1 Samuel 15 Cross References - MSB

¹ Then Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of the LORD. ² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt. ³ Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” ⁴ So Saul summoned the troops and numbered them at Telaim—200,000 foot soldiers and 10,000 men of Judah. ⁵ Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. ⁶ And he warned the Kenites, “Since you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt, go on and get away from the Amalekites. Otherwise I will sweep you away with them.” So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites. ⁷ Then Saul struck down the Amalekites all the way from Havilah to Shur, which is east of Egypt. ⁸ He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword. ⁹ Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to destroy them, but they devoted to destruction all that was despised and worthless. ¹⁰ Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying, ¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night. ¹² Early in the morning Samuel got up to confront Saul, but he was told, “Saul has gone to Carmel, and behold, he has set up a monument for himself and has turned and gone down to Gilgal.” ¹³ When Samuel reached him, Saul said to him, “May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.” ¹⁴ But Samuel replied, “Then what is this bleating of sheep and lowing of cattle that I hear?” ¹⁵ Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but the rest we devoted to destruction.” ¹⁶ “Stop!” exclaimed Samuel. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied. ¹⁷ And Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, have you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel ¹⁸ and sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and devote to destruction the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have wiped them out.’ ¹⁹ So why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you rush upon the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?” ²⁰ “But I did obey the LORD,” Saul replied. “I went on the mission that the LORD gave me. I brought back Agag king of Amalek and devoted the Amalekites to destruction. ²¹ The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.” ²² But Samuel declared: “Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to His voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and attentiveness is better than the fat of rams. ²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.” ²⁴ Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have transgressed the LORD’s commandment and your instructions, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. ²⁵ Now therefore, please forgive my sin and return with me so I can worship the LORD.” ²⁶ “I will not return with you,” Samuel replied. “For you have rejected the word of the LORD, and He has rejected you as king over Israel.” ²⁷ As Samuel turned to go, Saul grabbed the hem of his robe, and it tore. ²⁸ So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. ²⁹ Moreover, the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.” ³⁰ “I have sinned,” Saul replied. “Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.” ³¹ So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD. ³² Then Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites.” Agag came to him cheerfully, for he thought, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” ³³ But Samuel declared: “As your sword has made women childless, so your mother will be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the LORD at Gilgal. ³⁴ Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul. ³⁵ And to the day of his death, Samuel never again visited Saul. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

¹⁶ “At this time tomorrow I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you are to anoint him leader over My people Israel; he will save them from the hand of the Philistines. For I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to Me.”

¹ Then Samuel took a flask of oil, poured it on Saul’s head, kissed him, and said, “Has not the LORD anointed you ruler over His inheritance?

¹⁴ If you fear the LORD and serve Him and obey His voice, and if you do not rebel against the command of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the LORD your God, then all will be well.

¹³ “You have acted foolishly,” Samuel declared. “You have not kept the command that the LORD your God gave you; if you had, the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.

¹⁶ “Stop!” exclaimed Samuel. “Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.” “Tell me,” Saul replied. ¹⁷ And Samuel said, “Although you were once small in your own eyes, have you not become the head of the tribes of Israel? The LORD anointed you king over Israel ¹⁸ and sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and devote to destruction the sinful Amalekites. Fight against them until you have wiped them out.’

² The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; His word was on my tongue. ³ The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, ‘He who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God,

¹² Above all, may the LORD give you insight and understanding when He puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the Law of the LORD your God. ¹³ Then you will succeed, if you carefully follow the statutes and ordinances that the LORD commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged.

¹⁰ Therefore be wise, O kings; be admonished, O judges of the earth. ¹¹ Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

⁸ After this, the Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. ⁹ So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.” ¹⁰ Joshua did as Moses had instructed him and fought against the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. ¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed. ¹² When Moses’ hands grew heavy, they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held his hands up, one on each side, so that his hands remained steady until the sun went down. ¹³ So Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his army with the sword. ¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as a reminder and recite it to Joshua, because I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” ¹⁵ And Moses built an altar and named it The LORD Is My Banner. ¹⁶ “Indeed,” he said, “a hand was lifted up toward the throne of the LORD. The LORD will war against Amalek from generation to generation.”

²⁰ Then Balaam saw Amalek and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Amalek was first among the nations, but his end is destruction.”

¹⁷ Remember what the Amalekites did to you along your way from Egypt, ¹⁸ how they met you on your journey when you were tired and weary, and they attacked all your stragglers; they had no fear of God. ¹⁹ When the LORD your God gives you rest from the enemies around you in the land that He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you are to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!

³⁴ No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”

² But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.

⁷ The LORD has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: “I will never forget any of their deeds.

¹⁷ And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. ¹⁸ Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.

⁵ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

²⁸ Nothing that a man sets apart to the LORD from all he owns—whether a man, an animal, or his inherited land—can be sold or redeemed; everything so devoted is most holy to the LORD. ²⁹ No person set apart for destruction may be ransomed; he must surely be put to death.

¹⁷ So now, kill all the boys, as well as every woman who has had relations with a man,

¹⁵ you must surely put the inhabitants of that city to the sword. Devote to destruction all its people and livestock. ¹⁶ And you are to gather all its plunder in the middle of the public square, and completely burn the city and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. The city must remain a mound of ruins forever, never to be rebuilt.

¹⁶ However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷ For you must devote them to complete destruction—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you, ¹⁸ so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God.

¹⁷ Now the city and everything in it must be devoted to the LORD for destruction. Only Rahab the prostitute and all those with her in her house will live, because she hid the spies we sent. ¹⁸ But keep away from the things devoted to destruction, lest you yourself be set apart for destruction. If you take any of these, you will set apart the camp of Israel for destruction and bring disaster upon it. ¹⁹ For all the silver and gold and all the articles of bronze and iron are holy to the LORD; they must go into His treasury.” ²⁰ So when the rams’ horns sounded, the people shouted. When they heard the blast of the horn, the people gave a great shout, and the wall collapsed. Then all the people charged straight into the city and captured it. ²¹ At the edge of the sword they devoted to destruction everything in the city—man and woman, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys.

¹⁹ He also put to the sword Nob, the city of the priests, with its men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.

²¹ Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the iniquities of their forefathers. They will never rise up to possess a land or cover the earth with their cities. ²² “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.

²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. ²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.

²⁴ Ziph, Telem, Bealoth,

⁸ And when Saul numbered them at Bezek, there were 300,000 Israelites and 30,000 men of Judah.

¹⁵ Then Samuel set out from Gilgal and went up to Gibeah in Benjamin. And Saul numbered the troops who were with him, about six hundred men.

²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

¹² Then the two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—a son-in-law, your sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, ¹³ because we are about to destroy this place. For the outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that He has sent us to destroy it.” ¹⁴ So Lot went out and spoke to the sons-in-law who were pledged in marriage to his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. ¹⁵ At daybreak the angels hurried Lot along, saying, “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” ¹⁶ But when Lot hesitated, the men grabbed his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters. And they led them safely out of the city, because of the LORD’s compassion for them.

⁹ And Jethro rejoiced over all the good things the LORD had done for Israel, whom He had rescued from the hand of the Egyptians. ¹⁰ Jethro declared, “Blessed be the LORD, who has delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from the hand of the Egyptians.

¹⁹ Now listen to me; I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their causes to Him.

²⁹ Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of Moses’ father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, “We are setting out for the place of which the LORD said: ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the LORD has promised good things to Israel.” ³⁰ “I will not go,” Hobab replied. “Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people.” ³¹ “Please do not leave us,” Moses said, “since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes. ³² If you come with us, we will share with you whatever good things the LORD gives us.”

²⁶ And he warned the congregation, “Move away now from the tents of these wicked men. Do not touch anything that belongs to them, or you will be swept away because of all their sins.” ²⁷ So they moved away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Meanwhile, Dathan and Abiram had come out and stood at the entrances to their tents with their wives and children and infants.

³⁴ At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled, saying, “The earth may swallow us too!”

²¹ Next he saw the Kenites and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in a cliff. ²² Yet Kain will be destroyed when Asshur takes you captive.”

¹⁶ Now the descendants of Moses’ father-in-law, the Kenite, went up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah in the Negev near Arad. They went to live among the people.

¹¹ Now Heber the Kenite had moved away from the Kenites, the descendants of Hobab the father-in-law of Moses, and had pitched his tent by the great tree of Zaanannim, which was near Kedesh.

²⁴ Most blessed among women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women.

¹⁰ who would ask him, “What have you raided today?” And David would reply, “The Negev of Judah,” or “The Negev of Jerahmeel,” or “The Negev of the Kenites.”

⁵⁵ and the clans of the scribes who lived at Jabez—the Tirathites, Shimeathites, and Sucathites. These are the Kenites who came from Hammath, the father of the house of Rechab.

⁶ Leave your folly behind, and you will live; walk in the way of understanding.”

⁴⁰ With many other words he testified, and he urged them, “Be saved from this corrupt generation.”

¹⁷ “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

¹⁶ May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he has often refreshed me and was unashamed of my chains.

¹⁴ And they will say: “The fruit of your soul’s desire has departed from you; all your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be seen again.”

¹¹ The name of the first river is Pishon; it winds through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.

⁷ Now the angel of the LORD found Hagar by a spring of water in the desert—the spring along the road to Shur.

¹⁸ Ishmael’s descendants settled from Havilah to Shur, which is near the border of Egypt as you go toward Asshur. And they lived in hostility toward all their brothers.

²² Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.

⁴⁸ He fought valiantly and defeated the Amalekites, delivering Israel from the hands of its plunderers.

⁸ Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these people had inhabited the land extending to Shur and Egypt.)

³⁰ Indeed, the evil man is spared from the day of calamity, delivered from the day of wrath.

¹³ Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow.

⁷ Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.

³⁹ And they captured Debir, its king, and all its villages. They put them to the sword and devoted to destruction everyone in the city, leaving no survivors. Joshua did to Debir and its king as he had done to Hebron and as he had done to Libnah and its king.

¹² Joshua captured all these kings and their cities and put them to the sword. He devoted them to destruction, as Moses the LORD’s servant had commanded.

³ Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

⁸ Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these people had inhabited the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) ⁹ Whenever David attacked a territory, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but he took the flocks and herds, the donkeys, camels, and clothing. Then he would return to Achish,

¹ On the third day David and his men arrived in Ziklag, and the Amalekites had raided the Negev, attacked Ziklag, and burned it down.

³⁰ The rest of them fled into the city of Aphek, where the wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the remaining men. Ben-hadad also fled to the city and hid in an inner room.

³⁴ Ben-hadad said to him, “I will restore the cities my father took from your father; you may set up your own marketplaces in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.” “By this treaty I release you,” Ahab replied. So he made a treaty with him and sent him away. ³⁵ Meanwhile, by the word of the LORD, one of the sons of the prophets said to his companion, “Strike me, please!” But the man refused to strike him. ³⁶ Then the prophet said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, as soon as you depart from me a lion will kill you.” And when he left, a lion found him and killed him. ³⁷ Then the prophet found another man and said, “Strike me, please!” So the man struck him and wounded him, ³⁸ and the prophet went and waited on the road for the king, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹ As the king passed by, he cried out to the king: “Your servant had marched out into the middle of the battle, when suddenly a man came over with a captive and told me, ‘Guard this man! If he goes missing for any reason, your life will be exchanged for his life, or you will weigh out a talent of silver.’ ⁴⁰ But while your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” And the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you have pronounced it on yourself.” ⁴¹ Then the prophet quickly removed the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴² And the prophet said to the king, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have let slip from your hand the man I had devoted to destruction, your life will be exchanged for his life, and your people for his people.’”

¹ After these events, King Xerxes honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, elevating him to a position above all the princes who were with him.

²¹ When I saw among the spoils a beautiful cloak from Shinar, two hundred shekels of silver, and a bar of gold weighing fifty shekels, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.”

¹⁵ Saul answered, “The troops brought them from the Amalekites; they spared the best sheep and cattle to sacrifice to the LORD your God, but the rest we devoted to destruction.”

¹⁹ So why did you not obey the LORD? Why did you rush upon the plunder and do evil in the sight of the LORD?”

¹³ When those carrying the ark of the LORD had advanced six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.

⁶ And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

¹⁶ “This is what the whole congregation of the LORD says: ‘What is this breach of faith you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the LORD and building for yourselves an altar, that you might rebel against the LORD this day?

²³ As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.

⁹ Saul and his troops spared Agag, along with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs, and the best of everything else. They were unwilling to destroy them, but they devoted to destruction all that was despised and worthless.

³⁵ And to the day of his death, Samuel never again visited Saul. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

¹⁶ But when the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

⁶ But if indeed you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep the commandments and statutes I have set before you, and if you go off to serve and worship other gods, ⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

³ The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and well-doing.

⁴¹ Again and again they tested God and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁵⁷ They turned back and were faithless like their fathers, twisted like a faulty bow.

⁴ In return for my love they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

⁴ The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind: “You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.”

¹³⁶ My eyes shed streams of tears because Your law is not obeyed.

⁵ But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.

¹ Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.

¹⁸ Let them come quickly and take up a lament over us, that our eyes may overflow with tears, and our eyelids may gush with water.

¹⁷ But if you do not listen, I will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

⁷ At any time I might announce that a nation or kingdom will be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed. ⁸ But if that nation I warned turns from its evil, then I will relent of the disaster I had planned to bring. ⁹ And if at another time I announce that I will build up and establish a nation or kingdom, ¹⁰ and if it does evil in My sight and does not listen to My voice, then I will relent of the good I had intended for it.

³ So the LORD relented from this plan. “It will not happen,” He said.

¹⁰ When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.

² So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster.

⁶ and those who turn back from following the LORD, neither seeking the LORD nor inquiring of Him.”

⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you,

¹³ But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.

¹² In those days Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and He spent the night in prayer to God.

⁴¹ As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it ⁴² and said, “If only you had known, even you, at least on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you when your enemies will barricade you and surround you and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will level you to the ground—you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

¹ I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. ² I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

³⁸ But the righteous will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”

⁸ Thus the Israelites did as Joshua had commanded them. They took up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, one for each tribe of Israel, just as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them to the camp, where they set them down. ⁹ Joshua also set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan, in the place where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant stood. And the stones are there to this day.

⁵⁵ Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,

¹² Afterward, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”

² Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. He was a very wealthy man with a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.

¹⁸ During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.

⁴² So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the summit of Carmel, bent down on the ground, and put his face between his knees.

¹² And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹⁹ and he blessed Abram and said: “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

² said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you and about which I heard you utter a curse—I have the silver here with me; I took it.” Then his mother said, “Blessed be my son by the LORD!”

¹⁰ Then Boaz said, “May the LORD bless you, my daughter. You have shown more kindness now than before, because you have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.

¹⁰ Just as he finished offering the burnt offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to greet him.

¹¹ “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.

² Let another praise you, and not your own mouth—a stranger, and not your own lips.

¹³ He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

¹³ There is a generation—how haughty are their eyes and pretentious are their glances—

³¹ Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her at the gates.

¹⁰ So you also, when you have done everything commanded of you, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

² For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin.

¹⁶ To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips? ¹⁷ For you hate My instruction and cast My words behind you. ¹⁸ When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers. ¹⁹ You unleash your mouth for evil and unharness your tongue for deceit. ²⁰ You sit and malign your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. ²¹ You have done these things, and I kept silent; you thought I was just like you. But now I rebuke you and accuse you to your face.

¹⁸ Now what will you gain on your way to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile? What will you gain on your way to Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates? ¹⁹ Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the LORD your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord GOD of Hosts.

²² Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. ²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,

³⁴ Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things ³⁵ you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’ ³⁶ How unstable you are, constantly changing your ways! You will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria. ³⁷ Moreover, you will leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not prosper by their help.”

¹³ “Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’ ¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts? ¹⁵ So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

²² His master replied, ‘You wicked servant, I will judge you by your own words. So you knew that I am a harsh man, withdrawing what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?

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

⁵ Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.

¹² And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” ¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”

²² “Do not be enraged, my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil. ²³ They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’

²¹ The troops took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best of the things devoted to destruction, in order to sacrifice them to the LORD your God at Gilgal.”

³³ if I have covered my transgressions like Adam by hiding my guilt in my heart,

⁸ And sending them to Bethlehem, he said: “Go and search carefully for the Child, and when you find Him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship Him.”

²⁹ But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

²⁷ As they were going down to the edge of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but you stay for a while, and I will reveal to you the word of God.” So the servant went on.

⁷ Now present yourselves, so that I may confront you before the LORD with all the righteous acts He has done for you and your fathers.

¹⁶ But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of the LORD?”

¹⁵ “Please, my Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house.”

²¹ Saul replied, “Am I not a Benjamite from the smallest tribe of Israel, and is not my clan the least of all the clans of Benjamin? So why would you say such a thing to me?”

²² So again they inquired of the LORD, “Has the man come here yet?” And the LORD replied, “Behold, he has hidden himself among the baggage.”

¹ Then Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over His people Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of the LORD. ² This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I witnessed what the Amalekites did to the Israelites when they ambushed them on their way up from Egypt. ³ Now go and attack the Amalekites and devote to destruction all that belongs to them. Do not spare them, but put to death men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”

¹ When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal, and he died.

⁴ Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

¹³ But the men of Sodom were wicked, sinning greatly against the LORD.

¹⁶ In the fourth generation your descendants will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

³⁸ As for the censers of those who sinned at the cost of their own lives, hammer them into sheets to overlay the altar, for these were presented before the LORD, and so have become holy. They will serve as a sign to the Israelites.”

³ Does not disaster come to the unjust and calamity to the workers of iniquity?

²⁹ The way of the LORD is a refuge to the upright, but destruction awaits those who do evil.

²¹ Disaster pursues sinners, but prosperity is the reward of the righteous.

³² So they rushed greedily to the plunder, taking sheep, cattle, and calves. They slaughtered them on the ground and ate meat with the blood still in it.

² And he did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

⁶ He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.

¹² And he did evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke for the LORD.

²⁷ He who is greedy for unjust gain brings trouble on his household, but he who hates bribes will live.

¹¹ Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD.

⁹ Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster! ¹⁰ You have plotted shame for your house by cutting off many peoples and forfeiting your life. ¹¹ For the stones will cry out from the wall, and the rafters will echo it from the woodwork. ¹² Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by iniquity!

¹⁰ because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

⁸ He captured Agag king of Amalek alive, but devoted all the others to destruction with the sword.

¹³ When Samuel reached him, Saul said to him, “May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”

⁹ ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am clean, with no iniquity in me.

⁵ For Job has declared, ‘I am righteous, yet God has deprived me of justice.

² “Do you think this is just? You say, ‘I am more righteous than God.’

⁸ Would you really annul My justice? Would you condemn Me to justify yourself?

²⁰ “All these I have kept from my youth,” said the young man. “What do I still lack?”

³ Because they were ignorant of God’s righteousness and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

¹³ Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”

⁵ Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶ Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. ⁷ Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll: ⁸ I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart.”

⁸ I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices, and your burnt offerings are ever before Me. ⁹ I have no need for a bull from your stall or goats from your pens,

¹⁶ For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

³ To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.

¹ Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.

¹¹ “What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. ¹² When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you—this trampling of My courts? ¹³ Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me—your New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations. I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly. ¹⁴ I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them. ¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you multiply your prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood. ¹⁶ Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil! ¹⁷ Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”

²² For when I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not merely command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices, ²³ but this is what I commanded them: Obey Me, and I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must walk in all the ways I have commanded you, so that it may go well with you.

⁴ which I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey Me, and do everything I command you, and you will be My people, and I will be your God.’

⁷ For from the time I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, I strongly warned them again and again, saying, ‘Obey My voice.’

¹³ So now, correct your ways and deeds, and obey the voice of the LORD your God, so that He might relent of the disaster He has pronounced against you.

⁶ For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

²¹ “I hate, I despise your feasts! I cannot stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. ²² Even though you offer Me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; for your peace offerings of fattened cattle I will have no regard. ²³ Take away from Me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. ²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

⁶ With what shall I come before the LORD when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? ⁷ Would the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I present my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? ⁸ He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

²⁴ leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

⁷ If only you had known the meaning of ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

²³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint, dill, and cumin. But you have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

³³ and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your soul and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

⁴ because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. ⁵ Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. ⁶ In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight. ⁷ Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God.’” ⁸ In the passage above He says, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them” (although they are offered according to the law). ⁹ Then He adds, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

¹⁹ Now while Laban was out shearing his sheep, Rachel stole her father’s household idols.

³⁴ Now Rachel had taken Laban’s household idols, put them in the saddlebag of her camel, and was sitting on them. And Laban searched everything in the tent but found nothing.

¹⁸ You must not allow a sorceress to live.

⁶ Whoever turns to mediums or spiritists to prostitute himself with them, I will also set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.

²⁷ A man or a woman who is a medium or spiritist must surely be put to death. They shall be stoned; their blood is upon them.’”

⁹ Only do not rebel against the LORD, and do not be afraid of the people of the land, for they will be like bread for us. Their protection has been removed, and the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them!”

⁷ Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the LORD.

²⁴ You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I came to know you.

¹⁰ Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery, ¹¹ casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead.

¹⁶ “This is what the whole congregation of the LORD says: ‘What is this breach of faith you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the LORD and building for yourselves an altar, that you might rebel against the LORD this day? ¹⁷ Was not the sin of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day? It even brought a plague upon the congregation of the LORD. ¹⁸ And now, would you turn away from the LORD? If you rebel today against the LORD, tomorrow He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel. ¹⁹ If indeed the land of your inheritance is unclean, then cross over to the land of the LORD’s possession, where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take possession of it among us. But do not rebel against the LORD or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God.

³⁰ Therefore, the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the LORD declares: Far be it from Me! For I will honor those who honor Me, but those who despise Me will be disdained.

¹⁴ If you fear the LORD and serve Him and obey His voice, and if you do not rebel against the command of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the LORD your God, then all will be well. ¹⁵ But if you disobey the LORD and rebel against His command, then the hand of the LORD will be against you as it was against your fathers.

¹⁴ But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought a man after His own heart and appointed him ruler over His people, because you have not kept the command of the LORD.”

¹ Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have selected from his sons a king for Myself.”

¹⁵ They rejected His statutes and the covenant He had made with their fathers, as well as the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and themselves became worthless, going after the surrounding nations that the LORD had commanded them not to imitate. ¹⁶ They abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves two cast idols of calves and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the host of heaven and served Baal. ¹⁷ They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger. ¹⁸ So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained, ¹⁹ and even Judah did not keep the commandments of the LORD their God, but lived according to the customs Israel had introduced. ²⁰ So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.

⁹ As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve Him wholeheartedly and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands the intent of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

³⁷ For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us and multiplies his words against God.”

¹¹ because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.

¹⁹ When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

³ Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists.

¹⁶ Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.’”

³² this is what the LORD says: ‘I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good that I will bring to My people, declares the LORD, for he has preached rebellion against the LORD.’”

⁵ And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them. ⁶ But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house. ⁷ But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious. ⁸ And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

¹⁶ What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

²⁰ idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions,

⁸ But to the cowardly and unbelieving and sinful and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

¹⁵ But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

¹⁷ And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

²⁷ Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron. “This time I have sinned,” he said. “The LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

¹⁶ Pharaoh quickly summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “I have sinned against the LORD your God and against you.

² You shall not follow the crowd in wrongdoing. When you testify in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd.

³⁴ “I have sinned,” Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “for I did not realize that you were standing in the road to confront me. And now, if this is displeasing in your sight, I will go back home.”

²⁹ Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’

³⁰ “I have sinned,” Saul replied. “Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.”

¹³ Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.

³⁴ because I greatly feared the crowds and the contempt of the clans terrified me, so that I kept silent and would not go outside—

²⁵ The fear of man is a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is set securely on high.

¹² “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass? ¹³ But you have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You live in terror all day long because of the fury of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. But where is the fury of the oppressor?

⁵ “Here he is,” replied King Zedekiah. “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.”

⁴ “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood,” he said. “What is that to us?” they replied. “You bear the responsibility.”

²⁰ Wanting to release Jesus, Pilate addressed them again, ²¹ but they kept shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” ²² A third time he said to them, “What evil has this man done? I have found in Him no offense worthy of death. So after I punish Him, I will release Him.” ²³ But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices for Jesus to be crucified. And their clamor and that of the chief priests prevailed. ²⁴ So Pilate sentenced that their demand be met. ²⁵ As they had requested, he released the one imprisoned for insurrection and murder, and handed Jesus over to their will.

¹⁰ Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹⁷ Now please forgive my sin once more and appeal to the LORD your God, that He may remove this death from me.”

³⁸ But Jacob replied, “My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left. If any harm comes to him on your journey, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.”

¹¹ Then their father Israel said to them, “If it must be so, then do this: Put some of the best products of the land in your packs and carry them down as a gift for the man—a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachios and almonds. ¹² Take double the silver with you so that you may return the silver that was put back into the mouths of your sacks. Perhaps it was a mistake. ¹³ Take your brother as well, and return to the man at once. ¹⁴ May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, that he may release your other brother along with Benjamin. As for me, if I am bereaved, I am bereaved.”

²³ For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the wickedness of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has rejected you as king.”

³¹ So Samuel went back with Saul, and Saul worshiped the LORD.

¹⁹ Hear, O earth! I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their own schemes, because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction.

⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

²⁸ As they approached the village where they were headed, He seemed to be going farther. ²⁹ But they pleaded with Him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So He went in to stay with them.

¹¹ Whoever greets such a person shares in his evil deeds.

³⁰ And Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing, tore it into twelve pieces, ³¹ and said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes.

⁷ The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts. ⁸ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world.

¹² So Jesse sent for his youngest son and brought him in. He was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Rise and anoint him, for he is the one.”

¹⁷ He has done exactly what He spoke through me: The LORD has torn the kingship out of your hand and given it to your neighbor David. ¹⁸ Because you did not obey the LORD or carry out His burning anger against Amalek, the LORD has done this to you today.

⁵ By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please. ⁶ So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.

¹⁷ This decision is the decree of the watchers, the verdict declared by the holy ones, so that the living will know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes, setting over it the lowliest of men.’

³² You will be driven away from mankind to live with the beasts of the field, and you will feed on grass like an ox. And seven times will pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.”

¹¹ Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed Me over to you is guilty of greater sin.”

²² After removing Saul, He raised up David as their king and testified about him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after My own heart; he will carry out My will in its entirety.’

¹ Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which is from God. The authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

²⁸ So tell them: As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you exactly as I heard you say. ²⁹ Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.

¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

²⁷ The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He drives out the enemy before you, giving the command, ‘Destroy him!’

¹¹ Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all.

¹¹ The LORD gives His people strength; the LORD blesses His people with peace.

³⁵ O God, You are awesome in Your sanctuary; the God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to His people. Blessed be God!

¹¹ So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”

²⁴ Surely they will say of Me, ‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.’” All who rage against Him will come to Him and be put to shame.

¹⁴ I, the LORD, have spoken; the time is coming, and I will act. I will not refrain or show pity, nor will I relent. I will judge you according to your ways and deeds,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁶ The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

⁹ But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.

¹³ I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

¹³ if we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.

² in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

¹⁸ Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.

¹³ Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

⁴ Look at the proud one; his soul is not upright—but the righteous will live by faith—

⁹ To some who trusted in their own righteousness and viewed others with contempt, He also told this parable: ¹⁰ “Two men went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. ¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ¹² I fast twice a week and pay tithes of all that I acquire.’ ¹³ But the tax collector stood at a distance, unwilling even to lift up his eyes to heaven. Instead, he beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ ¹⁴ I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

⁴⁴ How can you believe if you accept glory from one another, yet do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴³ For they loved praise from men more than praise from God.

⁵ having a form of godliness but denying its power. Turn away from such as these!

⁴⁴ “Whoever flees the panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For I will bring upon Moab the year of their punishment,” declares the LORD.

³ For while people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁷ As much as she has glorified herself and lived in luxury, give her the same measure of torment and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit as queen; I am not a widow and will never see grief.’

⁶ Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

¹¹ As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he lowered them, Amalek prevailed.

⁴⁵ Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.

⁷ On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, ⁸ followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted,

⁷ Then Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have gathered the scraps under my table. As I have done to them, so God has repaid me.” And they brought him to Jerusalem, where he died.

⁴⁰ Then Elijah ordered them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let a single one escape.” So they seized them, and Elijah brought them down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered them there.

⁶ The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood. It drips with fat—with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

¹⁰ Cursed is the one who is remiss in doing the work of the LORD, and cursed is he who withholds his sword from bloodshed.

² For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

¹³ For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

⁶ For they have spilled the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink, as they deserve.”

⁶ Give back to her as she has done to others; pay her back double for what she has done; mix her a double portion in her own cup.

¹⁷ Then he would return to Ramah because his home was there, and there he judged Israel and built an altar to the LORD.

⁴ When the messengers came to Gibeah of Saul and relayed these words in the hearing of the people, they all wept aloud.

²⁴ Then Saul stripped off his robes and also prophesied before Samuel. And he collapsed and lay naked all that day and night. That is why it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”

¹⁵⁸ I look on the faithless with loathing because they do not keep Your word.

¹ Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people. ² If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.

¹⁸ For as I have often told you before, and now say again even with tears: Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.