of Zippor says: Please do not let anything keep you from coming to me."
Numbers 22:17  "For I will give you very great honour, and I will do whatever you tell me. So come, please, and curse this people for me."
Numbers 22:18  Balaam answered Balak's servants, "Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do anything small or great."
Numbers 22:19  "So now, please stay here tonight as well, so that I may learn what more the LORD will say to me."
Numbers 22:20  God came to Balaam at night and said to him, "If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them. But only do what I tell you."
Numbers 22:21  Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.
Numbers 22:22  But God's anger burned because he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him.
Numbers 22:23  The donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn in his hand. The donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. So Balaam beat the donkey to turn her back onto the road.
Numbers 22:24  But the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on one side and a wall on the other.
Numbers 22:25  When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he beat her again.
Numbers 22:26  Then the angel of the LORD went further ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no room to turn either to the right or to the left.
Numbers 22:27  When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam. Balaam's anger burned, and he beat the donkey with his staff.
Numbers 22:28  Then the LORD opened the donkey's mouth, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have beaten me these three times?"
Numbers 22:29  Balaam said to the donkey, "Because you have made a fool of me. If only there were a sword in my hand! I would kill you now."
Numbers 22:30  The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, the one you have ridden all your life until this day? Have I ever been in the habit of doing this to you?" He said, "No."
Numbers 22:31  Then the LORD opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road with his sword drawn in his hand. Balaam bowed his head and fell flat on his face.
Numbers 22:32  The angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to stand against you, because your way is reckless before me."
Numbers 22:33  "The donkey saw me and turned away from me these three times. If she had not turned away from me, I would surely have killed you by now and let her live."
Numbers 22:34  Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, "I have sinned, for I did not know that you were standing in the road against me. Now then, if this displeases you, I will go back home."
Numbers 22:35  The angel of the LORD said to Balaam, "Go with the men. But speak only the word that I tell you." So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
Numbers 22:36  When Balak heard that Balaam had come, he went out to meet him at a city of Moab on the border of the Arnon, at the far edge of his land.
Numbers 22:37  Balak said to Balaam, "Did I not send to you again and again to call you? Why did you not come to me? Am I really not able to give you honour?"
Numbers 22:38  Balaam said to Balak, "Look, I have come to you. But do I have any power at all to say anything? I must speak the word that God puts in my mouth."
Numbers 22:39  Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kirjathhuzoth.
Numbers 22:40  Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent some to Balaam and to the princes who were with him.
Numbers 22:41  The next day Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, so that from there he could see the far edge of the people.

Numbers 23:1  Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven oxen and seven rams."
Numbers 23:2  Balak did as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Numbers 23:3  Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me, I will tell you." And he went to a high place.
Numbers 23:4  God met Balaam. Balaam said to him, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram."
Numbers 23:5  The LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Go back to Balak, and this is what you shall say."
Numbers 23:6  So he went back to him, and there he was, standing beside his burnt sacrifice, he and all the leaders of Moab.
Numbers 23:7  Then Balaam began his message and said, "Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east. He said, 'Come, curse Jacob for me; come, defy Israel.'"
Numbers 23:8  How shall I curse the one God has not cursed? How shall I defy the one the LORD has not defied?
Numbers 23:9  From the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I look at him. Look, the people will live alone, and will not be counted among the nations.
Numbers 23:10  Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number even a fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his.
Numbers 23:11  Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them completely."
Numbers 23:12  He answered, "Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD has put in my mouth?"
Numbers 23:13  Balak said to him, "Come with me, please, to another place, where you can see them. You will see only the edge of them, and will not see them all. Curse them for me from there."
Numbers 23:14  So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. There he built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Numbers 23:15  Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD over there."
Numbers 23:16  The LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Go back to Balak, and say this."
Numbers 23:17  When he came to him, there he was, standing beside his burnt offering, with the leaders of Moab. Balak said to him, "What has the LORD spoken?"
Numbers 23:18  Then Balaam began his message and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear; listen to me, son of Zippor."
Numbers 23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said it, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not make it happen?
Numbers 23:20  Look, I have been commanded to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot turn it back.
Numbers 23:21  He has not seen sin in Jacob, nor has he looked on wrongdoing in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.
Numbers 23:22  God brought them out of Egypt. He has strength like the strength of a wild ox.
Numbers 23:23  Surely there is no magic spell against Jacob, and no divination against Israel. At the right time it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'See what God has done.'
Numbers 23:24  "Look, the people will rise up like a great lion, and lift himself up like a young lion. He will not lie down until he eats the prey and drinks the blood of the slain."
Numbers 23:25  Balak said to Balaam, "Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all."
Numbers 23:26  But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell you, 'All that the LORD speaks, that I must do'?"
Numbers 23:27  Balak said to Balaam, "Come, please, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there."
Numbers 23:28  So Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks out toward Jeshimon.
Numbers 23:29  Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."
Numbers 23:30  Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Numbers 24:1  When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go, as he had other times, to look for omens. Instead he turned his face toward the wilderness.
Numbers 24:2  Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camped in their tents, tribe by tribe. And the spirit of God came upon him.
Numbers 24:3  He began his message and said: "Balaam the son of Beor has spoken, the man whose eyes are open has spoken:"
Numbers 24:4  "He has spoken, the man who heard the words of God, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but with his eyes open:"
Numbers 24:5  "How lovely are your tents, Jacob, and your dwellings, Israel!"
Numbers 24:6  "They spread out like valleys, like gardens beside a river, like aloe trees that the LORD has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters."
Numbers 24:7  "He will pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed will be in many waters. His king will be higher than Agag, and his kingdom will be lifted up."
Numbers 24:8  "God brought him out of Egypt. He has strength like a unicorn. He will eat up the nations that are his enemies, and break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows."
Numbers 24:9  "He crouched, he lay down like a lion, like a great lion. Who will rouse him? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, and cursed is everyone who curses you."
Numbers 24:10  Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. Balak said to Balaam, "I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them three times over."
Numbers 24:11  "So run away now to your own place. I meant to give you great honour, but look, the LORD has kept you back from honour."
Numbers 24:12  Balaam said to Balak, "Did I not say to the messengers you sent to me,"
Numbers 24:13  "'Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the LORD, to do good or bad out of my own mind. What the LORD says, that is what I will speak'?"
Numbers 24:14  "And now, look, I am going back to my people. Come, and I will tell you what this people will do to your people in the days to come."
Numbers 24:15  He began his message and said: "Balaam the son of Beor has spoken, the man whose eyes are open has spoken:"
Numbers 24:16  "He has spoken, the man who heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but with his eyes open:"
Numbers 24:17  "I shall see him, but not now. I shall look at him, but not near. A Star will come out of Jacob, and a Sceptre will rise out of Israel. It will strike the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth."
Numbers 24:18  "Edom will be taken over, Seir also will be taken over by his enemies, and Israel will act with courage."
Numbers 24:19  "Out of Jacob will come one who will rule, and he will destroy whoever is left of the city."
Numbers 24:20  Then he looked at Amalek, and began his message and said: "Amalek was the first of the nations, but his end will be that he perishes for ever."
Numbers 24:21  He looked at the Kenites, and began his message and said: "Your dwelling place is strong, and you set your nest in a rock."
Numbers 24:22  "Yet the Kenite will be laid waste, until Asshur carries you away captive."
Numbers 24:23  He began his message and said: "Alas, who will live when God does this!"
Numbers 24:24  "Ships will come from the coast of Chittim. They will afflict Asshur, and afflict Eber, and he too will perish for ever."
Numbers 24:25  Then Balaam got up and went back to his own place, and Balak also went his way.

Numbers 25:1  Israel stayed at Shittim, and the people began to commit sexual sin with the daughters of Moab.
Numbers 25:2  The women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate, and they bowed down to their gods.
Numbers 25:3  So Israel joined himself to Baal-peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against Israel.
Numbers 25:4  The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people, and hang them up before the LORD in the open sunlight, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel."
Numbers 25:5  So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you must kill his men who joined themselves to Baal-peor."
Numbers 25:6  Look, one of the children of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his brothers. He did it in front of Moses and in front of the whole congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.
Numbers 25:7  When Phinehas saw it, he got up from among the congregation and took a spear in his hand. Phinehas was the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest.
Numbers 25:8  He followed the man of Israel into the tent, and he drove the spear through both of them, through the man of Israel and through the woman's belly. So the plague among the children of Israel was stopped.
Numbers 25:9  Those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
Numbers 25:10  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 25:11  "Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the children of Israel. He was zealous for my sake among them, so I did not destroy the children of Israel in my jealousy."
Numbers 25:12  So say this: Look, I give him my covenant of peace.
Numbers 25:13  "It will belong to him, and to his descendants after him. It is the covenant of a priesthood that lasts for ever, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the children of Israel."
Numbers 25:14  The name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu. He was a leader of a chief family among the Simeonites.
Numbers 25:15  The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur. Zur was head over a people, and of a chief family in Midian.
Numbers 25:16  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 25:17  "Treat the Midianites as enemies, and strike them down."
Numbers 25:18  "For they treat you as enemies with their tricks. They tricked you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague that came because of Peor."

Numbers 26:1  After the plague, the LORD spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest. He said,
Numbers 26:2  "Count all the people of Israel, from twenty years old and upward, family by family, all in Israel who are able to go to war."
Numbers 26:3  So Moses and Eleazar the priest spoke with them on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho. They said,
Numbers 26:4  "Count the people, from twenty years old and upward, as the LORD commanded Moses and the people of Israel who came out of the land of Egypt."
Numbers 26:5  Reuben was the oldest son of Israel. The sons of Reuben were: Hanoch, from whom came the family of the Hanochites; from Pallu, the family of the Palluites;
Numbers 26:6  from Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; from Carmi, the family of the Carmites.
Numbers 26:7  These are the families of the Reubenites. The number counted of them was forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty.
Numbers 26:8  The son of Pallu was Eliab.
Numbers 26:9  The sons of Eliab were Nemuel, Dathan and Abiram. This is the Dathan and Abiram who were well known in the congregation. They fought against Moses and against Aaron with the company of Korah, when that company fought against the LORD.
Numbers 26:10  The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, at the time the fire burned up two hundred and fifty men. They became a sign.
Numbers 26:11  But the sons of Korah did not die.
Numbers 26:12  The sons of Simeon, by their families, were: from Nemuel, the family of the Nemuelites; from Jamin, the family of the Jaminites; from Jachin, the family of the Jachinites;
Numbers 26:13  from Zerah, the family of the Zarhites; from Shaul, the family of the Shaulites.
Numbers 26:14  These are the families of the Simeonites, twenty-two thousand two hundred.
Numbers 26:15  The sons of Gad, by their families, were: from Zephon, the family of the Zephonites; from Haggi, the family of the Haggites; from Shuni, the family of the Shunites;
Numbers 26:16  from Ozni, the family of the Oznites; from Eri, the family of the Erites;
Numbers 26:17  from Arod, the family of the Arodites; from Areli, the family of the Arelites.
Numbers 26:18  These are the families of the sons of Gad, and the number counted of them was forty thousand five hundred.
Numbers 26:19  The sons of Judah were Er and Onan. Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.
Numbers 26:20  The sons of Judah, by their families, were: from Shelah, the family of the Shelanites; from Pharez, the family of the Pharzites; from Zerah, the family of the Zarhites.
Numbers 26:21  The sons of Pharez were: from Hezron, the family of the Hezronites; from Hamul, the family of the Hamulites.
Numbers 26:22  These are the families of Judah, and the number counted of them was seventy-six thousand five hundred.
Numbers 26:23  The sons of Issachar, by their families, were: from Tola, the family of the Tolaites; from Pua, the family of the Punites;
Numbers 26:24  from Jashub, the family of the Jashubites; from Shimron, the family of the Shimronites.
Numbers 26:25  These are the families of Issachar, and the number counted of them was sixty-four thousand three hundred.
Numbers 26:26  The sons of Zebulun, by their families, were: from Sered, the family of the Sardites; from Elon, the family of the Elonites; from Jahleel, the family of the Jahleelites.
Numbers 26:27  These are the families of the Zebulunites, and the number counted of them was sixty thousand five hundred.
Numbers 26:28  The sons of Joseph, by their families, were Manasseh and Ephraim.
Numbers 26:29  The sons of Manasseh: from Machir, the family of the Machirites. Machir was the father of Gilead. From Gilead came the family of the Gileadites.
Numbers 26:30  These are the sons of Gilead: from Jeezer, the family of the Jeezerites; from Helek, the family of the Helekites;
Numbers 26:31  from Asriel, the family of the Asrielites; from Shechem, the family of the Shechemites;
Numbers 26:32  from Shemida, the family of the Shemidaites; from Hepher, the family of the Hepherites.
Numbers 26:33  Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, only daughters. The names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.
Numbers 26:34  These are the families of Manasseh, and the number counted of them was fifty-two thousand seven hundred.
Numbers 26:35  These are the sons of Ephraim, by their families: from Shuthelah, the family of the Shuthalhites; from Becher, the family of the Bachrites; from Tahan, the family of the Tahanites.
Numbers 26:36  These are the sons of Shuthelah: from Eran, the family of the Eranites.
Numbers 26:37  These are the families of the sons of Ephraim, and the number counted of them was thirty-two thousand five hundred. These are the sons of Joseph, by their families.
Numbers 26:38  The sons of Benjamin, by their families, were: from Bela, the family of the Belaites; from Ashbel, the family of the Ashbelites; from Ahiram, the family of the Ahiramites;
Numbers 26:39  from Shupham, the family of the Shuphamites; from Hupham, the family of the Huphamites.
Numbers 26:40  The sons of Bela were Ard and Naaman: from Ard, the family of the Ardites; from Naaman, the family of the Naamites.
Numbers 26:41  These are the sons of Benjamin, by their families. The number counted of them was forty-five thousand six hundred.
Numbers 26:42  These are the sons of Dan, by their families: from Shuham, the family of the Shuhamites. These are the families of Dan, by their families.
Numbers 26:43  All the families of the Shuhamites, by the number counted of them, were sixty-four thousand four hundred.
Numbers 26:44  The sons of Asher, by their families: from Jimna, the family of the Jimnites; from Jesui, the family of the Jesuites; from Beriah, the family of the Beriites.
Numbers 26:45  The sons of Beriah: from Heber, the family of the Heberites; from Malchiel, the family of the Malchielites.
Numbers 26:46  The name of the daughter of Asher was Sarah.
Numbers 26:47  These are the families of the sons of Asher, and the number counted of them was fifty-three thousand four hundred.
Numbers 26:48  The sons of Naphtali, by their families: from Jahzeel, the family of the Jahzeelites; from Guni, the family of the Gunites;
Numbers 26:49  from Jezer, the family of the Jezerites; from Shillem, the family of the Shillemites.
Numbers 26:50  These are the families of Naphtali, by their families. The number counted of them was forty-five thousand four hundred.
Numbers 26:51  This was the number of the people of Israel who were counted: six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty.
Numbers 26:52  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 26:53  "The land shall be divided among these as their inheritance, according to the number of names."
Numbers 26:54  "To the larger group you shall give the larger inheritance, and to the smaller group the smaller inheritance. Each one shall be given his inheritance according to the number counted of him."
Numbers 26:55  "But the land shall be divided by lot. They shall inherit according to the names of the tribes of their fathers."
Numbers 26:56  "Whether the group is large or small, its share shall be divided by lot."
Numbers 26:57  These are the Levites who were counted, by their families: from Gershon, the family of the Gershonites; from Kohath, the family of the Kohathites; from Merari, the family of the Merarites.
Numbers 26:58  These are the families of the Levites: the family of the Libnites, the family of the Hebronites, the family of the Mahlites, the family of the Mushites, and the family of the Korathites. Kohath was the father of Amram.
Numbers 26:59  The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi. She was born to Levi in Egypt. She bore to Amram Aaron and Moses, and Miriam their sister.
Numbers 26:60  To Aaron were born Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Numbers 26:61  Nadab and Abihu died when they offered strange fire before the LORD.
Numbers 26:62  The number counted of them was twenty-three thousand, all the males from a month old and upward. They were not counted among the people of Israel, because no inheritance was given them among the people of Israel.
Numbers 26:63  These are the ones counted by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who counted the people of Israel on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho.
Numbers 26:64  But among these there was not one man whom Moses and Aaron the priest had counted, when they counted the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 26:65  For the LORD had said of them, "They shall surely die in the wilderness." Not one of them was left, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.

Numbers 27:1  Then the daughters of Zelophehad came forward. Zelophehad was the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, from the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph. These are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
Numbers 27:2  They stood in front of Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and the leaders and all the people, at the door of the tent of meeting. They said,
Numbers 27:3  "Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among those who gathered together against the LORD in the company of Korah. He died for his own sin, and he had no sons."
Numbers 27:4  "Why should our father's name be taken away from his family, just because he had no son? Give us land of our own among our father's brothers."
Numbers 27:5  So Moses brought their case before the LORD.
Numbers 27:6  And the LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 27:7  "The daughters of Zelophehad are right in what they say. You must certainly give them land of their own as an inheritance among their father's brothers. Pass their father's inheritance on to them."
Numbers 27:8  "And say to the children of Israel, 'If a man dies and has no son, then you shall pass his inheritance on to his daughter."
Numbers 27:9  "'And if he has no daughter, then you shall give his inheritance to his brothers."
Numbers 27:10  "'And if he has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to his father's brothers."
Numbers 27:11  "'And if his father has no brothers, then you shall give his inheritance to the nearest relative in his family, and that man shall own it.' This shall be a law and a rule for the children of Israel, as the LORD commanded Moses."
Numbers 27:12  And the LORD said to Moses, "Go up into this mountain of Abarim, and look at the land which I have given to the children of Israel."
Numbers 27:13  "When you have seen it, you also will be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was gathered."
Numbers 27:14  "For you rebelled against my command in the desert of Zin, when the people quarrelled. You did not treat me as holy at the water, before their eyes." That is the water of Meribah in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin.
Numbers 27:15  And Moses spoke to the LORD. He said,
Numbers 27:16  "Let the LORD, the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the people."
Numbers 27:17  "Let him go out before them and come in before them. Let him lead them out and bring them in. Then the people of the LORD will not be like sheep that have no shepherd."
Numbers 27:18  And the LORD said to Moses, "Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him."
Numbers 27:19  "Set him in front of Eleazar the priest and all the people, and give him his orders while they watch."
Numbers 27:20  "Put some of your honour on him, so that all the people of the children of Israel will obey him."
Numbers 27:21  "He shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask guidance for him by the judgment of Urim before the LORD. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in - both he and all the children of Israel with him, the whole community."
Numbers 27:22  Moses did as the LORD commanded him. He took Joshua and set him in front of Eleazar the priest and all the people.
Numbers 27:23  He laid his hands on him and gave him his orders, as the LORD had commanded through Moses.

Numbers 28:1  The LORD spoke to Moses and said,
Numbers 28:2  "Command the people of Israel and say to them, 'You must be careful to bring me my offering at its proper time. It is my food for my offerings made by fire, a sweet smell to me.'"
Numbers 28:3  "You shall say to them, 'This is the offering made by fire which you shall offer to the LORD: two lambs of the first year without a spot, every day, as a burnt offering that never stops.'"
Numbers 28:4  "'You shall offer the one lamb in the morning, and the other lamb in the evening.'"
Numbers 28:5  "'With it offer a tenth part of an ephah of flour as a grain offering, mixed with the fourth part of a hin of beaten oil.'"
Numbers 28:6  "'This is the burnt offering that never stops. It was commanded at Mount Sinai as a sweet smell, a sacrifice made by fire to the LORD.'"
Numbers 28:7  "'The drink offering that goes with it shall be the fourth part of a hin for each lamb. In the holy place you shall pour out the strong wine to the LORD as a drink offering.'"
Numbers 28:8  "'You shall offer the other lamb in the evening. Offer it with a grain offering and a drink offering like those of the morning. It is a sacrifice made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD.'"
Numbers 28:9  "'On the sabbath day offer two lambs of the first year without a spot, and two tenth parts of flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, and the drink offering that goes with it.'"
Numbers 28:10  "'This is the burnt offering for every sabbath. It is as well as the burnt offering that never stops and its drink offering.'"
Numbers 28:11  "'At the beginning of each of your months you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without a spot.'"
Numbers 28:12  "'With each bull offer three tenth parts of flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil. With the one ram offer two tenth parts of flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil.'"
Numbers 28:13  "'With each lamb offer a tenth part of flour mixed with oil as a grain offering. It is a burnt offering with a sweet smell, a sacrifice made by fire to the LORD.'"
Numbers 28:14  "'Their drink offerings shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, the third part of a hin for a ram, and the fourth part of a hin for a lamb. This is the burnt offering for every month, through all the months of the year.'"
Numbers 28:15  "'One young goat shall be offered to the LORD as a sin offering. It is as well as the burnt offering that never stops and its drink offering.'"
Numbers 28:16  "'On the fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of the LORD.'"
Numbers 28:17  "'On the fifteenth day of this month is the feast. For seven days bread made without yeast shall be eaten.'"
Numbers 28:18  "'On the first day there shall be a holy meeting. You shall do no hard work on it.'"
Numbers 28:19  "'Instead you shall offer a sacrifice made by fire as a burnt offering to the LORD: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year. They must be without any fault.'"
Numbers 28:20  "'Their grain offering shall be flour mixed with oil. You shall offer three tenth parts for a bull, and two tenth parts for a ram.'"
Numbers 28:21  "'You shall offer a tenth part for each of the seven lambs.'"
Numbers 28:22  "'Offer also one goat as a sin offering, to make atonement for you.'"
Numbers 28:23  "'You shall offer these as well as the burnt offering in the morning, which is the burnt offering that never stops.'"
Numbers 28:24  "'In this way you shall offer each day, through all the seven days, the food of the offering made by fire, a sweet smell to the LORD. It shall be offered as well as the burnt offering that never stops and its drink offering.'"
Numbers 28:25  "'On the seventh day you shall have a holy meeting. You shall do no hard work.'"
Numbers 28:26  "'On the day of the firstfruits too, when you bring a new grain offering to the LORD, at the end of your weeks, you shall have a holy meeting. You shall do no hard work.'"
Numbers 28:27  "'Instead you shall offer a burnt offering as a sweet smell to the LORD: two young bulls, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year.'"
Numbers 28:28  "'Their grain offering shall be flour mixed with oil: three tenth parts for one bull, two tenth parts for one ram,'"
Numbers 28:29  "'and a tenth part for each of the seven lambs.'"
Numbers 28:30  "'Offer also one young goat, to make atonement for you.'"
Numbers 28:31  "'You shall offer them as well as the burnt offering that never stops and its grain offering, with their drink offerings. (They must be without any fault.)'"

Numbers 29:1  In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a holy gathering. You shall do no ordinary work. It is a day of blowing the trumpets for you.
Numbers 29:2  You shall offer a burnt offering as a pleasing smell to the LORD: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year, without any fault.
Numbers 29:3  Their grain offering shall be of flour mixed with oil: three tenth parts for a bull, and two tenth parts for a ram,
Numbers 29:4  and one tenth part for each lamb, for all seven lambs.
Numbers 29:5  You shall also offer one young goat as a sin offering, to make atonement for you.
Numbers 29:6  This is in addition to the monthly burnt offering with its grain offering, and the daily burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings, as the rule requires. They are a pleasing smell, an offering made by fire to the LORD.
Numbers 29:7  On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy gathering, and you shall afflict yourselves. You shall do no work on that day.
Numbers 29:8  You shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD as a pleasing smell: one young bull, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year. They shall be without any fault.
Numbers 29:9  Their grain offering shall be of flour mixed with oil: three tenth parts for a bull, and two tenth parts for the one ram,
Numbers 29:10  and one tenth part for each lamb, for all seven lambs.
Numbers 29:11  You shall offer one young goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the sin offering of atonement, and the daily burnt offering with its grain offering, and their drink offerings.
Numbers 29:12  On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you shall have a holy gathering. You shall do no ordinary work, and you shall keep a feast to the LORD for seven days.
Numbers 29:13  You shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, a pleasing smell to the LORD: thirteen young bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year. They shall be without any fault.
Numbers 29:14  Their grain offering shall be of flour mixed with oil: three tenth parts for every bull of the thirteen bulls, two tenth parts for each ram of the two rams,
Numbers 29:15  and one tenth part for each lamb of the fourteen lambs.
Numbers 29:16  You shall also offer one young goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
Numbers 29:17  On the second day you shall offer twelve young bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without any fault.
Numbers 29:18  Their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs shall be by their number, as the rule requires.
Numbers 29:19  You shall also offer one young goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and their drink offerings.
Numbers 29:20  On the third day you shall offer eleven bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without any fault.
Numbers 29:21  Their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs shall be by their number, as the rule requires.
Numbers 29:22  You shall also offer one goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
Numbers 29:23  On the fourth day you shall offer ten bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without any fault.
Numbers 29:24  Their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs shall be by their number, as the rule requires.
Numbers 29:25  You shall also offer one young goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
Numbers 29:26  On the fifth day you shall offer nine bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without any fault.
Numbers 29:27  Their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs shall be by their number, as the rule requires.
Numbers 29:28  You shall also offer one goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
Numbers 29:29  On the sixth day you shall offer eight bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without any fault.
Numbers 29:30  Their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs shall be by their number, as the rule requires.
Numbers 29:31  You shall also offer one goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
Numbers 29:32  On the seventh day you shall offer seven bulls, two rams, and fourteen lambs of the first year without any fault.
Numbers 29:33  Their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bulls, for the rams, and for the lambs shall be by their number, as the rule requires.
Numbers 29:34  You shall also offer one goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
Numbers 29:35  On the eighth day you shall have a solemn assembly. You shall do no ordinary work on it.
Numbers 29:36  You shall offer a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, a pleasing smell to the LORD: one bull, one ram, and seven lambs of the first year without any fault.
Numbers 29:37  Their grain offering and their drink offerings for the bull, for the ram, and for the lambs shall be by their number, as the rule requires.
Numbers 29:38  You shall also offer one goat as a sin offering. This is in addition to the daily burnt offering, its grain offering, and its drink offering.
Numbers 29:39  You shall offer these things to the LORD at your appointed feasts. They are in addition to the offerings you promise in your vows, and your freewill offerings, whether they are burnt offerings, grain offerings, drink offerings, or peace offerings.
Numbers 29:40  So Moses told the children of Israel everything the LORD had commanded him.

Numbers 30:1  Moses spoke to the heads of the tribes of the people of Israel. He said, "This is what the LORD has commanded."
Numbers 30:2  If a man makes a vow to the LORD, or swears an oath to bind himself with a promise, he must not break his word. He must do everything he said with his mouth.
Numbers 30:3  If a young woman still living in her father's house makes a vow to the LORD, and binds herself by a promise,
Numbers 30:4  and her father hears about her vow and the promise she has bound herself with, and he says nothing to her, then all her vows shall stand. Every promise she has bound herself with shall stand.
Numbers 30:5  But if her father refuses to allow it on the day he hears about it, then none of her vows or promises she has bound herself with shall stand. And the LORD will forgive her, because her father refused to allow it.
Numbers 30:6  And if she had a husband when she made the vow, or when words came from her lips that bound her,
Numbers 30:7  and her husband heard it and said nothing to her on the day he heard it, then her vows shall stand. The promises she bound herself with shall stand.
Numbers 30:8  But if her husband refused to allow it on the day he heard it, then he cancels her vow that she made, and the words from her lips that bound her. They have no effect, and the LORD will forgive her.
Numbers 30:9  But every vow of a widow, or of a woman who is divorced, which they have bound themselves with, shall stand against her.
Numbers 30:10  And if she made a vow in her husband's house, or bound herself with a promise made under oath,
Numbers 30:11  and her husband heard it and said nothing to her, and did not refuse to allow it, then all her vows shall stand. Every promise she bound herself with shall stand.
Numbers 30:12  But if her husband completely cancelled them on the day he heard them, then whatever came from her lips about her vows, or about the promise that bound her, shall not stand. Her husband has cancelled them, and the LORD will forgive her.
Numbers 30:13  Every vow, and every binding oath to go without food and comfort, her husband may let it stand, or her husband may cancel it.
Numbers 30:14  But if her husband says nothing at all to her, day after day, then he lets all her vows stand, and all the promises that are on her. He confirms them, because he said nothing to her on the day he heard them.
Numbers 30:15  But if he cancels them in any way after he has heard them, then he shall carry the guilt of her sin.
Numbers 30:16  These are the rules which the LORD commanded Moses, for a man and his wife, and for a father and his daughter while she is young and still in her father's house.

Numbers 31:1  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 31:2  "Take revenge for the people of Israel on the Midianites. After that you will be gathered to your people."
Numbers 31:3  So Moses spoke to the people. He said, "Arm some of your men for war. Let them go against the Midianites, and carry out the LORD's revenge on Midian."
Numbers 31:4  "From every tribe you shall send a thousand men to the war, from all the tribes of Israel."
Numbers 31:5  So out of the thousands of Israel a thousand men were handed over from each tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.
Numbers 31:6  Moses sent them to the war, a thousand from each tribe. He sent them with Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, who carried the holy instruments and the trumpets for blowing.
Numbers 31:7  They fought against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses, and they killed every male.
Numbers 31:8  They killed the kings of Midian along with the rest of those who were killed. These were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword.
Numbers 31:9  The people of Israel took the women of Midian captive, and their little ones. They took as plunder all their cattle, all their flocks, and all their goods.
Numbers 31:10  They burned with fire all the cities where the Midianites lived, and all their fine strongholds.
Numbers 31:11  They took all the plunder and all the prey, both people and animals.
Numbers 31:12  They brought the captives, the prey, and the plunder to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the people of Israel. They brought them to the camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho.
Numbers 31:13  Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went out of the camp to meet them.
Numbers 31:14  Moses was angry with the officers of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, who came back from the battle.
Numbers 31:15  Moses said to them, "Have you kept all the women alive?"
Numbers 31:16  "Look, these women were the ones who followed Balaam's advice. They made the people of Israel sin against the LORD in what happened at Peor, and a plague came on the LORD's people."
Numbers 31:17  "So now kill every male among the little ones. And kill every woman who has slept with a man."
Numbers 31:18  "But keep alive for yourselves all the girls who have never slept with a man."
Numbers 31:19  "Stay outside the camp for seven days. Anyone who has killed a person, and anyone who has touched a dead body, must purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day. Purify your captives too."
Numbers 31:20  "Purify every piece of clothing, everything made of leather, everything made of goats' hair, and everything made of wood."
Numbers 31:21  Then Eleazar the priest said to the men of war who had gone into the battle, "This is the rule of the law that the LORD commanded Moses."
Numbers 31:22  "The gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead -"
Numbers 31:23  "everything that can stand the fire, you must put through the fire, and it will be clean. Even so, it must also be purified with the water of separation. Everything that cannot stand the fire you must put through the water."
Numbers 31:24  "You must wash your clothes on the seventh day, and then you will be clean. After that you may come into the camp."
Numbers 31:25  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 31:26  "You, and Eleazar the priest, and the heads of the families of the people, count what was taken, both people and animals."
Numbers 31:27  "Divide what was taken into two parts. One part is for the men who fought and went out to battle, and one part is for all the rest of the people."
Numbers 31:28  "From the men of war who went out to battle, collect a tribute for the LORD: one out of every five hundred, of the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep."
Numbers 31:29  "Take it from their half, and give it to Eleazar the priest as a heave offering to the LORD."
Numbers 31:30  "From the half that belongs to the people of Israel, take one out of every fifty, of the people, the cattle, the donkeys, and the flocks, of every kind of animal. Give them to the Levites, who take care of the tabernacle of the LORD."
Numbers 31:31  Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 31:32  The booty, which was what was left of the plunder the men of war had taken, was six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep,
Numbers 31:33  seventy-two thousand cattle,
Numbers 31:34  sixty-one thousand donkeys,
Numbers 31:35  and thirty-two thousand people in all - women who had never slept with a man.
Numbers 31:36  The half that belonged to those who went out to war came to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep.
Numbers 31:37  The LORD's tribute from the sheep was six hundred and seventy-five.
Numbers 31:38  The cattle were thirty-six thousand, and the LORD's tribute from them was seventy-two.
Numbers 31:39  The donkeys were thirty thousand five hundred, and the LORD's tribute from them was sixty-one.
Numbers 31:40  The people were sixteen thousand, and the LORD's tribute from them was thirty-two people.
Numbers 31:41  Moses gave the tribute, which was the LORD's heave offering, to Eleazar the priest, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 31:42  Then there was the half for the people of Israel, which Moses had set apart from what the fighting men had.
Numbers 31:43  (Now the half that belonged to the people was three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep,
Numbers 31:44  thirty-six thousand cattle,
Numbers 31:45  thirty thousand five hundred donkeys,
Numbers 31:46  and sixteen thousand people.)
Numbers 31:47  From the half that belonged to the people of Israel, Moses took one out of every fifty, both of people and of animals. He gave them to the Levites, who took care of the tabernacle of the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 31:48  Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, came to Moses.
Numbers 31:49  They said to Moses, "Your servants have counted the men of war who are under our charge, and not one man of us is missing."
Numbers 31:50  "So we have brought an offering for the LORD. Each man has brought what he found: gold jewels, chains, bracelets, rings, earrings, and pendants, to make atonement for ourselves before the LORD."
Numbers 31:51  Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from them, all of it worked into jewellery.
Numbers 31:52  All the gold of the offering that they offered up to the LORD, from the commanders of thousands and the commanders of hundreds, was sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.
Numbers 31:53  (For the men of war had each taken plunder for himself.)
Numbers 31:54  Moses and Eleazar the priest took the gold from the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and brought it into the tabernacle of the congregation. It was to be a reminder for the people of Israel before the LORD.

Numbers 32:1  Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had very large herds of cattle. They saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, and saw that the place was a good place for cattle.
Numbers 32:2  So the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation. They said,
Numbers 32:3  "Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon,"
Numbers 32:4  "the country which the LORD struck down before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and your servants have cattle."
Numbers 32:5  They said, "If we have found grace in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as our own. Do not take us over the Jordan."
Numbers 32:6  Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, "Shall your brothers go to war while you sit here?"
Numbers 32:7  Why do you discourage the heart of the children of Israel, so that they will not go over into the land which the LORD has given them?
Numbers 32:8  Your fathers did the same, when I sent them from Kadeshbarnea to look at the land.
Numbers 32:9  For when they went up to the valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they would not go into the land which the LORD had given them.
Numbers 32:10  The LORD's anger burned at that time, and he swore an oath, saying,
Numbers 32:11  'Surely none of the men who came up out of Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I promised with an oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. For they have not followed me completely.'
Numbers 32:12  Only Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite, and Joshua the son of Nun, were left out of this, for they have followed the LORD completely.
Numbers 32:13  The LORD's anger burned against Israel, and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation that had done evil in the sight of the LORD was gone.
Numbers 32:14  And look, you have risen up in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to make the fierce anger of the LORD against Israel even greater.
Numbers 32:15  "For if you turn away from following him, he will leave them in the wilderness again, and you will destroy all this people."
Numbers 32:16  They came near to him and said, "We will build pens here for our cattle, and cities for our little ones."
Numbers 32:17  But we ourselves will go armed and ready ahead of the children of Israel, until we have brought them to their place. Our little ones shall live in the walled cities, because of the people who live in the land.
Numbers 32:18  We will not return to our houses until the children of Israel have each received their inheritance.
Numbers 32:19  "For we will not take an inheritance with them on the other side of the Jordan, or beyond it, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan, on the east."
Numbers 32:20  Moses said to them, "If you will do this thing, if you will arm yourselves to go to war before the LORD,"
Numbers 32:21  and all of you will go armed over the Jordan before the LORD, until he has driven out his enemies from before him,
Numbers 32:22  and the land is subdued before the LORD, then afterward you shall return and be free from blame before the LORD and before Israel. And this land shall be yours to own before the LORD.
Numbers 32:23  But if you will not do so, look, you have sinned against the LORD. And be sure your sin will find you out.
Numbers 32:24  "Build cities for your little ones, and pens for your sheep. And do what you have said with your own mouths."
Numbers 32:25  The children of Gad and the children of Reuben spoke to Moses, saying, "Your servants will do as my lord commands."
Numbers 32:26  Our little ones, our wives, our flocks, and all our cattle shall stay there in the cities of Gilead.
Numbers 32:27  "But your servants will cross over, every man armed for war, before the LORD to battle, as my lord says."
Numbers 32:28  So Moses gave orders about them to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the families of the tribes of the children of Israel.
Numbers 32:29  Moses said to them, "If the children of Gad and the children of Reuben will cross the Jordan with you, every man armed for battle before the LORD, and the land is subdued before you, then you shall give them the land of Gilead to own."
Numbers 32:30  "But if they will not cross over with you armed, they shall have their holdings among you in the land of Canaan."
Numbers 32:31  The children of Gad and the children of Reuben answered, "As the LORD has said to your servants, so we will do."
Numbers 32:32  "We will cross over armed before the LORD into the land of Canaan, so that the land we inherit on this side of the Jordan may be ours."
Numbers 32:33  So Moses gave them - to the children of Gad, to the children of Reuben, and to half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph - the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan: the land with its cities and their borders, the cities of the country all around.
Numbers 32:34  The children of Gad built Dibon, and Ataroth, and Aroer,
Numbers 32:35  and Atroth, Shophan, and Jaazer, and Jogbehah,
Numbers 32:36  and Bethnimrah, and Bethharan, walled cities, and pens for sheep.
Numbers 32:37  The children of Reuben built Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Kirjathaim,
Numbers 32:38  and Nebo, and Baalmeon (their names being changed), and Shibmah. And they gave other names to the cities which they built.
Numbers 32:39  The children of Machir the son of Manasseh went to Gilead and took it, and drove out the Amorites who were in it.
Numbers 32:40  So Moses gave Gilead to Machir the son of Manasseh, and he lived there.
Numbers 32:41  Jair the son of Manasseh went and took its small towns, and called them Havothjair.
Numbers 32:42  And Nobah went and took Kenath and its villages, and called it Nobah, after his own name.

Numbers 33:1  These are the journeys of the children of Israel. They came out of the land of Egypt in their armies, led by Moses and Aaron.
Numbers 33:2  Moses wrote down the places they set out from, stage by stage, as the LORD commanded. These are their journeys, listed by the places they set out from.
Numbers 33:3  They left Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the day after the Passover the children of Israel went out boldly, in full view of all the Egyptians.
Numbers 33:4  The Egyptians were burying all their firstborn sons, whom the LORD had struck down among them. The LORD had also carried out judgments on their gods.
Numbers 33:5  The children of Israel set out from Rameses and camped at Succoth.
Numbers 33:6  They left Succoth and camped at Etham, which is at the edge of the wilderness.
Numbers 33:7  They set out from Etham and turned back to Pihahiroth, which is in front of Baalzephon. They camped in front of Migdol.
Numbers 33:8  They left Pihahiroth and passed through the middle of the sea into the wilderness. They travelled three days in the wilderness of Etham and camped at Marah.
Numbers 33:9  They set out from Marah and came to Elim. At Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they camped there.
Numbers 33:10  They set out from Elim and camped by the Red sea.
Numbers 33:11  They set out from the Red sea and camped in the wilderness of Sin.
Numbers 33:12  They set out from the wilderness of Sin and camped at Dophkah.
Numbers 33:13  They left Dophkah and camped at Alush.
Numbers 33:14  They set out from Alush and camped at Rephidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.
Numbers 33:15  They left Rephidim and camped in the wilderness of Sinai.
Numbers 33:16  They set out from the desert of Sinai and camped at Kibrothhattaavah.
Numbers 33:17  They left Kibrothhattaavah and camped at Hazeroth.
Numbers 33:18  They left Hazeroth and camped at Rithmah.
Numbers 33:19  They left Rithmah and camped at Rimmonparez.
Numbers 33:20  They left Rimmonparez and camped at Libnah.
Numbers 33:21  They set out from Libnah and camped at Rissah.
Numbers 33:22  They journeyed from Rissah and camped at Kehelathah.
Numbers 33:23  They went from Kehelathah and camped at mount Shapher.
Numbers 33:24  They set out from mount Shapher and camped at Haradah.
Numbers 33:25  They set out from Haradah and camped at Makheloth.
Numbers 33:26  They set out from Makheloth and camped at Tahath.
Numbers 33:27  They left Tahath and camped at Tarah.
Numbers 33:28  They set out from Tarah and camped at Mithcah.
Numbers 33:29  They went from Mithcah and camped at Hashmonah.
Numbers 33:30  They left Hashmonah and camped at Moseroth.
Numbers 33:31  They left Moseroth and camped at Benejaakan.
Numbers 33:32  They set out from Benejaakan and camped at Horhagidgad.
Numbers 33:33  They went from Horhagidgad and camped at Jotbathah.
Numbers 33:34  They set out from Jotbathah and camped at Ebronah.
Numbers 33:35  They left Ebronah and camped at Eziongaber.
Numbers 33:36  They set out from Eziongaber and camped in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.
Numbers 33:37  They set out from Kadesh and camped at mount Hor, at the edge of the land of Edom.
Numbers 33:38  Aaron the priest went up mount Hor at the command of the LORD, and he died there. This was in the fortieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, on the first day of the fifth month.
Numbers 33:39  Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on mount Hor.
Numbers 33:40  King Arad the Canaanite, who lived in the south of the land of Canaan, heard that the children of Israel were coming.
Numbers 33:41  They left mount Hor and camped at Zalmonah.
Numbers 33:42  They left Zalmonah and camped at Punon.
Numbers 33:43  They left Punon and camped at Oboth.
Numbers 33:44  They left Oboth and camped at Ijeabarim, on the border of Moab.
Numbers 33:45  They left Iim and camped at Dibongad.
Numbers 33:46  They set out from Dibongad and camped at Almondiblathaim.
Numbers 33:47  They set out from Almondiblathaim and camped in the mountains of Abarim, in front of Nebo.
Numbers 33:48  They left the mountains of Abarim and camped in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, near Jericho.
Numbers 33:49  They camped by the Jordan, from Bethjesimoth as far as Abelshittim, in the plains of Moab.
Numbers 33:50  The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, near Jericho. He said,
Numbers 33:51  "Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, 'When you cross over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,"
Numbers 33:52  then you must drive out all the people who live in the land ahead of you. Destroy all their carved figures, and destroy all their metal images, and pull down all their high places.
Numbers 33:53  You shall take the land from those who live there and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess it.
Numbers 33:54  You shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families. To a larger group give a larger inheritance, and to a smaller group give a smaller inheritance. Each man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falls. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers.
Numbers 33:55  But if you will not drive out the people of the land ahead of you, then those you let stay will become sharp points in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will trouble you in the land where you live.
Numbers 33:56  "And what is more, I will do to you what I planned to do to them.'"

Numbers 34:1  The LORD said to Moses,
Numbers 34:2  "Command the people of Israel, and say to them: When you come into the land of Canaan, this is the land that will fall to you as your inheritance, the land of Canaan with its borders."
Numbers 34:3  "Your south side will begin at the wilderness of Zin, along the border of Edom. Your southern border will start at the far end of the Salt Sea on the east."
Numbers 34:4  "Your border will turn south of the ascent of Akrabbim, and pass on to Zin. It will go out south of Kadeshbarnea, then go on to Hazaraddar, and pass on to Azmon."
Numbers 34:5  "From Azmon the border will turn round to the river of Egypt, and it will end at the sea."
Numbers 34:6  "As for the western border, you will have the Great Sea as your border. This will be your west border."
Numbers 34:7  "This will be your north border: from the Great Sea you will mark out a line to mount Hor."
Numbers 34:8  "From mount Hor you will mark out your border to the entrance of Hamath. The border will end at Zedad."
Numbers 34:9  "Then the border will go on to Ziphron, and it will end at Hazarenan. This will be your north border."
Numbers 34:10  "You will mark out your east border from Hazarenan to Shepham."
Numbers 34:11  "The border will go down from Shepham to Riblah, on the east side of Ain. Then the border will go down and reach the slope of the sea of Chinnereth on the east."
Numbers 34:12  "The border will go down to the Jordan, and it will end at the Salt Sea. This will be your land, with its borders all around."
Numbers 34:13  Moses commanded the people of Israel, saying, "This is the land you will receive by lot, which the LORD commanded to be given to the nine tribes and to the half tribe."
Numbers 34:14  "For the tribe of the sons of Reuben, family by family, and the tribe of the sons of Gad, family by family, have received their inheritance, and half the tribe of Manasseh has received its inheritance."
Numbers 34:15  "The two tribes and the half tribe have received their inheritance on this side of the Jordan, near Jericho, on the east, toward the sunrise."
Numbers 34:16  The LORD said to Moses,
Numbers 34:17  "These are the names of the men who will divide the land for you: Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun."
Numbers 34:18  "And you will take one leader from every tribe, to divide the land as an inheritance."
Numbers 34:19  "These are the names of the men: from the tribe of Judah, Caleb the son of Jephunneh;"
Numbers 34:20  "and from the tribe of the sons of Simeon, Shemuel the son of Ammihud;"
Numbers 34:21  "from the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad the son of Chislon;"
Numbers 34:22  "and the leader of the tribe of the sons of Dan, Bukki the son of Jogli;"
Numbers 34:23  "the leader of the sons of Joseph, for the tribe of the sons of Manasseh, Hanniel the son of Ephod;"
Numbers 34:24  "and the leader of the tribe of the sons of Ephraim, Kemuel the son of Shiphtan;"
Numbers 34:25  "and the leader of the tribe of the sons of Zebulun, Elizaphan the son of Parnach;"
Numbers 34:26  "and the leader of the tribe of the sons of Issachar, Paltiel the son of Azzan;"
Numbers 34:27  "and the leader of the tribe of the sons of Asher, Ahihud the son of Shelomi;"
Numbers 34:28  "and the leader of the tribe of the sons of Naphtali, Pedahel the son of Ammihud."
Numbers 34:29  These are the men the LORD commanded to divide the inheritance for the people of Israel in the land of Canaan.

Numbers 35:1  The LORD spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan near Jericho. He said,
Numbers 35:2  "Command the people of Israel to give the Levites cities to live in, out of the land they receive as their own. You must also give the Levites the open land around those cities."
Numbers 35:3  The cities will be theirs to live in. The open land around them will be for their cattle, for their goods, and for all their animals.
Numbers 35:4  The open land of the cities that you give the Levites shall reach out from the city wall a thousand cubits on every side.
Numbers 35:5  Measure from outside the city two thousand cubits on the east side, two thousand cubits on the south side, two thousand cubits on the west side, and two thousand cubits on the north side. The city shall be in the middle. This shall be their open land around the cities.
Numbers 35:6  Among the cities you give the Levites there shall be six cities of refuge. You shall set them apart so that a person who has killed someone may flee there. To these you shall add forty-two more cities.
Numbers 35:7  So all the cities you give the Levites shall be forty-eight cities, with their open land.
Numbers 35:8  "The cities you give shall come from the land the people of Israel own. From a large tribe you shall take many, and from a small tribe you shall take few. Each tribe shall give some of its cities to the Levites, in keeping with the size of the land it receives."
Numbers 35:9  The LORD spoke to Moses. He said,
Numbers 35:10  "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, 'When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,"
Numbers 35:11  then you shall choose cities to be cities of refuge for you. Anyone who kills a person by accident may flee there.
Numbers 35:12  These cities shall be a refuge for you from the avenger, so that the one who killed will not die before he stands trial before the assembly.
Numbers 35:13  Of the cities you give, six shall be cities of refuge for you.
Numbers 35:14  You shall give three cities on this side of the Jordan, and three cities in the land of Canaan. They shall be cities of refuge.
Numbers 35:15  These six cities shall be a refuge for the people of Israel, for the stranger, and for anyone living among them, so that anyone who kills a person by accident may flee there.
Numbers 35:16  But if a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
Numbers 35:17  If he strikes him by throwing a stone big enough to kill, and the man dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
Numbers 35:18  Or if he strikes him with a wooden weapon in his hand that is able to kill, and the man dies, he is a murderer. The murderer shall surely be put to death.
Numbers 35:19  The avenger of blood himself shall kill the murderer. When he meets him, he shall kill him.
Numbers 35:20  If a man pushes someone out of hatred, or throws something at him while lying in wait, so that he dies,
Numbers 35:21  or strikes him with his hand out of enmity, so that he dies, then the one who struck him shall surely be put to death, for he is a murderer. The avenger of blood shall kill the murderer when he meets him.
Numbers 35:22  But if he pushes him suddenly, without enmity, or throws something at him without lying in wait,
Numbers 35:23  or drops on him any stone big enough to kill, without seeing him, so that he dies, and the man was not his enemy and he was not seeking to harm him,
Numbers 35:24  then the assembly shall judge between the one who killed and the avenger of blood, according to these rules.
Numbers 35:25  The assembly shall rescue the one who killed from the hand of the avenger of blood, and shall send him back to the city of refuge where he had fled. He shall stay there until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil.
Numbers 35:26  But if the one who killed ever goes outside the border of the city of refuge where he had fled,
Numbers 35:27  and the avenger of blood finds him outside the borders of his city of refuge, and the avenger of blood kills him, then the avenger is not guilty of blood.
Numbers 35:28  For the man should have stayed in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. After the death of the high priest, the one who killed may return to the land he owns.
Numbers 35:29  These things shall be a rule of judgment for you through all your generations, wherever you live.
Numbers 35:30  Whoever kills a person shall be put to death as a murderer on the word of witnesses. But one witness alone shall not be enough to condemn anyone to death.
Numbers 35:31  You shall not take a payment for the life of a murderer who deserves to die. He shall surely be put to death.
Numbers 35:32  You shall not take a payment for one who has fled to his city of refuge, to let him come back and live in the land before the death of the priest.
Numbers 35:33  So you shall not pollute the land where you are, for blood defiles the land. The land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it.
Numbers 35:34  "So do not defile the land where you live, in which I dwell. For I the LORD dwell among the people of Israel.'"

Numbers 36:1  The heads of the families of the children of Gilead came forward. Gilead was the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph. They spoke before Moses and before the princes, the heads of the families of the children of Israel.
Numbers 36:2  They said, "The LORD commanded my lord to give the land to the children of Israel as their inheritance, by lot. And my lord was commanded by the LORD to give the inheritance of Zelophehad our brother to his daughters."
Numbers 36:3  "But if they marry any of the sons of the other tribes of the children of Israel, then their inheritance will be taken from the inheritance of our fathers. It will be added to the inheritance of the tribe they join. So it will be taken from the share we received."
Numbers 36:4  "And when the jubilee of the children of Israel comes, their inheritance will be added to the inheritance of the tribe they join. So their inheritance will be taken away from the inheritance of the tribe of our fathers."
Numbers 36:5  Then Moses commanded the children of Israel, as the LORD told him. He said, "The tribe of the sons of Joseph has spoken rightly."
Numbers 36:6  "This is what the LORD commands about the daughters of Zelophehad. He says, 'Let them marry whoever they think best. Only they must marry within the family of their father's tribe."
Numbers 36:7  "'So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not move from tribe to tribe. Every one of the children of Israel shall keep to the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers."
Numbers 36:8  "'And every daughter who holds an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall become the wife of a man from the family of her father's tribe. Then the children of Israel will each keep the inheritance of his fathers."
Numbers 36:9  "'The inheritance shall not move from one tribe to another tribe. Every one of the tribes of the children of Israel shall keep to its own inheritance.'"
Numbers 36:10  The daughters of Zelophehad did just as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 36:11  Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, married the sons of their father's brothers.
Numbers 36:12  They married into the families of the sons of Manasseh the son of Joseph, and their inheritance stayed in the tribe of their father's family.
Numbers 36:13  These are the commandments and the laws which the LORD gave to the children of Israel through Moses. He gave them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan near Jericho.

Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 1:1  These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel on this side of the Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain opposite the Red sea, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
Deuteronomy 1:2  (It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kadeshbarnea.)
Deuteronomy 1:3  In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel. He told them everything that the LORD had commanded him to say to them.
Deuteronomy 1:4  This was after he had killed Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived at Astaroth in Edrei.
Deuteronomy 1:5  On this side of the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law. He said:
Deuteronomy 1:6  "The LORD our God spoke to us in Horeb. He said, 'You have stayed long enough on this mountain."
Deuteronomy 1:7  "'Turn, and set out on your journey. Go to the mountain of the Amorites, and to all the places near it: in the plain, in the hills, in the valley, in the south, and by the sea side. Go to the land of the Canaanites, and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates."
Deuteronomy 1:8  "'Look, I have set the land before you. Go in and take the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants after them.'"
Deuteronomy 1:9  "And I spoke to you at that time. I said, 'I am not able to carry you by myself alone."
Deuteronomy 1:10  "'The LORD your God has made you many. Look, today you are as many as the stars of heaven."
Deuteronomy 1:11  "'(May the LORD God of your fathers make you a thousand times more than you are, and bless you, as he has promised you!)"
Deuteronomy 1:12  "'How can I alone carry your troubles, your burdens, and your quarrels?"
Deuteronomy 1:13  "'Choose wise men, men of understanding, men well known among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you.'"
Deuteronomy 1:14  "And you answered me and said, 'What you have said is a good thing for us to do.'"
Deuteronomy 1:15  "So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise men and well known, and made them heads over you: captains over thousands, captains over hundreds, captains over fifties, captains over tens, and officers among your tribes."
Deuteronomy 1:16  "And at that time I charged your judges. I said, 'Listen to the cases between your brothers, and judge with righteousness between every man and his brother, and the stranger who is with him."
Deuteronomy 1:17  "'You shall not show favour in judgment. You shall listen to the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of any man's face, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, bring it to me, and I will hear it.'"
Deuteronomy 1:18  "And at that time I commanded you all the things that you should do."
Deuteronomy 1:19  "When we left Horeb, we went through all that great and terrible wilderness that you saw on the way to the mountain of the Amorites, as the LORD our God commanded us. And we came to Kadeshbarnea."
Deuteronomy 1:20  "And I said to you, 'You have come to the mountain of the Amorites, which the LORD our God is giving us."
Deuteronomy 1:21  "'Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up and take it, as the LORD God of your fathers has said to you. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart.'"
Deuteronomy 1:22  "And all of you came near to me and said, 'We will send men ahead of us. They shall search out the land for us, and bring us word again about which way we must go up, and which cities we shall come to.'"
Deuteronomy 1:23  "The plan seemed good to me, and I took twelve men from you, one from each tribe."
Deuteronomy 1:24  "They turned and went up into the mountain, and came to the valley of Eshcol, and searched it out."
Deuteronomy 1:25  "They took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us. They brought us word again and said, 'It is a good land that the LORD our God is giving us.'"
Deuteronomy 1:26  "But you would not go up. You rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God."
Deuteronomy 1:27  "You complained in your tents and said, 'The LORD hated us, and so he has brought us out of the land of Egypt, to hand us over to the Amorites to destroy us."
Deuteronomy 1:28  "'Where shall we go up? Our brothers have made our hearts melt. They say the people are bigger and taller than we are, the cities are great and walled up to heaven, and they have even seen the sons of the Anakims there.'"
Deuteronomy 1:29  "Then I said to you, 'Do not be terrified, and do not be afraid of them."
Deuteronomy 1:30  "'The LORD your God goes before you. He will fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes,"
Deuteronomy 1:31  "'and in the wilderness, where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.'"
Deuteronomy 1:32  "Yet in this thing you did not believe the LORD your God,"
Deuteronomy 1:33  "who went before you on the way to look for a place for you to pitch your tents, in fire by night to show you which way you should go, and in a cloud by day."
Deuteronomy 1:34  "And the LORD heard what you said. He was angry, and he swore:"
Deuteronomy 1:35  "'Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land that I swore to give to your fathers,"
Deuteronomy 1:36  "'except Caleb the son of Jephunneh. He shall see it. To him and to his children I will give the land that he has walked on, because he has followed the LORD completely.'"
Deuteronomy 1:37  "The LORD was angry with me too because of you, and said, 'You also shall not go in there."
Deuteronomy 1:38  "'But Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall go in there. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it."
Deuteronomy 1:39  "'And your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who that day did not know good from evil, they shall go in there. To them I will give it, and they shall possess it."
Deuteronomy 1:40  "'But as for you, turn and set out into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea.'"
Deuteronomy 1:41  "Then you answered and said to me, 'We have sinned against the LORD. We will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.' And every man put on his weapons of war, and you were ready to go up into the hill."
Deuteronomy 1:42  "And the LORD said to me, 'Say to them: Do not go up, and do not fight, for I am not among you. If you do, you will be struck down before your enemies.'"
Deuteronomy 1:43  "So I spoke to you, and you would not listen. You rebelled against the commandment of the LORD, and in your pride you went up into the hill."
Deuteronomy 1:44  "And the Amorites who lived in that mountain came out against you. They chased you as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, as far as Hormah."
Deuteronomy 1:45  "And you came back and wept before the LORD, but the LORD would not listen to your voice, and would not pay attention to you."
Deuteronomy 1:46  "So you stayed in Kadesh many days, as many days as you stayed there."

Deuteronomy 2:1  Then we turned back and set out into the wilderness, by the way of the Red sea, as the LORD had told me. We went round mount Seir for many days.
Deuteronomy 2:2  And the LORD said to me,
Deuteronomy 2:3  "You have gone round this mountain long enough. Now turn to the north."
Deuteronomy 2:4  And give this command to the people: 'You are going to pass through the land of your brothers, the children of Esau, who live in Seir. They will be afraid of you. So be very careful.'
Deuteronomy 2:5  Do not fight with them. I will not give you any of their land, not even a foot of it, because I have given mount Seir to Esau as his own.
Deuteronomy 2:6  You shall buy food from them with money, so that you may eat. You shall also buy water from them with money, so that you may drink.
Deuteronomy 2:7  "For the LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your walking through this great wilderness. These forty years the LORD your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing."
Deuteronomy 2:8  So we passed by our brothers, the children of Esau, who live in Seir. We went along the way of the plain from Elath and from Eziongaber. Then we turned and went by the way of the wilderness of Moab.
Deuteronomy 2:9  And the LORD said to me, "Do not trouble the Moabites, and do not fight against them in battle. I will not give you any of their land as your own, because I have given Ar to the children of Lot as their own."
Deuteronomy 2:10  The Emims lived there in times past, a people great and many and tall, like the Anakims.
Deuteronomy 2:11  They were counted as giants too, like the Anakims, but the Moabites call them Emims.
Deuteronomy 2:12  The Horims also lived in Seir long ago, but the children of Esau took their place. They destroyed them and lived where they had lived. Israel did the same in the land the LORD gave them to own.
Deuteronomy 2:13  "Now get up," I said, "and cross over the brook Zered." So we went over the brook Zered.
Deuteronomy 2:14  The time from when we left Kadeshbarnea until we crossed the brook Zered was thirty-eight years. By then the whole generation of the men of war had died out from the camp, as the LORD had sworn to them.
Deuteronomy 2:15  For indeed the hand of the LORD was against them, to destroy them from the camp, until they were all gone.
Deuteronomy 2:16  So when all the men of war among the people were gone and dead,
Deuteronomy 2:17  the LORD said to me,
Deuteronomy 2:18  "Today you are to pass through Ar, the border of Moab."
Deuteronomy 2:19  "And when you come near the children of Ammon, do not trouble them, and do not fight with them. I will not give you any of the land of the children of Ammon to own, because I have given it to the children of Lot as their own."
Deuteronomy 2:20  (That land also was counted as a land of giants. Giants lived there long ago, and the Ammonites call them Zamzummims.
Deuteronomy 2:21  They were a people great and many and tall, like the Anakims. But the LORD destroyed them before the Ammonites, who took their place and lived where they had lived.
Deuteronomy 2:22  He did the same for the children of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims before them. They took their place and have lived there to this day.
Deuteronomy 2:23  And the Avims, who lived in Hazerim as far as Azzah, were destroyed by the Caphtorims, who came out of Caphtor, and they lived where the Avims had lived.)
Deuteronomy 2:24  "Get up, set out, and cross over the river Arnon. Look, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take it, and fight against him in battle."
Deuteronomy 2:25  "Today I will begin to put the dread and fear of you on the nations under the whole heaven. They will hear the report of you, and they will tremble and be in anguish because of you."
Deuteronomy 2:26  And I sent messengers from the wilderness of Kedemoth to Sihon king of Heshbon with words of peace. They said,
Deuteronomy 2:27  "Let me pass through your land. I will keep to the main road. I will not turn aside to the right hand or to the left."
Deuteronomy 2:28  You shall sell me food for money, so that I may eat, and give me water for money, so that I may drink. Only let me pass through on foot,
Deuteronomy 2:29  "as the children of Esau who live in Seir did for me, and the Moabites who live in Ar, until I cross over Jordan into the land which the LORD our God is giving us."
Deuteronomy 2:30  But Sihon king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him. For the LORD your God made his spirit hard and his heart stubborn, so that he might give him into your hand, as you see this day.
Deuteronomy 2:31  And the LORD said to me, "Look, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take it, so that you may have his land for your own."
Deuteronomy 2:32  Then Sihon came out against us with all his people, to fight at Jahaz.
Deuteronomy 2:33  And the LORD our God gave him over to us. We struck him down, and his sons, and all his people.
Deuteronomy 2:34  At that time we took all his cities. We completely destroyed the men, the women and the little ones of every city. We left no one alive.
Deuteronomy 2:35  We took only the cattle for ourselves, and the goods from the cities we captured.
Deuteronomy 2:36  From Aroer, which is on the edge of the river of Arnon, and from the city by the river, as far as Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us. The LORD our God gave them all to us.
Deuteronomy 2:37  You only did not go near the land of the children of Ammon, or any place along the river Jabbok, or the cities in the mountains, or anywhere the LORD our God forbade us.

Deuteronomy 3:1  Then we turned and went up the road to Bashan. Og the king of Bashan came out against us with all his people, to fight at Edrei.
Deuteronomy 3:2  And the LORD said to me, "Do not be afraid of him. I will give him and all his people and his land into your hand. You shall do to him as you did to Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon."
Deuteronomy 3:3  So the LORD our God gave Og also, the king of Bashan, into our hands, and all his people. We struck them down until not one of them was left.
Deuteronomy 3:4  At that time we took all his cities. There was not a city we did not take from them: sixty cities, the whole region of Argob, the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
Deuteronomy 3:5  All these cities were fortified with high walls, gates and bars. Besides these there were a great many towns without walls.
Deuteronomy 3:6  We completely destroyed them, as we did to Sihon king of Heshbon, completely destroying the men, the women and the children of every city.
Deuteronomy 3:7  But all the cattle and the plunder of the cities we took for ourselves.
Deuteronomy 3:8  At that time we took from the hand of the two kings of the Amorites the land on this side of the Jordan, from the river Arnon to Mount Hermon.
Deuteronomy 3:9  (The Sidonians call Hermon Sirion, and the Amorites call it Shenir.)
Deuteronomy 3:10  We took all the cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, as far as Salchah and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan.
Deuteronomy 3:11  For only Og king of Bashan was left of the remnant of giants. Look, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? It was nine cubits long and four cubits wide, measured by a man's cubit.
Deuteronomy 3:12  This was the land we took at that time. From Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, and half the hill country of Gilead with its cities, I gave to the Reubenites and the Gadites.
Deuteronomy 3:13  The rest of Gilead, and all Bashan, the kingdom of Og, I gave to the half tribe of Manasseh: all the region of Argob, with all Bashan, which was called the land of giants.
Deuteronomy 3:14  Jair the son of Manasseh took all the country of Argob as far as the borders of the Geshurites and the Maachathites. He called them by his own name, Bashanhavothjair, and that is their name to this day.
Deuteronomy 3:15  And I gave Gilead to Machir.
Deuteronomy 3:16  To the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the land from Gilead to the river Arnon, the middle of the valley being the border, and as far as the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon.
Deuteronomy 3:17  I gave them the plain also, and the Jordan and its territory, from Chinnereth to the sea of the plain, that is, the Salt Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah on the east.
Deuteronomy 3:18  At that time I commanded you, saying, "The LORD your God has given you this land to possess it. All of you who are fit for war shall cross over armed, ahead of your brothers the children of Israel."
Deuteronomy 3:19  But your wives, your little ones and your cattle (for I know you have much cattle) shall stay in the cities I have given you,
Deuteronomy 3:20  "until the LORD has given rest to your brothers as well as to you, and until they also possess the land which the LORD your God is giving them beyond the Jordan. Then each of you shall return to the possession I have given you."
Deuteronomy 3:21  At that time I commanded Joshua, saying, "Your eyes have seen all that the LORD your God has done to these two kings. The LORD will do the same to all the kingdoms you are going into."
Deuteronomy 3:22  "You shall not fear them, for the LORD your God himself will fight for you."
Deuteronomy 3:23  At that time I pleaded with the LORD, saying,
Deuteronomy 3:24  "O Lord GOD, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and such mighty acts as yours?"
Deuteronomy 3:25  "Please let me go over and see the good land that is beyond the Jordan, that fine hill country, and Lebanon."
Deuteronomy 3:26  But the LORD was angry with me because of you, and would not listen to me. The LORD said to me, "That is enough. Speak to me no more about this matter."
Deuteronomy 3:27  Go up to the top of Pisgah and lift up your eyes to the west, the north, the south and the east, and see it with your eyes; for you shall not cross this Jordan.
Deuteronomy 3:28  "But command Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him. For he shall go over ahead of this people, and he shall give them the land you will see as their inheritance."
Deuteronomy 3:29  So we stayed in the valley opposite Bethpeor.

Deuteronomy 4:1  Now then, Israel, listen to the laws and the rules that I teach you. Keep them, so that you may live, and go in and take the land that the LORD God of your fathers is giving you.
Deuteronomy 4:2  You must not add anything to the word that I command you, and you must not take anything away from it. Keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.
Deuteronomy 4:3  Your own eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor. Every man who followed Baalpeor was destroyed from among you by the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 4:4  But you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today.
Deuteronomy 4:5  Look, I have taught you laws and rules, just as the LORD my God commanded me. You are to live by them in the land you are going in to take.
Deuteronomy 4:6  So keep them and do them. This is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations. They will hear all these laws and say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
Deuteronomy 4:7  For what nation is so great that it has a god so near to it, as the LORD our God is near to us whenever we call on him?
Deuteronomy 4:8  And what nation is so great that it has laws and rules as righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
Deuteronomy 4:9  Only be careful, and guard your soul with all your strength. Do not forget the things your eyes have seen. Do not let them slip from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to your children's children.
Deuteronomy 4:10  Remember above all the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb. The LORD said to me, "Gather the people together for me, and I will let them hear my words. Then they will learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth, and they will teach their children."
Deuteronomy 4:11  You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain. The mountain burned with fire up to the middle of heaven, with darkness, clouds and thick gloom.
Deuteronomy 4:12  The LORD spoke to you out of the middle of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but you saw no form; you only heard a voice.
Deuteronomy 4:13  He told you his covenant, which he commanded you to keep, the ten commandments. He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
Deuteronomy 4:14  At that time the LORD commanded me to teach you laws and rules, so that you would do them in the land you are crossing over to take.
Deuteronomy 4:15  So be very careful. You saw no form of any kind on the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the middle of the fire.
Deuteronomy 4:16  Do not ruin yourselves by making a carved image for yourselves, in the shape of any figure, the likeness of a male or a female,
Deuteronomy 4:17  or the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, or the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air,
Deuteronomy 4:18  or the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, or the likeness of any fish that is in the waters below the earth.
Deuteronomy 4:19  And do not lift up your eyes to the sky and look at the sun, the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away to worship them and serve them. The LORD your God gave them to all the nations under the whole heaven.
Deuteronomy 4:20  But the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be his own people, his inheritance, as you are today.
Deuteronomy 4:21  Also, the LORD was angry with me because of you. He swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not go into that good land which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.
Deuteronomy 4:22  I must die in this land. I must not cross the Jordan. But you will cross over and take that good land.
Deuteronomy 4:23  Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you. Do not make yourselves a carved image in the likeness of anything, for the LORD your God has forbidden you.
Deuteronomy 4:24  For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 4:25  When you have children and grandchildren, and you have lived a long time in the land, you may ruin yourselves and make a carved image in the likeness of anything. You may do evil in the sight of the LORD your God and stir him to anger.
Deuteronomy 4:26  I call heaven and earth to witness against you today: you will quickly and completely perish from the land you are crossing the Jordan to take. You will not live long there, but will be utterly destroyed.
Deuteronomy 4:27  The LORD will scatter you among the nations. Only a few of you will be left among the nations where the LORD will drive you.
Deuteronomy 4:28  There you will serve gods made by human hands, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.
Deuteronomy 4:29  But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him, if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 4:30  When you are in trouble, and all these things have come upon you, in the days to come, you will turn to the LORD your God and obey his voice.
Deuteronomy 4:31  (For the LORD your God is a merciful God.) He will not leave you or destroy you, and he will not forget the covenant with your fathers, which he swore to them.
Deuteronomy 4:32  Ask now about the days that are past, the days before you, since the day God created man on the earth. Ask from one end of the sky to the other, whether anything as great as this has ever happened, or whether anything like it has been heard.
Deuteronomy 4:33  Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and still live?
Deuteronomy 4:34  Or has any god tried to go and take for himself a nation out of the middle of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?
Deuteronomy 4:35  It was shown to you, so that you might know that the LORD is God. There is no other besides him.
Deuteronomy 4:36  Out of heaven he made you hear his voice, to teach you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words out of the middle of the fire.
Deuteronomy 4:37  Because he loved your fathers, he chose their children after them. He brought you out of Egypt in his presence with his great power,
Deuteronomy 4:38  to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you, and to bring you in and give you their land as your inheritance, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 4:39  So know today, and take it to heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.
Deuteronomy 4:40  Keep his laws and his commandments, which I command you today. Then it will go well with you and with your children after you, and you will live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you for ever.
Deuteronomy 4:41  Then Moses set apart three cities on this side of the Jordan, toward the sunrise,
Deuteronomy 4:42  so that a killer could flee there, one who killed his neighbour by accident and had not hated him before. He could flee to one of these cities and live.
Deuteronomy 4:43  They were Bezer in the wilderness, in the flat country, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan for the Manassites.
Deuteronomy 4:44  This is the law that Moses set before the children of Israel.
Deuteronomy 4:45  These are the testimonies, the laws and the rules that Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt,
Deuteronomy 4:46  on this side of the Jordan, in the valley opposite Bethpeor, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon. Moses and the children of Israel struck him down after they came out of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 4:47  They took his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two kings of the Amorites who were on this side of the Jordan, toward the sunrise,
Deuteronomy 4:48  from Aroer, which is by the bank of the river Arnon, as far as mount Sion, that is, Hermon,
Deuteronomy 4:49  and all the plain on this side of the Jordan, eastward, as far as the sea of the plain, below the slopes of Pisgah.

Deuteronomy 5:1  And Moses called all Israel together and said to them, "Hear, Israel, the statutes and judgments that I speak in your hearing today. Learn them, keep them, and do them."
Deuteronomy 5:2  "The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb."
Deuteronomy 5:3  "The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us - with us, who are all of us here alive today."
Deuteronomy 5:4  "The LORD talked with you face to face on the mountain, out of the middle of the fire,"
Deuteronomy 5:5  "(At that time I stood between the LORD and you, to tell you the word of the LORD. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain.) He said:"
Deuteronomy 5:6  "'I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.'"
Deuteronomy 5:7  "'You shall have no other gods before me.'"
Deuteronomy 5:8  "'You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth.'"
Deuteronomy 5:9  "'You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the LORD your God am a jealous God. I bring the sin of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,'"
Deuteronomy 5:10  "'and I show mercy to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.'"
Deuteronomy 5:11  "'You shall not use the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold guiltless anyone who uses his name in vain.'"
Deuteronomy 5:12  "'Keep the sabbath day, and set it apart as holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.'"
Deuteronomy 5:13  "'Six days you shall labour and do all your work,'"
Deuteronomy 5:14  "'but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work - not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your cattle, nor the stranger who is inside your gates. Then your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.'"
Deuteronomy 5:15  "'Remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.'"
Deuteronomy 5:16  "'Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Then your days may be long, and it may go well with you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.'"
Deuteronomy 5:17  "'You shall not kill.'"
Deuteronomy 5:18  "'You shall not commit adultery.'"
Deuteronomy 5:19  "'You shall not steal.'"
Deuteronomy 5:20  "'You shall not give false witness against your neighbour.'"
Deuteronomy 5:21  "'You shall not desire your neighbour's wife. You shall not covet your neighbour's house, or his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.'"
Deuteronomy 5:22  "These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly on the mountain, out of the middle of the fire, the cloud and the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added nothing more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me."
Deuteronomy 5:23  "When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me - all the heads of your tribes, and your elders."
Deuteronomy 5:24  "And you said, 'Look, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. Today we have seen that God speaks with man, and man still lives.'"
Deuteronomy 5:25  "'Now then, why should we die? This great fire will burn us up. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die.'"
Deuteronomy 5:26  "'For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and stayed alive?'"
Deuteronomy 5:27  "'You go near, and hear all that the LORD our God will say. Then tell us everything that the LORD our God says to you, and we will hear it and do it.'"
Deuteronomy 5:28  "The LORD heard your words when you spoke to me, and the LORD said to me, 'I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. All that they have said is good.'"
Deuteronomy 5:29  "'Oh, that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always, so that it might be well with them and with their children for ever!'"
Deuteronomy 5:30  "'Go, say to them, Go back into your tents again.'"
Deuteronomy 5:31  "'But as for you, stand here by me, and I will tell you all the commandments, the statutes and the judgments which you shall teach them, so that they may do them in the land which I am giving them to possess.'"
Deuteronomy 5:32  "So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you. Do not turn aside to the right hand or to the left."
Deuteronomy 5:33  "You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land which you shall possess."

Deuteronomy 6:1  These are the commandments, the rules, and the laws which the LORD your God commanded me to teach you. You are to obey them in the land you are crossing over to take as your own.
Deuteronomy 6:2  So you must fear the LORD your God. Keep all his rules and his commandments that I give you, you and your son and your son's son, all the days of your life. Then your days will be long.
Deuteronomy 6:3  So listen, Israel, and be careful to do them. Then it will go well with you, and you will increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD God of your fathers promised you.
Deuteronomy 6:4  Hear, Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD.
Deuteronomy 6:5  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:6  And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart.
Deuteronomy 6:7  You shall teach them carefully to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down, and when you get up.
Deuteronomy 6:8  You shall tie them on your hand as a sign, and they shall be like bands on your forehead, between your eyes.
Deuteronomy 6:9  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:10  The LORD your God will bring you into the land he promised with an oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. He will give you great and fine cities that you did not build,
Deuteronomy 6:11  and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and wells that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. When you have eaten and are full,
Deuteronomy 6:12  then be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Deuteronomy 6:13  You shall fear the LORD your God, and serve him, and swear by his name.
Deuteronomy 6:14  You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples around you.
Deuteronomy 6:15  (For the LORD your God among you is a jealous God.) If you do, the anger of the LORD your God will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 6:16  You shall not test the LORD your God, as you tested him at Massah.
Deuteronomy 6:17  You shall carefully keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his rules, which he has commanded you.
Deuteronomy 6:18  You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the LORD. Then it will go well with you, and you will go in and take the good land that the LORD promised with an oath to your fathers,
Deuteronomy 6:19  and he will drive out all your enemies before you, as the LORD has said.
Deuteronomy 6:20  In time to come your son will ask you, "What do these testimonies and rules and laws mean, which the LORD our God has commanded you?"
Deuteronomy 6:21  Then you shall say to your son, "We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand."
Deuteronomy 6:22  "The LORD showed signs and wonders, great and terrible, on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, before our eyes."
Deuteronomy 6:23  "He brought us out from there, so that he might bring us in and give us the land he promised with an oath to our fathers."
Deuteronomy 6:24  "And the LORD commanded us to do all these rules, and to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, so that he might keep us alive, as we are today."
Deuteronomy 6:25  "And it will be our righteousness if we are careful to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us."

Deuteronomy 7:1  The LORD your God will bring you into the land you are going in to take. He will drive out many nations before you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you.
Deuteronomy 7:2  And when the LORD your God hands them over to you, you must strike them down and destroy them completely. Make no covenant with them, and show them no mercy.
Deuteronomy 7:3  Do not marry into them. Do not give your daughter to his son, and do not take his daughter for your son.
Deuteronomy 7:4  For they will turn your son away from following me, so that he serves other gods. Then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and he will destroy you suddenly.
Deuteronomy 7:5  This is what you must do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their groves, and burn their carved images with fire.
Deuteronomy 7:6  For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be his own special people, out of all the peoples on the face of the earth.
Deuteronomy 7:7  The LORD did not set his love on you and choose you because you were more in number than other peoples, for you were the smallest of all peoples.
Deuteronomy 7:8  But it was because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath he swore to your fathers. So the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and set you free from the house of slaves, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:9  So know that the LORD your God is God. He is the faithful God. He keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love him and keep his commandments.
Deuteronomy 7:10  But those who hate him he repays to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slow with the one who hates him; he will repay him to his face.
Deuteronomy 7:11  So you must keep the commandments, the rules, and the judgments which I command you today, and do them.
Deuteronomy 7:12  If you listen to these judgments, and keep them and do them, then the LORD your God will keep for you the covenant and the mercy which he swore to your fathers.
Deuteronomy 7:13  He will love you, bless you, and make you many. He will bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground: your corn, your wine, and your oil, the young of your cattle and the flocks of your sheep, in the land he swore to your fathers to give you.
Deuteronomy 7:14  You will be blessed above all peoples. No male or female among you will be childless, and none among your cattle.
Deuteronomy 7:15  The LORD will take away from you all sickness. He will not put on you any of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know about. He will lay them on all those who hate you.
Deuteronomy 7:16  You will destroy all the peoples which the LORD your God hands over to you. Your eye must not pity them. And do not serve their gods, for that will be a trap to you.
Deuteronomy 7:17  You may say in your heart, "These nations are more than I am. How can I drive them out?"
Deuteronomy 7:18  Do not be afraid of them. Remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt:
Deuteronomy 7:19  the great trials your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. The LORD your God will do the same to all the peoples you are afraid of.
Deuteronomy 7:20  More than that, the LORD your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left and who hide themselves from you are destroyed.
Deuteronomy 7:21  Do not be terrified by them, for the LORD your God is among you, a mighty and terrible God.
Deuteronomy 7:22  The LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little. You may not finish them off all at once, or the wild animals would grow too many for you.
Deuteronomy 7:23  But the LORD your God will hand them over to you. He will throw them into great confusion and ruin, until they are destroyed.
Deuteronomy 7:24  He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their name from under heaven. No one will be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them.
Deuteronomy 7:25  You must burn the carved images of their gods with fire. Do not want the silver or gold that is on them, and do not take it for yourself, or you will be trapped by it. For it is disgusting to the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 7:26  Do not bring a disgusting thing into your house, or you will be set apart for destruction like it. You must hate it completely and turn from it completely, for it is a thing set apart for destruction.

Deuteronomy 8:1  You must be careful to do all the commandments I give you today. Then you will live, and grow many, and go in and take the land that the LORD promised to your fathers.
Deuteronomy 8:2  Remember the whole way the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness. He did it to humble you, and to test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
Deuteronomy 8:3  He humbled you, and let you go hungry, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, and your fathers did not know it either. He did this to teach you that man does not live by bread only. Man lives by every word that comes out of the mouth of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 8:4  Your clothes did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years.
Deuteronomy 8:5  Think about this in your heart: as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.
Deuteronomy 8:6  So keep the commandments of the LORD your God. Walk in his ways, and fear him.
Deuteronomy 8:7  For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land. It is a land of streams of water, of springs and deep pools that flow out in the valleys and hills.
Deuteronomy 8:8  It is a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey.
Deuteronomy 8:9  It is a land where you will eat bread without going short. You will lack nothing in it. Its stones are iron, and out of its hills you can dig copper.
Deuteronomy 8:10  When you have eaten and are full, then bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.
Deuteronomy 8:11  Take care that you do not forget the LORD your God. Do not fail to keep his commandments, his judgments and his laws, which I command you today.
Deuteronomy 8:12  If you do, then when you have eaten and are full, and have built fine houses and live in them,
Deuteronomy 8:13  and when your herds and your flocks grow many, and your silver and your gold grow many, and all that you have grows many,
Deuteronomy 8:14  then your heart may become proud, and you may forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Deuteronomy 8:15  He led you through that great and terrible wilderness, where there were fiery serpents and scorpions and dry ground with no water. He brought you water out of the rock of flint.
Deuteronomy 8:16  He fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know. He did it to humble you, and to test you, so that in the end he might do you good.
Deuteronomy 8:17  You may say in your heart, "My own power and the strength of my hand have won me this wealth."
Deuteronomy 8:18  But remember the LORD your God. It is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant which he promised to your fathers, as he does this day.
Deuteronomy 8:19  But if you do forget the LORD your God, and follow other gods and serve them and worship them, I warn you today that you will surely die.
Deuteronomy 8:20  Like the nations that the LORD destroys before you, so you will die, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 9:1  Listen, Israel. Today you are going to cross the Jordan. You are going in to take the land of nations greater and stronger than you, with great cities walled up to the sky.
Deuteronomy 9:2  They are a great and tall people, the children of the Anakims. You know about them, and you have heard it said, "Who can stand before the children of Anak!"
Deuteronomy 9:3  So understand today that the LORD your God is the one who goes over ahead of you. Like a fire that burns everything up, he will destroy them. He will bring them down before you. So you will drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you.
Deuteronomy 9:4  After the LORD your God has thrown them out before you, do not say in your heart, "The LORD has brought me in to take this land because of my righteousness." No, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.
Deuteronomy 9:5  It is not for your righteousness, or because your heart is upright, that you are going in to take their land. It is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD your God is driving them out before you, and so that he may keep the word the LORD swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 9:6  Understand then that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.
Deuteronomy 9:7  Remember, and do not forget, how you made the LORD your God angry in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have rebelled against the LORD.
Deuteronomy 9:8  At Horeb too you made the LORD angry, so angry with you that he would have destroyed you.
Deuteronomy 9:9  I had gone up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the LORD made with you. I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water.
Deuteronomy 9:10  The LORD gave me two tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. On them was written all the words the LORD spoke with you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, on the day of the assembly.
Deuteronomy 9:11  At the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.
Deuteronomy 9:12  The LORD said to me, "Get up and go down quickly from here. Your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have made themselves corrupt. They have turned aside quickly from the way I commanded them. They have made themselves an image of cast metal."
Deuteronomy 9:13  The LORD also said to me, "I have seen this people, and look, they are a stiff-necked people."
Deuteronomy 9:14  "Leave me alone, so that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they are."
Deuteronomy 9:15  So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. The two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands.
Deuteronomy 9:16  I looked, and there it was: you had sinned against the LORD your God. You had made yourselves a calf of cast metal. You had turned aside quickly from the way the LORD had commanded you.
Deuteronomy 9:17  So I took the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands, and broke them before your eyes.
Deuteronomy 9:18  Then I fell down before the LORD, as I had the first time, for forty days and forty nights. I ate no bread and drank no water, because of all the sins you had sinned, doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, making him angry.
Deuteronomy 9:19  For I was afraid of the anger and the burning displeasure the LORD had against you, enough to destroy you. But the LORD listened to me that time also.
Deuteronomy 9:20  The LORD was very angry with Aaron too, angry enough to destroy him. So at the same time I prayed for Aaron.
Deuteronomy 9:21  And I took your sin, the calf you had made, and burned it with fire. I crushed it and ground it very small, until it was as fine as dust. Then I threw its dust into the stream that came down from the mountain.
Deuteronomy 9:22  At Taberah, and at Massah, and at Kibrothhattaavah, you made the LORD angry.
Deuteronomy 9:23  It was the same when the LORD sent you from Kadeshbarnea and said, "Go up and take the land which I have given you." Then you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You did not believe him, and you did not listen to his voice.
Deuteronomy 9:24  You have rebelled against the LORD from the day I knew you.
Deuteronomy 9:25  So I fell down before the LORD for forty days and forty nights, as I had fallen down the first time, because the LORD had said he would destroy you.
Deuteronomy 9:26  I prayed to the LORD and said, "Lord GOD, do not destroy your people, your own inheritance, whom you have redeemed by your greatness, whom you brought out of Egypt with a mighty hand."
Deuteronomy 9:27  Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Do not look at the stubbornness of this people, or at their wickedness, or at their sin.
Deuteronomy 9:28  If you do, the land you brought us out of will say, 'The LORD was not able to bring them into the land he promised them, and because he hated them, he has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.'
Deuteronomy 9:29  "Yet they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out by your mighty power and by your outstretched arm."

Deuteronomy 10:1  At that time the LORD said to me, "Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain. Also make yourself an ark of wood."
Deuteronomy 10:2  "And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you shall put them in the ark."
Deuteronomy 10:3  So I made an ark of shittim wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
Deuteronomy 10:4  And he wrote on the tablets, just as he had written the first time, the ten commandments which the LORD spoke to you on the mountain out of the middle of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me.
Deuteronomy 10:5  I turned and came down from the mountain, and put the tablets in the ark which I had made. And there they are, as the LORD commanded me.
Deuteronomy 10:6  The children of Israel travelled from Beeroth of the children of Jaakan to Mosera. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And Eleazar his son served as priest in his place.
Deuteronomy 10:7  From there they travelled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbath, a land of rivers of water.
Deuteronomy 10:8  At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve him, and to bless in his name, as they do to this day.
Deuteronomy 10:9  That is why Levi has no share or inheritance with his brothers. The LORD is his inheritance, just as the LORD your God promised him.
Deuteronomy 10:10  I stayed on the mountain, as I had the first time, forty days and forty nights. And the LORD listened to me that time also, and the LORD would not destroy you.
Deuteronomy 10:11  And the LORD said to me, "Get up, go on your journey ahead of the people, so that they may go in and take the land which I swore to their fathers I would give them."
Deuteronomy 10:12  And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you? Only this: to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deuteronomy 10:13  and to keep the commandments of the LORD and his laws, which I command you today for your good.
Deuteronomy 10:14  Look, the heaven and the highest heavens belong to the LORD your God, and the earth also, with everything in it.
Deuteronomy 10:15  Yet the LORD delighted in your fathers and loved them, and he chose their children after them, you above all peoples, as it is today.
Deuteronomy 10:16  So circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stubborn no longer.
Deuteronomy 10:17  For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, mighty and terrible. He shows no favour to anyone, and he takes no bribe.
Deuteronomy 10:18  He gives justice to the fatherless and the widow, and he loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.
Deuteronomy 10:19  So love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 10:20  You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him, and hold fast to him, and swear by his name.
Deuteronomy 10:21  He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and terrible things which your eyes have seen.
Deuteronomy 10:22  Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons. And now the LORD your God has made you as many as the stars of heaven.

Deuteronomy 11:1  So you must love the LORD your God. Always keep what he has given you to keep: his laws, his rules, and his commandments.
Deuteronomy 11:2  Know today that I am not speaking to your children. They have not known and have not seen how the LORD your God disciplined you. They did not see his greatness, his mighty hand, and his outstretched arm.
Deuteronomy 11:3  They did not see his miracles and the things he did inside Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land.
Deuteronomy 11:4  They did not see what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots. He made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they chased after you, and the LORD has kept them destroyed to this day.
Deuteronomy 11:5  They did not see what he did for you in the desert, until you came to this place.
Deuteronomy 11:6  They did not see what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and everything they owned. This happened in front of all Israel.
Deuteronomy 11:7  But your own eyes have seen all the great things the LORD did.
Deuteronomy 11:8  So keep every commandment I give you today. Then you will be strong, and you will go in and take the land you are crossing over to take.
Deuteronomy 11:9  Then you will live long in the land the LORD promised on oath to your fathers, to give to them and to their children after them, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Deuteronomy 11:10  The land you are going in to take is not like the land of Egypt, which you came out of. There you planted your seed and watered it with your foot, like a vegetable garden.
Deuteronomy 11:11  But the land you are crossing over to take is a land of hills and valleys. It drinks water from the rain of heaven.
Deuteronomy 11:12  It is a land the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the start of the year to the end of the year.
Deuteronomy 11:13  If you listen carefully to my commandments that I give you today, and love the LORD your God, and serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deuteronomy 11:14  then I will give rain for your land at the right time, the early rain and the late rain, so you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.
Deuteronomy 11:15  And I will send grass in your fields for your cattle, so you may eat and be full.
Deuteronomy 11:16  Be careful. Do not let your heart be fooled, so that you turn away and serve other gods and worship them.
Deuteronomy 11:17  If you do, the anger of the LORD will burn against you. He will shut up the sky so there is no rain, and the land will not give its fruit. Then you will quickly die and be gone from the good land the LORD is giving you.
Deuteronomy 11:18  So store up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul. Tie them as a sign on your hand, and let them be like bands on your forehead between your eyes.
Deuteronomy 11:19  Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up.
Deuteronomy 11:20  Write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 11:21  Then your days and the days of your children will be many in the land the LORD promised on oath to your fathers to give them. They will be as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
Deuteronomy 11:22  If you carefully keep all these commandments I give you, and do them, and love the LORD your God, and walk in all his ways, and hold on to him,
Deuteronomy 11:23  then the LORD will drive out all these nations ahead of you. You will take the land of nations greater and stronger than you.
Deuteronomy 11:24  Every place where the soles of your feet walk will be yours. Your borders will reach from the desert to Lebanon, and from the river, the river Euphrates, to the farthest sea.
Deuteronomy 11:25  No one will be able to stand against you. The LORD your God will put the fear and terror of you on every land where you walk, just as he said to you.
Deuteronomy 11:26  Look, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse.
Deuteronomy 11:27  The blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I give you today.
Deuteronomy 11:28  And the curse, if you will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away from the way I command you today, and go after other gods you have not known.
Deuteronomy 11:29  When the LORD your God has brought you into the land you are going in to take, you must set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Deuteronomy 11:30  Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, westward, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?
Deuteronomy 11:31  You are about to cross the Jordan to go in and take the land the LORD your God is giving you. You will take it and live in it.
Deuteronomy 11:32  Be careful to do all the laws and rules I set before you today.

Deuteronomy 12:1  These are the laws and rules that you must be careful to keep in the land which the LORD God of your fathers is giving you to own. Keep them all the days you live on the earth.
Deuteronomy 12:2  You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you are driving out served their gods: on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
Deuteronomy 12:3  Pull down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, and burn their groves with fire. Cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe their names out of that place.
Deuteronomy 12:4  You must not worship the LORD your God in that way.
Deuteronomy 12:5  Instead, go to the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes, the place where he will put his name. Look for his dwelling, and go there.
Deuteronomy 12:6  Bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the offerings you lift up with your hand, what you have promised, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and your sheep.
Deuteronomy 12:7  There you will eat in front of the LORD your God. You and your households will be glad in everything you put your hand to, in all the ways the LORD your God has blessed you.
Deuteronomy 12:8  You must not do as we are doing here today, where every man does whatever seems right in his own eyes.
Deuteronomy 12:9  For you have not yet come to the rest and to the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 12:10  But you will cross the Jordan and live in the land the LORD your God is giving you to own. He will give you rest from all your enemies around you, and you will live in safety.
Deuteronomy 12:11  Then there will be a place that the LORD your God will choose, where he will make his name live. Bring there everything I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the offering you lift up with your hand, and all the best things you have promised to the LORD.
Deuteronomy 12:12  You will be glad in front of the LORD your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your menservants and your maidservants, and the Levite who lives inside your gates, because he has no share or land of his own among you.
Deuteronomy 12:13  Be careful that you do not offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see.
Deuteronomy 12:14  Offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribes. There you must offer your burnt offerings, and there you must do all that I command you.
Deuteronomy 12:15  Even so, you may kill animals and eat meat inside any of your gates, as much as you want, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Anyone who is unclean and anyone who is clean may eat it, just as they eat the roebuck and the hart.
Deuteronomy 12:16  Only you must not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy 12:17  You may not eat inside your gates the tithe of your corn, or of your wine, or of your oil, or the firstborn of your cattle or your sheep, or anything you have promised, or your freewill offerings, or the offering you lift up with your hand.
Deuteronomy 12:18  You must eat them in front of the LORD your God, in the place the LORD your God will choose. You, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, and the Levite who lives inside your gates will eat there. And you will be glad in front of the LORD your God in everything you put your hands to.
Deuteronomy 12:19  Be careful that you do not forget the Levite as long as you live on the earth.
Deuteronomy 12:20  The LORD your God will make your land wider, as he promised you. Then you may say, "I will eat meat," because you long to eat meat. You may eat meat, as much as you want.
Deuteronomy 12:21  If the place the LORD your God has chosen to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill an animal from your cattle or your sheep, which the LORD has given you, as I have commanded you. You may eat inside your gates as much as you want.
Deuteronomy 12:22  Eat it just as the roebuck and the hart are eaten. The unclean and the clean may eat it alike.
Deuteronomy 12:23  Only be sure that you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life. You must not eat the life with the meat.
Deuteronomy 12:24  You must not eat it. Pour it out on the ground like water.
Deuteronomy 12:25  You must not eat it, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 12:26  Only the holy things that are yours, and the things you have promised, you must take with you and go to the place the LORD will choose.
Deuteronomy 12:27  There offer your burnt offerings, the meat and the blood, on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your sacrifices must be poured out on the altar of the LORD your God, and you may eat the meat.
Deuteronomy 12:28  Keep and listen to all these words I command you, so that it may go well with you and with your children after you for ever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 12:29  The LORD your God will cut off the nations ahead of you, where you are going to take their land. You will take their place and live in their land.
Deuteronomy 12:30  Be careful that you are not trapped into following them after they have been destroyed ahead of you. Do not ask about their gods, saying, "How did these nations serve their gods? I will do the same."
Deuteronomy 12:31  You must not worship the LORD your God in that way. For they have done for their gods every hateful thing that the LORD hates. They have even burned their sons and their daughters in the fire for their gods.
Deuteronomy 12:32  Whatever I command you, be careful to do it. You must not add anything to it, or take anything away from it.

Deuteronomy 13:1  If a prophet, or someone who dreams dreams, comes up among you, and gives you a sign or a wonder,
Deuteronomy 13:2  and the sign or the wonder he told you about comes true, and he says, "Let us follow other gods, gods you have not known, and let us serve them";
Deuteronomy 13:3  you must not listen to the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to find out whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 13:4  You shall follow the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice. You shall serve him and hold fast to him.
Deuteronomy 13:5  That prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, must be put to death. He has spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and set you free from the house of slavery. He tried to push you off the road the LORD your God commanded you to walk in. So you shall put the evil away from among you.
Deuteronomy 13:6  Someone may try to tempt you in secret. It may be your brother, your own mother's son, or your son, or your daughter, or the wife you love, or your friend who is as dear to you as your own soul. He may say, "Let us go and serve other gods" - gods that neither you nor your fathers have known,
Deuteronomy 13:7  the gods of the peoples around you, whether near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth.
Deuteronomy 13:8  You shall not agree with him or listen to him. Do not let your eye pity him. Do not spare him, and do not hide him.
Deuteronomy 13:9  You must certainly kill him. Your own hand shall be the first to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
Deuteronomy 13:10  You shall stone him with stones until he dies, because he tried to drive you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Deuteronomy 13:11  Then all Israel shall hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such a wicked thing again.
Deuteronomy 13:12  You may hear a report about one of your cities, which the LORD your God has given you to live in. The report may say:
Deuteronomy 13:13  Some men, worthless men, have gone out from among you and have led the people of their city astray, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," gods you have not known.
Deuteronomy 13:14  Then you shall look into it, and search, and ask carefully. If it is true and certain that such a hateful thing has been done among you,
Deuteronomy 13:15  then you must strike down the people of that city with the edge of the sword. Destroy it completely, and everyone in it, and its cattle, with the edge of the sword.
Deuteronomy 13:16  You shall gather everything taken from it into the middle of its open square, and burn the city with fire, and all that was taken from it, every bit of it, for the LORD your God. It shall be a heap of ruins for ever. It shall never be built again.
Deuteronomy 13:17  Nothing of what has been devoted to destruction shall stick to your hand. Then the LORD may turn from his fierce anger, and show you mercy, and have compassion on you, and make you many, as he promised your fathers with an oath,
Deuteronomy 13:18  when you listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and keep all his commandments which I command you today, and do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 14:1  You are the children of the LORD your God. You must not cut yourselves, or shave the hair between your eyes, for the dead.
Deuteronomy 14:2  For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD has chosen you out of all the nations on the earth to be his own special people.
Deuteronomy 14:3  You must not eat anything that is detestable.
Deuteronomy 14:4  These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, and the goat,
Deuteronomy 14:5  the hart, the roebuck, the fallow deer, the wild goat, the pygarg, the wild ox, and the chamois.
Deuteronomy 14:6  You may eat every animal that has a split hoof, divided into two parts, and that chews the cud.
Deuteronomy 14:7  But of those that chew the cud or have a split hoof, you must not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the coney. They chew the cud, but their hoofs are not split. They are unclean for you.
Deuteronomy 14:8  And the pig is unclean for you, because its hoof is split but it does not chew the cud. You must not eat their meat or touch their dead bodies.
Deuteronomy 14:9  Of all that live in the water you may eat these: anything that has fins and scales you may eat.
Deuteronomy 14:10  But anything that does not have fins and scales you may not eat. It is unclean for you.
Deuteronomy 14:11  You may eat any clean bird.
Deuteronomy 14:12  But these are the ones you must not eat: the eagle, the ossifrage, and the ospray,
Deuteronomy 14:13  the glede, the kite, and every kind of vulture,
Deuteronomy 14:14  every kind of raven,
Deuteronomy 14:15  the owl, the night hawk, the cuckow, and every kind of hawk,
Deuteronomy 14:16  the little owl, the great owl, and the swan,
Deuteronomy 14:17  the pelican, the gier eagle, and the cormorant,
Deuteronomy 14:18  the stork, every kind of heron, the lapwing, and the bat.
Deuteronomy 14:19  Every creeping thing that flies is unclean for you. They must not be eaten.
Deuteronomy 14:20  But you may eat all clean birds.
Deuteronomy 14:21  You must not eat anything that dies by itself. You may give it to the stranger who lives in your towns, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You must not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
Deuteronomy 14:22  You must faithfully give a tenth of all that your seed produces, which the field brings forth year by year.
Deuteronomy 14:23  You are to eat it in front of the LORD your God, in the place he chooses to put his name: the tenth of your grain, your wine, and your oil, and the firstborn of your herds and your flocks. Then you will learn to fear the LORD your God always.
Deuteronomy 14:24  But the journey may be too long for you, so that you cannot carry it, because the place the LORD your God chooses to put his name is too far away, when the LORD your God has blessed you.
Deuteronomy 14:25  Then you are to turn it into money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the LORD your God chooses.
Deuteronomy 14:26  And you may spend that money on whatever you long for: oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or anything your soul desires. You are to eat it there in front of the LORD your God, and you will rejoice, you and your household.
Deuteronomy 14:27  And do not forget the Levite who lives in your towns. Do not leave him out, for he has no share or inheritance with you.
Deuteronomy 14:28  At the end of every three years you are to bring out all the tenth of your produce for that year, and store it in your towns.
Deuteronomy 14:29  Then the Levite (because he has no share or inheritance with you), and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow who live in your towns, shall come and eat and be satisfied. Then the LORD your God will bless you in all the work your hands do.

Deuteronomy 15:1  At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
Deuteronomy 15:2  This is how the cancelling is done. Every lender who has lent anything to his neighbour must let it go. He must not demand it back from his neighbour or his brother, because it is called the LORD's release.
Deuteronomy 15:3  You may demand it back from a foreigner. But whatever your brother owes you, your hand must let it go.
Deuteronomy 15:4  Then there will be no poor among you, for the LORD will greatly bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you as your own to possess.
Deuteronomy 15:5  This will be so only if you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and are careful to keep all these commandments that I give you today.
Deuteronomy 15:6  For the LORD your God will bless you, as he promised you. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. You will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.
Deuteronomy 15:7  If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in the land which the LORD your God is giving you, do not harden your heart. Do not close your hand against your poor brother.
Deuteronomy 15:8  Instead, open your hand wide to him. Lend him enough for whatever he needs.
Deuteronomy 15:9  Be careful that no wicked thought comes into your heart, saying, "The seventh year, the year of release, is near." Do not look with a grudging eye on your poor brother and give him nothing. Then he would cry out to the LORD against you, and it would be sin in you.
Deuteronomy 15:10  You must give to him, and your heart must not be sorry when you give to him. Because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work, and in everything you put your hand to.
Deuteronomy 15:11  There will always be poor people in the land. That is why I command you and say, "Open your hand wide to your brother, to the poor and to the needy in your land."
Deuteronomy 15:12  If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must let him go free.
Deuteronomy 15:13  And when you send him away free, do not let him go empty-handed.
Deuteronomy 15:14  Give to him generously from your flock, from your threshing floor and from your winepress. Give him some of what the LORD your God has blessed you with.
Deuteronomy 15:15  Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God set you free. That is why I command you this today.
Deuteronomy 15:16  But he may say to you, "I will not go away from you," because he loves you and your household, and he is well off with you.
Deuteronomy 15:17  Then take an awl and push it through his ear into the door, and he will be your servant for ever. Do the same with your maidservant.
Deuteronomy 15:18  Do not think it hard when you send him away free, for in serving you six years he has been worth twice as much as a hired servant. And the LORD your God will bless you in all you do.
Deuteronomy 15:19  You must set apart to the LORD your God every firstborn male that is born among your cattle and your flock. Do not work the firstborn of your ox, and do not shear the firstborn of your sheep.
Deuteronomy 15:20  You and your household must eat it each year before the LORD your God in the place which the LORD will choose.
Deuteronomy 15:21  But if it has any flaw, if it is lame or blind, or has any bad flaw, you must not sacrifice it to the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 15:22  You may eat it in your own towns. Both the unclean person and the clean may eat it, as they eat the roebuck and the hart.
Deuteronomy 15:23  Only you must not eat its blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 16:1  Keep the month of Abib, and hold the Passover to the LORD your God. For in the month of Abib the LORD your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
Deuteronomy 16:2  So you shall sacrifice the Passover to the LORD your God, from the flock and the herd, in the place the LORD will choose to put his name there.
Deuteronomy 16:3  You shall eat no leavened bread with it. For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread with it, the bread of suffering, for you came out of the land of Egypt in a hurry. In this way you will remember the day you came out of the land of Egypt, all the days of your life.
Deuteronomy 16:4  No leavened bread shall be seen with you anywhere in your land for seven days. And none of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening of the first day shall be left all night until the morning.
Deuteronomy 16:5  You may not sacrifice the Passover inside any of your gates, which the LORD your God gives you.
Deuteronomy 16:6  But at the place which the LORD your God will choose to put his name in, there you shall sacrifice the Passover in the evening, when the sun goes down, at the time when you came out of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 16:7  You shall roast it and eat it in the place which the LORD your God will choose. Then in the morning you shall turn and go to your tents.
Deuteronomy 16:8  For six days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the seventh day there shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.
Deuteronomy 16:9  You shall count seven weeks for yourself. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time you first put the sickle to the corn.
Deuteronomy 16:10  Then you shall keep the feast of weeks to the LORD your God with a gift, a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give to the LORD your God, in keeping with how the LORD your God has blessed you.
Deuteronomy 16:11  You shall be glad before the LORD your God, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite who is inside your gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, who are among you, in the place which the LORD your God has chosen to put his name there.
Deuteronomy 16:12  And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt. You shall keep these laws and do them.
Deuteronomy 16:13  You shall keep the feast of tabernacles for seven days, after you have gathered in your corn and your wine.
Deuteronomy 16:14  You shall be glad at your feast, you, and your son, and your daughter, and your manservant, and your maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, who are inside your gates.
Deuteronomy 16:15  For seven days you shall keep a solemn feast to the LORD your God in the place which the LORD will choose. For the LORD your God will bless you in all your harvest and in all the work of your hands, and so you shall surely be glad.
Deuteronomy 16:16  Three times in a year all your males shall come before the LORD your God in the place which he will choose: at the feast of unleavened bread, at the feast of weeks, and at the feast of tabernacles. And they shall not come before the LORD empty-handed.
Deuteronomy 16:17  Every man shall give as he is able, in keeping with the blessing of the LORD your God which he has given you.
Deuteronomy 16:18  You shall appoint judges and officers for yourself in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, throughout your tribes. And they shall judge the people with just judgment.
Deuteronomy 16:19  You shall not twist judgment. You shall not show favour to anyone, and you shall not take a bribe. For a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise, and twists the words of the righteous.
Deuteronomy 16:20  You shall follow what is completely just, so that you may live and take as yours the land which the LORD your God gives you.
Deuteronomy 16:21  You shall not plant for yourself a grove of any trees near the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make for yourself.
Deuteronomy 16:22  And you shall not set up for yourself any image, which the LORD your God hates.

Deuteronomy 17:1  Do not sacrifice to the LORD your God any bull or sheep that has a blemish or anything wrong with it. That is a thing the LORD your God hates.
Deuteronomy 17:2  Suppose a man or a woman among you, in any of your towns which the LORD your God gives you, does what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God by breaking his covenant.
Deuteronomy 17:3  Suppose that person has gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded.
Deuteronomy 17:4  If you are told about it, and you have heard of it, then ask carefully. If it is true and the thing is certain, that such a hateful thing has been done in Israel,
Deuteronomy 17:5  then you shall bring out to your gates that man or that woman who has done this wicked thing, and you shall stone that man or woman with stones until they die.
Deuteronomy 17:6  A person who deserves death shall be put to death by the word of two witnesses, or three witnesses. He shall not be put to death by the word of only one witness.
Deuteronomy 17:7  The hands of the witnesses shall be the first to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall put the evil away from among you.
Deuteronomy 17:8  A case may come up that is too hard for you to judge, whether it is between one kind of bloodshed and another, between one claim and another, or between one act of violence and another. When such matters are argued in your towns, then get up and go to the place which the LORD your God shall choose.
Deuteronomy 17:9  Go to the priests, the Levites, and to the judge who is serving in those days, and ask them. They will tell you the decision of the judgment.
Deuteronomy 17:10  You shall act according to the decision they tell you from that place which the LORD shall choose. Be careful to do everything they teach you.
Deuteronomy 17:11  You shall act according to the ruling of the law which they teach you, and according to the judgment which they tell you. Do not turn aside from the decision they tell you, to the right hand or to the left.
Deuteronomy 17:12  The man who acts proudly, and will not listen to the priest who stands to serve there before the LORD your God, or to the judge, that man shall die. So you shall put away the evil from Israel.
Deuteronomy 17:13  All the people shall hear, and be afraid, and act proudly no more.
Deuteronomy 17:14  When you have come into the land which the LORD your God gives you, and have taken it and live in it, you may say, "I will set a king over me, like all the nations around me."
Deuteronomy 17:15  You shall certainly set over you the king whom the LORD your God shall choose. Set as king over you one from among your brothers. You may not set over you a foreigner, who is not your brother.
Deuteronomy 17:16  But he shall not get many horses for himself, or send the people back to Egypt so that he may get more horses, because the LORD has said to you, "From now on you shall never go back that way again."
Deuteronomy 17:17  He shall not take many wives for himself, so that his heart does not turn away. He shall not gather for himself great amounts of silver and gold.
Deuteronomy 17:18  When he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, taken from the one that is before the priests, the Levites.
Deuteronomy 17:19  It shall stay with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life. Then he will learn to fear the LORD his God, and to keep all the words of this law and these rules, and do them.
Deuteronomy 17:20  Then his heart will not be lifted up above his brothers, and he will not turn aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left. So he may live long in his kingdom, he and his children, in the midst of Israel.

Deuteronomy 18:1  The priests the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, will have no share or inheritance with Israel. They will eat the offerings made to the LORD by fire, and what belongs to him.
Deuteronomy 18:2  So they will have no inheritance among their brothers. The LORD is their inheritance, as he has told them.
Deuteronomy 18:3  This is what the priest is owed from the people, from those who bring a sacrifice, whether it is an ox or a sheep. They are to give the priest the shoulder, the two cheeks, and the stomach.
Deuteronomy 18:4  You are also to give him the first of your grain, your new wine, and your oil, and the first wool cut from your sheep.
Deuteronomy 18:5  For the LORD your God has chosen him out of all your tribes to stand and serve in the name of the LORD, him and his sons for ever.
Deuteronomy 18:6  If a Levite comes from any of your towns anywhere in Israel, where he has been living, and he comes with all his heart set on it to the place the LORD will choose,
Deuteronomy 18:7  then he may serve in the name of the LORD his God, just as all his brothers the Levites do who stand there before the LORD.
Deuteronomy 18:8  They are to have equal shares to eat, besides what comes from the sale of what his family left him.
Deuteronomy 18:9  When you come into the land the LORD your God is giving you, you must not learn to copy the detestable things those nations do.
Deuteronomy 18:10  No one among you is to make his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or use divination, or read omens, or cast spells, or practise witchcraft,
Deuteronomy 18:11  or charm with words, or ask advice from familiar spirits, or be a wizard, or call up the dead.
Deuteronomy 18:12  All who do these things are detestable to the LORD. It is because of these detestable things that the LORD your God is driving them out ahead of you.
Deuteronomy 18:13  You are to be blameless before the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 18:14  For these nations, whose land you will take, listened to those who read omens and to those who use divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do so.
Deuteronomy 18:15  The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet from among you, from your brothers, like me. You are to listen to him.
Deuteronomy 18:16  This is what you yourself asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day you all gathered, when you said, "Do not let me hear the voice of the LORD my God again, and do not let me see this great fire any more, or I will die."
Deuteronomy 18:17  And the LORD said to me, "What they have said is good."
Deuteronomy 18:18  I will raise up for them a Prophet from among their brothers, like you. I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.
Deuteronomy 18:19  And whoever will not listen to my words, which he will speak in my name, I myself will call him to account.
Deuteronomy 18:20  "But the prophet who dares to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die."
Deuteronomy 18:21  And if you say in your heart, "How can we know when a word has not been spoken by the LORD?"
Deuteronomy 18:22  When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, and the thing does not follow or come true, then that word was not spoken by the LORD. The prophet has spoken it out of his own daring. You need not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 19:1  The LORD your God will cut off the nations whose land he is giving you. You will take their place and live in their cities and in their houses.
Deuteronomy 19:2  Then you must set apart three cities for yourself in the middle of your land, which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
Deuteronomy 19:3  You must build a road, and divide into three parts the land that the LORD your God gives you to inherit. Then anyone who kills a person can run there.
Deuteronomy 19:4  This is the rule for the one who kills a person and runs there to stay alive. It is for anyone who kills his neighbour without meaning to, when he did not hate him before.
Deuteronomy 19:5  For example, a man goes into the forest with his neighbour to cut wood. He swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the axe head slips off the handle and hits his neighbour, so that he dies. That man may run to one of those cities and live.
Deuteronomy 19:6  If the road were too long, the avenger of blood might chase the man while his heart is hot with anger. He might catch him and kill him, though the man did not deserve to die, because he did not hate his neighbour before.
Deuteronomy 19:7  That is why I command you: You must set apart three cities for yourself.
Deuteronomy 19:8  The LORD your God may make your land larger, as he promised your fathers with an oath, and give you all the land he promised to give them.
Deuteronomy 19:9  That will happen if you carefully keep all these commands that I give you today, loving the LORD your God and always walking in his ways. Then you must add three more cities for yourself, besides these three,
Deuteronomy 19:10  so that innocent blood may not be shed in your land, which the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and so that you will not be guilty of blood.
Deuteronomy 19:11  But suppose a man hates his neighbour, waits in hiding for him, attacks him and strikes him so that he dies, and then runs to one of these cities.
Deuteronomy 19:12  Then the elders of his own city must send and bring him back from there. They must hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he dies.
Deuteronomy 19:13  Your eye must not pity him. You must clear away from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.
Deuteronomy 19:14  You must not move your neighbour's boundary stone, which people long ago set in the land you inherit. It is in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
Deuteronomy 19:15  One witness alone must not stand up against a man for any wrong or any sin, whatever sin he has done. A matter must be settled by the word of two witnesses, or by the word of three witnesses.
Deuteronomy 19:16  Suppose a false witness stands up against a man to accuse him of something wrong.
Deuteronomy 19:17  Then the two men who are arguing must stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are serving in those days.
Deuteronomy 19:18  The judges must search out the matter carefully. If the witness is a false witness and has given false evidence against his brother,
Deuteronomy 19:19  then you must do to him what he planned to do to his brother. So you will clear the evil away from among you.
Deuteronomy 19:20  The rest of the people will hear of it and be afraid, and they will never again do such an evil thing among you.
Deuteronomy 19:21  Your eye must not pity him. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Deuteronomy 20:1  When you go out to battle against your enemies, you may see horses and chariots and an army larger than yours. Do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God is with you, the one who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 20:2  When you come near to the battle, the priest shall come forward and speak to the people.
Deuteronomy 20:3  He shall say to them, "Hear, O Israel. Today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not lose heart. Do not be afraid. Do not tremble, and do not be terrified because of them."
Deuteronomy 20:4  "For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will fight for you against your enemies, and save you."
Deuteronomy 20:5  Then the officers shall speak to the people and say, "Is there any man here who has built a new house and has not dedicated it? Let him go back to his house. He might die in the battle, and another man dedicate it."
Deuteronomy 20:6  Is there any man who has planted a vineyard and has not yet eaten its fruit? Let him also go back to his house. He might die in the battle, and another man eat its fruit.
Deuteronomy 20:7  "Is there any man who has promised to marry a wife and has not taken her? Let him go back to his house. He might die in the battle, and another man take her."
Deuteronomy 20:8  The officers shall speak to the people again, and they shall say, "Is there any man who is afraid and faint-hearted? Let him go back to his house. If he stays, his brothers' hearts may lose courage as his own has."
Deuteronomy 20:9  When the officers have finished speaking to the people, they shall appoint captains of the armies to lead them.
Deuteronomy 20:10  When you come near a city to fight against it, first offer it peace.
Deuteronomy 20:11  If it answers you with peace and opens its gates to you, then all the people found in it shall pay you tribute and serve you.
Deuteronomy 20:12  But if it will not make peace with you, and makes war against you, then you shall lay siege to it.
Deuteronomy 20:13  When the LORD your God has given it into your hands, you shall strike down every male in it with the edge of the sword.
Deuteronomy 20:14  But the women, the little ones, the cattle, and everything else in the city, all its goods, you shall take for yourself. You shall use what you take from your enemies, which the LORD your God has given you.
Deuteronomy 20:15  This is what you shall do to all the cities that are very far away from you, which are not cities of these nations.
Deuteronomy 20:16  But in the cities of these peoples, which the LORD your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall leave nothing alive that breathes.
Deuteronomy 20:17  You shall completely destroy them: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as the LORD your God has commanded you.
Deuteronomy 20:18  Then they will not teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so make you sin against the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 20:19  When you lay siege to a city for a long time, making war against it to take it, do not destroy its trees by swinging an axe at them. You may eat their fruit, so do not cut them down (for the tree of the field is man's life) to use them in the siege.
Deuteronomy 20:20  Only the trees that you know are not trees for food may you destroy and cut down. You may build siege works against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.

Deuteronomy 21:1  Someone may be found killed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. He is lying in the field, and no one knows who killed him.
Deuteronomy 21:2  Then your elders and your judges shall go out, and they shall measure the distance to the cities that are around the dead man.
Deuteronomy 21:3  The elders of the city that is nearest to the dead man shall take a young cow that has never been worked with and has never pulled in a yoke.
Deuteronomy 21:4  The elders of that city shall bring the young cow down to a rough valley that has never been ploughed or sown, and there in the valley they shall break the young cow's neck.
Deuteronomy 21:5  Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near. The LORD your God has chosen them to serve him and to bless in the name of the LORD, and by their word every quarrel and every case of violence shall be settled.
Deuteronomy 21:6  All the elders of that city, the one nearest to the dead man, shall wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken in the valley.
Deuteronomy 21:7  They shall say, "Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen it."
Deuteronomy 21:8  "Be merciful, O LORD, to your people Israel, whom you have redeemed. Do not hold your people Israel guilty of innocent blood." And the blood shall be forgiven them.
Deuteronomy 21:9  So you shall put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when you do what is right in the sight of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 21:10  When you go out to war against your enemies, and the LORD your God gives them into your hands, and you take them captive,
Deuteronomy 21:11  and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire her and want her as your wife,
Deuteronomy 21:12  then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and cut her nails.
Deuteronomy 21:13  She shall take off the clothes she was captured in. She shall stay in your house and weep for her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
Deuteronomy 21:14  But if you take no delight in her, then you shall let her go wherever she wishes. You shall not sell her for money at all. You shall not treat her as goods to be traded, because you have humbled her.
Deuteronomy 21:15  A man may have two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they may both bear him children, the loved one and the hated one. If the firstborn son belongs to the wife who is hated,
Deuteronomy 21:16  then when he gives his sons what he owns, he may not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn ahead of the son of the hated wife, who is really the firstborn.
Deuteronomy 21:17  He shall recognise the son of the hated wife as the firstborn, and give him a double share of all that he has. For that son is the first sign of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.
Deuteronomy 21:18  A man may have a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who will not listen to them even when they punish him.
Deuteronomy 21:19  Then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his town.
Deuteronomy 21:20  They shall say to the elders of his city, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is greedy for food, and a drunkard."
Deuteronomy 21:21  Then all the men of his city shall stone him with stones until he dies. So you shall put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear it and be afraid.
Deuteronomy 21:22  If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
Deuteronomy 21:23  his body shall not stay on the tree all night. You must bury him that same day, for anyone who is hanged is cursed by God. Then your land will not be defiled, the land that the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.

Deuteronomy 22:1  If you see your brother's ox or his sheep wandering away, do not pretend you have not seen it. You must bring it back to your brother.
Deuteronomy 22:2  If your brother does not live near you, or if you do not know who he is, then bring the animal to your own house. Keep it with you until your brother comes looking for it, and then give it back to him.
Deuteronomy 22:3  Do the same with his donkey. Do the same with his clothing. Do the same with anything your brother has lost and you have found. You must not pretend you have not seen it.
Deuteronomy 22:4  If you see your brother's donkey or his ox fallen down on the road, do not pretend you have not seen it. You must help him lift the animal up again.
Deuteronomy 22:5  A woman must not wear what belongs to a man, and a man must not put on a woman's clothing. Everyone who does such things is detestable to the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 22:6  If you happen to come across a bird's nest beside the road, in any tree or on the ground, with young birds or eggs in it, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, you must not take the mother along with the young.
Deuteronomy 22:7  You must let the mother go, and you may take the young for yourself. Then it will go well with you, and you will live a long time.
Deuteronomy 22:8  When you build a new house, you must make a low wall around your roof, so that you do not bring the guilt of blood on your house if anyone falls from it.
Deuteronomy 22:9  Do not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed. If you do, both the crop you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard will be defiled.
Deuteronomy 22:10  Do not plough with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
Deuteronomy 22:11  Do not wear clothing made of two kinds of material, wool and linen woven together.
Deuteronomy 22:12  Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak that you wrap around yourself.
Deuteronomy 22:13  If a man takes a wife, and goes in to her, and then hates her,
Deuteronomy 22:14  and he makes up charges against her and gives her a bad name, saying, "I married this woman, but when I came to her, I did not find that she was a virgin,"
Deuteronomy 22:15  then the girl's father and mother shall take the proof of the girl's virginity and bring it out to the elders of the city at the gate.
Deuteronomy 22:16  The girl's father shall say to the elders, "I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her."
Deuteronomy 22:17  "Look, he has made up charges against her, saying, 'I did not find that your daughter was a virgin.' But here is the proof of my daughter's virginity." Then they shall spread the cloth out before the elders of the city.
Deuteronomy 22:18  The elders of that city shall take the man and punish him.
Deuteronomy 22:19  They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give the money to the girl's father, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall stay his wife, and he may never divorce her as long as he lives.
Deuteronomy 22:20  But if the charge is true, and no proof of the girl's virginity is found,
Deuteronomy 22:21  then they shall bring the girl out to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death. She has done a shameful thing in Israel, acting like a prostitute in her father's house. So you shall clear away the evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 22:22  If a man is found lying with a woman who is married to a husband, then both of them must die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman as well. So you shall clear away the evil from Israel.
Deuteronomy 22:23  If a girl who is a virgin is engaged to a man, and another man finds her in the city and lies with her,
Deuteronomy 22:24  then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and stone them to death: the girl, because she did not cry out though she was in the city, and the man, because he has violated his neighbour's wife. So you shall clear away the evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 22:25  But if a man finds an engaged girl out in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die.
Deuteronomy 22:26  To the girl you shall do nothing. The girl has done no sin worthy of death. This case is like the case of a man who attacks his neighbour and kills him.
Deuteronomy 22:27  For he found her in the field, and the engaged girl cried out, and there was no one to save her.
Deuteronomy 22:28  If a man finds a girl who is a virgin and is not engaged, and he takes hold of her and lies with her, and they are found out,
Deuteronomy 22:29  then the man who lay with her shall give the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife. Because he has violated her, he may never divorce her as long as he lives.
Deuteronomy 22:30  A man must not take his father's wife, nor uncover his father's skirt.

Deuteronomy 23:1  A man whose testicles are crushed, or whose private member is cut off, shall not enter the assembly of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 23:2  A child born outside of marriage shall not enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to his tenth generation none of his family shall enter the assembly of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 23:3  An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the LORD. Even to their tenth generation they shall never enter the assembly of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 23:4  This is because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt. It is also because they hired Balaam the son of Beor, from Pethor in Mesopotamia, to curse you.
Deuteronomy 23:5  But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam. Instead the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you.
Deuteronomy 23:6  You shall never seek their peace or their good, all your days.
Deuteronomy 23:7  Do not hate an Edomite, for he is your brother. Do not hate an Egyptian, because you were a stranger in his land.
Deuteronomy 23:8  The children born to them may enter the assembly of the LORD in their third generation.
Deuteronomy 23:9  When the army marches out against your enemies, keep yourself away from every wicked thing.
Deuteronomy 23:10  If there is any man among you who is not clean because something happened to him in the night, he must go outside the camp. He shall not come inside the camp.
Deuteronomy 23:11  But when evening comes, he shall wash himself with water. When the sun has set, he may come into the camp again.
Deuteronomy 23:12  You shall also have a place outside the camp where you can go out.
Deuteronomy 23:13  You shall have a digging tool with your gear. When you relieve yourself outside, you shall dig with it, then turn back and cover what comes from you.
Deuteronomy 23:14  For the LORD your God walks in the middle of your camp, to rescue you and to hand your enemies over to you. So your camp must be holy, so that he sees nothing unclean among you and turns away from you.
Deuteronomy 23:15  Do not hand over to his master a servant who has escaped from his master and come to you.
Deuteronomy 23:16  He shall live with you, among you, in the place he chooses in one of your towns, wherever he likes best. You shall not oppress him.
Deuteronomy 23:17  There shall be no prostitute among the daughters of Israel, and no sodomite among the sons of Israel.
Deuteronomy 23:18  You shall not bring the pay of a prostitute, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow. Both of these are detestable to the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 23:19  You shall not lend to your brother at interest: no interest on money, no interest on food, no interest on anything that is lent at interest.
Deuteronomy 23:20  You may lend to a foreigner at interest, but you shall not lend to your brother at interest. Then the LORD your God will bless you in everything you put your hand to, in the land you are going in to possess.
Deuteronomy 23:21  When you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it. For the LORD your God will surely ask it of you, and it would be sin in you.
Deuteronomy 23:22  But if you hold back from making a vow, it will be no sin in you.
Deuteronomy 23:23  What has gone out of your lips you shall keep and do. It was a freewill offering, which you vowed to the LORD your God and promised with your mouth.
Deuteronomy 23:24  When you come into your neighbour's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you want, until you are full. But you shall not put any in your basket.
Deuteronomy 23:25  When you come into your neighbour's standing corn, you may pluck the ears with your hand. But you shall not put a sickle to your neighbour's standing corn.

Deuteronomy 24:1  When a man takes a wife and marries her, she may no longer please him, because he has found something unclean in her. Then let him write her a certificate of divorce, put it in her hand, and send her out of his house.
Deuteronomy 24:2  When she has left his house, she may go and become another man's wife.
Deuteronomy 24:3  The second husband may also hate her, and write her a certificate of divorce, and put it in her hand, and send her out of his house. Or the second husband, who took her as his wife, may die.
Deuteronomy 24:4  Then her first husband, who sent her away, may not take her back as his wife, since she has been defiled. That is a hateful thing before the LORD. You must not bring sin on the land that the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.
Deuteronomy 24:5  When a man has taken a new wife, he shall not go out to war, and no duty shall be laid on him. He shall be free at home for one year, and shall bring joy to the wife he has taken.
Deuteronomy 24:6  No one shall take a millstone, or even the upper millstone, as a pledge, for that is taking a man's life as a pledge.
Deuteronomy 24:7  If a man is found stealing any of his brothers, one of the children of Israel, and treats him as goods to sell, or sells him, then that thief shall die. So you shall put away evil from among you.
Deuteronomy 24:8  Be careful when there is a spot of leprosy. Watch carefully, and do everything the priests, the Levites, teach you. Do carefully what I commanded them.
Deuteronomy 24:9  Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam on the way, after you came out of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 24:10  When you lend your brother anything, you shall not go into his house to take his pledge.
Deuteronomy 24:11  You shall stand outside, and the man you are lending to shall bring the pledge out to you.
Deuteronomy 24:12  If the man is poor, you shall not sleep with his pledge.
Deuteronomy 24:13  You must give the pledge back to him when the sun goes down, so that he may sleep in his own clothes and bless you. This will be righteousness for you before the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 24:14  You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the strangers who are in your land, inside your gates.
Deuteronomy 24:15  Give him his pay on the same day, before the sun goes down. He is poor, and he is counting on it. If you do not, he may cry out against you to the LORD, and it will be sin for you.
Deuteronomy 24:16  Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, and children shall not be put to death for their fathers. Each person shall be put to death for his own sin.
Deuteronomy 24:17  You shall not twist justice against the stranger or the fatherless, and you shall not take a widow's clothing as a pledge.
Deuteronomy 24:18  Remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God set you free from there. That is why I command you to do this.
Deuteronomy 24:19  When you cut down your harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 24:20  When you beat your olive tree, do not go over the branches again. What is left shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.
Deuteronomy 24:21  When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not go over it again. What is left shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow.
Deuteronomy 24:22  Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.

Deuteronomy 25:1  If two men have a dispute and come to court, the judges will judge them. They must declare the one in the right to be righteous, and condemn the one who is guilty.
Deuteronomy 25:2  If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge will make him lie down. He will be beaten in front of the judge with the number of blows his offence deserves.
Deuteronomy 25:3  He may be given forty blows, but no more. If he is given more blows than these, your brother would seem worthless in your eyes.
Deuteronomy 25:4  You must not muzzle the ox while it treads out the grain.
Deuteronomy 25:5  If brothers live together and one of them dies with no child, the dead man's wife must not marry outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother must go in to her and take her as his wife. He must do for her the duty of a husband's brother.
Deuteronomy 25:6  The firstborn son she bears will carry on the name of the brother who died, so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.
Deuteronomy 25:7  If the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate, to the elders, and say, "My husband's brother refuses to raise up a name for his brother in Israel. He will not do for me the duty of a husband's brother."
Deuteronomy 25:8  Then the elders of his city will call him and speak to him. If he stands by his refusal and says, "I do not want to take her,"
Deuteronomy 25:9  then his brother's wife will come to him in front of the elders. She will pull his shoe off his foot and spit in his face, and she will say, "This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's house."
Deuteronomy 25:10  And in Israel his family will be called, "The house of him whose shoe was pulled off."
Deuteronomy 25:11  When two men are fighting with each other, and the wife of one of them comes near to rescue her husband from the man who is hitting him, and she reaches out her hand and takes hold of his private parts,
Deuteronomy 25:12  then you must cut off her hand. Your eye must not pity her.
Deuteronomy 25:13  You must not have in your bag two kinds of weights, a heavy one and a light one.
Deuteronomy 25:14  You must not have in your house two kinds of measures, a large one and a small one.
Deuteronomy 25:15  You must have a weight that is true and honest, and a measure that is true and honest. Then you will live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 25:16  For everyone who does such things, everyone who acts dishonestly, is detestable to the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 25:17  Remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you came out of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 25:18  He met you on the way and attacked those at the back, all the weak ones who lagged behind you, when you were tired and worn out. And he did not fear God.
Deuteronomy 25:19  So when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance to possess, you must blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget.

Deuteronomy 26:1  When you have come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance, and you have taken it and settled in it,
Deuteronomy 26:2  you must take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground that you gather from your land, the land the LORD your God is giving you. Put it in a basket, and go to the place that the LORD your God will choose as a home for his name.
Deuteronomy 26:3  Go to the priest who is serving in those days, and say to him, "I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come into the country that the LORD promised our fathers he would give us."
Deuteronomy 26:4  Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 26:5  And you shall speak these words before the LORD your God: "My father was a Syrian who was ready to die. He went down into Egypt and lived there as a stranger with only a few people. And there he became a nation, great, strong and many."
Deuteronomy 26:6  "The Egyptians treated us badly. They caused us suffering and forced us into hard slavery."
Deuteronomy 26:7  "When we cried out to the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice. He saw our suffering, our hard work and the way we were crushed."
Deuteronomy 26:8  "So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror, with signs and with wonders."
Deuteronomy 26:9  "He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey."
Deuteronomy 26:10  "And now, look, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, LORD, have given me." Then you shall set the basket down before the LORD your God, and bow down in worship before the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 26:11  And you shall be glad because of every good thing the LORD your God has given to you and to your household. You, and the Levite, and the stranger who lives among you, shall all be glad.
Deuteronomy 26:12  In the third year, the year of tithing, when you have finished taking out a tenth of all that your land produces, give it to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow, so that they may eat inside your gates and have enough.
Deuteronomy 26:13  Then you shall say before the LORD your God, "I have taken the holy things out of my house, and I have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the orphan and the widow, just as you commanded me. I have not broken your commandments, and I have not forgotten them."
Deuteronomy 26:14  "I have not eaten any of it while I was mourning. I have not taken any of it away for any unclean use. I have not given any of it for the dead. I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God, and I have done everything you commanded me."
Deuteronomy 26:15  "Look down from your holy home, from heaven, and bless your people Israel, and the land you have given us, just as you promised our fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey."
Deuteronomy 26:16  Today the LORD your God commands you to keep these laws and rules. So you must be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 26:17  Today you have declared that the LORD is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his laws, his commandments and his rules, and listen to his voice.
Deuteronomy 26:18  And today the LORD has declared that you are his own special people, as he promised you, and that you should keep all his commandments.
Deuteronomy 26:19  He will set you high above all the nations he has made, in praise, in name and in honour, and you will be a holy people to the LORD your God, just as he has said.

Deuteronomy 27:1  Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people. He said, "Keep all the commandments which I command you today."
Deuteronomy 27:2  "On the day when you cross over the Jordan into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, set up great stones for yourself, and cover them with plaster."
Deuteronomy 27:3  "When you have crossed over, write on them all the words of this law. Then you may go into the land which the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD God of your fathers promised you."
Deuteronomy 27:4  "So when you have gone over the Jordan, set up these stones on mount Ebal, as I command you today, and cover them with plaster."
Deuteronomy 27:5  "There you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall not lift up any iron tool on them."
Deuteronomy 27:6  "Build the altar of the LORD your God of whole stones, and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God."
Deuteronomy 27:7  "You shall offer peace offerings, and eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God."
Deuteronomy 27:8  "Write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly."
Deuteronomy 27:9  Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel. They said, "Pay attention, and listen, Israel. Today you have become the people of the LORD your God."
Deuteronomy 27:10  "So you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God, and do his commandments and his laws, which I command you today."
Deuteronomy 27:11  That same day Moses gave the people this charge:
Deuteronomy 27:12  "When you have crossed over the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin."
Deuteronomy 27:13  "And these shall stand on mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali."
Deuteronomy 27:14  "And the Levites shall speak, and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice:"
Deuteronomy 27:15  "Cursed is the man who makes any carved or cast image, a thing the LORD hates, the work of a craftsman's hands, and sets it up in a secret place." And all the people shall answer and say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:16  "Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:17  "Cursed is the one who moves his neighbour's boundary stone." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:18  "Cursed is the one who makes the blind wander out of the way." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:19  "Cursed is the one who twists justice against the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:20  "Cursed is the one who lies with his father's wife, because he uncovers his father's skirt." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:21  "Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:22  "Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:23  "Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:24  "Cursed is the one who strikes down his neighbour in secret." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:25  "Cursed is the one who takes a payment to kill an innocent person." And all the people shall say, "Amen."
Deuteronomy 27:26  "Cursed is the one who does not uphold all the words of this law and do them." And all the people shall say, "Amen."

Deuteronomy 28:1  If you listen carefully to the voice of the LORD your God, and are careful to do all his commandments which I command you today, then the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth.
Deuteronomy 28:2  All these blessings will come on you and overtake you, if you listen to the voice of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 28:3  You will be blessed in the city, and blessed in the field.
Deuteronomy 28:4  The fruit of your body will be blessed, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the young of your herds, and the flocks of your sheep.
Deuteronomy 28:5  Your basket and your store of food will be blessed.
Deuteronomy 28:6  You will be blessed when you come in, and blessed when you go out.
Deuteronomy 28:7  The LORD will make your enemies who rise up against you be struck down in front of you. They will come out against you one way, and run away from you seven ways.
Deuteronomy 28:8  The LORD will command the blessing to rest on your storehouses, and on everything you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 28:9  The LORD will make you a holy people for himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways.
Deuteronomy 28:10  All the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you.
Deuteronomy 28:11  The LORD will give you plenty of good things: the fruit of your body, the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.
Deuteronomy 28:12  The LORD will open to you his good treasure, the sky, to give rain to your land at the right time, and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow.
Deuteronomy 28:13  The LORD will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be only above, and never underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to do them.
Deuteronomy 28:14  Do not turn aside from any of the words I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods and serve them.
Deuteronomy 28:15  But if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and are not careful to do all his commandments and his laws which I command you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.
Deuteronomy 28:16  You will be cursed in the city, and cursed in the field.
Deuteronomy 28:17  Your basket and your store of food will be cursed.
Deuteronomy 28:18  The fruit of your body will be cursed, and the fruit of your land, the young of your herds, and the flocks of your sheep.
Deuteronomy 28:19  You will be cursed when you come in, and cursed when you go out.
Deuteronomy 28:20  The LORD will send on you cursing, trouble and rebuke in everything you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed and quickly perish. This is because of the wickedness of what you have done, in leaving me.
Deuteronomy 28:21  The LORD will make the plague stick to you, until he has finished you off from the land you are going in to take.
Deuteronomy 28:22  The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever, with swelling, with burning heat, with the sword, with blight and with mildew. They will chase you until you perish.
Deuteronomy 28:23  The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth under you will be iron.
Deuteronomy 28:24  The LORD will turn the rain of your land into powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
Deuteronomy 28:25  The LORD will make you be struck down in front of your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and run away seven ways before them. You will be tossed about among all the kingdoms of the earth.
Deuteronomy 28:26  Your dead body will be food for all the birds of the air and the animals of the earth, and no one will frighten them away.
Deuteronomy 28:27  The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumours, with scabs and with itching, and you cannot be healed.
Deuteronomy 28:28  The LORD will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with confusion of heart.
Deuteronomy 28:29  You will feel your way at noon, as a blind man feels his way in the dark. You will not do well in your ways. You will only be crushed and robbed every day, and no one will save you.
Deuteronomy 28:30  You will be engaged to a wife, and another man will lie with her. You will build a house, and not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not gather its grapes.
Deuteronomy 28:31  Your ox will be killed before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be dragged away from you and never given back. Your sheep will be handed to your enemies, and you will have no one to rescue them.
Deuteronomy 28:32  Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look for them and grow weak with longing for them all day long, and your hand will have no power.
Deuteronomy 28:33  The fruit of your land and all your work a nation you do not know will eat up. You will only be crushed and beaten down always,
Deuteronomy 28:34  so that you will go mad at what your eyes see.
Deuteronomy 28:35  The LORD will strike you in the knees and in the legs with painful boils that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
Deuteronomy 28:36  The LORD will bring you, and the king you set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods made of wood and stone.
Deuteronomy 28:37  You will become a horror, a proverb and a joke among all the nations where the LORD leads you.
Deuteronomy 28:38  You will carry much seed out to the field, and gather in only a little, for the locust will eat it.
Deuteronomy 28:39  You will plant vineyards and look after them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, for worms will eat them.
Deuteronomy 28:40  You will have olive trees through all your land, but you will not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives will drop off.
Deuteronomy 28:41  You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours, for they will go away as captives.
Deuteronomy 28:42  The locust will take all your trees and the fruit of your land.
Deuteronomy 28:43  The foreigner who lives among you will rise higher and higher above you, and you will come down lower and lower.
Deuteronomy 28:44  He will lend to you, and you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
Deuteronomy 28:45  All these curses will come upon you. They will chase you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his laws which he commanded you.
Deuteronomy 28:46  They will be on you as a sign and a wonder, and on your children for ever.
Deuteronomy 28:47  Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart, when you had plenty of everything,
Deuteronomy 28:48  you will serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and in need of everything. He will put a yoke of iron on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
Deuteronomy 28:49  The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand:
Deuteronomy 28:50  a nation with a fierce face, who will show no respect to the old, and no kindness to the young.
Deuteronomy 28:51  He will eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. He will leave you no corn, no wine, no oil, no young of your herds, no flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you.
Deuteronomy 28:52  He will besiege you in all your towns, until your high, strong walls come down, the walls you trusted in, all through your land. He will besiege you in all your towns, all through your land which the LORD your God has given you.
Deuteronomy 28:53  You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the hard need with which your enemies will press you.
Deuteronomy 28:54  The man among you who is gentle and very refined will look with a hard eye on his brother, on the wife he loves, and on the rest of his children who are still alive.
Deuteronomy 28:55  He will not give any of them any of the flesh of his children which he is eating, because he has nothing left, in the siege and in the hard need with which your enemies will press you in all your towns.
Deuteronomy 28:56  The gentle and refined woman among you, who would not dare to put the sole of her foot on the ground, she was so delicate and gentle, will look with a hard eye on the husband she loves, and on her son and her daughter,
Deuteronomy 28:57  and on the baby that comes out from between her feet, and on the children she bears. For she will eat them in secret, because she has nothing else, in the siege and the hard need with which your enemy will press you in your towns.
Deuteronomy 28:58  If you will not be careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, so that you fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD YOUR GOD,
Deuteronomy 28:59  then the LORD will make your plagues terrible, and the plagues of your children too: great plagues that last a long time, and cruel sicknesses that last a long time.
Deuteronomy 28:60  He will also bring on you all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of, and they will stick to you.
Deuteronomy 28:61  And every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you, until you are destroyed.
Deuteronomy 28:62  You will be left few in number, though you were as many as the stars of heaven, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 28:63  And just as the LORD took delight in doing you good and making you many, so the LORD will take delight in destroying you and bringing you to nothing. You will be pulled up out of the land you are going in to take.
Deuteronomy 28:64  The LORD will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.
Deuteronomy 28:65  Among those nations you will find no ease, and the sole of your foot will have no rest. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a sorrowful mind.
Deuteronomy 28:66  Your life will hang in doubt in front of you. You will be afraid night and day, and have no sureness of your life.
Deuteronomy 28:67  In the morning you will say, "If only it were evening," and in the evening you will say, "If only it were morning," because of the fear in your heart and what your eyes will see.
Deuteronomy 28:68  The LORD will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way I told you that you would never see again. There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, and no one will buy you.

Deuteronomy 29:1  These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab. This was besides the covenant he made with them at Horeb.
Deuteronomy 29:2  Moses called all Israel together and said to them, "You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, to all his servants, and to all his land:"
Deuteronomy 29:3  the great trials your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders.
Deuteronomy 29:4  Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear.
Deuteronomy 29:5  I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your shoes have not worn out on your feet.
Deuteronomy 29:6  You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink. This was so that you would know that I am the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 29:7  When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out to fight against us, and we struck them down.
Deuteronomy 29:8  We took their land and gave it to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh to be their inheritance.
Deuteronomy 29:9  So keep the words of this covenant and do them, so that you may do well in all that you do.
Deuteronomy 29:10  Today you are all standing before the LORD your God: the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
Deuteronomy 29:11  your little ones, your wives, and the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water.
Deuteronomy 29:12  You are here so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God is making with you today.
Deuteronomy 29:13  Today he is making you his own people, and he will be your God, as he said to you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Deuteronomy 29:14  I am not making this covenant and this oath with you alone.
Deuteronomy 29:15  I am making it with everyone standing here with us today before the LORD our God, and also with everyone who is not here with us today.
Deuteronomy 29:16  (For you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the nations you passed by.
Deuteronomy 29:17  You saw their detestable things and their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them.)
Deuteronomy 29:18  Be careful that there is no man or woman or family or tribe among you whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Be careful that there is no root among you that bears bitter poison and wormwood.
Deuteronomy 29:19  When such a person hears the words of this curse, he may bless himself in his heart and say, 'I shall have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.' So he adds drunkenness to thirst.
Deuteronomy 29:20  The LORD will not spare him. The anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curses written in this book will fall on him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.
Deuteronomy 29:21  The LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.
Deuteronomy 29:22  Then the generation to come, your children who rise up after you, and the stranger who comes from a far country, will see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses the LORD has laid on it, and they will say:
Deuteronomy 29:23  "The whole land is burning sulphur and salt, a wasteland. Nothing is sown there, nothing grows there, and no grass comes up in it. It is like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and in his fury."
Deuteronomy 29:24  All the nations will say, "Why has the LORD done this to this land? What does this great burning anger mean?"
Deuteronomy 29:25  Then people will say, "It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."
Deuteronomy 29:26  They went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods they did not know and gods he had not given to them.
Deuteronomy 29:27  So the anger of the LORD burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses written in this book.
Deuteronomy 29:28  "The LORD tore them out of their land in anger, in fury and in great rage, and threw them into another land, as it is today."
Deuteronomy 29:29  The secret things belong to the LORD our God. But the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, so that we may do all the words of this law.

Deuteronomy 30:1  When all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, you will call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you.
Deuteronomy 30:2  You will return to the LORD your God and obey his voice, just as I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 30:3  Then the LORD your God will turn back your captivity and have compassion on you. He will return and gather you from all the nations where the LORD your God scattered you.
Deuteronomy 30:4  If any of your people have been driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.
Deuteronomy 30:5  The LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers owned, and you will take it for your own. He will do you good, and make you more in number than your fathers.
Deuteronomy 30:6  The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and so live.
Deuteronomy 30:7  The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you and persecuted you.
Deuteronomy 30:8  You will turn back and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command you today.
Deuteronomy 30:9  The LORD your God will give you plenty in every work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the young of your cattle, and in the fruit of your land, for good. For the LORD will again delight in you and do you good, as he delighted in your fathers.
Deuteronomy 30:10  This is if you listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and keep his commandments and his laws which are written in this book of the law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 30:11  This commandment which I command you today is not hidden from you, and it is not far away.
Deuteronomy 30:12  It is not in heaven, so that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?"
Deuteronomy 30:13  It is not beyond the sea, so that you should say, "Who will cross the sea for us and bring it to us, so that we may hear it and do it?"
Deuteronomy 30:14  No, the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.
Deuteronomy 30:15  See, today I have set before you life and good, and death and evil.
Deuteronomy 30:16  For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his laws and his judgments, so that you may live and increase. Then the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are going in to take for your own.
Deuteronomy 30:17  But if your heart turns away, so that you will not listen, and you are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,
Deuteronomy 30:18  I tell you plainly today that you will surely die. You will not live long in the land which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and take for your own.
Deuteronomy 30:19  I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today. I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. So choose life, so that both you and your descendants may live.
Deuteronomy 30:20  Love the LORD your God, obey his voice, and hold fast to him. For he is your life and the length of your days. Then you will live in the land which the LORD promised on oath to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Deuteronomy 31:1  Then Moses went and spoke these words to all Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:2  He said to them, "I am a hundred and twenty years old today. I can no longer go out and come in. Also the LORD has said to me, 'You shall not go over this Jordan.'"
Deuteronomy 31:3  "The LORD your God, he will go over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations in front of you, and you will take their land. And Joshua, he will go over ahead of you, as the LORD has said."
Deuteronomy 31:4  "The LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and to Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them."
Deuteronomy 31:5  "The LORD will give them up to you, so that you may do to them everything I have commanded you."
Deuteronomy 31:6  "Be strong and have good courage. Do not fear them or be afraid of them. For the LORD your God, he is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or leave you."
Deuteronomy 31:7  Then Moses called Joshua, and said to him in front of all Israel, "Be strong and have good courage. For you must go with this people into the land which the LORD promised on oath to their fathers to give them, and you will divide it among them as their inheritance."
Deuteronomy 31:8  "The LORD, he is the one who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you or leave you. Do not fear, and do not lose heart."
Deuteronomy 31:9  So Moses wrote this law, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:10  And Moses commanded them, "At the end of every seven years, at the set time of the year of release, at the feast of tabernacles,"
Deuteronomy 31:11  "when all Israel has come to appear before the LORD your God in the place which he will choose, you shall read this law in front of all Israel, so that they hear it."
Deuteronomy 31:12  "Gather the people together: the men, the women, the children, and the stranger who is inside your gates. Then they may hear, and they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law."
Deuteronomy 31:13  "And their children, who have known nothing of it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land which you are going over Jordan to take."
Deuteronomy 31:14  And the LORD said to Moses, "Look, the days are near when you must die. Call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, so that I may give him his charge." So Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.
Deuteronomy 31:15  And the LORD appeared in the tabernacle in a pillar of cloud, and the pillar of cloud stood over the door of the tabernacle.
Deuteronomy 31:16  And the LORD said to Moses, "Look, you are going to sleep with your fathers. And this people will rise up and go after the gods of the strangers of the land where they are going, chasing them like a woman being unfaithful. They will leave me, and break my covenant which I have made with them."
Deuteronomy 31:17  "Then my anger will burn against them on that day, and I will leave them, and I will hide my face from them, and they will be eaten up. Many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say on that day, 'Have these evils not come upon us because our God is not among us?'"
Deuteronomy 31:18  "And I will surely hide my face on that day, because of all the evil they will have done, in turning to other gods."
Deuteronomy 31:19  "So now write this song for yourselves, and teach it to the children of Israel. Put it in their mouths, so that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel."
Deuteronomy 31:20  "For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their fathers, they will eat and fill themselves and grow fat. Then they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me, and break my covenant."
Deuteronomy 31:21  "And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song will speak against them as a witness. For it will not be forgotten by the mouths of their children. For I know what they are planning, even now, before I have brought them into the land which I promised on oath."
Deuteronomy 31:22  So Moses wrote this song that same day, and taught it to the children of Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:23  And he gave Joshua the son of Nun his charge, and said, "Be strong and have good courage. For you will bring the children of Israel into the land which I promised them on oath, and I will be with you."
Deuteronomy 31:24  When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book, right to the end,
Deuteronomy 31:25  Moses commanded the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,
Deuteronomy 31:26  "Take this book of the law, and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may be there as a witness against you."
Deuteronomy 31:27  "For I know how you rebel, and how stiff your neck is. Look, while I am still alive with you today, you have rebelled against the LORD. How much more, then, after my death?"
Deuteronomy 31:28  "Gather to me all the elders of your tribes, and your officers, so that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth as witnesses against them."
Deuteronomy 31:29  "For I know that after my death you will become completely corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will come upon you in the days to come, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, making him angry through the work of your hands."
Deuteronomy 31:30  And Moses spoke the words of this song in the ears of all the congregation of Israel, right to the end.

Deuteronomy 32:1  Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
Deuteronomy 32:2  My teaching will fall like the rain, my words will settle like the dew, like light rain on the tender plants, and like showers on the grass.
Deuteronomy 32:3  For I will make known the name of the LORD. Give greatness to our God.
Deuteronomy 32:4  He is the Rock, and his work is perfect, for all his ways are just. He is a God of truth and without wrong; he is upright and right.
Deuteronomy 32:5  They have corrupted themselves; their stain is not the stain of his children. They are a twisted and crooked generation.
Deuteronomy 32:6  Is this how you pay back the LORD, O foolish people without wisdom? Is he not your father, who bought you? Did he not make you and set you firm?
Deuteronomy 32:7  Remember the days of long ago; think about the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; ask your elders, and they will tell you.
Deuteronomy 32:8  When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the borders of the peoples by the number of the children of Israel.
Deuteronomy 32:9  For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the share of his inheritance.
Deuteronomy 32:10  He found him in a desert land, in an empty, howling wilderness. He led him about, he taught him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Deuteronomy 32:11  As an eagle stirs up her nest and flutters over her young, spreading out her wings, taking them, carrying them on her wings,
Deuteronomy 32:12  so the LORD alone led him, and there was no strange god with him.
Deuteronomy 32:13  He made him ride on the high places of the earth, so that he could eat what the fields produced. He made him take honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hard rock,
Deuteronomy 32:14  butter from cows, and milk from sheep, with the fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of wheat. And you drank the pure blood of the grape.
Deuteronomy 32:15  But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, you grew thick, you were covered with fat. Then he left the God who made him, and thought little of the Rock of his salvation.
Deuteronomy 32:16  They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with things he hates they stirred him to anger.
Deuteronomy 32:17  They sacrificed to devils, not to God; to gods they did not know, to new gods that had lately come, which your fathers did not fear.
Deuteronomy 32:18  You gave no thought to the Rock who was your father, and you forgot the God who formed you.
Deuteronomy 32:19  And when the LORD saw it, he hated them, because his sons and his daughters had provoked him.
Deuteronomy 32:20  And he said, "I will hide my face from them; I will see what their end will be. For they are a very stubborn generation, children who have no faith."
Deuteronomy 32:21  "They have stirred me to jealousy with what is not God; they have stirred me to anger with their empty idols. So I will stir them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation."
Deuteronomy 32:22  "For a fire is lit in my anger, and it will burn to the lowest hell. It will consume the earth and all it produces, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."
Deuteronomy 32:23  "I will heap troubles upon them; I will spend my arrows on them."
Deuteronomy 32:24  "They will be burnt up with hunger, and eaten up with burning heat and bitter destruction. I will also send the teeth of wild beasts against them, with the poison of snakes of the dust."
Deuteronomy 32:25  "The sword outside, and terror inside, will destroy both the young man and the young woman, the nursing baby and the man with gray hair."
Deuteronomy 32:26  "I said I would scatter them into far corners; I would make people stop remembering them."
Deuteronomy 32:27  "But I feared the anger of the enemy, in case their foes should misunderstand, and say, 'Our own hand is high, and the LORD has not done all this.'"
Deuteronomy 32:28  For they are a nation with no good counsel, and there is no understanding in them.
Deuteronomy 32:29  If only they were wise, and understood this, and would consider what their end will be.
Deuteronomy 32:30  How could one man chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had given them up?
Deuteronomy 32:31  For their rock is not like our Rock; even our enemies themselves say so.
Deuteronomy 32:32  For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom, and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are bitter grapes; their clusters are bitter.
Deuteronomy 32:33  Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of snakes.
Deuteronomy 32:34  Is this not stored up with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
Deuteronomy 32:35  Vengeance is mine, and repayment. Their foot will slip at the right time, for the day of their disaster is near, and the things coming on them are hurrying.
Deuteronomy 32:36  For the LORD will judge his people, and have pity on his servants, when he sees that their strength is gone, and no one is left, shut up or free.
Deuteronomy 32:37  And he will say, "Where are their gods, the rock they trusted in,"
Deuteronomy 32:38  "which ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them be your protection."
Deuteronomy 32:39  "See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal. And no one can rescue anyone out of my hand."
Deuteronomy 32:40  "For I lift up my hand to heaven and say, I live for ever."
Deuteronomy 32:41  "If I sharpen my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will pay back vengeance to my enemies, and repay those who hate me."
Deuteronomy 32:42  "I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will devour flesh: with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the first of my vengeance on the enemy."
Deuteronomy 32:43  Rejoice, O nations, with his people. For he will avenge the blood of his servants, and pay back vengeance to his foes, and be merciful to his land and to his people.
Deuteronomy 32:44  And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song so the people heard them, he and Hoshea the son of Nun.
Deuteronomy 32:45  And Moses finished speaking all these words to all Israel.
Deuteronomy 32:46  And he said to them, "Take to heart all the words I declare to you today. You must command your children to keep and do them, all the words of this law."
Deuteronomy 32:47  "For it is not an empty thing for you; it is your life. By this thing you will live long in the land which you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
Deuteronomy 32:48  And the LORD spoke to Moses that same day, saying,
Deuteronomy 32:49  "Go up into this mountain Abarim, to mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho. Look at the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel to possess."
Deuteronomy 32:50  "And die on the mountain you go up, and be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother died on mount Hor and was gathered to his people."
Deuteronomy 32:51  "This is because you broke faith with me among the children of Israel at the waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin, and because you did not honour me as holy among the children of Israel."
Deuteronomy 32:52  "You will see the land in front of you, but you will not go there, into the land I am giving the children of Israel."

Deuteronomy 33:1  This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the children of Israel before his death.
Deuteronomy 33:2  He said, "The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir to them. He shone out from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints. From his right hand went a fiery law for them."
Deuteronomy 33:3  "Yes, he loved the people. All his saints are in your hand, and they sat down at your feet. Every one will receive your words."
Deuteronomy 33:4  "Moses commanded us a law, the inheritance of the assembly of Jacob."
Deuteronomy 33:5  "And he was king in Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together."
Deuteronomy 33:6  "Let Reuben live, and not die, and let his men not be few."
Deuteronomy 33:7  And this is the blessing of Judah. He said, "Hear, LORD, the voice of Judah, and bring him to his people. Let his hands be enough for him, and be a help to him against his enemies."
Deuteronomy 33:8  And of Levi he said, "Let your Thummim and your Urim be with your holy one, whom you tested at Massah, and with whom you argued at the waters of Meribah."
Deuteronomy 33:9  "He said to his father and to his mother, 'I have not seen him.' He did not recognize his brothers, and he did not know his own children. For they have kept your word, and guarded your covenant."
Deuteronomy 33:10  "They will teach Jacob your judgments, and Israel your law. They will put incense before you, and whole burnt sacrifice on your altar."
Deuteronomy 33:11  "Bless, LORD, all that he has, and accept the work of his hands. Strike through the waist of those who rise against him, and of those who hate him, so that they do not rise again."
Deuteronomy 33:12  And of Benjamin he said, "The one the LORD loves will live in safety by him. The LORD will cover him all day long, and he will live between his shoulders."
Deuteronomy 33:13  And of Joseph he said, "May his land be blessed by the LORD with the precious things of heaven, with the dew, and with the deep that lies beneath,"
Deuteronomy 33:14  "and with the precious fruits brought out by the sun, and with the precious things put out by the moon,"
Deuteronomy 33:15  "and with the chief things of the ancient mountains, and with the precious things of the lasting hills,"
Deuteronomy 33:16  "and with the precious things of the earth and all that fills it, and with the good will of him who lived in the bush. Let the blessing come on the head of Joseph, and on the top of the head of him who was set apart from his brothers."
Deuteronomy 33:17  "His glory is like the firstborn of his bull, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns. With them he will push the peoples together to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."
Deuteronomy 33:18  And of Zebulun he said, "Rejoice, Zebulun, when you go out, and you, Issachar, in your tents."
Deuteronomy 33:19  "They will call the peoples to the mountain. There they will offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they will draw out the plenty of the seas, and treasures hidden in the sand."
Deuteronomy 33:20  And of Gad he said, "Blessed be the one who makes Gad large. He lives like a lion, and tears the arm with the crown of the head."
Deuteronomy 33:21  "He chose the first part for himself, because there, in a portion of the lawgiver, he was seated. He came with the leaders of the people. He carried out the justice of the LORD, and his judgments with Israel."
Deuteronomy 33:22  And of Dan he said, "Dan is a lion's cub. He will leap from Bashan."
Deuteronomy 33:23  And of Naphtali he said, "Naphtali, satisfied with favour, and full of the blessing of the LORD, take the west and the south as your own."
Deuteronomy 33:24  And of Asher he said, "Let Asher be blessed with children. Let him be pleasing to his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil."
Deuteronomy 33:25  "Your shoes will be iron and bronze, and your strength will last as long as your days."
Deuteronomy 33:26  "There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides on the heaven to help you, and in his majesty on the sky."
Deuteronomy 33:27  "The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out the enemy from in front of you, and will say, 'Destroy them.'"
Deuteronomy 33:28  "Then Israel will live in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob will be on a land of grain and wine. His heavens also will drop down dew."
Deuteronomy 33:29  "Happy are you, Israel. Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD, the shield that helps you, and the sword of your majesty! Your enemies will be found to be liars to you, and you will tread on their high places."

Deuteronomy 34:1  Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land of Gilead, as far as Dan,
Deuteronomy 34:2  and all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, as far as the sea in the west,
Deuteronomy 34:3  and the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
Deuteronomy 34:4  And the LORD said to him, "This is the land I promised with an oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, when I said, 'I will give it to your children.' I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over into it."
Deuteronomy 34:5  So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, as the LORD had said.
Deuteronomy 34:6  And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, facing Bethpeor. But no one knows where his grave is, to this day.
Deuteronomy 34:7  Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not weak, and his strength had not failed.
Deuteronomy 34:8  The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end.
Deuteronomy 34:9  And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. And the children of Israel listened to him, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses.
Deuteronomy 34:10  Since then no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face,
Deuteronomy 34:11  in all the signs and the wonders which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land,
Deuteronomy 34:12  and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great and fearful deeds which Moses did in the sight of all Israel.

Joshua

Joshua 1:1  After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, who had served Moses. He said,
Joshua 1:2  "Moses my servant is dead. So now get up and cross over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land I am giving to them, to the children of Israel."
Joshua 1:3  "Every place where the sole of your foot steps, I have given to you, just as I said to Moses."
Joshua 1:4  "Your land will reach from the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea where the sun goes down."
Joshua 1:5  "No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or leave you."
Joshua 1:6  "Be strong and very brave. You will divide among this people the land I promised their fathers I would give them."
Joshua 1:7  "Only be strong and very brave. Be careful to obey all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left. Then you will do well wherever you go."
Joshua 1:8  "This book of the law must not leave your mouth. Think about it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then your way will go well, and you will have good success."
Joshua 1:9  "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and very brave. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart. The LORD your God is with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:10  Then Joshua gave orders to the officers of the people. He said,
Joshua 1:11  "Go through the camp and command the people. Tell them, 'Get food ready, because in three days you will cross over this Jordan. You will go in and take the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'"
Joshua 1:12  To the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, Joshua said,
Joshua 1:13  "Remember the word that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you. He said, 'The LORD your God has given you rest, and has given you this land.'"
Joshua 1:14  "Your wives, your little ones and your cattle will stay in the land that Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you must cross over ahead of your brothers, armed for battle, all your mighty and brave men, and help them."
Joshua 1:15  "Do this until the LORD has given your brothers rest, as he has given you, and they too have taken the land that the LORD your God is giving them. Then you may return to the land that belongs to you and enjoy it, the land Moses the servant of the LORD gave you on this side of the Jordan, toward the sunrise."
Joshua 1:16  They answered Joshua, "We will do everything you command us, and we will go wherever you send us."
Joshua 1:17  "Just as we listened to Moses in all things, so we will listen to you. Only may the LORD your God be with you, as he was with Moses."
Joshua 1:18  "Anyone who rebels against your command and will not listen to your words, whatever you command him, will be put to death. Only be strong and very brave."

Joshua 2:1  Joshua the son of Nun sent two men out from Shittim to spy secretly. He said, "Go and look at the land, and at Jericho." So they went, and they came to the house of a prostitute named Rahab, and they stayed there.
Joshua 2:2  Someone told the king of Jericho, "Look, men of the children of Israel came here tonight to search out the country."
Joshua 2:3  So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country."
Joshua 2:4  But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. She said, "Yes, men came to me, but I did not know where they were from."
Joshua 2:5  "About the time the gate was shut, when it was dark, the men went out. I do not know where they went. Go after them quickly, and you will catch them."
Joshua 2:6  But she had brought them up to the roof of the house. She had hidden them under stalks of flax that she had laid out in rows on the roof.
Joshua 2:7  The men chased after them along the road to the Jordan, as far as the fords. As soon as the ones who were chasing them had gone out, the gate was shut.
Joshua 2:8  Before the men lay down to sleep, she came up to them on the roof.
Joshua 2:9  She said to the men, "I know that the LORD has given you the land. Terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is melting with fear because of you."
Joshua 2:10  For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea in front of you when you came out of Egypt. We have heard what you did to the two kings of the Amorites on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you completely destroyed.
Joshua 2:11  As soon as we heard this, our hearts melted. No courage was left in anyone because of you. For the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath.
Joshua 2:12  So now, please swear to me by the LORD. I have shown you kindness, so promise that you will also show kindness to my father's house. Give me a sure sign,
Joshua 2:13  "that you will keep my father and my mother and my brothers and my sisters alive, and all that they have, and that you will save our lives from death."
Joshua 2:14  The men answered her, "Our life for yours, if you do not tell anyone about this business of ours. When the LORD gives us the land, we will deal kindly and faithfully with you."
Joshua 2:15  Then she let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was on the town wall, and she lived on the wall.
Joshua 2:16  She said to them, "Go to the mountain, or those who are chasing you will meet you. Hide yourselves there for three days, until they come back. After that you may go on your way."
Joshua 2:17  The men said to her, "We will be free from the oath you made us swear,"
Joshua 2:18  unless you do this. When we come into the land, you must tie this cord of scarlet thread in the window that you let us down by. And you must gather your father and your mother and your brothers and all your father's household into the house with you.
Joshua 2:19  Then whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be free of blame. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads.
Joshua 2:20  "And if you tell anyone about this business of ours, then we will be free from the oath you made us swear."
Joshua 2:21  She said, "Let it be as you have said." She sent them away, and they went. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
Joshua 2:22  They went and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the men who were chasing them had come back. Those men searched for them all along the road, but did not find them.
Joshua 2:23  So the two men came back. They came down from the mountain, crossed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun. They told him everything that had happened to them.
Joshua 2:24  They said to Joshua, "Truly the LORD has given all the land into our hands. Everyone who lives in the country is melting with fear because of us."

Joshua 3:1  Joshua got up early in the morning. He and all the children of Israel set out from Shittim and came to the Jordan. They stayed there before they crossed over.
Joshua 3:2  After three days the officers went through the camp.
Joshua 3:3  They gave the people this command: "When you see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests, the Levites, carrying it, then leave your place and follow it."
Joshua 3:4  "But keep a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it. Then you will know the way you must go, for you have not gone this way before."
Joshua 3:5  Joshua said to the people, "Make yourselves holy, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you."
Joshua 3:6  Joshua spoke to the priests and said, "Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over ahead of the people." So they took up the ark of the covenant and went ahead of the people.
Joshua 3:7  The LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to make you great in the sight of all Israel. Then they will know that I will be with you, just as I was with Moses."
Joshua 3:8  "You must command the priests who carry the ark of the covenant. Say to them, 'When you come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, stand still in the Jordan.'"
Joshua 3:9  Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Come here, and listen to the words of the LORD your God."
Joshua 3:10  Joshua said, "By this you will know that the living God is among you. He will surely drive out from in front of you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites and the Jebusites."
Joshua 3:11  Look, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan.
Joshua 3:12  So now choose twelve men out of the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe.
Joshua 3:13  "The priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, will set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan. As soon as they do, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off. The waters coming down from above will stand up in a heap."
Joshua 3:14  So the people left their tents to cross over the Jordan, and the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people.
Joshua 3:15  The men carrying the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who carried the ark were dipped in the edge of the water. (The Jordan overflows all its banks through all the time of harvest.)
Joshua 3:16  Then the waters coming down from above stood still. They rose up in a heap very far away, by the city of Adam, which is beside Zaretan. And the waters going down toward the sea of the plain, the salt sea, failed and were cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
Joshua 3:17  The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan. All the Israelites crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had passed right over the Jordan.

Joshua 4:1  When all the people had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD spoke to Joshua. He said,
Joshua 4:2  "Choose twelve men from among the people, one man from each tribe."
Joshua 4:3  "Command them and say, 'Take up twelve stones from here, from the middle of the Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet stood firm. Carry them over with you, and set them down in the place where you stay tonight.'"
Joshua 4:4  Then Joshua called the twelve men he had chosen from the children of Israel, one man from each tribe.
Joshua 4:5  Joshua said to them, "Go over in front of the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each of the tribes of the children of Israel."
Joshua 4:6  "This will be a sign among you. In time to come your children will ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean to you?'"
Joshua 4:7  "Then you will answer them, 'The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' These stones will be a memorial to the children of Israel for ever."
Joshua 4:8  The children of Israel did just as Joshua commanded. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, as the LORD had told Joshua, one for each of the tribes of the children of Israel. They carried them over to the place where they stayed, and laid them down there.
Joshua 4:9  Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. They are there to this day.
Joshua 4:10  The priests who carried the ark stood in the middle of the Jordan until everything was finished that the LORD had commanded Joshua to say to the people, just as Moses had commanded Joshua. The people hurried and crossed over.
Joshua 4:11  When all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the LORD crossed over too, with the priests, in front of the people.
Joshua 4:12  The children of Reuben, the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh crossed over armed, ahead of the children of Israel, just as Moses had told them.
Joshua 4:13  About forty thousand men, ready for war, crossed over before the LORD to the battle, to the plains of Jericho.
Joshua 4:14  On that day the LORD made Joshua great in the sight of all Israel. They respected him with fear, as they had feared Moses, all the days of his life.
Joshua 4:15  The LORD spoke to Joshua. He said,
Joshua 4:16  "Command the priests who carry the ark of the testimony to come up out of the Jordan."
Joshua 4:17  So Joshua commanded the priests, "Come up out of the Jordan."
Joshua 4:18  The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD came up out of the middle of the Jordan. As soon as the soles of the priests' feet touched the dry land, the waters of the Jordan came back to their place, and flowed over all its banks as they had done before.
Joshua 4:19  The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. They camped in Gilgal, on the eastern edge of Jericho.
Joshua 4:20  And Joshua set up in Gilgal those twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.
Joshua 4:21  He said to the children of Israel, "In time to come your children will ask their fathers, 'What do these stones mean?'"
Joshua 4:22  "Then you will let your children know, and say, 'Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.'"
Joshua 4:23  "For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of you, until you had crossed over. He did the same to the Red sea, which he dried up in front of us until we had gone over."
Joshua 4:24  "He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, and so that you might fear the LORD your God for ever."

Joshua 5:1  All the kings of the Amorites, who lived west of the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who lived by the sea, heard how the LORD had dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of the people of Israel, until we had crossed over. Then their hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in them any more, because of the people of Israel.
Joshua 5:2  At that time the LORD said to Joshua, "Make sharp knives for yourself, and circumcise the people of Israel again, a second time."
Joshua 5:3  So Joshua made sharp knives for himself, and circumcised the people of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.
Joshua 5:4  This is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males among the people who came out of Egypt, that is, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way, after they came out of Egypt.
Joshua 5:5  Now all the people who came out had been circumcised. But the people who were born in the wilderness on the way, as they came out of Egypt, had not been circumcised.
Joshua 5:6  For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the men of war who came out of Egypt were gone, because they did not obey the voice of the LORD. The LORD swore to them that he would not let them see the land which he had sworn to their fathers he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Joshua 5:7  It was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. They were uncircumcised, because no one had circumcised them along the way.
Joshua 5:8  When they had finished circumcising all the people, they stayed where they were in the camp until they were healed.
Joshua 5:9  And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the shame of Egypt from you." So the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.
Joshua 5:10  The people of Israel camped in Gilgal, and they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, on the plains of Jericho.
Joshua 5:11  The day after the Passover they ate some of the grain of the land: unleavened cakes and roasted grain, on that same day.
Joshua 5:12  The manna stopped the day after they ate some of the grain of the land. The people of Israel had no more manna, but that year they ate the fruit of the land of Canaan.
Joshua 5:13  When Joshua was near Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and there stood a man in front of him with his sword drawn in his hand. Joshua went up to him and said to him, "Are you for us, or for our enemies?"
Joshua 5:14  He said, "No; I have now come as captain of the army of the LORD." And Joshua fell on his face to the ground and worshipped, and said to him, "What does my lord say to his servant?"
Joshua 5:15  And the captain of the LORD's army said to Joshua, "Take your shoe off your foot, for the place where you are standing is holy." And Joshua did so.

Joshua 6:1  Now Jericho was shut up tight because of the children of Israel. No one went out, and no one came in.
Joshua 6:2  The LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and its mighty soldiers."
Joshua 6:3  "You shall go around the city, all you men of war, and march around the city once. You shall do this for six days."
Joshua 6:4  "Seven priests shall carry seven trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day you shall go around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets."
Joshua 6:5  "When they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout. Then the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall go up, each man straight ahead of him."
Joshua 6:6  So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark of the LORD."
Joshua 6:7  And he said to the people, "Go on, and march around the city, and let the armed men go on in front of the ark of the LORD."
Joshua 6:8  When Joshua had spoken to the people, the seven priests carrying the seven trumpets of rams' horns went on before the LORD and blew the trumpets. The ark of the covenant of the LORD followed them.
Joshua 6:9  The armed men went in front of the priests who blew the trumpets, and the rear guard came after the ark, while the priests went on blowing the trumpets.
Joshua 6:10  Joshua had commanded the people, "You shall not shout, or make any noise with your voice. Let no word come out of your mouth until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout."
Joshua 6:11  So the ark of the LORD went around the city, going around it once. Then they came into the camp, and stayed the night in the camp.
Joshua 6:12  Joshua got up early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD.
Joshua 6:13  Seven priests carrying seven trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark of the LORD went on without stopping, and blew the trumpets. The armed men went in front of them, but the rear guard came after the ark of the LORD, while the priests went on blowing the trumpets.
Joshua 6:14  On the second day they went around the city once, and returned to the camp. They did this for six days.
Joshua 6:15  On the seventh day they got up early, about the break of day, and went around the city in the same way seven times. Only on that day did they go around the city seven times.
Joshua 6:16  At the seventh time, when the priests blew the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, "Shout, for the LORD has given you the city."
Joshua 6:17  "The city shall be devoted to destruction for the LORD, it and everything in it. Only Rahab the prostitute shall live, she and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers that we sent."
Joshua 6:18  "And you, be sure to keep yourselves away from the devoted thing. If you take any of the devoted thing, you will bring destruction on yourselves, and you will make the camp of Israel a curse, and bring trouble on it."
Joshua 6:19  "But all the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and iron, are holy to the LORD. They shall go into the treasury of the LORD."
Joshua 6:20  So the people shouted when the priests blew the trumpets. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, the wall fell down flat. So the people went up into the city, each man straight ahead of him, and they took the city.
Joshua 6:21  They completely destroyed everything in the city with the edge of the sword: man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey.
Joshua 6:22  But Joshua had said to the two men who had spied out the land, "Go into the prostitute's house, and bring out the woman from there, and all that she has, as you swore to her."
Joshua 6:23  So the young men who were spies went in and brought out Rahab, and her father, and her mother, and her brothers, and all that she had. They brought out all her relatives, and left them outside the camp of Israel.
Joshua 6:24  They burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and the gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD.
Joshua 6:25  Joshua let Rahab the prostitute live, with her father's household and all that she had. She lives in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
Joshua 6:26  At that time Joshua made them swear, saying, "Cursed before the LORD be the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho. He shall lay its foundation at the cost of his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son."
Joshua 6:27  So the LORD was with Joshua, and his fame spread through all the land.

Joshua 7:1  But the children of Israel broke faith in the matter of the accursed thing. Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the accursed thing. So the anger of the LORD burned against the children of Israel.
Joshua 7:2  Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel. He said to them, "Go up and spy out the country." So the men went up and spied out Ai.
Joshua 7:3  They came back to Joshua and said to him, "Do not send all the people up. Let about two or three thousand men go up and attack Ai. Do not make all the people work hard going there, for the men of Ai are only a few."
Joshua 7:4  So about three thousand men of the people went up there. But they ran away from the men of Ai.
Joshua 7:5  The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them. They chased them from the gate as far as Shebarim, and struck them down on the slope. So the hearts of the people melted and became like water.
Joshua 7:6  Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the ground on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening, he and the elders of Israel, and they put dust on their heads.
Joshua 7:7  Joshua said, "Alas, O Lord GOD, why did you ever bring this people over Jordan? Was it to hand us over to the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been content to stay on the other side of Jordan."
Joshua 7:8  O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned their backs and run from their enemies?
Joshua 7:9  "For the Canaanites and all who live in the land will hear of it. They will surround us and cut off our name from the earth. And what will you do for your great name?"
Joshua 7:10  The LORD said to Joshua, "Get up. Why are you lying on your face like this?"
Joshua 7:11  Israel has sinned. They have broken my covenant which I commanded them. They have taken some of the accursed thing. They have stolen, and lied about it, and they have put it among their own things.
Joshua 7:12  That is why the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies. They turned their backs and ran from their enemies, because they have become accursed. I will not be with you any more, unless you destroy the accursed thing from among you.
Joshua 7:13  Get up, and set the people apart as holy. Say to them, 'Make yourselves holy for tomorrow. For this is what the LORD God of Israel says: There is an accursed thing among you, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you take the accursed thing away from among you.'
Joshua 7:14  So in the morning you shall come forward tribe by tribe. The tribe which the LORD picks out shall come forward family by family. The family which the LORD picks out shall come forward household by household. And the household which the LORD picks out shall come forward man by man.
Joshua 7:15  "The one who is picked out with the accursed thing shall be burned with fire, he and all that he has. For he has broken the covenant of the LORD, and he has done a shameful thing in Israel."
Joshua 7:16  So Joshua got up early in the morning and brought Israel forward tribe by tribe, and the tribe of Judah was picked out.
Joshua 7:17  He brought the families of Judah forward, and the family of the Zarhites was picked out. He brought the family of the Zarhites forward man by man, and Zabdi was picked out.
Joshua 7:18  He brought Zabdi's household forward man by man, and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was picked out.
Joshua 7:19  Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD God of Israel, and make your confession to him. Tell me now what you have done. Do not hide it from me."
Joshua 7:20  Achan answered Joshua, "It is true, I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel. This is what I did:"
Joshua 7:21  "I saw among the spoil a fine robe from Babylon, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels. I wanted them, and I took them. Look, they are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath."
Joshua 7:22  So Joshua sent messengers, and they ran to the tent. And there it was, hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath.
Joshua 7:23  They took the things out of the tent and brought them to Joshua and to all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD.
Joshua 7:24  Then Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the robe, and the bar of gold, and his sons and his daughters, and his oxen and his donkeys and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had. They brought them up to the valley of Achor.
Joshua 7:25  Joshua said, "Why have you brought trouble on us? The LORD will bring trouble on you today." And all Israel stoned him with stones. After they had stoned them with stones, they burned them with fire.
Joshua 7:26  They piled a great heap of stones over him, which is there to this day. So the LORD turned away from his fierce anger. That is why the name of that place is called The valley of Achor to this day.

Joshua 8:1  The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart. Take all the fighting men with you, and get up and go to Ai. Look, I have given into your hand the king of Ai, his people, his city and his land."
Joshua 8:2  "You shall do to Ai and her king as you did to Jericho and her king. But this time you may take the goods and the cattle of the city for yourselves. Set an ambush for the city, behind it."
Joshua 8:3  So Joshua got up, and all the fighting men with him, to go up against Ai. Joshua chose thirty thousand strong and brave men, and sent them out by night.
Joshua 8:4  He commanded them, "Listen. You are to hide and wait for the city, behind the city. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you stay ready."
Joshua 8:5  "I and all the people who are with me will come near the city. When they come out against us, as they did the first time, we will run away from them."
Joshua 8:6  "They will come out after us until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, 'They are running away from us, as they did the first time.' So we will run away from them."
Joshua 8:7  "Then you shall rise up from your hiding place and take the city. For the LORD your God will give it into your hand."
Joshua 8:8  "When you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. Do what the LORD has commanded. See, I have given you your orders."
Joshua 8:9  So Joshua sent them out. They went to their hiding place and waited between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of Ai. But Joshua stayed that night among the people.
Joshua 8:10  Joshua got up early in the morning and counted the people. Then he and the elders of Israel went up ahead of the people to Ai.
Joshua 8:11  All the people, the fighting men who were with him, went up. They came near and stood in front of the city, and camped on the north side of Ai. There was a valley between them and Ai.
Joshua 8:12  He took about five thousand men and set them to hide and wait between Bethel and Ai, on the west side of the city.
Joshua 8:13  So they placed the people: the whole army on the north of the city, and the men hiding on the west of the city. That night Joshua went into the middle of the valley.
Joshua 8:14  When the king of Ai saw this, the men of the city hurried and got up early. He and all his people went out against Israel to battle, at the appointed place in front of the plain. But he did not know that men were hiding to attack him behind the city.
Joshua 8:15  Joshua and all Israel acted as if they were beaten, and ran away along the road to the wilderness.
Joshua 8:16  All the people who were in Ai were called together to chase them. They chased after Joshua and were drawn away from the city.
Joshua 8:17  Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city wide open and chased after Israel.
Joshua 8:18  The LORD said to Joshua, "Stretch out the spear that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." So Joshua stretched out the spear that was in his hand toward the city.
Joshua 8:19  The men who were hiding rose up quickly from their place and ran as soon as he stretched out his hand. They went into the city and took it, and they hurried and set the city on fire.
Joshua 8:20  When the men of Ai looked behind them, they saw the smoke of the city going up to the sky. They had no power to run this way or that way. And the people who had run to the wilderness turned back on the ones chasing them.
Joshua 8:21  When Joshua and all Israel saw that the men in hiding had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city was going up, they turned back and killed the men of Ai.
Joshua 8:22  The others came out of the city against them, so the men of Ai were in the middle of Israel, with some on this side and some on that side. Israel struck them down, and let none of them remain or escape.
Joshua 8:23  They took the king of Ai alive, and brought him to Joshua.
Joshua 8:24  When Israel had finished killing all the people of Ai in the open country, in the wilderness where they had chased them, and when they had all fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all the Israelites went back to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.
Joshua 8:25  All who fell that day, both men and women, were twelve thousand, all the people of Ai.
Joshua 8:26  For Joshua did not draw back the hand in which he held out the spear, until he had completely destroyed all the people of Ai.
Joshua 8:27  Only the cattle and the goods of that city Israel took for themselves, as the LORD had told Joshua.
Joshua 8:28  Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap of ruins for ever, a waste place to this day.
Joshua 8:29  He hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. As soon as the sun went down, Joshua commanded that they should take his body down from the tree and throw it down at the entrance of the city gate, and raise over it a great heap of stones, which is there to this day.
Joshua 8:30  Then Joshua built an altar to the LORD God of Israel on Mount Ebal,
Joshua 8:31  as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded the children of Israel, and as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of whole stones, on which no man had lifted up any iron tool. On it they offered burnt offerings to the LORD, and sacrificed peace offerings.
Joshua 8:32  There he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he wrote in front of the children of Israel.
Joshua 8:33  All Israel, with their elders, officers and judges, stood on both sides of the ark, facing the priests the Levites, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD. The stranger stood there as well as the one born among them. Half of them stood in front of Mount Gerizim, and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel.
Joshua 8:34  After that he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, just as everything is written in the book of the law.
Joshua 8:35  There was not a word of all that Moses commanded which Joshua did not read out in front of all the assembly of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers who lived among them.

Joshua 9:1  All the kings on this side of the Jordan heard about it. They were the kings in the hills, in the valleys, and along all the shore of the great sea toward Lebanon: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite.
Joshua 9:2  They gathered together, all of one mind, to fight against Joshua and Israel.
Joshua 9:3  But the people who lived in Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai.
Joshua 9:4  So they acted with cunning. They went and made themselves look like messengers from far away. They took old sacks and put them on their donkeys, and wineskins that were old, torn, and tied up again.
Joshua 9:5  They wore old, patched shoes on their feet and old clothes on their backs. All the bread they carried was dry and mouldy.
Joshua 9:6  They went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal. They said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a far country. Make an agreement with us."
Joshua 9:7  The men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you live among us. How then can we make an agreement with you?"
Joshua 9:8  They said to Joshua, "We are your servants." Joshua said to them, "Who are you? Where do you come from?"
Joshua 9:9  They said to him, "Your servants have come from a very far country, because of the name of the LORD your God. For we have heard the report of him, and all that he did in Egypt,"
Joshua 9:10  "and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan: to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth."
Joshua 9:11  "So our elders and all the people of our country said to us, 'Take food with you for the journey. Go and meet them, and say to them, We are your servants. So now make an agreement with us.'"
Joshua 9:12  "This bread of ours was hot when we took it from our houses for the journey, on the day we set out to come to you. But now, look, it is dry and mouldy."
Joshua 9:13  "These wineskins were new when we filled them, and look, they are torn. These clothes of ours and our shoes have worn out because the journey was so very long."
Joshua 9:14  The men took some of their food, but they did not ask the LORD what to do.
Joshua 9:15  So Joshua made peace with them. He made an agreement with them to let them live, and the leaders of the community swore an oath to them.
Joshua 9:16  Three days after they had made the agreement with them, the Israelites heard that these men were their neighbours, and that they lived among them.
Joshua 9:17  So the children of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim.
Joshua 9:18  The children of Israel did not attack them, because the leaders of the community had sworn to them by the LORD God of Israel. And the whole community complained against the leaders.
Joshua 9:19  But all the leaders said to the whole community, "We have sworn to them by the LORD God of Israel. So now we may not touch them."
Joshua 9:20  "This is what we will do to them. We will let them live, so that no anger comes on us because of the oath we swore to them."
Joshua 9:21  The leaders said to them, "Let them live." So they became cutters of wood and carriers of water for the whole community, as the leaders had promised them.
Joshua 9:22  Joshua called for them and said to them, "Why did you trick us? You said, 'We live very far from you,' but you live among us."
Joshua 9:23  "So now you are cursed. Some of you will always be slaves, cutting wood and carrying water for the house of my God."
Joshua 9:24  They answered Joshua, "Your servants were clearly told how the LORD your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the people of the land before you. So we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this."
Joshua 9:25  "And now, look, we are in your hand. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you."
Joshua 9:26  So that is what he did for them. He saved them from the hand of the children of Israel, and they did not kill them.
Joshua 9:27  That day Joshua made them cutters of wood and carriers of water for the community and for the altar of the LORD, and they are so to this day, in the place that he would choose.

Joshua 10:1  Adonizedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai and completely destroyed it. He had done to Ai and its king just as he had done to Jericho and its king. He also heard that the people of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were living among them.
Joshua 10:2  Then they were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities. It was larger than Ai, and all its men were strong fighters.
Joshua 10:3  So Adonizedek king of Jerusalem sent this message to Hoham king of Hebron, to Piram king of Jarmuth, to Japhia king of Lachish, and to Debir king of Eglon:
Joshua 10:4  "Come up to me and help me. Let us attack Gibeon, because it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel."
Joshua 10:5  So the five kings of the Amorites joined together: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon. They went up with all their armies, camped in front of Gibeon, and made war against it.
Joshua 10:6  The men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal: "Do not hold back your hand from your servants. Come up to us quickly. Save us and help us, for all the kings of the Amorites who live in the mountains have joined together against us."
Joshua 10:7  So Joshua went up from Gilgal, he and all the fighting men with him, and all the mighty men of valour.
Joshua 10:8  The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them. I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will be able to stand against you."
Joshua 10:9  So Joshua came upon them suddenly, for he had marched up from Gilgal all night.
Joshua 10:10  The LORD threw them into confusion before Israel. Israel struck them down with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the road that goes up to Bethhoron, and struck them down as far as Azekah and Makkedah.
Joshua 10:11  As they fled from Israel and were going down from Bethhoron, the LORD threw down great stones from heaven on them, all the way to Azekah, and they died. More of them died from the hailstones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.
Joshua 10:12  On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to the children of Israel, Joshua spoke to the LORD. In the sight of Israel he said, "Sun, stand still over Gibeon; and you, Moon, over the valley of Ajalon."
Joshua 10:13  So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the people had taken vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jasher? The sun stood still in the middle of the sky, and did not hurry to go down for about a whole day.
Joshua 10:14  There has never been a day like that one, before it or after it, when the LORD listened to the voice of a man. For the LORD fought for Israel.
Joshua 10:15  Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.
Joshua 10:16  But those five kings had run away and hidden themselves in a cave at Makkedah.
Joshua 10:17  Joshua was told, "The five kings have been found. They are hiding in a cave at Makkedah."
Joshua 10:18  Joshua said, "Roll great stones over the mouth of the cave, and put men beside it to guard them."
Joshua 10:19  "But do not stay there yourselves. Chase after your enemies and strike down those at the back. Do not let them reach their cities, for the LORD your God has given them into your hand."
Joshua 10:20  Joshua and the children of Israel finished killing them with a very great slaughter, until they were destroyed. The few who were left of them got into the walled cities.
Joshua 10:21  All the people came back safely to the camp, to Joshua at Makkedah. No one said a word against any of the children of Israel.
Joshua 10:22  Then Joshua said, "Open the mouth of the cave, and bring those five kings out of the cave to me."
Joshua 10:23  They did so. They brought those five kings out of the cave to him: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, and the king of Eglon.
Joshua 10:24  When they brought those kings out to Joshua, Joshua called for all the men of Israel. He said to the commanders of the fighting men who had gone with him, "Come near. Put your feet on the necks of these kings." So they came near and put their feet on their necks.
Joshua 10:25  Joshua said to them, "Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart. Be strong and brave. This is what the LORD will do to all your enemies whom you fight."
Joshua 10:26  After that Joshua struck them down and killed them, and hanged them on five trees. They hung on the trees until the evening.
Joshua 10:27  At the time of sunset Joshua gave the order, and they took them down from the trees and threw them into the cave where they had hidden. They put great stones over the mouth of the cave, and those stones are there to this very day.
Joshua 10:28  That day Joshua took Makkedah and struck it with the edge of the sword. He completely destroyed its king, the city, and every person in it. He let no one remain. He did to the king of Makkedah as he had done to the king of Jericho.
Joshua 10:29  Then Joshua went on from Makkedah to Libnah, and all Israel with him, and fought against Libnah.
Joshua 10:30  The LORD gave it and its king into the hand of Israel too. Joshua struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it. He let no one remain in it. He did to its king as he had done to the king of Jericho.
Joshua 10:31  Then Joshua went on from Libnah to Lachish, and all Israel with him. They camped against it and fought against it.
Joshua 10:32  The LORD gave Lachish into the hand of Israel. They took it on the second day and struck it with the edge of the sword, and every person in it, just as they had done to Libnah.
Joshua 10:33  Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish. Joshua struck him down and his people, until he had left him no one remaining.
Joshua 10:34  From Lachish Joshua went on to Eglon, and all Israel with him. They camped against it and fought against it.
Joshua 10:35  They took it that same day and struck it with the edge of the sword. That day he completely destroyed every person in it, just as he had done to Lachish.
Joshua 10:36  Then Joshua went up from Eglon to Hebron, and all Israel with him, and they fought against it.
Joshua 10:37  They took it and struck it with the edge of the sword, along with its king, all its towns, and every person in it. He left no one remaining, just as he had done to Eglon. He completely destroyed it, and every person in it.
Joshua 10:38  Then Joshua turned back to Debir, and all Israel with him, and fought against it.
Joshua 10:39  He took it, and its king, and all its towns. They struck them with the edge of the sword and completely destroyed every person in it. He left no one remaining. As he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir and its king, and as he had done to Libnah and its king.
Joshua 10:40  So Joshua struck down the whole land: the hill country, the south, the lowland, and the slopes, and all their kings. He left no one remaining, but completely destroyed everything that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel had commanded.
Joshua 10:41  Joshua struck them down from Kadeshbarnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon.
Joshua 10:42  Joshua took all these kings and their land at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.
Joshua 10:43  Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

Joshua 11:1  When Jabin king of Hazor heard about these things, he sent word to Jobab king of Madon, and to the king of Shimron, and to the king of Achshaph,
Joshua 11:2  and to the kings in the north in the mountains, and in the plains south of Chinneroth, and in the valley, and in the borders of Dor on the west,
Joshua 11:3  and to the Canaanite in the east and in the west, and to the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, and the Jebusite in the mountains, and to the Hivite under Hermon in the land of Mizpeh.
Joshua 11:4  They came out with all their armies, a great crowd of people, as many as the sand on the seashore, with very many horses and chariots.
Joshua 11:5  All these kings joined together. They came and camped together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.
Joshua 11:6  The LORD said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid of them. By this time tomorrow I will hand them all over to Israel, killed. You are to cut the hamstrings of their horses, and burn their chariots with fire."
Joshua 11:7  So Joshua came against them suddenly at the waters of Merom, with all his fighting men, and they fell upon them.
Joshua 11:8  The LORD gave them into the hand of Israel. Israel struck them down and chased them as far as great Zidon, and as far as Misrephothmaim, and to the valley of Mizpeh in the east. They struck them down until they left none of them alive.
Joshua 11:9  Joshua did to them as the LORD had told him. He cut the hamstrings of their horses, and burned their chariots with fire.
Joshua 11:10  At that time Joshua turned back and took Hazor, and killed its king with the sword. For in earlier times Hazor was the head of all those kingdoms.
Joshua 11:11  They struck down every living person in it with the edge of the sword, destroying them completely. No one was left breathing. And he burned Hazor with fire.
Joshua 11:12  Joshua took all the cities of those kings, and their kings as well, and struck them down with the edge of the sword. He destroyed them completely, as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded.
Joshua 11:13  But Israel burned none of the cities that still stood on their mounds, except Hazor only. That one Joshua burned.
Joshua 11:14  All the goods of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for themselves. But they struck down every person with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them. They left no one breathing.
Joshua 11:15  As the LORD had commanded Moses his servant, so Moses commanded Joshua, and so Joshua did. He left nothing undone of all that the LORD commanded Moses.
Joshua 11:16  So Joshua took all that land: the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain, and the mountain of Israel, and its valley;
Joshua 11:17  from Mount Halak, which goes up to Seir, as far as Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon below Mount Hermon. He captured all their kings, struck them down, and killed them.
Joshua 11:18  Joshua made war with all those kings for a long time.
Joshua 11:19  Not one city made peace with the children of Israel, except the Hivites who lived in Gibeon. All the rest they took in battle.
Joshua 11:20  For it was from the LORD to harden their hearts, so that they would come against Israel in battle. He would destroy them completely, and they would find no mercy, but he would destroy them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
Joshua 11:21  At that time Joshua came and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel. Joshua destroyed them completely with their cities.
Joshua 11:22  None of the Anakims were left in the land of the children of Israel. Only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod some remained.
Joshua 11:23  So Joshua took the whole land, just as the LORD had said to Moses. Joshua gave it to Israel as their inheritance, sharing it out among their tribes. And the land had rest from war.

Joshua 12:1  These are the kings of the land whom the children of Israel struck down. They took their land on the other side of the Jordan, toward the rising of the sun, from the river Arnon to mount Hermon, and all the plain on the east:
Joshua 12:2  Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon. He ruled from Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, and from the middle of the river, and from half of Gilead, as far as the river Jabbok, which is the border of the children of Ammon.
Joshua 12:3  He also ruled from the plain to the sea of Chinneroth on the east, and to the sea of the plain, that is, the salt sea on the east, on the way to Bethjeshimoth; and from the south, below Ashdothpisgah.
Joshua 12:4  They also took the land of Og king of Bashan, who was left of the giants. He lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei,
Joshua 12:5  and he ruled in mount Hermon, and in Salcah, and in all Bashan, as far as the border of the Geshurites and the Maachathites, and half of Gilead, the border of Sihon king of Heshbon.
Joshua 12:6  Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel struck them down. And Moses the servant of the LORD gave their land to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, to be theirs.
Joshua 12:7  These are the kings of the country whom Joshua and the children of Israel struck down on this side of the Jordan, on the west, from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon as far as mount Halak, which goes up to Seir. Joshua gave their land to the tribes of Israel to be theirs, dividing it among them.
Joshua 12:8  This was in the mountains, and in the valleys, and in the plains, and in the springs, and in the wilderness, and in the south country: the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Joshua 12:9  The king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai, which is beside Bethel, one;
Joshua 12:10  the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;
Joshua 12:11  the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;
Joshua 12:12  the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;
Joshua 12:13  the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;
Joshua 12:14  the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;
Joshua 12:15  the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;
Joshua 12:16  the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;
Joshua 12:17  the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;
Joshua 12:18  the king of Aphek, one; the king of Lasharon, one;
Joshua 12:19  the king of Madon, one; the king of Hazor, one;
Joshua 12:20  the king of Shimronmeron, one; the king of Achshaph, one;
Joshua 12:21  the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;
Joshua 12:22  the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam of Carmel, one;
Joshua 12:23  the king of Dor in the region of Dor, one; the king of the nations of Gilgal, one;
Joshua 12:24  the king of Tirzah, one. All the kings were thirty-one.

Joshua 13:1  Now Joshua was old and far on in years. The LORD said to him, "You are old and far on in years, and there is still very much land left to be taken."
Joshua 13:2  "This is the land that still remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all the land of the Geshurites,"
Joshua 13:3  "from Sihor, which is east of Egypt, north to the border of Ekron, which is counted as Canaanite land. There are five rulers of the Philistines: the people of Gaza, of Ashdod, of Ashkelon, of Gath, and of Ekron. There are also the Avites"
Joshua 13:4  "in the south. Then there is all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah which belongs to the Sidonians, as far as Aphek, to the border of the Amorites,"
Joshua 13:5  "and the land of the Giblites, and all Lebanon toward the sunrise, from Baalgad below Mount Hermon to the entrance of Hamath."
Joshua 13:6  "I myself will drive out from before the children of Israel all who live in the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians. Only divide the land by lot to the Israelites as their inheritance, as I have commanded you."
Joshua 13:7  "So now divide this land as an inheritance among the nine tribes and the half tribe of Manasseh."
Joshua 13:8  The Reubenites and the Gadites had already received their inheritance with the other half tribe. Moses gave it to them east of the Jordan, just as Moses the servant of the LORD gave it to them:
Joshua 13:9  from Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain of Medeba as far as Dibon,
Joshua 13:10  and all the cities of Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, as far as the border of the children of Ammon,
Joshua 13:11  and Gilead, and the territory of the Geshurites and Maachathites, and all Mount Hermon, and all Bashan as far as Salcah,
Joshua 13:12  all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. He was the last of the giants who were left. Moses struck these kings down and drove them out.
Joshua 13:13  But the children of Israel did not drive out the Geshurites or the Maachathites. So the Geshurites and the Maachathites live among the Israelites to this day.
Joshua 13:14  Only to the tribe of Levi he gave no inheritance. The offerings made by fire to the LORD God of Israel are their inheritance, as he said to them.
Joshua 13:15  Moses gave the tribe of the children of Reuben an inheritance for their families.
Joshua 13:16  Their land went from Aroer, which is on the bank of the river Arnon, and the city that is in the middle of the valley, and all the plain by Medeba,
Joshua 13:17  Heshbon and all its cities on the plain, Dibon, Bamothbaal, Bethbaalmeon,
Joshua 13:18  Jahazah, Kedemoth, Mephaath,
Joshua 13:19  Kirjathaim, Sibmah, and Zarethshahar on the hill in the valley,
Joshua 13:20  Bethpeor, Ashdothpisgah, and Bethjeshimoth,
Joshua 13:21  all the cities of the plain, and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon. Moses struck him down, and with him the princes of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, who were chiefs under Sihon and lived in the land.
Joshua 13:22  The children of Israel also killed Balaam the son of Beor with the sword. He told fortunes, and he died among the others they killed.
Joshua 13:23  The border of the children of Reuben was the Jordan and the land along it. This was the inheritance of the children of Reuben for their families, with its cities and villages.
Joshua 13:24  Moses gave an inheritance to the tribe of Gad, to the children of Gad for their families.
Joshua 13:25  Their land was Jazer, and all the cities of Gilead, and half the land of the children of Ammon, as far as Aroer, which is east of Rabbah,
Joshua 13:26  and from Heshbon to Ramathmizpeh and Betonim, and from Mahanaim to the border of Debir,
Joshua 13:27  and in the valley, Betharam, Bethnimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon, the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon. The Jordan was their border, as far as the end of the sea of Chinnereth, on the east side of the Jordan.
Joshua 13:28  This is the inheritance of the children of Gad for their families, with the cities and their villages.
Joshua 13:29  Moses gave an inheritance to the half tribe of Manasseh. This was the possession of the half tribe of the children of Manasseh for their families.
Joshua 13:30  Their land went from Mahanaim, and took in all Bashan, all the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, and all the towns of Jair which are in Bashan, sixty cities.
Joshua 13:31  Half of Gilead, and Ashtaroth and Edrei, cities of the kingdom of Og in Bashan, belonged to the children of Machir the son of Manasseh, that is, to half of the children of Machir for their families.
Joshua 13:32  These are the lands that Moses gave out as an inheritance in the plains of Moab, on the other side of the Jordan, east of Jericho.
Joshua 13:33  But to the tribe of Levi Moses gave no inheritance. The LORD God of Israel was their inheritance, as he said to them.

Joshua 14:1  These are the lands that the children of Israel received in the land of Canaan. Eleazar the priest, Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the tribes of the children of Israel shared them out to them.
Joshua 14:2  Their inheritance was given by lot, as the LORD had commanded through Moses, for the nine tribes and for the half tribe.
Joshua 14:3  For Moses had given the inheritance of two tribes and a half tribe on the other side of the Jordan. But to the Levites he gave no inheritance among them.
Joshua 14:4  The children of Joseph were two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. So they gave no share of the land to the Levites, only cities to live in, with the open land around them for their cattle and their animals.
Joshua 14:5  As the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did, and they divided the land.
Joshua 14:6  Then the children of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God about me and you at Kadeshbarnea."
Joshua 14:7  "I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadeshbarnea to explore the land. I brought him back word just as I truly believed it."
Joshua 14:8  "But my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, though, followed the LORD my God completely."
Joshua 14:9  "So Moses swore an oath that day. He said, 'The land where your feet have walked will surely be your inheritance, and your children's for ever, because you have followed the LORD my God completely.'"
Joshua 14:10  "And now look, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years, ever since the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness. And now, look, today I am eighty-five years old."
Joshua 14:11  "I am still as strong today as I was on the day Moses sent me. My strength then and my strength now are the same, for war, for going out and for coming in."
Joshua 14:12  "So now give me this mountain, which the LORD spoke of that day. You heard that day that the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and walled. If the LORD is with me, then I will be able to drive them out, as the LORD said."
Joshua 14:13  Joshua blessed him, and gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as an inheritance.
Joshua 14:14  So Hebron became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite to this day, because he followed the LORD God of Israel completely.
Joshua 14:15  The name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba. This Arba was a great man among the Anakims. And the land had rest from war.

Joshua 15:1  This was the land given by lot to the tribe of the people of Judah, family by family. It reached south to the border of Edom, to the wilderness of Zin, which is the farthest part of the south.
Joshua 15:2  Their southern border began at the shore of the Salt Sea, from the bay that faces south.
Joshua 15:3  It ran out to the south of the ascent of Akrabbim, went on to Zin, and went up on the south side to Kadesh-barnea. It passed by Hezron, went up to Adar, and turned round to Karkaa.
Joshua 15:4  From there it passed on toward Azmon and came out at the river of Egypt. The border ended at the sea. This shall be your southern border.
Joshua 15:5  The eastern border was the Salt Sea, as far as the mouth of the Jordan. The border on the north side began at the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan.
Joshua 15:6  The border went up to Beth-hogla and passed north of Beth-arabah. Then it went up to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben.
Joshua 15:7  The border went up toward Debir from the valley of Achor, and turned north, facing Gilgal, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, on the south side of the river. Then the border passed on to the waters of En-shemesh, and it ended at En-rogel.
Joshua 15:8  The border went up by the valley of the son of Hinnom to the south side of the Jebusite city, that is, Jerusalem. Then the border went up to the top of the mountain that lies west of the valley of Hinnom, at the northern end of the valley of the giants.
Joshua 15:9  From the top of the hill the border was drawn to the spring of the water of Nephtoah, and came out at the cities of mount Ephron. Then the border was drawn to Baalah, that is, Kirjath-jearim.
Joshua 15:10  The border turned from Baalah westward to mount Seir, passed along the north side of mount Jearim, that is, Chesalon, went down to Beth-shemesh, and passed on to Timnah.
Joshua 15:11  The border came out at the north side of Ekron. Then it was drawn to Shicron, passed along to mount Baalah, and came out at Jabneel. The border ended at the sea.
Joshua 15:12  The western border was the Great Sea and its coast. This was the border all around the people of Judah, family by family.
Joshua 15:13  To Caleb the son of Jephunneh he gave a share among the people of Judah, as the LORD had commanded Joshua. It was the city of Arba, the father of Anak, that is, Hebron.
Joshua 15:14  Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, the children of Anak.
Joshua 15:15  From there he went up against the people living in Debir. The name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher.
Joshua 15:16  Caleb said, "Whoever attacks Kirjath-sepher and takes it, I will give him my daughter Achsah as his wife."
Joshua 15:17  Othniel the son of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it. So Caleb gave him his daughter Achsah as his wife.
Joshua 15:18  When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. She got down off her donkey, and Caleb said to her, "What do you want?"
Joshua 15:19  She answered, "Give me a blessing. You have given me land in the south; give me springs of water too." So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Joshua 15:20  This is the inheritance of the tribe of the people of Judah, family by family.
Joshua 15:21  The farthest cities of the tribe of the people of Judah, toward the border of Edom in the south, were Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur,
Joshua 15:22  Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah,
Joshua 15:23  Kedesh, Hazor, Ithnan,
Joshua 15:24  Ziph, Telem, Bealoth,
Joshua 15:25  Hazor, Hadattah, Kerioth and Hezron, that is, Hazor,
Joshua 15:26  Amam, Shema, Moladah,
Joshua 15:27  Hazar-gaddah, Heshmon, Beth-palet,
Joshua 15:28  Hazar-shual, Beersheba, Bizjothjah,
Joshua 15:29  Baalah, Iim, Azem,
Joshua 15:30  Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah,
Joshua 15:31  Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah,
Joshua 15:32  Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain and Rimmon. In all there were twenty-nine cities, with their villages.
Joshua 15:33  In the valley: Eshtaol, Zoreah, Ashnah,
Joshua 15:34  Zanoah, En-gannim, Tappuah, Enam,
Joshua 15:35  Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah,
Joshua 15:36  Sharaim, Adithaim, Gederah and Gederothaim: fourteen cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:37  Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal-gad,
Joshua 15:38  Dilean, Mizpeh, Joktheel,
Joshua 15:39  Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon,
Joshua 15:40  Cabbon, Lahmam, Kithlish,
Joshua 15:41  Gederoth, Beth-dagon, Naamah and Makkedah: sixteen cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:42  Libnah, Ether, Ashan,
Joshua 15:43  Jiphtah, Ashnah, Nezib,
Joshua 15:44  Keilah, Achzib and Mareshah: nine cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:45  Ekron, with its towns and its villages.
Joshua 15:46  From Ekron to the sea, all that lay near Ashdod, with their villages.
Joshua 15:47  Ashdod with its towns and its villages, Gaza with its towns and its villages, as far as the river of Egypt, and the Great Sea with its coast.
Joshua 15:48  In the hill country: Shamir, Jattir, Socoh,
Joshua 15:49  Dannah, Kirjath-sannah, that is, Debir,
Joshua 15:50  Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim,
Joshua 15:51  Goshen, Holon and Giloh: eleven cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:52  Arab, Dumah, Eshean,
Joshua 15:53  Janum, Beth-tappuah, Aphekah,
Joshua 15:54  Humtah, Kirjath-arba, that is, Hebron, and Zior: nine cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:55  Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,
Joshua 15:56  Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah,
Joshua 15:57  Cain, Gibeah and Timnah: ten cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:58  Halhul, Beth-zur, Gedor,
Joshua 15:59  Maarath, Beth-anoth and Eltekon: six cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:60  Kirjath-baal, that is, Kirjath-jearim, and Rabbah: two cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:61  In the wilderness: Beth-arabah, Middin, Secacah,
Joshua 15:62  Nibshan, the City of Salt and En-gedi: six cities with their villages.
Joshua 15:63  As for the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem, the people of Judah could not drive them out. So the Jebusites live with the people of Judah at Jerusalem to this day.

Joshua 16:1  The land given by lot to the children of Joseph began at the Jordan by Jericho. It ran to the water of Jericho on the east, and on to the wilderness that goes up from Jericho through the hill country of Bethel.
Joshua 16:2  It went on from Bethel to Luz, and passed along to the borders of Archi at Ataroth,
Joshua 16:3  and went down westward to the border of the Japhletites, as far as the border of Lower Bethhoron, and on to Gezer. It ended at the sea.
Joshua 16:4  So the children of Joseph, that is Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance.
Joshua 16:5  This was the border of the children of Ephraim, family by family: the border of their inheritance on the east side was Atarothaddar, as far as Upper Bethhoron.
Joshua 16:6  The border went out toward the sea to Michmethah on the north side. Then the border turned eastward to Taanathshiloh, and passed by it on the east to Janohah.
Joshua 16:7  It went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naarath, and came to Jericho, and ended at the Jordan.
Joshua 16:8  The border went out from Tappuah westward to the river Kanah, and it ended at the sea. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Ephraim, family by family.
Joshua 16:9  There were also separate cities for the children of Ephraim inside the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all those cities with their villages.
Joshua 16:10  They did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites live among the people of Ephraim to this day, and work for them as forced labour.

Joshua 17:1  There was also a portion for the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. It went to Machir, the firstborn of Manasseh and the father of Gilead. Because he was a man of war, he was given Gilead and Bashan.
Joshua 17:2  There was also a portion for the rest of the sons of Manasseh, family by family: for the sons of Abiezer, the sons of Helek, the sons of Asriel, the sons of Shechem, the sons of Hepher, and the sons of Shemida. These were the male children of Manasseh the son of Joseph, family by family.
Joshua 17:3  But Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, had no sons, only daughters. These are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah.
Joshua 17:4  They came to Eleazar the priest, to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the leaders, and said, "The LORD commanded Moses to give us land among our brothers." So, as the LORD commanded, he gave them land among their father's brothers.
Joshua 17:5  So ten portions fell to Manasseh, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which were on the other side of the Jordan.
Joshua 17:6  This was because the daughters of Manasseh received land among his sons, and the rest of Manasseh's sons had the land of Gilead.
Joshua 17:7  The border of Manasseh went from Asher to Michmethah, which lies in front of Shechem. Then the border went south to the people living at Entappuah.
Joshua 17:8  Manasseh had the land of Tappuah, but Tappuah itself, on the border of Manasseh, belonged to the sons of Ephraim.
Joshua 17:9  The border went down to the river Kanah, on the south side of the river. These cities of Ephraim are among the cities of Manasseh. The border of Manasseh was on the north side of the river, and it ended at the sea.
Joshua 17:10  The land to the south belonged to Ephraim, and the land to the north belonged to Manasseh, and the sea was its border. They reached Asher on the north and Issachar on the east.
Joshua 17:11  In Issachar and in Asher, Manasseh had Bethshean and its villages, Ibleam and its villages, the people of Dor and its villages, the people of Endor and its villages, the people of Taanach and its villages, and the people of Megiddo and its villages, three regions in all.
Joshua 17:12  Yet the sons of Manasseh could not drive out the people of those cities, and the Canaanites went on living in that land.
Joshua 17:13  But when the children of Israel grew strong, they made the Canaanites work for them, and did not drive them out completely.
Joshua 17:14  The children of Joseph said to Joshua, "Why have you given me only one portion and one share of land? I am a great people, for the LORD has blessed me until now."
Joshua 17:15  Joshua answered them, "If you are a great people, then go up to the forest country and clear land for yourself there, in the land of the Perizzites and of the giants, since the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you."
Joshua 17:16  The children of Joseph said, "The hill country is not enough for us. And all the Canaanites who live in the valley have chariots of iron, both those in Bethshean and its villages and those in the valley of Jezreel."
Joshua 17:17  Then Joshua spoke to the house of Joseph, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, and said, "You are a great people, and you have great power. You shall not have only one portion."
Joshua 17:18  "The hill country shall be yours. It is forest, and you shall cut it down, and its far edges shall be yours. You shall drive out the Canaanites, even though they have iron chariots and are strong."

Joshua 18:1  The whole community of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh, and set up the tent of meeting there. The land had been brought under their control.
Joshua 18:2  But among the children of Israel there were still seven tribes that had not yet received their inheritance.
Joshua 18:3  So Joshua said to the children of Israel, "How long will you put off going in to take the land which the LORD God of your fathers has given you?"
Joshua 18:4  "Choose three men from each tribe. I will send them out. They are to go through the land and write down a description of it, marking out the inheritance for each tribe. Then they are to come back to me."
Joshua 18:5  "They shall divide it into seven parts. Judah shall stay in their territory in the south, and the house of Joseph shall stay in their territory in the north."
Joshua 18:6  "So write down a description of the land in seven parts, and bring the description here to me. Then I will cast lots for you here before the LORD our God."
Joshua 18:7  "But the Levites have no share among you, because the priesthood of the LORD is their inheritance. And Gad, and Reuben, and half the tribe of Manasseh have already received their inheritance on the east side of the Jordan, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave them."
Joshua 18:8  So the men got up and went away. Joshua gave orders to those who went to describe the land. He said, "Go and walk through the land, and write down a description of it, and come back to me. Then I will cast lots for you here before the LORD in Shiloh."
Joshua 18:9  The men went and passed through the land. They wrote a description of it in a book, city by city, in seven parts. Then they came back to Joshua at the camp at Shiloh.
Joshua 18:10  Joshua cast lots for them in Shiloh before the LORD. There Joshua divided the land among the children of Israel, giving each group their share.
Joshua 18:11  The lot for the tribe of the children of Benjamin came up, family by family. The territory given to them by lot lay between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph.
Joshua 18:12  Their border on the north side began at the Jordan. The border went up to the slope of Jericho on the north, then up westward through the hill country, and it ended at the wilderness of Bethaven.
Joshua 18:13  From there the border crossed over toward Luz, to the slope of Luz (that is, Bethel) on the south. Then the border went down to Atarothadar, near the hill that lies on the south side of Lower Bethhoron.
Joshua 18:14  From there the border turned and bent round on the west side, going south from the hill that lies in front of Bethhoron on the south. It ended at Kirjathbaal (that is, Kirjathjearim), a city of the children of Judah. This was the western side.
Joshua 18:15  The southern side began at the edge of Kirjathjearim, and the border went out to the west, and came out at the spring of the waters of Nephtoah.
Joshua 18:16  Then the border went down to the edge of the hill that lies in front of the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is in the valley of the giants on the north. It went down the valley of Hinnom, to the slope of Jebusi on the south, and down to Enrogel.
Joshua 18:17  It turned from the north and went out to Enshemesh, and went out toward Geliloth, which is opposite the ascent of Adummim, and went down to the stone of Bohan the son of Reuben.
Joshua 18:18  It passed along the slope opposite Arabah on the north, and went down to Arabah.
Joshua 18:19  The border passed along to the slope of Bethhoglah on the north, and it ended at the north bay of the Salt Sea, at the south end of the Jordan. This was the southern border.
Joshua 18:20  The Jordan was the border on the east side. This was the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, with its borders all around, family by family.
Joshua 18:21  Now the cities of the tribe of the children of Benjamin, family by family, were Jericho, and Bethhoglah, and the valley of Keziz,
Joshua 18:22  and Betharabah, and Zemaraim, and Bethel,
Joshua 18:23  and Avim, and Parah, and Ophrah,
Joshua 18:24  and Chepharhaammonai, and Ophni, and Gaba: twelve cities with their villages.
Joshua 18:25  Gibeon, and Ramah, and Beeroth,
Joshua 18:26  and Mizpeh, and Chephirah, and Mozah,
Joshua 18:27  and Rekem, and Irpeel, and Taralah,
Joshua 18:28  and Zelah, Eleph, and Jebusi (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeath, and Kirjath: fourteen cities with their villages. This is the inheritance of the children of Benjamin, family by family.

Joshua 19:1  The second lot came out for Simeon, for the tribe of the children of Simeon, family by family. Their inheritance lay inside the inheritance of the children of Judah.
Joshua 19:2  In their inheritance they had Beersheba, or Sheba, and Moladah,
Joshua 19:3  and Hazarshual, and Balah, and Azem,
Joshua 19:4  and Eltolad, and Bethul, and Hormah,
Joshua 19:5  and Ziklag, and Bethmarcaboth, and Hazarsusah,
Joshua 19:6  and Bethlebaoth, and Sharuhen: thirteen cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:7  Also Ain, Remmon, and Ether, and Ashan: four cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:8  They also had all the villages around these cities as far as Baalathbeer, which is Ramath of the south. This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Simeon, family by family.
Joshua 19:9  The inheritance of the children of Simeon was taken out of the portion of the children of Judah. The part given to the children of Judah was too large for them, so the children of Simeon received their inheritance inside Judah's inheritance.
Joshua 19:10  The third lot came up for the children of Zebulun, family by family. The border of their inheritance went as far as Sarid.
Joshua 19:11  Their border went up westward toward the sea, and to Maralah, and reached Dabbasheth, and reached the river that is in front of Jokneam.
Joshua 19:12  From Sarid it turned east, toward the sunrise, to the border of Chislothtabor. Then it went out to Daberath, and up to Japhia.
Joshua 19:13  From there it passed along on the east to Gittahhepher, and to Ittahkazin, and went out to Remmonmethoar, to Neah.
Joshua 19:14  The border went around it on the north side to Hannathon, and it ended at the valley of Jiphthahel.
Joshua 19:15  It included Kattath, and Nahallal, and Shimron, and Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:16  This is the inheritance of the children of Zebulun, family by family: these cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:17  The fourth lot came out for Issachar, for the children of Issachar, family by family.
Joshua 19:18  Their border went toward Jezreel, and Chesulloth, and Shunem,
Joshua 19:19  and Hapharaim, and Shion, and Anaharath,
Joshua 19:20  and Rabbith, and Kishion, and Abez,
Joshua 19:21  and Remeth, and Engannim, and Enhaddah, and Bethpazzez.
Joshua 19:22  The border reached to Tabor, and Shahazimah, and Bethshemesh, and it ended at the Jordan: sixteen cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:23  This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Issachar, family by family: the cities and their villages.
Joshua 19:24  The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the children of Asher, family by family.
Joshua 19:25  Their border was Helkath, and Hali, and Beten, and Achshaph,
Joshua 19:26  and Alammelech, and Amad, and Misheal. It reached to Carmel on the west, and to Shihorlibnath.
Joshua 19:27  Then it turned toward the sunrise to Bethdagon, and reached to Zebulun, and to the valley of Jiphthahel on the north side of Bethemek, and Neiel, and went out to Cabul on the left hand,
Joshua 19:28  and to Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, as far as great Zidon.
Joshua 19:29  Then the border turned to Ramah, and to the strong city of Tyre. The border turned to Hosah, and it ended at the sea, in the region of Achzib.
Joshua 19:30  It also had Ummah, and Aphek, and Rehob: twenty-two cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:31  This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Asher, family by family: these cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:32  The sixth lot came out for the children of Naphtali, for the children of Naphtali, family by family.
Joshua 19:33  Their border ran from Heleph, from Allon to Zaanannim, and Adami, Nekeb, and Jabneel, as far as Lakum, and it ended at the Jordan.
Joshua 19:34  Then the border turned west to Aznothtabor, and went out from there to Hukkok. It reached Zebulun on the south side, and Asher on the west side, and Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise.
Joshua 19:35  The walled cities are Ziddim, Zer, and Hammath, Rakkath, and Chinnereth,
Joshua 19:36  and Adamah, and Ramah, and Hazor,
Joshua 19:37  and Kedesh, and Edrei, and Enhazor,
Joshua 19:38  and Iron, and Migdalel, Horem, and Bethanath, and Bethshemesh: nineteen cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:39  This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Naphtali, family by family: the cities and their villages.
Joshua 19:40  The seventh lot came out for the tribe of the children of Dan, family by family.
Joshua 19:41  The border of their inheritance was Zorah, and Eshtaol, and Irshemesh,
Joshua 19:42  and Shaalabbin, and Ajalon, and Jethlah,
Joshua 19:43  and Elon, and Thimnathah, and Ekron,
Joshua 19:44  and Eltekeh, and Gibbethon, and Baalath,
Joshua 19:45  and Jehud, and Beneberak, and Gathrimmon,
Joshua 19:46  and Mejarkon, and Rakkon, with the border in front of Japho.
Joshua 19:47  The land of the children of Dan was too small for them. So the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem. They took it and struck it with the edge of the sword. They took it for their own and lived in it, and they called Leshem by the name Dan, after the name of Dan their father.
Joshua 19:48  This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan, family by family: these cities with their villages.
Joshua 19:49  When they had finished dividing the land into its parts for an inheritance, the children of Israel gave an inheritance among them to Joshua the son of Nun.
Joshua 19:50  As the LORD had said, they gave him the city he asked for, Timnathserah in mount Ephraim. He built up the city and lived in it.
Joshua 19:51  These are the inheritances that Eleazar the priest, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the tribes of the children of Israel divided by lot for an inheritance in Shiloh before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So they finished dividing the land.

Joshua 20:1  The LORD also spoke to Joshua, and said,
Joshua 20:2  "Speak to the children of Israel, and say, 'Choose for yourselves cities of refuge, the ones I told you about through Moses.'"
Joshua 20:3  "Then anyone who kills a person by accident, without meaning to, can run there. These cities will be your refuge from the one who comes to avenge the blood."
Joshua 20:4  When a man runs to one of those cities, he is to stand at the entrance of the city gate and explain his case to the elders of that city. Then they are to take him into the city with them and give him a place, so that he may live among them.
Joshua 20:5  If the one who comes to avenge the blood chases after him, they must not hand the man over to him. For he struck his neighbour without meaning to, and he had not hated him before.
Joshua 20:6  He is to live in that city until he stands before the assembly for judgment, and until the death of the high priest who is serving in those days. Then the man who killed may go back and come to his own city and his own house, to the city he ran away from.
Joshua 20:7  So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, and Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the hill country of Judah.
Joshua 20:8  And on the other side of the Jordan, east of Jericho, they gave Bezer in the wilderness on the plain, from the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, from the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan, from the tribe of Manasseh.
Joshua 20:9  These were the cities chosen for all the children of Israel, and for the stranger living among them. Anyone who killed a person by accident could run there, and not die at the hand of the one who comes to avenge the blood, until he stood before the assembly.

Joshua 21:1  Then the heads of the families of the Levites came to Eleazar the priest, and to Joshua the son of Nun, and to the heads of the families of the tribes of the children of Israel.
Joshua 21:2  They spoke to them at Shiloh in the land of Canaan, saying, "The LORD commanded through Moses that we should be given cities to live in, with their pasture lands for our cattle."
Joshua 21:3  So the children of Israel gave the Levites these cities and their pasture lands out of their own inheritance, as the LORD had commanded.
Joshua 21:4  The lot came out for the families of the Kohathites. The children of Aaron the priest, who were Levites, received by lot thirteen cities from the tribe of Judah, from the tribe of Simeon, and from the tribe of Benjamin.
Joshua 21:5  The rest of the children of Kohath received by lot ten cities from the families of the tribe of Ephraim, from the tribe of Dan, and from the half tribe of Manasseh.
Joshua 21:6  The children of Gershon received by lot thirteen cities from the families of the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali, and from the half tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
Joshua 21:7  The children of Merari, family by family, received twelve cities from the tribe of Reuben, from the tribe of Gad, and from the tribe of Zebulun.
Joshua 21:8  So the children of Israel gave these cities with their pasture lands to the Levites by lot, as the LORD had commanded through Moses.
Joshua 21:9  From the tribe of the children of Judah and from the tribe of the children of Simeon they gave these cities, which are named here.
Joshua 21:10  They went to the children of Aaron, who belonged to the families of the Kohathites, of the children of Levi, because the first lot was theirs.
Joshua 21:11  They gave them the city of Arba the father of Anak, that is, Hebron, in the hill country of Judah, with the pasture lands around it.
Joshua 21:12  But the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh as his possession.
Joshua 21:13  So to the children of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron with its pasture lands, to be a city of refuge for anyone who killed a person, and Libnah with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:14  and Jattir with its pasture lands, and Eshtemoa with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:15  and Holon with its pasture lands, and Debir with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:16  and Ain with its pasture lands, and Juttah with its pasture lands, and Bethshemesh with its pasture lands: nine cities out of those two tribes.
Joshua 21:17  From the tribe of Benjamin they gave Gibeon with its pasture lands, Geba with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:18  Anathoth with its pasture lands, and Almon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Joshua 21:19  All the cities of the children of Aaron, the priests, were thirteen cities with their pasture lands.
Joshua 21:20  The families of the children of Kohath, the Levites who were left of the children of Kohath, received the cities of their lot from the tribe of Ephraim.
Joshua 21:21  They gave them Shechem with its pasture lands in the hill country of Ephraim, to be a city of refuge for anyone who killed a person, and Gezer with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:22  and Kibzaim with its pasture lands, and Bethhoron with its pasture lands: four cities.
Joshua 21:23  From the tribe of Dan they gave Eltekeh with its pasture lands, Gibbethon with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:24  Aijalon with its pasture lands, Gathrimmon with its pasture lands: four cities.
Joshua 21:25  From the half tribe of Manasseh they gave Tanach with its pasture lands, and Gathrimmon with its pasture lands: two cities.
Joshua 21:26  In all there were ten cities with their pasture lands for the families of the rest of the children of Kohath.
Joshua 21:27  To the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, they gave from the other half tribe of Manasseh: Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands, to be a city of refuge for anyone who killed a person, and Beeshterah with its pasture lands: two cities.
Joshua 21:28  From the tribe of Issachar they gave Kishon with its pasture lands, Dabareh with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:29  Jarmuth with its pasture lands, Engannim with its pasture lands: four cities.
Joshua 21:30  From the tribe of Asher they gave Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:31  Helkath with its pasture lands, and Rehob with its pasture lands: four cities.
Joshua 21:32  From the tribe of Naphtali they gave Kedesh in Galilee with its pasture lands, to be a city of refuge for anyone who killed a person, and Hammothdor with its pasture lands, and Kartan with its pasture lands: three cities.
Joshua 21:33  All the cities of the Gershonites, family by family, were thirteen cities with their pasture lands.
Joshua 21:34  To the families of the children of Merari, the rest of the Levites, they gave from the tribe of Zebulun: Jokneam with its pasture lands, and Kartah with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:35  Dimnah with its pasture lands, Nahalal with its pasture lands: four cities.
Joshua 21:36  From the tribe of Reuben they gave Bezer with its pasture lands, and Jahazah with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:37  Kedemoth with its pasture lands, and Mephaath with its pasture lands: four cities.
Joshua 21:38  From the tribe of Gad they gave Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands, to be a city of refuge for anyone who killed a person, and Mahanaim with its pasture lands,
Joshua 21:39  Heshbon with its pasture lands, Jazer with its pasture lands: four cities in all.
Joshua 21:40  So all the cities for the children of Merari, family by family, who were left of the families of the Levites, were twelve cities by their lot.
Joshua 21:41  All the cities of the Levites inside the land held by the children of Israel were forty-eight cities with their pasture lands.
Joshua 21:42  Each one of these cities had its pasture lands around it. So it was with all these cities.
Joshua 21:43  The LORD gave Israel all the land that he had sworn to give to their fathers. They took it and lived in it.
Joshua 21:44  The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies could stand before them. The LORD handed all their enemies over to them.
Joshua 21:45  Not one word failed of all the good things which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. Everything came true.

Joshua 22:1  Then Joshua called the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,
Joshua 22:2  and said to them, "You have kept everything that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you. You have also obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you."
Joshua 22:3  "You have not left your brothers all this long time, right up to this day. You have kept the charge that the LORD your God commanded you."
Joshua 22:4  "Now the LORD your God has given rest to your brothers, just as he promised them. So turn back now and go to your tents, to the land that belongs to you. Moses the servant of the LORD gave it to you on the other side of the Jordan."
Joshua 22:5  "But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to keep his commandments, to hold on to him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul."
Joshua 22:6  So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents.
Joshua 22:7  Moses had given land in Bashan to the one half of the tribe of Manasseh, but Joshua gave land to the other half among their brothers on this side of the Jordan, on the west. When Joshua sent them away to their tents also, he blessed them,
Joshua 22:8  and he said to them, "Go back to your tents with great riches, with very much cattle, with silver, with gold, with brass, with iron, and with very much clothing. Share the goods you took from your enemies with your brothers."
Joshua 22:9  So the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh turned back. They left the children of Israel at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the country of Gilead, to the land that belonged to them. They had taken it as their own, as the LORD had said through Moses.
Joshua 22:10  When they came to the borders of the Jordan, in the land of Canaan, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, a great altar to look at.
Joshua 22:11  And the children of Israel heard it said, "Look, the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh have built an altar facing the land of Canaan, in the borders of the Jordan, on the side where the children of Israel crossed over."
Joshua 22:12  When the children of Israel heard of it, the whole assembly of the children of Israel gathered together at Shiloh to go up and make war against them.
Joshua 22:13  And the children of Israel sent Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead,
Joshua 22:14  and with him ten leaders, one leader from each chief family throughout all the tribes of Israel. Each one was the head of his father's house among the thousands of Israel.
Joshua 22:15  They came to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad, and to the half tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them and said,
Joshua 22:16  "This is what the whole assembly of the LORD says: What is this wrong that you have done against the God of Israel, turning away today from following the LORD? You have built yourselves an altar, so that you rebel today against the LORD."
Joshua 22:17  "Was the sin of Peor too small a thing for us? We are not clean from it even to this day, and a plague came on the assembly of the LORD."
Joshua 22:18  "And now must you turn away today from following the LORD? If you rebel today against the LORD, then tomorrow he will be angry with the whole assembly of Israel."
Joshua 22:19  "Yet if the land that belongs to you is unclean, then cross over into the land that belongs to the LORD, where the LORD's tabernacle stands, and take land among us. But do not rebel against the LORD, and do not rebel against us, by building yourselves an altar besides the altar of the LORD our God."
Joshua 22:20  "Did not Achan the son of Zerah do wrong with the cursed thing, and anger fell on the whole assembly of Israel? That man did not die alone for his sin."
Joshua 22:21  Then the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh answered the heads of the thousands of Israel and said,
Joshua 22:22  "The LORD God of gods, the LORD God of gods, he knows, and Israel shall know. If this was rebellion, or if it was breaking faith with the LORD, do not save us this day."
Joshua 22:23  "If we have built ourselves an altar to turn away from following the LORD, or to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings on it, or to offer peace offerings on it, let the LORD himself call us to account."
Joshua 22:24  "No, we did it because we were afraid of something. We said, In time to come your children might say to our children, 'What have you to do with the LORD God of Israel?'"
Joshua 22:25  "'For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you, you children of Reuben and children of Gad. You have no share in the LORD.' So your children might make our children stop fearing the LORD."
Joshua 22:26  "So we said, Let us get ready and build ourselves an altar, not for burnt offerings and not for sacrifice,"
Joshua 22:27  "but so that it may be a witness between us and you, and between the generations that come after us, that we may do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, our sacrifices, and our peace offerings. Then your children will not say to our children in time to come, 'You have no share in the LORD.'"
Joshua 22:28  "So we said, If they ever say this to us or to our children in time to come, then we will answer, 'Look at the copy of the altar of the LORD that our fathers made, not for burnt offerings and not for sacrifices, but as a witness between us and you.'"
Joshua 22:29  "Far be it from us to rebel against the LORD and turn away today from following him, by building an altar for burnt offerings, grain offerings, or sacrifices, besides the altar of the LORD our God that stands before his tabernacle."
Joshua 22:30  When Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the assembly and the heads of the thousands of Israel who were with him heard the words that the children of Reuben and the children of Gad and the children of Manasseh spoke, they were pleased.
Joshua 22:31  And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the children of Reuben, to the children of Gad, and to the children of Manasseh, "Today we know that the LORD is among us, because you have not done this wrong against the LORD. Now you have saved the children of Israel from the hand of the LORD."
Joshua 22:32  Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders went back from the children of Reuben and from the children of Gad, out of the land of Gilead, to the land of Canaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word.
Joshua 22:33  The children of Israel were pleased with what they heard. They blessed God, and they no longer planned to go up against them in battle to destroy the land where the children of Reuben and Gad lived.
Joshua 22:34  And the children of Reuben and the children of Gad called the altar Ed, for they said, "It is a witness between us that the LORD is God."

Joshua 23:1  A long time after the LORD had given Israel rest from all their enemies around them, Joshua grew old and far on in years.
Joshua 23:2  Joshua called for all Israel, for their elders, their leaders, their judges, and their officers, and said to them, "I am old and far on in years."
Joshua 23:3  You have seen everything the LORD your God has done to all these nations because of you. It is the LORD your God who has fought for you.
Joshua 23:4  Look, I have divided among you by lot the nations that are left, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from the Jordan, along with all the nations I have cut off, as far as the great sea in the west.
Joshua 23:5  The LORD your God will push them out before you and drive them out of your sight. You will take their land for your own, just as the LORD your God promised you.
Joshua 23:6  So be very brave to keep and to do everything written in the book of the law of Moses. Do not turn away from it to the right hand or to the left.
Joshua 23:7  Do not mix with these nations, the ones that are left among you. Do not even speak the names of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them.
Joshua 23:8  But hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day.
Joshua 23:9  For the LORD has driven out great and strong nations from before you. As for you, no one has been able to stand against you to this day.
Joshua 23:10  One man of you will chase a thousand, for the LORD your God is the one who fights for you, just as he promised you.
Joshua 23:11  So take good care of yourselves, and love the LORD your God.
Joshua 23:12  But if you turn back in any way, and hold fast to what is left of these nations, the ones that remain among you, and marry them and go in to them, and they to you,
Joshua 23:13  then know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out any of these nations from before you. They will be snares and traps for you, whips on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.
Joshua 23:14  "Look, today I am going the way of all the earth. You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke about you. They have all come true for you, and not one of them has failed."
Joshua 23:15  So it will be that, just as all the good things have come upon you which the LORD your God promised you, in the same way the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from this good land which the LORD your God has given you.
Joshua 23:16  "When you have broken the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods and bowed down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land he has given you."

Joshua 24:1  Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to Shechem. He called for the elders of Israel, and for their leaders, and for their judges, and for their officers. And they came and stood before God.
Joshua 24:2  Joshua said to all the people, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'Long ago your fathers lived on the other side of the River. Terah, the father of Abraham and the father of Nachor, lived there, and they served other gods.'"
Joshua 24:3  "'I took your father Abraham from the other side of the River. I led him through all the land of Canaan, and I gave him many children after him, and I gave him Isaac.'"
Joshua 24:4  "'To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave mount Seir to be his own, but Jacob and his children went down into Egypt.'"
Joshua 24:5  "'I also sent Moses and Aaron, and I struck Egypt with plagues by what I did among them. Afterward I brought you out.'"
Joshua 24:6  "'I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea. The Egyptians chased your fathers with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red sea.'"
Joshua 24:7  "'When they cried out to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians. He brought the sea over them and covered them. Your own eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time.'"
Joshua 24:8  "'I brought you into the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of Jordan. They fought against you, and I gave them into your hand, so that you took their land. I destroyed them before you.'"
Joshua 24:9  "'Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose up and made war against Israel. He sent for Balaam the son of Beor to curse you.'"
Joshua 24:10  "'But I would not listen to Balaam. So he blessed you again and again, and I saved you out of his hand.'"
Joshua 24:11  "'You went over Jordan and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, and so did the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand.'"
Joshua 24:12  "'I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove them out before you, even the two kings of the Amorites. It was not by your sword or by your bow.'"
Joshua 24:13  "'I have given you a land you did not work for, and cities you did not build, and you live in them. You eat from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.'"
Joshua 24:14  "Now then, fear the LORD and serve him with a true and honest heart. Put away the gods your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15  "And if it seems wrong to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve: the gods your fathers served on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:16  The people answered, "May it never be that we should leave the LORD to serve other gods."
Joshua 24:17  "For the LORD our God is the one who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. He did those great signs before our eyes. He kept us safe all along the way we went, and among all the peoples we passed through."
Joshua 24:18  "And the LORD drove out before us all the peoples, including the Amorites who lived in the land. So we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."
Joshua 24:19  Joshua said to the people, "You cannot serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins."
Joshua 24:20  "If you leave the LORD and serve strange gods, then he will turn and bring harm on you and destroy you, after he has been good to you."
Joshua 24:21  And the people said to Joshua, "No, but we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:22  Joshua said to the people, "You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the LORD, to serve him." And they said, "We are witnesses."
Joshua 24:23  "Now then," he said, "put away the strange gods that are among you, and turn your heart to the LORD God of Israel."
Joshua 24:24  And the people said to Joshua, "We will serve the LORD our God, and we will obey his voice."
Joshua 24:25  So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day. He set down for them a law and a rule at Shechem.
Joshua 24:26  Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God. He took a great stone and set it up there under an oak, beside the holy place of the LORD.
Joshua 24:27  Joshua said to all the people, "Look, this stone will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the LORD which he spoke to us. So it will be a witness against you, in case you deny your God."
Joshua 24:28  So Joshua sent the people away, each to his own share of the land.
Joshua 24:29  After these things Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died. He was a hundred and ten years old.
Joshua 24:30  They buried him on the edge of his own land at Timnathserah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
Joshua 24:31  Israel served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who lived on after Joshua, and who had known all the works of the LORD that he had done for Israel.
Joshua 24:32  The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the piece of ground that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of silver. It became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.
Joshua 24:33  And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him in a hill that belonged to Phinehas his son, which had been given to him in mount Ephraim.

Judges

Judges 1:1  After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel asked the LORD, "Which of us shall go up first against the Canaanites, to fight against them?"
Judges 1:2  The LORD said, "Judah shall go up. Look, I have given the land into his hand."
Judges 1:3  Judah said to Simeon his brother, "Come up with me into the land given to me, and let us fight against the Canaanites. Then I also will go with you into the land given to you." So Simeon went with him.
Judges 1:4  Judah went up, and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand. They killed ten thousand men of them at Bezek.
Judges 1:5  They found Adonibezek in Bezek. They fought against him, and they killed the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
Judges 1:6  But Adonibezek ran away. They chased him and caught him, and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes.
Judges 1:7  Adonibezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and their big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table. As I have done, so God has paid me back." They brought him to Jerusalem, and there he died.
Judges 1:8  The people of Judah had fought against Jerusalem and had taken it. They struck it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire.
Judges 1:9  Afterward the people of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, and in the south, and in the valley.
Judges 1:10  Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron. (The name of Hebron before was Kirjatharba.) They killed Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
Judges 1:11  From there he went against the people living in Debir. (The name of Debir before was Kirjathsepher.)
Judges 1:12  Caleb said, "Whoever attacks Kirjathsepher and takes it, to him I will give Achsah my daughter as his wife."
Judges 1:13  Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it. So Caleb gave him Achsah his daughter as his wife.
Judges 1:14  When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. She got down off her donkey, and Caleb said to her, "What do you want?"
Judges 1:15  She said to him, "Give me a blessing. You have given me land in the south; give me also springs of water." So Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.
Judges 1:16  The children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the people of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which is in the south of Arad. They went and lived among the people.
Judges 1:17  Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they killed the Canaanites who lived in Zephath, and completely destroyed it. So the city was called Hormah.
Judges 1:18  Judah also took Gaza with its land around it, and Askelon with its land around it, and Ekron with its land around it.
Judges 1:19  The LORD was with Judah. He drove out the people of the hill country, but he could not drive out the people of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.
Judges 1:20  They gave Hebron to Caleb, as Moses had said, and he drove out from there the three sons of Anak.
Judges 1:21  The people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So the Jebusites live with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day.
Judges 1:22  The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel, and the LORD was with them.
Judges 1:23  The house of Joseph sent men to spy out Bethel. (The name of the city before was Luz.)
Judges 1:24  The spies saw a man coming out of the city, and they said to him, "Please show us the way into the city, and we will show you mercy."
Judges 1:25  When he showed them the way into the city, they struck the city with the edge of the sword. But they let the man go, and all his family.
Judges 1:26  The man went into the land of the Hittites and built a city. He called its name Luz, which is its name to this day.
Judges 1:27  Manasseh did not drive out the people of Bethshean and its towns, or Taanach and its towns, or the people of Dor and its towns, or the people of Ibleam and its towns, or the people of Megiddo and its towns. The Canaanites were determined to live in that land.
Judges 1:28  When Israel became strong, they made the Canaanites pay them tribute, but they did not completely drive them out.
Judges 1:29  Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites went on living in Gezer among them.
Judges 1:30  Zebulun did not drive out the people of Kitron or the people of Nahalol. So the Canaanites lived among them, and had to pay tribute.
Judges 1:31  Asher did not drive out the people of Accho, or the people of Zidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, or of Helbah, or of Aphik, or of Rehob.
Judges 1:32  So the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the people of the land, because they did not drive them out.
Judges 1:33  Naphtali did not drive out the people of Bethshemesh or the people of Bethanath. So he lived among the Canaanites, the people of the land. But the people of Bethshemesh and of Bethanath had to pay tribute to them.
Judges 1:34  The Amorites forced the people of Dan into the hill country. They would not allow them to come down to the valley.
Judges 1:35  The Amorites were determined to live in mount Heres, in Aijalon and in Shaalbim. Yet the hand of the house of Joseph grew strong, so that they had to pay tribute.
Judges 1:36  The border of the Amorites ran from the slope of Akrabbim, from the rock and upward.

Judges 2:1  An angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, "I brought you up out of Egypt. I brought you into the land that I promised to your fathers with an oath. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you.'"
Judges 2:2  "And you must make no agreement with the people who live in this land. You must pull down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this?"
Judges 2:3  "So I also say this: I will not drive them out from in front of you. They will be like thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a trap for you."
Judges 2:4  When the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the children of Israel, the people cried out loud and wept.
Judges 2:5  They called that place Bochim, and there they offered sacrifices to the LORD.
Judges 2:6  When Joshua had sent the people away, the children of Israel each went to his own share of the land, to take it as his own.
Judges 2:7  The people served the LORD as long as Joshua lived, and as long as the elders lived who outlived Joshua. Those elders had seen all the great works that the LORD did for Israel.
Judges 2:8  Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died. He was a hundred and ten years old.
Judges 2:9  They buried him on the border of his own land at Timnathheres, in the hill country of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
Judges 2:10  All that generation also were gathered to their fathers. After them another generation grew up who did not know the LORD, nor the works he had done for Israel.
Judges 2:11  The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baalim.
Judges 2:12  They left the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They followed other gods, the gods of the peoples around them, and they bowed down to them. So they made the LORD angry.
Judges 2:13  They left the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.
Judges 2:14  The anger of the LORD burned against Israel. He handed them over to raiders who robbed them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand against their enemies.
Judges 2:15  Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring trouble, just as the LORD had said and had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
Judges 2:16  Even so, the LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who robbed them.
Judges 2:17  Yet they would not listen to their judges. They gave themselves to other gods like an unfaithful wife, and bowed down to them. They quickly turned aside from the way their fathers had walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD. They did not do as their fathers had done.
Judges 2:18  When the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and saved them from the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived. For the LORD was moved by their groaning under those who crushed them and troubled them.
Judges 2:19  But when the judge died, they turned back and made themselves more corrupt than their fathers. They followed other gods, to serve them and to bow down to them. They did not stop their evil deeds or their stubborn ways.
Judges 2:20  The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he said, "This people have broken my covenant, which I commanded their fathers to keep, and they have not listened to my voice."
Judges 2:21  "So from now on I will not drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died."
Judges 2:22  "I will use them to test Israel, to see whether they will keep the way of the LORD and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not."
Judges 2:23  So the LORD let those nations stay. He did not drive them out quickly, and he had not handed them over to Joshua.

Judges 3:1  These are the nations that the LORD left in the land. He used them to test Israel, that is, all those in Israel who had not known any of the wars in Canaan.
Judges 3:2  He did this only so that the generations of the children of Israel might learn war, at least those who had known nothing of it before.
Judges 3:3  These are the nations: the five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites who lived in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baalhermon to the entrance of Hamath.
Judges 3:4  They were left to test Israel, to find out whether the people would listen to the commandments of the LORD, which he had given to their fathers through Moses.
Judges 3:5  So the children of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.
Judges 3:6  They took their daughters as wives, and gave their own daughters to their sons, and served their gods.
Judges 3:7  The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and the groves.
Judges 3:8  So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia. The children of Israel served Chushanrishathaim for eight years.
Judges 3:9  When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a rescuer for them, who set them free. He was Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
Judges 3:10  The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, and he judged Israel and went out to war. The LORD gave Chushanrishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand, and his hand was strong against Chushanrishathaim.
Judges 3:11  So the land had rest for forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
Judges 3:12  The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD made Eglon the king of Moab strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the sight of the LORD.
Judges 3:13  Eglon gathered the children of Ammon and Amalek to himself. He went and struck Israel, and took the city of palm trees.
Judges 3:14  So the children of Israel served Eglon the king of Moab for eighteen years.
Judges 3:15  But when the children of Israel cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up a rescuer for them: Ehud the son of Gera, a Benjamite, a left-handed man. By him the children of Israel sent a gift to Eglon the king of Moab.
Judges 3:16  Ehud made himself a dagger with two edges, a cubit long. He strapped it under his clothes on his right thigh.
Judges 3:17  He brought the gift to Eglon king of Moab. Now Eglon was a very fat man.
Judges 3:18  When Ehud had finished presenting the gift, he sent away the people who had carried it.
Judges 3:19  But he himself turned back from the quarries that were by Gilgal, and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." The king said, "Be quiet." And all those standing by him went out.
Judges 3:20  Ehud came to him while he was sitting alone in his cool upper room. Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." And the king got up from his seat.
Judges 3:21  Then Ehud reached out with his left hand, took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into his belly.
Judges 3:22  The handle went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, so that he could not pull the dagger out of his belly. And the dirt came out.
Judges 3:23  Then Ehud went out through the porch. He shut the doors of the room behind him and locked them.
Judges 3:24  When he had gone, the king's servants came. They saw that the doors of the room were locked, and they said, "He must be covering his feet in his cool room."
Judges 3:25  They waited until they were ashamed. He still did not open the doors of the room, so they took a key and opened them. And there was their lord, fallen down dead on the ground.
Judges 3:26  While they waited, Ehud escaped. He passed beyond the quarries and escaped to Seirath.
Judges 3:27  When he arrived, he blew a trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. The children of Israel went down with him from the hills, and he went ahead of them.
Judges 3:28  He said to them, "Follow me, for the LORD has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand." So they went down after him. They took the fords of Jordan that led to Moab, and let no one cross over.
Judges 3:29  At that time they killed about ten thousand men of Moab, all strong men and all men of valour. Not one man escaped.
Judges 3:30  So Moab was brought down that day under the hand of Israel. And the land had rest for eighty years.
Judges 3:31  After him came Shamgar the son of Anath. He killed six hundred men of the Philistines with an ox goad, and he too rescued Israel.

Judges 4:1  After Ehud was dead, the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD.
Judges 4:2  So the LORD sold them into the hand of Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The captain of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth of the Gentiles.
Judges 4:3  The children of Israel cried out to the LORD, for Sisera had nine hundred chariots of iron. For twenty years he cruelly oppressed the children of Israel.
Judges 4:4  Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lapidoth, was judging Israel at that time.
Judges 4:5  She sat under the palm tree of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim. The children of Israel came up to her for judgment.
Judges 4:6  She sent and called for Barak the son of Abinoam out of Kedeshnaphtali, and said to him, "Has not the LORD God of Israel given this command: 'Go and draw toward mount Tabor, and take with you ten thousand men of the children of Naphtali and of the children of Zebulun?"
Judges 4:7  "And I will draw Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army, to you at the river Kishon, with his chariots and his crowds of men. And I will give him into your hand.'"
Judges 4:8  Barak said to her, "If you will go with me, then I will go. But if you will not go with me, I will not go."
Judges 4:9  She said, "I will certainly go with you. But the journey you are taking will bring you no honour, for the LORD will sell Sisera into the hand of a woman." Then Deborah got up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Judges 4:10  Barak called Zebulun and Naphtali to Kedesh. Ten thousand men went up behind him, and Deborah went up with him.
Judges 4:11  Now Heber the Kenite, who was of the children of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, had separated himself from the Kenites. He had pitched his tent as far away as the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh.
Judges 4:12  They told Sisera that Barak the son of Abinoam had gone up to mount Tabor.
Judges 4:13  So Sisera gathered together all his chariots, even nine hundred chariots of iron, and all the people who were with him, from Harosheth of the Gentiles to the river Kishon.
Judges 4:14  Deborah said to Barak, "Get up. This is the day when the LORD has given Sisera into your hand. Has not the LORD gone out before you?" So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.
Judges 4:15  The LORD threw Sisera into panic, with all his chariots and all his army, before the edge of Barak's sword. Sisera got down from his chariot and fled away on foot.
Judges 4:16  But Barak chased after the chariots and after the army, as far as Harosheth of the Gentiles. All the army of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword, and not a man was left.
Judges 4:17  But Sisera fled away on foot to the tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite, because there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house of Heber the Kenite.
Judges 4:18  Jael went out to meet Sisera, and said to him, "Turn in, my lord, turn in to me. Do not be afraid." So he turned in to her, into the tent, and she covered him with a rug.
Judges 4:19  He said to her, "Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty." So she opened a skin of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him up.
Judges 4:20  Again he said to her, "Stand in the door of the tent. If any man comes and asks you, 'Is there any man here?' then say, 'No.'"
Judges 4:21  Then Jael, Heber's wife, took a tent peg and took a hammer in her hand. She went quietly to him and drove the peg into his temples, so that it went down into the ground, for he was fast asleep and worn out. So he died.
Judges 4:22  Look, as Barak was chasing Sisera, Jael came out to meet him and said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man you are looking for." When he came into her tent, there lay Sisera, dead, with the peg in his temples.
Judges 4:23  So on that day God subdued Jabin the king of Canaan before the children of Israel.
Judges 4:24  The hand of the children of Israel grew stronger and stronger against Jabin the king of Canaan, until they had destroyed Jabin king of Canaan.

Judges 5:1  Then on that day Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam sang:
Judges 5:2  Praise the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.
Judges 5:3  Hear, O kings; listen, O princes. I, even I, will sing to the LORD; I will sing praise to the LORD God of Israel.
Judges 5:4  LORD, when you went out from Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth shook, and the heavens poured down; the clouds also poured down water.
Judges 5:5  The mountains melted before the LORD, even Sinai melted before the LORD God of Israel.
Judges 5:6  In the days of Shamgar the son of Anath, in the days of Jael, the highways lay empty, and travellers walked along winding paths.
Judges 5:7  The people of the villages ceased; they ceased in Israel, until I, Deborah, arose, until I arose, a mother in Israel.
Judges 5:8  They chose new gods; then there was war in the gates. Was a shield or a spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
Judges 5:9  My heart goes out to the leaders of Israel, who offered themselves willingly among the people. Praise the LORD.
Judges 5:10  Speak, you who ride on white donkeys, you who sit in judgment, and you who walk by the way.
Judges 5:11  Those who are saved from the noise of the archers, at the places where water is drawn, there they will tell again the righteous acts of the LORD, the righteous acts toward the people of his villages in Israel. Then the people of the LORD will go down to the gates.
Judges 5:12  Awake, awake, Deborah; awake, awake, sing a song. Arise, Barak, and lead your captives away, you son of Abinoam.
Judges 5:13  Then he made the one who remained rule over the nobles among the people; the LORD made me rule over the mighty.
Judges 5:14  Out of Ephraim came a root of them against Amalek; after you, Benjamin, among your people. Out of Machir came down leaders, and out of Zebulun those who handle the pen of the writer.
Judges 5:15  And the princes of Issachar were with Deborah; Issachar was there, and Barak also: he was sent on foot into the valley. Among the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart.
Judges 5:16  Why did you stay among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleating of the flocks? Among the divisions of Reuben there were great searchings of heart.
Judges 5:17  Gilead stayed beyond Jordan. And why did Dan remain in ships? Asher stayed on the sea shore, and remained in his breaches.
Judges 5:18  Zebulun and Naphtali were a people who risked their lives to the death on the high places of the field.
Judges 5:19  The kings came and fought; then the kings of Canaan fought at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money.
Judges 5:20  They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
Judges 5:21  The river Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. O my soul, you have trodden down strength.
Judges 5:22  Then the horses' hoofs were broken by their galloping, the galloping of their mighty ones.
Judges 5:23  "Curse Meroz," said the angel of the LORD, "curse its people bitterly, because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty."
Judges 5:24  Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite will be blessed above women; blessed above women in the tent will she be.
Judges 5:25  He asked for water, and she gave him milk; she brought him butter in a lordly dish.
Judges 5:26  She put her hand to the tent peg, and her right hand to the workman's hammer. With the hammer she struck Sisera; she struck off his head, when she had pierced and struck through his temples.
Judges 5:27  At her feet he sank down, he fell, he lay still. At her feet he sank down, he fell; where he sank down, there he fell down dead.
Judges 5:28  The mother of Sisera looked out of a window, and cried through the lattice, "Why is his chariot so long in coming? Why are the wheels of his chariots so slow?"
Judges 5:29  Her wise ladies answered her; yes, she gave herself this answer:
Judges 5:30  "Have they not had success? Have they not divided the spoil? To every man a girl or two; to Sisera spoil of many colours, spoil of many colours in needlework, of many colours in needlework on both sides, fit for the necks of those who take the spoil?"
Judges 5:31  So let all your enemies perish, O LORD; but let those who love him be like the sun when it rises in its strength. And the land had rest for forty years.

Judges 6:1  The children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD handed them over to Midian for seven years.
Judges 6:2  Midian was too strong for Israel. Because of the Midianites, the children of Israel made themselves the hiding places that are in the mountains, and caves, and strongholds.
Judges 6:3  Whenever Israel had sown their seed, the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the people of the east. They came up against them.
Judges 6:4  They camped against them and destroyed the crops of the land, all the way to Gaza. They left no food for Israel, no sheep, no ox, and no donkey.
Judges 6:5  For they came up with their cattle and their tents. They came like a swarm of locusts, too many to count, and their camels could not be counted either. They came into the land to ruin it.
Judges 6:6  So Israel became very poor because of the Midianites, and the children of Israel cried out to the LORD.
Judges 6:7  When the children of Israel cried out to the LORD because of the Midianites,
Judges 6:8  the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel. He said to them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I brought you up from Egypt. I brought you out of the house of slavery."
Judges 6:9  I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all who crushed you. I drove them out before you and gave you their land.
Judges 6:10  "And I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God. Do not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not obeyed my voice."
Judges 6:11  Then an angel of the LORD came and sat under an oak tree in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite. His son Gideon was threshing wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.
Judges 6:12  The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, "The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valour."
Judges 6:13  Gideon said to him, "Oh my Lord, if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about, when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?' But now the LORD has left us, and handed us over to the Midianites."
Judges 6:14  The LORD looked at him and said, "Go in this strength of yours, and you will save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?"
Judges 6:15  And he said to him, "Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Look, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
Judges 6:16  The LORD said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as if they were one man."
Judges 6:17  And he said to him, "If I have now found grace in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who are talking with me."
Judges 6:18  "Please do not go away from here until I come back to you, and bring out my gift, and set it before you." And he said, "I will wait until you come again."
Judges 6:19  Gideon went in and prepared a young goat, and unleavened cakes from an ephah of flour. He put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot. He brought them out to him under the oak tree and offered them.
Judges 6:20  The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And he did so.
Judges 6:21  Then the angel of the LORD reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. Fire rose up out of the rock and burned up the meat and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the LORD went away out of his sight.
Judges 6:22  When Gideon understood that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, "Alas, O Lord GOD! For I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face."
Judges 6:23  And the LORD said to him, "Peace be to you. Do not be afraid. You will not die."
Judges 6:24  Then Gideon built an altar there to the LORD, and called it Jehovahshalom. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Judges 6:25  That same night the LORD said to him, "Take your father's young bull, the second bull, seven years old. Pull down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the grove that is beside it."
Judges 6:26  "Then build an altar to the LORD your God on the top of this rock, in the proper way. Take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove that you cut down."
Judges 6:27  So Gideon took ten men of his servants and did as the LORD had told him. But because he was afraid of his father's household and the men of the city, he could not do it by day, so he did it by night.
Judges 6:28  When the men of the city got up early in the morning, look, the altar of Baal was pulled down, and the grove beside it was cut down, and the second bull was offered on the altar that had been built.
Judges 6:29  They said to one another, "Who has done this thing?" And when they searched and asked, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing."
Judges 6:30  Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, so that he may die. For he has pulled down the altar of Baal, and he has cut down the grove that was beside it."
Judges 6:31  Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you plead for Baal? Will you save him? Whoever pleads for him, let him be put to death while it is still morning. If Baal is a god, let him plead for himself, because someone has pulled down his altar."
Judges 6:32  So on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, "Let Baal plead against him, because he has thrown down his altar."
Judges 6:33  Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the east gathered together. They crossed over and camped in the valley of Jezreel.
Judges 6:34  But the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, and Abiezer was gathered to follow him.
Judges 6:35  He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh, and they also were gathered to follow him. He sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali, and they came up to meet them.
Judges 6:36  Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said,"
Judges 6:37  "look, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If the dew is on the fleece only, and all the ground around it is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said."
Judges 6:38  And so it was. He got up early the next morning and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.
Judges 6:39  Gideon said to God, "Do not let your anger burn against me, and I will speak just this once. Let me test you, I ask you, just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry on the fleece only, and let there be dew on all the ground."
Judges 6:40  And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

Judges 7:1  Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people with him got up early and camped beside the well of Harod. The army of the Midianites was to the north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley.
Judges 7:2  The LORD said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands. Israel might boast against me and say, 'My own hand has saved me.'"
Judges 7:3  "So now call out to the people and say, 'Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him go back home and leave mount Gilead early.'" Twenty-two thousand of the people went back, and ten thousand remained.
Judges 7:4  The LORD said to Gideon, "There are still too many people. Bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there. If I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' he shall go with you. And if I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' he shall not go."
Judges 7:5  So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "Everyone who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, put him by himself. Do the same with everyone who kneels down to drink."
Judges 7:6  Three hundred men lapped, putting their hand to their mouth. All the rest of the people knelt down to drink water.
Judges 7:7  The LORD said to Gideon, "By the three hundred men who lapped I will save you, and give the Midianites into your hand. Let all the other people go, each man to his own place."
Judges 7:8  So the people took food in their hands, and their trumpets. Gideon sent all the rest of Israel away, each man to his tent, and kept those three hundred men. The army of Midian was below him in the valley.
Judges 7:9  That same night the LORD said to him, "Get up, go down to the camp, for I have given it into your hand."
Judges 7:10  "But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Phurah your servant."
Judges 7:11  "You will hear what they say, and afterward your hands will be made strong to go down to the camp." Then he went down with Phurah his servant to the edge of the armed men who were in the camp.
Judges 7:12  The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the east lay along the valley, as many as grasshoppers. Their camels could not be counted; they were as many as the sand by the seaside.
Judges 7:13  When Gideon came, there was a man telling a dream to his friend. He said, "Listen, I dreamed a dream. A loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the camp of Midian. It came to a tent and struck it so that it fell. It turned the tent over, and the tent lay flat."
Judges 7:14  His friend answered, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel. God has given Midian into his hand, and all the army."
Judges 7:15  When Gideon heard the dream told, and what it meant, he worshipped. He went back to the camp of Israel and said, "Get up, for the LORD has given the army of Midian into your hand."
Judges 7:16  He divided the three hundred men into three companies. He put a trumpet in every man's hand, with empty jars, and lamps inside the jars.
Judges 7:17  He said to them, "Watch me, and do the same. When I come to the edge of the camp, whatever I do, you do also."
Judges 7:18  "When I blow a trumpet, I and all who are with me, then you blow your trumpets too, on every side of the whole camp, and shout, 'The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon.'"
Judges 7:19  So Gideon and the hundred men with him came to the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch. The guards had only just been set. They blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands.
Judges 7:20  The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. They held the lamps in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands to blow them, and they shouted, "The sword of the LORD, and of Gideon."
Judges 7:21  Every man stood in his place around the camp. And the whole army ran, and shouted, and fled.
Judges 7:22  The three hundred blew the trumpets, and the LORD set every man's sword against his friend, through the whole army. The army fled to Bethshittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abelmeholah, as far as Tabbath.
Judges 7:23  The men of Israel gathered together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and chased after the Midianites.
Judges 7:24  Gideon sent messengers through all mount Ephraim, saying, "Come down against the Midianites, and take the waters before them as far as Bethbarah and Jordan." Then all the men of Ephraim gathered together and took the waters as far as Bethbarah and Jordan.
Judges 7:25  They captured two princes of the Midianites, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb on the rock Oreb, and Zeeb they killed at the winepress of Zeeb. They chased Midian, and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of Jordan.

Judges 8:1  The men of Ephraim said to him, "Why have you treated us like this? You did not call us when you went to fight the Midianites." And they argued with him sharply.
Judges 8:2  He said to them, "What have I done now compared with you? Is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the whole grape harvest of Abiezer?"
Judges 8:3  "God handed over to you the princes of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb. What was I able to do compared with you?" When he said that, their anger against him died down.
Judges 8:4  Gideon came to the Jordan and crossed over, he and the three hundred men who were with him. They were tired out, yet they kept up the chase.
Judges 8:5  He said to the men of Succoth, "Please give loaves of bread to the people who are following me, for they are worn out. I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the kings of Midian."
Judges 8:6  But the princes of Succoth said, "Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your army?"
Judges 8:7  Gideon said, "For that, when the LORD has given Zebah and Zalmunna into my hand, I will tear your flesh with the thorns of the desert and with briers."
Judges 8:8  From there he went up to Penuel and spoke to them in the same way. The men of Penuel answered him just as the men of Succoth had answered.
Judges 8:9  So he said to the men of Penuel, "When I come back in peace, I will break down this tower."
Judges 8:10  Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their armies, about fifteen thousand men. They were all who were left of all the armies of the people of the east, for a hundred and twenty thousand men who carried swords had fallen.
Judges 8:11  Gideon went up by the road of those who lived in tents, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and he struck the army down, for the army felt safe.
Judges 8:12  When Zebah and Zalmunna ran away, he chased them. He captured the two kings of Midian, Zebah and Zalmunna, and he scattered the whole army in panic.
Judges 8:13  Gideon the son of Joash came back from the battle before the sun was up.
Judges 8:14  He caught a young man from the men of Succoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for him the names of the princes of Succoth and its elders, seventy-seven men.
Judges 8:15  Then he came to the men of Succoth and said, "Look at Zebah and Zalmunna. You taunted me about them and said, 'Are Zebah and Zalmunna already in your hand, that we should give bread to your tired men?'"
Judges 8:16  So he took the elders of the city, and thorns of the desert and briers, and with them he taught the men of Succoth.
Judges 8:17  He broke down the tower of Penuel and killed the men of the city.
Judges 8:18  Then he said to Zebah and Zalmunna, "What sort of men were those you killed at Tabor?" They answered, "They were like you. Each one looked like the son of a king."
Judges 8:19  He said, "They were my brothers, the sons of my own mother. As surely as the LORD lives, if you had let them live, I would not kill you."
Judges 8:20  He said to Jether his oldest son, "Get up and kill them." But the boy did not draw his sword. He was afraid, because he was still only a boy.
Judges 8:21  Then Zebah and Zalmunna said, "Get up yourself and strike us down, for as the man is, so is his strength." So Gideon got up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna, and he took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.
Judges 8:22  Then the men of Israel said to Gideon, "Rule over us, you and your son and your son's son also, for you have saved us from the hand of Midian."
Judges 8:23  Gideon said to them, "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you. The LORD will rule over you."
Judges 8:24  Gideon said to them, "I would like to ask one thing of you. Let each of you give me the earrings from what he has taken." (They had golden earrings, because they were Ishmaelites.)
Judges 8:25  They answered, "We will gladly give them." So they spread out a garment, and each man threw into it the earrings from what he had taken.
Judges 8:26  The golden earrings he asked for weighed one thousand seven hundred shekels of gold. This was besides the ornaments, the collars, and the purple clothes that were on the kings of Midian, and besides the chains that were round the necks of their camels.
Judges 8:27  Gideon made an ephod out of it and put it in his own town, in Ophrah. And all Israel went there and prostituted themselves to it. It became a trap to Gideon and to his family.
Judges 8:28  So Midian was brought down before the children of Israel, and they did not lift up their heads any more. And the land was quiet for forty years, in the days of Gideon.
Judges 8:29  Jerubbaal the son of Joash went and lived in his own house.
Judges 8:30  Gideon had seventy sons of his own, for he had many wives.
Judges 8:31  His concubine who was in Shechem also bore him a son, and he called his name Abimelech.
Judges 8:32  Gideon the son of Joash died at a good old age. He was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
Judges 8:33  As soon as Gideon was dead, the children of Israel turned away again and prostituted themselves to the Baalim, and they made Baalberith their god.
Judges 8:34  The children of Israel did not remember the LORD their God, who had saved them from the hands of all their enemies on every side.
Judges 8:35  They showed no kindness to the family of Jerubbaal, that is, Gideon, for all the good that he had done for Israel.

Judges 9:1  Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem, to his mother's brothers. He spoke with them and with all the family of his mother's father, and said,
Judges 9:2  "Please say this in the hearing of all the men of Shechem: 'Which is better for you, that all seventy sons of Jerubbaal rule over you, or that one man rule over you?' Remember also that I am your own bone and your own flesh."
Judges 9:3  His mother's brothers said all these words about him in the hearing of all the men of Shechem. Their hearts turned to follow Abimelech, for they said, "He is our brother."
Judges 9:4  They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baalberith. With this money Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men, and they followed him.
Judges 9:5  He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and killed his brothers the sons of Jerubbaal, seventy men, on one stone. But Jotham the youngest son of Jerubbaal was left, for he had hidden himself.
Judges 9:6  All the men of Shechem gathered together, and all the house of Millo. They went and made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar that was in Shechem.
Judges 9:7  When they told Jotham about it, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim. He lifted up his voice and called out to them, "Listen to me, you men of Shechem, so that God may listen to you."
Judges 9:8  "Once the trees went out to anoint a king over them. They said to the olive tree, 'You be king over us.'"
Judges 9:9  "But the olive tree said to them, 'Should I leave my rich oil, by which they honour God and man, and go to be lifted up over the trees?'"
Judges 9:10  "Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'Come, you be king over us.'"
Judges 9:11  "But the fig tree said to them, 'Should I give up my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to be lifted up over the trees?'"
Judges 9:12  "Then the trees said to the vine, 'Come, you be king over us.'"
Judges 9:13  "But the vine said to them, 'Should I leave my wine, which cheers God and man, and go to be lifted up over the trees?'"
Judges 9:14  "Then all the trees said to the bramble, 'Come, you be king over us.'"
Judges 9:15  "And the bramble said to the trees, 'If you truly anoint me king over you, then come and take shelter in my shade. But if not, let fire come out of the bramble and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.'"
Judges 9:16  "Now then, if you have acted truly and honestly in making Abimelech king, and if you have dealt well with Jerubbaal and his house, and have treated him as his hands deserved -"
Judges 9:17  "for my father fought for you, and risked his life, and rescued you out of the hand of Midian,"
Judges 9:18  "but today you have risen up against my father's house, and have killed his sons, seventy men, on one stone, and have made Abimelech, the son of his servant girl, king over the men of Shechem, because he is your brother -"
Judges 9:19  "if, then, you have dealt truly and honestly with Jerubbaal and with his house this day, then be glad in Abimelech, and let him also be glad in you."
Judges 9:20  "But if not, let fire come out from Abimelech and burn up the men of Shechem and the house of Millo. And let fire come out from the men of Shechem and from the house of Millo, and burn up Abimelech."
Judges 9:21  Then Jotham ran away and escaped. He went to Beer and lived there, because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech.
Judges 9:22  When Abimelech had ruled over Israel three years,
Judges 9:23  God sent an evil spirit between Abimelech and the men of Shechem, and the men of Shechem acted treacherously against Abimelech.
Judges 9:24  This happened so that the cruel killing of the seventy sons of Jerubbaal might come back, and their blood be laid on Abimelech their brother, who killed them, and on the men of Shechem, who helped him kill his brothers.
Judges 9:25  The men of Shechem set men to lie in wait for him on the mountain tops, and they robbed everyone who passed by them along that road. And Abimelech was told about it.
Judges 9:26  Gaal the son of Ebed came with his brothers and crossed over to Shechem, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him.
Judges 9:27  They went out into the fields, gathered the grapes from their vineyards, and trod them. They held a feast, and went into the house of their god, and ate and drank, and cursed Abimelech.
Judges 9:28  Gaal the son of Ebed said, "Who is Abimelech, and who is Shechem, that we should serve him? Is he not the son of Jerubbaal, and Zebul his officer? Serve the men of Hamor the father of Shechem. Why should we serve Abimelech?"
Judges 9:29  "If only this people were under my hand! Then I would get rid of Abimelech." And he said to Abimelech, "Make your army bigger, and come out."
Judges 9:30  When Zebul the ruler of the city heard the words of Gaal the son of Ebed, he was very angry.
Judges 9:31  He sent messengers secretly to Abimelech, saying, "Look, Gaal the son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are stirring up the city against you."
Judges 9:32  "So get up by night, you and the people who are with you, and lie in wait in the field."
Judges 9:33  "In the morning, as soon as the sun is up, rise early and attack the city. When he and the people with him come out against you, then do to them whatever you find chance to do."
Judges 9:34  So Abimelech and all the people who were with him got up by night, and they lay in wait against Shechem in four companies.
Judges 9:35  Gaal the son of Ebed went out and stood at the entrance of the city gate. Then Abimelech and the people with him got up from their hiding places.
Judges 9:36  When Gaal saw the people, he said to Zebul, "Look, people are coming down from the mountain tops." Zebul said to him, "You are seeing the shadow of the mountains as if it were men."
Judges 9:37  Gaal spoke again and said, "See, people are coming down from the middle of the land, and another company is coming by the plain of Meonenim."
Judges 9:38  Then Zebul said to him, "Where is your mouth now? You said, 'Who is Abimelech, that we should serve him?' Are these not the people you looked down on? Go out now and fight with them."
Judges 9:39  So Gaal went out in front of the men of Shechem and fought with Abimelech.
Judges 9:40  Abimelech chased him, and Gaal fled before him. Many fell wounded, right up to the entrance of the gate.
Judges 9:41  Abimelech stayed at Arumah, and Zebul drove out Gaal and his brothers, so that they could not live in Shechem.
Judges 9:42  The next day the people went out into the field, and Abimelech was told about it.
Judges 9:43  He took his people and divided them into three companies, and lay in wait in the field. He looked, and there were the people coming out of the city. So he rose up against them and struck them down.
Judges 9:44  Abimelech and the company with him rushed forward and stood at the entrance of the city gate. The other two companies ran at all the people who were in the fields and killed them.
Judges 9:45  Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people in it. He pulled the city down and sowed it with salt.
Judges 9:46  When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they went into the stronghold of the house of the god Berith.
Judges 9:47  Abimelech was told that all the men of the tower of Shechem were gathered together.
Judges 9:48  So Abimelech went up to Mount Zalmon, he and all the people who were with him. Abimelech took an axe in his hand and cut down a branch from the trees. He lifted it and laid it on his shoulder, and said to the people with him, "What you have seen me do, hurry and do the same."
Judges 9:49  So all the people also cut down branches, each man his own, and followed Abimelech. They piled them against the stronghold and set the stronghold on fire over them, so that all the men of the tower of Shechem died too, about a thousand men and women.
Judges 9:50  Then Abimelech went to Thebez, and camped against Thebez, and captured it.
Judges 9:51  But there was a strong tower inside the city, and all the men and women and all the people of the city fled there. They shut themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower.
Judges 9:52  Abimelech came to the tower and fought against it. He went right up to the door of the tower to burn it with fire.
Judges 9:53  But a woman threw a piece of a millstone down on Abimelech's head, and it crushed his skull.
Judges 9:54  Then he called quickly to the young man who carried his armour and said to him, "Draw your sword and kill me, so that people will not say of me, 'A woman killed him.'" So his young man ran him through, and he died.
Judges 9:55  When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, every man went home to his own place.
Judges 9:56  In this way God paid back the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father by killing his seventy brothers.
Judges 9:57  God also made all the evil of the men of Shechem come back on their own heads. The curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them.

Judges 10:1  After Abimelech, Tola rose up to save Israel. He was the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar. He lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
Judges 10:2  He judged Israel twenty-three years. Then he died, and he was buried in Shamir.
Judges 10:3  After him rose up Jair, a Gileadite. He judged Israel twenty-two years.
Judges 10:4  He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts. They had thirty cities, which are called Havothjair to this day. They are in the land of Gilead.
Judges 10:5  Jair died, and he was buried in Camon.
Judges 10:6  The children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD. They served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, the gods of Zidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines. They left the LORD and did not serve him.
Judges 10:7  The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon.
Judges 10:8  That year they crushed and oppressed the children of Israel. For eighteen years they oppressed all the children of Israel who were on the other side of the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
Judges 10:9  The children of Ammon also crossed over the Jordan to fight against Judah, against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim. So Israel was in great distress.
Judges 10:10  The children of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against you. We have left our God, and we have served the Baals."
Judges 10:11  The LORD said to the children of Israel, "Did I not save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines?"
Judges 10:12  "The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you. You cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand."
Judges 10:13  "Yet you have left me and served other gods. So I will save you no more."
Judges 10:14  "Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble."
Judges 10:15  The children of Israel said to the LORD, "We have sinned. Do to us whatever seems good to you. Only save us, we pray, this day."
Judges 10:16  They put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD. And his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Judges 10:17  Then the children of Ammon gathered together and camped in Gilead. And the children of Israel came together and camped in Mizpeh.
Judges 10:18  The people and leaders of Gilead said to one another, "Who is the man that will begin the fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all who live in Gilead."

Judges 11:1  Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of a prostitute. Gilead was the father of Jephthah.
Judges 11:2  Gilead's wife also bore him sons. When his wife's sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, "You will not inherit anything in our father's house, for you are the son of another woman."
Judges 11:3  So Jephthah ran away from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Worthless men gathered around Jephthah and went out with him.
Judges 11:4  After some time the children of Ammon made war against Israel.
Judges 11:5  When the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob.
Judges 11:6  They said to Jephthah, "Come and be our captain, so that we can fight against the children of Ammon."
Judges 11:7  Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Did you not hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? Why do you come to me now, when you are in trouble?"
Judges 11:8  The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "That is why we have turned to you now. Come with us and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the people who live in Gilead."
Judges 11:9  Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you take me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your head?"
Judges 11:10  The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "The LORD be witness between us if we do not do just as you say."
Judges 11:11  Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them. And Jephthah spoke all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh.
Judges 11:12  Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, "What quarrel do you have with me, that you have come against me to fight in my land?"
Judges 11:13  The king of the children of Ammon answered Jephthah's messengers, "Because Israel took my land away when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon as far as Jabbok, and as far as the Jordan. Now give those lands back peaceably."
Judges 11:14  Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon,
Judges 11:15  and said to him, "This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab, or the land of the children of Ammon."
Judges 11:16  "But when Israel came up from Egypt, they walked through the wilderness to the Red sea, and came to Kadesh."
Judges 11:17  "Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Please let me pass through your land.' But the king of Edom would not listen. In the same way they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not agree. So Israel stayed in Kadesh."
Judges 11:18  "Then they went on through the wilderness and went around the land of Edom and the land of Moab. They came by the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of Arnon. But they did not come inside the border of Moab, for Arnon was the border of Moab."
Judges 11:19  "Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to our own place.'"
Judges 11:20  "But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his land. Sihon gathered all his people together, camped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel."
Judges 11:21  "And the LORD God of Israel gave Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them down. So Israel took over all the land of the Amorites, the people who lived in that country."
Judges 11:22  "They took over all the land of the Amorites, from Arnon as far as Jabbok, and from the wilderness as far as the Jordan."
Judges 11:23  "So the LORD God of Israel drove out the Amorites from before his people Israel. And should you take possession of it?"
Judges 11:24  "Will you not keep whatever Chemosh your god gives you to keep? So whoever the LORD our God drives out from before us, their land we will take."
Judges 11:25  "And now, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever quarrel with Israel, or did he ever fight against them?"
Judges 11:26  "Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities along the banks of Arnon, for three hundred years. Why did you not take them back during that time?"
Judges 11:27  "So I have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong by making war on me. May the LORD, the Judge, judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."
Judges 11:28  But the king of the children of Ammon would not listen to the words Jephthah sent him.
Judges 11:29  Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed through Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he went on to the children of Ammon.
Judges 11:30  And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD, and said, "If you will without fail give the children of Ammon into my hands,"
Judges 11:31  "then whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, will surely belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering."
Judges 11:32  So Jephthah went over to the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hands.
Judges 11:33  He struck them down from Aroer as far as Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as the plain of the vineyards, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were brought low before the children of Israel.
Judges 11:34  Jephthah came to his house at Mizpeh, and look, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. She was his only child. Apart from her he had neither son nor daughter.
Judges 11:35  When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Oh, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take it back."
Judges 11:36  She said to him, "My father, if you have opened your mouth to the LORD, do to me what you said with your own mouth, since the LORD has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, the children of Ammon."
Judges 11:37  And she said to her father, "Let this be done for me: leave me alone for two months, so that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my friends."
Judges 11:38  He said, "Go." And he sent her away for two months. She went with her companions and wept for her virginity on the mountains.
Judges 11:39  At the end of two months she came back to her father, and he did with her as he had vowed. And she had never known a man. And it became a custom in Israel
Judges 11:40  that the daughters of Israel went every year to mourn for the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in a year.

Judges 12:1  The men of Ephraim gathered together and went north. They said to Jephthah, "Why did you cross over to fight against the children of Ammon, and did not call us to go with you? We will burn your house down over you with fire."
Judges 12:2  Jephthah said to them, "I and my people were in a great struggle with the children of Ammon. When I called you, you did not save me out of their hands."
Judges 12:3  "When I saw that you would not save me, I took my life in my own hands and crossed over against the children of Ammon, and the LORD gave them into my hand. Why then have you come up to me this day to fight against me?"
Judges 12:4  Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead struck Ephraim down, because they had said, "You Gileadites are runaways from Ephraim, living among the Ephraimites and among the Manassites."
Judges 12:5  The Gileadites took the fords of the Jordan ahead of the Ephraimites. When any of the Ephraimites who had escaped said, "Let me go over," the men of Gilead asked him, "Are you an Ephraimite?" If he said, "No,"
Judges 12:6  then they said to him, "Say now: Shibboleth." And he said, "Sibboleth," for he could not say it correctly. Then they took him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time forty and two thousand of the Ephraimites fell.
Judges 12:7  Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died, and he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
Judges 12:8  After him Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.
Judges 12:9  He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He sent his daughters away to be married, and brought in thirty daughters from elsewhere for his sons. He judged Israel seven years.
Judges 12:10  Then Ibzan died, and he was buried at Bethlehem.
Judges 12:11  After him Elon, a Zebulonite, judged Israel; and he judged Israel ten years.
Judges 12:12  Elon the Zebulonite died, and he was buried in Aijalon in the country of Zebulun.
Judges 12:13  After him Abdon the son of Hillel, a Pirathonite, judged Israel.
Judges 12:14  He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkey colts. He judged Israel eight years.
Judges 12:15  Abdon the son of Hillel the Pirathonite died, and he was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Judges 13:1  The children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD. So the LORD handed them over to the Philistines for forty years.
Judges 13:2  There was a certain man from Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. His wife could not have children; she had borne none.
Judges 13:3  The angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, "Look, you cannot have children and have borne none. But you will become pregnant and give birth to a son."
Judges 13:4  "So now be careful, please. Do not drink wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean."
Judges 13:5  "For look, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. No razor is to come on his head, for the child will be a Nazarite to God from the womb. He will begin to rescue Israel out of the hand of the Philistines."
Judges 13:6  Then the woman came and told her husband. She said, "A man of God came to me, and his face was like the face of an angel of God, very terrible. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name."
Judges 13:7  "But he said to me, 'Look, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son. So now drink no wine or strong drink, and do not eat anything unclean. For the child will be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death.'"
Judges 13:8  Then Manoah prayed to the LORD and said, "My Lord, let the man of God whom you sent come to us again, and teach us what we are to do for the child who will be born."
Judges 13:9  God listened to the voice of Manoah. The angel of God came again to the woman as she sat in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.
Judges 13:10  The woman hurried and ran and told her husband. She said to him, "Look, the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again."
Judges 13:11  Manoah got up and followed his wife. He came to the man and said to him, "Are you the man who spoke to my wife?" He said, "I am."
Judges 13:12  Manoah said, "Now let your words come true. How shall we raise the child, and what shall we do for him?"
Judges 13:13  The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Let the woman be careful of everything I said to her."
Judges 13:14  "She must not eat anything that comes from the vine. She must not drink wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean. Let her keep all that I commanded her."
Judges 13:15  Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "Please let us keep you here until we have got a young goat ready for you."
Judges 13:16  The angel of the LORD said to Manoah, "Even if you keep me here, I will not eat your food. But if you will offer a burnt offering, you must offer it to the LORD." Manoah did not know that he was an angel of the LORD.
Judges 13:17  Manoah said to the angel of the LORD, "What is your name, so that when your words come true we may honour you?"
Judges 13:18  The angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask my name like this, since it is secret?"
Judges 13:19  So Manoah took a young goat with a food offering, and offered it on a rock to the LORD. The angel did a wonderful thing, and Manoah and his wife looked on.
Judges 13:20  When the flame went up towards heaven from the altar, the angel of the LORD went up in the flame of the altar. Manoah and his wife saw it, and they fell with their faces to the ground.
Judges 13:21  The angel of the LORD did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the LORD.
Judges 13:22  Manoah said to his wife, "We will certainly die, because we have seen God."
Judges 13:23  But his wife said to him, "If the LORD had wanted to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a food offering from our hands. He would not have shown us all these things, and he would not have told us such things as these at this time."
Judges 13:24  The woman gave birth to a son and called his name Samson. The child grew, and the LORD blessed him.
Judges 13:25  The Spirit of the LORD began to stir him at times in the camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

Judges 14:1  Samson went down to Timnath. There he saw a woman, one of the daughters of the Philistines.
Judges 14:2  He came back up and told his father and his mother. He said, "I have seen a woman in Timnath, one of the daughters of the Philistines. Now get her for me as my wife."
Judges 14:3  Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there no woman among the daughters of your own people, or among all my people? Must you go and take a wife from the Philistines, who are not circumcised?" But Samson said to his father, "Get her for me, for she pleases me well."
Judges 14:4  His father and his mother did not know that this was from the LORD, and that he was looking for a reason to act against the Philistines. At that time the Philistines ruled over Israel.
Judges 14:5  So Samson went down to Timnath with his father and his mother. They came to the vineyards of Timnath, and look, a young lion came roaring at him.
Judges 14:6  The Spirit of the LORD came powerfully on him, and he tore the lion apart as easily as if it were a young goat, and he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
Judges 14:7  He went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.
Judges 14:8  After a while he came back to take her. He turned off the road to look at the dead body of the lion, and look, there was a swarm of bees in the lion's body, and honey.
Judges 14:9  He scooped it out into his hands and went on his way, eating as he went. He came to his father and mother and gave them some, and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion.
Judges 14:10  So his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, for that is what the young men used to do.
Judges 14:11  When they saw him, they brought thirty companions to be with him.
Judges 14:12  Samson said to them, "Let me set you a riddle. If you can tell me the answer within the seven days of the feast, and work it out, then I will give you thirty linen sheets and thirty sets of clothes."
Judges 14:13  "But if you cannot tell me the answer, then you must give me thirty linen sheets and thirty sets of clothes." They said to him, "Tell us your riddle. Let us hear it."
Judges 14:14  He said to them, "Out of the eater came food, and out of the strong came sweetness." For three days they could not explain the riddle.
Judges 14:15  On the seventh day they said to Samson's wife, "Coax your husband, so that he tells us the riddle. If you do not, we will burn you and your father's house with fire. Did you invite us here to make us poor? Is that not so?"
Judges 14:16  So Samson's wife wept in front of him and said, "You only hate me. You do not love me. You have set a riddle to the men of my people, and you have not told me the answer." He said to her, "Look, I have not told my father or my mother. Why should I tell you?"
Judges 14:17  She wept in front of him for the seven days their feast lasted. On the seventh day he told her, because she kept pressing him so hard. Then she told the riddle to the men of her people.
Judges 14:18  On the seventh day, before the sun went down, the men of the city said to him, "What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?" He said to them, "If you had not plowed with my heifer, you would not have found out my riddle."
Judges 14:19  The Spirit of the LORD came on him, and he went down to Ashkelon. He killed thirty men of them and took what they had, and gave the sets of clothes to those who had explained the riddle. His anger burned, and he went up to his father's house.
Judges 14:20  But Samson's wife was given to his companion, the one he had treated as his friend.

Judges 15:1  A while later, in the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing a young goat. He said, "I will go in to my wife in her room." But her father would not let him go in.
Judges 15:2  Her father said, "I really thought that you hated her completely, so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister better looking than she is? Please take her instead."
Judges 15:3  Samson said about them, "This time I will not be to blame when I do harm to the Philistines."
Judges 15:4  So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches, and he turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.
Judges 15:5  He set the torches on fire and let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines. He burned up the stacked grain and the standing grain, and the vineyards and olive trees as well.
Judges 15:6  Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?" And they were told, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he took his wife and gave her to his companion." So the Philistines came up and burned her and her father with fire.
Judges 15:7  Samson said to them, "Since you have done this, I will pay you back, and after that I will stop."
Judges 15:8  He struck them hip and thigh, and killed a great many of them. Then he went down and stayed in a cave in the rock of Etam.
Judges 15:9  Then the Philistines went up and camped in Judah, and spread out in Lehi.
Judges 15:10  The men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" They answered, "We have come up to tie up Samson, to do to him as he has done to us."
Judges 15:11  Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave in the rock of Etam. They said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines rule over us? What is this you have done to us?" He said to them, "As they did to me, so I have done to them."
Judges 15:12  They said to him, "We have come down to tie you up, so that we can hand you over to the Philistines." Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me."
Judges 15:13  They said to him, "No. We will only tie you up tightly and hand you over to them. We will surely not kill you." So they tied him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.
Judges 15:14  When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully on him. The ropes on his arms became like flax that has been burned with fire, and the bonds fell off his hands.
Judges 15:15  He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey. He reached out his hand and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men.
Judges 15:16  And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps; with the jaw of a donkey I have killed a thousand men."
Judges 15:17  When he had finished speaking, he threw the jawbone out of his hand, and he called that place Ramathlehi.
Judges 15:18  He was very thirsty, and he called on the LORD and said, "You have given this great victory by the hand of your servant. And now must I die of thirst, and fall into the hands of these men who are not circumcised?"
Judges 15:19  But God split open the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson had drunk, his strength came back and he revived. So he called the place Enhakkore, and it is in Lehi to this day.
Judges 15:20  He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.

Judges 16:1  Then Samson went to Gaza. He saw a prostitute there, and he went in to her.
Judges 16:2  The people of Gaza were told, "Samson has come here." So they surrounded the place and waited for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, "In the morning, when it is light, we will kill him."
Judges 16:3  But Samson lay there only till midnight. At midnight he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate and the two posts. He pulled them up, bar and all, put them on his shoulders, and carried them to the top of a hill that faces Hebron.
Judges 16:4  After this he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek. Her name was Delilah.
Judges 16:5  The rulers of the Philistines came up to her and said, "Coax him, and find out where his great strength comes from, and how we can overpower him. Then we can tie him up and hurt him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver."
Judges 16:6  So Delilah said to Samson, "Please tell me where your great strength comes from, and how you could be tied up and made helpless."
Judges 16:7  Samson said to her, "If they tie me with seven fresh bowstrings that have never been dried, then I will become weak, and be like any other man."
Judges 16:8  So the rulers of the Philistines brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied him with them.
Judges 16:9  Now there were men hiding and waiting with her in the inner room. She said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps when it touches fire. So the secret of his strength was not found out.
Judges 16:10  Then Delilah said to Samson, "Look, you have made a fool of me and told me lies. Now please tell me how you could be tied up."
Judges 16:11  He said to her, "If they tie me tightly with new ropes that have never been used, then I will become weak, and be like any other man."
Judges 16:12  So Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. Then she said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." And men were hiding and waiting in the inner room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.
Judges 16:13  Delilah said to Samson, "Up till now you have made a fool of me and told me lies. Tell me how you could be tied up." And he said to her, "If you weave the seven locks of my hair into the web on the loom."
Judges 16:14  So she fastened it with the pin and said to him, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." He woke up from his sleep and pulled away the pin of the loom, and the web with it.
Judges 16:15  Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? Three times now you have made a fool of me, and you have not told me where your great strength comes from."
Judges 16:16  She pressed him with her words day after day and kept urging him, until he was sick to death of it.
Judges 16:17  So he told her all his heart. He said to her, "No razor has ever touched my head, for I have been a Nazarite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man."
Judges 16:18  When Delilah saw that he had told her all his heart, she sent and called the rulers of the Philistines, saying, "Come up this once, for he has told me all his heart." So the rulers of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.
Judges 16:19  She made him sleep on her knees. Then she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of Samson's hair. She began to torment him, and his strength left him.
Judges 16:20  She said, "The Philistines are upon you, Samson." He woke up from his sleep and said, "I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free." But he did not know that the LORD had left him.
Judges 16:21  The Philistines seized him and put out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was set to grinding grain in the prison.
Judges 16:22  But the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved.
Judges 16:23  Then the rulers of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to celebrate. They said, "Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand."
Judges 16:24  When the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, "Our god has given into our hands our enemy, the one who ruined our land and killed many of us."
Judges 16:25  When their hearts were merry, they said, "Call for Samson, so that he can entertain us." So they called Samson out of the prison, and he entertained them. They set him between the pillars.
Judges 16:26  Samson said to the boy who held him by the hand, "Let me feel the pillars that hold up the house, so that I may lean on them."
Judges 16:27  Now the house was full of men and women. All the rulers of the Philistines were there, and on the roof were about three thousand men and women watching while Samson entertained them.
Judges 16:28  Then Samson called to the LORD and said, "O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray. Please give me strength just this once, O God, so that I may take revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes."
Judges 16:29  Samson took hold of the two middle pillars that held up the house and supported it, one with his right hand and the other with his left.
Judges 16:30  Samson said, "Let me die with the Philistines." He pushed with all his might, and the house fell on the rulers and on all the people in it. So the dead he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.
Judges 16:31  Then his brothers and all his father's household came down and took him. They brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the burial place of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel twenty years.

Judges 17:1  There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.
Judges 17:2  He said to his mother, "The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you, the silver you cursed about, and spoke about in my hearing - look, I have that silver. I took it." His mother said, "May you be blessed by the LORD, my son."
Judges 17:3  He gave the eleven hundred shekels of silver back to his mother. Then his mother said, "I have set this silver apart for the LORD with my own hand, for my son, to make a carved image and a cast image. So now I will give it back to you."
Judges 17:4  But he gave the money back to his mother. His mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to a silversmith. He made from them a carved image and a cast image, and they were in the house of Micah.
Judges 17:5  This man Micah had a house of gods. He made an ephod and household idols, and he set apart one of his sons, who became his priest.
Judges 17:6  In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Judges 17:7  There was a young man from Bethlehemjudah, of the family of Judah. He was a Levite, and he was living there as a stranger.
Judges 17:8  The man left the city of Bethlehemjudah to live wherever he could find a place. As he travelled, he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah.
Judges 17:9  Micah said to him, "Where do you come from?" He said to him, "I am a Levite from Bethlehemjudah, and I am going to live wherever I can find a place."
Judges 17:10  Micah said to him, "Stay with me. Be a father and a priest to me, and I will give you ten shekels of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your food." So the Levite went in.
Judges 17:11  The Levite was willing to stay with the man, and the young man was to him like one of his own sons.
Judges 17:12  Micah set the Levite apart, and the young man became his priest, and stayed in the house of Micah.
Judges 17:13  Then Micah said, "Now I know that the LORD will do me good, because I have a Levite as my priest."

Judges 18:1  In those days there was no king in Israel. In those days the tribe of the Danites was looking for land of their own to live in. Up to that day no land had come to them among the tribes of Israel.
Judges 18:2  So the people of Dan sent five men from their clan, brave men from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and explore it. They said to them, "Go and explore the land." The men came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they stayed the night there.
Judges 18:3  While they were near the house of Micah, they recognised the voice of the young man, the Levite. So they turned in there and said to him, "Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?"
Judges 18:4  He said to them, "Micah has done this and this for me. He has hired me, and I am his priest."
Judges 18:5  They said to him, "Please ask God for us, so that we may know whether the journey we are making will go well."
Judges 18:6  The priest said to them, "Go in peace. The journey you are making is before the LORD."
Judges 18:7  Then the five men left and came to Laish. They saw the people who lived there, how they lived without fear, like the Zidonians, quiet and safe. There was no ruler in the land to put them to shame in anything. They were far from the Zidonians and had no dealings with anyone.
Judges 18:8  They came back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol, and their brothers said to them, "What do you say?"
Judges 18:9  They said, "Get up, and let us go up against them. We have seen the land, and look, it is very good. Will you do nothing? Do not be slow to go and take possession of the land."
Judges 18:10  "When you go, you will come to a people who feel safe, and to a wide land. God has given it into your hands. It is a place where nothing on earth is lacking."
Judges 18:11  So six hundred men of the clan of the Danites set out from there, from Zorah and from Eshtaol, armed with weapons of war.
Judges 18:12  They went up and camped at Kirjathjearim, in Judah. That is why they call that place Mahanehdan to this day. Look, it is behind Kirjathjearim.
Judges 18:13  From there they went on to the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.
Judges 18:14  Then the five men who had gone to spy out the country of Laish spoke up. They said to their brothers, "Do you know that in these houses there is an ephod, and teraphim, and a carved image, and a metal image? Now think about what you should do."
Judges 18:15  So they turned that way and came to the house of the young man, the Levite, at the house of Micah, and they greeted him.
Judges 18:16  The six hundred men of the people of Dan, armed with their weapons of war, stood at the entrance of the gate.
Judges 18:17  The five men who had gone to spy out the land went up and entered there. They took the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the metal image, while the priest stood at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed with weapons of war.
Judges 18:18  These men went into Micah's house and carried off the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the metal image. Then the priest said to them, "What are you doing?"
Judges 18:19  They said to him, "Be quiet. Put your hand over your mouth, and come with us, and be a father and a priest to us. Is it better for you to be priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a clan in Israel?"
Judges 18:20  The priest's heart was glad. He took the ephod, the teraphim, and the carved image, and went along among the people.
Judges 18:21  So they turned and went on their way. They put the little ones, the cattle, and the goods in front of them.
Judges 18:22  When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who lived in the houses near Micah's house gathered together and caught up with the people of Dan.
Judges 18:23  They shouted to the people of Dan. The Danites turned round and said to Micah, "What is wrong with you, that you come with such a crowd?"
Judges 18:24  He said, "You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and you have gone away. What else do I have? How can you say to me, 'What is wrong with you?'"
Judges 18:25  The people of Dan said to him, "Do not let your voice be heard among us, or angry men will attack you, and you will lose your life and the lives of your household."
Judges 18:26  So the people of Dan went on their way. When Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.
Judges 18:27  They took the things Micah had made, and the priest he had, and came to Laish, to a people who were quiet and felt safe. They struck them with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire.
Judges 18:28  There was no one to rescue them, because it was far from Zidon and they had no dealings with anyone. It lay in the valley near Bethrehob. The Danites built a city there and lived in it.
Judges 18:29  They named the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born to Israel. But the name of the city was Laish at first.
Judges 18:30  The people of Dan set up the carved image. Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the day the land was taken captive.
Judges 18:31  They set up for themselves Micah's carved image, which he had made, and it stayed there all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Judges 19:1  In those days there was no king in Israel. A certain Levite was living for a time on the far side of mount Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from Bethlehemjudah.
Judges 19:2  His concubine was unfaithful to him. She left him and went to her father's house at Bethlehemjudah, and she stayed there four whole months.
Judges 19:3  Then her husband set out after her, to speak kindly to her and bring her back. He had his servant with him, and two donkeys. She brought him into her father's house. When the young woman's father saw him, he was glad to meet him.
Judges 19:4  His father-in-law, the young woman's father, kept him there, and he stayed with him three days. So they ate and drank and slept there.
Judges 19:5  On the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and the Levite rose to leave. But the young woman's father said to his son-in-law, "Strengthen yourself with a piece of bread, and after that you can go on your way."
Judges 19:6  So the two of them sat down and ate and drank together. The young woman's father said to the man, "Please be willing to stay the night, and let your heart be glad."
Judges 19:7  When the man rose to leave, his father-in-law urged him to stay, so he slept there again.
Judges 19:8  On the fifth day he got up early in the morning to leave, and the young woman's father said, "Strengthen yourself, I ask you." So they waited until the afternoon, and the two of them ate.
Judges 19:9  When the man rose to leave with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the young woman's father, said to him, "Look, the day is nearly over. Please stay the night. Look, the day is coming to an end. Sleep here, and let your heart be glad. Tomorrow you can get up early for your journey and go home."
Judges 19:10  But the man would not stay that night. He got up and left, and came opposite Jebus, which is Jerusalem. He had with him two saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him.
Judges 19:11  When they were near Jebus, the day was almost gone. The servant said to his master, "Please come, let us turn in to this city of the Jebusites and stay the night there."
Judges 19:12  But his master said to him, "We will not turn in to a city of foreigners, who are not of the children of Israel. We will go on to Gibeah."
Judges 19:13  He said to his servant, "Come, let us go on to one of these places and stay the night, in Gibeah or in Ramah."
Judges 19:14  So they went on their way, and the sun went down on them when they were near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.
Judges 19:15  They turned in there to go and stay the night in Gibeah. When the Levite went in, he sat down in a street of the city, for no one took them into his house to stay the night.
Judges 19:16  Look, an old man came in from his work in the field in the evening. He too was from mount Ephraim, and he was living for a time in Gibeah, but the men of the place were Benjamites.
Judges 19:17  He looked up and saw the traveller in the street of the city. The old man said, "Where are you going? Where do you come from?"
Judges 19:18  He said to him, "We are travelling from Bethlehemjudah towards the far side of mount Ephraim. I am from there. I went to Bethlehemjudah, but now I am going to the house of the LORD, and no one will take me into his house."
Judges 19:19  "Yet we have straw and feed for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me, for your servant here, and for the young man who is with your servants. We need nothing at all."
Judges 19:20  The old man said, "Peace be with you. Let all that you need be my care. Only do not stay the night in the street."
Judges 19:21  So he brought him into his house and gave feed to the donkeys. They washed their feet, and ate and drank.
Judges 19:22  While they were making their hearts glad, look, the men of the city, worthless men, surrounded the house. They beat on the door and said to the old man, the master of the house, "Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may know him."
Judges 19:23  The man, the master of the house, went out to them and said, "No, my brothers, no, I beg you, do not act so wickedly. This man has come into my house. Do not do this shameful thing."
Judges 19:24  "Look, here is my daughter, who is a virgin, and his concubine. I will bring them out now. Force them and do to them whatever seems good to you. But to this man do not do such a vile thing."
Judges 19:25  But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his concubine and brought her out to them. They knew her, and abused her all night until the morning. When the day began to dawn, they let her go.
Judges 19:26  Then at daybreak the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, and lay there till it was light.
Judges 19:27  Her master got up in the morning and opened the doors of the house. He went out to go on his way, and look, the woman, his concubine, had fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands on the doorstep.
Judges 19:28  He said to her, "Get up, and let us be going." But no one answered. Then the man lifted her onto a donkey, and he set out and went to his own place.
Judges 19:29  When he came to his house, he took a knife, took hold of his concubine, and cut her up, bone by bone, into twelve pieces. He sent her through all the country of Israel.
Judges 19:30  And everyone who saw it said, "No such thing has been done or seen from the day the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day. Think about it, talk it over, and say what you think."

Judges 20:1  Then all the people of Israel went out. The whole community came together as one man, from Dan to Beersheba, and from the land of Gilead too. They gathered to the LORD at Mizpeh.
Judges 20:2  The leaders of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, took their places in the assembly of the people of God. There were four hundred thousand foot soldiers armed with swords.
Judges 20:3  (Now the people of Benjamin heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpeh.) Then the people of Israel said, "Tell us, how did this wicked thing happen?"
Judges 20:4  The Levite, the husband of the woman who was killed, answered, "I came to Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin, with my concubine, to stay the night."
Judges 20:5  The men of Gibeah rose up against me. They surrounded the house in the night to get me, and they meant to kill me. They raped my concubine, and she died.
Judges 20:6  So I took my concubine and cut her in pieces, and I sent her through all the land that Israel has for its inheritance. For they have done a shameful and disgusting thing in Israel.
Judges 20:7  "Look, you are all Israelites. Give your advice and your decision here and now."
Judges 20:8  All the people rose up as one man and said, "Not one of us will go to his tent. Not one of us will turn back to his house."
Judges 20:9  But this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot.
Judges 20:10  "We will take ten men out of every hundred from all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred out of every thousand, and a thousand out of every ten thousand, to fetch food for the army. Then, when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they can deal with them for all the disgusting thing they have done in Israel."
Judges 20:11  So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, joined together as one man.
Judges 20:12  The tribes of Israel sent men through the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, "What is this wicked thing that has been done among you?"
Judges 20:13  "So now hand over the men, those worthless men who are in Gibeah, so that we may put them to death and clear away evil from Israel." But the people of Benjamin would not listen to their brothers, the people of Israel.
Judges 20:14  Instead the people of Benjamin gathered out of their cities to Gibeah, to go out and fight against the people of Israel.
Judges 20:15  That day the people of Benjamin were counted: twenty-six thousand men from the cities, armed with swords, besides the people living in Gibeah, who were counted as seven hundred chosen men.
Judges 20:16  Among all these people there were seven hundred chosen men who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.
Judges 20:17  The men of Israel, not counting Benjamin, were counted as four hundred thousand men armed with swords. All of them were fighting men.
Judges 20:18  The people of Israel set out and went up to the house of God, and asked God for guidance. They said, "Which of us shall go up first to fight against the people of Benjamin?" The LORD said, "Judah shall go up first."
Judges 20:19  The people of Israel got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah.
Judges 20:20  The men of Israel went out to fight against Benjamin. They drew up their battle lines against them at Gibeah.
Judges 20:21  The people of Benjamin came out of Gibeah, and that day they cut down to the ground twenty-two thousand Israelites.
Judges 20:22  But the people, the men of Israel, took courage. They drew up their battle lines again in the same place where they had lined up on the first day.
Judges 20:23  (The people of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening. They asked the LORD for guidance and said, "Shall I go up again to fight against the people of Benjamin my brother?" And the LORD said, "Go up against him.")
Judges 20:24  So the people of Israel came near to the people of Benjamin on the second day.
Judges 20:25  On that second day Benjamin came out of Gibeah against them, and cut down to the ground eighteen thousand more of the people of Israel. All of these were armed with swords.
Judges 20:26  Then all the people of Israel, the whole army, went up and came to the house of God. They wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
Judges 20:27  The people of Israel asked the LORD. (For the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
Judges 20:28  and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days.) They said, "Shall I go out to fight again against the people of Benjamin my brother, or shall I stop?" The LORD said, "Go up. Tomorrow I will give them into your hand."
Judges 20:29  So Israel set men in hiding all around Gibeah.
Judges 20:30  The people of Israel went up against the people of Benjamin on the third day, and drew up their lines against Gibeah as they had done before.
Judges 20:31  The people of Benjamin went out against the army and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down and kill some of the people as they had done before. On the roads, one of which goes up to the house of God and the other to Gibeah, in the open country, they killed about thirty men of Israel.
Judges 20:32  The people of Benjamin said, "They are being beaten before us, as at the first." But the people of Israel said, "Let us run away, and draw them from the city to the roads."
Judges 20:33  So all the men of Israel rose up from their place and drew up their lines at Baaltamar. And the men of Israel who were hiding rushed out of their places, out of the meadows of Gibeah.
Judges 20:34  Ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came against Gibeah, and the fighting was hard. But the men of Benjamin did not know that disaster was close to them.
Judges 20:35  The LORD struck down Benjamin before Israel. That day the people of Israel destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin. All of these were armed with swords.
Judges 20:36  So the people of Benjamin saw that they were beaten. The men of Israel had given ground to the Benjamites, because they were trusting in the men they had set in hiding beside Gibeah.
Judges 20:37  The men in hiding hurried and rushed at Gibeah. They spread out and struck the whole city with the edge of the sword.
Judges 20:38  Now the men of Israel and the men in hiding had agreed on a sign: they were to make a great cloud of smoke and flame rise up out of the city.
Judges 20:39  When the men of Israel pulled back in the battle, Benjamin began to strike down and kill about thirty of the men of Israel. For they said, "Surely they are being beaten before us, as in the first battle."
Judges 20:40  But when the flame began to rise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them. Look, the whole city was going up in flames to the sky.
Judges 20:41  When the men of Israel turned back, the men of Benjamin were horrified, for they saw that disaster had come upon them.
Judges 20:42  So they turned their backs before the men of Israel and fled toward the wilderness. But the battle caught up with them, and those who came out of the cities cut them down where they were.
Judges 20:43  So they surrounded the Benjamites, and chased them, and trampled them down without trouble, opposite Gibeah, toward the sunrise.
Judges 20:44  Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell. All of these were brave men.
Judges 20:45  The rest turned and fled toward the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon. The Israelites picked off five thousand men of them on the roads, and chased hard after them as far as Gidom, and killed two thousand more of them.
Judges 20:46  So all who fell of Benjamin that day were twenty-five thousand men armed with swords. All of these were brave men.
Judges 20:47  But six hundred men turned and fled to the wilderness, to the rock of Rimmon, and they stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months.
Judges 20:48  The men of Israel turned back on the people of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword. They killed the men of every city, and the animals, and everything they found. They also set fire to every city they came to.

Judges 21:1  Now the men of Israel had made an oath at Mizpeh. They said, "Not one of us will give his daughter to a man of Benjamin as a wife."
Judges 21:2  The people came to the house of God and stayed there before God until evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly.
Judges 21:3  They said, "O LORD God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel? Why is one tribe missing from Israel today?"
Judges 21:4  The next day the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Judges 21:5  The children of Israel said, "Which of all the tribes of Israel did not come up with the assembly to the LORD?" For they had made a solemn oath about anyone who did not come up to the LORD at Mizpeh. They had said, "He shall surely be put to death."
Judges 21:6  The children of Israel repented for Benjamin their brother, and said, "Today one tribe is cut off from Israel."
Judges 21:7  "What shall we do to get wives for the men who are left? We have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them any of our daughters as wives."
Judges 21:8  They said, "Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come up to Mizpeh to the LORD?" And look, no one had come to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the meeting.
Judges 21:9  For when the people were counted, look, not one of the people of Jabeshgilead was there.
Judges 21:10  So the assembly sent twelve thousand of their bravest men there, and ordered them, "Go and strike down the people of Jabeshgilead with the sword, the women and the children as well."
Judges 21:11  "This is what you shall do. You shall completely destroy every male, and every woman who has slept with a man."
Judges 21:12  Among the people of Jabeshgilead they found four hundred young women who were virgins and had never slept with a man. They brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
Judges 21:13  The whole assembly sent men to speak to the children of Benjamin who were at the rock of Rimmon, and to offer them peace.
Judges 21:14  So Benjamin came back at that time, and they gave them the women of Jabeshgilead whom they had kept alive. But even so there were not enough for them.
Judges 21:15  The people repented for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.
Judges 21:16  Then the elders of the assembly said, "What shall we do to get wives for the men who are left? The women of Benjamin have been destroyed."
Judges 21:17  They said, "There must be an inheritance for those of Benjamin who escaped, so that a tribe is not wiped out of Israel."
Judges 21:18  "Yet we cannot give them wives from our own daughters, for the children of Israel have sworn, 'Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.'"
Judges 21:19  Then they said, "Look, there is a yearly feast of the LORD in Shiloh. It is held in a place north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah."
Judges 21:20  So they gave this order to the children of Benjamin: "Go and hide in the vineyards and wait."
Judges 21:21  Watch, and when the daughters of Shiloh come out to join in the dances, then come out of the vineyards. Each of you catch a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
Judges 21:22  "And when their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, 'Be kind to them for our sakes. We did not keep a wife for each man in the war. And you yourselves did not give them wives this time, so you are not guilty.'"
Judges 21:23  The children of Benjamin did so. They took wives for themselves, as many as they needed, from the women who were dancing, whom they caught. Then they went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt the cities, and lived in them.
Judges 21:24  At that time the children of Israel left, each man to his tribe and to his family. Each man went out from there to his own inheritance.
Judges 21:25  In those days there was no king in Israel. Every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Ruth

Ruth 1:1  In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehemjudah went to live for a while in the country of Moab. He took his wife and his two sons with him.
Ruth 1:2  The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehemjudah. They came into the country of Moab and stayed there.
Ruth 1:3  Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. She was left with her two sons.
Ruth 1:4  They married women of Moab. One was named Orpah and the other was named Ruth. They lived there about ten years.
Ruth 1:5  Then Mahlon and Chilion also died, both of them. So the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband.
Ruth 1:6  Then she set out with her two daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab. For while she was in Moab she had heard that the LORD had come to help his people by giving them bread.
Ruth 1:7  So she left the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law went with her. They set out on the road back to the land of Judah.
Ruth 1:8  Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, each of you go back to your mother's house. May the LORD be kind to you, as you have been kind to the dead and to me."
Ruth 1:9  "May the LORD grant that each of you find rest in the house of a husband." Then she kissed them, and they wept out loud.
Ruth 1:10  They said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people."
Ruth 1:11  But Naomi said, "Go back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Do I have any more sons in my womb who could be your husbands?"
Ruth 1:12  "Go back, my daughters, go your way. I am too old to have a husband. Even if I said, 'I have hope,' and even if I had a husband tonight and bore sons,"
Ruth 1:13  "would you wait for them until they were grown? Would you keep yourselves from having husbands for them? No, my daughters. It grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me."
Ruth 1:14  Then they wept out loud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth held on to her.
Ruth 1:15  Naomi said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Go back after your sister-in-law."
Ruth 1:16  But Ruth said, "Do not beg me to leave you, or to turn back from following you. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God."
Ruth 1:17  "Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD do the same to me, and more, if anything but death parts you and me."
Ruth 1:18  When Naomi saw that Ruth was firmly set on going with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.
Ruth 1:19  So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred up about them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
Ruth 1:20  She said to them, "Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me."
Ruth 1:21  "I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why then do you call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
Ruth 1:22  So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who came back from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Ruth 2:1  Naomi had a relative on her husband's side. He was a very rich man, from the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.
Ruth 2:2  Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "Let me go out to the fields. I will pick up the leftover grain behind anyone who is kind to me." Naomi said to her, "Go, my daughter."
Ruth 2:3  So she went out and picked up grain in the field behind the harvest workers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field that belonged to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelech.
Ruth 2:4  Look, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvest workers, "The LORD be with you." They answered him, "The LORD bless you."
Ruth 2:5  Then Boaz said to the servant in charge of the harvest workers, "Whose young woman is this?"
Ruth 2:6  The servant in charge of the harvest workers answered, "She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab."
Ruth 2:7  "She said, 'Please let me pick up the grain that is left, and gather it behind the harvest workers among the sheaves.' So she came, and she has kept at it from the morning until now. She has only rested a little in the house."
Ruth 2:8  Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to pick up grain in another field. Do not leave this place, but stay close to my servant girls."
Ruth 2:9  "Watch the field where the men are cutting the grain, and follow the girls. I have told the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink what the young men have drawn."
Ruth 2:10  Then she fell on her face and bowed to the ground. She said to him, "Why have I found grace in your eyes? Why do you take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?"
Ruth 2:11  Boaz answered her, "I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. You left your father and your mother and the land where you were born, and you came to a people you did not know before."
Ruth 2:12  "May the LORD pay you back for what you have done. May you be given a full reward by the LORD God of Israel. You have come to take shelter under his wings."
Ruth 2:13  Then she said, "Let me find favour in your eyes, my lord. You have comforted me, and you have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not even like one of your servant girls."
Ruth 2:14  At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come here, and eat some of the bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar." So she sat beside the harvest workers. He handed her roasted grain, and she ate until she had enough, and had some left over.
Ruth 2:15  When she got up to pick up more grain, Boaz gave orders to his young men. He said, "Let her gather even among the sheaves, and do not shame her."
Ruth 2:16  "Also pull out some stalks from the bundles on purpose for her. Leave them there for her to pick up, and do not tell her off."
Ruth 2:17  So she gathered grain in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gathered, and it was about an ephah of barley.
Ruth 2:18  She picked it up and went into the town, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gathered. Ruth also brought out what she had kept after she had eaten enough, and gave it to her.
Ruth 2:19  Her mother-in-law said to her, "Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you." So Ruth told her mother-in-law whose field she had worked in. She said, "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz."
Ruth 2:20  Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May the LORD bless him. He has not stopped being kind to the living and to the dead." And Naomi said to her, "The man is a close relative of ours. He is one of those who have the right to redeem us."
Ruth 2:21  Ruth the Moabite said, "He also said to me, 'Stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.'"
Ruth 2:22  Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his servant girls. In another field people might harm you."
Ruth 2:23  So she stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz and gathered grain until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth 3:1  Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not look for a home for you, so that it may go well with you?"
Ruth 3:2  And now, is not Boaz one of our family, the man whose young women you were with? Look, tonight he is winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
Ruth 3:3  So wash yourself, and put on perfumed oil, and dress in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor. But do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
Ruth 3:4  "When he lies down, take note of the place where he lies. Then go in, uncover his feet, and lie down. He will tell you what to do."
Ruth 3:5  And she said to her, "Everything you say to me I will do."
Ruth 3:6  So she went down to the threshing floor, and did everything her mother-in-law told her.
Ruth 3:7  When Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was glad, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then she came quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
Ruth 3:8  At midnight the man was startled, and he turned over. And look, a woman was lying at his feet.
Ruth 3:9  He said, "Who are you?" She answered, "I am Ruth, your servant. So spread the edge of your garment over your servant, for you are a near relative."
Ruth 3:10  And he said, "May the LORD bless you, my daughter. You have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, because you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich."
Ruth 3:11  And now, my daughter, do not be afraid. I will do for you all that you ask, for the whole town of my people knows that you are a woman of worth.
Ruth 3:12  It is true that I am your near relative. But there is a relative nearer than I am.
Ruth 3:13  "Stay tonight. Then in the morning, if he will act as your relative should, good; let him do it. But if he will not act as your relative, then I will do it, as the LORD lives. Lie down until the morning."
Ruth 3:14  So she lay at his feet until the morning, and she got up before anyone could recognize another. And he said, "Let it not be known that a woman came to the threshing floor."
Ruth 3:15  He also said, "Bring the shawl you are wearing, and hold it out." When she held it, he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her. Then she went into the city.
Ruth 3:16  When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, "Who are you, my daughter?" And Ruth told her everything the man had done for her.
Ruth 3:17  She said, "He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said to me, 'Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'"
Ruth 3:18  Then Naomi said, "Wait quietly, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest until he has settled the matter today."

Ruth 4:1  Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. Look, the kinsman Boaz had spoken about came by. Boaz said to him, "You there, come over and sit down here." So he turned aside and sat down.
Ruth 4:2  Boaz took ten of the elders of the city and said, "Sit down here." And they sat down.
Ruth 4:3  Then he said to the kinsman, "Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling a piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech."
Ruth 4:4  "I thought I should tell you about it and say, 'Buy it in front of the people who live here and in front of the elders of my people.' If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, then tell me, so that I may know. For there is no one to redeem it but you, and I come after you." And he said, "I will redeem it."
Ruth 4:5  Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the field from Naomi's hand, you must also buy Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead man, to raise up the name of the dead man on his inheritance."
Ruth 4:6  The kinsman said, "I cannot redeem it for myself, or I will spoil my own inheritance. You take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it."
Ruth 4:7  Now this was the custom in earlier times in Israel about redeeming and about exchanging, to make everything sure: a man pulled off his shoe and gave it to his neighbour. This was a witness in Israel.
Ruth 4:8  So the kinsman said to Boaz, "Buy it for yourself." And he pulled off his shoe.
Ruth 4:9  Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, "You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi's hand everything that was Elimelech's, and everything that was Chilion's and Mahlon's."
Ruth 4:10  "And I have also bought Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead man on his inheritance. So the name of the dead man will not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today."
Ruth 4:11  And all the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, the two who built the house of Israel. May you do worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Bethlehem."
Ruth 4:12  "And may your house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the children the LORD will give you by this young woman."
Ruth 4:13  So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. He went in to her, and the LORD let her conceive, and she bore a son.
Ruth 4:14  The women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you today without a kinsman. May his name be famous in Israel."
Ruth 4:15  "He will bring your life back to you, and he will care for you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him."
Ruth 4:16  And Naomi took the child and held him close, and she became his nurse.
Ruth 4:17  The women who were her neighbours gave him a name. They said, "A son has been born to Naomi." They called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Ruth 4:18  Now these are the generations of Pharez. Pharez was the father of Hezron,
Ruth 4:19  and Hezron was the father of Ram, and Ram was the father of Amminadab,
Ruth 4:20  and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon was the father of Salmon,
Ruth 4:21  and Salmon was the father of Boaz, and Boaz was the father of Obed,
Ruth 4:22  and Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.

1 Samuel

1 Samuel 1:1  There was a man from Ramathaimzophim, in the hill country of Ephraim. His name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite.
1 Samuel 1:2  He had two wives. One was named Hannah, and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
1 Samuel 1:3  Every year this man went up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the LORD, were there.
1 Samuel 1:4  When the day came for Elkanah to offer his sacrifice, he gave portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters.
1 Samuel 1:5  But to Hannah he gave a special portion, because he loved Hannah. Yet the LORD had closed her womb.
1 Samuel 1:6  Her rival hurt her deeply as well, to make her miserable, because the LORD had closed her womb.
1 Samuel 1:7  This happened year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, the other woman hurt her like this. So Hannah wept and would not eat.
1 Samuel 1:8  Then Elkanah her husband said to her, "Hannah, why are you crying? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?"
1 Samuel 1:9  So Hannah got up after they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.
1 Samuel 1:10  Her soul was bitter, and she prayed to the LORD and wept hard.
1 Samuel 1:11  She made a vow and said, "O LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the suffering of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give your servant a son, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head."
1 Samuel 1:12  As she went on praying before the LORD, Eli watched her mouth.
1 Samuel 1:13  Hannah was speaking in her heart. Only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk.
1 Samuel 1:14  Eli said to her, "How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine."
1 Samuel 1:15  Hannah answered, "No, my lord. I am a woman with a sorrowful spirit. I have not drunk wine or strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the LORD."
1 Samuel 1:16  "Do not take your servant for a daughter of Belial. I have been speaking all this time out of my great complaint and grief."
1 Samuel 1:17  Then Eli answered, "Go in peace. May the God of Israel give you what you have asked of him."
1 Samuel 1:18  She said, "Let your servant find grace in your sight." So the woman went on her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
1 Samuel 1:19  They got up early in the morning and worshipped before the LORD. Then they went back to their house in Ramah. Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her.
1 Samuel 1:20  So in due time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him."
1 Samuel 1:21  Elkanah went up with all his household to offer the yearly sacrifice to the LORD, and to keep his vow.
1 Samuel 1:22  But Hannah did not go up. She said to her husband, "I will not go until the child is weaned. Then I will bring him, so that he may appear before the LORD and stay there for ever."
1 Samuel 1:23  Elkanah her husband said to her, "Do what seems good to you. Wait until you have weaned him. Only may the LORD make his word stand." So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she weaned him.
1 Samuel 1:24  When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bullocks, one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine. She brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh. The child was young.
1 Samuel 1:25  They killed a bullock, and brought the child to Eli.
1 Samuel 1:26  She said, "Oh my lord, as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the LORD."
1 Samuel 1:27  I prayed for this child, and the LORD has given me what I asked of him.
1 Samuel 1:28  "So I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives he is lent to the LORD." And he worshipped the LORD there.

1 Samuel 2:1  And Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD. My horn is lifted high in the LORD. My mouth is opened wide against my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation."
1 Samuel 2:2  "There is no one holy like the LORD. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God."
1 Samuel 2:3  "Do not talk any more so proudly. Let no arrogant word come out of your mouth. For the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed."
1 Samuel 2:4  "The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are clothed with strength."
1 Samuel 2:5  "Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, and those who were hungry are hungry no more. The woman who could not bear children has given birth to seven, and she who had many children has grown weak."
1 Samuel 2:6  "The LORD kills, and makes alive. He brings down to the grave, and he brings up."
1 Samuel 2:7  "The LORD makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, and he lifts up."
1 Samuel 2:8  "He raises the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the beggar from the ash heap, to seat them among princes and to give them a glorious throne as their own. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and he has set the world upon them."
1 Samuel 2:9  "He will guard the feet of his holy ones, and the wicked will be silent in darkness. For no one wins by his own strength."
1 Samuel 2:10  "The enemies of the LORD will be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them out of heaven. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and lift high the horn of his anointed one."
1 Samuel 2:11  Then Elkanah went to his house at Ramah. And the child served the LORD before Eli the priest.
1 Samuel 2:12  Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD.
1 Samuel 2:13  This was what the priests did with the people: when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant came while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand.
1 Samuel 2:14  He stuck it into the pan, or the kettle, or the cauldron, or the pot. Whatever the fork brought up, the priest took for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
1 Samuel 2:15  Also, before they burned the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest meat to roast. He will not take boiled meat from you, but raw."
1 Samuel 2:16  And if the man said to him, "Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you want," the servant would answer, "No, you shall give it to me now. If you do not, I will take it by force."
1 Samuel 2:17  So the sin of these young men was very great before the LORD, for men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.
1 Samuel 2:18  But Samuel served before the LORD. He was a child, wearing a linen ephod.
1 Samuel 2:19  His mother also made him a little coat and brought it to him year by year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
1 Samuel 2:20  And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife and said, "May the LORD give you children by this woman, in place of the one she asked for and lent to the LORD." Then they went back to their own home.
1 Samuel 2:21  And the LORD visited Hannah, so that she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew up before the LORD.
1 Samuel 2:22  Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
1 Samuel 2:23  He said to them, "Why do you do such things? I hear of your evil deeds from all these people."
1 Samuel 2:24  "No, my sons. The report I hear is not good. You make the people of the LORD sin."
1 Samuel 2:25  "If one man sins against another, the judge will judge him. But if a man sins against the LORD, who will plead for him?" But they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD meant to kill them.
1 Samuel 2:26  And the child Samuel kept growing, and he was pleasing both to the LORD and to men.
1 Samuel 2:27  A man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Did I not plainly show myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house?"
1 Samuel 2:28  'And did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer on my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire?
1 Samuel 2:29  'Why then do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I commanded in my dwelling place? Why do you honour your sons more than me, making yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?'
1 Samuel 2:30  "So the LORD God of Israel says: I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before me for ever. But now the LORD says: Far be it from me. Those who honour me I will honour, and those who despise me will be treated as nothing."
1 Samuel 2:31  "'Look, the days are coming when I will cut off your arm and the arm of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house."
1 Samuel 2:32  'And you will see an enemy in my dwelling place, in all the good that God shall give Israel. And there will never be an old man in your house.
1 Samuel 2:33  'The man of yours whom I do not cut off from my altar will be left to wear out your eyes and to grieve your heart. And all the children born in your house will die in the prime of life.
1 Samuel 2:34  'And this will be the sign to you, which will come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they will both die.
1 Samuel 2:35  'And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house, and he will walk before my anointed one for ever.
1 Samuel 2:36  "'And everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a bit of bread, and will say, Please give me some work among the priests, so that I may eat a piece of bread.'"

1 Samuel 3:1  The boy Samuel served the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there was no open vision.
1 Samuel 3:2  At that time Eli was lying down in his own place. His eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see.
1 Samuel 3:3  The lamp of God had not yet gone out in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was lying down to sleep.
1 Samuel 3:4  Then the LORD called Samuel. He answered, "Here I am."
1 Samuel 3:5  He ran to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call you. Lie down again." So he went and lay down.
1 Samuel 3:6  The LORD called again, "Samuel." Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." He answered, "I did not call, my son. Lie down again."
1 Samuel 3:7  Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been shown to him.
1 Samuel 3:8  The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. He got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the boy.
1 Samuel 3:9  So Eli said to Samuel, "Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
1 Samuel 3:10  The LORD came and stood there, and called as at the other times, "Samuel, Samuel." Then Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
1 Samuel 3:11  The LORD said to Samuel, "Look, I am going to do something in Israel that will make both ears of everyone who hears it tingle."
1 Samuel 3:12  On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I have spoken about his house, from beginning to end.
1 Samuel 3:13  For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever because of the sin he knows about. His sons made themselves vile, and he did not stop them.
1 Samuel 3:14  "So I have sworn to the house of Eli that the sin of Eli's house will never be washed away by sacrifice or offering."
1 Samuel 3:15  Samuel lay down until the morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli about the vision.
1 Samuel 3:16  Then Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He answered, "Here I am."
1 Samuel 3:17  Eli said, "What did the LORD say to you? Please do not hide it from me. May God do the same to you, and more, if you hide from me anything of all that he said to you."
1 Samuel 3:18  So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And Eli said, "It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him."
1 Samuel 3:19  Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground.
1 Samuel 3:20  All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD.
1 Samuel 3:21  The LORD appeared again in Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

1 Samuel 4:1  The word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to fight the Philistines. They camped beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines camped at Aphek.
1 Samuel 4:2  The Philistines lined up their army against Israel. When the battle began, Israel was beaten by the Philistines. About four thousand men of the army were killed in the field.
1 Samuel 4:3  When the people came back into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD let the Philistines beat us today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh to us. Then, when it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies."
1 Samuel 4:4  So the people sent men to Shiloh to bring back the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who sits between the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
1 Samuel 4:5  When the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a great shout, so that the ground rang with the sound.
1 Samuel 4:6  When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, "What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" Then they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp.
1 Samuel 4:7  The Philistines were afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp." And they said, "How terrible for us! Nothing like this has happened before."
1 Samuel 4:8  How terrible for us! Who will save us from the hand of these mighty Gods? These are the Gods that struck the Egyptians with every kind of plague in the wilderness.
1 Samuel 4:9  "Be strong, Philistines, and act like men, so that you do not become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Act like men, and fight."
1 Samuel 4:10  So the Philistines fought, and Israel was beaten, and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.
1 Samuel 4:11  The ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.
1 Samuel 4:12  A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh that same day. His clothes were torn, and there was earth on his head.
1 Samuel 4:13  When he arrived, there was Eli, sitting on a seat by the wayside, watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. When the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out.
1 Samuel 4:14  When Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, "What does this uproar mean?" The man came quickly and told Eli.
1 Samuel 4:15  Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see.
1 Samuel 4:16  The man said to Eli, "I am the one who came from the battle line. I fled from the battle today." And Eli said, "What happened, my son?"
1 Samuel 4:17  The messenger answered, "Israel has fled from the Philistines. There has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured."
1 Samuel 4:18  When he spoke of the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his seat by the side of the gate. His neck was broken, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.
1 Samuel 4:19  His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time to give birth. When she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed down and gave birth, for her pains came upon her.
1 Samuel 4:20  About the time of her death, the women standing by her said to her, "Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son." But she did not answer, and she paid no attention.
1 Samuel 4:21  She named the child Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel," because the ark of God was captured, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
1 Samuel 4:22  And she said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."

1 Samuel 5:1  The Philistines took the ark of God. They carried it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
1 Samuel 5:2  When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it beside Dagon.
1 Samuel 5:3  Early the next morning the people of Ashdod got up, and look, Dagon had fallen face down on the ground in front of the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him back in his place.
1 Samuel 5:4  Early the next morning they got up again, and look, Dagon had fallen face down on the ground in front of the ark of the LORD. The head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold. Only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
1 Samuel 5:5  That is why the priests of Dagon, and everyone who comes into Dagon's house, do not step on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
1 Samuel 5:6  But the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod. He destroyed them and struck them with tumours, both Ashdod and the lands around it.
1 Samuel 5:7  When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not stay with us. His hand is hard on us and on Dagon our god."
1 Samuel 5:8  So they sent word and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them, and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" They answered, "Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried over to Gath." So they carried the ark of the God of Israel there.
1 Samuel 5:9  But after they had carried it there, the hand of the LORD was against that city with very great destruction. He struck the men of the city, both small and great, and tumours broke out on them.
1 Samuel 5:10  So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. As the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the ark of the God of Israel around to us, to kill us and our people."
1 Samuel 5:11  So they sent word and gathered all the lords of the Philistines together, and said, "Send the ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to its own place, so that it does not kill us and our people." For there was deadly destruction through the whole city. The hand of God was very heavy there.
1 Samuel 5:12  The men who did not die were struck with the tumours, and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

1 Samuel 6:1  The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines for seven months.
1 Samuel 6:2  The Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we should send it back to its own place."
1 Samuel 6:3  They said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty. Be sure to send him back a trespass offering. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand has not been lifted from you."
1 Samuel 6:4  Then they asked, "What trespass offering shall we send back to him?" They answered, "Five golden tumours and five golden mice, one for each of the lords of the Philistines. For the same plague was on all of you, and on your lords."
1 Samuel 6:5  So make models of your tumours, and models of your mice that spoil the land. Give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will lift his hand from you, and from your gods, and from your land.
1 Samuel 6:6  Why then do you make your hearts hard, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh made their hearts hard? When he had dealt with them in wonderful ways, did they not let the people go, so that they left?
1 Samuel 6:7  So now make a new cart, and take two milk cows that have never worn a yoke. Tie the cows to the cart, and take their calves away from them, back home.
1 Samuel 6:8  Take the ark of the LORD and put it on the cart. Put the gold objects, which you are sending back to him as a trespass offering, in a box beside it. Then send it away, and let it go.
1 Samuel 6:9  "Watch it. If it goes up the road to its own land, to Bethshemesh, then it is he who has brought this great trouble on us. But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us. It only happened to us by chance."
1 Samuel 6:10  The men did so. They took two milk cows and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home.
1 Samuel 6:11  They put the ark of the LORD on the cart, along with the box with the gold mice and the models of their tumours.
1 Samuel 6:12  The cows went straight along the road to Bethshemesh. They kept to the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. The lords of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Bethshemesh.
1 Samuel 6:13  The people of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. They looked up and saw the ark, and they were glad to see it.
1 Samuel 6:14  The cart came into the field of Joshua, a man of Bethshemesh, and stopped there, where there was a great stone. They chopped up the wood of the cart, and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD.
1 Samuel 6:15  The Levites took down the ark of the LORD, and the box that was with it, which held the gold objects, and put them on the great stone. That same day the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the LORD.
1 Samuel 6:16  When the five lords of the Philistines had seen this, they went back to Ekron the same day.
1 Samuel 6:17  These are the golden tumours which the Philistines sent back as a trespass offering to the LORD: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Askelon, one for Gath, and one for Ekron.
1 Samuel 6:18  And there were golden mice, one for each of the cities of the Philistines that belonged to the five lords, both walled cities and country villages, as far as the great stone of Abel, on which they set down the ark of the LORD. That stone is still in the field of Joshua, the man of Bethshemesh, to this day.
1 Samuel 6:19  And he struck down the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down fifty thousand and seventy men of the people. The people mourned, because the LORD had struck many of the people with a great slaughter.
1 Samuel 6:20  The men of Bethshemesh said, "Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God? And to whom shall he go up from us?"
1 Samuel 6:21  So they sent messengers to the people who lived in Kirjathjearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up to your place."

1 Samuel 7:1  The men of Kirjathjearim came and took up the ark of the LORD. They brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill. They set apart his son Eleazar to keep the ark of the LORD.
1 Samuel 7:2  The ark stayed in Kirjathjearim a long time. It was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel mourned and longed after the LORD.
1 Samuel 7:3  Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel. He said, "If you are coming back to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you. Set your hearts on the LORD, and serve only him. Then he will save you from the hand of the Philistines."
1 Samuel 7:4  So the children of Israel put away the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and served only the LORD.
1 Samuel 7:5  Samuel said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray to the LORD for you."
1 Samuel 7:6  So they gathered together at Mizpeh. They drew water and poured it out before the LORD, and they fasted that day. There they said, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpeh.
1 Samuel 7:7  When the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. When the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
1 Samuel 7:8  The children of Israel said to Samuel, "Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, so that he will save us from the hand of the Philistines."
1 Samuel 7:9  So Samuel took a lamb that was still feeding at its mother, and offered it whole as a burnt offering to the LORD. Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him.
1 Samuel 7:10  While Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines came near to fight against Israel. But that day the LORD thundered with a great thunder against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were struck down before Israel.
1 Samuel 7:11  The men of Israel went out from Mizpeh and chased the Philistines, and struck them down, all the way to a place below Bethcar.
1 Samuel 7:12  Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpeh and Shen. He called its name Ebenezer, saying, "The LORD has helped us up to now."
1 Samuel 7:13  So the Philistines were beaten down, and they did not come into the land of Israel again. The hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
1 Samuel 7:14  The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were given back to Israel, from Ekron as far as Gath. Israel took back their lands too from the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
1 Samuel 7:15  Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
1 Samuel 7:16  Every year he went round to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and he judged Israel in all those places.
1 Samuel 7:17  Then he would return to Ramah, for his house was there. There he judged Israel, and there he built an altar to the LORD.

1 Samuel 8:1  When Samuel was old, he made his sons judges over Israel.
1 Samuel 8:2  The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second son was Abiah. They were judges in Beersheba.
1 Samuel 8:3  But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after money, and took bribes, and twisted justice.
1 Samuel 8:4  Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.
1 Samuel 8:5  They said to him, "Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now give us a king to judge us, like all the other nations have."
1 Samuel 8:6  But this displeased Samuel, when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the LORD.
1 Samuel 8:7  The LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me, so that I should not be king over them."
1 Samuel 8:8  "They are doing to you just as they have always done to me. From the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, they have left me and served other gods."
1 Samuel 8:9  "So listen to their voice. But warn them solemnly, and show them how the king who will reign over them will act."
1 Samuel 8:10  So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.
1 Samuel 8:11  He said, "This is how the king who will reign over you will act. He will take your sons and make them serve him with his chariots and as his horsemen, and some will run in front of his chariots."
1 Samuel 8:12  "He will appoint them to be captains over thousands and captains over fifties. He will set them to plough his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots."
1 Samuel 8:13  "He will take your daughters to make perfumes, and to be cooks and bakers."
1 Samuel 8:14  "He will take your fields, your vineyards and your olive groves, even the best of them, and give them to his servants."
1 Samuel 8:15  "He will take a tenth of your seed and of your vineyards, and give it to his officers and his servants."
1 Samuel 8:16  "He will take your menservants and your maidservants, and your finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work."
1 Samuel 8:17  "He will take a tenth of your sheep, and you yourselves will be his servants."
1 Samuel 8:18  "On that day you will cry out because of the king you have chosen for yourselves. But the LORD will not hear you on that day."
1 Samuel 8:19  Even so, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. They said, "No. We will have a king over us,"
1 Samuel 8:20  "so that we also may be like all the other nations. Our king will judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."
1 Samuel 8:21  Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he repeated them in the ears of the LORD.
1 Samuel 8:22  The LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to their voice, and make them a king." And Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Go, every man to his own city."

1 Samuel 9:1  There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish. He was the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite. He was a man of great strength and wealth.
1 Samuel 9:2  Kish had a son whose name was Saul. He was a fine young man, and handsome. There was no one among the people of Israel more handsome than he was. He stood a head taller than any of the people.
1 Samuel 9:3  The donkeys of Kish, Saul's father, were lost. So Kish said to his son Saul, "Take one of the servants with you. Get up and go and look for the donkeys."
1 Samuel 9:4  So Saul went through the hill country of Ephraim, and through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. Then they went through the land of Shalim, and they were not there. Then he went through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not find them.
1 Samuel 9:5  When they came to the land of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, "Come, let us go back. My father may stop worrying about the donkeys and start worrying about us."
1 Samuel 9:6  But the servant said to him, "Look, there is a man of God in this city, and he is a man who is honoured. Everything he says comes true. Let us go there now. Perhaps he can show us the way we should go."
1 Samuel 9:7  Then Saul said to his servant, "But if we go, what shall we bring the man? The bread in our bags is gone, and we have no gift to bring to the man of God. What do we have?"
1 Samuel 9:8  The servant answered Saul again and said, "Look, I have here a quarter of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of God, so that he will tell us our way."
1 Samuel 9:9  (In earlier times in Israel, when a man went to ask God something, he would say, "Come, let us go to the seer." For the one who is now called a Prophet was in earlier times called a Seer.)
1 Samuel 9:10  Then Saul said to his servant, "You have spoken well. Come, let us go." So they went to the city where the man of God was.
1 Samuel 9:11  As they went up the hill to the city, they found young girls going out to draw water. They said to them, "Is the seer here?"
1 Samuel 9:12  The girls answered them, "He is. Look, he is just ahead of you. Hurry now, for he came to the city today. There is a sacrifice of the people today at the high place."
1 Samuel 9:13  "As soon as you come into the city, you will find him at once, before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people will not eat until he comes, because he blesses the sacrifice. After that, those who are invited eat. So go up now, for about this time you will find him."
1 Samuel 9:14  So they went up into the city. As they came into the city, there was Samuel coming out towards them, on his way up to the high place.
1 Samuel 9:15  Now the LORD had spoken in Samuel's ear the day before Saul came. He said,
1 Samuel 9:16  "Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man out of the land of Benjamin. You shall anoint him to be leader over my people Israel. He will save my people from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked on my people, because their cry has come to me."
1 Samuel 9:17  When Samuel saw Saul, the LORD said to him, "Look, this is the man I spoke to you about. This is the one who shall rule over my people."
1 Samuel 9:18  Then Saul came up to Samuel in the gate and said, "Please tell me where the seer's house is."
1 Samuel 9:19  Samuel answered Saul, "I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today. In the morning I will let you go, and I will tell you all that is in your heart."
1 Samuel 9:20  "As for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not think about them, for they have been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you and on all your father's house?"
1 Samuel 9:21  Saul answered, "Am I not a Benjamite, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak to me like this?"
1 Samuel 9:22  Then Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall. He gave them the best place among those who were invited, who were about thirty people.
1 Samuel 9:23  Samuel said to the cook, "Bring the portion I gave you, the one I told you to set aside."
1 Samuel 9:24  So the cook took up the shoulder and what was on it, and set it before Saul. And Samuel said, "Look, here is what was kept back. Set it before you and eat. It has been kept for you until this time, since I said, 'I have invited the people.'" So Saul ate with Samuel that day.
1 Samuel 9:25  When they had come down from the high place into the city, Samuel talked with Saul on the roof of the house.
1 Samuel 9:26  They got up early. About daybreak Samuel called to Saul on the roof of the house and said, "Get up, so that I may send you on your way." So Saul got up, and the two of them went outside, he and Samuel.
1 Samuel 9:27  As they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, "Tell the servant to go on ahead of us." And he went on. "But you stand still a while, so that I may show you the word of God."

1 Samuel 10:1  Then Samuel took a small jar of oil, and poured it on Saul's head, and kissed him, and said, "Is it not because the LORD has anointed you to be captain over his inheritance?"
1 Samuel 10:2  "When you leave me today, you will find two men by Rachel's tomb, on the border of Benjamin at Zelzah. They will say to you, 'The donkeys you went to look for have been found. Now your father has stopped worrying about the donkeys, and is troubled about you. He says, What shall I do for my son?'"
1 Samuel 10:3  "Then you will go on from there, and come to the plain of Tabor. Three men will meet you there, going up to God at Bethel. One will be carrying three young goats, another three loaves of bread, and another a skin of wine."
1 Samuel 10:4  "They will greet you, and give you two loaves of bread, and you will take them from their hands."
1 Samuel 10:5  "After that you will come to the hill of God, where the soldiers of the Philistines are stationed. When you come to the city there, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place. In front of them will be a harp, a tambourine, a flute and a lyre, and they will be prophesying."
1 Samuel 10:6  "And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon you, and you will prophesy with them, and you will be turned into another man."
1 Samuel 10:7  "When these signs have come to you, do whatever the moment calls for, for God is with you."
1 Samuel 10:8  "You are to go down ahead of me to Gilgal. Look, I will come down to you, to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings. You must wait seven days, until I come to you and show you what you are to do."
1 Samuel 10:9  So when Saul turned his back to leave Samuel, God gave him another heart, and all those signs happened that day.
1 Samuel 10:10  When they came to the hill, look, a group of prophets met him. The Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.
1 Samuel 10:11  When all who had known him before saw him prophesying among the prophets, the people said to one another, "What has happened to the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?"
1 Samuel 10:12  And a man of that place answered, "But who is their father?" So it became a saying, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"
1 Samuel 10:13  When he had finished prophesying, he came to the high place.
1 Samuel 10:14  Saul's uncle said to him and to his servant, "Where did you go?" And he said, "To look for the donkeys. When we saw that they were nowhere to be found, we went to Samuel."
1 Samuel 10:15  And Saul's uncle said, "Tell me, please, what Samuel said to you."
1 Samuel 10:16  Saul said to his uncle, "He told us plainly that the donkeys had been found." But he did not tell him what Samuel had said about the kingdom.
1 Samuel 10:17  Then Samuel called the people together to the LORD at Mizpeh,
1 Samuel 10:18  and said to the children of Israel, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I brought Israel up out of Egypt. I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians, and from the hand of all the kingdoms that oppressed you."
1 Samuel 10:19  "But today you have rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your troubles and your distresses. You have said to him, 'No, set a king over us.' So now present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes, and by your thousands."
1 Samuel 10:20  So Samuel brought all the tribes of Israel near, and the tribe of Benjamin was taken.
1 Samuel 10:21  Then he brought the tribe of Benjamin near by their families, and the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken. But when they looked for him, he could not be found.
1 Samuel 10:22  So they asked the LORD again, "Has the man come here yet?" And the LORD answered, "Look, he has hidden himself among the baggage."
1 Samuel 10:23  They ran and brought him from there. When he stood among the people, he was taller than any of them from his shoulders upward.
1 Samuel 10:24  And Samuel said to all the people, "Do you see the man the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people." And all the people shouted and said, "God save the king."
1 Samuel 10:25  Then Samuel told the people the rules of the kingdom, and wrote them in a book, and laid it up before the LORD. And Samuel sent all the people away, each to his own house.
1 Samuel 10:26  Saul also went home to Gibeah, and with him went a band of men whose hearts God had touched.
1 Samuel 10:27  But the sons of Belial said, "How can this man save us?" And they despised him, and brought him no gifts. But he kept quiet.

1 Samuel 11:1  Then Nahash the Ammonite came up and set up his camp against Jabeshgilead. All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you."
1 Samuel 11:2  Nahash the Ammonite answered them, "I will make a covenant with you on this condition: that I dig out the right eye of every one of you, and so bring shame on all Israel."
1 Samuel 11:3  The elders of Jabesh said to him, "Give us seven days to wait, so that we may send messengers through all the land of Israel. Then, if there is no one to save us, we will come out to you."
1 Samuel 11:4  Then the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and told the news to the people. And all the people lifted up their voices and wept.
1 Samuel 11:5  Look, Saul was coming out of the field behind the cattle. Saul said, "What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?" And they told him the news of the men of Jabesh.
1 Samuel 11:6  The Spirit of God came upon Saul when he heard that news, and his anger burned hot.
1 Samuel 11:7  He took a pair of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them all through the land of Israel by the hands of messengers. He said, "Whoever does not come out after Saul and after Samuel, this is what will be done to his oxen." And the fear of the LORD fell on the people, and they came out as one man.
1 Samuel 11:8  When he counted them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand.
1 Samuel 11:9  They said to the messengers who had come, "Say this to the men of Jabeshgilead: 'Tomorrow, by the time the sun is hot, you will have help.'" The messengers came and told the men of Jabesh, and they were glad.
1 Samuel 11:10  So the men of Jabesh said, "Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you."
1 Samuel 11:11  The next day Saul divided the people into three companies. They came into the middle of the camp during the morning watch and killed the Ammonites until the heat of the day. Those who were left were scattered, so that no two of them were left together.
1 Samuel 11:12  The people said to Samuel, "Who was it that said, 'Shall Saul reign over us?' Bring the men here, so that we may put them to death."
1 Samuel 11:13  But Saul said, "No one shall be put to death this day, for today the LORD has brought salvation to Israel."
1 Samuel 11:14  Then Samuel said to the people, "Come, let us go to Gilgal and make the kingdom new there."
1 Samuel 11:15  So all the people went to Gilgal. There they made Saul king before the LORD in Gilgal. There they offered sacrifices of peace offerings before the LORD, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

1 Samuel 12:1  Samuel said to all Israel, "Look, I have listened to your voice in everything you said to me, and I have made a king to rule over you."
1 Samuel 12:2  "Now look, the king walks before you. I am old and grey-headed, and my sons are here with you. I have walked before you from my childhood until this day."
1 Samuel 12:3  "Look, here I am. Speak against me before the LORD, and before the man he has anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I crushed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Tell me, and I will give it back to you."
1 Samuel 12:4  They said, "You have not cheated us or crushed us. You have not taken anything from any man's hand."
1 Samuel 12:5  He said to them, "The LORD is witness against you, and the man he has anointed is witness this day, that you have found nothing in my hand." And they answered, "He is witness."
1 Samuel 12:6  Samuel said to the people, "It was the LORD who raised up Moses and Aaron, and who brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt."
1 Samuel 12:7  "So now stand still, and let me reason with you before the LORD about all the righteous acts of the LORD, which he did for you and for your fathers."
1 Samuel 12:8  "When Jacob had come into Egypt, your fathers cried out to the LORD. Then the LORD sent Moses and Aaron. They brought your fathers out of Egypt, and settled them in this place."
1 Samuel 12:9  "But they forgot the LORD their God. So he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the captain of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab; and these fought against them."
1 Samuel 12:10  "They cried out to the LORD and said, 'We have sinned, because we have left the LORD and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth. But now rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.'"
1 Samuel 12:11  "And the LORD sent Jerubbaal, and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel. He rescued you from the hand of your enemies all around you, and you lived in safety."
1 Samuel 12:12  "But when you saw that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon came against you, you said to me, 'No, a king must rule over us' - and all the while the LORD your God was your king."
1 Samuel 12:13  "So now, look at the king you have chosen, the one you asked for. Look, the LORD has set a king over you."
1 Samuel 12:14  "If you will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the command of the LORD, then both you and the king who rules over you will go on following the LORD your God."
1 Samuel 12:15  "But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD, and you rebel against the command of the LORD, then the hand of the LORD will be against you, as it was against your fathers."
1 Samuel 12:16  "So now stand still and see this great thing that the LORD will do in front of your eyes."
1 Samuel 12:17  "Is it not the wheat harvest today? I will call to the LORD, and he will send thunder and rain. Then you will understand and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the LORD by asking for a king."
1 Samuel 12:18  So Samuel called to the LORD, and the LORD sent thunder and rain that day. And all the people were greatly afraid of the LORD and of Samuel.
1 Samuel 12:19  All the people said to Samuel, "Pray for your servants to the LORD your God, so that we do not die. For we have added this evil to all our sins, by asking for a king."
1 Samuel 12:20  Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid. You have done all this wickedness. Yet do not turn away from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart."
1 Samuel 12:21  "Do not turn aside. If you do, you will go after empty things, which cannot help you or rescue you, for they are empty."
1 Samuel 12:22  "The LORD will not leave his people, for the sake of his great name. For it has pleased the LORD to make you his people."
1 Samuel 12:23  "As for me, may I never sin against the LORD by stopping praying for you. I will teach you the good and right way."
1 Samuel 12:24  "Only fear the LORD, and serve him in truth with all your heart. Think how great the things are that he has done for you."
1 Samuel 12:25  "But if you still do wickedly, you will be swept away, both you and your king."

1 Samuel 13:1  Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,
1 Samuel 13:2  Saul chose three thousand men of Israel. Two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the hill country of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent away, each man to his tent.
1 Samuel 13:3  Jonathan struck down the Philistine soldiers stationed in Geba, and the Philistines heard about it. Then Saul blew the trumpet through all the land, saying, "Let the Hebrews hear."
1 Samuel 13:4  All Israel heard the news that Saul had struck down a group of Philistine soldiers, and that the Philistines now hated Israel. So the people were called together to follow Saul to Gilgal.
1 Samuel 13:5  The Philistines gathered together to fight against Israel: thirty thousand chariots, six thousand horsemen, and men as many as the sand on the seashore. They came up and camped in Michmash, east of Bethaven.
1 Samuel 13:6  When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble (for the people were hard pressed), they hid themselves in caves, in thickets, among rocks, in high places, and in pits.
1 Samuel 13:7  Some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him, trembling.
1 Samuel 13:8  He waited seven days, the time Samuel had set. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people began to scatter away from him.
1 Samuel 13:9  So Saul said, "Bring me the burnt offering and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering.
1 Samuel 13:10  As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, look, Samuel came. Saul went out to meet him and to greet him.
1 Samuel 13:11  Samuel said, "What have you done?" Saul said, "I saw that the people were scattering away from me, and that you did not come at the set time, and that the Philistines were gathering at Michmash."
1 Samuel 13:12  "So I said, 'The Philistines will come down on me now at Gilgal, and I have not asked the LORD for his favour.' So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering."
1 Samuel 13:13  Samuel said to Saul, "You have acted foolishly. You have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which he commanded you. If you had, the LORD would have made your kingdom over Israel last for ever."
1 Samuel 13:14  "But now your kingdom will not continue. The LORD has looked for a man after his own heart, and the LORD has appointed him to be leader over his people, because you have not kept what the LORD commanded you."
1 Samuel 13:15  Then Samuel got up and went from Gilgal to Gibeah of Benjamin. And Saul counted the people who were with him, about six hundred men.
1 Samuel 13:16  Saul, and Jonathan his son, and the people who were with them stayed in Gibeah of Benjamin. But the Philistines camped in Michmash.
1 Samuel 13:17  Raiders came out of the Philistine camp in three companies. One company turned along the road that leads to Ophrah, to the land of Shual.
1 Samuel 13:18  Another company turned along the road to Bethhoron. And another company turned along the road of the border that looks down on the valley of Zeboim, towards the wilderness.
1 Samuel 13:19  Now there was no blacksmith to be found in all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, "The Hebrews must not make swords or spears for themselves."
1 Samuel 13:20  So all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, each man to sharpen his ploughshare, his coulter, his axe and his mattock.
1 Samuel 13:21  Yet they had a file for the mattocks, for the coulters, for the forks and for the axes, and for sharpening the goads.
1 Samuel 13:22  So on the day of the battle there was no sword or spear in the hand of any of the people who were with Saul and Jonathan. Only Saul and Jonathan his son had them.
1 Samuel 13:23  And the Philistine soldiers went out to the pass of Michmash.

1 Samuel 14:1  One day Jonathan the son of Saul said to the young man who carried his armour, "Come, let us go over to the Philistine outpost on the other side." But he did not tell his father.
1 Samuel 14:2  Saul was staying at the far edge of Gibeah, under a pomegranate tree in Migron. The men with him were about six hundred.
1 Samuel 14:3  Ahiah was there wearing an ephod. He was the son of Ahitub, the brother of Ichabod, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eli, the LORD's priest in Shiloh. And the people did not know that Jonathan had gone.
1 Samuel 14:4  Between the passes by which Jonathan tried to cross over to the Philistine outpost there was a sharp rock on one side and a sharp rock on the other. One was named Bozez, and the other Seneh.
1 Samuel 14:5  One rock stood on the north, facing Michmash, and the other on the south, facing Gibeah.
1 Samuel 14:6  Jonathan said to the young man who carried his armour, "Come, let us go over to the outpost of these men who are not circumcised. It may be that the LORD will work for us. Nothing can stop the LORD from saving, whether by many or by few."
1 Samuel 14:7  His armour-bearer said to him, "Do all that is in your heart. Go ahead; look, I am with you, whatever you decide."
1 Samuel 14:8  Then Jonathan said, "Look, we will cross over to these men and let them see us."
1 Samuel 14:9  "If they say to us, 'Wait until we come to you,' then we will stand still where we are and not go up to them."
1 Samuel 14:10  "But if they say, 'Come up to us,' then we will go up. For the LORD has given them into our hand. This will be the sign to us."
1 Samuel 14:11  So they both let the Philistine outpost see them. The Philistines said, "Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they hid themselves."
1 Samuel 14:12  The men of the outpost called out to Jonathan and his armour-bearer, "Come up to us, and we will show you something." Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, "Climb up after me, for the LORD has given them into the hand of Israel."
1 Samuel 14:13  Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet, and his armour-bearer came after him. The Philistines fell before Jonathan, and his armour-bearer killed them as he followed behind.
1 Samuel 14:14  In that first attack Jonathan and his armour-bearer killed about twenty men, in an area of about half an acre of land, the size a pair of oxen might plough.
1 Samuel 14:15  There was terror in the camp, in the field, and among all the people. The outpost and the raiding parties trembled too, and the earth shook. It was a very great terror.
1 Samuel 14:16  Saul's watchmen in Gibeah of Benjamin looked, and they saw the crowd melting away and running in every direction, striking one another down.
1 Samuel 14:17  Then Saul said to the people with him, "Count the men, and see who has gone from us." When they had counted, Jonathan and his armour-bearer were not there.
1 Samuel 14:18  Saul said to Ahiah, "Bring the ark of God here." For at that time the ark of God was with the children of Israel.
1 Samuel 14:19  While Saul was speaking to the priest, the noise in the Philistine camp grew louder and louder. So Saul said to the priest, "Take back your hand."
1 Samuel 14:20  Then Saul and all the people with him gathered together and went into the battle. And look, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion.
1 Samuel 14:21  The Hebrews who had been with the Philistines before that, and had gone up with them into the camp from the country round about, now turned and joined the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.
1 Samuel 14:22  In the same way all the men of Israel who had hidden themselves in the hill country of Ephraim heard that the Philistines were running away, and they also chased hard after them in the battle.
1 Samuel 14:23  So the LORD saved Israel that day, and the fighting spread as far as Bethaven.
1 Samuel 14:24  The men of Israel were in distress that day, because Saul had put the people under an oath, saying, "Cursed be the man who eats any food before evening, until I have paid back my enemies." So none of the people tasted any food.
1 Samuel 14:25  All the people came into a wood, and there was honey on the ground.
1 Samuel 14:26  When the people came into the wood, they saw the honey dripping, but no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people were afraid of the oath.
1 Samuel 14:27  But Jonathan had not heard when his father put the people under the oath. So he reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it in a honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth. And his eyes brightened.
1 Samuel 14:28  Then one of the people said, "Your father put the people under a strict oath, saying, 'Cursed be the man who eats any food today.'" And the people were faint.
1 Samuel 14:29  Then Jonathan said, "My father has brought trouble on the land. See how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey."
1 Samuel 14:30  "How much better it would have been if the people had eaten freely today from the goods they took from their enemies. Would there not then have been a far greater slaughter among the Philistines?"
1 Samuel 14:31  That day they struck down the Philistines from Michmash to Aijalon, and the people were very faint.
1 Samuel 14:32  So the people rushed on the goods they had taken. They took sheep, oxen and calves, killed them on the ground, and ate them with the blood.
1 Samuel 14:33  Then they told Saul, "Look, the people are sinning against the LORD by eating meat with the blood." He said, "You have broken the law. Roll a great stone to me today."
1 Samuel 14:34  Saul said, "Go among the people and tell them, 'Every man must bring me his ox and his sheep, and kill them here, and eat. Do not sin against the LORD by eating meat with the blood.'" So that night every one of the people brought his ox with him and killed it there.
1 Samuel 14:35  And Saul built an altar to the LORD. That was the first altar he built to the LORD.
1 Samuel 14:36  Saul said, "Let us go down after the Philistines by night. Let us plunder them until morning light, and leave not one of them alive." They said, "Do whatever seems good to you." Then the priest said, "Let us come near to God here."
1 Samuel 14:37  So Saul asked God, "Shall I go down after the Philistines? Will you give them into the hand of Israel?" But God did not answer him that day.
1 Samuel 14:38  Saul said, "Come here, all you leaders of the people. Find out and see how this sin has happened today."
1 Samuel 14:39  "As surely as the LORD lives, who saves Israel, even if it is in Jonathan my son, he shall surely die." But not one man among all the people answered him.
1 Samuel 14:40  Then he said to all Israel, "You stand on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will stand on the other side." And the people said to Saul, "Do what seems good to you."
1 Samuel 14:41  So Saul said to the LORD God of Israel, "Give a perfect lot." And Saul and Jonathan were taken, but the people went free.
1 Samuel 14:42  Saul said, "Cast lots between me and Jonathan my son." And Jonathan was taken.
1 Samuel 14:43  Then Saul said to Jonathan, "Tell me what you have done." Jonathan told him, "I only tasted a little honey with the end of the staff that was in my hand. And now I must die."
1 Samuel 14:44  Saul answered, "May God do so to me, and more also. You shall surely die, Jonathan."
1 Samuel 14:45  But the people said to Saul, "Shall Jonathan die, who has brought this great salvation to Israel? Never! As surely as the LORD lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for he has worked with God today." So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.
1 Samuel 14:46  Then Saul stopped chasing the Philistines, and the Philistines went back to their own place.
1 Samuel 14:47  So Saul took the kingdom over Israel, and he fought against all his enemies on every side: against Moab, against the children of Ammon, against Edom, against the kings of Zobah, and against the Philistines. Wherever he turned, he punished them.
1 Samuel 14:48  He gathered an army and struck down the Amalekites, and he rescued Israel from the hands of those who robbed them.
1 Samuel 14:49  The sons of Saul were Jonathan, Ishui and Melchishua. The names of his two daughters were these: the firstborn was Merab, and the younger was Michal.
1 Samuel 14:50  The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam, the daughter of Ahimaaz. The commander of his army was Abner, the son of Ner, Saul's uncle.
1 Samuel 14:51  Kish was the father of Saul, and Ner the father of Abner was the son of Abiel.
1 Samuel 14:52  There was hard war against the Philistines all the days of Saul. Whenever Saul saw any strong man or any brave man, he took him into his service.

1 Samuel 15:1  Samuel said to Saul, "The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people, over Israel. So now listen to the words of the LORD."
1 Samuel 15:2  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: 'I remember what Amalek did to Israel. He lay in wait for Israel on the road, when Israel came up from Egypt.'"
1 Samuel 15:3  "'Now go and attack Amalek. Completely destroy everything they have. Do not spare them. Kill man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"
1 Samuel 15:4  So Saul gathered the people together and counted them in Telaim. There were two hundred thousand foot soldiers, and ten thousand men of Judah.
1 Samuel 15:5  Saul came to a city of Amalek, and lay in wait in the valley.
1 Samuel 15:6  Saul said to the Kenites, "Go, leave, get away from among the Amalekites, or I will destroy you along with them. For you showed kindness to all the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt." So the Kenites left the Amalekites.
1 Samuel 15:7  Saul struck down the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt.
1 Samuel 15:8  He took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and completely destroyed all the people with the sword.
1 Samuel 15:9  But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep and the oxen and the fat cattle and the lambs, and all that was good. They would not completely destroy them. But everything that was worthless and of no use, that they destroyed completely.
1 Samuel 15:10  Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel:
1 Samuel 15:11  "I am sorry that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me, and has not carried out my commands." This grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the LORD all night.
1 Samuel 15:12  Samuel got up early in the morning to meet Saul. Someone told Samuel, "Saul went to Carmel, and there he set up a monument for himself. Then he turned and went on, and went down to Gilgal."
1 Samuel 15:13  Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, "May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the command of the LORD."
1 Samuel 15:14  Samuel said, "Then what is this bleating of sheep in my ears? And what is this lowing of oxen that I hear?"
1 Samuel 15:15  Saul said, "They have brought them from the Amalekites. The people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen, to sacrifice to the LORD your God. The rest we have completely destroyed."
1 Samuel 15:16  Then Samuel said to Saul, "Wait, and I will tell you what the LORD said to me last night." And Saul said to him, "Speak."
1 Samuel 15:17  Samuel said, "When you were small in your own eyes, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the LORD anointed you king over Israel."
1 Samuel 15:18  "The LORD sent you on a journey and said, 'Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are wiped out.'"
1 Samuel 15:19  "Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Why did you rush on the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?"
1 Samuel 15:20  Saul said to Samuel, "But I did obey the voice of the LORD. I went on the mission the LORD sent me on. I have brought back Agag the king of Amalek, and I have completely destroyed the Amalekites."
1 Samuel 15:21  "But the people took sheep and oxen from the plunder, the best of the things that should have been completely destroyed, to sacrifice to the LORD your God in Gilgal."
1 Samuel 15:22  Samuel said, "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Look, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams."
1 Samuel 15:23  "For rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is like wickedness and idol worship. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king."
1 Samuel 15:24  Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned. I have broken the command of the LORD, and your words too. I was afraid of the people, and I obeyed their voice."
1 Samuel 15:25  "Now I beg you, pardon my sin, and come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD."
1 Samuel 15:26  Samuel said to Saul, "I will not go back with you. For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel."
1 Samuel 15:27  As Samuel turned to go away, Saul took hold of the edge of his robe, and it tore.
1 Samuel 15:28  Samuel said to him, "The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel away from you today, and has given it to a neighbour of yours, who is better than you."
1 Samuel 15:29  "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie, and will not change his mind. For he is not a man, that he should change his mind."
1 Samuel 15:30  Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Yet honour me now, I beg you, in front of the elders of my people and in front of Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God."
1 Samuel 15:31  So Samuel went back after Saul, and Saul worshipped the LORD.
1 Samuel 15:32  Then Samuel said, "Bring me Agag the king of the Amalekites." And Agag came to him carefully. And Agag said, "Surely the bitterness of death is past."
1 Samuel 15:33  Samuel said, "As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women." And Samuel cut Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.
1 Samuel 15:34  Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.
1 Samuel 15:35  Samuel did not come to see Saul again until the day of his death. Yet Samuel mourned for Saul. And the LORD was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.

1 Samuel 16:1  The LORD said to Samuel, "How long will you mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
1 Samuel 16:2  Samuel said, "How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me." The LORD said, "Take a young cow with you, and say, 'I have come to offer a sacrifice to the LORD.'"
1 Samuel 16:3  "Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I name to you."
1 Samuel 16:4  So Samuel did what the LORD had said, and he came to Bethlehem. The elders of the town trembled when he came, and they said, "Do you come in peace?"
1 Samuel 16:5  He said, "In peace. I have come to offer a sacrifice to the LORD. Make yourselves holy, and come with me to the sacrifice." Then he made Jesse and his sons holy, and invited them to the sacrifice.
1 Samuel 16:6  When they came, Samuel looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the LORD's anointed one is here before him."
1 Samuel 16:7  But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his face or how tall he is, because I have refused him. The LORD does not see as a man sees. A man looks at the outside, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:8  Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass in front of Samuel. And Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either."
1 Samuel 16:9  Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And Samuel said, "The LORD has not chosen this one either."
1 Samuel 16:10  Jesse made seven of his sons pass in front of Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these."
1 Samuel 16:11  Then Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all your children here?" He said, "There is still the youngest. Look, he is keeping the sheep." Samuel said to Jesse, "Send for him and bring him here, for we will not sit down until he comes."
1 Samuel 16:12  So he sent for him and brought him in. He had a reddish glow, with beautiful eyes, and he was good to look at. And the LORD said, "Get up and anoint him, for this is the one."
1 Samuel 16:13  Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him among his brothers. From that day on, the Spirit of the LORD came upon David. Then Samuel got up and went to Ramah.
1 Samuel 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD left Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1 Samuel 16:15  Saul's servants said to him, "Look, an evil spirit from God is troubling you."
1 Samuel 16:16  "Let our lord give the order, and your servants here before you will look for a man who plays the harp well. Then, when the evil spirit from God comes upon you, he will play, and you will be well."
1 Samuel 16:17  Saul said to his servants, "Find me a man who plays well, and bring him to me."
1 Samuel 16:18  Then one of the servants answered, "Look, I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem. He plays well, and he is a strong and brave man, a fighting man, wise in what he says, and handsome. And the LORD is with him."
1 Samuel 16:19  So Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, "Send me your son David, who is with the sheep."
1 Samuel 16:20  Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and a young goat, and sent them to Saul with his son David.
1 Samuel 16:21  David came to Saul and stood before him. Saul loved him greatly, and David became the man who carried his armour.
1 Samuel 16:22  Saul sent word to Jesse, saying, "Please let David stay and serve me, for I am pleased with him."
1 Samuel 16:23  So whenever the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, David took a harp and played it. Then Saul felt better and was well, and the evil spirit left him.

1 Samuel 17:1  The Philistines gathered their armies for battle. They came together at Shochoh, which belongs to Judah. They camped between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.
1 Samuel 17:2  Saul and the men of Israel gathered too. They camped by the valley of Elah, and drew up their lines of battle against the Philistines.
1 Samuel 17:3  The Philistines stood on a mountain on one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side. There was a valley between them.
1 Samuel 17:4  A champion came out from the camp of the Philistines. His name was Goliath, from Gath. He was six cubits and a span tall.
1 Samuel 17:5  He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he wore a coat of mail. The coat weighed five thousand shekels of brass.
1 Samuel 17:6  He had guards of brass on his legs, and a shield of brass slung between his shoulders.
1 Samuel 17:7  The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam. The head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. A man carrying a shield walked in front of him.
1 Samuel 17:8  He stood and shouted to the armies of Israel, "Why have you come out to draw up your battle lines? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not servants of Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me."
1 Samuel 17:9  "If he can fight me and kill me, then we will be your servants. But if I beat him and kill him, then you will be our servants and serve us."
1 Samuel 17:10  The Philistine said, "Today I defy the armies of Israel. Give me a man, so that we may fight each other."
1 Samuel 17:11  When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they lost heart and were very afraid.
1 Samuel 17:12  Now David was the son of that Ephrathite from Bethlehemjudah whose name was Jesse. Jesse had eight sons. In the days of Saul he was an old man among men.
1 Samuel 17:13  The three oldest sons of Jesse had gone to follow Saul to the battle. The names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, Abinadab next, and Shammah the third.
1 Samuel 17:14  David was the youngest. The three oldest followed Saul.
1 Samuel 17:15  But David went back and forth from Saul to care for his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
1 Samuel 17:16  The Philistine came near morning and evening, and stood there for forty days.
1 Samuel 17:17  Jesse said to his son David, "Take an ephah of this roasted grain to your brothers, and these ten loaves. Run to the camp, to your brothers."
1 Samuel 17:18  "Carry these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand. See how your brothers are, and bring back word from them."
1 Samuel 17:19  Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, fighting the Philistines.
1 Samuel 17:20  David got up early in the morning. He left the sheep with a keeper, took the food, and went as Jesse had told him. He came to the place where the wagons were, just as the army was going out to the fight, shouting the battle cry.
1 Samuel 17:21  For Israel and the Philistines had drawn up their lines, army against army.
1 Samuel 17:22  David left the things he carried with the man who kept the baggage, and ran to the battle line. He came and greeted his brothers.
1 Samuel 17:23  While he talked with them, look, the champion came up. He was the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines. He spoke the same words as before, and David heard them.
1 Samuel 17:24  When all the men of Israel saw the man, they ran from him and were very afraid.
1 Samuel 17:25  The men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. The man who kills him, the king will make him very rich. He will give him his daughter, and set his father's family free in Israel."
1 Samuel 17:26  David spoke to the men standing by him. He said, "What will be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the shame from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"
1 Samuel 17:27  The people answered him in the same way, and said, "This is what will be done for the man who kills him."
1 Samuel 17:28  Eliab, his oldest brother, heard him speaking to the men. Eliab was angry with David, and said, "Why did you come down here? Who did you leave those few sheep with in the wilderness? I know your pride, and the wickedness of your heart. You came down to see the battle."
1 Samuel 17:29  David said, "What have I done now? Was it not only a question?"
1 Samuel 17:30  He turned away from him to someone else, and asked the same thing. The people answered him again as before.
1 Samuel 17:31  When David's words were heard, they were repeated to Saul, and he sent for him.
1 Samuel 17:32  David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart because of him. Your servant will go and fight this Philistine."
1 Samuel 17:33  Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight him. You are only a boy, and he has been a man of war from his youth."
1 Samuel 17:34  David said to Saul, "Your servant kept his father's sheep. A lion came, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock."
1 Samuel 17:35  I went out after it and struck it, and rescued the lamb out of its mouth. When it turned on me, I caught it by its beard, and struck it, and killed it.
1 Samuel 17:36  "Your servant killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God."
1 Samuel 17:37  David also said, "The LORD who saved me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will save me from the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go, and may the LORD be with you."
1 Samuel 17:38  Saul dressed David in his own armour. He put a helmet of brass on his head, and dressed him in a coat of mail.
1 Samuel 17:39  David strapped on his sword over the armour, and tried to walk, for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, "I cannot go in these, for I have not tested them." So David took them off.
1 Samuel 17:40  He took his staff in his hand, and chose five smooth stones out of the brook. He put them in the shepherd's bag he had, in his pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he went near to the Philistine.
1 Samuel 17:41  The Philistine came on and drew near to David, and the man who carried the shield went in front of him.
1 Samuel 17:42  When the Philistine looked around and saw David, he despised him, for David was only a boy, with a fresh face and good looks.
1 Samuel 17:43  The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?" And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
1 Samuel 17:44  The Philistine said to David, "Come here to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field."
1 Samuel 17:45  Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, a spear and a shield. But I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied."
1 Samuel 17:46  Today the LORD will give you into my hand. I will strike you down and take your head from you. Today I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth. Then all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel.
1 Samuel 17:47  "And all this gathering will know that the LORD does not save with sword and spear. The battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hands."
1 Samuel 17:48  When the Philistine got up and came near to meet David, David hurried and ran toward the battle line to meet the Philistine.
1 Samuel 17:49  David put his hand in his bag and took out a stone. He slung it and struck the Philistine in his forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell face down on the ground.
1 Samuel 17:50  So David beat the Philistine with a sling and a stone. He struck the Philistine and killed him, and there was no sword in David's hand.
1 Samuel 17:51  So David ran and stood over the Philistine. He took the Philistine's sword and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they ran away.
1 Samuel 17:52  The men of Israel and Judah got up and shouted, and chased the Philistines as far as the valley and the gates of Ekron. The wounded Philistines fell along the road to Shaaraim, all the way to Gath and to Ekron.
1 Samuel 17:53  The children of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their tents.
1 Samuel 17:54  David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armour in his tent.
1 Samuel 17:55  When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, "Abner, whose son is this young man?" Abner said, "As your soul lives, O king, I cannot tell."
1 Samuel 17:56  The king said, "Ask whose son this young man is."
1 Samuel 17:57  As David came back from killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul, with the head of the Philistine in his hand.
1 Samuel 17:58  Saul said to him, "Whose son are you, young man?" David answered, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."

1 Samuel 18:1  When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David. Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
1 Samuel 18:2  That day Saul took David to himself, and would not let him go home to his father's house any more.
1 Samuel 18:3  Then Jonathan and David made a covenant together, because Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
1 Samuel 18:4  Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David. He gave him his other clothes too, and his sword, his bow and his belt.
1 Samuel 18:5  David went out wherever Saul sent him, and he acted wisely. So Saul put him in charge of the men of war. This pleased all the people, and it pleased Saul's servants too.
1 Samuel 18:6  As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul. They sang and danced, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.
1 Samuel 18:7  The women sang to one another as they played, and said, "Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands."
1 Samuel 18:8  Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, "They have given David ten thousands, and to me they have given only thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?"
1 Samuel 18:9  From that day on Saul watched David with a jealous eye.
1 Samuel 18:10  The next day the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied inside the house. David played the harp with his hand, as he did at other times. Saul had a javelin in his hand.
1 Samuel 18:11  Saul threw the javelin, for he said, "I will pin David to the wall with it." But David got away from him twice.
1 Samuel 18:12  Saul was afraid of David, because the LORD was with David and had left Saul.
1 Samuel 18:13  So Saul sent him away from him, and made him captain over a thousand men. David went out and came in before the people.
1 Samuel 18:14  David acted wisely in all his ways, and the LORD was with him.
1 Samuel 18:15  When Saul saw that he acted very wisely, he was afraid of him.
1 Samuel 18:16  But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.
1 Samuel 18:17  Saul said to David, "Look, here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you as your wife. Only be brave for me, and fight the LORD's battles." For Saul said to himself, "Let my hand not be against him. Let the hand of the Philistines be against him."
1 Samuel 18:18  David said to Saul, "Who am I? What is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be the king's son-in-law?"
1 Samuel 18:19  But when the time came for Merab, Saul's daughter, to be given to David, she was given instead to Adriel the Meholathite as his wife.
1 Samuel 18:20  Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David. They told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
1 Samuel 18:21  Saul said, "I will give her to him, so that she may be a trap for him, and so that the hand of the Philistines may be against him." So Saul said to David, "Today you shall be my son-in-law, through one of the two."
1 Samuel 18:22  Saul commanded his servants, "Speak with David in secret, and say, 'Look, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you. So now become the king's son-in-law.'"
1 Samuel 18:23  So Saul's servants spoke these words to David. And David said, "Does it seem a small thing to you to be a king's son-in-law? I am a poor man, and little thought of."
1 Samuel 18:24  Saul's servants told him, "This is what David said."
1 Samuel 18:25  Saul said, "Say this to David: 'The king wants no bride price, only a hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to take revenge on the king's enemies.'" But Saul meant to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
1 Samuel 18:26  When his servants told David these words, David was glad to become the king's son-in-law. The days set for it had not yet run out.
1 Samuel 18:27  So David got up and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. David brought their foreskins, and they gave the full number of them to the king, so that he might be the king's son-in-law. And Saul gave him Michal his daughter as his wife.
1 Samuel 18:28  Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him.
1 Samuel 18:29  So Saul was even more afraid of David, and Saul was David's enemy from then on.
1 Samuel 18:30  Then the princes of the Philistines went out to fight. And whenever they went out, David acted more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was greatly honoured.

1 Samuel 19:1  Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, telling them that they should kill David.
1 Samuel 19:2  But Jonathan, Saul's son, took great delight in David. So Jonathan told David, "My father Saul is trying to kill you. So please be careful in the morning. Stay in a secret place, and hide yourself."
1 Samuel 19:3  "I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you. Whatever I find out, I will tell you."
1 Samuel 19:4  Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father. He said to him, "Let the king not sin against his servant, against David. He has not sinned against you, and what he has done has been very good for you."
1 Samuel 19:5  "He took his life in his hand and killed the Philistine, and the LORD brought a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and you were glad. Why then will you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?"
1 Samuel 19:6  Saul listened to Jonathan's words. Saul swore, "As the LORD lives, he shall not be put to death."
1 Samuel 19:7  Jonathan called David and told him all these things. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and David was with him as he had been before.
1 Samuel 19:8  There was war again. David went out and fought with the Philistines, and killed great numbers of them, and they fled from him.
1 Samuel 19:9  The evil spirit from the LORD came upon Saul as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand.
1 Samuel 19:10  Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the spear, but David slipped away from Saul, and the spear struck the wall. David fled and escaped that night.
1 Samuel 19:11  Saul also sent messengers to David's house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, told him, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."
1 Samuel 19:12  So Michal let David down through a window. He went away, and fled, and escaped.
1 Samuel 19:13  Michal took an image and laid it in the bed. She put a pillow of goats' hair at its head and covered it with a cloth.
1 Samuel 19:14  When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick."
1 Samuel 19:15  Then Saul sent the messengers back to see David. He said, "Bring him up to me in the bed, so that I may kill him."
1 Samuel 19:16  When the messengers came in, look, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair at its head.
1 Samuel 19:17  Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me like this, and sent my enemy away, so that he has escaped?" Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go. Why should I kill you?'"
1 Samuel 19:18  So David fled and escaped, and he came to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went and stayed at Naioth.
1 Samuel 19:19  Saul was told, "Look, David is at Naioth in Ramah."
1 Samuel 19:20  Saul sent messengers to take David. When they saw the company of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came upon Saul's messengers, and they also prophesied.
1 Samuel 19:21  When Saul was told this, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied too. Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they prophesied as well.
1 Samuel 19:22  Then he himself went to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Sechu. He asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" Someone said, "Look, they are at Naioth in Ramah."
1 Samuel 19:23  So he went there, to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him too, and he walked on, prophesying, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.
1 Samuel 19:24  He also stripped off his clothes and prophesied before Samuel in the same way. He lay down naked all that day and all that night. That is why people say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

1 Samuel 20:1  David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came and said to Jonathan, "What have I done? What is my wrongdoing? What is my sin against your father, that he wants to take my life?"
1 Samuel 20:2  And Jonathan said to him, "Far be it from you. You will not die. Look, my father does nothing, great or small, without telling me. Why should my father hide this from me? It is not so."
1 Samuel 20:3  But David swore again and said, "Your father knows very well that I have found grace in your eyes. So he says, 'Do not let Jonathan know this, or he will be grieved.' But truly, as the LORD lives, and as you live, there is only a step between me and death."
1 Samuel 20:4  Then Jonathan said to David, "Whatever you desire, I will do it for you."
1 Samuel 20:5  And David said to Jonathan, "Look, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should be sitting with the king at his food. But let me go and hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day."
1 Samuel 20:6  "If your father misses me at all, then say, 'David earnestly begged me to let him run to Bethlehem, his own city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.'"
1 Samuel 20:7  "If he says, 'It is well,' then your servant is safe. But if he is very angry, then be sure that he has decided to do harm."
1 Samuel 20:8  "So show kindness to your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the LORD with you. But if there is wrongdoing in me, kill me yourself. Why should you bring me to your father?"
1 Samuel 20:9  And Jonathan said, "Far be it from you. If I knew for certain that my father had decided to bring harm on you, would I not tell you?"
1 Samuel 20:10  Then David said to Jonathan, "Who will tell me? What if your father answers you harshly?"
1 Samuel 20:11  And Jonathan said to David, "Come, let us go out into the field." And the two of them went out into the field.
1 Samuel 20:12  And Jonathan said to David, "O LORD God of Israel, when I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or on the third day, if he is well disposed toward David, and I do not then send to you and tell you,"
1 Samuel 20:13  "may the LORD do so to Jonathan, and much more. But if my father means to do you harm, I will tell you and send you away, so that you may go in peace. And may the LORD be with you, as he has been with my father."
1 Samuel 20:14  "And while I am still alive, show me the kindness of the LORD, so that I do not die."
1 Samuel 20:15  "And do not ever cut off your kindness from my house, not even when the LORD has cut off every one of David's enemies from the face of the earth."
1 Samuel 20:16  So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, "Let the LORD require it at the hand of David's enemies."
1 Samuel 20:17  And Jonathan made David swear again, because he loved him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
1 Samuel 20:18  Then Jonathan said to David, "Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty."
1 Samuel 20:19  "When you have stayed three days, go down quickly and come to the place where you hid yourself when the matter was in hand, and stay by the stone Ezel."
1 Samuel 20:20  "And I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target."
1 Samuel 20:21  "Then I will send a boy and say, 'Go, find the arrows.' If I say plainly to the boy, 'Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them,' then come, for it is safe for you and there is no harm, as the LORD lives."
1 Samuel 20:22  "But if I say to the young man, 'Look, the arrows are beyond you,' then go your way, for the LORD has sent you away."
1 Samuel 20:23  "And about the matter you and I have spoken of, look, the LORD is between you and me for ever."
1 Samuel 20:24  So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat.
1 Samuel 20:25  The king sat in his seat, as at other times, on a seat by the wall. Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat at Saul's side, but David's place was empty.
1 Samuel 20:26  Yet Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, "Something has happened to him. He is not clean; surely he is not clean."
1 Samuel 20:27  The next day, the second day of the month, David's place was empty again. Saul said to Jonathan his son, "Why has the son of Jesse not come to the meal, either yesterday or today?"
1 Samuel 20:28  And Jonathan answered Saul, "David earnestly begged me to let him go to Bethlehem."
1 Samuel 20:29  "He said, 'Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has ordered me to be there. Now, if I have found favour in your eyes, please let me get away and see my brothers.' That is why he has not come to the king's table."
1 Samuel 20:30  Then Saul's anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, "You son of a perverse, rebellious woman, do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse, to your own shame and to the shame of your mother's nakedness?"
1 Samuel 20:31  "For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you will not be established, nor your kingdom. So now send and bring him to me, for he must surely die."
1 Samuel 20:32  And Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, "Why should he be killed? What has he done?"
1 Samuel 20:33  And Saul threw a javelin at him to strike him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.
1 Samuel 20:34  So Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food on the second day of the month. He was grieved for David, because his father had shamed him.
1 Samuel 20:35  In the morning Jonathan went out into the field at the time he had agreed with David, and a little boy was with him.
1 Samuel 20:36  And he said to his boy, "Run, find the arrows that I shoot." As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him.
1 Samuel 20:37  When the boy came to the place where the arrow lay that Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, "Is not the arrow beyond you?"
1 Samuel 20:38  And Jonathan called after the boy, "Hurry, be quick, do not stay." Jonathan's boy gathered up the arrows and came to his master.
1 Samuel 20:39  But the boy knew nothing. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter.
1 Samuel 20:40  And Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, "Go, carry them to the city."
1 Samuel 20:41  As soon as the boy was gone, David got up from a place toward the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times. They kissed one another and wept together, until David wept the most.
1 Samuel 20:42  And Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, 'The LORD be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants for ever.'"
1 Samuel 20:43  And David got up and went away, and Jonathan went into the city.

1 Samuel 21:1  Then David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, "Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?"
1 Samuel 21:2  David said to Ahimelech the priest, "The king has given me a task. He said to me, 'Let no one know anything about the task I am sending you to do, or what I have ordered you.' I have told my servants to meet me at a certain place."
1 Samuel 21:3  "Now then, what do you have with you? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever there is."
1 Samuel 21:4  The priest answered David, "I have no ordinary bread here, but there is holy bread - if only the young men have kept themselves from women."
1 Samuel 21:5  David answered the priest, "Truly, women have been kept from us these three days, since I came out. The young men's vessels are holy, and the bread is in a way ordinary, even though it was made holy today in the vessel."
1 Samuel 21:6  So the priest gave him the holy bread. There was no bread there except the showbread, which had been taken from before the LORD, so that hot bread could be put in its place on the day it was taken away.
1 Samuel 21:7  Now one of Saul's servants was there that day, kept before the LORD. His name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.
1 Samuel 21:8  David said to Ahimelech, "Do you not have a spear or a sword here? I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business needed haste."
1 Samuel 21:9  The priest said, "The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah - look, it is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is no other here but that one." David said, "There is none like it. Give it to me."
1 Samuel 21:10  David got up and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.
1 Samuel 21:11  The servants of Achish said to him, "Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another about him in their dances, saying, 'Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?"
1 Samuel 21:12  David kept these words in his heart, and he was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
1 Samuel 21:13  So he changed the way he acted in front of them, and pretended to be mad while he was in their hands. He scratched on the doors of the gate and let his spit run down his beard.
1 Samuel 21:14  Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you can see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?"
1 Samuel 21:15  "Do I need madmen, that you have brought this man to act like a madman in front of me? Shall this man come into my house?"

1 Samuel 22:1  So David left that place and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father's family heard about it, they went down there to him.
1 Samuel 22:2  And everyone who was in trouble, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter, gathered around him. He became their captain. There were about four hundred men with him.
1 Samuel 22:3  From there David went to Mizpeh in Moab. He said to the king of Moab, "Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you, until I know what God will do for me."
1 Samuel 22:4  So he brought them to the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time that David was in the stronghold.
1 Samuel 22:5  Then the prophet Gad said to David, "Do not stay in the stronghold. Go away, into the land of Judah." So David left and came to the forest of Hareth.
1 Samuel 22:6  Saul heard that David had been seen, and the men who were with him. Now Saul was staying in Gibeah under a tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him.
1 Samuel 22:7  Then Saul said to his servants who stood around him, "Listen now, you men of Benjamin. Will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds?"
1 Samuel 22:8  "Is that why all of you have plotted against me? No one tells me that my son has made an agreement with the son of Jesse. Not one of you is sorry for me, or tells me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as he does this day."
1 Samuel 22:9  Then Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, answered, "I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub."
1 Samuel 22:10  "And Ahimelech asked the LORD for him, and gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine."
1 Samuel 22:11  Then the king sent for Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and for all his father's family, the priests who were in Nob. They all came to the king.
1 Samuel 22:12  Saul said, "Listen now, son of Ahitub." He answered, "Here I am, my lord."
1 Samuel 22:13  Saul said to him, "Why have you plotted against me, you and the son of Jesse? You gave him bread and a sword, and you asked God for him, so that he should rise up against me, to lie in wait, as he does this day."
1 Samuel 22:14  Then Ahimelech answered the king, "And who among all your servants is as faithful as David? He is the king's son-in-law, he goes where you send him, and he is honoured in your house."
1 Samuel 22:15  "Was this the first time I asked God for him? Far be it from me. Let the king not blame his servant for anything, or any of my father's family. Your servant knew nothing at all about this, little or much."
1 Samuel 22:16  The king said, "You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you and all your father's family."
1 Samuel 22:17  The king said to the guards who stood around him, "Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too are on David's side. They knew he was running away, and did not tell me." But the king's servants would not raise their hand to strike down the priests of the LORD.
1 Samuel 22:18  Then the king said to Doeg, "You turn and strike down the priests." And Doeg the Edomite turned, and he struck down the priests. That day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
1 Samuel 22:19  And Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword: men and women, children and babies, and oxen and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword.
1 Samuel 22:20  But one of the sons of Ahimelech the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped and fled to David.
1 Samuel 22:21  Abiathar told David that Saul had killed the LORD's priests.
1 Samuel 22:22  David said to Abiathar, "I knew that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I have caused the death of every person in your father's family."
1 Samuel 22:23  "Stay with me. Do not be afraid. The man who wants my life wants your life too. But with me you will be safe."

1 Samuel 23:1  Then they told David, "Look, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah, and they are robbing the threshingfloors."
1 Samuel 23:2  So David asked the LORD, "Shall I go and attack these Philistines?" And the LORD said to David, "Go, and attack the Philistines, and save Keilah."
1 Samuel 23:3  But David's men said to him, "Look, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more, then, if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?"
1 Samuel 23:4  Then David asked the LORD once more. And the LORD answered him, "Get up, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand."
1 Samuel 23:5  So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines. They drove away their cattle and killed a great many of them. So David saved the people of Keilah.
1 Samuel 23:6  When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, he came down with an ephod in his hand.
1 Samuel 23:7  Saul was told that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, "God has given him into my hand, for he is shut in. He has gone into a town that has gates and bars."
1 Samuel 23:8  So Saul called all the people together for war, to go down to Keilah and to besiege David and his men.
1 Samuel 23:9  David knew that Saul was secretly planning harm against him, and he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod here."
1 Samuel 23:10  Then David said, "LORD God of Israel, your servant has certainly heard that Saul means to come to Keilah, to destroy the city because of me."
1 Samuel 23:11  "Will the men of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? LORD God of Israel, I beg you, tell your servant." And the LORD said, "He will come down."
1 Samuel 23:12  Then David said, "Will the men of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?" And the LORD said, "They will hand you over."
1 Samuel 23:13  Then David and his men, about six hundred of them, got up and left Keilah, and went wherever they could go. Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, so he did not go out.
1 Samuel 23:14  David stayed in the wilderness in strongholds, and stayed in a mountain in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul looked for him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.
1 Samuel 23:15  David saw that Saul had come out to take his life. David was in the wilderness of Ziph, in a wood.
1 Samuel 23:16  And Jonathan, Saul's son, got up and went to David in the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.
1 Samuel 23:17  He said to him, "Do not be afraid, for the hand of Saul my father will not find you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be next to you. My father Saul knows this too."
1 Samuel 23:18  The two of them made a covenant before the LORD. David stayed in the wood, and Jonathan went to his house.
1 Samuel 23:19  Then the Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah and said, "Is David not hiding among us in strongholds in the wood, in the hill of Hachilah, which is south of Jeshimon?"
1 Samuel 23:20  "So now, king, come down whenever you wish to come down, and it will be our part to hand him over to the king."
1 Samuel 23:21  And Saul said, "May you be blessed by the LORD, for you have had compassion on me."
1 Samuel 23:22  Go, please, make ready still more. Find out and see the place where he stays, and who has seen him there, for I am told that he acts very cunningly.
1 Samuel 23:23  "So look, and learn all the hiding places where he hides himself, and come back to me when you are sure, and I will go with you. If he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah."
1 Samuel 23:24  They got up and went to Ziph ahead of Saul. But David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the plain south of Jeshimon.
1 Samuel 23:25  Saul and his men also went to look for him. David was told, so he went down to a rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. When Saul heard that, he chased after David in the wilderness of Maon.
1 Samuel 23:26  Saul went along one side of the mountain, and David and his men along the other side of the mountain. David hurried to get away for fear of Saul, for Saul and his men were closing in around David and his men to take them.
1 Samuel 23:27  But a messenger came to Saul and said, "Hurry, and come, for the Philistines have invaded the land."
1 Samuel 23:28  So Saul turned back from chasing David, and went against the Philistines. That is why they called that place Selahammahlekoth.
1 Samuel 23:29  And David went up from there and lived in strongholds at Engedi.

1 Samuel 24:1  When Saul came back from chasing the Philistines, he was told, "Look, David is in the wilderness of Engedi."
1 Samuel 24:2  So Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went to look for David and his men among the rocks of the wild goats.
1 Samuel 24:3  He came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave. Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were sitting far back in the cave.
1 Samuel 24:4  David's men said to him, "This is the day the LORD spoke about when he said to you, 'Look, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you may do to him whatever seems good to you.'" Then David got up and quietly cut off the edge of Saul's robe.
1 Samuel 24:5  Afterward David's heart troubled him, because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe.
1 Samuel 24:6  He said to his men, "The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD's anointed, and lift my hand against him. He is the anointed of the LORD."
1 Samuel 24:7  So David held his men back with these words, and would not let them attack Saul. And Saul got up, left the cave, and went on his way.
1 Samuel 24:8  Then David got up too and went out of the cave. He called out after Saul, "My lord the king." When Saul looked behind him, David bowed low with his face to the ground.
1 Samuel 24:9  David said to Saul, "Why do you listen to men who say, 'Look, David wants to harm you'?"
1 Samuel 24:10  Today your own eyes have seen how the LORD gave you into my hand in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, 'I will not lift my hand against my lord, for he is the LORD's anointed.'
1 Samuel 24:11  Look, my father, see the edge of your robe in my hand. I cut off the edge of your robe and did not kill you. Know and see that there is no evil and no rebellion in my hand. I have not sinned against you, yet you hunt me down to take my life.
1 Samuel 24:12  May the LORD judge between me and you, and may the LORD take revenge on you for me. But my hand will not be against you.
1 Samuel 24:13  As the old proverb says, "Wickedness comes from the wicked." But my hand will not be against you.
1 Samuel 24:14  Who has the king of Israel come out against? Who are you chasing? A dead dog. A flea.
1 Samuel 24:15  "So let the LORD be judge, and let him judge between me and you. Let him see, and take up my case, and rescue me from your hand."
1 Samuel 24:16  When David had finished saying these words to Saul, Saul said, "Is that your voice, my son David?" And Saul wept aloud.
1 Samuel 24:17  He said to David, "You are more righteous than I am. You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly."
1 Samuel 24:18  You have shown today how well you have dealt with me. The LORD gave me into your hand, and you did not kill me.
1 Samuel 24:19  If a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away unharmed? May the LORD reward you well for what you have done for me today.
1 Samuel 24:20  Now look, I know well that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be made firm in your hand.
1 Samuel 24:21  "So swear to me now by the LORD that you will not cut off my children after me, and that you will not wipe out my name from my father's family."
1 Samuel 24:22  So David swore this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

1 Samuel 25:1  Samuel died. All the Israelites gathered together and mourned for him, and they buried him at his house in Ramah. Then David set out and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
1 Samuel 25:2  There was a man in Maon whose property was in Carmel. The man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
1 Samuel 25:3  The man's name was Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail. She was a woman of good sense and beautiful to look at, but the man was harsh and did evil things. He was from the house of Caleb.
1 Samuel 25:4  In the wilderness David heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
1 Samuel 25:5  So David sent out ten young men. David said to them, "Go up to Carmel. Go to Nabal and greet him in my name."
1 Samuel 25:6  Say this to the man who lives in such plenty: 'Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.
1 Samuel 25:7  Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not harm them. Nothing of theirs went missing all the time they were in Carmel.
1 Samuel 25:8  "Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let my young men find favour in your eyes, for we come on a good day. Please give whatever you can to your servants, and to your son David.'"
1 Samuel 25:9  When David's young men arrived, they said all these words to Nabal in David's name, and then they waited.
1 Samuel 25:10  Nabal answered David's servants, "Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who break away from their masters."
1 Samuel 25:11  "Shall I take my bread, and my water, and the meat I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who come from I do not know where?"
1 Samuel 25:12  So David's young men turned around and went back. They came and told David everything Nabal had said.
1 Samuel 25:13  David said to his men, "Every man strap on his sword." So every man strapped on his sword, and David strapped on his sword too. About four hundred men went up after David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies.
1 Samuel 25:14  But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, "Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, and he shouted insults at them."
1 Samuel 25:15  But the men were very good to us. We were not harmed, and we missed nothing all the time we went about with them in the fields.
1 Samuel 25:16  They were a wall around us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.
1 Samuel 25:17  "So now think it over, and decide what you will do. Disaster is settled against our master and against all his household. He is such a worthless man that no one can speak to him."
1 Samuel 25:18  Then Abigail hurried. She took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep already prepared, five measures of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys.
1 Samuel 25:19  She said to her servants, "Go on ahead of me. I am coming after you." But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
1 Samuel 25:20  As she rode on the donkey, she came down under cover of the hill. And there were David and his men coming down towards her, and she met them.
1 Samuel 25:21  Now David had said, "It was for nothing that I guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing of his went missing. He has paid me back evil for good."
1 Samuel 25:22  "May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if by morning light I leave alive one male of all who belong to him."
1 Samuel 25:23  When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down off the donkey. She fell on her face before David and bowed to the ground.
1 Samuel 25:24  She fell at his feet and said, "On me, my lord, on me let this guilt be. Please let your servant speak to you, and hear the words of your servant."
1 Samuel 25:25  Please, my lord, pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal. He is just like his name. Nabal is his name, and folly goes with him. But I, your servant, did not see the young men my lord sent.
1 Samuel 25:26  Now, my lord, as the LORD lives and as you live, the LORD has held you back from shedding blood and from taking revenge with your own hand. So let your enemies, and those who seek to harm my lord, be like Nabal.
1 Samuel 25:27  And now let this gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord.
1 Samuel 25:28  Please forgive the wrong of your servant. The LORD will certainly make my lord a lasting house, because my lord fights the battles of the LORD, and no evil has been found in you all your days.
1 Samuel 25:29  A man has risen up to chase you and to seek your life. But the life of my lord will be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God. And the lives of your enemies he will sling away, as from the pocket of a sling.
1 Samuel 25:30  And when the LORD has done for my lord all the good he has promised about you, and has made you ruler over Israel,
1 Samuel 25:31  "then this will not be a grief to you, or a trouble to my lord's heart, that you shed blood without cause, or that my lord took revenge for himself. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant."
1 Samuel 25:32  David said to Abigail, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who sent you today to meet me."
1 Samuel 25:33  And blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who have kept me today from shedding blood and from taking revenge with my own hand.
1 Samuel 25:34  "For truly, as the LORD God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from harming you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, not one male of Nabal's people would have been left alive by morning light."
1 Samuel 25:35  So David took from her hand what she had brought him, and he said to her, "Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to your voice and granted your request."
1 Samuel 25:36  Abigail came to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry in him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until morning light.
1 Samuel 25:37  In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things. Then his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.
1 Samuel 25:38  About ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.
1 Samuel 25:39  When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, "Blessed be the LORD, who has taken up my case against the insult of Nabal, and has kept his servant from doing evil. The LORD has turned Nabal's wickedness back on his own head." Then David sent word to Abigail, to ask her to be his wife.
1 Samuel 25:40  When David's servants came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, "David has sent us to you, to take you to be his wife."
1 Samuel 25:41  She stood up, and bowed with her face to the ground, and said, "Look, let your servant be a slave to wash the feet of my lord's servants."
1 Samuel 25:42  Abigail hurried and got up and rode on a donkey, with five of her maids following her. She went after David's messengers, and became his wife.
1 Samuel 25:43  David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them were his wives.
1 Samuel 25:44  But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Phalti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

1 Samuel 26:1  The men of Ziph came to Saul at Gibeah and said, "Is not David hiding on the hill of Hachilah, which faces Jeshimon?"
1 Samuel 26:2  So Saul set out and went down to the wilderness of Ziph. He took three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to look for David in the wilderness of Ziph.
1 Samuel 26:3  Saul camped on the hill of Hachilah, which faces Jeshimon, beside the road. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul had come after him into the wilderness.
1 Samuel 26:4  So David sent out spies, and he learned that Saul had truly come.
1 Samuel 26:5  Then David got up and came to the place where Saul had camped. David saw the place where Saul was lying, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his army. Saul was lying inside the camp, and the people were camped all around him.
1 Samuel 26:6  Then David said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, the brother of Joab, "Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?" Abishai said, "I will go down with you."
1 Samuel 26:7  So David and Abishai came to the people by night. Look, Saul lay sleeping inside the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground by his head. Abner and the people lay all around him.
1 Samuel 26:8  Then Abishai said to David, "God has handed your enemy over to you today. So let me strike him with the spear, please. I will pin him to the ground with one blow, and I will not need to strike him a second time."
1 Samuel 26:9  But David said to Abishai, "Do not kill him. Who can raise his hand against the LORD's anointed one and not be guilty?"
1 Samuel 26:10  David said more: "As the LORD lives, the LORD himself will strike him. Or his day will come and he will die. Or he will go down into battle and be killed."
1 Samuel 26:11  "The LORD forbid that I should raise my hand against the LORD's anointed one. But please, take the spear that is by his head, and the jar of water, and let us go."
1 Samuel 26:12  So David took the spear and the jar of water from beside Saul's head, and they went away. No one saw it. No one knew it. No one woke up. They were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen on them.
1 Samuel 26:13  Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on the top of a hill far away. There was a wide space between them.
1 Samuel 26:14  David called out to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner: "Will you not answer, Abner?" Then Abner answered, "Who are you, calling out to the king?"
1 Samuel 26:15  David said to Abner, "Are you not a brave man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For someone came in among the people to kill the king your lord."
1 Samuel 26:16  "What you have done is not good. As the LORD lives, you deserve to die, because you have not guarded your master, the LORD's anointed one. Now look and see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water that was by his head."
1 Samuel 26:17  Saul knew David's voice, and said, "Is that your voice, my son David?" David said, "It is my voice, my lord, O king."
1 Samuel 26:18  And he said, "Why does my lord chase after his servant like this? What have I done? What evil is in my hand?"
1 Samuel 26:19  "So now, please, let my lord the king listen to the words of his servant. If the LORD has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is men who have done it, may they be cursed before the LORD. For they have driven me out today, so that I have no share in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, 'Go, serve other gods.'"
1 Samuel 26:20  "So now, do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the LORD. For the king of Israel has come out to look for a flea, as one hunts a partridge in the mountains."
1 Samuel 26:21  Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Come back, my son David. I will do you no more harm, because my life was precious in your eyes today. Look, I have acted like a fool, and I have been very wrong."
1 Samuel 26:22  David answered, "Look, here is the king's spear. Let one of the young men come over and fetch it."
1 Samuel 26:23  "May the LORD repay every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. The LORD handed you over to me today, but I would not raise my hand against the LORD's anointed one."
1 Samuel 26:24  "Look, as your life was of great value in my eyes today, so may my life be of great value in the eyes of the LORD, and may he rescue me out of all trouble."
1 Samuel 26:25  Then Saul said to David, "May you be blessed, my son David. You will do great things, and you will surely succeed." So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

1 Samuel 27:1  David said in his heart, "One day I will die by the hand of Saul. The best thing for me is to escape quickly to the land of the Philistines. Then Saul will give up looking for me anywhere in the land of Israel, and I will escape out of his hand."
1 Samuel 27:2  So David set out, and he crossed over to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath, with the six hundred men who were with him.
1 Samuel 27:3  David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household. David had his two wives with him: Ahinoam from Jezreel, and Abigail from Carmel, who had been Nabal's wife.
1 Samuel 27:4  Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, and he did not look for him any more.
1 Samuel 27:5  David said to Achish, "If I have found grace in your eyes, let me be given a place in one of the country towns, so that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?"
1 Samuel 27:6  So that day Achish gave him Ziklag. That is why Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day.
1 Samuel 27:7  The time David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months.
1 Samuel 27:8  David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Gezrites and the Amalekites. Those nations had lived in the land from long ago, on the way to Shur, as far as the land of Egypt.
1 Samuel 27:9  David struck the land, and left neither man nor woman alive. He carried off the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels and the clothing, and then he went back to Achish.
1 Samuel 27:10  Achish said, "Where did you raid today?" David said, "Against the south of Judah, and against the south of the Jerahmeelites, and against the south of the Kenites."
1 Samuel 27:11  David left neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath. He said, "They might tell about us. They might say, 'This is what David did.'" And this was his way all the time he lived in the country of the Philistines.
1 Samuel 27:12  Achish believed David. He said, "He has made his own people Israel hate him completely. So he will be my servant for ever."

1 Samuel 28:1  In those days the Philistines gathered their armies for war, to fight against Israel. Achish said to David, "You may be sure that you will go out with me to battle, you and your men."
1 Samuel 28:2  David said to Achish, "Then you will know what your servant can do." Achish said to David, "Then I will make you the keeper of my head for ever."
1 Samuel 28:3  Now Samuel was dead. All Israel had mourned for him, and they had buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had driven out of the land those who spoke with spirits, and the wizards.
1 Samuel 28:4  The Philistines gathered themselves together. They came and camped at Shunem. Saul gathered all Israel together, and they camped at Gilboa.
1 Samuel 28:5  When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
1 Samuel 28:6  When Saul asked the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, not by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
1 Samuel 28:7  Then Saul said to his servants, "Find me a woman who speaks with a spirit, so that I may go to her and ask her." His servants said to him, "Look, there is a woman at Endor who speaks with a spirit."
1 Samuel 28:8  So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes. He went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. He said, "Please use the spirit to tell me what is to come, and bring up for me the one I name to you."
1 Samuel 28:9  The woman said to him, "Look, you know what Saul has done. He has cut off from the land those who speak with spirits, and the wizards. Why then do you set a trap for my life, to have me killed?"
1 Samuel 28:10  Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, "As the LORD lives, no punishment will come to you for this thing."
1 Samuel 28:11  Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" He said, "Bring me up Samuel."
1 Samuel 28:12  When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. The woman spoke to Saul and said, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul."
1 Samuel 28:13  The king said to her, "Do not be afraid. What did you see?" The woman said to Saul, "I saw gods coming up out of the earth."
1 Samuel 28:14  He said to her, "What is his form?" She said, "An old man is coming up, and he is covered with a robe." Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bent with his face to the ground and bowed down.
1 Samuel 28:15  Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me, bringing me up?" Saul answered, "I am in great trouble. The Philistines are making war against me, and God has turned away from me. He answers me no more, not by prophets, nor by dreams. So I have called you, to tell me what I should do."
1 Samuel 28:16  Then Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has turned away from you and has become your enemy?"
1 Samuel 28:17  The LORD has done to him just as he spoke through me. The LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour, to David.
1 Samuel 28:18  You did not obey the voice of the LORD, and you did not carry out his fierce anger against Amalek. That is why the LORD has done this thing to you today.
1 Samuel 28:19  "More than that, the LORD will give Israel with you into the hand of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. The LORD will also give the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines."
1 Samuel 28:20  Then Saul fell at once full length on the ground, and he was very afraid because of the words of Samuel. There was no strength in him, for he had eaten no bread all that day and all that night.
1 Samuel 28:21  The woman came to Saul and saw that he was greatly troubled. She said to him, "Look, your servant has obeyed your voice. I took my life in my hand and listened to the words you spoke to me."
1 Samuel 28:22  "So now, please, listen to the voice of your servant too. Let me set a piece of bread before you. Eat, so that you may have strength when you go on your way."
1 Samuel 28:23  But he refused and said, "I will not eat." But his servants, together with the woman, urged him, and he listened to their voice. So he got up from the ground and sat on the bed.
1 Samuel 28:24  The woman had a fat calf in the house. She hurried and killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it and baked unleavened bread with it.
1 Samuel 28:25  She brought it to Saul and to his servants, and they ate. Then they got up and went away that night.

1 Samuel 29:1  Now the Philistines gathered all their armies together at Aphek. The Israelites camped by a spring which is in Jezreel.
1 Samuel 29:2  The lords of the Philistines marched past in groups of hundreds and of thousands. David and his men marched at the back with Achish.
1 Samuel 29:3  Then the leaders of the Philistines said, "What are these Hebrews doing here?" And Achish said to the leaders of the Philistines, "Is this not David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel? He has been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him from the day he came over to me until now."
1 Samuel 29:4  But the leaders of the Philistines were angry with him. They said to him, "Send this fellow back. Let him go again to the place you gave him. He must not go down with us to the battle, or in the battle he may turn against us. How could he make peace with his master? Would it not be with the heads of these men of ours?"
1 Samuel 29:5  "Is this not David, the one they sang about to each other in their dances, saying, 'Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?"
1 Samuel 29:6  Then Achish called David and said to him, "As surely as the LORD lives, you have been honest. It seems good to me that you should go out and come in with me in the army, for I have found no evil in you from the day you came to me until now. But the lords do not favour you."
1 Samuel 29:7  "So now go back, and go in peace. Do nothing to displease the lords of the Philistines."
1 Samuel 29:8  And David said to Achish, "But what have I done? What have you found against your servant, from the day I came to you until now, so that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king?"
1 Samuel 29:9  Achish answered David, "I know that you are good in my sight, like an angel of God. But the leaders of the Philistines have said, 'He must not go up with us to the battle.'"
1 Samuel 29:10  "So get up early in the morning with your master's servants who have come with you. Get up early in the morning, and leave as soon as it is light."
1 Samuel 29:11  So David and his men got up early in the morning to leave and return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

1 Samuel 30:1  On the third day David and his men came to Ziklag. The Amalekites had raided the south, and Ziklag too. They had attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire.
1 Samuel 30:2  They had taken the women in it away as captives. They killed no one, neither great nor small, but carried them off and went on their way.
1 Samuel 30:3  So David and his men came to the city, and look, it was burned with fire. Their wives, their sons and their daughters had been taken captive.
1 Samuel 30:4  Then David and the people with him cried out loud and wept, until they had no strength left to weep.
1 Samuel 30:5  David's two wives had been taken captive: Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail, the wife of Nabal of Carmel.
1 Samuel 30:6  David was in great distress, for the people talked of stoning him. Every man was bitter in spirit over his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the LORD his God.
1 Samuel 30:7  David said to Abiathar the priest, the son of Ahimelech, "Please bring me the ephod." So Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
1 Samuel 30:8  David asked the LORD, "Shall I chase after this band of raiders? Shall I catch up with them?" And he answered him, "Chase them. You will certainly catch up with them, and you will certainly get everything back."
1 Samuel 30:9  So David went, he and the six hundred men with him, and they came to the brook Besor, where some of them stayed behind.
1 Samuel 30:10  But David kept up the chase, he and four hundred men. Two hundred stayed behind, for they were too weary to cross the brook Besor.
1 Samuel 30:11  They found an Egyptian in the field and brought him to David. They gave him bread, and he ate. They gave him water to drink,
1 Samuel 30:12  and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins. When he had eaten, his spirit came back to him, for he had eaten no bread and drunk no water for three days and three nights.
1 Samuel 30:13  David said to him, "Who do you belong to? Where are you from?" He said, "I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite. My master left me behind, because three days ago I fell sick."
1 Samuel 30:14  "We raided the south of the Cherethites, and the land that belongs to Judah, and the south of Caleb. And we burned Ziklag with fire."
1 Samuel 30:15  David said to him, "Can you take me down to this band of raiders?" He said, "Swear to me by God that you will not kill me, and will not hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to them."
1 Samuel 30:16  So he took him down, and look, they were scattered over all the ground, eating and drinking and dancing, because of all the great plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.
1 Samuel 30:17  David attacked them from twilight until the evening of the next day. Not one of them escaped, except four hundred young men who rode off on camels and fled.
1 Samuel 30:18  David got back everything the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives.
1 Samuel 30:19  Nothing was missing, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, nor plunder, nor anything they had taken. David brought it all back.
1 Samuel 30:20  David took all the flocks and the herds. His men drove them ahead of the other cattle and said, "This is David's plunder."
1 Samuel 30:21  David came to the two hundred men who had been too weary to follow him, the men they had left at the brook Besor. They came out to meet David and the people with him. When David came near to them, he greeted them.
1 Samuel 30:22  Then all the wicked men and worthless men among those who had gone with David said, "Because they did not go with us, we will not give them any of the plunder we have brought back. Each man may take his wife and his children and go."
1 Samuel 30:23  Then David said, "You shall not do that, my brothers, with what the LORD has given us. He has kept us safe, and he handed over to us the band that came against us."
1 Samuel 30:24  "Who will listen to you in this matter? The share of the man who goes down to the battle shall be the same as the share of the man who stays by the baggage. They shall share alike."
1 Samuel 30:25  From that day on it was so. He made it a rule and a law for Israel, and it is so to this day.
1 Samuel 30:26  When David came to Ziklag, he sent some of the plunder to the elders of Judah, his friends, saying, "Here is a gift for you from the plunder of the enemies of the LORD."
1 Samuel 30:27  He sent it to those in Bethel, and to those in Ramoth of the south, and to those in Jattir,
1 Samuel 30:28  and to those in Aroer, and to those in Siphmoth, and to those in Eshtemoa,
1 Samuel 30:29  and to those in Rachal, and to those in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to those in the cities of the Kenites,
1 Samuel 30:30  and to those in Hormah, and to those in Chorashan, and to those in Athach,
1 Samuel 30:31  and to those in Hebron, and to all the places where David and his men used to go.

1 Samuel 31:1  Now the Philistines fought against Israel. The men of Israel ran away from the Philistines, and they fell down dead on Mount Gilboa.
1 Samuel 31:2  The Philistines chased hard after Saul and his sons. They killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
1 Samuel 31:3  The battle went hard against Saul. The archers hit him, and he was badly wounded by them.
1 Samuel 31:4  Then Saul said to his armourbearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it. If you do not, these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and treat me shamefully." But his armourbearer would not do it, for he was very afraid. So Saul took a sword and fell on it.
1 Samuel 31:5  When his armourbearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.
1 Samuel 31:6  So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armourbearer, and all his men, on that same day together.
1 Samuel 31:7  The men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley, and those on the other side of the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel had run away and that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left the cities and fled, and the Philistines came and lived in them.
1 Samuel 31:8  The next day the Philistines came to strip the dead, and they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
1 Samuel 31:9  They cut off his head and stripped off his armour. Then they sent messengers all through the land of the Philistines, to tell the news in the house of their idols and among the people.
1 Samuel 31:10  They put his armour in the house of Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Bethshan.
1 Samuel 31:11  When the people who lived in Jabeshgilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
1 Samuel 31:12  all the brave men got up and travelled all night. They took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Bethshan, and came to Jabesh, and burned them there.
1 Samuel 31:13  Then they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.

2 Samuel

2 Samuel 1:1  After the death of Saul, David came back from defeating the Amalekites. He stayed two days in Ziklag.
2 Samuel 1:2  On the third day a man came from Saul's camp. His clothes were torn, and there was earth on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and bowed low.
2 Samuel 1:3  David said to him, "Where have you come from?" He said to him, "I have escaped out of the camp of Israel."
2 Samuel 1:4  David said to him, "How did it go? Tell me, please." He answered, "The people have run away from the battle. Many of the people have fallen and are dead. Saul and Jonathan his son are dead too."
2 Samuel 1:5  David said to the young man who told him this, "How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?"
2 Samuel 1:6  The young man who told him said, "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa. Look, Saul was leaning on his spear, and the chariots and horsemen were close behind him."
2 Samuel 1:7  When he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. I answered, 'Here I am.'
2 Samuel 1:8  He said to me, 'Who are you?' I answered him, 'I am an Amalekite.'
2 Samuel 1:9  He said to me again, 'Stand over me, please, and kill me. Agony has taken hold of me, but my life is still whole in me.'
2 Samuel 1:10  "So I stood over him and killed him, because I was sure he could not live after he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head and the band that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord."
2 Samuel 1:11  Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.
2 Samuel 1:12  They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
2 Samuel 1:13  David said to the young man who told him, "Where are you from?" He answered, "I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite."
2 Samuel 1:14  David said to him, "How is it that you were not afraid to reach out your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?"
2 Samuel 1:15  David called one of the young men and said, "Go near and strike him down." So he struck him, and he died.
2 Samuel 1:16  David said to him, "Your blood be on your own head. Your own mouth has spoken against you, saying, 'I have killed the LORD's anointed.'"
2 Samuel 1:17  David sang this song of grief over Saul and over Jonathan his son.
2 Samuel 1:18  (He also told them to teach the children of Judah the use of the bow. Look, it is written in the book of Jasher.)
2 Samuel 1:19  "The beauty of Israel is killed on your high places. How the mighty have fallen."
2 Samuel 1:20  Do not tell it in Gath, do not announce it in the streets of Askelon, or the daughters of the Philistines will be glad, or the daughters of the uncircumcised will celebrate.
2 Samuel 1:21  You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain on you, nor fields that give offerings. For there the shield of the mighty was shamefully thrown away, the shield of Saul, as though he had never been anointed with oil.
2 Samuel 1:22  From the blood of the killed, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty.
2 Samuel 1:23  Saul and Jonathan were loved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not parted. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.
2 Samuel 1:24  You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and other fine things, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing.
2 Samuel 1:25  How the mighty have fallen in the middle of the battle. Jonathan, you were killed on your high places.
2 Samuel 1:26  I am in pain for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, greater than the love of women.
2 Samuel 1:27  "How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war have perished."

2 Samuel 2:1  After this, David asked the LORD, "Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah?" The LORD said to him, "Go up." David said, "Where shall I go up?" And he said, "To Hebron."
2 Samuel 2:2  So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam of Jezreel, and Abigail of Carmel, who had been the wife of Nabal.
2 Samuel 2:3  David also brought up the men who were with him, every man with his household. They lived in the cities of Hebron.
2 Samuel 2:4  Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. They told David, "It was the men of Jabeshgilead who buried Saul."
2 Samuel 2:5  So David sent messengers to the men of Jabeshgilead and said to them, "May you be blessed by the LORD, because you showed this kindness to your lord, to Saul, and buried him."
2 Samuel 2:6  "Now may the LORD show kindness and truth to you. And I also will repay you for this kindness, because you have done this thing."
2 Samuel 2:7  "So now let your hands be strong, and be brave. Your master Saul is dead, and the house of Judah have anointed me king over them."
2 Samuel 2:8  But Abner the son of Ner, the commander of Saul's army, took Ishbosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim.
2 Samuel 2:9  He made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel.
2 Samuel 2:10  Ishbosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David.
2 Samuel 2:11  The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.
2 Samuel 2:12  Abner the son of Ner and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
2 Samuel 2:13  Joab the son of Zeruiah and the servants of David went out, and they met together by the pool of Gibeon. They sat down, one group on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side.
2 Samuel 2:14  Abner said to Joab, "Let the young men get up now and play before us." And Joab said, "Let them get up."
2 Samuel 2:15  Then they got up and went over by number: twelve of Benjamin, who belonged to Ishbosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David.
2 Samuel 2:16  Each man caught his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into his opponent's side. So they fell down together. That is why the place was called Helkathhazzurim, which is in Gibeon.
2 Samuel 2:17  There was a very hard battle that day, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten before the servants of David.
2 Samuel 2:18  The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Asahel was as light of foot as a wild deer.
2 Samuel 2:19  Asahel chased after Abner. As he went, he did not turn to the right hand or to the left from following Abner.
2 Samuel 2:20  Then Abner looked behind him and said, "Are you Asahel?" And he answered, "I am."
2 Samuel 2:21  Abner said to him, "Turn aside to your right hand or to your left. Take hold of one of the young men, and take his armour for yourself." But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.
2 Samuel 2:22  Abner said to Asahel again, "Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I look your brother Joab in the face?"
2 Samuel 2:23  But he refused to turn aside. So Abner struck him with the back end of his spear, under the fifth rib, and the spear came out behind him. He fell down there and died on that very spot. And all who came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.
2 Samuel 2:24  Joab and Abishai went on chasing Abner. The sun went down as they came to the hill of Ammah, which lies in front of Giah, on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon.
2 Samuel 2:25  The children of Benjamin gathered together behind Abner and became one troop, and they stood on the top of a hill.
2 Samuel 2:26  Then Abner called to Joab and said, "Shall the sword go on devouring for ever? Do you not know that it will be bitter in the end? How long will it be before you tell the people to stop chasing their brothers?"
2 Samuel 2:27  Joab said, "As God lives, if you had not spoken, then surely in the morning the people would have gone up, every one of them, from chasing his brother."
2 Samuel 2:28  So Joab blew a trumpet, and all the people stood still. They chased Israel no more, and they fought no more.
2 Samuel 2:29  Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain. They crossed the Jordan, went through all Bithron, and came to Mahanaim.
2 Samuel 2:30  Joab came back from chasing Abner. When he had gathered all the people together, nineteen of David's servants were missing, and Asahel.
2 Samuel 2:31  But the servants of David had struck down the men of Benjamin and Abner's men, so that three hundred and sixty men died.
2 Samuel 2:32  They took up Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb, which was in Bethlehem. Joab and his men marched all night, and they came to Hebron at daybreak.

2 Samuel 3:1  There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.
2 Samuel 3:2  Sons were born to David in Hebron. His firstborn was Amnon, the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel.
2 Samuel 3:3  His second was Chileab, the son of Abigail, who had been the wife of Nabal of Carmel. The third was Absalom, the son of Maacah, the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur.
2 Samuel 3:4  The fourth was Adonijah, the son of Haggith. The fifth was Shephatiah, the son of Abital.
2 Samuel 3:5  The sixth was Ithream, the son of David's wife Eglah. These were born to David in Hebron.
2 Samuel 3:6  While there was war between the house of Saul and the house of David, Abner made himself strong in the house of Saul.
2 Samuel 3:7  Saul had a concubine named Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. And Ishbosheth said to Abner, "Why have you gone in to my father's concubine?"
2 Samuel 3:8  Then Abner was very angry at the words of Ishbosheth, and he said, "Am I a dog's head? Today I am showing kindness to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers and to his friends, against Judah. I have not handed you over to David. And now you charge me with a fault about this woman."
2 Samuel 3:9  May God do so to Abner, and more also, if I do not do for David just what the LORD has sworn to him:
2 Samuel 3:10  "to take the kingdom from the house of Saul, and to set up the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan even to Beersheba."
2 Samuel 3:11  And Ishbosheth could not answer Abner a word, because he was afraid of him.
2 Samuel 3:12  Abner sent messengers to David for himself, saying, "Whose is the land?" He also said, "Make your agreement with me, and look, my hand will be with you, to bring all Israel over to you."
2 Samuel 3:13  And David said, "Good. I will make an agreement with you. But I ask one thing of you: you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see my face."
2 Samuel 3:14  Then David sent messengers to Ishbosheth, Saul's son, saying, "Give me my wife Michal, whom I took for myself for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines."
2 Samuel 3:15  So Ishbosheth sent and took her from her husband, Phaltiel the son of Laish.
2 Samuel 3:16  Her husband went with her, weeping as he walked behind her, all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, "Go, return." And he returned.
2 Samuel 3:17  Abner spoke with the elders of Israel and said, "In times past you wanted David to be king over you."
2 Samuel 3:18  "Now then, do it. For the LORD has spoken of David, saying, 'By the hand of my servant David I will save my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.'"
2 Samuel 3:19  Abner also spoke to the people of Benjamin. Then Abner went to speak to David in Hebron, to tell him all that seemed good to Israel and to the whole house of Benjamin.
2 Samuel 3:20  So Abner came to David at Hebron, and twenty men with him. And David made a feast for Abner and the men who were with him.
2 Samuel 3:21  Abner said to David, "I will get up and go, and I will gather all Israel to my lord the king, so that they may make an agreement with you, and you may reign over all that your heart desires." So David sent Abner away, and he went in peace.
2 Samuel 3:22  Then look, the servants of David and Joab came back from a raid, and brought a great amount of plunder with them. But Abner was not with David in Hebron, for David had sent him away, and he had gone in peace.
2 Samuel 3:23  When Joab and all the army that was with him had come, they told Joab, "Abner the son of Ner came to the king, and the king has sent him away, and he has gone in peace."
2 Samuel 3:24  Then Joab came to the king and said, "What have you done? Look, Abner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, and he is gone for good?"
2 Samuel 3:25  "You know Abner the son of Ner. He came to trick you, and to learn your going out and your coming in, and to find out everything you do."
2 Samuel 3:26  When Joab had come out from David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah. But David did not know it.
2 Samuel 3:27  When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate to speak with him quietly. There he struck him under the fifth rib, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.
2 Samuel 3:28  Afterward, when David heard it, he said, "I and my kingdom are guiltless before the LORD for ever of the blood of Abner the son of Ner."
2 Samuel 3:29  "Let it rest on the head of Joab, and on all his father's house. May the house of Joab never be without someone who has a discharge, or who is a leper, or who leans on a staff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread."
2 Samuel 3:30  So Joab and Abishai his brother killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.
2 Samuel 3:31  David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, "Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn in front of Abner." And King David himself walked behind the coffin.
2 Samuel 3:32  They buried Abner in Hebron. The king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
2 Samuel 3:33  The king sang a lament over Abner, and said, "Did Abner die as a fool dies?"
2 Samuel 3:34  "Your hands were not bound, and your feet were not put in chains. As a man falls before wicked men, so you fell." And all the people wept over him again.
2 Samuel 3:35  When all the people came to make David eat food while it was still day, David swore an oath, saying, "May God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else till the sun goes down."
2 Samuel 3:36  All the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, just as everything the king did pleased all the people.
2 Samuel 3:37  So all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not the king's doing that Abner the son of Ner was killed.
2 Samuel 3:38  And the king said to his servants, "Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?"
2 Samuel 3:39  "And today I am weak, though I am the anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me. May the LORD repay the one who does evil according to his wickedness."

2 Samuel 4:1  When Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands grew weak, and all the Israelites were troubled.
2 Samuel 4:2  Saul's son had two men who were captains of raiding bands. One was named Baanah, and the other Rechab. They were the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, of the children of Benjamin. (Beeroth was also counted as part of Benjamin,
2 Samuel 4:3  and the people of Beeroth fled to Gittaim, and have lived there as strangers to this day.)
2 Samuel 4:4  Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried away, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
2 Samuel 4:5  Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, set out and came to the house of Ishbosheth about the hottest part of the day, while he was lying on a bed at noon.
2 Samuel 4:6  They came into the middle of the house, as though they were fetching wheat, and they struck him under the fifth rib. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped.
2 Samuel 4:7  When they came into the house, he was lying on his bed in his bedroom. They struck him and killed him, and cut off his head. They took his head and travelled through the plain all night.
2 Samuel 4:8  They brought the head of Ishbosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, "Look, here is the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, your enemy, who tried to take your life. Today the LORD has given my lord the king revenge on Saul and on his offspring."
2 Samuel 4:9  But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth. He said to them, "As the LORD lives, who has rescued me out of all trouble,"
2 Samuel 4:10  when a man told me, 'Look, Saul is dead,' thinking he was bringing good news, I took hold of him and killed him in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news.
2 Samuel 4:11  "How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his own bed? Should I not now demand his blood from your hands, and remove you from the earth?"
2 Samuel 4:12  So David gave the order to his young men, and they killed them. They cut off their hands and their feet, and hung them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in Abner's tomb in Hebron.

2 Samuel 5:1  Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, "Look, we are your own bone and flesh."
2 Samuel 5:2  "In the past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in. And the LORD said to you, 'You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be a captain over Israel.'"
2 Samuel 5:3  So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. King David made an agreement with them in Hebron before the LORD, and they anointed David king over Israel.
2 Samuel 5:4  David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
2 Samuel 5:5  In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months. In Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
2 Samuel 5:6  The king and his men went to Jerusalem, against the Jebusites, who lived in the land. They said to David, "You will not come in here unless you take away the blind and the lame." They thought David could not come in.
2 Samuel 5:7  Even so, David took the strong fortress of Zion, which is the city of David.
2 Samuel 5:8  That day David said, "Whoever goes up to the gutter and strikes the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul, he will be chief and captain." That is why they say, "The blind and the lame will not come into the house."
2 Samuel 5:9  So David lived in the fortress and called it the city of David. And David built all around, from Millo and inward.
2 Samuel 5:10  David kept on and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.
2 Samuel 5:11  Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and stoneworkers. They built a house for David.
2 Samuel 5:12  David understood that the LORD had made him king over Israel, and that he had lifted his kingdom high for the sake of his people Israel.
2 Samuel 5:13  David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron. And more sons and daughters were born to David.
2 Samuel 5:14  These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
2 Samuel 5:15  Ibhar also, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia,
2 Samuel 5:16  and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphalet.
2 Samuel 5:17  When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to look for David. David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
2 Samuel 5:18  The Philistines came too and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim.
2 Samuel 5:19  David asked the LORD, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?" The LORD said to David, "Go up, for I will surely give the Philistines into your hand."
2 Samuel 5:20  So David came to Baalperazim, and there David struck them down. He said, "The LORD has burst through my enemies in front of me, like water bursting through." So he called the name of that place Baalperazim.
2 Samuel 5:21  There they left their images behind, and David and his men burned them.
2 Samuel 5:22  The Philistines came up again and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim.
2 Samuel 5:23  When David asked the LORD, he said, "Do not go up. Go around behind them, and come at them opposite the mulberry trees."
2 Samuel 5:24  "When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then move quickly. For then the LORD will go out ahead of you to strike the army of the Philistines."
2 Samuel 5:25  David did as the LORD had commanded him. He struck down the Philistines from Geba all the way to Gazer.

2 Samuel 6:1  Again David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand of them.
2 Samuel 6:2  David set out and went with all the people who were with him from Baale of Judah. They went to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts, who sits between the cherubim.
2 Samuel 6:3  They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was in Gibeah. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.
2 Samuel 6:4  They brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, going along with the ark of God. Ahio walked in front of the ark.
2 Samuel 6:5  David and all the house of Israel made music before the LORD on all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, on harps, on lutes, on tambourines, on cornets, and on cymbals.
2 Samuel 6:6  When they came to Nachon's threshing floor, Uzzah reached out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it.
2 Samuel 6:7  The anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah. God struck him down there for his error, and there he died beside the ark of God.
2 Samuel 6:8  David was upset because the LORD had broken out against Uzzah. He called that place Perezuzzah, and it is called that to this day.
2 Samuel 6:9  David was afraid of the LORD that day. He said, "How can the ark of the LORD come to me?"
2 Samuel 6:10  So David would not move the ark of the LORD to himself into the city of David. Instead he took it aside into the house of Obededom the Gittite.
2 Samuel 6:11  The ark of the LORD stayed in the house of Obededom the Gittite for three months. And the LORD blessed Obededom and all his household.
2 Samuel 6:12  King David was told, "The LORD has blessed the house of Obededom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom into the city of David with gladness.
2 Samuel 6:13  When those who carried the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fattened animals.
2 Samuel 6:14  David danced before the LORD with all his might. He was wearing a linen ephod.
2 Samuel 6:15  So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.
2 Samuel 6:16  As the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal, Saul's daughter, looked out through a window. She saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.
2 Samuel 6:17  They brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place, inside the tent that David had put up for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
2 Samuel 6:18  When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.
2 Samuel 6:19  He gave out to all the people, to the whole crowd of Israel, to the women as well as the men, a cake of bread to each one, and a good piece of meat, and a jar of wine. Then all the people went away, each one to his house.
2 Samuel 6:20  Then David went back to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, "How glorious the king of Israel was today! He uncovered himself today in the sight of his servants' slave girls, like one of the worthless men who shamelessly uncovers himself."
2 Samuel 6:21  David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel. So I will make music before the LORD."
2 Samuel 6:22  "And I will be even more lowly than this, and I will be humble in my own eyes. But by the slave girls you have spoken of, by them I will be held in honour."
2 Samuel 6:23  So Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

2 Samuel 7:1  The king was living in his house, and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him.
2 Samuel 7:2  Then the king said to Nathan the prophet, "Look, I live in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays inside curtains."
2 Samuel 7:3  Nathan said to the king, "Go and do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you."
2 Samuel 7:4  But that night the word of the LORD came to Nathan. It said,
2 Samuel 7:5  "Go and tell my servant David, 'This is what the LORD says: Will you build me a house for me to live in?"
2 Samuel 7:6  "'I have not lived in any house from the day I brought the children of Israel up out of Egypt until this day. I have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle."
2 Samuel 7:7  "'In all the places where I have walked with all the children of Israel, did I ever say a word to any of the tribes of Israel, the ones I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, and ask, Why do you not build me a house of cedar?"
2 Samuel 7:8  "'Now then, say this to my servant David: This is what the LORD of hosts says: I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel."
2 Samuel 7:9  "'I was with you wherever you went. I have cut off all your enemies from in front of you, and I have made your name great, like the name of the great men on the earth."
2 Samuel 7:10  "'I will also appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them there, so that they may live in a place of their own and move no more. Wicked men will not trouble them any more, as they did before,"
2 Samuel 7:11  "'and as they have done since the time I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. I have given you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also tells you that he will make you a house."
2 Samuel 7:12  "'When your days are finished and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom."
2 Samuel 7:13  "'He shall build a house for my name, and I will make the throne of his kingdom firm for ever."
2 Samuel 7:14  "'I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men."
2 Samuel 7:15  "'But my mercy shall not leave him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you."
2 Samuel 7:16  "'Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure for ever before you. Your throne shall be established for ever.'"
2 Samuel 7:17  Nathan spoke to David all these words, and told him all of this vision.
2 Samuel 7:18  Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said, "Who am I, O Lord GOD? And what is my house, that you have brought me this far?"
2 Samuel 7:19  "And even this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have also spoken about your servant's house for a long time to come. And is this the way of man, O Lord GOD?"
2 Samuel 7:20  "What more can David say to you? For you, Lord GOD, know your servant."
2 Samuel 7:21  "For the sake of your word, and because it was your own heart's desire, you have done all these great things, to make your servant know them."
2 Samuel 7:22  "So you are great, O LORD God. There is no one like you, and there is no God besides you, as we have heard with our own ears."
2 Samuel 7:23  "And what one nation on the earth is like your people, like Israel? God went to redeem them to be a people for himself, and to make himself a name, and to do great and terrible things for you, for your land, in front of your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, from the nations and their gods."
2 Samuel 7:24  "You have made your people Israel firmly your own, to be your people for ever. And you, LORD, have become their God."
2 Samuel 7:25  "And now, O LORD God, the word that you have spoken about your servant and about his house, make it firm for ever, and do as you have said."
2 Samuel 7:26  "Let your name be made great for ever, and let people say, 'The LORD of hosts is the God over Israel.' And let the house of your servant David be made sure before you."
2 Samuel 7:27  "For you, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, have shown this to your servant. You said, 'I will build you a house.' That is why your servant has found courage in his heart to pray this prayer to you."
2 Samuel 7:28  "And now, O Lord GOD, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant."
2 Samuel 7:29  "So now let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue for ever before you. For you, O Lord GOD, have spoken it. With your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed for ever."

2 Samuel 8:1  After this, David attacked the Philistines and brought them under his control. David took Methegammah out of the hand of the Philistines.
2 Samuel 8:2  He also attacked Moab. He made the people lie down on the ground and measured them with a line. He measured two lines of them to be put to death, and one full line to be kept alive. So the Moabites became David's servants and brought him gifts.
2 Samuel 8:3  David also attacked Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as Hadadezer went to take back his border at the river Euphrates.
2 Samuel 8:4  David took from him a thousand chariots, seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. David cut the leg tendons of all the chariot horses, but he kept enough of them for a hundred chariots.
2 Samuel 8:5  When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand of the Syrians.
2 Samuel 8:6  Then David put groups of soldiers in Syria of Damascus. The Syrians became David's servants and brought him gifts. And the LORD kept David safe wherever he went.
2 Samuel 8:7  David took the gold shields that belonged to the servants of Hadadezer, and he brought them to Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 8:8  From Betah and from Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, king David took a very great amount of brass.
2 Samuel 8:9  Toi king of Hamath heard that David had struck down the whole army of Hadadezer.
2 Samuel 8:10  So Toi sent his son Joram to king David, to greet him and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and beaten him. For Hadadezer had been at war with Toi. Joram brought with him objects of silver, objects of gold, and objects of brass.
2 Samuel 8:11  King David set these apart for the LORD too, along with the silver and gold he had set apart from all the nations he had brought under his control:
2 Samuel 8:12  from Syria, from Moab, from the children of Ammon, from the Philistines, from Amalek, and from the goods taken from Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
2 Samuel 8:13  David made a name for himself when he came back from striking down the Syrians in the valley of salt. They were eighteen thousand men.
2 Samuel 8:14  He put groups of soldiers in Edom. All through Edom he put soldiers, and all the people of Edom became David's servants. And the LORD kept David safe wherever he went.
2 Samuel 8:15  David ruled over all Israel. He judged his people and did what was right and just for them all.
2 Samuel 8:16  Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud kept the records.
2 Samuel 8:17  Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were the priests. Seraiah was the scribe.
2 Samuel 8:18  Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over both the Cherethites and the Pelethites. And David's sons were chief rulers.

2 Samuel 9:1  David said, "Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul? I want to show him kindness for Jonathan's sake."
2 Samuel 9:2  There was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. They called him to David, and the king said to him, "Are you Ziba?" He said, "I am your servant."
2 Samuel 9:3  The king said, "Is there no one left of the house of Saul, so that I may show him the kindness of God?" Ziba said to the king, "Jonathan still has a son, who is lame in his feet."
2 Samuel 9:4  The king said to him, "Where is he?" Ziba said to the king, "He is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lodebar."
2 Samuel 9:5  Then king David sent and brought him from the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lodebar.
2 Samuel 9:6  When Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he fell on his face and bowed low. David said, "Mephibosheth." He answered, "Here is your servant."
2 Samuel 9:7  David said to him, "Do not be afraid. I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will give you back all the land of Saul your father, and you will always eat bread at my table."
2 Samuel 9:8  He bowed down and said, "What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?"
2 Samuel 9:9  Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, "I have given to your master's son everything that belonged to Saul and to all his house."
2 Samuel 9:10  "So you, and your sons, and your servants must work the land for him, and you must bring in the crops, so that your master's son may have food to eat. But Mephibosheth your master's son will always eat bread at my table." Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
2 Samuel 9:11  Then Ziba said to the king, "Your servant will do everything that my lord the king has commanded his servant." So Mephibosheth ate at David's table, like one of the king's sons.
2 Samuel 9:12  Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micha. And all who lived in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth.
2 Samuel 9:13  So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he always ate at the king's table. And he was lame in both his feet.

2 Samuel 10:1  After this the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son Hanun became king in his place.
2 Samuel 10:2  Then David said, "I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me." So David sent his servants to comfort Hanun over his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.
2 Samuel 10:3  But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, "Do you think David is honouring your father, because he has sent men to comfort you? Has not David rather sent his servants to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it?"
2 Samuel 10:4  So Hanun took David's servants and shaved off half of each man's beard. He cut their clothes off in the middle, right up to their buttocks, and sent them away.
2 Samuel 10:5  When they told David, he sent men to meet them, because the men were deeply ashamed. The king said, "Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then come back."
2 Samuel 10:6  When the children of Ammon saw that David hated them, they sent and hired the Syrians of Bethrehob and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand foot soldiers, and a thousand men from king Maacah, and twelve thousand men from Ishtob.
2 Samuel 10:7  When David heard of it, he sent Joab and the whole army of mighty men.
2 Samuel 10:8  The children of Ammon came out and drew up for battle at the entrance of the gate. The Syrians of Zoba and of Rehob, and Ishtob and Maacah, were by themselves out in the field.
2 Samuel 10:9  When Joab saw that the battle line was against him both in front and behind, he chose some of the best men of Israel and drew them up against the Syrians.
2 Samuel 10:10  The rest of the people he put under the command of his brother Abishai, so that he could draw them up against the children of Ammon.
2 Samuel 10:11  And he said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you must help me. But if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you."
2 Samuel 10:12  "Be of good courage. Let us be strong for our people and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him."
2 Samuel 10:13  So Joab came near with the people who were with him to fight the Syrians, and they fled before him.
2 Samuel 10:14  When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they also fled before Abishai and went into the city. So Joab turned back from the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 10:15  When the Syrians saw that they had been beaten by Israel, they gathered themselves together again.
2 Samuel 10:16  Hadarezer sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the river, and they came to Helam. Shobach, the commander of Hadarezer's army, led them.
2 Samuel 10:17  When David was told, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Helam. The Syrians drew up their lines against David and fought with him.
2 Samuel 10:18  The Syrians fled before Israel. David killed the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and he struck down Shobach the commander of their army, who died there.
2 Samuel 10:19  When all the kings who served Hadarezer saw that they had been beaten by Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Syrians were afraid to help the children of Ammon any more.

2 Samuel 11:1  In the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab out with his servants and all Israel. They destroyed the people of Ammon and laid siege to Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 11:2  One evening David got up from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. From the roof he saw a woman washing herself. The woman was very beautiful to look at.
2 Samuel 11:3  David sent someone to ask about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
2 Samuel 11:4  David sent messengers and took her. She came in to him, and he lay with her, for she had been made clean from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house.
2 Samuel 11:5  The woman became pregnant. She sent word to David and said, "I am with child."
2 Samuel 11:6  So David sent this message to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent Uriah to David.
2 Samuel 11:7  When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was, and how the people were, and how the war was going.
2 Samuel 11:8  Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house, and wash your feet." Uriah left the king's house, and a gift of food from the king was sent after him.
2 Samuel 11:9  But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord. He did not go down to his house.
2 Samuel 11:10  They told David, "Uriah did not go down to his house." So David said to Uriah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why then did you not go down to your house?"
2 Samuel 11:11  Uriah said to David, "The ark, and Israel, and Judah are staying in tents. My lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camped in the open fields. Shall I then go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing."
2 Samuel 11:12  Then David said to Uriah, "Stay here today as well, and tomorrow I will let you go." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
2 Samuel 11:13  David called him, and he ate and drank in front of him, and David made him drunk. In the evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
2 Samuel 11:14  In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
2 Samuel 11:15  In the letter he wrote, "Put Uriah at the front, where the fighting is hardest. Then pull back from him, so that he may be struck down and die."
2 Samuel 11:16  So when Joab was watching the city, he put Uriah in a place where he knew brave men were.
2 Samuel 11:17  The men of the city came out and fought with Joab. Some of the people, David's servants, fell. Uriah the Hittite died too.
2 Samuel 11:18  Then Joab sent word and told David everything about the war.
2 Samuel 11:19  He gave this order to the messenger: "When you have finished telling the king all about the war,"
2 Samuel 11:20  the king may become angry and say to you, 'Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
2 Samuel 11:21  "Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman throw a piece of a millstone down on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?' Then you shall say, 'Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.'"
2 Samuel 11:22  So the messenger went, and came and told David everything Joab had sent him to say.
2 Samuel 11:23  The messenger said to David, "The men were stronger than we were. They came out to us into the field, and we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate."
2 Samuel 11:24  "Then the archers shot from the wall at your servants. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also."
2 Samuel 11:25  Then David said to the messenger, "Say this to Joab: 'Do not let this thing trouble you, for the sword destroys one as well as another. Press your attack harder against the city, and tear it down.' Encourage him in this way."
2 Samuel 11:26  When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
2 Samuel 11:27  When the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

2 Samuel 12:1  The LORD sent Nathan to David. Nathan came to him and said, "There were two men in one city. One was rich, and the other was poor."
2 Samuel 12:2  "The rich man had very many flocks and herds."
2 Samuel 12:3  "But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up with him and with his children. It ate his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him."
2 Samuel 12:4  "A traveller came to the rich man. The rich man did not want to take one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him. So he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him."
2 Samuel 12:5  David burned with anger against that man. He said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die."
2 Samuel 12:6  "He must pay back the lamb four times over, because he did this thing and had no pity."
2 Samuel 12:7  Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man. This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul."
2 Samuel 12:8  'I gave you your master's house, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have given you much more besides.
2 Samuel 12:9  'Why have you despised the commandment of the LORD, and done evil in his sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife. You killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.
2 Samuel 12:10  'So now the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'
2 Samuel 12:11  "This is what the LORD says: 'Look, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbour, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun."
2 Samuel 12:12  "'You did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and in daylight.'"
2 Samuel 12:13  David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin. You will not die."
2 Samuel 12:14  "But because by this deed you have given the enemies of the LORD great reason to blaspheme, the child who is born to you will surely die."
2 Samuel 12:15  Then Nathan went home. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and it became very sick.
2 Samuel 12:16  So David begged God for the child. David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.
2 Samuel 12:17  The elders of his house came and stood beside him, to lift him up from the ground. But he would not get up, and he would not eat food with them.
2 Samuel 12:18  On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, "Look, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him and he would not listen to us. How then can we tell him the child is dead? He may harm himself."
2 Samuel 12:19  But when David saw that his servants were whispering, he understood that the child was dead. So David said to his servants, "Is the child dead?" And they said, "He is dead."
2 Samuel 12:20  Then David got up from the ground. He washed, put on oil, and changed his clothes. He went into the house of the LORD and worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he asked for food, they set it before him, and he ate.
2 Samuel 12:21  Then his servants said to him, "What is this you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive, but when the child died, you got up and ate food."
2 Samuel 12:22  He said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, 'Who can tell? God may be gracious to me, and the child may live.'"
2 Samuel 12:23  "But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."
2 Samuel 12:24  David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went to her and lay with her. She bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the LORD loved him.
2 Samuel 12:25  He sent word by Nathan the prophet, and Nathan called the child's name Jedidiah, because of the LORD.
2 Samuel 12:26  Joab fought against Rabbah of the people of Ammon, and took the royal city.
2 Samuel 12:27  Joab sent messengers to David and said, "I have fought against Rabbah, and I have taken the city of waters."
2 Samuel 12:28  "Now gather the rest of the people together, camp against the city, and take it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be called by my name."
2 Samuel 12:29  So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah. He fought against it and took it.
2 Samuel 12:30  He took the crown of their king from his head. It weighed a talent of gold, and it had precious stones in it, and it was set on David's head. And he brought out a very great amount of plunder from the city.
2 Samuel 12:31  He brought out the people who were there and put them under saws, and under iron harrows, and under iron axes, and made them work at the brick kiln. He did this to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 13:1  After this, Absalom the son of David had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar. And Amnon the son of David loved her.
2 Samuel 13:2  Amnon was so troubled that he made himself ill because of his sister Tamar. She was a virgin, and it seemed impossible to Amnon to do anything to her.
2 Samuel 13:3  But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother. Jonadab was a very crafty man.
2 Samuel 13:4  He said to him, "Why are you, the king's son, thinner every day? Will you not tell me?" Amnon said to him, "I love Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom."
2 Samuel 13:5  Jonadab said to him, "Lie down on your bed and pretend to be sick. When your father comes to see you, say to him, 'Please let my sister Tamar come and give me food. Let her prepare the food where I can see it, so that I may watch it and eat from her hand.'"
2 Samuel 13:6  So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, "Please let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes while I watch, so that I may eat from her hand."
2 Samuel 13:7  Then David sent word home to Tamar, saying, "Go now to your brother Amnon's house, and prepare food for him."
2 Samuel 13:8  So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house, and he was lying down. She took flour and kneaded it, and made cakes where he could see, and baked the cakes.
2 Samuel 13:9  She took the pan and poured them out in front of him, but he refused to eat. And Amnon said, "Send everyone away from me." So every man went out from him.
2 Samuel 13:10  Then Amnon said to Tamar, "Bring the food into the bedroom, so that I may eat from your hand." So Tamar took the cakes she had made and brought them into the bedroom to Amnon her brother.
2 Samuel 13:11  When she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said to her, "Come, lie with me, my sister."
2 Samuel 13:12  She answered him, "No, my brother, do not force me. Such a thing must not be done in Israel. Do not do this foolish and shameful thing."
2 Samuel 13:13  "And I, where could I take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel. So please speak to the king, for he will not keep me from you."
2 Samuel 13:14  But he would not listen to her. He was stronger than she was, and he forced her and lay with her.
2 Samuel 13:15  Then Amnon hated her very much. The hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. And Amnon said to her, "Get up, and go."
2 Samuel 13:16  She said to him, "There is no reason for this. Sending me away is a greater wrong than the other thing you did to me." But he would not listen to her.
2 Samuel 13:17  Then he called the servant who waited on him and said, "Put this woman out from me now, and bolt the door after her."
2 Samuel 13:18  She was wearing a robe of many colours, for that is how the king's daughters who were virgins were dressed. Then his servant brought her out and bolted the door after her.
2 Samuel 13:19  And Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore the robe of many colours that she was wearing. She laid her hand on her head and went away crying aloud.
2 Samuel 13:20  Absalom her brother said to her, "Has your brother Amnon been with you? But be quiet now, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this thing to heart." So Tamar stayed, desolate, in her brother Absalom's house.
2 Samuel 13:21  When King David heard of all these things, he was very angry.
2 Samuel 13:22  And Absalom said nothing to his brother Amnon, neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister Tamar.
2 Samuel 13:23  Two full years later, Absalom had sheepshearers at Baalhazor, which is beside Ephraim, and Absalom invited all the king's sons.
2 Samuel 13:24  Absalom came to the king and said, "Look, your servant has sheepshearers. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant."
2 Samuel 13:25  The king said to Absalom, "No, my son. We should not all go, or we will be a burden to you." Absalom urged him, but he would not go; he only blessed him.
2 Samuel 13:26  Then Absalom said, "If not, then please let my brother Amnon go with us." And the king said to him, "Why should he go with you?"
2 Samuel 13:27  But Absalom urged him, so he let Amnon and all the king's sons go with him.
2 Samuel 13:28  Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, "Watch carefully. When Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and I say to you, 'Strike Amnon,' then kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and brave."
2 Samuel 13:29  So Absalom's servants did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons got up, and every one of them mounted his mule and fled.
2 Samuel 13:30  While they were on the way, news came to David: "Absalom has killed all the king's sons, and not one of them is left."
2 Samuel 13:31  Then the king got up and tore his clothes, and lay on the ground. All his servants stood by with their clothes torn.
2 Samuel 13:32  Then Jonadab, the son of Shimeah, David's brother, said, "Let not my lord think that they have killed all the young men, the king's sons. Only Amnon is dead. This has been decided by Absalom's own word from the day that Amnon forced his sister Tamar."
2 Samuel 13:33  "So now, let not my lord the king take it to heart, thinking that all the king's sons are dead. Only Amnon is dead."
2 Samuel 13:34  But Absalom fled. And the young man who kept watch looked up and saw many people coming along the road on the hillside behind him.
2 Samuel 13:35  And Jonadab said to the king, "Look, the king's sons are coming. It is just as your servant said."
2 Samuel 13:36  As soon as he had finished speaking, the king's sons came. They lifted up their voices and wept, and the king and all his servants also wept bitterly.
2 Samuel 13:37  But Absalom fled and went to Talmai, the son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. And David mourned for his son every day.
2 Samuel 13:38  So Absalom fled and went to Geshur, and he was there three years.
2 Samuel 13:39  And the soul of King David longed to go out to Absalom, for he was comforted about Amnon, seeing that he was dead.

2 Samuel 14:1  Now Joab the son of Zeruiah saw that the king's heart longed for Absalom.
2 Samuel 14:2  So Joab sent to Tekoah and brought a wise woman from there. He said to her, "Please pretend to be a mourner. Put on mourning clothes, and do not rub yourself with oil. Be like a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead."
2 Samuel 14:3  "Then go to the king and speak to him in this way." And Joab told her what words to say.
2 Samuel 14:4  When the woman of Tekoah spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and bowed low. She said, "Help me, O king."
2 Samuel 14:5  The king said to her, "What is wrong?" She answered, "I am a widow. My husband is dead."
2 Samuel 14:6  "Your servant had two sons. The two of them fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them. One struck the other and killed him."
2 Samuel 14:7  "Now look, the whole family has risen up against your servant. They say, 'Hand over the one who struck his brother, so that we may put him to death for the life of his brother whom he killed. We will destroy the heir as well.' So they will put out the last coal I have left, and leave my husband no name and no one to follow him on the earth."
2 Samuel 14:8  The king said to the woman, "Go home, and I will give orders about your case."
2 Samuel 14:9  The woman of Tekoah said to the king, "My lord, O king, let the guilt be on me and on my father's house. Let the king and his throne be free of blame."
2 Samuel 14:10  The king said, "If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he will not touch you again."
2 Samuel 14:11  Then she said, "Please let the king remember the LORD your God, so that those who avenge blood will not destroy any more, and my son will not be killed." He said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son will fall to the ground."
2 Samuel 14:12  Then the woman said, "Please let your servant speak one more word to my lord the king." He said, "Speak."
2 Samuel 14:13  The woman said, "Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? In saying this, the king speaks as one who is guilty, for the king does not bring home again the one he sent away."
2 Samuel 14:14  "We must all die. We are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet God does not take away life; instead he plans ways so that the one who is driven away is not shut out from him."
2 Samuel 14:15  "Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant said, 'I will speak to the king. Perhaps the king will do what his servant asks.'"
2 Samuel 14:16  "For the king will listen and save his servant from the hand of the man who would destroy both me and my son from the inheritance of God."
2 Samuel 14:17  "Then your servant said, 'The word of my lord the king will bring me rest.' For my lord the king is like an angel of God, able to tell good from bad. May the LORD your God be with you."
2 Samuel 14:18  Then the king answered the woman, "Please do not hide from me the thing I am going to ask you." The woman said, "Let my lord the king speak."
2 Samuel 14:19  The king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" The woman answered, "As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything my lord the king has said. Yes, it was your servant Joab who told me to do this, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant."
2 Samuel 14:20  "Your servant Joab did this to change the way things look. But my lord is wise, with the wisdom of an angel of God, and knows everything that happens in the land."
2 Samuel 14:21  The king said to Joab, "Very well, I will do this thing. Go and bring back the young man Absalom."
2 Samuel 14:22  Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed low and thanked the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that I have found grace in your sight, my lord, O king, because the king has done what his servant asked."
2 Samuel 14:23  So Joab got up and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 14:24  But the king said, "Let him go to his own house. He must not see my face." So Absalom went to his own house and did not see the king's face.
2 Samuel 14:25  In all Israel there was no man praised for his beauty as much as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head there was no flaw in him.
2 Samuel 14:26  When he cut the hair of his head (he cut it at the end of every year, because it grew heavy on him), he weighed the hair of his head. It weighed two hundred shekels by the king's weight.
2 Samuel 14:27  Three sons were born to Absalom, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar. She was a beautiful woman.
2 Samuel 14:28  So Absalom lived two full years in Jerusalem, and did not see the king's face.
2 Samuel 14:29  Then Absalom sent for Joab, to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. He sent a second time, and still Joab would not come.
2 Samuel 14:30  So he said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire." And Absalom's servants set the field on fire.
2 Samuel 14:31  Then Joab got up and came to Absalom's house and said to him, "Why have your servants set my field on fire?"
2 Samuel 14:32  Absalom answered Joab, "Look, I sent word to you, saying, 'Come here, so that I may send you to the king to ask why I have come from Geshur. It would have been better for me to stay there. Now let me see the king's face. If there is any sin in me, let him kill me.'"
2 Samuel 14:33  So Joab came to the king and told him. Then the king called for Absalom, and he came to the king and bowed with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.

2 Samuel 15:1  After this, Absalom got chariots and horses for himself, and fifty men to run ahead of him.
2 Samuel 15:2  Absalom would get up early and stand beside the road at the gate. Whenever a man had a dispute and was coming to the king for judgment, Absalom would call out to him and say, "What city are you from?" And the man would say, "Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel."
2 Samuel 15:3  Then Absalom would say to him, "Look, your case is good and right, but there is no one appointed by the king to listen to you."
2 Samuel 15:4  Absalom would also say, "If only I were made judge in the land. Then everyone who had a case or a complaint could come to me, and I would give him justice."
2 Samuel 15:5  And whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, Absalom would reach out his hand, take hold of him, and kiss him.
2 Samuel 15:6  Absalom did this to all the people of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
2 Samuel 15:7  After forty years Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go to Hebron and keep the promise I made to the LORD."
2 Samuel 15:8  "For while your servant was living at Geshur in Syria, I made this promise: 'If the LORD really brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the LORD.'"
2 Samuel 15:9  The king said to him, "Go in peace." So he got up and went to Hebron.
2 Samuel 15:10  But Absalom sent secret messengers through all the tribes of Israel to say, "As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, say, 'Absalom is king in Hebron.'"
2 Samuel 15:11  Two hundred men from Jerusalem went with Absalom. They had been invited, and they went without suspecting anything; they knew nothing about the plot.
2 Samuel 15:12  While Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's adviser, from his city, Giloh. The plot grew strong, for more and more people kept joining Absalom.
2 Samuel 15:13  A messenger came to David and said, "The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom."
2 Samuel 15:14  So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, "Get up, and let us run away, or none of us will escape from Absalom. Hurry and leave, or he will catch us quickly, bring disaster on us, and strike the city with the sword."
2 Samuel 15:15  The king's servants said to the king, "Look, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king decides."
2 Samuel 15:16  So the king went out, and all his household followed him. But the king left ten women, who were his concubines, to look after the house.
2 Samuel 15:17  The king went out with all the people following him, and they stopped at a place far off.
2 Samuel 15:18  All his servants marched past beside him. All the Cherethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had come with him from Gath, marched past in front of the king.
2 Samuel 15:19  Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why are you coming with us too? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and an exile from your own land."
2 Samuel 15:20  "You came only yesterday. Should I make you wander about with us today, when I do not know where I am going? Go back, and take your brothers with you. May mercy and truth be with you."
2 Samuel 15:21  But Ittai answered the king, "As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king is, whether it means death or life, there your servant will be."
2 Samuel 15:22  David said to Ittai, "Go on, then, and cross over." So Ittai the Gittite crossed over, with all his men and all the little ones who were with him.
2 Samuel 15:23  All the country wept aloud as the people passed by. The king himself crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people crossed over, going toward the wilderness road.
2 Samuel 15:24  Look, Zadok was there too, and all the Levites with him, carrying the ark of the covenant of God. They set down the ark of God, and Abiathar offered sacrifices until all the people had finished leaving the city.
2 Samuel 15:25  Then the king said to Zadok, "Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me back and let me see it and his dwelling place again."
2 Samuel 15:26  "But if he says, 'I take no delight in you,' then here I am. Let him do to me whatever seems good to him."
2 Samuel 15:27  The king also said to Zadok the priest, "Are you not a seer? Go back into the city in peace, and take your two sons with you, your son Ahimaaz and Jonathan the son of Abiathar."
2 Samuel 15:28  "Look, I will wait in the plain of the wilderness until word comes from you to tell me what is happening."
2 Samuel 15:29  So Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God back to Jerusalem, and they stayed there.
2 Samuel 15:30  David went up the slope of the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went. His head was covered and he was barefoot. All the people with him covered their heads too, and they went up, weeping as they went.
2 Samuel 15:31  Someone told David, "Ahithophel is among those plotting with Absalom." And David said, "LORD, I pray, turn Ahithophel's advice into foolishness."
2 Samuel 15:32  When David came to the top of the mountain, where he worshipped God, look, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn and earth on his head.
2 Samuel 15:33  David said to him, "If you go on with me, you will be a burden to me."
2 Samuel 15:34  But if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king; as I have been your father's servant until now, so I will now be your servant,' then you can defeat Ahithophel's advice for me.
2 Samuel 15:35  Are Zadok and Abiathar the priests not there with you? So whatever you hear from the king's house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.
2 Samuel 15:36  "Look, their two sons are there with them, Ahimaaz the son of Zadok and Jonathan the son of Abiathar. Send to me by them everything you hear."
2 Samuel 15:37  So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city, and Absalom came into Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 16:1  When David had gone a little way past the top of the hill, look, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, met him. He had two donkeys saddled, and on them were two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
2 Samuel 16:2  The king said to Ziba, "What do you mean to do with these?" Ziba said, "The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on. The bread and summer fruit are for the young men to eat. The wine is for those who grow weak in the wilderness to drink."
2 Samuel 16:3  The king said, "And where is your master's son?" Ziba said to the king, "Look, he is staying in Jerusalem. For he said, 'Today the house of Israel will give me back my father's kingdom.'"
2 Samuel 16:4  Then the king said to Ziba, "Look, everything that belonged to Mephibosheth is yours." Ziba said, "I humbly beg you, let me find grace in your sight, my lord, O king."
2 Samuel 16:5  When king David came to Bahurim, look, a man came out from there. He was from the family of the house of Saul, and his name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out, cursing as he came.
2 Samuel 16:6  He threw stones at David and at all the servants of king David. All the people and all the mighty men were on David's right hand and on his left.
2 Samuel 16:7  This is what Shimei said as he cursed: "Come out, come out, you man of blood, you worthless man."
2 Samuel 16:8  "The LORD has brought back on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned. The LORD has given the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son. Look, you are caught in your own evil, because you are a man of blood."
2 Samuel 16:9  Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over, I beg you, and take off his head."
2 Samuel 16:10  The king said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse, because the LORD has said to him, 'Curse David.' Who then shall say, 'Why have you done this?'"
2 Samuel 16:11  David said to Abishai and to all his servants, "Look, my own son, who came from my body, is trying to kill me. How much more may this Benjamite do it now? Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the LORD has told him to."
2 Samuel 16:12  "It may be that the LORD will look on my trouble, and that the LORD will pay me back with good for his cursing today."
2 Samuel 16:13  As David and his men went along the road, Shimei went along the hillside opposite him. He cursed as he went, and threw stones at him, and threw dust.
2 Samuel 16:14  The king and all the people who were with him came to the place weary, and they rested there.
2 Samuel 16:15  Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with him.
2 Samuel 16:16  When Hushai the Archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, "God save the king, God save the king."
2 Samuel 16:17  Absalom said to Hushai, "Is this your kindness to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?"
2 Samuel 16:18  Hushai said to Absalom, "No. The one whom the LORD, and this people, and all the men of Israel choose, his I will be, and with him I will stay."
2 Samuel 16:19  "And besides, whom should I serve? Should I not serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father's presence, so I will be in your presence."
2 Samuel 16:20  Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give your advice. What shall we do?"
2 Samuel 16:21  Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Go in to your father's concubines, whom he left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that your father hates you, and the hands of all who are with you will be strong."
2 Samuel 16:22  So they spread a tent for Absalom on the roof of the house, and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.
2 Samuel 16:23  In those days, the advice that Ahithophel gave was as if a man had asked at the oracle of God. So was all the advice of Ahithophel, both with David and with Absalom.

2 Samuel 17:1  Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Let me choose twelve thousand men. I will set out and chase after David tonight."
2 Samuel 17:2  "I will come on him while he is tired and weak, and I will make him afraid. All the people with him will run away, and I will strike down the king alone."
2 Samuel 17:3  "Then I will bring all the people back to you. When the man you are looking for is dead, it will be as if everyone had returned. So all the people will be at peace."
2 Samuel 17:4  Absalom was very pleased with this plan, and so were all the elders of Israel.
2 Samuel 17:5  Then Absalom said, "Now call Hushai the Archite as well, and let us hear what he says too."
2 Samuel 17:6  When Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, "This is what Ahithophel has said. Shall we do what he says? If not, you speak."
2 Samuel 17:7  Hushai said to Absalom, "The advice that Ahithophel has given is not good this time."
2 Samuel 17:8  Hushai said, "You know your father and his men. They are strong fighters, and they are as fierce as a bear in the field whose cubs have been taken from her. Your father is a man of war. He will not spend the night with the people."
2 Samuel 17:9  "Look, by now he is hiding in some pit, or in some other place. If some of your men are struck down first, then whoever hears of it will say, 'There has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom.'"
2 Samuel 17:10  "Then even the brave man, whose heart is like the heart of a lion, will completely lose his courage. For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and that those who are with him are brave men."
2 Samuel 17:11  "So this is my advice. Let all Israel be gathered to you, from Dan to Beersheba, as many as the sand by the sea. And go into battle yourself."
2 Samuel 17:12  "Then we will come on him wherever he is found, and we will fall on him as the dew falls on the ground. Not one of him or of all the men with him will be left."
2 Samuel 17:13  "And if he has gone into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city. We will drag it down into the river, until not one small stone is left there."
2 Samuel 17:14  Absalom and all the men of Israel said, "The advice of Hushai the Archite is better than the advice of Ahithophel." For the LORD had decided to ruin the good advice of Ahithophel, so that the LORD might bring disaster on Absalom.
2 Samuel 17:15  Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, "Ahithophel advised Absalom and the elders of Israel in this way, and I advised them in that way."
2 Samuel 17:16  "So send word quickly now and tell David, 'Do not spend the night in the plains of the wilderness, but cross over at once. If you do not, the king will be swallowed up, and all the people with him.'"
2 Samuel 17:17  Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at Enrogel, for they must not be seen coming into the city. A servant girl went and told them, and they went and told King David.
2 Samuel 17:18  But a boy saw them and told Absalom. So the two of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man in Bahurim. He had a well in his courtyard, and they climbed down into it.
2 Samuel 17:19  The woman took a covering and spread it over the mouth of the well, and spread ground corn on it. So nothing was known about it.
2 Samuel 17:20  When Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, they said, "Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?" The woman said to them, "They have gone over the brook of water." When they had searched and could not find them, they went back to Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 17:21  After they had gone, the two men came up out of the well and went and told King David. They said to David, "Get up and cross the water quickly, for this is the advice Ahithophel has given against you."
2 Samuel 17:22  Then David got up, and all the people with him, and they crossed the Jordan. By the time the morning light came, there was not one of them who had not crossed the Jordan.
2 Samuel 17:23  When Ahithophel saw that his advice was not followed, he saddled his donkey and set out and went home to his house, in his own city. He put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died, and was buried in his father's tomb.
2 Samuel 17:24  Then David came to Mahanaim. And Absalom crossed the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him.
2 Samuel 17:25  Absalom made Amasa captain of the army in place of Joab. This Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra, an Israelite, who had gone in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, the sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother.
2 Samuel 17:26  So Israel and Absalom camped in the land of Gilead.
2 Samuel 17:27  When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi the son of Nahash from Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and Machir the son of Ammiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
2 Samuel 17:28  brought beds, and bowls, and clay pots, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and roasted corn, and beans, and lentils, and roasted pulse,
2 Samuel 17:29  and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese from cows, for David and for the people with him to eat. For they said, "The people are hungry and tired and thirsty in the wilderness."

2 Samuel 18:1  David counted the people who were with him. He put commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds over them.
2 Samuel 18:2  David sent the army out in three parts. One third was under Joab, one third under Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab's brother, and one third under Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the people, "I myself will surely go out with you too."
2 Samuel 18:3  But the people answered, "You must not go out. For if we run away, they will not care about us. Even if half of us die, they will not care. But you are worth ten thousand of us. So it is better that you help us from the city."
2 Samuel 18:4  The king said to them, "I will do what seems best to you." So the king stood beside the gate, and all the people marched out by hundreds and by thousands.
2 Samuel 18:5  The king gave an order to Joab, Abishai and Ittai. He said, "Be gentle with the young man Absalom, for my sake." And all the people heard the king give this order to all the commanders about Absalom.
2 Samuel 18:6  So the army went out into the field against Israel, and the battle was fought in the wood of Ephraim.
2 Samuel 18:7  There the people of Israel were beaten by David's servants. There was a great slaughter that day, of twenty thousand men.
2 Samuel 18:8  The fighting spread over all that country, and the wood destroyed more people that day than the sword destroyed.
2 Samuel 18:9  Absalom happened to meet David's servants. Absalom was riding on a mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. Absalom's head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging between the sky and the ground, while the mule under him went on.
2 Samuel 18:10  A man saw it and told Joab. He said, "Look, I saw Absalom hanging in an oak."
2 Samuel 18:11  Joab said to the man who told him, "You saw him? Then why did you not strike him down to the ground there? I would have given you ten shekels of silver and a belt."
2 Samuel 18:12  The man said to Joab, "Even if I were given a thousand shekels of silver in my hand, I would not lift my hand against the king's son. For we all heard the king order you and Abishai and Ittai, 'Take care that no one touches the young man Absalom.'"
2 Samuel 18:13  "If I had done it, I would have been false to my own life. For nothing is hidden from the king, and you yourself would have turned against me."
2 Samuel 18:14  Then Joab said, "I will not waste any more time with you." He took three darts in his hand and drove them through Absalom's heart, while he was still alive in the middle of the oak.
2 Samuel 18:15  Then ten young men who carried Joab's armour gathered round Absalom, struck him, and killed him.
2 Samuel 18:16  Joab blew the trumpet, and the people came back from chasing Israel, because Joab held the people back.
2 Samuel 18:17  They took Absalom and threw him into a great pit in the wood, and piled a very great heap of stones over him. And all Israel ran away, every man to his tent.
2 Samuel 18:18  Now while Absalom was alive he had set up a pillar for himself, which is in the king's valley. For he said, "I have no son to keep my name remembered." He called the pillar by his own name, and to this day it is called Absalom's place.
2 Samuel 18:19  Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, "Let me run now and take the news to the king, that the LORD has given him justice against his enemies."
2 Samuel 18:20  Joab said to him, "You will not carry the news today. You may carry news another day, but today you will carry no news, because the king's son is dead."
2 Samuel 18:21  Then Joab said to Cushi, "Go and tell the king what you have seen." Cushi bowed to Joab and ran.
2 Samuel 18:22  Then Ahimaaz son of Zadok said to Joab again, "Whatever happens, please let me run after Cushi too." Joab said, "Why will you run, my son, when you have no news to bring?"
2 Samuel 18:23  He said, "Whatever happens, let me run." So Joab said to him, "Run." Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the plain and passed Cushi.
2 Samuel 18:24  David was sitting between the two gates. The watchman went up to the roof over the gate, by the wall, and looked up. He saw a man running alone.
2 Samuel 18:25  The watchman called out and told the king. The king said, "If he is alone, he brings news." And the man came on quickly and drew near.
2 Samuel 18:26  Then the watchman saw another man running. The watchman called to the gatekeeper and said, "Look, another man is running alone." The king said, "He is bringing news too."
2 Samuel 18:27  The watchman said, "It seems to me the first man runs like Ahimaaz son of Zadok." The king said, "He is a good man, and he comes with good news."
2 Samuel 18:28  Ahimaaz called out and said to the king, "All is well." He bowed down to the ground before the king and said, "Blessed be the LORD your God, who has handed over the men who lifted their hand against my lord the king."
2 Samuel 18:29  The king said, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" Ahimaaz answered, "When Joab sent the king's servant, and me your servant, I saw a great uproar, but I did not know what it was."
2 Samuel 18:30  The king said to him, "Step aside and stand here." So he stepped aside and stood still.
2 Samuel 18:31  Then Cushi came, and Cushi said, "News, my lord the king. The LORD has given you justice today against all who rose up against you."
2 Samuel 18:32  The king said to Cushi, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" Cushi answered, "May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise against you to harm you, be as that young man is."
2 Samuel 18:33  The king was deeply shaken. He went up to the room over the gate and wept. As he went, he said, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom. If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son."

2 Samuel 19:1  Joab was told, "Look, the king is weeping and mourning for Absalom."
2 Samuel 19:2  So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the people. For the people heard it said that day that the king was grieving for his son.
2 Samuel 19:3  The people crept quietly into the city that day, like people who are ashamed and slip away when they run from a battle.
2 Samuel 19:4  But the king covered his face, and cried out with a loud voice, "O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!"
2 Samuel 19:5  Joab came into the house to the king and said, "Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants. Today they have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines."
2 Samuel 19:6  You love your enemies and hate your friends. For today you have made it plain that princes and servants mean nothing to you. Today I see that if Absalom had lived, and all of us had died today, then it would have pleased you well.
2 Samuel 19:7  "Now get up, go out, and speak kindly to your servants. For I swear by the LORD, if you do not go out, not one man will stay with you this night. That will be worse for you than all the trouble that has come on you from your youth until now."
2 Samuel 19:8  Then the king got up and sat in the gate. The people were all told, "Look, the king is sitting in the gate." And all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled, every man to his tent.
2 Samuel 19:9  All the people were arguing among themselves throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, "The king saved us from the hand of our enemies, and he rescued us from the hand of the Philistines. And now he has fled out of the land because of Absalom."
2 Samuel 19:10  "And Absalom, whom we anointed to rule over us, is dead in battle. So why do you say nothing about bringing the king back?"
2 Samuel 19:11  King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar the priests: "Speak to the elders of Judah and say, 'Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? For what all Israel is saying has come to the king, right to his house.'"
2 Samuel 19:12  'You are my brothers, you are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king?'
2 Samuel 19:13  "And say to Amasa, 'Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God do so to me, and more also, if you are not the commander of the army before me from now on, in place of Joab.'"
2 Samuel 19:14  And he won over the hearts of all the men of Judah, as though they were one man. So they sent this word to the king: "Come back, you and all your servants."
2 Samuel 19:15  So the king came back and came to the Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go and meet the king, and to bring the king over the Jordan.
2 Samuel 19:16  Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet King David.
2 Samuel 19:17  There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him. They rushed to the Jordan ahead of the king.
2 Samuel 19:18  A ferry boat went across to carry over the king's household, and to do whatever he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king as he was crossing the Jordan,
2 Samuel 19:19  and said to the king, "Let my lord not charge me with guilt. Do not remember the wrong your servant did on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart."
2 Samuel 19:20  "For your servant knows that I have sinned. So look, I have come today, the first of all the house of Joseph, to go down and meet my lord the king."
2 Samuel 19:21  But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered and said, "Should not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD's anointed?"
2 Samuel 19:22  And David said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be my enemies today? Shall anyone be put to death today in Israel? Do I not know that today I am king over Israel?"
2 Samuel 19:23  So the king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." And the king swore an oath to him.
2 Samuel 19:24  Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet, or trimmed his beard, or washed his clothes, from the day the king left until the day he came back in peace.
2 Samuel 19:25  When he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, "Why did you not go with me, Mephibosheth?"
2 Samuel 19:26  He answered, "My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, 'I will saddle a donkey for myself, so that I may ride on it and go with the king.' For your servant is lame."
2 Samuel 19:27  And he has told lies about your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like an angel of God. So do what is good in your eyes.
2 Samuel 19:28  "For all my father's house deserved nothing but death from my lord the king. Yet you set your servant among those who eat at your own table. What right then do I have to cry out any more to the king?"
2 Samuel 19:29  The king said to him, "Why speak any more of your affairs? I have said, 'You and Ziba divide the land.'"
2 Samuel 19:30  And Mephibosheth said to the king, "Let him take it all, since my lord the king has come home again in peace."
2 Samuel 19:31  Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and went over the Jordan with the king, to send him on his way over the Jordan.
2 Samuel 19:32  Now Barzillai was a very old man, eighty years old. He had provided the king with food while he stayed at Mahanaim, for he was a very great man.
2 Samuel 19:33  The king said to Barzillai, "Come over with me, and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem."
2 Samuel 19:34  But Barzillai said to the king, "How many years of life do I have left, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?"
2 Samuel 19:35  I am eighty years old today. Can I tell the difference between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I still hear the voices of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be a burden any longer to my lord the king?
2 Samuel 19:36  Your servant will go just a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward?
2 Samuel 19:37  "Please let your servant turn back again, so that I may die in my own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king, and do for him whatever seems good to you."
2 Samuel 19:38  The king answered, "Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you. And whatever you ask of me, I will do for you."
2 Samuel 19:39  All the people went over the Jordan. When the king had crossed over, the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai went back to his own place.
2 Samuel 19:40  Then the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him. All the people of Judah brought the king on his way, and half the people of Israel as well.
2 Samuel 19:41  And look, all the men of Israel came to the king and said to him, "Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away? Why have they brought the king and his household over the Jordan, and all David's men with him?"
2 Samuel 19:42  And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "Because the king is a close relative of ours. Why then are you angry about this? Have we eaten anything at the king's cost? Has he given us any gift?"
2 Samuel 19:43  And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, "We have ten shares in the king, and we have more right to David than you do. Why then did you look down on us? Should not our advice have been asked first about bringing back our king?" And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.

2 Samuel 20:1  There happened to be there a worthless man named Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. He blew a trumpet and said, "We have no share in David. We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel."
2 Samuel 20:2  So every man of Israel left David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed close to their king, from the Jordan all the way to Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 20:3  David came to his house at Jerusalem. The king took the ten women, his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them under guard. He gave them food, but he did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day they died, living as widows.
2 Samuel 20:4  Then the king said to Amasa, "Call the men of Judah together for me within three days, and be here yourself."
2 Samuel 20:5  So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together. But he stayed longer than the time the king had set for him.
2 Samuel 20:6  David said to Abishai, "Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord's servants and chase after him. If you do not, he will find walled cities and escape from us."
2 Samuel 20:7  So Joab's men went out after him, with the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the mighty men. They went out of Jerusalem to chase after Sheba the son of Bichri.
2 Samuel 20:8  When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was wearing his soldier's coat, tied around him, and over it a belt with a sword in its sheath fastened at his waist. As he stepped forward, the sword fell out.
2 Samuel 20:9  Joab said to Amasa, "Are you well, my brother?" And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.
2 Samuel 20:10  But Amasa took no notice of the sword that was in Joab's hand. So Joab struck him with it in the fifth rib, and his insides spilled out on the ground. He did not need to strike him again, and Amasa died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai chased after Sheba the son of Bichri.
2 Samuel 20:11  One of Joab's men stood beside Amasa and said, "Whoever is for Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab."
2 Samuel 20:12  Amasa lay rolling in his blood in the middle of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he moved Amasa out of the highway into the field and threw a cloth over him, for he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.
2 Samuel 20:13  When Amasa had been moved out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to chase after Sheba the son of Bichri.
2 Samuel 20:14  Sheba went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Bethmaachah, and all the Berites. They gathered together and went after him too.
2 Samuel 20:15  Joab's men came and surrounded him in Abel of Bethmaachah. They piled up a mound of earth against the city, and it stood against the outer wall. All the people who were with Joab battered the wall, to bring it down.
2 Samuel 20:16  Then a wise woman called out from the city, "Listen, listen. Please say to Joab, 'Come here, so that I may speak with you.'"
2 Samuel 20:17  When he had come near to her, the woman said, "Are you Joab?" He answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Listen to the words of your servant." He answered, "I am listening."
2 Samuel 20:18  Then she said, "In the old days people used to say, 'They will surely ask for advice at Abel,' and that is how they settled a matter."
2 Samuel 20:19  "I am one of those who are peaceful and faithful in Israel. You are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?"
2 Samuel 20:20  Joab answered, "Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy."
2 Samuel 20:21  "That is not what this is about. But a man from mount Ephraim, named Sheba the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Hand over him alone, and I will leave the city." The woman said to Joab, "Look, his head will be thrown to you over the wall."
2 Samuel 20:22  Then the woman went to all the people with her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it out to Joab. He blew a trumpet, and they went away from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.
2 Samuel 20:23  Now Joab was over all the army of Israel. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites.
2 Samuel 20:24  Adoram was over the forced labour. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder.
2 Samuel 20:25  Sheva was the scribe. Zadok and Abiathar were the priests.
2 Samuel 20:26  And Ira the Jairite also was a chief ruler under David.

2 Samuel 21:1  In the days of David there was a famine that lasted three years, year after year. So David asked the LORD about it. The LORD answered, "It is because of Saul and his house of blood, because he killed the Gibeonites."
2 Samuel 21:2  So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but were left from the Amorites. The children of Israel had sworn an oath to them, but Saul had tried to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.)
2 Samuel 21:3  David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? How can I make atonement, so that you will bless the inheritance of the LORD?"
2 Samuel 21:4  The Gibeonites said to him, "We will not take silver or gold from Saul or from his house, and it is not for us to put any man in Israel to death." And he said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you."
2 Samuel 21:5  They answered the king, "The man who destroyed us, and who plotted against us so that we should be wiped out and not remain anywhere in the land of Israel -"
2 Samuel 21:6  "let seven men of his sons be handed over to us. We will hang them up before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD chose." And the king said, "I will give them."
2 Samuel 21:7  But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
2 Samuel 21:8  But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she had borne to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
2 Samuel 21:9  He handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. All seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
2 Samuel 21:10  Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock. She stayed there from the beginning of harvest until water dropped on the bodies from heaven. She did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
2 Samuel 21:11  David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Saul's concubine, had done.
2 Samuel 21:12  So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead. They had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa.
2 Samuel 21:13  He brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered the bones of the men who had been hanged.
2 Samuel 21:14  They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. They did all that the king commanded. After that God listened to the prayers for the land.
2 Samuel 21:15  The Philistines went to war with Israel again. David went down, and his servants with him, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weak.
2 Samuel 21:16  Ishbibenob, who was one of the sons of the giant, meant to kill David. The head of his spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass, and he wore a new sword.
2 Samuel 21:17  But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his help, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, "You shall not go out with us to battle any more. You must not put out the light of Israel."
2 Samuel 21:18  After this there was another battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant.
2 Samuel 21:19  There was another battle with the Philistines at Gob. There Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a man of Bethlehem, killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear shaft was like a weaver's beam.
2 Samuel 21:20  There was still another battle at Gath. There was a man of great size there who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all. He too was born to the giant.
2 Samuel 21:21  When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him.
2 Samuel 21:22  These four were born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

2 Samuel 22:1  David spoke the words of this song to the LORD on the day when the LORD had rescued him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul.
2 Samuel 22:2  He said, "The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my rescuer;"
2 Samuel 22:3  the God of my rock; I will trust in him. He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my saviour. You save me from violence.
2 Samuel 22:4  I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised. So I will be saved from my enemies.
2 Samuel 22:5  When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid;
2 Samuel 22:6  the sorrows of hell closed around me; the traps of death came before me.
2 Samuel 22:7  In my trouble I called on the LORD, and cried to my God. He heard my voice from his temple, and my cry came into his ears.
2 Samuel 22:8  Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven moved and shook, because he was angry.
2 Samuel 22:9  Smoke went up from his nostrils, and fire from his mouth burned everything. Coals were set alight by it.
2 Samuel 22:10  He bent the heavens down and came down, and darkness was under his feet.
2 Samuel 22:11  He rode on a cherub, and flew. He was seen on the wings of the wind.
2 Samuel 22:12  He made darkness tents around him, dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
2 Samuel 22:13  Through the brightness before him coals of fire were set alight.
2 Samuel 22:14  The LORD thundered from heaven, and the Most High let his voice be heard.
2 Samuel 22:15  He sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and drove them into confusion.
2 Samuel 22:16  The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare, at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
2 Samuel 22:17  He reached down from above and took hold of me. He drew me out of many waters.
2 Samuel 22:18  He rescued me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.
2 Samuel 22:19  They came before me on the day of my disaster, but the LORD was my support.
2 Samuel 22:20  He also brought me out into a wide place. He rescued me, because he delighted in me.
2 Samuel 22:21  The LORD rewarded me for my righteousness. He paid me back for the cleanness of my hands.
2 Samuel 22:22  For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly turned away from my God.
2 Samuel 22:23  For all his judgments were before me, and I did not turn away from his laws.
2 Samuel 22:24  I was also honest before him, and kept myself from my own sin.
2 Samuel 22:25  So the LORD has paid me back for my righteousness, for my cleanness in his sight.
2 Samuel 22:26  To the merciful you show yourself merciful, and to the honest man you show yourself honest.
2 Samuel 22:27  To the pure you show yourself pure, and to the crooked you show yourself harsh.
2 Samuel 22:28  You will save the suffering people. But your eyes are on the proud, to bring them down.
2 Samuel 22:29  For you are my lamp, LORD. The LORD will light up my darkness.
2 Samuel 22:30  For with you I have run through a troop of soldiers. With my God I have leaped over a wall.
2 Samuel 22:31  As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the LORD has been tested. He is a shield to all who trust in him.
2 Samuel 22:32  For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?
2 Samuel 22:33  God is my strength and my power, and he makes my way perfect.
2 Samuel 22:34  He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places.
2 Samuel 22:35  He teaches my hands to fight, so that my arms can bend a bow of steel.
2 Samuel 22:36  You have also given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness has made me great.
2 Samuel 22:37  You have made a wide path for my steps, so that my feet did not slip.
2 Samuel 22:38  I have chased my enemies and destroyed them. I did not turn back until they were finished.
2 Samuel 22:39  I finished them and wounded them, so that they could not rise. Yes, they fell under my feet.
2 Samuel 22:40  For you have armed me with strength for battle. You have put those who rose against me down under me.
2 Samuel 22:41  You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, so that I could destroy those who hate me.
2 Samuel 22:42  They looked, but there was no one to save them; even to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
2 Samuel 22:43  Then I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth. I crushed them like the mud of the street, and spread them about.
2 Samuel 22:44  You have also rescued me from the quarrels of my people. You have kept me to be head of the nations. A people I did not know will serve me.
2 Samuel 22:45  Foreigners will give in to me. As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.
2 Samuel 22:46  Foreigners will wither away, and come trembling out of their hiding places.
2 Samuel 22:47  The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock. Let the God of the rock of my salvation be lifted high.
2 Samuel 22:48  It is God who takes revenge for me, and brings the peoples down under me,
2 Samuel 22:49  and who brings me out from my enemies. You also lifted me up high above those who rose against me. You rescued me from the violent man.
2 Samuel 22:50  So I will give thanks to you, LORD, among the nations, and I will sing praises to your name.
2 Samuel 22:51  "He is the tower of salvation for his king, and he shows mercy to his anointed one, to David, and to his children for ever."

2 Samuel 23:1  These are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, the man who was lifted up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet singer of Israel said:
2 Samuel 23:2  "The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me, and his word was on my tongue."
2 Samuel 23:3  The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me: 'The one who rules over people must be just, ruling in the fear of God.'
2 Samuel 23:4  He will be like the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds; like the tender grass that springs out of the earth by clear shining after rain.
2 Samuel 23:5  Though my house is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, set out in all things, and sure. This is all my salvation, and all my desire, though he does not make it grow.
2 Samuel 23:6  But the sons of Belial will all be like thorns thrown away, because they cannot be picked up by hand.
2 Samuel 23:7  "The man who touches them must be armed with iron and the shaft of a spear. They will be burned up completely with fire on the spot."
2 Samuel 23:8  These are the names of the mighty men David had: the Tachmonite who sat in the seat, chief among the captains. He was Adino the Eznite. He lifted up his spear against eight hundred men, and killed them all at one time.
2 Samuel 23:9  After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David. They defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had gone away.
2 Samuel 23:10  He stood up and struck down the Philistines until his hand was tired, and his hand stuck to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The people came back after him only to take the spoil.
2 Samuel 23:11  After him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop, where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. The people fled from the Philistines.
2 Samuel 23:12  But he took his stand in the middle of that ground and defended it, and killed the Philistines. The LORD brought about a great victory.
2 Samuel 23:13  Three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David at harvest time, to the cave of Adullam. The troop of the Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.
2 Samuel 23:14  David was then in a stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was then in Bethlehem.
2 Samuel 23:15  David longed for water, and said, "Oh that someone would give me a drink of the water from the well of Bethlehem, the one by the gate."
2 Samuel 23:16  So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine army, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem by the gate. They took it and brought it to David. But he would not drink it. He poured it out to the LORD,
2 Samuel 23:17  and said, "Far be it from me, LORD, to do this. Is this not the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?" So he would not drink it. These are the things the three mighty men did.
2 Samuel 23:18  Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred men and killed them, and he had a name among the three.
2 Samuel 23:19  Was he not the most honoured of the three? So he was their captain. But he did not reach the first three.
2 Samuel 23:20  Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a brave man of Kabzeel, had done many deeds. He killed two lion-like men of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day.
2 Samuel 23:21  He killed an Egyptian, a fine-looking man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff. He pulled the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear.
2 Samuel 23:22  These are the things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and he had a name among the three mighty men.
2 Samuel 23:23  He was more honoured than the thirty, but he did not reach the first three. And David put him in charge of his guard.
2 Samuel 23:24  Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,
2 Samuel 23:25  Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,
2 Samuel 23:26  Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,
2 Samuel 23:27  Abiezer the Anethothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,
2 Samuel 23:28  Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,
2 Samuel 23:29  Heleb the son of Baanah, a Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai from Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,
2 Samuel 23:30  Benaiah the Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash,
2 Samuel 23:31  Abialbon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite,
2 Samuel 23:32  Eliahba the Shaalbonite, of the sons of Jashen, Jonathan,
2 Samuel 23:33  Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Hararite,
2 Samuel 23:34  Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maachathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
2 Samuel 23:35  Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,
2 Samuel 23:36  Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,
2 Samuel 23:37  Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armour-bearer to Joab the son of Zeruiah,
2 Samuel 23:38  Ira an Ithrite, Gareb an Ithrite,
2 Samuel 23:39  Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

2 Samuel 24:1  Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel. He stirred up David against them and said, "Go, count the people of Israel and Judah."
2 Samuel 24:2  So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army who was with him, "Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, so that I may know how many there are."
2 Samuel 24:3  Joab said to the king, "May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, however many they may be, and may my lord the king live to see it. But why does my lord the king want to do this thing?"
2 Samuel 24:4  But the king's word overruled Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the king to count the people of Israel.
2 Samuel 24:5  They crossed the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lies in the middle of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer.
2 Samuel 24:6  Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi. They came to Danjaan, and round to Zidon,
2 Samuel 24:7  and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to the south of Judah, as far as Beersheba.
2 Samuel 24:8  So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
2 Samuel 24:9  Joab gave the total of the count of the people to the king. In Israel there were eight hundred thousand brave men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
2 Samuel 24:10  David's heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, I beg you, LORD, take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly."
2 Samuel 24:11  When David got up in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer. It said,
2 Samuel 24:12  "Go and say to David, 'This is what the LORD says: I offer you three things. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you.'"
2 Samuel 24:13  So Gad came to David and told him. He said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you run away for three months before your enemies while they chase you? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now think it over, and see what answer I should give to the one who sent me."
2 Samuel 24:14  David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are great. Do not let me fall into the hand of man."
2 Samuel 24:15  So the LORD sent a plague on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. Seventy thousand men of the people died, from Dan to Beersheba.
2 Samuel 24:16  When the angel stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD changed his mind about the disaster. He said to the angel who was destroying the people, "It is enough. Hold back your hand now." The angel of the LORD was beside the threshing place of Araunah the Jebusite.
2 Samuel 24:17  When David saw the angel who was striking the people, he spoke to the LORD and said, "Look, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I beg you, be against me and against my father's house."
2 Samuel 24:18  That day Gad came to David and said to him, "Go up. Build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."
2 Samuel 24:19  So David went up, as Gad had told him and as the LORD had commanded.
2 Samuel 24:20  Araunah looked and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. Araunah went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
2 Samuel 24:21  Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be stopped from the people."
2 Samuel 24:22  Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up whatever seems good to him. Look, here are oxen for the burnt sacrifice, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for wood."
2 Samuel 24:23  All these things Araunah, as a king, gave to the king. And Araunah said to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you."
2 Samuel 24:24  But the king said to Araunah, "No. I will certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2 Samuel 24:25  David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD listened to the prayer for the land, and the plague was stopped from Israel.

1 Kings

1 Kings 1:1  Now king David was old, far on in years. They covered him with clothes, but he could not get warm.
1 Kings 1:2  So his servants said to him, "Let a young girl be looked for, for my lord the king. Let her wait on the king and take care of him. Let her lie close to you, so that my lord the king may be warm."
1 Kings 1:3  So they looked for a beautiful girl through all the land of Israel. They found Abishag, a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.
1 Kings 1:4  The girl was very beautiful. She took care of the king and served him, but the king did not have relations with her.
1 Kings 1:5  Then Adonijah the son of Haggith lifted himself up and said, "I will be king." He got ready chariots and horsemen for himself, and fifty men to run in front of him.
1 Kings 1:6  His father had never at any time upset him by asking, "Why have you done this?" Adonijah was also a very handsome man. His mother had given birth to him after Absalom.
1 Kings 1:7  He talked with Joab the son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest. They followed Adonijah and helped him.
1 Kings 1:8  But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David's mighty men were not with Adonijah.
1 Kings 1:9  Adonijah killed sheep and oxen and fat cattle by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside Enrogel. He invited all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants.
1 Kings 1:10  But he did not invite Nathan the prophet, or Benaiah, or the mighty men, or his brother Solomon.
1 Kings 1:11  So Nathan spoke to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. He said, "Have you not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith has made himself king, and David our lord does not know it?"
1 Kings 1:12  "Now come, let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon."
1 Kings 1:13  "Go in to king David and say to him, 'My lord, O king, did you not promise to me, your servant, that Solomon my son would surely be king after you, and that he would sit on your throne? Why then is Adonijah king?'"
1 Kings 1:14  "Look, while you are still talking there with the king, I will come in after you and back up your words."
1 Kings 1:15  So Bathsheba went in to the king in his room. The king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was serving him.
1 Kings 1:16  Bathsheba bent low and bowed down before the king. The king said, "What do you want?"
1 Kings 1:17  She said to him, "My lord, you swore by the LORD your God to me, your servant, and said, 'Surely Solomon your son will be king after me, and he will sit on my throne.'"
1 Kings 1:18  "And now, look, Adonijah is king, and you, my lord the king, do not know it."
1 Kings 1:19  "He has killed oxen and fat cattle and many sheep. He has invited all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the commander of the army. But he has not invited Solomon your servant."
1 Kings 1:20  "And you, my lord, O king - the eyes of all Israel are on you, waiting for you to tell them who will sit on the throne of my lord the king after him."
1 Kings 1:21  "If you do not, then when my lord the king sleeps with his fathers, I and my son Solomon will be treated as criminals."
1 Kings 1:22  And look, while she was still talking with the king, Nathan the prophet came in.
1 Kings 1:23  They told the king, "Nathan the prophet is here." When he had come before the king, he bowed down before the king with his face to the ground.
1 Kings 1:24  Nathan said, "My lord, O king, have you said, 'Adonijah shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne'?"
1 Kings 1:25  "For today he has gone down and killed oxen and fat cattle and many sheep. He has invited all the king's sons, and the commanders of the army, and Abiathar the priest. Look, they are eating and drinking with him, and saying, 'God save king Adonijah.'"
1 Kings 1:26  "But me, even me your servant, and Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon, he has not invited."
1 Kings 1:27  "Has this thing been done by my lord the king, without telling your servant who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?"
1 Kings 1:28  Then king David answered, "Call Bathsheba to me." She came into the king's presence and stood before the king.
1 Kings 1:29  The king made a promise and said, "As the LORD lives, who has rescued me out of all trouble,"
1 Kings 1:30  "I swore to you by the LORD God of Israel and said, 'Surely Solomon your son will be king after me, and he will sit on my throne in my place.' I will certainly do this today."
1 Kings 1:31  Then Bathsheba bent low with her face to the ground and bowed to the king. She said, "May my lord king David live for ever."
1 Kings 1:32  King David said, "Call Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada to me." So they came before the king.
1 Kings 1:33  The king said to them, "Take with you the servants of your lord. Put Solomon my son on my own mule, and bring him down to Gihon."
1 Kings 1:34  "There let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anoint him king over Israel. Blow the trumpet and say, 'God save king Solomon.'"
1 Kings 1:35  "Then come up after him, and let him come and sit on my throne. He will be king in my place. I have appointed him to be ruler over Israel and over Judah."
1 Kings 1:36  Benaiah the son of Jehoiada answered the king, "Amen. May the LORD God of my lord the king say so too."
1 Kings 1:37  "As the LORD has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord king David."
1 Kings 1:38  So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down. They put Solomon on king David's mule and brought him to Gihon.
1 Kings 1:39  Zadok the priest took a horn of oil out of the tabernacle and anointed Solomon. They blew the trumpet, and all the people said, "God save king Solomon."
1 Kings 1:40  All the people came up after him. The people played on pipes and were filled with great joy, so that the earth shook with the sound of them.
1 Kings 1:41  Adonijah and all the guests with him heard it as they were finishing their meal. When Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, "Why is there such an uproar in the city?"
1 Kings 1:42  While he was still speaking, Jonathan the son of Abiathar the priest arrived. Adonijah said to him, "Come in, for you are a worthy man, and you bring good news."
1 Kings 1:43  Jonathan answered Adonijah, "No. Our lord king David has made Solomon king."
1 Kings 1:44  "The king has sent with him Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and they have put him on the king's mule."
1 Kings 1:45  "Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon. They have come up from there rejoicing, so that the city rang with the sound. That is the noise you have heard."
1 Kings 1:46  "And what is more, Solomon is sitting on the throne of the kingdom."
1 Kings 1:47  "And the king's servants have come to bless our lord king David. They said, 'May God make the name of Solomon greater than your name, and make his throne greater than your throne.' And the king bowed himself on the bed."
1 Kings 1:48  "And this is what the king said: 'Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who has given someone to sit on my throne today, and has let my own eyes see it.'"
1 Kings 1:49  Then all the guests who were with Adonijah were afraid. They got up, and each man went his own way.
1 Kings 1:50  Adonijah was afraid of Solomon. He got up and went and took hold of the horns of the altar.
1 Kings 1:51  Someone told Solomon, "Look, Adonijah is afraid of king Solomon. He has taken hold of the horns of the altar and says, 'Let king Solomon swear to me today that he will not kill his servant with the sword.'"
1 Kings 1:52  Solomon said, "If he shows himself to be a worthy man, not one hair of his head will fall to the ground. But if wickedness is found in him, he will die."
1 Kings 1:53  So king Solomon sent men, and they brought him down from the altar. He came and bowed down to king Solomon, and Solomon said to him, "Go to your house."

1 Kings 2:1  Now the time drew near when David must die. So he gave this charge to Solomon his son:
1 Kings 2:2  "I am going the way of all the earth. So be strong, and show yourself a man."
1 Kings 2:3  "Keep the charge of the LORD your God. Walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses. Then you will do well in all that you do and wherever you turn."
1 Kings 2:4  "Then the LORD will keep the word he spoke about me. He said, 'If your children watch their way, and walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, you shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'"
1 Kings 2:5  "You also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me. You know what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner and to Amasa the son of Jether. He killed them. He shed the blood of war in time of peace, and he put the blood of war on the belt around his waist and on the shoes on his feet."
1 Kings 2:6  "So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his grey head go down to the grave in peace."
1 Kings 2:7  "But show kindness to the sons of Barzillai the Gileadite. Let them be among those who eat at your table, for they came to me like that when I fled from Absalom your brother."
1 Kings 2:8  "Look, you also have with you Shimei the son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim. He cursed me with a bitter curse on the day I went to Mahanaim. But he came down to meet me at the Jordan, and I swore to him by the LORD, 'I will not put you to death with the sword.'"
1 Kings 2:9  "So now do not treat him as innocent. You are a wise man, and you know what you ought to do to him. Bring his grey head down to the grave with blood."
1 Kings 2:10  So David slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David.
1 Kings 2:11  David reigned over Israel for forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
1 Kings 2:12  Then Solomon sat on the throne of David his father, and his kingdom was firmly established.
1 Kings 2:13  Adonijah the son of Haggith came to Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon. She said, "Do you come in peace?" He said, "In peace."
1 Kings 2:14  Then he said, "I have something to say to you." She said, "Say it."
1 Kings 2:15  He said, "You know that the kingdom was mine, and that all Israel looked to me to be king. But the kingdom has been turned about and has become my brother's, for it was his from the LORD."
1 Kings 2:16  "Now I ask one request of you. Do not refuse me." She said to him, "Say it."
1 Kings 2:17  He said, "Please speak to Solomon the king, for he will not say no to you. Ask him to give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife."
1 Kings 2:18  Bathsheba said, "Very well. I will speak to the king for you."
1 Kings 2:19  So Bathsheba went to king Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king stood up to meet her and bowed to her. Then he sat down on his throne, and had a seat brought for the king's mother, and she sat at his right hand.
1 Kings 2:20  Then she said, "I ask one small request of you. Please do not say no to me." The king said to her, "Ask, my mother, for I will not say no to you."
1 Kings 2:21  She said, "Let Abishag the Shunammite be given to Adonijah your brother as his wife."
1 Kings 2:22  King Solomon answered his mother, "And why do you ask Abishag the Shunammite for Adonijah? Ask the kingdom for him as well, for he is my older brother. Ask it for him, and for Abiathar the priest, and for Joab the son of Zeruiah."
1 Kings 2:23  Then king Solomon swore by the LORD, "May God do so to me, and more also, if Adonijah has not spoken this word against his own life."
1 Kings 2:24  "Now then, as the LORD lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me a house as he promised, Adonijah shall be put to death this day."
1 Kings 2:25  So king Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he fell on him, and he died.
1 Kings 2:26  The king said to Abiathar the priest, "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields. You deserve to die, but I will not put you to death at this time, because you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because you shared in all the suffering of my father."
1 Kings 2:27  So Solomon drove out Abiathar from being priest to the LORD. This fulfilled the word of the LORD which he spoke about the house of Eli in Shiloh.
1 Kings 2:28  Then the news came to Joab. Joab had gone over to Adonijah, though he had not gone over to Absalom. So Joab fled to the tabernacle of the LORD and took hold of the horns of the altar.
1 Kings 2:29  King Solomon was told that Joab had fled to the tabernacle of the LORD, and that he was beside the altar. Then Solomon sent Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, saying, "Go, fall on him."
1 Kings 2:30  Benaiah came to the tabernacle of the LORD and said to him, "This is what the king says: 'Come out.'" He said, "No. I will die here." Benaiah brought word back to the king: "This is what Joab said, and this is how he answered me."
1 Kings 2:31  The king said to him, "Do as he has said. Fall on him and bury him. In this way take away from me, and from my father's house, the innocent blood that Joab shed."
1 Kings 2:32  "The LORD will bring his blood back on his own head. For he fell on two men more righteous and better than himself, and killed them with the sword, and my father David did not know of it: Abner the son of Ner, captain of the army of Israel, and Amasa the son of Jether, captain of the army of Judah."
1 Kings 2:33  "So their blood shall come back on the head of Joab, and on the head of his descendants for ever. But on David, and on his descendants, and on his house, and on his throne, there shall be peace for ever from the LORD."
1 Kings 2:34  So Benaiah the son of Jehoiada went up and fell on him and killed him. He was buried in his own house in the wilderness.
1 Kings 2:35  The king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his place over the army, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar.
1 Kings 2:36  The king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, "Build yourself a house in Jerusalem and live there. Do not go out from there to any place."
1 Kings 2:37  "On the day you go out and cross the brook Kidron, know for certain that you shall surely die. Your blood shall be on your own head."
1 Kings 2:38  Shimei said to the king, "What you say is good. As my lord the king has said, so your servant will do." And Shimei lived in Jerusalem for a long time.
1 Kings 2:39  At the end of three years, two of Shimei's servants ran away to Achish the son of Maachah, king of Gath. Shimei was told, "Look, your servants are in Gath."
1 Kings 2:40  Shimei got up, saddled his donkey, and went to Gath, to Achish, to look for his servants. Shimei went and brought his servants back from Gath.
1 Kings 2:41  Solomon was told that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath and had come back.
1 Kings 2:42  The king sent and called for Shimei and said to him, "Did I not make you swear by the LORD, and warn you, 'Know for certain that on the day you go out and travel anywhere, you shall surely die'? And you said to me, 'What I have heard is good.'"
1 Kings 2:43  "Why then have you not kept the oath of the LORD and the command I gave you?"
1 Kings 2:44  The king also said to Shimei, "You know in your own heart all the evil you did to David my father. So the LORD will bring your evil back on your own head."
1 Kings 2:45  "But king Solomon shall be blessed, and the throne of David shall be established before the LORD for ever."
1 Kings 2:46  So the king commanded Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he went out and fell on him, and he died. And the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.

1 Kings 3:1  Solomon made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt. He took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife and brought her into the city of David. She stayed there until he had finished building his own house, and the house of the LORD, and the wall all around Jerusalem.
1 Kings 3:2  But the people still sacrificed at the high places, because no house had yet been built for the name of the LORD.
1 Kings 3:3  Solomon loved the LORD, and he walked in the statutes of his father David. But he still sacrificed and burned incense at the high places.
1 Kings 3:4  The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
1 Kings 3:5  At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, "Ask what I should give you."
1 Kings 3:6  Solomon said, "You showed great mercy to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in truth, in righteousness, and with an upright heart toward you. You have kept this great kindness for him, and have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today."
1 Kings 3:7  "And now, LORD my God, you have made your servant king instead of my father David. But I am only a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in."
1 Kings 3:8  "Your servant is among your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted."
1 Kings 3:9  "So give your servant an understanding heart to judge your people, so that I can tell the difference between good and bad. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?"
1 Kings 3:10  It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked for this.
1 Kings 3:11  God said to him, "Because you have asked for this, and have not asked for a long life for yourself, or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but have asked for understanding to know what is right when you judge,"
1 Kings 3:12  "look, I have done what you said. I have given you a wise and understanding heart. There has been no one like you before you, and no one like you will rise up after you."
1 Kings 3:13  "I have also given you what you did not ask for: both riches and honour. There will be no king like you all your days."
1 Kings 3:14  "And if you will walk in my ways and keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will make your days long."
1 Kings 3:15  Then Solomon woke up, and it had been a dream. He came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. He offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
1 Kings 3:16  Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
1 Kings 3:17  One woman said, "My lord, this woman and I live in one house. I gave birth to a child while she was in the house."
1 Kings 3:18  "On the third day after I gave birth, this woman also gave birth. We were together. No one else was with us in the house; there were only the two of us."
1 Kings 3:19  "This woman's child died in the night, because she lay on top of it."
1 Kings 3:20  "She got up at midnight and took my son from beside me while your servant slept. She laid him at her breast, and laid her dead child at my breast."
1 Kings 3:21  "When I got up in the morning to nurse my child, look, he was dead. But when I looked at him closely in the morning, look, he was not my son, the one I had borne."
1 Kings 3:22  The other woman said, "No. The living one is my son, and the dead one is your son." And the first said, "No. The dead one is your son, and the living one is my son." So they spoke before the king.
1 Kings 3:23  Then the king said, "One says, 'This is my son who is alive, and your son is the dead one.' And the other says, 'No. Your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'"
1 Kings 3:24  The king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword before the king.
1 Kings 3:25  The king said, "Cut the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other."
1 Kings 3:26  Then the woman whose son was the living child spoke to the king, for her heart ached for her son. She said, "My lord, give her the living child. Do not kill him at all." But the other said, "Let him be neither mine nor yours. Divide him."
1 Kings 3:27  Then the king answered and said, "Give her the living child, and do not kill him at all. She is his mother."
1 Kings 3:28  All Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, and they feared the king. For they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice.

1 Kings 4:1  So King Solomon was king over all Israel.
1 Kings 4:2  These were the chief men he had: Azariah the son of Zadok the priest,
1 Kings 4:3  Elihoreph and Ahiah, the sons of Shisha, were the scribes. Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder.
1 Kings 4:4  Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army. Zadok and Abiathar were the priests.
1 Kings 4:5  Azariah the son of Nathan was over the officers. Zabud the son of Nathan was the chief officer, and the king's friend.
1 Kings 4:6  Ahishar was over the household. Adoniram the son of Abda was over the forced labour.
1 Kings 4:7  Solomon had twelve officers over all Israel. They supplied food for the king and his household. Each man had to provide food for one month in the year.
1 Kings 4:8  These are their names: the son of Hur, in the hill country of Ephraim;
1 Kings 4:9  the son of Dekar, in Makaz, in Shaalbim, in Bethshemesh, and in Elonbethhanan;
1 Kings 4:10  the son of Hesed, in Aruboth; Sochoh and all the land of Hepher belonged to him;
1 Kings 4:11  the son of Abinadab, in all the region of Dor; he had Taphath the daughter of Solomon as his wife;
1 Kings 4:12  Baana the son of Ahilud; Taanach and Megiddo belonged to him, and all Bethshean, which is beside Zartanah below Jezreel, from Bethshean to Abelmeholah, as far as the place beyond Jokneam;
1 Kings 4:13  the son of Geber, in Ramothgilead; the towns of Jair the son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead, belonged to him, and also the region of Argob, which is in Bashan, sixty great cities with walls and bars of bronze;
1 Kings 4:14  Ahinadab the son of Iddo had Mahanaim;
1 Kings 4:15  Ahimaaz was in Naphtali; he also took Basmath the daughter of Solomon as his wife;
1 Kings 4:16  Baanah the son of Hushai was in Asher and in Aloth;
1 Kings 4:17  Jehoshaphat the son of Paruah, in Issachar;
1 Kings 4:18  Shimei the son of Elah, in Benjamin;
1 Kings 4:19  Geber the son of Uri was in the country of Gilead, the country of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. He was the only officer in that land.
1 Kings 4:20  Judah and Israel were many, as many as the sand by the sea. They ate and drank and were glad.
1 Kings 4:21  Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the River to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt. They brought gifts and served Solomon all the days of his life.
1 Kings 4:22  Solomon's food for one day was thirty measures of fine flour and sixty measures of meal,
1 Kings 4:23  ten fat oxen, twenty oxen from the pastures, and a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebucks, and fattened birds.
1 Kings 4:24  For he ruled over all the region on this side of the River, from Tiphsah to Azzah, over all the kings on this side of the River. And he had peace on every side around him.
1 Kings 4:25  Judah and Israel lived safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.
1 Kings 4:26  Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen.
1 Kings 4:27  Those officers supplied food for King Solomon, and for all who came to King Solomon's table, each man in his month. They let nothing be lacking.
1 Kings 4:28  They also brought barley and straw for the horses and swift steeds to the place where the officers were, each man as he was ordered.
1 Kings 4:29  God gave Solomon very great wisdom and understanding, and a mind as wide as the sand on the seashore.
1 Kings 4:30  Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the east, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
1 Kings 4:31  He was wiser than anyone else. He was wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol. His fame spread to all the nations around.
1 Kings 4:32  He spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five.
1 Kings 4:33  He spoke about trees, from the cedar tree in Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall. He also spoke about animals, and birds, and creeping things, and fish.
1 Kings 4:34  People came from every nation to hear the wisdom of Solomon. They came from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

1 Kings 5:1  Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants to Solomon, for he had heard that they had anointed him king in place of his father. Hiram had always been a friend of David.
1 Kings 5:2  And Solomon sent word to Hiram, saying,
1 Kings 5:3  "You know that David my father could not build a house for the name of the LORD his God. He was surrounded by wars on every side, until the LORD put his enemies under the soles of his feet."
1 Kings 5:4  "But now the LORD my God has given me rest on every side. There is no enemy against me, and nothing bad happening."
1 Kings 5:5  "So look, I plan to build a house for the name of the LORD my God, just as the LORD said to David my father: 'Your son, whom I will set on your throne in your place, he shall build a house for my name.'"
1 Kings 5:6  "So now give the command that they cut down cedar trees for me out of Lebanon. My servants will work with your servants, and I will pay you wages for your servants, whatever you decide. For you know there is no one among us who can cut timber as skilfully as the Sidonians."
1 Kings 5:7  When Hiram heard the words of Solomon, he was very glad, and said, "Blessed be the LORD this day, who has given David a wise son to rule over this great people."
1 Kings 5:8  And Hiram sent word to Solomon, saying, "I have thought about the things you sent to me for. I will do all you want about the cedar wood and the fir wood."
1 Kings 5:9  "My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon to the sea, and I will float them by sea in rafts to the place you choose. There I will have them broken apart, and you shall take them away. And you shall do what I want, and give food for my household."
1 Kings 5:10  So Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees, as much as he wanted.
1 Kings 5:11  And Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat as food for his household, and twenty measures of pure oil. This is what Solomon gave to Hiram year by year.
1 Kings 5:12  The LORD gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. There was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them made an agreement together.
1 Kings 5:13  King Solomon called up workers from all Israel, and the number of workers was thirty thousand men.
1 Kings 5:14  He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand a month, in turns. They spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoniram was in charge of the workers.
1 Kings 5:15  Solomon had seventy thousand men who carried loads, and eighty thousand who cut stone in the mountains,
1 Kings 5:16  besides Solomon's chief officers who were over the work, three thousand three hundred of them, who ruled over the people who did the work.
1 Kings 5:17  The king gave the command, and they brought great stones, costly stones, and cut stones, to lay the foundation of the house.
1 Kings 5:18  Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders cut them, and the stonecutters too. So they prepared timber and stones to build the house.

1 Kings 6:1  In the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, he began to build the house of the LORD.
1 Kings 6:2  The house which King Solomon built for the LORD was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high.
1 Kings 6:3  The porch in front of the temple of the house was twenty cubits long, matching the width of the house. It reached ten cubits out in front of the house.
1 Kings 6:4  For the house he made windows with narrow openings.
1 Kings 6:5  Against the wall of the house he built rooms all around, against the walls of the house all around, both of the temple and of the inner room. So he made rooms all around.
1 Kings 6:6  The lowest row of rooms was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide. For on the outside he made ledges set back in the wall of the house all around, so that the beams would not be fastened into the walls of the house.
1 Kings 6:7  While the house was being built, it was built of stone that was made ready before it was brought there. So no hammer or axe or any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built.
1 Kings 6:8  The door for the middle row of rooms was on the right side of the house. They went up by winding stairs into the middle rooms, and from the middle into the third.
1 Kings 6:9  So he built the house and finished it. He covered the house with beams and boards of cedar.
1 Kings 6:10  Then he built the rooms against all the house, five cubits high. They rested on the house with timber of cedar.
1 Kings 6:11  The word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying,
1 Kings 6:12  "About this house which you are building: if you will walk in my laws, and carry out my judgments, and keep all my commandments and walk in them, then I will do for you what I promised to David your father."
1 Kings 6:13  "I will live among the children of Israel, and I will not leave my people Israel."
1 Kings 6:14  So Solomon built the house and finished it.
1 Kings 6:15  He lined the walls of the house on the inside with boards of cedar, both the floor of the house and the walls of the ceiling. He covered them on the inside with wood, and he covered the floor of the house with planks of fir.
1 Kings 6:16  He built off twenty cubits at the far end of the house, both the floor and the walls, with boards of cedar. He built it inside for the inner room, that is, for the most holy place.
1 Kings 6:17  The house, that is, the temple in front of it, was forty cubits long.
1 Kings 6:18  The cedar inside the house was carved with knobs and open flowers. It was all cedar; no stone could be seen.
1 Kings 6:19  He made ready the inner room inside the house, to set there the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
1 Kings 6:20  The inner room in front was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty cubits high. He covered it with pure gold, and he covered the altar, which was of cedar.
1 Kings 6:21  So Solomon covered the inside of the house with pure gold. He made a screen with chains of gold in front of the inner room, and he covered it with gold.
1 Kings 6:22  He covered the whole house with gold, until he had finished all the house. He also covered with gold the whole altar that was by the inner room.
1 Kings 6:23  Inside the inner room he made two cherubim of olive wood, each ten cubits high.
1 Kings 6:24  One wing of the cherub was five cubits, and the other wing of the cherub was five cubits. From the tip of one wing to the tip of the other was ten cubits.
1 Kings 6:25  The other cherub was ten cubits too. Both the cherubim were of one measure and one size.
1 Kings 6:26  The height of the one cherub was ten cubits, and so was that of the other cherub.
1 Kings 6:27  He set the cherubim inside the inner house. Their wings were stretched out, so that the wing of the one touched the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub touched the other wall. Their wings touched one another in the middle of the house.
1 Kings 6:28  He covered the cherubim with gold.
1 Kings 6:29  He carved all the walls of the house all around with carved figures of cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, both inside and outside.
1 Kings 6:30  He covered the floor of the house with gold, both inside and outside.
1 Kings 6:31  For the entrance of the inner room he made doors of olive wood. The beam above and the side posts were a fifth part of the wall.
1 Kings 6:32  The two doors were of olive wood too. On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he covered them with gold. He spread gold over the cherubim and over the palm trees.
1 Kings 6:33  In the same way he made posts of olive wood for the door of the temple, a fourth part of the wall.
1 Kings 6:34  The two doors were of fir wood. The two leaves of the one door folded, and the two leaves of the other door folded.
1 Kings 6:35  On them he carved cherubim and palm trees and open flowers, and he covered them with gold, fitted onto the carved work.
1 Kings 6:36  He built the inner court with three rows of cut stone and a row of cedar beams.
1 Kings 6:37  In the fourth year the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid, in the month Zif.
1 Kings 6:38  In the eleventh year, in the month Bul, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its parts and just as it was planned. So he was seven years building it.

1 Kings 7:1  But Solomon was thirteen years building his own house, and he finished all of it.
1 Kings 7:2  He also built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. It was a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high. It stood on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams resting on the pillars.
1 Kings 7:3  It was roofed with cedar above the beams, which lay on forty-five pillars, fifteen in a row.
1 Kings 7:4  There were windows in three rows, and window faced window in three ranks.
1 Kings 7:5  All the doors and door posts were square, with the windows. And window faced window in three ranks.
1 Kings 7:6  He made a porch of pillars. It was fifty cubits long and thirty cubits wide. The porch was in front of them, and the other pillars and the thick beam were in front of them.
1 Kings 7:7  Then he made a porch for the throne where he would judge, the porch of judgment. It was covered with cedar from one side of the floor to the other.
1 Kings 7:8  His own house, where he lived, had another court inside the porch, made in the same way. Solomon also made a house like this porch for Pharaoh's daughter, whom he had married.
1 Kings 7:9  All these were made of costly stones, cut to measure, sawed with saws inside and outside, from the foundation up to the coping, and so also on the outside toward the great court.
1 Kings 7:10  The foundation was of costly stones, great stones: stones of ten cubits and stones of eight cubits.
1 Kings 7:11  Above them were costly stones, cut to measure, and cedar wood.
1 Kings 7:12  The great court all around had three rows of cut stones and a row of cedar beams. So also did the inner court of the house of the LORD, and the porch of the house.
1 Kings 7:13  King Solomon sent and brought Hiram from Tyre.
1 Kings 7:14  He was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass. He was filled with wisdom, understanding and skill to do any work in brass. He came to King Solomon and did all his work.
1 Kings 7:15  He cast two pillars of brass, each eighteen cubits high. A line of twelve cubits went around each of them.
1 Kings 7:16  He made two capitals of cast brass to set on the tops of the pillars. One capital was five cubits high, and the other capital was five cubits high.
1 Kings 7:17  He made nets of checker work and wreaths of chain work for the capitals on the top of the pillars: seven for the one capital and seven for the other capital.
1 Kings 7:18  He made the pillars, and two rows all around on the one network, to cover the capitals that were on the top, with pomegranates. He did the same for the other capital.
1 Kings 7:19  The capitals on the top of the pillars in the porch were lily work, four cubits.
1 Kings 7:20  The capitals on the two pillars also had pomegranates above, close to the rounded part beside the network. There were two hundred pomegranates in rows all around on the other capital.
1 Kings 7:21  He set up the pillars in the porch of the temple. He set up the right pillar and called it Jachin, and he set up the left pillar and called it Boaz.
1 Kings 7:22  On the top of the pillars was lily work. So the work of the pillars was finished.
1 Kings 7:23  He made a cast metal sea, ten cubits from one brim to the other. It was round all about, and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits went around it.
1 Kings 7:24  Under its brim, all around it, were knops, ten to a cubit, going all around the sea. The knops were cast in two rows when the sea was cast.
1 Kings 7:25  It stood on twelve oxen: three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, and three facing east. The sea was set on top of them, and all their hind parts faced inward.
1 Kings 7:26  It was a hand's breadth thick, and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like the flower of a lily. It held two thousand baths.
1 Kings 7:27  He made ten bases of brass. Each base was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three cubits high.
1 Kings 7:28  The bases were made in this way: they had panels, and the panels were set between the ledges.
1 Kings 7:29  On the panels between the ledges were lions, oxen and cherubim. On the ledges there was a base above, and below the lions and oxen were wreaths of hammered work.
1 Kings 7:30  Every base had four brass wheels and plates of brass. Its four corners had supports, and under the laver were cast supports, beside each wreath.
1 Kings 7:31  Its opening, inside the capital and above it, was a cubit. The opening was round, made like a base, a cubit and a half. On the opening also there were carvings with their panels, square, not round.
1 Kings 7:32  Under the panels were four wheels, and the axles of the wheels were joined to the base. Each wheel was a cubit and a half high.
1 Kings 7:33  The wheels were made like a chariot wheel. Their axles, their hubs, their rims and their spokes were all cast metal.
1 Kings 7:34  There were four supports at the four corners of each base, and the supports were part of the base itself.
1 Kings 7:35  At the top of the base there was a round band half a cubit high. At the top of the base, its ledges and its panels were all of one piece with it.
1 Kings 7:36  On the plates of its ledges and on its panels he carved cherubim, lions and palm trees, as much as there was room for each, with wreaths all around.
1 Kings 7:37  In this way he made the ten bases. All of them were cast alike, of one measure and one size.
1 Kings 7:38  Then he made ten lavers of brass. Each laver held forty baths, and each laver was four cubits across. There was one laver on each of the ten bases.
1 Kings 7:39  He put five bases on the right side of the house and five on the left side of the house. He set the sea on the right side of the house, toward the east, opposite the south.
1 Kings 7:40  Hiram made the lavers, the shovels and the basins. So Hiram finished all the work that he did for King Solomon for the house of the LORD:
1 Kings 7:41  the two pillars; the two bowls of the capitals that were on the top of the two pillars; the two networks to cover the two bowls of the capitals on the top of the pillars;
1 Kings 7:42  the four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowls of the capitals on the pillars;
1 Kings 7:43  the ten bases, and the ten lavers on the bases;
1 Kings 7:44  the one sea, and the twelve oxen under the sea;
1 Kings 7:45  the pots, the shovels and the basins. All these vessels, which Hiram made for King Solomon for the house of the LORD, were of polished brass.
1 Kings 7:46  The king cast them in the plain of Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zarthan.
1 Kings 7:47  Solomon left all the vessels unweighed, because there were so very many. The weight of the brass was never found out.
1 Kings 7:48  Solomon made all the vessels that belonged to the house of the LORD: the altar of gold; the table of gold, where the showbread was;
1 Kings 7:49  the lampstands of pure gold, five on the right side and five on the left, in front of the inner room; and the flowers, the lamps and the tongs of gold;
1 Kings 7:50  the bowls, the snuffers, the basins, the spoons and the censers of pure gold; and the hinges of gold, both for the doors of the inner house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the house, that is, of the temple.
1 Kings 7:51  So all the work that King Solomon did for the house of the LORD was finished. Then Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated: the silver, the gold and the vessels. He put them among the treasures of the house of the LORD.

1 Kings 8:1  Then Solomon gathered the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief men of the families of the children of Israel, to king Solomon in Jerusalem. They were to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
1 Kings 8:2  All the men of Israel gathered to king Solomon at the feast in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month.
1 Kings 8:3  All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark.
1 Kings 8:4  They brought up the ark of the LORD, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up.
1 Kings 8:5  King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who had gathered to him were with him in front of the ark. They sacrificed sheep and oxen, so many that they could not be counted or numbered.
1 Kings 8:6  The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD into its place, into the inner room of the house, the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim.
1 Kings 8:7  For the cherubim spread out their two wings over the place of the ark. The cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.
1 Kings 8:8  They drew the poles out so far that the ends of the poles could be seen from the holy place in front of the inner room, but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day.
1 Kings 8:9  There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel after they came out of the land of Egypt.
1 Kings 8:10  When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
1 Kings 8:11  so that the priests could not stand to do their work because of the cloud. For the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
1 Kings 8:12  Then Solomon said, "The LORD said that he would live in the thick darkness."
1 Kings 8:13  "I have surely built you a house to live in, a settled place for you to stay in for ever."
1 Kings 8:14  The king turned round and blessed all the congregation of Israel. All the congregation of Israel was standing.
1 Kings 8:15  He said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel. With his mouth he spoke to my father David, and with his hand he has fulfilled it. He said,"
1 Kings 8:16  "'Since the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel in which to build a house, so that my name might be there. But I chose David to be over my people Israel.'"
1 Kings 8:17  "My father David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel."
1 Kings 8:18  "But the LORD said to my father David, 'You had it in your heart to build a house for my name. You did well to have that in your heart."
1 Kings 8:19  "'Even so, you shall not build the house. Your son, who shall come from your own body, he shall build the house for my name.'"
1 Kings 8:20  "The LORD has kept the word he spoke. I have risen up in the place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. I have built a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel."
1 Kings 8:21  "There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with our fathers when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."
1 Kings 8:22  Solomon stood in front of the altar of the LORD, before all the congregation of Israel, and spread out his hands towards heaven.
1 Kings 8:23  He said, "LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth below. You keep covenant and mercy with your servants who walk before you with all their heart."
1 Kings 8:24  "You have kept what you promised to your servant David my father. You spoke it with your mouth, and you have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today."
1 Kings 8:25  "So now, LORD God of Israel, keep what you promised to your servant David my father, when you said, 'You shall never fail to have a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take care how they live, and walk before me as you have walked before me.'"
1 Kings 8:26  "And now, O God of Israel, let your word come true, I pray, the word you spoke to your servant David my father."
1 Kings 8:27  "But will God really live on the earth? Look, the heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this house that I have built?"
1 Kings 8:28  "Yet pay attention to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God. Listen to the cry and the prayer that your servant prays before you today."
1 Kings 8:29  "May your eyes be open towards this house night and day, towards the place of which you said, 'My name shall be there.' Listen to the prayer that your servant prays towards this place."
1 Kings 8:30  "Listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray towards this place. Hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive."
1 Kings 8:31  "If anyone sins against his neighbour, and an oath is laid on him to make him swear, and he comes to swear the oath before your altar in this house,"
1 Kings 8:32  "then hear in heaven, and act, and judge your servants. Condemn the wicked man, and bring what he has done back on his own head. Declare the righteous man right, and give to him according to his righteousness."
1 Kings 8:33  "When your people Israel are struck down by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and then they turn back to you, and confess your name, and pray and plead with you in this house,"
1 Kings 8:34  "then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave to their fathers."
1 Kings 8:35  "When the sky is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray towards this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin when you afflict them,"
1 Kings 8:36  "then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel. Teach them the good way in which they should walk, and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people as their inheritance."
1 Kings 8:37  "If there is famine in the land, or plague, or blight, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;"
1 Kings 8:38  "whatever prayer or plea is made by any one person, or by all your people Israel, each one knowing the plague of his own heart, and spreading out his hands towards this house,"
1 Kings 8:39  "then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and act. Give to every man according to all he does, for you know his heart. You, and you only, know the hearts of all people."
1 Kings 8:40  "Then they will fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers."
1 Kings 8:41  "And as for a stranger, who is not of your people Israel, but comes from a far country for your name's sake -"
1 Kings 8:42  "for they shall hear of your great name, and of your strong hand, and of your outstretched arm - when he comes and prays towards this house,"
1 Kings 8:43  "hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do everything that the stranger asks of you. Then all the peoples of the earth will know your name and fear you, as your people Israel do, and they will know that this house which I have built is called by your name."
1 Kings 8:44  "If your people go out to battle against their enemy, wherever you send them, and they pray to the LORD towards the city which you have chosen, and towards the house that I have built for your name,"
1 Kings 8:45  "then hear in heaven their prayer and their plea, and uphold their cause."
1 Kings 8:46  "If they sin against you - for there is no one who does not sin - and you are angry with them, and give them up to the enemy, so that their captors carry them away to the land of the enemy, far off or near;"
1 Kings 8:47  "yet if they come to their senses in the land where they were carried away captive, and repent, and plead with you in the land of those who took them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done wrong, we have acted wickedly';"
1 Kings 8:48  "and so return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies who led them away captive, and pray to you towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, and towards the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name,"
1 Kings 8:49  "then hear their prayer and their plea in heaven, your dwelling place, and uphold their cause."
1 Kings 8:50  "Forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all the wrongs they have done against you. Make those who took them captive pity them, so that they show them compassion."
1 Kings 8:51  "For they are your people and your inheritance, whom you brought out of Egypt, out of the middle of the iron furnace."
1 Kings 8:52  "May your eyes be open to the plea of your servant, and to the plea of your people Israel, and may you listen to them whenever they call to you."
1 Kings 8:53  "For you set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your inheritance, as you said through Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, O Lord GOD."
1 Kings 8:54  When Solomon had finished praying all this prayer and plea to the LORD, he got up from in front of the altar of the LORD, where he had been kneeling with his hands spread up to heaven.
1 Kings 8:55  He stood, and blessed all the congregation of Israel with a loud voice. He said,
1 Kings 8:56  "Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel, just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he made through Moses his servant."
1 Kings 8:57  "May the LORD our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us."
1 Kings 8:58  "May he turn our hearts to himself, so that we walk in all his ways, and keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers."
1 Kings 8:59  "And may these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the LORD, be near to the LORD our God day and night, so that he upholds the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, at all times, as each day needs."
1 Kings 8:60  "Then all the peoples of the earth will know that the LORD is God, and that there is no other."
1 Kings 8:61  "So let your heart be perfect with the LORD our God, to walk in his statutes and to keep his commandments, as you do today."
1 Kings 8:62  The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifices before the LORD.
1 Kings 8:63  Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD: twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of the LORD.
1 Kings 8:64  That same day the king made holy the middle of the court in front of the house of the LORD. There he offered burnt offerings, and food offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings. He did this because the bronze altar that stood before the LORD was too small to hold the burnt offerings, the food offerings, and the fat of the peace offerings.
1 Kings 8:65  At that time Solomon held a feast, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the river of Egypt, before the LORD our God, seven days and seven days, that is, fourteen days.
1 Kings 8:66  On the eighth day he sent the people away. They blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad in heart for all the goodness that the LORD had done for David his servant, and for Israel his people.

1 Kings 9:1  When Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and everything else he wanted to build,
1 Kings 9:2  the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
1 Kings 9:3  The LORD said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your plea that you made before me. I have made this house holy, the house you have built, to put my name there for ever. My eyes and my heart will be there always."
1 Kings 9:4  "And if you walk before me as David your father walked, with an honest heart and doing what is right, and if you do everything I have commanded you and keep my laws and my rules,"
1 Kings 9:5  "then I will make the throne of your kingdom over Israel last for ever, as I promised David your father. I said, 'You shall never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'"
1 Kings 9:6  "But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my laws which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,"
1 Kings 9:7  "then I will cut Israel off from the land I have given them. And this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will throw out of my sight. Israel will become a proverb and a word of scorn among all peoples."
1 Kings 9:8  "And this house, which is high, will shock everyone who passes by it, and they will hiss. They will say, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'"
1 Kings 9:9  "And they will answer, 'Because they left the LORD their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and they took hold of other gods, and worshipped them and served them. That is why the LORD has brought all this evil on them.'"
1 Kings 9:10  At the end of twenty years, Solomon had built the two houses, the house of the LORD and the king's house.
1 Kings 9:11  Hiram king of Tyre had supplied Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, as much as he wanted. So then King Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee.
1 Kings 9:12  Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities Solomon had given him, and he was not pleased with them.
1 Kings 9:13  He said, "What cities are these which you have given me, my brother?" And he called them the land of Cabul, as they are called to this day.
1 Kings 9:14  And Hiram sent the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold.
1 Kings 9:15  This is the account of the forced labour that King Solomon raised: it was to build the house of the LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.
1 Kings 9:16  Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up and taken Gezer. He had burned it with fire and killed the Canaanites who lived in the city, and he had given it as a wedding gift to his daughter, Solomon's wife.
1 Kings 9:17  So Solomon built Gezer, and Lower Bethhoron,
1 Kings 9:18  and Baalath, and Tadmor in the wilderness, in the land,
1 Kings 9:19  and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and whatever Solomon wanted to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land he ruled.
1 Kings 9:20  There were people still left from the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel.
1 Kings 9:21  Their children were left after them in the land, because the children of Israel had not been able to destroy them completely. Solomon made these people slaves to do forced labour, as they do to this day.
1 Kings 9:22  But Solomon made no slaves of the children of Israel. They were his soldiers, his servants, his princes, his captains, and the commanders of his chariots and his horsemen.
1 Kings 9:23  These were the chief officers over Solomon's work: five hundred and fifty of them, who ruled over the people who did the work.
1 Kings 9:24  Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David to her house, which Solomon had built for her. Then he built Millo.
1 Kings 9:25  Three times a year Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built for the LORD, and he burned incense on the altar that was before the LORD. So he finished the house.
1 Kings 9:26  King Solomon made a fleet of ships at Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom.
1 Kings 9:27  And Hiram sent his servants with the fleet, sailors who knew the sea, to work with the servants of Solomon.
1 Kings 9:28  They came to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and brought it to King Solomon.

1 Kings 10:1  The queen of Sheba heard how famous Solomon was, and how this was linked to the name of the LORD. So she came to test him with hard questions.
1 Kings 10:2  She came to Jerusalem with a very large group of attendants, and with camels carrying spices, a great deal of gold, and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she talked with him about everything that was on her mind.
1 Kings 10:3  Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing was too hidden for the king to explain to her.
1 Kings 10:4  The queen of Sheba saw all Solomon's wisdom, and the house he had built,
1 Kings 10:5  and the food on his table, and how his servants were seated, and how his officials waited on him, and their clothing, and his cupbearers, and the stairway by which he went up to the house of the LORD. There was no more spirit left in her.
1 Kings 10:6  She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own land about your deeds and your wisdom was true."
1 Kings 10:7  But I did not believe the words until I came and saw it with my own eyes. Look, I was not told even half of it. Your wisdom and wealth are greater than the report I heard.
1 Kings 10:8  Happy are your men. Happy are these servants of yours, who stand before you all the time and hear your wisdom.
1 Kings 10:9  "Blessed be the LORD your God, who was pleased with you and set you on the throne of Israel. Because the LORD loved Israel for ever, he made you king, to do what is right and just."
1 Kings 10:10  She gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, and a very great store of spices, and precious stones. Never again did such a great quantity of spices come as the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.
1 Kings 10:11  Hiram's ships, which brought gold from Ophir, also brought from Ophir a great load of almug wood and precious stones.
1 Kings 10:12  From the almug wood the king made pillars for the house of the LORD and for the king's house, and also harps and lyres for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen since, to this day.
1 Kings 10:13  King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she desired, whatever she asked, besides what he gave her out of his royal riches. Then she turned and went back to her own country, she and her servants.
1 Kings 10:14  The weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents,
1 Kings 10:15  besides what he received from the traders, and from the business of the spice merchants, and from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country.
1 Kings 10:16  King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold. Six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield.
1 Kings 10:17  He made three hundred smaller shields of hammered gold. Three pounds of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the house of the forest of Lebanon.
1 Kings 10:18  The king also made a great throne of ivory and covered it with the best gold.
1 Kings 10:19  The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round at the back. There were armrests on each side of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests.
1 Kings 10:20  Twelve lions stood there on the six steps, one at each end of every step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any kingdom.
1 Kings 10:21  All king Solomon's drinking cups were of gold, and all the vessels in the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold. None were of silver, for silver counted for nothing in the days of Solomon.
1 Kings 10:22  The king had a fleet of ships of Tharshish at sea along with Hiram's fleet. Once every three years the fleet of Tharshish came in, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.
1 Kings 10:23  So king Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.
1 Kings 10:24  All the earth wanted to come to Solomon and hear the wisdom that God had put in his heart.
1 Kings 10:25  Each one brought his gift: vessels of silver, vessels of gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses and mules. This went on year after year.
1 Kings 10:26  Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. He had a thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.
1 Kings 10:27  The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as the sycomore trees in the valley.
1 Kings 10:28  Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn. The king's merchants bought the linen yarn at a price.
1 Kings 10:29  A chariot was brought up out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. In the same way they brought them out, through these merchants, for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria.

1 Kings 11:1  But king Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as Pharaoh's daughter: women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites.
1 Kings 11:2  They were from the nations about which the LORD had said to the children of Israel, "You shall not go in to them, and they shall not come in to you. They will surely turn your heart away after their gods." Solomon held on to these women in love.
1 Kings 11:3  He had seven hundred wives, who were princesses, and three hundred concubines. And his wives turned his heart away.
1 Kings 11:4  When Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods. His heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
1 Kings 11:5  For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
1 Kings 11:6  Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not follow the LORD fully, as David his father had done.
1 Kings 11:7  Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is in front of Jerusalem, and one for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon.
1 Kings 11:8  He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.
1 Kings 11:9  The LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the LORD God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,
1 Kings 11:10  and had commanded him about this very thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded.
1 Kings 11:11  So the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept my covenant and my laws, which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant."
1 Kings 11:12  "But I will not do it in your days, for the sake of David your father. I will tear it out of the hand of your son."
1 Kings 11:13  "Yet I will not tear away all the kingdom. I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen."
1 Kings 11:14  Then the LORD stirred up an enemy against Solomon: Hadad the Edomite. He was of the king's family in Edom.
1 Kings 11:15  For when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army had gone up to bury the dead, after he had killed every male in Edom
1 Kings 11:16  (for Joab stayed there six months with all Israel, until he had cut off every male in Edom),
1 Kings 11:17  Hadad fled to go into Egypt, and with him some Edomites who had served his father. Hadad was still a little child.
1 Kings 11:18  They set out from Midian and came to Paran. They took men with them out of Paran, and they came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt. He gave Hadad a house, provided him with food, and gave him land.
1 Kings 11:19  Hadad found great favour in the sight of Pharaoh, so that Pharaoh gave him as his wife the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.
1 Kings 11:20  The sister of Tahpenes bore him his son Genubath, whom Tahpenes weaned in Pharaoh's house. Genubath lived in Pharaoh's household among the sons of Pharaoh.
1 Kings 11:21  When Hadad heard in Egypt that David had gone to rest with his fathers, and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, "Let me go, so that I may return to my own country."
1 Kings 11:22  Then Pharaoh said to him, "But what have you lacked with me, that now you want to go to your own country?" He answered, "Nothing. But let me go all the same."
1 Kings 11:23  God also stirred up another enemy against him: Rezon the son of Eliadah, who had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah.
1 Kings 11:24  He gathered men to himself and became captain over a band of raiders, when David killed the men of Zobah. They went to Damascus, and lived there, and ruled in Damascus.
1 Kings 11:25  He was an enemy to Israel all the days of Solomon, as well as the harm that Hadad did. He hated Israel, and he reigned over Syria.
1 Kings 11:26  Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, was Solomon's servant. His mother's name was Zeruah, a widow. He too lifted up his hand against the king.
1 Kings 11:27  This was the reason he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the broken places in the wall of the city of David his father.
1 Kings 11:28  Jeroboam was a strong and able man. When Solomon saw that the young man was hard-working, he put him in charge of all the labour of the house of Joseph.
1 Kings 11:29  At that time Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road. Ahijah had put on a new coat, and the two of them were alone in the field.
1 Kings 11:30  Ahijah took hold of the new coat that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces.
1 Kings 11:31  He said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself. For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Look, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give ten tribes to you."
1 Kings 11:32  "'(But he shall have one tribe, for the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.)"
1 Kings 11:33  "'This is because they have left me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon. They have not walked in my ways, or done what is right in my eyes, or kept my laws and my judgements, as David his father did."
1 Kings 11:34  "'Yet I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand. I will keep him as ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my laws."
1 Kings 11:35  "'But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand, and will give it to you, that is, ten tribes."
1 Kings 11:36  "'And to his son I will give one tribe, so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself, to put my name there."
1 Kings 11:37  "'I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel."
1 Kings 11:38  "'And this is what will happen: if you listen to all that I command you, and walk in my ways, and do what is right in my sight, keeping my laws and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with you. I will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you."
1 Kings 11:39  "'For this I will bring trouble on the seed of David, but not for ever.'"
1 Kings 11:40  So Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam got up and fled into Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and he stayed in Egypt until the death of Solomon.
1 Kings 11:41  The rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?
1 Kings 11:42  The time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.
1 Kings 11:43  Then Solomon went to rest with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

1 Kings 12:1  Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
1 Kings 12:2  Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about it. He was still in Egypt, for he had run away from king Solomon, and Jeroboam was living in Egypt.
1 Kings 12:3  They sent for him and called him. So Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam. They said,
1 Kings 12:4  "Your father made our yoke hard to bear. So now make the hard work your father gave us lighter, and lift the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."
1 Kings 12:5  He said to them, "Go away for three days, then come back to me." So the people went away.
1 Kings 12:6  King Rehoboam asked advice from the old men who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. He said, "What do you advise? How shall I answer these people?"
1 Kings 12:7  They said to him, "If today you will be a servant to these people, and serve them, and answer them, and speak kind words to them, then they will be your servants for ever."
1 Kings 12:8  But he turned away from the advice the old men had given him. He asked advice from the young men who had grown up with him and who served him.
1 Kings 12:9  He said to them, "What advice do you give? How shall we answer these people who said to me, 'Make the yoke your father put on us lighter'?"
1 Kings 12:10  The young men who had grown up with him said to him, "This is what you should say to these people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us.' This is what you should say to them: 'My little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist."
1 Kings 12:11  "'My father loaded you with a heavy yoke, but I will make your yoke heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.'"
1 Kings 12:12  So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had told them: "Come back to me on the third day."
1 Kings 12:13  The king answered the people harshly. He turned away from the advice the old men had given him,
1 Kings 12:14  and spoke to them as the young men had advised. He said, "My father made your yoke heavy, and I will make your yoke heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions."
1 Kings 12:15  So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of things came from the LORD. In this way he carried out the word the LORD had spoken through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
1 Kings 12:16  When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king: "What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel. Now look after your own house, David." So Israel went away to their tents.
1 Kings 12:17  But Rehoboam still ruled over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah.
1 Kings 12:18  Then king Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labour. All Israel threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam hurried to get into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.
1 Kings 12:19  So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
1 Kings 12:20  When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent and called him to the assembly, and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah only.
1 Kings 12:21  When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen fighting men, to make war against the house of Israel and bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
1 Kings 12:22  But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God. It said,
1 Kings 12:23  "Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people. Say to them,"
1 Kings 12:24  "This is what the LORD says: You shall not go up or fight against your brothers, the people of Israel. Let every man go back to his house, for this thing is from me." So they listened to the word of the LORD and turned back and went home, as the LORD had said.
1 Kings 12:25  Then Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. He went out from there and built Penuel.
1 Kings 12:26  Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will go back to the house of David."
1 Kings 12:27  "If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah."
1 Kings 12:28  So the king took advice, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, "It is too far for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
1 Kings 12:29  He set one of them in Bethel, and put the other in Dan.
1 Kings 12:30  This thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even as far as Dan.
1 Kings 12:31  He made a house of high places, and made priests from among ordinary people, who were not sons of Levi.
1 Kings 12:32  Jeroboam appointed a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. In Bethel he also set up the priests of the high places he had made.
1 Kings 12:33  So he offered sacrifices on the altar he had made in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he had chosen out of his own heart. He appointed a feast for the people of Israel, and he offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.

1 Kings 13:1  Look, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD. Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.
1 Kings 13:2  The man called out against the altar by the word of the LORD. He said, "Altar, altar, this is what the LORD says: Look, a child will be born to the house of David, and his name will be Josiah. He will offer up on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men's bones will be burned on you."
1 Kings 13:3  That same day he gave a sign. He said, "This is the sign the LORD has spoken: Look, the altar will be split apart, and the ashes on it will be poured out."
1 Kings 13:4  When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God said, calling out against the altar in Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Seize him." But the hand he stretched out against him dried up, and he could not pull it back again.
1 Kings 13:5  The altar was also split apart, and the ashes were poured out from the altar. This happened just as the sign the man of God had given by the word of the LORD.
1 Kings 13:6  Then the king said to the man of God, "Please plead with the LORD your God, and pray for me, so that my hand may be made well again." So the man of God prayed to the LORD, and the king's hand was made well again and became as it was before.
1 Kings 13:7  The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and have some food, and I will give you a reward."
1 Kings 13:8  But the man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half your house, I would not go in with you. I will not eat bread or drink water in this place."
1 Kings 13:9  "For this is what I was commanded by the word of the LORD: 'Eat no bread, drink no water, and do not go back by the same way you came.'"
1 Kings 13:10  So he went another way, and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
1 Kings 13:11  Now an old prophet lived in Bethel. His sons came and told him everything the man of God had done that day in Bethel. They also told their father the words he had spoken to the king.
1 Kings 13:12  Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" His sons had seen which way the man of God who came from Judah had gone.
1 Kings 13:13  He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him, and he rode on it.
1 Kings 13:14  He went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I am."
1 Kings 13:15  Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread."
1 Kings 13:16  He said, "I cannot go back with you or go in with you. I will not eat bread or drink water with you in this place."
1 Kings 13:17  "For it was said to me by the word of the LORD, 'You shall eat no bread and drink no water there, and you shall not go back by the way you came.'"
1 Kings 13:18  He said to him, "I am a prophet too, just as you are. An angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD and said, 'Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.'" But he was lying to him.
1 Kings 13:19  So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.
1 Kings 13:20  While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back.
1 Kings 13:21  He called out to the man of God who had come from Judah, "This is what the LORD says: Because you have disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you,"
1 Kings 13:22  "but came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he said to you, 'Eat no bread and drink no water,' your body will not come to the tomb of your fathers."
1 Kings 13:23  After he had eaten bread and had drunk, the prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.
1 Kings 13:24  When he had gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown down on the road, and the donkey stood beside it, and the lion also stood beside the body.
1 Kings 13:25  Look, some men passed by and saw the body thrown down on the road, with the lion standing beside the body. They came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.
1 Kings 13:26  When the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard about it, he said, "It is the man of God, who disobeyed the word of the LORD. So the LORD has handed him over to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, just as the word of the LORD said to him."
1 Kings 13:27  He spoke to his sons and said, "Saddle the donkey for me." And they saddled it.
1 Kings 13:28  He went and found his body thrown down on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or torn the donkey.
1 Kings 13:29  The prophet lifted up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came to the city to mourn for him and to bury him.
1 Kings 13:30  He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him and said, "Alas, my brother."
1 Kings 13:31  After he had buried him, he spoke to his sons and said, "When I am dead, bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones."
1 Kings 13:32  "For the message he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria, will surely come true."
1 Kings 13:33  After this Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way. He again made priests of the high places from among the lowest of the people. Anyone who wanted it, he set apart, and that man became one of the priests of the high places.
1 Kings 13:34  This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, to cut it off and destroy it from the face of the earth.

1 Kings 14:1  At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick.
1 Kings 14:2  Jeroboam said to his wife, "Get up, please, and dress yourself so that no one will know you are the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Look, Ahijah the prophet is there. He is the one who told me that I would be king over this people."
1 Kings 14:3  "Take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the child."
1 Kings 14:4  Jeroboam's wife did so. She got up and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were fixed because he was old.
1 Kings 14:5  The LORD said to Ahijah, "Look, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask you about her son, for he is sick. Say this and this to her. When she comes in, she will pretend to be another woman."
1 Kings 14:6  So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another woman? I have been sent to you with heavy news."
1 Kings 14:7  "Go, tell Jeroboam, 'This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I lifted you up from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel."
1 Kings 14:8  "'I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes."
1 Kings 14:9  "'Instead you have done more evil than all who were before you. You have gone and made other gods for yourself, and metal images, to make me angry, and you have thrown me behind your back."
1 Kings 14:10  "'So look, I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every male who urinates against the wall, and him who is shut up and left in Israel. I will sweep away what is left of the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung until it is all gone."
1 Kings 14:11  "'Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. Anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the air will eat. For the LORD has spoken it.'"
1 Kings 14:12  "So get up and go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child will die."
1 Kings 14:13  "All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone of Jeroboam's family will come to a grave, because in him something good toward the LORD God of Israel was found in the house of Jeroboam."
1 Kings 14:14  "What is more, the LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam on that day. But what? Even now."
1 Kings 14:15  "For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will pull Israel up by the roots out of this good land that he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their groves and made the LORD angry."
1 Kings 14:16  "He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and made Israel sin."
1 Kings 14:17  Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left, and came to Tirzah. As she reached the threshold of the door, the child died.
1 Kings 14:18  They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him. This was according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke through his servant Ahijah the prophet.
1 Kings 14:19  The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1 Kings 14:20  Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years. Then he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
1 Kings 14:21  Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.
1 Kings 14:22  Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD. They stirred him to jealousy with the sins they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.
1 Kings 14:23  For they too built themselves high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill and under every green tree.
1 Kings 14:24  There were also sodomites in the land. They did all the disgusting things of the nations which the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel.
1 Kings 14:25  In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
1 Kings 14:26  He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house. He took it all away, and he took all the shields of gold that Solomon had made.
1 Kings 14:27  King Rehoboam made shields of brass in their place, and put them in the care of the chiefs of the guard who watched the door of the king's house.
1 Kings 14:28  Whenever the king went into the house of the LORD, the guards carried the shields, and then brought them back into the guard room.
1 Kings 14:29  The rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
1 Kings 14:30  There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
1 Kings 14:31  Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. And Abijam his son reigned in his place.

1 Kings 15:1  In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah.
1 Kings 15:2  He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.
1 Kings 15:3  He lived in all the sins his father had done before him. His heart was not fully true to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his forefather had been.
1 Kings 15:4  But for David's sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem. He raised up his son after him, and kept Jerusalem standing.
1 Kings 15:5  For David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD. He did not turn aside from anything the LORD commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
1 Kings 15:6  There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.
1 Kings 15:7  The rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
1 Kings 15:8  Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place.
1 Kings 15:9  In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah.
1 Kings 15:10  He ruled for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom.
1 Kings 15:11  Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as David his forefather had done.
1 Kings 15:12  He drove the male prostitutes out of the land, and took away all the idols his fathers had made.
1 Kings 15:13  He even removed his mother Maachah from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove. Asa cut down her idol and burned it by the brook Kidron.
1 Kings 15:14  But the high places were not taken away. Still, Asa's heart was fully true to the LORD all his days.
1 Kings 15:15  He brought into the house of the LORD the things his father had set apart, and the things he himself had set apart: silver, and gold, and vessels.
1 Kings 15:16  There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
1 Kings 15:17  Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built up Ramah, so that he would not let anyone go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
1 Kings 15:18  Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasuries of the house of the LORD, and the treasuries of the king's house, and handed them to his servants. King Asa sent them to Benhadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived at Damascus. He said,
1 Kings 15:19  "There is a treaty between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Come and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will go away and leave me alone."
1 Kings 15:20  Benhadad listened to king Asa. He sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. They struck Ijon, and Dan, and Abelbethmaachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.
1 Kings 15:21  When Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah, and stayed in Tirzah.
1 Kings 15:22  Then king Asa sent out an order through all Judah. No one was excused. They carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, which Baasha had been building with. And king Asa used them to build Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.
1 Kings 15:23  The rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities he built, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah. But in his old age he had a disease in his feet.
1 Kings 15:24  Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his forefather. His son Jehoshaphat became king in his place.
1 Kings 15:25  Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to rule over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he ruled over Israel two years.
1 Kings 15:26  He did evil in the sight of the LORD. He walked in the way of his father, and in the sin his father had led Israel into.
1 Kings 15:27  Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, made a plot against him. Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, for Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.
1 Kings 15:28  In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha killed him and became king in his place.
1 Kings 15:29  As soon as he was king, he struck down all the house of Jeroboam. He did not leave Jeroboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed them all. This was what the LORD had said through his servant Ahijah the Shilonite.
1 Kings 15:30  It was because of the sins Jeroboam had sinned, and the sins he had led Israel into, by which he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.
1 Kings 15:31  The rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1 Kings 15:32  There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.
1 Kings 15:33  In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah began to rule over all Israel in Tirzah, for twenty-four years.
1 Kings 15:34  He did evil in the sight of the LORD. He walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in the sin he had led Israel into.

1 Kings 16:1  Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani, against Baasha. He said,
1 Kings 16:2  "I lifted you up out of the dust, and made you ruler over my people Israel. But you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and you have made my people Israel sin, and their sins have stirred me to anger."
1 Kings 16:3  "Look, I will sweep away Baasha and all his family. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat."
1 Kings 16:4  "Anyone of Baasha's family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs. Anyone of his who dies in the fields will be eaten by the birds of the air."
1 Kings 16:5  The rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his strength, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1 Kings 16:6  So Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah became king in his place.
1 Kings 16:7  The word of the LORD also came through the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and against his house. This was because of all the evil he did in the sight of the LORD, stirring him to anger by the work of his hands, so that he was like the house of Jeroboam, and because he had killed him.
1 Kings 16:8  In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years.
1 Kings 16:9  His servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, made a plot against him. Elah was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who looked after the king's house in Tirzah.
1 Kings 16:10  Zimri went in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah. Then Zimri became king in his place.
1 Kings 16:11  When he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, he killed all the house of Baasha. He did not leave him one male, not one of his relatives or of his friends.
1 Kings 16:12  So Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, just as the LORD had said against Baasha through Jehu the prophet.
1 Kings 16:13  This was for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned and made Israel sin, stirring the LORD God of Israel to anger with their worthless idols.
1 Kings 16:14  The rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1 Kings 16:15  In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. The people were camped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines.
1 Kings 16:16  The people in the camp heard it said, "Zimri has made a plot, and he has killed the king." So that day, in the camp, all Israel made Omri, the captain of the army, king over Israel.
1 Kings 16:17  Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they laid siege to Tirzah.
1 Kings 16:18  When Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the inner part of the king's house. He set the king's house on fire over himself, and died.
1 Kings 16:19  This was because of the sins he committed, doing evil in the sight of the LORD, walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in the sin he did, making Israel sin.
1 Kings 16:20  The rest of the acts of Zimri, and the plot he carried out, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1 Kings 16:21  Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri.
1 Kings 16:22  But the people who followed Omri were stronger than the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died, and Omri reigned.
1 Kings 16:23  In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, and he reigned twelve years. Six of those years he reigned in Tirzah.
1 Kings 16:24  He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver. He built on the hill, and he called the city he built Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.
1 Kings 16:25  But Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all who were before him.
1 Kings 16:26  He walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sin by which he made Israel sin, stirring the LORD God of Israel to anger with their worthless idols.
1 Kings 16:27  The rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and the strength he showed, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
1 Kings 16:28  So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria. His son Ahab became king in his place.
1 Kings 16:29  In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel. Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.
1 Kings 16:30  Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him.
1 Kings 16:31  It was as if it were a small thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. He took Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, as his wife, and he went and served Baal and worshipped him.
1 Kings 16:32  He set up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
1 Kings 16:33  Ahab also made a grove. Ahab did more to stir the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
1 Kings 16:34  In his days Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and he set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub. This was just as the LORD had said through Joshua the son of Nun.

1 Kings 17:1  Elijah the Tishbite, who lived in Gilead, said to Ahab, "As surely as the LORD God of Israel lives, the God I serve, there will be no dew and no rain in these years, except at my word."
1 Kings 17:2  Then the word of the LORD came to him:
1 Kings 17:3  "Leave this place. Turn east, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan."
1 Kings 17:4  "You will drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there."
1 Kings 17:5  So he went and did what the LORD said. He went and stayed by the brook Cherith, east of the Jordan.
1 Kings 17:6  The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
1 Kings 17:7  After a while the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
1 Kings 17:8  Then the word of the LORD came to him:
1 Kings 17:9  "Get up and go to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and stay there. Look, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."
1 Kings 17:10  So he got up and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the city, there was the widow, gathering sticks. He called to her and said, "Please bring me a little water in a jar, so that I may drink."
1 Kings 17:11  As she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand."
1 Kings 17:12  She said, "As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread baked. I have only a handful of flour in a barrel and a little oil in a jar. Look, I am gathering two sticks, so that I may go in and cook it for myself and my son. Then we will eat it, and die."
1 Kings 17:13  Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid. Go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake from it and bring it to me. After that, make some for yourself and your son."
1 Kings 17:14  "For this is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'The barrel of flour will not be used up, and the jar of oil will not run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.'"
1 Kings 17:15  She went and did as Elijah said. She and he and her household ate for many days.
1 Kings 17:16  The barrel of flour was not used up, and the jar of oil did not run dry, just as the LORD had said through Elijah.
1 Kings 17:17  After this the son of the woman who owned the house fell sick. His sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
1 Kings 17:18  She said to Elijah, "What do you have against me, man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to mind, and to kill my son?"
1 Kings 17:19  He said to her, "Give me your son." He took him out of her arms and carried him up to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.
1 Kings 17:20  He cried out to the LORD and said, "LORD my God, have you also brought trouble on this widow I am staying with, by killing her son?"
1 Kings 17:21  Then he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, "LORD my God, I pray you, let this child's soul come into him again."
1 Kings 17:22  The LORD heard Elijah's voice, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he lived.
1 Kings 17:23  Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. Elijah said, "See, your son is alive."
1 Kings 17:24  The woman said to Elijah, "Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."

1 Kings 18:1  After many days, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah. It said, "Go and show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth."
1 Kings 18:2  So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria.
1 Kings 18:3  Ahab called for Obadiah, who was the governor of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly.
1 Kings 18:4  When Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them, fifty in one cave and fifty in another, and gave them bread and water.)
1 Kings 18:5  Ahab said to Obadiah, "Go through the land, to all the springs of water and all the brooks. Perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, so that we do not lose all the animals."
1 Kings 18:6  So they divided the land between them, to go through it. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.
1 Kings 18:7  As Obadiah was on the way, Elijah met him. Obadiah knew him, and fell on his face, and said, "Are you my lord Elijah?"
1 Kings 18:8  He answered him, "I am. Go and tell your lord, 'Look, Elijah is here.'"
1 Kings 18:9  Obadiah said, "What sin have I done, that you would hand your servant over to Ahab, to kill me?"
1 Kings 18:10  As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to look for you. When they said, 'He is not here,' he made that kingdom and nation swear an oath that they had not found you.
1 Kings 18:11  And now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, Elijah is here.'
1 Kings 18:12  As soon as I have left you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you away where I do not know. Then when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill me. But I, your servant, have feared the LORD from my youth.
1 Kings 18:13  Was my lord not told what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD's prophets, fifty in one cave and fifty in another, and gave them bread and water.
1 Kings 18:14  "And now you say, 'Go, tell your lord, Elijah is here.' He will kill me."
1 Kings 18:15  Elijah said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today."
1 Kings 18:16  So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah.
1 Kings 18:17  When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, "Are you the one who troubles Israel?"
1 Kings 18:18  He answered, "I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house. For you have left the commandments of the LORD, and you have followed the Baals."
1 Kings 18:19  "Now then, send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the groves, who eat at Jezebel's table."
1 Kings 18:20  So Ahab sent word to all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.
1 Kings 18:21  Elijah came to all the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him." And the people did not answer him a word.
1 Kings 18:22  Then Elijah said to the people, "I, only I, am left as a prophet of the LORD. But Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men."
1 Kings 18:23  So let them give us two bulls. Let them choose one bull for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it. And I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and put no fire under it.
1 Kings 18:24  "Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The God who answers by fire, let him be God." And all the people answered, "That is well said."
1 Kings 18:25  Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "Choose one bull for yourselves, and prepare it first, for you are many. Call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under it."
1 Kings 18:26  So they took the bull that was given to them, and prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, "O Baal, hear us." But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they leaped on the altar that was made.
1 Kings 18:27  At noon Elijah mocked them and said, "Cry aloud, for he is a god. Perhaps he is talking, or he is busy, or he is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be woken."
1 Kings 18:28  So they cried aloud, and cut themselves with knives and blades, as they were used to doing, until the blood gushed out on them.
1 Kings 18:29  When midday was past, they went on prophesying until the time of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice, and no one answered, and no one paid attention.
1 Kings 18:30  Elijah said to all the people, "Come near to me." And all the people came near to him. Then he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.
1 Kings 18:31  Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of the sons of Jacob. It was to Jacob that the word of the LORD had come, saying, "Israel shall be your name."
1 Kings 18:32  With the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD. And he made a trench around the altar, big enough to hold two measures of seed.
1 Kings 18:33  He laid the wood in order, and cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood. Then he said, "Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood."
1 Kings 18:34  And he said, "Do it a second time." And they did it a second time. And he said, "Do it a third time." And they did it a third time.
1 Kings 18:35  The water ran all around the altar, and he filled the trench with water too.
1 Kings 18:36  At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, "LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word."
1 Kings 18:37  "Hear me, O LORD, hear me, so that this people may know that you are the LORD God, and that you have turned their heart back again."
1 Kings 18:38  Then the fire of the LORD fell. It burned up the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
1 Kings 18:39  When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, "The LORD, he is the God. The LORD, he is the God."
1 Kings 18:40  Elijah said to them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Do not let one of them escape." So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and killed them there.
1 Kings 18:41  Elijah said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of heavy rain."
1 Kings 18:42  So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. He bowed down to the ground and put his face between his knees,
1 Kings 18:43  and said to his servant, "Go up now, and look toward the sea." He went up and looked, and said, "There is nothing." And Elijah said, "Go again seven times."
1 Kings 18:44  At the seventh time the servant said, "Look, a little cloud is rising out of the sea, like a man's hand." And Elijah said, "Go up, say to Ahab, 'Get your chariot ready and go down, so the rain does not stop you.'"
1 Kings 18:45  Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.
1 Kings 18:46  The hand of the LORD was on Elijah. He tucked up his clothes and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

1 Kings 19:1  Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
1 Kings 19:2  Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "May the gods do the same to me, and worse, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like the life of one of them."
1 Kings 19:3  When Elijah saw that, he got up and ran for his life. He came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.
1 Kings 19:4  He himself went on a day's journey into the wilderness. He came and sat down under a juniper tree, and he asked that he might die. He said, "It is enough. Now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
1 Kings 19:5  As he lay sleeping under the juniper tree, an angel touched him and said to him, "Get up and eat."
1 Kings 19:6  He looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank, and lay down again.
1 Kings 19:7  The angel of the LORD came a second time and touched him. He said, "Get up and eat, because the journey is too great for you."
1 Kings 19:8  So he got up, and ate and drank. In the strength of that food he travelled forty days and forty nights to Horeb, the mountain of God.
1 Kings 19:9  There he came to a cave, and he stayed the night in it. The word of the LORD came to him, and said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
1 Kings 19:10  He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts. The children of Israel have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me, to take my life away."
1 Kings 19:11  He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD." Then the LORD passed by. A great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
1 Kings 19:12  After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice.
1 Kings 19:13  When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak, and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. A voice came to him and said, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
1 Kings 19:14  He said, "I have been very jealous for the LORD God of hosts, because the children of Israel have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me, to take my life away."
1 Kings 19:15  The LORD said to him, "Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus. When you come there, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria."
1 Kings 19:16  "And anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel. And anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah to be prophet in your place."
1 Kings 19:17  "Whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill. And whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill."
1 Kings 19:18  "Yet I have kept for myself seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."
1 Kings 19:19  So Elijah left there and found Elisha the son of Shaphat. He was ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen in front of him, and he was with the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak on him.
1 Kings 19:20  He left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, "Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you." Elijah said to him, "Go back again. For what have I done to you?"
1 Kings 19:21  So he went back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and killed them. He boiled their meat over the wooden gear of the oxen, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he got up and went after Elijah, and served him.

1 Kings 20:1  Benhadad king of Syria gathered his whole army together. Thirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots. He went up and surrounded Samaria, and made war against it.
1 Kings 20:2  He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, and said to him, "This is what Benhadad says:"
1 Kings 20:3  "'Your silver and your gold are mine. Your wives also and your children, the finest of them, are mine.'"
1 Kings 20:4  The king of Israel answered, "My lord, O king, it is as you say. I am yours, and all that I have."
1 Kings 20:5  The messengers came again and said, "This is what Benhadad says: 'I sent word to you, saying, You must give me your silver, your gold, your wives and your children."
1 Kings 20:6  "But tomorrow about this time I will send my servants to you. They will search your house and the houses of your servants. Whatever is pleasing in your eyes they will take in their hands and carry away.'"
1 Kings 20:7  Then the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, "Take note, please, and see how this man is looking for trouble. He sent to me for my wives, my children, my silver and my gold, and I did not refuse him."
1 Kings 20:8  All the elders and all the people said to him, "Do not listen to him, and do not agree."
1 Kings 20:9  So he said to Benhadad's messengers, "Tell my lord the king: 'All that you first sent for from your servant I will do, but this thing I cannot do.'" And the messengers left and brought him back word.
1 Kings 20:10  Then Benhadad sent to him and said, "May the gods do so to me, and more also, if there is enough dust in Samaria to give a handful to each of the people who follow me."
1 Kings 20:11  The king of Israel answered, "Tell him: 'The man who is putting on his armour should not boast like the man who is taking it off.'"
1 Kings 20:12  When Benhadad heard this message, he was drinking with the kings in the tents. He said to his servants, "Take your positions." And they took their positions against the city.
1 Kings 20:13  Look, a prophet came to Ahab king of Israel and said, "This is what the LORD says: Have you seen all this great crowd? Look, I will give it into your hand today, and you will know that I am the LORD."
1 Kings 20:14  Ahab said, "By whom?" And he said, "This is what the LORD says: By the young men who serve the rulers of the provinces." Then he said, "Who will begin the battle?" And he answered, "You."
1 Kings 20:15  Then he counted the young men who served the rulers of the provinces, and there were two hundred and thirty-two. After them he counted all the people, all the children of Israel, and there were seven thousand.
1 Kings 20:16  They went out at noon. But Benhadad was drinking himself drunk in the tents, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who were helping him.
1 Kings 20:17  The young men who served the rulers of the provinces went out first. Benhadad sent out scouts, and they told him, "Men have come out of Samaria."
1 Kings 20:18  He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive. If they have come out for war, take them alive."
1 Kings 20:19  So these young men who served the rulers of the provinces came out of the city, with the army that followed them.
1 Kings 20:20  Each one killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel chased them. Benhadad king of Syria escaped on a horse with the horsemen.
1 Kings 20:21  The king of Israel went out and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.
1 Kings 20:22  The prophet came to the king of Israel and said to him, "Go, make yourself strong, and take note, and see what you must do. For at the turn of the year the king of Syria will come up against you."
1 Kings 20:23  The servants of the king of Syria said to him, "Their gods are gods of the hills. That is why they were stronger than we were. But let us fight against them on the plain, and we will surely be stronger than they are."
1 Kings 20:24  And do this: remove the kings, each from his place, and put captains in their places.
1 Kings 20:25  "Then count out an army for yourself like the army you have lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. We will fight against them on the plain, and we will surely be stronger than they are." He listened to what they said, and did so.
1 Kings 20:26  At the turn of the year Benhadad counted the Syrians, and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.
1 Kings 20:27  The children of Israel were counted, and all were there, and they went to meet them. The children of Israel camped in front of them like two little flocks of goats, but the Syrians filled the country.
1 Kings 20:28  A man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel. He said, "This is what the LORD says: Because the Syrians have said, 'The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys,' I will give all this great crowd into your hand, and you will know that I am the LORD."
1 Kings 20:29  They camped facing each other for seven days. On the seventh day the battle began, and the children of Israel killed a hundred thousand Syrian foot soldiers in one day.
1 Kings 20:30  The rest fled to Aphek, into the city, and there a wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the men who were left. Benhadad fled, and came into the city, into an inner room.
1 Kings 20:31  His servants said to him, "Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please let us put sackcloth round our waists and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel. Perhaps he will spare your life."
1 Kings 20:32  So they tied sackcloth round their waists and put ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, "Your servant Benhadad says, 'Please let me live.'" And he said, "Is he still alive? He is my brother."
1 Kings 20:33  Now the men watched carefully to see whether anything would come from him, and they were quick to take it up. They said, "Your brother Benhadad." Then he said, "Go and bring him." Then Benhadad came out to him, and he had him come up into the chariot.
1 Kings 20:34  Benhadad said to him, "I will give back the cities that my father took from your father. You may set up market streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria." Then Ahab said, "I will let you go with this covenant." So he made a covenant with him and let him go.
1 Kings 20:35  A certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbour by the word of the LORD, "Strike me, please." But the man refused to strike him.
1 Kings 20:36  Then he said to him, "Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, look, as soon as you leave me a lion will kill you." And as soon as he left him, a lion found him and killed him.
1 Kings 20:37  Then he found another man and said, "Strike me, please." And the man struck him, and in striking him wounded him.
1 Kings 20:38  So the prophet went and waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with ashes on his face.
1 Kings 20:39  As the king passed by, he called out to the king. He said, "Your servant went out into the middle of the battle, and look, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, 'Guard this man. If he goes missing in any way, then your life will be for his life, or else you must pay a talent of silver.'"
1 Kings 20:40  "And while your servant was busy here and there, he was gone." The king of Israel said to him, "That is your sentence. You have decided it yourself."
1 Kings 20:41  Then he quickly took the ashes away from his face, and the king of Israel recognised that he was one of the prophets.
1 Kings 20:42  He said to him, "This is what the LORD says: Because you have let go out of your hand a man whom I had set apart for complete destruction, your life will go for his life, and your people for his people."
1 Kings 20:43  The king of Israel went to his house heavy-hearted and angry, and came to Samaria.

1 Kings 21:1  After these things, Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, right beside the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
1 Kings 21:2  Ahab said to Naboth, "Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is close to my house. I will give you a better vineyard in its place. Or, if you prefer, I will pay you what it is worth in money."
1 Kings 21:3  But Naboth said to Ahab, "The LORD forbid that I should give you the land I inherited from my fathers."
1 Kings 21:4  So Ahab came into his house sad and angry because of what Naboth the Jezreelite had said to him. For Naboth had said, "I will not give you the land I inherited from my fathers." Ahab lay down on his bed, turned his face away, and would not eat any food.
1 Kings 21:5  But Jezebel his wife came to him and said, "Why are you so sad? Why do you eat no food?"
1 Kings 21:6  He said to her, "Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite. I said to him, 'Give me your vineyard for money. Or, if you like, I will give you another vineyard in its place.' And he answered, 'I will not give you my vineyard.'"
1 Kings 21:7  Jezebel his wife said to him, "Are you not the ruler of the kingdom of Israel? Get up, eat some food, and let your heart be glad. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite."
1 Kings 21:8  So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal. She sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles of his city, who lived near Naboth.
1 Kings 21:9  In the letters she wrote: "Announce a fast, and seat Naboth in a high place among the people."
1 Kings 21:10  "Then put two worthless men in front of him, to speak against him and say, 'You cursed God and the king.' Then take him out and stone him, so that he dies."
1 Kings 21:11  So the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who lived there, did what Jezebel had sent word to do, just as it was written in the letters she had sent to them.
1 Kings 21:12  They announced a fast and seated Naboth in a high place among the people.
1 Kings 21:13  Two worthless men came in and sat in front of him. These men spoke against Naboth in front of the people, saying, "Naboth cursed God and the king." Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him with stones, and he died.
1 Kings 21:14  Then they sent word to Jezebel, saying, "Naboth has been stoned, and he is dead."
1 Kings 21:15  When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, she said to Ahab, "Get up, take the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite as your own, the one he refused to sell you for money. For Naboth is not alive; he is dead."
1 Kings 21:16  When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up and went down to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, to take it as his own.
1 Kings 21:17  Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite:
1 Kings 21:18  "Get up, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria. Look, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take it as his own."
1 Kings 21:19  "Say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Have you killed a man, and taken his land too?' And say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth's blood, dogs will lick up your blood, yes, yours.'"
1 Kings 21:20  Ahab said to Elijah, "So you have found me, my enemy." And he answered, "I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the LORD."
1 Kings 21:21  Look, I will bring disaster on you. I will sweep away your descendants. I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, whether slave or free,
1 Kings 21:22  "and I will make your family like the family of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the family of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because you have stirred me to anger and have made Israel sin."
1 Kings 21:23  The LORD also spoke about Jezebel. He said, "The dogs will eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel."
1 Kings 21:24  "Anyone of Ahab's family who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. Anyone who dies in the open country, the birds of the air will eat."
1 Kings 21:25  There was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do what is wicked in the sight of the LORD, urged on by Jezebel his wife.
1 Kings 21:26  He did very hateful things by following idols, just like the Amorites, whom the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel.
1 Kings 21:27  When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body. He fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and walked about quietly.
1 Kings 21:28  Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite:
1 Kings 21:29  "Do you see how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me, I will not bring the disaster in his own days. I will bring the disaster on his family in the days of his son."

1 Kings 22:1  For three years there was no war between Syria and Israel.
1 Kings 22:2  In the third year Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.
1 Kings 22:3  The king of Israel said to his servants, "Do you know that Ramoth in Gilead belongs to us? Yet we do nothing, and we do not take it back from the hand of the king of Syria."
1 Kings 22:4  He said to Jehoshaphat, "Will you go with me to fight at Ramothgilead?" Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."
1 Kings 22:5  Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Please ask for the word of the LORD today."
1 Kings 22:6  So the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall I go to fight against Ramothgilead, or shall I hold back?" They said, "Go up, for the Lord will give it into the king's hand."
1 Kings 22:7  But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not another prophet of the LORD here, so that we may ask him?"
1 Kings 22:8  The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may ask the LORD. But I hate him, for he never prophesies good about me, only evil." Jehoshaphat said, "Do not let the king say that."
1 Kings 22:9  Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, "Bring Micaiah the son of Imlah here quickly."
1 Kings 22:10  The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah sat each on his throne, dressed in their robes, in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria. And all the prophets prophesied in front of them.
1 Kings 22:11  Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made himself horns of iron, and he said, "This is what the LORD says: With these you will push the Syrians until you have destroyed them."
1 Kings 22:12  All the prophets said the same: "Go up to Ramothgilead and win, for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."
1 Kings 22:13  The messenger who had gone to call Micaiah said to him, "Look, the words of the prophets all say good things to the king with one voice. Please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak what is good."
1 Kings 22:14  Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, what the LORD says to me, that is what I will speak."
1 Kings 22:15  So he came to the king. The king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to fight against Ramothgilead, or shall we hold back?" He answered him, "Go and win, for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."
1 Kings 22:16  The king said to him, "How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"
1 Kings 22:17  So Micaiah said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the hills, like sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, 'These have no master. Let every man go home in peace.'"
1 Kings 22:18  The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good about me, but only evil?"
1 Kings 22:19  Micaiah said, "Then hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing beside him, on his right hand and on his left."
1 Kings 22:20  "And the LORD said, 'Who will persuade Ahab to go up and fall at Ramothgilead?' One said one thing, and another said another."
1 Kings 22:21  "Then a spirit came out and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will persuade him.'"
1 Kings 22:22  "The LORD said to him, 'How?' He said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' The LORD said, 'You will persuade him, and you will succeed. Go out and do it.'"
1 Kings 22:23  "So now, look, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has spoken evil about you."
1 Kings 22:24  But Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and hit Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?"
1 Kings 22:25  Micaiah said, "Look, you will see on the day when you go into an inner room to hide yourself."
1 Kings 22:26  The king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah and bring him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son."
1 Kings 22:27  "Say, 'This is what the king says: Put this man in the prison, and give him only the bread of suffering and the water of suffering to live on, until I come back in peace.'"
1 Kings 22:28  Micaiah said, "If you ever come back in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me." And he said, "Listen, you peoples, every one of you."
1 Kings 22:29  So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramothgilead.
1 Kings 22:30  The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you wear your robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle.
1 Kings 22:31  But the king of Syria had commanded his thirty-two captains who were in charge of his chariots, "Do not fight with anyone, small or great, but only with the king of Israel."
1 Kings 22:32  When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, "Surely this is the king of Israel." So they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out.
1 Kings 22:33  When the captains of the chariots saw that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from chasing him.
1 Kings 22:34  A certain man shot an arrow without aiming, and it struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armour. So the king said to the driver of his chariot, "Turn round and carry me out of the army, for I am wounded."
1 Kings 22:35  The battle grew worse that day, and the king was held up in his chariot facing the Syrians. He died in the evening, and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot.
1 Kings 22:36  About sunset a shout went through the army: "Every man to his city, and every man to his own country."
1 Kings 22:37  So the king died, and he was brought to Samaria, and they buried the king in Samaria.
1 Kings 22:38  Someone washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood. They also washed his armour there. This was just as the LORD had said.
1 Kings 22:39  The rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, and the ivory house that he made, and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
1 Kings 22:40  So Ahab slept with his fathers, and Ahaziah his son became king in his place.
1 Kings 22:41  Jehoshaphat the son of Asa began to rule over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
1 Kings 22:42  Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he began to rule, and he ruled twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.
1 Kings 22:43  He walked in all the ways of Asa his father. He did not turn aside from them, but did what was right in the eyes of the LORD.
1 Kings 22:44  Yet the high places were not taken away, for the people still offered sacrifices and burned incense in the high places.
1 Kings 22:45  And Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.
1 Kings 22:46  The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, and the strength he showed, and how he fought his wars, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
1 Kings 22:47  He removed from the land the rest of the sodomites who were left from the days of his father Asa.
1 Kings 22:48  At that time there was no king in Edom. A deputy ruled as king.
1 Kings 22:49  Jehoshaphat made ships of Tharshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never went, because the ships were wrecked at Eziongeber.
1 Kings 22:50  Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "Let my servants go with your servants in the ships." But Jehoshaphat would not.
1 Kings 22:51  Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father, and Jehoram his son became king in his place.
1 Kings 22:52  Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to rule over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he ruled over Israel two years.
1 Kings 22:53  He did evil in the sight of the LORD. He walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
1 Kings 22:54  He served Baal and worshipped him, and made the LORD God of Israel angry, just as his father had done.

2 Kings

2 Kings 1:1  After Ahab died, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2 Kings 1:2  Ahaziah fell through a lattice in his upper room in Samaria, and he was hurt and sick. So he sent messengers and said to them, "Go and ask Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, whether I will get well from this illness."
2 Kings 1:3  But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, "Get up, and go to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria. Say to them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you go to ask Baalzebub, the god of Ekron?'"
2 Kings 1:4  "So this is what the LORD says: 'You will not come down from the bed you have gone up on. You will surely die.'" And Elijah went away.
2 Kings 1:5  When the messengers came back to the king, he said to them, "Why have you come back so soon?"
2 Kings 1:6  They said to him, "A man came up to meet us. He said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you, and say to him, This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you send to ask Baalzebub, the god of Ekron? So you will not come down from the bed you have gone up on. You will surely die.'"
2 Kings 1:7  He said to them, "What kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you these words?"
2 Kings 1:8  They answered him, "He was a hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist." And the king said, "It is Elijah the Tishbite."
2 Kings 1:9  Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. The captain went up to him, and there he was, sitting on the top of a hill. He said to him, "Man of God, the king has said, Come down."
2 Kings 1:10  Elijah answered the captain of fifty, "If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and burn up you and your fifty men." And fire came down from heaven and burned up him and his fifty men.
2 Kings 1:11  Again the king sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty men. He spoke and said to him, "Man of God, this is what the king has said: Come down quickly."
2 Kings 1:12  Elijah answered them, "If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and burn up you and your fifty men." And the fire of God came down from heaven and burned up him and his fifty men.
2 Kings 1:13  Then the king sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men. This third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah. He begged him and said, "Man of God, I pray you, let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight."
2 Kings 1:14  "Look, fire came down from heaven and burned up the two captains of the fifties before me, with their fifty men. So now let my life be precious in your sight."
2 Kings 1:15  The angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him. Do not be afraid of him." So he got up and went down with him to the king.
2 Kings 1:16  He said to him, "This is what the LORD says: You have sent messengers to ask Baalzebub, the god of Ekron. Is it because there is no God in Israel to ask for his word? So you will not come down from the bed you have gone up on. You will surely die."
2 Kings 1:17  So he died, just as the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram became king in his place, in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, because Ahaziah had no son.
2 Kings 1:18  The rest of the acts of Ahaziah, what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

2 Kings 2:1  When the LORD was about to take Elijah up into heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah was walking with Elisha from Gilgal.
2 Kings 2:2  Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to Bethel." But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.
2 Kings 2:3  The sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?" He said, "Yes, I know it. Be quiet."
2 Kings 2:4  Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they came to Jericho.
2 Kings 2:5  The sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that today the LORD will take your master away from you?" He answered, "Yes, I know it. Be quiet."
2 Kings 2:6  Then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." But he said, "As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on.
2 Kings 2:7  Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood watching from far away, while the two of them stood by the Jordan.
2 Kings 2:8  Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up, and struck the water. The water divided to one side and the other, so that the two of them went over on dry ground.
2 Kings 2:9  When they had gone over, Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken away from you." Elisha said, "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me."
2 Kings 2:10  He said, "You have asked a hard thing. Still, if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be so for you. But if not, it will not be so."
2 Kings 2:11  As they still went on and talked, look, a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and parted the two of them. And Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind.
2 Kings 2:12  Elisha saw it, and he cried out, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and its horsemen." And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.
2 Kings 2:13  He also picked up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him, and he went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan.
2 Kings 2:14  He took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water, and said, "Where is the LORD God of Elijah?" When he too had struck the water, it parted to one side and the other, and Elisha went over.
2 Kings 2:15  When the sons of the prophets who were watching at Jericho saw him, they said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha." They came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
2 Kings 2:16  They said to him, "Look, your servants have fifty strong men here. Please let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up and thrown him down on some mountain or in some valley." He said, "Do not send them."
2 Kings 2:17  But they kept urging him until he was ashamed to refuse, so he said, "Send them." So they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days, but did not find him.
2 Kings 2:18  When they came back to him (for he was staying at Jericho), he said to them, "Did I not say to you, 'Do not go'?"
2 Kings 2:19  The men of the city said to Elisha, "Please look: this city is in a pleasant place, as my lord sees. But the water is bad, and the ground is barren."
2 Kings 2:20  He said, "Bring me a new jar, and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.
2 Kings 2:21  He went out to the spring of the water and threw the salt in there, and said, "This is what the LORD says: I have healed this water. There will never again be death or barren land because of it."
2 Kings 2:22  So the water has been healed to this day, just as Elisha had said.
2 Kings 2:23  He went up from there to Bethel. As he was going up along the road, little children came out of the city and mocked him. They said to him, "Go up, you bald head. Go up, you bald head."
2 Kings 2:24  He turned round and looked at them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. Then two she-bears came out of the wood and tore forty-two of the children.
2 Kings 2:25  He went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

2 Kings 3:1  Jehoram the son of Ahab began to rule over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he ruled for twelve years.
2 Kings 3:2  He did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not as his father and his mother had done. He took away the image of Baal that his father had made.
2 Kings 3:3  Even so, he held on to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. He did not turn away from them.
2 Kings 3:4  Mesha king of Moab kept great flocks of sheep. He paid the king of Israel a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams, with their wool.
2 Kings 3:5  But when Ahab was dead, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
2 Kings 3:6  So at that time king Jehoram went out from Samaria and counted all Israel.
2 Kings 3:7  He sent this message to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?" And he said, "I will go up. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses."
2 Kings 3:8  Then he said, "Which way shall we go up?" And he answered, "The way through the wilderness of Edom."
2 Kings 3:9  So the king of Israel went, and the king of Judah, and the king of Edom. They marched around for seven days, and there was no water for the army or for the animals that followed them.
2 Kings 3:10  The king of Israel said, "This is a disaster. The LORD has called these three kings together to hand them over to Moab."
2 Kings 3:11  But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, so that we may ask the LORD through him?" One of the king of Israel's servants answered, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah."
2 Kings 3:12  Jehoshaphat said, "The word of the LORD is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
2 Kings 3:13  Elisha said to the king of Israel, "What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother." But the king of Israel said to him, "No, for the LORD has called these three kings together to hand them over to Moab."
2 Kings 3:14  Elisha said, "As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, if I did not respect the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look at you or even see you."
2 Kings 3:15  "But now bring me a musician." When the musician played, the hand of the LORD came upon Elisha.
2 Kings 3:16  He said, "This is what the LORD says: Make this valley full of ditches."
2 Kings 3:17  For this is what the LORD says: You will not see wind, and you will not see rain. Yet that valley will be filled with water, so that you may drink, you and your cattle and your animals.
2 Kings 3:18  And this is only a small thing in the sight of the LORD. He will also hand the Moabites over to you.
2 Kings 3:19  "You will strike down every walled city and every fine city. You will cut down every good tree, block up all the wells of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones."
2 Kings 3:20  In the morning, at the time when the grain offering was offered, water came from the direction of Edom, and the land was filled with water.
2 Kings 3:21  When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they called together everyone old enough to put on armour, and they took their stand at the border.
2 Kings 3:22  They got up early in the morning, and the sun shone on the water. The Moabites saw the water on the other side, red as blood.
2 Kings 3:23  They said, "This is blood. The kings have certainly killed each other. They have struck one another down. Now then, Moab, to the plunder."
2 Kings 3:24  But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites got up and struck the Moabites down, so that they fled before them. The Israelites went on, striking the Moabites down even in their own country.
2 Kings 3:25  They tore down the cities. On every good piece of land each man threw his stone, until it was covered. They blocked up all the wells of water and cut down all the good trees. Only in Kirharaseth did they leave the stones standing, but the men with slings went around it and attacked it.
2 Kings 3:26  When the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who carried swords, to break through to the king of Edom. But they could not.
2 Kings 3:27  Then he took his oldest son, who was to rule in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there was great anger against Israel. So they left him and went back to their own land.

2 Kings 4:1  A woman, the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, cried out to Elisha. She said, "Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. Now the man he owed money to has come to take my two sons to be his slaves."
2 Kings 4:2  Elisha said to her, "What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?" She said, "Your servant has nothing at all in the house, except a pot of oil."
2 Kings 4:3  Then he said, "Go and borrow jars from all your neighbours outside, empty jars. Do not borrow only a few."
2 Kings 4:4  "When you come in, shut the door behind you and your sons. Then pour oil into all those jars, and set aside each one as it is filled."
2 Kings 4:5  So she left him and shut the door behind herself and her sons. They brought the jars to her, and she poured.
2 Kings 4:6  When the jars were full, she said to her son, "Bring me another jar." He said to her, "There is not one jar left." And the oil stopped.
2 Kings 4:7  Then she came and told the man of God. He said, "Go, sell the oil and pay your debt. You and your children can live on what is left."
2 Kings 4:8  One day Elisha went over to Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to stay and eat some food. So after that, whenever he passed by, he turned in there to eat.
2 Kings 4:9  She said to her husband, "Look, I know that this man who keeps passing by us is a holy man of God."
2 Kings 4:10  "Please let us make a small room on the roof. Let us put a bed in it for him, and a table, and a chair, and a lampstand. Then when he comes to us, he can stay there."
2 Kings 4:11  One day he came there, and he went into the room and lay down.
2 Kings 4:12  He said to Gehazi his servant, "Call this woman from Shunem." When he had called her, she stood in front of him.
2 Kings 4:13  Elisha said to Gehazi, "Say to her, 'Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can be done for you? Shall a word be spoken for you to the king, or to the commander of the army?'" She answered, "I live among my own people."
2 Kings 4:14  He said, "What then can be done for her?" Gehazi answered, "She has no child, and her husband is old."
2 Kings 4:15  He said, "Call her." When he had called her, she stood in the doorway.
2 Kings 4:16  He said, "About this time next year you will hold a son in your arms." She said, "No, my lord, you man of God, do not lie to your servant."
2 Kings 4:17  The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son at that same time the next year, just as Elisha had said to her.
2 Kings 4:18  The child grew. One day he went out to his father, who was with the reapers.
2 Kings 4:19  He said to his father, "My head, my head." His father said to a servant, "Carry him to his mother."
2 Kings 4:20  The servant picked him up and brought him to his mother. The boy sat on her knees until noon, and then he died.
2 Kings 4:21  She went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God. She shut the door on him and went out.
2 Kings 4:22  She called to her husband and said, "Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys, so I can hurry to the man of God and come back."
2 Kings 4:23  He said, "Why go to him today? It is not the new moon, and it is not the sabbath." She said, "It will be well."
2 Kings 4:24  Then she saddled a donkey and said to her servant, "Drive on, and go forward. Do not slow down for me unless I tell you."
2 Kings 4:25  So she set out and came to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her a long way off, he said to Gehazi his servant, "Look, there is that woman from Shunem."
2 Kings 4:26  "Please run now to meet her, and ask her, 'Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?'" She answered, "It is well."
2 Kings 4:27  When she came to the man of God on the hill, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi came near to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone, for her soul is in bitter distress. The LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me."
2 Kings 4:28  Then she said, "Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say, 'Do not deceive me'?"
2 Kings 4:29  Then he said to Gehazi, "Tie up your clothes for travel, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him, and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. Lay my staff on the face of the child."
2 Kings 4:30  But the mother of the child said, "As the LORD lives, and as you live, I will not leave you." So he got up and followed her.
2 Kings 4:31  Gehazi went on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no voice and no response. So he went back to meet Elisha and told him, "The child has not woken up."
2 Kings 4:32  When Elisha came into the house, there was the child, dead, laid on his bed.
2 Kings 4:33  So he went in, shut the door on the two of them, and prayed to the LORD.
2 Kings 4:34  Then he got up on the bed and lay on the child. He put his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. He stretched himself out on the child, and the child's body grew warm.
2 Kings 4:35  Then he got up and walked back and forth in the house. He went up again and stretched himself out on him, and the child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
2 Kings 4:36  Elisha called Gehazi and said, "Call this woman from Shunem." So he called her. When she came in to him, he said, "Pick up your son."
2 Kings 4:37  Then she came in and fell at his feet and bowed to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
2 Kings 4:38  Elisha came again to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land, and the sons of the prophets were sitting in front of him. He said to his servant, "Put the large pot on the fire and boil stew for the sons of the prophets."
2 Kings 4:39  One of them went out into the field to gather herbs. He found a wild vine and gathered as many wild gourds from it as his coat would hold. He came back and cut them up into the pot of stew, for they did not know what they were.
2 Kings 4:40  So they poured out the stew for the men to eat. But as they were eating it, they cried out, "Man of God, there is death in the pot." And they could not eat it.
2 Kings 4:41  But he said, "Then bring some meal." He threw it into the pot and said, "Pour it out for the people, so they may eat." And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
2 Kings 4:42  A man came from Baalshalisha and brought the man of God bread from the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, "Give it to the people, so they may eat."
2 Kings 4:43  His servant said, "How can I set this in front of a hundred men?" He said again, "Give it to the people, so they may eat. For this is what the LORD says: They will eat, and there will be some left over."
2 Kings 4:44  So he set it in front of them, and they ate, and there was some left over, just as the LORD had said.

2 Kings 5:1  Naaman was the commander of the army of the king of Syria. He was a great man in his master's eyes, and highly honoured, because through him the LORD had given victory to Syria. He was a brave soldier, but he was a leper.
2 Kings 5:2  The Syrians had gone out in raiding bands, and they had carried off a young girl from the land of Israel. She served Naaman's wife.
2 Kings 5:3  She said to her mistress, "If only my master would go to the prophet who is in Samaria. He would heal him of his leprosy."
2 Kings 5:4  So someone went in and told his lord, "This is what the girl from the land of Israel said."
2 Kings 5:5  The king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel." So Naaman set out. He took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten sets of clothing.
2 Kings 5:6  He brought the letter to the king of Israel. It said, "Now when this letter comes to you, look, I have sent my servant Naaman to you with it, so that you may heal him of his leprosy."
2 Kings 5:7  When the king of Israel had read the letter, he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive? Why does this man send someone to me to be healed of his leprosy? Think about it, and see how he is looking for a quarrel with me."
2 Kings 5:8  When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king, "Why have you torn your clothes? Let the man come to me now, and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel."
2 Kings 5:9  So Naaman came with his horses and his chariot, and stood at the door of Elisha's house.
2 Kings 5:10  Elisha sent a messenger out to him to say, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times. Your flesh will come back to you, and you will be clean."
2 Kings 5:11  But Naaman was angry, and he went away. He said, "I thought he would surely come out to me. I thought he would stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leper."
2 Kings 5:12  "Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage.
2 Kings 5:13  But his servants came near and spoke to him. They said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he says to you, 'Wash, and be clean'?"
2 Kings 5:14  So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, just as the man of God had said. His flesh came back like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2 Kings 5:15  Then he went back to the man of God with all his company. He came and stood before him and said, "Look, now I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. So now, please accept a gift from your servant."
2 Kings 5:16  But Elisha said, "As the LORD lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing." Naaman urged him to take it, but he refused.
2 Kings 5:17  Then Naaman said, "If you will not, then please let your servant be given as much earth as two mules can carry. For your servant will never again offer a burnt offering or a sacrifice to any other gods, but only to the LORD."
2 Kings 5:18  "May the LORD pardon your servant in this one thing. When my master goes into the house of Rimmon to worship there, he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the house of Rimmon. When I bow down in the house of Rimmon, may the LORD pardon your servant in this thing."
2 Kings 5:19  Elisha said to him, "Go in peace." So Naaman left him and went a little way.
2 Kings 5:20  But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, "Look, my master has let Naaman the Syrian off, by not taking from him what he brought. As the LORD lives, I will run after him and get something from him."
2 Kings 5:21  So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him and said, "Is all well?"
2 Kings 5:22  He said, "All is well. My master has sent me to say, 'Look, just now two young men from the sons of the prophets have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.'"
2 Kings 5:23  Naaman said, "Please take two talents." He urged him, and he tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing, and gave them to two of his servants. They carried them ahead of Gehazi.
2 Kings 5:24  When he came to the hill, he took the things from their hands and put them away in the house. Then he sent the men away, and they left.
2 Kings 5:25  He went in and stood before his master. Elisha said to him, "Where have you come from, Gehazi?" He said, "Your servant went nowhere."
2 Kings 5:26  Elisha said to him, "Did my heart not go with you, when the man turned back from his chariot to meet you? Is this a time to accept money, and to accept clothes, olive groves, vineyards, sheep, oxen, male servants and female servants?"
2 Kings 5:27  "So the leprosy of Naaman will cling to you and to your descendants for ever." And Gehazi went out from him a leper, as white as snow.

2 Kings 6:1  The sons of the prophets said to Elisha, "Look, the place where we live with you is too small for us."
2 Kings 6:2  "Please let us go to the Jordan. Let each man take a beam from there, and let us build a place there where we may live." He answered, "Go."
2 Kings 6:3  One of them said, "Please be willing to come with your servants." He answered, "I will go."
2 Kings 6:4  So he went with them. When they came to the Jordan, they cut down wood.
2 Kings 6:5  But as one man was cutting down a beam, the axe head fell into the water. He cried out, "Oh no, my master! It was borrowed."
2 Kings 6:6  The man of God said, "Where did it fall?" He showed him the place. Then Elisha cut down a stick and threw it in there, and the iron floated.
2 Kings 6:7  He said, "Pick it up." So the man reached out his hand and took it.
2 Kings 6:8  Then the king of Syria made war against Israel. He talked with his servants and said, "My camp will be in such and such a place."
2 Kings 6:9  The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: "Take care that you do not pass by that place, for the Syrians have come down there."
2 Kings 6:10  So the king of Israel sent men to the place the man of God had told him about and warned him of. He kept himself safe there, and this happened more than once or twice.
2 Kings 6:11  The heart of the king of Syria was deeply troubled about this. He called his servants and said to them, "Will you not tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?"
2 Kings 6:12  One of his servants said, "No one, my lord, O king. But Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words you speak in your bedroom."
2 Kings 6:13  He said, "Go and find out where he is, so that I may send men and take him." He was told, "Look, he is in Dothan."
2 Kings 6:14  So he sent horses and chariots and a great army there. They came by night and surrounded the city.
2 Kings 6:15  When the servant of the man of God got up early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. His servant said to him, "Oh no, my master! What shall we do?"
2 Kings 6:16  He answered, "Do not be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
2 Kings 6:17  Then Elisha prayed and said, "LORD, I pray you, open his eyes, so that he may see." The LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. Look, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
2 Kings 6:18  When the Syrians came down to him, Elisha prayed to the LORD and said, "Strike this people, I pray you, with blindness." And he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
2 Kings 6:19  Elisha said to them, "This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man you are looking for." But he led them to Samaria.
2 Kings 6:20  When they had come into Samaria, Elisha said, "LORD, open the eyes of these men, so that they may see." The LORD opened their eyes, and they saw. Look, they were in the middle of Samaria.
2 Kings 6:21  When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, "My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?"
2 Kings 6:22  He answered, "You shall not kill them. Would you kill those you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set bread and water before them, so that they may eat and drink and go to their master."
2 Kings 6:23  So he prepared a great feast for them. When they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.
2 Kings 6:24  After this, Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his army and went up and laid siege to Samaria.
2 Kings 6:25  There was a great famine in Samaria. They laid siege to it until a donkey's head was sold for eighty pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.
2 Kings 6:26  As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, "Help, my lord, O king."
2 Kings 6:27  He said, "If the LORD does not help you, where shall I get help for you? From the threshing floor, or from the winepress?"
2 Kings 6:28  Then the king said to her, "What is wrong with you?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, so that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'"
2 Kings 6:29  "So we boiled my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, 'Give your son, so that we may eat him.' But she has hidden her son."
2 Kings 6:30  When the king heard the woman's words, he tore his clothes. He was passing by on the wall, and the people looked, and there was sackcloth underneath, next to his skin.
2 Kings 6:31  Then he said, "May God do so to me, and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat stays on him today."
2 Kings 6:32  But Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a man on ahead of him. But before the messenger came to him, Elisha said to the elders, "Do you see how this son of a murderer has sent someone to take off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold the door fast against him. Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him?"
2 Kings 6:33  While he was still talking with them, look, the messenger came down to him. And he said, "Look, this evil is from the LORD. Why should I wait for the LORD any longer?"

2 Kings 7:1  Then Elisha said, "Listen to the word of the LORD. This is what the LORD says: Tomorrow about this time, in the gate of Samaria, a measure of fine flour will be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel."
2 Kings 7:2  Then the officer on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD made windows in heaven, could such a thing happen?" And Elisha said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it."
2 Kings 7:3  Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the gate. They said to one another, "Why should we sit here until we die?"
2 Kings 7:4  "If we say, 'We will go into the city,' there is famine in the city, and we will die there. And if we sit still here, we die too. So come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they let us live, we live. If they kill us, we only die."
2 Kings 7:5  So they got up in the twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. When they came to the edge of the camp of Syria, no one was there.
2 Kings 7:6  For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the noise of chariots and the noise of horses, the noise of a great army. They said to one another, "Look, the king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come against us."
2 Kings 7:7  So they got up and fled in the twilight. They left their tents, their horses and their donkeys, and left the camp just as it was, and they fled for their lives.
2 Kings 7:8  When these men with leprosy came to the edge of the camp, they went into one tent and ate and drank. They carried away silver and gold and clothing from it, and went and hid it. Then they came back and went into another tent, and carried things from that one too, and went and hid it.
2 Kings 7:9  Then they said to one another, "We are not doing right. Today is a day of good news, and we are keeping quiet. If we wait until morning light, punishment will come upon us. So come, let us go and tell the king's household."
2 Kings 7:10  So they came and called to the gatekeeper of the city. They told them, "We went to the camp of the Syrians, and no one was there, not a sound of anyone. There were only the horses tied up, and the donkeys tied up, and the tents just as they were."
2 Kings 7:11  He called the other gatekeepers, and they passed the news to the king's household inside.
2 Kings 7:12  The king got up in the night and said to his servants, "I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are hungry, so they have gone out of the camp to hide in the field. They are saying, 'When they come out of the city, we will take them alive and get into the city.'"
2 Kings 7:13  One of his servants answered, "Please let some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Look, they are like all the crowd of Israel that is left here; they are like all the crowd of the Israelites who have already perished. Let us send them and see."
2 Kings 7:14  So they took two chariot horses, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, "Go and see."
2 Kings 7:15  They went after them as far as the Jordan, and the whole road was full of clothes and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their hurry. The messengers came back and told the king.
2 Kings 7:16  Then the people went out and plundered the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, just as the LORD had said.
2 Kings 7:17  The king put the officer on whose hand he leaned in charge of the gate. The people trampled him in the gate, and he died, just as the man of God had said when the king came down to him.
2 Kings 7:18  It happened as the man of God had said to the king: "Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, will be sold tomorrow about this time in the gate of Samaria."
2 Kings 7:19  That officer had answered the man of God, "Look, even if the LORD made windows in heaven, could such a thing happen?" And Elisha had said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it."
2 Kings 7:20  And that is exactly what happened to him. The people trampled him in the gate, and he died.

2 Kings 8:1  Then Elisha spoke to the woman whose son he had brought back to life. He said, "Get up, and go away with your household. Stay wherever you can stay. For the LORD has called for a famine, and it will come on the land for seven years."
2 Kings 8:2  So the woman got up and did what the man of God said. She went with her household and lived in the land of the Philistines for seven years.
2 Kings 8:3  At the end of the seven years the woman came back from the land of the Philistines. She went out to cry to the king for her house and for her land.
2 Kings 8:4  Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. He said, "Tell me, please, all the great things that Elisha has done."
2 Kings 8:5  While he was telling the king how Elisha had brought a dead body back to life, the woman whose son he had brought back to life came crying to the king for her house and for her land. And Gehazi said, "My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha brought back to life."
2 Kings 8:6  When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king gave her an officer and said, "Give back everything that was hers, and all the crops of the field from the day she left the land until now."
2 Kings 8:7  Elisha came to Damascus. Benhadad the king of Syria was sick, and he was told, "The man of God has come here."
2 Kings 8:8  The king said to Hazael, "Take a gift in your hand, and go and meet the man of God. Ask the LORD through him, 'Will I get better from this sickness?'"
2 Kings 8:9  So Hazael went to meet him. He took a gift with him of every good thing of Damascus, a load for forty camels. He came and stood before him and said, "Your son Benhadad king of Syria has sent me to you to ask, 'Will I get better from this sickness?'"
2 Kings 8:10  Elisha said to him, "Go and say to him, 'You will certainly get better.' But the LORD has shown me that he will surely die."
2 Kings 8:11  He fixed his face and stared at him until Hazael was ashamed. And the man of God wept.
2 Kings 8:12  Hazael said, "Why is my lord weeping?" He answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Israel. You will set their strongholds on fire, and kill their young men with the sword. You will dash their children to pieces, and rip open their pregnant women."
2 Kings 8:13  Hazael said, "But what is your servant? Am I a dog, that I should do such a great thing?" And Elisha answered, "The LORD has shown me that you will be king over Syria."
2 Kings 8:14  So he left Elisha and came to his master, who said to him, "What did Elisha say to you?" He answered, "He told me that you would surely get better."
2 Kings 8:15  The next day Hazael took a thick cloth, dipped it in water, and spread it over the king's face, so that he died. And Hazael became king in his place.
2 Kings 8:16  In the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, while Jehoshaphat was king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 8:17  He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
2 Kings 8:18  He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab did, for Ahab's daughter was his wife. He did evil in the sight of the LORD.
2 Kings 8:19  Yet the LORD would not destroy Judah, for the sake of David his servant. He had promised to give him a lamp always, and to his children.
2 Kings 8:20  In his days Edom rebelled against the rule of Judah, and made a king over themselves.
2 Kings 8:21  So Joram crossed over to Zair with all his chariots. He got up by night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him, and the commanders of the chariots. And the people fled to their tents.
2 Kings 8:22  Yet Edom has been in rebellion against the rule of Judah to this day. Libnah rebelled at the same time.
2 Kings 8:23  The rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 8:24  Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And Ahaziah his son became king in his place.
2 Kings 8:25  In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 8:26  Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel.
2 Kings 8:27  He walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the LORD, as the house of Ahab did, for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ahab.
2 Kings 8:28  He went with Joram the son of Ahab to fight against Hazael king of Syria at Ramothgilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram.
2 Kings 8:29  King Joram went back to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

2 Kings 9:1  Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets and said to him, "Tie up your clothes ready to travel, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramothgilead."
2 Kings 9:2  "When you get there, look for Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go in, make him get up from among his brothers, and take him into an inner room."
2 Kings 9:3  "Then take the flask of oil, pour it on his head, and say, 'This is what the LORD says: I have anointed you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run. Do not wait."
2 Kings 9:4  So the young man, the young prophet, went to Ramothgilead.
2 Kings 9:5  When he came in, the commanders of the army were sitting there. He said, "I have a message for you, commander." Jehu said, "For which one of us?" He said, "For you, commander."
2 Kings 9:6  Jehu got up and went into the house. The young man poured the oil on his head and said to him, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, over Israel."
2 Kings 9:7  "You are to strike down the house of Ahab your master. In this way I will avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, which Jezebel shed."
2 Kings 9:8  "The whole house of Ahab will die. I will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both those shut up and those left free."
2 Kings 9:9  "I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah."
2 Kings 9:10  "And the dogs will eat Jezebel in the plot of ground at Jezreel, and no one will bury her." Then he opened the door and ran away.
2 Kings 9:11  Then Jehu came out to the servants of his lord, and one of them said to him, "Is all well? Why did this mad fellow come to you?" He said to them, "You know the man, and how he talks."
2 Kings 9:12  They said, "That is not true. Tell us now." So he said, "He said this and that to me. He said, 'This is what the LORD says: I have anointed you king over Israel.'"
2 Kings 9:13  Then they hurried, and each man took his cloak and put it under Jehu on the top of the stairs. They blew the trumpets and said, "Jehu is king."
2 Kings 9:14  So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, plotted against Joram. (Now Joram had been holding Ramothgilead, he and all Israel, against Hazael king of Syria.
2 Kings 9:15  But King Joram had gone back to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds the Syrians had given him when he fought against Hazael king of Syria.) Jehu said, "If this is what you want, then let no one slip out of the city and get away to tell the news in Jezreel."
2 Kings 9:16  So Jehu rode in a chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram was lying ill there. And Ahaziah king of Judah had come down to see Joram.
2 Kings 9:17  A watchman was standing on the tower in Jezreel. He saw Jehu's company coming and said, "I see a company of men." Joram said, "Take a horseman and send him to meet them, and let him say, 'Is it peace?'"
2 Kings 9:18  So a man went out on horseback to meet him and said, "The king says, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu said, "What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me." And the watchman reported, "The messenger reached them, but he is not coming back."
2 Kings 9:19  Then the king sent out a second horseman. He came to them and said, "The king says, 'Is it peace?'" Jehu answered, "What have you to do with peace? Fall in behind me."
2 Kings 9:20  And the watchman reported, "He reached them, and he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously."
2 Kings 9:21  Joram said, "Get ready." So his chariot was made ready. Joram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah went out, each in his own chariot. They went out to meet Jehu, and they found him in the plot of ground that had belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite.
2 Kings 9:22  When Joram saw Jehu, he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" He answered, "What peace can there be, while your mother Jezebel's whoredoms and her witchcrafts are so many?"
2 Kings 9:23  Joram turned his hands and fled, and he said to Ahaziah, "There is treachery, Ahaziah."
2 Kings 9:24  Jehu drew his bow with his full strength and struck Joram between his arms. The arrow came out at his heart, and he sank down in his chariot.
2 Kings 9:25  Then Jehu said to Bidkar his officer, "Pick him up and throw him into the plot of ground that belonged to Naboth the Jezreelite. Remember how you and I rode together behind Ahab his father, and the LORD spoke this word against him:"
2 Kings 9:26  "'Surely I saw yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons,' says the LORD, 'and I will pay you back in this very plot,' says the LORD. So now pick him up and throw him into that plot of ground, just as the LORD said."
2 Kings 9:27  When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled by the way of the garden house. Jehu chased after him and said, "Strike him down too, in his chariot." They did so, at the slope up to Gur, which is by Ibleam. And he fled to Megiddo and died there.
2 Kings 9:28  His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb with his fathers in the city of David.
2 Kings 9:29  In the eleventh year of Joram the son of Ahab, Ahaziah had begun to reign over Judah.
2 Kings 9:30  When Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard about it. She painted her face and arranged her hair, and she looked down out of a window.
2 Kings 9:31  As Jehu came in at the gate, she said, "Did Zimri have peace, who killed his master?"
2 Kings 9:32  He looked up at the window and said, "Who is on my side? Who?" And two or three officials looked down at him.
2 Kings 9:33  He said, "Throw her down." So they threw her down. Some of her blood splashed on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her under foot.
2 Kings 9:34  Then he went in and ate and drank. He said, "See to this cursed woman now, and bury her, for she is a king's daughter."
2 Kings 9:35  But when they went to bury her, they found nothing left of her but the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands.
2 Kings 9:36  So they came back and told him. He said, "This is the word of the LORD, which he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite: 'In the plot of ground at Jezreel dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel.'"
2 Kings 9:37  "'And the body of Jezebel will be like dung on the surface of the field in the plot of ground at Jezreel, so that no one will be able to say, This is Jezebel.'"

2 Kings 10:1  Ahab had seventy sons in Samaria. Jehu wrote letters and sent them to Samaria, to the rulers of Jezreel, to the elders, and to those who brought up Ahab's children. He wrote:
2 Kings 10:2  "As soon as this letter comes to you, since your master's sons are with you, and you have chariots and horses, a walled city and weapons,"
2 Kings 10:3  "choose the best and the fittest of your master's sons. Set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house."
2 Kings 10:4  But they were terribly afraid, and said, "Look, two kings could not stand before him. How then shall we stand?"
2 Kings 10:5  So the man over the house, and the man over the city, and the elders, and those who brought up the children, sent this message to Jehu: "We are your servants, and we will do all that you tell us. We will not make anyone king. Do what seems good to you."
2 Kings 10:6  Then he wrote them a second letter: "If you are on my side, and if you will listen to my voice, take the heads of the men who are your master's sons, and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow." Now the king's sons, seventy of them, were with the great men of the city, who were bringing them up.
2 Kings 10:7  When the letter came to them, they took the king's sons and killed all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.
2 Kings 10:8  A messenger came and told him, "They have brought the heads of the king's sons." He said, "Lay them in two heaps at the entrance of the gate until the morning."
2 Kings 10:9  In the morning he went out and stood, and said to all the people, "You are righteous. Look, I plotted against my master and killed him. But who killed all these?"
2 Kings 10:10  "Know then that nothing of the word of the LORD shall fall to the ground, the word the LORD spoke about the house of Ahab. The LORD has done what he spoke through his servant Elijah."
2 Kings 10:11  So Jehu killed all who were left of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his relatives, and his priests, until he left him no one alive.
2 Kings 10:12  Then he set out and went towards Samaria. On the way he came to the shearing house,
2 Kings 10:13  and there Jehu met the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah. He said, "Who are you?" They answered, "We are the brothers of Ahaziah. We are going down to greet the children of the king and the children of the queen."
2 Kings 10:14  He said, "Take them alive." So they took them alive and killed them at the pit of the shearing house, forty-two men. He did not leave one of them.
2 Kings 10:15  When he had left there, he came upon Jehonadab the son of Rechab coming to meet him. Jehu greeted him and said, "Is your heart right with me, as my heart is with your heart?" Jehonadab answered, "It is." "If it is, give me your hand." So he gave him his hand, and Jehu took him up into the chariot.
2 Kings 10:16  He said, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the LORD." So they made him ride in his chariot.
2 Kings 10:17  When Jehu came to Samaria, he killed all who were left of Ahab's family in Samaria, until he had destroyed them, just as the LORD had said to Elijah.
2 Kings 10:18  Then Jehu gathered all the people together and said to them, "Ahab served Baal a little, but Jehu will serve him much."
2 Kings 10:19  "So now call to me all the prophets of Baal, all his servants and all his priests. Let no one be missing, for I have a great sacrifice to make to Baal. Whoever is missing shall not live." But Jehu did this with cunning, so that he might destroy the worshippers of Baal.
2 Kings 10:20  And Jehu said, "Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal." So they proclaimed it.
2 Kings 10:21  Jehu sent word through all Israel, and all the worshippers of Baal came. Not one man was left who did not come. They went into the house of Baal, and the house of Baal was full from one end to the other.
2 Kings 10:22  He said to the man in charge of the robe room, "Bring out robes for all the worshippers of Baal." So he brought out robes for them.
2 Kings 10:23  Then Jehu went into the house of Baal with Jehonadab the son of Rechab, and said to the worshippers of Baal, "Search and see that there is no servant of the LORD here among you, but only the worshippers of Baal."
2 Kings 10:24  So they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty men outside, and had said, "If any of the men I put into your hands escapes, the one who lets him go shall give his own life for his life."
2 Kings 10:25  As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, Jehu said to the guard and to the captains, "Go in and kill them. Let no one come out." So they struck them down with the edge of the sword. The guard and the captains threw the bodies out, and went on to the city of the house of Baal.
2 Kings 10:26  They brought out the images from the house of Baal and burned them.
2 Kings 10:27  They broke down the image of Baal, and broke down the house of Baal, and made it a latrine, as it is to this day.
2 Kings 10:28  So Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel.
2 Kings 10:29  But Jehu did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, that is, the golden calves that were in Bethel and in Dan.
2 Kings 10:30  The LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in doing what is right in my eyes, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in my heart, your sons to the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel."
2 Kings 10:31  But Jehu was not careful to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with all his heart. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin.
2 Kings 10:32  In those days the LORD began to cut Israel short. Hazael struck them in all the borders of Israel:
2 Kings 10:33  from the Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan.
2 Kings 10:34  The rest of the acts of Jehu, and all that he did, and all his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 Kings 10:35  Jehu slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. Jehoahaz his son became king in his place.
2 Kings 10:36  The time that Jehu reigned over Israel in Samaria was twenty-eight years.

2 Kings 11:1  When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she got up and destroyed all the royal family.
2 Kings 11:2  But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah. She stole him away from among the king's sons who were being killed. She hid him and his nurse in the bedroom, away from Athaliah, so he was not killed.
2 Kings 11:3  He stayed hidden with her in the house of the LORD for six years. And Athaliah ruled over the land.
2 Kings 11:4  In the seventh year Jehoiada sent for the commanders of hundreds, with the captains and the guard. He brought them to him into the house of the LORD. He made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the LORD, and he showed them the king's son.
2 Kings 11:5  He gave them orders: "This is what you must do. A third of you who come on duty on the sabbath will keep watch over the king's house."
2 Kings 11:6  A third will be at the gate of Sur, and a third at the gate behind the guard. So you will keep watch over the house, and it will not be broken into.
2 Kings 11:7  And two groups of you who go off duty on the sabbath will keep watch over the house of the LORD around the king.
2 Kings 11:8  "You will surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand. Anyone who comes inside the ranks is to be killed. Stay with the king when he goes out and when he comes in."
2 Kings 11:9  The commanders of hundreds did everything that Jehoiada the priest had ordered. Each one took his men, those who were to come on duty on the sabbath and those who were to go off duty on the sabbath, and they came to Jehoiada the priest.
2 Kings 11:10  The priest gave the commanders of hundreds king David's spears and shields, which were in the temple of the LORD.
2 Kings 11:11  The guard stood around the king, each man with his weapons in his hand, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner, by the altar and the temple.
2 Kings 11:12  Then Jehoiada brought out the king's son, put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony. They made him king and anointed him. They clapped their hands and said, "God save the king."
2 Kings 11:13  When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people in the temple of the LORD.
2 Kings 11:14  She looked, and there was the king standing by a pillar, as the custom was, with the princes and the trumpeters beside him. All the people of the land were glad and were blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, "Treason, Treason."
2 Kings 11:15  But Jehoiada the priest gave orders to the commanders of hundreds, the officers of the army. He said to them, "Take her out between the ranks, and kill with the sword anyone who follows her." For the priest had said, "Do not let her be killed in the house of the LORD."
2 Kings 11:16  So they seized her. She went by the way the horses come into the king's house, and there she was killed.
2 Kings 11:17  Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD's people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people.
2 Kings 11:18  Then all the people of the land went into the house of Baal and pulled it down. They smashed his altars and his images to pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. And the priest set officers over the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 11:19  He took the commanders of hundreds, the captains, the guard, and all the people of the land. They brought the king down from the house of the LORD and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king's house. And he sat on the throne of the kings.
2 Kings 11:20  All the people of the land were glad, and the city was quiet. They had killed Athaliah with the sword beside the king's house.
2 Kings 11:21  Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

2 Kings 12:1  In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2 Kings 12:2  Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days that Jehoiada the priest taught him.
2 Kings 12:3  But the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places.
2 Kings 12:4  Jehoash said to the priests, "Take all the money of the holy gifts that is brought into the house of the LORD: the money that each man is counted for, the money set for every person, and all the money that anyone freely decides in his heart to bring into the house of the LORD."
2 Kings 12:5  "Let the priests take it, each man from someone he knows. And let them repair the broken places of the house, wherever any break is found."
2 Kings 12:6  But by the twenty-third year of king Jehoash the priests had still not repaired the broken places of the house.
2 Kings 12:7  So king Jehoash called for Jehoiada the priest and the other priests, and said to them, "Why have you not repaired the broken places of the house? Now take no more money from those you know, but hand it over for the broken places of the house."
2 Kings 12:8  So the priests agreed that they would take no more money from the people, and that they would not repair the broken places of the house.
2 Kings 12:9  Then Jehoiada the priest took a chest and made a hole in its lid. He set it beside the altar, on the right side as you come into the house of the LORD. And the priests who guarded the door put in it all the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 12:10  When they saw that there was much money in the chest, the king's scribe and the high priest came up. They put the money into bags and counted the money that was found in the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 12:11  They gave the money, once it was counted, into the hands of the men who did the work and looked after the house of the LORD. And these men paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house of the LORD,
2 Kings 12:12  and to the masons and the stonecutters, and to buy timber and cut stone to repair the broken places of the house of the LORD, and for everything else that was spent on the house to repair it.
2 Kings 12:13  But no silver bowls, snuffers, basins, trumpets, or any vessels of gold or vessels of silver were made for the house of the LORD out of the money that was brought into the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 12:14  They gave that money to the workmen, and with it they repaired the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 12:15  They did not ask for an account from the men into whose hands they gave the money to pay the workmen, for these men acted faithfully.
2 Kings 12:16  The money from the trespass offerings and the money from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD. It belonged to the priests.
2 Kings 12:17  Then Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. And Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.
2 Kings 12:18  So Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and in the king's house, and he sent it to Hazael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem.
2 Kings 12:19  The rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 12:20  His servants rose up and made a plot against him, and they killed Joash in the house of Millo, on the way down to Silla.
2 Kings 12:21  For Jozachar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son of Shomer, his servants, struck him down, and he died. They buried him with his fathers in the city of David. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 13:1  In the twenty-third year of Joash the son of Ahaziah king of Judah, Jehoahaz the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in Samaria. He reigned seventeen years.
2 Kings 13:2  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, and he did not turn away from them.
2 Kings 13:3  So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel. He handed them over to Hazael king of Syria, and to Benhadad the son of Hazael, all their days.
2 Kings 13:4  Then Jehoahaz begged the LORD, and the LORD listened to him. For he saw how Israel was crushed, because the king of Syria crushed them.
2 Kings 13:5  (And the LORD gave Israel a saviour, so that they escaped from the power of the Syrians. And the children of Israel lived in their tents, as they had before.
2 Kings 13:6  Even so, they did not turn away from the sins of the house of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin, but kept walking in them. And the grove also stayed standing in Samaria.)
2 Kings 13:7  Of all the people, he left Jehoahaz only fifty horsemen, ten chariots, and ten thousand foot soldiers. For the king of Syria had destroyed them, and had made them like dust when grain is threshed.
2 Kings 13:8  The rest of the acts of Jehoahaz, and all that he did, and his strength, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 Kings 13:9  Jehoahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in Samaria. And Joash his son reigned in his place.
2 Kings 13:10  In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz began to reign over Israel in Samaria. He reigned sixteen years.
2 Kings 13:11  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, but he walked in them.
2 Kings 13:12  The rest of the acts of Joash, and all that he did, and the strength with which he fought against Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 Kings 13:13  And Joash slept with his fathers, and Jeroboam sat on his throne. Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
2 Kings 13:14  Now Elisha had fallen ill with the illness he died of. And Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face, and said, "O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and its horsemen."
2 Kings 13:15  Elisha said to him, "Take a bow and arrows." So he took a bow and arrows.
2 Kings 13:16  He said to the king of Israel, "Put your hand on the bow." So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king's hands.
2 Kings 13:17  He said, "Open the window to the east." And he opened it. Then Elisha said, "Shoot." And he shot. And he said, "The arrow of the LORD's deliverance, the arrow of deliverance from Syria. For you will strike the Syrians in Aphek until you have destroyed them."
2 Kings 13:18  Then he said, "Take the arrows." And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, "Strike the ground." He struck it three times, and stopped.
2 Kings 13:19  The man of God was angry with him, and said, "You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck Syria until you had destroyed it. But now you will strike Syria only three times."
2 Kings 13:20  And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now bands of Moabites used to invade the land when the year came round.
2 Kings 13:21  As some men were burying a man, they saw a band of raiders. So they threw the man into Elisha's tomb. And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he came back to life and stood up on his feet.
2 Kings 13:22  But Hazael king of Syria crushed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz.
2 Kings 13:23  Yet the LORD was gracious to them. He had compassion on them and turned to them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He would not destroy them, and he did not cast them out from his presence, not yet.
2 Kings 13:24  So Hazael king of Syria died, and Benhadad his son reigned in his place.
2 Kings 13:25  And Jehoash the son of Jehoahaz took back from Benhadad the son of Hazael the cities which Benhadad had taken in war from Jehoahaz his father. Three times Joash defeated him, and he won back the cities of Israel.

2 Kings 14:1  In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 14:2  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
2 Kings 14:3  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, but not like David his father. He did just as Joash his father had done.
2 Kings 14:4  But the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
2 Kings 14:5  As soon as the kingdom was firmly in his hand, he killed the servants who had killed the king his father.
2 Kings 14:6  But he did not put to death the children of the murderers. He did as it is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the LORD commanded, "The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, and the children shall not be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin."
2 Kings 14:7  He killed ten thousand of Edom in the Valley of Salt, and he took Selah in war and called its name Joktheel, which is its name to this day.
2 Kings 14:8  Then Amaziah sent messengers to Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face."
2 Kings 14:9  Jehoash the king of Israel sent word back to Amaziah king of Judah: "The thistle in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son as his wife.' But a wild beast in Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thistle."
2 Kings 14:10  "You have indeed struck down Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Take your glory in that, and stay at home. Why should you stir up trouble and be hurt by it, so that you fall, you and Judah with you?"
2 Kings 14:11  But Amaziah would not listen. So Jehoash king of Israel went up, and he and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Bethshemesh, which belongs to Judah.
2 Kings 14:12  Judah was beaten by Israel, and every man fled to his tent.
2 Kings 14:13  Jehoash king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Jehoash the son of Ahaziah, at Bethshemesh. Then he came to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.
2 Kings 14:14  He took all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD and in the treasures of the king's house, and hostages as well, and he returned to Samaria.
2 Kings 14:15  The rest of the acts of Jehoash, and his might, and how he fought with Amaziah king of Judah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 Kings 14:16  Jehoash slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel. Jeroboam his son reigned in his place.
2 Kings 14:17  Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel.
2 Kings 14:18  The rest of the acts of Amaziah, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 14:19  They made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent men after him to Lachish and killed him there.
2 Kings 14:20  They brought him back on horses, and he was buried at Jerusalem with his fathers in the city of David.
2 Kings 14:21  All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2 Kings 14:22  He built Elath and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.
2 Kings 14:23  In the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah, Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in Samaria, and he reigned forty-one years.
2 Kings 14:24  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not turn away from any of the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
2 Kings 14:25  He restored the border of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the sea of the plain. This was according to the word of the LORD God of Israel, which he spoke through his servant Jonah, the son of Amittai, the prophet, who was from Gathhepher.
2 Kings 14:26  For the LORD saw the suffering of Israel, and it was very bitter. There was no one shut up and no one left, and there was no helper for Israel.
2 Kings 14:27  The LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven. So he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.
2 Kings 14:28  The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, and all that he did, and his might, how he made war, and how he recovered Damascus and Hamath, which belonged to Judah, for Israel, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 Kings 14:29  Jeroboam slept with his fathers, with the kings of Israel, and Zachariah his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 15:1  In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 15:2  He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.
2 Kings 15:3  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.
2 Kings 15:4  But the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.
2 Kings 15:5  The LORD struck the king, so that he was a leper until the day he died, and he lived in a separate house. Jotham the king's son was over the palace, and he judged the people of the land.
2 Kings 15:6  The rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 15:7  So Azariah slept with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the city of David. Jotham his son reigned in his place.
2 Kings 15:8  In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zachariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria for six months.
2 Kings 15:9  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his fathers had done. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
2 Kings 15:10  Shallum the son of Jabesh plotted against him. He struck him down in front of the people and killed him, and reigned in his place.
2 Kings 15:11  The rest of the acts of Zachariah are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
2 Kings 15:12  This was the word of the LORD which he spoke to Jehu: "Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation." And so it happened.
2 Kings 15:13  Shallum the son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, and he reigned a full month in Samaria.
2 Kings 15:14  For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah and came to Samaria. He struck down Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him, and reigned in his place.
2 Kings 15:15  The rest of the acts of Shallum, and the plot that he made, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
2 Kings 15:16  Then Menahem attacked Tiphsah and everyone in it, and its borders from Tirzah. He attacked it because they did not open the gates to him. And he ripped open all the pregnant women in it.
2 Kings 15:17  In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samaria.
2 Kings 15:18  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. All his days he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
2 Kings 15:19  Pul the king of Assyria came against the land. Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, so that Pul would help him and make the kingdom firm in his hand.
2 Kings 15:20  Menahem got the money from Israel, from all the wealthy and powerful men, fifty shekels of silver from each man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and did not stay there in the land.
2 Kings 15:21  The rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
2 Kings 15:22  Menahem slept with his fathers, and Pekahiah his son reigned in his place.
2 Kings 15:23  In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned two years.
2 Kings 15:24  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
2 Kings 15:25  But Pekah the son of Remaliah, one of his captains, plotted against him. He struck him down in Samaria, in the palace of the king's house, along with Argob and Arieh, and fifty men of Gilead were with him. He killed him and reigned in his place.
2 Kings 15:26  The rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
2 Kings 15:27  In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria, and he reigned twenty years.
2 Kings 15:28  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin.
2 Kings 15:29  In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglathpileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abelbethmaachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people away captive to Assyria.
2 Kings 15:30  Hoshea the son of Elah made a plot against Pekah the son of Remaliah. He struck him down and killed him, and reigned in his place, in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah.
2 Kings 15:31  The rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
2 Kings 15:32  In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 15:33  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha, the daughter of Zadok.
2 Kings 15:34  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD. He did just as his father Uzziah had done.
2 Kings 15:35  But the high places were not taken away. The people still sacrificed and burned incense in the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 15:36  Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 15:37  In those days the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.
2 Kings 15:38  Jotham slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father. Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 16:1  In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
2 Kings 16:2  Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God, as David his father had done.
2 Kings 16:3  Instead he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire, copying the disgusting practices of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel.
2 Kings 16:4  He sacrificed and burned incense at the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
2 Kings 16:5  Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to make war. They surrounded Ahaz, but they could not defeat him.
2 Kings 16:6  At that time Rezin king of Syria won back Elath for Syria, and drove the Jews out of Elath. The Syrians came to Elath and have lived there to this day.
2 Kings 16:7  So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, "I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria, and from the hand of the king of Israel, who have risen up against me."
2 Kings 16:8  Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 16:9  The king of Assyria listened to him. He went up against Damascus and took it. He carried its people away as captives to Kir, and killed Rezin.
2 Kings 16:10  King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and he saw an altar that was at Damascus. King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest a drawing of the altar and a pattern of it, showing all the work of it.
2 Kings 16:11  So Urijah the priest built an altar, just as king Ahaz had sent word from Damascus. Urijah the priest made it before king Ahaz came back from Damascus.
2 Kings 16:12  When the king came from Damascus, he saw the altar. The king went up to the altar and made offerings on it.
2 Kings 16:13  He burned his burnt offering and his grain offering, and poured out his drink offering, and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar.
2 Kings 16:14  He also moved the bronze altar, which was before the LORD, from the front of the house, from between the new altar and the house of the LORD, and he set it on the north side of the new altar.
2 Kings 16:15  King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, "On the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening grain offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice and his grain offering, together with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their grain offering and their drink offerings. Sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice. The bronze altar will be for me to seek guidance by."
2 Kings 16:16  So Urijah the priest did everything that king Ahaz commanded.
2 Kings 16:17  King Ahaz cut off the panels of the stands, and took the basin off them. He took the sea down from the bronze oxen that were under it, and set it on a pavement of stones.
2 Kings 16:18  Because of the king of Assyria, he also took away from the house of the LORD the covered walk for the sabbath that they had built in the house, and the king's outer entrance.
2 Kings 16:19  The rest of the acts of Ahaz, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 16:20  Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His son Hezekiah reigned in his place.

2 Kings 17:1  In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel. He reigned nine years.
2 Kings 17:2  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like the kings of Israel who were before him.
2 Kings 17:3  Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him. Hoshea became his servant and gave him gifts.
2 Kings 17:4  But the king of Assyria found out that Hoshea was plotting against him. For Hoshea had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and he brought no gift to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. So the king of Assyria shut him up and bound him in prison.
2 Kings 17:5  Then the king of Assyria came up through all the land. He went up to Samaria and laid siege to it for three years.
2 Kings 17:6  In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria. He carried Israel away into Assyria, and settled them in Halah, and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2 Kings 17:7  This happened because the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, out from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had feared other gods,
2 Kings 17:8  and had lived by the customs of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the children of Israel, and by the customs which the kings of Israel had made.
2 Kings 17:9  The children of Israel secretly did things that were not right against the LORD their God. They built themselves high places in all their cities, from the watchman's tower to the walled city.
2 Kings 17:10  They set up standing images and groves for themselves on every high hill and under every green tree.
2 Kings 17:11  There they burned incense in all the high places, as the nations did whom the LORD had carried away before them. They did wicked things that stirred up the LORD to anger.
2 Kings 17:12  They served idols, though the LORD had said to them, "You shall not do this thing."
2 Kings 17:13  Yet the LORD warned Israel and Judah by all the prophets and by all the seers, saying, "Turn from your evil ways. Keep my commandments and my statutes, following all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets."
2 Kings 17:14  But they would not listen. They made their necks stiff, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the LORD their God.
2 Kings 17:15  They refused his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and the warnings he gave them. They followed worthless things and became worthless themselves. They went after the nations around them, about whom the LORD had commanded them not to act as they did.
2 Kings 17:16  They left all the commandments of the LORD their God. They made metal images for themselves, two calves, and they made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
2 Kings 17:17  They made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire. They used divination and spells. They sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, and stirred him up to anger.
2 Kings 17:18  So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and he removed them out of his sight. No one was left but the tribe of Judah alone.
2 Kings 17:19  Judah also did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but lived by the customs which Israel had made.
2 Kings 17:20  So the LORD turned away from all the descendants of Israel. He brought trouble on them and handed them over to those who robbed them, until he had cast them out of his sight.
2 Kings 17:21  For he tore Israel away from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD, and made them commit a great sin.
2 Kings 17:22  The children of Israel followed all the sins of Jeroboam which he did. They did not turn away from them,
2 Kings 17:23  until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria, and they are there to this day.
2 Kings 17:24  The king of Assyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim. He settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the children of Israel. They took over Samaria and lived in its cities.
2 Kings 17:25  When they first lived there, they did not fear the LORD. So the LORD sent lions among them, which killed some of them.
2 Kings 17:26  So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations which you have moved and settled in the cities of Samaria do not know the way of the God of the land. So he has sent lions among them, and look, the lions are killing them, because they do not know the way of the God of the land."
2 Kings 17:27  Then the king of Assyria gave this command: "Take back there one of the priests whom you brought from there. Let him go and live there, and let him teach them the way of the God of the land."
2 Kings 17:28  So one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel. He taught them how they should fear the LORD.
2 Kings 17:29  But every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the shrines of the high places which the Samaritans had made. Every nation did this in the cities where they lived.
2 Kings 17:30  The men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima,
2 Kings 17:31  the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
2 Kings 17:32  So they feared the LORD, and also appointed from among the lowest of them priests of the high places, who offered sacrifices for them in the shrines of the high places.
2 Kings 17:33  They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, following the ways of the nations from which they had been carried away.
2 Kings 17:34  To this day they follow their old ways. They do not fear the LORD, and they do not follow the statutes, or the rules, or the law and commandment which the LORD commanded the children of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
2 Kings 17:35  The LORD had made a covenant with them and commanded them, saying, "You shall not fear other gods, or bow down to them, or serve them, or sacrifice to them."
2 Kings 17:36  But the LORD, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, him you shall fear, and him you shall worship, and to him you shall offer sacrifice.
2 Kings 17:37  You shall be careful to keep for ever the statutes, and the rules, and the law, and the commandment which he wrote for you. You shall not fear other gods.
2 Kings 17:38  You shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you, and you shall not fear other gods.
2 Kings 17:39  "But you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will save you out of the hand of all your enemies."
2 Kings 17:40  But they did not listen. They kept following their old ways.
2 Kings 17:41  So these nations feared the LORD, and served their carved images too. Their children and their children's children did the same. As their fathers did, so they do to this day.

2 Kings 18:1  In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign.
2 Kings 18:2  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi, the daughter of Zachariah.
2 Kings 18:3  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as David his father had done.
2 Kings 18:4  He took away the high places, broke the images, and cut down the groves. He broke into pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the children of Israel had burned incense to it. He called it Nehushtan.
2 Kings 18:5  He trusted in the LORD God of Israel. There was no king like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor any who came before him.
2 Kings 18:6  He held tightly to the LORD, and did not turn away from following him. He kept the commandments that the LORD had given to Moses.
2 Kings 18:7  The LORD was with him, and he did well wherever he went. He rebelled against the king of Assyria, and would not serve him.
2 Kings 18:8  He struck down the Philistines as far as Gaza and its borders, from the watchtower to the walled city.
2 Kings 18:9  In the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and surrounded it.
2 Kings 18:10  At the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken.
2 Kings 18:11  The king of Assyria carried Israel away to Assyria. He settled them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2 Kings 18:12  This happened because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God. They broke his covenant and all that Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded. They would not listen to these commands, and they would not do them.
2 Kings 18:13  In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the walled cities of Judah and took them.
2 Kings 18:14  Hezekiah king of Judah sent a message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, and said, "I have done wrong. Go away from me, and whatever you put on me I will carry." The king of Assyria demanded from Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
2 Kings 18:15  So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasuries of the king's house.
2 Kings 18:16  At that time Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the LORD, and from the pillars that he himself, Hezekiah king of Judah, had covered with gold, and he gave it to the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:17  The king of Assyria sent Tartan, Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army, against Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they stood by the water channel of the upper pool, which is on the road to the fuller's field.
2 Kings 18:18  They called for the king, and Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, came out to them, with Shebna the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder.
2 Kings 18:19  Rabshakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah, 'This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is this confidence of yours that you trust in?"
2 Kings 18:20  You say you have advice and strength for the war, but these are only empty words. Now who are you trusting in, that you rebel against me?
2 Kings 18:21  Look, you are trusting in Egypt, which is a broken reed for a walking stick. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.
2 Kings 18:22  But if you say to me, We trust in the LORD our God, is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away? Hezekiah has said to Judah and Jerusalem, You must worship before this altar in Jerusalem.
2 Kings 18:23  So now, make a bargain with my lord the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able to find riders to put on them.
2 Kings 18:24  How then can you drive back even one captain among the least of my master's servants? Yet you put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.
2 Kings 18:25  "Have I come up against this place to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD said to me, Go up against this land and destroy it.'"
2 Kings 18:26  Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, and Shebna, and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it. Do not talk with us in the Jews' language, where the people on the wall can hear."
2 Kings 18:27  But Rabshakeh said to them, "Has my master sent me to speak these words only to your master and to you? Has he not sent me to the men who sit on the wall, who will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?"
2 Kings 18:28  Then Rabshakeh stood and shouted with a loud voice in the Jews' language. He said, "Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria."
2 Kings 18:29  This is what the king says: 'Do not let Hezekiah fool you, for he will not be able to save you out of my hand.
2 Kings 18:30  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD, saying, The LORD will surely save us, and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.
2 Kings 18:31  Do not listen to Hezekiah.' For this is what the king of Assyria says: 'Make peace with me by giving me a gift, and come out to me. Then every man will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and every man will drink the water of his own well,
2 Kings 18:32  until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive oil and honey. Then you will live and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah when he persuades you, saying, The LORD will save us.
2 Kings 18:33  Has any of the gods of the nations ever saved his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria?
2 Kings 18:34  Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivah? Did they save Samaria out of my hand?
2 Kings 18:35  "Which of all the gods of these countries has saved his country out of my hand? How then could the LORD save Jerusalem out of my hand?'"
2 Kings 18:36  But the people kept quiet and did not answer him a word, for the king had commanded, "Do not answer him."
2 Kings 18:37  Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.

2 Kings 19:1  When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 19:2  He sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the chief priests, all covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
2 Kings 19:3  They said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: 'Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of insult against God. The children have come to the birth, but there is no strength to bring them out.'"
2 Kings 19:4  "'Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God. Perhaps he will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard. So lift up your prayer for the few who are left.'"
2 Kings 19:5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
2 Kings 19:6  Isaiah said to them, "Say this to your master: 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have insulted me."
2 Kings 19:7  "Look, I will send a blast upon him. He will hear a rumour and go back to his own land, and there in his own land I will make him fall by the sword.'"
2 Kings 19:8  So Rabshakeh went back, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
2 Kings 19:9  Then the king heard it said of Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "Look, he has come out to fight against you." So he sent messengers again to Hezekiah, saying,
2 Kings 19:10  "Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God, whom you trust, deceive you by telling you that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
2 Kings 19:11  Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the lands, destroying them completely. And will you be rescued?
2 Kings 19:12  Did the gods of the nations rescue those whom my fathers destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Thelasar?
2 Kings 19:13  "Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivah?'"
2 Kings 19:14  Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
2 Kings 19:15  Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD God of Israel, you who live between the cherubims, you alone are the God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth."
2 Kings 19:16  LORD, bend down your ear and hear. Open your eyes, LORD, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, who has sent this man to mock the living God.
2 Kings 19:17  It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
2 Kings 19:18  and have thrown their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the work of human hands, wood and stone. That is why they could destroy them.
2 Kings 19:19  "So now, O LORD our God, I beg you, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD God."
2 Kings 19:20  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'I have heard your prayer to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.'"
2 Kings 19:21  This is the word that the LORD has spoken about him: The virgin daughter of Zion has despised you and laughed at you. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
2 Kings 19:22  Whom have you mocked and insulted? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes so high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
2 Kings 19:23  By your messengers you have mocked the Lord, and have said, 'With my many chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the far sides of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedar trees and its finest fir trees. I will enter the furthest places where it ends, and the forest of its Carmel.
2 Kings 19:24  I have dug wells and drunk strange waters, and with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.'
2 Kings 19:25  Have you not heard? Long ago I did it. In ancient times I shaped it. Now I have brought it about, that you should lay waste walled cities into heaps of ruins.
2 Kings 19:26  So the people who lived in them had little power. They were dismayed and ashamed. They were like the grass of the field, like the green plants, like grass on the housetops, like grain blighted before it has grown.
2 Kings 19:27  But I know where you live, and when you go out and when you come in, and your rage against me.
2 Kings 19:28  Because your rage against me and your uproar have come up to my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way you came.
2 Kings 19:29  This will be the sign for you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and in the second year what springs up from that. But in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
2 Kings 19:30  Those left of the house of Judah who have escaped will once again take root downward and bear fruit upward.
2 Kings 19:31  For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and those who escape out of mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
2 Kings 19:32  So this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: He will not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there. He will not come before it with a shield, nor build a ramp against it.
2 Kings 19:33  By the way that he came, by that same way he will return. He will not come into this city, says the LORD.
2 Kings 19:34  "For I will defend this city and save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David."
2 Kings 19:35  That night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up early in the morning, look, all of them were dead bodies.
2 Kings 19:36  So Sennacherib king of Assyria left. He went back home and lived at Nineveh.
2 Kings 19:37  As he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Armenia. And Esarhaddon his son ruled in his place.

2 Kings 20:1  In those days Hezekiah became sick, and was near death. The prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: 'Set your house in order, for you will die and not live.'"
2 Kings 20:2  Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD. He said,
2 Kings 20:3  "I beg you, LORD, remember now how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done what is good in your sight." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
2 Kings 20:4  Before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him:
2 Kings 20:5  "Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the leader of my people, 'This is what the LORD, the God of David your father, says: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. On the third day you will go up to the house of the LORD.'"
2 Kings 20:6  "'And I will add fifteen years to your days. I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake, and for the sake of my servant David.'"
2 Kings 20:7  And Isaiah said, "Take a lump of figs." So they took it and laid it on the boil, and he got better.
2 Kings 20:8  Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "What will be the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I will go up to the house of the LORD on the third day?"
2 Kings 20:9  Isaiah said, "This is the sign the LORD will give you, that the LORD will do the thing he has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?"
2 Kings 20:10  Hezekiah answered, "It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees. No, let the shadow go back ten degrees instead."
2 Kings 20:11  So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the LORD, and he brought the shadow ten degrees back, down which it had already gone on the dial of Ahaz.
2 Kings 20:12  At that time Berodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick.
2 Kings 20:13  Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house where he kept his precious things: the silver, the gold, the spices, the fine ointment, and all the house of his armour, and everything that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house, or in all his kingdom, that Hezekiah did not show them.
2 Kings 20:14  Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say? And where did they come from to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come from a far country, from Babylon."
2 Kings 20:15  And he said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen everything that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
2 Kings 20:16  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD."
2 Kings 20:17  "Look, the days are coming when everything in your house, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the LORD."
2 Kings 20:18  "And they will take away some of your sons who will come from you, whom you will father, and they will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
2 Kings 20:19  Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." And he said, "Is it not good, if there is peace and truth in my days?"
2 Kings 20:20  The rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool and a channel and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 20:21  And Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 21:1  Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.
2 Kings 21:2  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He followed the disgusting practices of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel.
2 Kings 21:3  He built again the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed. He set up altars for Baal, and made a grove, just as Ahab king of Israel had done. He worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
2 Kings 21:4  He built altars in the house of the LORD, the house of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem I will put my name."
2 Kings 21:5  He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 21:6  He made his son pass through the fire. He watched for signs and times, and used magic, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards. He did much wickedness in the sight of the LORD, and provoked him to anger.
2 Kings 21:7  He set a carved image of the grove that he had made in the house, the house of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever."
2 Kings 21:8  "And I will not make the feet of Israel wander any more out of the land which I gave their fathers, if only they will be careful to do everything I have commanded them, and follow all the law that my servant Moses commanded them."
2 Kings 21:9  But they did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel.
2 Kings 21:10  The LORD spoke by his servants the prophets, saying,
2 Kings 21:11  "Manasseh king of Judah has done these disgusting things. He has done more wickedly than all that the Amorites did before him, and he has made Judah sin with his idols."
2 Kings 21:12  "So this is what the LORD God of Israel says: Look, I am bringing such trouble on Jerusalem and Judah that both ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle."
2 Kings 21:13  "I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria, and the plumb line of the house of Ahab. I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down."
2 Kings 21:14  "I will abandon the rest of my inheritance, and hand them over to their enemies. They will become plunder and spoil for all their enemies,"
2 Kings 21:15  "because they have done what was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, from the day their fathers came out of Egypt until this day."
2 Kings 21:16  What is more, Manasseh shed a great deal of innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to the other. This was besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, doing what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
2 Kings 21:17  The rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and the sin that he sinned, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 21:18  Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And Amon his son reigned in his place.
2 Kings 21:19  Amon was twenty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth, the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah.
2 Kings 21:20  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done.
2 Kings 21:21  He walked in all the ways his father had walked in. He served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them.
2 Kings 21:22  He abandoned the LORD God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the LORD.
2 Kings 21:23  The servants of Amon plotted against him, and killed the king in his own house.
2 Kings 21:24  But the people of the land killed all those who had plotted against king Amon. And the people of the land made Josiah his son king in his place.
2 Kings 21:25  The rest of the acts of Amon, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 21:26  He was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. And Josiah his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 22:1  Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath.
2 Kings 22:2  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD. He walked in all the way of David his father, and did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
2 Kings 22:3  In the eighteenth year of king Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the scribe, the son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, to the house of the LORD. He said,
2 Kings 22:4  "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let him count the silver that is brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the door have gathered from the people."
2 Kings 22:5  "Let them hand it over to the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD. And let those men give it to the workmen who are in the house of the LORD, to mend the broken parts of the house."
2 Kings 22:6  "Let it go to the carpenters, the builders and the masons, and for buying timber and cut stone to repair the house."
2 Kings 22:7  But no account was asked from them for the money that was handed to them, because they acted faithfully.
2 Kings 22:8  Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD." Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
2 Kings 22:9  Shaphan the scribe came to the king and brought word back to him. He said, "Your servants have gathered up the money that was found in the house, and have handed it over to the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD."
2 Kings 22:10  Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king.
2 Kings 22:11  When the king heard the words of the book of the law, he tore his clothes.
2 Kings 22:12  The king gave a command to Hilkiah the priest, and to Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and to Achbor the son of Michaiah, and to Shaphan the scribe, and to Asahiah a servant of the king. He said,
2 Kings 22:13  "Go and ask the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, about the words of this book that has been found. For great is the anger of the LORD that is burning against us, because our fathers did not listen to the words of this book, to do everything that is written about us."
2 Kings 22:14  So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, and Shaphan, and Asahiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the second part of the city. And they talked with her.
2 Kings 22:15  She said to them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Tell the man who sent you to me,"
2 Kings 22:16  "this is what the LORD says: Look, I will bring disaster on this place and on the people who live here, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read."
2 Kings 22:17  "They have left me, and have burned incense to other gods, so that they made me angry with all the works of their hands. So my anger will burn against this place, and it will not be put out."
2 Kings 22:18  "But to the king of Judah, who sent you to ask the LORD, you will say this: This is what the LORD God of Israel says about the words that you have heard:"
2 Kings 22:19  "Your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I spoke against this place and against the people who live here, that they would become a waste and a curse. You tore your clothes and wept before me. And I also have heard you, says the LORD."
2 Kings 22:20  "So look, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered into your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place." And they brought word back to the king.

2 Kings 23:1  The king sent word, and they gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2 Kings 23:2  The king went up to the house of the LORD. All the men of Judah and all the people living in Jerusalem went with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, small and great. He read aloud to them all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 23:3  The king stood by a pillar and made a covenant before the LORD: to follow the LORD, and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all their heart and all their soul, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people agreed to stand by the covenant.
2 Kings 23:4  The king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, and the priests of the second order, and the keepers of the door, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that had been made for Baal, and for the grove, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.
2 Kings 23:5  He put an end to the idol priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense at the high places in the cities of Judah and in the places around Jerusalem. He also put an end to those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the planets, and to all the host of heaven.
2 Kings 23:6  He brought the grove out from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron. He ground it small into powder, and threw the powder on the graves of the common people.
2 Kings 23:7  He broke down the houses of the sodomites, which were by the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the grove.
2 Kings 23:8  He brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and made the high places unclean where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba. He broke down the high places at the gates, at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on a man's left hand at the city gate.
2 Kings 23:9  But the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem. They only ate the unleavened bread among their brothers.
2 Kings 23:10  He made Topheth unclean, which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom, so that no one could make his son or his daughter pass through the fire to Molech.
2 Kings 23:11  He took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the room of Nathanmelech the officer, which was in the outer part. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
2 Kings 23:12  The altars on the roof of the upper room of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king beat down. He broke them down from there, and threw their dust into the brook Kidron.
2 Kings 23:13  The king also made unclean the high places that were east of Jerusalem, on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon.
2 Kings 23:14  He broke the images in pieces, and cut down the groves, and filled their places with the bones of men.
2 Kings 23:15  He also broke down the altar that was at Bethel and the high place made by Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. He broke down both that altar and the high place. He burned the high place and ground it small into powder, and burned the grove.
2 Kings 23:16  As Josiah turned around, he saw the tombs that were there on the hill. He sent and took the bones out of the tombs and burned them on the altar, and so made it unclean. This was according to the word of the LORD which the man of God had proclaimed, who proclaimed these words.
2 Kings 23:17  Then he said, "What monument is that which I see?" And the men of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things that you have done against the altar of Bethel."
2 Kings 23:18  He said, "Leave him alone. Let no one move his bones." So they left his bones alone, along with the bones of the prophet who came out of Samaria.
2 Kings 23:19  Josiah also took away all the buildings of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger. He did to them just as he had done in Bethel.
2 Kings 23:20  He killed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
2 Kings 23:21  The king commanded all the people, "Keep the passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in the book of this covenant."
2 Kings 23:22  No such passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, nor in all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah.
2 Kings 23:23  But in the eighteenth year of king Josiah this passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.
2 Kings 23:24  Josiah also removed those who worked with familiar spirits, and the wizards, and the images, and the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem. He did this to carry out the words of the law written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
2 Kings 23:25  There was no king like him before him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses. And after him no one rose up like him.
2 Kings 23:26  Even so, the LORD did not turn from the fierceness of his great wrath. His anger burned against Judah because of all the ways Manasseh had provoked him.
2 Kings 23:27  The LORD said, "I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel. I will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, 'My name shall be there.'"
2 Kings 23:28  The rest of the acts of Josiah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2 Kings 23:29  In his days Pharaohnechoh king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went out against him, and Pharaohnechoh killed him at Megiddo when he saw him.
2 Kings 23:30  His servants carried his body in a chariot from Megiddo and brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and anointed him, and made him king in place of his father.
2 Kings 23:31  Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2 Kings 23:32  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.
2 Kings 23:33  Pharaohnechoh put him in chains at Riblah in the land of Hamath, so that he could not reign in Jerusalem. He also made the land pay a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
2 Kings 23:34  Pharaohnechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in place of Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz away, and he came to Egypt and died there.
2 Kings 23:35  Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to raise the money as Pharaoh commanded. He demanded the silver and the gold from the people of the land, from each one according to his tax, to give it to Pharaohnechoh.
2 Kings 23:36  Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebudah, the daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
2 Kings 23:37  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his fathers had done.

2 Kings 24:1  In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land. Jehoiakim served him for three years. Then he turned and rebelled against him.
2 Kings 24:2  The LORD sent bands of the Chaldeans against him, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the people of Ammon. He sent them against Judah to destroy it. This was what the LORD had said through his servants the prophets.
2 Kings 24:3  Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the LORD, to remove them out of his sight. It came because of the sins of Manasseh, and all that he did,
2 Kings 24:4  and also because of the innocent blood that he shed. He filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD would not pardon it.
2 Kings 24:5  The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and all that he did, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah.
2 Kings 24:6  So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son became king in his place.
2 Kings 24:7  The king of Egypt did not come out of his land again. The king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
2 Kings 24:8  Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. His mother's name was Nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
2 Kings 24:9  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as his father had done.
2 Kings 24:10  At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Jerusalem, and the city was under siege.
2 Kings 24:11  Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against the city while his servants were besieging it.
2 Kings 24:12  Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, with his mother, his servants, his princes and his officers. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of his own reign.
2 Kings 24:13  He carried away from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house. He cut in pieces all the gold vessels that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said.
2 Kings 24:14  He carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of war, ten thousand captives in all, and all the craftsmen and metalworkers. No one was left except the poorest people of the land.
2 Kings 24:15  He carried Jehoiachin away to Babylon. He also took the king's mother, the king's wives, his officers, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
2 Kings 24:16  All the men of might, seven thousand of them, and a thousand craftsmen and metalworkers, all of them strong and fit for war, the king of Babylon brought as captives to Babylon.
2 Kings 24:17  The king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin's father's brother, king in his place, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
2 Kings 24:18  Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
2 Kings 24:19  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
2 Kings 24:20  Because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

2 Kings 25:1  In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem. He camped against it, and they built forts all around it.
2 Kings 25:2  So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
2 Kings 25:3  On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the people of the land.
2 Kings 25:4  Then the city was broken into, and all the fighting men fled by night through the gate between the two walls, which is by the king's garden. The Chaldeans were all around the city. And the king went toward the plain.
2 Kings 25:5  But the army of the Chaldeans chased after the king, and caught up with him in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered away from him.
2 Kings 25:6  So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.
2 Kings 25:7  They killed the sons of Zedekiah in front of his eyes, and put out Zedekiah's eyes. They bound him with chains of brass and carried him to Babylon.
2 Kings 25:8  In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan came to Jerusalem. He was the captain of the guard and a servant of the king of Babylon.
2 Kings 25:9  He burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned every great man's house with fire.
2 Kings 25:10  And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down the walls all around Jerusalem.
2 Kings 25:11  Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowd.
2 Kings 25:12  But the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land to tend the vines and till the ground.
2 Kings 25:13  The Chaldeans broke in pieces the pillars of brass that were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was in the house of the LORD, and they carried the brass of them to Babylon.
2 Kings 25:14  They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the spoons, and all the vessels of brass that were used in the service.
2 Kings 25:15  The captain of the guard took away the firepans and the bowls, and whatever was of gold, as gold, and whatever was of silver, as silver.
2 Kings 25:16  The two pillars, the one sea, and the bases which Solomon had made for the house of the LORD: the brass of all these vessels was too much to weigh.
2 Kings 25:17  The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and the top on it was brass. The height of the top was three cubits, with network and pomegranates all around the top, all of brass. The second pillar was like these, with network as well.
2 Kings 25:18  The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door.
2 Kings 25:19  Out of the city he took an officer who was set over the fighting men, and five men who served in the king's presence and were found in the city, and the chief scribe of the army, who called up the people of the land, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the city.
2 Kings 25:20  Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took these men and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
2 Kings 25:21  And the king of Babylon struck them down and killed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away out of their land.
2 Kings 25:22  As for the people who remained in the land of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left, he made Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ruler over them.
2 Kings 25:23  When all the captains of the armies and their men heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. They were Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, Johanan the son of Careah, Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of a Maachathite, they and their men.
2 Kings 25:24  Gedaliah made a promise on oath to them and to their men, and said to them, "Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you."
2 Kings 25:25  But in the seventh month Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of the royal family, came with ten men, and they struck Gedaliah down and he died. They also killed the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.
2 Kings 25:26  Then all the people, small and great, and the captains of the armies, got up and went to Egypt, because they were afraid of the Chaldeans.
2 Kings 25:27  In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.
2 Kings 25:28  He spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
2 Kings 25:29  So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and he ate bread at the king's table all the days of his life.
2 Kings 25:30  And the king gave him a regular allowance, a portion for each day, all the days of his life.

1 Chronicles

1 Chronicles 1:1  Adam, Sheth, Enosh,
1 Chronicles 1:2  Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered,
1 Chronicles 1:3  Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech,
1 Chronicles 1:4  Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
1 Chronicles 1:5  The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.
1 Chronicles 1:6  The sons of Gomer: Ashchenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah.
1 Chronicles 1:7  The sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
1 Chronicles 1:8  The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
1 Chronicles 1:9  The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raamah, and Sabtecha. The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.
1 Chronicles 1:10  Cush was the father of Nimrod. He began to be mighty on the earth.
1 Chronicles 1:11  Mizraim was the father of Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim,
1 Chronicles 1:12  Pathrusim, Casluhim (the Philistines came from them), and Caphthorim.
1 Chronicles 1:13  Canaan was the father of Zidon, his firstborn, and of Heth,
1 Chronicles 1:14  and of the Jebusite, the Amorite, the Girgashite,
1 Chronicles 1:15  the Hivite, the Arkite, the Sinite,
1 Chronicles 1:16  the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite.
1 Chronicles 1:17  The sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram, Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshech.
1 Chronicles 1:18  Arphaxad was the father of Shelah, and Shelah was the father of Eber.
1 Chronicles 1:19  Two sons were born to Eber. One was named Peleg, because in his days the earth was divided. His brother was named Joktan.
1 Chronicles 1:20  Joktan was the father of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
1 Chronicles 1:21  Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
1 Chronicles 1:22  Ebal, Abimael, Sheba,
1 Chronicles 1:23  Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan.
1 Chronicles 1:24  Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah,
1 Chronicles 1:25  Eber, Peleg, Reu,
1 Chronicles 1:26  Serug, Nahor, Terah,
1 Chronicles 1:27  Abram, who is Abraham.
1 Chronicles 1:28  The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.
1 Chronicles 1:29  These are the family lines. The firstborn of Ishmael was Nebaioth. Then came Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
1 Chronicles 1:30  Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema,
1 Chronicles 1:31  Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael.
1 Chronicles 1:32  These are the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine. She gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. The sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.
1 Chronicles 1:33  The sons of Midian: Ephah, Epher, Henoch, Abida, and Eldaah. All these are the sons of Keturah.
1 Chronicles 1:34  Abraham was the father of Isaac. The sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel.
1 Chronicles 1:35  The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jaalam, and Korah.
1 Chronicles 1:36  The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zephi, Gatam, Kenaz, Timna, and Amalek.
1 Chronicles 1:37  The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.
1 Chronicles 1:38  The sons of Seir: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, and Dishan.
1 Chronicles 1:39  The sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam. Timna was Lotan's sister.
1 Chronicles 1:40  The sons of Shobal: Alian, Manahath, Ebal, Shephi, and Onam. The sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah.
1 Chronicles 1:41  The son of Anah: Dishon. The sons of Dishon: Amram, Eshban, Ithran, and Cheran.
1 Chronicles 1:42  The sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zavan, and Jakan. The sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
1 Chronicles 1:43  These are the kings who ruled in the land of Edom before any king ruled over the children of Israel: Bela the son of Beor, and his city was named Dinhabah.
1 Chronicles 1:44  When Bela died, Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah ruled in his place.
1 Chronicles 1:45  When Jobab died, Husham from the land of the Temanites ruled in his place.
1 Chronicles 1:46  When Husham died, Hadad the son of Bedad ruled in his place. He struck down Midian in the field of Moab, and his city was named Avith.
1 Chronicles 1:47  When Hadad died, Samlah of Masrekah ruled in his place.
1 Chronicles 1:48  When Samlah died, Shaul of Rehoboth by the river ruled in his place.
1 Chronicles 1:49  When Shaul died, Baalhanan the son of Achbor ruled in his place.
1 Chronicles 1:50  When Baalhanan died, Hadad ruled in his place. His city was named Pai, and his wife was named Mehetabel. She was the daughter of Matred, the daughter of Mezahab.
1 Chronicles 1:51  Hadad died too. The dukes of Edom were: duke Timnah, duke Aliah, duke Jetheth,
1 Chronicles 1:52  duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon,
1 Chronicles 1:53  duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar,
1 Chronicles 1:54  duke Magdiel, duke Iram. These are the dukes of Edom.

1 Chronicles 2:1  These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun,
1 Chronicles 2:2  Dan, Joseph, and Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
1 Chronicles 2:3  The sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah. These three were born to him by the daughter of Shua, a woman of Canaan. Er, the firstborn of Judah, was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD killed him.
1 Chronicles 2:4  Tamar, his daughter-in-law, gave birth to Pharez and Zerah for him. In all, Judah had five sons.
1 Chronicles 2:5  The sons of Pharez: Hezron and Hamul.
1 Chronicles 2:6  The sons of Zerah: Zimri, and Ethan, and Heman, and Calcol, and Dara - five of them in all.
1 Chronicles 2:7  The sons of Carmi: Achar, who brought trouble on Israel, because he sinned by taking what was set apart for destruction.
1 Chronicles 2:8  The sons of Ethan: Azariah.
1 Chronicles 2:9  The sons born to Hezron: Jerahmeel, and Ram, and Chelubai.
1 Chronicles 2:10  Ram was the father of Amminadab, and Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, a leader of the people of Judah.
1 Chronicles 2:11  Nahshon was the father of Salma, and Salma was the father of Boaz,
1 Chronicles 2:12  and Boaz was the father of Obed, and Obed was the father of Jesse,
1 Chronicles 2:13  and Jesse was the father of Eliab his firstborn, Abinadab the second, Shimma the third,
1 Chronicles 2:14  Nethaneel the fourth, Raddai the fifth,
1 Chronicles 2:15  Ozem the sixth, David the seventh.
1 Chronicles 2:16  Their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. The sons of Zeruiah: Abishai, and Joab, and Asahel - three of them.
1 Chronicles 2:17  Abigail gave birth to Amasa. The father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.
1 Chronicles 2:18  Caleb the son of Hezron had children by Azubah his wife, and by Jerioth. These were her sons: Jesher, and Shobab, and Ardon.
1 Chronicles 2:19  When Azubah died, Caleb married Ephrath, and she gave birth to Hur for him.
1 Chronicles 2:20  Hur was the father of Uri, and Uri was the father of Bezaleel.
1 Chronicles 2:21  Afterward Hezron went in to the daughter of Machir, the father of Gilead. He married her when he was sixty years old, and she gave birth to Segub for him.
1 Chronicles 2:22  Segub was the father of Jair, who had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.
1 Chronicles 2:23  But Geshur and Aram took from them the towns of Jair, with Kenath and its towns - sixty cities in all. All these belonged to the sons of Machir, the father of Gilead.
1 Chronicles 2:24  After Hezron died in Caleb-ephratah, Abiah, Hezron's wife, gave birth to Ashur for him. Ashur was the father of Tekoa.
1 Chronicles 2:25  The sons of Jerahmeel, the firstborn of Hezron, were Ram the firstborn, and Bunah, and Oren, and Ozem, and Ahijah.
1 Chronicles 2:26  Jerahmeel also had another wife, whose name was Atarah. She was the mother of Onam.
1 Chronicles 2:27  The sons of Ram, the firstborn of Jerahmeel, were Maaz, and Jamin, and Eker.
1 Chronicles 2:28  The sons of Onam were Shammai and Jada. The sons of Shammai: Nadab and Abishur.
1 Chronicles 2:29  The name of Abishur's wife was Abihail, and she gave birth to Ahban and Molid for him.
1 Chronicles 2:30  The sons of Nadab: Seled and Appaim. But Seled died without children.
1 Chronicles 2:31  The sons of Appaim: Ishi. The sons of Ishi: Sheshan. The children of Sheshan: Ahlai.
1 Chronicles 2:32  The sons of Jada, the brother of Shammai: Jether and Jonathan. Jether died without children.
1 Chronicles 2:33  The sons of Jonathan: Peleth and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel.
1 Chronicles 2:34  Now Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. Sheshan had a servant, an Egyptian, whose name was Jarha.
1 Chronicles 2:35  Sheshan gave his daughter to Jarha his servant as his wife, and she gave birth to Attai for him.
1 Chronicles 2:36  Attai was the father of Nathan, and Nathan was the father of Zabad,
1 Chronicles 2:37  and Zabad was the father of Ephlal, and Ephlal was the father of Obed,
1 Chronicles 2:38  and Obed was the father of Jehu, and Jehu was the father of Azariah,
1 Chronicles 2:39  and Azariah was the father of Helez, and Helez was the father of Eleasah,
1 Chronicles 2:40  and Eleasah was the father of Sisamai, and Sisamai was the father of Shallum,
1 Chronicles 2:41  and Shallum was the father of Jekamiah, and Jekamiah was the father of Elishama.
1 Chronicles 2:42  The sons of Caleb, the brother of Jerahmeel, were Mesha his firstborn, who was the father of Ziph, and the sons of Mareshah, the father of Hebron.
1 Chronicles 2:43  The sons of Hebron: Korah, and Tappuah, and Rekem, and Shema.
1 Chronicles 2:44  Shema was the father of Raham, the father of Jorkoam. Rekem was the father of Shammai.
1 Chronicles 2:45  The son of Shammai was Maon, and Maon was the father of Bethzur.
1 Chronicles 2:46  Ephah, Caleb's concubine, gave birth to Haran, and Moza, and Gazez. Haran was the father of Gazez.
1 Chronicles 2:47  The sons of Jahdai: Regem, and Jotham, and Geshan, and Pelet, and Ephah, and Shaaph.
1 Chronicles 2:48  Maachah, Caleb's concubine, gave birth to Sheber and Tirhanah.
1 Chronicles 2:49  She also gave birth to Shaaph the father of Madmannah, and Sheva the father of Machbenah and father of Gibea. The daughter of Caleb was Achsah.
1 Chronicles 2:50  These were the sons of Caleb the son of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah: Shobal the father of Kirjath-jearim,
1 Chronicles 2:51  Salma the father of Bethlehem, and Hareph the father of Beth-gader.
1 Chronicles 2:52  Shobal the father of Kirjath-jearim had sons: Haroeh, and half of the Manahethites.
1 Chronicles 2:53  The families of Kirjath-jearim were the Ithrites, and the Puhites, and the Shumathites, and the Mishraites. From them came the Zareathites and the Eshtaulites.
1 Chronicles 2:54  The sons of Salma: Bethlehem, and the Netophathites, Ataroth, the house of Joab, and half of the Manahethites, the Zorites.
1 Chronicles 2:55  The families of the scribes who lived at Jabez were the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Suchathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.

1 Chronicles 3:1  These were the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron. The firstborn was Amnon, whose mother was Ahinoam from Jezreel. The second was Daniel, whose mother was Abigail from Carmel.
1 Chronicles 3:2  The third was Absalom, the son of Maachah, the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur. The fourth was Adonijah, the son of Haggith.
1 Chronicles 3:3  The fifth was Shephatiah, whose mother was Abital. The sixth was Ithream, by his wife Eglah.
1 Chronicles 3:4  These six were born to him in Hebron. There he ruled as king for seven years and six months. In Jerusalem he ruled for thirty-three years.
1 Chronicles 3:5  These were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan and Solomon, four of them, whose mother was Bathshua the daughter of Ammiel.
1 Chronicles 3:6  There were also Ibhar, Elishama and Eliphelet,
1 Chronicles 3:7  Nogah, Nepheg and Japhia,
1 Chronicles 3:8  Elishama, Eliada and Eliphelet, nine in all.
1 Chronicles 3:9  These were all the sons of David, besides the sons of his concubines. Tamar was their sister.
1 Chronicles 3:10  Solomon's son was Rehoboam. His son was Abia, his son Asa, his son Jehoshaphat,
1 Chronicles 3:11  his son Joram, his son Ahaziah, his son Joash,
1 Chronicles 3:12  his son Amaziah, his son Azariah, his son Jotham,
1 Chronicles 3:13  his son Ahaz, his son Hezekiah, his son Manasseh,
1 Chronicles 3:14  his son Amon, his son Josiah.
1 Chronicles 3:15  The sons of Josiah were these: the firstborn Johanan, the second Jehoiakim, the third Zedekiah, the fourth Shallum.
1 Chronicles 3:16  The sons of Jehoiakim were Jeconiah his son and Zedekiah his son.
1 Chronicles 3:17  The sons of Jeconiah were Assir, and Salathiel his son,
1 Chronicles 3:18  and also Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazar, Jecamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah.
1 Chronicles 3:19  The sons of Pedaiah were Zerubbabel and Shimei. The sons of Zerubbabel were Meshullam and Hananiah, and Shelomith was their sister.
1 Chronicles 3:20  There were also Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah and Jushabhesed, five in all.
1 Chronicles 3:21  The sons of Hananiah were Pelatiah and Jesaiah, with the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah and the sons of Shechaniah.
1 Chronicles 3:22  The son of Shechaniah was Shemaiah. The sons of Shemaiah were Hattush, Igeal, Bariah, Neariah and Shaphat, six in all.
1 Chronicles 3:23  The sons of Neariah were Elioenai, Hezekiah and Azrikam, three in all.
1 Chronicles 3:24  The sons of Elioenai were Hodaiah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Dalaiah and Anani, seven in all.

1 Chronicles 4:1  The sons of Judah: Pharez, Hezron, and Carmi, and Hur, and Shobal.
1 Chronicles 4:2  Reaiah the son of Shobal was the father of Jahath. Jahath was the father of Ahumai and Lahad. These are the families of the Zorathites.
1 Chronicles 4:3  These were the sons of the father of Etam: Jezreel, and Ishma, and Idbash. The name of their sister was Hazelelponi.
1 Chronicles 4:4  And Penuel was the father of Gedor, and Ezer the father of Hushah. These are the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephratah, the father of Bethlehem.
1 Chronicles 4:5  Ashur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah.
1 Chronicles 4:6  Naarah bore him Ahuzam, and Hepher, and Temeni, and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah.
1 Chronicles 4:7  The sons of Helah were Zereth, and Jezoar, and Ethnan.
1 Chronicles 4:8  And Coz was the father of Anub, and Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum.
1 Chronicles 4:9  Jabez was more honoured than his brothers. His mother named him Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him with sorrow."
1 Chronicles 4:10  Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh, that you would truly bless me, and make my border larger, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, so that it may not grieve me." And God gave him what he asked for.
1 Chronicles 4:11  Chelub the brother of Shuah was the father of Mehir, who was the father of Eshton.
1 Chronicles 4:12  Eshton was the father of Bethrapha, and Paseah, and Tehinnah the father of Irnahash. These are the men of Rechah.
1 Chronicles 4:13  The sons of Kenaz: Othniel and Seraiah. The sons of Othniel: Hathath.
1 Chronicles 4:14  Meonothai was the father of Ophrah. Seraiah was the father of Joab, the father of the valley of Charashim, for they were craftsmen.
1 Chronicles 4:15  The sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah, and Naam. And the sons of Elah: Kenaz.
1 Chronicles 4:16  The sons of Jehaleleel: Ziph, and Ziphah, Tiria, and Asareel.
1 Chronicles 4:17  The sons of Ezra were Jether, and Mered, and Epher, and Jalon. And she bore Miriam, and Shammai, and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa.
1 Chronicles 4:18  His wife Jehudijah bore Jered the father of Gedor, and Heber the father of Socho, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. And these are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered married.
1 Chronicles 4:19  The sons of his wife Hodiah, the sister of Naham: the father of Keilah the Garmite, and Eshtemoa the Maachathite.
1 Chronicles 4:20  The sons of Shimon were Amnon, and Rinnah, Benhanan, and Tilon. The sons of Ishi were Zoheth and Benzoheth.
1 Chronicles 4:21  The sons of Shelah the son of Judah were Er the father of Lecah, and Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of those who made fine linen, of the house of Ashbea,
1 Chronicles 4:22  and Jokim, and the men of Chozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who ruled in Moab, and Jashubilehem. And these are ancient things.
1 Chronicles 4:23  These were the potters, and those who lived among plants and hedges. They lived there with the king for his work.
1 Chronicles 4:24  The sons of Simeon were Nemuel, and Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, and Shaul.
1 Chronicles 4:25  Shallum was his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son.
1 Chronicles 4:26  The sons of Mishma: Hamuel his son, Zacchur his son, Shimei his son.
1 Chronicles 4:27  Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many children, and none of their family grew as large as the children of Judah.
1 Chronicles 4:28  They lived at Beersheba, and Moladah, and Hazarshual,
1 Chronicles 4:29  and at Bilhah, and at Ezem, and at Tolad,
1 Chronicles 4:30  and at Bethuel, and at Hormah, and at Ziklag,
1 Chronicles 4:31  and at Bethmarcaboth, and Hazarsusim, and at Bethbirei, and at Shaaraim. These were their cities until the reign of David.
1 Chronicles 4:32  Their villages were Etam, and Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen, and Ashan, five cities,
1 Chronicles 4:33  and all their villages that were round about those cities, as far as Baal. These were the places where they lived, and this was their family record.
1 Chronicles 4:34  And Meshobab, and Jamlech, and Joshah the son of Amaziah,
1 Chronicles 4:35  and Joel, and Jehu the son of Josibiah, the son of Seraiah, the son of Asiel,
1 Chronicles 4:36  and Elioenai, and Jaakobah, and Jeshohaiah, and Asaiah, and Adiel, and Jesimiel, and Benaiah,
1 Chronicles 4:37  and Ziza the son of Shiphi, the son of Allon, the son of Jedaiah, the son of Shimri, the son of Shemaiah.
1 Chronicles 4:38  These men, named here, were leaders in their families, and the house of their fathers grew greatly.
1 Chronicles 4:39  They went to the entrance of Gedor, to the east side of the valley, to look for pasture for their flocks.
1 Chronicles 4:40  They found rich, good pasture, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceful, for the people of Ham had lived there long ago.
1 Chronicles 4:41  These men, written here by name, came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. They struck down the tents and the homes that were found there, and destroyed them completely, as it is to this day, and they lived in their place, because there was pasture there for their flocks.
1 Chronicles 4:42  And some of them, of the sons of Simeon, five hundred men, went to mount Seir. Their captains were Pelatiah, and Neariah, and Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi.
1 Chronicles 4:43  They struck down the rest of the Amalekites who had escaped, and they have lived there to this day.

1 Chronicles 5:1  Now these are the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel. He was the firstborn, but he defiled his father's bed, so his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph the son of Israel. So the family line is not counted by the birthright.
1 Chronicles 5:2  For Judah became stronger than his brothers, and the chief ruler came from him. But the birthright was Joseph's.
1 Chronicles 5:3  The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel were Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.
1 Chronicles 5:4  The sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,
1 Chronicles 5:5  Micah his son, Reaia his son, Baal his son,
1 Chronicles 5:6  Beerah his son, whom Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria carried away as a captive. He was prince of the Reubenites.
1 Chronicles 5:7  His brothers, by their families, when their family line was written down, were these: Jeiel the chief, and Zechariah,
1 Chronicles 5:8  and Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who lived in Aroer, as far as Nebo and Baalmeon.
1 Chronicles 5:9  To the east he lived as far as the edge of the desert that reaches from the river Euphrates, because their cattle had grown many in the land of Gilead.
1 Chronicles 5:10  In the days of Saul they made war with the Hagarites, who fell by their hand. And they lived in their tents throughout all the land east of Gilead.
1 Chronicles 5:11  The children of Gad lived opposite them, in the land of Bashan as far as Salchah.
1 Chronicles 5:12  Joel was the chief, and Shapham was next, and Jaanai, and Shaphat in Bashan.
1 Chronicles 5:13  Their brothers, by their fathers' houses, were Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jachan, Zia, and Heber: seven of them.
1 Chronicles 5:14  These are the children of Abihail the son of Huri, the son of Jaroah, the son of Gilead, the son of Michael, the son of Jeshishai, the son of Jahdo, the son of Buz.
1 Chronicles 5:15  Ahi the son of Abdiel, the son of Guni, was chief of their fathers' house.
1 Chronicles 5:16  They lived in Gilead in Bashan, and in its towns, and in all the open lands of Sharon, as far as their borders.
1 Chronicles 5:17  All these were written down in the family lists in the days of Jotham king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam king of Israel.
1 Chronicles 5:18  The sons of Reuben, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh had brave men, men able to carry shield and sword, and to shoot with the bow, and skilled in war. There were forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty of them who went out to war.
1 Chronicles 5:19  They made war with the Hagarites, with Jetur, Nephish, and Nodab.
1 Chronicles 5:20  They were helped against them, and the Hagarites were given into their hand, with all who were with them. For they cried to God in the battle, and he listened to them, because they put their trust in him.
1 Chronicles 5:21  They took away their cattle: fifty thousand of their camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, two thousand donkeys, and a hundred thousand people.
1 Chronicles 5:22  For many fell down dead, because the war was of God. And they lived in their place until the captivity.
1 Chronicles 5:23  The children of the half tribe of Manasseh lived in the land. They grew many, from Bashan to Baalhermon and Senir, and to mount Hermon.
1 Chronicles 5:24  These were the heads of their fathers' house: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, and Jahdiel. They were mighty men of valour, famous men, and heads of their fathers' house.
1 Chronicles 5:25  But they sinned against the God of their fathers, and went after the gods of the people of the land like a woman being unfaithful. Yet God had destroyed those people before them.
1 Chronicles 5:26  So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria. He carried them away, that is, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them to Halah, Habor, Hara, and the river Gozan, where they are to this day.

1 Chronicles 6:1  The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
1 Chronicles 6:2  The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
1 Chronicles 6:3  The children of Amram: Aaron, Moses, and Miriam. The sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
1 Chronicles 6:4  Eleazar was the father of Phinehas. Phinehas was the father of Abishua.
1 Chronicles 6:5  Abishua was the father of Bukki. Bukki was the father of Uzzi.
1 Chronicles 6:6  Uzzi was the father of Zerahiah. Zerahiah was the father of Meraioth.
1 Chronicles 6:7  Meraioth was the father of Amariah. Amariah was the father of Ahitub.
1 Chronicles 6:8  Ahitub was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Ahimaaz.
1 Chronicles 6:9  Ahimaaz was the father of Azariah. Azariah was the father of Johanan.
1 Chronicles 6:10  Johanan was the father of Azariah. (This is the one who served as priest in the temple that Solomon built in Jerusalem.)
1 Chronicles 6:11  Azariah was the father of Amariah. Amariah was the father of Ahitub.
1 Chronicles 6:12  Ahitub was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Shallum.
1 Chronicles 6:13  Shallum was the father of Hilkiah. Hilkiah was the father of Azariah.
1 Chronicles 6:14  Azariah was the father of Seraiah. Seraiah was the father of Jehozadak.
1 Chronicles 6:15  Jehozadak went away as a captive when the LORD carried Judah and Jerusalem away by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.
1 Chronicles 6:16  The sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath, and Merari.
1 Chronicles 6:17  These are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei.
1 Chronicles 6:18  The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
1 Chronicles 6:19  The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the families of the Levites, listed by their fathers.
1 Chronicles 6:20  Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son,
1 Chronicles 6:21  Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeaterai his son.
1 Chronicles 6:22  The sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son,
1 Chronicles 6:23  Elkanah his son, Ebiasaph his son, Assir his son,
1 Chronicles 6:24  Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, and Shaul his son.
1 Chronicles 6:25  The sons of Elkanah: Amasai and Ahimoth.
1 Chronicles 6:26  As for Elkanah, the sons of Elkanah were Zophai his son, Nahath his son,
1 Chronicles 6:27  Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son.
1 Chronicles 6:28  The sons of Samuel: the firstborn Vashni, and Abiah.
1 Chronicles 6:29  The sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son, Shimei his son, Uzza his son,
1 Chronicles 6:30  Shimea his son, Haggiah his son, Asaiah his son.
1 Chronicles 6:31  These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the LORD, after the ark came to rest there.
1 Chronicles 6:32  They served with singing in front of the dwelling place, the tabernacle of the congregation, until Solomon had built the house of the LORD in Jerusalem. Then they carried out their duty in the order given them.
1 Chronicles 6:33  These are the men who served, together with their sons. Of the sons of the Kohathites: Heman the singer, the son of Joel, the son of Shemuel,
1 Chronicles 6:34  the son of Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Eliel, the son of Toah,
1 Chronicles 6:35  the son of Zuph, the son of Elkanah, the son of Mahath, the son of Amasai,
1 Chronicles 6:36  the son of Elkanah, the son of Joel, the son of Azariah, the son of Zephaniah,
1 Chronicles 6:37  the son of Tahath, the son of Assir, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah,
1 Chronicles 6:38  the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.
1 Chronicles 6:39  His brother Asaph stood at his right hand: Asaph the son of Berachiah, the son of Shimea,
1 Chronicles 6:40  the son of Michael, the son of Baaseiah, the son of Malchiah,
1 Chronicles 6:41  the son of Ethni, the son of Zerah, the son of Adaiah,
1 Chronicles 6:42  the son of Ethan, the son of Zimmah, the son of Shimei,
1 Chronicles 6:43  the son of Jahath, the son of Gershom, the son of Levi.
1 Chronicles 6:44  Their brothers the sons of Merari stood at the left hand: Ethan the son of Kishi, the son of Abdi, the son of Malluch,
1 Chronicles 6:45  the son of Hashabiah, the son of Amaziah, the son of Hilkiah,
1 Chronicles 6:46  the son of Amzi, the son of Bani, the son of Shamer,
1 Chronicles 6:47  the son of Mahli, the son of Mushi, the son of Merari, the son of Levi.
1 Chronicles 6:48  Their brothers the Levites were appointed to every kind of service of the tabernacle of the house of God.
1 Chronicles 6:49  But Aaron and his sons made the offerings on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense. They were appointed for all the work of the most holy place, and to make atonement for Israel, according to everything that Moses the servant of God had commanded.
1 Chronicles 6:50  These are the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son,
1 Chronicles 6:51  Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son,
1 Chronicles 6:52  Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son,
1 Chronicles 6:53  Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.
1 Chronicles 6:54  These are the places where they lived, their settlements within their borders: the sons of Aaron, of the families of the Kohathites, for the first lot was theirs.
1 Chronicles 6:55  They gave them Hebron in the land of Judah, with the open land around it.
1 Chronicles 6:56  But the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh.
1 Chronicles 6:57  To the sons of Aaron they gave the cities of Judah: Hebron, the city of refuge, and Libnah with its open land, and Jattir, and Eshtemoa with their open land,
1 Chronicles 6:58  and Hilen with its open land, Debir with its open land,
1 Chronicles 6:59  and Ashan with its open land, and Bethshemesh with its open land.
1 Chronicles 6:60  From the tribe of Benjamin they gave Geba with its open land, Alemeth with its open land, and Anathoth with its open land. All their cities, counted by their families, were thirteen cities.
1 Chronicles 6:61  The rest of the sons of Kohath were given ten cities by lot from the half tribe, that is, from the half tribe of Manasseh.
1 Chronicles 6:62  The sons of Gershom, by their families, were given thirteen cities from the tribe of Issachar, the tribe of Asher, the tribe of Naphtali, and the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
1 Chronicles 6:63  The sons of Merari, by their families, were given twelve cities by lot from the tribe of Reuben, the tribe of Gad, and the tribe of Zebulun.
1 Chronicles 6:64  So the children of Israel gave the Levites these cities with their open land.
1 Chronicles 6:65  They gave by lot these cities, which are named, from the tribe of the children of Judah, the tribe of the children of Simeon, and the tribe of the children of Benjamin.
1 Chronicles 6:66  Some of the families of the sons of Kohath had cities within their borders from the tribe of Ephraim.
1 Chronicles 6:67  They gave them, from the cities of refuge, Shechem in mount Ephraim with its open land. They also gave Gezer with its open land,
1 Chronicles 6:68  and Jokmeam with its open land, and Bethhoron with its open land,
1 Chronicles 6:69  and Aijalon with its open land, and Gathrimmon with its open land.
1 Chronicles 6:70  From the half tribe of Manasseh they gave Aner with its open land, and Bileam with its open land, for the rest of the family of the sons of Kohath.
1 Chronicles 6:71  The sons of Gershom were given, from the family of the half tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan with its open land, and Ashtaroth with its open land;
1 Chronicles 6:72  and from the tribe of Issachar, Kedesh with its open land, Daberath with its open land,
1 Chronicles 6:73  and Ramoth with its open land, and Anem with its open land;
1 Chronicles 6:74  and from the tribe of Asher, Mashal with its open land, and Abdon with its open land,
1 Chronicles 6:75  and Hukok with its open land, and Rehob with its open land;
1 Chronicles 6:76  and from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its open land, and Hammon with its open land, and Kirjathaim with its open land.
1 Chronicles 6:77  The rest of the children of Merari were given, from the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmon with its open land, and Tabor with its open land.
1 Chronicles 6:78  On the other side of the Jordan by Jericho, on the east side of the Jordan, they were given from the tribe of Reuben: Bezer in the wilderness with its open land, and Jahzah with its open land,
1 Chronicles 6:79  also Kedemoth with its open land, and Mephaath with its open land;
1 Chronicles 6:80  and from the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead with its open land, and Mahanaim with its open land,
1 Chronicles 6:81  and Heshbon with its open land, and Jazer with its open land.

1 Chronicles 7:1  Now the sons of Issachar were Tola, Puah, Jashub and Shimron, four in all.
1 Chronicles 7:2  The sons of Tola were Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Jibsam and Shemuel. They were heads of their father's house, that is, of Tola. They were brave and mighty men in their generations. In the days of David their number was twenty-two thousand six hundred.
1 Chronicles 7:3  The son of Uzzi was Izrahiah. The sons of Izrahiah were Michael, Obadiah, Joel and Ishiah, five in all. All of them were chief men.
1 Chronicles 7:4  With them, by their generations and by the house of their fathers, were bands of soldiers for war, thirty-six thousand men. For they had many wives and sons.
1 Chronicles 7:5  Their brothers among all the families of Issachar were brave and mighty men. They were counted in their family lists, eighty-seven thousand in all.
1 Chronicles 7:6  The sons of Benjamin were Bela, Becher and Jediael, three in all.
1 Chronicles 7:7  The sons of Bela were Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth and Iri, five in all. They were heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of courage. They were counted in their family lists, twenty-two thousand and thirty-four.
1 Chronicles 7:8  The sons of Becher were Zemira, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jerimoth, Abiah, Anathoth and Alameth. All these were the sons of Becher.
1 Chronicles 7:9  They were counted in their family lists by their generations, heads of the house of their fathers, mighty men of courage, twenty thousand two hundred.
1 Chronicles 7:10  The son of Jediael was Bilhan. The sons of Bilhan were Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tharshish and Ahishahar.
1 Chronicles 7:11  All these were the sons of Jediael, listed by the heads of their fathers, mighty men of courage. They were seventeen thousand two hundred soldiers, ready to go out for war and battle.
1 Chronicles 7:12  Shuppim also, and Huppim, the children of Ir, and Hushim, the sons of Aher.
1 Chronicles 7:13  The sons of Naphtali were Jahziel, Guni, Jezer and Shallum, the sons of Bilhah.
1 Chronicles 7:14  The sons of Manasseh: Ashriel, whom she bore. (But his concubine, the woman from Aram, bore Machir the father of Gilead.
1 Chronicles 7:15  Machir took a wife from among the Huppim and Shuppim, and his sister's name was Maachah.) The name of the second was Zelophehad, and Zelophehad had daughters.
1 Chronicles 7:16  Maachah the wife of Machir bore a son, and she named him Peresh. The name of his brother was Sheresh, and his sons were Ulam and Rakem.
1 Chronicles 7:17  The son of Ulam was Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh.
1 Chronicles 7:18  His sister Hammoleketh bore Ishod, Abiezer and Mahalah.
1 Chronicles 7:19  The sons of Shemida were Ahian, Shechem, Likhi and Aniam.
1 Chronicles 7:20  The sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, and Bered his son, and Tahath his son, and Eladah his son, and Tahath his son,
1 Chronicles 7:21  and Zabad his son, and Shuthelah his son, and Ezer and Elead. The men of Gath who were born in that land killed them, because they came down to take away their cattle.
1 Chronicles 7:22  Ephraim their father mourned for many days, and his brothers came to comfort him.
1 Chronicles 7:23  When he went in to his wife, she became pregnant and bore a son. He named him Beriah, because trouble had come on his house.
1 Chronicles 7:24  (His daughter was Sherah. She built Lower Bethhoron and Upper Bethhoron, and Uzzensherah.)
1 Chronicles 7:25  Rephah was his son, also Resheph, and Telah his son, and Tahan his son,
1 Chronicles 7:26  Laadan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son,
1 Chronicles 7:27  Non his son, Jehoshua his son.
1 Chronicles 7:28  Their lands and homes were Bethel and its towns, and eastward Naaran, and westward Gezer with its towns, and Shechem with its towns, as far as Gaza with its towns.
1 Chronicles 7:29  By the borders of the children of Manasseh were Bethshean and its towns, Taanach and its towns, Megiddo and its towns, Dor and its towns. In these lived the children of Joseph the son of Israel.
1 Chronicles 7:30  The sons of Asher were Imnah, Isuah, Ishuai and Beriah, and Serah their sister.
1 Chronicles 7:31  The sons of Beriah were Heber and Malchiel, who is the father of Birzavith.
1 Chronicles 7:32  Heber was the father of Japhlet, Shomer and Hotham, and of Shua their sister.
1 Chronicles 7:33  The sons of Japhlet were Pasach, Bimhal and Ashvath. These are the children of Japhlet.
1 Chronicles 7:34  The sons of Shamer were Ahi, Rohgah, Jehubbah and Aram.
1 Chronicles 7:35  The sons of his brother Helem were Zophah, Imna, Shelesh and Amal.
1 Chronicles 7:36  The sons of Zophah were Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri, Imrah,
1 Chronicles 7:37  Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran and Beera.
1 Chronicles 7:38  The sons of Jether were Jephunneh, Pispah and Ara.
1 Chronicles 7:39  The sons of Ulla were Arah, Haniel and Rezia.
1 Chronicles 7:40  All these were the children of Asher, heads of their father's house, chosen and mighty men of courage, chief among the princes. The number listed in their family records of those fit for war and battle was twenty-six thousand men.

1 Chronicles 8:1  Benjamin was the father of Bela, his firstborn, Ashbel the second, and Aharah the third,
1 Chronicles 8:2  Nohah the fourth, and Rapha the fifth.
1 Chronicles 8:3  The sons of Bela were Addar, Gera, Abihud,
1 Chronicles 8:4  Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah,
1 Chronicles 8:5  Gera, Shephuphan, and Huram.
1 Chronicles 8:6  These are the sons of Ehud. They were the heads of the families of the people who lived in Geba, and they were taken away to Manahath:
1 Chronicles 8:7  Naaman, Ahiah, and Gera. He took them away, and he was the father of Uzza and Ahihud.
1 Chronicles 8:8  Shaharaim had children in the country of Moab, after he had sent his wives away. Hushim and Baara were his wives.
1 Chronicles 8:9  By his wife Hodesh he was the father of Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcham,
1 Chronicles 8:10  Jeuz, Shachia, and Mirma. These were his sons, heads of families.
1 Chronicles 8:11  By Hushim he was the father of Abitub and Elpaal.
1 Chronicles 8:12  The sons of Elpaal were Eber, Misham, and Shamed, who built Ono and Lod with their towns.
1 Chronicles 8:13  There were also Beriah and Shema, who were heads of the families of the people who lived in Aijalon, and who drove away the people of Gath.
1 Chronicles 8:14  And Ahio, Shashak, Jeremoth,
1 Chronicles 8:15  Zebadiah, Arad, Ader,
1 Chronicles 8:16  Michael, Ispah, and Joha were the sons of Beriah.
1 Chronicles 8:17  And Zebadiah, Meshullam, Hezeki, Heber,
1 Chronicles 8:18  Ishmerai, Jezliah, and Jobab were the sons of Elpaal.
1 Chronicles 8:19  And Jakim, Zichri, Zabdi,
1 Chronicles 8:20  Elienai, Zilthai, Eliel,
1 Chronicles 8:21  Adaiah, Beraiah, and Shimrath were the sons of Shimhi.
1 Chronicles 8:22  And Ishpan, Heber, Eliel,
1 Chronicles 8:23  Abdon, Zichri, Hanan,
1 Chronicles 8:24  Hananiah, Elam, Antothijah,
1 Chronicles 8:25  Iphedeiah, and Penuel were the sons of Shashak.
1 Chronicles 8:26  And Shamsherai, Shehariah, Athaliah,
1 Chronicles 8:27  Jaresiah, Eliah, and Zichri were the sons of Jeroham.
1 Chronicles 8:28  These were heads of families, listed by their generations, chief men. They lived in Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 8:29  At Gibeon lived the father of Gibeon. His wife's name was Maachah.
1 Chronicles 8:30  His firstborn son was Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, and Nadab,
1 Chronicles 8:31  Gedor, Ahio, and Zacher.
1 Chronicles 8:32  Mikloth was the father of Shimeah. These also lived with their brothers in Jerusalem, opposite them.
1 Chronicles 8:33  Ner was the father of Kish, and Kish was the father of Saul, and Saul was the father of Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.
1 Chronicles 8:34  The son of Jonathan was Meribbaal, and Meribbaal was the father of Micah.
1 Chronicles 8:35  The sons of Micah were Pithon, Melech, Tarea, and Ahaz.
1 Chronicles 8:36  Ahaz was the father of Jehoadah. Jehoadah was the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. Zimri was the father of Moza,
1 Chronicles 8:37  and Moza was the father of Binea. Rapha was his son, Eleasah his son, Azel his son.
1 Chronicles 8:38  Azel had six sons, and these are their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. All these were the sons of Azel.
1 Chronicles 8:39  The sons of his brother Eshek were Ulam, his firstborn, Jehush the second, and Eliphelet the third.
1 Chronicles 8:40  The sons of Ulam were mighty men of courage, archers. They had many sons, and sons' sons, a hundred and fifty in all. All these were from the sons of Benjamin.

1 Chronicles 9:1  So all Israel were listed in the family records. Look, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. The people were carried away to Babylon because they broke faith with God.
1 Chronicles 9:2  Now the first people to live again on their own land, in their own cities, were the Israelites, the priests, the Levites, and the Nethinims.
1 Chronicles 9:3  In Jerusalem there lived some of the children of Judah, some of the children of Benjamin, and some of the children of Ephraim and Manasseh.
1 Chronicles 9:4  There was Uthai the son of Ammihud, the son of Omri, the son of Imri, the son of Bani. He came from the children of Pharez the son of Judah.
1 Chronicles 9:5  Of the Shilonites there were Asaiah the firstborn, and his sons.
1 Chronicles 9:6  Of the sons of Zerah there was Jeuel, and their relatives, six hundred and ninety in all.
1 Chronicles 9:7  Of the sons of Benjamin there was Sallu the son of Meshullam, the son of Hodaviah, the son of Hasenuah,
1 Chronicles 9:8  and Ibneiah the son of Jeroham, and Elah the son of Uzzi, the son of Michri, and Meshullam the son of Shephathiah, the son of Reuel, the son of Ibnijah.
1 Chronicles 9:9  With them were their relatives, listed by their families, nine hundred and fifty-six in all. All these men were heads of the fathers' households in the house of their fathers.
1 Chronicles 9:10  Of the priests there were Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, and Jachin,
1 Chronicles 9:11  and Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God.
1 Chronicles 9:12  There were also Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashur, the son of Malchijah, and Maasiai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Meshillemith, the son of Immer.
1 Chronicles 9:13  With them were their relatives, heads of the house of their fathers, one thousand seven hundred and sixty in all. They were very able men for the work of the service of the house of God.
1 Chronicles 9:14  Of the Levites there was Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, from the sons of Merari.
1 Chronicles 9:15  There were also Bakbakkar, Heresh, Galal, and Mattaniah the son of Micah, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph.
1 Chronicles 9:16  There were Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, who lived in the villages of the Netophathites.
1 Chronicles 9:17  The gatekeepers were Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman, and their relatives. Shallum was the chief.
1 Chronicles 9:18  Until now they have kept watch at the king's gate on the east side. They were the gatekeepers from the companies of the children of Levi.
1 Chronicles 9:19  Shallum was the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah. He and his relatives from his father's house, the Korahites, were in charge of the work of the service. They guarded the gates of the tent. Their fathers had been in charge of the camp of the LORD, and had guarded the entrance.
1 Chronicles 9:20  In earlier times Phinehas the son of Eleazar was the ruler over them, and the LORD was with him.
1 Chronicles 9:21  Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was gatekeeper at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
1 Chronicles 9:22  All those chosen to be gatekeepers at the gates were two hundred and twelve. They were listed in the family records of their villages. David and Samuel the seer had appointed them to their trusted position.
1 Chronicles 9:23  So they and their sons had charge of the gates of the house of the LORD, the house of the tent, watch by watch.
1 Chronicles 9:24  The gatekeepers were on four sides: east, west, north, and south.
1 Chronicles 9:25  Their relatives in the villages had to come in and join them for seven days at a time, turn by turn.
1 Chronicles 9:26  These Levites, the four chief gatekeepers, held a trusted position. They were in charge of the rooms and the treasuries of the house of God.
1 Chronicles 9:27  They stayed the night all around the house of God, because they had to guard it. They were the ones who opened it every morning.
1 Chronicles 9:28  Some of them had charge of the vessels used in the service. They counted them when they brought them in and when they took them out.
1 Chronicles 9:29  Others of them were appointed to look after the vessels and all the holy things, and the fine flour, the wine, the oil, the frankincense, and the spices.
1 Chronicles 9:30  Some of the sons of the priests made the ointment from the spices.
1 Chronicles 9:31  Mattithiah, one of the Levites, the firstborn of Shallum the Korahite, held the trusted position of caring for the things baked in the pans.
1 Chronicles 9:32  Some of their relatives, from the sons of the Kohathites, were in charge of the showbread, to prepare it every sabbath.
1 Chronicles 9:33  These are the singers, heads of the fathers' households of the Levites. They stayed in the rooms and were free from other duties, because they were at work day and night.
1 Chronicles 9:34  These were heads of the fathers' households of the Levites, leaders in their family lines. They lived at Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 9:35  In Gibeon there lived Jehiel, the father of Gibeon. His wife's name was Maachah.
1 Chronicles 9:36  His firstborn son was Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab,
1 Chronicles 9:37  Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah, and Mikloth.
1 Chronicles 9:38  Mikloth was the father of Shimeam. They too lived with their relatives at Jerusalem, near their relatives.
1 Chronicles 9:39  Ner was the father of Kish. Kish was the father of Saul. Saul was the father of Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab, and Eshbaal.
1 Chronicles 9:40  The son of Jonathan was Meribbaal. Meribbaal was the father of Micah.
1 Chronicles 9:41  The sons of Micah were Pithon, Melech, Tahrea, and Ahaz.
1 Chronicles 9:42  Ahaz was the father of Jarah. Jarah was the father of Alemeth, Azmaveth, and Zimri. Zimri was the father of Moza.
1 Chronicles 9:43  Moza was the father of Binea. Rephaiah was his son, Eleasah his son, and Azel his son.
1 Chronicles 9:44  Azel had six sons, and these are their names: Azrikam, Bocheru, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, and Hanan. These were the sons of Azel.

1 Chronicles 10:1  Now the Philistines fought against Israel. The men of Israel ran away from the Philistines, and they fell down dead on Mount Gilboa.
1 Chronicles 10:2  The Philistines chased hard after Saul and after his sons. They killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.
1 Chronicles 10:3  The fighting was heavy around Saul. The archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers.
1 Chronicles 10:4  Then Saul said to the man who carried his armour, "Draw your sword and run me through with it. If you do not, these men who are not circumcised will come and treat me shamefully." But the man who carried his armour would not do it, because he was very much afraid. So Saul took a sword and fell on it.
1 Chronicles 10:5  When the man who carried his armour saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died.
1 Chronicles 10:6  So Saul died, and his three sons, and all his household died together.
1 Chronicles 10:7  All the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that their army had run away, and that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their cities and ran away, and the Philistines came and lived in them.
1 Chronicles 10:8  The next day the Philistines came to strip the dead. They found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.
1 Chronicles 10:9  When they had stripped him, they took his head and his armour. Then they sent messengers all through the land of the Philistines, to carry the news to their idols and to the people.
1 Chronicles 10:10  They put his armour in the house of their gods, and they fastened his head in the temple of Dagon.
1 Chronicles 10:11  All the people of Jabeshgilead heard everything the Philistines had done to Saul.
1 Chronicles 10:12  So all the brave men got up and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons. They brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
1 Chronicles 10:13  So Saul died for the wrong he had done against the LORD. He did not keep the word of the LORD. He also asked advice from a woman who had a familiar spirit, to ask her about the future,
1 Chronicles 10:14  and he did not ask the LORD. So the LORD put him to death, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.

1 Chronicles 11:1  Then all Israel gathered to David at Hebron. They said, "Look, we are your own bone and your own flesh."
1 Chronicles 11:2  "In the past, even while Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them in. And the LORD your God said to you, 'You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be ruler over my people Israel.'"
1 Chronicles 11:3  So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron. David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the LORD. And they anointed David king over Israel, just as the LORD had said through Samuel.
1 Chronicles 11:4  David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus. The Jebusites lived there; they were the people of the land.
1 Chronicles 11:5  The people of Jebus said to David, "You will not come in here." But David took the stronghold of Zion, which is the city of David.
1 Chronicles 11:6  David said, "Whoever attacks the Jebusites first will be chief and captain." So Joab the son of Zeruiah went up first, and he became chief.
1 Chronicles 11:7  David lived in the stronghold, so they called it the city of David.
1 Chronicles 11:8  He built up the city all around, from Millo round about. And Joab repaired the rest of the city.
1 Chronicles 11:9  So David grew greater and greater, for the LORD of hosts was with him.
1 Chronicles 11:10  These are the chief of the mighty men whom David had. They gave him strong support in his kingdom, together with all Israel, to make him king, just as the LORD had said about Israel.
1 Chronicles 11:11  This is the number of the mighty men whom David had. Jashobeam, a Hachmonite, was chief of the captains. He lifted up his spear against three hundred men and killed them at one time.
1 Chronicles 11:12  After him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighty men.
1 Chronicles 11:13  He was with David at Pasdammim, where the Philistines had gathered for battle. There was a field full of barley there, and the people fled from the Philistines.
1 Chronicles 11:14  But they took their stand in the middle of that field. They defended it and killed the Philistines, and the LORD saved them with a great victory.
1 Chronicles 11:15  Three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam. The army of the Philistines was camped in the valley of Rephaim.
1 Chronicles 11:16  David was then in the stronghold, and the Philistine soldiers were then at Bethlehem.
1 Chronicles 11:17  David longed for water and said, "If only someone would give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem, the one by the gate."
1 Chronicles 11:18  So the three broke through the army of the Philistines. They drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, the one by the gate, and carried it back to David. But David would not drink it. He poured it out to the LORD,
1 Chronicles 11:19  and said, "My God forbid that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of these men who put their lives in danger? For they brought it at the risk of their lives." So he would not drink it. These were the things the three mighty men did.
1 Chronicles 11:20  Abishai the brother of Joab was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred men and killed them, and he had a name among the three.
1 Chronicles 11:21  Of the three, he was more honoured than the other two, and he was their captain. But he did not reach the rank of the first three.
1 Chronicles 11:22  Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was the son of a brave man of Kabzeel. He had done many deeds. He killed two lionlike men of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day.
1 Chronicles 11:23  He killed an Egyptian, a very tall man, five cubits high. In the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam. Benaiah went down to him with a staff, pulled the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear.
1 Chronicles 11:24  These were the things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and he had a name among the three mighty men.
1 Chronicles 11:25  He was honoured among the thirty, but he did not reach the rank of the first three. And David put him in charge of his guard.
1 Chronicles 11:26  The brave men of the armies were these: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,
1 Chronicles 11:27  Shammoth the Harorite, Helez the Pelonite,
1 Chronicles 11:28  Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, Abiezer the Antothite,
1 Chronicles 11:29  Sibbecai the Hushathite, Ilai the Ahohite,
1 Chronicles 11:30  Maharai the Netophathite, Heled the son of Baanah the Netophathite,
1 Chronicles 11:31  Ithai the son of Ribai of Gibeah, which belonged to the children of Benjamin, Benaiah the Pirathonite,
1 Chronicles 11:32  Hurai of the brooks of Gaash, Abiel the Arbathite,
1 Chronicles 11:33  Azmaveth the Baharumite, Eliahba the Shaalbonite,
1 Chronicles 11:34  the sons of Hashem the Gizonite, Jonathan the son of Shage the Hararite,
1 Chronicles 11:35  Ahiam the son of Sacar the Hararite, Eliphal the son of Ur,
1 Chronicles 11:36  Hepher the Mecherathite, Ahijah the Pelonite,
1 Chronicles 11:37  Hezro the Carmelite, Naarai the son of Ezbai,
1 Chronicles 11:38  Joel the brother of Nathan, Mibhar the son of Haggeri,
1 Chronicles 11:39  Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Berothite, who carried the armour of Joab the son of Zeruiah,
1 Chronicles 11:40  Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,
1 Chronicles 11:41  Uriah the Hittite, Zabad the son of Ahlai,
1 Chronicles 11:42  Adina the son of Shiza the Reubenite, a captain of the Reubenites, and thirty with him,
1 Chronicles 11:43  Hanan the son of Maachah, and Joshaphat the Mithnite,
1 Chronicles 11:44  Uzzia the Ashterathite, Shama and Jehiel the sons of Hothan the Aroerite,
1 Chronicles 11:45  Jediael the son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the Tizite,
1 Chronicles 11:46  Eliel the Mahavite, and Jeribai, and Joshaviah, the sons of Elnaam, and Ithmah the Moabite,
1 Chronicles 11:47  Eliel, and Obed, and Jasiel the Mesobaite.

1 Chronicles 12:1  These are the men who came to David at Ziklag, while he was still hiding because of Saul the son of Kish. They were among the mighty men who helped him in the war.
1 Chronicles 12:2  They were armed with bows. They could use both the right hand and the left to sling stones and to shoot arrows from a bow. They were Saul's own relatives from Benjamin.
1 Chronicles 12:3  The chief was Ahiezer, then Joash, the sons of Shemaah from Gibeah; and Jeziel and Pelet, the sons of Azmaveth; and Berachah, and Jehu from Anathoth,
1 Chronicles 12:4  and Ismaiah from Gibeon, a mighty man among the thirty and a leader over the thirty; and Jeremiah, and Jahaziel, and Johanan, and Josabad from Gederah,
1 Chronicles 12:5  Eluzai, and Jerimoth, and Bealiah, and Shemariah, and Shephatiah from Haruph,
1 Chronicles 12:6  Elkanah, and Jesiah, and Azareel, and Joezer, and Jashobeam, who were Korhites,
1 Chronicles 12:7  and Joelah and Zebadiah, the sons of Jeroham of Gedor.
1 Chronicles 12:8  Some of the Gadites left their own people and came over to David at the stronghold in the wilderness. They were mighty men, trained soldiers, ready for battle, able to handle shield and spear. Their faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as deer on the mountains.
1 Chronicles 12:9  Ezer was the first, Obadiah the second, Eliab the third,
1 Chronicles 12:10  Mishmannah the fourth, Jeremiah the fifth,
1 Chronicles 12:11  Attai the sixth, Eliel the seventh,
1 Chronicles 12:12  Johanan the eighth, Elzabad the ninth,
1 Chronicles 12:13  Jeremiah the tenth, Machbanai the eleventh.
1 Chronicles 12:14  These were sons of Gad, captains of the army. The least of them was over a hundred men, and the greatest was over a thousand.
1 Chronicles 12:15  These are the men who crossed the Jordan in the first month, when the river had flooded over all its banks. They drove away all the people of the valleys, both to the east and to the west.
1 Chronicles 12:16  Some of the sons of Benjamin and Judah also came to David at the stronghold.
1 Chronicles 12:17  David went out to meet them and said to them, "If you have come to me in peace, to help me, my heart will be joined to you. But if you have come to betray me to my enemies, when I have done no wrong, then may the God of our fathers see it and judge you."
1 Chronicles 12:18  Then the spirit came upon Amasai, who was chief of the captains, and he said, "We are yours, David. We are on your side, son of Jesse. Peace, peace be to you, and peace to those who help you, for your God helps you." Then David welcomed them and made them captains of his band.
1 Chronicles 12:19  Some men of Manasseh joined David when he came with the Philistines to fight against Saul. But they did not help the Philistines, for the rulers of the Philistines talked it over and sent David away. They said, "He will go over to his master Saul, and it will cost us our heads."
1 Chronicles 12:20  As he went to Ziklag, these men of Manasseh joined him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu and Zilthai, captains over thousands in Manasseh.
1 Chronicles 12:21  They helped David against the band of raiders, for they were all mighty men of courage, and they were captains in the army.
1 Chronicles 12:22  Day after day at that time men came to David to help him, until his army was a great army, like the army of God.
1 Chronicles 12:23  These are the numbers of the armed bands that were ready for war and came to David at Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul over to him, as the LORD had said.
1 Chronicles 12:24  The sons of Judah who carried shield and spear were six thousand eight hundred, armed and ready for war.
1 Chronicles 12:25  Of the sons of Simeon, mighty men of courage for the war, seven thousand one hundred.
1 Chronicles 12:26  Of the sons of Levi, four thousand six hundred.
1 Chronicles 12:27  Jehoiada was the leader of the sons of Aaron, and with him were three thousand seven hundred men.
1 Chronicles 12:28  And Zadok, a young man of great courage, came with twenty-two captains from his father's family.
1 Chronicles 12:29  Of the sons of Benjamin, Saul's own relatives, three thousand. Until then most of them had stayed loyal to the house of Saul.
1 Chronicles 12:30  Of the sons of Ephraim, twenty thousand eight hundred, mighty men of courage, men of note in their families.
1 Chronicles 12:31  Of the half tribe of Manasseh, eighteen thousand, who were named to come and make David king.
1 Chronicles 12:32  Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times and knew what Israel ought to do, there were two hundred leaders, and all their brothers were under their command.
1 Chronicles 12:33  Of Zebulun, men who went out to battle, trained for war with every kind of weapon, fifty thousand. They could keep their ranks, and they were not of a divided heart.
1 Chronicles 12:34  Of Naphtali, a thousand captains, and with them thirty-seven thousand men with shield and spear.
1 Chronicles 12:35  Of the Danites, trained for war, twenty-eight thousand six hundred.
1 Chronicles 12:36  Of Asher, men who went out to battle, trained for war, forty thousand.
1 Chronicles 12:37  And from the other side of the Jordan, of the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, with every kind of weapon for the battle, a hundred and twenty thousand.
1 Chronicles 12:38  All these were men of war who could keep their ranks. They came to Hebron with a whole heart, to make David king over all Israel. And all the rest of Israel were of one heart to make David king.
1 Chronicles 12:39  They stayed there with David three days, eating and drinking, for their brothers had made ready for them.
1 Chronicles 12:40  Their neighbours too, even from as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought food on donkeys, camels, mules and oxen. They brought flour, cakes of figs, bunches of raisins, wine, oil, oxen and sheep in plenty, for there was joy in Israel.

1 Chronicles 13:1  David talked with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and with every leader.
1 Chronicles 13:2  David said to the whole assembly of Israel, "If it seems good to you, and if it is from the LORD our God, let us send word everywhere to the rest of our brothers and sisters in all the land of Israel. Let us send word also to the priests and Levites who are in their cities and pasture lands, so they may gather to us."
1 Chronicles 13:3  "And let us bring back the ark of our God to us. For we did not ask about it in the days of Saul."
1 Chronicles 13:4  The whole assembly said they would do so, because the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.
1 Chronicles 13:5  So David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt to the entrance of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kirjathjearim.
1 Chronicles 13:6  David went up, and all Israel with him, to Baalah, that is, to Kirjathjearim, which belonged to Judah. They went to bring up from there the ark of God the LORD, who lives between the cherubims, and whose name is called on it.
1 Chronicles 13:7  They carried the ark of God on a new cart out of the house of Abinadab, and Uzza and Ahio drove the cart.
1 Chronicles 13:8  David and all Israel celebrated before God with all their might, with singing, and with harps, and with lutes, and with tambourines, and with cymbals, and with trumpets.
1 Chronicles 13:9  When they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzza put out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled.
1 Chronicles 13:10  The anger of the LORD burned against Uzza, and he struck him down, because he put his hand on the ark. There he died before God.
1 Chronicles 13:11  David was upset, because the LORD had broken out against Uzza. So that place is called Perezuzza to this day.
1 Chronicles 13:12  David was afraid of God that day, and he said, "How shall I bring the ark of God home to me?"
1 Chronicles 13:13  So David did not bring the ark home to himself, to the city of David, but turned aside with it into the house of Obededom the Gittite.
1 Chronicles 13:14  The ark of God stayed with the family of Obededom in his house three months. And the LORD blessed the house of Obededom, and all that he had.

1 Chronicles 14:1  Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David. He also sent cedar wood, and stonemasons and carpenters, to build him a house.
1 Chronicles 14:2  David saw that the LORD had made him firm as king over Israel, for his kingdom was lifted up high, because of his people Israel.
1 Chronicles 14:3  David took more wives in Jerusalem, and he was the father of more sons and daughters.
1 Chronicles 14:4  These are the names of the children he had in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
1 Chronicles 14:5  Ibhar, Elishua, Elpalet,
1 Chronicles 14:6  Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,
1 Chronicles 14:7  Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphalet.
1 Chronicles 14:8  When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to look for David. David heard of it and went out against them.
1 Chronicles 14:9  The Philistines came and spread themselves out in the valley of Rephaim.
1 Chronicles 14:10  David asked God, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?" The LORD said to him, "Go up, for I will hand them over to you."
1 Chronicles 14:11  So they came up to Baalperazim, and David struck them down there. Then David said, "God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like water bursting through." So they called that place Baalperazim.
1 Chronicles 14:12  The Philistines left their gods behind there, and David gave an order, and the gods were burned with fire.
1 Chronicles 14:13  The Philistines spread themselves out in the valley once again.
1 Chronicles 14:14  So David asked God again. God said to him, "Do not go up after them. Turn away from them, and come at them opposite the mulberry trees."
1 Chronicles 14:15  "When you hear a sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then go out to battle, for God has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines."
1 Chronicles 14:16  So David did as God commanded him, and they struck down the army of the Philistines from Gibeon all the way to Gazer.
1 Chronicles 14:17  The fame of David went out into all lands, and the LORD made all nations fear him.

1 Chronicles 15:1  David built houses for himself in the city of David. He prepared a place for the ark of God, and set up a tent for it.
1 Chronicles 15:2  Then David said, "No one should carry the ark of God but the Levites. The LORD has chosen them to carry the ark of God and to serve him for ever."
1 Chronicles 15:3  David gathered all Israel together at Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD to the place he had prepared for it.
1 Chronicles 15:4  David brought together the sons of Aaron and the Levites:
1 Chronicles 15:5  Of the sons of Kohath: Uriel the chief, and a hundred and twenty of his brothers;
1 Chronicles 15:6  Of the sons of Merari: Asaiah the chief, and two hundred and twenty of his brothers;
1 Chronicles 15:7  Of the sons of Gershom: Joel the chief, and a hundred and thirty of his brothers;
1 Chronicles 15:8  Of the sons of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the chief, and two hundred of his brothers;
1 Chronicles 15:9  Of the sons of Hebron: Eliel the chief, and eighty of his brothers;
1 Chronicles 15:10  Of the sons of Uzziel: Amminadab the chief, and a hundred and twelve of his brothers.
1 Chronicles 15:11  David called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab.
1 Chronicles 15:12  He said to them, "You are the heads of the families of the Levites. Make yourselves holy, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel to the place I have prepared for it."
1 Chronicles 15:13  "You did not carry it the first time, and so the LORD our God broke out against us, because we did not seek him in the proper way."
1 Chronicles 15:14  So the priests and the Levites made themselves holy, to bring up the ark of the LORD God of Israel.
1 Chronicles 15:15  The sons of the Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles on it, as Moses had commanded, according to the word of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 15:16  David told the chief men of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers, with musical instruments: harps and lyres and cymbals, sounding out, lifting up their voices with joy.
1 Chronicles 15:17  So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brothers, Asaph the son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brothers, Ethan the son of Kushaiah;
1 Chronicles 15:18  and with them their brothers of the second rank: Zechariah, Ben, Jaaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Elipheleh, Mikneiah, Obededom and Jeiel, the gatekeepers.
1 Chronicles 15:19  So the singers Heman, Asaph and Ethan were appointed to sound bronze cymbals;
1 Chronicles 15:20  and Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play harps set to Alamoth;
1 Chronicles 15:21  and Mattithiah, Elipheleh, Mikneiah, Obededom, Jeiel and Azaziah were to lead with lyres set to the Sheminith.
1 Chronicles 15:22  Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was in charge of the singing. He gave instruction in it, because he was skilful.
1 Chronicles 15:23  Berechiah and Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark.
1 Chronicles 15:24  Shebaniah, Jehoshaphat, Nethaneel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer, the priests, blew the trumpets before the ark of God. Obededom and Jehiah were doorkeepers for the ark.
1 Chronicles 15:25  So David, the elders of Israel, and the commanders over thousands went with joy to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD from the house of Obededom.
1 Chronicles 15:26  When God helped the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, they offered seven bulls and seven rams.
1 Chronicles 15:27  David was dressed in a robe of fine linen, and so were all the Levites who carried the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the singing with the singers. David also wore a linen ephod.
1 Chronicles 15:28  So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the horn, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making music with harps and lyres.
1 Chronicles 15:29  As the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of a window. She saw King David dancing and making music, and she despised him in her heart.

1 Chronicles 16:1  So they brought in the ark of God and set it in the middle of the tent that David had put up for it. Then they offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings before God.
1 Chronicles 16:2  When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 16:3  He gave to every one of Israel, both man and woman, a loaf of bread, a good piece of meat, and a flagon of wine.
1 Chronicles 16:4  He appointed some of the Levites to serve before the ark of the LORD, to make record, and to thank and praise the LORD God of Israel:
1 Chronicles 16:5  Asaph was the chief, and next to him Zechariah, Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, and Obededom. Jeiel played with lutes and with harps, but Asaph sounded the cymbals.
1 Chronicles 16:6  Benaiah and Jahaziel the priests blew trumpets all the time before the ark of the covenant of God.
1 Chronicles 16:7  Then on that day David first gave this psalm of thanks to the LORD into the hand of Asaph and his brothers.
1 Chronicles 16:8  Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name, make his deeds known among the peoples.
1 Chronicles 16:9  Sing to him, sing psalms to him, talk of all his wonderful works.
1 Chronicles 16:10  Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
1 Chronicles 16:11  Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face always.
1 Chronicles 16:12  Remember the marvellous works he has done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,
1 Chronicles 16:13  you children of Israel his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
1 Chronicles 16:14  He is the LORD our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
1 Chronicles 16:15  Always keep in mind his covenant, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations,
1 Chronicles 16:16  the covenant which he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac.
1 Chronicles 16:17  He confirmed it to Jacob as a law, and to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
1 Chronicles 16:18  saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the portion you will inherit,"
1 Chronicles 16:19  when you were only a few, very few, and strangers in it.
1 Chronicles 16:20  They went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people.
1 Chronicles 16:21  He allowed no one to do them wrong. Yes, he rebuked kings for their sake,
1 Chronicles 16:22  saying, "Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm."
1 Chronicles 16:23  Sing to the LORD, all the earth. Show his salvation from day to day.
1 Chronicles 16:24  Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all peoples.
1 Chronicles 16:25  For the LORD is great, and is to be greatly praised. He is to be feared above all gods.
1 Chronicles 16:26  For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
1 Chronicles 16:27  Glory and honour are in his presence. Strength and gladness are in his place.
1 Chronicles 16:28  Give to the LORD, you families of the peoples, give to the LORD glory and strength.
1 Chronicles 16:29  Give to the LORD the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, and come before him. Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
1 Chronicles 16:30  Fear before him, all the earth. The world also will be firm, and will not be moved.
1 Chronicles 16:31  Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let them say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."
1 Chronicles 16:32  Let the sea roar, and all that fills it. Let the fields rejoice, and everything in them.
1 Chronicles 16:33  Then the trees of the wood will sing out before the LORD, because he comes to judge the earth.
1 Chronicles 16:34  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His mercy lasts for ever.
1 Chronicles 16:35  And say, "Save us, O God of our salvation. Gather us together and rescue us from the nations, so that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise."
1 Chronicles 16:36  Blessed be the LORD God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, "Amen," and praised the LORD.
1 Chronicles 16:37  So David left Asaph and his brothers there before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to serve before the ark all the time, as each day's work required.
1 Chronicles 16:38  He left Obededom with their brothers, sixty-eight of them. Obededom the son of Jeduthun and Hosah were to be gatekeepers.
1 Chronicles 16:39  He left Zadok the priest, and his brothers the priests, before the tabernacle of the LORD in the high place that was at Gibeon,
1 Chronicles 16:40  to offer burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of burnt offering all the time, morning and evening, and to do everything that is written in the law of the LORD, which he commanded Israel.
1 Chronicles 16:41  With them were Heman and Jeduthun, and the rest who were chosen and named, to give thanks to the LORD, because his mercy lasts for ever.
1 Chronicles 16:42  With them were Heman and Jeduthun with trumpets and cymbals for those who should make the sound, and with musical instruments of God. And the sons of Jeduthun were gatekeepers.
1 Chronicles 16:43  Then all the people went away, each to his own house. And David returned to bless his household.

1 Chronicles 17:1  When David was settled in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, "Look, I live in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD stays under curtains."
1 Chronicles 17:2  Then Nathan said to David, "Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you."
1 Chronicles 17:3  That same night the word of God came to Nathan. God said,
1 Chronicles 17:4  "Go and tell David my servant, 'This is what the LORD says: You shall not build me a house to live in.'"
1 Chronicles 17:5  "For I have not lived in a house from the day I brought Israel up until this day. I have gone from tent to tent, and from one tabernacle to another."
1 Chronicles 17:6  "Wherever I have walked with all Israel, did I ever say a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people? Did I say, 'Why have you not built me a house of cedar?'"
1 Chronicles 17:7  "Now therefore you shall say this to my servant David: 'This is what the LORD of hosts says: I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel."
1 Chronicles 17:8  "'I have been with you wherever you have walked. I have cut off all your enemies from in front of you, and I have made you a name like the name of the great men who are on the earth."
1 Chronicles 17:9  "'I will also appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them there. They shall live in their own place and be moved no more. Wicked men shall not wear them down any more, as they did at the beginning,"
1 Chronicles 17:10  "'and from the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. And I will bring all your enemies down. I also tell you that the LORD will build you a house."
1 Chronicles 17:11  "'When your days are finished and you must go to be with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will make his kingdom firm."
1 Chronicles 17:12  "'He shall build me a house, and I will make his throne firm for ever."
1 Chronicles 17:13  "'I will be his father, and he shall be my son. I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from the one who was before you."
1 Chronicles 17:14  "'But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom for ever, and his throne shall be established for evermore.'"
1 Chronicles 17:15  Nathan spoke to David all these words, and told him all of this vision.
1 Chronicles 17:16  Then King David came and sat before the LORD, and said, "Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me this far?"
1 Chronicles 17:17  "And even this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken about your servant's house for a great while to come, and you have looked on me as if I were a man of high rank, O LORD God."
1 Chronicles 17:18  "What more can David say to you about the honour you give your servant? For you know your servant."
1 Chronicles 17:19  "O LORD, for your servant's sake, and following your own heart, you have done all this great thing, and have made known all these great things."
1 Chronicles 17:20  "O LORD, there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears."
1 Chronicles 17:21  "And what one nation on the earth is like your people Israel? God went to redeem them to be his own people, to make for yourself a name of greatness and terror, driving out nations from before your people, whom you redeemed out of Egypt."
1 Chronicles 17:22  "For you made your people Israel your own people for ever, and you, LORD, became their God."
1 Chronicles 17:23  "So now, LORD, let the word you have spoken about your servant and about his house stand firm for ever, and do as you have said."
1 Chronicles 17:24  "Let it stand firm, so that your name may be made great for ever, and people may say, 'The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, a God to Israel.' And let the house of David your servant be made firm before you."
1 Chronicles 17:25  "For you, O my God, have told your servant that you will build him a house. That is why your servant has found courage in his heart to pray before you."
1 Chronicles 17:26  "And now, LORD, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant."
1 Chronicles 17:27  "Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue before you for ever. For you bless, O LORD, and it shall be blessed for ever."

1 Chronicles 18:1  After this, David attacked the Philistines and brought them under his control. He took Gath and its towns out of the hands of the Philistines.
1 Chronicles 18:2  He also attacked Moab. The Moabites became David's servants and brought him gifts.
1 Chronicles 18:3  David attacked Hadarezer king of Zobah, as far as Hamath, while Hadarezer was going to set up his rule by the river Euphrates.
1 Chronicles 18:4  David took from him a thousand chariots, seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. David cut the leg tendons of all the chariot horses, but he kept enough of them for a hundred chariots.
1 Chronicles 18:5  When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadarezer king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand of the Syrians.
1 Chronicles 18:6  Then David placed soldiers in Syria of Damascus. The Syrians became David's servants and brought him gifts. So the LORD kept David safe wherever he went.
1 Chronicles 18:7  David took the gold shields that belonged to the servants of Hadarezer, and brought them to Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 18:8  From Tibhath and from Chun, cities of Hadarezer, David also brought a great deal of bronze. With it Solomon made the bronze sea, the pillars, and the bronze vessels.
1 Chronicles 18:9  Tou king of Hamath heard that David had struck down the whole army of Hadarezer king of Zobah.
1 Chronicles 18:10  So he sent his son Hadoram to King David, to greet him and to wish him joy, because he had fought against Hadarezer and defeated him. (Hadarezer had been at war with Tou.) Hadoram brought with him all kinds of vessels of gold, silver and bronze.
1 Chronicles 18:11  King David set these apart for the LORD too, along with the silver and the gold that he had brought from all these nations: from Edom, from Moab, from the children of Ammon, from the Philistines, and from Amalek.
1 Chronicles 18:12  Also Abishai the son of Zeruiah killed eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
1 Chronicles 18:13  He placed soldiers in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's servants. So the LORD kept David safe wherever he went.
1 Chronicles 18:14  So David ruled over all Israel, and he did what was right and just for all his people.
1 Chronicles 18:15  Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud kept the records.
1 Chronicles 18:16  Zadok the son of Ahitub and Abimelech the son of Abiathar were the priests, and Shavsha was the scribe.
1 Chronicles 18:17  Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David's sons were chief officials at the king's side.

1 Chronicles 19:1  After this, Nahash the king of the Ammonites died, and his son became king in his place.
1 Chronicles 19:2  David said, "I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me." So David sent messengers to comfort him about his father. David's servants came into the land of the Ammonites, to Hanun, to comfort him.
1 Chronicles 19:3  But the leaders of the Ammonites said to Hanun, "Do you think David is honouring your father by sending men to comfort you? Have not his servants come to you to search the land, and to overthrow it, and to spy it out?"
1 Chronicles 19:4  So Hanun took David's servants and shaved them. He cut their clothes off in the middle, right up to their buttocks, and sent them away.
1 Chronicles 19:5  Then some men went and told David how these men had been treated. He sent messengers to meet them, for the men were deeply ashamed. The king said, "Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then come back."
1 Chronicles 19:6  When the Ammonites saw that they had made themselves hateful to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, and from Syriamaachah, and from Zobah.
1 Chronicles 19:7  So they hired thirty-two thousand chariots, and the king of Maachah and his people. They came and camped in front of Medeba. The Ammonites also gathered together from their cities and came out to battle.
1 Chronicles 19:8  When David heard of it, he sent Joab and the whole army of mighty men.
1 Chronicles 19:9  The Ammonites came out and drew up their battle line in front of the city gate. The kings who had come stood by themselves in the open field.
1 Chronicles 19:10  When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and behind, he chose some of the best men of Israel and drew them up against the Syrians.
1 Chronicles 19:11  The rest of the people he put under the command of his brother Abishai, and they drew up their line against the Ammonites.
1 Chronicles 19:12  Joab said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you must help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you."
1 Chronicles 19:13  "Be brave. Let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities of our God. And let the LORD do what seems good to him."
1 Chronicles 19:14  So Joab and the people with him came near to the Syrians for the battle, and the Syrians fled before him.
1 Chronicles 19:15  When the Ammonites saw that the Syrians had fled, they also fled before Abishai, Joab's brother, and went into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 19:16  When the Syrians saw that they had been beaten by Israel, they sent messengers and brought out the Syrians who lived beyond the river. Shophach the commander of Hadarezer's army led them.
1 Chronicles 19:17  David was told of it. He gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, came to them, and drew up his battle line against them. When David had set the battle in line against the Syrians, they fought with him.
1 Chronicles 19:18  But the Syrians fled before Israel. David killed seven thousand Syrian charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers, and he killed Shophach the commander of the army.
1 Chronicles 19:19  When the servants of Hadarezer saw that they had been beaten by Israel, they made peace with David and became his servants. The Syrians would not help the Ammonites any more.

1 Chronicles 20:1  When the year had ended, at the time when kings go out to battle, Joab led out the strength of the army. He ruined the country of the children of Ammon, and came and laid siege to Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and destroyed it.
1 Chronicles 20:2  David took the crown of their king from his head. He found that it weighed a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it. It was set on David's head. He also brought a very great amount of plunder out of the city.
1 Chronicles 20:3  He brought out the people who were in it, and cut them with saws, and with iron tools, and with axes. David did the same to all the cities of the children of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 20:4  After this, war broke out at Gezer with the Philistines. At that time Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Sippai, who was one of the children of the giant, and they were brought down.
1 Chronicles 20:5  There was war with the Philistines again. Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear shaft was like a weaver's beam.
1 Chronicles 20:6  There was war at Gath yet again. There was a man there of great size, whose fingers and toes were twenty-four, six on each hand and six on each foot. He also was the son of the giant.
1 Chronicles 20:7  When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him.
1 Chronicles 20:8  These were born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

1 Chronicles 21:1  Satan stood up against Israel, and stirred David up to count the people of Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:2  So David said to Joab and to the rulers of the people, "Go and count Israel, from Beersheba all the way to Dan. Then bring me the number, so that I may know it."
1 Chronicles 21:3  Joab answered, "May the LORD make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord ask for this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?"
1 Chronicles 21:4  But the king's word was stronger than Joab. So Joab left and went through all Israel, and then came back to Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 21:5  Joab gave David the total of the people. All Israel had one million one hundred thousand men who drew the sword, and Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who drew the sword.
1 Chronicles 21:6  But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them, because the king's command was hateful to Joab.
1 Chronicles 21:7  God was displeased with this thing, and so he struck Israel.
1 Chronicles 21:8  David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing. But now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly."
1 Chronicles 21:9  The LORD spoke to Gad, David's seer, and said,
1 Chronicles 21:10  "Go and tell David, 'This is what the LORD says: I offer you three things. Choose one of them, and I will do it to you.'"
1 Chronicles 21:11  So Gad came to David and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: Choose for yourself"
1 Chronicles 21:12  "either three years of famine; or three months of being swept away before your foes, while the sword of your enemies catches up with you; or else three days of the sword of the LORD, that is, plague in the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying through all the borders of Israel. Now decide what answer I should take back to him who sent me."
1 Chronicles 21:13  David said to Gad, "I am in great trouble. Let me fall into the hand of the LORD, for his mercies are very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man."
1 Chronicles 21:14  So the LORD sent plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.
1 Chronicles 21:15  God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. But as he was destroying, the LORD looked, and he changed his mind about the harm, and said to the angel who was destroying, "It is enough. Hold back your hand now." The angel of the LORD was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1 Chronicles 21:16  David looked up and saw the angel of the LORD standing between earth and heaven, with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, dressed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
1 Chronicles 21:17  David said to God, "Was it not I who ordered the people to be counted? It is I who have sinned and done a great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, LORD my God, let your hand be against me and against my father's house, but not against your people, to plague them."
1 Chronicles 21:18  Then the angel of the LORD told Gad to say to David that David should go up and set up an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1 Chronicles 21:19  So David went up, as Gad had told him to in the name of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 21:20  Ornan turned round and saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Ornan was threshing wheat.
1 Chronicles 21:21  As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David. He went out from the threshing floor and bowed down to David with his face to the ground.
1 Chronicles 21:22  Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the site of this threshing floor, so that I may build an altar on it to the LORD. Give it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be stopped from the people."
1 Chronicles 21:23  Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. Look, I give you the oxen as well for burnt offerings, and the threshing tools for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I give it all."
1 Chronicles 21:24  But King David said to Ornan, "No. I will certainly buy it for the full price. I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing."
1 Chronicles 21:25  So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site.
1 Chronicles 21:26  David built an altar there to the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD. The LORD answered him from heaven with fire on the altar of burnt offering.
1 Chronicles 21:27  Then the LORD gave the angel a command, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
1 Chronicles 21:28  At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there.
1 Chronicles 21:29  For the tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time at the high place in Gibeon.
1 Chronicles 21:30  But David could not go there to ask God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 22:1  Then David said, "This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar for the burnt offering for Israel."
1 Chronicles 22:2  David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel. He set stonecutters to cut blocks of stone for building the house of God.
1 Chronicles 22:3  David also prepared a great deal of iron for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings, and more bronze than could be weighed;
1 Chronicles 22:4  and cedar trees beyond counting, for the people of Sidon and Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.
1 Chronicles 22:5  David said, "Solomon my son is young and untried, and the house that is to be built for the LORD must be very great. It must be famous and glorious in every land. So I will get ready for it now." So David made great preparations before his death.
1 Chronicles 22:6  Then he called for Solomon his son, and ordered him to build a house for the LORD God of Israel.
1 Chronicles 22:7  David said to Solomon, "My son, it was in my mind to build a house for the name of the LORD my God."
1 Chronicles 22:8  "But the word of the LORD came to me and said, 'You have shed much blood, and you have fought great wars. You shall not build a house for my name, because you have shed so much blood on the earth in my sight."
1 Chronicles 22:9  "'Look, a son will be born to you, and he will be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his enemies around him. His name will be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days."
1 Chronicles 22:10  "'He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father. I will make the throne of his kingdom over Israel sure for ever.'"
1 Chronicles 22:11  "Now, my son, may the LORD be with you. May you do well and build the house of the LORD your God, as he has said you would."
1 Chronicles 22:12  "Only may the LORD give you wisdom and understanding, and put you in charge of Israel, so that you may keep the law of the LORD your God."
1 Chronicles 22:13  "Then you will do well, if you are careful to obey the laws and rules that the LORD gave Moses for Israel. Be strong, and be brave. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart."
1 Chronicles 22:14  "Now look, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver, and more bronze and iron than can be weighed, for there is so much of it. I have also prepared timber and stone, and you may add to it."
1 Chronicles 22:15  "Also there are many workmen with you: stonecutters, and workers in stone and timber, and every kind of skilled man for every kind of work."
1 Chronicles 22:16  "The gold, the silver, the bronze and the iron cannot be counted. So get up and begin the work, and may the LORD be with you."
1 Chronicles 22:17  David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son. He said,
1 Chronicles 22:18  "Is not the LORD your God with you? Has he not given you rest on every side? For he has given the people of the land into my hand, and the land is brought under the LORD and under his people."
1 Chronicles 22:19  "Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God. So get up and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built for the name of the LORD."

1 Chronicles 23:1  So when David was old and had lived a full life, he made his son Solomon king over Israel.
1 Chronicles 23:2  He gathered together all the leaders of Israel, with the priests and the Levites.
1 Chronicles 23:3  The Levites who were thirty years old and older were counted. Counting them head by head, man by man, there were thirty-eight thousand.
1 Chronicles 23:4  Of these, twenty-four thousand were to lead the work of the house of the LORD, and six thousand were officers and judges.
1 Chronicles 23:5  Four thousand more were gatekeepers, and four thousand praised the LORD with the instruments "which I made," said David, "for praising him."
1 Chronicles 23:6  David divided them into groups among the sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.
1 Chronicles 23:7  Of the Gershonites there were Laadan and Shimei.
1 Chronicles 23:8  The sons of Laadan: Jehiel the chief, and Zetham, and Joel: three.
1 Chronicles 23:9  The sons of Shimei: Shelomith, and Haziel, and Haran: three. These were the heads of the families of Laadan.
1 Chronicles 23:10  The sons of Shimei were Jahath, Zina, Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei.
1 Chronicles 23:11  Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second. But Jeush and Beriah did not have many sons, so they were counted as one family.
1 Chronicles 23:12  The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, and Uzziel: four.
1 Chronicles 23:13  The sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart to make the most holy things holy, he and his sons for ever, to burn incense before the LORD, to serve him, and to bless in his name for ever.
1 Chronicles 23:14  As for Moses the man of God, his sons were counted as part of the tribe of Levi.
1 Chronicles 23:15  The sons of Moses were Gershom and Eliezer.
1 Chronicles 23:16  Of the sons of Gershom, Shebuel was the chief.
1 Chronicles 23:17  The sons of Eliezer: Rehabiah the chief. Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very many.
1 Chronicles 23:18  Of the sons of Izhar: Shelomith the chief.
1 Chronicles 23:19  Of the sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, and Jekameam the fourth.
1 Chronicles 23:20  Of the sons of Uzziel: Michah the first, and Jesiah the second.
1 Chronicles 23:21  The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.
1 Chronicles 23:22  Eleazar died, and he had no sons, only daughters. Their relatives, the sons of Kish, married them.
1 Chronicles 23:23  The sons of Mushi: Mahli, and Eder, and Jeremoth: three.
1 Chronicles 23:24  These were the sons of Levi, listed by their families. They were the heads of the families, counted by name, one by one. They did the work for the service of the house of the LORD, from twenty years old and older.
1 Chronicles 23:25  For David said, "The LORD God of Israel has given rest to his people, so that they may live in Jerusalem for ever."
1 Chronicles 23:26  "And the Levites will no longer need to carry the tabernacle, or any of the vessels used for its service."
1 Chronicles 23:27  By the last words of David, the Levites were counted from twenty years old and older.
1 Chronicles 23:28  Their work was to help the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the LORD: in the courts, and in the rooms, and in the cleansing of all the holy things, and in the work of the service of the house of God.
1 Chronicles 23:29  They cared for the bread that is set out, and the fine flour for the food offering, and the flat cakes made without yeast, and what is baked in the pan, and what is fried, and every kind of measure and size.
1 Chronicles 23:30  They were to stand every morning to thank and praise the LORD, and to do the same in the evening.
1 Chronicles 23:31  They were to offer all the burnt sacrifices to the LORD on the sabbaths, at the new moons, and at the appointed feasts, in the right number, as they had been commanded, continually before the LORD.
1 Chronicles 23:32  They were to take care of the tabernacle of the congregation, and of the holy place, and to help the sons of Aaron their brothers in the service of the house of the LORD.

1 Chronicles 24:1  These are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1 Chronicles 24:2  But Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and they had no children. So Eleazar and Ithamar served as priests.
1 Chronicles 24:3  David divided them into groups, with the help of Zadok from the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech from the sons of Ithamar, giving each group its duties in their service.
1 Chronicles 24:4  More chief men were found among the sons of Eleazar than among the sons of Ithamar, so they were divided in this way: sixteen chief men from the families of the sons of Eleazar, and eight from the families of the sons of Ithamar.
1 Chronicles 24:5  They were divided by lot, one group with another, because there were leaders of the sanctuary and leaders of the house of God among both the sons of Eleazar and the sons of Ithamar.
1 Chronicles 24:6  Shemaiah son of Nethaneel, the scribe, who was one of the Levites, wrote down their names before the king, the princes, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar, and the heads of the families of the priests and Levites. One family was taken for Eleazar, and one was taken for Ithamar.
1 Chronicles 24:7  The first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,
1 Chronicles 24:8  the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,
1 Chronicles 24:9  the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,
1 Chronicles 24:10  the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,
1 Chronicles 24:11  the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
1 Chronicles 24:12  the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
1 Chronicles 24:13  the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Jeshebeab,
1 Chronicles 24:14  the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,
1 Chronicles 24:15  the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Aphses,
1 Chronicles 24:16  the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezekel,
1 Chronicles 24:17  the twenty-first to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul,
1 Chronicles 24:18  the twenty-third to Delaiah, the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.
1 Chronicles 24:19  These were the orders for their service when they came into the house of the LORD. They followed the rules given them by Aaron their father, just as the LORD God of Israel had commanded him.
1 Chronicles 24:20  These were the rest of the sons of Levi: of the sons of Amram, Shubael; of the sons of Shubael, Jehdeiah.
1 Chronicles 24:21  As for Rehabiah: of the sons of Rehabiah, the first was Isshiah.
1 Chronicles 24:22  Of the Izharites, Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth, Jahath.
1 Chronicles 24:23  The sons of Hebron were Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.
1 Chronicles 24:24  Of the sons of Uzziel, Michah; of the sons of Michah, Shamir.
1 Chronicles 24:25  The brother of Michah was Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah.
1 Chronicles 24:26  The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. The sons of Jaaziah: Beno.
1 Chronicles 24:27  The sons of Merari through Jaaziah were Beno, Shoham, Zaccur and Ibri.
1 Chronicles 24:28  From Mahli came Eleazar, who had no sons.
1 Chronicles 24:29  As for Kish: the son of Kish was Jerahmeel.
1 Chronicles 24:30  The sons of Mushi were Mahli, Eder and Jerimoth. These were the sons of the Levites, listed by their families.
1 Chronicles 24:31  They also cast lots, just as their brothers the sons of Aaron had done, in the presence of David the king, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the families of the priests and Levites. The chief families were treated the same as their younger brothers.

1 Chronicles 25:1  David and the captains of the army also set apart for service the sons of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun. They were to prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals. This is the number of the men who did this work, according to their service:
1 Chronicles 25:2  Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, and Asarelah. These sons of Asaph were under the direction of Asaph, who prophesied at the king's command.
1 Chronicles 25:3  Of Jeduthun: the sons of Jeduthun were Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six in all. They were under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp, to give thanks and to praise the LORD.
1 Chronicles 25:4  Of Heman: the sons of Heman were Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamtiezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, and Mahazioth.
1 Chronicles 25:5  All these were the sons of Heman, the king's seer in the words of God, to lift up the horn. And God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.
1 Chronicles 25:6  All these were under the direction of their father for the singing in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God. They served at the king's command to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.
1 Chronicles 25:7  So their number, together with their brothers who were trained in the songs of the LORD, all of them skilful, was two hundred and eighty-eight.
1 Chronicles 25:8  And they cast lots for their duties, group by group, the small as well as the great, the teacher as well as the student.
1 Chronicles 25:9  The first lot came out for Asaph, to Joseph. The second was to Gedaliah, who with his brothers and sons numbered twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:10  The third was to Zaccur; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:11  The fourth was to Izri; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:12  The fifth was to Nethaniah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:13  The sixth was to Bukkiah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:14  The seventh was to Jesharelah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:15  The eighth was to Jeshaiah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:16  The ninth was to Mattaniah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:17  The tenth was to Shimei; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:18  The eleventh was to Azareel; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:19  The twelfth was to Hashabiah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:20  The thirteenth was to Shubael; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:21  The fourteenth was to Mattithiah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:22  The fifteenth was to Jeremoth; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:23  The sixteenth was to Hananiah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:24  The seventeenth was to Joshbekashah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:25  The eighteenth was to Hanani; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:26  The nineteenth was to Mallothi; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:27  The twentieth was to Eliathah; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:28  The twenty-first was to Hothir; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:29  The twenty-second was to Giddalti; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:30  The twenty-third was to Mahazioth; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.
1 Chronicles 25:31  The twenty-fourth was to Romamtiezer; he, his sons, and his brothers were twelve.

1 Chronicles 26:1  These were the divisions of the gatekeepers. From the Korhites: Meshelemiah the son of Kore, of the sons of Asaph.
1 Chronicles 26:2  The sons of Meshelemiah were Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,
1 Chronicles 26:3  Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Elioenai the seventh.
1 Chronicles 26:4  The sons of Obededom were Shemaiah the firstborn, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sacar the fourth, Nethaneel the fifth,
1 Chronicles 26:5  Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peulthai the eighth, for God blessed him.
1 Chronicles 26:6  Sons were also born to his son Shemaiah, and they ruled in their father's house, for they were mighty men of valour.
1 Chronicles 26:7  The sons of Shemaiah were Othni, Rephael, Obed and Elzabad. His brothers Elihu and Semachiah were strong men.
1 Chronicles 26:8  All these were of the sons of Obededom. They, their sons and their brothers were able men, strong for the service. There were sixty-two of Obededom.
1 Chronicles 26:9  Meshelemiah had sons and brothers, strong men, eighteen in all.
1 Chronicles 26:10  Hosah, of the sons of Merari, also had sons. Simri was the chief (though he was not the firstborn, his father made him the chief),
1 Chronicles 26:11  Hilkiah the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth. All the sons and brothers of Hosah were thirteen.
1 Chronicles 26:12  These were the divisions of the gatekeepers, among the chief men, with posts facing one another, to serve in the house of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 26:13  They cast lots for every gate, the small as well as the great, family by family.
1 Chronicles 26:14  The lot for the east gate fell to Shelemiah. Then they cast lots for his son Zechariah, a wise counsellor, and his lot came out for the north.
1 Chronicles 26:15  Obededom's lot was for the south, and his sons were given the house of Asuppim.
1 Chronicles 26:16  The lot for Shuppim and Hosah came out for the west, with the gate Shallecheth, by the road that goes up, post facing post.
1 Chronicles 26:17  On the east there were six Levites, on the north four a day, on the south four a day, and at Asuppim two and two.
1 Chronicles 26:18  At Parbar on the west there were four at the road, and two at Parbar.
1 Chronicles 26:19  These are the divisions of the gatekeepers among the sons of Kore and among the sons of Merari.
1 Chronicles 26:20  Of the Levites, Ahijah was over the treasures of the house of God and over the treasures of the dedicated things.
1 Chronicles 26:21  As for the sons of Laadan, the sons of Laadan the Gershonite, the heads of families of Laadan the Gershonite, were the Jehieli.
1 Chronicles 26:22  The sons of Jehieli were Zetham and Joel his brother. They were over the treasures of the house of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 26:23  Of the Amramites, the Izharites, the Hebronites and the Uzzielites:
1 Chronicles 26:24  Shebuel the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, was ruler over the treasures.
1 Chronicles 26:25  His relatives through Eliezer were Rehabiah his son, Jeshaiah his son, Joram his son, Zichri his son, and Shelomith his son.
1 Chronicles 26:26  This Shelomith and his brothers were over all the treasures of the dedicated things, which King David, the heads of families, the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains of the army had dedicated.
1 Chronicles 26:27  They dedicated some of the goods taken in battles, to keep up the house of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 26:28  Everything that Samuel the seer, Saul the son of Kish, Abner the son of Ner, and Joab the son of Zeruiah had dedicated, and whatever anyone else had dedicated, was in the care of Shelomith and his brothers.
1 Chronicles 26:29  Of the Izharites, Chenaniah and his sons were given the outside work over Israel, as officers and judges.
1 Chronicles 26:30  Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his brothers, men of valour, one thousand seven hundred of them, were officers over Israel on this side of the Jordan, on the west, in all the work of the LORD and in the service of the king.
1 Chronicles 26:31  Among the Hebronites, Jerijah was the chief, counted by the generations of his fathers. In the fortieth year of David's reign a search was made, and mighty men of valour were found among them at Jazer of Gilead.
1 Chronicles 26:32  His brothers were men of valour, two thousand seven hundred heads of families. King David made them rulers over the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, for every matter that belonged to God and for the business of the king.

1 Chronicles 27:1  Now these are the people of Israel, counted by their numbers: the chief fathers, the captains of thousands and of hundreds, and their officers who served the king in everything to do with the divisions. Each division came on duty and went off duty month by month, through all the months of the year. Every division had twenty-four thousand men.
1 Chronicles 27:2  Over the first division, for the first month, was Jashobeam the son of Zabdiel. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:3  He was from the children of Perez, and he was the chief of all the captains of the army for the first month.
1 Chronicles 27:4  Over the division of the second month was Dodai an Ahohite, and Mikloth was also a ruler of his division. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:5  The third captain of the army, for the third month, was Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, a chief priest. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:6  This is the Benaiah who was mighty among the thirty, and was over the thirty. His son Ammizabad was in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:7  The fourth captain, for the fourth month, was Asahel the brother of Joab, and after him his son Zebadiah. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:8  The fifth captain, for the fifth month, was Shamhuth the Izrahite. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:9  The sixth captain, for the sixth month, was Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:10  The seventh captain, for the seventh month, was Helez the Pelonite, of the children of Ephraim. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:11  The eighth captain, for the eighth month, was Sibbecai the Hushathite, of the Zarhites. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:12  The ninth captain, for the ninth month, was Abiezer the Anetothite, of the Benjamites. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:13  The tenth captain, for the tenth month, was Maharai the Netophathite, of the Zarhites. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:14  The eleventh captain, for the eleventh month, was Benaiah the Pirathonite, of the children of Ephraim. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:15  The twelfth captain, for the twelfth month, was Heldai the Netophathite, of Othniel. There were twenty-four thousand men in his division.
1 Chronicles 27:16  These were over the tribes of Israel: the ruler of the Reubenites was Eliezer the son of Zichri; of the Simeonites, Shephatiah the son of Maachah;
1 Chronicles 27:17  of the Levites, Hashabiah the son of Kemuel; of the Aaronites, Zadok;
1 Chronicles 27:18  of Judah, Elihu, one of the brothers of David; of Issachar, Omri the son of Michael;
1 Chronicles 27:19  of Zebulun, Ishmaiah the son of Obadiah; of Naphtali, Jerimoth the son of Azriel;
1 Chronicles 27:20  of the children of Ephraim, Hoshea the son of Azaziah; of the half tribe of Manasseh, Joel the son of Pedaiah;
1 Chronicles 27:21  of the half tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, Iddo the son of Zechariah; of Benjamin, Jaasiel the son of Abner;
1 Chronicles 27:22  of Dan, Azareel the son of Jeroham. These were the leaders of the tribes of Israel.
1 Chronicles 27:23  But David did not count those who were twenty years old and under, because the LORD had said he would make Israel as many as the stars of the heavens.
1 Chronicles 27:24  Joab the son of Zeruiah began to count them, but he did not finish, because anger came upon Israel for it. And the number was not written in the records of the chronicles of King David.
1 Chronicles 27:25  Over the king's treasures was Azmaveth the son of Adiel. Over the storehouses in the fields, in the cities, in the villages and in the castles was Jehonathan the son of Uzziah.
1 Chronicles 27:26  Over those who did the field work, tilling the ground, was Ezri the son of Chelub.
1 Chronicles 27:27  Over the vineyards was Shimei the Ramathite. Over what the vineyards produced for the wine cellars was Zabdi the Shiphmite.
1 Chronicles 27:28  Over the olive trees and the sycomore trees in the low plains was Baalhanan the Gederite. Over the cellars of oil was Joash.
1 Chronicles 27:29  Over the herds that fed in Sharon was Shitrai the Sharonite. Over the herds in the valleys was Shaphat the son of Adlai.
1 Chronicles 27:30  Over the camels was Obil the Ishmaelite. Over the donkeys was Jehdeiah the Meronothite.
1 Chronicles 27:31  And over the flocks was Jaziz the Hagerite. All these were the men in charge of the property that belonged to King David.
1 Chronicles 27:32  Jonathan, David's uncle, was a counsellor, a wise man and a scribe. Jehiel the son of Hachmoni was with the king's sons.
1 Chronicles 27:33  Ahithophel was the king's counsellor, and Hushai the Archite was the king's friend.
1 Chronicles 27:34  After Ahithophel came Jehoiada the son of Benaiah, and Abiathar. And the commander of the king's army was Joab.

1 Chronicles 28:1  David gathered all the leaders of Israel to Jerusalem: the leaders of the tribes, the captains of the companies who served the king by turns, the captains over thousands, the captains over hundreds, the stewards over all the property and livestock of the king and of his sons, together with the officers, the mighty men, and all the brave men.
1 Chronicles 28:2  Then King David stood up on his feet and said, "Listen to me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, a place for the footstool of our God, and I had made ready to build it."
1 Chronicles 28:3  But God said to me, 'You shall not build a house for my name, because you have been a man of war and have shed blood.'
1 Chronicles 28:4  Yet the LORD God of Israel chose me out of all my father's family to be king over Israel for ever. For he has chosen Judah to be the ruler, and out of the house of Judah, my father's house; and among my father's sons he was pleased to make me king over all Israel.
1 Chronicles 28:5  And out of all my sons (for the LORD has given me many sons), he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.
1 Chronicles 28:6  He said to me, 'Solomon your son shall build my house and my courts. For I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.
1 Chronicles 28:7  I will also make his kingdom sure for ever, if he keeps on doing my commandments and my judgments, as he does this day.'
1 Chronicles 28:8  So now, in the sight of all Israel, the congregation of the LORD, and while our God is listening, keep and search out all the commandments of the LORD your God. Then you may possess this good land, and leave it to your children after you as an inheritance for ever.
1 Chronicles 28:9  "And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father. Serve him with a whole heart and a willing mind. For the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every plan of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you turn away from him, he will cast you off for ever."
1 Chronicles 28:10  "Take care now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong, and do it."
1 Chronicles 28:11  Then David gave Solomon his son the plan of the porch, and of its buildings, and its treasuries, and its upper rooms, and its inner rooms, and the place of the mercy seat.
1 Chronicles 28:12  He gave him the plan of all that he had by the spirit: of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the rooms around them, and of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the things given to God.
1 Chronicles 28:13  He also gave directions for the divisions of the priests and the Levites, and for all the work of the service of the house of the LORD, and for all the vessels used in the service of the house of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 28:14  He gave gold by weight for the things of gold, for all the objects used in every kind of service; and silver by weight for all the objects of silver, for all the objects used in every kind of service.
1 Chronicles 28:15  He gave the weight for the lampstands of gold and for their lamps of gold, by weight for each lampstand and for its lamps; and for the lampstands of silver by weight, for each lampstand and for its lamps, according to how each lampstand was used.
1 Chronicles 28:16  He gave gold by weight for the tables of showbread, for each table, and silver for the tables of silver.
1 Chronicles 28:17  He gave pure gold for the forks, the bowls, and the cups; and for the golden basins he gave gold by weight for each basin, and silver by weight for each basin of silver.
1 Chronicles 28:18  For the altar of incense he gave refined gold by weight; and gold for the plan of the chariot of the cherubim, which spread out their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the LORD.
1 Chronicles 28:19  "All this," said David, "the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, all the works of this plan."
1 Chronicles 28:20  David said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and brave, and do it. Do not be afraid or dismayed, for the LORD God, my God, will be with you. He will not fail you or leave you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD."
1 Chronicles 28:21  "Look, here are the divisions of the priests and the Levites. They will be with you for all the service of the house of God. And every willing, skilful man will be with you for every kind of work and every kind of service. The leaders also and all the people will do whatever you command."

1 Chronicles 29:1  Then King David said to all the assembly, "Solomon my son, the one whom God alone has chosen, is still young and untried, and the work is great. This palace is not for man, but for the LORD God."
1 Chronicles 29:2  "With all my strength I have made ready for the house of my God: gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver, brass for the things of brass, iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood. I have made ready onyx stones, and stones to be set in place, shining stones of many colours, all kinds of precious stones, and marble stones in great quantity."
1 Chronicles 29:3  "More than this, because I have set my heart on the house of my God, I have given my own treasure of gold and silver to the house of my God, over and above all that I have made ready for the holy house. s"
1 Chronicles 29:4  "I have given three thousand talents of gold, the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the buildings,"
1 Chronicles 29:5  "gold for the things of gold, and silver for the things of silver, and for all the work to be done by the hands of skilled workers. So who is willing to give himself to the LORD today?"
1 Chronicles 29:6  Then the heads of the families, and the leaders of the tribes of Israel, and the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officials over the king's work, all gave willingly.
1 Chronicles 29:7  They gave for the service of the house of God five thousand talents of gold and ten thousand drams, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of brass, and one hundred thousand talents of iron.
1 Chronicles 29:8  Those who had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the LORD, into the care of Jehiel the Gershonite.
1 Chronicles 29:9  Then the people were glad, because they had given willingly. With a whole heart they had given willingly to the LORD. King David also rejoiced with great joy.
1 Chronicles 29:10  So David blessed the LORD in front of all the assembly. David said, "Blessed are you, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever."
1 Chronicles 29:11  "Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. Everything in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are lifted up as head over all."
1 Chronicles 29:12  "Both riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might. It is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all."
1 Chronicles 29:13  "So now, our God, we thank you, and we praise your glorious name."
1 Chronicles 29:14  "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give so willingly like this? For everything comes from you, and we have given you only what is your own."
1 Chronicles 29:15  "We are strangers before you, and people passing through, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no staying."
1 Chronicles 29:16  "O LORD our God, all this great store that we have made ready to build you a house for your holy name comes from your hand, and it is all your own."
1 Chronicles 29:17  "I know also, my God, that you test the heart, and that you take pleasure in what is upright. As for me, with an upright heart I have willingly given all these things. And now I have seen with joy your people, who are here, giving willingly to you."
1 Chronicles 29:18  "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the thoughts and purposes of the hearts of your people, and turn their hearts towards you."
1 Chronicles 29:19  "And give Solomon my son a whole heart, to keep your commandments, your laws, and your rules, and to do all these things, and to build the palace for which I have made provision."
1 Chronicles 29:20  Then David said to all the assembly, "Now bless the LORD your God." And all the assembly blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD and the king.
1 Chronicles 29:21  The next day they made sacrifices to the LORD and offered burnt offerings to the LORD: a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their drink offerings, and many sacrifices for all Israel.
1 Chronicles 29:22  They ate and drank before the LORD that day with great gladness. They made Solomon the son of David king a second time, and anointed him before the LORD to be ruler, and Zadok to be priest.
1 Chronicles 29:23  Then Solomon sat on the throne of the LORD as king in place of David his father, and he did well, and all Israel obeyed him.
1 Chronicles 29:24  All the leaders, and the mighty men, and all the sons of King David as well, gave their loyalty to King Solomon.
1 Chronicles 29:25  The LORD made Solomon very great in the sight of all Israel, and gave him such royal majesty as no king before him in Israel had ever had.
1 Chronicles 29:26  So David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel.
1 Chronicles 29:27  The time he reigned over Israel was forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
1 Chronicles 29:28  He died at a good old age, full of days, riches, and honour. And Solomon his son reigned in his place.
1 Chronicles 29:29  Now the acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,
1 Chronicles 29:30  together with all his reign and his might, and the times that passed over him, and over Israel, and over all the kingdoms of the countries.

2 Chronicles

2 Chronicles 1:1  Solomon the son of David was made strong in his kingdom. The LORD his God was with him, and made him very great.
2 Chronicles 1:2  Then Solomon spoke to all Israel: to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges, and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of the families.
2 Chronicles 1:3  So Solomon and all the people with him went to the high place at Gibeon. For God's tent of meeting was there, the one that Moses the servant of the LORD had made in the wilderness.
2 Chronicles 1:4  But David had brought the ark of God up from Kirjathjearim to the place he had prepared for it, for he had set up a tent for it at Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 1:5  The bronze altar that Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there in front of the tent of the LORD. Solomon and the people went to it to seek the LORD.
2 Chronicles 1:6  Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the LORD, which was at the tent of meeting, and he offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
2 Chronicles 1:7  That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, "Ask what you want me to give you."
2 Chronicles 1:8  Solomon said to God, "You have shown great mercy to my father David, and you have made me king in his place."
2 Chronicles 1:9  "Now, LORD God, let your promise to my father David come true. For you have made me king over a people as many as the dust of the earth."
2 Chronicles 1:10  "Give me now wisdom and knowledge, so that I may go out and come in before this people. For who can judge this great people of yours?"
2 Chronicles 1:11  God said to Solomon, "Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked for riches, wealth, or honour, or for the death of your enemies, and you have not asked for a long life, but you have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, so that you may judge my people, over whom I have made you king,"
2 Chronicles 1:12  "wisdom and knowledge are given to you. And I will give you riches, wealth, and honour such as no king before you ever had, and none after you will have the like."
2 Chronicles 1:13  Then Solomon came back from the high place at Gibeon, from in front of the tent of meeting, to Jerusalem, and he reigned over Israel.
2 Chronicles 1:14  Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen. He had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen. He placed them in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 1:15  The king made silver and gold as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as plentiful as the sycomore trees in the valley.
2 Chronicles 1:16  Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt, and linen yarn. The king's merchants bought the linen yarn at a price.
2 Chronicles 1:17  They brought up a chariot out of Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse for a hundred and fifty. In the same way, through them, horses were brought out for all the kings of the Hittites and for the kings of Syria.

2 Chronicles 2:1  Solomon decided to build a house for the name of the LORD, and a royal palace for himself.
2 Chronicles 2:2  Solomon counted out seventy thousand men to carry loads, and eighty thousand to cut stone in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred to oversee them.
2 Chronicles 2:3  Solomon sent word to Huram the king of Tyre, saying, "You dealt with my father David and sent him cedar wood to build himself a house to live in. Now deal with me in the same way."
2 Chronicles 2:4  "Look, I am building a house for the name of the LORD my God, to set it apart for him. There we will burn sweet incense before him, and set out the bread of the Presence continually, and offer burnt offerings morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, and at the new moons, and at the appointed feasts of the LORD our God. This is a rule for Israel for ever."
2 Chronicles 2:5  "The house I am building is great, for our God is greater than all gods."
2 Chronicles 2:6  "But who is able to build him a house? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot hold him. So who am I to build him a house, except to burn sacrifices before him?"
2 Chronicles 2:7  "So send me now a man skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze and iron, and with purple, crimson and blue cloth, and one who knows how to carve. He will work with the skilled men I have here in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom my father David provided."
2 Chronicles 2:8  "Send me also cedar trees, fir trees and algum trees from Lebanon, for I know that your servants are skilled at cutting timber in Lebanon. And look, my servants will work with your servants,"
2 Chronicles 2:9  "to prepare a great deal of timber for me, for the house I am about to build will be very great and wonderful."
2 Chronicles 2:10  "And look, I will give your servants, the men who cut the timber, twenty thousand measures of crushed wheat, twenty thousand measures of barley, twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil."
2 Chronicles 2:11  Then Huram the king of Tyre replied in a letter which he sent to Solomon: "Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you king over them."
2 Chronicles 2:12  Huram said further, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who made heaven and earth. He has given King David a wise son, with good sense and understanding, who will build a house for the LORD and a royal palace for himself."
2 Chronicles 2:13  "Now I have sent you a skilled man, full of understanding, Huram-abi,"
2 Chronicles 2:14  "the son of a woman from the daughters of Dan; his father was a man of Tyre. He is skilled in working with gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone and wood, and with purple, blue and crimson cloth and fine linen. He can do every kind of carving, and can work out any design given to him. He will work with your skilled men, and with the skilled men of my lord David your father."
2 Chronicles 2:15  "So now let my lord send to his servants the wheat and the barley, the oil and the wine that he has spoken of."
2 Chronicles 2:16  "And we will cut wood from Lebanon, as much as you need. We will bring it to you in rafts by sea to Joppa, and you can carry it up to Jerusalem."
2 Chronicles 2:17  Solomon counted all the foreigners who were in the land of Israel, in the same way that his father David had counted them. They were found to be one hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.
2 Chronicles 2:18  He made seventy thousand of them carriers of loads, and eighty thousand stonecutters in the mountain, and three thousand six hundred overseers to keep the people at work.

2 Chronicles 3:1  Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the place that David had prepared, on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
2 Chronicles 3:2  He began to build on the second day of the second month, in the fourth year of his reign.
2 Chronicles 3:3  These are the measurements Solomon was given for building the house of God. Using the older cubit, the length was sixty cubits and the width twenty cubits.
2 Chronicles 3:4  The porch at the front of the house was as long as the house was wide, twenty cubits, and it was a hundred and twenty high. He covered the inside of it with pure gold.
2 Chronicles 3:5  He lined the main room with fir wood, and covered it with fine gold, and set palm trees and chains upon it.
2 Chronicles 3:6  He decorated the house with precious stones to make it beautiful. The gold was gold from Parvaim.
2 Chronicles 3:7  He also covered the house with gold: the beams, the doorposts, the walls and the doors. And he carved cherubim on the walls.
2 Chronicles 3:8  He made the most holy room. Its length was as long as the house was wide, twenty cubits, and its width was twenty cubits. He covered it with fine gold, six hundred talents in all.
2 Chronicles 3:9  The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. He also covered the upper rooms with gold.
2 Chronicles 3:10  In the most holy room he made two carved cherubim, and covered them with gold.
2 Chronicles 3:11  The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits long in all. One wing of the first cherub was five cubits long and reached to the wall of the house. Its other wing was also five cubits long and touched the wing of the other cherub.
2 Chronicles 3:12  One wing of the second cherub was five cubits long and reached to the wall of the house. Its other wing was five cubits too, and joined the wing of the first cherub.
2 Chronicles 3:13  So the wings of these cherubim stretched out twenty cubits. They stood on their feet, and their faces looked toward the room.
2 Chronicles 3:14  He made the veil of blue, purple and crimson yarn and fine linen, and worked cherubim into it.
2 Chronicles 3:15  In front of the house he made two pillars, thirty-five cubits high, and the capital on the top of each one was five cubits.
2 Chronicles 3:16  He made chains, like those in the inner room, and put them on the tops of the pillars. He made a hundred pomegranates and put them on the chains.
2 Chronicles 3:17  He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the right side and one on the left. He named the one on the right Jachin, and the one on the left Boaz.

2 Chronicles 4:1  He also made an altar of brass. It was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and ten cubits high.
2 Chronicles 4:2  He also made a great basin of cast metal, called the sea. It was round, ten cubits from rim to rim, and five cubits high. A line of thirty cubits would reach around it.
2 Chronicles 4:3  Under it were shapes like oxen, going all the way around it, ten to every cubit, circling the sea. The oxen were in two rows, cast in one piece with the sea.
2 Chronicles 4:4  It stood on twelve oxen. Three looked toward the north, three toward the west, three toward the south, and three toward the east. The sea rested on top of them, and all their back parts were turned inward.
2 Chronicles 4:5  It was as thick as a hand's width. Its rim was made like the rim of a cup, with lily flowers. It held three thousand baths.
2 Chronicles 4:6  He also made ten basins for washing, and set five on the right side and five on the left. In these they washed the things they offered for the burnt offering. But the sea was for the priests to wash in.
2 Chronicles 4:7  He made ten lampstands of gold, following the pattern for them, and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left.
2 Chronicles 4:8  He also made ten tables and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made a hundred bowls of gold.
2 Chronicles 4:9  He also made the court of the priests, and the great court, and doors for the court, and he covered the doors with brass.
2 Chronicles 4:10  He set the sea on the right side of the east end, toward the south.
2 Chronicles 4:11  Huram made the pots, the shovels, and the bowls. So Huram finished the work he was to do for King Solomon for the house of God:
2 Chronicles 4:12  the two pillars, and the round tops, and the capitals that were on the top of the two pillars, and the two networks to cover the two round tops of the capitals that were on the top of the pillars;
2 Chronicles 4:13  and four hundred pomegranates for the two networks, two rows of pomegranates on each network, to cover the two round tops of the capitals that were on the pillars.
2 Chronicles 4:14  He also made the stands, and he made basins on the stands;
2 Chronicles 4:15  one sea, and twelve oxen under it.
2 Chronicles 4:16  Huram his master workman also made the pots, the shovels, the meat hooks, and all their tools for King Solomon for the house of the LORD, out of polished brass.
2 Chronicles 4:17  The king cast them in the plain of Jordan, in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredathah.
2 Chronicles 4:18  So Solomon made all these vessels in very great number, for the weight of the brass could not be measured.
2 Chronicles 4:19  Solomon made all the vessels that were for the house of God: the golden altar, and the tables where the showbread was set;
2 Chronicles 4:20  and the lampstands with their lamps, of pure gold, to burn in the proper way in front of the inner room;
2 Chronicles 4:21  and the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs he made of gold, and that the purest gold;
2 Chronicles 4:22  and the snuffers, the bowls, the spoons, and the fire pans, of pure gold. And the entrance of the house, its inner doors for the most holy place, and the doors of the main hall of the temple, were of gold.

2 Chronicles 5:1  So all the work that Solomon did for the house of the LORD was finished. Solomon brought in all the things that his father David had dedicated. He put the silver, the gold, and all the vessels among the treasures of the house of God.
2 Chronicles 5:2  Then Solomon gathered the elders of Israel to Jerusalem, with all the heads of the tribes and the leaders of the families of the children of Israel. They were to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion.
2 Chronicles 5:3  So all the men of Israel gathered to the king at the feast in the seventh month.
2 Chronicles 5:4  All the elders of Israel came, and the Levites lifted up the ark.
2 Chronicles 5:5  They brought up the ark, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up.
2 Chronicles 5:6  King Solomon and all the people of Israel who were gathered with him stood before the ark. They sacrificed sheep and oxen, so many that they could not be counted or numbered.
2 Chronicles 5:7  The priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, to the inner room of the house, into the most holy place, right under the wings of the cherubim.
2 Chronicles 5:8  For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark. The cherubim covered the ark and its poles from above.
2 Chronicles 5:9  They drew out the poles of the ark, so that the ends of the poles could be seen from the ark in front of the inner room. But they could not be seen from outside. And there it is to this day.
2 Chronicles 5:10  There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt.
2 Chronicles 5:11  Then the priests came out of the holy place. All the priests who were there had made themselves holy, and were not keeping to their usual turns of service.
2 Chronicles 5:12  The Levites who were the singers were all there too: the men of Asaph, of Heman, and of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brothers. They were dressed in white linen and had cymbals and lyres and harps. They stood at the east end of the altar, and with them a hundred and twenty priests sounding trumpets.
2 Chronicles 5:13  The trumpeters and the singers sounded together as one, making one sound to be heard as they praised and thanked the LORD. They lifted up their voices with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, "For he is good; for his mercy lasts for ever." Then the house was filled with a cloud, the house of the LORD,
2 Chronicles 5:14  so that the priests could not stand to serve because of the cloud. For the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God.

2 Chronicles 6:1  Then Solomon said, "The LORD has said that he would live in the thick darkness."
2 Chronicles 6:2  "But I have built a house for you to live in, a place for you to dwell in for ever."
2 Chronicles 6:3  Then the king turned round and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, and all the assembly of Israel stood.
2 Chronicles 6:4  He said, "Blessed be the LORD God of Israel. With his own hands he has carried out what he spoke with his mouth to my father David. He said,"
2 Chronicles 6:5  "'Since the day I brought my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house in, so that my name might be there. And I chose no man to be a ruler over my people Israel."
2 Chronicles 6:6  "'But I have chosen Jerusalem, so that my name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel.'"
2 Chronicles 6:7  "Now my father David had it in his heart to build a house for the name of the LORD God of Israel."
2 Chronicles 6:8  "But the LORD said to my father David, 'It was in your heart to build a house for my name. You did well that it was in your heart."
2 Chronicles 6:9  "'Even so, you shall not build the house. Your son, who will come from your own body, he shall build the house for my name.'"
2 Chronicles 6:10  "So the LORD has kept the word that he spoke. I have risen up in the place of my father David, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised. And I have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel."
2 Chronicles 6:11  "In it I have put the ark, and in the ark is the covenant of the LORD, which he made with the children of Israel."
2 Chronicles 6:12  Then he stood in front of the altar of the LORD, before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands.
2 Chronicles 6:13  For Solomon had made a platform of bronze, five cubits long, five cubits wide and three cubits high, and had set it in the middle of the court. He stood on it, and knelt down on his knees in front of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands towards heaven.
2 Chronicles 6:14  He said, "LORD God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven or on earth. You keep your covenant, and you show mercy to your servants who walk before you with all their hearts."
2 Chronicles 6:15  "You have kept your promise to your servant David my father. You spoke it with your mouth, and you have carried it out with your hand, as it is today."
2 Chronicles 6:16  "Now then, LORD God of Israel, keep what you promised your servant David my father, when you said, 'You shall never fail to have a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take care how they walk, and walk in my law, as you have walked before me.'"
2 Chronicles 6:17  "Now then, LORD God of Israel, let your word come true, the word you spoke to your servant David."
2 Chronicles 6:18  "But will God really live with people on the earth? Look, heaven and the highest heaven cannot hold you. How much less this house which I have built."
2 Chronicles 6:19  "Yet give heed to the prayer of your servant, and to his plea, LORD my God. Listen to the cry and the prayer which your servant prays before you."
2 Chronicles 6:20  "Let your eyes be open towards this house day and night, towards the place where you said you would put your name. Listen to the prayer which your servant prays towards this place."
2 Chronicles 6:21  "So listen to the pleas of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray towards this place. Hear from your dwelling place, from heaven. And when you hear, forgive."
2 Chronicles 6:22  "If a man sins against his neighbour, and an oath is laid on him to make him swear, and he comes and swears before your altar in this house,"
2 Chronicles 6:23  "then hear from heaven, and act, and judge your servants. Pay back the wicked man, and bring what he has done on his own head. Declare the righteous man to be right, and give him what his righteousness deserves."
2 Chronicles 6:24  "If your people Israel are beaten by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and then they turn back and confess your name, and pray and plead before you in this house,"
2 Chronicles 6:25  "then hear from the heavens, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which you gave to them and to their fathers."
2 Chronicles 6:26  "When the sky is shut up and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, and then they pray towards this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin because you have afflicted them,"
2 Chronicles 6:27  "then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. Teach them the good way in which they should walk, and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people as their inheritance."
2 Chronicles 6:28  "If there is famine in the land, or plague, or blight, or mildew, or locusts, or caterpillars; if their enemies shut them in inside the cities of their land; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is,"
2 Chronicles 6:29  "then whatever prayer or whatever plea is made by any one person, or by all your people Israel, when each one knows his own trouble and his own grief, and spreads out his hands towards this house,"
2 Chronicles 6:30  "then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive. Give to every man what his ways deserve, for you know his heart. You alone know the hearts of the children of men."
2 Chronicles 6:31  "Then they will fear you and walk in your ways, as long as they live in the land which you gave to our fathers."
2 Chronicles 6:32  "And as for the stranger, who is not one of your people Israel, but has come from a far country because of your great name, and your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm - when he comes and prays in this house,"
2 Chronicles 6:33  "then hear from the heavens, from your dwelling place, and do all that the stranger asks you for. Then all the peoples of the earth will know your name and fear you, as your people Israel do, and they will know that this house which I have built is called by your name."
2 Chronicles 6:34  "If your people go out to war against their enemies by the way that you send them, and they pray to you towards this city which you have chosen, and towards the house which I have built for your name,"
2 Chronicles 6:35  "then hear their prayer and their plea from the heavens, and uphold their cause."
2 Chronicles 6:36  "If they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin, and you are angry with them and hand them over to their enemies, and their enemies carry them away captive to a land far off or near,"
2 Chronicles 6:37  "and if they come to their senses in the land where they have been carried captive, and turn and pray to you in the land of their captivity, saying, 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, and we have acted wickedly,'"
2 Chronicles 6:38  "and if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they were carried away, and pray towards their land which you gave to their fathers, and towards the city which you have chosen, and towards the house which I have built for your name,"
2 Chronicles 6:39  "then hear their prayer and their pleas from the heavens, from your dwelling place, and uphold their cause. Forgive your people who have sinned against you."
2 Chronicles 6:40  "Now, my God, I beg you, let your eyes be open and your ears listen to the prayer that is made in this place."
2 Chronicles 6:41  "Now rise up, LORD God, and come to your resting place, you and the ark of your strength. Let your priests, LORD God, be clothed with salvation, and let your holy ones rejoice in goodness."
2 Chronicles 6:42  "LORD God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. Remember the mercies shown to David your servant."

2 Chronicles 7:1  When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven. It burned up the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house.
2 Chronicles 7:2  The priests could not go into the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD's house.
2 Chronicles 7:3  All the people of Israel saw the fire come down, and they saw the glory of the LORD on the house. They bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement. They worshipped and praised the LORD, saying, "For he is good, for his mercy lasts for ever."
2 Chronicles 7:4  Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD.
2 Chronicles 7:5  King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God.
2 Chronicles 7:6  The priests stood at their work. The Levites stood with the musical instruments of the LORD, which King David had made to praise the LORD, saying, "For his mercy lasts for ever." They played as David had praised the LORD through them. The priests blew trumpets in front of them, and all Israel stood.
2 Chronicles 7:7  Solomon also set apart the middle of the court in front of the house of the LORD. There he offered the burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar he had made was not big enough to hold the burnt offerings, the grain offerings and the fat.
2 Chronicles 7:8  At that same time Solomon kept the feast for seven days, and all Israel with him. It was a very great gathering, from the entrance of Hamath to the river of Egypt.
2 Chronicles 7:9  On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly. They had kept the dedication of the altar for seven days, and the feast for seven days.
2 Chronicles 7:10  On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents. They were glad and happy in heart because of the goodness the LORD had shown to David, and to Solomon, and to Israel his people.
2 Chronicles 7:11  So Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king's house. Everything that came into Solomon's heart to do in the house of the LORD and in his own house, he carried out successfully.
2 Chronicles 7:12  The LORD appeared to Solomon by night and said to him, "I have heard your prayer, and I have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice."
2 Chronicles 7:13  "If I shut up heaven so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to eat up the land, or if I send a plague among my people,"
2 Chronicles 7:14  "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:15  "Now my eyes will be open, and my ears will listen to the prayer that is made in this place."
2 Chronicles 7:16  "For now I have chosen this house and made it holy, so that my name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will be there always."
2 Chronicles 7:17  "And as for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do everything I have commanded you, and keep my rules and my laws,"
2 Chronicles 7:18  "then I will make the throne of your kingdom firm. This is the covenant I made with David your father, when I said, 'You will never fail to have a man to rule in Israel.'"
2 Chronicles 7:19  "But if you turn away and leave my rules and my commands, which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,"
2 Chronicles 7:20  "then I will pull them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them. And this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will throw out of my sight. I will make it a saying and a joke among all nations."
2 Chronicles 7:21  "And this house, which is so high, will shock everyone who passes by it. He will say, 'Why has the LORD done this to this land and to this house?'"
2 Chronicles 7:22  "And the answer will be, 'Because they left the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods, and worshipped them and served them. That is why he has brought all this evil on them.'"

2 Chronicles 8:1  Twenty years passed, during which Solomon built the house of the LORD and his own house.
2 Chronicles 8:2  Then Solomon rebuilt the cities that Huram had given back to him, and he settled the people of Israel there.
2 Chronicles 8:3  Solomon went to Hamathzobah and took it.
2 Chronicles 8:4  He built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities that he built in Hamath.
2 Chronicles 8:5  He also built Upper Bethhoron and Lower Bethhoron, strong cities with walls, gates and bars.
2 Chronicles 8:6  He built Baalath too, and all the storage cities that he had, and all the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen. He built everything he wished to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and all through the land he ruled.
2 Chronicles 8:7  There were people still left from the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not Israelites.
2 Chronicles 8:8  Their children were left after them in the land, because the people of Israel had not destroyed them. Solomon made these people do forced labour, as they still do to this day.
2 Chronicles 8:9  But Solomon made no Israelites into slaves for his work. They were his fighting men, the chiefs of his captains, and the captains of his chariots and horsemen.
2 Chronicles 8:10  These were the chief officers of King Solomon: two hundred and fifty men who ruled over the people.
2 Chronicles 8:11  Solomon brought Pharaoh's daughter up from the city of David to the house he had built for her. For he said, "My wife shall not live in the house of David king of Israel, because the places where the ark of the LORD has come are holy."
2 Chronicles 8:12  Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD that he had built in front of the porch.
2 Chronicles 8:13  He offered a set amount every day, as Moses had commanded, on the Sabbaths, at the new moons, and at the three yearly feasts: the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of weeks, and the feast of tabernacles.
2 Chronicles 8:14  Following the orders of David his father, he appointed the groups of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties, to give praise and to serve in front of the priests, as each day's work required. He also set the gatekeepers in their groups at every gate, for so David the man of God had commanded.
2 Chronicles 8:15  They did not turn aside from what the king had commanded the priests and Levites about any matter, or about the treasures.
2 Chronicles 8:16  So all Solomon's work was carried out, from the day the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed.
2 Chronicles 8:17  Then Solomon went to Eziongeber and to Eloth, on the sea coast in the land of Edom.
2 Chronicles 8:18  Huram sent him ships by the hands of his servants, and servants who knew the sea. They went with Solomon's servants to Ophir, and took from there four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought it to King Solomon.

2 Chronicles 9:1  When the queen of Sheba heard how famous Solomon was, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. She came with a very large group of people, and camels carrying spices, a great deal of gold, and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she talked with him about everything that was on her mind.
2 Chronicles 9:2  Solomon answered all her questions. Nothing was too hidden for Solomon to explain to her.
2 Chronicles 9:3  The queen of Sheba saw Solomon's wisdom, and the house he had built,
2 Chronicles 9:4  and the food on his table, and where his servants sat, and how his officials served him, and the clothes they wore. She saw his cupbearers and their clothes, and the stairway by which he went up to the house of the LORD. It took her breath away.
2 Chronicles 9:5  She said to the king, "The report I heard in my own land about your deeds and your wisdom was true."
2 Chronicles 9:6  But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw it with my own eyes. Look, I was not told even half of how great your wisdom is. You are far more than the report I heard.
2 Chronicles 9:7  How happy your men are, and how happy these servants of yours are, who always stand in front of you and hear your wisdom.
2 Chronicles 9:8  "Blessed be the LORD your God, who was pleased with you and set you on his throne, to be king for the LORD your God. Because your God loved Israel and wanted to make them secure for ever, he made you king over them, to judge fairly and do what is right."
2 Chronicles 9:9  She gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, a very great amount of spices, and precious stones. There was never any spice like the spice the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
2 Chronicles 9:10  The servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, also brought algum wood and precious stones.
2 Chronicles 9:11  From the algum wood the king made steps for the house of the LORD and for the king's palace, and harps and lyres for the singers. Nothing like them had been seen before in the land of Judah.
2 Chronicles 9:12  King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba everything she wanted, whatever she asked for, besides what she had brought to the king. Then she turned and went back to her own land, she and her servants.
2 Chronicles 9:13  The weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
2 Chronicles 9:14  besides what the traders and merchants brought. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.
2 Chronicles 9:15  King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold. Six hundred shekels of beaten gold went into each shield.
2 Chronicles 9:16  He made three hundred smaller shields of beaten gold. Three hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
2 Chronicles 9:17  The king also made a great throne of ivory and covered it with pure gold.
2 Chronicles 9:18  The throne had six steps and a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne. There were arms on each side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the arms.
2 Chronicles 9:19  Twelve lions stood there on the six steps, one at each end of every step. Nothing like it had ever been made for any kingdom.
2 Chronicles 9:20  All King Solomon's drinking cups were gold, and all the vessels in the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. None were silver. Silver was thought to be worth nothing in the days of Solomon.
2 Chronicles 9:21  The king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram. Once every three years the ships of Tarshish came back bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes and peacocks.
2 Chronicles 9:22  So King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom.
2 Chronicles 9:23  All the kings of the earth wanted to come and see Solomon, to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.
2 Chronicles 9:24  Each one brought his gift: things made of silver, things made of gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses and mules. This happened year after year.
2 Chronicles 9:25  Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. He kept them in the chariot cities, and with the king in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 9:26  He ruled over all the kings from the River to the land of the Philistines, and as far as the border of Egypt.
2 Chronicles 9:27  The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as the sycomore trees in the low plains.
2 Chronicles 9:28  They brought horses to Solomon out of Egypt and out of all lands.
2 Chronicles 9:29  The rest of the acts of Solomon, from first to last, are written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer about Jeroboam son of Nebat.
2 Chronicles 9:30  Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.
2 Chronicles 9:31  Then Solomon slept with his fathers, and he was buried in the city of David his father. Rehoboam his son became king in his place.

2 Chronicles 10:1  Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
2 Chronicles 10:2  Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about it. He was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon. When he heard, Jeroboam came back from Egypt.
2 Chronicles 10:3  They sent for him and called him. So Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam. They said,
2 Chronicles 10:4  "Your father made our yoke hard to bear. Now make the hard service of your father lighter, and lift some of the heavy yoke that he laid on us, and we will serve you."
2 Chronicles 10:5  He said to them, "Come back to me after three days." So the people went away.
2 Chronicles 10:6  King Rehoboam asked advice from the old men who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. He said, "What advice do you give me, so that I may answer this people?"
2 Chronicles 10:7  They said to him, "If you are kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants for ever."
2 Chronicles 10:8  But he turned away from the advice the old men gave him. He asked advice from the young men who had grown up with him and who served him.
2 Chronicles 10:9  He said to them, "What advice do you give, so that we may answer this people? They said to me, 'Make the yoke your father laid on us lighter.'"
2 Chronicles 10:10  The young men who had grown up with him said to him, "This is what you should say to the people who spoke to you and said, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter for us.' Say this to them: 'My little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist.'"
2 Chronicles 10:11  "'My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will add to your yoke. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.'"
2 Chronicles 10:12  So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had told them: "Come back to me on the third day."
2 Chronicles 10:13  The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam turned away from the advice of the old men.
2 Chronicles 10:14  He answered them as the young men had advised. He said, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions."
2 Chronicles 10:15  So the king did not listen to the people. This turn of events came from God, so that the LORD might carry out his word, which he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
2 Chronicles 10:16  When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king. They said, "What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to your tents, Israel. And now, David, look after your own house." So all Israel went to their tents.
2 Chronicles 10:17  But Rehoboam ruled over the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah.
2 Chronicles 10:18  Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labour. The children of Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. But King Rehoboam hurried to get into his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 10:19  So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

2 Chronicles 11:1  When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered the house of Judah and Benjamin: a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors. They were to fight against Israel, so that the kingdom might be brought back to Rehoboam.
2 Chronicles 11:2  But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God. It said,
2 Chronicles 11:3  "Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin. Say to them,"
2 Chronicles 11:4  "'This is what the LORD says: You shall not go up, and you shall not fight against your brothers. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from me.'" So they obeyed the words of the LORD, and turned back from marching against Jeroboam.
2 Chronicles 11:5  Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities in Judah for defence.
2 Chronicles 11:6  He built Bethlehem, and Etam, and Tekoa,
2 Chronicles 11:7  and Bethzur, and Shoco, and Adullam,
2 Chronicles 11:8  and Gath, and Mareshah, and Ziph,
2 Chronicles 11:9  and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah,
2 Chronicles 11:10  and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are walled cities in Judah and in Benjamin.
2 Chronicles 11:11  He made the strongholds strong, and put commanders in them, with supplies of food, and oil and wine.
2 Chronicles 11:12  In every one of the cities he put shields and spears, and made them very strong. So he had Judah and Benjamin on his side.
2 Chronicles 11:13  The priests and the Levites who were in all Israel came over to him out of all their lands.
2 Chronicles 11:14  For the Levites left their open lands and their property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem. Jeroboam and his sons had thrown them out, so that they could not serve as priests to the LORD.
2 Chronicles 11:15  And he appointed his own priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.
2 Chronicles 11:16  After them, people from all the tribes of Israel who set their hearts to seek the LORD God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 11:17  So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years. For three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.
2 Chronicles 11:18  Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse.
2 Chronicles 11:19  She bore him children: Jeush, and Shamariah, and Zaham.
2 Chronicles 11:20  After her he took Maachah the daughter of Absalom, and she bore him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith.
2 Chronicles 11:21  Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and his concubines. (He took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)
2 Chronicles 11:22  Rehoboam made Abijah the son of Maachah the chief, to be the leader among his brothers, for he meant to make him king.
2 Chronicles 11:23  And he acted wisely, and spread all his children through all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to every walled city. He gave them plenty of food, and he sought many wives for them.

2 Chronicles 12:1  When Rehoboam had made his kingdom firm and had grown strong, he abandoned the law of the LORD, and all Israel with him.
2 Chronicles 12:2  In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem, because they had sinned against the LORD.
2 Chronicles 12:3  He came with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. The people who came with him out of Egypt could not be counted: the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.
2 Chronicles 12:4  He captured the walled cities that belonged to Judah, and he came to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 12:5  Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah, who had gathered in Jerusalem because of Shishak. He said to them, "This is what the LORD says: 'You have abandoned me, and so I have also left you in the hand of Shishak.'"
2 Chronicles 12:6  Then the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and they said, "The LORD is righteous."
2 Chronicles 12:7  When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah: "They have humbled themselves. So I will not destroy them, but I will give them some deliverance. My anger will not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak."
2 Chronicles 12:8  "But they will be his servants, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving the kingdoms of other lands."
2 Chronicles 12:9  So Shishak king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem. He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house. He took everything. He also carried away the shields of gold that Solomon had made.
2 Chronicles 12:10  In their place king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and he gave them into the care of the chief of the guard, who watched the entrance of the king's house.
2 Chronicles 12:11  Whenever the king went into the house of the LORD, the guard came and carried the shields, and afterwards brought them back to the guard room.
2 Chronicles 12:12  Because he humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned away from him, and he was not completely destroyed. And in Judah things went well.
2 Chronicles 12:13  So king Rehoboam made himself strong in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonite woman.
2 Chronicles 12:14  He did evil, because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.
2 Chronicles 12:15  The acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, in the records of family lines? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time.
2 Chronicles 12:16  Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. And Abijah his son reigned in his place.

2 Chronicles 13:1  In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah.
2 Chronicles 13:2  He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
2 Chronicles 13:3  Abijah went into battle with an army of brave fighting men, four hundred thousand chosen men. Jeroboam drew up his lines against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, who were mighty and brave.
2 Chronicles 13:4  Abijah stood up on mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, "Listen to me, Jeroboam, and all Israel."
2 Chronicles 13:5  "Should you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, to him and to his sons, by a covenant of salt?"
2 Chronicles 13:6  "Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, has risen up and rebelled against his lord."
2 Chronicles 13:7  "Worthless men, the children of Belial, have gathered to him. They made themselves strong against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and soft-hearted and could not stand up to them."
2 Chronicles 13:8  "And now you think you can stand up to the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hand of the sons of David. You are a great crowd, and you have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods."
2 Chronicles 13:9  "Have you not driven out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? Have you not made priests for yourselves the way the nations of other lands do? Anyone who comes to set himself apart with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods."
2 Chronicles 13:10  "But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not left him. The priests who serve the LORD are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites do their work."
2 Chronicles 13:11  "Every morning and every evening they burn to the LORD burnt sacrifices and sweet incense. They also set out the showbread in order on the pure table, and they light the gold lampstand with its lamps every evening. We keep the charge of the LORD our God, but you have left him."
2 Chronicles 13:12  "Look, God himself is with us as our captain, and his priests with trumpets to sound the alarm against you. People of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for you will not succeed."
2 Chronicles 13:13  But Jeroboam had sent men around to lie in wait behind them. So Jeroboam's men were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them.
2 Chronicles 13:14  When Judah looked back, the battle was in front of them and behind them. They cried out to the LORD, and the priests sounded the trumpets.
2 Chronicles 13:15  Then the men of Judah gave a shout. And as the men of Judah shouted, God struck down Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
2 Chronicles 13:16  The people of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand.
2 Chronicles 13:17  Abijah and his people killed them with a great slaughter. Five hundred thousand chosen men of Israel fell dead.
2 Chronicles 13:18  So the people of Israel were brought low at that time, and the people of Judah won, because they leaned on the LORD God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 13:19  Abijah chased Jeroboam and took cities from him: Bethel with its villages, and Jeshanah with its villages, and Ephrain with its villages.
2 Chronicles 13:20  Jeroboam did not get his strength back again in the days of Abijah. The LORD struck him, and he died.
2 Chronicles 13:21  But Abijah grew strong. He married fourteen wives, and was the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
2 Chronicles 13:22  The rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways and his sayings, are written in the record of the prophet Iddo.

2 Chronicles 14:1  So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. Asa his son became king in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.
2 Chronicles 14:2  Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God.
2 Chronicles 14:3  He took away the altars of the foreign gods and the high places. He broke down the images and cut down the groves.
2 Chronicles 14:4  He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to keep the law and the commandment.
2 Chronicles 14:5  He also took away the high places and the images out of all the cities of Judah. And the kingdom was quiet under him.
2 Chronicles 14:6  He built walled cities in Judah, for the land had rest. He had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest.
2 Chronicles 14:7  So he said to Judah, "Let us build these cities, and put walls around them, with towers, gates, and bars, while the land is still ours. We have sought the LORD our God. We have sought him, and he has given us rest on every side." So they built, and they prospered.
2 Chronicles 14:8  Asa had an army of men who carried shields and spears: three hundred thousand from Judah, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand who carried shields and drew bows. All these were mighty men of valour.
2 Chronicles 14:9  Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a thousand thousand men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah.
2 Chronicles 14:10  Then Asa went out against him, and they drew up their lines for battle in the valley of Zephathah at Mareshah.
2 Chronicles 14:11  Asa cried to the LORD his God and said, "LORD, it is nothing for you to help, whether with many or with those who have no power. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on you, and in your name we go against this great crowd. O LORD, you are our God. Do not let man win against you."
2 Chronicles 14:12  So the LORD struck down the Ethiopians before Asa and before Judah, and the Ethiopians fled.
2 Chronicles 14:13  Asa and the people with him chased them as far as Gerar. The Ethiopians were overthrown, so that they could not recover themselves, for they were destroyed before the LORD and before his army. And they carried away a great deal of plunder.
2 Chronicles 14:14  They struck down all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came upon them. They plundered all the cities, for there was a very great amount of plunder in them.
2 Chronicles 14:15  They also struck down the tents of the herdsmen, and carried away many sheep and camels, and returned to Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 15:1  The Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded.
2 Chronicles 15:2  He went out to meet Asa, and said to him, "Listen to me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you look for him, he will be found by you. But if you leave him, he will leave you."
2 Chronicles 15:3  "For a long time Israel has been without the true God, and without a priest to teach, and without law."
2 Chronicles 15:4  "But when they were in trouble and turned to the LORD God of Israel, and looked for him, he was found by them."
2 Chronicles 15:5  "In those times there was no peace for the one who went out, nor for the one who came in. Great troubles came upon all the people of those lands."
2 Chronicles 15:6  "Nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city. For God troubled them with every kind of hardship."
2 Chronicles 15:7  "So be strong, and do not let your hands be weak. Your work will be rewarded."
2 Chronicles 15:8  When Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage. He put away the hateful idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities he had taken from mount Ephraim. He also made new the altar of the LORD that was in front of the porch of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 15:9  He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them from Ephraim and Manasseh, and from Simeon. For great numbers came over to him out of Israel, when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
2 Chronicles 15:10  So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
2 Chronicles 15:11  At that time they offered to the LORD, from the plunder they had brought, seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep.
2 Chronicles 15:12  They entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.
2 Chronicles 15:13  Whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
2 Chronicles 15:14  They swore to the LORD with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets.
2 Chronicles 15:15  All Judah was glad about the oath. For they had sworn with all their heart, and looked for him with their whole desire, and he was found by them. And the LORD gave them rest on every side.
2 Chronicles 15:16  As for Maachah the mother of Asa the king, he removed her from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove. Asa cut down her idol, crushed it, and burned it at the brook Kidron.
2 Chronicles 15:17  But the high places were not taken away out of Israel. Even so, the heart of Asa was perfect all his days.
2 Chronicles 15:18  He brought into the house of God the things his father had set apart, and the things he himself had set apart: silver, and gold, and vessels.
2 Chronicles 15:19  And there was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

2 Chronicles 16:1  In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah. He fortified Ramah, so that no one could go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.
2 Chronicles 16:2  Then Asa brought out silver and gold from the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the king's house. He sent them to Benhadad king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, and said,
2 Chronicles 16:3  "There is an agreement between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Go and break your agreement with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will leave me alone."
2 Chronicles 16:4  Benhadad listened to King Asa. He sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and they struck Ijon, Dan, Abelmaim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali.
2 Chronicles 16:5  When Baasha heard it, he stopped fortifying Ramah and let his work come to an end.
2 Chronicles 16:6  Then King Asa took all Judah with him. They carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, which Baasha had been building with, and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.
2 Chronicles 16:7  At that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, "Because you relied on the king of Syria, and did not rely on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Syria has escaped out of your hand."
2 Chronicles 16:8  "Were not the Ethiopians and the Lubims a huge army, with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet because you relied on the LORD, he handed them over to you."
2 Chronicles 16:9  "For the eyes of the LORD move here and there through the whole earth, to show himself strong for those whose heart is perfect toward him. In this you have acted foolishly. So from now on you will have wars."
2 Chronicles 16:10  Then Asa was angry with the seer and put him in prison, for he was in a rage with him about this. At that same time Asa crushed some of the people.
2 Chronicles 16:11  Look, the acts of Asa, from first to last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
2 Chronicles 16:12  In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa became diseased in his feet, and his disease grew very severe. Yet even in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the doctors.
2 Chronicles 16:13  So Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the forty-first year of his reign.
2 Chronicles 16:14  They buried him in his own tombs, which he had made for himself in the city of David. They laid him on the bed which was filled with sweet perfumes and many kinds of spices, prepared by the perfumers' skill, and they made a very great fire in his honour.

2 Chronicles 17:1  His son Jehoshaphat became king in his place, and he made himself strong against Israel.
2 Chronicles 17:2  He put troops in all the walled cities of Judah, and he set soldiers in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim, which his father Asa had captured.
2 Chronicles 17:3  The LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father David, and did not look to the Baals.
2 Chronicles 17:4  Instead he looked to the LORD God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and did not follow what Israel did.
2 Chronicles 17:5  So the LORD made the kingdom firm in his hand. All Judah brought gifts to Jehoshaphat, and he had great riches and honour.
2 Chronicles 17:6  His heart was lifted up in the ways of the LORD. He also took away the high places and the groves out of Judah.
2 Chronicles 17:7  In the third year of his reign he sent out his officials: Benhail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethaneel and Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah.
2 Chronicles 17:8  With them he sent Levites: Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah and Tobadonijah, who were Levites. With them he sent Elishama and Jehoram, who were priests.
2 Chronicles 17:9  They taught in Judah. They had the book of the law of the LORD with them, and they went round through all the cities of Judah and taught the people.
2 Chronicles 17:10  The fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands around Judah, so that they made no war against Jehoshaphat.
2 Chronicles 17:11  Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat gifts and silver as tribute. The Arabians brought him flocks: seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred male goats.
2 Chronicles 17:12  Jehoshaphat grew greater and greater. He built strongholds and store cities in Judah.
2 Chronicles 17:13  He had much work in the cities of Judah. And the fighting men, mighty and brave, were in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 17:14  These are their numbers, by their families: of Judah, the commanders of thousands: Adnah was the chief, and with him were three hundred thousand mighty and brave men.
2 Chronicles 17:15  Next to him was Jehohanan the commander, and with him were two hundred and eighty thousand.
2 Chronicles 17:16  Next to him was Amasiah son of Zichri, who gladly offered himself to the LORD, and with him were two hundred thousand mighty and brave men.
2 Chronicles 17:17  Of Benjamin: Eliada, a mighty and brave man, and with him were two hundred thousand men armed with bow and shield.
2 Chronicles 17:18  Next to him was Jehozabad, and with him were a hundred and eighty thousand men ready for war.
2 Chronicles 17:19  These men served the king, besides those whom the king put in the walled cities throughout all Judah.

2 Chronicles 18:1  Now Jehoshaphat had great riches and honour, and he made a marriage alliance with Ahab.
2 Chronicles 18:2  Some years later he went down to Ahab in Samaria. Ahab killed many sheep and oxen for him and for the people who were with him. And he persuaded him to go up with him to Ramothgilead.
2 Chronicles 18:3  Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, "Will you go with me to Ramothgilead?" He answered him, "I am as you are, and my people as your people. We will be with you in the war."
2 Chronicles 18:4  Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, "Please ask for the word of the LORD today."
2 Chronicles 18:5  So the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, "Shall we go to Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I hold back?" They said, "Go up, for God will give it into the king's hand."
2 Chronicles 18:6  But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there not here another prophet of the LORD, so that we may ask him?"
2 Chronicles 18:7  The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "There is still one man by whom we may ask the LORD. But I hate him, for he never prophesies good about me, but always evil. He is Micaiah the son of Imla." And Jehoshaphat said, "Let the king not say so."
2 Chronicles 18:8  Then the king of Israel called one of his officers and said, "Bring Micaiah the son of Imla quickly."
2 Chronicles 18:9  The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah each sat on his throne, dressed in their robes. They sat in an open place at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them.
2 Chronicles 18:10  Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah had made himself horns of iron, and he said, "This is what the LORD says: With these you will push Syria until they are destroyed."
2 Chronicles 18:11  All the prophets prophesied the same, saying, "Go up to Ramothgilead and win, for the LORD will give it into the king's hand."
2 Chronicles 18:12  The messenger who went to call Micaiah spoke to him and said, "Look, the words of the prophets all say good things to the king with one voice. Please let your word be like one of theirs, and speak what is good."
2 Chronicles 18:13  And Micaiah said, "As the LORD lives, whatever my God says, that is what I will speak."
2 Chronicles 18:14  When he came to the king, the king said to him, "Micaiah, shall we go to Ramothgilead to battle, or shall I hold back?" And he said, "Go up and win, and they will be given into your hand."
2 Chronicles 18:15  The king said to him, "How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?"
2 Chronicles 18:16  Then he said, "I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, 'These have no master. Let every man return to his house in peace.'"
2 Chronicles 18:17  The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "Did I not tell you that he would not prophesy good about me, but evil?"
2 Chronicles 18:18  Again Micaiah said, "Therefore hear the word of the LORD. I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing on his right hand and on his left."
2 Chronicles 18:19  And the LORD said, 'Who will entice Ahab king of Israel, so that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead?' One spoke saying one thing, and another saying another thing.
2 Chronicles 18:20  Then a spirit came out and stood before the LORD and said, 'I will entice him.' And the LORD said to him, 'How?'
2 Chronicles 18:21  He said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And the LORD said, 'You will entice him, and you will also succeed. Go out and do so.'
2 Chronicles 18:22  "So now, look, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets of yours, and the LORD has spoken evil against you."
2 Chronicles 18:23  Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, "Which way did the Spirit of the LORD go from me to speak to you?"
2 Chronicles 18:24  And Micaiah said, "Look, you will see on that day when you go into an inner room to hide yourself."
2 Chronicles 18:25  Then the king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son,"
2 Chronicles 18:26  "and say, 'This is what the king says: Put this man in the prison, and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction, until I return in peace.'"
2 Chronicles 18:27  And Micaiah said, "If you really do return in peace, then the LORD has not spoken by me." And he said, "Listen, all you people."
2 Chronicles 18:28  So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramothgilead.
2 Chronicles 18:29  The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you put on your robes." So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into the battle.
2 Chronicles 18:30  Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of his chariots, saying, "Do not fight with small or great, but only with the king of Israel."
2 Chronicles 18:31  When the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, "It is the king of Israel." So they surrounded him to fight. But Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him, and God moved them to turn away from him.
2 Chronicles 18:32  For when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from chasing him.
2 Chronicles 18:33  But a certain man drew his bow without aiming, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armour. So he said to his chariot driver, "Turn your hand, and carry me out of the army, for I am wounded."
2 Chronicles 18:34  The battle grew worse that day. Yet the king of Israel held himself up in his chariot facing the Syrians until the evening. And about the time the sun went down, he died.

2 Chronicles 19:1  Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came home safely to his house in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 19:2  Jehu son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him. He said to king Jehoshaphat, "Should you help the ungodly, and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, anger has come upon you from the LORD."
2 Chronicles 19:3  "Even so, there are good things found in you. You have taken the groves out of the land, and you have set your heart to seek God."
2 Chronicles 19:4  So Jehoshaphat lived at Jerusalem. He went out again among the people, from Beersheba to mount Ephraim, and brought them back to the LORD God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 19:5  He appointed judges in the land, in all the walled cities of Judah, city by city.
2 Chronicles 19:6  He said to the judges, "Be careful what you do. You do not judge for man, but for the LORD, who is with you when you give judgment."
2 Chronicles 19:7  "So now let the fear of the LORD be upon you. Be careful, and do this. For there is no wrong with the LORD our God. He does not favour one person over another, and he does not take gifts."
2 Chronicles 19:8  In Jerusalem also Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites, and of the priests, and of the chief men of the families of Israel, to give the judgment of the LORD and to settle disputes. And they returned to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 19:9  He gave them this command: "You shall do this in the fear of the LORD, faithfully, and with a whole heart."
2 Chronicles 19:10  "Whatever case comes to you from your brothers who live in their cities, whether about bloodshed, or about law and commandment, statutes and judgments, you shall warn them not to sin against the LORD. If you do not, anger will come upon you and upon your brothers. Do this, and you will not sin."
2 Chronicles 19:11  "Look, Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of the LORD. Zebadiah son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, is over all the king's matters. The Levites also shall serve as officers before you. Act with courage, and the LORD will be with the good."

2 Chronicles 20:1  After this the people of Moab and the people of Ammon came against Jehoshaphat to make war. Others came with them besides the Ammonites.
2 Chronicles 20:2  Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, "A great crowd of people is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria. Look, they are in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi."
2 Chronicles 20:3  Jehoshaphat was afraid. He set himself to seek the LORD, and he called for a fast throughout all Judah.
2 Chronicles 20:4  So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD. They came from all the cities of Judah to seek the LORD.
2 Chronicles 20:5  Jehoshaphat stood up among the people of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, in front of the new court.
2 Chronicles 20:6  He said, "LORD God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? Do you not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? In your hand there is power and might, so that no one is able to stand against you."
2 Chronicles 20:7  "Are you not our God? You drove out the people who lived in this land before your people Israel, and you gave it for ever to the seed of Abraham your friend."
2 Chronicles 20:8  "They lived in it, and have built you a holy place in it for your name, saying,"
2 Chronicles 20:9  "'If trouble comes upon us, whether the sword, or judgment, or plague, or famine, we will stand before this house, and in your presence, for your name is in this house. We will cry to you in our trouble, and then you will hear and save us.'"
2 Chronicles 20:10  "Now look, here are the people of Ammon and Moab and mount Seir. You would not let Israel invade them when Israel came out of the land of Egypt. Israel turned away from them and did not destroy them."
2 Chronicles 20:11  "Look, I say, how they pay us back. They come to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit."
2 Chronicles 20:12  "Our God, will you not judge them? We have no strength against this great army that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you."
2 Chronicles 20:13  All Judah stood before the LORD, with their little ones, their wives, and their children.
2 Chronicles 20:14  Then the Spirit of the LORD came on Jahaziel in the middle of the gathering. Jahaziel was the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph.
2 Chronicles 20:15  He said, "Listen, all Judah, and you people of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat. This is what the LORD says to you: 'Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart because of this great crowd. The battle is not yours, but God's."
2 Chronicles 20:16  "'Tomorrow go down against them. Look, they are coming up by the cliff of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the brook, in front of the wilderness of Jeruel."
2 Chronicles 20:17  "'You will not need to fight in this battle. Take your places, stand still, and see how the LORD saves you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid, and do not lose heart. Tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD will be with you.'"
2 Chronicles 20:18  Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD and worshipped the LORD.
2 Chronicles 20:19  The Levites, from the sons of the Kohathites and from the sons of the Korhites, stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with a very loud voice.
2 Chronicles 20:20  They got up early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. As they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Listen to me, Judah, and you people of Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will stand firm. Believe his prophets, and you will do well."
2 Chronicles 20:21  When he had talked with the people, he appointed singers to the LORD, to praise the beauty of holiness as they went out in front of the army, saying, "Praise the LORD, for his mercy lasts for ever."
2 Chronicles 20:22  When they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, who had come against Judah. And they were struck down.
2 Chronicles 20:23  For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the people of mount Seir, to kill and destroy them completely. When they had finished off the people of Seir, each one helped to destroy the other.
2 Chronicles 20:24  When Judah came to the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked towards the crowd of enemies. Look, they were dead bodies fallen to the ground, and no one had escaped.
2 Chronicles 20:25  Jehoshaphat and his people came to take the goods from them. Among them they found great riches with the dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away. They were three days gathering the goods, there was so much.
2 Chronicles 20:26  On the fourth day they gathered in the valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the LORD. That is why the name of that place is called The valley of Berachah to this day.
2 Chronicles 20:27  Then every man of Judah and Jerusalem returned, with Jehoshaphat at the front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy. For the LORD had made them glad over their enemies.
2 Chronicles 20:28  They came to Jerusalem with lyres and harps and trumpets, to the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 20:29  The fear of God came on all the kingdoms of those lands when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.
2 Chronicles 20:30  So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.
2 Chronicles 20:31  Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi.
2 Chronicles 20:32  He walked in the way of Asa his father and did not turn away from it. He did what was right in the sight of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 20:33  But the high places were not taken away, for the people had not yet set their hearts on the God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 20:34  The rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, from first to last, are written in the book of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.
2 Chronicles 20:35  After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very wickedly.
2 Chronicles 20:36  He joined with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Eziongeber.
2 Chronicles 20:37  Then Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat. He said, "Because you have joined yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD has broken what you have made." And the ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish.

2 Chronicles 21:1  Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His son Jehoram became king in his place.
2 Chronicles 21:2  Jehoram had brothers, the sons of Jehoshaphat: Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariah, Michael, and Shephatiah. All these were the sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel.
2 Chronicles 21:3  Their father gave them many gifts of silver and gold and precious things, along with walled cities in Judah. But he gave the kingdom to Jehoram, because he was the firstborn.
2 Chronicles 21:4  When Jehoram had taken his place over his father's kingdom, he made himself strong. He killed all his brothers with the sword, and some of the leaders of Israel as well.
2 Chronicles 21:5  Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 21:6  He walked in the way of the kings of Israel, just as the house of Ahab had done, for he had married Ahab's daughter. He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 21:7  Yet the LORD would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant he had made with David, and because he had promised to give a light to him and to his sons for ever.
2 Chronicles 21:8  In his days the Edomites rebelled against the rule of Judah, and made a king of their own.
2 Chronicles 21:9  So Jehoram went out with his leaders, and all his chariots with him. He got up by night and struck the Edomites who had surrounded him, and the captains of the chariots.
2 Chronicles 21:10  So the Edomites have been in revolt against the hand of Judah to this day. At the same time Libnah also revolted against his hand, because he had forsaken the LORD God of his fathers.
2 Chronicles 21:11  He also made high places in the mountains of Judah, and led the people of Jerusalem to be unfaithful, and forced Judah into it.
2 Chronicles 21:12  A letter came to him from Elijah the prophet, which said, "This is what the LORD God of David your father says: Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah,"
2 Chronicles 21:13  "but have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have led Judah and the people of Jerusalem to be unfaithful, as the house of Ahab was unfaithful, and have also killed your brothers of your father's house, who were better than yourself:"
2 Chronicles 21:14  "look, the LORD will strike your people with a great plague, and your children, and your wives, and all your goods."
2 Chronicles 21:15  "And you yourself will be very ill with a disease of your bowels, until your bowels fall out because of the sickness, day after day."
2 Chronicles 21:16  The LORD also stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians who lived near the Ethiopians.
2 Chronicles 21:17  They came up into Judah and broke into it, and carried away all the goods that were found in the king's house, and his sons also, and his wives. Not one son was left to him except Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.
2 Chronicles 21:18  After all this the LORD struck him in his bowels with a disease that could not be cured.
2 Chronicles 21:19  In time, after two years had ended, his bowels fell out because of his sickness, and he died in terrible pain. His people made no fire in his honour, as they had made for his fathers.
2 Chronicles 21:20  He was thirty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, and no one was sorry to see him go. They buried him in the city of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.

2 Chronicles 22:1  The people of Jerusalem made Ahaziah, his youngest son, king in his place. The band of men who came with the Arabians to the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah became king.
2 Chronicles 22:2  Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri.
2 Chronicles 22:3  He too walked in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother advised him to do wickedly.
2 Chronicles 22:4  So he did evil in the sight of the LORD, like the house of Ahab. After his father died, they were his advisers, and they brought about his ruin.
2 Chronicles 22:5  He also followed their advice. He went with Jehoram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, to make war against Hazael king of Syria at Ramothgilead, and the Syrians wounded Joram.
2 Chronicles 22:6  So he returned to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds he was given at Ramah, when he fought with Hazael king of Syria. And Azariah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Jehoram the son of Ahab at Jezreel, because he was sick.
2 Chronicles 22:7  Ahaziah's ruin came from God, through his going to Joram. For when he had come, he went out with Jehoram against Jehu the son of Nimshi, whom the LORD had anointed to cut off the house of Ahab.
2 Chronicles 22:8  While Jehu was carrying out judgment on the house of Ahab, he found the princes of Judah and the sons of Ahaziah's brothers, who served Ahaziah, and he killed them.
2 Chronicles 22:9  Then he looked for Ahaziah. They caught him, for he was hiding in Samaria, and they brought him to Jehu. When they had killed him, they buried him. They said, "He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought the LORD with all his heart." So the house of Ahaziah had no power to hold on to the kingdom.
2 Chronicles 22:10  But when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she rose up and destroyed all the royal children of the house of Judah.
2 Chronicles 22:11  But Jehoshabeath, the king's daughter, took Joash the son of Ahaziah. She stole him away from among the king's sons who were being killed, and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. So Jehoshabeath, the daughter of king Jehoram and the wife of Jehoiada the priest, hid him from Athaliah, for she was the sister of Ahaziah. And Athaliah did not kill him.
2 Chronicles 22:12  He was hidden with them in the house of God for six years, and Athaliah reigned over the land.

2 Chronicles 23:1  In the seventh year Jehoiada made himself strong. He made a covenant with the captains of hundreds: Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah, and Elishaphat son of Zichri.
2 Chronicles 23:2  They went through Judah and gathered the Levites out of all the cities of Judah, and the heads of the families of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 23:3  The whole assembly made a covenant with the king in the house of God. And Jehoiada said to them, "Look, the king's son will reign, as the LORD has said about the sons of David."
2 Chronicles 23:4  "This is what you must do. A third of you priests and Levites who come on duty on the sabbath will be gatekeepers at the doors."
2 Chronicles 23:5  "A third will be at the king's house, and a third at the gate of the foundation. All the people will be in the courts of the house of the LORD."
2 Chronicles 23:6  "But no one is to come into the house of the LORD except the priests and the Levites who serve there. They may go in, for they are holy. But all the people must keep the watch of the LORD."
2 Chronicles 23:7  "The Levites are to surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand. Anyone else who comes into the house is to be put to death. Stay with the king when he comes in and when he goes out."
2 Chronicles 23:8  So the Levites and all Judah did everything that Jehoiada the priest had commanded. Each one took his men, those who were to come on duty on the sabbath and those who were to go off duty on the sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest did not dismiss the divisions.
2 Chronicles 23:9  Jehoiada the priest gave the captains of hundreds the spears, the small shields and the large shields that had belonged to King David and were in the house of God.
2 Chronicles 23:10  He stationed all the people, every man with his weapon in his hand, from the right side of the temple to the left side of the temple, along by the altar and the temple, all around the king.
2 Chronicles 23:11  Then they brought out the king's son and put the crown on him. They gave him the testimony and made him king. Jehoiada and his sons anointed him and said, "God save the king."
2 Chronicles 23:12  When Athaliah heard the noise of the people running and praising the king, she came to the people in the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 23:13  She looked, and there was the king standing at his pillar at the entrance. The leaders and the trumpeters were beside the king, and all the people of the land were glad and were blowing trumpets. The singers too were playing instruments of music and leading the songs of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and said, "Treason, treason."
2 Chronicles 23:14  Then Jehoiada the priest brought out the captains of hundreds who were over the army and said to them, "Take her out between the ranks, and whoever follows her is to be killed with the sword." For the priest had said, "Do not kill her in the house of the LORD."
2 Chronicles 23:15  So they laid hands on her. When she came to the entrance of the horse gate by the king's house, they killed her there.
2 Chronicles 23:16  Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king, that they would be the LORD's people.
2 Chronicles 23:17  Then all the people went to the house of Baal and pulled it down. They smashed his altars and his images to pieces, and they killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.
2 Chronicles 23:18  Jehoiada also put the care of the house of the LORD into the hands of the priests, the Levites, whom David had assigned to the house of the LORD, to offer the burnt offerings of the LORD as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as David had ordered.
2 Chronicles 23:19  He set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the LORD, so that no one who was unclean in any way could enter.
2 Chronicles 23:20  He took the captains of hundreds, the nobles, the rulers of the people and all the people of the land, and they brought the king down from the house of the LORD. They came through the high gate into the king's house and seated the king on the throne of the kingdom.
2 Chronicles 23:21  All the people of the land were glad, and the city was quiet, after they had killed Athaliah with the sword.

2 Chronicles 24:1  Joash was seven years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2 Chronicles 24:2  Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
2 Chronicles 24:3  Jehoiada took two wives for him, and he was the father of sons and daughters.
2 Chronicles 24:4  After this, Joash decided to repair the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 24:5  He gathered the priests and the Levites together and said to them, "Go out to the cities of Judah, and gather money from all Israel to repair the house of your God year by year. See that you do it quickly." But the Levites did not hurry.
2 Chronicles 24:6  So the king called for Jehoiada the chief priest and said to him, "Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and from Jerusalem the collection that Moses the servant of the LORD, and the congregation of Israel, commanded for the tent of witness?"
2 Chronicles 24:7  For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God. They had also used all the holy things of the house of the LORD for the Baals.
2 Chronicles 24:8  At the king's command they made a chest, and set it outside at the gate of the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 24:9  They made a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem, to bring in to the LORD the collection that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness.
2 Chronicles 24:10  All the leaders and all the people were glad, and they brought their gifts and put them in the chest until it was full.
2 Chronicles 24:11  Whenever the chest was brought to the king's officers by the hand of the Levites, and they saw that there was much money in it, the king's scribe and the high priest's officer came and emptied the chest. Then they took it and carried it back to its place. They did this day by day, and gathered a great amount of money.
2 Chronicles 24:12  The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who did the work of the service of the house of the LORD. They hired masons and carpenters to repair the house of the LORD, and also workers in iron and bronze to mend the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 24:13  So the workmen worked, and the work was finished by them. They set the house of God in good order again and made it strong.
2 Chronicles 24:14  When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money before the king and Jehoiada. From it were made vessels for the house of the LORD: vessels for the service and for the offerings, and spoons, and vessels of gold and silver. And they offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD all the time, all the days of Jehoiada.
2 Chronicles 24:15  But Jehoiada grew old and had lived a full life when he died. He was a hundred and thirty years old when he died.
2 Chronicles 24:16  They buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God and toward his house.
2 Chronicles 24:17  Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. Then the king listened to them.
2 Chronicles 24:18  They left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols. And anger came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this wrong they had done.
2 Chronicles 24:19  Yet he sent prophets to them, to bring them back to the LORD. The prophets warned them, but they would not listen.
2 Chronicles 24:20  The Spirit of God came upon Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood above the people and said to them, "This is what God says: Why do you break the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot succeed? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you."
2 Chronicles 24:21  And they plotted against him, and at the king's command they stoned him with stones in the court of the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 24:22  So Joash the king did not remember the kindness which Jehoiada his father had shown him, but killed his son. And as he died, he said, "May the LORD look on this, and call it to account."
2 Chronicles 24:23  At the end of the year the army of Syria came up against him. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the leaders of the people from among the people, and sent all the plunder they took to the king of Damascus.
2 Chronicles 24:24  The army of the Syrians came with only a small company of men, but the LORD gave a very great army into their hand, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers. So they carried out judgment against Joash.
2 Chronicles 24:25  When they had left him (for they left him badly wounded), his own servants plotted against him because of the blood of the sons of Jehoiada the priest. They killed him on his bed, and he died. They buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings.
2 Chronicles 24:26  These are the men who plotted against him: Zabad the son of Shimeath an Ammonite woman, and Jehozabad the son of Shimrith a Moabite woman.
2 Chronicles 24:27  Now about his sons, and the great burdens laid upon him, and the repairing of the house of God, look, they are written in the story of the book of the kings. And Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

2 Chronicles 25:1  Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 25:2  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart.
2 Chronicles 25:3  When the kingdom was firmly in his hand, he killed the servants who had murdered the king his father.
2 Chronicles 25:4  But he did not put their children to death. He did as it is written in the law in the book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, "The fathers shall not die for the children, and the children shall not die for the fathers, but every man shall die for his own sin."
2 Chronicles 25:5  Amaziah gathered Judah together, and set over them captains over thousands and captains over hundreds, according to their families, throughout all Judah and Benjamin. He counted them from twenty years old and upward, and found three hundred thousand chosen men, able to go out to war, who could handle spear and shield.
2 Chronicles 25:6  He also hired a hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for a hundred talents of silver.
2 Chronicles 25:7  But a man of God came to him and said, "O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you. The LORD is not with Israel, that is, with all the children of Ephraim."
2 Chronicles 25:8  "But if you will go, then go and be strong for the battle. God will make you fall before the enemy, for God has power to help and to cast down."
2 Chronicles 25:9  Amaziah said to the man of God, "But what shall we do about the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel?" The man of God answered, "The LORD is able to give you much more than this."
2 Chronicles 25:10  Then Amaziah separated out the army that had come to him from Ephraim, and sent them home again. So their anger burned greatly against Judah, and they went home in great anger.
2 Chronicles 25:11  Amaziah made himself strong, and led out his people, and went to the Valley of Salt, and struck down ten thousand of the children of Seir.
2 Chronicles 25:12  And another ten thousand the children of Judah carried away alive as captives. They brought them to the top of the rock, and threw them down from the top of the rock, so that they were all broken in pieces.
2 Chronicles 25:13  But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah had sent back, so that they should not go with him to battle, attacked the cities of Judah, from Samaria as far as Bethhoron. They struck down three thousand of them, and took much plunder.
2 Chronicles 25:14  After Amaziah came back from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the children of Seir. He set them up to be his gods, and bowed down before them, and burned incense to them.
2 Chronicles 25:15  So the anger of the LORD burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, "Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which could not save their own people out of your hand?"
2 Chronicles 25:16  As the prophet talked with him, the king said to him, "Have you been made one of the king's counsellors? Stop. Why should you be struck down?" Then the prophet stopped, and said, "I know that God has decided to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not listened to my advice."
2 Chronicles 25:17  Then Amaziah king of Judah took advice, and sent to Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, "Come, let us look one another in the face."
2 Chronicles 25:18  Joash king of Israel sent back to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, "The thistle in Lebanon sent to the cedar in Lebanon, saying, 'Give your daughter to my son as his wife.' And a wild beast that was in Lebanon passed by, and trampled down the thistle."
2 Chronicles 25:19  "You say, 'Look, I have struck down the Edomites.' Your heart lifts you up to boast. Stay now at home. Why should you meddle and bring harm on yourself, so that you fall, you and Judah with you?"
2 Chronicles 25:20  But Amaziah would not listen, for this came from God, so that he might hand them over to their enemies, because they had sought after the gods of Edom.
2 Chronicles 25:21  So Joash the king of Israel went up. He and Amaziah king of Judah looked one another in the face at Bethshemesh, which belongs to Judah.
2 Chronicles 25:22  Judah was beaten by Israel, and every man fled to his tent.
2 Chronicles 25:23  Joash the king of Israel captured Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Bethshemesh. He brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.
2 Chronicles 25:24  He took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obededom, and the treasures of the king's house, and the hostages also, and returned to Samaria.
2 Chronicles 25:25  Amaziah the son of Joash king of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz king of Israel.
2 Chronicles 25:26  The rest of the acts of Amaziah, from first to last, are they not written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel?
2 Chronicles 25:27  After the time when Amaziah turned away from following the LORD, they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. He fled to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there.
2 Chronicles 25:28  They brought him back on horses, and buried him with his fathers in the city of Judah.

2 Chronicles 26:1  Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in place of his father Amaziah.
2 Chronicles 26:2  He built Eloth and gave it back to Judah, after the king slept with his fathers.
2 Chronicles 26:3  Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 26:4  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done.
2 Chronicles 26:5  He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who understood the visions of God. As long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
2 Chronicles 26:6  He went out and made war against the Philistines. He broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabneh, and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities around Ashdod and among the Philistines.
2 Chronicles 26:7  God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who lived in Gurbaal, and against the Mehunims.
2 Chronicles 26:8  The Ammonites gave gifts to Uzziah. His name spread far, as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he made himself very strong.
2 Chronicles 26:9  Uzziah also built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at the turning of the wall, and he made them strong.
2 Chronicles 26:10  He also built towers in the desert and dug many wells, for he had much cattle, both in the low country and in the plains. He had farmers too, and men to care for the vines in the mountains and in Carmel, for he loved farming.
2 Chronicles 26:11  Uzziah also had an army of fighting men who went out to war in bands. They were counted by Jeiel the scribe and Maaseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king's captains.
2 Chronicles 26:12  The whole number of the heads of families over these mighty men of valour was two thousand six hundred.
2 Chronicles 26:13  Under their command was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred men, who made war with great power to help the king against the enemy.
2 Chronicles 26:14  Uzziah prepared for them, for the whole army, shields, spears, helmets, coats of armour, bows, and slings to throw stones.
2 Chronicles 26:15  In Jerusalem he made machines, designed by skilful men, to stand on the towers and on the corners of the walls, to shoot arrows and great stones. His name spread far and wide, for he was helped in a wonderful way until he was strong.
2 Chronicles 26:16  But when he was strong, his heart grew proud, and that led to his ruin. He sinned against the LORD his God. He went into the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
2 Chronicles 26:17  Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of the LORD, who were brave men.
2 Chronicles 26:18  They stood against Uzziah the king and said to him, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are set apart to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have sinned. This will bring you no honour from the LORD God."
2 Chronicles 26:19  Then Uzziah was angry. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense. While he was angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead, in front of the priests, in the house of the LORD, beside the incense altar.
2 Chronicles 26:20  Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and there was leprosy on his forehead. They pushed him out from there. He himself also hurried to get out, because the LORD had struck him.
2 Chronicles 26:21  Uzziah the king was a leper until the day of his death. He lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. His son Jotham was over the king's house and judged the people of the land.
2 Chronicles 26:22  The rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, were written by Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
2 Chronicles 26:23  So Uzziah slept with his fathers. They buried him with his fathers in the burial field that belonged to the kings, for they said, "He is a leper." And his son Jotham reigned in his place.

2 Chronicles 27:1  Jotham was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok.
2 Chronicles 27:2  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Uzziah had done. But he did not enter the temple of the LORD. And the people still acted corruptly.
2 Chronicles 27:3  He built the high gate of the house of the LORD, and he built much on the wall of Ophel.
2 Chronicles 27:4  He also built cities in the mountains of Judah, and in the forests he built castles and towers.
2 Chronicles 27:5  He also fought with the king of the Ammonites, and he defeated them. That same year the children of Ammon gave him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand measures of wheat, and ten thousand of barley. The children of Ammon paid him this much in the second year and in the third year as well.
2 Chronicles 27:6  So Jotham became mighty, because he made his ways sure before the LORD his God.
2 Chronicles 27:7  The rest of the acts of Jotham, and all his wars, and his ways, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
2 Chronicles 27:8  He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 27:9  Jotham slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Ahaz his son reigned in his place.

2 Chronicles 28:1  Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. But he did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD, as David his father had done.
2 Chronicles 28:2  Instead he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel, and he also made cast images for the Baals.
2 Chronicles 28:3  He burned incense in the valley of the son of Hinnom, and he burned his children in the fire. He copied the disgusting practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel.
2 Chronicles 28:4  He also sacrificed and burned incense at the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
2 Chronicles 28:5  So the LORD his God handed him over to the king of Syria. They struck him down and took away a great crowd of his people as prisoners, and brought them to Damascus. He was also handed over to the king of Israel, who struck him down with great slaughter.
2 Chronicles 28:6  For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand men in Judah in one day, all of them brave men, because they had forsaken the LORD God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 28:7  And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, killed Maaseiah the king's son, and Azrikam who was in charge of the palace, and Elkanah who was second to the king.
2 Chronicles 28:8  The children of Israel took two hundred thousand of their own relatives as prisoners: women, sons and daughters. They also took much plunder from them, and brought the plunder to Samaria.
2 Chronicles 28:9  But a prophet of the LORD was there, whose name was Oded. He went out to meet the army as it came to Samaria, and said to them, "Look, the LORD God of your fathers was angry with Judah, so he handed them over to you. But you have killed them in a rage that reaches up to heaven."
2 Chronicles 28:10  "And now you plan to hold down the people of Judah and Jerusalem as your slaves, men and women alike. But are there not sins of your own against the LORD your God, even among you?"
2 Chronicles 28:11  "So listen to me now, and send back the prisoners you have taken from your own relatives, for the fierce anger of the LORD is upon you."
2 Chronicles 28:12  Then some of the leaders of the children of Ephraim - Azariah the son of Johanan, Berechiah the son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah the son of Shallum, and Amasa the son of Hadlai - stood up against those who were coming home from the war.
2 Chronicles 28:13  They said to them, "You shall not bring the prisoners in here. We have already offended against the LORD, and you mean to add more to our sins and to our guilt. Our guilt is great already, and there is fierce anger against Israel."
2 Chronicles 28:14  So the armed men left the prisoners and the plunder in front of the leaders and all the assembly.
2 Chronicles 28:15  Then the men who had been named stood up and took the prisoners. With the plunder they clothed all among them who were naked. They dressed them, gave them sandals, gave them food and drink, and rubbed them with oil. They carried all the weak ones on donkeys and brought them to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their own people. Then they returned to Samaria.
2 Chronicles 28:16  At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria for help.
2 Chronicles 28:17  For the Edomites had come again and struck Judah, and carried people away as prisoners.
2 Chronicles 28:18  The Philistines had also raided the cities of the lowland and of the south of Judah. They had taken Bethshemesh, Ajalon, Gederoth, Shocho with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and Gimzo with its villages, and they lived there.
2 Chronicles 28:19  For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel. He had made Judah go without restraint, and had sinned terribly against the LORD.
2 Chronicles 28:20  Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came to him, but he troubled him instead of making him strong.
2 Chronicles 28:21  For Ahaz took a share of the treasure from the house of the LORD, from the king's house, and from the leaders, and gave it to the king of Assyria. But it did not help him.
2 Chronicles 28:22  And in the time of his trouble he sinned even more against the LORD. This was king Ahaz.
2 Chronicles 28:23  For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus, which had struck him. He said, "Since the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them, so that they may help me." But they were the ruin of him and of all Israel.
2 Chronicles 28:24  Ahaz gathered up the vessels of the house of God and cut them in pieces. He shut the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made himself altars in every corner of Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 28:25  In every single city of Judah he made high places to burn incense to other gods, and he provoked the LORD God of his fathers to anger.
2 Chronicles 28:26  The rest of his acts and all his ways, from first to last, are written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
2 Chronicles 28:27  Ahaz slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city, in Jerusalem. But they did not bring him into the tombs of the kings of Israel. And Hezekiah his son reigned in his place.

2 Chronicles 29:1  Hezekiah became king when he was twenty-five years old, and he ruled for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah, the daughter of Zechariah.
2 Chronicles 29:2  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as David his father had done.
2 Chronicles 29:3  In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the LORD and repaired them.
2 Chronicles 29:4  He brought in the priests and the Levites, and gathered them together in the open square on the east side.
2 Chronicles 29:5  He said to them, "Listen to me, you Levites. Make yourselves holy now, and make the house of the LORD God of your fathers holy. Carry the filth out of the holy place."
2 Chronicles 29:6  "For our fathers were unfaithful and did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD our God. They left him. They turned their faces away from the dwelling place of the LORD, and turned their backs on it."
2 Chronicles 29:7  "They also shut the doors of the porch and put out the lamps. They did not burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the holy place to the God of Israel."
2 Chronicles 29:8  "So the anger of the LORD came on Judah and Jerusalem. He has handed them over to trouble, to horror, and to scorn, as you see with your own eyes."
2 Chronicles 29:9  "Look, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are prisoners because of this."
2 Chronicles 29:10  "Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the LORD God of Israel, so that his fierce anger may turn away from us."
2 Chronicles 29:11  "My sons, do not be careless now. For the LORD has chosen you to stand before him, to serve him, to be his ministers, and to burn incense."
2 Chronicles 29:12  Then the Levites got up: Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehalelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah;
2 Chronicles 29:13  and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeiel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah;
2 Chronicles 29:14  and of the sons of Heman, Jehiel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel.
2 Chronicles 29:15  They gathered their brothers and made themselves holy. Then they came, as the king had commanded by the words of the LORD, to cleanse the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 29:16  The priests went into the inner part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it. They brought out into the court of the house of the LORD all the unclean things they found in the temple of the LORD. The Levites took them and carried them out to the brook Kidron.
2 Chronicles 29:17  They began to make things holy on the first day of the first month. On the eighth day of the month they came to the porch of the LORD. So they made the house of the LORD holy in eight days, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished.
2 Chronicles 29:18  Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, "We have cleansed all the house of the LORD, and the altar of burnt offering with all its vessels, and the table for the showbread with all its vessels."
2 Chronicles 29:19  "Also all the vessels that king Ahaz threw away in his unfaithfulness while he was king, we have made ready and holy. Look, they are in front of the altar of the LORD."
2 Chronicles 29:20  Then Hezekiah the king rose early, gathered the leaders of the city, and went up to the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 29:21  They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven male goats, as a sin offering for the kingdom, for the sanctuary, and for Judah. He commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 29:22  So they killed the bulls, and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar. In the same way, when they had killed the rams, they sprinkled the blood on the altar. They killed the lambs too, and sprinkled the blood on the altar.
2 Chronicles 29:23  They brought the male goats for the sin offering in front of the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them.
2 Chronicles 29:24  The priests killed them and made reconciliation with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king had commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.
2 Chronicles 29:25  He placed the Levites in the house of the LORD with cymbals, with lutes and with harps, as David had commanded, and Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet. For this was the command of the LORD through his prophets.
2 Chronicles 29:26  The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets.
2 Chronicles 29:27  Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. When the burnt offering began, the song of the LORD began also, with the trumpets and with the instruments of David king of Israel.
2 Chronicles 29:28  All the assembly worshipped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this went on until the burnt offering was finished.
2 Chronicles 29:29  When they had finished the offering, the king and all who were there with him bowed down and worshipped.
2 Chronicles 29:30  Hezekiah the king and the leaders also commanded the Levites to sing praise to the LORD with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. So they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed their heads and worshipped.
2 Chronicles 29:31  Then Hezekiah said, "Now you have set yourselves apart to the LORD. Come near and bring sacrifices and thank offerings into the house of the LORD." So the assembly brought in sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were willing in heart brought burnt offerings.
2 Chronicles 29:32  The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred lambs. All these were for a burnt offering to the LORD.
2 Chronicles 29:33  And the consecrated things were six hundred oxen and three thousand sheep.
2 Chronicles 29:34  But there were too few priests, so they could not skin all the burnt offerings. So their brothers the Levites helped them until the work was done, and until the other priests had made themselves holy. For the Levites were more upright in heart to make themselves holy than the priests were.
2 Chronicles 29:35  There were also many burnt offerings, with the fat of the peace offerings, and the drink offerings for every burnt offering. So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.
2 Chronicles 29:36  Hezekiah rejoiced, and all the people with him, because God had made the people ready. For the thing was done suddenly.

2 Chronicles 30:1  Hezekiah sent word to all Israel and Judah. He also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, asking them to come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover to the LORD God of Israel.
2 Chronicles 30:2  For the king had talked it over with his princes and with all the people gathered in Jerusalem, and they agreed to keep the passover in the second month.
2 Chronicles 30:3  They could not keep it at the proper time, because not enough of the priests had made themselves holy, and the people had not gathered together at Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 30:4  The plan pleased the king and all the people gathered there.
2 Chronicles 30:5  So they made a decree to send word through all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, that the people should come to Jerusalem to keep the passover to the LORD God of Israel. For they had not kept it for a long time in the way it was written.
2 Chronicles 30:6  So the messengers went with the letters from the king and his princes through all Israel and Judah, and they said, as the king had commanded, "You children of Israel, turn back to the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Then he will return to the few of you who are left, who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria."
2 Chronicles 30:7  "Do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who sinned against the LORD God of their fathers. So he gave them up to ruin, as you see."
2 Chronicles 30:8  "Now do not be stubborn, as your fathers were. Give yourselves to the LORD, and come into his sanctuary, which he has made holy for ever. Serve the LORD your God, so that the heat of his anger may turn away from you."
2 Chronicles 30:9  "For if you turn back to the LORD, your brothers and your children will be treated with compassion by those who took them captive, and they will come back into this land. For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and he will not turn his face away from you, if you return to him."
2 Chronicles 30:10  So the messengers went from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, and as far as Zebulun. But the people laughed at them and mocked them.
2 Chronicles 30:11  Even so, some people from Asher and Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 30:12  In Judah too the hand of God was at work, to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes had commanded by the word of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 30:13  Many people came together at Jerusalem to keep the feast of unleavened bread in the second month. It was a very great gathering.
2 Chronicles 30:14  They got up and took away the altars that were in Jerusalem. They also took away all the altars for incense, and threw them into the brook Kidron.
2 Chronicles 30:15  Then they killed the passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month. The priests and the Levites were ashamed, so they made themselves holy and brought burnt offerings into the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 30:16  They stood in their places as they were meant to, following the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood, which they took from the hand of the Levites.
2 Chronicles 30:17  For there were many in the gathering who had not made themselves holy. So the Levites had the task of killing the passover lambs for everyone who was not clean, to make them holy to the LORD.
2 Chronicles 30:18  For a great many of the people, many from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun, had not made themselves clean, yet they ate the passover in a way other than what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, "May the good LORD pardon everyone"
2 Chronicles 30:19  "who sets his heart to seek God, the LORD God of his fathers, even if he is not clean as the rules of the sanctuary require."
2 Chronicles 30:20  And the LORD listened to Hezekiah, and healed the people.
2 Chronicles 30:21  The children of Israel who were present at Jerusalem kept the feast of unleavened bread for seven days with great gladness. Day by day the Levites and the priests praised the LORD, singing to the LORD with loud instruments.
2 Chronicles 30:22  Hezekiah spoke kindly to all the Levites who taught the good knowledge of the LORD. So they ate through the seven days of the feast, offering peace offerings and confessing to the LORD God of their fathers.
2 Chronicles 30:23  Then the whole assembly agreed to keep another seven days, and they kept another seven days with gladness.
2 Chronicles 30:24  For Hezekiah king of Judah gave the gathered people a thousand bullocks and seven thousand sheep, and the princes gave them a thousand bullocks and ten thousand sheep. And a great number of priests made themselves holy.
2 Chronicles 30:25  All the gathered people of Judah were glad, with the priests and the Levites, and all the people who came out of Israel, and the strangers who came out of the land of Israel and who lived in Judah.
2 Chronicles 30:26  So there was great joy in Jerusalem. Since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there had been nothing like it in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 30:27  Then the priests the Levites stood up and blessed the people. Their voice was heard, and their prayer came up to his holy dwelling place, to heaven.

2 Chronicles 31:1  When all this was finished, all the Israelites who were there went out to the cities of Judah. They broke the images in pieces, cut down the groves, and pulled down the high places and the altars in all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh too, until they had destroyed them all. Then all the children of Israel went back, each man to his own property, to their own cities.
2 Chronicles 31:2  Hezekiah set the priests and the Levites in their divisions, each man according to his service. The priests and Levites were to offer burnt offerings and peace offerings, and to serve, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the camp of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 31:3  He also set aside a share from the king's own wealth for the burnt offerings: that is, for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the sabbaths, for the new moons, and for the appointed feasts, as it is written in the law of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 31:4  He also commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the share due to the priests and the Levites, so that they could give themselves fully to the law of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 31:5  As soon as the command went out, the children of Israel brought plenty of the firstfruits of corn, wine, oil and honey, and of all that the fields produced. They brought in a great amount as the tithe of everything.
2 Chronicles 31:6  The people of Israel and Judah who lived in the cities of Judah also brought the tithe of oxen and sheep, and the tithe of the holy things that were set apart for the LORD their God, and they piled them up in heaps.
2 Chronicles 31:7  In the third month they began to make the heaps, and they finished them in the seventh month.
2 Chronicles 31:8  When Hezekiah and the leaders came and saw the heaps, they blessed the LORD and his people Israel.
2 Chronicles 31:9  Then Hezekiah asked the priests and the Levites about the heaps.
2 Chronicles 31:10  Azariah the chief priest, from the house of Zadok, answered him, "Since the people began to bring the offerings into the house of the LORD, we have had enough to eat, and plenty left over. The LORD has blessed his people, and what is left over is this great store."
2 Chronicles 31:11  Then Hezekiah commanded them to prepare storerooms in the house of the LORD, and they prepared them.
2 Chronicles 31:12  They faithfully brought in the offerings, the tithes and the dedicated things. Cononiah the Levite was in charge of them, and Shimei his brother was second to him.
2 Chronicles 31:13  Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jerimoth, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath and Benaiah were overseers under Cononiah and Shimei his brother, by the command of King Hezekiah and of Azariah the ruler of the house of God.
2 Chronicles 31:14  Kore son of Imnah the Levite, the gatekeeper on the east side, was in charge of the freewill offerings given to God. He gave out the offerings brought to the LORD and the most holy things.
2 Chronicles 31:15  Under him were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shecaniah. In the cities of the priests they held this trusted office, giving shares to their brothers by their divisions, to the great as well as to the small.
2 Chronicles 31:16  This was besides the males listed in their family records, from three years old and upward, all who came into the house of the LORD, to give each his daily share for his service in his duties, according to his division.
2 Chronicles 31:17  The priests were listed in the family records by their fathers' houses, and the Levites from twenty years old and upward, by their duties and their divisions.
2 Chronicles 31:18  The family records included all their little ones, their wives, their sons and their daughters, through the whole assembly, for they faithfully kept themselves holy in their trusted office.
2 Chronicles 31:19  For the priests, the sons of Aaron, who lived in the open lands round their cities, men were named in each city to give shares to every male among the priests, and to all the Levites who were listed in the family records.
2 Chronicles 31:20  This is what Hezekiah did throughout all Judah. He did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God.
2 Chronicles 31:21  In every work that he began, in the service of the house of God, and in the law, and in the commandments, he sought his God with all his heart, and he prospered.

2 Chronicles 32:1  After these things, when all this had been set in order, Sennacherib king of Assyria came. He entered Judah and camped against the walled cities, planning to take them for himself.
2 Chronicles 32:2  When Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come, and that he meant to fight against Jerusalem,
2 Chronicles 32:3  he talked with his officials and his mighty men about stopping up the water of the springs outside the city, and they helped him.
2 Chronicles 32:4  So a great many people gathered together, and they stopped up all the springs and the brook that ran through the middle of the land. They said, "Why should the kings of Assyria come and find plenty of water?"
2 Chronicles 32:5  He also made himself strong. He rebuilt all the broken parts of the wall and raised it up to the towers, and he built another wall outside it. He repaired Millo in the city of David, and he made many spears and shields.
2 Chronicles 32:6  He put commanders of war over the people. He gathered them together to him in the open place at the city gate, and spoke words of comfort to them. He said,
2 Chronicles 32:7  "Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid or dismayed because of the king of Assyria, or because of the whole crowd that is with him. There are more with us than with him."
2 Chronicles 32:8  "With him is only human strength, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles." And the people took heart from the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
2 Chronicles 32:9  After this Sennacherib king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (while he himself was laying siege to Lachish, with all his forces), to Hezekiah king of Judah and to all the people of Judah who were in Jerusalem. They said,
2 Chronicles 32:10  "This is what Sennacherib king of Assyria says: What are you trusting in, that you stay in Jerusalem under siege?"
2 Chronicles 32:11  "Is not Hezekiah persuading you to give yourselves up to die of hunger and thirst, when he says, 'The LORD our God will save us from the hand of the king of Assyria'?"
2 Chronicles 32:12  "Did not this same Hezekiah take away the LORD's high places and altars, and command Judah and Jerusalem, saying, 'You shall worship before one altar, and burn incense on it'?"
2 Chronicles 32:13  "Do you not know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of other lands? Were the gods of the nations of those lands able in any way to save their lands out of my hand?"
2 Chronicles 32:14  "Among all the gods of those nations that my fathers completely destroyed, who was there who could save his people out of my hand? So how should your God be able to save you out of my hand?"
2 Chronicles 32:15  "So now, do not let Hezekiah deceive you or persuade you like this, and do not believe him. For no god of any nation or kingdom was able to save his people out of my hand, or out of the hand of my fathers. How much less will your God save you out of my hand!"
2 Chronicles 32:16  And his servants said still more against the LORD God, and against his servant Hezekiah.
2 Chronicles 32:17  He also wrote letters to insult the LORD God of Israel and to speak against him. He said, "As the gods of the nations of other lands did not save their people out of my hand, so the God of Hezekiah will not save his people out of my hand."
2 Chronicles 32:18  Then they shouted with a loud voice in the language of the Jews to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten them and trouble them, so that they might take the city.
2 Chronicles 32:19  They spoke against the God of Jerusalem as if he were like the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are made by human hands.
2 Chronicles 32:20  Because of this, Hezekiah the king and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed and cried out to heaven.
2 Chronicles 32:21  And the LORD sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty warriors, and the leaders and commanders, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he went back to his own land with his face covered in shame. And when he came into the house of his god, his own sons killed him there with the sword.
2 Chronicles 32:22  So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the people of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side.
2 Chronicles 32:23  Many brought gifts to the LORD at Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah. So from then on he was held in high honour in the sight of all nations.
2 Chronicles 32:24  In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. He prayed to the LORD, and the LORD spoke to him and gave him a sign.
2 Chronicles 32:25  But Hezekiah did not repay the kindness done to him, for his heart was lifted up with pride. So anger came upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 32:26  Yet Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, he and the people of Jerusalem, so that the anger of the LORD did not come upon them in the days of Hezekiah.
2 Chronicles 32:27  Hezekiah had very great riches and honour. He made himself treasure rooms for silver, for gold, for precious stones, for spices, for shields, and for all kinds of fine objects.
2 Chronicles 32:28  He also made storehouses for the harvest of grain, wine and oil, and stalls for all kinds of animals, and pens for the flocks.
2 Chronicles 32:29  He also provided himself with cities, and with large numbers of flocks and herds, for God had given him very much wealth.
2 Chronicles 32:30  This same Hezekiah stopped up the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon, and brought them straight down to the west side of the city of David. And Hezekiah did well in all his work.
2 Chronicles 32:31  But in the matter of the messengers sent by the rulers of Babylon, who came to ask about the wonder that had been done in the land, God left him alone, to test him, so that he might know all that was in his heart.
2 Chronicles 32:32  The rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and his good deeds, are written in the vision of Isaiah the prophet, son of Amoz, and in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel.
2 Chronicles 32:33  Hezekiah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the best of the tombs of the sons of David. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem gave him honour at his death. And Manasseh his son reigned in his place.

2 Chronicles 33:1  Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 33:2  But he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. He copied the disgusting practices of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the children of Israel.
2 Chronicles 33:3  He built again the high places that his father Hezekiah had pulled down. He set up altars for the Baals, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.
2 Chronicles 33:4  He also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, "In Jerusalem my name will be for ever."
2 Chronicles 33:5  And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 33:6  He made his children pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He also watched for signs and omens, and used spells, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, and made him angry.
2 Chronicles 33:7  He set a carved image, the idol that he had made, in the house of God, of which God had said to David and to his son Solomon, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name for ever."
2 Chronicles 33:8  "And I will never again move the foot of Israel out of the land that I have appointed for your fathers, if only they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, following the whole law and the statutes and the rules given through Moses."
2 Chronicles 33:9  So Manasseh led Judah and the people of Jerusalem astray, so that they did worse than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
2 Chronicles 33:10  The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they would not listen.
2 Chronicles 33:11  So the LORD brought against them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria. They took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with chains, and carried him to Babylon.
2 Chronicles 33:12  When he was in trouble, he begged the LORD his God for help, and he humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
2 Chronicles 33:13  He prayed to him. And God listened to his plea, and heard his prayer, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God.
2 Chronicles 33:14  After this he built a wall outside the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, right up to the entrance at the fish gate. It went round Ophel, and he made it very high. And he put army captains in all the walled cities of Judah.
2 Chronicles 33:15  He took away the foreign gods, and the idol, out of the house of the LORD. He removed all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the house of the LORD and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city.
2 Chronicles 33:16  He repaired the altar of the LORD, and offered on it peace offerings and thank offerings, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.
2 Chronicles 33:17  But the people still sacrificed in the high places, though only to the LORD their God.
2 Chronicles 33:18  The rest of the acts of Manasseh, and his prayer to his God, and the words of the seers who spoke to him in the name of the LORD God of Israel, are written in the book of the kings of Israel.
2 Chronicles 33:19  His prayer too, and how God listened to him, and all his sin, and his unfaithfulness, and the places where he built high places and set up groves and carved images, before he humbled himself, are written among the sayings of the seers.
2 Chronicles 33:20  So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his own house. And his son Amon became king in his place.
2 Chronicles 33:21  Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 33:22  But he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, as his father Manasseh had done. Amon sacrificed to all the carved images that his father Manasseh had made, and served them.
2 Chronicles 33:23  He did not humble himself before the LORD, as his father Manasseh had humbled himself. Instead Amon sinned more and more.
2 Chronicles 33:24  His servants plotted against him, and killed him in his own house.
2 Chronicles 33:25  But the people of the land killed all those who had plotted against king Amon, and the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place.

2 Chronicles 34:1  Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years.
2 Chronicles 34:2  He did what was right in the sight of the LORD. He walked in the ways of David his father, and turned aside neither to the right hand nor to the left.
2 Chronicles 34:3  In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of David his father. In the twelfth year he began to clear Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the groves, the carved images and the metal images.
2 Chronicles 34:4  They broke down the altars of the Baals while he watched. He cut down the sun images that stood high above them. He broke the groves, the carved images and the metal images in pieces, ground them to dust, and scattered the dust on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
2 Chronicles 34:5  He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and so he cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 34:6  He did the same in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, with their tools, all around.
2 Chronicles 34:7  When he had broken down the altars and the groves, and had beaten the carved images into powder, and had cut down all the idols throughout the whole land of Israel, he returned to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 34:8  In the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had cleansed the land and the house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair the house of the LORD his God.
2 Chronicles 34:9  They came to Hilkiah the high priest and handed over the money that had been brought into the house of God. The Levites who kept the doors had collected it from Manasseh and Ephraim, and from all who were left of Israel, and from all Judah and Benjamin; and they returned to Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 34:10  They gave it to the workmen who had charge of the house of the LORD, and these gave it to the workmen who worked in the house of the LORD, to repair and mend the house.
2 Chronicles 34:11  They gave it to the craftsmen and builders, to buy cut stone, and timber for beams, and to put floors in the buildings which the kings of Judah had let fall into ruin.
2 Chronicles 34:12  The men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites, to keep the work moving; and others of the Levites, all who were skilled with musical instruments.
2 Chronicles 34:13  They were also over those who carried loads, and they oversaw everyone who did any kind of work. Some of the Levites were scribes, some officers, and some gatekeepers.
2 Chronicles 34:14  When they brought out the money that had been brought into the house of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses.
2 Chronicles 34:15  Hilkiah said to Shaphan the scribe, "I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
2 Chronicles 34:16  Shaphan carried the book to the king, and brought word back to him, saying, "Your servants are doing everything that was given them to do."
2 Chronicles 34:17  "They have gathered up the money that was found in the house of the LORD, and have handed it over to the overseers and to the workmen."
2 Chronicles 34:18  Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it in front of the king.
2 Chronicles 34:19  When the king heard the words of the law, he tore his clothes.
2 Chronicles 34:20  The king gave a command to Hilkiah, and Ahikam son of Shaphan, and Abdon son of Micah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king. He said,
2 Chronicles 34:21  "Go and ask the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, about the words of the book that has been found. For great is the anger of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do everything that is written in this book."
2 Chronicles 34:22  So Hilkiah and those the king had appointed went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvath, son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. (She lived in Jerusalem, in the college.) And they spoke to her about this.
2 Chronicles 34:23  She answered them, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Tell the man who sent you to me,"
2 Chronicles 34:24  this is what the LORD says: Look, I will bring disaster on this place and on those who live here, all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.
2 Chronicles 34:25  They have left me, and have burned incense to other gods, and so have stirred me to anger with everything their hands have made. Therefore my anger will be poured out on this place, and it will not be put out.
2 Chronicles 34:26  But to the king of Judah, who sent you to ask the LORD, you are to say this: This is what the LORD God of Israel says about the words which you have heard:
2 Chronicles 34:27  your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and against those who live here. You humbled yourself before me, and tore your clothes, and wept before me. So I also have heard you, says the LORD.
2 Chronicles 34:28  "Look, I will gather you to your fathers, and you will be gathered to your grave in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place and on those who live here." So they brought word back to the king.
2 Chronicles 34:29  Then the king sent and gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 34:30  The king went up to the house of the LORD, with all the men of Judah, and the people who lived in Jerusalem, and the priests, and the Levites, and all the people, great and small. He read in their hearing all the words of the book of the covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 34:31  The king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD and to keep his commandments, his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, and to carry out the words of the covenant that are written in this book.
2 Chronicles 34:32  He made everyone who was present in Jerusalem and Benjamin stand by it. And the people of Jerusalem did as the covenant of God, the God of their fathers, required.
2 Chronicles 34:33  Josiah took away all the detestable things out of all the lands that belonged to the children of Israel, and made all who were present in Israel serve the LORD their God. All his days they did not turn away from following the LORD, the God of their fathers.

2 Chronicles 35:1  Josiah also kept a Passover to the LORD in Jerusalem. They killed the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 Chronicles 35:2  He put the priests in charge of their duties, and encouraged them in the service of the house of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 35:3  He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, and who were holy to the LORD, "Put the holy ark in the house that Solomon the son of David, king of Israel, built. You will not carry it on your shoulders any more. Now serve the LORD your God, and his people Israel."
2 Chronicles 35:4  "Get yourselves ready by your families, in your divisions, as David king of Israel wrote, and as Solomon his son wrote."
2 Chronicles 35:5  "Stand in the holy place, arranged by the family groups of your brothers the people, and by the family divisions of the Levites."
2 Chronicles 35:6  "So kill the Passover lamb, and make yourselves holy, and get things ready for your brothers, so that they may do what the LORD commanded through Moses."
2 Chronicles 35:7  Josiah gave the people from the flock: lambs and young goats, all for the Passover offerings, for everyone who was there. There were thirty thousand of them, and three thousand bulls. These came from the king's own property.
2 Chronicles 35:8  His officials gave willingly to the people, to the priests and to the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave the priests two thousand six hundred small animals and three hundred oxen for the Passover offerings.
2 Chronicles 35:9  Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethaneel his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave the Levites five thousand small animals and five hundred oxen for Passover offerings.
2 Chronicles 35:10  So the service was made ready. The priests stood in their place, and the Levites in their divisions, as the king had commanded.
2 Chronicles 35:11  They killed the Passover lambs. The priests sprinkled the blood that they took from their hands, and the Levites skinned the animals.
2 Chronicles 35:12  They set aside the burnt offerings, to give them to the family groups of the people, so that they could offer them to the LORD, as it is written in the book of Moses. They did the same with the oxen.
2 Chronicles 35:13  They roasted the Passover lamb with fire, as the rule said. The other holy offerings they boiled in pots, in cauldrons and in pans, and quickly shared them out among all the people.
2 Chronicles 35:14  After that they got food ready for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night. So the Levites got food ready for themselves and for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
2 Chronicles 35:15  The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, as David had commanded, and Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king's seer. The gatekeepers waited at every gate. They did not need to leave their work, because their brothers the Levites got things ready for them.
2 Chronicles 35:16  So all the service of the LORD was made ready that same day, to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD, as king Josiah had commanded.
2 Chronicles 35:17  The people of Israel who were there kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
2 Chronicles 35:18  No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet. None of the kings of Israel kept such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were there, and the people who lived in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 35:19  This Passover was kept in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign.
2 Chronicles 35:20  After all this, when Josiah had put the temple in order, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight at Carchemish by the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him.
2 Chronicles 35:21  But Necho sent messengers to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you today, but against the house I am at war with. God told me to hurry. Stop meddling with God, who is with me, or he will destroy you."
2 Chronicles 35:22  Even so, Josiah would not turn away from him. Instead he disguised himself so that he could fight him. He did not listen to the words of Necho, which came from the mouth of God, and he came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
2 Chronicles 35:23  The archers shot at king Josiah. The king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am badly wounded."
2 Chronicles 35:24  So his servants took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had. They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
2 Chronicles 35:25  Jeremiah sang a lament for Josiah. All the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made it a rule in Israel, and look, these laments are written down.
2 Chronicles 35:26  Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, done as it is written in the law of the LORD,
2 Chronicles 35:27  and his deeds, from first to last, look, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.

2 Chronicles 36:1  Then the people of the land took Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, and made him king in Jerusalem in his father's place.
2 Chronicles 36:2  Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 36:3  The king of Egypt removed him from being king at Jerusalem, and made the land pay a fine of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
2 Chronicles 36:4  The king of Egypt made Eliakim, the brother of Jehoahaz, king over Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother and carried him away to Egypt.
2 Chronicles 36:5  Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.
2 Chronicles 36:6  Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against him, and bound him in chains to carry him to Babylon.
2 Chronicles 36:7  Nebuchadnezzar also carried some of the vessels of the house of the LORD to Babylon, and put them in his temple at Babylon.
2 Chronicles 36:8  The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the hateful things he did, and what was found in him, are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his place.
2 Chronicles 36:9  Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 36:10  When the year was over, king Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, along with the fine vessels of the house of the LORD. And he made Zedekiah, Jehoiachin's brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 36:11  Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 36:12  He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the LORD.
2 Chronicles 36:13  He also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God. But he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart, and would not turn to the LORD God of Israel.
2 Chronicles 36:14  What is more, all the chief priests and the people sinned more and more, copying all the hateful practices of the nations. They made the house of the LORD unclean, the house he had made holy in Jerusalem.
2 Chronicles 36:15  The LORD God of their fathers sent word to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending them again and again, because he had compassion on his people and on the place where he lived.
2 Chronicles 36:16  But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and ill-treated his prophets, until the anger of the LORD rose against his people, and there was no cure.
2 Chronicles 36:17  So he brought against them the king of the Chaldees, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young man or young woman, on the old man or the one bent with age. God gave them all into his hand.
2 Chronicles 36:18  All the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king and of his princes: all these he brought to Babylon.
2 Chronicles 36:19  They burned the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its fine vessels.
2 Chronicles 36:20  Those who had escaped the sword he carried away to Babylon. There they were servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia began to rule.
2 Chronicles 36:21  This was to fulfil the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the time it lay waste it kept sabbath, until seventy years were complete.
2 Chronicles 36:22  In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, so that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might come true, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. He made a proclamation through all his kingdom, and also put it in writing. He said,
2 Chronicles 36:23  "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has ordered me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? May the LORD his God be with him, and let him go up."

Ezra

Ezra 1:1  In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia. This happened so that the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah would come true. Cyrus made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and he also put it in writing. It said:
Ezra 1:2  "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: The LORD God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth. He has commanded me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah."
Ezra 1:3  "Is there anyone among you who belongs to all his people? May his God be with him. Let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the LORD God of Israel (he is the God), the house that is in Jerusalem."
Ezra 1:4  "And wherever any of them still live, let the people of that place help him with silver, with gold, with goods, and with animals, as well as the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem."
Ezra 1:5  Then the heads of the families of Judah and Benjamin got up, and so did the priests and the Levites. With them came everyone whose spirit God had stirred, to go up and build the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.
Ezra 1:6  All their neighbours gave them strength for the work with articles of silver, with gold, with goods, with animals, and with valuable things, besides all that was freely offered.
Ezra 1:7  King Cyrus also brought out the articles from the house of the LORD. Nebuchadnezzar had carried them off from Jerusalem and had put them in the house of his gods.
Ezra 1:8  Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar, the prince of Judah.
Ezra 1:9  This is the number of them: thirty gold dishes, a thousand silver dishes, twenty-nine knives,
Ezra 1:10  thirty gold bowls, four hundred and ten silver bowls of a second kind, and a thousand other articles.
Ezra 1:11  All the articles of gold and of silver were five thousand four hundred. Sheshbazzar brought all these up with the captives who were brought up from Babylon to Jerusalem.

Ezra 2:1  These are the people of the province who came back from the captivity. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried them away to Babylon. Now they returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each one to his own city.
Ezra 2:2  They came with Zerubbabel: Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. This is the number of the men of the people of Israel:
Ezra 2:3  The descendants of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two.
Ezra 2:4  The descendants of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two.
Ezra 2:5  The descendants of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five.
Ezra 2:6  The descendants of Pahathmoab, from the family of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and twelve.
Ezra 2:7  The descendants of Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four.
Ezra 2:8  The descendants of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-five.
Ezra 2:9  The descendants of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty.
Ezra 2:10  The descendants of Bani, six hundred and forty-two.
Ezra 2:11  The descendants of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three.
Ezra 2:12  The descendants of Azgad, one thousand two hundred and twenty-two.
Ezra 2:13  The descendants of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six.
Ezra 2:14  The descendants of Bigvai, two thousand and fifty-six.
Ezra 2:15  The descendants of Adin, four hundred and fifty-four.
Ezra 2:16  The descendants of Ater, of the family of Hezekiah, ninety-eight.
Ezra 2:17  The descendants of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three.
Ezra 2:18  The descendants of Jorah, one hundred and twelve.
Ezra 2:19  The descendants of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three.
Ezra 2:20  The descendants of Gibbar, ninety-five.
Ezra 2:21  The people of Bethlehem, one hundred and twenty-three.
Ezra 2:22  The men of Netophah, fifty-six.
Ezra 2:23  The men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight.
Ezra 2:24  The people of Azmaveth, forty-two.
Ezra 2:25  The people of Kirjatharim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three.
Ezra 2:26  The people of Ramah and Gaba, six hundred and twenty-one.
Ezra 2:27  The men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two.
Ezra 2:28  The men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred and twenty-three.
Ezra 2:29  The people of Nebo, fifty-two.
Ezra 2:30  The people of Magbish, one hundred and fifty-six.
Ezra 2:31  The descendants of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four.
Ezra 2:32  The descendants of Harim, three hundred and twenty.
Ezra 2:33  The people of Lod, Hadid, and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-five.
Ezra 2:34  The people of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five.
Ezra 2:35  The people of Senaah, three thousand six hundred and thirty.
Ezra 2:36  The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three.
Ezra 2:37  The descendants of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two.
Ezra 2:38  The descendants of Pashur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven.
Ezra 2:39  The descendants of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.
Ezra 2:40  The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the family of Hodaviah, seventy-four.
Ezra 2:41  The singers: the descendants of Asaph, one hundred and twenty-eight.
Ezra 2:42  The descendants of the gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, of Ater, of Talmon, of Akkub, of Hatita, and of Shobai, one hundred and thirty-nine in all.
Ezra 2:43  The Nethinims: the descendants of Ziha, the descendants of Hasupha, the descendants of Tabbaoth,
Ezra 2:44  the descendants of Keros, the descendants of Siaha, the descendants of Padon,
Ezra 2:45  the descendants of Lebanah, the descendants of Hagabah, the descendants of Akkub,
Ezra 2:46  the descendants of Hagab, the descendants of Shalmai, the descendants of Hanan,
Ezra 2:47  the descendants of Giddel, the descendants of Gahar, the descendants of Reaiah,
Ezra 2:48  the descendants of Rezin, the descendants of Nekoda, the descendants of Gazzam,
Ezra 2:49  the descendants of Uzza, the descendants of Paseah, the descendants of Besai,
Ezra 2:50  the descendants of Asnah, the descendants of Mehunim, the descendants of Nephusim,
Ezra 2:51  the descendants of Bakbuk, the descendants of Hakupha, the descendants of Harhur,
Ezra 2:52  the descendants of Bazluth, the descendants of Mehida, the descendants of Harsha,
Ezra 2:53  the descendants of Barkos, the descendants of Sisera, the descendants of Thamah,
Ezra 2:54  the descendants of Neziah, and the descendants of Hatipha.
Ezra 2:55  The descendants of Solomon's servants: the descendants of Sotai, the descendants of Sophereth, the descendants of Peruda,
Ezra 2:56  the descendants of Jaalah, the descendants of Darkon, the descendants of Giddel,
Ezra 2:57  the descendants of Shephatiah, the descendants of Hattil, the descendants of Pochereth of Zebaim, and the descendants of Ami.
Ezra 2:58  All the Nethinims and the descendants of Solomon's servants together were three hundred and ninety-two.
Ezra 2:59  These are the ones who came up from Telmelah, Telharsa, Cherub, Addan, and Immer. But they could not prove which family they came from, or whether they were from Israel:
Ezra 2:60  the descendants of Delaiah, the descendants of Tobiah, and the descendants of Nekoda, six hundred and fifty-two.
Ezra 2:61  Also from the descendants of the priests: the descendants of Habaiah, the descendants of Koz, and the descendants of Barzillai. This man had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and he was called by their name.
Ezra 2:62  These men looked for their names in the family records, but their names were not found there. So they were treated as unclean and were not allowed to serve as priests.
Ezra 2:63  The Tirshatha told them that they must not eat any of the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and with Thummim.
Ezra 2:64  The whole group together numbered forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty,
Ezra 2:65  besides their menservants and maidservants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. They also had two hundred singing men and singing women.
Ezra 2:66  They had seven hundred and thirty-six horses and two hundred and forty-five mules,
Ezra 2:67  four hundred and thirty-five camels, and six thousand seven hundred and twenty donkeys.
Ezra 2:68  When some of the leaders of the families came to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, they gave freely for the house of God, so that it could be built again in its place.
Ezra 2:69  They gave as much as they were able to the treasury for the work: sixty-one thousand drams of gold, five thousand pounds of silver, and one hundred garments for the priests.
Ezra 2:70  So the priests, the Levites, some of the people, the singers, the gatekeepers, and the Nethinims settled in their cities, and all Israel lived in their cities.

Ezra 3:1  When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities. Then the people gathered together as one man at Jerusalem.
Ezra 3:2  Then Jeshua the son of Jozadak stood up with his brothers the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his brothers. They built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
Ezra 3:3  They set the altar on its bases, for they were afraid of the people of those countries. And they offered burnt offerings on it to the LORD, burnt offerings morning and evening.
Ezra 3:4  They also kept the feast of tabernacles, as it is written. They offered the daily burnt offerings by number, following the custom, as each day's duty required.
Ezra 3:5  After that they offered the continual burnt offering, and the offerings for the new moons and for all the appointed feasts of the LORD that were set apart, and the offerings of everyone who willingly brought a freewill offering to the LORD.
Ezra 3:6  From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the LORD. But the foundation of the temple of the LORD was not yet laid.
Ezra 3:7  They also gave money to the masons and the carpenters. They gave food and drink and oil to the people of Zidon and of Tyre, so that they would bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa. This was allowed by the grant they had from Cyrus king of Persia.
Ezra 3:8  In the second year after they came to the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, the work was begun by Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all who had come out of captivity to Jerusalem. They appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to take charge of the work of the house of the LORD.
Ezra 3:9  Then Jeshua stood with his sons and his brothers, and Kadmiel with his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to direct the workmen in the house of God. With them were the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brothers the Levites.
Ezra 3:10  When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, they placed the priests in their robes with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, as David king of Israel had commanded.
Ezra 3:11  They sang together, taking their turns, praising the LORD and giving thanks to him, "For he is good, for his mercy lasts for ever toward Israel." And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid.
Ezra 3:12  But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes. And many others shouted aloud for joy.
Ezra 3:13  So the people could not tell the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people. For the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard far away.

Ezra 4:1  Now the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people who had come back from exile were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel.
Ezra 4:2  So they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families, and said to them, "Let us build with you. We seek your God, just as you do. We have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assur, who brought us up here."
Ezra 4:3  But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel said to them, "You have nothing to do with us in building a house for our God. We ourselves will build it together for the LORD God of Israel, as king Cyrus, the king of Persia, has commanded us."
Ezra 4:4  Then the people of the land weakened the hands of the people of Judah. They troubled them while they were building.
Ezra 4:5  They also paid advisers to work against them and to spoil their plan. This went on all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, and even into the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Ezra 4:6  In the reign of Ahasuerus, at the beginning of his reign, they wrote to him an accusation against the people living in Judah and Jerusalem.
Ezra 4:7  And in the days of Artaxerxes, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of their companions wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia. The letter was written in the Syrian language, and translated into the Syrian language.
Ezra 4:8  Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote a letter against Jerusalem to Artaxerxes the king. It went like this.
Ezra 4:9  Then Rehum the chancellor and Shimshai the scribe wrote, and the rest of their companions: the Dinaites, the Apharsathchites, the Tarpelites, the Apharsites, the Archevites, the Babylonians, the Susanchites, the Dehavites and the Elamites,
Ezra 4:10  and the rest of the nations whom the great and noble Asnappar brought over and settled in the cities of Samaria, and the rest who are on this side of the river, and at such a time.
Ezra 4:11  This is a copy of the letter that they sent to him, to Artaxerxes the king: "Your servants, the men on this side of the river, and at such a time."
Ezra 4:12  "Let the king know that the Jews who came up from you to us have arrived at Jerusalem. They are rebuilding that rebellious and evil city. They have set up its walls and joined the foundations together."
Ezra 4:13  "Let the king know now that if this city is rebuilt and its walls set up again, then they will not pay toll, tribute or duty, and so you will damage the income of the kings."
Ezra 4:14  "Now because we are supported by the king's palace, and it is not right for us to see the king dishonoured, we have sent word to inform the king,"
Ezra 4:15  "so that a search may be made in the book of the records of your fathers. In that book of records you will find and learn that this city is a rebellious city, harmful to kings and provinces, and that from long ago they have stirred up revolt inside it. That is why this city was destroyed."
Ezra 4:16  "We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls set up, then you will have nothing left on this side of the river."
Ezra 4:17  Then the king sent an answer to Rehum the chancellor, to Shimshai the scribe, to the rest of their companions who live in Samaria, and to the rest beyond the river: "Peace, and at such a time."
Ezra 4:18  "The letter which you sent to us has been read clearly before me."
Ezra 4:19  "I gave the order, and a search was made. It was found that from long ago this city has risen up against kings, and that rebellion and revolt have been stirred up in it."
Ezra 4:20  "There have also been mighty kings over Jerusalem, who ruled over all the lands beyond the river. Toll, tribute and duty were paid to them."
Ezra 4:21  "So give the order to make these men stop. This city must not be rebuilt until another order is given by me."
Ezra 4:22  "Be careful that you do not fail to do this. Why should the damage grow and harm the kings?"
Ezra 4:23  Now when the copy of king Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehum, Shimshai the scribe and their companions, they hurried to Jerusalem to the Jews, and made them stop by force and power.
Ezra 4:24  Then the work on the house of God in Jerusalem stopped. It stayed stopped until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

Ezra 5:1  Then the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem. They spoke to them in the name of the God of Israel.
Ezra 5:2  Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak got up and began to build the house of God in Jerusalem. The prophets of God were with them, helping them.
Ezra 5:3  At that same time Tatnai, the governor of the land on this side of the river, came to them with Shetharboznai and their companions. They said to them, "Who commanded you to build this house and to finish this wall?"
Ezra 5:4  Then we spoke to them like this, "What are the names of the men who are putting up this building?"
Ezra 5:5  But the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews, so that the officials could not make them stop until the matter came to Darius. Then an answer came back by letter about this matter.
Ezra 5:6  This is a copy of the letter that Tatnai, the governor of the land on this side of the river, and Shetharboznai and his companions the Apharsachites, who were on this side of the river, sent to King Darius.
Ezra 5:7  They sent him a letter, and this was written in it: "To Darius the king, all peace."
Ezra 5:8  "Let it be known to the king that we went into the province of Judea, to the house of the great God. It is being built with great stones, and timber is being laid in the walls. This work is going ahead quickly and is going well in their hands."
Ezra 5:9  "Then we asked those elders and said to them, 'Who commanded you to build this house and to finish these walls?'"
Ezra 5:10  "We also asked their names, so that we could tell you, and write down the names of the men who are their leaders."
Ezra 5:11  "And this is the answer they gave us: 'We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth, and we are building the house that was built many years ago. A great king of Israel built it and set it up."
Ezra 5:12  "'But our fathers made the God of heaven angry. So he gave them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, the Chaldean, who destroyed this house and carried the people away to Babylon."
Ezra 5:13  "'But in the first year of Cyrus the king of Babylon, that same King Cyrus made a decree that this house of God should be built."
Ezra 5:14  "'And there were also the vessels of gold and silver from the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem and brought into the temple of Babylon. King Cyrus took them out of the temple of Babylon, and they were handed over to a man named Sheshbazzar, whom he had made governor."
Ezra 5:15  "'And he said to him, Take these vessels, go, and carry them into the temple that is in Jerusalem. And let the house of God be built in its place."
Ezra 5:16  "'Then this same Sheshbazzar came and laid the foundation of the house of God which is in Jerusalem. From that time until now it has been under construction, and it is still not finished.'"
Ezra 5:17  "So now, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king's treasure house there at Babylon, to see whether it is true that a decree was made by King Cyrus to build this house of God at Jerusalem. And let the king send us word of his will about this matter."

Ezra 6:1  Then King Darius gave an order, and a search was made in the house of the records, where the treasures were stored in Babylon.
Ezra 6:2  And at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a scroll was found, and in it was written this record:
Ezra 6:3  "In the first year of King Cyrus, the same King Cyrus gave an order about the house of God at Jerusalem: Let the house be built, the place where they offered sacrifices, and let its foundations be strongly laid. Its height is to be sixty cubits and its width sixty cubits,"
Ezra 6:4  "with three rows of great stones and a row of new timber. And let the cost be paid out of the king's house."
Ezra 6:5  "Also let the gold and silver vessels of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the temple at Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be given back. Let them be brought again to the temple at Jerusalem, each one to its place, and put them in the house of God."
Ezra 6:6  "Now then, Tatnai, governor beyond the river, Shetharboznai, and your companions the Apharsachites who are beyond the river, keep far away from there."
Ezra 6:7  "Leave the work of this house of God alone. Let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews build this house of God on its place."
Ezra 6:8  "I also give an order about what you are to do for the elders of these Jews, for the building of this house of God. The cost is to be paid to these men at once out of the king's goods, out of the tribute from beyond the river, so that they are not held back."
Ezra 6:9  "And whatever they need - young bulls, rams and lambs for the burnt offerings of the God of heaven, also wheat, salt, wine and oil - give it to them day by day without fail, as the priests at Jerusalem say."
Ezra 6:10  "Then they may offer sacrifices of a sweet smell to the God of heaven, and pray for the life of the king and of his sons."
Ezra 6:11  "I also give this order: if anyone changes this word, let a beam be pulled out of his house and set up, and let him be hanged on it. And let his house be made a heap of rubbish for this."
Ezra 6:12  "And may the God who has made his name live there destroy any king or people who lift a hand to change this, or to destroy this house of God which is at Jerusalem. I, Darius, have given the order. Let it be done quickly."
Ezra 6:13  Then Tatnai, governor on this side of the river, Shetharboznai and their companions did exactly what King Darius had sent word to do, and they did it quickly.
Ezra 6:14  So the elders of the Jews built, and they did well through the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They built and finished it, as the God of Israel had commanded, and as Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia had commanded.
Ezra 6:15  This house was finished on the third day of the month Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
Ezra 6:16  And the children of Israel, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of those who had come back from the captivity, kept the dedication of this house of God with joy.
Ezra 6:17  At the dedication of this house of God they offered a hundred bulls, two hundred rams and four hundred lambs; and as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, one for each of the tribes of Israel.
Ezra 6:18  And they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their groups, for the service of God at Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses.
Ezra 6:19  Those who had come back from the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
Ezra 6:20  The priests and the Levites had made themselves clean together; all of them were pure. So they killed the Passover lamb for all those who had come back from the captivity, and for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.
Ezra 6:21  And the children of Israel who had come back out of captivity ate it, together with all who had separated themselves from the filth of the nations of the land to join them, so as to seek the LORD God of Israel.
Ezra 6:22  They kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy. For the LORD had made them glad, and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.

Ezra 7:1  After these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, there was Ezra son of Seraiah. Seraiah was the son of Azariah, who was the son of Hilkiah,
Ezra 7:2  who was the son of Shallum, who was the son of Zadok, who was the son of Ahitub,
Ezra 7:3  who was the son of Amariah, who was the son of Azariah, who was the son of Meraioth,
Ezra 7:4  who was the son of Zerahiah, who was the son of Uzzi, who was the son of Bukki,
Ezra 7:5  who was the son of Abishua, who was the son of Phinehas, who was the son of Eleazar, who was the son of Aaron the chief priest.
Ezra 7:6  This Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the law of Moses, which the LORD God of Israel had given. The king gave him everything he asked for, because the hand of the LORD his God was upon him.
Ezra 7:7  Some of the people of Israel went up to Jerusalem with him, and some of the priests, the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers and the Nethinims. This was in the seventh year of Artaxerxes the king.
Ezra 7:8  Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king.
Ezra 7:9  He set out from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he came to Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the good hand of his God was upon him.
Ezra 7:10  For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the LORD, and to do it, and to teach its statutes and judgments in Israel.
Ezra 7:11  This is a copy of the letter that King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra the priest, the scribe, a scribe of the words of the commandments of the LORD and of his statutes to Israel.
Ezra 7:12  "Artaxerxes, king of kings, to Ezra the priest, a scribe of the law of the God of heaven: perfect peace, and at such a time."
Ezra 7:13  "I make a decree that any of the people of Israel in my kingdom, and any of his priests and Levites, who freely choose to go up to Jerusalem, may go with you."
Ezra 7:14  "For you are sent by the king and by his seven counsellors to ask about Judah and Jerusalem, according to the law of your God which is in your hand,"
Ezra 7:15  "and to carry the silver and gold that the king and his counsellors have freely given to the God of Israel, whose home is in Jerusalem,"
Ezra 7:16  "together with all the silver and gold you can find in the whole province of Babylon, and the freewill offering of the people and of the priests, who give willingly for the house of their God which is in Jerusalem."
Ezra 7:17  "With this money buy bulls, rams and lambs without delay, along with their grain offerings and their drink offerings, and offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem."
Ezra 7:18  "Whatever seems good to you and to your brothers to do with the rest of the silver and the gold, do it according to the will of your God."
Ezra 7:19  "The vessels also that are given to you for the service of the house of your God, hand them over before the God of Jerusalem."
Ezra 7:20  "And whatever else is needed for the house of your God, which you have reason to spend, spend it out of the king's treasure house."
Ezra 7:21  "And I, I Artaxerxes the king, make a decree to all the treasurers beyond the river: whatever Ezra the priest, the scribe of the law of the God of heaven, asks of you, let it be done quickly,"
Ezra 7:22  "up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred measures of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, and a hundred baths of oil, and salt without limit."
Ezra 7:23  "Whatever the God of heaven commands, let it be done carefully for the house of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath against the kingdom of the king and his sons?"
Ezra 7:24  "We also tell you that concerning any of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, Nethinims, or servants of this house of God, it shall not be lawful to lay toll, tribute or custom on them."
Ezra 7:25  "And you, Ezra, by the wisdom of your God that is in your hand, appoint magistrates and judges to judge all the people who are beyond the river, all those who know the laws of your God. And teach those who do not know them."
Ezra 7:26  "Whoever will not obey the law of your God and the law of the king, let judgment be carried out on him quickly, whether it be death, or banishment, or the taking away of his goods, or prison."
Ezra 7:27  Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king's heart, to make beautiful the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem,
Ezra 7:28  and who has shown me mercy before the king, and his counsellors, and all the king's mighty princes. So I was made strong, because the hand of the LORD my God was upon me, and I gathered leading men out of Israel to go up with me.

Ezra 8:1  These are the heads of their families. This is the list of those who came up with me from Babylon, during the reign of King Artaxerxes.
Ezra 8:2  Of the sons of Phinehas: Gershom. Of the sons of Ithamar: Daniel. Of the sons of David: Hattush.
Ezra 8:3  Of the sons of Shechaniah, of the sons of Pharosh: Zechariah. With him were listed one hundred and fifty males.
Ezra 8:4  Of the sons of Pahathmoab: Elihoenai the son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males.
Ezra 8:5  Of the sons of Shechaniah: the son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males.
Ezra 8:6  Of the sons of Adin: Ebed the son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males.
Ezra 8:7  Of the sons of Elam: Jeshaiah the son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males.
Ezra 8:8  Of the sons of Shephatiah: Zebadiah the son of Michael, and with him eighty males.
Ezra 8:9  Of the sons of Joab: Obadiah the son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males.
Ezra 8:10  Of the sons of Shelomith: the son of Josiphiah, and with him one hundred and sixty males.
Ezra 8:11  Of the sons of Bebai: Zechariah the son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males.
Ezra 8:12  Of the sons of Azgad: Johanan the son of Hakkatan, and with him one hundred and ten males.
Ezra 8:13  Of the last sons of Adonikam, whose names are these: Eliphelet, Jeiel, and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males.
Ezra 8:14  Of the sons of Bigvai: Uthai and Zabbud, and with them seventy males.
Ezra 8:15  I gathered them together at the river that runs to Ahava. There we camped in tents for three days. I looked over the people and the priests, and I found none of the sons of Levi there.
Ezra 8:16  Then I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leading men. I also sent for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were men of understanding.
Ezra 8:17  I sent them with a message to Iddo, the chief man at the place called Casiphia. I told them what to say to Iddo and to his brothers the Nethinims at Casiphia: that they should bring us servants for the house of our God.
Ezra 8:18  By the good hand of our God upon us, they brought us a man of understanding, of the sons of Mahli, the son of Levi, the son of Israel. They brought Sherebiah, with his sons and his brothers, eighteen in all.
Ezra 8:19  They also brought Hashabiah, and with him Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari, with his brothers and their sons, twenty in all.
Ezra 8:20  There were also two hundred and twenty of the Nethinims, whom David and the princes had appointed to serve the Levites. All of them were named in the list.
Ezra 8:21  Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river of Ahava, so that we might humble ourselves before our God. We asked him for a safe journey for us, for our little ones, and for all our goods.
Ezra 8:22  I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road. For we had said to the king, "The hand of our God is upon all who seek him, for their good. But his power and his anger are against all who turn away from him."
Ezra 8:23  So we fasted and begged our God about this, and he listened to us.
Ezra 8:24  Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their brothers with them.
Ezra 8:25  I weighed out to them the silver, the gold, and the vessels. These were the offering for the house of our God, which the king, his counsellors, his lords, and all Israel who were there had given.
Ezra 8:26  I weighed into their hands six hundred and fifty talents of silver, silver vessels weighing one hundred talents, and one hundred talents of gold.
Ezra 8:27  There were also twenty bowls of gold, worth a thousand drams, and two vessels of fine copper, as precious as gold.
Ezra 8:28  I said to them, "You are holy to the LORD, and the vessels are holy too. The silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the LORD God of your fathers."
Ezra 8:29  "Watch over them and keep them safe, until you weigh them out before the leading priests and the Levites, and the heads of the families of Israel, at Jerusalem, in the rooms of the house of the LORD."
Ezra 8:30  So the priests and the Levites took charge of the weight of the silver, the gold, and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God.
Ezra 8:31  Then we set out from the river of Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was upon us, and he saved us from the hand of the enemy, and from those who waited in ambush along the way.
Ezra 8:32  We came to Jerusalem and stayed there three days.
Ezra 8:33  On the fourth day the silver, the gold, and the vessels were weighed in the house of our God by Meremoth the son of Uriah the priest. With him was Eleazar the son of Phinehas, and with them were Jozabad the son of Jeshua and Noadiah the son of Binnui, who were Levites.
Ezra 8:34  Everything was counted and weighed, and the whole weight was written down at that time.
Ezra 8:35  The children of those who had been carried away, who had come back from captivity, offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel: twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven lambs, and twelve male goats for a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the LORD.
Ezra 8:36  They handed the king's orders to the king's officers and to the governors on this side of the river. And these men helped the people and the house of God.

Ezra 9:1  When these things were done, the leaders came to me and said, "The people of Israel, and the priests, and the Levites, have not kept themselves separate from the peoples of the lands. They have copied their detestable ways: the ways of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites."
Ezra 9:2  "They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons. So the holy seed has mixed itself with the peoples of those lands. And the leaders and rulers have led the way in this unfaithfulness."
Ezra 9:3  When I heard this, I tore my clothes and my coat. I pulled out hair from my head and my beard, and I sat down in shock.
Ezra 9:4  Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered around me, because of the sin of those who had been carried away. And I sat there in shock until the evening sacrifice.
Ezra 9:5  At the evening sacrifice I got up from my grief. My clothes and my coat were torn. I fell on my knees and spread out my hands to the LORD my God.
Ezra 9:6  I said, "O my God, I am ashamed. I blush to lift up my face to you, my God. For our sins have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has grown up to the heavens."
Ezra 9:7  "From the days of our fathers until this day we have been deeply guilty. Because of our sins we and our kings and our priests have been handed over to the kings of other lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to open shame, as it is today."
Ezra 9:8  "And now, for a short time, grace has been shown to us from the LORD our God. He has left us a remnant who escaped, and has given us a nail in his holy place. So our God has given light to our eyes, and a little new life in our slavery."
Ezra 9:9  "For we were slaves. Yet our God has not abandoned us in our slavery. He has shown us mercy before the kings of Persia, giving us new life, so that we could set up the house of our God and repair its ruins, and so that he could give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem."
Ezra 9:10  "And now, O our God, what can we say after this? For we have abandoned your commandments,"
Ezra 9:11  "which you gave through your servants the prophets. You said, 'The land you are going in to take is an unclean land. The peoples of those lands have made it filthy with their detestable ways. They have filled it from one end to the other with their uncleanness.'"
Ezra 9:12  "'So do not give your daughters to their sons, and do not take their daughters for your sons. Never seek their peace or their good. Then you will be strong, and eat the good things of the land, and leave it to your children as their inheritance for ever.'"
Ezra 9:13  "All this has come on us because of our evil deeds and our great guilt. Yet you, our God, have punished us less than our sins deserve, and have given us a group of survivors like this."
Ezra 9:14  "Should we then break your commandments again, and marry into these peoples with their detestable ways? Would you not be angry with us until you had destroyed us, so that no remnant was left and no one escaped?"
Ezra 9:15  "O LORD God of Israel, you are righteous. We are left as those who escaped, as it is today. Look, we are here before you in our guilt. No one can stand before you because of this."

Ezra 10:1  Now while Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and lying face down in front of the house of God, a very large crowd of Israelites gathered around him - men, women and children. The people wept bitterly.
Ezra 10:2  Then Shechaniah son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, said to Ezra, "We have been unfaithful to our God. We have married foreign women from the peoples of the land. Yet even now there is hope for Israel about this."
Ezra 10:3  "So now let us make a covenant with our God to send away all these wives and the children born to them. Let it be done as my lord advises, and as those advise who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law."
Ezra 10:4  "Get up, for this matter is your responsibility. We will stand with you. Be strong, and do it."
Ezra 10:5  Then Ezra got up. He made the chief priests, the Levites, and all Israel swear to do what had been said. And they swore it.
Ezra 10:6  Then Ezra got up from in front of the house of God and went into the room of Johanan son of Eliashib. When he went there, he ate no bread and drank no water, for he was mourning over the unfaithfulness of those who had been carried away as captives.
Ezra 10:7  Then they sent out a proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem to all who had returned from captivity, telling them to gather together at Jerusalem.
Ezra 10:8  Anyone who did not come within three days would lose all his property, by the decision of the leaders and the elders, and he himself would be cut off from the assembly of those who had returned from captivity.
Ezra 10:9  So all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered at Jerusalem within three days. It was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month. All the people sat in the open square in front of the house of God, shaking because of this matter and because of the heavy rain.
Ezra 10:10  Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, "You have been unfaithful. You have married foreign women, and so added to the guilt of Israel."
Ezra 10:11  "Now then, confess to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do what pleases him. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from your foreign wives."
Ezra 10:12  Then the whole assembly answered with a loud voice, "You are right. We must do as you say."
Ezra 10:13  "But there are many people here, and it is the rainy season. We cannot stand outside. And this is not a task for one day or two, for many of us have sinned in this matter."
Ezra 10:14  "Let our leaders act for the whole assembly. Then let everyone in our towns who has married a foreign woman come at set times, together with the elders and judges of each town, until the fierce anger of our God over this matter is turned away from us."
Ezra 10:15  Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahaziah son of Tikvah opposed this, and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite supported them.
Ezra 10:16  So those who had returned from captivity did this. Ezra the priest chose men who were heads of families, one for each family, all of them named. On the first day of the tenth month they sat down to look into the matter.
Ezra 10:17  By the first day of the first month they had finished dealing with all the men who had married foreign women.
Ezra 10:18  Among the sons of the priests, these were found to have married foreign women: from the sons of Jeshua son of Jozadak, and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah.
Ezra 10:19  They gave their promise to send away their wives. And because they were guilty, they each offered a ram from the flock for their guilt.
Ezra 10:20  From the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah.
Ezra 10:21  From the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel and Uzziah.
Ezra 10:22  From the sons of Pashur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethaneel, Jozabad and Elasah.
Ezra 10:23  Among the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah (that is, Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah and Eliezer.
Ezra 10:24  Among the singers: Eliashib. Among the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem and Uri.
Ezra 10:25  And among the rest of Israel: from the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, Jeziah, Malchiah, Miamin, Eleazar, Malchijah and Benaiah.
Ezra 10:26  From the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth and Eliah.
Ezra 10:27  From the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad and Aziza.
Ezra 10:28  From the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai and Athlai.
Ezra 10:29  From the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, Adaiah, Jashub, Sheal and Ramoth.
Ezra 10:30  From the sons of Pahathmoab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezaleel, Binnui and Manasseh.
Ezra 10:31  From the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Ishijah, Malchiah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
Ezra 10:32  Benjamin, Malluch and Shemariah.
Ezra 10:33  From the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattathah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh and Shimei.
Ezra 10:34  From the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel,
Ezra 10:35  Benaiah, Bedeiah, Chelluh,
Ezra 10:36  Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
Ezra 10:37  Mattaniah, Mattenai, Jaasau,
Ezra 10:38  Bani, Binnui, Shimei,
Ezra 10:39  Shelemiah, Nathan, Adaiah,
Ezra 10:40  Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai,
Ezra 10:41  Azareel, Shelemiah, Shemariah,
Ezra 10:42  Shallum, Amariah and Joseph.
Ezra 10:43  From the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jadau, Joel and Benaiah.
Ezra 10:44  All these men had married foreign women, and some of them had wives who had borne them children.

Nehemiah

Nehemiah 1:1  The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. In the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, I was in Shushan the palace.
Nehemiah 1:2  Hanani, one of my brothers, came with some men of Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, those who were left from the captivity, and about Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 1:3  They said to me, "The people left from the captivity, who are there in the province, are in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
Nehemiah 1:4  When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for some days, and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 1:5  I said, "I beg you, LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, who keeps covenant and mercy for those who love him and obey his commandments:"
Nehemiah 1:6  "Let your ear now listen closely, and let your eyes be open, so that you may hear the prayer of your servant. I pray before you now, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants. I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both I and my father's house have sinned."
Nehemiah 1:7  "We have acted very corruptly against you. We have not kept the commandments, or the rules, or the judgments that you commanded your servant Moses."
Nehemiah 1:8  "Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses. You said, 'If you break my law, I will scatter you among the nations.'"
Nehemiah 1:9  "But you also said, 'If you turn back to me, and keep my commandments and do them, then even if you were driven out to the farthest part of the heavens, I will gather you from there. I will bring you to the place I have chosen to put my name there.'"
Nehemiah 1:10  "Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand."
Nehemiah 1:11  "Lord, I beg you, let your ear listen closely to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who want to fear your name. Give success to your servant today, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I was the king's cupbearer.

Nehemiah 2:1  In the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, wine was set before him. I took up the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad in his presence before.
Nehemiah 2:2  So the king said to me, "Why does your face look sad, when you are not sick? This can only be sorrow of heart." Then I was very much afraid,
Nehemiah 2:3  and I said to the king, "May the king live for ever. Why should my face not be sad, when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire?"
Nehemiah 2:4  Then the king said to me, "What are you asking for?" So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Nehemiah 2:5  And I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your servant has found favour with you, send me to Judah, to the city where my fathers are buried, so that I may build it again."
Nehemiah 2:6  The king said to me (the queen was sitting beside him), "How long will your journey take? When will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time.
Nehemiah 2:7  I also said to the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given to me for the governors beyond the river, so that they will let me pass through until I come to Judah;"
Nehemiah 2:8  "and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, so that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace by the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house I shall live in." And the king granted my requests, because the good hand of my God was upon me.
Nehemiah 2:9  Then I came to the governors beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent army captains and horsemen with me.
Nehemiah 2:10  When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, heard of it, they were very unhappy that a man had come to seek the good of the children of Israel.
Nehemiah 2:11  So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days.
Nehemiah 2:12  Then I got up in the night, I and a few men with me. I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. There was no animal with me except the one I rode on.
Nehemiah 2:13  I went out by night through the gate of the valley, past the dragon well, and to the dung gate. I looked at the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and its gates, which had been burned with fire.
Nehemiah 2:14  Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king's pool. But there was no room for the animal under me to pass.
Nehemiah 2:15  So I went up in the night by the brook and looked at the wall. Then I turned back and came in by the gate of the valley, and so returned.
Nehemiah 2:16  The rulers did not know where I had gone or what I had done. I had not yet told the Jews, or the priests, or the nobles, or the rulers, or the rest who would do the work.
Nehemiah 2:17  Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we are no longer a disgrace."
Nehemiah 2:18  Then I told them how the hand of my God had been good upon me, and also the words the king had spoken to me. And they said, "Let us rise up and build." So they put their hands to this good work with strength.
Nehemiah 2:19  But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian heard it, they laughed at us and made fun of us, and said, "What is this thing you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?"
Nehemiah 2:20  Then I answered them, "The God of heaven, he will give us success. So we his servants will rise up and build. But you have no share, no right, and no memorial in Jerusalem."

Nehemiah 3:1  Then Eliashib the high priest stood up with his fellow priests, and they built the sheep gate. They set it apart as holy, and they put up its doors. They set it apart as holy as far as the tower of Meah, and as far as the tower of Hananeel.
Nehemiah 3:2  Next to him the men of Jericho built. Next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.
Nehemiah 3:3  The sons of Hassenaah built the fish gate. They laid its beams, and put up its doors, its locks and its bars.
Nehemiah 3:4  Next to them Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz, made repairs. Next to them Meshullam the son of Berechiah, the son of Meshezabeel, made repairs. Next to them Zadok the son of Baana made repairs.
Nehemiah 3:5  Next to them the men of Tekoa made repairs. But their nobles would not put their necks to the work of their Lord.
Nehemiah 3:6  Jehoiada the son of Paseah and Meshullam the son of Besodeiah repaired the old gate. They laid its beams, and put up its doors, its locks and its bars.
Nehemiah 3:7  Next to them Melatiah the Gibeonite and Jadon the Meronothite made repairs, with the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, as far as the seat of the governor of the land on this side of the river.
Nehemiah 3:8  Next to him Uzziel the son of Harhaiah, one of the goldsmiths, made repairs. Next to him Hananiah, the son of one of the perfume makers, made repairs. They strengthened Jerusalem as far as the broad wall.
Nehemiah 3:9  Next to them Rephaiah the son of Hur made repairs. He was the ruler of half of Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 3:10  Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph made repairs, opposite his own house. Next to him Hattush the son of Hashabniah made repairs.
Nehemiah 3:11  Malchijah the son of Harim and Hashub the son of Pahathmoab repaired another length of wall, and the tower of the furnaces.
Nehemiah 3:12  Next to him Shallum the son of Halohesh made repairs. He was the ruler of half of Jerusalem, and he worked with his daughters.
Nehemiah 3:13  Hanun and the people who lived in Zanoah repaired the valley gate. They built it, and put up its doors, its locks and its bars. They also repaired a thousand cubits of the wall, as far as the dung gate.
Nehemiah 3:14  Malchiah the son of Rechab repaired the dung gate. He was the ruler of part of Bethhaccerem. He built it, and put up its doors, its locks and its bars.
Nehemiah 3:15  Shallun the son of Colhozeh repaired the gate of the fountain. He was the ruler of part of Mizpah. He built it, and roofed it, and put up its doors, its locks and its bars. He also repaired the wall of the pool of Siloah by the king's garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David.
Nehemiah 3:16  After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk made repairs. He was the ruler of half of Bethzur. He worked as far as the place opposite the tombs of David, and as far as the pool that was made, and as far as the house of the mighty men.
Nehemiah 3:17  After him the Levites made repairs, under Rehum the son of Bani. Next to him Hashabiah, the ruler of half of Keilah, made repairs for his own district.
Nehemiah 3:18  After him their brothers made repairs, under Bavai the son of Henadad, the ruler of the other half of Keilah.
Nehemiah 3:19  Next to him Ezer the son of Jeshua, the ruler of Mizpah, repaired another length of wall, opposite the way up to the armoury, at the turning of the wall.
Nehemiah 3:20  After him Baruch the son of Zabbai worked hard and repaired another length, from the turning of the wall to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
Nehemiah 3:21  After him Meremoth the son of Urijah, the son of Koz, repaired another length, from the door of the house of Eliashib to the end of the house of Eliashib.
Nehemiah 3:22  After him the priests made repairs, the men of the plain around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 3:23  After him Benjamin and Hashub made repairs opposite their house. After him Azariah the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ananiah, made repairs beside his house.
Nehemiah 3:24  After him Binnui the son of Henadad repaired another length, from the house of Azariah to the turning of the wall, and on to the corner.
Nehemiah 3:25  Palal the son of Uzai worked opposite the turning of the wall, and at the tower that stands out from the king's upper house, beside the court of the prison. After him came Pedaiah the son of Parosh.
Nehemiah 3:26  The Nethinims lived in Ophel, and they made repairs as far as the place opposite the water gate toward the east, and as far as the tower that stands out.
Nehemiah 3:27  After them the men of Tekoa repaired another length, opposite the great tower that stands out, as far as the wall of Ophel.
Nehemiah 3:28  Above the horse gate the priests made repairs, each one opposite his own house.
Nehemiah 3:29  After them Zadok the son of Immer made repairs opposite his house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the east gate, made repairs.
Nehemiah 3:30  After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah, and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired another length. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah made repairs opposite his room.
Nehemiah 3:31  After him Malchiah, the goldsmith's son, made repairs as far as the place of the Nethinims and of the merchants, opposite the gate Miphkad, and as far as the way up to the corner.
Nehemiah 3:32  Between the way up to the corner and the sheep gate, the goldsmiths and the merchants made repairs.

Nehemiah 4:1  When Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry. He was filled with rage, and he mocked the Jews.
Nehemiah 4:2  He spoke in front of his brothers and the army of Samaria, and said, "What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they make themselves strong? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Will they bring the stones back to life out of the heaps of rubbish, when they are burned?"
Nehemiah 4:3  Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, "Even what they are building - if a fox climbs up on it, he will break down their stone wall."
Nehemiah 4:4  "Hear, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them up as plunder in a land where they are captives."
Nehemiah 4:5  "Do not cover over their guilt. Do not let their sin be wiped away from before you, for they have stirred you to anger in front of the builders."
Nehemiah 4:6  So we built the wall. All the wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.
Nehemiah 4:7  But when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabians, the Ammonites and the men of Ashdod heard that the walls of Jerusalem were going up, and that the gaps were beginning to be closed, they were very angry.
Nehemiah 4:8  They all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem, and to hinder the work.
Nehemiah 4:9  But we prayed to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night.
Nehemiah 4:10  And Judah said, "The strength of those who carry the loads is failing, and there is much rubbish. We are not able to build the wall."
Nehemiah 4:11  And our enemies said, "They will not know or see anything until we come right in among them. Then we will kill them and stop the work."
Nehemiah 4:12  When the Jews who lived near them came, they said to us ten times, "From all the places where you turn back to us, they will be upon you."
Nehemiah 4:13  So I placed people in the low places behind the wall, and on the high places. I set the people out by their families, with their swords, their spears and their bows.
Nehemiah 4:14  I looked, and I stood up and said to the nobles, the rulers and the rest of the people, "Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and terrible, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes."
Nehemiah 4:15  When our enemies heard that we knew about their plan, and that God had brought their plot to nothing, we all went back to the wall, each one to his own work.
Nehemiah 4:16  From that time on, half of my servants worked at the building, and the other half held the spears, the shields, the bows and the coats of armour. The rulers stood behind all the house of Judah.
Nehemiah 4:17  Those who built on the wall, and those who carried the loads and those who loaded them, each worked with one hand and held a weapon in the other.
Nehemiah 4:18  Every builder had his sword strapped at his side while he built. And the man who sounded the trumpet stayed beside me.
Nehemiah 4:19  I said to the nobles, the rulers and the rest of the people, "The work is great and spread out, and we are separated along the wall, far from one another."
Nehemiah 4:20  "So wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, come to us there. Our God will fight for us."
Nehemiah 4:21  So we laboured at the work. Half of them held the spears from the first light of morning until the stars came out.
Nehemiah 4:22  At the same time I also said to the people, "Let every man and his servant stay the night inside Jerusalem, so that at night they may be a guard for us, and work in the day."
Nehemiah 4:23  So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes. Each one took his weapon even to the water.

Nehemiah 5:1  Then the people and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews.
Nehemiah 5:2  Some of them said, "We have many sons and daughters. We must get grain, so that we may eat and live."
Nehemiah 5:3  Others said, "We have given up our lands, our vineyards and our houses as pledges, so that we could buy grain during the famine."
Nehemiah 5:4  Others said, "We have borrowed money to pay the king's tax, and we borrowed it against our lands and vineyards."
Nehemiah 5:5  "We are of the same flesh as our fellow Jews, and our children are like their children. Yet look, we are forcing our sons and our daughters into slavery. Some of our daughters have been made slaves already. We have no power to buy them back, because other men have our lands and vineyards."
Nehemiah 5:6  I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.
Nehemiah 5:7  I thought it over in my mind. Then I rebuked the nobles and the rulers. I said to them, "Each of you is charging interest to your own brother." And I called a great assembly together against them.
Nehemiah 5:8  I said to them, "As far as we were able, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the nations. And now will you sell your own brothers? Must they be sold to us?" Then they were silent, and could find nothing to say.
Nehemiah 5:9  I also said, "What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God, to avoid the scorn of the nations who are our enemies?"
Nehemiah 5:10  I too, and my brothers and my servants, could demand money and grain from them. But please, let us stop charging this interest.
Nehemiah 5:11  "Please give back to them this very day their lands, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses. Give back also the hundredth part of the money, the grain, the wine and the oil that you are charging them."
Nehemiah 5:12  Then they said, "We will give it back, and we will demand nothing from them. We will do as you say." Then I called the priests, and made the nobles swear an oath that they would do as they had promised.
Nehemiah 5:13  I also shook out the fold of my robe and said, "In this way may God shake out from his house and from his property every man who does not keep this promise. May he be shaken out like this, and left with nothing." And all the assembly said, "Amen," and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
Nehemiah 5:14  From the time I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, that is, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowed to the governor.
Nehemiah 5:15  But the earlier governors, who came before me, laid heavy burdens on the people. They took from them food and wine, besides forty shekels of silver. Even their servants ruled over the people. But I did not do so, because I feared God.
Nehemiah 5:16  I also kept working on this wall. We bought no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.
Nehemiah 5:17  Also, a hundred and fifty of the Jews and the rulers ate at my table, besides those who came to us from the nations around us.
Nehemiah 5:18  Each day one ox and six choice sheep were prepared for me. Birds were prepared for me too, and once every ten days a supply of all kinds of wine. Yet for all this I did not ask for the food allowed to the governor, because the labour lay heavy on this people.
Nehemiah 5:19  Remember me, my God, for good, because of all that I have done for this people.

Nehemiah 6:1  Then Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall, and that no gap was left in it. (At that time I had not yet set up the doors in the gateways.)
Nehemiah 6:2  So Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono." But they were planning to harm me.
Nehemiah 6:3  So I sent messengers to them with this answer: "I am doing a great work, so I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?"
Nehemiah 6:4  They sent me the same message four times, and I answered them the same way each time.
Nehemiah 6:5  Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his servant to me with the same message. In his hand was an open letter.
Nehemiah 6:6  In it was written: "It is reported among the nations, and Gashmu says it too, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. That is why you are building the wall, so that you may be their king, according to this report."
Nehemiah 6:7  "And you have also appointed prophets to announce about you in Jerusalem, 'There is a king in Judah.' Now this will be reported to the king. So come, and let us talk it over together."
Nehemiah 6:8  Then I sent him this answer: "No such things as you say are happening. You are making them up out of your own heart."
Nehemiah 6:9  They were all trying to make us afraid, thinking, "Their hands will grow weak, and the work will not be done." Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
Nehemiah 6:10  Afterward I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who was shut in. He said, "Let us meet together in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us shut the temple doors. For they are coming to kill you. Yes, in the night they are coming to kill you."
Nehemiah 6:11  But I said, "Should a man like me run away? And who, being such a man as I am, would go into the temple to save his life? I will not go in."
Nehemiah 6:12  I saw clearly that God had not sent him. He had spoken this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
Nehemiah 6:13  He was hired so that I would be afraid and do this and sin, and so they would have something to use for an evil report, to shame me.
Nehemiah 6:14  My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat for what they have done, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who tried to make me afraid.
Nehemiah 6:15  So the wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty-two days.
Nehemiah 6:16  When all our enemies heard of it, and all the nations around us saw these things, they lost all their confidence. For they knew that this work had been done by our God.
Nehemiah 6:17  Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah, and letters from Tobiah came to them.
Nehemiah 6:18  For many in Judah had sworn an oath to him, because he was the son-in-law of Shechaniah son of Arah, and his son Johanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.
Nehemiah 6:19  They also spoke of his good deeds in front of me, and told him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to make me afraid.

Nehemiah 7:1  When the wall was built, I set up the doors. Then the gatekeepers, the singers and the Levites were appointed.
Nehemiah 7:2  I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, together with Hananiah the ruler of the palace. Hananiah was a faithful man, and he feared God more than many others did.
Nehemiah 7:3  I said to them, "Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot. While the gatekeepers are still on duty, let them shut the doors and bar them. Appoint guards from the people who live in Jerusalem, each at his post, and each one in front of his own house."
Nehemiah 7:4  Now the city was wide and large, but there were few people in it, and the houses were not built.
Nehemiah 7:5  My God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers and the people, so that they could be listed by family. I found the register of the family lines of those who came up first, and this is what I found written in it:
Nehemiah 7:6  These are the people of the province who came up out of captivity. They were among those whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away. They came back to Jerusalem and to Judah, each one to his own city.
Nehemiah 7:7  They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum and Baanah. This is the number of the men of the people of Israel:
Nehemiah 7:8  the children of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two;
Nehemiah 7:9  the children of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two;
Nehemiah 7:10  the children of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two;
Nehemiah 7:11  the children of Pahathmoab, of the children of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and eighteen;
Nehemiah 7:12  the children of Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;
Nehemiah 7:13  the children of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five;
Nehemiah 7:14  the children of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty;
Nehemiah 7:15  the children of Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight;
Nehemiah 7:16  the children of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight;
Nehemiah 7:17  the children of Azgad, two thousand three hundred and twenty-two;
Nehemiah 7:18  the children of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven;
Nehemiah 7:19  the children of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven;
Nehemiah 7:20  the children of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five;
Nehemiah 7:21  the children of Ater of Hezekiah, ninety-eight;
Nehemiah 7:22  the children of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-eight;
Nehemiah 7:23  the children of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four;
Nehemiah 7:24  the children of Hariph, one hundred and twelve;
Nehemiah 7:25  the children of Gibeon, ninety-five;
Nehemiah 7:26  the men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred and eighty-eight;
Nehemiah 7:27  the men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight;
Nehemiah 7:28  the men of Bethazmaveth, forty-two;
Nehemiah 7:29  the men of Kirjathjearim, Chephirah and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three;
Nehemiah 7:30  the men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one;
Nehemiah 7:31  the men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two;
Nehemiah 7:32  the men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred and twenty-three;
Nehemiah 7:33  the men of the other Nebo, fifty-two;
Nehemiah 7:34  the children of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;
Nehemiah 7:35  the children of Harim, three hundred and twenty;
Nehemiah 7:36  the children of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five;
Nehemiah 7:37  the children of Lod, Hadid and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one;
Nehemiah 7:38  the children of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred and thirty.
Nehemiah 7:39  The priests: the children of Jedaiah, of the house of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three;
Nehemiah 7:40  the children of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two;
Nehemiah 7:41  the children of Pashur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven;
Nehemiah 7:42  the children of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.
Nehemiah 7:43  The Levites: the children of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, and of the children of Hodevah, seventy-four.
Nehemiah 7:44  The singers: the children of Asaph, one hundred and forty-eight.
Nehemiah 7:45  The gatekeepers: the children of Shallum, the children of Ater, the children of Talmon, the children of Akkub, the children of Hatita, the children of Shobai, one hundred and thirty-eight.
Nehemiah 7:46  The Nethinims: the children of Ziha, the children of Hashupha, the children of Tabbaoth,
Nehemiah 7:47  the children of Keros, the children of Sia, the children of Padon,
Nehemiah 7:48  the children of Lebana, the children of Hagaba, the children of Shalmai,
Nehemiah 7:49  the children of Hanan, the children of Giddel, the children of Gahar,
Nehemiah 7:50  the children of Reaiah, the children of Rezin, the children of Nekoda,
Nehemiah 7:51  the children of Gazzam, the children of Uzza, the children of Phaseah,
Nehemiah 7:52  the children of Besai, the children of Meunim, the children of Nephishesim,
Nehemiah 7:53  the children of Bakbuk, the children of Hakupha, the children of Harhur,
Nehemiah 7:54  the children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,
Nehemiah 7:55  the children of Barkos, the children of Sisera, the children of Tamah,
Nehemiah 7:56  the children of Neziah, the children of Hatipha.
Nehemiah 7:57  The children of Solomon's servants: the children of Sotai, the children of Sophereth, the children of Perida,
Nehemiah 7:58  the children of Jaala, the children of Darkon, the children of Giddel,
Nehemiah 7:59  the children of Shephatiah, the children of Hattil, the children of Pochereth of Zebaim, the children of Amon.
Nehemiah 7:60  All the Nethinims and the children of Solomon's servants were three hundred and ninety-two.
Nehemiah 7:61  These also came up from Telmelah, Telharesha, Cherub, Addon and Immer. But they could not show their father's house, or their family line, to prove that they were from Israel:
Nehemiah 7:62  the children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred and forty-two.
Nehemiah 7:63  And of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, and the children of Barzillai. This Barzillai had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called by their name.
Nehemiah 7:64  These looked for their names in the register of family lines, but their names were not found. So they were counted as unclean and were put out of the priesthood.
Nehemiah 7:65  The Tirshatha told them that they must not eat any of the most holy things until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim.
Nehemiah 7:66  The whole assembly together was forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty,
Nehemiah 7:67  besides their menservants and their maidservants, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. They also had two hundred and forty-five singing men and singing women.
Nehemiah 7:68  Their horses were seven hundred and thirty-six; their mules, two hundred and forty-five;
Nehemiah 7:69  their camels, four hundred and thirty-five; and their donkeys, six thousand seven hundred and twenty.
Nehemiah 7:70  Some of the heads of the families gave gifts for the work. The Tirshatha gave to the treasury a thousand drams of gold, fifty basins, and five hundred and thirty priests' garments.
Nehemiah 7:71  Some of the heads of the families gave to the treasury for the work twenty thousand drams of gold and two thousand two hundred pounds of silver.
Nehemiah 7:72  What the rest of the people gave was twenty thousand drams of gold, two thousand pounds of silver, and sixty-seven priests' garments.
Nehemiah 7:73  So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the Nethinims and all Israel lived in their cities. When the seventh month came, the children of Israel were in their cities.

Nehemiah 8:1  All the people gathered together as one man in the open square in front of the water gate. They asked Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.
Nehemiah 8:2  So on the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly. There were men and women there, and all who could listen and understand.
Nehemiah 8:3  He read from it in the open square in front of the water gate, from the morning until midday. He read in front of the men and the women, and those who could understand. All the people listened carefully to the book of the law.
Nehemiah 8:4  Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform which they had made for this purpose. Beside him on his right hand stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Urijah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah. On his left hand stood Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchiah, Hashum, Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
Nehemiah 8:5  Ezra opened the book where all the people could see it, for he was standing higher than all the people. When he opened it, all the people stood up.
Nehemiah 8:6  Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God. And all the people lifted up their hands and answered, "Amen, Amen." Then they bowed their heads and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.
Nehemiah 8:7  Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites helped the people to understand the law, and the people stayed in their places.
Nehemiah 8:8  So they read clearly from the book, from the law of God, and explained the meaning, so that the people understood what was read.
Nehemiah 8:9  Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people, said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law.
Nehemiah 8:10  Then he said to them, "Go your way. Eat rich food and drink sweet drinks, and send helpings to those who have nothing prepared. For this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be sad, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:11  So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, "Be still, for the day is holy. Do not grieve."
Nehemiah 8:12  So all the people went their way to eat and to drink, and to send helpings to others, and to celebrate with great joy, because they had understood the words that were made known to them.
Nehemiah 8:13  On the second day the heads of the families of all the people, with the priests and the Levites, gathered to Ezra the scribe to study the words of the law.
Nehemiah 8:14  They found it written in the law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the children of Israel should live in shelters during the feast of the seventh month.
Nehemiah 8:15  They were to announce and proclaim it in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hills and bring olive branches, pine branches, myrtle branches, palm branches, and branches of leafy trees, to make shelters, as it is written."
Nehemiah 8:16  So the people went out and brought them, and made shelters for themselves. Each one made one on the roof of his house, and in their courtyards, and in the courts of the house of God, and in the open square of the water gate, and in the open square of the gate of Ephraim.
Nehemiah 8:17  The whole assembly of those who had come back from captivity made shelters and sat under them. Since the days of Jeshua the son of Nun until that day, the children of Israel had not done this. And there was very great gladness.
Nehemiah 8:18  Day by day, from the first day until the last day, he read from the book of the law of God. They kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly, as the rule required.

Nehemiah 9:1  On the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel came together. They fasted, wore sackcloth, and put earth on their heads.
Nehemiah 9:2  Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood and confessed their sins, and the sins of their fathers.
Nehemiah 9:3  They stood up in their places, and for a quarter of the day they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God. For another quarter of the day they confessed and worshipped the LORD their God.
Nehemiah 9:4  Then some of the Levites stood up on the stairs: Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Chenani. They cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God.
Nehemiah 9:5  Then the Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabniah, Sherebiah, Hodijah, Shebaniah, and Pethahiah said, "Stand up and bless the LORD your God for ever and ever. Blessed be your glorious name, which is lifted high above all blessing and praise."
Nehemiah 9:6  "You, you alone, are the LORD. You made heaven, the highest heavens, and all their host, the earth and everything on it, the seas and everything in them. You keep them all alive, and the host of heaven worships you."
Nehemiah 9:7  "You are the LORD the God who chose Abram. You brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, and you gave him the name Abraham."
Nehemiah 9:8  "You found his heart faithful before you, and you made a covenant with him to give him the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites. You promised to give it to his descendants. And you have kept your words, for you are righteous."
Nehemiah 9:9  "You saw how our fathers suffered in Egypt, and you heard their cry by the Red Sea."
Nehemiah 9:10  "You showed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants, and against all the people of his land, for you knew how proudly they treated them. So you made a name for yourself, as it is to this day."
Nehemiah 9:11  "You divided the sea in front of them, so that they walked through the middle of the sea on dry ground. But those who chased them you threw into the depths, like a stone into mighty waters."
Nehemiah 9:12  "By day you led them with a pillar of cloud, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the way they should go."
Nehemiah 9:13  "You also came down on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven. You gave them right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments."
Nehemiah 9:14  "You made your holy sabbath known to them, and you commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, through your servant Moses."
Nehemiah 9:15  "You gave them bread from heaven when they were hungry, and brought water out of the rock for them when they were thirsty. You told them to go in and take the land you had sworn to give them."
Nehemiah 9:16  "But they and our fathers acted proudly. They stiffened their necks, and would not listen to your commandments."
Nehemiah 9:17  "They refused to obey, and did not remember the wonders you did among them. They stiffened their necks, and in their rebellion they chose a captain to take them back to their slavery. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and full of great kindness. You did not leave them."
Nehemiah 9:18  "Even when they made themselves a calf of melted metal and said, 'This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and made you very angry,"
Nehemiah 9:19  "still, in your many mercies, you did not leave them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day, to lead them on the way, nor the pillar of fire by night, to give them light and show them the way they should go."
Nehemiah 9:20  "You gave your good spirit to teach them. You did not hold back your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst."
Nehemiah 9:21  "For forty years you kept them alive in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out, and their feet did not swell."
Nehemiah 9:22  "You gave them kingdoms and nations, and divided the land between them corner by corner. So they took the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og king of Bashan."
Nehemiah 9:23  "You made their children as many as the stars of heaven, and brought them into the land that you had promised their fathers they would go in and possess."
Nehemiah 9:24  "So the children went in and took the land. You brought down before them the Canaanites who lived in the land, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, so that they could do with them whatever they wished."
Nehemiah 9:25  "They captured strong cities and a rich land. They took houses full of every good thing, wells already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in great numbers. So they ate and were filled and grew fat, and enjoyed your great goodness."
Nehemiah 9:26  "But they disobeyed and rebelled against you. They threw your law behind their backs, and killed your prophets who warned them to turn back to you, and they made you very angry."
Nehemiah 9:27  "So you handed them over to their enemies, who troubled them. In the time of their trouble they cried to you, and you heard them from heaven. In your many mercies you gave them saviours, who saved them from the hand of their enemies."
Nehemiah 9:28  "But when they had rest, they did evil again before you. So you left them in the hand of their enemies, who ruled over them. Yet when they turned back and cried to you, you heard them from heaven, and many times you rescued them, because of your mercies."
Nehemiah 9:29  "You warned them, to bring them back to your law. Yet they acted proudly, and would not listen to your commandments. They sinned against your judgments, which a person shall live by if he keeps them. They turned a stubborn shoulder away, stiffened their necks, and would not listen."
Nehemiah 9:30  "For many years you were patient with them. You warned them by your spirit in your prophets, yet they would not listen. So you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands."
Nehemiah 9:31  "But because of your great mercies you did not destroy them completely, and you did not leave them, for you are a gracious and merciful God."
Nehemiah 9:32  "Now therefore, our God, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who keeps covenant and mercy, do not let all this trouble seem small to you. It has come upon us, on our kings, on our princes, on our priests, on our prophets, on our fathers, and on all your people, from the time of the kings of Assyria until today."
Nehemiah 9:33  "Yet you are just in everything that has come upon us, for you have done right, but we have done wickedly."
Nehemiah 9:34  "Our kings, our princes, our priests, and our fathers have not kept your law. They did not listen to your commandments and your warnings, with which you warned them."
Nehemiah 9:35  "For even in their own kingdom, and in the great goodness you gave them, and in the large and rich land you set before them, they did not serve you, and they did not turn from their wicked deeds."
Nehemiah 9:36  "Look, we are servants today. In the land you gave our fathers, so that they could eat its fruit and its good things, look, we are servants."
Nehemiah 9:37  "It gives a rich harvest to the kings you have set over us because of our sins. They rule over our bodies and over our cattle as they please, and we are in great distress."
Nehemiah 9:38  "Because of all this we make a firm covenant, and write it down. Our princes, Levites, and priests put their seal on it."

Nehemiah 10:1  These are the men who sealed the agreement: Nehemiah the Tirshatha, the son of Hachaliah, and Zidkijah,
Nehemiah 10:2  Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
Nehemiah 10:3  Pashur, Amariah, Malchijah,
Nehemiah 10:4  Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
Nehemiah 10:5  Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
Nehemiah 10:6  Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
Nehemiah 10:7  Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
Nehemiah 10:8  Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These were the priests.
Nehemiah 10:9  And the Levites were: Jeshua the son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, and Kadmiel;
Nehemiah 10:10  and their brothers, Shebaniah, Hodijah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
Nehemiah 10:11  Micha, Rehob, Hashabiah,
Nehemiah 10:12  Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
Nehemiah 10:13  Hodijah, Bani, and Beninu.
Nehemiah 10:14  The leaders of the people were: Parosh, Pahathmoab, Elam, Zatthu, Bani,
Nehemiah 10:15  Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
Nehemiah 10:16  Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
Nehemiah 10:17  Ater, Hizkijah, Azzur,
Nehemiah 10:18  Hodijah, Hashum, Bezai,
Nehemiah 10:19  Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
Nehemiah 10:20  Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
Nehemiah 10:21  Meshezabeel, Zadok, Jaddua,
Nehemiah 10:22  Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
Nehemiah 10:23  Hoshea, Hananiah, Hashub,
Nehemiah 10:24  Hallohesh, Pileha, Shobek,
Nehemiah 10:25  Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
Nehemiah 10:26  and Ahijah, Hanan, Anan,
Nehemiah 10:27  Malluch, Harim, and Baanah.
Nehemiah 10:28  The rest of the people joined them: the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Nethinims, and all who had separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to follow the law of God. Their wives, their sons and their daughters joined too, everyone who had knowledge and understanding.
Nehemiah 10:29  They held fast to their brothers, their nobles, and bound themselves with a curse and an oath. They promised to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to keep and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his laws.
Nehemiah 10:30  We promised that we would not give our daughters to the peoples of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons.
Nehemiah 10:31  If the peoples of the land brought goods or any food to sell on the sabbath day, we would not buy from them on the sabbath or on a holy day. We would also let the land rest in the seventh year, and we would give up the collecting of every debt.
Nehemiah 10:32  We also made rules for ourselves: each year we would give a third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;
Nehemiah 10:33  for the showbread, for the regular food offering, and for the regular burnt offering; for the sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed feasts; for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel; and for all the work of the house of our God.
Nehemiah 10:34  We cast lots among the priests, the Levites and the people, for the wood offering. This was to decide which family should bring wood into the house of our God at set times, year by year, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law.
Nehemiah 10:35  We also promised to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all the fruit of every tree, year by year, to the house of the LORD;
Nehemiah 10:36  and to bring the firstborn of our sons and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstborn of our herds and of our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who serve in the house of our God;
Nehemiah 10:37  and to bring the first of our dough, our offerings, the fruit of every kind of tree, the wine and the oil, to the priests, to the rooms of the house of our God. And we would bring the tithes of our ground to the Levites, for the Levites themselves receive the tithes in all the towns where we farm.
Nehemiah 10:38  The priest, a son of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites take the tithes. And the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God, to the rooms of the treasure house.
Nehemiah 10:39  For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the corn, the new wine and the oil to those rooms, where the vessels of the sanctuary are kept, and where the priests who serve, the gatekeepers and the singers are. So we will not forsake the house of our God.

Nehemiah 11:1  The leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the other nine parts stayed in the other cities.
Nehemiah 11:2  And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to live in Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 11:3  These are the chief men of the province who lived in Jerusalem. But in the cities of Judah everyone lived on his own property in his own city, that is, Israel, the priests, the Levites, the Nethinim, and the sons of Solomon's servants.
Nehemiah 11:4  In Jerusalem there lived some of the people of Judah and some of the people of Benjamin. Of the people of Judah: Athaiah son of Uzziah, son of Zechariah, son of Amariah, son of Shephatiah, son of Mahalaleel, of the sons of Perez;
Nehemiah 11:5  and Maaseiah son of Baruch, son of Colhozeh, son of Hazaiah, son of Adaiah, son of Joiarib, son of Zechariah, son of Shiloni.
Nehemiah 11:6  All the sons of Perez who lived in Jerusalem were four hundred and sixty-eight brave men.
Nehemiah 11:7  These are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jesaiah.
Nehemiah 11:8  After him came Gabbai and Sallai, nine hundred and twenty-eight in all.
Nehemiah 11:9  Joel son of Zichri was their overseer, and Judah son of Senuah was second in charge of the city.
Nehemiah 11:10  Of the priests: Jedaiah son of Joiarib, and Jachin.
Nehemiah 11:11  Seraiah son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, was the ruler of the house of God.
Nehemiah 11:12  Their brothers who did the work of the house were eight hundred and twenty-two. There was also Adaiah son of Jeroham, son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Pashur, son of Malchiah,
Nehemiah 11:13  and his brothers, heads of families, two hundred and forty-two. There was also Amashai son of Azareel, son of Ahasai, son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer,
Nehemiah 11:14  and their brothers, strong and brave men, one hundred and twenty-eight. Their overseer was Zabdiel, the son of one of the great men.
Nehemiah 11:15  Of the Levites: Shemaiah son of Hashub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, son of Bunni;
Nehemiah 11:16  and Shabbethai and Jozabad, two of the chief Levites, who were in charge of the outside work of the house of God.
Nehemiah 11:17  Mattaniah son of Micha, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, was the leader who began the thanksgiving in prayer. Bakbukiah was second among his brothers. There was also Abda son of Shammua, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun.
Nehemiah 11:18  All the Levites in the holy city were two hundred and eighty-four.
Nehemiah 11:19  The gatekeepers, Akkub, Talmon, and their brothers who guarded the gates, were one hundred and seventy-two.
Nehemiah 11:20  The rest of Israel, with the priests and the Levites, were in all the cities of Judah, each one on his own land.
Nehemiah 11:21  But the Nethinim lived in Ophel, and Ziha and Gispa were over the Nethinim.
Nehemiah 11:22  The overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micha. He was of the sons of Asaph, the singers who were in charge of the work of the house of God.
Nehemiah 11:23  For the king had given a command about them, that a set portion should be given to the singers every day.
Nehemiah 11:24  Pethahiah son of Meshezabeel, of the sons of Zerah son of Judah, was at the king's hand in all matters concerning the people.
Nehemiah 11:25  As for the villages with their fields, some of the people of Judah lived at Kirjath-arba and its villages, at Dibon and its villages, at Jekabzeel and its villages,
Nehemiah 11:26  at Jeshua, at Moladah, at Beth-phelet,
Nehemiah 11:27  at Hazar-shual, at Beersheba and its villages,
Nehemiah 11:28  at Ziklag, at Mekonah and its villages,
Nehemiah 11:29  at En-rimmon, at Zareah, at Jarmuth,
Nehemiah 11:30  at Zanoah, at Adullam and their villages, at Lachish and its fields, and at Azekah and its villages. So they lived from Beersheba to the valley of Hinnom.
Nehemiah 11:31  The people of Benjamin from Geba lived at Michmash, Aija, Bethel and their villages,
Nehemiah 11:32  at Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah,
Nehemiah 11:33  Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim,
Nehemiah 11:34  Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,
Nehemiah 11:35  Lod, and Ono, the valley of craftsmen.
Nehemiah 11:36  And some divisions of the Levites were in Judah and in Benjamin.

Nehemiah 12:1  These are the priests and the Levites who came up with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and with Jeshua: Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,
Nehemiah 12:2  Amariah, Malluch, Hattush,
Nehemiah 12:3  Shechaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,
Nehemiah 12:4  Iddo, Ginnetho, Abijah,
Nehemiah 12:5  Miamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,
Nehemiah 12:6  Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah,
Nehemiah 12:7  Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, and Jedaiah. These were the leaders of the priests and of their brothers in the days of Jeshua.
Nehemiah 12:8  The Levites were these: Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, and Mattaniah, who was in charge of the songs of thanksgiving, he and his brothers.
Nehemiah 12:9  Bakbukiah and Unni, their brothers, stood opposite them in the watches.
Nehemiah 12:10  Jeshua was the father of Joiakim, Joiakim was the father of Eliashib, and Eliashib was the father of Joiada,
Nehemiah 12:11  and Joiada was the father of Jonathan, and Jonathan was the father of Jaddua.
Nehemiah 12:12  In the days of Joiakim these priests were the heads of families: of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;
Nehemiah 12:13  of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;
Nehemiah 12:14  of Melicu, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;
Nehemiah 12:15  of Harim, Adna; of Meraioth, Helkai;
Nehemiah 12:16  of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;
Nehemiah 12:17  of Abijah, Zichri; of Miniamin, of Moadiah, Piltai;
Nehemiah 12:18  of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;
Nehemiah 12:19  of Joiarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;
Nehemiah 12:20  of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;
Nehemiah 12:21  of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethaneel.
Nehemiah 12:22  In the days of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan, and Jaddua, the Levites were written down as heads of families, and so were the priests, up to the reign of Darius the Persian.
Nehemiah 12:23  The sons of Levi, the heads of families, were written in the book of the chronicles, up to the days of Johanan the son of Eliashib.
Nehemiah 12:24  The leaders of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, and Jeshua the son of Kadmiel, with their brothers standing opposite them, to praise and to give thanks, as David the man of God had commanded, one group facing the other.
Nehemiah 12:25  Mattaniah, Bakbukiah, Obadiah, Meshullam, Talmon, and Akkub were gatekeepers, keeping watch at the storerooms by the gates.
Nehemiah 12:26  These served in the days of Joiakim the son of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest, the scribe.
Nehemiah 12:27  When the wall of Jerusalem was dedicated, they searched for the Levites in all the places where they lived, to bring them to Jerusalem. They were to keep the dedication with gladness, with songs of thanksgiving and with singing, with cymbals, lutes, and harps.
Nehemiah 12:28  The sons of the singers gathered together from the plain country around Jerusalem, and from the villages of Netophathi,
Nehemiah 12:29  and from the house of Gilgal, and from the fields of Geba and Azmaveth. For the singers had built themselves villages around Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 12:30  The priests and the Levites made themselves clean, and they made the people clean, and the gates, and the wall.
Nehemiah 12:31  Then I brought the leaders of Judah up onto the wall, and I appointed two great choirs to give thanks. One of them went to the right along the top of the wall, toward the dung gate.
Nehemiah 12:32  After them went Hoshaiah and half of the leaders of Judah,
Nehemiah 12:33  and Azariah, Ezra, and Meshullam,
Nehemiah 12:34  Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah, and Jeremiah,
Nehemiah 12:35  and some of the priests' sons with trumpets: Zechariah the son of Jonathan, the son of Shemaiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Michaiah, the son of Zaccur, the son of Asaph,
Nehemiah 12:36  and his brothers, Shemaiah, Azarael, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethaneel, Judah, and Hanani, with the musical instruments of David the man of God. Ezra the scribe went in front of them.
Nehemiah 12:37  At the fountain gate, which was opposite them, they went up the stairs of the city of David, at the going up of the wall, above the house of David, as far as the water gate on the east.
Nehemiah 12:38  The other choir that gave thanks went the opposite way, and I followed them with half of the people along the top of the wall, past the tower of the furnaces as far as the broad wall,
Nehemiah 12:39  and from above the gate of Ephraim, above the old gate and above the fish gate, and the tower of Hananeel and the tower of Meah, as far as the sheep gate. They stopped at the prison gate.
Nehemiah 12:40  So the two choirs that gave thanks took their places in the house of God, and I did too, and half of the rulers with me,
Nehemiah 12:41  and the priests Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Michaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, and Hananiah, with trumpets,
Nehemiah 12:42  and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam, and Ezer. The singers sang loudly, with Jezrahiah as their leader.
Nehemiah 12:43  That day they offered great sacrifices, and they rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy. The wives and the children rejoiced too, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.
Nehemiah 12:44  At that time men were put in charge of the rooms where the treasures, the offerings, the firstfruits, and the tithes were kept. They were to gather into them from the fields around the cities the portions set by the law for the priests and Levites. For Judah was glad because of the priests and the Levites who served.
Nehemiah 12:45  The singers and the gatekeepers kept the service of their God and the service of purification, as David and his son Solomon had commanded.
Nehemiah 12:46  For long ago, in the days of David and Asaph, there were leaders of the singers, and songs of praise and thanksgiving to God.
Nehemiah 12:47  In the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah, all Israel gave the portions for the singers and the gatekeepers, each day what was due for that day. They set apart what was holy for the Levites, and the Levites set apart a portion for the sons of Aaron.

Nehemiah 13:1  On that day they read from the book of Moses while the people listened. In it they found this written: no Ammonite or Moabite should ever come into the assembly of God.
Nehemiah 13:2  This was because they did not meet the children of Israel with bread and water. Instead they hired Balaam against them, to curse them. But our God turned the curse into a blessing.
Nehemiah 13:3  When the people heard the law, they separated from Israel everyone of mixed descent.
Nehemiah 13:4  Before this, Eliashib the priest was in charge of the rooms of the house of our God. He was closely joined to Tobiah,
Nehemiah 13:5  and he had made ready for him a large room. In that room they used to put the grain offerings, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of the grain, the new wine and the oil, which were commanded to be given to the Levites, the singers and the gatekeepers. The offerings for the priests were kept there too.
Nehemiah 13:6  During all this time I was not in Jerusalem. In the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had gone to the king. After some days I asked the king for leave,
Nehemiah 13:7  and I came to Jerusalem. There I learned of the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, in making ready a room for him in the courts of the house of God.
Nehemiah 13:8  This troubled me very much. So I threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room.
Nehemiah 13:9  Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the rooms. I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.
Nehemiah 13:10  I also found out that the Levites had not been given their portions. So the Levites and the singers who did the work had each gone back to his own field.
Nehemiah 13:11  Then I argued with the rulers and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" And I gathered the Levites together and set them in their places.
Nehemiah 13:12  Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, the new wine and the oil into the storerooms.
Nehemiah 13:13  I put men in charge of the storerooms: Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah, one of the Levites. Their helper was Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah. These men were counted faithful, and their work was to share out the supplies to their brothers.
Nehemiah 13:14  Remember me, O my God, for this. Do not wipe out the good deeds I have done for the house of my God and for its services.
Nehemiah 13:15  In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys. They also brought wine, grapes, figs and all kinds of loads into Jerusalem on the sabbath day. I warned them on the day when they sold food.
Nehemiah 13:16  Men of Tyre also lived in the city. They brought fish and all kinds of goods, and sold them on the sabbath to the people of Judah, and in Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 13:17  Then I argued with the nobles of Judah and said to them, "What is this evil thing you are doing? You are making the sabbath day unholy."
Nehemiah 13:18  "Did not your fathers do the same? And did not our God bring all this trouble on us and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by making the sabbath unholy."
Nehemiah 13:19  So when it began to grow dark at the gates of Jerusalem before the sabbath, I gave orders that the gates should be shut. I commanded that they should not be opened until after the sabbath. I set some of my servants at the gates, so that no load could be brought in on the sabbath day.
Nehemiah 13:20  So the merchants and the sellers of all kinds of goods spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice.
Nehemiah 13:21  Then I warned them and said to them, "Why do you spend the night beside the wall? If you do it again, I will lay hands on you." From that time on they did not come on the sabbath.
Nehemiah 13:22  I commanded the Levites to cleanse themselves, and to come and guard the gates, to keep the sabbath day holy. Remember me, O my God, for this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy.
Nehemiah 13:23  In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon and of Moab.
Nehemiah 13:24  Half of their children spoke the speech of Ashdod. They could not speak the language of the Jews, but spoke the language of one people or another.
Nehemiah 13:25  I argued with them and cursed them. I struck some of them and pulled out their hair. I made them swear by God, saying, "You shall not give your daughters to their sons, and you shall not take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves."
Nehemiah 13:26  "Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by such things? Among many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet even he was led into sin by foreign women."
Nehemiah 13:27  "Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil, and break faith with our God by marrying foreign wives?"
Nehemiah 13:28  One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib the high priest, was son-in-law to Sanballat the Horonite. So I drove him away from me.
Nehemiah 13:29  Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
Nehemiah 13:30  So I cleansed them from everything foreign. I set out the duties of the priests and the Levites, each in his own work,
Nehemiah 13:31  and I made arrangements for the wood offering at set times, and for the firstfruits. Remember me, O my God, for good.

Esther

Esther 1:1  This happened in the days of Ahasuerus. This is the Ahasuerus who ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, from India all the way to Ethiopia.
Esther 1:2  In those days King Ahasuerus sat on his royal throne in the palace at Shushan.
Esther 1:3  In the third year of his reign he made a feast for all his princes and his servants. The army of Persia and Media, and the nobles and princes of the provinces, were there before him.
Esther 1:4  For many days he showed them the riches of his glorious kingdom and the splendour of his great majesty. It went on for a hundred and eighty days.
Esther 1:5  When those days were over, the king made a feast that lasted seven days for all the people who were in the palace at Shushan, both great and small. It was held in the court of the garden of the king's palace.
Esther 1:6  There were white, green and blue hangings, tied with cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and pillars of marble. The couches were of gold and silver, on a floor of red, blue, white and black marble.
Esther 1:7  They gave the guests drink in cups of gold, and no two cups were alike. There was royal wine in plenty, as a king can give.
Esther 1:8  The drinking was done by rule, and no one was forced. The king had told all the officers of his house to let each man do as he pleased.
Esther 1:9  Queen Vashti also made a feast for the women in the royal house that belonged to King Ahasuerus.
Esther 1:10  On the seventh day, when the king's heart was merry with wine, he gave an order to Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carcas, the seven officers who served King Ahasuerus.
Esther 1:11  They were to bring Queen Vashti before the king, wearing the royal crown, to show the people and the princes how beautiful she was. For she was lovely to look at.
Esther 1:12  But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command, given through his officers. So the king was very angry, and his anger burned inside him.
Esther 1:13  Then the king spoke to the wise men who understood the times. This was the king's way with all who knew law and judgment.
Esther 1:14  Those closest to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media. They saw the king's face and held the highest places in the kingdom.
Esther 1:15  "What shall we do to Queen Vashti according to the law, because she has not obeyed the command of King Ahasuerus given through the officers?"
Esther 1:16  Memucan answered before the king and the princes, "Queen Vashti has done wrong not only to the king, but also to all the princes and to all the people in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus."
Esther 1:17  "For what the queen has done will become known to all women. They will look down on their husbands, when it is reported that King Ahasuerus commanded Queen Vashti to be brought in before him, but she did not come."
Esther 1:18  "This very day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard what the queen did will say the same to all the king's princes. So there will be no end of contempt and anger."
Esther 1:19  "If it pleases the king, let a royal command go out from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, so that it cannot be changed: that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus, and that the king give her royal place to another woman who is better than she."
Esther 1:20  "When the king's decree is announced through all his empire, great as it is, all the wives will give honour to their husbands, both great and small."
Esther 1:21  The king and the princes were pleased with this advice, and the king did what Memucan had said.
Esther 1:22  He sent letters into all the king's provinces, to each province in its own writing, and to each people in their own language. They said that every man should rule in his own house, and that this should be announced in the language of each people.

Esther 2:1  After these things, when king Ahasuerus was no longer angry, he remembered Vashti, and what she had done, and what had been decreed against her.
Esther 2:2  Then the king's servants who waited on him said, "Let beautiful young virgins be searched out for the king."
Esther 2:3  Let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom, to gather all the beautiful young virgins to the palace at Shushan, to the house of the women, into the care of Hege, the king's officer who keeps the women. And let them be given what they need to make themselves clean and sweet.
Esther 2:4  "Then let the girl who pleases the king be queen instead of Vashti." This advice pleased the king, and he did so.
Esther 2:5  Now in the palace at Shushan there was a Jew named Mordecai. He was the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a Benjamite.
Esther 2:6  He had been carried away from Jerusalem among the captives taken with Jeconiah king of Judah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away.
Esther 2:7  He had brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter, because she had neither father nor mother. The girl was lovely and beautiful. When her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter.
Esther 2:8  So when the king's command and his decree were heard, and many girls were gathered to the palace at Shushan into the care of Hegai, Esther also was brought to the king's house, into the care of Hegai, who kept the women.
Esther 2:9  The girl pleased him, and she won his kindness. He quickly gave her what she needed to make herself clean and sweet, and her portions of food, and seven chosen maids from the king's house. He moved her and her maids to the best place in the house of the women.
Esther 2:10  Esther had not told anyone her people or her family, for Mordecai had ordered her not to tell it.
Esther 2:11  Every day Mordecai walked in front of the court of the women's house, to learn how Esther was and what would happen to her.
Esther 2:12  Now each girl had her turn to go in to king Ahasuerus. Before that she spent twelve months being prepared, as the rule for the women was. That was how the days of their preparing were filled: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet perfumes and other things for making the women clean and sweet.
Esther 2:13  This is how each girl went in to the king: whatever she asked for was given to her to take with her from the house of the women to the king's house.
Esther 2:14  In the evening she went in, and in the morning she returned to the second house of the women, into the care of Shaashgaz, the king's officer who kept the concubines. She did not go in to the king again unless the king delighted in her and called for her by name.
Esther 2:15  Now the turn came for Esther to go in to the king. She was the daughter of Abihail, the uncle of Mordecai, who had taken her as his daughter. She asked for nothing except what Hegai, the king's officer who kept the women, told her to take. And Esther won the favour of everyone who saw her.
Esther 2:16  So Esther was taken to king Ahasuerus, into his royal house, in the tenth month, which is the month Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign.
Esther 2:17  The king loved Esther more than all the other women. She won grace and favour in his sight more than all the virgins. So he set the royal crown on her head, and made her queen instead of Vashti.
Esther 2:18  Then the king made a great feast for all his princes and his servants, Esther's feast. He gave the provinces a rest from their burdens, and gave gifts, as only a king can.
Esther 2:19  When the virgins were gathered together a second time, Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate.
Esther 2:20  Esther had still not told her family or her people, as Mordecai had ordered her. Esther obeyed Mordecai's word, just as she had when she was brought up by him.
Esther 2:21  In those days, while Mordecai was sitting at the king's gate, two of the king's officers, Bigthan and Teresh, who kept the door, became angry. They planned to lay hands on king Ahasuerus.
Esther 2:22  Mordecai came to know about it, and he told Esther the queen. Esther told the king, in Mordecai's name.
Esther 2:23  The matter was looked into and found to be true. So the two men were both hanged on a tree, and it was written in the book of the chronicles in front of the king.

Esther 3:1  After these things king Ahasuerus promoted Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite. He raised him up, and set his seat above all the princes who were with him.
Esther 3:2  All the king's servants who were at the king's gate bowed down and honoured Haman, for the king had commanded this about him. But Mordecai would not bow down, and would not honour him.
Esther 3:3  Then the king's servants who were at the king's gate said to Mordecai, "Why do you break the king's command?"
Esther 3:4  They spoke to him day after day, but he would not listen to them. So they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's stand would hold, for he had told them that he was a Jew.
Esther 3:5  When Haman saw that Mordecai would not bow down or honour him, Haman was filled with anger.
Esther 3:6  But he thought it beneath him to lay hands on Mordecai alone, for they had told him who Mordecai's people were. So Haman looked for a way to destroy all the Jews in the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, the people of Mordecai.
Esther 3:7  In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman. They cast it from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.
Esther 3:8  Then Haman said to king Ahasuerus, "There is a certain people scattered and spread out among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. Their laws are different from those of every other people, and they do not keep the king's laws. So it does the king no good to let them remain."
Esther 3:9  "If it pleases the king, let an order be written that they be destroyed. And I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who manage the king's business, to bring it into the king's treasuries."
Esther 3:10  So the king took his ring off his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.
Esther 3:11  The king said to Haman, "The silver is given to you, and the people also, to do with them whatever seems good to you."
Esther 3:12  Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month. They wrote down everything Haman commanded. It went to the king's officers, and to the governors over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province, in the writing of each province and in the language of each people. It was written in the name of king Ahasuerus, and sealed with the king's ring.
Esther 3:13  The letters were sent by messengers into all the king's provinces. They ordered that all Jews were to be destroyed, killed and wiped out, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and that their goods were to be taken as plunder.
Esther 3:14  A copy of the writing was to be given out as a law in every province, and made known to all peoples, so that they would be ready for that day.
Esther 3:15  The messengers went out in haste at the king's command, and the decree was given out in Shushan the palace. Then the king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Shushan was bewildered.

Esther 4:1  When Mordecai learned all that had been done, he tore his clothes. He put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, crying out loudly and bitterly.
Esther 4:2  He came as far as the king's gate, for no one might enter the king's gate dressed in sackcloth.
Esther 4:3  In every province, wherever the king's command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
Esther 4:4  So Esther's maids and her servants came and told her. Then the queen was deeply distressed. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear, so that he would take off his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.
Esther 4:5  Then Esther called for Hatach, one of the king's servants, whom the king had appointed to wait on her. She ordered him to go to Mordecai to find out what this was and why it was.
Esther 4:6  So Hatach went out to Mordecai, to the city square in front of the king's gate.
Esther 4:7  Mordecai told him everything that had happened to him. He told him the exact amount of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries for the destruction of the Jews.
Esther 4:8  He also gave him a copy of the written decree that had been given out in Shushan to destroy them. He was to show it to Esther, and explain it to her, and tell her to go in to the king to beg him for mercy and to plead with him for her people.
Esther 4:9  Hatach came and told Esther what Mordecai had said.
Esther 4:10  Then Esther spoke to Hatach again, and gave him this message for Mordecai:
Esther 4:11  "All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces know this: if any man or woman goes in to the king in the inner court without being called, there is one law for them, that they be put to death. Only the one to whom the king holds out the golden sceptre may live. And I have not been called to come in to the king for thirty days now."
Esther 4:12  So they told Mordecai what Esther had said.
Esther 4:13  Then Mordecai told them to give Esther this answer: "Do not imagine that because you are in the king's house you alone of all the Jews will escape."
Esther 4:14  "For if you say nothing at all at this time, then help and rescue will come to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's family will be destroyed. And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for a time like this?"
Esther 4:15  Then Esther told them to take Mordecai this answer:
Esther 4:16  "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Shushan, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast in the same way. Then I will go in to the king, though it is against the law. And if I die, I die."
Esther 4:17  So Mordecai went away and did everything Esther had commanded him.

Esther 5:1  On the third day Esther put on her royal robes. She stood in the inner court of the king's house, facing the king's house. The king was sitting on his royal throne in the royal house, facing the entrance of the house.
Esther 5:2  When the king saw Esther the queen standing in the court, she found favour in his eyes. The king held out to Esther the golden sceptre that was in his hand. So Esther came near and touched the top of the sceptre.
Esther 5:3  Then the king said to her, "What do you want, queen Esther? What is your request? It will be given to you, even up to half the kingdom."
Esther 5:4  Esther answered, "If it seems good to the king, let the king and Haman come today to the banquet that I have prepared for him."
Esther 5:5  Then the king said, "Tell Haman to hurry, so that we may do as Esther has said." So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared.
Esther 5:6  At the banquet of wine the king said to Esther, "What is your petition? It will be granted to you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom, it will be done."
Esther 5:7  Then Esther answered and said, "My petition and my request is this:"
Esther 5:8  "If I have found favour in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to do what I ask, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them. Tomorrow I will do as the king has said."
Esther 5:9  That day Haman went out joyful and glad in heart. But when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, and saw that he did not stand up or move for him, he was filled with anger against Mordecai.
Esther 5:10  Even so, Haman held himself back. When he came home, he sent for his friends and Zeresh his wife.
Esther 5:11  Haman told them about the glory of his riches, and how many children he had, and all the ways the king had promoted him, and how the king had raised him above the princes and servants of the king.
Esther 5:12  Haman said also, "What is more, queen Esther let no one but me come in with the king to the banquet that she had prepared. And tomorrow I am invited to her house again, with the king."
Esther 5:13  "Yet all this is worth nothing to me, as long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate."
Esther 5:14  Then Zeresh his wife and all his friends said to him, "Let a gallows be made, fifty cubits high. In the morning speak to the king, so that Mordecai may be hanged on it. Then go in merrily with the king to the banquet." The idea pleased Haman, and he had the gallows made.

Esther 6:1  That night the king could not sleep. So he ordered the book of records, the chronicles, to be brought, and they were read to the king.
Esther 6:2  There it was found written that Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's officers who guarded the door. They had planned to lay hands on King Ahasuerus.
Esther 6:3  The king said, "What honour and reward has Mordecai been given for this?" The king's servants who waited on him said, "Nothing has been done for him."
Esther 6:4  The king said, "Who is in the court?" Now Haman had just come into the outer court of the king's house, to speak to the king about hanging Mordecai on the gallows he had made ready for him.
Esther 6:5  The king's servants said to him, "Look, Haman is standing in the court." The king said, "Let him come in."
Esther 6:6  So Haman came in. The king said to him, "What should be done for the man the king delights to honour?" Now Haman thought to himself, "Who would the king delight to honour more than me?"
Esther 6:7  So Haman answered the king, "For the man the king delights to honour,"
Esther 6:8  let them bring the royal robes that the king himself wears, and the horse that the king rides on, and the royal crown that is set on its head.
Esther 6:9  "Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king's most noble princes. Let them dress the man the king delights to honour, and lead him on horseback through the street of the city, and call out before him, 'This is what is done for the man the king delights to honour.'"
Esther 6:10  Then the king said to Haman, "Hurry, take the robes and the horse, as you have said, and do all this for Mordecai the Jew, who sits at the king's gate. Let nothing be left out of all that you have said."
Esther 6:11  So Haman took the robes and the horse. He dressed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the street of the city, and called out before him, "This is what is done for the man the king delights to honour."
Esther 6:12  Then Mordecai came back to the king's gate. But Haman hurried to his house, mourning, with his head covered.
Esther 6:13  Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends everything that had happened to him. Then his wise men and Zeresh his wife said to him, "If Mordecai is of the seed of the Jews, and you have begun to fall before him, you will not win against him. You will surely fall before him."
Esther 6:14  While they were still talking with him, the king's officers arrived and hurried Haman away to the banquet that Esther had prepared.

Esther 7:1  So the king and Haman came to feast with Esther the queen.
Esther 7:2  On this second day, at the banquet of wine, the king said to Esther again, "What is your petition, queen Esther? It will be granted to you. What is your request? It will be done, even if it is half of the kingdom."
Esther 7:3  Then Esther the queen answered, "If I have found favour in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given to me at my petition, and my people at my request."
Esther 7:4  "For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be killed, and to perish. If we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have kept quiet, although the enemy could not make up for the king's loss."
Esther 7:5  Then king Ahasuerus said to Esther the queen, "Who is he, and where is he, who dared to plan in his heart to do such a thing?"
Esther 7:6  Esther said, "The foe and enemy is this wicked Haman." Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
Esther 7:7  The king got up from the banquet of wine in his anger and went into the palace garden. Haman stood up to beg queen Esther for his life, for he saw that the king had decided to bring evil on him.
Esther 7:8  Then the king came back from the palace garden into the place of the banquet of wine. Haman had fallen on the couch where Esther was. Then the king said, "Will he force the queen too, here in the house with me?" As the word went out of the king's mouth, they covered Haman's face.
Esther 7:9  And Harbonah, one of the officers, said before the king, "Look, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman's house." Then the king said, "Hang him on it."
Esther 7:10  So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king's anger was calmed.

Esther 8:1  That same day King Ahasuerus gave the house of Haman, the enemy of the Jews, to Queen Esther. And Mordecai came before the king, for Esther had told him how Mordecai was related to her.
Esther 8:2  The king took off his ring, which he had taken back from Haman, and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther put Mordecai in charge of the house of Haman.
Esther 8:3  Esther spoke to the king again. She fell down at his feet and begged him with tears to stop the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, the scheme he had made against the Jews.
Esther 8:4  Then the king held out the golden sceptre toward Esther. So Esther got up and stood before the king.
Esther 8:5  She said, "If it pleases the king, and if I have found favour with him, and if the thing seems right to the king, and if I am pleasing in his eyes, let an order be written to cancel the letters planned by Haman son of Hammedatha the Agagite. He wrote them to destroy the Jews who are in all the king's provinces."
Esther 8:6  "For how can I bear to see the evil that will come on my people? How can I bear to see the destruction of my family?"
Esther 8:7  Then King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Look, I have given Esther the house of Haman, and they have hanged him on the gallows, because he laid his hand on the Jews."
Esther 8:8  "Now you write about the Jews as you please, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's ring. For no one can cancel a writing that is written in the king's name and sealed with the king's ring."
Esther 8:9  So the king's scribes were called at that time, in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the twenty-third day of it. All that Mordecai commanded was written to the Jews, and to the officers, and the governors and rulers of the provinces from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces. It was written to every province in its own writing, and to every people in their own language, and to the Jews in their writing and their language.
Esther 8:10  He wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, and sealed it with the king's ring, and sent the letters by messengers on horseback, riding on mules, camels, and young dromedaries.
Esther 8:11  In these letters the king allowed the Jews who were in every city to gather together and to defend their lives. They were to destroy, to kill, and to wipe out all the forces of any people or province that attacked them, including little ones and women, and to take their goods as plunder,
Esther 8:12  on one day in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, that is, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar.
Esther 8:13  A copy of the writing was to be given as a law in every province, and was made known to all peoples, so that the Jews would be ready on that day to take revenge on their enemies.
Esther 8:14  So the messengers who rode on mules and camels went out, hurried and pressed on by the king's command. And the decree was given out in Shushan the palace.
Esther 8:15  Mordecai went out from the king's presence in royal clothes of blue and white, with a great crown of gold, and with a robe of fine linen and purple. And the city of Shushan shouted and was glad.
Esther 8:16  The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy, and honour.
Esther 8:17  In every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a happy day. And many of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

Esther 9:1  In the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar, on the thirteenth day of that month, the king's command and his decree were about to be carried out. It was the day when the enemies of the Jews hoped to have power over them. But it turned out the other way round: the Jews had power over those who hated them.
Esther 9:2  The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to attack those who wanted to harm them. No one could stand against them, for the fear of them fell on all the peoples.
Esther 9:3  All the rulers of the provinces, and the governors, and the deputies, and the king's officers helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai had fallen on them.
Esther 9:4  For Mordecai was great in the king's house, and his fame spread through all the provinces. This man Mordecai grew greater and greater.
Esther 9:5  So the Jews struck all their enemies with the sword. They killed and destroyed, and did as they pleased to those who hated them.
Esther 9:6  In Shushan the palace the Jews killed and destroyed five hundred men.
Esther 9:7  They also killed Parshandatha, and Dalphon, and Aspatha,
Esther 9:8  and Poratha, and Adalia, and Aridatha,
Esther 9:9  and Parmashta, and Arisai, and Aridai, and Vajezatha,
Esther 9:10  the ten sons of Haman the son of Hammedatha, the enemy of the Jews. But they did not lay a hand on the goods they could have taken.
Esther 9:11  On that day the number of those killed in Shushan the palace was reported to the king.
Esther 9:12  The king said to Esther the queen, "The Jews have killed and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the palace, and the ten sons of Haman. What have they done in the rest of the king's provinces? Now what do you ask for? It will be given to you. What more do you request? It will be done."
Esther 9:13  Then Esther said, "If it pleases the king, let the Jews in Shushan be allowed to do tomorrow also what this day's decree allowed. And let Haman's ten sons be hanged on the gallows."
Esther 9:14  The king commanded that this be done. The decree was given at Shushan, and they hanged Haman's ten sons.
Esther 9:15  The Jews in Shushan gathered together on the fourteenth day of the month Adar as well, and killed three hundred men at Shushan. But they did not lay a hand on the goods they could have taken.
Esther 9:16  The other Jews in the king's provinces gathered together and defended their lives. They had rest from their enemies, and killed seventy-five thousand of those who hated them. But they did not lay their hands on the goods they could have taken.
Esther 9:17  This was on the thirteenth day of the month Adar. On the fourteenth day of the same month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
Esther 9:18  But the Jews at Shushan gathered together on the thirteenth day and on the fourteenth day. On the fifteenth day of the same month they rested, and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
Esther 9:19  That is why the Jews of the countryside, who lived in towns without walls, made the fourteenth day of the month Adar a day of gladness and feasting, a good day, when they send food to one another.
Esther 9:20  Mordecai wrote these things down, and sent letters to all the Jews in all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
Esther 9:21  telling them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and the fifteenth day of the same month every year.
Esther 9:22  These were the days when the Jews got rest from their enemies. This was the month that was turned for them from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into a good day. They were to make them days of feasting and joy, of sending food to one another, and gifts to the poor.
Esther 9:23  So the Jews agreed to go on doing what they had begun, and what Mordecai had written to them.
Esther 9:24  For Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the enemy of all the Jews, had plotted against the Jews to destroy them. He had cast Pur, that is, the lot, to crush them and destroy them.
Esther 9:25  But when Esther came before the king, he commanded by letters that Haman's wicked plot, which he had planned against the Jews, should come back on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.
Esther 9:26  That is why they called these days Purim, after the name Pur. So because of all the words of this letter, and because of what they had seen about this matter, and what had happened to them,
Esther 9:27  the Jews made a rule, and took it on themselves, and on their children, and on all who joined themselves to them, that it should not fail: they would keep these two days as it was written, at the appointed time, every year.
Esther 9:28  These days were to be remembered and kept in every generation, by every family, in every province, and in every city. These days of Purim were not to be lost among the Jews, and the memory of them was not to die out among their children.
Esther 9:29  Then Esther the queen, the daughter of Abihail, and Mordecai the Jew, wrote with full authority to confirm this second letter about Purim.
Esther 9:30  He sent the letters to all the Jews, to the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, with words of peace and truth,
Esther 9:31  to confirm these days of Purim at their appointed times, just as Mordecai the Jew and Esther the queen had commanded them, and as they had decided for themselves and for their children, about the fasting and their crying out.
Esther 9:32  The decree of Esther confirmed these matters of Purim, and it was written in the book.

Esther 10:1  King Ahasuerus laid a tax on the land, and on the islands of the sea.
Esther 10:2  All that he did by his power and his might, and the full account of the greatness of Mordecai, whom the king raised to high honour, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Media and Persia?
Esther 10:3  For Mordecai the Jew was second only to King Ahasuerus. He was great among the Jews, and well liked by the multitude of his brothers and sisters. He sought the good of his people, and he spoke peace to all his descendants.

Job

Job 1:1  There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright. He feared God and turned away from evil.
Job 1:2  He had seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3  He also owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred female donkeys, and he had a very great household. So this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
Job 1:4  His sons used to go and hold a feast in their houses, each one on his own day. They would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Job 1:5  When the days of their feasting were over, Job would send for them and make them holy. He would get up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings, one for each of them. For Job said, "It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Job did this all the time.
Job 1:6  Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came among them too.
Job 1:7  The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Then Satan answered the LORD, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down in it."
Job 1:8  The LORD said to Satan, "Have you thought about my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth. He is a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil."
Job 1:9  Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing?"
Job 1:10  Have you not put a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his flocks and herds have spread through the land.
Job 1:11  "But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face."
Job 1:12  The LORD said to Satan, "Look, all that he has is in your power. Only do not stretch out your hand against the man himself." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.
Job 1:13  There was a day when Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house.
Job 1:14  A messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys were feeding beside them."
Job 1:15  "The Sabeans attacked them and carried them off. They killed the servants with the sword. I am the only one who escaped to tell you."
Job 1:16  While he was still speaking, another came and said, "The fire of God has fallen from heaven. It has burned up the sheep and the servants, and destroyed them. I am the only one who escaped to tell you."
Job 1:17  While he was still speaking, another came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands. They swept down on the camels and carried them off, and they killed the servants with the sword. I am the only one who escaped to tell you."
Job 1:18  While he was still speaking, another came and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house."
Job 1:19  "Look, a great wind came from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It fell on the young men, and they are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you."
Job 1:20  Then Job stood up and tore his robe and shaved his head. He fell down on the ground and worshipped.
Job 1:21  He said, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked I will return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
Job 1:22  In all this Job did not sin, and he did not blame God foolishly.

Job 2:1  Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD. Satan came among them too, to present himself before the LORD.
Job 2:2  The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From going here and there on the earth, and from walking up and down in it."
Job 2:3  The LORD said to Satan, "Have you thought about my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth. He is a perfect and upright man, one who fears God and turns away from evil. He still holds fast to his integrity, although you stirred me up against him, to destroy him without cause."
Job 2:4  Satan answered the LORD, "Skin for skin. Yes, a man will give all that he has for his life."
Job 2:5  "But stretch out your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face."
Job 2:6  The LORD said to Satan, "Look, he is in your hand. Only spare his life."
Job 2:7  So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. He struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.
Job 2:8  Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself with, and he sat down among the ashes.
Job 2:9  Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold on to your integrity? Curse God, and die."
Job 2:10  But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. What? Shall we receive good from the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job 2:11  Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They had agreed together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
Job 2:12  When they lifted up their eyes from far off, they did not know him. They lifted up their voices and wept. Each one tore his robe, and they threw dust on their heads toward heaven.
Job 2:13  So they sat down with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. No one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.

Job 3:1  After this Job opened his mouth, and cursed the day he was born.
Job 3:2  Job spoke, and said:
Job 3:3  "Let the day I was born be destroyed, and the night which said, 'A boy is conceived.'"
Job 3:4  "Let that day be darkness. Let God above not care about it, and let no light shine on it."
Job 3:5  "Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it. Let a cloud settle on it. Let the blackness of the day terrify it."
Job 3:6  "As for that night, let darkness seize it. Let it not be joined to the days of the year. Let it not come into the number of the months."
Job 3:7  "Look, let that night be empty and alone. Let no joyful voice come into it."
Job 3:8  "Let those curse it who curse the day, who are ready to stir up their mourning."
Job 3:9  "Let the stars of its twilight be dark. Let it look for light, but have none. Let it not see the first rays of the dawn."
Job 3:10  "For it did not shut the doors of my mother's womb, nor hide sorrow from my eyes."
Job 3:11  "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not breathe my last when I came out of the womb?"
Job 3:12  "Why did the knees receive me? Why were there breasts for me to drink from?"
Job 3:13  "For by now I would have lain still and been quiet. I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,"
Job 3:14  "with kings and counsellors of the earth, who built ruined places for themselves,"
Job 3:15  "or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver."
Job 3:16  "Or I would not exist, like a hidden child born too soon, like infants who never saw light."
Job 3:17  "There the wicked stop their troubling, and there the weary are at rest."
Job 3:18  "There the prisoners rest together. They do not hear the voice of the one who oppresses them."
Job 3:19  "The small and the great are there, and the servant is free from his master."
Job 3:20  "Why is light given to the one who is in misery, and life to those who are bitter in soul?"
Job 3:21  "They long for death, but it does not come. They dig for it more than for hidden treasure."
Job 3:22  "They rejoice greatly, and are glad, when they can find the grave."
Job 3:23  "Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has fenced in?"
Job 3:24  "My sighing comes before I eat, and my groans pour out like water."
Job 3:25  "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I was afraid of has come to me."
Job 3:26  "I was not safe, I had no rest, I was not quiet; yet trouble came."

Job 4:1  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said,
Job 4:2  "If we try to speak with you, will you be upset? But who can hold himself back from speaking?"
Job 4:3  "Look, you have taught many people, and you have strengthened weak hands."
Job 4:4  "Your words have held up the one who was falling, and you have strengthened knees that gave way."
Job 4:5  "But now trouble has come upon you, and you grow faint. It touches you, and you are dismayed."
Job 4:6  "Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the honesty of your ways your hope?"
Job 4:7  "Remember, please: who ever died while he was innocent? Where were the righteous ever cut off?"
Job 4:8  "As I have seen, those who plow evil and sow trouble reap the same."
Job 4:9  "By the blast of God they die, and by the breath of his nostrils they are destroyed."
Job 4:10  "The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions are broken."
Job 4:11  "The old lion dies for lack of prey, and the cubs of the strong lioness are scattered."
Job 4:12  "Now a word was brought to me in secret, and my ear caught a little of it."
Job 4:13  "In troubled thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people,"
Job 4:14  "fear came over me, and trembling, which made all my bones shake."
Job 4:15  "Then a spirit passed before my face, and the hair of my body stood up."
Job 4:16  "It stood still, but I could not make out its form. A shape was before my eyes. There was silence, and I heard a voice saying,"
Job 4:17  "'Shall a mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?"
Job 4:18  "'Look, he puts no trust in his servants, and he charges his angels with folly."
Job 4:19  "'How much less those who live in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth."
Job 4:20  "'They are destroyed from morning to evening. They perish for ever, and no one pays attention."
Job 4:21  "'Does not their excellence within them go away? They die, and even without wisdom.'"

Job 5:1  Call now, if there is anyone who will answer you. To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Job 5:2  For anger kills the foolish man, and envy slays the simple one.
Job 5:3  I have seen the foolish taking root, but suddenly I cursed his home.
Job 5:4  His children are far from safety. They are crushed in the gate, and there is no one to rescue them.
Job 5:5  The hungry eat up his harvest, and take it even out of the thorns, and the robber swallows up their wealth.
Job 5:6  Yet suffering does not come out of the dust, and trouble does not spring up out of the ground.
Job 5:7  But man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Job 5:8  I would seek God, and to God I would commit my cause.
Job 5:9  He does great things that cannot be searched out, and wonderful things without number.
Job 5:10  He gives rain on the earth, and sends water on the fields.
Job 5:11  He sets up on high those who are low, so that those who mourn are lifted up to safety.
Job 5:12  He ruins the plans of the crafty, so that their hands cannot carry out what they set out to do.
Job 5:13  He catches the wise in their own cunning, and the plan of the stubborn is swept away.
Job 5:14  They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noon as if it were night.
Job 5:15  But he saves the poor from the sword, from their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
Job 5:16  So the poor have hope, and evil shuts her mouth.
Job 5:17  Look, happy is the man whom God corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.
Job 5:18  For he wounds, and he binds up. He injures, and his hands make whole.
Job 5:19  He will deliver you in six troubles. Yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
Job 5:20  In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.
Job 5:21  You will be hidden from the whip of the tongue, and you will not be afraid of destruction when it comes.
Job 5:22  At destruction and famine you will laugh, and you will not be afraid of the wild animals of the earth.
Job 5:23  For you will be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.
Job 5:24  You will know that your tent is at peace. You will look over your home, and miss nothing.
Job 5:25  You will know also that your children will be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth.
Job 5:26  You will come to your grave in full old age, like a sheaf of grain gathered in its season.
Job 5:27  Look, we have searched this out, and so it is. Hear it, and know it for your own good.

Job 6:1  But Job answered and said,
Job 6:2  "Oh that my grief could be fully weighed, and my trouble laid in the scales with it!"
Job 6:3  For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. That is why my words are swallowed up.
Job 6:4  For the arrows of the Almighty are in me; their poison drinks up my spirit. The terrors of God are lined up against me.
Job 6:5  Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass? Does the ox low over its fodder?
Job 6:6  Can food without flavour be eaten without salt? Is there any taste in the white of an egg?
Job 6:7  The things my soul refused to touch are now my sorrowful food.
Job 6:8  Oh that I might have what I ask for, and that God would grant me the thing I long for!
Job 6:9  Even this: that God would be willing to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off.
Job 6:10  Then I would still have comfort. Yes, I would harden myself in my pain. Let him not spare me, for I have not hidden the words of the Holy One.
Job 6:11  What is my strength, that I should hope? What is my end, that I should make my life last longer?
Job 6:12  Is my strength the strength of stones? Is my flesh made of bronze?
Job 6:13  Is my help not in me? Has wisdom been driven right away from me?
Job 6:14  A man who is suffering should be shown pity by his friend; but he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.
Job 6:15  My brothers have dealt falsely with me, like a brook, like streams that flow away.
Job 6:16  They are dark with ice, and the snow is hidden in them.
Job 6:17  When they grow warm, they vanish. When it is hot, they are gone from their place.
Job 6:18  The paths of their course turn aside; they go off into nothing and perish.
Job 6:19  The travelling companies of Tema looked for them; the caravans of Sheba waited for them.
Job 6:20  They were dismayed because they had hoped; they came there, and were put to shame.
Job 6:21  For now you are nothing. You see my ruin, and you are afraid.
Job 6:22  Did I say, 'Bring something to me'? Or, 'Give a gift for me out of your wealth'?
Job 6:23  Or, 'Rescue me from the enemy's hand'? Or, 'Set me free from the hand of the mighty'?
Job 6:24  Teach me, and I will hold my tongue. Make me understand where I have gone wrong.
Job 6:25  How strong are honest words! But what does your arguing prove?
Job 6:26  Do you plan to correct my words, and treat the speech of a desperate man as wind?
Job 6:27  Yes, you would cast lots over the fatherless, and dig a pit for your friend.
Job 6:28  So now be willing to look at me, for I would not lie to your face.
Job 6:29  Turn back, I beg you; let there be no injustice. Yes, turn back again; my righteousness still stands.
Job 6:30  "Is there injustice on my tongue? Can my taste not tell what is wrong?"

Job 7:1  Is there not a set time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days like the days of a hired worker?
Job 7:2  Like a servant who longs for the shade, and like a hired worker who waits for his pay,
Job 7:3  so I have been given months of emptiness, and nights of misery have been counted out to me.
Job 7:4  When I lie down, I say, "When will I get up, and when will the night be over?" I toss from side to side until the day dawns.
Job 7:5  My body is covered with worms and lumps of dust. My skin is cracked, and it is disgusting.
Job 7:6  My days go faster than a weaver's shuttle, and they come to an end without hope.
Job 7:7  Remember that my life is only a breath of wind. My eye will never see good again.
Job 7:8  The eye that has seen me will see me no more. Your eyes will look for me, and I will not be there.
Job 7:9  As a cloud fades and disappears, so the one who goes down to the grave comes up no more.
Job 7:10  He will never return to his house, and his place will know him no more.
Job 7:11  So I will not hold back my mouth. I will speak out of the anguish of my spirit. I will complain out of the bitterness of my soul.
Job 7:12  Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you set a guard over me?
Job 7:13  When I say, "My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,"
Job 7:14  then you frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
Job 7:15  so that I would rather be strangled and die than go on living in this body.
Job 7:16  I hate my life. I do not want to live for ever. Leave me alone, for my days are empty.
Job 7:17  What is man, that you make so much of him? Why do you set your heart on him?
Job 7:18  Why do you come to him every morning, and test him every moment?
Job 7:19  How long will it be before you look away from me, and leave me alone long enough to swallow my spit?
Job 7:20  I have sinned. What can I do to you, you watcher of people? Why have you made me your target, so that I am a burden to myself?
Job 7:21  Why do you not pardon my wrongdoing and take away my sin? For soon I will lie down in the dust. You will look for me in the morning, but I will not be there.

Job 8:1  Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
Job 8:2  "How long will you speak like this? How long will the words of your mouth be like a strong wind?"
Job 8:3  "Does God twist judgment? Does the Almighty twist justice?"
Job 8:4  "If your children have sinned against him, then he has cast them away for their wrongdoing."
Job 8:5  "But if you would seek God early, and make your prayer to the Almighty,"
Job 8:6  "if you were pure and upright, then surely he would rouse himself for you, and make the home of your righteousness prosper."
Job 8:7  "Though your beginning was small, your end would grow very great."
Job 8:8  "Ask, I beg you, about the age that has gone, and be ready to search out what their fathers learned."
Job 8:9  "(For we are only of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow.)"
Job 8:10  "Will they not teach you, and tell you, and speak words out of their heart?"
Job 8:11  "Can the reed grow up without mud? Can the rushes grow without water?"
Job 8:12  "While it is still green, and not cut down, it dries up before any other plant."
Job 8:13  "So it is with the paths of all who forget God. The hope of the hypocrite will perish."
Job 8:14  "His hope will be cut off, and what he trusts in is a spider's web."
Job 8:15  "He will lean on his house, but it will not stand. He will hold it tight, but it will not last."
Job 8:16  "He is green in the sunlight, and his branch shoots out in his garden."
Job 8:17  "His roots are wrapped around the heap of stones, and he looks for a place among the stones."
Job 8:18  "If God destroys him from his place, then it will deny him, saying, 'I have never seen you.'"
Job 8:19  "Look, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth others will grow."
Job 8:20  "Look, God will not cast away a blameless man, and he will not help the evildoers,"
Job 8:21  "until he fills your mouth with laughing, and your lips with shouts of joy."
Job 8:22  "Those who hate you will be clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked will come to nothing."

Job 9:1  Then Job answered:
Job 9:2  "I know that this is true. But how can a person be right before God?"
Job 9:3  "If someone wanted to argue with him, he could not answer him one time in a thousand."
Job 9:4  "He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against him and come out well?"
Job 9:5  "He moves the mountains, and they do not know it; he overturns them in his anger."
Job 9:6  "He shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble."
Job 9:7  "He commands the sun, and it does not rise; he seals up the stars."
Job 9:8  "He alone spreads out the heavens, and walks on the waves of the sea."
Job 9:9  "He made Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south."
Job 9:10  "He does great things that cannot be searched out, and wonders without number."
Job 9:11  "Look, he goes past me, and I do not see him; he moves on, but I do not notice him."
Job 9:12  "Look, he takes away. Who can stop him? Who will say to him, 'What are you doing?'"
Job 9:13  "If God will not turn back his anger, the proud helpers bow low under him."
Job 9:14  "How much less can I answer him, or choose my words to argue with him?"
Job 9:15  "Even if I were righteous, I would not answer him. I would beg my judge for mercy."
Job 9:16  "If I had called and he had answered me, I still would not believe that he had listened to my voice."
Job 9:17  "For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause."
Job 9:18  "He will not let me catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness."
Job 9:19  "If it is a matter of strength, look, he is strong. If of judgment, who will set me a time to plead?"
Job 9:20  "If I say I am right, my own mouth would condemn me. If I say, 'I am perfect,' it would prove me crooked."
Job 9:21  "Though I were perfect, I would not know my own soul. I would despise my life."
Job 9:22  "This is one thing, and so I said it: 'He destroys the perfect and the wicked.'"
Job 9:23  "If the whip kills suddenly, he laughs at the trial of the innocent."
Job 9:24  "The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it is not he, then where is he, and who is he?"
Job 9:25  "Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away; they see no good."
Job 9:26  "They have passed by like fast ships, like the eagle that rushes down on its prey."
Job 9:27  "If I say, 'I will forget my complaint, I will put away my sad face and cheer myself,'"
Job 9:28  "then I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know that you will not hold me innocent."
Job 9:29  "If I am wicked, why do I labour in vain?"
Job 9:30  "If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean,"
Job 9:31  "yet you will plunge me into the ditch, and my own clothes will hate me."
Job 9:32  "For he is not a man, as I am, that I could answer him, or that we could come together for judgment."
Job 9:33  "There is no one to settle it between us, who might lay his hand on us both."
Job 9:34  "Let him take his rod away from me, and let the fear of him not terrify me."
Job 9:35  "Then I would speak and not fear him; but it is not so with me."

Job 10:1  My soul is weary of my life. I will let my complaint run free; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:2  I will say to God, "Do not condemn me; show me why you fight against me."
Job 10:3  Is it good to you to crush me, to despise the work of your own hands, and to shine on the plans of the wicked?
Job 10:4  Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as a man sees?
Job 10:5  Are your days like the days of a man? Are your years like a man's days,
Job 10:6  that you look into my wrongdoing, and search out my sin?
Job 10:7  You know that I am not wicked, and there is no one who can rescue anyone out of your hand.
Job 10:8  Your hands made me and shaped me, all of me together; yet now you destroy me.
Job 10:9  Remember, I beg you, that you made me like clay. Will you turn me back into dust?
Job 10:10  Did you not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
Job 10:11  You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews.
Job 10:12  You have given me life and favour, and your care has kept my spirit alive.
Job 10:13  Yet these things you hid in your heart. I know that this was your purpose.
Job 10:14  If I sin, then you watch me, and you will not clear me of my wrongdoing.
Job 10:15  If I am wicked, how terrible for me. And if I am righteous, still I will not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; so look at my suffering,
Job 10:16  for it grows greater. You hunt me like a fierce lion, and again you show your terrible power against me.
Job 10:17  You bring fresh witnesses against me, and increase your anger toward me; changes and war come against me.
Job 10:18  Why then did you bring me out of the womb? If only I had died, and no eye had ever seen me.
Job 10:19  I should have been as if I had never been. I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:20  Are not my days few? Stop, then, and leave me alone, so that I may have a little comfort,
Job 10:21  before I go to the place from which I shall not return, to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Job 10:22  a land of gloom, dark as darkness itself, a land of the shadow of death, with no order, where the light is like darkness.

Job 11:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite answered:
Job 11:2  "Should all these words go unanswered? Should a man full of talk be proved right?"
Job 11:3  "Should your lies make men keep silent? When you mock, will no one shame you?"
Job 11:4  "For you have said, 'My teaching is pure, and I am clean in your eyes.'"
Job 11:5  "But if only God would speak, and open his lips against you,"
Job 11:6  "and show you the secrets of wisdom, for they are double to what you think! Know then that God asks of you less than your sin deserves."
Job 11:7  "Can you find out God by searching? Can you find out the Almighty completely?"
Job 11:8  "It is as high as heaven; what can you do? It is deeper than hell; what can you know?"
Job 11:9  "Its measure is longer than the earth, and wider than the sea."
Job 11:10  "If he cuts off, and shuts up, or gathers together, then who can stop him?"
Job 11:11  "For he knows empty men. He sees wickedness too. Will he not then take notice of it?"
Job 11:12  "For an empty man would be wise, though man is born like the colt of a wild donkey."
Job 11:13  "If you make your heart ready, and stretch out your hands to him;"
Job 11:14  "if sin is in your hand, put it far away, and do not let wickedness live in your tents:"
Job 11:15  "then you will lift up your face without any spot. Yes, you will be steady, and will not be afraid."
Job 11:16  "For you will forget your misery. You will remember it only as waters that have flowed away."
Job 11:17  "Your life will be brighter than noonday. You will shine out; you will be like the morning."
Job 11:18  "You will be secure, because there is hope. Yes, you will look around you, and lie down in safety."
Job 11:19  "You will lie down, and no one will make you afraid. Yes, many will beg for your favour."
Job 11:20  "But the eyes of the wicked will fail, and they will not escape. Their hope will be like the last breath of a dying man."

Job 12:1  Then Job answered and said,
Job 12:2  "No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you."
Job 12:3  But I have understanding as well as you. I am not less than you. Who does not know such things as these?
Job 12:4  I am someone mocked by his neighbour, a man who calls on God, and God answers him. The just and upright man is laughed at.
Job 12:5  The man whose feet are ready to slip is like a lamp that is despised in the thoughts of the man who is at ease.
Job 12:6  The tents of robbers do well, and those who provoke God are safe. God brings plenty into their hand.
Job 12:7  But ask the animals now, and they will teach you. Ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.
Job 12:8  Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will tell you.
Job 12:9  Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this?
Job 12:10  In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind.
Job 12:11  Does not the ear test words, as the mouth tastes its food?
Job 12:12  With the old is wisdom, and with length of days is understanding.
Job 12:13  With him is wisdom and strength. He has counsel and understanding.
Job 12:14  Look, he breaks down, and it cannot be built again. He shuts a man in, and there can be no opening.
Job 12:15  Look, he holds back the waters, and they dry up. He sends them out, and they turn the earth over.
Job 12:16  With him is strength and wisdom. The one who is deceived and the one who deceives are his.
Job 12:17  He leads counsellors away stripped, and he makes the judges fools.
Job 12:18  He loosens the bond of kings, and ties a belt around their waists.
Job 12:19  He leads princes away stripped, and overthrows the mighty.
Job 12:20  He takes away the speech of those who are trusted, and takes away the understanding of the old.
Job 12:21  He pours contempt on princes, and weakens the strength of the mighty.
Job 12:22  He uncovers deep things out of the darkness, and brings the shadow of death out into the light.
Job 12:23  He makes nations great, and destroys them. He spreads the nations out, and hems them in again.
Job 12:24  He takes away the heart of the leaders of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a wilderness where there is no way.
Job 12:25  "They feel their way in the dark without light, and he makes them stagger like a drunken man."

Job 13:1  Look, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard it and understood it.
Job 13:2  What you know, I know too. I am not less than you.
Job 13:3  But I would speak to the Almighty. I want to argue my case with God.
Job 13:4  You are makers of lies. You are all doctors who are worth nothing.
Job 13:5  If only you would be completely silent! That would be your wisdom.
Job 13:6  Hear my argument now, and listen to the pleading of my lips.
Job 13:7  Will you speak wickedly for God? Will you talk deceitfully for him?
Job 13:8  Will you show him special favour? Will you argue the case for God?
Job 13:9  Would it be good if he searched you out? Can you mock him as one man mocks another?
Job 13:10  He will surely rebuke you, if you secretly show favour to anyone.
Job 13:11  Will his majesty not make you afraid? Will the dread of him not fall on you?
Job 13:12  Your sayings to remember are like ashes. Your defences are defences of clay.
Job 13:13  Be quiet, and leave me alone, so that I may speak. Then let come on me whatever will come.
Job 13:14  Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand?
Job 13:15  Though he kill me, yet I will trust in him. But I will defend my own ways before him.
Job 13:16  He will also be my salvation, for no hypocrite will come before him.
Job 13:17  Listen carefully to my words, and let your ears hear what I declare.
Job 13:18  Look now, I have set out my case. I know that I will be found right.
Job 13:19  Who is there that will argue against me? For if I keep quiet now, I will die.
Job 13:20  Only do not do two things to me. Then I will not hide myself from you.
Job 13:21  Take your hand far away from me, and do not let the dread of you make me afraid.
Job 13:22  Then call me, and I will answer. Or let me speak, and you answer me.
Job 13:23  How many are my wrongs and my sins? Make me know my rebellion and my sin.
Job 13:24  Why do you hide your face, and treat me as your enemy?
Job 13:25  Will you crush a leaf that is blown about? Will you chase after dry straw?
Job 13:26  For you write bitter things against me, and make me take back the sins of my youth.
Job 13:27  You also put my feet in the stocks, and you watch closely all my paths. You mark the soles of my feet.
Job 13:28  And he wastes away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths.

Job 14:1  Man, born of a woman, has only a few days, and they are full of trouble.
Job 14:2  He comes up like a flower, and is cut down. He runs away like a shadow, and does not stay.
Job 14:3  And do you open your eyes on someone like this? Do you bring me into court with you?
Job 14:4  Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean one? Not one.
Job 14:5  His days are decided. The number of his months is with you. You have set him limits that he cannot cross.
Job 14:6  Turn away from him, so that he may rest, until he has finished his day like a hired worker.
Job 14:7  For there is hope for a tree. If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its young branches will not stop coming.
Job 14:8  Its root may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground,
Job 14:9  yet at the scent of water it will bud, and put out branches like a young plant.
Job 14:10  But man dies, and wastes away. Yes, man breathes his last, and where is he?
Job 14:11  As the waters drain away from the sea, and the river runs low and dries up,
Job 14:12  so man lies down, and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, they will not wake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
Job 14:13  If only you would hide me in the grave, and keep me secret until your anger is past! If only you would set me a time, and remember me!
Job 14:14  If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my appointed time I will wait, until my change comes.
Job 14:15  You will call, and I will answer you. You will long for the work of your hands.
Job 14:16  For now you count my steps. Do you not watch over my sin?
Job 14:17  My wrongdoing is sealed up in a bag, and you sew up my guilt.
Job 14:18  And surely the mountain that falls comes to nothing, and the rock is moved out of its place.
Job 14:19  The waters wear away the stones. You wash away the things that grow out of the dust of the earth. And you destroy the hope of man.
Job 14:20  You overpower him for ever, and he passes away. You change his face, and send him away.
Job 14:21  His sons come to honour, and he does not know it. They are brought low, but he does not see it.
Job 14:22  But his flesh upon him will have pain, and his soul within him will mourn.

Job 15:1  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
Job 15:2  "Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?"
Job 15:3  "Should he argue with useless talk, or with speeches that do no good?"
Job 15:4  "Indeed, you throw off the fear of God, and you hold back prayer before him."
Job 15:5  "For your mouth speaks your sin, and you choose the tongue of the crafty."
Job 15:6  "Your own mouth condemns you, not I. Yes, your own lips speak against you."
Job 15:7  "Are you the first man who was ever born? Were you made before the hills?"
Job 15:8  "Have you listened in on the secret of God? Do you keep wisdom to yourself alone?"
Job 15:9  "What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us?"
Job 15:10  "Among us are gray-haired men and very old men, much older than your father."
Job 15:11  "Are the comforts of God too small for you? Is there some secret thing with you?"
Job 15:12  "Why does your heart carry you away? Why do your eyes flash,"
Job 15:13  "so that you turn your spirit against God, and let such words come out of your mouth?"
Job 15:14  "What is man, that he should be clean? What is one born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"
Job 15:15  "Look, God puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight."
Job 15:16  "How much less is man, who is hateful and filthy, who drinks sin like water."
Job 15:17  "I will show you; listen to me. What I have seen I will tell:"
Job 15:18  "things which wise men have told, passed on from their fathers, and have not hidden;"
Job 15:19  "to them alone the land was given, and no stranger passed among them."
Job 15:20  "The wicked man is in pain all his days. The number of years is hidden from the cruel man."
Job 15:21  "A terrifying sound is in his ears. In time of peace the destroyer comes upon him."
Job 15:22  "He does not believe he will come back out of the darkness, and the sword is waiting for him."
Job 15:23  "He wanders about for bread, saying, 'Where is it?' He knows that the day of darkness is close at hand."
Job 15:24  "Trouble and anguish make him afraid. They overpower him, like a king ready for battle."
Job 15:25  "For he stretches out his hand against God, and makes himself strong against the Almighty."
Job 15:26  "He runs at him, straight at his neck, with the thick bosses of his shields."
Job 15:27  "He has covered his face with his fat, and made rolls of fat on his sides."
Job 15:28  "He lives in ruined cities, in houses where no one lives, which are ready to become heaps of stones."
Job 15:29  "He will not be rich; his wealth will not last; his possessions will not spread over the earth."
Job 15:30  "He will not get away from darkness. The flame will dry up his branches, and by the breath of God's mouth he will go away."
Job 15:31  "Let the one who is deceived not trust in what is empty, for emptiness will be his pay."
Job 15:32  "It will be finished before his time, and his branch will not be green."
Job 15:33  "He will shake off his unripe grapes like a vine, and drop his blossom like an olive tree."
Job 15:34  "For the company of hypocrites will be barren, and fire will burn up the tents of bribery."
Job 15:35  "They conceive trouble and give birth to emptiness, and their belly prepares deceit."

Job 16:1  Then Job answered and said:
Job 16:2  "I have heard many things like this. You are all miserable comforters."
Job 16:3  Will empty words never end? What makes you so bold to answer as you do?
Job 16:4  I also could speak as you do. If you were in my place, I could pile up words against you, and shake my head at you.
Job 16:5  But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the words of my lips would ease your grief.
Job 16:6  Though I speak, my grief is not eased. And though I keep silent, what relief do I get?
Job 16:7  But now he has worn me out. You have left all my company desolate.
Job 16:8  You have filled me with wrinkles, and they are a witness against me. My thin, wasted body rises up and testifies against me.
Job 16:9  He tears me in his anger; he hates me. He grinds his teeth at me. My enemy fixes his sharp eyes on me.
Job 16:10  They have opened their mouths wide at me. They have struck me on the cheek to shame me. They have gathered themselves together against me.
Job 16:11  God has handed me over to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
Job 16:12  I was at ease, but he broke me in pieces. He took me by the neck and shook me to pieces, and set me up as his target.
Job 16:13  His archers surround me. He splits open my inward parts and does not spare. He pours out my gall on the ground.
Job 16:14  He breaks me with wound upon wound. He runs at me like a giant.
Job 16:15  I have sewn sackcloth on my skin, and laid my horn in the dust.
Job 16:16  My face is swollen with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death,
Job 16:17  though there is no injustice in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
Job 16:18  O earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting place.
Job 16:19  Even now, look, my witness is in heaven, and the one who speaks for me is on high.
Job 16:20  My friends scorn me, but my eye pours out tears to God.
Job 16:21  If only someone might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbour.
Job 16:22  "For when a few years have passed, I shall go the way from which I shall not return."

Job 17:1  My breath is foul, my days are put out, the graves are ready for me.
Job 17:2  Are there not mockers with me? Does my eye not keep looking at their taunting?
Job 17:3  Lay down a pledge now; be my security with yourself. Who else is there who will shake hands with me?
Job 17:4  For you have hidden their heart from understanding. So you will not lift them up.
Job 17:5  The man who speaks flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children will fail.
Job 17:6  He has made me a byword among the people. In the past I was like a tabret.
Job 17:7  My eye is dim because of sorrow, and all my limbs are like a shadow.
Job 17:8  Upright men will be astonished at this, and the innocent will stir himself up against the hypocrite.
Job 17:9  The righteous will hold to his way, and the one with clean hands will grow stronger and stronger.
Job 17:10  But as for you all, come back now, come on: for I cannot find one wise man among you.
Job 17:11  My days are gone, my plans are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart.
Job 17:12  They change the night into day. The light, they say, is near when darkness comes.
Job 17:13  If I wait, the grave is my house. I have made my bed in the darkness.
Job 17:14  I have said to decay, "You are my father," and to the worm, "You are my mother and my sister."
Job 17:15  Where then is my hope? As for my hope, who will see it?
Job 17:16  They will go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust.

Job 18:1  Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:
Job 18:2  "How long will it be before you put an end to words? Understand, and then we will speak."
Job 18:3  "Why are we counted as animals, and thought of as filthy in your sight?"
Job 18:4  "He tears himself in his anger. Shall the earth be left empty for you? Shall the rock be moved out of its place?"
Job 18:5  "Yes, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine."
Job 18:6  "The light shall be dark in his tent, and his lamp shall be put out with him."
Job 18:7  "The steps of his strength shall be made narrow, and his own plan shall throw him down."
Job 18:8  "For his own feet lead him into a net, and he walks over a hidden trap."
Job 18:9  "The trap shall take him by the heel, and the robber shall win against him."
Job 18:10  "The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the path."
Job 18:11  "Terrors shall make him afraid on every side, and shall drive him to his feet."
Job 18:12  "His strength shall be worn away by hunger, and destruction shall be ready at his side."
Job 18:13  "It shall eat up the strength of his skin. The firstborn of death shall eat up his strength."
Job 18:14  "What he trusted in shall be torn out of his tent, and it shall bring him to the king of terrors."
Job 18:15  "It shall live in his tent, because it is none of his. Brimstone shall be scattered over his home."
Job 18:16  "His roots shall be dried up below, and above, his branch shall be cut off."
Job 18:17  "The memory of him shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street."
Job 18:18  "He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world."
Job 18:19  "He shall have neither son nor grandson among his people, and no one left in the places where he lived."
Job 18:20  "Those who come after him shall be astonished at his day, as those who went before were filled with fear."
Job 18:21  "Surely such are the homes of the wicked, and this is the place of the one who does not know God."

Job 19:1  Then Job answered and said,
Job 19:2  "How long will you torment me, and break me in pieces with words?"
Job 19:3  "Ten times now you have insulted me. You are not ashamed to treat me as a stranger."
Job 19:4  "And if it is true that I have gone wrong, my mistake is my own concern."
Job 19:5  "If you really will make yourselves great against me, and use my disgrace as an argument against me,"
Job 19:6  "then know this: it is God who has thrown me down, and it is he who has closed his net around me."
Job 19:7  "Look, I cry out that I am wronged, but no one hears me. I call aloud, but there is no justice."
Job 19:8  "He has walled up my road so that I cannot get through. He has put darkness on my paths."
Job 19:9  "He has stripped my glory from me, and taken the crown off my head."
Job 19:10  "He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. He has pulled up my hope like a tree."
Job 19:11  "He has also set his anger burning against me, and he counts me as one of his enemies."
Job 19:12  "His troops come together. They build a road up against me, and camp all around my tent."
Job 19:13  "He has put my brothers far away from me. The people I knew have truly become strangers to me."
Job 19:14  "My relatives have failed me, and my close friends have forgotten me."
Job 19:15  "Those who live in my house, and my servant girls, treat me as a stranger. In their eyes I am a foreigner."
Job 19:16  "I called my servant, and he gave me no answer. I had to beg him with my own mouth."
Job 19:17  "My breath is strange to my wife, though I begged for the sake of my own children."
Job 19:18  "Even young children despised me. When I stood up, they spoke against me."
Job 19:19  "All my closest friends hated me, and those I loved have turned against me."
Job 19:20  "My bones stick to my skin and to my flesh, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth."
Job 19:21  "Have pity on me, have pity on me, my friends, for the hand of God has touched me."
Job 19:22  "Why do you hunt me down as God does? Why are you not satisfied with my flesh?"
Job 19:23  "Oh, that my words were written down. Oh, that they were set down in a book,"
Job 19:24  "cut with an iron pen and filled with lead in the rock for ever."
Job 19:25  "For I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the last day he will stand upon the earth."
Job 19:26  "And though worms destroy this body after my skin is gone, yet in my flesh I will see God."
Job 19:27  "I myself will see him. My own eyes will look at him, and not another's. Though my inward parts are worn away within me,"
Job 19:28  "you should say, 'Why do we hunt him down, since the root of the matter is found in me?'"
Job 19:29  "Be afraid of the sword, for anger brings the punishments of the sword, so that you may know there is a judgment."

Job 20:1  Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said,
Job 20:2  "My thoughts make me answer, and this is why I hurry to speak."
Job 20:3  "I have heard myself rebuked and shamed, and the spirit of my understanding makes me answer."
Job 20:4  "Do you not know this from of old, ever since man was placed on the earth,"
Job 20:5  "that the triumph of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite lasts only a moment?"
Job 20:6  "Though he rises up to the heavens, and his head reaches the clouds,"
Job 20:7  "yet he will perish for ever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, 'Where is he?'"
Job 20:8  "He will fly away like a dream, and will not be found. He will be chased away like a vision of the night."
Job 20:9  "The eye that saw him will see him no more, and his place will look on him no more."
Job 20:10  "His children will try to please the poor, and his own hands will give back their goods."
Job 20:11  "His bones are full of the sin of his youth, and it will lie down with him in the dust."
Job 20:12  "Though wickedness is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue;"
Job 20:13  "though he saves it and will not let it go, but keeps it still inside his mouth,"
Job 20:14  "yet his food turns sour in his stomach. It becomes the poison of snakes inside him."
Job 20:15  "He has swallowed down riches, and he will vomit them up again. God will cast them out of his belly."
Job 20:16  "He will suck the poison of snakes. The viper's tongue will kill him."
Job 20:17  "He will not see the rivers, the flowing streams of honey and butter."
Job 20:18  "What he worked for he will give back, and will not swallow it down. He will pay back as much as he gained, and he will have no joy in it."
Job 20:19  "For he has crushed the poor and left them, and has taken by force a house he did not build."
Job 20:20  "Surely he will feel no quiet inside him. He will keep nothing of what he desired."
Job 20:21  "None of his food will be left over, so no one will look for his goods."
Job 20:22  "When he has plenty and more, he will be in trouble. Every hand of the wicked will come against him."
Job 20:23  "When he is about to fill his belly, God will throw the fury of his anger on him, and will rain it down on him while he is eating."
Job 20:24  "He will flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel will shoot him through."
Job 20:25  "It is pulled out, and comes out of his body. The shining sword comes out of his gall. Terrors are upon him."
Job 20:26  "All darkness will be hidden in his secret places. A fire that no one fanned will burn him up. Whoever is left in his tent will suffer harm."
Job 20:27  "The heavens will reveal his sin, and the earth will rise up against him."
Job 20:28  "The riches of his house will go away, and his goods will flow away in the day of God's anger."
Job 20:29  "This is the share of a wicked man from God, the inheritance that God has appointed for him."

Job 21:1  But Job answered and said,
Job 21:2  "Listen carefully to what I say. Let this be the comfort you give me."
Job 21:3  Allow me to speak. And after I have spoken, go on mocking.
Job 21:4  As for me, is my complaint against a man? If it were, why should my spirit not be troubled?
Job 21:5  Look at me, and be astonished, and put your hand over your mouth.
Job 21:6  Even when I remember, I am afraid, and trembling takes hold of my body.
Job 21:7  Why do the wicked go on living? They grow old, and they grow mighty in power.
Job 21:8  Their children are settled with them, where they can see them, and their grandchildren before their eyes.
Job 21:9  Their houses are safe from fear, and the rod of God is not on them.
Job 21:10  Their bull breeds and does not fail. Their cow gives birth and does not lose her calf.
Job 21:11  They send out their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.
Job 21:12  They take up the timbrel and harp, and are glad at the sound of the pipe.
Job 21:13  They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to the grave.
Job 21:14  So they say to God, 'Leave us alone. We do not want to know your ways.
Job 21:15  Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain if we prayed to him?'
Job 21:16  Look, their good is not in their own hand. The counsel of the wicked is far from me.
Job 21:17  How often is the lamp of the wicked put out? How often does their ruin come upon them? How often does God hand out sorrows in his anger?
Job 21:18  They are like straw before the wind, like chaff that the storm carries away.
Job 21:19  You say, 'God stores up a man's sin for his children.' Let God pay the man himself, so that he knows it.
Job 21:20  Let his own eyes see his ruin, and let him drink the wrath of the Almighty.
Job 21:21  For what does he care about his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?
Job 21:22  Can anyone teach God knowledge, since it is he who judges those on high?
Job 21:23  One man dies in his full strength, completely at ease and untroubled.
Job 21:24  His body is well fed, and his bones are wet with marrow.
Job 21:25  Another man dies with a bitter soul, and never tastes anything good.
Job 21:26  They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them both.
Job 21:27  Look, I know your thoughts, and the schemes you wrongly plan against me.
Job 21:28  For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent where the wicked lived?'
Job 21:29  Have you not asked those who travel the roads? Do you not recognise the signs they tell of,
Job 21:30  that the wicked is spared for the day of destruction? They will be led out on the day of wrath.
Job 21:31  Who will tell him to his face what he has done? Who will pay him back for it?
Job 21:32  Yet he will be carried to the grave, and a watch will be kept over his tomb.
Job 21:33  The clods of the valley will be sweet to him. Everyone follows after him, as countless others went before him.
Job 21:34  "So how can you comfort me with empty words, when nothing is left of your answers but lies?"

Job 22:1  Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered:
Job 22:2  "Can a man be of any profit to God, the way a wise man may profit himself?"
Job 22:3  "Does it please the Almighty that you are righteous? Does he gain anything if you make your ways perfect?"
Job 22:4  "Does he correct you because he is afraid of you? Is that why he brings you to judgment?"
Job 22:5  "Is your wickedness not great? Are your sins not without number?"
Job 22:6  "For you took a pledge from your brother for no reason. You stripped the clothes off those who had nothing."
Job 22:7  "You gave no water to the weary to drink, and you kept bread back from the hungry."
Job 22:8  "But the strong man had the land, and the man who was honoured lived in it."
Job 22:9  "You sent widows away with empty hands, and the arms of the fatherless were broken."
Job 22:10  "So traps are all around you, and sudden fear troubles you."
Job 22:11  "Or darkness, so that you cannot see; and flooding waters cover you."
Job 22:12  "Is God not in the height of heaven? Look at the stars, how high they are."
Job 22:13  "And you say, 'How does God know? Can he judge through the dark cloud?"
Job 22:14  "Thick clouds cover him, so he does not see; and he walks the circle of heaven.'"
Job 22:15  "Have you noticed the old way that wicked men have walked in?"
Job 22:16  "They were cut down before their time, and their foundation was washed away by a flood."
Job 22:17  "They said to God, 'Leave us alone.' And what could the Almighty do for them?"
Job 22:18  "Yet he filled their houses with good things. But the plans of the wicked are far from me."
Job 22:19  "The righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent laugh at them in scorn."
Job 22:20  "They say, 'Surely our wealth is not cut down, but the fire has eaten up what was left of them.'"
Job 22:21  "Now get to know him, and be at peace. In this way good will come to you."
Job 22:22  "Please receive the law from his mouth, and store up his words in your heart."
Job 22:23  "If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up. You will put sin far away from your tents."
Job 22:24  "Then you will lay up gold like dust, and the gold of Ophir like the stones of the streams."
Job 22:25  "Yes, the Almighty will be your defence, and you will have plenty of silver."
Job 22:26  "For then you will find your delight in the Almighty, and you will lift up your face to God."
Job 22:27  "You will pray to him, and he will hear you; and you will pay what you have vowed."
Job 22:28  "You will decide on a thing, and it will be settled for you; and light will shine on your ways."
Job 22:29  "When men are cast down, then you will say, 'There is lifting up.' And he will save the humble person."
Job 22:30  "He will deliver the island of the innocent, and it is delivered by the cleanness of your hands."

Job 23:1  Then Job answered and said,
Job 23:2  "Even today my complaint is bitter. The blow that struck me is heavier than my groaning."
Job 23:3  "If only I knew where to find him! Then I could come right up to where he sits."
Job 23:4  "I would set out my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments."
Job 23:5  "I would learn the words he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me."
Job 23:6  "Would he use his great power against me in the argument? No. He would give me strength instead."
Job 23:7  "There the righteous could argue with him. So I would be set free for ever from my judge."
Job 23:8  "Look, I go forward, but he is not there; I go backward, but I cannot find him."
Job 23:9  "I turn to the left, where he is at work, but I cannot see him. He hides himself on the right, so that I cannot see him."
Job 23:10  "But he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I will come out like gold."
Job 23:11  "My foot has kept to his steps. I have kept to his way and not turned aside."
Job 23:12  "I have not gone back from the command of his lips. I have valued the words of his mouth more than the food I need."
Job 23:13  "But he is of one mind, and who can turn him? Whatever he wants, that is what he does."
Job 23:14  "For he carries out the thing that is appointed for me, and he has many such things in store."
Job 23:15  "So I am troubled when he is near. When I think about it, I am afraid of him."
Job 23:16  "For God has made my heart faint, and the Almighty has troubled me,"
Job 23:17  "because I was not cut off before the darkness came, and he has not hidden the darkness from my face."

Job 24:1  Why, since times are not hidden from the Almighty, do those who know him not see his days?
Job 24:2  Some move the boundary stones. They seize flocks by force and feed them.
Job 24:3  They drive away the donkey of the fatherless. They take the widow's ox as a pledge.
Job 24:4  They push the needy off the road. The poor of the earth all hide themselves.
Job 24:5  Look, like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go out to their work, searching early for food. The wilderness gives them bread for their children.
Job 24:6  They harvest grain in a field that is not theirs. They glean the vineyard of the wicked.
Job 24:7  They make the naked lie down without clothing, with nothing to cover them in the cold.
Job 24:8  They are soaked by the rain showers of the mountains, and they hug the rock because they have no shelter.
Job 24:9  They tear the fatherless child from the breast. They take a pledge from the poor.
Job 24:10  They make him go naked, without clothing. They carry off the sheaf from the hungry.
Job 24:11  These poor press out oil inside their masters' walls. They tread the winepresses, yet they go thirsty.
Job 24:12  Men groan from inside the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out. Yet God does not charge them with wrong.
Job 24:13  They are among those who rebel against the light. They do not know its ways, and they do not stay in its paths.
Job 24:14  The murderer gets up when it is light and kills the poor and needy. In the night he is like a thief.
Job 24:15  The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight. He says, "No eye shall see me," and he covers his face.
Job 24:16  In the dark they break into houses, which they marked out for themselves in the daytime. They do not know the light.
Job 24:17  For to them the morning is like the shadow of death. If someone knows them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
Job 24:18  He is swift as the waters. Their share of the land is cursed. He does not turn toward the way of the vineyards.
Job 24:19  Drought and heat swallow up the snow waters; so does the grave swallow those who have sinned.
Job 24:20  The womb shall forget him. The worm shall feed sweetly on him. He shall be remembered no more, and wickedness shall be broken like a tree.
Job 24:21  He treats badly the barren woman who bears no child, and he does no good to the widow.
Job 24:22  He drags away the mighty by his power. He rises up, and no one is sure of his life.
Job 24:23  Though he is given safety, and he rests on it, yet God's eyes are on their ways.
Job 24:24  They are lifted up for a little while, then they are gone and brought low. They are taken away like all others, and cut off like the tops of the ears of grain.
Job 24:25  If this is not so, who will prove me a liar, and show my words are worth nothing?

Job 25:1  Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said,
Job 25:2  "Rule and fear belong to him. He makes peace in his high places."
Job 25:3  "Can his armies be counted? On whom does his light not rise?"
Job 25:4  "How then can a man be counted righteous before God? How can anyone born of a woman be clean?"
Job 25:5  "Look, even the moon does not shine brightly, and the stars are not pure in his sight."
Job 25:6  "How much less man, who is a worm, and the son of man, who is a worm?"

Job 26:1  But Job answered and said,
Job 26:2  "How you have helped the one who has no power! How you have saved the arm that has no strength!"
Job 26:3  "How you have given advice to the one who has no wisdom! And how fully you have declared the matter as it is!"
Job 26:4  "To whom have you spoken your words? And whose spirit came from you?"
Job 26:5  "Dead things are formed under the waters, and those who live there."
Job 26:6  "Hell lies bare before him, and destruction has no covering."
Job 26:7  "He stretches out the north over the empty place, and hangs the earth upon nothing."
Job 26:8  "He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not torn under them."
Job 26:9  "He holds back the face of his throne, and spreads his cloud upon it."
Job 26:10  "He has set a boundary all around the waters, until the day and night come to an end."
Job 26:11  "The pillars of heaven tremble, and are amazed at his rebuke."
Job 26:12  "He divides the sea with his power, and by his understanding he strikes through the proud."
Job 26:13  "By his spirit he has adorned the heavens. His hand has formed the crooked serpent."
Job 26:14  "Look, these are only parts of his ways. How little a portion of him is heard! But the thunder of his power, who can understand?"

Job 27:1  Job went on with his speech, and said:
Job 27:2  "As surely as God lives, who has taken away my right, and as the Almighty lives, who has made my soul bitter,"
Job 27:3  "as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils,"
Job 27:4  "my lips will not speak wickedness, and my tongue will not tell lies."
Job 27:5  "Far be it from me to say that you are right. Until I die I will not let go of my integrity."
Job 27:6  "I hold tight to my righteousness, and I will not let it go. My heart will not accuse me as long as I live."
Job 27:7  "Let my enemy be like the wicked, and the one who rises up against me like the unrighteous."
Job 27:8  "For what hope has the hypocrite, though he has gained much, when God takes away his soul?"
Job 27:9  "Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?"
Job 27:10  "Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?"
Job 27:11  "I will teach you by the hand of God. I will not hide what is with the Almighty."
Job 27:12  "Look, you have all seen it yourselves. Why then are you altogether empty?"
Job 27:13  "This is the portion that a wicked man has from God, and the inheritance that oppressors receive from the Almighty."
Job 27:14  "If his children grow many, it is for the sword, and his offspring will not have enough bread."
Job 27:15  "Those of his people who are left will be buried by death, and his widows will not weep."
Job 27:16  "Though he piles up silver like dust, and gets clothes ready like heaps of clay,"
Job 27:17  "he may get them ready, but the just will wear them, and the innocent will divide the silver."
Job 27:18  "He builds his house like a moth, like a hut that a watchman makes."
Job 27:19  "The rich man lies down, but he will not be gathered. He opens his eyes, and he is gone."
Job 27:20  "Terrors take hold of him like floods of water. In the night a storm carries him off."
Job 27:21  "The east wind lifts him up, and he is gone. It sweeps him out of his place."
Job 27:22  "For God will hurl things at him and not spare him. He would gladly flee from his hand."
Job 27:23  "People will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place."

Job 28:1  Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined.
Job 28:2  Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is melted out of the stone.
Job 28:3  Man puts an end to darkness, and searches out every limit: the stones that lie in the dark and in the shadow of death.
Job 28:4  The flood breaks out away from where people live; even the waters the foot has forgotten. They are dried up, they are gone far from men.
Job 28:5  As for the earth, out of it comes bread. Under it things are turned up as if by fire.
Job 28:6  Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold.
Job 28:7  There is a path which no bird knows, and which the vulture's eye has not seen.
Job 28:8  The lion's cubs have not walked on it, and the fierce lion has not passed by it.
Job 28:9  Man lays his hand on the flinty rock. He overturns the mountains by the roots.
Job 28:10  He cuts out channels among the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing.
Job 28:11  He binds the streams so they do not overflow, and what is hidden he brings out to the light.
Job 28:12  But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:13  Man does not know its price, and it is not found in the land of the living.
Job 28:14  The deep says, "It is not in me." The sea says, "It is not with me."
Job 28:15  It cannot be bought with gold, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price.
Job 28:16  It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
Job 28:17  Gold and crystal cannot equal it, and it cannot be traded for jewels of fine gold.
Job 28:18  Coral and pearls are not worth mentioning, for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
Job 28:19  The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, and it cannot be valued with pure gold.
Job 28:20  Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding?
Job 28:21  It is hidden from the eyes of all the living, and kept secret from the birds of the air.
Job 28:22  Destruction and death say, "We have heard a report of it with our ears."
Job 28:23  God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
Job 28:24  For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the whole heaven.
Job 28:25  He gives the wind its weight, and he measures out the waters.
Job 28:26  When he made a rule for the rain, and a path for the thunderbolt,
Job 28:27  then he saw wisdom and declared it. He set it up, and searched it out.
Job 28:28  And to man he said, "Look, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding."

Job 29:1  Job went on with his speech, and said,
Job 29:2  "If only I were as I was in months gone by, in the days when God watched over me;"
Job 29:3  when his lamp shone above my head, and by his light I walked through the darkness;
Job 29:4  as I was in the days of my youth, when the friendship of God rested on my tent;
Job 29:5  when the Almighty was still with me, and my children were all around me;
Job 29:6  when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured out for me rivers of oil;
Job 29:7  when I went out through the city to the gate, and set up my seat in the open square.
Job 29:8  The young men saw me and hid themselves. The old men rose and stood up.
Job 29:9  The princes stopped talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
Job 29:10  The nobles kept quiet, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
Job 29:11  When the ear heard me, it called me blessed. When the eye saw me, it spoke well of me.
Job 29:12  For I rescued the poor man who cried out, and the fatherless child, and the one who had no one to help him.
Job 29:13  The blessing of the man who was about to die came upon me. I made the widow's heart sing for joy.
Job 29:14  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me. My justice was like a robe and a crown.
Job 29:15  I was eyes to the blind, and I was feet to the lame.
Job 29:16  I was a father to the poor, and I looked into the case of the stranger.
Job 29:17  I broke the jaws of the wicked man, and pulled what he had stolen out of his teeth.
Job 29:18  Then I said, 'I shall die in my nest, and my days will be as many as the sand.'
Job 29:19  My root was spread out to the waters, and the dew lay all night on my branch.
Job 29:20  My glory stayed fresh in me, and my bow was made new in my hand.
Job 29:21  Men listened to me, and waited, and kept silent for my advice.
Job 29:22  After I had spoken, they said no more. My words fell gently on them.
Job 29:23  They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.
Job 29:24  If I smiled at them, they could hardly believe it, and they did not let the light of my face fall.
Job 29:25  I chose the way for them, and sat as their chief. I lived like a king among his troops, like one who comforts those who mourn.

Job 30:1  But now men younger than I am laugh at me. I would have refused to put their fathers with the dogs of my flock.
Job 30:2  What use to me was the strength of their hands? All their vigour had perished.
Job 30:3  They were worn out with want and hunger, and they went off alone, gnawing the dry ground, long ago waste and desolate.
Job 30:4  They pulled up saltwort among the bushes, and juniper roots were their food.
Job 30:5  They were driven out from among men; people shouted after them as after a thief.
Job 30:6  They had to live in the gullies of the valleys, in holes in the ground, and among the rocks.
Job 30:7  Among the bushes they brayed; under the nettles they huddled together.
Job 30:8  They were the children of fools, the children of men with no name. They were whipped out of the land.
Job 30:9  And now I am their song; I am the word they use as a joke.
Job 30:10  They hate me. They keep far away from me. They do not hold back from spitting in my face.
Job 30:11  Because God has loosed my cord and brought me low, they too have thrown off all restraint in front of me.
Job 30:12  On my right hand the rabble rise up. They push my feet away. They build their roads of ruin against me.
Job 30:13  They break up my path. They add to my disaster, and no one helps me.
Job 30:14  They come at me like water pouring through a wide gap. They roll in on me among the ruins.
Job 30:15  Terrors are turned loose on me. They chase my honour away like the wind, and my safety passes by like a cloud.
Job 30:16  And now my life is poured out within me. Days of suffering have taken hold of me.
Job 30:17  At night my bones are pierced through, and the pain that gnaws me never rests.
Job 30:18  With great force my clothing is disfigured; it grips me tight like the collar of my coat.
Job 30:19  He has thrown me into the mud, and I have become like dust and ashes.
Job 30:20  I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you only look at me.
Job 30:21  You have become cruel to me. With your strong hand you set yourself against me.
Job 30:22  You lift me up to the wind and make me ride on it. You melt me away in the storm.
Job 30:23  For I know that you will bring me to death, to the house appointed for all the living.
Job 30:24  Yet surely no one strikes at a ruined heap of a man, if he cries out in his trouble.
Job 30:25  Did I not weep for the one in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?
Job 30:26  When I looked for good, then evil came to me. When I waited for light, darkness came.
Job 30:27  My insides boil and never rest. Days of suffering have come out to meet me.
Job 30:28  I go about darkened, but not by the sun. I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.
Job 30:29  I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
Job 30:30  My skin is black and falls off me, and my bones burn with heat.
Job 30:31  So my harp is turned to mourning, and my pipe to the sound of those who weep.

Job 31:1  I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look at a young woman?
Job 31:2  For what portion would God give from above? What inheritance would the Almighty send from on high?
Job 31:3  Is not destruction for the wicked, and strange punishment for those who do evil?
Job 31:4  Does he not see my ways, and count all my steps?
Job 31:5  If I have walked with what is false, or if my foot has hurried to deceive,
Job 31:6  let me be weighed in honest scales, so that God may know my integrity.
Job 31:7  If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart has followed my eyes, and if any stain has stuck to my hands,
Job 31:8  then let me sow, and let another eat; yes, let my crops be rooted out.
Job 31:9  If my heart has been drawn away by a woman, or if I have waited in secret at my neighbour's door,
Job 31:10  then let my wife grind grain for another, and let others bow down upon her.
Job 31:11  For this is a terrible crime; yes, it is a sin for the judges to punish.
Job 31:12  For it is a fire that burns to destruction, and it would root out all my increase.
Job 31:13  If I turned away the cause of my manservant or my maidservant when they brought a complaint against me,
Job 31:14  what then shall I do when God rises up? When he comes to examine me, what shall I answer him?
Job 31:15  Did not the one who made me in the womb make him also? Did not one God shape us both in the womb?
Job 31:16  If I have kept the poor from what they longed for, or made the eyes of the widow grow weary,
Job 31:17  or if I have eaten my piece of bread alone, and the fatherless has not eaten any of it
Job 31:18  (for from my youth the fatherless child grew up with me as with a father, and from my mother's womb I have guided the widow),
Job 31:19  if I have seen anyone dying for lack of clothing, or any poor person with nothing to cover them,
Job 31:20  if their body did not bless me, and they were not warmed with the wool of my sheep,
Job 31:21  if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, because I saw that I had support in the gate,
Job 31:22  then let my arm fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken off at the bone.
Job 31:23  For destruction from God was a terror to me, and because of his majesty I could not do such things.
Job 31:24  If I have made gold my hope, or have said to fine gold, "You are what I trust in,"
Job 31:25  if I was glad because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gained so much,
Job 31:26  if I looked at the sun when it shone, or the moon moving in brightness,
Job 31:27  and my heart was secretly drawn away, and my mouth kissed my hand,
Job 31:28  this also would be a sin for the judge to punish, for I would have denied the God who is above.
Job 31:29  If I was glad when the one who hated me was destroyed, or lifted myself up when trouble found him
Job 31:30  (no, I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for a curse on his life),
Job 31:31  if the men of my tent did not say, "Who can find a man that has not been filled with his food?"
Job 31:32  The stranger did not sleep in the street, for I opened my doors to the traveller.
Job 31:33  If I covered my wrongdoing as Adam did, by hiding my sin in my heart,
Job 31:34  because I feared the great crowd, or because the scorn of families terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go out of the door -
Job 31:35  If only someone would listen to me! Look, here is my mark; let the Almighty answer me. Let my accuser write down his charge.
Job 31:36  Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and bind it on me like a crown.
Job 31:37  I would tell him the number of my steps; like a prince I would go up to him.
Job 31:38  If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together,
Job 31:39  if I have eaten its fruit without paying, or have caused its owners to lose their life,
Job 31:40  then let thistles grow instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

Job 32:1  So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes.
Job 32:2  Then Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, became angry. He was angry with Job, because Job made himself right instead of God.
Job 32:3  He was angry with Job's three friends too, because they had found no answer, and yet they had condemned Job.
Job 32:4  Now Elihu had waited until Job had spoken, because the others were older than he was.
Job 32:5  When Elihu saw that these three men had no answer in their mouths, he became angry.
Job 32:6  And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite spoke and said, "I am young, and you are very old. That is why I was afraid, and did not dare to tell you what I think."
Job 32:7  I said, 'Days should speak, and many years should teach wisdom.'
Job 32:8  But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.
Job 32:9  Great men are not always wise, and the aged do not always understand what is right.
Job 32:10  So I say, listen to me. I too will tell you what I think.
Job 32:11  Look, I waited for your words. I listened to your reasons, while you searched for what to say.
Job 32:12  Yes, I paid attention to you. And look, not one of you proved Job wrong, or answered his words.
Job 32:13  Do not say, 'We have found wisdom. God pushes him down, not man.'
Job 32:14  Now he has not aimed his words at me, and I will not answer him with your speeches.
Job 32:15  They were dismayed. They answered no more. They stopped speaking.
Job 32:16  I waited, for they did not speak, but stood still and answered no more.
Job 32:17  So I said, "I will give my answer too. I also will tell what I think."
Job 32:18  For I am full of words. The spirit within me presses me hard.
Job 32:19  Look, my belly is like wine that has no opening. It is ready to burst like new wineskins.
Job 32:20  I will speak, so that I may find relief. I will open my lips and answer.
Job 32:21  Please, let me not show favour to anyone, and let me not give flattering titles to any man.
Job 32:22  "For I do not know how to give flattering titles. If I did, my Maker would soon take me away."

Job 33:1  So now, Job, I ask you, hear what I say. Listen to all my words.
Job 33:2  Look, now I have opened my mouth. My tongue has begun to speak.
Job 33:3  My words will come from an upright heart. My lips will speak knowledge clearly.
Job 33:4  The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty has given me life.
Job 33:5  If you can answer me, put your words in order before me. Stand up.
Job 33:6  Look, before God I am just as you are. I too was formed out of the clay.
Job 33:7  Look, no terror from me will frighten you, and my hand will not be heavy on you.
Job 33:8  Surely you have spoken where I could hear it. I heard the sound of your words. You said,
Job 33:9  "I am clean, without wrongdoing. I am innocent. There is no sin in me."
Job 33:10  Look, God finds reasons against me. He counts me as his enemy.
Job 33:11  "He puts my feet in the stocks. He watches all my paths."
Job 33:12  Look, in this you are not right. I will answer you: God is greater than man.
Job 33:13  Why do you argue against him? He does not give an account of any of his doings.
Job 33:14  For God speaks once, yes twice, yet man does not notice it.
Job 33:15  In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people, as they slumber on the bed;
Job 33:16  then he opens the ears of people, and seals their instruction,
Job 33:17  so that he may turn a man away from what he plans, and hide pride from him.
Job 33:18  He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
Job 33:19  He is also corrected with pain on his bed, and with constant aching in all his bones,
Job 33:20  so that his life hates bread, and his soul hates the finest food.
Job 33:21  His flesh wastes away until it cannot be seen. His bones, which were hidden, stick out.
Job 33:22  Yes, his soul draws near to the grave, and his life to the destroyers.
Job 33:23  If there is a messenger with him, one who explains, one among a thousand, to show a man what is right for him,
Job 33:24  then God is gracious to him, and says, "Save him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom."
Job 33:25  His flesh will be fresher than a child's. He will return to the days of his youth.
Job 33:26  He will pray to God, and God will look on him with favour. He will see his face with joy, for God will give back to him his righteousness.
Job 33:27  He looks on people, and if anyone says, "I have sinned, and twisted what was right, and it did not help me,"
Job 33:28  God will save his soul from going into the pit, and his life will see the light.
Job 33:29  Look, God does all these things with a man again and again,
Job 33:30  to bring back his soul from the pit, so that he may be lit with the light of the living.
Job 33:31  Pay close attention, Job. Listen to me. Be quiet, and I will speak.
Job 33:32  If you have anything to say, answer me. Speak, for I want to show that you are right.
Job 33:33  If not, listen to me. Be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.

Job 34:1  Then Elihu went on speaking. He said:
Job 34:2  "Hear my words, you wise men. Listen to me, you who have knowledge."
Job 34:3  For the ear tests words, as the mouth tastes food.
Job 34:4  Let us choose for ourselves what is right. Let us find out among ourselves what is good.
Job 34:5  For Job has said, 'I am righteous, and God has taken away my justice.'
Job 34:6  'Should I lie about my own case? My wound cannot be healed, though I have done no wrong.'
Job 34:7  What man is like Job, who drinks up scorn like water?
Job 34:8  He keeps company with those who do evil, and walks with wicked men.
Job 34:9  For he has said, 'It does a man no good to take delight in God.'
Job 34:10  So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wickedness, and far be it from the Almighty to do wrong.
Job 34:11  For he pays back to a man what his work deserves, and makes each man find what his ways have earned.
Job 34:12  Yes, surely God will not do wickedly, and the Almighty will not twist justice.
Job 34:13  Who put him in charge of the earth? Who set the whole world in order?
Job 34:14  If he set his heart upon man, if he gathered back to himself his spirit and his breath,
Job 34:15  all flesh would die together, and man would return to dust.
Job 34:16  If you have understanding, hear this. Listen to the sound of my words.
Job 34:17  Should one who hates justice rule? Will you condemn him who is most just?
Job 34:18  Is it right to say to a king, 'You are wicked'? Or to princes, 'You are ungodly'?
Job 34:19  How much less to him who shows no favour to princes, and does not think more of the rich than of the poor? For they are all the work of his hands.
Job 34:20  In a moment they die. At midnight the people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away, and no human hand does it.
Job 34:21  For his eyes are on the ways of a man, and he sees all his steps.
Job 34:22  There is no darkness, and no shadow of death, where those who do evil may hide themselves.
Job 34:23  For he does not lay on a man more than is right, that the man should come before God in judgment.
Job 34:24  He breaks mighty men in pieces, more than can be counted, and sets others in their place.
Job 34:25  So he knows their works. He overturns them in the night, and they are crushed.
Job 34:26  He strikes them as wicked men, where others can see it,
Job 34:27  because they turned away from following him, and would not give thought to any of his ways.
Job 34:28  So they made the cry of the poor come up to him, and he hears the cry of those who suffer.
Job 34:29  When he gives quietness, who then can bring trouble? When he hides his face, who then can see him? He does this whether it is to a whole nation or to one man alone,
Job 34:30  so that the hypocrite may not rule, and the people may not be trapped.
Job 34:31  Surely it is fitting to say to God, 'I have taken my punishment. I will not offend any more.
Job 34:32  Teach me what I do not see. If I have done wrong, I will do it no more.'
Job 34:33  Should God repay on your terms? Yet he will repay, whether you refuse or whether you choose; it is not for me to say. So tell me what you know.
Job 34:34  Let men of understanding tell me, and let a wise man listen to me.
Job 34:35  Job has spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom.
Job 34:36  My desire is that Job may be tested to the end, because he answers like wicked men.
Job 34:37  "For he adds rebellion to his sin. He claps his hands among us, and piles up his words against God."

Job 35:1  Elihu spoke again, and said,
Job 35:2  "Do you think this is right? You said, 'My righteousness is more than God's.'"
Job 35:3  "For you said, 'What good will it do you?' and, 'What profit will I have, if I am cleansed from my sin?'"
Job 35:4  "I will answer you, and your companions with you."
Job 35:5  "Look up to the heavens, and see. Look at the clouds, which are higher than you."
Job 35:6  "If you sin, what do you do against him? If your wrongs are many, what do you do to him?"
Job 35:7  "If you are righteous, what do you give him? Or what does he receive from your hand?"
Job 35:8  "Your wickedness may hurt a man like yourself, and your righteousness may help a son of man."
Job 35:9  "Because of the many acts of oppression, people make the oppressed cry out. They cry out because of the arm of the mighty."
Job 35:10  "But no one says, 'Where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night,"
Job 35:11  "who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?'"
Job 35:12  "There they cry out, but no one gives an answer, because of the pride of evil men."
Job 35:13  "Surely God will not hear empty words, and the Almighty will not take notice of them."
Job 35:14  "Although you say you do not see him, yet judgment is before him; so wait for him."
Job 35:15  "But now, because it is not so, he has punished in his anger; yet he does not take much notice of foolishness."
Job 35:16  "So Job opens his mouth for nothing; he piles up words without knowledge."

Job 36:1  Elihu went on speaking, and said,
Job 36:2  "Allow me a little longer, and I will show you that I still have something to say on God's behalf."
Job 36:3  "I will bring my knowledge from far away, and I will give righteousness to my Maker."
Job 36:4  "For truly my words will not be false. One who is perfect in knowledge is here with you."
Job 36:5  "Look, God is mighty, and does not despise. He is mighty in strength and wisdom."
Job 36:6  "He does not keep the wicked alive, but he gives the poor their right."
Job 36:7  "He does not turn his eyes away from the righteous. He sets them with kings on the throne; yes, he makes them secure for ever, and they are lifted high."
Job 36:8  "And if they are tied with chains, and held fast by the cords of trouble,"
Job 36:9  "then he shows them what they have done, and how their sins have gone too far."
Job 36:10  "He also opens their ear to correction, and commands them to turn back from wrongdoing."
Job 36:11  "If they obey and serve him, they will spend their days in plenty, and their years in pleasant things."
Job 36:12  "But if they do not obey, they will die by the sword, and they will die without knowledge."
Job 36:13  "But those who are false in heart store up anger. They do not cry out when he ties them up."
Job 36:14  "They die while they are young, and their life ends among the unclean."
Job 36:15  "He rescues the poor in their trouble, and opens their ears when they are crushed."
Job 36:16  "In the same way he would have brought you out of the narrow place into a wide place, where there is no crowding. And what was set on your table would be full of rich food."
Job 36:17  "But you have taken on the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice have taken hold of you."
Job 36:18  "Because there is anger, take care that he does not sweep you away with his blow. Then a great ransom could not set you free."
Job 36:19  "Will he value your riches? No, not gold, nor all your mighty strength."
Job 36:20  "Do not long for the night, when people are cut off where they stand."
Job 36:21  "Take care, do not turn to wrongdoing. You have chosen this rather than suffering."
Job 36:22  "Look, God lifts up by his power. Who teaches as he does?"
Job 36:23  "Who has told him which way to go? Or who can say, 'You have done wrong'?"
Job 36:24  "Remember to praise his work, which people see."
Job 36:25  "Every man may look at it; man may see it from far away."
Job 36:26  "Look, God is great, and we do not know him. The number of his years cannot be searched out."
Job 36:27  "For he makes the drops of water small; they pour down as rain from his mist,"
Job 36:28  "which the clouds drop and pour down on man in plenty."
Job 36:29  "Can anyone understand how the clouds are spread out, or the thunder of his tent?"
Job 36:30  "Look, he spreads his light over it, and he covers the bottom of the sea."
Job 36:31  "By these he judges the peoples; he gives food in plenty."
Job 36:32  "He covers his hands with the lightning, and commands it where to strike."
Job 36:33  "Its noise tells about him; the cattle also tell of the rising storm."

Job 37:1  At this also my heart trembles, and leaps out of its place.
Job 37:2  Listen carefully to the noise of his voice, and to the sound that goes out of his mouth.
Job 37:3  He sends it out under the whole sky, and his lightning to the ends of the earth.
Job 37:4  After it a voice roars. He thunders with his majestic voice. He does not hold the lightnings back when his voice is heard.
Job 37:5  God thunders wonderfully with his voice. He does great things that we cannot understand.
Job 37:6  For he says to the snow, "Fall on the earth." He says the same to the light rain, and to the heavy rain of his strength.
Job 37:7  He seals up the hand of every man, so that all people may know his work.
Job 37:8  Then the animals go into their dens, and stay in their places.
Job 37:9  Out of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold out of the north.
Job 37:10  By the breath of God frost is given, and the wide waters are frozen hard.
Job 37:11  He loads the thick cloud with water. He scatters his bright cloud.
Job 37:12  It turns round and round as he plans it, so that the clouds may do whatever he commands them over the face of the world, on the earth.
Job 37:13  He makes it come, whether to correct, or for his land, or for mercy.
Job 37:14  Listen to this, Job. Stand still, and think about the wonderful works of God.
Job 37:15  Do you know how God orders them, and makes the light of his cloud shine?
Job 37:16  Do you know how the clouds are balanced, the wonderful works of him who is perfect in knowledge?
Job 37:17  Do you know how your clothes grow warm, when he quiets the earth with the south wind?
Job 37:18  Did you spread out the sky with him, that sky which is strong, and like a mirror of cast metal?
Job 37:19  Teach us what we should say to him, for we cannot set out our words because of darkness.
Job 37:20  Should he be told that I want to speak? If a man speaks, surely he will be swallowed up.
Job 37:21  And now people cannot see the bright light that is in the clouds. But the wind passes by, and clears them.
Job 37:22  Fair weather comes out of the north. With God is fearful majesty.
Job 37:23  As for the Almighty, we cannot find him out. He is great in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice. He will not oppress.
Job 37:24  So people fear him. He does not regard any who are wise in their own hearts.

Job 38:1  Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 38:2  "Who is this that darkens my counsel with words that have no knowledge in them?"
Job 38:3  "Get ready now like a man. I will ask you questions, and you shall answer me."
Job 38:4  "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding."
Job 38:5  "Who decided how big it should be? Surely you know. Or who stretched the measuring line across it?"
Job 38:6  "What are its foundations fastened to? Or who laid its corner stone,"
Job 38:7  "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
Job 38:8  "Or who shut the sea in behind doors, when it burst out as if it came from the womb?"
Job 38:9  "It was I who made the cloud its clothing, and thick darkness the cloth that wrapped it,"
Job 38:10  "and I broke open for it the place I had decreed, and set bars and doors,"
Job 38:11  "and said, 'You may come this far, but no further. Here your proud waves shall stop.'"
Job 38:12  "Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning, and shown the dawn its place,"
Job 38:13  "so that it takes hold of the edges of the earth, and the wicked are shaken out of it?"
Job 38:14  "The earth is changed like clay under a seal, and everything stands out like a garment."
Job 38:15  "The wicked are kept from their light, and the raised arm is broken."
Job 38:16  "Have you gone into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked about searching the deep?"
Job 38:17  "Have the gates of death been opened to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?"
Job 38:18  "Have you understood how wide the earth is? Tell me, if you know it all."
Job 38:19  "Where is the way to the place where light lives? And darkness, where is its home,"
Job 38:20  "so that you could take it to its own country, and know the paths to its house?"
Job 38:21  "You know, of course, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great."
Job 38:22  "Have you gone into the storehouses of the snow? Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,"
Job 38:23  "which I have kept back for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?"
Job 38:24  "Which way does the light spread out? Which way does the east wind scatter over the earth?"
Job 38:25  "Who has cut a channel for the flooding rain, or a path for the thunderbolt,"
Job 38:26  "to bring rain on land where no one lives, on the wilderness, where there is no man,"
Job 38:27  "to fill the empty, wasted ground, and make the young grass spring up?"
Job 38:28  "Has the rain a father? Or who was the father of the drops of dew?"
Job 38:29  "Out of whose womb came the ice? And the white frost of heaven, who gave it birth?"
Job 38:30  "The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen."
Job 38:31  "Can you bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades, or loosen the bands of Orion?"
Job 38:32  "Can you bring out Mazzaroth in its season? Or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?"
Job 38:33  "Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their rule over the earth?"
Job 38:34  "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, so that plenty of water covers you?"
Job 38:35  "Can you send out the lightnings, so that they go and say to you, 'Here we are'?"
Job 38:36  "Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the heart?"
Job 38:37  "Who is wise enough to count the clouds? Or who can tip over the water jars of heaven,"
Job 38:38  "when the dust grows hard, and the lumps of soil stick fast together?"
Job 38:39  "Will you hunt the prey for the lion, or fill the hunger of the young lions,"
Job 38:40  "when they crouch in their dens, and wait hidden, ready to spring?"
Job 38:41  "Who provides food for the raven, when its young ones cry to God and wander about for lack of food?"

Job 39:1  "Do you know the time when the wild goats of the rock give birth? Can you watch when the deer have their young?"
Job 39:2  Can you count the months that they complete? Do you know the time when they give birth?
Job 39:3  They bow themselves down, they bring forth their young, and their pains are over.
Job 39:4  Their young ones are strong and well; they grow up in the open field. They go away, and do not come back to them.
Job 39:5  Who set the wild donkey free? Who loosed the ropes of the wild donkey?
Job 39:6  I have made the wilderness his house, and the salty land his home.
Job 39:7  He laughs at the crowds of the city. He pays no attention to the shouting of the driver.
Job 39:8  The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches for every green thing.
Job 39:9  Will the unicorn be willing to serve you, or stay beside your feeding trough?
Job 39:10  Can you tie the unicorn with his rope in the furrow? Will he break up the valleys behind you?
Job 39:11  Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Will you leave your work to him?
Job 39:12  Will you believe him, that he will bring home your grain, and gather it into your barn?
Job 39:13  Did you give the fine wings to the peacocks? Or wings and feathers to the ostrich?
Job 39:14  She leaves her eggs in the earth, and lets the dust keep them warm.
Job 39:15  She forgets that a foot may crush them, or that a wild animal may break them.
Job 39:16  She is hard toward her young, as if they were not hers. She does not care that her labour is wasted.
Job 39:17  For God has kept wisdom from her, and has not given her understanding.
Job 39:18  But when she lifts herself up and runs, she laughs at the horse and his rider.
Job 39:19  Did you give the horse his strength? Did you clothe his neck with thunder?
Job 39:20  Can you make him leap like a grasshopper? The snorting of his nostrils is terrifying.
Job 39:21  He paws the ground in the valley, and delights in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men.
Job 39:22  He laughs at fear, and is not afraid. He does not turn back from the sword.
Job 39:23  The quiver rattles against him, with the flashing spear and the shield.
Job 39:24  He swallows the ground with fierceness and rage. He cannot be held when the trumpet sounds.
Job 39:25  Among the trumpets he says, "Ha, ha." He smells the battle far away, the thunder of the commanders, and the shouting.
Job 39:26  Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, and spread her wings toward the south?
Job 39:27  Does the eagle go up at your command, and make her nest high above?
Job 39:28  She lives and stays on the rock, on the crag of the rock, in a strong place.
Job 39:29  From there she looks for her prey, and her eyes see it far away.
Job 39:30  "Her young ones also drink blood, and where the dead bodies are, there she is."

Job 40:1  Then the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2  "Shall the man who argues with the Almighty correct him? Let the man who accuses God answer it."
Job 40:3  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4  "Look, I am worthless. What shall I answer you? I will lay my hand over my mouth."
Job 40:5  "Once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yes, twice, but I will say no more."
Job 40:6  Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7  "Get ready now like a man. I will question you, and you shall tell me the answers."
Job 40:8  Will you even cancel my judgment? Will you condemn me, so that you may be righteous?
Job 40:9  Do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like his?
Job 40:10  Dress yourself now with majesty and splendour. Clothe yourself with glory and beauty.
Job 40:11  Pour out the rage of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him down.
Job 40:12  Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Trample the wicked where they stand.
Job 40:13  Hide them all together in the dust. Bind their faces in a hidden place.
Job 40:14  Then I myself will admit to you that your own right hand can save you.
Job 40:15  Look now at behemoth, which I made along with you. He eats grass like an ox.
Job 40:16  See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in the muscles of his belly.
Job 40:17  He moves his tail like a cedar. The sinews of his thighs are woven together.
Job 40:18  His bones are like strong pieces of bronze. His bones are like bars of iron.
Job 40:19  He is the chief of the works of God. The one who made him can bring his sword near to him.
Job 40:20  Surely the mountains bring him food, where all the beasts of the field play.
Job 40:21  He lies under the shady trees, hidden among the reeds and the marshes.
Job 40:22  The shady trees cover him with their shadow. The willows of the brook surround him.
Job 40:23  Look, he drinks up a river, and is not alarmed. He is confident that he can pull the Jordan into his mouth.
Job 40:24  "He takes it with his eyes. His nose pierces through traps."

Job 41:1  "Can you pull out leviathan with a hook? Can you tie down his tongue with a cord?"
Job 41:2  Can you put a hook into his nose? Can you bore through his jaw with a thorn?
Job 41:3  Will he beg you again and again? Will he speak soft words to you?
Job 41:4  Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as your servant for ever?
Job 41:5  Will you play with him as with a bird? Will you tie him up for your young women?
Job 41:6  Will your partners make a banquet of him? Will they divide him among the merchants?
Job 41:7  Can you fill his skin with barbed irons? Can you fill his head with fish spears?
Job 41:8  Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle. Do it no more.
Job 41:9  Look, any hope of taking him is empty. The very sight of him throws a man down.
Job 41:10  No one is fierce enough to dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand before me?
Job 41:11  Who has given to me first, so that I should pay him back? Everything under the whole heaven is mine.
Job 41:12  I will not keep silent about his limbs, or his power, or his fine shape.
Job 41:13  Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can come at him with a double bridle?
Job 41:14  Who can open the doors of his face? His teeth all round are terrible.
Job 41:15  His scales are his pride, closed together as with a tight seal.
Job 41:16  One is so near to another that no air can pass between them.
Job 41:17  They are joined one to another. They stick together and cannot be pulled apart.
Job 41:18  When he sneezes, light flashes out. His eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
Job 41:19  Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
Job 41:20  Smoke comes out of his nostrils, as out of a boiling pot or cauldron.
Job 41:21  His breath sets coals alight, and a flame goes out of his mouth.
Job 41:22  Strength lives in his neck, and sorrow turns to joy before him.
Job 41:23  The folds of his flesh are joined together. They are firm on him, and cannot be moved.
Job 41:24  His heart is as firm as a stone, as hard as the lower millstone.
Job 41:25  When he rises up, the mighty are afraid. The crashing makes them lose themselves.
Job 41:26  The sword of the man who strikes him cannot hold, nor the spear, nor the dart, nor the coat of mail.
Job 41:27  He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
Job 41:28  The arrow cannot make him run away. Sling stones become like stubble to him.
Job 41:29  Clubs are counted as stubble. He laughs at the shaking of a spear.
Job 41:30  Sharp stones are under him. He spreads sharp points upon the mud.
Job 41:31  He makes the deep boil like a pot. He makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
Job 41:32  He leaves a shining path behind him. You would think the deep had white hair.
Job 41:33  On earth there is nothing like him, a creature made without fear.
Job 41:34  "He looks down on all high things. He is a king over all the children of pride."

Job 42:1  Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:2  "I know that you can do everything, and that no plan of yours can be held back."
Job 42:3  You asked, 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' So I spoke of what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
Job 42:4  You said, 'Listen, and I will speak. I will question you, and you tell me.'
Job 42:5  I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
Job 42:6  "So I hate myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
Job 42:7  After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "My anger burns against you and against your two friends. For you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has."
Job 42:8  "So now take seven bulls and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept him. Then I will not deal with you as your folly deserves, since you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has."
Job 42:9  So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had commanded them. And the LORD accepted Job.
Job 42:10  And the LORD turned back the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends. The LORD also gave Job twice as much as he had before.
Job 42:11  Then all his brothers and all his sisters came to him, and all who had known him before. They ate bread with him in his house. They grieved with him and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought on him. Each one also gave him a piece of money, and each one a gold earring.
Job 42:12  So the LORD blessed the last part of Job's life more than the beginning. For he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys.
Job 42:13  He also had seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:14  He named the first one Jemima, and the second Kezia, and the third Kerenhappuch.
Job 42:15  In all the land no women were found as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.
Job 42:16  After this Job lived a hundred and forty years, and he saw his sons, and his sons' sons, four generations.
Job 42:17  So Job died, being old and full of days.

Psalms

Psalms 1:1  Blessed is the man who does not walk in the advice of the ungodly. He does not stand in the way of sinners, and he does not sit in the seat of those who mock.
Psalms 1:2  His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he thinks day and night.
Psalms 1:3  He will be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that gives its fruit in its season. Its leaf will not wither, and whatever he does will prosper.
Psalms 1:4  The ungodly are not like that. They are like the chaff which the wind blows away.
Psalms 1:5  So the ungodly will not stand in the judgment, and sinners will not stand in the gathering of the righteous.
Psalms 1:6  For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly will perish.

Psalms 2:1  Why are the nations in an uproar? Why do the peoples plan what is worthless?
Psalms 2:2  The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers plot together, against the LORD and against his anointed one. They say,
Psalms 2:3  "Let us break their chains apart, and throw off their ropes from us."
Psalms 2:4  The One who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will mock them.
Psalms 2:5  Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his great displeasure.
Psalms 2:6  "I myself have set my king on Zion, my holy hill."
Psalms 2:7  I will make known the decree. The LORD said to me, "You are my Son. Today I have become your Father."
Psalms 2:8  Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the farthest parts of the earth as your possession.
Psalms 2:9  "You will break them with a rod of iron. You will smash them to pieces like a potter's jar."
Psalms 2:10  So now be wise, you kings. Be warned, you judges of the earth.
Psalms 2:11  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Psalms 2:12  Kiss the Son, or he will be angry, and you will perish from the way, for his anger flares up quickly. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him.

  A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom.
Psalms 3:1  LORD, how many there are who trouble me! Many are those who rise up against me.
Psalms 3:2  Many are saying about me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah.
Psalms 3:3  But you, LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, and the one who lifts up my head.
Psalms 3:4  I cried out to the LORD with my voice, and he heard me from his holy hill. Selah.
Psalms 3:5  I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the LORD kept me safe.
Psalms 3:6  I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side.
Psalms 3:7  Rise up, LORD; save me, my God. For you have struck all my enemies on the cheek bone; you have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
Psalms 3:8  Salvation belongs to the LORD. Your blessing is on your people. Selah.

  For the leader of the music, to be played with stringed instruments. A psalm of David.
Psalms 4:1  Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You gave me room when I was in distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.
Psalms 4:2  You sons of men, how long will you turn my glory into shame? How long will you love what is empty, and go after lies? Selah.
Psalms 4:3  But know that the LORD has set apart the godly man for himself. The LORD will hear when I call to him.
Psalms 4:4  Stand in awe, and do not sin. Talk with your own heart on your bed, and be still. Selah.
Psalms 4:5  Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the LORD.
Psalms 4:6  There are many who say, "Who will show us any good?" LORD, lift up the light of your face upon us.
Psalms 4:7  You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and their wine increased.
Psalms 4:8  I will lie down in peace, and sleep. For you alone, LORD, make me live in safety.

  For the leader of the music, to be played with wind instruments. A psalm of David.
Psalms 5:1  Listen to my words, O LORD. Consider my quiet thoughts.
Psalms 5:2  Hear the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for I will pray to you.
Psalms 5:3  In the morning you will hear my voice, O LORD. In the morning I will set my prayer before you, and will look up.
Psalms 5:4  For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness. Evil cannot live with you.
Psalms 5:5  The foolish will not stand before your eyes. You hate all who do wrong.
Psalms 5:6  You will destroy those who speak lies. The LORD hates the man of blood and deceit.
Psalms 5:7  But as for me, I will come into your house because your mercy is great. In the fear of you I will worship, turning toward your holy temple.
Psalms 5:8  Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness, because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face.
Psalms 5:9  For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. Inside they are nothing but wickedness. Their throat is an open grave. They flatter with their tongue.
Psalms 5:10  Destroy them, O God. Let them fall by their own plans. Throw them out for their many sins, for they have rebelled against you.
Psalms 5:11  But let all those who trust in you be glad. Let them shout for joy for ever, because you defend them. Let those who love your name rejoice in you.
Psalms 5:12  For you, LORD, will bless the righteous. You will surround him with favour as with a shield.

  For the leader of the music, to be played with stringed instruments in a low setting. A psalm of David.
Psalms 6:1  O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger. Do not punish me in your hot displeasure.
Psalms 6:2  Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am weak. O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in pain.
Psalms 6:3  My soul also is in deep pain. But you, O LORD, how long?
Psalms 6:4  Return, O LORD, and rescue my soul. Oh, save me because of your mercy.
Psalms 6:5  For in death no one remembers you. In the grave, who will give you thanks?
Psalms 6:6  I am worn out with my groaning. All night long I make my bed swim; I soak my couch with my tears.
Psalms 6:7  My eye is wasted away because of grief. It grows old because of all my enemies.
Psalms 6:8  Go away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.
Psalms 6:9  The LORD has heard my plea. The LORD will receive my prayer.
Psalms 6:10  Let all my enemies be ashamed and in deep pain. Let them turn back and be put to shame suddenly.

  A wild and passionate song of David, which he sang to the LORD about the words of Cush from the tribe of Benjamin.
Psalms 7:1  O LORD my God, I put my trust in you. Save me from all those who chase me, and rescue me.
Psalms 7:2  If you do not, he will tear me apart like a lion. He will rip me in pieces, and no one will rescue me.
Psalms 7:3  O LORD my God, if I have done this; if there is wrong in my hands;
Psalms 7:4  if I have paid back evil to the one who was at peace with me (indeed, I set free the one who was my enemy without cause);
Psalms 7:5  then let the enemy chase me and catch me. Let him trample my life into the ground, and lay my honour in the dust. Selah.
Psalms 7:6  Rise up, O LORD, in your anger. Lift yourself up against the rage of my enemies. Wake up for me, and bring the judgment you have commanded.
Psalms 7:7  Then the gathered peoples will stand around you. So return on high above them.
Psalms 7:8  The LORD will judge the peoples. Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to the honesty that is in me.
Psalms 7:9  Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but make the just stand firm. For the righteous God tests the hearts and the inward parts.
Psalms 7:10  My defence comes from God, who saves those whose hearts are upright.
Psalms 7:11  God judges the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
Psalms 7:12  If he does not turn back, God will sharpen his sword. He has bent his bow and made it ready.
Psalms 7:13  He has also prepared the weapons of death for him. He makes his arrows ready against those who chase me.
Psalms 7:14  Look, the wicked man is in labour with evil. He has conceived trouble, and given birth to lies.
Psalms 7:15  He made a pit and dug it deep, and he has fallen into the hole he made.
Psalms 7:16  His trouble will come back on his own head, and his violence will come down on his own skull.
Psalms 7:17  I will praise the LORD for his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD most high.

  For the leader of the music, to be played on an instrument of Gath. A psalm of David.
Psalms 8:1  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
Psalms 8:2  Out of the mouth of babies and nursing children you have established strength, because of your enemies, so that you might silence the enemy and the avenger.
Psalms 8:3  When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place;
Psalms 8:4  what is man, that you keep him in mind? And the son of man, that you come to him?
Psalms 8:5  For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and you have crowned him with glory and honour.
Psalms 8:6  You made him rule over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet:
Psalms 8:7  all sheep and oxen, and the beasts of the field as well;
Psalms 8:8  the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
Psalms 8:9  O LORD our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth!

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Muth-labben. A psalm of David.
Psalms 9:1  I will praise you, O LORD, with my whole heart. I will tell of all your marvellous works.
Psalms 9:2  I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Psalms 9:3  When my enemies are turned back, they will fall and perish before you.
Psalms 9:4  For you have upheld my right and my cause. You sat on the throne, judging rightly.
Psalms 9:5  You have rebuked the nations, you have destroyed the wicked. You have blotted out their name for ever and ever.
Psalms 9:6  O enemy, the ruins are finished for ever. You have destroyed cities, and even the memory of them has perished.
Psalms 9:7  But the LORD will remain for ever. He has set up his throne for judgment.
Psalms 9:8  He will judge the world in righteousness. He will give judgment to the peoples with fairness.
Psalms 9:9  The LORD will also be a refuge for those who are crushed, a refuge in times of trouble.
Psalms 9:10  Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, LORD, have not abandoned those who seek you.
Psalms 9:11  Sing praises to the LORD, who lives in Zion. Tell among the peoples the things he has done.
Psalms 9:12  When he asks who has shed blood, he remembers them. He does not forget the cry of the humble.
Psalms 9:13  Have mercy on me, O LORD. See the trouble I suffer from those who hate me, you who lift me up from the gates of death,
Psalms 9:14  so that I may tell all your praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion. I will rejoice in your salvation.
Psalms 9:15  The nations have sunk down into the pit that they made. Their own foot is caught in the net they hid.
Psalms 9:16  The LORD is known by the judgment he carries out. The wicked is trapped by the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
Psalms 9:17  The wicked will be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Psalms 9:18  For the needy will not always be forgotten. The hope of the poor will not perish for ever.
Psalms 9:19  Arise, O LORD. Do not let man win. Let the nations be judged before you.
Psalms 9:20  Put them in fear, O LORD, so that the nations may know they are only men. Selah.

Psalms 10:1  Why do you stand far off, O LORD? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
Psalms 10:2  In his pride the wicked man hunts down the poor. Let them be caught in the schemes they have planned.
Psalms 10:3  For the wicked man boasts of what his heart desires. He blesses the greedy, whom the LORD hates.
Psalms 10:4  The wicked man is too proud to seek after God. God is not in any of his thoughts.
Psalms 10:5  His ways always bring grief. Your judgments are far above him, out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he blows at them in scorn.
Psalms 10:6  He has said in his heart, "I will not be moved. I will never be in trouble."
Psalms 10:7  His mouth is full of cursing and lies and fraud. Under his tongue is trouble and evil.
Psalms 10:8  He sits waiting in hiding near the villages. In secret places he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for the helpless.
Psalms 10:9  He lies in wait in secret, like a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he drags him into his net.
Psalms 10:10  He crouches down low, and the poor fall because of his strength.
Psalms 10:11  He has said in his heart, "God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it."
Psalms 10:12  Rise up, O LORD. O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble.
Psalms 10:13  Why does the wicked man despise God? He has said in his heart, "You will not call me to account."
Psalms 10:14  But you have seen it. You look at trouble and spite, to repay it with your hand. The poor man trusts himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless.
Psalms 10:15  Break the arm of the wicked and evil man. Search out his wickedness until you find none.
Psalms 10:16  The LORD is King for ever and ever. The nations have perished out of his land.
Psalms 10:17  LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will make their heart ready. You will make your ear listen,
Psalms 10:18  to give justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that the man of the earth may oppress no more.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 11:1  In the LORD I put my trust. How can you say to my soul, "Flee like a bird to your mountain"?
Psalms 11:2  For look, the wicked bend their bow. They set their arrow on the string, to shoot in secret at those who are upright in heart.
Psalms 11:3  If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Psalms 11:4  The LORD is in his holy temple. The LORD's throne is in heaven. His eyes see, his eyelids test, the children of men.
Psalms 11:5  The LORD tests the righteous. But the wicked, and the one who loves violence, his soul hates.
Psalms 11:6  On the wicked he will rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a dreadful storm. This will be the portion of their cup.
Psalms 11:7  For the righteous LORD loves righteousness. His face looks upon the upright.

  For the leader of the music, in a low setting. A psalm of David.
Psalms 12:1  Help, LORD; for the godly man is gone. The faithful have vanished from among the children of men.
Psalms 12:2  They speak empty words, each one to his neighbour. With flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
Psalms 12:3  The LORD will cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaks proud things.
Psalms 12:4  They have said, "With our tongue we will win; our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?"
Psalms 12:5  "Because the poor are crushed, because the needy groan, now I will rise up," says the LORD. "I will set him in safety from the one who puffs at him."
Psalms 12:6  The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver tested in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
Psalms 12:7  You will keep them, O LORD. You will preserve them from this generation for ever.
Psalms 12:8  The wicked walk on every side, when the vilest men are lifted high.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 13:1  How long will you forget me, O LORD? For ever? How long will you hide your face from me?
Psalms 13:2  How long must I take counsel in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy be lifted up over me?
Psalms 13:3  Look at me and answer me, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death.
Psalms 13:4  If I do, my enemy will say, "I have won against him." Those who trouble me will be glad when I am shaken.
Psalms 13:5  But I have trusted in your mercy. My heart will rejoice in your salvation.
Psalms 13:6  I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt generously with me.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 14:1  The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have done hateful deeds; there is no one who does good.
Psalms 14:2  The LORD looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood and sought after God.
Psalms 14:3  They have all turned aside; together they have become filthy. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
Psalms 14:4  Have all the workers of evil no knowledge? They eat up my people as they eat bread, and they do not call on the LORD.
Psalms 14:5  There they were in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous.
Psalms 14:6  You have shamed the plans of the poor, because the LORD is his refuge.
Psalms 14:7  Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD brings back his people from captivity, Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will be glad.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 15:1  LORD, who may stay in your tabernacle? Who may live on your holy hill?
Psalms 15:2  The one who walks uprightly, and does what is righteous, and speaks the truth in his heart.
Psalms 15:3  He does not slander with his tongue, and does no evil to his neighbour, and does not spread blame against his neighbour.
Psalms 15:4  In his eyes a vile person is despised, but he honours those who fear the LORD. He keeps his promise even when it costs him, and does not change it.
Psalms 15:5  He does not lend out his money for interest, and takes no bribe against the innocent. The one who does these things will never be shaken.

  An inscription of David.
Psalms 16:1  Keep me safe, O God, for I put my trust in you.
Psalms 16:2  O my soul, you have said to the LORD, "You are my Lord. My goodness does not reach up to you."
Psalms 16:3  It reaches the saints who are in the earth, and the noble ones, in whom is all my delight.
Psalms 16:4  Those who hurry after another god will have many sorrows. I will not pour out their drink offerings of blood, and I will not take their names on my lips.
Psalms 16:5  The LORD is the portion I inherit, and my cup. You hold my lot safe.
Psalms 16:6  The measuring lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a fine inheritance.
Psalms 16:7  I will bless the LORD, who has given me counsel. My inmost being also teaches me in the night.
Psalms 16:8  I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Psalms 16:9  So my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices. My body also will rest in hope.
Psalms 16:10  For you will not leave my soul in hell. You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.
Psalms 16:11  You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

  A prayer of David.
Psalms 17:1  Hear what is right, O LORD, listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer, for it does not come from lying lips.
Psalms 17:2  Let my judgment come from your presence. Let your eyes see what is fair.
Psalms 17:3  You have tested my heart. You have come to me in the night. You have tried me, and you will find nothing. I have decided that my mouth will not do wrong.
Psalms 17:4  As for the deeds of people, by the word of your lips I have kept myself from the paths of the destroyer.
Psalms 17:5  Hold up my steps in your paths, so that my feet do not slip.
Psalms 17:6  I have called on you, for you will answer me, O God. Turn your ear to me, and hear my words.
Psalms 17:7  Show your wonderful love, you who save by your right hand those who trust in you, saving them from those who rise up against them.
Psalms 17:8  Keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings,
Psalms 17:9  away from the wicked who crush me, away from my deadly enemies who surround me.
Psalms 17:10  They are closed up in their own fat. With their mouth they speak proudly.
Psalms 17:11  They have now surrounded us at every step. They fix their eyes to throw us down to the ground.
Psalms 17:12  He is like a lion hungry for its prey, like a young lion crouching in secret places.
Psalms 17:13  Rise up, O LORD, face him, throw him down. Save my soul from the wicked, who is your sword.
Psalms 17:14  Save me from men who are your hand, O LORD, from men of this world, whose share is in this life. You fill their belly with your hidden treasure. They have many children, and they leave what is left of their goods to their little ones.
Psalms 17:15  As for me, I will see your face in righteousness. When I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who sang these words to the LORD on the day the LORD saved him from all his enemies and from Saul. He said:
Psalms 18:1  I will love you, O LORD, my strength.
Psalms 18:2  The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. He is my God, my strength; I will trust in him. He is my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Psalms 18:3  I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised. So I will be saved from my enemies.
Psalms 18:4  The sorrows of death closed around me. The floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
Psalms 18:5  The sorrows of hell surrounded me. The traps of death came before me.
Psalms 18:6  In my trouble I called on the LORD, and cried out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came before him, right into his ears.
Psalms 18:7  Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was angry.
Psalms 18:8  Smoke went up from his nostrils, and fire came out of his mouth and burned things up. Coals were set on fire by it.
Psalms 18:9  He bent the heavens low and came down, and darkness was under his feet.
Psalms 18:10  He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he flew on the wings of the wind.
Psalms 18:11  He made darkness his hiding place. His tent around him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.
Psalms 18:12  At the brightness before him his thick clouds passed by, with hail stones and coals of fire.
Psalms 18:13  The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High spoke out loud, with hail stones and coals of fire.
Psalms 18:14  Yes, he sent out his arrows and scattered them. He shot out lightnings and threw them into confusion.
Psalms 18:15  Then the channels of the waters could be seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare, at your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
Psalms 18:16  He reached down from above and took hold of me. He drew me out of deep waters.
Psalms 18:17  He rescued me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.
Psalms 18:18  They came against me on the day of my trouble, but the LORD was my support.
Psalms 18:19  He brought me out into a wide place. He rescued me, because he delighted in me.
Psalms 18:20  The LORD rewarded me for my righteousness. He paid me back for the cleanness of my hands.
Psalms 18:21  For I have kept the ways of the LORD, and have not wickedly turned away from my God.
Psalms 18:22  For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put his laws away from me.
Psalms 18:23  I was also blameless before him, and I kept myself from my sin.
Psalms 18:24  So the LORD paid me back for my righteousness, for the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
Psalms 18:25  To the merciful you show yourself merciful. To an upright man you show yourself upright.
Psalms 18:26  To the pure you show yourself pure. To the crooked you show yourself hard.
Psalms 18:27  For you will save the suffering people, but you will bring down proud looks.
Psalms 18:28  For you will light my lamp. The LORD my God will make my darkness bright.
Psalms 18:29  By you I have run through a troop of soldiers. By my God I have jumped over a wall.
Psalms 18:30  As for God, his way is perfect. The word of the LORD has been tested. He is a shield to all who trust in him.
Psalms 18:31  For who is God except the LORD? Or who is a rock except our God?
Psalms 18:32  It is God who wraps me with strength, and makes my way perfect.
Psalms 18:33  He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places.
Psalms 18:34  He teaches my hands to fight, so that my arms can bend a bow of steel.
Psalms 18:35  You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your right hand has held me up, and your gentleness has made me great.
Psalms 18:36  You have made a wide path for my steps, so that my feet did not slip.
Psalms 18:37  I have chased my enemies and caught them. I did not turn back until they were destroyed.
Psalms 18:38  I have wounded them so that they could not get up. They have fallen under my feet.
Psalms 18:39  For you have wrapped me with strength for the battle. You have put down under me those who rose up against me.
Psalms 18:40  You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, so that I could destroy those who hate me.
Psalms 18:41  They cried out, but there was no one to save them. They cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them.
Psalms 18:42  Then I beat them as fine as dust before the wind. I threw them out like mud in the streets.
Psalms 18:43  You have rescued me from the quarrels of the people. You have made me the head of the nations. A people I did not know will serve me.
Psalms 18:44  As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me. Strangers will bow down to me.
Psalms 18:45  The strangers will fade away, and come trembling out of their hiding places.
Psalms 18:46  The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock. Let the God of my salvation be lifted high.
Psalms 18:47  It is God who avenges me, and puts the peoples under me.
Psalms 18:48  He rescues me from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise against me. You have saved me from the violent man.
Psalms 18:49  So I will give thanks to you, O LORD, among the nations, and sing praises to your name.
Psalms 18:50  He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows mercy to his anointed one, to David and to his descendants for ever.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 19:1  The heavens tell of the glory of God; the sky shows the work of his hands.
Psalms 19:2  Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they show knowledge.
Psalms 19:3  There is no speech and no language where their voice is not heard.
Psalms 19:4  Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set up a tent for the sun,
Psalms 19:5  which is like a bridegroom coming out of his room, and rejoices like a strong man to run a race.
Psalms 19:6  It goes out from one end of the heavens, and travels round to the other end. Nothing is hidden from its heat.
Psalms 19:7  The law of the LORD is perfect, turning the soul back to him. The testimony of the LORD is sure, making the simple wise.
Psalms 19:8  The statutes of the LORD are right, making the heart glad. The commandment of the LORD is pure, giving light to the eyes.
Psalms 19:9  The fear of the LORD is clean, lasting for ever. The judgments of the LORD are true, and every one of them is righteous.
Psalms 19:10  They are to be desired more than gold, more than much fine gold. They are sweeter than honey, sweeter than honey from the comb.
Psalms 19:11  By them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalms 19:12  Who can understand his own mistakes? Cleanse me from the faults I cannot see.
Psalms 19:13  Keep your servant back from bold sins as well; do not let them rule over me. Then I will be upright, and I will be innocent of the great wrongdoing.
Psalms 19:14  Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart please you, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 20:1  May the LORD hear you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob defend you.
Psalms 20:2  May he send you help from the sanctuary, and give you strength out of Zion.
Psalms 20:3  May he remember all your offerings, and accept your burnt sacrifice. Selah.
Psalms 20:4  May he give you what your own heart desires, and bring all your plans to pass.
Psalms 20:5  We will rejoice in your salvation, and in the name of our God we will raise our banners. May the LORD grant all that you ask.
Psalms 20:6  Now I know that the LORD saves his anointed one. He will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.
Psalms 20:7  Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.
Psalms 20:8  They are brought down and have fallen, but we have risen, and we stand upright.
Psalms 20:9  Save us, LORD. Let the king hear us when we call.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 21:1  The king will be glad in your strength, O LORD; and in your salvation how greatly he will rejoice!
Psalms 21:2  You have given him what his heart desired, and you have not held back what his lips asked for. Selah.
Psalms 21:3  For you go before him with good blessings: you set a crown of pure gold on his head.
Psalms 21:4  He asked you for life, and you gave it to him, long days for ever and ever.
Psalms 21:5  His glory is great because you saved him: you have laid honour and majesty upon him.
Psalms 21:6  For you have made him most blessed for ever: you have made him very glad with the light of your face.
Psalms 21:7  For the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the Most High he will not be shaken.
Psalms 21:8  Your hand will find out all your enemies: your right hand will find out those who hate you.
Psalms 21:9  You will make them like a burning oven in the time of your anger: the LORD will swallow them up in his wrath, and the fire will consume them.
Psalms 21:10  You will destroy their fruit from the earth, and their children from among the sons of men.
Psalms 21:11  For they planned evil against you: they thought up a wicked scheme, but they are not able to carry it out.
Psalms 21:12  So you will make them turn their backs, when you aim your arrows on your bowstrings at their faces.
Psalms 21:13  Be lifted high, LORD, in your own strength: so we will sing and praise your power.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Aijeleth Shahar. A psalm of David.
Psalms 22:1  My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, so far from the words of my groaning?
Psalms 22:2  O my God, I cry out in the daytime, but you do not answer. I cry in the night, and I am not silent.
Psalms 22:3  But you are holy, you who are enthroned on the praises of Israel.
Psalms 22:4  Our fathers trusted in you. They trusted, and you rescued them.
Psalms 22:5  They cried to you and were rescued. They trusted in you and were not put to shame.
Psalms 22:6  But I am a worm, and not a man. Men insult me, and the people despise me.
Psalms 22:7  All who see me laugh at me and mock me. They curl their lips and shake their heads, saying,
Psalms 22:8  "He trusted in the LORD to rescue him. Let the LORD rescue him, since he delighted in him."
Psalms 22:9  But you are the one who brought me out of the womb. You made me trust you while I was at my mother's breasts.
Psalms 22:10  I was laid upon you from birth. You have been my God from my mother's body.
Psalms 22:11  Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help.
Psalms 22:12  Many bulls surround me. Strong bulls of Bashan close in on me.
Psalms 22:13  They open their mouths wide at me, like a lion tearing its prey and roaring.
Psalms 22:14  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it has melted inside me.
Psalms 22:15  My strength is dried up like a broken piece of pottery. My tongue sticks to my jaws. You have brought me down to the dust of death.
Psalms 22:16  Dogs surround me. A gang of evil men has closed in on me. They pierced my hands and my feet.
Psalms 22:17  I can count all my bones. They look at me and stare.
Psalms 22:18  They divide my clothes among them, and they cast lots for my clothing.
Psalms 22:19  But you, LORD, do not be far from me. O my strength, hurry to help me.
Psalms 22:20  Save my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
Psalms 22:21  Save me from the lion's mouth. You have heard me from the horns of the unicorns.
Psalms 22:22  I will tell my brothers and sisters about your name. In the middle of the assembly I will praise you.
Psalms 22:23  You who fear the LORD, praise him. All you children of Jacob, give him glory. Fear him, all you children of Israel.
Psalms 22:24  For he has not despised or hated the suffering of the one who suffers. He has not hidden his face from him. When he cried to him, he heard.
Psalms 22:25  My praise in the great assembly comes from you. I will pay what I have vowed in front of those who fear him.
Psalms 22:26  The meek will eat and be satisfied. Those who seek the LORD will praise him. May your heart live for ever.
Psalms 22:27  All the ends of the world will remember and turn to the LORD. All the families of the nations will worship before you.
Psalms 22:28  For the kingdom belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
Psalms 22:29  All the rich of the earth will eat and worship. All who go down to the dust will bow before him, even the one who cannot keep his own soul alive.
Psalms 22:30  Their children will serve him. They will be counted to the Lord as a generation.
Psalms 22:31  They will come and tell his righteousness to a people not yet born, saying that he has done this.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 23:1  The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not be in need.
Psalms 23:2  He makes me lie down in green fields. He leads me beside the quiet waters.
Psalms 23:3  He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Psalms 23:4  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Psalms 23:5  You set a table for me in front of my enemies. You pour oil on my head; my cup runs over.
Psalms 23:6  Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD for ever.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 24:1  The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it.
Psalms 24:2  For he has set it on the seas, and made it firm upon the floods.
Psalms 24:3  Who shall go up into the hill of the LORD? Or who shall stand in his holy place?
Psalms 24:4  The one who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to what is empty, nor sworn falsely.
Psalms 24:5  He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Psalms 24:6  This is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O Jacob. Selah.
Psalms 24:7  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Psalms 24:8  Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
Psalms 24:9  Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Psalms 24:10  Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 25:1  To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.
Psalms 25:2  O my God, I trust in you. Do not let me be put to shame. Do not let my enemies triumph over me.
Psalms 25:3  Let no one who waits for you be put to shame. Let those be ashamed who break your law without cause.
Psalms 25:4  Show me your ways, O LORD. Teach me your paths.
Psalms 25:5  Lead me in your truth, and teach me. For you are the God who saves me. I wait for you all day long.
Psalms 25:6  Remember, O LORD, your tender mercies and your steady love. They have been there from long ago.
Psalms 25:7  Do not remember the sins of my youth, or the wrongs I have done. In your mercy remember me, because you are good, O LORD.
Psalms 25:8  The LORD is good and true. So he teaches sinners the way.
Psalms 25:9  He guides the humble in what is right. He teaches the humble his way.
Psalms 25:10  All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth for those who keep his covenant and his commands.
Psalms 25:11  For your name's sake, O LORD, pardon my sin, for it is great.
Psalms 25:12  Who is the man that fears the LORD? God will teach him the way that he should choose.
Psalms 25:13  He himself will live at ease, and his children will inherit the earth.
Psalms 25:14  The secret of the LORD is with those who fear him. He will show them his covenant.
Psalms 25:15  My eyes are always turned to the LORD, for he will pull my feet out of the net.
Psalms 25:16  Turn to me, and have mercy on me, for I am alone and in pain.
Psalms 25:17  The troubles of my heart have grown large. Bring me out of my distress.
Psalms 25:18  Look on my suffering and my pain, and forgive all my sins.
Psalms 25:19  Look at my enemies, for they are many. They hate me with a cruel hatred.
Psalms 25:20  Keep my soul, and rescue me. Do not let me be put to shame, for I put my trust in you.
Psalms 25:21  Let honesty and right living keep me safe, for I wait for you.
Psalms 25:22  Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 26:1  Judge me, O LORD, for I have walked in my integrity. I have trusted in the LORD as well; so I shall not slip.
Psalms 26:2  Examine me, O LORD, and test me. Try my inward parts and my heart.
Psalms 26:3  For your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth.
Psalms 26:4  I have not sat with worthless people, and I will not go in with those who pretend.
Psalms 26:5  I have hated the gathering of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.
Psalms 26:6  I will wash my hands in innocence, and so I will go around your altar, O LORD,
Psalms 26:7  so that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all your wonderful works.
Psalms 26:8  LORD, I have loved the dwelling of your house, and the place where your honour lives.
Psalms 26:9  Do not gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with men of blood,
Psalms 26:10  in whose hands is evil, and whose right hand is full of bribes.
Psalms 26:11  But as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me, and be merciful to me.
Psalms 26:12  My foot stands on level ground. In the assemblies I will bless the LORD.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 27:1  The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalms 27:2  When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
Psalms 27:3  Though an army camps against me, my heart will not fear. Though war rises against me, even then I will be confident.
Psalms 27:4  One thing I have asked of the LORD, and that is what I will seek: to live in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to look on the beauty of the LORD, and to ask in his temple.
Psalms 27:5  For in the time of trouble he will hide me in his shelter. In the secret place of his tent he will hide me; he will set me high upon a rock.
Psalms 27:6  Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies all around me. So in his tent I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.
Psalms 27:7  Hear me, LORD, when I cry out with my voice. Have mercy on me, and answer me.
Psalms 27:8  When you said, "Seek my face," my heart said to you, "Your face, LORD, I will seek."
Psalms 27:9  Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help; do not leave me, and do not forsake me, O God of my salvation.
Psalms 27:10  When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
Psalms 27:11  Teach me your way, LORD, and lead me on a level path, because of my enemies.
Psalms 27:12  Do not hand me over to the will of my enemies. For false witnesses have risen up against me, and they breathe out cruelty.
Psalms 27:13  I would have lost heart, if I had not believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Psalms 27:14  Wait for the LORD. Be strong, and he will give your heart courage. Wait, I say, for the LORD.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 28:1  To you I will cry, O LORD my rock. Do not be silent to me. If you are silent to me, I become like those who go down into the pit.
Psalms 28:2  Hear the voice of my pleading, when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy place.
Psalms 28:3  Do not drag me away with the wicked, and with those who do evil. They speak peace to their neighbours, but harm is in their hearts.
Psalms 28:4  Give them what their deeds deserve, and what the wickedness of their doings deserves. Give them what their hands have made. Pay them back what is due to them.
Psalms 28:5  They pay no attention to the works of the LORD, nor to what his hands have done. So he will pull them down and not build them up.
Psalms 28:6  Blessed be the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my pleading.
Psalms 28:7  The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him, and I am helped. So my heart greatly rejoices, and with my song I will praise him.
Psalms 28:8  The LORD is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed one.
Psalms 28:9  Save your people, and bless those who are your inheritance. Feed them also, and carry them for ever.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 29:1  Give to the LORD, you mighty ones, give to the LORD glory and strength.
Psalms 29:2  Give to the LORD the glory due to his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
Psalms 29:3  The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thunders: the LORD is upon many waters.
Psalms 29:4  The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
Psalms 29:5  The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; yes, the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
Psalms 29:6  He makes them skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
Psalms 29:7  The voice of the LORD divides the flames of fire.
Psalms 29:8  The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness; the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
Psalms 29:9  The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth, and strips the forests bare: and in his temple everyone speaks of his glory.
Psalms 29:10  The LORD sits upon the flood; yes, the LORD sits as King for ever.
Psalms 29:11  The LORD will give strength to his people; the LORD will bless his people with peace.

  A psalm and song for the dedication of David's house.
Psalms 30:1  I will praise you, O LORD, for you have lifted me up. You have not let my enemies rejoice over me.
Psalms 30:2  O LORD my God, I cried to you, and you healed me.
Psalms 30:3  O LORD, you brought my soul up from the grave. You kept me alive, so that I would not go down to the pit.
Psalms 30:4  Sing to the LORD, you his saints. Give thanks when you remember his holiness.
Psalms 30:5  For his anger lasts only a moment; in his favour is life. Weeping may stay for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Psalms 30:6  When all was going well with me, I said, "I will never be moved."
Psalms 30:7  LORD, by your favour you made my mountain stand strong. You hid your face, and I was troubled.
Psalms 30:8  I cried to you, O LORD. To the LORD I made my plea:
Psalms 30:9  "What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your truth?"
Psalms 30:10  "Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me. LORD, be my helper."
Psalms 30:11  You have turned my mourning into dancing. You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
Psalms 30:12  so that my glory may sing praise to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks for ever.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 31:1  In you, O LORD, I put my trust; let me never be ashamed. Rescue me in your righteousness.
Psalms 31:2  Bend down your ear to me; rescue me quickly. Be my strong rock, a house of defence to save me.
Psalms 31:3  For you are my rock and my fortress; so for your name's sake lead me and guide me.
Psalms 31:4  Pull me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my strength.
Psalms 31:5  Into your hand I commit my spirit. You have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.
Psalms 31:6  I have hated those who cling to worthless lies, but I trust in the LORD.
Psalms 31:7  I will be glad and rejoice in your mercy, for you have seen my trouble. You have known my soul in its hard times,
Psalms 31:8  and you have not shut me up in the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a wide place.
Psalms 31:9  Have mercy on me, O LORD, for I am in trouble. My eye is worn away with grief, and so are my soul and my body.
Psalms 31:10  My life is used up with grief, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my sin, and my bones waste away.
Psalms 31:11  I was a disgrace to all my enemies, but most of all to my neighbours, and a fright to those who knew me. Those who saw me outside ran away from me.
Psalms 31:12  I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken pot.
Psalms 31:13  For I have heard many whispering against me; fear was on every side. While they talked together against me, they planned to take away my life.
Psalms 31:14  But I trusted in you, O LORD. I said, "You are my God."
Psalms 31:15  My times are in your hand. Rescue me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who chase me.
Psalms 31:16  Make your face shine on your servant. Save me for the sake of your mercy.
Psalms 31:17  Let me not be ashamed, O LORD, for I have called on you. Let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
Psalms 31:18  Let the lying lips be made silent, which speak cruel things proudly and with scorn against the righteous.
Psalms 31:19  Oh how great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you! You have done it for those who trust in you, in front of the sons of men.
Psalms 31:20  You will hide them in the secret place of your presence, away from the pride of man. You will keep them safe in a shelter, away from the quarrelling of tongues.
Psalms 31:21  Blessed be the LORD, for he has shown me his wonderful kindness in a strong city.
Psalms 31:22  For I said in my haste, "I am cut off from your sight." Yet you heard the voice of my prayers when I cried to you.
Psalms 31:23  Oh love the LORD, all you his saints. For the LORD keeps the faithful safe, and fully pays back the proud.
Psalms 31:24  Be of good courage, and he will make your heart strong, all you who hope in the LORD.

  A psalm of David, for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 32:1  Blessed is the one whose wrongdoing is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Psalms 32:2  Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
Psalms 32:3  When I kept silent, my bones wore away, while I groaned all day long.
Psalms 32:4  For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My moisture was turned into the dryness of summer. Selah.
Psalms 32:5  I admitted my sin to you, and I did not hide my wrongdoing. I said, "I will confess my sins to the LORD." And you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
Psalms 32:6  So let everyone who is godly pray to you at a time when you may be found. Surely when great waters flood, they will not reach him.
Psalms 32:7  You are my hiding place. You will keep me safe from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
Psalms 32:8  I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye.
Psalms 32:9  Do not be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding. Their mouths must be held with bit and bridle, or they will not come near you.
Psalms 32:10  The wicked will have many sorrows, but mercy will surround the one who trusts in the LORD.
Psalms 32:11  Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones. Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

Psalms 33:1  Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous ones. Praise is fitting for those who are upright.
Psalms 33:2  Praise the LORD with the harp. Sing to him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Psalms 33:3  Sing to him a new song. Play skilfully, with a loud sound.
Psalms 33:4  For the word of the LORD is right, and all his works are done in truth.
Psalms 33:5  He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.
Psalms 33:6  By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
Psalms 33:7  He gathers the waters of the sea together like a heap. He stores the deep in storehouses.
Psalms 33:8  Let all the earth fear the LORD. Let all the people of the world stand in awe of him.
Psalms 33:9  For he spoke, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood firm.
Psalms 33:10  The LORD brings the plans of the nations to nothing. He makes the schemes of the peoples have no effect.
Psalms 33:11  The plan of the LORD stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Psalms 33:12  Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance.
Psalms 33:13  The LORD looks down from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.
Psalms 33:14  From the place where he lives he looks on all who live on the earth.
Psalms 33:15  He forms the hearts of them all. He considers all that they do.
Psalms 33:16  No king is saved by the size of his army. A strong man is not rescued by his great strength.
Psalms 33:17  A horse is a useless hope for safety. It cannot save anyone by its great strength.
Psalms 33:18  Look, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy,
Psalms 33:19  to rescue their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.
Psalms 33:20  Our soul waits for the LORD. He is our help and our shield.
Psalms 33:21  For our heart will rejoice in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.
Psalms 33:22  Let your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, just as we hope in you.

  A psalm of David, written when he changed the way he acted in front of Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.
Psalms 34:1  I will bless the LORD at all times. His praise will always be in my mouth.
Psalms 34:2  My soul will boast in the LORD. The humble will hear it and be glad.
Psalms 34:3  Magnify the LORD with me, and let us lift up his name together.
Psalms 34:4  I sought the LORD, and he heard me. He rescued me from all my fears.
Psalms 34:5  They looked to him, and their faces shone. Their faces were not ashamed.
Psalms 34:6  This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him. He saved him out of all his troubles.
Psalms 34:7  The angel of the LORD camps around those who fear him, and he rescues them.
Psalms 34:8  Taste and see that the LORD is good. Blessed is the one who trusts in him.
Psalms 34:9  Fear the LORD, you his saints. Those who fear him lack nothing.
Psalms 34:10  Young lions go without and are hungry. But those who seek the LORD will not lack any good thing.
Psalms 34:11  Come, children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Psalms 34:12  Who is the one who wants life, and loves many days, so that he may see good?
Psalms 34:13  Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies.
Psalms 34:14  Turn away from evil, and do good. Seek peace, and chase after it.
Psalms 34:15  The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their cry.
Psalms 34:16  The face of the LORD is against those who do evil, to cut off all memory of them from the earth.
Psalms 34:17  The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears. He rescues them out of all their troubles.
Psalms 34:18  The LORD is near to those whose heart is broken. He saves those whose spirit is crushed.
Psalms 34:19  Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the LORD rescues him out of them all.
Psalms 34:20  He keeps all his bones. Not one of them is broken.
Psalms 34:21  Evil will kill the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be left desolate.
Psalms 34:22  The LORD redeems the soul of his servants. None of those who trust in him will be left desolate.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 35:1  Take up my case, O LORD, against those who fight with me. Fight against those who fight against me.
Psalms 35:2  Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up to help me.
Psalms 35:3  Draw out the spear too, and block the way against those who chase me. Say to my soul, "I am your salvation."
Psalms 35:4  Let those who seek my life be confused and put to shame. Let those who plan to hurt me be turned back and left in confusion.
Psalms 35:5  Let them be like chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the LORD drive them away.
Psalms 35:6  Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
Psalms 35:7  For without cause they hid their net for me in a pit. Without cause they dug it for my life.
Psalms 35:8  Let ruin come on him when he does not expect it. Let the net he hid catch him instead. Let him fall into that very ruin.
Psalms 35:9  And my soul will be joyful in the LORD. It will rejoice in his salvation.
Psalms 35:10  All my bones will say, "LORD, who is like you? You rescue the poor from the one too strong for him; yes, the poor and the needy from the one who robs him."
Psalms 35:11  False witnesses stood up. They accused me of things I knew nothing about.
Psalms 35:12  They paid me back evil for good, so that my soul was left bare.
Psalms 35:13  But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer came back to my own heart.
Psalms 35:14  I acted as though he were my friend or my brother. I bowed down in grief, like one who mourns for his mother.
Psalms 35:15  But when I was in trouble they were glad, and they gathered together. Yes, worthless men gathered together against me, and I did not know it. They tore at me and would not stop.
Psalms 35:16  With false mockers at feasts, they ground their teeth at me.
Psalms 35:17  Lord, how long will you look on? Rescue my soul from their destroying, my only life from the lions.
Psalms 35:18  I will give you thanks in the great assembly. I will praise you among many people.
Psalms 35:19  Do not let my enemies, who are wrong, rejoice over me. Do not let those who hate me without a cause wink with the eye.
Psalms 35:20  For they do not speak peace. They plan lies against those who are quiet in the land.
Psalms 35:21  Yes, they opened their mouth wide against me and said, "Aha, aha, our eye has seen it."
Psalms 35:22  You have seen this, O LORD. Do not keep silent. O Lord, do not be far from me.
Psalms 35:23  Stir yourself up, and wake up to give me justice, to take up my case, my God and my Lord.
Psalms 35:24  Judge me, O LORD my God, according to your righteousness, and do not let them rejoice over me.
Psalms 35:25  Do not let them say in their hearts, "Aha, this is what we wanted." Do not let them say, "We have swallowed him up."
Psalms 35:26  Let those who are glad at my hurt be ashamed and confused together. Let those who boast against me be clothed with shame and dishonour.
Psalms 35:27  Let those who want to see me cleared shout for joy and be glad. Yes, let them say again and again, "Let the LORD be praised as great. He takes pleasure in the well-being of his servant."
Psalms 35:28  And my tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praise all day long.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David, the servant of the LORD.
Psalms 36:1  The sin of the wicked speaks within my heart: there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Psalms 36:2  For he flatters himself in his own eyes, until his sin is found to be hateful.
Psalms 36:3  The words of his mouth are sin and deceit. He has stopped being wise and doing good.
Psalms 36:4  He plans trouble on his bed. He sets himself on a way that is not good. He does not hate evil.
Psalms 36:5  Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Psalms 36:6  Your righteousness is like the great mountains. Your judgments are a great deep. O LORD, you keep safe both man and beast.
Psalms 36:7  How excellent is your lovingkindness, O God! So the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings.
Psalms 36:8  They will be fully satisfied with the rich food of your house, and you will give them drink from the river of your delights.
Psalms 36:9  For with you is the fountain of life. In your light we will see light.
Psalms 36:10  Continue your lovingkindness to those who know you, and your righteousness to those who are upright in heart.
Psalms 36:11  Do not let the foot of pride come against me. Do not let the hand of the wicked drive me away.
Psalms 36:12  There the workers of sin have fallen. They are thrown down, and will not be able to rise.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 37:1  Do not be upset because of those who do evil. Do not envy those who do wrong.
Psalms 37:2  For soon they will be cut down like the grass, and wither like green plants.
Psalms 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good. Then you will live in the land, and you will truly be fed.
Psalms 37:4  Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you what your heart desires.
Psalms 37:5  Give your way over to the LORD. Trust in him also, and he will act.
Psalms 37:6  He will bring out your righteousness like the light, and your cause like the noonday sun.
Psalms 37:7  Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him. Do not be upset because of the one who does well in his way, or because of the man who carries out wicked plans.
Psalms 37:8  Stop being angry, and turn from rage. Do not be upset; it only leads to evil.
Psalms 37:9  For those who do evil will be cut off. But those who wait for the LORD will inherit the earth.
Psalms 37:10  In just a little while the wicked will be gone. You will look carefully at his place, and he will not be there.
Psalms 37:11  But the meek will inherit the earth, and they will delight in great peace.
Psalms 37:12  The wicked man plots against the just, and grinds his teeth at him.
Psalms 37:13  The Lord laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming.
Psalms 37:14  The wicked have drawn the sword and bent their bow, to bring down the poor and needy, and to kill those whose conduct is upright.
Psalms 37:15  Their sword will go into their own heart, and their bows will be broken.
Psalms 37:16  The little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked people.
Psalms 37:17  For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD holds up the righteous.
Psalms 37:18  The LORD knows the days of those who are upright, and their inheritance will last for ever.
Psalms 37:19  They will not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they will have enough.
Psalms 37:20  But the wicked will die. The enemies of the LORD will be like the fat of lambs: they will be used up; they will vanish away in smoke.
Psalms 37:21  The wicked man borrows and does not pay back, but the righteous man shows mercy and gives.
Psalms 37:22  For those whom he blesses will inherit the earth, and those whom he curses will be cut off.
Psalms 37:23  The steps of a good man are set in order by the LORD, and he delights in his way.
Psalms 37:24  Though he falls, he will not be thrown down completely, for the LORD holds him up with his hand.
Psalms 37:25  I have been young, and now I am old. Yet I have not seen the righteous left alone, nor his children begging for bread.
Psalms 37:26  He is always merciful, and he lends; and his children are blessed.
Psalms 37:27  Turn away from evil, and do good; and live for ever.
Psalms 37:28  For the LORD loves justice, and he does not leave his holy ones. They are kept safe for ever. But the children of the wicked will be cut off.
Psalms 37:29  The righteous will inherit the land, and live in it for ever.
Psalms 37:30  The mouth of the righteous man speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice.
Psalms 37:31  The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps will slip.
Psalms 37:32  The wicked man watches the righteous, and looks for a way to kill him.
Psalms 37:33  The LORD will not leave him in his power, or let him be condemned when he is judged.
Psalms 37:34  Wait for the LORD, and keep his way. He will lift you up to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.
Psalms 37:35  I have seen a wicked man with great power, spreading himself out like a green bay tree.
Psalms 37:36  Yet he passed away, and he was gone. I looked for him, but he could not be found.
Psalms 37:37  Take note of the blameless man, and look at the upright, for the end of that man is peace.
Psalms 37:38  But those who break the law will all be destroyed. The end of the wicked will be cut off.
Psalms 37:39  But the salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD. He is their strength in the time of trouble.
Psalms 37:40  The LORD will help them and rescue them. He will rescue them from the wicked and save them, because they trust in him.

  A psalm of David, to help people remember.
Psalms 38:1  O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger. Do not punish me in your burning displeasure.
Psalms 38:2  For your arrows have sunk deep into me, and your hand presses hard on me.
Psalms 38:3  There is no health in my body because of your anger. There is no rest in my bones because of my sin.
Psalms 38:4  For my sins have gone over my head. Like a heavy load, they are too heavy for me.
Psalms 38:5  My wounds stink and are rotten because of my foolishness.
Psalms 38:6  I am troubled; I am bowed down very low. I go about mourning all day long.
Psalms 38:7  For my body is filled with a sickening disease, and there is no health in my flesh.
Psalms 38:8  I am weak and badly broken. I have cried out loud because my heart is in turmoil.
Psalms 38:9  Lord, all that I long for is before you, and my groaning is not hidden from you.
Psalms 38:10  My heart pounds, my strength fails me. Even the light of my eyes has gone from me.
Psalms 38:11  Those who love me and my friends keep away from my wounds, and my relatives stand far off.
Psalms 38:12  Those who want to take my life set traps for me. Those who want to harm me speak of ruin, and plot lies all day long.
Psalms 38:13  But I was like a deaf man, and did not hear. I was like a man who cannot speak, who does not open his mouth.
Psalms 38:14  So I was like a man who does not hear, and who has no answer in his mouth.
Psalms 38:15  For in you, O LORD, I hope. You will answer, O Lord my God.
Psalms 38:16  For I said, "Hear me, or else they will gloat over me. When my foot slips, they boast against me."
Psalms 38:17  For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow is always before me.
Psalms 38:18  For I will confess my sin. I will be sorry for my sin.
Psalms 38:19  But my enemies are lively, and they are strong. Those who hate me without cause are many.
Psalms 38:20  Those who pay back evil for good are against me, because I follow what is good.
Psalms 38:21  Do not leave me, O LORD. O my God, do not be far from me.
Psalms 38:22  Hurry to help me, O Lord my salvation.

  For the leader of the music, for Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
Psalms 39:1  I said, "I will watch my ways, so that I do not sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked are in front of me."
Psalms 39:2  I was silent and said nothing. I did not even speak of good things, and my sorrow was stirred up.
Psalms 39:3  My heart was hot within me. While I was thinking, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue:
Psalms 39:4  "LORD, make me know my end, and how many my days are. Let me know how frail I am."
Psalms 39:5  Look, you have made my days as wide as a hand, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Truly every man, even at his best, is only a breath. Selah.
Psalms 39:6  Surely every man walks about like a shadow. Surely they trouble themselves for nothing. He piles up riches, and does not know who will gather them.
Psalms 39:7  And now, Lord, what am I waiting for? My hope is in you.
Psalms 39:8  Rescue me from all my sins. Do not make me the scorn of fools.
Psalms 39:9  I was silent. I did not open my mouth, because you did it.
Psalms 39:10  Take your blow away from me. I am worn out by the strike of your hand.
Psalms 39:11  When you correct a man with rebukes for his sin, you make his beauty waste away like a moth eating cloth. Surely every man is only a breath. Selah.
Psalms 39:12  Hear my prayer, O LORD, and listen to my cry. Do not be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, and a traveller passing through, as all my fathers were.
Psalms 39:13  "Spare me, so that I may get my strength back, before I go away and am no more."

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 40:1  I waited patiently for the LORD. He turned to me, and heard my cry.
Psalms 40:2  He lifted me out of a terrible pit, out of the deep mud. He set my feet on a rock, and made my steps firm.
Psalms 40:3  He has put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see it, and fear, and will trust in the LORD.
Psalms 40:4  Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust, and does not turn to the proud, or to those who turn aside to lies.
Psalms 40:5  O LORD my God, many are the wonderful works you have done, and the thoughts you have toward us. No one can set them out before you in order. If I tried to tell them and speak of them, they are more than can be counted.
Psalms 40:6  Sacrifice and offering you did not want. You have opened my ears. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not asked for.
Psalms 40:7  Then I said, "Look, I come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me."
Psalms 40:8  "I delight to do your will, O my God. Yes, your law is within my heart."
Psalms 40:9  I have preached righteousness in the great assembly. Look, I have not held back my lips, O LORD, and you know it.
Psalms 40:10  I have not hidden your righteousness inside my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not kept your loving kindness and your truth from the great assembly.
Psalms 40:11  Do not hold back your tender mercies from me, O LORD. Let your loving kindness and your truth always keep me safe.
Psalms 40:12  For troubles beyond counting have closed in around me. My sins have caught hold of me, so that I cannot look up. They are more than the hairs of my head, so my heart fails me.
Psalms 40:13  Be pleased, O LORD, to rescue me. O LORD, hurry to help me.
Psalms 40:14  Let those who seek my life to destroy it be ashamed and confused together. Let those who wish evil for me be driven back and put to shame.
Psalms 40:15  Let them be left desolate, as the reward of their shame, who say to me, "Aha, aha."
Psalms 40:16  Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say again and again, "The LORD be praised."
Psalms 40:17  But I am poor and needy. Yet the Lord thinks about me. You are my help and the one who sets me free. Do not delay, O my God.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 41:1  Blessed is the one who thinks about the poor: the LORD will rescue him in the time of trouble.
Psalms 41:2  The LORD will protect him and keep him alive; and he will be blessed on the earth: and you will not hand him over to the will of his enemies.
Psalms 41:3  The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of weakness: you will make all his bed in his sickness.
Psalms 41:4  I said, "LORD, have mercy on me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against you."
Psalms 41:5  My enemies speak evil of me: "When will he die, and his name perish?"
Psalms 41:6  And if one of them comes to see me, he speaks empty words: his heart gathers up wickedness for itself; when he goes out, he tells it.
Psalms 41:7  All who hate me whisper together against me: they plan my harm.
Psalms 41:8  "An evil disease holds him fast," they say, "and now that he is lying down he will never get up again."
Psalms 41:9  Yes, my own close friend, whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.
Psalms 41:10  But you, LORD, have mercy on me, and raise me up, so that I may pay them back.
Psalms 41:11  By this I know that you are pleased with me, because my enemy does not win over me.
Psalms 41:12  And as for me, you hold me up in my integrity, and you set me before your face for ever.
Psalms 41:13  Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm for instruction and reflection, for the sons of Korah.
Psalms 42:1  As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
Psalms 42:2  My soul is thirsty for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Psalms 42:3  My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the time, "Where is your God?"
Psalms 42:4  When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the crowd; I went with them to the house of God, with the sound of joy and praise, with a crowd keeping the feast.
Psalms 42:5  Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you troubled within me? Hope in God. For I will praise him again for the help of his face.
Psalms 42:6  O my God, my soul is cast down within me. So I will remember you from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.
Psalms 42:7  Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your breakers have gone over me.
Psalms 42:8  Yet the LORD will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song will be with me, and my prayer to the God of my life.
Psalms 42:9  I will say to God my rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go about mourning because the enemy oppresses me?"
Psalms 42:10  Like a sword in my bones, my enemies insult me, while they say to me every day, "Where is your God?"
Psalms 42:11  Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you troubled within me? Hope in God. For I will praise him again, who is the health of my face, and my God.

Psalms 43:1  Judge me, O God, and take up my case against an ungodly nation. Rescue me from the deceitful and unjust man.
Psalms 43:2  For you are the God of my strength. Why have you cast me off? Why do I go about mourning because the enemy oppresses me?
Psalms 43:3  Send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, and to your tents.
Psalms 43:4  Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my very great joy. Yes, with the harp I will praise you, O God my God.
Psalms 43:5  Why are you cast down, O my soul? Why are you troubled within me? Hope in God, for I will praise him again. He is the health of my face, and my God.

  For the leader of the music, for the sons of Korah. A psalm for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 44:1  We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what work you did in their days, in the times long ago.
Psalms 44:2  You drove out the nations with your hand, and planted our fathers in their place. You brought trouble on those peoples, and cast them out.
Psalms 44:3  They did not win the land by their own sword, and their own arm did not save them. It was your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your face, because you favoured them.
Psalms 44:4  You are my King, O God. Command deliverance for Jacob.
Psalms 44:5  Through you we will push down our enemies. Through your name we will trample those who rise up against us.
Psalms 44:6  For I will not trust in my bow, and my sword will not save me.
Psalms 44:7  But you have saved us from our enemies, and have put those who hated us to shame.
Psalms 44:8  In God we boast all day long, and we praise your name for ever. Selah.
Psalms 44:9  But now you have cast us off and put us to shame. You do not go out with our armies.
Psalms 44:10  You make us turn back from the enemy, and those who hate us take our goods for themselves.
Psalms 44:11  You have given us up like sheep set aside for food, and you have scattered us among the nations.
Psalms 44:12  You sell your people for nothing, and you gain no wealth from their price.
Psalms 44:13  You make us something our neighbours mock, a thing of scorn and laughter to those around us.
Psalms 44:14  You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
Psalms 44:15  My disgrace is before me all the time, and shame has covered my face,
Psalms 44:16  because of the voice of the one who insults and blasphemes, because of the enemy who takes revenge.
Psalms 44:17  All this has come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you, and we have not dealt falsely with your covenant.
Psalms 44:18  Our heart has not turned back, and our steps have not strayed from your way,
Psalms 44:19  though you have crushed us badly in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death.
Psalms 44:20  If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god,
Psalms 44:21  will not God find this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Psalms 44:22  Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Psalms 44:23  Awake. Why do you sleep, O Lord? Rise up, do not cast us off for ever.
Psalms 44:24  Why do you hide your face, and forget our suffering and our oppression?
Psalms 44:25  For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our body clings to the earth.
Psalms 44:26  Rise up to help us, and set us free for the sake of your mercy.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Lilies, for the sons of Korah. A psalm for instruction and reflection, a song about love.
Psalms 45:1  My heart is stirred by a good thing. I speak the verses I have made for the king. My tongue is the pen of a skilled writer.
Psalms 45:2  You are more beautiful than any other man. Grace is poured onto your lips. So God has blessed you for ever.
Psalms 45:3  Strap your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, with your glory and your majesty.
Psalms 45:4  In your majesty ride out and win, for the sake of truth and meekness and righteousness. Your right hand will teach you terrible things.
Psalms 45:5  Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. The peoples fall beneath you.
Psalms 45:6  Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of justice.
Psalms 45:7  You love righteousness and hate wickedness. So God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than those beside you.
Psalms 45:8  All your clothes smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia. Out of the ivory palaces music has made you glad.
Psalms 45:9  Kings' daughters are among your women of honour. At your right hand stands the queen in gold from Ophir.
Psalms 45:10  Listen, daughter, and think, and turn your ear to me. Forget your own people, and your father's house.
Psalms 45:11  Then the king will greatly desire your beauty. He is your Lord, so bow down before him.
Psalms 45:12  The daughter of Tyre will be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people will beg for your favour.
Psalms 45:13  The king's daughter is all glorious within. Her clothing is woven with gold.
Psalms 45:14  She will be led to the king in embroidered robes. The virgins who are her friends and follow her will be brought to you.
Psalms 45:15  With gladness and rejoicing they will be brought. They will enter the king's palace.
Psalms 45:16  In place of your fathers you will have children, and you may make them princes in all the earth.
Psalms 45:17  I will make your name remembered in every generation. So the peoples will praise you for ever and ever.

  For the leader of the music, for the sons of Korah. A song in a high setting.
Psalms 46:1  God is our refuge and our strength, a help always near in times of trouble.
Psalms 46:2  So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is moved, and the mountains are carried into the middle of the sea;
Psalms 46:3  even if its waters roar and foam, and the mountains shake when it rises. Selah.
Psalms 46:4  There is a river whose streams make the city of God glad, the holy place where the Most High lives.
Psalms 46:5  God is in the middle of her; she will not be moved. God will help her, and help her early.
Psalms 46:6  The nations raged, the kingdoms were shaken. He lifted his voice, and the earth melted.
Psalms 46:7  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.
Psalms 46:8  Come, look at the works of the LORD, and the ruin he has brought on the earth.
Psalms 46:9  He makes wars stop to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and snaps the spear. He burns the chariot in the fire.
Psalms 46:10  "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be lifted high among the nations, I will be lifted high in the earth."
Psalms 46:11  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm for the sons of Korah.
Psalms 47:1  Clap your hands, all you peoples. Shout to God with a voice of triumph.
Psalms 47:2  For the LORD Most High is to be feared. He is a great King over all the earth.
Psalms 47:3  He will put the peoples under us, and the nations under our feet.
Psalms 47:4  He will choose our inheritance for us, the pride of Jacob whom he loved. Selah.
Psalms 47:5  God has gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.
Psalms 47:6  Sing praises to God, sing praises. Sing praises to our King, sing praises.
Psalms 47:7  For God is the King of all the earth. Sing praises with understanding.
Psalms 47:8  God reigns over the nations. God sits on the throne of his holiness.
Psalms 47:9  The princes of the peoples are gathered together, the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong to God. He is lifted very high.

  A song and psalm for the sons of Korah.
Psalms 48:1  The LORD is great, and is greatly to be praised in the city of our God, on his holy mountain.
Psalms 48:2  Mount Zion is beautiful where it stands, the joy of the whole earth, on the northern side, the city of the great King.
Psalms 48:3  God is known in her palaces as a safe place.
Psalms 48:4  For look, the kings gathered together, they passed by together.
Psalms 48:5  They saw it, and they were amazed; they were troubled, and hurried away.
Psalms 48:6  Fear took hold of them there, and pain like a woman giving birth.
Psalms 48:7  You break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind.
Psalms 48:8  What we have heard, we have also seen in the city of the LORD of hosts, in the city of our God. God will make it stand for ever. Selah.
Psalms 48:9  We have thought about your loving kindness, O God, inside your temple.
Psalms 48:10  O God, like your name, so is your praise, reaching to the ends of the earth. Your right hand is full of righteousness.
Psalms 48:11  Let mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of your judgments.
Psalms 48:12  Walk around Zion, go all the way round her. Count her towers.
Psalms 48:13  Look carefully at her walls, study her palaces, so that you can tell it to the generation that comes after.
Psalms 48:14  For this God is our God for ever and ever. He will be our guide even to death.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm for the sons of Korah.
Psalms 49:1  Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all you who live in the world:
Psalms 49:2  both low and high, rich and poor together.
Psalms 49:3  My mouth will speak wisdom, and the thoughts of my heart will be of understanding.
Psalms 49:4  I will turn my ear to a parable. I will open my riddle with the harp.
Psalms 49:5  Why should I be afraid in the days of evil, when the sin of my heels surrounds me?
Psalms 49:6  They trust in their wealth, and boast in how great their riches are.
Psalms 49:7  Not one of them can by any means redeem his brother, or give God a ransom for him.
Psalms 49:8  (For the redemption of their soul is costly, and it can never be paid.)
Psalms 49:9  So that he should go on living for ever, and not see decay.
Psalms 49:10  For he sees that wise men die. The fool and the senseless person die too, and leave their wealth to others.
Psalms 49:11  Inside, they think their houses will last for ever, and their homes will go on for all generations. They name their lands after themselves.
Psalms 49:12  Yet a man in honour does not remain. He is like the beasts that die.
Psalms 49:13  This way of theirs is their folly, yet those who come after them approve their sayings. Selah.
Psalms 49:14  Like sheep they are laid in the grave. Death will feed on them. In the morning the upright will rule over them, and their beauty will waste away in the grave, far from their home.
Psalms 49:15  But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he will receive me. Selah.
Psalms 49:16  Do not be afraid when someone is made rich, when the glory of his house grows great.
Psalms 49:17  For when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory will not go down after him.
Psalms 49:18  Though while he lived he called himself blessed; and people will praise you when you do well for yourself.
Psalms 49:19  He will go to the generation of his fathers; they will never see light.
Psalms 49:20  A man in honour who has no understanding is like the beasts that die.

  A psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 50:1  The mighty God, the LORD, has spoken. He has called the earth, from the rising of the sun to its going down.
Psalms 50:2  Out of Zion, perfect in beauty, God has shone.
Psalms 50:3  Our God will come, and he will not keep silent. A fire will burn up everything before him, and a great storm will rage around him.
Psalms 50:4  He will call to the heavens above, and to the earth, so that he may judge his people.
Psalms 50:5  "Gather my holy ones to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
Psalms 50:6  And the heavens will declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.
Psalms 50:7  "Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God."
Psalms 50:8  I will not blame you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which have always been before me.
Psalms 50:9  I will take no bull out of your house, nor male goats out of your pens.
Psalms 50:10  For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.
Psalms 50:11  I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild animals of the field are mine.
Psalms 50:12  If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and everything in it.
Psalms 50:13  Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
Psalms 50:14  Offer thanksgiving to God, and pay your vows to the Most High.
Psalms 50:15  "Call on me in the day of trouble. I will rescue you, and you will give me glory."
Psalms 50:16  But to the wicked God says, "What right have you to speak of my laws, or to take my covenant on your lips?"
Psalms 50:17  For you hate instruction, and you throw my words behind you.
Psalms 50:18  When you saw a thief, you agreed with him, and you have shared with adulterers.
Psalms 50:19  You give your mouth to evil, and your tongue shapes lies.
Psalms 50:20  You sit and speak against your brother. You slander your own mother's son.
Psalms 50:21  These things you have done, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. But I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes.
Psalms 50:22  Now think about this, you who forget God, or I will tear you in pieces, and there will be no one to rescue you.
Psalms 50:23  "Whoever offers praise gives me glory. And to the one who orders his conduct rightly I will show the salvation of God."

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David, written when the prophet Nathan came to him after he had been with Bathsheba.
Psalms 51:1  Have mercy on me, O God, because of your steadfast love. Because of your many tender mercies, wipe away my wrongs.
Psalms 51:2  Wash me completely from my guilt, and make me clean from my sin.
Psalms 51:3  For I admit the wrongs I have done, and my sin is always before me.
Psalms 51:4  Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you speak, and clear when you judge.
Psalms 51:5  Look, I was formed in guilt, and in sin my mother conceived me.
Psalms 51:6  Look, you want truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will teach me wisdom.
Psalms 51:7  Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psalms 51:8  Let me hear joy and gladness, so that the bones you have broken may rejoice.
Psalms 51:9  Hide your face from my sins, and wipe away all my guilt.
Psalms 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God, and make a right spirit new within me.
Psalms 51:11  Do not throw me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
Psalms 51:12  Give me back the joy of your salvation, and hold me up with your free spirit.
Psalms 51:13  Then I will teach those who do wrong your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.
Psalms 51:14  Save me from the guilt of blood, O God, the God who saves me. Then my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
Psalms 51:15  O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will show your praise.
Psalms 51:16  For you do not want sacrifice, or I would give it. You take no delight in burnt offering.
Psalms 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and sorrowful heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalms 51:18  In your good pleasure do good to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem.
Psalms 51:19  Then you will be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then they will offer bulls on your altar.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David for instruction and reflection, written when Doeg from Edom came and told Saul that David had gone to the house of Ahimelech.
Psalms 52:1  Why do you boast about evil, you mighty man? The goodness of God lasts all day long.
Psalms 52:2  Your tongue plans ways to harm. It is like a sharp razor, working deceit.
Psalms 52:3  You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking righteousness. Selah.
Psalms 52:4  You love every word that destroys, you deceitful tongue.
Psalms 52:5  God will also destroy you for ever. He will take you away, and pull you out of your home, and root you out of the land of the living. Selah.
Psalms 52:6  The righteous will see it, and fear, and they will laugh at him:
Psalms 52:7  "Look, this is the man who did not make God his strength. He trusted in his great riches, and made himself strong in his wickedness."
Psalms 52:8  But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
Psalms 52:9  I will praise you for ever, because you have done it. And I will wait on your name, for it is good before your saints.

  For the leader of the music, to a sad and mournful tune. A psalm of David for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 53:1  The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, and they have done terrible wrong. There is no one who does good.
Psalms 53:2  God looked down from heaven on the children of men. He looked to see if there were any who understood, any who sought God.
Psalms 53:3  Every one of them has turned back. Together they have become filthy. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
Psalms 53:4  Have the workers of evil no knowledge? They eat up my people as they eat bread. They have not called on God.
Psalms 53:5  There they were in great fear, where there was nothing to fear. For God has scattered the bones of the one who camps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.
Psalms 53:6  Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When God brings back his people from captivity, Jacob will rejoice, and Israel will be glad.

  For the leader of the music, to be played with stringed instruments. A psalm of David for instruction and reflection, written when the people of Ziph came and said to Saul that David was hiding among them.
Psalms 54:1  Save me, O God, by your name, and judge me by your strength.
Psalms 54:2  Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth.
Psalms 54:3  For strangers have risen up against me, and cruel men seek my life. They have not set God before them. Selah.
Psalms 54:4  Look, God is my helper. The Lord is with those who hold up my life.
Psalms 54:5  He will repay evil to my enemies. Cut them off in your truth.
Psalms 54:6  I will sacrifice to you with a willing heart. I will praise your name, O LORD, for it is good.
Psalms 54:7  For he has rescued me out of all trouble, and my eye has seen its desire on my enemies.

  For the leader of the music, to be played with stringed instruments. A psalm of David for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 55:1  Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not hide yourself when I beg you.
Psalms 55:2  Pay attention to me, and answer me. I mourn as I make my complaint, and I cry out,
Psalms 55:3  because of the voice of the enemy, because the wicked crush me. They pile trouble on me, and in anger they hate me.
Psalms 55:4  My heart is in great pain inside me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.
Psalms 55:5  Fear and trembling have come over me, and horror has covered me.
Psalms 55:6  And I said, "If only I had wings like a dove. Then I would fly away and be at rest."
Psalms 55:7  Look, I would wander far off, and stay in the wilderness. Selah.
Psalms 55:8  "I would hurry to escape from the raging wind and storm."
Psalms 55:9  Destroy them, O Lord, and confuse their speech. For I have seen violence and fighting in the city.
Psalms 55:10  Day and night they go around it on its walls. Trouble and sorrow are inside it.
Psalms 55:11  Wickedness is inside it. Lies and cheating never leave its streets.
Psalms 55:12  It was not an enemy who insulted me; I could have borne that. It was not someone who hated me who rose up against me; I could have hidden from him.
Psalms 55:13  But it was you, a man like myself, my guide, and my friend.
Psalms 55:14  We talked together happily, and walked with the crowd to the house of God.
Psalms 55:15  Let death take hold of them. Let them go down alive into hell, for wickedness is in their homes and among them.
Psalms 55:16  As for me, I will call on God, and the LORD will save me.
Psalms 55:17  Evening, and morning, and at noon I will pray and cry aloud, and he will hear my voice.
Psalms 55:18  He has rescued me in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many fighting me.
Psalms 55:19  God will hear, and will bring them low, he who has been enthroned from of old. Selah. They never change, and so they do not fear God.
Psalms 55:20  He has attacked those who were at peace with him. He has broken his covenant.
Psalms 55:21  The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords.
Psalms 55:22  Put your burden on the LORD, and he will hold you up. He will never let the righteous be shaken.
Psalms 55:23  But you, O God, will bring them down into the pit of destruction. Murderous and lying men will not live out half their days. But I will trust in you.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called The Silent Dove Far Away. An inscription of David, written when the Philistines seized him in Gath.
Psalms 56:1  Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up. All day long he fights and crushes me.
Psalms 56:2  My enemies would swallow me up all day long. Many are fighting against me, O Most High.
Psalms 56:3  When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
Psalms 56:4  In God I will praise his word. In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
Psalms 56:5  Every day they twist my words. All their thoughts about me are evil.
Psalms 56:6  They gather together, they hide themselves. They watch my steps, waiting to take my life.
Psalms 56:7  Shall they escape by doing wrong? In your anger cast the peoples down, O God.
Psalms 56:8  You keep count of my wanderings. Put my tears into your bottle. Are they not in your book?
Psalms 56:9  When I cry out to you, then my enemies will turn back. This I know, for God is for me.
Psalms 56:10  In God I will praise his word. In the LORD I will praise his word.
Psalms 56:11  In God I have put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Psalms 56:12  Your vows are upon me, O God. I will give praises to you.
Psalms 56:13  For you have saved my soul from death. Will you not keep my feet from falling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Do Not Destroy. An inscription of David, written when he fled from Saul into the cave.
Psalms 57:1  Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me. For my soul trusts in you. In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, until these troubles have passed by.
Psalms 57:2  I will cry out to God most high, to God who does all things for me.
Psalms 57:3  He will send from heaven and save me from the scorn of the one who would swallow me up. Selah. God will send out his mercy and his truth.
Psalms 57:4  My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, the sons of men. Their teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.
Psalms 57:5  Be lifted high, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.
Psalms 57:6  They have set a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down. They have dug a pit in front of me, and they have fallen into the middle of it themselves. Selah.
Psalms 57:7  My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise.
Psalms 57:8  Wake up, my glory. Wake up, harp and lyre. I myself will wake up early.
Psalms 57:9  I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples. I will sing to you among the nations.
Psalms 57:10  For your mercy is great, reaching to the heavens, and your truth to the clouds.
Psalms 57:11  Be lifted high, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Do Not Destroy. An inscription of David.
Psalms 58:1  Do you really speak righteousness, you congregation? Do you judge people fairly, you sons of men?
Psalms 58:2  No, in your heart you plan wickedness. Your hands deal out violence in the land, and you weigh it out.
Psalms 58:3  The wicked go their own way from the womb. They wander off as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
Psalms 58:4  Their poison is like the poison of a snake. They are like a deaf adder that stops up its ear.
Psalms 58:5  It will not listen to the voice of charmers, however skilfully they charm.
Psalms 58:6  Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
Psalms 58:7  Let them melt away like water that runs on and on. When he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as if cut in pieces.
Psalms 58:8  Let every one of them pass away like a snail that melts away, like a child born dead, who never sees the sun.
Psalms 58:9  Before your pots can feel the burning thorns, he will sweep them away as with a whirlwind, both the living and the burning, in his anger.
Psalms 58:10  The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance done. He will wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Psalms 58:11  So people will say, "Truly there is a reward for the righteous. Truly there is a God who judges in the earth."

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Do Not Destroy. An inscription of David, written when Saul sent men to watch his house so they could kill him.
Psalms 59:1  Rescue me from my enemies, O my God. Defend me from those who rise up against me.
Psalms 59:2  Rescue me from those who do evil, and save me from men of blood.
Psalms 59:3  Look, they lie in wait for my life. The strong gather together against me. It is not for any wrong I have done, and not for my sin, O LORD.
Psalms 59:4  I have done nothing wrong, yet they run and get ready. Wake up to help me, and see.
Psalms 59:5  So you, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, wake up to punish all the nations. Show no mercy to any wicked traitors. Selah.
Psalms 59:6  They come back at evening. They snarl like a dog and prowl around the city.
Psalms 59:7  Look, words pour out of their mouths. Swords are in their lips. "For who hears us?" they say.
Psalms 59:8  But you, O LORD, will laugh at them. You will mock all the nations.
Psalms 59:9  Because of his strength I will wait for you, for God is my defence.
Psalms 59:10  The God of my mercy will go before me. God will let me look on my enemies and see what I long for.
Psalms 59:11  Do not kill them, or my people will forget. Scatter them by your power, and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
Psalms 59:12  For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride, and for the cursing and the lying that they speak.
Psalms 59:13  Destroy them in anger, destroy them, so that they are no more. Let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth. Selah.
Psalms 59:14  At evening let them come back. Let them snarl like a dog and prowl around the city.
Psalms 59:15  Let them wander about looking for food, and growl if they are not filled.
Psalms 59:16  But I will sing of your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning. For you have been my defence and my refuge in the day of my trouble.
Psalms 59:17  To you, O my strength, I will sing, for God is my defence, and the God of my mercy.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Shushan-eduth. An inscription of David, for teaching, written when he fought Aram-naharaim and Aram-zobah, and when Joab came back and struck down twelve thousand men of Edom in the Valley of Salt.
Psalms 60:1  O God, you have cast us off. You have scattered us. You have been displeased. Turn to us again.
Psalms 60:2  You have made the earth tremble. You have broken it. Heal its cracks, for it is shaking.
Psalms 60:3  You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine of bewilderment.
Psalms 60:4  You have given a banner to those who fear you, so that it may be lifted up because of the truth. Selah.
Psalms 60:5  So that those you love may be rescued, save us with your right hand, and answer me.
Psalms 60:6  God has spoken in his holiness: "I will rejoice. I will divide Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth."
Psalms 60:7  "Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine. Ephraim also is the strength of my head. Judah is my lawgiver."
Psalms 60:8  "Moab is my washing pot. Over Edom I will throw my shoe. Philistia, shout in triumph because of me."
Psalms 60:9  Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom?
Psalms 60:10  Will you not do it, O God, you who had cast us off? You, O God, who did not go out with our armies?
Psalms 60:11  Give us help against our trouble, for the help of man is worth nothing.
Psalms 60:12  Through God we shall do bravely, for he is the one who will tread down our enemies.

  For the leader of the music, to be played with a stringed instrument. A psalm of David.
Psalms 61:1  Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer.
Psalms 61:2  From the end of the earth I will cry to you, when my heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I am.
Psalms 61:3  For you have been a shelter for me, and a strong tower against the enemy.
Psalms 61:4  I will stay in your tent for ever. I will trust in the cover of your wings. Selah.
Psalms 61:5  For you, O God, have heard my vows. You have given me what belongs to those who fear your name.
Psalms 61:6  You will make the king's life long, and his years like many generations.
Psalms 61:7  He will stay before God for ever. Send out mercy and truth to keep him safe.
Psalms 61:8  So I will sing praise to your name for ever, and keep my vows day after day.

  For the leader of the music, for Jeduthun. A psalm of David.
Psalms 62:1  Truly my soul waits for God. My salvation comes from him.
Psalms 62:2  He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my defence. I shall not be greatly shaken.
Psalms 62:3  How long will you plot harm against a man? You will all be killed. You will be like a leaning wall, like a fence about to fall.
Psalms 62:4  They plan only to throw him down from his high place. They delight in lies. With their mouth they bless, but inside they curse. Selah.
Psalms 62:5  My soul, wait for God alone, for my hope comes from him.
Psalms 62:6  He alone is my rock and my salvation. He is my defence. I shall not be shaken.
Psalms 62:7  My salvation and my glory are in God. The rock of my strength and my refuge are in God.
Psalms 62:8  Trust in him at all times. You people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.
Psalms 62:9  Surely people of low rank are nothing, and people of high rank are a lie. Laid in the scales, together they weigh less than a breath.
Psalms 62:10  Do not trust in oppression. Do not put empty hope in robbery. If riches increase, do not set your heart on them.
Psalms 62:11  God has spoken once; twice I have heard this: that power belongs to God.
Psalms 62:12  To you also, O Lord, belongs mercy, for you repay everyone according to what he has done.

  A psalm of David, written when he was in the desert of Judah.
Psalms 63:1  O God, you are my God. Early I will seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.
Psalms 63:2  So I have looked for you in the sanctuary, to see your power and your glory.
Psalms 63:3  Your loving kindness is better than life, so my lips will praise you.
Psalms 63:4  So I will bless you as long as I live. I will lift up my hands in your name.
Psalms 63:5  My soul will be satisfied as with rich and fat food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips.
Psalms 63:6  I remember you on my bed, and think of you through the watches of the night.
Psalms 63:7  You have been my help. So in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.
Psalms 63:8  My soul holds close behind you. Your right hand holds me up.
Psalms 63:9  But those who look for my life, to destroy it, will go down into the lower parts of the earth.
Psalms 63:10  They will fall by the sword. They will be food for foxes.
Psalms 63:11  But the king will rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will be glad, but the mouth of those who speak lies will be stopped.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 64:1  Hear my voice, O God, when I pray. Keep my life safe from the fear of the enemy.
Psalms 64:2  Hide me from the secret plans of the wicked, from the uprising of those who do evil.
Psalms 64:3  They sharpen their tongue like a sword. They bend their bows to shoot their arrows, which are bitter words.
Psalms 64:4  They shoot in secret at the blameless man. Suddenly they shoot at him, and they are not afraid.
Psalms 64:5  They give each other courage in an evil plan. They talk together about setting traps in secret. They say, "Who will see them?"
Psalms 64:6  They search out evil deeds. They finish a careful search. The inward thought of each of them, and the heart, is deep.
Psalms 64:7  But God will shoot at them with an arrow. Suddenly they will be wounded.
Psalms 64:8  So they will make their own tongue fall back on themselves. All who see them will run away.
Psalms 64:9  And everyone will be afraid, and will tell what God has done. They will think wisely about his work.
Psalms 64:10  The righteous will be glad in the LORD, and will trust in him. All who are upright in heart will glory.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm and song of David.
Psalms 65:1  Praise waits for you, O God, in Sion. To you the vow will be kept.
Psalms 65:2  You who hear prayer, to you all flesh will come.
Psalms 65:3  Sins are too strong for me. But as for our wrongdoing, you will wash it away.
Psalms 65:4  Blessed is the man you choose, and bring near to you, so that he may live in your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.
Psalms 65:5  By awesome deeds in righteousness you will answer us, O God of our salvation. You are the hope of all the ends of the earth, and of those who are far away upon the sea.
Psalms 65:6  By his strength he sets the mountains firm. He is dressed with power.
Psalms 65:7  He quiets the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the uproar of the peoples.
Psalms 65:8  Those who live in the farthest parts are afraid at your signs. You make the going out of the morning and the evening shout for joy.
Psalms 65:9  You visit the earth and water it. You make it very rich with the river of God, which is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have prepared it.
Psalms 65:10  You water its ridges well. You settle its furrows. You make it soft with showers. You bless what grows up from it.
Psalms 65:11  You crown the year with your goodness, and your paths drip with plenty.
Psalms 65:12  They drip upon the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side.
Psalms 65:13  The pastures are clothed with flocks. The valleys also are covered over with grain. They shout for joy, and they sing.

  For the leader of the music. A song and psalm.
Psalms 66:1  Make a joyful noise to God, all you lands.
Psalms 66:2  Sing out the honour of his name. Make his praise glorious.
Psalms 66:3  Say to God, "How awesome you are in your works! Because your power is so great, your enemies will bow down before you."
Psalms 66:4  All the earth will worship you and sing to you. They will sing praise to your name. Selah.
Psalms 66:5  Come and see the works of God. He is awesome in what he does among the children of men.
Psalms 66:6  He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot. There we rejoiced in him.
Psalms 66:7  He rules by his power for ever. His eyes watch the nations. Do not let the rebellious lift themselves up. Selah.
Psalms 66:8  Bless our God, you peoples, and let the sound of his praise be heard.
Psalms 66:9  He keeps our soul alive, and he does not allow our feet to slip.
Psalms 66:10  For you, O God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.
Psalms 66:11  You brought us into the net. You laid a heavy burden on our backs.
Psalms 66:12  You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us out into a rich place.
Psalms 66:13  I will come into your house with burnt offerings. I will pay you my vows,
Psalms 66:14  the vows my lips spoke and my mouth said when I was in trouble.
Psalms 66:15  I will offer you burnt sacrifices of fat animals, with the smoke of rams. I will offer bulls with goats. Selah.
Psalms 66:16  Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
Psalms 66:17  I cried to him with my mouth, and he was praised with my tongue.
Psalms 66:18  If I hold on to sin in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.
Psalms 66:19  But truly God has heard me. He has listened to the voice of my prayer.
Psalms 66:20  Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

  For the leader of the music, to be played with stringed instruments. A psalm and song.
Psalms 67:1  May God be merciful to us, and bless us. May he cause his face to shine upon us. Selah.
Psalms 67:2  So that your way may be known on earth, and your saving health among all nations.
Psalms 67:3  Let the people praise you, O God. Let all the people praise you.
Psalms 67:4  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you will judge the people righteously, and govern the nations on earth. Selah.
Psalms 67:5  Let the people praise you, O God. Let all the people praise you.
Psalms 67:6  Then the earth will yield her harvest. And God, our own God, will bless us.
Psalms 67:7  God will bless us. And all the ends of the earth will fear him.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm and song of David.
Psalms 68:1  Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered. Let those who hate him run away from him.
Psalms 68:2  As smoke is blown away, so drive them away. As wax melts before the fire, so let the wicked perish in the presence of God.
Psalms 68:3  But let the righteous be glad. Let them rejoice before God. Yes, let them rejoice with great joy.
Psalms 68:4  Sing to God, sing praises to his name. Lift up a song to him who rides upon the heavens by his name JAH, and rejoice before him.
Psalms 68:5  God in his holy dwelling is a father to those who have no father, and a judge who defends the widows.
Psalms 68:6  God sets the lonely in families. He brings out those who are bound with chains. But the rebellious live in a dry land.
Psalms 68:7  God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, Selah:
Psalms 68:8  the earth shook, and the heavens poured down rain in the presence of God. Sinai itself shook in the presence of God, the God of Israel.
Psalms 68:9  You, God, sent plenty of rain. You made your inheritance strong again when it was weary.
Psalms 68:10  Your people have lived in it. God, in your goodness you provided for the poor.
Psalms 68:11  The Lord gave the word. Great was the company of those who told the news.
Psalms 68:12  Kings with their armies fled quickly, and the woman who stayed at home divided what was taken.
Psalms 68:13  Though you have lain among the sheepfolds, you will be like the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.
Psalms 68:14  When the Almighty scattered kings there, it was white as snow on Salmon.
Psalms 68:15  The hill of God is like the hill of Bashan, a high hill like the hill of Bashan.
Psalms 68:16  Why do you look with envy, you high hills? This is the hill where God has chosen to live. Yes, the LORD will live in it for ever.
Psalms 68:17  The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. The Lord is among them, as at Sinai, in the holy place.
Psalms 68:18  You have gone up on high. You have led captivity captive. You have received gifts for people, even for the rebellious, so that the LORD God might live among them.
Psalms 68:19  Blessed be the Lord, who every day loads us with good things, the God who saves us. Selah.
Psalms 68:20  Our God is the God who saves, and to GOD the Lord belong the ways of escape from death.
Psalms 68:21  But God will strike the heads of his enemies, and the hairy scalp of the one who keeps going on in his sins.
Psalms 68:22  The Lord said, "I will bring them back from Bashan. I will bring my people back from the depths of the sea,"
Psalms 68:23  "so that your foot may be dipped in the blood of your enemies, and the tongues of your dogs in it too."
Psalms 68:24  They have seen your processions, God, the processions of my God, my King, into the sanctuary.
Psalms 68:25  The singers went in front, the players on instruments followed after. Among them were the girls playing timbrels.
Psalms 68:26  Bless God in the gatherings, bless the Lord, you who come from the fountain of Israel.
Psalms 68:27  There is little Benjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their company, the princes of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.
Psalms 68:28  Your God has commanded your strength. Make strong, God, what you have done for us.
Psalms 68:29  Because of your temple at Jerusalem, kings will bring gifts to you.
Psalms 68:30  Rebuke the company of spearmen, the crowd of the bulls, with the calves of the peoples, till everyone submits with pieces of silver. Scatter the peoples who delight in war.
Psalms 68:31  Princes will come out of Egypt. Ethiopia will soon stretch out her hands to God.
Psalms 68:32  Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth. Sing praises to the Lord. Selah.
Psalms 68:33  Sing to him who rides upon the highest heavens, which were there from of old. Look, he sends out his voice, and it is a mighty voice.
Psalms 68:34  Give strength to God as his due. His majesty is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds.
Psalms 68:35  God, you are awesome from your holy places. The God of Israel is the one who gives strength and power to his people. Blessed be God.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Lilies. A psalm of David.
Psalms 69:1  Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
Psalms 69:2  I sink in deep mud, where there is no place to stand. I have come into deep waters, and the floods sweep over me.
Psalms 69:3  I am worn out with crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail while I wait for my God.
Psalms 69:4  Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to destroy me are strong, though they are my enemies wrongly. Then I gave back what I did not take away.
Psalms 69:5  O God, you know my foolishness, and my sins are not hidden from you.
Psalms 69:6  O Lord GOD of hosts, do not let those who wait for you be ashamed because of me. O God of Israel, do not let those who seek you be disgraced because of me.
Psalms 69:7  For your sake I have borne insults. Shame has covered my face.
Psalms 69:8  I have become a stranger to my brothers, a foreigner to my mother's children.
Psalms 69:9  For the zeal of your house has eaten me up. The insults of those who insulted you have fallen on me.
Psalms 69:10  When I wept and humbled myself with fasting, that too became an insult against me.
Psalms 69:11  I made sackcloth my clothing, and I became a byword to them.
Psalms 69:12  Those who sit in the gate speak against me. I am the song of the drunkards.
Psalms 69:13  But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD, at an acceptable time. O God, in your great mercy answer me, in the truth of your salvation.
Psalms 69:14  Rescue me out of the mud, and do not let me sink. Let me be rescued from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.
Psalms 69:15  Do not let the flood of water sweep over me. Do not let the deep swallow me up. Do not let the pit close its mouth over me.
Psalms 69:16  Answer me, O LORD, for your lovingkindness is good. Turn to me according to your many tender mercies.
Psalms 69:17  Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in trouble. Answer me quickly.
Psalms 69:18  Come near to my soul and redeem it. Set me free because of my enemies.
Psalms 69:19  You know the insults I bear, and my shame and my dishonour. All those against me are before you.
Psalms 69:20  Insults have broken my heart, and I am full of sorrow. I looked for someone to take pity, but there was no one; and for comforters, but I found none.
Psalms 69:21  They gave me also poison for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Psalms 69:22  Let their table become a snare before them, and let what should have been for their welfare become a trap.
Psalms 69:23  Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see. Make their bodies shake without ceasing.
Psalms 69:24  Pour out your anger on them, and let your burning wrath take hold of them.
Psalms 69:25  Let the place where they live be empty. Let no one live in their tents.
Psalms 69:26  For they chase the one you have struck, and they talk about the pain of those you have wounded.
Psalms 69:27  Add sin to their sin, and do not let them come into your righteousness.
Psalms 69:28  Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
Psalms 69:29  But I am poor and full of sorrow. O God, let your salvation lift me up on high.
Psalms 69:30  I will praise the name of God with a song, and will make him great with thanksgiving.
Psalms 69:31  This will please the LORD better than an ox, or a young bull with horns and hoofs.
Psalms 69:32  The humble will see this and be glad. You who seek God, your heart shall live.
Psalms 69:33  For the LORD hears the poor, and does not despise his prisoners.
Psalms 69:34  Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas, and everything that moves in them.
Psalms 69:35  For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah, so that they may live there and own it.
Psalms 69:36  The children of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will live there.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David, to help people remember.
Psalms 70:1  Hurry, O God, to rescue me. Hurry to help me, O LORD.
Psalms 70:2  Let those who try to take my life be ashamed and disgraced. Let those who want to harm me be turned back and put to shame.
Psalms 70:3  Let those who say, "Aha, aha," be turned back as the reward of their shame.
Psalms 70:4  Let all those who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Let those who love your salvation say again and again, "Let God be praised."
Psalms 70:5  But I am poor and needy. Hurry to me, O God. You are my help and the one who sets me free. O LORD, do not wait.

Psalms 71:1  In you, O LORD, I put my trust. Let me never be put to shame.
Psalms 71:2  Rescue me in your righteousness, and let me escape. Turn your ear to me, and save me.
Psalms 71:3  Be my strong home, where I may always go. You have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.
Psalms 71:4  Rescue me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unjust and cruel man.
Psalms 71:5  For you are my hope, O Lord GOD. You have been my trust since I was young.
Psalms 71:6  You have held me up from birth. You are the one who took me out of my mother's body. My praise is always of you.
Psalms 71:7  I am like a strange sight to many, but you are my strong refuge.
Psalms 71:8  Let my mouth be filled with your praise and with your honour all day long.
Psalms 71:9  Do not throw me away when I am old. Do not leave me when my strength fails.
Psalms 71:10  For my enemies speak against me. Those who lie in wait for my life make plans together,
Psalms 71:11  saying, "God has left him. Chase him and catch him, for there is no one to rescue him."
Psalms 71:12  O God, do not be far from me. O my God, hurry to help me.
Psalms 71:13  Let those who accuse me be put to shame and destroyed. Let those who seek to harm me be covered with scorn and disgrace.
Psalms 71:14  But I will hope always, and I will praise you more and more.
Psalms 71:15  My mouth will tell of your righteousness and your salvation all day long, for I do not know how to count them.
Psalms 71:16  I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD. I will speak of your righteousness, of yours only.
Psalms 71:17  O God, you have taught me from my youth, and until now I have told of your wonderful works.
Psalms 71:18  Now also when I am old and grey-headed, O God, do not leave me, until I have shown your strength to this generation, and your power to everyone who is to come.
Psalms 71:19  Your righteousness also, O God, is very high. You have done great things. O God, who is like you?
Psalms 71:20  You have shown me great and bitter troubles. You will make me live again, and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.
Psalms 71:21  You will make me greater, and comfort me on every side.
Psalms 71:22  I will praise you with the harp, and praise your truth, O my God. I will sing to you with the harp, O Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 71:23  My lips will shout for joy when I sing to you, and so will my soul, which you have redeemed.
Psalms 71:24  My tongue also will speak of your righteousness all day long, for those who seek to harm me are put to shame and brought to disgrace.

  A psalm for Solomon.
Psalms 72:1  Give the king your judgments, O God, and your righteousness to the king's son.
Psalms 72:2  He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
Psalms 72:3  The mountains will bring peace to the people, and the little hills will bring it by righteousness.
Psalms 72:4  He will judge the poor among the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.
Psalms 72:5  They will fear you as long as the sun and moon last, through all generations.
Psalms 72:6  He will come down like rain on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
Psalms 72:7  In his days the righteous will flourish, and there will be plenty of peace as long as the moon lasts.
Psalms 72:8  He will rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.
Psalms 72:9  Those who live in the wilderness will bow before him, and his enemies will lick the dust.
Psalms 72:10  The kings of Tarshish and of the islands will bring presents. The kings of Sheba and Seba will offer gifts.
Psalms 72:11  Yes, all kings will fall down before him. All nations will serve him.
Psalms 72:12  For he will rescue the needy when they cry out, and the poor, and the one who has no helper.
Psalms 72:13  He will have pity on the poor and needy, and will save the lives of the needy.
Psalms 72:14  He will redeem their life from deceit and violence, and their blood will be precious in his sight.
Psalms 72:15  He will live, and the gold of Sheba will be given to him. Prayer will be made for him all the time, and every day he will be praised.
Psalms 72:16  There will be a handful of grain in the earth on the tops of the mountains. Its fruit will wave like Lebanon, and the people of the city will flourish like grass of the earth.
Psalms 72:17  His name will last for ever. His name will continue as long as the sun. People will be blessed in him, and all nations will call him blessed.
Psalms 72:18  Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who alone does wonderful things.
Psalms 72:19  And blessed be his glorious name for ever. Let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and Amen.
Psalms 72:20  The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.

  A psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 73:1  Truly God is good to Israel, to those whose hearts are clean.
Psalms 73:2  But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had nearly slipped.
Psalms 73:3  For I was envious of the proud, when I saw how well the wicked were doing.
Psalms 73:4  For there are no pains in their death; their strength is firm.
Psalms 73:5  They are not in trouble as other people are; they are not struck down like others.
Psalms 73:6  So pride is their necklace; violence covers them like a coat.
Psalms 73:7  Their eyes bulge with fat; they have more than their hearts could wish for.
Psalms 73:8  They are corrupt, and they talk wickedly about crushing others; they speak proudly.
Psalms 73:9  They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walks through the earth.
Psalms 73:10  So his people turn back here, and waters of a full cup are drained by them.
Psalms 73:11  And they say, "How does God know? Is there any knowledge in the Most High?"
Psalms 73:12  Look, these are the ungodly, who do well in the world; they grow richer and richer.
Psalms 73:13  Truly I have kept my heart clean for nothing, and washed my hands in innocence for nothing.
Psalms 73:14  For all day long I have been struck down, and punished every morning.
Psalms 73:15  If I said, "I will speak like this," look, I would have betrayed the family of your children.
Psalms 73:16  When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me;
Psalms 73:17  until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end.
Psalms 73:18  Surely you set them in slippery places; you throw them down into ruin.
Psalms 73:19  How suddenly they are laid waste! They are completely swept away by terrors.
Psalms 73:20  Like a dream when someone wakes up, so, O Lord, when you awake, you will despise their image.
Psalms 73:21  So my heart was grieved, and I was pierced deep inside.
Psalms 73:22  I was so foolish, and I did not know; I was like a beast before you.
Psalms 73:23  Yet I am always with you; you have held me by my right hand.
Psalms 73:24  You will guide me with your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
Psalms 73:25  Whom do I have in heaven but you? And there is no one on earth that I want besides you.
Psalms 73:26  My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Psalms 73:27  For look, those who are far from you will die; you have destroyed all who are unfaithful and leave you.
Psalms 73:28  But it is good for me to come near to God. I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, so that I may tell of all your works.

  A psalm of Asaph, for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 74:1  O God, why have you cast us off for ever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture?
Psalms 74:2  Remember your congregation, which you bought long ago. Remember the tribe of your inheritance, which you have redeemed, and this Mount Zion, where you have lived.
Psalms 74:3  Lift up your feet and come to these ruins that never end, to all the evil the enemy has done in the sanctuary.
Psalms 74:4  Your enemies roar in the middle of your meeting places. They set up their own banners as signs.
Psalms 74:5  A man was known for lifting up axes against the thick trees.
Psalms 74:6  But now they smash all its carved work at once with axes and hammers.
Psalms 74:7  They have thrown fire into your sanctuary. They have defiled the dwelling place of your name, casting it down to the ground.
Psalms 74:8  They said in their hearts, "Let us destroy them all together." They have burned up all the meeting places of God in the land.
Psalms 74:9  We do not see our signs. There is no prophet any more. No one among us knows how long this will last.
Psalms 74:10  O God, how long will the enemy insult you? Will the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?
Psalms 74:11  Why do you pull back your hand, your right hand? Take it out from your chest.
Psalms 74:12  For God is my King from long ago, working salvation in the middle of the earth.
Psalms 74:13  You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Psalms 74:14  You broke the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gave him as food to the people living in the wilderness.
Psalms 74:15  You split open the spring and the stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
Psalms 74:16  The day is yours, the night also is yours. You have prepared the light and the sun.
Psalms 74:17  You have set all the borders of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
Psalms 74:18  Remember this, O LORD: the enemy has insulted you, and a foolish people have blasphemed your name.
Psalms 74:19  Do not hand over the soul of your dove to the crowd of the wicked. Do not forget the congregation of your poor for ever.
Psalms 74:20  Look to the covenant, for the dark places of the earth are full of the homes of cruelty.
Psalms 74:21  Do not let the oppressed go back ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.
Psalms 74:22  Arise, O God, and plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man insults you every day.
Psalms 74:23  Do not forget the voice of your enemies. The uproar of those who rise up against you grows louder and louder.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Do Not Destroy. A psalm and song of Asaph.
Psalms 75:1  To you, O God, we give thanks; to you we give thanks. Your name is near, and your wonderful works declare it.
Psalms 75:2  "When I receive the congregation, I will judge with fairness."
Psalms 75:3  "The earth and all who live in it are melting away. I hold up its pillars." Selah.
Psalms 75:4  I said to the fools, "Do not act foolishly," and to the wicked, "Do not lift up the horn."
Psalms 75:5  "Do not lift up your horn on high. Do not speak with a stiff neck."
Psalms 75:6  For lifting up does not come from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.
Psalms 75:7  But God is the judge. He puts down one, and lifts up another.
Psalms 75:8  In the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red. It is full of mixture, and he pours it out. But all the wicked of the earth will drain the dregs of it and drink them.
Psalms 75:9  But I will declare it for ever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
Psalms 75:10  "All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous will be lifted high."

  For the leader of the music, to be played with stringed instruments. A psalm and song of Asaph.
Psalms 76:1  In Judah God is known; his name is great in Israel.
Psalms 76:2  In Salem also is his tent, and his dwelling place is in Zion.
Psalms 76:3  There he broke the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Selah.
Psalms 76:4  You are more glorious and excellent than the mountains of prey.
Psalms 76:5  The bold-hearted are plundered; they have slept their sleep. None of the mighty men can find their hands.
Psalms 76:6  At your rebuke, O God of Jacob, both the chariot and the horse are thrown into a dead sleep.
Psalms 76:7  You, even you, are to be feared. Who may stand before you once you are angry?
Psalms 76:8  You made judgment be heard from heaven; the earth was afraid, and was still,
Psalms 76:9  when God rose up to judge, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
Psalms 76:10  Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the rest of that wrath you will hold back.
Psalms 76:11  Make your vows to the LORD your God, and keep them. Let all who are around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared.
Psalms 76:12  He cuts off the spirit of princes. He is terrible to the kings of the earth.

  For the leader of the music, for Jeduthun. A psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 77:1  I cried out to God with my voice, to God with my voice; and he listened to me.
Psalms 77:2  In the day of my trouble I looked for the Lord. My sore ran in the night and did not stop. My soul refused to be comforted.
Psalms 77:3  I remembered God, and I was troubled. I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.
Psalms 77:4  You hold my eyes open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak.
Psalms 77:5  I have thought about the days of long ago, the years of ancient times.
Psalms 77:6  I call to mind my song in the night. I talk with my own heart, and my spirit searches carefully.
Psalms 77:7  Will the Lord turn us away for ever? Will he never again show favour?
Psalms 77:8  Is his mercy completely gone for ever? Does his promise fail for all time?
Psalms 77:9  Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
Psalms 77:10  And I said, "This is my weakness. But I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High."
Psalms 77:11  I will remember the works of the LORD. Surely I will remember your wonders of long ago.
Psalms 77:12  I will think deeply about all your work, and talk of the things you have done.
Psalms 77:13  Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God?
Psalms 77:14  You are the God who does wonders. You have shown your strength among the peoples.
Psalms 77:15  With your arm you have redeemed your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.
Psalms 77:16  The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you; they were afraid. The deep places also were troubled.
Psalms 77:17  The clouds poured out water. The skies sent out a sound. Your arrows also flew everywhere.
Psalms 77:18  The voice of your thunder was in the heaven. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.
Psalms 77:19  Your way is in the sea, and your path in the great waters, and your footsteps are not known.
Psalms 77:20  You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

  A psalm of Asaph, for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 78:1  Listen, my people, to my law. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
Psalms 78:2  I will open my mouth in a parable. I will speak dark sayings from long ago,
Psalms 78:3  things we have heard and known, things our fathers have told us.
Psalms 78:4  We will not hide them from their children. We will tell the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and the wonderful works he has done.
Psalms 78:5  For he set up a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to make known to their children.
Psalms 78:6  So the generation to come would know them, even the children yet to be born, who would rise up and tell them to their children.
Psalms 78:7  Then they would set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.
Psalms 78:8  They would not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set its heart right, and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Psalms 78:9  The children of Ephraim were armed and carried bows, but they turned back on the day of battle.
Psalms 78:10  They did not keep the covenant of God, and they refused to walk in his law.
Psalms 78:11  They forgot his works, and the wonders he had shown them.
Psalms 78:12  He did marvellous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
Psalms 78:13  He divided the sea and made them pass through. He made the waters stand up like a heap.
Psalms 78:14  In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.
Psalms 78:15  He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as from the great depths.
Psalms 78:16  He brought streams out of the rock, and made water run down like rivers.
Psalms 78:17  Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
Psalms 78:18  They tested God in their heart by asking for food to satisfy their craving.
Psalms 78:19  They even spoke against God. They said, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness?"
Psalms 78:20  "Look, he struck the rock, and water gushed out, and streams overflowed. But can he give bread too? Can he provide meat for his people?"
Psalms 78:21  So the LORD heard this, and he was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also rose against Israel,
Psalms 78:22  because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation.
Psalms 78:23  Yet he had commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven.
Psalms 78:24  He had rained down manna for them to eat, and had given them the grain of heaven.
Psalms 78:25  Man ate the food of angels. He sent them food until they were full.
Psalms 78:26  He made an east wind blow in the heavens, and by his power he brought in the south wind.
Psalms 78:27  He rained meat on them like dust, and winged birds like the sand of the sea.
Psalms 78:28  He let it fall in the middle of their camp, all around where they lived.
Psalms 78:29  So they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
Psalms 78:30  But they had not yet turned from their craving. While the food was still in their mouths,
Psalms 78:31  the anger of God came upon them. He killed the strongest among them, and struck down the chosen men of Israel.
Psalms 78:32  For all this they still sinned, and did not believe, even after his wonderful works.
Psalms 78:33  So he made their days come to nothing, and their years end in trouble.
Psalms 78:34  When he killed them, then they sought him. They turned back and searched for God early.
Psalms 78:35  They remembered that God was their rock, and that the high God was their redeemer.
Psalms 78:36  Yet they flattered him with their mouths, and lied to him with their tongues.
Psalms 78:37  For their heart was not right with him, and they were not faithful to his covenant.
Psalms 78:38  But he was full of compassion. He forgave their sin and did not destroy them. Many times he turned his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.
Psalms 78:39  For he remembered that they were only flesh, a wind that passes by and does not come back.
Psalms 78:40  How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert.
Psalms 78:41  Again and again they turned back and tested God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
Psalms 78:42  They did not remember his hand, nor the day when he saved them from the enemy,
Psalms 78:43  how he had worked his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan.
Psalms 78:44  He turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.
Psalms 78:45  He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
Psalms 78:46  He gave their crops to the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labour to the locust.
Psalms 78:47  He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
Psalms 78:48  He gave up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
Psalms 78:49  He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
Psalms 78:50  He made a path for his anger. He did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the plague.
Psalms 78:51  He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, the first of their strength in the tents of Ham.
Psalms 78:52  But he made his own people go out like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
Psalms 78:53  He led them safely, so that they were not afraid. But the sea covered their enemies.
Psalms 78:54  He brought them to the border of his holy place, to this mountain, which his right hand had won.
Psalms 78:55  He drove out the nations before them, and measured out their inheritance by line. He made the tribes of Israel live in their tents.
Psalms 78:56  Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God, and did not keep his testimonies.
Psalms 78:57  They turned back and were unfaithful like their fathers. They twisted aside like a faulty bow.
Psalms 78:58  They made him angry with their high places, and stirred him to jealousy with their carved images.
Psalms 78:59  When God heard this, he was angry, and he greatly hated Israel.
Psalms 78:60  So he left the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent he had set up among men.
Psalms 78:61  He gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand.
Psalms 78:62  He gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.
Psalms 78:63  Fire consumed their young men, and their young women were not given in marriage.
Psalms 78:64  Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no weeping for them.
Psalms 78:65  Then the Lord awoke as one waking out of sleep, like a strong man who shouts because of wine.
Psalms 78:66  He struck his enemies from behind. He put them to everlasting shame.
Psalms 78:67  He refused the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
Psalms 78:68  But he chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which he loved.
Psalms 78:69  He built his holy place like the high heavens, like the earth which he has established for ever.
Psalms 78:70  He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
Psalms 78:71  He brought him from following the ewes with their young, to shepherd Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
Psalms 78:72  So he shepherded them with an honest heart, and guided them with skilful hands.

  A psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 79:1  O God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have made your holy temple unclean. They have left Jerusalem in heaps of ruins.
Psalms 79:2  They have given the dead bodies of your servants as food to the birds of the sky, and the flesh of your holy ones to the wild animals of the earth.
Psalms 79:3  They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.
Psalms 79:4  We have become a disgrace to our neighbours, a thing to be mocked and laughed at by those around us.
Psalms 79:5  How long, LORD? Will you be angry for ever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?
Psalms 79:6  Pour out your anger on the nations that have not known you, and on the kingdoms that have not called on your name.
Psalms 79:7  For they have devoured Jacob, and laid his home waste.
Psalms 79:8  Do not hold against us the sins of those before us. Let your tender mercies come quickly to meet us, for we have been brought very low.
Psalms 79:9  Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Rescue us, and wash our sins away, for your name's sake.
Psalms 79:10  Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Let it be known among the nations, while we watch, that you take revenge for the blood of your servants that has been shed.
Psalms 79:11  Let the groaning of the prisoner come before you. By your great power, keep alive those who are condemned to die.
Psalms 79:12  And pay back our neighbours seven times over for the insults with which they have insulted you, O Lord.
Psalms 79:13  Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks for ever. We will tell of your praise to all generations.

  For the leader of the music, to the tune called Shoshannim-eduth. A psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 80:1  Listen, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit between the cherubim, shine out.
Psalms 80:2  In front of Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up your strength. Come and save us.
Psalms 80:3  Turn us back again, O God. Make your face shine on us, and we shall be saved.
Psalms 80:4  O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?
Psalms 80:5  You feed them with the bread of tears. You give them tears to drink in great measure.
Psalms 80:6  You make us something for our neighbours to quarrel over, and our enemies laugh among themselves.
Psalms 80:7  Turn us back again, O God of hosts. Make your face shine on us, and we shall be saved.
Psalms 80:8  You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it.
Psalms 80:9  You made room before it. You made it take deep root, and it filled the land.
Psalms 80:10  The hills were covered with its shadow, and its boughs were like the fine cedars.
Psalms 80:11  She sent out her boughs to the sea, and her branches to the river.
Psalms 80:12  Why then have you broken down her hedges, so that everyone who passes by picks her fruit?
Psalms 80:13  The boar out of the wood ruins it, and the wild beast of the field eats it up.
Psalms 80:14  Return, we beg you, O God of hosts. Look down from heaven, and see, and come to this vine,
Psalms 80:15  and to the vineyard which your right hand has planted, and to the branch that you made strong for yourself.
Psalms 80:16  It is burned with fire, it is cut down. They perish at the rebuke of your face.
Psalms 80:17  Let your hand be upon the man of your right hand, upon the son of man whom you made strong for yourself.
Psalms 80:18  Then we will not turn back from you. Give us life, and we will call on your name.
Psalms 80:19  Turn us back again, O LORD God of hosts. Make your face shine on us, and we shall be saved.

  For the leader of the music, to be played on an instrument of Gath. A psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 81:1  Sing aloud to God our strength. Shout for joy to the God of Jacob.
Psalms 81:2  Take up a psalm, and bring the timbrel here, the sweet harp with the psaltery.
Psalms 81:3  Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the set time, on our solemn feast day.
Psalms 81:4  For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
Psalms 81:5  He set it up in Joseph as a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt. There I heard a language that I did not understand.
Psalms 81:6  "I took the load off his shoulder. His hands were set free from the baskets."
Psalms 81:7  You called in trouble, and I rescued you. I answered you from the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah.
Psalms 81:8  Hear, my people, and I will warn you. Israel, if only you will listen to me.
Psalms 81:9  There shall be no strange god among you. You shall not worship any strange god.
Psalms 81:10  I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
Psalms 81:11  But my people would not listen to my voice. Israel would have none of me.
Psalms 81:12  So I gave them up to the stubborn desires of their own hearts, and they walked by their own plans.
Psalms 81:13  Oh, that my people had listened to me, and that Israel had walked in my ways.
Psalms 81:14  I would soon have brought their enemies down, and turned my hand against those who fought them.
Psalms 81:15  Those who hate the LORD would have bowed down before him. But their time would have lasted for ever.
Psalms 81:16  "He would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat. And with honey out of the rock I would have satisfied you."

  A psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 82:1  God stands in the assembly of the mighty. He judges among the gods.
Psalms 82:2  "How long will you judge unjustly, and show favour to the wicked? Selah."
Psalms 82:3  "Defend the poor and the fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and the needy."
Psalms 82:4  "Rescue the poor and needy. Save them from the hand of the wicked."
Psalms 82:5  They do not know, and they will not understand. They walk on in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken out of place.
Psalms 82:6  I have said, "You are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High."
Psalms 82:7  "But you will die like men, and fall like one of the princes."
Psalms 82:8  Rise up, O God, and judge the earth, for all the nations belong to you.

  A song and psalm of Asaph.
Psalms 83:1  Do not keep silent, O God. Do not hold your peace. Do not be still, O God.
Psalms 83:2  Look, your enemies are making an uproar. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads.
Psalms 83:3  They have made sly plans against your people. They have plotted against those you keep hidden.
Psalms 83:4  They have said, "Come, let us cut them off, so they are no longer a nation. Let the name of Israel be remembered no more."
Psalms 83:5  For they have plotted together with one mind. They have made a league against you:
Psalms 83:6  the tents of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagarenes;
Psalms 83:7  Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the people of Tyre.
Psalms 83:8  Assur also has joined with them. They have helped the children of Lot. Selah.
Psalms 83:9  Do to them as you did to the Midianites, as to Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kison.
Psalms 83:10  They died at Endor. They became like dung on the ground.
Psalms 83:11  Make their nobles like Oreb and like Zeeb. Make all their princes like Zebah and like Zalmunna.
Psalms 83:12  They said, "Let us take the houses of God for ourselves."
Psalms 83:13  O my God, make them like a rolling wheel, like straw before the wind.
Psalms 83:14  As fire burns a forest, and as flame sets the mountains on fire,
Psalms 83:15  so chase them with your tempest, and make them afraid with your storm.
Psalms 83:16  Fill their faces with shame, so that they may seek your name, O LORD.
Psalms 83:17  Let them be confused and troubled for ever. Let them be put to shame and perish,
Psalms 83:18  so that people may know that you, whose name alone is JEHOVAH, are the Most High over all the earth.

  For the leader of the music, to be played on an instrument of Gath. A psalm for the sons of Korah.
Psalms 84:1  How lovely are your dwelling places, O LORD of hosts!
Psalms 84:2  My soul longs, and even faints, for the courts of the LORD. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalms 84:3  Yes, the sparrow has found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young - even your altars, O LORD of hosts, my King, and my God.
Psalms 84:4  Blessed are those who live in your house. They will still be praising you. Selah.
Psalms 84:5  Blessed is the man whose strength is in you; in whose heart are the ways of them.
Psalms 84:6  Passing through the valley of Baca, they make it a well. The rain also fills the pools.
Psalms 84:7  They go from strength to strength. Every one of them appears before God in Zion.
Psalms 84:8  O LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer. Listen, O God of Jacob. Selah.
Psalms 84:9  Look, O God our shield, and look on the face of your anointed one.
Psalms 84:10  For one day in your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.
Psalms 84:11  For the LORD God is a sun and a shield. The LORD will give grace and glory. He will hold back no good thing from those who walk uprightly.
Psalms 84:12  O LORD of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm for the sons of Korah.
Psalms 85:1  LORD, you have been kind to your land. You have brought back the captives of Jacob.
Psalms 85:2  You have forgiven the wrongdoing of your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah.
Psalms 85:3  You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned yourself from the fierceness of your anger.
Psalms 85:4  Turn us back, O God of our salvation. Make your anger toward us stop.
Psalms 85:5  Will you be angry with us for ever? Will you stretch out your anger to all generations?
Psalms 85:6  Will you not give us life again, so that your people may rejoice in you?
Psalms 85:7  Show us your mercy, O LORD, and grant us your salvation.
Psalms 85:8  I will hear what God the LORD will say. He will speak peace to his people, and to those who belong to him. But let them not turn back to folly.
Psalms 85:9  Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, so that glory may live in our land.
Psalms 85:10  Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Psalms 85:11  Truth will spring up out of the earth, and righteousness will look down from heaven.
Psalms 85:12  Yes, the LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.
Psalms 85:13  Righteousness will go before him, and will set us in the way of his steps.

  A prayer of David.
Psalms 86:1  Bend down your ear, O LORD, and hear me. I am poor and needy.
Psalms 86:2  Keep my soul safe, for I am holy. O my God, save your servant who trusts in you.
Psalms 86:3  Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry out to you every day.
Psalms 86:4  Make your servant's soul glad, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
Psalms 86:5  For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive. You are full of mercy to all who call on you.
Psalms 86:6  Listen, O LORD, to my prayer, and pay attention to the voice of my pleading.
Psalms 86:7  In the day of my trouble I will call on you, for you will answer me.
Psalms 86:8  Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, and there are no works like your works.
Psalms 86:9  All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord, and they will glorify your name.
Psalms 86:10  For you are great, and you do wonderful things. You alone are God.
Psalms 86:11  Teach me your way, O LORD, and I will walk in your truth. Make my heart one, so that I fear your name.
Psalms 86:12  I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart. I will glorify your name for ever.
Psalms 86:13  For great is your mercy toward me. You have rescued my soul from the lowest hell.
Psalms 86:14  O God, the proud have risen up against me. A crowd of violent men has hunted for my soul, and they have not set you before them.
Psalms 86:15  But you, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, slow to anger, and full of mercy and truth.
Psalms 86:16  Turn to me, and have mercy on me. Give your strength to your servant, and save the son of your servant girl.
Psalms 86:17  Show me a sign of your goodness, so that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed. For you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me.

  A psalm and song for the sons of Korah.
Psalms 87:1  His foundation is in the holy mountains.
Psalms 87:2  The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
Psalms 87:3  Glorious things are spoken about you, O city of God. Selah.
Psalms 87:4  "I will speak of Rahab and Babylon to those who know me. Look at Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia: this man was born there."
Psalms 87:5  And of Zion it will be said, "This man and that man was born in her." And the Most High himself will make her stand firm.
Psalms 87:6  The LORD will count, when he writes up the peoples, that this man was born there. Selah.
Psalms 87:7  The singers and the players on instruments will be there alike. All my springs are in you.

  A song and psalm for the sons of Korah. For the leader of the music, to a sad and mournful tune. A psalm of Heman the Ezrahite, for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 88:1  O LORD God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before you.
Psalms 88:2  Let my prayer come before you. Turn your ear to my cry.
Psalms 88:3  For my soul is full of troubles, and my life comes near to the grave.
Psalms 88:4  I am counted with those who go down into the pit. I am like a man who has no strength.
Psalms 88:5  I am set loose among the dead, like the killed who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more. They are cut off from your hand.
Psalms 88:6  You have laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, in the deep places.
Psalms 88:7  Your anger lies heavy upon me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah.
Psalms 88:8  You have put my friends far away from me. You have made me something they hate. I am shut in, and I cannot get out.
Psalms 88:9  My eye grows weak because of my trouble. LORD, I have called on you every day. I have stretched out my hands to you.
Psalms 88:10  Will you show wonders to the dead? Will the dead rise up and praise you? Selah.
Psalms 88:11  Will your lovingkindness be told in the grave? Or your faithfulness in the place of destruction?
Psalms 88:12  Will your wonders be known in the dark? Or your righteousness in the land where all is forgotten?
Psalms 88:13  But I have cried out to you, O LORD, and in the morning my prayer comes before you.
Psalms 88:14  LORD, why do you throw away my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?
Psalms 88:15  From my youth up I have been afflicted and ready to die. While I bear your terrors, I am distraught.
Psalms 88:16  Your fierce anger passes over me. Your terrors have cut me off.
Psalms 88:17  They came all around me every day like water. Together they closed in on me.
Psalms 88:18  You have put those who love me and my friends far away from me, and my companions into darkness.

  A psalm of Ethan the Ezrahite, for instruction and reflection.
Psalms 89:1  I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever. With my mouth I will make your faithfulness known to all generations.
Psalms 89:2  For I have said, "Mercy will be built up for ever. You will make your faithfulness firm in the heavens themselves."
Psalms 89:3  "I have made a covenant with my chosen one. I have sworn an oath to David my servant:"
Psalms 89:4  "I will make your offspring secure for ever, and build up your throne for all generations." Selah.
Psalms 89:5  The heavens will praise your wonders, LORD, and your faithfulness too, in the gathering of the saints.
Psalms 89:6  For who in the sky can be compared to the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty is like the LORD?
Psalms 89:7  God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints. All who are around him hold him in awe.
Psalms 89:8  LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like you? Who is like your faithfulness all around you?
Psalms 89:9  You rule the raging of the sea. When its waves rise, you make them still.
Psalms 89:10  You have broken Rahab in pieces, like one who is killed. With your strong arm you have scattered your enemies.
Psalms 89:11  The heavens are yours, and the earth is yours too. As for the world and all that fills it, you founded them.
Psalms 89:12  The north and the south you created. Tabor and Hermon shout for joy at your name.
Psalms 89:13  You have a mighty arm. Your hand is strong, and your right hand is lifted high.
Psalms 89:14  Justice and judgment are the foundation of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face.
Psalms 89:15  Happy are the people who know the joyful sound. They will walk, LORD, in the light of your face.
Psalms 89:16  In your name they will rejoice all day long, and in your righteousness they will be lifted high.
Psalms 89:17  For you are the glory of their strength, and by your favour our horn will be lifted high.
Psalms 89:18  For the LORD is our defence, and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
Psalms 89:19  Then you spoke in a vision to your holy one, and said, "I have given help to one who is mighty. I have lifted up one chosen from among the people."
Psalms 89:20  "I have found David my servant. With my holy oil I have anointed him."
Psalms 89:21  "My hand will stay with him, and my arm will make him strong."
Psalms 89:22  "The enemy will not get the better of him, and the son of wickedness will not bring him low."
Psalms 89:23  "I will beat down his foes before his face, and strike down those who hate him."
Psalms 89:24  "But my faithfulness and my mercy will be with him, and in my name his horn will be lifted high."
Psalms 89:25  "I will set his hand on the sea, and his right hand on the rivers."
Psalms 89:26  "He will cry out to me, 'You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.'"
Psalms 89:27  "I will also make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth."
Psalms 89:28  "I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my covenant with him will stand firm."
Psalms 89:29  "I will also make his offspring last for ever, and his throne as long as the days of heaven."
Psalms 89:30  "If his children turn away from my law, and do not walk in my judgments;"
Psalms 89:31  "if they break my statutes, and do not keep my commandments;"
Psalms 89:32  "then I will punish their wrongdoing with the rod, and their sin with blows."
Psalms 89:33  "Even so, I will not take my lovingkindness away from him completely, nor let my faithfulness fail."
Psalms 89:34  "I will not break my covenant, nor change what my lips have spoken."
Psalms 89:35  "Once and for all I have sworn by my holiness that I will not lie to David."
Psalms 89:36  "His offspring will last for ever, and his throne as long as the sun before me."
Psalms 89:37  "It will be made firm for ever like the moon, and like a faithful witness in the sky." Selah.
Psalms 89:38  But you have cast off and turned away in disgust. You have been angry with your anointed one.
Psalms 89:39  You have made the covenant with your servant worthless. You have thrown his crown to the ground and treated it as unholy.
Psalms 89:40  You have broken down all his hedges. You have brought his strongholds to ruin.
Psalms 89:41  All who pass by on the road rob him. He is a disgrace to his neighbours.
Psalms 89:42  You have raised up the right hand of his adversaries. You have made all his enemies glad.
Psalms 89:43  You have also turned back the edge of his sword, and have not made him stand firm in the battle.
Psalms 89:44  You have made his glory come to an end, and thrown his throne down to the ground.
Psalms 89:45  You have cut short the days of his youth. You have covered him with shame. Selah.
Psalms 89:46  How long, LORD? Will you hide yourself for ever? Will your anger burn like fire?
Psalms 89:47  Remember how short my time is. Why have you made all people for nothing?
Psalms 89:48  What man is there who lives and will not see death? Can he save his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah.
Psalms 89:49  Lord, where are your former acts of lovingkindness, which you swore to David in your truth?
Psalms 89:50  Remember, Lord, the disgrace of your servants, and how I carry in my heart the insults of all the mighty peoples.
Psalms 89:51  With these your enemies have insulted you, LORD. With these they have insulted the footsteps of your anointed one.
Psalms 89:52  Blessed be the LORD for ever. Amen, and Amen.

  A prayer of Moses, the man of God.
Psalms 90:1  Lord, you have been our dwelling place through all generations.
Psalms 90:2  Before the mountains were born, before you formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Psalms 90:3  You turn people back to destruction, and you say, "Return, you children of men."
Psalms 90:4  For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like one watch in the night.
Psalms 90:5  You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a sleep. In the morning they are like grass that springs up.
Psalms 90:6  In the morning it blossoms and grows; in the evening it is cut down and dries up.
Psalms 90:7  For we are used up by your anger, and by your wrath we are terrified.
Psalms 90:8  You have set our sins before you, our secret sins in the light of your face.
Psalms 90:9  For all our days pass away in your wrath. We spend our years like a tale that is told.
Psalms 90:10  The days of our years are seventy years; and if, by reason of strength, they are eighty years, yet their strength is labour and sorrow. For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.
Psalms 90:11  Who knows the power of your anger? According to the fear that is due to you, so is your wrath.
Psalms 90:12  So teach us to number our days, that we may set our hearts on wisdom.
Psalms 90:13  Return, LORD. How long will it be? Relent concerning your servants.
Psalms 90:14  Satisfy us early with your mercy, so that we may sing and be glad all our days.
Psalms 90:15  Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, and for the years in which we have seen evil.
Psalms 90:16  Let your work be seen by your servants, and your glory by their children.
Psalms 90:17  And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us. Make the work of our hands stand firm; yes, make the work of our hands stand firm.

Psalms 91:1  The one who lives in the secret place of the Most High will rest under the shadow of the Almighty.
Psalms 91:2  I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress. He is my God, and I will trust in him."
Psalms 91:3  Surely he will save you from the trap of the bird catcher, and from the deadly plague.
Psalms 91:4  He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will trust. His truth will be your shield and your armour.
Psalms 91:5  You will not be afraid of the terror at night, or of the arrow that flies by day,
Psalms 91:6  or of the plague that walks in the darkness, or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
Psalms 91:7  A thousand will fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
Psalms 91:8  You will only look with your eyes and see the wicked repaid.
Psalms 91:9  You have made the LORD your home, the Most High, who is my refuge.
Psalms 91:10  No evil will come to you, and no plague will come near your house.
Psalms 91:11  For he will command his angels to watch over you, to keep you in all your ways.
Psalms 91:12  They will lift you up in their hands, so that you do not strike your foot against a stone.
Psalms 91:13  You will tread on the lion and the adder. You will trample the young lion and the dragon under your feet.
Psalms 91:14  "Because he has set his love on me, I will rescue him. I will set him on high, because he has known my name."
Psalms 91:15  "He will call on me, and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honour him."
Psalms 91:16  "I will satisfy him with long life, and show him my salvation."

  A psalm and song for the Sabbath day.
Psalms 92:1  It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to your name, O Most High:
Psalms 92:2  to tell of your loving kindness in the morning, and of your faithfulness every night,
Psalms 92:3  on an instrument of ten strings, and on the psaltery; on the harp with a solemn sound.
Psalms 92:4  For you, LORD, have made me glad by what you have done. I will sing for joy at the works of your hands.
Psalms 92:5  O LORD, how great are your works! And your thoughts are very deep.
Psalms 92:6  A man without sense does not know this; a fool does not understand it.
Psalms 92:7  When the wicked spring up like the grass, and all those who do evil flourish, it is so that they may be destroyed for ever.
Psalms 92:8  But you, LORD, are most high for evermore.
Psalms 92:9  For look, your enemies, O LORD, look, your enemies will perish. All those who do evil will be scattered.
Psalms 92:10  But you will lift up my horn like the horn of a unicorn. I will be anointed with fresh oil.
Psalms 92:11  My eye also will see what I long for on my enemies, and my ears will hear what I long for about the wicked who rise up against me.
Psalms 92:12  The righteous will flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Psalms 92:13  Those who are planted in the house of the LORD will flourish in the courts of our God.
Psalms 92:14  They will still bring forth fruit in old age; they will be full of sap and green,
Psalms 92:15  to show that the LORD is upright. He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Psalms 93:1  The LORD reigns. He is clothed with majesty. The LORD is clothed with strength; he has put it on like a belt. The world is set firm, and it cannot be moved.
Psalms 93:2  Your throne was set up long ago. You are from everlasting.
Psalms 93:3  The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
Psalms 93:4  The LORD on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, mightier than the strong waves of the sea.
Psalms 93:5  Your testimonies are very sure. Holiness fits your house, O LORD, for ever.

Psalms 94:1  O LORD God, vengeance belongs to you. O God, vengeance belongs to you: show yourself.
Psalms 94:2  Rise up, you judge of the earth. Pay the proud what they deserve.
Psalms 94:3  LORD, how long will the wicked, how long will the wicked celebrate?
Psalms 94:4  How long will they pour out their hard words and speak them? All who do evil boast about themselves.
Psalms 94:5  They break your people in pieces, O LORD, and they crush the people who belong to you.
Psalms 94:6  They kill the widow and the stranger, and they murder the fatherless.
Psalms 94:7  Yet they say, "The LORD will not see it. The God of Jacob will pay it no attention."
Psalms 94:8  Understand this, you senseless ones among the people. You fools, when will you be wise?
Psalms 94:9  He who planted the ear, will he not hear? He who formed the eye, will he not see?
Psalms 94:10  He who disciplines the nations, will he not correct you? He who teaches people knowledge, will he not know?
Psalms 94:11  The LORD knows the thoughts of man; he knows they are empty.
Psalms 94:12  Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD, and whom you teach out of your law.
Psalms 94:13  You give him rest from the days of trouble, until the pit is dug for the wicked.
Psalms 94:14  For the LORD will not throw off his people. He will not abandon those who belong to him.
Psalms 94:15  But judgment will come back to righteousness, and all who are upright in heart will follow it.
Psalms 94:16  Who will rise up for me against those who do evil? Who will stand up for me against the workers of wrong?
Psalms 94:17  If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would almost have gone to live in silence.
Psalms 94:18  When I said, "My foot is slipping," your mercy, O LORD, held me up.
Psalms 94:19  When my thoughts crowd inside me, your comforts delight my soul.
Psalms 94:20  Can the throne of evil be your friend, a throne that shapes trouble by law?
Psalms 94:21  They gather together against the soul of the righteous, and they condemn innocent blood.
Psalms 94:22  But the LORD is my defence, and my God is the rock where I take refuge.
Psalms 94:23  He will bring their own evil back on them, and cut them off in their own wickedness. Yes, the LORD our God will cut them off.

Psalms 95:1  Come, let us sing to the LORD. Let us shout for joy to the rock of our salvation.
Psalms 95:2  Let us come before him with thanksgiving. Let us shout for joy to him with psalms.
Psalms 95:3  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
Psalms 95:4  The deep places of the earth are in his hand. The strength of the hills is his also.
Psalms 95:5  The sea is his, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land.
Psalms 95:6  Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker.
Psalms 95:7  For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear his voice,
Psalms 95:8  do not harden your heart, as at the provocation, as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
Psalms 95:9  when your fathers tested me, and tried me, and saw my work.
Psalms 95:10  For forty years I was grieved with that generation, and I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known my ways."
Psalms 95:11  So I swore in my anger that they should not enter into my rest.

Psalms 96:1  Sing a new song to the LORD. Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
Psalms 96:2  Sing to the LORD, bless his name. Tell of his salvation day after day.
Psalms 96:3  Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples.
Psalms 96:4  For the LORD is great, and worthy of great praise. He is to be feared above all gods.
Psalms 96:5  For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
Psalms 96:6  Honour and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his holy place.
Psalms 96:7  Give to the LORD, you families of the peoples, give to the LORD glory and strength.
Psalms 96:8  Give to the LORD the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, and come into his courts.
Psalms 96:9  Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him, all the earth.
Psalms 96:10  Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns." The world is set firm, and it will not be moved. He will judge the peoples fairly.
Psalms 96:11  Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar, and all that fills it.
Psalms 96:12  Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the wood will sing for joy
Psalms 96:13  before the LORD. For he is coming, he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.

Psalms 97:1  The LORD reigns; let the earth rejoice. Let the many islands be glad.
Psalms 97:2  Clouds and darkness are all around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Psalms 97:3  A fire goes before him, and burns up his enemies on every side.
Psalms 97:4  His lightnings lit up the world. The earth saw it, and trembled.
Psalms 97:5  The hills melted like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of the whole earth.
Psalms 97:6  The heavens tell of his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory.
Psalms 97:7  Let all who serve carved images be put to shame, all who boast about idols. Worship him, all you gods.
Psalms 97:8  Zion heard it, and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced because of your judgments, LORD.
Psalms 97:9  For you, LORD, are high above all the earth. You are lifted up far above all gods.
Psalms 97:10  You who love the LORD, hate evil. He guards the lives of those who belong to him; he rescues them from the hand of the wicked.
Psalms 97:11  Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for those whose hearts are upright.
Psalms 97:12  Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous ones, and give thanks when you remember his holiness.

  A psalm.
Psalms 98:1  Sing a new song to the LORD, for he has done wonderful things. His right hand and his holy arm have won the victory for him.
Psalms 98:2  The LORD has made his salvation known. He has shown his righteousness openly for the nations to see.
Psalms 98:3  He has remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Psalms 98:4  Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth. Shout aloud, and rejoice, and sing praise.
Psalms 98:5  Sing to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm.
Psalms 98:6  With trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.
Psalms 98:7  Let the sea roar, and everything in it; the world, and all who live in it.
Psalms 98:8  Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together
Psalms 98:9  before the LORD, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with fairness.

Psalms 99:1  The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble. He sits between the cherubim; let the earth shake.
Psalms 99:2  The LORD is great in Zion. He is high above all the peoples.
Psalms 99:3  Let them praise your great and awesome name, for it is holy.
Psalms 99:4  The king's strength also loves justice. You make fairness firm; you bring justice and righteousness to Jacob.
Psalms 99:5  Lift high the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool, for he is holy.
Psalms 99:6  Moses and Aaron were among his priests, and Samuel was among those who call on his name. They called on the LORD, and he answered them.
Psalms 99:7  He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud. They kept his laws, and the rule that he gave them.
Psalms 99:8  You answered them, O LORD our God. You were a God who forgave them, though you punished them for the things they did.
Psalms 99:9  Lift high the LORD our God, and worship at his holy hill, for the LORD our God is holy.

  A psalm for giving praise.
Psalms 100:1  Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you lands.
Psalms 100:2  Serve the LORD with gladness. Come before him with singing.
Psalms 100:3  Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Psalms 100:4  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Be thankful to him, and bless his name.
Psalms 100:5  For the LORD is good. His mercy lasts for ever, and his truth lasts to all generations.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 101:1  I will sing of mercy and judgment. To you, O LORD, I will sing.
Psalms 101:2  I will act wisely and walk in a perfect way. Oh, when will you come to me? I will walk inside my house with a perfect heart.
Psalms 101:3  I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. I hate the work of those who turn aside; it will not cling to me.
Psalms 101:4  A crooked heart will depart from me. I will not know a wicked person.
Psalms 101:5  Whoever secretly slanders his neighbour, I will cut him off. The one with proud eyes and a proud heart I will not allow.
Psalms 101:6  My eyes will be on the faithful of the land, so that they may live with me. The one who walks in a perfect way will serve me.
Psalms 101:7  The one who practises deceit will not live inside my house. The one who tells lies will not stay in my sight.
Psalms 101:8  Early each morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, to cut off all who do evil from the city of the LORD.

  A prayer of a person who is suffering, when he feels crushed and pours out his trouble to the LORD.
Psalms 102:1  Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come to you.
Psalms 102:2  Do not hide your face from me in the day when I am in trouble. Turn your ear to me. In the day when I call, answer me quickly.
Psalms 102:3  For my days vanish like smoke, and my bones burn like a hearth.
Psalms 102:4  My heart is struck down and withered like grass, so that I forget to eat my bread.
Psalms 102:5  Because of the sound of my groaning, my bones cling to my skin.
Psalms 102:6  I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I am like an owl of the desert.
Psalms 102:7  I lie awake, and I am like a sparrow alone on the housetop.
Psalms 102:8  My enemies insult me all day long. Those who rage against me have sworn an oath against me.
Psalms 102:9  For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with weeping,
Psalms 102:10  because of your anger and your wrath. For you have lifted me up and thrown me down.
Psalms 102:11  My days are like a shadow that fades, and I am withered like grass.
Psalms 102:12  But you, O LORD, will last for ever, and your name will be remembered through all generations.
Psalms 102:13  You will rise up and have mercy on Zion. For the time to favour her, the appointed time, has come.
Psalms 102:14  For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and they love her dust.
Psalms 102:15  So the nations will fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth will fear your glory.
Psalms 102:16  When the LORD builds up Zion, he will appear in his glory.
Psalms 102:17  He will pay attention to the prayer of the destitute, and will not despise their prayer.
Psalms 102:18  This will be written for the generation to come, and a people yet to be created will praise the LORD.
Psalms 102:19  For he has looked down from the height of his holy place. From heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
Psalms 102:20  to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to set free those who are condemned to death,
Psalms 102:21  so that the name of the LORD may be told in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem,
Psalms 102:22  when the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
Psalms 102:23  He weakened my strength along the way. He shortened my days.
Psalms 102:24  I said, "O my God, do not take me away in the middle of my days. Your years go on through all generations."
Psalms 102:25  "Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands."
Psalms 102:26  "They will perish, but you will remain. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like clothing, and they will be changed."
Psalms 102:27  "But you are the same, and your years will have no end."
Psalms 102:28  The children of your servants will go on living, and their descendants will be established before you.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 103:1  Bless the LORD, O my soul. Everything within me, bless his holy name.
Psalms 103:2  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his good gifts.
Psalms 103:3  He forgives all your sins. He heals all your diseases.
Psalms 103:4  He saves your life from destruction. He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.
Psalms 103:5  He fills your mouth with good things, so that your youth is made new like the eagle's.
Psalms 103:6  The LORD does righteousness and justice for all who are crushed down.
Psalms 103:7  He made his ways known to Moses, and his deeds to the children of Israel.
Psalms 103:8  The LORD is full of mercy and grace, slow to get angry, and rich in mercy.
Psalms 103:9  He will not always find fault, and he will not keep his anger for ever.
Psalms 103:10  He has not treated us as our sins deserve, or paid us back for the wrong we have done.
Psalms 103:11  For as the sky is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him.
Psalms 103:12  As far as the east is from the west, so far has he taken our sins away from us.
Psalms 103:13  As a father is tender to his children, so the LORD is tender to those who fear him.
Psalms 103:14  For he knows how we are made. He remembers that we are dust.
Psalms 103:15  As for man, his days are like grass. He blooms like a flower of the field.
Psalms 103:16  The wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
Psalms 103:17  But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness reaches to their children's children.
Psalms 103:18  It is for those who keep his covenant, and who remember his commandments and do them.
Psalms 103:19  The LORD has set up his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
Psalms 103:20  Bless the LORD, you his angels, so great in strength, who do what he commands and listen to the voice of his word.
Psalms 103:21  Bless the LORD, all you his armies, you servants of his who do what pleases him.
Psalms 103:22  Bless the LORD, all his works, in every place where he rules. Bless the LORD, O my soul.

Psalms 104:1  Bless the LORD, my soul. LORD my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honour and majesty.
Psalms 104:2  You cover yourself with light as with a robe. You stretch out the heavens like a curtain.
Psalms 104:3  You lay the beams of your rooms in the waters. You make the clouds your chariot. You walk on the wings of the wind.
Psalms 104:4  He makes his angels spirits, and his servants a flaming fire.
Psalms 104:5  He laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should never be moved.
Psalms 104:6  You covered it with the deep as with a robe. The waters stood above the mountains.
Psalms 104:7  At your rebuke they fled. At the sound of your thunder they hurried away.
Psalms 104:8  They go up by the mountains. They go down by the valleys, to the place you made ready for them.
Psalms 104:9  You have set a boundary they may not cross, so that they will not come back to cover the earth.
Psalms 104:10  He sends the springs into the valleys, and they run among the hills.
Psalms 104:11  They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
Psalms 104:12  Beside them the birds of the sky make their home, and sing among the branches.
Psalms 104:13  He waters the hills from his rooms above. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of your works.
Psalms 104:14  He makes the grass grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, so that he may bring food out of the earth;
Psalms 104:15  and wine that makes a man's heart glad, and oil to make his face shine, and bread that strengthens a man's heart.
Psalms 104:16  The trees of the LORD are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon, which he planted.
Psalms 104:17  There the birds make their nests. As for the stork, the fir trees are her house.
Psalms 104:18  The high hills are a refuge for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies.
Psalms 104:19  He appointed the moon to mark the seasons. The sun knows when to go down.
Psalms 104:20  You make darkness, and it is night. Then all the beasts of the forest creep out.
Psalms 104:21  The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their food from God.
Psalms 104:22  The sun rises; they gather together, and lie down in their dens.
Psalms 104:23  Man goes out to his work and to his labour until the evening.
Psalms 104:24  LORD, how many are your works! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
Psalms 104:25  So is this great, wide sea, where there are creeping things beyond counting, both small and great creatures.
Psalms 104:26  There the ships go. There is that leviathan, which you made to play in it.
Psalms 104:27  All of these wait for you, to give them their food at the right time.
Psalms 104:28  What you give them, they gather up. You open your hand, and they are filled with good things.
Psalms 104:29  You hide your face, and they are troubled. You take away their breath, and they die and return to their dust.
Psalms 104:30  You send out your spirit, and they are created. You make the face of the earth new again.
Psalms 104:31  The glory of the LORD will last for ever. The LORD will rejoice in his works.
Psalms 104:32  He looks on the earth, and it trembles. He touches the hills, and they smoke.
Psalms 104:33  I will sing to the LORD as long as I live. I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
Psalms 104:34  My thoughts about him will be sweet. I will be glad in the LORD.
Psalms 104:35  Let sinners be swept away from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the LORD, my soul. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 105:1  Give thanks to the LORD. Call on his name. Tell the peoples what he has done.
Psalms 105:2  Sing to him, sing psalms to him. Talk of all his wonderful works.
Psalms 105:3  Take glory in his holy name. Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
Psalms 105:4  Seek the LORD, and his strength. Seek his face always.
Psalms 105:5  Remember the marvellous works he has done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth,
Psalms 105:6  you children of Abraham his servant, you sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
Psalms 105:7  He is the LORD our God. His judgments are in all the earth.
Psalms 105:8  He has remembered his covenant for ever, the word he commanded to a thousand generations.
Psalms 105:9  This is the covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath to Isaac.
Psalms 105:10  He made it stand for Jacob as a law, and for Israel as an everlasting covenant,
Psalms 105:11  saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the portion you will inherit."
Psalms 105:12  There were only a few of them then, very few, and they were strangers in the land.
Psalms 105:13  They went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people.
Psalms 105:14  He allowed no one to do them wrong. He even rebuked kings for their sake,
Psalms 105:15  saying, "Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm."
Psalms 105:16  He called for a famine on the land. He broke the whole supply of bread.
Psalms 105:17  He sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
Psalms 105:18  They hurt his feet with chains. He was laid in irons,
Psalms 105:19  until the time his word came true. The word of the LORD tested him.
Psalms 105:20  The king sent and set him free. The ruler of the people let him go free.
Psalms 105:21  He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all he owned,
Psalms 105:22  to bind his princes as he pleased, and to teach his elders wisdom.
Psalms 105:23  Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob lived as a stranger in the land of Ham.
Psalms 105:24  He made his people increase greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies.
Psalms 105:25  He turned their hearts to hate his people, and to deal craftily with his servants.
Psalms 105:26  He sent Moses his servant, and Aaron whom he had chosen.
Psalms 105:27  They showed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
Psalms 105:28  He sent darkness, and made it dark. And they did not rebel against his word.
Psalms 105:29  He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish.
Psalms 105:30  Their land swarmed with frogs, even in the rooms of their kings.
Psalms 105:31  He spoke, and swarms of flies came, and lice through all their land.
Psalms 105:32  He gave them hail instead of rain, and flaming fire in their land.
Psalms 105:33  He struck their vines and their fig trees, and broke the trees of their land.
Psalms 105:34  He spoke, and the locusts came, and caterpillars beyond counting.
Psalms 105:35  They ate up all the plants in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground.
Psalms 105:36  He also struck down all the firstborn in their land, the first of all their strength.
Psalms 105:37  He brought them out with silver and gold, and there was not one weak person among their tribes.
Psalms 105:38  Egypt was glad when they left, for the fear of them had fallen on Egypt.
Psalms 105:39  He spread out a cloud to cover them, and fire to give light in the night.
Psalms 105:40  The people asked, and he brought quails, and filled them with the bread of heaven.
Psalms 105:41  He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out. They ran through the dry places like a river.
Psalms 105:42  For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.
Psalms 105:43  He brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing.
Psalms 105:44  He gave them the lands of the nations, and they took over what other peoples had worked for,
Psalms 105:45  so that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 106:1  Praise the LORD. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 106:2  Who can tell the mighty acts of the LORD? Who can speak out all his praise?
Psalms 106:3  Blessed are those who keep justice, and the one who does righteousness at all times.
Psalms 106:4  Remember me, LORD, with the favour you show to your people. Come to me with your salvation.
Psalms 106:5  Then I will see the good of your chosen ones. I will rejoice with the gladness of your nation. I will glory along with your inheritance.
Psalms 106:6  We have sinned, as our fathers did. We have done wrong. We have acted wickedly.
Psalms 106:7  Our fathers did not understand your wonders in Egypt. They did not remember how many your mercies were. Instead they rebelled against him at the sea, at the Red Sea.
Psalms 106:8  Even so he saved them for his name's sake, to make his mighty power known.
Psalms 106:9  He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up. So he led them through the deep waters, as through a desert.
Psalms 106:10  He saved them from the hand of the one who hated them. He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.
Psalms 106:11  The waters covered their enemies. Not one of them was left.
Psalms 106:12  Then they believed his words. They sang his praise.
Psalms 106:13  They soon forgot what he had done. They did not wait for his counsel.
Psalms 106:14  They were filled with greedy craving in the wilderness, and they tested God in the desert.
Psalms 106:15  He gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting sickness into their soul.
Psalms 106:16  They also envied Moses in the camp, and Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.
Psalms 106:17  The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan. It covered the company of Abiram.
Psalms 106:18  A fire was lit among their company. The flame burned up the wicked.
Psalms 106:19  They made a calf at Horeb, and worshipped the metal image.
Psalms 106:20  So they exchanged their glory for the likeness of an ox that eats grass.
Psalms 106:21  They forgot God their saviour, who had done great things in Egypt,
Psalms 106:22  wonderful works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea.
Psalms 106:23  So he said that he would destroy them. But Moses, his chosen one, stood before him in the gap, to turn away his anger, so that he would not destroy them.
Psalms 106:24  Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They did not believe his word,
Psalms 106:25  but grumbled in their tents, and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
Psalms 106:26  So he lifted up his hand against them, swearing to strike them down in the wilderness,
Psalms 106:27  to strike down their children among the nations too, and to scatter them through the lands.
Psalms 106:28  They joined themselves to Baalpeor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead.
Psalms 106:29  So they stirred him to anger by what they did, and a plague broke out among them.
Psalms 106:30  Then Phinehas stood up and carried out judgment, and so the plague was stopped.
Psalms 106:31  That was counted to him as righteousness, through all generations for ever.
Psalms 106:32  They made him angry at the waters of strife as well, and because of them it went badly for Moses.
Psalms 106:33  For they provoked his spirit, so that he spoke rashly with his lips.
Psalms 106:34  They did not destroy the nations, as the LORD had commanded them.
Psalms 106:35  Instead they mixed with the nations, and learned their ways.
Psalms 106:36  They served their idols, which became a trap for them.
Psalms 106:37  Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.
Psalms 106:38  They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood.
Psalms 106:39  So they were made unclean by their own deeds, and were unfaithful in what they did.
Psalms 106:40  So the anger of the LORD burned against his people. He hated his own inheritance.
Psalms 106:41  He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them.
Psalms 106:42  Their enemies crushed them too, and they were brought under their hand.
Psalms 106:43  Many times he rescued them. But they rebelled with their plans, and were brought low for their sin.
Psalms 106:44  Even so, he looked on their trouble when he heard their cry.
Psalms 106:45  He remembered his covenant for their sake, and relented, because his mercies were so many.
Psalms 106:46  He also made all those who carried them away captive feel pity for them.
Psalms 106:47  Save us, LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, so that we may give thanks to your holy name, and triumph in your praise.
Psalms 106:48  Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Let all the people say, "Amen." Praise the LORD.

Psalms 107:1  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 107:2  Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, those he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Psalms 107:3  those he gathered out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
Psalms 107:4  They wandered in the desert, on a lonely road. They found no city to live in.
Psalms 107:5  Hungry and thirsty, their soul grew faint within them.
Psalms 107:6  Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he rescued them out of their distress.
Psalms 107:7  He led them out by the right way, so that they could go to a city to live in.
Psalms 107:8  If only people would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalms 107:9  For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with good things.
Psalms 107:10  Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in misery and in iron chains,
Psalms 107:11  because they rebelled against the words of God, and despised the counsel of the Most High.
Psalms 107:12  So he brought down their heart with hard labour. They fell down, and there was no one to help.
Psalms 107:13  Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distress.
Psalms 107:14  He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their chains apart.
Psalms 107:15  If only people would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalms 107:16  For he has broken the gates of brass, and cut through the bars of iron.
Psalms 107:17  Fools suffer because they have broken the law, and because of their sins.
Psalms 107:18  Their soul hates every kind of food, and they come close to the gates of death.
Psalms 107:19  Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble, and he saves them out of their distress.
Psalms 107:20  He sent his word and healed them, and rescued them from the pit that would destroy them.
Psalms 107:21  If only people would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalms 107:22  Let them offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his works with joy.
Psalms 107:23  Some go down to the sea in ships, and do their work on the great waters.
Psalms 107:24  They see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psalms 107:25  For he commands, and he raises the stormy wind, which lifts up the waves of the sea.
Psalms 107:26  They go up to the sky, they go down again to the depths. Their soul melts away because of the trouble.
Psalms 107:27  They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and all their skill is gone.
Psalms 107:28  Then they cry to the LORD in their trouble, and he brings them out of their distress.
Psalms 107:29  He makes the storm be calm, so that the waves are still.
Psalms 107:30  Then they are glad because the sea is quiet. So he brings them to the harbour they longed for.
Psalms 107:31  If only people would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psalms 107:32  Let them lift him high in the gathering of the people, and praise him where the elders are assembled.
Psalms 107:33  He turns rivers into a desert, and springs of water into dry ground.
Psalms 107:34  He turns a fruitful land into salty waste, because of the wickedness of those who live in it.
Psalms 107:35  He turns the desert into a pool of water, and dry ground into springs of water.
Psalms 107:36  There he settles the hungry, so that they may build a city to live in,
Psalms 107:37  and sow the fields, and plant vineyards which give a rich harvest.
Psalms 107:38  He blesses them too, so that they increase greatly, and he does not let their cattle grow fewer.
Psalms 107:39  Then again, they are made few and brought low by oppression, trouble and sorrow.
Psalms 107:40  He pours contempt on princes, and makes them wander in a waste where there is no road.
Psalms 107:41  Yet he lifts the poor up out of their misery, and makes their families like a flock.
Psalms 107:42  The righteous will see it and be glad, and all wickedness will shut its mouth.
Psalms 107:43  Whoever is wise will pay attention to these things, and they will understand the loving kindness of the LORD.

  A song and psalm of David.
Psalms 108:1  O God, my heart is steady. I will sing and give praise, yes, with all my glory.
Psalms 108:2  Wake up, harp and lyre. I myself will wake up early.
Psalms 108:3  I will praise you, O LORD, among the peoples. I will sing praises to you among the nations.
Psalms 108:4  For your mercy is great, higher than the heavens, and your truth reaches to the clouds.
Psalms 108:5  Be lifted high, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth,
Psalms 108:6  so that those you love may be rescued. Save with your right hand, and answer me.
Psalms 108:7  God has spoken in his holiness: "I will rejoice. I will divide up Shechem, and measure out the valley of Succoth."
Psalms 108:8  Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine. Ephraim is the helmet for my head. Judah is my lawgiver.
Psalms 108:9  "Moab is my washing pot. Over Edom I will throw my shoe. Over Philistia I will shout in triumph."
Psalms 108:10  Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom?
Psalms 108:11  Will you not do it, O God, you who have thrown us off? Will you not go out with our armies, O God?
Psalms 108:12  Give us help against our trouble, for the help of man is worth nothing.
Psalms 108:13  Through God we will do brave deeds, for he is the one who will trample down our enemies.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 109:1  Do not keep silent, O God whom I praise.
Psalms 109:2  For the wicked and the deceitful have opened their mouths against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
Psalms 109:3  They surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me for no reason.
Psalms 109:4  In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer.
Psalms 109:5  They have paid me back evil for good, and hatred for my love.
Psalms 109:6  Set a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
Psalms 109:7  When he is judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.
Psalms 109:8  Let his days be few, and let another take his office.
Psalms 109:9  Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Psalms 109:10  Let his children always wander and beg. Let them look for bread far from their ruined homes.
Psalms 109:11  Let the money-lender seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder what he worked for.
Psalms 109:12  Let there be no one to show him mercy, and no one to be kind to his fatherless children.
Psalms 109:13  Let those who come after him be cut off. In the next generation let their name be wiped out.
Psalms 109:14  Let the sin of his fathers be remembered by the LORD, and let his mother's sin not be wiped out.
Psalms 109:15  Let them be before the LORD always, so that he may cut off their memory from the earth.
Psalms 109:16  For he did not remember to show mercy. He hunted down the poor and needy man, to kill the one who was broken in heart.
Psalms 109:17  He loved cursing, so let cursing come to him. He took no delight in blessing, so let blessing stay far from him.
Psalms 109:18  He put on cursing like a coat, so let it come into his body like water, and like oil into his bones.
Psalms 109:19  Let it be to him like the clothing that covers him, and like a belt he always wears.
Psalms 109:20  Let this be what the LORD gives back to those who accuse me, and to those who speak evil against my soul.
Psalms 109:21  But you, O GOD the Lord, act for me, for your name's sake. Because your mercy is good, rescue me.
Psalms 109:22  For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded inside me.
Psalms 109:23  I am gone like a shadow when it fades. I am shaken off like a locust.
Psalms 109:24  My knees are weak from fasting, and my body is thin and without strength.
Psalms 109:25  I also became a thing of shame to them. When they looked at me, they shook their heads.
Psalms 109:26  Help me, O LORD my God. Save me, as your mercy is great,
Psalms 109:27  so that they may know that this is your hand, that you, LORD, have done it.
Psalms 109:28  Let them curse, but you bless. When they rise up, let them be ashamed, but let your servant be glad.
Psalms 109:29  Let those who accuse me be clothed with shame. Let them wrap their own disgrace around them like a cloak.
Psalms 109:30  I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth. Yes, I will praise him among the crowd.
Psalms 109:31  For he will stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those who condemn his soul.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 110:1  The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."
Psalms 110:2  The LORD will send out the rod of your strength from Zion. Rule in the middle of your enemies.
Psalms 110:3  Your people will be willing in the day of your power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning. You have the dew of your youth.
Psalms 110:4  The LORD has sworn, and will not change his mind, "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek."
Psalms 110:5  The Lord at your right hand will strike through kings in the day of his anger.
Psalms 110:6  He will judge among the nations. He will fill the places with dead bodies. He will wound the heads over many countries.
Psalms 110:7  He will drink from the brook by the way. Therefore he will lift up his head.

Psalms 111:1  Praise the LORD. I will praise the LORD with my whole heart, in the gathering of the upright, and in the congregation.
Psalms 111:2  The works of the LORD are great. All who take delight in them study them.
Psalms 111:3  His work is honourable and glorious, and his righteousness lasts for ever.
Psalms 111:4  He has made his wonderful works to be remembered. The LORD is gracious and full of compassion.
Psalms 111:5  He has given food to those who fear him. He will always remember his covenant.
Psalms 111:6  He has shown his people the power of his works, to give them the land of the nations as their inheritance.
Psalms 111:7  The works of his hands are truth and justice. All his commandments are sure.
Psalms 111:8  They stand firm for ever and ever. They are done in truth and uprightness.
Psalms 111:9  He sent redemption to his people. He has commanded his covenant for ever. Holy and to be feared is his name.
Psalms 111:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. All who keep his commandments have good understanding. His praise lasts for ever.

Psalms 112:1  Praise the LORD. Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who takes great delight in his commandments.
Psalms 112:2  His children will be mighty on the earth. The family of the upright will be blessed.
Psalms 112:3  Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness lasts for ever.
Psalms 112:4  For the upright a light rises in the darkness. He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
Psalms 112:5  A good man shows favour, and lends. He will guide his affairs with good judgement.
Psalms 112:6  Surely he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered for ever.
Psalms 112:7  He will not be afraid of bad news. His heart is steady, trusting in the LORD.
Psalms 112:8  His heart is firm, and he will not be afraid, until he sees what he wants done to his enemies.
Psalms 112:9  He has scattered gifts, he has given to the poor. His righteousness lasts for ever. His horn will be lifted high with honour.
Psalms 112:10  The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He will grind his teeth, and melt away. What the wicked long for will come to nothing.

Psalms 113:1  Praise the LORD. Praise him, you servants of the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD.
Psalms 113:2  Blessed be the name of the LORD, from this time on and for ever.
Psalms 113:3  From the rising of the sun to its going down, the name of the LORD is to be praised.
Psalms 113:4  The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory is above the heavens.
Psalms 113:5  Who is like the LORD our God, who lives on high,
Psalms 113:6  who bends low to look at the things that are in heaven and on the earth!
Psalms 113:7  He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the dunghill,
Psalms 113:8  so that he may seat him with princes, even with the princes of his people.
Psalms 113:9  He gives the barren woman a home, and makes her a joyful mother of children. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 114:1  When Israel came out of Egypt, when the house of Jacob left a people of a strange language,
Psalms 114:2  Judah became his sanctuary, and Israel his kingdom.
Psalms 114:3  The sea saw it, and fled; the Jordan was driven back.
Psalms 114:4  The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
Psalms 114:5  What was wrong with you, sea, that you fled? And you, Jordan, that you were driven back?
Psalms 114:6  You mountains, that you skipped like rams; and you little hills, like lambs?
Psalms 114:7  Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.
Psalms 114:8  He turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.

Psalms 115:1  Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, because of your mercy and your truth.
Psalms 115:2  Why should the nations say, "Where is their God now?"
Psalms 115:3  But our God is in the heavens. He has done whatever he pleased.
Psalms 115:4  Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
Psalms 115:5  They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see.
Psalms 115:6  They have ears, but they do not hear. They have noses, but they do not smell.
Psalms 115:7  They have hands, but they do not touch. They have feet, but they do not walk. No sound comes from their throats.
Psalms 115:8  Those who make them are like them, and so is everyone who trusts in them.
Psalms 115:9  O Israel, trust in the LORD. He is their help and their shield.
Psalms 115:10  O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD. He is their help and their shield.
Psalms 115:11  You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD. He is their help and their shield.
Psalms 115:12  The LORD has remembered us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
Psalms 115:13  He will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great.
Psalms 115:14  The LORD will give you more and more, you and your children.
Psalms 115:15  You are blessed by the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalms 115:16  The heaven, even the heavens, belong to the LORD. But the earth he has given to the children of men.
Psalms 115:17  The dead do not praise the LORD, nor do any who go down into silence.
Psalms 115:18  But we will bless the LORD from this time on and for evermore. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 116:1  I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my prayers for mercy.
Psalms 116:2  He has turned his ear to me, so I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalms 116:3  The sorrows of death surrounded me, and the pains of hell took hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.
Psalms 116:4  Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, I beg you, save my soul."
Psalms 116:5  The LORD is gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.
Psalms 116:6  The LORD keeps the simple safe. I was brought low, and he helped me.
Psalms 116:7  Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been generous to you.
Psalms 116:8  For you have saved my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
Psalms 116:9  I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.
Psalms 116:10  I believed, and so I have spoken. I was greatly afflicted.
Psalms 116:11  I said in my haste, "All men are liars."
Psalms 116:12  What shall I give back to the LORD for all his good gifts to me?
Psalms 116:13  I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the LORD.
Psalms 116:14  I will pay my vows to the LORD now, in front of all his people.
Psalms 116:15  Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.
Psalms 116:16  O LORD, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have untied my chains.
Psalms 116:17  I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of the LORD.
Psalms 116:18  I will pay my vows to the LORD now, in front of all his people,
Psalms 116:19  in the courts of the LORD's house, in the middle of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 117:1  Praise the LORD, all you nations: praise him, all you peoples.
Psalms 117:2  For his merciful kindness to us is great, and the truth of the LORD lasts for ever. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 118:1  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 118:2  Let Israel now say that his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 118:3  Let the house of Aaron now say that his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 118:4  Let those who fear the LORD now say that his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 118:5  I called on the LORD when I was in trouble. The LORD answered me, and set me in a wide place.
Psalms 118:6  The LORD is on my side. I will not be afraid. What can a man do to me?
Psalms 118:7  The LORD takes my side, with those who help me. So I will see my desire on those who hate me.
Psalms 118:8  It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
Psalms 118:9  It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
Psalms 118:10  All nations surrounded me. But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Psalms 118:11  They surrounded me; yes, they surrounded me. But in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Psalms 118:12  They surrounded me like bees. They are put out like a fire of thorns. For in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Psalms 118:13  You pushed hard at me, so that I would fall. But the LORD helped me.
Psalms 118:14  The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.
Psalms 118:15  The sound of joy and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the LORD does mighty things.
Psalms 118:16  The right hand of the LORD is lifted high. The right hand of the LORD does mighty things.
Psalms 118:17  I shall not die, but live, and tell what the LORD has done.
Psalms 118:18  The LORD has punished me hard, but he has not given me over to death.
Psalms 118:19  Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will go in through them, and I will praise the LORD.
Psalms 118:20  This is the gate of the LORD. The righteous shall enter through it.
Psalms 118:21  I will praise you, for you have heard me, and have become my salvation.
Psalms 118:22  The stone which the builders refused has become the chief cornerstone.
Psalms 118:23  This is the LORD's doing. It is wonderful in our eyes.
Psalms 118:24  This is the day which the LORD has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalms 118:25  Save now, I beg you, LORD. LORD, I beg you, send success now.
Psalms 118:26  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. We have blessed you from the house of the LORD.
Psalms 118:27  God is the LORD, and he has given us light. Bind the sacrifice with cords, right to the horns of the altar.
Psalms 118:28  You are my God, and I will praise you. You are my God, I will lift you high.
Psalms 118:29  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good. His mercy lasts for ever.

Psalms 119:1  ALEPH. Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD.
Psalms 119:2  Happy are those who keep his testimonies, and who seek him with their whole heart.
Psalms 119:3  They also do no wrong: they walk in his ways.
Psalms 119:4  You have commanded us to keep your precepts with care.
Psalms 119:5  How I wish my ways were steady in keeping your statutes.
Psalms 119:6  Then I will not be ashamed, when I pay attention to all your commandments.
Psalms 119:7  I will praise you with an honest heart, when I have learned your righteous judgments.
Psalms 119:8  I will keep your statutes. Do not leave me completely alone.
Psalms 119:9  BETH. How can a young man keep his way clean? By watching it, and following your word.
Psalms 119:10  With my whole heart I have sought you. Do not let me wander from your commandments.
Psalms 119:11  I have hidden your word in my heart, so that I will not sin against you.
Psalms 119:12  Blessed are you, LORD: teach me your statutes.
Psalms 119:13  With my lips I have told out all the judgments of your mouth.
Psalms 119:14  I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches.
Psalms 119:15  I will think deeply on your precepts, and pay attention to your ways.
Psalms 119:16  I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.
Psalms 119:17  GIMEL. Be generous to your servant, so that I may live and keep your word.
Psalms 119:18  Open my eyes, so that I may see wonderful things in your law.
Psalms 119:19  I am a stranger on the earth. Do not hide your commandments from me.
Psalms 119:20  My soul is worn out with longing for your judgments at all times.
Psalms 119:21  You have rebuked the proud, who are cursed, and who stray from your commandments.
Psalms 119:22  Take away from me their insults and contempt, for I have kept your testimonies.
Psalms 119:23  Princes also sat and spoke against me, but your servant thought deeply on your statutes.
Psalms 119:24  Your testimonies are also my delight and my counsellors.
Psalms 119:25  DALETH. My soul clings to the dust. Give me life, as your word promises.
Psalms 119:26  I have told you my ways, and you answered me. Teach me your statutes.
Psalms 119:27  Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will talk of your wonderful works.
Psalms 119:28  My soul melts away with sorrow. Strengthen me, as your word promises.
Psalms 119:29  Take the way of lying far from me, and in your grace give me your law.
Psalms 119:30  I have chosen the way of truth. I have set your judgments before me.
Psalms 119:31  I have held fast to your testimonies. LORD, do not put me to shame.
Psalms 119:32  I will run in the way of your commandments, when you set my heart free.
Psalms 119:33  HE. Teach me, LORD, the way of your statutes, and I will keep it to the end.
Psalms 119:34  Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.
Psalms 119:35  Make me walk in the path of your commandments, for in it I delight.
Psalms 119:36  Turn my heart to your testimonies, and not to greed.
Psalms 119:37  Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your way.
Psalms 119:38  Make your word firm for your servant, who is devoted to fearing you.
Psalms 119:39  Turn away the shame that I fear, for your judgments are good.
Psalms 119:40  Look, I have longed for your precepts. Give me life in your righteousness.
Psalms 119:41  VAU. Let your mercies come to me also, LORD, even your salvation, as your word promises,
Psalms 119:42  so that I will have an answer for the one who insults me, for I trust in your word.
Psalms 119:43  Do not take the word of truth out of my mouth completely, for I have hoped in your judgments.
Psalms 119:44  So I will keep your law continually, for ever and ever.
Psalms 119:45  And I will walk in freedom, for I seek your precepts.
Psalms 119:46  I will speak of your testimonies before kings, and will not be ashamed.
Psalms 119:47  And I will delight myself in your commandments, which I have loved.
Psalms 119:48  I will lift up my hands to your commandments, which I have loved, and I will think deeply on your statutes.
Psalms 119:49  ZAIN. Remember the word you spoke to your servant, on which you have made me hope.
Psalms 119:50  This is my comfort in my suffering: your word has given me life.
Psalms 119:51  The proud have mocked me greatly, yet I have not turned aside from your law.
Psalms 119:52  I remembered your judgments from long ago, LORD, and I have comforted myself.
Psalms 119:53  Horror has taken hold of me because of the wicked, who abandon your law.
Psalms 119:54  Your statutes have been my songs in the house where I live as a stranger.
Psalms 119:55  I have remembered your name in the night, LORD, and have kept your law.
Psalms 119:56  This has been mine, because I kept your precepts.
Psalms 119:57  CHETH. You are my portion, LORD. I have said that I would keep your words.
Psalms 119:58  I begged for your favour with my whole heart. Be merciful to me, as your word promises.
Psalms 119:59  I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to your testimonies.
Psalms 119:60  I hurried, and did not delay to keep your commandments.
Psalms 119:61  Bands of wicked men have robbed me, but I have not forgotten your law.
Psalms 119:62  At midnight I will get up to give thanks to you, because of your righteous judgments.
Psalms 119:63  I am a friend to all who fear you, and to those who keep your precepts.
Psalms 119:64  The earth, LORD, is full of your mercy. Teach me your statutes.
Psalms 119:65  TETH. You have dealt well with your servant, LORD, as your word promised.
Psalms 119:66  Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed your commandments.
Psalms 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept your word.
Psalms 119:68  You are good, and you do good. Teach me your statutes.
Psalms 119:69  The proud have made up a lie about me, but I will keep your precepts with my whole heart.
Psalms 119:70  Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in your law.
Psalms 119:71  It is good for me that I have been afflicted, so that I might learn your statutes.
Psalms 119:72  The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.
Psalms 119:73  JOD. Your hands have made me and shaped me. Give me understanding, so that I may learn your commandments.
Psalms 119:74  Those who fear you will be glad when they see me, because I have hoped in your word.
Psalms 119:75  I know, LORD, that your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.
Psalms 119:76  Please let your merciful kindness be my comfort, as you promised your servant.
Psalms 119:77  Let your tender mercies come to me, so that I may live, for your law is my delight.
Psalms 119:78  Let the proud be ashamed, for they wronged me without cause. But I will think deeply on your precepts.
Psalms 119:79  Let those who fear you turn to me, and those who have known your testimonies.
Psalms 119:80  Let my heart be sound in your statutes, so that I am not ashamed.
Psalms 119:81  CAPH. My soul grows faint waiting for your salvation, but I hope in your word.
Psalms 119:82  My eyes fail, looking for your word. I say, "When will you comfort me?"
Psalms 119:83  For I have become like a wineskin in the smoke, yet I do not forget your statutes.
Psalms 119:84  How many are the days of your servant? When will you bring judgment on those who persecute me?
Psalms 119:85  The proud have dug pits for me, which is not in keeping with your law.
Psalms 119:86  All your commandments are faithful. They persecute me wrongfully. Help me.
Psalms 119:87  They had almost destroyed me on the earth, but I did not abandon your precepts.
Psalms 119:88  Give me life, in keeping with your loving kindness, and I will keep the testimony of your mouth.
Psalms 119:89  LAMED. For ever, LORD, your word stands firm in heaven.
Psalms 119:90  Your faithfulness lasts through all generations. You set the earth in place, and it stands.
Psalms 119:91  They continue to this day by your rules, for all things are your servants.
Psalms 119:92  If your law had not been my delight, I would have died in my suffering.
Psalms 119:93  I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.
Psalms 119:94  I am yours; save me, for I have sought your precepts.
Psalms 119:95  The wicked have waited for me, to destroy me, but I will think about your testimonies.
Psalms 119:96  I have seen a limit to all perfection, but your commandment is very wide.
Psalms 119:97  MEM. Oh, how I love your law. I think about it all day long.
Psalms 119:98  Through your commandments you have made me wiser than my enemies, for they are always with me.
Psalms 119:99  I have more understanding than all my teachers, for I think deeply on your testimonies.
Psalms 119:100  I understand more than the old men, because I keep your precepts.
Psalms 119:101  I have kept my feet from every evil way, so that I might keep your word.
Psalms 119:102  I have not turned away from your judgments, for you have taught me.
Psalms 119:103  How sweet your words are to my taste; yes, sweeter than honey in my mouth.
Psalms 119:104  Through your precepts I gain understanding. So I hate every false way.
Psalms 119:105  NUN. Your word is a lamp for my feet, and a light for my path.
Psalms 119:106  I have made an oath, and I will keep it: I will obey your righteous judgments.
Psalms 119:107  I am afflicted very much. Give me life, LORD, as your word promises.
Psalms 119:108  Accept, I beg you, the freewill offerings of my mouth, LORD, and teach me your judgments.
Psalms 119:109  My life is always in my hand, yet I do not forget your law.
Psalms 119:110  The wicked have set a trap for me, yet I have not strayed from your precepts.
Psalms 119:111  I have taken your testimonies as my inheritance for ever, for they are the joy of my heart.
Psalms 119:112  I have set my heart to carry out your statutes always, right to the end.
Psalms 119:113  SAMECH. I hate divided thoughts, but I love your law.
Psalms 119:114  You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word.
Psalms 119:115  Go away from me, you evildoers, for I will keep the commandments of my God.
Psalms 119:116  Hold me up, as your word promises, so that I may live. Do not let my hope end in shame.
Psalms 119:117  Hold me up, and I will be safe, and I will always pay attention to your statutes.
Psalms 119:118  You have trampled down all who stray from your statutes, for their trickery is a lie.
Psalms 119:119  You throw away all the wicked of the earth like waste metal. So I love your testimonies.
Psalms 119:120  My body trembles from fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.
Psalms 119:121  AIN. I have done what is just and right. Do not leave me to those who oppress me.
Psalms 119:122  Promise good for your servant. Do not let the proud oppress me.
Psalms 119:123  My eyes fail, looking for your salvation and for the word of your righteousness.
Psalms 119:124  Deal with your servant according to your mercy, and teach me your statutes.
Psalms 119:125  I am your servant. Give me understanding, so that I may know your testimonies.
Psalms 119:126  It is time for you to act, LORD, for they have broken your law.
Psalms 119:127  So I love your commandments more than gold; yes, more than fine gold.
Psalms 119:128  So I count all your precepts about all things to be right, and I hate every false way.
Psalms 119:129  PE. Your testimonies are wonderful. That is why my soul keeps them.
Psalms 119:130  The opening of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple.
Psalms 119:131  I opened my mouth and panted, for I longed for your commandments.
Psalms 119:132  Look at me, and be merciful to me, as you always do to those who love your name.
Psalms 119:133  Guide my steps by your word, and do not let any sin rule over me.
Psalms 119:134  Rescue me from the oppression of man, and I will keep your precepts.
Psalms 119:135  Make your face shine on your servant, and teach me your statutes.
Psalms 119:136  Rivers of water run down from my eyes, because people do not keep your law.
Psalms 119:137  TZADDI. You are righteous, LORD, and your judgments are right.
Psalms 119:138  The testimonies you have commanded are righteous and completely faithful.
Psalms 119:139  My zeal has worn me out, because my enemies have forgotten your words.
Psalms 119:140  Your word is very pure, and so your servant loves it.
Psalms 119:141  I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts.
Psalms 119:142  Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is the truth.
Psalms 119:143  Trouble and anguish have taken hold of me, yet your commandments are my delight.
Psalms 119:144  The righteousness of your testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding, and I will live.
Psalms 119:145  KOPH. I cried out with my whole heart. Hear me, LORD. I will keep your statutes.
Psalms 119:146  I cried out to you. Save me, and I will keep your testimonies.
Psalms 119:147  I rose before the dawn of the morning, and cried out. I hoped in your word.
Psalms 119:148  My eyes are open before the night watches begin, so that I may think deeply on your word.
Psalms 119:149  Hear my voice, in keeping with your loving kindness. LORD, give me life, in keeping with your judgment.
Psalms 119:150  Those who chase after evil come near. They are far from your law.
Psalms 119:151  You are near, LORD, and all your commandments are true.
Psalms 119:152  About your testimonies, I have known from long ago that you set them up for ever.
Psalms 119:153  RESH. Look at my suffering, and rescue me, for I do not forget your law.
Psalms 119:154  Take up my case, and set me free. Give me life, as your word promises.
Psalms 119:155  Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your statutes.
Psalms 119:156  Great are your tender mercies, LORD. Give me life, in keeping with your judgments.
Psalms 119:157  Many are those who persecute me and hate me, yet I do not turn aside from your testimonies.
Psalms 119:158  I saw those who break your law, and I was grieved, because they did not keep your word.
Psalms 119:159  See how I love your precepts. Give me life, LORD, in keeping with your loving kindness.
Psalms 119:160  Your word is true from the beginning, and every one of your righteous judgments lasts for ever.
Psalms 119:161  SCHIN. Princes have persecuted me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your word.
Psalms 119:162  I rejoice at your word, like one who finds great treasure.
Psalms 119:163  I hate lying and cannot bear it, but I love your law.
Psalms 119:164  Seven times a day I praise you, because of your righteous judgments.
Psalms 119:165  Those who love your law have great peace, and nothing will make them stumble.
Psalms 119:166  LORD, I have hoped for your salvation, and have done your commandments.
Psalms 119:167  My soul has kept your testimonies, and I love them very much.
Psalms 119:168  I have kept your precepts and your testimonies, for all my ways are before you.
Psalms 119:169  TAU. Let my cry come near to you, LORD. Give me understanding, as your word promises.
Psalms 119:170  Let my prayer come before you. Rescue me, as your word promises.
Psalms 119:171  My lips will pour out praise, when you have taught me your statutes.
Psalms 119:172  My tongue will speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness.
Psalms 119:173  Let your hand help me, for I have chosen your precepts.
Psalms 119:174  I have longed for your salvation, LORD, and your law is my delight.
Psalms 119:175  Let my soul live, and it will praise you, and let your judgments help me.
Psalms 119:176  I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Look for your servant, for I do not forget your commandments.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 120:1  In my distress I cried to the LORD, and he heard me.
Psalms 120:2  Save my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue.
Psalms 120:3  What will be given to you? Or what will be done to you, you false tongue?
Psalms 120:4  Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.
Psalms 120:5  Woe is me, that I live as a stranger in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar!
Psalms 120:6  My soul has dwelt a long time with the one who hates peace.
Psalms 120:7  I am for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 121:1  I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From there my help comes.
Psalms 121:2  My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Psalms 121:3  He will not let your foot slip. The one who keeps you will not fall asleep.
Psalms 121:4  Look, the one who keeps Israel will never doze or sleep.
Psalms 121:5  The LORD is your keeper. The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
Psalms 121:6  The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
Psalms 121:7  The LORD will keep you safe from all evil. He will keep your soul safe.
Psalms 121:8  The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time on and for evermore.

  A song of David for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 122:1  I was glad when they said to me, "Let us go into the house of the LORD."
Psalms 122:2  Our feet shall stand inside your gates, Jerusalem.
Psalms 122:3  Jerusalem is built as a city that is joined firmly together.
Psalms 122:4  That is where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, to the testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
Psalms 122:5  For there the thrones of judgment are set, the thrones of the house of David.
Psalms 122:6  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Those who love you shall prosper.
Psalms 122:7  Peace be within your walls, and prosperity within your palaces.
Psalms 122:8  For the sake of my brothers and my companions, I will now say, "Peace be within you."
Psalms 122:9  Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek your good.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 123:1  To you I lift up my eyes, you who live in the heavens.
Psalms 123:2  Look, as the eyes of servants watch the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a servant girl watch the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait on the LORD our God, until he has mercy on us.
Psalms 123:3  Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy on us. We have had more than enough of contempt.
Psalms 123:4  Our soul has had more than enough of the mocking of those who are at ease, and of the contempt of the proud.

  A song of David for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 124:1  If the LORD had not been on our side - let Israel now say -
Psalms 124:2  if the LORD had not been on our side when people rose up against us,
Psalms 124:3  then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger burned against us.
Psalms 124:4  Then the waters would have covered us over, and the stream would have gone over our soul.
Psalms 124:5  Then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.
Psalms 124:6  Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us up as prey for their teeth.
Psalms 124:7  Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the trap of the bird catchers. The trap is broken, and we have escaped.
Psalms 124:8  Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 125:1  Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but stands for ever.
Psalms 125:2  As the mountains stand around Jerusalem, so the LORD stands around his people, from now on and for ever.
Psalms 125:3  For the rod of the wicked will not rest on the land given to the righteous, so that the righteous do not reach out their hands to do wrong.
Psalms 125:4  Do good, O LORD, to those who are good, and to those who are upright in their hearts.
Psalms 125:5  But as for those who turn aside to their crooked ways, the LORD will lead them away with those who do evil. But peace will be upon Israel.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 126:1  When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion, we were like people who dream.
Psalms 126:2  Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues with singing. Then they said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them."
Psalms 126:3  The LORD has done great things for us, and we are glad.
Psalms 126:4  Bring back our captives, O LORD, like the streams in the south.
Psalms 126:5  Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.
Psalms 126:6  The one who goes out weeping, carrying precious seed, will surely come back with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem, for Solomon.
Psalms 127:1  Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labour for nothing. Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake for nothing.
Psalms 127:2  It is useless for you to get up early and to stay up late, and to eat the bread of sorrows. For so he gives his beloved sleep.
Psalms 127:3  Look, children are a heritage from the LORD. The fruit of the womb is his reward.
Psalms 127:4  Like arrows in the hand of a strong man, so are the children of one's youth.
Psalms 127:5  Happy is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be ashamed, but they will speak with their enemies in the gate.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 128:1  Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways.
Psalms 128:2  You will eat what your hands have worked for. You will be happy, and it will be well with you.
Psalms 128:3  Your wife will be like a fruitful vine at the sides of your house. Your children will be like olive plants all around your table.
Psalms 128:4  Look, this is how the man will be blessed who fears the LORD.
Psalms 128:5  The LORD will bless you out of Zion. You will see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
Psalms 128:6  Yes, you will see your children's children, and peace upon Israel.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 129:1  "Many times they have afflicted me from my youth," let Israel now say:
Psalms 129:2  "Many times they have afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not overcome me."
Psalms 129:3  The plowers plowed upon my back. They made their furrows long.
Psalms 129:4  "The LORD is righteous. He has cut through the ropes of the wicked."
Psalms 129:5  Let all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back.
Psalms 129:6  Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which dries up before it grows:
Psalms 129:7  The mower does not fill his hand with it, nor does the one who binds sheaves fill his arms.
Psalms 129:8  And those who pass by do not say, "The blessing of the LORD be upon you. We bless you in the name of the LORD."

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 130:1  Out of the depths I have cried to you, O LORD.
Psalms 130:2  Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears listen closely to the voice of my pleading.
Psalms 130:3  If you, LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand?
Psalms 130:4  But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be feared.
Psalms 130:5  I wait for the LORD; my soul waits, and in his word I hope.
Psalms 130:6  My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning; I say, more than those who watch for the morning.
Psalms 130:7  Let Israel hope in the LORD. For with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is full redemption.
Psalms 130:8  And he will redeem Israel from all his sins.

  A song of David for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 131:1  LORD, my heart is not proud, and my eyes are not lifted up. I do not busy myself with great matters, or with things too high for me.
Psalms 131:2  Surely I have calmed and quieted myself, like a child weaned from his mother. My soul is like a weaned child.
Psalms 131:3  Let Israel hope in the LORD from now on and for ever.

Psalms 132:1  A Song of degrees. LORD, remember David, and all his troubles.
Psalms 132:2  Remember how he swore to the LORD, and made a vow to the mighty God of Jacob:
Psalms 132:3  "I will not go into my house, nor get into my bed;"
Psalms 132:4  I will not give sleep to my eyes, or rest to my eyelids,
Psalms 132:5  "until I find a place for the LORD, a home for the mighty God of Jacob."
Psalms 132:6  We heard of it at Ephratah. We found it in the fields of the wood.
Psalms 132:7  We will go into his tents. We will worship at his footstool.
Psalms 132:8  Rise up, LORD, and come to your resting place; you, and the ark of your strength.
Psalms 132:9  Let your priests be clothed with righteousness, and let your saints shout for joy.
Psalms 132:10  For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one.
Psalms 132:11  The LORD has sworn to David in truth, and he will not turn back from it: "I will set one of your own children on your throne."
Psalms 132:12  "If your children keep my covenant and the law that I will teach them, their children also will sit on your throne for ever."
Psalms 132:13  For the LORD has chosen Zion. He has wanted it for his home.
Psalms 132:14  "This is my resting place for ever. Here I will live, for I have wanted it."
Psalms 132:15  I will richly bless her food. I will satisfy her poor with bread.
Psalms 132:16  I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints will shout aloud for joy.
Psalms 132:17  There I will make the horn of David grow. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed one.
Psalms 132:18  "I will clothe his enemies with shame, but on him his crown will shine."

  A song of David for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 133:1  Look, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in unity!
Psalms 133:2  It is like the precious oil poured on the head, that ran down on the beard, Aaron's beard, and went down to the edge of his clothes.
Psalms 133:3  It is like the dew of Hermon, and like the dew that came down on the mountains of Zion. For there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

  A song for the journey up to Jerusalem.
Psalms 134:1  Look, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD.
Psalms 134:2  Lift up your hands in the sanctuary, and bless the LORD.
Psalms 134:3  May the LORD who made heaven and earth bless you out of Zion.

Psalms 135:1  Praise the LORD. Praise the name of the LORD; praise him, you servants of the LORD.
Psalms 135:2  You who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God,
Psalms 135:3  praise the LORD, for the LORD is good. Sing praises to his name, for it is pleasant.
Psalms 135:4  For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, and Israel as his own special treasure.
Psalms 135:5  For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
Psalms 135:6  Whatever pleased the LORD, that is what he did, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all deep places.
Psalms 135:7  He makes the mists rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain. He brings the wind out of his storehouses.
Psalms 135:8  He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast.
Psalms 135:9  He sent signs and wonders into the middle of you, Egypt, on Pharaoh and on all his servants.
Psalms 135:10  He struck down great nations, and killed mighty kings:
Psalms 135:11  Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan.
Psalms 135:12  He gave their land as an inheritance, an inheritance to Israel his people.
Psalms 135:13  Your name, LORD, lasts for ever; and the memory of you, LORD, goes on through all generations.
Psalms 135:14  For the LORD will judge his people, and he will have pity on his servants.
Psalms 135:15  The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands.
Psalms 135:16  They have mouths, but they do not speak. They have eyes, but they do not see.
Psalms 135:17  They have ears, but they do not hear; and there is no breath in their mouths.
Psalms 135:18  Those who make them are like them, and so is everyone who trusts in them.
Psalms 135:19  Bless the LORD, house of Israel. Bless the LORD, house of Aaron.
Psalms 135:20  Bless the LORD, house of Levi. You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD.
Psalms 135:21  Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, who lives at Jerusalem. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 136:1  Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:2  Give thanks to the God of gods: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:3  Give thanks to the Lord of lords: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:4  To him who alone does great wonders: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:5  To him who by wisdom made the heavens: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:6  To him who spread out the earth above the waters: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:7  To him who made great lights: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:8  The sun to rule by day: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:9  The moon and stars to rule by night: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:10  To him who struck down Egypt in their firstborn: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:11  And brought Israel out from among them: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:12  With a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:13  To him who divided the Red sea into parts: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:14  And made Israel pass through the middle of it: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:15  But threw down Pharaoh and his army in the Red sea: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:16  To him who led his people through the wilderness: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:17  To him who struck down great kings: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:18  And killed famous kings: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:19  Sihon king of the Amorites: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:20  And Og the king of Bashan: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:21  And gave their land as an inheritance: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:22  An inheritance for Israel his servant: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:23  He remembered us when we were brought low: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:24  And he has redeemed us from our enemies: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:25  He gives food to all flesh: his mercy lasts for ever.
Psalms 136:26  Give thanks to the God of heaven: his mercy lasts for ever.

Psalms 137:1  By the rivers of Babylon we sat down. There we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Psalms 137:2  We hung up our harps on the willow trees there.
Psalms 137:3  For there the men who carried us away captive asked us for a song. Those who destroyed us asked us to be merry, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
Psalms 137:4  How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?
Psalms 137:5  If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill.
Psalms 137:6  If I do not remember you, let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth; if I do not value Jerusalem above my greatest joy.
Psalms 137:7  Remember, LORD, what the children of Edom did on the day of Jerusalem. They said, "Tear it down, tear it down, right to its foundation."
Psalms 137:8  Daughter of Babylon, you who are to be destroyed, happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us.
Psalms 137:9  Happy is the one who takes your little ones and throws them against the stones.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 138:1  I will praise you with my whole heart. Before the gods I will sing praise to you.
Psalms 138:2  I will worship toward your holy temple, and praise your name for your loving kindness and for your truth. For you have made your word greater than all your name.
Psalms 138:3  On the day when I cried out, you answered me. You made me strong, with strength in my soul.
Psalms 138:4  All the kings of the earth will praise you, LORD, when they hear the words of your mouth.
Psalms 138:5  Yes, they will sing of the ways of the LORD, for great is the glory of the LORD.
Psalms 138:6  Though the LORD is high, still he cares for the lowly. But the proud he knows from far away.
Psalms 138:7  Though I walk in the middle of trouble, you will revive me. You will stretch out your hand against the anger of my enemies, and your right hand will save me.
Psalms 138:8  The LORD will complete what concerns me. Your mercy, LORD, lasts for ever. Do not leave the works of your own hands.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 139:1  O LORD, you have searched me, and you know me.
Psalms 139:2  You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thoughts from far away.
Psalms 139:3  You go all around my path and my lying down. You know all my ways well.
Psalms 139:4  There is not a word on my tongue that you do not know completely, O LORD.
Psalms 139:5  You have closed me in behind and in front, and laid your hand upon me.
Psalms 139:6  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high; I cannot reach it.
Psalms 139:7  Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I run from your presence?
Psalms 139:8  If I go up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, look, you are there.
Psalms 139:9  If I take the wings of the morning, and live in the farthest parts of the sea,
Psalms 139:10  even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me.
Psalms 139:11  If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me," even the night will be light around me.
Psalms 139:12  Yes, the darkness does not hide anything from you. The night shines like the day. Darkness and light are both the same to you.
Psalms 139:13  For you took hold of my inward parts. You covered me in my mother's womb.
Psalms 139:14  I will praise you, for I am made in a way that is fearful and wonderful. Your works are marvellous, and my soul knows that very well.
Psalms 139:15  My body was not hidden from you when I was made in secret, and skilfully formed in the lowest parts of the earth.
Psalms 139:16  Your eyes saw my body when it was still unformed. In your book all my parts were written down, which were shaped day by day, when as yet there was none of them.
Psalms 139:17  How precious are your thoughts to me, O God. How great is the sum of them.
Psalms 139:18  If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with you.
Psalms 139:19  Surely you will kill the wicked, O God. So go away from me, you men of blood.
Psalms 139:20  For they speak against you wickedly, and your enemies use your name for nothing.
Psalms 139:21  Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
Psalms 139:22  I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies.
Psalms 139:23  Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me, and know my thoughts.
Psalms 139:24  See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

  For the leader of the music. A psalm of David.
Psalms 140:1  Rescue me, LORD, from the evil man. Keep me safe from the violent man.
Psalms 140:2  They plan evil things in their hearts. Every day they gather together for war.
Psalms 140:3  They have made their tongues sharp like a snake's. The poison of adders is under their lips. Selah.
Psalms 140:4  Keep me, LORD, from the hands of the wicked. Keep me safe from the violent man. They have planned to trip up my steps.
Psalms 140:5  The proud have hidden a trap for me, and ropes. They have spread a net beside the road. They have set snares for me. Selah.
Psalms 140:6  I said to the LORD, "You are my God. Hear the sound of my pleading, LORD."
Psalms 140:7  O GOD the Lord, the strength that saves me, you have covered my head on the day of battle.
Psalms 140:8  LORD, do not give the wicked what they want. Do not let their evil plan succeed, or they will lift themselves up. Selah.
Psalms 140:9  As for the heads of those who surround me, let the trouble their own lips speak cover them.
Psalms 140:10  Let burning coals fall on them. Let them be thrown into the fire, into deep pits, so that they do not rise again.
Psalms 140:11  Do not let a man of evil words be settled in the earth. Evil will hunt the violent man down to destroy him.
Psalms 140:12  I know that the LORD will defend the cause of those who suffer, and the right of the poor.
Psalms 140:13  Surely the righteous will give thanks to your name. The upright will live in your presence.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 141:1  LORD, I call to you: come quickly to me. Listen to my voice when I call to you.
Psalms 141:2  Let my prayer rise before you like incense, and the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.
Psalms 141:3  Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth. Keep watch at the door of my lips.
Psalms 141:4  Do not let my heart turn to any evil thing, to do wicked deeds with men who do wrong. Do not let me eat of their fine food.
Psalms 141:5  Let the righteous strike me; it will be a kindness. Let him correct me; it will be fine oil on my head, and my head will not refuse it. For my prayer will still be against their evil deeds.
Psalms 141:6  When their judges are thrown down in rocky places, they will hear my words, for my words are sweet.
Psalms 141:7  Our bones are scattered at the mouth of the grave, as when someone cuts and splits wood on the ground.
Psalms 141:8  But my eyes look to you, O GOD the Lord. In you I trust. Do not leave me without help.
Psalms 141:9  Keep me from the traps they have set for me, and from the snares of those who do wrong.
Psalms 141:10  Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety.

  A psalm of David, for instruction and reflection. A prayer written when he was in the cave.
Psalms 142:1  I cried out to the LORD with my voice; with my voice I begged the LORD for help.
Psalms 142:2  I poured out my complaint before him; I told him about my trouble.
Psalms 142:3  When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, you knew my path. On the road where I walked they have hidden a trap for me.
Psalms 142:4  I looked on my right hand and saw, but there was no one who would know me. There was no refuge for me; no one cared for my soul.
Psalms 142:5  I cried to you, O LORD. I said, "You are my refuge, and my portion in the land of the living."
Psalms 142:6  Listen to my cry, for I am brought very low. Rescue me from those who chase me, for they are stronger than I am.
Psalms 142:7  Bring my soul out of prison, so that I may praise your name. The righteous will gather around me, for you will deal generously with me.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 143:1  Hear my prayer, O LORD. Listen to my pleading. In your faithfulness answer me, and in your righteousness.
Psalms 143:2  Do not bring your servant to judgment, for in your sight no one living is righteous.
Psalms 143:3  The enemy has hunted me down. He has crushed my life to the ground. He has made me live in darkness, like those who died long ago.
Psalms 143:4  So my spirit is overwhelmed within me. My heart within me is empty.
Psalms 143:5  I remember the days long past. I think about all your works. I consider what your hands have made.
Psalms 143:6  I stretch out my hands to you. My soul thirsts for you, like a dry land. Selah.
Psalms 143:7  Answer me quickly, O LORD, for my spirit fails. Do not hide your face from me, or I will be like those who go down into the pit.
Psalms 143:8  Let me hear of your loving kindness in the morning, for I trust in you. Show me the way I should walk, for I lift up my soul to you.
Psalms 143:9  Rescue me, O LORD, from my enemies. I run to you to hide me.
Psalms 143:10  Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. Your spirit is good. Lead me into the land of uprightness.
Psalms 143:11  Give me life, O LORD, for your name's sake. For the sake of your righteousness, bring my soul out of trouble.
Psalms 143:12  In your mercy cut off my enemies, and destroy all those who trouble my soul, for I am your servant.

  A psalm of David.
Psalms 144:1  Blessed be the LORD my strength, who teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight.
Psalms 144:2  He is my goodness and my fortress, my high tower and my deliverer, my shield, and the one I trust in. He brings my people under me.
Psalms 144:3  LORD, what is man, that you take notice of him? What is the son of man, that you think of him?
Psalms 144:4  Man is like a breath. His days are like a shadow that passes away.
Psalms 144:5  Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down. Touch the mountains, and they will smoke.
Psalms 144:6  Send out lightning, and scatter them. Shoot out your arrows, and destroy them.
Psalms 144:7  Send your hand from above. Rescue me, and deliver me out of great waters, from the hand of strangers' children.
Psalms 144:8  Their mouth speaks emptiness, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Psalms 144:9  I will sing a new song to you, O God. On a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to you.
Psalms 144:10  It is he who gives salvation to kings, who delivers David his servant from the hurtful sword.
Psalms 144:11  Rescue me, and deliver me from the hand of strangers' children. Their mouth speaks emptiness, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Psalms 144:12  Then our sons will be like plants grown tall in their youth, and our daughters like corner stones, carved as for a palace.
Psalms 144:13  Our storehouses will be full, supplying every kind of store. Our sheep will bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets.
Psalms 144:14  Our oxen will be strong to labour. There will be no breaking in, and no going out, and no crying of trouble in our streets.
Psalms 144:15  Happy are the people in such a state. Yes, happy are the people whose God is the LORD.

  A psalm of praise by David.
Psalms 145:1  I will lift you high, my God, O king. I will bless your name for ever and ever.
Psalms 145:2  Every day I will bless you. I will praise your name for ever and ever.
Psalms 145:3  Great is the LORD, and worthy of great praise. No one can search out his greatness.
Psalms 145:4  One generation will praise your works to the next, and will tell of your mighty acts.
Psalms 145:5  I will speak of the glorious honour of your majesty, and of your wonderful works.
Psalms 145:6  People will speak of the might of your terrible acts, and I will tell how great you are.
Psalms 145:7  They will pour out the memory of your great goodness, and will sing of your righteousness.
Psalms 145:8  The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to get angry, and rich in mercy.
Psalms 145:9  The LORD is good to all. His tender mercies are over all that he has made.
Psalms 145:10  All your works will praise you, O LORD, and your saints will bless you.
Psalms 145:11  They will speak of the glory of your kingdom, and talk about your power,
Psalms 145:12  to make his mighty acts known to people everywhere, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.
Psalms 145:13  Your kingdom is a kingdom that lasts for ever, and your rule goes on through all generations.
Psalms 145:14  The LORD holds up all who fall, and lifts up all who are bowed down.
Psalms 145:15  The eyes of all wait for you, and you give them their food at the right time.
Psalms 145:16  You open your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
Psalms 145:17  The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works.
Psalms 145:18  The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
Psalms 145:19  He will fulfil the desire of those who fear him. He will also hear their cry, and will save them.
Psalms 145:20  The LORD keeps safe all who love him, but all the wicked he will destroy.
Psalms 145:21  My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD. Let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

Psalms 146:1  Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD, my soul.
Psalms 146:2  While I live I will praise the LORD. I will sing praises to my God as long as I exist.
Psalms 146:3  Do not put your trust in princes, or in any son of man, for there is no help in him.
Psalms 146:4  His breath goes out, and he goes back to his earth. On that very day his plans perish.
Psalms 146:5  Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God.
Psalms 146:6  He made heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them. He keeps truth for ever.
Psalms 146:7  He gives justice to the oppressed. He gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free.
Psalms 146:8  The LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down. The LORD loves the righteous.
Psalms 146:9  The LORD watches over the strangers. He helps the fatherless and the widow. But he turns the way of the wicked upside down.
Psalms 146:10  The LORD will reign for ever, your God, Zion, through all generations. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 147:1  Praise the LORD. It is good to sing praises to our God. It is pleasant, and praise is fitting.
Psalms 147:2  The LORD builds up Jerusalem. He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
Psalms 147:3  He heals those whose hearts are broken, and binds up their wounds.
Psalms 147:4  He counts the number of the stars. He calls them all by their names.
Psalms 147:5  Great is our Lord, and great in power. His understanding has no limit.
Psalms 147:6  The LORD lifts up the meek. He throws the wicked down to the ground.
Psalms 147:7  Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving. Sing praise to our God on the harp.
Psalms 147:8  He covers the sky with clouds. He prepares rain for the earth. He makes grass grow on the mountains.
Psalms 147:9  He gives the animals their food, and feeds the young ravens when they cry.
Psalms 147:10  He does not delight in the strength of the horse. He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man.
Psalms 147:11  The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy.
Psalms 147:12  Praise the LORD, Jerusalem. Praise your God, Zion.
Psalms 147:13  For he has made the bars of your gates strong. He has blessed your children within you.
Psalms 147:14  He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
Psalms 147:15  He sends out his command to the earth. His word runs very swiftly.
Psalms 147:16  He gives snow like wool. He scatters the frost like ashes.
Psalms 147:17  He throws down his ice like crumbs. Who can stand before his cold?
Psalms 147:18  He sends out his word, and melts them. He makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.
Psalms 147:19  He shows his word to Jacob, his laws and his judgments to Israel.
Psalms 147:20  He has not done this for any other nation. As for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 148:1  Praise the LORD. Praise the LORD from the heavens. Praise him in the heights.
Psalms 148:2  Praise him, all his angels. Praise him, all his hosts.
Psalms 148:3  Praise him, sun and moon. Praise him, all you shining stars.
Psalms 148:4  Praise him, you heavens of heavens, and you waters that are above the heavens.
Psalms 148:5  Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded, and they were created.
Psalms 148:6  He has also set them in place for ever and ever. He made a decree which will not pass away.
Psalms 148:7  Praise the LORD from the earth, you dragons and all deeps,
Psalms 148:8  fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind that obeys his word,
Psalms 148:9  mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars,
Psalms 148:10  wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds,
Psalms 148:11  kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all judges of the earth,
Psalms 148:12  young men and young women too, old men and children.
Psalms 148:13  Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth and heaven.
Psalms 148:14  He also lifts up the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints, even of the children of Israel, a people close to him. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 149:1  Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, and his praise in the gathering of the saints.
Psalms 149:2  Let Israel rejoice in the One who made him. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
Psalms 149:3  Let them praise his name with dancing. Let them sing praises to him with the timbrel and harp.
Psalms 149:4  For the LORD takes pleasure in his people. He will make the humble beautiful with salvation.
Psalms 149:5  Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud on their beds.
Psalms 149:6  Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand,
Psalms 149:7  to carry out vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples,
Psalms 149:8  to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with iron shackles,
Psalms 149:9  to carry out on them the judgment that is written. All his saints have this honour. Praise the LORD.

Psalms 150:1  Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Psalms 150:2  Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him for his excellent greatness.
Psalms 150:3  Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Psalms 150:4  Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Psalms 150:5  Praise him on the loud cymbals: praise him on the high sounding cymbals.
Psalms 150:6  Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.

Proverbs

Proverbs 1:1  The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel.
Proverbs 1:2  They are for knowing wisdom and instruction, and for understanding words of insight.
Proverbs 1:3  They are for receiving the instruction of wisdom, and justice, and judgment, and fairness.
Proverbs 1:4  They give good sense to the simple, and knowledge and discretion to the young man.
Proverbs 1:5  A wise person will listen and learn more, and a person of understanding will gain wise guidance.
Proverbs 1:6  They help you understand a proverb and its meaning, the words of the wise and their hard sayings.
Proverbs 1:7  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:8  My son, listen to your father's instruction, and do not leave your mother's teaching.
Proverbs 1:9  They will be a beautiful crown for your head, and chains around your neck.
Proverbs 1:10  My son, if sinners try to lure you, do not agree.
Proverbs 1:11  They may say, "Come with us. Let us lie in wait to shed blood. Let us hide and wait for someone innocent, for no reason at all."
Proverbs 1:12  "Let us swallow them alive, like the grave, and whole, like those who go down into the pit."
Proverbs 1:13  "We will find all kinds of precious things. We will fill our houses with what we have taken."
Proverbs 1:14  "Throw in your lot with us. We will all share one purse."
Proverbs 1:15  My son, do not walk on the road with them. Keep your foot off their path.
Proverbs 1:16  For their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed blood.
Proverbs 1:17  Surely it is useless to spread the net where any bird can see it.
Proverbs 1:18  But these men lie in wait for their own blood. They hide and wait for their own lives.
Proverbs 1:19  That is what happens to everyone who is greedy for gain. Such greed takes away the life of those who have it.
Proverbs 1:20  Wisdom calls out in the street. She lifts her voice in the open places.
Proverbs 1:21  She calls out at the busiest corner, at the entrances of the city gates. In the city she speaks her words, saying,
Proverbs 1:22  "How long, you simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will those who scoff delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?"
Proverbs 1:23  "Turn when I correct you. Look, I will pour out my spirit on you. I will make my words known to you."
Proverbs 1:24  "I called, and you refused. I stretched out my hand, and no one paid attention."
Proverbs 1:25  "You ignored all my advice, and you wanted none of my correction."
Proverbs 1:26  "So I also will laugh when disaster strikes you. I will mock when what you dread comes,"
Proverbs 1:27  "when what you dread comes like a storm, and your destruction comes like a whirlwind, when trouble and anguish come upon you."
Proverbs 1:28  "Then they will call to me, but I will not answer. They will look for me early, but they will not find me."
Proverbs 1:29  "For they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD."
Proverbs 1:30  "They wanted none of my advice. They despised all my correction."
Proverbs 1:31  "So they will eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes."
Proverbs 1:32  "For the simple are killed when they turn away, and the comfort of fools destroys them."
Proverbs 1:33  "But whoever listens to me will live safely, and will be at peace, with no fear of evil."

Proverbs 2:1  My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;
Proverbs 2:2  if you turn your ear to wisdom, and set your heart on understanding;
Proverbs 2:3  yes, if you call out for knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
Proverbs 2:4  if you look for her as for silver, and search for her as for hidden treasure;
Proverbs 2:5  then you will understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
Proverbs 2:6  For the LORD gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:7  He stores up sound wisdom for the righteous. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly.
Proverbs 2:8  He guards the paths of justice, and keeps safe the way of those who love him.
Proverbs 2:9  Then you will understand righteousness, and justice, and fairness; yes, every good path.
Proverbs 2:10  Wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
Proverbs 2:11  Good sense will protect you, and understanding will keep you.
Proverbs 2:12  They will save you from the way of the evil man, from the man who speaks twisted things,
Proverbs 2:13  from those who leave the straight paths to walk in the ways of darkness,
Proverbs 2:14  who are glad when they do evil, and delight in the twisted ways of the wicked,
Proverbs 2:15  whose ways are crooked, and who are devious in their paths.
Proverbs 2:16  They will save you from the strange woman, from the stranger who flatters with her words,
Proverbs 2:17  who leaves the guide of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God.
Proverbs 2:18  For her house sinks down to death, and her paths lead to the dead.
Proverbs 2:19  None who go to her come back again, and they never reach the paths of life.
Proverbs 2:20  So you will walk in the way of good people, and keep to the paths of the righteous.
Proverbs 2:21  For the upright will live in the land, and those who are blameless will remain in it.
Proverbs 2:22  But the wicked will be cut off from the earth, and those who break the law will be torn out of it.

Proverbs 3:1  My son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments.
Proverbs 3:2  They will add to you length of days, and long life, and peace.
Proverbs 3:3  Do not let mercy and truth leave you. Tie them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Proverbs 3:4  Then you will find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and of man.
Proverbs 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
Proverbs 3:6  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:7  Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the LORD, and turn away from evil.
Proverbs 3:8  It will be health to your body, and marrow to your bones.
Proverbs 3:9  Honour the LORD with your wealth, and with the firstfruits of all your harvest.
Proverbs 3:10  Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your winepresses will overflow with new wine.
Proverbs 3:11  My son, do not despise the discipline of the LORD. Do not grow weary of his correction.
Proverbs 3:12  For the LORD corrects the one he loves, just as a father corrects the son he delights in.
Proverbs 3:13  Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding.
Proverbs 3:14  For trading in her is better than trading in silver, and the gain from her is better than fine gold.
Proverbs 3:15  She is more precious than rubies. Nothing you could desire compares with her.
Proverbs 3:16  Length of days is in her right hand. In her left hand are riches and honour.
Proverbs 3:17  Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
Proverbs 3:18  She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. Happy is everyone who holds her fast.
Proverbs 3:19  The LORD founded the earth by wisdom. By understanding he established the heavens.
Proverbs 3:20  By his knowledge the depths were broken open, and the clouds drop down the dew.
Proverbs 3:21  My son, do not let them out of your sight. Keep sound wisdom and discretion.
Proverbs 3:22  Then they will be life to your soul, and grace around your neck.
Proverbs 3:23  Then you will walk on your way safely, and your foot will not stumble.
Proverbs 3:24  When you lie down, you will not be afraid. Yes, you will lie down, and your sleep will be sweet.
Proverbs 3:25  Do not be afraid of sudden terror, or of the ruin of the wicked when it comes.
Proverbs 3:26  For the LORD will be your confidence, and will keep your foot from being caught.
Proverbs 3:27  Do not hold back good from those to whom it is owed, when it is in the power of your hand to do it.
Proverbs 3:28  Do not say to your neighbour, "Go away, and come again, and tomorrow I will give," when you have it with you.
Proverbs 3:29  Do not plan evil against your neighbour, since he lives beside you trusting you.
Proverbs 3:30  Do not quarrel with a man for no reason, if he has done you no harm.
Proverbs 3:31  Do not envy the violent man, and choose none of his ways.
Proverbs 3:32  For the crooked man is detestable to the LORD, but his secret counsel is with the righteous.
Proverbs 3:33  The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the just.
Proverbs 3:34  Surely he mocks those who mock, but he gives grace to the humble.
Proverbs 3:35  The wise will inherit glory, but shame will be what fools are raised to.

Proverbs 4:1  Listen, children, to a father's teaching. Pay attention, so you may know understanding.
Proverbs 4:2  For I give you good teaching. Do not turn away from my law.
Proverbs 4:3  For I too was my father's son, tender, and the only one dearly loved by my mother.
Proverbs 4:4  He taught me, and said to me, "Let your heart hold on to my words. Keep my commandments, and live."
Proverbs 4:5  "Get wisdom, get understanding. Do not forget it, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth."
Proverbs 4:6  "Do not leave her, and she will guard you. Love her, and she will keep you safe."
Proverbs 4:7  "Wisdom is the most important thing, so get wisdom. And with all you get, get understanding."
Proverbs 4:8  "Lift her up, and she will lift you up. She will bring you honour when you hold her close."
Proverbs 4:9  "She will set a beautiful wreath on your head. She will give you a crown of glory."
Proverbs 4:10  Listen, my son, and take in what I say, and the years of your life will be many.
Proverbs 4:11  I have taught you the way of wisdom. I have led you along right paths.
Proverbs 4:12  When you walk, your steps will not be held back. When you run, you will not stumble.
Proverbs 4:13  Take firm hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Keep her, for she is your life.
Proverbs 4:14  Do not go onto the path of the wicked. Do not walk in the way of evil men.
Proverbs 4:15  Keep away from it. Do not travel on it. Turn from it, and go on your way.
Proverbs 4:16  For they cannot sleep unless they have done harm. Their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall.
Proverbs 4:17  For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
Proverbs 4:18  But the path of those who do right is like the shining light, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day.
Proverbs 4:19  The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble.
Proverbs 4:20  My son, pay attention to my words. Turn your ear to what I say.
Proverbs 4:21  Do not let them leave your sight. Keep them deep in your heart.
Proverbs 4:22  For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their body.
Proverbs 4:23  Guard your heart with all care, for out of it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 4:24  Put a crooked mouth away from you. Keep twisted lips far from you.
Proverbs 4:25  Let your eyes look straight ahead. Let your gaze be fixed on what is in front of you.
Proverbs 4:26  Think carefully about the path your feet take, and let all your ways be sure.
Proverbs 4:27  Do not turn to the right or to the left. Take your foot away from evil.

Proverbs 5:1  My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Bend your ear to my understanding,
Proverbs 5:2  so that you may hold on to good judgment, and your lips may keep knowledge.
Proverbs 5:3  For the lips of a strange woman drip like a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil.
Proverbs 5:4  But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a sword with two edges.
Proverbs 5:5  Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold of hell.
Proverbs 5:6  So that you should not think about the path of life, her ways keep shifting; you cannot know them.
Proverbs 5:7  So listen to me now, you children, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Proverbs 5:8  Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
Proverbs 5:9  or you will give your honour to others, and your years to the cruel.
Proverbs 5:10  Strangers will be filled with your wealth, and what you worked for will go to the house of a stranger.
Proverbs 5:11  At the end you will mourn, when your flesh and your body are worn away,
Proverbs 5:12  and you will say, "How I hated instruction, and my heart hated correction."
Proverbs 5:13  "I did not obey the voice of my teachers, and I did not bend my ear to those who taught me."
Proverbs 5:14  "I was almost in every evil, in the middle of the congregation and assembly."
Proverbs 5:15  Drink water out of your own cistern, and running water out of your own well.
Proverbs 5:16  Let your springs be scattered abroad, and rivers of water in the streets.
Proverbs 5:17  Let them be yours alone, and not shared with strangers.
Proverbs 5:18  Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Proverbs 5:19  Let her be like a loving deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times, and be filled with delight always by her love.
Proverbs 5:20  Why then, my son, should you be carried away by a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Proverbs 5:21  For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he watches all his paths.
Proverbs 5:22  The wicked man's own sins will catch him, and he will be held fast by the cords of his sins.
Proverbs 5:23  He will die because he had no instruction, and in his great foolishness he will go astray.

Proverbs 6:1  My son, if you have promised to pay your friend's debt, if you have shaken hands on a deal with a stranger,
Proverbs 6:2  then you are trapped by the words of your own mouth. You are caught by the words of your own mouth.
Proverbs 6:3  So do this, my son, and set yourself free, since you have fallen into your friend's hand. Go, humble yourself, and press your friend hard.
Proverbs 6:4  Give no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids.
Proverbs 6:5  Free yourself like a deer from the hunter's hand, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Proverbs 6:6  Go to the ant, you lazy one. Watch her ways, and be wise.
Proverbs 6:7  She has no guide, no overseer, no ruler,
Proverbs 6:8  yet she stores up her food in the summer, and gathers what she eats at harvest time.
Proverbs 6:9  How long will you lie there, you lazy one? When will you get up from your sleep?
Proverbs 6:10  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
Proverbs 6:11  and your poverty will come on you like a traveller, and your need like an armed man.
Proverbs 6:12  A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with a crooked mouth.
Proverbs 6:13  He winks with his eyes, he signals with his feet, he points with his fingers.
Proverbs 6:14  Twisted things are in his heart. He is always planning evil. He stirs up quarrels.
Proverbs 6:15  So disaster will come on him suddenly. In a moment he will be broken, and there will be no cure.
Proverbs 6:16  There are six things the LORD hates. Yes, seven are disgusting to him:
Proverbs 6:17  a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
Proverbs 6:18  a heart that plans wicked things, feet that run quickly to do harm,
Proverbs 6:19  a false witness who tells lies, and the one who stirs up quarrels among brothers.
Proverbs 6:20  My son, keep your father's commandment. Do not leave your mother's teaching.
Proverbs 6:21  Bind them on your heart always. Tie them around your neck.
Proverbs 6:22  When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you wake, it will talk with you.
Proverbs 6:23  For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching is light, and correction that instructs is the way of life.
Proverbs 6:24  They will keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of a strange woman.
Proverbs 6:25  Do not desire her beauty in your heart. Do not let her catch you with her eyelids.
Proverbs 6:26  For a woman who sells herself brings a man down to a piece of bread, and the adulteress hunts for the precious life.
Proverbs 6:27  Can a man carry fire against his chest, and his clothes not be burned?
Proverbs 6:28  Can a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
Proverbs 6:29  So it is with the man who goes in to his neighbour's wife. No one who touches her will go unpunished.
Proverbs 6:30  People do not scorn a thief if he steals to fill himself when he is hungry.
Proverbs 6:31  But if he is caught, he must pay back seven times over. He must give all the goods of his house.
Proverbs 6:32  But whoever commits adultery with a woman has no sense. The man who does it destroys his own soul.
Proverbs 6:33  He will get wounds and shame, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
Proverbs 6:34  For jealousy makes a man furious. He will show no mercy on the day of revenge.
Proverbs 6:35  He will not accept any ransom. He will not be satisfied, however many gifts you give.

Proverbs 7:1  My son, keep my words, and store up my commandments with you.
Proverbs 7:2  Keep my commandments, and live. Guard my teaching as you guard the pupil of your eye.
Proverbs 7:3  Tie them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Proverbs 7:4  Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call understanding your close relative.
Proverbs 7:5  Then they will keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger who flatters with her words.
Proverbs 7:6  For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,
Proverbs 7:7  and I saw among the simple ones. I noticed among the young men a youth who had no understanding.
Proverbs 7:8  He passed along the street near her corner, and he took the road to her house,
Proverbs 7:9  in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.
Proverbs 7:10  Look, a woman came to meet him, dressed like a prostitute, and crafty in heart.
Proverbs 7:11  (She is loud and stubborn. Her feet do not stay at home.
Proverbs 7:12  Now she is outside, now in the streets, and she lies in wait at every corner.)
Proverbs 7:13  So she caught hold of him and kissed him, and with a bold face she said to him,
Proverbs 7:14  "I have peace offerings with me. Today I have paid my vows."
Proverbs 7:15  "So I came out to meet you, to look for your face, and I have found you."
Proverbs 7:16  "I have spread my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt."
Proverbs 7:17  "I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon."
Proverbs 7:18  "Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us delight ourselves with love."
Proverbs 7:19  "For the man of the house is not at home. He has gone on a long journey."
Proverbs 7:20  "He has taken a bag of money with him, and he will come home on the day he set."
Proverbs 7:21  With her many smooth words she made him give in. With the flattery of her lips she drew him along.
Proverbs 7:22  He goes after her at once, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool goes to be punished in the stocks,
Proverbs 7:23  until an arrow strikes through his liver. He is like a bird rushing into the trap, and he does not know that it will cost him his life.
Proverbs 7:24  So listen to me now, my children, and pay attention to the words of my mouth.
Proverbs 7:25  Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not wander into her paths.
Proverbs 7:26  For she has struck down many wounded. Yes, many strong men have been killed by her.
Proverbs 7:27  Her house is the way to hell, going down to the rooms of death.

Proverbs 8:1  Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding lift up her voice?
Proverbs 8:2  She stands on the top of the high places, beside the way, where the paths meet.
Proverbs 8:3  She calls at the gates, at the entrance to the city, at the doorways:
Proverbs 8:4  "To you, O men, I call; my voice is to the sons of man."
Proverbs 8:5  "You who are simple, learn to understand. You who are fools, get an understanding heart."
Proverbs 8:6  "Listen, for I will speak of excellent things. What my lips open to say is right."
Proverbs 8:7  "For my mouth will speak truth. Wickedness is hateful to my lips."
Proverbs 8:8  "All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing twisted or crooked in them."
Proverbs 8:9  "They are all plain to the one who understands, and right to those who find knowledge."
Proverbs 8:10  "Take my teaching, and not silver; take knowledge rather than the finest gold."
Proverbs 8:11  "For wisdom is better than rubies. Nothing you could desire compares to it."
Proverbs 8:12  "I, wisdom, live with prudence, and I find out knowledge of clever inventions."
Proverbs 8:13  "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the twisted mouth I hate."
Proverbs 8:14  "Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength."
Proverbs 8:15  "By me kings reign, and rulers decree justice."
Proverbs 8:16  "By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth."
Proverbs 8:17  "I love those who love me, and those who seek me early will find me."
Proverbs 8:18  "Riches and honour are with me, yes, lasting riches and righteousness."
Proverbs 8:19  "My fruit is better than gold, yes, than fine gold, and what I yield is better than choice silver."
Proverbs 8:20  "I walk in the way of righteousness, along the middle of the paths of justice,"
Proverbs 8:21  "so that I may give wealth to those who love me, and fill their treasuries."
Proverbs 8:22  "The LORD possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old."
Proverbs 8:23  "I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the earth ever was."
Proverbs 8:24  "When there were no deeps, I was brought forth; when there were no springs overflowing with water."
Proverbs 8:25  "Before the mountains were settled in place, before the hills, I was brought forth."
Proverbs 8:26  "He had not yet made the earth, nor the fields, nor the first of the dust of the world."
Proverbs 8:27  "When he prepared the heavens, I was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep;"
Proverbs 8:28  "when he set the clouds above; when he made strong the springs of the deep;"
Proverbs 8:29  "when he gave the sea its limit, so that the waters would not pass his command; when he marked out the foundations of the earth."
Proverbs 8:30  "Then I was beside him, like one brought up with him. I was his delight day by day, rejoicing always before him,"
Proverbs 8:31  "rejoicing in the part of his earth where people live; and my delights were with the sons of men."
Proverbs 8:32  "So now listen to me, O children, for blessed are those who keep my ways."
Proverbs 8:33  "Hear instruction, and be wise, and do not refuse it."
Proverbs 8:34  "Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors."
Proverbs 8:35  "For whoever finds me finds life, and will receive favour from the LORD."
Proverbs 8:36  "But whoever sins against me wrongs his own soul. All who hate me love death."

Proverbs 9:1  Wisdom has built her house. She has cut out her seven pillars.
Proverbs 9:2  She has killed her animals. She has mixed her wine. She has also set her table.
Proverbs 9:3  She has sent out her servant girls. She calls from the highest places of the city,
Proverbs 9:4  "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here." To the one who lacks understanding she says,
Proverbs 9:5  "Come, eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed."
Proverbs 9:6  "Leave the foolish behind, and live. Walk in the way of understanding."
Proverbs 9:7  Whoever corrects a mocker brings shame on himself. Whoever rebukes a wicked man gets a stain on himself.
Proverbs 9:8  Do not correct a mocker, or he will hate you. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.
Proverbs 9:9  Give teaching to a wise man, and he will be wiser still. Teach a just man, and he will learn even more.
Proverbs 9:10  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Proverbs 9:11  For through me your days will be many, and the years of your life will be increased.
Proverbs 9:12  If you are wise, you are wise for yourself. But if you mock, you alone will bear it.
Proverbs 9:13  A foolish woman is loud. She is simple, and knows nothing.
Proverbs 9:14  For she sits at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city,
Proverbs 9:15  to call out to those passing by, who go straight on their way,
Proverbs 9:16  "Whoever is simple, let him turn in here." To the one who lacks understanding she says,
Proverbs 9:17  "Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant."
Proverbs 9:18  But he does not know that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.

Proverbs 10:1  The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes his father glad, but a foolish son is a weight of grief to his mother.
Proverbs 10:2  Treasures gained by wickedness are worth nothing, but righteousness saves from death.
Proverbs 10:3  The LORD will not let the righteous go hungry, but he throws away what the wicked have gathered.
Proverbs 10:4  A slack hand makes a person poor, but the hand of the hard worker brings riches.
Proverbs 10:5  The one who gathers in summer is a wise son, but the one who sleeps through the harvest is a son who brings shame.
Proverbs 10:6  Blessings rest on the head of the just, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Proverbs 10:7  The memory of the just is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot.
Proverbs 10:8  The wise in heart will take in commands, but a babbling fool will fall.
Proverbs 10:9  Whoever walks honestly walks safely, but whoever twists his ways will be found out.
Proverbs 10:10  Whoever winks with the eye causes sorrow, but a babbling fool will fall.
Proverbs 10:11  The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Proverbs 10:12  Hatred stirs up quarrels, but love covers all sins.
Proverbs 10:13  On the lips of the one who understands, wisdom is found, but a rod is for the back of the one with no understanding.
Proverbs 10:14  Wise people store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin close.
Proverbs 10:15  The rich man's wealth is his strong city; the ruin of the poor is their poverty.
Proverbs 10:16  The work of the righteous leads to life; what the wicked gain leads to sin.
Proverbs 10:17  Whoever keeps instruction is on the way of life, but whoever refuses correction goes astray.
Proverbs 10:18  Whoever hides hatred with lying lips, and whoever spreads a slander, is a fool.
Proverbs 10:19  Where there are many words, sin is not far away, but whoever holds back his lips is wise.
Proverbs 10:20  The tongue of the just is like choice silver; the heart of the wicked is worth little.
Proverbs 10:21  The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for lack of wisdom.
Proverbs 10:22  The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.
Proverbs 10:23  Doing wrong is like a game to a fool, but a man of understanding has wisdom.
Proverbs 10:24  What the wicked man fears will come upon him, but what the righteous desire will be given to them.
Proverbs 10:25  As the whirlwind passes by, so the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand on a lasting foundation.
Proverbs 10:26  Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is the lazy man to those who send him.
Proverbs 10:27  The fear of the LORD makes days longer, but the years of the wicked will be cut short.
Proverbs 10:28  The hope of the righteous will end in gladness, but what the wicked expect will perish.
Proverbs 10:29  The way of the LORD is strength to the upright, but it is ruin to those who do evil.
Proverbs 10:30  The righteous will never be moved, but the wicked will not live in the land.
Proverbs 10:31  The mouth of the just brings out wisdom, but the crooked tongue will be cut out.
Proverbs 10:32  The lips of the righteous know what is fitting, but the mouth of the wicked speaks what is crooked.

Proverbs 11:1  A dishonest scale is hateful to the LORD, but an honest weight is his delight.
Proverbs 11:2  When pride comes, shame comes with it, but wisdom is with the humble.
Proverbs 11:3  The honesty of the upright will guide them, but the crookedness of wrongdoers will destroy them.
Proverbs 11:4  Riches are no help in the day of wrath, but righteousness rescues from death.
Proverbs 11:5  The righteousness of the blameless will make his way straight, but the wicked will fall by his own wickedness.
Proverbs 11:6  The righteousness of the upright will rescue them, but wrongdoers will be caught by their own evil desire.
Proverbs 11:7  When a wicked man dies, what he looked for dies too, and the hope of unjust men comes to nothing.
Proverbs 11:8  The righteous is brought safely out of trouble, and the wicked comes into it instead.
Proverbs 11:9  A hypocrite destroys his neighbour with his mouth, but through knowledge the just will be rescued.
Proverbs 11:10  When things go well for the righteous, the city is glad, and when the wicked die, there is shouting.
Proverbs 11:11  By the blessing of the upright the city is lifted high, but the mouth of the wicked tears it down.
Proverbs 11:12  The one with no wisdom looks down on his neighbour, but a man of understanding keeps quiet.
Proverbs 11:13  A gossip tells secrets, but a faithful person keeps the matter hidden.
Proverbs 11:14  Where there is no guidance, the people fall, but with many advisers there is safety.
Proverbs 11:15  Whoever promises to pay a stranger's debt will suffer for it, but whoever hates making such promises is safe.
Proverbs 11:16  A gracious woman keeps her honour, and strong men keep their riches.
Proverbs 11:17  The merciful man does good to his own soul, but the cruel man brings trouble on his own flesh.
Proverbs 11:18  The wicked man does work that deceives, but the one who sows righteousness will have a sure reward.
Proverbs 11:19  As righteousness leads to life, so the one who chases evil chases his own death.
Proverbs 11:20  People with twisted hearts are hateful to the LORD, but those whose way is upright are his delight.
Proverbs 11:21  Be sure of this: the wicked will not go unpunished, but the children of the righteous will be rescued.
Proverbs 11:22  Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who has no sense.
Proverbs 11:23  What the righteous long for is only good, but what the wicked can expect is wrath.
Proverbs 11:24  One person gives freely, and yet gains more; another holds back more than is right, and comes to poverty.
Proverbs 11:25  The generous soul will be made rich, and the one who gives water will himself be given water.
Proverbs 11:26  The people curse the man who holds back his grain, but blessing rests on the head of the one who sells it.
Proverbs 11:27  The one who carefully seeks good gains favour, but the one who looks for harm, harm will come to him.
Proverbs 11:28  The one who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like a green branch.
Proverbs 11:29  The one who brings trouble on his own house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise in heart.
Proverbs 11:30  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who wins souls is wise.
Proverbs 11:31  Look, the righteous will be repaid on the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner.

Proverbs 12:1  Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge. But the one who hates correction is like an animal.
Proverbs 12:2  A good man receives favour from the LORD. But a man with wicked plans he will condemn.
Proverbs 12:3  No one is made secure by wickedness. But the root of the righteous will not be moved.
Proverbs 12:4  A good wife is a crown to her husband. But a wife who brings shame is like rot in his bones.
Proverbs 12:5  The thoughts of the righteous are right. But the advice of the wicked is deceit.
Proverbs 12:6  The words of the wicked lie in wait to shed blood. But the mouth of the upright will rescue them.
Proverbs 12:7  The wicked are overthrown, and they are gone. But the house of the righteous will stand.
Proverbs 12:8  A man is praised for his wisdom. But the one with a twisted heart is despised.
Proverbs 12:9  Better to be looked down on and have a servant than to honour yourself and have no bread.
Proverbs 12:10  A righteous man cares for the life of his animal. But even the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.
Proverbs 12:11  The one who works his land will have plenty of bread. But the one who chases after worthless people has no sense.
Proverbs 12:12  The wicked man wants what evil men catch in their net. But the root of the righteous bears fruit.
Proverbs 12:13  The wicked man is trapped by the sin of his own lips. But the just will come out of trouble.
Proverbs 12:14  A man will be filled with good things by the fruit of his mouth. And what a man's hands have done will be paid back to him.
Proverbs 12:15  The way of a fool seems right in his own eyes. But the one who listens to advice is wise.
Proverbs 12:16  A fool's anger is known at once. But a sensible man covers up an insult.
Proverbs 12:17  The one who speaks truth shows what is righteous. But a false witness speaks deceit.
Proverbs 12:18  There are people whose words stab like a sword. But the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Proverbs 12:19  Truthful lips will last for ever. But a lying tongue lasts only a moment.
Proverbs 12:20  Deceit is in the heart of those who plan evil. But those who counsel peace have joy.
Proverbs 12:21  No evil will happen to the just. But the wicked will be full of trouble.
Proverbs 12:22  Lying lips are detestable to the LORD. But those who act truthfully are his delight.
Proverbs 12:23  A sensible man keeps his knowledge to himself. But the heart of fools shouts out foolishness.
Proverbs 12:24  The hand of the hard worker will rule. But the lazy will be put to forced labour.
Proverbs 12:25  A heavy heart makes a man bow down. But a good word makes it glad.
Proverbs 12:26  The righteous man is better than his neighbour. But the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Proverbs 12:27  The lazy man does not roast what he caught in hunting. But the wealth of a hard worker is precious.
Proverbs 12:28  In the way of righteousness there is life, and along that path there is no death.

Proverbs 13:1  A wise son listens to his father's teaching, but a mocker does not listen to correction.
Proverbs 13:2  A man will eat good things from the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of those who break the law will eat violence.
Proverbs 13:3  The one who guards his mouth guards his life, but the one who opens his lips wide will be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:4  The soul of the lazy man wants, and has nothing, but the soul of the hard worker will be made fat.
Proverbs 13:5  A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is disgusting, and comes to shame.
Proverbs 13:6  Righteousness keeps the one whose way is upright, but wickedness overthrows the sinner.
Proverbs 13:7  One man makes himself rich, yet has nothing. Another makes himself poor, yet has great riches.
Proverbs 13:8  A man's riches are the ransom for his life, but the poor man does not hear any threat.
Proverbs 13:9  The light of the righteous shines with joy, but the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
Proverbs 13:10  Pride brings nothing but quarrelling, but wisdom is with those who take advice.
Proverbs 13:11  Wealth gained by empty ways will grow less, but the one who gathers by work will increase it.
Proverbs 13:12  Hope that is put off makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.
Proverbs 13:13  Whoever despises the word will be destroyed, but the one who fears the commandment will be rewarded.
Proverbs 13:14  The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, to turn a person away from the traps of death.
Proverbs 13:15  Good understanding wins favour, but the way of those who break the law is hard.
Proverbs 13:16  Every sensible man acts with knowledge, but a fool spreads out his folly for all to see.
Proverbs 13:17  A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful messenger brings healing.
Proverbs 13:18  Poverty and shame come to the one who refuses instruction, but the one who pays attention to correction will be honoured.
Proverbs 13:19  A desire that is fulfilled is sweet to the soul, but fools hate to turn away from evil.
Proverbs 13:20  The one who walks with wise men will be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed.
Proverbs 13:21  Evil chases sinners, but the righteous will be repaid with good.
Proverbs 13:22  A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, and the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the just.
Proverbs 13:23  There is much food in the ploughed field of the poor, but some are destroyed because there is no justice.
Proverbs 13:24  The one who holds back his rod hates his son, but the one who loves him corrects him early.
Proverbs 13:25  The righteous eats until his soul is satisfied, but the belly of the wicked will go hungry.

Proverbs 14:1  Every wise woman builds her house. But the foolish woman pulls hers down with her own hands.
Proverbs 14:2  The one who walks in his uprightness fears the LORD. But the one whose ways are crooked despises him.
Proverbs 14:3  In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride. But the lips of the wise will keep them safe.
Proverbs 14:4  Where there are no oxen, the feeding trough is clean. But a large harvest comes by the strength of the ox.
Proverbs 14:5  A faithful witness will not lie. But a false witness pours out lies.
Proverbs 14:6  A mocker looks for wisdom and does not find it. But knowledge comes easily to the one who understands.
Proverbs 14:7  Go away from a foolish man, when you see no lips of knowledge in him.
Proverbs 14:8  The wisdom of the careful is to understand his own way. But the folly of fools is deceit.
Proverbs 14:9  Fools make a joke of sin. But among the righteous there is favour.
Proverbs 14:10  The heart knows its own bitterness. And a stranger does not share in its joy.
Proverbs 14:11  The house of the wicked will be pulled down. But the tent of the upright will flourish.
Proverbs 14:12  There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it is the way of death.
Proverbs 14:13  Even while laughing, the heart is sad. And that joy ends in sorrow.
Proverbs 14:14  The one whose heart turns back will be filled with his own ways. And a good man will be satisfied from himself.
Proverbs 14:15  The simple believes every word. But the careful man watches where he is going.
Proverbs 14:16  A wise man is afraid and turns away from evil. But the fool rages on, sure of himself.
Proverbs 14:17  The one who is quickly angry acts foolishly. And a man of wicked plots is hated.
Proverbs 14:18  The simple receive folly as their share. But the careful are crowned with knowledge.
Proverbs 14:19  The evil bow down before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.
Proverbs 14:20  The poor man is hated even by his own neighbour. But the rich has many friends.
Proverbs 14:21  The one who despises his neighbour sins. But the one who shows mercy to the poor is happy.
Proverbs 14:22  Do those who plan evil not go astray? But mercy and truth will belong to those who plan good.
Proverbs 14:23  In all hard work there is profit. But the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.
Proverbs 14:24  The crown of the wise is their riches. But the foolishness of fools is folly.
Proverbs 14:25  A true witness saves lives. But a deceitful witness speaks lies.
Proverbs 14:26  In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence. And his children will have a place of safety.
Proverbs 14:27  The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life. It turns a person away from the traps of death.
Proverbs 14:28  A king's honour is in the great number of his people. But without people a prince is ruined.
Proverbs 14:29  The one who is slow to anger has great understanding. But the one with a hasty spirit lifts up folly.
Proverbs 14:30  A sound heart is life to the body. But envy is rottenness in the bones.
Proverbs 14:31  The one who crushes the poor insults his Maker. But the one who honours him shows mercy to the poor.
Proverbs 14:32  The wicked is driven away in his wickedness. But the righteous has hope in his death.
Proverbs 14:33  Wisdom rests in the heart of the one who understands. But what is among fools is made known.
Proverbs 14:34  Righteousness lifts up a nation. But sin is a shame to any people.
Proverbs 14:35  The king's favour goes to a wise servant. But his anger is against the one who brings shame.

Proverbs 15:1  A gentle answer turns away anger, but harsh words stir up rage.
Proverbs 15:2  The tongue of the wise uses knowledge well, but the mouth of fools pours out folly.
Proverbs 15:3  The eyes of the LORD are in every place, watching the evil and the good.
Proverbs 15:4  A healing tongue is a tree of life, but a twisted tongue breaks the spirit.
Proverbs 15:5  A fool despises his father's teaching, but whoever pays attention to correction is wise.
Proverbs 15:6  In the house of the righteous there is much treasure, but in the income of the wicked there is trouble.
Proverbs 15:7  The lips of the wise spread knowledge, but the heart of fools does not.
Proverbs 15:8  The sacrifice of the wicked is disgusting to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Proverbs 15:9  The way of the wicked is disgusting to the LORD, but he loves the one who runs after righteousness.
Proverbs 15:10  Correction is hard for the one who leaves the path, and whoever hates correction will die.
Proverbs 15:11  Hell and destruction lie open before the LORD. How much more the hearts of the children of men?
Proverbs 15:12  A mocker does not love the one who corrects him, and he will not go to the wise.
Proverbs 15:13  A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but when the heart is sad, the spirit is broken.
Proverbs 15:14  The heart of the one who understands looks for knowledge, but the mouth of fools feeds on folly.
Proverbs 15:15  All the days of the suffering are hard, but a glad heart has a feast that never ends.
Proverbs 15:16  Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure with trouble.
Proverbs 15:17  Better is a dinner of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox where there is hatred.
Proverbs 15:18  An angry man stirs up fighting, but the one who is slow to anger calms it down.
Proverbs 15:19  The way of the lazy man is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the righteous is made smooth.
Proverbs 15:20  A wise son makes a father glad, but a foolish man despises his mother.
Proverbs 15:21  Folly is a joy to the one who has no sense, but a man of understanding walks straight.
Proverbs 15:22  Without advice plans fail, but with many advisers they stand firm.
Proverbs 15:23  A man has joy when he gives a good answer, and how good is a word spoken at the right time.
Proverbs 15:24  The way of life leads upward for the wise, so that he turns away from hell below.
Proverbs 15:25  The LORD will tear down the house of the proud, but he will keep the widow's boundary secure.
Proverbs 15:26  The thoughts of the wicked are disgusting to the LORD, but the words of the pure are pleasant words.
Proverbs 15:27  Whoever is greedy for gain brings trouble on his own house, but the one who hates bribes will live.
Proverbs 15:28  The heart of the righteous thinks before it answers, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.
Proverbs 15:29  The LORD is far from the wicked, but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
Proverbs 15:30  The light of the eyes makes the heart glad, and good news puts fat on the bones.
Proverbs 15:31  The ear that listens to the correction that gives life will stay among the wise.
Proverbs 15:32  Whoever refuses teaching despises his own soul, but the one who listens to correction gains understanding.
Proverbs 15:33  The fear of the LORD is the teaching of wisdom, and humility comes before honour.

Proverbs 16:1  The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue comes from the LORD.
Proverbs 16:2  All a man's ways are clean in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirits.
Proverbs 16:3  Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established.
Proverbs 16:4  The LORD has made all things for himself. Yes, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
Proverbs 16:5  Everyone who is proud in heart is disgusting to the LORD. Though hand join in hand, he will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 16:6  By mercy and truth sin is cleansed away, and by the fear of the LORD men turn away from evil.
Proverbs 16:7  When a man's ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies be at peace with him.
Proverbs 16:8  Better is a little with righteousness than great earnings gained wrongly.
Proverbs 16:9  A man's heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.
Proverbs 16:10  A sentence from God is on the lips of the king. His mouth does not go wrong in judgment.
Proverbs 16:11  A fair weight and balance belong to the LORD. All the weights in the bag are his work.
Proverbs 16:12  It is disgusting to kings to do wickedness, for the throne is made firm by righteousness.
Proverbs 16:13  Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love the one who speaks what is right.
Proverbs 16:14  The anger of a king is like messengers of death, but a wise man will calm it.
Proverbs 16:15  In the light of the king's face there is life, and his favour is like a cloud that brings the spring rain.
Proverbs 16:16  How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.
Proverbs 16:17  The highway of the upright is to turn away from evil. The one who watches his way keeps his soul safe.
Proverbs 16:18  Pride goes before destruction, and a proud spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:19  It is better to have a humble spirit among the lowly than to share out the plunder with the proud.
Proverbs 16:20  The one who handles a matter wisely will find good, and whoever trusts in the LORD is happy.
Proverbs 16:21  The wise in heart will be called sensible, and sweet speech increases learning.
Proverbs 16:22  Understanding is a spring of life to the one who has it, but the teaching of fools is folly.
Proverbs 16:23  The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips.
Proverbs 16:24  Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.
Proverbs 16:25  There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the ways of death.
Proverbs 16:26  The one who works, works for himself, for his mouth urges him on.
Proverbs 16:27  An ungodly man digs up evil, and on his lips there is like a burning fire.
Proverbs 16:28  A crooked man sows strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.
Proverbs 16:29  A violent man tempts his neighbour, and leads him into a way that is not good.
Proverbs 16:30  He shuts his eyes to plan crooked things. He moves his lips and brings evil about.
Proverbs 16:31  Grey hair is a crown of glory, if it is found in the way of righteousness.
Proverbs 16:32  The one who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and the one who rules his spirit than the one who takes a city.
Proverbs 16:33  The lot is thrown into the lap, but the whole decision of it comes from the LORD.

Proverbs 17:1  Better a dry crust of bread with quietness than a house full of feasting with fighting.
Proverbs 17:2  A wise servant will rule over a son who brings shame, and he will share the inheritance among the brothers.
Proverbs 17:3  The melting pot is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, but the LORD tests the hearts.
Proverbs 17:4  A person who does evil listens to lying lips, and a liar pays attention to a wicked tongue.
Proverbs 17:5  Whoever mocks the poor insults his Maker, and whoever is glad at trouble will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 17:6  Grandchildren are the crown of old people, and the glory of children is their parents.
Proverbs 17:7  Fine speech does not suit a fool, and lying lips suit a ruler even less.
Proverbs 17:8  A gift is like a precious stone to the one who holds it. Wherever he turns, he succeeds.
Proverbs 17:9  Whoever covers over a wrong is looking for love, but whoever keeps repeating a matter separates close friends.
Proverbs 17:10  A word of correction goes deeper into a wise man than a hundred lashes into a fool.
Proverbs 17:11  An evil man looks only for rebellion, so a cruel messenger will be sent against him.
Proverbs 17:12  Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool in his folly.
Proverbs 17:13  If anyone pays back evil for good, evil will not leave his house.
Proverbs 17:14  The start of a quarrel is like letting out water. So stop the fight before it breaks out.
Proverbs 17:15  Whoever declares the wicked innocent, and whoever condemns the just: both of them are disgusting to the LORD.
Proverbs 17:16  Why should a fool hold money in his hand to buy wisdom, when he has no heart for it?
Proverbs 17:17  A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for times of trouble.
Proverbs 17:18  A man with no understanding shakes hands on a deal, and takes on his friend's debt in front of him.
Proverbs 17:19  Whoever loves fighting loves wrongdoing, and whoever builds his gate high is looking for destruction.
Proverbs 17:20  The man with a twisted heart finds nothing good, and the man with a crooked tongue falls into trouble.
Proverbs 17:21  Whoever fathers a fool brings sorrow on himself, and the father of a fool has no joy.
Proverbs 17:22  A cheerful heart does good like medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:23  A wicked man takes a bribe out of his robe to twist the ways of justice.
Proverbs 17:24  Wisdom is right in front of the one who understands, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.
Proverbs 17:25  A foolish son is a grief to his father, and bitterness to the woman who gave him birth.
Proverbs 17:26  It is also not good to punish the innocent, or to beat rulers for doing right.
Proverbs 17:27  The one who has knowledge holds back his words, and a man of understanding has a calm spirit.
Proverbs 17:28  Even a fool is thought wise when he stays silent, and the one who keeps his lips shut is counted as a man of understanding.

Proverbs 18:1  A man who keeps himself apart follows his own desire; he quarrels with all sound wisdom.
Proverbs 18:2  A fool takes no delight in understanding. He only wants to show what is in his own heart.
Proverbs 18:3  When the wicked comes, contempt comes too, and with shame comes disgrace.
Proverbs 18:4  The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters. The spring of wisdom is like a flowing brook.
Proverbs 18:5  It is not good to favour the wicked, or to push aside the righteous when judging.
Proverbs 18:6  A fool's lips bring him into quarrels, and his mouth calls out for blows.
Proverbs 18:7  A fool's mouth is his ruin, and his lips are a trap for his soul.
Proverbs 18:8  The words of a gossip are like wounds. They go down into the deepest parts of the body.
Proverbs 18:9  The one who is lazy in his work is brother to the one who destroys.
Proverbs 18:10  The name of the LORD is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it and is safe.
Proverbs 18:11  The rich man's wealth is his strong city, and in his own mind it is a high wall.
Proverbs 18:12  Before ruin a man's heart is proud, and before honour comes humility.
Proverbs 18:13  If someone answers a matter before he hears it, that is folly and shame to him.
Proverbs 18:14  A man's spirit will hold him up when he is ill, but a broken spirit - who can bear it?
Proverbs 18:15  The heart of the wise gets knowledge, and the ear of the wise looks for knowledge.
Proverbs 18:16  A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him in front of great men.
Proverbs 18:17  The one who speaks first in his own case seems right, until his neighbour comes and questions him.
Proverbs 18:18  Casting lots puts an end to arguments, and settles matters between the strong.
Proverbs 18:19  A brother who has been offended is harder to win than a strong city, and their quarrels are like the bars of a castle.
Proverbs 18:20  A man's stomach will be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth. With what his lips produce he will be filled.
Proverbs 18:21  Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:22  Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and receives favour from the LORD.
Proverbs 18:23  The poor man begs, but the rich man answers roughly.
Proverbs 18:24  A man who has friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

Proverbs 19:1  Better to be poor and walk in your integrity than to twist your words and be a fool.
Proverbs 19:2  It is not good for the soul to be without knowledge. The one who hurries with his feet misses the way.
Proverbs 19:3  A man's own foolishness ruins his way, and then his heart rages against the LORD.
Proverbs 19:4  Wealth brings many friends, but the poor man is cut off from his neighbour.
Proverbs 19:5  A false witness will not go unpunished, and the one who tells lies will not escape.
Proverbs 19:6  Many beg for the favour of a ruler, and everyone is a friend to the man who gives gifts.
Proverbs 19:7  All the brothers of a poor man hate him. How much more do his friends keep far away from him. He chases after them with words, but they are gone.
Proverbs 19:8  The one who gets wisdom loves his own soul. The one who holds on to understanding will find good.
Proverbs 19:9  A false witness will not go unpunished, and the one who tells lies will die.
Proverbs 19:10  Luxury does not suit a fool, much less should a servant rule over princes.
Proverbs 19:11  A man's good sense makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offence.
Proverbs 19:12  The king's anger is like the roaring of a lion, but his favour is like dew on the grass.
Proverbs 19:13  A foolish son is his father's ruin, and a quarrelling wife is like a roof that drips without stopping.
Proverbs 19:14  House and riches are handed down from fathers, but a wise wife comes from the LORD.
Proverbs 19:15  Laziness throws a person into a deep sleep, and the idle soul will go hungry.
Proverbs 19:16  The one who keeps the commandment keeps his own soul, but the one who despises his ways will die.
Proverbs 19:17  Whoever has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, and the LORD will pay him back for what he has given.
Proverbs 19:18  Correct your son while there is hope, and do not let your soul hold back because he cries.
Proverbs 19:19  A man of great anger must bear the punishment. If you rescue him, you will only have to do it again.
Proverbs 19:20  Listen to advice and accept instruction, so that you may be wise in the end.
Proverbs 19:21  There are many plans in a man's heart, but it is the counsel of the LORD that will stand.
Proverbs 19:22  What is desired in a man is his kindness, and a poor man is better than a liar.
Proverbs 19:23  The fear of the LORD leads to life. The one who has it will rest satisfied; no evil will come to visit him.
Proverbs 19:24  A lazy man buries his hand in the dish, and will not even bring it back to his mouth.
Proverbs 19:25  Strike a mocker, and the simple will learn to be careful. Correct a man who has understanding, and he will gain knowledge.
Proverbs 19:26  The one who ruins his father and drives away his mother is a son who brings shame and disgrace.
Proverbs 19:27  Stop listening, my son, to instruction that leads you away from the words of knowledge.
Proverbs 19:28  An ungodly witness laughs at justice, and the mouth of the wicked swallows down evil.
Proverbs 19:29  Judgments are ready for mockers, and beatings for the backs of fools.

Proverbs 20:1  Wine is a mocker, and strong drink is a brawler. Whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
Proverbs 20:2  The fear of a king is like the roaring of a lion. Whoever makes him angry sins against his own soul.
Proverbs 20:3  It is an honour for a man to stop a quarrel, but every fool wants to meddle.
Proverbs 20:4  The lazy man will not plough because of the cold. So at harvest time he will beg and have nothing.
Proverbs 20:5  The plan in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.
Proverbs 20:6  Most men will each announce their own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?
Proverbs 20:7  The just man walks in his integrity. His children who come after him are blessed.
Proverbs 20:8  A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters away all evil with his eyes.
Proverbs 20:9  Who can say, "I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin"?
Proverbs 20:10  Two kinds of weights and two kinds of measures: the LORD hates them both alike.
Proverbs 20:11  Even a child is known by what he does, whether his work is pure and whether it is right.
Proverbs 20:12  The ear that hears and the eye that sees: the LORD has made them both.
Proverbs 20:13  Do not love sleep, or you will come to poverty. Open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread.
Proverbs 20:14  "It is no good, it is no good," says the buyer. But when he has gone on his way, then he boasts.
Proverbs 20:15  There is gold, and there are many rubies, but lips that speak knowledge are a precious jewel.
Proverbs 20:16  Take the coat of a man who gives his word for a stranger, and hold it as a pledge when he does it for a strange woman.
Proverbs 20:17  Bread gained by cheating tastes sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth will be full of gravel.
Proverbs 20:18  Every plan is made firm by advice, and with good advice make war.
Proverbs 20:19  Whoever goes about gossiping gives away secrets. So have nothing to do with the man who flatters with his lips.
Proverbs 20:20  Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness.
Proverbs 20:21  An inheritance may be gained in a hurry at the first, but its end will not be blessed.
Proverbs 20:22  Do not say, "I will pay back evil." Wait for the LORD, and he will save you.
Proverbs 20:23  Two kinds of weights are hated by the LORD, and false scales are not good.
Proverbs 20:24  A man's steps are from the LORD. How then can a man understand his own way?
Proverbs 20:25  It is a trap for a man to swallow up what is holy, and only after making vows to ask questions.
Proverbs 20:26  A wise king scatters the wicked, and drives the threshing wheel over them.
Proverbs 20:27  The spirit of man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the body.
Proverbs 20:28  Mercy and truth keep the king safe, and his throne is held up by mercy.
Proverbs 20:29  The glory of young men is their strength, and the beauty of old men is their grey head.
Proverbs 20:30  The bruising of a wound cleanses away evil, and so do blows to the inward parts of the body.

Proverbs 21:1  The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, like rivers of water. He turns it wherever he wants.
Proverbs 21:2  Every way of a man seems right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.
Proverbs 21:3  To do what is just and right pleases the LORD more than sacrifice.
Proverbs 21:4  A proud look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, are sin.
Proverbs 21:5  The plans of the hard worker lead only to plenty, but everyone who is in a hurry comes only to need.
Proverbs 21:6  Getting treasure by a lying tongue is an empty thing, blown here and there by those who seek death.
Proverbs 21:7  The robbery of the wicked will destroy them, because they refuse to do what is just.
Proverbs 21:8  The way of a man is crooked and strange, but as for the pure, his work is right.
Proverbs 21:9  It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than with a quarrelling woman in a wide house.
Proverbs 21:10  The soul of the wicked desires evil. His neighbour finds no kindness in his eyes.
Proverbs 21:11  When the mocker is punished, the simple person is made wise. When the wise person is taught, he gains knowledge.
Proverbs 21:12  The righteous man wisely watches the house of the wicked, but God throws down the wicked for their wickedness.
Proverbs 21:13  Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be heard.
Proverbs 21:14  A gift given in secret calms anger, and a present slipped into the lap calms strong rage.
Proverbs 21:15  It is joy to the just to do what is right, but there will be destruction for those who do evil.
Proverbs 21:16  The man who wanders away from the way of understanding will rest among the dead.
Proverbs 21:17  Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man. Whoever loves wine and oil will not be rich.
Proverbs 21:18  The wicked will be a ransom for the righteous, and the lawbreaker for the upright.
Proverbs 21:19  It is better to live in the wilderness than with a quarrelling and angry woman.
Proverbs 21:20  In the home of the wise there is treasure worth having, and oil, but a foolish man spends it all.
Proverbs 21:21  Whoever follows after righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honour.
Proverbs 21:22  A wise man climbs into the city of the strong, and pulls down the fortress they trusted in.
Proverbs 21:23  Whoever guards his mouth and his tongue keeps his soul from troubles.
Proverbs 21:24  Proud and haughty mocker is his name, the one who acts with proud rage.
Proverbs 21:25  The desire of the lazy man kills him, for his hands refuse to work.
Proverbs 21:26  All day long he craves greedily, but the righteous gives and does not hold back.
Proverbs 21:27  The sacrifice of the wicked is disgusting. How much more when he brings it with an evil purpose?
Proverbs 21:28  A false witness will perish, but the man who listens will speak and go on speaking.
Proverbs 21:29  A wicked man puts on a hard face, but as for the upright, he makes his way sure.
Proverbs 21:30  There is no wisdom, no understanding, and no plan that can stand against the LORD.
Proverbs 21:31  The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but safety comes from the LORD.

Proverbs 22:1  A good name is worth more than great riches. To be loved is better than silver and gold.
Proverbs 22:2  The rich and the poor meet together. The LORD is the maker of them all.
Proverbs 22:3  A wise man sees trouble coming and hides himself. But the simple walk on, and are punished.
Proverbs 22:4  Humility and the fear of the LORD bring riches, honour, and life.
Proverbs 22:5  Thorns and traps lie in the way of the crooked man. Whoever guards his soul will stay far from them.
Proverbs 22:6  Train up a child in the way he should go. When he is old, he will not turn away from it.
Proverbs 22:7  The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.
Proverbs 22:8  Whoever sows evil will reap emptiness, and the rod of his anger will fail.
Proverbs 22:9  The generous man will be blessed, for he gives some of his bread to the poor.
Proverbs 22:10  Throw out the mocker, and arguing will go out too. Yes, quarrels and insults will stop.
Proverbs 22:11  Whoever loves a pure heart, and whose words are gracious, will have the king for his friend.
Proverbs 22:12  The eyes of the LORD keep watch over knowledge, and he overturns the words of the man who breaks the law.
Proverbs 22:13  The lazy man says, "There is a lion outside. I shall be killed in the streets."
Proverbs 22:14  The mouth of strange women is a deep pit. The man the LORD hates will fall into it.
Proverbs 22:15  Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction will drive it far from him.
Proverbs 22:16  Whoever crushes the poor to make himself richer, and whoever gives to the rich, will surely come to need.
Proverbs 22:17  Bend down your ear and hear the words of the wise. Set your heart on my knowledge.
Proverbs 22:18  It is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you. They will be ready on your lips as well.
Proverbs 22:19  So that your trust may be in the LORD, I have made these things known to you today, even to you.
Proverbs 22:20  Have I not written excellent things to you, full of advice and knowledge?
Proverbs 22:21  I did it to make you know what is certain in the words of truth. Then you can bring back true words to those who send you.
Proverbs 22:22  Do not rob the poor man because he is poor. Do not crush the suffering man in the gate.
Proverbs 22:23  For the LORD will plead their cause, and will take the life of those who took from them.
Proverbs 22:24  Make no friendship with an angry man. Do not go with a man who rages.
Proverbs 22:25  If you do, you will learn his ways, and set a trap for your own soul.
Proverbs 22:26  Do not be one of those who shake hands on a deal, or who promise to pay another man's debts.
Proverbs 22:27  If you have nothing to pay with, why should he take away the bed from under you?
Proverbs 22:28  Do not move the old boundary stone that your fathers set up.
Proverbs 22:29  Do you see a man who works hard at his business? He will stand before kings. He will not stand before common men.

Proverbs 23:1  When you sit down to eat with a ruler, think carefully about what is set before you.
Proverbs 23:2  Put a knife to your throat, if you are a man with a greedy appetite.
Proverbs 23:3  Do not long for his fine food, for it is deceitful food.
Proverbs 23:4  Do not wear yourself out to get rich. Stop trusting your own cleverness.
Proverbs 23:5  Will you fix your eyes on something that is not there? For riches surely make themselves wings. They fly away like an eagle toward the sky.
Proverbs 23:6  Do not eat the bread of a man with a grudging eye, and do not long for his fine food.
Proverbs 23:7  For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. "Eat and drink," he says to you, but his heart is not with you.
Proverbs 23:8  You will vomit up the piece you have eaten, and you will have wasted your kind words.
Proverbs 23:9  Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.
Proverbs 23:10  Do not move the old boundary stone, and do not go into the fields of the fatherless.
Proverbs 23:11  For their redeemer is strong. He will take up their case against you.
Proverbs 23:12  Give your heart to instruction, and your ears to words of knowledge.
Proverbs 23:13  Do not hold back correction from a child. If you beat him with the rod, he will not die.
Proverbs 23:14  You shall beat him with the rod, and save his soul from hell.
Proverbs 23:15  My son, if your heart is wise, my own heart will be glad.
Proverbs 23:16  Yes, my inmost self will rejoice when your lips speak what is right.
Proverbs 23:17  Do not let your heart envy sinners. Instead, stay in the fear of the LORD all day long.
Proverbs 23:18  For surely there is an end, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 23:19  Listen, my son, and be wise. Guide your heart in the way.
Proverbs 23:20  Do not be among those who drink too much wine, or among those who stuff themselves with meat.
Proverbs 23:21  For the drunkard and the glutton will become poor, and sleepiness will clothe a man in rags.
Proverbs 23:22  Listen to your father, who was the father of you, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Proverbs 23:23  Buy the truth, and do not sell it. Buy wisdom too, and instruction, and understanding.
Proverbs 23:24  The father of a righteous child will greatly rejoice. The man who is the father of a wise child will have joy in him.
Proverbs 23:25  Your father and your mother will be glad, and she who gave birth to you will rejoice.
Proverbs 23:26  My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes watch my ways.
Proverbs 23:27  For a prostitute is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit.
Proverbs 23:28  She lies in wait like a robber, and she makes more men unfaithful.
Proverbs 23:29  Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has quarrels? Who has complaining? Who has wounds for no reason? Who has red eyes?
Proverbs 23:30  Those who linger long over the wine, those who go looking for mixed wine.
Proverbs 23:31  Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.
Proverbs 23:32  In the end it bites like a snake, and stings like an adder.
Proverbs 23:33  Your eyes will see strange women, and your heart will speak twisted things.
Proverbs 23:34  Yes, you will be like a man lying down in the middle of the sea, or like a man lying on the top of a mast.
Proverbs 23:35  You will say, "They struck me, but I was not hurt. They beat me, but I did not feel it. When will I wake up? I will look for another drink."

Proverbs 24:1  Do not envy evil men. Do not wish to be with them.
Proverbs 24:2  For their hearts plan destruction, and their lips talk of trouble.
Proverbs 24:3  A house is built by wisdom, and it is made firm by understanding.
Proverbs 24:4  By knowledge its rooms are filled with all kinds of precious and pleasant riches.
Proverbs 24:5  A wise man is strong; a man of knowledge grows stronger still.
Proverbs 24:6  For with wise advice you should wage your war, and where there are many counsellors there is safety.
Proverbs 24:7  Wisdom is too high for a fool. He does not open his mouth in the gate.
Proverbs 24:8  Whoever plans to do evil will be called a maker of trouble.
Proverbs 24:9  The planning of foolishness is sin, and the one who mocks is hated by people.
Proverbs 24:10  If you give up on the day of trouble, your strength is small.
Proverbs 24:11  Rescue those who are being led away to death, and hold back those who stagger toward being killed.
Proverbs 24:12  If you say, "Look, we did not know this," does not the one who weighs the heart see it? Does not the one who guards your soul know it? And will he not give back to every man according to what he has done?
Proverbs 24:13  My son, eat honey, because it is good; eat the honeycomb, which is sweet to your taste.
Proverbs 24:14  The knowledge of wisdom will be like that to your soul. When you have found it, there will be a reward, and your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 24:15  Wicked man, do not lie in wait against the home of the righteous. Do not destroy his resting place.
Proverbs 24:16  For a just man falls seven times, and rises up again, but the wicked will fall into trouble.
Proverbs 24:17  Do not be glad when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles.
Proverbs 24:18  Or the LORD will see it, and it will displease him, and he will turn his anger away from him.
Proverbs 24:19  Do not be upset because of evil men, and do not envy the wicked.
Proverbs 24:20  For the evil man will have no reward. The lamp of the wicked will be put out.
Proverbs 24:21  My son, fear the LORD and the king. Do not join with those who love change.
Proverbs 24:22  For their disaster will rise up suddenly, and who knows the ruin that comes from them both?
Proverbs 24:23  These sayings also belong to the wise. It is not good to show favour to one side when judging.
Proverbs 24:24  Whoever says to the wicked, "You are righteous," will be cursed by the people, and nations will hate him.
Proverbs 24:25  But those who rebuke him will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them.
Proverbs 24:26  Everyone will kiss the lips of the one who gives a right answer.
Proverbs 24:27  Get your work ready outside, and make it fit for yourself in the field. Afterwards build your house.
Proverbs 24:28  Do not be a witness against your neighbour without cause, and do not deceive with your lips.
Proverbs 24:29  Do not say, "I will do to him as he has done to me. I will pay the man back for what he did."
Proverbs 24:30  I went past the field of the lazy man, and past the vineyard of the man with no understanding.
Proverbs 24:31  Look, it was all overgrown with thorns, and nettles covered the face of it, and its stone wall was broken down.
Proverbs 24:32  Then I looked, and thought it over well. I looked at it, and I learned a lesson.
Proverbs 24:33  A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest -
Proverbs 24:34  so your poverty will come like a traveller, and your need like an armed man.

Proverbs 25:1  These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied out.
Proverbs 25:2  It is the glory of God to hide a thing, but the honour of kings is to search a matter out.
Proverbs 25:3  The heavens are high, and the earth is deep, and the heart of kings cannot be searched out.
Proverbs 25:4  Take away the waste from the silver, and a vessel will come out for the silversmith.
Proverbs 25:5  Take the wicked away from before the king, and his throne will be made firm in righteousness.
Proverbs 25:6  Do not push yourself forward in the presence of the king, and do not stand in the place of great men.
Proverbs 25:7  It is better to be told, "Come up here," than to be put lower in front of the prince whom your eyes have seen.
Proverbs 25:8  Do not rush out to go to court. What will you do in the end, when your neighbour has put you to shame?
Proverbs 25:9  Argue your case with your neighbour himself, and do not tell another person's secret.
Proverbs 25:10  If you do, the one who hears it will shame you, and your bad name will never leave you.
Proverbs 25:11  A word spoken at the right time is like apples of gold in settings of silver.
Proverbs 25:12  Like an earring of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise man who corrects a listening ear.
Proverbs 25:13  Like the cold of snow at harvest time, so is a faithful messenger to those who send him. He refreshes the soul of his masters.
Proverbs 25:14  Whoever boasts about a gift he does not give is like clouds and wind without rain.
Proverbs 25:15  By being patient for a long time a ruler is won over, and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.
Proverbs 25:16  Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, or you will be filled with it and vomit it up.
Proverbs 25:17  Do not go too often into your neighbour's house, or he will grow tired of you and hate you.
Proverbs 25:18  A man who gives false witness against his neighbour is a club, and a sword, and a sharp arrow.
Proverbs 25:19  Trusting an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, or a foot out of joint.
Proverbs 25:20  Like one who takes off a coat in cold weather, and like vinegar poured on soda, so is the one who sings songs to a heavy heart.
Proverbs 25:21  If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
Proverbs 25:22  For you will heap coals of fire on his head, and the LORD will reward you.
Proverbs 25:23  The north wind drives away rain, and an angry face drives away a tongue that speaks behind backs.
Proverbs 25:24  It is better to live in a corner of the housetop than in a wide house with a quarrelling woman.
Proverbs 25:25  Like cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.
Proverbs 25:26  A righteous man who falls down before the wicked is like a muddied fountain, and a spoiled spring.
Proverbs 25:27  It is not good to eat much honey; so for men to search out their own glory is not glory.
Proverbs 25:28  The man who has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls.

Proverbs 26:1  Like snow in summer, and like rain at harvest time, honour does not suit a fool.
Proverbs 26:2  Like the bird that flits away, like the swallow in flight, so a curse without cause does not land.
Proverbs 26:3  A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.
Proverbs 26:4  Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.
Proverbs 26:5  Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will think himself wise.
Proverbs 26:6  Whoever sends a message by the hand of a fool cuts off his own feet and drinks down trouble.
Proverbs 26:7  The legs of a lame man hang useless. So is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Proverbs 26:8  Like tying a stone into a sling, so is giving honour to a fool.
Proverbs 26:9  Like a thorn that goes into the hand of a drunk man, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Proverbs 26:10  The great God who formed all things pays back the fool, and pays back those who break his law.
Proverbs 26:11  As a dog goes back to its vomit, so a fool goes back to his folly.
Proverbs 26:12  Do you see a man who thinks himself wise? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 26:13  The lazy man says, "There is a lion in the road. A lion is in the streets."
Proverbs 26:14  As a door turns on its hinges, so the lazy man turns on his bed.
Proverbs 26:15  The lazy man buries his hand in the dish. It wears him out to lift it back to his mouth.
Proverbs 26:16  The sluggard thinks himself wiser than seven men who can give a good answer.
Proverbs 26:17  Whoever passes by and gets mixed up in a quarrel that is not his is like a man who grabs a dog by the ears.
Proverbs 26:18  Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows and death,
Proverbs 26:19  so is the man who tricks his neighbour and says, "I was only joking."
Proverbs 26:20  Where there is no wood, the fire goes out. Where there is no gossip, the quarrel stops.
Proverbs 26:21  As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.
Proverbs 26:22  The words of a gossip are like tasty bites. They go down into the deepest parts of the body.
Proverbs 26:23  Warm lips with an evil heart are like a piece of clay pot coated with the waste of silver.
Proverbs 26:24  A man who hates covers it up with his lips, but he stores up deceit inside him.
Proverbs 26:25  When he speaks kindly, do not believe him, for there are seven hateful things in his heart.
Proverbs 26:26  His hatred may be hidden by deceit, but his wickedness will be shown to the whole assembly.
Proverbs 26:27  Whoever digs a pit will fall into it. If a man rolls a stone, it will roll back on him.
Proverbs 26:28  A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth brings ruin.

Proverbs 27:1  Do not boast about tomorrow. You do not know what a day may bring forth.
Proverbs 27:2  Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.
Proverbs 27:3  A stone is heavy, and sand is a weight to carry. But a fool's anger is heavier than them both.
Proverbs 27:4  Wrath is cruel, and anger is like a flood. But who is able to stand before envy?
Proverbs 27:5  Open rebuke is better than hidden love.
Proverbs 27:6  The wounds a friend gives are faithful. But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
Proverbs 27:7  The soul that has eaten its fill hates even honeycomb. But to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Proverbs 27:8  Like a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his place.
Proverbs 27:9  Ointment and perfume make the heart glad. So does the sweetness of a man's friend, given with warm advice.
Proverbs 27:10  Do not leave your own friend, or your father's friend. Do not go into your brother's house in the day of your trouble. A neighbour who is near is better than a brother far off.
Proverbs 27:11  My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, so that I can answer the one who taunts me.
Proverbs 27:12  A sensible man sees the evil coming and hides himself. But the simple walk on, and are punished.
Proverbs 27:13  Take the garment of the one who promises to pay a stranger's debt. Take a pledge from him when he does it for a strange woman.
Proverbs 27:14  If a man blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it will be counted to him as a curse.
Proverbs 27:15  A roof that keeps dripping on a very rainy day and a quarrelsome woman are alike.
Proverbs 27:16  Whoever hides her hides the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which gives itself away.
Proverbs 27:17  Iron sharpens iron. So a man sharpens the face of his friend.
Proverbs 27:18  Whoever tends the fig tree will eat its fruit. So the one who serves his master will be honoured.
Proverbs 27:19  As a face answers a face in water, so the heart of a man answers the man.
Proverbs 27:20  Hell and destruction are never full. So the eyes of a man are never satisfied.
Proverbs 27:21  The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold. So a man is tested by his praise.
Proverbs 27:22  Even if you crushed a fool in a mortar with a pestle, along with wheat, still his foolishness would not leave him.
Proverbs 27:23  Take care to know how your flocks are doing. Look well to your herds.
Proverbs 27:24  For riches do not last for ever. Does a crown endure to every generation?
Proverbs 27:25  The hay comes up, and the young grass shows itself, and the plants of the mountains are gathered.
Proverbs 27:26  The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of a field.
Proverbs 27:27  And you will have goats' milk enough for your food, for the food of your household, and to keep your servant girls alive.

Proverbs 28:1  The wicked run away when no one is chasing them. But the righteous are as bold as a lion.
Proverbs 28:2  When a land does wrong, it has many rulers. But a man of understanding and knowledge keeps it steady for a long time.
Proverbs 28:3  A poor man who crushes the poor is like a sweeping rain that leaves no food behind.
Proverbs 28:4  Those who abandon the law praise the wicked. But those who keep the law fight against them.
Proverbs 28:5  Evil men do not understand justice. But those who seek the LORD understand all things.
Proverbs 28:6  Better to be poor and walk in honesty than to be twisted in your ways, even if you are rich.
Proverbs 28:7  Whoever keeps the law is a wise son. But a friend of wild men brings shame on his father.
Proverbs 28:8  Whoever grows rich by charging interest and taking unjust gain is only gathering it for the man who will pity the poor.
Proverbs 28:9  If a man turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is disgusting.
Proverbs 28:10  Whoever leads the righteous astray into an evil way will fall into his own pit. But those who are upright will have good things for their own.
Proverbs 28:11  The rich man thinks he is wise. But the poor man who has understanding sees right through him.
Proverbs 28:12  When righteous men are glad, there is great glory. But when the wicked rise up, people go into hiding.
Proverbs 28:13  Whoever covers up his sins will not do well. But whoever confesses them and turns away from them will find mercy.
Proverbs 28:14  Happy is the man who is always careful. But whoever hardens his heart will fall into trouble.
Proverbs 28:15  Like a roaring lion, or a bear on the prowl, so is a wicked ruler over poor people.
Proverbs 28:16  A ruler who has no understanding crushes people cruelly. But the one who hates greed will live long.
Proverbs 28:17  A man who has shed someone's blood will run until he falls into the pit. Let no one stop him.
Proverbs 28:18  Whoever walks honestly will be saved. But the man who is twisted in his ways will fall all at once.
Proverbs 28:19  The man who works his land will have plenty of bread. But the man who chases empty things will have plenty of poverty.
Proverbs 28:20  A faithful man will have many blessings. But the man in a hurry to get rich will not go unpunished.
Proverbs 28:21  It is not good to show favour to some and not to others. Yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.
Proverbs 28:22  The man in a hurry to get rich has a greedy eye. He does not realise that poverty is coming to him.
Proverbs 28:23  The one who corrects a man will in the end be liked more than the one who flatters with his tongue.
Proverbs 28:24  Whoever robs his father or his mother and says, "It is no sin," is a friend of the destroyer.
Proverbs 28:25  A man with a proud heart stirs up quarrels. But the one who trusts in the LORD will be made rich.
Proverbs 28:26  Whoever trusts in his own heart is a fool. But whoever walks wisely will be kept safe.
Proverbs 28:27  Whoever gives to the poor will not go without. But the one who hides his eyes will get many curses.
Proverbs 28:28  When the wicked rise up, people hide themselves. But when they die, the righteous grow strong.

Proverbs 29:1  A man who is corrected again and again, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken, and there will be no cure for it.
Proverbs 29:2  When the righteous are in power, the people are glad. But when the wicked rule, the people groan.
Proverbs 29:3  Whoever loves wisdom makes his father glad. But a man who keeps company with prostitutes wastes his wealth.
Proverbs 29:4  By justice a king makes his land stand firm. But a man who takes bribes tears it down.
Proverbs 29:5  A man who flatters his neighbour is spreading a net for his feet.
Proverbs 29:6  In the sin of an evil man there is a trap. But the righteous sings and is glad.
Proverbs 29:7  The righteous gives thought to the cause of the poor. But the wicked does not care to know it.
Proverbs 29:8  Men who mock set a city on fire. But wise men turn away anger.
Proverbs 29:9  If a wise man goes to law with a foolish man, the fool rages or laughs, and there is no peace.
Proverbs 29:10  Men who thirst for blood hate the man who is honest. But the just care for his life.
Proverbs 29:11  A fool pours out all that is in his mind. But a wise man holds it back until later.
Proverbs 29:12  If a ruler listens to lies, all his servants become wicked.
Proverbs 29:13  The poor man and the cheat meet together. The LORD gives light to the eyes of them both.
Proverbs 29:14  If a king judges the poor faithfully, his throne will stand firm for ever.
Proverbs 29:15  The rod and correction give wisdom. But a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
Proverbs 29:16  When the wicked grow many, sin grows too. But the righteous will see them fall.
Proverbs 29:17  Correct your son, and he will give you rest. Yes, he will bring delight to your soul.
Proverbs 29:18  Where there is no vision, the people perish. But happy is the one who keeps the law.
Proverbs 29:19  A servant will not be corrected by words alone. Though he understands, he will not answer.
Proverbs 29:20  Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs 29:21  If a man pampers his servant from childhood, in the end the servant will act as his son.
Proverbs 29:22  An angry man stirs up strife, and a man full of rage sins again and again.
Proverbs 29:23  A man's pride will bring him low. But honour will hold up the humble in spirit.
Proverbs 29:24  Whoever shares with a thief hates his own soul. He hears the curse, but he says nothing.
Proverbs 29:25  The fear of man brings a snare. But whoever trusts in the LORD will be safe.
Proverbs 29:26  Many look for the ruler's favour, but every man's judgment comes from the LORD.
Proverbs 29:27  An unjust man is disgusting to the just. And the man whose way is upright is disgusting to the wicked.

Proverbs 30:1  The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the prophecy. The man spoke to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:
Proverbs 30:2  "Surely I am more like a beast than any man, and I do not have a man's understanding."
Proverbs 30:3  I never learned wisdom, and I do not have the knowledge of the holy.
Proverbs 30:4  Who has gone up into heaven, or come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has tied up the waters in a garment? Who has set up all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if you can tell?
Proverbs 30:5  Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him.
Proverbs 30:6  Do not add to his words. If you do, he will rebuke you, and you will be found a liar.
Proverbs 30:7  Two things I have asked of you. Do not refuse them to me before I die:
Proverbs 30:8  Keep empty falsehood and lies far away from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food I need.
Proverbs 30:9  If I have too much, I may deny you and say, 'Who is the LORD?' And if I am poor, I may steal, and misuse the name of my God.
Proverbs 30:10  Do not accuse a servant to his master. If you do, he will curse you, and you will be found guilty.
Proverbs 30:11  There is a generation that curses its father, and does not bless its mother.
Proverbs 30:12  There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filth.
Proverbs 30:13  There is a generation whose eyes are so proud, whose eyelids are lifted high.
Proverbs 30:14  There is a generation whose teeth are like swords, and whose jaw teeth are like knives, to eat up the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.
Proverbs 30:15  The leech has two daughters, crying, 'Give, give.' There are three things that are never satisfied; yes, four never say, 'It is enough':
Proverbs 30:16  the grave; the womb that bears no child; the earth that is never filled with water; and the fire that never says, 'It is enough.'
Proverbs 30:17  The eye that mocks its father, and scorns to obey its mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it.
Proverbs 30:18  There are three things that are too wonderful for me; yes, four that I do not know:
Proverbs 30:19  the way of an eagle in the air; the way of a snake on a rock; the way of a ship in the middle of the sea; and the way of a man with a young woman.
Proverbs 30:20  This is the way of a woman who commits adultery: she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, 'I have done no wickedness.'
Proverbs 30:21  For three things the earth is shaken, and for four it cannot bear up:
Proverbs 30:22  for a servant when he becomes king; and a fool when he is filled with food;
Proverbs 30:23  for a hateful woman when she is married; and a servant girl who takes the place of her mistress.
Proverbs 30:24  There are four things that are little on the earth, but they are very wise:
Proverbs 30:25  the ants are a people that are not strong, yet they store up their food in the summer;
Proverbs 30:26  the conies are only a weak folk, yet they make their houses in the rocks;
Proverbs 30:27  the locusts have no king, yet they all go out in ranks;
Proverbs 30:28  the spider takes hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.
Proverbs 30:29  There are three things that move well; yes, four that are fine in their walking:
Proverbs 30:30  a lion, which is strongest among the beasts, and turns away from none;
Proverbs 30:31  a greyhound; a male goat also; and a king, whom no one rises up against.
Proverbs 30:32  If you have acted foolishly by lifting yourself up, or if you have planned evil, put your hand over your mouth.
Proverbs 30:33  "Surely the churning of milk brings out butter, and the twisting of the nose brings out blood. So the stirring up of anger brings out strife."

Proverbs 31:1  The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him.
Proverbs 31:2  What, my son? What, son of my womb? What, son of my vows?
Proverbs 31:3  Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.
Proverbs 31:4  It is not for kings, Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes to drink strong drink.
Proverbs 31:5  If they drink, they may forget the law, and take away the rights of any who are suffering.
Proverbs 31:6  Give strong drink to the one who is ready to die, and wine to those with heavy hearts.
Proverbs 31:7  Let him drink, and forget how poor he is, and remember his misery no more.
Proverbs 31:8  Open your mouth for those who cannot speak, in the cause of all who are marked out to die.
Proverbs 31:9  Open your mouth and judge with righteousness. Plead the cause of the poor and needy.
Proverbs 31:10  Who can find a good and able woman? She is worth far more than rubies.
Proverbs 31:11  Her husband's heart trusts in her safely, so he will have no need of plunder.
Proverbs 31:12  She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
Proverbs 31:13  She looks for wool and flax, and works gladly with her hands.
Proverbs 31:14  She is like the merchants' ships. She brings her food from far away.
Proverbs 31:15  She also gets up while it is still night. She gives food to her household, and a portion to her servant girls.
Proverbs 31:16  She thinks about a field, and buys it. With what her hands have earned she plants a vineyard.
Proverbs 31:17  She wraps her waist with strength, and makes her arms strong.
Proverbs 31:18  She sees that her trading is good. Her lamp does not go out at night.
Proverbs 31:19  She puts her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
Proverbs 31:20  She stretches out her hand to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.
Proverbs 31:21  She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
Proverbs 31:22  She makes coverings of tapestry for herself. Her clothing is silk and purple.
Proverbs 31:23  Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.
Proverbs 31:24  She makes fine linen and sells it. She supplies belts to the merchant.
Proverbs 31:25  Strength and honour are her clothing. She will rejoice in the time to come.
Proverbs 31:26  She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue.
Proverbs 31:27  She watches well over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Proverbs 31:28  Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also praises her.
Proverbs 31:29  "Many daughters have done well, but you are better than them all."
Proverbs 31:30  Charm is deceitful, and beauty does not last, but a woman who fears the LORD will be praised.
Proverbs 31:31  Give her what her hands have earned, and let her own works praise her in the gates.

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 1:1  The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Ecclesiastes 1:2  "Emptiness of emptiness," says the Preacher, "emptiness of emptiness. Everything is empty."
Ecclesiastes 1:3  What does a man gain from all the work he toils at under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 1:4  One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth stays for ever.
Ecclesiastes 1:5  The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hurries back to the place where it rose.
Ecclesiastes 1:6  The wind goes towards the south, and turns about to the north. It whirls about again and again, and the wind comes back along its rounds.
Ecclesiastes 1:7  All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. To the place the rivers come from, there they go back again.
Ecclesiastes 1:8  All things are full of labour, more than anyone can tell. The eye is never satisfied with seeing, and the ear is never filled with hearing.
Ecclesiastes 1:9  What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done. There is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 1:10  Is there anything of which it may be said, "Look, this is new"? It was here already, long ago, in the times before us.
Ecclesiastes 1:11  There is no remembering of the things that came before. And the things that are still to come will not be remembered either by those who come after.
Ecclesiastes 1:12  I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
Ecclesiastes 1:13  I gave my heart to searching out by wisdom everything that is done under heaven. This heavy task God has given to the sons of man, to keep them busy with it.
Ecclesiastes 1:14  I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and look, everything is empty and a trouble of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 1:15  What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is missing cannot be counted.
Ecclesiastes 1:16  I talked with my own heart and said, "Look, I have become great, and I have gained more wisdom than all who were in Jerusalem before me. Yes, my heart has known much wisdom and knowledge."
Ecclesiastes 1:17  And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and foolishness. I saw that this also is a trouble of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 1:18  For in much wisdom there is much grief, and the one who adds to his knowledge adds to his sorrow.

Ecclesiastes 2:1  I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with laughter and good cheer. So enjoy pleasure." And look, this also is empty.
Ecclesiastes 2:2  I said of laughter, "It is mad." And of good cheer I said, "What does it do?"
Ecclesiastes 2:3  I searched in my heart how to give myself to wine, while still keeping my heart with wisdom. I wanted to take hold of folly, until I might see what was good for people to do under heaven all the days of their life.
Ecclesiastes 2:4  I did great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards.
Ecclesiastes 2:5  I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted in them trees of every kind of fruit.
Ecclesiastes 2:6  I made myself pools of water, to water the woods where trees were growing.
Ecclesiastes 2:7  I got myself male servants and female servants, and I had servants born in my house. I also had great herds of cattle and flocks of sheep, more than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
Ecclesiastes 2:8  I also gathered for myself silver and gold, and the special treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself men singers and women singers, and the delights of people, and musical instruments of all kinds.
Ecclesiastes 2:9  So I was great, and I grew greater than all who were in Jerusalem before me. And my wisdom stayed with me.
Ecclesiastes 2:10  Whatever my eyes wanted, I did not keep from them. I did not hold my heart back from any joy. For my heart was glad in all my work, and this was my share of all my work.
Ecclesiastes 2:11  Then I looked at all the works my hands had done, and at the work I had laboured to do. And look, it was all empty and a trouble of spirit, and there was no gain under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:12  Then I turned to look at wisdom, and madness, and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.
Ecclesiastes 2:13  Then I saw that wisdom is better than folly, as far as light is better than darkness.
Ecclesiastes 2:14  The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I saw this too: the same thing happens to them both.
Ecclesiastes 2:15  Then I said in my heart, "What happens to the fool happens to me too. So why was I more wise?" Then I said in my heart that this also is empty.
Ecclesiastes 2:16  For the wise man is remembered no longer than the fool. What happens now will all be forgotten in the days to come. And how does the wise man die? Like the fool.
Ecclesiastes 2:17  So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was painful to me. For it is all empty and a trouble of spirit.
Ecclesiastes 2:18  Yes, I hated all the work I had done under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
Ecclesiastes 2:19  And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all the work I laboured at, and in which I showed myself wise under the sun. This also is empty.
Ecclesiastes 2:20  So I turned and let my heart give up hope over all the work I had done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 2:21  For here is a man whose work is done with wisdom, and knowledge, and fairness. Yet he must leave it as a share to a man who did not work for it. This also is empty, and a great evil.
Ecclesiastes 2:22  For what does a man get from all his work, and from the trouble of his heart, in which he has laboured under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 2:23  All his days are sorrows, and his hard work is grief. Yes, his heart takes no rest in the night. This also is empty.
Ecclesiastes 2:24  There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink, and to let himself enjoy good things in his work. This also I saw, that it came from the hand of God.
Ecclesiastes 2:25  For who can eat, or who can hurry to this, more than I?
Ecclesiastes 2:26  For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to the man who is good in his sight. But to the sinner he gives hard work, to gather and to pile up, so that he may give it to the one who is good before God. This also is empty and a trouble of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 3:1  There is a season for everything, and a time for every purpose under heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:2  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pull up what is planted;
Ecclesiastes 3:3  a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
Ecclesiastes 3:4  a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecclesiastes 3:5  a time to throw stones away, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to hold back from embracing;
Ecclesiastes 3:6  a time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
Ecclesiastes 3:7  a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, and a time to speak;
Ecclesiastes 3:8  a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:9  What does the worker gain from all his hard work?
Ecclesiastes 3:10  I have seen the hard task that God has given to the children of men to keep them busy.
Ecclesiastes 3:11  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set the world in their heart, so that no one can find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end.
Ecclesiastes 3:12  I know there is nothing good in them, except for a person to be glad and to do good while he lives.
Ecclesiastes 3:13  And also that everyone should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his work: it is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 3:14  I know that whatever God does, it will last for ever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
Ecclesiastes 3:15  What has been is now; and what is to be has already been; and God requires what is past.
Ecclesiastes 3:16  And more than this, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there was evil.
Ecclesiastes 3:17  I said in my heart, "God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work."
Ecclesiastes 3:18  I said in my heart about the children of men that God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are animals.
Ecclesiastes 3:19  For what happens to the children of men happens to animals; the same thing happens to them both. As one dies, so dies the other. Yes, they all have one breath, so that a man has no advantage over an animal. All is empty.
Ecclesiastes 3:20  All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ecclesiastes 3:21  Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?
Ecclesiastes 3:22  So I see that there is nothing better than that a person should be glad in his own work, for that is his portion. For who will bring him back to see what will come after him?

Ecclesiastes 4:1  So I turned again, and I looked at all the oppression that is done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them. Power was on the side of those who oppressed them, but they had no one to comfort them.
Ecclesiastes 4:2  So I said that the dead, who are already dead, are happier than the living, who are still alive.
Ecclesiastes 4:3  Yes, better than both of them is the one who has not yet been born, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 4:4  Again, I looked at all the hard work, and every good piece of work, and saw that a man is envied by his neighbour for it. This also is meaningless, like chasing the wind.
Ecclesiastes 4:5  The fool folds his hands together, and eats his own flesh.
Ecclesiastes 4:6  Better a handful with quietness than both hands full with hard work and chasing the wind.
Ecclesiastes 4:7  Then I turned again, and I saw something meaningless under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 4:8  There is a man all alone, and there is no second with him. Yes, he has neither child nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his work, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches. He never asks, "Who am I working for? Why do I keep good things from myself?" This also is meaningless; yes, it is a painful task.
Ecclesiastes 4:9  Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work.
Ecclesiastes 4:10  For if they fall, the one will lift up his companion. But it will be bad for the man who is alone when he falls, for he has no one else to help him up.
Ecclesiastes 4:11  Again, if two lie down together, they keep warm. But how can one be warm alone?
Ecclesiastes 4:12  And if one man overpowers him, two can stand against him. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Ecclesiastes 4:13  Better a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king who will no longer listen to warning.
Ecclesiastes 4:14  For out of prison he comes to reign, while the one born in his kingdom becomes poor.
Ecclesiastes 4:15  I looked at all the living who walk under the sun, together with the second child who would stand up in his place.
Ecclesiastes 4:16  There is no end to all the people, all those who were before them. Yet those who come after will not be glad about him. Surely this also is meaningless, like chasing the wind.

Ecclesiastes 5:1  Watch your step when you go to the house of God. Be readier to listen than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.
Ecclesiastes 5:2  Do not be quick with your mouth, and do not let your heart hurry to say anything before God. God is in heaven, and you are on earth. So let your words be few.
Ecclesiastes 5:3  A dream comes from having too much to do, and a fool's voice is known by too many words.
Ecclesiastes 5:4  When you make a promise to God, do not wait to keep it, for he takes no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have promised.
Ecclesiastes 5:5  It is better not to promise at all than to promise and not pay.
Ecclesiastes 5:6  Do not let your mouth make your body sin. Do not say before the angel that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands?
Ecclesiastes 5:7  For in many dreams and many words there are many empty things. But you must fear God.
Ecclesiastes 5:8  If you see the poor being crushed, and judgment and justice twisted by force in a province, do not be surprised at it. For the one who is higher than the highest is watching, and there are higher ones above them.
Ecclesiastes 5:9  Also, the profit of the earth is for everyone. Even the king is served by the field.
Ecclesiastes 5:10  Whoever loves silver will never have enough silver. Whoever loves plenty will never have enough gain. This too is empty.
Ecclesiastes 5:11  When goods increase, so do the people who eat them. And what good is that to the owners, except to look at them with their eyes?
Ecclesiastes 5:12  The sleep of a working man is sweet, whether he eats little or much. But the rich man's plenty will not let him sleep.
Ecclesiastes 5:13  There is a painful evil I have seen under the sun: riches kept by their owners, and it harms them.
Ecclesiastes 5:14  Those riches are lost through some bad venture. Then he has a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
Ecclesiastes 5:15  He came out of his mother's womb, and naked he will go back as he came. He will take nothing from his work that he can carry away in his hand.
Ecclesiastes 5:16  This too is a painful evil: in every way that he came, so he goes. What profit has he who has worked for the wind?
Ecclesiastes 5:17  All his days he also eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and anger, along with his sickness.
Ecclesiastes 5:18  Look at what I have seen: it is good and fitting for a person to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good of all the work he does under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him. For that is his portion.
Ecclesiastes 5:19  And when God has given anyone riches and wealth, and the power to eat of them, and to take his portion, and to be glad in his work, this is the gift of God.
Ecclesiastes 5:20  He will not think much about the days of his life, because God keeps his heart full of joy.

Ecclesiastes 6:1  There is an evil I have seen under the sun, and it is common among people:
Ecclesiastes 6:2  God gives a man riches, wealth and honour, so that he lacks nothing his soul desires. Yet God does not give him the power to enjoy it, and a stranger enjoys it instead. This is empty, and it is a terrible sickness.
Ecclesiastes 6:3  A man may be the father of a hundred children and live many years, so that the days of his years are many. But if his soul is not filled with good, and if he has no burial, I say that a child born dead is better off than he is.
Ecclesiastes 6:4  For that child comes in with emptiness, and goes away in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
Ecclesiastes 6:5  It has never seen the sun, and has known nothing. Yet it has more rest than that man.
Ecclesiastes 6:6  Even if the man lives a thousand years twice over, he has seen no good. Do not all go to one place?
Ecclesiastes 6:7  All a man's work is for his mouth, and still his appetite is not filled.
Ecclesiastes 6:8  For what does the wise man have more than the fool? What does the poor man have, who knows how to walk before the living?
Ecclesiastes 6:9  Better is what the eyes see than the wandering of desire. This too is empty, like chasing the wind.
Ecclesiastes 6:10  Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is. He cannot argue with one who is mightier than he.
Ecclesiastes 6:11  Since there are many things that only increase emptiness, what is a man the better for them?
Ecclesiastes 6:12  For who knows what is good for a man in this life, through all the days of his empty life, which he spends like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 7:1  A good name is better than costly perfume. And the day of death is better than the day of one's birth.
Ecclesiastes 7:2  It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. For death is the end of all people, and the living will take it to heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:3  Sorrow is better than laughter. For when the face is sad, the heart is made better.
Ecclesiastes 7:4  The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking.
Ecclesiastes 7:5  It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:6  For the laughter of the fool is like the crackling of thorns under a pot. This also is meaningless.
Ecclesiastes 7:7  Surely oppression makes a wise man mad, and a bribe destroys the heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:8  The end of a thing is better than its beginning. And the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
Ecclesiastes 7:9  Do not be quick in your spirit to be angry, for anger rests in the lap of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:10  Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" You do not ask this wisely.
Ecclesiastes 7:11  Wisdom is good, along with an inheritance. It brings profit to those who see the sun.
Ecclesiastes 7:12  For wisdom is a shelter, and money is a shelter. But this is the advantage of knowledge: wisdom gives life to those who have it.
Ecclesiastes 7:13  Think about the work of God. Who can make straight what he has made crooked?
Ecclesiastes 7:14  In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of trouble consider this: God has set the one against the other, so that no one can find out anything about what comes after him.
Ecclesiastes 7:15  I have seen everything in my meaningless days. There is a just man who dies in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his wickedness.
Ecclesiastes 7:16  Do not be righteous too much, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself?
Ecclesiastes 7:17  Do not be too wicked, and do not be foolish. Why should you die before your time?
Ecclesiastes 7:18  It is good that you should take hold of this, and also not let go of that. For the one who fears God will come out of them all.
Ecclesiastes 7:19  Wisdom makes a wise man stronger than ten rulers in a city.
Ecclesiastes 7:20  For there is not a just man on earth who does good and never sins.
Ecclesiastes 7:21  Also, do not pay attention to every word that is spoken, or you may hear your servant curse you.
Ecclesiastes 7:22  For your own heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others in the same way.
Ecclesiastes 7:23  All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, "I will be wise," but it was far from me.
Ecclesiastes 7:24  What is far off, and very deep, who can find it out?
Ecclesiastes 7:25  I turned my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom and the reason of things, and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness.
Ecclesiastes 7:26  And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is traps and nets, and whose hands are chains. Whoever pleases God will escape from her, but the sinner will be caught by her.
Ecclesiastes 7:27  Look, this I have found, says the preacher, counting one by one to find out the sum:
Ecclesiastes 7:28  which my soul still seeks, but I do not find. One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all those I have not found.
Ecclesiastes 7:29  See, this alone I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Ecclesiastes 8:1  Who is like the wise man? Who knows what a thing means? A man's wisdom makes his face shine, and the hardness of his face is changed.
Ecclesiastes 8:2  I advise you to keep the king's command, because of the oath you swore to God.
Ecclesiastes 8:3  Do not be quick to leave his presence. Do not stand up for an evil cause, for he does whatever pleases him.
Ecclesiastes 8:4  Where the word of a king is, there is power. Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"
Ecclesiastes 8:5  Whoever keeps the command will know no harm, and a wise man's heart knows both the time and the right way.
Ecclesiastes 8:6  For every purpose has its time and its right way. That is why a man's misery lies heavy on him.
Ecclesiastes 8:7  For he does not know what is going to happen. Who can tell him when it will be?
Ecclesiastes 8:8  No one has power over the spirit to hold the spirit back, and no one has power over the day of his death. There is no leave from that war, and wickedness will not save those who give themselves to it.
Ecclesiastes 8:9  All this I have seen. I set my heart on every work that is done under the sun. There is a time when one man rules over another to his own hurt.
Ecclesiastes 8:10  And so I saw the wicked buried, who used to come and go from the holy place. They were forgotten in the city where they had done such things. This also is empty.
Ecclesiastes 8:11  Because the sentence against an evil deed is not carried out quickly, the hearts of men are fully set in them to do evil.
Ecclesiastes 8:12  Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and his days are made long, yet I am sure of this: it will be well with those who fear God, who stand in fear before him.
Ecclesiastes 8:13  But it will not be well with the wicked man. He will not make his days long; they are like a shadow, because he does not fear before God.
Ecclesiastes 8:14  There is something empty that is done on the earth: there are righteous men who get what the deeds of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the deeds of the righteous deserve. I said that this also is empty.
Ecclesiastes 8:15  So I praised enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, and to drink, and to be glad. That will stay with him in his work through the days of his life, which God gives him under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 8:16  When I set my heart to know wisdom, and to see the work that is done on the earth (for there are people whose eyes see no sleep by day or by night),
Ecclesiastes 8:17  then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. Though a man works hard to search it out, he will not find it. More than that, though a wise man thinks he knows it, he will not be able to find it.

Ecclesiastes 9:1  I thought about all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise, and all they do, are in the hand of God. No one knows whether love or hatred waits for him in all that lies ahead.
Ecclesiastes 9:2  The same thing happens to everyone. One end comes to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good, to the clean and to the unclean, to the one who offers sacrifices and to the one who does not. As it is with the good, so it is with the sinner; as it is with the one who swears an oath, so with the one who is afraid to swear.
Ecclesiastes 9:3  This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: that the same end comes to all. Yes, and the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live. After that they go to the dead.
Ecclesiastes 9:4  For anyone who is still among the living has hope. A living dog is better than a dead lion.
Ecclesiastes 9:5  The living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing at all. They have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
Ecclesiastes 9:6  Their love, their hatred and their envy have now perished. They have no share for ever in anything that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:7  Go your way. Eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a glad heart, for God now accepts what you do.
Ecclesiastes 9:8  Let your clothes always be white, and let your head never lack oil.
Ecclesiastes 9:9  Live joyfully with the wife you love, all the days of this empty life which he has given you under the sun, all your empty days. For that is your share in this life, and in your labour which you work at under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 9:10  Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your strength. For there is no work, no plan, no knowledge and no wisdom in the grave, where you are going.
Ecclesiastes 9:11  I turned and saw under the sun that the race is not won by the swift, nor the battle by the strong. Bread does not always go to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favour to men of skill. Time and chance come to them all.
Ecclesiastes 9:12  No one knows his own time. Like fish caught in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are trapped in an evil time, when it falls on them suddenly.
Ecclesiastes 9:13  I also saw this wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me.
Ecclesiastes 9:14  There was a little city, and few men in it. A great king came against it, besieged it, and built great siege works against it.
Ecclesiastes 9:15  Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and by his wisdom he saved the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man.
Ecclesiastes 9:16  Then I said, "Wisdom is better than strength." Yet the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard.
Ecclesiastes 9:17  The quiet words of wise men are heard more than the shouting of a ruler among fools.
Ecclesiastes 9:18  Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

Ecclesiastes 10:1  Dead flies make the perfume maker's ointment stink. In the same way, a little folly spoils a man who is known for wisdom and honour.
Ecclesiastes 10:2  A wise man's heart is at his right hand, but a fool's heart is at his left.
Ecclesiastes 10:3  Even when a fool walks along the road, his wisdom fails him, and he tells everyone that he is a fool.
Ecclesiastes 10:4  If the ruler's temper rises up against you, do not leave your place. Yielding calms great offences.
Ecclesiastes 10:5  There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like a mistake that comes from the ruler:
Ecclesiastes 10:6  folly is set in high honour, and the rich sit in a low place.
Ecclesiastes 10:7  I have seen servants riding on horses, and princes walking on the ground like servants.
Ecclesiastes 10:8  Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever breaks down a hedge, a snake will bite him.
Ecclesiastes 10:9  Whoever moves stones will be hurt by them, and whoever splits wood is in danger from it.
Ecclesiastes 10:10  If the iron is blunt, and he does not sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength. But wisdom is useful to guide him.
Ecclesiastes 10:11  Surely the snake will bite if it is not charmed, and a babbler is no better.
Ecclesiastes 10:12  The words from a wise man's mouth bring favour, but the lips of a fool will swallow him up.
Ecclesiastes 10:13  The first words from his mouth are foolishness, and the end of his talk is harmful madness.
Ecclesiastes 10:14  A fool is also full of words. No one can tell what is going to happen; and who can tell a man what will come after him?
Ecclesiastes 10:15  The work of fools wears every one of them out, because he does not know the way to the city.
Ecclesiastes 10:16  Sorrow is yours, O land, when your king is a child, and your princes feast in the morning.
Ecclesiastes 10:17  You are blessed, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat at the proper time, for strength and not for drunkenness.
Ecclesiastes 10:18  Through much laziness the building falls apart, and through idle hands the house leaks.
Ecclesiastes 10:19  A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes people glad; but money answers everything.
Ecclesiastes 10:20  Do not curse the king, not even in your thoughts, and do not curse the rich man in your bedroom. For a bird of the air will carry your voice, and a creature with wings will tell what you said.

Ecclesiastes 11:1  Throw your bread out on the waters, for you will find it again after many days.
Ecclesiastes 11:2  Give a portion to seven, and also to eight, for you do not know what trouble will come on the earth.
Ecclesiastes 11:3  If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. And if a tree falls toward the south, or toward the north, it stays in the place where it falls.
Ecclesiastes 11:4  Whoever watches the wind will not sow, and whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
Ecclesiastes 11:5  You do not know the way of the spirit, or how the bones grow in the womb of a woman who is with child. In the same way you do not know the works of God, who makes everything.
Ecclesiastes 11:6  In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not hold back your hand. For you do not know which will do well, this or that, or whether both will be equally good.
Ecclesiastes 11:7  Truly the light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the sun.
Ecclesiastes 11:8  But if someone lives many years, and is glad in them all, let him still remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that comes is empty.
Ecclesiastes 11:9  Be glad, young man, while you are young. Let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes. But know this: for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
Ecclesiastes 11:10  So remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your body, for childhood and youth are empty.

Ecclesiastes 12:1  Remember your Creator now, in the days of your youth. Remember him before the evil days come, and before the years draw near when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them."
Ecclesiastes 12:2  Remember him while the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are not darkened, and while the clouds do not return after the rain.
Ecclesiastes 12:3  In that day the keepers of the house will tremble, and the strong men will bow themselves down. The grinders will stop, because they are few, and those who look out of the windows will grow dark.
Ecclesiastes 12:4  The doors in the streets will be shut, and the sound of the grinding will be low. A man will rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music will be brought low.
Ecclesiastes 12:5  They will be afraid of what is high, and there will be fears in the road. The almond tree will blossom, and the grasshopper will be a burden, and desire will fail. For man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets.
Ecclesiastes 12:6  Remember him before the silver cord is loosed, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is broken at the fountain, or the wheel is broken at the well.
Ecclesiastes 12:7  Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12:8  Vanity of vanities, says the preacher; all is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 12:9  And more than this: because the preacher was wise, he went on teaching the people knowledge. He listened with care, and searched out and set in order many proverbs.
Ecclesiastes 12:10  The preacher looked for pleasing words, and what was written was upright, words of truth.
Ecclesiastes 12:11  The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails driven in by the masters of assemblies. They are given from one shepherd.
Ecclesiastes 12:12  And beyond these, my son, take warning. There is no end to the making of many books, and much study wears out the body.
Ecclesiastes 12:13  Let us hear the end of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes 12:14  For God will bring every work into judgment, along with every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil.

Song of Solomon

Song of Solomon 1:1  The song of songs, which is Solomon's.
Song of Solomon 1:2  Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love is better than wine.
Song of Solomon 1:3  Your ointments have a sweet smell. Your name is like ointment poured out. That is why the young women love you.
Song of Solomon 1:4  Take me with you; we will run after you. The king has brought me into his rooms. We will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more than wine. The upright love you.
Song of Solomon 1:5  I am black, but lovely, you daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.
Song of Solomon 1:6  Do not stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked on me. My mother's children were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept.
Song of Solomon 1:7  Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you feed your flock, where you make it rest at noon. Why should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions?
Song of Solomon 1:8  If you do not know, most beautiful among women, go out and follow the tracks of the flock. Feed your young goats beside the shepherds' tents.
Song of Solomon 1:9  My love, I have compared you to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.
Song of Solomon 1:10  Your cheeks are lovely with rows of jewels, your neck with chains of gold.
Song of Solomon 1:11  We will make you borders of gold with studs of silver.
Song of Solomon 1:12  While the king sits at his table, my spikenard sends out its smell.
Song of Solomon 1:13  My well-beloved is to me like a bundle of myrrh; he will lie all night between my breasts.
Song of Solomon 1:14  My beloved is to me like a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
Song of Solomon 1:15  Look, you are beautiful, my love; look, you are beautiful; you have doves' eyes.
Song of Solomon 1:16  Look, you are beautiful, my beloved, yes, pleasant. Our bed too is green.
Song of Solomon 1:17  The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters are fir.

Song of Solomon 2:1  I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.
Song of Solomon 2:2  Like a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
Song of Solomon 2:3  Like an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.
Song of Solomon 2:4  He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.
Song of Solomon 2:5  Hold me up with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick with love.
Song of Solomon 2:6  His left hand is under my head, and his right hand holds me close.
Song of Solomon 2:7  I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and by the hinds of the field: do not stir up my love, and do not wake him, until he pleases.
Song of Solomon 2:8  The voice of my beloved! Look, he comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
Song of Solomon 2:9  My beloved is like a roe or a young hart. Look, he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the windows, showing himself through the lattice.
Song of Solomon 2:10  My beloved spoke, and said to me, "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Song of Solomon 2:11  "For look, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone."
Song of Solomon 2:12  "The flowers appear on the earth. The time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land."
Song of Solomon 2:13  "The fig tree puts out her green figs, and the vines with their tender grapes give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."
Song of Solomon 2:14  My dove, you are in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs. Let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
Song of Solomon 2:15  Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
Song of Solomon 2:16  My beloved is mine, and I am his. He feeds among the lilies.
Song of Solomon 2:17  Until the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

Song of Solomon 3:1  At night on my bed I looked for the one my soul loves. I looked for him, but I did not find him.
Song of Solomon 3:2  I said, "I will get up now and go through the city. In the streets and the wide ways I will look for the one my soul loves." I looked for him, but I did not find him.
Song of Solomon 3:3  The watchmen who go through the city found me. I said to them, "Have you seen the one my soul loves?"
Song of Solomon 3:4  I had gone only a little way past them when I found the one my soul loves. I held him and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother's house, into the room of the one who gave birth to me.
Song of Solomon 3:5  Daughters of Jerusalem, I tell you by the roes and by the deer of the field: do not stir up my love, do not wake him, until he is willing.
Song of Solomon 3:6  Who is this coming up out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the merchant's sweet powders?
Song of Solomon 3:7  Look at his bed, the bed of Solomon. Sixty brave men are around it, of the brave men of Israel.
Song of Solomon 3:8  They all hold swords, and they are skilled in war. Every man has his sword at his side, because of fear in the night.
Song of Solomon 3:9  King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon.
Song of Solomon 3:10  He made its pillars of silver, its base of gold, and its seat of purple. The middle of it was paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.
Song of Solomon 3:11  Come out, daughters of Zion, and look at king Solomon. He is wearing the crown his mother placed on him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart.

Song of Solomon 4:1  Look, you are beautiful, my love; look, you are beautiful. Your eyes behind your veil are like doves. Your hair is like a flock of goats coming down from Mount Gilead.
Song of Solomon 4:2  Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn sheep that have come up from the washing. Each one of them has twins, and not one among them has lost her young.
Song of Solomon 4:3  Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your temples behind your veil are like a piece of a pomegranate.
Song of Solomon 4:4  Your neck is like the tower of David, built for an armoury. A thousand small shields hang on it, all of them the shields of mighty men.
Song of Solomon 4:5  Your two breasts are like two young deer, twins of one mother, that feed among the lilies.
Song of Solomon 4:6  Until the day breaks and the shadows run away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
Song of Solomon 4:7  You are altogether beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you.
Song of Solomon 4:8  Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look down from the top of Amana, from the top of Shenir and Hermon, from the dens of the lions, from the mountains of the leopards.
Song of Solomon 4:9  You have taken my heart, my sister, my bride. You have taken my heart with one look of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.
Song of Solomon 4:10  How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine, and the smell of your perfumes than all spices!
Song of Solomon 4:11  Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your clothes is like the smell of Lebanon.
Song of Solomon 4:12  My sister, my bride, is a garden closed in, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Song of Solomon 4:13  Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with the best fruits; camphire with spikenard,
Song of Solomon 4:14  spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every tree that gives frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the finest spices.
Song of Solomon 4:15  You are a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams flowing down from Lebanon.
Song of Solomon 4:16  Awake, north wind; and come, south wind. Blow upon my garden, so that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its best fruits.

Song of Solomon 5:1  I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, friends; drink, yes, drink deeply, beloved ones.
Song of Solomon 5:2  I sleep, but my heart is awake. It is the voice of my beloved, knocking, and saying, "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled one. My head is wet with dew, and my hair with the drops of the night."
Song of Solomon 5:3  I have taken off my coat; how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; how can I make them dirty?
Song of Solomon 5:4  My beloved put in his hand through the opening of the door, and my inward parts were moved for him.
Song of Solomon 5:5  I got up to open to my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, on the handles of the lock.
Song of Solomon 5:6  I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My soul failed when he spoke. I looked for him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer.
Song of Solomon 5:7  The watchmen who go about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.
Song of Solomon 5:8  I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem: if you find my beloved, tell him that I am sick with love.
Song of Solomon 5:9  What is your beloved more than another beloved, you most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you charge us like this?
Song of Solomon 5:10  My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief among ten thousand.
Song of Solomon 5:11  His head is like the finest gold. His hair is thick and curling, and black as a raven.
Song of Solomon 5:12  His eyes are like the eyes of doves beside the streams of water, washed with milk, and well set.
Song of Solomon 5:13  His cheeks are like a bed of spices, like sweet flowers. His lips are like lilies, dripping with sweet smelling myrrh.
Song of Solomon 5:14  His hands are like gold rings set with beryl. His body is like bright ivory covered with sapphires.
Song of Solomon 5:15  His legs are like pillars of marble, set on bases of fine gold. His face is like Lebanon, splendid as the cedars.
Song of Solomon 5:16  His mouth is most sweet; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.

Song of Solomon 6:1  Where has your beloved gone, you fairest among women? Where has your beloved turned aside? Tell us, so we may look for him with you.
Song of Solomon 6:2  My beloved has gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
Song of Solomon 6:3  I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. He feeds among the lilies.
Song of Solomon 6:4  You are beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.
Song of Solomon 6:5  Turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome me. Your hair is like a flock of goats coming down from Gilead.
Song of Solomon 6:6  Your teeth are like a flock of sheep coming up from the washing. Every one of them bears twins, and not one among them has lost her young.
Song of Solomon 6:7  Your temples behind your veil are like a piece of a pomegranate.
Song of Solomon 6:8  There are sixty queens, and eighty concubines, and young women without number.
Song of Solomon 6:9  My dove, my perfect one, is the only one. She is the only daughter of her mother, the favourite of the one who bore her. The daughters saw her and called her blessed; the queens and the concubines praised her.
Song of Solomon 6:10  Who is she who looks out like the morning, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?
Song of Solomon 6:11  I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine was in flower, and the pomegranates were in bud.
Song of Solomon 6:12  Before I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.
Song of Solomon 6:13  Return, return, Shulamite; return, return, so that we may look at you. What will you see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.

Song of Solomon 7:1  How beautiful are your feet in their sandals, prince's daughter! The curves of your thighs are like jewels, the work of a skilled craftsman's hands.
Song of Solomon 7:2  Your navel is like a round goblet that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies.
Song of Solomon 7:3  Your two breasts are like two young deer, twins of one mother.
Song of Solomon 7:4  Your neck is like a tower of ivory. Your eyes are like the pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabbim. Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon that looks toward Damascus.
Song of Solomon 7:5  Your head crowns you like Carmel, and the hair of your head is like purple. The king is held captive in its tresses.
Song of Solomon 7:6  How fair and how pleasant you are, my love, with all your delights.
Song of Solomon 7:7  Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like clusters of grapes.
Song of Solomon 7:8  I said, "I will climb the palm tree. I will take hold of its branches." Now let your breasts be like clusters of the vine, and the smell of your breath like apples;
Song of Solomon 7:9  and the roof of your mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goes down smoothly, and makes the lips of those who are asleep to speak.
Song of Solomon 7:10  I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.
Song of Solomon 7:11  Come, my beloved, let us go out into the field. Let us stay the night in the villages.
Song of Solomon 7:12  Let us get up early and go to the vineyards. Let us see if the vine has budded, whether the tender grape has appeared, and the pomegranates are in flower. There I will give you my love.
Song of Solomon 7:13  The mandrakes give out their smell, and at our gates are all kinds of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have stored up for you, my beloved.

Song of Solomon 8:1  If only you were like my brother, who fed at my mother's breasts. Then if I found you outside, I would kiss you, and no one would despise me.
Song of Solomon 8:2  I would lead you and bring you into my mother's house, and she would teach me. I would give you spiced wine to drink, the juice of my pomegranate.
Song of Solomon 8:3  His left hand would be under my head, and his right hand would hold me close.
Song of Solomon 8:4  Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you: do not stir up my love, and do not wake him, until he pleases.
Song of Solomon 8:5  Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on the one she loves? I woke you under the apple tree. There your mother gave you birth; there she who bore you gave you birth.
Song of Solomon 8:6  Set me like a seal upon your heart, like a seal upon your arm. For love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave. Its coals are coals of fire, with a fierce and burning flame.
Song of Solomon 8:7  Many waters cannot put out love, and the floods cannot drown it. If a man gave all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly despised.
Song of Solomon 8:8  We have a little sister, and she has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister on the day when someone asks for her?
Song of Solomon 8:9  If she is a wall, we will build on her a palace of silver. If she is a door, we will shut her in with boards of cedar.
Song of Solomon 8:10  I am a wall, and my breasts are like towers. So in his eyes I was like one who found favour.
Song of Solomon 8:11  Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamon. He let the vineyard out to keepers. Each one was to bring a thousand pieces of silver for its fruit.
Song of Solomon 8:12  My own vineyard is before me. Solomon, you must have your thousand, and those who keep its fruit two hundred.
Song of Solomon 8:13  You who live in the gardens, your companions listen for your voice. Let me hear it.
Song of Solomon 8:14  Hurry, my beloved. Be like a gazelle or a young deer on the mountains of spices.

Isaiah

Isaiah 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isaiah 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and listen, O earth, for the LORD has spoken: "I have fed my children and brought them up, and they have rebelled against me."
Isaiah 1:3  "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey knows its master's stall. But Israel does not know; my people do not understand."
Isaiah 1:4  Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded down with sin, a family of evildoers, children who ruin what they touch. They have abandoned the LORD. They have made the Holy One of Israel angry. They have turned their backs and gone away.
Isaiah 1:5  Why should you be beaten any more? You only rebel more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint.
Isaiah 1:6  From the sole of the foot to the head there is no healthy place in it. There are only wounds, and bruises, and rotting sores. They have not been cleaned, or bandaged, or softened with ointment.
Isaiah 1:7  Your country is a waste; your cities are burned with fire. Strangers eat up your land while you watch. It is left a waste, as though strangers had overthrown it.
Isaiah 1:8  The daughter of Zion is left like a hut in a vineyard, like a shelter in a field of cucumbers, like a city under siege.
Isaiah 1:9  If the LORD of hosts had not left us a very small remnant, we would have been like Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah.
Isaiah 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom. Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah.
Isaiah 1:11  "What use to me are all your many sacrifices?" says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of well-fed animals. I take no delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats."
Isaiah 1:12  When you come to appear before me, who asked you to trample my courts?
Isaiah 1:13  Bring no more worthless offerings. Your incense is disgusting to me. New moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies - I cannot bear them. Your solemn meetings are sin.
Isaiah 1:14  I hate your new moons and your appointed feasts. They are a burden to me. I am tired of carrying them.
Isaiah 1:15  When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Even when you say many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.
Isaiah 1:16  Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Put the evil of your deeds away from before my eyes. Stop doing evil.
Isaiah 1:17  Learn to do good. Look for justice. Help those who are crushed. Judge fairly for the fatherless. Speak up for the widow.
Isaiah 1:18  "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool."
Isaiah 1:19  If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good things of the land.
Isaiah 1:20  "But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten up by the sword." The mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
Isaiah 1:21  See how the faithful city has become a prostitute. It was once full of justice; righteousness lived in it. But now there are murderers.
Isaiah 1:22  Your silver has become waste metal. Your wine is watered down.
Isaiah 1:23  Your princes are rebels and friends of thieves. Every one of them loves a bribe and runs after payment. They do not judge fairly for the fatherless, and the widow's case never comes before them.
Isaiah 1:24  So this is what the Lord says, the LORD of hosts, the mighty One of Israel: "Ah, I will get relief from those who stand against me, and take revenge on my enemies."
Isaiah 1:25  I will turn my hand against you. I will burn away your waste metal until it is clean, and take away all your tin.
Isaiah 1:26  "I will give you back your judges as they were at the first, and your counsellors as at the beginning. After that you shall be called The city of righteousness, the faithful city."
Isaiah 1:27  Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and those in her who turn back shall be redeemed with righteousness.
Isaiah 1:28  But those who break the law and those who sin shall be destroyed together, and those who abandon the LORD shall be used up.
Isaiah 1:29  They shall be ashamed of the oaks you wanted so much, and you shall blush for the gardens you have chosen.
Isaiah 1:30  For you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden with no water.
Isaiah 1:31  The strong one shall be like dry flax, and his work like a spark. They shall both burn together, and no one shall put out the fire.

Isaiah 2:1  The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw about Judah and Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:2  In the last days the mountain of the LORD's house will be set up as the highest of the mountains. It will be lifted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.
Isaiah 2:3  Many peoples will go and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For the law will go out from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Isaiah 2:4  He will judge between the nations, and will settle the arguments of many peoples. They will beat their swords into plough blades, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and they will not learn war any more.
Isaiah 2:5  House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Isaiah 2:6  So you have left your people, the house of Jacob. For they are filled with ways from the east, and they tell fortunes like the Philistines, and they take pleasure in the children of foreigners.
Isaiah 2:7  Their land is full of silver and gold, and there is no end to their treasures. Their land is full of horses, and there is no end to their chariots.
Isaiah 2:8  Their land is full of idols too. They worship the work of their own hands, the things their own fingers have made.
Isaiah 2:9  The lowly man bows down, and the great man humbles himself. So do not forgive them.
Isaiah 2:10  Go into the rock, and hide yourself in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty.
Isaiah 2:11  The proud looks of man will be humbled, and the pride of men will be bowed down. The LORD alone will be lifted high on that day.
Isaiah 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts will come against everyone who is proud and high, and against everyone who is lifted up. He will be brought low.
Isaiah 2:13  It will come against all the cedars of Lebanon, tall and lifted up, and against all the oaks of Bashan,
Isaiah 2:14  and against all the high mountains, and against all the hills that are lifted up,
Isaiah 2:15  and against every high tower, and against every strong wall,
Isaiah 2:16  and against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the lovely pictures.
Isaiah 2:17  The pride of man will be bowed down, and the pride of men will be brought low. The LORD alone will be lifted high on that day.
Isaiah 2:18  And he will completely do away with the idols.
Isaiah 2:19  They will go into the holes in the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he rises up to shake the earth terribly.
Isaiah 2:20  On that day a man will throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which they made, each one for himself to worship. He will throw them to the moles and to the bats.
Isaiah 2:21  He will go into the cracks in the rocks, and into the tops of the jagged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he rises up to shake the earth terribly.
Isaiah 2:22  Stop trusting in man, whose breath is in his nostrils. What is he worth?

Isaiah 3:1  Look, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, is taking away from Jerusalem and from Judah the support and the staff: the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water,
Isaiah 3:2  the strong man, and the soldier, the judge, and the prophet, and the wise man, and the elder,
Isaiah 3:3  the captain of fifty, and the man of honour, and the counsellor, and the skilled craftsman, and the fine speaker.
Isaiah 3:4  "And I will make children their princes, and babies shall rule over them."
Isaiah 3:5  The people shall be crushed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbour. The child shall act proudly against the elder, and the lowly against the honoured.
Isaiah 3:6  A man shall take hold of his brother from his father's house and say, "You have clothing; you be our ruler, and let these ruins be under your hand."
Isaiah 3:7  In that day he shall swear and say, "I will not be a healer; for in my house there is neither bread nor clothing. Do not make me a ruler of the people."
Isaiah 3:8  For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah has fallen, because their tongue and their deeds are against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
Isaiah 3:9  The look on their faces speaks against them. They tell out their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have rewarded evil to themselves.
Isaiah 3:10  Say to the righteous that it shall be well with him, for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Isaiah 3:11  Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for what his hands have done shall be given back to him.
Isaiah 3:12  As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, those who lead you make you go astray, and they ruin the way of your paths.
Isaiah 3:13  The LORD stands up to plead his case; he stands to judge the people.
Isaiah 3:14  The LORD will come to judgment with the elders of his people and with their princes: "For you have eaten up the vineyard; what you took from the poor is in your houses."
Isaiah 3:15  "What do you mean by beating my people to pieces, and grinding the faces of the poor?" says the Lord GOD of hosts.
Isaiah 3:16  The LORD also says, "Because the daughters of Zion are proud, and walk with their necks stretched out and with flirting eyes, walking and taking little steps as they go, and making their feet jingle,"
Isaiah 3:17  "therefore the Lord will strike with sores the top of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will uncover their secret parts."
Isaiah 3:18  In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of the jingling ornaments on their feet, and their hair nets, and their crescent ornaments,
Isaiah 3:19  the chains, and the bracelets, and the face coverings,
Isaiah 3:20  the headdresses, and the ornaments for the legs, and the headbands, and the perfume boxes, and the earrings,
Isaiah 3:21  the rings, and the nose jewels,
Isaiah 3:22  the changes of fine clothing, and the cloaks, and the shawls, and the purses,
Isaiah 3:23  the mirrors, and the fine linen, and the hoods, and the veils.
Isaiah 3:24  And instead of a sweet smell there shall be a stink; and instead of a belt, a tearing; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a wrapping of sackcloth; and burning instead of beauty.
Isaiah 3:25  Your men shall fall by the sword, and your strong men in the war.
Isaiah 3:26  And her gates shall grieve and mourn; and she, left empty, shall sit on the ground.

Isaiah 4:1  On that day seven women will take hold of one man, saying, "We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes. Only let us be called by your name. Take away our shame."
Isaiah 4:2  On that day the branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious. The fruit of the land will be excellent and lovely for those of Israel who have escaped.
Isaiah 4:3  Then everyone who is left in Zion, everyone who remains in Jerusalem, will be called holy - everyone who is written down among the living in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 4:4  This will be when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and has cleansed the blood of Jerusalem from inside her, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.
Isaiah 4:5  Then the LORD will create over every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and over her gatherings, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. For over all the glory there will be a covering.
Isaiah 4:6  And there will be a shelter to give shade in the daytime from the heat, and to be a place of refuge and a hiding place from storm and from rain.

Isaiah 5:1  Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. The one I love had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
Isaiah 5:2  He put a fence around it, and cleared the stones out of it, and planted it with the best vines. He built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a winepress in it. Then he waited for it to give him grapes, but it gave him wild grapes.
Isaiah 5:3  And now, people who live in Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I ask you, between me and my vineyard.
Isaiah 5:4  What more could have been done for my vineyard that I did not do in it? So why, when I waited for it to give grapes, did it give wild grapes?
Isaiah 5:5  Now then, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be eaten up. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled down.
Isaiah 5:6  I will make it a waste. It will not be pruned or dug. Briers and thorns will come up in it. I will also command the clouds to send no rain on it.
Isaiah 5:7  For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant he delighted in. He looked for justice, but look, there was oppression; for righteousness, but look, there was a cry.
Isaiah 5:8  Sorrow is coming to those who join house to house, and add field to field, until there is no room left, and they live alone in the middle of the land.
Isaiah 5:9  The LORD of hosts said in my hearing, "Truly many houses will be left empty, great and fine houses, with no one living in them."
Isaiah 5:10  "Yes, ten acres of vineyard will give only one bath of wine, and a homer of seed will give only an ephah."
Isaiah 5:11  Sorrow is coming to those who get up early in the morning to run after strong drink, and stay up late into the night until wine sets them on fire.
Isaiah 5:12  At their feasts they have the harp and the lyre, the tambourine and the pipe, and wine. But they pay no attention to the work of the LORD, and they do not consider what his hands have done.
Isaiah 5:13  So my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge. Their honoured men are starving, and the crowds of them are dried up with thirst.
Isaiah 5:14  So hell has made itself wide, and opened its mouth beyond all measure. Their glory, and their crowds, and their noise, and the one who is celebrating, will all go down into it.
Isaiah 5:15  The common man will be brought down, and the mighty man will be humbled, and the eyes of the proud will be humbled.
Isaiah 5:16  But the LORD of hosts will be lifted high in justice, and God who is holy will be shown holy in righteousness.
Isaiah 5:17  Then the lambs will graze as they always do, and strangers will eat in the waste places of the rich.
Isaiah 5:18  Sorrow is coming to those who drag guilt along with cords of worthlessness, and sin as if with a cart rope,
Isaiah 5:19  and who say, "Let him hurry, let him be quick with his work, so that we may see it. Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come near and arrive, so that we may know it."
Isaiah 5:20  Sorrow is coming to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
Isaiah 5:21  Sorrow is coming to those who are wise in their own eyes, and clever in their own sight.
Isaiah 5:22  Sorrow is coming to those who are mighty at drinking wine, and men of strength at mixing strong drink,
Isaiah 5:23  who for a bribe declare the wicked to be in the right, and take away from the righteous man his righteousness.
Isaiah 5:24  So, as fire eats up the dry stalks, and the flame burns up the chaff, so their root will rot, and their blossom will blow away like dust. For they have thrown away the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 5:25  So the anger of the LORD burns against his people. He has stretched out his hand against them and struck them. The hills shook, and their dead bodies were torn apart in the middle of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 5:26  He will lift up a banner for the nations far away, and will whistle for them from the end of the earth. And look, they will come quickly and fast.
Isaiah 5:27  None of them will be tired or stumble. None will doze or sleep. No belt at their waist will come loose, and no strap of their shoes will break.
Isaiah 5:28  Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent. Their horses' hoofs are like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind.
Isaiah 5:29  Their roaring is like a lion. They roar like young lions. Yes, they roar, and seize the prey, and carry it safely away, and no one can rescue it.
Isaiah 5:30  On that day they will roar against them like the roaring of the sea. And if anyone looks at the land, look, there is darkness and sorrow, and the light is darkened by its clouds.

Isaiah 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
Isaiah 6:2  Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
Isaiah 6:3  And one called to another, and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory."
Isaiah 6:4  The posts of the door shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isaiah 6:5  Then I said, "How terrible for me! I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."
Isaiah 6:6  Then one of the seraphim flew to me. In his hand was a live coal, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.
Isaiah 6:7  He laid it on my mouth and said, "Look, this has touched your lips. Your wickedness is taken away, and your sin is wiped clean."
Isaiah 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here I am. Send me."
Isaiah 6:9  And he said, "Go, and tell this people, 'You will hear indeed, but not understand. You will see indeed, but not perceive.'"
Isaiah 6:10  "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn back, and be healed."
Isaiah 6:11  Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And he answered, "Until the cities lie waste with no one living in them, and the houses have no people, and the land is completely empty,"
Isaiah 6:12  "and the LORD has sent people far away, and there is a great emptiness in the middle of the land."
Isaiah 6:13  "But still a tenth will be in it, and it will return, and will be eaten up: like a teil tree, and like an oak, whose stump remains in them when they cast their leaves. The holy seed shall be its stump."

Isaiah 7:1  In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war against it. But they could not win against it.
Isaiah 7:2  The house of David was told, "Syria has joined with Ephraim." Then the heart of Ahaz shook, and the hearts of his people shook, as the trees of the forest shake in the wind.
Isaiah 7:3  Then the LORD said to Isaiah, "Go out now to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shearjashub. Meet him at the end of the channel of the upper pool, on the road to the washer's field."
Isaiah 7:4  "Say to him, 'Be careful, and be calm. Do not be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoking stumps of firewood, because of the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah."
Isaiah 7:5  "'Syria, Ephraim, and the son of Remaliah have made an evil plan against you. They have said,"
Isaiah 7:6  "'Let us go up against Judah and trouble it. Let us break our way into it, and set up a king inside it, the son of Tabeal.'"
Isaiah 7:7  "This is what the Lord GOD says: 'It will not stand, and it will not happen."
Isaiah 7:8  "'For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be broken to pieces, so that it is no longer a people."
Isaiah 7:9  "'And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is Remaliah's son. If you will not believe, surely you will not stand firm.'"
Isaiah 7:10  The LORD spoke to Ahaz again, saying,
Isaiah 7:11  "Ask a sign from the LORD your God. Ask it either in the depths below or in the heights above."
Isaiah 7:12  But Ahaz said, "I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test."
Isaiah 7:13  And he said, "Listen now, house of David. Is it a small thing for you to wear out people? Will you wear out my God also?"
Isaiah 7:14  "So the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, a virgin will be with child and will bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel."
Isaiah 7:15  "He will eat butter and honey, so that he may know how to refuse the evil and choose the good."
Isaiah 7:16  "For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land you hate will be left empty by both her kings."
Isaiah 7:17  "The LORD will bring on you, and on your people, and on your father's house days such as have not come since the day Ephraim broke away from Judah. He will bring the king of Assyria."
Isaiah 7:18  In that day the LORD will whistle for the fly that is in the farthest streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
Isaiah 7:19  They will come, and all of them will settle in the deserted valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and on all the thorn bushes, and on all the pastures.
Isaiah 7:20  In that same day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired from beyond the River, that is, with the king of Assyria. He will shave the head and the hair of the legs, and it will take away the beard as well.
Isaiah 7:21  In that day a man will keep alive a young cow and two sheep.
Isaiah 7:22  They will give so much milk that he will eat butter. For everyone left in the land will eat butter and honey.
Isaiah 7:23  In that day every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver will be given over to briers and thorns.
Isaiah 7:24  Men will come there with arrows and with bows, because all the land will become briers and thorns.
Isaiah 7:25  And on all the hills that were once dug with the hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns. They will be a place to let out oxen, and for sheep to walk on.

Isaiah 8:1  The LORD also said to me, "Take a large scroll, and write on it with a man's pen about Mahershalalhashbaz."
Isaiah 8:2  So I took faithful witnesses to make a record: Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah.
Isaiah 8:3  Then I went to the prophetess, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, "Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz."
Isaiah 8:4  "For before the child knows how to cry, 'My father,' and, 'My mother,' the riches of Damascus and the goods taken from Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria."
Isaiah 8:5  The LORD spoke to me again, saying,
Isaiah 8:6  "Because this people refuses the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoices in Rezin and in Remaliah's son,"
Isaiah 8:7  "now therefore, look, the Lord is bringing up on them the waters of the river, strong and many, that is, the king of Assyria and all his glory. He will rise over all his channels, and go over all his banks."
Isaiah 8:8  "He will sweep through Judah. He will overflow and pass on; he will reach up to the neck. The spreading out of his wings will fill the width of your land, O Immanuel."
Isaiah 8:9  Join together, you peoples, and you will be broken in pieces. Listen, all you from far countries. Get ready for battle, and you will be broken in pieces; get ready for battle, and you will be broken in pieces.
Isaiah 8:10  Make your plans together, and they will come to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us.
Isaiah 8:11  For this is what the LORD said to me with a strong hand upon me. He taught me not to walk in the way of this people. He said,
Isaiah 8:12  "Do not say, 'A confederacy,' about everything this people calls a confederacy. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be afraid."
Isaiah 8:13  "Treat the LORD of hosts himself as holy. Let him be the one you fear; let him be the one you dread."
Isaiah 8:14  "He will be a holy place of safety, but he will be a stone that makes people stumble and a rock that makes them fall, to both the houses of Israel. He will be a trap and a snare to the people living in Jerusalem."
Isaiah 8:15  "Many among them will stumble and fall and be broken, and be caught in the snare and taken."
Isaiah 8:16  Tie up the testimony; seal the law among my disciples.
Isaiah 8:17  I will wait for the LORD, who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
Isaiah 8:18  Look, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, who lives on mount Zion.
Isaiah 8:19  When they say to you, "Ask those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards who whisper and mutter," should not a people ask their God? Should the living ask the dead?
Isaiah 8:20  To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
Isaiah 8:21  They will pass through the land, hard pressed and hungry. When they are hungry, they will be angry, and will curse their king and their God, and look upward.
Isaiah 8:22  They will look to the earth, and see trouble and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven into darkness.

Isaiah 9:1  Yet the gloom will not stay as it was in her time of trouble. At first he brought only light affliction on the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But afterward he afflicted her more heavily, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.
Isaiah 9:2  The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. On those who live in the land of the shadow of death, the light has shone.
Isaiah 9:3  You have made the nation many, and not increased the joy. They are glad before you as men are glad at harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Isaiah 9:4  For you have broken the yoke that weighed him down, and the bar across his shoulder, the rod of the one who oppressed him, as on the day of Midian.
Isaiah 9:5  Every battle of the warrior is fought with confused noise, and with clothes rolled in blood. But this will be with burning, and fuel for the fire.
Isaiah 9:6  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government will be on his shoulder. His name will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9:7  Of the growth of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to order it and to make it firm with judgment and with justice, from this time on and for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Isaiah 9:8  The Lord sent a word to Jacob, and it has fallen on Israel.
Isaiah 9:9  All the people will know it, even Ephraim and the people living in Samaria, who say in pride and hardness of heart,
Isaiah 9:10  "The bricks have fallen down, but we will build with cut stones. The sycomores are cut down, but we will put cedars in their place."
Isaiah 9:11  So the LORD will stir up the enemies of Rezin against him, and bring his foes together:
Isaiah 9:12  the Syrians in front, and the Philistines behind. They will devour Israel with open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 9:13  For the people do not turn to the one who strikes them, and they do not seek the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 9:14  So the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
Isaiah 9:15  The elder and the honoured man, he is the head. The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.
Isaiah 9:16  For the leaders of this people lead them astray, and those who are led by them are destroyed.
Isaiah 9:17  So the Lord will have no joy in their young men, and will have no mercy on their fatherless children and their widows. For every one of them is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks folly. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 9:18  For wickedness burns like a fire. It devours the briers and thorns, and sets the thickets of the forest alight, and they go up in rolling smoke.
Isaiah 9:19  By the wrath of the LORD of hosts the land is darkened, and the people are like fuel for the fire. No man spares his brother.
Isaiah 9:20  He snatches food on the right hand, and is still hungry. He eats on the left hand, and they are not satisfied. Each one eats the flesh of his own arm:
Isaiah 9:21  Manasseh eats Ephraim, and Ephraim eats Manasseh, and together they are against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

Isaiah 10:1  Woe to those who make unjust laws, and who write down cruel orders that they have set out,
Isaiah 10:2  to keep the needy from justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their rights. They make widows their prey, and they steal from the fatherless.
Isaiah 10:3  What will you do on the day of punishment, and in the ruin that will come from far away? To whom will you run for help? And where will you leave your glory?
Isaiah 10:4  Without me they will bow down among the prisoners, and they will fall among the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
Isaiah 10:5  Assyrian, you are the rod of my anger. The staff in their hand is my fury.
Isaiah 10:6  I will send him against a nation without faith. I will give him orders against the people I am angry with, to take the spoil and carry off the plunder, and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
Isaiah 10:7  But that is not what he means, and that is not what his heart is thinking. It is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off many nations.
Isaiah 10:8  For he says, "Are not all my princes kings?"
Isaiah 10:9  Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus?
Isaiah 10:10  My hand has reached the kingdoms of the idols, whose carved images were greater than those of Jerusalem and of Samaria.
Isaiah 10:11  "Shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols as I have done to Samaria and her idols?"
Isaiah 10:12  So when the Lord has finished all his work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, he says, "I will punish the fruit of the proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks."
Isaiah 10:13  For he says, "By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the borders of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a strong man I have brought down those who sat on thrones."
Isaiah 10:14  "My hand has found the riches of the peoples as if they were a nest. As one gathers eggs that are left behind, so I have gathered all the earth. Not one moved a wing, or opened its mouth, or chirped."
Isaiah 10:15  Shall the axe boast against the man who chops with it? Shall the saw make itself great against the man who moves it? It is as if a rod should shake those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift itself, as if it were not wood.
Isaiah 10:16  So the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will send leanness among his fat ones. Under his glory he will light a burning like the burning of a fire.
Isaiah 10:17  The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame. It will burn and eat up his thorns and his briers in one day.
Isaiah 10:18  It will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. They will be like a sick man wasting away.
Isaiah 10:19  The trees left in his forest will be so few that a child could write down their number.
Isaiah 10:20  In that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will no longer lean on the one who struck them. They will lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
Isaiah 10:21  The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
Isaiah 10:22  For though your people Israel are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. The destruction that is decreed will overflow with righteousness.
Isaiah 10:23  For the Lord GOD of hosts will bring the destruction he has decided on in the midst of all the land.
Isaiah 10:24  So this is what the Lord GOD of hosts says: "My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He will strike you with a rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did."
Isaiah 10:25  "For in a very little while my fury will come to an end, and my anger will turn to their destruction."
Isaiah 10:26  The LORD of hosts will stir up a whip against him, like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. As his rod was over the sea, so he will lift it up as he did in Egypt.
Isaiah 10:27  In that day his load will be taken off your shoulder, and his yoke off your neck. The yoke will be broken because of the anointing.
Isaiah 10:28  He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he has stored his supplies.
Isaiah 10:29  They have gone over the pass. They have made their camp at Geba. Ramah is afraid. Gibeah of Saul has fled.
Isaiah 10:30  Cry out with your voice, daughter of Gallim. Let it be heard as far as Laish, poor Anathoth.
Isaiah 10:31  Madmenah has run away. The people of Gebim gather to flee.
Isaiah 10:32  Still, on that day he will stop at Nob. He will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Isaiah 10:33  Look, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, will cut off the branches with terror. The tall trees will be chopped down, and the proud ones brought low.
Isaiah 10:34  He will cut down the thick parts of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by a mighty one.

Isaiah 11:1  A shoot will come up out of the stump of Jesse, and a Branch will grow out of his roots.
Isaiah 11:2  The spirit of the LORD will rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.
Isaiah 11:3  It will make him quick to understand in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what his eyes see, and he will not decide by what his ears hear.
Isaiah 11:4  But with righteousness he will judge the poor, and he will give fair decisions for the meek of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he will kill the wicked.
Isaiah 11:5  Righteousness will be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his hips.
Isaiah 11:6  The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat. The calf, the young lion, and the fattened beast will be together, and a little child will lead them.
Isaiah 11:7  The cow and the bear will feed, and their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox.
Isaiah 11:8  The nursing child will play at the hole of the asp, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.
Isaiah 11:9  They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Isaiah 11:10  In that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek him, and his resting place will be glorious.
Isaiah 11:11  In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to bring back the remnant of his people who are left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
Isaiah 11:12  He will raise a banner for the nations. He will gather the outcasts of Israel, and bring together the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isaiah 11:13  The envy of Ephraim will go away, and the enemies of Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not trouble Ephraim.
Isaiah 11:14  But they will swoop down on the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west. Together they will plunder the people of the east. They will lay their hand on Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon will obey them.
Isaiah 11:15  The LORD will completely destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea. With his mighty wind he will shake his hand over the River. He will strike it into seven streams, and make people cross it with dry feet.
Isaiah 11:16  There will be a highway for the remnant of his people who are left, from Assyria, just as there was for Israel in the day when they came up out of the land of Egypt.

Isaiah 12:1  In that day you will say, "O LORD, I will praise you. You were angry with me, but your anger is turned away, and you comforted me."
Isaiah 12:2  "Look, God is my salvation. I will trust him, and not be afraid. For the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation."
Isaiah 12:3  So with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation.
Isaiah 12:4  In that day you will say, "Praise the LORD, call on his name, tell among the peoples what he has done, make it known that his name is lifted high."
Isaiah 12:5  "Sing to the LORD, for he has done wonderful things. Let this be known in all the earth."
Isaiah 12:6  "Cry out and shout, you who live in Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you."

Isaiah 13:1  The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.
Isaiah 13:2  Lift up a banner on the high mountain. Raise your voice to them. Wave your hand, so that they may go into the gates of the nobles.
Isaiah 13:3  I have given orders to my holy ones. I have also called my mighty ones to carry out my anger, those who rejoice in my majesty.
Isaiah 13:4  The noise of a crowd in the mountains, like the noise of a great people. It is the uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together. The LORD of hosts is gathering the army for battle.
Isaiah 13:5  They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, the LORD and the weapons of his anger, to destroy the whole land.
Isaiah 13:6  Wail, for the day of the LORD is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Isaiah 13:7  So every hand will hang weak, and every man's heart will melt.
Isaiah 13:8  They will be afraid. Pain and grief will take hold of them. They will be in pain like a woman giving birth. They will stare at one another in shock. Their faces will be like flames.
Isaiah 13:9  Look, the day of the LORD is coming, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a waste. He will destroy its sinners out of it.
Isaiah 13:10  The stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The sun will be darkened when it rises, and the moon will not let her light shine.
Isaiah 13:11  I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their sin. I will put an end to the arrogance of the proud, and bring down the pride of the ruthless.
Isaiah 13:12  I will make a man more precious than fine gold, a man more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir.
Isaiah 13:13  So I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.
Isaiah 13:14  It will be like a hunted deer, and like a sheep that no one gathers in. Every man will turn to his own people, and every one will flee to his own land.
Isaiah 13:15  Everyone who is found will be run through, and everyone who is caught with them will fall by the sword.
Isaiah 13:16  Their children also will be dashed to pieces before their eyes. Their houses will be plundered, and their wives raped.
Isaiah 13:17  Look, I will stir up the Medes against them. They care nothing for silver, and they take no delight in gold.
Isaiah 13:18  Their bows will dash the young men to pieces. They will have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their eye will not spare children.
Isaiah 13:19  And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty and pride of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them.
Isaiah 13:20  It will never be lived in, nor settled from generation to generation. No Arabian will pitch his tent there, and no shepherds will make their fold there.
Isaiah 13:21  But wild beasts of the desert will lie there. Their houses will be full of mournful creatures. Owls will live there, and satyrs will dance there.
Isaiah 13:22  The wild beasts of the islands will cry in their empty houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces. Her time is near to come, and her days will not be made longer.

Isaiah 14:1  The LORD will have mercy on Jacob. He will choose Israel again, and settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them, and they will hold fast to the house of Jacob.
Isaiah 14:2  The nations will take them and bring them to their place. The house of Israel will possess them in the land of the LORD as servants and maids. They will take their captors captive, and they will rule over those who oppressed them.
Isaiah 14:3  On the day when the LORD gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear, and from the hard slavery you were made to serve,
Isaiah 14:4  you will take up this saying against the king of Babylon: "How the oppressor has come to an end! How the golden city has come to an end!"
Isaiah 14:5  The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
Isaiah 14:6  He struck the peoples in anger with blow after blow. He ruled the nations in fury. Now he is hunted down, and no one holds back.
Isaiah 14:7  The whole earth is at rest and quiet. The people burst into singing.
Isaiah 14:8  Even the fir trees are glad because of you, and the cedars of Lebanon. They say, 'Since you were laid low, no woodcutter has come up against us.'
Isaiah 14:9  Hell below is stirred up to meet you when you come. It wakes the dead for you, all the leaders of the earth. It raises from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
Isaiah 14:10  They will all speak and say to you, 'Have you also become weak as we are? Have you become like us?'
Isaiah 14:11  Your splendour is brought down to the grave, and the sound of your harps. Maggots are spread out beneath you, and worms cover you.
Isaiah 14:12  How you have fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!
Isaiah 14:13  For you said in your heart, 'I will go up into heaven. I will lift my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the assembly, in the far parts of the north.
Isaiah 14:14  I will go up above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.'
Isaiah 14:15  Yet you will be brought down to hell, to the far parts of the pit.
Isaiah 14:16  Those who see you will stare hard at you and think about you, saying, 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms;
Isaiah 14:17  who made the world a desert and destroyed its cities, who never opened the house of his prisoners so they could go home?'
Isaiah 14:18  All the kings of the nations, every one of them, lie in glory, each in his own house.
Isaiah 14:19  But you are thrown out of your grave like a branch that no one wants. You are covered with the bodies of the slain, pierced through with a sword, who go down to the stones of the pit. You are like a corpse trampled under foot.
Isaiah 14:20  You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land and killed your people. The children of evildoers will never be famous.
Isaiah 14:21  "Prepare a slaughter for his sons because of the sin of their fathers. Do not let them rise and possess the land, or fill the face of the world with cities."
Isaiah 14:22  "For I will rise up against them," says the LORD of hosts. "I will cut off from Babylon her name and her survivors, her son and her grandson," says the LORD.
Isaiah 14:23  "I will also make it a place for the bittern, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction," says the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 14:24  The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will happen. As I have purposed, so it will stand:"
Isaiah 14:25  "I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains I will trample him under foot. Then his yoke will be taken off them, and his load will be taken off their shoulders."
Isaiah 14:26  This is the plan that is planned for the whole earth. This is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
Isaiah 14:27  For the LORD of hosts has planned it, and who can cancel it? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
Isaiah 14:28  In the year that king Ahaz died, this message came.
Isaiah 14:29  Do not be glad, all you of Palestina, because the rod that struck you is broken. For out of the serpent's root will come a poisonous snake, and its fruit will be a fiery flying serpent.
Isaiah 14:30  The firstborn of the poor will have food, and the needy will lie down in safety. But I will kill your root with famine, and it will slay those of you who are left.
Isaiah 14:31  Howl, you gate. Cry out, you city. All of you of Palestina are melted away. For a smoke is coming from the north, and no one will straggle behind in his ranks.
Isaiah 14:32  What answer will be given to the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, and the poor of his people will find safety in it.

Isaiah 15:1  The burden of Moab. In the night Ar of Moab is destroyed and brought to silence. In the night Kir of Moab is destroyed and brought to silence.
Isaiah 15:2  He has gone up to Bajith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba. Every head is shaved bald, and every beard is cut off.
Isaiah 15:3  In their streets they put on sackcloth. On the roofs of their houses and in their streets everyone wails, weeping without end.
Isaiah 15:4  Heshbon will cry out, and Elealeh too. Their voice is heard as far as Jahaz. So the armed soldiers of Moab cry out. His life is bitter to him.
Isaiah 15:5  My heart cries out for Moab. Those who run from it flee to Zoar, like a three-year-old cow. They go up the slope of Luhith weeping. On the road to Horonaim they raise a cry of destruction.
Isaiah 15:6  The waters of Nimrim will be dried up. The hay is withered, the grass is gone, and there is nothing green.
Isaiah 15:7  So the riches they have gained, and all they have stored up, they will carry away to the brook of the willows.
Isaiah 15:8  The cry has gone all around the borders of Moab. Its wailing reaches to Eglaim, and its wailing to Beerelim.
Isaiah 15:9  The waters of Dimon will be full of blood. I will bring still more on Dimon: lions on those of Moab who escape, and on the remnant of the land.

Isaiah 16:1  Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela through the wilderness, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion.
Isaiah 16:2  For like a bird fluttering about, thrown out of its nest, so will the daughters of Moab be at the fords of Arnon.
Isaiah 16:3  Take counsel, do what is just. Make your shadow like the night in the middle of the noonday. Hide those who have been driven out; do not betray the one who wanders.
Isaiah 16:4  Let those driven out from me live with you, Moab. Be a hiding place for them from the one who destroys. For the one who crushes people is at an end, the destroyer stops, the oppressors are finished from the land.
Isaiah 16:5  In mercy the throne will be set up. One will sit on it in truth, in the tent of David, judging, and seeking what is just, and quick to do righteousness.
Isaiah 16:6  We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud. We have heard of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his anger. But his lies will not stand.
Isaiah 16:7  So Moab will wail for Moab; everyone will wail. You will mourn for the foundations of Kirhareseth; surely they are struck down.
Isaiah 16:8  For the fields of Heshbon wither, and the vine of Sibmah. The lords of the nations have broken down its best plants. They reached as far as Jazer; they wandered through the wilderness. Her branches were stretched out; they went over the sea.
Isaiah 16:9  So I will weep for the vine of Sibmah with the weeping of Jazer. I will water you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh, for the shouting over your summer fruit and over your harvest has fallen silent.
Isaiah 16:10  Gladness is taken away, and joy from the rich field. In the vineyards there will be no singing, and there will be no shouting. The treaders will tread out no wine in their presses. I have made their harvest shouting stop.
Isaiah 16:11  So my inner parts sound like a harp for Moab, and everything inside me for Kirharesh.
Isaiah 16:12  When it is seen that Moab has worn himself out on the high place, he will come to his holy place to pray; but he will not succeed.
Isaiah 16:13  This is the word that the LORD has spoken about Moab since that time.
Isaiah 16:14  But now the LORD has spoken, saying, "Within three years, counted like the years of a hired worker, the glory of Moab will be despised, along with all that great crowd of people. Those left will be very few and weak."

Isaiah 17:1  The burden of Damascus. Look, Damascus will no longer be a city. It will be a heap of ruins.
Isaiah 17:2  The cities of Aroer are abandoned. They will be left for the flocks, which will lie down there, and no one will frighten them.
Isaiah 17:3  The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and what is left of Syria. They will be like the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 17:4  In that day the glory of Jacob will be made thin, and the fat of his body will grow lean.
Isaiah 17:5  It will be like a harvester gathering the standing corn, reaping the ears with his arm. It will be like someone picking up the ears in the valley of Rephaim.
Isaiah 17:6  Yet some grapes will be left for gleaning, as when an olive tree is shaken: two or three berries at the top of the highest bough, four or five on the outer fruitful branches, says the LORD God of Israel.
Isaiah 17:7  In that day a man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will turn to the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 17:8  He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands. He will pay no attention to what his own fingers have made, either the groves or the images.
Isaiah 17:9  In that day his strong cities will be like an abandoned bough and a topmost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel. And there will be desolation.
Isaiah 17:10  You have forgotten the God who saves you, and you have not remembered the rock of your strength. So you plant pleasant plants, and set out slips from a strange land.
Isaiah 17:11  In the daytime you make your plant grow, and in the morning you make your seed blossom. But the harvest will be a heap of ruin in the day of grief and hopeless sorrow.
Isaiah 17:12  Woe to the noise of many peoples, who roar like the roaring of the seas, and to the rushing of nations, that rush like the rushing of mighty waters.
Isaiah 17:13  The nations will rush like the rushing of many waters. But God will rebuke them, and they will flee far away. They will be chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind, like whirling dust before the storm.
Isaiah 17:14  Look, at evening there is terror, and before morning they are gone. This is the share of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.

Isaiah 18:1  Woe to the land that is shadowed with wings, which lies beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
Isaiah 18:2  It sends messengers over the sea, in boats of bulrushes on the waters. Go, you swift messengers, to a nation scattered and stripped bare, to a people feared from their beginning until now; a nation measured out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
Isaiah 18:3  All you people of the world, all who live on the earth, look when a banner is lifted up on the mountains; and when a trumpet is blown, listen.
Isaiah 18:4  For this is what the LORD said to me: "I will rest, and I will watch from my dwelling place, like a clear heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest."
Isaiah 18:5  For before the harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower, he will cut off the shoots with pruning hooks, and take away and cut down the branches.
Isaiah 18:6  They will be left together for the birds of the mountains, and for the beasts of the earth. The birds will spend the summer on them, and all the beasts of the earth will spend the winter on them.
Isaiah 18:7  At that time a gift will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people scattered and stripped bare, from a people feared from their beginning until now; a nation measured out and trodden underfoot, whose land the rivers have spoiled. It will be brought to the place of the name of the LORD of hosts, to Mount Zion.

Isaiah 19:1  The message about Egypt. Look, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and he will come into Egypt. The idols of Egypt will tremble before him, and the heart of Egypt will melt inside her.
Isaiah 19:2  "I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians. They will fight, each one against his brother, and each one against his neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom."
Isaiah 19:3  "The spirit of Egypt will fail within her, and I will destroy her plans. They will go for help to the idols, and to those who whisper charms, and to those who have familiar spirits, and to the wizards."
Isaiah 19:4  "I will hand the Egyptians over to a cruel master, and a fierce king will rule over them," says the Lord, the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 19:5  The waters will fail from the sea, and the river will run low and dry up.
Isaiah 19:6  They will turn the rivers far away. The streams of Egypt will be emptied and dried up. The reeds and the rushes will wither.
Isaiah 19:7  The paper reeds by the streams, by the mouth of the streams, and everything sown beside the streams, will wither, be blown away, and be gone.
Isaiah 19:8  The fishermen also will mourn. All who throw a hook into the streams will weep, and those who spread nets on the water will grow weak.
Isaiah 19:9  Those who work in fine flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be ashamed.
Isaiah 19:10  All their plans will be broken, and so will all who make pools and ponds for fish.
Isaiah 19:11  Surely the princes of Zoan are fools. The advice of Pharaoh's wise counsellors has become stupid. How can you say to Pharaoh, "I am the son of wise men, the son of kings of long ago"?
Isaiah 19:12  Where are they? Where are your wise men? Let them tell you now. Let them make known what the LORD of hosts has planned for Egypt.
Isaiah 19:13  The princes of Zoan have become fools. The princes of Noph are deceived. They have led Egypt astray, those very men who were the support of her tribes.
Isaiah 19:14  The LORD has mixed a twisted spirit into her. They have made Egypt go wrong in everything she does, like a drunken man staggering in his own vomit.
Isaiah 19:15  There will be no work that Egypt can do, neither head nor tail, neither branch nor reed.
Isaiah 19:16  In that day Egypt will be like women. She will be afraid and tremble because the LORD of hosts shakes his hand over her.
Isaiah 19:17  The land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt. Everyone who hears its name mentioned will be afraid, because of the plan the LORD of hosts has decided against her.
Isaiah 19:18  In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan, and swear loyalty to the LORD of hosts. One of them will be called The City of Destruction.
Isaiah 19:19  In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border.
Isaiah 19:20  It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry out to the LORD because of those who oppress them, he will send them a saviour, a great one, and he will rescue them.
Isaiah 19:21  The LORD will make himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day. They will bring sacrifices and offerings; yes, they will make vows to the LORD and keep them.
Isaiah 19:22  The LORD will strike Egypt: he will strike her and heal her. They will turn back to the LORD, and he will listen to their prayers and heal them.
Isaiah 19:23  In that day there will be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrian will come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship together with the Assyrians.
Isaiah 19:24  In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the middle of the earth.
Isaiah 19:25  The LORD of hosts will bless them, saying, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance."

Isaiah 20:1  In the year that Tartan came to Ashdod, sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, he fought against Ashdod and took it.
Isaiah 20:2  At that time the LORD spoke through Isaiah the son of Amoz. He said, "Go and take the sackcloth off your body, and take your shoes off your feet." And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.
Isaiah 20:3  Then the LORD said, "My servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years. He is a sign and a wonder against Egypt and against Ethiopia."
Isaiah 20:4  In the same way the king of Assyria will lead away the Egyptians as prisoners and the Ethiopians as captives, young and old, naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
Isaiah 20:5  They will be afraid and ashamed, because of Ethiopia, which they hoped in, and of Egypt, which was their glory.
Isaiah 20:6  On that day the people who live along this coast will say, "Look, this is what has become of our hope. We ran to them for help, to be saved from the king of Assyria. How shall we escape?"

Isaiah 21:1  The burden of the desert of the sea. Like whirlwinds sweeping through the south, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
Isaiah 21:2  A hard vision has been shown to me. The traitor deals treacherously, and the destroyer destroys. Go up, Elam. Lay siege, Media. I have put an end to all her sighing.
Isaiah 21:3  So my body is filled with pain. Sharp pains have gripped me, like the pains of a woman in labour. I was bent down when I heard it. I was terrified when I saw it.
Isaiah 21:4  My heart pounded, and fear made me tremble. He has turned the night of my delight into terror for me.
Isaiah 21:5  Set the table, keep watch in the watchtower, eat, drink. Get up, you princes, and oil the shield.
Isaiah 21:6  For this is what the Lord has said to me: "Go, post a watchman, and let him tell what he sees."
Isaiah 21:7  And he saw a chariot with a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels. And he listened closely, with great care.
Isaiah 21:8  And he cried out, "A lion. My lord, I stand on the watchtower all day long, and I am set at my post through whole nights."
Isaiah 21:9  "Look, here comes a chariot of men, with a pair of horsemen." And he answered and said, "Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and all the carved images of her gods he has broken to the ground."
Isaiah 21:10  O my threshing, and the grain of my floor: what I have heard from the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, I have told you.
Isaiah 21:11  The burden of Dumah. Someone calls to me out of Seir, "Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?"
Isaiah 21:12  The watchman said, "The morning comes, and also the night. If you will ask, then ask. Come back, come."
Isaiah 21:13  The burden upon Arabia. You will spend the night in the forest in Arabia, you travelling companies of Dedanim.
Isaiah 21:14  The people who live in the land of Tema brought water to the thirsty. They went out with their bread to meet the one who fled.
Isaiah 21:15  For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the cruelty of war.
Isaiah 21:16  For this is what the Lord has said to me: "Within a year, counted like the years of a hired worker, all the glory of Kedar will come to nothing."
Isaiah 21:17  "And the rest of the archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, will be few in number. For the LORD God of Israel has spoken it."

Isaiah 22:1  The burden of the valley of vision. What is wrong with you now, that you have all gone up onto the housetops?
Isaiah 22:2  You are full of noise, a city of uproar, a city full of joy. Your slain men were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle.
Isaiah 22:3  All your rulers have run away together; they are tied up by the archers. All of you who are found are tied up together, though you fled far away.
Isaiah 22:4  So I said, "Look away from me. I will weep bitterly. Do not try to comfort me, because the daughter of my people has been ruined."
Isaiah 22:5  For it is a day of trouble, of trampling down, and of confusion from the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision: a day of walls broken down, and of crying out to the mountains.
Isaiah 22:6  Elam carried the quiver, with chariots of men and with horsemen, and Kir uncovered the shield.
Isaiah 22:7  Your finest valleys will be full of chariots, and the horsemen will take up their places at the gate.
Isaiah 22:8  He took away the covering of Judah, and on that day you looked to the weapons in the house of the forest.
Isaiah 22:9  You also saw that the breaks in the wall of the city of David were many. You gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
Isaiah 22:10  You counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you pulled the houses down to make the wall strong.
Isaiah 22:11  You also made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to the one who made it, and you had no regard for the one who formed it long ago.
Isaiah 22:12  On that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, and to mourning, and to shaving your heads, and to putting on sackcloth.
Isaiah 22:13  But look: there was joy and gladness, killing oxen and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine. "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die."
Isaiah 22:14  The LORD of hosts revealed this in my ears: "Surely this sin will not be washed away from you until you die, says the Lord GOD of hosts."
Isaiah 22:15  This is what the Lord GOD of hosts says: "Go to this treasurer, to Shebna, who is in charge of the house, and say,"
Isaiah 22:16  "'What do you have here? Who do you have here, that you have cut out a tomb for yourself here? You cut out your tomb high up, and carve a resting place for yourself in the rock.'"
Isaiah 22:17  "'Look, the LORD will carry you away with a mighty throw, and he will surely cover you over.'"
Isaiah 22:18  "'He will surely whirl you round and round and toss you like a ball into a wide land. There you will die, and there the chariots of your glory will be the shame of your master's house.'"
Isaiah 22:19  "'I will drive you out of your office, and he will pull you down from your place.'"
Isaiah 22:20  "'On that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah.'"
Isaiah 22:21  "'I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt, and I will put your rule into his hand. He will be a father to the people who live in Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.'"
Isaiah 22:22  "'I will lay the key of the house of David on his shoulder. He will open, and no one will shut; he will shut, and no one will open.'"
Isaiah 22:23  "'I will fasten him like a nail in a firm place, and he will be a glorious throne for his father's house.'"
Isaiah 22:24  "'They will hang on him all the glory of his father's house: the offspring and the issue, all the small vessels, from the cups to all the jars.'"
Isaiah 22:25  "'On that day, says the LORD of hosts, the nail that was fastened in the firm place will be taken out. It will be cut down and fall, and the load that was on it will be cut off, for the LORD has spoken it.'"

Isaiah 23:1  The burden of Tyre. Wail, you ships of Tarshish. Tyre is laid waste. No house is left, and no way in. From the land of Chittim the news is revealed to them.
Isaiah 23:2  Be still, you people of the island. The merchants of Zidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.
Isaiah 23:3  Over great waters came the grain of Sihor, the harvest of the river. That was her income, and she was a market for the nations.
Isaiah 23:4  Be ashamed, Zidon, for the sea has spoken, the stronghold of the sea. It says, "I have not been in labour, nor given birth. I have not raised young men, nor brought up virgins."
Isaiah 23:5  When the report comes to Egypt, they will be in bitter pain at the news of Tyre.
Isaiah 23:6  Cross over to Tarshish. Wail, you people of the island.
Isaiah 23:7  Is this your joyful city, so old, from ancient days? Her own feet will carry her far away to live as a stranger.
Isaiah 23:8  Who planned this against Tyre, the city that gave out crowns? Her merchants are princes, and her traders are the honoured ones of the earth.
Isaiah 23:9  The LORD of hosts planned it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honoured ones of the earth.
Isaiah 23:10  Pass through your land like a river, daughter of Tarshish. There is no strength left.
Isaiah 23:11  He stretched out his hand over the sea. He shook the kingdoms. The LORD has given a command against the merchant city, to destroy its strongholds.
Isaiah 23:12  And he said, "You will not rejoice any more, you crushed virgin, daughter of Zidon. Get up, cross over to Chittim. Even there you will have no rest."
Isaiah 23:13  Look at the land of the Chaldeans. This people did not exist until the Assyrian founded it for those who live in the wilderness. They set up its towers, they raised up its palaces. And he brought it to ruin.
Isaiah 23:14  Wail, you ships of Tarshish, for your strength is laid waste.
Isaiah 23:15  In that day Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, as long as the days of one king. After the seventy years are over, Tyre will sing like a prostitute.
Isaiah 23:16  Take a harp, go round the city, you forgotten prostitute. Make sweet music, sing many songs, so that you may be remembered.
Isaiah 23:17  After the seventy years are over, the LORD will visit Tyre. She will go back to her hire, and will commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world on the face of the earth.
Isaiah 23:18  But her goods and her hire will be holiness to the LORD. They will not be stored up or hoarded. Her goods will go to those who live before the LORD, for food enough and for lasting clothing.

Isaiah 24:1  Look, the LORD makes the earth empty. He lays it waste, turns it upside down, and scatters the people who live in it.
Isaiah 24:2  It will be the same for everyone: the same for the people as for the priest; the same for the servant as for his master; the same for the maid as for her mistress; the same for the buyer as for the seller; the same for the lender as for the borrower; the same for the one who takes interest as for the one who pays it.
Isaiah 24:3  The land will be completely emptied and completely stripped bare, for the LORD has spoken this word.
Isaiah 24:4  The earth mourns and withers away. The world grows weak and withers away. The proud people of the earth grow weak.
Isaiah 24:5  The earth is defiled by the people who live on it. For they have broken the laws, changed the rules, and broken the everlasting covenant.
Isaiah 24:6  So a curse has eaten up the earth, and those who live in it are left desolate. So the people of the earth are burned, and few are left.
Isaiah 24:7  The new wine mourns, the vine grows weak, and all the merry-hearted sigh.
Isaiah 24:8  The happy sound of tambourines stops. The noise of those who celebrate ends. The joy of the harp stops.
Isaiah 24:9  They will not drink wine with a song. Strong drink will be bitter to those who drink it.
Isaiah 24:10  The city of confusion is broken down. Every house is shut up, so that no one may come in.
Isaiah 24:11  In the streets there is a cry for wine. All joy has grown dark. The gladness of the land is gone.
Isaiah 24:12  In the city only ruin is left, and the gate is beaten down and broken.
Isaiah 24:13  So it will be in the middle of the land among the people: like the shaking of an olive tree, like the few grapes left when the harvest is over.
Isaiah 24:14  They will lift up their voice. They will sing for the majesty of the LORD. They will cry aloud from the sea.
Isaiah 24:15  So give glory to the LORD in the fires, the name of the LORD God of Israel in the islands of the sea.
Isaiah 24:16  From the farthest part of the earth we have heard songs, saying, "Glory to the righteous one." But I said, "I waste away, I waste away. Woe to me. The treacherous have acted treacherously; yes, the treacherous have acted very treacherously."
Isaiah 24:17  Fear, and the pit, and the trap are upon you, you who live on the earth.
Isaiah 24:18  Whoever runs from the sound of the fear will fall into the pit. Whoever climbs up out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For the windows on high are open, and the foundations of the earth shake.
Isaiah 24:19  The earth is completely broken down. The earth is torn apart. The earth is shaken violently.
Isaiah 24:20  The earth will stagger to and fro like a drunk man. It will sway like a hut. Its sin lies heavy upon it. It will fall and not rise again.
Isaiah 24:21  On that day the LORD will punish the host of the high ones who are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
Isaiah 24:22  They will be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit. They will be shut up in the prison, and after many days they will be visited.
Isaiah 24:23  Then the moon will be ashamed and the sun will be put to shame, when the LORD of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and in glory before his elders.

Isaiah 25:1  O LORD, you are my God. I will lift you high; I will praise your name. For you have done wonderful things. Your plans made long ago are faithfulness and truth.
Isaiah 25:2  For you have made a city into a heap of stones, a walled city into a ruin. The palace of strangers is no longer a city; it will never be built again.
Isaiah 25:3  So the strong people will give you glory. The city of the terrifying nations will fear you.
Isaiah 25:4  For you have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his trouble, a shelter from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the blast of the terrifying ones is like a storm against the wall.
Isaiah 25:5  You will bring down the noise of strangers, as heat is brought down in a dry place, as heat is brought down by the shadow of a cloud. The song of the terrifying ones will be brought low.
Isaiah 25:6  On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make a feast for all peoples: a feast of rich food, a feast of aged wines, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wines well strained.
Isaiah 25:7  And on this mountain he will destroy the covering that is thrown over all peoples, and the veil that is spread over all nations.
Isaiah 25:8  He will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face. He will take away the shame of his people from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken it.
Isaiah 25:9  And on that day it will be said, "Look, this is our God. We have waited for him, and he will save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation."
Isaiah 25:10  For on this mountain the hand of the LORD will rest, and Moab will be trampled down under him, as straw is trampled down in the dung heap.
Isaiah 25:11  And he will spread out his hands in the middle of them, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. And he will bring down their pride, together with the plunder their hands have taken.
Isaiah 25:12  And the strong high walls of your fort he will bring down. He will lay them low, and bring them to the ground, down to the dust.

Isaiah 26:1  In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city. God makes salvation its walls and its defences."
Isaiah 26:2  Open the gates, so that the righteous nation that keeps the truth may come in.
Isaiah 26:3  You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind rests on you, because he trusts in you.
Isaiah 26:4  Trust in the LORD for ever, for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.
Isaiah 26:5  He brings down those who live on high. The proud city he lays low; he lays it low, right to the ground; he brings it down to the dust.
Isaiah 26:6  The foot will trample it down, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.
Isaiah 26:7  The way of the just is straight. You, most upright, make the path of the just level.
Isaiah 26:8  Yes, LORD, in the way of your judgments we have waited for you. Our soul longs for your name and for the memory of you.
Isaiah 26:9  With my soul I have longed for you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me I will seek you early. For when your judgments are in the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
Isaiah 26:10  Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will act unjustly, and he will not see the majesty of the LORD.
Isaiah 26:11  LORD, when your hand is lifted up, they do not see it. But they will see, and be ashamed of their envy of your people. Yes, the fire kept for your enemies will burn them up.
Isaiah 26:12  LORD, you will appoint peace for us, for you have also done all our works for us.
Isaiah 26:13  LORD our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us; but by you only will we speak of your name.
Isaiah 26:14  They are dead, they will not live. They have passed away, they will not rise. So you punished them and destroyed them, and made all memory of them perish.
Isaiah 26:15  You have made the nation greater, LORD, you have made the nation greater. You are glorified. You had pushed its borders far out, to all the ends of the earth.
Isaiah 26:16  LORD, in trouble they have come to you. They poured out a prayer when your correction was on them.
Isaiah 26:17  Like a woman with child, when her time to give birth is near, who is in pain and cries out in her pangs, so we have been in your sight, LORD.
Isaiah 26:18  We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were given birth to wind. We have brought no deliverance to the earth, and the people of the world have not fallen.
Isaiah 26:19  Your dead men will live; together with my dead body they will rise. Awake and sing, you who live in the dust, for your dew is like the dew of the morning plants, and the earth will give up the dead.
Isaiah 26:20  Come, my people, go into your rooms, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little while, until the anger has passed by.
Isaiah 26:21  For look, the LORD is coming out of his place to punish the people of the earth for their sin. The earth will uncover the blood shed on her, and will no longer cover her slain.

Isaiah 27:1  On that day the LORD will punish leviathan with his cruel and great and strong sword. He will punish leviathan the darting serpent, leviathan that twisting serpent. He will kill the dragon that is in the sea.
Isaiah 27:2  On that day sing about her: "A vineyard of red wine."
Isaiah 27:3  "I the LORD take care of it. I will water it every moment. So that no one harms it, I will guard it night and day."
Isaiah 27:4  Fury is not in me. Who would set briers and thorns against me in battle? I would march through them and burn them all together.
Isaiah 27:5  "Or let him take hold of my strength, so that he may make peace with me. Yes, let him make peace with me."
Isaiah 27:6  He will make those who come from Jacob take root. Israel will blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
Isaiah 27:7  Has the LORD struck him as he struck those who struck him? Or was he killed as those he killed were killed?
Isaiah 27:8  You dealt with it by measure, when you sent it away. He drove it off with his fierce blast in the day of the east wind.
Isaiah 27:9  So by this the guilt of Jacob will be cleansed, and this will be all the fruit of taking away his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalkstones crushed to pieces, so that the groves and the images will not stand again.
Isaiah 27:10  Yet the fortified city will be empty, the dwelling place deserted and left like a desert. There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down, and eat up its branches.
Isaiah 27:11  When its boughs are dry, they will be broken off. The women come and set them on fire. For this is a people with no understanding. So he who made them will not have mercy on them, and he who formed them will show them no favour.
Isaiah 27:12  On that day the LORD will thresh from the channel of the River to the stream of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.
Isaiah 27:13  On that day the great trumpet will be blown. Those who were dying in the land of Assyria will come, and those who were driven out into the land of Egypt, and they will worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Isaiah 28:1  Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim! Its glorious beauty is a fading flower. It sits on the head of the rich valley of those who are overcome with wine.
Isaiah 28:2  Look, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong. Like a storm of hail and a destroying tempest, like a flood of great waters pouring over, he will throw it down to the ground with his hand.
Isaiah 28:3  The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled under foot.
Isaiah 28:4  And the glorious beauty on the head of the rich valley will be a fading flower. It will be like the first ripe fruit before the summer: when a man sees it, he swallows it while it is still in his hand.
Isaiah 28:5  In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory and a beautiful wreath to the rest of his people.
Isaiah 28:6  He will be a spirit of judgment to the one who sits in judgment, and strength to those who drive the battle back to the gate.
Isaiah 28:7  But these also have gone wrong through wine, and strong drink has led them astray. The priest and the prophet have gone wrong through strong drink. Wine has swallowed them up; strong drink has led them astray. They go wrong when they see visions; they stumble when they give judgment.
Isaiah 28:8  For every table is full of vomit and filth, so that there is no clean place left.
Isaiah 28:9  Whom will he teach knowledge? Whom will he make to understand his teaching? Those just taken from the milk, just taken from the breast?
Isaiah 28:10  For it is rule upon rule, rule upon rule; line upon line, line upon line; a little here, and a little there.
Isaiah 28:11  For with stammering lips and a foreign tongue he will speak to this people.
Isaiah 28:12  He said to them, "This is the rest; give rest to the weary. This is the refreshing." Yet they would not listen.
Isaiah 28:13  So the word of the LORD came to them as rule upon rule, rule upon rule; line upon line, line upon line; a little here, and a little there. So they will go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Isaiah 28:14  So hear the word of the LORD, you men who mock, who rule this people in Jerusalem.
Isaiah 28:15  You have said, "We have made a covenant with death, and with the grave we have an agreement. When the flooding whip passes through, it will not reach us. For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves."
Isaiah 28:16  Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Look, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. Whoever believes will not be in haste."
Isaiah 28:17  "I will make judgment the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will flood the hiding place."
Isaiah 28:18  "Your covenant with death will be cancelled, and your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the flooding whip passes through, you will be trampled down by it."
Isaiah 28:19  "As often as it goes out, it will take you. Morning by morning it will pass over, by day and by night. It will be sheer terror just to understand the message."
Isaiah 28:20  For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.
Isaiah 28:21  For the LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim. He will be angry as he was in the valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, and to carry out his act, his strange act.
Isaiah 28:22  So now do not mock, or your chains will be made stronger. For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts of a destruction decided on for the whole earth.
Isaiah 28:23  Listen, and hear my voice. Pay attention, and hear what I say.
Isaiah 28:24  Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he keep opening and breaking up the clods of his ground?
Isaiah 28:25  When he has levelled its surface, does he not scatter the dill and sow the cummin? Does he not put in the wheat in rows, the barley in its place, and the rye at the edge?
Isaiah 28:26  For his God instructs him rightly and teaches him.
Isaiah 28:27  For dill is not threshed with a threshing tool, and a cart wheel is not rolled over the cummin. Dill is beaten out with a stick, and cummin with a rod.
Isaiah 28:28  Grain for bread is crushed, but he does not thresh it forever. He drives the wheel of his cart over it, but he does not crush it with his horses.
Isaiah 28:29  This also comes from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in what he does.

Isaiah 29:1  Sorrow to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David lived! Add year to year; let the feasts come round. Let them kill their sacrifices.
Isaiah 29:2  Yet I will bring trouble on Ariel. There will be grief and sorrow there. And it will be to me like Ariel.
Isaiah 29:3  I will camp against you all around. I will lay siege to you with a mound, and I will raise forts against you.
Isaiah 29:4  You will be brought down. You will speak out of the ground, and your words will come low out of the dust. Your voice will come out of the ground like the voice of one who has a familiar spirit, and your speech will whisper out of the dust.
Isaiah 29:5  But the crowd of your enemies will be like fine dust, and the crowd of the cruel ones like chaff that blows away. It will happen in a moment, suddenly.
Isaiah 29:6  The LORD of hosts will come to you with thunder, with earthquake and a great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire.
Isaiah 29:7  The crowd of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who bring trouble on her, will be like a dream, like a vision in the night.
Isaiah 29:8  It will be as when a hungry man dreams, and look, he is eating; but he wakes, and he is still empty. Or as when a thirsty man dreams, and look, he is drinking; but he wakes, and look, he is faint, and still longing for a drink. So will the crowd of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.
Isaiah 29:9  Stop and be amazed. Cry out and cry aloud. They are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
Isaiah 29:10  For the LORD has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes. He has covered the prophets and your rulers, the seers.
Isaiah 29:11  The whole vision has become to you like the words of a sealed book. Men give it to someone who can read and say, "Read this, please." And he says, "I cannot, for it is sealed."
Isaiah 29:12  Then the book is given to someone who cannot read, and they say, "Read this, please." And he says, "I cannot read."
Isaiah 29:13  So the Lord said, "These people come near me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Their fear of me is only a rule taught by men."
Isaiah 29:14  "So look, I will go on doing a marvellous work among this people, a marvellous work and a wonder. The wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their clever men will be hidden."
Isaiah 29:15  Sorrow to those who go deep to hide their plans from the LORD. Their works are done in the dark, and they say, "Who sees us? Who knows us?"
Isaiah 29:16  You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be thought of as the clay? Shall the thing that was made say of the one who made it, "He did not make me"? Shall the thing that was shaped say of the one who shaped it, "He has no understanding"?
Isaiah 29:17  Is it not still a very little while until Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be counted as a forest?
Isaiah 29:18  In that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of gloom and out of darkness.
Isaiah 29:19  The meek will have more and more joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 29:20  For the cruel one is brought to nothing, and the mocker is finished, and all who watch for a chance to do evil are cut off.
Isaiah 29:21  They make a man guilty for a word. They set a trap for the one who speaks up in the gate, and they turn the righteous aside for nothing.
Isaiah 29:22  So this is what the LORD says, who redeemed Abraham, about the house of Jacob: "Jacob will not now be ashamed, and his face will not now grow pale."
Isaiah 29:23  But when he sees his children among him, the work of my hands, they will keep my name holy. They will keep holy the Holy One of Jacob, and will fear the God of Israel.
Isaiah 29:24  "Those who went astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who complained will learn teaching."

Isaiah 30:1  "Woe to the rebellious children," says the LORD, "who make plans, but not from me; who make an agreement, but not by my Spirit, so they add sin to sin."
Isaiah 30:2  "They set out to go down into Egypt, and they have not asked at my mouth. They go to make themselves strong in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt."
Isaiah 30:3  So the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and your trust in the shadow of Egypt will be your disgrace.
Isaiah 30:4  For his princes were at Zoan, and his messengers came to Hanes.
Isaiah 30:5  They were all ashamed of a people who could not help them at all. That people brought no help and no gain, but only shame and disgrace.
Isaiah 30:6  The burden of the beasts of the south: through a land of trouble and pain, where the lion and the lioness come from, and the viper and the flying fiery serpent, they carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who cannot help them.
Isaiah 30:7  For the help of Egypt is empty and useless. So I have called her this: "Their strength is to sit still."
Isaiah 30:8  Now go, write it for them on a tablet, and set it down in a book, so that it may last for the time to come, for ever and ever:
Isaiah 30:9  that this is a rebellious people, children who lie, children who will not listen to the law of the LORD.
Isaiah 30:10  They say to the seers, "Do not see," and to the prophets, "Do not tell us what is right. Speak smooth things to us. Prophesy lies."
Isaiah 30:11  "Get out of the way, turn aside from the path, take the Holy One of Israel away from before us."
Isaiah 30:12  So this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you refuse this word, and you trust in cruelty and crooked ways, and lean on them,"
Isaiah 30:13  this sin will be to you like a crack in a high wall, ready to fall, bulging out. It breaks all at once, in a moment.
Isaiah 30:14  "He will smash it as a potter's jar is smashed to pieces. He will not spare it. Among the broken pieces not one bit will be found big enough to carry fire from the hearth, or to scoop water out of the pool."
Isaiah 30:15  For this is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In turning back and resting you will be saved. In quietness and trust will be your strength." But you would not.
Isaiah 30:16  You said, "No, we will run away on horses." So you will run away. And, "We will ride on swift ones." So those who chase you will be swift.
Isaiah 30:17  One thousand will flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you will flee, until you are left like a pole on a mountain top, like a flag on a hill.
Isaiah 30:18  And so the LORD will wait, so that he may be gracious to you. So he will rise up, so that he may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for him.
Isaiah 30:19  For the people will live in Zion, at Jerusalem. You will weep no more. He will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry. When he hears it, he will answer you.
Isaiah 30:20  Though the Lord gives you the bread of hardship and the water of suffering, yet your teachers will not be hidden away in a corner any more, but your eyes will see your teachers.
Isaiah 30:21  And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.
Isaiah 30:22  You will treat as filthy the silver covering of your carved images and the gold covering of your metal images. You will throw them away like a stained cloth. You will say to them, "Get out."
Isaiah 30:23  Then he will give rain for your seed, when you sow the ground, and bread from the crop of the land, and it will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will feed in wide pastures.
Isaiah 30:24  The oxen too, and the young donkeys that work the ground, will eat clean fodder, winnowed with the shovel and the fan.
Isaiah 30:25  On every high mountain and on every high hill there will be rivers and streams of water, in the day of the great killing, when the towers fall.
Isaiah 30:26  The light of the moon will be like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, in the day when the LORD binds up the hurt of his people and heals the wound he struck.
Isaiah 30:27  Look, the name of the LORD comes from far away, burning with his anger, and its weight is heavy. His lips are full of fury, and his tongue is like a devouring fire.
Isaiah 30:28  His breath is like a flooding stream that rises to the neck. It sifts the nations in the sieve of ruin. There is a bridle in the jaws of the peoples, leading them astray.
Isaiah 30:29  You will have a song, as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when someone goes with a flute to come to the mountain of the LORD, to the Mighty One of Israel.
Isaiah 30:30  The LORD will make his glorious voice heard, and will show his arm coming down, with the fury of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with a cloudburst, a storm and hailstones.
Isaiah 30:31  For at the voice of the LORD the Assyrian will be beaten down, he who struck with a rod.
Isaiah 30:32  And every stroke of the staff of punishment that the LORD lays on him will come with tambourines and harps. In battles of shaking he will fight against them.
Isaiah 30:33  For Tophet was made ready long ago. Yes, it is prepared for the king. He has made it deep and wide. Its pile is fire and plenty of wood. The breath of the LORD, like a stream of burning sulphur, sets it alight.

Isaiah 31:1  How terrible for those who go down to Egypt for help. They lean on horses, and trust in chariots because there are so many, and in horsemen because they are very strong. But they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, and they do not seek the LORD.
Isaiah 31:2  Yet he too is wise, and he will bring disaster, and he will not take back his words. He will rise up against the house of the evildoers, and against the helpers of those who do wrong.
Isaiah 31:3  Now the Egyptians are men, and not God. Their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD stretches out his hand, the one who helps will fall, and the one who is helped will fall down, and they will all fail together.
Isaiah 31:4  For this is what the LORD has said to me: "As the lion and the young lion growl over their prey, and a crowd of shepherds is called out against them, the lion is not afraid of their shouting, and does not cringe at their noise. So the LORD of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion, and for its hill."
Isaiah 31:5  Like birds flying over, so the LORD of hosts will defend Jerusalem. He will defend it and rescue it. He will pass over it and keep it safe.
Isaiah 31:6  Turn back to him, the one the children of Israel have deeply rebelled against.
Isaiah 31:7  For in that day every man will throw away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made for yourselves, to your sin.
Isaiah 31:8  Then the Assyrian will fall by a sword, but not the sword of a mighty man. A sword, but not the sword of a common man, will devour him. He will run away from the sword, and his young men will be crushed.
Isaiah 31:9  He will cross over to his stronghold in fear, and his princes will be afraid of the banner, says the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 32:1  Look, a king will reign in righteousness, and princes will rule with justice.
Isaiah 32:2  And a man will be like a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the storm. He will be like streams of water in a dry place, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Isaiah 32:3  The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.
Isaiah 32:4  The mind of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of those who stammer will be ready to speak clearly.
Isaiah 32:5  The vile person will no longer be called generous, and the miser will not be said to be open-handed.
Isaiah 32:6  For the vile person speaks vile things, and his heart works evil. He practises hypocrisy, and speaks error against the LORD. He leaves the soul of the hungry empty, and he makes the drink of the thirsty fail.
Isaiah 32:7  The ways of the miser are evil too. He plans wicked schemes to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks what is right.
Isaiah 32:8  But the generous person plans generous things, and by generous things he will stand.
Isaiah 32:9  Get up, you women who are at ease; hear my voice, you careless daughters; listen to what I say.
Isaiah 32:10  For many days and years you will be troubled, you careless women. For the grape harvest will fail, and the gathering will not come.
Isaiah 32:11  Tremble, you women who are at ease; be troubled, you careless ones. Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, and tie sackcloth around your waists.
Isaiah 32:12  They will beat their breasts for the pleasant fields, and for the fruitful vine.
Isaiah 32:13  Thorns and briers will come up on the land of my people, yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyful city;
Isaiah 32:14  because the palaces will be abandoned, and the crowded city will be left empty. The forts and towers will be dens for ever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture for flocks;
Isaiah 32:15  until the spirit is poured out on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.
Isaiah 32:16  Then justice will live in the wilderness, and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.
Isaiah 32:17  And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the result of righteousness will be quietness and confidence for ever.
Isaiah 32:18  My people will live in a peaceful home, in safe houses, and in quiet resting places;
Isaiah 32:19  when the hail comes down on the forest, and the city is brought low in a low place.
Isaiah 32:20  Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey there.

Isaiah 33:1  Trouble is coming to you who destroy, though you were never destroyed. Trouble to you who betray, though no one betrayed you. When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed. When you finish betraying, they will betray you.
Isaiah 33:2  LORD, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be their strength every morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble.
Isaiah 33:3  At the noise of the uproar the peoples fled. When you rose up, the nations were scattered.
Isaiah 33:4  Your goods will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. As locusts run here and there, so he will run upon them.
Isaiah 33:5  The LORD is lifted high, for he lives on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.
Isaiah 33:6  Wisdom and knowledge will make your times secure, and salvation will be your strength. The fear of the LORD is his treasure.
Isaiah 33:7  Look, their brave men cry out in the streets. The messengers of peace weep bitterly.
Isaiah 33:8  The highways lie empty. No traveller passes by. He has broken the covenant, he has despised the cities, he cares for no one.
Isaiah 33:9  The earth mourns and wastes away. Lebanon is ashamed and cut down. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruit.
Isaiah 33:10  "Now I will rise up," says the LORD. "Now I will be lifted high. Now I will raise myself up."
Isaiah 33:11  You will conceive chaff, and give birth to straw. Your own breath, like fire, will devour you.
Isaiah 33:12  The peoples will be like lime burning in a fire. Like thorns cut up, they will be burned in the fire.
Isaiah 33:13  You who are far off, hear what I have done. You who are near, admit my power.
Isaiah 33:14  The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the hypocrites. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with burnings that never end?
Isaiah 33:15  The one who walks righteously and speaks what is right; who refuses the gain that comes from oppression; who shakes his hands free from taking bribes; who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eyes from looking on evil;
Isaiah 33:16  he will live on high. His place of safety will be the strongholds of rock. He will be given bread, and his water will be sure.
Isaiah 33:17  Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a land that stretches far away.
Isaiah 33:18  Your heart will think back on the terror. Where is the scribe? Where is the one who weighed the money? Where is the one who counted the towers?
Isaiah 33:19  You will not see the fierce people again, a people whose speech is too deep for you to follow, whose tongue stammers so that you cannot understand it.
Isaiah 33:20  Look at Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, a tent that will not be taken down. Not one of its pegs will ever be pulled up, and none of its ropes will be broken.
Isaiah 33:21  But there the glorious LORD will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams. No galley with oars will go there, and no mighty ship will pass by.
Isaiah 33:22  For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king. He will save us.
Isaiah 33:23  Your ropes hang loose. They could not hold the mast firm, they could not spread the sail. Then great plunder is divided up; even the lame carry off the spoil.
Isaiah 33:24  No one living there will say, "I am sick." The people who live there will be forgiven their sin.

Isaiah 34:1  Come near, you nations, and hear. Listen, you peoples. Let the earth hear, and everything in it, the world, and all that comes out of it.
Isaiah 34:2  For the LORD is angry with all the nations, and furious with all their armies. He has completely destroyed them. He has handed them over to be slaughtered.
Isaiah 34:3  Their dead will be thrown out, and the stink of their bodies will rise up, and the mountains will be melted with their blood.
Isaiah 34:4  All the army of heaven will melt away, and the skies will be rolled up like a scroll. All their army will fall down, as a leaf falls from the vine, and as a fig falls from the fig tree.
Isaiah 34:5  For my sword has drunk its fill in heaven. Look, it will come down on Idumea, on the people I have cursed, to judge them.
Isaiah 34:6  The sword of the LORD is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, and with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.
Isaiah 34:7  The unicorns will come down with them, and the young bulls with the strong bulls. Their land will be soaked with blood, and their dust will be covered with fat.
Isaiah 34:8  For it is the day when the LORD takes vengeance, the year when he pays back those who fought against Zion.
Isaiah 34:9  The streams of Idumea will be turned into tar, and its dust into burning sulphur, and its land will become burning tar.
Isaiah 34:10  It will not be put out, night or day. Its smoke will go up for ever. From one generation to the next it will lie waste. No one will pass through it, for ever and ever.
Isaiah 34:11  But the cormorant and the bittern will take it over, and the owl and the raven will live there. He will stretch over it the measuring line of confusion and the stones of emptiness.
Isaiah 34:12  They will call for her nobles to rule the kingdom, but none will be there, and all her princes will be nothing.
Isaiah 34:13  Thorns will grow up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in her strongholds. It will be a home for dragons, and a court for owls.
Isaiah 34:14  The wild animals of the desert will meet the wild animals of the island, and the satyr will call to his companion. The screech owl too will rest there, and find a resting place for herself.
Isaiah 34:15  There the great owl will make her nest, and lay her eggs, and hatch them, and gather her young under her shadow. There the vultures also will be gathered, each one with her mate.
Isaiah 34:16  Search the book of the LORD, and read. Not one of these will be missing, and none will be without her mate. For my mouth has commanded it, and his spirit has gathered them.
Isaiah 34:17  He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has measured out the land for them with a line. They will possess it for ever. From one generation to the next they will live in it.

Isaiah 35:1  The wilderness and the lonely place will be glad for them. The desert will rejoice, and blossom like the rose.
Isaiah 35:2  It will blossom in plenty, and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon. They will see the glory of the LORD, and the splendour of our God.
Isaiah 35:3  Strengthen the weak hands, and make the shaking knees firm.
Isaiah 35:4  Say to those whose hearts are afraid, "Be strong, do not be afraid. Look, your God will come with vengeance, God will come and pay back. He will come and save you."
Isaiah 35:5  Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.
Isaiah 35:6  Then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the one who cannot speak will sing. For waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
Isaiah 35:7  The dry, burnt ground will become a pool, and the thirsty land will become springs of water. In the home of dragons, where each one lay, there will be grass with reeds and rushes.
Isaiah 35:8  A highway will be there, and a road, and it will be called The way of holiness. Those who are unclean will not pass along it, but it will be for those. Travellers on that way, even fools, will not go astray.
Isaiah 35:9  No lion will be there. No fierce beast will go up on it, or be found there. But the redeemed will walk there,
Isaiah 35:10  and those the LORD has ransomed will return. They will come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will receive joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isaiah 36:1  In the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the walled cities of Judah, and he took them.
Isaiah 36:2  The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh with a great army from Lachish to Jerusalem, to king Hezekiah. Rabshakeh stood by the water channel of the upper pool, on the road to the washer's field.
Isaiah 36:3  Then three men came out to him: Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder.
Isaiah 36:4  Rabshakeh said to them, "Say to Hezekiah: This is what the great king, the king of Assyria, says: What is this confidence of yours? What are you trusting in?"
Isaiah 36:5  You say you have a plan and strength for war, but those are only empty words. Now, who are you trusting in, that you have rebelled against me?
Isaiah 36:6  Look, you are trusting in Egypt, which is a broken reed for a walking stick. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to everyone who trusts in him.
Isaiah 36:7  But if you say to me, 'We trust in the LORD our God,' is he not the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has taken away? Hezekiah said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You must worship in front of this altar.'
Isaiah 36:8  So now, make a bargain with my master the king of Assyria. I will give you two thousand horses, if you can find riders to put on them.
Isaiah 36:9  How then could you drive back even one captain of the least of my master's servants? Yet you trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen.
Isaiah 36:10  "And have I come up against this land to destroy it without the LORD? The LORD said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it.'"
Isaiah 36:11  Then Eliakim and Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the Jews' language, where the people on the wall can hear."
Isaiah 36:12  But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me to speak these words only to your master and to you? Has he not sent me to the men sitting on the wall, who will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine along with you?"
Isaiah 36:13  Then Rabshakeh stood and shouted in a loud voice in the Jews' language, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria."
Isaiah 36:14  This is what the king says: Do not let Hezekiah fool you, for he will not be able to save you.
Isaiah 36:15  Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, 'The LORD will surely save us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.'
Isaiah 36:16  Do not listen to Hezekiah. This is what the king of Assyria says: Make peace with me and come out to me. Then each of you will eat from his own vine and his own fig tree, and each of you will drink the water of his own well,
Isaiah 36:17  until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Isaiah 36:18  Be careful that Hezekiah does not talk you round by saying, 'The LORD will save us.' Has any of the gods of the nations saved his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?
Isaiah 36:19  Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Did they save Samaria from my hand?
Isaiah 36:20  "Which of all the gods of these lands has saved his land from my hand? So how could the LORD save Jerusalem from my hand?"
Isaiah 36:21  But the people stayed silent and did not answer him a word, because the king had commanded, "Do not answer him."
Isaiah 36:22  Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and they told him what Rabshakeh had said.

Isaiah 37:1  When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.
Isaiah 37:2  He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz.
Isaiah 37:3  And they said to him, "This is what Hezekiah says: 'Today is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy. The children have come to the birth, and there is no strength to bring them out.'"
Isaiah 37:4  "'It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to insult the living God. And the LORD your God may rebuke the words that he has heard. So lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.'"
Isaiah 37:5  So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
Isaiah 37:6  And Isaiah said to them, "Say this to your master: 'This is what the LORD says: Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me."
Isaiah 37:7  "Look, I will send a blast upon him. He will hear a rumour, and go back to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.'"
Isaiah 37:8  So Rabshakeh went back, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish.
Isaiah 37:9  And the king heard it said about Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, "He has come out to make war with you." When he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Isaiah 37:10  "Say this to Hezekiah king of Judah: 'Do not let your God, whom you trust, deceive you by saying that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."
Isaiah 37:11  Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered?
Isaiah 37:12  Did the gods of the nations deliver those whom my fathers destroyed, such as Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar?
Isaiah 37:13  "Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?'"
Isaiah 37:14  Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it out before the LORD.
Isaiah 37:15  And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying,
Isaiah 37:16  "O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, who dwells between the cherubims, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth."
Isaiah 37:17  "Turn your ear, O LORD, and hear. Open your eyes, O LORD, and see. Hear all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to insult the living God."
Isaiah 37:18  "It is true, LORD, that the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries,"
Isaiah 37:19  "and have thrown their gods into the fire. For they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. That is why they destroyed them."
Isaiah 37:20  "Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD, you only."
Isaiah 37:21  Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent word to Hezekiah, saying, "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'Because you have prayed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria,"
Isaiah 37:22  this is the word which the LORD has spoken about him: The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, and laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
Isaiah 37:23  Whom have you insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 37:24  By your servants you have insulted the Lord, and have said, With my many chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, to the far parts of Lebanon. I will cut down its tall cedars, and its choicest fir trees. I will go into its farthest height, and the forest of his Carmel.
Isaiah 37:25  I have dug wells, and drunk water. With the soles of my feet I have dried up all the rivers of the besieged places.
Isaiah 37:26  Have you not heard long ago how I did it, and that in ancient times I planned it? Now I have brought it about, that you should turn fortified cities into heaps of ruins.
Isaiah 37:27  So their people had little power. They were dismayed and ashamed. They were like the grass of the field, and like the green plant, like grass on the housetops, and like grain blighted before it is grown up.
Isaiah 37:28  But I know where you live, and your going out, and your coming in, and your rage against me.
Isaiah 37:29  Because your rage against me and your uproar have come up into my ears, I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way you came.
Isaiah 37:30  And this will be a sign to you: This year you will eat what grows by itself, and in the second year what springs up from that. But in the third year sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.
Isaiah 37:31  And the remnant of the house of Judah that has escaped will again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
Isaiah 37:32  For out of Jerusalem a remnant will go out, and those who escape from mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
Isaiah 37:33  Therefore this is what the LORD says about the king of Assyria: He will not come into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with shields, or build a ramp against it.
Isaiah 37:34  By the way that he came, by the same way he will return, and he will not come into this city, says the LORD.
Isaiah 37:35  "For I will defend this city and save it, for my own sake, and for my servant David's sake.'"
Isaiah 37:36  Then the angel of the LORD went out, and struck down in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand men. When people got up early in the morning, look, they were all dead bodies.
Isaiah 37:37  So Sennacherib king of Assyria left, and went and returned, and lived at Nineveh.
Isaiah 37:38  And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons struck him down with the sword. They escaped into the land of Armenia, and Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.

Isaiah 38:1  In those days Hezekiah became sick, and was near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him and said, "This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, for you will die. You will not live."
Isaiah 38:2  Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall and prayed to the LORD.
Isaiah 38:3  He said, "Remember now, LORD, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in your eyes." And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Isaiah 38:4  Then the word of the LORD came to Isaiah:
Isaiah 38:5  "Go and say to Hezekiah, This is what the LORD, the God of David your father, says: I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. Look, I will add fifteen years to your life."
Isaiah 38:6  "And I will save you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city."
Isaiah 38:7  "This will be a sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing that he has said:"
Isaiah 38:8  "Look, I will bring back the shadow of the degrees ten degrees, the degrees which the sun has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz." So the sun went back ten degrees, the degrees it had already gone down.
Isaiah 38:9  The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, after he had been sick and had recovered from his sickness:
Isaiah 38:10  I said, in the cutting short of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave. I am robbed of the rest of my years.
Isaiah 38:11  I said, I shall not see the LORD, even the LORD, in the land of the living. I shall look on man no more with those who live in the world.
Isaiah 38:12  My life is gone, taken from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver I have cut off my life. He will cut me off with wasting sickness. From day to night you will make an end of me.
Isaiah 38:13  I waited until morning, and like a lion, so he will break all my bones. From day to night you will make an end of me.
Isaiah 38:14  Like a crane or a swallow, so I cried out. I mourned like a dove. My eyes grow weak from looking upward. LORD, I am crushed; take my side.
Isaiah 38:15  What shall I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done it. I shall walk softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
Isaiah 38:16  Lord, by these things people live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit. So you will make me well, and let me live.
Isaiah 38:17  Look, my great bitterness was for my peace. But you, in love for my soul, have saved it from the pit of ruin, for you have thrown all my sins behind your back.
Isaiah 38:18  For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing of you. Those who go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.
Isaiah 38:19  The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make your truth known to his children.
Isaiah 38:20  The LORD was ready to save me. So we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
Isaiah 38:21  For Isaiah had said, "Let them take a lump of figs and lay it as a dressing on the boil, and he will recover."
Isaiah 38:22  Hezekiah had also said, "What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?"

Isaiah 39:1  At that time Merodachbaladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah. For he had heard that Hezekiah had been sick and had got well again.
Isaiah 39:2  Hezekiah was glad to see them. He showed them the house where he kept his precious things: the silver, the gold, the spices, and the costly ointment. He showed them all the house where his weapons were kept, and everything that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house, or in all his kingdom, that Hezekiah did not show them.
Isaiah 39:3  Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah and said to him, "What did these men say? And where did they come from to you?" Hezekiah said, "They have come to me from a far country, from Babylon."
Isaiah 39:4  Then Isaiah said, "What have they seen in your house?" Hezekiah answered, "They have seen everything that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them."
Isaiah 39:5  Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, "Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:"
Isaiah 39:6  "Look, the days are coming when everything in your house will be carried away to Babylon, together with all that your fathers have stored up until this day. Nothing will be left, says the LORD."
Isaiah 39:7  "And they will take away some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will be the father of. They will be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
Isaiah 39:8  Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, "The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good." He also said, "For there will be peace and truth in my days."

Isaiah 40:1  "Comfort my people, comfort them," says your God.
Isaiah 40:2  "Speak kindly to Jerusalem. Call out to her that her hard service is finished, that her sin is pardoned. For she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins."
Isaiah 40:3  The voice of one calling in the wilderness: "Prepare the way of the LORD. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
Isaiah 40:4  "Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked ground shall be made straight, and the rough places level."
Isaiah 40:5  And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
Isaiah 40:6  The voice said, "Cry out." And he said, "What shall I cry?" All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.
Isaiah 40:7  The grass dries up, the flower fades, because the breath of the LORD blows on it. Surely the people are grass.
Isaiah 40:8  The grass dries up, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
Isaiah 40:9  Zion, you who bring good news, go up onto the high mountain. Jerusalem, you who bring good news, lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up, do not be afraid. Say to the cities of Judah, "Look, your God!"
Isaiah 40:10  Look, the Lord GOD will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Look, his reward is with him, and his work goes before him.
Isaiah 40:11  He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm and carry them close to his chest, and he will gently lead those that are nursing their young.
Isaiah 40:12  Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and marked off the sky with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains on scales and the hills in a balance?
Isaiah 40:13  Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or taught him as his adviser?
Isaiah 40:14  With whom did he take counsel? Who instructed him and taught him the path of justice? Who taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding?
Isaiah 40:15  Look, the nations are like a drop from a bucket. They count as the fine dust on the scales. Look, he lifts up the islands like a very little thing.
Isaiah 40:16  Lebanon is not enough for the fire, and its animals are not enough for a burnt offering.
Isaiah 40:17  All nations before him are like nothing. To him they count as less than nothing, and empty.
Isaiah 40:18  To whom then will you compare God? What likeness will you set beside him?
Isaiah 40:19  The workman casts a carved image, and the goldsmith covers it over with gold and makes silver chains for it.
Isaiah 40:20  The man who is too poor to bring such an offering chooses wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled workman to make a carved image that will not fall over.
Isaiah 40:21  Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
Isaiah 40:22  It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
Isaiah 40:23  He brings princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth as empty as air.
Isaiah 40:24  They are hardly planted, hardly sown, their stem has hardly taken root in the ground, when he blows on them and they dry up, and the whirlwind carries them away like straw.
Isaiah 40:25  "To whom then will you compare me? Who is my equal?" says the Holy One.
Isaiah 40:26  Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things. He brings out their army by number. He calls them all by name. Because of his great might and his strong power, not one of them is missing.
Isaiah 40:27  Why do you say, Jacob, and why do you speak, Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my cause is passed over by my God"?
Isaiah 40:28  Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, does not grow faint or weary. No one can search out his understanding.
Isaiah 40:29  He gives power to the faint, and to those who have no might he gives more strength.
Isaiah 40:30  Even young people grow faint and weary, and young men stumble and fall.
Isaiah 40:31  But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength. They shall rise up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not grow faint.

Isaiah 41:1  "Be silent before me, you islands. Let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near; then let them speak. Let us come near together for judgment."
Isaiah 41:2  "Who raised up the righteous man from the east, and called him to his foot? Who gave the nations over to him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them to his sword like dust, and to his bow like straw blown away."
Isaiah 41:3  "He chased them and passed on safely, by a road his feet had never walked before."
Isaiah 41:4  "Who has worked and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."
Isaiah 41:5  The islands saw it, and were afraid. The ends of the earth trembled. They drew near and came.
Isaiah 41:6  Each one helped his neighbour, and each said to his brother, "Be strong."
Isaiah 41:7  So the carpenter cheered on the goldsmith, and the man who smooths with the hammer cheered on the man who strikes the anvil. He said of the soldering, "It is good." Then he fastened it with nails so that it would not fall over.
Isaiah 41:8  "But you, Israel, are my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend."
Isaiah 41:9  "I took you from the ends of the earth. I called you from its farthest corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant. I have chosen you and have not thrown you away.'"
Isaiah 41:10  "Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will hold you up with the right hand of my righteousness."
Isaiah 41:11  "Look, all who were angry at you will be ashamed and disgraced. They will be as nothing. Those who fight against you will die."
Isaiah 41:12  "You will look for them and not find them, those who argued against you. Those who make war on you will be as nothing, as a thing that does not exist."
Isaiah 41:13  "For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand. I say to you, 'Do not be afraid. I will help you.'"
Isaiah 41:14  "Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you, says the LORD, and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel."
Isaiah 41:15  "Look, I will make you into a new threshing sledge, sharp and set with teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them small, and make the hills like chaff."
Isaiah 41:16  "You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. And you will rejoice in the LORD, and glory in the Holy One of Israel."
Isaiah 41:17  "When the poor and needy look for water and there is none, and their tongue is dry with thirst, I the LORD will hear them. I the God of Israel will not leave them."
Isaiah 41:18  "I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the middle of the valleys. I will turn the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into springs of water."
Isaiah 41:19  "I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, the myrtle and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine and the box tree together,"
Isaiah 41:20  "so that they may see and know, consider and understand together, that the hand of the LORD has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it."
Isaiah 41:21  "Bring your case forward," says the LORD. "Bring out your strong arguments," says the King of Jacob.
Isaiah 41:22  "Let them bring them out, and show us what will happen. Let them tell us what the earlier things were, so that we may think about them and know how they ended. Or let them declare to us the things that are coming."
Isaiah 41:23  "Tell us the things that are to come after this, so that we may know you are gods. Yes, do something good, or do something evil, so that we may be dismayed and see it together."
Isaiah 41:24  "Look, you are nothing, and your work is nothing at all. Whoever chooses you is disgusting."
Isaiah 41:25  "I have raised up one from the north, and he will come. From the rising of the sun he will call on my name. He will walk over rulers as if they were mortar, as the potter treads the clay."
Isaiah 41:26  "Who told this from the beginning, so that we might know? Who told it long before, so that we might say, 'He is right'? No, there is no one who tells it. No, there is no one who declares it. No, there is no one who hears your words."
Isaiah 41:27  "I was the first to say to Zion, 'Look, look at them.' And I will give Jerusalem someone who brings good news."
Isaiah 41:28  "For I looked, and there was no one; among them there was no counsellor who could answer a word when I asked them."
Isaiah 41:29  "Look, they are all worthless. Their works are nothing. Their metal images are wind and confusion."

Isaiah 42:1  Look at my servant, whom I hold up; my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring judgment to the Gentiles.
Isaiah 42:2  He will not shout, nor raise his voice, nor make himself heard in the street.
Isaiah 42:3  He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoking wick. He will bring judgment out into truth.
Isaiah 42:4  He will not fail, and he will not be discouraged, until he has set judgment in the earth. The islands will wait for his law.
Isaiah 42:5  This is what God the LORD says, the one who made the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it:
Isaiah 42:6  "I the LORD have called you in righteousness. I will hold your hand, and I will keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, and as a light for the Gentiles,"
Isaiah 42:7  "to open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison house."
Isaiah 42:8  "I am the LORD. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to carved images."
Isaiah 42:9  "Look, the earlier things have happened, and now I tell of new things. Before they spring up, I tell you about them."
Isaiah 42:10  Sing a new song to the LORD, and his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, the islands, and those who live in them.
Isaiah 42:11  Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages where Kedar lives. Let those who live in the rock sing, let them shout from the mountain tops.
Isaiah 42:12  Let them give glory to the LORD, and tell of his praise in the islands.
Isaiah 42:13  The LORD will go out like a mighty man. He will stir up jealousy like a man of war. He will shout, yes, roar; he will win against his enemies.
Isaiah 42:14  "For a long time I have kept quiet. I have been still and have held myself back. Now I will cry out like a woman in labour. I will destroy and swallow up all at once."
Isaiah 42:15  "I will lay mountains and hills waste, and dry up all their plants. I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools."
Isaiah 42:16  "I will bring the blind along a way they did not know. I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will turn the darkness in front of them into light, and make crooked things straight. These are the things I will do for them, and I will not leave them."
Isaiah 42:17  They will be turned back, they will be deeply ashamed, those who trust in carved images, who say to metal images, "You are our gods."
Isaiah 42:18  Hear, you deaf; and look, you blind, so that you may see.
Isaiah 42:19  Who is blind, but my servant? Or deaf, like my messenger whom I sent? Who is blind like the one who is perfect, and blind like the LORD's servant?
Isaiah 42:20  You see many things, but you do not take notice. His ears are open, but he does not hear.
Isaiah 42:21  The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake. He will make the law great, and give it honour.
Isaiah 42:22  But this is a people robbed and stripped bare. They are all of them trapped in holes, and hidden away in prison houses. They are taken as prey, and no one rescues them; they are taken as loot, and no one says, "Give it back."
Isaiah 42:23  Who among you will listen to this? Who will pay attention and hear for the time to come?
Isaiah 42:24  Who gave Jacob up as loot, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned? For they would not walk in his ways, and they were not obedient to his law.
Isaiah 42:25  So he has poured out on him the fury of his anger, and the force of battle. It set him on fire all around, yet he did not understand; it burned him, yet he did not take it to heart.

Isaiah 43:1  But now this is what the LORD says, the one who created you, Jacob, the one who formed you, Israel: "Do not be afraid. I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine."
Isaiah 43:2  "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, and the flame will not set you alight."
Isaiah 43:3  "For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour. I gave Egypt as the price to set you free, and Ethiopia and Seba in your place."
Isaiah 43:4  "Because you were precious in my sight, you have been honoured, and I have loved you. So I will give other men in exchange for you, and other peoples in exchange for your life."
Isaiah 43:5  "Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will bring your children from the east, and gather you from the west."
Isaiah 43:6  "I will say to the north, 'Give them up,' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring my sons from far away, and my daughters from the ends of the earth."
Isaiah 43:7  "Bring everyone who is called by my name. I created him for my glory. I formed him; yes, I made him."
Isaiah 43:8  "Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears."
Isaiah 43:9  "Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the peoples come together. Who among them can tell this, and show us the things that happened before? Let them bring their witnesses, so they may be proved right. Or let them listen and say, 'It is true.'"
Isaiah 43:10  "You are my witnesses," says the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen. So you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me no God was formed, and there will be none after me."
Isaiah 43:11  "I, I myself, am the LORD, and besides me there is no saviour."
Isaiah 43:12  "I told you, and I saved you, and I made it known. There was no strange god among you. So you are my witnesses," says the LORD, "that I am God."
Isaiah 43:13  "Yes, before the day was, I am he. There is no one who can rescue anyone out of my hand. I will act, and who can stop it?"
Isaiah 43:14  This is what the LORD says, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and I have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose shouting is in the ships."
Isaiah 43:15  "I am the LORD, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King."
Isaiah 43:16  This is what the LORD says, who makes a way in the sea, and a path through the mighty waters,
Isaiah 43:17  who brings out the chariot and horse, the army and its strength: "They will lie down together; they will not rise. They are put out; they are snuffed out like a wick."
Isaiah 43:18  "Do not remember the things that happened before, and do not think about the things of long ago."
Isaiah 43:19  "Look, I will do a new thing. Now it will spring up. Will you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."
Isaiah 43:20  "The wild animals of the field will honour me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen ones."
Isaiah 43:21  "This people I have formed for myself; they will speak out my praise."
Isaiah 43:22  "But you have not called on me, Jacob. You have grown tired of me, Israel."
Isaiah 43:23  "You have not brought me the small animals for your burnt offerings, and you have not honoured me with your sacrifices. I have not made you serve with an offering, or worn you out with incense."
Isaiah 43:24  "You have bought me no sweet cane with money, and you have not filled me with the fat of your sacrifices. Instead you have made me serve with your sins; you have worn me out with your wrongdoing."
Isaiah 43:25  "I, I myself, am the one who wipes out your rebellion, for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins."
Isaiah 43:26  "Remind me. Let us argue the case together. Tell your side, so that you may be proved right."
Isaiah 43:27  "Your first father sinned, and your teachers rebelled against me."
Isaiah 43:28  "So I have treated the princes of the sanctuary as unholy. I have given Jacob over to the curse, and Israel to insults."

Isaiah 44:1  Yet now listen, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.
Isaiah 44:2  This is what the LORD says, who made you and formed you from the womb, and who will help you: "Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, and you, Jesurun, whom I have chosen."
Isaiah 44:3  "For I will pour water on the thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your children, and my blessing on those who come after you."
Isaiah 44:4  "They will spring up like grass, like willows by the flowing streams."
Isaiah 44:5  "One will say, 'I belong to the LORD.' Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write on his hand, 'The LORD's,' and take the name of Israel."
Isaiah 44:6  This is what the LORD says, the King of Israel and his redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first, and I am the last. There is no God but me."
Isaiah 44:7  "Who is like me? Let him call out and tell it, and set it in order before me, since I appointed the people of old. Let them tell what is coming, and what will happen."
Isaiah 44:8  "Do not fear, and do not be afraid. Have I not told you this long ago, and made it known? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know of none."
Isaiah 44:9  All who make a carved image are nothing, and the things they delight in are of no use. They are their own witnesses. They do not see, and they do not know, so they will be put to shame.
Isaiah 44:10  Who shapes a god, or casts an image, that is good for nothing?
Isaiah 44:11  Look, all his companions will be ashamed. The workmen are only men. Let them all gather together, let them stand up. They will be afraid, and they will be ashamed together.
Isaiah 44:12  The blacksmith takes his tongs and works in the coals. He shapes the idol with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms. He grows hungry, and his strength fails. He drinks no water, and he grows faint.
Isaiah 44:13  The carpenter stretches out his measuring line. He marks the wood out with a line. He shapes it with planes, and marks it out with the compass. He makes it like a man, with the beauty of a man, so that it may stay in the house.
Isaiah 44:14  He cuts down cedars for himself. He takes the cypress and the oak, which he lets grow strong for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants an ash tree, and the rain makes it grow.
Isaiah 44:15  Then it is there for a man to burn. He takes some of it and warms himself. Yes, he lights it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it. He makes it into a carved image, and bows down to it.
Isaiah 44:16  He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it he cooks meat; he roasts his roast and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire."
Isaiah 44:17  And the rest of it he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down to it and worships it, and prays to it, and says, "Save me, for you are my god."
Isaiah 44:18  They have not known, and they have not understood. For he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.
Isaiah 44:19  No one thinks it over in his heart. No one has the knowledge or the understanding to say, "I burned part of it in the fire. I even baked bread on its coals. I roasted meat, and ate it. And shall I make the rest of it into a hateful thing? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?"
Isaiah 44:20  He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside, so that he cannot save his soul, or say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
Isaiah 44:21  Remember these things, Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant. I formed you; you are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
Isaiah 44:22  I have wiped out your sins like a thick cloud, and your wrongdoing like a cloud. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Isaiah 44:23  Sing, you heavens, for the LORD has done it. Shout, you deep places of the earth. Break out into singing, you mountains, and you forest, and every tree in it. For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and shown his glory in Israel.
Isaiah 44:24  This is what the LORD says, your redeemer, who formed you from the womb: "I am the LORD who makes all things, who alone stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself;"
Isaiah 44:25  "who ruins the signs of liars, and makes those who tell fortunes go mad; who turns wise men back, and makes their knowledge foolish;"
Isaiah 44:26  "who confirms the word of his servant, and carries out the plan of his messengers; who says to Jerusalem, 'You will be lived in,' and to the cities of Judah, 'You will be built,' and I will raise up their ruins;"
Isaiah 44:27  "who says to the deep, 'Be dry,' and I will dry up your rivers;"
Isaiah 44:28  "who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and he will carry out all that I please,' even saying to Jerusalem, 'You will be built,' and to the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'"

Isaiah 45:1  This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to bring down nations before him: "I will loosen the belts of kings. I will open the double doors before him, and the gates will not be shut."
Isaiah 45:2  "I will go before you and make the rough places level. I will break the gates of brass in pieces, and cut through the bars of iron."
Isaiah 45:3  "I will give you the treasures kept in darkness, and riches hidden in secret places. Then you will know that I, the LORD, who call you by your name, am the God of Israel."
Isaiah 45:4  "For the sake of Jacob my servant, and Israel my chosen one, I have called you by your name. I have given you a name of honour, though you have not known me."
Isaiah 45:5  "I am the LORD, and there is no other. There is no God besides me. I made you strong, though you have not known me."
Isaiah 45:6  "So people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is no one besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other."
Isaiah 45:7  "I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the LORD do all these things."
Isaiah 45:8  "Drop down, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them bring out salvation, and let righteousness spring up with it. I the LORD have created it."
Isaiah 45:9  How terrible for the one who fights against his Maker! Let the broken piece of pottery fight with the other broken pieces of the earth. Shall the clay say to the one who shapes it, "What are you making?" Shall your work say, "He has no hands"?
Isaiah 45:10  How terrible for the one who says to his father, "What have you fathered?" or to the woman, "What have you given birth to?"
Isaiah 45:11  This is what the LORD says, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: "Ask me about the things to come concerning my sons, and give me orders about the work of my hands."
Isaiah 45:12  "I have made the earth, and created man upon it. I, with my own hands, have stretched out the heavens, and I have commanded all their host."
Isaiah 45:13  "I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make all his ways straight. He will build my city, and he will let my captives go free, not for a price and not for a reward," says the LORD of hosts.
Isaiah 45:14  This is what the LORD says: "The work of Egypt, and the goods of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, tall men, will come over to you, and they will be yours. They will walk behind you. They will come over in chains. They will bow down to you, and they will beg you, saying, 'Surely God is in you, and there is no other; there is no God.'"
Isaiah 45:15  Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.
Isaiah 45:16  They will be ashamed, and put to shame, all of them. The makers of idols will go away in shame together.
Isaiah 45:17  But Israel will be saved in the LORD with a salvation that lasts for ever. You will not be ashamed or put to shame, for ever and ever.
Isaiah 45:18  For this is what the LORD says, who created the heavens, God himself who formed the earth and made it. He set it firm. He did not create it empty; he formed it to be lived in. "I am the LORD, and there is no other."
Isaiah 45:19  "I have not spoken in secret, in some dark place of the earth. I did not say to the children of Jacob, 'Seek me for nothing.' I the LORD speak righteousness. I tell what is right."
Isaiah 45:20  "Gather yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, those who carry about their wooden carved image, and pray to a god that cannot save."
Isaiah 45:21  "Tell what you know, and bring it forward. Yes, let them talk it over together. Who declared this long ago? Who told it from that time? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no God besides me, a just God and a Saviour. There is no one besides me."
Isaiah 45:22  "Look to me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other."
Isaiah 45:23  "I have sworn by myself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and it will not come back: to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear."
Isaiah 45:24  Surely, one will say, "In the LORD I have righteousness and strength." People will come to him, and all who are angry against him will be ashamed.
Isaiah 45:25  In the LORD all the children of Israel will be counted righteous, and they will glory.

Isaiah 46:1  Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low. Their idols are loaded on animals, on the cattle. The things you carried in procession are now a heavy load, a burden for the tired beast.
Isaiah 46:2  They stoop, they bow down together. They could not save the load, and they themselves have gone into captivity.
Isaiah 46:3  Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all who are left of the house of Israel. I have carried you since you were born; I have lifted you since you came from the womb.
Isaiah 46:4  Even when you are old, I am he; even when your hair is grey, I will carry you. I made you, and I will bear you up; I will carry you, and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:5  Who will you compare me to? Who will you make my equal? Who will you measure me against, as if we were alike?
Isaiah 46:6  They pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver on the scales. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god. Then they fall down and worship it.
Isaiah 46:7  They lift it on their shoulders and carry it. They set it in its place, and there it stands. It cannot move from its place. If someone cries out to it, it cannot answer or save him from his trouble.
Isaiah 46:8  Remember this, and stand up like men. Think about it again, you who break my law.
Isaiah 46:9  Remember the things that happened long ago. I am God, and there is no other. I am God, and there is none like me.
Isaiah 46:10  From the beginning I tell how it will end, and from ancient times I tell what has not yet been done. I say, "My plan will stand, and I will do all that I please."
Isaiah 46:11  I call a bird of prey from the east, and from a far country the man who carries out my plan. I have spoken it, and I will bring it about. I have purposed it, and I will do it.
Isaiah 46:12  Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness.
Isaiah 46:13  I bring my righteousness near; it will not be far off, and my salvation will not be delayed. I will put salvation in Zion, for Israel my glory.

Isaiah 47:1  Come down, and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground; there is no throne, daughter of the Chaldeans. You will no longer be called tender and delicate.
Isaiah 47:2  Take the millstones and grind flour. Uncover your hair, bare your leg, uncover your thigh, cross the rivers.
Isaiah 47:3  Your nakedness will be uncovered; yes, your shame will be seen. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet you as a man.
Isaiah 47:4  As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 47:5  Sit in silence, and go into the darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans. You will no longer be called the lady of kingdoms.
Isaiah 47:6  I was angry with my people. I made my inheritance unclean, and gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy. On the old you laid your yoke very heavily.
Isaiah 47:7  You said, "I shall be a lady for ever." So you did not take these things to heart, and you did not remember how it would end.
Isaiah 47:8  So hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who live without a care, who say in your heart, "I am, and there is no one else besides me. I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall never know the loss of children."
Isaiah 47:9  But these two things will come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, because of all your sorceries, and because of the great number of your spells.
Isaiah 47:10  For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, "No one sees me." Your wisdom and your knowledge have turned you aside, and you have said in your heart, "I am, and there is no one else besides me."
Isaiah 47:11  So evil will come upon you, and you will not know where it comes from. Trouble will fall on you, and you will not be able to put it away. Ruin will come upon you suddenly, before you know it.
Isaiah 47:12  Stand now with your spells and with all your sorceries, which you have worked at from your youth. Perhaps you will be able to gain something; perhaps you will succeed.
Isaiah 47:13  You are worn out by all your plans. Let the astrologers, the stargazers, and those who tell what each month will bring stand up now and save you from the things that are coming upon you.
Isaiah 47:14  Look, they will be like straw; the fire will burn them. They will not save themselves from the power of the flame. There will be no coal to warm at, and no fire to sit in front of.
Isaiah 47:15  This is what they will be to you, those you have worked with, your traders, from your youth. Each one will wander off his own way, and no one will save you.

Isaiah 48:1  Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who came out of the waters of Judah. You swear by the name of the LORD, and you speak of the God of Israel, but not in truth or in righteousness.
Isaiah 48:2  For they call themselves people of the holy city, and they lean on the God of Israel. The LORD of hosts is his name.
Isaiah 48:3  I told the former things long ago. They went out of my mouth, and I made them known. I did them suddenly, and they happened.
Isaiah 48:4  I knew that you are stubborn. Your neck is a sinew of iron, and your forehead is brass.
Isaiah 48:5  So I told you about it long ago. Before it happened I showed it to you. It was so that you could not say, "My idol has done these things. My carved image and my metal image commanded them."
Isaiah 48:6  You have heard it; now look at it all. Will you not tell it? From this time on I show you new things, even hidden things that you did not know.
Isaiah 48:7  They are created now, not long ago. Before today you had never heard of them. It was so that you could not say, "Look, I knew them."
Isaiah 48:8  Yes, you did not hear. Yes, you did not know. Yes, from that time your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would act very treacherously. You have been called a rebel from the womb.
Isaiah 48:9  For my own name's sake I will hold back my anger. For the sake of my praise I will hold back from you, so that I do not cut you off.
Isaiah 48:10  Look, I have refined you, but not with silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of suffering.
Isaiah 48:11  For my own sake, for my own sake, I will do it. Why should my name be made unclean? I will not give my glory to another.
Isaiah 48:12  Listen to me, Jacob, and Israel, whom I have called. I am he. I am the first, and I am also the last.
Isaiah 48:13  My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand up together.
Isaiah 48:14  Gather yourselves together, all of you, and listen. Which of them has told these things? The LORD has loved him. He will do what he pleases to Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans.
Isaiah 48:15  I, even I, have spoken. Yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he will make his way succeed.
Isaiah 48:16  Come near to me and hear this. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From the time that it was, I am there. And now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, has sent me.
Isaiah 48:17  This is what the LORD says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you, who leads you in the way you should go."
Isaiah 48:18  If only you had listened to my commandments. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Isaiah 48:19  "Your children also would have been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains. His name would not have been cut off or destroyed from before me."
Isaiah 48:20  Go out of Babylon. Flee from the Chaldeans. With a voice of singing tell it, tell this, send it out to the end of the earth. Say, "The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob."
Isaiah 48:21  They were not thirsty when he led them through the deserts. He made water flow out of the rock for them. He split the rock, and the water gushed out.
Isaiah 48:22  There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked.

Isaiah 49:1  Listen to me, you islands; pay attention, you peoples far away. The LORD called me from the womb. While I was still inside my mother, he spoke my name.
Isaiah 49:2  He has made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand he hid me. He made me a polished arrow, and hid me in his quiver.
Isaiah 49:3  He said to me, "You are my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified."
Isaiah 49:4  Then I said, "I have worked hard for nothing. I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Yet surely my judgment is with the LORD, and my work is with my God."
Isaiah 49:5  And now the LORD speaks, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him - though Israel is not gathered, yet I shall be honoured in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.
Isaiah 49:6  He said, "It is a small thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to bring back those of Israel who are kept safe. I will also give you as a light to the Gentiles, so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth."
Isaiah 49:7  This is what the LORD says, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to the one whom people despise, whom the nation hates, a servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and stand up, and princes shall worship, because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel; and he shall choose you."
Isaiah 49:8  This is what the LORD says: "In a time of favour I have heard you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. I will keep you, and give you as a covenant of the people, to set up the earth again, and to give out the ruined lands as an inheritance."
Isaiah 49:9  "You will say to the prisoners, 'Go out,' and to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' They shall feed along the roads, and their pastures shall be on all the high places."
Isaiah 49:10  "They shall not be hungry or thirsty, and neither the heat nor the sun shall strike them. For he who has mercy on them shall lead them; he shall guide them by the springs of water."
Isaiah 49:11  "And I will make all my mountains into a road, and my highways shall be raised up."
Isaiah 49:12  "Look, these shall come from far away; look, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim."
Isaiah 49:13  Sing, O heavens; be joyful, O earth; break out into singing, O mountains. For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have mercy on those of his people who suffer.
Isaiah 49:14  But Zion said, "The LORD has left me, and my Lord has forgotten me."
Isaiah 49:15  Can a woman forget the baby at her breast? Can she have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Isaiah 49:16  Look, I have carved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always before me.
Isaiah 49:17  Your children shall hurry back. Those who destroyed you and laid you waste shall go out from you.
Isaiah 49:18  Lift up your eyes and look all around. They all gather together and come to you. "As surely as I live," says the LORD, "you shall wear them all like jewels, and tie them on as a bride does."
Isaiah 49:19  "Your ruins, your empty places, and your land that was destroyed shall now be too small for all who live in you; and those who swallowed you up shall be far away."
Isaiah 49:20  "The children born to you after you lost the others shall say again in your hearing, 'This place is too cramped for me. Make room for me, so that I may live here.'"
Isaiah 49:21  "Then you shall say in your heart, 'Who gave me these children? I had lost my children, and was left alone, a captive, driven here and there. Who brought these up? Look, I was left by myself; these - where were they?'"
Isaiah 49:22  This is what the Lord GOD says: "Look, I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and raise my banner to the peoples. They shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders."
Isaiah 49:23  "Kings shall be like fathers who care for you, and their queens like nursing mothers. They shall bow down to you with their faces to the ground, and lick up the dust of your feet. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; for those who wait for me shall not be put to shame."
Isaiah 49:24  Can the plunder be taken from the strong? Can the lawful captive be set free?
Isaiah 49:25  But this is what the LORD says: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder of the terrible one shall be rescued. For I will fight against the one who fights against you, and I will save your children."
Isaiah 49:26  "I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh. They shall be drunk with their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I the LORD am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob."

Isaiah 50:1  This is what the LORD says: "Where is the paper that proves I divorced your mother and sent her away? Or which of my creditors did I sell you to? Look, you sold yourselves because of your sins. Your mother was sent away because of the wrong you did."
Isaiah 50:2  "Why was there no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand too short to set you free? Have I no power to rescue you? Look, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. I turn the rivers into a desert. Their fish rot because there is no water, and they die of thirst."
Isaiah 50:3  "I clothe the heavens in blackness, and I cover them with sackcloth."
Isaiah 50:4  The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, so that I know how to speak a word at the right time to the one who is tired. Morning by morning he wakens me. He wakens my ear to listen like those who are taught.
Isaiah 50:5  The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I did not rebel. I did not turn away.
Isaiah 50:6  I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting.
Isaiah 50:7  The Lord GOD will help me. So I will not be disgraced. So I have set my face like a flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.
Isaiah 50:8  He who declares me righteous is near. Who will argue against me? Let us stand up together. Who is my accuser? Let him come near to me.
Isaiah 50:9  Look, the Lord GOD will help me. Who is it that will condemn me? Look, they will all wear out like a piece of clothing. The moth will eat them up.
Isaiah 50:10  Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Who walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and lean on his God.
Isaiah 50:11  Look, all you who light a fire, who surround yourselves with burning sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and among the sparks you have lit. This is what you will receive from my hand: you will lie down in sorrow.

Isaiah 51:1  Listen to me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD. Look at the rock you were cut from, and at the hole of the pit you were dug from.
Isaiah 51:2  Look at Abraham your father, and at Sarah who gave birth to you. For when I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him, and made him many.
Isaiah 51:3  For the LORD will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her ruined places. He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving, and the sound of singing.
Isaiah 51:4  Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation. For a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice as a light for the peoples.
Isaiah 51:5  My righteousness is near; my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples. The islands will wait for me, and they will trust in my arm.
Isaiah 51:6  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, and the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live in it will die in the same way. But my salvation will last for ever, and my righteousness will never be ended.
Isaiah 51:7  Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people who have my law in your heart. Do not fear the insults of men, and do not be afraid when they speak against you.
Isaiah 51:8  For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool. But my righteousness will last for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
Isaiah 51:9  Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of the LORD. Awake, as in the days long ago, in the generations of old. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, and wounded the dragon?
Isaiah 51:10  Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? You who made the depths of the sea a road for the ransomed to pass over?
Isaiah 51:11  So those the LORD has redeemed will return, and come to Zion with singing. Everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning will flee away.
Isaiah 51:12  I, even I, am the one who comforts you. Who are you, that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of a son of man who will be made like grass,
Isaiah 51:13  and that you forget the LORD your maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth? You have been afraid without ceasing, every day, because of the rage of the one who oppresses you, as if he were ready to destroy. And where is the rage of the oppressor now?
Isaiah 51:14  The captive who is in exile hurries to be set free, so that he may not die in the pit, and so that his bread may not run out.
Isaiah 51:15  But I am the LORD your God, who divided the sea so that its waves roared. The LORD of hosts is his name.
Isaiah 51:16  I have put my words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of my hand, so that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, "You are my people."
Isaiah 51:17  Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem. You have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury. You have drunk the cup that makes people stagger, and drained it to the last drop.
Isaiah 51:18  Of all the sons she gave birth to, there is none to guide her. Of all the sons she brought up, there is none to take her by the hand.
Isaiah 51:19  These two things have come to you. Who will be sorry for you? Ruin and destruction, and famine and the sword. By whom shall I comfort you?
Isaiah 51:20  Your sons have fainted. They lie at the top of every street, like a wild bull caught in a net. They are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
Isaiah 51:21  So hear this now, you who are afflicted, and drunk, but not with wine.
Isaiah 51:22  This is what your Lord the LORD says, your God who pleads the cause of his people: "Look, I have taken out of your hand the cup that makes people stagger, the dregs of the cup of my fury. You will never drink it again."
Isaiah 51:23  "But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who said to you, 'Lie down, so that we may walk over you.' And you made your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk over."

Isaiah 52:1  Awake, awake; put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful clothes, Jerusalem, the holy city. For from now on no one who is uncircumcised or unclean will come into you again.
Isaiah 52:2  Shake the dust off yourself; get up and sit down, Jerusalem. Loosen the ropes from your neck, captive daughter of Zion.
Isaiah 52:3  For this is what the LORD says: "You sold yourselves for nothing, and you will be redeemed without money."
Isaiah 52:4  For this is what the Lord GOD says: "Long ago my people went down into Egypt to live there as strangers. And the Assyrian crushed them for no reason."
Isaiah 52:5  "So what do I have here now," says the LORD, "since my people have been carried away for nothing? Those who rule over them make them cry out," says the LORD, "and my name is insulted all day long, without stopping."
Isaiah 52:6  "So my people will know my name. In that day they will know that I am the one who speaks. Look, it is I."
Isaiah 52:7  How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who brings good news, who announces peace; who brings good news of good things, who announces salvation; who says to Zion, "Your God reigns."
Isaiah 52:8  Your watchmen lift up their voice; together they sing aloud. For they will see eye to eye, when the LORD brings Zion back again.
Isaiah 52:9  Burst out with joy, sing together, you ruined places of Jerusalem. For the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
Isaiah 52:10  The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. And all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Isaiah 52:11  Go away, go away, come out from there, touch nothing unclean. Come out from among her. Be clean, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
Isaiah 52:12  For you will not go out in a hurry, nor leave as those who run away. For the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will guard you from behind.
Isaiah 52:13  Look, my servant will act wisely. He will be lifted up and praised, and will be very high.
Isaiah 52:14  Many were shocked when they saw you. His face was ruined more than any man's, and his form more than that of the sons of men.
Isaiah 52:15  So he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him. For they will see what they were never told, and they will think about what they had never heard.

Isaiah 53:1  Who has believed what we reported? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
Isaiah 53:2  For he will grow up before him like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He has no form and no beauty. When we see him, there is nothing in his looks to make us want him.
Isaiah 53:3  He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and one who knows grief well. We hid our faces from him, as it were. He was despised, and we thought nothing of him.
Isaiah 53:4  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we thought he was struck down, beaten by God, and brought low.
Isaiah 53:5  But he was wounded for our wrongdoing; he was crushed for our sins. The punishment that brought us peace was laid on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:6  All of us, like sheep, have wandered away. Each one of us has turned to his own way. And the LORD has laid on him the sin of us all.
Isaiah 53:7  He was crushed down, and he was brought low, yet he did not open his mouth. He is led like a lamb to the slaughter. Like a sheep silent before those who cut off its wool, he does not open his mouth.
Isaiah 53:8  He was taken away from prison and from judgment. And who will speak of his generation? For he was cut off from the land of the living. He was struck down for the wrongdoing of my people.
Isaiah 53:9  He was given a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, and there was no lie in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:10  Yet it pleased the LORD to crush him; he has made him suffer grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he will see his offspring, he will live long, and what pleases the LORD will succeed in his hand.
Isaiah 53:11  He will see the hard labour of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge my righteous servant will make many righteous, for he will bear their sins.
Isaiah 53:12  So I will give him a share with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death. He was counted among those who do wrong. He carried the sin of many, and he prayed for those who do wrong.

Isaiah 54:1  Sing, you who cannot have children, you who never gave birth. Burst into singing and shout aloud, you who never had labour pains. For the children of the woman left alone are more than the children of the married wife, says the LORD.
Isaiah 54:2  Make the space of your tent larger. Let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings. Do not hold back. Make your ropes long, and make your tent pegs strong.
Isaiah 54:3  For you will spread out to the right hand and to the left. Your children will take the nations as their own, and will fill the empty cities with people.
Isaiah 54:4  Do not be afraid, for you will not be ashamed. Do not be dismayed, for you will not be disgraced. You will forget the shame of your youth, and you will remember the reproach of your widowhood no more.
Isaiah 54:5  For your Maker is your husband. The LORD of hosts is his name. Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He will be called the God of the whole earth.
Isaiah 54:6  For the LORD has called you back like a wife who was left and is grieved in spirit, a wife married in youth and then turned away, says your God.
Isaiah 54:7  For a short moment I left you, but with great mercy I will gather you back.
Isaiah 54:8  In a burst of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you, says the LORD your Redeemer.
Isaiah 54:9  This is like the waters of Noah to me. I swore that the waters of Noah would never cover the earth again. In the same way I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.
Isaiah 54:10  The mountains may go away and the hills be moved, but my kindness will not go away from you. My covenant of peace will not be moved, says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
Isaiah 54:11  You who suffer, tossed about by the storm and not comforted, look, I will set your stones in bright colours, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
Isaiah 54:12  I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of beautiful stones.
Isaiah 54:13  All your children will be taught by the LORD, and great will be the peace of your children.
Isaiah 54:14  You will be made firm in righteousness. You will be far from cruel treatment, for you will not be afraid. Terror will be far away, for it will not come near you.
Isaiah 54:15  Look, they will surely gather together, but not by me. Whoever gathers together against you will fall because of you.
Isaiah 54:16  Look, I have made the blacksmith who blows on the coals in the fire and brings out a tool for his work. And I have made the destroyer to destroy.
Isaiah 54:17  No weapon made against you will succeed. Every tongue that rises against you in judgment you will prove wrong. This is what the servants of the LORD receive, and their righteousness comes from me, says the LORD.

Isaiah 55:1  Come, everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters. You who have no money, come, buy, and eat. Come, buy wine and milk with no money and no price.
Isaiah 55:2  Why do you spend money on what is not bread? Why do you work for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in rich food.
Isaiah 55:3  Turn your ear to me, and come to me. Listen, and your soul will live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies promised to David.
Isaiah 55:4  Look, I have given him as a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.
Isaiah 55:5  Look, you will call a nation you do not know, and nations that did not know you will run to you. This is because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he has given you glory.
Isaiah 55:6  Seek the LORD while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
Isaiah 55:7  Let the wicked man leave his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will pardon freely.
Isaiah 55:8  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways," says the LORD.
Isaiah 55:9  "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."
Isaiah 55:10  "For the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not go back there. It waters the earth and makes it sprout and bud, so that it gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater."
Isaiah 55:11  "So my word will be that goes out of my mouth. It will not come back to me empty. It will do what I please, and it will succeed in the thing I sent it to do."
Isaiah 55:12  "For you will go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will burst into singing before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands."
Isaiah 55:13  "Instead of the thorn the fir tree will grow, and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will grow. It will be a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that will not be cut off."

Isaiah 56:1  This is what the LORD says: "Keep justice, and do what is right. For my salvation is near, ready to come, and my righteousness is ready to be revealed."
Isaiah 56:2  "Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds on to it. He keeps the sabbath and does not make it unclean, and he keeps his hand from doing any evil."
Isaiah 56:3  Do not let the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, "The LORD has completely separated me from his people." And do not let the eunuch say, "Look, I am a dry tree."
Isaiah 56:4  For this is what the LORD says to the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold on to my covenant:
Isaiah 56:5  "To them I will give, in my house and inside my walls, a place and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will never be cut off."
Isaiah 56:6  "And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants - everyone who keeps the sabbath and does not make it unclean, and holds on to my covenant -"
Isaiah 56:7  "I will bring them to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar. For my house will be called a house of prayer for all people."
Isaiah 56:8  The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, says, "I will gather still others to him, besides those already gathered to him."
Isaiah 56:9  All you beasts of the field, come and eat; yes, all you beasts in the forest.
Isaiah 56:10  His watchmen are blind. They all know nothing. They are all dumb dogs; they cannot bark. They lie down sleeping, and they love to slumber.
Isaiah 56:11  Yes, they are greedy dogs that can never have enough, and they are shepherds who cannot understand. They all turn to their own way, each one for his own gain, from every side.
Isaiah 56:12  "Come," they say, "I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink. And tomorrow will be like today, and even better."

Isaiah 57:1  The righteous person dies, and no one takes it to heart. Merciful men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous is taken away from the evil that is coming.
Isaiah 57:2  He shall enter into peace. They shall rest in their beds, each one who walked in his uprightness.
Isaiah 57:3  But come here, you sons of the sorceress, you children of the adulterer and the prostitute.
Isaiah 57:4  Who are you making fun of? Who are you opening your mouth wide at, and sticking out your tongue at? Are you not children of rebellion, children of lies?
Isaiah 57:5  You burn with lust among the idols under every green tree. You kill the children in the valleys, under the cracks of the rocks.
Isaiah 57:6  Among the smooth stones of the stream is your share; they, they are your portion. To them you have poured out a drink offering, and offered a grain offering. Should I be comforted by these things?
Isaiah 57:7  On a high and lofty mountain you have set up your bed. Even there you went up to offer sacrifice.
Isaiah 57:8  Behind the doors and the doorposts you have set up your memorial. You have uncovered yourself to another than me, and have gone up. You have made your bed wide, and made a covenant with them. You loved their bed where you saw it.
Isaiah 57:9  You went to the king with ointment, and increased your perfumes. You sent your messengers far away, and brought yourself down even to hell.
Isaiah 57:10  You are worn out by the length of your journey, yet you did not say, "There is no hope." You found new strength in your hand, so you did not grow weak.
Isaiah 57:11  Who were you afraid of, who did you fear, that you lied and did not remember me, or take it to heart? Have I not kept silent for a long time? And so you do not fear me.
Isaiah 57:12  I will declare your righteousness and your works; they will not help you.
Isaiah 57:13  When you cry out, let the idols you have gathered rescue you. But the wind will carry them all away; a breath will take them. But whoever puts his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain.
Isaiah 57:14  And he shall say, "Build it up, build it up, prepare the way. Take the stumbling block out of the way of my people."
Isaiah 57:15  For this is what the high and lofty One says, who lives for ever, whose name is Holy: "I live in the high and holy place, and also with the person who has a crushed and humble spirit, to give new life to the spirit of the humble, and new life to the heart of the crushed."
Isaiah 57:16  "For I will not accuse for ever, nor will I always be angry. If I did, the spirit would fail before me, and the souls that I have made."
Isaiah 57:17  "I was angry at the sin of his greed, and I struck him. I hid myself, and was angry, and he kept going stubbornly in the way of his own heart."
Isaiah 57:18  "I have seen his ways, and I will heal him. I will lead him also, and bring comfort back to him and to those who mourn for him."
Isaiah 57:19  "I create the fruit of the lips: Peace, peace to the one who is far off, and to the one who is near," says the LORD, "and I will heal him."
Isaiah 57:20  But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waters throw up mud and dirt.
Isaiah 57:21  "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

Isaiah 58:1  Cry aloud, do not hold back. Lift up your voice like a trumpet. Show my people how they have rebelled, and show the house of Jacob their sins.
Isaiah 58:2  Yet they look for me every day, and they delight to know my ways, like a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the law of its God. They ask me for just decisions; they delight to come near to God.
Isaiah 58:3  They say, "Why have we fasted, and you do not see it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no notice?" Look, on the day of your fast you do as you please, and you drive on all your workers.
Isaiah 58:4  Look, you fast for quarrelling and arguing, and to strike with a wicked fist. You must not fast as you do today, if you want your voice to be heard on high.
Isaiah 58:5  Is this the kind of fast I have chosen? Only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it bowing down his head like a reed, and lying on sackcloth and ashes? Will you call this a fast, a day the LORD accepts?
Isaiah 58:6  Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loosen the chains of wickedness, to untie the heavy loads, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?
Isaiah 58:7  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and to bring the poor who have no home into your house? When you see someone naked, cover him, and do not hide yourself from your own flesh and blood.
Isaiah 58:8  Then your light will break out like the morning, and your healing will spring up quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will guard you from behind.
Isaiah 58:9  Then you will call, and the LORD will answer. You will cry out, and he will say, "Here I am." If you take away from among you the yoke, the pointing finger, and empty talk;
Isaiah 58:10  and if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will be like noon.
Isaiah 58:11  The LORD will guide you always. He will satisfy you in dry places, and make your bones strong. You will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:12  Your people will build up the old ruins. You will raise up the foundations laid long ago. You will be called The Repairer of the Broken Wall, The Restorer of Streets to Live in.
Isaiah 58:13  If you turn your foot away from breaking the sabbath, and from doing as you please on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight, and the LORD's holy day honourable; and if you honour him by not going your own ways, not doing as you please, and not talking idly;
Isaiah 58:14  then you will delight yourself in the LORD. I will make you ride on the high places of the earth, and feed you with the inheritance of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken it.

Isaiah 59:1  Look, the LORD's hand is not too short to save. His ear is not too dull to hear.
Isaiah 59:2  But your sins have made a wall between you and your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
Isaiah 59:3  For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with sin. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue has muttered twisted things.
Isaiah 59:4  No one calls for justice, and no one pleads for truth. They trust in what is empty and speak lies. They conceive trouble and give birth to sin.
Isaiah 59:5  They hatch cockatrice eggs and weave the spider's web. Whoever eats their eggs dies, and the egg that is crushed hatches out a viper.
Isaiah 59:6  Their webs will not make clothes, and they cannot cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of sin, and acts of violence are in their hands.
Isaiah 59:7  Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of sin. Ruin and destruction are in their paths.
Isaiah 59:8  They do not know the way of peace, and there is no justice in their ways. They have made their paths crooked. No one who walks in them will know peace.
Isaiah 59:9  So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We wait for light, but look, there is darkness. We wait for brightness, but we walk in the dark.
Isaiah 59:10  We feel along the wall like blind men. We grope as if we had no eyes. We stumble at midday as if it were night. We are like dead men in empty places.
Isaiah 59:11  We all growl like bears, and we mourn sadly like doves. We look for justice, but there is none. We look for salvation, but it is far away from us.
Isaiah 59:12  For our wrongdoing is piled high before you, and our sins speak against us. Our wrongdoing stays with us, and we know our sins well.
Isaiah 59:13  We have rebelled and lied against the LORD, and turned away from following our God. We have spoken of crushing others and of revolt. We have planned lies in our hearts and spoken them out.
Isaiah 59:14  So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands far off. Truth has fallen in the street, and fairness cannot come in.
Isaiah 59:15  Yes, truth is gone, and whoever turns away from evil is attacked. The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
Isaiah 59:16  He saw that there was no one, and he was amazed that there was no one to plead for them. So his own arm brought him salvation, and his own righteousness held him up.
Isaiah 59:17  He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal like a cloak.
Isaiah 59:18  He will pay them back for what they have done: fury for those who oppose him, and full payment for his enemies. He will pay the islands what they are owed.
Isaiah 59:19  So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from where the sun rises. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift up a banner against him.
Isaiah 59:20  "The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those in Jacob who turn away from their sin," says the LORD.
Isaiah 59:21  "As for me, this is my covenant with them," says the LORD. "My Spirit that is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not leave your mouth, nor the mouth of your children, nor the mouth of your children's children," says the LORD, "from now on and for ever."

Isaiah 60:1  Get up, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
Isaiah 60:2  Look, darkness will cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But the LORD will rise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
Isaiah 60:3  The Gentiles will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Isaiah 60:4  Lift up your eyes and look all around you. They all gather themselves together; they come to you. Your sons will come from far away, and your daughters will be carried at your side.
Isaiah 60:5  Then you will see, and you will flow together, and your heart will tremble and grow wide. For the riches of the sea will be turned over to you, and the wealth of the Gentiles will come to you.
Isaiah 60:6  A crowd of camels will cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba will come. They will bring gold and incense, and they will tell out the praises of the LORD.
Isaiah 60:7  All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you; the rams of Nebaioth will serve you. They will come up and be accepted on my altar, and I will make the house of my glory glorious.
Isaiah 60:8  Who are these that fly along like a cloud, and like doves to their windows?
Isaiah 60:9  Surely the islands will wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring your sons from far away, with their silver and their gold, to the name of the LORD your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you glorious.
Isaiah 60:10  The sons of strangers will build up your walls, and their kings will serve you. For in my anger I struck you, but in my favour I have had mercy on you.
Isaiah 60:11  So your gates will stand open all the time. They will not be shut by day or by night, so that people may bring you the wealth of the Gentiles, and so that their kings may be led in.
Isaiah 60:12  For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish; yes, those nations will be completely ruined.
Isaiah 60:13  The glory of Lebanon will come to you: the fir tree, the pine tree and the box tree together, to make the place of my sanctuary beautiful. And I will make the place of my feet glorious.
Isaiah 60:14  The sons of those who troubled you will come bending low before you. All who despised you will bow down at the soles of your feet. They will call you The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 60:15  You have been left alone and hated, so that no one passed through you. But I will make you something splendid for ever, a joy for many generations.
Isaiah 60:16  You will also drink the milk of the Gentiles, and drink from the breast of kings. And you will know that I the LORD am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 60:17  Instead of brass I will bring gold, and instead of iron I will bring silver, and brass instead of wood, and iron instead of stones. I will also make peace your officers, and righteousness your tax collectors.
Isaiah 60:18  Violence will no longer be heard in your land, nor ruin and destruction inside your borders. You will call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise.
Isaiah 60:19  The sun will no longer be your light by day, nor will the moon shine to give you light. The LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
Isaiah 60:20  Your sun will never set again, and your moon will not go away. For the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be over.
Isaiah 60:21  Your people will all be righteous. They will possess the land for ever. They are the branch I planted, the work of my hands, so that I may be glorified.
Isaiah 60:22  The little one will become a thousand, and the small one a strong nation. I the LORD will bring it quickly, in its time.

Isaiah 61:1  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and the opening of the prison for those who are bound;
Isaiah 61:2  to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;
Isaiah 61:3  to appoint to those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness. Then they will be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, so that he may be glorified.
Isaiah 61:4  They will build up the old ruins. They will raise up the places long left empty. They will repair the wasted cities, the ruins of many generations.
Isaiah 61:5  Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner will be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
Isaiah 61:6  But you will be named the Priests of the LORD. People will call you the Ministers of our God. You will eat the riches of the Gentiles, and you will boast in their glory.
Isaiah 61:7  Instead of your shame you will have double, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their share. So in their land they will possess double, and everlasting joy will be theirs.
Isaiah 61:8  For I the LORD love justice. I hate robbery for burnt offering. I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Isaiah 61:9  Their children will be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that they are the children whom the LORD has blessed.
Isaiah 61:10  I will greatly rejoice in the LORD. My soul will be joyful in my God. For he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom dresses himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:11  For as the earth brings out its buds, and as the garden makes the things sown in it spring up, so the Lord GOD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all the nations.

Isaiah 62:1  For Zion's sake I will not keep quiet, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest. I will not rest until her righteousness shines out like a bright light, and her salvation like a burning lamp.
Isaiah 62:2  The Gentiles will see your righteousness, and all kings will see your glory. You will be called by a new name, and the mouth of the LORD will choose it.
Isaiah 62:3  You will be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal crown in the hand of your God.
Isaiah 62:4  You will no longer be called Forsaken, and your land will no longer be called Desolate. Instead you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah. For the LORD delights in you, and your land will be married.
Isaiah 62:5  For as a young man marries a young woman, so your sons will marry you. And as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so your God will rejoice over you.
Isaiah 62:6  I have set watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem. They will never be quiet, day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent,
Isaiah 62:7  and give him no rest, until he makes Jerusalem firm, and makes her a praise in the earth.
Isaiah 62:8  The LORD has sworn by his right hand, and by his strong arm: "I will never again give your grain to be food for your enemies. Foreigners will not drink your wine, which you worked hard for."
Isaiah 62:9  "But those who gathered it will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who brought it in will drink it in the courts of my holy place."
Isaiah 62:10  Go through, go through the gates. Get the way ready for the people. Build up, build up the highway. Clear away the stones. Lift up a banner for the peoples.
Isaiah 62:11  Look, the LORD has made this known to the end of the world: "Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Look, your salvation is coming. Look, his reward is with him, and his work goes before him.'"
Isaiah 62:12  And they will call them The Holy People, The Redeemed of the LORD. And you will be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

Isaiah 63:1  Who is this who comes from Edom, in bright red garments from Bozrah? Who is this, glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength? "It is I, who speak in righteousness, mighty to save."
Isaiah 63:2  Why are you red in your clothing, and your garments like one who treads in the winepress?
Isaiah 63:3  "I have trodden the winepress alone. Of the peoples there was no one with me. I trod them down in my anger, and trampled them in my fury. Their blood was sprinkled on my garments, and I stained all my clothing."
Isaiah 63:4  For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and the year of those I have redeemed has come.
Isaiah 63:5  I looked, and there was no one to help. I was amazed that there was no one to give support. So my own arm brought me salvation, and my fury upheld me.
Isaiah 63:6  "I will tread down the peoples in my anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring their strength down to the ground."
Isaiah 63:7  I will speak of the loving kindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD. I will speak of all that the LORD has given us, and of his great goodness to the house of Israel, which he gave them because of his mercies, and because of the greatness of his loving kindnesses.
Isaiah 63:8  For he said, "Surely they are my people, children who will not lie." So he became their Saviour.
Isaiah 63:9  In all their trouble he was troubled, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Isaiah 63:10  But they rebelled, and grieved his holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy, and he fought against them.
Isaiah 63:11  Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people. He said, "Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who put his holy Spirit among them?"
Isaiah 63:12  Where is he who led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water in front of them, to make himself an everlasting name?
Isaiah 63:13  "Where is he who led them through the deep, so that they did not stumble, like a horse in the wilderness?"
Isaiah 63:14  As cattle go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So you led your people, to make yourself a glorious name.
Isaiah 63:15  Look down from heaven. See from your holy and glorious home. Where is your zeal and your strength? Where is the stirring of your inmost heart and of your mercies toward me? Are they held back?
Isaiah 63:16  Yet you are our father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognise us. You, LORD, are our father. Our redeemer is your name from everlasting.
Isaiah 63:17  LORD, why have you made us wander from your ways, and hardened our heart so that we do not fear you? Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.
Isaiah 63:18  Your holy people held it only a little while. Our enemies have trodden down your sanctuary.
Isaiah 63:19  We are yours. You never ruled over them; they were not called by your name.

Isaiah 64:1  Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down! Then the mountains would flow down before you,
Isaiah 64:2  as when a melting fire burns, as the fire makes water boil. Come down to make your name known to your enemies, so that the nations may tremble before you.
Isaiah 64:3  When you did terrible things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains flowed down before you.
Isaiah 64:4  Since the beginning of the world no one has heard, no ear has understood, no eye has seen any God but you, who acts for the one who waits for him.
Isaiah 64:5  You meet the one who is glad and does righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. Look, you were angry, for we have sinned. In these ways we have long gone on, and shall we be saved?
Isaiah 64:6  But we are all like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all wither like a leaf, and our sins, like the wind, have carried us away.
Isaiah 64:7  There is no one who calls on your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you. For you have hidden your face from us, and have wasted us away because of our sins.
Isaiah 64:8  But now, LORD, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter. We are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah 64:9  Do not be angry beyond measure, LORD. Do not remember our sin for ever. Look, see, we beg you: we are all your people.
Isaiah 64:10  Your holy cities have become a desert. Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a ruin.
Isaiah 64:11  Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, is burned with fire. All the things we treasured are laid waste.
Isaiah 64:12  Will you hold yourself back after all this, LORD? Will you keep silent, and afflict us beyond measure?

Isaiah 65:1  I was sought by people who did not ask for me; I was found by people who did not look for me. I said, "Here I am, here I am," to a nation that was not called by my name.
Isaiah 65:2  All day long I have spread out my hands to a rebellious people. They walk in a way that is not good, following their own thoughts.
Isaiah 65:3  They are a people who make me angry all the time, right to my face. They offer sacrifices in gardens, and burn incense on altars of brick.
Isaiah 65:4  They stay among the graves, and spend the night in the monuments. They eat pig's flesh, and broth made of disgusting things is in their pots.
Isaiah 65:5  They say, "Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you." These people are smoke in my nose, a fire that burns all day long.
Isaiah 65:6  Look, it is written down before me. I will not keep silent, but I will pay them back, pay it back into their lap:
Isaiah 65:7  your own sins and the sins of your fathers together, says the LORD. They burned incense on the mountains, and insulted me on the hills. So I will measure out into their lap the payment for what they did before.
Isaiah 65:8  This is what the LORD says: "When new wine is found in a bunch of grapes, someone says, 'Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it.' So I will do for the sake of my servants, and not destroy them all."
Isaiah 65:9  "I will bring out descendants from Jacob, and from Judah one to inherit my mountains. My chosen ones will inherit it, and my servants will live there."
Isaiah 65:10  "Sharon will be a pasture for flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down, for my people who have sought me."
Isaiah 65:11  "But you are the ones who forsake the LORD, who forget my holy mountain, who prepare a table for that troop, and fill the drink offering for that number."
Isaiah 65:12  "So I will count you out for the sword, and you will all bow down to be slaughtered. For when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen. You did evil in my sight, and chose what did not please me."
Isaiah 65:13  Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Look, my servants will eat, but you will be hungry. Look, my servants will drink, but you will be thirsty. Look, my servants will rejoice, but you will be ashamed."
Isaiah 65:14  "Look, my servants will sing because their hearts are glad, but you will cry out because your hearts are sad, and you will wail because your spirit is broken."
Isaiah 65:15  "You will leave your name behind as a curse for my chosen ones, for the Lord GOD will kill you, and will call his servants by another name."
Isaiah 65:16  "So whoever asks a blessing on himself in the land will ask it by the God of truth, and whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the old troubles are forgotten, and they are hidden from my eyes."
Isaiah 65:17  "For look, I am making new heavens and a new earth. The old ones will not be remembered, and will not come to mind."
Isaiah 65:18  "But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I make. For look, I make Jerusalem a delight, and her people a joy."
Isaiah 65:19  "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people. The sound of weeping will no longer be heard in her, nor the sound of crying."
Isaiah 65:20  "No more will there be in her an infant who lives only a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years. For the child will die a hundred years old, but the sinner who is a hundred years old will be cursed."
Isaiah 65:21  "They will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit."
Isaiah 65:22  "They will not build for someone else to live there; they will not plant for someone else to eat. For my people will live as long as a tree lives, and my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands."
Isaiah 65:23  "They will not work for nothing, nor bear children for trouble. For they are the offspring of those the LORD has blessed, and their children are with them."
Isaiah 65:24  "Before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear."
Isaiah 65:25  "The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent's food. They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain," says the LORD.

Isaiah 66:1  This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you would build for me? And where is the place of my rest?"
Isaiah 66:2  My hand made all those things, and so they all came to be, says the LORD. But this is the one I will look to: the one who is poor and has a broken spirit, and who trembles at my word.
Isaiah 66:3  The one who kills an ox is like one who kills a man. The one who sacrifices a lamb is like one who breaks a dog's neck. The one who brings a grain offering is like one who offers pig's blood. The one who burns incense is like one who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their disgusting practices.
Isaiah 66:4  "So I will choose to deal harshly with them, and I will bring on them the things they fear. For when I called, no one answered. When I spoke, they did not listen. They did evil in my sight, and chose what did not please me."
Isaiah 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: "Your own brothers hated you and threw you out because of my name. They said, 'Let the LORD be glorified.' But he will appear to your joy, and they will be ashamed."
Isaiah 66:6  A sound of uproar comes from the city, a voice from the temple. It is the voice of the LORD, paying back his enemies what they deserve.
Isaiah 66:7  Before she went into labour, she gave birth. Before her pain came, she delivered a son.
Isaiah 66:8  Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a land be brought to birth in one day? Can a nation be born all at once? Yet as soon as Zion went into labour, she gave birth to her children.
Isaiah 66:9  "Do I bring a child to the point of birth and not let it be born?" says the LORD. "Do I cause the birth and then close the womb?" says your God.
Isaiah 66:10  Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Be full of joy with her, all you who mourn for her.
Isaiah 66:11  Then you may feed and be satisfied at her comforting breasts. You may drink deeply and delight in the fullness of her glory.
Isaiah 66:12  For this is what the LORD says: "Look, I will spread peace over her like a river, and the glory of the nations like a flooding stream. Then you will feed; you will be carried on her side and bounced on her knees."
Isaiah 66:13  "As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; and you will be comforted in Jerusalem."
Isaiah 66:14  When you see this, your heart will rejoice, and your bones will grow strong like new grass. The hand of the LORD will be known to his servants, and his anger to his enemies.
Isaiah 66:15  Look, the LORD will come with fire, and his chariots will come like a whirlwind. He will pay back his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
Isaiah 66:16  For with fire and with his sword the LORD will bring judgment on all flesh, and those killed by the LORD will be many.
Isaiah 66:17  "Those who make themselves holy and clean to go into the gardens, following the one in the middle, eating pig's flesh, and the disgusting things, and the mouse, will be destroyed together," says the LORD.
Isaiah 66:18  "For I know their deeds and their thoughts. The time is coming when I will gather all nations and languages. They will come and see my glory."
Isaiah 66:19  I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape from them to the nations: to Tarshish, Pul and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the far-off coastlands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. And they will tell of my glory among the nations.
Isaiah 66:20  "They will bring all your brothers and sisters out of all nations as an offering to the LORD. They will bring them on horses, in chariots, in wagons, on mules and on swift animals, to my holy mountain Jerusalem," says the LORD, "just as the people of Israel bring an offering in a clean dish into the house of the LORD."
Isaiah 66:21  "And I will take some of them to be priests and Levites," says the LORD.
Isaiah 66:22  "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will last before me," says the LORD, "so your children and your name will last."
Isaiah 66:23  "And from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me," says the LORD.
Isaiah 66:24  "And they will go out and look at the dead bodies of the men who rebelled against me. Their worm will not die, and their fire will not be put out; and they will be a horror to all flesh."

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:1  The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who lived in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin.
Jeremiah 1:2  The word of the LORD came to him in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
Jeremiah 1:3  It came also in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, and on until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the people of Jerusalem were carried away as captives in the fifth month.
Jeremiah 1:4  Then the word of the LORD came to me. It said:
Jeremiah 1:5  "Before I formed you in the belly I knew you. Before you came out of the womb I set you apart, and I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations."
Jeremiah 1:6  Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD, look, I cannot speak, for I am a child."
Jeremiah 1:7  But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to, and you must speak whatever I command you."
Jeremiah 1:8  "Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to rescue you, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 1:9  Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, "Look, I have put my words in your mouth."
Jeremiah 1:10  "See, today I have set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pull up and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant."
Jeremiah 1:11  The word of the LORD came to me again. It said, "Jeremiah, what do you see?" And I said, "I see a branch of an almond tree."
Jeremiah 1:12  Then the LORD said to me, "You have seen well, for I will hurry to carry out my word."
Jeremiah 1:13  The word of the LORD came to me a second time. It said, "What do you see?" And I said, "I see a boiling pot, and its face is turned toward the north."
Jeremiah 1:14  Then the LORD said to me, "Out of the north an evil will break out on all the people who live in the land."
Jeremiah 1:15  "For look, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD. They will come, and each one will set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all her walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah."
Jeremiah 1:16  "And I will speak my judgments against them for all their wickedness. They have left me, and have burned incense to other gods, and have worshipped the works of their own hands."
Jeremiah 1:17  "So get yourself ready, and stand up, and speak to them everything I command you. Do not be frightened by their faces, or I will break you down in front of them."
Jeremiah 1:18  "For look, today I have made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and walls of bronze against the whole land: against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land."
Jeremiah 1:19  "They will fight against you, but they will not win against you, for I am with you to rescue you, says the LORD."

Jeremiah 2:1  The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jeremiah 2:2  "Go and call out so that Jerusalem hears. Say, This is what the LORD says: I remember you, the kindness of your youth, your love when you were a bride. You followed me through the wilderness, through a land that was not sown."
Jeremiah 2:3  "Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who devoured him were held guilty. Evil came upon them, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 2:4  Hear the word of the LORD, house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.
Jeremiah 2:5  This is what the LORD says: "What wrong did your fathers find in me, that they went far away from me? They followed worthless things, and became worthless themselves."
Jeremiah 2:6  "They did not say, 'Where is the LORD who brought us up out of the land of Egypt? He led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land where no one travelled and no one lived.'"
Jeremiah 2:7  "I brought you into a rich country, to eat its fruit and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land, and made my inheritance a disgusting thing."
Jeremiah 2:8  "The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?' Those who handled the law did not know me. The shepherds rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, and followed things that give no profit."
Jeremiah 2:9  "So I will bring my case against you still, says the LORD, and against your children's children I will bring it."
Jeremiah 2:10  "Cross over to the coasts of Chittim and look. Send to Kedar and think it over carefully. See whether there has ever been such a thing."
Jeremiah 2:11  "Has a nation ever changed its gods, though they are not gods at all? But my people have exchanged their glory for something that gives no profit."
Jeremiah 2:12  "Be shocked at this, you heavens. Shudder with horror. Be utterly desolate, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 2:13  "For my people have done two evils. They have left me, the fountain of living waters, and they have cut out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water."
Jeremiah 2:14  "Is Israel a servant? Is he a slave born in the house? Why then has he been plundered?"
Jeremiah 2:15  "The young lions roared at him. They yelled, and they made his land a waste. His cities are burned, with no one living in them."
Jeremiah 2:16  "Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of your head."
Jeremiah 2:17  "Have you not brought this on yourself, by leaving the LORD your God when he led you along the way?"
Jeremiah 2:18  "And now, what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? What do you gain by going to Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?"
Jeremiah 2:19  "Your own wickedness will correct you, and your turning away will rebuke you. So know and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have left the LORD your God, and that you have no fear of me, says the Lord GOD of hosts."
Jeremiah 2:20  "Long ago I broke your yoke and snapped your chains. And you said, 'I will not serve.' But on every high hill and under every green tree you wandered, acting the prostitute."
Jeremiah 2:21  "Yet I had planted you as a noble vine, wholly of good seed. How then have you turned into a rotten plant, a strange vine to me?"
Jeremiah 2:22  "Even if you wash yourself with soda and use much soap, your guilt is still marked before me, says the Lord GOD."
Jeremiah 2:23  "How can you say, 'I am not defiled, I have not gone after the Baalim'? Look at your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift young camel, running here and there,"
Jeremiah 2:24  "a wild donkey used to the wilderness, sniffing the wind when she is in heat. Who can turn her back when she is in season? None who look for her need tire themselves; in her month they will find her."
Jeremiah 2:25  "Keep your foot from going bare, and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'There is no hope. No, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.'"
Jeremiah 2:26  "As a thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is ashamed: they, their kings, their princes, their priests and their prophets,"
Jeremiah 2:27  "who say to a block of wood, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave me birth.' For they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. But in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise and save us.'"
Jeremiah 2:28  "But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah."
Jeremiah 2:29  "Why do you bring your case against me? You have all rebelled against me, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 2:30  "It was no use striking your children; they took no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a lion that destroys."
Jeremiah 2:31  "O you people of this generation, look at the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of darkness? Why then do my people say, 'We are free to roam; we will come to you no more'?"
Jeremiah 2:32  "Can a girl forget her jewellery, or a bride her wedding dress? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number."
Jeremiah 2:33  "How well you arrange your way to look for love. So you have even taught wicked women your ways."
Jeremiah 2:34  "Also on the skirts of your clothes is found the blood of the lives of the poor and innocent. I did not find it by searching in secret, but on all of these."
Jeremiah 2:35  "Yet you say, 'Because I am innocent, surely his anger will turn away from me.' Look, I will bring my case against you, because you say, 'I have not sinned.'"
Jeremiah 2:36  "Why do you wander about so much, changing your way? You will be put to shame by Egypt, as you were put to shame by Assyria."
Jeremiah 2:37  "Yes, you will come away from there with your hands on your head. For the LORD has rejected those you trust in, and you will not succeed through them."

Jeremiah 3:1  They say, "If a man sends his wife away, and she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, will he go back to her again? Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet come back to me," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 3:2  "Lift up your eyes to the high places, and see where you have not been lain with. You sat waiting for them beside the roads, like an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your whoredoms and with your wickedness."
Jeremiah 3:3  "So the showers have been held back, and there has been no latter rain. Yet you had the forehead of a prostitute; you refused to be ashamed."
Jeremiah 3:4  "Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My father, you are the guide of my youth'?"
Jeremiah 3:5  "Will he keep his anger for ever? Will he hold on to it to the end? Look, you have spoken and done evil things, as much as you were able."
Jeremiah 3:6  The LORD also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there she has played the harlot."
Jeremiah 3:7  "And after she had done all these things I said, 'Turn back to me.' But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it."
Jeremiah 3:8  "And I saw that, for all the ways backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had sent her away and given her a bill of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid, but went and played the harlot too."
Jeremiah 3:9  "And because she took her whoredom so lightly, she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with wooden blocks."
Jeremiah 3:10  "And even after all this, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretence, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 3:11  And the LORD said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more in the right than treacherous Judah."
Jeremiah 3:12  "Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, backsliding Israel, says the LORD; and I will not make my anger fall on you, for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever."
Jeremiah 3:13  "'Only admit your guilt, that you have broken faith with the LORD your God, and have scattered your favours to strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 3:14  "'Turn back, backsliding children, says the LORD; for I am married to you. And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion."
Jeremiah 3:15  "'And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding."
Jeremiah 3:16  "'And when you have grown many and increased in the land, in those days, says the LORD, they will no longer say, The ark of the covenant of the LORD. It will not come to mind. They will not remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again."
Jeremiah 3:17  "'At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. And they will no longer follow the stubborn thoughts of their evil heart."
Jeremiah 3:18  "'In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave to your fathers as their inheritance."
Jeremiah 3:19  "'But I said, How shall I set you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a fine heritage among the armies of nations? And I said, You shall call me My father, and shall not turn away from me."
Jeremiah 3:20  "'Surely as a wife breaks faith and leaves her husband, so you have broken faith with me, house of Israel, says the LORD.'"
Jeremiah 3:21  A voice is heard on the high places, the weeping and the pleading of the children of Israel; for they have twisted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
Jeremiah 3:22  "Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings." "Look, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God."
Jeremiah 3:23  "Truly the hills are no help, and all the noise on the mountains is no help. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel."
Jeremiah 3:24  "For shame has eaten up what our fathers worked for, ever since we were young: their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters."
Jeremiah 3:25  "We lie down in our shame, and our disgrace covers us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."

Jeremiah 4:1  "If you will return, O Israel, says the LORD, return to me. And if you will put your detestable things away out of my sight, then you will not be removed."
Jeremiah 4:2  And you will swear, 'The LORD lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. Then the nations will bless themselves in him, and in him they will glory.
Jeremiah 4:3  For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: "Break up your unploughed ground, and do not sow among thorns."
Jeremiah 4:4  "Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and you who live in Jerusalem. If you do not, my fury will come out like fire and burn so that no one can put it out, because of the evil of your deeds."
Jeremiah 4:5  Tell it in Judah, and make it known in Jerusalem. Say, "Blow the trumpet in the land." Cry out, gather together, and say, "Come together, and let us go into the fortified cities."
Jeremiah 4:6  Set up the banner toward Zion. Flee, do not stay, for I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction.
Jeremiah 4:7  The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations is on his way. He has gone out from his place to make your land empty. Your cities will be laid waste, with no one living in them.
Jeremiah 4:8  Because of this, put on sackcloth, weep and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned back from us.
Jeremiah 4:9  On that day, says the LORD, the heart of the king will fail, and the heart of the princes. The priests will be stunned, and the prophets will be amazed.
Jeremiah 4:10  Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'You will have peace,' while the sword reaches to the soul."
Jeremiah 4:11  At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A dry wind from the bare heights in the wilderness blows toward the daughter of my people. It does not winnow, and it does not cleanse."
Jeremiah 4:12  "A full wind from those places will come for me. Now I will also pass sentence against them."
Jeremiah 4:13  Look, he comes up like clouds, and his chariots are like a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. How terrible for us, for we are ruined.
Jeremiah 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, so that you may be saved. How long will your worthless thoughts stay inside you?
Jeremiah 4:15  For a voice is telling it from Dan, and making known trouble from mount Ephraim.
Jeremiah 4:16  Tell it to the nations. Look, make it known against Jerusalem: watchers are coming from a far country, and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.
Jeremiah 4:17  Like men guarding a field, they are all around her, because she has rebelled against me, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 4:18  Your ways and your deeds have brought these things on you. This is your wickedness. It is bitter, and it reaches to your very heart.
Jeremiah 4:19  My bowels, my bowels! I am in pain at my very heart. My heart makes a noise within me. I cannot keep silent, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jeremiah 4:20  Destruction on destruction is the cry, for the whole land is ruined. Suddenly my tents are ruined, and my curtains in a moment.
Jeremiah 4:21  How long must I see the banner, and hear the sound of the trumpet?
Jeremiah 4:22  "For my people are foolish. They have not known me. They are stupid children, and they have no understanding. They are wise in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."
Jeremiah 4:23  I looked at the earth, and it was without form and empty. I looked at the heavens, and they had no light.
Jeremiah 4:24  I looked at the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills shook to and fro.
Jeremiah 4:25  I looked, and there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had flown away.
Jeremiah 4:26  I looked, and the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down before the LORD, before his fierce anger.
Jeremiah 4:27  For this is what the LORD has said: "The whole land will be desolate, yet I will not make a full end of it."
Jeremiah 4:28  "Because of this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above will grow black. For I have spoken it, I have planned it, and I will not change my mind, nor will I turn back from it."
Jeremiah 4:29  The whole city runs away from the noise of the horsemen and the archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is left empty, and no one lives in it.
Jeremiah 4:30  And when you are ruined, what will you do? Though you dress yourself in crimson, though you put on ornaments of gold, though you tear your face with paint, you make yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers will despise you. They will seek your life.
Jeremiah 4:31  For I have heard a cry like that of a woman in labour, the anguish of one giving birth to her first child. It is the voice of the daughter of Zion, weeping for herself, spreading out her hands, saying, "How terrible for me now, for my soul is worn out because of murderers."

Jeremiah 5:1  Run back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem. Look now, and find out. Search in her open squares. See if you can find a man, if there is anyone who does what is just and seeks the truth. Then I will pardon the city.
Jeremiah 5:2  Even when they say, "As the LORD lives," they are surely swearing falsely.
Jeremiah 5:3  LORD, are your eyes not looking for truth? You struck them, but they felt no grief. You wore them down, but they refused to take correction. They made their faces harder than rock. They refused to turn back.
Jeremiah 5:4  So I said, "These are only the poor. They are foolish. They do not know the way of the LORD, or the law of their God."
Jeremiah 5:5  "I will go to the great men and speak to them, for they know the way of the LORD and the law of their God." But these too had broken the yoke completely and torn off the bonds.
Jeremiah 5:6  So a lion out of the forest will kill them. A wolf of the deserts will destroy them. A leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there will be torn in pieces. For their sins are many, and they have turned away again and again.
Jeremiah 5:7  How can I pardon you for this? Your children have left me and sworn by those who are not gods. I fed them until they were full, and then they committed adultery. They crowded into the houses of prostitutes.
Jeremiah 5:8  They were like well-fed horses in the morning. Each one neighed after his neighbour's wife.
Jeremiah 5:9  Should I not punish them for these things? says the LORD. Should I not take revenge on a nation like this?
Jeremiah 5:10  Go up onto her walls and destroy, but do not make a full end of her. Take away her branches, for they are not the LORD's.
Jeremiah 5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have been utterly unfaithful to me, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 5:12  They have lied about the LORD and said, "It is not he. No harm will come to us. We will not see sword or famine."
Jeremiah 5:13  "The prophets are only wind. The word is not in them. Let what they say be done to them."
Jeremiah 5:14  So this is what the LORD God of hosts says: "Because you speak this word, look, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and this people wood, and it will burn them up."
Jeremiah 5:15  Look, I am bringing a nation against you from far away, house of Israel, says the LORD. It is a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know. You will not understand what they say.
Jeremiah 5:16  Their quiver is like an open grave. They are all mighty men.
Jeremiah 5:17  They will eat up your harvest and your bread, which your sons and your daughters should eat. They will eat up your flocks and your herds. They will eat up your vines and your fig trees. With the sword they will break down your walled cities, which you trusted in.
Jeremiah 5:18  Yet even in those days, says the LORD, I will not make a full end of you.
Jeremiah 5:19  When you ask, "Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?" then you will answer them, "Just as you left me and served foreign gods in your own land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours."
Jeremiah 5:20  Announce this in the house of Jacob, and proclaim it in Judah. Say:
Jeremiah 5:21  "Hear this now, you foolish people, who have no understanding. You have eyes, but you do not see. You have ears, but you do not hear."
Jeremiah 5:22  Do you not fear me? says the LORD. Will you not tremble before me? I placed the sand as the boundary of the sea, by a lasting decree, and it cannot pass it. Though the waves toss, they cannot win. Though they roar, they cannot cross it.
Jeremiah 5:23  But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart. They have turned aside and gone.
Jeremiah 5:24  They do not say in their heart, "Let us now fear the LORD our God. He gives the rain, both the early rain and the late rain, in its season. He keeps for us the appointed weeks of the harvest."
Jeremiah 5:25  Your wrongdoing has turned these things away. Your sins have kept good things from you.
Jeremiah 5:26  For among my people wicked men are found. They lie in wait like a man setting snares for birds. They set a trap, and they catch men.
Jeremiah 5:27  As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. So they have become great and grown rich.
Jeremiah 5:28  They have grown fat and sleek. They go beyond even the deeds of the wicked. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless, yet they do well. They do not give justice to the needy.
Jeremiah 5:29  Should I not punish them for these things? says the LORD. Should I not take revenge on a nation like this?
Jeremiah 5:30  An astonishing and horrible thing has happened in the land.
Jeremiah 5:31  The prophets prophesy lies, and the priests rule by their own authority. And my people love to have it so. But what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah 6:1  You children of Benjamin, gather together and flee out of Jerusalem. Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a fire signal in Bethhaccerem. For evil is looming out of the north, and great destruction.
Jeremiah 6:2  I have compared the daughter of Zion to a lovely and delicate woman.
Jeremiah 6:3  Shepherds with their flocks will come against her. They will pitch their tents all around her. Each one will feed his flock in his own place.
Jeremiah 6:4  "Get ready for war against her. Rise up, and let us attack at noon. How sad for us, for the day is fading, and the evening shadows are stretching out."
Jeremiah 6:5  "Rise up, and let us go by night, and let us destroy her palaces."
Jeremiah 6:6  For this is what the LORD of hosts says: "Cut down trees, and build a siege mound against Jerusalem. This is the city that must be punished; there is nothing but oppression inside her."
Jeremiah 6:7  As a spring pours out its water, so she pours out her wickedness. Violence and ruin are heard in her. Grief and wounds are always before me.
Jeremiah 6:8  Take warning, Jerusalem, or my soul will turn away from you, and I will make you a waste, a land where no one lives.
Jeremiah 6:9  This is what the LORD of hosts says: "They will glean what is left of Israel as clean as a vine. Pass your hand over the branches again, like a grape gatherer filling his baskets."
Jeremiah 6:10  Who can I speak to and warn, so that they will hear? Look, their ears are closed, and they cannot listen. Look, the word of the LORD is an insult to them; they take no delight in it.
Jeremiah 6:11  So I am full of the fury of the LORD. I am worn out with holding it in. I will pour it out on the children in the street, and on the gatherings of young men as well. Husband and wife will both be taken, the old man and the one who is full of days.
Jeremiah 6:12  Their houses will be handed over to others, with their fields and their wives too. For I will stretch out my hand against the people of the land, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 6:13  From the least of them to the greatest of them, every one is greedy for gain. From the prophet to the priest, every one deals falsely.
Jeremiah 6:14  They have healed the wound of the daughter of my people only lightly, saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace.
Jeremiah 6:15  Were they ashamed when they did these disgusting things? No, they were not ashamed at all, and they did not know how to blush. So they will fall among those who fall. When I punish them, they will be thrown down, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 6:16  This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the roads and look. Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'"
Jeremiah 6:17  "I also set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet.' But they said, 'We will not listen.'"
Jeremiah 6:18  "So hear, you nations, and know, you assembly, what is among them."
Jeremiah 6:19  "Hear, earth: look, I will bring evil on this people, the fruit of their own thoughts, because they have not listened to my words, and they have rejected my law."
Jeremiah 6:20  "What use is it to me that incense comes from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, and your sacrifices are not pleasing to me."
Jeremiah 6:21  So this is what the LORD says: "Look, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. Fathers and sons together will fall over them. The neighbour and his friend will perish."
Jeremiah 6:22  This is what the LORD says: "Look, a people is coming from the country of the north, and a great nation will be stirred up from the farthest parts of the earth."
Jeremiah 6:23  "They take hold of bow and spear. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses, lined up like men ready for war against you, daughter of Zion."
Jeremiah 6:24  We have heard the news of them. Our hands hang weak. Anguish has gripped us, and pain like a woman in childbirth.
Jeremiah 6:25  Do not go out into the field, and do not walk on the road, for the enemy has a sword, and there is terror on every side.
Jeremiah 6:26  Daughter of my people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn as for an only son, with the most bitter weeping, for the destroyer will suddenly come upon us.
Jeremiah 6:27  I have made you a tower and a fortress among my people, so that you may know and test the way they live.
Jeremiah 6:28  They are all stubborn rebels, going about spreading slander. They are brass and iron; they are all corrupt.
Jeremiah 6:29  The bellows are scorched, the lead is burned up by the fire. The refiner melts for nothing, for the wicked are not taken away.
Jeremiah 6:30  People will call them rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.

Jeremiah 7:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jeremiah 7:2  "Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim this word there. Say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who come in through these gates to worship the LORD."
Jeremiah 7:3  'This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Mend your ways and your doings, and I will let you live in this place.
Jeremiah 7:4  'Do not trust in lying words that say, The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.
Jeremiah 7:5  'For if you truly mend your ways and your doings, and if you truly judge fairly between a man and his neighbour;
Jeremiah 7:6  'if you do not crush the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, and do not pour out innocent blood in this place, and do not follow other gods, which brings harm on you,
Jeremiah 7:7  'then I will let you live in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
Jeremiah 7:8  'Look, you are trusting in lying words that can do you no good.
Jeremiah 7:9  'Will you steal, murder and commit adultery? Will you swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you do not know,
Jeremiah 7:10  'and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are safe to do all these detestable things?
Jeremiah 7:11  'Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Look, I myself have seen it, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 7:12  'But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I first made my name to live. See what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
Jeremiah 7:13  'And now, because you have done all these things, says the LORD, and I spoke to you, getting up early to speak, but you did not listen, and I called you, but you did not answer,
Jeremiah 7:14  'therefore I will do to this house, which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, what I did to Shiloh.
Jeremiah 7:15  'And I will throw you out of my sight, as I threw out all your brothers, the whole family of Ephraim.'
Jeremiah 7:16  "So do not pray for this people. Do not lift up a cry or a prayer for them, and do not beg me for them, for I will not hear you."
Jeremiah 7:17  "Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?"
Jeremiah 7:18  "The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, so that they make me angry."
Jeremiah 7:19  "Is it me they make angry? says the LORD. Is it not themselves, to the shame of their own faces?"
Jeremiah 7:20  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, my anger and my fury will be poured out on this place, on people and on animals, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn, and no one will put it out."
Jeremiah 7:21  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves."
Jeremiah 7:22  "For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them, about burnt offerings or sacrifices on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt."
Jeremiah 7:23  "But this is what I commanded them: Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you."
Jeremiah 7:24  "But they did not listen, and they did not turn their ear to me. They walked by their own plans and by the stubborn thoughts of their evil heart, and they went backward, not forward."
Jeremiah 7:25  "From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, getting up early each day and sending them."
Jeremiah 7:26  "Yet they did not listen to me, and they did not turn their ear to me. They made their necks stiff. They did worse than their fathers."
Jeremiah 7:27  "So you will speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You will call to them, but they will not answer you."
Jeremiah 7:28  "But you shall say to them, 'This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and will not take correction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth."
Jeremiah 7:29  'Cut off your hair, Jerusalem, and throw it away. Raise a song of mourning on the high places, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation he is angry with.
Jeremiah 7:30  'For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, says the LORD. They have set up their detestable things in the house which is called by my name, and made it unclean.
Jeremiah 7:31  'And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire. I never commanded this, and it never came into my mind.
Jeremiah 7:32  'So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when it will no longer be called Tophet, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. For they will bury in Tophet, until there is no room left.
Jeremiah 7:33  'And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth, and no one will frighten them away.
Jeremiah 7:34  "'Then I will make the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, stop in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will be a waste.'"

Jeremiah 8:1  "At that time," says the LORD, "they will bring out of their graves the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people who lived in Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 8:2  They will spread them out before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, and followed, and sought, and worshipped. The bones will not be gathered up or buried. They will lie like dung on the face of the ground.
Jeremiah 8:3  "All who are left of this evil family, everyone still alive in every place where I have driven them, will choose death rather than life," says the LORD of hosts.
Jeremiah 8:4  "You will also say to them, This is what the LORD says: When men fall, do they not get up again? When someone turns away, does he not come back?"
Jeremiah 8:5  Why then have these people of Jerusalem turned away, and kept on turning away for ever? They hold tightly to deceit; they refuse to return.
Jeremiah 8:6  I listened and heard, but they did not speak what was right. No one repented of his wickedness and said, 'What have I done?' Each one turned to his own way, like a horse rushing into the battle.
Jeremiah 8:7  Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the crane and the swallow keep the time of their coming. But my people do not know the judgment of the LORD.
Jeremiah 8:8  How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us'? Look, the pen of the scribes has worked falsely; it has made the law into a lie.
Jeremiah 8:9  The wise men are put to shame. They are dismayed and caught. Look, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom do they have?
Jeremiah 8:10  So I will give their wives to other men, and their fields to new owners. For from the least of them to the greatest, every one is greedy for gain. From the prophet to the priest, every one deals falsely.
Jeremiah 8:11  They have treated the wound of the daughter of my people as if it were a small thing. They say, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.
Jeremiah 8:12  "Were they ashamed when they did these disgusting things? No, they were not ashamed at all; they did not even know how to blush. So they will fall among those who fall. When the time comes for me to punish them, they will be brought down," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 8:13  "I will surely make an end of them," says the LORD. "There will be no grapes on the vine, no figs on the fig tree, and the leaf will wither. What I have given them will be taken away from them."
Jeremiah 8:14  Why are we sitting still? Gather together, and let us go into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
Jeremiah 8:15  We looked for peace, but no good came; we looked for a time of healing, and look, there was terror.
Jeremiah 8:16  The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan. The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones. They have come and have devoured the land and everything in it, the city and those who live in it.
Jeremiah 8:17  "Look, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 8:18  When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint within me.
Jeremiah 8:19  Listen to the sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: "Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her king not in her?" "Why have they made me angry with their carved images, and with foreign, worthless things?"
Jeremiah 8:20  "The harvest is past, the summer is over, and we are not saved."
Jeremiah 8:21  Because the daughter of my people is wounded, I am wounded. I go about in black; horror has taken hold of me.
Jeremiah 8:22  Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Jeremiah 9:1  Oh, that my head were water, and my eyes a spring of tears! Then I could weep day and night for the killed of the daughter of my people.
Jeremiah 9:2  Oh, that I had a shelter in the desert where travellers stay! Then I could leave my people and go away from them. For they are all adulterers, a crowd of treacherous men.
Jeremiah 9:3  They bend their tongues like a bow to shoot lies. They have not grown strong for the truth in the land. They go on from evil to evil, and they do not know me, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:4  Be careful, every one of you, of your neighbour, and do not trust any brother. For every brother will surely cheat, and every neighbour goes about spreading slander.
Jeremiah 9:5  They all deceive their neighbours, and they will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongues to tell lies. They wear themselves out doing wrong.
Jeremiah 9:6  Your home is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit they refuse to know me, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:7  So this is what the LORD of hosts says: "Look, I will melt them and test them. What else can I do for the daughter of my people?"
Jeremiah 9:8  Their tongue is an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit. With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbour, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.
Jeremiah 9:9  "Shall I not punish them for these things? says the LORD. Shall I not take revenge on a nation like this?"
Jeremiah 9:10  I will weep and wail for the mountains, and sing a song of grief for the pastures of the desert. For they are burned up, and no one passes through them. No one hears the sound of cattle. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.
Jeremiah 9:11  I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair for jackals. I will make the cities of Judah empty, with no one living there.
Jeremiah 9:12  Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, so that he can explain it? Why has the land been destroyed and burned up like a desert, so that no one passes through?
Jeremiah 9:13  The LORD says, "It is because they have left my law, which I set before them. They have not obeyed my voice or lived by it."
Jeremiah 9:14  "Instead they have followed the stubborn desires of their own hearts, and followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them."
Jeremiah 9:15  So this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Look, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them poisoned water to drink."
Jeremiah 9:16  "I will scatter them among the nations, which neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send a sword after them, until I have destroyed them."
Jeremiah 9:17  This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Think about it, and call for the women who mourn, so that they may come. Send for the women who are skilled at it, so that they may come."
Jeremiah 9:18  Let them hurry and start a wailing for us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and water may pour from our eyelids.
Jeremiah 9:19  "For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are covered with shame, because we have left the land, because our houses have thrown us out.'"
Jeremiah 9:20  Yet hear the word of the LORD, you women, and let your ears take in the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters to wail, and each woman teach her neighbour a song of grief.
Jeremiah 9:21  For death has climbed in at our windows and come into our palaces. It cuts off the children outside, and the young men from the streets.
Jeremiah 9:22  Say, "This is what the LORD says: 'The dead bodies of men will lie like dung on the open field, like cut corn behind the harvester, and no one will gather them.'"
Jeremiah 9:23  This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom. Let not the strong man boast in his strength. Let not the rich man boast in his riches."
Jeremiah 9:24  "But let anyone who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who shows lovingkindness, justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 9:25  "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will punish all those who are circumcised along with the uncircumcised:"
Jeremiah 9:26  "Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all who live in the desert and cut the corners of their hair. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart."

Jeremiah 10:1  Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, house of Israel.
Jeremiah 10:2  This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the way of the nations. Do not be frightened by the signs in the sky, though the nations are frightened by them."
Jeremiah 10:3  "For the customs of the peoples are empty. Someone cuts a tree out of the forest, and a workman shapes it with his axe."
Jeremiah 10:4  They cover it with silver and with gold. They fasten it with nails and hammers, so that it will not fall over.
Jeremiah 10:5  They stand straight like a palm tree, but they cannot speak. They have to be carried, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do harm, and they have no power to do good either.
Jeremiah 10:6  There is no one like you, LORD. You are great, and your name is great in power.
Jeremiah 10:7  Who would not fear you, King of the nations? It is right that you should be feared. Among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
Jeremiah 10:8  But they are all stupid and foolish. Their teaching is only a wooden log.
Jeremiah 10:9  Silver beaten into sheets is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz. It is the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the metalworker. Their clothing is blue and purple. They are all the work of skilled men.
Jeremiah 10:10  But the LORD is the true God. He is the living God, and an everlasting king. When he is angry, the earth trembles, and the nations cannot stand up to his fury.
Jeremiah 10:11  This is what you shall say to them: "The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens."
Jeremiah 10:12  He made the earth by his power. He set the world in place by his wisdom, and he stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
Jeremiah 10:13  When he speaks aloud, the waters roar in the heavens. He makes the mists rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning with rain, and he brings the wind out of his storehouses.
Jeremiah 10:14  Every man is stupid and knows nothing. Every metalworker is put to shame by the image he carves. For the image he casts is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
Jeremiah 10:15  They are worthless, a work of mistakes. When the time comes for them to be punished, they will perish.
Jeremiah 10:16  The portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the maker of all things. Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. The LORD of hosts is his name.
Jeremiah 10:17  Gather up your goods from the ground, you who live under siege.
Jeremiah 10:18  For this is what the LORD says: "Look, I will sling out the people who live in this land, all at once. I will bring trouble on them, so that they will know it."
Jeremiah 10:19  How terrible my injury is. My wound is deep. But I said, "Truly this is my pain, and I must bear it."
Jeremiah 10:20  My tent is ruined, and all my ropes are broken. My children have gone away from me, and they are no more. There is no one left to put up my tent again, or to hang up my curtains.
Jeremiah 10:21  For the shepherds have become stupid, and they have not sought the LORD. So they will not succeed, and all their flocks will be scattered.
Jeremiah 10:22  Listen, a rumour is coming, and a great uproar from the land of the north. It will leave the cities of Judah empty, a home for jackals.
Jeremiah 10:23  LORD, I know that a man's way is not his own. It is not for a man who walks to guide his own steps.
Jeremiah 10:24  Correct me, LORD, but with fair judgement. Do not correct me in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.
Jeremiah 10:25  Pour out your fury on the nations that do not know you, and on the families that do not call on your name. For they have eaten up Jacob. They have devoured him and finished him off, and they have left his home empty.

Jeremiah 11:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jeremiah 11:2  "Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the people who live in Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 11:3  "Say to them, 'This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant,"
Jeremiah 11:4  "which I commanded your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace. I said, Obey my voice, and do everything just as I command you. Then you will be my people, and I will be your God,"
Jeremiah 11:5  "so that I may keep the oath I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.'" Then I answered and said, "So be it, O LORD."
Jeremiah 11:6  Then the LORD said to me, "Announce all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Say, 'Hear the words of this covenant, and do them.'"
Jeremiah 11:7  "For I warned your fathers earnestly on the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and I have warned them to this day. I rose up early and warned them, saying, Obey my voice."
Jeremiah 11:8  "Yet they did not obey. They did not turn their ear to listen. Each one walked in the stubborn ideas of his own evil heart. So I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did not do them."
Jeremiah 11:9  And the LORD said to me, "A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the people who live in Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 11:10  "They have gone back to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with their fathers."
Jeremiah 11:11  Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Look, I will bring evil on them, and they will not be able to escape it. Though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them."
Jeremiah 11:12  "Then the cities of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense. But those gods will not save them at all in the time of their trouble."
Jeremiah 11:13  "For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah. And as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal."
Jeremiah 11:14  "So do not pray for this people. Do not lift up a cry or a prayer for them. For I will not hear them when they cry out to me because of their trouble."
Jeremiah 11:15  "What is my beloved doing in my house, when she has done lewd things with many, and the holy flesh has passed away from you? When you do evil, then you are glad."
Jeremiah 11:16  "The LORD called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful, with fine fruit. With the noise of a great uproar he has set fire to it, and its branches are broken."
Jeremiah 11:17  "For the LORD of hosts, who planted you, has spoken evil against you. This is because of the evil the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done against themselves, making me angry by burning incense to Baal."
Jeremiah 11:18  The LORD has given me knowledge of it, and I know it. Then you showed me what they were doing.
Jeremiah 11:19  But I was like a gentle lamb, or an ox led to the slaughter. I did not know that they had made plans against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit. Let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name is remembered no more."
Jeremiah 11:20  But, O LORD of hosts, you judge righteously. You test the inward parts and the heart. Let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have made known my cause.
Jeremiah 11:21  Therefore this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth, who seek your life and say, "Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will die by our hand" -
Jeremiah 11:22  therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says: "Look, I will punish them. The young men will die by the sword. Their sons and their daughters will die by famine."
Jeremiah 11:23  "And there will be no remnant left of them. For I will bring evil on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment."

Jeremiah 12:1  You are righteous, O LORD, whenever I bring a case before you. Yet let me talk with you about your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those happy who act so treacherously?
Jeremiah 12:2  You have planted them, and they have taken root. They grow, and they bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth, but far from their inward parts.
Jeremiah 12:3  But you, O LORD, know me. You have seen me, and tested my heart toward you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of killing.
Jeremiah 12:4  How long will the land mourn, and the plants of every field wither, because of the wickedness of those who live in it? The animals are swept away, and the birds too, because the people said, "He will not see what happens to us in the end."
Jeremiah 12:5  "If you have run with men on foot, and they have worn you out, how can you race against horses? And if you stumble in a peaceful land where you felt safe, what will you do in the thick growth beside the Jordan?"
Jeremiah 12:6  For even your brothers, and your own father's household, even they have dealt treacherously with you. Yes, they have called out a crowd behind you. Do not believe them, though they speak kind words to you.
Jeremiah 12:7  I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance. I have given the one my soul loves dearly into the hand of her enemies.
Jeremiah 12:8  My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. It roars against me, and so I have hated it.
Jeremiah 12:9  My inheritance is to me like a speckled bird; the birds all around are against her. Come, gather all the wild animals of the field, bring them to devour.
Jeremiah 12:10  Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have trampled my portion under foot. They have turned my pleasant portion into a desolate wilderness.
Jeremiah 12:11  They have made it desolate, and in its desolation it mourns to me. The whole land is made desolate, because no one takes it to heart.
Jeremiah 12:12  The destroyers have come on all the bare heights through the wilderness. The sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other end of the land. No one alive will have peace.
Jeremiah 12:13  "They have sown wheat, but they will reap thorns. They have worn themselves out, but they will gain nothing. You will be ashamed of your harvests, because of the fierce anger of the LORD."
Jeremiah 12:14  This is what the LORD says against all my evil neighbours, who touch the inheritance that I gave to my people Israel: "Look, I will pull them out of their land, and I will pull the house of Judah out from among them."
Jeremiah 12:15  And after I have pulled them out, I will return and have compassion on them. I will bring them back, each man to his inheritance, and each man to his land.
Jeremiah 12:16  And if they will carefully learn the ways of my people, and swear by my name, 'As the LORD lives,' just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be built up in the midst of my people.
Jeremiah 12:17  "But if they will not obey, I will completely uproot and destroy that nation," says the LORD.

Jeremiah 13:1  This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it round your waist, but do not put it in water."
Jeremiah 13:2  So I bought a belt, as the LORD had told me, and put it round my waist.
Jeremiah 13:3  Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time:
Jeremiah 13:4  "Take the belt that you bought, which is round your waist. Get up, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock."
Jeremiah 13:5  So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
Jeremiah 13:6  After many days the LORD said to me, "Get up, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, the one I told you to hide."
Jeremiah 13:7  So I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the belt from the place where I had hidden it. And look, the belt was ruined. It was good for nothing.
Jeremiah 13:8  Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Jeremiah 13:9  This is what the LORD says: "In this same way I will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 13:10  These wicked people refuse to hear my words. They walk in the stubbornness of their own hearts. They follow other gods, to serve them and to worship them. So they shall become like this belt, which is good for nothing.
Jeremiah 13:11  "For just as a belt clings to a man's waist, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the LORD. They were to be my people, and a name, and a praise, and a glory for me. But they would not listen."
Jeremiah 13:12  So you must say this word to them: "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: 'Every bottle shall be filled with wine.'" And they will say to you, "Do we not know very well that every bottle shall be filled with wine?"
Jeremiah 13:13  Then you must say to them, This is what the LORD says: "Look, I am going to fill everyone who lives in this land with drunkenness. I will fill the kings who sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all who live in Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 13:14  "I will smash them one against another, the fathers and the sons together, says the LORD. I will not pity them, or spare them, or have mercy, but I will destroy them."
Jeremiah 13:15  Hear and listen. Do not be proud, for the LORD has spoken.
Jeremiah 13:16  Give glory to the LORD your God, before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the dark mountains. You will look for light, but he will turn it into the shadow of death and make it thick darkness.
Jeremiah 13:17  But if you will not hear it, I will weep in secret places because of your pride. My eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away as prisoners.
Jeremiah 13:18  Say to the king and to the queen mother, "Humble yourselves, sit down low. For your rule will come down, and so will your glorious crown."
Jeremiah 13:19  The cities of the south are shut up, and no one opens them. All Judah is carried away as prisoners; every one of them is taken away.
Jeremiah 13:20  Lift up your eyes and look at those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock?
Jeremiah 13:21  What will you say when he punishes you? You yourself taught them to be your leaders and your chiefs. Will not pain grip you, like a woman giving birth?
Jeremiah 13:22  And if you say in your heart, "Why have these things happened to me?" - it is because your sin is so great that your skirts are pulled up and your heels are left bare.
Jeremiah 13:23  Can an Ethiopian change his skin, or a leopard his spots? Then you also could do good, you who are used to doing evil.
Jeremiah 13:24  So I will scatter them like straw that is blown away by the desert wind.
Jeremiah 13:25  This is what you get; this is the portion I have measured out for you, says the LORD. For you have forgotten me and trusted in lies.
Jeremiah 13:26  So I myself will pull your skirts up over your face, and your shame will be seen.
Jeremiah 13:27  I have seen your adulteries and your neighings, the shameless acts of your prostitution, and your disgusting deeds on the hills and in the fields. How terrible for you, Jerusalem. Will you not be made clean? How long will it be?

Jeremiah 14:1  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah about the drought.
Jeremiah 14:2  Judah mourns, and her gates waste away. Her people sit in black grief on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
Jeremiah 14:3  Their great men send their servants for water. They come to the wells and find no water. They come back with their jars empty. They are ashamed and confused, and they cover their heads.
Jeremiah 14:4  The ground is cracked open, because no rain has fallen on the land. So the plowmen are ashamed, and they cover their heads.
Jeremiah 14:5  Even the deer gives birth in the field and leaves her young, because there is no grass.
Jeremiah 14:6  The wild donkeys stand on the bare hills. They gasp for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is nothing green.
Jeremiah 14:7  LORD, though our sins speak against us, act for the sake of your name. We have turned away from you many times. We have sinned against you.
Jeremiah 14:8  You are the hope of Israel, its saviour in time of trouble. Why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveller who stops only for one night?
Jeremiah 14:9  Why should you be like a man taken by surprise, like a strong man who cannot save? Yet you, LORD, are among us, and we are called by your name. Do not leave us.
Jeremiah 14:10  This is what the LORD says about this people: "They have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet at home. So the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their sin and punish them for the wrong they have done."
Jeremiah 14:11  Then the LORD said to me, "Do not pray for the good of this people."
Jeremiah 14:12  "When they fast, I will not listen to their cry. When they offer a burnt offering and a grain offering, I will not accept them. Instead I will destroy them by the sword, by famine, and by disease."
Jeremiah 14:13  Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD, look, the prophets say to them, 'You will not see the sword, and you will not have famine. I will give you sure peace in this place.'"
Jeremiah 14:14  Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets speak lies in my name. I did not send them. I did not command them. I did not speak to them. They tell you a false vision, empty fortune-telling, a worthless thing, and the lies of their own hearts."
Jeremiah 14:15  So this is what the LORD says about the prophets who speak in my name, though I did not send them, and who say, 'Sword and famine will not come to this land': Those very prophets will be destroyed by sword and famine.
Jeremiah 14:16  And the people they speak to will be thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. There will be no one to bury them, or their wives, or their sons, or their daughters. I will pour their own wickedness out on them.
Jeremiah 14:17  So you shall say this word to them: 'Let my eyes run with tears night and day, and let them not stop. For the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great wound, with a very heavy blow.
Jeremiah 14:18  "If I go out into the field, look, those killed by the sword. If I go into the city, look, those sick with famine. Yes, both prophet and priest wander into a land they do not know.'"
Jeremiah 14:19  Have you completely rejected Judah? Do you hate Zion? Why have you struck us, so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and no good came; we looked for a time of healing, and look, there is trouble.
Jeremiah 14:20  LORD, we admit our wickedness, and the sin of our fathers. We have sinned against you.
Jeremiah 14:21  Do not hate us, for the sake of your name. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember us; do not break your covenant with us.
Jeremiah 14:22  Are there any among the worthless gods of the nations that can bring rain? Can the skies give showers by themselves? Are you not the one who does it, LORD our God? So we will wait for you, for you have made all these things.

Jeremiah 15:1  Then the LORD said to me, "Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them away from my sight, and let them go."
Jeremiah 15:2  "And if they say to you, 'Where shall we go?' then you shall tell them, This is what the LORD says: Those marked for death, to death; those marked for the sword, to the sword; those marked for famine, to famine; and those marked for captivity, to captivity."
Jeremiah 15:3  "And I will appoint four kinds of destroyers over them, says the LORD: the sword to kill, and the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to eat and to destroy."
Jeremiah 15:4  "And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 15:5  "For who will pity you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will turn aside to ask how you are?"
Jeremiah 15:6  "You have forsaken me, says the LORD. You have gone backward. So I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you. I am weary of holding back."
Jeremiah 15:7  "I will winnow them with a fan at the gates of the land. I will take away their children. I will destroy my people, since they will not turn from their ways."
Jeremiah 15:8  "Their widows are more to me than the sand of the seas. At noonday I have brought a destroyer against the mothers of the young men. I have made him fall on them suddenly, and terrors on the city."
Jeremiah 15:9  "She who has borne seven grows faint. She has given up her life. Her sun has gone down while it was still day. She has been shamed and disgraced. And the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 15:10  Grief is mine, my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man of strife and a man of quarrelling to the whole earth. I have not lent money for interest, and no one has lent to me for interest. Yet every one of them curses me.
Jeremiah 15:11  The LORD said, "Truly it shall go well with those of you who are left. Truly I will make the enemy plead with you in the time of trouble and in the time of distress."
Jeremiah 15:12  "Can iron break iron from the north, or bronze?"
Jeremiah 15:13  "Your wealth and your treasures I will give away as plunder, without any price, because of all your sins, throughout all your borders."
Jeremiah 15:14  "And I will make you go with your enemies into a land you do not know. For a fire is kindled in my anger, and it will burn against you."
Jeremiah 15:15  LORD, you know. Remember me, and come to me, and take revenge for me on those who hunt me down. In your patience, do not take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered insults.
Jeremiah 15:16  Your words were found, and I ate them. Your word was the joy and delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, LORD God of hosts.
Jeremiah 15:17  I did not sit with those who mock, nor did I celebrate. I sat alone because your hand was on me, for you had filled me with anger.
Jeremiah 15:18  Why is my pain never ending, and my wound beyond cure, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a stream that lies, like waters that dry up?
Jeremiah 15:19  So this is what the LORD says: "If you return, then I will bring you back, and you shall stand before me. And if you separate what is precious from what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. Let them turn to you, but do not you turn to them."
Jeremiah 15:20  "And I will make you to this people a strong wall of bronze. They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you. For I am with you to save you and to rescue you, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 15:21  "And I will rescue you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the cruel."

Jeremiah 16:1  The word of the LORD came to me also, saying,
Jeremiah 16:2  "You must not take a wife, and you must not have sons or daughters in this place."
Jeremiah 16:3  For this is what the LORD says about the sons and the daughters who are born in this place, and about their mothers who gave them birth, and about their fathers who were their fathers in this land:
Jeremiah 16:4  "They will die terrible deaths. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be buried. They will lie like dung on the face of the ground. The sword and the famine will destroy them, and their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth."
Jeremiah 16:5  For this is what the LORD says: "Do not enter the house of mourning. Do not go to weep or to grieve for them. For I have taken away my peace from this people, says the LORD, and my lovingkindness and my mercies."
Jeremiah 16:6  "Both the great and the small will die in this land. They will not be buried. No one will mourn for them, or cut himself, or shave his head for them."
Jeremiah 16:7  "No one will tear himself for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. No one will give them the cup of comfort to drink for their father or their mother."
Jeremiah 16:8  "You must not go into the house of feasting either, to sit with them and eat and drink."
Jeremiah 16:9  For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Look, before your own eyes and in your own days I will put an end in this place to the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride."
Jeremiah 16:10  "When you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, 'Why has the LORD spoken all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?'"
Jeremiah 16:11  "Then you will say to them, 'It is because your fathers left me, says the LORD, and followed other gods, and served them, and worshipped them. They left me, and did not keep my law.'"
Jeremiah 16:12  "'And you have done worse than your fathers. Look, each of you follows the stubborn desire of his own evil heart, and will not listen to me.'"
Jeremiah 16:13  "'So I will throw you out of this land into a land you do not know, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favour.'"
Jeremiah 16:14  "So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when people will no longer say, 'As the LORD lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,'"
Jeremiah 16:15  "but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought the children of Israel up from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back into their own land, which I gave to their fathers."
Jeremiah 16:16  "Look, I will send for many fishermen, says the LORD, and they will fish for them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes in the rocks."
Jeremiah 16:17  "For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face, and their iniquity is not hidden from my eyes."
Jeremiah 16:18  "First I will repay their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled my land. They have filled my inheritance with the dead bodies of their detestable and disgusting idols."
Jeremiah 16:19  LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble, the Gentiles will come to you from the ends of the earth and will say, "Surely our fathers received nothing but lies, empty things, and things of no use at all."
Jeremiah 16:20  Can a man make gods for himself, when they are not gods?
Jeremiah 16:21  "So look, this time I will make them know. I will make them know my hand and my might. And they will know that my name is The LORD."

Jeremiah 17:1  The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, and with the point of a diamond. It is carved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars.
Jeremiah 17:2  Their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees on the high hills.
Jeremiah 17:3  My mountain in the open country, I will give your wealth and all your treasures to be plundered, and your high places too, because of sin throughout all your borders.
Jeremiah 17:4  You yourself will let go of the land I gave you to keep. I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know. For you have lit a fire in my anger, and it will burn for ever.
Jeremiah 17:5  This is what the LORD says: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD."
Jeremiah 17:6  He will be like a bush in the desert. He will not see good when it comes. He will live in the dry places of the wilderness, in a salty land where no one lives.
Jeremiah 17:7  Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose hope is the LORD.
Jeremiah 17:8  He will be like a tree planted by the waters, that spreads out its roots by the river. It will not be afraid when heat comes, but its leaf will stay green. It will not be anxious in the year of drought, and it will never stop bearing fruit.
Jeremiah 17:9  The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and desperately wicked. Who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:10  "I the LORD search the heart. I test the inner thoughts, to give every man what his ways deserve, and what the fruit of his deeds deserves."
Jeremiah 17:11  As a partridge sits on eggs and does not hatch them, so is the man who gets riches, but not honestly. He will leave them in the middle of his days, and at his end he will be a fool.
Jeremiah 17:12  A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
Jeremiah 17:13  LORD, the hope of Israel, all who leave you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from me will be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.
Jeremiah 17:14  Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed. Save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise.
Jeremiah 17:15  Look, they say to me, "Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now."
Jeremiah 17:16  As for me, I have not run away from being a shepherd who follows you. I have not wanted the day of disaster. You know it. What came out of my lips was before your face.
Jeremiah 17:17  Do not be a terror to me. You are my hope in the day of trouble.
Jeremiah 17:18  Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of trouble, and destroy them with double destruction.
Jeremiah 17:19  This is what the LORD said to me: "Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, where the kings of Judah come in and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 17:20  Say to them, 'Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all who live in Jerusalem and come in by these gates.
Jeremiah 17:21  This is what the LORD says: Take care for your own sake. Carry no load on the sabbath day, and do not bring one in through the gates of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 17:22  "Do not carry a load out of your houses on the sabbath day, and do not do any work. Keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.'"
Jeremiah 17:23  But they did not obey. They did not turn their ear to listen. They made their necks stiff, so they would not hear or take instruction.
Jeremiah 17:24  "If you listen carefully to me, says the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but keep the sabbath day holy and do no work on it,"
Jeremiah 17:25  then kings and princes will come in through the gates of this city, sitting on the throne of David. They will ride in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the people who live in Jerusalem. And this city will remain for ever.
Jeremiah 17:26  People will come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south. They will bring burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and grain offerings, and incense, and they will bring sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD.
Jeremiah 17:27  "But if you will not listen to me, and will not keep the sabbath day holy, and will carry a load and come in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will light a fire in its gates. It will burn up the palaces of Jerusalem, and it will not be put out."

Jeremiah 18:1  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jeremiah 18:2  "Get up and go down to the potter's house. There I will let you hear my words."
Jeremiah 18:3  So I went down to the potter's house. Look, he was working at his wheel.
Jeremiah 18:4  The pot he was making out of clay was spoiled in the potter's hands. So he made it into another pot, shaping it as it seemed good to him.
Jeremiah 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Jeremiah 18:6  "House of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?" says the LORD. "Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel."
Jeremiah 18:7  "The moment I speak about a nation or a kingdom, saying that I will pull it up, pull it down and destroy it,"
Jeremiah 18:8  "if that nation I spoke against turns from its evil, then I will repent of the evil I planned to do to it."
Jeremiah 18:9  "And the moment I speak about a nation or a kingdom, saying that I will build it up and plant it,"
Jeremiah 18:10  "if it does evil in my sight and will not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good I said I would do for it."
Jeremiah 18:11  "So now go, speak to the men of Judah and to the people living in Jerusalem. Say to them, 'This is what the LORD says: Look, I am shaping evil against you, and making a plan against you. Turn back now, every one of you, from your evil way. Make your ways and your deeds good.'"
Jeremiah 18:12  But they said, "There is no hope. We will follow our own plans, and every one of us will do what his evil heart imagines."
Jeremiah 18:13  So this is what the LORD says: "Ask among the nations now: who has heard of such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing."
Jeremiah 18:14  "Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon that comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters that come from far away be forsaken?"
Jeremiah 18:15  "But my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to worthless things. They have been made to stumble in their ways, off the ancient paths, and to walk on side paths, on a road that is not built up."
Jeremiah 18:16  "So their land will be left empty, a place people hiss at for ever. Everyone who passes by will be shocked and shake his head."
Jeremiah 18:17  "I will scatter them before their enemy like an east wind. I will show them my back, and not my face, on the day of their trouble."
Jeremiah 18:18  Then they said, "Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah. The law will not be lost from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with our tongues, and let us pay no attention to anything he says."
Jeremiah 18:19  Pay attention to me, LORD, and listen to the voice of those who argue against me.
Jeremiah 18:20  Should evil be paid back for good? For they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, and to turn your anger away from them.
Jeremiah 18:21  So hand their children over to famine, and pour out their blood by the power of the sword. Let their wives lose their children and become widows. Let their men be put to death, and their young men be killed by the sword in battle.
Jeremiah 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring an army against them suddenly. For they have dug a pit to catch me, and hidden traps for my feet.
Jeremiah 18:23  Yet you, LORD, know all their plans against me, their plans to kill me. Do not forgive their wrongdoing, and do not blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be thrown down before you. Deal with them in the time of your anger.

Jeremiah 19:1  This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a clay bottle from a potter. Take with you some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests."
Jeremiah 19:2  "Go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entrance of the east gate. There proclaim the words that I tell you."
Jeremiah 19:3  "Say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Look, I will bring disaster on this place, and the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.'"
Jeremiah 19:4  "'Because they have forsaken me, and have made this place strange to me. They have burned incense here to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known, and they have filled this place with the blood of innocent people.'"
Jeremiah 19:5  "'They have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal. I never commanded that. I never spoke of it. It never came into my mind.'"
Jeremiah 19:6  "'So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Tophet, or The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.'"
Jeremiah 19:7  "'In this place I will make the plans of Judah and Jerusalem come to nothing. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who want to take their lives. I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth.'"
Jeremiah 19:8  "'I will make this city a waste, and something people hiss at. Everyone who passes by it will be shocked and will hiss because of all its wounds.'"
Jeremiah 19:9  "'I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. Each one will eat the flesh of his friend, in the siege and the distress with which their enemies, and those who want to take their lives, will press them in.'"
Jeremiah 19:10  "Then you shall break the bottle in front of the men who go with you,"
Jeremiah 19:11  "and say to them, 'This is what the LORD of hosts says: In the same way I will break this people and this city, as someone breaks a potter's jar so that it cannot be mended again. And they will bury the dead in Tophet, until there is no room left to bury.'"
Jeremiah 19:12  "'This is what I will do to this place, says the LORD, and to the people who live in it. I will make this city like Tophet.'"
Jeremiah 19:13  "'The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'"
Jeremiah 19:14  Then Jeremiah came back from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy. He stood in the court of the LORD's house and said to all the people,
Jeremiah 19:15  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Look, I will bring on this city, and on all her towns, all the disaster that I have spoken against it, because they have stiffened their necks and would not hear my words."

Jeremiah 20:1  Now Pashur the son of Immer was a priest, and he was also the chief officer in the house of the LORD. He heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
Jeremiah 20:2  Then Pashur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, beside the house of the LORD.
Jeremiah 20:3  The next day Pashur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, "The LORD has not called your name Pashur, but Magormissabib."
Jeremiah 20:4  "For this is what the LORD says: Look, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, and your own eyes will see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He will carry them away captive to Babylon, and will kill them with the sword."
Jeremiah 20:5  "More than that, I will hand over all the wealth of this city, and all it has worked for, and all its precious things. All the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies. They will plunder them, and seize them, and carry them to Babylon."
Jeremiah 20:6  "And you, Pashur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity. You will come to Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies."
Jeremiah 20:7  LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have won. I am laughed at all day long; everyone mocks me.
Jeremiah 20:8  For whenever I speak, I cry out; I shout, "Violence and ruin." So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and scorn all day long.
Jeremiah 20:9  Then I said, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name." But his word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I grew weary of holding it in, and I could not.
Jeremiah 20:10  For I heard many whispering against me: "Terror on every side. Report him, and we will report him." All my close friends watched for me to fall, saying, "Perhaps he will be tricked, and we will win against him, and take our revenge on him."
Jeremiah 20:11  But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior who brings terror. So those who hunt me will stumble, and they will not win. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not succeed. Their everlasting disgrace will never be forgotten.
Jeremiah 20:12  But, LORD of hosts, you test the righteous; you see the heart and the deepest thoughts. Let me see your vengeance on them, for I have laid my case before you.
Jeremiah 20:13  Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD. For he has rescued the life of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
Jeremiah 20:14  Cursed be the day I was born. Let the day my mother gave birth to me not be blessed.
Jeremiah 20:15  Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A son is born to you," and made him very glad.
Jeremiah 20:16  Let that man be like the cities the LORD overthrew without pity. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a battle shout at noon,
Jeremiah 20:17  because he did not kill me in the womb, so that my mother would have been my grave, and her womb great with me for ever.
Jeremiah 20:18  Why did I ever come out of the womb, to see trouble and sorrow, and to spend my days in shame?

Jeremiah 21:1  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest. They said,
Jeremiah 21:2  "Please ask the LORD for us, because Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will do for us something like all his wonderful works, so that Nebuchadrezzar will go away from us."
Jeremiah 21:3  Then Jeremiah said to them, "This is what you are to say to Zedekiah:"
Jeremiah 21:4  "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Look, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands. You are fighting with them against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who are shutting you in outside the walls. I will gather those weapons into the middle of this city."
Jeremiah 21:5  "I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath."
Jeremiah 21:6  "I will strike down those who live in this city, both people and animals. They will die of a great plague."
Jeremiah 21:7  "After that, says the LORD, I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those left in this city after the plague, the sword and the famine. I will hand them over to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and to their enemies, and to those who want to kill them. He will strike them with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them, or feel pity, or show mercy."
Jeremiah 21:8  "And to this people you are to say, This is what the LORD says: Look, I set before you the way of life and the way of death."
Jeremiah 21:9  "Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague. But whoever goes out and gives himself up to the Chaldeans who are shutting you in will live. His life will be his prize."
Jeremiah 21:10  "For I have set my face against this city for harm, and not for good, says the LORD. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire."
Jeremiah 21:11  "And about the house of the king of Judah, say this: Hear the word of the LORD."
Jeremiah 21:12  "House of David, this is what the LORD says: Do justice in the morning. Rescue the one who has been robbed from the hand of the man who crushes him. If you do not, my fury will go out like fire, and burn so that no one can put it out, because of the evil of your deeds."
Jeremiah 21:13  "Look, I am against you, you who live in the valley, and you rock of the plain, says the LORD. You say, 'Who will come down against us? Who will enter our homes?'"
Jeremiah 21:14  "But I will punish you as your deeds deserve, says the LORD. I will light a fire in her forest, and it will burn up everything around it."

Jeremiah 22:1  This is what the LORD says: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there."
Jeremiah 22:2  Say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David - you, and your servants, and your people who come in through these gates.
Jeremiah 22:3  This is what the LORD says: Do justice and righteousness. Rescue the one who has been robbed from the hand of the one who oppresses him. Do no wrong and no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.
Jeremiah 22:4  For if you really do this, then kings who sit on the throne of David will come in through the gates of this house. They will ride in chariots and on horses - the king, his servants, and his people.
Jeremiah 22:5  But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this house will become a ruin.'
Jeremiah 22:6  For this is what the LORD says about the house of the king of Judah: "You are like Gilead to me, like the top of Lebanon. Yet I will surely make you a wilderness, cities where no one lives."
Jeremiah 22:7  "I will prepare destroyers against you, each one with his weapons. They will cut down your finest cedars and throw them into the fire."
Jeremiah 22:8  Many nations will pass by this city, and each man will say to his neighbour, "Why has the LORD done this to this great city?"
Jeremiah 22:9  Then they will answer, "Because they have abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods and served them."
Jeremiah 22:10  Do not weep for the dead man, and do not mourn for him. Weep bitterly for the one who goes away, for he will never come back, nor see the land where he was born.
Jeremiah 22:11  For this is what the LORD says about Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in the place of Josiah his father, and who went out from this place: "He will never come back here."
Jeremiah 22:12  "He will die in the place where they have led him away captive, and he will not see this land again."
Jeremiah 22:13  Woe to the man who builds his house by unrighteousness and his upper rooms by wrong; who makes his neighbour work for nothing and does not pay him for his work;
Jeremiah 22:14  who says, "I will build myself a wide house with large upper rooms." He cuts out windows for it, and lines it with cedar, and paints it red.
Jeremiah 22:15  Will you reign because you shut yourself in with cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice? Then it was well with him.
Jeremiah 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not this to know me? says the LORD.
Jeremiah 22:17  But your eyes and your heart are set on nothing but your own greed, and on shedding innocent blood, and on oppression and violence, to do it.
Jeremiah 22:18  Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "They will not mourn for him, saying, 'Ah my brother!' or, 'Ah sister!' They will not mourn for him, saying, 'Ah lord!' or, 'Ah his glory!'"
Jeremiah 22:19  "He will be buried with the burial of a donkey - dragged away and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 22:20  Go up to Lebanon and cry out; lift up your voice in Bashan; cry from the passes, for all your lovers are destroyed.
Jeremiah 22:21  I spoke to you when you were prosperous, but you said, "I will not listen." This has been your way since you were young: you did not obey my voice.
Jeremiah 22:22  The wind will eat up all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will surely be ashamed and confused because of all your wickedness.
Jeremiah 22:23  You who live in Lebanon, who make your nest among the cedars, how gracious you will be when the pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labour!
Jeremiah 22:24  As I live, says the LORD, even if Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off from there.
Jeremiah 22:25  I will give you into the hand of those who want to kill you, into the hand of those whose face you fear, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
Jeremiah 22:26  I will throw you out, and your mother who gave birth to you, into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die.
Jeremiah 22:27  But to the land they long to return to, they will not return.
Jeremiah 22:28  Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol? Is he a vessel that no one wants? Why are they thrown out, he and his children, and cast into a land they do not know?
Jeremiah 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Jeremiah 22:30  This is what the LORD says: "Write this man down as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days. For none of his children will prosper, sitting on the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah."

Jeremiah 23:1  "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:2  So this is what the LORD God of Israel says against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock. You have driven them away, and you have not cared for them. Look, I will punish you for the evil you have done, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:3  And I will gather what is left of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their folds, and they will be fruitful and increase.
Jeremiah 23:4  And I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. They will not be afraid any more, or dismayed, and not one of them will be missing, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:5  Look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch. A King will reign and prosper, and will do what is just and right in the earth.
Jeremiah 23:6  In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will live safely. And this is the name he will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Jeremiah 23:7  So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when people will no longer say, "As the LORD lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt."
Jeremiah 23:8  Instead they will say, "As the LORD lives, who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country, and out of all the countries where I had driven them." And they will live in their own land.
Jeremiah 23:9  My heart inside me is broken because of the prophets. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, like a man that wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of his holy words.
Jeremiah 23:10  For the land is full of adulterers. Because of swearing the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. The course they run is evil, and their strength is not used rightly.
Jeremiah 23:11  For both prophet and priest are unholy. Yes, in my own house I have found their wickedness, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:12  So their way will be to them like slippery paths in the dark. They will be driven on, and they will fall in it. For I will bring evil upon them in the year of their punishment, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:13  And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria. They prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray.
Jeremiah 23:14  I have also seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of those who do evil, so that no one turns back from his wickedness. To me they are all like Sodom, and the people who live there like Gomorrah.
Jeremiah 23:15  So this is what the LORD of hosts says about the prophets: Look, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink poisoned water. For from the prophets of Jerusalem an unholy way has spread through all the land.
Jeremiah 23:16  This is what the LORD of hosts says: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you empty. They speak a vision out of their own heart, and not from the mouth of the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:17  They keep saying to those who despise me, "The LORD has said, 'You will have peace.'" And to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own heart they say, "No harm will come to you."
Jeremiah 23:18  For who has stood in the council of the LORD, and has seen and heard his word? Who has listened to his word, and heard it?
Jeremiah 23:19  Look, a whirlwind from the LORD has gone out in fury, a terrible whirlwind. It will fall heavily on the head of the wicked.
Jeremiah 23:20  The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has done it, and carried out the purposes of his heart. In the last days you will understand this clearly.
Jeremiah 23:21  I did not send these prophets, yet they ran. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
Jeremiah 23:22  But if they had stood in my council, and had made my people hear my words, then they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
Jeremiah 23:23  Am I a God who is near, says the LORD, and not a God far away?
Jeremiah 23:24  Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I do not see him? says the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:25  I have heard what the prophets said who prophesy lies in my name. They say, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed."
Jeremiah 23:26  How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Yes, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart.
Jeremiah 23:27  They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams, which they tell to one another, just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.
Jeremiah 23:28  Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream. And let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:29  Is not my word like a fire? says the LORD. Is it not like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
Jeremiah 23:30  So look, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who steal my words, each one from his neighbour.
Jeremiah 23:31  Look, I am against the prophets, says the LORD, who use their own tongues and say, "He says."
Jeremiah 23:32  Look, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, says the LORD. They tell them, and lead my people astray by their lies and by their reckless boasting. Yet I did not send them or command them. So they do this people no good at all, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 23:33  And when this people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, "What is the burden of the LORD?" you will say to them, "What burden? I will even cast you off, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 23:34  And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people who say, "The burden of the LORD," I will punish that man and his household.
Jeremiah 23:35  This is what each of you will say to his neighbour, and each to his brother: "What has the LORD answered?" and, "What has the LORD spoken?"
Jeremiah 23:36  And you will not speak of the burden of the LORD any more. For every man's own word will be his burden, because you have twisted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts our God.
Jeremiah 23:37  This is what you will say to the prophet: "What has the LORD answered you?" and, "What has the LORD spoken?"
Jeremiah 23:38  But since you say, "The burden of the LORD," this is what the LORD says: Because you say these words, "The burden of the LORD," when I sent word to you saying, "You shall not say, 'The burden of the LORD,'"
Jeremiah 23:39  therefore look, I, even I, will completely forget you. I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, and throw you out of my presence.
Jeremiah 23:40  And I will bring on you everlasting disgrace and lasting shame, which will never be forgotten.

Jeremiah 24:1  The LORD showed me a vision. Look, two baskets of figs were set in front of the temple of the LORD. This was after Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon had taken Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah away from Jerusalem as a prisoner, along with the princes of Judah and the carpenters and the metalworkers, and had brought them to Babylon.
Jeremiah 24:2  One basket had very good figs in it, like figs that ripen first. The other basket had very bad figs in it. They could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Jeremiah 24:3  Then the LORD said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" And I said, "Figs. The good figs are very good. The bad ones are very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten."
Jeremiah 24:4  Again the word of the LORD came to me. He said,
Jeremiah 24:5  "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Like these good figs, so I will look with favour on the people of Judah who were carried away as prisoners. I sent them out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good."
Jeremiah 24:6  For I will keep my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not pull them down. I will plant them and not pull them out.
Jeremiah 24:7  I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with their whole heart.
Jeremiah 24:8  "But as for the bad figs, which cannot be eaten because they are so bad, this is what the LORD says: In the same way I will deal with Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who are left in this land, and those who live in the land of Egypt."
Jeremiah 24:9  I will hand them over to be driven into all the kingdoms of the earth, to their harm. They will be a shame and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in every place where I drive them.
Jeremiah 24:10  "I will send the sword, the famine and the plague among them, until they are wiped off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers."

Jeremiah 25:1  The word that came to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. That was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.
Jeremiah 25:2  Jeremiah the prophet spoke this word to all the people of Judah, and to all who lived in Jerusalem. He said:
Jeremiah 25:3  "From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until this day - that is twenty-three years - the word of the LORD has come to me. I have spoken to you again and again, rising early to speak; but you have not listened."
Jeremiah 25:4  "And the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets to you, rising early and sending them; but you have not listened, and you have not turned your ear to hear."
Jeremiah 25:5  "They said, 'Turn back now, each one of you, from your evil way and from your evil deeds, and live in the land that the LORD has given to you and to your fathers for ever and ever."
Jeremiah 25:6  "'Do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them. Do not make me angry with the things your hands have made, and I will do you no harm.'"
Jeremiah 25:7  "Yet you have not listened to me, says the LORD. So you have made me angry with the things your hands have made, to your own harm."
Jeremiah 25:8  "Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts says: 'Because you have not heard my words,"
Jeremiah 25:9  "'look, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I will bring them against this land, and against those who live in it, and against all these nations round about. I will completely destroy them, and make them a horror, and a thing to hiss at, and ruins for ever."
Jeremiah 25:10  "'More than that, I will take from them the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp."
Jeremiah 25:11  "'This whole land shall be a waste and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years."
Jeremiah 25:12  "'And when the seventy years are finished, I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, says the LORD, for their sin, and I will punish the land of the Chaldeans, and make it ruins for ever."
Jeremiah 25:13  "'I will bring upon that land all my words which I have spoken against it, even everything written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations."
Jeremiah 25:14  "'For many nations and great kings shall make servants of them too. I will pay them back for what they have done, and for the works of their own hands.'"
Jeremiah 25:15  "For this is what the LORD God of Israel said to me: 'Take the wine cup of this fury from my hand, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it."
Jeremiah 25:16  "'They shall drink, and stagger, and go mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.'"
Jeremiah 25:17  "Then I took the cup from the LORD's hand, and made all the nations drink, the nations to whom the LORD had sent me:"
Jeremiah 25:18  "that is, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a thing to hiss at, and a curse, as it is this day;"
Jeremiah 25:19  "Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;"
Jeremiah 25:20  "and all the mixed peoples, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and what is left of Ashdod;"
Jeremiah 25:21  "Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon;"
Jeremiah 25:22  "and all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the islands beyond the sea;"
Jeremiah 25:23  "Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who are in the farthest corners;"
Jeremiah 25:24  "and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed peoples who live in the desert;"
Jeremiah 25:25  "and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;"
Jeremiah 25:26  "and all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them."
Jeremiah 25:27  "So you shall say to them, 'This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Drink, and be drunk, and be sick, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.'"
Jeremiah 25:28  "And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'This is what the LORD of hosts says: You shall certainly drink."
Jeremiah 25:29  "'For look, I am beginning to bring trouble on the city that is called by my name. And should you go completely unpunished? You shall not go unpunished. For I will call for a sword against all who live on the earth, says the LORD of hosts.'"
Jeremiah 25:30  "So prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: 'The LORD will roar from on high, and send out his voice from his holy home. He will roar mightily over his own dwelling. He will shout like those who tread the grapes, against all who live on the earth."
Jeremiah 25:31  "'The noise will reach to the ends of the earth. For the LORD has a case against the nations; he will bring all flesh to judgment. He will give the wicked to the sword, says the LORD.'"
Jeremiah 25:32  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: 'Look, disaster is going out from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind is stirred up from the far parts of the earth."
Jeremiah 25:33  "'On that day those killed by the LORD shall lie from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. No one will weep for them, or gather them, or bury them. They shall be dung on the ground."
Jeremiah 25:34  "'Howl, you shepherds, and cry out; roll yourselves in the ashes, you leaders of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and your scattering are complete, and you shall fall like a fine vessel."
Jeremiah 25:35  "'The shepherds shall have no way to run, and the leaders of the flock no way to escape."
Jeremiah 25:36  "'The sound of the shepherds crying out, and the howling of the leaders of the flock, shall be heard. For the LORD has destroyed their pasture."
Jeremiah 25:37  "'The peaceful pastures are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD."
Jeremiah 25:38  "'He has left his den like a lion. Their land is a waste because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.'"

Jeremiah 26:1  At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD:
Jeremiah 26:2  This is what the LORD says: "Stand in the court of the LORD's house. Speak to all the people from the cities of Judah who come to worship in the LORD's house. Tell them every word I command you to speak to them. Do not leave out a single word."
Jeremiah 26:3  "Perhaps they will listen, and each one will turn from his evil way. Then I will turn back from the disaster I plan to bring on them because of their evil deeds."
Jeremiah 26:4  "You are to say to them, This is what the LORD says: 'If you will not listen to me, and will not walk in my law, which I have set before you,"
Jeremiah 26:5  and will not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent to you again and again, though you have not listened,
Jeremiah 26:6  "then I will make this house like Shiloh. I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.'"
Jeremiah 26:7  The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.
Jeremiah 26:8  When Jeremiah had finished speaking everything the LORD had commanded him to say to all the people, the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him and said, "You must die."
Jeremiah 26:9  "Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be a ruin with no one living in it'?" And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.
Jeremiah 26:10  When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the LORD. They sat down at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD's house.
Jeremiah 26:11  Then the priests and the prophets said to the princes and to all the people, "This man deserves to die, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears."
Jeremiah 26:12  Then Jeremiah said to all the princes and all the people, "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words you have heard."
Jeremiah 26:13  So now change your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God. Then the LORD will turn back from the disaster he has spoken against you.
Jeremiah 26:14  As for me, look, I am in your hands. Do with me whatever seems good and right to you.
Jeremiah 26:15  "But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, and on this city, and on the people who live in it. For truly the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears."
Jeremiah 26:16  Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "This man does not deserve to die, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God."
Jeremiah 26:17  Then some of the elders of the land stood up and said to the whole assembly of the people,
Jeremiah 26:18  "Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He said to all the people of Judah, 'This is what the LORD of hosts says: Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house will be like the high places of a forest.'"
Jeremiah 26:19  "Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death at all? Did Hezekiah not fear the LORD and plead with the LORD? And the LORD turned back from the disaster he had spoken against them. But we are about to bring great evil on ourselves."
Jeremiah 26:20  There was also another man who prophesied in the name of the LORD: Urijah son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land, just as Jeremiah did.
Jeremiah 26:21  When Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king tried to put him to death. But when Urijah heard of it, he was afraid. He fled and went into Egypt.
Jeremiah 26:22  Then Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt: Elnathan son of Achbor, and some men with him.
Jeremiah 26:23  They brought Urijah out of Egypt and took him to Jehoiakim the king. The king killed him with the sword and threw his dead body into the graves of the common people.
Jeremiah 26:24  But the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

Jeremiah 27:1  At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jeremiah 27:2  This is what the LORD said to me: "Make yourself straps and yokes, and put them on your neck."
Jeremiah 27:3  "Then send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the Ammonites, to the king of Tyrus and to the king of Zidon. Send it by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah."
Jeremiah 27:4  "Command them to say to their masters, 'This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says. You are to tell your masters:"
Jeremiah 27:5  "'I have made the earth, and the people and the animals that are on the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whoever seems right to me."
Jeremiah 27:6  "'Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have given him the wild animals as well, to serve him."
Jeremiah 27:7  "'All nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time for his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings shall make him serve them."
Jeremiah 27:8  "'If any nation or kingdom will not serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with plague, says the LORD, until I have destroyed them by his hand."
Jeremiah 27:9  "'So do not listen to your prophets, or your fortune-tellers, or your dreamers, or your enchanters, or your sorcerers, who tell you that you shall not serve the king of Babylon."
Jeremiah 27:10  "'They prophesy a lie to you, which will take you far away from your land. I will drive you out, and you will die."
Jeremiah 27:11  "'But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave still in their own land, says the LORD. They shall work it and live in it.'"
Jeremiah 27:12  I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah in the same way. I said, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and live."
Jeremiah 27:13  "Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by famine and by plague, as the LORD has said about the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?"
Jeremiah 27:14  "So do not listen to the words of the prophets who tell you that you shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie to you."
Jeremiah 27:15  "I have not sent them, says the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name. So I will drive you out, and you will die, you and the prophets who prophesy to you."
Jeremiah 27:16  I also spoke to the priests and to all this people. I said, "This is what the LORD says: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you and say, 'Look, the vessels of the LORD's house will very soon be brought back from Babylon.' They prophesy a lie to you."
Jeremiah 27:17  "Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city be laid waste?"
Jeremiah 27:18  "But if they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them plead with the LORD of hosts that the vessels left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon."
Jeremiah 27:19  "For this is what the LORD of hosts says about the pillars, and about the sea, and about the bases, and about the rest of the vessels that remain in this city,"
Jeremiah 27:20  "which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 27:21  "Yes, this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says about the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:"
Jeremiah 27:22  "They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall stay until the day I visit them, says the LORD. Then I will bring them up and put them back in this place."

Jeremiah 28:1  That same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, Hananiah the prophet, the son of Azur, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD. He said this in front of the priests and all the people:
Jeremiah 28:2  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon."
Jeremiah 28:3  "Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD's house. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took them away from this place and carried them to Babylon."
Jeremiah 28:4  "And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon, says the LORD. For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon."
Jeremiah 28:5  Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah, in front of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD.
Jeremiah 28:6  The prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen. May the LORD do so. May the LORD carry out the words you have prophesied, and bring back the vessels of the LORD's house, and all who were carried away captive, from Babylon to this place."
Jeremiah 28:7  "But listen now to this word that I speak in your ears, and in the ears of all the people."
Jeremiah 28:8  "The prophets who were before me and before you, long ago, prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms, about war, and disaster, and plague."
Jeremiah 28:9  "When a prophet prophesies peace, then, when the word of that prophet comes true, it will be known that the LORD has truly sent him."
Jeremiah 28:10  Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, and broke it.
Jeremiah 28:11  And Hananiah spoke in front of all the people. He said, "This is what the LORD says: In the same way I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years." And the prophet Jeremiah went on his way.
Jeremiah 28:12  Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 28:13  "Go and tell Hananiah, 'This is what the LORD says: You have broken yokes of wood, but you will make yokes of iron instead of them."
Jeremiah 28:14  "For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, so that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have given him the beasts of the field as well.'"
Jeremiah 28:15  Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, "Listen now, Hananiah. The LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie."
Jeremiah 28:16  "So this is what the LORD says: Look, I will throw you off the face of the earth. This year you will die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD."
Jeremiah 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died that same year, in the seventh month.

Jeremiah 29:1  These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders who had been carried away as captives, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Jeremiah 29:2  He sent it after King Jeconiah, and the queen, and the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, and the carpenters, and the smiths had left Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 29:3  He sent it by the hand of Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah. Zedekiah king of Judah sent these men to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:
Jeremiah 29:4  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:"
Jeremiah 29:5  "Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit."
Jeremiah 29:6  "Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may have sons and daughters. Grow in number there; do not grow fewer."
Jeremiah 29:7  "Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away as captives, and pray to the LORD for it. For in its peace you will have peace."
Jeremiah 29:8  "For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you. Do not listen to your dreams, which you cause to be dreamed."
Jeremiah 29:9  "For they prophesy lies to you in my name. I did not send them, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 29:10  "For this is what the LORD says: When seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will come to you. I will keep my good word to you and bring you back to this place."
Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the LORD: thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you the end you expect."
Jeremiah 29:12  "Then you will call on me, and you will come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."
Jeremiah 29:13  "And you will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart."
Jeremiah 29:14  "I will be found by you, says the LORD. I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive."
Jeremiah 29:15  "You have said, 'The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon.'"
Jeremiah 29:16  "So know this: this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David's throne, and about all the people who live in this city, your brothers who have not gone with you into captivity."
Jeremiah 29:17  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: Look, I will send the sword, the famine and the plague against them. I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad."
Jeremiah 29:18  "I will chase them with the sword, with the famine and with the plague. I will make them a thing that every kingdom on earth shudders at, a curse, a horror, something people hiss at and shame, among all the nations where I have driven them."
Jeremiah 29:19  "This is because they have not listened to my words, says the LORD, which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them. But you would not listen, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 29:20  "So hear the word of the LORD, all you captives whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon."
Jeremiah 29:21  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and about Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in my name: Look, I will hand them over to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your eyes."
Jeremiah 29:22  "All the captives of Judah who are in Babylon will use their names as a curse, saying, 'May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire.'"
Jeremiah 29:23  "They have done shameful things in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I did not command them. I myself know it, and I am a witness, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 29:24  You are also to speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, and say:
Jeremiah 29:25  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, and to Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests. You said,"
Jeremiah 29:26  "'The LORD has made you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest, so that you should be officers in the house of the LORD over every man who is mad and makes himself a prophet. You should put such a man in prison and in the stocks."
Jeremiah 29:27  "'So why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who makes himself a prophet to you?"
Jeremiah 29:28  "'For he has sent word to us in Babylon, saying: This captivity will be long; build houses and live in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.'"
Jeremiah 29:29  And Zephaniah the priest read this letter so that Jeremiah the prophet heard it.
Jeremiah 29:30  Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 29:31  "Send word to all the captives and say, 'This is what the LORD says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I did not send him, and he has made you trust in a lie."
Jeremiah 29:32  "'So this is what the LORD says: Look, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his children. He will not have one man left to live among this people, and he will not see the good that I will do for my people, says the LORD, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.'"

Jeremiah 30:1  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jeremiah 30:2  "This is what the LORD God of Israel says: Write down in a book all the words that I have spoken to you."
Jeremiah 30:3  "For look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity, says the LORD. I will bring them back to the land I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it."
Jeremiah 30:4  These are the words that the LORD spoke about Israel and about Judah.
Jeremiah 30:5  This is what the LORD says: "We have heard a cry of trembling and of fear, and not of peace."
Jeremiah 30:6  "Ask now, and see: does a man give birth to a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his waist, like a woman giving birth? Why has every face turned pale?"
Jeremiah 30:7  "Alas, for that day is great; there is no day like it. It is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he will be saved out of it."
Jeremiah 30:8  "On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will break his yoke off your neck, and I will snap the ropes that bind you. Strangers will no longer make him serve them."
Jeremiah 30:9  "Instead they will serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up for them."
Jeremiah 30:10  "So do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, says the LORD; do not be dismayed, Israel. For look, I will save you from far away, and your children from the land where they are held captive. Jacob will come back, and will have rest and quiet, and no one will make him afraid."
Jeremiah 30:11  "For I am with you to save you, says the LORD. Though I make an end of all the nations where I have scattered you, I will not make an end of you. But I will correct you with measure, and I will not leave you completely unpunished."
Jeremiah 30:12  This is what the LORD says: "Your injury cannot be cured, and your wound is severe."
Jeremiah 30:13  "There is no one to plead your cause, no one to bind up your sore. You have no medicines to heal you."
Jeremiah 30:14  "All those who loved you have forgotten you; they do not look for you. For I have wounded you as an enemy wounds, and punished you as a cruel man would, because your wrongdoing is so great and your sins are so many."
Jeremiah 30:15  "Why do you cry out about your suffering? Your pain cannot be cured. Because your wrongdoing is so great and your sins are so many, I have done these things to you."
Jeremiah 30:16  "But all who devour you will be devoured, and all your enemies, every one of them, will go into captivity. Those who plunder you will be plundered, and all who prey on you I will give up as prey."
Jeremiah 30:17  "For I will bring back your health, and I will heal your wounds, says the LORD, because they called you an Outcast, and said, 'This is Zion; no one cares for her.'"
Jeremiah 30:18  This is what the LORD says: "Look, I will bring Jacob's tents back from captivity, and I will have mercy on the places where he lives. The city will be rebuilt on its own mound of ruins, and the palace will stand as it did before."
Jeremiah 30:19  "Out of them will come thanksgiving and the sound of people rejoicing. I will make them many, not few; I will give them glory, and they will not be small."
Jeremiah 30:20  "Their children will be as they were long ago, and their assembly will be made firm before me. I will punish all who oppress them."
Jeremiah 30:21  "Their leaders will be their own people, and their ruler will come from among them. I will bring him near, and he will come close to me. For who else would dare in his heart to come close to me? says the LORD."
Jeremiah 30:22  "And you will be my people, and I will be your God."
Jeremiah 30:23  Look, the storm of the LORD goes out in fury, a sweeping whirlwind. It will burst upon the heads of the wicked.
Jeremiah 30:24  The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has done it, until he has carried out what he planned in his heart. In the days to come you will understand it.

Jeremiah 31:1  "At that time," says the LORD, "I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people."
Jeremiah 31:2  This is what the LORD says: "The people who were left alive from the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to give him rest."
Jeremiah 31:3  The LORD appeared to me long ago, saying, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. So with lovingkindness I have drawn you."
Jeremiah 31:4  "I will build you again, and you will be built, virgin of Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines, and go out in the dances of those who make merry."
Jeremiah 31:5  "You will yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria. The planters will plant, and will eat them as common things."
Jeremiah 31:6  "For there will be a day when the watchmen on Mount Ephraim will cry, 'Get up, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.'"
Jeremiah 31:7  For this is what the LORD says: "Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations. Make it known, give praise, and say, 'LORD, save your people, the remnant of Israel.'"
Jeremiah 31:8  "Look, I will bring them from the country of the north, and gather them from the ends of the earth. With them will come the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the woman in labour together. A great company will return there."
Jeremiah 31:9  "They will come with weeping, and with prayers I will lead them. I will make them walk by the rivers of water on a straight path, where they will not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn."
Jeremiah 31:10  "Hear the word of the LORD, you nations, and declare it in the islands far away. Say, 'He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd keeps his flock.'"
Jeremiah 31:11  "For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he."
Jeremiah 31:12  "So they will come and sing on the height of Zion. They will stream together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd. Their soul will be like a watered garden, and they will sorrow no more at all."
Jeremiah 31:13  "Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance, young men and old together. For I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them, and give them gladness instead of their sorrow."
Jeremiah 31:14  "I will fill the soul of the priests with rich food, and my people will be satisfied with my goodness," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 31:15  This is what the LORD says: "A voice was heard in Ramah, mourning and bitter weeping. Rachel was weeping for her children. She refused to be comforted for her children, because they were no more."
Jeremiah 31:16  This is what the LORD says: "Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears. For your work will be rewarded," says the LORD, "and they will come again from the land of the enemy."
Jeremiah 31:17  "And there is hope for your future," says the LORD, "that your children will come again to their own border."
Jeremiah 31:18  "I have surely heard Ephraim grieving to himself: 'You have corrected me, and I was corrected, like a young bull not used to the yoke. Turn me back, and I shall be turned, for you are the LORD my God.'"
Jeremiah 31:19  "'Surely after I was turned back, I repented. After I was taught, I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, humiliated, because I carried the disgrace of my youth.'"
Jeremiah 31:20  "Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For as often as I have spoken against him, I still remember him earnestly. So my heart is troubled for him. I will surely have mercy on him," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 31:21  "Set up road marks for yourself, make yourself high heaps of stones. Set your heart toward the highway, the very road you went. Turn again, virgin of Israel, turn again to these cities of yours."
Jeremiah 31:22  "How long will you wander about, you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall surround a man."
Jeremiah 31:23  This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Once again they will use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captives: 'The LORD bless you, home of justice, mountain of holiness.'"
Jeremiah 31:24  "And in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, there will live farmers and those who go out with flocks."
Jeremiah 31:25  "For I have satisfied the weary soul, and I have filled again every sorrowful soul."
Jeremiah 31:26  At this I woke up and looked, and my sleep had been sweet to me.
Jeremiah 31:27  "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast."
Jeremiah 31:28  "And just as I watched over them to pull up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy and to bring trouble, so I will watch over them to build and to plant," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 31:29  "In those days they will no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'"
Jeremiah 31:30  "But everyone will die for his own wrongdoing. Every man who eats the sour grape, his own teeth will be set on edge."
Jeremiah 31:31  "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."
Jeremiah 31:32  "It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant of mine, although I was a husband to them," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 31:33  "But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the LORD: "I will put my law inside them, and write it in their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."
Jeremiah 31:34  "No longer will each man teach his neighbour, or each man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD.' For they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," says the LORD. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
Jeremiah 31:35  This is what the LORD says, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the fixed orders of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divides the sea when its waves roar; the LORD of hosts is his name:
Jeremiah 31:36  "If those fixed orders ever depart from before me," says the LORD, "then the seed of Israel will also stop being a nation before me for ever."
Jeremiah 31:37  This is what the LORD says: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be searched out, then I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 31:38  "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when the city will be built for the LORD, from the tower of Hananeel to the gate of the corner."
Jeremiah 31:39  "And the measuring line will go out further, straight on over the hill Gareb, and will turn round to Goath."
Jeremiah 31:40  "And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be pulled up or thrown down, for ever."

Jeremiah 32:1  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah. That was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
Jeremiah 32:2  At that time the army of the king of Babylon was laying siege to Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Judah.
Jeremiah 32:3  Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up there. He said, "Why do you prophesy and say, 'This is what the LORD says: Look, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take it;"
Jeremiah 32:4  and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans. He will surely be handed over to the king of Babylon. He will speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes;
Jeremiah 32:5  "and he will lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he will stay until I come to him, says the LORD. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed'?"
Jeremiah 32:6  And Jeremiah said, "The word of the LORD came to me:"
Jeremiah 32:7  "Look, Hanameel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, 'Buy my field that is in Anathoth for yourself, for you are the near relative, and the right to buy it back is yours.'"
Jeremiah 32:8  So Hanameel, my uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison, just as the LORD had said. He said to me, "Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, in the country of Benjamin. The right of inheritance is yours, and the right to buy it back is yours. Buy it for yourself." Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Jeremiah 32:9  So I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanameel my uncle's son, and I weighed out the money for him, seventeen shekels of silver.
Jeremiah 32:10  I signed the deed and sealed it, and I called witnesses, and weighed out the money for him on the scales.
Jeremiah 32:11  So I took the deed of purchase, both the copy that was sealed, following the law and the custom, and the copy that was open.
Jeremiah 32:12  And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah. I did this while Hanameel my uncle's son watched, and in front of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and in front of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the prison.
Jeremiah 32:13  And I gave Baruch this command in front of them all:
Jeremiah 32:14  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'Take these deeds, this deed of purchase which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in a clay jar, so that they may last for many days.'"
Jeremiah 32:15  "For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'Houses and fields and vineyards will be owned again in this land.'"
Jeremiah 32:16  Now when I had handed the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD:
Jeremiah 32:17  "Ah, Lord GOD! Look, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you."
Jeremiah 32:18  "You show lovingkindness to thousands, and you repay the sin of the fathers into the laps of their children after them. The Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts is his name."
Jeremiah 32:19  "You are great in counsel and mighty in work. Your eyes are open to all the ways of people, to give to each one according to his ways and according to what his deeds deserve."
Jeremiah 32:20  "You did signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and you still do them to this day, both in Israel and among other people. So you have made yourself a name, as it is today."
Jeremiah 32:21  "You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror."
Jeremiah 32:22  "And you gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers that you would give them, a land flowing with milk and honey."
Jeremiah 32:23  "They came in and took it for their own, but they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all that you commanded them to do. So you have brought all this disaster upon them."
Jeremiah 32:24  "Look at the siege mounds. They have reached the city to take it. The city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword and the famine and the plague. What you said has happened, and look, you see it."
Jeremiah 32:25  "Yet you have said to me, O Lord GOD, 'Buy the field for money and call witnesses' - and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans."
Jeremiah 32:26  Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 32:27  "Look, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?"
Jeremiah 32:28  "So this is what the LORD says: Look, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it."
Jeremiah 32:29  "And the Chaldeans who fight against this city will come and set it on fire and burn it, together with the houses on whose roofs they burned incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to make me angry."
Jeremiah 32:30  "For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have only made me angry with the work of their hands, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 32:31  "This city has stirred up my anger and my fury from the day they built it until this day, so that I must remove it from before my face,"
Jeremiah 32:32  "because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to make me angry - they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the people living in Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 32:33  "They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. I taught them, rising up early to teach them, yet they would not listen or take instruction."
Jeremiah 32:34  "They set up their detestable idols in the house that is called by my name, and made it unclean."
Jeremiah 32:35  "They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to Molech. I never commanded this, and it never came into my mind that they should do this detestable thing and make Judah sin."
Jeremiah 32:36  "And now, therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about this city, of which you say, 'It will be handed over to the king of Babylon by the sword, by famine and by plague':"
Jeremiah 32:37  "Look, I will gather them out of all the countries where I drove them in my anger and my fury and great wrath. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them live in safety."
Jeremiah 32:38  "They will be my people, and I will be their God."
Jeremiah 32:39  "I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will fear me for ever, for their own good and for the good of their children after them."
Jeremiah 32:40  "I will make an everlasting covenant with them. I will not turn away from doing them good, and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from me."
Jeremiah 32:41  "Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will surely plant them in this land, with all my heart and with all my soul."
Jeremiah 32:42  "For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them."
Jeremiah 32:43  "And fields will be bought in this land, of which you say, 'It is a waste, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'"
Jeremiah 32:44  "People will buy fields for money, and sign deeds, and seal them, and call witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the south. For I will bring them back from captivity, says the LORD."

Jeremiah 33:1  The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison. The LORD said,
Jeremiah 33:2  "This is what the LORD says, the one who made it, the LORD who formed it and set it firm; the LORD is his name:"
Jeremiah 33:3  "Call to me, and I will answer you. I will show you great and mighty things that you do not know."
Jeremiah 33:4  For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and about the houses of the kings of Judah, which are torn down to fight against the siege mounds and the sword:
Jeremiah 33:5  "They come to fight against the Chaldeans, but it is only to fill those houses with the dead bodies of men. I killed them in my anger and in my fury. Because of all their wickedness I have hidden my face from this city."
Jeremiah 33:6  Look, I will bring it health and healing. I will heal my people, and I will show them plenty of peace and truth.
Jeremiah 33:7  I will bring back the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel, and I will build them up as they were at the first.
Jeremiah 33:8  I will wash them clean from all the sin they have done against me. I will pardon all the wrongs they have done, by which they sinned and rebelled against me.
Jeremiah 33:9  "Then this city will bring me joy, praise and honour before all the nations of the earth, when they hear of all the good that I do for my people. They will fear and tremble because of all the goodness and all the peace that I bring to it."
Jeremiah 33:10  This is what the LORD says: "You say this place is a ruin, with no man and no animal in it. Yet in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, which lie empty, with no man, no one living there, and no animal, there will be heard again"
Jeremiah 33:11  "the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and the voices of those who say, 'Praise the LORD of hosts, for the LORD is good; his mercy lasts for ever.' And they will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will bring back the captives of the land, as they were at the first," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 33:12  This is what the LORD of hosts says: "In this place, which is a ruin with no man and no animal, and in all its cities, there will again be homes for shepherds who rest their flocks there."
Jeremiah 33:13  "In the cities of the hills, in the cities of the valley, in the cities of the south, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will pass again under the hands of the one who counts them," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 33:14  "Look, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when I will do the good thing that I promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah."
Jeremiah 33:15  In those days, and at that time, I will make a righteous Branch grow up for David. He will do what is just and right in the land.
Jeremiah 33:16  In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name she will be called: The LORD our righteousness.
Jeremiah 33:17  For this is what the LORD says: David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.
Jeremiah 33:18  "And the priests, the Levites, will never lack a man to stand before me and offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices, day after day."
Jeremiah 33:19  And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 33:20  This is what the LORD says: "If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night do not come at their proper time,"
Jeremiah 33:21  then my covenant with David my servant may also be broken, so that he will have no son to reign on his throne, and my covenant with the Levites, the priests, who serve me.
Jeremiah 33:22  "The stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured. In the same way I will multiply the children of David my servant, and the Levites who serve me."
Jeremiah 33:23  The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah again:
Jeremiah 33:24  "Have you not noticed what these people are saying? They say, 'The two families the LORD chose, he has now thrown away.' So they look down on my people, as if they were no longer a nation to them."
Jeremiah 33:25  This is what the LORD says: If I have not made my covenant with day and night, and if I did not set the laws of heaven and earth,
Jeremiah 33:26  "then I will throw away the children of Jacob and David my servant, and I will not take any of his children to rule over the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will bring back their captives, and I will have mercy on them."

Jeremiah 34:1  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his rule, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities. He said:
Jeremiah 34:2  "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, 'This is what the LORD says: Look, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire."
Jeremiah 34:3  "'And you will not escape out of his hand. You will surely be captured and handed over to him. Your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon."
Jeremiah 34:4  "'Yet hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says about you: You will not die by the sword."
Jeremiah 34:5  "'You will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you. They will mourn for you and cry, Ah lord! For I have spoken the word, says the LORD.'"
Jeremiah 34:6  Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 34:7  At that time the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah. These were the only walled cities left of the cities of Judah.
Jeremiah 34:8  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem, to proclaim freedom to the slaves.
Jeremiah 34:9  Every man was to let his manservant and his maidservant go free, if they were Hebrew men or Hebrew women. No one was to keep a Jew, his brother, as a slave.
Jeremiah 34:10  So all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant heard that every man must let his manservant and his maidservant go free, and that no one should keep them as slaves any more. They obeyed, and let them go.
Jeremiah 34:11  But afterwards they changed their minds. They took back the menservants and the maidservants whom they had set free, and forced them into slavery again as menservants and maidservants.
Jeremiah 34:12  So the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jeremiah 34:13  "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves. I said,"
Jeremiah 34:14  "'At the end of seven years each of you must let go his brother, a Hebrew, who has been sold to you. When he has served you six years, you must let him go free.' But your fathers did not listen to me, and did not turn their ear to me."
Jeremiah 34:15  "Now you had turned back and done what is right in my sight, by proclaiming freedom, every man to his neighbour. You had made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name."
Jeremiah 34:16  "But you turned back and made my name unclean. Each of you took back his manservant and his maidservant, whom you had set free to go where they pleased, and you forced them into slavery again, to be your menservants and maidservants."
Jeremiah 34:17  "Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not listened to me, to proclaim freedom, every one to his brother and every man to his neighbour. So look, I proclaim a freedom for you, says the LORD - freedom to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine. And I will make you driven away into all the kingdoms of the earth."
Jeremiah 34:18  "And the men who have broken my covenant, who have not kept the words of the covenant they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and walked between its parts -"
Jeremiah 34:19  "the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the officers, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who walked between the parts of the calf -"
Jeremiah 34:20  "I will hand them over to their enemies, and to those who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth."
Jeremiah 34:21  "And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes I will hand over to their enemies, and to those who want to kill them, and to the army of the king of Babylon, which has gone away from you."
Jeremiah 34:22  "Look, I will give the command, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire. And I will make the cities of Judah a waste, with no one living in them."

Jeremiah 35:1  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
Jeremiah 35:2  "Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them. Bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the rooms, and give them wine to drink."
Jeremiah 35:3  So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habaziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites.
Jeremiah 35:4  I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the room of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, a man of God. That room was beside the room of the princes, above the room of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door.
Jeremiah 35:5  I set pots full of wine and cups in front of the sons of the house of the Rechabites, and I said to them, "Drink wine."
Jeremiah 35:6  But they said, "We will drink no wine. For Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, 'You shall drink no wine, neither you nor your sons, for ever."
Jeremiah 35:7  You shall not build a house, or sow seed, or plant a vineyard, or own one. All your days you shall live in tents, so that you may live many days in the land where you are strangers.'
Jeremiah 35:8  So we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in everything he ordered us. We drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters.
Jeremiah 35:9  We do not build houses to live in, and we have no vineyard, no field, and no seed.
Jeremiah 35:10  But we have lived in tents, and we have obeyed and done everything that Jonadab our father commanded us.
Jeremiah 35:11  "But when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, 'Come, let us go to Jerusalem, for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Syrians.' So we are living in Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 35:12  Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 35:13  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the men of Judah and the people living in Jerusalem, 'Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words?' says the LORD."
Jeremiah 35:14  "The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, who commanded his sons not to drink wine, have been kept. To this day they drink none, but obey their father's command. Yet I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, and you did not listen to me."
Jeremiah 35:15  "I have also sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, 'Turn back now, every one of you, from your evil way. Make your doings right. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Then you shall live in the land which I gave to you and to your fathers.' But you have not turned your ear, and you have not listened to me."
Jeremiah 35:16  "The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have kept the command their father gave them, but this people has not listened to me."
Jeremiah 35:17  "Therefore this is what the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Look, I will bring on Judah and on all the people living in Jerusalem all the evil I have spoken against them. For I have spoken to them, but they have not heard. I have called to them, but they have not answered."
Jeremiah 35:18  And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father, and kept all his rules, and done everything he commanded you."
Jeremiah 35:19  "Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me for ever."

Jeremiah 36:1  In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
Jeremiah 36:2  "Take a scroll, and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations. Write them from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, right up to this day."
Jeremiah 36:3  "It may be that the people of Judah will hear about all the trouble I plan to bring on them. Then each one may turn back from his evil way, and I will forgive their wrongdoing and their sin."
Jeremiah 36:4  So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah. As Jeremiah spoke, Baruch wrote down on a scroll all the words of the LORD that the LORD had spoken to him.
Jeremiah 36:5  Then Jeremiah gave Baruch this order: "I am shut in. I cannot go into the house of the LORD."
Jeremiah 36:6  "So you go, and on a day of fasting read from the scroll you have written as I spoke. Read the words of the LORD to the people in the LORD's house. Read them also to all the people of Judah who come in from their cities."
Jeremiah 36:7  "It may be that they will bring their prayer before the LORD, and each one will turn back from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has spoken against this people."
Jeremiah 36:8  Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do. He read the words of the LORD from the book in the LORD's house.
Jeremiah 36:9  In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast before the LORD was announced for all the people in Jerusalem, and for all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.
Jeremiah 36:10  Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the book in the house of the LORD. He read them in the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court, at the entrance of the new gate of the LORD's house, so that all the people heard.
Jeremiah 36:11  Michaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the book.
Jeremiah 36:12  So he went down to the king's house, into the scribe's room. All the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other princes.
Jeremiah 36:13  Michaiah told them all the words he had heard when Baruch read from the book to the people.
Jeremiah 36:14  So all the princes sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch with this message: "Take in your hand the scroll you read to the people, and come." So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
Jeremiah 36:15  They said to him, "Sit down now, and read it to us." So Baruch read it to them.
Jeremiah 36:16  When they had heard all the words, they were afraid, each one looking at the other, and they said to Baruch, "We must certainly tell the king all these words."
Jeremiah 36:17  They asked Baruch, "Tell us now, how did you write all these words? Did he speak them to you?"
Jeremiah 36:18  Baruch answered them, "He spoke all these words to me with his own mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book."
Jeremiah 36:19  Then the princes said to Baruch, "Go and hide, you and Jeremiah. Let no one know where you are."
Jeremiah 36:20  They put the scroll away in the room of Elishama the scribe, and went in to the king in the court, and told the king all the words.
Jeremiah 36:21  So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll, and he took it from the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it to the king and to all the princes who stood beside the king.
Jeremiah 36:22  Now the king was sitting in the winter house, in the ninth month, and a fire was burning in the firepot in front of him.
Jeremiah 36:23  Each time Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the fire in the firepot. He did this until the whole scroll was burned up in the fire in the firepot.
Jeremiah 36:24  Yet they were not afraid, and they did not tear their clothes - not the king, and not any of his servants who heard all these words.
Jeremiah 36:25  Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, but he would not listen to them.
Jeremiah 36:26  Instead the king ordered Jerahmeel son of Hammelech, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD hid them.
Jeremiah 36:27  After the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch had written as Jeremiah spoke, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 36:28  "Take another scroll, and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah has burned."
Jeremiah 36:29  "And you are to say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, This is what the LORD says: You have burned this scroll, and you said, 'Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and put an end to both man and beast in it?'"
Jeremiah 36:30  "Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David. His dead body shall be thrown out, to the heat by day and to the frost by night."
Jeremiah 36:31  "I will punish him and his children and his servants for their wrongdoing. I will bring on them, and on the people living in Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the trouble I have spoken against them; but they did not listen."
Jeremiah 36:32  Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, son of Neriah. As Jeremiah spoke, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many more words like them were added to them.

Jeremiah 37:1  King Zedekiah son of Josiah became king in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim. Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made him king in the land of Judah.
Jeremiah 37:2  But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD, which he spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 37:3  King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "Pray now to the LORD our God for us."
Jeremiah 37:4  Now Jeremiah came and went freely among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison.
Jeremiah 37:5  Pharaoh's army had come out of Egypt. When the Chaldeans who were surrounding Jerusalem heard the news about them, they went away from Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 37:6  Then the word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 37:7  "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: This is what you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to ask me things. Look, Pharaoh's army, which has come out to help you, will go back to Egypt, to their own land."
Jeremiah 37:8  "And the Chaldeans will come back. They will fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire."
Jeremiah 37:9  "This is what the LORD says: Do not fool yourselves by saying, 'The Chaldeans will surely go away from us.' They will not go away."
Jeremiah 37:10  "Even if you had struck down the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, so that only wounded men were left among them, they would each rise up in his tent and burn this city with fire."
Jeremiah 37:11  When the army of the Chaldeans had broken off from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army,
Jeremiah 37:12  Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin, to take his share of property there among the people.
Jeremiah 37:13  When he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah. He seized Jeremiah the prophet and said, "You are deserting to the Chaldeans."
Jeremiah 37:14  Then Jeremiah said, "That is false. I am not deserting to the Chaldeans." But Irijah would not listen to him. So Irijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
Jeremiah 37:15  The princes were angry with Jeremiah. They beat him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that into the prison.
Jeremiah 37:16  So Jeremiah went into the dungeon, into the cells, and stayed there many days.
Jeremiah 37:17  Then King Zedekiah sent for him and took him out. The king asked him secretly in his house, "Is there any word from the LORD?" Jeremiah said, "There is." He said, "You will be handed over to the king of Babylon."
Jeremiah 37:18  Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, "What wrong have I done to you, or to your servants, or to this people, that you have put me in prison?"
Jeremiah 37:19  "Where are your prophets now, the ones who prophesied to you, saying, 'The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land'?"
Jeremiah 37:20  "So listen now, please, my lord the king. Let my request come before you, I beg you. Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there."
Jeremiah 37:21  Then King Zedekiah gave orders that Jeremiah should be put in the court of the prison, and that he should be given a piece of bread each day from the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the prison.

Jeremiah 38:1  Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken to all the people. He said,
Jeremiah 38:2  "This is what the LORD says: whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by plague. But whoever goes out to the Chaldeans will live. His life will be his prize, and he will live."
Jeremiah 38:3  "This is what the LORD says: this city will surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and they will take it."
Jeremiah 38:4  So the princes said to the king, "We beg you, let this man be put to death. By speaking such words to them he weakens the hands of the soldiers who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people. This man does not seek the good of this people, but their harm."
Jeremiah 38:5  Then King Zedekiah said, "Look, he is in your hand. The king can do nothing against you."
Jeremiah 38:6  So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the pit of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, which was in the court of the prison. They let Jeremiah down with ropes. There was no water in the pit, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
Jeremiah 38:7  Now Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the officers in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the pit. The king was then sitting in the gate of Benjamin.
Jeremiah 38:8  So Ebedmelech went out of the king's house and spoke to the king. He said,
Jeremiah 38:9  "My lord the king, these men have done evil in everything they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into the pit, and he is likely to die of hunger where he is, for there is no more bread in the city."
Jeremiah 38:10  Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, "Take thirty men with you from here, and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the pit before he dies."
Jeremiah 38:11  So Ebedmelech took the men with him and went into the king's house, to a place under the treasury. He took from there old cast-off clothes and old rotten rags, and let them down by ropes into the pit to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 38:12  Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, "Put these old cast-off clothes and rotten rags under your armpits, under the ropes." Jeremiah did so.
Jeremiah 38:13  So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the pit. And Jeremiah stayed in the court of the prison.
Jeremiah 38:14  Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance in the house of the LORD. The king said to Jeremiah, "I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me."
Jeremiah 38:15  Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "If I tell you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you advice, will you not listen to me?"
Jeremiah 38:16  So King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, "As the LORD lives, who made this soul of ours, I will not put you to death, and I will not hand you over to these men who want to kill you."
Jeremiah 38:17  Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "This is what the LORD says, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: if you will indeed go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, then your soul will live, and this city will not be burned with fire. You and your household will live."
Jeremiah 38:18  "But if you will not go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans. They will burn it with fire, and you will not escape out of their hand."
Jeremiah 38:19  King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Chaldeans. They may hand me over to them, and they will mock me."
Jeremiah 38:20  But Jeremiah said, "They will not hand you over. Obey, I beg you, the voice of the LORD in what I am telling you. Then it will go well with you, and your soul will live."
Jeremiah 38:21  "But if you refuse to go out, this is the word that the LORD has shown me:"
Jeremiah 38:22  "Look, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon. And those women will say, 'Your friends have led you on, and have overcome you. Your feet are sunk in the mud, and they have turned away and left you.'"
Jeremiah 38:23  "So they will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans. You yourself will not escape out of their hand, but will be caught by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you will cause this city to be burned with fire."
Jeremiah 38:24  Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Let no one know about these words, and you will not die."
Jeremiah 38:25  "But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say, 'Tell us now what you said to the king, and what the king said to you. Do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death,'"
Jeremiah 38:26  "then you will say to them, 'I laid my plea before the king, that he would not send me back to Jonathan's house to die there.'"
Jeremiah 38:27  Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and questioned him. He told them just as the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, for the matter was not found out.
Jeremiah 38:28  So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

Jeremiah 39:1  In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army, and they laid siege to it.
Jeremiah 39:2  In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was broken open.
Jeremiah 39:3  All the princes of the king of Babylon came in and sat down in the middle gate: Nergalsharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Jeremiah 39:4  When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled. They went out of the city by night, by the way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls. And the king went out toward the plain.
Jeremiah 39:5  But the army of the Chaldeans chased after them and caught up with Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. They took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him.
Jeremiah 39:6  Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes. The king of Babylon also killed all the nobles of Judah.
Jeremiah 39:7  Then he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with chains, to carry him away to Babylon.
Jeremiah 39:8  The Chaldeans burned the king's house and the houses of the people with fire, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 39:9  Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away to Babylon as prisoners the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had deserted and gone over to him, and the rest of the people who remained.
Jeremiah 39:10  But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left some of the poor people, who had nothing, in the land of Judah. At that time he gave them vineyards and fields.
Jeremiah 39:11  Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave an order about Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard. He said,
Jeremiah 39:12  "Take him, and take good care of him, and do him no harm. Do for him whatever he asks you."
Jeremiah 39:13  So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard sent word, and so did Nebushasban, Rabsaris, and Nergalsharezer, Rabmag, and all the princes of the king of Babylon.
Jeremiah 39:14  They sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and handed him over to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, so that he might take him home. So he lived among the people.
Jeremiah 39:15  Now the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah while he was shut up in the court of the prison. It said,
Jeremiah 39:16  "Go and speak to Ebedmelech the Ethiopian. Say, This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Look, I will bring my words on this city for harm, and not for good. They will come true on that day before your eyes."
Jeremiah 39:17  But I will rescue you on that day, says the LORD. You will not be handed over to the men you are afraid of.
Jeremiah 39:18  "For I will surely rescue you. You will not fall by the sword, but you will escape with your life, because you have put your trust in me, says the LORD."

Jeremiah 40:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah. He had taken Jeremiah when he was bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being carried away to Babylon.
Jeremiah 40:2  The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, "The LORD your God said this trouble would come on this place."
Jeremiah 40:3  Now the LORD has brought it, and has done just as he said. This happened to you because you sinned against the LORD and did not obey his voice.
Jeremiah 40:4  "And now, look, today I set you free from the chains on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will take good care of you. But if it seems bad to you to come with me to Babylon, then stay here. Look, all the land is before you. Go wherever it seems good and right to you to go."
Jeremiah 40:5  While Jeremiah had not yet turned to go, the captain said, "Then go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has made governor over the cities of Judah, and live with him among the people. Or go wherever it seems right to you to go." So the captain of the guard gave him food and a gift, and let him go.
Jeremiah 40:6  Then Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.
Jeremiah 40:7  All the captains of the forces who were in the open country, both they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had made Gedaliah son of Ahikam governor in the land. They heard that he had put in his care men, women and children, and some of the poor of the land who had not been carried away to Babylon.
Jeremiah 40:8  So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah son of a Maachathite, they and their men.
Jeremiah 40:9  Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, made a promise on oath to them and to their men. He said, "Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you."
Jeremiah 40:10  "As for me, look, I will live at Mizpah to serve the Chaldeans who come to us. But you, gather wine and summer fruits and oil, and put them in your jars, and live in the cities you have taken."
Jeremiah 40:11  In the same way, all the Jews who were in Moab, and among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and in all the other countries, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant of Judah, and that he had set Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over them.
Jeremiah 40:12  So all those Jews came back from all the places where they had been driven. They came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered a great deal of wine and summer fruits.
Jeremiah 40:13  Then Johanan son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were in the open country, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.
Jeremiah 40:14  They said to him, "Do you know for certain that Baalis the king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you?" But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.
Jeremiah 40:15  Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah. He said, "Let me go, I beg you, and I will kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one will know it. Why should he kill you, so that all the Jews who have gathered to you are scattered, and the remnant in Judah dies?"
Jeremiah 40:16  But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, "You shall not do this thing, for what you say about Ishmael is false."

Jeremiah 41:1  In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, came to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. Ishmael was of the royal family and one of the king's chief men, and ten men came with him. There at Mizpah they ate bread together.
Jeremiah 41:2  Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah got up, and so did the ten men who were with him. They struck Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and killed him. He was the man the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
Jeremiah 41:3  Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, and the soldiers.
Jeremiah 41:4  On the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, when no one yet knew of it,
Jeremiah 41:5  some men came from Shechem, from Shiloh and from Samaria, eighty men in all. Their beards were shaved off, their clothes were torn, and they had cut themselves. They carried offerings and incense in their hands to bring to the house of the LORD.
Jeremiah 41:6  Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he met them he said, "Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam."
Jeremiah 41:7  When they had come into the middle of the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah killed them and threw them into the middle of a pit. He and the men who were with him did this.
Jeremiah 41:8  But ten men among them said to Ishmael, "Do not kill us, for we have stores hidden in the field: wheat, barley, oil and honey." So he held back and did not kill them with the rest.
Jeremiah 41:9  The pit where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of the men he had killed because of Gedaliah was the one King Asa had made when he was afraid of Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the bodies of the dead.
Jeremiah 41:10  Then Ishmael took away as prisoners all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah. He took the king's daughters and all the people left in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had put under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them away as prisoners and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.
Jeremiah 41:11  But Johanan son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had done.
Jeremiah 41:12  So they took all their men and went to fight against Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They found him by the great pool that is in Gibeon.
Jeremiah 41:13  When all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him, they were glad.
Jeremiah 41:14  So all the people whom Ishmael had taken away as prisoners from Mizpah turned round and came back, and went over to Johanan son of Kareah.
Jeremiah 41:15  But Ishmael son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the Ammonites.
Jeremiah 41:16  Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces who were with him took all the rest of the people whom he had brought back from Ishmael son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after Ishmael had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam. They took the strong fighting men, the women, the children and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon.
Jeremiah 41:17  They set out and stayed at the lodging place of Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, on their way to go into Egypt.
Jeremiah 41:18  They went because of the Chaldeans, for they were afraid of them. Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor in the land.

Jeremiah 42:1  Then all the captains of the armies, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least to the greatest, came near
Jeremiah 42:2  and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our request come before you. Pray for us to the LORD your God, for all who are left of us. For we were many, and now only a few of us remain, as you can see with your own eyes."
Jeremiah 42:3  "Ask that the LORD your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing we should do."
Jeremiah 42:4  Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you. Look, I will pray to the LORD your God as you have asked. Whatever answer the LORD gives you, I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you."
Jeremiah 42:5  Then they said to Jeremiah, "May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act on everything the LORD your God sends you to tell us."
Jeremiah 42:6  "Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we are sending you. Then it will go well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God."
Jeremiah 42:7  After ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 42:8  Then he called Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the armies who were with him, and all the people, from the least to the greatest,
Jeremiah 42:9  and said to them, "This is what the LORD says, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to lay your request before him:"
Jeremiah 42:10  'If you will stay on in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down. I will plant you and not tear you up. For I am sorry for the trouble I have brought on you.
Jeremiah 42:11  Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you fear. Do not be afraid of him, says the LORD. For I am with you, to save you and to rescue you from his hand.
Jeremiah 42:12  I will show you mercy, so that he will have mercy on you and let you go back to your own land.'
Jeremiah 42:13  "But suppose you say, 'We will not stay in this land,' and so refuse to obey the voice of the LORD your God."
Jeremiah 42:14  Suppose you say, 'No, we will go to the land of Egypt. There we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor go hungry for bread. There we will live.'
Jeremiah 42:15  Then hear the word of the LORD, you who are left of Judah. This is what the LORD of hosts says, the God of Israel: 'If you are set on going to Egypt, and you go to live there,
Jeremiah 42:16  then the sword you feared will catch up with you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you dreaded will follow close behind you there in Egypt. And there you will die.
Jeremiah 42:17  So it will be with all the men who are set on going to Egypt to live there. They will die by the sword, by famine and by plague. Not one of them will be left or escape the disaster that I will bring on them.'
Jeremiah 42:18  "For this is what the LORD of hosts says, the God of Israel: 'As my anger and my fury were poured out on the people of Jerusalem, so my fury will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will become a thing people curse by, a thing that shocks them, a curse and an insult. And you will never see this place again.'"
Jeremiah 42:19  The LORD has spoken about you, you who are left of Judah: 'Do not go to Egypt.' Know for certain that I have warned you this day.
Jeremiah 42:20  You deceived yourselves in your hearts when you sent me to the LORD your God, saying, 'Pray for us to the LORD our God. Tell us everything the LORD our God says, and we will do it.'
Jeremiah 42:21  Today I have told you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor anything he sent me to say to you.
Jeremiah 42:22  "So now know for certain that you will die by the sword, by famine and by plague, in the place where you want to go and live."

Jeremiah 43:1  Jeremiah finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God. The LORD their God had sent him to them with these words, all of them.
Jeremiah 43:2  Then Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke. They said to Jeremiah, "You are lying. The LORD our God did not send you to say, 'Do not go into Egypt to live there.'"
Jeremiah 43:3  "But Baruch son of Neriah is stirring you up against us. He wants to hand us over to the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death, and carry us away as prisoners to Babylon."
Jeremiah 43:4  So Johanan son of Kareah, and all the captains of the armies, and all the people did not obey the voice of the LORD. They would not stay in the land of Judah.
Jeremiah 43:5  Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the captains of the armies took all who were left of Judah. These were the people who had come back from all the nations where they had been driven away, to live in the land of Judah.
Jeremiah 43:6  They took men, and women, and children, and the king's daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan. They also took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.
Jeremiah 43:7  So they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD. They went as far as Tahpanhes.
Jeremiah 43:8  Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes:
Jeremiah 43:9  "Take some large stones in your hand. Hide them in the clay of the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes. Do it while the men of Judah are watching."
Jeremiah 43:10  Say to them, 'This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Look, I will send for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring him here. I will set his throne on these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal tent over them.
Jeremiah 43:11  When he comes, he will strike the land of Egypt. Those meant for death will go to death. Those meant for captivity will go to captivity. Those meant for the sword will go to the sword.
Jeremiah 43:12  I will light a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them and carry their gods away as prisoners. He will wrap the land of Egypt around himself, as a shepherd puts on his coat, and he will leave that place in peace.
Jeremiah 43:13  "He will also break down the pillars of Bethshemesh, which is in the land of Egypt, and he will burn the temples of the gods of the Egyptians with fire.'"

Jeremiah 44:1  The word that came to Jeremiah about all the Jews who were living in the land of Egypt - those living at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Noph, and in the country of Pathros:
Jeremiah 44:2  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the trouble I brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah. Look, today they are a ruin, and no one lives in them."
Jeremiah 44:3  "This is because of the wickedness they did to make me angry. They went to burn incense and to serve other gods, gods they did not know - neither they, nor you, nor your fathers."
Jeremiah 44:4  "Yet I sent all my servants the prophets to you, getting up early and sending them, saying, 'Oh, do not do this hateful thing that I hate.'"
Jeremiah 44:5  "But they did not listen. They did not turn their ear to leave their wickedness and stop burning incense to other gods."
Jeremiah 44:6  "So my fury and my anger were poured out. They burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and those places are ruined and empty, as they are today."
Jeremiah 44:7  "So now this is what the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing this great evil against your own souls? You are cutting off from yourselves man and woman, child and baby at the breast, out of Judah, so that not one of you is left."
Jeremiah 44:8  "You make me angry with the works of your hands. You burn incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to live. So you cut yourselves off, and you become a curse and an insult among all the nations of the earth."
Jeremiah 44:9  "Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, and the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, and your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives? They did all this in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem."
Jeremiah 44:10  "To this day they have not made themselves humble. They have had no fear of me. They have not walked in my law or in my rules, which I set before you and before your fathers."
Jeremiah 44:11  "Therefore this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Look, I will set my face against you to bring trouble, and to cut off all Judah."
Jeremiah 44:12  "I will take those left of Judah who set their faces to go into the land of Egypt and live there. They will all be destroyed, and will fall in the land of Egypt. They will be destroyed by the sword and by famine. From the least to the greatest they will die by the sword and by famine. They will become a thing of horror, a shock, a curse and an insult."
Jeremiah 44:13  "I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem - by the sword, by famine, and by disease."
Jeremiah 44:14  "So no one left of Judah who has gone into the land of Egypt to live there will escape or be left to go back to the land of Judah, though they long to return and live there. None will return except a few who escape."
Jeremiah 44:15  Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, and all the women standing there, a great crowd, and all the people living in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 44:16  "As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you."
Jeremiah 44:17  "We will certainly do everything we said we would do. We will burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did before - we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. In those days we had plenty of food, we were well off, and we saw no trouble."
Jeremiah 44:18  "But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything, and we have been destroyed by the sword and by famine."
Jeremiah 44:19  And the women said, "When we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made cakes to worship her and poured out drink offerings to her?"
Jeremiah 44:20  Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people - to the men, to the women, and to all the people who had given him that answer. He said:
Jeremiah 44:21  "The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem - you and your fathers, your kings and your princes and the people of the land - did the LORD not remember it? Did it not come into his mind?"
Jeremiah 44:22  "The LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your deeds and the hateful things you did. That is why your land is a ruin and a horror and a curse, with no one living in it, as it is today."
Jeremiah 44:23  "You burned incense, and you sinned against the LORD. You did not obey the voice of the LORD, and you did not walk in his law or in his rules or in his words of warning. That is why this trouble has come on you, as it is today."
Jeremiah 44:24  Jeremiah also said to all the people, and to all the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt."
Jeremiah 44:25  "This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says. You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and carried it out with your hands. You said, 'We will surely keep the vows we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.' Then go on, keep your vows and carry out your vows."
Jeremiah 44:26  "So hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who live in the land of Egypt. Look, I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name will never again be spoken by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, 'As the Lord GOD lives.'"
Jeremiah 44:27  "Look, I am watching over them to bring trouble and not good. All the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be destroyed by the sword and by famine, until they are finished."
Jeremiah 44:28  "Yet a small number who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah. Then all those left of Judah who went into the land of Egypt to live there will know whose words stand, mine or theirs."
Jeremiah 44:29  "And this will be the sign to you, says the LORD, that I will punish you in this place, so that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for trouble."
Jeremiah 44:30  "This is what the LORD says: Look, I will hand over Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt to his enemies, to those who want to kill him, just as I handed over Zedekiah king of Judah to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, who wanted to kill him."

Jeremiah 45:1  This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, after Baruch had written these words in a book as Jeremiah dictated them. It was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. Jeremiah said:
Jeremiah 45:2  "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:"
Jeremiah 45:3  "You said, 'Woe is me now! The LORD has added grief to my sorrow. I am worn out with sighing, and I find no rest.'"
Jeremiah 45:4  "This is what you are to say to him: 'The LORD says this: Look, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pull up, even this whole land."
Jeremiah 45:5  "'And are you looking for great things for yourself? Do not look for them. For look, I will bring evil on all flesh, says the LORD. But your life I will give to you as a prey in every place where you go.'"

Jeremiah 46:1  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Gentiles.
Jeremiah 46:2  About Egypt, and about the army of Pharaohnecho king of Egypt, which was at the river Euphrates in Carchemish. Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon struck that army down in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah.
Jeremiah 46:3  "Get the small shield and the large shield ready, and come near to the battle."
Jeremiah 46:4  Harness the horses. Mount up, you horsemen, and take your places with your helmets on. Polish the spears, and put on your coats of armour.
Jeremiah 46:5  "Why have I seen them terrified and turning back? Their strong men are beaten down. They run away fast and do not look back, for there is fear on every side," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 46:6  "Do not let the swift one run away, nor the strong man escape. They will stumble and fall in the north, by the river Euphrates."
Jeremiah 46:7  Who is this that rises up like a flood, whose waters toss like the rivers?
Jeremiah 46:8  Egypt rises like a flood, and his waters toss like the rivers. He says, 'I will go up and cover the earth. I will destroy the city and the people who live in it.'
Jeremiah 46:9  Charge, you horses; drive madly, you chariots. Let the strong men come out: the Ethiopians and the Libyans who carry the shield, and the Lydians who handle and bend the bow.
Jeremiah 46:10  For this is the day of the Lord GOD of hosts, a day of vengeance, when he will take revenge on his enemies. The sword will devour; it will be filled full and made drunk with their blood. For the Lord GOD of hosts has a sacrifice in the north country, by the river Euphrates.
Jeremiah 46:11  Go up to Gilead and get balm, you virgin, daughter of Egypt. It is useless for you to use many medicines; you will not be healed.
Jeremiah 46:12  "The nations have heard of your shame, and your cry has filled the land. For one strong man has stumbled against another, and both of them have fallen together."
Jeremiah 46:13  The word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, about how Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt.
Jeremiah 46:14  "Tell it in Egypt, and make it known in Migdol; make it known in Noph and in Tahpanhes. Say, 'Take your stand and get ready, for the sword is devouring all around you.'"
Jeremiah 46:15  Why have your brave men been swept away? They did not stand, because the LORD drove them down.
Jeremiah 46:16  He made many stumble; yes, one fell on another. And they said, 'Get up, let us go back to our own people, and to the land where we were born, away from the cruel sword.'
Jeremiah 46:17  They cried out there, 'Pharaoh king of Egypt is only a noise; he has let the set time go by.'
Jeremiah 46:18  "As surely as I live," says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts, "he will come like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea."
Jeremiah 46:19  You daughter living in Egypt, pack your bags to go into captivity. For Noph will be a waste, burned up and empty, with no one living there.
Jeremiah 46:20  Egypt is like a very beautiful young cow, but destruction is coming; it comes out of the north.
Jeremiah 46:21  Her hired soldiers among her are like fattened calves. They too have turned back; they have run away together. They did not stand, for the day of their disaster had come upon them, the time when they were punished.
Jeremiah 46:22  Her voice will go out like a snake's hiss, for they will march with an army. They will come against her with axes, like men who chop down trees.
Jeremiah 46:23  "They will cut down her forest," says the LORD, "though no one can search through it. For they are more than the locusts; they cannot be counted."
Jeremiah 46:24  "The daughter of Egypt will be put to shame. She will be handed over to the people of the north."
Jeremiah 46:25  The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says, "Look, I will punish the crowds of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods and their kings; I will punish Pharaoh, and all who trust in him."
Jeremiah 46:26  "I will hand them over to those who want to kill them, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants. Afterwards Egypt will be lived in again, as in the days of old," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 46:27  "But you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid; do not be terrified, Israel. For look, I will save you from far away, and your children from the land where they are held captive. Jacob will come back and have rest and quiet, and no one will make him afraid."
Jeremiah 46:28  "Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant," says the LORD, "for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I will not make a full end of you. I will correct you in a fair measure, yet I will not leave you completely unpunished."

Jeremiah 47:1  This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines, before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.
Jeremiah 47:2  This is what the LORD says: "Look, waters are rising in the north. They will become a flood that overflows. They will cover the land and everything in it, the city and those who live in it. Then the men will cry out, and everyone who lives in the land will wail."
Jeremiah 47:3  "At the noise of the stamping hoofs of his strong horses, at the rushing of his chariots and the rumbling of his wheels, fathers will not turn back for their children, because their hands hang limp."
Jeremiah 47:4  "For the day is coming to destroy all the Philistines, and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper who is left. For the LORD will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor."
Jeremiah 47:5  "Gaza has shaved its head in mourning. Ashkelon is cut off, with the rest of their valley. How long will you cut yourself?"
Jeremiah 47:6  "Sword of the LORD, how long until you are quiet? Go back into your sheath. Rest, and be still."
Jeremiah 47:7  How can it be quiet, when the LORD has given it a command? He has sent it against Ashkelon and against the sea shore. That is where he has appointed it.

Jeremiah 48:1  About Moab, this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste. Kiriathaim is put to shame and captured. Misgab is put to shame and broken down."
Jeremiah 48:2  "Moab will be praised no more. In Heshbon they have planned evil against her: 'Come, let us cut her off from being a nation.' You also, Madmen, will be cut down; the sword will chase you."
Jeremiah 48:3  "A sound of crying comes from Horonaim: ruin and great destruction."
Jeremiah 48:4  "Moab is destroyed; her little ones have made their cry heard."
Jeremiah 48:5  "On the way up to Luhith they go up weeping and weeping. On the way down to Horonaim the enemies have heard the cry of destruction."
Jeremiah 48:6  "Run away, save your lives, and be like a bush in the desert."
Jeremiah 48:7  "Because you have trusted in what you have made and in your treasures, you also will be captured. Chemosh will go out into captivity, with his priests and his officials together."
Jeremiah 48:8  "The destroyer will come against every city, and no city will escape. The valley will also be ruined and the plain destroyed, as the LORD has said."
Jeremiah 48:9  "Give wings to Moab, so that she may fly away. Her cities will be left empty, with no one living in them."
Jeremiah 48:10  "A curse on anyone who does the work of the LORD deceitfully, and a curse on anyone who holds back his sword from blood."
Jeremiah 48:11  "Moab has been at ease since he was young. He has settled like wine on its dregs. He has not been poured from jar to jar; he has not gone into captivity. So his taste has stayed in him, and his smell has not changed."
Jeremiah 48:12  "So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will send men to pour him out. They will pour him out, empty his jars, and smash his wine jugs."
Jeremiah 48:13  "Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh, just as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, which they trusted."
Jeremiah 48:14  "How can you say, 'We are strong men, ready for war'?"
Jeremiah 48:15  "Moab is destroyed, and her cities are gone up in smoke. His finest young men have gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts."
Jeremiah 48:16  "The disaster of Moab is near, and his trouble is coming quickly."
Jeremiah 48:17  "All you who live around him, mourn for him. All you who know his name, say, 'How the strong staff is broken, the beautiful rod!'"
Jeremiah 48:18  "You who live in Dibon, come down from your glory and sit in the dust, thirsty. For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you, and he has ruined your strongholds."
Jeremiah 48:19  "You who live in Aroer, stand by the road and watch. Ask the man who runs away and the woman who escapes, 'What has happened?'"
Jeremiah 48:20  "Moab is put to shame, for she is shattered. Wail and cry out. Tell it by the Arnon that Moab is laid waste,"
Jeremiah 48:21  "and that judgment has come on the high plain: on Holon, on Jahazah, and on Mephaath,"
Jeremiah 48:22  "on Dibon, on Nebo, and on Bethdiblathaim,"
Jeremiah 48:23  "on Kiriathaim, on Bethgamul, and on Bethmeon,"
Jeremiah 48:24  "on Kerioth, on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near."
Jeremiah 48:25  "The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 48:26  "Make him drunk, for he made himself great against the LORD. Moab will roll in his own vomit, and he too will be laughed at."
Jeremiah 48:27  "Was not Israel a joke to you? Was he caught among thieves? For whenever you spoke of him, you shook your head and laughed."
Jeremiah 48:28  "You who live in Moab, leave the cities and live among the rocks. Be like the dove that makes her nest at the edge of a cave's mouth."
Jeremiah 48:29  "We have heard of the pride of Moab. He is very proud. We have heard of how high he holds himself, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the boasting of his heart."
Jeremiah 48:30  "I know his anger, says the LORD, but it is not so; his lies have not brought it about."
Jeremiah 48:31  "So I will wail for Moab. I will cry out for all Moab. My heart will mourn for the men of Kirheres."
Jeremiah 48:32  "Vine of Sibmah, I will weep for you as Jazer weeps. Your branches went out over the sea; they reached as far as the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruit and on your grape harvest."
Jeremiah 48:33  "Joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab. I have stopped the wine from flowing in the winepresses. No one will tread the grapes with shouting. There will be shouting, but it will not be the shout of joy."
Jeremiah 48:34  "From the cry of Heshbon as far as Elealeh, and as far as Jahaz, they have raised their voice; from Zoar as far as Horonaim, like a three-year-old cow. For even the waters of Nimrim will dry up."
Jeremiah 48:35  "I will put an end in Moab, says the LORD, to the one who makes offerings on the high places and burns incense to his gods."
Jeremiah 48:36  "So my heart sounds for Moab like flutes, and my heart sounds like flutes for the men of Kirheres. The riches they gained are gone."
Jeremiah 48:37  "Every head is shaved, and every beard cut off. There are cuts on all their hands, and sackcloth around their waists."
Jeremiah 48:38  "On all the flat roofs of Moab and in her streets there is nothing but mourning. For I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 48:39  "They will wail and say, 'How it is shattered! How Moab has turned his back in shame!' So Moab will be a joke and a horror to all who live around him."
Jeremiah 48:40  "For this is what the LORD says: Look, he will swoop down like an eagle and spread his wings over Moab."
Jeremiah 48:41  "Kerioth is captured, and the strongholds are taken. On that day the hearts of Moab's strong men will be like the heart of a woman in labour."
Jeremiah 48:42  "Moab will be destroyed and will no longer be a people, because he made himself great against the LORD."
Jeremiah 48:43  "Terror, and the pit, and the trap are waiting for you, you who live in Moab, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 48:44  "Whoever runs from the terror will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in the trap. For I will bring on Moab the year of their punishment, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 48:45  "Those who fled stood helpless in the shadow of Heshbon. But a fire has come out of Heshbon, a flame from the middle of Sihon. It has burned up the forehead of Moab and the crown of the head of the noisy boasters."
Jeremiah 48:46  "Woe to you, Moab! The people of Chemosh are finished. Your sons are taken away as prisoners, and your daughters as prisoners too."
Jeremiah 48:47  "Yet I will bring back the captives of Moab in the days to come, says the LORD." This is the end of the judgment on Moab.

Jeremiah 49:1  About the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says: "Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why then does their king possess Gad, and his people live in its cities?"
Jeremiah 49:2  "So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make the alarm of war be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a desolate heap, and her daughters will be burned with fire. Then Israel will be heir to those who were his heirs, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 49:3  Howl, Heshbon, for Ai is ruined. Cry out, you daughters of Rabbah. Put on sackcloth. Mourn, and run here and there among the hedges. For their king will go into captivity, and his priests and his princes with him.
Jeremiah 49:4  Why do you boast about your valleys, your flowing valley, you backsliding daughter? You trusted in your treasures, saying, "Who will come to me?"
Jeremiah 49:5  "Look, I will bring fear on you, says the Lord GOD of hosts, from all those around you. You will be driven out, every one of you straight ahead, and no one will gather up the one who wanders."
Jeremiah 49:6  "But afterward I will bring back the captives of the people of Ammon, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 49:7  About Edom, this is what the LORD of hosts says: "Is there no more wisdom in Teman? Has good advice perished from the wise? Has their wisdom vanished?"
Jeremiah 49:8  "Flee, turn back, hide yourselves deep, you people of Dedan. For I will bring the disaster of Esau upon him, at the time when I punish him."
Jeremiah 49:9  "If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave a few grapes behind? If thieves came by night, they would take only until they had enough."
Jeremiah 49:10  "But I have stripped Esau bare. I have uncovered his hiding places, and he cannot hide himself. His children are destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbours, and he is no more."
Jeremiah 49:11  "Leave your fatherless children; I will keep them alive. And let your widows trust in me."
Jeremiah 49:12  For this is what the LORD says: "Look, those whose sentence was not to drink the cup have certainly drunk it. And are you the one who will go completely unpunished? You will not go unpunished. You will surely drink it."
Jeremiah 49:13  "For I have sworn by myself, says the LORD, that Bozrah will become a horror, a shame, a ruin and a curse. All its cities will be ruins for ever."
Jeremiah 49:14  I have heard a message from the LORD, and a messenger is sent to the nations, saying, "Gather together, and come against her, and rise up for battle."
Jeremiah 49:15  "For look, I will make you small among the nations, and despised among people."
Jeremiah 49:16  "The terror you caused has deceived you, and the pride of your heart, you who live in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 49:17  Edom will also become a horror. Everyone who passes by it will be shocked, and will hiss at all its wounds.
Jeremiah 49:18  "As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, with the cities near them, says the LORD, no one will live there, and no human being will stay in it."
Jeremiah 49:19  "Look, he will come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan against the strong home. But I will suddenly make him run away from her. And who is the chosen man I may appoint over her? For who is like me? And who will set me a time? And who is the shepherd that can stand before me?"
Jeremiah 49:20  So hear the plan of the LORD, which he has made against Edom, and his purposes, which he has purposed against the people of Teman. Surely the least of the flock will drag them away. Surely he will make their homes desolate with them.
Jeremiah 49:21  The earth shakes at the noise of their fall. At their cry, the sound of it was heard in the Red sea.
Jeremiah 49:22  Look, he will come up and fly like the eagle, and spread his wings over Bozrah. On that day the heart of the mighty men of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in her birth pains.
Jeremiah 49:23  About Damascus. Hamath is dismayed, and Arpad too, for they have heard bad news. They lose heart. There is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be still.
Jeremiah 49:24  Damascus has grown weak. She turns to flee, and terror has gripped her. Anguish and pain have taken hold of her, like a woman in labour.
Jeremiah 49:25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
Jeremiah 49:26  "So her young men will fall in her streets, and all the men of war will be silenced on that day, says the LORD of hosts."
Jeremiah 49:27  "And I will light a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will burn up the palaces of Benhadad."
Jeremiah 49:28  About Kedar, and about the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon will strike down, this is what the LORD says: "Get up, go up to Kedar, and destroy the men of the east."
Jeremiah 49:29  "They will take away their tents and their flocks. They will carry off their curtains, and all their goods, and their camels. And people will cry out to them, 'Fear is on every side.'"
Jeremiah 49:30  "Flee, go far away, hide yourselves deep, you people of Hazor, says the LORD. For Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has made a plan against you, and has formed a purpose against you."
Jeremiah 49:31  "Get up, go up against the nation at ease, which lives without a care, says the LORD. It has no gates and no bars; its people live alone."
Jeremiah 49:32  "Their camels will be taken as plunder, and their many herds as spoil. I will scatter to every wind those who cut the corners of their hair, and I will bring disaster on them from every side, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 49:33  "Hazor will become a home for dragons, a waste place for ever. No one will live there, and no human being will stay in it."
Jeremiah 49:34  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah:
Jeremiah 49:35  This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Look, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their strength."
Jeremiah 49:36  "On Elam I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and I will scatter them to all those winds. There will be no nation where the outcasts of Elam do not come."
Jeremiah 49:37  "For I will make Elam terrified before their enemies, and before those who want to kill them. I will bring disaster on them, my fierce anger, says the LORD. I will send the sword after them, until I have finished them off."
Jeremiah 49:38  "I will set my throne in Elam, and destroy from there the king and the princes, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 49:39  "But in the days to come I will bring back the captives of Elam, says the LORD."

Jeremiah 50:1  This is the word that the LORD spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans through Jeremiah the prophet.
Jeremiah 50:2  "Tell it among the nations, and make it known. Lift up a flag. Make it known, and hide nothing. Say, 'Babylon is captured. Bel is put to shame. Merodach is smashed to pieces. Her idols are put to shame, and her images are smashed to pieces.'"
Jeremiah 50:3  For a nation is coming up against her out of the north. It will make her land a waste, and no one will live there. Both people and animals will move away and be gone.
Jeremiah 50:4  "In those days, and at that time, says the LORD, the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together. They will come weeping as they go, and they will look for the LORD their God."
Jeremiah 50:5  They will ask the way to Zion, with their faces turned that way. They will say, 'Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in a covenant that lasts for ever and will never be forgotten.'
Jeremiah 50:6  My people have been like lost sheep. Their shepherds led them astray and turned them loose on the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill, and forgot the place where they could rest.
Jeremiah 50:7  All who found them ate them up. Their enemies said, 'We are not guilty, because they sinned against the LORD, the true home of justice, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.'
Jeremiah 50:8  "Get out from inside Babylon. Leave the land of the Chaldeans. Be like the he goats that walk in front of the flocks."
Jeremiah 50:9  For look, I will stir up a crowd of great nations from the land of the north and bring them against Babylon. They will line up for battle against her, and she will be captured from there. Their arrows will be like those of a skilled fighter; none of them will come back with nothing.
Jeremiah 50:10  Chaldea will be plundered. All who plunder her will have their fill, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 50:11  "You were glad, you rejoiced, you who destroyed my own people. You have grown fat like a young cow in the grass, and you bellow like bulls."
Jeremiah 50:12  So your mother will be deeply ashamed. She who gave you birth will be disgraced. Look, she will be the last of the nations: a wilderness, a dry land, a desert.
Jeremiah 50:13  Because of the anger of the LORD no one will live there; it will be completely empty. Everyone who passes by Babylon will be shocked and will hiss at all her wounds.
Jeremiah 50:14  Line up for battle against Babylon on every side. All you who bend the bow, shoot at her. Do not save your arrows, for she has sinned against the LORD.
Jeremiah 50:15  Shout against her on every side. She has surrendered. Her walls have fallen, her defences are pulled down. This is the LORD's payback. Pay her back; do to her as she has done.
Jeremiah 50:16  Cut off from Babylon the one who sows, and the one who swings the sickle at harvest time. Because of the cruel sword, each one will turn back to his own people; each one will run away to his own land.
Jeremiah 50:17  Israel is a scattered sheep, driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria ate him up, and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.
Jeremiah 50:18  So this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Look, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I punished the king of Assyria.
Jeremiah 50:19  I will bring Israel back to his own pasture. He will feed on Carmel and Bashan, and he will eat his fill on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
Jeremiah 50:20  In those days, and at that time, says the LORD, people will look for the guilt of Israel, and there will be none; and for the sins of Judah, and they will not be found. For I will forgive those whom I leave alive.
Jeremiah 50:21  "Go up against the land of Merathaim, against it and against the people of Pekod. Kill them and destroy them completely, says the LORD. Do everything I have commanded you."
Jeremiah 50:22  The sound of battle is in the land, and the sound of great destruction.
Jeremiah 50:23  How the hammer of the whole earth is cut in two and broken! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
Jeremiah 50:24  I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught, and you did not know it. You were found and taken, because you fought against the LORD.
Jeremiah 50:25  The LORD has opened his store of weapons and brought out the weapons of his anger. For this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans.
Jeremiah 50:26  Come against her from the farthest border. Open her storehouses. Pile her up like heaps of grain and destroy her completely. Let nothing of her be left.
Jeremiah 50:27  Kill all her young bulls; let them go down to the slaughter. How terrible for them! For their day has come, the time for them to be punished.
Jeremiah 50:28  Listen to those who run and escape from the land of Babylon. They tell in Zion how the LORD our God has paid them back, paid them back for his temple.
Jeremiah 50:29  "Call the archers together against Babylon. All you who bend the bow, camp around her. Let no one escape from her. Pay her back for what she has done; do to her just as she has done. For she has been proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel."
Jeremiah 50:30  So her young men will fall in the streets, and all her soldiers will be destroyed on that day, says the LORD.
Jeremiah 50:31  Look, I am against you, you proudest of all, says the Lord GOD of hosts. For your day has come, the time when I will punish you.
Jeremiah 50:32  The proudest one will stumble and fall, and no one will lift him up. I will light a fire in his cities, and it will burn up everything around him.
Jeremiah 50:33  This is what the LORD of hosts says: The children of Israel and the children of Judah were crushed together. All who took them captive held them tight and refused to let them go.
Jeremiah 50:34  Their Redeemer is strong. The LORD of hosts is his name. He will take up their case with all his strength, so that he may give rest to the land and trouble those who live in Babylon.
Jeremiah 50:35  A sword is against the Chaldeans, says the LORD, and against those who live in Babylon, and against her officials and her wise men.
Jeremiah 50:36  A sword is against the liars, and they will act like fools. A sword is against her strong men, and they will be filled with terror.
Jeremiah 50:37  A sword is against their horses and their chariots, and against all the mixed peoples among them, and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasures, and they will be stolen.
Jeremiah 50:38  A drought is against her waters, and they will dry up. For it is a land of carved images, and the people are mad about their idols.
Jeremiah 50:39  So the wild animals of the desert will live there with the wild animals of the islands, and the owls will live there. No one will ever live there again; it will not be lived in from one generation to the next.
Jeremiah 50:40  As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns around them, says the LORD, so no one will stay there, and no human being will live in it.
Jeremiah 50:41  Look, a people is coming from the north. A great nation and many kings are stirred up from the far parts of the earth.
Jeremiah 50:42  They carry the bow and the spear. They are cruel and show no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses. They are lined up like men ready for battle against you, daughter of Babylon.
Jeremiah 50:43  The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands hang weak. Fear has gripped him, and pain like a woman giving birth.
Jeremiah 50:44  Look, he will come up like a lion from the thick woods of the Jordan to a strong pasture. But I will suddenly make them run away from her. Who is the chosen man I will put in charge of her? For who is like me? Who will set me a time? What shepherd can stand before me?
Jeremiah 50:45  So hear the plan the LORD has made against Babylon, and what he has decided against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the smallest of the flock will drag them away. Surely he will make their pasture a horror over them.
Jeremiah 50:46  At the noise of Babylon's capture the earth shakes, and the cry is heard among the nations.

Jeremiah 51:1  This is what the LORD says: "Look, I will stir up a destroying wind against Babylon, and against those who live in the heart of the land of those who rise up against me."
Jeremiah 51:2  "I will send winnowers to Babylon, and they will winnow her and empty her land. In the day of trouble they will come against her from every side."
Jeremiah 51:3  "Let the archer bend his bow against the one who bends his own, and against the one who rises up in his coat of armour. Do not spare her young men; destroy all her army completely."
Jeremiah 51:4  "So the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and those run through with the sword in her streets."
Jeremiah 51:5  "For Israel has not been abandoned by his God, the LORD of hosts, nor has Judah, though their land was full of sin against the Holy One of Israel."
Jeremiah 51:6  Flee out of Babylon. Let every man save his own life. Do not be cut off in her wrongdoing. This is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he is paying her back what she deserves.
Jeremiah 51:7  Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, making all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk her wine; that is why the nations are mad.
Jeremiah 51:8  Babylon has fallen suddenly and is broken. Wail for her. Get balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed.
Jeremiah 51:9  We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Leave her, and let each of us go to his own country. For her judgment reaches up to heaven; it is lifted as high as the skies.
Jeremiah 51:10  The LORD has brought out our righteousness. Come, let us tell in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
Jeremiah 51:11  Polish the arrows; take up the shields. The LORD has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, for his plan is against Babylon, to destroy it. This is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance for his temple.
Jeremiah 51:12  Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon. Make the guard strong. Post the watchmen. Get the ambushes ready. For the LORD has both planned and done what he said against the people of Babylon.
Jeremiah 51:13  You who live by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the measure of your greed.
Jeremiah 51:14  The LORD of hosts has sworn by himself: "Surely I will fill you with men, as with locusts, and they will raise a shout against you."
Jeremiah 51:15  He made the earth by his power. He set the world in place by his wisdom. He stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
Jeremiah 51:16  When he speaks, there is a roar of waters in the heavens. He makes the mists rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning with the rain, and brings the wind out of his storehouses.
Jeremiah 51:17  Every man is senseless and without knowledge. Every metalworker is put to shame by his carved image. His cast image is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
Jeremiah 51:18  They are worthless, a work of errors. When the time comes for them to be punished, they will perish.
Jeremiah 51:19  The portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. The LORD of hosts is his name.
Jeremiah 51:20  "You are my battle axe and my weapons of war. With you I will break the nations in pieces, and with you I will destroy kingdoms."
Jeremiah 51:21  "With you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; with you I will break in pieces the chariot and its driver."
Jeremiah 51:22  "With you I will break in pieces man and woman; with you I will break in pieces old and young; with you I will break in pieces the young man and the girl."
Jeremiah 51:23  "With you I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his pair of oxen; with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers."
Jeremiah 51:24  "And I will pay back Babylon and all who live in Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion, before your own eyes, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 51:25  "Look, I am against you, destroying mountain, says the LORD, you who destroy all the earth. I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain."
Jeremiah 51:26  "No one will take a stone from you for a corner, or a stone for foundations. You will be desolate for ever, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 51:27  Lift up a banner in the land. Blow the trumpet among the nations. Get the nations ready against her. Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashchenaz. Appoint a commander against her. Bring up the horses like bristling locusts.
Jeremiah 51:28  Get the nations ready against her: the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their rulers, and every land they rule.
Jeremiah 51:29  The land will tremble and writhe, for every plan of the LORD against Babylon will be carried out, to make the land of Babylon a waste with no one living in it.
Jeremiah 51:30  The strong men of Babylon have stopped fighting; they stay in their strongholds. Their strength has failed; they have become like women. Her houses are burned; her gate bars are broken.
Jeremiah 51:31  One runner runs to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been taken from end to end,
Jeremiah 51:32  that the river crossings are seized, the reeds are burned with fire, and the soldiers are terrified.
Jeremiah 51:33  For this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor when it is time to thresh. In a little while her harvest time will come."
Jeremiah 51:34  "Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon has eaten me up. He has crushed me. He has made me an empty jar. He has swallowed me like a dragon. He has filled his belly with my best food. He has thrown me out."
Jeremiah 51:35  "Let the violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon," the people of Zion will say. "Let my blood be on those who live in Chaldea," Jerusalem will say.
Jeremiah 51:36  Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Look, I will take up your case and pay back your enemies for you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry."
Jeremiah 51:37  "Babylon will become heaps of ruins, a home for dragons, a thing of horror and scorn, with no one living there."
Jeremiah 51:38  "They will roar together like lions; they will growl like lion cubs."
Jeremiah 51:39  "While they are heated with wine I will prepare their feasts. I will make them drunk, so that they are merry, and then sleep for ever and never wake, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 51:40  "I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats."
Jeremiah 51:41  How Sheshach has been taken! How the praise of the whole earth has been seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
Jeremiah 51:42  The sea has risen over Babylon; she is covered by its many waves.
Jeremiah 51:43  Her cities are a waste, a dry land and a desert, a land where no one lives and no human being passes through.
Jeremiah 51:44  "I will punish Bel in Babylon, and make him spit out what he has swallowed. The nations will not stream to him any more. Yes, the wall of Babylon will fall."
Jeremiah 51:45  "My people, come out of her. Let every man save his own life from the fierce anger of the LORD."
Jeremiah 51:46  "Do not lose heart, and do not be afraid of the rumour heard in the land. One year a rumour will come, and the next year another rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler."
Jeremiah 51:47  "So look, the days are coming when I will punish the carved images of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall inside her."
Jeremiah 51:48  "Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing over Babylon, for the destroyers will come to her from the north, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 51:49  "As Babylon made the slain of Israel fall, so at Babylon the slain of all the earth will fall."
Jeremiah 51:50  You who have escaped the sword, get away, do not stand still. Remember the LORD from far away, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
Jeremiah 51:51  We are ashamed, because we have heard insults. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the holy places of the LORD's house.
Jeremiah 51:52  "So look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will punish her carved images, and all through her land the wounded will groan."
Jeremiah 51:53  "Even if Babylon should climb up to heaven, and make her high stronghold even stronger, destroyers will come to her from me, says the LORD."
Jeremiah 51:54  The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans,
Jeremiah 51:55  because the LORD is destroying Babylon and silencing her loud voice. Their waves roar like great waters; the noise of their voice is heard.
Jeremiah 51:56  For the destroyer has come against her, against Babylon. Her strong men are captured; every one of their bows is broken. For the LORD is a God who repays; he will surely pay back.
Jeremiah 51:57  "I will make her princes drunk, and her wise men, her governors, her rulers and her strong men. They will sleep for ever and never wake, says the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts."
Jeremiah 51:58  This is what the LORD of hosts says: "The wide walls of Babylon will be completely broken down, and her high gates will be burned with fire. The peoples work for nothing, and the nations wear themselves out only for the fire."
Jeremiah 51:59  This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet gave as a command to Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. This Seraiah was a quiet prince.
Jeremiah 51:60  Jeremiah wrote in a book all the disaster that was to come on Babylon, all these words that are written against Babylon.
Jeremiah 51:61  Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, see that you read out all these words."
Jeremiah 51:62  "Then say, 'LORD, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, so that no one lives in it, neither man nor animal, but it will be desolate for ever.'"
Jeremiah 51:63  "When you have finished reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates."
Jeremiah 51:64  "Then say, 'So Babylon will sink and not rise again, because of the disaster I will bring on her. And they will grow weary.'" The words of Jeremiah end here.

Jeremiah 52:1  Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
Jeremiah 52:2  He did what was evil in the eyes of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.
Jeremiah 52:3  Because of the anger of the LORD, this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until he cast them out from his presence: Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Jeremiah 52:4  In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with all his army. He camped against it and built siege works all around it.
Jeremiah 52:5  So the city was under siege until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
Jeremiah 52:6  In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
Jeremiah 52:7  Then the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled. They went out of the city by night through the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden. (Now the Chaldeans were all around the city.) And they went by the way of the plain.
Jeremiah 52:8  But the army of the Chaldeans chased after the king, and they caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him.
Jeremiah 52:9  Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and there he passed sentence on him.
Jeremiah 52:10  The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
Jeremiah 52:11  Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah. The king of Babylon bound him in chains, carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.
Jeremiah 52:12  Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came into Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 52:13  He burned the house of the LORD and the king's house. He burned with fire all the houses of Jerusalem and all the houses of the great men.
Jeremiah 52:14  And all the army of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.
Jeremiah 52:15  Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away as captives some of the poor of the people, and the rest of the people who were left in the city, and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the crowd.
Jeremiah 52:16  But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poor of the land to care for the vines and to work the fields.
Jeremiah 52:17  The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands, and the bronze sea that was in the house of the LORD, and they carried all their bronze to Babylon.
Jeremiah 52:18  They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, the bowls, the spoons, and all the bronze vessels used in the service.
Jeremiah 52:19  The captain of the guard also took away the basins, the firepans, the bowls, the pots, the lampstands, the spoons, and the cups: what was of gold as gold, and what was of silver as silver.
Jeremiah 52:20  The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the stands, which king Solomon had made for the house of the LORD: the bronze of all these things was too much to weigh.
Jeremiah 52:21  As for the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a line of twelve cubits went around it. It was four fingers thick, and it was hollow.
Jeremiah 52:22  On it was a bronze top piece. The height of one top piece was five cubits, with network and pomegranates all around it, all of bronze. The second pillar and its pomegranates were the same.
Jeremiah 52:23  There were ninety-six pomegranates on a side, and all the pomegranates on the network were a hundred all around.
Jeremiah 52:24  The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door.
Jeremiah 52:25  He also took out of the city an officer who was in charge of the men of war, and seven men who served close to the king and were found in the city, and the chief scribe of the army, who called up the people of the land for war, and sixty men of the people of the land who were found in the middle of the city.
Jeremiah 52:26  So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.
Jeremiah 52:27  And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away as captives out of his own land.
Jeremiah 52:28  These are the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away as captives: in the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews;
Jeremiah 52:29  in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, he carried away as captives from Jerusalem eight hundred and thirty-two people;
Jeremiah 52:30  in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away as captives seven hundred and forty-five of the Jews. All the people were four thousand six hundred.
Jeremiah 52:31  In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.
Jeremiah 52:32  He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon.
Jeremiah 52:33  He changed Jehoiachin's prison clothes, and Jehoiachin ate bread before him regularly, all the days of his life.
Jeremiah 52:34  And for his food, the king of Babylon gave him a regular allowance, a portion every day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Lamentations

Lamentations 1:1  How lonely the city sits, that once was full of people! She has become like a widow. She who was great among the nations, a princess among the provinces, now must pay tribute.
Lamentations 1:2  She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks. Among all her lovers she has no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.
Lamentations 1:3  Judah has gone away as a captive, because of suffering and hard slavery. She lives among the nations, and finds no rest. All who chased her caught her in the narrow places.
Lamentations 1:4  The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the appointed feasts. All her gates lie empty. Her priests groan, her young women are in grief, and she herself is full of bitterness.
Lamentations 1:5  Her enemies have become her masters; those who hate her do well. For the LORD has brought grief on her because of her many sins. Her children have gone away as captives before the enemy.
Lamentations 1:6  All her beauty has left the daughter of Zion. Her princes have become like deer that find no pasture; they flee with no strength left before the one who chases them.
Lamentations 1:7  In the days of her suffering and her misery, Jerusalem remembered all the precious things she had in the days of old. She remembered them when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and no one helped her. Her enemies looked at her, and mocked her sabbaths.
Lamentations 1:8  Jerusalem has sinned terribly; so she has become unclean. All who honoured her now despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. She herself groans, and turns her face away.
Lamentations 1:9  Her filth clung to her skirts; she did not think about what would come at the end. So her fall was terrible, and she had no one to comfort her. LORD, look at my suffering, for the enemy has made himself great.
Lamentations 1:10  The enemy has reached out his hand and taken all her precious things. She has seen the nations go into her sanctuary, the very people you commanded should not enter your assembly.
Lamentations 1:11  All her people groan as they look for bread. They have given away their precious things for food to keep themselves alive. Look, LORD, and see, for I have become worthless.
Lamentations 1:12  Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which has been done to me, the sorrow the LORD laid on me in the day of his fierce anger.
Lamentations 1:13  From above he sent fire into my bones, and it overpowers them. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He has left me ruined and faint all day long.
Lamentations 1:14  The yoke of my sins is bound by his hand; they are woven together and come up on my neck. He has made my strength fail. The Lord has handed me over to people I cannot stand up against.
Lamentations 1:15  The Lord has trampled down all my strong men inside my walls. He has called an army against me to crush my young men. The Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as grapes in a winepress.
Lamentations 1:16  Because of these things I weep. My eyes, my eyes run down with water, because the comforter who should keep me alive is far from me. My children are ruined, because the enemy has won.
Lamentations 1:17  Zion stretches out her hands, and there is no one to comfort her. The LORD has commanded that Jacob's enemies should surround him. Jerusalem has become something unclean among them.
Lamentations 1:18  The LORD is righteous, for I rebelled against his command. Listen, please, all you peoples, and look at my sorrow. My young women and my young men have gone away as captives.
Lamentations 1:19  I called to my lovers, but they betrayed me. My priests and my elders died in the city, while they were looking for food to keep themselves alive.
Lamentations 1:20  Look, LORD, for I am in distress. I am churning inside; my heart is turned over within me, for I have rebelled bitterly. Outside, the sword takes away my children; inside the house, there is death.
Lamentations 1:21  People have heard me groaning, and there is no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it. You will bring the day you have announced, and then they will be like me.
Lamentations 1:22  Let all their wickedness come before you, and do to them as you have done to me for all my sins. For my groans are many, and my heart is faint.

Lamentations 2:1  How the Lord has covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has thrown down the beauty of Israel from heaven to the earth. In the day of his anger he did not remember his footstool.
Lamentations 2:2  The Lord has swallowed up all the homes of Jacob, and has shown no pity. In his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of the daughter of Judah. He has brought them down to the ground. He has made the kingdom and its princes unclean.
Lamentations 2:3  In his fierce anger he has cut off all the horn of Israel. He has drawn back his right hand when the enemy came. He burned against Jacob like a flaming fire that eats up everything around it.
Lamentations 2:4  He has bent his bow like an enemy. He stood with his right hand raised like a foe. He killed all who were pleasant to the eye in the tent of the daughter of Zion. He poured out his fury like fire.
Lamentations 2:5  The Lord was like an enemy. He has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces. He has destroyed his strongholds, and has made mourning and weeping grow in the daughter of Judah.
Lamentations 2:6  He has torn away his tent with violence, as if it were a garden shelter. He has destroyed the places of his assembly. The LORD has made the solemn feasts and sabbaths be forgotten in Zion. In the heat of his anger he has despised the king and the priest.
Lamentations 2:7  The Lord has cast off his altar. He has turned away from his sanctuary. He has handed the walls of her palaces over to the enemy. They shouted in the house of the LORD as on the day of a solemn feast.
Lamentations 2:8  The LORD planned to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion. He stretched out the measuring line. He did not hold back his hand from destroying. So he made the outer wall and the wall mourn; together they waste away.
Lamentations 2:9  Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations. The law is gone. Her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.
Lamentations 2:10  The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground and keep silent. They have thrown dust on their heads. They have put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem hang their heads to the ground.
Lamentations 2:11  My eyes are worn out with tears. I am troubled deep inside. My heart is poured out on the ground, because my people, the daughter of my people, are destroyed. The children and the babies faint in the streets of the city.
Lamentations 2:12  They say to their mothers, "Where is corn and wine?" as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as their life is poured out on their mothers' laps.
Lamentations 2:13  What can I say for you? What can I compare you to, O daughter of Jerusalem? What can I match with you, so that I may comfort you, O virgin daughter of Zion? Your wound is as wide as the sea. Who can heal you?
Lamentations 2:14  Your prophets have seen empty and foolish visions for you. They did not uncover your guilt, to turn back your captivity. Instead they have seen for you false messages that led you away.
Lamentations 2:15  All who pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and shake their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, "Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?"
Lamentations 2:16  All your enemies have opened their mouths against you. They hiss and grind their teeth. They say, "We have swallowed her up. Surely this is the day we waited for. We have found it, we have seen it."
Lamentations 2:17  The LORD has done what he planned. He has carried out his word that he commanded long ago. He has thrown down and shown no pity. He has let your enemy rejoice over you. He has raised up the horn of your foes.
Lamentations 2:18  Their heart cried out to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no rest. Let your eyes have no relief.
Lamentations 2:19  Get up, cry out in the night. At the beginning of the night watches pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the life of your young children, who faint from hunger at the head of every street.
Lamentations 2:20  Look, O LORD, and consider whom you have done this to. Should women eat their own children, the little ones they have cared for? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Lamentations 2:21  The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets. My young women and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered them and shown no pity.
Lamentations 2:22  You have called my terrors from every side, as if to a feast day. In the day of the LORD's anger no one escaped or was left. Those I cared for and brought up, my enemy has destroyed.

Lamentations 3:1  I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his anger.
Lamentations 3:2  He has led me and brought me into darkness, and not into light.
Lamentations 3:3  Surely he has turned against me. He turns his hand against me all day long.
Lamentations 3:4  He has worn out my flesh and my skin. He has broken my bones.
Lamentations 3:5  He has built up siege works against me. He has surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Lamentations 3:6  He has set me in dark places, like those who died long ago.
Lamentations 3:7  He has walled me in, so that I cannot get out. He has made my chain heavy.
Lamentations 3:8  Even when I cry and shout, he shuts out my prayer.
Lamentations 3:9  He has blocked my ways with cut stone. He has made my paths crooked.
Lamentations 3:10  He was to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding.
Lamentations 3:11  He has turned me from my ways and torn me in pieces. He has left me desolate.
Lamentations 3:12  He has bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.
Lamentations 3:13  He has made the arrows of his quiver go deep into my body.
Lamentations 3:14  I was a joke to all my people. They sang about me all day long.
Lamentations 3:15  He has filled me with bitterness. He has made me drunk with wormwood.
Lamentations 3:16  He has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
Lamentations 3:17  You have taken peace far away from my soul. I forgot what good things are.
Lamentations 3:18  So I said, "My strength is gone, and so is my hope in the LORD."
Lamentations 3:19  Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Lamentations 3:20  My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
Lamentations 3:21  This I call to mind, and so I have hope.
Lamentations 3:22  It is because of the LORD's mercies that we are not destroyed, because his compassions never fail.
Lamentations 3:23  They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:24  "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "so I will hope in him."
Lamentations 3:25  The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
Lamentations 3:26  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:27  It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
Lamentations 3:28  He sits alone and keeps silent, because God has laid it on him.
Lamentations 3:29  He puts his mouth in the dust, in case there may yet be hope.
Lamentations 3:30  He gives his cheek to the one who strikes him. He is filled full with insults.
Lamentations 3:31  For the Lord will not cast off for ever.
Lamentations 3:32  Though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion, for his mercies are many.
Lamentations 3:33  For he does not afflict from his heart, nor grieve the children of men.
Lamentations 3:34  To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,
Lamentations 3:35  to deny a man his right in the presence of the Most High,
Lamentations 3:36  to cheat a man in his case - the Lord does not approve of these things.
Lamentations 3:37  Who is the one who speaks, and it happens, when the Lord has not commanded it?
Lamentations 3:38  Do not both evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
Lamentations 3:39  Why should a living man complain, a man, when he is punished for his sins?
Lamentations 3:40  Let us search and test our ways, and turn again to the LORD.
Lamentations 3:41  Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
Lamentations 3:42  We have sinned and rebelled. You have not pardoned.
Lamentations 3:43  You have covered yourself with anger and chased us down. You have killed, and you have not pitied.
Lamentations 3:44  You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that our prayer cannot pass through.
Lamentations 3:45  You have made us like scrapings and rubbish among the peoples.
Lamentations 3:46  All our enemies have opened their mouths wide against us.
Lamentations 3:47  Fear and a trap have come upon us, ruin and destruction.
Lamentations 3:48  My eye runs down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lamentations 3:49  My eye pours down and does not stop; it has no rest,
Lamentations 3:50  until the LORD looks down and sees from heaven.
Lamentations 3:51  What my eye sees brings grief to my heart, because of all the daughters of my city.
Lamentations 3:52  My enemies hunted me hard, like a bird, for no reason.
Lamentations 3:53  They cut off my life in the pit, and threw a stone down on me.
Lamentations 3:54  Waters flowed over my head. Then I said, "I am cut off."
Lamentations 3:55  I called on your name, O LORD, out of the deep pit.
Lamentations 3:56  You have heard my voice. Do not close your ear to my sighing, to my cry.
Lamentations 3:57  You came near on the day that I called on you. You said, "Do not be afraid."
Lamentations 3:58  O Lord, you have taken up the cause of my soul. You have redeemed my life.
Lamentations 3:59  O LORD, you have seen the wrong done to me. Judge my case.
Lamentations 3:60  You have seen all their revenge, and all their plots against me.
Lamentations 3:61  You have heard their insults, O LORD, and all their plots against me,
Lamentations 3:62  the lips of those who rose up against me, and their scheming against me all day long.
Lamentations 3:63  Look at them, sitting down and standing up. I am their song.
Lamentations 3:64  Pay them back, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.
Lamentations 3:65  Give them hardness of heart; let your curse be on them.
Lamentations 3:66  Chase them down in anger and destroy them from under the heavens of the LORD.

Lamentations 4:1  How the gold has grown dim! How the finest gold has changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the top of every street.
Lamentations 4:2  The precious sons of Zion were worth their weight in fine gold. How they are now counted as clay jars, the work of the potter's hands!
Lamentations 4:3  Even the sea monsters give the breast and nurse their young. But the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Lamentations 4:4  The tongue of the nursing child sticks to the roof of his mouth from thirst. The young children ask for bread, and no one breaks it for them.
Lamentations 4:5  Those who once ate fine food now lie helpless in the streets. Those who were brought up in scarlet now lie on heaps of ashes.
Lamentations 4:6  For the punishment of the sin of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom. Sodom was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.
Lamentations 4:7  Her Nazarites were purer than snow; they were whiter than milk. Their bodies were redder than rubies, and they shone like sapphire.
Lamentations 4:8  Now their faces are blacker than coal; they are not known in the streets. Their skin clings to their bones; it is dried up, and has become like a stick.
Lamentations 4:9  Those killed by the sword are better off than those killed by hunger. For these waste away, pierced through for lack of the fruits of the field.
Lamentations 4:10  The hands of tender-hearted women have boiled their own children. Their children were their food when the daughter of my people was destroyed.
Lamentations 4:11  The LORD has carried out his fury; he has poured out his fierce anger. He has lit a fire in Zion, and it has eaten up her foundations.
Lamentations 4:12  The kings of the earth, and all who live in the world, would not have believed that the foe and the enemy could enter the gates of Jerusalem.
Lamentations 4:13  It was for the sins of her prophets and the wrongs of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.
Lamentations 4:14  They have wandered like blind men in the streets. They have made themselves unclean with blood, so that no one could touch their clothes.
Lamentations 4:15  People cried out to them, "Go away! It is unclean! Go away, go away, do not touch!" When they fled and wandered, it was said among the nations, "They shall stay here no longer."
Lamentations 4:16  The anger of the LORD has scattered them; he will look on them no more. They showed no respect to the priests, and no favour to the elders.
Lamentations 4:17  As for us, our eyes failed as we looked for help that was useless. We watched and watched for a nation that could not save us.
Lamentations 4:18  They hunt our steps, so that we cannot walk in our streets. Our end is near, our days are finished, for our end has come.
Lamentations 4:19  Those who chase us are swifter than the eagles of the sky. They pursued us over the mountains; they lay in wait for us in the wilderness.
Lamentations 4:20  The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was caught in their pits. We had said of him, "Under his shadow we shall live among the nations."
Lamentations 4:21  Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, you who live in the land of Uz. The cup will pass to you as well. You will be drunk, and will strip yourself naked.
Lamentations 4:22  The punishment of your sin is complete, daughter of Zion; he will not carry you away into captivity again. But he will punish your sin, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.

Lamentations 5:1  Remember, LORD, what has happened to us. Look and see our shame.
Lamentations 5:2  Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
Lamentations 5:3  We are orphans, without fathers. Our mothers are like widows.
Lamentations 5:4  We have had to pay money for our own water. Our wood is sold to us.
Lamentations 5:5  Our necks are under those who chase us. We work hard and get no rest.
Lamentations 5:6  We have given our hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians, to have enough bread.
Lamentations 5:7  Our fathers sinned, and they are gone. We have carried the weight of their sins.
Lamentations 5:8  Servants rule over us. There is no one to save us out of their hand.
Lamentations 5:9  We get our bread at the risk of our lives, because of the sword in the wilderness.
Lamentations 5:10  Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine.
Lamentations 5:11  They raped the women in Zion, and the young girls in the cities of Judah.
Lamentations 5:12  Princes were hanged up by their hand. The faces of the elders were not honoured.
Lamentations 5:13  They took the young men to grind at the mill, and the children fell under loads of wood.
Lamentations 5:14  The elders have gone from the gate, the young men from their music.
Lamentations 5:15  The joy of our heart has stopped. Our dancing has turned into mourning.
Lamentations 5:16  The crown has fallen from our head. How terrible for us, for we have sinned.
Lamentations 5:17  Because of this our heart is faint. Because of these things our eyes grow dim.
Lamentations 5:18  Because Mount Zion lies empty, and foxes walk over it.
Lamentations 5:19  You, LORD, remain for ever. Your throne lasts from generation to generation.
Lamentations 5:20  Why do you forget us for ever, and leave us for so long a time?
Lamentations 5:21  Turn us back to yourself, LORD, and we will be turned. Make our days new, as they were long ago.
Lamentations 5:22  But you have completely rejected us. You are very angry with us.

Ezekiel

Ezekiel 1:1  In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was among the captives by the river Chebar. The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.
Ezekiel 1:2  On the fifth day of the month, in the fifth year of king Jehoiachin's captivity,
Ezekiel 1:3  the word of the LORD came clearly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar. And the hand of the LORD was upon him there.
Ezekiel 1:4  I looked, and a whirlwind came out of the north. There was a great cloud, and a fire folding in on itself, with a brightness all around it. Out of the middle of it, out of the middle of the fire, came something like the colour of amber.
Ezekiel 1:5  Out of the middle of it came the likeness of four living creatures. This is how they looked: they had the likeness of a man.
Ezekiel 1:6  Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings.
Ezekiel 1:7  Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. They sparkled like polished brass.
Ezekiel 1:8  They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. All four of them had their faces and their wings.
Ezekiel 1:9  Their wings were joined to one another. They did not turn as they went; each one went straight forward.
Ezekiel 1:10  This is what their faces looked like. All four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side. All four had the face of an ox on the left side. All four also had the face of an eagle.
Ezekiel 1:11  So were their faces. Their wings were stretched upward. Two wings of each one were joined to one another, and two covered their bodies.
Ezekiel 1:12  Each one went straight forward. Wherever the spirit was to go, they went, and they did not turn as they went.
Ezekiel 1:13  As for the likeness of the living creatures, they looked like burning coals of fire, like the look of lamps. The fire moved up and down among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and lightning came out of the fire.
Ezekiel 1:14  The living creatures ran and returned, like a flash of lightning.
Ezekiel 1:15  As I watched the living creatures, I saw one wheel on the ground beside the living creatures, with its four faces.
Ezekiel 1:16  The wheels and their work looked like the colour of beryl. All four looked the same. They looked and worked as if a wheel were inside a wheel.
Ezekiel 1:17  When they moved, they moved toward any of their four sides. They did not turn as they went.
Ezekiel 1:18  As for their rims, they were so high that they were frightening. And the rims of all four were full of eyes all around.
Ezekiel 1:19  When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them. When the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up too.
Ezekiel 1:20  Wherever the spirit was to go, they went, for the spirit was to go there. And the wheels were lifted up beside them, because the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
Ezekiel 1:21  When those went, these went. When those stood still, these stood still. When those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them, because the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
Ezekiel 1:22  Over the heads of the living creature was the likeness of a dome, shining like awesome crystal, stretched out above their heads.
Ezekiel 1:23  Under the dome their wings were straight, one toward the other. Each one had two wings covering one side of its body, and two covering the other side.
Ezekiel 1:24  When they went, I heard the noise of their wings. It was like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, the sound of speech, like the noise of an army. When they stood still, they let down their wings.
Ezekiel 1:25  And there was a voice from the dome that was over their heads, when they stood still and had let down their wings.
Ezekiel 1:26  Above the dome that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, which looked like a sapphire stone. And on the likeness of the throne was a likeness that looked like a man, high above it.
Ezekiel 1:27  I saw something like the colour of amber, like the look of fire all around inside it. From what looked like his waist upward, and from what looked like his waist downward, I saw what looked like fire, with brightness all around it.
Ezekiel 1:28  The brightness all around looked like the bow that is in the cloud on a rainy day. This was how the likeness of the glory of the LORD looked. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one who spoke.

Ezekiel 2:1  He said to me, "Son of man, stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you."
Ezekiel 2:2  As he spoke to me, the spirit came into me and set me on my feet. Then I heard the one who was speaking to me.
Ezekiel 2:3  He said to me, "Son of man, I am sending you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their fathers have sinned against me, right up to this very day."
Ezekiel 2:4  "They are stubborn children with hard hearts. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says.'"
Ezekiel 2:5  "And whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are a rebellious house, they will know that a prophet has been among them."
Ezekiel 2:6  "And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them. Do not be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words, and do not be frightened by their looks, though they are a rebellious house."
Ezekiel 2:7  "You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are most rebellious."
Ezekiel 2:8  "But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth, and eat what I give you."
Ezekiel 2:9  Then I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me. In it was a rolled-up book.
Ezekiel 2:10  He spread it open in front of me. It was written on the inside and on the outside, and written in it were songs of sorrow, and mourning, and woe.

Ezekiel 3:1  Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find. Eat this scroll, and go and speak to the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 3:2  So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat.
Ezekiel 3:3  And he said to me, "Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll that I give you." Then I ate it, and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
Ezekiel 3:4  And he said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them."
Ezekiel 3:5  You are not sent to a people whose speech is strange and whose language is hard, but to the house of Israel.
Ezekiel 3:6  You are not sent to many peoples whose speech is strange and whose language is hard, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.
Ezekiel 3:7  But the house of Israel will not listen to you, for they will not listen to me. All the house of Israel are stubborn and hard-hearted.
Ezekiel 3:8  Look, I have made your face as strong as their faces, and your forehead as strong as their foreheads.
Ezekiel 3:9  "I have made your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them, and do not be frightened by their looks, though they are a rebellious house."
Ezekiel 3:10  And he said to me, "Son of man, take into your heart all my words that I speak to you, and hear them with your ears."
Ezekiel 3:11  "Go to the people of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them. Tell them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says,' whether they will listen or whether they will refuse."
Ezekiel 3:12  Then the spirit lifted me up, and behind me I heard a voice like a great rushing sound, saying, "Blessed be the glory of the LORD from his place."
Ezekiel 3:13  I heard also the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, and a great rushing sound.
Ezekiel 3:14  So the spirit lifted me up and took me away. I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit, but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.
Ezekiel 3:15  Then I came to the people of the captivity at Telabib, who lived by the river Chebar. I sat where they sat, and I stayed there among them seven days, stunned.
Ezekiel 3:16  At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me. He said,
Ezekiel 3:17  "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. So hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me."
Ezekiel 3:18  When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you do not warn him, and do not speak to warn the wicked man to turn from his wicked way and save his life, that wicked man shall die in his sin. But I will hold you responsible for his blood.
Ezekiel 3:19  Yet if you warn the wicked man, and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his sin, but you have saved your own life.
Ezekiel 3:20  Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does wrong, and I put a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you did not warn him, he shall die in his sin, and the righteous things he has done shall not be remembered. But I will hold you responsible for his blood.
Ezekiel 3:21  "But if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took the warning. And you have saved your own life."
Ezekiel 3:22  The hand of the LORD was upon me there, and he said to me, "Get up, go out into the plain, and there I will talk with you."
Ezekiel 3:23  So I got up and went out into the plain. And look, the glory of the LORD was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face.
Ezekiel 3:24  Then the spirit entered into me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me and said to me, "Go, shut yourself inside your house."
Ezekiel 3:25  As for you, son of man, look, they shall put ropes on you and bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them.
Ezekiel 3:26  And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, so that you will be silent and will not be the one to correct them, for they are a rebellious house.
Ezekiel 3:27  "But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says. Whoever will hear, let him hear; and whoever will refuse, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.'"

Ezekiel 4:1  "You also, son of man, take a clay tile and lay it in front of you. Draw on it a city, Jerusalem."
Ezekiel 4:2  "Lay siege against it. Build a fort against it. Pile up a mound against it. Set camps against it, and put battering rams all around it."
Ezekiel 4:3  "Take also an iron pan and set it up as a wall of iron between you and the city. Set your face against it. It will be under siege, and you are the one laying siege to it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 4:4  "Lie down also on your left side, and lay the sin of the house of Israel upon it. You will carry their sin for as many days as you lie on that side."
Ezekiel 4:5  "For I have laid on you the years of their sin, counted as days: three hundred and ninety days. So you will carry the sin of the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 4:6  "When you have finished those days, lie down again, this time on your right side, and you will carry the sin of the house of Judah for forty days. I have given you one day for each year."
Ezekiel 4:7  "So set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and prophesy against it."
Ezekiel 4:8  "Look, I will put ropes on you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege."
Ezekiel 4:9  "Take also wheat, barley, beans, lentiles, millet, and fitches. Put them in one jar and make bread from them for yourself. You will eat it for as many days as you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days."
Ezekiel 4:10  "The food you eat will be weighed out, twenty shekels a day. You will eat it at set times each day."
Ezekiel 4:11  "You will also drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin. You will drink it at set times each day."
Ezekiel 4:12  "You will eat it as barley cakes, and you will bake it in their sight, using human dung as fuel."
Ezekiel 4:13  And the LORD said, "In this way the children of Israel will eat their unclean bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them."
Ezekiel 4:14  Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Look, I have never made myself unclean. From the time I was young until now I have not eaten anything that died by itself or was torn by animals. No unclean meat has ever come into my mouth."
Ezekiel 4:15  Then he said to me, "See, I allow you cow's dung instead of human dung, and you may prepare your bread with that."
Ezekiel 4:16  He also said to me, "Son of man, look, I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They will eat bread weighed out, and with fear; and they will drink water by measure, and with horror,"
Ezekiel 4:17  "so that they will lack bread and water, and be appalled at one another, and waste away because of their sin."

Ezekiel 5:1  "And you, son of man, take a sharp knife. Take a barber's razor and pass it over your head and over your beard. Then take scales for weighing, and divide the hair."
Ezekiel 5:2  "Burn a third of it with fire inside the city, when the days of the siege are over. Take another third and strike it with the knife all around the city. And a third you shall scatter in the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them."
Ezekiel 5:3  "You shall also take a few hairs from it and tie them up in the folds of your robe."
Ezekiel 5:4  "Then take some of these again, and throw them into the middle of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 5:5  This is what the Lord GOD says: "This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the middle of the nations and the countries that are around her."
Ezekiel 5:6  "But she has turned my judgments into wickedness, more than the nations, and my laws more than the countries that are around her. For they have refused my judgments and my laws, and have not walked in them."
Ezekiel 5:7  Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Because you were more unruly than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my laws, and have not kept my judgments, and have not even lived by the rules of the nations that are around you,"
Ezekiel 5:8  therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Look, I, even I, am against you. I will carry out judgments among you where the nations can see."
Ezekiel 5:9  "I will do among you what I have never done before, and I will never do anything like it again, because of all the disgusting things you do."
Ezekiel 5:10  "So fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will carry out judgments on you, and all who are left of you I will scatter to every wind."
Ezekiel 5:11  "So, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, because you have made my sanctuary unclean with all your hateful things and all your disgusting practices, I will cut you down. My eye will not spare you, and I will have no pity."
Ezekiel 5:12  "A third of you will die of plague, and be finished off by famine inside you. A third will fall by the sword all around you. And a third I will scatter to every wind, and I will draw out a sword after them."
Ezekiel 5:13  "So my anger will be completed. I will make my fury rest upon them, and I will be satisfied. And they will know that I the LORD have spoken it in my zeal, when I have completed my fury on them."
Ezekiel 5:14  "I will make you a ruin, and a disgrace among the nations that are around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by."
Ezekiel 5:15  "So you will be a disgrace and a mockery, a warning and a horror to the nations that are around you, when I carry out judgments on you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the LORD have spoken it."
Ezekiel 5:16  "I will send against them the deadly arrows of famine, which are sent to destroy. I will send them to destroy you. I will make the famine worse for you, and break your supply of bread."
Ezekiel 5:17  "So I will send famine on you, and wild beasts, and they will take away your children. Plague and blood will pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I the LORD have spoken it."

Ezekiel 6:1  The word of the LORD came to me. He said,
Ezekiel 6:2  "Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them."
Ezekiel 6:3  "Say, 'You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys: Look, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places."
Ezekiel 6:4  "'Your altars will be left empty, and your images will be broken. I will throw down your dead men in front of your idols."
Ezekiel 6:5  "'I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars."
Ezekiel 6:6  "'In all the places where you live the cities will be laid waste, and the high places will be left empty. So your altars will be laid waste and left empty, and your idols will be broken and come to an end, and your images will be cut down, and the things you made will be wiped away."
Ezekiel 6:7  "'The dead will fall in the middle of you, and you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 6:8  "'Yet I will leave some alive. Among the nations some of you will escape the sword, when you are scattered through the countries."
Ezekiel 6:9  "'Those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried away as captives. For I am broken by their unfaithful heart, which has turned away from me, and by their eyes, which go chasing after their idols. They will hate themselves for the evils they have done in all their disgusting practices."
Ezekiel 6:10  "'And they will know that I am the LORD, and that I did not say for nothing that I would bring this evil upon them.'"
Ezekiel 6:11  "This is what the Lord GOD says: Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, 'Alas for all the evil and disgusting practices of the house of Israel! For they will fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague.'"
Ezekiel 6:12  "The one who is far off will die of the plague. The one who is near will fall by the sword. The one who is left and is shut in by the siege will die by the famine. In this way I will finish pouring out my fury upon them."
Ezekiel 6:13  "Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their dead men lie among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered a sweet smell to all their idols."
Ezekiel 6:14  "So I will stretch out my hand against them, and make the land empty. Yes, it will be emptier than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all the places where they live. And they will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel 7:1  The word of the LORD came to me again, saying,
Ezekiel 7:2  "You also, son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land."
Ezekiel 7:3  "Now the end has come upon you. I will send my anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways, and I will pay you back for all your hateful deeds."
Ezekiel 7:4  "My eye will not spare you, and I will not pity you. I will pay you back for your ways, and your hateful deeds will be in the midst of you. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 7:5  "This is what the Lord GOD says: An evil, one evil alone - look, it is coming."
Ezekiel 7:6  "An end has come, the end has come. It is awake and watching for you. Look, it has come."
Ezekiel 7:7  "The morning has come to you, you who live in the land. The time has come, the day of trouble is near, and not the sounding again of the mountains."
Ezekiel 7:8  "Now I will soon pour out my fury on you, and spend my anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways, and pay you back for all your hateful deeds."
Ezekiel 7:9  "My eye will not spare, and I will not pity. I will pay you back according to your ways and your hateful deeds that are in the midst of you. Then you will know that I am the LORD who strikes."
Ezekiel 7:10  "Look at the day. Look, it has come. The morning has gone out. The rod has blossomed, pride has budded."
Ezekiel 7:11  "Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness. None of them will remain, none of their crowd, nor any of what is theirs. There will be no wailing for them."
Ezekiel 7:12  "The time has come, the day draws near. Let the buyer not be glad, and let the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon all their crowd."
Ezekiel 7:13  "The seller will not return to what he has sold, even if they are still alive. For the vision is about all their crowd, and it will not be taken back. No one will strengthen himself by the sin of his life."
Ezekiel 7:14  "They have blown the trumpet to make everything ready, but no one goes to the battle, for my wrath is upon all their crowd."
Ezekiel 7:15  "The sword is outside, and plague and famine are inside. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword, and whoever is in the city, famine and plague will devour him."
Ezekiel 7:16  "But those of them who escape will escape, and they will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each one for his sin."
Ezekiel 7:17  "All hands will hang weak, and all knees will be as weak as water."
Ezekiel 7:18  "They will also dress themselves in sackcloth, and horror will cover them. Shame will be on every face, and every head will be shaved bare."
Ezekiel 7:19  "They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be like something unclean. Their silver and their gold will not be able to save them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. It will not satisfy their souls or fill their stomachs, because it was what made them stumble into sin."
Ezekiel 7:20  "As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty. But they made in it the images of their hateful deeds and of their disgusting things. So I have put it far away from them."
Ezekiel 7:21  "I will give it into the hands of strangers as plunder, and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will make it unclean."
Ezekiel 7:22  "I will also turn my face away from them, and they will make my secret place unclean. Robbers will enter it and defile it."
Ezekiel 7:23  "Make a chain, for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence."
Ezekiel 7:24  "So I will bring the worst of the nations, and they will take over their houses. I will also put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places will be defiled."
Ezekiel 7:25  "Destruction is coming. They will look for peace, and there will be none."
Ezekiel 7:26  "Disaster will come upon disaster, and rumour upon rumour. Then they will seek a vision from the prophet, but the law will perish from the priest, and wise advice from the elders."
Ezekiel 7:27  "The king will mourn, and the prince will be clothed with despair, and the hands of the people of the land will shake with fear. I will do to them as their ways deserve, and I will judge them by their own judgments. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel 8:1  In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting in front of me. There the hand of the Lord GOD came upon me.
Ezekiel 8:2  I looked, and I saw a figure that looked like fire. From what seemed to be his waist downward there was fire. From his waist upward he shone brightly, like glowing amber.
Ezekiel 8:3  He reached out what looked like a hand and took me by a lock of my hair. The spirit lifted me up between the earth and the sky, and in visions of God he brought me to Jerusalem. He brought me to the door of the inner gate that faces north, where the image of jealousy stood, the image that stirs up jealousy.
Ezekiel 8:4  And look, the glory of the God of Israel was there, just as in the vision I had seen in the plain.
Ezekiel 8:5  Then he said to me, "Son of man, now look up toward the north." So I looked up toward the north, and there, north of the gate of the altar, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.
Ezekiel 8:6  He also said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they are doing? Do you see the great and disgusting things that the house of Israel is doing here, to drive me far away from my sanctuary? But turn again, and you will see even worse things."
Ezekiel 8:7  He brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.
Ezekiel 8:8  Then he said to me, "Son of man, dig through the wall." So I dug through the wall, and there was a door.
Ezekiel 8:9  And he said to me, "Go in, and see the wicked and disgusting things they are doing here."
Ezekiel 8:10  So I went in and looked. All over the wall around me were pictures of every kind of crawling thing and detestable animal, and all the idols of the house of Israel.
Ezekiel 8:11  Seventy of the elders of the house of Israel were standing in front of them, and Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan was standing among them. Each man had his censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense was rising up.
Ezekiel 8:12  Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in the room of his own carved images? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us. The LORD has left the land.'"
Ezekiel 8:13  He also said to me, "Turn again, and you will see even worse things that they are doing."
Ezekiel 8:14  Then he brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD's house, and there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Ezekiel 8:15  Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Turn again, and you will see things even worse than these."
Ezekiel 8:16  And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD's house. There, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men. Their backs were toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.
Ezekiel 8:17  Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a small thing to the house of Judah that they do the disgusting things they do here? For they have filled the land with violence, and they keep coming back to make me angry. And look, they put the branch to their nose."
Ezekiel 8:18  "So I too will act in fury. My eye will not spare them, and I will not have pity. Though they cry out in my ears with a loud voice, I will not listen to them."

Ezekiel 9:1  He also cried out in my ears with a loud voice, saying, "Bring near those who have charge over the city, each man with his destroying weapon in his hand."
Ezekiel 9:2  Look, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which faces north, and each man had a slaughter weapon in his hand. Among them was one man dressed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.
Ezekiel 9:3  The glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub where it had been, to the doorway of the house. And he called to the man dressed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn at his side.
Ezekiel 9:4  The LORD said to him, "Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem. Put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the disgusting things that are done in it."
Ezekiel 9:5  And to the others he said, while I listened, "Go after him through the city, and strike. Do not let your eye spare, and do not have pity."
Ezekiel 9:6  "Kill them all, old and young, both girls and little children and women. But do not come near anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary." So they began with the old men who were in front of the house.
Ezekiel 9:7  And he said to them, "Make the house unclean, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out." So they went out and killed in the city.
Ezekiel 9:8  While they were killing them, and I was left alone, I fell on my face and cried out, "Ah, Lord GOD, will you destroy all who are left of Israel as you pour out your fury on Jerusalem?"
Ezekiel 9:9  Then he said to me, "The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is very great. The land is full of blood, and the city is full of twisted ways. For they say, 'The LORD has left the earth, and the LORD does not see.'"
Ezekiel 9:10  "And as for me also, my eye will not spare, and I will not have pity. I will bring their way back on their own heads."
Ezekiel 9:11  And look, the man dressed in linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported the matter, saying, "I have done as you commanded me."

Ezekiel 10:1  Then I looked, and in the sky above the heads of the cherubim there appeared something like a sapphire stone. It looked like the shape of a throne above them.
Ezekiel 10:2  He spoke to the man dressed in linen and said, "Go in between the wheels, under the cherub. Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city." And he went in while I watched.
Ezekiel 10:3  Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the house when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.
Ezekiel 10:4  Then the glory of the LORD rose up from the cherub and stood over the doorway of the house. The house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD's glory.
Ezekiel 10:5  The sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court. It was like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.
Ezekiel 10:6  He had given the man dressed in linen this command: "Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubim." So the man went in and stood beside a wheel.
Ezekiel 10:7  Then one cherub reached out his hand from among the cherubim to the fire that was between them. He took some of it and put it into the hands of the man dressed in linen, who took it and went out.
Ezekiel 10:8  Under the wings of the cherubim there appeared the shape of a man's hand.
Ezekiel 10:9  When I looked, I saw four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub. The wheels looked like the colour of a beryl stone.
Ezekiel 10:10  As for how they looked, all four were alike, as if a wheel were inside another wheel.
Ezekiel 10:11  When they moved, they went in any of their four directions. They did not turn as they went, but went wherever the head was facing. They did not turn as they went.
Ezekiel 10:12  Their whole body, their backs, their hands, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all round, the wheels that all four of them had.
Ezekiel 10:13  As for the wheels, I heard them called out to: "O wheel."
Ezekiel 10:14  Each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.
Ezekiel 10:15  And the cherubim rose up. This was the living creature that I saw by the river Chebar.
Ezekiel 10:16  When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them. And when the cherubim lifted their wings to rise from the earth, those same wheels did not turn away from beside them.
Ezekiel 10:17  When the cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still. When they rose up, the wheels rose with them, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.
Ezekiel 10:18  Then the glory of the LORD left the doorway of the house and stood over the cherubim.
Ezekiel 10:19  While I watched, the cherubim lifted their wings and rose up from the earth. As they went out, the wheels went beside them. They stopped at the door of the east gate of the LORD's house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
Ezekiel 10:20  This was the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river Chebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.
Ezekiel 10:21  Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. Under their wings was the shape of a man's hands.
Ezekiel 10:22  Their faces looked just like the faces I saw by the river Chebar, both how they looked and the creatures themselves. Each one went straight forward.

Ezekiel 11:1  Then the spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the LORD's house, the gate that faces east. Look, at the door of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah the son of Azur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.
Ezekiel 11:2  Then he said to me, "Son of man, these are the men who plan evil and give wicked advice in this city."
Ezekiel 11:3  "They say, 'It is not near; let us build houses. This city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.'"
Ezekiel 11:4  "So prophesy against them. Prophesy, son of man."
Ezekiel 11:5  And the Spirit of the LORD fell on me, and said to me, "Speak. This is what the LORD says: 'You have said this, house of Israel. I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them."
Ezekiel 11:6  'You have made your slain many in this city, and you have filled its streets with the dead.
Ezekiel 11:7  'So this is what the Lord GOD says: Your slain, whom you have laid in the middle of it, they are the meat, and this city is the cooking pot. But I will bring you out of the middle of it.
Ezekiel 11:8  'You have feared the sword, and I will bring a sword upon you, says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 11:9  'I will bring you out of the middle of it, and hand you over to strangers, and I will carry out judgments among you.
Ezekiel 11:10  'You will fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you will know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 11:11  'This city will not be your cooking pot, and you will not be the meat inside it. I will judge you at the border of Israel.
Ezekiel 11:12  "'And you will know that I am the LORD. For you have not walked in my statutes, and you have not carried out my judgments, but you have followed the ways of the nations around you.'"
Ezekiel 11:13  While I was prophesying, Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice, and said, "Ah, Lord GOD, will you make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?"
Ezekiel 11:14  Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezekiel 11:15  "Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your family, and all the house of Israel, every one of them, are those to whom the people living in Jerusalem have said, 'Go far away from the LORD. This land is given to us to own.'"
Ezekiel 11:16  "So say: 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Although I have thrown them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet I will be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they have come.'"
Ezekiel 11:17  "So say: 'This is what the Lord GOD says: I will gather you from the peoples, and bring you together out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.'"
Ezekiel 11:18  "'They will come there, and they will take away from it all its detestable things and all its abominations."
Ezekiel 11:19  "'I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh,"
Ezekiel 11:20  "'so that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my rules, and do them. They will be my people, and I will be their God."
Ezekiel 11:21  "'But as for those whose heart goes after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way back on their own heads, says the Lord GOD.'"
Ezekiel 11:22  Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, and the wheels were beside them; and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.
Ezekiel 11:23  And the glory of the LORD went up from the middle of the city, and stood on the mountain which is on the east side of the city.
Ezekiel 11:24  Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the people in captivity. So the vision that I had seen went up from me.
Ezekiel 11:25  Then I told the people in captivity all the things that the LORD had shown me.

Ezekiel 12:1  The word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 12:2  "Son of man, you live among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see, but they do not see. They have ears to hear, but they do not hear. For they are a rebellious people."
Ezekiel 12:3  "So, son of man, get your bags ready for going away. Move out by day while they watch. Leave your own place and go to another place while they watch. Perhaps they will think about it, even though they are a rebellious people."
Ezekiel 12:4  "Bring out your bags by day while they watch, like bags packed for a journey. Then in the evening go out while they watch, like people going away as prisoners."
Ezekiel 12:5  "Dig through the wall while they watch, and carry your bags out through it."
Ezekiel 12:6  "While they watch, lift them onto your shoulders and carry them out in the dark of evening. Cover your face, so that you cannot see the ground. For I have made you a sign to the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 12:7  So I did as I was commanded. I brought out my bags by day, like the bags of a prisoner. In the evening I dug through the wall with my hand. I brought the bags out in the dark and carried them on my shoulder while they watched.
Ezekiel 12:8  In the morning the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 12:9  "Son of man, has not the house of Israel, that rebellious people, said to you, 'What are you doing?'"
Ezekiel 12:10  "Say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: This message is about the prince in Jerusalem, and about all the house of Israel who are there among them.'"
Ezekiel 12:11  "Say, 'I am your sign. What I have done will be done to them. They will be taken away and go as prisoners.'"
Ezekiel 12:12  "The prince who is among them will lift his load on his shoulder in the dark and go out. They will dig through the wall to carry things out through it. He will cover his face, so that his eyes cannot see the ground."
Ezekiel 12:13  "I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my trap. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans. Yet he will not see it, though he will die there."
Ezekiel 12:14  "I will scatter to every wind all who are around him to help him, and all his troops. And I will draw out the sword after them."
Ezekiel 12:15  "Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I scatter them among the nations and spread them through the countries."
Ezekiel 12:16  "But I will let a few of them escape the sword, the famine and the disease. Then they can tell about all their disgusting deeds among the nations where they go. And they will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 12:17  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said:
Ezekiel 12:18  "Son of man, eat your bread shaking with fear, and drink your water trembling and worried."
Ezekiel 12:19  "Say to the people of the land, 'This is what the Lord GOD says about the people living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: They will eat their bread full of worry and drink their water in horror, because their land will be stripped bare of everything in it, because of the violence of all who live there."
Ezekiel 12:20  "'The cities where people live will be ruined, and the land will be empty. Then you will know that I am the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 12:21  The word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 12:22  "Son of man, what is this saying you have in the land of Israel? You say, 'The days go on and on, and every vision comes to nothing.'"
Ezekiel 12:23  "So tell them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: I will put an end to this saying. They will not use it as a saying in Israel any more.' Say to them instead, 'The days are near, and so is the fulfilling of every vision."
Ezekiel 12:24  "'For there will be no more empty visions or smooth-talking fortune-telling among the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 12:25  "'For I am the LORD. I will speak, and the word I speak will happen. It will not be put off any longer. In your own days, you rebellious people, I will say the word and carry it out, says the Lord GOD.'"
Ezekiel 12:26  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said:
Ezekiel 12:27  "Son of man, look, the house of Israel says, 'The vision he sees is for many days from now. He speaks about times that are far off.'"
Ezekiel 12:28  "So say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: None of my words will be put off any longer. The word I have spoken will be done, says the Lord GOD.'"

Ezekiel 13:1  The word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 13:2  "Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy. Say to those who prophesy out of their own hearts, 'Hear the word of the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 13:3  "This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!"
Ezekiel 13:4  "Israel, your prophets are like foxes among the ruins."
Ezekiel 13:5  "You have not gone up into the gaps, or repaired the wall for the house of Israel, so that they could stand in the battle in the day of the LORD."
Ezekiel 13:6  "They have seen empty visions and lying fortune-telling. They say, 'The LORD says,' but the LORD has not sent them. Yet they made others hope that their word would come true."
Ezekiel 13:7  "Have you not seen an empty vision? Have you not spoken lying fortune-telling? You say, 'The LORD says it,' though I have not spoken."
Ezekiel 13:8  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have spoken empty words and seen lies, look, I am against you, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 13:9  "My hand will be against the prophets who see empty visions and tell lying fortunes. They will not be in the council of my people. They will not be written in the register of the house of Israel. They will not enter the land of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 13:10  "They have led my people astray, saying, 'Peace,' when there was no peace. One man builds a wall, and look, others cover it over with whitewash."
Ezekiel 13:11  "Say to those who cover it with whitewash that it will fall. There will be a flooding rain. You, great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind will tear it apart."
Ezekiel 13:12  "Look, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said to you, 'Where is the coating you covered it with?'"
Ezekiel 13:13  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: In my fury I will tear it apart with a stormy wind. In my anger there will be a flooding rain, and in my fury great hailstones to destroy it."
Ezekiel 13:14  "So I will break down the wall that you covered with whitewash. I will bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare. It will fall, and you will be destroyed inside it. And you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 13:15  "So I will pour out my wrath on the wall, and on those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, 'The wall is gone, and so are those who covered it' -"
Ezekiel 13:16  "that is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy about Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 13:17  "And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart. Prophesy against them,"
Ezekiel 13:18  "and say, This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the women who sew magic bands on all their wrists, and make veils for the heads of people of every size, to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people, and keep your own souls alive?"
Ezekiel 13:19  "You have dishonoured me among my people for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread. You kill souls that should not die, and keep souls alive that should not live, by your lying to my people who listen to lies."
Ezekiel 13:20  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against your magic bands, which you use to hunt souls as if they were birds. I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls go free, the souls you hunt as if they were birds."
Ezekiel 13:21  "I will also tear off your veils, and rescue my people out of your hand. They will no longer be in your hand to be hunted. And you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 13:22  "With lies you have made the heart of the righteous sad, when I had not made him sad. And you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he would not turn from his wicked way, by promising him life."
Ezekiel 13:23  "So you will see no more empty visions, and tell no more fortunes. I will rescue my people out of your hand. And you will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel 14:1  Then some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat down in front of me.
Ezekiel 14:2  And the word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 14:3  "Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their hearts. They have put the stumbling block of their sin right in front of their faces. Should I let them ask anything of me at all?"
Ezekiel 14:4  "So speak to them and say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Every man of the house of Israel who sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his sin in front of his face, and then comes to the prophet - I the LORD will answer him when he comes, according to the great number of his idols.'"
Ezekiel 14:5  "I will do this to take hold of the house of Israel by their own hearts, because they have all turned away from me through their idols."
Ezekiel 14:6  "So say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Repent. Turn yourselves away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your disgusting things.'"
Ezekiel 14:7  "For anyone of the house of Israel, or any foreigner living in Israel, who cuts himself off from me, and sets up his idols in his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his sin in front of his face, and then comes to a prophet to ask him about me - I the LORD will answer him myself."
Ezekiel 14:8  "I will set my face against that man. I will make him a sign and a saying, and I will cut him off from among my people. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 14:9  "And if the prophet is deceived when he has spoken something, I the LORD have deceived that prophet. I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from among my people Israel."
Ezekiel 14:10  "They will carry the punishment of their sin. The punishment of the prophet will be the same as the punishment of the man who goes to ask him,"
Ezekiel 14:11  "so that the house of Israel may not wander away from me any more, and may not make themselves unclean any more with all their wrongdoing. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 14:12  The word of the LORD came to me again:
Ezekiel 14:13  "Son of man, when a land sins against me by breaking faith badly, I will stretch out my hand against it. I will break the supply of its bread, and send famine on it, and cut off both people and animals from it."
Ezekiel 14:14  "Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in it, they would save only their own lives by their righteousness, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 14:15  "If I send wild beasts through the land, and they leave it empty, so that it becomes a waste where no one can pass because of the beasts,"
Ezekiel 14:16  "then even if these three men were in it, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would not save either sons or daughters. They alone would be saved, but the land would be a waste."
Ezekiel 14:17  "Or if I bring a sword on that land and say, 'Sword, go through the land,' so that I cut off both people and animals from it,"
Ezekiel 14:18  "then even if these three men were in it, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would not save either sons or daughters. They alone would be saved."
Ezekiel 14:19  "Or if I send a plague into that land, and pour out my fury on it in blood, to cut off both people and animals from it,"
Ezekiel 14:20  "then even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, they would not save either son or daughter. They would save only their own lives by their righteousness."
Ezekiel 14:21  "For this is what the Lord GOD says: How much worse will it be when I send my four terrible judgments on Jerusalem - the sword, the famine, the wild beasts and the plague - to cut off both people and animals from it?"
Ezekiel 14:22  "Yet look, some will be left in it who will be brought out, both sons and daughters. Look, they will come out to you, and you will see their way and the things they have done. Then you will be comforted about the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem, about everything that I have brought on it."
Ezekiel 14:23  "They will comfort you when you see their ways and the things they have done. Then you will know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 15:1  The word of the LORD came to me. He said,
Ezekiel 15:2  "Son of man, what is the vine tree better than any other tree? What is its branch better than the branches among the trees of the forest?"
Ezekiel 15:3  Is its wood taken to make anything? Will anyone make a peg from it to hang a pot on?
Ezekiel 15:4  Look, it is thrown into the fire for fuel. The fire burns up both its ends, and the middle of it is charred. Is it good for any work?
Ezekiel 15:5  Look, when it was whole, it was good for no work. How much less can it be of any use now, when the fire has burned it up and it is charred?
Ezekiel 15:6  So this is what the Lord GOD says: Like the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the people who live in Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 15:7  I will set my face against them. They will come out of one fire, and another fire will burn them up. Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I set my face against them.
Ezekiel 15:8  "I will make the land a waste, because they have been unfaithful, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 16:1  Again the word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 16:2  "Son of man, make Jerusalem know her detestable deeds."
Ezekiel 16:3  "Say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your birth and your beginning are from the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite."
Ezekiel 16:4  "'As for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut. You were not washed in water to make you smooth. You were not rubbed with salt at all, and you were not wrapped in cloths at all."
Ezekiel 16:5  "'No eye pitied you, to do any of these things for you or to have compassion on you. Instead you were thrown out in the open field, because you were loathed on the day you were born."
Ezekiel 16:6  "'When I passed by you, I saw you covered with your own blood. And I said to you as you lay in your blood, 'Live.' Yes, I said to you as you lay in your blood, 'Live.'"
Ezekiel 16:7  "'I made you grow like a plant of the field. You grew up and became tall, and you came to have fine beauty. Your breasts were formed and your hair had grown, but you were naked and bare."
Ezekiel 16:8  "'When I passed by you and looked at you, look, your time was the time of love. So I spread my robe over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I made an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became mine."
Ezekiel 16:9  "'Then I washed you with water. I washed your blood right off you, and I anointed you with oil."
Ezekiel 16:10  "'I clothed you also with embroidered cloth, and put shoes of badgers' skin on your feet. I wrapped you about with fine linen, and covered you with silk."
Ezekiel 16:11  "'I adorned you with ornaments. I put bracelets on your hands and a chain on your neck."
Ezekiel 16:12  "'I put a jewel on your forehead, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head."
Ezekiel 16:13  "'So you were adorned with gold and silver. Your clothing was fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You were very beautiful, and you prospered into a kingdom."
Ezekiel 16:14  "'Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendour I had put on you, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 16:15  "'But you trusted in your own beauty, and you acted as a prostitute because of your fame. You poured out your immoral acts on everyone who passed by; it was his."
Ezekiel 16:16  "'You took some of your clothes and decked out your high places with many colours, and there you acted as a prostitute. Such things should not come, and it should not be so."
Ezekiel 16:17  "'You also took the beautiful jewels of my gold and my silver, which I had given you, and you made for yourself images of men, and you were unfaithful with them."
Ezekiel 16:18  "'You took your embroidered clothes and covered them. And you set my oil and my incense before them."
Ezekiel 16:19  "'My food also which I gave you, the fine flour and oil and honey that I fed you with, you set before them as a sweet smell. And so it was, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 16:20  "'What is more, you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and you sacrificed them to those images to be eaten up. Was your unfaithfulness a small matter,"
Ezekiel 16:21  "'that you killed my children and handed them over, making them pass through the fire for those images?"
Ezekiel 16:22  "'In all your detestable deeds and your unfaithfulness you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, lying covered in your blood."
Ezekiel 16:23  "'Then, after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you, says the Lord GOD),"
Ezekiel 16:24  "'you also built yourself a mound, and you made yourself a high place in every street."
Ezekiel 16:25  "'At the top of every road you built your high place, and you made your beauty hated. You opened your feet to everyone who passed by, and you increased your acts of prostitution."
Ezekiel 16:26  "'You also were immoral with the Egyptians, your neighbours, great of flesh, and you increased your prostitution to make me angry."
Ezekiel 16:27  "'So look, I stretched out my hand over you and cut down your daily food. I gave you over to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your shameful way."
Ezekiel 16:28  "'You acted as a prostitute with the Assyrians too, because you could not be filled. Yes, you were a prostitute with them, and still you could not be satisfied."
Ezekiel 16:29  "'You increased your immoral acts still more, in the land of Canaan as far as Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied."
Ezekiel 16:30  "'How weak is your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you do all these things, the work of a bold and prostitute woman,"
Ezekiel 16:31  "'in that you build your mound at the top of every road, and make your high place in every street. Yet you have not been like a prostitute, for you scorn payment."
Ezekiel 16:32  "'You are like a wife who commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her husband."
Ezekiel 16:33  "'Men give gifts to all prostitutes, but you give your gifts to all your lovers. You pay them to come to you from every side for your prostitution."
Ezekiel 16:34  "'So in your prostitution you are the opposite of other women. No one runs after you to be immoral with you. You give the payment, and no payment is given to you. So you are the opposite."
Ezekiel 16:35  "'Therefore, prostitute, hear the word of the LORD."
Ezekiel 16:36  "'This is what the Lord GOD says: Your filth was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your prostitution with your lovers, and with all the idols of your detestable deeds, and by the blood of your children, which you gave to them."
Ezekiel 16:37  "'So look, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you took pleasure, and all those you loved, along with all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side, and I will uncover your nakedness to them, so that they may see all your nakedness."
Ezekiel 16:38  "'I will judge you as women who break their marriage and shed blood are judged. I will give you blood in fury and jealousy."
Ezekiel 16:39  "'I will give you into their hand. They will throw down your mound and break down your high places. They will strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels, and leave you naked and bare."
Ezekiel 16:40  "'They will bring up a crowd against you. They will stone you with stones and run you through with their swords."
Ezekiel 16:41  "'They will burn your houses with fire and carry out judgments on you while many women watch. I will make you stop being a prostitute, and you will pay no fees any more."
Ezekiel 16:42  "'Then my fury against you will rest, and my jealousy will turn away from you. I will be quiet, and I will not be angry any more."
Ezekiel 16:43  "'Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but troubled me with all these things, look, I too will bring your way back on your own head, says the Lord GOD. And you will not do this shameful thing on top of all your detestable deeds."
Ezekiel 16:44  "'Look, everyone who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you: 'As the mother is, so is her daughter.'"
Ezekiel 16:45  "'You are your mother's daughter, who hated her husband and her children. You are the sister of your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite, and your father an Amorite."
Ezekiel 16:46  "'Your elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters who live at your left hand. Your younger sister, who lives at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters."
Ezekiel 16:47  "'Yet you did not walk in their ways, nor do the detestable things that they did. As if that were a very little thing, you became more corrupt than they in all your ways."
Ezekiel 16:48  "'As surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom has not done, she and her daughters, as you have done, you and your daughters."
Ezekiel 16:49  "'Look, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were proud, they had plenty of food, and they had much idle ease; and she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."
Ezekiel 16:50  "'They were arrogant and did detestable things before me. So I took them away when I saw it was right."
Ezekiel 16:51  "'Samaria did not commit half of your sins. You have done far more detestable things than they, and you have made your sisters look righteous by all the detestable things you have done."
Ezekiel 16:52  "'You also, who judged your sisters, must bear your own shame for the sins you have committed, which are more detestable than theirs. They are more righteous than you. Yes, be ashamed also, and bear your shame, because you have made your sisters look righteous."
Ezekiel 16:53  "'When I bring back their captives, the captives of Sodom and her daughters, and the captives of Samaria and her daughters, then I will bring back your captives along with them,"
Ezekiel 16:54  "'so that you may bear your own shame, and be ashamed for all that you have done, in that you are a comfort to them."
Ezekiel 16:55  "'When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, return to what they were before, and Samaria and her daughters return to what they were before, then you and your daughters will return to what you were before."
Ezekiel 16:56  "'For your sister Sodom was not even named by your mouth in the day of your pride,"
Ezekiel 16:57  "'before your wickedness was uncovered, as at the time of the scorn of the daughters of Syria, and all those around her, the daughters of the Philistines, who despise you on every side."
Ezekiel 16:58  "'You have borne your shameful deeds and your detestable deeds, says the LORD."
Ezekiel 16:59  "'For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you as you have done, you who despised the oath and broke the covenant."
Ezekiel 16:60  "'Yet I will remember my covenant with you from the days of your youth, and I will set up an everlasting covenant with you."
Ezekiel 16:61  "'Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your sisters, both your elder and your younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant."
Ezekiel 16:62  "'I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD,"
Ezekiel 16:63  "'so that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I am at peace with you for all that you have done, says the Lord GOD.'"

Ezekiel 17:1  The word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 17:2  "Son of man, put forward a riddle, and tell a parable to the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 17:3  "Say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: A great eagle came to Lebanon. It had great wings and long feathers, and it was covered with plumage of many colours. It took the highest branch of the cedar."
Ezekiel 17:4  "'It broke off the top of the young twigs and carried it to a land of trade. It set it down in a city of merchants."
Ezekiel 17:5  "'It also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in a fertile field. It put it beside plenty of water and set it like a willow tree."
Ezekiel 17:6  "'It grew and became a spreading vine, low to the ground. Its branches turned toward the eagle, and its roots were under him. So it became a vine, and it put out branches and sent out shoots."
Ezekiel 17:7  "'There was another great eagle too, with great wings and many feathers. And look, this vine bent its roots toward him and stretched out its branches toward him, so that he might water it from the furrows where it was planted."
Ezekiel 17:8  "'It had been planted in good soil beside plenty of water, so that it might grow branches and bear fruit and be a fine vine.'"
Ezekiel 17:9  "Say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Will it do well? Will he not pull up its roots and strip off its fruit, so that it withers? All its fresh leaves will wither. It will not take great strength or many people to pull it up by the roots."
Ezekiel 17:10  "'Yes, look, though it is planted, will it do well? Will it not wither completely when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the furrows where it grew.'"
Ezekiel 17:11  Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 17:12  "Say now to the rebellious house, 'Do you not know what these things mean?' Tell them, 'Look, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem. He took away its king and its princes and led them with him to Babylon."
Ezekiel 17:13  "'He took one of the king's family and made a covenant with him and put him under an oath. He also took away the strong men of the land."
Ezekiel 17:14  "'He did this so that the kingdom would be brought low and could not lift itself up, but would stand only by keeping his covenant."
Ezekiel 17:15  "'But that king rebelled against him. He sent his messengers to Egypt, asking them to give him horses and many men. Will he do well? Will a man who does such things escape? Can he break the covenant and still be saved?"
Ezekiel 17:16  "'As surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, he will die in the place where the king lives who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke. He will die there with him, in the middle of Babylon."
Ezekiel 17:17  "'Pharaoh will not help him in the war with his mighty army and great crowd of men, when ramps are thrown up and forts are built to destroy many lives."
Ezekiel 17:18  "'He despised the oath and broke the covenant. Look, he had given his hand on it, and yet he did all these things. He will not escape."
Ezekiel 17:19  "'So this is what the Lord GOD says: As surely as I live, I will bring down on his own head my oath, which he despised, and my covenant, which he broke."
Ezekiel 17:20  "'I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my trap. I will bring him to Babylon, and there I will judge him for the wrong he has done against me."
Ezekiel 17:21  "'All those who run away with him, and all his troops, will fall by the sword. Those who are left will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken.'"
Ezekiel 17:22  "This is what the Lord GOD says: I myself will take a shoot from the highest branch of the tall cedar, and I will plant it. I will break off a tender shoot from the top of its young twigs, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain."
Ezekiel 17:23  "I will plant it on the high mountain of Israel. It will grow branches and bear fruit and become a fine cedar. Birds of every kind will live under it. They will nest in the shade of its branches."
Ezekiel 17:24  "And all the trees of the field will know that I the LORD have brought the tall tree low and have lifted the low tree high. I have dried up the green tree and have made the dry tree grow green. I the LORD have spoken it, and I have done it."

Ezekiel 18:1  The word of the LORD came to me again, saying,
Ezekiel 18:2  "What do you mean by using this proverb about the land of Israel? You say, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'"
Ezekiel 18:3  As I live, says the Lord GOD, you will no longer have reason to use this proverb in Israel.
Ezekiel 18:4  Look, all souls are mine. The soul of the father is mine, and so is the soul of the son. The soul that sins, that soul will die.
Ezekiel 18:5  But suppose a man is just, and does what is lawful and right.
Ezekiel 18:6  He has not eaten at the mountain shrines, and has not looked up to the idols of the house of Israel. He has not defiled his neighbour's wife, and has not come near a woman during her monthly bleeding.
Ezekiel 18:7  He has not oppressed anyone, but has given back to the debtor what he took as a pledge. He has robbed no one by violence. He has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with clothing.
Ezekiel 18:8  He has not lent money for interest, and has taken no profit from it. He has held his hand back from doing wrong, and has judged truly between one man and another.
Ezekiel 18:9  He has walked in my laws, and has kept my rules, and has acted faithfully. Such a man is just. He will surely live, says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 18:10  But suppose he has a son who is a robber and sheds blood, and who does any one of these things,
Ezekiel 18:11  though the father did none of them. The son eats at the mountain shrines, and defiles his neighbour's wife.
Ezekiel 18:12  He oppresses the poor and needy. He robs by violence. He does not give back the pledge. He looks up to the idols, and does what is detestable.
Ezekiel 18:13  He lends money for interest, and takes profit from it. Will he then live? He will not live. He has done all these detestable things. He will surely die, and his blood will be on his own head.
Ezekiel 18:14  Now look, suppose this man has a son who sees all his father's sins, and thinks about them, and does not do the same.
Ezekiel 18:15  He has not eaten at the mountain shrines, and has not looked up to the idols of the house of Israel. He has not defiled his neighbour's wife.
Ezekiel 18:16  He has not oppressed anyone, and has not kept back a pledge, and has not robbed by violence. He has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with clothing.
Ezekiel 18:17  He has held back his hand from hurting the poor, and has taken no interest or profit. He has kept my rules and walked in my laws. He will not die for the sin of his father. He will surely live.
Ezekiel 18:18  As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed others, and robbed his brother by violence, and did what is not good among his people, look, he will die for his own sin.
Ezekiel 18:19  Yet you say, 'Why does the son not bear the sin of the father?' When the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all my laws and done them, he will surely live.
Ezekiel 18:20  The soul that sins, that soul will die. The son will not bear the sin of the father, and the father will not bear the sin of the son. The righteousness of the righteous will be on himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be on himself.
Ezekiel 18:21  But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has done, and keeps all my laws, and does what is lawful and right, he will surely live. He will not die.
Ezekiel 18:22  None of the wrongs he has done will be remembered against him. He will live because of the righteousness he has done.
Ezekiel 18:23  Do I take any pleasure at all in the death of the wicked? says the Lord GOD. Would I not rather that he turn from his ways and live?
Ezekiel 18:24  But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and does wrong, and does all the detestable things that the wicked man does, will he live? None of the righteousness he has done will be remembered. Because of the wrong he has done and the sin he has sinned, he will die.
Ezekiel 18:25  Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' Listen now, house of Israel. Is my way not fair? Are your ways not unfair?
Ezekiel 18:26  When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and does wrong, he will die for it. He will die for the wrong he has done.
Ezekiel 18:27  Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness he has done, and does what is lawful and right, he will save his own soul alive.
Ezekiel 18:28  Because he thought about it, and turned away from all the wrongs he had done, he will surely live. He will not die.
Ezekiel 18:29  Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' House of Israel, are my ways not fair? Are your ways not unfair?
Ezekiel 18:30  So I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways, says the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn away from all your wrongs. Then sin will not be your ruin.
Ezekiel 18:31  Throw away from you all the wrongs you have done, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, house of Israel?
Ezekiel 18:32  "For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord GOD. So turn, and live."

Ezekiel 19:1  Moreover, take up a lament for the princes of Israel,
Ezekiel 19:2  and say: "What is your mother? A lioness. She lay down among lions; she fed her cubs among young lions."
Ezekiel 19:3  "She brought up one of her cubs. He became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey. He ate men."
Ezekiel 19:4  "The nations also heard of him. He was caught in their pit, and they brought him with chains to the land of Egypt."
Ezekiel 19:5  "When she saw that she had waited, and her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion."
Ezekiel 19:6  "He went up and down among the lions. He became a young lion, and he learned to catch the prey. He ate men."
Ezekiel 19:7  "He knew their ruined palaces, and he laid waste their cities. The land was left empty, and all that filled it, at the noise of his roaring."
Ezekiel 19:8  "Then the nations came against him from the provinces on every side. They spread their net over him. He was caught in their pit."
Ezekiel 19:9  "They put him in a cage with chains and brought him to the king of Babylon. They brought him into strongholds, so that his voice would no longer be heard on the mountains of Israel."
Ezekiel 19:10  "Your mother is like a vine in your blood, planted by the waters. She was fruitful and full of branches, because the waters were many."
Ezekiel 19:11  "She had strong branches for the sceptres of those who rule. She grew tall among the thick branches. She was seen in her height, with all her many branches."
Ezekiel 19:12  "But she was pulled up in fury. She was thrown down to the ground, and the east wind dried up her fruit. Her strong branches were broken and withered; the fire burned them up."
Ezekiel 19:13  "Now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty ground."
Ezekiel 19:14  "Fire has gone out from one of her branches, and it has eaten up her fruit, so that she has no strong branch left to be a sceptre to rule. This is a lament, and it shall be used as a lament."

Ezekiel 20:1  In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, some of the elders of Israel came to ask the LORD a question, and they sat down in front of me.
Ezekiel 20:2  Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 20:3  "Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Have you come to ask me questions? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be asked by you.'"
Ezekiel 20:4  "Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Make them know the detestable things their fathers did."
Ezekiel 20:5  "Say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day when I chose Israel, I lifted up my hand to the descendants of the house of Jacob, and I made myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I lifted up my hand to them and said, I am the LORD your God."
Ezekiel 20:6  "'On that day I lifted up my hand to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands."
Ezekiel 20:7  "'Then I said to them, Every one of you, throw away the detestable things your eyes look at. Do not make yourselves unclean with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
Ezekiel 20:8  "'But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me. They did not throw away the detestable things their eyes looked at, and they did not leave the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my fury on them, and finish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt."
Ezekiel 20:9  "'But I acted for the sake of my name, so that it would not be dishonoured in front of the nations they were living among. In their sight I had made myself known to them, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt."
Ezekiel 20:10  "'So I made them go out of the land of Egypt, and I brought them into the wilderness."
Ezekiel 20:11  "'I gave them my laws and showed them my judgments. If a person does them, he will live by them."
Ezekiel 20:12  "'I also gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, so that they would know that I am the LORD who makes them holy."
Ezekiel 20:13  "'But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my laws, and they despised my judgments, which give life to anyone who does them. They made my sabbaths very unclean. Then I said I would pour out my fury on them in the wilderness, to destroy them."
Ezekiel 20:14  "'But I acted for the sake of my name, so that it would not be dishonoured in front of the nations who saw me bring them out."
Ezekiel 20:15  "'Yet I also lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness and said that I would not bring them into the land I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands,"
Ezekiel 20:16  "'because they despised my judgments and did not walk in my laws, but made my sabbaths unclean. For their hearts went after their idols."
Ezekiel 20:17  "'Even so, my eye spared them, and I did not destroy them. I did not make an end of them in the wilderness."
Ezekiel 20:18  "'But I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the laws of your fathers, or keep their judgments, or make yourselves unclean with their idols."
Ezekiel 20:19  "'I am the LORD your God. Walk in my laws, and keep my judgments, and do them."
Ezekiel 20:20  "'Keep my sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between me and you, so that you may know that I am the LORD your God."
Ezekiel 20:21  "'But the children rebelled against me too. They did not walk in my laws, and they did not keep my judgments and do them, which give life to anyone who does them. They made my sabbaths unclean. Then I said I would pour out my fury on them, and finish my anger against them in the wilderness."
Ezekiel 20:22  "'Even so, I held back my hand, and acted for the sake of my name, so that it would not be dishonoured in the sight of the nations who saw me bring them out."
Ezekiel 20:23  "'I also lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness and said that I would scatter them among the nations and spread them through the countries,"
Ezekiel 20:24  "'because they had not carried out my judgments, but had despised my laws, and had made my sabbaths unclean, and their eyes looked to their fathers' idols."
Ezekiel 20:25  "'So I also gave them laws that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live."
Ezekiel 20:26  "'I made them unclean by their own gifts, in that they made everything that opens the womb pass through the fire, so that I might make them desolate, and so that they might know that I am the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 20:27  "Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel, and say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: In this also your fathers insulted me, by breaking faith with me."
Ezekiel 20:28  "'For when I had brought them into the land that I had lifted up my hand to give them, they saw every high hill and every leafy tree, and there they offered their sacrifices. There they presented the offerings that stirred me to anger; there they made their sweet smell, and there they poured out their drink offerings."
Ezekiel 20:29  "'Then I said to them, What is this high place you go to? And its name is called Bamah to this day.'"
Ezekiel 20:30  "So say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Are you making yourselves unclean in the same way as your fathers? Do you go after their detestable things like a prostitute?"
Ezekiel 20:31  "'For when you offer your gifts, when you make your sons pass through the fire, you make yourselves unclean with all your idols, even to this day. And shall I be asked anything by you, house of Israel? As I live, says the Lord GOD, I will not be asked by you."
Ezekiel 20:32  "'And what comes into your mind will never happen. You say, We will be like the nations, like the families of other countries, and serve wood and stone."
Ezekiel 20:33  "'As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out, I will rule over you."
Ezekiel 20:34  "'I will bring you out from the peoples, and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with fury poured out."
Ezekiel 20:35  "'I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will plead with you face to face."
Ezekiel 20:36  "'Just as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will plead with you, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 20:37  "'I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant."
Ezekiel 20:38  "'I will clear out from among you the rebels and those who sin against me. I will bring them out of the country where they are living as strangers, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 20:39  "'As for you, house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says: Go, serve your idols, every one of you, and go on doing it afterwards too, if you will not listen to me. But do not dishonour my holy name any more with your gifts and your idols."
Ezekiel 20:40  "'For on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel, says the Lord GOD, there all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, will serve me. There I will accept them, and there I will ask for your offerings, and the firstfruits of your gifts, with all your holy things."
Ezekiel 20:41  "'I will accept you as a sweet smell, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will be shown holy in you in the sight of the nations."
Ezekiel 20:42  "'Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country I lifted up my hand to give to your fathers."
Ezekiel 20:43  "'There you will remember your ways, and all the things you did that made you unclean. And you will hate yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things you have done."
Ezekiel 20:44  "'Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have dealt with you for the sake of my name, and not according to your wicked ways or your corrupt deeds, house of Israel, says the Lord GOD.'"
Ezekiel 20:45  The word of the LORD came to me again:
Ezekiel 20:46  "Son of man, set your face towards the south, and let your word fall towards the south, and prophesy against the forest of the southern field."
Ezekiel 20:47  "Say to the forest of the south, 'Hear the word of the LORD. This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will light a fire in you, and it will burn up every green tree in you and every dry tree. The blazing flame will not be put out, and every face from the south to the north will be burned by it."
Ezekiel 20:48  "'All flesh will see that I the LORD have lit it. It will not be put out.'"
Ezekiel 20:49  Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! They say about me, 'Does he not speak in parables?'"

Ezekiel 21:1  The word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 21:2  "Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem. Let your word drop toward the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel."
Ezekiel 21:3  "Say to the land of Israel, 'This is what the LORD says: Look, I am against you. I will draw my sword out of its sheath, and I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked."
Ezekiel 21:4  "'Since I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will come out of its sheath against all flesh, from the south to the north."
Ezekiel 21:5  "'Then all flesh will know that I the LORD have drawn my sword out of its sheath. It will not go back again.'"
Ezekiel 21:6  "So sigh, son of man. Sigh as if your body were breaking, and sigh bitterly before their eyes."
Ezekiel 21:7  "And when they say to you, 'Why are you sighing?' you shall answer, 'Because of the news. It is coming. Every heart will melt, and all hands will hang weak, and every spirit will faint, and all knees will be weak as water. Look, it is coming, and it will be done, says the Lord GOD.'"
Ezekiel 21:8  Again the word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 21:9  "Son of man, prophesy and say, 'This is what the LORD says: Say, A sword, a sword is sharpened, and also polished."
Ezekiel 21:10  "'It is sharpened to make a great slaughter. It is polished so that it may flash. Should we then be merry? It despises the rod of my son, as it despises every tree."
Ezekiel 21:11  "'He has given it to be polished, so that it may be held in the hand. This sword is sharpened, and it is polished, to be put into the hand of the killer.'"
Ezekiel 21:12  "Cry out and wail, son of man, for the sword is against my people, it is against all the princes of Israel. Terrors because of the sword are on my people. So strike your thigh."
Ezekiel 21:13  "Because it is a testing, and what if the sword despises even the rod? It shall be no more, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 21:14  "So you, son of man, prophesy, and strike your hands together, and let the sword be doubled a third time. It is the sword of the slain. It is the sword of the great men who are slain, which comes into their inner rooms."
Ezekiel 21:15  "I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, so that their hearts may melt and their ruins may be many. Ah, it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter."
Ezekiel 21:16  "Go one way or the other, to the right hand or to the left, wherever your face is turned."
Ezekiel 21:17  "I also will strike my hands together, and I will let my fury rest. I the LORD have spoken it."
Ezekiel 21:18  The word of the LORD came to me again:
Ezekiel 21:19  "Now you, son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come along. Both of them shall come out of one land. And make a signpost; make it at the start of the road to the city."
Ezekiel 21:20  "Mark out a road for the sword to come to Rabbath of the Ammonites, and to Judah, in Jerusalem the fortified city."
Ezekiel 21:21  "For the king of Babylon stood where the road divides, at the head of the two roads, to use divination. He shook his arrows to make them bright, he asked his images, he looked at the liver."
Ezekiel 21:22  "In his right hand was the answer for Jerusalem: to set captains, to open the mouth in the slaughter, to lift up the voice with a shout, to set battering rams against the gates, to throw up a ramp, and to build a siege wall."
Ezekiel 21:23  "To them it will seem a false divination, for they have sworn oaths. But he will bring their guilt to mind, so that they may be taken."
Ezekiel 21:24  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have made your guilt to be remembered, so that your wrongdoing is uncovered and your sins show in all you do; because, I say, you have come to mind, you shall be taken by the hand."
Ezekiel 21:25  "And you, unholy and wicked prince of Israel, your day has come, the time when guilt comes to its end."
Ezekiel 21:26  "This is what the Lord GOD says: Take off the diadem, and take off the crown. This shall not be as it was. Lift up the one who is low, and bring down the one who is high."
Ezekiel 21:27  "I will overturn, overturn, overturn it. And it shall be no more, until he comes whose right it is; and I will give it to him."
Ezekiel 21:28  "And you, son of man, prophesy and say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says about the Ammonites and about their insults: Say, The sword, the sword is drawn. It is polished for the slaughter, to destroy, and to flash like lightning."
Ezekiel 21:29  "'while they see false visions for you, while they divine lies for you, to lay you on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time when guilt comes to its end."
Ezekiel 21:30  "'Shall I make it go back into its sheath? I will judge you in the place where you were made, in the land of your birth."
Ezekiel 21:31  "'I will pour out my anger on you. I will blow against you with the fire of my wrath, and give you into the hand of brutish men, who are skilled in destroying."
Ezekiel 21:32  "'You shall be fuel for the fire. Your blood shall be in the middle of the land. You shall not be remembered any more, for I the LORD have spoken it.'"

Ezekiel 22:1  The word of the LORD came to me again, saying,
Ezekiel 22:2  "Now, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then show her all the disgusting things she has done."
Ezekiel 22:3  "Say to her, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: You are a city that sheds blood inside your own walls, so that your time may come. You make idols against yourself, to make yourself unclean."
Ezekiel 22:4  "'You have become guilty because of the blood you have shed. You have made yourself unclean with the idols you have made. You have brought your days near, and you have come to the end of your years. So I have made you a shame to the nations, and something to be laughed at in every country."
Ezekiel 22:5  "'Those who are near you, and those who are far from you, will mock you. Your name is foul, and you are full of trouble."
Ezekiel 22:6  "'Look, the princes of Israel, every one of them, have used their power in you to shed blood."
Ezekiel 22:7  "'In you they have made light of father and mother. In you they have crushed the stranger. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow."
Ezekiel 22:8  "'You have looked down on my holy things, and you have treated my sabbaths as common."
Ezekiel 22:9  "'In you are men who carry tales so that blood may be shed. In you they eat on the mountains. In the middle of you they do shameful things."
Ezekiel 22:10  "'In you they have uncovered their fathers' nakedness. In you they have humbled the woman who was set apart because she was unclean."
Ezekiel 22:11  "'One man has done a disgusting thing with his neighbour's wife. Another has shamefully defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his own father's daughter."
Ezekiel 22:12  "'In you they have taken gifts to shed blood. You have taken interest and made a profit. You have greedily robbed your neighbours, and you have forgotten me, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 22:13  "'So look, I have struck my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made, and at the blood that has been shed inside you."
Ezekiel 22:14  "'Can your heart hold out, or can your hands be strong, in the days when I deal with you? I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it."
Ezekiel 22:15  "'I will scatter you among the nations, and spread you out through the countries, and I will burn your filthiness out of you."
Ezekiel 22:16  "'And you will take your inheritance in yourself in the sight of the nations, and you will know that I am the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 22:17  And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezekiel 22:18  "Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are brass and tin and iron and lead inside the furnace. They are the dross of silver."
Ezekiel 22:19  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Because you have all become dross, look, I will gather you into the middle of Jerusalem."
Ezekiel 22:20  "'As men gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the furnace, to blow the fire on it and melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my fury. I will leave you there, and melt you."
Ezekiel 22:21  "'Yes, I will gather you, and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you will be melted inside it."
Ezekiel 22:22  "'As silver is melted in the furnace, so you will be melted inside it. And you will know that I the LORD have poured out my fury on you.'"
Ezekiel 22:23  And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Ezekiel 22:24  "Son of man, say to her, 'You are the land that is not made clean, and has no rain on the day of anger.'"
Ezekiel 22:25  "Her prophets have made a plot inside her, like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows inside her."
Ezekiel 22:26  "Her priests have broken my law and have treated my holy things as common. They have made no difference between the holy and the common. They have not shown the difference between the unclean and the clean. They have shut their eyes to my sabbaths, and I am not honoured among them."
Ezekiel 22:27  "Her princes inside her are like wolves tearing their prey. They shed blood and destroy souls to get dishonest gain."
Ezekiel 22:28  "And her prophets have plastered them over with untempered mortar. They see empty visions and speak lies to them, saying, 'This is what the Lord GOD says,' when the LORD has not spoken."
Ezekiel 22:29  "The people of the land have crushed others and have robbed them. They have wronged the poor and needy. Yes, they have oppressed the stranger unjustly."
Ezekiel 22:30  "And I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, so that I would not destroy it. But I found no one."
Ezekiel 22:31  "So I have poured out my anger on them. I have burned them up with the fire of my wrath. I have brought their own way down on their heads, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 23:1  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said,
Ezekiel 23:2  "Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother."
Ezekiel 23:3  "They were prostitutes in Egypt; they were prostitutes in their youth. There their breasts were pressed, and there their virgin breasts were bruised."
Ezekiel 23:4  "Their names were Aholah, the elder, and Aholibah, her sister. They were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. These are their names: Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem is Aholibah."
Ezekiel 23:5  "Aholah acted like a prostitute while she was mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians, her neighbours,"
Ezekiel 23:6  "who were dressed in blue - captains and rulers, all of them handsome young men, horsemen riding on horses."
Ezekiel 23:7  "So she gave herself as a prostitute to them, to all the chosen men of Assyria, and to all she lusted after. With all their idols she made herself unclean."
Ezekiel 23:8  "She did not leave behind the prostitution she had brought from Egypt. For in her youth men lay with her, and bruised her virgin breasts, and poured out their prostitution on her."
Ezekiel 23:9  "So I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians, whom she lusted after."
Ezekiel 23:10  "They uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters, and killed her with the sword. She became notorious among women, for they had carried out judgment on her."
Ezekiel 23:11  "Her sister Aholibah saw this. Yet she was more corrupt than her sister in her wild love, and her prostitution was worse than her sister's prostitution."
Ezekiel 23:12  "She lusted after the Assyrians, her neighbours - captains and rulers dressed in splendid clothes, horsemen riding on horses, all of them handsome young men."
Ezekiel 23:13  "Then I saw that she was defiled. The two of them took the same way."
Ezekiel 23:14  "She went further still with her prostitution. She saw men pictured on the wall, images of the Chaldeans painted in bright red,"
Ezekiel 23:15  "with belts round their waists and flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, like the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land where they were born."
Ezekiel 23:16  "As soon as she saw them with her eyes, she lusted after them, and she sent messengers to them in Chaldea."
Ezekiel 23:17  "The Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was made unclean with them, and then her mind turned away from them."
Ezekiel 23:18  "So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my mind turned away from her, just as my mind had turned away from her sister."
Ezekiel 23:19  "Yet she did more and more prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, when she had acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt."
Ezekiel 23:20  "She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses."
Ezekiel 23:21  "So you remembered the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians bruised your breasts, the breasts of your youth."
Ezekiel 23:22  "Therefore, Aholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Look, I will stir up your lovers against you, the ones your mind has turned away from, and I will bring them against you from every side:"
Ezekiel 23:23  "the Babylonians, and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, and Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them - all of them handsome young men, captains and rulers, great lords and famous men, all of them riding on horses."
Ezekiel 23:24  "They will come against you with chariots, wagons and wheels, and with a great crowd of people. They will set shield and buckler and helmet against you on every side. I will put judgment before them, and they will judge you by their own judgments."
Ezekiel 23:25  "I will turn my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears, and those of you who are left will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters, and the rest of you will be burned up by the fire."
Ezekiel 23:26  "They will also strip off your clothes and take away your fine jewels."
Ezekiel 23:27  "So I will put an end to your lewdness and to the prostitution you brought from the land of Egypt. You will not look to them any more, and you will not remember Egypt again."
Ezekiel 23:28  "For this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will hand you over to those you hate, to those your mind has turned away from."
Ezekiel 23:29  "They will deal with you in hatred. They will take away everything you worked for, and leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, your lewdness and your prostitution."
Ezekiel 23:30  "I will do these things to you because you have gone after the nations like a prostitute, and because you have made yourself unclean with their idols."
Ezekiel 23:31  "You have walked in the way of your sister, so I will put her cup into your hand."
Ezekiel 23:32  "This is what the Lord GOD says: You will drink from your sister's cup, deep and wide. You will be laughed at and mocked, for the cup holds much."
Ezekiel 23:33  "You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of horror and ruin, the cup of your sister Samaria."
Ezekiel 23:34  "You will drink it and drain it dry. You will break its pieces, and tear off your own breasts. For I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 23:35  "Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have forgotten me and thrown me behind your back, you must carry your lewdness and your prostitution.'"
Ezekiel 23:36  The LORD said to me further, "Son of man, will you judge Aholah and Aholibah? Then tell them about the disgusting things they have done."
Ezekiel 23:37  "They have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even made their sons, whom they bore to me, pass through the fire to their idols, to be devoured."
Ezekiel 23:38  "And this too they have done to me: on the same day they made my sanctuary unclean and treated my sabbaths as nothing holy."
Ezekiel 23:39  "For when they had killed their children for their idols, they came that same day into my sanctuary to make it unclean. Look, this is what they did inside my house."
Ezekiel 23:40  "And more than this: you sent for men to come from far away. A messenger was sent to them, and look, they came. For them you washed yourself, painted your eyes and put on your jewels."
Ezekiel 23:41  "You sat on a splendid bed, with a table spread before it, and on it you set my incense and my oil."
Ezekiel 23:42  "The noise of a careless crowd was with her. Common men were brought, and Sabeans from the wilderness. They put bracelets on their hands and beautiful crowns on their heads."
Ezekiel 23:43  "Then I said of her who was worn out with adulteries, 'Will they now be prostitutes with her, and she with them?'"
Ezekiel 23:44  "Yet they went in to her, as men go in to a prostitute. So they went in to Aholah and to Aholibah, the lewd women."
Ezekiel 23:45  "But righteous men will judge them as adulteresses are judged, and as women who shed blood are judged; because they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands."
Ezekiel 23:46  "For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will bring a crowd up against them, and hand them over to be carried off and plundered."
Ezekiel 23:47  "The crowd will stone them with stones and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire."
Ezekiel 23:48  "So I will put an end to lewdness in the land, so that all women may be taught not to copy your lewdness."
Ezekiel 23:49  "They will pay you back for your lewdness, and you will carry the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 24:1  Again, in the ninth year, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 24:2  "Son of man, write down the name of this day, this very day. The king of Babylon has set himself against Jerusalem on this very day."
Ezekiel 24:3  "Tell a parable to the rebellious house. Say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Put on the pot, put it on, and pour water into it."
Ezekiel 24:4  "'Gather the pieces into it, every good piece, the thigh and the shoulder. Fill it with the best bones."
Ezekiel 24:5  "'Take the best of the flock, and pile the bones under it as well. Make it boil hard, and let its bones be cooked in it."
Ezekiel 24:6  "'So this is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the bloody city, the pot whose scum is still in it, whose scum has not come out of it! Bring the meat out piece by piece; let no lot fall on it."
Ezekiel 24:7  "'For her blood is in the middle of her. She put it on the top of a rock. She did not pour it on the ground, to cover it with dust."
Ezekiel 24:8  "'It was so that fury might rise up and take vengeance. I have set her blood on the top of a rock, so that it should not be covered."
Ezekiel 24:9  "'Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the bloody city! I myself will make the pile for the fire great."
Ezekiel 24:10  "'Heap on the wood, light the fire, use up the flesh, and spice it well, and let the bones be burned."
Ezekiel 24:11  "'Then set the pot empty on its coals, so that its brass may grow hot and burn, and its filthiness may be melted in it, and its scum burned away."
Ezekiel 24:12  "'She has worn herself out with lies, and her heavy scum did not come out of her. Her scum shall go into the fire."
Ezekiel 24:13  "'In your filthiness is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you and you were not cleansed, you shall not be cleansed from your filthiness any more, until I have made my fury rest on you."
Ezekiel 24:14  "'I the LORD have spoken it. It shall happen, and I will do it. I will not go back, I will not spare, and I will not repent. They shall judge you by your ways and by your deeds, says the Lord GOD.'"
Ezekiel 24:15  Also the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 24:16  "Son of man, look, with one blow I am taking away from you the desire of your eyes. Yet you must not mourn or weep, and no tears must run down."
Ezekiel 24:17  "Hold back your crying. Make no mourning for the dead. Bind your headdress on your head, and put your shoes on your feet. Do not cover your lips, and do not eat the bread of men."
Ezekiel 24:18  So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. In the morning I did as I was commanded.
Ezekiel 24:19  And the people said to me, "Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, since you are acting like this?"
Ezekiel 24:20  Then I answered them, "The word of the LORD came to me. He said:"
Ezekiel 24:21  'Say to the house of Israel: This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will make my sanctuary unholy, the pride of your strength, the desire of your eyes, the thing your soul pities. And your sons and your daughters whom you have left behind shall fall by the sword.
Ezekiel 24:22  'And you shall do as I have done. You shall not cover your lips or eat the bread of men.
Ezekiel 24:23  'Your headdresses shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet. You shall not mourn or weep, but you shall waste away because of your sins, and groan to one another.
Ezekiel 24:24  "'So Ezekiel is a sign to you. You shall do everything that he has done. When this comes, you will know that I am the Lord GOD.'"
Ezekiel 24:25  "And you, son of man, will it not be so? On the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and what their minds are set on, their sons and their daughters,"
Ezekiel 24:26  "on that day one who escapes will come to you, to make you hear it with your own ears."
Ezekiel 24:27  "On that day your mouth will be opened to the one who has escaped. You will speak and be silent no more. You will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel 25:1  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said:
Ezekiel 25:2  "Son of man, set your face against the Ammonites, and prophesy against them."
Ezekiel 25:3  "Say to the Ammonites, 'Hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says: You said, Aha, against my sanctuary when it was made unclean, and against the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and against the house of Judah when they went into captivity."
Ezekiel 25:4  "'So look, I will hand you over to the men of the east as their possession. They will set their palaces in you and make their homes in you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk."
Ezekiel 25:5  "'I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the land of the Ammonites a resting place for flocks. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 25:6  "'For this is what the Lord GOD says: You clapped your hands and stamped your feet, and rejoiced in your heart with all your scorn against the land of Israel."
Ezekiel 25:7  "'So look, I will stretch out my hand against you, and give you to the nations as plunder. I will cut you off from the peoples and make you perish out of the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 25:8  "'This is what the Lord GOD says: Moab and Seir say, Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations."
Ezekiel 25:9  "'So look, I will open the side of Moab, beginning from the cities, from his cities on his borders, the glory of the country: Bethjeshimoth, Baalmeon, and Kiriathaim."
Ezekiel 25:10  "'I will give them to the men of the east, along with the Ammonites, as their possession, so that the Ammonites will not be remembered among the nations."
Ezekiel 25:11  "'I will carry out my judgments on Moab, and they will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 25:12  "'This is what the Lord GOD says: Edom acted against the house of Judah by taking revenge. Edom did a great wrong and paid them back."
Ezekiel 25:13  "'So this is what the Lord GOD says: I will also stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off man and beast from it. I will make it a waste from Teman, and the people of Dedan will fall by the sword."
Ezekiel 25:14  "'I will lay my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel. They will deal with Edom according to my anger and according to my fury, and they will know my vengeance, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 25:15  "'This is what the Lord GOD says: The Philistines acted in revenge, and took vengeance with a scornful heart, to destroy it because of an old hatred."
Ezekiel 25:16  "'So this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will stretch out my hand against the Philistines. I will cut off the Cherethims and destroy the rest of those by the sea coast."
Ezekiel 25:17  "'I will carry out great vengeance on them with furious rebukes. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I lay my vengeance on them.'"

Ezekiel 26:1  In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 26:2  "Son of man, Tyrus has spoken against Jerusalem. She said, 'Aha, she is broken, she who was the gate of the peoples. She has turned to me. I shall be filled, now that she is laid waste.'"
Ezekiel 26:3  "Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against you, Tyrus. I will make many nations come up against you, as the sea makes its waves come up."
Ezekiel 26:4  "They will destroy the walls of Tyrus and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust off her and make her like the top of a rock."
Ezekiel 26:5  "She will be a place for spreading nets in the middle of the sea, for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD. She will become plunder for the nations."
Ezekiel 26:6  "Her daughters who are out in the field will be killed with the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 26:7  "For this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will bring against Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses and chariots and horsemen, with companies of soldiers and many people."
Ezekiel 26:8  "He will kill your daughters in the field with the sword. He will build a fort against you, and pile up a mound against you, and lift up the shield against you."
Ezekiel 26:9  "He will set his war machines against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers."
Ezekiel 26:10  "His horses will be so many that their dust will cover you. Your walls will shake at the noise of the horsemen, the wheels and the chariots, when he comes in through your gates, as men enter a city whose wall has been broken open."
Ezekiel 26:11  "With the hoofs of his horses he will trample down all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword, and your strong garrisons will go down to the ground."
Ezekiel 26:12  "They will take your riches as plunder and your goods as prey. They will break down your walls and destroy your fine houses. They will throw your stones and your timber and your dust into the middle of the water."
Ezekiel 26:13  "I will stop the noise of your songs. The sound of your harps will be heard no more."
Ezekiel 26:14  "I will make you like the top of a rock. You will be a place to spread nets on. You will never be built again, for I the LORD have spoken it, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 26:15  "This is what the Lord GOD says to Tyrus: Will not the islands shake at the sound of your fall, when the wounded groan, when the killing is done in the middle of you?"
Ezekiel 26:16  "Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones. They will lay aside their robes and take off their embroidered clothes. They will clothe themselves with trembling. They will sit on the ground, and shake every moment, and be amazed at you."
Ezekiel 26:17  "They will raise a song of sorrow for you and say to you, 'How you are destroyed, you city that seafaring men lived in, the famous city, which was strong in the sea, she and her people, who made all who came there afraid.'"
Ezekiel 26:18  "Now the islands will tremble on the day of your fall. Yes, the islands that are in the sea will be shaken when you are gone."
Ezekiel 26:19  "For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will make you a ruined city, like the cities where no one lives. I will bring up the deep over you, and great waters will cover you."
Ezekiel 26:20  "Then I will bring you down with those who go down to the pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you live in the lowest parts of the earth, in places ruined long ago, with those who go down to the pit, so that no one lives in you. And I will set glory in the land of the living."
Ezekiel 26:21  "I will make you a terror, and you will be no more. Though you are looked for, you will never be found again, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 27:1  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said,
Ezekiel 27:2  "Now, son of man, sing a song of sorrow for Tyrus."
Ezekiel 27:3  "Say to Tyrus, you who sit at the entrance of the sea, you who trade with the peoples of many coastlands: this is what the Lord GOD says: O Tyrus, you have said, 'I am perfect in beauty.'"
Ezekiel 27:4  "Your borders are in the middle of the seas. Your builders made your beauty perfect."
Ezekiel 27:5  "They made all your ship boards of fir trees from Senir. They took cedars from Lebanon to make masts for you."
Ezekiel 27:6  "They made your oars from the oaks of Bashan. The company of the Ashurites made your benches of ivory, brought from the coasts of Chittim."
Ezekiel 27:7  "Your sail was fine linen with embroidered work from Egypt, spread out for all to see. Blue and purple cloth from the coasts of Elishah covered you."
Ezekiel 27:8  "The people of Zidon and Arvad were your sailors. Your wise men, O Tyrus, who were in you, were your pilots."
Ezekiel 27:9  "The elders of Gebal and their wise men were in you, sealing the seams of your ships. All the ships of the sea and their sailors were in you to trade your goods."
Ezekiel 27:10  "Men of Persia and of Lud and of Phut were in your army, your men of war. They hung up the shield and the helmet in you. They made you beautiful."
Ezekiel 27:11  "The men of Arvad and your army were on your walls all around, and the Gammadims were in your towers. They hung their shields on your walls all around. They made your beauty perfect."
Ezekiel 27:12  "Tarshish traded with you because you had riches of every kind. They brought silver, iron, tin and lead to your markets."
Ezekiel 27:13  "Javan, Tubal and Meshech traded with you. They traded human beings and vessels of brass in your market."
Ezekiel 27:14  "The men of the house of Togarmah traded in your markets with horses and war horses and mules."
Ezekiel 27:15  "The men of Dedan traded with you. Many coastlands bought the goods of your hand. They brought you horns of ivory and ebony as payment."
Ezekiel 27:16  "Syria traded with you because you made so many goods. They came to your markets with emeralds, purple cloth, embroidered work, fine linen, coral and agate."
Ezekiel 27:17  "Judah and the land of Israel traded with you. They traded in your market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm."
Ezekiel 27:18  "Damascus traded with you because you made so many goods and had riches of every kind. They brought the wine of Helbon and white wool."
Ezekiel 27:19  "Dan also and Javan, going back and forth, traded in your markets. Bright iron, cassia and calamus were in your market."
Ezekiel 27:20  "Dedan traded with you in fine cloth for chariots."
Ezekiel 27:21  "Arabia and all the princes of Kedar traded with you in lambs, rams and goats. In these things they were your merchants."
Ezekiel 27:22  "The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you. They came to your markets with the best of all spices, and with all kinds of precious stones, and gold."
Ezekiel 27:23  "Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad traded with you."
Ezekiel 27:24  "These traded with you in all sorts of things: in blue cloth, in embroidered work, and in chests of rich clothing bound with cords and made of cedar, among your goods."
Ezekiel 27:25  "The ships of Tarshish sang of you in your market. You were filled full and made very glorious in the middle of the seas."
Ezekiel 27:26  "Your rowers have brought you out into deep waters. The east wind has broken you in the middle of the seas."
Ezekiel 27:27  "Your riches, your markets, your goods, your sailors and your pilots, the men who sealed your seams, those who traded your goods, and all your men of war who are in you, with all the crowd that is in the middle of you, will fall into the middle of the seas on the day of your ruin."
Ezekiel 27:28  "The lands around will shake at the sound of the cry of your pilots."
Ezekiel 27:29  "All who handle the oar, the sailors and all the pilots of the sea, will come down from their ships. They will stand on the land."
Ezekiel 27:30  "They will let their voice be heard against you. They will cry bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll themselves in the ashes."
Ezekiel 27:31  "They will shave their heads completely bald for you and put on sackcloth. They will weep for you with bitter hearts and bitter wailing."
Ezekiel 27:32  "As they wail they will sing a song of sorrow for you, and mourn over you, saying, 'What city is like Tyrus, like the one destroyed in the middle of the sea?'"
Ezekiel 27:33  "When your goods went out from the seas, you satisfied many peoples. With your great riches and your goods you made the kings of the earth rich."
Ezekiel 27:34  "Now you are broken by the seas in the deep waters. Your goods and all the crowd in the middle of you have fallen."
Ezekiel 27:35  "All the people of the coastlands are shocked at you. Their kings are terrified, and fear shows in their faces."
Ezekiel 27:36  "The merchants among the peoples hiss at you. You have become a terror, and you will never be again."

Ezekiel 28:1  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said:
Ezekiel 28:2  "Son of man, say to the prince of Tyrus, This is what the Lord GOD says: Your heart is proud, and you have said, 'I am a God. I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas.' Yet you are a man, and not God, though you make your heart like the heart of God."
Ezekiel 28:3  "Look, you are wiser than Daniel. There is no secret that they can hide from you."
Ezekiel 28:4  "With your wisdom and your understanding you have made yourself rich. You have gathered gold and silver into your treasure rooms."
Ezekiel 28:5  "By your great wisdom and your trading you have increased your riches, and your heart is proud because of your riches."
Ezekiel 28:6  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have made your heart like the heart of God,"
Ezekiel 28:7  "look, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrifying of the nations. They will draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they will spoil your brightness."
Ezekiel 28:8  "They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die the deaths of those who are killed in the middle of the seas."
Ezekiel 28:9  "Will you still say to the one who kills you, 'I am God'? You will be a man, and no God, in the hand of the one who kills you."
Ezekiel 28:10  "You will die the deaths of those who are not circumcised, by the hand of strangers. For I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 28:11  Again the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 28:12  "Son of man, sing a song of mourning for the king of Tyrus. Say to him, This is what the Lord GOD says: You are the seal of what is complete, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty."
Ezekiel 28:13  "You have been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone covered you: the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold. The workmanship of your small drums and of your pipes was made ready in you on the day you were created."
Ezekiel 28:14  "You are the anointed cherub that covers, and I set you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked up and down among the stones of fire."
Ezekiel 28:15  "You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, until wrongdoing was found in you."
Ezekiel 28:16  "Because your trade was so great, they filled you with violence, and you sinned. So I will throw you out of the mountain of God as an unholy thing. I will destroy you, covering cherub, from among the stones of fire."
Ezekiel 28:17  "Your heart was proud because of your beauty. You ruined your wisdom because of your brightness. I will throw you to the ground. I will lay you before kings, so that they may look at you."
Ezekiel 28:18  "You have made your holy places unclean by your many wrongdoings, by the wrongdoing of your trading. So I will bring out a fire from inside you. It will burn you up, and I will bring you to ashes on the earth, in the sight of all who look at you."
Ezekiel 28:19  "All who know you among the peoples will be shocked at you. You will be a terror, and you will never exist again."
Ezekiel 28:20  Again the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 28:21  "Son of man, turn your face against Zidon, and prophesy against it."
Ezekiel 28:22  "Say, This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against you, Zidon, and I will be given glory among you. They will know that I am the LORD, when I have carried out my judgments in her, and am shown to be holy in her."
Ezekiel 28:23  "For I will send disease into her, and blood into her streets. The wounded will be judged in the middle of her by the sword that comes against her on every side. And they will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 28:24  "And there will no longer be a sharp brier to hurt the house of Israel, nor any painful thorn among all those around them who hated them. And they will know that I am the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 28:25  "This is what the Lord GOD says: When I have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and am shown to be holy in them in the sight of the nations, then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob."
Ezekiel 28:26  "They will live there safely. They will build houses and plant vineyards. Yes, they will live without fear, when I have carried out my judgments on all those around them who hated them. And they will know that I am the LORD their God."

Ezekiel 29:1  In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 29:2  "Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt. Prophesy against him, and against all Egypt."
Ezekiel 29:3  "Speak, and say, This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the middle of his rivers. You have said, 'My river is my own, and I made it for myself.'"
Ezekiel 29:4  "But I will put hooks in your jaws. I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales. I will bring you up out of the middle of your rivers, and all the fish of your rivers will stick to your scales."
Ezekiel 29:5  "I will leave you thrown down in the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You will fall on the open fields. You will not be picked up or gathered. I have given you as food to the animals of the field and to the birds of the sky."
Ezekiel 29:6  "Then all the people living in Egypt will know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 29:7  "When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and you tore all their shoulder. When they leaned on you, you snapped, and you made all their backs shake."
Ezekiel 29:8  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will bring a sword upon you, and cut off man and beast from you."
Ezekiel 29:9  "The land of Egypt will be empty and waste. Then they will know that I am the LORD, because he said, 'The river is mine, and I made it.'"
Ezekiel 29:10  "So look, I am against you, and against your rivers. I will make the land of Egypt completely waste and empty, from the tower of Syene as far as the border of Ethiopia."
Ezekiel 29:11  "No foot of man will pass through it, and no foot of beast will pass through it. No one will live in it for forty years."
Ezekiel 29:12  "I will make the land of Egypt empty among the countries that are empty. Her cities will be empty for forty years among the cities that are laid waste. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and spread them through the countries."
Ezekiel 29:13  "Yet this is what the Lord GOD says: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered."
Ezekiel 29:14  "I will bring back the captives of Egypt. I will make them return to the land of Pathros, to the land where they came from. There they will be a lowly kingdom."
Ezekiel 29:15  "It will be the lowliest of the kingdoms. It will never again lift itself up above the nations. I will make them few, so that they will no longer rule over the nations."
Ezekiel 29:16  "Egypt will no longer be what the house of Israel trusts in, bringing their sin to mind when they turn to look after them. Then they will know that I am the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 29:17  Then in the twenty-seventh year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 29:18  "Son of man, Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made his army work hard against Tyrus. Every head was rubbed bald, and every shoulder was rubbed raw. Yet neither he nor his army got any wages from Tyrus for the work he had done against it."
Ezekiel 29:19  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off her crowds, take her goods, and seize her plunder. That will be the wages for his army."
Ezekiel 29:20  "I have given him the land of Egypt for the work he did against it, because they worked for me, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 29:21  "On that day I will make a horn grow for the house of Israel, and I will let you open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel 30:1  The word of the LORD came to me again:
Ezekiel 30:2  "Son of man, prophesy and say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Wail! Alas for the day!'"
Ezekiel 30:3  "'For the day is near. The day of the LORD is near. It will be a day of cloud, a time for the nations.'"
Ezekiel 30:4  "'The sword will come upon Egypt, and great pain will be in Ethiopia, when the killed fall in Egypt. They will carry away her crowds of people, and her foundations will be broken down.'"
Ezekiel 30:5  "'Ethiopia, and Libya, and Lydia, and all the mixed peoples, and Chub, and the men of the land that is joined with them by treaty will fall with them by the sword.'"
Ezekiel 30:6  "'This is what the LORD says: Those who hold Egypt up will fall, and the pride of her power will come down. From the tower of Syene they will fall in her by the sword, says the Lord GOD.'"
Ezekiel 30:7  "'They will be a waste among lands that are wasted, and her cities will be among the cities that lie in ruins.'"
Ezekiel 30:8  "'Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all who help her are destroyed.'"
Ezekiel 30:9  "'On that day messengers will go out from me in ships to frighten the Ethiopians who feel safe. Great pain will come upon them, as on the day of Egypt. Look, it is coming.'"
Ezekiel 30:10  "'This is what the Lord GOD says: I will put an end to the crowds of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon.'"
Ezekiel 30:11  "'He and his people with him, the most terrifying of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the killed.'"
Ezekiel 30:12  "'I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of wicked men. By the hand of strangers I will make the land waste, and everything in it. I the LORD have spoken it.'"
Ezekiel 30:13  "'This is what the Lord GOD says: I will destroy the idols, and I will put an end to the images in Noph. There will no longer be a prince in the land of Egypt, and I will put fear in the land of Egypt.'"
Ezekiel 30:14  "'I will make Pathros a waste, and set fire to Zoan, and carry out judgments in No.'"
Ezekiel 30:15  "'I will pour out my fury on Sin, the strong place of Egypt, and I will cut off the crowds of No.'"
Ezekiel 30:16  "'I will set fire to Egypt. Sin will be in great pain, No will be broken open, and Noph will have troubles every day.'"
Ezekiel 30:17  "'The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth will fall by the sword, and these cities will go into captivity.'"
Ezekiel 30:18  "'At Tehaphnehes the day will be dark, when I break there the yokes of Egypt. The pride of her strength will end in her. A cloud will cover her, and her daughters will go into captivity.'"
Ezekiel 30:19  "'So I will carry out judgments in Egypt, and they will know that I am the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 30:20  In the eleventh year, in the first month, on the seventh day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 30:21  "Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Look, it has not been bound up to be healed. No bandage has been put on to bind it, to make it strong enough to hold the sword."
Ezekiel 30:22  So this is what the Lord GOD says: 'Look, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt. I will break his arms, both the strong one and the one that was already broken, and I will make the sword fall out of his hand.
Ezekiel 30:23  I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and spread them through the lands.
Ezekiel 30:24  I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, and put my sword in his hand. But I will break Pharaoh's arms, and he will groan before him like a man wounded to death.
Ezekiel 30:25  I will make the arms of the king of Babylon strong, but the arms of Pharaoh will fall down. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he stretches it out over the land of Egypt.
Ezekiel 30:26  "I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and spread them among the lands. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'"

Ezekiel 31:1  In the eleventh year, in the third month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 31:2  "Son of man, speak to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his crowds of people: Who are you like in your greatness?"
Ezekiel 31:3  "Look, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon, with beautiful branches, with shade like a covering, and very tall. Its top was among the thick boughs."
Ezekiel 31:4  "The waters made it great. The deep made it grow high, with her rivers running all around the place where it was planted. She sent out her little streams to all the trees of the field."
Ezekiel 31:5  "So it grew taller than all the trees of the field. Its boughs became many, and its branches grew long, because there was so much water when it sent them out."
Ezekiel 31:6  "All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs. Under its branches all the animals of the field gave birth to their young. In its shadow lived all the great nations."
Ezekiel 31:7  "So it was beautiful in its greatness, with its long branches, because its roots were beside plenty of water."
Ezekiel 31:8  "The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it. The fir trees were not like its boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like its branches. No tree in the garden of God was as beautiful as it was."
Ezekiel 31:9  "I made it beautiful with its many branches, so that all the trees of Eden, which were in the garden of God, were jealous of it."
Ezekiel 31:10  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have lifted yourself up high, and because it shot its top up among the thick boughs, and its heart was proud of its height,"
Ezekiel 31:11  "I have handed it over to the mighty one of the nations. He will surely deal with it. I have driven it out because of its wickedness."
Ezekiel 31:12  "Strangers, the most terrifying of the nations, have cut it down and left it. On the mountains and in all the valleys its branches have fallen, and its boughs lie broken by all the rivers of the land. All the peoples of the earth have gone out of its shadow and left it."
Ezekiel 31:13  "On its ruins all the birds of the sky will settle, and all the animals of the field will be on its branches,"
Ezekiel 31:14  "so that none of the trees beside the waters may lift themselves up because of their height, or shoot their top up among the thick boughs, and none of the trees that drink water may stand tall in their own height. For they are all given over to death, to the lower parts of the earth, among the children of men, with those who go down to the pit."
Ezekiel 31:15  "This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day when it went down to the grave I caused mourning. I covered the deep for it, and I held back its floods, and the great waters were stopped. I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field grew weak because of it."
Ezekiel 31:16  "I made the nations shake at the sound of its fall, when I threw it down to hell with those who go down into the pit. And all the trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth."
Ezekiel 31:17  "They also went down with it into hell, to those killed by the sword; and so did those who were its arm, who lived in its shadow among the nations."
Ezekiel 31:18  "Which of the trees of Eden are you like in glory and in greatness? Yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those killed by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his crowds of people, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 32:1  In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 32:2  "Son of man, sing a song of sorrow for Pharaoh king of Egypt. Say to him, 'You are like a young lion among the nations. You are like a whale in the seas. You burst out with your rivers. You stirred up the waters with your feet, and made their rivers dirty.'"
Ezekiel 32:3  This is what the Lord GOD says: "So I will spread out my net over you, with a great crowd of people, and they will pull you up in my net."
Ezekiel 32:4  Then I will leave you on the land. I will throw you out on the open field. I will make all the birds of the sky settle on you, and I will fill the wild animals of the whole earth with you.
Ezekiel 32:5  I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your great body.
Ezekiel 32:6  I will also water the land with your blood, even as far as the mountains, where you swim. The river beds will be full of you.
Ezekiel 32:7  When I put out your light, I will cover the sky and make its stars dark. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.
Ezekiel 32:8  "All the bright lights of the sky I will make dark over you. I will bring darkness on your land," says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 32:9  "I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I carry news of your ruin among the nations, into countries you have not known."
Ezekiel 32:10  "Yes, I will make many peoples horrified at you. Their kings will be terribly afraid because of you, when I swing my sword in front of them. Every moment they will tremble, each man for his own life, on the day you fall."
Ezekiel 32:11  For this is what the Lord GOD says: "The sword of the king of Babylon will come upon you."
Ezekiel 32:12  By the swords of the mighty I will make your crowds of people fall. They are the cruellest of the nations, every one of them. They will destroy the pride of Egypt, and all her crowds will be wiped out.
Ezekiel 32:13  I will also destroy all her animals from beside the great waters. No human foot will stir the waters any more, and no hoof of any animal will stir them.
Ezekiel 32:14  "Then I will make their waters clear, and make their rivers run like oil," says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 32:15  "When I make the land of Egypt empty, when the country is stripped of everything that filled it, when I strike down all who live in it, then they will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 32:16  "This is the song of sorrow they will sing for her. The daughters of the nations will sing it for her. They will sing it for Egypt and for all her crowds of people," says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 32:17  In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 32:18  "Son of man, cry out for the crowds of Egypt. Send them down, her and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lowest parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit."
Ezekiel 32:19  Whom do you surpass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with those who are not circumcised.
Ezekiel 32:20  They will fall among those killed by the sword. She is handed over to the sword. Drag her away with all her crowds of people.
Ezekiel 32:21  The strong ones among the mighty will speak to him out of the middle of the grave, along with those who helped him. 'They have gone down. They lie there, not circumcised, killed by the sword.'
Ezekiel 32:22  Asshur is there with all her company. His graves are all around him. All of them are killed, fallen by the sword.
Ezekiel 32:23  Their graves are set in the far parts of the pit, and her company is all around her grave. All of them are killed, fallen by the sword, though once they spread terror in the land of the living.
Ezekiel 32:24  Elam is there with all her crowds around her grave. All of them are killed, fallen by the sword. They went down, not circumcised, to the lowest parts of the earth. Once they spread their terror in the land of the living, but now they carry their shame with those who go down to the pit.
Ezekiel 32:25  They have made a bed for her among the killed, with all her crowds of people. Her graves are all around him. All of them are not circumcised, killed by the sword. Once their terror was spread in the land of the living, but now they carry their shame with those who go down to the pit. He is laid among those who are killed.
Ezekiel 32:26  Meshech and Tubal are there with all her crowds. Her graves are all around him. All of them are not circumcised, killed by the sword, though they spread their terror in the land of the living.
Ezekiel 32:27  They will not lie with the mighty men who fell among those not circumcised, who went down to the grave with their weapons of war. Their swords were laid under their heads, but their sins are on their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.
Ezekiel 32:28  Yes, you will be broken among those who are not circumcised, and you will lie with those killed by the sword.
Ezekiel 32:29  Edom is there, her kings and all her princes. For all their might they are laid with those killed by the sword. They lie with those who are not circumcised, and with those who go down to the pit.
Ezekiel 32:30  The princes of the north are there, all of them, and all the Zidonians, who went down with the killed. For all the terror they caused, they are ashamed of their might. They lie there, not circumcised, with those killed by the sword, and carry their shame with those who go down to the pit.
Ezekiel 32:31  "Pharaoh will see them, and will be comforted over all his crowds of people, Pharaoh and all his army, killed by the sword," says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 32:32  "For I have spread my terror in the land of the living. He will be laid among those who are not circumcised, with those killed by the sword, Pharaoh and all his crowds of people," says the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 33:1  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said,
Ezekiel 33:2  "Son of man, speak to the children of your people. Say to them, 'When I bring the sword upon a land, the people of the land may take a man from among them and set him up as their watchman.'"
Ezekiel 33:3  "'If he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows the trumpet and warns the people,"
Ezekiel 33:4  then if anyone hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head.
Ezekiel 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take the warning. His blood will be on him. But the one who takes the warning will save his life.
Ezekiel 33:6  But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, that person is taken away in his sin. But I will require his blood from the watchman's hand.'
Ezekiel 33:7  "So, son of man, I have set you as a watchman for the house of Israel. You will hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me."
Ezekiel 33:8  When I say to the wicked, 'Wicked man, you will surely die,' if you do not speak to warn the wicked man from his way, that wicked man will die in his sin. But I will require his blood from your hand.
Ezekiel 33:9  But if you warn the wicked man about his way, telling him to turn from it, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his sin. But you have saved your life.
Ezekiel 33:10  "So, son of man, speak to the house of Israel. You say this: 'Our wrongdoing and our sins are upon us, and we waste away in them. How then can we live?'"
Ezekiel 33:11  Say to them, 'As surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. I would rather the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways. Why will you die, house of Israel?'
Ezekiel 33:12  "So, son of man, say to the children of your people, 'The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him on the day he does wrong. And the wickedness of the wicked man will not make him fall on the day he turns from his wickedness. The righteous man will not be able to live by his righteousness on the day that he sins.'"
Ezekiel 33:13  When I say to the righteous man that he will surely live, if he trusts in his own righteousness and does wrong, then none of his righteous acts will be remembered. He will die for the wrong that he has done.
Ezekiel 33:14  Again, when I say to the wicked man, 'You will surely die,' if he turns from his sin and does what is lawful and right,
Ezekiel 33:15  if the wicked man gives back what was pledged to him, and returns what he had stolen, and lives by the rules that give life, and does no wrong, then he will surely live. He will not die.
Ezekiel 33:16  None of the sins he has committed will be brought up against him. He has done what is lawful and right. He will surely live.
Ezekiel 33:17  "Yet the children of your people say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' But it is their way that is not fair."
Ezekiel 33:18  When the righteous man turns from his righteousness and does wrong, he will die for it.
Ezekiel 33:19  But if the wicked man turns from his wickedness and does what is lawful and right, he will live by it.
Ezekiel 33:20  "Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' House of Israel, I will judge each one of you according to his ways."
Ezekiel 33:21  In the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, on the fifth day of the month, a man who had escaped from Jerusalem came to me and said, "The city has been struck down."
Ezekiel 33:22  Now the hand of the LORD had been upon me in the evening, before the man who escaped came. The LORD had opened my mouth by the time the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened, and I was no longer silent.
Ezekiel 33:23  Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said,
Ezekiel 33:24  "Son of man, those who live in those ruined places in the land of Israel are saying, 'Abraham was only one man, and he inherited the land. But we are many. The land is given to us to own.'"
Ezekiel 33:25  So say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: You eat meat with the blood in it. You lift up your eyes to your idols. You shed blood. Should you then possess the land?
Ezekiel 33:26  You rely on your sword. You do things that are disgusting. Each of you defiles his neighbour's wife. Should you then possess the land?'
Ezekiel 33:27  Say this to them: 'This is what the Lord GOD says: As surely as I live, those who are in the ruined places will fall by the sword. The one who is out in the open field I will give to the wild animals to be eaten. Those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die of the plague.
Ezekiel 33:28  For I will make the land completely desolate, and her proud strength will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate that no one will pass through.
Ezekiel 33:29  Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have made the land completely desolate because of all the disgusting things they have done.'
Ezekiel 33:30  "As for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses. They speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, 'Come, and hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 33:31  They come to you as people come, and they sit before you as my people. They hear your words, but they will not do them. With their mouths they show much love, but their hearts go after their greed.
Ezekiel 33:32  Look, you are to them like a very lovely song, sung by someone with a pleasant voice who plays an instrument well. They hear your words, but they do not do them.
Ezekiel 33:33  "And when this comes true (and it will come), then they will know that a prophet has been among them."

Ezekiel 34:1  The word of the LORD came to me:
Ezekiel 34:2  "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says to the shepherds: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves. Should not the shepherds feed the flocks?"
Ezekiel 34:3  "'You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool. You kill the ones that are well fed, but you do not feed the flock."
Ezekiel 34:4  "'You have not made the weak ones strong. You have not healed the sick one, or bound up the broken one. You have not brought back the one that was driven away, or looked for the one that was lost. Instead you have ruled them with force and with cruelty."
Ezekiel 34:5  "'So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd. When they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals of the field."
Ezekiel 34:6  "'My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one searched for them or looked for them."
Ezekiel 34:7  "'So, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD:"
Ezekiel 34:8  "'As surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, my flock became a prey. My flock became food for every wild animal of the field, because there was no shepherd. My shepherds did not search for my flock. The shepherds fed themselves and did not feed my flock."
Ezekiel 34:9  "'So, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 34:10  "This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against the shepherds. I will demand my flock from their hand, and I will stop them from feeding the flock. The shepherds will not feed themselves any more. I will rescue my flock from their mouth, so that the sheep will not be food for them."
Ezekiel 34:11  "For this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I myself will search for my sheep and seek them out."
Ezekiel 34:12  "A shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep. In the same way I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on the cloudy and dark day."
Ezekiel 34:13  "I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries. I will bring them to their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the rivers, and in all the places where people live in the country."
Ezekiel 34:14  "I will feed them in a good pasture, and their fold will be on the high mountains of Israel. There they will lie down in a good fold, and they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel."
Ezekiel 34:15  "I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 34:16  "I will look for the one that was lost, and bring back the one that was driven away. I will bind up the broken one and make the sick one strong. But I will destroy the fat and the strong. I will feed them with judgment."
Ezekiel 34:17  "And as for you, my flock, this is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the male goats."
Ezekiel 34:18  "Does it seem a small thing to you to have eaten up the good pasture? Must you also trample down the rest of your pastures with your feet? You have drunk the deep waters. Must you also make the rest dirty with your feet?"
Ezekiel 34:19  "And as for my flock, they eat what you have trampled with your feet, and they drink what you have made dirty with your feet."
Ezekiel 34:20  "So this is what the Lord GOD says to them: Look, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep."
Ezekiel 34:21  "You have pushed with your side and with your shoulder. You have shoved all the weak ones with your horns until you scattered them far away."
Ezekiel 34:22  "So I will save my flock, and they will no longer be a prey. I will judge between one sheep and another."
Ezekiel 34:23  "I will set up one shepherd over them, my servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them, and he will be their shepherd."
Ezekiel 34:24  "And I the LORD will be their God, and my servant David will be a prince among them. I the LORD have spoken it."
Ezekiel 34:25  "I will make a covenant of peace with them, and I will rid the land of dangerous animals. They will live safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods."
Ezekiel 34:26  "I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing. I will send down the rain in its season; there will be showers of blessing."
Ezekiel 34:27  "The tree of the field will give its fruit, and the earth will give its crops, and they will be safe in their land. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and rescued them from the hand of those who made slaves of them."
Ezekiel 34:28  "They will no longer be a prey to the nations, and the wild animals of the land will not devour them. They will live safely, and no one will make them afraid."
Ezekiel 34:29  "I will raise up for them a plant of renown. They will no longer be destroyed by hunger in the land, and they will no longer bear the shame of the nations."
Ezekiel 34:30  "So they will know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 34:31  "And you, my flock, the flock of my pasture, are people, and I am your God, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 35:1  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said,
Ezekiel 35:2  "Son of man, turn your face against Mount Seir, and prophesy against it."
Ezekiel 35:3  Say to it, This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, Mount Seir, I am against you. I will stretch out my hand against you, and I will make you completely desolate.
Ezekiel 35:4  I will lay your cities waste, and you will be desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 35:5  You have kept a hatred that never ends. You handed the children of Israel over to the sword in the time of their trouble, in the time when their punishment for sin came to an end.
Ezekiel 35:6  So, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will give you over to blood, and blood will chase you. Since you did not hate blood, blood will chase you.
Ezekiel 35:7  So I will make Mount Seir completely desolate. I will cut off from it everyone who goes out and everyone who comes back.
Ezekiel 35:8  I will fill its mountains with its dead. On your hills, in your valleys, and in all your rivers, those killed by the sword will fall.
Ezekiel 35:9  I will make you desolate for ever, and your cities will not be lived in again. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Ezekiel 35:10  You said, 'These two nations and these two countries will be mine, and we will take them,' even though the LORD was there.
Ezekiel 35:11  So, as surely as I live, says the Lord GOD, I will deal with you as your anger and your envy deserve, the anger and envy you showed out of your hatred for them. I will make myself known among them when I judge you.
Ezekiel 35:12  Then you will know that I am the LORD. I have heard all the insults you spoke against the mountains of Israel. You said, 'They are laid waste. They are given to us to eat up.'
Ezekiel 35:13  With your mouth you boasted against me. You piled up words against me. I heard them.
Ezekiel 35:14  This is what the Lord GOD says: When the whole earth is glad, I will make you desolate.
Ezekiel 35:15  "You were glad when the land of the house of Israel was left desolate. So I will do the same to you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir, and all Idumea, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel 36:1  "Now you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say: You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the LORD."
Ezekiel 36:2  "This is what the Lord GOD says: The enemy has said against you, 'Aha, even the ancient high places are ours now.'"
Ezekiel 36:3  "So prophesy and say: This is what the Lord GOD says: They have made you a waste. They have swallowed you up on every side, so that you became the property of the rest of the nations. You are talked about by gossips, and the people speak shamefully of you."
Ezekiel 36:4  "So, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD. This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys, to the empty ruins and to the cities that are abandoned, which became plunder and a joke to the rest of the nations that are all around."
Ezekiel 36:5  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: In the fire of my jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom. With glad hearts and with scornful minds they took my land for themselves, so they could drive out its people and plunder it."
Ezekiel 36:6  "So prophesy about the land of Israel. Say to the mountains and to the hills, to the rivers and to the valleys: This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I have spoken in my jealousy and in my fury, because you have borne the insults of the nations."
Ezekiel 36:7  "So this is what the Lord GOD says: I have lifted up my hand and sworn: the nations around you will bear their own shame."
Ezekiel 36:8  "But you, mountains of Israel, will put out your branches and give your fruit to my people Israel, for they will soon come home."
Ezekiel 36:9  "Look, I am for you. I will turn toward you, and you will be ploughed and sown."
Ezekiel 36:10  "I will make many people live on you, all the house of Israel, all of it. The cities will be lived in, and the ruins will be rebuilt."
Ezekiel 36:11  "I will multiply people and animals on you. They will grow and have young. I will settle you as you were before, and I will do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 36:12  "Yes, I will cause people to walk on you, my people Israel. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance. Never again will you take their children from them."
Ezekiel 36:13  "This is what the Lord GOD says: People say to you, 'You are a land that eats up people, and you have taken the children of your nation.'"
Ezekiel 36:14  "So you will eat up people no more, and you will take the children of your nation no more, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 36:15  "I will not let you hear the insults of the nations any more. You will not bear the mocking of the peoples any more, and you will not cause your nation to fall any more, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 36:16  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said,
Ezekiel 36:17  "Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they made it unclean by their way of life and by the things they did. To me their way was as unclean as a woman in her monthly bleeding."
Ezekiel 36:18  "So I poured out my fury on them, because of the blood they had shed on the land, and because they had made it filthy with their idols."
Ezekiel 36:19  "I scattered them among the nations, and they were spread through the countries. I judged them for their way of life and for the things they did."
Ezekiel 36:20  "When they came among the nations, wherever they went, they made my holy name unclean. For people said of them, 'These are the people of the LORD, and they have come out of his land.'"
Ezekiel 36:21  "But I cared for my holy name, which the house of Israel had made unclean among the nations, wherever they went."
Ezekiel 36:22  "So say to the house of Israel: This is what the Lord GOD says: I am not doing this for your sake, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have made unclean among the nations, wherever you went."
Ezekiel 36:23  "I will make my great name holy again. It was made unclean among the nations, and you made it unclean among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when I show myself holy in you before their eyes."
Ezekiel 36:24  "For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and bring you into your own land."
Ezekiel 36:25  "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filth and from all your idols."
Ezekiel 36:26  "I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."
Ezekiel 36:27  "I will put my spirit within you, and make you walk in my rules. You will keep my laws and do them."
Ezekiel 36:28  "You will live in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be my people, and I will be your God."
Ezekiel 36:29  "I will also save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful, and I will not send famine on you."
Ezekiel 36:30  "I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the crops of the field, so that you will never again be shamed by famine among the nations."
Ezekiel 36:31  "Then you will remember your own evil ways, and the things you did that were not good. You will hate yourselves in your own eyes for your sins and for the disgusting things you did."
Ezekiel 36:32  "I am not doing this for your sake, says the Lord GOD. Know that well. Be ashamed and disgraced for your own ways, house of Israel."
Ezekiel 36:33  "This is what the Lord GOD says: On the day that I cleanse you from all your sins, I will make you live in the cities again, and the ruins will be rebuilt."
Ezekiel 36:34  "The empty land will be ploughed, instead of lying waste before the eyes of everyone who passed by."
Ezekiel 36:35  "And they will say, 'This land that was a waste has become like the garden of Eden. The cities that were empty and ruined and broken down are now walled and full of people.'"
Ezekiel 36:36  "Then the nations left around you will know that I the LORD rebuild the ruined places and plant again what was a waste. I the LORD have spoken it, and I will do it."
Ezekiel 36:37  "This is what the Lord GOD says: Once more I will let the house of Israel ask me to do this for them. I will make them as many as a flock of sheep."
Ezekiel 36:38  "Like the holy flock, like the flock in Jerusalem at her appointed feasts, so the ruined cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the LORD."

Ezekiel 37:1  The hand of the LORD was on me. He carried me out in the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley, which was full of bones.
Ezekiel 37:2  He made me pass by them, all around them. Look, there were very many of them lying in the open valley, and they were very dry.
Ezekiel 37:3  He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "Lord GOD, you know."
Ezekiel 37:4  Again he said to me, "Prophesy over these bones. Say to them, 'You dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 37:5  "This is what the Lord GOD says to these bones: Look, I will make breath come into you, and you will live."
Ezekiel 37:6  "I will lay sinews on you, and bring flesh up on you, and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and you will live. Then you will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 37:7  So I prophesied as I was commanded. As I prophesied there was a noise, and look, a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
Ezekiel 37:8  As I watched, look, the sinews and the flesh came up on them, and the skin covered them over. But there was no breath in them.
Ezekiel 37:9  Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these who were killed, so that they may live.'"
Ezekiel 37:10  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them. They lived, and stood up on their feet, a very great army.
Ezekiel 37:11  Then he said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Look, they say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are cut off, as far as we are concerned.'"
Ezekiel 37:12  "So prophesy and say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, my people, I will open your graves. I will bring you up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel."
Ezekiel 37:13  "'Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, my people, and brought you up out of your graves."
Ezekiel 37:14  "'I will put my spirit in you, and you will live. I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the LORD have spoken it and have done it, says the LORD.'"
Ezekiel 37:15  The word of the LORD came to me again. He said,
Ezekiel 37:16  "Now, son of man, take one stick and write on it, 'For Judah, and for the children of Israel who are with him.' Then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel who are with him.'"
Ezekiel 37:17  "Join them to each other into one stick, so that they become one in your hand."
Ezekiel 37:18  "When the children of your people speak to you and say, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these?'"
Ezekiel 37:19  "say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel who are with him. I will put them with him, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in my hand.'"
Ezekiel 37:20  "The sticks you write on will be in your hand where they can see them."
Ezekiel 37:21  "Say to them, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land."
Ezekiel 37:22  "'I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. One king will be king over them all. They will no longer be two nations, and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms."
Ezekiel 37:23  "'They will no longer make themselves unclean with their idols, or with their hateful things, or with any of their wrongdoing. I will save them out of all the places where they have lived and sinned, and I will cleanse them. So they will be my people, and I will be their God."
Ezekiel 37:24  "'David my servant will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd. They will walk in my judgments, and keep my laws, and do them."
Ezekiel 37:25  "'They will live in the land that I gave to Jacob my servant, where your fathers lived. They will live in it, they and their children and their children's children, for ever. And my servant David will be their prince for ever."
Ezekiel 37:26  "'I will also make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will settle them and make them many, and I will set my sanctuary among them for evermore."
Ezekiel 37:27  "'My tabernacle will also be with them. I will be their God, and they will be my people."
Ezekiel 37:28  "'Then the nations will know that I the LORD make Israel holy, when my sanctuary is among them for evermore.'"

Ezekiel 38:1  The word of the LORD came to me. He said:
Ezekiel 38:2  "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy against him,"
Ezekiel 38:3  and say, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
Ezekiel 38:4  I will turn you back. I will put hooks into your jaws. I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them dressed in every kind of armour, a great company with small shields and large shields, all of them holding swords.
Ezekiel 38:5  Persia, Ethiopia and Libya are with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
Ezekiel 38:6  Gomer and all his troops, the house of Togarmah from the far north and all his troops, and many peoples with you.
Ezekiel 38:7  Be ready. Prepare yourself, you and all your company that are gathered to you, and be a guard for them.
Ezekiel 38:8  After many days you will be called to arms. In the later years you will come into the land that has been brought back from the sword, whose people were gathered out of many nations onto the mountains of Israel, which had long lain waste. Its people were brought out from the nations, and all of them live safely.
Ezekiel 38:9  You will go up and come like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you.
Ezekiel 38:10  This is what the Lord GOD says: At that time things will come into your mind, and you will think an evil thought.
Ezekiel 38:11  You will say, "I will go up to the land of villages without walls. I will go to the people who are at rest, who live safely, all of them living without walls, and having no bars and no gates,"
Ezekiel 38:12  "to take plunder and to seize spoil, to turn my hand against the ruined places that are lived in again, and against the people gathered out of the nations, who have cattle and goods, and who live in the middle of the land."
Ezekiel 38:13  Sheba and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish with all its young lions, will say to you, "Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your company to seize spoil, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take great plunder?"'
Ezekiel 38:14  "So, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: On that day, when my people Israel live safely, will you not know it?"
Ezekiel 38:15  You will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.
Ezekiel 38:16  You will come up against my people Israel like a cloud covering the land. It will be in the last days, and I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me, when I show myself holy through you, Gog, before their eyes.
Ezekiel 38:17  This is what the Lord GOD says: Are you the one I spoke about long ago through my servants the prophets of Israel? For years in those days they prophesied that I would bring you against them.
Ezekiel 38:18  On that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, my fury will rise up in my face.
Ezekiel 38:19  In my jealousy and in the fire of my anger I have spoken: Surely on that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel.
Ezekiel 38:20  The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the people who are on the face of the earth will shake at my presence. The mountains will be thrown down, the steep places will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground.
Ezekiel 38:21  I will call for a sword against him on all my mountains, says the Lord GOD. Every man's sword will be against his brother.
Ezekiel 38:22  I will bring judgment on him with plague and with blood. I will rain on him, and on his troops, and on the many peoples that are with him, a flooding rain, and great hailstones, fire and burning sulphur.
Ezekiel 38:23  "So I will make myself great, and show myself holy. I will make myself known in the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am the LORD.'"

Ezekiel 39:1  "Son of man, prophesy against Gog. Say, This is what the Lord GOD says: Look, I am against you, Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal."
Ezekiel 39:2  "I will turn you back, and leave only a sixth part of you. I will make you come up from the far north, and I will bring you onto the mountains of Israel."
Ezekiel 39:3  "I will strike your bow out of your left hand, and make your arrows fall out of your right hand."
Ezekiel 39:4  "You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples with you. I will give you to the birds of prey of every kind, and to the wild animals, to be eaten."
Ezekiel 39:5  "You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 39:6  "I will send a fire on Magog, and on those who live safely in the coastlands. Then they will know that I am the LORD."
Ezekiel 39:7  "So I will make my holy name known among my people Israel. I will not let them make my holy name unclean any more. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel."
Ezekiel 39:8  "Look, it is coming, and it will be done, says the Lord GOD. This is the day I have spoken about."
Ezekiel 39:9  "Those who live in the cities of Israel will go out. They will set the weapons on fire and burn them: the shields large and small, the bows and the arrows, the clubs and the spears. They will burn them for seven years."
Ezekiel 39:10  "They will take no wood from the field, and cut none from the forests, because they will burn the weapons with fire. They will plunder those who plundered them, and rob those who robbed them, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 39:11  "On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, the valley of those who travel east of the sea. It will block the way of the travellers. There they will bury Gog and all his crowd, and they will call it The Valley of Hamongog."
Ezekiel 39:12  "For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, so that they may make the land clean."
Ezekiel 39:13  "All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them honour on the day when I show my glory, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 39:14  "They will set apart men who work at this all the time, passing through the land. With the travellers, they will bury those who are left lying on the ground, to make the land clean. After the seven months are over, they will search it."
Ezekiel 39:15  "When those passing through the land see a human bone, they will set up a marker beside it, until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamongog."
Ezekiel 39:16  "And the name of the city will be Hamonah. This is how they will make the land clean."
Ezekiel 39:17  "Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says: Speak to every kind of bird, and to every wild animal, Gather yourselves and come. Come together from every side to my sacrifice, which I am making for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, so that you may eat flesh and drink blood."
Ezekiel 39:18  "You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as if they were rams, lambs, goats and bulls, all of them fattened animals of Bashan."
Ezekiel 39:19  "You will eat fat till you are full, and drink blood till you are drunk, at my sacrifice which I have made for you."
Ezekiel 39:20  "So you will be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men and with all kinds of soldiers, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 39:21  "I will set my glory among the nations. All the nations will see the judgment I have carried out, and my hand that I have laid on them."
Ezekiel 39:22  "So the house of Israel will know that I am the LORD their God, from that day on."
Ezekiel 39:23  "And the nations will know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their sin. Because they broke faith with me, I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies. So they all fell by the sword."
Ezekiel 39:24  "I dealt with them as their uncleanness and their wrongdoing deserved, and I hid my face from them."
Ezekiel 39:25  "Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob. I will have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name."
Ezekiel 39:26  "They will have borne their shame, and all the wrongs they did against me, when they lived safely in their land with no one to make them afraid."
Ezekiel 39:27  "When I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, I will be shown holy through them in the sight of many nations."
Ezekiel 39:28  "Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, who had them led away into captivity among the nations, but who gathered them to their own land, and left none of them there any more."
Ezekiel 39:29  "I will not hide my face from them any more, for I have poured out my Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 40:1  In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down - on that very day the hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me there.
Ezekiel 40:2  In visions from God he brought me into the land of Israel. He set me down on a very high mountain. On its south side there was something like the structure of a city.
Ezekiel 40:3  He brought me there, and look, there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze. He had a cord of linen in his hand and a measuring rod, and he stood in the gateway.
Ezekiel 40:4  The man said to me, "Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and give your full attention to everything I show you. You have been brought here so that I might show these things to you. Tell everything you see to the house of Israel."
Ezekiel 40:5  And look, there was a wall all around the outside of the house. In the man's hand was a measuring rod six cubits long, each cubit being a cubit and a hand's breadth. So he measured the thickness of the building: one rod. And the height: one rod.
Ezekiel 40:6  Then he came to the gate that faces east. He went up its steps and measured the threshold of the gate: one rod wide. And the other threshold was one rod wide.
Ezekiel 40:7  Each little room was one rod long and one rod wide. Between the little rooms there were five cubits. The threshold of the gate beside the porch of the gate, on the inside, was one rod.
Ezekiel 40:8  He also measured the porch of the gate on the inside: one rod.
Ezekiel 40:9  Then he measured the porch of the gate: eight cubits. Its posts were two cubits. The porch of the gate faced inward.
Ezekiel 40:10  The little rooms of the east gate were three on one side and three on the other. The three were all of one measure. The posts on this side and on that side had one measure.
Ezekiel 40:11  He measured the width of the entrance of the gate: ten cubits. And the length of the gate: thirteen cubits.
Ezekiel 40:12  The space in front of the little rooms was one cubit on one side, and the space was one cubit on the other side. The little rooms were six cubits on one side and six cubits on the other.
Ezekiel 40:13  Then he measured the gate from the roof of one little room to the roof of another. The width was twenty-five cubits, door facing door.
Ezekiel 40:14  He also made posts of sixty cubits, reaching to the post of the court all around the gate.
Ezekiel 40:15  From the front of the entrance gate to the front of the porch of the inner gate was fifty cubits.
Ezekiel 40:16  There were narrow windows for the little rooms, and for their posts inside the gate all around, and likewise for the arches. There were windows all around on the inside. And on each post were palm trees.
Ezekiel 40:17  Then he brought me into the outer court, and look, there were rooms there, and a pavement made for the court all around. Thirty rooms stood on the pavement.
Ezekiel 40:18  The pavement ran along the side of the gates, matching the length of the gates. This was the lower pavement.
Ezekiel 40:19  Then he measured the distance from the front of the lower gate to the front of the inner court on the outside: a hundred cubits, on the east side and on the north.
Ezekiel 40:20  As for the gate of the outer court that faces north, he measured its length and its width.
Ezekiel 40:21  Its little rooms were three on one side and three on the other. Its posts and its arches matched the measure of the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits.
Ezekiel 40:22  Its windows, its arches and its palm trees matched the measure of the gate that faces east. Seven steps led up to it, and its arches were in front of them.
Ezekiel 40:23  There was a gate of the inner court opposite the gate on the north, and also on the east. He measured from gate to gate: a hundred cubits.
Ezekiel 40:24  After that he brought me toward the south, and look, there was a gate facing south. He measured its posts and its arches, and they had the same measures.
Ezekiel 40:25  There were windows in it and in its arches all around, like those other windows. The length was fifty cubits and the width twenty-five cubits.
Ezekiel 40:26  Seven steps led up to it, and its arches were in front of them. It had palm trees on its posts, one on this side and another on that side.
Ezekiel 40:27  There was a gate in the inner court facing south. He measured from gate to gate toward the south: a hundred cubits.
Ezekiel 40:28  He brought me to the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate. It had the same measures:
Ezekiel 40:29  its little rooms, its posts and its arches had the same measures. There were windows in it and in its arches all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
Ezekiel 40:30  The arches all around were twenty-five cubits long and five cubits wide.
Ezekiel 40:31  Its arches faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its posts. Eight steps led up to it.
Ezekiel 40:32  He brought me into the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gate. It had the same measures:
Ezekiel 40:33  its little rooms, its posts and its arches had the same measures. There were windows in it and in its arches all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
Ezekiel 40:34  Its arches faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its posts, on this side and on that side. Eight steps led up to it.
Ezekiel 40:35  He brought me to the north gate and measured it. It had the same measures:
Ezekiel 40:36  its little rooms, its posts and its arches, and its windows all around. The length was fifty cubits and the width twenty-five cubits.
Ezekiel 40:37  Its posts faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its posts, on this side and on that side. Eight steps led up to it.
Ezekiel 40:38  The rooms and their entrances were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering.
Ezekiel 40:39  In the porch of the gate were two tables on one side and two tables on the other side, on which to kill the burnt offering, the sin offering and the trespass offering.
Ezekiel 40:40  On the outer side, as you go up to the entrance of the north gate, were two tables. And on the other side, at the porch of the gate, were two tables.
Ezekiel 40:41  There were four tables on one side and four tables on the other side, beside the gate: eight tables, on which they killed their sacrifices.
Ezekiel 40:42  The four tables for the burnt offering were of cut stone, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and one cubit high. On them they also laid the tools with which they killed the burnt offering and the sacrifice.
Ezekiel 40:43  Inside, hooks a hand's breadth long were fastened all around. And on the tables was the flesh of the offering.
Ezekiel 40:44  Outside the inner gate were the rooms of the singers in the inner court, at the side of the north gate. They faced south. One was at the side of the east gate, facing north.
Ezekiel 40:45  He said to me, "This room, which faces south, is for the priests who keep charge of the house."
Ezekiel 40:46  "And the room that faces north is for the priests who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, who come near to the LORD to serve him."
Ezekiel 40:47  So he measured the court: a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, square. And the altar stood in front of the house.
Ezekiel 40:48  He brought me to the porch of the house and measured each post of the porch: five cubits on one side and five cubits on the other. The width of the gate was three cubits on one side and three cubits on the other.
Ezekiel 40:49  The length of the porch was twenty cubits and the width eleven cubits. He brought me up by the steps that led to it. There were pillars by the posts, one on this side and another on that side.

Ezekiel 41:1  After that he brought me to the temple. He measured the posts: six cubits wide on the one side, and six cubits wide on the other side, which was the width of the tent.
Ezekiel 41:2  The doorway was ten cubits wide. The sides of the doorway were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other side. He measured its length: forty cubits; and its width: twenty cubits.
Ezekiel 41:3  Then he went further in, and measured the post of the doorway: two cubits; and the doorway: six cubits; and the width of the doorway: seven cubits.
Ezekiel 41:4  So he measured its length: twenty cubits; and its width: twenty cubits, in front of the temple. And he said to me, "This is the most holy place."
Ezekiel 41:5  After that he measured the wall of the house: six cubits; and the width of every side room: four cubits, all around the house on every side.
Ezekiel 41:6  The side rooms were three, one above another, and thirty in a row. They went into the wall which belonged to the house, so that the side rooms all around might have a hold there; but they had no hold in the wall of the house itself.
Ezekiel 41:7  And the side rooms grew wider as they went up, winding round and round. For the winding of the house went up higher and higher around the house. So the house was wider higher up, and in this way a person went up from the lowest room to the highest by the middle one.
Ezekiel 41:8  I also saw the height of the house all around. The foundations of the side rooms were a full reed of six great cubits.
Ezekiel 41:9  The wall on the outside of the side rooms was five cubits thick. And the space that was left was the place of the side rooms that were inside.
Ezekiel 41:10  Between the rooms was an open space twenty cubits wide, all around the house on every side.
Ezekiel 41:11  The doors of the side rooms opened toward the space that was left, one door toward the north, and another door toward the south. The space that was left was five cubits wide all around.
Ezekiel 41:12  Now the building that stood in front of the separate place at the west end was seventy cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around, and its length was ninety cubits.
Ezekiel 41:13  So he measured the house: a hundred cubits long; and the separate place, and the building with its walls: a hundred cubits long.
Ezekiel 41:14  Also the width of the front of the house, and of the separate place toward the east: a hundred cubits.
Ezekiel 41:15  And he measured the length of the building facing the separate place which was behind it, with its galleries on the one side and on the other side: a hundred cubits; also the inner temple, and the porches of the court;
Ezekiel 41:16  the doorposts, and the narrow windows, and the galleries all around on their three floors, facing the door, panelled with wood all around, and from the ground up to the windows; and the windows were covered.
Ezekiel 41:17  This reached to the space above the door, even to the inner house, and outside, and by all the wall all around inside and outside, by measure.
Ezekiel 41:18  It was made with cherubim and palm trees, so that a palm tree was between one cherub and another. And every cherub had two faces:
Ezekiel 41:19  the face of a man was toward the palm tree on the one side, and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. It was made this way all through the house, all around.
Ezekiel 41:20  From the ground up to above the door, cherubim and palm trees were made, and on the wall of the temple.
Ezekiel 41:21  The posts of the temple were squared, and so was the front of the sanctuary; the look of the one was like the look of the other.
Ezekiel 41:22  The altar of wood was three cubits high, and its length was two cubits. Its corners, its length, and its walls were of wood. And he said to me, "This is the table that is before the LORD."
Ezekiel 41:23  The temple and the sanctuary each had two doors.
Ezekiel 41:24  The doors had two leaves each, two leaves that turned: two leaves for the one door, and two leaves for the other door.
Ezekiel 41:25  On them, on the doors of the temple, cherubim and palm trees were made, like those made on the walls. And there were thick planks on the front of the porch outside.
Ezekiel 41:26  There were narrow windows and palm trees on the one side and on the other side, on the sides of the porch, and on the side rooms of the house, and thick planks.

Ezekiel 42:1  Then he brought me out into the outer court, the way toward the north. He brought me into the room that was opposite the separate place, and opposite the building toward the north.
Ezekiel 42:2  In front of the length of a hundred cubits was the north door, and the width was fifty cubits.
Ezekiel 42:3  Opposite the twenty cubits that belonged to the inner court, and opposite the pavement that belonged to the outer court, was gallery facing gallery in three storeys.
Ezekiel 42:4  In front of the rooms was a walk ten cubits wide, going inward, a way of one cubit. Their doors faced north.
Ezekiel 42:5  Now the upper rooms were shorter, for the galleries took away from them, more than from the lower and the middle rooms of the building.
Ezekiel 42:6  For they were in three storeys, but they had no pillars like the pillars of the courts. So the building was narrowed more than the lowest and the middle rooms from the ground.
Ezekiel 42:7  The wall that was outside, opposite the rooms, toward the outer court, in front of the rooms, was fifty cubits long.
Ezekiel 42:8  For the length of the rooms that were in the outer court was fifty cubits. Look, in front of the temple it was a hundred cubits.
Ezekiel 42:9  Under these rooms was the entrance on the east side, as a person goes into them from the outer court.
Ezekiel 42:10  The rooms were in the thickness of the wall of the court toward the east, opposite the separate place, and opposite the building.
Ezekiel 42:11  The way in front of them looked like the rooms that faced north. They were as long as those and as wide as those, and all their exits were the same in their design and in their doors.
Ezekiel 42:12  Like the doors of the rooms that faced south, there was a door at the head of the way, the way straight in front of the wall toward the east, as a person enters them.
Ezekiel 42:13  Then he said to me, "The north rooms and the south rooms, which are in front of the separate place, are holy rooms. There the priests who come near to the LORD shall eat the most holy things. There they shall lay the most holy things, and the food offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering, for the place is holy."
Ezekiel 42:14  "When the priests go in, they shall not go out from the holy place into the outer court. There they shall leave the clothes in which they serve, for those clothes are holy. They shall put on other clothes, and then come near to the things that are for the people."
Ezekiel 42:15  Now when he had finished measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the gate that faces east, and he measured all around it.
Ezekiel 42:16  He measured the east side with the measuring reed: five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around.
Ezekiel 42:17  He measured the north side: five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed all around.
Ezekiel 42:18  He measured the south side: five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.
Ezekiel 42:19  He turned to the west side, and measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed.
Ezekiel 42:20  He measured it on the four sides. It had a wall all around, five hundred reeds long and five hundred wide, to make a separation between the sanctuary and the common place.

Ezekiel 43:1  Afterward he brought me to the gate, the gate that faces east.
Ezekiel 43:2  And look, the glory of the God of Israel came from the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory.
Ezekiel 43:3  What I saw looked like the vision I had seen before, like the vision I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision I saw by the river Chebar. And I fell on my face.
Ezekiel 43:4  The glory of the LORD came into the house by the gate that faces east.
Ezekiel 43:5  Then the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court. And look, the glory of the LORD filled the house.
Ezekiel 43:6  I heard someone speaking to me out of the house, and the man stood beside me.
Ezekiel 43:7  He said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will live among the children of Israel for ever. The house of Israel will never again defile my holy name, neither they nor their kings, by their whoredom, or by the dead bodies of their kings in their high places."
Ezekiel 43:8  "They set their threshold by my threshold and their doorpost by my doorpost, with only a wall between me and them. So they defiled my holy name by the disgusting things they did. That is why I destroyed them in my anger."
Ezekiel 43:9  "Now let them put their whoredom and the dead bodies of their kings far away from me, and I will live among them for ever."
Ezekiel 43:10  "You, son of man, show the house to the house of Israel, so that they may be ashamed of their sins. And let them measure the plan."
Ezekiel 43:11  "If they are ashamed of all they have done, show them the shape of the house and its design, its exits and its entrances, all its shapes and all its rules, all its shapes and all its laws. Write it down where they can see it, so that they may keep all its shape and all its rules, and do them."
Ezekiel 43:12  "This is the law of the house. On the top of the mountain, the whole area around it shall be most holy. Look, this is the law of the house."
Ezekiel 43:13  These are the measurements of the altar in cubits (the cubit here is a cubit and a hand's breadth). Its base shall be a cubit high and a cubit wide, and its rim all round the edge shall be a span. This shall be the higher part of the altar.
Ezekiel 43:14  From the base on the ground to the lower ledge shall be two cubits, and the width one cubit. From the smaller ledge to the larger ledge shall be four cubits, and the width one cubit.
Ezekiel 43:15  So the altar shall be four cubits, and from the altar upward there shall be four horns.
Ezekiel 43:16  The altar shall be twelve cubits long and twelve wide, square on all four sides.
Ezekiel 43:17  The ledge shall be fourteen cubits long and fourteen wide on all four sides. The rim around it shall be half a cubit, and its base a cubit all round. Its steps shall face east.
Ezekiel 43:18  And he said to me, "Son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says. These are the rules for the altar on the day when they make it, to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it."
Ezekiel 43:19  "You shall give a young bull for a sin offering to the priests, the Levites who are from the family of Zadok, who come near to me to serve me, says the Lord GOD."
Ezekiel 43:20  "You shall take some of its blood and put it on the four horns of the altar, and on the four corners of the ledge, and on the rim all round. So you shall cleanse it and make it pure."
Ezekiel 43:21  "You shall also take the bull of the sin offering, and he shall burn it in the appointed place of the house, outside the sanctuary."
Ezekiel 43:22  "On the second day you shall offer a young goat without any fault as a sin offering. They shall cleanse the altar as they cleansed it with the bull."
Ezekiel 43:23  "When you have finished cleansing it, you shall offer a young bull without any fault, and a ram from the flock without any fault."
Ezekiel 43:24  "You shall offer them before the LORD, and the priests shall throw salt on them, and they shall offer them up as a burnt offering to the LORD."
Ezekiel 43:25  "For seven days you shall prepare a goat each day as a sin offering. They shall also prepare a young bull and a ram from the flock, both without any fault."
Ezekiel 43:26  "For seven days they shall make the altar pure and cleanse it. So they shall set it apart."
Ezekiel 43:27  "When these days are over, then from the eighth day onward the priests shall offer your burnt offerings on the altar, and your peace offerings. And I will accept you, says the Lord GOD."

Ezekiel 44:1  Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one that faces east. It was shut.
Ezekiel 44:2  Then the LORD said to me, "This gate shall stay shut. It shall not be opened, and no one shall go in through it, because the LORD, the God of Israel, has gone in through it. So it shall stay shut."
Ezekiel 44:3  "It is for the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD. He shall come in by the porch of that gate, and he shall go out the same way."
Ezekiel 44:4  Then he brought me by the north gate to the front of the house. I looked, and the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD. And I fell on my face.
Ezekiel 44:5  The LORD said to me, "Son of man, pay close attention. Look with your eyes and listen with your ears to everything I tell you about all the rules of the house of the LORD and all its laws. Pay close attention to the entrance of the house and to every exit of the sanctuary."
Ezekiel 44:6  Say to the rebellious people, to the house of Israel, This is what the Lord GOD says: You house of Israel, you have done enough of all your detestable things.
Ezekiel 44:7  You brought foreigners into my sanctuary, people uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. They were in my sanctuary and made it unclean, my own house, while you offered my bread, the fat and the blood. So my covenant was broken by all your detestable things.
Ezekiel 44:8  You have not kept charge of my holy things. Instead you put others in charge of my sanctuary for yourselves.
Ezekiel 44:9  This is what the Lord GOD says: No foreigner who is uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh shall enter my sanctuary, not one of the foreigners who live among the children of Israel.
Ezekiel 44:10  The Levites who went far away from me when Israel went astray, who wandered away from me after their idols, shall bear the punishment for their sin.
Ezekiel 44:11  Yet they shall serve in my sanctuary. They shall have charge of the gates of the house and shall serve in the house. They shall kill the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before the people to serve them.
Ezekiel 44:12  Because they served the people in front of their idols, and made the house of Israel fall into sin, therefore I have lifted up my hand against them, says the Lord GOD, and they shall bear the punishment for their sin.
Ezekiel 44:13  They shall not come near me to serve me as priests. They shall not come near any of my holy things in the most holy place. They shall bear their shame and the detestable things they have done.
Ezekiel 44:14  Yet I will put them in charge of the house, of all its work and of everything that is done in it.
Ezekiel 44:15  But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near me to serve me. They shall stand before me to offer me the fat and the blood, says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 44:16  They shall enter my sanctuary, and they shall come near my table to serve me, and they shall keep my charge.
Ezekiel 44:17  When they enter the gates of the inner court, they shall wear linen clothes. No wool shall be on them while they serve in the gates of the inner court and inside.
Ezekiel 44:18  They shall wear linen turbans on their heads and linen undergarments around their waists. They shall not wear anything that makes them sweat.
Ezekiel 44:19  When they go out into the outer court, into the outer court to the people, they shall take off the clothes they served in and lay them in the holy rooms. They shall put on other clothes, so that they do not make the people holy with their clothes.
Ezekiel 44:20  They shall not shave their heads, nor let their hair grow long. They shall only trim their hair.
Ezekiel 44:21  No priest shall drink wine when he enters the inner court.
Ezekiel 44:22  They shall not marry a widow or a woman who has been divorced. They shall marry young women of the family of the house of Israel, or a widow whose husband was a priest.
Ezekiel 44:23  They shall teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is common, and show them how to tell the unclean from the clean.
Ezekiel 44:24  In a dispute they shall act as judges, and they shall judge it by my judgments. They shall keep my laws and my rules at all my appointed feasts, and they shall keep my sabbaths holy.
Ezekiel 44:25  They shall not go near a dead person and make themselves unclean. But for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, a brother, or a sister who has had no husband, they may make themselves unclean.
Ezekiel 44:26  After such a priest is cleansed, they shall count seven days for him.
Ezekiel 44:27  On the day he goes into the sanctuary, into the inner court, to serve in the sanctuary, he shall offer his sin offering, says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 44:28  This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance. You shall give them no property in Israel: I am their property.
Ezekiel 44:29  They shall eat the food offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. Everything in Israel that is set apart to the LORD shall be theirs.
Ezekiel 44:30  The best of all the firstfruits of everything, and every gift of every kind from all your gifts, shall belong to the priest. You shall also give the priest the first of your dough, so that a blessing may rest on your house.
Ezekiel 44:31  The priests shall not eat anything, bird or animal, that has died of itself or been torn by wild beasts.

Ezekiel 45:1  When you divide the land by lot as an inheritance, you shall set apart a gift for the LORD, a holy portion of the land. Its length shall be twenty-five thousand reeds, and its breadth ten thousand. This shall be holy in all its borders round about.
Ezekiel 45:2  Of this, a square of five hundred by five hundred shall be for the sanctuary, with fifty cubits of open land round about it.
Ezekiel 45:3  From this measure you shall measure a length of twenty-five thousand and a breadth of ten thousand. In it shall be the sanctuary and the most holy place.
Ezekiel 45:4  The holy portion of the land shall belong to the priests, who serve in the sanctuary and come near to serve the LORD. It shall be a place for their houses, and a holy place for the sanctuary.
Ezekiel 45:5  An area twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand broad shall belong to the Levites, who serve in the house, as their possession, for twenty rooms.
Ezekiel 45:6  You shall give the city a possession five thousand broad and twenty-five thousand long, beside the gift of the holy portion. It shall belong to the whole house of Israel.
Ezekiel 45:7  A portion shall be for the prince, on one side and on the other side of the holy gift and of the city's possession. It shall lie beside the holy gift and beside the city's possession, on the west side reaching westward, and on the east side reaching eastward. Its length shall match one of the tribal portions, from the west border to the east border.
Ezekiel 45:8  This land shall be his possession in Israel. My princes shall no longer oppress my people, but shall give the rest of the land to the house of Israel, tribe by tribe.
Ezekiel 45:9  This is what the Lord GOD says: "You have gone far enough, princes of Israel. Put away violence and robbery, and do what is just and right. Stop driving my people from their land," says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 45:10  You shall have honest scales, an honest ephah, and an honest bath.
Ezekiel 45:11  The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure. The bath shall hold a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer. Both shall be measured by the homer.
Ezekiel 45:12  The shekel shall be twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels, and fifteen shekels shall make your maneh.
Ezekiel 45:13  This is the offering you shall give: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley.
Ezekiel 45:14  This is the rule for oil, measured by the bath: you shall give a tenth of a bath out of each cor, which is a homer of ten baths, for ten baths are a homer.
Ezekiel 45:15  And one lamb from the flock, out of every two hundred, from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These are for the food offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the people, says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 45:16  All the people of the land shall give this offering to the prince in Israel.
Ezekiel 45:17  It shall be the prince's duty to provide the burnt offerings, the food offerings, and the drink offerings at the feasts, at the new moons, on the sabbaths, and at all the appointed festivals of the house of Israel. He shall prepare the sin offering, the food offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offerings, to make reconciliation for the house of Israel.
Ezekiel 45:18  This is what the Lord GOD says: "In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary."
Ezekiel 45:19  The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the house, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the posts of the gate of the inner court.
Ezekiel 45:20  You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for everyone who sins by mistake, and for anyone who is simple. So you shall make reconciliation for the house.
Ezekiel 45:21  In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall keep the passover, a feast of seven days. Unleavened bread shall be eaten.
Ezekiel 45:22  On that day the prince shall prepare a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land.
Ezekiel 45:23  During the seven days of the feast he shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD: seven bulls and seven rams without blemish each day for the seven days, and a young goat each day for a sin offering.
Ezekiel 45:24  He shall prepare a food offering of an ephah for each bull and an ephah for each ram, with a hin of oil for each ephah.
Ezekiel 45:25  "In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, he shall do the same at the feast for the seven days: the same sin offering, the same burnt offering, the same food offering, and the same oil."

Ezekiel 46:1  This is what the Lord GOD says: "The gate of the inner court that faces east must be shut on the six working days. But on the sabbath it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened."
Ezekiel 46:2  The prince shall come in from outside through the porch of that gate, and he shall stand by the post of the gate. The priests shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings, and he shall worship at the threshold of the gate. Then he shall go out. But the gate shall not be shut until the evening.
Ezekiel 46:3  In the same way the people of the land shall worship at the door of this gate before the LORD on the sabbaths and at the new moons.
Ezekiel 46:4  The burnt offering that the prince shall offer to the LORD on the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish.
Ezekiel 46:5  The food offering shall be an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs as much as he is able to give, with a hin of oil to an ephah.
Ezekiel 46:6  On the day of the new moon it shall be a young bull without blemish, and six lambs, and a ram. They shall be without blemish.
Ezekiel 46:7  He shall prepare a food offering: an ephah for a bull, and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs as much as he can manage, with a hin of oil to an ephah.
Ezekiel 46:8  When the prince comes in, he shall go in through the porch of that gate, and he shall go out the same way.
Ezekiel 46:9  But when the people of the land come before the LORD at the appointed feasts, the one who comes in by the north gate to worship shall go out by the south gate. The one who comes in by the south gate shall go out by the north gate. No one shall go back out by the gate he came in by, but shall go out straight ahead.
Ezekiel 46:10  The prince shall be among them. When they go in, he shall go in, and when they go out, he shall go out.
Ezekiel 46:11  At the feasts and the appointed times the food offering shall be an ephah to a bull, and an ephah to a ram, and for the lambs as much as he is able to give, with a hin of oil to an ephah.
Ezekiel 46:12  Now when the prince prepares a freewill burnt offering, or peace offerings given freely to the LORD, the gate that faces east shall be opened for him. He shall prepare his burnt offering and his peace offerings as he does on the sabbath day. Then he shall go out, and after he has gone out the gate shall be shut.
Ezekiel 46:13  You shall prepare a burnt offering to the LORD every day: a lamb of the first year without blemish. You shall prepare it every morning.
Ezekiel 46:14  And every morning you shall prepare a food offering with it: the sixth part of an ephah, and the third part of a hin of oil to mix with the fine flour. This is a food offering to the LORD, to be given always, by a lasting rule.
Ezekiel 46:15  "So they shall prepare the lamb, the food offering and the oil every morning, as a burnt offering that never stops."
Ezekiel 46:16  This is what the Lord GOD says: "If the prince gives a gift to any of his sons, it shall belong to his sons. It shall be their property by inheritance."
Ezekiel 46:17  But if he gives a gift from his inheritance to one of his servants, it shall be the servant's until the year of liberty. After that it shall come back to the prince. His inheritance shall belong to his sons; it is theirs.
Ezekiel 46:18  "The prince shall not take any of the people's inheritance by crushing them and forcing them out of what they own. He shall give his sons their inheritance out of his own property, so that none of my people is driven away from what belongs to him."
Ezekiel 46:19  Then he brought me through the entrance at the side of the gate, into the holy rooms of the priests, which faced north. And look, there was a place at the far west end of them.
Ezekiel 46:20  He said to me, "This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, and where they shall bake the food offering, so that they do not carry them out into the outer court and make the people holy."
Ezekiel 46:21  Then he brought me out into the outer court and led me past the four corners of the court. And look, in every corner of the court there was a court.
Ezekiel 46:22  In the four corners of the court there were enclosed courts, forty cubits long and thirty wide. These four corner courts were all the same size.
Ezekiel 46:23  There was a row of building all around inside them, around all four, and boiling places were made under the rows all around.
Ezekiel 46:24  Then he said to me, "These are the places for boiling, where those who serve in the house shall boil the sacrifice of the people."

Ezekiel 47:1  Then he brought me back to the door of the house. Look, water was flowing out from under the doorway of the house toward the east, for the front of the house faced east. The water came down from under the right side of the house, on the south side of the altar.
Ezekiel 47:2  Then he led me out through the north gate, and took me round the outside to the outer gate, by the way that faces east. Look, water was running out on the right side.
Ezekiel 47:3  The man with the measuring line in his hand went out toward the east. He measured a thousand cubits, and he led me through the water. The water came up to my ankles.
Ezekiel 47:4  Again he measured a thousand, and led me through the water. The water came up to my knees. Again he measured a thousand, and led me through. The water came up to my waist.
Ezekiel 47:5  Then he measured a thousand more, and now it was a river that I could not cross. The water had risen. It was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be crossed.
Ezekiel 47:6  He said to me, "Son of man, have you seen this?" Then he led me back to the edge of the river.
Ezekiel 47:7  When I came back, I saw very many trees on the bank of the river, on one side and on the other.
Ezekiel 47:8  Then he said to me, "This water flows out toward the eastern country, and goes down into the desert, and goes into the sea. When it flows into the sea, the water there will be made fresh."
Ezekiel 47:9  Every living creature that moves will live wherever the rivers come. There will be very many fish, because this water will come there. The water will be made fresh, and everything will live wherever the river comes.
Ezekiel 47:10  Fishermen will stand beside it from Engedi as far as Eneglaim. It will be a place for spreading out nets. There will be fish of every kind, like the fish of the great sea, very many of them.
Ezekiel 47:11  But its muddy places and its marshes will not be made fresh. They will be left for salt.
Ezekiel 47:12  "By the river, on its bank, on this side and on that side, all kinds of fruit trees will grow. Their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear new fruit every month, because the water for them flows out from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine."
Ezekiel 47:13  This is what the Lord GOD says: "These will be the borders by which you will divide the land as your inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph shall have two portions."
Ezekiel 47:14  You will inherit it, each one as much as the other. I lifted up my hand and swore to give it to your fathers. This land shall fall to you as your inheritance.
Ezekiel 47:15  This shall be the border of the land on the north side: from the great sea, by the way of Hethlon, as you go to Zedad;
Ezekiel 47:16  Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which lies between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; and Hazarhatticon, which is by the border of Hauran.
Ezekiel 47:17  So the border from the sea shall be Hazarenan, the border of Damascus, and northward to the north, and the border of Hamath. This is the north side.
Ezekiel 47:18  The east side you shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by the Jordan, from the border to the east sea. This is the east side.
Ezekiel 47:19  The south side, toward the south, shall run from Tamar to the waters of strife in Kadesh, and along the river to the great sea. This is the south side, toward the south.
Ezekiel 47:20  The west side shall be the great sea, from the border until you come opposite Hamath. This is the west side.
Ezekiel 47:21  So you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel.
Ezekiel 47:22  You shall divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the foreigners who live among you and have children among you. They shall be to you like those born in the country among the children of Israel. They shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.
Ezekiel 47:23  "In whatever tribe the foreigner lives, there you shall give him his inheritance," says the Lord GOD.

Ezekiel 48:1  Now these are the names of the tribes. From the north end, along the way of Hethlon, as you go to Hamath, to Hazarenan, the border of Damascus northward, beside Hamath; these are his sides east and west: one portion for Dan.
Ezekiel 48:2  Next to the border of Dan, from the east side to the west side: one portion for Asher.
Ezekiel 48:3  Next to the border of Asher, from the east side to the west side: one portion for Naphtali.
Ezekiel 48:4  Next to the border of Naphtali, from the east side to the west side: one portion for Manasseh.
Ezekiel 48:5  Next to the border of Manasseh, from the east side to the west side: one portion for Ephraim.
Ezekiel 48:6  Next to the border of Ephraim, from the east side to the west side: one portion for Reuben.
Ezekiel 48:7  Next to the border of Reuben, from the east side to the west side: one portion for Judah.
Ezekiel 48:8  Next to the border of Judah, from the east side to the west side, shall be the offering that you shall set apart. It shall be twenty-five thousand reeds wide, and as long as one of the other parts, from the east side to the west side. The sanctuary shall be in the middle of it.
Ezekiel 48:9  The offering that you shall set apart for the LORD shall be twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide.
Ezekiel 48:10  This holy offering shall be for them, for the priests: on the north twenty-five thousand long, on the west ten thousand wide, on the east ten thousand wide, and on the south twenty-five thousand long. The sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the middle of it.
Ezekiel 48:11  It shall be for the priests who are made holy, the sons of Zadok. They kept my charge, and did not go astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.
Ezekiel 48:12  This offering from the land shall be for them a most holy thing, beside the border of the Levites.
Ezekiel 48:13  Across from the border of the priests, the Levites shall have a part twenty-five thousand long and ten thousand wide. The whole length shall be twenty-five thousand, and the width ten thousand.
Ezekiel 48:14  They shall not sell any of it, or trade it, or give away the firstfruits of the land, for it is holy to the LORD.
Ezekiel 48:15  The five thousand that are left in the width, beside the twenty-five thousand, shall be common ground for the city, for homes and for open land. The city shall be in the middle of it.
Ezekiel 48:16  These shall be its measurements: the north side four thousand five hundred, the south side four thousand five hundred, the east side four thousand five hundred, and the west side four thousand five hundred.
Ezekiel 48:17  The open land of the city shall be two hundred and fifty on the north, two hundred and fifty on the south, two hundred and fifty on the east, and two hundred and fifty on the west.
Ezekiel 48:18  What is left over in length, beside the holy offering, shall be ten thousand to the east and ten thousand to the west. It shall be beside the holy offering, and what it produces shall be food for those who work in the city.
Ezekiel 48:19  Those who work in the city shall come from all the tribes of Israel to serve it.
Ezekiel 48:20  The whole offering shall be twenty-five thousand by twenty-five thousand. You shall set apart the holy offering as a square, together with the land of the city.
Ezekiel 48:21  What is left over shall be for the prince, on both sides of the holy offering and of the land of the city. It shall run beside the twenty-five thousand of the offering toward the east border, and westward beside the twenty-five thousand toward the west border, matching the portions for the prince. It shall be the holy offering, and the sanctuary of the house shall be in the middle of it.
Ezekiel 48:22  So the land of the Levites and the land of the city shall lie in the middle of what belongs to the prince. Everything between the border of Judah and the border of Benjamin shall be for the prince.
Ezekiel 48:23  As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, Benjamin shall have one portion.
Ezekiel 48:24  Next to the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, Simeon shall have one portion.
Ezekiel 48:25  Next to the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, Issachar one portion.
Ezekiel 48:26  Next to the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, Zebulun one portion.
Ezekiel 48:27  Next to the border of Zebulun, from the east side to the west side, Gad one portion.
Ezekiel 48:28  Next to the border of Gad, on the south side southward, the border shall run from Tamar to the waters of strife in Kadesh, and to the river that goes to the great sea.
Ezekiel 48:29  This is the land which you shall divide by lot among the tribes of Israel as their inheritance, and these are their portions, says the Lord GOD.
Ezekiel 48:30  These are the ways out of the city. On the north side, four thousand five hundred measures.
Ezekiel 48:31  The gates of the city shall be named after the tribes of Israel. Three gates face north: one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi.
Ezekiel 48:32  On the east side, four thousand five hundred, with three gates: one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan.
Ezekiel 48:33  On the south side, four thousand five hundred measures, with three gates: one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun.
Ezekiel 48:34  On the west side, four thousand five hundred, with their three gates: one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali.
Ezekiel 48:35  All the way around it was eighteen thousand measures. And from that day the name of the city shall be, The LORD is there.

Daniel

Daniel 1:1  In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it.
Daniel 1:2  The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God. He carried them into the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god.
Daniel 1:3  The king spoke to Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, telling him to bring in some of the children of Israel, some of the king's family and some of the nobles:
Daniel 1:4  young men with no blemish, good-looking, skilled in all wisdom, quick to learn, understanding what they were taught, and able to serve in the king's palace. They were to be taught the learning and the language of the Chaldeans.
Daniel 1:5  The king set out for them a daily portion of the king's food and of the wine that he drank. They were to be cared for in this way for three years, and at the end of it they would stand before the king.
Daniel 1:6  Among these were some of the children of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
Daniel 1:7  The chief of the eunuchs gave them new names. He gave Daniel the name Belteshazzar, and Hananiah the name Shadrach, and Mishael the name Meshach, and Azariah the name Abednego.
Daniel 1:8  But Daniel decided in his heart that he would not make himself unclean with the king's food, or with the wine that he drank. So he asked the chief of the eunuchs to let him keep himself clean.
Daniel 1:9  Now God had made the chief of the eunuchs show favour and kindness to Daniel.
Daniel 1:10  The chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has decided what you are to eat and drink. Why should he see your faces looking worse than those of the other young men of your age? Then you would put my head in danger with the king."
Daniel 1:11  Then Daniel said to Melzar, whom the chief of the eunuchs had put in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
Daniel 1:12  "Please test your servants for ten days. Let them give us vegetables to eat and water to drink."
Daniel 1:13  "Then compare our faces with the faces of the young men who eat the king's food, and deal with your servants as you see fit."
Daniel 1:14  So he agreed to this and tested them for ten days.
Daniel 1:15  At the end of ten days their faces looked better and healthier than those of all the young men who ate the king's food.
Daniel 1:16  So Melzar took away their portion of food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.
Daniel 1:17  As for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom. And Daniel could understand all kinds of visions and dreams.
Daniel 1:18  At the end of the time the king had set for bringing them in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them before Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 1:19  The king talked with them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they stood before the king.
Daniel 1:20  In every matter of wisdom and understanding that the king asked them about, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers in his whole kingdom.
Daniel 1:21  And Daniel remained there until the first year of king Cyrus.

Daniel 2:1  In the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams. His spirit was troubled by them, and his sleep left him.
Daniel 2:2  Then the king gave orders to call the magicians, the astrologers, the sorcerers and the Chaldeans, to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
Daniel 2:3  The king said to them, "I have had a dream, and my spirit is troubled until I know what the dream was."
Daniel 2:4  Then the Chaldeans spoke to the king in the Syrian language, "O king, live for ever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will give you the meaning."
Daniel 2:5  The king answered the Chaldeans, "This is my firm decision: if you will not make the dream known to me, and its meaning, you will be cut in pieces, and your houses will be made a rubbish heap."
Daniel 2:6  "But if you tell me the dream and its meaning, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honour. So tell me the dream and its meaning."
Daniel 2:7  They answered again, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will give the meaning of it."
Daniel 2:8  The king answered, "I know for certain that you are trying to gain time, because you see that this is my firm decision."
Daniel 2:9  "If you will not make the dream known to me, there is only one sentence for you. You have agreed to speak lying and corrupt words to me, hoping the time will change. So tell me the dream, and then I shall know that you can give me its meaning."
Daniel 2:10  The Chaldeans answered the king, "There is not a man on earth who can tell the king what he asks. No king, lord or ruler has ever asked such a thing from any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean."
Daniel 2:11  "What the king asks is a hard thing. No one can tell it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among people."
Daniel 2:12  Because of this the king was angry and very furious, and he gave orders to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel 2:13  So the order went out that the wise men were to be killed. And they looked for Daniel and his companions, to kill them.
Daniel 2:14  Then Daniel answered with wise and careful words to Arioch, the captain of the king's guard, who had gone out to kill the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel 2:15  He said to Arioch, the king's captain, "Why is the king's order so urgent?" Then Arioch explained the matter to Daniel.
Daniel 2:16  Then Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, so that he could show the king the meaning.
Daniel 2:17  Then Daniel went to his house and told the matter to Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, his companions.
Daniel 2:18  He asked them to beg for mercy from the God of heaven about this secret, so that Daniel and his companions would not die with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel 2:19  Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision at night. And Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Daniel 2:20  Daniel said, "Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to him."
Daniel 2:21  "He changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to those who have understanding."
Daniel 2:22  "He reveals the deep and secret things. He knows what is in the darkness, and the light lives with him."
Daniel 2:23  "I thank you and praise you, O God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and power, and you have now made known to me what we asked of you. You have made the king's matter known to us."
Daniel 2:24  So Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon. He went and said to him, "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king, and I will show the king the meaning."
Daniel 2:25  Then Arioch hurried Daniel in before the king, and said to him, "I have found a man among the captives of Judah who will make the meaning known to the king."
Daniel 2:26  The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream I have seen, and its meaning?"
Daniel 2:27  Daniel answered in the presence of the king, "The secret that the king has asked about cannot be told to the king by wise men, astrologers, magicians or soothsayers."
Daniel 2:28  "But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the latter days. Your dream, and the visions in your head as you lay on your bed, were these:"
Daniel 2:29  "As for you, O king, as you lay on your bed your thoughts came to you about what would happen after this. And he who reveals secrets has made known to you what will happen."
Daniel 2:30  "As for me, this secret has not been revealed to me because I have more wisdom than anyone living. It is so that the meaning may be made known to the king, and that you may know the thoughts of your heart."
Daniel 2:31  "You, O king, were looking, and there was a great image. This great image, shining brightly, stood before you, and its form was terrible."
Daniel 2:32  "The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass,"
Daniel 2:33  "its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay."
Daniel 2:34  "You watched until a stone was cut out without hands. It struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces."
Daniel 2:35  "Then the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold were all broken to pieces together. They became like the chaff on the threshing floors in summer, and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them. And the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth."
Daniel 2:36  "This is the dream. Now we will tell its meaning before the king."
Daniel 2:37  "You, O king, are a king of kings, for the God of heaven has given you a kingdom, power, strength and glory."
Daniel 2:38  "Wherever people live, he has given into your hand the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, and has made you ruler over them all. You are this head of gold."
Daniel 2:39  "After you another kingdom will rise, lower than yours. Then a third kingdom, of brass, will rule over all the earth."
Daniel 2:40  "The fourth kingdom will be strong as iron. Iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything. Like iron that shatters all these, it will break in pieces and crush."
Daniel 2:41  "You saw the feet and toes, partly of potter's clay and partly of iron. So the kingdom will be divided. But there will be some of the strength of iron in it, since you saw the iron mixed with wet clay."
Daniel 2:42  "The toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay. So the kingdom will be partly strong and partly broken."
Daniel 2:43  "You saw iron mixed with wet clay. So they will mix themselves with the seed of men, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay."
Daniel 2:44  "In the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. The kingdom will not be left to other people. It will break in pieces and bring to an end all these kingdoms, and it will stand for ever."
Daniel 2:45  "You saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver and the gold. The great God has made known to the king what will happen after this. The dream is certain, and its meaning is sure."
Daniel 2:46  Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and bowed down to Daniel, and commanded that they should offer him a gift and sweet incense.
Daniel 2:47  The king said to Daniel, "Truly your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, since you were able to reveal this secret."
Daniel 2:48  Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts. He made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel 2:49  Then Daniel asked the king, and the king put Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

Daniel 3:1  King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold. It was sixty cubits high and six cubits wide. He set it up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
Daniel 3:2  Then King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces. They were to come to the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Daniel 3:3  So the princes, the governors, the captains, the judges, the treasurers, the counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces gathered for the dedication of the image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up. They stood in front of the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Daniel 3:4  Then a herald called out loudly, "This is the command to you, people of every nation and language:"
Daniel 3:5  When you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, you must fall down and worship the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up.
Daniel 3:6  "Anyone who does not fall down and worship will be thrown that same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace."
Daniel 3:7  So at that time, when all the people heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and all kinds of music, all the people of every nation and language fell down and worshipped the golden image that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Daniel 3:8  At that time certain Chaldeans came forward and accused the Jews.
Daniel 3:9  They spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar and said, "O king, live for ever."
Daniel 3:10  You, O king, have made a decree. It says that every man who hears the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the golden image,
Daniel 3:11  and that anyone who does not fall down and worship must be thrown into the middle of a burning fiery furnace.
Daniel 3:12  "There are certain Jews whom you have put in charge of the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, have paid no attention to you. They do not serve your gods, and they do not worship the golden image you have set up."
Daniel 3:13  Then Nebuchadnezzar, in his rage and fury, ordered that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought to him. So they brought these men before the king.
Daniel 3:14  Nebuchadnezzar said to them, "Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Do you not serve my gods or worship the golden image I have set up?"
Daniel 3:15  "Now, if you are ready, when you hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image I have made, it is well. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown that same hour into the middle of a burning fiery furnace. And who is that God who can rescue you out of my hands?"
Daniel 3:16  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to answer you about this matter."
Daniel 3:17  If it is so, our God whom we serve is able to save us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will rescue us out of your hand, O king.
Daniel 3:18  "But if he does not, know this, O king: we will not serve your gods, and we will not worship the golden image you have set up."
Daniel 3:19  Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the look on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He gave the order to heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was usually heated.
Daniel 3:20  He commanded the strongest men in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and to throw them into the burning fiery furnace.
Daniel 3:21  So these men were tied up in their coats, their trousers, their hats, and their other clothes, and they were thrown into the middle of the burning fiery furnace.
Daniel 3:22  Because the king's command was urgent and the furnace was extremely hot, the flame of the fire killed the men who carried Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego up to it.
Daniel 3:23  And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down, still tied up, into the middle of the burning fiery furnace.
Daniel 3:24  Then King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed. He got up quickly and said to his counsellors, "Did we not throw three men, tied up, into the middle of the fire?" They answered the king, "True, O king."
Daniel 3:25  He said, "Look, I see four men walking about in the middle of the fire, untied, and they are not hurt. And the fourth one looks like the Son of God."
Daniel 3:26  Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the opening of the burning fiery furnace and said, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you servants of the most high God, come out, and come here." Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out of the middle of the fire.
Daniel 3:27  The princes, the governors, the captains, and the king's counsellors gathered round and saw these men. The fire had no power over their bodies. Not a hair of their heads was singed, their coats were not damaged, and there was no smell of fire on them.
Daniel 3:28  Then Nebuchadnezzar said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted in him. They defied the king's word and gave up their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own God."
Daniel 3:29  "So I make a decree: any people, nation, or language that says anything wrong against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut in pieces, and their houses will be made a heap of rubbish. For there is no other God who can rescue like this."
Daniel 3:30  Then the king gave Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego higher positions in the province of Babylon.

Daniel 4:1  King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations, and languages that live in all the earth: May peace be multiplied to you.
Daniel 4:2  I thought it good to tell you about the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.
Daniel 4:3  How great are his signs! How mighty are his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his rule lasts from generation to generation.
Daniel 4:4  I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and doing well in my palace.
Daniel 4:5  I saw a dream that made me afraid. The thoughts that came to me on my bed and the visions in my head troubled me.
Daniel 4:6  So I made a decree to bring in before me all the wise men of Babylon, so that they might tell me what the dream meant.
Daniel 4:7  Then the magicians came in, and the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. I told them the dream, but they did not tell me what it meant.
Daniel 4:8  But at last Daniel came in before me. His name is Belteshazzar, after the name of my god, and the spirit of the holy gods is in him. I told the dream to him, saying,
Daniel 4:9  "Belteshazzar, master of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that no secret is too hard for you. Tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen, and what they mean."
Daniel 4:10  "These were the visions in my head while I lay on my bed. I looked, and there was a tree in the middle of the earth, and its height was great."
Daniel 4:11  "The tree grew and became strong. Its top reached to heaven, and it could be seen to the end of all the earth."
Daniel 4:12  "Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit was plentiful, and there was food on it for all. The animals of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the sky lived in its branches, and every living thing was fed by it."
Daniel 4:13  "In the visions in my head on my bed I looked, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven."
Daniel 4:14  "He called out loudly and said this: 'Cut down the tree and chop off its branches. Shake off its leaves and scatter its fruit. Let the animals get away from under it, and the birds out of its branches."
Daniel 4:15  "'But leave the stump with its roots in the ground, bound with iron and bronze, among the soft grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his share be with the animals in the grass of the earth."
Daniel 4:16  "'Let his heart be changed from a man's heart, and let the heart of an animal be given to him. And let seven times pass over him."
Daniel 4:17  "'This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and this demand is by the word of the holy ones. It is so that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he wants, and sets over it the lowest of men.'"
Daniel 4:18  "This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, tell me what it means. None of the wise men of my kingdom are able to tell me what it means, but you are able, for the spirit of the holy gods is in you."
Daniel 4:19  Then Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, was stunned for a while, and his thoughts troubled him. The king spoke and said, "Belteshazzar, do not let the dream or what it means trouble you." Belteshazzar answered and said, "My lord, may the dream be for those who hate you, and its meaning for your enemies."
Daniel 4:20  "The tree that you saw, which grew and became strong, whose top reached to heaven and could be seen by all the earth,"
Daniel 4:21  "whose leaves were beautiful and whose fruit was plentiful, on which there was food for all, under which the animals of the field lived, and in whose branches the birds of the sky had their homes -"
Daniel 4:22  "it is you, O king, who have grown and become strong. Your greatness has grown and reaches to heaven, and your rule reaches to the end of the earth."
Daniel 4:23  "And the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, 'Cut the tree down and destroy it. But leave the stump with its roots in the ground, bound with iron and bronze, among the soft grass of the field. Let it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his share be with the animals of the field, until seven times pass over him.'"
Daniel 4:24  "This is what it means, O king. This is the decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king:"
Daniel 4:25  "You will be driven away from people, and you will live with the animals of the field. You will be made to eat grass like oxen, and you will be wet with the dew of heaven. Seven times will pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he wants."
Daniel 4:26  "And since they commanded to leave the stump of the tree's roots, your kingdom will be sure to you once you have known that Heaven rules."
Daniel 4:27  "So, O king, let my advice be acceptable to you. Break away from your sins by doing righteousness, and from your wrongdoing by showing mercy to the poor. Perhaps then your peace may be made longer."
Daniel 4:28  All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar.
Daniel 4:29  At the end of twelve months he was walking in the royal palace of Babylon.
Daniel 4:30  The king spoke and said, "Is this not great Babylon, which I have built as a royal house by my mighty power and for the honour of my majesty?"
Daniel 4:31  While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven, saying, "King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you."
Daniel 4:32  "You will be driven away from people, and you will live with the animals of the field. You will be made to eat grass like oxen, and seven times will pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whoever he wants."
Daniel 4:33  That very hour the thing was fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven away from people and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like eagles' feathers and his nails like birds' claws.
Daniel 4:34  At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding came back to me. I blessed the Most High. I praised and honoured him who lives for ever, whose rule is an everlasting rule, and whose kingdom lasts from generation to generation.
Daniel 4:35  All who live on the earth are counted as nothing. He does as he wills with the army of heaven and with those who live on the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, "What are you doing?"
Daniel 4:36  At that same time my reason came back to me. For the glory of my kingdom, my honour and my splendour came back to me. My counsellors and my lords came looking for me. I was set firm in my kingdom, and even greater majesty was added to me.
Daniel 4:37  Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and lift high and honour the King of heaven. All his works are truth, and his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to bring low.

Daniel 5:1  King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords, and he drank wine in front of the thousand.
Daniel 5:2  While Belshazzar was tasting the wine, he gave an order to bring in the gold and silver cups that his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem. He wanted the king, his princes, his wives and his concubines to drink from them.
Daniel 5:3  So they brought in the gold cups that had been taken out of the temple of the house of God in Jerusalem. The king, his princes, his wives and his concubines drank from them.
Daniel 5:4  They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, of brass, iron, wood and stone.
Daniel 5:5  At that very hour the fingers of a man's hand appeared. They wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace, opposite the lampstand. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
Daniel 5:6  Then the king's face changed, and his thoughts frightened him. His legs gave way beneath him, and his knees knocked together.
Daniel 5:7  The king shouted for the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers to be brought in. He said to the wise men of Babylon, "Whoever reads this writing and tells me what it means will be dressed in scarlet, and have a chain of gold round his neck, and be the third ruler in the kingdom."
Daniel 5:8  Then all the king's wise men came in. But they could not read the writing, and they could not tell the king what it meant.
Daniel 5:9  Then King Belshazzar was greatly frightened, and his face changed, and his lords were amazed.
Daniel 5:10  Because of what the king and his lords were saying, the queen came into the banquet hall. The queen said, "O king, live for ever. Do not let your thoughts frighten you, and do not let your face change."
Daniel 5:11  "There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the days of your father, light and understanding and wisdom like the wisdom of the gods were found in him. King Nebuchadnezzar your father, your father the king, I say, made him master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans and soothsayers."
Daniel 5:12  "This was because an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, and the skill to explain dreams, to make hard sayings clear, and to untie knotted questions, were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Now let Daniel be called, and he will tell you what it means."
Daniel 5:13  So Daniel was brought in before the king. The king said to Daniel, "Are you that Daniel who is one of the captives of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?"
Daniel 5:14  "I have heard about you, that the spirit of the gods is in you, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom are found in you."
Daniel 5:15  "Now the wise men and the astrologers have been brought in before me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they could not explain it."
Daniel 5:16  "I have heard about you, that you can give meanings and untie knotted questions. Now if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you will be dressed in scarlet, and have a chain of gold round your neck, and be the third ruler in the kingdom."
Daniel 5:17  Then Daniel answered the king, "Keep your gifts for yourself, and give your rewards to someone else. Still, I will read the writing to the king, and tell him what it means."
Daniel 5:18  "O king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and honour."
Daniel 5:19  "Because of the greatness that God gave him, all peoples, nations and languages trembled and were afraid before him. He killed whoever he wished, and kept alive whoever he wished. He lifted up whoever he wished, and brought down whoever he wished."
Daniel 5:20  "But when his heart was lifted up and his mind grew hard with pride, he was pulled down from his royal throne, and they took his glory from him."
Daniel 5:21  "He was driven away from people, and his heart was made like the heart of an animal. He lived with the wild donkeys. They fed him grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven. This lasted until he knew that the most high God rules in the kingdom of men, and sets over it whoever he wishes."
Daniel 5:22  "And you, his son, O Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this."
Daniel 5:23  "Instead you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They brought the cups of his house in front of you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know anything. But you have not given glory to the God who holds your breath in his hand, and who owns all your ways."
Daniel 5:24  "So the part of the hand was sent from him, and this writing was written."
Daniel 5:25  "And this is the writing that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN."
Daniel 5:26  "This is what it means. MENE: God has counted the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end."
Daniel 5:27  "TEKEL: you have been weighed in the scales, and you are found wanting."
Daniel 5:28  "PERES: your kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians."
Daniel 5:29  Then Belshazzar gave the order, and they dressed Daniel in scarlet, and put a chain of gold round his neck, and made a proclamation about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Daniel 5:30  That very night Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans was killed.
Daniel 5:31  And Darius the Mede took the kingdom. He was about sixty-two years old.

Daniel 6:1  Darius decided to set a hundred and twenty princes over the kingdom, to rule throughout the whole kingdom.
Daniel 6:2  Over these he set three presidents, and Daniel was the first of them. The princes were to give their accounts to these three, so that the king would lose nothing.
Daniel 6:3  Then this Daniel was set above the presidents and the princes, because an excellent spirit was in him. The king planned to set him over the whole realm.
Daniel 6:4  Then the presidents and the princes tried to find some charge against Daniel in the business of the kingdom. But they could find no charge and no fault, because he was faithful. No error or fault was found in him.
Daniel 6:5  Then these men said, "We will never find any charge against this Daniel, unless we find it against him in the law of his God."
Daniel 6:6  Then these presidents and princes came together to the king and said to him, "King Darius, live for ever."
Daniel 6:7  All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors and the princes, the counsellors and the captains, have talked together. We want the king to make a royal law and to put out a firm order: that for thirty days anyone who asks a request of any god or man, except of you, O king, shall be thrown into the den of lions.
Daniel 6:8  "Now, O king, make the order and sign the writing, so that it cannot be changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not change."
Daniel 6:9  So king Darius signed the writing and the order.
Daniel 6:10  Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house. The windows of his upper room were open towards Jerusalem. Three times a day he knelt down on his knees and prayed and gave thanks before his God, just as he had done before.
Daniel 6:11  Then these men came together and found Daniel praying and making his request before his God.
Daniel 6:12  Then they went to the king and spoke to him about the king's order. "Have you not signed an order that for thirty days any man who asks a request of any god or man, except of you, O king, shall be thrown into the den of lions?" The king answered, "The thing is true, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which does not change."
Daniel 6:13  Then they answered the king, "That Daniel, who is one of the captives from Judah, pays no attention to you, O king, or to the order you have signed. He makes his request three times a day."
Daniel 6:14  When the king heard these words, he was very unhappy with himself. He set his heart on saving Daniel, and he worked until the sun went down to rescue him.
Daniel 6:15  Then these men came together to the king and said to him, "Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is this: no order or law which the king makes may be changed."
Daniel 6:16  Then the king gave the command. They brought Daniel and threw him into the den of lions. The king said to Daniel, "Your God, whom you serve all the time, he will save you."
Daniel 6:17  A stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den. The king sealed it with his own seal and with the seals of his lords, so that nothing about Daniel could be changed.
Daniel 6:18  Then the king went to his palace and spent the night without food. No music was brought in before him, and his sleep went from him.
Daniel 6:19  Then the king got up very early in the morning and hurried to the den of lions.
Daniel 6:20  When he came to the den, he called out to Daniel with a sad voice. The king said to Daniel, "O Daniel, servant of the living God, is your God, whom you serve all the time, able to save you from the lions?"
Daniel 6:21  Then Daniel said to the king, "O king, live for ever."
Daniel 6:22  "My God has sent his angel and has shut the lions' mouths, so that they have not hurt me. For I was found innocent before him, and before you also, O king, I have done no wrong."
Daniel 6:23  Then the king was very glad for him, and commanded that they should lift Daniel out of the den. So Daniel was lifted out of the den, and no hurt of any kind was found on him, because he believed in his God.
Daniel 6:24  Then the king gave the command, and they brought those men who had accused Daniel, and threw them into the den of lions, them, their children and their wives. The lions overpowered them and broke all their bones in pieces before they even reached the bottom of the den.
Daniel 6:25  Then king Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations and languages that live in all the earth: "May peace be multiplied to you."
Daniel 6:26  I make an order: that in every part of my kingdom people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel. For he is the living God, and he stands firm for ever. His kingdom will never be destroyed, and his rule will last to the end.
Daniel 6:27  "He saves and he rescues, and he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth. He has saved Daniel from the power of the lions."
Daniel 6:28  So this Daniel did well in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.

Daniel 7:1  In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream. Visions came into his head as he lay on his bed. Then he wrote the dream down, and told the main points of it.
Daniel 7:2  Daniel said: "I saw in my vision at night, and look, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea."
Daniel 7:3  "And four great beasts came up out of the sea, each one different from the others."
Daniel 7:4  "The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings. I watched until its wings were pulled off. It was lifted up from the ground and set on its feet like a man, and the heart of a man was given to it."
Daniel 7:5  "And look, there was another beast, a second one, like a bear. It raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. They said to it, 'Get up, eat much flesh.'"
Daniel 7:6  "After this I looked, and there was another, like a leopard. On its back it had four wings like a bird's. The beast also had four heads, and power to rule was given to it."
Daniel 7:7  "After this I saw in the visions of the night, and look, there was a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and very strong. It had great iron teeth. It ate and broke in pieces, and stamped down what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that came before it, and it had ten horns."
Daniel 7:8  "I looked closely at the horns, and look, another horn came up among them, a little one. Three of the first horns were pulled up by the roots before it. And look, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things."
Daniel 7:9  "I watched until the thrones were thrown down, and the Ancient of days took his seat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was like a flame of fire, and its wheels like burning fire."
Daniel 7:10  "A stream of fire poured out and came from in front of him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened."
Daniel 7:11  "Then I looked, because of the sound of the great words which the horn spoke. I watched until the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame."
Daniel 7:12  "As for the rest of the beasts, their power to rule was taken away, but their lives were made longer for a season and a time."
Daniel 7:13  "I saw in the visions of the night, and look, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him."
Daniel 7:14  "And power to rule was given to him, and glory, and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him. His rule is an everlasting rule, which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed."
Daniel 7:15  "I, Daniel, was grieved in my spirit inside my body, and the visions in my head troubled me."
Daniel 7:16  "I came near to one of those standing there, and asked him the truth about all this. So he told me, and made known to me the meaning of these things."
Daniel 7:17  'These great beasts, which are four, are four kings who will rise up out of the earth.
Daniel 7:18  'But the saints of the most High will receive the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.'
Daniel 7:19  "Then I wanted to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the others. It was very dreadful. Its teeth were of iron and its claws of brass. It ate and broke in pieces, and stamped down what was left with its feet."
Daniel 7:20  "And I wanted to know about the ten horns on its head, and about the other horn which came up, before which three fell. This was the horn that had eyes, and a mouth that spoke very great things, and that looked greater than its fellows."
Daniel 7:21  "I watched, and that same horn made war with the saints, and won against them,"
Daniel 7:22  "until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High. And the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom."
Daniel 7:23  "This is what he said: 'The fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on earth. It will be different from all the other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth, and tread it down, and break it in pieces."
Daniel 7:24  'And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings who will rise up. Another will rise up after them. He will be different from the first ones, and he will put down three kings.
Daniel 7:25  'He will speak great words against the most High, and wear out the saints of the most High, and plan to change times and laws. And they will be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.
Daniel 7:26  'But the court will sit in judgment, and they will take away his power to rule, to wear it away and destroy it to the end.
Daniel 7:27  'And the kingdom and the rule, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, will be given to the people of the saints of the most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey him.'
Daniel 7:28  "Here the matter ends." As for me, Daniel, my thoughts troubled me greatly, and my face changed colour; but I kept the matter in my heart.

Daniel 8:1  In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar, a vision appeared to me, to me, Daniel. It came after the one that had appeared to me before.
Daniel 8:2  I saw in the vision, and while I looked, I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam. I saw in the vision, and I was beside the river Ulai.
Daniel 8:3  Then I looked up, and there before the river stood a ram which had two horns. The two horns were high, but one was higher than the other, and the higher one came up last.
Daniel 8:4  I saw the ram pushing westward, northward and southward. No beast could stand before him, and there was no one who could rescue anything out of his power. He did whatever he wanted, and he became great.
Daniel 8:5  While I was thinking about this, look, a male goat came from the west across the face of the whole earth, and he did not touch the ground. The goat had a great horn between his eyes.
Daniel 8:6  He came to the ram with the two horns, which I had seen standing before the river, and he ran at him with all his furious strength.
Daniel 8:7  I saw him come close to the ram, and he was full of rage against him. He struck the ram and broke his two horns. The ram had no strength to stand before him. He threw him down to the ground and trampled on him, and there was no one who could rescue the ram out of his power.
Daniel 8:8  So the male goat became very great. But when he was strong, the great horn was broken. In its place four great horns came up, toward the four winds of heaven.
Daniel 8:9  Out of one of them came a little horn, which grew very great toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.
Daniel 8:10  It grew great, up to the host of heaven. It threw some of the host and of the stars down to the ground, and trampled on them.
Daniel 8:11  Yes, he made himself as great as the prince of the host. The daily sacrifice was taken away from him, and the place of his sanctuary was thrown down.
Daniel 8:12  A host was given to him against the daily sacrifice because of wrongdoing. It threw the truth down to the ground, and it acted and succeeded.
Daniel 8:13  Then I heard one holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "How long will the vision last, concerning the daily sacrifice and the wrongdoing that brings desolation, giving both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?"
Daniel 8:14  And he said to me, "For two thousand three hundred days. Then the sanctuary shall be cleansed."
Daniel 8:15  When I, Daniel, had seen the vision and was looking for its meaning, then look, there stood before me someone who looked like a man.
Daniel 8:16  And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai. It called out and said, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision."
Daniel 8:17  So he came near where I stood. When he came, I was afraid and fell on my face. But he said to me, "Understand, son of man, for the vision belongs to the time of the end."
Daniel 8:18  Now as he was speaking with me, I fell into a deep sleep with my face toward the ground. But he touched me and set me upright.
Daniel 8:19  And he said, "Look, I will make you know what will happen at the end of the anger, for the end will come at the appointed time."
Daniel 8:20  "The ram you saw with the two horns is the kings of Media and Persia."
Daniel 8:21  "The rough goat is the king of Grecia, and the great horn between his eyes is the first king."
Daniel 8:22  "That horn was broken, and four stood up in its place. Four kingdoms will rise out of the nation, but not with his power."
Daniel 8:23  "In the latter time of their kingdom, when the wrongdoers have reached their full measure, a king with a fierce face, who understands dark sayings, will rise up."
Daniel 8:24  "His power will be mighty, but not by his own power. He will destroy in an astonishing way, and he will succeed and act. He will destroy the mighty and the holy people."
Daniel 8:25  "By his cunning he will make deceit succeed in his hand. He will make himself great in his heart, and by peace he will destroy many. He will also rise up against the Prince of princes, but he will be broken without any hand."
Daniel 8:26  "And the vision of the evening and the morning that was told is true. So shut up the vision, for it is for many days to come."
Daniel 8:27  And I, Daniel, fainted and was ill for some days. Afterward I got up and did the king's business. I was amazed by the vision, but no one understood it.

Daniel 9:1  This was in the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, who came from the Medes. He was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldeans.
Daniel 9:2  In the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the books the number of the years. The word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah the prophet, saying that Jerusalem would lie in ruins for seventy years.
Daniel 9:3  So I turned my face to the Lord God, to seek him by prayer and pleading, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.
Daniel 9:4  I prayed to the LORD my God, and I made my confession, and said, "O Lord, the great and fearful God, who keeps the covenant and mercy with those who love him and keep his commandments;"
Daniel 9:5  we have sinned, and done wrong, and acted wickedly, and rebelled. We have turned away from your commands and from your judgments.
Daniel 9:6  We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
Daniel 9:7  O Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but shame covers our faces, as it does today. This is true of the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem, and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have driven them, because they were unfaithful to you.
Daniel 9:8  O Lord, shame covers our faces, and the faces of our kings, our leaders, and our fathers, because we have sinned against you.
Daniel 9:9  Mercy and forgiveness belong to the Lord our God, even though we have rebelled against him.
Daniel 9:10  We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God. We have not walked in his laws, which he set before us through his servants the prophets.
Daniel 9:11  Yes, all Israel has broken your law and turned away, refusing to obey your voice. So the curse has been poured out on us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
Daniel 9:12  He has carried out the words he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us, by bringing a great evil upon us. Nothing has been done under the whole heaven like what has been done to Jerusalem.
Daniel 9:13  All this evil has come upon us, just as it is written in the law of Moses. Yet we did not pray before the LORD our God, so that we might turn from our sins and understand your truth.
Daniel 9:14  So the LORD watched over the evil and brought it upon us. The LORD our God is righteous in everything he does, but we did not obey his voice.
Daniel 9:15  And now, O Lord our God, you brought your people out of the land of Egypt with a mighty hand, and won for yourself a name that lasts to this day. We have sinned, we have acted wickedly.
Daniel 9:16  O Lord, in keeping with all your righteousness, I beg you, turn away your anger and your fury from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For because of our sins, and the wrongs of our fathers, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all who are around us.
Daniel 9:17  So now, our God, hear the prayer of your servant and his pleading. For the Lord's sake, make your face shine on your sanctuary, which lies in ruins.
Daniel 9:18  O my God, turn your ear and hear. Open your eyes and look at our ruins, and at the city that is called by your name. We are not bringing our requests to you because we are righteous, but because your mercies are great.
Daniel 9:19  "O Lord, hear. O Lord, forgive. O Lord, listen and act. Do not delay, for your own sake, O my God. For your city and your people are called by your name."
Daniel 9:20  While I was still speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and bringing my request before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;
Daniel 9:21  yes, while I was still speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, came flying swiftly and touched me about the time of the evening offering.
Daniel 9:22  He explained things to me, and talked with me, and said, "O Daniel, I have now come out to give you skill and understanding."
Daniel 9:23  When you began to plead, the word went out, and I have come to tell you, for you are greatly loved. So understand the matter, and think about the vision.
Daniel 9:24  Seventy weeks are decided upon your people and upon your holy city: to finish the wrongdoing, and to put an end to sins, and to make reconciliation for guilt, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Daniel 9:25  Know this, then, and understand: from the going out of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until the Messiah the Prince, there will be seven weeks, and sixty-two weeks. The street will be built again, and the wall, even in troubled times.
Daniel 9:26  And after sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off, but not for himself. The people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its end will come like a flood, and to the end of the war ruin is decided.
Daniel 9:27  "He will confirm the covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will make the sacrifice and the offering cease. Because of the spreading of abominations he will make it desolate, until the end that is decreed is poured out on the desolate one."

Daniel 10:1  In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, who was also called Belteshazzar. The message was true, but the time appointed was long. He understood the message, and he understood the vision.
Daniel 10:2  In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for three full weeks.
Daniel 10:3  I ate no pleasant food. No meat or wine came into my mouth, and I did not anoint myself at all, until the three whole weeks were finished.
Daniel 10:4  On the twenty-fourth day of the first month I was by the side of the great river, which is the Hiddekel.
Daniel 10:5  Then I lifted up my eyes and looked. There was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.
Daniel 10:6  His body was like beryl, and his face looked like lightning. His eyes were like lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet were the colour of polished brass. The sound of his words was like the noise of a great crowd.
Daniel 10:7  I, Daniel, alone saw the vision. The men who were with me did not see it, but a great trembling fell on them, so that they ran away to hide themselves.
Daniel 10:8  So I was left alone, and I saw this great vision. No strength was left in me. My healthy look turned to a deathly one, and I kept no strength.
Daniel 10:9  Yet I heard the sound of his words. When I heard the sound of his words, I fell into a deep sleep with my face to the ground.
Daniel 10:10  Then a hand touched me. It set me on my knees and on the palms of my hands.
Daniel 10:11  He said to me, "Daniel, you are a man greatly loved. Understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." When he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling.
Daniel 10:12  Then he said to me, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. From the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard. I have come because of your words."
Daniel 10:13  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia stood against me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I stayed there with the kings of Persia.
Daniel 10:14  "Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision is for days still to come."
Daniel 10:15  When he had spoken such words to me, I turned my face toward the ground, and I could not speak.
Daniel 10:16  Then one who looked like a human being touched my lips. I opened my mouth and spoke, and said to him who stood in front of me, "My lord, because of the vision my pains have come upon me, and I have kept no strength."
Daniel 10:17  "How can the servant of my lord talk with my lord? As for me, no strength is left in me at all, and there is no breath left in me."
Daniel 10:18  Then one who looked like a man came and touched me again, and he gave me strength.
Daniel 10:19  He said, "Man greatly loved, do not be afraid. Peace be to you. Be strong, yes, be strong." When he had spoken to me, I was made strong, and I said, "Let my lord speak, for you have given me strength."
Daniel 10:20  Then he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? Now I will return to fight with the prince of Persia. When I have gone out, look, the prince of Grecia will come."
Daniel 10:21  "But I will show you what is written down in the scripture of truth. There is no one who holds with me against these, except Michael your prince."

Daniel 11:1  Also I, in the first year of Darius the Mede, I myself stood up to support him and to strengthen him.
Daniel 11:2  Now I will show you the truth. Look, three more kings will rise in Persia, and the fourth will be far richer than all of them. By his strength, through his riches, he will stir up everyone against the kingdom of Greece.
Daniel 11:3  Then a mighty king will rise. He will rule with great power and do whatever he pleases.
Daniel 11:4  When he has risen, his kingdom will be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven. It will not go to his descendants, and it will not be as great as when he ruled. For his kingdom will be pulled up and given to others besides them.
Daniel 11:5  The king of the south will be strong, and one of his princes too. That prince will be stronger than he is and will rule, and his rule will be a great rule.
Daniel 11:6  After some years they will join themselves together. The daughter of the king of the south will come to the king of the north to make an agreement. But she will not keep the strength of her arm, and he will not last, nor his arm. She will be given up, and so will those who brought her, and the one who was her father, and the one who strengthened her in those times.
Daniel 11:7  But out of a branch of her roots one will rise up in his place. He will come with an army, enter the fortress of the king of the north, fight against them, and win.
Daniel 11:8  He will also carry off to Egypt their gods, with their princes, and with their precious vessels of silver and gold. He will last more years than the king of the north.
Daniel 11:9  So the king of the south will come into his kingdom, and will return to his own land.
Daniel 11:10  But his sons will be stirred up, and will gather a great crowd of forces. One will surely come and sweep through like a flood and pass on. Then he will return, and be stirred up again, even as far as his fortress.
Daniel 11:11  The king of the south will be filled with anger. He will come out and fight with him, with the king of the north. The king of the north will put out a great army, but that army will be given into his hand.
Daniel 11:12  When he has taken away that army, his heart will be lifted up. He will strike down many tens of thousands, but he will not be made strong by it.
Daniel 11:13  For the king of the north will return and put out an army greater than the first. After some years he will surely come with a great army and with much wealth.
Daniel 11:14  In those times many will rise up against the king of the south. Also the robbers among your people will lift themselves up to fulfil the vision, but they will fall.
Daniel 11:15  So the king of the north will come and pile up a siege mound and take the strongest walled cities. The forces of the south will not hold out, nor will his chosen troops, and there will be no strength to hold out.
Daniel 11:16  But the one who comes against him will do whatever he pleases, and no one will stand before him. He will stand in the glorious land, and by his hand it will be destroyed.
Daniel 11:17  He will set his face to come with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him. This is what he will do. He will give him a daughter of women, to ruin her. But she will not stand on his side, nor be for him.
Daniel 11:18  After this he will turn his face to the islands and take many of them. But a prince will put an end to the shame he brought, and will turn that shame back on him, without any shame of his own.
Daniel 11:19  Then he will turn his face toward the fortress of his own land. But he will stumble and fall, and will not be found.
Daniel 11:20  Then in his place one will rise who raises taxes in the glory of the kingdom. But within a few days he will be destroyed, though not in anger or in battle.
Daniel 11:21  In his place a vile person will rise, one to whom they will not give the honour of the kingdom. He will come in peacefully, and take the kingdom by flattery.
Daniel 11:22  The forces of a flood will be swept away before him and broken, and so will the prince of the covenant.
Daniel 11:23  After an agreement is made with him he will act deceitfully. He will come up and grow strong with only a few people.
Daniel 11:24  He will come in peacefully into the richest parts of the province. He will do what his fathers never did, nor his fathers' fathers. He will scatter among them plunder, spoil and riches. He will make plans against the strongholds, but only for a time.
Daniel 11:25  He will stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army. The king of the south will be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army, but he will not stand, for plans will be made against him.
Daniel 11:26  Those who eat their share of his food will destroy him. His army will be swept away, and many will fall down slain.
Daniel 11:27  The hearts of both these kings will be set on doing harm. They will speak lies at one table, but it will not succeed, for the end will still come at the appointed time.
Daniel 11:28  Then he will return to his land with great riches. His heart will be against the holy covenant. He will do great deeds, and return to his own land.
Daniel 11:29  At the appointed time he will return and come toward the south, but this time will not be like the first or like the last.
Daniel 11:30  For the ships of Chittim will come against him. He will be grieved, and turn back, and will rage against the holy covenant. So he will act. He will turn back and come to an understanding with those who forsake the holy covenant.
Daniel 11:31  Forces from him will rise up. They will defile the sanctuary, the stronghold, and take away the daily sacrifice, and they will set up the abomination that makes desolate.
Daniel 11:32  Those who act wickedly against the covenant he will corrupt by flattery. But the people who know their God will be strong and will do great deeds.
Daniel 11:33  Those among the people who understand will teach many. Yet for many days they will fall by the sword, by flame, by captivity and by plunder.
Daniel 11:34  Now when they fall, they will be helped with a little help, but many will join themselves to them with flattery.
Daniel 11:35  Some of those who understand will fall, so that they may be tested, and purged, and made white, until the time of the end. For it is still for the appointed time.
Daniel 11:36  The king will do whatever he pleases. He will lift himself up and make himself greater than every god, and he will say astonishing things against the God of gods. He will succeed until the wrath is finished, for what is decided will be done.
Daniel 11:37  He will not respect the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor any god at all. He will make himself greater than all.
Daniel 11:38  But in his place he will honour the God of forces. A god his fathers did not know he will honour with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly things.
Daniel 11:39  This is what he will do in the strongest fortresses, with a strange god, whom he will acknowledge and increase with glory. He will make them rule over many, and will divide the land for gain.
Daniel 11:40  At the time of the end the king of the south will push at him. The king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, with horsemen and with many ships. He will enter the countries, sweep through like a flood, and pass over.
Daniel 11:41  He will also enter the glorious land, and many countries will be overthrown. But these will escape out of his hand: Edom, Moab, and the chief part of the children of Ammon.
Daniel 11:42  He will stretch out his hand over the countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape.
Daniel 11:43  He will have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt. The Libyans and the Ethiopians will follow at his steps.
Daniel 11:44  But news out of the east and out of the north will trouble him. So he will go out with great fury to destroy, and to wipe out many completely.
Daniel 11:45  He will pitch the tents of his palace between the seas, at the glorious holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.

Daniel 12:1  "At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands up for the children of your people. There will be a time of trouble, such as there never was since there was a nation, right up to that time. And at that time your people will be delivered, every one who is found written in the book."
Daniel 12:2  Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Daniel 12:3  Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars for ever and ever.
Daniel 12:4  "But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will run here and there, and knowledge will be increased."
Daniel 12:5  Then I, Daniel, looked, and there stood two others, one on this bank of the river, and the other on that bank of the river.
Daniel 12:6  One of them said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, "How long will it be to the end of these wonders?"
Daniel 12:7  I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river. He held up his right hand and his left hand towards heaven, and swore by him who lives for ever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time. "And when he has finished scattering the power of the holy people, all these things will be finished."
Daniel 12:8  I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, "My Lord, what will be the end of these things?"
Daniel 12:9  And he said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end."
Daniel 12:10  Many will be purified, and made white, and tested. But the wicked will act wickedly, and none of the wicked will understand. But the wise will understand.
Daniel 12:11  And from the time that the daily sacrifice is taken away, and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there will be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Daniel 12:12  Blessed is the one who waits, and comes to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
Daniel 12:13  "But you, go your way till the end comes. For you will rest, and will stand in your place at the end of the days."

Hosea

Hosea 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri. It came in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea 1:2  This is the beginning of the word of the LORD through Hosea. The LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom, and children of whoredom. For the land has committed great whoredom, turning away from the LORD."
Hosea 1:3  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim. She became pregnant and bore him a son.
Hosea 1:4  The LORD said to him, "Call his name Jezreel. For in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel."
Hosea 1:5  "On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel."
Hosea 1:6  She became pregnant again and bore a daughter. And God said to him, "Call her name Loruhamah. For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will take them away completely."
Hosea 1:7  "But I will have mercy on the house of Judah. I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by battle, or by horses, or by horsemen."
Hosea 1:8  When she had weaned Loruhamah, she became pregnant and bore a son.
Hosea 1:9  Then God said, "Call his name Loammi. For you are not my people, and I will not be your God."
Hosea 1:10  Yet the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people," there it will be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God."
Hosea 1:11  Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint themselves one head, and they will come up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea 2:1  Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
Hosea 2:2  Plead with your mother, plead with her. She is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put her prostitution away from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts.
Hosea 2:3  If she will not, I will strip her naked. I will leave her bare as on the day she was born. I will make her like a desert, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.
Hosea 2:4  I will show no mercy to her children, for they are the children of prostitution.
Hosea 2:5  Their mother has been a prostitute. She who carried them has acted shamefully. She said, "I will go after my lovers. They give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink."
Hosea 2:6  So look, I will block her way with thorns. I will build a wall, so that she cannot find her paths.
Hosea 2:7  She will chase her lovers, but she will not catch them. She will look for them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, "I will go back to my first husband, for I was better off then than now."
Hosea 2:8  She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, and the wine, and the oil. I gave her more and more silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
Hosea 2:9  So I will come back and take away my grain at harvest time, and my wine in its season. I will take back my wool and my flax, which were given to cover her nakedness.
Hosea 2:10  Now I will uncover her shame in front of her lovers, and no one will rescue her out of my hand.
Hosea 2:11  I will also put an end to all her joy: her feast days, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals.
Hosea 2:12  I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, "These are my wages that my lovers gave me." I will turn them into a forest, and the wild animals will eat them.
Hosea 2:13  I will punish her for the days of the Baalim, when she burned incense to them. She put on her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the LORD.
Hosea 2:14  So look, I will win her back. I will bring her into the desert, and speak tenderly to her.
Hosea 2:15  From there I will give her her vineyards, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. She will sing there, as in the days of her youth, as on the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Hosea 2:16  On that day, says the LORD, you will call me Ishi, and you will no longer call me Baali.
Hosea 2:17  For I will take the names of the Baalim out of her mouth, and they will not be remembered by their name any more.
Hosea 2:18  On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, and with the birds of the sky, and with the things that creep on the ground. I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and I will make them lie down in safety.
Hosea 2:19  I will take you to be my wife for ever. Yes, I will take you to be my wife in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving kindness, and in mercies.
Hosea 2:20  I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.
Hosea 2:21  On that day I will answer, says the LORD. I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth.
Hosea 2:22  The earth will answer the grain, and the wine, and the oil; and they will answer Jezreel.
Hosea 2:23  I will sow her for myself in the land. I will show mercy to her who had received no mercy. I will say to those who were not my people, "You are my people," and they will say, "You are my God."

Hosea 3:1  Then the LORD said to me, "Go again. Love a woman who is loved by her friend, yet is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the children of Israel, who turn to other gods and love jars of wine."
Hosea 3:2  So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley and a half homer of barley.
Hosea 3:3  And I said to her, "You must stay with me for many days. You must not be a prostitute, and you must not belong to another man. And I also will be yours."
Hosea 3:4  For the children of Israel will stay many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim.
Hosea 3:5  Afterward the children of Israel will return. They will seek the LORD their God, and David their king. And they will fear the LORD and his goodness in the last days.

Hosea 4:1  Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel. The LORD has a case against the people who live in the land, because there is no truth, no mercy, and no knowledge of God in the land.
Hosea 4:2  There is swearing and lying and killing and stealing and adultery. They break out, and one act of bloodshed follows another.
Hosea 4:3  So the land will mourn, and everyone who lives in it will waste away, together with the wild animals and the birds of the sky. Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.
Hosea 4:4  Yet let no one argue, and let no one accuse another. For your people are like those who quarrel with the priest.
Hosea 4:5  So you will fall in the daytime, and the prophet will fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother.
Hosea 4:6  My people are destroyed because they have no knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, so that you will not be a priest to me. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.
Hosea 4:7  The more they increased, the more they sinned against me. So I will change their glory into shame.
Hosea 4:8  They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their wrongdoing.
Hosea 4:9  And it will be: like people, like priest. I will punish them for their ways, and pay them back for what they do.
Hosea 4:10  They will eat, and not have enough. They will act like prostitutes, and will not increase, because they have stopped paying attention to the LORD.
Hosea 4:11  Prostitution and wine and new wine take away the heart.
Hosea 4:12  My people ask advice from a piece of wood, and their stick tells them what to do. For a spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have left their God to act like prostitutes.
Hosea 4:13  They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shade there is good. So your daughters will act like prostitutes, and your wives will commit adultery.
Hosea 4:14  I will not punish your daughters when they act like prostitutes, nor your wives when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go apart with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. So the people who do not understand will fall.
Hosea 4:15  Though you, Israel, act like a prostitute, do not let Judah become guilty. Do not come to Gilgal, and do not go up to Bethaven, and do not swear, "As the LORD lives."
Hosea 4:16  For Israel has turned back, like a heifer that will not be led. Now the LORD will feed them like a lamb in a wide field.
Hosea 4:17  Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone.
Hosea 4:18  Their drink has turned sour. They have acted like prostitutes again and again. Her rulers dearly love shame, saying, "Give."
Hosea 4:19  The wind has wrapped her up in its wings, and they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5:1  Hear this, you priests. Listen, house of Israel. Pay attention, house of the king. For judgment is coming to you, because you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread out on Tabor.
Hosea 5:2  The rebels are deep in slaughter, though I have rebuked them all.
Hosea 5:3  I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. For now, Ephraim, you are unfaithful like a prostitute, and Israel is defiled.
Hosea 5:4  They will not change what they do and turn to their God. For the spirit of prostitution is among them, and they have not known the LORD.
Hosea 5:5  The pride of Israel speaks against him to his face. So Israel and Ephraim will fall in their sin. Judah will fall with them too.
Hosea 5:6  They will go with their flocks and their herds to look for the LORD, but they will not find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.
Hosea 5:7  They have been treacherous against the LORD, for they have fathered strange children. Now a month will devour them along with their fields.
Hosea 5:8  Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah. Shout aloud at Bethaven: after you, Benjamin.
Hosea 5:9  Ephraim will be a waste in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I have made known what will surely happen.
Hosea 5:10  The princes of Judah were like those who move the boundary stones. So I will pour out my anger on them like water.
Hosea 5:11  Ephraim is crushed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.
Hosea 5:12  So I will be to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rot.
Hosea 5:13  When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to the Assyrian and sent to king Jareb. Yet he could not heal you, or cure you of your wound.
Hosea 5:14  For I will be to Ephraim like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them and go away. I will carry them off, and no one will rescue them.
Hosea 5:15  I will go and return to my place, until they admit their offence and seek my face. In their trouble they will seek me early.

Hosea 6:1  Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us, and he will heal us. He has struck us, and he will bind up our wounds.
Hosea 6:2  After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
Hosea 6:3  Then we shall know, if we keep on to know the LORD. His coming is as sure as the morning. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring and autumn rain that waters the earth.
Hosea 6:4  Ephraim, what shall I do with you? Judah, what shall I do with you? For your goodness is like a morning cloud, like the early dew that goes away.
Hosea 6:5  So I have cut them down by the prophets. I have killed them by the words of my mouth. And your judgments go out like the light.
Hosea 6:6  For I wanted mercy, and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:7  But like men they have broken the covenant. There they dealt treacherously against me.
Hosea 6:8  Gilead is a city of those who do evil, and it is stained with blood.
Hosea 6:9  As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man, so the company of priests murder on the road by agreement. They commit shameful deeds.
Hosea 6:10  I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There is the whoredom of Ephraim; Israel is defiled.
Hosea 6:11  Also, Judah, he has set a harvest for you, when I brought back my people from captivity.

Hosea 7:1  When I would have healed Israel, then the guilt of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they practise lying. The thief breaks in, and outside the band of robbers plunders.
Hosea 7:2  They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds surround them; they are before my face.
Hosea 7:3  They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
Hosea 7:4  They are all adulterers. They are like an oven heated by the baker, who stops stirring the fire after he has kneaded the dough, until it has risen.
Hosea 7:5  On the day of our king, the princes made him sick with bottles of wine. He reached out his hand to mockers.
Hosea 7:6  They have made their hearts ready like an oven while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all night; in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
Hosea 7:7  They are all hot as an oven, and they have devoured their judges. All their kings have fallen. Not one of them calls to me.
Hosea 7:8  Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples. Ephraim is a cake that has not been turned.
Hosea 7:9  Strangers have eaten up his strength, and he does not know it. Grey hairs are here and there upon him, and he does not know it.
Hosea 7:10  The pride of Israel speaks against him to his face. Yet for all this they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him.
Hosea 7:11  Ephraim is also like a silly dove without sense. They call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.
Hosea 7:12  When they go, I will spread my net over them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will punish them, as their assembly has heard.
Hosea 7:13  Woe to them, for they have run away from me. Destruction to them, because they have sinned against me. I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
Hosea 7:14  They have not cried to me from their heart, though they howled on their beds. They gather themselves together for grain and wine, and they rebel against me.
Hosea 7:15  I trained them and made their arms strong, yet they plan evil against me.
Hosea 7:16  They return, but not to the Most High. They are like a bow that fails. Their princes will fall by the sword because of the rage of their tongue. This will make them a laughing-stock in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 8:1  Put the trumpet to your mouth. The enemy comes like an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have broken my covenant and sinned against my law.
Hosea 8:2  Israel will cry out to me, "My God, we know you."
Hosea 8:3  Israel has thrown away what is good. The enemy will chase him.
Hosea 8:4  They have set up kings, but not by me. They have made princes, and I did not know it. Out of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, and so they will be cut off.
Hosea 8:5  Your calf, Samaria, has thrown you off. My anger burns against them. How long will it be before they can be innocent?
Hosea 8:6  For this calf came from Israel too. A workman made it, so it is not God. The calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.
Hosea 8:7  They have sown the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. The grain has no stalk. The bud will give no flour. And if it does give any, strangers will swallow it up.
Hosea 8:8  Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a pot that no one wants.
Hosea 8:9  For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers.
Hosea 8:10  Yes, though they have hired lovers among the nations, now I will gather them. They will begin to suffer under the burden of the king of princes.
Hosea 8:11  Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, those altars have become his sin.
Hosea 8:12  I have written for him the great things of my law, but they counted them as something strange.
Hosea 8:13  They sacrifice meat for the offerings they bring me, and they eat it, but the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their wrongdoing and punish their sins. They will go back to Egypt.
Hosea 8:14  For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples. Judah has built many walled cities. But I will send a fire on his cities, and it will burn up their palaces.

Hosea 9:1  Do not rejoice, Israel. Do not be glad like other peoples. For you have turned away from your God like a prostitute. On every threshing floor you have loved the pay of a prostitute.
Hosea 9:2  The threshing floor and the winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail her.
Hosea 9:3  They will not live in the LORD's land. Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat unclean things.
Hosea 9:4  They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their offerings will not please him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat it will be unclean. For their bread will be for themselves alone; it will not come into the house of the LORD.
Hosea 9:5  What will you do on the appointed day, on the day of the LORD's feast?
Hosea 9:6  Look, they have gone away because of destruction. Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them. Nettles will take over their treasured places of silver, and thorns will grow in their tents.
Hosea 9:7  The days of punishment have come, the days of paying back have come. Israel will know it. The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad, because your sin is so great and your hatred so fierce.
Hosea 9:8  The watchman of Ephraim was with my God. But the prophet is a bird catcher's trap on all his paths, and there is hatred in the house of his God.
Hosea 9:9  They have made themselves deeply corrupt, as in the days of Gibeah. So he will remember their sin; he will punish them for their sins.
Hosea 9:10  I found Israel like grapes in the desert. I saw your fathers like the first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baalpeor, and gave themselves up to that shameful thing. They became as disgusting as the thing they loved.
Hosea 9:11  As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird: no birth, no pregnancy, no conceiving.
Hosea 9:12  Even if they bring up their children, I will take them away, so that not one is left. Yes, and how terrible for them when I turn away from them.
Hosea 9:13  Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out his children to the killer.
Hosea 9:14  Give them, LORD - what will you give them? Give them a womb that loses its child and breasts with no milk.
Hosea 9:15  All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of what they do, I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more. All their leaders are rebels.
Hosea 9:16  Ephraim is struck down. Their root is dried up; they will bear no fruit. Yes, even if they have children, I will kill the precious children of their womb.
Hosea 9:17  My God will throw them away, because they did not listen to him. They will be wanderers among the nations.

Hosea 10:1  Israel is an empty vine; he brings forth fruit for himself. The more fruit he had, the more altars he built. The better his land was, the finer he made his images.
Hosea 10:2  Their heart is divided; now they will be found guilty. He will break down their altars. He will ruin their images.
Hosea 10:3  For now they will say, "We have no king, because we did not fear the LORD. And what could a king do for us anyway?"
Hosea 10:4  They have spoken words, swearing falsely when they make a covenant. So judgment springs up like poison weeds in the furrows of a field.
Hosea 10:5  The people who live in Samaria will be afraid because of the calves of Bethaven. Its people will mourn over it, and so will its priests who used to rejoice over it, because its glory has gone away from it.
Hosea 10:6  It will also be carried to Assyria as a gift for king Jareb. Ephraim will be put to shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own plan.
Hosea 10:7  As for Samaria, her king is cut off like foam upon the water.
Hosea 10:8  The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. Thorns and thistles will grow up on their altars. They will say to the mountains, "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall on us."
Hosea 10:9  Israel, you have sinned since the days of Gibeah. There they stood. The battle in Gibeah against the children of wickedness did not overtake them.
Hosea 10:10  It is my desire to punish them. The peoples will be gathered against them, when they are bound for their two sins.
Hosea 10:11  Ephraim is like a trained young cow that loves to tread out the grain. But I passed over her fair neck. I will make Ephraim pull the harness. Judah will plough, and Jacob will break up his clods of earth.
Hosea 10:12  Sow for yourselves in righteousness; reap in mercy. Break up your unploughed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.
Hosea 10:13  You have ploughed wickedness; you have reaped evil. You have eaten the fruit of lies. This is because you trusted in your own way, and in your many strong men.
Hosea 10:14  So an uproar will rise among your people, and all your strongholds will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Betharbel on the day of battle. The mother was dashed to pieces upon her children.
Hosea 10:15  So Bethel will do to you, because of your great wickedness. In a morning the king of Israel will be completely cut off.

Hosea 11:1  When Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.
Hosea 11:2  The more they were called, the more they went away. They sacrificed to the Baalim, and burned incense to carved images.
Hosea 11:3  I also taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms. But they did not know that I healed them.
Hosea 11:4  I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift the yoke from their jaws, and I set food before them.
Hosea 11:5  He will not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian will be his king, because they refused to return.
Hosea 11:6  The sword will stay on his cities. It will destroy his branches and devour them, because of their own plans.
Hosea 11:7  My people are bent on turning away from me. Though they called them to the Most High, not one of them would lift him high.
Hosea 11:8  How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.
Hosea 11:9  I will not carry out the fierceness of my anger. I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you, and I will not enter the city.
Hosea 11:10  They will walk after the LORD. He will roar like a lion. When he roars, then the children will come trembling from the west.
Hosea 11:11  They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria. And I will settle them in their houses, says the LORD.
Hosea 11:12  Ephraim surrounds me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. But Judah still rules with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Hosea 12:1  Ephraim feeds on wind, and runs after the east wind. Every day he adds more lies and more ruin. They make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.
Hosea 12:2  The LORD has a case against Judah too. He will punish Jacob for his ways; he will pay him back for what he has done.
Hosea 12:3  In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his strength he had power with God.
Hosea 12:4  Yes, he had power over the angel, and won. He wept, and begged him for favour. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us;
Hosea 12:5  that is, the LORD God of hosts. The LORD is his memorial.
Hosea 12:6  So turn back to your God. Keep mercy and justice, and wait on your God always.
Hosea 12:7  He is a merchant with dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to crush others.
Hosea 12:8  And Ephraim said, "Still, I have become rich. I have gained wealth for myself. In all my work they will find no wrongdoing in me that is sin."
Hosea 12:9  "And I, the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, will yet make you live in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast."
Hosea 12:10  "I have also spoken by the prophets. I have given many visions, and used pictures and likenesses through the prophets."
Hosea 12:11  "Is there wrongdoing in Gilead? Surely they are worthless. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal. Yes, their altars are like heaps of stones in the furrows of the fields."
Hosea 12:12  "And Jacob fled into the country of Syria. Israel served to win a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep."
Hosea 12:13  "And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was kept safe."
Hosea 12:14  "Ephraim stirred up his anger most bitterly. So his Lord will leave his blood upon him, and will turn his shame back on him."

Hosea 13:1  When Ephraim spoke, people trembled. He was lifted high in Israel. But he did wrong through Baal, and he died.
Hosea 13:2  And now they sin more and more. They have made metal images from their silver, idols shaped by their own ideas, all of it the work of craftsmen. They say of them, "Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves."
Hosea 13:3  So they will be like the morning cloud, and like the early dew that fades away, like chaff blown by the whirlwind from the threshing floor, and like smoke out of a chimney.
Hosea 13:4  Yet I am the LORD your God, from the land of Egypt. You shall know no god but me, for there is no saviour besides me.
Hosea 13:5  I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
Hosea 13:6  When they had their pasture, they were filled. They were filled, and their heart grew proud. So they forgot me.
Hosea 13:7  So I will be like a lion to them. Like a leopard by the road I will watch for them.
Hosea 13:8  I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs. I will tear open the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast will tear them apart.
Hosea 13:9  Israel, you have destroyed yourself. But your help is in me.
Hosea 13:10  I will be your king. Where is anyone else who can save you in all your cities? Where are your judges, of whom you said, "Give me a king and princes"?
Hosea 13:11  I gave you a king in my anger, and took him away in my fury.
Hosea 13:12  The wrongdoing of Ephraim is tied up in a bundle. His sin is stored away.
Hosea 13:13  The pains of a woman in labour will come on him. He is a son without wisdom, for he does not come out when the time has come for birth.
Hosea 13:14  I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. Death, I will be your plagues. Grave, I will be your destruction. Pity will be hidden from my eyes.
Hosea 13:15  Though he bears fruit among his brothers, an east wind will come. The wind of the LORD will come up from the wilderness. His spring will fail, and his fountain will be dried up. The enemy will plunder the store of every precious thing.
Hosea 13:16  Samaria will be left waste, for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their little children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Hosea 14:1  Israel, return to the LORD your God. You have fallen because of your sin.
Hosea 14:2  Take words with you, and turn to the LORD. Say to him, "Take away all our sin, and receive us with grace. Then we will offer the calves of our lips."
Hosea 14:3  "Asshur will not save us. We will not ride on horses. We will never again say to the work of our hands, 'You are our gods.' For in you the fatherless finds mercy."
Hosea 14:4  I will heal them when they turn away from me. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from him.
Hosea 14:5  I will be like the dew to Israel. He will grow like the lily, and send out his roots like Lebanon.
Hosea 14:6  His branches will spread out. His beauty will be like the olive tree, and his smell like Lebanon.
Hosea 14:7  Those who live in his shade will return. They will come to life again like the grain, and grow like the vine. Their scent will be like the wine of Lebanon.
Hosea 14:8  Ephraim will say, "What have I to do any more with idols?" I have heard him, and I have watched over him. I am like a green fir tree. Your fruit is found in me.
Hosea 14:9  Who is wise, so that he will understand these things? Who has sense, so that he will know them? For the ways of the LORD are right. The just will walk in them, but those who break the law will fall in them.

Joel

Joel 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Joel the son of Pethuel.
Joel 1:2  Hear this, you old men. Listen, all you who live in the land. Has anything like this happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
Joel 1:3  Tell your children about it. Let your children tell their children, and their children tell the next generation.
Joel 1:4  What the palmerworm left, the locust has eaten. What the locust left, the cankerworm has eaten. What the cankerworm left, the caterpillar has eaten.
Joel 1:5  Wake up, you drunkards, and weep. Wail, all you who drink wine, because of the new wine, for it is taken away from your mouth.
Joel 1:6  A nation has come up against my land. It is strong, and there is no counting it. Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and it has the jaw teeth of a great lion.
Joel 1:7  It has ruined my vine and stripped the bark from my fig tree. It has made it completely bare and thrown it down. Its branches are left white.
Joel 1:8  Mourn like a young woman dressed in sackcloth, weeping for the husband she married when she was young.
Joel 1:9  The food offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests, the LORD's ministers, are mourning.
Joel 1:10  The field is ruined, the land mourns. The grain is ruined, the new wine has dried up, the oil fails.
Joel 1:11  Be ashamed, you farmers. Wail, you who tend the vines, for the wheat and for the barley, because the harvest of the field has been destroyed.
Joel 1:12  The vine has dried up, and the fig tree is failing. The pomegranate tree, the palm tree, and the apple tree, all the trees of the field, have withered. For joy has withered away from the people.
Joel 1:13  Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests. Wail, you who serve at the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God. For the food offering and the drink offering are kept back from the house of your God.
Joel 1:14  Set apart a time of fasting. Call a solemn meeting. Gather the elders and all who live in the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
Joel 1:15  Alas for the day! The day of the LORD is near. It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Joel 1:16  Has not the food been cut off before our eyes? Have not joy and gladness been cut off from the house of our God?
Joel 1:17  The seed has rotted under the lumps of soil. The storehouses are left empty, the barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
Joel 1:18  How the animals groan! The herds of cattle wander in confusion, because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep are left to suffer.
Joel 1:19  O LORD, I will cry out to you. For fire has eaten up the pastures of the wilderness, and flames have burned all the trees of the field.
Joel 1:20  The wild animals also cry out to you. For the streams of water have dried up, and fire has eaten up the pastures of the wilderness.

Joel 2:1  Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let everyone who lives in the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming. It is near.
Joel 2:2  It is a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. Like the dawn spreading over the mountains, a great and strong people comes. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again, through the years of many generations.
Joel 2:3  A fire burns up everything in front of them, and behind them a flame blazes. The land is like the garden of Eden before them, and behind them an empty desert. Nothing escapes them.
Joel 2:4  They look like horses, and they run like horsemen.
Joel 2:5  They leap on the mountain tops with a noise like chariots, like the noise of a flame of fire burning up dry stalks, like a strong people lined up for battle.
Joel 2:6  At the sight of them the peoples are in great pain. Every face turns pale.
Joel 2:7  They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like soldiers. They each march straight ahead, and they do not break their ranks.
Joel 2:8  They do not push one another. They each walk in their own path. They burst through the weapons and are not stopped.
Joel 2:9  They rush about in the city. They run along the wall. They climb up into the houses. They come in through the windows like a thief.
Joel 2:10  The earth shakes before them, and the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon go dark, and the stars stop shining.
Joel 2:11  The LORD calls out with his voice in front of his army, for his camp is very great. Strong is the one who carries out his word. The day of the LORD is great and very terrible. Who can stand it?
Joel 2:12  "Even now," says the LORD, "turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning."
Joel 2:13  Tear your heart, and not your clothes, and turn to the LORD your God. For he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and full of kindness, and he holds back from sending harm.
Joel 2:14  Who knows? He may turn back and change his mind, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God.
Joel 2:15  Blow the trumpet in Zion. Set apart a fast. Call a solemn meeting.
Joel 2:16  Gather the people. Make the assembly holy. Bring together the elders. Gather the children, and the babies at the breast. Let the bridegroom come out of his room, and the bride out of hers.
Joel 2:17  Let the priests, who serve the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, "Spare your people, LORD. Do not hand over what belongs to you to be shamed, and ruled by the nations. Why should the peoples say, 'Where is their God?'"
Joel 2:18  Then the LORD was jealous for his land, and had pity on his people.
Joel 2:19  The LORD will answer and say to his people, "Look, I will send you grain, and wine, and oil, and you will have enough. I will not let the nations shame you any more."
Joel 2:20  "But I will drive the northern army far away from you. I will push it into a dry and empty land, with its front toward the eastern sea and its rear toward the western sea. Its stench will rise, and its foul smell will rise, because it has done great things."
Joel 2:21  Do not be afraid, land. Be glad and rejoice, for the LORD will do great things.
Joel 2:22  Do not be afraid, wild animals, for the desert pastures are turning green. The tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine give their best.
Joel 2:23  So be glad, people of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God. He has given you the early rain in right measure. He will send down rain for you, the early rain and the late rain, in the first month.
Joel 2:24  The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with wine and oil.
Joel 2:25  "I will give you back the years that the locust ate, and the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army that I sent among you."
Joel 2:26  "You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, who has done wonderful things for you. My people will never be ashamed."
Joel 2:27  "You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people will never be ashamed."
Joel 2:28  "Afterward I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions."
Joel 2:29  "In those days I will pour out my spirit even on the male servants and the female servants."
Joel 2:30  "I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, and fire, and columns of smoke."
Joel 2:31  "The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes."
Joel 2:32  Then everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

Joel 3:1  Look, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,
Joel 3:2  I will also gather all nations. I will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put my case against them for my people, and for Israel, who belong to me. They scattered my people among the nations, and they divided up my land.
Joel 3:3  They have cast lots for my people. They have given a boy in payment for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, so that they could drink.
Joel 3:4  And what are you to me, Tyre and Zidon, and all the regions of Palestine? Are you paying me back for something? If you do pay me back, I will quickly and swiftly turn your payment onto your own head.
Joel 3:5  You have taken my silver and my gold. You have carried my fine and lovely treasures into your temples.
Joel 3:6  You have sold the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem to the Greeks, so that you could take them far away from their own land.
Joel 3:7  Look, I will stir them up out of the place where you sold them, and I will turn your payment onto your own head.
Joel 3:8  I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away. The LORD has spoken it.
Joel 3:9  Announce this among the nations: Get ready for war. Wake up the strong men. Let all the fighting men come near; let them come up.
Joel 3:10  Beat your plough blades into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak one say, "I am strong."
Joel 3:11  Come quickly, all you nations, and gather yourselves together from every side. Send your mighty ones down there, LORD.
Joel 3:12  Let the nations be stirred up and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the nations around.
Joel 3:13  Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow. Their wickedness is great.
Joel 3:14  Crowds, great crowds in the valley of decision. For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Joel 3:15  The sun and the moon will go dark, and the stars will stop shining.
Joel 3:16  The LORD will also roar out of Zion, and his voice will sound from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth will shake. But the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the people of Israel.
Joel 3:17  So you will know that I am the LORD your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will never pass through her again.
Joel 3:18  On that day the mountains will drip with new wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the streams of Judah will run with water. A spring will come out of the house of the LORD, and it will water the valley of Shittim.
Joel 3:19  Egypt will become a waste, and Edom will become an empty desert, because of their violence against the people of Judah. For they spilled innocent blood in their land.
Joel 3:20  But Judah will be lived in for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
Joel 3:21  I will clear away their blood that I have not yet cleared away. For the LORD lives in Zion.

Amos

Amos 1:1  The words of Amos, who was one of the herdsmen of Tekoa. These are the things he saw about Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Amos 1:2  And he said, "The LORD will roar from Zion, and will sound his voice from Jerusalem. The pastures of the shepherds will mourn, and the top of Carmel will wither."
Amos 1:3  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Damascus, and for four, I will not turn the punishment away. For they threshed Gilead with threshing tools of iron."
Amos 1:4  "But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it will burn up the palaces of Benhadad."
Amos 1:5  "I will also break the gate bar of Damascus. I will cut off the one who lives in the plain of Aven, and the one who holds the sceptre in the house of Eden. And the people of Syria will go as captives to Kir, says the LORD."
Amos 1:6  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Gaza, and for four, I will not turn the punishment away. For they carried away a whole people as captives, to hand them over to Edom."
Amos 1:7  "But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will burn up its palaces."
Amos 1:8  "I will cut off the one who lives in Ashdod, and the one who holds the sceptre in Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the rest of the Philistines will die, says the Lord GOD."
Amos 1:9  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Tyrus, and for four, I will not turn the punishment away. For they handed over a whole people as captives to Edom, and did not remember the covenant of brothers."
Amos 1:10  "But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus, and it will burn up its palaces."
Amos 1:11  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Edom, and for four, I will not turn the punishment away. For he chased his brother with the sword, and threw away all pity. His anger tore without stopping, and he kept his fury for ever."
Amos 1:12  "But I will send a fire on Teman, and it will burn up the palaces of Bozrah."
Amos 1:13  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of the children of Ammon, and for four, I will not turn the punishment away. For they ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, to make their own border wider."
Amos 1:14  "But I will light a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will burn up its palaces, with shouting on the day of battle, with a storm on the day of the whirlwind."
Amos 1:15  "And their king will go into captivity, he and his princes together, says the LORD."

Amos 2:1  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Moab, and for four, I will not turn back their punishment. They burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime."
Amos 2:2  "So I will send a fire on Moab, and it will eat up the palaces of Kerioth. Moab will die in uproar, with shouting and the sound of the trumpet."
Amos 2:3  "I will cut off the judge from among them, and I will kill all their princes with him," says the LORD.
Amos 2:4  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Judah, and for four, I will not turn back their punishment. They have despised the law of the LORD and have not kept his commandments. Their lies led them astray, the same lies their fathers followed."
Amos 2:5  "So I will send a fire on Judah, and it will eat up the palaces of Jerusalem."
Amos 2:6  This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Israel, and for four, I will not turn back their punishment. They sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes."
Amos 2:7  "They long to see the dust of the earth on the head of the poor. They push the meek out of the way. A man and his father go in to the same girl, and so make my holy name unclean."
Amos 2:8  "They lie down beside every altar on clothes taken as a pledge. In the house of their god they drink the wine of those they have fined."
Amos 2:9  "Yet I destroyed the Amorite in front of them. He was as tall as the cedars and as strong as the oaks. I destroyed his fruit above and his roots below."
Amos 2:10  "I also brought you up out of the land of Egypt. I led you forty years through the desert, so that you could take the land of the Amorite."
Amos 2:11  "I raised up some of your sons to be prophets, and some of your young men to be Nazarites. Is this not so, people of Israel?" says the LORD.
Amos 2:12  "But you gave the Nazarites wine to drink. You commanded the prophets, saying, 'Do not prophesy.'"
Amos 2:13  "Look, I am weighed down under you, as a cart is weighed down when it is full of sheaves."
Amos 2:14  "So the swift will not escape. The strong will not keep up his strength, and the mighty man will not save his own life."
Amos 2:15  "The one who handles the bow will not stand his ground. The one who is quick on his feet will not save himself, and the one who rides the horse will not save himself."
Amos 2:16  "On that day even the bravest of the mighty men will run away naked," says the LORD.

Amos 3:1  Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt. He says:
Amos 3:2  "Out of all the families of the earth, you only have I known. So I will punish you for all your sins."
Amos 3:3  Can two walk together, unless they have agreed?
Amos 3:4  Will a lion roar in the forest when he has no prey? Will a young lion cry out from his den if he has caught nothing?
Amos 3:5  Can a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare is set for him? Does a trap spring up from the ground when it has caught nothing at all?
Amos 3:6  If a trumpet is blown in the city, will the people not be afraid? If evil comes on a city, has the LORD not done it?
Amos 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
Amos 3:8  The lion has roared; who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken; who can do anything but prophesy?
Amos 3:9  Announce it in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, "Gather yourselves on the mountains of Samaria. Look at the great uproar inside her, and the oppressed people inside her."
Amos 3:10  "For they do not know how to do right," says the LORD. "They store up violence and robbery in their palaces."
Amos 3:11  Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "An enemy will be all around the land. He will bring down your strength from you, and your palaces will be plundered."
Amos 3:12  This is what the LORD says: "As the shepherd pulls two legs, or a piece of an ear, out of the mouth of the lion, so will the people of Israel be pulled out - those who live in Samaria in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus on a couch."
Amos 3:13  "Hear, and testify against the house of Jacob," says the Lord GOD, the God of hosts.
Amos 3:14  "On the day when I punish Israel for its wrongs, I will also punish the altars of Bethel. The horns of the altar will be cut off and fall to the ground."
Amos 3:15  "And I will strike the winter house along with the summer house. The houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will come to an end," says the LORD.

Amos 4:1  Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria. You crush the poor and grind down the needy. You say to your masters, "Bring more, and let us drink."
Amos 4:2  The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness: "Look, the days are coming upon you when he will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fishhooks."
Amos 4:3  "You will go out through the broken walls, each cow straight ahead of her, and you will be cast into the palace," says the LORD.
Amos 4:4  "Come to Bethel, and sin. At Gilgal sin more and more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes every three years."
Amos 4:5  "Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven in it. Announce your free offerings to everyone. For this is what pleases you, people of Israel," says the Lord GOD.
Amos 4:6  "I gave you clean teeth in all your cities, and no bread in all your places. Yet you have not returned to me," says the LORD.
Amos 4:7  "I also held back the rain from you, when there were still three months until the harvest. I sent rain on one city, and sent no rain on another city. One field was rained on, and the field that had no rain dried up."
Amos 4:8  "So people from two or three cities went wandering to one city to drink water, but they had not enough. Yet you have not returned to me," says the LORD.
Amos 4:9  "I struck you with blight and mildew. When your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees grew, the locusts ate them up. Yet you have not returned to me," says the LORD.
Amos 4:10  "I sent a plague among you, like the plague of Egypt. I killed your young men with the sword, and took your horses away. I made the stink of your camps rise into your noses. Yet you have not returned to me," says the LORD.
Amos 4:11  "I have overthrown some of you, as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. You were like a burning stick pulled out of the fire. Yet you have not returned to me," says the LORD.
Amos 4:12  "So this is what I will do to you, Israel. And because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, Israel."
Amos 4:13  For look, he is the one who forms the mountains, and creates the wind, and tells man what his thought is. He makes the morning dark, and walks on the high places of the earth. The LORD, The God of hosts, is his name.

Amos 5:1  Hear this word that I take up against you, a song of mourning, house of Israel.
Amos 5:2  The virgin of Israel has fallen; she will rise no more. She is left lying on her own land, and there is no one to lift her up.
Amos 5:3  For this is what the Lord GOD says: "The city that marched out with a thousand will have a hundred left, and the one that marched out with a hundred will have ten left, for the house of Israel."
Amos 5:4  For this is what the LORD says to the house of Israel: "Seek me, and you will live."
Amos 5:5  "But do not seek Bethel, and do not go into Gilgal, and do not cross over to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into captivity, and Bethel will come to nothing."
Amos 5:6  Seek the LORD, and you will live. If you do not, he will break out like fire in the house of Joseph and burn it up, and there will be no one in Bethel to put it out.
Amos 5:7  You turn justice into bitter wormwood, and you throw righteousness down to the ground.
Amos 5:8  Seek him who made the seven stars and Orion, who turns the shadow of death into morning, and darkens the day into night. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the earth. The LORD is his name.
Amos 5:9  He makes the plundered strong against the mighty, so that the plundered come against the fortress.
Amos 5:10  They hate the man who corrects them at the gate, and they cannot bear the one who speaks honestly.
Amos 5:11  Because you trample on the poor and take loads of wheat from him, you have built houses of cut stone, but you will not live in them. You have planted fine vineyards, but you will not drink their wine.
Amos 5:12  For I know how many your wrongs are, and how great your sins are. You oppress the righteous, you take a bribe, and at the gate you push the poor aside from their rights.
Amos 5:13  So the wise will keep quiet at that time, for it is an evil time.
Amos 5:14  Seek good, and not evil, so that you may live. Then the LORD, the God of hosts, will be with you, just as you have said.
Amos 5:15  Hate the evil, and love the good, and set up justice at the gate. It may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious to those who are left of Joseph.
Amos 5:16  So this is what the LORD, the God of hosts, the Lord, says: "There will be wailing in all the streets, and in all the roads they will say, 'Alas, alas.' They will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skilled at singing laments to wailing."
Amos 5:17  "And in all the vineyards there will be wailing, for I will pass through you," says the LORD.
Amos 5:18  How terrible for you who long for the day of the LORD. What good will it be to you? The day of the LORD is darkness, and not light.
Amos 5:19  It will be as if a man ran away from a lion, and a bear met him; or as if he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.
Amos 5:20  Will not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? Will it not be very dark, with no brightness in it?
Amos 5:21  "I hate, I despise your feast days, and I take no delight in your solemn gatherings."
Amos 5:22  Even if you offer me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them. I will not look at the peace offerings of your fattened animals.
Amos 5:23  Take away from me the noise of your songs, for I will not listen to the music of your harps.
Amos 5:24  But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a river that never dries up.
Amos 5:25  Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?
Amos 5:26  But you have carried the tent of your Moloch and Chiun, your images, the star of your god, which you made for yourselves.
Amos 5:27  "So I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus," says the LORD, whose name is The God of hosts.

Amos 6:1  Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who feel safe on the mountain of Samaria. They are the leading men of the chief nation, and the house of Israel comes to them.
Amos 6:2  Go over to Calneh and look. From there go on to Hamath the great. Then go down to Gath of the Philistines. Are they better than these kingdoms? Is their land larger than your land?
Amos 6:3  You push away the evil day, and you bring the seat of violence near.
Amos 6:4  You lie on beds of ivory and stretch yourselves out on your couches. You eat the lambs from the flock and the calves from the stall.
Amos 6:5  You sing to the sound of the harp, and you make up songs on instruments of music for yourselves, as David did.
Amos 6:6  You drink wine by the bowlful and rub yourselves with the finest oils. But you are not grieved by the ruin of Joseph.
Amos 6:7  So now they will go into captivity with the first who go, and the feasting of those who lay stretched out will come to an end.
Amos 6:8  The Lord GOD has sworn by himself, says the LORD, the God of hosts: "I hate the pride of Jacob, and I hate his palaces. So I will hand over the city and everything in it."
Amos 6:9  If ten men are left in one house, they too will die.
Amos 6:10  A man's uncle will lift him up, together with the one who burns the bodies, to carry the bones out of the house. He will say to the one still inside the house, "Is there anyone else with you?" And he will say, "No." Then he will say, "Be quiet. We must not speak the name of the LORD."
Amos 6:11  For look, the LORD gives the command, and he will strike the great house until it is broken to pieces, and the little house until it is split apart.
Amos 6:12  Do horses run on rock? Does anyone plough there with oxen? Yet you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitter weeds.
Amos 6:13  You are glad about a thing that is nothing. You say, "Have we not taken horns for ourselves by our own strength?"
Amos 6:14  "But look, I will raise up a nation against you, house of Israel," says the LORD, the God of hosts, "and they will oppress you from the entrance of Hemath to the river of the wilderness."

Amos 7:1  This is what the Lord GOD showed me. Look, he formed locusts when the late crop was beginning to come up. It was the late crop, after the king's mowings.
Amos 7:2  When the locusts had finished eating the grass of the land, I said, "Lord GOD, forgive, I beg you. How can Jacob stand? For he is small."
Amos 7:3  The LORD repented concerning this. "It shall not be," says the LORD.
Amos 7:4  This is what the Lord GOD showed me. Look, the Lord GOD called for judgment by fire. It burned up the great deep, and it ate up a part of the land.
Amos 7:5  Then I said, "Lord GOD, stop, I beg you. How can Jacob stand? For he is small."
Amos 7:6  The LORD repented concerning this. "This also shall not be," says the Lord GOD.
Amos 7:7  This is what he showed me. Look, the Lord stood on a wall that had been built with a plumbline, and he had a plumbline in his hand.
Amos 7:8  And the LORD said to me, "Amos, what do you see?" And I said, "A plumbline." Then the Lord said, "Look, I will set a plumbline among my people Israel. I will not pass by them any more."
Amos 7:9  "The high places of Isaac shall be made empty, and the holy places of Israel shall be laid waste. And I will rise up against the house of Jeroboam with the sword."
Amos 7:10  Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel. He said, "Amos has made a plot against you, right in the middle of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words."
Amos 7:11  "For this is what Amos says: 'Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away as captives out of their own land.'"
Amos 7:12  Amaziah also said to Amos, "You seer, go away. Run off to the land of Judah. Eat your bread there, and prophesy there."
Amos 7:13  "But do not prophesy at Bethel any more, for it is the king's holy place, and it is the king's court."
Amos 7:14  Then Amos answered Amaziah, "I was no prophet, and I was not a prophet's son. I was a herdsman, and I gathered sycomore fruit."
Amos 7:15  And the LORD took me as I followed the flock, and the LORD said to me, 'Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'
Amos 7:16  Now then, hear the word of the LORD. You say, 'Do not prophesy against Israel, and do not let your word fall against the house of Isaac.'
Amos 7:17  "So this is what the LORD says: 'Your wife shall be a harlot in the city, and your sons and your daughters shall fall by the sword. Your land shall be divided up with a measuring line, and you yourself shall die in an unclean land. And Israel shall surely go into captivity, away from his own land.'"

Amos 8:1  This is what the Lord GOD showed me: look, a basket of summer fruit.
Amos 8:2  He said, "Amos, what do you see?" I said, "A basket of summer fruit." Then the LORD said to me, "The end has come upon my people Israel. I will not pass by them any more."
Amos 8:3  "On that day the songs of the temple will turn into howling," says the Lord GOD. "There will be many dead bodies in every place. They will throw them out in silence."
Amos 8:4  Hear this, you who swallow up the needy, and make the poor of the land fail,
Amos 8:5  saying, "When will the new moon be over, so that we may sell grain? When will the sabbath be over, so that we may put out wheat?" You make the ephah small and the shekel great, and you cheat with false scales.
Amos 8:6  You do it so that you may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the leftover sweepings of the wheat.
Amos 8:7  The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob, "Surely I will never forget any of their deeds."
Amos 8:8  Will not the land tremble for this, and everyone who lives in it mourn? All of it will rise up like a flood. It will be tossed about and sink again, like the river of Egypt.
Amos 8:9  "On that day," says the Lord GOD, "I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in broad daylight."
Amos 8:10  I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into weeping. I will put sackcloth on every waist, and shave every head bald. I will make it like the mourning for an only son, and its end like a bitter day.
Amos 8:11  "Look, the days are coming," says the Lord GOD, "when I will send a famine on the land. It will not be a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD."
Amos 8:12  They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east. They will run here and there to seek the word of the LORD, and will not find it.
Amos 8:13  On that day the beautiful young women and the young men will faint from thirst.
Amos 8:14  Those who swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, "As your god lives, O Dan," and, "As the manner of Beersheba lives," even they will fall, and never rise again.

Amos 9:1  I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and he said, "Strike the top of the doorway, so that the doorposts shake. Break them on the head, all of them. I will kill the last of them with the sword. Not one of them who runs will get away; not one who escapes will be rescued."
Amos 9:2  "Though they dig down into hell, my hand will take them from there. Though they climb up to heaven, I will bring them down from there."
Amos 9:3  "Though they hide themselves on the top of Carmel, I will search them out and take them from there. Though they hide from my sight at the bottom of the sea, I will give the command there to the serpent, and it will bite them."
Amos 9:4  "Though they go into captivity before their enemies, I will command the sword there, and it will kill them. I will fix my eyes on them for harm, and not for good."
Amos 9:5  The Lord GOD of hosts is the one who touches the land, and it melts, and all who live in it mourn. All of it rises up like a flood, and sinks again, like the flood of Egypt.
Amos 9:6  He is the one who builds his upper rooms in the heavens, and has founded his troop on the earth. He calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth. The LORD is his name.
Amos 9:7  "Are you not like the children of the Ethiopians to me, O children of Israel?" says the LORD. "Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?"
Amos 9:8  "Look, the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth. Yet I will not completely destroy the house of Jacob, says the LORD."
Amos 9:9  "For look, I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel about among all the nations, as grain is shaken in a sieve. Yet not the smallest grain will fall to the ground."
Amos 9:10  "All the sinners among my people will die by the sword, those who say, 'Disaster will not overtake us or meet us.'"
Amos 9:11  "On that day I will raise up the tent of David that has fallen. I will close up its broken places, and raise up its ruins, and build it as it was in days of old,"
Amos 9:12  "so that they may possess what is left of Edom, and all the nations that are called by my name, says the LORD, who does this."
Amos 9:13  "Look, the days are coming, says the LORD, when the plowman will catch up with the reaper, and the one who treads the grapes with the one who sows the seed. The mountains will drip sweet wine, and all the hills will flow with it."
Amos 9:14  "I will bring my people Israel back from captivity. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine. They will make gardens and eat their fruit."
Amos 9:15  "I will plant them on their own land, and they will never again be pulled up out of the land that I have given them, says the LORD your God."

Obadiah

Obadiah 1:1  The vision of Obadiah. This is what the Lord GOD says about Edom: "We have heard a message from the LORD, and a messenger has been sent among the nations, saying, 'Get up, and let us rise up against her in battle.'"
Obadiah 1:2  Look, I have made you small among the nations. You are greatly despised.
Obadiah 1:3  The pride of your heart has deceived you. You live in the clefts of the rock, and your home is high up. You say in your heart, "Who will bring me down to the ground?"
Obadiah 1:4  Though you lift yourself up like the eagle, and though you set your nest among the stars, I will bring you down from there, says the LORD.
Obadiah 1:5  If thieves came to you, if robbers came by night (how you are ruined!), would they not steal only till they had enough? If men came to gather your grapes, would they not leave some grapes behind?
Obadiah 1:6  How the things of Esau are searched out! How his hidden treasures are hunted down!
Obadiah 1:7  All the men who were allied with you have driven you to the border. The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and have beaten you. Those who eat your bread have laid a wound under you. There is no understanding in him.
Obadiah 1:8  On that day, says the LORD, will I not destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mountain of Esau?
Obadiah 1:9  And your strong men, Teman, will be filled with fear, so that every one from the mountain of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
Obadiah 1:10  Because of your violence against your brother Jacob, shame will cover you, and you will be cut off for ever.
Obadiah 1:11  On the day you stood on the other side, on the day strangers carried away his forces, and foreigners came into his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.
Obadiah 1:12  But you should not have looked on the day of your brother, on the day he became a stranger. You should not have rejoiced over the children of Judah on the day of their destruction. You should not have spoken proudly on the day of distress.
Obadiah 1:13  You should not have entered the gate of my people on the day of their disaster. Yes, you should not have looked on their suffering on the day of their disaster, nor laid hands on their goods on the day of their disaster.
Obadiah 1:14  You should not have stood at the crossroads, to cut off those of his people who escaped. You should not have handed over those of his people who were left on the day of distress.
Obadiah 1:15  For the day of the LORD is near for all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you. What you have earned will come back on your own head.
Obadiah 1:16  For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so all the nations will drink without stopping. Yes, they will drink, and they will swallow it down, and they will be as though they had never been.
Obadiah 1:17  But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance, and it will be holy; and the house of Jacob will possess their possessions.
Obadiah 1:18  The house of Jacob will be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau will be stubble. They will set them alight and burn them up. No one will be left of the house of Esau, for the LORD has spoken it.
Obadiah 1:19  The people of the south will possess the mountain of Esau, and the people of the plain will possess the Philistines. They will possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead.
Obadiah 1:20  The captives of this army of the children of Israel will possess the land of the Canaanites, as far as Zarephath; and the captives of Jerusalem, who are in Sepharad, will possess the cities of the south.
Obadiah 1:21  Saviours will come up on Mount Zion to judge the mountain of Esau, and the kingdom will be the LORD's.

Jonah

Jonah 1:1  The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai. It said,
Jonah 1:2  "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it. Their wickedness has come up before me."
Jonah 1:3  But Jonah got up to run away to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and he found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.
Jonah 1:4  But the LORD sent out a great wind onto the sea. There was a mighty storm on the sea, so that the ship was about to break up.
Jonah 1:5  Then the sailors were afraid, and every man cried out to his god. They threw the goods that were in the ship into the sea, to make it lighter. But Jonah had gone down into the lower part of the ship. He lay there, fast asleep.
Jonah 1:6  So the captain of the ship came to him and said, "What do you mean, you sleeper? Get up, call on your God. Perhaps God will think about us, so that we do not die."
Jonah 1:7  And they said to one another, "Come, let us cast lots, so that we may know who is to blame for this trouble that has come on us." So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.
Jonah 1:8  Then they said to him, "Tell us, please, who is to blame for this trouble that has come on us. What is your work? Where do you come from? What is your country? Which people are you from?"
Jonah 1:9  He said to them, "I am a Hebrew. I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
Jonah 1:10  Then the men were very much afraid, and they said to him, "Why have you done this?" For the men knew that he was running away from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them.
Jonah 1:11  Then they said to him, "What shall we do to you, so that the sea may become calm for us?" For the sea grew rougher and rougher.
Jonah 1:12  He said to them, "Pick me up and throw me into the sea. Then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great storm has come on you because of me."
Jonah 1:13  Even so, the men rowed hard to bring the ship back to land, but they could not. For the sea grew rougher and rougher against them.
Jonah 1:14  So they cried out to the LORD and said, "We beg you, LORD, we beg you, do not let us die for this man's life. Do not lay innocent blood on us. For you, LORD, have done as it pleased you."
Jonah 1:15  So they picked Jonah up and threw him into the sea, and the sea stopped its raging.
Jonah 1:16  Then the men feared the LORD very greatly. They offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows.
Jonah 1:17  Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jonah 2:1  Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from inside the fish.
Jonah 2:2  He said, "In my trouble I cried out to the LORD, and he answered me. From deep inside the grave I cried, and you heard my voice."
Jonah 2:3  "You threw me into the deep, into the middle of the seas. The floods closed around me. All your breakers and your waves went over me."
Jonah 2:4  "Then I said, 'I am driven away from your sight. Yet I will look again toward your holy temple.'"
Jonah 2:5  "The waters closed around me, right up to my soul. The deep was all around me. Weeds were wrapped about my head."
Jonah 2:6  "I went down to the roots of the mountains. The earth shut me in with its bars for ever. Yet you brought my life up from the pit, LORD my God."
Jonah 2:7  "When my soul grew faint inside me, I remembered the LORD. My prayer came to you, into your holy temple."
Jonah 2:8  "Those who cling to worthless lies turn away from the mercy that is theirs."
Jonah 2:9  "But I will sacrifice to you with the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay what I have vowed. Salvation belongs to the LORD."
Jonah 2:10  Then the LORD spoke to the fish, and it spat Jonah out onto the dry land.

Jonah 3:1  The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time. It said,
Jonah 3:2  "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city. Preach to it the message that I tell you."
Jonah 3:3  So Jonah got up and went to Nineveh, as the LORD had said. Now Nineveh was a very great city. It took three days to travel through it.
Jonah 3:4  Jonah began to go into the city, a day's journey. He called out, "Forty more days, and Nineveh will be overthrown."
Jonah 3:5  So the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast, and they put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.
Jonah 3:6  Word came to the king of Nineveh. He got up from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
Jonah 3:7  He had this cried out and made known through Nineveh, by the order of the king and his nobles: "Let no one taste anything, neither people nor animals, herd nor flock. Let them not eat or drink water."
Jonah 3:8  "But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth, and let them cry out to God with all their strength. Let everyone turn from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands."
Jonah 3:9  "Who can tell? God may turn and change his mind, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we do not die."
Jonah 3:10  God saw what they did, that they turned from their evil way. So God changed his mind about the disaster he had said he would bring on them, and he did not do it.

Jonah 4:1  But this displeased Jonah very much, and he was very angry.
Jonah 4:2  He prayed to the LORD and said, "O LORD, please, was this not what I said when I was still in my own country? That is why I fled before to Tarshish. For I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and that you turn back from sending harm."
Jonah 4:3  "So now, O LORD, I beg you, take my life from me. It is better for me to die than to live."
Jonah 4:4  Then the LORD said, "Do you do well to be angry?"
Jonah 4:5  So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter, and sat under it in the shade, until he might see what would happen to the city.
Jonah 4:6  And the LORD God prepared a gourd and made it grow up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head and to save him from his misery. So Jonah was very glad about the gourd.
Jonah 4:7  But when the morning came the next day, God prepared a worm, and it struck the gourd so that it withered.
Jonah 4:8  When the sun rose, God prepared a fierce east wind. The sun beat down on Jonah's head, so that he grew faint. He wished in himself to die, and said, "It is better for me to die than to live."
Jonah 4:9  And God said to Jonah, "Do you do well to be angry about the gourd?" And he said, "I do well to be angry, angry enough to die."
Jonah 4:10  Then the LORD said, "You had pity on the gourd, which you did not work for and did not make grow. It came up in a night, and it died in a night."
Jonah 4:11  "And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city? In it there are more than sixscore thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left hand, and also much cattle."

Micah

Micah 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. This is what he saw about Samaria and Jerusalem.
Micah 1:2  Hear, all you peoples. Listen, earth, and everything in it. Let the Lord GOD be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.
Micah 1:3  Look, the LORD is coming out from his place. He will come down and walk on the high places of the earth.
Micah 1:4  The mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like water poured down a steep slope.
Micah 1:5  All this is because of the rebellion of Jacob, and because of the sins of the house of Israel. What is the rebellion of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Are they not Jerusalem?
Micah 1:6  So I will make Samaria a heap of stones in a field, a place for planting vines. I will pour her stones down into the valley, and lay her foundations bare.
Micah 1:7  All her carved images will be smashed to pieces, and all her earnings will be burned with fire, and all her idols I will leave in ruins. She gathered them from the pay of a prostitute, and they will go back to being the pay of a prostitute.
Micah 1:8  So I will wail and howl. I will go about stripped and naked. I will wail like the jackals, and mourn like the owls.
Micah 1:9  For her wound cannot be healed. It has come to Judah. It has reached the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.
Micah 1:10  Do not tell it in Gath, do not weep at all. In the house of Aphrah roll yourself in the dust.
Micah 1:11  Pass on your way, you who live in Saphir, in naked shame. Those who live in Zaanan did not come out in the mourning of Bethezel. He will take from you his place to stand.
Micah 1:12  Those who live in Maroth waited anxiously for good, but disaster came down from the LORD to the gate of Jerusalem.
Micah 1:13  You who live in Lachish, harness the chariot to the swift horse. She was the beginning of sin for the daughter of Zion, for the rebellious acts of Israel were found in you.
Micah 1:14  So you will give parting gifts to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a lie to the kings of Israel.
Micah 1:15  I will yet bring an heir to you, you who live in Mareshah. The glory of Israel will come to Adullam.
Micah 1:16  Shave your head and cut off your hair for the children you delight in. Make yourself as bald as the eagle, for they have gone from you into captivity.

Micah 2:1  Woe to those who plan wickedness and work out evil on their beds. When the morning is light, they do it, because they have the power to do it.
Micah 2:2  They want fields, and they seize them by force; they want houses, and they take them away. So they crush a man and his house, a man and his inheritance.
Micah 2:3  So this is what the LORD says: "Look, against this family I am planning an evil, and you will not get your necks out from under it. You will not walk proudly any more, for this is an evil time."
Micah 2:4  In that day someone will take up a saying against you, and mourn with a bitter song of grief, and say, "We are completely ruined. He has changed the portion of my people. How he has taken it from me! He has turned away and divided our fields."
Micah 2:5  So you will have no one to measure out land by lot in the assembly of the LORD.
Micah 2:6  "Do not prophesy," they say to those who prophesy. They will not prophesy to them, so the shame will not come.
Micah 2:7  You who are called the house of Jacob, is the Spirit of the LORD held back? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to the one who walks uprightly?
Micah 2:8  Only lately my people have risen up like an enemy. You pull the robe along with the garment off those who pass by in safety, as men who want no war.
Micah 2:9  You have driven the women of my people out of their pleasant houses. From their children you have taken my glory away for ever.
Micah 2:10  Get up and go, for this is not your resting place. Because it is unclean, it will destroy you, with a bitter destruction.
Micah 2:11  If a man walking in the spirit and in falsehood tells a lie, saying, "I will prophesy to you of wine and strong drink," he will be the prophet of this people.
Micah 2:12  I will surely gather all of you, Jacob. I will surely bring together the remnant of Israel. I will put them together like the sheep of Bozrah, like a flock in the middle of its pen. They will make a great noise because there are so many people.
Micah 2:13  The one who breaks open the way has gone up before them. They have broken out, and have passed through the gate, and have gone out by it. Their king passes on before them, and the LORD is at their head.

Micah 3:1  And I said, "Listen, I ask you, leaders of Jacob, and you rulers of the house of Israel. Is it not your business to know what is just?"
Micah 3:2  You hate what is good, and you love what is evil. You tear the skin off my people, and the flesh off their bones.
Micah 3:3  "You eat the flesh of my people. You strip off their skin. You break their bones and chop them up, like meat for the pot, like flesh inside the cauldron."
Micah 3:4  Then they will cry out to the LORD, but he will not answer them. At that time he will hide his face from them, because of the evil they have done.
Micah 3:5  This is what the LORD says about the prophets who lead my people astray. When they have something to bite with their teeth, they cry, "Peace." But if a man puts nothing in their mouths, they get ready for war against him.
Micah 3:6  So night will come over you, and you will have no vision. It will be dark for you, and you will not be able to tell what is coming. The sun will go down over the prophets, and the day will turn dark over them.
Micah 3:7  Then those who see visions will be ashamed, and those who tell the future will be put to shame. They will all cover their lips, for there is no answer from God.
Micah 3:8  But I am truly full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, and full of justice and strength, to tell Jacob his wrongdoing, and Israel his sin.
Micah 3:9  Listen to this, I ask you, you leaders of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel. You hate what is just, and you twist everything that is fair.
Micah 3:10  They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with wrongdoing.
Micah 3:11  Her leaders judge for a bribe. Her priests teach for a price. Her prophets tell the future for money. Yet they lean on the LORD and say, "Is not the LORD among us? No evil can come upon us."
Micah 3:12  So because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house will be like the high places of the forest.

Micah 4:1  But in the last days this will happen: the mountain of the house of the LORD will be set up as the highest of the mountains. It will be lifted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it.
Micah 4:2  Many nations will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths." For the law will go out from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
Micah 4:3  He will judge between many peoples, and settle the quarrels of strong nations far away. They will hammer their swords into plough blades, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up a sword against nation, and they will not learn war any more.
Micah 4:4  Every man will sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one will make them afraid. The mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken it.
Micah 4:5  All the peoples walk, each one, in the name of his god. But we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
Micah 4:6  "In that day," says the LORD, "I will gather her who limps. I will bring together her who was driven out, and her whom I have afflicted."
Micah 4:7  "I will make her who limped a remnant, and her who was cast far off a strong nation." And the LORD will reign over them in Mount Zion from now on, and for ever.
Micah 4:8  And you, tower of the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, to you it will come. The first rule will come back; the kingdom will come to the daughter of Jerusalem.
Micah 4:9  Now why do you cry out so loudly? Is there no king among you? Has your counsellor perished? For pains have gripped you like a woman in labour.
Micah 4:10  Be in pain, daughter of Zion, and struggle to give birth, like a woman in labour. For now you must go out of the city and live in the open field, and you will go as far as Babylon. There you will be rescued. There the LORD will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.
Micah 4:11  Now many nations are gathered against you. They say, "Let her be defiled, and let our eyes gloat over Zion."
Micah 4:12  But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD, and they do not understand his plan. For he will gather them like sheaves to the threshing floor.
Micah 4:13  Get up and thresh, daughter of Zion. I will make your horn iron, and I will make your hoofs bronze, and you will break many peoples in pieces. I will devote their gain to the LORD, and their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.

Micah 5:1  Now gather yourself in troops, daughter of troops. He has laid siege against us. They will strike the judge of Israel with a rod on the cheek.
Micah 5:2  But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you will come for me one who is to be ruler in Israel. His goings out have been from of old, from everlasting.
Micah 5:3  So he will give them up until the time when she who is in labour has given birth. Then the rest of his brothers will return to the children of Israel.
Micah 5:4  He will stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live safely, for now he will be great to the ends of the earth.
Micah 5:5  And this man will be the peace, when the Assyrian comes into our land and walks in our palaces. Then we will raise up against him seven shepherds, and eight chief men.
Micah 5:6  They will lay waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod at its gates. So he will save us from the Assyrian, when he comes into our land and walks inside our borders.
Micah 5:7  And the rest of Jacob will be among many peoples like dew from the LORD, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for man or delay for the sons of men.
Micah 5:8  And the rest of Jacob will be among the Gentiles, in the middle of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among the flocks of sheep. When he passes through, he tramples and tears in pieces, and no one can rescue.
Micah 5:9  Your hand will be lifted up against those who oppose you, and all your enemies will be cut off.
Micah 5:10  "In that day," says the LORD, "I will cut off your horses from among you, and I will destroy your chariots."
Micah 5:11  "I will cut off the cities of your land, and throw down all your strongholds."
Micah 5:12  "I will cut the witchcraft out of your hand, and you will have no more fortune-tellers."
Micah 5:13  "I will cut off your carved images and your standing images from among you, and you will no longer worship the work of your hands."
Micah 5:14  "I will tear up your groves from among you, and I will destroy your cities."
Micah 5:15  "And I will take vengeance in anger and fury on the nations, such as they have not heard of."

Micah 6:1  Hear now what the LORD says: "Stand up, and make your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice."
Micah 6:2  Hear the LORD's case, you mountains, and you strong foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against his people, and he will argue it with Israel.
Micah 6:3  "My people, what have I done to you? How have I made you weary? Answer me."
Micah 6:4  "For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and set you free from the house of slaves. I sent Moses before you, and Aaron, and Miriam."
Micah 6:5  "My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab planned, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim to Gilgal. Remember it, so that you may know the righteousness of the LORD."
Micah 6:6  What shall I bring when I come before the LORD, and bow down before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Micah 6:7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my wrongdoing, the child of my own body for the sin of my soul?
Micah 6:8  He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD ask of you, but to do what is just, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:9  The LORD's voice calls out to the city, and the man of wisdom will see your name. Hear the rod, and who has appointed it.
Micah 6:10  Are there still treasures gained by wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the short measure that is hateful?
Micah 6:11  Shall I count them pure when they use dishonest scales, and a bag of false weights?
Micah 6:12  For her rich men are full of violence, and her people have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.
Micah 6:13  "So I too will make you sick with striking you, laying you waste because of your sins."
Micah 6:14  "You will eat, but not be satisfied. Emptiness will be in the middle of you. You will carry things away, but you will not save them, and what you do save I will give up to the sword."
Micah 6:15  "You will sow, but you will not reap. You will tread the olives, but you will not rub yourself with oil. You will tread sweet grapes, but you will not drink the wine."
Micah 6:16  "For the laws of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you walk by their advice. So I will make you a ruin, and your people something to hiss at. You will bear the shame of my people."

Micah 7:1  How sad I am! I am like someone who comes when the summer fruit has been gathered, when the grapes of the harvest have been picked over. There is no cluster to eat. My soul longed for the first ripe fruit.
Micah 7:2  The good man has vanished from the earth. There is no one upright among people. They all lie in wait for blood. Every man hunts his brother with a net.
Micah 7:3  They use both hands eagerly to do evil. The prince asks, and the judge asks for a bribe. The great man speaks out the evil he wants, and so they weave it together.
Micah 7:4  The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge. The day your watchmen warned of, the day you are visited, is coming. Now they will be in confusion.
Micah 7:5  Do not trust a friend. Do not put confidence in a guide. Guard the doors of your mouth from the woman who lies in your arms.
Micah 7:6  For the son dishonours the father. The daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house.
Micah 7:7  So I will look to the LORD. I will wait for the God who saves me. My God will hear me.
Micah 7:8  Do not be glad about me, my enemy. When I fall, I will rise again. When I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me.
Micah 7:9  I will bear the anger of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he takes up my case and gives judgment for me. He will bring me out into the light, and I will see his righteousness.
Micah 7:10  Then my enemy will see it, and shame will cover her who said to me, "Where is the LORD your God?" My eyes will look at her. Now she will be trampled down like mud in the streets.
Micah 7:11  On the day when your walls are to be built, on that day the boundary will be moved far out.
Micah 7:12  On that day they will come to you from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
Micah 7:13  Yet the land will be left empty because of those who live in it, because of the fruit of what they have done.
Micah 7:14  Shepherd your people with your rod, the flock that is your own, who live alone in the forest, in the middle of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
Micah 7:15  "As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show him wonderful things."
Micah 7:16  The nations will see it and be ashamed of all their strength. They will put their hand over their mouth. Their ears will be deaf.
Micah 7:17  They will lick the dust like a snake. Like worms of the earth they will come trembling out of their holes. They will be afraid of the LORD our God, and will fear because of you.
Micah 7:18  Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and passes over the wrongdoing of the remnant of his people? He does not keep his anger for ever, because he delights in mercy.
Micah 7:19  He will turn back, he will have compassion on us. He will tread our sins under his feet. You will throw all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Micah 7:20  You will keep faith with Jacob, and show mercy to Abraham, as you promised on oath to our fathers in the days of old.

Nahum

Nahum 1:1  The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Nahum 1:2  God is jealous, and the LORD takes revenge. The LORD takes revenge and is furious. The LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he keeps his wrath for his enemies.
Nahum 1:3  The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and he will never let the wicked go free. The LORD makes his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum 1:4  He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and he dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel wither, and the flower of Lebanon withers.
Nahum 1:5  The mountains shake before him, and the hills melt. The earth is burned at his presence, yes, the world and all who live in it.
Nahum 1:6  Who can stand before his anger? Who can endure the heat of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and he throws down the rocks.
Nahum 1:7  The LORD is good, a strong place of safety in the day of trouble. He knows those who trust in him.
Nahum 1:8  But with a flood that sweeps over it he will make a full end of its place, and darkness will chase his enemies.
Nahum 1:9  What are you plotting against the LORD? He will make a full end. Trouble will not rise up a second time.
Nahum 1:10  For while they are tangled together like thorns, and while they are drunk like drunkards, they will be eaten up like dry stubble.
Nahum 1:11  One has come out from you who plots evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor.
Nahum 1:12  This is what the LORD says: "Though they are quiet, and also many, yet they will be cut down when he passes through. Though I have afflicted you, I will afflict you no more."
Nahum 1:13  "For now I will break his yoke from off you, and I will snap your chains apart."
Nahum 1:14  The LORD has given a command about you: "No more of your name will be sown. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the cast image. I will make your grave, for you are vile."
Nahum 1:15  Look, on the mountains, the feet of the one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Judah, keep your solemn feasts, carry out your vows. For the wicked will never pass through you again; he is completely cut off.

Nahum 2:1  The one who smashes to pieces has come up against you. Guard the fortress, watch the road, make your waist strong, gather all your strength.
Nahum 2:2  For the LORD has turned back the splendour of Jacob, like the splendour of Israel. Those who strip bare have stripped them, and ruined their vine branches.
Nahum 2:3  The shields of his mighty men are red, his brave men are dressed in scarlet. The chariots flash like fire on the day he gets them ready, and the fir spears are shaken fearfully.
Nahum 2:4  The chariots rage in the streets. They crash against each other in the wide roads. They look like torches; they run like lightning.
Nahum 2:5  He calls for his nobles. They stumble as they go. They hurry to the city wall, and the shelter is made ready.
Nahum 2:6  The river gates are opened, and the palace melts away.
Nahum 2:7  And Huzzab is led away captive, she is carried off. Her servant girls moan like doves, beating on their breasts.
Nahum 2:8  Nineveh has long been like a pool of water, but now they run away. "Stand still, stand still," they cry; but no one looks back.
Nahum 2:9  Take the silver as plunder, take the gold as plunder. There is no end to the treasure, the wealth of every precious thing.
Nahum 2:10  She is empty, stripped and ruined. Hearts melt, knees knock together, every waist is in pain, and every face grows pale.
Nahum 2:11  Where is the den of the lions, the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, the old lion, walked, and the lion's cub, and no one made them afraid?
Nahum 2:12  The lion tore enough for his cubs, and killed for his lionesses. He filled his holes with prey, and his dens with torn flesh.
Nahum 2:13  Look, I am against you, says the LORD of hosts. I will burn her chariots in smoke, and the sword will eat up your young lions. I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers will not be heard any more.

Nahum 3:1  Woe to the city of blood! It is full of lies and robbery. It never stops taking its prey.
Nahum 3:2  The sound of a whip, and the sound of rattling wheels, and prancing horses, and bouncing chariots.
Nahum 3:3  The horseman lifts up the shining sword and the flashing spear. There are crowds of the slain, and heaps of dead bodies. There is no end to the corpses; people stumble over them.
Nahum 3:4  All this because of the many prostitutions of the beautiful prostitute, the mistress of witchcraft. She sells nations by her prostitution, and families by her witchcraft.
Nahum 3:5  "Look, I am against you," says the LORD of hosts. "I will pull your skirts up over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness, and the kingdoms your shame."
Nahum 3:6  "I will throw disgusting filth on you, and make you vile, and put you on show for all to stare at."
Nahum 3:7  Then all who look at you will run away from you and say, "Nineveh is laid waste. Who will weep for her? Where shall I look for anyone to comfort you?"
Nahum 3:8  Are you better than No, that crowded city that sat among the rivers, with water all around her? The sea was her defence, and the sea was her wall.
Nahum 3:9  Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it had no limit. Put and Lubim were your helpers.
Nahum 3:10  Yet she was carried away; she went into captivity. Her little children were smashed to pieces at the top of every street. They threw lots for her honoured men, and all her great men were bound in chains.
Nahum 3:11  You too will be made drunk. You will go into hiding. You too will look for a safe place from the enemy.
Nahum 3:12  All your strongholds will be like fig trees with early figs. If they are shaken, the figs fall straight into the mouth of the eater.
Nahum 3:13  Look, the people among you are women. The gates of your land are thrown wide open to your enemies. The fire has burned up your gate bars.
Nahum 3:14  Draw water for the siege. Make your strongholds strong. Go into the clay and tread the mortar; make the brick kiln strong.
Nahum 3:15  There the fire will burn you up. The sword will cut you off. It will eat you up like the young locust. Make yourselves as many as the young locust, as many as the locusts.
Nahum 3:16  You have made your merchants more than the stars of heaven. The young locust strips the land, then flies away.
Nahum 3:17  Your crowned princes are like locusts, and your captains like swarms of grasshoppers. They settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun rises they fly away, and no one knows where they are.
Nahum 3:18  Your shepherds are asleep, king of Assyria. Your nobles lie down in the dust. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and no one gathers them.
Nahum 3:19  There is no cure for your injury; your wound is deadly. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall. For who has not felt your endless cruelty?

Habakkuk

Habakkuk 1:1  The burden which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk 1:2  O LORD, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you about violence, and you do not save.
Habakkuk 1:3  Why do you show me wrongdoing, and make me look at trouble? Ruin and violence are in front of me. There are people who stir up quarrels and fighting.
Habakkuk 1:4  So the law is weak, and justice never goes out. The wicked surround the righteous, and so justice comes out twisted.
Habakkuk 1:5  Look among the nations, and watch, and be amazed beyond words. For I will do a work in your days that you will not believe, even when you are told.
Habakkuk 1:6  Look, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation. They march through the whole width of the land, to take homes that are not theirs.
Habakkuk 1:7  They are terrible and frightening. Their justice and their honour come from themselves alone.
Habakkuk 1:8  Their horses are faster than leopards, and fiercer than wolves at evening. Their horsemen spread out; their horsemen come from far away. They fly like an eagle hurrying to eat.
Habakkuk 1:9  They all come to do violence. Their faces are set forward like the east wind, and they gather prisoners like sand.
Habakkuk 1:10  They mock kings, and princes are a joke to them. They laugh at every strong fort, for they pile up dust and take it.
Habakkuk 1:11  Then his mind changes, and he passes on, and does wrong, saying that this power of his is his god.
Habakkuk 1:12  Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have appointed them to judge; O mighty God, you have set them up to correct.
Habakkuk 1:13  Your eyes are too pure to look at evil, and you cannot look on wrongdoing. So why do you look at those who act treacherously? Why do you keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he is?
Habakkuk 1:14  Why do you make people like the fish of the sea, like the crawling things that have no ruler over them?
Habakkuk 1:15  They pull them all up with a hook, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their dragnet. So they are happy and glad.
Habakkuk 1:16  So they offer sacrifices to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet. For by these their share is rich, and their food is plenty.
Habakkuk 1:17  Shall they then keep emptying their net, and go on killing the nations without pity?

Habakkuk 2:1  I will stand at my watch. I will take my place on the tower. I will watch to see what he will say to me, and what I shall answer when I am corrected.
Habakkuk 2:2  And the LORD answered me and said, "Write the vision down. Write it plainly on tablets, so that the one who reads it may run."
Habakkuk 2:3  For the vision is for an appointed time still to come. At the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it is slow in coming, wait for it. It will surely come; it will not be late.
Habakkuk 2:4  "Look, the soul that is lifted up is not upright in him. But the just shall live by his faith."
Habakkuk 2:5  Also, because he does wrong through wine, he is a proud man. He does not stay at home. He opens his desire wide as hell, and is like death, and cannot be satisfied. He gathers all nations to himself, and heaps up all peoples for himself.
Habakkuk 2:6  Will not all these take up a saying against him, a mocking proverb against him? They will say, "Woe to him who piles up what is not his. How long will it last? Woe to him who loads himself with thick clay."
Habakkuk 2:7  Will not those who bite you rise up suddenly? Will not those who trouble you wake up? And you shall be their plunder.
Habakkuk 2:8  Because you have robbed many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall rob you. This is because of the blood of men, and the violence done to the land, to the city, and to all who live in it.
Habakkuk 2:9  Woe to him who greedily gains evil riches for his house, so that he may set his nest up high and be kept safe from the power of evil.
Habakkuk 2:10  You have planned shame for your own house by cutting off many peoples, and you have sinned against your own soul.
Habakkuk 2:11  For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork shall answer it.
Habakkuk 2:12  Woe to him who builds a town with blood, and sets up a city by wrongdoing.
Habakkuk 2:13  Look, is it not from the LORD of hosts that the peoples labour only for fire, and the peoples wear themselves out for nothing?
Habakkuk 2:14  For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Habakkuk 2:15  Woe to him who gives his neighbour drink, who holds out your bottle to him and makes him drunk as well, so that you may look on their nakedness.
Habakkuk 2:16  You are filled with shame instead of glory. Drink yourself, and let your foreskin be uncovered. The cup of the LORD's right hand shall be turned to you, and shameful vomit shall be on your glory.
Habakkuk 2:17  For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover you, and the destruction of the beasts, which made them afraid. This is because of the blood of men, and the violence done to the land, to the city, and to all who live in it.
Habakkuk 2:18  What good is the carved image, that its maker carved it? What good is the cast image, a teacher of lies, that the one who made the work trusts in it, and makes idols that cannot speak?
Habakkuk 2:19  Woe to him who says to the wood, "Wake up," and to the silent stone, "Get up, it will teach." Look, it is covered over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all inside it.
Habakkuk 2:20  But the LORD is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him.

Habakkuk 3:1  A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, upon Shigionoth.
Habakkuk 3:2  O LORD, I have heard what you said, and I was afraid. O LORD, revive your work in the middle of the years; in the middle of the years make it known. In your anger remember mercy.
Habakkuk 3:3  God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
Habakkuk 3:4  His brightness was like the light. Horns came out of his hand, and there his power was hidden.
Habakkuk 3:5  The plague went before him, and burning coals went out at his feet.
Habakkuk 3:6  He stood, and measured the earth. He looked, and drove the nations apart. The everlasting mountains were scattered; the age-old hills bowed down. His ways are everlasting.
Habakkuk 3:7  I saw the tents of Cushan in trouble, and the curtains of the land of Midian shook.
Habakkuk 3:8  Was the LORD displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers? Was your fury against the sea, when you rode on your horses and your chariots of salvation?
Habakkuk 3:9  Your bow was laid quite bare, as the oaths to the tribes required, your own word. Selah. You split the earth open with rivers.
Habakkuk 3:10  The mountains saw you, and they trembled. The rushing water swept past. The deep gave its voice, and lifted its hands on high.
Habakkuk 3:11  The sun and the moon stood still in their home. They moved at the light of your arrows, at the shining of your flashing spear.
Habakkuk 3:12  You marched through the land in indignation. You threshed the nations in anger.
Habakkuk 3:13  You went out to save your people, to save them with your anointed one. You wounded the head of the house of the wicked, laying it bare from the foundation up to the neck. Selah.
Habakkuk 3:14  You struck through the head of his villages with his own staves. They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me. They rejoiced as if to devour the poor in secret.
Habakkuk 3:15  You walked through the sea with your horses, through the heap of great waters.
Habakkuk 3:16  When I heard, my body trembled; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness came into my bones, and I trembled where I stood, so that I might rest in the day of trouble. For he comes up against the people, and he will invade them with his troops.
Habakkuk 3:17  Even though the fig tree does not blossom, and there is no fruit on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields give no food; even though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls:
Habakkuk 3:18  yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be glad in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:19  The LORD God is my strength. He will make my feet like the feet of deer, and he will make me walk on my high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.

Zephaniah

Zephaniah 1:1  The word of the LORD that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hizkiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah.
Zephaniah 1:2  "I will sweep everything away from the face of the land," says the LORD.
Zephaniah 1:3  "I will sweep away man and beast. I will sweep away the birds of the sky and the fish of the sea, and the things that make people stumble, along with the wicked. I will cut off mankind from the face of the land," says the LORD.
Zephaniah 1:4  "I will also stretch out my hand against Judah, and against all the people who live in Jerusalem. I will cut off from this place all that is left of Baal, and the name of the idol priests along with the other priests."
Zephaniah 1:5  "I will cut off those who bow down on the housetops to the stars of the sky, and those who bow down and swear by the LORD and also swear by Malcham,"
Zephaniah 1:6  "and those who have turned back from following the LORD, and those who have not sought the LORD or asked for him."
Zephaniah 1:7  Be silent before the Lord GOD, for the day of the LORD is near. The LORD has prepared a sacrifice; he has set apart his guests.
Zephaniah 1:8  "On the day of the LORD's sacrifice I will punish the princes, and the king's children, and all who are dressed in foreign clothing."
Zephaniah 1:9  "On that same day I will punish all those who leap over the threshold, who fill their masters' houses with violence and lies."
Zephaniah 1:10  "On that day," says the LORD, "there will be the sound of crying from the fish gate, and wailing from the second part of the city, and a great crashing from the hills."
Zephaniah 1:11  Wail, you who live in Maktesh, for all the trading people are destroyed. All who weigh out silver are cut off.
Zephaniah 1:12  "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps, and punish the men who settle down like wine on its dregs, who say in their heart, 'The LORD will not do good, and he will not do evil.'"
Zephaniah 1:13  "So their goods will be taken as plunder, and their houses left in ruins. They will build houses, but not live in them. They will plant vineyards, but not drink their wine."
Zephaniah 1:14  The great day of the LORD is near. It is near, and it comes very fast. Listen to the day of the LORD: there the strong man cries out bitterly.
Zephaniah 1:15  That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of ruin and desolation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
Zephaniah 1:16  a day of the trumpet and the battle cry against the walled cities and against the high towers.
Zephaniah 1:17  "I will bring distress on people, so that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD. Their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung."
Zephaniah 1:18  Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD's wrath. The whole land will be eaten up by the fire of his jealousy, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the land.

Zephaniah 2:1  Gather yourselves together; yes, gather together, you nation that no one wants,
Zephaniah 2:2  before the decree takes effect, before the day passes by like chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD comes upon you, before the day of the LORD's anger comes upon you.
Zephaniah 2:3  Seek the LORD, all you meek of the earth, who have done what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the LORD's anger.
Zephaniah 2:4  For Gaza will be abandoned, and Ashkelon left in ruins. Ashdod's people will be driven out at midday, and Ekron will be torn up by the roots.
Zephaniah 2:5  Woe to the people who live by the sea coast, the nation of the Cherethites. The word of the LORD is against you. Canaan, land of the Philistines, I will destroy you, so that no one is left living there.
Zephaniah 2:6  The sea coast will be pastures with huts for shepherds and pens for flocks.
Zephaniah 2:7  The coast will belong to those left of the house of Judah. They will feed their flocks there. In the evening they will lie down in the houses of Ashkelon, for the LORD their God will care for them and bring them back from captivity.
Zephaniah 2:8  I have heard the insults of Moab and the mocking words of the people of Ammon. They have insulted my people and made themselves great against their border.
Zephaniah 2:9  So, as surely as I live, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Moab will be like Sodom, and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah: a place of weeds and salt pits, a waste for ever. Those left of my people will plunder them, and the remnant of my people will take their land."
Zephaniah 2:10  This is what they get for their pride, because they insulted the people of the LORD of hosts and made themselves great against them.
Zephaniah 2:11  The LORD will be terrible to them, for he will starve away all the gods of the earth. People will worship him, each from his own place, even all the islands of the nations.
Zephaniah 2:12  You Ethiopians also will be killed by my sword.
Zephaniah 2:13  He will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria. He will make Nineveh a ruin, dry as a desert.
Zephaniah 2:14  Flocks will lie down in the middle of her, all kinds of wild animals. The cormorant and the bittern will roost on the tops of her pillars. Their calls will sound in the windows. The doorways will be in ruins, for he will strip away the cedar work.
Zephaniah 2:15  This is the happy city that lived so safely, that said in her heart, "I am, and there is no one besides me." How she has become a ruin, a place for wild animals to lie down in! Everyone who passes by her will hiss and shake his fist.

Zephaniah 3:1  Woe to the city that is filthy and defiled, the city that oppresses!
Zephaniah 3:2  She did not obey the voice. She did not accept correction. She did not trust in the LORD. She did not come near to her God.
Zephaniah 3:3  Her princes inside her are roaring lions. Her judges are wolves in the evening; they leave no bones to gnaw in the morning.
Zephaniah 3:4  Her prophets are reckless and treacherous men. Her priests have defiled the sanctuary; they have done violence to the law.
Zephaniah 3:5  The just LORD is in the middle of her; he will do no wrong. Every morning he brings his judgment to light; he does not fail. But the unjust knows no shame.
Zephaniah 3:6  "I have cut off the nations. Their towers are ruined. I made their streets waste, so that no one passes by. Their cities are destroyed, so that there is no one left, no inhabitant at all."
Zephaniah 3:7  I said, 'Surely you will fear me. You will accept instruction.' Then their home would not be cut off, whatever punishment I sent them. But they rose early and made all their deeds corrupt.
Zephaniah 3:8  "So wait for me," says the LORD, "until the day I rise up to take the prey. For I have decided to gather the nations and bring the kingdoms together, and to pour out on them my anger, all my fierce anger. For the whole earth will be eaten up by the fire of my jealousy."
Zephaniah 3:9  Then I will give the peoples a pure language, so that they may all call on the name of the LORD and serve him with one mind.
Zephaniah 3:10  From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia those who pray to me, the daughter of my scattered people, will bring my offering.
Zephaniah 3:11  On that day you will not be put to shame for all the deeds by which you rebelled against me. For then I will take away from among you those who delight in your pride, and you will never again be proud on my holy mountain.
Zephaniah 3:12  I will also leave among you a people afflicted and poor, and they will trust in the name of the LORD.
Zephaniah 3:13  "Those left of Israel will do no wrong and tell no lies. No deceitful tongue will be found in their mouth. They will feed and lie down, and no one will make them afraid."
Zephaniah 3:14  Sing, daughter of Zion; shout, Israel; be glad and rejoice with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem.
Zephaniah 3:15  The LORD has taken away the judgments against you; he has driven out your enemy. The king of Israel, the LORD himself, is among you. You will not see evil any more.
Zephaniah 3:16  On that day it will be said to Jerusalem, "Do not be afraid," and to Zion, "Do not let your hands hang down."
Zephaniah 3:17  The LORD your God is among you, and he is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will rest in his love. He will be glad over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:18  "I will gather those who grieve for the solemn assembly, who belong to you, for whom the shame of it was a burden."
Zephaniah 3:19  Look, at that time I will deal with all who afflict you. I will save the one who is lame and gather the one who was driven away. I will give them praise and fame in every land where they were put to shame.
Zephaniah 3:20  "At that time I will bring you back, at the time when I gather you. For I will make you a name and a praise among all the peoples of the earth, when I bring back those of you who were captives, before your own eyes," says the LORD.

Haggai

Haggai 1:1  In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest. It said,
Haggai 1:2  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: This people say, 'The time has not come for the LORD's house to be built.'"
Haggai 1:3  Then the word of the LORD came through Haggai the prophet. It said,
Haggai 1:4  "Is it time for you yourselves to live in your panelled houses, while this house lies in ruins?"
Haggai 1:5  So now this is what the LORD of hosts says: Think carefully about your ways.
Haggai 1:6  "You have sown much, but you bring in little. You eat, but you do not have enough. You drink, but you are not filled. You put on clothes, but no one is warm. Whoever earns wages earns them to put into a bag with holes."
Haggai 1:7  This is what the LORD of hosts says: "Think carefully about your ways."
Haggai 1:8  "Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it, and I will be glorified," says the LORD.
Haggai 1:9  "You looked for much, and look, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?" says the LORD of hosts. "Because my house lies in ruins, while each of you runs to his own house."
Haggai 1:10  So the sky above you holds back its dew, and the earth holds back its fruit.
Haggai 1:11  "And I called for a drought on the land, and on the mountains, and on the corn, and on the new wine, and on the oil, and on what the ground brings forth, and on people, and on cattle, and on all the work of your hands."
Haggai 1:12  Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, with all the rest of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, because the LORD their God had sent him. And the people feared before the LORD.
Haggai 1:13  Then Haggai, the LORD's messenger, spoke the LORD's message to the people. He said, "I am with you, says the LORD."
Haggai 1:14  And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the rest of the people. They came and worked on the house of the LORD of hosts, their God,
Haggai 1:15  on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of Darius the king.

Haggai 2:1  In the seventh month, on the twenty-first day of the month, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai. He said:
Haggai 2:2  "Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Josedech, the high priest, and to the rest of the people. Say to them:"
Haggai 2:3  "Who is left among you who saw this house in its first glory? And how do you see it now? In your eyes, is it not as nothing compared with that?"
Haggai 2:4  "Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel, says the LORD. Be strong, Joshua son of Josedech, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, says the LORD, and work. For I am with you, says the LORD of hosts."
Haggai 2:5  "This is the word I promised in the covenant I made with you when you came out of Egypt. So my spirit stays among you. Do not be afraid."
Haggai 2:6  "For this is what the LORD of hosts says: Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land."
Haggai 2:7  "And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts."
Haggai 2:8  "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts."
Haggai 2:9  "The glory of this later house shall be greater than the glory of the first, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, says the LORD of hosts."
Haggai 2:10  On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai. He said:
Haggai 2:11  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: Ask the priests about the law. Ask them this:"
Haggai 2:12  "If someone carries holy meat in the fold of his robe, and with that fold he touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any food, does it become holy?" The priests answered, "No."
Haggai 2:13  Then Haggai said, "If someone who is unclean from touching a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered, "It shall be unclean."
Haggai 2:14  Then Haggai answered and said, "So is this people, and so is this nation before me, says the LORD. So is every work of their hands. And what they offer there is unclean."
Haggai 2:15  "And now, please think carefully about the time from this day back, before one stone was laid on another in the temple of the LORD."
Haggai 2:16  "In those days, when someone came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When someone came to the winevat to draw out fifty vessels from the press, there were only twenty."
Haggai 2:17  "I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the work of your hands. Yet you did not turn to me, says the LORD."
Haggai 2:18  "Think carefully about the time from this day on, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid. Think about it."
Haggai 2:19  "Is the seed still in the barn? The vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree have not yet given their fruit. From this day I will bless you."
Haggai 2:20  The word of the LORD came to Haggai a second time, on the twenty-fourth day of the month. He said:
Haggai 2:21  "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah. Say to him: I will shake the heavens and the earth."
Haggai 2:22  "I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them. The horses and their riders shall come down, each one by the sword of his brother."
Haggai 2:23  "On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel my servant, son of Shealtiel, says the LORD, and I will make you like a signet ring. For I have chosen you, says the LORD of hosts."

Zechariah

Zechariah 1:1  In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. He said:
Zechariah 1:2  "The LORD has been very angry with your fathers."
Zechariah 1:3  So say to them, 'This is what the LORD of hosts says: Turn back to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will turn back to you, says the LORD of hosts.'
Zechariah 1:4  Do not be like your fathers. The prophets who came before called out to them, 'This is what the LORD of hosts says: Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.' But they did not hear, and they did not listen to me, says the LORD.
Zechariah 1:5  Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?
Zechariah 1:6  "But my words and my laws, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not catch up with your fathers? So they turned back and said, 'The LORD of hosts planned to deal with us according to our ways and our deeds, and that is what he has done to us.'"
Zechariah 1:7  On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Sebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo. He said:
Zechariah 1:8  "I saw in the night, and look, a man was riding on a red horse. He stood among the myrtle trees in the low ground, and behind him were red horses, speckled horses, and white ones."
Zechariah 1:9  Then I said, 'My lord, what are these?' And the angel who talked with me said to me, 'I will show you what these are.'
Zechariah 1:10  And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, 'These are the ones the LORD has sent to go up and down through the earth.'
Zechariah 1:11  And they answered the angel of the LORD who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, 'We have gone up and down through the earth, and look, all the earth sits still and is at rest.'
Zechariah 1:12  Then the angel of the LORD said, 'LORD of hosts, how long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah? You have been angry with them these seventy years.'
Zechariah 1:13  And the LORD answered the angel who talked with me with good words, comforting words.
Zechariah 1:14  So the angel who spoke with me said to me, 'Call out and say: This is what the LORD of hosts says: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.
Zechariah 1:15  And I am very angry with the nations that are at ease. For I was only a little angry, but they made the suffering worse.
Zechariah 1:16  So this is what the LORD says: I have returned to Jerusalem with mercies. My house shall be built in it, says the LORD of hosts, and a measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem.
Zechariah 1:17  Call out again and say: This is what the LORD of hosts says: My cities shall yet spread out with prosperity. The LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.'
Zechariah 1:18  Then I looked up, and I saw, and there were four horns.
Zechariah 1:19  And I said to the angel who talked with me, 'What are these?' And he answered me, 'These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.'
Zechariah 1:20  And the LORD showed me four carpenters.
Zechariah 1:21  "Then I said, 'What have these come to do?' And he spoke and said, 'These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head. But these carpenters have come to frighten them, to throw down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.'"

Zechariah 2:1  I looked up again, and I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand.
Zechariah 2:2  Then I said, "Where are you going?" And he said to me, "To measure Jerusalem, to see how wide it is and how long it is."
Zechariah 2:3  Then the angel who talked with me went out, and another angel went out to meet him,
Zechariah 2:4  and said to him, "Run, speak to this young man. Say, 'Jerusalem will be lived in like towns without walls, because of the great number of people and cattle in it.'"
Zechariah 2:5  "For I myself," says the LORD, "will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in the middle of her."
Zechariah 2:6  "Ho, ho, come out, and run away from the land of the north," says the LORD, "for I have scattered you abroad like the four winds of heaven," says the LORD.
Zechariah 2:7  Save yourself, Zion, you who live with the daughter of Babylon.
Zechariah 2:8  For this is what the LORD of hosts says: After the glory he has sent me to the nations that robbed you. For anyone who touches you touches the apple of his eye.
Zechariah 2:9  Look, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be plunder for their own servants. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me.
Zechariah 2:10  "Sing and be glad, daughter of Zion. For look, I am coming, and I will live among you," says the LORD.
Zechariah 2:11  Many nations will be joined to the LORD on that day, and they will be my people. And I will live among you, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
Zechariah 2:12  And the LORD will take Judah as his own share in the holy land, and will choose Jerusalem again.
Zechariah 2:13  Be silent, all people, before the LORD, for he has risen up out of his holy dwelling place.

Zechariah 3:1  Then he showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the LORD. Satan was standing at his right hand to oppose him.
Zechariah 3:2  And the LORD said to Satan, "The LORD rebuke you, Satan. The LORD, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you. Is this man not a stick pulled out of the fire?"
Zechariah 3:3  Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.
Zechariah 3:4  And the angel spoke to those who stood before him. He said, "Take the filthy clothes off him." And to Joshua he said, "Look, I have taken your sin away from you, and I will dress you in fine robes."
Zechariah 3:5  And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and dressed him in clothes. And the angel of the LORD stood by.
Zechariah 3:6  And the angel of the LORD gave Joshua this solemn charge:
Zechariah 3:7  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: If you will walk in my ways, and if you will keep my charge, then you will rule my house and take care of my courts. And I will give you a place to walk among these who are standing here."
Zechariah 3:8  "Listen now, Joshua the high priest, you and your companions who sit before you, for they are men who are a sign. Look, I will bring out my servant the BRANCH."
Zechariah 3:9  "Look at the stone that I have set before Joshua. On that one stone there are seven eyes. Look, I will carve its carving, says the LORD of hosts, and I will take away the sin of that land in one day."
Zechariah 3:10  "In that day, says the LORD of hosts, each of you will invite his neighbour to sit under his vine and under his fig tree."

Zechariah 4:1  The angel who talked with me came back and woke me, like a man who is woken out of his sleep.
Zechariah 4:2  He said to me, "What do you see?" And I said, "I have looked, and there is a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it. It has seven lamps on it, and seven pipes to the seven lamps that are on the top of it."
Zechariah 4:3  "And there are two olive trees beside it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on its left side."
Zechariah 4:4  So I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me. I said, "What are these, my lord?"
Zechariah 4:5  Then the angel who talked with me answered me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord."
Zechariah 4:6  Then he answered and said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the LORD of hosts."
Zechariah 4:7  "Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. And he will bring out the top stone with shouting, and they will cry, 'Grace, grace to it.'"
Zechariah 4:8  Then the word of the LORD came to me. He said,
Zechariah 4:9  "The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands will also finish it. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you."
Zechariah 4:10  "For who has despised the day of small things? They will rejoice, and will see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the LORD, which run here and there through the whole earth."
Zechariah 4:11  Then I answered and said to him, "What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lampstand and on its left side?"
Zechariah 4:12  I answered again and said to him, "What are these two olive branches which pour out the golden oil from themselves through the two golden pipes?"
Zechariah 4:13  He answered me, "Do you not know what these are?" And I said, "No, my lord."
Zechariah 4:14  Then he said, "These are the two anointed ones, who stand by the Lord of the whole earth."

Zechariah 5:1  Then I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and looked. There was a flying scroll.
Zechariah 5:2  He said to me, "What do you see?" And I answered, "I see a flying scroll. It is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide."
Zechariah 5:3  Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth. Everyone who steals will be cut off, as it says on this side; and everyone who swears will be cut off, as it says on that side."
Zechariah 5:4  "I will send it out, says the LORD of hosts, and it will go into the house of the thief, and into the house of the one who swears falsely by my name. It will stay inside his house and destroy it, both its timber and its stones."
Zechariah 5:5  Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, "Lift up your eyes now, and see what this is that is going out."
Zechariah 5:6  And I said, "What is it?" And he said, "This is an ephah that is going out." He also said, "This is what they look like through all the earth."
Zechariah 5:7  And look, a weight of lead, a talent, was lifted up. And there was a woman sitting inside the ephah.
Zechariah 5:8  And he said, "This is wickedness." And he threw her down into the ephah, and he threw the lead weight over its mouth.
Zechariah 5:9  Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there came out two women. The wind was in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork. They lifted up the ephah between the earth and the sky.
Zechariah 5:10  Then I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are they carrying the ephah?"
Zechariah 5:11  And he said to me, "To build a house for it in the land of Shinar. When it is ready, the ephah will be set there on its own base."

Zechariah 6:1  I turned and lifted up my eyes and looked, and there came four chariots out from between two mountains. The mountains were mountains of brass.
Zechariah 6:2  In the first chariot were red horses, and in the second chariot black horses,
Zechariah 6:3  and in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot speckled and bay horses.
Zechariah 6:4  Then I said to the angel who talked with me, "What are these, my lord?"
Zechariah 6:5  The angel answered me, "These are the four spirits of the heavens. They go out from standing before the Lord of all the earth."
Zechariah 6:6  "The black horses that are in one chariot go out into the country of the north. The white go out after them. The speckled go out toward the country of the south."
Zechariah 6:7  The bay horses went out, and they wanted to go and walk to and fro through the earth. And he said, "Go now, walk to and fro through the earth." So they walked to and fro through the earth.
Zechariah 6:8  Then he called out to me and said, "Look, these that go toward the country of the north have given my spirit rest in the country of the north."
Zechariah 6:9  And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Zechariah 6:10  "Take a gift from those who were carried away captive, from Heldai, from Tobijah, and from Jedaiah, who have come from Babylon. Come that same day, and go into the house of Josiah the son of Zephaniah."
Zechariah 6:11  Then take silver and gold, and make crowns, and set them on the head of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest.
Zechariah 6:12  Speak to him and say, 'This is what the LORD of hosts says: Look at the man whose name is The BRANCH. He shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD.
Zechariah 6:13  He himself shall build the temple of the LORD. He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule on his throne. He shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.'
Zechariah 6:14  The crowns shall be for Helem, and for Tobijah, and for Jedaiah, and for Hen the son of Zephaniah, as a memorial in the temple of the LORD.
Zechariah 6:15  "Those who are far off shall come and build in the temple of the LORD, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. And this shall happen, if you will carefully obey the voice of the LORD your God."

Zechariah 7:1  In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah. It came on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chisleu.
Zechariah 7:2  The people had sent Sherezer and Regemmelech and their men to the house of God, to pray before the LORD.
Zechariah 7:3  They were also to speak to the priests in the house of the LORD of hosts, and to the prophets. They asked, "Should I weep in the fifth month, and keep myself apart, as I have done for so many years?"
Zechariah 7:4  Then the word of the LORD of hosts came to me. He said,
Zechariah 7:5  "Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests. Say to them: When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month for those seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted, for me?"
Zechariah 7:6  And when you ate and when you drank, were you not eating for yourselves and drinking for yourselves?
Zechariah 7:7  "Should you not hear the words the LORD cried out through the prophets long ago? That was when Jerusalem was full of people and at peace, with her towns all around her, and when people lived in the south and on the plain."
Zechariah 7:8  And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah. He said,
Zechariah 7:9  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: Judge with true justice. Show mercy and compassion, each man to his brother."
Zechariah 7:10  "Do not crush the widow, or the fatherless, or the stranger, or the poor. And let none of you plan evil against his brother in your heart."
Zechariah 7:11  But they refused to listen. They turned their shoulder away, and they stopped their ears so they would not hear.
Zechariah 7:12  Yes, they made their hearts as hard as the hardest stone, so they would not hear the law, or the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the prophets long ago. So a great anger came from the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 7:13  So it happened that as he called out and they would not listen, so they called out and I would not listen, says the LORD of hosts.
Zechariah 7:14  "But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations they did not know. So the land was left empty behind them, and no one passed through it or came back. For they made the pleasant land a waste."

Zechariah 8:1  Again the word of the LORD of hosts came to me. He said,
Zechariah 8:2  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: I was jealous for Zion with great jealousy. I was jealous for her with great fury."
Zechariah 8:3  "This is what the LORD says: I have returned to Zion, and I will live in the middle of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts will be called the holy mountain."
Zechariah 8:4  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: Old men and old women will yet again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each one with a staff in his hand because he is so old."
Zechariah 8:5  "And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing there."
Zechariah 8:6  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: If this seems wonderful to those of this people who are left in these days, should it seem wonderful to me too? says the LORD of hosts."
Zechariah 8:7  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: Look, I will save my people from the country of the east and from the country of the west."
Zechariah 8:8  "I will bring them back, and they will live in the middle of Jerusalem. They will be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness."
Zechariah 8:9  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: Let your hands be strong, you who hear these words in these days from the mouth of the prophets. They spoke on the day when the foundation of the house of the LORD of hosts was laid, so that the temple might be built."
Zechariah 8:10  "Before those days there was no pay for a man and no pay for an animal. No one who went out or came in had any peace, because of the trouble. I set every person against his neighbour."
Zechariah 8:11  "But now I will not deal with those of this people who are left as I did in the days before, says the LORD of hosts."
Zechariah 8:12  "For the seed will grow well. The vine will give its fruit, and the ground will give its crops, and the skies will give their dew. I will give all these things to those of this people who are left."
Zechariah 8:13  "And it will be this way: you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, but now I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong."
Zechariah 8:14  "For this is what the LORD of hosts says: I planned to punish you when your fathers made me angry, says the LORD of hosts, and I did not turn back from it."
Zechariah 8:15  "In the same way I have planned again in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Do not be afraid."
Zechariah 8:16  "These are the things you must do: Speak the truth to one another. In your gates judge with truth and with judgments that bring peace."
Zechariah 8:17  "Let none of you plan evil in your hearts against your neighbour, and do not love a false oath. For I hate all these things, says the LORD."
Zechariah 8:18  And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me. He said,
Zechariah 8:19  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth will become joy and gladness for the house of Judah, and happy feasts. So love truth and peace."
Zechariah 8:20  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: It will yet happen that peoples will come, and those who live in many cities."
Zechariah 8:21  "Those who live in one city will go to another and say, 'Let us go quickly to pray before the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts. I will go too.'"
Zechariah 8:22  "Yes, many peoples and strong nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the LORD."
Zechariah 8:23  "This is what the LORD of hosts says: In those days ten men from all the languages of the nations will take hold of the robe of one Jew. They will hold it and say, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'"

Zechariah 9:1  The burden of the word of the LORD is against the land of Hadrach, and Damascus is where it rests. For the eyes of man, and of all the tribes of Israel, are toward the LORD.
Zechariah 9:2  Hamath also lies on its border, and Tyre and Sidon, though they are very wise.
Zechariah 9:3  Tyre built herself a stronghold. She heaped up silver like dust, and fine gold like the mud of the streets.
Zechariah 9:4  Look, the Lord will drive her out. He will strike down her power in the sea, and she will be eaten up by fire.
Zechariah 9:5  Ashkelon will see it and be afraid. Gaza will see it too and be full of grief, and Ekron as well, for what she hoped for will be put to shame. The king will perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon will not be lived in.
Zechariah 9:6  A bastard will live in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines.
Zechariah 9:7  I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his disgusting things from between his teeth. But the one who is left, even he, will belong to our God. He will be like a leader in Judah, and Ekron like a Jebusite.
Zechariah 9:8  I will camp around my house because of the army, because of him who passes by and him who returns. No oppressor will pass through them any more, for now I have seen with my own eyes.
Zechariah 9:9  Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout, daughter of Jerusalem. Look, your King is coming to you. He is just, and brings salvation. He is lowly, and rides on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:10  I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be cut off. He will speak peace to the nations. His rule will reach from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Zechariah 9:11  As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant I have sent your prisoners out of the pit where there is no water.
Zechariah 9:12  Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will repay you double.
Zechariah 9:13  For I have bent Judah for myself, I have filled the bow with Ephraim. I have stirred up your sons, Zion, against your sons, Greece, and made you like the sword of a mighty man.
Zechariah 9:14  The LORD will be seen over them, and his arrow will go out like lightning. The Lord GOD will blow the trumpet, and will go with the whirlwinds of the south.
Zechariah 9:15  The LORD of hosts will defend them. They will devour, and they will crush the sling stones underfoot. They will drink and be noisy as if with wine. They will be filled like bowls, like the corners of the altar.
Zechariah 9:16  The LORD their God will save them on that day, as the flock of his people. They will be like the stones of a crown, lifted up as a banner over his land.
Zechariah 9:17  For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Grain will make the young men cheerful, and new wine the young women.

Zechariah 10:1  Ask the LORD for rain in the time of the latter rain. Then the LORD will make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, and grass in the field for everyone.
Zechariah 10:2  For the idols have spoken empty words, and the fortune-tellers have seen a lie, and have told false dreams. Their comfort is worth nothing. So the people went their way like a flock; they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.
Zechariah 10:3  My anger burned against the shepherds, and I punished the goats. For the LORD of hosts has come to care for his flock, the house of Judah, and has made them like his splendid horse in the battle.
Zechariah 10:4  Out of him came the cornerstone, out of him the tent peg, out of him the battle bow, out of him every ruler together.
Zechariah 10:5  They will be like mighty men, who trample down their enemies in the mud of the streets in the battle. They will fight, because the LORD is with them, and the riders on horses will be put to shame.
Zechariah 10:6  "I will make the house of Judah strong, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back and settle them, for I have mercy on them. They will be as though I had never cast them off, for I am the LORD their God, and I will hear them."
Zechariah 10:7  "The people of Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their heart will be glad as with wine. Their children will see it and be glad; their heart will rejoice in the LORD."
Zechariah 10:8  "I will whistle for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them. They will grow in number as they grew before."
Zechariah 10:9  "I will scatter them like seed among the nations. They will remember me in far countries. They will live with their children, and they will come back."
Zechariah 10:10  "I will also bring them again out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria. I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, and there will not be room enough for them."
Zechariah 10:11  He will pass through the sea of trouble, and strike the waves in the sea, and all the deep places of the river will dry up. The pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the royal staff of Egypt will be taken away.
Zechariah 10:12  "I will make them strong in the LORD, and they will walk up and down in his name," says the LORD.

Zechariah 11:1  Open your doors, Lebanon, so that the fire may burn up your cedars.
Zechariah 11:2  Wail, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen; the mighty trees are ruined. Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the thick forest has come down.
Zechariah 11:3  Listen: the shepherds are wailing, for their glory is ruined. Listen: young lions are roaring, for the pride of Jordan is ruined.
Zechariah 11:4  This is what the LORD my God says: "Feed the flock that is marked for slaughter."
Zechariah 11:5  Their owners kill them and do not count themselves guilty. Those who sell them say, 'Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich.' And their own shepherds have no pity on them.
Zechariah 11:6  "For I will no longer have pity on the people of the land, says the LORD. Look, I will hand over every one of them into his neighbour's power, and into the power of his king. They will crush the land, and I will not rescue anyone out of their hand."
Zechariah 11:7  So I fed the flock marked for slaughter, even you, the poor of the flock. I took two staffs for myself. One I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock.
Zechariah 11:8  In one month I cut off three shepherds. I grew sick of them, and they also hated me.
Zechariah 11:9  Then I said, "I will not feed you. Let the one that is dying die, and the one that is to be cut off be cut off. Let those who are left eat one another's flesh."
Zechariah 11:10  Then I took my staff Beauty and cut it in two, to break the covenant I had made with all the peoples.
Zechariah 11:11  It was broken that day. So the poor of the flock who were watching me knew that this was the word of the LORD.
Zechariah 11:12  I said to them, "If you think it good, give me my wages; and if not, do not." So they weighed out my wages: thirty pieces of silver.
Zechariah 11:13  And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter - that fine price at which they valued me." So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD.
Zechariah 11:14  Then I cut my other staff, Bands, in two, to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
Zechariah 11:15  And the LORD said to me, "Take up again the tools of a foolish shepherd."
Zechariah 11:16  For look, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for those that are lost. He will not look for the young one, nor heal the one that is broken, nor feed the one that is standing still. But he will eat the flesh of the fat ones and tear off their hoofs.
Zechariah 11:17  "Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock. The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will be completely dried up, and his right eye will be made totally blind."

Zechariah 12:1  The burden of the word of the LORD about Israel. This is what the LORD says, the one who spreads out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
Zechariah 12:2  "Look, I will make Jerusalem a cup that makes all the peoples around her stagger. They will lay siege to Judah and to Jerusalem as well."
Zechariah 12:3  On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all peoples. Everyone who tries to lift it will be badly hurt, though all the nations of the earth gather together against her.
Zechariah 12:4  On that day, says the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness. I will keep my eyes open on the house of Judah, but I will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
Zechariah 12:5  Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts, 'The people who live in Jerusalem are my strength through the LORD of hosts, their God.'
Zechariah 12:6  On that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a pan of burning coals among wood, and like a flaming torch among cut grain. They will burn up all the peoples around them, on the right hand and on the left. And Jerusalem will be lived in again in her own place, in Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12:7  The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the people of Jerusalem may not be lifted up above Judah.
Zechariah 12:8  On that day the LORD will defend the people who live in Jerusalem. The weakest among them on that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them.
Zechariah 12:9  On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Zechariah 12:10  "I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayer. They will look on me, the one they have pierced. They will mourn for him as someone mourns for an only son, and weep bitterly for him as someone weeps bitterly for a firstborn son."
Zechariah 12:11  On that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
Zechariah 12:12  The land will mourn, each family on its own: the family of the house of David on its own, and their wives on their own; the family of the house of Nathan on its own, and their wives on their own;
Zechariah 12:13  the family of the house of Levi on its own, and their wives on their own; the family of Shimei on its own, and their wives on their own;
Zechariah 12:14  all the families that are left, each family on its own, and their wives on their own.

Zechariah 13:1  On that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the people living in Jerusalem, to wash away sin and uncleanness.
Zechariah 13:2  On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will not be remembered any more. I will also drive the prophets and the unclean spirit out of the land.
Zechariah 13:3  If anyone still prophesies, his own father and mother who gave him birth will say to him, "You shall not live, for you speak lies in the name of the LORD." And his own father and mother who gave him birth will run him through while he prophesies.
Zechariah 13:4  On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he has prophesied. They will not wear a rough coat to deceive people.
Zechariah 13:5  Instead he will say, "I am no prophet. I work the ground, for someone taught me to keep cattle from the time I was young."
Zechariah 13:6  And someone will say to him, "What are these wounds in your hands?" Then he will answer, "Those are the wounds I was given in the house of my friends."
Zechariah 13:7  Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my companion, says the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
Zechariah 13:8  In all the land, says the LORD, two parts of the people will be cut off and die, but a third will be left in it.
Zechariah 13:9  I will bring that third part through the fire. I will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, "They are my people," and they will say, "The LORD is my God."

Zechariah 14:1  Look, the day of the LORD is coming. What is taken from you will be divided up right in front of you.
Zechariah 14:2  For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle. The city will be captured, the houses robbed, and the women raped. Half of the city will go out into captivity, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Zechariah 14:3  Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle.
Zechariah 14:4  On that day his feet will stand on the mount of Olives, which is east of Jerusalem. The mount of Olives will split in half from east to west, and there will be a very great valley. Half of the mountain will move north, and half of it south.
Zechariah 14:5  And you will run to the valley of the mountains, for that valley will reach to Azal. You will run as you ran from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. And the LORD my God will come, and all the saints with you.
Zechariah 14:6  On that day the light will not be clear, nor dark.
Zechariah 14:7  It will be one day known to the LORD, not day and not night. But in the evening there will be light.
Zechariah 14:8  On that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half toward the western sea. It will be so in summer and in winter.
Zechariah 14:9  And the LORD will be king over all the earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name one.
Zechariah 14:10  All the land will be made flat like a plain, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem will be lifted up and will stay where it is, from Benjamin's gate to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel to the king's winepresses.
Zechariah 14:11  People will live in it, and it will never again be destroyed. Jerusalem will be a safe place to live.
Zechariah 14:12  And this will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh will rot away while they stand on their feet. Their eyes will rot away in their sockets, and their tongues will rot away in their mouths.
Zechariah 14:13  On that day a great panic from the LORD will come on them. Each one will seize the hand of his neighbour, and his hand will be raised against the hand of his neighbour.
Zechariah 14:14  Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the nations around will be gathered together: gold, silver, and clothing in great amounts.
Zechariah 14:15  And the same plague will fall on the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey, and all the animals in those camps.
Zechariah 14:16  And everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:17  And if any of the families of the earth will not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, no rain will fall on them.
Zechariah 14:18  And if the family of Egypt does not go up and come, they will have no rain. The plague will come on them, the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:19  This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that do not go up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Zechariah 14:20  On that day there will be written on the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD. And the pots in the LORD's house will be like the bowls before the altar.
Zechariah 14:21  Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the LORD of hosts. All who offer sacrifices will come and take some of them and boil meat in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of hosts.

Malachi

Malachi 1:1  The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel, given through Malachi.
Malachi 1:2  "I have loved you," says the LORD. "Yet you say, 'How have you loved us?' Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" says the LORD. "Yet I loved Jacob,"
Malachi 1:3  "and I hated Esau. I laid his mountains waste, and left his land to the dragons of the wilderness."
Malachi 1:4  Edom says, "We are brought low, but we will come back and build up the ruined places." This is what the LORD of hosts says: "They will build, but I will throw down. People will call them The Land of Wickedness, and The People the LORD is angry with for ever."
Malachi 1:5  "Your own eyes will see it, and you will say, 'The LORD will be magnified beyond the border of Israel.'"
Malachi 1:6  "A son honours his father, and a servant honours his master. If I am a father, then where is my honour? And if I am a master, where is the fear due to me?" says the LORD of hosts to you, priests, who despise my name. "But you say, 'How have we despised your name?'"
Malachi 1:7  You offer defiled bread on my altar. And you say, 'How have we defiled you?' You do it by saying, 'The table of the LORD is worth nothing.'
Malachi 1:8  "When you offer a blind animal as a sacrifice, is that not evil? When you offer the lame and the sick, is that not evil? Offer such a gift to your governor. Will he be pleased with you? Will he accept you?" says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 1:9  "And now, I ask you, beg God to be gracious to us. This has come about by your own doing. Will he accept any of you?" says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 1:10  "Is there even one among you who would shut the doors for nothing? You do not light a fire on my altar for nothing. I take no pleasure in you," says the LORD of hosts, "and I will not accept an offering from your hand."
Malachi 1:11  "For from the rising of the sun to its going down my name will be great among the Gentiles. In every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 1:12  "But you have profaned it, because you say, 'The table of the LORD is defiled, and its fruit, its food, is worth nothing.'"
Malachi 1:13  "You have also said, 'Look, what a weariness this is,' and you have sniffed at it," says the LORD of hosts. "You brought what was torn by beasts, and the lame, and the sick. That is the offering you brought. Should I accept that from your hand?" says the LORD.
Malachi 1:14  "But cursed is the cheat who has a male in his flock, and makes a vow, and then sacrifices to the Lord something spoiled. For I am a great King," says the LORD of hosts, "and my name is feared among the nations."

Malachi 2:1  And now, you priests, this command is for you.
Malachi 2:2  "If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name," says the LORD of hosts, "I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart."
Malachi 2:3  Look, I will spoil your seed, and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your solemn feasts; and someone will carry you away with it.
Malachi 2:4  "Then you will know that I have sent this command to you, so that my covenant might be with Levi," says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 2:5  "My covenant with him was of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was for the fear with which he feared me, and stood in awe before my name."
Malachi 2:6  The law of truth was in his mouth, and no wrong was found on his lips. He walked with me in peace and fairness, and turned many away from wrongdoing.
Malachi 2:7  For the priest's lips should guard knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 2:8  "But you have turned out of the way. You have made many stumble at the law. You have spoiled the covenant of Levi," says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 2:9  "So I have also made you despised and low before all the people, because you have not kept my ways, but have shown favour to some in the law."
Malachi 2:10  Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then do we deal falsely, each man against his brother, and so make the covenant of our fathers unholy?
Malachi 2:11  Judah has dealt falsely, and a hateful thing is done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has made unholy the holiness of the LORD, which he loved, and has married the daughter of a strange god.
Malachi 2:12  The LORD will cut off the man who does this, the master and the pupil, out of the tents of Jacob, and the one who brings an offering to the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 2:13  And you have done this again: you cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and with crying out, so that he no longer looks at the offering, or receives it gladly from your hand.
Malachi 2:14  Yet you say, "Why?" Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt falsely. Yet she is your companion, and the wife of your covenant.
Malachi 2:15  And did he not make one? Yet he had the rest of the spirit. And why one? So that he might seek a godly seed. So take care of your spirit, and let no one deal falsely against the wife of his youth.
Malachi 2:16  For the LORD, the God of Israel, says that he hates putting away; for one covers violence with his garment, says the LORD of hosts. So take care of your spirit, that you do not deal falsely.
Malachi 2:17  You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, "How have we wearied him?" When you say, "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and he delights in them," or, "Where is the God of judgment?"

Malachi 3:1  Look, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom you delight in. Look, he will come, says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:2  But who can endure the day of his coming? Who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, and like the soap of those who wash clothes.
Malachi 3:3  He will sit as one who refines and purifies silver. He will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may bring to the LORD an offering in righteousness.
Malachi 3:4  Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD, as in the days of old, and as in years gone by.
Malachi 3:5  I will come near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against those who commit adultery, and against those who swear falsely, and against those who cheat the hired worker of his wages, and who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and who turn the stranger away from his right, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:6  For I am the LORD, I do not change. That is why you, the sons of Jacob, are not destroyed.
Malachi 3:7  Ever since the days of your fathers you have turned away from my laws, and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts. But you said, "How shall we return?"
Malachi 3:8  Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed me. But you say, "How have we robbed you?" In tithes and offerings.
Malachi 3:9  You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, this whole nation of you.
Malachi 3:10  Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this now, says the LORD of hosts, and see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you, and pour out a blessing on you, until there is no room enough to hold it.
Malachi 3:11  I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, and it will not destroy the fruits of your ground. The vine in your field will not drop its fruit before the time, says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:12  All nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:13  Your words have been hard against me, says the LORD. Yet you say, "What have we said so much against you?"
Malachi 3:14  You have said, "It is useless to serve God. What do we gain by keeping his commands, and by walking in mourning before the LORD of hosts?"
Malachi 3:15  "Now we call the proud happy. Those who do wickedness are built up. Those who put God to the test are even delivered."
Malachi 3:16  Then those who feared the LORD spoke often to one another. And the LORD listened and heard it. A book of remembrance was written before him for those who feared the LORD and thought upon his name.
Malachi 3:17  They will be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him.
Malachi 3:18  Then you will return, and see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.

Malachi 4:1  Look, the day is coming that will burn like an oven. All the proud, and all who do wickedly, will be stubble. The day that is coming will burn them up, says the LORD of hosts. It will leave them neither root nor branch.
Malachi 4:2  But for you who fear my name the Sun of righteousness will rise, with healing in his wings. You will go out and grow up like calves of the stall.
Malachi 4:3  And you will tread down the wicked. They will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I do this, says the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 4:4  Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
Malachi 4:5  Look, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the LORD comes.
Malachi 4:6  And he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, or else I will come and strike the earth with a curse.

Matthew

Matthew 1:1  The book of the family line of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Matthew 1:2  Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judas and his brothers.
Matthew 1:3  Judas was the father of Phares and Zara, and their mother was Thamar. Phares was the father of Esrom. Esrom was the father of Aram.
Matthew 1:4  Aram was the father of Aminadab. Aminadab was the father of Naasson. Naasson was the father of Salmon.
Matthew 1:5  Salmon was the father of Booz, and his mother was Rachab. Booz was the father of Obed, and his mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse.
Matthew 1:6  Jesse was the father of David the king. David the king was the father of Solomon, and his mother had been the wife of Urias.
Matthew 1:7  Solomon was the father of Roboam. Roboam was the father of Abia. Abia was the father of Asa.
Matthew 1:8  Asa was the father of Josaphat. Josaphat was the father of Joram. Joram was the father of Ozias.
Matthew 1:9  Ozias was the father of Joatham. Joatham was the father of Achaz. Achaz was the father of Ezekias.
Matthew 1:10  Ezekias was the father of Manasses. Manasses was the father of Amon. Amon was the father of Josias.
Matthew 1:11  Josias was the father of Jechonias and his brothers, about the time when the people were carried away to Babylon.
Matthew 1:12  After they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias was the father of Salathiel. Salathiel was the father of Zorobabel.
Matthew 1:13  Zorobabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azor.
Matthew 1:14  Azor was the father of Sadoc. Sadoc was the father of Achim. Achim was the father of Eliud.
Matthew 1:15  Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob.
Matthew 1:16  Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Jesus was born of her, and he is called Christ.
Matthew 1:17  So from Abraham to David there are fourteen generations. From David until the carrying away into Babylon there are fourteen generations. And from the carrying away into Babylon to Christ there are fourteen generations.
Matthew 1:18  This is how the birth of Jesus Christ happened. His mother Mary was promised in marriage to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:19  Joseph, her husband, was a just man. He did not want to shame her in front of everyone, so he planned to send her away quietly.
Matthew 1:20  But while he was thinking about these things, look, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The child she carries is from the Holy Spirit."
Matthew 1:21  "She will give birth to a son, and you are to call his name JESUS, for he will save his people from their sins."
Matthew 1:22  All this happened so that what the Lord had spoken through the prophet would come true. He said,
Matthew 1:23  "Look, a virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call his name Emmanuel." That name means "God with us."
Matthew 1:24  Then Joseph woke from his sleep. He did what the angel of the Lord had told him, and took Mary as his wife.
Matthew 1:25  But he did not know her until she had given birth to her firstborn son. And he called his name JESUS.

Matthew 2:1  Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea, in the days of Herod the king. Look, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem.
Matthew 2:2  They asked, "Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east, and we have come to worship him."
Matthew 2:3  When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Matthew 2:4  So he gathered together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and he asked them where Christ was to be born.
Matthew 2:5  They said to him, "In Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote:"
Matthew 2:6  "And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, are not the least among the princes of Juda. For out of you shall come a Governor, who shall rule my people Israel."
Matthew 2:7  Then Herod called the wise men to him secretly, and asked them carefully what time the star had appeared.
Matthew 2:8  He sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I may come and worship him too."
Matthew 2:9  When they had heard the king, they went on their way. And look, the star they had seen in the east went before them, until it came and stood over the place where the young child was.
Matthew 2:10  When they saw the star, they were filled with very great joy.
Matthew 2:11  They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary his mother. They fell down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and gave him gifts: gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Matthew 2:12  God warned them in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they returned to their own country by another way.
Matthew 2:13  When they had gone, look, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt. Stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will look for the young child to destroy him."
Matthew 2:14  So he got up and took the young child and his mother by night, and went away into Egypt.
Matthew 2:15  He stayed there until the death of Herod. This happened so that what the Lord had spoken by the prophet would be fulfilled: "Out of Egypt have I called my son."
Matthew 2:16  Then what was spoken by Jeremy the prophet was fulfilled:
Matthew 2:17  "In Rama a voice was heard, crying out, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are no more."
Matthew 2:18  But when Herod was dead, look, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt.
Matthew 2:19  The angel said, "Get up, take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who wanted to take the young child's life are dead."
Matthew 2:20  So he got up and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel.
Matthew 2:21  But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling in Judaea in the place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Yet God warned him in a dream, so he turned aside into the parts of Galilee.
Matthew 2:22  He came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This happened so that what was spoken by the prophets would be fulfilled: "He shall be called a Nazarene."

Matthew 3:1  In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea.
Matthew 3:2  He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
Matthew 3:3  This is the man the prophet Esaias spoke about, when he said, "The voice of one calling in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight."
Matthew 3:4  John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.
Matthew 3:5  Then Jerusalem went out to him, and all Judaea, and all the country around the Jordan.
Matthew 3:6  They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan.
Matthew 3:7  But he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism. He said to them, "You family of snakes, who warned you to run from the anger that is coming?"
Matthew 3:8  "So bring out fruit that fits with repentance."
Matthew 3:9  "And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able to raise up children for Abraham out of these stones."
Matthew 3:10  "Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees. So every tree that does not bring out good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Matthew 3:11  "I baptize you with water, to bring you to repentance. But one is coming after me who is stronger than I am. I am not worthy to carry his shoes. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Matthew 3:12  "His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor completely. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with fire that cannot be put out."
Matthew 3:13  Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan, to John, to be baptized by him.
Matthew 3:14  But John tried to stop him. He said, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
Matthew 3:15  Jesus answered him, "Allow it to be so now. This is the right way for us to fulfil all righteousness." Then John allowed him.
Matthew 3:16  When Jesus was baptized, he came up at once out of the water. Look, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and settling on him.
Matthew 3:17  And look, a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, and I am very pleased with him."

Matthew 4:1  Then the Spirit led Jesus up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 4:2  He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he was hungry.
Matthew 4:3  The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
Matthew 4:4  But Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.'"
Matthew 4:5  Then the devil took him into the holy city, and set him on the highest point of the temple.
Matthew 4:6  He said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written, 'He will give his angels orders about you. They will hold you up in their hands, so that you never strike your foot against a stone.'"
Matthew 4:7  Jesus said to him, "It is also written, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
Matthew 4:8  Again the devil took him up to a very high mountain. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.
Matthew 4:9  He said to him, "I will give you all these things, if you will fall down and worship me."
Matthew 4:10  Then Jesus said to him, "Go away, Satan. For it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'"
Matthew 4:11  Then the devil left him, and look, angels came and cared for him.
Matthew 4:12  When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he went away into Galilee.
Matthew 4:13  He left Nazareth and came and lived in Capernaum, which is beside the sea, in the lands of Zabulon and Nephthalim.
Matthew 4:14  This was so that what was spoken by Esaias the prophet might come true. He said,
Matthew 4:15  "The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;"
Matthew 4:16  "the people who sat in darkness saw a great light. Light has dawned for those who sat in the land where death casts its shadow."
Matthew 4:17  From that time Jesus began to preach. He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
Matthew 4:18  As Jesus was walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother. They were throwing a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Matthew 4:19  He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Matthew 4:20  At once they left their nets and followed him.
Matthew 4:21  Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets. He called them.
Matthew 4:22  Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.
Matthew 4:23  Jesus went all through Galilee. He taught in their synagogues, and preached the gospel of the kingdom, and healed every kind of sickness and every kind of disease among the people.
Matthew 4:24  News about him spread through all Syria. People brought to him all who were ill with many kinds of diseases and pains, and those who had demons, and those who were mad, and those who were paralysed. He healed them.
Matthew 4:25  Great crowds followed him from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

Matthew 5:1  When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountain. He sat down, and his disciples came to him.
Matthew 5:2  Then he began to teach them. He said:
Matthew 5:3  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs."
Matthew 5:4  "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."
Matthew 5:5  "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."
Matthew 5:6  "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."
Matthew 5:7  "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."
Matthew 5:8  "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."
Matthew 5:9  "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God."
Matthew 5:10  "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs."
Matthew 5:11  "You are blessed when people insult you and persecute you, and tell all kinds of lies about you because of me."
Matthew 5:12  "Be glad and full of joy, for your reward in heaven is great. That is how they persecuted the prophets who lived before you."
Matthew 5:13  "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its taste, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet."
Matthew 5:14  "You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden."
Matthew 5:15  "People do not light a lamp and put it under a basket. They put it on a lampstand, and it gives light to everyone in the house."
Matthew 5:16  "In the same way, let your light shine in front of others. Then they will see your good works, and will give glory to your Father in heaven."
Matthew 5:17  "Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I have not come to destroy them, but to fulfil them."
Matthew 5:18  "I tell you the truth: until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law, until everything is fulfilled."
Matthew 5:19  "So whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5:20  "For I tell you, unless your righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 5:21  "You have heard that it was said to people long ago, 'You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be in danger of the judgment.'"
Matthew 5:22  "But I tell you, whoever is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment. Whoever says to his brother, 'Raca,' will be in danger of the council. And whoever says, 'You fool,' will be in danger of the fire of hell."
Matthew 5:23  "So if you are bringing your gift to the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you,"
Matthew 5:24  "leave your gift there in front of the altar, and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come and offer your gift."
Matthew 5:25  "Settle quickly with the one who accuses you, while you are still on the way with him. If you do not, he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison."
Matthew 5:26  "I tell you the truth: you will not come out of there until you have paid the very last farthing."
Matthew 5:27  "You have heard that it was said to people long ago, 'You shall not commit adultery.'"
Matthew 5:28  "But I tell you, whoever looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
Matthew 5:29  "If your right eye makes you sin, pull it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."
Matthew 5:30  "And if your right hand makes you sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell."
Matthew 5:31  "It has been said, 'Whoever sends his wife away must give her a written notice of divorce.'"
Matthew 5:32  "But I tell you, whoever sends his wife away, except for the cause of sexual sin, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery."
Matthew 5:33  "Again, you have heard that it was said to people long ago, 'Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have sworn to the Lord.'"
Matthew 5:34  "But I tell you, do not swear at all. Do not swear by heaven, for it is God's throne."
Matthew 5:35  "Do not swear by the earth, for it is his footstool. Do not swear by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King."
Matthew 5:36  "And do not swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black."
Matthew 5:37  "Let your word be simply, 'Yes, yes,' or 'No, no.' Anything more than this comes from evil."
Matthew 5:38  "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.'"
Matthew 5:39  "But I tell you, do not fight back against evil. If someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other cheek to him too."
Matthew 5:40  "If anyone wants to take you to court and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well."
Matthew 5:41  "If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two."
Matthew 5:42  "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
Matthew 5:43  "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.'"
Matthew 5:44  "But I tell you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who treat you badly and persecute you."
Matthew 5:45  "Then you will be the children of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust."
Matthew 5:46  "If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?"
Matthew 5:47  "And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the tax collectors do that?"
Matthew 5:48  "So be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."

Matthew 6:1  "Be careful not to do your good giving in front of other people, so that they will watch you. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."
Matthew 6:2  "So when you give to the poor, do not blow a trumpet in front of you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that people will praise them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward."
Matthew 6:3  "But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing."
Matthew 6:4  "Then your giving will be in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will himself reward you openly."
Matthew 6:5  "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. They love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, so that people will see them. I tell you the truth, they have their reward."
Matthew 6:6  "But when you pray, go into your room. Shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly."
Matthew 6:7  "When you pray, do not say the same empty words over and over, as the heathen do. They think they will be heard because they say so much."
Matthew 6:8  "So do not be like them. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him."
Matthew 6:9  "So pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy."
Matthew 6:10  "Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."
Matthew 6:11  "Give us today our daily bread."
Matthew 6:12  "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who owe us."
Matthew 6:13  "And do not lead us into temptation, but save us from evil. For the kingdom is yours, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."
Matthew 6:14  "For if you forgive other people the wrongs they do, your heavenly Father will also forgive you."
Matthew 6:15  "But if you do not forgive other people their wrongs, your Father will not forgive your wrongs either."
Matthew 6:16  "And when you fast, do not look sad, as the hypocrites do. They spoil the look of their faces, so that people will see that they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have their reward."
Matthew 6:17  "But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face."
Matthew 6:18  "Then people will not see that you are fasting, but your Father, who is in secret, will see. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly."
Matthew 6:19  "Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth. Here moths and rust destroy them, and thieves break in and steal them."
Matthew 6:20  "Instead, store up treasures for yourselves in heaven. There no moth and no rust destroy them, and no thieves break in and steal them."
Matthew 6:21  "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be too."
Matthew 6:22  "The eye is the light of the body. So if your eye is single, your whole body will be full of light."
Matthew 6:23  "But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light in you is darkness, how great that darkness is."
Matthew 6:24  "No one can serve two masters. He will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and think little of the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Matthew 6:25  "So I tell you, do not worry about your life, about what you will eat or what you will drink. Do not worry about your body, about what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothes?"
Matthew 6:26  "Look at the birds of the air. They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?"
Matthew 6:27  "Which of you can add one cubit to his height by worrying?"
Matthew 6:28  "And why do you worry about clothes? Think about the lilies of the field, and how they grow. They do not work hard, and they do not spin thread."
Matthew 6:29  "Yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these."
Matthew 6:30  "So if God dresses the grass of the field like that, which is here today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more give clothes to you, you who have so little faith?"
Matthew 6:31  "So do not worry, and do not say, 'What shall we eat?' or, 'What shall we drink?' or, 'What shall we wear?'"
Matthew 6:32  "For the Gentiles run after all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things."
Matthew 6:33  "But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Matthew 6:34  "So do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about its own things. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 7:1  "Do not judge, so that you will not be judged."
Matthew 7:2  "For you will be judged in the same way that you judge others. The measure you use for others will be used for you."
Matthew 7:3  "Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but take no notice of the plank in your own eye?"
Matthew 7:4  "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is a plank in your own eye?"
Matthew 7:5  "You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly enough to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
Matthew 7:6  "Do not give what is holy to the dogs. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs. If you do, they will trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces."
Matthew 7:7  "Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you."
Matthew 7:8  "For everyone who asks receives. The one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
Matthew 7:9  "If your son asks you for bread, which of you would give him a stone?"
Matthew 7:10  "Or if he asks for a fish, would you give him a snake?"
Matthew 7:11  "So if you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him?"
Matthew 7:12  "So then, whatever you would like people to do for you, do the same for them. This is what the law and the prophets say."
Matthew 7:13  "Go in through the narrow gate. The gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and many people go in that way."
Matthew 7:14  "But the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and only a few people find it."
Matthew 7:15  "Beware of false prophets. They come to you dressed like sheep, but inside they are hungry wolves."
Matthew 7:16  "You will know them by their fruit. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?"
Matthew 7:17  "In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."
Matthew 7:18  "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit."
Matthew 7:19  "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Matthew 7:20  "So you will know them by their fruit."
Matthew 7:21  "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only the one who does what my Father in heaven wants."
Matthew 7:22  "On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out devils in your name? Did we not do many wonderful works in your name?'"
Matthew 7:23  "Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Go away from me, you who do evil.'"
Matthew 7:24  "So everyone who hears these words of mine and does them is like a wise man who built his house on rock."
Matthew 7:25  "The rain came down, the floods rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on rock."
Matthew 7:26  "And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand."
Matthew 7:27  "The rain came down, the floods rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. And it fell, and it was a great fall."
Matthew 7:28  When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching.
Matthew 7:29  For he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes did.

Matthew 8:1  When Jesus came down from the mountain, large crowds followed him.
Matthew 8:2  Look, a man with leprosy came and worshipped him. He said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
Matthew 8:3  Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. He said, "I am willing. Be clean." At once his leprosy was cleansed.
Matthew 8:4  Then Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one. But go and show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a witness to them."
Matthew 8:5  When Jesus had entered Capernaum, an army officer came to him and begged him,
Matthew 8:6  saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home, paralysed and in terrible pain."
Matthew 8:7  Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him."
Matthew 8:8  The officer answered, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Just say the word, and my servant will be healed."
Matthew 8:9  "For I am a man under authority, and I have soldiers under me. I say to this man, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
Matthew 8:10  When Jesus heard it, he was amazed. He said to those who followed him, "I tell you the truth, I have not found such great faith anywhere, not even in Israel."
Matthew 8:11  And I tell you, many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 8:12  "But the children of the kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness outside. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth."
Matthew 8:13  Then Jesus said to the officer, "Go. As you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed at that very hour.
Matthew 8:14  When Jesus came into Peter's house, he saw Peter's wife's mother lying in bed, sick with a fever.
Matthew 8:15  He touched her hand, and the fever left her. She got up and served them.
Matthew 8:16  When evening came, they brought to him many people who had demons in them. He drove out the spirits with his word, and he healed all who were sick.
Matthew 8:17  This was so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled: "He himself took our weaknesses and carried our sicknesses."
Matthew 8:18  When Jesus saw the large crowds around him, he gave the order to cross over to the other side.
Matthew 8:19  A scribe came and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."
Matthew 8:20  Jesus said to him, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head."
Matthew 8:21  Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father."
Matthew 8:22  But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."
Matthew 8:23  When he got into a boat, his disciples followed him.
Matthew 8:24  Look, a great storm rose up on the sea, so that the boat was covered by the waves. But he was asleep.
Matthew 8:25  His disciples came to him and woke him. They said, "Lord, save us. We are dying."
Matthew 8:26  He said to them, "Why are you afraid, you of little faith?" Then he got up and spoke sharply to the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
Matthew 8:27  The men were amazed. They said, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the sea obey him."
Matthew 8:28  When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two men with demons in them met him. They came out of the tombs, and they were so fierce that no one could pass that way.
Matthew 8:29  Look, they cried out, "What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?"
Matthew 8:30  A long way off from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.
Matthew 8:31  So the demons begged him, "If you drive us out, allow us to go away into the herd of pigs."
Matthew 8:32  He said to them, "Go." So they came out and went into the herd of pigs. Look, the whole herd of pigs rushed down a steep slope into the sea, and died in the water.
Matthew 8:33  The men who kept the pigs ran away. They went into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the men who had the demons.
Matthew 8:34  Look, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

Matthew 9:1  He got into a ship, crossed over, and came to his own city.
Matthew 9:2  Look, some people brought him a man who was paralysed, lying on a bed. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, "Son, be glad. Your sins are forgiven."
Matthew 9:3  Look, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man speaks against God."
Matthew 9:4  Jesus knew what they were thinking. He said, "Why do you think evil in your hearts?"
Matthew 9:5  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?
Matthew 9:6  "But I want you to know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins." Then he said to the paralysed man, "Get up, pick up your bed, and go home."
Matthew 9:7  And the man got up and went away to his house.
Matthew 9:8  When the crowds saw it, they were amazed. They gave glory to God, who had given such power to people.
Matthew 9:9  As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. He said to him, "Follow me." And he got up and followed him.
Matthew 9:10  Then, as Jesus sat eating in the house, look, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.
Matthew 9:11  When the Pharisees saw it, they said to his disciples, "Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
Matthew 9:12  But when Jesus heard it, he said to them, "People who are well do not need a doctor. Sick people do."
Matthew 9:13  "But go and learn what this means: 'I want mercy, and not sacrifice.' For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent."
Matthew 9:14  Then the disciples of John came to him and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?"
Matthew 9:15  Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn while the bridegroom is still with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast."
Matthew 9:16  No one sews a piece of new cloth onto an old coat. The new patch pulls away from the coat, and the tear is made worse.
Matthew 9:17  "People do not put new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are ruined. They put new wine into new wineskins, and both are kept safe."
Matthew 9:18  While he was saying these things to them, look, a certain ruler came and worshipped him. He said, "My daughter has just died. But come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."
Matthew 9:19  Jesus got up and followed him, and so did his disciples.
Matthew 9:20  And look, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years came up behind him. She touched the edge of his coat.
Matthew 9:21  For she said to herself, "If I only touch his coat, I shall be made well."
Matthew 9:22  But Jesus turned round, and when he saw her he said, "Daughter, take comfort. Your faith has made you well." And the woman was made well from that hour.
Matthew 9:23  When Jesus came into the ruler's house, he saw the flute players and the people making a noise.
Matthew 9:24  He said to them, "Move back. The girl is not dead, but asleep." And they laughed at him.
Matthew 9:25  But when the people had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.
Matthew 9:26  And the news of this spread through all that land.
Matthew 9:27  When Jesus left there, two blind men followed him, calling out, "You Son of David, have mercy on us."
Matthew 9:28  When he had come into the house, the blind men came to him. Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord."
Matthew 9:29  Then he touched their eyes and said, "Let it be done to you as you have believed."
Matthew 9:30  And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this."
Matthew 9:31  But when they had gone out, they spread the news about him through all that country.
Matthew 9:32  As they went out, look, they brought to him a man who could not speak, who had a devil in him.
Matthew 9:33  When the devil was driven out, the man who could not speak talked. The crowds were amazed and said, "Nothing like this was ever seen in Israel."
Matthew 9:34  But the Pharisees said, "He drives out devils by the ruler of the devils."
Matthew 9:35  Jesus went round all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
Matthew 9:36  But when he saw the crowds, he was filled with compassion for them. They were worn out and scattered, like sheep with no shepherd.
Matthew 9:37  Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest truly is great, but the workers are few."
Matthew 9:38  "So pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he will send out workers into his harvest."

Matthew 10:1  Jesus called his twelve disciples to him. He gave them power over unclean spirits, to drive them out, and to heal every kind of sickness and every kind of disease.
Matthew 10:2  These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;
Matthew 10:3  Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, who was also called Thaddaeus;
Matthew 10:4  Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
Matthew 10:5  Jesus sent these twelve out, and he gave them these orders: "Do not go along the road to the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans."
Matthew 10:6  "Go instead to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Matthew 10:7  "As you go, preach and say, 'The kingdom of heaven is near.'"
Matthew 10:8  "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, drive out demons. You received without paying; give without being paid."
Matthew 10:9  "Do not take gold, or silver, or copper in your money belts,"
Matthew 10:10  "or a bag for the journey, or two coats, or shoes, or a staff. For the worker deserves his food."
Matthew 10:11  "Whatever city or town you enter, ask who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave."
Matthew 10:12  "When you come into a house, greet it."
Matthew 10:13  "If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you."
Matthew 10:14  "If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that house or city."
Matthew 10:15  "I tell you the truth, on the day of judgment it will be easier for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha than for that city."
Matthew 10:16  "Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. So be wise as snakes, and harmless as doves."
Matthew 10:17  "But be on your guard against people. They will hand you over to the councils, and they will whip you in their synagogues."
Matthew 10:18  "You will be brought before governors and kings because of me, as a witness to them and to the Gentiles."
Matthew 10:19  "But when they hand you over, do not worry about how you will speak or what you will say. What you are to say will be given to you at that time."
Matthew 10:20  "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you."
Matthew 10:21  "Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death."
Matthew 10:22  "Everyone will hate you because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."
Matthew 10:23  "When they persecute you in one city, flee to another. For I tell you the truth, you will not have finished going through the cities of Israel before the Son of man comes."
Matthew 10:24  "A disciple is not above his teacher, and a servant is not above his lord."
Matthew 10:25  "It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call the members of his household by such names?"
Matthew 10:26  "So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be made known."
Matthew 10:27  "What I tell you in the dark, say in the light. What you hear whispered in your ear, preach from the housetops."
Matthew 10:28  "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
Matthew 10:29  "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father."
Matthew 10:30  "Even the hairs of your head are all counted."
Matthew 10:31  "So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows."
Matthew 10:32  "So whoever confesses me before others, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 10:33  "But whoever denies me before others, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 10:34  "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."
Matthew 10:35  "For I have come to turn a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
Matthew 10:36  "A man's enemies will be the people of his own household."
Matthew 10:37  "Anyone who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Anyone who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
Matthew 10:38  "Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me."
Matthew 10:39  "Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."
Matthew 10:40  "Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me."
Matthew 10:41  "Whoever welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And whoever welcomes a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward."
Matthew 10:42  "And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."

Matthew 11:1  When Jesus had finished giving orders to his twelve disciples, he left that place to teach and to preach in their cities.
Matthew 11:2  Now John was in prison. When he heard about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples.
Matthew 11:3  They said to him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for another?"
Matthew 11:4  Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see:"
Matthew 11:5  "The blind can see, and the lame walk. The lepers are made clean, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the good news is preached to the poor."
Matthew 11:6  "And blessed is anyone who is not made to stumble because of me."
Matthew 11:7  As they were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John. "What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed shaken by the wind?"
Matthew 11:8  "But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Look, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses."
Matthew 11:9  "But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet."
Matthew 11:10  "For this is the one about whom it is written, 'Look, I send my messenger ahead of you. He will prepare your way before you.'"
Matthew 11:11  "I tell you the truth: among those born of women no one greater than John the Baptist has risen. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he is."
Matthew 11:12  "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."
Matthew 11:13  "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John."
Matthew 11:14  "And if you will receive it, this is Elias, who was to come."
Matthew 11:15  "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
Matthew 11:16  "But what shall I compare this generation to? It is like children sitting in the markets and calling to their friends,"
Matthew 11:17  "saying, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang songs of sorrow for you, and you did not weep.'"
Matthew 11:18  "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a devil.'"
Matthew 11:19  "The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a man who eats and drinks too much, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is shown to be right by her children."
Matthew 11:20  Then he began to reproach the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.
Matthew 11:21  "Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes."
Matthew 11:22  "But I tell you, it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you."
Matthew 11:23  "And you, Capernaum, lifted up to heaven, you will be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works that have been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day."
Matthew 11:24  "But I tell you, it will be easier for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you."
Matthew 11:25  At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and clever, and have shown them to little children."
Matthew 11:26  "Yes, Father, for this seemed good in your sight."
Matthew 11:27  "All things have been given to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father. And no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to show him."
Matthew 11:28  "Come to me, all you who work hard and carry heavy loads, and I will give you rest."
Matthew 11:29  "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
Matthew 11:30  "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Matthew 12:1  At that time Jesus walked through the grainfields on the sabbath day. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pick the ears of grain and eat them.
Matthew 12:2  When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, "Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath day."
Matthew 12:3  But he said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him?"
Matthew 12:4  He went into the house of God and ate the holy bread. It was not lawful for him to eat it, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests.
Matthew 12:5  Or have you not read in the law how on the sabbath days the priests in the temple break the sabbath, and are not blamed for it?
Matthew 12:6  But I say to you that in this place is one greater than the temple.
Matthew 12:7  If you had known what this means, 'I want mercy, and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned those who are not guilty.
Matthew 12:8  "For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day."
Matthew 12:9  When he had left there, he went into their synagogue.
Matthew 12:10  Look, there was a man there whose hand was withered. They asked Jesus, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days?" They asked so that they could accuse him.
Matthew 12:11  He said to them, "Which one of you, if he had one sheep, and it fell into a pit on the sabbath day, would not take hold of it and lift it out?"
Matthew 12:12  "How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath days."
Matthew 12:13  Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and it was made well again, like the other one.
Matthew 12:14  Then the Pharisees went out and made a plan against him, how they might destroy him.
Matthew 12:15  But when Jesus knew it, he went away from there. Great crowds followed him, and he healed them all.
Matthew 12:16  He ordered them not to make him known.
Matthew 12:17  This was so that what was spoken by Isaiah the prophet might come true. He said:
Matthew 12:18  "Look at my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul takes delight. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will show judgment to the Gentiles."
Matthew 12:19  He will not quarrel or cry out; no one will hear his voice in the streets.
Matthew 12:20  A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoking wick he will not put out, until he brings judgment to victory.
Matthew 12:21  "And in his name the Gentiles will trust."
Matthew 12:22  Then a man was brought to him who had a demon, and was blind and could not speak. Jesus healed him, so that the blind and speechless man both spoke and saw.
Matthew 12:23  All the people were amazed, and said, "Is not this the son of David?"
Matthew 12:24  But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, "This man does not drive out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons."
Matthew 12:25  Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to ruin. Every city or house divided against itself will not stand."
Matthew 12:26  If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
Matthew 12:27  And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your children drive them out? So they will be your judges.
Matthew 12:28  But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
Matthew 12:29  How else can anyone go into a strong man's house and take away his goods, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.
Matthew 12:30  Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
Matthew 12:31  So I say to you, every kind of sin and every evil word spoken against God will be forgiven to people. But speaking against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
Matthew 12:32  Whoever speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, not in this world, nor in the world to come.
Matthew 12:33  Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For the tree is known by its fruit.
Matthew 12:34  You family of vipers, how can you speak good things when you are evil? For the mouth speaks out of what fills the heart.
Matthew 12:35  A good man brings good things out of the good treasure of his heart. An evil man brings evil things out of his evil treasure.
Matthew 12:36  But I say to you that people will give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they speak.
Matthew 12:37  "For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."
Matthew 12:38  Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from you."
Matthew 12:39  But he answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation looks for a sign. But no sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah."
Matthew 12:40  For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:41  The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it. For they repented when Jonah preached, and look, one greater than Jonah is here.
Matthew 12:42  The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with this generation and will condemn it. For she came from the farthest parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look, one greater than Solomon is here.
Matthew 12:43  When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it walks through dry places, looking for rest, and finds none.
Matthew 12:44  Then it says, 'I will go back to my house that I came out of.' When it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.
Matthew 12:45  "Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself. They go in and live there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. So it will be also with this wicked generation."
Matthew 12:46  While he was still talking to the people, look, his mother and his brothers stood outside, wanting to speak with him.
Matthew 12:47  Then someone said to him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak with you."
Matthew 12:48  But he answered the man who told him, "Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?"
Matthew 12:49  He stretched out his hand toward his disciples and said, "Look at my mother and my brothers."
Matthew 12:50  "For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother."

Matthew 13:1  That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat down beside the sea.
Matthew 13:2  Great crowds gathered around him. So he got into a ship and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the shore.
Matthew 13:3  He told them many things in parables. He said, "Look, a farmer went out to sow his seed."
Matthew 13:4  "As he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road. The birds came and ate them up."
Matthew 13:5  "Some fell on stony ground, where there was not much soil. They sprang up at once, because the soil was not deep."
Matthew 13:6  "But when the sun came up, they were scorched. They had no root, so they withered away."
Matthew 13:7  "Some fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked them."
Matthew 13:8  "But others fell on good ground and produced a crop: some a hundred times as much, some sixty times, some thirty times."
Matthew 13:9  "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
Matthew 13:10  The disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"
Matthew 13:11  He answered them, "Because you have been given the gift of knowing the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but they have not."
Matthew 13:12  "For whoever has will be given more, and he will have plenty. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."
Matthew 13:13  "That is why I speak to them in parables. They look, but they do not see. They listen, but they do not hear, and they do not understand."
Matthew 13:14  "In them the prophecy of Isaiah comes true. It says, 'You will listen and listen, but never understand. You will look and look, but never perceive."
Matthew 13:15  "'For this people's heart has grown hard. Their ears hear poorly, and they have shut their eyes. Otherwise they would see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn back, and I would heal them.'"
Matthew 13:16  "But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear."
Matthew 13:17  "I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see the things you see, and did not see them. They longed to hear the things you hear, and did not hear them."
Matthew 13:18  "So listen to the parable of the farmer sowing seed."
Matthew 13:19  "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed that fell beside the road."
Matthew 13:20  "The seed that fell on stony ground is the person who hears the word and receives it at once with joy."
Matthew 13:21  "But he has no root in himself, and he lasts only a little while. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he soon falls away."
Matthew 13:22  "The seed that fell among the thorns is the person who hears the word. But the worries of this world and the false promise of riches choke the word, and he bears no fruit."
Matthew 13:23  "The seed that fell on the good ground is the person who hears the word and understands it. He bears fruit and produces a crop: some a hundred times as much, some sixty, some thirty."
Matthew 13:24  He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field."
Matthew 13:25  "But while people slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away."
Matthew 13:26  "When the young plants came up and made grain, the weeds showed up as well."
Matthew 13:27  "So the householder's servants came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did the weeds come from?'"
Matthew 13:28  "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'"
Matthew 13:29  "But he said, 'No. While you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them."
Matthew 13:30  "'Let them both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will tell the reapers: First gather the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the wheat into my barn.'"
Matthew 13:31  He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field."
Matthew 13:32  "It is indeed the smallest of all seeds. But when it is grown, it is the largest of the garden plants. It becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and rest in its branches."
Matthew 13:33  He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all raised."
Matthew 13:34  Jesus told the crowd all these things in parables. He said nothing to them without a parable.
Matthew 13:35  This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables. I will speak out things that have been kept secret since the world was made."
Matthew 13:36  Then Jesus sent the crowd away and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
Matthew 13:37  He answered them, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of man."
Matthew 13:38  "The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the weeds are the children of the evil one."
Matthew 13:39  "The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels."
Matthew 13:40  "So, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, that is how it will be at the end of this world."
Matthew 13:41  "The Son of man will send out his angels. They will gather out of his kingdom everything that causes sin, and all those who do wrong."
Matthew 13:42  "They will throw them into a furnace of fire. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth."
Matthew 13:43  "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
Matthew 13:44  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man finds it, he hides it again. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field."
Matthew 13:45  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls."
Matthew 13:46  "When he found one pearl of great value, he went and sold everything he had and bought it."
Matthew 13:47  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind."
Matthew 13:48  "When it was full, they pulled it to the shore. They sat down and put the good fish into containers, but threw the bad ones away."
Matthew 13:49  "That is how it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come out and separate the wicked from among the just."
Matthew 13:50  "They will throw them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth."
Matthew 13:51  Jesus said to them, "Have you understood all these things?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord."
Matthew 13:52  Then he said to them, "So every scribe who has been taught about the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his store things new and old."
Matthew 13:53  When Jesus had finished these parables, he left that place.
Matthew 13:54  He came to his own home town and taught the people in their synagogue. They were amazed, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom, and these mighty works?"
Matthew 13:55  "Is this not the carpenter's son? Is his mother not called Mary? And are his brothers not James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?"
Matthew 13:56  "And his sisters, are they not all here with us? So where did this man get all these things?"
Matthew 13:57  And they took offence at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own home town and in his own house."
Matthew 13:58  And he did not do many mighty works there, because they did not believe.

Matthew 14:1  At that time Herod the tetrarch heard how famous Jesus had become,
Matthew 14:2  and he said to his servants, "This is John the Baptist. He has risen from the dead. That is why these mighty works are done by him."
Matthew 14:3  For Herod had arrested John, tied him up, and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip.
Matthew 14:4  For John had said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her."
Matthew 14:5  Herod wanted to put him to death, but he was afraid of the crowd, because they thought of John as a prophet.
Matthew 14:6  But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced in front of them all, and she pleased Herod.
Matthew 14:7  So he promised her with an oath that he would give her whatever she asked for.
Matthew 14:8  Her mother had already told her what to say, so she said, "Give me here the head of John the Baptist on a dish."
Matthew 14:9  The king was sorry. But because of his oath, and because of those who sat eating with him, he ordered that it be given to her.
Matthew 14:10  He sent orders, and John was beheaded in the prison.
Matthew 14:11  His head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, and she took it to her mother.
Matthew 14:12  Then John's disciples came and took the body away and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus.
Matthew 14:13  When Jesus heard it, he left that place by boat and went to a lonely place by himself. But when the people heard of it, they followed him on foot from the towns.
Matthew 14:14  Jesus came out and saw a great crowd, and he was filled with compassion for them, and he healed their sick.
Matthew 14:15  When it was evening, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a lonely place, and the day is now gone. Send the crowd away, so that they can go into the villages and buy food for themselves."
Matthew 14:16  But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."
Matthew 14:17  They said to him, "We have only five loaves here, and two fish."
Matthew 14:18  He said, "Bring them here to me."
Matthew 14:19  He told the crowd to sit down on the grass. Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed them and broke them. He gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd.
Matthew 14:20  They all ate and were filled. And they picked up twelve baskets full of the pieces that were left over.
Matthew 14:21  Those who had eaten were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
Matthew 14:22  At once Jesus made his disciples get into a boat and go ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the crowds away.
Matthew 14:23  When he had sent the crowds away, he went up a mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.
Matthew 14:24  But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, thrown about by the waves, for the wind was against them.
Matthew 14:25  In the fourth watch of the night Jesus came to them, walking on the sea.
Matthew 14:26  When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled. They said, "It is a spirit," and they cried out in fear.
Matthew 14:27  But at once Jesus spoke to them and said, "Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid."
Matthew 14:28  Peter answered him and said, "Lord, if it is you, tell me to come to you on the water."
Matthew 14:29  He said, "Come." And Peter climbed down out of the boat and walked on the water to go to Jesus.
Matthew 14:30  But when he saw the strong wind, he was afraid. He began to sink, and he cried out, "Lord, save me."
Matthew 14:31  At once Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. He said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"
Matthew 14:32  And when they had come into the boat, the wind stopped.
Matthew 14:33  Then those who were in the boat came and worshipped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
Matthew 14:34  When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret.
Matthew 14:35  When the men of that place recognized him, they sent word into all the country around, and they brought to him all who were ill.
Matthew 14:36  They begged him to let them only touch the edge of his robe. And all who touched it were made completely well.

Matthew 15:1  Then scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem came to Jesus and said,
Matthew 15:2  "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They do not wash their hands when they eat bread."
Matthew 15:3  He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God because of your tradition?"
Matthew 15:4  For God commanded, 'Honour your father and mother,' and, 'Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.'
Matthew 15:5  But you say that a man may say to his father or his mother, 'Whatever help you might have had from me is a gift given to God.'
Matthew 15:6  Then he does not have to honour his father or his mother. So you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.
Matthew 15:7  You hypocrites. Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you. He said,
Matthew 15:8  'These people come near to me with their mouth, and honour me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
Matthew 15:9  "They worship me for nothing, teaching as their doctrines the rules of men.'"
Matthew 15:10  Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, "Listen, and understand."
Matthew 15:11  "What goes into the mouth does not make a person unclean. It is what comes out of the mouth that makes a person unclean."
Matthew 15:12  Then his disciples came and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard what you said?"
Matthew 15:13  He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots."
Matthew 15:14  "Leave them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind. And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the ditch."
Matthew 15:15  Then Peter said to him, "Explain this parable to us."
Matthew 15:16  And Jesus said, "Are you also still without understanding?"
Matthew 15:17  Do you not yet understand? Whatever goes in at the mouth passes into the stomach, and then out of the body.
Matthew 15:18  But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and they make a person unclean.
Matthew 15:19  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false witness, and blasphemies.
Matthew 15:20  "These are the things that make a person unclean. But to eat with unwashed hands does not make a person unclean."
Matthew 15:21  Then Jesus left that place and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Matthew 15:22  Look, a woman of Canaan came out from that region and called to him, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David. My daughter is badly troubled by a demon."
Matthew 15:23  But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, "Send her away, for she keeps calling after us."
Matthew 15:24  He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
Matthew 15:25  Then she came and worshipped him, and said, "Lord, help me."
Matthew 15:26  He answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to dogs."
Matthew 15:27  And she said, "True, Lord. Yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
Matthew 15:28  Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, your faith is great. Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was made well from that very hour.
Matthew 15:29  Jesus left that place and came near to the sea of Galilee. He went up on a mountain and sat down there.
Matthew 15:30  Great crowds came to him. They brought with them people who were lame, blind, unable to speak, crippled, and many others. They laid them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed them.
Matthew 15:31  So the crowd was amazed when they saw those who could not speak now speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they gave glory to the God of Israel.
Matthew 15:32  Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have stayed with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I will not send them away hungry, in case they faint on the way."
Matthew 15:33  And his disciples said to him, "Where could we get enough bread in this lonely place to fill such a great crowd?"
Matthew 15:34  And Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they said, "Seven, and a few small fish."
Matthew 15:35  And he told the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Matthew 15:36  He took the seven loaves and the fish, and gave thanks, and broke them. He gave them to his disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowd.
Matthew 15:37  They all ate and were filled. And they picked up seven baskets full of the broken pieces that were left.
Matthew 15:38  Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children.
Matthew 15:39  Then he sent the crowd away, got into a boat, and came to the region of Magdala.

Matthew 16:1  The Pharisees came with the Sadducees to test Jesus. They asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
Matthew 16:2  He answered them, "In the evening you say, 'The weather will be fine, for the sky is red.'"
Matthew 16:3  And in the morning you say, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and dark.' You hypocrites. You know how to read the face of the sky, but you cannot read the signs of the times.
Matthew 16:4  "A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign. No sign will be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonas." Then he left them and went away.
Matthew 16:5  When his disciples came to the other side of the lake, they had forgotten to bring bread.
Matthew 16:6  Then Jesus said to them, "Take care. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."
Matthew 16:7  They talked about this among themselves and said, "He says this because we have brought no bread."
Matthew 16:8  Jesus knew what they were saying. He said to them, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?"
Matthew 16:9  "Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up?"
Matthew 16:10  "Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you took up?"
Matthew 16:11  "How is it that you do not understand? I was not speaking to you about bread. I said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees."
Matthew 16:12  Then they understood. He was not telling them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 16:13  When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I, the Son of man, am?"
Matthew 16:14  They said, "Some say you are John the Baptist. Some say Elias. Others say Jeremias, or one of the prophets."
Matthew 16:15  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Matthew 16:16  Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 16:17  Jesus answered him, "You are blessed, Simon Barjona. Flesh and blood did not show this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 16:18  "And I say to you also, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not overcome it."
Matthew 16:19  "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:20  Then he ordered his disciples to tell no one that he was Jesus the Christ.
Matthew 16:21  From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem. There he must suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again on the third day.
Matthew 16:22  Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. He said, "Far be it from you, Lord. This shall not happen to you."
Matthew 16:23  But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me. You are not thinking the things of God, but the things of men."
Matthew 16:24  Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
Matthew 16:25  "For whoever will save his life shall lose it, and whoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it."
Matthew 16:26  "What good is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Matthew 16:27  "For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels. Then he shall reward every man according to his works."
Matthew 16:28  "I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom."

Matthew 17:1  Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
Matthew 17:2  There he was changed in front of them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.
Matthew 17:3  Then Moses and Elias appeared to them, talking with him.
Matthew 17:4  Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let me put up three shelters here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elias."
Matthew 17:5  While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them. And a voice came out of the cloud, which said, "This is my beloved Son, and I am well pleased with him. Listen to him."
Matthew 17:6  When the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were terrified.
Matthew 17:7  Jesus came and touched them, and said, "Get up. Do not be afraid."
Matthew 17:8  When they looked up, they saw no one but Jesus only.
Matthew 17:9  As they came down from the mountain, Jesus gave them an order: "Tell no one about the vision until the Son of man has been raised from the dead."
Matthew 17:10  His disciples asked him, "Why then do the scribes say that Elias must come first?"
Matthew 17:11  Jesus answered, "Elias will indeed come first, and he will put all things right again."
Matthew 17:12  "But I tell you that Elias has already come, and they did not know him. They did to him whatever they wanted. In the same way the Son of man is going to suffer at their hands."
Matthew 17:13  Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.
Matthew 17:14  When they came back to the crowd, a man came to Jesus. He knelt down before him and said,
Matthew 17:15  "Lord, have mercy on my son. He is a lunatic, and he suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire, and often into the water."
Matthew 17:16  "I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him."
Matthew 17:17  Then Jesus answered, "You faithless and crooked people, how long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring him here to me."
Matthew 17:18  Jesus spoke sharply to the demon, and it came out of him. The boy was healed from that very hour.
Matthew 17:19  Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and said, "Why could we not drive it out?"
Matthew 17:20  Jesus said to them, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
Matthew 17:21  "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
Matthew 17:22  While they were staying in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of man is going to be handed over into the hands of men."
Matthew 17:23  "They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised again." And they were deeply grieved.
Matthew 17:24  When they came to Capernaum, the men who collected the temple tax came to Peter and said, "Does your master not pay the tax?"
Matthew 17:25  He said, "Yes." When Peter came into the house, Jesus spoke first and said, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth take duties or taxes? From their own children, or from other people?"
Matthew 17:26  Peter said to him, "From other people." Jesus said to him, "Then the children are free."
Matthew 17:27  "But so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook. Take the first fish that comes up. When you open its mouth, you will find a piece of money. Take that and give it to them for me and for you."

Matthew 18:1  At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Matthew 18:2  Jesus called a little child to him, and set the child in the middle of them,
Matthew 18:3  and said, "I tell you the truth, unless you are changed and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:4  "So whoever makes himself humble like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 18:5  "And whoever welcomes one such little child in my name welcomes me."
Matthew 18:6  "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the deep sea."
Matthew 18:7  "How terrible for the world because of the things that make people stumble. Such things must come, but how terrible for the man through whom they come."
Matthew 18:8  "So if your hand or your foot makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter life lame or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into everlasting fire."
Matthew 18:9  "And if your eye makes you stumble, pull it out and throw it away from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell."
Matthew 18:10  "Be careful that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 18:11  "For the Son of man has come to save what was lost."
Matthew 18:12  "What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go into the mountains to look for the one that wandered off?"
Matthew 18:13  "And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander away."
Matthew 18:14  "In the same way, your Father who is in heaven does not want one of these little ones to be lost."
Matthew 18:15  "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, just between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back."
Matthew 18:16  "But if he will not listen to you, take one or two others with you, so that every word may be settled by the mouth of two or three witnesses."
Matthew 18:17  "And if he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses to listen to the church, let him be to you like a heathen man and a tax collector."
Matthew 18:18  "I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 18:19  "Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven."
Matthew 18:20  "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am among them."
Matthew 18:21  Then Peter came to him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?"
Matthew 18:22  Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."
Matthew 18:23  "So the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants."
Matthew 18:24  "When he had begun to settle them, one man was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents."
Matthew 18:25  "Since he had nothing to pay with, his lord ordered that he be sold, along with his wife and children and everything he had, and that the payment be made."
Matthew 18:26  "So the servant fell down and bowed before him, saying, 'Lord, be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.'"
Matthew 18:27  "Then the lord of that servant was filled with compassion. He let him go and forgave him the debt."
Matthew 18:28  "But that same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred pence. He grabbed him and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe.'"
Matthew 18:29  "His fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.'"
Matthew 18:30  "But he would not. He went and threw him into prison until he should pay the debt."
Matthew 18:31  "When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were very sad. They came and told their lord everything that had happened."
Matthew 18:32  "Then his lord called him in and said to him, 'You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you begged me."
Matthew 18:33  "'Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?'"
Matthew 18:34  "And his lord was angry, and handed him over to the torturers until he should pay all that he owed."
Matthew 18:35  "So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts for their sins against you."

Matthew 19:1  When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and came into the region of Judaea beyond Jordan.
Matthew 19:2  Great crowds followed him, and he healed them there.
Matthew 19:3  The Pharisees also came to him to test him. They said, "Is it lawful for a man to send his wife away for any reason at all?"
Matthew 19:4  He answered, "Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female,"
Matthew 19:5  and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall hold fast to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh'?
Matthew 19:6  "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God has joined together, let no one separate."
Matthew 19:7  They said to him, "Why then did Moses command a man to give his wife a written notice of divorce and send her away?"
Matthew 19:8  He said to them, "Moses allowed you to send your wives away because your hearts were hard. But from the beginning it was not so."
Matthew 19:9  "And I say to you, whoever sends his wife away, except for sexual sin, and marries another woman, commits adultery. And whoever marries the woman who has been sent away commits adultery."
Matthew 19:10  His disciples said to him, "If this is how it is between a man and his wife, it is better not to marry."
Matthew 19:11  But he said to them, "Not everyone can accept this saying, only those to whom it is given."
Matthew 19:12  "For there are some eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb. And there are some eunuchs who were made eunuchs by other people. And there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to accept it accept it."
Matthew 19:13  Then little children were brought to him, so that he might put his hands on them and pray. But the disciples told the people off.
Matthew 19:14  But Jesus said, "Allow the little children to come to me, and do not stop them. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Matthew 19:15  And he laid his hands on them, and went away from there.
Matthew 19:16  Look, a man came and said to him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do, so that I may have eternal life?"
Matthew 19:17  He said to him, "Why do you call me good? There is no one good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."
Matthew 19:18  The man said to him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, "You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false witness."
Matthew 19:19  "Honour your father and your mother. And, you shall love your neighbour as yourself."
Matthew 19:20  The young man said to him, "I have kept all these things since I was young. What do I still lack?"
Matthew 19:21  Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me."
Matthew 19:22  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sad, because he had great possessions.
Matthew 19:23  Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Matthew 19:24  "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."
Matthew 19:25  When his disciples heard it, they were greatly amazed. They said, "Who then can be saved?"
Matthew 19:26  But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Matthew 19:27  Then Peter answered him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?"
Matthew 19:28  And Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, you who have followed me, in the new birth of all things, when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, you also shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Matthew 19:29  And everyone who has left houses, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive a hundred times as much, and shall inherit everlasting life.
Matthew 19:30  "But many who are first shall be last, and the last shall be first."

Matthew 20:1  "The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner. He went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard."
Matthew 20:2  "He agreed with the workers to pay them a penny a day, and he sent them into his vineyard."
Matthew 20:3  "About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace with nothing to do."
Matthew 20:4  "He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too, and I will give you whatever is right.' So they went."
Matthew 20:5  "Again he went out about the sixth hour and about the ninth hour, and did the same."
Matthew 20:6  "About the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing with nothing to do. He said to them, 'Why have you stood here all day doing nothing?'"
Matthew 20:7  "They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You go into the vineyard too, and you will receive whatever is right.'"
Matthew 20:8  "When evening came, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages. Begin with the last ones and go on to the first.'"
Matthew 20:9  "The ones who were hired about the eleventh hour came, and each of them received a penny."
Matthew 20:10  "When the first ones came, they thought they would receive more. But each of them also received a penny."
Matthew 20:11  "When they had received it, they complained against the master of the house."
Matthew 20:12  "They said, 'These last ones have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us. We have carried the load and the heat of the day.'"
Matthew 20:13  "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a penny?"
Matthew 20:14  "'Take what is yours and go. I want to give this last man the same as I gave you."
Matthew 20:15  "'Am I not allowed to do what I want with what is my own? Is your eye evil because I am good?'"
Matthew 20:16  "So the last shall be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen."
Matthew 20:17  As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside on the road and said to them,
Matthew 20:18  "Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death."
Matthew 20:19  "They will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock him, to whip him, and to crucify him. And on the third day he will rise again."
Matthew 20:20  Then the mother of Zebedee's children came to him with her sons. She bowed down before him and wanted to ask him for something.
Matthew 20:21  He said to her, "What do you want?" She said to him, "Say that these two sons of mine may sit in your kingdom, one at your right hand and the other at your left."
Matthew 20:22  But Jesus answered, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I am going to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to him, "We are able."
Matthew 20:23  He said to them, "You will indeed drink my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with. But to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give. It will be given to those for whom my Father has prepared it."
Matthew 20:24  When the ten heard it, they were angry with the two brothers.
Matthew 20:25  But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men use their authority over them."
Matthew 20:26  "It shall not be so among you. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant."
Matthew 20:27  "And whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave."
Matthew 20:28  "In the same way the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Matthew 20:29  As they were leaving Jericho, a great crowd followed him.
Matthew 20:30  Look, two blind men were sitting by the roadside. When they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David."
Matthew 20:31  The crowd told them off and said they should be quiet. But they cried out all the more, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David."
Matthew 20:32  Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want me to do for you?"
Matthew 20:33  They said to him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened."
Matthew 20:34  So Jesus felt compassion for them and touched their eyes. At once their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

Matthew 21:1  When they came near to Jerusalem, and had reached Bethphage, at the mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples.
Matthew 21:2  He said to them, "Go into the village in front of you. At once you will find a donkey tied up, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me."
Matthew 21:3  "If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, 'The Lord needs them.' Then he will send them at once."
Matthew 21:4  All this was done so that what was spoken by the prophet might come true:
Matthew 21:5  "Tell the daughter of Sion, Look, your King is coming to you, gentle, and sitting on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey."
Matthew 21:6  The disciples went and did as Jesus had told them.
Matthew 21:7  They brought the donkey and the colt, and put their clothes on them, and he sat on them.
Matthew 21:8  A very large crowd spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
Matthew 21:9  The crowds that went in front and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest."
Matthew 21:10  When he came into Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred, and people said, "Who is this?"
Matthew 21:11  The crowd said, "This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee."
Matthew 21:12  Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who were selling and buying in the temple. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves.
Matthew 21:13  He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called the house of prayer.' But you have made it a den of thieves."
Matthew 21:14  The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
Matthew 21:15  The chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things he did, and the children shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David." They were very angry.
Matthew 21:16  They said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babies and nursing infants you have made praise perfect'?"
Matthew 21:17  He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and he stayed the night there.
Matthew 21:18  In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry.
Matthew 21:19  He saw a fig tree by the road, and came to it, but found nothing on it except leaves. He said to it, "Let no fruit ever grow on you again." And straight away the fig tree withered.
Matthew 21:20  When the disciples saw it, they were amazed. They said, "How quickly the fig tree has withered!"
Matthew 21:21  Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree. You will also be able to say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and it will be done."
Matthew 21:22  "And whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive."
Matthew 21:23  When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him while he was teaching. They said, "By what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?"
Matthew 21:24  Jesus answered them, "I will also ask you one thing. If you tell me the answer, I will tell you by what authority I do these things."
Matthew 21:25  "The baptism of John, where did it come from? From heaven, or from men?" And they talked it over among themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say to us, 'Why then did you not believe him?'"
Matthew 21:26  "But if we say, 'From men,' we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet."
Matthew 21:27  So they answered Jesus, "We cannot tell." And he said to them, "Then I will not tell you by what authority I do these things."
Matthew 21:28  "But what do you think? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in my vineyard.'"
Matthew 21:29  "He answered, 'I will not.' But afterwards he changed his mind and went."
Matthew 21:30  "Then he came to the second son and said the same. And he answered, 'I will go, sir,' but he did not go."
Matthew 21:31  "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" They said to him, "The first." Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God before you."
Matthew 21:32  "For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And you, when you had seen it, still did not repent afterwards and believe him."
Matthew 21:33  "Listen to another parable. There was a man who owned land. He planted a vineyard, put a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to farmers and went away to a far country."
Matthew 21:34  "When the time of the harvest came near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive the fruit."
Matthew 21:35  "But the farmers took his servants. They beat one, killed another, and stoned another."
Matthew 21:36  "Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did the same to them."
Matthew 21:37  "Last of all he sent his son to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'"
Matthew 21:38  "But when the farmers saw the son, they said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance for ourselves.'"
Matthew 21:39  "So they took hold of him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him."
Matthew 21:40  "So when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?"
Matthew 21:41  They said to him, "He will destroy those wicked men terribly, and will rent out his vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit at the right times."
Matthew 21:42  Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?"
Matthew 21:43  "So I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and given to a nation that will bring out its fruit."
Matthew 21:44  "And whoever falls on this stone will be broken. But if it falls on anyone, it will crush him to powder."
Matthew 21:45  When the chief priests and Pharisees heard his parables, they understood that he was speaking about them.
Matthew 21:46  They wanted to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd, because the people held that he was a prophet.

Matthew 22:1  The kingdom of heaven is like a king who made a wedding feast for his son.
Matthew 22:2  He sent out his servants to call those who had been invited to the wedding, but they would not come.
Matthew 22:3  Again he sent out other servants, saying, "Tell those who were invited, 'Look, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fat cattle are killed, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding.'"
Matthew 22:4  But they took no notice of it, and went off, one to his farm, another to his business.
Matthew 22:5  The rest took hold of his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them.
Matthew 22:6  But when the king heard of it, he was angry. He sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Matthew 22:7  Then he said to his servants, "The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy."
Matthew 22:8  "So go out to the main roads, and invite to the wedding as many as you find."
Matthew 22:9  So those servants went out to the roads and gathered together all they found, both bad and good; and the wedding was filled with guests.
Matthew 22:10  When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not wearing a wedding garment.
Matthew 22:11  He said to him, "Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?" And the man had nothing to say.
Matthew 22:12  Then the king said to the servants, "Tie him hand and foot, and take him away, and throw him into the darkness outside. There people will weep and grind their teeth."
Matthew 22:13  For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 22:14  Then the Pharisees went away and made a plan to trap him in his own words.
Matthew 22:15  They sent their disciples to him, together with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are true, and that you teach the way of God truly. You do not care what anyone thinks, for you do not judge by who people are."
Matthew 22:16  "So tell us what you think. Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar, or not?"
Matthew 22:17  But Jesus knew their wickedness, and said, "Why do you test me, you hypocrites?"
Matthew 22:18  "Show me the tribute money." And they brought him a penny.
Matthew 22:19  He said to them, "Whose image and name are on this?"
Matthew 22:20  They said to him, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "So give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Matthew 22:21  When they heard these words, they were amazed. They left him and went away.
Matthew 22:22  That same day the Sadducees came to him. They are the ones who say there is no resurrection. They asked him,
Matthew 22:23  "Teacher, Moses said that if a man dies having no children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise up children for his brother."
Matthew 22:24  Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married a wife and died, and because he had no children, he left his wife to his brother.
Matthew 22:25  The same happened with the second, and the third, down to the seventh.
Matthew 22:26  Last of all the woman died too.
Matthew 22:27  "So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her."
Matthew 22:28  Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you do not know the scriptures, nor the power of God."
Matthew 22:29  For in the resurrection people do not marry, and are not given in marriage, but they are like the angels of God in heaven.
Matthew 22:30  But about the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying,
Matthew 22:31  "'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
Matthew 22:32  When the crowd heard this, they were astonished at his teaching.
Matthew 22:33  But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
Matthew 22:34  Then one of them, who was a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. He said,
Matthew 22:35  "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"
Matthew 22:36  Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."
Matthew 22:37  This is the first and great commandment.
Matthew 22:38  And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.
Matthew 22:39  "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Matthew 22:40  While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,
Matthew 22:41  "What do you think about Christ? Whose son is he?" They said to him, "The Son of David."
Matthew 22:42  He said to them, "How then does David in spirit call him Lord? He says,"
Matthew 22:43  'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'
Matthew 22:44  "If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son?"
Matthew 22:45  No one was able to answer him a word, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Matthew 23:1  Then Jesus spoke to the crowd and to his disciples.
Matthew 23:2  He said, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat."
Matthew 23:3  "So do everything they tell you to keep, and keep it. But do not do what they do. For they talk, and do not act."
Matthew 23:4  "They tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and lay them on people's shoulders. But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers."
Matthew 23:5  "They do all their works to be seen by people. They make their phylacteries wide, and they make the borders of their clothes large."
Matthew 23:6  "They love the best places at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues."
Matthew 23:7  "They love greetings in the markets, and to be called by people, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'"
Matthew 23:8  "But do not let yourselves be called Rabbi. For one is your Master, that is, Christ, and you are all brothers and sisters."
Matthew 23:9  "And call no man on earth your father. For one is your Father, who is in heaven."
Matthew 23:10  "Do not let yourselves be called masters. For one is your Master, that is, Christ."
Matthew 23:11  "The greatest among you shall be your servant."
Matthew 23:12  "Whoever lifts himself up shall be brought low. And whoever makes himself humble shall be lifted up."
Matthew 23:13  "But how terrible for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven against people. You do not go in yourselves, and you do not allow those who are entering to go in."
Matthew 23:14  "How terrible for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you eat up widows' houses, and for a show you make long prayers. So you shall receive the greater judgment."
Matthew 23:15  "How terrible for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel over sea and land to make one convert. And when he is made one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."
Matthew 23:16  "How terrible for you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he must keep his oath.'"
Matthew 23:17  "You fools and blind men! Which is greater, the gold, or the temple that makes the gold holy?"
Matthew 23:18  "And you say, 'If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing. But whoever swears by the gift that is on it is guilty.'"
Matthew 23:19  "You fools and blind men! Which is greater, the gift, or the altar that makes the gift holy?"
Matthew 23:20  "So whoever swears by the altar swears by it, and by everything on it."
Matthew 23:21  "And whoever swears by the temple swears by it, and by him who lives in it."
Matthew 23:22  "And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God, and by him who sits on it."
Matthew 23:23  "How terrible for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay a tithe of mint and anise and cummin, but you have left out the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith. These you should have done, and not left the others undone."
Matthew 23:24  "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel."
Matthew 23:25  "How terrible for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and excess."
Matthew 23:26  "You blind Pharisee, first clean what is inside the cup and dish, so that the outside of them may be clean too."
Matthew 23:27  "How terrible for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like tombs painted white. Outside they look beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean."
Matthew 23:28  "In the same way, on the outside you appear righteous to people. But inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness."
Matthew 23:29  "How terrible for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and decorate the graves of the righteous."
Matthew 23:30  "And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have shared with them in the blood of the prophets.'"
Matthew 23:31  "So you are witnesses against yourselves that you are the children of those who killed the prophets."
Matthew 23:32  "Then fill up the measure of your fathers."
Matthew 23:33  "You snakes, you family of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of hell?"
Matthew 23:34  "So look, I send you prophets, and wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify. Some of them you will whip in your synagogues, and chase them from city to city."
Matthew 23:35  "So on you will come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you killed between the temple and the altar."
Matthew 23:36  "I tell you the truth, all these things shall come upon this generation."
Matthew 23:37  "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often I would have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not."
Matthew 23:38  "Look, your house is left to you empty."
Matthew 23:39  "For I say to you, you shall not see me from now on, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Matthew 24:1  Jesus went out and left the temple. His disciples came to him to show him the temple buildings.
Matthew 24:2  But Jesus said to them, "Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on top of another. Every one will be thrown down."
Matthew 24:3  As he sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. They said, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world?"
Matthew 24:4  Jesus answered them, "Be careful that no one deceives you."
Matthew 24:5  "For many will come using my name. They will say, 'I am Christ,' and they will deceive many."
Matthew 24:6  "You will hear of wars and reports of wars. See that you are not troubled. All these things must happen, but the end is not yet."
Matthew 24:7  "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and plagues and earthquakes in many places."
Matthew 24:8  "All these are the beginning of sorrows."
Matthew 24:9  "Then they will hand you over to be hurt, and they will kill you. All nations will hate you because of my name."
Matthew 24:10  "Then many will fall away. They will betray one another and hate one another."
Matthew 24:11  "Many false prophets will rise up, and they will deceive many."
Matthew 24:12  "Because evil will increase, the love of many will grow cold."
Matthew 24:13  "But the one who holds out to the end will be saved."
Matthew 24:14  "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world, as a witness to all nations. Then the end will come."
Matthew 24:15  "So when you see the abomination of desolation, which Daniel the prophet spoke about, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),"
Matthew 24:16  "then let those who are in Judaea run away to the mountains."
Matthew 24:17  "The one who is on the roof must not go down to take anything out of his house."
Matthew 24:18  "And the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his clothes."
Matthew 24:19  "How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant, and for those who are nursing babies."
Matthew 24:20  "Pray that you will not have to run away in the winter, or on the sabbath day."
Matthew 24:21  "For then there will be great trouble, worse than any since the beginning of the world until now. No, and there never will be again."
Matthew 24:22  "If those days were not cut short, no one at all would be saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, those days will be cut short."
Matthew 24:23  "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is Christ,' or 'There he is,' do not believe it."
Matthew 24:24  "For false Christs and false prophets will rise up. They will show great signs and wonders, so that, if it were possible, they would deceive even the chosen ones."
Matthew 24:25  "Look, I have told you ahead of time."
Matthew 24:26  "So if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the desert,' do not go out. Or, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it."
Matthew 24:27  "For as the lightning comes out of the east and shines as far as the west, so the coming of the Son of man will be."
Matthew 24:28  "For wherever the dead body is, there the eagles will gather."
Matthew 24:29  "Straight after the trouble of those days, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light. The stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken."
Matthew 24:30  "Then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."
Matthew 24:31  "He will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet. They will gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
Matthew 24:32  "Now learn a parable from the fig tree. When its branch is soft and puts out leaves, you know that summer is near."
Matthew 24:33  "In the same way, when you see all these things, know that it is near, right at the doors."
Matthew 24:34  "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened."
Matthew 24:35  "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
Matthew 24:36  "But no one knows that day and hour. No, not the angels of heaven, but only my Father."
Matthew 24:37  "As the days of Noe were, so will the coming of the Son of man be."
Matthew 24:38  "For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe went into the ark."
Matthew 24:39  "They did not know anything until the flood came and took them all away. So will the coming of the Son of man be."
Matthew 24:40  "Then two men will be in the field. One will be taken and the other left."
Matthew 24:41  "Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left."
Matthew 24:42  "So keep watch, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming."
Matthew 24:43  "But know this: if the master of the house had known at what time of night the thief would come, he would have kept watch. He would not have let his house be broken into."
Matthew 24:44  "So you must be ready too, for the Son of man is coming at an hour when you do not expect him."
Matthew 24:45  "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give them their food at the right time?"
Matthew 24:46  "Blessed is that servant whose master finds him doing so when he comes."
Matthew 24:47  "I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his goods."
Matthew 24:48  "But suppose that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is taking a long time to come,'"
Matthew 24:49  "and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards."
Matthew 24:50  "The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him, and at an hour he does not know about."
Matthew 24:51  "He will cut him in pieces and give him his place with the hypocrites. There will be weeping and grinding of teeth."

Matthew 25:1  "Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom."
Matthew 25:2  "Five of them were wise, and five were foolish."
Matthew 25:3  "The foolish ones took their lamps, but they took no oil with them."
Matthew 25:4  "But the wise ones took jars of oil along with their lamps."
Matthew 25:5  "The bridegroom was a long time coming, so they all grew sleepy and fell asleep."
Matthew 25:6  "At midnight there was a shout: 'Look, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him.'"
Matthew 25:7  "Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps."
Matthew 25:8  "The foolish ones said to the wise ones, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'"
Matthew 25:9  "But the wise ones answered, 'No, there may not be enough for us and for you. Go instead to those who sell oil, and buy some for yourselves.'"
Matthew 25:10  "While they were away buying it, the bridegroom came. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut."
Matthew 25:11  "Later the other virgins came too. They said, 'Lord, Lord, open the door to us.'"
Matthew 25:12  "But he answered, 'I tell you the truth, I do not know you.'"
Matthew 25:13  "So keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour when the Son of man comes."
Matthew 25:14  "For the kingdom of heaven is like a man travelling to a far country. He called his own servants and handed his goods over to them."
Matthew 25:15  "To one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each one according to his own ability. Then he went on his journey at once."
Matthew 25:16  "The one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents."
Matthew 25:17  "In the same way the one who had received two gained another two."
Matthew 25:18  "But the one who had received one went off, dug a hole in the ground, and hid his master's money."
Matthew 25:19  "After a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them."
Matthew 25:20  "The one who had received five talents came and brought another five talents. He said, 'Master, you handed five talents over to me. Look, I have gained five talents more.'"
Matthew 25:21  "His master said to him, 'Well done, you good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's joy.'"
Matthew 25:22  "The one who had received two talents also came. He said, 'Master, you handed two talents over to me. Look, I have gained two talents more.'"
Matthew 25:23  "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's joy.'"
Matthew 25:24  "Then the one who had received the one talent came. He said, 'Master, I knew that you are a hard man. You reap where you have not sown, and you gather where you have not scattered seed."
Matthew 25:25  "'So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, here is what belongs to you.'"
Matthew 25:26  "His master answered him, 'You wicked and lazy servant. You knew that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I have not scattered seed."
Matthew 25:27  "'So you should have put my money with the bankers. Then when I came I would have received my own back with interest."
Matthew 25:28  "'So take the talent from him, and give it to the one who has ten talents."
Matthew 25:29  "'For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have plenty. But from the one who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away."
Matthew 25:30  "'And throw the useless servant out into the darkness outside. There people will weep and grind their teeth.'"
Matthew 25:31  "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory."
Matthew 25:32  "All nations will be gathered in front of him. He will separate them from one another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats."
Matthew 25:33  "He will put the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left."
Matthew 25:34  "Then the King will say to those on his right hand, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Take as your own the kingdom prepared for you from the making of the world."
Matthew 25:35  "'For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in."
Matthew 25:36  "'I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.'"
Matthew 25:37  "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?"
Matthew 25:38  "'When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you?"
Matthew 25:39  "'When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?'"
Matthew 25:40  "And the King will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these my brothers, you did for me.'"
Matthew 25:41  "Then he will also say to those on the left hand, 'Go away from me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
Matthew 25:42  "'For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink."
Matthew 25:43  "'I was a stranger, and you did not take me in. I was naked, and you did not clothe me. I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.'"
Matthew 25:44  "Then they will also answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not help you?'"
Matthew 25:45  "Then he will answer them, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"
Matthew 25:46  "These will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

Matthew 26:1  When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples,
Matthew 26:2  "You know that in two days it will be the feast of the Passover. And the Son of man will be handed over to be crucified."
Matthew 26:3  Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people met together at the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas.
Matthew 26:4  They made a plan to arrest Jesus by a trick, and to kill him.
Matthew 26:5  But they said, "Not during the feast day, or the people may riot."
Matthew 26:6  Now Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper.
Matthew 26:7  A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head while he was sitting at the table.
Matthew 26:8  When his disciples saw it, they were angry. They said, "Why has this been wasted?"
Matthew 26:9  "This ointment could have been sold for a lot, and the money given to the poor."
Matthew 26:10  Jesus knew what they were saying. He said to them, "Why are you troubling the woman? She has done a good work for me."
Matthew 26:11  You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.
Matthew 26:12  When she poured this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
Matthew 26:13  "I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Matthew 26:14  Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests.
Matthew 26:15  He said to them, "What will you give me if I hand him over to you?" And they agreed to pay him thirty pieces of silver.
Matthew 26:16  From that time he looked for a chance to betray him.
Matthew 26:17  On the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Jesus and said to him, "Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
Matthew 26:18  He said, "Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, 'The Master says, My time is near. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.'"
Matthew 26:19  The disciples did as Jesus had told them, and they got the Passover ready.
Matthew 26:20  When evening came, he sat down with the twelve.
Matthew 26:21  While they were eating, he said, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."
Matthew 26:22  They were very sad, and each one of them began to say to him, "Lord, is it I?"
Matthew 26:23  He answered, "The one who dips his hand with me in the dish will betray me."
Matthew 26:24  "The Son of man goes as it is written about him. But how terrible it will be for that man who betrays the Son of man. It would have been better for that man if he had never been born."
Matthew 26:25  Then Judas, who was betraying him, said, "Master, is it I?" Jesus said to him, "You have said it."
Matthew 26:26  While they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it. He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take it and eat. This is my body."
Matthew 26:27  Then he took the cup and gave thanks. He gave it to them and said, "Drink from it, all of you."
Matthew 26:28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many, so that sins may be forgiven.
Matthew 26:29  "But I tell you, from now on I will not drink this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
Matthew 26:30  When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives.
Matthew 26:31  Then Jesus said to them, "Tonight all of you will fall away because of me. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.'"
Matthew 26:32  "But after I am raised up again, I will go before you into Galilee."
Matthew 26:33  Peter answered him, "Even if everyone else falls away because of you, I will never fall away."
Matthew 26:34  Jesus said to him, "I tell you the truth, tonight, before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."
Matthew 26:35  Peter said to him, "Even if I have to die with you, I will not deny you." And all the disciples said the same.
Matthew 26:36  Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to the disciples, "Sit here, while I go over there and pray."
Matthew 26:37  He took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sad and deeply troubled.
Matthew 26:38  He went a little further, and fell with his face to the ground, and prayed, "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Matthew 26:39  Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, "What, could you not watch with me for one hour?"
Matthew 26:40  "Watch and pray, so that you do not fall into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the body is weak."
Matthew 26:41  He went away a second time and prayed, "O my Father, if this cup cannot pass away from me unless I drink it, may your will be done."
Matthew 26:42  He came and found them sleeping again, for their eyes were heavy.
Matthew 26:43  So he left them and went away again, and prayed a third time, saying the same words.
Matthew 26:44  Then he came to his disciples and said to them, "Sleep on now, and take your rest. Look, the hour is near, and the Son of man is handed over into the hands of sinners."
Matthew 26:45  "Get up, let us go. Look, the one who betrays me is here."
Matthew 26:46  While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came. With him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the elders of the people.
Matthew 26:47  Now the one who betrayed him had given them a sign. He said, "The one I kiss is the man. Hold him tight."
Matthew 26:48  At once he came to Jesus and said, "Greetings, master," and kissed him.
Matthew 26:49  Jesus said to him, "Friend, why have you come?" Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and took him.
Matthew 26:50  Then one of those who were with Jesus reached out his hand and drew his sword. He struck a servant of the high priest and cut off his ear.
Matthew 26:51  Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back in its place. For all who take the sword will die by the sword."
Matthew 26:52  Do you think that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he will at once give me more than twelve legions of angels?
Matthew 26:53  "But then how would the scriptures be fulfilled, that say it must happen this way?"
Matthew 26:54  At that same hour Jesus said to the crowds, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to take me, as if I were a thief? I sat teaching in the temple with you every day, and you did not arrest me."
Matthew 26:55  "But all this has happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled." Then all the disciples left him and ran away.
Matthew 26:56  Those who had arrested Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were gathered.
Matthew 26:57  But Peter followed him at a distance, as far as the high priest's palace. He went in and sat with the servants, to see how it would end.
Matthew 26:58  Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council looked for false witness against Jesus, so that they could put him to death.
Matthew 26:59  But they found none. Many false witnesses came, but still they found none. At last two false witnesses came,
Matthew 26:60  and said, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.'"
Matthew 26:61  The high priest stood up and said to him, "Have you no answer? What is this that these men say against you?"
Matthew 26:62  But Jesus said nothing. The high priest said to him, "I put you under oath by the living God: tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God."
Matthew 26:63  Jesus said to him, "You have said it. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Matthew 26:64  Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "He has spoken blasphemy. Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard his blasphemy."
Matthew 26:65  "What do you think?" They answered, "He deserves to die."
Matthew 26:66  Then they spat in his face and beat him with their fists. Others slapped him with the palms of their hands,
Matthew 26:67  and said, "Prophesy to us, you Christ. Who is it that struck you?"
Matthew 26:68  Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant girl came to him and said, "You also were with Jesus of Galilee."
Matthew 26:69  But he denied it in front of them all. He said, "I do not know what you are talking about."
Matthew 26:70  When he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him. She said to the people there, "This man was also with Jesus of Nazareth."
Matthew 26:71  Again he denied it with an oath: "I do not know the man."
Matthew 26:72  After a while the people standing there came to Peter and said, "Surely you are one of them too. Your speech gives you away."
Matthew 26:73  Then he began to curse and to swear, saying, "I do not know the man." And at once the cock crowed.
Matthew 26:74  Then Peter remembered the words of Jesus, who had said to him, "Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Matthew 27:1  When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made a plan against Jesus, to put him to death.
Matthew 27:2  They tied him up, led him away, and handed him over to Pontius Pilate the governor.
Matthew 27:3  Then Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned. He was full of regret, and he brought the thirty pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders.
Matthew 27:4  He said, "I have sinned. I have betrayed innocent blood." And they said, "What is that to us? You see to that."
Matthew 27:5  He threw down the pieces of silver in the temple and left. Then he went and hanged himself.
Matthew 27:6  The chief priests picked up the pieces of silver and said, "It is not lawful to put this money into the treasury, because it is the price of blood."
Matthew 27:7  So they talked it over, and with the money they bought the potter's field, as a burial place for strangers.
Matthew 27:8  That is why that field is called The Field of Blood to this day.
Matthew 27:9  So the word spoken by Jeremy the prophet came true: "And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him, the price the children of Israel set on him;"
Matthew 27:10  "and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord told me."
Matthew 27:11  Jesus stood before the governor. The governor asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus said to him, "You say so."
Matthew 27:12  When the chief priests and elders accused him, he answered nothing.
Matthew 27:13  Then Pilate said to him, "Do you not hear how many things they say against you?"
Matthew 27:14  But Jesus did not answer him one word, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Matthew 27:15  Now at that feast it was the governor's custom to set free for the people any one prisoner they chose.
Matthew 27:16  At that time they had a well-known prisoner called Barabbas.
Matthew 27:17  So when the people were gathered together, Pilate said to them, "Which one do you want me to set free for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?"
Matthew 27:18  For he knew that they had handed Jesus over because they envied him.
Matthew 27:19  While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him a message: "Have nothing to do with that just man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of him."
Matthew 27:20  But the chief priests and elders talked the crowd into asking for Barabbas, and into destroying Jesus.
Matthew 27:21  The governor said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to set free for you?" They said, "Barabbas."
Matthew 27:22  Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said to him, "Let him be crucified."
Matthew 27:23  The governor said, "Why? What evil has he done?" But they shouted even louder, "Let him be crucified."
Matthew 27:24  Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, and that instead a riot was starting. So he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd, and said, "I am innocent of the blood of this just person. You see to it."
Matthew 27:25  Then all the people answered, "Let his blood be on us, and on our children."
Matthew 27:26  So he set Barabbas free for them. And when he had Jesus whipped, he handed him over to be crucified.
Matthew 27:27  Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus into the hall, and gathered the whole company of soldiers round him.
Matthew 27:28  They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him.
Matthew 27:29  They wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a reed in his right hand. They knelt down in front of him and mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!"
Matthew 27:30  They spat on him, and took the reed and hit him on the head.
Matthew 27:31  After they had mocked him, they took the robe off him and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
Matthew 27:32  As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon. They forced him to carry the cross of Jesus.
Matthew 27:33  They came to a place called Golgotha, which means the place of a skull.
Matthew 27:34  There they gave him vinegar to drink, mixed with gall. When he had tasted it, he would not drink it.
Matthew 27:35  They crucified him, and divided his clothes among them by throwing lots. So the word spoken by the prophet came true: "They divided my clothes among them, and for my robe they threw lots."
Matthew 27:36  Then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
Matthew 27:37  Over his head they put up the charge against him, written out: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Matthew 27:38  Two thieves were crucified with him, one on his right hand and one on his left.
Matthew 27:39  The people who passed by insulted him, shaking their heads
Matthew 27:40  and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
Matthew 27:41  In the same way the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him and said,
Matthew 27:42  "He saved others, but he cannot save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe him."
Matthew 27:43  "He trusted in God. Let God save him now, if he wants him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
Matthew 27:44  The thieves who were crucified with him said the same insults to his face.
Matthew 27:45  From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
Matthew 27:46  About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" That means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matthew 27:47  Some of those standing there heard it and said, "This man is calling for Elias."
Matthew 27:48  At once one of them ran and took a sponge. He filled it with vinegar, put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink.
Matthew 27:49  The rest said, "Leave him alone. Let us see whether Elias will come to save him."
Matthew 27:50  Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and gave up his spirit.
Matthew 27:51  Look, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from the top to the bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks split.
Matthew 27:52  The graves were opened, and many bodies of the saints who slept were raised up.
Matthew 27:53  They came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared to many people.
Matthew 27:54  Now the centurion and those with him, who were watching Jesus, saw the earthquake and all that happened. They were very afraid, and said, "Truly this was the Son of God."
Matthew 27:55  Many women were there, watching from far off. They had followed Jesus from Galilee and cared for him.
Matthew 27:56  Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's children.
Matthew 27:57  When evening came, a rich man from Arimathaea named Joseph arrived. He was himself a disciple of Jesus.
Matthew 27:58  He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate gave orders for the body to be handed over.
Matthew 27:59  Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen cloth.
Matthew 27:60  He laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone against the door of the tomb and went away.
Matthew 27:61  Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
Matthew 27:62  The next day, the day after the day of preparation, the chief priests and Pharisees came together to Pilate.
Matthew 27:63  They said, "Sir, we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, 'After three days I will rise again.'"
Matthew 27:64  "So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise his disciples may come by night and steal him away, and tell the people, 'He is risen from the dead.' Then the last lie will be worse than the first."
Matthew 27:65  Pilate said to them, "You have a guard. Go your way, and make it as secure as you can."
Matthew 27:66  So they went and made the tomb secure. They sealed the stone and set a guard.

Matthew 28:1  When the sabbath was over, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
Matthew 28:2  And look, there was a great earthquake. For the angel of the Lord came down from heaven. He came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat on it.
Matthew 28:3  His face was like lightning, and his clothes were as white as snow.
Matthew 28:4  The guards shook with fear of him, and became like dead men.
Matthew 28:5  The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified."
Matthew 28:6  "He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where the Lord lay."
Matthew 28:7  "Go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead. And look, he is going ahead of you into Galilee. You will see him there. Listen, I have told you."
Matthew 28:8  So they left the tomb quickly, with fear and great joy. They ran to bring word to his disciples.
Matthew 28:9  As they went to tell his disciples, look, Jesus met them. He said, "Greetings." They came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.
Matthew 28:10  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go into Galilee. They will see me there."
Matthew 28:11  While they were going, look, some of the guard went into the city. They told the chief priests everything that had happened.
Matthew 28:12  The chief priests met with the elders and talked it over. Then they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers.
Matthew 28:13  They said, "Say this: 'His disciples came in the night and stole him away while we were asleep.'"
Matthew 28:14  "And if this reaches the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and keep you safe."
Matthew 28:15  So they took the money and did as they were told. And this story is still told among the Jews to this day.
Matthew 28:16  Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
Matthew 28:17  When they saw him, they worshipped him. But some doubted.
Matthew 28:18  Jesus came and spoke to them. He said, "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me."
Matthew 28:19  "So go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
Matthew 28:20  "Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And listen, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen."

Mark

Mark 1:1  The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Mark 1:2  It is written in the prophets: "Look, I send my messenger ahead of you, and he will prepare your way before you."
Mark 1:3  "The voice of one calling out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight."
Mark 1:4  John baptized in the wilderness. He preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mark 1:5  All the land of Judaea came out to him, and the people of Jerusalem too. They confessed their sins, and he baptized them all in the river Jordan.
Mark 1:6  John wore clothes made of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey.
Mark 1:7  He preached and said, "Someone is coming after me who is mightier than I am. I am not worthy even to bend down and untie the strap of his shoes."
Mark 1:8  "I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
Mark 1:9  In those days Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan.
Mark 1:10  At once, as he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove.
Mark 1:11  And a voice came from heaven: "You are my beloved Son. I am well pleased with you."
Mark 1:12  Straight away the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness.
Mark 1:13  He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels looked after him.
Mark 1:14  After John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Mark 1:15  He said, "The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent, and believe the gospel."
Mark 1:16  As he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew throwing a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
Mark 1:17  Jesus said to them, "Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Mark 1:18  At once they left their nets and followed him.
Mark 1:19  When he had gone a little further, he saw James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in their boat, mending their nets.
Mark 1:20  At once he called them. They left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.
Mark 1:21  They went into Capernaum. On the sabbath day he went straight into the synagogue and taught.
Mark 1:22  They were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not like the scribes.
Mark 1:23  In their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out.
Mark 1:24  He said, "Leave us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God."
Mark 1:25  Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet, and come out of him."
Mark 1:26  The unclean spirit shook the man violently and cried with a loud voice, and came out of him.
Mark 1:27  They were all amazed, so that they asked one another, "What is this? What new teaching is this? He gives orders even to the unclean spirits with authority, and they obey him."
Mark 1:28  At once the news about him spread through all the region around Galilee.
Mark 1:29  As soon as they came out of the synagogue, they went into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
Mark 1:30  Simon's wife's mother was lying sick with a fever, and at once they told him about her.
Mark 1:31  He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. The fever left her at once, and she served them.
Mark 1:32  In the evening, when the sun had set, they brought to him all who were ill and those who had demons.
Mark 1:33  The whole city was gathered together at the door.
Mark 1:34  He healed many who were sick with many kinds of diseases, and he drove out many demons. He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him.
Mark 1:35  In the morning, a long time before daylight, he got up and went out. He went away to a lonely place, and prayed there.
Mark 1:36  Simon and those who were with him went to look for him.
Mark 1:37  When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is looking for you."
Mark 1:38  He said to them, "Let us go to the next towns, so that I may preach there too. That is why I came out."
Mark 1:39  So he preached in their synagogues all through Galilee, and drove out demons.
Mark 1:40  A man with leprosy came to him. He begged him, kneeling down, and said to him, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Mark 1:41  Jesus was moved with compassion. He reached out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing. Be clean."
Mark 1:42  As soon as he had spoken, the leprosy left the man at once, and he was made clean.
Mark 1:43  Jesus gave him a strict warning and sent him away at once.
Mark 1:44  He said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest. Offer for your cleansing the things that Moses commanded, as a witness to them."
Mark 1:45  But the man went out and began to tell it widely, and to spread the news everywhere. So Jesus could no longer go openly into the city, but stayed outside in lonely places. And people came to him from every direction.

Mark 2:1  After some days Jesus went into Capernaum again. News spread that he was in the house.
Mark 2:2  At once so many people gathered together that there was no room for them, not even around the door. And he preached the word to them.
Mark 2:3  Some men came to him, bringing a man who was paralysed. Four men carried him.
Mark 2:4  They could not get near Jesus because of the crowd. So they opened up the roof above him. When they had made a hole in it, they let down the bed that the paralysed man was lying on.
Mark 2:5  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralysed man, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
Mark 2:6  But some of the scribes were sitting there, thinking in their hearts,
Mark 2:7  "Why does this man speak such blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Mark 2:8  At once Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking among themselves. He said to them, "Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?"
Mark 2:9  "Which is easier: to say to the paralysed man, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, pick up your bed, and walk'?"
Mark 2:10  "But so that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins" - he said to the paralysed man -
Mark 2:11  "I say to you, get up, pick up your bed, and go home."
Mark 2:12  At once the man got up, picked up the bed, and went out in front of them all. They were all amazed and gave glory to God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."
Mark 2:13  Jesus went out again beside the sea. The whole crowd came to him, and he taught them.
Mark 2:14  As he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office. He said to him, "Follow me." And Levi got up and followed him.
Mark 2:15  Then, as Jesus sat eating in his house, many tax collectors and sinners sat down with Jesus and his disciples. For there were many of them, and they followed him.
Mark 2:16  When the scribes and Pharisees saw him eating with tax collectors and sinners, they said to his disciples, "Why does he eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
Mark 2:17  When Jesus heard it, he said to them, "People who are well do not need a doctor, but sick people do. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repent."
Mark 2:18  The disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees used to fast. Some people came and said to him, "Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?"
Mark 2:19  Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast."
Mark 2:20  "But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then, in those days, they will fast."
Mark 2:21  "No one sews a piece of new cloth onto an old coat. If he does, the new piece pulls away from the old, and the tear is made worse."
Mark 2:22  "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine bursts the skins, the wine is spilled, and the skins are ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins."
Mark 2:23  Then Jesus went through the corn fields on the sabbath day. As they walked, his disciples began to pick the ears of corn.
Mark 2:24  The Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath day?"
Mark 2:25  He said to them, "Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and the men who were with him?"
Mark 2:26  "He went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest and ate the showbread, which only the priests are allowed to eat. And he gave some to the men who were with him."
Mark 2:27  And he said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath."
Mark 2:28  "So the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath."

Mark 3:1  Jesus went into the synagogue again. A man was there whose hand was withered.
Mark 3:2  They watched him to see if he would heal the man on the sabbath day. They wanted a reason to accuse him.
Mark 3:3  He said to the man with the withered hand, "Stand up here in front."
Mark 3:4  Then he said to them, "Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill?" But they said nothing.
Mark 3:5  He looked around at them with anger. He was grieved because their hearts were hard. He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." The man stretched it out, and his hand was made well again, like the other one.
Mark 3:6  Then the Pharisees went out. At once they made plans with the Herodians against Jesus, how they might destroy him.
Mark 3:7  But Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea. A great crowd followed him from Galilee and from Judaea,
Mark 3:8  and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan, and from the area around Tyre and Sidon. A great crowd came to him because they had heard about the great things he did.
Mark 3:9  He told his disciples to keep a small boat ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crush him.
Mark 3:10  He had healed many people. So all who had diseases pushed forward to touch him.
Mark 3:11  When the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down in front of him and cried out, "You are the Son of God."
Mark 3:12  But he gave them strict orders not to make him known.
Mark 3:13  Then he went up a mountain and called to himself the men he wanted, and they came to him.
Mark 3:14  He appointed twelve, so that they would be with him, and so that he could send them out to preach,
Mark 3:15  and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils.
Mark 3:16  He gave Simon the name Peter.
Mark 3:17  There were James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James. He gave them the name Boanerges, which means The sons of thunder.
Mark 3:18  There were also Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Canaanite,
Mark 3:19  and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him. Then they went into a house.
Mark 3:20  The crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat bread.
Mark 3:21  When his friends heard about it, they went out to take hold of him, for they said, "He is out of his mind."
Mark 3:22  The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub. He casts out devils by the prince of the devils."
Mark 3:23  So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables. "How can Satan cast out Satan?" he said.
Mark 3:24  "If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand."
Mark 3:25  And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.
Mark 3:26  And if Satan rises up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand. He is finished.
Mark 3:27  No one can go into a strong man's house and take his goods unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house.
Mark 3:28  I tell you the truth, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and every evil word they speak against God.
Mark 3:29  "But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness. He is in danger of eternal damnation."
Mark 3:30  He said this because they said, "He has an unclean spirit."
Mark 3:31  Then his brothers and his mother came. They stood outside and sent someone in to call him.
Mark 3:32  The crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, "Look, your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you."
Mark 3:33  He answered them, "Who is my mother, or my brothers?"
Mark 3:34  He looked around at the people sitting in a circle about him, and said, "Look, my mother and my brothers."
Mark 3:35  "Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and my sister, and mother."

Mark 4:1  Again Jesus began to teach beside the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat and sat in it on the water, and the whole crowd was on the land by the sea.
Mark 4:2  He taught them many things with parables. In his teaching he said to them,
Mark 4:3  "Listen. A farmer went out to sow his seed."
Mark 4:4  "As he sowed, some seed fell by the path, and the birds of the air came and ate it up."
Mark 4:5  "Some fell on stony ground, where there was not much soil. It came up quickly, because the soil was not deep."
Mark 4:6  "But when the sun rose, the young plants were burned. They had no root, so they dried up and died."
Mark 4:7  "Some fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and choked it, and it gave no fruit."
Mark 4:8  "But other seed fell on good ground. It came up and grew and gave fruit. Some gave thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred."
Mark 4:9  And he said to them, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
Mark 4:10  When he was alone, those who were around him, along with the twelve, asked him about the parable.
Mark 4:11  He said to them, "You have been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But to those outside, everything comes in parables."
Mark 4:12  "So that seeing they may see and not understand, and hearing they may hear and not take it in. Otherwise they might turn back, and their sins would be forgiven them."
Mark 4:13  And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any parable?"
Mark 4:14  "The farmer sows the word."
Mark 4:15  "Some people are like the ground by the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they have heard it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts."
Mark 4:16  "Others are like the seed sown on stony ground. When they hear the word, they receive it at once with gladness."
Mark 4:17  "But they have no root in themselves, so they last only a short time. Later, when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away."
Mark 4:18  "Others are like the seed sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word,"
Mark 4:19  "but the worries of this world, and the false promises of riches, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, so that it gives no fruit."
Mark 4:20  "And others are like the seed sown on good ground. They hear the word and receive it, and they give fruit: some thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred."
Mark 4:21  He said to them, "Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed? Is it not brought in to be set on a lampstand?"
Mark 4:22  "For nothing is hidden that will not be shown, and nothing is kept secret except to be brought out into the open."
Mark 4:23  "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear."
Mark 4:24  And he said to them, "Be careful what you hear. The measure you use will be used to measure for you. And to you who hear, more will be given."
Mark 4:25  "For whoever has will be given more. And whoever has nothing, even what he has will be taken from him."
Mark 4:26  And he said, "The kingdom of God is like this. A man throws seed on the ground."
Mark 4:27  "He sleeps at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows, and he does not know how."
Mark 4:28  "The earth gives fruit by itself: first the green shoot, then the ear, and after that the full grain in the ear."
Mark 4:29  "But when the fruit is ready, at once he takes the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
Mark 4:30  And he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like? What picture shall we use for it?"
Mark 4:31  "It is like a grain of mustard seed. When it is sown in the ground, it is smaller than all the seeds on earth."
Mark 4:32  "But once it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all the garden plants. It puts out great branches, so that the birds of the air can rest in its shade."
Mark 4:33  He spoke the word to them with many parables like these, as much as they were able to hear.
Mark 4:34  He did not speak to them without a parable. But when they were alone, he explained everything to his disciples.
Mark 4:35  That same day, when evening came, he said to them, "Let us cross over to the other side."
Mark 4:36  So they sent the crowd away and took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other little boats were with him too.
Mark 4:37  A great windstorm came up, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already full of water.
Mark 4:38  Jesus was in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. They woke him and said to him, "Master, do you not care that we are going to die?"
Mark 4:39  He got up and spoke sharply to the wind, and he said to the sea, "Peace. Be still." The wind stopped, and everything was very calm.
Mark 4:40  They were very much afraid, and said to one another, "What kind of man is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him."

Mark 5:1  They came over to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
Mark 5:2  When Jesus came out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit met him at once, coming out of the tombs.
Mark 5:3  He lived among the tombs. No one could tie him up any more, not even with chains.
Mark 5:4  He had often been bound with chains on his feet and hands, but he pulled the chains apart and broke the irons in pieces. No one was strong enough to tame him.
Mark 5:5  Night and day he was always in the hills and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones.
Mark 5:6  But when he saw Jesus far off, he ran and knelt down before him,
Mark 5:7  and cried out with a loud voice, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the most high God? I beg you by God, do not torment me."
Mark 5:8  For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit."
Mark 5:9  Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He answered, "My name is Legion, for we are many."
Mark 5:10  And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them away out of the country.
Mark 5:11  Now there was a great herd of pigs feeding there near the hills.
Mark 5:12  All the devils begged him, saying, "Send us into the pigs, so that we may go into them."
Mark 5:13  At once Jesus gave them leave. The unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd rushed down a steep bank into the sea (there were about two thousand of them), and they were drowned in the sea.
Mark 5:14  The men who fed the pigs ran away and told it in the city and in the country. And people came out to see what had happened.
Mark 5:15  They came to Jesus and saw the man who had been possessed by the devil, the one who had the legion. He was sitting there, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
Mark 5:16  Those who had seen it told them what had happened to the man possessed by the devil, and about the pigs as well.
Mark 5:17  Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their region.
Mark 5:18  When Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed by the devil begged to go with him.
Mark 5:19  But Jesus did not allow him. He said to him, "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he has had compassion on you."
Mark 5:20  So the man went away and began to tell everyone in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him. And they were all amazed.
Mark 5:21  When Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered to him, and he was beside the sea.
Mark 5:22  Look, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, named Jairus. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet
Mark 5:23  and begged him hard, saying, "My little daughter is dying. Please come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be healed. Then she will live."
Mark 5:24  Jesus went with him, and a large crowd followed him and pressed close around him.
Mark 5:25  There was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years.
Mark 5:26  She had suffered much under many doctors, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
Mark 5:27  When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes.
Mark 5:28  For she said, "If I can only touch his clothes, I will be well."
Mark 5:29  At once the flow of her blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her trouble.
Mark 5:30  Jesus knew at once within himself that power had gone out of him. He turned around in the crowd and said, "Who touched my clothes?"
Mark 5:31  His disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and do you say, 'Who touched me?'"
Mark 5:32  And he looked around to see the woman who had done this.
Mark 5:33  But the woman, afraid and trembling, knowing what had happened in her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
Mark 5:34  He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be free from your trouble."
Mark 5:35  While he was still speaking, some people came from the house of the ruler of the synagogue. They said, "Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Master any more?"
Mark 5:36  As soon as Jesus heard what was said, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, "Do not be afraid. Only believe."
Mark 5:37  He let no one follow him except Peter, James, and John the brother of James.
Mark 5:38  He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw the noise and confusion, and people weeping and wailing loudly.
Mark 5:39  When he had come in, he said to them, "Why are you making all this noise and weeping? The girl is not dead, but sleeping."
Mark 5:40  And they laughed at him. But when he had put them all outside, he took the girl's father and mother and those who were with him, and went in where the girl was lying.
Mark 5:41  He took the girl by the hand and said to her, "Talitha cumi," which means, "Girl, I say to you, get up."
Mark 5:42  At once the girl got up and walked, for she was twelve years old. And they were completely amazed.
Mark 5:43  He gave them strict orders that no one should know about it, and said that she should be given something to eat.

Mark 6:1  He left that place and came to his own home town. His disciples followed him.
Mark 6:2  When the sabbath day came, he began to teach in the synagogue. Many who heard him were amazed. They said, "Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? How are such mighty works done by his hands?"
Mark 6:3  "Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and Juda, and Simon? And are his sisters not here with us?" So they were offended at him.
Mark 6:4  But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own home town, among his own relatives, and in his own house."
Mark 6:5  He could do no mighty work there. He only laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.
Mark 6:6  He was amazed at their unbelief. And he went round the villages, teaching.
Mark 6:7  He called the twelve to him and began to send them out two by two. He gave them power over unclean spirits.
Mark 6:8  He told them to take nothing for the journey except a staff. No bag, no bread, no money in their belts.
Mark 6:9  They were to wear sandals, and not to put on two coats.
Mark 6:10  He said to them, "Whatever house you go into, stay there until you leave that place."
Mark 6:11  "If any place will not welcome you or listen to you, then when you leave, shake off the dust under your feet as a witness against them. I tell you the truth, it will be easier for Sodom and Gomorrha on the day of judgment than for that city."
Mark 6:12  So they went out and preached that people should repent.
Mark 6:13  They drove out many devils, and put oil on many who were sick, and healed them.
Mark 6:14  King Herod heard about him, for his name was known everywhere. Herod said, "John the Baptist has risen from the dead. That is why these mighty works are done by him."
Mark 6:15  Others said, "It is Elias." And others said, "It is a prophet, like one of the prophets."
Mark 6:16  But when Herod heard of it, he said, "It is John, whom I beheaded. He has risen from the dead."
Mark 6:17  For Herod himself had sent men to seize John, and had bound him in prison. He did this because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for Herod had married her.
Mark 6:18  John had said to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife."
Mark 6:19  So Herodias held a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not,
Mark 6:20  because Herod was afraid of John. He knew that John was a just and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he did many things, and he listened to him gladly.
Mark 6:21  Then the right day came. On his birthday Herod made a supper for his lords, his high captains, and the leading men of Galilee.
Mark 6:22  The daughter of Herodias came in and danced, and she pleased Herod and those who sat with him. The king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you."
Mark 6:23  He swore to her, "Whatever you ask me for, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom."
Mark 6:24  She went out and said to her mother, "What shall I ask for?" Her mother said, "The head of John the Baptist."
Mark 6:25  She hurried straight in to the king and asked him, "I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a dish."
Mark 6:26  The king was very sad. Yet because of his oath, and because of those who sat with him, he would not refuse her.
Mark 6:27  At once the king sent an executioner and ordered John's head to be brought. The man went and beheaded him in the prison.
Mark 6:28  He brought his head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
Mark 6:29  When John's disciples heard of it, they came and took his body away and laid it in a tomb.
Mark 6:30  The apostles gathered together to Jesus. They told him everything they had done and everything they had taught.
Mark 6:31  He said to them, "Come away by yourselves to a quiet place, and rest a while." For there were many people coming and going, and they had no time even to eat.
Mark 6:32  So they went away privately by boat to a quiet place.
Mark 6:33  But the people saw them going. Many knew him, and they ran there on foot out of all the cities. They arrived before them and came together to him.
Mark 6:34  When Jesus came out, he saw a great crowd. He was filled with compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began to teach them many things.
Mark 6:35  When the day was almost over, his disciples came to him and said, "This is a lonely place, and it is now very late."
Mark 6:36  "Send them away, so they can go to the farms and villages round about and buy themselves bread. They have nothing to eat."
Mark 6:37  He answered them, "You give them something to eat." They said to him, "Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread and give it to them to eat?"
Mark 6:38  He said to them, "How many loaves do you have? Go and see." When they had found out, they said, "Five, and two fishes."
Mark 6:39  Then he told them to make all the people sit down in groups on the green grass.
Mark 6:40  So they sat down in rows, in hundreds and in fifties.
Mark 6:41  He took the five loaves and the two fishes. He looked up to heaven and blessed them. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He divided the two fishes among them all.
Mark 6:42  They all ate and were full.
Mark 6:43  And they picked up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces and of the fishes.
Mark 6:44  Those who ate of the loaves were about five thousand men.
Mark 6:45  At once he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side, to Bethsaida, while he sent the people away.
Mark 6:46  When he had sent them away, he went up a mountain to pray.
Mark 6:47  When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and he was alone on the land.
Mark 6:48  He saw them struggling to row, for the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea, and he would have passed by them.
Mark 6:49  But when they saw him walking on the sea, they thought it was a spirit, and they cried out.
Mark 6:50  For they all saw him and were frightened. At once he spoke with them and said to them, "Take heart. It is I. Do not be afraid."
Mark 6:51  Then he went up to them into the boat, and the wind stopped. They were amazed beyond all measure, and they wondered.
Mark 6:52  For they had not understood about the loaves. Their heart was hardened.
Mark 6:53  When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret and pulled in to the shore.
Mark 6:54  As soon as they came out of the boat, the people knew him.
Mark 6:55  They ran through that whole region. They began to carry the sick on beds to wherever they heard he was.
Mark 6:56  Wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they laid the sick in the streets. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his clothes. And all who touched him were made well.

Mark 7:1  Then the Pharisees came together to him, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem.
Mark 7:2  They saw that some of his disciples ate bread with defiled hands, that is, with unwashed hands, and they found fault.
Mark 7:3  For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands often, holding to the tradition of the elders.
Mark 7:4  And when they come from the market, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things they have received and hold to, such as the washing of cups, and pots, and brass vessels, and tables.
Mark 7:5  Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashed hands?"
Mark 7:6  He answered them, "Isaiah prophesied well about you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.'"
Mark 7:7  "But they worship me in vain, teaching as their doctrines the commandments of men."
Mark 7:8  "For you lay aside the commandment of God, and you hold to the tradition of men, such as the washing of pots and cups. And you do many other things like that."
Mark 7:9  And he said to them, "You do well at setting aside the commandment of God, so that you may keep your own tradition."
Mark 7:10  "For Moses said, 'Honour your father and your mother,' and, 'Whoever curses father or mother, let him surely die.'"
Mark 7:11  "And you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother,"
Mark 7:12  "making the word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you have handed down. And you do many things like that."
Mark 7:13  Then he called all the people to him and said to them, "Listen to me, every one of you, and understand."
Mark 7:14  "There is nothing outside a man that can defile him by going into him. But the things which come out of him, those are what defile the man."
Mark 7:15  "If any man has ears to hear, let him hear."
Mark 7:16  When he had gone into the house, away from the people, his disciples asked him about the parable.
Mark 7:17  And he said to them, "Are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him?"
Mark 7:18  "For it does not go into his heart, but into his stomach, and then passes out into the drain, and so all foods are made clean."
Mark 7:19  And he said, "What comes out of a man, that is what defiles the man."
Mark 7:20  "For from within, out of the heart of men, come evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders,"
Mark 7:21  "thefts, greed, wickedness, deceit, shameless living, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness."
Mark 7:22  "All these evil things come from within, and they defile the man."
Mark 7:23  Then he got up and went from there into the region of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and wanted no one to know it, but he could not be hidden.
Mark 7:24  For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard about him. She came and fell at his feet.
Mark 7:25  The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by birth. She begged him to drive the devil out of her daughter.
Mark 7:26  But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be fed first. It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
Mark 7:27  She answered him, "Yes, Lord. Yet the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
Mark 7:28  And he said to her, "Because you have said this, go your way. The devil has gone out of your daughter."
Mark 7:29  When she came to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
Mark 7:30  Again he left the region of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee, through the middle of the region of Decapolis.
Mark 7:31  They brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly speak, and they begged him to put his hand on him.
Mark 7:32  He took him aside, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.
Mark 7:33  Then he looked up to heaven, sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened."
Mark 7:34  At once his ears were opened, and the bond of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly.
Mark 7:35  He ordered them to tell no one. But the more he ordered them, the more widely they spread the news.
Mark 7:36  They were astonished beyond measure, and said, "He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak."

Mark 8:1  In those days there was again a very large crowd, and they had nothing to eat. Jesus called his disciples to him and said to them,
Mark 8:2  "I feel compassion for the crowd. They have been with me three days now, and they have nothing to eat."
Mark 8:3  "If I send them home hungry, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come a long way."
Mark 8:4  His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone find enough bread to feed these people here in the wilderness?"
Mark 8:5  He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They said, "Seven."
Mark 8:6  He told the people to sit down on the ground. He took the seven loaves, gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to hand out, and they gave them to the people.
Mark 8:7  They also had a few small fish. He blessed them, and told the disciples to hand those out as well.
Mark 8:8  About four thousand people ate, and he sent them away.
Mark 8:9  At once he got into a ship with his disciples and came to the district of Dalmanutha.
Mark 8:10  The Pharisees came out and began to argue with him. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.
Mark 8:11  He sighed deeply in his spirit and said, "Why does this generation look for a sign? I tell you the truth, no sign will be given to this generation."
Mark 8:12  He left them, got into the ship again, and went away to the other side.
Mark 8:13  Now the disciples had forgotten to bring bread. They had only one loaf with them in the ship.
Mark 8:14  He warned them, saying, "Take care. Watch out for the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod."
Mark 8:15  They talked about this among themselves and said, "It is because we have no bread."
Mark 8:16  When Jesus knew it, he said to them, "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts still hard?"
Mark 8:17  "You have eyes. Do you not see? You have ears. Do you not hear? Do you not remember?"
Mark 8:18  "When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?" They said to him, "Twelve."
Mark 8:19  "And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up?" They said, "Seven."
Mark 8:20  He said to them, "How is it that you do not understand?"
Mark 8:21  He came to Bethsaida. Some people brought a blind man to him and begged him to touch him.
Mark 8:22  He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town. He spat on the man's eyes and put his hands on him, and asked him if he saw anything.
Mark 8:23  The man looked up and said, "I see men like trees, walking."
Mark 8:24  Then Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes again and made him look up. He was healed, and saw everyone clearly.
Mark 8:25  Jesus sent him home, saying, "Do not go into the town, and do not tell anyone in the town."
Mark 8:26  Jesus went out with his disciples to the towns of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?"
Mark 8:27  They answered, "John the Baptist. But some say Elias, and others say one of the prophets."
Mark 8:28  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ."
Mark 8:29  He ordered them to tell no one about him.
Mark 8:30  He began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
Mark 8:31  He said this openly. Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
Mark 8:32  But Jesus turned round and looked at his disciples, and he rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind me, Satan. You are not thinking the things of God, but the things of men."
Mark 8:33  He called the people to him, along with his disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."
Mark 8:34  "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel's sake will save it."
Mark 8:35  "For what good is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?"
Mark 8:36  "Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Mark 8:37  "So whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

Mark 9:1  And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they have seen the kingdom of God come with power."
Mark 9:2  Six days later Jesus took Peter, James and John with him, and led them up a high mountain by themselves, away from everyone. There he was transfigured in front of them.
Mark 9:3  His clothes became shining, whiter than white, like snow. No one on earth who washes cloth could make them so white.
Mark 9:4  And Elias appeared to them, with Moses. They were talking with Jesus.
Mark 9:5  Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elias."
Mark 9:6  He did not know what to say, for they were very much afraid.
Mark 9:7  Then a cloud came and covered them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Mark 9:8  Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one any more, only Jesus with them.
Mark 9:9  As they came down from the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of man had risen from the dead.
Mark 9:10  So they kept the matter to themselves, asking one another what rising from the dead could mean.
Mark 9:11  And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that Elias must come first?"
Mark 9:12  He answered them, "Elias does come first, and puts all things back in order. And why is it written of the Son of man that he must suffer many things and be treated as nothing?"
Mark 9:13  "But I tell you that Elias has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wanted, just as it is written about him."
Mark 9:14  When he came to his disciples, he saw a great crowd around them, and the scribes arguing with them.
Mark 9:15  At once, when all the people saw him, they were greatly amazed, and they ran to him and greeted him.
Mark 9:16  He asked the scribes, "What are you arguing about with them?"
Mark 9:17  One of the crowd answered, "Master, I brought my son to you. He has a spirit that makes him unable to speak."
Mark 9:18  "Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and grows stiff. I asked your disciples to drive it out, and they could not."
Mark 9:19  He answered them, "You people without faith, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to me."
Mark 9:20  So they brought the boy to him. When the spirit saw Jesus, at once it threw the boy into convulsions. He fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth.
Mark 9:21  Jesus asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" He said, "Since he was a child."
Mark 9:22  "Many times it has thrown him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us."
Mark 9:23  Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to the one who believes."
Mark 9:24  At once the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, "Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief."
Mark 9:25  When Jesus saw that the people were running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit. He said to it, "You spirit that makes people unable to speak or hear, I command you: come out of him, and never enter him again."
Mark 9:26  The spirit cried out, threw him into violent convulsions, and came out of him. The boy lay like a dead person, so that many said, "He is dead."
Mark 9:27  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he stood up.
Mark 9:28  When Jesus had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not drive it out?"
Mark 9:29  He said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything except prayer and fasting."
Mark 9:30  They left that place and went through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know it,
Mark 9:31  because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of man is being handed over into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And after he is killed, he will rise on the third day."
Mark 9:32  But they did not understand what he said, and they were afraid to ask him.
Mark 9:33  And he came to Capernaum. When he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about among yourselves on the road?"
Mark 9:34  But they said nothing, because on the road they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
Mark 9:35  He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all, and the servant of all."
Mark 9:36  Then he took a child and stood him in the middle of them. He took the child in his arms and said to them,
Mark 9:37  "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me only, but the one who sent me."
Mark 9:38  John said to him, "Master, we saw someone driving out devils in your name, and he does not follow us. So we told him to stop, because he does not follow us."
Mark 9:39  But Jesus said, "Do not stop him. No one who does a miracle in my name can soon after speak evil of me."
Mark 9:40  For whoever is not against us is on our side.
Mark 9:41  Whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, I tell you the truth, he will not lose his reward.
Mark 9:42  And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to fall into sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea.
Mark 9:43  If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the fire that is never put out,
Mark 9:44  where their worm does not die, and the fire is not put out.
Mark 9:45  And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell, into the fire that is never put out,
Mark 9:46  where their worm does not die, and the fire is not put out.
Mark 9:47  And if your eye causes you to sin, pull it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell,
Mark 9:48  where their worm does not die, and the fire is not put out.
Mark 9:49  For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt.
Mark 9:50  "Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."

Mark 10:1  Then he left that place and came into the region of Judaea, on the far side of the Jordan. Crowds came to him again, and he taught them again, as he always did.
Mark 10:2  Some Pharisees came to him and asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" They asked this to test him.
Mark 10:3  He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"
Mark 10:4  They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a paper of divorce and send her away."
Mark 10:5  Jesus answered them, "Moses wrote you that rule because your hearts were hard."
Mark 10:6  "But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female."
Mark 10:7  "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,"
Mark 10:8  "and the two of them will be one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh."
Mark 10:9  "So what God has joined together, no one must separate."
Mark 10:10  Later, in the house, his disciples asked him about this same matter again.
Mark 10:11  He said to them, "Any man who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her."
Mark 10:12  "And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
Mark 10:13  People brought young children to him, so that he would touch them. But his disciples told them off.
Mark 10:14  When Jesus saw it, he was very displeased. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me. Do not stop them. The kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
Mark 10:15  "I tell you the truth, whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
Mark 10:16  Then he took them up in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them.
Mark 10:17  As he was setting out on the road, a man came running and knelt before him. He asked, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Mark 10:18  Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except one, that is, God."
Mark 10:19  "You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not give false witness, Do not cheat anyone, Honour your father and mother."
Mark 10:20  The man answered him, "Teacher, I have kept all these since I was young."
Mark 10:21  Jesus looked at him and loved him. He said to him, "There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, take up the cross, and follow me."
Mark 10:22  The man's face fell at these words, and he went away sad, because he owned a great deal.
Mark 10:23  Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!"
Mark 10:24  The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, "Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!"
Mark 10:25  "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Mark 10:26  They were amazed beyond measure, and said among themselves, "Who then can be saved?"
Mark 10:27  Jesus looked at them and said, "With men it is impossible, but not with God. With God all things are possible."
Mark 10:28  Then Peter began to say to him, "Look, we have left everything and followed you."
Mark 10:29  Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake and for the gospel's sake,"
Mark 10:30  "who will not receive a hundred times as much now in this present time - houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, along with persecutions - and in the world to come, eternal life."
Mark 10:31  "But many who are first will be last, and the last first."
Mark 10:32  They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus walked ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was going to happen to him.
Mark 10:33  He said, "Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles."
Mark 10:34  "They will mock him, and whip him, and spit on him, and kill him. And on the third day he will rise again."
Mark 10:35  James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him and said, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
Mark 10:36  He said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?"
Mark 10:37  They said to him, "Let us sit in your glory, one at your right hand and the other at your left."
Mark 10:38  But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink? Can you be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"
Mark 10:39  They said to him, "We can." Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and you will be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with."
Mark 10:40  "But to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to give. It will be given to those for whom it is prepared."
Mark 10:41  When the ten heard about it, they began to be very displeased with James and John.
Mark 10:42  But Jesus called them to him and said, "You know that those who are counted as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men use their authority over them."
Mark 10:43  "It will not be like that among you. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant,"
Mark 10:44  "and whoever among you wants to be first must be the slave of all."
Mark 10:45  "For even the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Mark 10:46  They came to Jericho. As he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, a blind man named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside begging.
Mark 10:47  When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
Mark 10:48  Many people told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the louder, "Son of David, have mercy on me."
Mark 10:49  Jesus stood still and said, "Call him." So they called the blind man and said to him, "Take heart. Get up. He is calling you."
Mark 10:50  He threw off his coat, got up, and came to Jesus.
Mark 10:51  Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man said to him, "Lord, let me see again."
Mark 10:52  Jesus said to him, "Go your way. Your faith has made you well." At once he could see, and he followed Jesus along the road.

Mark 11:1  When they came near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sent out two of his disciples.
Mark 11:2  He said to them, "Go into the village in front of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied up, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it, and bring it here."
Mark 11:3  "If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say that the Lord needs it. He will send it here at once."
Mark 11:4  They went, and found the colt tied outside by a door, in a place where two roads met. They untied it.
Mark 11:5  Some of the people standing there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"
Mark 11:6  They answered just as Jesus had told them, and the people let them go.
Mark 11:7  They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their coats on it, and he sat on it.
Mark 11:8  Many people spread their coats on the road. Others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
Mark 11:9  Those who went in front and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."
Mark 11:10  "Blessed is the kingdom of our father David, that comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest."
Mark 11:11  Jesus went into Jerusalem, and into the temple. He looked around at everything. Then, because it was already evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Mark 11:12  The next day, when they had come from Bethany, he was hungry.
Mark 11:13  He saw a fig tree far off that had leaves, and he came to see if he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not yet the season for figs.
Mark 11:14  Jesus said to the tree, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." And his disciples heard it.
Mark 11:15  They came to Jerusalem. Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and buying in the temple. He turned over the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
Mark 11:16  He would not allow anyone to carry goods through the temple.
Mark 11:17  He taught them and said, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations'? But you have made it a den of thieves."
Mark 11:18  The scribes and chief priests heard it, and looked for a way to destroy him. They were afraid of him, because all the people were amazed at his teaching.
Mark 11:19  When evening came, he went out of the city.
Mark 11:20  In the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.
Mark 11:21  Peter remembered, and said to him, "Teacher, look, the fig tree that you cursed has withered away."
Mark 11:22  Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God."
Mark 11:23  "I tell you the truth, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, he shall have whatever he says."
Mark 11:24  "So I tell you, whatever things you ask for when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them."
Mark 11:25  "And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone. Then your Father in heaven may also forgive you your wrongs."
Mark 11:26  "But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your wrongs."
Mark 11:27  They came again to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him.
Mark 11:28  They said to him, "By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?"
Mark 11:29  Jesus answered them, "I will also ask you one question. Answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things."
Mark 11:30  "The baptism of John: was it from heaven, or from men? Answer me."
Mark 11:31  They talked it over among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'"
Mark 11:32  "But if we say, 'From men'" - they were afraid of the people, for everyone held that John really was a prophet.
Mark 11:33  So they answered Jesus, "We cannot tell." And Jesus said to them, "Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."

Mark 12:1  Then he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard. He put a hedge around it, and dug a pit for the winepress, and built a tower. Then he rented it out to farmers, and went away to a far country."
Mark 12:2  "When the time came, he sent a servant to the farmers, to receive from them some of the fruit of the vineyard."
Mark 12:3  "But they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away with nothing."
Mark 12:4  "Again he sent another servant to them. They threw stones at him, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully treated."
Mark 12:5  "Again he sent another, and they killed him. He sent many others too. Some they beat, and some they killed."
Mark 12:6  "He still had one left to send, his dear son. Last of all he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.'"
Mark 12:7  "But those farmers said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the land will be ours.'"
Mark 12:8  "So they took him, and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard."
Mark 12:9  "What then will the lord of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those farmers, and give the vineyard to others."
Mark 12:10  "Have you not read this scripture: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.'"
Mark 12:11  "'This was the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?"
Mark 12:12  They tried to arrest him, but they were afraid of the people. They knew he had spoken the parable against them. So they left him and went away.
Mark 12:13  They sent some of the Pharisees and of the Herodians to him, to catch him in his words.
Mark 12:14  When they came, they said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true, and that you are not swayed by anyone. You do not favour people because of who they are, but teach the way of God truly. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?"
Mark 12:15  "Should we pay, or should we not pay?" But he knew they were pretending, and said to them, "Why do you test me? Bring me a penny, so that I may look at it."
Mark 12:16  They brought it. And he said to them, "Whose image and writing is this?" They said to him, "Caesar's."
Mark 12:17  Jesus answered them, "Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at him.
Mark 12:18  Then the Sadducees came to him. They say there is no resurrection. They asked him,
Mark 12:19  "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies and leaves a wife behind, and leaves no children, his brother should take the wife and raise up children for his brother."
Mark 12:20  "Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died leaving no children."
Mark 12:21  "The second took her, and died, and he left no children either. And so did the third."
Mark 12:22  "All seven had her, and left no children. Last of all the woman died too."
Mark 12:23  "In the resurrection, when they rise, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife."
Mark 12:24  Jesus answered them, "Is this not why you are wrong: you do not know the scriptures, nor the power of God?"
Mark 12:25  "When they rise from the dead, they do not marry, and are not given in marriage. They are like the angels in heaven."
Mark 12:26  "And about the dead rising: have you not read in the book of Moses, how God spoke to him at the bush, saying, 'I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?"
Mark 12:27  "He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are very wrong."
Mark 12:28  One of the scribes came and heard them arguing together. He saw that Jesus had answered them well, so he asked him, "Which is the first commandment of all?"
Mark 12:29  Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord."
Mark 12:30  "'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment."
Mark 12:31  "And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Mark 12:32  The scribe said to him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth. There is one God, and there is no other but he."
Mark 12:33  "And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices."
Mark 12:34  When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And after that no one dared to ask him any question.
Mark 12:35  While Jesus taught in the temple, he said, "How can the scribes say that Christ is the Son of David?"
Mark 12:36  "For David himself said by the Holy Spirit, 'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.'"
Mark 12:37  "David himself calls him Lord. So how is he his son?" And the common people listened to him gladly.
Mark 12:38  In his teaching he said to them, "Beware of the scribes. They love to walk about in long robes, and love to be greeted in the marketplaces,"
Mark 12:39  "and to have the chief seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts."
Mark 12:40  "They eat up widows' houses, and to cover it up they make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation."
Mark 12:41  Jesus sat down opposite the treasury, and watched how the people put money into the treasury. Many who were rich put in a lot.
Mark 12:42  Then a poor widow came, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.
Mark 12:43  He called his disciples to him and said to them, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all those who have put money into the treasury."
Mark 12:44  "For they all put in out of what they had to spare. But she, out of her need, put in everything she had, all she had to live on."

Mark 13:1  As he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Teacher, look at these stones and these buildings. How wonderful they are."
Mark 13:2  Jesus answered him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down."
Mark 13:3  He sat on the mount of Olives, facing the temple. Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately,
Mark 13:4  "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign when all these things are about to be finished?"
Mark 13:5  Jesus answered them and began to say, "Be careful that no one deceives you."
Mark 13:6  "Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am Christ.' They will deceive many people."
Mark 13:7  "When you hear of wars and reports of wars, do not be troubled. Such things must happen, but the end is not yet."
Mark 13:8  "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in many places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginning of the pains."
Mark 13:9  "But be careful for yourselves. They will hand you over to councils, and you will be beaten in the synagogues. You will be brought before rulers and kings because of me, as a witness against them."
Mark 13:10  "And the gospel must first be preached among all nations."
Mark 13:11  "When they lead you away and hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what you will say. Do not plan it out. Whatever is given to you at that time, say it. For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit."
Mark 13:12  "Brother will hand over brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rise up against their parents and have them put to death."
Mark 13:13  "Everyone will hate you because of my name. But the one who holds out to the end will be saved."
Mark 13:14  "When you see the abomination of desolation, which Daniel the prophet spoke about, standing where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judaea run away to the mountains."
Mark 13:15  "The one who is on the housetop must not go down into the house, or go inside to take anything out of it."
Mark 13:16  "And the one who is in the field must not turn back to get his coat."
Mark 13:17  "How terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing babies."
Mark 13:18  "Pray that your escape will not be in winter."
Mark 13:19  "For in those days there will be trouble such as there has never been from the beginning of the creation which God made until now, and never will be again."
Mark 13:20  "If the Lord had not cut those days short, no one at all would be saved. But for the sake of the chosen ones, whom he has chosen, he has cut the days short."
Mark 13:21  "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is Christ,' or, 'Look, he is there,' do not believe him."
Mark 13:22  "For false Christs and false prophets will rise up. They will show signs and wonders, to lead astray, if it were possible, even the chosen ones."
Mark 13:23  "But be careful. Look, I have told you everything beforehand."
Mark 13:24  "But in those days, after that time of trouble, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,"
Mark 13:25  "and the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers that are in the heavens will be shaken."
Mark 13:26  "Then they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory."
Mark 13:27  "Then he will send his angels, and gather his chosen ones from the four winds, from the farthest part of the earth to the farthest part of heaven."
Mark 13:28  "Now learn this lesson from the fig tree. When its branch is still soft and it puts out leaves, you know that summer is near."
Mark 13:29  "In the same way, when you see these things happening, know that it is near, right at the doors."
Mark 13:30  "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened."
Mark 13:31  "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
Mark 13:32  "But no one knows that day or that hour. Not the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
Mark 13:33  "Be careful, keep watch and pray, for you do not know when the time will come."
Mark 13:34  "It is like a man who went away on a long journey. He left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to each one his work, and he told the doorkeeper to keep watch."
Mark 13:35  "So keep watch. For you do not know when the master of the house is coming, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning."
Mark 13:36  "He may come suddenly and find you sleeping."
Mark 13:37  "What I say to you, I say to everyone: Keep watch."

Mark 14:1  In two days it would be the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to take him by trickery and put him to death.
Mark 14:2  But they said, "Not during the feast, or the people may riot."
Mark 14:3  He was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. As he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of spikenard. She broke the jar and poured the ointment on his head.
Mark 14:4  Some of them were angry among themselves, and said, "Why has this ointment been wasted?"
Mark 14:5  "It could have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and the money given to the poor." And they spoke against her.
Mark 14:6  But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why are you troubling her? She has done a good work for me."
Mark 14:7  You always have the poor with you, and you can do good to them whenever you want. But you will not always have me.
Mark 14:8  She has done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint my body for burial.
Mark 14:9  "I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her."
Mark 14:10  Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to hand Jesus over to them.
Mark 14:11  When they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he looked for a good chance to hand him over.
Mark 14:12  On the first day of unleavened bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where do you want us to go and get things ready for you to eat the Passover?"
Mark 14:13  He sent out two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city. A man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him."
Mark 14:14  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'
Mark 14:15  "He will show you a large upstairs room, furnished and ready. Prepare the meal for us there."
Mark 14:16  His disciples went out and came into the city. They found everything as he had told them, and they got the Passover ready.
Mark 14:17  In the evening he came with the twelve.
Mark 14:18  As they sat and ate, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, one of you who is eating with me will hand me over."
Mark 14:19  They became sad, and said to him one by one, "Is it I?" And another said, "Is it I?"
Mark 14:20  He answered them, "It is one of the twelve, one who dips with me in the dish."
Mark 14:21  "The Son of man is going away, as it is written about him. But how terrible for that man who hands over the Son of man. It would have been better for that man if he had never been born."
Mark 14:22  As they were eating, Jesus took bread and blessed it. He broke it and gave it to them, and said, "Take it, eat. This is my body."
Mark 14:23  Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it.
Mark 14:24  And he said to them, "This is my blood of the new testament, which is poured out for many."
Mark 14:25  "I tell you the truth, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Mark 14:26  When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the mount of Olives.
Mark 14:27  Jesus said to them, "You will all fall away because of me tonight. For it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'"
Mark 14:28  "But after I am raised, I will go before you into Galilee."
Mark 14:29  But Peter said to him, "Even if everyone else falls away, I will not."
Mark 14:30  Jesus said to him, "I tell you the truth, today, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times."
Mark 14:31  But he spoke all the more strongly, "Even if I must die with you, I will never deny you." And they all said the same.
Mark 14:32  They came to a place named Gethsemane. He said to his disciples, "Sit here while I pray."
Mark 14:33  He took with him Peter and James and John. He began to be greatly troubled and very distressed.
Mark 14:34  He said to them, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and keep watch."
Mark 14:35  He went on a little way, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him.
Mark 14:36  He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want."
Mark 14:37  He came back and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour?"
Mark 14:38  "Watch and pray, so that you do not come into temptation. The spirit is indeed ready, but the flesh is weak."
Mark 14:39  Again he went away and prayed, and said the same words.
Mark 14:40  When he came back, he found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And they did not know what to answer him.
Mark 14:41  He came the third time, and said to them, "Sleep on now, and take your rest. It is enough. The hour has come. Look, the Son of man is handed over into the hands of sinners."
Mark 14:42  "Get up, let us go. Look, the one who hands me over is near."
Mark 14:43  At once, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve. With him was a great crowd with swords and clubs, sent from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
Mark 14:44  The one who handed him over had given them a sign, saying, "The one I kiss is the man. Take him, and lead him away safely."
Mark 14:45  As soon as he came, he went straight to Jesus and said, "Master, master," and kissed him.
Mark 14:46  Then they laid their hands on him and took him.
Mark 14:47  One of those standing by drew a sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, and cut off his ear.
Mark 14:48  Jesus said to them, "Have you come out with swords and clubs to take me, as if I were a thief?"
Mark 14:49  "I was with you every day in the temple, teaching, and you did not take me. But the scriptures must be fulfilled."
Mark 14:50  Then they all left him and ran away.
Mark 14:51  A certain young man followed him, with a linen cloth wrapped round his naked body. The young men caught hold of him,
Mark 14:52  but he left the linen cloth behind and ran from them naked.
Mark 14:53  They led Jesus away to the high priest. All the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together with him.
Mark 14:54  Peter followed him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. He sat with the servants and warmed himself at the fire.
Mark 14:55  The chief priests and the whole council looked for evidence against Jesus to put him to death, but they found none.
Mark 14:56  Many gave false evidence against him, but their statements did not agree.
Mark 14:57  Then some stood up and gave false evidence against him, saying,
Mark 14:58  "We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and in three days I will build another, made without hands.'"
Mark 14:59  But even then their evidence did not agree.
Mark 14:60  The high priest stood up in the middle of them and asked Jesus, "Do you answer nothing? What is this that these men say against you?"
Mark 14:61  But he kept silent, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?"
Mark 14:62  Jesus said, "I am. And you will see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."
Mark 14:63  Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, "Why do we need any more witnesses?"
Mark 14:64  "You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?" And they all condemned him as deserving death.
Mark 14:65  Some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to hit him with their fists, and to say to him, "Prophesy." And the servants struck him with the palms of their hands.
Mark 14:66  Peter was below in the courtyard. One of the servant girls of the high priest came there.
Mark 14:67  When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked at him and said, "You also were with Jesus of Nazareth."
Mark 14:68  But he denied it, saying, "I do not know, and I do not understand what you are saying." And he went out into the porch, and the cock crowed.
Mark 14:69  The servant girl saw him again, and began to say to those standing there, "This is one of them."
Mark 14:70  He denied it again. A little later, those standing there said again to Peter, "Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilaean, and your speech is like theirs."
Mark 14:71  But he began to curse and to swear, saying, "I do not know this man you are talking about."
Mark 14:72  The cock crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him: "Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times." And when he thought about it, he wept.

Mark 15:1  Early in the morning the chief priests met with the elders and the scribes and the whole council. They tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Mark 15:2  Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" He answered him, "You say it."
Mark 15:3  The chief priests accused him of many things, but he answered nothing.
Mark 15:4  Pilate asked him again, "Do you answer nothing? Look how many things they say against you."
Mark 15:5  But Jesus still answered nothing, so that Pilate was amazed.
Mark 15:6  Now at that feast he used to set free for them one prisoner, whichever one they asked for.
Mark 15:7  There was a man named Barabbas. He was in prison with those who had joined him in a revolt, and they had committed murder in the revolt.
Mark 15:8  The crowd shouted out loud and began to ask him to do as he had always done for them.
Mark 15:9  But Pilate answered them, "Do you want me to set free for you the King of the Jews?"
Mark 15:10  For he knew that the chief priests had handed him over because they envied him.
Mark 15:11  But the chief priests stirred up the people to ask him to set Barabbas free for them instead.
Mark 15:12  Pilate spoke to them again and said, "What then do you want me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?"
Mark 15:13  And they cried out again, "Crucify him."
Mark 15:14  Then Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?" But they cried out even louder, "Crucify him."
Mark 15:15  So Pilate, wanting to please the people, set Barabbas free for them. He had Jesus whipped, and handed him over to be crucified.
Mark 15:16  The soldiers led him away inside the hall called the Praetorium, and they called the whole company of soldiers together.
Mark 15:17  They dressed him in purple, and twisted together a crown of thorns, and put it on his head.
Mark 15:18  Then they began to greet him: "Hail, King of the Jews!"
Mark 15:19  They hit him on the head with a reed, and spat on him, and bowed their knees and worshipped him.
Mark 15:20  When they had mocked him, they took the purple off him and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
Mark 15:21  A man named Simon from Cyrene was passing by on his way in from the country. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus. They forced him to carry the cross.
Mark 15:22  They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means, The place of a skull.
Mark 15:23  They gave him wine mixed with myrrh to drink, but he did not take it.
Mark 15:24  When they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among them, throwing lots to see what each man should take.
Mark 15:25  It was the third hour when they crucified him.
Mark 15:26  The written notice of the charge against him said, THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Mark 15:27  With him they crucified two thieves, one on his right and the other on his left.
Mark 15:28  So the scripture came true which says, "And he was counted with those who break the law."
Mark 15:29  Those who passed by insulted him, shaking their heads and saying, "Aha, you who destroy the temple and build it in three days,"
Mark 15:30  "save yourself, and come down from the cross."
Mark 15:31  In the same way the chief priests mocked him among themselves, along with the scribes. They said, "He saved others, but he cannot save himself."
Mark 15:32  "Let Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, so that we may see and believe." And those who were crucified with him insulted him too.
Mark 15:33  When the sixth hour came, darkness covered the whole land until the ninth hour.
Mark 15:34  At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you left me?"
Mark 15:35  When some of those standing near heard it, they said, "Look, he is calling Elias."
Mark 15:36  One man ran and filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave it to him to drink. He said, "Leave him alone. Let us see whether Elias will come to take him down."
Mark 15:37  Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and died.
Mark 15:38  And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from the top to the bottom.
Mark 15:39  The centurion who was standing in front of him saw how he cried out and died. He said, "Truly this man was the Son of God."
Mark 15:40  There were also women watching from far off. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome.
Mark 15:41  (These women had followed him and cared for him when he was in Galilee.) There were also many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
Mark 15:42  Evening had now come. It was the day of preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath.
Mark 15:43  Joseph of Arimathaea came. He was a respected member of the council, and he too was waiting for the kingdom of God. He went boldly in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Mark 15:44  Pilate was surprised that he was already dead. He called the centurion to him and asked him whether Jesus had been dead for some time.
Mark 15:45  When he learned it from the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph.
Mark 15:46  Joseph bought fine linen, took him down, and wrapped him in the linen. He laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of rock, and he rolled a stone against the door of the tomb.
Mark 15:47  And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

Mark 16:1  When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought sweet spices, so that they could come and anoint him.
Mark 16:2  Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb as the sun was rising.
Mark 16:3  They said to one another, "Who will roll the stone away from the door of the tomb for us?"
Mark 16:4  But when they looked, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, and it was very large.
Mark 16:5  They went into the tomb, and they saw a young man sitting on the right side, wearing a long white robe. They were terrified.
Mark 16:6  He said to them, "Do not be afraid. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Look at the place where they laid him."
Mark 16:7  "But go, and tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you."
Mark 16:8  They went out quickly and ran away from the tomb, for they were trembling and amazed. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
Mark 16:9  Now when Jesus had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven devils.
Mark 16:10  She went and told those who had been with him, while they were mourning and weeping.
Mark 16:11  But when they heard that he was alive, and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
Mark 16:12  After that he appeared in a different form to two of them, as they were walking out into the country.
Mark 16:13  They went and told the rest, but they did not believe them either.
Mark 16:14  Later he appeared to the eleven as they sat at food. He rebuked them for their unbelief and their hard hearts, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
Mark 16:15  He said to them, "Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature."
Mark 16:16  "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."
Mark 16:17  "And these signs will go with those who believe. In my name they will drive out devils. They will speak with new tongues."
Mark 16:18  "They will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything deadly, it will not harm them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and the sick will get well."
Mark 16:19  So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven, and sat at the right hand of God.
Mark 16:20  And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them, confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.

Luke

Luke 1:1  Many people have set out to write an orderly account of the things that are most surely believed among us.
Luke 1:2  They wrote them just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning saw these things with their own eyes and served the word.
Luke 1:3  So it seemed good to me also, most excellent Theophilus, since I have carefully followed all these things from the very first, to write them down for you in order,
Luke 1:4  so that you may know how certain the things are that you have been taught.
Luke 1:5  In the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, there was a priest named Zacharias, who belonged to the division of Abia. His wife was descended from Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
Luke 1:6  They were both righteous before God, and they lived by all the commandments and rules of the Lord without blame.
Luke 1:7  But they had no child, because Elisabeth could not have children, and they were both very old.
Luke 1:8  Now while Zacharias was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty,
Luke 1:9  the lot fell to him, as was the custom of the priests, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
Luke 1:10  And the whole crowd of the people were praying outside at the time when the incense was burned.
Luke 1:11  Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense.
Luke 1:12  When Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear came over him.
Luke 1:13  But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elisabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John."
Luke 1:14  "You will have joy and gladness, and many will be glad at his birth."
Luke 1:15  "For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb."
Luke 1:16  "He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God."
Luke 1:17  "He will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
Luke 1:18  Zacharias said to the angel, "How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is very old."
Luke 1:19  The angel answered him, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news."
Luke 1:20  "Now look, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day these things happen, because you did not believe my words. They will come true at the right time."
Luke 1:21  The people were waiting for Zacharias, and they wondered why he stayed so long in the temple.
Luke 1:22  When he came out, he could not speak to them. Then they understood that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them and stayed speechless.
Luke 1:23  When the days of his service were over, he went home.
Luke 1:24  After those days his wife Elisabeth became pregnant. For five months she kept herself out of sight, and she said,
Luke 1:25  "This is what the Lord has done for me. He has looked on me in these days, to take away my shame among people."
Luke 1:26  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
Luke 1:27  to a virgin who was promised in marriage to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
Luke 1:28  The angel came to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favoured. The Lord is with you. You are blessed among women."
Luke 1:29  When she saw him, she was troubled by what he said, and she wondered what kind of greeting this could be.
Luke 1:30  The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God."
Luke 1:31  "Look, you will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you are to name him JESUS."
Luke 1:32  "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David."
Luke 1:33  "He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and his kingdom will never end."
Luke 1:34  Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this happen, since I have not known a man?"
Luke 1:35  The angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you. So the holy child who will be born of you will be called the Son of God."
Luke 1:36  "And look, your relative Elisabeth has also become pregnant with a son in her old age. She was said to be barren, but this is her sixth month."
Luke 1:37  "For with God nothing will be impossible."
Luke 1:38  Mary said, "Look, I am the Lord's servant. Let it happen to me as you have said." And the angel left her.
Luke 1:39  In those days Mary got ready and hurried to the hill country, to a town in Juda.
Luke 1:40  She went into the house of Zacharias and greeted Elisabeth.
Luke 1:41  When Elisabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Luke 1:42  She called out with a loud voice and said, "You are blessed among women, and the child you carry is blessed."
Luke 1:43  "Why has this come to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?"
Luke 1:44  "For look, as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me."
Luke 1:45  "And blessed is she who believed, for what the Lord told her will be done."
Luke 1:46  And Mary said, "My soul praises the greatness of the Lord,"
Luke 1:47  "and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour."
Luke 1:48  "For he has looked with favour on his lowly servant girl. Look, from now on all generations will call me blessed."
Luke 1:49  "For the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name."
Luke 1:50  "His mercy is on those who fear him, from generation to generation."
Luke 1:51  "He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts."
Luke 1:52  "He has pulled down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up those of low rank."
Luke 1:53  "He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."
Luke 1:54  "He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy,"
Luke 1:55  "as he said to our fathers, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever."
Luke 1:56  Mary stayed with her about three months, and then returned to her own house.
Luke 1:57  Now the time came for Elisabeth to give birth, and she had a son.
Luke 1:58  Her neighbours and her relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they were glad with her.
Luke 1:59  On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zacharias, after his father.
Luke 1:60  But his mother said, "No. He will be called John."
Luke 1:61  They said to her, "None of your relatives is called by that name."
Luke 1:62  So they made signs to his father to ask what he wanted the child to be called.
Luke 1:63  He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, "His name is John." And they were all amazed.
Luke 1:64  At once his mouth was opened and his tongue was set free, and he spoke and praised God.
Luke 1:65  Fear came on all their neighbours, and all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judaea.
Luke 1:66  Everyone who heard them kept them in their hearts and said, "What kind of child will this be?" And the hand of the Lord was with him.
Luke 1:67  His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied, saying,
Luke 1:68  "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has come to his people and set them free."
Luke 1:69  "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,"
Luke 1:70  "as he said by the mouth of his holy prophets, who have lived since the world began:"
Luke 1:71  "that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us."
Luke 1:72  "He did this to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant,"
Luke 1:73  "the oath which he swore to our father Abraham:"
Luke 1:74  "that he would let us serve him without fear, once we were rescued from the hand of our enemies,"
Luke 1:75  "in holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life."
Luke 1:76  "And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest, for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways,"
Luke 1:77  "to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins."
Luke 1:78  "This comes through the tender mercy of our God, by which the dawn from on high has come to us,"
Luke 1:79  "to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Luke 1:80  The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he lived in the desert until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.

Luke 2:1  In those days an order went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.
Luke 2:2  (This was the first taxing, made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
Luke 2:3  So everyone went to be taxed, each to his own city.
Luke 2:4  Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. He went there because he was of the house and family line of David.
Luke 2:5  He went to be taxed with Mary, the wife promised to him, who was far on in her pregnancy.
Luke 2:6  While they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
Luke 2:7  She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2:8  In that same country there were shepherds staying out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Luke 2:9  Look, the angel of the Lord came to them, and the glory of the Lord shone all around them. They were terribly afraid.
Luke 2:10  The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people."
Luke 2:11  "Today in the city of David a Saviour has been born for you. He is Christ the Lord."
Luke 2:12  "And this will be a sign to you. You will find the baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger."
Luke 2:13  Suddenly a great crowd of the armies of heaven was with the angel, praising God and saying,
Luke 2:14  "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."
Luke 2:15  When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us."
Luke 2:16  They came in a hurry and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
Luke 2:17  When they had seen him, they spread the word about what had been told them concerning this child.
Luke 2:18  All who heard it were amazed at the things the shepherds told them.
Luke 2:19  But Mary kept all these things and thought deeply about them in her heart.
Luke 2:20  The shepherds went back, giving glory and praise to God for all the things they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.
Luke 2:21  When eight days were over and the child was circumcised, he was named JESUS. This was the name the angel gave him before he was conceived in the womb.
Luke 2:22  When the days of her purifying were over, as the law of Moses says, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
Luke 2:23  (It is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord.")
Luke 2:24  They also came to offer a sacrifice, as it is said in the law of the Lord: "A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons."
Luke 2:25  Look, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was just and devout, waiting for the comfort of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
Luke 2:26  It had been shown to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
Luke 2:27  He came by the Spirit into the temple. When the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what the law required,
Luke 2:28  he took him up in his arms and blessed God, and said,
Luke 2:29  "Lord, now you let your servant go in peace, as you promised."
Luke 2:30  "For my eyes have seen your salvation,"
Luke 2:31  "which you have prepared before the face of all people;"
Luke 2:32  "a light to give light to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel."
Luke 2:33  Joseph and his mother wondered at the things that were said about him.
Luke 2:34  Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother, "Look, this child is set for the fall and the rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that will be spoken against."
Luke 2:35  "(Yes, a sword shall pierce through your own soul too.) So the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed."
Luke 2:36  There was also a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser. She was very old. She had lived with a husband seven years after she was married,
Luke 2:37  and then had been a widow of about eighty-four years. She never left the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day.
Luke 2:38  She came up at that very moment and also gave thanks to the Lord. She spoke about him to all those who were looking for redemption in Jerusalem.
Luke 2:39  When they had done everything the law of the Lord required, they returned to Galilee, to their own city of Nazareth.
Luke 2:40  The child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.
Luke 2:41  Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.
Luke 2:42  When he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem as the custom of the feast was.
Luke 2:43  When the days of the feast were over and they started home, the child Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Joseph and his mother did not know it.
Luke 2:44  They thought he was somewhere in the group, and they travelled a day's journey. Then they looked for him among their relatives and friends.
Luke 2:45  When they did not find him, they turned back to Jerusalem, looking for him.
Luke 2:46  After three days they found him in the temple. He was sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions.
Luke 2:47  All who heard him were astonished at his understanding and his answers.
Luke 2:48  When his parents saw him, they were amazed. His mother said to him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great distress."
Luke 2:49  He said to them, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?"
Luke 2:50  But they did not understand what he said to them.
Luke 2:51  He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and he obeyed them. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
Luke 2:52  And Jesus grew in wisdom and in height, and in favour with God and man.

Luke 3:1  It was the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea. Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene.
Luke 3:2  Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. At that time the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
Luke 3:3  He went into all the country around the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 3:4  This is what is written in the book of the words of the prophet Esaias: "The voice of one calling out in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
Luke 3:5  Every valley shall be filled in, and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough roads shall be made smooth.
Luke 3:6  "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God."
Luke 3:7  So he said to the crowds who came out to be baptized by him, "You family of snakes, who warned you to run from the anger that is coming?"
Luke 3:8  So bring out fruits that show your repentance. Do not begin to say among yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father.' For I tell you, God is able to raise up children for Abraham out of these stones.
Luke 3:9  "And even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees. So every tree that does not bring out good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."
Luke 3:10  The people asked him, "What shall we do then?"
Luke 3:11  He answered them, "Whoever has two coats, let him share with the one who has none. And whoever has food, let him do the same."
Luke 3:12  Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and they said to him, "Master, what shall we do?"
Luke 3:13  He said to them, "Collect no more than what you have been ordered to."
Luke 3:14  The soldiers also asked him, "And what shall we do?" He said to them, "Do violence to no one, and do not accuse anyone falsely. Be content with your wages."
Luke 3:15  The people were waiting and wondering, and everyone was asking in their hearts about John, whether he might be the Christ.
Luke 3:16  John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one who is mightier than I am is coming, and I am not worthy to untie the strap of his shoes. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."
Luke 3:17  "His winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will clean out his threshing floor completely. He will gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that cannot be put out."
Luke 3:18  And he preached many other things to the people, urging them on.
Luke 3:19  But Herod the tetrarch was rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, and because of all the evil things Herod had done.
Luke 3:20  So Herod added this to it all: he shut John up in prison.
Luke 3:21  Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And while he was praying, heaven was opened,
Luke 3:22  and the Holy Spirit came down on him in a bodily form like a dove. A voice came from heaven, saying, "You are my beloved Son. I am well pleased with you."
Luke 3:23  Jesus himself was about thirty years old when he began. He was, as people supposed, the son of Joseph, who was the son of Heli,
Luke 3:24  who was the son of Matthat, who was the son of Levi, who was the son of Melchi, who was the son of Janna, who was the son of Joseph,
Luke 3:25  who was the son of Mattathias, who was the son of Amos, who was the son of Naum, who was the son of Esli, who was the son of Nagge,
Luke 3:26  who was the son of Maath, who was the son of Mattathias, who was the son of Semei, who was the son of Joseph, who was the son of Juda,
Luke 3:27  who was the son of Joanna, who was the son of Rhesa, who was the son of Zorobabel, who was the son of Salathiel, who was the son of Neri,
Luke 3:28  who was the son of Melchi, who was the son of Addi, who was the son of Cosam, who was the son of Elmodam, who was the son of Er,
Luke 3:29  who was the son of Jose, who was the son of Eliezer, who was the son of Jorim, who was the son of Matthat, who was the son of Levi,
Luke 3:30  who was the son of Simeon, who was the son of Juda, who was the son of Joseph, who was the son of Jonan, who was the son of Eliakim,
Luke 3:31  who was the son of Melea, who was the son of Menan, who was the son of Mattatha, who was the son of Nathan, who was the son of David,
Luke 3:32  who was the son of Jesse, who was the son of Obed, who was the son of Booz, who was the son of Salmon, who was the son of Naasson,
Luke 3:33  who was the son of Aminadab, who was the son of Aram, who was the son of Esrom, who was the son of Phares, who was the son of Juda,
Luke 3:34  who was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham, who was the son of Thara, who was the son of Nachor,
Luke 3:35  who was the son of Saruch, who was the son of Ragau, who was the son of Phalec, who was the son of Heber, who was the son of Sala,
Luke 3:36  who was the son of Cainan, who was the son of Arphaxad, who was the son of Sem, who was the son of Noe, who was the son of Lamech,
Luke 3:37  who was the son of Mathusala, who was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Jared, who was the son of Maleleel, who was the son of Cainan,
Luke 3:38  who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God.

Luke 4:1  Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, came back from the Jordan. The Spirit led him into the wilderness.
Luke 4:2  For forty days he was tempted by the devil. In those days he ate nothing. When the days were over, he was hungry.
Luke 4:3  The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."
Luke 4:4  Jesus answered him, "It is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God."
Luke 4:5  The devil took him up to a high mountain. In a moment of time he showed him all the kingdoms of the world.
Luke 4:6  The devil said to him, "I will give you all this power, and the glory of these kingdoms. It has been handed over to me, and I give it to anyone I want."
Luke 4:7  "So if you will worship me, it shall all be yours."
Luke 4:8  Jesus answered him, "Get behind me, Satan. For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only."
Luke 4:9  Then he brought him to Jerusalem and set him on the highest point of the temple. He said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here."
Luke 4:10  For it is written, He will give his angels orders about you, to keep you safe.
Luke 4:11  "And in their hands they shall lift you up, so that you never strike your foot against a stone."
Luke 4:12  Jesus answered him, "It is said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God."
Luke 4:13  When the devil had finished every temptation, he left him for a time.
Luke 4:14  Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. News about him spread through all the country around.
Luke 4:15  He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
Luke 4:16  He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. As he always did, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
Luke 4:17  The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. When he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
Luke 4:18  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach freedom to the captives, and new sight to the blind, to set free those who are crushed,"
Luke 4:19  "to preach the year when the Lord will welcome his people."
Luke 4:20  He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Luke 4:21  He began to say to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Luke 4:22  They all spoke well of him. They were amazed at the gracious words that came out of his mouth. And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"
Luke 4:23  He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to me, 'Doctor, heal yourself. Whatever we have heard that you did in Capernaum, do here also in your own town.'"
Luke 4:24  And he said, "I tell you the truth, no prophet is accepted in his own town."
Luke 4:25  But I tell you truly, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a great famine through all the land.
Luke 4:26  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but only to Sarepta, a city of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
Luke 4:27  "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. None of them was made clean, except Naaman the Syrian."
Luke 4:28  When they heard these things, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger.
Luke 4:29  They got up and pushed him out of the city. They led him to the edge of the hill their city was built on, to throw him down headlong.
Luke 4:30  But he walked through the middle of them and went on his way.
Luke 4:31  He came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days.
Luke 4:32  They were astonished at his teaching, for his word had power.
Luke 4:33  In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean devil. He cried out with a loud voice,
Luke 4:34  "Leave us alone. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God."
Luke 4:35  Jesus rebuked him and said, "Be quiet, and come out of him." The devil threw the man down in front of them all, then came out of him and did not hurt him.
Luke 4:36  They were all amazed. They said to one another, "What word is this? With authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out."
Luke 4:37  News about him went out to every place in the country around.
Luke 4:38  He got up and left the synagogue and went into Simon's house. Simon's wife's mother was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him to help her.
Luke 4:39  He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. At once she got up and served them.
Luke 4:40  When the sun was setting, all who had friends sick with different diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.
Luke 4:41  Devils also came out of many people, crying out and saying, "You are Christ the Son of God." But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was Christ.
Luke 4:42  When it was day, he left and went into a lonely place. The people looked for him. They came to him and tried to hold him back, so that he would not leave them.
Luke 4:43  But he said to them, "I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, because that is why I was sent."
Luke 4:44  And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.

Luke 5:1  One day the crowd was pressing around Jesus to hear the word of God. He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,
Luke 5:2  and he saw two boats at the edge of the lake. The fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Luke 5:3  He got into one of the boats, which belonged to Simon, and asked him to push out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
Luke 5:4  When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Go out into the deep water, and let down your nets for a catch."
Luke 5:5  Simon answered him, "Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing. But at your word I will let down the net."
Luke 5:6  When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net began to tear.
Luke 5:7  So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. They came, and they filled both boats so full that the boats began to sink.
Luke 5:8  When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
Luke 5:9  For he was amazed, and so were all who were with him, at the catch of fish they had taken.
Luke 5:10  So were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men."
Luke 5:11  When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Luke 5:12  While Jesus was in one of the towns, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
Luke 5:13  Jesus reached out his hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing. Be clean." At once the leprosy left him.
Luke 5:14  Jesus ordered him to tell no one. "But go," he said, "and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your cleansing, just as Moses commanded, as a witness to them."
Luke 5:15  But the news about him spread all the more. Great crowds came together to hear him and to be healed by him of their illnesses.
Luke 5:16  But he would go away into the desert and pray.
Luke 5:17  One day, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there. They had come from every town of Galilee and Judaea, and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
Luke 5:18  Look, some men came carrying a man on a bed who was paralysed. They tried to find a way to bring him in and lay him in front of Jesus.
Luke 5:19  They could find no way to bring him in because of the crowd, so they went up on the roof. They let him down on his mat through the tiles, into the middle of the room in front of Jesus.
Luke 5:20  When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."
Luke 5:21  The scribes and the Pharisees began to argue about this. They said, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
Luke 5:22  But Jesus knew what they were thinking. He answered them, "Why are you arguing in your hearts?"
Luke 5:23  Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven you,' or to say, 'Get up and walk'?
Luke 5:24  "But so that you may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins" - he said to the paralysed man - "I say to you, get up, take up your mat, and go home."
Luke 5:25  At once the man stood up in front of them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, giving glory to God.
Luke 5:26  They were all amazed, and they gave glory to God. They were filled with fear and said, "We have seen strange things today."
Luke 5:27  After this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax office. He said to him, "Follow me."
Luke 5:28  And Levi left everything, got up, and followed him.
Luke 5:29  Levi held a great feast for him in his own house. A large crowd of tax collectors and others sat down to eat with them.
Luke 5:30  But their scribes and Pharisees complained to his disciples, saying, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"
Luke 5:31  Jesus answered them, "Healthy people do not need a doctor, but sick people do."
Luke 5:32  "I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repent."
Luke 5:33  They said to him, "John's disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees. But yours eat and drink."
Luke 5:34  He said to them, "Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them?"
Luke 5:35  "But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them. Then, in those days, they will fast."
Luke 5:36  He also told them a parable: "No one tears a piece from a new coat to patch an old one. If he does, he ruins the new one, and the piece from the new coat does not match the old."
Luke 5:37  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins. The wine will be spilled, and the skins will be ruined.
Luke 5:38  New wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are kept safe.
Luke 5:39  "And no one who has drunk old wine wants new wine straight away, for he says, 'The old is better.'"

Luke 6:1  On the second sabbath after the first, Jesus went through the grain fields. His disciples picked the ears of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them.
Luke 6:2  Some of the Pharisees said to them, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath days?"
Luke 6:3  Jesus answered them, "Have you not even read what David did when he was hungry, and the men who were with him?"
Luke 6:4  "He went into the house of God and took the showbread and ate it. He gave some to those who were with him too. Only the priests are allowed to eat that bread."
Luke 6:5  And he said to them, "The Son of man is Lord of the sabbath as well."
Luke 6:6  On another sabbath he went into the synagogue and taught. A man was there whose right hand was shrivelled.
Luke 6:7  The scribes and Pharisees watched Jesus to see if he would heal on the sabbath day. They wanted to find something to accuse him of.
Luke 6:8  But he knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the shrivelled hand, "Get up, and stand out here in the middle." And the man got up and stood there.
Luke 6:9  Then Jesus said to them, "I will ask you one thing. Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? To save life, or to destroy it?"
Luke 6:10  He looked round at them all, and said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." The man did so, and his hand was made well again, like the other one.
Luke 6:11  They were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
Luke 6:12  In those days Jesus went out to a mountain to pray. He spent the whole night praying to God.
Luke 6:13  When it was day, he called his disciples to him. From them he chose twelve, and he named them apostles.
Luke 6:14  They were Simon (whom he also named Peter) and his brother Andrew, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,
Luke 6:15  Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,
Luke 6:16  and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became the traitor.
Luke 6:17  Jesus came down with them and stood on the level ground. A crowd of his disciples was there, and a great many people from all of Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases.
Luke 6:18  Those who were troubled by unclean spirits came too, and they were healed.
Luke 6:19  The whole crowd tried to touch him, because power went out from him and healed them all.
Luke 6:20  He looked up at his disciples and said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours."
Luke 6:21  "Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh."
Luke 6:22  "Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they shut you out from their company, and insult you, and treat your name as something evil, because of the Son of man."
Luke 6:23  "Be glad on that day, and leap for joy. Look, your reward in heaven is great. Their fathers treated the prophets in the same way."
Luke 6:24  "But how terrible for you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort."
Luke 6:25  "How terrible for you who are full, for you will be hungry. How terrible for you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep."
Luke 6:26  "How terrible for you when everyone speaks well of you, for their fathers spoke that way about the false prophets."
Luke 6:27  "But I say to you who are listening: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,"
Luke 6:28  "bless those who curse you, and pray for those who treat you badly."
Luke 6:29  "If someone hits you on one cheek, offer him the other one too. If someone takes away your coat, do not stop him taking your shirt as well."
Luke 6:30  "Give to everyone who asks you. If someone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back."
Luke 6:31  "Do to other people just as you would want them to do to you."
Luke 6:32  "If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them."
Luke 6:33  "If you do good only to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same."
Luke 6:34  "If you lend only to those you hope will pay you back, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get the same amount back."
Luke 6:35  "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be the children of the Most High. For he is kind to those who are ungrateful and evil."
Luke 6:36  "So be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."
Luke 6:37  "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven."
Luke 6:38  "Give, and it will be given to you. A full measure, pressed down, shaken together and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use for others will be used to measure back to you."
Luke 6:39  He also told them a parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into the ditch?"
Luke 6:40  "The disciple is not above his master, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his master."
Luke 6:41  "Why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, and not notice the plank in your own eye?"
Luke 6:42  "How can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck in your eye,' when you cannot see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the plank out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly enough to take out the speck in your brother's eye."
Luke 6:43  "A good tree does not produce bad fruit, and a bad tree does not produce good fruit."
Luke 6:44  "Every tree is known by its own fruit. People do not gather figs from thorns, or pick grapes from a bramble bush."
Luke 6:45  "A good man brings out what is good from the good treasure of his heart. An evil man brings out what is evil from the evil treasure of his heart. For the mouth speaks out of what fills the heart."
Luke 6:46  "Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things I say?"
Luke 6:47  "I will show you what anyone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and does them."
Luke 6:48  "He is like a man who built a house. He dug deep and laid the foundation on rock. When the flood came, the river beat hard against that house, but it could not shake it, because it was built on rock."
Luke 6:49  "But the one who hears and does not obey is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The river beat hard against it, and it fell at once, and that house was completely ruined."

Luke 7:1  When Jesus had finished saying all these things where the people could hear him, he went into Capernaum.
Luke 7:2  A certain centurion had a servant who was dear to him. The servant was sick and about to die.
Luke 7:3  When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent some elders of the Jews to him. He begged Jesus to come and heal his servant.
Luke 7:4  When they came to Jesus, they begged him earnestly, saying, "This man deserves to have you do this for him."
Luke 7:5  "For he loves our nation, and he built us a synagogue."
Luke 7:6  So Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him to say, "Lord, do not trouble yourself. I am not worthy to have you come under my roof."
Luke 7:7  That is why I did not think myself worthy to come to you. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.
Luke 7:8  "For I too am a man placed under authority, and I have soldiers under me. I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it."
Luke 7:9  When Jesus heard these things, he was amazed at him. He turned round and said to the crowd that followed him, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith."
Luke 7:10  The men who had been sent went back to the house. There they found the servant well again.
Luke 7:11  The next day Jesus went to a town called Nain. Many of his disciples went with him, and a large crowd.
Luke 7:12  As he came near the town gate, look, a dead man was being carried out. He was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. A large crowd from the town was with her.
Luke 7:13  When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said to her, "Do not weep."
Luke 7:14  Then he came and touched the open coffin, and the men carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up."
Luke 7:15  The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
Luke 7:16  Fear came on them all, and they gave glory to God. They said, "A great prophet has risen among us," and, "God has come to help his people."
Luke 7:17  This report about him spread through all Judaea and all the country around.
Luke 7:18  The disciples of John told him about all these things.
Luke 7:19  So John called two of his disciples and sent them to Jesus to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for another?"
Luke 7:20  When the men came to him, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we look for another?'"
Luke 7:21  At that very time Jesus cured many people of diseases and sufferings and evil spirits, and to many who were blind he gave sight.
Luke 7:22  Then Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind see, the lame walk, those with leprosy are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor."
Luke 7:23  "And blessed is anyone who does not stumble because of me."
Luke 7:24  When John's messengers had gone, Jesus began to speak to the people about John. "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?"
Luke 7:25  But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? Look, those who wear splendid clothes and live in luxury are in kings' palaces.
Luke 7:26  But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet.
Luke 7:27  This is the one about whom it is written, 'Look, I send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.'
Luke 7:28  "For I tell you, among those born of women there is no greater prophet than John the Baptist. But the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."
Luke 7:29  All the people who heard him, and the tax collectors too, declared that God was right, for they had been baptized with the baptism of John.
Luke 7:30  But the Pharisees and the experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by him.
Luke 7:31  The Lord said, "To what then shall I compare the people of this generation? What are they like?"
Luke 7:32  They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance. We sang a song of mourning, and you did not weep.'
Luke 7:33  For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.'
Luke 7:34  The Son of man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a greedy man and a drinker of wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.'
Luke 7:35  "But wisdom is shown to be right by all her children."
Luke 7:36  One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. So he went into the Pharisee's house and sat down at the table.
Luke 7:37  And look, a woman in the town who was a sinner heard that Jesus was eating in the Pharisee's house. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume,
Luke 7:38  and she stood behind him at his feet, weeping. She began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head. She kissed his feet and poured the perfume on them.
Luke 7:39  When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who is touching him and what kind of woman she is, for she is a sinner."
Luke 7:40  Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." And he said, "Teacher, say it."
Luke 7:41  "There was a certain moneylender who had two men in debt to him. One owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty."
Luke 7:42  "When they had nothing to pay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me then, which of them will love him most?"
Luke 7:43  Simon answered, "I suppose the one he forgave most." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."
Luke 7:44  Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head."
Luke 7:45  You gave me no kiss, but since the time I came in, this woman has not stopped kissing my feet.
Luke 7:46  You did not anoint my head with oil, but this woman has anointed my feet with perfume.
Luke 7:47  "So I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But the one who is forgiven little loves little."
Luke 7:48  Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."
Luke 7:49  Those who were eating with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
Luke 7:50  And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."

Luke 8:1  Afterward Jesus travelled through every city and village, preaching and telling the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him,
Luke 8:2  and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. Among them was Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom seven demons had gone,
Luke 8:3  and Joanna, the wife of Chuza, who was Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others. These women used their own money to care for him.
Luke 8:4  A great crowd gathered, and people came to him out of every city. He spoke to them in a parable:
Luke 8:5  "A sower went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell by the side of the path. It was trampled down, and the birds of the air ate it up."
Luke 8:6  "Some fell on rock. As soon as it came up, it dried out and died, because it had no moisture."
Luke 8:7  "Some fell among thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it."
Luke 8:8  "Other seed fell on good ground. It grew up and produced fruit, a hundred times as much." When he had said these things, he called out, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
Luke 8:9  His disciples asked him, "What does this parable mean?"
Luke 8:10  He said, "You have been given the right to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to others I speak in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand."
Luke 8:11  "Now this is what the parable means. The seed is the word of God."
Luke 8:12  "The ones by the side of the path are those who hear. Then the devil comes and takes the word out of their hearts, so that they will not believe and be saved."
Luke 8:13  "The ones on the rock are those who receive the word with joy when they hear it. But they have no root. They believe for a while, and in the time of testing they fall away."
Luke 8:14  "The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear. But as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and their fruit never ripens."
Luke 8:15  "But the seed on the good ground stands for those who hear the word with an honest and good heart, and keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience."
Luke 8:16  "No one lights a candle and then covers it with a pot, or puts it under a bed. Instead, he sets it on a candlestick, so that those who come in may see the light."
Luke 8:17  "Nothing is secret that will not be made plain. Nothing is hidden that will not be known and brought out into the open."
Luke 8:18  "So be careful how you listen. Whoever has, more will be given to him. And whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken away from him."
Luke 8:19  Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not get near him because of the crowd.
Luke 8:20  Someone told him, "Your mother and your brothers are standing outside. They want to see you."
Luke 8:21  He answered them, "My mother and my brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it."
Luke 8:22  One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, "Let us go over to the other side of the lake." So they set out.
Luke 8:23  As they sailed, he fell asleep. A windstorm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in danger.
Luke 8:24  They came to him and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we are dying." Then he got up and ordered the wind and the raging water to stop. They stopped, and all was calm.
Luke 8:25  He said to them, "Where is your faith?" They were afraid and amazed, and said to one another, "What kind of man is this? He gives orders even to the winds and the water, and they obey him."
Luke 8:26  They came to the country of the Gadarenes, which is across the lake from Galilee.
Luke 8:27  When Jesus stepped out on the land, a man from the city met him. For a long time this man had been troubled by demons. He wore no clothes, and he did not live in a house, but among the tombs.
Luke 8:28  When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down in front of him. With a loud voice he said, "What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of God most high? I beg you, do not torment me."
Luke 8:29  (For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him. He had been kept bound with chains and shackles, but he broke the chains, and was driven by the demon into the desert.)
Luke 8:30  Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He said, "Legion," because many demons had entered into him.
Luke 8:31  And they begged him not to command them to go out into the deep.
Luke 8:32  A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the mountain. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs. And he allowed them.
Luke 8:33  Then the demons came out of the man and went into the pigs. The herd rushed down the steep slope into the lake, and drowned.
Luke 8:34  When the men who fed the pigs saw what had happened, they ran away and told it in the city and in the country.
Luke 8:35  Then people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone. He was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
Luke 8:36  Those who had seen it told them how the man who had been possessed by the demons was healed.
Luke 8:37  Then all the people of the country of the Gadarenes around them begged Jesus to leave them, because they were gripped by great fear. So he got into the boat and went back again.
Luke 8:38  The man from whom the demons had gone begged to stay with him. But Jesus sent him away, saying,
Luke 8:39  "Go back to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over the city what great things Jesus had done for him.
Luke 8:40  When Jesus returned, the people welcomed him gladly, for they were all waiting for him.
Luke 8:41  Look, a man named Jairus came. He was a ruler of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus' feet and begged him to come to his house,
Luke 8:42  because his only daughter, about twelve years old, was dying. But as Jesus went, the people pressed in all around him.
Luke 8:43  A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. She had spent everything she had on doctors, and no one could heal her.
Luke 8:44  She came up behind him and touched the edge of his robe. At once her bleeding stopped.
Luke 8:45  Jesus said, "Who touched me?" When everyone denied it, Peter and those with him said, "Master, the crowd is all around you and pressing against you, and you say, 'Who touched me?'"
Luke 8:46  But Jesus said, "Somebody touched me. I know that power has gone out of me."
Luke 8:47  When the woman saw that she could not stay hidden, she came trembling and fell down before him. In front of all the people she told him why she had touched him, and how she had been healed at once.
Luke 8:48  He said to her, "Daughter, take comfort. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace."
Luke 8:49  While he was still speaking, someone came from the house of the ruler of the synagogue and said to him, "Your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Master any more."
Luke 8:50  But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, "Do not be afraid. Only believe, and she will be made well."
Luke 8:51  When he came to the house, he allowed no one to go in with him except Peter, James and John, and the girl's father and mother.
Luke 8:52  Everyone was weeping and mourning for her. But he said, "Do not weep. She is not dead, but sleeping."
Luke 8:53  And they laughed at him, for they knew that she was dead.
Luke 8:54  He put them all outside. He took her by the hand and called, "Girl, get up."
Luke 8:55  Her spirit came back, and she got up at once. And he told them to give her something to eat.
Luke 8:56  Her parents were amazed. But he ordered them to tell no one what had happened.

Luke 9:1  Then Jesus called his twelve disciples together. He gave them power and authority over all demons, and power to cure diseases.
Luke 9:2  He sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Luke 9:3  He said to them, "Take nothing for your journey. Take no staff, no bag, no bread, no money. Do not take two coats each."
Luke 9:4  "Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there."
Luke 9:5  "If anyone will not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet as you leave that city. It will be a witness against them."
Luke 9:6  So they set out and went through the towns. They preached the gospel and healed people everywhere.
Luke 9:7  Now Herod the tetrarch heard about everything Jesus did, and he did not know what to think. Some people were saying that John had risen from the dead.
Luke 9:8  Some said that Elias had appeared. Others said that one of the old prophets had risen again.
Luke 9:9  Herod said, "I cut off John's head. So who is this man I hear such things about?" And he wanted to see him.
Luke 9:10  When the apostles came back, they told Jesus all they had done. Then he took them with him and went away privately to a lonely place near the city called Bethsaida.
Luke 9:11  When the people found out, they followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed healing.
Luke 9:12  When the day began to fade, the twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away. Then they can go into the towns and the country around here, and find somewhere to stay and get food. We are in a lonely place here."
Luke 9:13  But he said to them, "You give them something to eat." They said, "We have only five loaves and two fish, unless we go and buy food for all these people."
Luke 9:14  There were about five thousand men. He said to his disciples, "Make them sit down in groups of fifty."
Luke 9:15  They did so, and made them all sit down.
Luke 9:16  Then he took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven, blessed them, and broke them. He gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd.
Luke 9:17  They all ate and were filled. The pieces left over were gathered up: twelve baskets of them.
Luke 9:18  Once, while he was praying alone, his disciples were with him. He asked them, "Who do the people say that I am?"
Luke 9:19  They answered, "John the Baptist. But some say Elias, and others say that one of the old prophets has risen again."
Luke 9:20  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "The Christ of God."
Luke 9:21  He warned them firmly, and ordered them to tell no one that.
Luke 9:22  He said, "The Son of man must suffer many things. He will be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes. He will be killed, and be raised on the third day."
Luke 9:23  And he said to them all, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me."
Luke 9:24  "Whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."
Luke 9:25  "What good is it to anyone if he gains the whole world, and loses himself, or is thrown away?"
Luke 9:26  "If anyone is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his own glory, and in his Father's glory, and in the glory of the holy angels."
Luke 9:27  "But I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God."
Luke 9:28  About eight days after he said these things, he took Peter and John and James, and went up a mountain to pray.
Luke 9:29  As he prayed, the look of his face was changed, and his clothing became white and shining.
Luke 9:30  Look, two men were talking with him. They were Moses and Elias.
Luke 9:31  They appeared in glory, and spoke of his death, which he was to bring about at Jerusalem.
Luke 9:32  But Peter and those with him were heavy with sleep. When they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men standing with him.
Luke 9:33  As the men were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elias." He did not know what he was saying.
Luke 9:34  While he was speaking, a cloud came and covered them. They were afraid as they went into the cloud.
Luke 9:35  And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Luke 9:36  When the voice had finished, Jesus was found alone. They kept quiet about it, and in those days they told no one any of the things they had seen.
Luke 9:37  The next day, when they had come down from the hill, a large crowd met him.
Luke 9:38  Look, a man in the crowd cried out, "Master, I beg you, look at my son. He is my only child."
Luke 9:39  "A spirit takes hold of him, and he suddenly screams. It throws him about so that he foams at the mouth. It hurts him badly, and will hardly leave him."
Luke 9:40  "I begged your disciples to drive it out, and they could not."
Luke 9:41  Jesus answered, "You faithless and twisted generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here."
Luke 9:42  Even as the boy was coming, the demon threw him down and shook him violently. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the child, and gave him back to his father.
Luke 9:43  They were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while everyone was wondering at all the things Jesus did, he said to his disciples,
Luke 9:44  "Let these words sink into your ears. The Son of man is going to be handed over into the hands of men."
Luke 9:45  But they did not understand this saying. Its meaning was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
Luke 9:46  Then an argument started among them about which of them would be the greatest.
Luke 9:47  Jesus knew the thoughts of their hearts. He took a child and set him beside himself.
Luke 9:48  He said to them, "Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes him who sent me. For the one who is least among you all, that one will be great."
Luke 9:49  John answered, "Master, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he does not follow with us."
Luke 9:50  Jesus said to him, "Do not stop him. For anyone who is not against us is for us."
Luke 9:51  When the time came for him to be taken up, he set his face firmly to go to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:52  He sent messengers ahead of him. They went and entered a village of the Samaritans to get things ready for him.
Luke 9:53  But the people there would not welcome him, because he was set on going to Jerusalem.
Luke 9:54  When his disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and burn them up, as Elias did?"
Luke 9:55  But he turned and rebuked them. He said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of."
Luke 9:56  "For the Son of man did not come to destroy people's lives, but to save them." And they went to another village.
Luke 9:57  As they went along the road, a certain man said to him, "Lord, I will follow you wherever you go."
Luke 9:58  Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests. But the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head."
Luke 9:59  He said to another, "Follow me." But the man said, "Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father."
Luke 9:60  Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you go and preach the kingdom of God."
Luke 9:61  Another also said, "Lord, I will follow you. But first let me go and say goodbye to those at my home."
Luke 9:62  Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Luke 10:1  After this the Lord chose seventy others. He sent them out two by two ahead of him, into every city and place where he himself was going to come.
Luke 10:2  So he said to them, "The harvest truly is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out workers into his harvest."
Luke 10:3  "Go on your way. Look, I send you out as lambs among wolves."
Luke 10:4  "Carry no purse, no bag, no shoes. Greet no one along the road."
Luke 10:5  "Whatever house you go into, first say, 'Peace be to this house.'"
Luke 10:6  "If a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it will come back to you."
Luke 10:7  "Stay in that same house, eating and drinking what they give you, for the worker deserves his pay. Do not move from house to house."
Luke 10:8  "Whatever city you go into, if they welcome you, eat what is set before you."
Luke 10:9  "Heal the sick who are there, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.'"
Luke 10:10  "But whatever city you go into, if they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say,"
Luke 10:11  "'Even the very dust of your city that sticks to us, we wipe off against you. But be sure of this: the kingdom of God has come near to you.'"
Luke 10:12  "But I tell you, on that day it will be easier for Sodom than for that city."
Luke 10:13  "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes."
Luke 10:14  "But at the judgment it will be easier for Tyre and Sidon than for you."
Luke 10:15  "And you, Capernaum, who are lifted up to heaven, will be thrown down to hell."
Luke 10:16  "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me."
Luke 10:17  The seventy came back with joy. They said, "Lord, even the demons obey us through your name."
Luke 10:18  He said to them, "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning."
Luke 10:19  "Look, I give you power to tread on snakes and scorpions, and power over all the strength of the enemy. Nothing will hurt you in any way."
Luke 10:20  "But do not rejoice in this, that the spirits obey you. Rejoice instead because your names are written in heaven."
Luke 10:21  At that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and clever, and have shown them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what pleased you."
Luke 10:22  "All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son chooses to show him." Many ancient copies add these words at the beginning of the verse: and turning to his disciples, he said.
Luke 10:23  Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see the things you see."
Luke 10:24  "For I tell you, many prophets and kings wanted to see the things you see, and did not see them; and to hear the things you hear, and did not hear them."
Luke 10:25  Look, a certain lawyer stood up to test him. He said, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Luke 10:26  Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?"
Luke 10:27  He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself."
Luke 10:28  Jesus said to him, "You have answered right. Do this, and you will live."
Luke 10:29  But the man wanted to justify himself, so he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"
Luke 10:30  Jesus answered, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among thieves. They stripped him of his clothes and wounded him, and then went away, leaving him half dead."
Luke 10:31  "By chance a certain priest was going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side."
Luke 10:32  "In the same way a Levite came to the place. He came and looked at him, and passed by on the other side."
Luke 10:33  "But a certain Samaritan, as he travelled, came to where the man was. When he saw him, he was filled with compassion."
Luke 10:34  "He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him."
Luke 10:35  "The next day, when he left, he took out two pence and gave them to the innkeeper. He said to him, 'Take care of him. Whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come again.'"
Luke 10:36  "Which of these three, do you think, was neighbour to the man who fell among the thieves?"
Luke 10:37  He said, "The one who showed mercy to him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go, and do the same."
Luke 10:38  As they went on their way, he came into a certain village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
Luke 10:39  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at Jesus' feet and listened to his word.
Luke 10:40  But Martha was weighed down by all the work of serving. She came to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me."
Luke 10:41  Jesus answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things."
Luke 10:42  "But one thing is needed. Mary has chosen that good part, and it will not be taken away from her."

Luke 11:1  Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he stopped, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples."
Luke 11:2  He said to them, "When you pray, say, 'Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.'"
Luke 11:3  "'Give us day by day our daily bread.'"
Luke 11:4  "'And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who owes us anything. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'"
Luke 11:5  And he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.'"
Luke 11:6  "'A friend of mine is travelling and has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'"
Luke 11:7  "And the man inside answers, 'Do not trouble me. The door is shut now, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything.'"
Luke 11:8  "I tell you, even if he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because the man keeps on asking he will get up and give him as much as he needs."
Luke 11:9  "And I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you."
Luke 11:10  "For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened."
Luke 11:11  "If a son asks any of you who is a father for bread, will you give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will you give him a snake instead of a fish?"
Luke 11:12  "Or if he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?"
Luke 11:13  "So if you, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?"
Luke 11:14  Jesus was driving out a demon, and the man could not speak. When the demon had gone out, the man who had been unable to speak began to talk, and the people were amazed.
Luke 11:15  But some of them said, "He drives out demons by Beelzebub, the chief of the demons."
Luke 11:16  Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
Luke 11:17  But he knew their thoughts, and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against a house falls."
Luke 11:18  "If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebub."
Luke 11:19  "And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons drive them out? So they will be your judges."
Luke 11:20  "But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you."
Luke 11:21  "When a strong man with his weapons guards his own palace, his goods are safe."
Luke 11:22  "But when someone stronger than he is comes and overcomes him, he takes away all the armour the man trusted in, and divides up what he took from him."
Luke 11:23  "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."
Luke 11:24  "When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it walks through dry places looking for rest. Finding none, it says, 'I will go back to my house that I came out of.'"
Luke 11:25  "And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order."
Luke 11:26  "Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first."
Luke 11:27  As he was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out to him, "Blessed is the womb that carried you, and the breasts that fed you."
Luke 11:28  But he said, "Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it."
Luke 11:29  When the crowds were pressing in thickly, he began to say, "This is an evil generation. They look for a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonas the prophet."
Luke 11:30  "For as Jonas was a sign to the people of Nineveh, so the Son of man will be a sign to this generation."
Luke 11:31  "The queen of the south will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them. For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and look, someone greater than Solomon is here."
Luke 11:32  "The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and look, someone greater than Jonas is here."
Luke 11:33  "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a hidden place, or under a basket. He puts it on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see the light."
Luke 11:34  "The light of the body is the eye. So when your eye is clear, your whole body is full of light too. But when your eye is evil, your body is full of darkness."
Luke 11:35  "So be careful that the light which is in you is not darkness."
Luke 11:36  "If then your whole body is full of light, with no part dark, it will all be full of light, as when the bright shining of a lamp gives you light."
Luke 11:37  As he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to eat with him. So he went in and sat down at the table.
Luke 11:38  When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that Jesus had not first washed before the meal.
Luke 11:39  And the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness."
Luke 11:40  "You fools, did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?"
Luke 11:41  "Rather, give what is inside as alms to the poor, and look, everything is clean for you."
Luke 11:42  "But woe to you, Pharisees, for you give a tenth of your mint and rue and every kind of herb, and you pass over justice and the love of God. You ought to have done these things, and not left the others undone."
Luke 11:43  "Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the market places."
Luke 11:44  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you are like graves that do not show, and people walk over them without knowing it."
Luke 11:45  Then one of the lawyers answered him, "Teacher, when you say this, you insult us too."
Luke 11:46  And he said, "Woe to you also, you lawyers, for you load people with burdens too heavy to carry, and you yourselves will not touch the burdens with one of your fingers."
Luke 11:47  "Woe to you, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them."
Luke 11:48  "So you are witnesses, and you agree with what your fathers did. They killed them, and you build their tombs."
Luke 11:49  "That is why the wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,'"
Luke 11:50  "so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation:"
Luke 11:51  "from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias, who died between the altar and the temple. I tell you the truth, it will be charged against this generation."
Luke 11:52  "Woe to you, lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not go in yourselves, and you stopped those who were going in."
Luke 11:53  As he said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, and to draw him out on many subjects,
Luke 11:54  lying in wait for him, trying to catch something he might say, so that they could accuse him.

Luke 12:1  In the meantime a huge crowd gathered together, so many that they trod on one another. Jesus began to speak to his disciples first of all: "Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."
Luke 12:2  For there is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.
Luke 12:3  So whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light. What you have whispered in someone's ear behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops.
Luke 12:4  "And I say to you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more."
Luke 12:5  But I will warn you whom you should fear. Fear him who, after he has killed, has power to throw into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
Luke 12:6  Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God.
Luke 12:7  Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.
Luke 12:8  "Also I say to you, whoever acknowledges me before other people, the Son of man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God."
Luke 12:9  But whoever denies me before other people will be denied before the angels of God.
Luke 12:10  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven. But whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
Luke 12:11  When they bring you to the synagogues, and to rulers and those in power, do not worry about how or what you will answer, or what you will say.
Luke 12:12  "For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that same hour what you ought to say."
Luke 12:13  One of the crowd said to him, "Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
Luke 12:14  But Jesus said to him, "Man, who made me a judge, or a divider of goods, over you?"
Luke 12:15  Then he said to them, "Take care, and be on your guard against greed. A man's life does not consist of the many things he owns."
Luke 12:16  And he told them a parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a great crop."
Luke 12:17  He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no room to store my crops.'
Luke 12:18  And he said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones. There I will store all my grain and my goods.
Luke 12:19  And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have plenty of good things stored up for many years. Take it easy; eat, drink and be merry.'
Luke 12:20  But God said to him, 'You fool, this night your soul will be demanded from you. Then whose will those things be that you have got ready?'
Luke 12:21  "That is how it is with anyone who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
Luke 12:22  Then he said to his disciples, "So I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about your body, what you will wear."
Luke 12:23  Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothes.
Luke 12:24  Think about the ravens. They do not sow or reap. They have no storehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!
Luke 12:25  And which of you can add one cubit to his height by worrying?
Luke 12:26  If you cannot do even that little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
Luke 12:27  Think about the lilies, how they grow. They do not work or spin thread. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was dressed like one of these.
Luke 12:28  If God clothes the grass like this, which is in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, you of little faith!
Luke 12:29  So do not go looking for what you will eat, or what you will drink, and do not be anxious in your mind.
Luke 12:30  For the nations of the world chase after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them.
Luke 12:31  Seek the kingdom of God instead, and all these things will be added to you.
Luke 12:32  "Do not be afraid, little flock. It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Luke 12:33  Sell what you have, and give to the poor. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, a treasure in heaven that never runs out, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
Luke 12:34  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Luke 12:35  "Be dressed ready for work, and keep your lamps burning."
Luke 12:36  Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding. When he comes and knocks, they can open the door for him at once.
Luke 12:37  Blessed are those servants whom the master finds watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and wait on them.
Luke 12:38  And if he comes in the second watch of the night, or in the third, and finds them ready, blessed are those servants.
Luke 12:39  Know this: if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would have kept watch, and would not have let his house be broken into.
Luke 12:40  "So you must be ready too, for the Son of man is coming at an hour when you do not expect him."
Luke 12:41  Then Peter said to him, "Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?"
Luke 12:42  And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will put in charge of his household, to give them their share of food at the right time?"
Luke 12:43  Blessed is that servant whom his master finds doing so when he comes.
Luke 12:44  Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of everything he has.
Luke 12:45  But suppose that servant says in his heart, 'My master is taking a long time to come.' Suppose he begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk.
Luke 12:46  The master of that servant will come on a day when he is not expecting him, and at an hour he does not know. He will cut him in pieces, and give him a place with the unbelievers.
Luke 12:47  The servant who knew his master's will, and did not get ready, and did not do what his master wanted, will be beaten with many blows.
Luke 12:48  But the one who did not know, and did things that deserved a beating, will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required. And from the one who has been trusted with much, even more will be asked.
Luke 12:49  "I have come to send fire on the earth. How I wish it were already burning!"
Luke 12:50  But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how hard pressed I am until it is finished!
Luke 12:51  Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division.
Luke 12:52  From now on there will be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.
Luke 12:53  "The father will be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
Luke 12:54  He also said to the people, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, 'A shower is coming,' and so it happens."
Luke 12:55  And when the south wind blows, you say, 'It will be hot,' and it happens.
Luke 12:56  You hypocrites! You know how to read the face of the sky and of the earth. Why is it that you cannot read this present time?
Luke 12:57  And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
Luke 12:58  When you are going with the one who accuses you to the ruler, try hard on the way to settle with him. Otherwise he may drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.
Luke 12:59  "I tell you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last mite."

Luke 13:1  At that time some people were there who told Jesus about the Galilaeans. Pilate had mixed their blood with their sacrifices.
Luke 13:2  Jesus answered them, "Do you think these Galilaeans were worse sinners than all the other Galilaeans, because these things happened to them?"
Luke 13:3  "I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all die in the same way."
Luke 13:4  "Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them: do you think they were worse sinners than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem?"
Luke 13:5  "I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you will all die in the same way."
Luke 13:6  He also told them this story: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it, and found none."
Luke 13:7  "So he said to the man who looked after his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?'"
Luke 13:8  "The man answered him, 'Sir, leave it alone this year too. I will dig round it and put manure on it."
Luke 13:9  "'If it bears fruit, good. If not, then after that you can cut it down.'"
Luke 13:10  Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.
Luke 13:11  There was a woman there who had a spirit of weakness for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.
Luke 13:12  When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said to her, "Woman, you are set free from your weakness."
Luke 13:13  He laid his hands on her. At once she stood up straight, and she gave glory to God.
Luke 13:14  The ruler of the synagogue was angry, because Jesus had healed on the sabbath day. He said to the people, "There are six days in which people ought to work. Come and be healed on those days, not on the sabbath day."
Luke 13:15  The Lord answered him, "You hypocrite. Does not each one of you untie his ox or his donkey from the stall on the sabbath, and lead it away to drink?"
Luke 13:16  "This woman is a daughter of Abraham, and Satan has kept her tied up for eighteen years. Should she not be set free from this bond on the sabbath day?"
Luke 13:17  When he said these things, all who were against him were ashamed. And all the people were glad for all the glorious things he did.
Luke 13:18  Then he said, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to?"
Luke 13:19  "It is like a grain of mustard seed. A man took it and threw it into his garden. It grew and became a great tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches."
Luke 13:20  Again he said, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?"
Luke 13:21  "It is like yeast. A woman took it and hid it in three measures of flour, until it had spread through all the dough."
Luke 13:22  He went through the towns and villages, teaching, as he travelled towards Jerusalem.
Luke 13:23  Then someone said to him, "Lord, are only a few people saved?" And he said to them,
Luke 13:24  "Work hard to go in through the narrow gate. For I tell you, many will try to get in, and will not be able to."
Luke 13:25  "Once the master of the house has got up and shut the door, you will stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' And he will answer you, 'I do not know you, or where you come from.'"
Luke 13:26  "Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'"
Luke 13:27  "But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know you, or where you come from. Go away from me, all you who do evil.'"
Luke 13:28  "There will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrown out."
Luke 13:29  "People will come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and will sit down in the kingdom of God."
Luke 13:30  "Look, there are some who are last who will be first, and some who are first who will be last."
Luke 13:31  That same day some of the Pharisees came and said to him, "Get out and leave this place, for Herod means to kill you."
Luke 13:32  He said to them, "Go and tell that fox, 'Look, I drive out demons and I heal people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will be finished.'"
Luke 13:33  "But I must keep going today, and tomorrow, and the day after. For it cannot be that a prophet should die away from Jerusalem."
Luke 13:34  "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you. How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not let me."
Luke 13:35  "Look, your house is left to you empty. And I tell you the truth, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Luke 14:1  On a sabbath day Jesus went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread. They were watching him closely.
Luke 14:2  Look, there in front of him was a man whose body was swollen with fluid.
Luke 14:3  Jesus spoke to the lawyers and Pharisees and said, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?"
Luke 14:4  They said nothing. So he took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him away.
Luke 14:5  Then he said to them, "If one of you had a donkey or an ox fall into a pit, would you not pull it out at once, even on the sabbath day?"
Luke 14:6  They could not give him any answer to this.
Luke 14:7  He noticed how the guests chose the best places at the table. So he told them a parable. He said to them,
Luke 14:8  "When someone invites you to a wedding, do not sit down in the best place. Someone more honoured than you may have been invited too."
Luke 14:9  "Then the man who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give this man your place.' And you will be ashamed as you go to take the lowest place."
Luke 14:10  "But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place. Then when the man who invited you comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, go up higher.' Then you will be honoured in front of all who sit at the table with you."
Luke 14:11  "For whoever lifts himself up will be brought low, and whoever makes himself low will be lifted up."
Luke 14:12  Then he also said to the man who had invited him, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not call your friends, or your brothers, or your relatives, or your rich neighbours. They may invite you back, and so you would be paid in return."
Luke 14:13  "But when you give a feast, call the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind."
Luke 14:14  "Then you will be blessed, because they cannot pay you back. You will be paid back at the resurrection of the righteous."
Luke 14:15  When one of those sitting at the table with him heard this, he said to him, "Blessed is the one who will eat bread in the kingdom of God."
Luke 14:16  Then Jesus said to him, "A certain man made a great supper, and invited many people."
Luke 14:17  "At supper time he sent his servant to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for everything is ready now.'"
Luke 14:18  "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'"
Luke 14:19  "Another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.'"
Luke 14:20  "Another said, 'I have married a wife, and so I cannot come.'"
Luke 14:21  "So that servant came and told his lord these things. Then the master of the house was angry. He said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.'"
Luke 14:22  "The servant said, 'Lord, it is done as you commanded, and there is still room.'"
Luke 14:23  "The lord said to the servant, 'Go out into the roads and along the hedges, and make them come in, so that my house may be full."
Luke 14:24  "'For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my supper.'"
Luke 14:25  Great crowds were going along with him. He turned and said to them,
Luke 14:26  "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:27  "And whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:28  "Suppose one of you means to build a tower. Would he not first sit down and work out the cost, to see if he has enough to finish it?"
Luke 14:29  "Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and cannot finish it, everyone who sees it will begin to mock him."
Luke 14:30  "They will say, 'This man began to build, and was not able to finish.'"
Luke 14:31  "Or what king, going to war against another king, does not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to meet the one coming against him with twenty thousand?"
Luke 14:32  "If he is not able, then while the other is still far away, he sends messengers and asks for terms of peace."
Luke 14:33  "In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."
Luke 14:34  "Salt is good. But if the salt loses its taste, how can it be made salty again?"
Luke 14:35  "It is no use for the land or for the dung heap. People throw it away. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."

Luke 15:1  Then all the tax collectors and sinners came near to Jesus to hear him.
Luke 15:2  The Pharisees and the scribes complained. They said, "This man welcomes sinners, and he eats with them."
Luke 15:3  So he told them this parable:
Luke 15:4  "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep, and loses one of them. Will he not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it?"
Luke 15:5  "And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders with joy."
Luke 15:6  "When he comes home, he calls his friends and neighbours together and says to them, 'Be glad with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.'"
Luke 15:7  "I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance."
Luke 15:8  "Or suppose a woman has ten pieces of silver, and loses one piece. Does she not light a candle, and sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?"
Luke 15:9  "And when she has found it, she calls her friends and her neighbours together and says, 'Be glad with me, for I have found the piece I had lost.'"
Luke 15:10  "In the same way, I tell you, there is joy among the angels of God over one sinner who repents."
Luke 15:11  Then he said, "There was a man who had two sons."
Luke 15:12  "The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the property.' So the father divided what he owned between them."
Luke 15:13  "A few days later the younger son gathered everything he had and travelled to a far country. There he wasted all his money on wild living."
Luke 15:14  "When he had spent it all, a great famine came on that land, and he began to be in need."
Luke 15:15  "So he went and hired himself out to a man of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs."
Luke 15:16  "He would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything."
Luke 15:17  "Then he came to his senses and said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, and here I am dying of hunger!'"
Luke 15:18  "'I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.'"
Luke 15:19  "'I am not worthy to be called your son any more. Make me like one of your hired servants.'"
Luke 15:20  "So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt pity for him. He ran to him, threw his arms round his neck, and kissed him."
Luke 15:21  "The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am not worthy to be called your son any more.'"
Luke 15:22  "But the father said to his servants, 'Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.'"
Luke 15:23  "'Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us eat and be glad.'"
Luke 15:24  "'For this son of mine was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate."
Luke 15:25  "Now his older son was out in the field. As he came near the house, he heard music and dancing."
Luke 15:26  "He called one of the servants and asked what all this meant."
Luke 15:27  "The servant said to him, 'Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has him back safe and well.'"
Luke 15:28  "Then he was angry and would not go in. So his father came out and begged him to come."
Luke 15:29  "But he answered his father, 'Look, all these years I have served you. I have never once disobeyed your command. Yet you never gave me even a young goat, so that I could celebrate with my friends.'"
Luke 15:30  "'But as soon as this son of yours came home, who has eaten up your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.'"
Luke 15:31  "His father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.'"
Luke 15:32  "'It was right for us to celebrate and be glad. For this brother of yours was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.'"

Luke 16:1  He also said to his disciples, "There was a rich man who had a steward. Someone accused this steward of wasting his master's goods."
Luke 16:2  So he called him and said to him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your work as steward, for you may not be steward any longer.'
Luke 16:3  Then the steward said to himself, 'What shall I do? My master is taking my work away from me. I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg.
Luke 16:4  I know what I will do, so that when I lose my place as steward, people will welcome me into their houses.'
Luke 16:5  So he called in every one of his master's debtors. He said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
Luke 16:6  He said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' The steward said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.'
Luke 16:7  Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' He said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' The steward said to him, 'Take your bill, and write fourscore.'
Luke 16:8  And the master praised the dishonest steward, because he had acted wisely. For the children of this world are wiser in their own generation than the children of light.
Luke 16:9  And I say to you, make friends for yourselves with the mammon of unrighteousness. Then, when you fail, they may welcome you into everlasting homes.
Luke 16:10  Whoever is faithful in what is least is also faithful in much. And whoever is dishonest in what is least is also dishonest in much.
Luke 16:11  So if you have not been faithful with the unrighteous mammon, who will trust you with the true riches?
Luke 16:12  And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?
Luke 16:13  "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold on to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."
Luke 16:14  The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all these things, and they laughed at him.
Luke 16:15  And he said to them, "You are the ones who make yourselves look right in front of people, but God knows your hearts. For what people think highly of is disgusting in God's sight."
Luke 16:16  The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.
Luke 16:17  It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tiny stroke of the law to fail.
Luke 16:18  Anyone who sends his wife away and marries another woman commits adultery. And anyone who marries a woman who has been sent away from her husband commits adultery.
Luke 16:19  There was a rich man, who was dressed in purple and fine linen, and feasted in great luxury every day.
Luke 16:20  And there was a beggar named Lazarus, who was laid at his gate, covered with sores.
Luke 16:21  He longed to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
Luke 16:22  Then the beggar died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried.
Luke 16:23  In hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and he saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Luke 16:24  So he called out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'
Luke 16:25  But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in the same way received evil things. But now he is comforted, and you are in agony.
Luke 16:26  Besides all this, between us and you a great gulf has been fixed. So those who want to go across from here to you cannot, and no one can cross from there to us.'
Luke 16:27  Then he said, 'I beg you then, father, send him to my father's house.
Luke 16:28  For I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they do not also come to this place of torment.'
Luke 16:29  Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.'
Luke 16:30  And he said, 'No, father Abraham. But if someone went to them from the dead, they would repent.'
Luke 16:31  "And Abraham said to him, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'"

Luke 17:1  Then he said to his disciples, "It cannot be that no temptations to sin will come. But how terrible for the one through whom they come!"
Luke 17:2  "It would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea, than for him to make one of these little ones sin."
Luke 17:3  "Watch yourselves. If your brother sins against you, correct him. And if he repents, forgive him."
Luke 17:4  "If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive him."
Luke 17:5  The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith."
Luke 17:6  And the Lord said, "If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree, 'Be pulled up by the roots, and be planted in the sea,' and it would obey you."
Luke 17:7  "Which of you, if he has a servant plowing or looking after the cattle, will say to him as soon as he comes in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'?"
Luke 17:8  "Will he not rather say to him, 'Get my supper ready. Tie up your clothes and serve me while I eat and drink. Afterward you may eat and drink'?"
Luke 17:9  "Does he thank that servant because he did what he was told to do? I think not."
Luke 17:10  "So it is with you. When you have done all the things you were told to do, say, 'We are servants who deserve nothing. We have only done what it was our duty to do.'"
Luke 17:11  As Jesus went to Jerusalem, he passed between Samaria and Galilee.
Luke 17:12  As he entered a certain village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood far off,
Luke 17:13  and they called out loudly, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us."
Luke 17:14  When he saw them, he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were made clean.
Luke 17:15  One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and praised God with a loud voice.
Luke 17:16  He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.
Luke 17:17  Jesus answered, "Were not ten made clean? Where are the nine?"
Luke 17:18  "Has no one come back to give glory to God except this foreigner?"
Luke 17:19  Then he said to him, "Get up and go your way. Your faith has made you well."
Luke 17:20  The Pharisees asked him when the kingdom of God would come. He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come in a way that can be watched for."
Luke 17:21  "People will not say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'Look, there it is!' For look, the kingdom of God is within you."
Luke 17:22  And he said to the disciples, "The days will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of man, and you will not see it."
Luke 17:23  "People will say to you, 'Look here,' or, 'Look there.' Do not go after them or follow them."
Luke 17:24  "For just as the lightning flashes in one part of the sky and shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of man be in his day."
Luke 17:25  "But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation."
Luke 17:26  "As it was in the days of Noe, so it will be also in the days of the Son of man."
Luke 17:27  "They ate, they drank, they married, and they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe went into the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all."
Luke 17:28  "It was the same in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built."
Luke 17:29  "But on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, fire and burning sulphur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all."
Luke 17:30  "It will be just like that on the day when the Son of man is revealed."
Luke 17:31  "On that day, if a man is on the housetop and his goods are in the house, he must not come down to take them away. And the man who is in the field must not turn back either."
Luke 17:32  "Remember Lot's wife."
Luke 17:33  "Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will keep it."
Luke 17:34  "I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed. One will be taken, and the other will be left."
Luke 17:35  "Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken, and the other left."
Luke 17:36  "Two men will be in the field. One will be taken, and the other left." this verse is not found in most of the Greek copies
Luke 17:37  They answered and said to him, "Where, Lord?" And he said to them, "Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together."

Luke 18:1  He told them a parable to show that people ought to pray always, and not lose heart.
Luke 18:2  He said, "In a certain city there was a judge. He did not fear God, and he cared nothing for people."
Luke 18:3  "There was a widow in that city. She kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against the man who is against me.'"
Luke 18:4  "For a while he refused. But afterward he said to himself, 'I do not fear God, and I care nothing for people."
Luke 18:5  "'Yet because this widow keeps troubling me, I will see that she gets justice. If I do not, she will wear me out with her endless coming.'"
Luke 18:6  Then the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says."
Luke 18:7  "And will God not give justice to his own chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he be slow to help them?"
Luke 18:8  "I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
Luke 18:9  He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and looked down on others.
Luke 18:10  "Two men went up into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector."
Luke 18:11  "The Pharisee stood and prayed like this to himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men. They rob and cheat, they are unjust, they commit adultery. I am not even like this tax collector."
Luke 18:12  "'I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I own.'"
Luke 18:13  "The tax collector stood far off. He would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his chest and said, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'"
Luke 18:14  "I tell you, this man went down to his house counted righteous, and not the other. For everyone who lifts himself up will be brought low, and the one who makes himself low will be lifted up."
Luke 18:15  People also brought their babies to him, so that he would touch them. But when his disciples saw it, they told them off.
Luke 18:16  But Jesus called them to him and said, "Allow the little children to come to me, and do not stop them. The kingdom of God belongs to such as these."
Luke 18:17  "I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
Luke 18:18  A certain ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
Luke 18:19  Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except one, that is, God."
Luke 18:20  "You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not give false witness, Honour your father and your mother."
Luke 18:21  He said, "I have kept all these since I was young."
Luke 18:22  When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
Luke 18:23  When he heard this, he was very sad, for he was very rich.
Luke 18:24  When Jesus saw that he was very sad, he said, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!"
Luke 18:25  "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Luke 18:26  Those who heard it said, "Who then can be saved?"
Luke 18:27  He said, "The things that are impossible for people are possible for God."
Luke 18:28  Then Peter said, "Look, we have left everything and followed you."
Luke 18:29  He said to them, "I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left house, or parents, or brothers, or wife, or children for the sake of the kingdom of God,"
Luke 18:30  "who will not receive many times as much in this present time, and in the world to come everlasting life."
Luke 18:31  Then he took the twelve aside and said to them, "Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. Everything that the prophets wrote about the Son of man will be completed."
Luke 18:32  "For he will be handed over to the Gentiles. He will be mocked, and treated shamefully, and spat on."
Luke 18:33  "They will whip him and put him to death. And on the third day he will rise again."
Luke 18:34  They understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not know what he meant.
Luke 18:35  As he came near to Jericho, a certain blind man was sitting by the roadside, begging.
Luke 18:36  When he heard the crowd going by, he asked what it meant.
Luke 18:37  They told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by.
Luke 18:38  So he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
Luke 18:39  Those who went in front told him off and said he should be quiet. But he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me."
Luke 18:40  Jesus stopped and ordered that the man be brought to him. When he had come near, Jesus asked him,
Luke 18:41  "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me see again."
Luke 18:42  Jesus said to him, "See again. Your faith has saved you."
Luke 18:43  At once he could see, and he followed him, giving glory to God. And when all the people saw it, they praised God.

Luke 19:1  Jesus came into Jericho and was passing through it.
Luke 19:2  There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector, and he was rich.
Luke 19:3  He wanted to see who Jesus was, but he could not because of the crowd, for he was a short man.
Luke 19:4  So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him, because Jesus was going to pass that way.
Luke 19:5  When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and saw him. He said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down. Today I must stay at your house."
Luke 19:6  So he hurried and came down, and welcomed him with joy.
Luke 19:7  When the people saw it, they all complained, saying, "He has gone to be the guest of a man who is a sinner."
Luke 19:8  Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of what I own to the poor. And if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I give it back four times over."
Luke 19:9  Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man also is a son of Abraham."
Luke 19:10  "For the Son of man has come to seek and to save what was lost."
Luke 19:11  While they were listening to these things, he went on and told them a parable. He did this because he was near Jerusalem, and because they thought the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.
Luke 19:12  So he said, "A certain nobleman went to a country far away to be made king, and then to return."
Luke 19:13  He called ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds. He said to them, 'Do business with this until I come.'
Luke 19:14  But the people of his country hated him. They sent a message after him, saying, 'We will not have this man to rule over us.'
Luke 19:15  When he came back, having been made king, he ordered these servants to be called to him, the ones he had given the money to. He wanted to know how much each man had gained by trading.
Luke 19:16  The first one came and said, 'Lord, your pound has gained ten pounds.'
Luke 19:17  He said to him, 'Well done, good servant. Because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you shall have authority over ten cities.'
Luke 19:18  The second came and said, 'Lord, your pound has gained five pounds.'
Luke 19:19  He said to him in the same way, 'You shall be over five cities.'
Luke 19:20  Another came and said, 'Lord, look, here is your pound. I have kept it put away in a cloth.
Luke 19:21  For I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take up what you did not lay down, and you reap what you did not sow.'
Luke 19:22  He said to him, 'I will judge you by your own words, you wicked servant. You knew that I was a hard man, taking up what I did not lay down, and reaping what I did not sow.
Luke 19:23  Then why did you not put my money in the bank? Then when I came I could have asked for my own back with interest.'
Luke 19:24  And he said to those standing by, 'Take the pound away from him, and give it to the man who has ten pounds.'
Luke 19:25  (And they said to him, 'Lord, he has ten pounds.')
Luke 19:26  'For I tell you, to everyone who has, more will be given. But from the man who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away from him.
Luke 19:27  "But as for those enemies of mine, who did not want me to rule over them, bring them here and kill them in front of me.'"
Luke 19:28  When he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
Luke 19:29  When he came near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the hill called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples.
Luke 19:30  He said, "Go into the village ahead of you. As you enter it you will find a colt tied up, which no one has ever sat on. Untie it and bring it here."
Luke 19:31  "And if anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' this is what you shall say to him: 'Because the Lord needs it.'"
Luke 19:32  The ones who were sent went off and found it just as he had told them.
Luke 19:33  As they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, "Why are you untying the colt?"
Luke 19:34  They said, "The Lord needs it."
Luke 19:35  They brought it to Jesus. They threw their coats on the colt, and they set Jesus on it.
Luke 19:36  As he went along, they spread their clothes on the road.
Luke 19:37  When he came near, at the place where the road goes down from the mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to rejoice. They praised God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen.
Luke 19:38  They said, "Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest."
Luke 19:39  Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell your disciples to stop."
Luke 19:40  He answered them, "I tell you that if these were silent, the stones would cry out at once."
Luke 19:41  When he came near and saw the city, he wept over it.
Luke 19:42  He said, "If only you had known, even you, at least on this your day, the things that belong to your peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes."
Luke 19:43  For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build a wall of earth around you. They will surround you and shut you in on every side.
Luke 19:44  "They will level you to the ground, you and your children inside you. They will not leave one stone on another in you, because you did not know the time when God came to you."
Luke 19:45  He went into the temple and began to drive out those who were selling there, and those who were buying.
Luke 19:46  He said to them, "It is written, 'My house is the house of prayer.' But you have made it a den of thieves."
Luke 19:47  He taught every day in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the leaders of the people were trying to destroy him.
Luke 19:48  They could not find any way to do it, because all the people listened to him very closely.

Luke 20:1  On one of those days, Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel. The chief priests and the scribes came up to him, along with the elders,
Luke 20:2  and they said to him, "Tell us, by what authority do you do these things? Who is it that gave you this authority?"
Luke 20:3  He answered them, "I will also ask you one thing. Answer me:"
Luke 20:4  "The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or from men?"
Luke 20:5  They talked it over among themselves and said, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will say, 'Why then did you not believe him?'"
Luke 20:6  "But if we say, 'From men,' all the people will stone us, for they are sure that John was a prophet."
Luke 20:7  So they answered that they could not tell where it came from.
Luke 20:8  And Jesus said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things."
Luke 20:9  Then he began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard. He rented it out to farmers and went away to a far country for a long time."
Luke 20:10  "At the right season he sent a servant to the farmers, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the farmers beat him and sent him away with nothing."
Luke 20:11  "Again he sent another servant. They beat him too, and treated him shamefully, and sent him away with nothing."
Luke 20:12  "Again he sent a third. They wounded him too, and threw him out."
Luke 20:13  "Then the lord of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that they will respect him when they see him.'"
Luke 20:14  "But when the farmers saw him, they talked it over among themselves and said, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, so that the inheritance will be ours.'"
Luke 20:15  "So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the lord of the vineyard do to them?"
Luke 20:16  "He will come and destroy those farmers, and will give the vineyard to others." When they heard this, they said, "May it never be."
Luke 20:17  He looked at them and said, "What then does this mean that is written: 'The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner'?"
Luke 20:18  "Whoever falls on that stone will be broken to pieces. But anyone it falls on, it will grind him to powder."
Luke 20:19  That same hour the chief priests and the scribes tried to lay hands on him, but they were afraid of the people. For they knew that he had told this parable against them.
Luke 20:20  So they watched him and sent out spies, who pretended to be honest men, so that they could catch him in his words and hand him over to the power and authority of the governor.
Luke 20:21  They asked him, "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly. You do not favour anyone, but you teach the way of God truly."
Luke 20:22  "Is it lawful for us to pay tribute to Caesar, or not?"
Luke 20:23  But he saw how cunning they were, and said to them, "Why do you test me?"
Luke 20:24  "Show me a penny. Whose image and writing does it have?" They answered, "Caesar's."
Luke 20:25  And he said to them, "Then give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Luke 20:26  They could not catch him in his words in front of the people. They were amazed at his answer, and said nothing.
Luke 20:27  Then some of the Sadducees came to him. They say there is no resurrection. They asked him,
Luke 20:28  "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, his brother should take the wife and have children for his brother."
Luke 20:29  "Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children."
Luke 20:30  "The second married her, and he died childless."
Luke 20:31  "The third took her, and in the same way all seven. They left no children, and died."
Luke 20:32  "Last of all the woman died too."
Luke 20:33  "So in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For all seven had her as wife."
Luke 20:34  Jesus answered them, "The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage."
Luke 20:35  "But those who are counted worthy to have a share in that world, and in the resurrection from the dead, do not marry and are not given in marriage."
Luke 20:36  "They cannot die any more, for they are equal to the angels. They are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection."
Luke 20:37  "Even Moses showed that the dead are raised, in the passage about the bush, when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."
Luke 20:38  "For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living. For to him all are alive."
Luke 20:39  Then some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well."
Luke 20:40  And after that they did not dare ask him any question at all.
Luke 20:41  And he said to them, "How can they say that Christ is David's son?"
Luke 20:42  "David himself says in the book of Psalms, 'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,"
Luke 20:43  "'till I make your enemies your footstool.'"
Luke 20:44  "So David calls him Lord. How then is he his son?"
Luke 20:45  Then, while all the people were listening, he said to his disciples,
Luke 20:46  "Beware of the scribes. They like to walk about in long robes, and they love greetings in the markets, and the highest seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts."
Luke 20:47  "They eat up widows' houses, and for a show they make long prayers. These will receive the greater condemnation."

Luke 21:1  He looked up and saw rich men putting their gifts into the treasury.
Luke 21:2  He also saw a poor widow putting in two mites.
Luke 21:3  He said, "I tell you truly, this poor widow has put in more than all of them."
Luke 21:4  "All these gave to God's offerings out of what they had to spare. But she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had to live on."
Luke 21:5  Some people were talking about the temple, and how it was decorated with beautiful stones and gifts. Jesus said,
Luke 21:6  "As for these things you are looking at, the days will come when not one stone will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down."
Luke 21:7  They asked him, "Master, when will these things happen? And what sign will there be when they are about to come?"
Luke 21:8  He said, "Be careful that you are not deceived. Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am Christ,' and, 'The time is near.' Do not go after them."
Luke 21:9  "When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be terrified. These things must happen first, but the end will not come at once."
Luke 21:10  Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom."
Luke 21:11  "There will be great earthquakes in many places, and famines, and diseases. And there will be terrifying sights and great signs from heaven."
Luke 21:12  "But before all this, they will lay their hands on you and persecute you. They will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons. You will be brought before kings and rulers because of my name."
Luke 21:13  "And this will give you a chance to testify."
Luke 21:14  "So settle it in your hearts not to plan beforehand what you will answer."
Luke 21:15  "For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your enemies will be able to contradict or resist."
Luke 21:16  "You will be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives and friends. And some of you they will put to death."
Luke 21:17  "Everyone will hate you because of my name."
Luke 21:18  "But not a hair of your head will perish."
Luke 21:19  "By your patient endurance you will gain your souls."
Luke 21:20  "When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its ruin is near."
Luke 21:21  "Then let those who are in Judaea run away to the mountains. Let those who are inside the city leave it. And let those who are out in the country not go into it."
Luke 21:22  "For these are the days of vengeance, so that everything that is written may be fulfilled."
Luke 21:23  "But how terrible it will be in those days for women who are pregnant, and for those who are nursing babies. For there will be great distress in the land, and anger against this people."
Luke 21:24  "They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led away as prisoners into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."
Luke 21:25  "There will be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. On the earth the nations will be in distress and bewildered. The sea and the waves will roar."
Luke 21:26  "People's hearts will fail them for fear, as they wait for what is coming on the earth. For the powers of heaven will be shaken."
Luke 21:27  "And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory."
Luke 21:28  "When these things begin to happen, then look up and lift up your heads, for the time of your redemption is coming near."
Luke 21:29  And he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees."
Luke 21:30  "When they begin to put out leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that summer is now near."
Luke 21:31  "In the same way, when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near."
Luke 21:32  "I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass away until all is fulfilled."
Luke 21:33  "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."
Luke 21:34  "Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with too much feasting and drinking and the worries of this life. Then that day will come upon you suddenly, when you do not expect it."
Luke 21:35  "For it will come like a trap on all who live on the face of the whole earth."
Luke 21:36  "So keep watch, and pray always, that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that are going to happen, and to stand before the Son of man."
Luke 21:37  In the daytime he was teaching in the temple. At night he went out and stayed on the hill called the Mount of Olives.
Luke 21:38  And all the people came to him early in the morning in the temple, to hear him.

Luke 22:1  Now the feast of unleavened bread was near. It is called the Passover.
Luke 22:2  The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to kill him, because they were afraid of the people.
Luke 22:3  Then Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot. He was one of the twelve.
Luke 22:4  He went away and talked with the chief priests and the captains about how he might hand Jesus over to them.
Luke 22:5  They were glad, and they agreed to give him money.
Luke 22:6  He promised to do it, and he looked for a chance to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was there.
Luke 22:7  Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the Passover lamb had to be killed.
Luke 22:8  Jesus sent Peter and John. He said, "Go and prepare the Passover meal for us, so that we may eat it."
Luke 22:9  They said to him, "Where do you want us to prepare it?"
Luke 22:10  He said to them, "Look, when you have gone into the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him into the house that he enters."
Luke 22:11  "Say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says to you: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?'"
Luke 22:12  "He will show you a large upper room, all set out. Make it ready there."
Luke 22:13  They went and found everything as he had told them, and they made the Passover ready.
Luke 22:14  When the hour came, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.
Luke 22:15  He said to them, "I have greatly longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer."
Luke 22:16  "For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God."
Luke 22:17  Then he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this, and share it among yourselves."
Luke 22:18  "For I tell you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes."
Luke 22:19  He took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to them. He said, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
Luke 22:20  In the same way he took the cup after supper, and said, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."
Luke 22:21  "But look, the hand of the man who betrays me is with me on the table."
Luke 22:22  "Truly the Son of man goes as it was decided. But how terrible for that man who betrays him."
Luke 22:23  They began to ask each other which of them it was who would do this.
Luke 22:24  There was also an argument among them about which of them should be thought the greatest.
Luke 22:25  He said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles rule over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors."
Luke 22:26  "But you are not to be like that. Let the greatest among you be like the youngest, and the one who leads be like the one who serves."
Luke 22:27  "For who is greater, the one who sits at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at the table? But I am among you as one who serves."
Luke 22:28  "You are the ones who have stayed with me in my trials."
Luke 22:29  "And I give you a kingdom, just as my Father has given one to me,"
Luke 22:30  "so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Luke 22:31  The Lord said, "Simon, Simon, look, Satan has asked to have you, to sift you like wheat."
Luke 22:32  "But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
Luke 22:33  Peter said to him, "Lord, I am ready to go with you, both to prison and to death."
Luke 22:34  Jesus said, "I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow today before you have denied three times that you know me."
Luke 22:35  He said to them, "When I sent you out without purse, or bag, or shoes, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing."
Luke 22:36  Then he said to them, "But now, whoever has a purse, let him take it, and his bag as well. And whoever has no sword, let him sell his coat and buy one."
Luke 22:37  "For I tell you, this that is written must still be carried out in me: 'And he was counted among the wrongdoers.' For what is written about me is coming to its end."
Luke 22:38  They said, "Lord, look, here are two swords." He said to them, "It is enough."
Luke 22:39  He came out and went, as he usually did, to the mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.
Luke 22:40  When he came to the place, he said to them, "Pray that you do not come into temptation."
Luke 22:41  He went away from them about as far as a stone can be thrown, and he knelt down and prayed.
Luke 22:42  He said, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet let not my will be done, but yours."
Luke 22:43  An angel from heaven appeared to him, giving him strength.
Luke 22:44  In deep anguish he prayed still more earnestly, and his sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground.
Luke 22:45  When he rose from prayer and came to his disciples, he found them asleep, worn out by sorrow.
Luke 22:46  He said to them, "Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray, so that you do not come into temptation."
Luke 22:47  While he was still speaking, look, a crowd came. The man called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He came near to Jesus to kiss him.
Luke 22:48  But Jesus said to him, "Judas, are you betraying the Son of man with a kiss?"
Luke 22:49  When those around him saw what was going to happen, they said to him, "Lord, shall we strike with the sword?"
Luke 22:50  One of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.
Luke 22:51  Jesus answered, "Allow even this." And he touched the man's ear and healed him.
Luke 22:52  Then Jesus said to the chief priests, and the captains of the temple, and the elders who had come to him, "Have you come out with swords and clubs, as against a robber?"
Luke 22:53  "When I was with you day after day in the temple, you did not lay hands on me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness."
Luke 22:54  Then they seized him and led him away, and brought him into the high priest's house. Peter followed a long way behind.
Luke 22:55  They lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, and Peter sat down among them.
Luke 22:56  A servant girl saw him sitting by the fire. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him too."
Luke 22:57  But he denied it. He said, "Woman, I do not know him."
Luke 22:58  A little later someone else saw him and said, "You are one of them too." Peter said, "Man, I am not."
Luke 22:59  About an hour later another man insisted, "It is true, this man was with him too, for he is a Galilaean."
Luke 22:60  Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about." At once, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed.
Luke 22:61  The Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times."
Luke 22:62  Peter went outside and wept bitterly.
Luke 22:63  The men who were holding Jesus mocked him and beat him.
Luke 22:64  They blindfolded him and struck him on the face. They asked him, "Prophesy. Who is it that hit you?"
Luke 22:65  And they said many other insulting things against him.
Luke 22:66  As soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes met together. They led him into their council and said,
Luke 22:67  "Are you the Christ? Tell us." He said to them, "If I tell you, you will not believe me."
Luke 22:68  "And if I ask you a question, you will not answer me or let me go."
Luke 22:69  "From now on the Son of man will sit at the right hand of the power of God."
Luke 22:70  Then they all said, "Are you then the Son of God?" He said to them, "You say that I am."
Luke 22:71  They said, "Why do we need any more witnesses? We have heard it ourselves from his own mouth."

Luke 23:1  Then the whole crowd of them got up and took him to Pilate.
Luke 23:2  They began to accuse him. They said, "We found this man leading our nation astray. He tells people not to pay taxes to Caesar, and he says that he himself is Christ, a King."
Luke 23:3  Pilate asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" He answered him, "You say it."
Luke 23:4  Then Pilate said to the chief priests and to the people, "I find no fault in this man."
Luke 23:5  But they grew more fierce. They said, "He stirs up the people. He teaches all through Jewry. He began in Galilee, and he has come as far as this place."
Luke 23:6  When Pilate heard about Galilee, he asked whether the man was a Galilaean.
Luke 23:7  As soon as he learned that Jesus came under Herod's rule, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
Luke 23:8  When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad. He had wanted to see him for a long time, because he had heard many things about him, and he hoped to see him do some miracle.
Luke 23:9  So he questioned him with many words, but Jesus answered him nothing.
Luke 23:10  The chief priests and scribes stood there and accused him fiercely.
Luke 23:11  Herod and his soldiers treated him as nothing and mocked him. They dressed him in a splendid robe and sent him back to Pilate.
Luke 23:12  That same day Pilate and Herod became friends, for before this they had been enemies.
Luke 23:13  Pilate called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people.
Luke 23:14  He said to them, "You have brought this man to me as one who leads the people astray. Look, I have examined him in front of you, and I have found no fault in this man in the things you accuse him of."
Luke 23:15  "Neither has Herod, for I sent you to him. Look, he has done nothing that deserves death."
Luke 23:16  "So I will punish him and let him go."
Luke 23:17  (For he had to release one prisoner to them at the feast.)
Luke 23:18  But they all cried out together, "Away with this man. Release Barabbas to us."
Luke 23:19  (Barabbas had been thrown into prison for starting a riot in the city, and for murder.)
Luke 23:20  Pilate wanted to release Jesus, so he spoke to them again.
Luke 23:21  But they shouted, "Crucify him, crucify him."
Luke 23:22  He said to them a third time, "Why? What evil has he done? I have found nothing in him that deserves death. So I will punish him and let him go."
Luke 23:23  But they kept pressing him with loud voices, demanding that he be crucified. And their voices and the voices of the chief priests won.
Luke 23:24  So Pilate gave his sentence: it should be as they demanded.
Luke 23:25  He released to them the man they had asked for, the man who had been thrown into prison for rioting and murder. But he handed Jesus over to their will.
Luke 23:26  As they led him away, they took hold of a man named Simon, from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country. They laid the cross on him, to carry it behind Jesus.
Luke 23:27  A great crowd of people followed him, and women who wept and mourned for him.
Luke 23:28  But Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for yourselves and for your children."
Luke 23:29  "Look, the days are coming when people will say, 'Happy are the women who cannot have children, and the wombs that never bore a child, and the breasts that never fed one.'"
Luke 23:30  "Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.'"
Luke 23:31  "For if they do these things to a green tree, what will be done to the dry one?"
Luke 23:32  Two others were also led out with him to be put to death. They were criminals.
Luke 23:33  When they came to the place called Calvary, they crucified him there, and the criminals too, one on his right hand and the other on his left.
Luke 23:34  Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided his clothes among them, casting lots.
Luke 23:35  The people stood watching. The rulers with them mocked him too. They said, "He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is the Christ, the chosen one of God."
Luke 23:36  The soldiers also mocked him. They came to him and offered him vinegar,
Luke 23:37  and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."
Luke 23:38  A notice was also written above him, in Greek and Latin and Hebrew letters: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.
Luke 23:39  One of the criminals who hung there insulted him. He said, "If you are the Christ, save yourself and us."
Luke 23:40  But the other one answered and rebuked him. He said, "Do you not fear God? You are under the same sentence."
Luke 23:41  "And we are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
Luke 23:42  Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Luke 23:43  Jesus said to him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Luke 23:44  It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over all the earth until the ninth hour.
Luke 23:45  The sun was darkened, and the curtain of the temple was torn down the middle.
Luke 23:46  Jesus cried out with a loud voice and said, "Father, into your hands I give my spirit." When he had said this, he died.
Luke 23:47  When the centurion saw what had happened, he gave glory to God. He said, "Certainly this was a righteous man."
Luke 23:48  All the people who had come together to see it watched what was done. They beat their breasts and went home.
Luke 23:49  All those who knew him, and the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood far off and watched these things.
Luke 23:50  Look, there was a man named Joseph, a member of the council. He was a good man, and just.
Luke 23:51  (He had not agreed with their plan and what they did.) He came from Arimathaea, a city of the Jews, and he was waiting for the kingdom of God.
Luke 23:52  This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Luke 23:53  He took it down and wrapped it in linen. He laid it in a tomb cut out of rock, where no one had ever been laid before.
Luke 23:54  That day was the day of preparation, and the sabbath was about to begin.
Luke 23:55  The women who had come with him from Galilee followed as well. They saw the tomb, and how his body was laid.
Luke 23:56  Then they went home and prepared spices and ointments. And they rested on the sabbath day, as the commandment says.

Luke 24:1  On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came to the tomb. They brought the spices they had prepared, and some others came with them.
Luke 24:2  They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb.
Luke 24:3  They went in, but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Luke 24:4  While they were very puzzled about this, look, two men stood beside them in shining clothes.
Luke 24:5  The women were afraid, and they bowed their faces to the ground. The men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"
Luke 24:6  "He is not here. He has risen. Remember how he spoke to you while he was still in Galilee."
Luke 24:7  "He said, 'The Son of man must be handed over into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.'"
Luke 24:8  Then they remembered his words.
Luke 24:9  They came back from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
Luke 24:10  It was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles.
Luke 24:11  But their words seemed to the apostles like empty stories, and they did not believe them.
Luke 24:12  Then Peter got up and ran to the tomb. He bent down and saw the linen cloths lying by themselves. He went away, wondering to himself about what had happened.
Luke 24:13  Look, that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, which was about sixty furlongs from Jerusalem.
Luke 24:14  They were talking together about all these things that had happened.
Luke 24:15  While they talked together and discussed it, Jesus himself came near and walked with them.
Luke 24:16  But their eyes were held, so that they did not know him.
Luke 24:17  He said to them, "What are you talking about with each other as you walk, and why are you sad?"
Luke 24:18  One of them, named Cleopas, answered him, "Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
Luke 24:19  He said to them, "What things?" They said to him, "The things about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people."
Luke 24:20  "Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him."
Luke 24:21  "But we had hoped that he was the one who would redeem Israel. Besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened."
Luke 24:22  "And some women of our group amazed us. They were at the tomb early,"
Luke 24:23  "and when they did not find his body, they came and said that they had also seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive."
Luke 24:24  "Some of those who were with us went to the tomb, and found it just as the women had said. But they did not see him."
Luke 24:25  Then he said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow in heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken."
Luke 24:26  "Did not Christ have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?"
Luke 24:27  Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said about himself in all the scriptures.
Luke 24:28  They came near the village where they were going, and he acted as if he would go further.
Luke 24:29  But they urged him, saying, "Stay with us. It is almost evening, and the day is nearly over." So he went in to stay with them.
Luke 24:30  While he sat at the table with them, he took bread and blessed it. He broke it and gave it to them.
Luke 24:31  Then their eyes were opened, and they knew him. And he disappeared from their sight.
Luke 24:32  They said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning inside us while he talked with us on the road, and while he opened the scriptures to us?"
Luke 24:33  They got up that same hour and went back to Jerusalem. There they found the eleven gathered together, and those who were with them.
Luke 24:34  They were saying, "The Lord has truly risen, and has appeared to Simon."
Luke 24:35  Then the two told what had happened on the road, and how they knew him when he broke the bread.
Luke 24:36  While they were speaking, Jesus himself stood among them. He said to them, "Peace be to you."
Luke 24:37  But they were terrified and afraid. They thought they were seeing a spirit.
Luke 24:38  He said to them, "Why are you troubled? Why do doubts rise in your hearts?"
Luke 24:39  "Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
Luke 24:40  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
Luke 24:41  They still could not believe it for joy, and they were amazed. So he said to them, "Do you have any food here?"
Luke 24:42  They gave him a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb.
Luke 24:43  He took it and ate it in front of them.
Luke 24:44  He said to them, "These are the words I spoke to you while I was still with you. Everything written about me in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms must be fulfilled."
Luke 24:45  Then he opened their minds, so that they could understand the scriptures.
Luke 24:46  He said to them, "This is what is written: Christ had to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day."
Luke 24:47  "And repentance and forgiveness of sins must be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
Luke 24:48  "And you are witnesses of these things."
Luke 24:49  "Look, I am sending on you what my Father promised. But stay in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high."
Luke 24:50  Then he led them out as far as Bethany. He lifted up his hands and blessed them.
Luke 24:51  While he was blessing them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven.
Luke 24:52  They worshipped him, and went back to Jerusalem with great joy.
Luke 24:53  They were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

John

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2  He was with God in the beginning.
John 1:3  All things were made by him. Without him nothing was made that has been made.
John 1:4  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
John 1:5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it.
John 1:6  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
John 1:7  He came as a witness, to tell people about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe.
John 1:8  He was not that Light, but he was sent to tell people about that Light.
John 1:9  That was the true Light, which gives light to every man who comes into the world.
John 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, but the world did not know him.
John 1:11  He came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him.
John 1:12  But to all who did receive him, he gave the power to become the sons of God, that is, to those who believe in his name.
John 1:13  They were born not of blood, nor of the will of the body, nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:14  The Word was made flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:15  John told people about him, and called out, "This is the one I spoke of. I said, 'The one who comes after me is greater than I am, for he was before me.'"
John 1:16  From all that he has, we have all received, grace upon grace.
John 1:17  For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
John 1:18  No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, has made him known.
John 1:19  This is what John said when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
John 1:20  He spoke openly and did not deny it. He said plainly, "I am not the Christ."
John 1:21  So they asked him, "What then? Are you Elias?" He said, "I am not." "Are you that prophet?" He answered, "No."
John 1:22  Then they said to him, "Who are you? Tell us, so that we can give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?"
John 1:23  He said, "I am the voice of one calling out in the wilderness, 'Make the way of the Lord straight,' as the prophet Esaias said."
John 1:24  The men who had been sent were from the Pharisees.
John 1:25  They asked him, "Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elias, nor that prophet?"
John 1:26  John answered them, "I baptize with water, but there is one standing among you whom you do not know."
John 1:27  "He is the one who comes after me and is greater than I am. I am not worthy to undo the strap of his shoe."
John 1:28  These things happened in Bethabara on the other side of Jordan, where John was baptizing.
John 1:29  The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and he said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."
John 1:30  "This is the one I spoke about when I said, 'After me comes a man who is greater than I am, for he was before me.'"
John 1:31  "I did not know him. But I came baptizing with water so that he might be shown to Israel."
John 1:32  John gave this witness: "I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove, and resting on him."
John 1:33  "I did not know him. But the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'"
John 1:34  "I have seen it, and I tell you that this is the Son of God."
John 1:35  The next day John was standing there again, with two of his disciples.
John 1:36  He looked at Jesus as he walked by, and said, "Look, the Lamb of God."
John 1:37  The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
John 1:38  Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, "What are you looking for?" They said to him, "Rabbi (which means Teacher), where are you staying?"
John 1:39  He said to them, "Come and see." They came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
John 1:40  One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.
John 1:41  The first thing he did was to find his own brother Simon. He said to him, "We have found the Messias" (which means the Christ).
John 1:42  He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon the son of Jona. You shall be called Cephas" (which means A stone).
John 1:43  The next day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee. He found Philip, and said to him, "Follow me."
John 1:44  Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
John 1:45  Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and the prophets wrote about too: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."
John 1:46  Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see."
John 1:47  Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, "Look, here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit."
John 1:48  Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you."
John 1:49  Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel."
John 1:50  Jesus answered him, "Do you believe because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree'? You shall see greater things than these."
John 1:51  And he said to him, "I tell you the truth, from now on you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God going up and coming down on the Son of man."

John 2:1  On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there.
John 2:2  Jesus was invited to the wedding, and so were his disciples.
John 2:3  When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."
John 2:4  Jesus said to her, "Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come."
John 2:5  His mother said to the servants, "Whatever he tells you, do it."
John 2:6  Six stone water jars were standing there, the kind the Jews used for washing to make themselves clean. Each one held two or three firkins.
John 2:7  Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them right to the top.
John 2:8  Then he said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the master of the feast." And they took it.
John 2:9  The master of the feast tasted the water that had been made wine. He did not know where it came from, but the servants who had drawn the water knew. So the master of the feast called the bridegroom
John 2:10  and said to him, "Every man serves the good wine first. Then, when people have drunk plenty, he brings out the worse wine. But you have kept the good wine until now."
John 2:11  This was the first of the miracles Jesus did, and he did it in Cana of Galilee. He showed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
John 2:12  After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples. They stayed there only a few days.
John 2:13  The Jews' Passover was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
John 2:14  In the temple he found people selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there.
John 2:15  So he made a whip out of small cords and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen. He poured out the money changers' coins and turned over their tables.
John 2:16  He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away. Do not make my Father's house a house of trade."
John 2:17  His disciples remembered that it was written, "The zeal of your house has eaten me up."
John 2:18  Then the Jews answered him, "What sign do you show us, since you do these things?"
John 2:19  Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
John 2:20  Then the Jews said, "This temple took forty-six years to build. Will you raise it up in three days?"
John 2:21  But he was speaking of the temple of his body.
John 2:22  So when he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this to them. And they believed the scripture, and the word that Jesus had said.
John 2:23  Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles he did.
John 2:24  But Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all people.
John 2:25  He did not need anyone to tell him about man, for he knew what was in man.

John 3:1  There was a man among the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
John 3:2  He came to Jesus at night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. No one can do these miracles that you do unless God is with him."
John 3:3  Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
John 3:4  Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he go into his mother's womb a second time and be born?"
John 3:5  Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."
John 3:6  "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit."
John 3:7  "Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.'"
John 3:8  "The wind blows where it wants to. You hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. It is like that with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
John 3:9  Nicodemus answered him, "How can these things be?"
John 3:10  Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things?"
John 3:11  "I tell you the truth, we speak about what we know, and we tell about what we have seen. But you do not receive our witness."
John 3:12  "I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe. How then will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
John 3:13  "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven."
John 3:14  "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of man must be lifted up,"
John 3:15  "so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life."
John 3:16  "For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3:17  "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world through him might be saved."
John 3:18  "Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
John 3:19  "And this is the condemnation: light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."
John 3:20  "For everyone who does evil hates the light. He does not come to the light, in case his deeds should be shown up."
John 3:21  "But whoever does the truth comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds are done in God."
John 3:22  After this Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judaea. He stayed there with them and baptized.
John 3:23  John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And people came and were baptized.
John 3:24  For John had not yet been thrown into prison.
John 3:25  Then an argument came up between some of John's disciples and the Jews about washing for purity.
John 3:26  They came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, the man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan, the one you spoke about, look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him."
John 3:27  John answered, "A man can receive nothing unless it is given to him from heaven."
John 3:28  "You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I am sent ahead of him.'"
John 3:29  "The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the bridegroom's friend, who stands and listens to him, is very glad when he hears the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine is now complete."
John 3:30  "He must become greater, but I must become less."
John 3:31  "The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks of the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all."
John 3:32  "He tells what he has seen and heard, and no one receives what he says."
John 3:33  "Whoever has received what he says has set his seal to this: that God is true."
John 3:34  "For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give him the Spirit by measure."
John 3:35  "The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand."
John 3:36  "Whoever believes in the Son has everlasting life. Whoever does not believe the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God stays on him."

John 4:1  When the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John,
John 4:2  (though Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples did,)
John 4:3  he left Judaea and went away again into Galilee.
John 4:4  And he had to go through Samaria.
John 4:5  So he came to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
John 4:6  Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired from his journey, so he sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
John 4:7  A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
John 4:8  (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
John 4:9  Then the woman of Samaria said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask me for a drink, when I am a woman of Samaria?" For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
John 4:10  Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
John 4:11  The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water?"
John 4:12  "Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, and his children, and his cattle?"
John 4:13  Jesus answered her, "Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again."
John 4:14  "But whoever drinks the water that I will give him will never be thirsty. The water that I give him will become in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
John 4:15  The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty, and will not come here to draw."
John 4:16  Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come here."
John 4:17  The woman answered, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You said rightly, 'I have no husband.'"
John 4:18  "For you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. In that you spoke truly."
John 4:19  The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet."
John 4:20  "Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you say that Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship."
John 4:21  Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."
John 4:22  "You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is from the Jews."
John 4:23  "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father is looking for such people to worship him."
John 4:24  "God is a Spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
John 4:25  The woman said to him, "I know that Messias is coming, who is called Christ. When he comes, he will tell us all things."
John 4:26  Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am he."
John 4:27  Just then his disciples came, and they were amazed that he was talking with the woman. Yet no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you talking with her?"
John 4:28  Then the woman left her waterpot, and went away into the city, and said to the men,
John 4:29  "Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Is not this the Christ?"
John 4:30  Then they went out of the city and came to him.
John 4:31  In the meantime his disciples begged him, saying, "Master, eat."
John 4:32  But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about."
John 4:33  So the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought him something to eat?"
John 4:34  Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work."
John 4:35  "Do you not say, 'There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest'? Look, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields. They are white already for harvest."
John 4:36  "The one who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together."
John 4:37  "And in this the saying is true, 'One sows, and another reaps.'"
John 4:38  "I sent you to reap what you did not work for. Other men worked, and you have entered into their labours."
John 4:39  Many of the Samaritans from that city believed in him because of what the woman said, when she testified, "He told me all that I ever did."
John 4:40  So when the Samaritans came to him, they begged him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.
John 4:41  And many more believed because of his own word.
John 4:42  They said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world."
John 4:43  After the two days he left there and went into Galilee.
John 4:44  For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country.
John 4:45  So when he came into Galilee, the Galilaeans welcomed him. They had seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.
John 4:46  So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
John 4:47  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
John 4:48  Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe."
John 4:49  The nobleman said to him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."
John 4:50  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him, and he went his way.
John 4:51  As he was going down, his servants met him and told him, "Your son lives."
John 4:52  Then he asked them at what hour the boy began to get better. They said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."
John 4:53  So the father knew that it was at the same hour when Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household.
John 4:54  This was again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he had come out of Judaea into Galilee.

John 5:1  After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
John 5:2  Now in Jerusalem, by the sheep market, there is a pool. In the Hebrew language it is called Bethesda, and it has five porches.
John 5:3  In these porches lay a great crowd of sick people: the blind, the lame, and those whose bodies were withered. They were waiting for the water to move.
John 5:4  For at a certain time an angel went down into the pool and stirred up the water. Then the first person to step in after the water was stirred was made well of whatever disease he had.
John 5:5  A certain man was there who had been ill for thirty and eight years.
John 5:6  Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been like this a long time. He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"
John 5:7  The sick man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am coming, someone else steps down before me."
John 5:8  Jesus said to him, "Get up, take up your bed, and walk."
John 5:9  At once the man was made well. He took up his bed and walked. That same day was the sabbath.
John 5:10  So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, "It is the sabbath day. You are not allowed to carry your bed."
John 5:11  He answered them, "The one who made me well said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.'"
John 5:12  Then they asked him, "Who is the man who said to you, 'Take up your bed, and walk'?"
John 5:13  But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away, since there was a crowd in that place.
John 5:14  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "Look, you have been made well. Sin no more, or something worse may happen to you."
John 5:15  The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
John 5:16  For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus and tried to kill him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
John 5:17  But Jesus answered them, "My Father is working until now, and I am working."
John 5:18  So the Jews tried all the harder to kill him. He had not only broken the sabbath, but he also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
John 5:19  Then Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He can only do what he sees the Father do. Whatever the Father does, the Son does the same."
John 5:20  "For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all the things that he himself does. And he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be amazed."
John 5:21  "For just as the Father raises up the dead and gives them life, so the Son also gives life to whom he wants."
John 5:22  "For the Father judges no one, but has handed over all judgment to the Son,"
John 5:23  "so that everyone should honour the Son, just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him."
John 5:24  "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has everlasting life. He will not be condemned, but has passed from death into life."
John 5:25  "I tell you the truth, the hour is coming, and is here now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God. Those who hear will live."
John 5:26  "For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son to have life in himself."
John 5:27  "And he has given him authority to carry out judgment too, because he is the Son of man."
John 5:28  "Do not be amazed at this. The hour is coming when all who are in the graves will hear his voice,"
John 5:29  "and will come out. Those who have done good will rise to life; those who have done evil will rise to be condemned."
John 5:30  "By myself I can do nothing. I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me."
John 5:31  "If I speak as a witness about myself, my witness is not true."
John 5:32  "There is another who is a witness about me, and I know that his witness about me is true."
John 5:33  "You sent to John, and he was a witness to the truth."
John 5:34  "But I do not accept a witness from man. I say these things so that you may be saved."
John 5:35  "He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a time you were willing to be glad in his light."
John 5:36  "But I have a greater witness than John's. The works the Father has given me to finish, the very works that I do, are a witness about me, that the Father has sent me."
John 5:37  "And the Father himself, who sent me, has been a witness about me. You have never heard his voice or seen his form."
John 5:38  "And his word does not remain in you, for you do not believe the one he sent."
John 5:39  "Search the scriptures, for you think that in them you have eternal life. They are the very ones that speak about me."
John 5:40  "And you are not willing to come to me, so that you might have life."
John 5:41  "I do not accept honour from people."
John 5:42  "But I know you. You do not have the love of God in you."
John 5:43  "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, him you will receive."
John 5:44  "How can you believe, when you accept honour from one another, and do not seek the honour that comes from God alone?"
John 5:45  "Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, in whom you trust."
John 5:46  "For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me."
John 5:47  "But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

John 6:1  After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
John 6:2  A great crowd followed him, because they saw the miracles he did on those who were sick.
John 6:3  Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.
John 6:4  The passover, a feast of the Jews, was near.
John 6:5  Then Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming to him. He said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread, so that these people may eat?"
John 6:6  He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.
John 6:7  Philip answered him, "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not enough for them, even if each one takes only a little."
John 6:8  One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him,
John 6:9  "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what are they among so many?"
John 6:10  Jesus said, "Make the men sit down." Now there was much grass in that place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number.
John 6:11  Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he gave them out to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to those who were sitting down. He did the same with the fishes, as much as they wanted.
John 6:12  When they were filled, he said to his disciples, "Gather up the pieces that are left over, so that nothing is lost."
John 6:13  So they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten.
John 6:14  Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, "This is truly that prophet who was to come into the world."
John 6:15  So when Jesus saw that they meant to come and take him by force to make him a king, he went away again into a mountain by himself alone.
John 6:16  When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea,
John 6:17  and got into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had not come to them.
John 6:18  The sea rose up, because a great wind was blowing.
John 6:19  So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the ship, and they were afraid.
John 6:20  But he said to them, "It is I. Do not be afraid."
John 6:21  Then they gladly took him into the ship, and at once the ship was at the land where they were going.
John 6:22  The next day the people who stood on the other side of the sea saw that there had been no other boat there except that one which his disciples had entered, and that Jesus had not gone with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples had gone away alone.
John 6:23  (But other boats came from Tiberias, near to the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks.)
John 6:24  So when the people saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum, looking for Jesus.
John 6:25  When they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, "Rabbi, when did you come here?"
John 6:26  Jesus answered them and said, "I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw the miracles, but because you ate the loaves and were filled."
John 6:27  "Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that lasts to everlasting life, which the Son of man will give you. For God the Father has set his seal on him."
John 6:28  Then they said to him, "What shall we do, so that we may do the works of God?"
John 6:29  Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God: that you believe on the one he has sent."
John 6:30  So they said to him, "What sign will you show us then, so that we may see and believe you? What work do you do?"
John 6:31  "Our fathers ate manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
John 6:32  Then Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, Moses did not give you that bread from heaven. It is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven."
John 6:33  "For the bread of God is the one who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."
John 6:34  Then they said to him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
John 6:35  And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes on me will never be thirsty."
John 6:36  "But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe."
John 6:37  "All that the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never drive away."
John 6:38  "For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me."
John 6:39  "And this is the will of the Father who sent me: that of all he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."
John 6:40  "And this is the will of him who sent me: that everyone who sees the Son and believes on him may have everlasting life. And I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:41  Then the Jews complained about him, because he said, "I am the bread which came down from heaven."
John 6:42  They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then does he say, I came down from heaven?"
John 6:43  So Jesus answered and said to them, "Do not complain among yourselves."
John 6:44  "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:45  "It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God. So everyone who has heard and has learned from the Father comes to me."
John 6:46  "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the one who is from God. He has seen the Father."
John 6:47  "I tell you the truth, whoever believes on me has everlasting life."
John 6:48  "I am that bread of life."
John 6:49  "Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness, and they are dead."
John 6:50  "This is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat of it and not die."
John 6:51  "I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live for ever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
John 6:52  So the Jews argued among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
John 6:53  Then Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
John 6:54  "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."
John 6:55  "For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed."
John 6:56  "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me, and I in him."
John 6:57  "As the living Father sent me, and I live by the Father, so whoever eats me will live by me."
John 6:58  "This is that bread which came down from heaven. It is not as your fathers ate manna, and are dead. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever."
John 6:59  He said these things in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
John 6:60  So many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?"
John 6:61  Jesus knew within himself that his disciples were complaining about it, and he said to them, "Does this offend you?"
John 6:62  "What then if you see the Son of man going up to where he was before?"
John 6:63  "It is the spirit that gives life. The flesh is of no use. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life."
John 6:64  "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who would betray him.
John 6:65  And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is given to him by my Father."
John 6:66  From that time many of his disciples turned back, and no longer walked with him.
John 6:67  Then Jesus said to the twelve, "Will you also go away?"
John 6:68  Then Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
John 6:69  "And we believe and are sure that you are that Christ, the Son of the living God."
John 6:70  Jesus answered them, "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"
John 6:71  He was speaking of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve.

John 7:1  After these things Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him.
John 7:2  Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was near.
John 7:3  So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go into Judea, so that your disciples may also see the works that you do."
John 7:4  "No one does anything in secret when he himself wants to be widely known. If you do these things, show yourself to the world."
John 7:5  For even his brothers did not believe in him.
John 7:6  Then Jesus said to them, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready."
John 7:7  "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I testify about it that its works are evil."
John 7:8  "You go up to this feast. I am not going up to this feast yet, for my time has not yet fully come."
John 7:9  When he had said these words to them, he stayed on in Galilee.
John 7:10  But when his brothers had gone up, then he also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
John 7:11  Then the Jews looked for him at the feast, and said, "Where is he?"
John 7:12  And there was much whispering among the people about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others said, "No, he deceives the people."
John 7:13  But no one spoke openly about him, for fear of the Jews.
John 7:14  Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught.
John 7:15  And the Jews were amazed, saying, "How does this man know letters, when he has never been taught?"
John 7:16  Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me."
John 7:17  "If anyone is willing to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or whether I speak of myself."
John 7:18  "Whoever speaks of himself seeks his own glory. But whoever seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in him."
John 7:19  "Did not Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?"
John 7:20  The people answered and said, "You have a devil. Who is trying to kill you?"
John 7:21  Jesus answered and said to them, "I have done one work, and you are all amazed."
John 7:22  "Moses gave you circumcision (not that it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and you circumcise a man on the sabbath day."
John 7:23  "If a man receives circumcision on the sabbath day, so that the law of Moses may not be broken, are you angry at me because I have made a man completely well on the sabbath day?"
John 7:24  "Do not judge by how things appear, but judge with righteous judgment."
John 7:25  Then some of the people of Jerusalem said, "Is this not the man they are trying to kill?"
John 7:26  "But look, he speaks boldly, and they say nothing to him. Do the rulers really know that this is indeed the Christ?"
John 7:27  "Yet we know where this man comes from. But when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from."
John 7:28  Then Jesus cried out in the temple as he taught, saying, "You both know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of myself, but he who sent me is true, and you do not know him."
John 7:29  "But I know him, for I am from him, and he has sent me."
John 7:30  Then they tried to seize him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.
John 7:31  And many of the people believed in him, and said, "When the Christ comes, will he do more miracles than these which this man has done?"
John 7:32  The Pharisees heard the people whispering such things about him. So the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to arrest him.
John 7:33  Then Jesus said to them, "I am with you a little while longer, and then I go to him who sent me."
John 7:34  "You will look for me, and will not find me. And where I am, you cannot come."
John 7:35  Then the Jews said among themselves, "Where will he go, that we shall not find him? Will he go to those scattered among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?"
John 7:36  "What does he mean by saying, 'You will look for me, and will not find me, and where I am, you cannot come'?"
John 7:37  On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink."
John 7:38  "Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly will flow rivers of living water."
John 7:39  (But he said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.)
John 7:40  So many of the people, when they heard this saying, said, "Truly this is the Prophet."
John 7:41  Others said, "This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come out of Galilee?"
John 7:42  "Has not the scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was?"
John 7:43  So there was a division among the people because of him.
John 7:44  And some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.
John 7:45  Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to them, "Why have you not brought him?"
John 7:46  The officers answered, "No man ever spoke like this man."
John 7:47  Then the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?"
John 7:48  "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?"
John 7:49  "But this crowd, who do not know the law, are cursed."
John 7:50  Nicodemus said to them (he was the one who came to Jesus by night, and was one of them),
John 7:51  "Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he does?"
John 7:52  They answered and said to him, "Are you from Galilee too? Search and see, for no prophet comes out of Galilee."
John 7:53  And every man went to his own house.

John 8:1  Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
John 8:2  Early in the morning he came again into the temple. All the people came to him. He sat down and taught them.
John 8:3  The scribes and Pharisees brought him a woman who had been caught in adultery. They made her stand in the middle of them all.
John 8:4  They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act."
John 8:5  "Now Moses in the law commanded us that such women should be stoned. But what do you say?"
John 8:6  They said this to test him, so that they would have something to accuse him of. But Jesus bent down and wrote on the ground with his finger, as though he did not hear them.
John 8:7  They kept on asking him. So he stood up and said to them, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
John 8:8  And again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
John 8:9  Those who heard it were convicted by their own conscience. They went out one by one, beginning with the oldest, down to the last. Jesus was left alone, with the woman standing there in the middle.
John 8:10  Jesus stood up and saw no one but the woman. He said to her, "Woman, where are those who accused you? Has no one condemned you?"
John 8:11  She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more."
John 8:12  Then Jesus spoke to them again. He said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
John 8:13  So the Pharisees said to him, "You are giving witness about yourself. Your witness is not true."
John 8:14  Jesus answered them, "Even if I give witness about myself, my witness is true. For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you cannot tell where I come from and where I am going."
John 8:15  "You judge by human standards. I judge no one."
John 8:16  "And yet if I do judge, my judgment is true. For I am not alone. I am with the Father who sent me."
John 8:17  "It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true."
John 8:18  "I am one who gives witness about myself, and the Father who sent me gives witness about me."
John 8:19  Then they said to him, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You do not know me or my Father. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also."
John 8:20  Jesus spoke these words in the treasury, as he taught in the temple. And no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.
John 8:21  Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sins. Where I go, you cannot come."
John 8:22  So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, 'Where I go, you cannot come'?"
John 8:23  He said to them, "You are from below. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world."
John 8:24  "That is why I said to you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins."
John 8:25  Then they said to him, "Who are you?" And Jesus said to them, "The same as I have told you from the beginning."
John 8:26  "I have many things to say about you and to judge. But he who sent me is true, and I speak to the world the things I have heard from him."
John 8:27  They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father.
John 8:28  Then Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. I speak these things just as my Father has taught me."
John 8:29  "And he who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do the things that please him."
John 8:30  As he spoke these words, many believed in him.
John 8:31  Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples."
John 8:32  "And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
John 8:33  They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and we have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, 'You will be made free'?"
John 8:34  Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth, everyone who commits sin is the servant of sin."
John 8:35  "And the servant does not stay in the house for ever, but the Son stays for ever."
John 8:36  "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."
John 8:37  "I know that you are Abraham's descendants. But you are trying to kill me, because my word has no place in you."
John 8:38  "I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."
John 8:39  They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham."
John 8:40  "But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this."
John 8:41  "You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to him, "We were not born of sexual sin. We have one Father, even God."
John 8:42  Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me. For I came from God, and I am here. I did not come on my own; he sent me."
John 8:43  "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot hear my word."
John 8:44  "You belong to your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and did not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from what is his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
John 8:45  "And because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me."
John 8:46  "Which of you can prove me guilty of sin? And if I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?"
John 8:47  "Whoever is of God hears God's words. You do not hear them, because you are not of God."
John 8:48  Then the Jews answered him, "Are we not right to say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?"
John 8:49  Jesus answered, "I do not have a demon. I honour my Father, and you dishonour me."
John 8:50  "And I do not seek my own glory. There is one who seeks it, and he is the judge."
John 8:51  "I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."
John 8:52  Then the Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham is dead, and so are the prophets. Yet you say, 'If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.'"
John 8:53  "Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? The prophets are dead too. Who do you make yourself out to be?"
John 8:54  Jesus answered, "If I honour myself, my honour means nothing. It is my Father who honours me, the one you say is your God."
John 8:55  "Yet you have not known him, but I know him. If I said I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I know him, and I keep his word."
John 8:56  "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it, and was glad."
John 8:57  Then the Jews said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?"
John 8:58  Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, before Abraham was, I am."
John 8:59  Then they picked up stones to throw at him. But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, passing through the middle of them, and so went on his way.

John 9:1  As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
John 9:2  His disciples asked him, "Master, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
John 9:3  Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned. It happened so that the works of God would be shown in him."
John 9:4  "I must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. The night is coming, when no one can work."
John 9:5  "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
John 9:6  When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the spit. Then he put the clay on the blind man's eyes,
John 9:7  and said to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." (Siloam means Sent.) So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.
John 9:8  So his neighbours, and those who had seen him before when he was blind, said, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?"
John 9:9  Some said, "This is he." Others said, "He looks like him." But he said, "I am the man."
John 9:10  So they said to him, "How were your eyes opened?"
John 9:11  He answered, "A man called Jesus made clay and put it on my eyes. He said to me, 'Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.' So I went and washed, and I could see."
John 9:12  Then they said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I do not know."
John 9:13  They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees.
John 9:14  It was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes.
John 9:15  So the Pharisees also asked him again how he had received his sight. He said to them, "He put clay on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see."
John 9:16  So some of the Pharisees said, "This man is not from God, because he does not keep the sabbath day." Others said, "How can a man who is a sinner do such miracles?" And they were divided among themselves.
John 9:17  They said to the blind man again, "What do you say about him, since he opened your eyes?" He said, "He is a prophet."
John 9:18  But the Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight, until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight.
John 9:19  They asked them, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How is it, then, that he now sees?"
John 9:20  His parents answered, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind."
John 9:21  "But how he can see now, we do not know. Who opened his eyes, we do not know. He is old enough; ask him. He will speak for himself."
John 9:22  His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that anyone who said Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue.
John 9:23  That is why his parents said, "He is old enough; ask him."
John 9:24  So they called the man who had been blind a second time and said to him, "Give God the praise. We know that this man is a sinner."
John 9:25  He answered, "Whether he is a sinner or not, I do not know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I see."
John 9:26  Then they said to him again, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?"
John 9:27  He answered them, "I have told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to be his disciples?"
John 9:28  Then they insulted him and said, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses."
John 9:29  "We know that God spoke to Moses. As for this fellow, we do not know where he comes from."
John 9:30  The man answered them, "Here is a wonderful thing: you do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes."
John 9:31  "Now we know that God does not listen to sinners. But if anyone worships God and does his will, God listens to him."
John 9:32  "Since the world began it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind."
John 9:33  "If this man were not from God, he could do nothing."
John 9:34  They answered him, "You were completely born in sins, and are you teaching us?" And they threw him out.
John 9:35  Jesus heard that they had thrown him out. When he found him, he said to him, "Do you believe in the Son of God?"
John 9:36  He answered, "Who is he, Lord, so that I may believe in him?"
John 9:37  Jesus said to him, "You have seen him. He is the one speaking with you."
John 9:38  He said, "Lord, I believe." And he worshipped him.
John 9:39  Jesus said, "I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind."
John 9:40  Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard these words and said to him, "Are we blind too?"
John 9:41  Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin. But now you say, 'We see.' So your sin remains."

John 10:1  "I tell you the truth, anyone who does not go into the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a robber."
John 10:2  "But the one who goes in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep."
John 10:3  "The doorkeeper opens the door for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out."
John 10:4  "When he has brought out his own sheep, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice."
John 10:5  "They will not follow a stranger. They will run away from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers."
John 10:6  Jesus told them this parable, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
John 10:7  So Jesus spoke to them again: "I tell you the truth, I am the door of the sheep."
John 10:8  "All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them."
John 10:9  "I am the door. If anyone goes in through me, he will be saved. He will go in and out, and find pasture."
John 10:10  "The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come so that they may have life, and have it more fully."
John 10:11  "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep."
John 10:12  "The hired man is not the shepherd, and the sheep are not his own. When he sees the wolf coming, he leaves the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf catches them and scatters the sheep."
John 10:13  "The hired man runs away because he is only hired, and he does not care about the sheep."
John 10:14  "I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep, and my own know me."
John 10:15  "As the Father knows me, so I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep."
John 10:16  "I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one fold and one shepherd."
John 10:17  "This is why my Father loves me: I lay down my life, so that I may take it up again."
John 10:18  "No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own will. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I received this command from my Father."
John 10:19  So the Jews were divided again because of these words.
John 10:20  Many of them said, "He has a devil, and he is mad. Why do you listen to him?"
John 10:21  Others said, "These are not the words of a man who has a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?"
John 10:22  It was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem, and it was winter.
John 10:23  Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon's porch.
John 10:24  Then the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in doubt? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
John 10:25  Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you did not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me."
John 10:26  "But you do not believe, because you are not my sheep, as I said to you."
John 10:27  "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me."
John 10:28  "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand."
John 10:29  "My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand."
John 10:30  "I and my Father are one."
John 10:31  Then the Jews picked up stones again to stone him.
John 10:32  Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?"
John 10:33  The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, who are a man, make yourself God."
John 10:34  Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, You are gods'?"
John 10:35  "If he called them gods, the ones to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken,"
John 10:36  "then do you say to the one whom the Father set apart and sent into the world, 'You are speaking blasphemy,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?"
John 10:37  "If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me."
John 10:38  "But if I do them, then even if you do not believe me, believe the works. Then you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I am in him."
John 10:39  So they tried again to seize him, but he escaped out of their hand.
John 10:40  He went away again beyond the Jordan, to the place where John first baptized, and he stayed there.
John 10:41  Many people came to him, and they said, "John did no miracle, but everything that John said about this man was true."
John 10:42  And many believed in him there.

John 11:1  Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
John 11:2  (This was the Mary who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. It was her brother Lazarus who was sick.)
John 11:3  So his sisters sent word to Jesus, saying, "Lord, look, the one you love is sick."
John 11:4  When Jesus heard that, he said, "This sickness will not end in death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it."
John 11:5  Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.
John 11:6  So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed two more days in the place where he was.
John 11:7  After that he said to his disciples, "Let us go into Judaea again."
John 11:8  His disciples said to him, "Master, only a short time ago the Jews tried to stone you. And are you going there again?"
John 11:9  Jesus answered, "Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world."
John 11:10  "But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because there is no light in him."
John 11:11  He said these things, and after that he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus is sleeping. But I am going, so that I may wake him out of his sleep."
John 11:12  Then his disciples said, "Lord, if he is sleeping, he will get well."
John 11:13  But Jesus was speaking about his death. They thought he was speaking about resting in sleep.
John 11:14  So then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead."
John 11:15  "And for your sakes I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him."
John 11:16  Then Thomas, who is called Didymus, said to the other disciples, "Let us go too, so that we may die with him."
John 11:17  When Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the grave four days.
John 11:18  Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs away.
John 11:19  Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
John 11:20  So as soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. But Mary stayed sitting in the house.
John 11:21  Then Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
John 11:22  "But I know that even now, whatever you ask of God, God will give you."
John 11:23  Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
John 11:24  Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
John 11:25  Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even if he dies."
John 11:26  "And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
John 11:27  She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world."
John 11:28  When she had said this, she went away and called her sister Mary in secret. She said, "The Master has come, and he is calling for you."
John 11:29  As soon as Mary heard that, she got up quickly and came to him.
John 11:30  Now Jesus had not yet come into the town. He was still in the place where Martha met him.
John 11:31  The Jews who were with her in the house comforting her saw Mary get up quickly and go out. So they followed her, saying, "She is going to the grave to weep there."
John 11:32  When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet and said to him, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."
John 11:33  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping too, he groaned in his spirit and was troubled.
John 11:34  He said, "Where have you laid him?" They said to him, "Lord, come and see."
John 11:35  Jesus wept.
John 11:36  Then the Jews said, "See how he loved him."
John 11:37  But some of them said, "This man opened the eyes of the blind. Could he not have kept this man from dying?"
John 11:38  So Jesus, groaning again within himself, came to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay over it.
John 11:39  Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by now he stinks, for he has been dead four days."
John 11:40  Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?"
John 11:41  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was laid. And Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me."
John 11:42  "I knew that you always hear me. But I said it because of the people standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me."
John 11:43  When he had said this, he called out with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out."
John 11:44  And the man who had been dead came out. His hands and feet were bound with strips of cloth, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, "Untie him, and let him go."
John 11:45  Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary and had seen the things Jesus did believed in him.
John 11:46  But some of them went away to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
John 11:47  Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said, "What are we doing? For this man does many miracles."
John 11:48  "If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him. And the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
John 11:49  And one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all."
John 11:50  "You do not consider that it is better for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish."
John 11:51  He did not say this of himself. Being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for that nation,
John 11:52  and not for that nation only, but also to gather together into one the children of God who were scattered abroad.
John 11:53  So from that day on they planned together how to put him to death.
John 11:54  So Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews. He went away from there to a region near the wilderness, to a town called Ephraim, and he stayed there with his disciples.
John 11:55  The Jews' Passover was near. Many people went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover, to make themselves clean.
John 11:56  So they looked for Jesus. As they stood in the temple, they said to one another, "What do you think? Will he not come to the feast?"
John 11:57  Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given an order that if anyone knew where he was, he should tell them, so that they might arrest him.

John 12:1  Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany. That was where Lazarus lived, the man who had been dead, whom Jesus raised from the dead.
John 12:2  There they made him a supper, and Martha served. Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with him.
John 12:3  Then Mary took a pound of ointment made of spikenard, which was very costly. She poured it on the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the smell of the ointment.
John 12:4  Then one of his disciples spoke up, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, the one who would betray him.
John 12:5  "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred pence, and the money given to the poor?"
John 12:6  He said this, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. He kept the money bag, and he took what was put in it.
John 12:7  Then Jesus said, "Leave her alone. She has kept this for the day of my burial."
John 12:8  "You always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me."
John 12:9  Many of the Jews found out that he was there. They came not only because of Jesus, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
John 12:10  But the chief priests made a plan to put Lazarus to death as well,
John 12:11  because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.
John 12:12  The next day many people who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.
John 12:13  They took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna. Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name of the Lord."
John 12:14  Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, as it is written,
John 12:15  "Do not be afraid, daughter of Sion. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt."
John 12:16  His disciples did not understand these things at first. But when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written about him, and that they had done these things to him.
John 12:17  So the people who were with him when he called Lazarus out of his grave and raised him from the dead told what they had seen.
John 12:18  This was why the people also came out to meet him, because they heard that he had done this miracle.
John 12:19  So the Pharisees said to one another, "Do you see that we are getting nowhere? Look, the whole world has gone after him."
John 12:20  There were some Greeks among those who came up to worship at the feast.
John 12:21  They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
John 12:22  Philip came and told Andrew, and then Andrew and Philip told Jesus.
John 12:23  And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified."
John 12:24  "I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it stays alone. But if it dies, it brings a large harvest."
John 12:25  "Whoever loves his life will lose it. Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
John 12:26  "If anyone serves me, let him follow me. And where I am, there my servant will be also. If anyone serves me, my Father will honour him."
John 12:27  "Now my soul is troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But it was for this reason that I came to this hour."
John 12:28  "Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again."
John 12:29  The people standing there heard it and said that it thundered. Others said, "An angel spoke to him."
John 12:30  Jesus answered, "This voice did not come for my sake, but for yours."
John 12:31  "Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be thrown out."
John 12:32  "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to me."
John 12:33  He said this to show what kind of death he was going to die.
John 12:34  The people answered him, "We have heard from the law that Christ stays for ever. How can you say, The Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?"
John 12:35  Then Jesus said to them, "The light will be with you only a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness does not overtake you. For the one who walks in darkness does not know where he is going."
John 12:36  "While you have light, believe in the light, so that you may be children of light." Jesus said these things, then went away and hid himself from them.
John 12:37  Though he had done so many miracles in front of them, they still did not believe in him.
John 12:38  This was so that the words of Isaiah the prophet would come true, when he said, "Lord, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been shown?"
John 12:39  They could not believe, because Isaiah said again,
John 12:40  "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and turn, and I should heal them."
John 12:41  Isaiah said these things when he saw his glory, and he spoke about him.
John 12:42  Even so, many of the chief rulers did believe in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not say so openly, in case they were put out of the synagogue.
John 12:43  For they loved the praise of people more than the praise of God.
John 12:44  Jesus called out and said, "Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in him who sent me."
John 12:45  "And whoever sees me sees him who sent me."
John 12:46  "I have come as a light into the world, so that whoever believes in me should not stay in darkness."
John 12:47  "If anyone hears my words and does not believe, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world."
John 12:48  "Whoever rejects me and does not receive my words has something that judges him. The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day."
John 12:49  "For I have not spoken on my own. The Father who sent me gave me a command about what I should say and what I should speak."
John 12:50  "And I know that his command is everlasting life. So whatever I speak, I speak just as the Father told me."

John 13:1  Now it was just before the feast of the Passover. Jesus knew that his hour had come, when he would leave this world and go to the Father. He had loved his own people who were in the world, and he loved them to the end.
John 13:2  Supper was ended. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.
John 13:3  Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God.
John 13:4  So he got up from the supper and took off his outer clothes. He took a towel and tied it round himself.
John 13:5  After that he poured water into a basin. He began to wash the disciples' feet, and to dry them with the towel that was tied round him.
John 13:6  Then he came to Simon Peter. Peter said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
John 13:7  Jesus answered him, "You do not know now what I am doing, but you will know later."
John 13:8  Peter said to him, "You shall never wash my feet." Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with me."
John 13:9  Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."
John 13:10  Jesus said to him, "Anyone who has been washed does not need to wash anything but his feet. He is clean all over. And you are clean, but not all of you."
John 13:11  For he knew who was going to betray him. That is why he said, "You are not all clean."
John 13:12  So when he had washed their feet, he put on his clothes and sat down again. He said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you?"
John 13:13  "You call me Master and Lord, and you speak rightly, for that is what I am."
John 13:14  "So if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet."
John 13:15  "For I have given you an example, so that you should do as I have done to you."
John 13:16  "I tell you the truth, the servant is not greater than his lord, and the one who is sent is not greater than the one who sent him."
John 13:17  "If you know these things, you are happy if you do them."
John 13:18  "I am not speaking about all of you. I know the ones I have chosen. But this is so that the scripture may be fulfilled: 'He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.'"
John 13:19  "I am telling you now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe that I am he."
John 13:20  "I tell you the truth, whoever receives anyone I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me."
John 13:21  When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit. He said openly, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me."
John 13:22  Then the disciples looked at one another, not sure which of them he meant.
John 13:23  Now one of his disciples, the one Jesus loved, was leaning close to Jesus.
John 13:24  So Simon Peter made a sign to him to ask who it was that Jesus was speaking about.
John 13:25  He leaned back on Jesus' chest and said to him, "Lord, who is it?"
John 13:26  Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread, when I have dipped it." And when he had dipped the bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
John 13:27  After the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus said to him, "What you are doing, do quickly."
John 13:28  No one at the table knew why he said this to him.
John 13:29  Some of them thought that, because Judas kept the money bag, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the feast," or that he should give something to the poor.
John 13:30  So after he had taken the piece of bread, he went out at once. And it was night.
John 13:31  When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him."
John 13:32  "If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and will glorify him at once."
John 13:33  "Little children, I am with you only a little while longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say it to you."
John 13:34  "I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you are to love one another."
John 13:35  "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
John 13:36  Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterwards."
John 13:37  Peter said to him, "Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you."
John 13:38  Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, the cock will not crow until you have denied me three times."

John 14:1  "Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me."
John 14:2  "In my Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you."
John 14:3  "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself. Then where I am, you may be also."
John 14:4  "And you know where I am going, and you know the way."
John 14:5  Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. So how can we know the way?"
John 14:6  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me."
John 14:7  "If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you know him, and have seen him."
John 14:8  Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
John 14:9  Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long a time, and yet you have not known me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?"
John 14:10  "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak from myself. It is the Father who lives in me who does the works."
John 14:11  "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. Or else believe me because of the works themselves."
John 14:12  "I tell you the truth, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. And he will do greater works than these, because I go to my Father."
John 14:13  "And whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
John 14:14  "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it."
John 14:15  "If you love me, keep my commandments."
John 14:16  "And I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Comforter, to stay with you for ever."
John 14:17  "He is the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive him, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you."
John 14:18  "I will not leave you without comfort. I will come to you."
John 14:19  "In a little while the world will see me no more. But you will see me. Because I live, you will live also."
John 14:20  "On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you."
John 14:21  "Whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him."
John 14:22  Judas said to him (not Iscariot), "Lord, how is it that you will show yourself to us, and not to the world?"
John 14:23  Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my words. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
John 14:24  "Whoever does not love me does not keep my sayings. And the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me."
John 14:25  "I have spoken these things to you while I am still with you."
John 14:26  "But the Comforter, who is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. He will bring to your memory everything I have said to you."
John 14:27  "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your heart be troubled, and do not let it be afraid."
John 14:28  "You have heard how I said to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming again to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad, because I said, 'I go to the Father,' for my Father is greater than I."
John 14:29  "And now I have told you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe."
John 14:30  "After this I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world is coming. He has nothing in me."
John 14:31  "But the world must know that I love the Father. As the Father gave me commandment, so I do. Get up, let us go from here."

John 15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
John 15:2  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, so that it may bear more fruit.
John 15:3  You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
John 15:4  Stay in me, and I will stay in you. A branch cannot bear fruit by itself; it must stay in the vine. In the same way you cannot bear fruit unless you stay in me.
John 15:5  I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever stays in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.
John 15:6  If anyone does not stay in me, he is thrown out like a branch and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
John 15:7  If you stay in me, and my words stay in you, you may ask whatever you want, and it will be done for you.
John 15:8  My Father is glorified in this: that you bear much fruit. So you will be my disciples.
John 15:9  As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Remain in my love.
John 15:10  If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
John 15:11  I have told you these things so that my joy may stay in you, and that your joy may be full.
John 15:12  This is my commandment: that you love one another, as I have loved you.
John 15:13  No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:14  You are my friends if you do whatever I command you.
John 15:15  From now on I do not call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
John 15:16  You did not choose me, but I chose you. I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. Then whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give you.
John 15:17  I command you these things, so that you love one another.
John 15:18  If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you.
John 15:19  If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own. But you do not belong to the world. I have chosen you out of the world, and that is why the world hates you.
John 15:20  Remember the word I said to you: "A servant is not greater than his master." If they have persecuted me, they will persecute you too. If they have kept my word, they will keep yours too.
John 15:21  But they will do all these things to you because of my name, since they do not know the one who sent me.
John 15:22  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.
John 15:23  Whoever hates me hates my Father as well.
John 15:24  If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these works, and they have hated both me and my Father.
John 15:25  But this happened so that the word written in their law might be fulfilled: "They hated me without a cause."
John 15:26  But when the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who comes from the Father, he will testify about me.
John 15:27  And you also will be my witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16:1  "I have said these things to you so that you will not fall away."
John 16:2  "They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is serving God."
John 16:3  "They will do these things to you because they have not known the Father, or me."
John 16:4  "But I have told you these things so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them. I did not say these things to you at the beginning, because I was with you."
John 16:5  "But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'"
John 16:6  "Instead, because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart."
John 16:7  "But I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you."
John 16:8  "And when he comes, he will show the world where it is wrong about sin, and about righteousness, and about judgment:"
John 16:9  "About sin, because they do not believe in me;"
John 16:10  "About righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you will see me no more;"
John 16:11  "About judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged."
John 16:12  "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now."
John 16:13  "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak from himself. He will speak whatever he hears, and he will show you things that are coming."
John 16:14  "He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and show it to you."
John 16:15  "Everything the Father has is mine. That is why I said that he will take what is mine and show it to you."
John 16:16  "A little while, and you will not see me. And again a little while, and you will see me, because I go to the Father."
John 16:17  Then some of his disciples said to each other, "What is this that he says to us, 'A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me,' and, 'Because I go to the Father'?"
John 16:18  So they said, "What is this that he says, 'A little while'? We do not know what he is talking about."
John 16:19  Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, and he said to them, "Are you asking each other what I meant when I said, 'A little while, and you will not see me; and again a little while, and you will see me'?"
John 16:20  "I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn, but the world will be glad. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy."
John 16:21  "When a woman is giving birth she has sorrow, because her hour has come. But as soon as the child is born, she no longer remembers the pain, for joy that a child has been born into the world."
John 16:22  "So you have sorrow now. But I will see you again, and your heart will be glad, and no one takes your joy away from you."
John 16:23  "On that day you will ask me nothing. I tell you the truth, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you."
John 16:24  "Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, so that your joy may be full."
John 16:25  "I have spoken these things to you in picture language. But the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in picture language. I will tell you about the Father plainly."
John 16:26  "On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will pray to the Father for you,"
John 16:27  "for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God."
John 16:28  "I came from the Father, and I have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the Father."
John 16:29  His disciples said to him, "Look, now you are speaking plainly, and not in picture language."
John 16:30  "Now we are sure that you know all things, and that you do not need anyone to question you. Because of this we believe that you came from God."
John 16:31  Jesus answered them, "Do you believe now?"
John 16:32  "Look, the hour is coming, and has now come, when you will be scattered, each one to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me."
John 16:33  "I have spoken these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble. But take heart: I have overcome the world."

John 17:1  Jesus said these words. Then he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your Son, so that your Son may also give glory to you."
John 17:2  "You have given him power over all people, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have given him."
John 17:3  "And this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."
John 17:4  "I have given you glory on the earth. I have finished the work you gave me to do."
John 17:5  "And now, Father, give me glory at your own side, the glory I had with you before the world existed."
John 17:6  "I have made your name known to the men you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me. They have kept your word."
John 17:7  "Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you."
John 17:8  "I have given them the words you gave me. They received them, and they know for sure that I came from you. They have believed that you sent me."
John 17:9  "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those you have given me, because they are yours."
John 17:10  "All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine. And I am glorified in them."
John 17:11  "Now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them safe by your own name, the name you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."
John 17:12  "While I was with them in the world, I kept them safe in your name. I guarded those you gave me, and not one of them is lost, except the son of destruction, so that the scripture would come true."
John 17:13  "Now I am coming to you. I say these things while I am in the world, so that my joy may be complete in them."
John 17:14  "I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world."
John 17:15  "I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil."
John 17:16  "They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world."
John 17:17  "Make them holy by your truth. Your word is truth."
John 17:18  "As you sent me into the world, so I have also sent them into the world."
John 17:19  "For their sake I make myself holy, so that they also may be made holy by the truth."
John 17:20  "I do not pray for these only. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their word,"
John 17:21  "that they may all be one. Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me."
John 17:22  "I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, just as we are one:"
John 17:23  "I in them, and you in me, so that they may be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me, and that you have loved them as you have loved me."
John 17:24  "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, the glory you gave me. For you loved me before the world was made."
John 17:25  "Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you. And these men have known that you sent me."
John 17:26  "I have made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love you have loved me with may be in them, and I in them."

John 18:1  When Jesus had said these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Cedron. There was a garden there, and he and his disciples went into it.
John 18:2  Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples.
John 18:3  So Judas took a band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and came there with lanterns and torches and weapons.
John 18:4  Jesus knew everything that was going to happen to him. So he went out and said to them, "Who are you looking for?"
John 18:5  They answered him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I am he." And Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.
John 18:6  So as soon as he said to them, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground.
John 18:7  Then he asked them again, "Who are you looking for?" And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth."
John 18:8  Jesus answered, "I have told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go their way."
John 18:9  This happened so that the words he had said would come true: "Of those you gave me, I have lost none."
John 18:10  Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
John 18:11  Then Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword back into its sheath. The cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it?"
John 18:12  Then the band of soldiers and the captain and the officers of the Jews took Jesus and tied him up.
John 18:13  They led him away to Annas first, for he was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was the high priest that year.
John 18:14  Now Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better for one man to die for the people.
John 18:15  Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did another disciple. That disciple was known to the high priest, and he went with Jesus into the palace of the high priest.
John 18:16  But Peter stood outside at the door. Then the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out and spoke to the girl who kept the door, and brought Peter in.
John 18:17  Then the servant girl who kept the door said to Peter, "Are you not also one of this man's disciples?" He said, "I am not."
John 18:18  The servants and officers were standing there. They had made a fire of coals, because it was cold, and they were warming themselves. Peter stood with them and warmed himself.
John 18:19  Then the high priest asked Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching.
John 18:20  Jesus answered him, "I spoke openly to the world. I always taught in the synagogue and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret."
John 18:21  "Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. Look, they know what I said."
John 18:22  When he had said this, one of the officers standing there struck Jesus with the palm of his hand and said, "Is that how you answer the high priest?"
John 18:23  Jesus answered him, "If I have spoken wrongly, show what was wrong. But if I spoke well, why do you hit me?"
John 18:24  Now Annas had sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.
John 18:25  Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. So they said to him, "Are you not also one of his disciples?" He denied it and said, "I am not."
John 18:26  One of the servants of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, "Did I not see you in the garden with him?"
John 18:27  Peter denied it again, and at once the cock crowed.
John 18:28  Then they led Jesus from Caiaphas to the judgment hall. It was early. They themselves did not go into the judgment hall, so that they would not be made unclean, but could eat the passover.
John 18:29  So Pilate went out to them and said, "What charge do you bring against this man?"
John 18:30  They answered him, "If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you."
John 18:31  Then Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and judge him by your own law." So the Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death."
John 18:32  This happened so that the words of Jesus would come true, which showed what kind of death he was going to die.
John 18:33  Then Pilate went into the judgment hall again. He called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
John 18:34  Jesus answered him, "Do you say this on your own, or did others tell you about me?"
John 18:35  Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?"
John 18:36  Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, so that I would not be handed over to the Jews. But now my kingdom is not from here."
John 18:37  So Pilate said to him, "Are you a king then?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world: to tell the truth about the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."
John 18:38  Pilate said to him, "What is truth?" When he had said this, he went out again to the Jews and said to them, "I find no fault in him at all."
John 18:39  "But you have a custom that I should set one prisoner free for you at the passover. So do you want me to set free for you the King of the Jews?"
John 18:40  Then they all cried out again, saying, "Not this man, but Barabbas." Now Barabbas was a robber.

John 19:1  So then Pilate took Jesus and had him whipped.
John 19:2  The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They also put a purple robe on him,
John 19:3  and said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" And they hit him with their hands.
John 19:4  Pilate went outside again and said to them, "Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no fault in him."
John 19:5  Then Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said to them, "Look at the man."
John 19:6  When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, "Crucify him, crucify him." Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no fault in him."
John 19:7  The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."
John 19:8  When Pilate heard that, he was even more afraid.
John 19:9  He went back into the judgment hall and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer.
John 19:10  So Pilate said to him, "Will you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to crucify you, and power to set you free?"
John 19:11  Jesus answered, "You could have no power at all against me, unless it had been given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin."
John 19:12  From then on Pilate tried to set him free. But the Jews shouted, "If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend. Anyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar."
John 19:13  When Pilate heard that, he brought Jesus outside and sat down on the judgment seat, in a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
John 19:14  It was the preparation day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour. And he said to the Jews, "Look at your King."
John 19:15  But they shouted, "Away with him, away with him, crucify him." Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar."
John 19:16  Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and led him away.
John 19:17  Carrying his cross, he went out to a place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha.
John 19:18  There they crucified him, and two others with him, one on each side, and Jesus in the middle.
John 19:19  Pilate wrote a notice and put it on the cross. The writing was: JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS.
John 19:20  Many of the Jews read this notice, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city. It was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
John 19:21  Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but that he said, 'I am King of the Jews.'"
John 19:22  Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."
John 19:23  When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and made four parts, one part for each soldier. They took his tunic too. Now the tunic had no seam; it was woven in one piece from the top.
John 19:24  So they said to each other, "Let us not tear it. Let us throw dice for it, to see whose it will be." This happened so that the scripture would come true which says, "They divided my clothes among them, and for my clothing they threw dice." So this is what the soldiers did.
John 19:25  Now standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.
John 19:26  When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Woman, look, your son."
John 19:27  Then he said to the disciple, "Look, your mother." And from that hour that disciple took her into his own home.
John 19:28  After this, Jesus knew that everything was now finished. So that the scripture would come true, he said, "I am thirsty."
John 19:29  A jar full of vinegar was standing there. So they filled a sponge with the vinegar, put it on a stalk of hyssop, and held it up to his mouth.
John 19:30  When Jesus had taken the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
John 19:31  It was the preparation day, and the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses on the sabbath day, for that sabbath was a great day. So they asked Pilate to have the men's legs broken and the bodies taken away.
John 19:32  So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man, and of the other who was crucified with him.
John 19:33  But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs.
John 19:34  Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out.
John 19:35  The man who saw it has given his witness, and his witness is true. He knows that what he says is true, so that you may believe.
John 19:36  These things happened so that the scripture would come true: "Not one of his bones shall be broken."
John 19:37  And another scripture says, "They shall look on him whom they pierced."
John 19:38  After this, Joseph of Arimathaea asked Pilate if he could take away the body of Jesus. He was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he was afraid of the Jews. Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took the body of Jesus away.
John 19:39  Nicodemus came too, the man who had first come to Jesus by night. He brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
John 19:40  Then they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices, as is the custom of the Jews when they bury someone.
John 19:41  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
John 19:42  So they laid Jesus there, because it was the Jews' preparation day, and the tomb was near.

John 20:1  On the first day of the week, early, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
John 20:2  So she ran to Simon Peter and to the other disciple, the one Jesus loved. She said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have put him."
John 20:3  So Peter and that other disciple set out and went to the tomb.
John 20:4  The two of them ran together. The other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first.
John 20:5  He bent down and looked in. He saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
John 20:6  Then Simon Peter came, following him, and he went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there.
John 20:7  He also saw the cloth that had been around Jesus' head. It was not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.
John 20:8  Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, went in as well. He saw, and he believed.
John 20:9  For until then they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.
John 20:10  Then the disciples went back to their own homes.
John 20:11  But Mary stood outside the tomb, crying. As she cried, she bent down and looked into the tomb.
John 20:12  She saw two angels in white sitting there. One was at the head and the other at the feet of the place where the body of Jesus had lain.
John 20:13  They said to her, "Woman, why are you crying?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have put him."
John 20:14  When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there. But she did not know that it was Jesus.
John 20:15  Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?" She thought he was the gardener, so she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will take him away."
John 20:16  Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him, "Rabboni," which means Master.
John 20:17  Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet gone up to my Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am going up to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.'"
John 20:18  Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.
John 20:19  That same day, in the evening, on the first day of the week, the disciples were together. The doors were shut, because they were afraid of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
John 20:20  When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
John 20:21  Then Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As my Father has sent me, so I send you."
John 20:22  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
John 20:23  "If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven. If you keep anyone's sins, they are kept."
John 20:24  But Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
John 20:25  So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
John 20:26  Eight days later his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
John 20:27  Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Do not be without faith, but believe."
John 20:28  Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God."
John 20:29  Jesus said to him, "Thomas, you have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:30  Jesus did many other signs in front of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
John 20:31  But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life through his name.

John 21:1  After this Jesus showed himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias. This is how he showed himself.
John 21:2  Simon Peter was there together with Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples.
John 21:3  Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will come with you too." They went out and got into a boat at once. That night they caught nothing.
John 21:4  When morning came, Jesus stood on the shore. But the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
John 21:5  Then Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any food?" They answered him, "No."
John 21:6  And he said to them, "Throw the net out on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they threw it out. And now they could not pull it in, because there were so many fish.
John 21:7  Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord." When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his fisherman's coat around him (for he was naked), and threw himself into the sea.
John 21:8  The other disciples came in a little boat, dragging the net with the fish in it. They were not far from land, only about two hundred cubits away.
John 21:9  As soon as they came to land, they saw a fire of coals there, with fish laid on it, and bread.
John 21:10  Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish which you have just caught."
John 21:11  Simon Peter went up and pulled the net to land. It was full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them. And even with so many, the net was not torn.
John 21:12  Jesus said to them, "Come and eat." And none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" for they knew it was the Lord.
John 21:13  Then Jesus came and took bread and gave it to them, and the fish in the same way.
John 21:14  This was now the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
John 21:15  When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Feed my lambs."
John 21:16  He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." He said to him, "Take care of my sheep."
John 21:17  He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?" Peter was hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep."
John 21:18  "I tell you the truth, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."
John 21:19  He said this to show by what death Peter would glorify God. And when he had said this, he said to him, "Follow me."
John 21:20  Then Peter turned round and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them. This was the one who had leaned on his chest at the supper and said, "Lord, who is it that betrays you?"
John 21:21  When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, and what about this man?"
John 21:22  Jesus said to him, "If I want him to stay until I come, what is that to you? You follow me."
John 21:23  So this saying spread among the brothers and sisters, that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If I want him to stay until I come, what is that to you?"
John 21:24  This is the disciple who gives witness about these things, and who wrote these things. And we know that his witness is true.
John 21:25  There are also many other things which Jesus did. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the world itself could not hold the books that would be written. Amen.

Acts

Acts 1:1  In my first book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach,
Acts 1:2  until the day when he was taken up. Before that day he had given his commands, through the Holy Spirit, to the apostles he had chosen.
Acts 1:3  After his suffering he showed himself alive to them, with many sure proofs. They saw him over forty days, and he spoke about the things that belong to the kingdom of God.
Acts 1:4  While he was gathered together with them, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised. "You have heard me speak of it," he said.
Acts 1:5  "For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
Acts 1:6  So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time give the kingdom back to Israel?"
Acts 1:7  He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons. The Father has kept those in his own power."
Acts 1:8  "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and to the farthest part of the earth."
Acts 1:9  When he had said these things, he was taken up while they watched, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
Acts 1:10  They kept looking up into heaven as he went. Look, two men in white clothing stood beside them.
Acts 1:11  They said, "You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This same Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come back in the same way as you have seen him go into heaven."
Acts 1:12  Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day's journey away.
Acts 1:13  When they came in, they went up into an upper room, where they were staying: Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
Acts 1:14  All these joined together with one mind in prayer and pleading, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Acts 1:15  In those days Peter stood up among the disciples and said (there were about a hundred and twenty people gathered there),
Acts 1:16  "Men and brothers, this scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David about Judas, who led the men that arrested Jesus."
Acts 1:17  "For he was counted as one of us, and had a share in this ministry."
Acts 1:18  "Now this man bought a field with the money he was paid for his wickedness. He fell head first, his body burst open in the middle, and all his insides poured out."
Acts 1:19  "Everyone living in Jerusalem came to know of it, so that the field is called in their own language Aceldama, that is, The field of blood."
Acts 1:20  "For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his home be empty, and let no one live in it,' and, 'Let another take his office.'"
Acts 1:21  "So then, from among the men who have been with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,"
Acts 1:22  "from the baptism of John until the day he was taken up from us, one of them must be chosen to join us as a witness of his resurrection."
Acts 1:23  So they put forward two men: Joseph called Barsabas, who was also named Justus, and Matthias.
Acts 1:24  Then they prayed and said, "You, Lord, know the hearts of everyone. Show us which of these two you have chosen"
Acts 1:25  "to take his place in this ministry and apostleship, which Judas left when he sinned and went to his own place."
Acts 1:26  Then they cast lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. So he was counted with the eleven apostles.

Acts 2:1  When the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place, of one mind.
Acts 2:2  Suddenly a sound came from heaven, like a rushing mighty wind. It filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:3  They saw what looked like tongues of fire, divided, and one came to rest on each of them.
Acts 2:4  They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. They began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them the words.
Acts 2:5  There were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.
Acts 2:6  When this sound was heard, the crowd came together and were bewildered, because every one of them heard the believers speaking in his own language.
Acts 2:7  They were all amazed and full of wonder. They said to one another, "Look, are not all these men who are speaking Galilaeans?"
Acts 2:8  "Then how does each of us hear them in our own language, the one we were born to?"
Acts 2:9  "Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and people who live in Mesopotamia, in Judaea and Cappadocia, in Pontus and Asia,"
Acts 2:10  "in Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya near Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to the Jewish faith,"
Acts 2:11  "Cretes and Arabians. We hear them telling in our own languages the wonderful works of God."
Acts 2:12  They were all amazed, and they did not know what to think. They said to one another, "What does this mean?"
Acts 2:13  Others mocked and said, "These men are full of new wine."
Acts 2:14  But Peter stood up with the eleven. He raised his voice and said to them, "You men of Judaea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you. Listen to my words."
Acts 2:15  "These men are not drunk, as you suppose. It is only the third hour of the day."
Acts 2:16  "No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:"
Acts 2:17  "'In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams."
Acts 2:18  "'In those days I will pour out my Spirit on my servants, both men and women, and they will prophesy."
Acts 2:19  "'I will show wonders in the heaven above, and signs on the earth below: blood, and fire, and clouds of smoke."
Acts 2:20  "'The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and glorious day of the Lord comes."
Acts 2:21  "'And whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"
Acts 2:22  "You men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth was a man shown to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs, which God did through him among you, as you yourselves know."
Acts 2:23  "He was handed over to you by the fixed plan and foreknowledge of God. You took him, and by wicked hands you nailed him to a cross and killed him."
Acts 2:24  "But God raised him up, setting him free from the pains of death, because it was not possible for death to hold him."
Acts 2:25  "For David says about him, 'I saw the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken."
Acts 2:26  "'So my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My body also will rest in hope,"
Acts 2:27  "'because you will not leave my soul in hell, and you will not let your Holy One see decay."
Acts 2:28  "'You have made known to me the ways of life. You will fill me with joy in your presence.'"
Acts 2:29  "Men and brothers, let me speak freely to you about the patriarch David. He is dead and buried, and his tomb is here with us to this day."
Acts 2:30  "He was a prophet. He knew that God had promised him with an oath that from his own descendants, according to the flesh, God would raise up Christ to sit on his throne."
Acts 2:31  "Seeing this ahead of time, he spoke of the resurrection of Christ: that his soul was not left in hell, and his flesh did not see decay."
Acts 2:32  "God has raised up this Jesus, and we are all witnesses of it."
Acts 2:33  "So he has been lifted high by the right hand of God. He has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and he has poured out what you now see and hear."
Acts 2:34  "For David did not go up into the heavens, but he himself says, 'The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand,"
Acts 2:35  "'until I make your enemies your footstool.'"
Acts 2:36  "So let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made this same Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Acts 2:37  When they heard this, they were cut to the heart. They said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brothers, what shall we do?"
Acts 2:38  Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
Acts 2:39  "For the promise is for you, and for your children, and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Acts 2:40  With many other words he gave his witness and urged them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation."
Acts 2:41  Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. That same day about three thousand people were added to them.
Acts 2:42  They kept firmly to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.
Acts 2:43  Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
Acts 2:44  All who believed were together, and they shared everything they had.
Acts 2:45  They sold their property and their goods, and divided the money among them all, as anyone had need.
Acts 2:46  Day after day they met together in the temple with one mind. They broke bread in their homes and ate their food with gladness and with honest hearts,
Acts 2:47  praising God and liked by all the people. And every day the Lord added to the church those who were being saved.

Acts 3:1  Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, which was the ninth hour.
Acts 3:2  A certain man was carried there who had been lame from his mother's womb. Every day they laid him at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, so that he could ask for money from those who went into the temple.
Acts 3:3  When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for money.
Acts 3:4  Peter looked straight at him, and so did John, and he said, "Look at us."
Acts 3:5  So the man paid attention to them, expecting to receive something from them.
Acts 3:6  Then Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk."
Acts 3:7  And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up. At once his feet and ankle bones were made strong.
Acts 3:8  He jumped up, stood, and walked. He went with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God.
Acts 3:9  All the people saw him walking and praising God.
Acts 3:10  They knew that he was the man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.
Acts 3:11  While the lame man who had been healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly amazed.
Acts 3:12  When Peter saw it, he said to the people, "Men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? Why do you stare at us so, as though we had made this man walk by our own power or holiness?"
Acts 3:13  "The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Son Jesus. You handed him over and disowned him in front of Pilate, when Pilate had decided to let him go."
Acts 3:14  "But you disowned the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be given to you."
Acts 3:15  "You killed the Prince of life, whom God has raised from the dead. We are witnesses of this."
Acts 3:16  "And his name, through faith in his name, has made this man strong, this man whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through him has given the man this perfect health in front of you all."
Acts 3:17  "And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you did it in ignorance, as your rulers did also."
Acts 3:18  "But in this way God has fulfilled what he had foretold by the mouth of all his prophets: that Christ would suffer."
Acts 3:19  "So repent, and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord."
Acts 3:20  "And he shall send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before."
Acts 3:21  "Heaven must receive him until the times when all things are restored, which God has spoken of by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."
Acts 3:22  "For Moses truly said to the fathers, 'The Lord your God shall raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me. You shall listen to him in everything he says to you."
Acts 3:23  "'And every soul who will not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people.'"
Acts 3:24  "Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who came after him, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days."
Acts 3:25  "You are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.'"
Acts 3:26  "God raised up his Son Jesus and sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you away from your sins."

Acts 4:1  While they were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came up to them.
Acts 4:2  They were angry because the apostles were teaching the people and preaching through Jesus that the dead rise again.
Acts 4:3  So they seized them and put them in prison until the next day, for it was already evening.
Acts 4:4  But many of those who heard the word believed. The number of the men was about five thousand.
Acts 4:5  The next day their rulers, elders and scribes met in Jerusalem,
Acts 4:6  with Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and all who belonged to the high priest's family.
Acts 4:7  They made the apostles stand in front of them and asked, "By what power, or by what name, have you done this?"
Acts 4:8  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, "You rulers of the people and elders of Israel,"
Acts 4:9  today we are being questioned about a good deed done to a crippled man, and how he was made well.
Acts 4:10  So let this be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel. It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead. By him this man stands here before you healthy.
Acts 4:11  This is the stone that you builders treated as worthless, and it has become the head of the corner.
Acts 4:12  "There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved."
Acts 4:13  When they saw how bold Peter and John were, and understood that they were untrained, ordinary men, they were amazed. And they recognised that these men had been with Jesus.
Acts 4:14  They also saw the man who had been healed standing with them, so they could say nothing against it.
Acts 4:15  So they ordered them to go outside the council, and talked it over among themselves.
Acts 4:16  They said, "What shall we do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem can see that a remarkable miracle has been done by them, and we cannot deny it."
Acts 4:17  "But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us warn them sternly to speak to no one any more in this name."
Acts 4:18  So they called them in and commanded them not to speak at all, nor to teach, in the name of Jesus.
Acts 4:19  But Peter and John answered them, "Whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge."
Acts 4:20  "For we cannot stop speaking about the things we have seen and heard."
Acts 4:21  So they threatened them again and let them go. They could find no way to punish them, because of the people. For everyone was praising God for what had happened.
Acts 4:22  The man on whom this miracle of healing was done was more than forty years old.
Acts 4:23  When they were let go, they went to their own friends and reported everything the chief priests and elders had said to them.
Acts 4:24  When they heard it, they lifted up their voices to God together and said, "Lord, you are God. You made heaven and earth and the sea, and everything in them."
Acts 4:25  You said by the mouth of your servant David, 'Why did the nations rage, and the peoples make useless plans?
Acts 4:26  The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.'
Acts 4:27  For it is true: in this city Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, gathered together against your holy child Jesus, whom you anointed,
Acts 4:28  to do whatever your hand and your plan had decided beforehand should happen.
Acts 4:29  And now, Lord, look at their threats. Give your servants power to speak your word with all boldness,
Acts 4:30  "while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done by the name of your holy child Jesus."
Acts 4:31  When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered was shaken. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
Acts 4:32  All the many people who believed were of one heart and one soul. No one said that anything he owned was his own, but they shared everything they had.
Acts 4:33  With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was on them all.
Acts 4:34  There was no one among them in need. All who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money from what was sold,
Acts 4:35  and laid it at the apostles' feet. It was then shared out to each person as he needed.
Acts 4:36  Joses, a Levite from the country of Cyprus, was given the name Barnabas by the apostles (which means, The son of comfort).
Acts 4:37  He had a field. He sold it, brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet.

Acts 5:1  But a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property.
Acts 5:2  He kept back part of the money, and his wife knew about it. He brought the rest and laid it at the apostles' feet.
Acts 5:3  But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart, so that you lied to the Holy Spirit and kept back part of the money from the land?"
Acts 5:4  "While you still had the land, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was the money not yours to use as you wished? Why have you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God."
Acts 5:5  When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died. And great fear came on all who heard about it.
Acts 5:6  The young men got up, wrapped him in a cloth, carried him out, and buried him.
Acts 5:7  About three hours later his wife came in. She did not know what had happened.
Acts 5:8  Peter said to her, "Tell me, did you sell the land for this much?" And she said, "Yes, for that much."
Acts 5:9  Then Peter said to her, "How is it that you agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look, the feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out too."
Acts 5:10  At once she fell down at his feet and died. The young men came in and found her dead. They carried her out and buried her beside her husband.
Acts 5:11  And great fear came on the whole church, and on all who heard about these things.
Acts 5:12  Many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they all met together with one mind in Solomon's porch.
Acts 5:13  None of the others dared to join them, but the people spoke well of them.
Acts 5:14  And more and more believers were added to the Lord, crowds of both men and women.
Acts 5:15  So they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and mats, so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.
Acts 5:16  A crowd also came to Jerusalem from the towns round about, bringing sick people and those who were troubled by unclean spirits. And every one of them was healed.
Acts 5:17  Then the high priest stood up, and all who were with him, who belonged to the group of the Sadducees. They were filled with anger,
Acts 5:18  and they seized the apostles and put them in the public prison.
Acts 5:19  But during the night the angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and led them out. He said,
Acts 5:20  "Go, stand in the temple, and speak to the people all the words of this life."
Acts 5:21  When they heard this, they went into the temple early in the morning and began to teach. But the high priest came, and those who were with him. They called the council together, with all the elders of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have the apostles brought in.
Acts 5:22  But when the officers came, they did not find them in the prison. So they went back and reported,
Acts 5:23  "We found the prison shut and locked tight, and the guards standing outside before the doors. But when we opened it, we found no one inside."
Acts 5:24  Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard this, they were puzzled about the apostles, wondering what would come of this.
Acts 5:25  Then someone came and told them, "Look, the men you put in prison are standing in the temple, teaching the people."
Acts 5:26  Then the captain went with the officers and brought them in, but without force, for they were afraid of the people, in case they were stoned.
Acts 5:27  They brought them in and set them before the council, and the high priest questioned them.
Acts 5:28  He said, "Did we not give you strict orders not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you mean to bring this man's blood on us."
Acts 5:29  Then Peter and the other apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men."
Acts 5:30  "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree."
Acts 5:31  "God has lifted him up to his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."
Acts 5:32  "And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him."
Acts 5:33  When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and they planned to kill them.
Acts 5:34  Then one of the council stood up, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people. He ordered the apostles to be taken outside for a little while.
Acts 5:35  Then he said to them, "Men of Israel, be careful what you mean to do with these men."
Acts 5:36  "Some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was killed, and all who followed him were scattered and came to nothing."
Acts 5:37  "After him Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the tax registration, and drew many people after him. He also died, and all who followed him were scattered."
Acts 5:38  "So now I say to you, keep away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work comes from men, it will come to nothing."
Acts 5:39  "But if it is from God, you cannot overthrow it. You may even find that you are fighting against God."
Acts 5:40  They agreed with him. They called the apostles in, had them beaten, ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Acts 5:41  So they left the council, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
Acts 5:42  And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching that Jesus is the Christ.

Acts 6:1  In those days the number of the disciples was growing. The Greek-speaking believers began to complain against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily giving out of food.
Acts 6:2  So the twelve called all the disciples together and said, "It is not right for us to leave the word of God and wait on tables."
Acts 6:3  So, brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are well spoken of, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this work.
Acts 6:4  "But we will give ourselves without stopping to prayer, and to the ministry of the word."
Acts 6:5  What they said pleased the whole group. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas, a convert from Antioch.
Acts 6:6  They brought these men to the apostles. The apostles prayed and laid their hands on them.
Acts 6:7  The word of God spread. The number of the disciples in Jerusalem grew very large, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
Acts 6:8  Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Acts 6:9  Then some men stood up against him. They were from the synagogue called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, along with men of Cyrene and Alexandria, and men from Cilicia and Asia. They argued with Stephen,
Acts 6:10  but they were not able to stand against the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke.
Acts 6:11  Then they secretly paid men to say, "We have heard him speak words of blasphemy against Moses, and against God."
Acts 6:12  They stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes. They came upon Stephen, seized him, and brought him to the council.
Acts 6:13  They put forward false witnesses, who said, "This man never stops speaking words against this holy place and against the law."
Acts 6:14  "We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs that Moses handed down to us."
Acts 6:15  Everyone sitting in the council looked steadily at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Acts 7:1  Then the high priest said, "Are these things true?"
Acts 7:2  And Stephen said, "Men, brothers, and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Charran,"
Acts 7:3  "and said to him, 'Leave your country and your family, and come into the land that I will show you.'"
Acts 7:4  "Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Charran. From there, after his father died, God moved him into this land, where you now live."
Acts 7:5  "God gave him no part of it as an inheritance, not even enough to set his foot on. Yet he promised that he would give it to him to possess, and to his descendants after him, even though Abraham had no child yet."
Acts 7:6  "And God spoke in this way: that his descendants would live as strangers in a foreign land, and that people would make them slaves and treat them badly for four hundred years."
Acts 7:7  "'And I will judge the nation that makes them slaves,' God said, 'and after that they will come out and serve me in this place.'"
Acts 7:8  "And God gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham was the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve patriarchs."
Acts 7:9  "The patriarchs were filled with envy, and sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him,"
Acts 7:10  "and rescued him out of all his troubles. God gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Pharaoh made him governor over Egypt and over all his house."
Acts 7:11  "Then a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great trouble with it, and our fathers could find no food."
Acts 7:12  "But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time."
Acts 7:13  "And the second time Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh."
Acts 7:14  "Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and called him to come, and all his family too, seventy-five people in all."
Acts 7:15  "So Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died there, and our fathers died too."
Acts 7:16  "They were carried over to Sychem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem."
Acts 7:17  "But when the time drew near for the promise that God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and became many in Egypt,"
Acts 7:18  "until another king arose who did not know Joseph."
Acts 7:19  "He dealt craftily with our people, and treated our fathers badly, so that they had to throw out their babies and leave them to die."
Acts 7:20  "At that time Moses was born, and he was very beautiful. For three months he was cared for in his father's house."
Acts 7:21  "And when he was thrown out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up and brought him up as her own son."
Acts 7:22  "And Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in words and in deeds."
Acts 7:23  "When he was a full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel."
Acts 7:24  "And when he saw one of them being wronged, he defended him. He paid back the one who had oppressed him, and struck the Egyptian dead."
Acts 7:25  "He thought his brothers would understand that God was going to save them by his hand, but they did not understand."
Acts 7:26  "The next day he appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to make peace between them. He said, 'Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?'"
Acts 7:27  "But the man who was wronging his neighbour pushed him away and said, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?"
Acts 7:28  "'Will you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?'"
Acts 7:29  "At these words Moses ran away, and he lived as a stranger in the land of Madian, where he became the father of two sons."
Acts 7:30  "And when forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina, in a flame of fire in a bush."
Acts 7:31  "When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. And as he came near to look at it, the voice of the Lord came to him,"
Acts 7:32  "saying, 'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' Then Moses shook with fear and did not dare to look."
Acts 7:33  "Then the Lord said to him, 'Take off your shoes from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."
Acts 7:34  "'I have seen, I have seen how my people in Egypt are suffering, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to save them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.'"
Acts 7:35  "This Moses, whom they refused, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge?' - this same Moses God sent to be a ruler and a rescuer, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush."
Acts 7:36  "He brought them out, after he had done wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness for forty years."
Acts 7:37  "This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from among your brothers, like me. You must listen to him.'"
Acts 7:38  "This is the man who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on mount Sina, and with our fathers. He received the living words of God to give to us."
Acts 7:39  "But our fathers would not obey him. They pushed him away from them, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt."
Acts 7:40  "They said to Aaron, 'Make us gods to go before us. As for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.'"
Acts 7:41  "And in those days they made a calf, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and were glad about the things their own hands had made."
Acts 7:42  "Then God turned away, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: 'House of Israel, did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness?"
Acts 7:43  "'No, you took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, images that you made to worship. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.'"
Acts 7:44  "Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as God had commanded when he spoke to Moses and told him to make it after the pattern he had seen."
Acts 7:45  "Our fathers who came after them brought that tent with Jesus into the land of the Gentiles, when God drove them out before our fathers. It was there until the days of David."
Acts 7:46  "David found favour with God, and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob."
Acts 7:47  "But it was Solomon who built him a house."
Acts 7:48  "Yet the Most High does not live in temples made by hands. As the prophet says,"
Acts 7:49  "'Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or what is the place where I may rest?"
Acts 7:50  "'Has not my hand made all these things?'"
Acts 7:51  "You stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always fight against the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you."
Acts 7:52  "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who told beforehand of the coming of the Just One. And you have now betrayed him and murdered him,"
Acts 7:53  "you who received the law given through angels, and have not kept it."
Acts 7:54  When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they ground their teeth at him.
Acts 7:55  But he was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up steadily into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Acts 7:56  He said, "Look, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God."
Acts 7:57  Then they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and rushed at him all together.
Acts 7:58  They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses laid their coats down at the feet of a young man whose name was Saul.
Acts 7:59  And they stoned Stephen, while he called on God and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Acts 7:60  Then he knelt down and cried with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Acts 8:1  And Saul agreed with his death. On that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem. All of them were scattered through the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Acts 8:2  Devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and mourned loudly over him.
Acts 8:3  As for Saul, he tore the church apart. He went into every house, and dragged out men and women, and put them in prison.
Acts 8:4  So those who had been scattered went everywhere, preaching the word.
Acts 8:5  Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ to them.
Acts 8:6  The people all together paid attention to what Philip said. They heard him, and saw the miracles that he did.
Acts 8:7  For unclean spirits came out of many who were possessed by them, crying with a loud voice. And many who were paralysed, and many who were lame, were healed.
Acts 8:8  And there was great joy in that city.
Acts 8:9  But there was a man called Simon. Before this he had practised sorcery in that same city, and amazed the people of Samaria. He claimed that he himself was someone great.
Acts 8:10  They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest. They said, "This man is the great power of God."
Acts 8:11  They paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his sorceries.
Acts 8:12  But when they believed Philip, who preached the things about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
Acts 8:13  Then Simon himself believed too. When he was baptized, he stayed with Philip, and he was amazed as he watched the miracles and signs that were done.
Acts 8:14  Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
Acts 8:15  When they came down, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:16  (For as yet the Spirit had not come on any of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
Acts 8:17  Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Acts 8:18  When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given when the apostles laid their hands on people, he offered them money.
Acts 8:19  He said, "Give me this power too, so that anyone I lay my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit."
Acts 8:20  But Peter said to him, "May your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be bought with money."
Acts 8:21  "You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God."
Acts 8:22  "So repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to God. Perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you."
Acts 8:23  "For I see that you are full of bitter poison, and held fast by sin."
Acts 8:24  Then Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me, so that none of the things you have said may come on me."
Acts 8:25  When they had given their testimony and preached the word of the Lord, they returned to Jerusalem, and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
Acts 8:26  The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. He said, "Get up, and go south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza, which is desert."
Acts 8:27  So he got up and went. And look, there was a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians. He was in charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem to worship.
Acts 8:28  He was going back home, sitting in his chariot and reading the prophet Isaiah.
Acts 8:29  Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near, and stay close to this chariot."
Acts 8:30  So Philip ran up to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
Acts 8:31  He said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.
Acts 8:32  The place in the scripture that he was reading was this: "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter. Like a lamb silent before the one who shears it, so he did not open his mouth."
Acts 8:33  "In his humiliation his justice was taken away. And who will tell of his generation? For his life is taken from the earth."
Acts 8:34  The eunuch said to Philip, "Tell me, please, who is the prophet speaking about? Himself, or some other man?"
Acts 8:35  Then Philip began to speak. Starting from that same scripture, he preached Jesus to him.
Acts 8:36  As they went on their way, they came to some water. The eunuch said, "Look, here is water. What is there to stop me being baptized?"
Acts 8:37  And Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may." He answered, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."
Acts 8:38  He ordered the chariot to stop. They both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.
Acts 8:39  When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing.
Acts 8:40  But Philip was found at Azotus. He travelled on, and preached in all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.

Acts 9:1  Saul was still breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest
Acts 9:2  and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus. If he found any who belonged to this Way, whether men or women, he could tie them up and bring them to Jerusalem.
Acts 9:3  As he travelled, he came near Damascus. Suddenly a light from heaven shone all around him.
Acts 9:4  He fell to the ground, and he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
Acts 9:5  He said, "Who are you, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads."
Acts 9:6  Trembling and amazed, he said, "Lord, what do you want me to do?" And the Lord said to him, "Get up, and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
Acts 9:7  The men who were travelling with him stood there unable to speak. They heard a voice, but saw no one.
Acts 9:8  Saul got up from the ground. When his eyes were opened, he could see no one. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
Acts 9:9  For three days he could not see, and he did not eat or drink.
Acts 9:10  There was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "I am here, Lord."
Acts 9:11  The Lord said to him, "Get up, and go to the street called Straight. Ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus called Saul. Look, he is praying,"
Acts 9:12  "and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hand on him, so that he could see again."
Acts 9:13  Then Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many people about this man, and how much harm he has done to your saints at Jerusalem."
Acts 9:14  "And here he has authority from the chief priests to tie up everyone who calls on your name."
Acts 9:15  But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen vessel of mine, to carry my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."
Acts 9:16  "For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake."
Acts 9:17  So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on him and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me, so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit."
Acts 9:18  At once something like scales fell from his eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized.
Acts 9:19  When he had eaten food, he grew strong. Then Saul stayed some days with the disciples at Damascus.
Acts 9:20  Straight away he preached Christ in the synagogues, saying that he is the Son of God.
Acts 9:21  All who heard him were amazed, and said, "Is this not the man who destroyed those in Jerusalem who called on this name? And did he not come here for that very purpose, to tie them up and take them to the chief priests?"
Acts 9:22  But Saul grew stronger and stronger. He left the Jews who lived in Damascus with nothing to say, proving that this man is indeed the Christ.
Acts 9:23  After many days had passed, the Jews made a plan to kill him.
Acts 9:24  But Saul came to know about their plot. They watched the gates day and night to kill him.
Acts 9:25  Then the disciples took him by night and let him down over the wall in a basket.
Acts 9:26  When Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples. But they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple.
Acts 9:27  But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road, and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
Acts 9:28  So he stayed with them, going in and out at Jerusalem.
Acts 9:29  He spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and argued with the Greek-speaking Jews. But they tried to kill him.
Acts 9:30  When the brothers and sisters learned this, they took him down to Caesarea, and sent him away to Tarsus.
Acts 9:31  Then the churches had rest all through Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and they were built up. They walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, and their numbers grew.
Acts 9:32  As Peter travelled through all those parts, he came down also to the saints who lived at Lydda.
Acts 9:33  There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been in bed for eight years, sick with palsy.
Acts 9:34  Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ makes you well. Get up, and make your bed." And he got up at once.
Acts 9:35  All who lived at Lydda and Saron saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
Acts 9:36  Now at Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha, which means Dorcas. This woman was full of good works and acts of kindness to the poor.
Acts 9:37  In those days she became sick and died. They washed her and laid her in an upper room.
Acts 9:38  Lydda was near Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there. So they sent two men to him, begging him to come to them without delay.
Acts 9:39  Then Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him into the upper room. All the widows stood around him weeping, and showing the coats and clothes that Dorcas had made while she was with them.
Acts 9:40  But Peter sent them all out. He knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to the body and said, "Tabitha, get up." She opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
Acts 9:41  He gave her his hand and lifted her up. Then he called the saints and the widows, and showed her to them alive.
Acts 9:42  This became known all through Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
Acts 9:43  And Peter stayed many days in Joppa with a man named Simon, a tanner.

Acts 10:1  In Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius. He was a centurion in the regiment called the Italian regiment.
Acts 10:2  He was a devout man. He and all his household feared God. He gave much money to help the poor, and he prayed to God always.
Acts 10:3  About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God coming in to him and saying to him, "Cornelius."
Acts 10:4  When he looked at him, he was afraid, and said, "What is it, Lord?" The angel said to him, "Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have gone up before God as a memorial."
Acts 10:5  Now send men to Joppa, and send for a man called Simon, who is also named Peter.
Acts 10:6  "He is staying with Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea. He will tell you what you ought to do."
Acts 10:7  When the angel who spoke to Cornelius had gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of those who waited on him all the time.
Acts 10:8  He told them everything that had happened, and sent them to Joppa.
Acts 10:9  The next day, as they went on their journey and came near the city, Peter went up on the roof of the house to pray, about the sixth hour.
Acts 10:10  He became very hungry and wanted to eat. But while they were getting the food ready, he fell into a trance.
Acts 10:11  He saw heaven opened, and something coming down to him. It was like a great sheet, tied at its four corners, and let down to the earth.
Acts 10:12  In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and birds of the air.
Acts 10:13  A voice came to him: "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
Acts 10:14  But Peter said, "No, Lord. I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean."
Acts 10:15  The voice spoke to him again, a second time: "What God has made clean, do not call common."
Acts 10:16  This happened three times, and then the sheet was taken up again into heaven.
Acts 10:17  Peter was puzzled, wondering what this vision he had seen could mean. Look, the men who were sent from Cornelius had asked the way to Simon's house, and were standing at the gate.
Acts 10:18  They called out and asked whether Simon, who was also named Peter, was staying there.
Acts 10:19  While Peter was thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Look, three men are looking for you."
Acts 10:20  "So get up, go down, and go with them. Do not doubt at all, for I have sent them."
Acts 10:21  Then Peter went down to the men who had been sent to him from Cornelius, and said, "Look, I am the man you are looking for. Why have you come?"
Acts 10:22  They said, "Cornelius the centurion, a just man who fears God, and who is well spoken of by the whole nation of the Jews, was warned by God through a holy angel to send for you to come to his house, and to hear words from you."
Acts 10:23  So Peter called them in and gave them a place to stay. The next day Peter set out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went with him.
Acts 10:24  The day after that they came into Caesarea. Cornelius was waiting for them. He had called together his relatives and close friends.
Acts 10:25  As Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshipped him.
Acts 10:26  But Peter lifted him up, saying, "Stand up. I myself am only a man."
Acts 10:27  Talking with him, Peter went in and found many people gathered together.
Acts 10:28  He said to them, "You know that it is against the law for a Jewish man to keep company with someone of another nation, or to visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean."
Acts 10:29  "So when I was sent for, I came without objecting. I ask, then, why have you sent for me?"
Acts 10:30  Cornelius said, "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour. At the ninth hour I was praying in my house, and look, a man in bright clothing stood in front of me."
Acts 10:31  He said, 'Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your gifts to the poor have been remembered before God.
Acts 10:32  So send to Joppa, and call for Simon, who is also named Peter. He is staying in the house of Simon, a tanner, by the sea. When he comes, he will speak to you.'
Acts 10:33  "So I sent to you at once, and you have done well to come. Now we are all here before God, to hear everything that God has commanded you to say."
Acts 10:34  Then Peter began to speak: "Truly I see that God does not favour one person over another."
Acts 10:35  In every nation, anyone who fears him and does righteousness is accepted by him.
Acts 10:36  This is the word God sent to the children of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all.
Acts 10:37  You know that word. It spread through all Judaea, beginning in Galilee, after the baptism that John preached.
Acts 10:38  You know how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good, and healing all who were under the power of the devil, for God was with him.
Acts 10:39  We are witnesses of everything he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree.
Acts 10:40  God raised him up on the third day, and let him be seen openly,
Acts 10:41  not by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had chosen beforehand, that is, by us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
Acts 10:42  He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed to be the Judge of the living and the dead.
Acts 10:43  "All the prophets give witness to him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
Acts 10:44  While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all those who heard the word.
Acts 10:45  The believers from among the circumcised, all those who had come with Peter, were astonished, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles too.
Acts 10:46  For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,
Acts 10:47  "Can anyone refuse water, so that these people should not be baptized? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we did."
Acts 10:48  So he commanded that they be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay for some days.

Acts 11:1  The apostles and the brothers and sisters in Judaea heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God.
Acts 11:2  When Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who belonged to the circumcision argued with him.
Acts 11:3  They said, "You went in to men who are not circumcised, and you ate with them."
Acts 11:4  But Peter told them the whole matter from the beginning, and explained it to them in order. He said,
Acts 11:5  "I was in the city of Joppa praying. In a trance I saw a vision. Something like a great sheet was coming down, let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right to me."
Acts 11:6  "I looked closely at it and thought about it, and I saw four-footed animals of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and birds of the air."
Acts 11:7  "And I heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.'"
Acts 11:8  "But I said, 'No, Lord. Nothing common or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'"
Acts 11:9  "But the voice answered me again from heaven, 'What God has made clean, you must not call common.'"
Acts 11:10  "This happened three times. Then everything was drawn up again into heaven."
Acts 11:11  "And look, at once three men came to the house where I was. They had been sent to me from Caesarea."
Acts 11:12  "The Spirit told me to go with them and not to doubt at all. These six brothers went with me too, and we entered the man's house."
Acts 11:13  "He told us how he had seen an angel in his house. The angel stood and said to him, 'Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, who is also called Peter."
Acts 11:14  "'He will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.'"
Acts 11:15  "As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, just as he did on us at the beginning."
Acts 11:16  "Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'"
Acts 11:17  "So if God gave them the same gift he gave to us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I, that I could stand against God?"
Acts 11:18  When they heard these things, they said no more. They gave glory to God, saying, "Then God has given the Gentiles also repentance that leads to life."
Acts 11:19  Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch. They preached the word to no one but the Jews only.
Acts 11:20  But some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene. When they came to Antioch, they spoke to the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus.
Acts 11:21  And the hand of the Lord was with them. A great number believed and turned to the Lord.
Acts 11:22  News of these things came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem. So they sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch.
Acts 11:23  When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad. He urged them all to hold firmly to the Lord with all their heart.
Acts 11:24  For he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And many people were added to the Lord.
Acts 11:25  Then Barnabas went away to Tarsus to look for Saul.
Acts 11:26  When he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.
Acts 11:27  In those days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.
Acts 11:28  One of them named Agabus stood up. By the Spirit he made known that there would be a great famine over all the world. This happened in the days of Claudius Caesar.
Acts 11:29  Then the disciples decided that each of them, as much as he was able, would send help to the brothers and sisters who lived in Judaea.
Acts 11:30  This they did, and they sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

Acts 12:1  About that time King Herod reached out his hands to harm some of the people of the church.
Acts 12:2  He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.
Acts 12:3  When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he went further and seized Peter too. (These were the days of unleavened bread.)
Acts 12:4  When he had arrested him, he put him in prison. He handed him over to four groups of four soldiers each to guard him. He meant to bring him out to the people after Easter.
Acts 12:5  So Peter was kept in prison. But the church prayed to God for him without stopping.
Acts 12:6  The night before Herod was going to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards stood at the door and watched the prison.
Acts 12:7  Look, the angel of the Lord came and stood by him, and a light shone in the prison. The angel struck Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, "Get up quickly." And the chains fell off his hands.
Acts 12:8  The angel said to him, "Put on your belt and tie on your sandals." So he did. Then he said to him, "Wrap your coat around you and follow me."
Acts 12:9  So Peter went out and followed him. He did not know that what the angel was doing was real. He thought he was seeing a vision.
Acts 12:10  They passed the first guard post and the second, and came to the iron gate that leads into the city. It opened for them by itself. They went out and walked along one street, and at once the angel left him.
Acts 12:11  When Peter came to himself, he said, "Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel. He has rescued me from Herod's hand, and from all that the Jewish people were expecting."
Acts 12:12  When he had thought about it, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark. Many people were gathered there, praying.
Acts 12:13  Peter knocked at the door of the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to listen.
Acts 12:14  When she knew Peter's voice, she was so glad that she did not open the gate. Instead she ran in and told them that Peter was standing in front of the gate.
Acts 12:15  They said to her, "You are mad." But she kept insisting that it was so. Then they said, "It is his angel."
Acts 12:16  But Peter kept on knocking. When they opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.
Acts 12:17  He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet, and told them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, "Go and tell these things to James and to the brothers and sisters." Then he left and went to another place.
Acts 12:18  As soon as it was day, there was great trouble among the soldiers about what had become of Peter.
Acts 12:19  Herod looked for him and did not find him. He questioned the guards, and ordered that they be put to death. Then he went down from Judaea to Caesarea and stayed there.
Acts 12:20  Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. But they came to him together. They made a friend of Blastus, the king's household officer, and asked for peace, because their country got its food from the king's country.
Acts 12:21  On a day that was set, Herod put on his royal robes, sat on his throne, and made a speech to them.
Acts 12:22  The people shouted, "It is the voice of a god, and not of a man."
Acts 12:23  At once the angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory. He was eaten by worms and died.
Acts 12:24  But the word of God grew and spread widely.
Acts 12:25  Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had finished their service, and they took with them John, who was also called Mark.

Acts 13:1  In the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers. They were Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
Acts 13:2  While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work I have called them to do."
Acts 13:3  So when they had fasted and prayed, they laid their hands on them and sent them away.
Acts 13:4  So, sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia. From there they sailed to Cyprus.
Acts 13:5  When they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their helper.
Acts 13:6  They travelled through the island as far as Paphos. There they found a sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Barjesus.
Acts 13:7  He was with the governor of the country, Sergius Paulus, a wise man. The governor sent for Barnabas and Saul, and wanted to hear the word of God.
Acts 13:8  But Elymas the sorcerer (for that is what his name means) stood against them. He tried to turn the governor away from the faith.
Acts 13:9  Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at him
Acts 13:10  and said, "You are full of every trick and every kind of wickedness. You child of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness. Will you never stop twisting the straight ways of the Lord?"
Acts 13:11  "Now look, the hand of the Lord is on you. You will be blind and will not see the sun for a time." At once a mist and a darkness fell on him, and he groped about, looking for someone to lead him by the hand.
Acts 13:12  When the governor saw what had happened, he believed, and he was amazed at the teaching of the Lord.
Acts 13:13  Then Paul and those with him sailed from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. But John left them and went back to Jerusalem.
Acts 13:14  They went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. On the sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down.
Acts 13:15  After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, "Men and brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, speak."
Acts 13:16  Then Paul stood up. He made a sign with his hand and said, "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen."
Acts 13:17  "The God of this people of Israel chose our fathers. He lifted the people up when they lived as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with a mighty arm he brought them out of it."
Acts 13:18  "For about forty years he put up with their ways in the wilderness."
Acts 13:19  "He destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, and he shared out their land to our fathers by lot."
Acts 13:20  "After that he gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet."
Acts 13:21  "Then they asked for a king. God gave them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years."
Acts 13:22  "When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king. He also spoke about him and said, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do all that I want.'"
Acts 13:23  "From this man's family God has raised up for Israel a Saviour, Jesus, as he promised."
Acts 13:24  "Before Jesus came, John had already preached the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel."
Acts 13:25  "As John was finishing his work, he said, 'Who do you think I am? I am not he. But look, there is one coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the shoes on his feet.'"
Acts 13:26  "Men and brothers, children of the family of Abraham, and all among you who fear God: this message of salvation has been sent to you."
Acts 13:27  "The people who live in Jerusalem and their rulers did not know him. They did not know the words of the prophets, which are read every sabbath day. So they fulfilled those words by condemning him."
Acts 13:28  "They found no reason to put him to death, yet they asked Pilate to have him killed."
Acts 13:29  "When they had done everything that was written about him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a tomb."
Acts 13:30  "But God raised him from the dead."
Acts 13:31  "For many days he was seen by those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are his witnesses to the people."
Acts 13:32  "And we bring you good news. The promise that was made to our fathers"
Acts 13:33  "God has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising Jesus up again. It is also written in the second psalm, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father.'"
Acts 13:34  "And about raising him from the dead, never again to return to decay, he said this: 'I will give you the sure mercies of David.'"
Acts 13:35  "So he also says in another psalm, 'You will not allow your Holy One to see decay.'"
Acts 13:36  "For David served his own generation by the will of God. Then he fell asleep and was laid with his fathers, and he saw decay."
Acts 13:37  "But the one whom God raised up saw no decay."
Acts 13:38  "So know this, men and brothers: through this man forgiveness of sins is preached to you."
Acts 13:39  "And through him everyone who believes is set right from all the things that the law of Moses could not set you right from."
Acts 13:40  "So take care. Do not let what the prophets spoke about come upon you:"
Acts 13:41  "'Look, you who scoff, and wonder, and perish. For I am doing a work in your days, a work you will never believe, even if someone tells it to you.'"
Acts 13:42  When the Jews had gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
Acts 13:43  When the meeting broke up, many of the Jews and of the devout converts to the Jewish faith followed Paul and Barnabas. They spoke to them and urged them to keep on in the grace of God.
Acts 13:44  On the next sabbath day almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
Acts 13:45  But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with envy. They spoke against the things Paul said, contradicting him and speaking evil.
Acts 13:46  Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, "The word of God had to be spoken to you first. But since you push it away and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, look, we now turn to the Gentiles."
Acts 13:47  "For this is what the Lord has commanded us: 'I have made you a light for the Gentiles, so that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
Acts 13:48  When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and gave glory to the word of the Lord. And all who were appointed to eternal life believed.
Acts 13:49  So the word of the Lord was spread through all that region.
Acts 13:50  But the Jews stirred up the devout and important women and the leading men of the city. They raised up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
Acts 13:51  So they shook the dust off their feet against them, and came to Iconium.
Acts 13:52  And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

Acts 14:1  In Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went together into the synagogue of the Jews. They spoke there, and a great crowd of both Jews and Greeks believed.
Acts 14:2  But the Jews who did not believe stirred up the Gentiles, and turned their minds against the brothers.
Acts 14:3  So they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord. The Lord gave witness to the word of his grace, and let signs and wonders be done by their hands.
Acts 14:4  But the people of the city were divided. Some sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.
Acts 14:5  Then the Gentiles and the Jews, together with their rulers, made an attack on them, to treat them shamefully and to stone them.
Acts 14:6  But the apostles found out about it, and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the country round about.
Acts 14:7  And there they preached the gospel.
Acts 14:8  At Lystra there was a man sitting who had no strength in his feet. He had been lame since he was born, and had never walked.
Acts 14:9  This man heard Paul speak. Paul looked straight at him, and saw that he had faith to be healed.
Acts 14:10  He said with a loud voice, "Stand up straight on your feet." And the man jumped up and walked.
Acts 14:11  When the people saw what Paul had done, they shouted out in the language of Lycaonia, "The gods have come down to us, looking like men."
Acts 14:12  They called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul they called Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.
Acts 14:13  Then the priest of Jupiter, whose temple stood in front of their city, brought oxen and flower garlands to the gates. He and the people wanted to offer a sacrifice.
Acts 14:14  When the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes and ran in among the people, crying out,
Acts 14:15  "Sirs, why are you doing these things? We are only men, with the same feelings as you. We preach to you that you should turn from these empty things to the living God. He made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and everything in them."
Acts 14:16  "In times past he allowed all nations to walk in their own ways."
Acts 14:17  "Yet he did not leave himself without a witness. He did good, and gave you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filled your hearts with food and gladness."
Acts 14:18  Even with these words they could hardly stop the people from offering a sacrifice to them.
Acts 14:19  Then some Jews came there from Antioch and Iconium. They won the crowd over, and they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking that he was dead.
Acts 14:20  But as the disciples stood round him, he got up and went into the city. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.
Acts 14:21  When they had preached the gospel in that city and had taught many people, they went back again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch.
Acts 14:22  They strengthened the souls of the disciples, and urged them to continue in the faith. They said, "We must go through much trouble to enter the kingdom of God."
Acts 14:23  In every church they appointed elders for them. Then they prayed with fasting, and gave them into the care of the Lord, in whom they had believed.
Acts 14:24  After they had passed through Pisidia, they came to Pamphylia.
Acts 14:25  When they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia.
Acts 14:26  From there they sailed to Antioch. That was where they had been given over to the grace of God for the work which they had now finished.
Acts 14:27  When they arrived, they gathered the church together. They told them everything that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.
Acts 14:28  And there they stayed a long time with the disciples.

Acts 15:1  Some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers and sisters. They said, "Unless you are circumcised in the way Moses taught, you cannot be saved."
Acts 15:2  So Paul and Barnabas argued with them strongly and disagreed with them. Then it was decided that Paul and Barnabas, and some others with them, should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.
Acts 15:3  The church sent them on their way. They travelled through Phenice and Samaria, telling how the Gentiles had turned to God. This brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.
Acts 15:4  When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church, and by the apostles and elders. They told everything that God had done with them.
Acts 15:5  But some believers who belonged to the group of the Pharisees stood up. They said, "These men must be circumcised. They must be ordered to keep the law of Moses."
Acts 15:6  The apostles and elders met together to think about this matter.
Acts 15:7  There was much arguing. Then Peter stood up and said to them, "Men and brothers, you know that a long while ago God chose me from among you, so that the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel from my mouth, and believe."
Acts 15:8  "And God, who knows the hearts of people, showed that he accepted them. He gave them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us."
Acts 15:9  "He made no difference between us and them, but made their hearts clean by faith."
Acts 15:10  "So why do you test God now? Why do you put a yoke on the necks of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we were able to carry?"
Acts 15:11  "No, we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as they are."
Acts 15:12  Then the whole crowd was silent. They listened to Barnabas and Paul, who told about the miracles and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.
Acts 15:13  When they had finished speaking, James answered, "Men and brothers, listen to me."
Acts 15:14  "Simeon has told how God at the first came to the Gentiles, to take out from among them a people for his name."
Acts 15:15  "The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written,"
Acts 15:16  "'After this I will return, and I will build again the tent of David, which has fallen down. I will build up its ruins again, and I will set it up:"
Acts 15:17  "'so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles, who are called by my name,' says the Lord, who does all these things."
Acts 15:18  "All his works have been known to God from the beginning of the world."
Acts 15:19  "So this is my judgement: we should not trouble those among the Gentiles who are turning to God."
Acts 15:20  "Instead, let us write to them, telling them to keep away from things made unclean by idols, from sexual sin, from the meat of animals that have been strangled, and from blood."
Acts 15:21  "For from long ago Moses has had men in every city who preach him, and he is read in the synagogues every sabbath day."
Acts 15:22  Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose men from among themselves and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas, who was also called Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers.
Acts 15:23  They wrote letters for them to carry, which said this: "The apostles and elders and brothers send greetings to the brothers and sisters among the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia."
Acts 15:24  "We have heard that some men went out from us and troubled you with their words. They upset your minds, saying that you must be circumcised and keep the law. We gave them no such command."
Acts 15:25  "So we all agreed together that it seemed good to choose men and send them to you with our dear Barnabas and Paul,"
Acts 15:26  "men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Acts 15:27  "So we have sent Judas and Silas, and they will tell you the same things by word of mouth."
Acts 15:28  "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no heavier burden on you than these necessary things:"
Acts 15:29  "that you keep away from food offered to idols, from blood, from the meat of animals that have been strangled, and from sexual sin. If you keep yourselves from these things, you will do well. Farewell."
Acts 15:30  So they were sent off and came to Antioch. They gathered the people together and handed over the letter.
Acts 15:31  When they had read it, they were glad because of its comfort.
Acts 15:32  Judas and Silas were prophets themselves. They encouraged the brothers and sisters with many words and made them stronger.
Acts 15:33  After they had stayed there for a time, the brothers sent them away in peace to the apostles.
Acts 15:34  But Silas was pleased to stay there still.
Acts 15:35  Paul and Barnabas also stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, along with many others.
Acts 15:36  Some days later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit our brothers and sisters in every city where we preached the word of the Lord, and see how they are."
Acts 15:37  Barnabas wanted to take John, who was also called Mark, with them.
Acts 15:38  But Paul did not think it good to take him with them, because he had left them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.
Acts 15:39  Their disagreement was so sharp that they parted from each other. Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.
Acts 15:40  Paul chose Silas and left, after the brothers and sisters had handed him over to the grace of God.
Acts 15:41  He travelled through Syria and Cilicia, making the churches stronger.

Acts 16:1  Then he came to Derbe and Lystra. A disciple named Timotheus was there. His mother was a Jewish woman who believed, but his father was a Greek.
Acts 16:2  The brothers and sisters at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.
Acts 16:3  Paul wanted Timotheus to go with him. So he took him and circumcised him, because of the Jews who lived in those parts. They all knew that his father was a Greek.
Acts 16:4  As they went through the cities, they gave them the rules to keep that the apostles and elders at Jerusalem had made.
Acts 16:5  So the churches were made strong in the faith, and grew in number every day.
Acts 16:6  They went through Phrygia and the region of Galatia. The Holy Spirit would not let them preach the word in Asia.
Acts 16:7  When they came to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not allow them.
Acts 16:8  So they passed by Mysia and came down to Troas.
Acts 16:9  In the night Paul saw a vision. A man of Macedonia was standing there, begging him, "Come over into Macedonia, and help us."
Acts 16:10  After he had seen the vision, we at once tried to go into Macedonia. We were sure that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Acts 16:11  So we sailed from Troas and went straight to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis.
Acts 16:12  From there we went to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony. We stayed in that city for some days.
Acts 16:13  On the sabbath we went out of the city to a riverside, where people used to pray. We sat down and spoke to the women who had come together there.
Acts 16:14  A woman named Lydia was listening. She sold purple cloth and was from the city of Thyatira, and she worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart, so that she paid attention to the things Paul said.
Acts 16:15  When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay there." And she urged us until we came.
Acts 16:16  Once, as we were going to prayer, a servant girl met us who had a spirit of divination. She made her masters much money by telling the future.
Acts 16:17  She followed Paul and us, calling out, "These men are the servants of the most high God. They show us the way of salvation."
Acts 16:18  She did this for many days. But Paul was troubled. He turned and said to the spirit, "I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her." And it came out that same hour.
Acts 16:19  When her masters saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the rulers.
Acts 16:20  They brought them to the magistrates and said, "These men are Jews, and they are making great trouble in our city."
Acts 16:21  "They teach customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to keep, since we are Romans."
Acts 16:22  The crowd rose up together against them. The magistrates tore off their clothes and ordered them to be beaten.
Acts 16:23  When they had beaten them with many blows, they threw them into prison. They told the jailor to keep them safely.
Acts 16:24  Having received such an order, he put them in the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Acts 16:25  At midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God, and the prisoners heard them.
Acts 16:26  Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once all the doors were opened, and everyone's chains came loose.
Acts 16:27  The keeper of the prison woke up out of his sleep. When he saw the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and was going to kill himself, for he thought the prisoners had escaped.
Acts 16:28  But Paul called out with a loud voice, "Do yourself no harm, for we are all here."
Acts 16:29  Then he called for a light, and ran in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas.
Acts 16:30  He brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
Acts 16:31  They said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and your household."
Acts 16:32  And they spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.
Acts 16:33  He took them at that same hour of the night and washed their wounds. Then he and all his family were baptized at once.
Acts 16:34  He brought them into his house and set food before them. He was full of joy, believing in God with all his household.
Acts 16:35  When it was day, the magistrates sent the officers to say, "Let those men go."
Acts 16:36  The keeper of the prison told Paul what was said: "The magistrates have sent word to let you go. So come out now, and go in peace."
Acts 16:37  But Paul said to them, "They beat us in public without a trial, though we are Romans, and they threw us into prison. And now do they send us away secretly? No indeed. Let them come themselves and bring us out."
Acts 16:38  The officers told these words to the magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans.
Acts 16:39  They came and spoke gently to them, and brought them out, and asked them to leave the city.
Acts 16:40  They went out of the prison and came to the house of Lydia. When they had seen the brothers and sisters, they comforted them, and left.

Acts 17:1  They travelled through Amphipolis and Apollonia, and came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews.
Acts 17:2  Paul went in to them, as he always did. For three sabbath days he reasoned with them from the scriptures.
Acts 17:3  He explained them and showed that Christ had to suffer, and rise again from the dead. He said, "This Jesus, whom I preach to you, is Christ."
Acts 17:4  Some of them believed and joined Paul and Silas. So did a great crowd of the devout Greeks, and quite a few of the leading women.
Acts 17:5  But the Jews who did not believe were filled with envy. They took some worthless men from the streets, gathered a crowd, and set the whole city in an uproar. They attacked the house of Jason, and tried to bring Paul and Silas out to the people.
Acts 17:6  When they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers to the rulers of the city. They shouted, "These men who have turned the world upside down have come here too,"
Acts 17:7  "and Jason has taken them in. They all act against the decrees of Caesar. They say there is another king, one called Jesus."
Acts 17:8  When the people and the rulers of the city heard this, they were troubled.
Acts 17:9  They made Jason and the others pay money as a promise of good behaviour, and then let them go.
Acts 17:10  That same night the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Acts 17:11  These people were nobler than those in Thessalonica. They received the word very eagerly, and searched the scriptures every day to see whether these things were so.
Acts 17:12  So many of them believed, and also quite a few honoured Greek women, and men as well.
Acts 17:13  But when the Jews of Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word of God at Berea, they came there too, and stirred up the people.
Acts 17:14  At once the brothers sent Paul away, as if he were going to the sea. But Silas and Timotheus stayed there.
Acts 17:15  Those who went with Paul brought him to Athens. They received an order for Silas and Timotheus to come to him as quickly as possible, and then they left.
Acts 17:16  While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred within him. He saw that the city was full of idols.
Acts 17:17  So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and with the devout people, and every day in the market place with those he met there.
Acts 17:18  Then some philosophers, Epicureans and Stoics, argued with him. Some said, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others said, "He seems to be preaching strange gods." They said this because he preached to them about Jesus and the resurrection.
Acts 17:19  They took him and brought him to Areopagus. They said, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are speaking about?"
Acts 17:20  "You are bringing some strange things to our ears. So we want to know what they mean."
Acts 17:21  (All the people of Athens, and the strangers living there, spent their time in nothing else but telling or hearing some new thing.)
Acts 17:22  Then Paul stood up in the middle of Mars' hill and said, "You men of Athens, I see that in all things you are too superstitious."
Acts 17:23  For as I walked through your city and looked at the things you worship, I found an altar with this writing on it: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. So the one you worship without knowing him, I now declare to you.
Acts 17:24  God made the world and everything in it. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not live in temples built by hands.
Acts 17:25  He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, for he gives life and breath and all things to everyone.
Acts 17:26  He made all nations of men from one blood, to live on the whole face of the earth. He decided the times set for them, and the boundaries of where they live.
Acts 17:27  They were to seek the Lord, and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
Acts 17:28  For in him we live, and move, and have our being. Some of your own poets have said it too: 'For we are also his offspring.'
Acts 17:29  So then, since we are the offspring of God, we should not think that God is like gold, or silver, or stone, shaped by human skill and imagination.
Acts 17:30  In the past God overlooked such times of ignorance. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
Acts 17:31  "For he has set a day when he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man he has chosen. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead."
Acts 17:32  When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some made fun of him. Others said, "We will hear you again about this matter."
Acts 17:33  So Paul left them.
Acts 17:34  But some men joined him and believed. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the council of Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

Acts 18:1  After this Paul left Athens and came to Corinth.
Acts 18:2  There he found a Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had lately come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Claudius had commanded all Jews to leave Rome. Paul went to them,
Acts 18:3  and because he had the same trade, he stayed with them and worked. By trade they were tentmakers.
Acts 18:4  Every sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, and tried to persuade both Jews and Greeks.
Acts 18:5  When Silas and Timotheus came from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in the spirit, and he testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.
Acts 18:6  But they set themselves against him and spoke evil. So he shook out his clothes and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads. I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles."
Acts 18:7  He left that place and went into the house of a man named Justus, who worshipped God. His house was right next to the synagogue.
Acts 18:8  Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his household. And many of the Corinthians who heard believed and were baptized.
Acts 18:9  Then the Lord spoke to Paul in the night in a vision: "Do not be afraid. Speak, and do not keep silent."
Acts 18:10  "For I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you. For I have many people in this city."
Acts 18:11  So he stayed there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.
Acts 18:12  When Gallio was the deputy of Achaia, the Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat.
Acts 18:13  They said, "This fellow persuades people to worship God in a way that is against the law."
Acts 18:14  Paul was just about to open his mouth when Gallio said to the Jews, "If this were a matter of wrong or wicked crime, O you Jews, it would be reasonable for me to listen to you patiently."
Acts 18:15  "But if it is a question about words and names and your own law, see to it yourselves. I will not be a judge of such matters."
Acts 18:16  And he drove them away from the judgment seat.
Acts 18:17  Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judgment seat. And Gallio cared nothing about any of it.
Acts 18:18  After this Paul stayed on there a good while longer. Then he said goodbye to the brothers and sisters and sailed from there to Syria, and Priscilla and Aquila went with him. He had cut off his hair at Cenchrea, for he had made a vow.
Acts 18:19  He came to Ephesus and left them there. But he himself went into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
Acts 18:20  When they asked him to stay longer with them, he would not agree,
Acts 18:21  but said goodbye to them: "I must by all means keep this feast that is coming in Jerusalem. But I will come back to you, if God wills." And he sailed from Ephesus.
Acts 18:22  When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church, and then went down to Antioch.
Acts 18:23  After he had spent some time there, he left and travelled from place to place through all the country of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.
Acts 18:24  A Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He spoke well and was mighty in the scriptures.
Acts 18:25  This man had been taught the way of the Lord. He was fervent in the spirit, and he spoke and taught carefully the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
Acts 18:26  He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more perfectly.
Acts 18:27  When he wanted to cross over into Achaia, the brothers and sisters wrote and urged the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he was a great help to those who had believed through grace.
Acts 18:28  For he powerfully proved the Jews wrong, and did it publicly, showing from the scriptures that Jesus was Christ.

Acts 19:1  While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul travelled through the inland regions and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples.
Acts 19:2  He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They said to him, "We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."
Acts 19:3  He said to them, "Into what then were you baptized?" They said, "Into John's baptism."
Acts 19:4  Then Paul said, "John baptized with the baptism of repentance. He told the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Christ Jesus."
Acts 19:5  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Acts 19:6  When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them. They spoke with tongues and prophesied.
Acts 19:7  There were about twelve men in all.
Acts 19:8  He went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months. He argued and tried to persuade them about the kingdom of God.
Acts 19:9  But some became hard and would not believe. They spoke evil of that Way in front of the crowd. So Paul left them and took the disciples away with him, and he argued every day in the school of a man called Tyrannus.
Acts 19:10  This went on for two years, so that everyone who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
Acts 19:11  God did unusual miracles through the hands of Paul.
Acts 19:12  Handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched his body were carried to the sick. Their diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
Acts 19:13  Then some wandering Jews who drove out spirits tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. They said, "We command you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."
Acts 19:14  There were seven sons of a Jew named Sceva, a chief priest, who did this.
Acts 19:15  The evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know. But who are you?"
Acts 19:16  Then the man who had the evil spirit leaped on them. He overpowered them and beat them, so that they ran out of that house naked and wounded.
Acts 19:17  All the Jews and Greeks living at Ephesus came to know of this. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was honoured greatly.
Acts 19:18  Many who believed came and confessed and told what they had done.
Acts 19:19  Many of those who had practised magic arts brought their books together and burned them in front of everyone. They counted up the price of the books, and it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
Acts 19:20  So the word of God grew mightily and won the day.
Acts 19:21  After these things were finished, Paul decided in his spirit to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. He said, "After I have been there, I must see Rome as well."
Acts 19:22  So he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, into Macedonia. But he himself stayed in Asia for a while.
Acts 19:23  At that time there was a great disturbance about that Way.
Acts 19:24  A man named Demetrius, a silversmith, made silver shrines for Diana. He brought a great deal of business to the craftsmen.
Acts 19:25  He called them together, with the workmen in trades like his own, and said, "Sirs, you know that we get our wealth from this work."
Acts 19:26  "And you see and hear that this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, not only in Ephesus but almost all through Asia. He says that gods made with hands are not gods at all."
Acts 19:27  "So there is danger not only that our trade will fall into disgrace, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana will count for nothing, and that she will lose her greatness, though all Asia and the world worship her."
Acts 19:28  When they heard this, they were full of anger and shouted, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians."
Acts 19:29  The whole city was filled with confusion. They seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia who travelled with Paul, and all together they rushed into the theatre.
Acts 19:30  Paul wanted to go in among the people, but the disciples would not let him.
Acts 19:31  Some of the leading men of Asia, who were his friends, sent word to him, begging him not to risk going into the theatre.
Acts 19:32  Some shouted one thing and some another, for the crowd was in confusion. Most of them did not know why they had come together.
Acts 19:33  They brought Alexander out of the crowd, the Jews pushing him forward. Alexander motioned with his hand, wanting to make his defence to the people.
Acts 19:34  But when they saw that he was a Jew, they all shouted with one voice for about two hours, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians."
Acts 19:35  When the town clerk had quietened the people, he said, "Men of Ephesus, is there anyone who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the keeper of the temple of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?"
Acts 19:36  "Since no one can deny these things, you ought to be quiet and do nothing rash."
Acts 19:37  "For you have brought these men here, and they have neither robbed temples nor spoken against your goddess."
Acts 19:38  "So if Demetrius and the craftsmen with him have a case against anyone, the courts are open and there are governors. Let them bring their charges against one another there."
Acts 19:39  "But if you want to ask about anything else, it must be settled in a lawful assembly."
Acts 19:40  "For we are in danger of being charged with rioting because of what has happened today. There is no reason we can give to explain this gathering."
Acts 19:41  When he had said this, he sent the assembly away.

Acts 20:1  After the riot had stopped, Paul sent for the disciples. He embraced them and said goodbye, and then left to go to Macedonia.
Acts 20:2  He travelled through those regions and encouraged the believers with many words. Then he came into Greece,
Acts 20:3  and stayed there three months. He was about to sail to Syria, but the Jews made a plot against him. So he decided to go back through Macedonia.
Acts 20:4  These men went with him into Asia: Sopater of Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus, who were from Thessalonica; Gaius of Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus, who were from Asia.
Acts 20:5  These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.
Acts 20:6  We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. Five days later we joined them at Troas, and we stayed there seven days.
Acts 20:7  On the first day of the week the disciples came together to break bread. Paul spoke to them, since he was going to leave the next day. He kept on talking until midnight.
Acts 20:8  There were many lamps in the upstairs room where they were gathered together.
Acts 20:9  A young man named Eutychus was sitting in a window, and he fell into a deep sleep. As Paul talked on and on, sleep overcame him. He fell down from the third floor, and they picked him up dead.
Acts 20:10  Paul went down, threw himself on him and put his arms around him. He said, "Do not be upset, for his life is in him."
Acts 20:11  Then Paul went up again, broke bread and ate. He talked with them a long while, until daybreak, and then he left.
Acts 20:12  They brought the young man home alive, and they were greatly comforted.
Acts 20:13  We went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos. We meant to take Paul on board there, because he had arranged it so; he himself wanted to go on foot.
Acts 20:14  When he met us at Assos, we took him on board and came to Mitylene.
Acts 20:15  We sailed from there, and the next day we came opposite Chios. The day after that we arrived at Samos and stayed at Trogyllium, and the next day we came to Miletus.
Acts 20:16  Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus, so that he would not have to spend time in Asia. He was hurrying to be at Jerusalem, if it was possible for him, on the day of Pentecost.
Acts 20:17  From Miletus he sent word to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.
Acts 20:18  When they came to him, he said to them, "You know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day that I came into Asia."
Acts 20:19  "I served the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews."
Acts 20:20  "I kept back nothing that was helpful to you. I showed you these things and taught you in public and from house to house."
Acts 20:21  "I told both Jews and Greeks that they must repent and turn to God, and have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ."
Acts 20:22  "And now, look, I am going to Jerusalem, bound in the spirit. I do not know what will happen to me there."
Acts 20:23  "I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and troubles are waiting for me."
Acts 20:24  "But none of these things move me. I do not count my life dear to myself. I only want to finish my race with joy, and to finish the work the Lord Jesus gave me, to tell others the good news of the grace of God."
Acts 20:25  "And now, look, I know that none of you will see my face again, all of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom of God."
Acts 20:26  "So I call you to witness this day that I am not guilty of the blood of any man."
Acts 20:27  "For I have not held back from telling you all the counsel of God."
Acts 20:28  "So watch over yourselves, and over all the flock. The Holy Spirit has made you overseers of it, to feed the church of God, which he bought with his own blood."
Acts 20:29  "For I know this: after I leave, fierce wolves will come in among you, and they will not spare the flock."
Acts 20:30  "Even from among you, men will stand up and say twisted things, to draw the disciples away after them."
Acts 20:31  "So keep watch. Remember that for three years I never stopped warning every one of you, night and day, with tears."
Acts 20:32  "And now, brothers and sisters, I give you into the care of God and of the word of his grace. That word is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all those who are made holy."
Acts 20:33  "I have not wanted any man's silver or gold or clothing."
Acts 20:34  "Yes, you yourselves know that these hands worked to supply my own needs, and the needs of those who were with me."
Acts 20:35  "In everything I showed you that by working like this we must help the weak. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
Acts 20:36  When he had said this, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
Acts 20:37  They all wept bitterly. They threw their arms around Paul's neck and kissed him.
Acts 20:38  What grieved them most was what he had said: that they would see his face no more. Then they went with him to the ship.

Acts 21:1  After we had torn ourselves away from them, we set sail. We went straight to Coos, and the next day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara.
Acts 21:2  There we found a ship crossing over to Phenicia. We went aboard and set sail.
Acts 21:3  When we came in sight of Cyprus, we passed it on our left and sailed on to Syria. We landed at Tyre, because the ship was to unload her cargo there.
Acts 21:4  We found the disciples there and stayed with them seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
Acts 21:5  When those days were over, we left and went on our way. They all came with us out of the city, with their wives and children. On the shore we knelt down and prayed.
Acts 21:6  When we had said goodbye to one another, we boarded the ship, and they went back home.
Acts 21:7  We finished our voyage from Tyre and came to Ptolemais. There we greeted the brothers and sisters and stayed with them one day.
Acts 21:8  The next day we who were with Paul left and came to Caesarea. We went into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.
Acts 21:9  This man had four daughters, virgins, who prophesied.
Acts 21:10  While we were staying there many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judaea.
Acts 21:11  When he came to us, he took Paul's belt and tied his own hands and feet with it. He said, "This is what the Holy Spirit says: In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will tie up the man who owns this belt, and will hand him over to the Gentiles."
Acts 21:12  When we heard this, both we and the people there begged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.
Acts 21:13  Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be tied up, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."
Acts 21:14  When he would not be persuaded, we stopped, and said, "Let the will of the Lord be done."
Acts 21:15  After those days we packed our baggage and went up to Jerusalem.
Acts 21:16  Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us. They brought with them a man named Mnason of Cyprus, a disciple from the early days, and we were to stay at his house.
Acts 21:17  When we came to Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters welcomed us gladly.
Acts 21:18  The next day Paul went in with us to see James, and all the elders were there.
Acts 21:19  When he had greeted them, he told them one by one the things God had done among the Gentiles through his work.
Acts 21:20  When they heard it, they gave glory to the Lord. They said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe, and they are all eager for the law."
Acts 21:21  "They have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses. They say you tell them not to circumcise their children and not to follow the customs."
Acts 21:22  "So what shall we do? The crowd is sure to come together, for they will hear that you have come."
Acts 21:23  "So do what we tell you. We have four men who have made a vow."
Acts 21:24  "Take these men, and go through the ceremony of cleansing with them, and pay their costs, so that they may shave their heads. Then everyone will know that there is nothing in what they were told about you, but that you yourself live properly and keep the law."
Acts 21:25  "As for the Gentiles who believe, we have written our decision to them: that they keep away from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from sexual sin."
Acts 21:26  Then Paul took the men. The next day he went through the cleansing with them and entered the temple. He gave notice when the days of cleansing would be complete, and when an offering would be made for each of them.
Acts 21:27  When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia saw him in the temple. They stirred up all the people and seized him.
Acts 21:28  They shouted, "Men of Israel, help. This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, and against the law, and against this place. And now he has even brought Greeks into the temple and made this holy place unclean."
Acts 21:29  (They had seen Trophimus, a man of Ephesus, in the city with Paul, and they thought Paul had brought him into the temple.)
Acts 21:30  The whole city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They took hold of Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the doors were shut.
Acts 21:31  While they were trying to kill him, news reached the chief captain of the troop that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
Acts 21:32  At once he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. When the people saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
Acts 21:33  Then the chief captain came up, took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He asked who he was and what he had done.
Acts 21:34  Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another. Since he could not find out the truth because of the noise, he ordered Paul to be taken into the castle.
Acts 21:35  When Paul came to the stairs, the soldiers had to carry him, because the people were so violent.
Acts 21:36  For the crowd of people followed after, shouting, "Away with him."
Acts 21:37  As Paul was about to be led into the castle, he said to the chief captain, "May I speak to you?" He said, "Can you speak Greek?"
Acts 21:38  "Are you not that Egyptian who caused an uproar a while ago, and led four thousand murderers out into the wilderness?"
Acts 21:39  But Paul said, "I am a Jew, from Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no unimportant city. I beg you, allow me to speak to the people."
Acts 21:40  When the captain gave him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and made a sign with his hand to the people. When there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying,

Acts 22:1  "Men, brothers, and fathers, listen to the defence I now make to you."
Acts 22:2  (When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said,)
Acts 22:3  "I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, but I was brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel. I was taught to keep the law of our fathers exactly, and I was zealous toward God, as all of you are this day."
Acts 22:4  "I persecuted this way even to the death. I tied up both men and women and handed them over to prisons."
Acts 22:5  "The high priest is my witness, and so is the whole council of elders. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I went to Damascus to bring those who were there back to Jerusalem in chains, to be punished."
Acts 22:6  "As I was travelling, and came near Damascus about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone all around me."
Acts 22:7  "I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'"
Acts 22:8  "I answered, 'Who are you, Lord?' And he said to me, 'I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.'"
Acts 22:9  "Those who were with me did see the light, and they were afraid. But they did not hear the voice of him who spoke to me."
Acts 22:10  "And I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Get up, and go into Damascus. There you will be told all the things that are appointed for you to do.'"
Acts 22:11  "I could not see, because of the glory of that light. So those who were with me led me by the hand, and I came into Damascus."
Acts 22:12  "A man named Ananias, who was devout in keeping the law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there,"
Acts 22:13  "came to me. He stood there and said to me, 'Brother Saul, receive your sight.' At that same hour I looked up at him."
Acts 22:14  "And he said, 'The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will, and to see that Just One, and to hear the voice of his mouth.'"
Acts 22:15  "'For you will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.'"
Acts 22:16  "'And now why are you waiting? Get up, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.'"
Acts 22:17  "When I had come back to Jerusalem, while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance."
Acts 22:18  "I saw him saying to me, 'Hurry, and get out of Jerusalem quickly. They will not accept what you say about me.'"
Acts 22:19  "And I said, 'Lord, they know that I put in prison and beat in every synagogue those who believed in you."
Acts 22:20  "And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I was standing by. I agreed to his death, and I looked after the clothes of those who killed him.'"
Acts 22:21  "And he said to me, 'Go. I will send you far from here to the Gentiles.'"
Acts 22:22  They listened to him until he said this word. Then they lifted up their voices and said, "Away with such a man from the earth. It is not right that he should live."
Acts 22:23  They cried out, and threw off their clothes, and threw dust into the air.
Acts 22:24  So the chief captain ordered him to be brought into the castle. He said that Paul should be questioned under the whip, so that he might learn why they shouted against him like this.
Acts 22:25  As they tied him up with straps, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, "Is it lawful for you to whip a man who is a Roman, and has not been found guilty?"
Acts 22:26  When the centurion heard that, he went and told the chief captain, saying, "Be careful what you do. This man is a Roman."
Acts 22:27  Then the chief captain came and said to him, "Tell me, are you a Roman?" He said, "Yes."
Acts 22:28  And the chief captain answered, "I paid a great sum of money to get this freedom." And Paul said, "But I was born free."
Acts 22:29  Then those who were going to question him left him at once. The chief captain was also afraid when he knew that he was a Roman, and because he had tied him up.
Acts 22:30  The next day, because he wanted to know for certain why Paul was accused by the Jews, he set him free from his chains. He ordered the chief priests and all their council to meet. Then he brought Paul down and set him before them.

Acts 23:1  Paul looked straight at the council and said, "Men and brothers, I have lived before God with a completely clear conscience up to this day."
Acts 23:2  Then Ananias the high priest ordered the men standing near Paul to hit him on the mouth.
Acts 23:3  Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. Do you sit there to judge me by the law, and yet order me to be struck against the law?"
Acts 23:4  The men standing by said, "Do you insult God's high priest?"
Acts 23:5  Then Paul said, "Brothers, I did not know that he was the high priest. For it is written, 'You shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people.'"
Acts 23:6  Paul saw that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees. So he called out in the council, "Men and brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I am on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead."
Acts 23:7  When he had said this, an argument broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the crowd was divided.
Acts 23:8  For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and no angel, and no spirit. But the Pharisees believe in them all.
Acts 23:9  There was a great uproar. The scribes who were on the Pharisees' side stood up and argued, "We find nothing evil in this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him? Let us not fight against God."
Acts 23:10  The argument grew very fierce. The chief captain was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. So he ordered the soldiers to go down, take him from among them by force, and bring him into the castle.
Acts 23:11  The next night the Lord stood beside him and said, "Take heart, Paul. You have told about me in Jerusalem, and you must be a witness in Rome too."
Acts 23:12  When it was day, some of the Jews joined together. They bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.
Acts 23:13  There were more than forty men who made this plot.
Acts 23:14  They came to the chief priests and the elders and said, "We have bound ourselves under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul."
Acts 23:15  "So now you and the council must send word to the chief captain to bring him down to you tomorrow, as if you meant to look into his case more carefully. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near."
Acts 23:16  But Paul's sister's son heard about the ambush. He went into the castle and told Paul.
Acts 23:17  Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the chief captain. He has something to tell him."
Acts 23:18  So he took him and brought him to the chief captain and said, "Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you."
Acts 23:19  The chief captain took him by the hand, drew him aside privately, and asked him, "What is it you have to tell me?"
Acts 23:20  He said, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as if they meant to look into his case more carefully."
Acts 23:21  "But do not give in to them. More than forty of their men are waiting to ambush him. They have bound themselves with an oath that they will neither eat nor drink until they have killed him. They are ready now, waiting for your word."
Acts 23:22  So the chief captain sent the young man away, and ordered him, "Tell no one that you have shown these things to me."
Acts 23:23  He called two of the centurions and said, "Get two hundred soldiers ready to go to Caesarea, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, at the third hour of the night."
Acts 23:24  "Provide animals for Paul to ride, so that they may bring him safely to Felix the governor."
Acts 23:25  And he wrote a letter like this:
Acts 23:26  "Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix: greetings."
Acts 23:27  This man was seized by the Jews, and they were about to kill him. Then I came with my soldiers and rescued him, for I had learned that he was a Roman.
Acts 23:28  I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him down to their council.
Acts 23:29  I found that he was accused about questions of their law, but that there was no charge against him that deserved death or chains.
Acts 23:30  "Then I was told that the Jews were planning an ambush against the man. So I sent him to you at once, and I also ordered his accusers to say before you what they have against him. Farewell."
Acts 23:31  So the soldiers did as they were ordered. They took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.
Acts 23:32  The next day they left the horsemen to go on with him, and they returned to the castle.
Acts 23:33  When the horsemen came to Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and brought Paul before him as well.
Acts 23:34  When the governor had read the letter, he asked what province Paul was from. When he understood that he was from Cilicia,
Acts 23:35  he said, "I will hear you when your accusers have come too." And he ordered him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall.

Acts 24:1  Five days later Ananias the high priest came down with the elders, and with a speaker named Tertullus. They brought their charges against Paul before the governor.
Acts 24:2  When Paul was called in, Tertullus began to accuse him. He said, "Because of you we enjoy great peace, and by your foresight very good things are done for this nation."
Acts 24:3  "We accept this always and in every place, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness."
Acts 24:4  "But so that I do not tire you any longer, I beg you to be kind and listen to us for a few words."
Acts 24:5  "We have found this man to be a troublemaker. He stirs up rebellion among all the Jews throughout the world, and he is a leader of the sect of the Nazarenes."
Acts 24:6  "He even tried to make the temple unclean. So we took hold of him, and we would have judged him by our law."
Acts 24:7  "But Lysias the chief captain came and took him out of our hands with great violence."
Acts 24:8  "He commanded his accusers to come to you. If you question him yourself, you can learn about all these things we accuse him of."
Acts 24:9  The Jews agreed, saying that these things were so.
Acts 24:10  Then the governor made a sign for Paul to speak, and Paul answered, "I know that you have been a judge over this nation for many years. So I gladly speak in my own defence."
Acts 24:11  "You can find out that it is only twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship."
Acts 24:12  "They did not find me arguing with anyone in the temple, nor stirring up the people, either in the synagogues or in the city."
Acts 24:13  "They cannot prove the things they now accuse me of."
Acts 24:14  "But this I admit to you. I worship the God of my fathers in the way that they call heresy. I believe all the things written in the law and in the prophets."
Acts 24:15  "I have hope toward God, a hope which they themselves also hold, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust."
Acts 24:16  "So I train myself always to keep a clear conscience before God and before men."
Acts 24:17  "After many years I came to bring gifts for the poor of my nation, and offerings."
Acts 24:18  "While I was doing this, certain Jews from Asia found me in the temple, purified. There was no crowd with me, and no uproar."
Acts 24:19  "They ought to be here before you and make their charge, if they have anything against me."
Acts 24:20  "Or let these men here say what wrong they found in me when I stood before the council,"
Acts 24:21  "unless it is this one thing I called out while I stood among them: 'It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am judged by you this day.'"
Acts 24:22  When Felix heard these things, he knew quite well about that way. He put them off and said, "When Lysias the chief captain comes down, I will decide your case."
Acts 24:23  He commanded a centurion to guard Paul, and to let him have some freedom, and not to stop any of his friends from coming to him or caring for him.
Acts 24:24  Some days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him about faith in Christ.
Acts 24:25  As Paul spoke about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid. He answered, "Go away for now. When I have a suitable time, I will call for you."
Acts 24:26  He also hoped that Paul would give him money to set him free. So he sent for him often and talked with him.
Acts 24:27  But after two years Porcius Festus took the place of Felix. Felix wanted to please the Jews, so he left Paul in prison.

Acts 25:1  When Festus came into the province, after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem.
Acts 25:2  Then the high priest and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul before him, and they begged him,
Acts 25:3  asking a favour against Paul. They wanted Festus to send for him to come to Jerusalem, for they were setting an ambush on the road to kill him.
Acts 25:4  But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was going there soon.
Acts 25:5  "So let those among you who are able go down with me," he said, "and accuse this man, if there is any wrong in him."
Acts 25:6  After he had stayed among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea. The next day he sat on the judgment seat and commanded Paul to be brought in.
Acts 25:7  When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They made many serious charges against Paul, which they could not prove.
Acts 25:8  Paul spoke in his own defence: "I have done no wrong at all, not against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar."
Acts 25:9  But Festus wanted to please the Jews. So he answered Paul and said, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, and be judged there before me about these things?"
Acts 25:10  Then Paul said, "I am standing at Caesar's judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you know very well."
Acts 25:11  "If I have done wrong, or have done anything that deserves death, I do not refuse to die. But if there is nothing in what these men accuse me of, no one may hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar."
Acts 25:12  Then Festus talked it over with his council, and answered, "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you shall go."
Acts 25:13  After some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus.
Acts 25:14  They stayed there many days, and Festus laid Paul's case before the king. He said, "There is a man here whom Felix left in prison."
Acts 25:15  When I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him, asking for a judgment against him.
Acts 25:16  I answered them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over any man to die before the accused man has met his accusers face to face, and has been allowed to answer for himself about the charge laid against him.
Acts 25:17  So when they came here, I did not delay. The next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in.
Acts 25:18  When his accusers stood up, they brought no charge of the kind of crimes I expected.
Acts 25:19  Instead they had certain questions against him about their own religion, and about a certain Jesus, who was dead, whom Paul said was alive.
Acts 25:20  I was unsure how to look into such questions. So I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem and be judged there about these matters.
Acts 25:21  "But Paul appealed to be kept for the decision of Augustus. So I commanded him to be held until I could send him to Caesar."
Acts 25:22  Then Agrippa said to Festus, "I would like to hear the man myself." "Tomorrow," he said, "you shall hear him."
Acts 25:23  The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great show, and entered the hall of hearing with the commanders and the leading men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.
Acts 25:24  Festus said, "King Agrippa, and all of you who are here with us, you see this man. The whole crowd of the Jews have appealed to me about him, both at Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer."
Acts 25:25  But I found that he had done nothing that deserves death. And since he himself has appealed to Augustus, I have decided to send him.
Acts 25:26  I have nothing certain to write about him to my lord. So I have brought him out before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after we have examined him, I may have something to write.
Acts 25:27  "For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner without also stating the charges against him."

Acts 26:1  Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You are allowed to speak for yourself." So Paul stretched out his hand and began his defence:
Acts 26:2  "King Agrippa, I count myself fortunate that today I am to defend myself before you against all the things the Jews accuse me of."
Acts 26:3  "This is above all because I know that you are an expert in all the customs and questions that are found among the Jews. So I beg you to listen to me patiently."
Acts 26:4  "All the Jews know how I have lived from my youth. They know how I lived from the first among my own nation at Jerusalem."
Acts 26:5  "They have known me from the beginning, and they could testify, if they would, that I lived as a Pharisee, in the strictest group of our religion."
Acts 26:6  "And now I stand here on trial because of the hope of the promise God made to our fathers."
Acts 26:7  "Our twelve tribes serve God earnestly, day and night, hoping to reach that promise. It is for this hope, King Agrippa, that I am accused by the Jews."
Acts 26:8  "Why should you think it impossible to believe that God raises the dead?"
Acts 26:9  "I myself once thought that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth."
Acts 26:10  "And that is what I did in Jerusalem. I received authority from the chief priests, and I shut many of the saints up in prison. When they were put to death, I gave my vote against them."
Acts 26:11  "Again and again I punished them in every synagogue, and I forced them to blaspheme. I was so furious against them that I hunted them down even in foreign cities."
Acts 26:12  "On such a journey I was going to Damascus with authority and orders from the chief priests."
Acts 26:13  "At midday, O king, I saw on the road a light from heaven, brighter than the sun. It shone all around me and those travelling with me."
Acts 26:14  "We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language. It said, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'"
Acts 26:15  "And I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' And he said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."
Acts 26:16  "'But get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you for this purpose: to make you a servant and a witness of the things you have seen, and of the things in which I will appear to you."
Acts 26:17  "'I will rescue you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I am now sending you."
Acts 26:18  "'You will open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are made holy by faith in me.'"
Acts 26:19  "And so, King Agrippa, I did not disobey the vision from heaven."
Acts 26:20  "I preached first to those in Damascus, and in Jerusalem, and through all the country of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles. I told them they should repent and turn to God, and do works that fit repentance."
Acts 26:21  "For these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me."
Acts 26:22  "But God has helped me, and so I stand here to this day, witnessing to small and great alike. I say nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would come:"
Acts 26:23  "that Christ would suffer, and that he would be the first to rise from the dead, and would bring light to the people and to the Gentiles."
Acts 26:24  As Paul was speaking in his defence, Festus said in a loud voice, "Paul, you are out of your mind. All your learning has driven you mad."
Acts 26:25  But Paul said, "I am not mad, most noble Festus. I am speaking words of truth and good sense."
Acts 26:26  "The king knows about these things, and I speak freely before him. I am sure that none of these things are hidden from him, for this was not done in a corner."
Acts 26:27  "King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe."
Acts 26:28  Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian."
Acts 26:29  And Paul said, "I pray to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become what I am, whether almost or completely - except for these chains."
Acts 26:30  When he had said this, the king stood up, and the governor, and Bernice, and those who sat with them.
Acts 26:31  When they had gone aside, they talked with one another and said, "This man has done nothing that deserves death or chains."
Acts 26:32  Then Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been set free, if he had not appealed to Caesar."

Acts 27:1  When it was decided that we should sail to Italy, they handed Paul and some other prisoners over to a man named Julius, a centurion of the Augustus band.
Acts 27:2  We boarded a ship from Adramyttium that was about to sail to the ports along the coast of Asia, and we set out. Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us.
Acts 27:3  The next day we landed at Sidon. Julius treated Paul kindly, and let him go to his friends so they could care for him.
Acts 27:4  When we had set out from there, we sailed under the shelter of Cyprus, because the winds were against us.
Acts 27:5  We sailed across the sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia, and came to Myra, a city of Lycia.
Acts 27:6  There the centurion found a ship from Alexandria that was sailing to Italy, and he put us on board.
Acts 27:7  We sailed slowly for many days, and only just came opposite Cnidus. The wind would not let us go on, so we sailed under the shelter of Crete, opposite Salmone.
Acts 27:8  We passed along the coast with difficulty, and came to a place called The Fair Havens. The city of Lasea was near it.
Acts 27:9  Much time had now been lost, and sailing had become dangerous, because the Fast was already over. So Paul warned them.
Acts 27:10  He said to them, "Sirs, I can see that this voyage will bring harm and much damage, not only to the cargo and the ship, but also to our lives."
Acts 27:11  But the centurion believed the captain and the owner of the ship more than what Paul said.
Acts 27:12  The harbour was not a good place to spend the winter, so most of them advised that they should leave from there too. They hoped that somehow they could reach Phenice and spend the winter there. It is a harbour of Crete, and it faces south west and north west.
Acts 27:13  When a soft south wind blew, they thought they had what they wanted. So they pulled up the anchor and sailed close along the coast of Crete.
Acts 27:14  But not long afterward a violent wind, called Euroclydon, rushed down from the island.
Acts 27:15  The ship was caught by it and could not head into the wind, so we gave way and let it drive us along.
Acts 27:16  We ran under the shelter of a small island called Clauda, and we were hardly able to secure the ship's boat.
Acts 27:17  When they had hauled it up, they used ropes to bind the ship underneath. They were afraid of running onto the quicksands, so they lowered the sail, and were driven along.
Acts 27:18  We were tossed about so violently by the storm that the next day they threw the cargo overboard.
Acts 27:19  On the third day we threw out the ship's tackle with our own hands.
Acts 27:20  For many days neither sun nor stars appeared, and the great storm kept beating on us. At last we gave up all hope of being saved.
Acts 27:21  They had gone a long time without food. Then Paul stood up among them and said, "Sirs, you should have listened to me and not sailed from Crete. Then you would have avoided this harm and loss."
Acts 27:22  "And now I urge you to take heart. No one among you will lose his life; only the ship will be lost."
Acts 27:23  "For last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me."
Acts 27:24  "He said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand before Caesar. And look, God has given you all those who are sailing with you.'"
Acts 27:25  "So take heart, sirs. I believe God, that it will be just as I was told."
Acts 27:26  "But we must be cast up on a certain island."
Acts 27:27  When the fourteenth night came, we were being driven back and forth in the Adria. About midnight the sailors thought that they were getting near some land.
Acts 27:28  They measured the depth and found it was twenty fathoms. When they had gone a little further, they measured again and found it was fifteen fathoms.
Acts 27:29  They were afraid we might be thrown onto the rocks, so they let down four anchors from the back of the ship, and prayed for daylight.
Acts 27:30  The sailors were trying to escape from the ship. They had let the boat down into the sea, pretending that they were going to put out anchors from the front of the ship.
Acts 27:31  Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved."
Acts 27:32  Then the soldiers cut the ropes of the boat and let it fall away.
Acts 27:33  While the day was coming on, Paul urged them all to eat. He said, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have waited and gone on fasting, having eaten nothing."
Acts 27:34  "So I beg you to take some food, for it will keep you alive. Not a hair will fall from the head of any of you."
Acts 27:35  When he had said this, he took bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat.
Acts 27:36  Then they all took heart, and they too ate some food.
Acts 27:37  There were two hundred and seventy-six of us on the ship in all.
Acts 27:38  When they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing the wheat into the sea.
Acts 27:39  When it was day, they did not recognise the land. But they saw a bay with a beach, and they planned to run the ship into it if they could.
Acts 27:40  So they cut away the anchors and left them in the sea. At the same time they untied the ropes that held the rudders, hoisted the mainsail to the wind, and headed for the beach.
Acts 27:41  But they came to a place where two seas met, and they ran the ship aground. The front of the ship stuck fast and would not move, but the back was broken up by the force of the waves.
Acts 27:42  The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners, in case any of them should swim away and escape.
Acts 27:43  But the centurion wanted to save Paul, so he stopped them from doing it. He ordered those who could swim to jump into the sea first and get to land,
Acts 27:44  and the rest to follow, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so they all came safely to land.

Acts 28:1  When we were all safe, we learned that the island was called Melita.
Acts 28:2  The local people showed us great kindness. It was raining and it was cold, so they lit a fire and welcomed every one of us.
Acts 28:3  Paul gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire. A viper came out because of the heat and fastened itself on his hand.
Acts 28:4  When the local people saw the poisonous creature hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "No doubt this man is a murderer. He escaped from the sea, but justice will not let him live."
Acts 28:5  But Paul shook the creature off into the fire, and he felt no harm.
Acts 28:6  They waited for him to swell up, or to fall down dead all at once. They watched for a long time, and saw that nothing bad happened to him. Then they changed their minds and said that he was a god.
Acts 28:7  Nearby were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius. He welcomed us and kindly gave us a place to stay for three days.
Acts 28:8  The father of Publius was lying sick with a fever and with bloody diarrhoea. Paul went in to him, prayed, laid his hands on him, and healed him.
Acts 28:9  After this happened, the other people on the island who had diseases came too, and they were healed.
Acts 28:10  They honoured us in many ways. When we left, they loaded us with the things we needed.
Acts 28:11  After three months we sailed away in a ship from Alexandria that had spent the winter at the island. Its sign was Castor and Pollux.
Acts 28:12  We landed at Syracuse and stayed there three days.
Acts 28:13  From there we sailed round and came to Rhegium. After one day the south wind began to blow, and the next day we came to Puteoli.
Acts 28:14  There we found brothers and sisters, and they asked us to stay with them seven days. And so we went on toward Rome.
Acts 28:15  When the brothers and sisters there heard about us, they came out to meet us as far as the Market of Appius and The Three Taverns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage.
Acts 28:16  When we came to Rome, the centurion handed the prisoners over to the captain of the guard. But Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier who guarded him.
Acts 28:17  Three days later Paul called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had come together, he said to them, "Men and brothers, I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our fathers. Even so, I was handed over as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans."
Acts 28:18  "When they had questioned me, they wanted to let me go, because there was no reason to put me to death."
Acts 28:19  "But when the Jews spoke against it, I was forced to appeal to Caesar. It was not that I had anything to accuse my own nation of."
Acts 28:20  "That is why I have asked to see you and to speak with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."
Acts 28:21  They said to him, "We have not received any letters about you from Judaea. None of the brothers who came here has reported or said anything bad about you."
Acts 28:22  "But we want to hear from you what you think. We know that people everywhere speak against this group."
Acts 28:23  So they set a day for him, and many came to him at the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained the matter to them and told them about the kingdom of God. He tried to persuade them about Jesus, both from the law of Moses and from the prophets.
Acts 28:24  Some believed what he said, and some did not believe.
Acts 28:25  They did not agree among themselves, and they began to leave. Then Paul said one more thing: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to our fathers through Isaiah the prophet."
Acts 28:26  "He said, 'Go to this people and say: You will hear and hear, and never understand. You will look and look, and never see."
Acts 28:27  "'For the heart of this people has grown hard. Their ears hardly hear, and they have shut their eyes. Otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn back, and I would heal them.'"
Acts 28:28  "So know this: the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen to it."
Acts 28:29  When he had said these words, the Jews left, arguing much among themselves.
Acts 28:30  Paul lived for two whole years in his own rented house, and he welcomed everyone who came to him.
Acts 28:31  He preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking boldly, and no one stopped him.

Romans

Romans 1:1  Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God,
Romans 1:2  (the gospel he promised long ago through his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
Romans 1:3  the gospel about his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. As to his human birth, he came from the family of David.
Romans 1:4  And by the spirit of holiness he was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.
Romans 1:5  Through him we have received grace, and the work of an apostle, so that people of all nations may obey the faith, for the sake of his name.
Romans 1:6  You also are among them, called to belong to Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:7  I write to all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:8  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is talked about all over the world.
Romans 1:9  God is my witness, the God I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that I never stop speaking of you in my prayers.
Romans 1:10  I keep asking that somehow, at last, if God is willing, I may have a good journey and come to you.
Romans 1:11  For I long to see you, so that I may give you some spiritual gift, to make you strong;
Romans 1:12  that is, so that you and I may be comforted together by the faith we share.
Romans 1:13  Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be unaware that I have often planned to come to you (but until now I have been kept from it), so that I might have some fruit among you also, as I have among the other Gentiles.
Romans 1:14  I am in debt both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
Romans 1:15  So, as far as I am able, I am ready to preach the gospel to you in Rome as well.
Romans 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:17  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith. As it is written, "The just shall live by faith."
Romans 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who hold back the truth by unrighteousness.
Romans 1:19  For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Romans 1:20  Ever since the world was created, the things about him that cannot be seen have been clearly seen. They are understood from the things he has made, even his eternal power and his divine nature. So they have no excuse.
Romans 1:21  For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, and they were not thankful. Instead their thinking became empty, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Romans 1:22  Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
Romans 1:23  They exchanged the glory of the God who never decays for images shaped like a man who decays, and like birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.
Romans 1:24  So God also gave them up to uncleanness, following the lusts of their own hearts, so that they dishonoured their own bodies with one another.
Romans 1:25  They exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They worshipped and served the created thing rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Romans 1:26  For this reason God gave them up to shameful desires. Even their women exchanged the natural use of their bodies for what is against nature.
Romans 1:27  In the same way the men also left the natural use of the woman and burned in their lust for one another. Men did shameful things with men, and received in themselves the payment their error deserved.
Romans 1:28  And because they did not want to keep God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a worthless mind, to do the things that are not right.
Romans 1:29  They are filled with all unrighteousness, sexual sin, wickedness, greed and spite. They are full of envy, murder, quarrelling, deceit and ill will. They are gossips,
Romans 1:30  slanderers, haters of God, insulting, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
Romans 1:31  without understanding, breakers of covenant, without natural affection, unforgiving, without mercy.
Romans 1:32  They know God's judgement, that those who do such things deserve death. Yet they not only do them, but are pleased with others who do them.

Romans 2:1  So you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge someone else. When you judge another person, you condemn yourself, because you who judge do the same things.
Romans 2:2  And we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is true and right.
Romans 2:3  So think about this: you judge people who do such things, yet you do them yourself. Do you think you will escape the judgment of God?
Romans 2:4  Or do you make light of how very kind and patient he is, and how long he holds back his anger? Do you not know that God's kindness is leading you to repent?
Romans 2:5  But your heart is hard and will not repent. So you are storing up anger for yourself, for the day of anger, when God's righteous judgment will be made known.
Romans 2:6  He will give to every person according to what they have done.
Romans 2:7  To those who keep on patiently doing good, and who look for glory and honour and life that never ends, he will give eternal life.
Romans 2:8  But for those who argue against the truth and will not obey it, and who obey what is wrong, there will be anger and fury.
Romans 2:9  There will be trouble and pain for every person who does evil, for the Jew first, and also for the Gentile.
Romans 2:10  But there will be glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first, and also for the Gentile.
Romans 2:11  For God treats no one as more important than another.
Romans 2:12  All who have sinned without the law will also die without the law. And all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.
Romans 2:13  (For it is not those who hear the law who are right before God. It is those who obey the law who will be counted righteous.
Romans 2:14  For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things the law says, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
Romans 2:15  They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts. Their conscience also speaks for them, and their thoughts either accuse them or defend them.)
Romans 2:16  This will happen on the day when God will judge the secrets of people through Jesus Christ, as my gospel says.
Romans 2:17  Look, you call yourself a Jew. You rest on the law, and you boast about God.
Romans 2:18  You know his will, and you can tell what is best, because you have been taught from the law.
Romans 2:19  You are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,
Romans 2:20  a teacher of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because in the law you have the pattern of knowledge and of truth.
Romans 2:21  So then, you teach someone else. Do you not teach yourself? You preach that a person should not steal. Do you steal?
Romans 2:22  You say a person should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You hate idols. Do you rob temples?
Romans 2:23  You boast about the law. Do you dishonour God by breaking the law?
Romans 2:24  For as it is written, "The name of God is spoken against among the Gentiles because of you."
Romans 2:25  Circumcision is indeed of value, if you keep the law. But if you break the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
Romans 2:26  So if a man who is not circumcised keeps the righteousness of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?
Romans 2:27  And the man who is uncircumcised by nature, if he keeps the law, will he not judge you? For you have the written law and circumcision, yet you break the law.
Romans 2:28  For a person is not a Jew by what is seen on the outside, and circumcision is not what is done on the outside, in the flesh.
Romans 2:29  But a person is a Jew by what is inside, and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written law. Such a person is praised not by people, but by God.

Romans 3:1  What advantage, then, does the Jew have? Or what good is circumcision?
Romans 3:2  Much in every way. First of all, the words of God were trusted to them.
Romans 3:3  What if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God of no effect?
Romans 3:4  Certainly not. Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written, "So that you may be shown right in your words, and may win when you are judged."
Romans 3:5  But if our unrighteousness shows how right God is, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous when he brings punishment? (I am speaking as a man does.)
Romans 3:6  Certainly not. For then how could God judge the world?
Romans 3:7  For if the truth of God is made greater by my lie, so that he is given glory, why am I still judged as a sinner?
Romans 3:8  And why not say, "Let us do evil, so that good may come"? Some slander us and claim that this is what we say. Their condemnation is just.
Romans 3:9  What then? Are we better than they are? No, not at all. For we have already shown that Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.
Romans 3:10  As it is written, "There is no one righteous, not even one."
Romans 3:11  "There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God."
Romans 3:12  "They have all turned out of the way. Together they have become useless. There is no one who does good, not even one."
Romans 3:13  "Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they have used deceit." "The poison of snakes is under their lips."
Romans 3:14  "Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."
Romans 3:15  "Their feet are quick to shed blood."
Romans 3:16  "Ruin and misery are in their ways."
Romans 3:17  "And they have not known the way of peace."
Romans 3:18  "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Romans 3:19  Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law. So every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be found guilty before God.
Romans 3:20  So no one at all will be made right in his sight by doing the works of the law. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
Romans 3:21  But now the righteousness of God apart from the law has been made known. The law and the prophets bear witness to it.
Romans 3:22  It is the righteousness of God which comes by faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference.
Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:24  They are made right freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Romans 3:25  God set him forth to be the covering for sin, through faith in his blood. This was to show his righteousness, because in his patience God had passed over the sins done before.
Romans 3:26  It was to show his righteousness at this present time, so that he might be just, and the one who makes right the person who believes in Jesus.
Romans 3:27  Where is boasting, then? It is shut out. By what law? By the law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
Romans 3:28  So we conclude that a man is made right by faith, apart from the works of the law.
Romans 3:29  Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.
Romans 3:30  For God is one. He will make the circumcised right by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.
Romans 3:31  Do we then make the law of no effect through faith? Certainly not. Instead, we uphold the law.

Romans 4:1  What shall we say, then, about Abraham, our forefather by human descent? What did he find?
Romans 4:2  For if Abraham was made right by works, he has something to boast about - but not before God.
Romans 4:3  For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."
Romans 4:4  Now when a man works, his pay is not counted as a gift of grace. It is owed to him.
Romans 4:5  But when a man does not work, but believes in the one who makes the ungodly right, his faith is counted as righteousness.
Romans 4:6  David says the same thing when he describes how happy the man is to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
Romans 4:7  "Blessed are those whose wrongs are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."
Romans 4:8  "Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count against him."
Romans 4:9  Does this blessing come only on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised as well? For we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.
Romans 4:10  How was it counted, then? Was he circumcised at the time, or not circumcised? He was not circumcised, but uncircumcised.
Romans 4:11  And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness of the faith he had while he was still uncircumcised. So he is the father of all who believe, even though they are not circumcised, so that righteousness might be counted to them too.
Romans 4:12  And he is the father of the circumcised - not of those who are merely circumcised, but of those who also walk in the steps of the faith that our father Abraham had while he was still uncircumcised.
Romans 4:13  For the promise that he would be heir of the world did not come to Abraham or to his offspring through the law. It came through the righteousness of faith.
Romans 4:14  For if those who keep the law are the heirs, then faith is empty, and the promise means nothing.
Romans 4:15  For the law brings wrath. Where there is no law, there is no breaking of the law.
Romans 4:16  So it comes by faith, so that it may be by grace. Then the promise is certain for all the offspring - not only for those who have the law, but also for those who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
Romans 4:17  (As it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations.") He is our father in the sight of God, whom he believed - the God who gives life to the dead, and calls things that do not exist as though they did.
Romans 4:18  When there was no hope, he believed in hope, so that he became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
Romans 4:19  He was not weak in faith. He did not think about his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, nor about the deadness of Sara's womb.
Romans 4:20  He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. Instead he was strong in faith, and gave glory to God.
Romans 4:21  He was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Romans 4:22  And that is why it was counted to him as righteousness.
Romans 4:23  Now the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone,
Romans 4:24  but for us also. It will be counted to us, if we believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Romans 4:25  He was handed over to death for our sins, and was raised again to make us right.

Romans 5:1  So then, since we have been made right with God by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:2  Through him we have also been brought by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:3  And not only that, but we also glory in our troubles. For we know that trouble produces patience,
Romans 5:4  and patience produces experience, and experience produces hope.
Romans 5:5  And hope does not put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Romans 5:6  For when we were still without strength, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 5:7  It is rare for anyone to die for a righteous man. Yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
Romans 5:8  But God shows his love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:9  So how much more, now that we have been made right with God by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
Romans 5:10  For if, when we were enemies, we were brought back to God by the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are brought back, we shall be saved by his life.
Romans 5:11  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have now received the atonement.
Romans 5:12  So then, sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin. And so death spread to all people, because all have sinned.
Romans 5:13  (For sin was in the world before the law was given. But sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law.
Romans 5:14  Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the same way that Adam broke God's command. Adam is a picture of the one who was to come.
Romans 5:15  But the free gift is not like the offence. For if many died through the offence of one man, how much more did the grace of God, and the gift that comes by grace, overflow to many through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:16  And the gift is not like what came through the one man who sinned. For the judgment came from one offence and brought condemnation, but the free gift came after many offences and brought righteousness.
Romans 5:17  For if death reigned through one man because of that one man's offence, how much more will those who receive the overflowing grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.)
Romans 5:18  So then, as one offence brought judgment and condemnation to all people, in the same way one act of righteousness brought the free gift to all people, and with it the righteousness that gives life.
Romans 5:19  For as many were made sinners by one man's disobedience, so many will be made righteous by the obedience of one man.
Romans 5:20  The law came in as well, so that the offence might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased much more.
Romans 5:21  So that, as sin has reigned and brought death, in the same way grace might reign through righteousness and bring eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 6:1  What shall we say then? Shall we keep on sinning, so that grace may increase?
Romans 6:2  Certainly not. We died to sin. How can we live in it any longer?
Romans 6:3  Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Romans 6:4  So we were buried with him by baptism into death. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. In the same way, we too should walk in a new life.
Romans 6:5  For if we have been joined with him in a death like his, we shall also be joined with him in a resurrection like his.
Romans 6:6  We know this: our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed. Then we should no longer be slaves to sin.
Romans 6:7  For anyone who has died is set free from sin.
Romans 6:8  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.
Romans 6:9  We know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death has no more power over him.
Romans 6:10  For when he died, he died to sin once for all. But now he lives, and he lives to God.
Romans 6:11  In the same way, count yourselves also dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:12  So do not let sin rule in your body that must die. Do not obey its desires.
Romans 6:13  Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as tools of unrighteousness. Instead offer yourselves to God, as people who are alive from the dead. Offer the parts of your body to God as tools of righteousness.
Romans 6:14  For sin shall not rule over you. You are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 6:15  What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? Certainly not.
Romans 6:16  Do you not know this? When you offer yourselves to someone as servants to obey him, you are the servants of the one you obey. Either you are servants of sin, which leads to death, or servants of obedience, which leads to righteousness.
Romans 6:17  But thanks be to God. You used to be the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching that was given to you.
Romans 6:18  Now that you have been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness.
Romans 6:19  I am speaking in human terms, because you are weak in your human nature. Once you offered the parts of your body as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness, which led to more wickedness. Now, in the same way, offer the parts of your body as servants to righteousness, which leads to holiness.
Romans 6:20  For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness.
Romans 6:21  What benefit did you get then from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things end in death.
Romans 6:22  But now you have been set free from sin and have become servants of God. The benefit you have leads to holiness, and the end is everlasting life.
Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 7:1  Brothers and sisters, do you not know (for I am speaking to people who know the law) that the law rules over a person only as long as that person lives?
Romans 7:2  A married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is set free from the law that bound her to him.
Romans 7:3  So if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law. Then she is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
Romans 7:4  So, my brothers and sisters, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ. Now you belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, so that we may bear fruit for God.
Romans 7:5  For when we lived in the flesh, the sinful desires stirred up by the law were at work in our bodies, and they bore fruit for death.
Romans 7:6  But now we are set free from the law. We have died to what held us, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Romans 7:7  What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. No, I would not have known sin except through the law. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
Romans 7:8  But sin found its chance through the commandment, and stirred up in me every kind of wrong desire. For without the law sin is dead.
Romans 7:9  Once I was alive without the law. But when the commandment came, sin came to life, and I died.
Romans 7:10  The commandment that was meant to bring life, I found to bring death.
Romans 7:11  For sin found its chance through the commandment. It deceived me, and by the commandment it killed me.
Romans 7:12  So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
Romans 7:13  Did that which is good then become death to me? Certainly not. But sin did, so that it might be seen as sin, working death in me through what is good. In this way sin, through the commandment, became utterly sinful.
Romans 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am made of flesh, sold as a slave to sin.
Romans 7:15  I do not understand what I do. For I do not do what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate.
Romans 7:16  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
Romans 7:17  So it is no longer I who do it, but sin that lives in me.
Romans 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good lives. I have the will to do what is good, but I do not find the power to carry it out.
Romans 7:19  For the good that I want to do, I do not do. But the evil that I do not want to do, that is what I do.
Romans 7:20  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that lives in me.
Romans 7:21  So I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is there with me.
Romans 7:22  For in my inner self I delight in the law of God.
Romans 7:23  But I see another law at work in my body, fighting against the law of my mind. It makes me a prisoner of the law of sin that is in my body.
Romans 7:24  What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Romans 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with my mind I myself serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 8:1  So now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:3  The law could not do it, because it was weak through the flesh. So God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, and he condemned sin in the flesh.
Romans 8:4  He did this so that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:5  Those who live after the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live after the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Romans 8:6  To be minded after the flesh is death, but to be minded after the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8:7  For the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not obey the law of God, and it cannot.
Romans 8:8  So those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:9  But you are not in the flesh. You are in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
Romans 8:10  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Romans 8:11  If the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead lives in you, then he who raised up Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies by his Spirit who lives in you.
Romans 8:12  So then, brothers and sisters, we owe a debt, but not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Romans 8:13  For if you live after the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Romans 8:14  For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.
Romans 8:15  You have not received the spirit of slavery, to be afraid again. You have received the Spirit of adoption, and by him we cry, "Abba, Father."
Romans 8:16  The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
Romans 8:17  And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if indeed we suffer with him, so that we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8:18  For I count that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:19  For the creation waits with eager longing for the sons of God to be revealed.
Romans 8:20  For the creation was made subject to emptiness, not by its own choice, but because of him who subjected it, in hope.
Romans 8:21  The creation itself will also be set free from the slavery of decay into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Romans 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groans together and is in pain together until now.
Romans 8:23  And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit. We ourselves groan within ourselves, as we wait for the adoption, that is, the redemption of our body.
Romans 8:24  For we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. Why would a man still hope for what he sees?
Romans 8:25  But if we hope for what we do not see, then we wait for it with patience.
Romans 8:26  In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself prays for us with groanings that cannot be put into words.
Romans 8:27  And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because the Spirit prays for the saints according to the will of God.
Romans 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:29  For those he knew beforehand, he also marked out beforehand to be made like the image of his Son, so that his Son might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Romans 8:30  And those he marked out beforehand, he also called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified.
Romans 8:31  What shall we say then about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:32  He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?
Romans 8:33  Who will bring any charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
Romans 8:34  Who is the one who condemns? It is Christ who died, and more than that, who is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, and who also prays for us.
Romans 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Romans 8:36  As it is written, "For your sake we are killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter."
Romans 8:37  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Romans 8:38  For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Romans 8:39  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 9:1  I speak the truth in Christ, I am not lying. My conscience also bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit,
Romans 9:2  that I have great heaviness and constant sorrow in my heart.
Romans 9:3  For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ, for the sake of my brothers and sisters, my own people by birth.
Romans 9:4  They are Israelites. To them belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the worship of God, and the promises.
Romans 9:5  The fathers are theirs, and from them, as far as human descent goes, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Romans 9:6  It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not everyone descended from Israel is Israel.
Romans 9:7  And not all are children just because they are the descendants of Abraham. But it says, "Through Isaac your descendants will be named."
Romans 9:8  That is, the children born in the ordinary way are not the children of God. It is the children of the promise who are counted as the descendants.
Romans 9:9  For this is the word of promise: "At this time I will come, and Sara shall have a son."
Romans 9:10  And that is not all. Rebecca also conceived children by one man, our father Isaac.
Romans 9:11  (The children were not yet born, and had done nothing good or evil. This was so that God's purpose, which works by his own choosing, might stand. It does not depend on works, but on him who calls.)
Romans 9:12  It was said to her, "The elder shall serve the younger."
Romans 9:13  As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
Romans 9:14  What shall we say then? Is God unjust? Certainly not.
Romans 9:15  For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."
Romans 9:16  So then it does not depend on the person who wants it, or on the person who runs for it, but on God who shows mercy.
Romans 9:17  For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "I raised you up for this very purpose: to show my power in you, and so that my name might be declared through all the earth."
Romans 9:18  So then he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he makes hard.
Romans 9:19  You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?"
Romans 9:20  But, man, who are you to answer God back? Shall the thing that was made say to the one who made it, "Why have you made me like this?"
Romans 9:21  Does the potter not have power over the clay? From the same lump he can make one pot for honour and another for dishonour.
Romans 9:22  What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, put up with great patience the vessels of wrath that were ready for destruction?
Romans 9:23  And what if he did it to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory?
Romans 9:24  That means us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles.
Romans 9:25  As he also says in Osee, "I will call them my people, who were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved."
Romans 9:26  "And in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they shall be called the children of the living God."
Romans 9:27  Esaias also cries out about Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant shall be saved."
Romans 9:28  "For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness. For the Lord will make a short work upon the earth."
Romans 9:29  And as Esaias said before, "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us descendants, we would have been like Sodoma, and been made like Gomorrha."
Romans 9:30  What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have obtained righteousness, the righteousness that comes by faith.
Romans 9:31  But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not reached the law of righteousness.
Romans 9:32  Why not? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as if it came by the works of the law. For they stumbled over that stumbling stone,
Romans 9:33  as it is written, "Look, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and a rock that makes people fall. And whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame."

Romans 10:1  Brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
Romans 10:2  I can say this about them: they are eager for God, but their eagerness is not based on knowledge.
Romans 10:3  They did not know God's righteousness. They tried to set up a righteousness of their own. So they did not submit to the righteousness of God.
Romans 10:4  For Christ is the end of the law, so that righteousness comes to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:5  Moses describes the righteousness that comes from the law: "The man who does those things shall live by them."
Romans 10:6  But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: "Do not say in your heart, Who will go up into heaven?" (that is, to bring Christ down from above)
Romans 10:7  "Or, Who will go down into the deep?" (that is, to bring Christ up again from the dead)
Romans 10:8  But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart." That is the word of faith, which we preach.
Romans 10:9  If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:10  For with the heart a person believes, and so has righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made, and so comes salvation.
Romans 10:11  For the scripture says, "Whoever believes in him will not be ashamed."
Romans 10:12  There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all, and he is rich toward all who call on him.
Romans 10:13  For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Romans 10:14  But how can they call on him if they have not believed in him? And how can they believe in him if they have not heard of him? And how can they hear without someone to preach?
Romans 10:15  And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, and bring good news of good things."
Romans 10:16  But not all of them have obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"
Romans 10:17  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God.
Romans 10:18  But I ask, have they not heard? Yes, truly, "their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world."
Romans 10:19  But I ask, did Israel not know? First Moses says, "I will make you jealous by those who are not a people, and by a foolish nation I will make you angry."
Romans 10:20  And Isaiah is very bold, and says, "I was found by those who did not look for me. I showed myself to those who did not ask for me."
Romans 10:21  But about Israel he says, "All day long I have stretched out my hands to a people who disobey and talk back."

Romans 11:1  So I ask: has God thrown away his people? Certainly not. For I myself am an Israelite, from the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Romans 11:2  God has not thrown away his people, whom he knew beforehand. Do you not know what the scripture says about Elias? He pleads with God against Israel, saying,
Romans 11:3  "Lord, they have killed your prophets, and torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life."
Romans 11:4  But what was God's answer to him? "I have kept for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal."
Romans 11:5  In the same way, at this present time also, there is a remnant chosen by grace.
Romans 11:6  And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace. But if it is by works, then it is no longer grace. If it were, work would no longer be work.
Romans 11:7  What then? Israel did not obtain what it was looking for. Those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were made blind,
Romans 11:8  just as it is written: "God has given them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear," right up to this day.
Romans 11:9  And David says, "Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a payment back to them."
Romans 11:10  "Let their eyes be darkened, so that they cannot see, and bend their backs down for ever."
Romans 11:11  So I ask: did they stumble so that they would fall? Certainly not. Rather, through their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.
Romans 11:12  Now if their fall means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness mean!
Romans 11:13  I am speaking to you Gentiles. Since I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I honour the work I have been given,
Romans 11:14  hoping that somehow I may stir up my own people to jealousy, and save some of them.
Romans 11:15  For if their being cast away means the world is brought back to God, what will their being received mean, but life from the dead?
Romans 11:16  If the first part of the dough is holy, the whole lump is holy too. And if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Romans 11:17  Some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them. Now you share with them the root and the richness of the olive tree.
Romans 11:18  Do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember: you do not hold up the root, but the root holds you up.
Romans 11:19  You will say then, "The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in."
Romans 11:20  True. They were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be proud, but be afraid.
Romans 11:21  For if God did not spare the natural branches, take care, or he may not spare you either.
Romans 11:22  Look then at the goodness and the severity of God. He was severe to those who fell. But to you he is good, if you continue in his goodness. If not, you also will be cut off.
Romans 11:23  And they too, if they do not go on in unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again.
Romans 11:24  You were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and grafted, against nature, into a good olive tree. How much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree!
Romans 11:25  Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, in case you think yourselves wise: blindness has come on part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
Romans 11:26  And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: "The Deliverer will come out of Sion, and will turn ungodliness away from Jacob."
Romans 11:27  "And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins."
Romans 11:28  As far as the gospel goes, they are enemies for your sake. But as far as God's choosing goes, they are loved for the sake of their fathers.
Romans 11:29  For God does not change his mind about the gifts he gives and the people he calls.
Romans 11:30  In the past you did not believe God, but now you have received mercy through their unbelief.
Romans 11:31  In the same way they have not believed now, so that through the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy.
Romans 11:32  For God has shut them all up in unbelief, so that he might have mercy on them all.
Romans 11:33  How deep are the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How impossible it is to search out his judgments, and to trace his ways!
Romans 11:34  "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his adviser?"
Romans 11:35  "Or who has given to him first, so that it should be paid back to him?"
Romans 11:36  For all things come from him, and through him, and to him. To him be glory for ever. Amen.

Romans 12:1  So I beg you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:2  Do not be shaped by this world. Instead, be changed by the making new of your mind. Then you will be able to test and know the will of God, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:3  By the grace given to me I say this to every one of you: do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Think with a sober mind, in keeping with the measure of faith God has given to each person.
Romans 12:4  We have many parts in one body, and not all the parts have the same work.
Romans 12:5  In the same way we, though we are many, are one body in Christ, and each one of us belongs to all the others.
Romans 12:6  We have different gifts, given to us according to the grace we have received. If it is prophecy, let us prophesy in keeping with our measure of faith.
Romans 12:7  If it is serving, let us give ourselves to serving. If someone teaches, let him give himself to teaching.
Romans 12:8  If someone encourages, let him give himself to encouraging. Let the one who gives do it with a single heart. Let the one who leads do it with care. Let the one who shows mercy do it cheerfully.
Romans 12:9  Let love be honest, with no pretending. Hate what is evil. Hold tightly to what is good.
Romans 12:10  Be warm and kind to one another with brotherly love. Give honour to one another before yourselves.
Romans 12:11  Do not be lazy in your work. Be eager in spirit. Serve the Lord.
Romans 12:12  Be glad in hope. Be patient in trouble. Keep on praying without giving up.
Romans 12:13  Share with the saints when they are in need. Welcome strangers into your home.
Romans 12:14  Bless those who treat you badly. Bless them, and do not curse them.
Romans 12:15  Be glad with those who are glad, and weep with those who weep.
Romans 12:16  Live in harmony with one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but be willing to go with people of low position. Do not think of yourselves as wise.
Romans 12:17  Do not pay anyone back evil for evil. Take care to do what is honest in the sight of everyone.
Romans 12:18  If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.
Romans 12:19  Dear friends, do not take revenge yourselves. Leave room for God's anger. For it is written, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord."
Romans 12:20  So if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink. For by doing this you will heap coals of fire on his head.
Romans 12:21  Do not let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.

Romans 13:1  Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.
Romans 13:2  So whoever resists the authority is resisting what God has ordained. And those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
Romans 13:3  For rulers are not a terror to good deeds, but to evil ones. Do you want to be free from fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will be praised by it.
Romans 13:4  For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid. He does not carry the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, who punishes and brings wrath on the one who does evil.
Romans 13:5  So you must be subject to them, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.
Romans 13:6  This is also why you pay taxes. For the rulers are God's servants, giving their full time to this very work.
Romans 13:7  So give to everyone what you owe them: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honour to whom honour is due.
Romans 13:8  Owe no one anything, except to love one another. For whoever loves another person has fulfilled the law.
Romans 13:9  For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not kill," "You shall not steal," "You shall not give false witness," "You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are all summed up in this one saying: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."
Romans 13:10  Love does no harm to its neighbour. So love is the fulfilling of the law.
Romans 13:11  Do this, knowing the time: it is now high time to wake up out of sleep. For our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
Romans 13:12  The night is nearly over, the day is near. So let us throw off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
Romans 13:13  Let us live honourably, as in the daytime: not in wild parties and drunkenness, not in sexual sin and shameless living, not in quarrelling and envy.
Romans 13:14  Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no plans to satisfy the desires of the flesh.

Romans 14:1  Welcome the person who is weak in the faith. But do not argue with him about matters of doubt.
Romans 14:2  One person believes he may eat anything. Another, who is weak, eats only vegetables.
Romans 14:3  The one who eats must not look down on the one who does not eat. And the one who does not eat must not judge the one who eats, for God has welcomed him.
Romans 14:4  Who are you to judge another man's servant? He stands or falls before his own master. And he will be held up, for God is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:5  One man thinks one day is better than another. Another man thinks every day is the same. Let each one be fully sure in his own mind.
Romans 14:6  The one who keeps the day keeps it to the Lord. The one who does not keep the day does not keep it to the Lord. The one who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. And the one who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and he gives God thanks.
Romans 14:7  For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
Romans 14:8  If we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.
Romans 14:9  For this is why Christ died, and rose, and lived again: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Romans 14:10  But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you treat your brother as nothing? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Romans 14:11  For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will confess to God."
Romans 14:12  So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
Romans 14:13  So let us not judge one another any more. Decide this instead: that no one puts a stumbling block in his brother's way, or anything that makes him fall.
Romans 14:14  I know, and I am sure in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if a person thinks something is unclean, then for him it is unclean.
Romans 14:15  If your brother is hurt because of your food, you are no longer walking in love. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died.
Romans 14:16  So do not let what is good for you be spoken of as evil.
Romans 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 14:18  The one who serves Christ in these things pleases God, and people approve of him.
Romans 14:19  So let us go after the things that make for peace, and the things by which we build one another up.
Romans 14:20  Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All things are indeed pure, but it is wrong for a person to eat in a way that makes someone else fall.
Romans 14:21  It is good not to eat meat, or drink wine, or do anything that makes your brother stumble, or offends him, or makes him weak.
Romans 14:22  Do you have faith? Keep it to yourself before God. Happy is the one who does not condemn himself by what he allows.
Romans 14:23  But the one who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith. For whatever is not from faith is sin.

Romans 15:1  So we who are strong ought to carry the weaknesses of the weak, and not please ourselves.
Romans 15:2  Let each one of us please his neighbour, for his good, to build him up.
Romans 15:3  For even Christ did not please himself. As it is written, "The insults of those who insulted you fell on me."
Romans 15:4  For whatever was written in earlier times was written to teach us. So through patience and the comfort of the scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:5  Now may the God of patience and comfort give you to be of one mind with one another, following Christ Jesus.
Romans 15:6  Then with one mind and one mouth you may glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 15:7  So welcome one another, as Christ also welcomed us, to the glory of God.
Romans 15:8  Now I say that Jesus Christ became a servant to the circumcised for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
Romans 15:9  and so that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "For this reason I will praise you among the Gentiles, and sing to your name."
Romans 15:10  And again he says, "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people."
Romans 15:11  And again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; and praise him, all you peoples."
Romans 15:12  And again, Isaiah says, "There shall be a root of Jesse, and he who shall rise to rule over the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall put their trust."
Romans 15:13  Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe, so that you may overflow with hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:14  My brothers and sisters, I myself am sure about you, that you are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able to warn one another.
Romans 15:15  Still, brothers and sisters, I have written to you rather boldly in some parts, to remind you again, because of the grace that God gave me.
Romans 15:16  He made me a servant of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, serving the gospel of God. Then the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, made holy by the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:17  So I have something to glory in through Jesus Christ, in the things that belong to God.
Romans 15:18  For I will not dare to speak of anything except what Christ has done through me to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,
Romans 15:19  through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem, and all around as far as Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
Romans 15:20  Yes, I have worked hard to preach the gospel where Christ was not already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation.
Romans 15:21  But as it is written, "Those who were never told about him shall see, and those who have not heard shall understand."
Romans 15:22  For this reason I have often been kept from coming to you.
Romans 15:23  But now there is no more place for me in these regions. And for many years I have greatly wanted to come to you.
Romans 15:24  So whenever I travel to Spain, I will come to you. For I hope to see you as I pass through, and to be helped on my way there by you, once I have first enjoyed your company for a while.
Romans 15:25  But now I am going to Jerusalem to serve the saints.
Romans 15:26  For the believers of Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor saints in Jerusalem.
Romans 15:27  It pleased them indeed, and they are in debt to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they ought also to serve them in material things.
Romans 15:28  So when I have finished this, and have safely delivered this fruit to them, I will go by way of you into Spain.
Romans 15:29  And I am sure that when I come to you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
Romans 15:30  Now I beg you, brothers and sisters, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.
Romans 15:31  Pray that I may be rescued from those in Judaea who do not believe, and that my service for Jerusalem may be accepted by the saints.
Romans 15:32  Then, if God wills, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you.
Romans 15:33  Now may the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Romans 16:1  I commend to you Phebe our sister. She is a servant of the church at Cenchrea.
Romans 16:2  Receive her in the Lord, in a way that is fitting for saints. Help her with anything she needs from you. For she has been a helper of many, and of me too.
Romans 16:3  Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus.
Romans 16:4  They risked their own necks to save my life. I am not the only one who thanks them; all the churches of the Gentiles thank them too.
Romans 16:5  Greet also the church that meets in their house. Greet my dear friend Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia to Christ.
Romans 16:6  Greet Mary, who worked hard for us.
Romans 16:7  Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives, who were in prison with me. They are well known among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.
Romans 16:8  Greet Amplias, my dear friend in the Lord.
Romans 16:9  Greet Urbane, our helper in Christ, and my dear friend Stachys.
Romans 16:10  Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the household of Aristobulus.
Romans 16:11  Greet Herodion, my relative. Greet those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord.
Romans 16:12  Greet Tryphena and Tryphosa, who work hard in the Lord. Greet the dear Persis, who worked hard in the Lord.
Romans 16:13  Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me too.
Romans 16:14  Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brothers and sisters who are with them.
Romans 16:15  Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them.
Romans 16:16  Greet one another with a holy kiss. The churches of Christ greet you.
Romans 16:17  Now I beg you, brothers and sisters, watch out for those who cause divisions and make people stumble, against the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.
Romans 16:18  People like that do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own stomachs. With smooth words and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of those who are easily led.
Romans 16:19  Everyone has heard how you obey, and so I am glad about you. But I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
Romans 16:20  And the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
Romans 16:21  Timotheus, who works with me, greets you, and so do Lucius, Jason and Sosipater, my relatives.
Romans 16:22  I, Tertius, who wrote this letter down, greet you in the Lord.
Romans 16:23  Gaius greets you. He is host to me and to the whole church. Erastus, the treasurer of the city, greets you, and so does Quartus, a brother.
Romans 16:24  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
Romans 16:25  Now to him who has power to make you stand firm, according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revealing of the mystery that was kept secret since the world began,
Romans 16:26  but is now brought out into the open. Through the writings of the prophets, by the command of the everlasting God, it is made known to all nations, so that they may obey by faith.
Romans 16:27  To God, who alone is wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. «Written to the Romans from Corinthus, and sent by Phebe, servant of the church at Cenchrea.»

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 1:1  Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Jesus Christ, and Sosthenes our brother,
1 Corinthians 1:2  to the church of God which is at Corinth. You have been made holy in Christ Jesus, and called to be saints. We write also to all those everywhere who call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who is their Lord and ours:
1 Corinthians 1:3  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:4  I always thank my God for you, because of the grace of God that was given you through Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:5  In him you have been made rich in every way, in all speaking and in all knowledge,
1 Corinthians 1:6  just as the witness about Christ was made sure in you.
1 Corinthians 1:7  So you lack no gift, while you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to come.
1 Corinthians 1:8  He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you may be free from blame on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 1:9  God is faithful. By him you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 1:10  Now I beg you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you. Be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment.
1 Corinthians 1:11  For I have been told about you, my brothers and sisters, by those from the household of Chloe, that there are quarrels among you.
1 Corinthians 1:12  What I mean is this: each one of you says, "I follow Paul," or "I follow Apollos," or "I follow Cephas," or "I follow Christ."
1 Corinthians 1:13  Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
1 Corinthians 1:14  I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
1 Corinthians 1:15  so that no one can say that I baptized in my own name.
1 Corinthians 1:16  I also baptized the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.
1 Corinthians 1:17  For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel. And I do not preach it with clever words, so that the cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power.
1 Corinthians 1:18  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:19  For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of those who understand."
1 Corinthians 1:20  Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this world? Has not God made the wisdom of this world foolish?
1 Corinthians 1:21  For in the wisdom of God, the world did not come to know God through its wisdom. So God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching.
1 Corinthians 1:22  For the Jews ask for a sign, and the Greeks look for wisdom,
1 Corinthians 1:23  but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks,
1 Corinthians 1:24  but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:25  For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
1 Corinthians 1:26  Think about your calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
1 Corinthians 1:27  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong.
1 Corinthians 1:28  God has chosen the lowly things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
1 Corinthians 1:29  so that no human being may boast in his presence.
1 Corinthians 1:30  But it is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus. God has made him our wisdom, our righteousness, our holiness and our redemption.
1 Corinthians 1:31  So, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

1 Corinthians 2:1  Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I did not come with fine speech or clever wisdom as I told you the testimony of God.
1 Corinthians 2:2  For I decided to know nothing while I was among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:3  I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and trembling a great deal.
1 Corinthians 2:4  My speech and my preaching did not use the tempting words of human wisdom. They came with the proof of the Spirit and of power,
1 Corinthians 2:5  so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of people, but on the power of God.
1 Corinthians 2:6  Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature. But it is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing.
1 Corinthians 2:7  We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God appointed before the world began, for our glory.
1 Corinthians 2:8  None of the rulers of this world knew it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1 Corinthians 2:9  But as it is written, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, and it has not entered into the heart of anyone, what God has prepared for those who love him."
1 Corinthians 2:10  But God has revealed these things to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:11  For who knows the things of a person, except the spirit of that person which is in him? In the same way, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God. So we may know the things that God has freely given to us.
1 Corinthians 2:13  These are the things we speak about. We do not use words taught by human wisdom, but words taught by the Holy Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
1 Corinthians 2:14  But the natural person does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. He cannot know them, because they are discerned spiritually.
1 Corinthians 2:15  But the one who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged by no one.
1 Corinthians 2:16  For who has known the mind of the Lord, so that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:1  Brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as to spiritual people. I had to speak to you as to people of the flesh, as to babies in Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:2  I fed you with milk, not with solid food. Until now you were not able to take it, and even now you are still not able.
1 Corinthians 3:3  You are still people of the flesh. There is jealousy among you, and fighting, and divisions. Does that not show that you are of the flesh, and living the way people of the world live?
1 Corinthians 3:4  One of you says, "I follow Paul," and another says, "I follow Apollos." Are you not people of the flesh?
1 Corinthians 3:5  So who is Paul, and who is Apollos? They are servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord gave to each one his work.
1 Corinthians 3:6  I planted, Apollos watered, but God made it grow.
1 Corinthians 3:7  So the one who plants is nothing, and the one who waters is nothing. It is God who makes it grow.
1 Corinthians 3:8  The one who plants and the one who waters are one. Each one will receive his own reward, according to his own work.
1 Corinthians 3:9  For we work together with God. You are God's field; you are God's building.
1 Corinthians 3:10  By the grace of God given to me, I laid the foundation like a wise master builder, and someone else is building on it. But let each one be careful how he builds on it.
1 Corinthians 3:11  For no one can lay any other foundation than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:12  If anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw,
1 Corinthians 3:13  each one's work will be shown for what it is. The day will make it plain, because it will be revealed by fire. The fire will test each one's work, to show what sort it is.
1 Corinthians 3:14  If the work anyone has built on it lasts, he will receive a reward.
1 Corinthians 3:15  If anyone's work is burned up, he will lose it. He himself will be saved, but only as one who escapes through fire.
1 Corinthians 3:16  Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
1 Corinthians 3:17  If anyone ruins the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 3:18  Let no one fool himself. If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this world, let him become a fool, so that he may be wise.
1 Corinthians 3:19  For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As it is written, "He catches the wise in their own cleverness."
1 Corinthians 3:20  And again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are empty."
1 Corinthians 3:21  So let no one boast about men. For all things are yours:
1 Corinthians 3:22  whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things now, or things to come. All are yours,
1 Corinthians 3:23  and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

1 Corinthians 4:1  This is how people should think of us: as servants of Christ, and stewards trusted with the mysteries of God.
1 Corinthians 4:2  And what is required of stewards is that each one be found faithful.
1 Corinthians 4:3  But it matters very little to me if I am judged by you, or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.
1 Corinthians 4:4  I know of nothing against myself, yet that does not make me innocent. The one who judges me is the Lord.
1 Corinthians 4:5  So do not judge anything before the time. Wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness, and he will show openly what the heart has planned. Then each person will receive praise from God.
1 Corinthians 4:6  Brothers and sisters, I have applied all this to myself and to Apollos as a picture, for your sake. From us you can learn not to think of anyone above what is written, so that none of you is proud, taking one man's side against another.
1 Corinthians 4:7  Who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you were not given? And if you were given it, why do you boast as if you had not been given it?
1 Corinthians 4:8  Already you are full. Already you are rich. You have become kings without us. I wish you really did reign, so that we might reign with you.
1 Corinthians 4:9  For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on show at the very end, like men condemned to die. We have been made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to people.
1 Corinthians 4:10  We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are honoured, but we are despised.
1 Corinthians 4:11  Right up to this present hour we are hungry and thirsty. We are poorly clothed, we are beaten, and we have no settled home.
1 Corinthians 4:12  We work hard with our own hands. When we are insulted, we bless. When we are persecuted, we put up with it.
1 Corinthians 4:13  When we are slandered, we answer gently. We have been made like the rubbish of the world, the dirt scraped off everything, to this day.
1 Corinthians 4:14  I do not write these things to shame you, but to warn you as my dear children.
1 Corinthians 4:15  For even if you had ten thousand teachers in Christ, you do not have many fathers. In Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
1 Corinthians 4:16  So I beg you, follow my example.
1 Corinthians 4:17  That is why I have sent Timotheus to you. He is my dear son, and faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my ways in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.
1 Corinthians 4:18  Now some of you have grown proud, as though I were not coming to you.
1 Corinthians 4:19  But I will come to you soon, if the Lord is willing. Then I will find out, not what these proud people say, but what power they have.
1 Corinthians 4:20  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of words, but of power.
1 Corinthians 4:21  What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a gentle spirit?

1 Corinthians 5:1  It is widely reported that there is sexual sin among you. It is a kind of sin that is not even spoken of among the Gentiles: that a man has his father's wife.
1 Corinthians 5:2  And you are proud of yourselves. You should rather have mourned, so that the man who has done this thing might be removed from among you.
1 Corinthians 5:3  For though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit. I have already judged the man who has done this, as if I were there with you.
1 Corinthians 5:4  In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, and my spirit is with you, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Corinthians 5:5  you are to hand such a man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5:6  Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
1 Corinthians 5:7  So clear out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you are unleavened. For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.
1 Corinthians 5:8  So let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1 Corinthians 5:9  I wrote to you in a letter not to keep company with people who commit sexual sin.
1 Corinthians 5:10  I did not mean the sexually immoral people of this world in general, or the greedy, or those who cheat others, or those who worship idols. If that were so, you would have to leave the world.
1 Corinthians 5:11  But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone who is called a brother if he commits sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or abuses others with words, or is a drunkard, or cheats others. With such a person you are not even to eat.
1 Corinthians 5:12  For what business is it of mine to judge those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside?
1 Corinthians 5:13  But God judges those who are outside. So put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

1 Corinthians 6:1  If any of you has a dispute with another, how dare you take it to law before the unjust, instead of before the saints?
1 Corinthians 6:2  Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not fit to judge the smallest matters?
1 Corinthians 6:3  Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life.
1 Corinthians 6:4  So if you have cases about the things of this life, why do you appoint as judges those who count for least in the church?
1 Corinthians 6:5  I say this to shame you. Is it really true that there is not one wise person among you? Is there no one able to judge between his brothers?
1 Corinthians 6:6  Instead, brother goes to law against brother, and does it in front of unbelievers.
1 Corinthians 6:7  The truth is that it is already a complete failure among you that you go to law with one another. Why not rather accept the wrong? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?
1 Corinthians 6:8  No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat others, and they are your own brothers.
1 Corinthians 6:9  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be fooled. Those who commit sexual sin, or worship idols, or commit adultery, or are effeminate, or are men who abuse themselves with other men,
1 Corinthians 6:10  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor people who insult others, nor those who rob others will inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians 6:11  And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were made holy, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
1 Corinthians 6:12  Everything is lawful for me, but not everything is good for me. Everything is lawful for me, but I will not let anything have power over me.
1 Corinthians 6:13  Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food. But God will destroy them both. The body is not for sexual sin, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body.
1 Corinthians 6:14  God raised up the Lord, and he will also raise us up by his own power.
1 Corinthians 6:15  Do you not know that your bodies are the parts of Christ? Shall I then take the parts of Christ and make them the parts of a prostitute? Never.
1 Corinthians 6:16  Do you not know that a man who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For it says, "The two shall be one flesh."
1 Corinthians 6:17  But the one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
1 Corinthians 6:18  Run away from sexual sin. Every other sin a person does is outside the body, but the one who commits sexual sin sins against his own body.
1 Corinthians 6:19  Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own.
1 Corinthians 6:20  You were bought with a price. So give glory to God in your body and in your spirit, which belong to God.

1 Corinthians 7:1  Now about the things you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman.
1 Corinthians 7:2  Yet to avoid sexual sin, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
1 Corinthians 7:3  Let the husband give his wife what is due to her, and let the wife do the same for her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:4  The wife does not have authority over her own body; her husband does. In the same way the husband does not have authority over his own body; his wife does.
1 Corinthians 7:5  Do not keep yourselves from one another, unless you both agree to it for a time, so that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. Then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because you lack self-control.
1 Corinthians 7:6  I say this as something allowed, not as a command.
1 Corinthians 7:7  I wish that all people were as I am myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one of this kind, another of that.
1 Corinthians 7:8  So I say to the unmarried and to widows: it is good for them if they stay as I am.
1 Corinthians 7:9  But if they cannot control themselves, let them marry. It is better to marry than to burn.
1 Corinthians 7:10  To the married I give this command - not I, but the Lord: the wife must not leave her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:11  But if she does leave, she must stay unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband. And the husband must not send his wife away.
1 Corinthians 7:12  To the rest I speak, not the Lord: if any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, he must not send her away.
1 Corinthians 7:13  And if a woman has a husband who does not believe, and he is willing to live with her, she must not leave him.
1 Corinthians 7:14  For the unbelieving husband is made holy by his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy by her husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean; but as it is, they are holy.
1 Corinthians 7:15  But if the one who does not believe leaves, let him leave. A brother or a sister is not bound in such cases. God has called us to peace.
1 Corinthians 7:16  For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
1 Corinthians 7:17  But as God has given to each one, and as the Lord has called each one, so let him live. This is what I order in all the churches.
1 Corinthians 7:18  Was any man circumcised when he was called? He should not try to undo it. Was any man called while uncircumcised? He should not be circumcised.
1 Corinthians 7:19  Circumcision is nothing, and being uncircumcised is nothing. What matters is keeping God's commandments.
1 Corinthians 7:20  Let everyone stay in the state he was in when he was called.
1 Corinthians 7:21  Were you a servant when you were called? Do not let it trouble you. But if you can become free, take the chance.
1 Corinthians 7:22  For the one who was a servant when the Lord called him is the Lord's free man. In the same way, the one who was free when he was called is Christ's servant.
1 Corinthians 7:23  You were bought with a price. Do not become the servants of men.
1 Corinthians 7:24  Brothers and sisters, let each one stay with God in the state he was in when he was called.
1 Corinthians 7:25  Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord. But I give my own judgment, as one who has received mercy from the Lord to be faithful.
1 Corinthians 7:26  So I think this is good, because of the present trouble - I say it is good for a person to stay as he is.
1 Corinthians 7:27  Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be set free. Are you free from a wife? Do not look for a wife.
1 Corinthians 7:28  But if you do marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have trouble in this life, and I would spare you that.
1 Corinthians 7:29  This I say, brothers and sisters: the time is short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none;
1 Corinthians 7:30  and those who weep, as though they did not weep; and those who rejoice, as though they did not rejoice; and those who buy, as though they owned nothing;
1 Corinthians 7:31  and those who use this world, as though they did not make full use of it. For the way this world is shaped is passing away.
1 Corinthians 7:32  I want you to be free from worry. The unmarried man cares for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.
1 Corinthians 7:33  But the married man cares for the things of the world, how he may please his wife.
1 Corinthians 7:34  There is a difference too between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy in body and in spirit. But the married woman cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:35  I say this for your own good, not to put a trap on you, but for what is right, so that you may serve the Lord without being pulled away.
1 Corinthians 7:36  But if any man thinks he is not acting properly toward his virgin, if she is past the flower of her age, and there is need, let him do what he wants. He does not sin. Let them marry.
1 Corinthians 7:37  But the man who stands firm in his heart, who is under no pressure, who has control over his own will, and who has decided in his heart to keep his virgin as she is, does well.
1 Corinthians 7:38  So then the one who gives her in marriage does well, but the one who does not give her in marriage does better.
1 Corinthians 7:39  A wife is bound by the law as long as her husband lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry whoever she wishes, only in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 7:40  But in my judgment she is happier if she stays as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.

1 Corinthians 8:1  Now about food offered to idols. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes people proud, but love builds up.
1 Corinthians 8:2  If anyone thinks he knows something, he does not yet know it as he ought to know.
1 Corinthians 8:3  But if anyone loves God, that person is known by him.
1 Corinthians 8:4  So about eating food that has been sacrificed to idols. We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.
1 Corinthians 8:5  There are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth. Indeed there are many gods and many lords.
1 Corinthians 8:6  But for us there is only one God, the Father. All things come from him, and we live for him. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. All things came through him, and we live through him.
1 Corinthians 8:7  But not everyone has this knowledge. Some are still used to idols, and to this hour they eat such food as a thing offered to an idol. Their conscience is weak, and it is made unclean.
1 Corinthians 8:8  But food does not bring us closer to God. If we eat, we are no better. If we do not eat, we are no worse.
1 Corinthians 8:9  But be careful. This freedom of yours must not somehow become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
1 Corinthians 8:10  For suppose someone sees you, who have knowledge, sitting at a meal in the idol's temple. Will not his conscience, since he is weak, be encouraged to eat food offered to idols?
1 Corinthians 8:11  So because of your knowledge the weak brother is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.
1 Corinthians 8:12  When you sin in this way against the brothers and sisters, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
1 Corinthians 8:13  So if food makes my brother fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, as long as the world lasts, so that I do not make my brother fall.

1 Corinthians 9:1  Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
1 Corinthians 9:2  If I am not an apostle to others, I am surely one to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
1 Corinthians 9:3  This is my answer to those who question me.
1 Corinthians 9:4  Do we not have the right to eat and to drink?
1 Corinthians 9:5  Do we not have the right to take along a sister, a wife, as the other apostles do, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
1 Corinthians 9:6  Or are Barnabas and I the only ones who have no right to stop working?
1 Corinthians 9:7  Who ever goes to war and pays his own costs? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit? Or who feeds a flock and does not drink the milk of the flock?
1 Corinthians 9:8  Do I say these things only as a man? Does the law not say the same?
1 Corinthians 9:9  For it is written in the law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn." Is it oxen that God cares about?
1 Corinthians 9:10  Or does he say it entirely for our sakes? For our sakes, without doubt, this is written. The one who plows should plow in hope, and the one who threshes in hope should share in what he hoped for.
1 Corinthians 9:11  If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things?
1 Corinthians 9:12  If others share this right over you, do we not have it even more? Yet we have not used this right. Instead we put up with everything, so that we do not hinder the gospel of Christ.
1 Corinthians 9:13  Do you not know that those who serve in holy things live on the things of the temple? And those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar.
1 Corinthians 9:14  In the same way the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel.
1 Corinthians 9:15  But I have used none of these things. And I have not written this so that it may be done for me. It would be better for me to die than to have anyone take away what I boast of.
1 Corinthians 9:16  For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast about. I am under compulsion. Yes, woe is mine if I do not preach the gospel.
1 Corinthians 9:17  For if I do this willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will, then a trust has been placed in my hands.
1 Corinthians 9:18  What then is my reward? This: that when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel of Christ free of charge, and not make full use of my right in the gospel.
1 Corinthians 9:19  For though I am free from all people, I have made myself a servant to all, so that I might win the more.
1 Corinthians 9:20  To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win the Jews. To those under the law, I became as under the law, so that I might win those under the law.
1 Corinthians 9:21  To those without law, I became as without law (though I am not without law toward God, but under the law to Christ), so that I might win those without law.
1 Corinthians 9:22  To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I might save some.
1 Corinthians 9:23  And I do this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in it with you.
1 Corinthians 9:24  Do you not know that all the runners in a race run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.
1 Corinthians 9:25  Everyone who competes for the prize keeps control of himself in all things. They do it to obtain a crown that will perish, but we for one that will not.
1 Corinthians 9:26  So I run, but not without a goal. So I fight, but not like a man beating the air.
1 Corinthians 9:27  Instead I keep my body down and bring it under control. Otherwise, after I have preached to others, I myself might be rejected.

1 Corinthians 10:1  Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant of this. All our fathers were under the cloud, and all of them passed through the sea.
1 Corinthians 10:2  They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.
1 Corinthians 10:3  They all ate the same spiritual food.
1 Corinthians 10:4  And they all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.
1 Corinthians 10:5  But God was not pleased with many of them. They were struck down in the wilderness.
1 Corinthians 10:6  Now these things were examples for us. They teach us not to long for evil things, as they longed for them.
1 Corinthians 10:7  Do not worship idols, as some of them did. As it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to play."
1 Corinthians 10:8  Let us not commit sexual sin, as some of them did. Twenty-three thousand of them fell in one day.
1 Corinthians 10:9  Let us not put Christ to the test, as some of them did. They were destroyed by snakes.
1 Corinthians 10:10  Do not complain, as some of them complained. They were destroyed by the destroyer.
1 Corinthians 10:11  All these things happened to them as examples. They were written down to warn us, for the ends of the world have come upon us.
1 Corinthians 10:12  So anyone who thinks he is standing firm should be careful that he does not fall.
1 Corinthians 10:13  No temptation has come to you that is not common to everyone. And God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. With the temptation he will also make a way out, so that you are able to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:14  So then, my dear friends, run away from the worship of idols.
1 Corinthians 10:15  I am speaking to you as to wise people. Judge for yourselves what I say.
1 Corinthians 10:16  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
1 Corinthians 10:17  Though we are many, we are one bread and one body, for we all share in that one bread.
1 Corinthians 10:18  Look at Israel according to the flesh. Are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar?
1 Corinthians 10:19  What am I saying then? That the idol is anything, or that what is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything?
1 Corinthians 10:20  No, but I say that what the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I do not want you to share with devils.
1 Corinthians 10:21  You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot share in the Lord's table and in the table of devils.
1 Corinthians 10:22  Do we stir the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he is?
1 Corinthians 10:23  All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but not all things build up.
1 Corinthians 10:24  Let no one seek his own good, but each one the good of his neighbour.
1 Corinthians 10:25  Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, and ask no question for conscience's sake.
1 Corinthians 10:26  For the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.
1 Corinthians 10:27  If one of the unbelievers invites you to a meal, and you are willing to go, eat whatever is set before you, and ask no question for conscience's sake.
1 Corinthians 10:28  But if anyone says to you, "This was offered in sacrifice to idols," then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you, and for conscience's sake. For the earth is the Lord's, and everything in it.
1 Corinthians 10:29  I mean his conscience, not your own. For why should my freedom be judged by another person's conscience?
1 Corinthians 10:30  If I share in the food by grace, why am I spoken evil of for what I give thanks for?
1 Corinthians 10:31  So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1 Corinthians 10:32  Do not cause anyone to stumble, not the Jews, not the Gentiles, and not the church of God.
1 Corinthians 10:33  I also try to please everyone in everything. I do not seek what is good for me, but what is good for many, so that they may be saved.

1 Corinthians 11:1  Follow my example, just as I follow the example of Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:2  Now I praise you, brothers and sisters, because you remember me in everything, and you keep the teachings just as I passed them on to you.
1 Corinthians 11:3  But I want you to know this: the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.
1 Corinthians 11:4  Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonours his head.
1 Corinthians 11:5  But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonours her head. It is just the same as if her head were shaved.
1 Corinthians 11:6  If a woman will not cover her head, then let her hair be cut off. But if it is a shame for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head.
1 Corinthians 11:7  A man should not cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man.
1 Corinthians 11:8  For the man did not come from the woman, but the woman from the man.
1 Corinthians 11:9  And the man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
1 Corinthians 11:10  For this reason the woman ought to have power on her head, because of the angels.
1 Corinthians 11:11  Even so, in the Lord the man is not without the woman, and the woman is not without the man.
1 Corinthians 11:12  For as the woman came from the man, so the man is born through the woman. But all things come from God.
1 Corinthians 11:13  Judge for yourselves: is it fitting for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered?
1 Corinthians 11:14  Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a shame to him?
1 Corinthians 11:15  But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her. For her hair is given to her as a covering.
1 Corinthians 11:16  But if anyone wants to argue about this, we have no such custom, and neither do the churches of God.
1 Corinthians 11:17  Now in what I am telling you, I do not praise you. When you meet together, it is not for the better but for the worse.
1 Corinthians 11:18  First of all, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. And I partly believe it.
1 Corinthians 11:19  For there must be factions among you, so that those who are approved may be seen clearly among you.
1 Corinthians 11:20  So when you come together in one place, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat.
1 Corinthians 11:21  For as you eat, each one takes his own supper before the others. One is hungry, and another is drunk.
1 Corinthians 11:22  What? Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God, and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I do not praise you.
1 Corinthians 11:23  For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
1 Corinthians 11:24  When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "Take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me."
1 Corinthians 11:25  In the same way he also took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."
1 Corinthians 11:26  For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you show the Lord's death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:27  So then, whoever eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy way will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 11:28  Let a person examine himself, and then let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup.
1 Corinthians 11:29  For anyone who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment on himself, because he does not discern the Lord's body.
1 Corinthians 11:30  For this reason many among you are weak and ill, and many have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.
1 Corinthians 11:32  But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord, so that we will not be condemned with the world.
1 Corinthians 11:33  So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another.
1 Corinthians 11:34  And if anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that you do not come together for judgment. I will set the rest in order when I come.

1 Corinthians 12:1  Now about spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant.
1 Corinthians 12:2  You know that when you were Gentiles, you were carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.
1 Corinthians 12:3  So I want you to understand this: no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus is accursed." And no one can say that Jesus is the Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:4  Now there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:5  There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.
1 Corinthians 12:6  There are different kinds of work, but it is the same God who works all of them in everyone.
1 Corinthians 12:7  The Spirit is shown in each person for the good of all.
1 Corinthians 12:8  To one person the Spirit gives the word of wisdom. To another the same Spirit gives the word of knowledge.
1 Corinthians 12:9  To another he gives faith by the same Spirit. To another he gives the gifts of healing by the same Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:10  To another, the working of miracles. To another, prophecy. To another, the telling apart of spirits. To another, different kinds of tongues. To another, the interpretation of tongues.
1 Corinthians 12:11  But all these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who gives to each person separately, as he wills.
1 Corinthians 12:12  The body is one, and it has many parts. All the parts of that one body, though there are many of them, are one body. So it is with Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:13  For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, whether we are slaves or free. And we have all been made to drink into one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:14  For the body is not one part, but many.
1 Corinthians 12:15  If the foot says, "Because I am not the hand, I am not part of the body," is it therefore not part of the body?
1 Corinthians 12:16  And if the ear says, "Because I am not the eye, I am not part of the body," is it therefore not part of the body?
1 Corinthians 12:17  If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
1 Corinthians 12:18  But God has set the parts, every one of them, in the body, as it pleased him.
1 Corinthians 12:19  And if they were all one part, where would the body be?
1 Corinthians 12:20  But now there are many parts, yet only one body.
1 Corinthians 12:21  The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you." Nor again can the head say to the feet, "I do not need you."
1 Corinthians 12:22  No, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are much more necessary.
1 Corinthians 12:23  And the parts of the body that we think are less honourable, we give more honour to. Our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty,
1 Corinthians 12:24  while our presentable parts have no need of it. But God has joined the body together, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it,
1 Corinthians 12:25  so that there should be no division in the body, but that the parts should have the same care for one another.
1 Corinthians 12:26  If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it. If one part is honoured, all the parts rejoice with it.
1 Corinthians 12:27  Now you are the body of Christ, and each of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:28  And God has set some in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helpers, leaders, different kinds of tongues.
1 Corinthians 12:29  Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles?
1 Corinthians 12:30  Do all have the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?
1 Corinthians 12:31  But desire earnestly the best gifts. And yet I show you a still better way.

1 Corinthians 13:1  If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have no love, I have become like a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal.
1 Corinthians 13:2  And if I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:3  And if I give away everything I own to feed the poor, and if I give up my body to be burned, but have no love, it does me no good at all.
1 Corinthians 13:4  Love is patient, and is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast, and is not proud.
1 Corinthians 13:5  It does not behave shamefully. It does not look after itself alone. It is not easily angered. It thinks no evil.
1 Corinthians 13:6  It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
1 Corinthians 13:7  It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1 Corinthians 13:8  Love never fails. But if there are prophecies, they will come to an end. If there are tongues, they will stop. If there is knowledge, it will pass away.
1 Corinthians 13:9  For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part.
1 Corinthians 13:10  But when what is perfect comes, then what is only in part will be done away.
1 Corinthians 13:11  When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:12  For now we see in a mirror, dimly; but then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known.
1 Corinthians 13:13  And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 14:1  Follow after love, and desire spiritual gifts, but most of all that you may prophesy.
1 Corinthians 14:2  For the one who speaks in an unknown tongue does not speak to people, but to God. No one understands him; yet in the spirit he speaks mysteries.
1 Corinthians 14:3  But the one who prophesies speaks to people, to build them up, to urge them on, and to comfort them.
1 Corinthians 14:4  The one who speaks in an unknown tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church.
1 Corinthians 14:5  I would like you all to speak with tongues, but I would rather you prophesied. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks with tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be built up.
1 Corinthians 14:6  Now, brothers and sisters, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what good will I do you? None, unless I speak to you by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by teaching.
1 Corinthians 14:7  Even lifeless things that make a sound, such as a pipe or a harp, must give a difference in their notes. Otherwise, how will anyone know what tune is being played on the pipe or the harp?
1 Corinthians 14:8  For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who will get himself ready for the battle?
1 Corinthians 14:9  So it is with you. Unless you speak words with your tongue that are easy to understand, how will anyone know what is said? You will be speaking into the air.
1 Corinthians 14:10  There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and not one of them is without meaning.
1 Corinthians 14:11  So if I do not know the meaning of the language, I will be a foreigner to the one who speaks, and the one who speaks will be a foreigner to me.
1 Corinthians 14:12  So it is with you. Since you are eager for spiritual gifts, seek to have plenty of them for the building up of the church.
1 Corinthians 14:13  So let the one who speaks in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret.
1 Corinthians 14:14  For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding bears no fruit.
1 Corinthians 14:15  What then shall I do? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
1 Corinthians 14:16  Otherwise, when you bless with the spirit, how will the one who sits in the place of the unlearned say Amen at your giving of thanks, since he does not understand what you say?
1 Corinthians 14:17  You truly give thanks well, but the other person is not built up.
1 Corinthians 14:18  I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than all of you.
1 Corinthians 14:19  Yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, so that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
1 Corinthians 14:20  Brothers and sisters, do not be children in understanding. In evil be like children, but in understanding be grown men.
1 Corinthians 14:21  In the law it is written, "With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."
1 Corinthians 14:22  So tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to those who do not believe. But prophesying is not for those who do not believe; it is for those who believe.
1 Corinthians 14:23  So if the whole church comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and people come in who are unlearned or who do not believe, will they not say that you are mad?
1 Corinthians 14:24  But if all prophesy, and someone comes in who does not believe, or someone unlearned, he is convinced by all, he is judged by all.
1 Corinthians 14:25  And so the secrets of his heart are made plain. He will fall down on his face and worship God, and say that God is truly among you.
1 Corinthians 14:26  What is to be done then, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let everything be done to build people up.
1 Corinthians 14:27  If anyone speaks in an unknown tongue, let there be two, or at the most three, and each in turn; and let one interpret.
1 Corinthians 14:28  But if there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in the church. Let him speak to himself and to God.
1 Corinthians 14:29  Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
1 Corinthians 14:30  If something is revealed to another who is sitting by, let the first one stop speaking.
1 Corinthians 14:31  For you may all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be comforted.
1 Corinthians 14:32  And the spirits of the prophets are under the control of the prophets.
1 Corinthians 14:33  For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.
1 Corinthians 14:34  Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not allowed to speak. They are commanded to be under obedience, as the law also says.
1 Corinthians 14:35  And if they want to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home; for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
1 Corinthians 14:36  What? Did the word of God come out from you? Or did it come to you only?
1 Corinthians 14:37  If anyone thinks he is a prophet, or spiritual, let him recognise that the things I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.
1 Corinthians 14:38  But if anyone is ignorant, let him be ignorant.
1 Corinthians 14:39  So, brothers and sisters, long to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking with tongues.
1 Corinthians 14:40  Let everything be done in a fitting way, and in order.

1 Corinthians 15:1  Now, brothers and sisters, I remind you of the gospel I preached to you. You received it, and you stand in it.
1 Corinthians 15:2  By it you are also saved, if you hold on to what I preached to you. Otherwise you have believed for nothing.
1 Corinthians 15:3  For I passed on to you first of all what I also received: that Christ died for our sins, as the scriptures said;
1 Corinthians 15:4  and that he was buried; and that he rose again the third day, as the scriptures said;
1 Corinthians 15:5  and that he was seen by Cephas, and then by the twelve.
1 Corinthians 15:6  After that he was seen by more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time. Most of them are still alive, but some have fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:7  After that he was seen by James, then by all the apostles.
1 Corinthians 15:8  Last of all he was seen by me too, as by someone born at the wrong time.
1 Corinthians 15:9  For I am the least of the apostles. I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
1 Corinthians 15:10  But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace given to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all of them - yet it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:11  So whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
1 Corinthians 15:12  Now if it is preached that Christ rose from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
1 Corinthians 15:13  If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.
1 Corinthians 15:14  And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is empty too.
1 Corinthians 15:15  More than that, we are found to be false witnesses about God. For we testified about God that he raised up Christ - and he did not raise him, if the dead are not raised.
1 Corinthians 15:16  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.
1 Corinthians 15:17  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is empty; you are still in your sins.
1 Corinthians 15:18  Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
1 Corinthians 15:19  If our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are the most miserable of all people.
1 Corinthians 15:20  But in fact Christ has risen from the dead. He has become the firstfruits of those who slept.
1 Corinthians 15:21  For since death came by a man, the resurrection of the dead also came by a man.
1 Corinthians 15:22  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:23  But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:24  Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has put down all rule and all authority and power.
1 Corinthians 15:25  For he must reign until he has put all enemies under his feet.
1 Corinthians 15:26  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
1 Corinthians 15:27  For he has put all things under his feet. But when it says that all things are put under him, it is clear that this does not include the One who put all things under him.
1 Corinthians 15:28  And when all things have been brought under him, then the Son himself will also be subject to the One who put all things under him, so that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:29  Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead are not raised at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?
1 Corinthians 15:30  And why do we stand in danger every hour?
1 Corinthians 15:31  I declare it by the pride I have in you in Christ Jesus our Lord: I die daily.
1 Corinthians 15:32  If I fought with beasts at Ephesus in a merely human way, what good does it do me, if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
1 Corinthians 15:33  Do not be deceived: bad company ruins good conduct.
1 Corinthians 15:34  Wake up to righteousness, and do not sin. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
1 Corinthians 15:35  But someone will say, "How are the dead raised up? And with what kind of body do they come?"
1 Corinthians 15:36  You fool. What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
1 Corinthians 15:37  And what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bare grain - perhaps of wheat, or of some other grain.
1 Corinthians 15:38  But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to every seed its own body.
1 Corinthians 15:39  Not all flesh is the same flesh. There is one kind of flesh of people, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
1 Corinthians 15:40  There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is one kind, and the glory of the earthly is another.
1 Corinthians 15:41  There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.
1 Corinthians 15:42  So it is with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decay; it is raised without decay.
1 Corinthians 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
1 Corinthians 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:45  And so it is written, "The first man Adam was made a living soul." The last Adam was made a life-giving spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:46  But the spiritual did not come first; the natural came first, and afterward the spiritual.
1 Corinthians 15:47  The first man is of the earth, made of dust. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:48  As the man of dust was, so are those who are of dust; and as the heavenly man is, so are those who are heavenly.
1 Corinthians 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man.
1 Corinthians 15:50  Now I say this, brothers and sisters: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and what decays cannot inherit what does not decay.
1 Corinthians 15:51  Look, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
1 Corinthians 15:52  in a moment, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised free from decay, and we shall be changed.
1 Corinthians 15:53  For this body that decays must put on what does not decay, and this body that dies must put on immortality.
1 Corinthians 15:54  So when this body that decays has put on what does not decay, and this body that dies has put on immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death is swallowed up in victory."
1 Corinthians 15:55  "O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?"
1 Corinthians 15:56  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
1 Corinthians 15:57  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:58  Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steady and immovable. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not wasted.

1 Corinthians 16:1  Now about the collection for the saints. Do as I ordered the churches of Galatia to do.
1 Corinthians 16:2  On the first day of the week, each of you should set something aside and save it up, as God has prospered him. Then there will be no collecting when I come.
1 Corinthians 16:3  When I come, I will send the men you approve, with letters, to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
1 Corinthians 16:4  And if it is fitting that I go too, they will go with me.
1 Corinthians 16:5  I will come to you when I have passed through Macedonia, for I am going through Macedonia.
1 Corinthians 16:6  It may be that I will stay with you, and even spend the winter with you. Then you can help me on my journey, wherever I go.
1 Corinthians 16:7  For I do not want to see you now only in passing. I hope to stay with you for a while, if the Lord allows it.
1 Corinthians 16:8  But I will stay at Ephesus until Pentecost,
1 Corinthians 16:9  for a great door has been opened to me that leads to much good work, and there are many enemies.
1 Corinthians 16:10  Now if Timotheus comes, see that he is with you without fear, for he does the work of the Lord, as I also do.
1 Corinthians 16:11  So let no one look down on him. Send him on his way in peace, so that he may come to me, for I am waiting for him with the brothers.
1 Corinthians 16:12  As for our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the brothers. He was not at all willing to come at this time, but he will come when he has a suitable time.
1 Corinthians 16:13  Keep watch. Stand firm in the faith. Be brave. Be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:14  Let everything you do be done with love.
1 Corinthians 16:15  I beg you, brothers and sisters. You know the household of Stephanas, that they are the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have given themselves to the service of the saints.
1 Corinthians 16:16  I ask you to submit yourselves to such people, and to everyone who helps with us and works hard.
1 Corinthians 16:17  I am glad that Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus have come, for they have supplied what was lacking on your part.
1 Corinthians 16:18  They have refreshed my spirit and yours. So give recognition to people like these.
1 Corinthians 16:19  The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you warmly in the Lord, with the church that meets in their house.
1 Corinthians 16:20  All the brothers and sisters greet you. Greet one another with a holy kiss.
1 Corinthians 16:21  This greeting is from me, Paul, in my own hand.
1 Corinthians 16:22  If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.
1 Corinthians 16:23  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
1 Corinthians 16:24  My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. «The first letter to the Corinthians was written from Philippi by Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus and Timotheus.}»

2 Corinthians

2 Corinthians 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God at Corinth, and to all the saints in all of Achaia:
2 Corinthians 1:2  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:3  Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort.
2 Corinthians 1:4  He comforts us in all our trouble, so that we can comfort those who are in any kind of trouble, with the same comfort that God gives us.
2 Corinthians 1:5  For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow in us, so through Christ our comfort overflows too.
2 Corinthians 1:6  If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. If we are comforted, that also is for your comfort and salvation, which works in you as you endure the same sufferings that we suffer.
2 Corinthians 1:7  And our hope for you is firm. We know that as you share in the sufferings, so you will also share in the comfort.
2 Corinthians 1:8  Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be ignorant of the trouble that came to us in Asia. We were crushed beyond measure, beyond our strength, so that we even gave up hope of living.
2 Corinthians 1:9  Indeed, within ourselves we felt the sentence of death. This was so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.
2 Corinthians 1:10  He rescued us from such a great danger of death, and he goes on rescuing us. We trust that he will rescue us again.
2 Corinthians 1:11  You are helping us as you pray for us. Then many people will give thanks on our behalf for the gift given to us through the prayers of many.
2 Corinthians 1:12  This is our boast: our conscience tells us that we have lived in the world with simple, godly sincerity. We did not use worldly wisdom, but the grace of God. And this was even more so in the way we acted toward you.
2 Corinthians 1:13  We write nothing to you except what you can read and understand. And I trust you will understand it to the end,
2 Corinthians 1:14  just as you have already understood us in part. Then you will see that we are your boast, just as you will be ours, on the day of the Lord Jesus.
2 Corinthians 1:15  Being sure of this, I planned to come to you first, so that you might have a second blessing.
2 Corinthians 1:16  I planned to pass by you on my way to Macedonia, and to come to you again from Macedonia, and then to be sent on by you toward Judaea.
2 Corinthians 1:17  So when I planned this, was I being careless? Do I make my plans in a worldly way, so that with me it is yes, yes and no, no at the same time?
2 Corinthians 1:18  But as surely as God is true, our word to you was not both yes and no.
2 Corinthians 1:19  For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yes and no. In him it was always yes.
2 Corinthians 1:20  For all the promises of God are yes in him, and in him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
2 Corinthians 1:21  Now it is God who makes us stand firm with you in Christ, and who has anointed us.
2 Corinthians 1:22  He has also put his seal on us, and given us the Spirit in our hearts as the first payment.
2 Corinthians 1:23  I call God as a witness against my own soul: I did not come to Corinth yet because I wanted to spare you.
2 Corinthians 1:24  Not that we rule over your faith, but we work with you for your joy. For you stand by faith.

2 Corinthians 2:1  So I made up my mind not to come to you again in sorrow.
2 Corinthians 2:2  For if I make you sad, who is left to make me glad? Only the one I have made sad.
2 Corinthians 2:3  That is why I wrote to you as I did. I did not want to come and be made sad by the very people who ought to make me glad. I am sure of you all, that my joy is the joy of you all.
2 Corinthians 2:4  I wrote to you out of great trouble and pain of heart, and with many tears. I did not write to make you sad, but to let you know how deep my love for you is.
2 Corinthians 2:5  If anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me only, but in part all of you. I say this so I do not put too heavy a charge on you all.
2 Corinthians 2:6  The punishment that many of you gave such a man is enough for him.
2 Corinthians 2:7  So now, instead, you ought to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may be swallowed up by too much sorrow.
2 Corinthians 2:8  So I beg you to show him clearly that you love him.
2 Corinthians 2:9  This is also why I wrote: to test you and see whether you would obey in everything.
2 Corinthians 2:10  If you forgive anyone anything, I forgive him too. And what I have forgiven, I forgave for your sake, as one who stands in the place of Christ,
2 Corinthians 2:11  so that Satan would not get the better of us. For we know his tricks.
2 Corinthians 2:12  When I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, the Lord opened a door for me there.
2 Corinthians 2:13  But I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus. So I said goodbye to them and went on from there into Macedonia.
2 Corinthians 2:14  Thanks be to God, who always leads us in victory in Christ. Through us he spreads everywhere the sweet smell of the knowledge of himself.
2 Corinthians 2:15  For we are to God the sweet smell of Christ, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
2 Corinthians 2:16  To the one we are the smell of death, leading to death; to the other, the smell of life, leading to life. And who is able to do such things?
2 Corinthians 2:17  For we are not like the many who spoil the word of God for gain. We speak in Christ with a pure heart, as sent from God, in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 3:1  Are we beginning to praise ourselves again? Or do we need letters of recommendation to you, or from you, as some people do?
2 Corinthians 3:2  You yourselves are our letter, written in our hearts. Everyone knows it and reads it.
2 Corinthians 3:3  It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, delivered by us. It was not written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It was not written on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.
2 Corinthians 3:4  We have this confidence toward God through Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:5  We are not able, by ourselves, to claim anything as coming from us. Our ability comes from God.
2 Corinthians 3:6  He has made us able servants of the new covenant. It is not a covenant of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3:7  The ministry that brought death was carved in letters on stones, and it came with glory. The people of Israel could not keep looking at the face of Moses, because of the glory on his face, though that glory was fading.
2 Corinthians 3:8  If that was so, will the ministry of the Spirit not have far more glory?
2 Corinthians 3:9  For if the ministry that condemns had glory, the ministry that brings righteousness has much more glory.
2 Corinthians 3:10  In fact, what was glorious has no glory at all now, compared with the glory that is so much greater.
2 Corinthians 3:11  For if what was fading away came with glory, what lasts has much more glory.
2 Corinthians 3:12  So, since we have such a hope, we speak very plainly.
2 Corinthians 3:13  We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the people of Israel could not keep looking at the end of what was fading away.
2 Corinthians 3:14  But their minds were made blind. To this day the same veil stays there when the old covenant is read. It is not lifted, because only in Christ is it taken away.
2 Corinthians 3:15  Even today, when Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart.
2 Corinthians 3:16  But when it turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Corinthians 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Corinthians 3:18  And we all, with uncovered faces, see the glory of the Lord as in a mirror. We are being changed into that same image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.

2 Corinthians 4:1  So then, since we have this ministry, and since we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.
2 Corinthians 4:2  We have turned away from the shameful things that people hide. We do not use cunning, and we do not twist the word of God. Instead we make the truth plain, and so we commend ourselves to every person's conscience in the sight of God.
2 Corinthians 4:3  But if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those who are lost.
2 Corinthians 4:4  The god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. So the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, does not shine on them.
2 Corinthians 4:5  For we do not preach ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord, and we are your servants for Jesus' sake.
2 Corinthians 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts. He gives us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:7  But we have this treasure in jars of clay. This shows that the greatness of the power is from God and not from us.
2 Corinthians 4:8  We are pressed hard on every side, yet not crushed. We are perplexed, but we do not despair.
2 Corinthians 4:9  We are persecuted, but not abandoned. We are struck down, but not destroyed.
2 Corinthians 4:10  We always carry about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:11  For we who live are always being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our mortal flesh.
2 Corinthians 4:12  So then death is at work in us, but life in you.
2 Corinthians 4:13  We have the same spirit of faith. As it is written, "I believed, and so I have spoken." We also believe, and so we speak.
2 Corinthians 4:14  We know that the God who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us up also with Jesus, and will present us together with you.
2 Corinthians 4:15  For all these things are for your sake. As grace reaches more and more people, the thanks they give will overflow to the glory of God.
2 Corinthians 4:16  For this reason we do not lose heart. Though our outward body is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:17  For our light trouble, which lasts only a moment, is working for us a weight of glory that is far greater and lasts forever.
2 Corinthians 4:18  So we do not look at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen last only for a time, but the things that are not seen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 5:1  We know that our earthly house, this tent, may be taken down. If it is, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 Corinthians 5:2  In this tent we groan. We long to be clothed with our house which is from heaven,
2 Corinthians 5:3  so that, being clothed, we will not be found naked.
2 Corinthians 5:4  We who are in this tent groan under our burden. We do not want to be unclothed, but to be clothed over, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
2 Corinthians 5:5  Now the one who has made us ready for this very thing is God. He has also given us the Spirit as the pledge.
2 Corinthians 5:6  So we are always confident. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:7  (For we walk by faith, not by sight.)
2 Corinthians 5:8  We are confident, I say, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:9  So we work hard, whether we are at home or away, to be pleasing to him.
2 Corinthians 5:10  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Then each one will receive what is due for the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
2 Corinthians 5:11  So, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade people. What we are is clear to God, and I trust it is clear to your consciences too.
2 Corinthians 5:12  We are not commending ourselves to you again. We are giving you reason to be proud of us, so that you may have an answer for those who boast in appearance and not in heart.
2 Corinthians 5:13  If we are out of our minds, it is for God. If we are in our right minds, it is for you.
2 Corinthians 5:14  For the love of Christ controls us, because we have come to this judgment: that one died for all, and so all died.
2 Corinthians 5:15  And he died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again.
2 Corinthians 5:16  So from now on we regard no one from a human point of view. Even though we have known Christ that way, we know him that way no longer.
2 Corinthians 5:17  So if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:18  And all these things are from God. He has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:19  That is, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. And he has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:20  So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were appealing to you through us. In Christ's place we beg you: be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:21  For God made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 6:1  So, as workers together with him, we beg you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
2 Corinthians 6:2  (For he says, "I have heard you at a time when I welcomed you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." Look, now is the welcome time. Look, now is the day of salvation.)
2 Corinthians 6:3  We give no offence in anything, so that no one can blame our ministry.
2 Corinthians 6:4  Instead, in everything we show ourselves to be servants of God: in much patience, in troubles, in hardships, in distresses,
2 Corinthians 6:5  in beatings, in prisons, in riots, in hard work, in sleepless nights, in times without food;
2 Corinthians 6:6  by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by love that is not pretended,
2 Corinthians 6:7  by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
2 Corinthians 6:8  through honour and shame, through bad reports and good reports. We are treated as liars, and yet we are true;
2 Corinthians 6:9  as unknown, and yet we are well known; as dying, and look, we live; as punished, and yet not killed;
2 Corinthians 6:10  as sad, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet owning all things.
2 Corinthians 6:11  People of Corinth, we have spoken openly to you. Our heart is wide open.
2 Corinthians 6:12  There is no narrowness in us towards you, but there is narrowness in your own hearts.
2 Corinthians 6:13  Now pay us back in the same way. I speak as to my children: open your hearts wide too.
2 Corinthians 6:14  Do not be joined in an unequal yoke with those who do not believe. For what does righteousness share with unrighteousness? And what fellowship has light with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:15  What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with one who does not believe?
2 Corinthians 6:16  And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, "I will live in them, and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
2 Corinthians 6:17  "So come out from among them, and be separate," says the Lord, "and do not touch what is unclean; and I will receive you,"
2 Corinthians 6:18  "and I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty.

2 Corinthians 7:1  So, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us make ourselves clean from everything that makes the body or the spirit dirty. Let us make our holiness complete, in the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:2  Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one. We have ruined no one. We have cheated no one.
2 Corinthians 7:3  I do not say this to condemn you. I have said before that you are in our hearts, so that we would die with you and live with you.
2 Corinthians 7:4  I speak to you very boldly. I boast about you a great deal. I am filled with comfort. In all our trouble my joy overflows.
2 Corinthians 7:5  When we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. We were troubled on every side. Outside there were fights, and inside there were fears.
2 Corinthians 7:6  But God, who comforts those who are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.
2 Corinthians 7:7  And not only by his coming, but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us how much you longed for me, how you mourned, and how strongly you cared for me. So I rejoiced even more.
2 Corinthians 7:8  Even though I made you sorry with a letter, I am not sorry now, though I was sorry before. I see that the same letter made you sorry, but only for a while.
2 Corinthians 7:9  Now I rejoice, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repent. You were made sorry in a godly way, so that you suffered no loss from us at all.
2 Corinthians 7:10  Godly sorrow works repentance that leads to salvation, and no one regrets it. But the sorrow of the world works death.
2 Corinthians 7:11  Look at what this very thing did, this godly sorrow of yours: what care it worked in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what anger, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishing of the wrong. In every way you have shown yourselves to be clear in this matter.
2 Corinthians 7:12  So then, though I wrote to you, I did not do it for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong. I did it so that our care for you might be made plain to you in the sight of God.
2 Corinthians 7:13  That is why we were comforted by your comfort. And we rejoiced even more over the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.
2 Corinthians 7:14  If I have boasted to him about you in anything, I am not ashamed. Just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus has proved to be true as well.
2 Corinthians 7:15  And his love for you is greater still, as he remembers how you all obeyed, and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling.
2 Corinthians 7:16  So I rejoice that I can have confidence in you in everything.

2 Corinthians 8:1  Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace of God that was given to the churches of Macedonia.
2 Corinthians 8:2  In a hard test of trouble, their great joy and their deep poverty overflowed into rich generosity.
2 Corinthians 8:3  I can tell you this: they gave as much as they were able, and even more than they were able, and they did it freely.
2 Corinthians 8:4  They begged us again and again to let them share in the gift and in the work of helping the saints.
2 Corinthians 8:5  And they did more than we hoped. First they gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us, by the will of God.
2 Corinthians 8:6  So we asked Titus that, since he had already begun, he should also finish this work of grace among you.
2 Corinthians 8:7  You are rich in everything: in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all eagerness, and in your love for us. So see that you are rich in this grace also.
2 Corinthians 8:8  I am not giving you an order. I am telling you how eager others are, to test whether your love is real.
2 Corinthians 8:9  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:10  Here is my advice about this, for it is good for you. A year ago you were the first not only to act, but also to want to act.
2 Corinthians 8:11  Now finish what you started. You were ready and willing to begin, so now complete it out of what you have.
2 Corinthians 8:12  For if the willing mind is there first, the gift is accepted by what a person has, not by what he does not have.
2 Corinthians 8:13  I do not mean that other people should have ease while you are burdened,
2 Corinthians 8:14  but that things should be equal. At this present time what you have plenty of can supply what they lack, so that what they have plenty of may supply what you lack. Then things will be equal.
2 Corinthians 8:15  As it is written, "He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack."
2 Corinthians 8:16  But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same deep care for you.
2 Corinthians 8:17  He welcomed our request, and because he was so eager, he went to you of his own choice.
2 Corinthians 8:18  With him we have sent the brother who is praised in all the churches for his work in the gospel.
2 Corinthians 8:19  And that is not all. He was also chosen by the churches to travel with us as we carry this gift. We handle it for the glory of the Lord himself, and to show that we are willing to help.
2 Corinthians 8:20  We are careful about this, so that no one can blame us for the way we handle this large gift.
2 Corinthians 8:21  We take care to do what is honest, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of people.
2 Corinthians 8:22  With them we have sent our brother. We have often tested him and found him eager in many things, and now he is even more eager, because he has great confidence in you.
2 Corinthians 8:23  If anyone asks about Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for you. If anyone asks about our brothers, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.
2 Corinthians 8:24  So show them, and show the churches, the proof of your love, and that we were right to boast about you.

2 Corinthians 9:1  About the help being sent to the saints, there is no need for me to write to you.
2 Corinthians 9:2  For I know how willing you are. I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, telling them that Achaia was ready a year ago. Your eagerness has stirred up very many of them.
2 Corinthians 9:3  Still, I have sent the brothers, so that our boasting about you in this matter may not prove empty. I want you to be ready, just as I said you would be.
2 Corinthians 9:4  For if any of the Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we would be ashamed of having been so confident - and you would be ashamed too.
2 Corinthians 9:5  So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you. They will get your generous gift ready beforehand, the gift you promised earlier. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, and not as something squeezed out of you.
2 Corinthians 9:6  But I say this: whoever sows little will also reap little, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
2 Corinthians 9:7  Each one should give as he has decided in his heart. He should not give with regret, or because he must, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Corinthians 9:8  And God is able to pour out every kind of grace upon you, so that you will always have all you need in everything, and plenty left over for every good work.
2 Corinthians 9:9  As it is written, "He has scattered his gifts widely; he has given to the poor: his righteousness lasts for ever."
2 Corinthians 9:10  Now he who supplies seed to the sower will also supply bread for your food. He will multiply the seed you have sown, and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
2 Corinthians 9:11  You will be made rich in every way, so that you can be generous in every way. And through us your giving brings thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:12  For the carrying out of this service does more than supply what the saints need. It also overflows in many thanksgivings to God.
2 Corinthians 9:13  Through the proof this service gives, they praise God. They glorify him because you obey the gospel of Christ, as you say you do, and because you share so generously with them and with everyone.
2 Corinthians 9:14  And they pray for you, longing for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you.
2 Corinthians 9:15  Thanks be to God for his gift, which is too wonderful for words.

2 Corinthians 10:1  Now I, Paul, myself beg you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I am the one who is humble when I am face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away.
2 Corinthians 10:2  I beg you that, when I come, I will not have to be bold with the confidence I expect to use against some people. They think that we live in the way of the flesh.
2 Corinthians 10:3  For though we live in the flesh, we do not fight our war in the way of the flesh.
2 Corinthians 10:4  (The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the flesh. Through God they are mighty to pull down strongholds.)
2 Corinthians 10:5  We throw down arguments, and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive, to make it obey Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:6  And we are ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your own obedience is complete.
2 Corinthians 10:7  Do you look only at what is on the outside? If anyone is sure within himself that he belongs to Christ, let him think again about this: just as he belongs to Christ, so do we.
2 Corinthians 10:8  For even if I boast a little more about our authority, I would not be ashamed. The Lord gave us that authority to build you up, not to pull you down.
2 Corinthians 10:9  I say this so that I may not seem to be frightening you with my letters.
2 Corinthians 10:10  For they say, "His letters are weighty and strong, but in person he is weak, and his speech is worth nothing."
2 Corinthians 10:11  Let such a person understand this: what we are in word by our letters when we are away, that is what we will be in action when we are there.
2 Corinthians 10:12  We do not dare to count ourselves among certain people who praise themselves, or to compare ourselves with them. They measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, and they are not wise.
2 Corinthians 10:13  But we will not boast beyond our measure. We will keep to the measure of the field God has given us, a measure that reaches even as far as you.
2 Corinthians 10:14  We are not stretching ourselves too far, as if we had never reached you. We did come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:15  We do not boast beyond our measure about other men's work. But we hope that, as your faith grows, our own field among you will be greatly enlarged,
2 Corinthians 10:16  so that we may preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. We do not want to boast about work already done in another man's field.
2 Corinthians 10:17  But let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 10:18  For it is not the one who praises himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord praises.

2 Corinthians 11:1  I wish you would put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, do put up with me.
2 Corinthians 11:2  I am jealous over you with a jealousy that comes from God. I promised you to one husband, so that I might present you to Christ as a pure virgin.
2 Corinthians 11:3  But I am afraid of this: as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds may be led away from the simple, sincere devotion that is in Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:4  For if someone comes and preaches another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different gospel, which you did not accept, you put up with him well enough.
2 Corinthians 11:5  For I think I am not in the least behind the very greatest apostles.
2 Corinthians 11:6  Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not unskilled in knowledge. We have made this plain to you in every way, in all things.
2 Corinthians 11:7  Did I do wrong when I made myself low so that you might be lifted up, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
2 Corinthians 11:8  I robbed other churches, taking pay from them, so that I could serve you.
2 Corinthians 11:9  And when I was with you and was in need, I was a burden to no one. The brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I lacked. In everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and I will keep myself so.
2 Corinthians 11:10  As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
2 Corinthians 11:11  Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.
2 Corinthians 11:12  But what I am doing, I will go on doing. I will take away the chance from those who want a chance to be seen as equal to us in the thing they boast about.
2 Corinthians 11:13  For such men are false apostles. They are dishonest workers, who make themselves look like apostles of Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:14  And that is no wonder, for Satan himself makes himself look like an angel of light.
2 Corinthians 11:15  So it is no great thing if his servants also make themselves look like servants of righteousness. Their end will match what they have done.
2 Corinthians 11:16  I say again, let no one think I am a fool. But if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I may boast a little myself.
2 Corinthians 11:17  What I am saying, I do not say as the Lord would, but as a fool would, in this confidence of boasting.
2 Corinthians 11:18  Since many boast in the way people of this world do, I will boast too.
2 Corinthians 11:19  For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise.
2 Corinthians 11:20  For you put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, if someone eats you up, if someone takes from you, if someone lifts himself above you, if someone strikes you in the face.
2 Corinthians 11:21  I say this to our shame, as though we had been too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast about (I am speaking foolishly), I dare to boast about too.
2 Corinthians 11:22  Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the descendants of Abraham? So am I.
2 Corinthians 11:23  Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as a fool.) I am more. I have worked harder, been beaten far more, been in prison more often, and often been near death.
2 Corinthians 11:24  Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one.
2 Corinthians 11:25  Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.
2 Corinthians 11:26  I have often been on journeys, in danger from rivers, in danger from robbers, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from the Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the wilderness, in danger at sea, in danger among false brothers;
2 Corinthians 11:27  in weariness and pain, often without sleep, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and without clothing.
2 Corinthians 11:28  Besides the things that come from outside, there is what presses on me every day: my concern for all the churches.
2 Corinthians 11:29  Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?
2 Corinthians 11:30  If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
2 Corinthians 11:31  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever, knows that I am not lying.
2 Corinthians 11:32  In Damascus the governor under King Aretas guarded the city of the Damascenes with soldiers, wanting to arrest me.
2 Corinthians 11:33  But I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and I escaped his hands.

2 Corinthians 12:1  It does me no good to boast. Still, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 12:2  I knew a man in Christ, more than fourteen years ago. Whether he was in the body, I cannot tell, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows. This man was caught up to the third heaven.
2 Corinthians 12:3  And I knew such a man - whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows -
2 Corinthians 12:4  who was caught up into paradise. He heard words that cannot be told, words that no one is allowed to speak.
2 Corinthians 12:5  About such a man I will boast. But about myself I will not boast, except in my weaknesses.
2 Corinthians 12:6  Even if I did want to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be telling the truth. But I hold back. I do not want anyone to think more of me than what he sees in me, or what he hears about me.
2 Corinthians 12:7  And so that I should not be lifted up too high by all these revelations, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to beat me, so that I should not be lifted up too high.
2 Corinthians 12:8  Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it would leave me.
2 Corinthians 12:9  And he said to me, "My grace is enough for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness." So I will boast most gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
2 Corinthians 12:10  So I am glad of weaknesses, of insults, of hardships, of persecutions, of troubles, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:11  I have become a fool in boasting. You forced me to it. It was you who should have spoken well of me. For in nothing am I less than the very greatest apostles, even though I am nothing.
2 Corinthians 12:12  The signs of an apostle were truly done among you, with all patience - signs and wonders and mighty works.
2 Corinthians 12:13  In what way were you worse off than the other churches? Only in this, that I myself was not a burden to you. Forgive me this wrong.
2 Corinthians 12:14  Look, this is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you. I am not looking for what is yours, but for you. Children should not save up for their parents; parents should save up for their children.
2 Corinthians 12:15  And I will very gladly spend all I have, and be spent myself, for you. If I love you more and more, am I to be loved less?
2 Corinthians 12:16  But suppose it is so, that I was not a burden to you. Still, being crafty, I caught you with trickery.
2 Corinthians 12:17  Did I make any profit out of you through any of the men I sent to you?
2 Corinthians 12:18  I asked Titus to go, and I sent a brother with him. Did Titus make any profit out of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps?
2 Corinthians 12:19  Again, do you think we are making excuses to you? We speak before God, in Christ. Dear friends, all that we do is to build you up.
2 Corinthians 12:20  For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and that you may not find me as you want me to be. I am afraid there may be arguments, jealousy, anger, quarrels, slander, gossip, pride and disorder.
2 Corinthians 12:21  I am afraid that when I come again my God will make me humble before you, and that I will weep over many who have sinned already and have not repented of the impurity and sexual sin and shameless living that they have done.

2 Corinthians 13:1  This is the third time I am coming to you. Every matter must be settled by the word of two or three witnesses.
2 Corinthians 13:2  I said it before, when I was with you the second time, and I say it again now while I am away. I write to those who sinned before, and to all the rest: if I come again, I will not spare anyone.
2 Corinthians 13:3  You are looking for proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak toward you; he is strong among you.
2 Corinthians 13:4  For though he was crucified in weakness, he lives by the power of God. We too are weak in him, but we will live with him by the power of God toward you.
2 Corinthians 13:5  Test yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, of course, you fail the test.
2 Corinthians 13:6  But I trust you will know that we have not failed the test.
2 Corinthians 13:7  Now I pray to God that you will do no evil. I do not pray this so that we may look approved, but so that you may do what is right, even if we should seem to have failed.
2 Corinthians 13:8  For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
2 Corinthians 13:9  We are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this is what we pray for: that you may be made complete.
2 Corinthians 13:10  That is why I write these things while I am away. Then, when I come, I will not have to be harsh in using the authority the Lord gave me. He gave it to me to build you up, not to tear you down.
2 Corinthians 13:11  Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Be made complete, take comfort, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
2 Corinthians 13:12  Greet one another with a holy kiss.
2 Corinthians 13:13  All the saints greet you.
2 Corinthians 13:14  May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the sharing in the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. «The second letter to the Corinthians was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus and Lucas.»

Galatians

Galatians 1:1  Paul, an apostle. I was not sent by men, and not through any man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.
Galatians 1:2  All the brothers and sisters who are with me join me. To the churches of Galatia:
Galatians 1:3  Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:4  He gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from this present evil world. This was the will of God, our Father,
Galatians 1:5  to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Galatians 1:6  I am amazed that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you into the grace of Christ, and going to a different gospel.
Galatians 1:7  It is not really another gospel. But there are some who are troubling you, and who want to twist the gospel of Christ.
Galatians 1:8  But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach to you any gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be cursed.
Galatians 1:9  As we said before, so I say now again: if anyone preaches to you any gospel other than the one you received, let him be cursed.
Galatians 1:10  Am I now trying to win people over, or God? Am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be the servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:11  But I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not something human.
Galatians 1:12  I did not receive it from any man, and no one taught it to me. It came by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 1:13  You have heard how I behaved in the past in the Jews' religion. I persecuted the church of God beyond all measure, and tried to destroy it.
Galatians 1:14  In the Jews' religion I went further than many of my own age in my nation. I was far more eager for the traditions of my fathers.
Galatians 1:15  But God set me apart from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace. When it pleased him
Galatians 1:16  to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach him among the nations, I did not at once talk it over with flesh and blood.
Galatians 1:17  I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. Instead I went into Arabia, and then returned to Damascus.
Galatians 1:18  Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and I stayed with him fifteen days.
Galatians 1:19  I saw none of the other apostles, except James, the Lord's brother.
Galatians 1:20  Now about the things I am writing to you: look, before God, I am not lying.
Galatians 1:21  Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
Galatians 1:22  The churches of Judaea that were in Christ did not know my face.
Galatians 1:23  They had only heard people say, "The man who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."
Galatians 1:24  And they gave glory to God because of me.

Galatians 2:1  Then, fourteen years later, I went up to Jerusalem again with Barnabas. I took Titus with me as well.
Galatians 2:2  I went up because God revealed to me that I should. I set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I did this privately, with those who were held in high regard, so that I might not be running, or have run, for nothing.
Galatians 2:3  But not even Titus, who was with me, was forced to be circumcised, though he is a Greek.
Galatians 2:4  This came up because of false brothers who had been brought in without our knowing. They slipped in to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus, so that they could make us slaves.
Galatians 2:5  We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might stay with you.
Galatians 2:6  As for those who seemed to be important (what they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by a person's standing), those men added nothing to me when we talked.
Galatians 2:7  Just the opposite: they saw that I had been trusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been trusted with the gospel for the circumcised.
Galatians 2:8  (For God, who worked powerfully in Peter to make him an apostle to the circumcised, worked powerfully in me also for the Gentiles.)
Galatians 2:9  James, Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, saw the grace that had been given to me. So they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the nations and they to the circumcised.
Galatians 2:10  They asked only that we should remember the poor, which was the very thing I was eager to do.
Galatians 2:11  But when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.
Galatians 2:12  Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and kept apart, because he was afraid of those who were circumcised.
Galatians 2:13  The other Jews joined him in this pretence, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their pretending.
Galatians 2:14  But when I saw that they were not walking straight, in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "If you are a Jew, yet live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, why do you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
Galatians 2:15  "We are Jews by birth, and not sinners from among the Gentiles."
Galatians 2:16  "Yet we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. So we too have believed in Jesus Christ, so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law no one will be justified."
Galatians 2:17  "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are also found to be sinners, does that make Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not."
Galatians 2:18  "For if I build again the things I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker."
Galatians 2:19  "For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God."
Galatians 2:20  "I am crucified with Christ. Yet I live; and it is no longer I, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Galatians 2:21  "I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes by the law, then Christ died for nothing."

Galatians 3:1  You foolish Galatians! Who has put a spell on you, so that you do not obey the truth? Jesus Christ was set out clearly before your eyes as crucified.
Galatians 3:2  This is the one thing I want to learn from you. Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law, or by hearing and believing?
Galatians 3:3  Are you so foolish? You began in the Spirit. Are you now made perfect by the flesh?
Galatians 3:4  Have you suffered so many things for nothing? If it really was for nothing.
Galatians 3:5  God gives you the Spirit and works miracles among you. Does he do this because you do the works of the law, or because you hear and believe?
Galatians 3:6  It is just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Galatians 3:7  So you should know this: the people who have faith are the children of Abraham.
Galatians 3:8  The scripture saw ahead of time that God would make the nations righteous through faith. So it announced the good news to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all nations will be blessed."
Galatians 3:9  So then those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, who believed.
Galatians 3:10  All who depend on the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing all the things written in the book of the law."
Galatians 3:11  It is clear that no one is made righteous before God by the law, for, "The righteous will live by faith."
Galatians 3:12  The law is not about faith. Instead it says, "The man who does these things will live by them."
Galatians 3:13  Christ bought us back from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree."
Galatians 3:14  This happened so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, and so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:15  Brothers and sisters, let me speak the way people usually do. Even when an agreement is only a man's covenant, once it has been confirmed, no one can cancel it or add to it.
Galatians 3:16  Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It does not say, "And to seeds," as if to many, but as to one, "And to your seed," which is Christ.
Galatians 3:17  This is what I mean. God confirmed a covenant beforehand in Christ. The law came four hundred and thirty years later, and it cannot cancel that covenant or make the promise useless.
Galatians 3:18  For if the inheritance comes by the law, then it no longer comes by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise.
Galatians 3:19  Then what was the purpose of the law? It was added because of wrongdoing, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. It was put in place by angels through the hand of a go-between.
Galatians 3:20  Now a go-between is not needed for one party alone, but God is one.
Galatians 3:21  Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would truly have come by the law.
Galatians 3:22  But the scripture has shut up everything under sin, so that the promise might be given, through faith in Jesus Christ, to those who believe.
Galatians 3:23  Before faith came, we were kept under the law. We were shut in until the faith that was going to come would be revealed.
Galatians 3:24  So the law was our guardian and teacher, to bring us to Christ, so that we might be made righteous by faith.
Galatians 3:25  But now that faith has come, we are no longer under such a teacher.
Galatians 3:26  For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:27  All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
Galatians 3:28  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:29  And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Galatians 4:1  Now this is what I mean. As long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a servant, even though he owns everything.
Galatians 4:2  He is under guardians and stewards until the time his father has set.
Galatians 4:3  It is the same with us. When we were children, we were held in slavery under the basic principles of the world.
Galatians 4:4  But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
Galatians 4:5  to buy back those who were under the law, so that we might be adopted as sons.
Galatians 4:6  And because you are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, "Abba, Father."
Galatians 4:7  So you are no longer a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 4:8  In the past, when you did not know God, you served things that by nature are not gods at all.
Galatians 4:9  But now you know God - or rather, God knows you. So how can you turn back again to those weak and worthless principles? Do you want to be their slaves all over again?
Galatians 4:10  You keep special days, and months, and seasons, and years.
Galatians 4:11  I am afraid for you. I fear that my hard work for you may have been wasted.
Galatians 4:12  Brothers and sisters, I beg you, become as I am, for I became as you are. You have done me no wrong.
Galatians 4:13  You know that it was because of a weakness of my body that I preached the gospel to you the first time.
Galatians 4:14  And though my condition was a trial to you, you did not look down on me or turn me away. Instead you welcomed me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.
Galatians 4:15  Where then is the blessing you spoke of? I can testify that, if it had been possible, you would have torn out your own eyes and given them to me.
Galatians 4:16  So have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
Galatians 4:17  Those people are eager to win you over, but not for good. They want to shut you out, so that you will be eager for them.
Galatians 4:18  It is good to be eager for a good thing at all times, and not only when I am with you.
Galatians 4:19  My little children, I am in the pains of birth for you once again, until Christ is formed in you.
Galatians 4:20  I wish I could be with you now and change the tone of my voice, because I do not know what to make of you.
Galatians 4:21  Tell me, you who want to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?
Galatians 4:22  For it is written that Abraham had two sons: one by the slave woman, and one by the free woman.
Galatians 4:23  But the son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way of the flesh. The son of the free woman was born through the promise.
Galatians 4:24  These things are an allegory. These women are the two covenants. One comes from Mount Sinai and gives birth to children who are slaves. That is Agar.
Galatians 4:25  For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and she matches the Jerusalem that now exists, for she is in slavery with her children.
Galatians 4:26  But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is the mother of us all.
Galatians 4:27  For it is written, "Rejoice, you barren woman who bears no children; break out and cry aloud, you who have no birth pains. For the deserted woman has many more children than she who has a husband."
Galatians 4:28  Now we, brothers and sisters, are children of promise, as Isaac was.
Galatians 4:29  But just as then the son born in the way of the flesh persecuted the son born by the Spirit, so it is now.
Galatians 4:30  Yet what does the scripture say? "Drive out the slave woman and her son. For the son of the slave woman shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."
Galatians 4:31  So then, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Galatians 5:1  So stand firm in the freedom that Christ has given us. Do not let yourselves be tied up again by the yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:2  Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you are circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
Galatians 5:3  I say it again to every man who is circumcised: he is bound to keep the whole law.
Galatians 5:4  Christ has become of no use to you, all of you who are made righteous by the law. You have fallen away from grace.
Galatians 5:5  For through the Spirit we wait by faith for the hope of righteousness.
Galatians 5:6  For in Jesus Christ neither being circumcised nor being uncircumcised counts for anything. What counts is faith that works through love.
Galatians 5:7  You were running well. Who got in your way, so that you no longer obey the truth?
Galatians 5:8  This persuading does not come from the one who calls you.
Galatians 5:9  A little yeast works through the whole lump of dough.
Galatians 5:10  I am confident in the Lord that you will think no other way. But the one who is troubling you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
Galatians 5:11  And brothers and sisters, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? If that were so, the offence of the cross would be gone.
Galatians 5:12  I wish that those who are unsettling you would go the whole way and cut themselves off.
Galatians 5:13  Brothers and sisters, you have been called to freedom. Only do not use your freedom as an opening for the flesh. Instead serve one another in love.
Galatians 5:14  For the whole law is fulfilled in one saying, this one: "You shall love your neighbour as yourself."
Galatians 5:15  But if you bite and tear at one another, watch out, or you will be destroyed by one another.
Galatians 5:16  So I say this: walk in the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.
Galatians 5:17  For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit what is against the flesh. These two are opposed to each other, so that you cannot do the things you want.
Galatians 5:18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Galatians 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are plain to see. They are these: adultery, sexual sin, impurity, shameless living,
Galatians 5:20  idol worship, witchcraft, hatred, quarrelling, jealousy, anger, rivalry, divisions, false teachings,
Galatians 5:21  envy, murders, drunkenness, wild parties, and things like these. I warn you about them now, as I have warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Galatians 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,
Galatians 5:23  humility, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:24  And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its feelings and desires.
Galatians 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Galatians 5:26  Let us not long for empty glory, provoking one another and envying one another.

Galatians 6:1  Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should set that person right again, in a spirit of gentleness. And watch yourself, or you may be tempted too.
Galatians 6:2  Carry one another's burdens. In this way you will fulfil the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:3  If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he is fooling himself.
Galatians 6:4  Let each person test his own work. Then he will have something to be glad about in himself alone, and not in comparing himself with someone else.
Galatians 6:5  For each person will carry his own load.
Galatians 6:6  Anyone who is taught the word should share all good things with the one who teaches him.
Galatians 6:7  Do not be fooled. God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, that is what he will also reap.
Galatians 6:8  The one who sows to his flesh will reap decay from the flesh. But the one who sows to the Spirit will reap everlasting life from the Spirit.
Galatians 6:9  Let us not grow tired of doing good. At the right time we will reap, if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:10  So then, whenever we have the chance, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who belong to the household of faith.
Galatians 6:11  You see what large letters I have used to write to you with my own hand.
Galatians 6:12  All those who want to look good outwardly are forcing you to be circumcised. They do it only so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Galatians 6:13  For even those who are circumcised do not keep the law themselves. But they want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh.
Galatians 6:14  But may I never boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:15  For in Christ Jesus neither being circumcised nor being uncircumcised counts for anything. What counts is being a new creature.
Galatians 6:16  Peace and mercy be on all who walk by this rule, and on the Israel of God.
Galatians 6:17  From now on let no one trouble me, for I carry in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Galatians 6:18  Brothers and sisters, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. «Written to the Galatians from Rome.»

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Ephesians 1:2  Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Ephesians 1:4  He chose us in him before the world was made, so that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
Ephesians 1:5  In love he decided beforehand to adopt us as his children through Jesus Christ, because this was the good pleasure of his will,
Ephesians 1:6  to the praise of the glory of his grace. In the beloved one he has made us accepted.
Ephesians 1:7  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.
Ephesians 1:8  He poured out that grace on us richly, in all wisdom and understanding.
Ephesians 1:9  He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in himself.
Ephesians 1:10  His plan was that, when the times are complete, he would gather together into one all things in Christ, both the things in heaven and the things on earth, in him.
Ephesians 1:11  In him we have also received an inheritance. We were chosen beforehand, according to the purpose of the one who works all things after the counsel of his own will,
Ephesians 1:12  so that we, who first trusted in Christ, should be to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13  You also trusted in him, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In him also, after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
Ephesians 1:14  who is the first payment that guarantees our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession he has bought, to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:15  So I too, since I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and of your love to all the saints,
Ephesians 1:16  do not stop giving thanks for you. I mention you in my prayers.
Ephesians 1:17  I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.
Ephesians 1:18  I pray that the eyes of your understanding may be filled with light, so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Ephesians 1:19  and how very great his power is toward us who believe. It is the same working of his mighty power
Ephesians 1:20  which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Ephesians 1:21  far above every rule, and authority, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.
Ephesians 1:22  He has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,
Ephesians 1:23  which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 2:1  And he has made you alive. You were dead in your trespasses and sins.
Ephesians 2:2  In the past you lived in them. You followed the way of this world, and the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the children of disobedience.
Ephesians 2:3  We all lived among them once, and our conduct was ruled by the desires of our flesh. We did what the flesh and the mind wanted. By nature we were children of wrath, just like everyone else.
Ephesians 2:4  But God is rich in mercy. Because of his great love for us,
Ephesians 2:5  even when we were dead in sins, he made us alive together with Christ. (By grace you are saved.)
Ephesians 2:6  And he raised us up together with him, and seated us together with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Ephesians 2:7  so that in the ages to come he might show the enormous riches of his grace, in his kindness to us through Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:8  For by grace you are saved through faith. This did not come from you. It is the gift of God.
Ephesians 2:9  It is not by works, so no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. God prepared these works beforehand, so that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:11  So remember this. In the past you were Gentiles in the flesh. Those who call themselves the Circumcision, done in the flesh by human hands, called you the Uncircumcision.
Ephesians 2:12  At that time you were without Christ. You were shut out from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope, and you were without God in the world.
Ephesians 2:13  But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:14  For he is our peace. He has made the two into one, and has broken down the middle wall that divided us.
Ephesians 2:15  In his flesh he has abolished the hatred, that is, the law of commandments contained in rules. His purpose was to make the two into one new man in himself, so making peace,
Ephesians 2:16  and to reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, killing the hatred by it.
Ephesians 2:17  He came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near.
Ephesians 2:18  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
Ephesians 2:19  So now you are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are fellow citizens with the saints, and members of the household of God.
Ephesians 2:20  You are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and Jesus Christ himself is the chief corner stone.
Ephesians 2:21  In him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Ephesians 2:22  In him you also are built together to be a dwelling place of God through the Spirit.

Ephesians 3:1  For this reason I, Paul, am the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.
Ephesians 3:2  You must have heard how God gave me the work of bringing his grace to you.
Ephesians 3:3  God showed me the secret by a revelation. I wrote about it a little while ago in a few words.
Ephesians 3:4  When you read them, you can understand what I know about the secret of Christ.
Ephesians 3:5  In other ages this secret was not made known to people, but now the Spirit has revealed it to his holy apostles and prophets.
Ephesians 3:6  The secret is this: through the gospel the Gentiles share the same inheritance, belong to the same body, and share in his promise in Christ.
Ephesians 3:7  I was made a servant of this gospel, by the gift of the grace of God that was given to me through the powerful working of his power.
Ephesians 3:8  I am less than the least of all God's holy people, yet this grace was given to me: to preach among the Gentiles the riches of Christ, riches no one can measure,
Ephesians 3:9  and to make everyone see how the secret works out. From the beginning of the world it was hidden in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 3:10  His purpose was that now, through the church, the rulers and powers in the heavenly places should come to know the many-sided wisdom of God.
Ephesians 3:11  This was his eternal purpose, which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Ephesians 3:12  In him, and through faith in him, we may come to God boldly and with confidence.
Ephesians 3:13  So I ask you not to lose heart because of the troubles I suffer for you. They are your glory.
Ephesians 3:14  For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 3:15  Every family in heaven and on earth is named after him.
Ephesians 3:16  I pray that out of the riches of his glory he will grant you to be made strong with power by his Spirit in your inner being,
Ephesians 3:17  so that Christ may live in your hearts by faith. I pray that you may have your roots and your foundation in love,
Ephesians 3:18  so that you may be able to understand, with all God's holy people, how wide and long and deep and high it is,
Ephesians 3:19  and to know the love of Christ, which is greater than knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:20  Now to him who is able to do far more than everything we ask or think, by the power that works in us,
Ephesians 3:21  to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through all ages, for ever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 4:1  So I, the prisoner of the Lord, beg you to live in a way worthy of the calling you were called to.
Ephesians 4:2  Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient. Put up with one another in love.
Ephesians 4:3  Work hard to keep the unity of the Spirit, held together by the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:4  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called.
Ephesians 4:5  There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Ephesians 4:6  one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in you all.
Ephesians 4:7  But grace has been given to every one of us, in the measure that Christ gives it.
Ephesians 4:8  That is why it says, "When he went up on high, he led captives with him, and he gave gifts to people."
Ephesians 4:9  (Now if he went up, this must mean that he also came down first, to the lower parts of the earth.
Ephesians 4:10  The one who came down is the same one who went up far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.)
Ephesians 4:11  And he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers.
Ephesians 4:12  He did this to make the saints complete, for the work of serving, and for the building up of the body of Christ.
Ephesians 4:13  This goes on until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, and become a full-grown man, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.
Ephesians 4:14  Then we will no longer be children, tossed here and there and blown about by every wind of teaching, by the trickery of men and their clever scheming, by which they lie in wait to deceive.
Ephesians 4:15  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow up in every way into him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Ephesians 4:16  From him the whole body is joined and held firmly together, each joint giving what it has. As each part does its own work, the body grows and builds itself up in love.
Ephesians 4:17  So this is what I say, and I declare it in the Lord: you must no longer live as the other Gentiles live, in the emptiness of their minds.
Ephesians 4:18  Their understanding is darkened. They are cut off from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, which comes from the blindness of their hearts.
Ephesians 4:19  They have stopped feeling anything, and have given themselves over to shameless lust, doing every kind of unclean thing greedily.
Ephesians 4:20  But that is not how you learned Christ,
Ephesians 4:21  if indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
Ephesians 4:22  that you take off the old self, which belonged to your old way of living, and is being ruined by deceitful desires;
Ephesians 4:23  and that you be made new in the spirit of your mind;
Ephesians 4:24  and that you put on the new self, which is created to be like God, in righteousness and true holiness.
Ephesians 4:25  So put away lying. Let each of you speak the truth to his neighbour, for we belong to one another as parts of one body.
Ephesians 4:26  Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.
Ephesians 4:27  And do not give the devil any place.
Ephesians 4:28  The one who stole must steal no more. Instead let him work hard, doing good with his own hands, so that he has something to give to anyone in need.
Ephesians 4:29  Let no rotten talk come out of your mouth, but only what is good and helps to build others up, so that it gives grace to those who hear it.
Ephesians 4:30  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:31  Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, shouting and evil speaking, along with every kind of spite.
Ephesians 4:32  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you for Christ's sake.

Ephesians 5:1  So then, follow God's example, as dear children do.
Ephesians 5:2  And walk in love, just as Christ also loved us. He gave himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God, a sweet-smelling gift.
Ephesians 5:3  But sexual sin, and every kind of uncleanness, or greed, must not even be named among you. That is fitting for saints.
Ephesians 5:4  There must be no filthy talk, no foolish talk, no coarse joking. These are not proper. Instead, give thanks.
Ephesians 5:5  For you know this: no one who is sexually immoral, or unclean, or greedy (such a person worships idols) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
Ephesians 5:6  Let no one deceive you with empty words. It is because of such things that the wrath of God comes on those who disobey.
Ephesians 5:7  So do not take part with them.
Ephesians 5:8  For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Ephesians 5:9  (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.)
Ephesians 5:10  Find out what pleases the Lord.
Ephesians 5:11  Have nothing to do with the fruitless works of darkness. Instead, show them up for what they are.
Ephesians 5:12  For it is shameful even to speak of the things they do in secret.
Ephesians 5:13  But everything that is shown up is made plain by the light, for whatever makes things plain is light.
Ephesians 5:14  That is why he says, "Wake up, you who are sleeping, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light."
Ephesians 5:15  So be careful how you walk. Do not live as fools, but as wise people,
Ephesians 5:16  making the most of the time, because the days are evil.
Ephesians 5:17  So do not be foolish. Understand what the will of the Lord is.
Ephesians 5:18  Do not get drunk with wine, which leads to wild living. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Ephesians 5:19  Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:20  Always give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 5:21  Submit to one another in the fear of God.
Ephesians 5:22  Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church. And he is the Saviour of the body.
Ephesians 5:24  So, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Ephesians 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it,
Ephesians 5:26  so that he might make it holy and clean, washing it with water by the word,
Ephesians 5:27  so that he might present it to himself as a glorious church, with no spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and without any flaw.
Ephesians 5:28  In the same way, men ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself.
Ephesians 5:29  For no one ever hated his own flesh. He feeds it and cares for it, just as the Lord does for the church.
Ephesians 5:30  For we are parts of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Ephesians 5:31  "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two of them will be one flesh."
Ephesians 5:32  This is a great mystery, but I am speaking about Christ and the church.
Ephesians 5:33  Even so, let each one of you love his wife as he loves himself. And the wife must see that she respects her husband.

Ephesians 6:1  Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Ephesians 6:2  "Honour your father and mother." This is the first commandment that comes with a promise.
Ephesians 6:3  The promise is this: "so that it may go well with you, and you may live a long time on the earth."
Ephesians 6:4  Fathers, do not make your children angry. Instead, bring them up with the training and teaching of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:5  Servants, obey those who are your masters here on earth. Do it with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as if you were serving Christ.
Ephesians 6:6  Do not obey only when you are being watched, like people trying to please others. Obey as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart.
Ephesians 6:7  Serve willingly, as serving the Lord and not men.
Ephesians 6:8  You know that whatever good thing anyone does, he will receive the same back from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
Ephesians 6:9  And masters, treat your servants in the same way. Stop threatening them. You know that your own Master is in heaven, and he shows no favouritism.
Ephesians 6:10  Finally, my brothers and sisters, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Ephesians 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the tricks of the devil.
Ephesians 6:12  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is against rulers, against powers, against the lords of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ephesians 6:13  So take up the whole armour of God. Then you will be able to hold your ground on the evil day, and, when you have done everything, still stand.
Ephesians 6:14  So stand firm. Tie truth round your waist like a belt. Wear righteousness as your breastplate.
Ephesians 6:15  Put on your feet the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
Ephesians 6:16  Above all, take up the shield of faith. With it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows of the evil one.
Ephesians 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Ephesians 6:18  Pray at all times in the Spirit, with every kind of prayer and request. Keep watch in this, never giving up, and pray for all the saints.
Ephesians 6:19  Pray for me too, that words may be given to me, so that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
Ephesians 6:20  For this gospel I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may speak about it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Ephesians 6:21  So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus will tell you everything. He is a dear brother and a faithful servant in the Lord.
Ephesians 6:22  I have sent him to you for this very reason: so that you may know how we are, and so that he may comfort your hearts.
Ephesians 6:23  Peace be to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 6:24  Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ sincerely. Amen. «To the Ephesians written from Rome, by Tychicus.»

Philippians

Philippians 1:1  Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:
Philippians 1:2  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:3  I thank my God every time I remember you.
Philippians 1:4  In every prayer of mine for you all, I always make my request with joy,
Philippians 1:5  because you have shared with me in the gospel from the first day until now.
Philippians 1:6  I am sure of this very thing: the one who has begun a good work in you will carry it on until the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:7  It is right for me to think this of you all, because I hold you in my heart. Both in my chains and in the defence and confirming of the gospel, you all share in my grace.
Philippians 1:8  God is my witness how greatly I long for you all with the tender love of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:9  And this is my prayer: that your love may grow more and more in knowledge and in all judgment,
Philippians 1:10  so that you may test and choose what is excellent, and may be sincere and without fault until the day of Christ,
Philippians 1:11  filled with the fruits of righteousness, which come by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:12  Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the things that have happened to me have helped the gospel forward instead.
Philippians 1:13  So it is clear all through the palace, and everywhere else, that I am in chains for Christ.
Philippians 1:14  And many of the brothers and sisters in the Lord have gained confidence from my chains, and are far more bold to speak the word without fear.
Philippians 1:15  Some, it is true, preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but some out of good will.
Philippians 1:16  The one group preach Christ out of a quarrelsome spirit, not sincerely, thinking to add trouble to my chains.
Philippians 1:17  But the other group do it out of love, knowing that I am put here to defend the gospel.
Philippians 1:18  What then? In every way, whether it is pretended or true, Christ is preached. And in that I rejoice, yes, and I will go on rejoicing.
Philippians 1:19  For I know that this will turn out for my salvation through your prayer and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:20  This is my eager expectation and hope: that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death.
Philippians 1:21  For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Philippians 1:22  But if I live on in the flesh, this means fruit from my work. Yet which to choose I do not know.
Philippians 1:23  I am pulled between the two. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ, which is far better,
Philippians 1:24  but to stay on in the flesh is more needful for you.
Philippians 1:25  And being sure of this, I know that I shall stay and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,
Philippians 1:26  so that your rejoicing in Jesus Christ may overflow because of me, when I come to you again.
Philippians 1:27  Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then whether I come and see you, or am away, I may hear about you, that you stand firm in one spirit, striving together with one mind for the faith of the gospel,
Philippians 1:28  and are not frightened in anything by those who oppose you. To them this is a clear sign of destruction, but to you of salvation, and that from God.
Philippians 1:29  For it has been given to you, on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for his sake,
Philippians 1:30  as you go through the same struggle you saw in me, and now hear that I still have.

Philippians 2:1  So then, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any tenderness and mercy,
Philippians 2:2  make my joy complete. Think the same way, have the same love, be united in spirit and of one mind.
Philippians 2:3  Do nothing out of rivalry or empty pride. Instead, be humble in mind, and let each of you consider others better than yourselves.
Philippians 2:4  Do not look only to your own interests, but let each of you also look to the interests of others.
Philippians 2:5  Have the same mind in you that was also in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 2:6  He was in the form of God, but he did not count it something to be grasped to be equal with God.
Philippians 2:7  Instead he made himself nothing, and took on the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:8  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
Philippians 2:9  For this reason God has raised him to the highest place, and given him a name which is above every name,
Philippians 2:10  so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth,
Philippians 2:11  and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:12  So then, my dear friends, you have always obeyed. Do so not only when I am with you, but now much more when I am away. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2:13  For it is God who works in you, both to want to do his good pleasure and to do it.
Philippians 2:14  Do everything without grumbling and arguing,
Philippians 2:15  so that you may be blameless and innocent, the sons of God, without fault, in the middle of a crooked and twisted nation. Among them you shine as lights in the world,
Philippians 2:16  holding out the word of life. Then I may be glad on the day of Christ, because I did not run for nothing, nor work for nothing.
Philippians 2:17  Yes, and even if I am poured out as an offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad, and I rejoice with you all.
Philippians 2:18  For the same reason you also should be glad, and rejoice with me.
Philippians 2:19  But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus to you soon, so that I also may be cheered when I know how you are.
Philippians 2:20  For I have no one else who thinks as I do, who will truly care about how you are.
Philippians 2:21  For they all look after their own interests, not the things that belong to Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2:22  But you know how he has proved himself. Like a son with his father, he has served with me in the gospel.
Philippians 2:23  So I hope to send him at once, as soon as I see how things will go with me.
Philippians 2:24  But I trust in the Lord that I myself will also come soon.
Philippians 2:25  Still, I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and fellow worker, and fellow soldier. He is your messenger, and the one who helped me in my needs.
Philippians 2:26  For he was longing for you all, and was full of sadness, because you had heard that he had been ill.
Philippians 2:27  Indeed he was ill, and close to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I should not have sorrow upon sorrow.
Philippians 2:28  So I have sent him all the more eagerly, so that when you see him again you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful.
Philippians 2:29  So welcome him in the Lord with all gladness, and hold such men in honour.
Philippians 2:30  For the work of Christ he came close to death. He risked his life to make up for the help you could not give me.

Philippians 3:1  Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. It is no trouble to me to write the same things to you again, and for you it is safe.
Philippians 3:2  Beware of dogs. Beware of evil workers. Beware of those who cut the flesh.
Philippians 3:3  For we are the circumcision. We worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh.
Philippians 3:4  Yet I could have confidence in the flesh too. If any other man thinks he has reason to trust in the flesh, I have more:
Philippians 3:5  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as for the law, a Pharisee;
Philippians 3:6  as for zeal, I persecuted the church; as for the righteousness that is in the law, I was blameless.
Philippians 3:7  But the things that were gain to me, I have counted as loss for Christ.
Philippians 3:8  Yes, and I count everything as loss, because knowing Christ Jesus my Lord is so much better. For him I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as dung, so that I may win Christ,
Philippians 3:9  and be found in him. I do not have a righteousness of my own, which comes from the law. I have the righteousness that is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.
Philippians 3:10  I want to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and to share in his sufferings, being made like him in his death,
Philippians 3:11  so that by any means I might reach the resurrection of the dead.
Philippians 3:12  I do not say that I have already reached it, or that I am already perfect. But I press on, so that I may take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Philippians 3:13  Brothers and sisters, I do not count myself to have taken hold of it. But this one thing I do: I forget the things that are behind, and reach out to the things that are ahead.
Philippians 3:14  I press on toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:15  So let all of us who are perfect think this way. And if in anything you think otherwise, God will make this clear to you too.
Philippians 3:16  Still, as far as we have already come, let us walk by the same rule, and let us think the same thing.
Philippians 3:17  Brothers and sisters, follow my example together, and watch those who walk as we do, for you have us as a pattern.
Philippians 3:18  (For many walk in another way. I have often told you about them, and now I tell you even with tears, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ.
Philippians 3:19  Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.)
Philippians 3:20  For our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philippians 3:21  He will change our lowly body, so that it will be made like his glorious body. He will do it by the power with which he is able to bring all things under himself.

Philippians 4:1  So then, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long to see, you are my joy and my crown. Stand firm in the Lord, my dear friends.
Philippians 4:2  I beg Euodias, and I beg Syntyche, to be of the same mind in the Lord.
Philippians 4:3  And I ask you also, true yokefellow, help these women. They worked hard with me in the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Philippians 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice.
Philippians 4:5  Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near.
Philippians 4:6  Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in everything, by prayer and pleading, with thanks, let God know what you ask for.
Philippians 4:7  And the peace of God, which is greater than all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:8  Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are well spoken of: if there is any virtue, and if there is anything worth praise, think about these things.
Philippians 4:9  The things you have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me: do them. And the God of peace will be with you.
Philippians 4:10  I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that now at last your care for me has grown fresh again. You did care, but you had no chance to show it.
Philippians 4:11  I do not say this because I am in need. I have learned to be content in whatever state I am.
Philippians 4:12  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to have plenty. Everywhere and in everything I have learned the secret of being full and being hungry, of having plenty and being in need.
Philippians 4:13  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Philippians 4:14  All the same, you did well to share with me in my trouble.
Philippians 4:15  You Philippians know too that in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in giving and receiving, only you.
Philippians 4:16  Even in Thessalonica you sent help for my needs once and again.
Philippians 4:17  It is not that I want the gift. What I want is the fruit that adds to your account.
Philippians 4:18  But I have everything I need, and more. I am full, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the things you sent: a sweet-smelling offering, a sacrifice that God accepts and is pleased with.
Philippians 4:19  And my God will supply everything you need, out of his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:20  Now to God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Philippians 4:21  Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.
Philippians 4:22  All the saints greet you, especially those who belong to Caesar's household.
Philippians 4:23  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. «Written to the Philippians from Rome, by Epaphroditus.»

Colossians

Colossians 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
Colossians 1:2  To the saints and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who are at Colosse: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:3  We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we always pray for you.
Colossians 1:4  For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love you have for all the saints.
Colossians 1:5  You have this faith and love because of the hope that is kept safe for you in heaven. You heard about this hope before, in the true message of the gospel.
Colossians 1:6  That gospel has come to you, as it has gone into all the world. It is bearing fruit, just as it does among you. This has been so from the day you heard it and truly knew the grace of God.
Colossians 1:7  You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ for you.
Colossians 1:8  He also told us about your love in the Spirit.
Colossians 1:9  So from the day we heard it, we have not stopped praying for you. We ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
Colossians 1:10  Then you will live in a way worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way. You will bear fruit in every good work, and grow in the knowledge of God.
Colossians 1:11  You will be made strong with all strength, by his glorious power, so that you can endure everything with patience and with joy.
Colossians 1:12  Give thanks to the Father. He has made us fit to share in what belongs to the saints in the light.
Colossians 1:13  He has rescued us from the power of darkness, and has brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
Colossians 1:14  In him we have redemption through his blood, that is, the forgiveness of sins.
Colossians 1:15  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
Colossians 1:16  For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, or lordships, or rulers, or powers. All things were created by him and for him.
Colossians 1:17  He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:18  He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that in all things he might be first.
Colossians 1:19  For it pleased the Father that all fullness should live in him,
Colossians 1:20  and through him to bring all things back to himself, having made peace by the blood of his cross. By him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
Colossians 1:21  Once you were far away from God. Your minds made you his enemies, and your works were evil. But now he has brought you back to himself
Colossians 1:22  in the body of his flesh, through death. He did this to present you holy, without fault, and with nothing to be charged against you in his sight,
Colossians 1:23  if you continue in the faith, grounded and firm, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel. You have heard that gospel, and it has been preached to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, have been made a servant of it.
Colossians 1:24  Now I rejoice in what I suffer for you. In my body I fill up what is still lacking of the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the church.
Colossians 1:25  I was made a servant of the church by the task God gave me for you, to make the word of God fully known.
Colossians 1:26  This is the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations, but now is made plain to his saints.
Colossians 1:27  God chose to make known to them how rich and glorious this mystery is among the Gentiles. The mystery is this: Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Colossians 1:28  We preach him. We warn everyone and teach everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:29  For this I labour, struggling with all the strength he supplies, which works powerfully in me.

Colossians 2:1  I want you to know what a great struggle I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have never met me face to face.
Colossians 2:2  I want their hearts to be comforted, and them to be joined together in love. I want them to have all the riches of full certainty of understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.
Colossians 2:3  In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
Colossians 2:4  I say this so that no one may fool you with words that sound attractive.
Colossians 2:5  For even though I am not there in body, I am with you in spirit. I am glad to see your good order, and how steady your faith in Christ is.
Colossians 2:6  So then, just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, go on walking in him.
Colossians 2:7  Be rooted in him and built up in him. Be made firm in the faith, as you were taught, and overflow in it with thanksgiving.
Colossians 2:8  Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit. Such teaching follows the tradition of men and the basic rules of the world, and not Christ.
Colossians 2:9  For in him all the fullness of the Godhead lives in bodily form.
Colossians 2:10  And you are complete in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
Colossians 2:11  In him you were also circumcised, with a circumcision not made by hands. It is the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ.
Colossians 2:12  You were buried with him in baptism. In it you were also raised with him, through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Colossians 2:13  You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh. But God made you alive together with him, and forgave you all your wrongdoing.
Colossians 2:14  He wiped out the written record of rules that stood against us and opposed us. He took it away, nailing it to his cross.
Colossians 2:15  And having stripped the rulers and authorities, he showed them openly, and in it he triumphed over them.
Colossians 2:16  So do not let anyone judge you about food, or drink, or about a holy day, or a new moon, or sabbath days.
Colossians 2:17  These are a shadow of things that were to come, but the body is Christ's.
Colossians 2:18  Do not let anyone rob you of your reward by a humility he has chosen for himself and by the worship of angels. Such a person pushes into things he has not seen, and is puffed up for no reason by his fleshly mind.
Colossians 2:19  He does not hold on to the Head. From the Head the whole body is fed and joined together through its joints and ligaments, and it grows with the growth that God gives.
Colossians 2:20  If you died with Christ to the basic rules of the world, why do you submit to regulations, as though you still lived in the world?
Colossians 2:21  (Do not touch; do not taste; do not handle;
Colossians 2:22  all these things perish as they are used.) Such rules follow the commands and teachings of men.
Colossians 2:23  These things do have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-made worship, and humility, and harsh treatment of the body. But they are of no value against the satisfying of the flesh.

Colossians 3:1  So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
Colossians 3:2  Set your heart on things above, not on things on the earth.
Colossians 3:3  For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:4  When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:5  So put to death the parts of you that belong to the earth: sexual sin, uncleanness, wrong desire, evil longing, and greed, which is idolatry.
Colossians 3:6  Because of these things the anger of God comes on the children of disobedience.
Colossians 3:7  You also walked in these ways once, when you lived in them.
Colossians 3:8  But now you must put all these away: anger, rage, spite, evil speaking, and filthy talk out of your mouth.
Colossians 3:9  Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its deeds,
Colossians 3:10  and have put on the new self, which is being made new in knowledge, after the image of the one who created him.
Colossians 3:11  Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave or free. But Christ is all, and is in all.
Colossians 3:12  So, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, put on a heart of mercy, kindness, a humble mind, gentleness, and patience.
Colossians 3:13  Put up with one another, and forgive one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, forgive as Christ forgave you.
Colossians 3:14  And over all these things put on love, which binds everything together in perfection.
Colossians 3:15  Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, for you were called to this peace in one body. And be thankful.
Colossians 3:16  Let the word of Christ live in you richly, in all wisdom. Teach and warn one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Colossians 3:17  And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
Colossians 3:18  Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Colossians 3:19  Husbands, love your wives, and do not be bitter against them.
Colossians 3:20  Children, obey your parents in all things, for this pleases the Lord well.
Colossians 3:21  Fathers, do not stir your children to anger, or they will lose heart.
Colossians 3:22  Servants, obey your earthly masters in all things. Do not serve only when they are watching, to please people, but serve with a sincere heart, fearing God.
Colossians 3:23  And whatever you do, do it with all your heart, as for the Lord and not for people,
Colossians 3:24  knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ.
Colossians 3:25  But whoever does wrong will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no favouring of persons.

Colossians 4:1  Masters, give your servants what is right and fair. You know that you also have a Master in heaven.
Colossians 4:2  Keep on praying. Stay awake as you pray, and give thanks.
Colossians 4:3  Pray for us too. Ask God to open a door for our message, so that we may speak the mystery of Christ. It is for this that I am in chains.
Colossians 4:4  Pray that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak.
Colossians 4:5  Act wisely toward those outside. Make the most of the time.
Colossians 4:6  Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt. Then you will know how you ought to answer each person.
Colossians 4:7  Tychicus will tell you all about how I am. He is a dear brother, a faithful servant, and a fellow worker with me in the Lord.
Colossians 4:8  I have sent him to you for this very reason, so that he may know how you are and may comfort your hearts.
Colossians 4:9  With him comes Onesimus, a faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.
Colossians 4:10  Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, greets you. So does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. You have already been given instructions about him: if he comes to you, welcome him.
Colossians 4:11  Jesus, who is called Justus, also greets you. These are the only ones of the circumcision who work with me for the kingdom of God, and they have been a comfort to me.
Colossians 4:12  Epaphras greets you. He is one of you, and a servant of Christ. He always works hard for you in his prayers, asking that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
Colossians 4:13  I can say this about him: he has a great zeal for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for those in Hierapolis.
Colossians 4:14  Luke, the dear doctor, and Demas send you greetings.
Colossians 4:15  Greet the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church that meets in his house.
Colossians 4:16  When this letter has been read among you, see that it is read in the church of the Laodiceans too. And you are to read the letter from Laodicea.
Colossians 4:17  And say to Archippus, "Pay attention to the ministry you have received in the Lord, so that you complete it."
Colossians 4:18  I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen. «Written from Rome to the Colossians, sent by Tychicus and Onesimus.»

1 Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 1:1  Paul, Silvanus, and Timotheus, to the church of the Thessalonians, which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 1:2  We always thank God for you all. We mention you in our prayers.
1 Thessalonians 1:3  We never stop remembering your work of faith, your labour of love, and your patient hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God our Father.
1 Thessalonians 1:4  We know, brothers and sisters, dearly loved, that God has chosen you.
1 Thessalonians 1:5  For our gospel did not come to you in words only. It came also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we were among you, for your sake.
1 Thessalonians 1:6  And you became followers of us and of the Lord. You received the word in much trouble, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 1:7  So you became examples to all who believe in Macedonia and Achaia.
1 Thessalonians 1:8  For the word of the Lord sounded out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia. Your faith toward God has spread everywhere, so that we do not need to say anything.
1 Thessalonians 1:9  For they themselves tell what kind of welcome we had among you. They tell how you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God,
1 Thessalonians 1:10  and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead. That is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

1 Thessalonians 2:1  Brothers and sisters, you yourselves know that our coming to you was not wasted.
1 Thessalonians 2:2  Before that, as you know, we had suffered and been treated shamefully at Philippi. Yet our God made us bold to tell you the gospel of God, in spite of much opposition.
1 Thessalonians 2:3  For our appeal did not come from error, or from impure motives, or from any trick.
1 Thessalonians 2:4  God tested us and trusted us with the gospel, and so we speak. We are not trying to please people, but God, who tests our hearts.
1 Thessalonians 2:5  We never used flattering words, as you know, and we never used a cover-up for greed. God is our witness.
1 Thessalonians 2:6  We did not look for glory from people, not from you or from anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have made demands on you.
1 Thessalonians 2:7  Instead we were gentle among you, like a nurse caring for her own children.
1 Thessalonians 2:8  We loved you so much that we were glad to share with you not only the gospel of God but our own lives as well, because you had become dear to us.
1 Thessalonians 2:9  Brothers and sisters, you remember how hard we worked and toiled. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you, while we preached the gospel of God to you.
1 Thessalonians 2:10  You are witnesses, and God is too, of how holy and right and blameless our conduct was among you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:11  You know how we dealt with each one of you, as a father deals with his own children. We urged you, we comforted you, and we charged you
1 Thessalonians 2:12  to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.
1 Thessalonians 2:13  For this reason we also thank God without stopping. When you received the word of God that you heard from us, you did not take it as the word of men. You took it for what it truly is, the word of God, which is at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:14  Brothers and sisters, you became like the churches of God in Judaea that are in Christ Jesus. You suffered the same things from your own countrymen that they suffered from the Jews,
1 Thessalonians 2:15  who killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have driven us out. They do not please God, and they are against everyone.
1 Thessalonians 2:16  They try to stop us from speaking to the Gentiles so that the Gentiles may be saved. In this way they keep filling up their sins. But wrath has come upon them at last.
1 Thessalonians 2:17  Brothers and sisters, we were parted from you for a short time, in person but not in heart. So we tried all the harder, with great longing, to see you face to face.
1 Thessalonians 2:18  That is why we wanted to come to you. I, Paul, tried again and again, but Satan stopped us.
1 Thessalonians 2:19  For what is our hope, or joy, or crown that we boast in? Is it not you, before our Lord Jesus Christ when he comes?
1 Thessalonians 2:20  Yes, you are our glory and joy.

1 Thessalonians 3:1  So when we could not wait any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone.
1 Thessalonians 3:2  We sent Timotheus, our brother, and a servant of God, and our fellow worker in the gospel of Christ. We sent him to strengthen you and to encourage you about your faith,
1 Thessalonians 3:3  so that no one would be shaken by these troubles. For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this.
1 Thessalonians 3:4  When we were with you, we told you beforehand that we would suffer trouble. And that is just what happened, as you know.
1 Thessalonians 3:5  That is why, when I could not wait any longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that the tempter had somehow tempted you, and that our work would be for nothing.
1 Thessalonians 3:6  But now Timotheus has come back to us from you, and he has brought us good news about your faith and love. He says that you always remember us kindly, and long to see us, just as we long to see you.
1 Thessalonians 3:7  So, brothers and sisters, in all our trouble and distress we were comforted about you by your faith.
1 Thessalonians 3:8  For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 3:9  What thanks can we give back to God for you? We have so much joy because of you before our God.
1 Thessalonians 3:10  Night and day we pray with all our heart that we may see your face, and may supply what is lacking in your faith.
1 Thessalonians 3:11  Now may God himself, our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ open the way for us to come to you.
1 Thessalonians 3:12  And may the Lord make your love grow and overflow toward one another, and toward all people, just as our love does toward you.
1 Thessalonians 3:13  May he make your hearts strong, so that you are without blame in holiness before God, our Father, when our Lord Jesus Christ comes with all his saints.

1 Thessalonians 4:1  Now then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you by the Lord Jesus. You received from us how you ought to live and to please God. So we ask that you do this more and more.
1 Thessalonians 4:2  For you know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:3  For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you keep away from fornication.
1 Thessalonians 4:4  Each one of you should know how to keep his own vessel in sanctification and honour,
1 Thessalonians 4:5  not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God.
1 Thessalonians 4:6  No one should go too far and cheat his brother in any matter. For the Lord punishes all who do such things, as we told you before and warned you.
1 Thessalonians 4:7  For God has not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness.
1 Thessalonians 4:8  So the one who despises this does not despise man, but God, who has also given us his Holy Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 4:9  About brotherly love I do not need to write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another.
1 Thessalonians 4:10  And indeed you do this toward all the brothers and sisters in all Macedonia. But we ask you, brothers and sisters, to do it more and more.
1 Thessalonians 4:11  Make it your aim to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you.
1 Thessalonians 4:12  Then you will live honestly toward those outside, and you will lack nothing.
1 Thessalonians 4:13  Brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant about those who are asleep. Then you will not grieve like others who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:14  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 4:15  For this we tell you by the word of the Lord: we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not go before those who are asleep.
1 Thessalonians 4:16  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
1 Thessalonians 4:17  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:18  So comfort one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 5:1  But about the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you have no need for me to write to you.
1 Thessalonians 5:2  For you yourselves know perfectly well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
1 Thessalonians 5:3  For when they say, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction comes upon them, like the pains of birth upon a woman with child. And they will not escape.
1 Thessalonians 5:4  But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness, so that that day should catch you like a thief.
1 Thessalonians 5:5  You are all children of light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night, or to darkness.
1 Thessalonians 5:6  So then, let us not sleep, as others do. Let us keep watch and be sober.
1 Thessalonians 5:7  For those who sleep, sleep at night. And those who get drunk, get drunk at night.
1 Thessalonians 5:8  But we belong to the day, so let us be sober. Let us put on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.
1 Thessalonians 5:9  For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:10  He died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we should live together with him.
1 Thessalonians 5:11  So comfort one another, and build each other up, just as you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:12  And we beg you, brothers and sisters, to recognise those who work hard among you, and are over you in the Lord, and correct you.
1 Thessalonians 5:13  Hold them in the highest regard in love, because of their work. And be at peace among yourselves.
1 Thessalonians 5:14  Now we urge you, brothers and sisters: warn those who are unruly, comfort those who are fainthearted, support the weak, be patient towards everyone.
1 Thessalonians 5:15  See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone. Always follow what is good, both among yourselves and towards everyone.
1 Thessalonians 5:16  Rejoice always.
1 Thessalonians 5:17  Pray without stopping.
1 Thessalonians 5:18  Give thanks in everything, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:19  Do not quench the Spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:20  Do not despise prophesyings.
1 Thessalonians 5:21  Test all things. Hold on to what is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:22  Keep away from every appearance of evil.
1 Thessalonians 5:23  And may the God of peace himself make you holy through and through. I pray that your whole spirit and soul and body may be kept blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:24  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:25  Brothers and sisters, pray for us.
1 Thessalonians 5:26  Greet all the brothers and sisters with a holy kiss.
1 Thessalonians 5:27  I charge you by the Lord that this letter be read to all the holy brothers and sisters.
1 Thessalonians 5:28  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. «The first letter to the Thessalonians was written from Athens.»

2 Thessalonians

2 Thessalonians 1:1  Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Thessalonians 1:2  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:3  Brothers and sisters, we must always thank God for you, and it is right that we do. Your faith is growing very much, and the love that each one of you has for the others is overflowing.
2 Thessalonians 1:4  So we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God. We tell of your patience and faith in all the persecutions and troubles that you endure.
2 Thessalonians 1:5  This is a clear sign of the righteous judgment of God. It shows that you are counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer.
2 Thessalonians 1:6  For it is a righteous thing with God to pay back trouble to those who trouble you,
2 Thessalonians 1:7  and to give rest to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will be when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
2 Thessalonians 1:8  in flaming fire. He will take vengeance on those who do not know God, and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 1:9  They will be punished with everlasting destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
2 Thessalonians 1:10  He will come on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired by all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.
2 Thessalonians 1:11  That is why we always pray for you. We pray that our God will count you worthy of this calling, and that by his power he will fulfil every good purpose of his goodness and every work of faith.
2 Thessalonians 1:12  In this way the name of our Lord Jesus Christ will be glorified in you, and you in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Thessalonians 2:1  Now we beg you, brothers and sisters, about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and about our being gathered together to him:
2 Thessalonians 2:2  do not let your minds be shaken so easily, and do not be troubled. Do not be shaken by any spirit, or by any word, or by any letter that seems to come from us, saying that the day of Christ is already here.
2 Thessalonians 2:3  Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For that day will not come until there is first a falling away, and that man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction.
2 Thessalonians 2:4  He sets himself against everything that is called God, or that is worshipped, and lifts himself above it all. He even sits in the temple of God as God, showing himself to be God.
2 Thessalonians 2:5  Do you not remember that I told you these things while I was still with you?
2 Thessalonians 2:6  And now you know what is holding him back, so that he will be revealed at his own time.
2 Thessalonians 2:7  For the secret power of sin is already at work. Only the one who now holds it back will hold it back, until he is taken out of the way.
2 Thessalonians 2:8  And then that Wicked One will be revealed. The Lord will destroy him with the breath of his mouth, and will bring him to nothing by the brightness of his coming.
2 Thessalonians 2:9  That man comes by the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2 Thessalonians 2:10  and with every deceit of unrighteousness among those who perish. They perish because they did not receive the love of the truth, so that they might be saved.
2 Thessalonians 2:11  For this reason God will send them a strong delusion, so that they will believe a lie.
2 Thessalonians 2:12  So they will all be condemned, because they did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness.
2 Thessalonians 2:13  But we must always give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. For God chose you from the beginning to be saved, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
2 Thessalonians 2:14  He called you to this by our gospel, so that you would obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Thessalonians 2:15  So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm. Hold on to the teachings you were given, whether by word or by our letter.
2 Thessalonians 2:16  Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting comfort and good hope through grace,
2 Thessalonians 2:17  comfort your hearts, and make you strong in every good word and work.

2 Thessalonians 3:1  Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us. Pray that the word of the Lord may run freely and be given glory, just as it is among you.
2 Thessalonians 3:2  Pray also that we may be rescued from unreasonable and wicked men. For not everyone has faith.
2 Thessalonians 3:3  But the Lord is faithful. He will make you strong and keep you from evil.
2 Thessalonians 3:4  And we are confident in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will keep doing the things we command you.
2 Thessalonians 3:5  May the Lord guide your hearts into the love of God, and into patient waiting for Christ.
2 Thessalonians 3:6  Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: keep away from every brother who lives in a disorderly way, and not by the teaching he received from us.
2 Thessalonians 3:7  For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not disorderly when we were among you.
2 Thessalonians 3:8  We did not eat anyone's bread without paying for it. Instead we worked hard, struggling night and day, so that we would not be a burden to any of you.
2 Thessalonians 3:9  It was not that we had no right to such help. We did it to give you an example to follow.
2 Thessalonians 3:10  For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: if anyone will not work, he must not eat either.
2 Thessalonians 3:11  For we hear that some among you are living in a disorderly way. They do no work at all, but meddle in other people's business.
2 Thessalonians 3:12  Now to people like that we give this command and this urging by our Lord Jesus Christ: work quietly, and eat your own bread.
2 Thessalonians 3:13  But you, brothers and sisters, do not grow tired of doing good.
2 Thessalonians 3:14  If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that man. Do not keep company with him, so that he may be ashamed.
2 Thessalonians 3:15  Yet do not treat him as an enemy. Warn him as a brother.
2 Thessalonians 3:16  Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.
2 Thessalonians 3:17  This greeting is from Paul, in my own handwriting. It is the mark in every letter of mine. This is how I write.
2 Thessalonians 3:18  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. «The second letter to the Thessalonians was written from Athens.»

1 Timothy

1 Timothy 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the command of God our Saviour, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our hope,
1 Timothy 1:2  to Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Timothy 1:3  When I went into Macedonia, I begged you to stay on at Ephesus. I wanted you to order certain people not to teach any different doctrine,
1 Timothy 1:4  and not to pay attention to stories and endless family lists. These only stir up arguments. They do not build people up in God's way, which comes by faith. So do this.
1 Timothy 1:5  The purpose of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.
1 Timothy 1:6  Some have turned away from these things and gone off into empty talk.
1 Timothy 1:7  They want to be teachers of the law. But they do not understand what they are saying, or the things they speak about so firmly.
1 Timothy 1:8  But we know that the law is good, if a person uses it in the right way.
1 Timothy 1:9  We know this too: the law is not made for a righteous person. It is made for those who break the law and will not obey, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and those who treat holy things with contempt, for those who kill their fathers or their mothers, for murderers,
1 Timothy 1:10  for those who are sexually immoral, for men who lie with men, for those who steal people, for liars, for those who swear falsely, and for anything else that goes against sound teaching.
1 Timothy 1:11  This teaching agrees with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was put into my care.
1 Timothy 1:12  I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. He counted me faithful and put me into his service,
1 Timothy 1:13  though before that I spoke against him, and hunted down his people, and did them harm. But I was shown mercy, because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
1 Timothy 1:14  And the grace of our Lord was poured out on me in great abundance, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:15  Here is a saying you can trust, and everyone should accept it: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I am the worst of them.
1 Timothy 1:16  Yet for this reason I was shown mercy: so that in me, the worst of sinners, Jesus Christ might show how very patient he is. In this way I would be an example to those who would later believe in him and receive everlasting life.
1 Timothy 1:17  Now to the King who reigns for ever, who never dies and cannot be seen, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 1:18  Timothy, my son, I give you this charge. It agrees with the prophecies that were once spoken about you. By them you may fight the good fight,
1 Timothy 1:19  holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have thrown these away, and their faith has been wrecked like a ship.
1 Timothy 1:20  Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander. I have handed them over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme.

1 Timothy 2:1  So I urge, first of all, that requests, prayers, pleas for others, and thanksgiving be made for all people;
1 Timothy 2:2  for kings, and for all who are in authority. Then we may live a quiet and peaceful life, godly and honest in every way.
1 Timothy 2:3  For this is good, and it pleases God our Saviour,
1 Timothy 2:4  who wants all people to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and human beings, the man Christ Jesus,
1 Timothy 2:6  who gave himself as a ransom for all. This was to be witnessed to at the right time.
1 Timothy 2:7  For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ, and do not lie), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
1 Timothy 2:8  So I want the men to pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without anger and without doubting.
1 Timothy 2:9  In the same way I want the women to dress in modest clothing, with modesty and self-control. They should not use braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or expensive clothes,
1 Timothy 2:10  but good works, which are right for women who say they serve God.
1 Timothy 2:11  Let the woman learn in silence, and be fully willing to submit.
1 Timothy 2:12  But I do not allow a woman to teach, or to take authority over the man. She is to be silent.
1 Timothy 2:13  For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
1 Timothy 2:14  And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived, and so fell into sin.
1 Timothy 2:15  Yet she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

1 Timothy 3:1  This is a true saying: if a man wants the office of a bishop, he wants a good work.
1 Timothy 3:2  So a bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife, watchful, sober, well behaved, glad to welcome guests, able to teach.
1 Timothy 3:3  He must not drink too much wine, and not be a man who hits others, and not greedy for dishonest money. He must be patient, not a fighter, not greedy for what belongs to others.
1 Timothy 3:4  He must lead his own house well, and his children must obey him with all seriousness.
1 Timothy 3:5  (For if a man does not know how to lead his own house, how will he care for the church of God?)
1 Timothy 3:6  He must not be a new believer, or he may be puffed up with pride and fall into the same judgment as the devil.
1 Timothy 3:7  He must also have a good name with those outside the church, so that he does not fall into shame and into the devil's trap.
1 Timothy 3:8  In the same way the deacons must be serious, not saying one thing and then another, not drinking much wine, not greedy for dishonest money.
1 Timothy 3:9  They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clean conscience.
1 Timothy 3:10  Let these men also be tested first. Then, if they are found blameless, let them serve as deacons.
1 Timothy 3:11  In the same way their wives must be serious, not spreading evil talk, sober, faithful in everything.
1 Timothy 3:12  Let the deacons be husbands of one wife, leading their children and their own houses well.
1 Timothy 3:13  For those who have served well as deacons gain for themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 3:14  I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon.
1 Timothy 3:15  But if I am delayed a long time, you will know how you ought to behave in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.
1 Timothy 3:16  And without question, great is the mystery of godliness: God was shown in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up into glory.

1 Timothy 4:1  Now the Spirit says clearly that in the last times some people will turn away from the faith. They will listen to spirits that lead them astray, and to the teachings of devils.
1 Timothy 4:2  Such teachers tell lies and pretend to be what they are not. Their conscience has been burned as if with a hot iron.
1 Timothy 4:3  They forbid people to marry, and they order them to keep away from certain foods. But God made those foods to be received with thanks by those who believe and know the truth.
1 Timothy 4:4  For everything God made is good. Nothing is to be refused, if it is received with thanks.
1 Timothy 4:5  For it is made holy by the word of God and by prayer.
1 Timothy 4:6  If you remind the brothers and sisters of these things, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ. You will be fed by the words of faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.
1 Timothy 4:7  But have nothing to do with unholy stories and old wives' tales. Train yourself instead to live a godly life.
1 Timothy 4:8  Training the body is of some small use, but godliness is useful for everything. It holds a promise for the life we have now, and for the life that is to come.
1 Timothy 4:9  This is a true saying, and everyone should accept it.
1 Timothy 4:10  This is why we work hard and are insulted: because we trust in the living God. He is the Saviour of all people, and especially of those who believe.
1 Timothy 4:11  Command these things and teach them.
1 Timothy 4:12  Let no one look down on you because you are young. Instead, be an example to the believers in your speech, in your conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.
1 Timothy 4:13  Until I come, give your attention to reading, to encouraging others, and to teaching.
1 Timothy 4:14  Do not neglect the gift that is in you. It was given to you by prophecy, when the elders laid their hands on you.
1 Timothy 4:15  Think carefully about these things. Give yourself completely to them, so that everyone may see how you are growing.
1 Timothy 4:16  Watch yourself, and watch your teaching. Keep on in them. For by doing this you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

1 Timothy 5:1  Do not speak harshly to an older man. Appeal to him as if he were your father. Treat the younger men as brothers.
1 Timothy 5:2  Treat the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, with complete purity.
1 Timothy 5:3  Honour widows who are truly widows.
1 Timothy 5:4  But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness at home, and to pay back what they owe their parents. That is good and pleasing before God.
1 Timothy 5:5  The woman who is truly a widow, and is left all alone, puts her trust in God. She keeps on making requests and prayers night and day.
1 Timothy 5:6  But the woman who lives for pleasure is dead even while she is alive.
1 Timothy 5:7  Command these things, so that they may be blameless.
1 Timothy 5:8  But if anyone does not provide for his own people, and especially for those of his own household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than someone who does not believe.
1 Timothy 5:9  Do not put a widow on the list unless she is at least sixty years old, and has been the wife of one man.
1 Timothy 5:10  She must be well spoken of for her good works: if she has brought up children, if she has taken in strangers, if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has helped those in trouble, if she has carefully given herself to every good work.
1 Timothy 5:11  But refuse the younger widows. For when their desires pull them away from Christ, they want to marry,
1 Timothy 5:12  and so they are condemned, because they have thrown away their first faith.
1 Timothy 5:13  At the same time they learn to be idle, going around from house to house. And they are not only idle, but they gossip and meddle, saying things they should not say.
1 Timothy 5:14  So I want the younger women to marry, to have children, to look after the house, and to give the enemy no chance to speak against them.
1 Timothy 5:15  For some have already turned aside and followed Satan.
1 Timothy 5:16  If any believing man or woman has widows in the family, let them help those widows. The church must not be burdened, so that it can help the women who are truly widows.
1 Timothy 5:17  The elders who lead well should be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
1 Timothy 5:18  For the scripture says, "You shall not muzzle the ox while it treads out the corn." And, "The worker is worthy of his pay."
1 Timothy 5:19  Do not accept an accusation against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.
1 Timothy 5:20  Those who sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the rest may be afraid.
1 Timothy 5:21  I charge you, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the chosen angels, to keep these rules. Do not judge anyone before you hear the case, and do nothing out of favouritism.
1 Timothy 5:22  Do not be quick to lay hands on anyone, and do not share in other people's sins. Keep yourself pure.
1 Timothy 5:23  Do not drink only water any more. Use a little wine, for the sake of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
1 Timothy 5:24  Some people's sins are plain to see, and go ahead of them to judgment. The sins of others follow after them.
1 Timothy 5:25  In the same way, the good works of some are plain to see; and those that are not cannot stay hidden.

1 Timothy 6:1  All who are servants under the yoke should treat their own masters as worthy of full honour. Then the name of God and his teaching will not be spoken against.
1 Timothy 6:2  Those who have believing masters must not look down on them because they are brothers. Instead they should serve them even better, because those who receive their service are believers and dearly loved. Teach these things, and urge people to do them.
1 Timothy 6:3  Someone may teach something different, and not agree with sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the teaching that leads to godliness.
1 Timothy 6:4  Such a person is proud and knows nothing. He has a sick craving for arguments and fights about words. From these come envy, strife, insults, and evil suspicions,
1 Timothy 6:5  and endless quarrels between people whose minds are corrupt and who have lost the truth. They think that godliness is a way to make money. Keep away from such people.
1 Timothy 6:6  But godliness with a contented heart is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:7  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out.
1 Timothy 6:8  So if we have food and clothing, let us be content with that.
1 Timothy 6:9  But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap. They fall into many foolish and harmful desires that drown people in ruin and destruction.
1 Timothy 6:10  For the love of money is the root of all evil. Some have longed for it, and have wandered away from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
1 Timothy 6:11  But you, man of God, run away from these things. Go after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.
1 Timothy 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life. God called you to it, and you made a good confession in front of many witnesses.
1 Timothy 6:13  In the sight of God, who gives life to all things, and in the sight of Christ Jesus, who made a good confession before Pontius Pilate, I charge you:
1 Timothy 6:14  keep this command without stain, so that no one can blame you, until our Lord Jesus Christ appears.
1 Timothy 6:15  God will show him at the right time. God is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
1 Timothy 6:16  He alone cannot die. He lives in light that no one can come near. No one has seen him, and no one can see him. To him be honour and power for ever. Amen.
1 Timothy 6:17  Tell those who are rich in this world not to be proud. Tell them not to trust in riches, which are so uncertain, but in the living God, who richly gives us all things to enjoy.
1 Timothy 6:18  Tell them to do good, to be rich in good works, to give freely, and to be glad to share.
1 Timothy 6:19  In this way they store up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, so that they may take hold of eternal life.
1 Timothy 6:20  Timothy, guard what has been put into your trust. Keep away from godless, empty talk, and from the arguments of what is falsely called knowledge.
1 Timothy 6:21  Some have claimed to have it, and have wandered away from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. «The first letter to Timothy was written from Laodicea, the chief city of Phrygia Pacatiana.»

2 Timothy

2 Timothy 1:1  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, sent to tell of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 Timothy 1:2  To Timothy, my dearly loved son: Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Timothy 1:3  I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did. Night and day I never stop remembering you in my prayers.
2 Timothy 1:4  I remember your tears, and I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy.
2 Timothy 1:5  I remember your sincere faith. That faith lived first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure it lives in you too.
2 Timothy 1:6  So I remind you to stir up the gift of God that is in you, which came when I laid my hands on you.
2 Timothy 1:7  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:8  So do not be ashamed of speaking about our Lord, or of me, his prisoner. Instead, share in the sufferings that come with the gospel, by the power of God.
2 Timothy 1:9  He has saved us and called us with a holy calling. He did not do this because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
2 Timothy 1:10  and it is now shown openly by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. He has done away with death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
2 Timothy 1:11  For this gospel I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
2 Timothy 1:12  That is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to keep what I have entrusted to him until that day.
2 Timothy 1:13  Hold firmly to the pattern of sound words that you heard from me, in the faith and love that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 1:14  Guard that good thing which was entrusted to you. Guard it by the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
2 Timothy 1:15  You know this: everyone in Asia has turned away from me. Among them are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
2 Timothy 1:16  May the Lord give mercy to the household of Onesiphorus. He often refreshed me, and he was not ashamed of my chain.
2 Timothy 1:17  When he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me.
2 Timothy 1:18  May the Lord grant that he finds mercy from the Lord on that day. And you know very well how many ways he helped me at Ephesus.

2 Timothy 2:1  So you, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 2:2  You have heard my teaching in front of many witnesses. Pass it on to faithful people who will be able to teach others too.
2 Timothy 2:3  So bear hardship, like a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2 Timothy 2:4  No one serving as a soldier gets tangled up in the business of everyday life. He wants to please the one who chose him to be a soldier.
2 Timothy 2:5  And if someone competes in the games, he is not given the crown unless he competes by the rules.
2 Timothy 2:6  The farmer who works hard should be the first to share in the crops.
2 Timothy 2:7  Think about what I am saying. May the Lord give you understanding in everything.
2 Timothy 2:8  Remember Jesus Christ. He came from the family of David, and he was raised from the dead. This is my gospel.
2 Timothy 2:9  Because of it I suffer trouble, even chains, as if I were a criminal. But the word of God is not chained.
2 Timothy 2:10  So I endure everything for the sake of those God has chosen. Then they too will obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
2 Timothy 2:11  Here is a saying you can trust: If we died with him, we shall also live with him.
2 Timothy 2:12  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us.
2 Timothy 2:13  If we do not believe, he still stays faithful. He cannot deny himself.
2 Timothy 2:14  Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before the Lord not to fight about words. It does no good at all, and it ruins those who listen.
2 Timothy 2:15  Work hard to show yourself approved by God, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, one who rightly divides the word of truth.
2 Timothy 2:16  But keep away from empty, godless chatter. It will only lead people further into ungodliness.
2 Timothy 2:17  Their talk will spread like a spreading sore. Hymenaeus and Philetus are among them.
2 Timothy 2:18  They have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already happened, and they overturn the faith of some.
2 Timothy 2:19  Yet God's foundation stands firm. It has this seal: "The Lord knows those who are his." And, "Let everyone who names the name of Christ turn away from wickedness."
2 Timothy 2:20  In a large house there are not only dishes of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some are for honourable use, and some for dishonourable use.
2 Timothy 2:21  So if anyone cleans himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honourable use. He will be made holy, useful to the master, and ready for every good work.
2 Timothy 2:22  Run away from the desires of youth. Follow righteousness, faith, love and peace, together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
2 Timothy 2:23  Avoid foolish and ignorant arguments. You know that they breed quarrels.
2 Timothy 2:24  The Lord's servant must not quarrel. He must be gentle to everyone, able to teach, and patient.
2 Timothy 2:25  He must correct those who oppose him, and do it gently. Perhaps God will give them repentance, so that they come to know the truth.
2 Timothy 2:26  Then they may escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

2 Timothy 3:1  Know this also: in the last days dangerous times will come.
2 Timothy 3:2  For people will love only themselves. They will love money. They will boast and be proud. They will speak against God. They will disobey their parents. They will be ungrateful and unholy.
2 Timothy 3:3  They will have no natural love. They will break agreements. They will accuse others falsely. They will have no self-control. They will be cruel, and they will hate what is good.
2 Timothy 3:4  They will betray others. They will act without thinking. They will be swollen with pride. They will love pleasure more than they love God.
2 Timothy 3:5  They will keep an outward show of godliness, but they deny its power. Turn away from people like that.
2 Timothy 3:6  Some of them creep into houses and take captive foolish women who are weighed down with sins and led along by many wrong desires.
2 Timothy 3:7  Such women are always learning, but they are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2 Timothy 3:8  Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth. Their minds are corrupt, and they fail the test concerning the faith.
2 Timothy 3:9  But they will get no further, for their foolishness will be plain to everyone, as those men's foolishness was.
2 Timothy 3:10  But you have known well my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience with others, my love, my endurance,
2 Timothy 3:11  and the persecutions and sufferings that came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. You know what persecutions I endured, and how the Lord rescued me out of them all.
2 Timothy 3:12  Indeed, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
2 Timothy 3:13  But evil people and cheats will grow worse and worse. They will deceive others, and they will be deceived themselves.
2 Timothy 3:14  But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and have been made sure of. You know who taught you them.
2 Timothy 3:15  From childhood you have known the holy scriptures. They are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:16  All scripture is breathed out by God. It is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness,
2 Timothy 3:17  so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 4:1  So I charge you, in the sight of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead when he appears and brings his kingdom:
2 Timothy 4:2  Preach the word. Be ready at all times, whether it is convenient or not. Correct, rebuke and encourage, with great patience and careful teaching.
2 Timothy 4:3  For the time will come when people will not put up with sound teaching. Instead, they will follow their own desires and gather teachers around them to scratch their itching ears.
2 Timothy 4:4  They will turn their ears away from the truth, and turn instead to made-up stories.
2 Timothy 4:5  But you must keep watch in everything. Endure hardship. Do the work of one who brings the good news. Carry out your ministry to the full.
2 Timothy 4:6  For I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time for me to leave is near.
2 Timothy 4:7  I have fought a good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.
2 Timothy 4:8  From now on a crown of righteousness is kept safe for me. The Lord, the righteous judge, will give it to me on that day. And not to me only, but to all those who love his appearing.
2 Timothy 4:9  Do your best to come to me soon.
2 Timothy 4:10  For Demas has left me, because he loved this present world, and he has gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
2 Timothy 4:11  Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is a help to me in the ministry.
2 Timothy 4:12  I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.
2 Timothy 4:13  When you come, bring the coat I left at Troas with Carpus, and bring the books, and above all the parchments.
2 Timothy 4:14  Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. The Lord will pay him back for what he has done.
2 Timothy 4:15  Be on your guard against him too, for he has strongly opposed our words.
2 Timothy 4:16  At my first defence no one stood by me. Everyone left me. I pray that it may not be held against them.
2 Timothy 4:17  But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength. In this way the message was fully made known through me, so that all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was rescued from the mouth of the lion.
2 Timothy 4:18  The Lord will rescue me from every evil work, and will keep me safe for his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Timothy 4:19  Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.
2 Timothy 4:20  Erastus stayed at Corinth, and I left Trophimus at Miletum, sick.
2 Timothy 4:21  Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, and so do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers and sisters.
2 Timothy 4:22  The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. «The second letter to Timothy, who was appointed the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome, when Paul was brought before Nero a second time.»

Titus

Titus 1:1  Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I was sent for the sake of the faith of those whom God has chosen, and for the knowledge of the truth that leads to godly living.
Titus 1:2  This rests on the hope of eternal life. God, who cannot lie, promised it before the world began.
Titus 1:3  At the right time he made his word known through preaching. That preaching was trusted to me by the command of God our Saviour.
Titus 1:4  To Titus, my own son in the faith we share: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Titus 1:5  This is why I left you in Crete: so that you might put right the things that were still unfinished, and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you.
Titus 1:6  An elder must be free from blame, the husband of one wife, with children who are faithful and are not charged with wild living or with being out of control.
Titus 1:7  For an overseer must be free from blame, since he is God's steward. He must not be stubborn in his own way, or quick to get angry, or given to wine, or violent, or greedy for dishonest money.
Titus 1:8  Instead he must love to welcome strangers, and love what is good. He must be clear-headed, fair, holy, and self-controlled.
Titus 1:9  He must hold firmly to the trustworthy word as he was taught it. Then he will be able, by sound teaching, both to encourage others and to answer those who argue against it.
Titus 1:10  For there are many who will not be controlled, who talk emptily and lead others astray, especially those of the circumcision.
Titus 1:11  Their mouths must be shut. They upset whole households, teaching things they should not teach, for the sake of dishonest money.
Titus 1:12  One of their own people, a prophet of theirs, said, "The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."
Titus 1:13  This statement is true. So correct them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith.
Titus 1:14  They must not pay attention to Jewish fables, or to the commands of men who turn away from the truth.
Titus 1:15  To those who are pure, all things are pure. But to those who are defiled and do not believe, nothing is pure. Even their mind and their conscience are defiled.
Titus 1:16  They say that they know God, but by what they do they deny him. They are disgusting, and disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

Titus 2:1  But you must speak the things that fit sound teaching.
Titus 2:2  Teach the older men to be serious and self-controlled, to be sensible, and to be sound in faith, in love, and in patience.
Titus 2:3  In the same way, teach the older women to behave in a way that fits holiness. They must not tell lies about others, and must not be given to much wine. They are to teach what is good.
Titus 2:4  In this way they may train the young women to be sensible, to love their husbands, and to love their children,
Titus 2:5  to be wise, pure, workers at home, and good, and to obey their own husbands. Then no one will speak evil of the word of God.
Titus 2:6  In the same way, urge the young men to be sensible.
Titus 2:7  In everything show yourself to be an example of good works. In your teaching show that you are honest and serious,
Titus 2:8  and that your speech is sound and cannot be blamed. Then anyone who opposes you will be ashamed, having nothing bad to say about us.
Titus 2:9  Urge servants to obey their own masters and to please them well in everything, and not to talk back,
Titus 2:10  and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted. In this way they will make the teaching of God our Saviour beautiful in everything.
Titus 2:11  For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all people.
Titus 2:12  It teaches us to say no to godless ways and to worldly desires, and to live in this present world with self-control, with righteousness, and in a godly way,
Titus 2:13  while we wait for that blessed hope: the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Titus 2:14  He gave himself for us, to set us free from all wickedness and to make for himself a pure people who are his very own, eager to do good works.
Titus 2:15  Speak these things, and urge them, and correct with all authority. Let no one look down on you.

Titus 3:1  Remind them to be under rulers and authorities, to obey those in charge, and to be ready to do every good work.
Titus 3:2  Tell them to speak evil of no one, and not to quarrel, but to be gentle, showing all meekness to everyone.
Titus 3:3  For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and led astray. We were slaves to many kinds of desires and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy. We were hated, and we hated one another.
Titus 3:4  But then the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward people appeared.
Titus 3:5  He saved us, not because of works of righteousness that we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us by the washing of new birth, and by the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:6  which he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Titus 3:7  So, having been made righteous by his grace, we should become heirs, with the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:8  This is a faithful saying. I want you to keep insisting on these things, so that those who have believed in God will take care to give themselves to good works. These things are good and useful for people.
Titus 3:9  But stay away from foolish arguments, and family lists, and quarrels and fights about the law. They are useless and empty.
Titus 3:10  A man who causes division you should reject, after warning him once and then a second time.
Titus 3:11  You know that such a person has gone wrong and is sinning. He condemns himself.
Titus 3:12  When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.
Titus 3:13  Take care to send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey, so that they lack nothing.
Titus 3:14  And let our people also learn to give themselves to good works, to meet urgent needs, so that they are not without fruit.
Titus 3:15  All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all. Amen. «It was written to Titus, ordained the first bishop of the church of the Cretians, from Nicopolis of Macedonia.»

Philemon

Philemon 1:1  Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our dear friend and fellow worker,
Philemon 1:2  and to our beloved Apphia, and Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your house:
Philemon 1:3  Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Philemon 1:4  I thank my God, always mentioning you in my prayers,
Philemon 1:5  because I hear of your love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints.
Philemon 1:6  I pray that the sharing of your faith may work powerfully, as you come to know every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus.
Philemon 1:7  Your love has given us great joy and comfort, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.
Philemon 1:8  So then, in Christ I could be very bold and order you to do what is right.
Philemon 1:9  But for love's sake I would rather ask you. I am Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Philemon 1:10  I ask you for my son Onesimus. I became his father while I was in chains.
Philemon 1:11  In the past he was of no use to you, but now he is useful to you and to me.
Philemon 1:12  I have sent him back to you. So welcome him, for he is my very heart.
Philemon 1:13  I would have liked to keep him with me, so that he might serve me in your place while I am in chains for the gospel.
Philemon 1:14  But I would do nothing without your agreement, so that your kindness would not be forced, but given willingly.
Philemon 1:15  Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while: so that you might have him back for ever,
Philemon 1:16  no longer as a servant, but more than a servant, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me, and how much more to you, both as a man and in the Lord.
Philemon 1:17  So if you count me a partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.
Philemon 1:18  If he has wronged you, or owes you anything, charge it to me.
Philemon 1:19  I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will pay it back. I will not say that you owe me your very self as well.
Philemon 1:20  Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my heart in the Lord.
Philemon 1:21  I wrote to you because I am sure you will obey. I know that you will do even more than I say.
Philemon 1:22  And at the same time, get a room ready for me. I hope that through your prayers I will be given back to you.
Philemon 1:23  Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,
Philemon 1:24  and so do Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas and Lucas, my fellow workers.
Philemon 1:25  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. «Written from Rome to Philemon, by Onesimus a servant.»

Hebrews

Hebrews 1:1  Long ago God spoke to our fathers through the prophets. He spoke many times and in many ways.
Hebrews 1:2  But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. He has appointed his Son heir of all things, and through him he made the worlds.
Hebrews 1:3  The Son is the brightness of God's glory, and the exact image of his person. He holds up all things by the word of his power. When he had by himself washed away our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Hebrews 1:4  So he was made much better than the angels, because the name he has received is far greater than theirs.
Hebrews 1:5  For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father"? And again, "I will be a Father to him, and he shall be a Son to me"?
Hebrews 1:6  And again, when he brings his firstborn Son into the world, he says, "Let all the angels of God worship him."
Hebrews 1:7  About the angels he says, "He makes his angels spirits, and his servants a flame of fire."
Hebrews 1:8  But to the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever. The sceptre of your kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness."
Hebrews 1:9  "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. So God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than those who are with you."
Hebrews 1:10  And he says, "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands."
Hebrews 1:11  "They will perish, but you remain. They will all grow old like a piece of clothing."
Hebrews 1:12  "You will fold them up like a robe, and they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will never end."
Hebrews 1:13  But to which of the angels did he ever say, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"?
Hebrews 1:14  Are they not all spirits who serve, sent out to help those who will receive salvation?

Hebrews 2:1  So we must pay much closer attention to the things we have heard. If we do not, we may drift away from them.
Hebrews 2:2  The word spoken by angels stood firm. Every wrong act and every act of disobedience received the just punishment it deserved.
Hebrews 2:3  So how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? The Lord himself first spoke of it. Then it was confirmed to us by those who heard him.
Hebrews 2:4  God also gave witness to it, with signs and wonders, and with many kinds of miracles, and with gifts of the Holy Spirit given out as he willed.
Hebrews 2:5  God has not put the world to come, which we are speaking about, under the rule of angels.
Hebrews 2:6  But someone has said this somewhere: "What is man, that you keep him in mind? Or the son of man, that you come to him?"
Hebrews 2:7  You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with glory and honour. You set him over the works of your hands.
Hebrews 2:8  "You have put all things under his feet." Now when God put all things under him, he left nothing that is not under him. But at present we do not yet see all things put under him.
Hebrews 2:9  But we do see Jesus. He was made a little lower than the angels so that he might suffer death, and now he is crowned with glory and honour. By the grace of God he tasted death for every man.
Hebrews 2:10  All things exist for God and through God. So it was fitting that, in bringing many sons to glory, he should make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Hebrews 2:11  For the one who makes holy and those who are made holy are all of one family. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
Hebrews 2:12  He says, "I will tell my brothers and sisters about your name. In the middle of the church I will sing praise to you."
Hebrews 2:13  And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again, "Look, here am I and the children God has given me."
Hebrews 2:14  The children share in flesh and blood. So he too shared in the same things, so that by his death he might destroy the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
Hebrews 2:15  and set free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.
Hebrews 2:16  For truly it was not angels he took hold of, but the seed of Abraham.
Hebrews 2:17  So in every way he had to be made like his brothers and sisters. Then he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in things that belong to God, and make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
Hebrews 2:18  Because he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

Hebrews 3:1  So then, holy brothers and sisters, you share in a calling from heaven. Think carefully about Jesus Christ, the Apostle and High Priest of the faith we profess.
Hebrews 3:2  He was faithful to the One who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house.
Hebrews 3:3  This man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses. For the one who builds a house has more honour than the house itself.
Hebrews 3:4  Every house is built by someone, but the one who built all things is God.
Hebrews 3:5  Moses truly was faithful in all God's house, as a servant. He was a witness to the things that would be spoken later.
Hebrews 3:6  But Christ is faithful as a son over his own house. We are his house, if we hold on firmly to the end, keeping our confidence and the hope we are glad of.
Hebrews 3:7  So, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you will hear his voice,"
Hebrews 3:8  "do not harden your hearts, as you did when you made me angry, on the day of testing in the wilderness."
Hebrews 3:9  "There your fathers tested me and tried me, and saw my works for forty years."
Hebrews 3:10  "So I was grieved with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.'"
Hebrews 3:11  "So I swore in my anger, 'They shall not enter into my rest.'"
Hebrews 3:12  Be careful, brothers and sisters, that none of you has an evil heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God.
Hebrews 3:13  Instead, encourage one another every day, while it is still called "Today." Then none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:14  For we share in Christ, if we hold firmly to the end the confidence we had at the start.
Hebrews 3:15  As it is said, "Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did when you made me angry."
Hebrews 3:16  For who were the ones who heard and then made him angry? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt with Moses?
Hebrews 3:17  And with whom was he grieved for forty years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?
Hebrews 3:18  And to whom did he swear that they would not enter into his rest? Was it not to those who did not believe?
Hebrews 3:19  So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Hebrews 4:1  So let us be careful. The promise of entering his rest is still open. Do not let any of you seem to fall short of it.
Hebrews 4:2  For the good news was preached to us, just as it was to them. But the word they heard did them no good, because they did not mix it with faith when they heard it.
Hebrews 4:3  But we who have believed do enter into that rest. As he said, "As I have sworn in my anger, they shall not enter into my rest." Yet his works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Hebrews 4:4  For in one place he spoke about the seventh day like this: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works."
Hebrews 4:5  And in this place again he says, "They shall not enter into my rest."
Hebrews 4:6  So it remains that some must enter that rest. The ones who first heard the good news did not enter, because they did not believe.
Hebrews 4:7  So again he sets a certain day, calling it "Today." Long afterward he said through David the words already quoted: "Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."
Hebrews 4:8  For if Jesus had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.
Hebrews 4:9  So a rest still remains for the people of God.
Hebrews 4:10  For whoever has entered into his rest has also stopped from his own works, as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:11  So let us work hard to enter that rest, so that no one falls by following the same example of unbelief.
Hebrews 4:12  For the word of God is living and powerful. It is sharper than any sword with two edges. It cuts deep enough to divide soul and spirit, and joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart.
Hebrews 4:13  No created thing is hidden from his sight. Everything is naked and laid open before the eyes of the one we must answer to.
Hebrews 4:14  So then, we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold firmly to what we say we believe.
Hebrews 4:15  For we do not have a high priest who cannot feel for us in our weaknesses. He was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin.
Hebrews 4:16  So let us come with boldness to the throne of grace. There we will receive mercy, and find grace to help us when we need it.

Hebrews 5:1  Every high priest is taken from among men. He is appointed to act for men in the things that belong to God, so that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
Hebrews 5:2  He can be gentle with those who do not know, and with those who go astray, because he himself is surrounded by weakness.
Hebrews 5:3  Because of this he must offer sacrifices for sins, both for the people and for himself.
Hebrews 5:4  No one takes this honour for himself. He must be called by God, as Aaron was.
Hebrews 5:5  So Christ also did not give himself the glory of becoming a high priest. It was given by the one who said to him, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father."
Hebrews 5:6  He says in another place as well, "You are a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec."
Hebrews 5:7  In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and pleading, with loud crying and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because he feared God.
Hebrews 5:8  Though he was a Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.
Hebrews 5:9  And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.
Hebrews 5:10  God named him a high priest after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 5:11  We have much to say about him, and it is hard to explain, because you are slow to hear.
Hebrews 5:12  By this time you ought to be teachers. Yet you need someone to teach you again the first lessons of the words of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food.
Hebrews 5:13  Everyone who lives on milk is not skilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby.
Hebrews 5:14  But solid food belongs to those who are grown up. By long use they have trained their senses to tell the difference between good and evil.

Hebrews 6:1  So let us leave behind the first lessons about Christ, and go on to be full grown. Let us not lay the foundation again: turning away from dead works, and faith toward God,
Hebrews 6:2  and the teaching about baptisms, and the laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.
Hebrews 6:3  And this is what we will do, if God allows it.
Hebrews 6:4  For there are some who were once given light, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,
Hebrews 6:5  and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.
Hebrews 6:6  If such people fall away, it is impossible to bring them back to repentance again. For they crucify the Son of God all over again for themselves, and shame him in public.
Hebrews 6:7  Land that drinks in the rain which often falls on it, and grows plants useful to those who farm it, receives blessing from God.
Hebrews 6:8  But land that grows thorns and briers is worthless, and is close to being cursed. In the end it will be burned.
Hebrews 6:9  But dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are sure of better things about you, things that go with salvation.
Hebrews 6:10  For God is not unrighteous. He will not forget your work and the love you laboured with, which you showed for his name when you served his holy people, and still serve them.
Hebrews 6:11  And we want each one of you to show the same eagerness right to the end, so that you are fully sure of your hope.
Hebrews 6:12  Do not be lazy. Instead, follow those who through faith and patience receive what God promised.
Hebrews 6:13  When God made his promise to Abraham, there was no one greater for him to swear by, so he swore by himself.
Hebrews 6:14  He said, "I will surely bless you, and I will surely give you many children."
Hebrews 6:15  And so, after Abraham had waited patiently, he received what was promised.
Hebrews 6:16  People swear by someone greater than themselves. An oath makes a thing certain, and puts an end to all argument.
Hebrews 6:17  So God wanted to show even more clearly to the heirs of the promise that his purpose does not change. That is why he confirmed it with an oath.
Hebrews 6:18  So there are two things that cannot change, and it is impossible for God to lie in either of them. By them we are strongly comforted, we who have run to him for safety and have taken hold of the hope set before us.
Hebrews 6:19  This hope is like an anchor for the soul, sure and firm. It reaches inside, behind the curtain,
Hebrews 6:20  where Jesus has gone ahead of us and entered for us. He has been made a high priest for ever, in the order of Melchisedec.

Hebrews 7:1  This Melchisedec was king of Salem and priest of the most high God. He met Abraham as Abraham was coming back from defeating the kings, and he blessed him.
Hebrews 7:2  And Abraham gave him a tenth part of everything. His name means first "King of righteousness," and then he is also King of Salem, which means "King of peace."
Hebrews 7:3  He has no father, no mother, no family line; he has no beginning of days and no end of life. He is made like the Son of God, and he remains a priest for ever.
Hebrews 7:4  Now think how great this man was. Even Abraham the patriarch gave him a tenth of what he had taken in battle.
Hebrews 7:5  The sons of Levi who take up the work of the priesthood have a command in the law to collect tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, even though those brothers also come from the body of Abraham.
Hebrews 7:6  But this man, who does not belong to their family line, took tithes from Abraham, and he blessed the man who had the promises.
Hebrews 7:7  No one can argue with this: the lesser person is blessed by the greater.
Hebrews 7:8  Here, men who die receive tithes. But there, he receives them of whom it is said that he lives.
Hebrews 7:9  And you might even say that Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes himself through Abraham.
Hebrews 7:10  For Levi was still in the body of his ancestor when Melchisedec met him.
Hebrews 7:11  Now the people were given the law under the priesthood of Levi. If that priesthood could have brought perfection, why was there still need for another priest to come, one named after the order of Melchisedec and not after the order of Aaron?
Hebrews 7:12  For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed too.
Hebrews 7:13  The one these things are said about belonged to another tribe, and no man from that tribe ever served at the altar.
Hebrews 7:14  It is clear that our Lord came from Juda, and Moses said nothing about priests coming from that tribe.
Hebrews 7:15  And it is clearer still, because another priest has come who is like Melchisedec.
Hebrews 7:16  He was not made a priest by a law about bodily descent, but by the power of a life that never ends.
Hebrews 7:17  For this is said of him, "You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec."
Hebrews 7:18  So the earlier command is set aside, because it was weak and of no use.
Hebrews 7:19  For the law made nothing perfect. Instead, a better hope has been brought in, and by it we come near to God.
Hebrews 7:20  And he was not made a priest without an oath.
Hebrews 7:21  (Those other priests were made priests without any oath, but he was made a priest with an oath, by the one who said to him, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.")
Hebrews 7:22  And so Jesus has been made the guarantee of a better covenant.
Hebrews 7:23  There were many of those priests, because death did not allow them to continue.
Hebrews 7:24  But this man continues for ever, so his priesthood never passes to another.
Hebrews 7:25  So he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to plead for them.
Hebrews 7:26  Such a high priest was right for us: one who is holy, who does no harm, who is undefiled, set apart from sinners, and lifted higher than the heavens.
Hebrews 7:27  He does not need to offer sacrifices every day, as those high priests did, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He did this once for all when he offered up himself.
Hebrews 7:28  The law makes men high priests who are weak. But the word of the oath, which came after the law, makes the Son a high priest, and he is made perfect for ever.

Hebrews 8:1  This is the main point of what we have been saying: we have such a high priest. He is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven.
Hebrews 8:2  He serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, and not man.
Hebrews 8:3  Every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. So this one also must have something to offer.
Hebrews 8:4  If he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are already priests who offer gifts as the law says.
Hebrews 8:5  They serve at a copy and shadow of the things in heaven. That is why God warned Moses when he was about to make the tabernacle: "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain."
Hebrews 8:6  But the work Jesus has been given is far greater. He is the go-between of a better covenant, and that covenant is founded on better promises.
Hebrews 8:7  If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, there would have been no need to look for a second one.
Hebrews 8:8  But God found fault with them, and said, "Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."
Hebrews 8:9  "It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They did not keep on in my covenant, and I paid no attention to them, says the Lord."
Hebrews 8:10  "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Hebrews 8:11  "No one will need to teach his neighbour, or his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord.' For they shall all know me, from the least to the greatest."
Hebrews 8:12  "I will show mercy for the wrong they have done, and I will remember their sins and their evil deeds no more."
Hebrews 8:13  By saying "a new covenant," he has made the first one old. And what is growing old and worn out is ready to disappear.

Hebrews 9:1  The first covenant did have rules for worship, and a holy place here on earth.
Hebrews 9:2  For a tabernacle was made. In its first part were the lampstand, the table, and the showbread. This part is called the sanctuary.
Hebrews 9:3  Behind the second veil was the part of the tabernacle called the Holiest of all.
Hebrews 9:4  It had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant, covered all over with gold. Inside the ark were the golden pot holding the manna, Aaron's rod that had budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
Hebrews 9:5  Above the ark were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. We cannot speak about these things in detail now.
Hebrews 9:6  When everything was set up in this way, the priests went into the first part of the tabernacle all the time, doing the service of God.
Hebrews 9:7  But only the high priest went into the second part, and only once a year. He never went without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had done in ignorance.
Hebrews 9:8  By this the Holy Spirit was showing that the way into the Holiest of all was not yet made known, while the first tabernacle was still standing.
Hebrews 9:9  This was a picture for the present time. In it gifts and sacrifices were offered which could not make the worshipper perfect in his conscience.
Hebrews 9:10  They dealt only with food and drink, and various washings, and rules about the body. They were laid on the people until the time when things would be set right.
Hebrews 9:11  But Christ came as a high priest of the good things that were to come. He came through a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not part of this creation.
Hebrews 9:12  He did not enter with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood. He entered the holy place once for all, and won eternal redemption for us.
Hebrews 9:13  The blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer, are sprinkled on those who are unclean, and this makes their bodies clean and holy.
Hebrews 9:14  How much more will the blood of Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works, so that you may serve the living God! Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to God without any spot.
Hebrews 9:15  For this reason he is the mediator of the new covenant. A death has taken place, to set people free from the sins committed under the first covenant. So now those who are called may receive the promise of an eternal inheritance.
Hebrews 9:16  Where there is a will, the one who made it must die.
Hebrews 9:17  A will only takes effect after someone has died. It has no force at all while the one who made it is still alive.
Hebrews 9:18  So even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.
Hebrews 9:19  For when Moses had told all the people every command of the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop. He sprinkled the book itself and all the people,
Hebrews 9:20  saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you to keep."
Hebrews 9:21  In the same way he sprinkled blood on the tabernacle and on all the vessels used in the service.
Hebrews 9:22  Under the law almost everything is cleansed with blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 9:23  So the copies of the things in heaven had to be made clean in this way. But the heavenly things themselves need better sacrifices than these.
Hebrews 9:24  For Christ did not enter holy places made with hands, which are only copies of the true one. He entered heaven itself, and now appears in the presence of God for us.
Hebrews 9:25  He did not go there to offer himself again and again, as the high priest enters the holy place every year with blood that is not his own.
Hebrews 9:26  If that were so, he would have had to suffer many times since the world was made. But now, once, at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 9:27  It is appointed for people to die once, and after that comes the judgment.
Hebrews 9:28  In the same way Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. He will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Hebrews 10:1  The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming. It is not the real form of those things. So it can never make perfect those who come to worship, no matter how long they keep offering the same sacrifices year after year.
Hebrews 10:2  If it could, would they not have stopped offering them? For the worshippers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
Hebrews 10:3  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
Hebrews 10:4  For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Hebrews 10:5  So when he comes into the world, he says, "You did not want sacrifice and offering, but you have prepared a body for me."
Hebrews 10:6  "You have taken no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin."
Hebrews 10:7  "Then I said, 'Look, I have come to do your will, O God. It is written about me in the scroll of the book.'"
Hebrews 10:8  First he said, "You did not want sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, and you took no pleasure in them." These are the ones offered under the law.
Hebrews 10:9  Then he said, "Look, I have come to do your will, O God." He takes away the first in order to set up the second.
Hebrews 10:10  By that will we are made holy, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:11  Every priest stands day after day doing his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
Hebrews 10:12  But this man offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, and then sat down at the right hand of God.
Hebrews 10:13  From that time he waits until his enemies are made his footstool.
Hebrews 10:14  For by one offering he has made perfect for ever those who are being made holy.
Hebrews 10:15  The Holy Spirit is also a witness to us about this. For first he says,
Hebrews 10:16  "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and I will write them in their minds."
Hebrews 10:17  Then he adds, "And I will remember their sins and their evil deeds no more."
Hebrews 10:18  Now where these are forgiven, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Hebrews 10:19  So, brothers and sisters, we have boldness to enter the holiest place by the blood of Jesus.
Hebrews 10:20  He opened for us a new and living way through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.
Hebrews 10:21  And we have a great priest over the house of God.
Hebrews 10:22  So let us come near with a true heart, in the full assurance of faith. Our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:23  Let us hold firmly to the faith we profess, without wavering, for the one who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:24  And let us think about one another, and stir each other up to love and to good works.
Hebrews 10:25  Let us not stop meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. Instead, let us encourage one another, all the more as you see the day coming near.
Hebrews 10:26  For if we go on sinning on purpose after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there is no sacrifice for sins left,
Hebrews 10:27  but only a fearful waiting for judgment, and a burning anger that will devour those who oppose God.
Hebrews 10:28  Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses.
Hebrews 10:29  How much worse a punishment do you think someone deserves who has trampled the Son of God under his feet? He has treated the blood of the covenant that made him holy as an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace.
Hebrews 10:30  For we know the one who said, "Vengeance belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."
Hebrews 10:31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10:32  But remember the earlier days. After you were given light, you endured a hard struggle with suffering.
Hebrews 10:33  Sometimes you were put on show, insulted and ill-treated in public. At other times you stood beside those who were treated in that way.
Hebrews 10:34  For you felt for me in my chains, and you accepted with joy the seizing of your goods. You knew that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession in heaven.
Hebrews 10:35  So do not throw away your confidence, which brings a great reward.
Hebrews 10:36  You need patience, so that after you have done the will of God you may receive what he has promised.
Hebrews 10:37  For in just a little while, "He who is coming will come, and will not delay."
Hebrews 10:38  "Now the just shall live by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul takes no pleasure in him."
Hebrews 10:39  But we are not those who draw back and are destroyed. We are those who believe and are saved.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of what we hope for, the evidence of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:2  For by faith those who lived long ago were well spoken of.
Hebrews 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God. So the things we see were not made out of things that appear.
Hebrews 11:4  By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By it he was witnessed to be righteous, for God spoke well of his gifts. And by it he still speaks, though he is dead.
Hebrews 11:5  By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he did not see death. He was not found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, this was said about him: that he pleased God.
Hebrews 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him. For anyone who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he rewards those who search for him with all their heart.
Hebrews 11:7  By faith Noah was warned by God about things not yet seen. He was moved with fear, and he built an ark to save his household. By this he condemned the world, and he became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:8  By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as his inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he was going.
Hebrews 11:9  By faith he lived in the land of promise as if it were a foreign country. He lived in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
Hebrews 11:10  For he was looking for a city with foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Hebrews 11:11  Through faith Sara herself also received strength to conceive a child, and she gave birth when she was past the age for it. For she judged him faithful who had promised.
Hebrews 11:12  So from one man, and he as good as dead, there came descendants as many as the stars in the sky, and countless as the sand by the seashore.
Hebrews 11:13  All these died in faith. They had not received the promises, but they had seen them far off. They were sure of them, and welcomed them, and said openly that they were strangers and travellers on the earth.
Hebrews 11:14  For people who say such things make it plain that they are looking for a country of their own.
Hebrews 11:15  Truly, if they had been thinking of the country they came from, they would have had the chance to go back.
Hebrews 11:16  But now they long for a better country, a heavenly one. So God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Hebrews 11:17  By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. He who had received the promises was offering up his only son,
Hebrews 11:18  the son about whom it was said, "In Isaac your descendants shall be named."
Hebrews 11:19  He counted that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead. And in a manner of speaking, he did receive him back from there.
Hebrews 11:20  By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau about things to come.
Hebrews 11:21  By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph. He worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff.
Hebrews 11:22  By faith Joseph, when he died, spoke of the going out of the children of Israel, and gave orders about his bones.
Hebrews 11:23  By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child. And they were not afraid of the king's command.
Hebrews 11:24  By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter.
Hebrews 11:25  He chose rather to suffer hardship with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
Hebrews 11:26  He counted the shame of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, for he looked ahead to the reward.
Hebrews 11:27  By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the anger of the king. For he kept on, as one who sees him who cannot be seen.
Hebrews 11:28  Through faith he kept the passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch them.
Hebrews 11:29  By faith they passed through the Red sea as though it were dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do the same, they were drowned.
Hebrews 11:30  By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been marched around for seven days.
Hebrews 11:31  By faith Rahab the prostitute did not die with those who did not believe, because she had welcomed the spies in peace.
Hebrews 11:32  And what more shall I say? There is not time enough to tell of Gedeon, and Barak, and Samson, and Jephthae, and of David, and Samuel, and the prophets.
Hebrews 11:33  Through faith they conquered kingdoms, did righteousness, received promises, shut the mouths of lions,
Hebrews 11:34  put out the fury of fire, escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness they were made strong. They grew brave in battle, and drove back the armies of foreigners.
Hebrews 11:35  Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, and would not accept release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Hebrews 11:36  Others went through cruel mocking and whipping, and also chains and prison.
Hebrews 11:37  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were killed with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, in need, troubled, and tormented.
Hebrews 11:38  The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Hebrews 11:39  All these were well spoken of because of their faith, yet they did not receive the promise.
Hebrews 11:40  God had provided something better for us, so that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

Hebrews 12:1  So then, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us put off every weight, and the sin that so easily holds us back. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Hebrews 12:2  looking to Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, thinking nothing of its shame, and he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:3  Think about him, who endured such hatred from sinners against himself. Then you will not grow tired and lose heart in your minds.
Hebrews 12:4  In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of blood.
Hebrews 12:5  And you have forgotten the encouraging word that speaks to you as to children: "My son, do not make light of the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when he corrects you."
Hebrews 12:6  "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he whips every son he receives."
Hebrews 12:7  If you endure discipline, God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
Hebrews 12:8  But if you are left without discipline, which all sons share in, then you are not true sons at all.
Hebrews 12:9  Besides this, we had human fathers who corrected us, and we respected them. Should we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live?
Hebrews 12:10  For a few days they disciplined us as they thought best. But he disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in his holiness.
Hebrews 12:11  No discipline seems joyful at the time, but painful. Yet afterwards it gives the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:12  So lift up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the weak knees.
Hebrews 12:13  Make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame will not be turned out of the way, but rather be healed.
Hebrews 12:14  Seek peace with everyone, and holiness. Without holiness no one will see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:15  Watch carefully that no one falls short of the grace of God. Watch that no root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, and that many are not defiled by it.
Hebrews 12:16  Watch that no one is sexually immoral, or unholy like Esau, who sold his rights as the firstborn son for one meal.
Hebrews 12:17  For you know that afterwards, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was refused. He found no place for repentance, though he looked for it carefully with tears.
Hebrews 12:18  You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that burned with fire, nor to blackness, and darkness, and storm,
Hebrews 12:19  and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice speaking words. Those who heard that voice begged that no more words be spoken to them.
Hebrews 12:20  For they could not bear what was commanded: "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned, or shot through with a spear."
Hebrews 12:21  The sight was so terrible that Moses said, "I am full of fear and trembling."
Hebrews 12:22  But you have come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to a countless company of angels,
Hebrews 12:23  to the great gathering and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just people made perfect,
Hebrews 12:24  and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel.
Hebrews 12:25  See that you do not refuse him who speaks. For if those people did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we turn away from him who warns from heaven.
Hebrews 12:26  Then his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, saying, "Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven also."
Hebrews 12:27  And these words, "Once more," mean the removing of the things that are shaken, that is, things that are made, so that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Hebrews 12:28  So then, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace, and by it serve God in a way that pleases him, with reverence and godly fear.
Hebrews 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

Hebrews 13:1  Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
Hebrews 13:2  Do not forget to welcome strangers into your home. By doing this, some people have welcomed angels without knowing it.
Hebrews 13:3  Remember those who are in prison, as if you were in prison with them. Remember those who are badly treated, since you also have a body.
Hebrews 13:4  Marriage should be honoured by everyone, and the marriage bed kept pure. But God will judge those who are sexually immoral and those who commit adultery.
Hebrews 13:5  Do not let your way of life be greedy for money. Be content with what you have. For God has said, "I will never leave you, and I will never abandon you."
Hebrews 13:6  So we can say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper, and I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"
Hebrews 13:7  Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Think about how their way of life ended, and follow their faith.
Hebrews 13:8  Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.
Hebrews 13:9  Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for the heart to be made strong by grace, and not by rules about food, which have not helped those who followed them.
Hebrews 13:10  We have an altar, and those who serve at the tabernacle have no right to eat from it.
Hebrews 13:11  The high priest carries the blood of animals into the holy place as an offering for sin, but the bodies of those animals are burned outside the camp.
Hebrews 13:12  So Jesus also suffered outside the gate, to make the people holy by his own blood.
Hebrews 13:13  So let us go out to him outside the camp, and bear the shame he bore.
Hebrews 13:14  For here we have no city that lasts, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Hebrews 13:15  So through him let us always offer to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.
Hebrews 13:16  And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for God is pleased with sacrifices like these.
Hebrews 13:17  Obey your leaders and submit to them. They keep watch over your souls, as those who must give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with sorrow, for that would be no help to you.
Hebrews 13:18  Pray for us. We are sure that we have a good conscience, and we want to live honestly in every way.
Hebrews 13:19  I beg you all the more to do this, so that I may be given back to you sooner.
Hebrews 13:20  Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
Hebrews 13:21  make you complete in every good work, so that you may do his will. May he work in you what pleases him, through Jesus Christ. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Hebrews 13:22  Brothers and sisters, I beg you to bear with this word of encouragement, for I have written to you only a short letter.
Hebrews 13:23  You should know that our brother Timothy has been set free. If he comes soon, I will see you along with him.
Hebrews 13:24  Greet all your leaders, and all the saints. Those from Italy greet you.
Hebrews 13:25  Grace be with you all. Amen. «Written to the Hebrews from Italy, by Timothy.»

James

James 1:1  James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad: greetings.
James 1:2  My brothers and sisters, count it all joy when you fall into many kinds of temptations.
James 1:3  You know that the testing of your faith produces patience.
James 1:4  But let patience finish its work, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
James 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all and does not scold; and it will be given to him.
James 1:6  But let him ask in faith, with no wavering. For the one who wavers is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed about.
James 1:7  That man should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord.
James 1:8  A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
James 1:9  Let the brother of low position be glad that he is lifted high.
James 1:10  But let the rich man be glad that he is made low. For he will pass away like the flower of the grass.
James 1:11  As soon as the sun rises with burning heat, it dries up the grass. Its flower falls, and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed. So also the rich man will fade away in his ways.
James 1:12  Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been tested, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him.
James 1:13  Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God." For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he tempts no one.
James 1:14  But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own desire.
James 1:15  Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.
James 1:16  Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters.
James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. It comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no change, and no shadow of turning.
James 1:18  Of his own will he became our father through the word of truth, so that we should be a kind of firstfruits of the things he made.
James 1:19  So then, my dear brothers and sisters, let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger.
James 1:20  For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
James 1:21  So put away all filthiness and the overflow of wickedness. Receive with meekness the word planted in you, which is able to save your souls.
James 1:22  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
James 1:23  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror.
James 1:24  He looks at himself, and goes away, and at once forgets what kind of man he was.
James 1:25  But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty and keeps on in it, not being a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
James 1:26  If anyone among you seems to be religious, but does not bridle his tongue, he deceives his own heart, and this man's religion is worthless.
James 1:27  Pure religion, with no stain, before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

James 2:1  My brothers and sisters, you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. So do not treat some people as better than others.
James 2:2  Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes. And suppose a poor man comes in too, in dirty, worn-out clothes.
James 2:3  You pay attention to the man in the fine clothes and say to him, "Sit here in this good seat." But you say to the poor man, "Stand over there," or, "Sit here by my footstool."
James 2:4  If you do that, are you not making differences among yourselves? Have you not become judges with evil thoughts?
James 2:5  Listen, my dear brothers and sisters. Has God not chosen those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith? Has he not chosen them to receive the kingdom he promised to those who love him?
James 2:6  But you have shamed the poor man. Is it not the rich who crush you, and drag you into the courts?
James 2:7  Is it not they who speak against the honoured name by which you are called?
James 2:8  If you truly keep the royal law found in the Scripture, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself," you do well.
James 2:9  But if you treat some people as better than others, you commit sin, and the law shows you to be law-breakers.
James 2:10  For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet fails in one point, is guilty of all of it.
James 2:11  For he who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do not kill." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do kill, you have become a breaker of the law.
James 2:12  So speak and act as people who will be judged by the law of liberty.
James 2:13  For anyone who has shown no mercy will be judged without mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James 2:14  My brothers and sisters, what good is it if someone says he has faith, but has no works? Can such faith save him?
James 2:15  Suppose a brother or sister has no clothes and no food for the day.
James 2:16  And one of you says to them, "Go in peace, keep warm and eat well," but you do not give them the things their body needs. What good is that?
James 2:17  In the same way faith, if it has no works, is dead, all by itself.
James 2:18  Yes, someone may say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
James 2:19  You believe that there is one God. You do well. The demons believe that too, and they tremble.
James 2:20  But will you learn, foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
James 2:21  Was not Abraham our father made righteous by works, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
James 2:22  Do you see how his faith worked together with his works? By works his faith was made complete.
James 2:23  And the Scripture came true which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." And he was called the Friend of God.
James 2:24  So you see that a person is made righteous by works, and not by faith only.
James 2:25  In the same way, was not Rahab the prostitute made righteous by works, when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another way?
James 2:26  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James 3:1  My brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers. You know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.
James 3:2  For we all fail in many ways. If anyone never fails in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check as well.
James 3:3  Look, we put bits in horses' mouths to make them obey us, and so we turn their whole body about.
James 3:4  Look at ships too. They are very large, and strong winds drive them, yet a very small rudder turns them wherever the pilot wants to go.
James 3:5  In the same way the tongue is a small part of the body, yet it boasts of great things. Look how great a fire a little flame can start.
James 3:6  And the tongue is a fire, a world of evil. Among the parts of our body the tongue is such that it stains the whole body. It sets on fire the whole course of our life, and it is set on fire by hell.
James 3:7  Every kind of animal, bird, snake and sea creature can be tamed, and has been tamed by people.
James 3:8  But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.
James 3:9  With it we bless God, the Father, and with it we curse people, who are made in the likeness of God.
James 3:10  Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be so.
James 3:11  Does a spring pour out fresh water and bitter water from the same opening?
James 3:12  My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring give fresh water.
James 3:13  Who among you is wise and has understanding? Let him show it by his good conduct, by works done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
James 3:14  But if you have bitter envy and rivalry in your hearts, do not boast, and do not lie against the truth.
James 3:15  This wisdom does not come down from above. It is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.
James 3:16  For where there is envy and rivalry, there is confusion and every evil deed.
James 3:17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and willing to yield. It is full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
James 3:18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 4:1  Where do the wars and the fights among you come from? Do they not come from your desires, which fight inside you?
James 4:2  You want, and do not have. You kill, and long to have, and cannot get. You fight and make war, yet you do not have, because you do not ask.
James 4:3  You ask, and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your own pleasures.
James 4:4  You adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hatred against God? So whoever wants to be a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God.
James 4:5  Do you think the scripture speaks with no reason when it says, "The spirit that lives in us longs with envy"?
James 4:6  But he gives more grace. So it says, "God stands against the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
James 4:7  So give yourselves over to God. Stand against the devil, and he will run away from you.
James 4:8  Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Make your hearts pure, you who are divided in mind.
James 4:9  Be sorrowful, and mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.
James 4:10  Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:11  Do not speak evil of one another, brothers and sisters. Whoever speaks evil of his brother, and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not someone who obeys the law, but a judge of it.
James 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?
James 4:13  Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that city, and stay there a year, and buy and sell, and make money."
James 4:14  Yet you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is only a mist, that appears for a little while, and then disappears.
James 4:15  Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live, and do this or that."
James 4:16  But as it is, you take pride in your boasting. All such pride is evil.
James 4:17  So then, anyone who knows the good he ought to do, and does not do it, for him it is sin.

James 5:1  Come now, you rich men. Weep and wail because of the miseries that are coming on you.
James 5:2  Your riches have rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes.
James 5:3  Your gold and silver are eaten with rust. That rust will be a witness against you, and it will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure for the last days.
James 5:4  Look, the pay of the workers who reaped your fields cries out, for you cheated them and kept it back. And the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
James 5:5  You have lived on the earth in pleasure and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
James 5:6  You have condemned and killed the just man, and he does not resist you.
James 5:7  So be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. Look, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth. He waits patiently for it, until he receives the early and the latter rain.
James 5:8  You also be patient. Make your hearts firm, for the coming of the Lord is near.
James 5:9  Do not complain against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be condemned. Look, the judge is standing at the door.
James 5:10  My brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering trouble and of patience.
James 5:11  Look, we call them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the end of the Lord: that the Lord is full of pity and tender mercy.
James 5:12  But above all things, my brothers and sisters, do not swear, not by heaven, nor by the earth, nor by any other oath. Let your yes be yes, and your no, no, so that you do not fall under condemnation.
James 5:13  Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone glad? Let him sing psalms.
James 5:14  Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church. Let them pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord.
James 5:15  And the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
James 5:16  Confess your faults to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.
James 5:17  Elijah was a man with feelings like ours. He prayed hard that it would not rain, and no rain fell on the earth for three years and six months.
James 5:18  Then he prayed again, and the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
James 5:19  Brothers and sisters, if any one of you wanders away from the truth, and someone turns him back,
James 5:20  let him know this: whoever turns a sinner back from the error of his way will save a soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.

1 Peter

1 Peter 1:1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,
1 Peter 1:2  who are chosen, as God the Father knew beforehand, and made holy by the Spirit, so that you would obey and be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be given to you in full measure.
1 Peter 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:4  We are born into an inheritance that cannot decay or be stained, and that never fades away. It is kept in heaven for you.
1 Peter 1:5  You are guarded by the power of God through faith, until the salvation that is ready to be revealed at the last time.
1 Peter 1:6  In this you are very glad, even though now, for a little while, if it must be so, you are sad because of many trials.
1 Peter 1:7  These trials test your faith, which is far more precious than gold, for gold perishes even though it is tested by fire. Then your faith will be found to bring praise and honour and glory when Jesus Christ appears.
1 Peter 1:8  You have not seen him, yet you love him. You do not see him now, yet you believe in him, and you are filled with a joy too great for words, a joy full of glory.
1 Peter 1:9  And you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:10  The prophets searched carefully and asked about this salvation. They spoke beforehand of the grace that was to come to you.
1 Peter 1:11  They searched to find what time, and what kind of time, the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing to. For that Spirit told beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that would follow.
1 Peter 1:12  It was shown to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things. They have now been told to you by those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven. These are things the angels long to look into.
1 Peter 1:13  So then, get your minds ready for work. Be sober. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1 Peter 1:14  Be like obedient children. Do not shape your lives by the wrong desires you had before, when you did not know better.
1 Peter 1:15  But as the one who called you is holy, so you must be holy in all your conduct,
1 Peter 1:16  because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."
1 Peter 1:17  You call on the Father, who judges each person's work without favouring anyone. So live out the time you stay here in fear.
1 Peter 1:18  You know that you were not set free by things that decay, such as silver or gold, from the empty way of life handed down to you by your fathers.
1 Peter 1:19  You were set free by the precious blood of Christ, a lamb with no fault and no stain.
1 Peter 1:20  He was chosen before the world was made, but was shown openly in these last times for your sake.
1 Peter 1:21  Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
1 Peter 1:22  You have made your souls pure by obeying the truth through the Spirit, so that you have a true love for the brothers and sisters. So love one another deeply, from a pure heart.
1 Peter 1:23  You have been born again, not from seed that decays, but from seed that cannot decay, through the word of God, which lives and lasts for ever.
1 Peter 1:24  For all flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man is like the flower of the grass. The grass dries up, and its flower falls off,
1 Peter 1:25  but the word of the Lord lasts for ever. And this is the word that was preached to you in the gospel.

1 Peter 2:1  So put away all malice and all deceit, all pretending, all envy, and all evil speaking.
1 Peter 2:2  Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that you may grow by it.
1 Peter 2:3  For you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
1 Peter 2:4  Come to him. He is a living stone. People refused him, but God chose him, and he is precious.
1 Peter 2:5  You also are living stones. You are being built into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices that please God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:6  For this is what the scripture says: "Look, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, chosen and precious. Whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."
1 Peter 2:7  So to you who believe, he is precious. But to those who will not obey, "The stone that the builders refused has become the head of the corner,"
1 Peter 2:8  and, "a stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that trips them up." They stumble because they will not obey the word, and this was what they were appointed to.
1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who belong to God. You are to tell out the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:10  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:11  Dear friends, you are strangers and travellers here, and I beg you: keep away from the desires of the flesh, which make war against the soul.
1 Peter 2:12  Let your conduct among the Gentiles be honest. Then, though they speak against you as evildoers, they will see your good works and will glorify God on the day he comes to them.
1 Peter 2:13  For the Lord's sake, obey every human authority: whether the king, who is highest,
1 Peter 2:14  or governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do well.
1 Peter 2:15  For this is what God wants: that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish people.
1 Peter 2:16  Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover for doing wrong. Live as the servants of God.
1 Peter 2:17  Honour everyone. Love the brothers and sisters. Fear God. Honour the king.
1 Peter 2:18  Servants, be under your masters with all respect. Do this not only for masters who are good and gentle, but also for those who are harsh.
1 Peter 2:19  For this deserves thanks: when someone bears pain because of his conscience toward God, suffering when he has done no wrong.
1 Peter 2:20  What glory is there if you are beaten for your own faults and you take it patiently? But if you do good, and suffer for it, and take it patiently, this pleases God.
1 Peter 2:21  This is what you were called to. For Christ also suffered for us, and left us an example, so that you should follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2:22  He did no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
1 Peter 2:23  When people insulted him, he did not insult them back. When he suffered, he did not threaten. Instead he put himself in the hands of the One who judges righteously.
1 Peter 2:24  He himself carried our sins in his own body on the tree, so that we, being dead to sins, should live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed.
1 Peter 2:25  For you were like sheep wandering away. But now you have come back to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

1 Peter 3:1  In the same way, you wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then if any of them do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,
1 Peter 3:2  as they see your pure conduct joined with reverence.
1 Peter 3:3  Do not let your beauty be the outward kind: braiding the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine clothes.
1 Peter 3:4  Let it be the hidden person of the heart, in what cannot be spoiled: the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is worth very much.
1 Peter 3:5  For this is how the holy women of long ago made themselves beautiful. They trusted in God, and they were subject to their own husbands.
1 Peter 3:6  So Sara obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You are her daughters as long as you do well and are not frightened by any terror.
1 Peter 3:7  In the same way, you husbands, live with your wives with understanding. Give honour to the wife as the weaker vessel, since you are heirs together of the grace of life. Then nothing will hinder your prayers.
1 Peter 3:8  Finally, all of you be of one mind. Feel for one another. Love as brothers and sisters. Be tender-hearted. Be courteous.
1 Peter 3:9  Do not pay back evil for evil, or insult for insult. Instead, give a blessing. You know that you were called to this, so that you might inherit a blessing.
1 Peter 3:10  For whoever wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit.
1 Peter 3:11  He must turn away from evil and do good. He must look for peace and go after it.
1 Peter 3:12  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
1 Peter 3:13  And who is going to harm you, if you follow what is good?
1 Peter 3:14  But even if you suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are happy. Do not be afraid of what they fear, and do not be troubled.
1 Peter 3:15  But set apart the Lord God as holy in your hearts. Always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. Do it with gentleness and respect,
1 Peter 3:16  keeping a good conscience. Then when they speak evil of you, as if you were wrongdoers, those who falsely accuse your good conduct in Christ will be put to shame.
1 Peter 3:17  For it is better, if that is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
1 Peter 3:18  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit.
1 Peter 3:19  By that Spirit he also went and preached to the spirits in prison,
1 Peter 3:20  who long ago were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ark was being made. In it a few people, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
1 Peter 3:21  Baptism matches that picture, and it now saves us too. It is not the washing of dirt from the body, but the answer of a good conscience towards God. It saves us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 Peter 3:22  who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels and authorities and powers made subject to him.

1 Peter 4:1  So then, since Christ suffered for us in the body, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. For the one who has suffered in the body has finished with sin.
1 Peter 4:2  So he should live the rest of his time in the body no longer for the desires of men, but for the will of God.
1 Peter 4:3  The past time of our life is enough for us to have done what the Gentiles want. Then we walked in shameless living, in evil desires, in too much wine, in wild parties and drinking, and in disgusting worship of idols.
1 Peter 4:4  They think it strange that you do not run with them into the same wild living, and they speak evil of you.
1 Peter 4:5  They will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
1 Peter 4:6  This is why the gospel was preached also to those who are dead: so that they might be judged in the body as men are judged, but live in the spirit as God lives.
1 Peter 4:7  But the end of all things is near. So be sensible, and keep watch so that you can pray.
1 Peter 4:8  Above all things, have deep love among yourselves, for love will cover a great number of sins.
1 Peter 4:9  Welcome one another into your homes without complaining.
1 Peter 4:10  Each of you has received a gift. Use it to serve one another, as good managers of the many kinds of grace God gives.
1 Peter 4:11  If anyone speaks, let him speak as one who speaks the words of God. If anyone serves, let him do it with the strength that God gives. Then in all things God will be given glory through Jesus Christ. To him be praise and power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:12  Dear friends, do not think it strange when a fiery trial comes to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.
1 Peter 4:13  Instead be glad, because you share in the sufferings of Christ. Then, when his glory is shown, you may be glad with very great joy.
1 Peter 4:14  If people insult you because of the name of Christ, you are blessed. For the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. They speak evil of him, but you give him glory.
1 Peter 4:15  But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or someone who meddles in other people's business.
1 Peter 4:16  Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed. Let him give glory to God for this name.
1 Peter 4:17  For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God. And if it begins with us first, what will the end be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?
1 Peter 4:18  And if the righteous person is only just saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?
1 Peter 4:19  So then, let those who suffer according to the will of God trust the keeping of their souls to him while they do good, for he is a faithful Creator.

1 Peter 5:1  I urge the elders among you. I am an elder too, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and I will share in the glory that is going to be revealed.
1 Peter 5:2  Take care of God's flock that is among you. Watch over it, not because you must, but because you want to. Do not do it for shameful gain, but with a willing heart.
1 Peter 5:3  Do not act like lords over those given into your care. Instead, be examples to the flock.
1 Peter 5:4  And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of glory that never fades away.
1 Peter 5:5  In the same way, you who are younger, submit to those who are older. Yes, all of you, be subject to one another, and clothe yourselves with humility. For God stands against the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.
1 Peter 5:6  So humble yourselves under God's mighty hand, and he will lift you up at the right time.
1 Peter 5:7  Throw all your worry onto him, because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:8  Be clear-minded. Keep watch. Your enemy the devil walks about like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:9  Stand against him, firm in the faith. You know that your brothers and sisters throughout the world are going through the same sufferings.
1 Peter 5:10  But the God of all grace has called us to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus. After you have suffered a while, he himself will make you complete, steady, strong and firm.
1 Peter 5:11  To him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 5:12  I have written to you briefly by the hand of Silvanus, whom I count a faithful brother. I have urged you and told you that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.
1 Peter 5:13  The church in Babylon, chosen together with you, greets you, and so does Marcus my son.
1 Peter 5:14  Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be with all of you who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

2 Peter

2 Peter 1:1  Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as precious as ours, through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Peter 1:2  May grace and peace be given to you more and more, through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
2 Peter 1:3  His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godly living. It comes through knowing him who called us to his own glory and goodness.
2 Peter 1:4  Through them he has given us his very great and precious promises. By these promises you may share in the divine nature, since you have escaped the rottenness that is in the world through evil desire.
2 Peter 1:5  So do your very best. Add goodness to your faith, and knowledge to your goodness;
2 Peter 1:6  and self-control to your knowledge; and patience to your self-control; and godliness to your patience;
2 Peter 1:7  and brotherly kindness to your godliness; and love to your brotherly kindness.
2 Peter 1:8  If these things are in you, and grow, they will keep you from being idle or fruitless in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:9  But anyone who lacks these things is blind. He cannot see far off, and he has forgotten that he was washed clean from his old sins.
2 Peter 1:10  So all the more, brothers and sisters, work hard to make your calling and choosing sure. If you do these things, you will never fall.
2 Peter 1:11  And in this way you will be given a rich welcome into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:12  So I will not fail to keep reminding you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly settled in the truth you now have.
2 Peter 1:13  Yes, I think it is right, as long as I live in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you.
2 Peter 1:14  I know that I must soon lay this tent of mine aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me.
2 Peter 1:15  And I will do my best to see that after I am gone you will always be able to remember these things.
2 Peter 1:16  We did not follow clever made-up stories when we told you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw his majesty with our own eyes.
2 Peter 1:17  For he received honour and glory from God the Father, when a voice came to him from the magnificent glory: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
2 Peter 1:18  We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.
2 Peter 1:19  We also have the word of the prophets, made more sure. You do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
2 Peter 1:20  First of all, know this: no prophecy of the scripture comes from anyone's own interpretation.
2 Peter 1:21  For prophecy never came long ago by the will of man. Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.

2 Peter 2:1  But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive false teachings. They will even deny the Lord who bought them, and so they bring swift destruction on themselves.
2 Peter 2:2  Many will follow their harmful ways. Because of them, the way of truth will be spoken of with evil words.
2 Peter 2:3  In their greed they will use made-up words to make money out of you. Their judgment, decided long ago, does not delay, and their destruction is not asleep.
2 Peter 2:4  God did not spare the angels who sinned. He threw them down to hell and handed them over to chains of darkness, to be kept there for judgment.
2 Peter 2:5  He did not spare the ancient world, but he saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly.
2 Peter 2:6  He turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes and condemned them, overthrowing them. He made them an example of what happens to those who would live in an ungodly way.
2 Peter 2:7  And he rescued Lot, a just man, who was worn down by the filthy conduct of the wicked.
2 Peter 2:8  (For that righteous man lived among them, and day after day he saw and heard their lawless deeds, and it tormented his righteous soul.)
2 Peter 2:9  So the Lord knows how to rescue the godly out of testing, and how to keep the unjust under punishment until the day of judgment.
2 Peter 2:10  This is true above all of those who follow the flesh in unclean desire, and who despise authority. They are bold and stubborn. They are not afraid to speak evil of glorious ones.
2 Peter 2:11  Yet angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring an insulting accusation against them before the Lord.
2 Peter 2:12  But these people are like animals without reason, creatures born to be caught and destroyed. They speak evil of things they do not understand. They will be utterly destroyed in their own corruption.
2 Peter 2:13  They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. They count it a pleasure to feast wildly in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, enjoying their own deceptions while they eat with you.
2 Peter 2:14  Their eyes are full of adultery, and they never stop sinning. They lure unsteady souls. Their hearts are trained in greed. They are cursed children.
2 Peter 2:15  They have left the right way and wandered off. They follow the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.
2 Peter 2:16  But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing. A donkey that cannot speak spoke with a man's voice and stopped the prophet's madness.
2 Peter 2:17  These people are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm. The gloom of darkness is kept for them for ever.
2 Peter 2:18  They speak great swelling words that mean nothing. By the desires of the flesh and by shameless living they lure people who have only just escaped from those who live in error.
2 Peter 2:19  They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever defeats a man, that is what he is made a slave to.
2 Peter 2:20  They had escaped the filth of the world through knowing the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But if they are tangled up in it again and defeated, then their last state is worse than the first.
2 Peter 2:21  It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness, than to know it and then turn away from the holy commandment given to them.
2 Peter 2:22  What has happened to them fits the true proverb: "The dog goes back to its own vomit again," and, "The pig that was washed goes back to rolling in the mud."

2 Peter 3:1  Dear friends, this is now the second letter I have written to you. In both of them I have tried to stir up your pure minds by reminding you of things.
2 Peter 3:2  I want you to remember the words spoken long ago by the holy prophets, and the commandment of the Lord and Saviour given through us, his apostles.
2 Peter 3:3  First of all, know this: in the last days men who mock will come, following their own evil desires.
2 Peter 3:4  They will say, "Where is the promise that he is coming? Ever since the fathers fell asleep, everything goes on just as it has from the beginning of creation."
2 Peter 3:5  They choose not to know this: that long ago, by the word of God, the heavens were made, and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
2 Peter 3:6  By these things the world of that time was flooded with water and destroyed.
2 Peter 3:7  But the heavens and the earth that exist now are kept by that same word. They are being saved for fire, for the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly people.
2 Peter 3:8  But dear friends, do not forget this one thing: with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day.
2 Peter 3:9  The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some people count slowness. He is patient with us. He does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. Then the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with burning heat. The earth also, and everything done on it, will be burned up.
2 Peter 3:11  Since all these things will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You should live holy and godly lives,
2 Peter 3:12  as you look for the coming of the day of God and hurry it on. On that day the heavens will be set on fire and destroyed, and the elements will melt with burning heat.
2 Peter 3:13  But we, following his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness lives.
2 Peter 3:14  So then, dear friends, since you look for such things, work hard to be found by him in peace, without spot, and blameless.
2 Peter 3:15  Remember that the patience of our Lord means salvation. Our dear brother Paul also wrote to you about this, with the wisdom God gave him.
2 Peter 3:16  He speaks of these things in all his letters. Some things in them are hard to understand. People who are untaught and unsteady twist them, as they also twist the other scriptures, and so destroy themselves.
2 Peter 3:17  So then, dear friends, since you know these things beforehand, be careful. Do not be led away by the error of wicked people and fall from your own firm standing.
2 Peter 3:18  But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.

1 John

1 John 1:1  We tell you about what was from the beginning. We have heard it. We have seen it with our own eyes. We have looked at it, and our hands have touched it. It is about the Word of life.
1 John 1:2  (The life was made known, and we have seen it. We are witnesses of it, and we tell you about that eternal life, which was with the Father and was made known to us.)
1 John 1:3  What we have seen and heard we tell to you, so that you also may share with us. And truly what we share is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:4  We write these things to you so that your joy may be full.
1 John 1:5  This is the message we have heard from him, and tell to you: God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
1 John 1:6  If we say that we share with him, and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and we are not doing the truth.
1 John 1:7  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we share with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son makes us clean from all sin.
1 John 1:8  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. He will forgive us our sins, and make us clean from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:10  If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

1 John 2:1  My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. And if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous one.
1 John 2:2  And he is the sacrifice that takes away our sins. And not ours only, but also the sins of the whole world.
1 John 2:3  And this is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
1 John 2:4  Anyone who says, "I know him," and does not keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1 John 2:5  But in whoever keeps his word, the love of God is truly made complete. This is how we know that we are in him.
1 John 2:6  Whoever says he remains in him ought to walk as he walked.
1 John 2:7  Brothers and sisters, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment, which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you have heard from the beginning.
1 John 2:8  Again, I am writing a new commandment to you. It is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light now shines.
1 John 2:9  Whoever says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness even now.
1 John 2:10  Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble.
1 John 2:11  But whoever hates his brother is in darkness. He walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
1 John 2:12  I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.
1 John 2:13  I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.
1 John 2:14  I have written to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:15  Do not love the world, or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:16  For everything that is in the world - the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not from the Father, but is from the world.
1 John 2:17  And the world is passing away, and its desire with it. But whoever does the will of God remains for ever.
1 John 2:18  Little children, it is the last time. You have heard that antichrist will come, and even now there are many antichrists. By this we know that it is the last time.
1 John 2:19  They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have stayed with us. But they went out, so that it might be shown clearly that they were not all of us.
1 John 2:20  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.
1 John 2:21  I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie comes from the truth.
1 John 2:22  Who is a liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son.
1 John 2:23  Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father. But whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.
1 John 2:24  So let what you have heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father.
1 John 2:25  And this is the promise that he has promised us: eternal life.
1 John 2:26  I have written these things to you about those who are leading you astray.
1 John 2:27  But the anointing which you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. That same anointing teaches you about all things, and it is true and is no lie. So, just as it has taught you, remain in him.
1 John 2:28  And now, little children, remain in him. Then, when he appears, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
1 John 2:29  If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does righteousness is born of him.

1 John 3:1  Look at what great love the Father has given us. He lets us be called the sons of God. That is why the world does not know us: because it did not know him.
1 John 3:2  Dear friends, we are the sons of God now. What we will be has not been shown yet. But we know that, when he appears, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.
1 John 3:3  And everyone who has this hope in him makes himself pure, just as he is pure.
1 John 3:4  Everyone who sins also breaks the law, for sin is the breaking of the law.
1 John 3:5  And you know that he appeared to take away our sins. There is no sin in him.
1 John 3:6  No one who remains in him goes on sinning. Anyone who sins has not seen him, and has not known him.
1 John 3:7  Little children, let no one lead you astray. The one who does righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.
1 John 3:8  The one who sins belongs to the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this reason: to destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:9  No one who is born of God goes on sinning, because God's seed stays in him. He cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1 John 3:10  This is how the children of God and the children of the devil are seen. Anyone who does not do righteousness is not of God, and neither is the one who does not love his brother.
1 John 3:11  For this is the message you heard from the beginning: that we should love one another.
1 John 3:12  Not like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's were righteous.
1 John 3:13  My brothers and sisters, do not be surprised if the world hates you.
1 John 3:14  We know that we have passed from death into life, because we love the brothers and sisters. The one who does not love his brother stays in death.
1 John 3:15  Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life staying in him.
1 John 3:16  This is how we know what love is: he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.
1 John 3:17  But suppose someone has the good things of this world, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him. How can the love of God live in him?
1 John 3:18  My little children, let us not love with words or with the tongue, but in action and in truth.
1 John 3:19  This is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we will set our hearts at rest before him.
1 John 3:20  For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
1 John 3:21  Dear friends, if our heart does not condemn us, then we have confidence before God.
1 John 3:22  And whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that please him.
1 John 3:23  And this is his commandment: that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he commanded us.
1 John 3:24  The one who keeps his commandments lives in him, and he in that person. And this is how we know that he remains in us: by the Spirit he has given us.

1 John 4:1  Dear friends, do not believe every spirit. Test the spirits, to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:2  This is how you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
1 John 4:3  And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of antichrist. You have heard that it was coming, and now it is already in the world.
1 John 4:4  Little children, you are from God, and you have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:5  They are from the world. So they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
1 John 4:6  We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
1 John 4:7  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love is from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
1 John 4:8  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:9  This is how the love of God was shown to us: God sent his only begotten Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
1 John 4:10  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:11  Dear friends, if God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4:12  No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us.
1 John 4:13  This is how we know that we live in him, and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit.
1 John 4:14  And we have seen and we testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
1 John 4:15  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God.
1 John 4:16  And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
1 John 4:17  In this way our love is made perfect, so that we may have boldness on the day of judgment. For as he is, so are we in this world.
1 John 4:18  There is no fear in love. Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has torment. Whoever fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:19  We love him, because he first loved us.
1 John 4:20  If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen?
1 John 4:21  And this is the commandment we have from him: that the one who loves God must love his brother also.

1 John 5:1  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone who loves the Father also loves the child born of him.
1 John 5:2  This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commandments.
1 John 5:3  For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not a heavy burden.
1 John 5:4  For everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that overcomes the world: our faith.
1 John 5:5  Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
1 John 5:6  This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth.
1 John 5:7  For there are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one.
1 John 5:8  And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood. And these three agree in one.
1 John 5:9  If we accept the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he has given about his Son.
1 John 5:10  Whoever believes in the Son of God has this witness in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he does not believe the record that God gave about his Son.
1 John 5:11  And this is the record: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1 John 5:12  Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
1 John 5:13  I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life, and so that you may believe in the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:14  And this is the confidence we have in him: if we ask anything that agrees with his will, he hears us.
1 John 5:15  And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, then we know that we have what we asked of him.
1 John 5:16  If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life, for those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I do not say that he should pray about that.
1 John 5:17  All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin that does not lead to death.
1 John 5:18  We know that whoever is born of God does not sin. The one born of God keeps himself, and that wicked one does not touch him.
1 John 5:19  And we know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in wickedness.
1 John 5:20  And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
1 John 5:21  Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

2 John

2 John 1:1  From the elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth. And not I only, but also all those who have known the truth.
2 John 1:2  We love you because of the truth, which lives in us, and will be with us for ever.
2 John 1:3  Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.
2 John 1:4  I was very glad that I found some of your children walking in the truth, just as we received a commandment from the Father.
2 John 1:5  And now I ask you, lady, that we love one another. I am not writing a new commandment to you, but the one we had from the beginning.
2 John 1:6  And this is love: that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment, that you should walk in it, as you have heard from the beginning.
2 John 1:7  For many deceivers have gone out into the world. They do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Such a person is a deceiver and an antichrist.
2 John 1:8  Watch yourselves, so that we do not lose the things we have worked for, but receive a full reward.
2 John 1:9  Anyone who goes too far, and does not remain in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. The one who remains in the teaching of Christ has both the Father and the Son.
2 John 1:10  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not welcome him into your house, and do not wish him well.
2 John 1:11  For whoever wishes him well shares in his evil deeds.
2 John 1:12  I have many things to write to you, but I did not want to write with paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that our joy may be full.
2 John 1:13  The children of your chosen sister greet you. Amen.

3 John

3 John 1:1  From the elder, to the dearly loved Gaius, whom I love in the truth.
3 John 1:2  Dear friend, I pray above all things that you may do well and be in good health, just as your soul is doing well.
3 John 1:3  I was very glad when the brothers came and told about the truth that is in you, and how you walk in the truth.
3 John 1:4  I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
3 John 1:5  Dear friend, you act faithfully in all you do for the brothers, and for strangers too.
3 John 1:6  They have spoken before the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their journey in a way worthy of God.
3 John 1:7  For they went out for the sake of his name, and took nothing from the Gentiles.
3 John 1:8  So we ought to welcome such people, so that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
3 John 1:9  I wrote to the church. But Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, will not receive us.
3 John 1:10  So if I come, I will call to mind the things he does. He talks against us with spiteful words. And he is not satisfied with that: he refuses to welcome the brothers himself, and he stops those who want to, and puts them out of the church.
3 John 1:11  Dear friend, do not follow what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is from God, but the one who does evil has not seen God.
3 John 1:12  Everyone speaks well of Demetrius, and the truth itself speaks well of him. We also speak well of him, and you know that what we say is true.
3 John 1:13  I had many things to write, but I will not write to you with ink and pen.
3 John 1:14  I hope to see you soon, and we shall speak face to face.
3 John 1:15  Peace be to you. Our friends send you greetings. Greet the friends by name.

Jude

Jude 1:1  Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, to those who are made holy by God the Father, and kept safe in Jesus Christ, and called:
Jude 1:2  May mercy, peace and love be given to you in full measure.
Jude 1:3  Dear friends, I was working hard to write to you about the salvation we share. But I found I had to write and urge you to fight hard for the faith that was given once and for all to God's holy people.
Jude 1:4  For some men have slipped in among you without being noticed. Long ago it was written down that they would be condemned. They are ungodly men. They turn the grace of our God into a licence for filthy living, and they deny the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:5  So I want to remind you of something you once knew. The Lord saved the people out of the land of Egypt, but afterwards he destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude 1:6  And the angels who did not keep the place that was theirs, but left their own home, he has kept in everlasting chains under darkness, waiting for the judgment of the great day.
Jude 1:7  In the same way Sodom and Gomorrha, and the towns around them, gave themselves up to sexual sin and went after strange flesh. They are set out as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
Jude 1:8  In the same way these filthy dreamers make their bodies unclean, refuse to respect authority, and say evil things about glorious beings.
Jude 1:9  Yet Michael the archangel, when he argued with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring an insulting accusation against him. He only said, "The Lord rebuke you."
Jude 1:10  But these men say evil things about whatever they do not understand. And whatever they do understand by instinct, like animals without reason, in these things they ruin themselves.
Jude 1:11  How terrible for them. For they have gone the way of Cain. For money they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam. They have been destroyed in the rebellion of Core.
Jude 1:12  These men are stains at your love feasts, eating with you and feeding only themselves, with no fear. They are clouds without water, blown along by the winds. They are trees with withered fruit, fruitless, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.
Jude 1:13  They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame. They are wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has been kept for ever.
Jude 1:14  Enoch too, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men. He said, "Look, the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his holy ones,"
Jude 1:15  "to judge everyone, and to convict all the ungodly among them of all the ungodly deeds they have done in their ungodly way, and of all the harsh words that ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
Jude 1:16  These men grumble and find fault. They follow their own evil desires. Their mouths speak big, boastful words. They flatter people to gain something from them.
Jude 1:17  But, dear friends, remember the words that were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jude 1:18  They told you that in the last time there would be mockers, who would follow their own ungodly desires.
Jude 1:19  These are the men who divide people, who follow their own natural appetites, and who do not have the Spirit.
Jude 1:20  But you, dear friends, build yourselves up on your most holy faith, and pray in the Holy Spirit.
Jude 1:21  Keep yourselves in the love of God, as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
Jude 1:22  Show compassion to some, making a difference between them.
Jude 1:23  Save others with fear, pulling them out of the fire. Hate even the clothing that has been stained by the flesh.
Jude 1:24  Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to bring you without fault before his glorious presence with great joy,
Jude 1:25  to the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.

Revelation

Revelation 1:1  The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him, to show his servants the things which must happen soon. He sent it and made it known by his angel to his servant John,
Revelation 1:2  who told what he saw: the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ, and all the things that he saw.
Revelation 1:3  Blessed is the one who reads, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep the things written in it. For the time is near.
Revelation 1:4  John, to the seven churches in Asia: Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before his throne,
Revelation 1:5  and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
Revelation 1:6  and has made us kings and priests to God, his Father: to him be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 1:7  Look, he is coming with clouds. Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all the families of the earth will weep loudly because of him. Even so, Amen.
Revelation 1:8  "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending," says the Lord, "who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."
Revelation 1:9  I, John, am your brother, and I share with you in trouble, and in the kingdom and patient waiting of Jesus Christ. I was on the island called Patmos, because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, like a trumpet,
Revelation 1:11  saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. What you see, write in a book, and send it to the seven churches in Asia: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."
Revelation 1:12  I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. When I had turned, I saw seven golden lampstands,
Revelation 1:13  and in the middle of the seven lampstands one like the Son of man. He was wearing a robe down to his feet, with a golden band around his chest.
Revelation 1:14  His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire.
Revelation 1:15  His feet were like fine brass, as if they glowed in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters.
Revelation 1:16  In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
Revelation 1:17  When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he laid his right hand on me and said to me, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last."
Revelation 1:18  "I am he who lives. I was dead, and look, I am alive for evermore, Amen. And I have the keys of hell and of death."
Revelation 1:19  "Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen after this."
Revelation 1:20  "This is the secret of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and of the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches."

Revelation 2:1  "Write this to the angel of the church in Ephesus: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, and who walks among the seven golden lampstands:"
Revelation 2:2  "I know your works, your hard work, and your patience. I know that you cannot put up with those who are evil. You have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars."
Revelation 2:3  "You have endured, and you have been patient. You have worked hard for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary."
Revelation 2:4  "But I have something against you: you have left your first love."
Revelation 2:5  "So remember how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. If you do not, I will come to you quickly and take your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent."
Revelation 2:6  "But this you have in your favour: you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."
Revelation 2:7  "Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the middle of the paradise of God."
Revelation 2:8  "Write this to the angel of the church in Smyrna: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and is alive:"
Revelation 2:9  "I know your works, your trouble, and your poverty; but you are rich. And I know the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan."
Revelation 2:10  "Do not be afraid of any of the things you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is going to throw some of you into prison, so that you may be tested. You will have trouble for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life."
Revelation 2:11  "Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death."
Revelation 2:12  "Write this to the angel of the church in Pergamos: These are the words of him who has the sharp sword with two edges:"
Revelation 2:13  "I know your works, and where you live, where Satan has his seat. Yet you hold fast to my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in those days when Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan lives."
Revelation 2:14  "But I have a few things against you. You have people there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balac to put a stumbling block in front of the children of Israel, so that they would eat things sacrificed to idols and commit sexual sin."
Revelation 2:15  "In the same way you also have people who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which I hate."
Revelation 2:16  "Repent. If you do not, I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."
Revelation 2:17  "Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except the one who receives it."
Revelation 2:18  "Write this to the angel of the church in Thyatira: These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like fine brass:"
Revelation 2:19  "I know your works, your love, your service, your faith, and your patience. And I know that your last works are more than the first."
Revelation 2:20  "But I have a few things against you. You allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach my servants and to lead them astray, so that they commit sexual sin and eat things sacrificed to idols."
Revelation 2:21  "I gave her time to repent of her sexual sin, and she did not repent."
Revelation 2:22  "Look, I will throw her onto a bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great trouble, unless they repent of their deeds."
Revelation 2:23  "I will kill her children with death. Then all the churches will know that I am the one who searches the inmost thoughts and the hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works."
Revelation 2:24  "But to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, to all who do not hold this teaching, and who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them: I will put no other burden on you."
Revelation 2:25  "But hold fast to what you already have, until I come."
Revelation 2:26  "To the one who overcomes, and who keeps my works to the end, I will give power over the nations."
Revelation 2:27  "He will rule them with a rod of iron. They will be broken to pieces like the pots of a potter, just as I myself received from my Father."
Revelation 2:28  "And I will give him the morning star."
Revelation 2:29  "Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Revelation 3:1  "To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have a name that says you are alive, but you are dead."
Revelation 3:2  "Be watchful. Make strong the things that remain, which are ready to die. For I have not found your works complete before God."
Revelation 3:3  "So remember what you received and heard. Hold it fast, and repent. If you will not keep watch, I will come on you like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you."
Revelation 3:4  "But you have a few names even in Sardis who have not stained their clothes. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy."
Revelation 3:5  "The one who overcomes will be dressed in white clothing. I will not blot his name out of the book of life. I will speak his name before my Father and before his angels."
Revelation 3:6  "Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Revelation 3:7  "To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David. When he opens, no one shuts; when he shuts, no one opens."
Revelation 3:8  "I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it. For you have a little strength, and you have kept my word, and have not denied my name."
Revelation 3:9  "Look, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but are lying - look, I will make them come and worship at your feet, and know that I have loved you."
Revelation 3:10  "Because you have kept the word of my patience, I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is coming on all the world, to test those who live on the earth."
Revelation 3:11  "Look, I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, so that no one takes your crown."
Revelation 3:12  "The one who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will never go out of it again. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on him my new name."
Revelation 3:13  "Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
Revelation 3:14  "To the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God."
Revelation 3:15  "I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot."
Revelation 3:16  "So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spit you out of my mouth."
Revelation 3:17  "You say, 'I am rich. I have grown wealthy. I need nothing.' You do not know that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."
Revelation 3:18  "I advise you to buy from me gold tested in the fire, so that you may be rich; and white clothing, so that you may be dressed and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen; and ointment to put on your eyes, so that you may see."
Revelation 3:19  "All those I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be eager, and repent."
Revelation 3:20  "Look, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will eat with him, and he with me."
Revelation 3:21  "To the one who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne, just as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne."
Revelation 3:22  "Whoever has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Revelation 4:1  After this I looked, and there was a door standing open in heaven. The first voice I had heard was like a trumpet speaking with me. It said, "Come up here, and I will show you the things that must happen after this."
Revelation 4:2  At once I was in the Spirit. Look, a throne stood in heaven, and someone was sitting on the throne.
Revelation 4:3  The one who sat there looked like jasper and sardine stone. Around the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald.
Revelation 4:4  Around the throne were twenty-four seats. On the seats I saw twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white clothes, with crowns of gold on their heads.
Revelation 4:5  Out of the throne came flashes of lightning and thunder and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning in front of the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
Revelation 4:6  In front of the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. In the middle of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and behind.
Revelation 4:7  The first creature was like a lion. The second creature was like a calf. The third creature had a face like a man. The fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
Revelation 4:8  Each of the four creatures had six wings, and they were full of eyes all around and within. Day and night they never rest, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
Revelation 4:9  Those creatures give glory and honour and thanks to the one who sits on the throne, who lives for ever and ever.
Revelation 4:10  And when they do, the twenty-four elders fall down before the one who sits on the throne. They worship him who lives for ever and ever, and they throw their crowns down in front of the throne, saying,
Revelation 4:11  "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power. For you created all things, and it was for your pleasure that they exist and were created."

Revelation 5:1  Then I saw a book in the right hand of the one who sat on the throne. It was written on the inside and on the back, and it was sealed with seven seals.
Revelation 5:2  And I saw a strong angel calling out with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?"
Revelation 5:3  But no one in heaven, or on earth, or under the earth was able to open the book, or even to look inside it.
Revelation 5:4  So I wept and wept, because no one was found who was worthy to open the book and read it, or even to look inside it.
Revelation 5:5  Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Look, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, has won the victory. He is able to open the book and to break its seven seals."
Revelation 5:6  Then I saw a Lamb standing in the middle of the throne and of the four beasts, and among the elders. He looked as if he had been killed. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
Revelation 5:7  He came and took the book out of the right hand of the one who sat on the throne.
Revelation 5:8  When he had taken the book, the four beasts and the twenty-four elders fell down in front of the Lamb. Each of them had a harp, and they had golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 5:9  And they sang a new song. They said, "You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals. For you were killed, and by your blood you bought us back for God out of every family, and language, and people, and nation."
Revelation 5:10  "You have made us kings and priests for our God, and we shall reign on the earth."
Revelation 5:11  Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the beasts and the elders. There were ten thousand times ten thousand of them, and thousands of thousands.
Revelation 5:12  They said with a loud voice, "The Lamb who was killed is worthy to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
Revelation 5:13  And I heard every creature in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that are in them, saying, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power be to the one who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever."
Revelation 5:14  And the four beasts said, "Amen." And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped the one who lives for ever and ever.

Revelation 6:1  I watched as the Lamb opened one of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say, with a voice like thunder, "Come and see."
Revelation 6:2  I looked, and there was a white horse. The one who sat on it had a bow. He was given a crown, and he went out conquering, and to conquer.
Revelation 6:3  When he had opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come and see."
Revelation 6:4  Then another horse went out, a red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth, so that people would kill one another. And he was given a great sword.
Revelation 6:5  When he had opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." I looked, and there was a black horse. The one who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
Revelation 6:6  And I heard a voice from among the four living creatures say, "A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny. And do not harm the oil and the wine."
Revelation 6:7  When he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come and see."
Revelation 6:8  I looked, and there was a pale horse. The name of the one who sat on it was Death, and Hell followed with him. They were given power over a fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and by the wild animals of the earth.
Revelation 6:9  When he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the word of God, and for the testimony they held.
Revelation 6:10  They cried out with a loud voice, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood on them?"
Revelation 6:11  White robes were given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer, until the full number was complete of their fellow servants and their brothers and sisters, who would be killed as they had been.
Revelation 6:12  I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like rough haircloth, and the moon became like blood.
Revelation 6:13  The stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its unripe figs when a strong wind shakes it.
Revelation 6:14  The sky went away like a scroll being rolled up. Every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
Revelation 6:15  Then the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every slave, and every free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.
Revelation 6:16  They said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."
Revelation 6:17  "For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"

Revelation 7:1  After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. They were holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree.
Revelation 7:2  And I saw another angel coming up from the east, carrying the seal of the living God. He called out with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and the sea.
Revelation 7:3  He said, "Do not harm the earth, or the sea, or the trees, until we have put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."
Revelation 7:4  And I heard the number of those who were sealed. There were a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
Revelation 7:5  Of the tribe of Juda, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand were sealed.
Revelation 7:6  Of the tribe of Aser, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Nepthalim, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Manasses, twelve thousand were sealed.
Revelation 7:7  Of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand were sealed.
Revelation 7:8  Of the tribe of Zabulon, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand were sealed. Of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed.
Revelation 7:9  After this I looked, and there was a great crowd that no one could count. They came from every nation and family and people and language. They stood in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.
Revelation 7:10  They called out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."
Revelation 7:11  All the angels stood around the throne, and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell on their faces in front of the throne and worshipped God,
Revelation 7:12  saying, "Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanks and honour and power and might belong to our God for ever and ever. Amen."
Revelation 7:13  Then one of the elders spoke to me. He said, "Who are these people dressed in white robes? Where did they come from?"
Revelation 7:14  And I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who came out of great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
Revelation 7:15  That is why they are in front of the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple. And the one who sits on the throne will live among them.
Revelation 7:16  They will never be hungry again, and never be thirsty again. The sun will not beat down on them, nor any burning heat.
Revelation 7:17  "For the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne will feed them. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Revelation 8:1  When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Revelation 8:2  And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.
Revelation 8:3  Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer. He was given much incense, so that he could offer it with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar in front of the throne.
Revelation 8:4  And the smoke of the incense went up before God out of the angel's hand, together with the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 8:5  Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it down on the earth. And there were voices, and thunder, and lightning, and an earthquake.
Revelation 8:6  And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets got ready to sound them.
Revelation 8:7  The first angel sounded his trumpet. Then came hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown down on the earth. A third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Revelation 8:8  The second angel sounded his trumpet. Then something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood.
Revelation 8:9  And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Revelation 8:10  The third angel sounded his trumpet. Then a great star fell from heaven, burning like a lamp, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water.
Revelation 8:11  The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters, because they were made bitter.
Revelation 8:12  The fourth angel sounded his trumpet. Then a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them went dark. The day did not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
Revelation 8:13  And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the middle of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to those who live on the earth, because of the other trumpet blasts of the three angels who are still to sound them!"

Revelation 9:1  Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet. I saw a star fall from heaven to the earth. He was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Revelation 9:2  He opened the bottomless pit, and smoke rose out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. The sun and the air were made dark by the smoke of the pit.
Revelation 9:3  Out of the smoke came locusts onto the earth. They were given power like the power that scorpions have on the earth.
Revelation 9:4  They were told not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree. They were to harm only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.
Revelation 9:5  They were not allowed to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the pain of a scorpion when it stings a man.
Revelation 9:6  In those days people will look for death, and will not find it. They will long to die, and death will run away from them.
Revelation 9:7  The locusts looked like horses ready for battle. On their heads were what looked like crowns of gold, and their faces were like human faces.
Revelation 9:8  Their hair was like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions.
Revelation 9:9  They had breastplates that seemed to be made of iron. The sound of their wings was like the sound of chariots with many horses rushing into battle.
Revelation 9:10  They had tails like scorpions, and there were stings in their tails. Their power was to harm people for five months.
Revelation 9:11  They had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit. In the Hebrew language his name is Abaddon, and in the Greek language his name is Apollyon.
Revelation 9:12  One woe is past. Look, two more woes are still to come.
Revelation 9:13  Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet. I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that stands before God.
Revelation 9:14  It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, "Set free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates."
Revelation 9:15  So the four angels were set free. They had been kept ready for that hour, and day, and month, and year, to kill a third of the people.
Revelation 9:16  The number of the army of horsemen was two hundred thousand thousand. I heard their number.
Revelation 9:17  This is how I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them. They had breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and of brimstone. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone.
Revelation 9:18  By these three a third of the people were killed: by the fire, by the smoke, and by the brimstone that came out of their mouths.
Revelation 9:19  For their power is in their mouths and in their tails. Their tails were like snakes, and had heads, and with them they do harm.
Revelation 9:20  The rest of the people, who were not killed by these plagues, still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshipping demons, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.
Revelation 9:21  They did not repent of their murders, or of their witchcraft, or of their sexual sin, or of their thefts.

Revelation 10:1  Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head. His face was like the sun, and his feet were like pillars of fire.
Revelation 10:2  In his hand he had a little book, open. He set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,
Revelation 10:3  and he cried out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he had cried out, the seven thunders spoke with their voices.
Revelation 10:4  When the seven thunders had spoken, I was about to write. But I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Seal up the things which the seven thunders said, and do not write them."
Revelation 10:5  Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven.
Revelation 10:6  He swore by him who lives for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it, that there should be time no longer.
Revelation 10:7  But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he begins to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be finished, just as he told his servants the prophets.
Revelation 10:8  Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again, and said, "Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the land."
Revelation 10:9  So I went to the angel and said to him, "Give me the little book." And he said to me, "Take it, and eat it up. It will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey."
Revelation 10:10  I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up. In my mouth it was sweet as honey, but as soon as I had eaten it, my stomach was bitter.
Revelation 10:11  And he said to me, "You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and languages, and kings."

Revelation 11:1  I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood there and said, "Get up, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship there."
Revelation 11:2  "But leave out the court that is outside the temple. Do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample the holy city under foot for forty-two months."
Revelation 11:3  "And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for a thousand two hundred and sixty days, dressed in sackcloth."
Revelation 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two lampstands that stand before the God of the earth.
Revelation 11:5  If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouth and destroys their enemies. If anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.
Revelation 11:6  These have power to shut up the sky, so that no rain falls during the days of their prophesying. They have power over the waters, to turn them into blood, and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they want.
Revelation 11:7  When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the bottomless pit will make war against them. He will defeat them and kill them.
Revelation 11:8  Their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Revelation 11:9  People from many peoples and tribes and languages and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days. They will not allow their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Revelation 11:10  Those who live on the earth will be glad about them, and will celebrate, and will send gifts to one another. For these two prophets had tormented those who lived on the earth.
Revelation 11:11  After three and a half days the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood up on their feet. Great fear fell on those who saw them.
Revelation 11:12  And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them.
Revelation 11:13  At that very hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake. The rest were terrified, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Revelation 11:14  The second woe is past. Look, the third woe is coming quickly.
Revelation 11:15  Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."
Revelation 11:16  And the twenty-four elders, who sat before God on their thrones, fell on their faces and worshipped God,
Revelation 11:17  saying, "We give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, who is, and who was, and who is to come, because you have taken your great power to yourself, and have begun to reign."
Revelation 11:18  "The nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time for the dead to be judged, and the time to give reward to your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear your name, small and great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth."
Revelation 11:19  Then the temple of God in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple. And there were flashes of lightning, and voices, and thunder, and an earthquake, and great hail.

Revelation 12:1  A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Revelation 12:2  She was going to have a child. She cried out in the pain of giving birth, in agony to be delivered.
Revelation 12:3  Another sign appeared in heaven. Look, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads.
Revelation 12:4  His tail dragged a third of the stars of heaven and threw them down to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was ready to give birth, so that he could devour her child as soon as it was born.
Revelation 12:5  She gave birth to a son, a male child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to his throne.
Revelation 12:6  The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God. There they would feed her for one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
Revelation 12:7  There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought back with his angels,
Revelation 12:8  but he did not win. There was no longer any place for them in heaven.
Revelation 12:9  So the great dragon was thrown out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown out with him.
Revelation 12:10  Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation and the strength and the kingdom of our God have come, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, who accused them before our God day and night."
Revelation 12:11  "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much that they ran from death."
Revelation 12:12  "So be glad, you heavens, and you who live in them. But woe to those who live on the earth and on the sea! For the devil has come down to you, and he is full of great anger, because he knows that he has only a short time."
Revelation 12:13  When the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he chased and persecuted the woman who had given birth to the male child.
Revelation 12:14  The woman was given two wings of a great eagle, so that she could fly into the wilderness, to her own place. There she is fed for a time, and times, and half a time, away from the face of the serpent.
Revelation 12:15  The serpent poured water out of his mouth like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood.
Revelation 12:16  But the earth helped the woman. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the river that the dragon poured out of his mouth.
Revelation 12:17  The dragon was angry with the woman, and he went off to make war with the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 12:18  And I stood on the sand of the sea.

Revelation 13:1  And I saw a beast come up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, and on its horns were ten crowns, and on its heads a name of blasphemy.
Revelation 13:2  The beast I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like the feet of a bear, and its mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave it his power, and his throne, and great authority.
Revelation 13:3  And I saw one of its heads as if it had been wounded to death. But its deadly wound was healed, and the whole world was amazed and followed the beast.
Revelation 13:4  And they worshipped the dragon, who gave power to the beast. And they worshipped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?"
Revelation 13:5  And it was given a mouth that spoke great things and blasphemies. And power was given to it to continue forty and two months.
Revelation 13:6  And it opened its mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and those who live in heaven.
Revelation 13:7  And it was given power to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given to it over all families, and languages, and nations.
Revelation 13:8  And all who live on the earth shall worship it, all whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb, who was slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 13:9  If anyone has an ear, let him hear.
Revelation 13:10  Whoever leads into captivity shall go into captivity. Whoever kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.
Revelation 13:11  And I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb, and it spoke like a dragon.
Revelation 13:12  And it uses all the power of the first beast in front of him. And it makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
Revelation 13:13  And it does great wonders, so that it makes fire come down from heaven onto the earth where people can see it.
Revelation 13:14  And it deceives those who live on the earth by the miracles it was given power to do in the sight of the beast. It tells those who live on the earth to make an image of the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and lived.
Revelation 13:15  And it had power to give life to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause all who would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.
Revelation 13:16  And it makes everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads,
Revelation 13:17  so that no one could buy or sell except the one who had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of its name.
Revelation 13:18  Here is wisdom. Let the one who has understanding count the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. And his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Revelation 14:1  Then I looked, and there was a Lamb standing on mount Sion. With him were a hundred and forty-four thousand people. They had his Father's name written on their foreheads.
Revelation 14:2  And I heard a voice from heaven. It was like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like harpists playing on their harps.
Revelation 14:3  They sang what seemed to be a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts and the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand, who were redeemed from the earth.
Revelation 14:4  These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, as the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
Revelation 14:5  No lie was found in their mouth, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Revelation 14:6  And I saw another angel flying in the middle of heaven. He had the everlasting gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and family and language and people.
Revelation 14:7  He said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made heaven and earth and the sea and the springs of water."
Revelation 14:8  And another angel followed, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
Revelation 14:9  And a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,"
Revelation 14:10  that person will drink the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
Revelation 14:11  "And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever. They have no rest day or night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."
Revelation 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Revelation 14:13  And I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labours; and their works follow them."
Revelation 14:14  Then I looked, and there was a white cloud. On the cloud sat one like the Son of man. He had a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Revelation 14:15  And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, "Put in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap. The harvest of the earth is ripe."
Revelation 14:16  And the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped.
Revelation 14:17  And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle.
Revelation 14:18  And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire. He called with a loud cry to the one who had the sharp sickle, saying, "Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe."
Revelation 14:19  And the angel swung his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.
Revelation 14:20  And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, as high as the horses' bridles, for a distance of a thousand six hundred furlongs.

Revelation 15:1  Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and wonderful: seven angels with the seven last plagues. With these plagues the anger of God is completed.
Revelation 15:2  And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire. Standing on the sea of glass were those who had won the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name. They held the harps of God.
Revelation 15:3  And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and wonderful are your works, Lord God Almighty. Your ways are just and true, King of saints."
Revelation 15:4  "Who will not fear you, Lord, and give glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your judgments have been made known."
Revelation 15:5  After that I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.
Revelation 15:6  The seven angels came out of the temple with the seven plagues. They were dressed in pure white linen, and golden belts were around their chests.
Revelation 15:7  One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever.
Revelation 15:8  The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. No one was able to go into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

Revelation 16:1  Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go, and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God on the earth."
Revelation 16:2  The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. A foul and painful sore came on the people who had the mark of the beast, and on those who worshipped his image.
Revelation 16:3  The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. It became like the blood of a dead man, and every living soul in the sea died.
Revelation 16:4  The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.
Revelation 16:5  And I heard the angel of the waters say, "You are righteous, O Lord, who are, and who were, and who shall be, because you have judged in this way."
Revelation 16:6  "For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it."
Revelation 16:7  And I heard another voice from the altar say, "Yes, Lord God Almighty, your judgments are true and righteous."
Revelation 16:8  The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. The sun was given power to scorch people with fire.
Revelation 16:9  People were scorched with great heat. They spoke against the name of God, who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.
Revelation 16:10  The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. His kingdom was full of darkness, and people bit their tongues because of the pain.
Revelation 16:11  They spoke against the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of what they had done.
Revelation 16:12  The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. Its water was dried up, so that the way might be made ready for the kings from the east.
Revelation 16:13  And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Revelation 16:14  They are the spirits of devils, and they work miracles. They go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them for the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Revelation 16:15  "Look, I come like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes on, so that he does not walk naked and people see his shame."
Revelation 16:16  And he gathered them together to a place called in the Hebrew language Armageddon.
Revelation 16:17  The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done."
Revelation 16:18  There were voices, and thunders, and lightnings. And there was a great earthquake, such as there had never been since people were on the earth. It was so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Revelation 16:19  The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And God remembered great Babylon, and gave her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.
Revelation 16:20  Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Revelation 16:21  And huge hail from heaven fell on people, each stone about the weight of a talent. People spoke against God because of the plague of the hail, for that plague was very great.

Revelation 17:1  One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me. He said to me, "Come here. I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits on many waters."
Revelation 17:2  "The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. The people who live on the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication."
Revelation 17:3  So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast. The beast was covered with names of blasphemy, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
Revelation 17:4  The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and she was decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. In her hand she had a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
Revelation 17:5  On her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Revelation 17:6  And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great wonder.
Revelation 17:7  The angel said to me, "Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns."
Revelation 17:8  "The beast that you saw was, and is not. It will come up out of the bottomless pit and go into destruction. And those who live on the earth will wonder, those whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
Revelation 17:9  "Here is the mind that has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, and the woman sits on them."
Revelation 17:10  "And there are seven kings. Five have fallen, one is here now, and the other has not yet come. When he comes, he must stay only a short time."
Revelation 17:11  "And the beast that was, and is not, he himself is the eighth, and is one of the seven, and he goes into destruction."
Revelation 17:12  "The ten horns that you saw are ten kings. They have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive power as kings for one hour with the beast."
Revelation 17:13  "These have one mind, and they will give their power and strength to the beast."
Revelation 17:14  "These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them. For he is Lord of lords, and King of kings. And those who are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful."
Revelation 17:15  And he said to me, "The waters that you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and crowds, and nations, and languages."
Revelation 17:16  "And the ten horns that you saw on the beast, these will hate the whore. They will leave her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh, and burn her with fire."
Revelation 17:17  "For God has put it in their hearts to carry out his will, and to agree, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled."
Revelation 17:18  "And the woman whom you saw is that great city, which rules over the kings of the earth."

Revelation 18:1  After this I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power. The earth was made bright with his glory.
Revelation 18:2  He called out with a mighty voice, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. She has become a home for devils, a hiding place for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hateful bird."
Revelation 18:3  "For all nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her sexual sin. The kings of the earth have joined in that sin with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from her great luxury."
Revelation 18:4  Then I heard another voice from heaven say, "Come out of her, my people. Do not share in her sins, and do not receive any of her plagues."
Revelation 18:5  For her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her evil deeds.
Revelation 18:6  Pay her back as she paid others, and give her double for what she has done. In the cup she filled, mix her a double share.
Revelation 18:7  As much as she gave glory to herself and lived in luxury, give her that much torment and sorrow. For she says in her heart, 'I sit as a queen. I am no widow, and I will never see sorrow.'
Revelation 18:8  "So her plagues will come in one day: death, and mourning, and famine. She will be burned up completely with fire. For strong is the Lord God who judges her."
Revelation 18:9  The kings of the earth, who joined in her sexual sin and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.
Revelation 18:10  They will stand far off, afraid of her torment, and say, "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city. In one hour your judgment has come."
Revelation 18:11  The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their goods any more:
Revelation 18:12  goods of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet; all kinds of thyine wood, and every sort of object made of ivory, and every sort made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble;
Revelation 18:13  and cinnamon, and spices, and perfumes, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and the souls of men.
Revelation 18:14  "The fruit your soul longed for has gone from you. All the rich and beautiful things are gone from you, and you will never find them again."
Revelation 18:15  The merchants who sold these things and grew rich from her will stand far off, afraid of her torment, weeping and wailing
Revelation 18:16  and saying, "Alas, alas, that great city, dressed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and covered with gold and precious stones and pearls."
Revelation 18:17  "In one hour such great riches have come to nothing." And every ship's captain, and all who travel by ship, and the sailors, and all who make their living on the sea stood far off
Revelation 18:18  and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, "What city was ever like this great city?"
Revelation 18:19  They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, "Alas, alas, that great city. All who had ships on the sea grew rich from her great wealth. In one hour she has been made a desert."
Revelation 18:20  Rejoice over her, you heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets. For God has given you justice against her.
Revelation 18:21  Then a mighty angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "With such violence will that great city Babylon be thrown down, and she will never be found again."
Revelation 18:22  The sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again. No craftsman of any craft will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again.
Revelation 18:23  The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of the bridegroom and the bride will never be heard in you again. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, and by your sorceries all the nations were deceived.
Revelation 18:24  "And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who were killed on the earth."

Revelation 19:1  After these things I heard a loud voice of a great crowd in heaven. They were saying, "Alleluia. Salvation and glory and honour and power belong to the Lord our God."
Revelation 19:2  "For his judgments are true and righteous. He has judged the great whore, who ruined the earth with her fornication. He has avenged the blood of his servants on her."
Revelation 19:3  And again they said, "Alleluia." And her smoke went up for ever and ever.
Revelation 19:4  The twenty-four elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God, who sat on the throne. They said, "Amen. Alleluia."
Revelation 19:5  A voice came out of the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, and you that fear him, both small and great."
Revelation 19:6  Then I heard what sounded like the voice of a great crowd, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of mighty thunder. It said, "Alleluia, for the Lord God almighty reigns."
Revelation 19:7  "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready."
Revelation 19:8  "And it was granted to her to be dressed in fine linen, clean and white." For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints.
Revelation 19:9  He said to me, "Write this: Blessed are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." And he said to me, "These are the true words of God."
Revelation 19:10  I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "See that you do not do it. I am your fellow servant, and the fellow servant of your brothers and sisters who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."
Revelation 19:11  I saw heaven opened, and look, a white horse. The one who sat on it was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
Revelation 19:12  His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written on him that no one knew but he himself.
Revelation 19:13  He was dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God.
Revelation 19:14  The armies that were in heaven followed him on white horses. They were dressed in fine linen, white and clean.
Revelation 19:15  Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He treads the winepress of the fierce anger of Almighty God.
Revelation 19:16  And on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written: KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Revelation 19:17  I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the middle of heaven, "Come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God,"
Revelation 19:18  "so that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, both small and great."
Revelation 19:19  I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse, and against his army.
Revelation 19:20  The beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had worked miracles in front of him. By these miracles he had deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image. These two were thrown alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
Revelation 19:21  The rest were killed with the sword of him who sat on the horse, the sword that came out of his mouth. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.

Revelation 20:1  Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven. He had the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand.
Revelation 20:2  He took hold of the dragon, that old serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:3  He threw him into the bottomless pit, and shut him in, and set a seal on him. So he could not deceive the nations any more, until the thousand years were finished. After that he must be set free for a little while.
Revelation 20:4  And I saw thrones, and people sat on them, and they were given power to judge. I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness about Jesus and for the word of God. They had not worshipped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. They lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Revelation 20:5  But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Revelation 20:6  Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over such people. They will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him a thousand years.
Revelation 20:7  When the thousand years are over, Satan will be set free out of his prison.
Revelation 20:8  He will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for battle. They are as many as the sand of the sea.
Revelation 20:9  They came up over the wide earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. Then fire came down from God out of heaven and burned them up.
Revelation 20:10  And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:11  Then I saw a great white throne, and the one who sat on it. The earth and the heaven fled away from his face, and no place was found for them.
Revelation 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged by the things written in the books, according to what they had done.
Revelation 20:13  The sea gave up the dead that were in it. Death and hell gave up the dead that were in them. And each one was judged according to what he had done.
Revelation 20:14  Then death and hell were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Revelation 20:15  And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:1  Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no more sea.
Revelation 21:2  And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. It was made ready like a bride dressed in beauty for her husband.
Revelation 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, "Look, the tabernacle of God is with people, and he will live with them. They shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them and be their God."
Revelation 21:4  "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death, and no more sorrow or crying, and there shall be no more pain. For the old things have passed away."
Revelation 21:5  And the one who sat on the throne said, "Look, I make all things new." And he said to me, "Write this down, for these words are true and faithful."
Revelation 21:6  And he said to me, "It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. To anyone who is thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life."
Revelation 21:7  "The one who overcomes shall inherit all things. I will be his God, and he shall be my son."
Revelation 21:8  "But the fearful, and those who do not believe, and the disgusting, and murderers, and those who commit sexual sin, and sorcerers, and those who worship idols, and all liars shall have their part in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. That is the second death."
Revelation 21:9  Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came to me. He talked with me and said, "Come here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
Revelation 21:10  And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.
Revelation 21:11  It had the glory of God. Its light was like a very precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.
Revelation 21:12  It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates were twelve angels. Names were written on the gates, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.
Revelation 21:13  On the east were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
Revelation 21:14  And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Revelation 21:15  The one who talked with me had a golden measuring rod, to measure the city and its gates and its wall.
Revelation 21:16  The city lies square, and its length is as great as its width. He measured the city with the rod: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length and its width and its height are equal.
Revelation 21:17  And he measured its wall: a hundred and forty-four cubits, by the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.
Revelation 21:18  The wall was built of jasper, and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
Revelation 21:19  And the foundations of the city wall were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third a chalcedony, the fourth an emerald,
Revelation 21:20  the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth a topaz, the tenth a chrysoprasus, the eleventh a jacinth, the twelfth an amethyst.
Revelation 21:21  And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; each gate was made of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, like clear glass.
Revelation 21:22  I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.
Revelation 21:23  And the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God gave it light, and the Lamb is its light.
Revelation 21:24  And the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it.
Revelation 21:25  And its gates shall never be shut by day, for there shall be no night there.
Revelation 21:26  And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.
Revelation 21:27  And nothing that makes unclean shall ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is disgusting or tells a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Revelation 22:1  Then he showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal. It flowed out from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Revelation 22:2  It ran down the middle of the street of the city. On each side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve kinds of fruit, giving its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:3  There will be no more curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.
Revelation 22:4  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Revelation 22:5  There will be no night there. They need no lamp, and no light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 22:6  Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and true. The Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to show his servants the things which must happen soon."
Revelation 22:7  "Look, I come quickly. Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book."
Revelation 22:8  I, John, saw these things and heard them. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things.
Revelation 22:9  Then he said to me, "Do not do that. I am a fellow servant with you, and with your brothers the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God."
Revelation 22:10  Then he said to me, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near."
Revelation 22:11  "Let the one who is unjust be unjust still. Let the one who is filthy be filthy still. Let the one who is righteous be righteous still. And let the one who is holy be holy still."
Revelation 22:12  "Look, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every person according to what their work has been."
Revelation 22:13  "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last."
Revelation 22:14  "Blessed are those who do his commandments. They will have the right to the tree of life, and may go in through the gates into the city."
Revelation 22:15  "Outside are dogs, and those who practise magic, and those who are sexually immoral, and murderers, and those who worship idols, and everyone who loves and tells a lie."
Revelation 22:16  "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to tell you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, and the bright morning star."
Revelation 22:17  The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come. Whoever wants it, let him take the water of life freely.
Revelation 22:18  I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.
Revelation 22:19  And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the book of life, and in the holy city, and in the things which are written in this book.
Revelation 22:20  He who tells of these things says, "Surely I come quickly." Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22:21  The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.