Ruth Cross References - MSB

¹ In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab. ² The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they entered the land of Moab and settled there. ³ Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons, ⁴ who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. And after they had lived in Moab about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband. ⁶ When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had attended to His people by providing them with food, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab. ⁷ Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah. ⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you loving devotion, as you have shown to your dead and to me. ⁹ May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.” And she kissed them as they wept aloud ¹⁰ and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” ¹¹ But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands? ¹² Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, ¹³ would you wait for them to grow up? Would you refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.” ¹⁴ Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵ “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.” ¹⁶ But Ruth replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.” ¹⁸ When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her. ¹⁹ So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole city was stirred because of them, and the women of the city exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?” ²⁰ “Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me. ²¹ I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.” ²² So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

¹ Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

¹ Now the famine was still severe in the land.

¹⁹ I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron. ²⁴ The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

³⁸ You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.

¹⁶ Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved them from the hands of those who plundered them. ¹⁷ Israel, however, did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commandments; they did not do as their fathers had done. ¹⁸ Whenever the LORD raised up a judge for the Israelites, He was with that judge and saved them from the hands of their enemies while the judge was still alive; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning under those who oppressed them and afflicted them.

⁸ After Jephthah, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel.

⁸ This man left the city of Bethlehem in Judah to settle where he could find a place. And as he traveled, he came to Micah’s house in the hill country of Ephraim.

¹ Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. ² But she was unfaithful to him and left him to return to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. After she had been there four months,

¹ During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

¹ Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was among the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As surely as the LORD lives—the God of Israel before whom I stand—there will be neither dew nor rain in these years except at my word!” ² Then a revelation from the LORD came to Elijah: ³ “Leave here, turn eastward, and hide yourself by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. ⁴ And you are to drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ⁵ So Elijah did what the LORD had told him, and he went and lived by the Brook of Cherith, east of the Jordan. ⁶ The ravens would bring him bread and meat in the morning and evening, and he would drink from the brook. ⁷ Some time later, however, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: ⁹ “Get up and go to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” ¹⁰ So Elijah got up and went to Zarephath. When he arrived at the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. Elijah called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, so that I may drink.” ¹¹ And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a piece of bread.” ¹² But she replied, “As surely as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. Look, I am gathering a couple of sticks to take home and prepare a meal for myself and my son, so that we may eat it and die.”

² So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria,

¹ Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the LORD has decreed a seven-year famine, and it has already come to the land.” ² So the woman had proceeded to do as the man of God had instructed. And she and her household lived as foreigners for seven years in the land of the Philistines.

¹⁶ He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.

³⁴ and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

¹ This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:

¹³ “Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast,

²¹ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?

¹⁰ The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails. ¹¹ Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

¹⁶ Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes—joy and gladness from the house of our God? ¹⁷ The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away. ¹⁸ How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering. ¹⁹ To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field. ²⁰ Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

⁶ “I beset all your cities with cleanness of teeth and all your towns with lack of bread, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.

¹⁹ So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

¹ Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

²¹ And Israel and the Philistines arrayed in formation against each other.

² But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

¹ Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”

¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.

⁶ For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

¹⁰ Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. ¹¹ No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

³ Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

³ No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even to the tenth generation.

¹ King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women. ² These women were from the nations about which the LORD had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

⁵ Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,

³⁹ See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

³⁰ If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments, ³¹ if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments, ³² I will attend to their transgression with the rod, and to their iniquity with stripes.

²¹ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”

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.

²⁵ Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died without having children. So he left his wife to his brother. ²⁶ The same thing happened to the second and third brothers, down to the seventh. ²⁷ And last of all, the woman also died.

¹² As He approached the town gate, He saw a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.

¹ Now the LORD attended to Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what He had promised.

²⁰ Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey, and if He will provide me with food to eat and clothes to wear,

¹⁵ Then he blessed Joseph and said: “May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

²⁵ And Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

¹⁶ Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

³¹ and they believed. And when they heard that the LORD had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain down bread from heaven for you. Each day the people are to go out and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test whether or not they will follow My instructions. ⁵ Then on the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on the other days.” ⁶ So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, “This evening you will know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,

²¹ So the LORD attended to Hannah, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.

¹⁴ He makes the grass grow for the livestock and provides crops for man to cultivate, bringing forth food from the earth: ¹⁵ wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

⁵ He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever.

¹⁵ I will bless her with abundant provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

¹⁵ The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in season.

⁷ He executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free,

¹⁴ He makes peace at your borders; He fills you with the finest wheat.

⁸ Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the bread that is my portion.

¹⁰ For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,

¹⁰ For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.

⁷ The coast will belong to the remnant of the house of Judah; there they will find pasture. They will lie down in the evening among the houses of Ashkelon, for the LORD their God will attend to them and restore their captives.

¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.

⁶⁸ “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people.

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.”

⁸ But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

¹² Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.

²⁷ Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own land.

¹⁰ and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

¹⁴ Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

³ At the end of seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to the king to appeal for her house and her land.

¹⁵ But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!” ¹⁶ The people replied, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! ¹⁷ For the LORD our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us throughout our journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. ¹⁸ And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!” ¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins. ²⁰ If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you.” ²¹ “No!” replied the people. “We will serve the LORD!” ²² Then Joshua told them, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “We are witnesses!” they said. ²³ “Now, therefore,” he said, “get rid of the foreign gods among you and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” ²⁴ So the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.” ²⁵ On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he established for them a statute and ordinance. ²⁶ Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of the LORD. ²⁷ And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.” ²⁸ Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance.

⁵ both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.

²⁰ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”

²⁵ Large crowds were now traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple. ²⁸ Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’ ³¹ Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.

²² Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

² “Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise), ³ “that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on the earth.”

¹⁸ I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. ¹⁹ And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

¹⁸ Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

²⁴ because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. For it is the Lord Christ you are serving.

¹⁶ May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he has often refreshed me and was unashamed of my chains. ¹⁷ Indeed, when he arrived in Rome, he searched very diligently until he found me. ¹⁸ May the Lord grant Onesiphorus His mercy on that day. You know very well how much he ministered to me in Ephesus.

²⁷ So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed.

¹¹ Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.

¹⁵ Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them. And afterward his brothers talked with him.

¹ One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek a resting place for you, that it may be well with you?

³⁷ They all wept openly as they embraced Paul and kissed him.

³ As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.

⁶³ I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.

²³ This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue will tightly grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

¹¹ Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

⁵ When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

⁹ A widow should be enrolled if she is at least sixty years old, the wife of one man,

¹⁵ Indeed, the LORD’s hand was against them, to eliminate them from the camp, until they had all perished.

¹⁵ Wherever Israel marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them to bring calamity, just as He had sworn to them. So they were greatly distressed.

¹¹ Then the Ekronites assembled all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us and our people!” For a deadly confusion had pervaded the city; the hand of God was heavy upon it.

²¹ Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah

² For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.

⁹ I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done. ¹⁰ Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

²⁸ But you did not even let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughters goodbye. Now you have done a foolish thing.

⁵⁵ Early the next morning, Laban got up and kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then he left to return home.

⁴ But you who held fast to the LORD your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

²⁰ You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

²⁰ So Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will follow you.” “Go on back,” Elijah replied, “for what have I done to you?”

¹⁷ A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

²⁴ A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

¹ For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.

³⁷ Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;

²⁴ Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

²² When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

²¹ Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” ²² But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

⁶⁶ From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. ⁶⁷ So Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you want to leave too?” ⁶⁸ Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. ⁶⁹ We believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

³⁴ But some joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others who were with them.

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.

³⁹ But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

¹⁵ But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!”

¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins.

²⁴ Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.

¹⁹ Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you also go with us? Go back and stay with the new king, since you are both a foreigner and an exile from your homeland. ²⁰ In fact, you arrived only yesterday; should I make you wander around with us today while I do not know where I am going? Go back and take your brothers with you. May the LORD show you loving devotion and faithfulness.”

² and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

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

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

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

²⁰ The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

²⁸ As they approached the village where they were headed, He seemed to be going farther.

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

¹⁹ They went out from us, but they did not belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But their departure made it clear that none of them belonged to us.

¹⁸ And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!”

¹¹ Boaz replied, “I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you did not know before. ¹² May the LORD repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”

²¹ But Ittai answered the king, “As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be!”

² and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. ³ Then the sons of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied. “Do not speak of it.” ⁴ And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. ⁵ Then the sons of the prophets at Jericho came up to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the LORD will take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied. “Do not speak of it.” ⁶ And Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on.

¹⁰ Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,

⁴⁷ The king said to Daniel, “Your God is truly the God of gods and Lord of kings, the Revealer of Mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery.”

²⁹ Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego will be cut into pieces and their houses reduced to rubble. For there is no other god who can deliver in this way.”

³⁷ Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, for all His works are true and all His ways are just. And He is able to humble those who walk in pride.

⁴ Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.

¹⁹ And one of the scribes came to Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

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.

³⁷ “Lord,” said Peter, “why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.”

¹³ Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

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.” ¹⁷ “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” ¹⁸ And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

⁹ For they themselves report what kind of welcome you gave us, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God

⁴ These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed by Jesus from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.

¹⁷ “What was the message He gave you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God punish you, and ever so severely, if you hide from me anything He said to you.”

²² May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one of Nabal’s men survive until morning.”

⁹ May God punish Abner, and ever so severely, if I do not do for David what the LORD has sworn to him:

³⁵ Then all the people came and urged David to eat something while it was still day, but David took an oath, saying, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!”

¹³ And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from this time you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

²³ Then King Solomon swore by the LORD: “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if Adonijah has not made this request at the expense of his life.

² So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like the lives of those you killed!”

¹⁰ Then Ben-hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if enough dust remains of Samaria for each of my men to have a handful.”

³¹ He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”

²³ When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.

²⁴ But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course with joy and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

¹⁴ When he would not be dissuaded, we fell silent and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

¹⁰ Finally, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

⁷ Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?

¹⁵ All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁰ When Jesus had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹ When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, “I am God Almighty. Walk before Me and be blameless.

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.”

³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name the LORD I did not make Myself known to them.

¹⁷ Blessed indeed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

⁷ Can you fathom the deep things of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?

⁶ then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

¹⁴ For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.

¹⁵ From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.

¹³ I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.

¹ I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath. ² He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness instead of light. ³ Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long. ⁴ He has worn away my flesh and skin; He has shattered my bones. ⁵ He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship. ⁶ He has made me dwell in darkness like those dead for ages. ⁷ He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains. ⁸ Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer. ⁹ He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked. ¹⁰ He is a bear lying in wait, a lion hiding in ambush. ¹¹ He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help. ¹² He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow. ¹³ He pierced my kidneys with His arrows. ¹⁴ I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long. ¹⁵ He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood. ¹⁶ He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust. ¹⁷ My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. ¹⁸ So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.” ¹⁹ Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall. ²⁰ Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me.

¹¹ No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.

²² But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

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.

²¹ saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

¹⁷ You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.

²⁶ For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.

⁸ You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

⁵ “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

³¹ (Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom; ³² but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, because they are late crops.)

²³ So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

⁹ And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.