1 Kings 18 Cross References - ISV

¹ Elijah Rebukes AhabQuite some time later—three years later!—this message from the LORD came to Elijah: “Go visit Ahab, and I’ll send some rain to the surface of the ground.” ² So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab, right when the famine in Samaria was most severe.
³ Ahab called for Obadiah, his household supervisor. This man, who feared the LORD very much, ⁴ had taken 100 prophets and had hidden them by fifties in a cave, providing them with food and water when Jezebel was trying to destroy the LORD’s prophets.
⁵ Ahab had instructed Obadiah, “Go throughout the land to all of the water springs and to all of the valleys. Maybe we’ll find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive. Also, maybe we won’t have to kill some of our cattle.” ⁶ So they divided the land between them so they could conduct their survey. Ahab went off by himself in one direction and Obadiah went off by himself in the other.
⁷ While Obadiah was on the road, Elijah met him. Obadiah recognized him and bowed down with his face to the ground. “It’s you, isn’t it, my master Elijah?”
⁸ “I am,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Look! Elijah!’”
⁹ But Obadiah replied, “What did I do wrong, that you would put me in a position where Ahab would execute me? ¹⁰ As surely as the LORD your God lives, there isn’t a nation or kingdom where my master hasn’t tried to find you. Whenever they would say ‘He isn’t here,’ he forced that kingdom or nation to swear that they hadn’t seen you. ¹¹ But now you’re saying ‘Go tell your master, “Elijah is here!”’ ¹² As soon as I’ve left you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you off to I don’t know where! Then when I go tell Ahab and he can’t find you, he’ll kill me, even though I have been your servant and have feared the LORD since I was young! ¹³ Hasn’t anyone told you, my master, what I did when Jezebel was killing the LORD’s prophets? I hid 100 of the LORD’s prophets by fifties in a cave and provided food and water for them. ¹⁴ Now you’re saying, ‘Go tell your master, “Elijah’s here!”’ He’s sure to kill me!”
¹⁵ But Elijah promised him, “As the LORD of the Heavenly Armies lives, in whose presence I stand, I will appear to Ahab today.”
¹⁶ So Obadiah went out to meet Ahab and reported to him. Then Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab asked him, “Is it really you, you destroyer of Israel?”
¹⁸ But Elijah replied, “I’m no destroyer of Israel. But you and your ancestor’s household have been doing that, because you have abandoned the LORD’s commandments and have followed the Baals. ¹⁹ So go gather all of Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. Bring along 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah who are funded at Jezebel’s expense.”
²⁰ Elijah Defeats the Prophets of BaalAhab sent for the Israelis and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel, ²¹ where Elijah approached all the people and asked them, “How long will you keep hesitating between both sides? If the LORD is God, go after him. If Baal, go after him.”
But the people didn’t say a word.
²² So Elijah told the people, “I’m the only one left over as a prophet of the LORD, am I? But Baal’s prophets number 450 men? ²³ So let them provide two oxen. They can choose one ox for themselves. Cut it up, lay it on top of some wood, but don’t set fire to it. I will prepare the other ox and lay it on top of some wood, and I won’t set fire to it. ²⁴ Then you can call on the name of your god, and I’ll call on the name of the LORD. Let the God who answers by fire be our God!”
“That’s a good idea!” all the people shouted.
²⁵ So Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose an ox for yourselves and you prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but don’t set fire to the offering.”
²⁶ So they took the ox that was given to them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from early morning until noon. “Baal! Answer us!” they cried. But there was no response. Nobody answered. So they kept on dancing around the altar that they had made.
²⁷ Starting about noon, Elijah began to tease them:
“Shout louder!
“He’s a god, so maybe he’s busy.
“Maybe he’s relieving himself.
“Maybe he’s busy someplace.
“Maybe he’s taking a nap and somebody needs to wake him up.”
²⁸ So the prophets of Baal cried even louder and slashed themselves with swords and lances until their blood gushed out all over them, as was their custom. ²⁹ They kept on raving right through midday and until it was time to offer the evening sacrifice, but there was still no response. Nobody answered, and nobody paid attention.
³⁰ Eventually, Elijah told everybody, “Come here!” So everybody approached him, and he repaired the LORD’s altar that had been torn down. ³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of Jacob’s descendants, to whom the message from the LORD had come that “Israel is to be your name.” ³² So Elijah used the stones to build an altar to the name of the LORD. But then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed. ³³ Then he laid the wood in order, cut the bull into pieces, and laid them on top of the wood.
“Fill four pitchers with water,” he ordered. “Then pour them out on the burnt offering and the wood.”
³⁴ “Do it a second time,” he ordered. So they did it a second time.
“Do it a third time,” he said. So they did it a third time. ³⁵ The water ran down around the altar and completely filled the trench.
³⁶ Elijah’s Prayer and God’s Answer by FireAs the time for the evening offering arrived, Elijah the prophet approached and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I, your servant, have done all of this in obedience to your word. ³⁷ Answer me, LORD! Answer me so that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning back their hearts again.”
³⁸ Right then the LORD’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even the water that was in the trench! ³⁹ When all the people saw what had happened, they fell flat on their faces and cried out “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”
⁴⁰ But Elijah said, “Arrest the prophets of Baal. Don’t let even one of them get away.” So the people seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon and executed them there.
⁴¹ The Rain Storm Ends the DroughtAfter this, Elijah told Ahab, “Get up and have something to eat and drink, because there’s the sound of a coming rainstorm.” ⁴² So Ahab got up to get something to eat and drink while Elijah went back up to the top of Mount Carmel, where he bowed low to the ground and placed his face between his knees.
⁴³ Then he told his young servant, “Go and look toward the sea.”
So he went and looked out to sea. “Nothing there,” he said.
But Elijah told him to go back seven times. ⁴⁴ On the seventh look, he said, “Look! There’s a cloud, a small one, about the size of a man’s hand. It’s coming up out of the sea!”
“Get up and find Ahab!” Elijah said. “Tell him, ‘Mount your chariot and ride down the mountain so the storm doesn’t stop you.’”
⁴⁵ A little while later, the sky turned black with storm clouds and winds, and there was a heavy shower. So Ahab rode off to Jezreel. ⁴⁶ After Ahab had left, the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah, and he tucked his mantle into his belt and outran Ahab in a race to the city gate of Jezreel.

⁴ then I’ll send your rain in its season so that the land will yield its produce and the trees of the field will yield their fruit.

¹² “The LORD will open his rich treasury, the heavens, to release rain upon your land in season and bless everything you undertake so that you’ll lend to many nations but won’t borrow.

¹ Elijah Calls for a DroughtElijah the foreigner, who was an alien resident from Gilead, told Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, in whose presence I’m standing, there will be neither dew nor rain these next several years, except when I say so.”

⁷ But after a while, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land.

¹⁵ So she went out and did precisely what Elijah told her to do. As a result, Elijah, the widow, and her son were fed for days.

² So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab, right when the famine in Samaria was most severe.

¹⁵ But Elijah promised him, “As the LORD of the Heavenly Armies lives, in whose presence I stand, I will appear to Ahab today.”
¹⁶ So Obadiah went out to meet Ahab and reported to him. Then Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab asked him, “Is it really you, you destroyer of Israel?”
¹⁸ But Elijah replied, “I’m no destroyer of Israel. But you and your ancestor’s household have been doing that, because you have abandoned the LORD’s commandments and have followed the Baals. ¹⁹ So go gather all of Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. Bring along 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah who are funded at Jezebel’s expense.”
²⁰ Elijah Defeats the Prophets of BaalAhab sent for the Israelis and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel, ²¹ where Elijah approached all the people and asked them, “How long will you keep hesitating between both sides? If the LORD is God, go after him. If Baal, go after him.”
But the people didn’t say a word.
²² So Elijah told the people, “I’m the only one left over as a prophet of the LORD, am I? But Baal’s prophets number 450 men? ²³ So let them provide two oxen. They can choose one ox for themselves. Cut it up, lay it on top of some wood, but don’t set fire to it. I will prepare the other ox and lay it on top of some wood, and I won’t set fire to it. ²⁴ Then you can call on the name of your god, and I’ll call on the name of the LORD. Let the God who answers by fire be our God!”
“That’s a good idea!” all the people shouted.
²⁵ So Elijah told the prophets of Baal, “Choose an ox for yourselves and you prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but don’t set fire to the offering.”
²⁶ So they took the ox that was given to them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from early morning until noon. “Baal! Answer us!” they cried. But there was no response. Nobody answered. So they kept on dancing around the altar that they had made.
²⁷ Starting about noon, Elijah began to tease them:
“Shout louder!
“He’s a god, so maybe he’s busy.
“Maybe he’s relieving himself.
“Maybe he’s busy someplace.
“Maybe he’s taking a nap and somebody needs to wake him up.”
²⁸ So the prophets of Baal cried even louder and slashed themselves with swords and lances until their blood gushed out all over them, as was their custom. ²⁹ They kept on raving right through midday and until it was time to offer the evening sacrifice, but there was still no response. Nobody answered, and nobody paid attention.
³⁰ Eventually, Elijah told everybody, “Come here!” So everybody approached him, and he repaired the LORD’s altar that had been torn down. ³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes of Jacob’s descendants, to whom the message from the LORD had come that “Israel is to be your name.” ³² So Elijah used the stones to build an altar to the name of the LORD. But then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed. ³³ Then he laid the wood in order, cut the bull into pieces, and laid them on top of the wood.
“Fill four pitchers with water,” he ordered. “Then pour them out on the burnt offering and the wood.”
³⁴ “Do it a second time,” he ordered. So they did it a second time.
“Do it a third time,” he said. So they did it a third time. ³⁵ The water ran down around the altar and completely filled the trench.
³⁶ Elijah’s Prayer and God’s Answer by FireAs the time for the evening offering arrived, Elijah the prophet approached and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I, your servant, have done all of this in obedience to your word. ³⁷ Answer me, LORD! Answer me so that this people may know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning back their hearts again.”
³⁸ Right then the LORD’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even the water that was in the trench! ³⁹ When all the people saw what had happened, they fell flat on their faces and cried out “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”
⁴⁰ But Elijah said, “Arrest the prophets of Baal. Don’t let even one of them get away.” So the people seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Wadi Kishon and executed them there.

⁹ You take care of the earth, you water it, and you enrich it greatly with the river of God that overflows with water. You provide grain for them, for you have ordained it this way. ¹⁰ You fill the furrows of the field with water so that their ridges overflow. You soften them with rain showers; their sprouts you have blessed. ¹¹ You crown the year with your goodness; your footsteps drop prosperity behind them. ¹² The wilderness pastures drip with dew, and the hills wrap themselves with joy. ¹³ The meadows are clothed with flocks of sheep, and the valleys are covered with grain. They shout for joy; yes, they burst out in song!

⁶ I’ll make it a wasteland, and it won’t be pruned or cultivated. Instead, briers and thorns will grow up. I’ll also issue commands to the clouds, that they drop no rain upon it.”

¹³ When his voice sounds there is thunder from the waters of heaven, and he makes clouds rise up from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain and brings wind out of his storehouses.

²² Can any of the worthless gods of the nations make it rain? Can the heavens themselves bring forth showers? Aren’t you the one who does this, LORD our God? So we hope in you, for you are the one who does all these things.

²³ And so be glad, children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD your God, because he has given you the right amount of early rain, and he will cause the rain to fall for you, both the early rain and the later rain as before.

⁷ “I therefore have withheld the rain from you three months before the harvest, causing rain to come upon one city, but not upon another, and upon one field but not upon another, so that it would wither.

²⁵ I’m telling you the truth—there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three years and six months and there was a severe famine everywhere in the land.

¹⁷ Elijah was a person just like us, and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and rain never came to the land for three years and six months.

² But don’t measure the courtyard outside the Temple. Leave that out, because it is given to the nations, and they will trample the Holy City for 42 months.

⁶ These witnesses have authority to close the heavens in order to keep rain from falling while they are prophesying. They also have authority to turn bodies of water into blood and to strike the earth with any plague, as often as they desire.

²⁶ When I destroy the source of your bread, ten women will bake bread in one oven. Then they’ll return back your bread by weight. You’ll eat but won’t be satisfied.

²³ The sky above your head will become bronze while the ground beneath you will become iron. ²⁴ The LORD will change the rain on your land to powder and dust. It will come down from the sky until you are exterminated.”

²⁵ until there was a great famine throughout Samaria. The siege lasted until a donkey’s head cost 80 silver coins and one quarter of a unit of dove’s dung cost five silver coins.

¹ Davidic
Confidence in the LORD The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom will I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom will I be afraid?

⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what was evil in your sight. As a result, you are just in your pronouncement and clear in your judgment.

¹ Contrasting Good and Evil The wicked flee, though no one pursues, but the righteous are bold like a lion.

¹² “I—yes, I—am the one who comforts you. Who are you, that you are so afraid of humans who will die, descendants of mere men, who have been made like grass?

² “Judah mourns, and her gates languish. The people mourn for the land, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up. ³ Their nobles send their young people for water. They go to the cisterns, but they find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They’re disappointed and dismayed, and they cover their heads in shame. ⁴ The ground is cracked, because there has been no rain in the land. The farmers are disappointed, and they cover their heads in shame. ⁵ Even the doe in the field gives birth and then abandons her young because there is no grass. ⁶ Wild donkeys stand on the barren hills. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyesight fails because there is no vegetation.”

¹⁸ If I go out into the field, I see those slain by the sword! If I go into the city, I see the ravages of the famine! Indeed, both prophet and priest ply their trade in the land, but they don’t know anything.’”

¹⁵ A Lament about the Day of the LORDOh, no! For the Day of the LORD approaches, and like destruction from the Almighty, it will come! ¹⁶ Isn’t our food supply cut off right in front of us, along with joy and gladness from the Temple of our God? ¹⁷ Seeds shrivel within their furrows, the storehouses lie empty, and granaries stand in ruins because the grain has withered. ¹⁸ Oh, how the livestock groan! The herds of cattle wander about because they have no pasture. Even flocks of sheep suffer! ¹⁹ To you, LORD, I cry out, because fire has devoured the open pastures, and has set all the cultivated trees ablaze. ²⁰ The livestock also cries out to you, because their water sources have evaporated and because fire has consumed the open pastures.

⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for God has said, “I will never leave you or abandon you.” ⁶ Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?”

¹² “Don’t lay your hand on the youth!” he said. “Don’t do anything to him, because I’ve just demonstrated that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only unique one, from me.”

² So Abraham instructed his servant, who was the oldest member of his household and in charge of everything he owned, “Make this solemn oath to me

¹⁰ The Servant Encounters RebekahThen Abraham’s servant took ten camels from his master’s herd of camels and left on his journey with all kinds of gifts from his master’s inventory. Eventually, he traveled as far as Aram-naharaim, Nahor’s home town.

⁴ That’s how Joseph pleased Potiphar as he served him. Eventually, Potiphar appointed Joseph as overseer of his entire household. Moreover, he entrusted everything that he owned into his care. ⁵ From the time he appointed Joseph to be overseer over his entire household and everything that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The LORD’s blessing rested on Joseph, whether in Potiphar’s household or in Potiphar’s fields.

⁹ No one has more authority in this house than I do. He has withheld nothing from me, except you, and that’s because you’re his wife. So how can I commit such a horrible evil? How can I sin against God?”

⁴⁰ So you are to be appointed in charge over my palace, and all of my people are to do whatever you command them to do. Only the throne will have greater authority than you.”

¹⁸ Three days later, Joseph told them, “I fear God, so do this and you’ll live.

⁹ But his servant Zimri, who commanded half of his chariot forces, conspired against Elah while he was drinking himself drunk in the home of Arza, who managed the household at Tirzah.

¹² As soon as I’ve left you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you off to I don’t know where! Then when I go tell Ahab and he can’t find you, he’ll kill me, even though I have been your servant and have feared the LORD since I was young!

¹ The Miracle of the Oil Vessels
Now there happened to be a certain woman who had been the wife of a member of the Guild of Prophets. She cried out to Elisha, “My husband who served you has died, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. But a creditor has come to take away my children into indentured servitude!”

¹⁵ Nevertheless, the former governors before me placed a heavy burden on the people. They received food and wine, plus a tax of 40 shekels of silver. Even their young men took advantage of the people, but I never did so because I feared God.

² I appointed my brother Hanani and fortress commander Hananiah to be over Jerusalem, since he was a faithful person who revered God more than many others did.

²⁶ Rock-solid security is found in the fear of the LORD, and within it one’s children find refuge.

¹⁶ The Repentance of the RighteousThen those who feared the LORD talked with each other. The LORD listened and took note, and a scroll of remembrance was written in his presence about those who fear the LORD and honor His name.

²⁸ Stop being afraid of those who kill the body but can’t kill the soul. Instead, be afraid of the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

² He was a devout man who feared God, as did everyone in his home. He gave many gifts to the poor among the people and always prayed to God.

³⁵ Indeed, whoever fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him in any nation.

⁸ But the man of God replied to the king, “Even if you were to offer me half of your house, I wouldn’t go with you, and I’m sure not going to eat even a piece of bread or drink water in this place, ⁹ because the LORD commanded me specifically, ‘You are not to eat bread, drink water, or return by the way that you came to arrive here!’”

¹⁶ But he replied, “I can’t go back with you to your home, be in your company, or even eat food or drink water with you in this place,

¹³ Hasn’t anyone told you, my master, what I did when Jezebel was killing the LORD’s prophets? I hid 100 of the LORD’s prophets by fifties in a cave and provided food and water for them.

²² But he replied, “No! You’re not to kill them! Would you execute those whom you’ve taken captive at the point of a sword or with your bow? Give them food and water so they can eat and drink. Then send them back to their master!” ²³ So he prepared a large festival for them, and when they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them back to their master, and marauding gangs of Arameans never came into the territory of Israel again.

²⁶ “Then they disobeyed, rebelled against you, and threw your Law behind their backs. They murdered your prophets who had admonished the people to return to you, committing terrible blasphemies.

⁴⁰ Rewards
“The one who receives you receives me, and the one who receives me receives the one who sent me. ⁴¹ The one who receives a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and the one who receives a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴² I tell all of you with certainty, whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple will never lose his reward.”

³⁵ But the farmers took his servants and beat one, killed another, and attacked another with stones.

³⁵ because I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.

⁴⁰ The king will answer them, ‘I tell all of you with certainty, since you did it for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.’

³⁸ The world wasn’t worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and from caves to holes in the ground.

⁴ The woman wore purple and scarlet clothes and was adorned with gold, gems, and pearls. In her hand she was holding a gold cup filled with detestable things and the impurities of her immorality. ⁵ On her forehead was written a secret name:
BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND DETESTABLE THINGS OF THE EARTH ⁶ I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. I was very surprised when I saw her.

¹⁴ He causes grass to sprout for the cattle and plants for people to cultivate, to produce food from the land,

¹⁸ Oh, how the livestock groan! The herds of cattle wander about because they have no pasture. Even flocks of sheep suffer!

²² Stop being afraid, beasts of the field, because the desert pastures will bloom, the trees will bear their fruit, and the fig tree and vine will deliver their wealth.

¹⁷ Even though the fig tree does not blossom, and there are no grapes on the vines; even if the olive harvest fails, and the fields produce nothing edible; even if the flock is snatched from the sheepfold, and there is no herd in the stalls—

²⁰ because the creation has become subject to futility, though not by anything it did. The one who subjected it did so in the certainty ²¹ that the creation itself would also be set free from corrupting bondage in order to share the glorious freedom of God’s children. ²² For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time.

³ Their nobles send their young people for water. They go to the cisterns, but they find no water. They return with their vessels empty. They’re disappointed and dismayed, and they cover their heads in shame.

² he glanced up and saw three men standing there, not far from him. As soon as he noticed them, Abraham ran from the tent entrance to greet them and bowed low to the ground.

¹² That’s why Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “After I’m so old and my husband is old, too, am I going to have sex?”

¹⁶ Judah Explains Their Predicament“What can we say, Your Excellency?” Judah replied. “How can we explain this or justify ourselves? God has discovered the sin of your servants, and now we’ve become slaves to you, Your Excellency, both we and the one in whose possession the cup has been discovered.”

²⁰ and we answered Your Excellency, ‘We have an aged father and a younger child who was born when he was old. His brother is now dead, so he’s the only surviving son of his mother. His father loves him.’

³³ Therefore, please allow your servant to remain as a slave to Your Excellency, instead of the young man, and let the young man go back home with his brothers.

¹⁸ So Joseph’s brothers went to visit him, fell prostrate in front of him, and declared, “Look! We’re your servants.”

¹¹ Aaron begged Moses, “I pray my lord, please don’t hold this sin against us, since we’ve acted foolishly and sinned in doing so.

⁴¹ The servant went. Then David came out from the south side of the rock, fell on his face, and bowed down three times. The men kissed each other, and both of them cried, but David even more.

¹⁸ and forded it to assist the king at the crossing so he could do whatever he wished.
Just as the king was about to ford the Jordan River, Gera’s son Shimei fell down in front of the king

²⁹ During that time, Jeroboam left Jerusalem and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the road. Ahijah had wrapped himself up in a new cloak, and both of them were alone on the open road.

⁶ They replied, “We met a man who told us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and ask him, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re going to consult with Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you won’t be getting up from that bed on which you’re lying. You will most certainly die!”’”
⁷ He told them, “Describe the man who met you and told you these things.”
⁸ They answered, “The man was a hairy fellow. He wore a leather sash around his waist.”
The king responded, “It’s Elijah, that foreigner!”

¹⁴ “All the descendants of those who oppressed you will come bending low before you, and all those who despised you will bow down at your feet. They’ll call you ‘The City of the LORD,’ ‘Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’”

⁴ John had clothing made of camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist. His diet consisted of grasshoppers and wild honey.

⁸ Really, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fancy clothes? See, those who wear fancy clothes live in kings’ houses.

³ Ahab called for Obadiah, his household supervisor. This man, who feared the LORD very much,

⁷ Pay everyone whatever you owe them—taxes to whom taxes are due, tolls to whom tolls are due, fear to whom fear is due, honor to whom honor is due.

¹⁷ Honor everyone. Keep on loving the community of believers, fearing God, and honoring the king.
¹⁸ Suffer PatientlyYou household servants must submit yourselves to your masters out of respect, not only to those who are kind and fair, but also to those who are unjust.

²¹ The supervisors told them, “May the LORD look on you and judge you! You have made us repulsive to Pharaoh and his servants. You have put a sword in their hands to kill us.”

¹⁸ “What do we have in common, you man of God?” she accused Elijah. “You came to me so you could uncover my guilt! And you’re responsible for the death of my son!”

⁶ Achish Sends David HomeThen Achish summoned David and told him, “As surely as the LORD lives, you are trustworthy, and it seems good to me for you to campaign with me as part of the army. Indeed, I’ve not found any evil in you from the time you came to me until now. But the leaders don’t approve of you.

²⁹ “As the LORD lives,” the king said with an oath, “who has redeemed me from all sorts of troubles,

²⁴ Now therefore, as the LORD lives, who has established me and set me on the throne of my father David, and who has established a dynasty, just like he promised, Adonijah will surely be executed today.”

⁵ So Elijah left and did exactly what the LORD had told him to do—he went to live near the Wadi Cherith, where it enters the Jordan River.

⁹ “Get up, move to Zarephath in Sidon, and stay there. Look! I’ve commanded a widow to sustain you there.”

¹² “As the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have so much as a muffin, just a handful of flour in a bowl and some oil left in a bottle. Now I’m going to find some sticks so I can cook a last meal for my son and for me. Then we’re going to eat it and die.”

¹⁵ But Elijah promised him, “As the LORD of the Heavenly Armies lives, in whose presence I stand, I will appear to Ahab today.”

² The wicked one arrogantly pursues the afflicted, who are trapped in the schemes he devises.

⁷ You, LORD, will keep them safe, you will guard them from this generation forever. ⁸ The wicked, however, keep walking around, exalting the vileness of human beings.

²⁰ You will hide them in the secret place of your presence, away from the conspiracies of men. You will hide them in your tent, away from their contentious tongues.

¹ A Davidic Psalm
God is My Refuge The one who lives in the shelter of the Most High, who rests in the shadow of the Almighty,

²⁰ There was also a man named Uriah, Shemaiah’s son from Kiriath-jearim, who prophesied in the LORD’s name. He prophesied about this city and this land in words similar to those of Jeremiah. ²¹ King Jehoiakim, all his troops, and all the officials heard his words, and the king sought to kill him. Uriah heard about this and was afraid, so he fled and went to Egypt. ²² King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt. He sent Achbor’s son Elnathan, along with a contingent of men into Egypt. ²³ They brought Uriah out of Egypt and brought him to King Jehoiakim, who killed him with a sword. Then they threw his body into a common grave.”

²⁶ The king ordered his son Jerahmeel, Azriel’s son Seraiah, and Abdeel’s son Shelemiah to get Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD had hidden them.

⁵⁹ At this, they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the Temple.

⁸ “I am,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Look! Elijah!’”

¹⁴ Now you’re saying, ‘Go tell your master, “Elijah’s here!”’ He’s sure to kill me!”

¹⁸ Samuel at ShilohNow Samuel was ministering in the LORD’s presence, as a boy wearing a linen ephod.

²⁶ But the boy Samuel continued to grow both physically and in favor with the LORD and the people.

¹⁹ As Samuel grew, the LORD was with him and did not let any of Samuel’s predictions fail. ²⁰ All Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as the LORD’s prophet.

¹¹ Saul Orders the Execution of the PriestsThe king sent for Ahitub’s son Ahimelech the priest and for all his father’s family who were priests at Nob. All of them came to the king. ¹² Saul said, “Listen, son of Ahitub!”
And he said, “Here I am, your majesty.”
¹³ Then Saul asked him, “Why have you conspired against me—you and Jesse’s son—by giving him food and a sword, and by inquiring of God for him, so he can rise up against me to lie in wait, as he’s doing today?”
¹⁴ Ahimelech answered the king, “Who among all your officials is as faithful as David? He is the king’s son-in-law, the captain of your bodyguard, and he’s honored in your household. ¹⁵ Is today the first time I inquired of God for him? Absolutely not! The king shouldn’t accuse his servant, or any of my father’s family of anything, because your servant didn’t know anything at all about this.”
¹⁶ The king said, “Ahimelech, you will surely die, you and all your father’s family!” ¹⁷ The king told the guards, who were standing beside him, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD because they supported David, and because they knew he was fleeing, but didn’t inform me.” But the officials of the king did not want to lift their hands to attack the priests of the LORD.
¹⁸ Then the king told Doeg, “You turn and attack the priests.” Doeg the Edomite turned and attacked the priests. That day he killed eighty-five men who carry the linen ephod. ¹⁹ He attacked the priestly town of Nob with the sword. Men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys and sheep were put to the sword.

¹¹ As they continued on, talking as they went, suddenly chariots blazing with fire and pulled by fiery horses appeared, separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a wind storm to heaven!

¹⁶ Then they asked Elisha, “Look! We have 50 valiant men here with your servant! Please let them go out and search for your master Elijah. Perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up on a mountain or into a valley.”
Elisha responded, “Don’t bother searching.”

³ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David. In the twelfth year of his reign, he began to remove the high places, Asherim, carved images, and cast images from Judah and Jerusalem.

¹⁷ God, you taught me from my youth, so I am still declaring your awesome deeds. ¹⁸ Also, when I reach old age and have gray hair, God, do not forsake me, until I have declared your power to this generation and your might to the next one.

¹³ The fear of the LORD is to hate evil. Pride, arrogance, an evil lifestyle, and perverted speech I despise.

¹⁸ It is good for you to grab hold of this and not let go, because whoever fears God will escape all of these extremes.

¹⁰ Who among you fears the LORD, obeying the voice of his servant, who among you walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and rely upon his God.

¹² Then the Spirit lifted me up and I heard a great earthquake behind me and the glory of the LORD arose from his place, ¹³ accompanied by the sound of the wings of the living creatures gently touching each other and with the sound of the wheels emanating from the front, accompanied by a great earthquake.
¹⁴ Ezekiel Addresses the IsraelisThen the Spirit lifted me up and carried me away. I went bitterly with an angry attitude as the hand of the LORD rested on me.

³ The form of a hand reached out and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and sky, brought me toward Jerusalem, and in visions that came from God took me through the doors of the inner gate that faced north, where an image that provoked God’s jealous anger had been erected.

²⁴ Then in a vision from the Spirit of God, the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Chaldea. At that point, the vision that I had been observing ended.

¹ The Vision of the Valley of BonesThe LORD laid his hand on me and brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD to the middle of a valley that was filled with bones.

¹ The Vision of JerusalemAt the beginning of year 25 of our captivity, on the tenth day of the fourteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem—on that very day—the LORD grabbed me in his hand and took me there. ² God brought me in a series of visions to the land of Israel and placed me on top of a very high mountain, where to the south there was something that looked like the outline of a city.

⁵ In reply the king told the Chaldeans, “Here is what I have commanded: If you don’t tell me both the dream and its meaning, you’ll be destroyed and your houses will be reduced to rubble. ⁶ But if you do relate the dream to me as well as its meaning, you’ll receive gifts, rewards, and great honor from me. Therefore reveal the dream to me, along with its meaning.”
⁷ They replied again, “Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we’ll disclose its meaning.”
⁸ The king responded, “I’m convinced that you’re stalling for time because you’re aware of what I’ve commanded. ⁹ So if you don’t disclose the dream to me, there will be only one sentence for all of you. You have conspired together to present lies and corrupt interpretations until the situation changes. Now tell me the dream and I’ll know that you can reveal its true meaning.”
¹⁰ The Chaldeans answered the king directly, “There’s not a single man on earth who can do what the king has commanded. No king, lord, or ruler has ever asked such a thing from any diviner, enchanter, or Chaldean. ¹¹ Furthermore, what the king is asking is so difficult that no one can reveal it except the gods—and they don’t live with human beings.”
¹² At this point, the king flew into a rage and issued an order to destroy all the advisors of Babylon. ¹³ When the order went out to kill the advisors, they searched for Daniel and his friends to kill them, too.

¹⁶ The Massacre of the InfantsHerod flew into a rage when he learned that he had been tricked by the wise men, so he ordered the execution of all the male children in Bethlehem and all its neighboring regions, who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had determined from the wise men.

¹ Jesus is Tempted by Satan
After this, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

¹⁵ because he will be great in the Lord’s presence. He will never drink wine or any strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.

³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away. The eunuch went on his way rejoicing and did not see Philip again.

¹⁹ Herod searched for him but didn’t find him, so he questioned the guards and ordered them to be executed. Then he left Judea, went down to Caesarea, and stayed there for a while.

² I know a man who belongs to the Messiah. Fourteen years ago—whether in his body or outside of his body, I do not know, but God knows—that man was snatched away to the third heaven. ³ I know that this man—whether in his body or outside of his body, I do not know, but God knows—

¹⁵ From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to give you the wisdom you need for salvation through faith in the Messiah Jesus.

⁴ Now Abimelech had not yet come near her, so he asked, “LORD, will you destroy an innocent nation? ⁵ Didn’t he say to me, ‘She’s my sister’? And she also said, ‘He’s my brother.’ I did this with pure intentions and clean hands.”

⁴ had taken 100 prophets and had hidden them by fifties in a cave, providing them with food and water when Jezebel was trying to destroy the LORD’s prophets.

²¹ because I have kept the ways of the LORD, and I have not wickedly departed from my God; ²² because all his judgments were always before me, and I did not cast off his statutes. ²³ I was upright before him, and I kept myself from iniquity. ²⁴ So the LORD restored me according to my righteousness, because my hands were clean in his sight.

³⁴ You yourselves know that I worked with my own hands to support myself and those who were with me.

⁹ Brothers, you remember our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not become a burden to any of you while we proclaimed the gospel of God to you. ¹⁰ You and God are witnesses of how pure, honest, and blameless our conduct was among you who believe.

¹ The Seventh DayWith this the heavens and the earth were completed, including all of their vast array.

³⁸ However, Nun’s son Joshua, your assistant, will go there. Encourage him, for he will cause Israel to take possession of it.

¹⁹ Do not gaze toward the heavens and observe the sun, the moon, the stars—the entire array of the sky—with the intent to worship and serve what the LORD your God gave every nation.

¹⁰ As surely as the LORD your God lives, there isn’t a nation or kingdom where my master hasn’t tried to find you. Whenever they would say ‘He isn’t here,’ he forced that kingdom or nation to swear that they hadn’t seen you.

³ Is there any limit to his armies? On whom does his light not shine?

⁸ Who is the King of Glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle. ⁹ Lift up your heads, gates! Be lifted up, ancient doors, so the King of Glory may come in. ¹⁰ Who is he, this King of Glory? The LORD of the heavenly armies— He is the King of Glory. Interlude

²¹ Bless the LORD, all his heavenly armies, his ministers who do his will.

² Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his armies! ³ Praise him, sun and moon; praise him, all you shining stars.

³ They kept on calling to each other: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”

⁷ Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people who have my instruction in their hearts. Don’t fear the insults of mortals, and don’t be dismayed at their hateful words. ⁸ For moths will eat them up just like a garment, and worms will devour them like wool; but my deliverance will last forever, and my salvation to all generations.

² They’ll be spread out to the sun, the moon, and all the stars of the heavens, which they loved and served, and which they followed, consulted, and worshipped. Their bones won’t be collected, nor will they be buried. They’ll be like dung on the surface of the ground.

¹⁹ The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to announce this good news to you.

¹³ Suddenly, a multitude of the Heavenly Army appeared with the angel, praising God by saying, ¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people who enjoy his favor!”

¹⁶ For people swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷ In the same way, when God wanted to make the unchangeable character of his purpose perfectly clear to the heirs of his promise, he guaranteed it with an oath,

²⁵ Joshua announced, “Why did you bring trouble to us? Today the LORD is bringing trouble to you!” So all Israel stoned him to death, incinerated them, and buried them with stones,

²⁰ Later on, Ahab asked Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?”
But Elijah answered, “I’ve found you because you sold yourself to do what the LORD considers to be evil!

⁸ As soon as Jeremiah finished saying everything that the LORD had commanded him to say to all the people, the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him, telling him as they did: “You must certainly die! ⁹ Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD that this house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be without an inhabitant?” Then all the people gathered around Jeremiah at the LORD’s Temple.

⁴ Then the officials told the king, “Let this man be put to death because he’s undermining the efforts of the soldiers who remain in this city and that of all the people by speaking words like these to them. Indeed, this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm.”

¹⁰ A Rebuke for AmaziahSo Amaziah priest of Bethel sent a message to Jeroboam king of Israel. It said, “Amos has been conspiring against you in the very heart of the house of Israel! The land cannot bear everything he has to say,

²⁰ They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These men are stirring up a lot of trouble in our city. They are Jews

⁶ When they didn’t find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials and shouted, “These fellows who have turned the world upside down have come here, too,

⁵ For we have found this man a perfect pest and an agitator among all Jews throughout the world. He is a ringleader in the sect of the Nazarenes

⁹ They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God, who brought their ancestors out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and served them. That’s why the Lord has brought all of this disaster on them.’”

³¹ In fact, as if it were nothing for him to live like Nebat’s son Jeroboam, Ahab married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of Sidon. Then he went out to serve Baal and worship him.

²⁵ It can be truly said that no one else sold himself to practice what the LORD considered to be evil quite like the way Ahab did, because his wife Jezebel incited him.

² so he went out to meet Asa and rebuked him: “Listen to me, Asa, Judah, and Benjamin! The LORD is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will allow you to find him, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you.

¹⁹ Genuine righteousness leads to life, but whoever pursues evil will die.

²¹ Disaster pursues the sinful, but good will reward the righteous.

¹¹ Warning to the Wicked“How terrible it will be for the wicked! Disaster is headed their way, because what they did with their hand will be repaid to them.

¹³ “Indeed, my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

¹⁹ Your wickedness will be punished, and you will be corrected due to your acts of apostasy. Know and see that it’s evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God, but the fear of me is not in you,” declares the Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies.

⁸ So pay attention! I’m going to make you just as obstinate and unyielding as they are.

⁴ John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”

¹³ and they cannot prove to you the charges they are now bringing against me.

²⁰ Otherwise, these men themselves should tell what wrong they found when I stood before the Council—

⁸ The Letter to the Church in Smyrna“To the messenger of the church in Smyrna, write:
‘The first and the last, who was dead and became alive, says this:
⁹ ‘I know your suffering and your poverty—though you are rich—and the slander committed by those who claim to be Jews but are not. They are the synagogue of Satan.

²⁶ Allammelech, Amad, and Mishal, and on the west Carmel and Shihor-libnath,

¹² Samuel got up early in the morning to meet Saul, but Samuel was told, “Saul went up to Carmel to set up a monument for himself. Then he turned around and traveled on to Gilgal.”
¹³ He removed his mother Maacah from her position as Queen Mother because she had made a detestable image dedicated to Asherah. Asa cut down his mother’s idol, crushed it, and burned it at the Kidron Brook.

³³ Ahab also erected an Asherah, doing more to provoke the LORD God of Israel than all of the kings of Israel who had reigned before him.

²² So Elijah told the people, “I’m the only one left over as a prophet of the LORD, am I? But Baal’s prophets number 450 men?

⁴² So Ahab got up to get something to eat and drink while Elijah went back up to the top of Mount Carmel, where he bowed low to the ground and placed his face between his knees.
⁴³ Then he told his young servant, “Go and look toward the sea.”
So he went and looked out to sea. “Nothing there,” he said.
But Elijah told him to go back seven times.

¹ Elijah Runs from JezebelAhab complained to Jezebel about everything that Elijah had done, especially the part about him killing all the prophets of Baal with a sword. ² Jezebel sent a messenger to tell Elijah, “May the gods do the same to me and even more if tomorrow about this time I haven’t made you like one of those prophets you had killed.”

⁶ So the king of Israel called in about 400 prophets and asked them, “Should we go attack Ramoth-gilead, or should I call off the attack?”
“Go attack them,” they all said, “because the Lord will drop them right into the king’s hand!”

²⁵ After this, he left from there to go to Mt. Carmel, and from there he went back to Samaria.

²² As soon as Joram noticed Jehu, he cried out, “Peace, Jehu?”
Jehu replied, “What peace, given your mother Jezebel’s prostitution and all of her witchcraft?”

⁶ Nevertheless, they did not change course away from the sins of Jeroboam’s household, by which he caused Israel to sin, but continued on that same course, with Asherah poles remaining in place in Samaria.

¹⁸ As certainly as I’m alive and living,” declares the King, whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “Indeed, one will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.

² He said, “From Zion the LORD roars, and from Jerusalem he shouts aloud. The shepherds’ pastures will languish, and Carmel’s summit will wither.”

³ Even if they hide at the top of Mount Carmel, from there I will search and seize them. Even if they hide from my sight in the depths of the sea, from there I will order the serpent to strike them.

¹ Warning against False TeachersNow there were false prophets among the people, just as there also will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves.

²⁰ But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet and who teaches and leads my servants to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

²⁰ The beast was captured, along with the false prophet who had performed signs on its behalf. By these signs the false prophet had deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and worshipped its image. Both of them were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.

⁹ Nevertheless, the king of Israel called one of his officers and ordered him, “Bring me Imla’s son Micaiah quickly.”

⁵⁰ Laban and Bethuel Acquiesce“Since this has come from the LORD,” Laban and Bethuel both replied, “we cannot speak one way or another.

¹ Pharaoh Refuses to Let the People GoAfter Moses and Aaron arrived, they told Pharaoh, “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘Let my people go so they may make a pilgrimage for me in the desert.’”
² Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD that I should listen to him and let Israel go? I don’t know about the LORD, nor will I let Israel go!”

³⁵ “You have been shown this in order to know that ‘the LORD is God’ and there is no one like him.

¹⁵ If you think it’s the wrong thing for you to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—the gods whom your ancestors served on the other side of the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose territories you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

²³ Joshua said, “Therefore abandon the foreign gods that are among you, and turn your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.”
²⁴ The people replied, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey his voice.”

³ The Philistines are Defeated at EbenezerThen Samuel told the whole house of Israel, “If you’re returning to the LORD with all your heart, then remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, direct your hearts back to the LORD, and serve him only. Then he will deliver you from the control of the Philistines.”

³⁹ When all the people saw what had happened, they fell flat on their faces and cried out “The LORD is God! The LORD is God!”

⁴¹ These nations feared the LORD and also served their carved images. Their descendants did the same thing, as did their grandchildren. Just as their ancestors had done, they also do the same thing to this day.

²⁶ And now, LORD, you are God, and you have promised all of these good things to your servant.

¹³ and prayed to him. Moved by Manasseh’s entreaties, the LORD heard his supplications and brought him back to his kingdom in Jerusalem. That’s how Manasseh learned that the LORD is God.

⁴ “I must look insignificant to you! How can I answer you? I’m speechless. ⁵ I spoke once, but I can’t answer; I tried a second time, but I won’t do so anymore.”

³ Acknowledge that the LORD is God. He made us and we belong to him; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

⁵ I’ll wipe out those who worship the stars that they view from their housetops, those who bow down and swear to the LORD and who also swear by Milcom,

²⁴ God and Riches
“No one can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches!”

¹² He asked him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ But the man was speechless.

³⁴ The Greatest Commandment
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they met together in the same place.

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

¹³ When daylight came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also called apostles:

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the Law says applies to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thank God that, though you were once slaves of sin, you became obedient from your hearts to that form of teaching with which you were entrusted! ¹⁸ And since you have been freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.
¹⁹ I am speaking in simple terms because of the frailty of your human nature. Just as you once offered the parts of your body as slaves to impurity and to greater and greater disobedience, so now, in the same way, you must offer the parts of your body as slaves to righteousness that leads to sanctification. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were “free” as far as righteousness was concerned. ²¹ What benefit did you get from doing those things you are now ashamed of? For those things resulted in death. ²² But now that you have been freed from sin and have become God’s slaves, the benefit you reap is sanctification, and the result is eternal life.

²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot dine with the Lord and dine with demons, ²² or you’ll provoke the Lord to jealousy, won’t you? Are we stronger than he is?

¹⁴ Relating with UnbelieversStop becoming unevenly yoked with unbelievers. What partnership can righteousness have with lawlessness? What fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony exists between the Messiah and Beliar, or what do a believer and an unbeliever have in common? ¹⁶ What agreement can a temple of God make with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said: “I will live and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

¹⁵ ‘I know your actions, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ Since you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.

¹⁹ So go gather all of Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. Bring along 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah who are funded at Jezebel’s expense.”
²⁰ Elijah Defeats the Prophets of BaalAhab sent for the Israelis and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel,

¹⁰ “I’ve been very zealous for the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies,” he replied. “The Israelis have abandoned your covenant, demolished your altars, executed your prophets with swords, and I—that’s right, just me!—am the only one left. Now they’re seeking my life, to get rid of me!”

¹⁴ “I’ve been very zealous for the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies,” he replied. “The Israelis have abandoned your covenant, demolished your altars, executed your prophets with swords, and I—that’s right, just me!—am the only one left. Now they’re seeking my life, to get rid of me!”

¹³ God’s Prophets Rebuke AhabRight about then, a prophet approached King Ahab of Israel and told him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You see all of this great big army, do you? Well now, I’m going to deliver them all right into your hand, and you will learn that I am the LORD!’”

³² So they put on some sackcloth, tied their hair back with ropes, and approached the king of Israel. “Your servant Ben-hadad says this,” they said. “Please let me live.”
“Is he still alive?” Ahab asked. “He’s my brother.”

³⁵ Ahab is CondemnedRight about then, one of the members of the guild of prophets told another through a message from the LORD: “Please strike me!” But the man refused to do so,

³⁸ Then the prophet left and waited for the king to pass by, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes.

⁶ So the king of Israel called in about 400 prophets and asked them, “Should we go attack Ramoth-gilead, or should I call off the attack?”
“Go attack them,” they all said, “because the Lord will drop them right into the king’s hand!”
⁷ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there a prophet of the LORD left here that we could talk to?”
⁸ “There is still one man left by whom we could ask the LORD what to do,” the king of Israel replied to Jehoshaphat, “but I hate him because he never prophesies anything good about me. Instead, he prophesies evil. He is Imla’s son Micaiah.”
But Jehoshaphat rebuked Ahab, “Kings should never talk like that.”

¹³ The Narrow Gate
“Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the road is spacious that leads to destruction, and many people are entering by it. ¹⁴ How narrow is the gate and how constricted is the road that leads to life, and there aren’t many people who find it!”
¹⁵ A Tree is Known by Its Fruit
“Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are savage wolves.

³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets and demolished your altars. I am the only one left, and they are trying to take my life.”

³ For the time will come when people will not tolerate healthy doctrine, but with itching ears will surround themselves with teachers who cater to their people’s own desires. ⁴ They will refuse to listen to the truth and will turn to myths.

¹ Warning against False TeachersNow there were false prophets among the people, just as there also will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many people will follow their immoral ways, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned. ³ In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. The ancient verdict against them is still in force, and their destruction is not delayed.

²⁴ A fire came down from the LORD’s presence and consumed the burnt offering on the altar as well as the fat. When the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

²¹ The angel of the LORD extended the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and unleavened bread. Fire broke out from inside the boulder, consuming the meat and unleavened bread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished in front of him.

¹⁹ Then the king asked, “Is Joab behind all of this with you?”
“As your soul lives, your majesty, the king,” the woman answered, “no one can divert anything left or right from what your majesty the king has spoken! As a matter of fact, it was your servant Joab! He was there, giving me precise orders about everything that your humble servant was to say. Your servant Joab did this,

³⁸ Right then the LORD’s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, the dust, and even the water that was in the trench!

²⁶ built an altar to the LORD there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called out to the LORD, and he answered him from heaven with fire on the altar of burnt offerings.

¹ The Glory of God Fills the Temple
As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire descended from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the Temple.

³ When all of the Israelis saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD resting on the Temple, they bowed down with their faces to the ground on the pavement, worshipped, and gave thanks to the LORD, “Because he is good; because his gracious love is eternal.”

⁸ “The message from the LORD that you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied to Isaiah, since he was thinking, “…at least there will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

²⁴ Then you can call on the name of your god, and I’ll call on the name of the LORD. Let the God who answers by fire be our God!”
“That’s a good idea!” all the people shouted.

⁴ Their idols are silver and gold, crafted by human hands. ⁵ They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see. ⁶ They have ears, but cannot hear; they have noses, but cannot smell. ⁷ They have hands, but cannot touch; feet, but cannot walk; they cannot even groan with their throats. ⁸ Those who craft them will become like them, as will all those who trust in them.

¹⁵ The idols of the nations are silver and gold, worked by the hands of human beings. ¹⁶ Mouths are attributed to them, but they cannot speak; sight is attributed to them, but they cannot see; ¹⁷ ears are attributed to them, but they do not hear, and there is no breath in their mouths. ¹⁸ Those who craft them— and all who trust in them— will become like them. ¹⁹ House of Israel, bless the LORD! House of Aaron, bless the LORD! ²⁰ House of Levi, bless the LORD! You who fear the LORD, bless the LORD!

³⁸ Later, while he was worshiping in the house of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with swords and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then Sennacherib’s son Esar-haddon reigned in his place.

¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god. To blocks of wood he bows down, worships, prays, and says, “Save me, since you are my god.”

²⁰ “Gather together and come; draw near and enter, your fugitives from the nations. Those who carry around their wooden idols know nothing, nor do those who keep praying to a god that cannot save.

⁵ Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. They can’t speak! They must always be carried because they can’t walk! Don’t be afraid of them because they can do no harm, nor can they do any good.”

²³ “You’ve exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven.
“You’ve had the vessels from his Temple brought into your presence.
“And you, your officials, and your wives and mistresses drank wine from them.
“You praised gods of silver, gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which can’t see, hear, or demonstrate knowledge.
“But you didn’t honor God, who holds in his power your very life and all your ways.

¹⁸ Judgment on the Idol Maker“Where is the benefit in owning a carved image, that motivates its maker to carve it? It is only a cast image— a teacher that lies— because the engraver entrusts himself to his carving, crafting speechless idols.

⁹ At the same time, I’ll punish every idol worshipper, especially those who are filling their master’s temple with violence and deceit.

⁷ “When you are praying, don’t say meaningless things like the unbelievers do, because they think they will be heard by being so wordy.

⁴ Now concerning eating food offered to idols: We know that no idol is real in this world and that there is only one God.

¹⁹ Am I suggesting that an offering made to idols means anything, or that an idol itself means anything? ²⁰ Hardly! What they offer, they offer to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to become partners with demons.

² You know that when you were unbelievers, you were enticed and led astray to worship idols that couldn’t even speak.

¹⁵ When Micaiah approached the king, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I not?”
“Go to war,” Micaiah replied, “and you will be successful, because the LORD will hand it over to the king!”

⁸ But if you do go, strengthen yourself for war. Do you think God will throw you down before the enemy, since God has the power both to help or to overthrow?”

²³ Wake up! Why are you asleep, Lord? Get up! Don’t cast us off forever!

⁶⁵ The LORD awoke as though from sleep, like a mighty warrior stimulated by wine. ⁶⁶ He beat back his adversaries, permanently disgracing them.

⁴ Look! The one who is guarding Israel never sleeps and does not take naps.

⁹ So enjoy yourself in your youth, young man, and be encouraged during your younger days. Live as you like, consistent with your world view, but keep in mind that God will bring you to account for everything.

⁹ “Band together, you peoples, but be shattered! Listen, all you distant countries! Strap on your armor, but be shattered. ¹⁰ Take counsel together, but it will all be for nothing; go ahead and talk, but it will all be for nothing, for God is with us.”

²³ Tell us what the future holds, so we may know that you are gods! Yes, do something good or something bad, so we may hear and gaze at it together.’”

¹⁵ He divides it up for people to burn. Taking part of it, he warms himself, makes a fire, and bakes bread. Or perhaps he constructs a god and worships it. He makes it an idol and bows down to it. ¹⁶ Half the wood he burns in the fire, and over that half he places meat so he can eat. He sits by its coals, warms himself, and says, “Ah! I am warm in front of the fire.” ¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god. To blocks of wood he bows down, worships, prays, and says, “Save me, since you are my god.”

⁹ “Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength, you arm of the LORD! Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of long ago. Was it not you who split apart Rehob, who pierced that sea monster through?

³⁹ The Coming Regathering of IsraelAnd now, you house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says, “Go ahead and serve your idols, both now and later, but later you’ll listen to me, and you won’t profane my sacred name again by your offerings and idols.

⁴ The LORD’s Rebuke to Israel“Come to Bethel and sin, to Gilgal and sin even more! Bring along your morning sacrifices, and pay your tithes every other day. ⁵ While you’re at it, present a thank offering with leaven, and publicize your freewill offerings, letting everyone hear about it, because this is what you really love to do, you Israelis,” declares the Lord GOD.

⁴⁵ Then he came back to the disciples and told them, “You might as well keep on sleeping and resting. Look! The time is near for the Son of Man to be betrayed into the hands of sinners.

³⁸ But Jesus was in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. So they woke him up and asked him, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re going to die?”
³⁹ Then he got up, rebuked the wind, and told the sea, “Calm down! Be still!” Then the wind stopped blowing, and there was a great calm.

⁹ Then he told them, “You have such a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your own tradition!

⁴¹ He came back a third time. “Are you still sleeping and resting?” he asked. “Enough of that! The time has come. Look! The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

²⁸ “You are not to make incisions in your flesh on account of the dead nor submit to cuts or tattoos. I am the LORD.

¹ Refrain from Cutting Yourselves“You are children of the LORD your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your foreheads on account of the dead,

⁷ Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, or with endless rivers of oil? Am I to give my firstborn to pay for my rebellion, the fruit of my body in exchange for my soul?

⁵ He kept screaming night and day among the tombs and on the mountainsides, and kept cutting himself with stones.

²² The spirit has often thrown him into fire and into water to destroy him. But if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us!”

³⁹ “You are to offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight,

⁴¹ You are to offer the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning. You are to offer it as a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD.

¹⁰ The next day, while David was playing the lyre as he had before, the evil spirit from the LORD attacked Saul, and he began to rave inside the house with a spear in his hand.

²⁶ So they took the ox that was given to them, prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from early morning until noon. “Baal! Answer us!” they cried. But there was no response. Nobody answered. So they kept on dancing around the altar that they had made.

¹⁰ Now the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were each sitting on their respective thrones, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance to the city gate of Samaria, and all of the prophets were prophesying in front of them.

¹² All the other prophets were saying similar things, like “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and you will be successful, because the LORD will hand it over to the king!”

⁶ The prophet Jeremiah said, “May the LORD truly do this thing! May the LORD fulfill the words that you prophesied to bring back the vessels of the LORD’s Temple and all the exiles from Babylon to this place. ⁷ But please listen to what I’m saying in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. ⁸ The prophets who came before us from ancient times prophesied war, famine, and plague against many lands and great kingdoms. ⁹ When a prophet prophesies peace, and what the prophet speaks comes about, he will be known as the prophet whom the LORD has truly sent.”

¹⁶ The Fortune TellerOnce, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl who had a spirit of fortune-telling and who had brought her owners a great deal of money by predicting the future. ¹⁷ She would follow Paul and us and shout, “These men are servants of the Most High God and are proclaiming to you a way of salvation!”

⁴ Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head, ⁵ and every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, which is the same as having her head shaved.

⁸ However, in the past, when you did not know God, you were slaves to things that are not really gods at all.

⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men oppose the truth. They are depraved in mind and their faith is a counterfeit. ⁹ But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those two men, their stupidity will be plain to everyone.

¹⁶ He set up an altar to the LORD, sacrificed peace offerings on it, and ordered Judah to serve the LORD God of Israel.

²⁸ “Your name won’t be Jacob anymore,” the man replied, “but Israel, because you exerted yourself against both God and men, and you’ve emerged victorious.”

²⁰ set up an altar, and named it El-elohe-israel.

¹⁰ Then God told him, “Your name is Jacob. No longer are you to be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.”
So God called his name Israel

⁴ So Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD. He got up early in the morning and built an altar with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel at the base of the mountain.

³ and tell them, ‘Pick up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan where the priests’ feet were standing, bring them along with you, and put them down where you camp tonight.’”
⁴ So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had chosen from the people of Israel, one man from each tribe.

²⁰ Joshua set up the twelve stones that they had removed from the Jordan River at Gilgal.

³⁴ To this very day, they still follow the former customs: they don’t fear the LORD and they don’t live in accordance with the statutes, ordinances, laws, or commandments that the LORD had given to the descendants of Jacob—whom he renamed Israel—

¹⁷ At the dedication offering of the Temple of God, they presented 100 bulls, 200 rams, and 400 lambs, along with a sin offering of twelve male goats for the entire nation of Israel according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

¹ God the Creator and Redeemer “Listen to this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and who have come forth from Judah’s loins; you who swear oaths in the name of the LORD and invoke the God of Israel— but not in truth, nor in good faith.

¹ “At that time,” declares the LORD, “I’ll be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

¹⁶ “Now as for you, Son of Man, grab a stick of wood for yourself and write on it these words: ‘FOR JUDAH AND THE ISRAELIS, HIS COMPANIONS’
“Then grab another stick and write on it: ‘FOR JOSEPH, THE STICK OF EPHRAIM, AND ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, HIS COMPANIONS’
¹⁷ “Then join them together end-to-end so that they become a single baton in your hand. ¹⁸ When the descendants of your people ask you, ‘Would you please explain to us what you mean by this?’ ¹⁹ you are to tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Watch me! I’m taking the baton that represents Joseph, which Ephraim is holding in his hand, along with his companions the tribes of Israel, and I’m going to join them with the baton that represents Judah. I’m making them a single baton, that is, a complete baton in my hand.”
²⁰ “The batons on which you engrave your writing are to remain right in front of them in your hand. ²¹ Then tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Watch me take the Israelis out of the nations where they’ve gone and return them from every direction. I’m going to bring them back into their own land. ²² I’m going to make them a united people in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and I’ll set a single king to rule over them. They’ll never again be two separate people. They’ll never again be divided into two kingdoms.

¹³ Israel’s Future Borders DelineatedThis is what the Lord GOD says: “This is to be the territorial border by which you apportion the land for an inheritance among the twelve tribes of Israel, with Joseph double-portioned.

²⁰ having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the Messiah Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

⁴ There is one body and one Spirit. Likewise, you were called to the one hope of your calling. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in all.

⁴ I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000. Those who were sealed were from every tribe of Israel: ⁵ 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, ⁶ 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, ⁷ 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, ⁸ 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, and 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

¹² It had a large, high wall with twelve gates. Twelve angels were at the gates, and the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were written on the gates.

²⁴ You are to make an altar of earth for me, and you are to sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and peace offerings, your sheep, and your cattle. Everywhere I cause my name to be remembered, I’ll come to you and bless you. ²⁵ If you make an altar of stone for me, you must not build it of cut stones, because if you strike it with your chisel, you will profane it.

²⁶ and build an altar to the LORD your God on top of this stronghold in an orderly manner. Then take the second bull and offer it as a burnt offering using the wood from the Asherah that you’ll be cutting down.”

⁴ The next day, the people got up early, built an altar, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

⁹ Then Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Samuel cried out to the LORD on behalf of Israel, and the LORD answered him.

¹⁷ He would return to Ramah because his house was there, and judged Israel from there. He also built an altar to the LORD there.

³¹ Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether by speech or action, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

⁹ and came to the place about which God had spoken. Abraham built an altar there, arranged the wood, tied up his son Isaac, and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.

⁶ He is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. ⁷ Aaron’s sons, the priests, are to build a fire on the altar and arrange the wood over the fire. ⁸ They are to arrange the pieces of meat—including the head and the fat—on the wood over the fire that burns on the altar.

²⁰ The angel, who was God, replied, “Take the meat and the unleavened bread and lay them on this boulder. Then pour out the broth.” So he did that.

¹⁹ The King Orders an ExecutionOut of control with rage, Nebuchadnezzar’s facial expression changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and he ordered that the furnace be heated seven times hotter than usual.

²⁵ “Look!” he told them, “I see four men walking untied and unharmed in the middle of the fire, and the appearance of the fourth resembles a divine being.”

³⁹ Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”
Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there must be a stench by now, because he’s been dead for four days.”
⁴⁰ Jesus told her, “I told you that if you believed you would see God’s glory, didn’t I?”

³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and blood and water immediately came out.

² Instead, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use trickery or pervert God’s word. By clear statements of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

²¹ We intend to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of people.

³² So Elijah used the stones to build an altar to the name of the LORD. But then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold two measures of seed.

²⁴ where one night the LORD appeared to him. “I am the God of your father Abraham,” he told him. “Don’t be afraid, because I’m with you. I’m going to bless you and multiply your descendants on account of my servant Abraham.”

⁵³ May Abraham’s God and Nahor’s god judge between us.”
So Jacob made an oath by his father’s Fear,

⁹ Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, O God of my father Isaac, O LORD, you who told me, ‘Return to your country and to your relatives and I’ll cause things to go well for you.’

³ “I’m God, your father’s God. Don’t be afraid to move down to Egypt, because I’m going to turn you into a mighty nation there.

⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

¹⁵ God also told Moses, “Tell the Israelis, ‘The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered from generation to generation.
¹⁶ “Go and gather the elders of Israel. Tell them, ‘The LORD God of your ancestors, appeared to me—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and he said, “I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.

³⁹ “You are to offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight, ⁴⁰ and there is to be a tenth measure of choice flour mixed with one fourth of a hin of oil extracted by hand, and one fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering for one lamb. ⁴¹ You are to offer the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning. You are to offer it as a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD.

²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you’ll know that the LORD has sent me to do all these awesome works—they’re not coming merely from me. ²⁹ If these people die a death similar to all other human beings, or if they are punished with a punishment common to other men, then the LORD didn’t send me. ³⁰ But if the LORD creates something new, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and everything that belongs to them and they all descend directly to Sheol while still alive, then you’ll know that these men have spurned the LORD.”

⁴⁶ This very day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I’ll strike you down and remove your head from you. And this very day I’ll give the dead bodies of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and to the animals of the earth, so that all the earth will know that there is a God in Israel, ⁴⁷ and this whole congregation will know that the LORD does not deliver by sword or spear. Indeed, the battle is the LORD’s and he will give you into our hands.”

⁴³ then hear in heaven where you reside, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the people of the earth may know your name, fear you as do your people Israel, and so they may know that this Temple that I have built is called by your name.

²¹ where Elijah approached all the people and asked them, “How long will you keep hesitating between both sides? If the LORD is God, go after him. If Baal, go after him.”
But the people didn’t say a word.

²⁹ They kept on raving right through midday and until it was time to offer the evening sacrifice, but there was still no response. Nobody answered, and nobody paid attention.

²⁸ “If you return alive,” Micaiah responded, “then the LORD has not spoken by me.” Then he added, “Listen, all you people!”

³ But the angel of the LORD spoke to Elijah the foreigner, “Get up and go meet the messengers from the king of Samaria. Ask them ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re going to consult with Ekron’s god Baal-zebub?

⁶ They replied, “We met a man who told us, ‘Go back to the king who sent you and ask him, “Is it because there is no God in Israel that you’re going to consult with Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you won’t be getting up from that bed on which you’re lying. You will most certainly die!”’”

¹⁵ Gehazi’s Greed is PunishedNaaman went back to the man of God, along with his entire entourage, and stood before him. “Please look!” he said. “I know that there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel! So please, take a present from your servant.”

¹⁹ Now, LORD our God, I’m praying that you will deliver us from his control, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone, LORD, are God!”

¹⁸ LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our ancestors, keep your purposes and thoughts constantly in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts toward you,

⁶ and said: “LORD God of our ancestors, you are the God who lives in heaven, are you not? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, don’t you? In your own hands you grasp both strength and power, don’t you? As a result, no one can oppose you, can they? ⁷ You are our God, who expelled the former inhabitants of this land right in front of our people Israel, aren’t you? Then you gave it to your friend Abraham’s descendant forever, didn’t you?

⁴ Then everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered together as a group because of the sin committed by those who had been led astray. As for me, I remained seated, in shock, until the evening sacrifice.
⁵ Ezra’s Prayer of RepentanceAt the time of the evening sacrifice, I arose from my discouragement. Still in my torn garment and robe, I fell to my knees with my hands outstretched to the LORD my God,

¹ To the Director of music: Accompanied by stringed instruments. A Psalm. A song.
A Call to Thanksgiving May God show us favor and bless us; may he truly show us his favor. Interlude ² Let your ways be known by all the nations of the earth, along with your deliverance.

¹⁸ Then they will know that you alone— whose name is LORD— are the Most High over all the earth.

² Let my prayer be like incense offered before you, and my uplifted hands like the evening sacrifice.

²³ I’m going to affirm my great reputation that has been defiled among the nations (that is, that you have defiled in their midst), and those people will learn that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I affirm my holiness in front of their very eyes.

⁷ I’ll make my holiness and reputation known in the midst of my people Israel, and I won’t let my holiness be profaned anymore. The nations will learn that I, the LORD, am holy in the midst of Israel.

¹³ The Duration of the Desolation“Then I heard one holy person speaking, and another holy person addressed the one who was speaking: ‘In the vision about the regular burnt offering, how much time elapses while the desecration terrifies and both the Holy Place and the Heavenly Army are trampled?’

²¹ while I was still speaking, Gabriel the man of God whom I had seen in the previous vision, appeared to me about the time of the evening offering.

¹¹ There will be 1,290 days from the time the regular burnt offering is rescinded and the destructive desolation established.

³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

⁴² I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”

¹ A Crippled Man is HealedOne afternoon, Peter and John were on their way to the Temple for the three o’clock prayer time.

³⁰ Cornelius replied, “Four days ago at this very hour, three o’clock in the afternoon, I was praying in my home. All at once a man in radiant clothes stood in front of me

¹⁷ I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, the most glorious Father, would give you a wise spirit, along with revelation that comes through knowing the Messiah fully.

¹⁴ To Know the Messiah’s LoveThis is the reason I bow my knees before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah,

²⁴ Jacob Struggles with GodAnd so Jacob was left alone, and he struggled with a man until daybreak.

²⁶ and said, “Let me go, because the dawn has come.”
“I won’t let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.”

³⁶ Elijah’s Prayer and God’s Answer by FireAs the time for the evening offering arrived, Elijah the prophet approached and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I, your servant, have done all of this in obedience to your word.

¹¹ Asa cried out to the LORD his God, telling him, “LORD, there is no one except for you to help between the powerful and the weak. So help us, LORD God, because we’re depending on you and have come against this vast group in your name. LORD, you are our God. Let no mere mortal man defeat you!”

¹⁹ In doing so, they spoke about the God of Jerusalem as if he were like the gods of the nations of the earth that are made by the hands of human beings.
²⁰ Sennacherib is Defeated and Killed
Meanwhile, King Hezekiah and Amoz’s son Isaiah the prophet were praying about this and crying out to heaven.

¹⁷ Extend your ear, LORD, and listen! Open your eyes, LORD, and look! Listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God. ¹⁸ It is true, LORD, that Assyrian kings have devastated all these countries, ¹⁹ and have thrown their gods into the fire—but they are not gods, but rather the products of human hands, mere wood and stone. So the Assyrians destroyed them. ²⁰ So now, LORD our God, save us from his oppressive hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O LORD, are God.”

¹⁸ Ephraim’s Prayer and Confession“I’ve certainly heard Ephraim shuddering with grief as they said, ‘You have disciplined me, and I’m disciplined like an untrained calf. Restore me, and let me return, for you are the LORD my God. ¹⁹ Indeed, after I turned away, then I repented. And after I came to understand, I slapped my forehead. I was both ashamed and humiliated because I bear the disgrace of my youth.’”

²⁵ I’ll sprinkle pure water on you all, and you’ll be cleansed from your impurity and from all of your idols.”
²⁶ “‘“I’m going to give you a new heart, and I’m going to give you a new spirit within all of your deepest parts. I’ll remove that rock-hard heart of yours and replace it with one that’s sensitive to me. ²⁷ I’ll place my spirit within you, empowering you to live according to my regulations and to keep my just decrees.

¹⁷ ‘So now, O God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his requests, and look with favor on your desolate sanctuary, for the sake of the Lord. ¹⁸ Turn your ear and listen, O God. Open your eyes and look at our desolation and at the city that is called by your name. We’re not presenting our requests before you because of our righteousness, but because of your great compassion. ¹⁹ ‘Lord, listen!‘Lord, forgive!‘Lord, take note and take action!‘For your own sake, don’t delay, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.’”

⁵ “Pay attention! I’m sending Elijah the prophet to you before the great and dreadful Day of the LORD comes, ⁶ and he will turn the hearts of fathers to children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. Otherwise, I’ll come, strike the land, and utterly destroy it.”

¹⁶ He will bring many of Israel’s descendants back to the Lord their God. ¹⁷ He is the one who will go before the Lord with the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous, and to prepare the people to be ready for the Lord.”

⁸ I tell you, even though that man doesn’t want to get up and give him anything because he is his friend, he will get up and give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

¹⁶ Therefore, make it your habit to confess your sins to one another and to pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a person just like us, and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and rain never came to the land for three years and six months.

¹⁷ When the sun had fully set and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a fiery torch passed between the animal pieces.

² As a result, fire came out from the LORD’s presence and incinerated them. They died while in the LORD’s presence.

¹² Elijah responded to the leader and to his entire company, “So I’m a man of God, am I? If so, may fire fall from heaven and devour you and your 50 soldiers…” Just then, fire fell from heaven and devoured him and his 50 soldiers.

¹⁶ While this messenger was still speaking, another came and announced, “A lightning storm struck and incinerated the flock and the servants while they were eating. I alone escaped to tell you!”

⁹ Their stronghold will vanish by reason of terror, and their commanders will be filled with alarm because of the battle standard,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

²⁰ When the burnt offering was engulfed in flames that sprang up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame that came from the altar. When Manoah and his wife observed this, they collapsed on their faces to the ground.

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, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

³⁵ That man John was a lamp that burns and brightly shines, and for a while you were willing to rejoice in his light.

³⁷ When the crowd that had gathered heard this, they were pierced to the heart. They asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?”

¹⁶ They said, “What should we do with these men? For it’s obvious to everybody living in Jerusalem that an unmistakable sign has been done by them, and we cannot deny it.

⁵ That prophet or diviner of dreams must be executed, because he advocated rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and because he lured you from the way in which the LORD your God instructed you to live. Purge the evil from among you.”

²⁰ Even then, if the prophet speaks presumptuously in my name, which I didn’t authorize him to speak, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.’

⁷ I will draw out Sisera, the commanding officer of Jabin’s army, along with his chariots and troops, to the Kishon River, where I will drop him right into your hands.’”

²¹ The current of the Kishon River swept them downstream, that ancient current, the Kishon’s current! March on strongly, my soul!

²⁴ Then they went in to offer sacrifices and burnt offerings. Meanwhile, Jehu had stationed 80 men outside, ordering them, “If any of these men whom I’ve brought into your control escape, the one who allows it will forfeit his life.”
²⁵ As soon as he had completed the burnt offering, Jehu ordered the guards and the officers, “Go in and execute them. Don’t let even one man escape.” So they executed them with swords, and the guards and the officers threw the bodies out and proceeded into the inner room of Baal’s temple,

¹⁰ Cursed is the one who is slack in doing the LORD’s work. Cursed is the one who holds back his sword from shedding blood.

² Cessation of Prophecy“At that time,” declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “I will eliminate the names of the idols from the land, and they will not be remembered anymore. I will also force both prophet and demon to leave the land. ³ It will also come about that if any man would dare to prophesy, then his father and his mother who bore him will respond to him, ‘You will not live, because you are speaking lies in the name of the LORD.’ Then his father and mother who bore him will stab him for prophesying.

¹⁰ and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. They will be tortured day and night forever and ever.

¹ Elijah Rebukes AhabQuite some time later—three years later!—this message from the LORD came to Elijah: “Go visit Ahab, and I’ll send some rain to the surface of the ground.”

⁷ The Fine Art of Enjoying LifeGo ahead and enjoy your meals as you eat. Drink your wine with a joyful attitude, because God already has approved your actions.

³⁴ So I urge you to eat something, for it will help you survive, since none of you will lose so much as a hair from his head.”

⁵² When Abraham’s servant heard what they had said, he bowed down to the ground before the LORD.

⁶ At this, Joshua tore his clothes, fell down to the ground on his face before the ark of the LORD until evening—he and the leaders of Israel—and they covered their heads with dust.

¹⁶ David begged God on behalf of the youngster. He fasted, went inside, and spent the night lying on the ground.

¹³ As soon as Elijah heard it, he covered his face in his mantle, went outside, and stood at the entrance to the cave. And there a voice spoke to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

⁶ and said, “My God, I am too ashamed and hurt to turn to you, because we’re in our iniquities over our heads. Furthermore, my God, our sins have grown as high as the heavens.

⁷ God is feared in the council of the holy ones, revered by all those around him.

² The seraphim stood above him. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he was flying.

² Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD.

³ “So I turned my attention to the Lord God, seeking him in prayer and supplication, accompanied with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

⁷ ‘To you, Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us, open humiliation—even to this day, to the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, both those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the lands to which you drove them because of their unfaithful acts that they committed against you.

²³ After dismissing the crowds, he went up on a hillside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.

³⁵ Going on a little farther, he fell to the ground and kept praying that if it were possible the hour might pass from him.

¹² Jesus Appoints Twelve Apostles
Now it was in those days that Jesus went to a mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.

⁹ Peter Has a VisionAround noon the next day, while they were on their way and coming close to the town, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

¹⁶ Therefore, make it your habit to confess your sins to one another and to pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a person just like us, and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and rain never came to the land for three years and six months. ¹⁸ Then he prayed again, and the skies poured out rain, and the ground produced its crops.

³ LORD, in the morning you will hear my voice; in the morning I will pray to you, and I will watch for your answer.

³ For the revelation pertains to an appointed time— it speaks truthfully about the end. Though it delays, wait for it, because it will surely come about— it will not be late!

¹ The Parable about the Judge and the WidowJesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray all the time and never give up.

⁷ Won’t God grant his chosen people justice when they cry out to him day and night? Is he slow to help them?

¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times with every kind of prayer and request. Likewise, be alert with your most diligent efforts and pray for all the saints.

³⁶ For you need endurance, so that after you have done God’s will you can receive what he has promised. ³⁷ For “in a very little while the one who is coming will return— he will not delay;

⁷ “So make a new cart, and take two milk cows that have never had a yoke on them. Hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves away from them and back to the house.

¹⁰ The men did this. They took two milk cows, hitched them to the cart, and penned up their calves in the house.

⁷ Your beginning may be small, but later years will be very great.

¹³ “You inhabitants of Lachish, harness your chariot to your swiftest steed— the daughter of Zion has begun to sin— because within you the transgressions of Israel were revealed.

¹⁰ For who has despised the time of insignificant things? They will rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. These seven lights represent the eyes of the LORD, which are looking throughout all of the earth.”

⁵⁴ Interpreting the Time
Then Jesus told the crowds, “When you see a cloud coming in from the west, you immediately say, ‘There’s going to be a storm,’ and that’s what happens.

⁸ followed the Israeli man inside his tent, and impaled the two of them—the Israeli man and the woman—right through both of them and into her abdomen. Then the plague infecting the Israelis was brought to a halt. Nevertheless,

¹⁶ The descendants of Joseph replied, “The hill country isn’t sufficient for us, but all the Canaanites who live on the plain have iron chariots, both those in Beth-shean and its villages as well as the inhabitants of the Jezreel Valley.”

¹⁸ The territorial allotment included Jezreel, Chesulloth, Shunem,

⁹ He installed him as king over Gilead, the Ashurites, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and all of the rest of Israel.

¹⁴ and they buried Saul’s bones and his son Jonathan’s bones in the territory of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything that the king commanded, God responded to prayers for the land.

¹ The Naboth Vineyard IncidentMeanwhile, there was a man named Naboth from Jezreel who owned a vineyard that was located contiguous to King Ahab’s palace in Samaria.

²³ The LORD also has this to say about Jezebel: ‘Dogs will eat Jezebel within the outer ramparts of Jezreel.

¹⁶ Then Jehu rode by chariot to Jezreel, since Joram was recovering there. King Ahaziah from Judah had come to visit Joram.

¹⁵ Now bring me a musician.”
As the musician played, the hand of the LORD rested on Elisha,

²⁹ At this he told Gehazi, “Get ready to run! Take my staff in your hand, and get on the road. Don’t greet anyone you meet. If anyone greets you, don’t respond. Just go lay my staff on the youngster’s face.”

¹ Jehu Anointed King of IsraelElisha called one of the members of the Guild of Prophets and told him, “Get ready to run, take this flask of oil in your hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead.

³ Stand up like a man! I’ll ask you some questions, and you give me some answers!”

¹¹ Waiting on GodFor this is what the LORD spoke to me, as his forceful hand was resting on me, and as he was warning me not to live the way this people were living:

¹⁷ The LORD’s Assurance to Jeremiah“As for you, get ready! Stand up and tell them everything that I’ve commanded you. Don’t be frightened as you face them, or I’ll frighten you right in front of them.

³ a message from the LORD came directly to Buzi’s son Ezekiel, the priest, by the Chebar River in the land of the Chaldeans. The hand of the LORD rested upon him there.

¹⁴ Ezekiel Addresses the IsraelisThen the Spirit lifted me up and carried me away. I went bitterly with an angry attitude as the hand of the LORD rested on me.

²¹ They told him, “Caesar’s.”
So he told them, “Then give back to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

¹⁴ Stand firm, therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

¹³ Be HolyTherefore, prepare your minds for action, keep a clear head, and set your hope completely on the grace to be given you when Jesus, the Messiah, is revealed.

¹⁷ Honor everyone. Keep on loving the community of believers, fearing God, and honoring the king.