1 Samuel 12 Cross References - ISV

¹ Samuel’s FarewellThen Samuel told all Israel, “Take note! I’ve listened to you, to everything you have told me, and I’ve appointed a king over you. ² Now here is the king walking before you, while I’m old and gray, and my sons are with you. I’ve walked before you from my youth until this day. ³ Here I am. Testify against me in the LORD’s presence and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have I taken? Who have I cheated? Who have I oppressed? Who bribed me to look the other way? I’ll restore it to you.”
⁴ They said, “You haven’t cheated us or oppressed us, and you haven’t taken anything from anyone’s hand.”
⁵ He told them, “Today the LORD is testifying, along with his anointed, that you haven’t found any bribes in my possession.”
They said, “He’s a witness.”
⁶ Then Samuel told the people, “It is the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought your ancestors up out of the land of Egypt. ⁷ Now stand up and I’ll pass judgment on you in light of the LORD’s righteous acts that he did for you and your ancestors. ⁸ After Jacob went to Egypt, and your ancestors cried out to the LORD, he sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place. ⁹ But they forgot the LORD their God, so he handed them over to the domination of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into domination by the Philistines and by the king of Moab, and Israel fought against them.
¹⁰ “Then they cried out to the LORD: ‘We have sinned because we have forsaken the LORD and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. Now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.’ ¹¹ Then the LORD sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel and he delivered you from the hand of your enemies on every side, so that you lived securely. ¹² But when you saw that Nahash, king of the Ammonites, was coming to fight you, you told me, ‘No, let a king rule over us instead,’ even though the LORD your God was your king.
¹³ “Now, here is the king you have chosen, the one whom you asked for. See, the Lord has appointed a king over you. ¹⁴ If you fear the LORD, serve him, obey him, and don’t rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then both you and the king who rules over you will truly follow the LORD your God. ¹⁵ But if you don’t obey the LORD and rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then the LORD will turn against you as he did against your ancestors.
¹⁶ “Now then, stand up and see this great thing that the LORD is about to do before your eyes. ¹⁷ Is it not the wheat harvest today? I’ll call upon the LORD, and he will send thunder and rain. Then you will know and understand that you have done a great evil in the sight of the LORD by asking for a king for yourselves.” ¹⁸ Samuel called upon the LORD that same day, and the LORD sent thunder and rain. So all the people greatly feared the LORD and Samuel.
¹⁹ Then all the people told Samuel, “Pray to the LORD your God for your servants, so that we don’t die, because we made all our sins worse by asking for a king for ourselves.”
²⁰ Samuel told all the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have done all this evil. Yet don’t turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. ²¹ Don’t turn aside after useless things that cannot profit or deliver because they’re useless. ²² Indeed, the LORD won’t abandon His people for the sake of His great name, for the LORD desires to make you a people for himself. ²³ Now as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. I’ll also instruct you in the way that is good and right. ²⁴ Only, fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Indeed, consider what great things he has done for you. ²⁵ But if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away.”

⁵ They told him, “Look, you’re old, and your sons don’t follow your example. So appoint a king to govern us like all the other nations.” ⁶ Samuel was displeased when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” So Samuel prayed to the LORD.
⁷ The LORD told Samuel, “Listen to the people in all that they say to you. In fact, it’s not you they have rejected, but rather they have rejected me from being their king. ⁸ Like all the things they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this very day, they have forsaken me and followed other gods. They’re also doing the same thing to you.

¹⁹ The people refused to listen to Samuel. Instead, they insisted, “No! Let a king rule over us instead! ²⁰ We, too, will be like all the nations! Our king will govern us and go out before us to fight our battles.”
²¹ So Samuel listened to all the words of the people, and he repeated them directly to the LORD. ²² The LORD told Samuel, “Listen to them, and appoint a king for them.”
Then Samuel told the men of Israel, “Each of you go to his own town.”

¹ Saul is Anointed KingSamuel took a flask of oil, poured it on Saul’s head, kissed him, and said, “The LORD has anointed you Commander-in-Chief over his inheritance, has he not?

²⁴ Then Samuel told all the people, “Do you see the man whom the LORD has chosen? For there is no one like him among all the people.”
Then all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”

¹⁴ Then Samuel told the people, “Come, let’s go to Gilgal and reaffirm the kingship there.” ¹⁵ So all the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king in the LORD’s presence in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings in the LORD’s presence, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

¹⁷ who will go in and out before them, and who will lead them out and bring them in so that the LORD’S community won’t be like a flock without a shepherd.”

²² Judgment against Eli’s SonsNow Eli was very old, and he had heard everything that his sons were doing to the Israelis, and how they lay with the women who were serving regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

²⁹ Why, then, do all of you show contempt for my sacrifice and offering that I’ve commanded for my dwelling? And you honor your sons more than me in order to fatten yourselves from the best of all the offerings of my people Israel.’

¹³ I’ve told him that I’m about to judge his family forever because of the iniquity that he knew about. His sons committed blasphemy and he did not rebuke them.

¹⁶ Then Eli called Samuel: “Samuel, my son.”
He said, “Here I am.”

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.

¹ Israel Demands a KingWhen Samuel became old, he appointed his sons judges over Israel.

³ His sons did not follow Samuel’s example. Instead, they pursued dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

⁵ They told him, “Look, you’re old, and your sons don’t follow your example. So appoint a king to govern us like all the other nations.”

²⁰ We, too, will be like all the nations! Our king will govern us and go out before us to fight our battles.”

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.

³ “Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all you remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld from before your birth, and who have been carried from the womb. ⁴ Even until your old age, I am the one, and I’ll carry you even until your gray hairs come. It is I who have created, and I who will carry, and it is I who will bear and save.

⁶ I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time for my departure has come.

¹⁴ because I know that the removal of my bodily tent will come soon, as indeed our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, has shown me.

¹⁷ “You are not to covet your neighbor’s house. You are not to covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox, his donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

⁴ If what was stolen is actually found alive in his possession, whether an ox, a donkey or a sheep, he is to repay double.

⁸ You are not to take a bribe because a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and distorts the words of the righteous.

⁴ If that person has sinned and has been found guilty, then he is to return the stolen thing that he took or obtained by oppression, or the security that had been entrusted to him, or the lost thing that he had found,

¹⁵ Moses was very angry, so he told the LORD, “Please don’t accept their offering. I haven’t taken even one donkey from them nor have I hurt even one of them.”

¹⁹ You must not twist justice, show favoritism, or take bribes, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the speech of the righteous.

⁵ He told them, “Today the LORD is testifying, along with his anointed, that you haven’t found any bribes in my possession.”
They said, “He’s a witness.”

⁶ He told his men, “God forbid that I should do this thing to your majesty, the LORD’s anointed, by stretching out my hand against him, since he’s the LORD’s anointed.”

¹⁴ At this David asked him, “How is it that you weren’t afraid to raise your hand to strike the LORD’s anointed?”
¹⁵ Then David called out to one of his young men and ordered him, “Go up to him and cut him down!” So he attacked him and killed him.
¹⁶ David told him, “Your blood is on your own head, because your own words testified against you! After all, you said, ‘I myself have killed the LORD’s anointed!’”

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.”

⁸ Later, Zacchaeus stood up and announced to the Lord, “Look! I’m giving half of my possessions to the destitute, and if I have accused anyone falsely, I’m repaying four times as much as I owe.”

³³ I never desired anyone’s silver, gold, or clothes.

¹ Obey Your GovernmentEvery person must be subject to the governing authorities, for no authority exists except by God’s permission. The existing authorities have been established by God, ² so that whoever resists the authorities opposes what God has established, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. ³ For the authorities are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you like to live without being afraid of the authorities? Then do what is right, and you will receive their approval. ⁴ For they are God’s servants, working for your good.
But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for it is not without reason that they bear the sword. Indeed, they are God’s servants to administer punishment to anyone who does wrong. ⁵ Therefore, it is necessary for you to be acquiescent to the authorities, not only for the sake of God’s punishment, but also for the sake of your own conscience. ⁶ This is also why you pay taxes. For rulers are God’s servants faithfully devoting themselves to their work. 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.

¹⁴ Now I’m ready to visit you for a third time, and I will not bother you for help. I do not want your things, but rather you yourselves. Children should not have to support their parents, but parents their children.

⁵ As you know, we did not come with flattering words or with a scheme to make money. God is our witness!

¹⁰ You and God are witnesses of how pure, honest, and blameless our conduct was among you who believe.

² Be shepherds of God’s flock that is among you, watching over it, not because you must but because you want to, and not greedily but eagerly, as God desires.

⁵ Commit your way to the LORD; Trust him, and he will act. ⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as a light, and your justice as the noonday sun.

⁴ A Plot to Destroy DanielBecause of this, the administrators and regional authorities tried to bring allegations of dereliction of duty in government affairs against Daniel, but they were unable to find any charges of corruption. Daniel was trustworthy, and no evidence of negligence or corruption could be found against him.

¹² Demetrius has received a good report from everyone, including the truth itself. We, too, can testify to this report, and you know that our testimony is true.

⁹ David told Abishai, “Don’t destroy him. Who can raise his hand to strike the LORD’s anointed and remain innocent?

³⁵ Request for A Hearing“Who will grant me a hearing? Here’s my signature—let the Almighty answer! Since my adversary indicted me, ³⁶ I’ll wear it on my shoulder, or tie it on my head for a crown! ³⁷ I’ll give an account for every step I’ve taken; I’ll approach him confidently like a Commander-in-Chief.”
³⁸ No Abuse of the Land“If my land were to cry out against me or if all its furrows wept as one, ³⁹ If I’ve consumed its produce without paying for it and snuffed out the life of its owners; ⁴⁰ may thorns spring up instead of wheat, and obnoxious weeds instead of barley.”
With this, Job’s discourse with his friends is completed.

⁷ Job’s Friends are RestoredAfter these words had been spoken by the LORD to Job, the LORD spoke to Eliphaz from Teman: “My anger is burning against you along with your two friends, since you haven’t spoken correctly about me, as did my servant Job.

³ When you probe my heart, and examine me at night; when you refine me, you will find nothing wrong, for I have determined that I will not transgress with my mouth.

³⁸ Pilate asked him, “What is ‘truth’?” and then he went out to the Jewish leaders again and told them, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

⁹ There was a great deal of shouting until some of the scribes who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and argued forcefully, “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?”

¹⁶ Therefore, I always do my best to have a clear conscience before God and people.

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

⁴ For my conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who examines me.

¹² Paul’s Reason for BoastingFor this is what we boast about: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world with pure motives and godly sincerity, without earthly wisdom but with God’s grace—especially toward you.

²⁶ This is the same Aaron and Moses to whom the LORD said, “Bring the Israelis out of the land of Egypt by their tribal divisions.”

⁹ “You took note of the affliction of our ancestors in Egypt, and listened to their cry at the Red Sea. ¹⁰ You sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all of his officials, and against all the people of his land, because you knew they acted arrogantly against your people. So you established your name with them, as it remains to this day. ¹¹ You divided the sea in front of them, and they traveled through the midst of the sea on dry ground. You hurled their pursuers into the depths, as one throws a stone into turbulent waters. ¹² You led them during the day by a pillar of cloud, and by a pillar of fire at night to provide light for them on the path they took. ¹³ “You also came down to Mount Sinai, spoke with them from heaven, and gave them impartial regulations, true laws, statutes, and good commands. ¹⁴ You revealed to them your holy Sabbath, and you mandated precepts, statutes, and laws through Moses your servant.

¹⁹ Your way was through the sea, and your path through mighty waters, but your footprints cannot be traced. ²⁰ You have led your people like a flock by the hands of Moses and Aaron.

¹² He performed marvelous things in the presence of their ancestors in the land of Egypt— in the fields of Zoan. ¹³ He divided the sea so that they were able to cross; he caused the water to stand in a single location. ¹⁴ He led them with a cloud during the day, and during the night with light from the fire. ¹⁵ He caused the rocks to split in the wilderness, and gave them water as from an abundant sea. ¹⁶ He brought streams from rock, causing water to flow like a river. ¹⁷ But time and again, they sinned against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert. ¹⁸ To test God was in their minds, when they demanded food to satisfy their cravings. ¹⁹ They spoke against God by asking, “Is God able to prepare a feast in the desert? ²⁰ It’s true that Moses struck the rock so that water flowed forth and torrents of water gushed out, but is he also able to give bread or to supply meat for his people?” ²¹ Therefore, when the LORD heard this, he was angry, and fire broke out against Jacob. Moreover, his anger flared against Israel, ²² because they didn’t believe in God and didn’t trust in his deliverance. ²³ Yet he commanded the skies above and the doors of the heavens to open, ²⁴ so that manna rained down on them for food and he sent them the grain of heaven. ²⁵ Mortal men ate the food of angels; he sent provision to them in abundance. ²⁶ He stirred up the east wind in the heavens and drove the south wind by his might. ²⁷ He caused meat to rain on them like dust and winged birds as the sand of the sea. ²⁸ He caused these to fall in the middle of the camp and all around their tents. ²⁹ So they ate and were very satisfied, because he granted their desire. ³⁰ However, before they had fulfilled their desire, while their food was still in their mouths, ³¹ the anger of God flared against them, and he killed the strongest men and humbled Israel’s young men. ³² In spite of all of this, they kept on sinning and didn’t believe in his marvelous deeds. ³³ So he made their days end in futility, and their years with sudden terror. ³⁴ When he struck them, they sought him; they repented, and eagerly sought God. ³⁵ Then they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God was their deliverer. ³⁶ But they deceived him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues. ³⁷ For their hearts weren’t committed to him, and they weren’t faithful to his covenant. ³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and didn’t destroy them; He restrained his anger and didn’t vent all his wrath. ³⁹ For he remembered that they were only flesh, a passing wind that doesn’t return. ⁴⁰ How they rebelled against him in the desert, grieving him in the wilderness! ⁴¹ They tested God again and again, provoking the Holy One of Israel. ⁴² They did not remember his power— the day he delivered them from their adversary, ⁴³ when he set his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the plain of Zoan. ⁴⁴ He turned their rivers into blood and made their streams undrinkable. ⁴⁵ He sent swarms of insects to bite them and frogs to destroy them. ⁴⁶ He gave their crops to caterpillars and what they worked for to locusts. ⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail and their sycamore trees with frost. ⁴⁸ He delivered their beasts to hail and their livestock to lightning bolts. ⁴⁹ He inflicted his burning anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, sending destroying angels among them. ⁵⁰ He blazed a path for his anger; he did not stop short from killing them, but handed them over to pestilence. ⁵¹ He struck every firstborn in Egypt, the first fruits of their manhood in the tents of Ham. ⁵² Yet he led out his people like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert. ⁵³ He led them to safety so they would not fear. As for their enemies, the sea covered them. ⁵⁴ He brought the people to the border of his holy mountain, which he acquired by his might. ⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them and allotted their tribal inheritance, settling the tribes of Israel in their tents. ⁵⁶ But they tested the Most High God by rebelling against him, and they did not obey his statutes. ⁵⁷ They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors. They became unreliable, like a defective bow; ⁵⁸ they angered him with their high places and with their carved images they made him jealous. ⁵⁹ God heard and became furious, and he completely rejected Israel. ⁶⁰ He abandoned the tent at Shiloh, the tent that he established among mankind. ⁶¹ Then he sent his might into captivity and his glory into the control of the adversary. ⁶² He delivered his people over to the sword and was angry with his possession. ⁶³ The young men were consumed by fire, and the virgins had no marriage celebrations. ⁶⁴ The priests fell by the sword, yet their widows couldn’t weep. ⁶⁵ The LORD awoke as though from sleep, like a mighty warrior stimulated by wine. ⁶⁶ He beat back his adversaries, permanently disgracing them. ⁶⁷ He rejected the clan of Joseph; and the tribe of Ephraim he did not choose. ⁶⁸ But he chose the tribe of Judah, the mountain of Zion, which he loves. ⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary, high as the heavens, like the earth that he established forever. ⁷⁰ Then he chose his servant David, whom he took from the sheepfold. ⁷¹ He brought him from birthing sheep to care for Jacob, his people, Israel, his possession. ⁷² David shepherded them with a devoted heart, and led them with skillful hands.

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among his priests; Samuel also was among those who invoked his name. When they called on the LORD, he answered them.

²⁶ He sent his servant Moses, along with Aaron, whom he had chosen.

⁴¹ He opened a rock, and water gushed out flowing like a river in the desert.

⁷ God’s Grace to IsraelI will recount the gracious deeds of the LORD, the praiseworthy acts of the LORD, according to all the LORD has done for us— yes, the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his gracious love. ⁸ For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who won’t act falsely.” And so he became their savior. ⁹ In all their distress he wasn’t distressed, but the angel of his presence saved them; in his acts of love and in his acts of pity he redeemed them; he carried them and lifted them up all the days of old. ¹⁰ Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; so he changed and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them. ¹¹ Then they remembered the days of old, of Moses his servant. Where is the one who brought up out of the sea the shepherds of his flock? Where is the one who put his Holy Spirit among them, ¹² and who made his glorious arm march at Moses’ right hand, who divided the waters in front of them to win an everlasting name, ¹³ who led them through the depths? Like a horse in the open desert, they did not stumble; ¹⁴ like cattle that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. For you led your people, to win for yourself a glorious name.

¹³ “By a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was rescued.

⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and ransomed you from the house of slavery, sending Moses, Aaron, and Miriam into your presence.

¹¹ From the sound of those who divide their work loads at the watering troughs, there they will retell the righteous deeds of the LORD, the righteous victories for his rural people in Israel.”
Then the people of the LORD went down to the gates.

¹⁸ “Please come, and let’s reason together,” implores the LORD. “Even though your sins are like scarlet, they’ll be white like snow. Though they’re like crimson, they’ll become like wool.

³ “So now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, won’t you please, between me and my vineyard. ⁴ What more could I do in my vineyard, that I haven’t already done? When I expected it to produce good grapes, why did it yield wild ones?

²⁵ Accusing God of Unrighteousness“Yet you keep saying, ‘The LORD isn’t being consistent with his standards.’ Pay attention, you house of Israel: Is my behavior really inconsistent with my standards? Isn’t it your behavior that isn’t just?
²⁶ “When a righteous person turns from his righteous deeds and does evil, he’ll die because of that evil. He’ll die because of his unrighteous acts that he committed. ²⁷ When a wicked person quits his wicked behavior and does what’s just and right, he’ll be enabled to live. ²⁸ Because he reconsidered his transgression and turned away from everything that he had been doing, he’ll certainly live and not die. ²⁹ Yet Israel’s house keeps saying, ‘The LORD isn’t being consistent with his standards.’ Is it my behavior that’s inconsistent with my standards? Is it not your behavior that’s inconsistent with my standards?”
³⁰ A Command to Repent“Therefore, Israel, I’m going to judge you according to the behavior of each and every one of you,” declares the Lord GOD. “So repent and turn from all your sins so that sin won’t keep on being a stumbling block for you.

¹ The LORD’s Indictment against IsraelPlease hear what the LORD says: “Get up and make your case before the mountains, and let the hills listen to your voice. ² Listen, you mountains, to the LORD’s argument! Listen, you strong foundations of the earth, because the LORD has a dispute with his people, and he will set out his case before Israel. ³ “My people, what have I done to you, and how have I offended you? Answer me! ⁴ For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, and ransomed you from the house of slavery, sending Moses, Aaron, and Miriam into your presence. ⁵ “My people, recall how king Balak of Moab deliberated, and how Beor’s son Balaam counseled him from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may know the righteousness of the LORD.”

³ He explained and showed them that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead: “This very Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Messiah.”

⁵ So Jacob got up and left Beer-sheba, and Israel’s sons carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives in the transport wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry them. ⁶ They took their livestock and their household property that they had acquired in the land of Canaan and traveled to Egypt. Jacob and all of his descendants went with him— ⁷ including his sons, his grandsons, his daughters, and his granddaughters—every one of his descendants accompanied him to Egypt.

²³ The Israelis Cry Out to GodThe king of Egypt eventually died, and the Israelis groaned because of the bondage. They cried out, and their cry for deliverance from slavery ascended to God. ²⁴ God heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

⁹ Now, listen carefully! The cry of the Israelis has come to my attention about how severely the Egyptians have been oppressing them. ¹⁰ So go! I am sending you to Pharaoh. Bring my people the Israelis out of Egypt.”

¹⁴ Then the LORD was angry with Moses and said, “There is your brother Aaron, a descendant of Levi, isn’t there? I know that he certainly is eloquent. Right now he’s coming to meet you and he will be pleased to see you. ¹⁵ You’re to speak to him and tell him what to say. I’ll help both you and him with your speech, and I’ll teach both of you what you are to do. ¹⁶ He is to speak to the people for you as your spokesman and you are to act in the role of God for him.

²⁷ Moses and Aaron Meet and Return to EgyptThe LORD told Aaron, “Go meet Moses in the desert.” So Aaron went, found him at the mountain of God, and embraced him. ²⁸ Moses told Aaron all of the LORD’s messages that he had sent with Moses, and all of the signs that he commanded him to do. ²⁹ Later, Moses and Aaron brought together all the elders of the Israelis. ³⁰ Aaron spoke everything that the LORD had spoken to Moses, and Moses performed the miracles before the very eyes of the people. ³¹ The people believed and understood that the LORD had paid attention to the Israelis and had seen their affliction. They bowed their heads and prostrated themselves in worship.

⁵¹ And on that very day, the LORD brought the Israelis out of the land of Egypt by their tribal divisions.

³⁰ On that day the LORD delivered Israel from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead along the seashore. ³¹ When Israel saw the great force by which the LORD had acted against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed the LORD and Moses his servant.

¹⁵ Our ancestors went down to Egypt, where we lived for many years. But the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors viciously.

² “My servant Moses is dead. Now get ready to cross the Jordan River—you and all the people—to the land that I’m giving the Israelis. ³ I’m giving you every place where the sole of your foot falls, just as I promised Moses. ⁴ Your territorial border will extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon Mountains, to the river—that great River Euphrates—all the land of the Hittites—as far as the Mediterranean Sea where the sun sets.

⁶ “Be strong and courageous, because you’ll be leading this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors.

¹⁰ Joshua continued, “This is how you’ll know that the living God really is among you: he’s going to remove the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites right in front of you. ¹¹ Look! The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of whole the earth is crossing ahead of you into the Jordan River. ¹² So take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe. ¹³ When the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the LORD, the Lord of the whole earth, touch the water in the Jordan River, the water that feeds the Jordan will be cut off from above and they’ll stand still in a single location.”

¹⁸ He told the Israelis, “This is what the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I rescued you from the power of Egypt and from the power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’

⁶ Then Samuel told the people, “It is the LORD who appointed Moses and Aaron and who brought your ancestors up out of the land of Egypt.

¹ To the Director: An instruction of the Sons of Korah.
A Prayer in Times of Defeat God, we heard it with our ears; our ancestors told us about what you did in their day— a long time ago. ² With your hand you expelled the nations and established our ancestors. You afflicted nations and cast them out. ³ It was not with their sword that they inherited the land, nor did their own arm deliver them. But it was by your power, your strength, and by the light of your face; because you were pleased with them.

⁵⁴ He brought the people to the border of his holy mountain, which he acquired by his might. ⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them and allotted their tribal inheritance, settling the tribes of Israel in their tents.

⁴⁴ He gave to them the land of nations; they inherited the labor of other people

¹⁵ So Jacob went down to Egypt. Then he and our ancestors died.

¹⁸ You neglected the Rock that fathered you; you abandoned God, who was awaiting your birth.

³⁰ How can one person chase a thousand of them and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock delivers them and the LORD gives them up?

¹⁴ So in his burning anger against Israel, the LORD gave them into the domination of marauders who plundered them. The enemies who surrounded the Israelis controlled them, and they were no longer able to withstand their adversaries.

⁷ The Israelis kept on practicing evil in full view of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served Canaanite male and female deities. ⁸ Then in his burning anger against Israel, the LORD delivered them to domination by King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim. So the Israelis served Cushan-rishathaim for eight years.

¹² Ehud, Israel’s Second JudgeThe Israelis again practiced evil in full view of the LORD. So the LORD strengthened Eglon king of Moab in his control over Israel, because they had practiced evil in full view of the LORD.

³¹ Shamgar, Israel’s Third JudgeAfter Ehud, Anath’s son Shamgar attacked 600 Philistines with a cattle prod. He also delivered Israel.

² so the LORD turned them over to domination by Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. Sisera, the commanding officer of his army, lived in Harosheth-haggoyim.

⁷ In his burning anger against Israel, he sold them into domination by the Philistines and the Ammonites,

¹ The Birth of Samson, Israel’s Twelfth JudgeSome time later, the Israelis again practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, so the LORD handed them over into the domination of the Philistines for 40 years.

²¹ They forgot God their Savior, who performed great things in Egypt—

¹ A Call to Return to God This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look! It’s because of your sins that you were sold, and because of your transgressions that your mother was sent away. ² Why is it that when I came, no one was there? Why was there no answer when I called? Was my arm too short to redeem you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? Look! By my mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert. Their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst.

¹⁰ Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; so he changed and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

³² Will a young woman forget her wedding ornaments, or a bride her attire? But my people have forgotten me days without number.

¹³ As a result, they abandoned the LORD by serving both Baal and Ashtaroth.

⁷ The Israelis kept on practicing evil in full view of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God and served Canaanite male and female deities.

⁹ When the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz, to deliver them, and he did.

¹⁵ But when the Israelis cried out to the LORD, the LORD raised up Gera’s son Ehud, a left-handed descendant of Benjamin, as a deliverer for them. The Israelis paid tribute through him to king Eglon of Moab.

³ The Israelis cried out to the LORD, because of his 900 iron chariots. Jabin oppressed the Israelis forcefully for twenty years.

⁷ When the Israelis cried out to him about Midian,

¹⁰ Then the Israelis cried out to the LORD and told him, “We have sinned against you because we have abandoned our God to serve the Baals.”

¹⁵ The Israelis replied to the LORD, “We have sinned, so do to us anything that’s right to do in your opinion, just please deliver us right now.” ¹⁶ When they put away their foreign gods and served the LORD, he brought Israel’s misery to an end.

² A long time passed—it was twenty years—from the time the Ark came to reside in Kiriath-jearim, and all the house of Israel mourned because of the LORD.

³⁴ When he struck them, they sought him; they repented, and eagerly sought God. ³⁵ Then they remembered that God was their rock, and the Most High God was their deliverer.

⁴⁴ Yet when he saw their distress and heard their cries for help,

¹⁶ LORD, they came to you in distress; they poured out their secret prayer when your chastenings were afflicting them.

²² For the LORD is our judge, and the LORD is our lawgiver; and the LORD is our king, and it is he who will save us.

⁷⁴ deliverance from our enemies’ grip so that we could serve him without fear ⁷⁵ and be holy and righteous before him all of our days.

¹⁴ The love of the Messiah controls us, for we are convinced of this: that one person died for all people; therefore, all people have died. ¹⁵ He died for all people, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died and rose for them.

⁶ She sent word to Abinoam’s son Barak from Kedesh-naphtali, summoning him. She asked him, “The LORD God of Israel has commanded you, hasn’t he? He told you, ‘Go out, march to Mount Tabor, and take 10,000 men with you from the tribes of Naphtali and Zebulun.

¹⁴ The LORD looked straight at him and replied, “Go with this determination of yours and deliver Israel from Midian’s domination. I’ve directed you, haven’t I?”

³² So that very day he named Gideon Jerubbaal, that is, “Let Baal fight,” since he had torn down his altar.

²⁹ Afterwards, Joash’s son Jerubbaal went home and retired.

³⁵ And they showed no gracious love to the household of Jerubbaal—also known as Gideon—despite all the good that he had done for Israel.

¹ Jephthah, Israel’s Eighth JudgeNow Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant soldier, but he was also the son of a prostitute and Jephthah’s father Gilead. ² Gilead’s wife bore two sons through him, but when his wife’s sons grew up, they expelled Jephthah and declared to him, “You won’t have an inheritance in this house, since you’re the son of a different woman.” ³ So Jephthah escaped from his brothers and lived in the territory of Tob, where worthless men gathered themselves around him and went out on raiding parties with him.
⁴ Later on, the Ammonites attacked Israel. ⁵ When this happened, the elders of Gilead went to the territory of Tob to find Jephthah. ⁶ They told him, “Come and be our commander so we can fight the Ammonites!”
⁷ But Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Weren’t you the ones who hated me and drove me out of my father’s house? And you come to me now that you’re in trouble?”
⁸ So the elders of Gilead told Jephthah, “Well, we’re coming back to you now so you can accompany us, fight the Ammonites, and become the head of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
⁹ Then Jephthah asked the elders of Gilead, “If you all send me to fight against the Ammonites and the LORD hands them over right in front of me, will I really become your head?”
¹⁰ The elders of Gilead responded to Jephthah, “May the Lord serve as a witness that we’re making this agreement between ourselves to do as we’ve said.” ¹¹ So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people appointed him head and military commander over them. Jephthah uttered everything he had to say with the solemnity of an oath in the LORD’s presence at Mizpah.
¹² Jephthah’s Dialogue with the AmmonitesAfterwards, Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to ask him, “What’s your dispute between us that prompted you to come and attack my land?”
¹³ The king of the Ammonites answered the messengers of Jephthah, “We’re here because Israel took away my land from the Arnon River as far as the Jabbok River and as far as the Jordan River when they came up from Egypt! So restore it as a gesture of good will.”
¹⁴ But Jephthah sent additional messengers again to the king of the Ammonites ¹⁵ and they informed him, “This is Jephthah’s response: ‘Israel didn’t seize the land of Moab nor the land of the Ammonites. ¹⁶ Here’s what happened: When Israel came up from Egypt, passed through the desert to the Red Sea, and arrived at Kadesh, ¹⁷ Israel sent a delegation to the king of Edom and asked him, “Please let us pass through your territory.”‘But the king of Edom wouldn’t listen. So they also sent word to the king of Moab, but he wouldn’t consent, either. So Israel stayed at Kadesh. ¹⁸ Then they went through the desert, circumventing the territory belonging to Edom and Moab. They encamped on the other side of the Arnon River, but never entered the territory of Moab because the Arnon River is the border of Moab. ¹⁹ ‘Then Israel sent a delegation to Sihon, king of the Amorites and king of Heshbon. Israel requested of him, “Please let us pass through your territory to our place.” ²⁰ But Sihon didn’t trust Israel to pass through his territory, so he assembled his entire army, encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. ²¹ The LORD God of Israel handed Sihon and his entire army into the control of Israel, and defeated them. As a result, Israel took control over the entire land of the Amorites, who were living in that country. ²² They took possession of the entire territory of the Amorites from the Arnon River as far as the Jabbok River and from the desert as far as the Jordan River. ²³ ‘Now then, since the LORD God of Israel expelled the Amorites right in front of his people Israel, are you going to control their territory? ²⁴ Don’t you control what your god Chemosh gives you? In the same way, we’ll take control of whomever the LORD our God has driven out in front of us. ²⁵ Also ask yourselves: do you have a better case than Zippor’s son Balak, king of Moab? Did he ever have a quarrel with Israel or ever win a fight against them? ²⁶ When Israel was living in Heshbon and its surrounding villages, in Aroer and its surrounding villages, and in all the cities that line the banks of the Arnon River these past three hundred years, why didn’t you retake them during that time? ²⁷ I haven’t sinned against you, but you are acting wrongly against me by declaring war on me. May the LORD, the Judge, sit in judgment today between the Israelis and the Ammonites.’”
²⁸ But the king of the Ammonites wouldn’t heed the message that Jephthah had sent to him.
²⁹ Jephthah’s VowThe Spirit of the LORD came on Jephthah, so he swept through Gilead and the territory of Manasseh, then swept through Mizpah in Gilead, and from Mizpah in Gilead he proceeded toward where the Ammonites were encamped. ³⁰ Jephthah made this solemn vow to the LORD: “If you truly give the Ammonites into my control, ³¹ then if I return from the Ammonites without incident, whatever comes out the doors of my house to meet me will become the LORD’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.”
³² Then Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites and attacked them. The LORD gave them into his control. ³³ He attacked them from Aroer to the entrance of Minnith—twenty cities in all—even as far as Abel-keramim. As a result, the Ammonites were subdued right in front of the Israelis.

¹ The Birth of Samson, Israel’s Twelfth JudgeSome time later, the Israelis again practiced what the LORD considered to be evil, so the LORD handed them over into the domination of the Philistines for 40 years. ² There was one man from Zorah, from the family of the descendants of Dan, whose name was Manoah. Since his wife was infertile, she hadn’t borne children. ³ One day the angel of the LORD presented himself to the woman. “Hello!” he greeted her. “Though you are infertile at this time and haven’t borne a child, you’re about to conceive and give birth to a son. ⁴ So be sure that you don’t drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don’t eat anything unclean ⁵ because—surprise!—you’re going to conceive and give birth to a son! Don’t put a razor to his head, because the young man will be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from inside the womb. He will begin to deliver Israel from domination by the Philistines.”
⁶ Then the woman went to tell her husband. She said, “A man of God appeared to me. He looked like what an angel of God would look like—very frightening. I didn’t ask him where he had come from and he didn’t tell me his name. ⁷ He told me, ‘Surprise!—you’re going to conceive and give birth to a son!’ and as for you, ‘Be sure that you don’t drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don’t eat anything unclean,’ ‘because the young man will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from inside the womb’ until the day he dies.”
⁸ So Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, Lord, have the man of God whom you sent before come again so he can instruct us what to do on behalf of the child who is to be born.”
⁹ God listened to Manoah’s request, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting out in the pasture. But her husband Manoah wasn’t with her, ¹⁰ so the woman ran quickly to tell her husband, “Look! The man who came the other day appeared to me!”
¹¹ So Manoah got up quickly and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he told him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
He replied, “I am.”
¹² Manoah asked, “Now, when what you’ve said occurs, what is to be the young man’s way of life and work?”
¹³ The angel of the LORD replied to Manoah, “Just have your wife be careful to carry out everything that I told her. ¹⁴ She must not consume anything extracted from grape vines, including wine or anything intoxicating, and she must not eat anything unclean, doing everything that I commissioned her to do.”
¹⁵ Manoah responded to the angel of the LORD, “Please, let us detain you while we prepare a young goat for you.”
¹⁶ The angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “If you detain me, I won’t be eating your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, you’ll be making a sacrifice to the LORD.” The angel of the LORD said this because Manoah didn’t know that he was the angel of the LORD.

¹³ The Philistines were subdued, and they did not continue to enter the territory of Israel.
The LORD continued to oppose the Philistines all during Samuel’s life time.

⁷ I’m establishing my covenant between me and you, and with your descendants who come after you, generation after generation, as an eternal covenant, to be your God and your descendants’ God after you.

⁵ And now if you carefully obey me and keep my covenant, you are to be my special possession out of all the peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me, ⁶ but you are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to me.’ These are the words you are to declare to the Israelis.”

²¹ He has not responded to iniquity in Jacob or gazed at mischief in Israel. The LORD his God is with them, and the triumphant cry of a king is among them.

²³ But Gideon told them, “I won’t rule over you and my son won’t rule over you. The LORD will rule you.”

¹⁸ “But now as for you, you’ve rebelled against my father’s house today. You’ve murdered his sons—70 men—in one place, and you’ve installed Abimelech, the son of his mistress, as king to rule over the “lords” of Shechem, since he’s related to you.

⁵⁶ That’s how God repaid Abimelech for the evil thing he did to his father by killing his 70 brothers. ⁵⁷ God also repaid the men of Shechem for their wickedness, and the curse of Jerubbaal’s son Jotham came true for them.

⁵ They told him, “Look, you’re old, and your sons don’t follow your example. So appoint a king to govern us like all the other nations.” ⁶ Samuel was displeased when they said, “Give us a king to govern us.” So Samuel prayed to the LORD.
⁷ The LORD told Samuel, “Listen to the people in all that they say to you. In fact, it’s not you they have rejected, but rather they have rejected me from being their king.

¹⁹ The people refused to listen to Samuel. Instead, they insisted, “No! Let a king rule over us instead! ²⁰ We, too, will be like all the nations! Our king will govern us and go out before us to fight our battles.”

¹⁹ But today you have rejected your God who delivers you from all your troubles and difficulties. You have said, ‘No! Instead, appoint a king over us.’ Now present yourselves in the LORD’s presence by your tribes and families.”

¹ Saul Defeats the AmmonitesSo after a month, Nahash the Ammonite came up and laid siege to Jabesh-gilead. All the men of Jabesh told Nahash, “Make a covenant with us, and we will serve you.”
² Nahash the Ammonite told them, “I’ll make a covenant with you on the condition that I gouge out the right eye of every one of you and so bring disgrace on all Israel.”

¹² But God is my king from ancient times, who brings acts of deliverance throughout the earth.

¹⁰ Now where is your king? Will he save you in all your cities? And where are your judges, about whom you demanded, ‘Give me a king and officials!’?

²⁰ Now as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, don’t give any thought to them, because they’ve been found. Meanwhile, to whom is all Israel looking, if not to you and all of your father’s household?”

¹⁵ So all the people went to Gilgal and there they made Saul king in the LORD’s presence in Gilgal. There they sacrificed peace offerings in the LORD’s presence, and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

²⁹ So they ate and were very satisfied, because he granted their desire. ³⁰ However, before they had fulfilled their desire, while their food was still in their mouths, ³¹ the anger of God flared against them, and he killed the strongest men and humbled Israel’s young men.

¹¹ I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my fury.”

²¹ When they demanded a king, God gave them Kish’s son Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years.

¹ Prohibiting Child SacrificeThe LORD spoke to Moses, ² “Tell the Israelis that when an Israeli or a resident alien who lives in Israel offers his child to Molech, he is certainly to be put to death. The people who live in the land are to stone him with stones. ³ As for me, I’ll oppose that man. I’ll eliminate him from contact with his people for sacrificing his children to Molech, thereby defiling my sanctuary and profaning my holy name. ⁴ If the people avoid dealing with that man when he offers his child to Molech—that is, if they fail to execute him— ⁵ then I’ll oppose that man and his family and eliminate him from contact with his people, along with all the prostitutes who accompany him and who have committed prostitution with Molech.”
⁶ Consulting the Dead Prohibited“I’ll oppose and eliminate from contact with his people whoever consults mediums or familiar spirits, thereby committing spiritual prostitution with them. ⁷ Therefore, separate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. ⁸ Keep my statutes and observe them. I am the LORD, who has set you apart.”
⁹ Honoring Parents“Anyone who curses his father or mother is certainly to be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother, so his guilt will remain his responsibility.”
¹⁰ Honoring the Seventh Commandment“If anyone commits adultery with another man’s wife, including when someone commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to die.
¹¹ “If a man has sexual relations with his father’s wife, he has exposed his father’s nakedness, so both of them are to be put to death. Their guilt will remain their responsibility.
¹² “If a man has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, the two are to be put to death. They’ve committed a repulsive act. Their guilt will remain their responsibility.
¹³ “If a man has sexual relations with another male as he would with a woman, both have committed a repulsive act. They are certainly to be put to death.

¹ Rewards for Obedience“Indeed, if you diligently obey the LORD your God to carry out all his commands that I’m giving you today, then the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. ² Moreover, all these blessings will come upon you in abundance, if you obey the LORD your God:
³ “Blessed will you be in the city and blessed will you be in the country.
⁴ “Blessed will your children be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.
⁵ “Blessed will be your grain basket and your kneading bowl.
⁶ “Blessed will you be in your comings and goings.”
⁷ “The LORD will make your enemies, who rise against you and attack from one direction, to flee from you in seven directions.
⁸ “The LORD will send blessings for you with regard to your barns and everything you undertake. Indeed, he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is about to give you.
⁹ “The LORD will assign you to be a holy people for himself, just as he promised you, as long as you keep his commands and walk in his ways.
¹⁰ “Then all the people of the earth will observe that the name of the LORD is proclaimed among you, and they will fear you.
¹¹ “The LORD will show his abundant goodness with respect to your children, the offspring of your animals, and the produce of your farmland that he promised your ancestors he would give you.
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.
¹³ “The LORD your God will make you the head and not the tail—placing you above and not beneath—if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I’m giving you today to keep and observe. ¹⁴ Do not deviate from any of his commands that I’m giving you today—neither to the right nor the left—to follow and serve other gods.”

¹⁴ “Now you must fear the LORD and serve him in faithfulness and truth. Throw away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Instead, serve the LORD.

²⁰ If you abandon the LORD and serve foreign deities, then he will turn and do you harm, consuming you after all the good he has done for you.”

¹² So I allowed them to continue in their stubbornness, living by their own advice. ¹³ If only my people would obey me, if only Israel would walk in my ways! ¹⁴ Then I would quickly subdue their enemies. I would turn against their foes. ¹⁵ Those who hate the LORD will cringe before him; their punishment will be permanent.

¹⁰ Encouragement to the Righteous“Tell the righteous that things will go well, because they will enjoy the fruit of their actions.”

⁷ eternal life to those who strive for glory, honor, and immortality by patiently doing good;

¹⁴ Cascading Consequences“But if you won’t listen to me and obey all these commands, ¹⁵ and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant, ¹⁶ then I will certainly do this to you: I’ll appoint sudden terror to infect you like tuberculosis and fever. Your eyes will fail and your life will waste away. You’ll plant in vain, because your enemies will consume what you plant. ¹⁷ I’ll set my face against you so that you’ll be defeated before your enemies. Those who hate you will have dominion over you and you’ll keep fleeing even when no one is pursuing you.
¹⁸ “If, despite all of this, you still don’t listen to me, then I’ll punish you seven times more on account of your sins. ¹⁹ I’ll break your mighty pride. I’ll make the heavens to be like iron and the ground like bronze. ²⁰ Your strength will be spent in vain, because your land won’t yield its produce and the trees of the land won’t yield their fruit.
²¹ “If you live life contrary to me and remain unwilling to listen to me, then I’ll add to your wounds seven times more on account of your sins. ²² I’ll send wild beasts against you from the open country to deprive you of your children, destroy your cattle, and decrease your number so that your roads become desolate.
²³ “If, despite these things, you still won’t return to me, but live life contrary to me, ²⁴ then I’ll certainly oppose you. I’ll take vengeance against you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁵ I’ll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I’ll send a pestilence. As a result, you’ll be delivered into the control of your enemies. 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.
²⁷ “If, after all of this time, you don’t listen to me, but instead live life contrary to me, ²⁸ I’ll oppose you with vicious rage. Indeed, I myself will punish you seven fold on account of your sins. ²⁹ At that time, you’ll eat the flesh of your sons and you’ll eat the flesh of your daughters. ³⁰ I’ll destroy your high places and cut down your sun pillars. Then I’ll cast your dead bodies on top of the bodies of your idols. I’ll loathe you.

¹⁵ Reversal of Blessings“But if you don’t obey the LORD your God and faithfully carry out all his commands and statutes that I’m giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overwhelm you.
¹⁶ “Cursed will you be in the city and cursed will you be in the country.
¹⁷ “Cursed will be your grain basket and your kneading bowl.
¹⁸ “Cursed will your children be, as well as the produce of your land, the offspring of your beasts and cattle, and the offspring of your flock.
¹⁹ “Cursed will you be in your comings and goings.”
²⁰ Diseases and Drought“The LORD will send the curse among you, will confuse you, and will rebuke you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and perish quickly because of your evil deeds, since you will have forsaken him. ²¹ The LORD will cause you to be ill with long-lasting diseases until you are wiped out from the land that you are entering to possess. ²² The LORD will afflict you with tuberculosis, fever, inflammation, high fever, drought, blight, and mildew. These will attack you until you are completely destroyed. 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 From Defeat to Exile“The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You’ll go out against them in one direction, but you’ll flee from them in seven directions. Consequently, you’ll be in a state of great terror throughout all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth, with no one to chase them away.
²⁷ “The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, skin disease, and festering rashes, and none of them will be curable. ²⁸ The LORD will afflict you with insanity, blindness, and mental confusion. ²⁹ As a result, you’ll wander aimlessly in broad daylight just as a blind person wanders in darkness. You won’t prosper in life. Instead you’ll be oppressed and plundered all day long, with no deliverer.
³⁰ You’ll be engaged to a woman, but another man will rape her. You’ll build a house but you won’t live in it. You’ll plant a vineyard but you won’t harvest it. ³¹ Your ox will be slaughtered in front of you, and you won’t be able to eat it. Your donkey will be stolen from you while you watch and won’t be returned to you. Your flock of sheep will be handed to your enemies and there will be no deliverer. ³² Your sons and daughters will be given to another people while you watch, and you won’t be able to approach them at all, and you’ll be powerless to help.
³³ “A people whom you don’t know will devour what your land and labor produces. You’ll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously ³⁴ until you are driven insane from what your eyes will see.
³⁵ “The LORD will inflict you with incurable boils on your knees and legs, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
³⁶ “The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone. ³⁷ You’ll become a desolation and a proverb, and you’ll be mocked among the people where the LORD will drive you.”
³⁸ Complete Reversal“You’ll plant many seeds in a field, but your harvest will be small because the locust will consume it. ³⁹ You’ll plant a vineyard, but you won’t drink wine or harvest any grapes, because worms will consume it. ⁴⁰ You’ll have olive trees throughout your territory, but you won’t be able to anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. ⁴¹ You’ll bear sons and daughters, but they won’t belong to you, because they’ll go into captivity. ⁴² Whirling locusts will consume every tree and the produce of your land. ⁴³ The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. ⁴⁴ He will lend to you, but you won’t lend to him. He’ll be the head, but you’ll be the tail. ⁴⁵ All these curses will come upon you and will overwhelm you until you are exterminated, because you didn’t obey the LORD your God to keep his commands and statutes, which he had commanded you. ⁴⁶ These curses will serve as a sign and wonder for you and your descendants as long as you live.”
⁴⁷ Servitude and Bondage“Because you didn’t serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly, despite the abundance of everything you have, ⁴⁸ you’ll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They’ll set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they have exterminated you.
⁴⁹ “The LORD will raise a distant nation against you from the other side of the earth. Swooping down like a vulture, ⁵⁰ it will be a nation whose language you don’t understand, whose stern appearance neither shows regard nor extends grace to anyone whether old or young. ⁵¹ Its army will consume the offspring of your animals and the produce of your soil until you are exterminated. They will leave you without your grain, wine, oil, the increase of your cattle, and the lamb of your flock, until you are completely destroyed. ⁵² They’ll besiege all your cities until your high and fortified walls in which you have trusted collapse throughout the land. Indeed, they will besiege all your cities, which the LORD your God gave you.”
⁵³ Cannibalism“You’ll eat your own children—the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God gave you—on account of the siege and the distress with which your enemy will oppress you. ⁵⁴ Even the compassionate man among you—the very sensitive one—will look with evil in his eyes toward his brother, his beloved wife, and his surviving sons, whom he spared. ⁵⁵ He will withhold from each of them the flesh of his sons that he is eating—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in all your cities. ⁵⁶ The most tender and sensitive lady among you, who doesn’t venture to touch the soles of her feet to the ground on account of her daintiness, will look with hostility in her eyes against her beloved husband, her sons, and her daughters. ⁵⁷ She will eat her afterbirth and her newborn children secretly—since there will be nothing left—on account of the siege and distress with which your enemy will oppress you in your cities.”
⁵⁸ Reduction in Population“If you aren’t careful to observe all the words of this Law that have been written in this book, instructing you to fear this glorious and awesome name of the LORD your God, ⁵⁹ then he will inflict extraordinary plagues on you and your children, great and lasting plagues, and severe and lasting illnesses. ⁶⁰ He will inflict on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they won’t be curable. ⁶¹ Moreover, the LORD will inflict you with illnesses and plagues that were not written in this Book of the Law, until you are exterminated. ⁶² Because you will not have obeyed the LORD your God, very few of you will be left—instead of you being as numerous as the stars in the heavens. ⁶³ Just as the LORD delighted to prosper and increase you, so now the LORD will delight to destroy, exterminate, and banish you from the land that you are about to enter to possess.”
⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. ⁶⁶ You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread and what you’ll see. ⁶⁸ Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

⁹ After they moved it, the LORD moved against the town, causing a very great panic. He struck the men of the town, from young to old with tumors of the groin.

⁹ But they forgot the LORD their God, so he handed them over to the domination of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into domination by the Philistines and by the king of Moab, and Israel fought against them.

²⁰ but if you refuse and rebel, you’ll be devoured by the sword, because the LORD has spoken.”

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.

⁸ but wrath and fury for those who in their selfish pride refuse to believe the truth and practice wickedness instead. ⁹ There will be suffering and anguish for every human being who practices doing evil, for Jews first and for Greeks as well.

¹³ Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid! Stand still and watch how the LORD will deliver you today, because you will never again see the Egyptians whom you’re looking at today.

³¹ When Israel saw the great force by which the LORD had acted against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed the LORD and Moses his servant.

⁷ Now stand up and I’ll pass judgment on you in light of the LORD’s righteous acts that he did for you and your ancestors.

¹⁶ “Be quiet!” Samuel said. “I’ll tell you what the LORD told me last night.”
Saul told him, “Speak.”

¹² Later that day, Joshua spoke to the LORD while the LORD was delivering the Amorites to the Israelis. This is what he said in the presence of Israel: “Sun, be still over Gibeon Moon, stand in place in the Aijalon Valley”

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. ¹⁰ While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines approached to attack Israel. But that day the LORD thundered against the Philistines and threw them into panic, and they were defeated before Israel.

⁷ The LORD told Samuel, “Listen to the people in all that they say to you. In fact, it’s not you they have rejected, but rather they have rejected me from being their king.

¹ On Fools Like snowfall in summer or rain at harvest time, so honor is inappropriate for a fool.

¹ The Destiny of the JudgedThen the LORD told me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn’t be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!

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.

²³ When Moses stretched out his staff toward heaven, the LORD sent thunder and hail, and lightning struck the earth. The LORD rained hail on the land of Egypt.
²⁴ There was very heavy hail, and lightning was flashing continuously in the midst of the hail. There had not been anything like it in the land of Egypt since it had become a nation. ²⁵ The hail struck everything, including people and animals, outside in the fields throughout the land of Egypt. The hail struck all the vegetation of the fields and shattered all the trees in the orchards.

⁹ Less than three days later, all of the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered together on the twentieth day of the ninth month. Everyone sat in the plaza of the Temple of God, trembling because of everything that was happening, and also because it was raining heavily.

¹² Then they believed his word and sung his praise. ¹³ But they quickly forgot his deeds and did not wait for his counsel.

⁵ And if anyone should want to hurt them, fire comes out of their mouths and burns up their enemies. If anyone wants to hurt them, he must be killed in this manner. 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.

⁷ Now then, return the man’s wife. As a matter of fact, he’s a prophet and can intercede for you so you’ll live. But if you don’t return her, be aware that you and all who are yours will certainly die.”

²⁸ Pray to the LORD! There has been enough of God’s thunder and hail! I’ll let you go, and you need not stay any longer.”

¹⁷ Now, please forgive my sin only this time, and pray to the LORD your God that he would at least remove this from me.”

⁵ Samuel said, “Bring all Israel together at Mizpah, and I’ll pray to the LORD on your behalf.”

⁸ The Israelis told Samuel, “Don’t stop crying out to the LORD our God for us that he may deliver us from the hand of the Philistines.”

²³ Now as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. I’ll also instruct you in the way that is good and right.

⁸ So take seven bulls and seven rams and bring them to my servant Job. And bring a whole burnt offering for yourselves and my servant Job will pray for you. I’ll encourage him by not responding as your disgraceful folly deserves, since you didn’t speak about me correctly as did my servant Job.

⁹ “And now, go ahead and implore God by saying, ‘Be gracious to us.’ Will he receive you favorably and accept offerings like that from your hand?” asks the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

²⁴ Simon answered, “Both of you pray to the Lord for me that none of the things you have said will happen to me.”

¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will save the person who is sick. The Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.

¹⁹ They told Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but don’t let God speak with us, or we may die.
²⁰ Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid, for God has come to test you, so that you may fear him in order that you don’t sin.”

¹⁶ Be careful! Otherwise, your hearts will deceive you and you will turn away to serve other gods and worship them.

²⁹ because I know that after my death, you’ll surely act wickedly and turn from the road that I’ve instructed you. As a result, evil will fall on you in days to come, because you’ll act wickedly in the sight of the LORD, causing him to become angry due to your behavior.”

⁶ Stand very strong, then, so you can obey and carry out everything written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning neither to the right nor to the left of it.

⁴ How blessed is that strong person who places his trust in the LORD, and who has not acknowledged the proud nor resorted to lies.

³ I will not even think about doing anything lawless; I hate to do evil deeds; I will have none of it.

⁵ But for those who choose their own devious paths, the LORD will lead them away, along with those who practice evil. Peace be upon Israel.

¹ God Contemplates Divorcing Israel “When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, will the first husband return to her again? The land would be deeply polluted, would it not? Since you have committed fornication with many lovers, would you now return to me?” declares the LORD.

¹⁶ But do this gently and respectfully, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak evil of your good conduct in the Messiah will be ashamed of slandering you.

²¹ They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I’ll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I’ll provoke them to anger.

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.

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.’” ²⁴ “Look! You and your work are less than nothing; whoever finds you pleasing is disgusting.”

²⁹ See, none of them exist, and their deeds are nothing. Their metal images are only wind and confusion.’”

⁹ A Rebuke to Idol WorshipNow, all the forming of images means nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their own witnesses cannot see, and they know nothing. So they will be put to shame.
¹⁰ Who would shape a god or cast an image that profits nothing?

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.

⁷ And they lift it on their shoulders, carry it, set it up in its place, and there it stands. It cannot move from that spot. One may even call to it, but it cannot answer nor save him from his distress.

⁵ This is what the LORD says: “What did your ancestors find wrong with me that they left me, and pursued worthless things, and so they became worthless?

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.”

⁸ Everyone is stupid and senseless. They follow worthless instruction from a piece of wood!

¹⁵ They’re worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they’ll perish.

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.

¹⁹ LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in a time of difficulty, to you the nations will come, and from the ends of the earth they’ll say, “Surely our ancestors inherited deception, things that are worthless, and in which there is no profit.”

⁸ Those who cling to vain idols leave behind the gracious love that could have been theirs.

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.

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.

¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intention to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your anger and change your mind about the calamity against your people.

¹³ Moses Intercedes for IsraelBut Moses responded to the LORD, “When Egypt hears that you’ve brought this people out from among them with a mighty demonstration of power, ¹⁴ they’ll also proclaim to the inhabitants of this land that they’ve heard you’re among this people, LORD, whom they’ve seen face to face, since your cloud stands guard over them. You’ve guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ But if you slaughter this people all at the same time, then the nations who heard about your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘The LORD slaughtered this people in the wilderness because he wasn’t able to bring them to the land that he promised them.’
¹⁷ “Now, let the power of the LORD be magnified, just as you promised when you said, ¹⁸ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he won’t acquit the guilty. He recalls the iniquity of fathers to the third and fourth generation.’
¹⁹ “Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people, according to your great, faithful love, in the same way that you’ve carried this people from Egypt to this place.”

⁷ The LORD Keeps His Covenant“It wasn’t because you were more numerous than other people of the earth that the LORD committed himself to you and chose you. In fact, you were the least numerous of all the peoples. ⁸ But the LORD loved you and kept his oath that he made to your ancestors. The LORD brought you out with great power from slavery, from the control of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

⁵ On the contrary, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you to confirm what the LORD promised by an oath to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

² because you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD chose to make you his precious possession from among all the peoples of the earth.”

¹⁷ When that happens, my anger will burn against them, because they will have abandoned me. I’ll hide my face from them, they will be consumed, and many evils and distresses will find them. When this happens, they will say, ‘These troubles have happened to us because God isn’t among us.’

²⁶ “I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race, ²⁷ if it weren’t for dreading the taunting of their enemies— otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say, “Our power is great. It isn’t the LORD who made all of this happen.”’”

⁹ The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of this, will surround us, and eliminate us from the earth! Then what will you do about your great reputation?”

¹³ I will reside among the Israelis and will never abandon my people Israel.”

¹⁴ I will abandon the survivors of my heritage and hand them over to their enemies. They will become war booty and spoil to all of their enemies,

⁹ David Addresses Solomon Directly“Now as for you, my son Solomon, get to know the God of your father. Serve him with a sound heart and a devoted soul, because the LORD is searching every heart, every plan and thought. He will be found by you, assuming you are seeking him, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you forever.

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.

¹⁴ For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage.

⁸ He delivered for the sake of his name, to make his power known.

³⁵ ‘because I will defend this city and deliver it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David!’”

¹⁷ “As for the poor, the needy, those seeking water— when there is none and their tongues are parched from thirst— I, the LORD, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, won’t abandon them.

¹⁶ I’ll help the blind walk, even on a road they do not know; I’ll guide them in directions they do not know. I’ll turn the dark places into light in front of them, and the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I won’t abandon them.

²⁵ “I, I am the one who blots out your transgression for my own sake, and I’ll remember your sins no more.

¹¹ For my own sake—Yes, for my own sake!—I’m doing it; indeed, how can I be profaned? Furthermore, I won’t give my glory to another.”

⁷ The People Cry for HelpLORD, even though our iniquities testify against us, do something for the sake of your name. Indeed, our apostasies are many, and we have sinned against you.

²¹ For the sake of your name don’t despise us. Don’t dishonor your glorious throne. Remember, don’t break your covenant with us!

²⁴ “Haven’t you noticed what these people have been saying?—‘The LORD rejected the two families that he had chosen!’ They have contempt for my people and no longer consider them a nation. ²⁵ This is what the LORD says: ‘If I had not established my covenant for day and night and the laws that govern the heavens and earth, ²⁶ then I might reject the descendants of Jacob and my servant David by not taking some of his descendants as rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, I’ll restore their fortunes, and I’ll have compassion on them.’”

³¹ Indeed, the Lord will not always reject us— ³² though he causes grief, his compassion abounds according to his gracious love.

²⁰ So why have you completely forgotten us, forsaking us for so long?

⁹ I did this so my reputation might not be tarnished among the nations where they were living, among whom I made myself known in their presence when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴ I did this so my reputation wouldn’t be tarnished among the nations in whose presence I had brought them out.

² “I’ve loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’
“Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the LORD, “yet I loved Jacob,

²⁶ Yes, Father, because this is what was pleasing to you.

¹⁶ “You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. I have appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

¹³ So it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
¹⁴ What can we say, then? God is not unrighteous, is he? Of course not! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses, “I will be merciful to the person I want to be merciful to, and I will be kind to the person I want to be kind to.” ¹⁶ Therefore, God’s choice does not depend on a person’s will or effort, but on God himself, who shows mercy. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says about Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for this very purpose, to demonstrate my power through you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
¹⁸ Therefore, God has mercy on whomever he chooses, and he hardens the heart of whomever he chooses.

²⁹ For God’s gifts and calling never change.

⁷ For who makes you superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not receive it?

⁶ so that we would praise his glorious grace that he gave us in the Beloved One.

¹² so that we who had already fixed our hope on the Messiah might live for his praise and glory.

⁶ I am convinced of this, that the one who began a good action among you will bring it to completion by the Day of the Messiah Jesus.

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.”

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people to be his very own and to proclaim the wonderful deeds of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

³⁶ then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. Indeed, teach them the best way to live and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as an inheritance.

²⁷ then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel. Indeed, teach them the best way to live and send rain on your land that you have given to your people as an inheritance.

¹¹ Come, children, listen to me, and I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

¹¹ I have directed you in the way of wisdom, and I have led you along straight paths.

¹⁰ The Teacher searched to find appropriate expressions, and what is written here is right and truthful.

¹⁶ Israel Refuses to RepentThis is what the LORD says: “Stand beside the roads and watch. Ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is. Walk in it and find rest for yourselves. But they said, ‘We won’t walk in it!’

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer to God for him was being offered by the assembly.

²⁰ I never shrank from telling you anything that would help you nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house.

⁹ For God, whom I serve with my spirit by preaching the gospel about his Son, is my witness how constantly I mention you

⁹ The Messiah is Above AllFor this reason, since the day we heard about this, we have not stopped praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will with respect to all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

²⁸ It is he whom we proclaim as we admonish and wisely teach everyone, so that we may present everyone mature in the Messiah.

¹⁰ We pray very hard night and day that we may see you again face to face, so that we may equip you with whatever is lacking in your faith.

³ Paul’s Advice for TimothyI constantly thank my God—whom I serve with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you in my prayers night and day,

¹³ The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. I’ll see the blood and pass over you. There will be no plague to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

²¹ He is the one you are to praise, because he is, your God who carried out those great and awesome things for you that you witnessed.

¹³ “After all that has happened to us because of our evil behavior, and because of our great sin—considering that you our God have punished us less than our iniquities deserve and have given us this deliverance— ¹⁴ should we violate your commandments by intermarrying with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you had consumed us, with not even a remnant surviving to escape?

²⁸ He has commanded mankind: ‘To fear the Lord—that is wisdom; to move away from evil—that is understanding.’”

¹⁰ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; sound understanding belongs to those who practice it. Praise of God endures forever.

⁸⁰ May my heart be blameless with respect to your statutes so that I may not become ashamed.

² Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues formed joyful shouts. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.” ³ The great things that the LORD has done for us gladden us.

⁷ The Major ThemeThe fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

¹³ Let the conclusion of all of these thoughts be heard: Fear God and obey his commandments, for this is what it means to be human.

¹² They have the lyre and harp, the tambourine and flute, as well as wine at their festivals, but they don’t respect what the LORD is doing, nor do they consider his actions.

⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathaniel coming toward him and said about him, “Look, a genuine Israeli, in whom there is no deceit!”

¹ Dedicate Your Lives to GodI therefore urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercies, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices that are holy and pleasing to God, for this is the reasonable way for you to worship.

²⁹ For “our God is an all-consuming fire.”

³⁶ “The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone.

¹⁵ Israel’s RebellionJacob dined until satisfied; Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. He grew fat, coarse, and gross, so that he abandoned the God who made him and spurned the Rock that was his salvation. ¹⁶ They provoked him to jealousy over foreigners and to anger over detestable things. ¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons— not to the real God— gods whom they didn’t know, new neighbors who had recently appeared, whom your ancestors never feared. ¹⁸ You neglected the Rock that fathered you; you abandoned God, who was awaiting your birth.
¹⁹ The LORD’s ResponseThe LORD saw it and became jealous, provoked by his sons and daughters. ²⁰ So he said: “Let me hide my face from them. I will observe what their end will be, because they are a perverted generation, children within whom there is no loyalty. ²¹ They provoked me to jealousy over non-gods, and to be angry over their vanity. Now I’ll provoke them to jealousy over a non-people; and over a foolish nation I’ll provoke them to anger. ²² For a fire breaks out in my anger— burning to the deepest part of the afterlife, consuming the earth and its produce and igniting the foundations of the mountains. ²³ I’ll bury them in misfortunes and bring them to an end with my arrows. ²⁴ Emaciated from famine, feverish from plague, and destroyed by bitterness, I’ll send fanged beasts against them, along with poisonous snakes that glide through the dust. ²⁵ Outside, the sword will cause bereavement; within, there will be terror for the young man and virgin alike, also for the nursing infant and the aged man.” ²⁶ “I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race, ²⁷ if it weren’t for dreading the taunting of their enemies— otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say, “Our power is great. It isn’t the LORD who made all of this happen.”’”
²⁸ Moses Warns IsraelThey are a nation devoid of purpose and without insight. ²⁹ O, that they were wise to understand this and consider their future! ³⁰ How can one person chase a thousand of them and two put a myriad to flight, unless their Rock delivers them and the LORD gives them up? ³¹ For their rock isn’t like our Rock, as even our enemies admit. ³² Instead, their vine is from the vines of Sodom and the vineyards of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous, their clusters bitter. ³³ Their wine is the venom of serpents, a poisonous cobra.
³⁴ The LORD’s Response“Is this not kept in reserve, sealed up with me in my treasury? ³⁵ To me belong vengeance and recompense. In due time their feet will slip, because their time of calamity is near and the things prepared for them draw near. ³⁶ For the LORD will vindicate his people and bring comfort to his servants, because he will observe that their power has waned, when neither prisoner nor free person remain. ³⁷ “He will say, ‘Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge? ³⁸ Who ate the fat of their offerings and drank the wine that was their drink offering? Let them rise and help you and be your hiding place!’ ³⁹ “Look now! I AM, and there is no other god besides me. I myself cause death and I sustain life; I wound severely and I also heal; from my power no one can deliver. ⁴⁰ “I solemnly swear to heaven— I say ‘As certainly as I’m alive and living forever, ⁴¹ I’ll whet my shining sword, with my hands in firm grasp of judgment. I’ll show vengeance on my adversary and repay those who keep on hating me. ⁴² I’ll make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword will devour flesh, along with the blood of the slain, and I’ll take their enemy leaders captive.’ ⁴³ “Sing for joy, nations! Sing for joy, people who belong to him! For he’ll avenge the blood of his servants, turn on his adversary, and cleanse both his land and his people.”
⁴⁴ Moses’ Final CounselSo Moses and Nun’s son Joshua came and recited all the words of this song while the people were assembled.

¹ Saul Killed by the Philistines
The Philistines fought against Israel, and the army of Israel fled before the Philistines. They fell slain on Mount Gilboa. ² The Philistines pursued Saul and his sons. The Philistines struck down Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchi-shua, Saul’s sons. ³ The heaviest fighting was directed toward Saul, and when the bowmen who were shooting located Saul, he was severely wounded by them.
⁴ Saul told his armor bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised people will come and run me through and make sport of me.” But his armor bearer did not want to do it because he was very frightened, so Saul took the sword and fell on it. ⁵ When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.

³ From now on they will say, ‘We have no king, because we did not fear the LORD— and what would a king do for us?’