Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created heaven and earth.
Gen 1:2 Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters.
Gen 1:3 God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.
Gen 1:4 God saw that light was good, and God divided light from darkness.
Gen 1:5 God called light 'day', and darkness he called 'night'. Evening came and morning came: the first day.
Gen 1:6 God said, 'Let there be a vault through the middle of the waters to divide the waters in two.' And so it was.
Gen 1:7 God made the vault, and it divided the waters under the vault from the waters above the vault.
Gen 1:8 God called the vault 'heaven'. Evening came and morning came: the second day.
Gen 1:9 God said, 'Let the waters under heaven come together into a single mass, and let dry land appear.' And so it was.
Gen 1:10 God called the dry land 'earth' and the mass of waters 'seas', and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:11 God said, 'Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees on earth, bearing fruit with their seed inside, each corresponding to its own species.' And so it was.
Gen 1:12 The earth produced vegetation: the various kinds of seed-bearing plants and the fruit trees with seed inside, each corresponding to its own species. God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:13 Evening came and morning came: the third day.
Gen 1:14 God said, 'Let there be lights in the vault of heaven to divide day from night, and let them indicate festivals, days and years.
Gen 1:15 Let them be lights in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth.' And so it was.
Gen 1:16 God made the two great lights: the greater light to govern the day, the smaller light to govern the night, and the stars.
Gen 1:17 God set them in the vault of heaven to shine on the earth,
Gen 1:18 to govern the day and the night and to divide light from darkness. God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19 Evening came and morning came: the fourth day.
Gen 1:20 God said, 'Let the waters be alive with a swarm of living creatures, and let birds wing their way above the earth across the vault of heaven.' And so it was.
Gen 1:21 God created great sea-monsters and all the creatures that glide and teem in the waters in their own species, and winged birds in their own species. God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:22 God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply on land.'
Gen 1:23 Evening came and morning came: the fifth day.
Gen 1:24 God said, 'Let the earth produce every kind of living creature in its own species: cattle, creeping things and wild animals of all kinds.' And so it was.
Gen 1:25 God made wild animals in their own species, and cattle in theirs, and every creature that crawls along the earth in its own species. God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:26 God said, 'Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves, and let them be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the cattle, all the wild animals and all the creatures that creep along the ground.'
Gen 1:27 God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
Gen 1:28 God blessed them, saying to them, 'Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Be masters of the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that move on earth.'
Gen 1:29 God also said, 'Look, to you I give all the seed-bearing plants everywhere on the surface of the earth, and all the trees with seed-bearing fruit; this will be your food.
Gen 1:30 And to all the wild animals, all the birds of heaven and all the living creatures that creep along the ground, I give all the foliage of the plants as their food.' And so it was.
Gen 1:31 God saw all he had made, and indeed it was very good. Evening came and morning came: the sixth day.
Gen 2:1 Thus heaven and earth were completed with all their array.
Gen 2:2 On the seventh day God had completed the work he had been doing. He rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing.
Gen 2:3 God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating.
Gen 2:4 Such was the story of heaven and earth as they were created. At the time when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God made earth and heaven
Gen 2:5 there was as yet no wild bush on the earth nor had any wild plant yet sprung up, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God had not sent rain on the earth, nor was there any man to till the soil.
Gen 2:6 Instead, water flowed out of the ground and watered all the surface of the soil.
Gen 2:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being.
Gen 2:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God planted a garden in Eden, which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned.
Gen 2:9 From the soil, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God caused to grow every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Gen 2:10 A river flowed from Eden to water the garden, and from there it divided to make four streams.
Gen 2:11 The first is named the Pishon, and this winds all through the land of Havilah where there is gold.
Gen 2:12 The gold of this country is pure; bdellium and cornelian stone are found there.
Gen 2:13 The second river is named the Gihon, and this winds all through the land of Cush.
Gen 2:14 The third river is named the Tigris, and this flows to the east of Ashur. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
Gen 2:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it.
Gen 2:16 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God gave the man this command, 'You are free to eat of all the trees in the garden.
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you are not to eat; for, the day you eat of that, you are doomed to die.'
Gen 2:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God said, 'It is not right that the man should be alone. I shall make him a helper.'
Gen 2:19 So from the soil Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God fashioned all the wild animals and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it.
Gen 2:20 The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild animals. But no helper suitable for the man was found for him.
Gen 2:21 Then, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And, while he was asleep, he took one of his ribs and closed the flesh up again forthwith.
Gen 2:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God fashioned the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.
Gen 2:23 And the man said: This one at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh! She is to be called Woman, because she was taken from Man.
Gen 2:24 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Gen 2:25 Now, both of them were naked, the man and his wife, but they felt no shame before each other.
Gen 3:1 Now, the snake was the most subtle of all the wild animals that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God had made. It asked the woman, 'Did God really say you were not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?'
Gen 3:2 The woman answered the snake, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden.
Gen 3:3 But of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden God said, "You must not eat it, nor touch it, under pain of death." '
Gen 3:4 Then the snake said to the woman, 'No! You will not die!
Gen 3:5 God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, knowing good from evil.'
Gen 3:6 The woman saw that the tree was good to eat and pleasing to the eye, and that it was enticing for the wisdom that it could give. So she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.
Gen 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized that they were naked. So they sewed fig-leaves together to make themselves loin-cloths.
Gen 3:8 The man and his wife heard the sound of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God among the trees of the garden.
Gen 3:9 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God called to the man. 'Where are you?' he asked.
Gen 3:10 'I heard the sound of you in the garden,' he replied. 'I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.'
Gen 3:11 'Who told you that you were naked?' he asked. 'Have you been eating from the tree I forbade you to eat?'
Gen 3:12 The man replied, 'It was the woman you put with me; she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.'
Gen 3:13 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God said to the woman, 'Why did you do that?' The woman replied, 'The snake tempted me and I ate.'
Gen 3:14 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God said to the snake, 'Because you have done this, Accursed be you of all animals wild and tame! On your belly you will go and on dust you will feed as long as you live.
Gen 3:15 I shall put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; it will bruise your head and you will strike its heel.'
Gen 3:16 To the woman he said: I shall give you intense pain in childbearing, you will give birth to your children in pain. Your yearning will be for your husband, and he will dominate you.
Gen 3:17 To the man he said, 'Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, Accursed be the soil because of you! Painfully will you get your food from it as long as you live.
Gen 3:18 It will yield you brambles and thistles, as you eat the produce of the land.
Gen 3:19 By the sweat of your face will you earn your food, until you return to the ground, as you were taken from it. For dust you are and to dust you shall return.'
Gen 3:20 The man named his wife 'Eve' because she was the mother of all those who live.
Gen 3:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God made tunics of skins for the man and his wife and clothed them.
Gen 3:22 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God said, 'Now that the man has become like one of us in knowing good from evil, he must not be allowed to reach out his hand and pick from the tree of life too, and eat and live for ever!'
Gen 3:23 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God expelled him from the garden of Eden, to till the soil from which he had been taken.
Gen 3:24 He banished the man, and in front of the garden of Eden he posted the great winged creatures and the fiery flashing sword, to guard the way to the tree of life.
Gen 4:1 The man had intercourse with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain. 'I have acquired a man with the help of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' she said.
Gen 4:2 She gave birth to a second child, Abel, the brother of Cain. Now Abel became a shepherd and kept flocks, while Cain tilled the soil.
Gen 4:3 Time passed and Cain brought some of the produce of the soil as an offering for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Gen 4:4 while Abel for his part brought the first-born of his flock and some of their fat as well. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looked with favor on Abel and his offering.
Gen 4:5 But he did not look with favor on Cain and his offering, and Cain was very angry and downcast.
Gen 4:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked Cain, 'Why are you angry and downcast?
Gen 4:7 If you are doing right, surely you ought to hold your head high! But if you are not doing right, Sin is crouching at the door hungry to get you. You can still master him.'
Gen 4:8 Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let us go out'; and while they were in the open country, Cain set on his brother Abel and killed him.
Gen 4:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?' 'I do not know,' he replied. 'Am I my brother's guardian?'
Gen 4:10 'What have you done?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked. 'Listen! Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.
Gen 4:11 Now be cursed and banned from the ground that has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood at your hands.
Gen 4:12 When you till the ground it will no longer yield up its strength to you. A restless wanderer you will be on earth.'
Gen 4:13 Cain then said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'My punishment is greater than I can bear.
Gen 4:14 Look, today you drive me from the surface of the earth. I must hide from you, and be a restless wanderer on earth. Why, whoever comes across me will kill me!'
Gen 4:15 'Very well, then,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'whoever kills Cain will suffer a sevenfold vengeance.' So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put a mark on Cain, so that no one coming across him would kill him.
Gen 4:16 Cain left Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Gen 4:17 Cain had intercourse with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. He became the founder of a city and gave the city the name of his son Enoch.
Gen 4:18 Enoch fathered Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael; Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech.
Gen 4:19 Lamech married two women: the name of the first was Adah and the name of the second was Zillah.
Gen 4:20 Adah gave birth to Jabal: he was the ancestor of tent-dwelling herdsmen.
Gen 4:21 His brother's name was Jubal: he was the ancestor of all who play the harp and the pipe.
Gen 4:22 As for Zillah, she gave birth to Tubal-Cain: he was the ancestor of all who work copper and iron. Tubal-Cain's sister was Naamah.
Gen 4:23 Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice, wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me.
Gen 4:24 Sevenfold vengeance for Cain, but seventy-sevenfold for Lamech.
Gen 4:25 Adam had intercourse with his wife, and she gave birth to a son whom she named Seth, 'because God has granted me other offspring', she said, 'in place of Abel, since Cain has killed him.'
Gen 4:26 A son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. This man was the first to invoke the name Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Gen 5:1 This is the roll of Adam's descendants: On the day that God created Adam he made him in the likeness of God.
Gen 5:2 Male and female he created them. He blessed them and gave them the name Man, when they were created.
Gen 5:3 When Adam was a hundred and thirty years old he fathered a son, in his likeness, after his image, and he called him Seth.
Gen 5:4 Adam lived for eight hundred years after the birth of Seth and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:5 In all, Adam lived for nine hundred and thirty years; then he died.
Gen 5:6 When Seth was a hundred and five years old he fathered Enosh.
Gen 5:7 After the birth of Enosh, Seth lived for eight hundred and seven years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:8 In all, Seth lived for nine hundred and twelve years; then he died.
Gen 5:9 When Enosh was ninety years old he fathered Kenan.
Gen 5:10 After the birth of Kenan, Enosh lived for eight hundred and fifteen years and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:11 In all, Enosh lived for nine hundred and five years; then he died.
Gen 5:12 When Kenan was seventy years old he fathered Mahalalel.
Gen 5:13 After the birth of Mahalalel, Kenan lived for eight hundred and forty years and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:14 In all, Kenan lived for nine hundred and ten years; then he died.
Gen 5:15 When Mahalalel was sixty-five years old he fathered Jared.
Gen 5:16 After the birth of Jared, Mahalalel lived for eight hundred and thirty years and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:17 In all, Mahalalel lived for eight hundred and ninety-five years; then he died.
Gen 5:18 When Jared was a hundred and sixty-two years old he fathered Enoch.
Gen 5:19 After the birth of Enoch, Jared lived for eight hundred years and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:20 In all, Jared lived for nine hundred and sixty-two years; then he died.
Gen 5:21 When Enoch was sixty-five years old he fathered Methuselah.
Gen 5:22 Enoch walked with God. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived for three hundred years and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:23 In all, Enoch lived for three hundred and sixty-five years.
Gen 5:24 Enoch walked with God, then was no more, because God took him.
Gen 5:25 When Methuselah was a hundred and eighty-seven years old he fathered Lamech.
Gen 5:26 After the birth of Lamech, Methuselah lived for seven hundred and eighty-two years and he fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:27 In all, Methuselah lived for nine hundred and sixty-nine years; then he died.
Gen 5:28 When Lamech was a hundred and eighty-two years old he fathered a son.
Gen 5:29 He gave him the name Noah because, he said, 'Here is one who will give us, in the midst of our toil and the labouring of our hands, a consolation out of the very soil that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) cursed.'
Gen 5:30 After the birth of Noah, Lamech lived for five hundred and ninety-five years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 5:31 In all, Lamech lived for seven hundred and seventy-seven years; then he died.
Gen 5:32 When Noah was five hundred years old he fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Gen 6:1 When people began being numerous on earth, and daughters had been born to them,
Gen 6:2 the sons of God, looking at the women, saw how beautiful they were and married as many of them as they chose.
Gen 6:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'My spirit cannot be indefinitely responsible for human beings, who are only flesh; let the time allowed each be a hundred and twenty years.'
Gen 6:4 The Nephilim were on earth in those days (and even afterwards) when the sons of God resorted to the women, and had children by them. These were the heroes of days gone by, men of renown.
Gen 6:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saw that human wickedness was great on earth and that human hearts contrived nothing but wicked schemes all day long.
Gen 6:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regretted having made human beings on earth and was grieved at heart.
Gen 6:7 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'I shall rid the surface of the earth of the human beings whom I created -- human and animal, the creeping things and the birds of heaven -- for I regret having made them.'
Gen 6:8 But Noah won Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s favor.
Gen 6:9 This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, an upright man among his contemporaries, and he walked with God.
Gen 6:10 Noah fathered three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Gen 6:11 God saw that the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness.
Gen 6:12 God looked at the earth: it was corrupt, for corrupt were the ways of all living things on earth.
Gen 6:13 God said to Noah, 'I have decided that the end has come for all living things, for the earth is full of lawlessness because of human beings. So I am now about to destroy them and the earth.
Gen 6:14 Make yourself an ark out of resinous wood. Make it of reeds and caulk it with pitch inside and out.
Gen 6:15 This is how to make it: the length of the ark is to be three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.
Gen 6:16 Make a roof to the ark, building it up to a cubit higher. Put the entrance in the side of the ark, which is to be made with lower, second and third decks.
Gen 6:17 'For my part I am going to send the flood, the waters, on earth, to destroy all living things having the breath of life under heaven; everything on earth is to perish.
Gen 6:18 But with you I shall establish my covenant and you will go aboard the ark, yourself, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives along with you.
Gen 6:19 From all living creatures, from all living things, you must take two of each kind aboard the ark, to save their lives with yours; they must be a male and a female.
Gen 6:20 Of every species of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that creeps along the ground, two must go with you so that their lives may be saved.
Gen 6:21 For your part, provide yourself with eatables of all kinds, and lay in a store of them, to serve as food for yourself and them.'
Gen 6:22 Noah did this; exactly as God commanded him, he did.
Gen 7:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Noah, 'Go aboard the ark, you and all your household, for you alone of your contemporaries do I see before me as an upright man.
Gen 7:2 Of every clean animal you must take seven pairs, a male and its female; of the unclean animals you must take one pair, a male and its female
Gen 7:3 (and of the birds of heaven, seven pairs, a male and its female), to preserve their species throughout the earth.
Gen 7:4 For in seven days' time I shall make it rain on earth for forty days and forty nights, and I shall wipe every creature I have made off the face of the earth.'
Gen 7:5 Noah did exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) commanded him.
Gen 7:6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came, the waters over the earth.
Gen 7:7 Noah with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives boarded the ark to escape the waters of the flood.
Gen 7:8 (Of the clean animals and the animals that are not clean, of the birds and all that creeps along the ground,
Gen 7:9 one pair boarded the ark with Noah, one male and one female, as God had commanded Noah.)
Gen 7:10 Seven days later the waters of the flood appeared on earth.
Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, and on the seventeenth day of the month, that very day all the springs of the great deep burst through, and the sluices of heaven opened.
Gen 7:12 And heavy rain fell on earth for forty days and forty nights.
Gen 7:13 That very day Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth boarded the ark, with Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons,
Gen 7:14 and with them every species of wild animal, every species of cattle, every species of creeping things that creep along the ground, every species of bird, everything that flies, everything with wings.
Gen 7:15 One pair of all that was alive and had the breath of life boarded the ark with Noah,
Gen 7:16 and those that went aboard were a male and female of all that was alive, as God had commanded him. Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) shut him in.
Gen 7:17 The flood lasted forty days on earth. The waters swelled, lifting the ark until it floated off the ground.
Gen 7:18 The waters rose, swelling higher above the ground, and the ark drifted away over the waters.
Gen 7:19 The waters rose higher and higher above the ground until all the highest mountains under the whole of heaven were submerged.
Gen 7:20 The waters reached their peak fifteen cubits above the submerged mountains.
Gen 7:21 And all living things that stirred on earth perished; birds, cattle, wild animals, all the creatures swarming over the earth, and all human beings.
Gen 7:22 Everything with the least breath of life in its nostrils, everything on dry land, died.
Gen 7:23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out, people, animals, creeping things and birds; they were wiped off the earth and only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
Gen 7:24 The waters maintained their level on earth for a hundred and fifty days.
Gen 8:1 But God had Noah in mind, and all the wild animals and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. God sent a wind across the earth and the waters began to subside.
Gen 8:2 The springs of the deep and the sluices of heaven were stopped up and the heavy rain from heaven was held back.
Gen 8:3 Little by little, the waters ebbed from the earth. After a hundred and fifty days the waters fell,
Gen 8:4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Gen 8:5 The waters gradually fell until the tenth month when, on the first day of the tenth month, the mountain tops appeared.
Gen 8:6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
Gen 8:7 and released a raven, which flew back and forth as it waited for the waters to dry up on earth.
Gen 8:8 He then released a dove, to see whether the waters were receding from the surface of the earth.
Gen 8:9 But the dove, finding nowhere to perch, returned to him in the ark, for there was water over the whole surface of the earth; putting out his hand he took hold of it and brought it back into the ark with him.
Gen 8:10 After waiting seven more days, he again released the dove from the ark.
Gen 8:11 In the evening, the dove came back to him and there in its beak was a freshly-picked olive leaf! So Noah realized that the waters were receding from the earth.
Gen 8:12 After waiting seven more days, he released the dove, and now it returned to him no more.
Gen 8:13 It was in the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month and on the first of the month, that the waters began drying out on earth. Noah lifted back the hatch of the ark and looked out. The surface of the ground was dry!
Gen 8:14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.
Gen 8:15 Then God said to Noah,
Gen 8:16 'Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons' wives with you.
Gen 8:17 Bring out all the animals with you, all living things, the birds, the cattle and all the creeping things that creep along the ground, for them to swarm on earth, for them to breed and multiply on earth.'
Gen 8:18 So Noah came out with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives.
Gen 8:19 And all the wild animals, all the cattle, all the birds and all the creeping things that creep along the ground, came out of the ark, one species after another.
Gen 8:20 Then Noah built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and, choosing from all the clean animals and all the clean birds he presented burnt offerings on the altar.
Gen 8:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) smelt the pleasing smell and said to himself, 'Never again will I curse the earth because of human beings, because their heart contrives evil from their infancy. Never again will I strike down every living thing as I have done.
Gen 8:22 As long as earth endures: seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.'
Gen 9:1 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Breed, multiply and fill the earth.
Gen 9:2 Be the terror and the dread of all the animals on land and all the birds of heaven, of everything that moves on land and all the fish of the sea; they are placed in your hands.
Gen 9:3 Every living thing that moves will be yours to eat, no less than the foliage of the plants. I give you everything,
Gen 9:4 with this exception: you must not eat flesh with life, that is to say blood, in it.
Gen 9:5 And I shall demand account of your life-blood, too. I shall demand it of every animal, and of man. Of man as regards his fellow-man, I shall demand account for human life.
Gen 9:6 He who sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God was man created.
Gen 9:7 Be fruitful then and multiply, teem over the earth and subdue it!'
Gen 9:8 God spoke as follows to Noah and his sons,
Gen 9:9 'I am now establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants to come,
Gen 9:10 and with every living creature that was with you: birds, cattle and every wild animal with you; everything that came out of the ark, every living thing on earth.
Gen 9:11 And I shall maintain my covenant with you: that never again shall all living things be destroyed by the waters of a flood, nor shall there ever again be a flood to devastate the earth.'
Gen 9:12 'And this', God said, 'is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come:
Gen 9:13 I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.
Gen 9:14 When I gather the clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds,
Gen 9:15 I shall recall the covenant between myself and you and every living creature, in a word all living things, and never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all living things.
Gen 9:16 When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth, that is, all living things.'
Gen 9:17 'That', God told Noah, 'is the sign of the covenant I have established between myself and all living things on earth.'
Gen 9:18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth-Ham being the father of Canaan.
Gen 9:19 These three were Noah's sons, and from these the whole earth was peopled.
Gen 9:20 Noah, a tiller of the soil, was the first to plant the vine.
Gen 9:21 He drank some of the wine, and while he was drunk, he lay uncovered in his tent.
Gen 9:22 Ham, father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.
Gen 9:23 Shem and Japheth took a cloak and they both put it over their shoulders, and walking backwards, covered their father's nakedness; they kept their faces turned away, and they did not look at their father naked.
Gen 9:24 When Noah awoke from his stupor he learned what his youngest son had done to him,
Gen 9:25 and said: Accursed be Canaan, he shall be his brothers' meanest slave.
Gen 9:26 He added: Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Shem, let Canaan be his slave!
Gen 9:27 May God make space for Japheth, may he live in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his slave!
Gen 9:28 After the flood Noah lived three hundred and fifty years.
Gen 9:29 In all, Noah's life lasted nine hundred and fifty years; then he died.
Gen 10:1 These are the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, to whom sons were born after the flood:
Gen 10:2 Japheth's sons: Gomer, Magog, the Medes, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras.
Gen 10:3 Gomer's sons: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.
Gen 10:4 Javan's sons: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, the Dananites.
Gen 10:5 From these came the dispersal to the islands of the nations. These were Japheth's sons, in their respective countries, each with its own language, by clan and nation.
Gen 10:6 Ham's sons: Cush, Mizraim, Put, Canaan.
Gen 10:7 Cush's sons: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, Sabteca. Raamah's sons: Sheba, Dedan.
Gen 10:8 Cush fathered Nimrod who was the first potentate on earth.
Gen 10:9 He was a mighty hunter in the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hence the saying, 'Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter in the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'.
Gen 10:10 The mainstays of his empire were Babel, Erech and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar.
Gen 10:11 From this country came Asshur, and he built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah,
Gen 10:12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (this being the capital).
Gen 10:13 Mizraim fathered the people of Lud, of Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh,
Gen 10:14 Pathros, Casluh and Caphtor, from which the Philistines came.
Gen 10:15 Canaan fathered Sidon, his first-born, then Heth,
Gen 10:16 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites,
Gen 10:17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,
Gen 10:18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later, the Canaanite clans spread out.
Gen 10:19 The Canaanite frontier stretched from Sidon all the way to Gerar near Gaza, and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim near Lesha.
Gen 10:20 These were Ham's sons, by clans and languages, by countries and nations.
Gen 10:21 Shem too fathered sons, being ancestor of all the sons of Eber and Japheth's elder brother.
Gen 10:22 Shem's sons: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram.
Gen 10:23 Aram's sons: Uz, Hul, Gether and Mash.
Gen 10:24 Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber.
Gen 10:25 To Eber were born two sons: the first was called Peleg, because it was in his time that the earth was divided, and his brother was called Joktan.
Gen 10:26 Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
Gen 10:27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
Gen 10:28 Obal, Abima-El, Sheba,
Gen 10:29 Ophir, Havilah, Jobab; all these were sons of Joktan.
Gen 10:30 They occupied a stretch of country from Mesha all the way to Sephar, the eastern mountain range.
Gen 10:31 These were Shem's sons, by clans and languages, by countries and nations.
Gen 10:32 Such were the clans of Noah's descendants, listed by descent and nation. From them, other nations branched out on earth after the flood.
Gen 11:1 The whole world spoke the same language, with the same vocabulary.
Gen 11:2 Now, as people moved eastwards they found a valley in the land of Shinar where they settled.
Gen 11:3 They said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and bake them in the fire.' For stone they used bricks, and for mortar they used bitumen.
Gen 11:4 'Come,' they said, 'let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top reaching heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, so that we do not get scattered all over the world.'
Gen 11:5 Now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came down to see the city and the tower that the people had built.
Gen 11:6 'So they are all a single people with a single language!' said Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). 'This is only the start of their undertakings! Now nothing they plan to do will be beyond them.
Gen 11:7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they cannot understand one another.'
Gen 11:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) scattered them thence all over the world, and they stopped building the city.
Gen 11:9 That is why it was called Babel, since there Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) confused the language of the whole world, and from there Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) scattered them all over the world.
Gen 11:10 These are Shem's descendants: When Shem was a hundred years old he fathered Arpachshad, two years after the flood.
Gen 11:11 After the birth of Arpachshad, Shem lived five hundred years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:12 When Arpachshad was thirty-five years old he fathered Shelah.
Gen 11:13 After the birth of Shelah, Arpachshad lived four hundred and three years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:14 When Shelah was thirty years old he fathered Eber.
Gen 11:15 After the birth of Eber, Shelah lived four hundred and three years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:16 When Eber was thirty-four years old he fathered Peleg.
Gen 11:17 After the birth of Peleg, Eber lived four hundred and thirty years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:18 When Peleg was thirty years old he fathered Reu.
Gen 11:19 After the birth of Reu, Peleg lived two hundred and nine years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:20 When Reu was thirty-two years old he fathered Serug.
Gen 11:21 After the birth of Serug, Reu lived two hundred and seven years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:22 When Serug was thirty years old he fathered Nahor.
Gen 11:23 After the birth of Nahor, Serug lived two hundred years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:24 When Nahor was twenty-nine years old he fathered Terah.
Gen 11:25 After the birth of Terah, Nahor lived a hundred and nineteen years and fathered sons and daughters.
Gen 11:26 When Terah was seventy years old he fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran.
Gen 11:27 These are Terah's descendants: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor and Haran. Haran fathered Lot.
Gen 11:28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in his native land, Ur of the Chaldaeans.
Gen 11:29 Abram and Nahor both married: Abram's wife was called Sarai, Nahor's wife was called Milcah daughter of Haran, father of Milcah and Iscah.
Gen 11:30 Sarai was barren, having no child.
Gen 11:31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law the wife of Abram, and made them leave Ur of the Chaldaeans to go to the land of Canaan. But on arrival in Haran they settled there.
Gen 11:32 Terah's life lasted two hundred and five years; then he died at Haran.
Gen 12:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your kindred and your father's house for a country which I shall show you;
Gen 12:2 and I shall make you a great nation, I shall bless you and make your name famous; you are to be a blessing!
Gen 12:3 I shall bless those who bless you, and shall curse those who curse you, and all clans on earth will bless themselves by you.'
Gen 12:4 So Abram went as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.
Gen 12:5 Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.
Gen 12:6 Abram passed through the country as far as the holy place at Shechem, the Oak of Moreh. The Canaanites were in the country at the time.
Gen 12:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to Abram and said, 'I shall give this country to your progeny.' And there, Abram built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who had appeared to him.
Gen 12:8 From there he moved on to the mountainous district east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and invoked the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Gen 12:9 Then Abram made his way stage by stage to the Negeb.
Gen 12:10 There was a famine in the country, and Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a time, since the famine in the country was severe.
Gen 12:11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, 'Look, I know you are a beautiful woman.
Gen 12:12 When the Egyptians see you they will say, "That is his wife," and they will kill me but leave you alive.
Gen 12:13 Therefore please tell them you are my sister, so that they may treat me well because of you and spare my life out of regard for you.'
Gen 12:14 When Abram arrived in Egypt the Egyptians did indeed see that the woman was very beautiful.
Gen 12:15 When Pharaoh's officials saw her they sang her praises to Pharaoh and the woman was taken into Pharaoh's household.
Gen 12:16 And Abram was very well treated because of her and received flocks, oxen, donkeys, men and women slaves, she-donkeys and camels.
Gen 12:17 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) inflicted severe plagues on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram's wife Sarai.
Gen 12:18 So Pharaoh summoned Abram and said, 'What is this you have done to me? Why did you not tell me she was your wife?
Gen 12:19 Why did you say, "She is my sister," so that I took her to be my wife? Now, here is your wife. Take her and go!'
Gen 12:20 And Pharaoh gave his people orders about him; they sent him on his way with his wife and all his possessions.
Gen 13:1 From Egypt Abram returned to the Negeb with his wife and all he possessed, and Lot with him.
Gen 13:2 Abram was very rich in livestock, silver and gold.
Gen 13:3 By stages he went from the Negeb to Bethel, where he had first pitched his tent, between Bethel and Ai,
Gen 13:4 at the place where he had formerly erected the altar. There Abram invoked the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Gen 13:5 Lot, who was traveling with Abram, had flocks and cattle of his own, and tents too.
Gen 13:6 The land was not sufficient to accommodate them both at once, for they had too many possessions to be able to live together.
Gen 13:7 Dispute broke out between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and those of Lot. (The Canaanites and Perizzites were living in the country at the time.)
Gen 13:8 Accordingly Abram said to Lot, 'We do not want discord between us or between my herdsmen and yours, for we are kinsmen.
Gen 13:9 Is not the whole land open before you? Go in the opposite direction to me: if you take the left, I shall go right; if you take the right, I shall go left.'
Gen 13:10 Looking round, Lot saw all the Jordan plain, irrigated everywhere -- this was before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah-like the garden of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) or the land of Egypt, as far as Zoar.
Gen 13:11 So Lot chose all the Jordan plain for himself and moved off eastwards. Thus they parted company:
Gen 13:12 Abram settled in the land of Canaan; Lot settled among the cities of the plain, pitching his tents on the outskirts of Sodom.
Gen 13:13 Now the people of Sodom were vicious and great sinners against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Gen 13:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Abram after Lot had parted company from him, 'Look all round from where you are, to north and south, to east and west,
Gen 13:15 for all the land within sight I shall give to you and your descendants for ever.
Gen 13:16 I shall make your descendants like the dust on the ground; when people succeed in counting the specks of dust on the ground, then they will be able to count your descendants too!
Gen 13:17 On your feet! Travel the length and breadth of the country, for I mean to give it to you.'
Gen 13:18 So Abram moved his tent and went to settle at the Oak of Mamre, at Hebron, and there he built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Gen 14:1 When Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedor-Laomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of the Goiim,
Gen 14:2 made war on Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar),
Gen 14:3 all the latter joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (now the Salt Sea).
Gen 14:4 For twelve years they had been under the yoke of Chedor-Laomer, but in the thirteenth year they revolted.
Gen 14:5 In the fourteenth year Chedor-Laomer arrived and the kings who had allied themselves with him. They defeated the Rephaim at Ashteroth-Carnaim, the Zuzim at Ham, the Emim in the Plain of Kiriathaim,
Gen 14:6 the Horites in the mountainous district of Seir near El-Paran, which is on the edge of the desert.
Gen 14:7 Wheeling round, they came to the Spring of Judgement (that is, Kadesh); they conquered all the territory of the Amalekites and also the Amorites who lived in Hazazon-Tamar.
Gen 14:8 Then the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim and Bela (that is, Zoar) marched out and engaged them in the Valley of Siddim:
Gen 14:9 Chedor-Laomer king of Elam, Tidal king of the Goiim, Amraphel king of Shinar and Arioch king of Ellasar: four kings against five.
Gen 14:10 Now there were many bitumen wells in the Valley of Siddim, and in their flight the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fell into them, while the rest fled into the hills.
Gen 14:11 The conquerors seized all the possessions of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and made off.
Gen 14:12 They also took Lot (the nephew of Abram) and his possessions and made off; he had been living at Sodom.
Gen 14:13 A survivor came to tell Abram, and Aner the Hebrew, who was living at the Oak of the Amorite Mamre, the brother of Eshcol; these were allies of Abram.
Gen 14:14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he mustered his retainers born in his own household, numbering three hundred and eighteen, and gave chase as far as Dan.
Gen 14:15 He and his retainers deployed against them under cover of dark, defeated them and pursued them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.
Gen 14:16 He recaptured all the goods as well as his kinsman Lot and his possessions, together with the women and people.
Gen 14:17 When Abram returned from defeating Chedor-Laomer and the kings who had been on his side, the king of Sodom came to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the Valley of the King).
Gen 14:18 Melchizedek king of Salem brought bread and wine; he was a priest of God Most High.
Gen 14:19 He pronounced this blessing: Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High for putting your enemies into your clutches.
Gen 14:20 And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.
Gen 14:21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, 'Give me the people and take the possessions for yourself.'
Gen 14:22 But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, 'I swear by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth:
Gen 14:23 not one thread, not one sandal strap, will I take of what is yours, for you to be able to say, "I made Abram rich."
Gen 14:24 For myself, nothing -- except what the troops have used up, and the share due to the men who came with me, Eshcol, Aner and Mamre; let them take their share.'
Gen 15:1 Some time later, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Abram in a vision: Do not be afraid, Abram! I am your shield and shall give you a very great reward.
Gen 15:2 'Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' Abram replied, 'what use are your gifts, as I am going on my way childless? . . .
Gen 15:3 Since you have given me no offspring,' Abram continued, 'a member of my household will be my heir.'
Gen 15:4 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word came to him in reply, 'Such a one will not be your heir; no, your heir will be the issue of your own body.'
Gen 15:5 Then taking him outside, he said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars if you can. Just so will your descendants be,' he told him.
Gen 15:6 Abram put his faith in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and this was reckoned to him as uprightness.
Gen 15:7 He then said to him, 'I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldaeans to give you this country as your possession.'
Gen 15:8 'Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' Abram replied, 'how can I know that I shall possess it?'
Gen 15:9 He said to him, 'Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove and a young pigeon.'
Gen 15:10 He brought him all these, split the animals down the middle and placed each half opposite the other; but the birds he did not divide.
Gen 15:11 And whenever birds of prey swooped down on the carcases, Abram drove them off.
Gen 15:12 Now, as the sun was on the point of setting, a trance fell on Abram, and a deep dark dread descended on him.
Gen 15:13 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Abram, 'Know this for certain, that your descendants will be exiles in a land not their own, and be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.
Gen 15:14 But I shall bring judgement on the nation that enslaves them and after this they will leave, with many possessions.
Gen 15:15 For your part, you will join your ancestors in peace; you will be buried at a happy old age.
Gen 15:16 In the fourth generation they will come back here, for until then the iniquity of the Amorites will not have reached its full extent.'
Gen 15:17 When the sun had set and it was dark, there appeared a smoking firepot and a flaming torch passing between the animals' pieces.
Gen 15:18 That day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made a covenant with Abram in these terms: 'To your descendants I give this country, from the River of Egypt to the Great River, the River Euphrates,
Gen 15:19 the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites,
Gen 15:20 the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
Gen 15:21 the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.'
Gen 16:1 Abram's wife Sarai had borne him no child, but she had an Egyptian slave-girl called Hagar.
Gen 16:2 So Sarai said to Abram, 'Listen, now! Since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has kept me from having children, go to my slave-girl. Perhaps I shall get children through her.' And Abram took Sarai's advice.
Gen 16:3 Thus, after Abram had lived in the land of Canaan for ten years, Sarai took Hagar her Egyptian slave-girl and gave her to Abram as his wife.
Gen 16:4 He went to Hagar and she conceived. And once she knew she had conceived, her mistress counted for nothing in her eyes.
Gen 16:5 Then Sarai said to Abram, 'This outrage done to me is your fault! It was I who put my slave-girl into your arms but, now she knows that she has conceived, I count for nothing in her eyes. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) judge between me and you!'
Gen 16:6 'Very well,' Abram said to Sarai, 'your slave-girl is at your disposal. Treat her as you think fit.' Sarai accordingly treated her so badly that she ran away from her.
Gen 16:7 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) found her by a spring in the desert, the spring on the road to Shur.
Gen 16:8 He said, 'Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?' 'I am running away from my mistress Sarai,' she replied.
Gen 16:9 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to her, 'Go back to your mistress and submit to her.'
Gen 16:10 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) further said to her, 'I shall make your descendants too numerous to be counted.'
Gen 16:11 Then the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to her: Now, you have conceived and will bear a son, and you shall name him Ishmael, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has heard your cries of distress.
Gen 16:12 A wild donkey of a man he will be, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him, living his life in defiance of all his kinsmen.
Gen 16:13 Hagar gave a name to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who had spoken to her, 'You are El Roi,' by which she meant, 'Did I not go on seeing here, after him who sees me?'
Gen 16:14 This is why the well is called the well of Lahai Roi; it is between Kadesh and Bered.
Gen 16:15 Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave his son borne by Hagar the name Ishmael.
Gen 16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.
Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to him and said, 'I am El Shaddai. Live in my presence, be perfect,
Gen 17:2 and I shall grant a covenant between myself and you, and make you very numerous.'
Gen 17:3 And Abram bowed to the ground. God spoke to him as follows,
Gen 17:4 'For my part, this is my covenant with you: you will become the father of many nations.
Gen 17:5 And you are no longer to be called Abram; your name is to be Abraham, for I am making you father of many nations.
Gen 17:6 I shall make you exceedingly fertile. I shall make you into nations, and your issue will be kings.
Gen 17:7 And I shall maintain my covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, as a covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Gen 17:8 And to you and to your descendants after you, I shall give the country where you are now immigrants, the entire land of Canaan, to own in perpetuity. And I shall be their God.'
Gen 17:9 God further said to Abraham, 'You for your part must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you, generation after generation.
Gen 17:10 This is my covenant which you must keep between myself and you, and your descendants after you: every one of your males must be circumcised.
Gen 17:11 You must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that will be the sign of the covenant between myself and you.
Gen 17:12 As soon as he is eight days old, every one of your males, generation after generation, must be circumcised, including slaves born within the household or bought from a foreigner not of your descent.
Gen 17:13 Whether born within the household or bought, they must be circumcised. My covenant must be marked in your flesh as a covenant in perpetuity.
Gen 17:14 The uncircumcised male, whose foreskin has not been circumcised -- that person must be cut off from his people: he has broken my covenant.'
Gen 17:15 Furthermore God said to Abraham, 'As regards your wife Sarai, you must not call her Sarai, but Sarah.
Gen 17:16 I shall bless her and moreover give you a son by her. I shall bless her and she will become nations: kings of peoples will issue from her.'
Gen 17:17 Abraham bowed to the ground, and he laughed, thinking to himself, 'Is a child to be born to a man one hundred years old, and will Sarah have a child at the age of ninety?'
Gen 17:18 Abraham said to God, 'May Ishmael live in your presence! That will be enough!'
Gen 17:19 But God replied, 'Yes, your wife Sarah will bear you a son whom you must name Isaac. And I shall maintain my covenant with him, a covenant in perpetuity, to be his God and the God of his descendants after him.
Gen 17:20 For Ishmael too I grant you your request. I hereby bless him and will make him fruitful and exceedingly numerous. He will be the father of twelve princes, and I shall make him into a great nation.
Gen 17:21 But my covenant I shall maintain with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear you at this time next year.'
Gen 17:22 When he had finished speaking to Abraham, God went up from him.
Gen 17:23 Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, all the slaves born in his household or whom he had bought, in short all the males among the people of Abraham's household, and circumcised their foreskins that same day, as God had said to him.
Gen 17:24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when his foreskin was circumcised.
Gen 17:25 Ishmael his son was thirteen years old when his foreskin was circumcised.
Gen 17:26 Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on the very same day,
Gen 17:27 and all the men of his household, those born in the household and those bought from foreigners, were circumcised with him.
Gen 18:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to him at the Oak of Mamre while he was sitting by the entrance of the tent during the hottest part of the day.
Gen 18:2 He looked up, and there he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them, and bowed to the ground.
Gen 18:3 'My lord,' he said, 'if I find favor with you, please do not pass your servant by.
Gen 18:4 Let me have a little water brought, and you can wash your feet and have a rest under the tree.
Gen 18:5 Let me fetch a little bread and you can refresh yourselves before going further, now that you have come in your servant's direction.' They replied, 'Do as you say.'
Gen 18:6 Abraham hurried to the tent and said to Sarah, 'Quick, knead three measures of best flour and make loaves.'
Gen 18:7 Then, running to the herd, Abraham took a fine and tender calf and gave it to the servant, who hurried to prepare it.
Gen 18:8 Then taking curds, milk and the calf which had been prepared, he laid all before them, and they ate while he remained standing near them under the tree.
Gen 18:9 'Where is your wife Sarah?' they asked him. 'She is in the tent,' he replied.
Gen 18:10 Then his guest said, 'I shall come back to you next year, and then your wife Sarah will have a son.' Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent behind him.
Gen 18:11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well on in years, and Sarah had ceased to have her monthly periods.
Gen 18:12 So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, 'Now that I am past the age of childbearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again?'
Gen 18:13 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked Abraham, 'Why did Sarah laugh and say, "Am I really going to have a child now that I am old?"
Gen 18:14 Nothing is impossible for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I shall come back to you at the same time next year and Sarah will have a son.'
Gen 18:15 Sarah said, 'I did not laugh,' lying because she was afraid. But he replied, 'Oh yes, you did laugh.'
Gen 18:16 From there the men set out and arrived within sight of Sodom, with Abraham accompanying them to speed them on their way.
Gen 18:17 Now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had wondered, 'Shall I conceal from Abraham what I am going to do,
Gen 18:18 as Abraham will become a great and powerful nation and all nations on earth will bless themselves by him?
Gen 18:19 For I have singled him out to command his sons and his family after him to keep the way of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by doing what is upright and just, so that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) can carry out for Abraham what he has promised him.'
Gen 18:20 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin is so grave,
Gen 18:21 that I shall go down and see whether or not their actions are at all as the outcry reaching me would suggest. Then I shall know.'
Gen 18:22 While the men left there and went to Sodom, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) remained in Abraham's presence.
Gen 18:23 Abraham stepped forward and said, 'Will you really destroy the upright with the guilty?
Gen 18:24 Suppose there are fifty upright people in the city. Will you really destroy it? Will you not spare the place for the sake of the fifty upright in it?
Gen 18:25 Do not think of doing such a thing: to put the upright to death with the guilty, so that upright and guilty fare alike! Is the judge of the whole world not to act justly?'
Gen 18:26 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'If I find fifty upright people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place because of them.'
Gen 18:27 Abraham spoke up and said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord, I who am dust and ashes:
Gen 18:28 Suppose the fifty upright were five short? Would you destroy the whole city because of five?' 'No,' he replied, 'I shall not destroy it if I find forty-five there.'
Gen 18:29 Abraham persisted and said, 'Suppose there are forty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the forty.'
Gen 18:30 Abraham said, 'I hope the Lord will not be angry if I go on: Suppose there are only thirty to be found there?' 'I shall not do it,' he replied, 'if I find thirty there.'
Gen 18:31 He said, 'It is presumptuous of me to speak to the Lord: Suppose there are only twenty there?' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the twenty.'
Gen 18:32 He said, 'I trust my Lord will not be angry if I speak once more: perhaps there will only be ten.' 'I shall not destroy it,' he replied, 'for the sake of the ten.'
Gen 18:33 When he had finished talking to Abraham Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) went away, and Abraham returned home.
Gen 19:1 When the two angels reached Sodom in the evening, Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. As soon as Lot saw them, he stood up to greet them, and bowed to the ground.
Gen 19:2 'My lords,' he said, 'please come down to your servant's house to stay the night and wash your feet. Then you can make an early start on your journey.' 'No,' they said, 'we shall spend the night in the square.'
Gen 19:3 But he pressed them so much that they went home with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking unleavened bread, and they had supper.
Gen 19:4 They had not gone to bed when the house was surrounded by the townspeople, the men of Sodom both young and old, all the people without exception.
Gen 19:5 Calling out to Lot they said, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so that we can have intercourse with them.'
Gen 19:6 Lot came out to them at the door and, having shut the door behind him,
Gen 19:7 said, 'Please, brothers, do not be wicked.
Gen 19:8 Look, I have two daughters who are virgins. I am ready to send them out to you, for you to treat as you please, but do nothing to these men since they are now under the protection of my roof.'
Gen 19:9 But they retorted, 'Stand back! This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge. Now we shall treat you worse than them.' Then they forced Lot back and moved forward to break down the door.
Gen 19:10 But the men reached out, pulled Lot back into the house with them, and shut the door.
Gen 19:11 And they dazzled those who were at the door of the house, one and all, with a blinding light, so that they could not find the doorway.
Gen 19:12 The men said to Lot, 'Have you anyone else here? Your sons, your daughters and all your people in the city, take them away,
Gen 19:13 for we are about to destroy this place, since the outcry to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) against those in it has grown so loud that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sent us to destroy it.'
Gen 19:14 So Lot went off and spoke to his future sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters. 'On your feet!' he said, 'Leave this place, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is about to destroy the city.' But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
Gen 19:15 When dawn broke the angels urged Lot on, 'To your feet! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.'
Gen 19:16 And as he hesitated, the men seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) being merciful to him -- and led him out and left him outside the city.
Gen 19:17 When they had brought him outside, he was told, 'Flee for your life. Do not look behind you or stop anywhere on the plain. Flee to the hills or you will be swept away.'
Gen 19:18 'Oh no, my lord!' Lot said to them,
Gen 19:19 'You have already been very good to your servant and shown me even greater love by saving my life, but I cannot flee to the hills, or disaster will overtake me and I shall die.
Gen 19:20 That town over there is near enough to flee to, and is small. Let me flee there-after all it is only a small place -- and so survive.'
Gen 19:21 He replied, 'I grant you this favor too, and will not overthrow the town you speak of.
Gen 19:22 Hurry, flee to that one, for I cannot do anything until you reach it.' That is why the town is named Zoar.
Gen 19:23 The sun rose over the horizon just as Lot was entering Zoar.
Gen 19:24 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rained down on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire of his own sending.
Gen 19:25 He overthrew those cities and the whole plain, with all the people living in the cities and everything that grew there.
Gen 19:26 But Lot's wife looked back, and was turned into a pillar of salt.
Gen 19:27 Next morning, Abraham hurried to the place where he had stood before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Gen 19:28 and looking towards Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole area of the plain, he saw the smoke rising from the ground like smoke from a furnace.
Gen 19:29 Thus it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he did not forget Abraham and he rescued Lot from the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities where Lot was living.
Gen 19:30 After leaving Zoar Lot settled in the hill country with his two daughters, for he dared not stay at Zoar. He lived in a cave, he and his two daughters.
Gen 19:31 The elder said to the younger, 'Our father is an old man, and there is no one here to marry us in the normal way of the world.
Gen 19:32 Come on, let us ply our father with wine and sleep with him. In this way we can preserve the race by our father.'
Gen 19:33 That night they made their father drunk, and the elder slept with her father though he was unaware of her coming to bed or of her leaving.
Gen 19:34 The next day the elder said to the younger, 'Last night, I was the one who slept with our father. Let us make him drunk again tonight, and you go and sleep with him. In this way we can preserve the race by our father.'
Gen 19:35 They made their father drunk that night too, and the younger went and slept with him, though he was unaware of her coming to bed or of her leaving.
Gen 19:36 Both Lot's daughters thus became pregnant by their father.
Gen 19:37 The elder gave birth to a son whom she named Moab; and he is the ancestor of the Moabites of our own times.
Gen 19:38 The younger also gave birth to a son whom she named Ben-Ammi; and he is the ancestor of the Bene-Ammon of our own times.
Gen 20:1 Abraham left there for the region of the Negeb, and settled between Kadesh and Shur. While staying in Gerar,
Gen 20:2 Abraham said of his wife Sarah, 'She is my sister,' and Abimelech the king of Gerar had Sarah brought to him.
Gen 20:3 But God visited Abimelech in a dream one night. 'You are to die,' he told him, 'because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.'
Gen 20:4 Abimelech, however, had not gone near her; so he said, 'Lord, would you kill someone even if he is upright?
Gen 20:5 Did he not tell me himself, "She is my sister"? And she herself said, "He is my brother." I did this with a clear conscience and clean hands.'
Gen 20:6 'Yes, I know,' God replied in the dream, 'that you did this with a clear conscience and I myself prevented you from sinning against me. That was why I did not let you touch her.
Gen 20:7 Now send the man's wife back; for he is a prophet and can intercede on your behalf for your life. But understand that if you do not send her back, this means death for you and all yours.'
Gen 20:8 Early next morning, Abimelech summoned his full court and told them the whole story, at which the people were very much afraid.
Gen 20:9 Then summoning Abraham, Abimelech said to him, 'What have you done to us? What wrong have I done you, for you to bring such guilt on me and on my kingdom? You had no right to treat me like this.'
Gen 20:10 Abimelech then said to Abraham, 'What possessed you to do such a thing?'
Gen 20:11 'Because', Abraham replied, 'I thought there would be no fear of God here and that I should be killed for the sake of my wife.
Gen 20:12 Anyway, she really is my sister, my father's daughter though not my mother's, besides being my wife.
Gen 20:13 So when God made me wander far from my father's home I said to her, "There is an act of love you can do me: everywhere we go, say of me that I am your brother." '
Gen 20:14 Abimelech took sheep, cattle, men and women slaves, and presented them to Abraham, and gave him back his wife Sarah.
Gen 20:15 And Abimelech said, 'Look, my land is open to you. Settle wherever you please.'
Gen 20:16 To Sarah he said, 'Look, I am giving your brother a thousand pieces of silver. This will allay suspicions about you, as far as all the people round you are concerned; you have been completely vindicated.'
Gen 20:17 Abraham then interceded with God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave-girls, so that they could have children,
Gen 20:18 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had made all the women of Abimelech's household barren on account of Sarah, Abraham's wife.
Gen 21:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) treated Sarah as he had said, and did what he had promised her.
Gen 21:2 Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the time God had promised.
Gen 21:3 Abraham named the son born to him Isaac, the son to whom Sarah had given birth.
Gen 21:4 Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him.
Gen 21:5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Gen 21:6 Sarah said: God has given me cause to laugh! All who hear about this will laugh with me!
Gen 21:7 She added: Whoever would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children! Yet I have borne a son in his old age.
Gen 21:8 The child grew and was weaned, and Abraham gave a great banquet on the day Isaac was weaned.
Gen 21:9 Now Sarah watched the son that Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.
Gen 21:10 'Drive away that slave-girl and her son,' she said to Abraham, 'this slave-girl's son is not to share the inheritance with my son Isaac.'
Gen 21:11 This greatly distressed Abraham, because the slave-girl's child too was his son,
Gen 21:12 but God said to him, 'Do not distress yourself on account of the boy and your slave-girl. Do whatever Sarah says, for Isaac is the one through whom your name will be carried on.
Gen 21:13 But the slave-girl's son I shall also make into a great nation, for he too is your child.'
Gen 21:14 Early next morning, Abraham took some bread and a skin of water and, giving them to Hagar, put the child on her shoulder and sent her away. She wandered off into the desert of Beersheba.
Gen 21:15 When the skin of water was finished she abandoned the child under a bush.
Gen 21:16 Then she went and sat down at a distance, about a bowshot away, thinking, 'I cannot bear to see the child die.' Sitting at a distance, she began to sob.
Gen 21:17 God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven. 'What is wrong, Hagar?' he asked. 'Do not be afraid, for God has heard the boy's cry in his plight.
Gen 21:18 Go and pick the boy up and hold him safe, for I shall make him into a great nation.'
Gen 21:19 Then God opened Hagar's eyes and she saw a well, so she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.
Gen 21:20 God was with the boy. He grew up and made his home in the desert, and he became an archer.
Gen 21:21 He made his home in the desert of Paran, and his mother got him a wife from Egypt.
Gen 21:22 About then, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, 'Since God is with you in everything you do,
Gen 21:23 swear to me by God, here and now, that you will not act treacherously towards me or my kith and kin, but behave with the same faithful love to me and the land of which you are a guest as I have behaved to you.'
Gen 21:24 'Yes,' Abraham replied, 'I swear it.'
Gen 21:25 Abraham then reproached Abimelech about a well that Abimelech's servants had seized.
Gen 21:26 'I do not know who has done this,' Abimelech said. 'You yourself have never mentioned it to me and, for myself, I heard nothing of it till today.'
Gen 21:27 Abraham then took sheep and cattle and presented them to Abimelech, and the two of them made a covenant.
Gen 21:28 Abraham put seven lambs of the flock on one side.
Gen 21:29 'Why have you put these seven lambs on one side?' Abimelech asked Abraham.
Gen 21:30 He replied, 'You must accept these seven lambs from me as evidence that I have dug this well.'
Gen 21:31 This was why the place was called Beersheba: because there the two of them swore an oath.
Gen 21:32 After they had made a covenant at Beersheba, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, left and went back to Philistine territory.
Gen 21:33 And Abraham planted a tamarisk at Beersheba and there he invoked the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Gen 21:34 Abraham stayed for a long while in Philistine territory.
Gen 22:1 It happened some time later that God put Abraham to the test. 'Abraham, Abraham!' he called. 'Here I am,' he replied.
Gen 22:2 God said, 'Take your son, your only son, your beloved Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, where you are to offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I shall point out to you.'
Gen 22:3 Early next morning Abraham saddled his donkey and took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. He chopped wood for the burnt offering and started on his journey to the place which God had indicated to him.
Gen 22:4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Gen 22:5 Then Abraham said to his servants, 'Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I are going over there; we shall worship and then come back to you.'
Gen 22:6 Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, loaded it on Isaac, and carried in his own hands the fire and the knife. Then the two of them set out together.
Gen 22:7 Isaac spoke to his father Abraham. 'Father?' he said. 'Yes, my son,' he replied. 'Look,' he said, 'here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?'
Gen 22:8 Abraham replied, 'My son, God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering.' And the two of them went on together.
Gen 22:9 When they arrived at the place which God had indicated to him, Abraham built an altar there, and arranged the wood. Then he bound his son and put him on the altar on top of the wood.
Gen 22:10 Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to kill his son.
Gen 22:11 But the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called to him from heaven. 'Abraham, Abraham!' he said. 'Here I am,' he replied.
Gen 22:12 'Do not raise your hand against the boy,' the angel said. 'Do not harm him, for now I know you fear God. You have not refused me your own beloved son.'
Gen 22:13 Then looking up, Abraham saw a ram caught by its horns in a bush. Abraham took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering in place of his son.
Gen 22:14 Abraham called this place 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) provides', and hence the saying today: 'On the mountain Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) provides.'
Gen 22:15 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called Abraham a second time from heaven.
Gen 22:16 'I swear by my own self, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, that because you have done this, because you have not refused me your own beloved son,
Gen 22:17 I will shower blessings on you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will gain possession of the gates of their enemies.
Gen 22:18 All nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants, because you have obeyed my command.'
Gen 22:19 Abraham went back to his servants, and together they set out for Beersheba, and Abraham settled in Beersheba.
Gen 22:20 It happened some time later that Abraham received word that Milcah, too, had now borne sons to his brother Nahor:
Gen 22:21 Uz his first-born, Buz his brother, Kemuel father of Aram,
Gen 22:22 Chesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph, Bethuel
Gen 22:23 (and Bethuel was the father of Rebekah). These were the eight children Milcah gave Nahor, Abraham's brother.
Gen 22:24 He had a concubine named Reumah, and she too had children: Tebah, Gaham, Tahash and Maacah.
Gen 23:1 The length of Sarah's life was a hundred and twenty-seven years.
Gen 23:2 She died at Kiriath-Arba -- now Hebron -- in the land of Canaan, and Abraham proceeded to mourn and bewail her.
Gen 23:3 Then rising from beside his dead, Abraham spoke to the Hittites,
Gen 23:4 'I am a stranger resident here,' he said. 'Let me have a burial site of my own here, so that I can remove my dead for burial.'
Gen 23:5 The Hittites replied to Abraham,
Gen 23:6 'Please listen to us, my lord, we regard you as a prince of God; bury your dead in the best of our tombs; not one of us would refuse you his tomb for you to bury your dead.'
Gen 23:7 At this, Abraham rose and bowed low to the local people, the Hittites,
Gen 23:8 and pleaded with them as follows, 'If you consent to my removing my dead for burial, you must agree to intercede for me with Ephron son of Zohar,
Gen 23:9 for him to let me have the cave he owns at Machpelah, which is on the edge of his field. Let him sell it to me in your presence at its full price, for a burial site of my own.'
Gen 23:10 Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all the inhabitants of his town.
Gen 23:11 'No, my lord, listen to me,' he said. 'I give you the field and the cave in it; I make this gift in the presence of my kinsmen. Bury your dead.'
Gen 23:12 Abraham bowed low to the local people
Gen 23:13 and, in the hearing of the local people, replied to Ephron as follows, 'Be good enough to listen to me. I shall pay the price of the field; accept it from me and I shall bury my dead there.'
Gen 23:14 Ephron replied to Abraham,
Gen 23:15 'Please listen to me, my lord. What is a plot of land for four hundred shekels of silver between me and you? Bury your dead.'
Gen 23:16 Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver he had stipulated in the hearing of the Hittites, namely four hundred shekels of silver, according to the current commercial rate.
Gen 23:17 Thus Ephron's field at Machpelah, facing Mamre -- the field and the cave in it and all the trees anywhere within the boundaries of the field -- passed
Gen 23:18 into Abraham's possession in the sight of the Hittites, of all the inhabitants of his town.
Gen 23:19 And after this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre -- now Hebron -- in the land of Canaan.
Gen 23:20 And so the field and the cave in it passed from the Hittites into Abraham's possession as a burial site of his own.
Gen 24:1 By now Abraham was an old man, well on in years, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had blessed Abraham in every way.
Gen 24:2 Abraham said to the senior servant in his household, the steward of all his property, 'Place your hand under my thigh:
Gen 24:3 I am going to make you swear by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of heaven and God of earth, that you will not choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I live
Gen 24:4 but will go to my native land and my own kinsfolk to choose a wife for my son Isaac.'
Gen 24:5 The servant asked him, 'What if the girl does not want to follow me to this country? Should I then take your son back to the country from which you come?'
Gen 24:6 Abraham replied, 'On no account are you to take my son back there.
Gen 24:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of heaven and God of earth, who took me from my father's home, and from the land of my kinsfolk, and who promised me on oath, "I shall give this country to your descendants"-he will now send his angel ahead of you, so that you can get a wife for my son from there.
Gen 24:8 If then the girl refuses to follow you, you will be quit of this oath to me. Only do not take my son back there.'
Gen 24:9 And the servant placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham, and swore to him that he would do it.
Gen 24:10 The servant took ten of his master's camels and, carrying all kinds of gifts from his master, set out for the city of Nahor in Aram Naharaim.
Gen 24:11 In the evening, at the time when women come out to draw water, he made the camels kneel outside the town near the well.
Gen 24:12 And he said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of my master Abraham, give me success today and show faithful love to my master Abraham.
Gen 24:13 While I stand by the spring as the young women from the town come out to draw water,
Gen 24:14 I shall say to one of the girls, "Please lower your pitcher and let me drink." And if she answers, "Drink, and I shall water your camels too," let her be the one you have decreed for your servant Isaac; by this I shall know you have shown faithful love to my master.'
Gen 24:15 He had not finished speaking when out came Rebekah -- who was the daughter of Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor -- with a pitcher on her shoulder.
Gen 24:16 The girl was very beautiful, and a virgin; no man had touched her. She went down to the spring, filled her pitcher and came up again.
Gen 24:17 Running towards her, the servant said, 'Please give me a sip of water from your pitcher.'
Gen 24:18 She replied, 'Drink, my lord,' and quickly lowered her pitcher on her arm and gave him a drink.
Gen 24:19 When she had finished letting him drink, she said, 'I shall draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough.'
Gen 24:20 She quickly emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran to the well again to draw, and drew for all the camels.
Gen 24:21 All the while, the man stood watching her, not daring to speak, wondering whether Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had made his journey successful or not.
Gen 24:22 When the camels had finished drinking, the man took a gold ring weighing half a shekel, and put it through her nose, and put two bracelets weighing ten gold shekels on her arms,
Gen 24:23 and said, 'Whose daughter are you? Please tell me. Is there room at your father's house for us to spend the night?'
Gen 24:24 She replied, 'I am the daughter of Bethuel, the son whom Milcah bore to Nahor.'
Gen 24:25 And she went on, 'We have plenty of straw and fodder, and room to spend the night.'
Gen 24:26 Then the man bowed down and worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)
Gen 24:27 saying, 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of my master Abraham, for not withholding his faithful love from my master. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has led me straight to the house of my master's brother.'
Gen 24:28 The girl ran to her mother's house to tell what had happened.
Gen 24:29 Now Rebekah had a brother called Laban, and Laban ran out to the man at the spring.
Gen 24:30 As soon as he had seen the ring and the bracelets his sister was wearing, and had heard his sister Rebekah saying, 'This is what the man said to me,' he went to the man and found him still standing by his camels at the spring.
Gen 24:31 He said to him, 'Come in, blessed of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), why stay out here when I have cleared the house and made room for the camels?'
Gen 24:32 The man went to the house, and Laban unloaded the camels. He provided straw and fodder for the camels and water for him and his companions to wash their feet.
Gen 24:33 They offered him food, but he said, 'I will eat nothing before I have said what I have to say.' Laban said, 'Speak.'
Gen 24:34 He said, 'I am Abraham's servant.
Gen 24:35 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has loaded my master with blessings, and Abraham is now very rich. He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, men and women slaves, camels and donkeys.
Gen 24:36 Sarah, my master's wife, bore my master a son in his old age, and he has made over all his property to him.
Gen 24:37 My master made me take this oath, "You are not to choose a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites in whose country I live.
Gen 24:38 Instead, you are to go to my father's home and to my own kinsfolk to choose a wife for my son."
Gen 24:39 I said to my master, "Suppose the girl will not agree to come with me?"
Gen 24:40 and his reply was, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in whose presence I have walked, will send his angel with you and make your journey successful, for you to choose a wife for my son from my own kinsfolk, from my father's house.
Gen 24:41 Then you will be quit of my curse: if you go to my family and they refuse you, you will be quit of my curse."
Gen 24:42 Arriving today at the spring I said, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of my master Abraham, please grant a successful outcome to the course I propose to take.
Gen 24:43 While I stand by the spring, if a girl comes out to draw water and I say to her, 'Please give me a little water to drink from your pitcher,'
Gen 24:44 if she replies, 'Drink by all means, and I shall draw water for your camels too,' let her be the girl whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has decreed for my master's son."
Gen 24:45 I was still saying this in my mind when Rebekah came out, her pitcher on her shoulder. She came down to the spring and drew water. I said to her, "Please give me a drink."
Gen 24:46 Quickly she lowered her pitcher saying, "Drink, and I shall water your camels too."
Gen 24:47 I asked her, "Whose daughter are you?" She replied, "I am the daughter of Bethuel, whom Milcah bore to Nahor." Then I put this ring through her nose and these bracelets on her arms.
Gen 24:48 I bowed down and worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I blessed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of my master Abraham, who had led me by a direct path to choose the daughter of my master's brother for his son.
Gen 24:49 Now tell me whether you are prepared to show constant and faithful love to my master; if not, say so, and I shall know what to do.'
Gen 24:50 Laban and Bethuel replied, 'This is from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); it is not for us to say yes or no to you.
Gen 24:51 Rebekah is there before you. Take her and go; and let her become the wife of your master's son, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has decreed.'
Gen 24:52 On hearing this, Abraham's servant bowed to the ground before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Gen 24:53 He brought out silver and gold ornaments and clothes which he gave to Rebekah; he also gave rich presents to her brother and to her mother.
Gen 24:54 They ate and drank, he and his companions, and spent the night there. Next morning when they were up, he said, 'Let me go back to my master.'
Gen 24:55 Rebekah's brother and mother replied, 'Let the girl stay with us for ten days or so; then she can go.'
Gen 24:56 But he replied, 'Do not delay me, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made my journey successful; let me leave and go back to my master.'
Gen 24:57 They replied, 'Let us call the girl and find out what she has to say.'
Gen 24:58 They called Rebekah and asked her, 'Will you go with this man?' She replied, 'I will.'
Gen 24:59 Accordingly they let their sister Rebekah go, with her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men.
Gen 24:60 They blessed Rebekah and said to her: Sister of ours, from you may there spring thousands and tens of thousands! May your descendants gain possession of the gates of their enemies!
Gen 24:61 And forthwith, Rebekah and her maids mounted the camels, and followed the man. The servant took Rebekah and departed.
Gen 24:62 Isaac meanwhile had come back from the well of Lahai Roi and was living in the Negeb.
Gen 24:63 While Isaac was out walking towards evening in the fields, he looked up and saw camels approaching.
Gen 24:64 And Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac. She jumped down from her camel,
Gen 24:65 and asked the servant, 'Who is that man walking through the fields towards us?' The servant replied, 'That is my master.' So she took her veil and covered herself up.
Gen 24:66 The servant told Isaac the whole story.
Gen 24:67 Then Isaac took her into his tent. He married Rebekah and made her his wife. And in his love for her, Isaac was consoled for the loss of his mother.
Gen 25:1 Abraham married another wife whose name was Keturah;
Gen 25:2 and she bore him Zimram, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.
Gen 25:3 Jokshan was the father of Sheba and Dedan, and the descendants of Dedan were the Asshurites, the Letushim and the Leummim.
Gen 25:4 The descendants of Midian were Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida and Eldaah. All these were sons of Keturah.
Gen 25:5 Abraham left all his possessions to Isaac.
Gen 25:6 To the sons of his concubines Abraham made grants during his lifetime, sending them away from his son Isaac eastward, to the Land of the East.
Gen 25:7 The number of years Abraham lived was a hundred and seventy-five.
Gen 25:8 When Abraham had breathed his last, dying at a happy ripe age, old and full of years, he was gathered to his people.
Gen 25:9 His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah facing Mamre, in the field of Ephron the Hittite son of Zohar.
Gen 25:10 This was the field that Abraham had bought from the Hittites, and Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried there.
Gen 25:11 After Abraham's death, God blessed his son Isaac. Isaac settled near the well of Lahai Roi.
Gen 25:12 These are the descendants of Ishmael son of Abraham by Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian slave-girl.
Gen 25:13 These are the names of the sons of Ishmael by name and line: Ishmael's first-born was Nebaioth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
Gen 25:14 Mishma, Dumah, Massa,
Gen 25:15 Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah.
Gen 25:16 These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, according to their settlements and encampments, twelve chiefs of as many tribes.
Gen 25:17 The number of years Ishmael lived was one hundred and thirty-seven. When he breathed his last and died, he was gathered to his people.
Gen 25:18 He lived in the territory stretching from Havilah-by-Shur just outside Egypt on the way to Assyria, and he held his own against all his kinsmen.
Gen 25:19 This is the story of Isaac son of Abraham. Abraham fathered Isaac.
Gen 25:20 Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah the daughter of Bethuel the Aramaean of Paddan-Aram, and sister of Laban the Aramaean.
Gen 25:21 Isaac prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on behalf of his wife, for she was barren. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard his prayer, and his wife Rebekah conceived.
Gen 25:22 But the children inside her struggled so much that she said, 'If this is the way of it, why go on living?' So she went to consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Gen 25:23 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to her: There are two nations in your womb, your issue will be two rival peoples. One nation will have the mastery of the other, and the elder will serve the younger.
Gen 25:24 When the time came for her confinement, there were indeed twins in her womb.
Gen 25:25 The first to be born was red, altogether like a hairy cloak; so they named him Esau.
Gen 25:26 Then his brother was born, with his hand grasping Esau's heel; so they named him Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old at the time of their birth.
Gen 25:27 When the boys grew up Esau became a skilled hunter, a man of the open country. Jacob on the other hand was a quiet man, staying at home among the tents.
Gen 25:28 Isaac preferred Esau, for he had a taste for wild game; but Rebekah preferred Jacob.
Gen 25:29 Once, when Jacob was cooking a stew, Esau returned from the countryside exhausted.
Gen 25:30 Esau said to Jacob, 'Give me a mouthful of that red stuff there; I am exhausted' -- hence the name given to him, Edom.
Gen 25:31 Jacob said, 'First, give me your birthright in exchange.'
Gen 25:32 Esau said, 'Here I am, at death's door; what use is a birthright to me?'
Gen 25:33 Then Jacob said, 'First give me your oath'; he gave him his oath and sold his birthright to Jacob.
Gen 25:34 Then Jacob gave him some bread and lentil stew; he ate, drank, got up and went away. That was all Esau cared about his birthright.
Gen 26:1 There was a famine in the country -- different from the previous famine which took place in the time of Abraham -- and Isaac went to Abimelech, the Philistine king at Gerar.
Gen 26:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had appeared to him and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the country which I shall point out to you.
Gen 26:3 Remain for the present in that country; I shall be with you and bless you, for I shall give all these countries to you and your descendants in fulfilment of the oath I swore to your father Abraham.
Gen 26:4 I shall make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, and I shall give them all these countries, and all nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants
Gen 26:5 in return for Abraham's obedience; for he kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws.'
Gen 26:6 So Isaac stayed at Gerar.
Gen 26:7 When the people of the place asked him about his wife he replied, 'She is my sister,' for he was afraid to say, 'She is my wife,' thinking, 'The people of the place will kill me because of Rebekah, since she is beautiful.'
Gen 26:8 When he had been there some time, Abimelech the Philistine king happened to look out of the window and saw Isaac fondling his wife Rebekah.
Gen 26:9 Abimelech summoned Isaac and said to him, 'Surely she must be your wife! How could you have said, "She is my sister"?' Isaac replied, 'Because I thought I might be killed on her account.'
Gen 26:10 Abimelech said, 'What a thing to do to us! One of the people might easily have slept with your wife. We should have incurred guilt, thanks to you.'
Gen 26:11 Then Abimelech issued this order to all the people: 'Whoever touches this man or his wife will be put to death.'
Gen 26:12 Isaac sowed his crops in that country, and that year he reaped a hundredfold. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blessed him
Gen 26:13 and the man became rich; he prospered more and more until he was very rich indeed.
Gen 26:14 He acquired flocks and herds and a large retinue. The Philistines began to envy him.
Gen 26:15 The Philistines had blocked up all the wells dug by his father's servants -- in the days of his father Abraham -- filling them in with earth.
Gen 26:16 Then Abimelech said to Isaac, 'You must leave us, for you have become much more powerful than we are.'
Gen 26:17 So Isaac left; he pitched camp in the Valley of Gerar and there he stayed.
Gen 26:18 Isaac reopened the wells dug by the servants of his father Abraham and blocked up by the Philistines after Abraham's death, and he gave them the same names as his father had given them.
Gen 26:19 But when Isaac's servants, digging in the valley, found a well of spring-water there,
Gen 26:20 the herdsmen of Gerar disputed it with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, 'That water is ours!' So Isaac named the well Esek, because they had disputed with him.
Gen 26:21 They dug another well, and there was a dispute over that one too; so he named it Sitnah.
Gen 26:22 Then he left there, and dug another well, and since there was no dispute over this one, he named it Rehoboth, saying, 'Now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made room for us to thrive in the country.'
Gen 26:23 From there he went up to Beersheba.
Gen 26:24 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to him the same night and said: I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I shall bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham's sake.
Gen 26:25 There he built an altar and invoked the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). There he pitched his tent, and there Isaac's servants sank a well.
Gen 26:26 Abimelech came from Gerar to see him, with Ahuzzath his adviser and Phicol the commander of his army.
Gen 26:27 Isaac said to them, 'Why do you come to me since you hate me, and have made me leave you?'
Gen 26:28 'It became clear to us that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with you,' they replied, 'and so we thought, "It is time to have a treaty sworn between us, between us and you." So let us make a covenant with you:
Gen 26:29 that you will not do us any harm, since we never molested you but were unfailingly kind to you and let you go away in peace. Henceforth, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s blessing on you!'
Gen 26:30 He then made them a feast and they ate and drank.
Gen 26:31 Early next morning, they exchanged oaths. Then Isaac bade them farewell and they left him as friends.
Gen 26:32 It happened, the same day, that Isaac's servants brought him news about the well they had been digging. 'We have found water!' they said to him.
Gen 26:33 So he called the well Sheba, and hence the town is named Beersheba to this day.
Gen 26:34 When Esau was forty years old he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite.
Gen 26:35 These were a bitter disappointment to Isaac and Rebekah.
Gen 27:1 When Isaac had grown old, and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see, he summoned his elder son Esau. 'Son!' he said, and Esau replied, 'Here I am.'
Gen 27:2 He then said, 'Look, I am old and do not know when I may die.
Gen 27:3 Now take your weapons, your quiver and bow; go out into the country and hunt me some game.
Gen 27:4 Make me the kind of appetising dish I like and bring it to me to eat and I shall give you my special blessing before I die.'
Gen 27:5 Rebekah was listening while Isaac was talking to his son Esau. So when Esau went into the country to hunt game for his father,
Gen 27:6 Rebekah said to her son Jacob, 'I have just heard your father saying to your brother Esau,
Gen 27:7 "Bring me some game and make an appetising dish for me to eat and then I shall bless you in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence before I die."
Gen 27:8 Now, son, listen to me and do as I tell you.
Gen 27:9 Go to the flock and bring me back two good kids, so that I can make the kind of special dish your father likes.
Gen 27:10 Then take it to your father for him to eat, so that he may bless you before he dies.'
Gen 27:11 Jacob said to his mother Rebekah, 'Look, my brother Esau is hairy, while I am smooth-skinned.
Gen 27:12 If my father happens to touch me, he will see I am cheating him, and I shall bring a curse down on myself instead of a blessing.'
Gen 27:13 But his mother replied, 'On me be the curse, my son! Just listen to me; go and fetch me the kids.'
Gen 27:14 So he went to fetch them and brought them to his mother, and she made the kind of special dish his father liked.
Gen 27:15 Rebekah took her elder son Esau's best clothes, which she had at home, and dressed her younger son Jacob in them,
Gen 27:16 covering his arms and the smooth part of his neck with the skins of the kids.
Gen 27:17 She then handed the special dish and the bread she had made to her son Jacob.
Gen 27:18 He went to his father and said, 'Father!' 'Yes?' he replied. 'Which of my sons are you?'
Gen 27:19 Jacob said to his father, 'I am Esau your first-born; I have done as you told me. Please sit up and eat some of the game I have brought and then give me your soul's blessing.'
Gen 27:20 Isaac said to his son, 'Son, how did you succeed so quickly?' He replied, 'Because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God made things go well for me.'
Gen 27:21 Isaac said to Jacob, 'Come closer, son, so that I can feel you and be sure whether you really are my son Esau or not.'
Gen 27:22 Jacob went closer to his father Isaac, who felt him and said, 'The voice is Jacob's voice but the arms are the arms of Esau!'
Gen 27:23 He did not recognize him since his arms were hairy like his brother Esau's, and so he blessed him.
Gen 27:24 He said, 'Are you really my son Esau?' And he replied, 'I am.'
Gen 27:25 Isaac said, 'Serve it to me, so that I can eat my son's game and give you my special blessing.' He served it to him and he ate; he offered him wine, and he drank.
Gen 27:26 His father Isaac said to him, 'Come closer, and kiss me, son.'
Gen 27:27 He went closer and kissed his father, who sniffed the smell of his clothes. Then he blessed him, saying: Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a fertile field which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has blessed.
Gen 27:28 May God give you dew from heaven, and the richness of the earth, abundance of grain and wine!
Gen 27:29 Let peoples serve you and nations bow low before you! Be master of your brothers; let your mother's other sons bow low before you! Accursed be whoever curses you and blessed be whoever blesses you!
Gen 27:30 As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and just as Jacob was leaving his father Isaac, his brother Esau returned from hunting.
Gen 27:31 He too made an appetising dish and brought it to his father, 'Father, please eat some of your son's game and then give me your special blessing.'
Gen 27:32 His father Isaac asked, 'Who are you?' 'I am your first-born son, Esau,' he replied.
Gen 27:33 At this Isaac was seized with a violent trembling and said, 'Who was it, then, that went hunting and brought me the game? I finished eating it just before you came; I blessed him, and now blessed he will remain!'
Gen 27:34 On hearing his father's words, Esau cried out loudly and bitterly and said to his father, 'Father, bless me too!'
Gen 27:35 But he replied, 'Your brother came by fraud and took your blessing.'
Gen 27:36 Esau said, 'His name should be Jacob right enough, for he has now supplanted me twice. First he took my birthright, and look, now he has gone and taken my blessing! But', he added, 'have you not kept a blessing for me?'
Gen 27:37 Isaac replied to Esau, 'I have already made him your master; I have given him all his brothers as servants, I have given him grain and wine to sustain him. So what can I do for you, son?'
Gen 27:38 Esau said to his father, 'Can you bless only once, father? Father, bless me too.' Isaac remained silent, and Esau began to weep aloud.
Gen 27:39 Then his father Isaac spoke again and said: 'Far from the richness of the earth and the dew of heaven above, your home will be.
Gen 27:40 By your sword you will live, and your brother will you serve. But when you win your freedom, you will shake his yoke off your neck.'
Gen 27:41 Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him, and Esau said to himself, 'The time to mourn for my father will soon be here. Then I shall kill my brother Jacob.'
Gen 27:42 When the words of Esau, her elder son, were repeated to Rebekah, she sent for her younger son Jacob and said to him, 'Look, your brother Esau means to take revenge and kill you.
Gen 27:43 Now, son, listen to me; go at once and take refuge with my brother Laban in Haran.
Gen 27:44 Stay with him a while, until your brother's fury cools,
Gen 27:45 until your brother's anger is diverted from you and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I shall send someone to bring you back. I do not want to lose you both on one day!'
Gen 27:46 Rebekah said to Isaac, 'The Hittite women sicken me to death. If Jacob were to marry a Hittite woman like these, one of the local women, what would there be left in life for me?'
Gen 28:1 So Isaac summoned Jacob and blessed him; and he gave him this order: 'You are not to marry any of the Canaanite women.
Gen 28:2 Go off to Paddan-Aram, the home of Bethuel your mother's father, and there choose a wife for yourself from the daughters of Laban your mother's brother.
Gen 28:3 May El Shaddai bless you; may he make you fruitful and make you multiply so that you become a group of nations.
Gen 28:4 May he grant you the blessing of Abraham, you and your descendants after you, so that one day you may own the country where you are now living as a stranger -- which God gave to Abraham.'
Gen 28:5 Then Isaac sent Jacob away, and Jacob went to Paddan-Aram, to Laban son of Bethuel the Aramaean and brother of Rebekah the mother of Jacob and Esau.
Gen 28:6 When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him to Paddan-Aram to choose a wife there, and that in blessing him he had given him this order: 'You are not to choose a wife from the Canaanite women,'
Gen 28:7 and that, in obedience to his father and mother, Jacob had gone to Paddan-Aram,
Gen 28:8 Esau then realized how much his father Isaac disapproved of the Canaanite women.
Gen 28:9 So Esau went to Ishmael and chose for a wife, in addition to the wives he had, Mahalath daughter of Abraham's son Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
Gen 28:10 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran.
Gen 28:11 When he had reached a certain place, he stopped there for the night, since the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he made it his pillow and lay down where he was.
Gen 28:12 He had a dream: there was a ladder, planted on the ground with its top reaching to heaven; and God's angels were going up and down on it.
Gen 28:13 And there was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), standing beside him and saying, 'I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The ground on which you are lying I shall give to you and your descendants.
Gen 28:14 Your descendants will be as plentiful as the dust on the ground; you will spread out to west and east, to north and south, and all clans on earth will bless themselves by you and your descendants.
Gen 28:15 Be sure, I am with you; I shall keep you safe wherever you go, and bring you back to this country, for I shall never desert you until I have done what I have promised you.'
Gen 28:16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Truly, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is in this place and I did not know!'
Gen 28:17 He was afraid and said, 'How awe-inspiring this place is! This is nothing less than the abode of God, and this is the gate of heaven!'
Gen 28:18 Early next morning, Jacob took the stone he had used for his pillow, and set it up as a pillar, pouring oil over the top of it.
Gen 28:19 He named the place Bethel, but before that the town had been called Luz.
Gen 28:20 Jacob then made this vow, 'If God remains with me and keeps me safe on this journey I am making, if he gives me food to eat and clothes to wear,
Gen 28:21 and if I come home safe to my father's home, then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) shall be my God.
Gen 28:22 This stone I have set up as a pillar is to be a house of God, and I shall faithfully pay you a tenth part of everything you give me.'
Gen 29:1 Continuing his journey, Jacob reached the Land of the Easterners.
Gen 29:2 And there, out in the open, he saw a well with three flocks of sheep lying beside it; this well was used for watering the flocks. Now the stone on the mouth of the well was a large one,
Gen 29:3 and only when all the flocks had collected there, did they roll the stone off the mouth of the well and water the sheep; then they would replace the stone over the mouth of the well.
Gen 29:4 Jacob said to the shepherds, 'Friends, where are you from?' They replied, 'We are from Haran.'
Gen 29:5 He asked them, 'Do you know Laban son of Nahor?' They replied, 'We do.'
Gen 29:6 Then he asked them, 'Is he well?' 'He is,' they replied, 'and here comes his daughter Rachel with the flock.'
Gen 29:7 Then he said, 'But it is still broad daylight, not the time to round up the animals. Why don't you water the sheep and take them back to graze?'
Gen 29:8 To which, they replied, 'We can't, until all the shepherds have assembled to roll the stone off the mouth of the well; then we can water the sheep.'
Gen 29:9 He was still talking to them, when Rachel arrived with her father's flock, for she was a shepherdess.
Gen 29:10 As soon as Jacob saw Rachel, his uncle Laban's daughter, with his uncle Laban's flock, he went up and, rolling the stone off the mouth of the well, watered his uncle Laban's sheep.
Gen 29:11 Jacob then kissed Rachel and burst into tears.
Gen 29:12 He told Rachel he was her father's kinsman and Rebekah's son, and she ran to tell her father.
Gen 29:13 As soon as he heard her speak of his sister's son Jacob, Laban ran to greet him, embraced him, kissed him and took him to his house. Jacob told Laban everything that had happened,
Gen 29:14 and Laban said to him, 'You are indeed my bone and flesh!' After Jacob had been staying with him for a month,
Gen 29:15 Laban said to Jacob, 'Just because you are my kinsman, why should you work for me for nothing? Tell me what wages you want.'
Gen 29:16 Now Laban had two daughters, the elder named Leah, and the younger Rachel.
Gen 29:17 Leah had lovely eyes, but Rachel was shapely and beautiful,
Gen 29:18 and Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel. So his answer was, 'I shall work for you for seven years in exchange for your younger daughter Rachel.'
Gen 29:19 Laban replied, 'It is better for me to give her to you than to a stranger; stay with me.'
Gen 29:20 So Jacob worked for seven years for Rachel, and they seemed to him like a few days because he loved her so much.
Gen 29:21 Then Jacob said to Laban, 'Give me my wife, for my time is up and I should like to go to her.'
Gen 29:22 Laban gathered all the people of the place together, and gave a banquet.
Gen 29:23 But when night came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and he slept with her.
Gen 29:24 (Laban gave his slave-girl Zilpah to his daughter Leah as her slave.)
Gen 29:25 When morning came, it was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, 'What have you done to me? Did I not work for you for Rachel? Why then have you tricked me?'
Gen 29:26 Laban replied, 'It is not the custom in our place to marry off the younger before the elder.
Gen 29:27 Finish this marriage week and I shall give you the other one too in return for your working for me for another seven years.'
Gen 29:28 Jacob agreed and, when he had finished the week, Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.
Gen 29:29 (Laban gave his slave-girl Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her slave.)
Gen 29:30 So Jacob slept with Rachel too, and he loved Rachel more than Leah. He worked for Laban for another seven years.
Gen 29:31 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saw that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb, while Rachel remained barren.
Gen 29:32 Leah conceived and gave birth to a son whom she named Reuben, meaning 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has seen my misery'; and she said, 'Now my husband will love me.'
Gen 29:33 Conceiving again, she gave birth to a son and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard that I was unloved, and so he has given me this one too'; and she named him Simeon.
Gen 29:34 Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, 'This time my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.' Accordingly, she named him Levi.
Gen 29:35 Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, 'Now I shall praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!' Accordingly, she named him Judah. Then she had no more children.
Gen 30:1 Rachel, seeing that she herself gave Jacob no children, became jealous of her sister. And she said to Jacob, 'Give me children, or I shall die!'
Gen 30:2 This made Jacob angry with Rachel, and he retorted, 'Am I in the position of God, who has denied you motherhood?'
Gen 30:3 So she said, 'Here is my slave-girl, Bilhah. Sleep with her and let her give birth on my knees; through her, then, I too shall have children!'
Gen 30:4 So she gave him her slave-girl Bilhah as concubine. Jacob slept with her,
Gen 30:5 and Bilhah conceived and gave birth to a son by Jacob.
Gen 30:6 Then Rachel said, 'God has done me justice; yes, he has heard my prayer and given me a son.' Accordingly she named him Dan.
Gen 30:7 Again Rachel's slave-girl Bilhah conceived and gave birth to a second son by Jacob.
Gen 30:8 Then Rachel said, 'I have fought a fateful battle with my sister, and I have won!' So she named him Naphtali.
Gen 30:9 Now Leah, seeing that she had ceased to bear children, took her slave-girl Zilpah and gave her to Jacob as concubine.
Gen 30:10 So Leah's slave-girl Zilpah gave birth to a son by Jacob.
Gen 30:11 Then Leah exclaimed, 'What good fortune!' So she named him Gad.
Gen 30:12 Leah's slave-girl Zilpah gave birth to a second son by Jacob.
Gen 30:13 Then Leah said, 'What blessedness! Women will call me blessed!' So she named him Asher.
Gen 30:14 One day, at the time of the wheat harvest, Reuben found some mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, 'Please give me some of your son's mandrakes.'
Gen 30:15 Leah replied, 'Is it not enough to have taken my husband, without your taking my son's mandrakes as well?' So Rachel said, 'Very well, he can sleep with you tonight in return for your son's mandrakes.'
Gen 30:16 When Jacob came back from the fields that night, Leah went out to meet him and said, 'You must come to me, for I have hired you at the price of my son's mandrakes.' So he slept with her that night.
Gen 30:17 God heard Leah, and she conceived and gave birth to a fifth son by Jacob.
Gen 30:18 Then Leah said, 'God has given me my reward for giving my slave-girl to my husband.' So she named him Issachar.
Gen 30:19 Again Leah conceived and gave birth to a sixth son by Jacob,
Gen 30:20 and said, 'God has given me a fine gift; now my husband will bring me presents, for I have borne him six sons.' So she named him Zebulun.
Gen 30:21 Later she gave birth to a daughter and named her Dinah.
Gen 30:22 Then God remembered Rachel; he heard her and opened her womb.
Gen 30:23 She conceived and gave birth to a son, and said, 'God has taken away my disgrace!'
Gen 30:24 She named him Joseph, saying, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) add another son for me!'
Gen 30:25 When Rachel had given birth to Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, 'Release me and let me go home to my own country.
Gen 30:26 Give me my wives for whom I have worked for you, and my children, and let me go. You are well aware how long I have worked for you.'
Gen 30:27 Laban replied, 'If I have done what pleases you . . . I have learnt by divination that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has blessed me because of you.
Gen 30:28 So name your wages,' he added, 'and I will pay.'
Gen 30:29 He replied, 'You know how hard I have worked for you, and how your stock has fared in my charge.
Gen 30:30 The little you had before I came has increased enormously, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has blessed you wherever I have been. When am I to provide for my own household too?'
Gen 30:31 Laban said, 'How much am I to pay you?' Jacob replied, 'You need not pay me anything. I shall change my mind and go on tending your flock, if you do this one thing for me.
Gen 30:32 'Go through your entire flock today and remove every black animal among the sheep, and every speckled or spotted one among the goats. These will be my wages,
Gen 30:33 and my uprightness will answer for me later: when you come to check my wages, every goat I have that is not speckled or spotted, and every sheep that is not black will count as stolen by me.'
Gen 30:34 Laban replied, 'Good, just as you say.'
Gen 30:35 That same day he removed the striped and speckled he-goats and all the spotted and speckled she-goats, every one that had white on it, and all the black sheep, and entrusted these to his sons.
Gen 30:36 Then he put a three days' journey between himself and Jacob, while Jacob grazed the rest of Laban's flock.
Gen 30:37 Jacob then got fresh shoots from poplar, almond and plane trees, and peeled them in white strips, laying bare the white part of the shoots.
Gen 30:38 He set up the shoots he had peeled in front of the animals, in the troughs, in the water-holes where the animals came to drink. Since they mated when they came to drink,
Gen 30:39 the goats thus mated in front of the shoots and so the goats produced striped, spotted and speckled young.
Gen 30:40 The ewes, on the other hand, Jacob kept apart and made these face whatever was striped or black in Laban's flock. Thus he built up droves of his own which he did not put with Laban's flocks.
Gen 30:41 Furthermore, whenever the sturdier animals were mating, Jacob put the shoots where the animals could see them, in the troughs, so that they would mate in front of the shoots.
Gen 30:42 But when the animals were feeble, he did not put them there; so Laban got the feeble, and Jacob the sturdy.
Gen 30:43 Thus the man grew extremely rich, and came to own large flocks, men and women slaves, camels and donkeys.
Gen 31:1 Jacob learned that Laban's sons were saying, 'Jacob has taken everything that belonged to our father; it is at our father's expense that he has acquired all this wealth,'
Gen 31:2 and Jacob also saw that Laban's manner towards him was not as it had been in the past.
Gen 31:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Jacob, 'Go back to the land of your ancestors, where you were born, and I shall be with you.'
Gen 31:4 So Jacob had Rachel and Leah called to the fields where his flocks were,
Gen 31:5 and he said to them, 'I can see that your father's manner towards me is not as it was in the past, but the God of my father has been with me.
Gen 31:6 You yourselves know that I have worked for your father with all my might,
Gen 31:7 and that your father has tricked me, changing my wages ten times over, and yet God has not allowed him to harm me.
Gen 31:8 Whenever he said, "The spotted ones will be your wages," all the animals produced spotted young; whenever he said, "The striped ones will be your wages," all the animals produced striped young.
Gen 31:9 Thus God has reclaimed your father's livestock and given it to me.
Gen 31:10 Once, when the animals were on heat, I suddenly saw in a dream that the he-goats covering the females were striped or spotted or piebald.
Gen 31:11 In the dream the angel of God called to me, "Jacob!" I said, "Here I am."
Gen 31:12 He said, "Now take note: all the he-goats covering the females are striped or spotted or piebald -- for I too have noted all the things that Laban has been doing to you,
Gen 31:13 I am the God who appeared to you at Bethel, where you poured oil on a pillar and made a vow to me. On your feet, then, leave this country and return to the land of your birth." '
Gen 31:14 In answer Rachel and Leah said to him, 'Are we still likely to inherit anything from our father's estate?
Gen 31:15 Does he not think of us as outsiders now? For not only has he sold us, but he has completely swallowed up the money he got for us.
Gen 31:16 All the wealth that God has reclaimed from our father belonged to us and our children in any case. So do whatever God has told you.'
Gen 31:17 Forthwith, Jacob put his children and his wives on camels,
Gen 31:18 and drove off all his livestock -- with all the possessions he had acquired, the livestock belonging to him which he had acquired in Paddan-Aram -- to go to his father Isaac in Canaan.
Gen 31:19 Laban was away, shearing his sheep; Rachel in the meanwhile had appropriated the household idols belonging to her father,
Gen 31:20 and Jacob had outwitted Laban the Aramaean so that he would not be forewarned of his flight.
Gen 31:21 Thus he got away with all he had. He was soon across the River and heading for Mount Gilead.
Gen 31:22 Three days later Laban was told that Jacob had fled.
Gen 31:23 Taking his brothers with him, he pursued him for seven days and overtook him at Mount Gilead.
Gen 31:24 But God appeared to Laban the Aramaean in a dream that night and said to him, 'On no account say anything whatever to Jacob.'
Gen 31:25 Laban caught up with Jacob, who had pitched his tent in the hills; and Laban pitched camp on Mount Gilead.
Gen 31:26 Laban said to Jacob, 'What do you mean by outwitting me and then carrying off my daughters like prisoners of war?
Gen 31:27 Why did you flee in secret, stealing away without letting me know, so that I could send you on your way rejoicing, with songs and the music of tambourines and harps?
Gen 31:28 You did not even let me kiss my sons and daughters. You have behaved like a fool.
Gen 31:29 It is in my power to harm you, but the God of your father said to me last night, "On no account say anything whatever to Jacob."
Gen 31:30 Now it may be you really went because you had such a longing for your father's house, but why did you steal my gods?'
Gen 31:31 Jacob answered Laban, 'I was afraid, thinking you were going to snatch your daughters from me.
Gen 31:32 But whoever is found in possession of your gods shall not remain alive. In the presence of our brothers, examine for yourself what I have, and take what is yours.' Now Jacob did not know that Rachel had appropriated them.
Gen 31:33 Laban went into Jacob's tent, and then into Leah's tent and the tent of the two slave-girls, but he found nothing. He came out of Leah's tent and went into Rachel's.
Gen 31:34 Now Rachel had taken the household idols and put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. Laban went through everything in the tent but found nothing.
Gen 31:35 Then Rachel said to her father, 'Do not look angry, my lord, because I cannot rise in your presence, for I am as women are from time to time.' Laban searched but did not find the idols.
Gen 31:36 Then Jacob lost his temper and took Laban to task. And Jacob said to Laban, 'What is my offense, what is my crime, for you to have hounded me like this?
Gen 31:37 You have gone through all my belongings; have you found anything belonging to your household? Produce it here in the presence of my brothers and yours, and let them decide between the two of us.
Gen 31:38 In all the twenty years I was under you, your ewes and your she-goats never miscarried, and I never ate rams from your flock.
Gen 31:39 Those mauled I never brought back to you, but bore the loss myself. You demanded compensation from me, whether the animal was stolen in daylight or at night.
Gen 31:40 In the daytime the heat devoured me, and frost at night; I never had a good night's sleep.
Gen 31:41 It was like this for the twenty years I spent in your household. Fourteen years I slaved for you for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, since you changed my wages ten times over.
Gen 31:42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Kinsman of Isaac, had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God saw my plight and my labours, and last night he delivered judgement.'
Gen 31:43 Laban replied to Jacob, 'These daughters are my daughters and these children are my children, this livestock is my livestock: everything you see belongs to me. But what can I do today about my daughters here or about the children they have borne?
Gen 31:44 So come, let us make a pact, you and me . . . , and let that serve as a witness between us.'
Gen 31:45 Jacob then took a stone and set it up as a memorial.
Gen 31:46 Jacob said to his kinsmen, 'Collect some stones,' and gathering some stones they made a cairn. They had a meal there, on the cairn, and
Gen 31:47 Laban called it Jegar-Sahadutha while Jacob called it Galeed.
Gen 31:48 Laban said, 'May this cairn be a witness between us today.' That is why he named it Galeed,
Gen 31:49 and also Mizpah, because he said, 'Let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) act as watchman between us when we are no longer in sight of each other.
Gen 31:50 If you ill-treat my daughters or marry other women besides my daughters, even though no one be with us, remember: God is witness between us.'
Gen 31:51 Then Laban said to Jacob, 'Here is this cairn I have thrown up between us, and here the pillar.
Gen 31:52 This cairn is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I am not to cross to your side of this cairn and you are not to cross to my side of this cairn and pillar, with hostile intent.
Gen 31:53 May the God of Abraham and the god of Nahor judge between us.' Then Jacob swore by the Kinsman of his father Isaac.
Gen 31:54 He offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his kinsmen to the meal. They ate the meal, and passed the night on the mountain.
Gen 32:1 Early next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and daughters and blessed them. Then Laban left to return home.
Gen 32:2 While Jacob was going on his way, angels of God encountered him,
Gen 32:3 and on seeing them he said, 'This is God's camp,' and he named the place Mahanaim.
Gen 32:4 Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in Seir, the open country of Edom,
Gen 32:5 with these instructions, 'Say this to my lord Esau, "Here is the message of your servant Jacob: I have been staying with Laban and have been delayed there until now,
Gen 32:6 and I own oxen, beasts of burden and flocks, and men and women slaves. I send news of this to my lord in the hope of winning your favor." '
Gen 32:7 The messengers returned to Jacob and told him, 'We went to your brother Esau, and he is already on his way to meet you; there are four hundred men with him.'
Gen 32:8 Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people with him, and the flocks and cattle, into two camps,
Gen 32:9 thinking, 'If Esau comes to one of the camps and attacks it, the remaining camp may be able to escape.'
Gen 32:10 Jacob said, 'God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who told me, "Go back to your native land and I will be good to you,"
Gen 32:11 I am unworthy of all the faithful love and constancy you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, and now I have grown into two camps.
Gen 32:12 I implore you, save me from my brother Esau's clutches, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me, mothers and children alike.
Gen 32:13 Yet it was you who said, "I shall be very good to you, and make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which is too numerous to count." '
Gen 32:14 Then Jacob passed that night there. From what he had with him he chose a gift for his brother Esau:
Gen 32:15 two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams,
Gen 32:16 thirty camels in milk with their calves, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male.
Gen 32:17 He put them in the charge of his servants, in separate droves, and told his servants, 'Go ahead of me, leaving a space between each drove and the next.'
Gen 32:18 He gave the leading man this order: 'When my brother Esau meets you and asks, "Whose man are you? Where are you going? Whose are those animals that you are driving?"
Gen 32:19 you will answer, "Your servant Jacob's. They are a gift sent to my lord Esau. And Jacob himself is just behind us." '
Gen 32:20 He gave the same order to the second and the third, and to all who were following the droves. 'That is what you must say to Esau when you find him.
Gen 32:21 And you must add, "Your servant Jacob himself is just behind us." ' For he thought, 'If I conciliate him by sending a gift in advance, perhaps he will be well inclined towards me when I face him.'
Gen 32:22 The gift went ahead of him, but he himself spent that night in the camp.
Gen 32:23 That same night he got up and, taking his two wives, his two slave-girls and his eleven children, crossed the ford of the Jabbok.
Gen 32:24 After he had taken them across the stream, he sent all his possessions over too.
Gen 32:25 And Jacob was left alone. Then someone wrestled with him until daybreak
Gen 32:26 who, seeing that he could not master him, struck him on the hip socket, and Jacob's hip was dislocated as he wrestled with him.
Gen 32:27 He said, 'Let me go, for day is breaking.' Jacob replied, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.'
Gen 32:28 The other said, 'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he replied.
Gen 32:29 He said, 'No longer are you to be called Jacob, but Israel since you have shown your strength against God and men and have prevailed.'
Gen 32:30 Then Jacob asked, 'Please tell me your name.' He replied, 'Why do you ask my name?' With that, he blessed him there.
Gen 32:31 Jacob named the place Peniel, 'Because I have seen God face to face,' he said, 'and have survived.'
Gen 32:32 The sun rose as he passed Peniel, limping from his hip.
Gen 32:33 That is why to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh sinew which is at the hip socket: because he had struck Jacob at the hip socket on the thigh sinew.
Gen 33:1 Looking up, Jacob saw Esau coming and with him four hundred men. He then divided the children between Leah, Rachel and the two slave-girls.
Gen 33:2 He put the slave-girls and their children in front, with Leah and her children following, and Rachel and Joseph behind.
Gen 33:3 He himself went ahead of them and bowed to the ground seven times, until he reached his brother.
Gen 33:4 But Esau ran to meet him, took him in his arms, threw himself on his neck and wept as he kissed him.
Gen 33:5 Then looking up he saw the women and children. 'Who are these with you?' he asked. Jacob answered, 'The children whom God has bestowed on your servant.'
Gen 33:6 The slave-girls then came up with their children, and they all bowed low.
Gen 33:7 Then Leah too came up with her children, and they all bowed low. Finally Rachel and Joseph came up and bowed low.
Gen 33:8 Esau asked, 'What was the purpose of that whole camp I just met?' 'To win my lord's favor,' he replied.
Gen 33:9 'Brother, I have plenty,' Esau answered, 'keep what is yours.'
Gen 33:10 Jacob protested, 'No, if I have won your favor, please accept the gift I offer, for in fact I have come into your presence as into the presence of God, since you have received me kindly.
Gen 33:11 So accept the gift I have brought for you, since God has been generous to me and I have all I need.' And he urged him, and Esau accepted.
Gen 33:12 Esau said, 'Let us break camp and move off; I shall go beside you.'
Gen 33:13 But Jacob replied, 'As my lord knows, the children are weak, and the sheep and cows which have calved make it hard for me. If they are driven too hard, even for one day, the whole drove will die.
Gen 33:14 May it please my lord to go on ahead of his servant. For my part, I shall move at a slower pace, to suit the flock I am driving and the children, until I join my lord in Seir.'
Gen 33:15 Esau then said, 'At least let me leave you some of the people who are with me.' 'What for?' Jacob asked. 'Please indulge me, my lord!'
Gen 33:16 So that day Esau turned back towards Seir,
Gen 33:17 but Jacob made his way to Succoth, where he built himself a house and made shelters for his livestock; that is why the place was given the name of Succoth.
Gen 33:18 Jacob arrived safely at the town of Shechem in Canaanite territory, on his return from Paddan-Aram. He encamped opposite the town
Gen 33:19 and for one hundred pieces of silver he bought from the sons of Hamor father of Shechem the piece of land on which he had pitched his tent.
Gen 33:20 There he erected an altar which he called 'El, God of Israel'.
Gen 34:1 Dinah, who was Jacob's daughter by Leah, went out to visit some of the women of that region.
Gen 34:2 Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, headman of the region, saw her, seized her and forced her to sleep with him.
Gen 34:3 He was captivated by Dinah daughter of Jacob; he fell in love with the girl and tried to win her heart.
Gen 34:4 Accordingly Shechem said to his father Hamor, 'Get me this girl; I want to marry her.'
Gen 34:5 Meanwhile, Jacob had heard how his daughter Dinah had been dishonored, but since his sons were out in the countryside with his livestock, Jacob said nothing until they came back.
Gen 34:6 Hamor father of Shechem was visiting Jacob to discuss the matter with him,
Gen 34:7 when Jacob's sons returned from the countryside and heard the news; the men were outraged and infuriated that Shechem had insulted Israel by sleeping with Jacob's daughter -- a thing totally unacceptable.
Gen 34:8 Hamor reasoned with them as follows, 'My son Shechem's heart is set on your daughter. Please allow her to marry him.
Gen 34:9 Intermarry with us; give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves.
Gen 34:10 We can live together, and the country will be open to you, for you to live in, and move about in, and acquire holdings.'
Gen 34:11 Then Shechem addressed the girl's father and brothers, 'Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask.
Gen 34:12 Demand as high a bride-price from me as you please, and I will pay as much as you ask. Only let me marry the girl.'
Gen 34:13 Jacob's sons gave Shechem and his father Hamor a crafty answer, speaking as they did because he had dishonored their sister Dinah.
Gen 34:14 'We cannot do this,' they said to them. 'To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace for us.
Gen 34:15 We can agree only on one condition: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.
Gen 34:16 Then we will give you our daughters, taking yours for ourselves; and we will stay with you to make one nation.
Gen 34:17 But if you will not agree to our terms about being circumcised, we shall take our daughter and go.'
Gen 34:18 Hamor and Shechem son of Hamor were pleased with what they heard.
Gen 34:19 The young man did not hesitate about doing this, for he was deeply in love with Jacob's daughter. Moreover he was the most respected member of his entire family.
Gen 34:20 Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their town and spoke to their fellow-townsmen as follows,
Gen 34:21 'These men are friendly; let them settle in the region and move about freely in it; there is plenty of room here for them; we shall marry their daughters and give our daughters to them.
Gen 34:22 But these men will agree to settle with us and become a single nation only on this condition: that all our males be circumcised like them.
Gen 34:23 Will not the livestock they own, all their animals, become ours? Then let us give our assent to this, so that they can settle with us.'
Gen 34:24 All the citizens of the town agreed to the proposal made by Hamor and his son Shechem, and all the males were circumcised.
Gen 34:25 Now on the third day, when the men were still in pain, Jacob's two sons Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, each took his sword and advanced unopposed against the town and slaughtered all the males.
Gen 34:26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with the sword, removed Dinah from Shechem's house and came away.
Gen 34:27 When Jacob's other sons came on the slain, they pillaged the town in reprisal for the dishonoring of their sister.
Gen 34:28 They seized their flocks, cattle, donkeys, everything else in the town and in the countryside,
Gen 34:29 and all their possessions. They took all their children and wives captive and looted everything to be found in the houses.
Gen 34:30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, 'You have done me an ill turn by bringing me into bad odour with the people of the region, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have few men, whereas they will unite against me to defeat me and destroy me and my family.'
Gen 34:31 They retorted, 'Should our sister be treated like a whore?'
Gen 35:1 God said to Jacob, 'Move on, go to Bethel and settle there. Make an altar there for the God who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.'
Gen 35:2 Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, 'Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you; cleanse yourselves, and change your clothes.
Gen 35:3 We must move on and go to Bethel. There I shall make an altar for the God who heard me when I was in distress, and gave me his help on the journey I made.'
Gen 35:4 They gave Jacob all the foreign gods in their possession, and the earrings that they were wearing. Jacob buried them under the oak tree near Shechem.
Gen 35:5 They broke camp; a divine terror struck the towns round about, and no one pursued the sons of Jacob.
Gen 35:6 When Jacob arrived at Luz in Canaan -- that is, Bethel-and all the people with him,
Gen 35:7 he built an altar there and named the place El-Bethel, since it was there that God had appeared to him when he was fleeing from his brother.
Gen 35:8 Deborah, who had been Rebekah's nurse, died and was buried below Bethel, under the oak tree; so they named it the Oak of Tears.
Gen 35:9 God again appeared to Jacob on his return from Paddan-Aram, and blessed him.
Gen 35:10 God said to him, 'Your name is Jacob, but from now on you will be called not Jacob but Israel.' Thus he came by the name Israel.
Gen 35:11 God said to him, 'I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will descend from you, and kings will issue from your loins.
Gen 35:12 The country which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I now give to you; and this country I shall give to your descendants after you.'
Gen 35:13 Then God went up from him.
Gen 35:14 Jacob raised a monument at the spot where he had spoken to him, a standing-stone, on which he made a libation and poured oil.
Gen 35:15 Jacob named the place Bethel where God had spoken to him.
Gen 35:16 They left Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labour, and her pains were severe.
Gen 35:17 When her labour was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, 'Do not worry, this is going to be another boy.'
Gen 35:18 At the moment when she breathed her last, for she was dying, she named him Ben-Oni. His father, however, named him Benjamin.
Gen 35:19 So Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, now Bethlehem.
Gen 35:20 Jacob raised a monument on her grave, that same monument of Rachel's Tomb which is there today.
Gen 35:21 Israel left and pitched his tent beyond Migdal-Eder.
Gen 35:22 While Israel was living in that district, Reuben went and slept with Bilhah his father's concubine, and Israel found out. The sons of Jacob were now twelve.
Gen 35:23 The sons of Leah: Jacob's eldest son Reuben, then Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun.
Gen 35:24 The sons of Rachel: Joseph and Benjamin.
Gen 35:25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel's slave-girl: Dan and Naphtali.
Gen 35:26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah's slave-girl: Gad and Asher. These were the sons born to Jacob in Paddan-Aram.
Gen 35:27 Jacob came home to his father Isaac at Mamre, at Kiriath-Arba -- now Hebron -- where Abraham and Isaac had stayed.
Gen 35:28 Isaac was one hundred and eighty years old
Gen 35:29 when he breathed his last. He died and was gathered to his people, an old man who had enjoyed his full span of life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
Gen 36:1 These are the descendants of Esau, that is, Edom.
Gen 36:2 Esau chose his wives from the women of Canaan: Adah daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah daughter of Anah, son of Zibeon the Horite,
Gen 36:3 Basemath daughter of Ishmael and sister of Nebaioth.
Gen 36:4 Adah bore Eliphaz to Esau, Basemath bore Reuel,
Gen 36:5 Oholibamah bore Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These were the sons of Esau born to him in Canaan.
Gen 36:6 Esau took his wives, his sons and daughters, all the members of his household, his livestock, all his cattle and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan and left for Seir, away from his brother Jacob.
Gen 36:7 For they had acquired too much to live together. The land in which they were at that time could not support them both because of their livestock.
Gen 36:8 That is why Edom settled in the mountainous region of Seir. Esau is Edom.
Gen 36:9 These are the descendants of Esau, ancestor of Edom, in the mountainous region of Seir.
Gen 36:10 These are the names of Esau's sons: Eliphaz son of Esau's wife Adah, and Reuel son of Esau's wife Basemath.
Gen 36:11 The sons of Eliphaz were: Teman, Omar, Zepho, Gatam and Kenaz.
Gen 36:12 Eliphaz son of Esau had Timna for concubine and she bore him Amalek. These were the sons of Esau's wife Adah.
Gen 36:13 These were the sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These were the sons of Esau's wife Basemath.
Gen 36:14 And these were the sons of Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah, son of Zibeon: she bore him Jeush, Jalam and Korah.
Gen 36:15 These are the chieftains of Esau. The descendants of Eliphaz, Esau's eldest son: the chieftains of Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz,
Gen 36:16 Gatam and Amalek. These are the chieftains of Eliphaz in Edom and are descended from Adah.
Gen 36:17 The descendants of Esau's son Reuel: the chieftains of Nahath, Zerah, Shammah and Mizzah. These are the chieftains of Reuel in Edom and are descended from Esau's wife Basemath.
Gen 36:18 The descendants of Esau's wife Oholibamah: the chieftains of Jeush, Jalam and Korah. These are the chieftains of Esau's wife Oholibamah daughter of Anah.
Gen 36:19 These were the sons of Esau -- that is, Edom -- and these are their chieftains.
Gen 36:20 These are the sons of Seir the Horite, natives of the country: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
Gen 36:21 Dishon, Ezer and Dishan; these were the Horite chieftains descended from Seir, in Edom.
Gen 36:22 The sons of Lotan were Hori and Hemam, and Lotan's sister was Timna.
Gen 36:23 These are the sons of Shobal: Alvan, Manahath, Ebal, Shepho and Onam.
Gen 36:24 These are the sons of Zibeon: Aiah, Anah -- the Anah who found the hot springs in the desert while pasturing his father Zibeon's donkeys.
Gen 36:25 These are the children of Anah: Dishon, and Oholibamah daughter of Anah.
Gen 36:26 These are the sons of Dishon: Hemdan, Eshban, Ithran and Cheran.
Gen 36:27 These are the sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan and Akan.
Gen 36:28 These are the sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
Gen 36:29 These are the Horite chieftains: the chieftains of Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah,
Gen 36:30 Dishon, Ezer and Dishan. These are the chieftains of the Horites, by their clans, in Seir.
Gen 36:31 These are the kings who reigned in Edom before an Israelite king.
Gen 36:32 In Edom reigned Bela son of Beor; his city was called Dinhabah.
Gen 36:33 Bela died and Jobab son of Zerah, from Bozrah, succeeded.
Gen 36:34 Jobab died and Husham from the land of the Temanites succeeded.
Gen 36:35 Husham died and Hadad son of Bedad succeeded; he defeated the Midianites in Moab, and his city was called Avith.
Gen 36:36 Hadad died and Samlah of Masrekah succeeded.
Gen 36:37 Samlah died and Shaul of Rehoboth-ha-Nahar succeeded.
Gen 36:38 Shaul died and Baal-Hanan son of Achbor succeeded.
Gen 36:39 Baal-Hanan died and Hadad succeeded; his city was called Pau and his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, from Mezahab.
Gen 36:40 These are the names of the chieftains of Esau -- according to their clans and localities: the chieftains of Timna, Alvah, Jetheth,
Gen 36:41 Oholibamah, Elah, Pinon,
Gen 36:42 Kenaz, Teman, Mibzar,
Gen 36:43 Magdiel and Iram. These are the chieftains of Edom, as settled in the territory which they own. Esau was Edom's ancestor.
Gen 37:1 But Jacob settled in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
Gen 37:2 This is the story of Joseph. Joseph was seventeen years old. As he was young, he was shepherding the flock with his brothers, with the sons of his father's wives, Bilhah and Zilpah; and Joseph brought his father bad reports about them.
Gen 37:3 Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other sons, for he was the son of his old age, and he had a decorated tunic made for him.
Gen 37:4 But his brothers, seeing how much more his father loved him than all his other sons, came to hate him so much that they could not say a civil word to him.
Gen 37:5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he repeated it to his brothers, who then hated him more than ever.
Gen 37:6 'Listen', he said, 'to the dream I had.
Gen 37:7 We were binding sheaves in the field, when my sheaf suddenly rose and stood upright, and then your sheaves gathered round and bowed to my sheaf.'
Gen 37:8 'So you want to be king over us,' his brothers retorted, 'you want to lord it over us?' And they hated him even more, on account of his dreams and of what he said.
Gen 37:9 He had another dream which he recounted to his brothers. 'Look, I have had another dream,' he said. 'There were the sun, the moon and eleven stars, bowing down to me.'
Gen 37:10 He told his father and brothers, and his father scolded him. 'A fine dream to have!' he said to him. 'Are all of us then, myself, your mother and your brothers, to come and bow to the ground before you?'
Gen 37:11 His brothers held it against him, but his father pondered the matter.
Gen 37:12 His brothers went to pasture their father's flock at Shechem.
Gen 37:13 Then Israel said to Joseph, 'Your brothers are with the flock at Shechem, aren't they? Come, I am going to send you to them.' 'I am ready,' he replied.
Gen 37:14 He said to him, 'Go and see how your brothers and the flock are doing, and bring me word.' He sent him from the valley of Hebron, and Joseph arrived at Shechem.
Gen 37:15 A man found him wandering in the countryside and asked him, 'What are you looking for ? '
Gen 37:16 'I am looking for my brothers,' he replied. 'Please tell me where they are pasturing their flock.'
Gen 37:17 The man answered, 'They have moved on from here; indeed I heard them say, "Let us go to Dothan." ' So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
Gen 37:18 They saw him in the distance, and before he reached them they made a plot to kill him.
Gen 37:19 'Here comes that dreamer,' they said to one another.
Gen 37:20 'Come on, let us kill him now and throw him down one of the storage-wells; we can say that some wild animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams.'
Gen 37:21 But Reuben heard, and he saved him from their clutches. 'We must not take his life,' he said.
Gen 37:22 'Shed no blood,' said Reuben to them, 'throw him down that well out in the desert, but do not kill him yourselves' -- intending to save him from them and to restore him to his father.
Gen 37:23 So, when Joseph reached his brothers, they pulled off his tunic, the decorated tunic which he was wearing,
Gen 37:24 and catching hold of him, threw him into the well. The well was empty, with no water in it.
Gen 37:25 They then sat down to eat. Looking up, they saw a group of Ishmaelites who were coming from Gilead, their camels laden with gum tragacanth, balsam and resin, which they were taking to Egypt.
Gen 37:26 Then Judah said to his brothers, 'What do we gain by killing our brother and covering up his blood?
Gen 37:27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, then we shall not have laid hands on him ourselves. After all, he is our brother, and our own flesh.' His brothers agreed.
Gen 37:28 Now some Midianite merchants were passing, and they pulled Joseph out of the well. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, and these men took Joseph to Egypt.
Gen 37:29 When Reuben went back to the well, there was no sign of Joseph. Tearing his clothes,
Gen 37:30 he went back to his brothers. 'The boy has gone,' he said. 'What am I going to do?'
Gen 37:31 They took Joseph's tunic and, slaughtering a goat, dipped the tunic in the blood.
Gen 37:32 Then they sent off the decorated tunic and had it taken to their father, with the message, 'This is what we have found. Do you recognize it as your son's tunic or not?'
Gen 37:33 He recognized it and cried, 'My son's tunic! A wild animal has devoured him! Joseph has been torn to pieces!'
Gen 37:34 Tearing his clothes and putting sackcloth round his waist, Jacob mourned his son for many days.
Gen 37:35 All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. 'No,' he said, 'I will go down to Sheol in mourning and join my son.' Thus his father wept for him.
Gen 37:36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials and commander of the guard.
Gen 38:1 It happened at about that time that Judah left his brothers, to go down and settle with a certain Adullamite called Hirah.
Gen 38:2 There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite called Shua. He made her his wife and slept with her.
Gen 38:3 She conceived and gave birth to a son whom she named Er.
Gen 38:4 She conceived again and gave birth to a son whom she named Onan.
Gen 38:5 Yet again she gave birth to a son whom she named Shelah. She was at Chezib when she gave birth to him.
Gen 38:6 Judah took a wife for his first-born Er, and her name was Tamar.
Gen 38:7 But Er, Judah's first-born, offended Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) killed him.
Gen 38:8 Then Judah said to Onan, 'Take your brother's wife, and do your duty as her brother-in-law, to maintain your brother's line.'
Gen 38:9 But Onan, knowing that the line would not count as his, spilt his seed on the ground every time he slept with his brother's wife, to avoid providing offspring for his brother.
Gen 38:10 What he did was offensive to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who killed him too.
Gen 38:11 Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, 'Go home as a widow to your father, until my son Shelah grows up,' for he was thinking, 'He must not die like his brothers.' So Tamar went home to her father.
Gen 38:12 A long time passed, and then Shua's daughter, the wife of Judah, died. After Judah had been comforted he went up to Timnah for the shearing of his sheep, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite.
Gen 38:13 When Tamar was told, 'Look, your father-in-law is going up to Timnah for the shearing of his sheep,'
Gen 38:14 she changed out of her widow's clothes, wrapped a veil around her to disguise herself, and sat down at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah; for she saw that, although Shelah was grown up, she had not been given to him as his wife.
Gen 38:15 Judah, seeing her, took her for a prostitute, since her face was veiled.
Gen 38:16 Going up to her on the road, he said, 'Here, let me sleep with you.' He did not know that she was his daughter-in-law. 'What will you give me for sleeping with you?' she asked.
Gen 38:17 'I will send you a kid from the flock,' he said. 'Agreed, if you give me a pledge until you send it,' she replied.
Gen 38:18 'What pledge shall I give you?' he asked. 'Your seal and cord and the staff you are holding,' she replied. He gave them to her and slept with her, and she conceived by him.
Gen 38:19 Then she got up and left him and, taking off her veil, resumed her widow's weeds.
Gen 38:20 Judah sent the kid by his friend the Adullamite, to recover the pledge from the woman. But he did not find her.
Gen 38:21 He enquired from the men of the place, 'Where is the prostitute who was by the roadside at Enaim?' 'There has been no prostitute there,' they answered.
Gen 38:22 So returning to Judah he said, 'I did not find her. What is more, the men of the place told me there had been no prostitute there.'
Gen 38:23 'Let her keep the things,' Judah said, 'or we shall become a laughing-stock. At least I sent her this kid, even though you did not find her.'
Gen 38:24 About three months later, Judah was told, 'Your daughter-in-law has played the harlot; furthermore, she is pregnant, as a result of her misconduct.' 'Bring her out,' Judah ordered, 'and let her be burnt alive!'
Gen 38:25 But as she was being led off, she sent word to her father-in-law, 'It was the owner of these who made me pregnant. Please verify', she said, 'whose seal and cord and staff these are.'
Gen 38:26 Judah recognized them and said, 'She was right and I was wrong, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.' He had no further intercourse with her.
Gen 38:27 When the time for her confinement came, there were twins in her womb!
Gen 38:28 During the delivery, one of them put out a hand, and the midwife caught it and tied a scarlet thread to it, indicating that this was the first to arrive.
Gen 38:29 Whereupon, he drew back his hand, and out came his brother. Then she said, 'What a breach you have opened for yourself!' So he was named Perez.
Gen 38:30 Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread on his hand, so he was named Zerah.
Gen 39:1 Now Joseph had been taken down into Egypt. Potiphar the Egyptian, one of Pharaoh's officials and commander of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.
Gen 39:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with Joseph, and everything he undertook was successful. He lodged in the house of his Egyptian master,
Gen 39:3 and when his master saw how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with him and how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made everything he undertook successful,
Gen 39:4 he was pleased with Joseph and made him his personal attendant; and his master put him in charge of his household, entrusting him with all his possessions.
Gen 39:5 And from the time he put him in charge of his household and all his possessions, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blessed the Egyptian's household out of consideration for Joseph; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s blessing extended to all his possessions, both household and estate.
Gen 39:6 So he left Joseph to handle all his possessions, and with him there, concerned himself with nothing beyond the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome,
Gen 39:7 and it happened some time later that his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, 'Sleep with me.'
Gen 39:8 But he refused. 'Look,' he said to his master's wife, 'with me here, my master does not concern himself with what happens in the house, having entrusted all his possessions to me.
Gen 39:9 He himself wields no more authority in this house than I do. He has exempted nothing from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How could I do anything so wicked, and sin against God?'
Gen 39:10 Although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not agree to sleep with her or be with her.
Gen 39:11 But one day when Joseph came into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household happened to be indoors,
Gen 39:12 she caught hold of him by his tunic and said, 'Sleep with me.' But he left the tunic in her hand, took to his heels and got out.
Gen 39:13 When she saw that he had left the tunic in her hands as he ran out,
Gen 39:14 she called her servants and said to them, 'Look at this! My husband brought in a Hebrew to make a fool of me! He burst in on me, but I screamed,
Gen 39:15 and when he heard me scream, he left his tunic beside me and ran out of the house.'
Gen 39:16 She kept his tunic by her until his master came home.
Gen 39:17 Then she told him the same tale, 'The Hebrew slave you brought to us burst in on me to make a fool of me.
Gen 39:18 But when I screamed, he left his tunic beside me and ran away.'
Gen 39:19 When his master heard his wife say, 'This was how your slave treated me,' he became furious.
Gen 39:20 Joseph's master had him arrested and committed to the gaol where the king's prisoners were kept. And there in gaol he stayed.
Gen 39:21 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with Joseph. He showed him faithful love and made him popular with the chief gaoler.
Gen 39:22 The chief gaoler put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners in the gaol, making him responsible for everything done there.
Gen 39:23 The chief gaoler did not bother about anything put in his charge, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with him, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made everything he undertook successful.
Gen 40:1 It happened some time later that the king of Egypt's cup-bearer and his baker offended their master the king of Egypt.
Gen 40:2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cup-bearer and the chief baker,
Gen 40:3 and put them in custody in the house of the commander of the guard, in the gaol where Joseph was a prisoner.
Gen 40:4 The commander of the guard assigned Joseph to them to attend to their wants, and they remained in custody for some time.
Gen 40:5 Now both of them had dreams on the same night, each with its own meaning for the cup-bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were prisoners in the gaol.
Gen 40:6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they looked gloomy,
Gen 40:7 and he asked the two officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, 'Why these sad looks today?'
Gen 40:8 They replied, 'We have each had a dream, but there is no one to interpret it.' 'Are not interpretations God's business?' Joseph asked them. 'Tell me about them.'
Gen 40:9 So the chief cup-bearer described his dream to Joseph, telling him, 'In my dream there was a vine in front of me.
Gen 40:10 On the vine were three branches; no sooner had it budded than it blossomed, and its clusters became ripe grapes.
Gen 40:11 I had Pharaoh's cup in my hand; I picked the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and put the cup into Pharaoh's hand.'
Gen 40:12 'This is what it means,' Joseph told him. 'The three branches are three days.
Gen 40:13 In another three days Pharaoh will lift up your head by restoring you to your position. Then you will hand Pharaoh his cup, as you did before, when you were his cup-bearer.
Gen 40:14 But be sure to remember me when things go well with you, and keep faith with me by kindly reminding Pharaoh about me, to get me out of this house.
Gen 40:15 I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews in the first place, and even here I have done nothing to warrant being put in the dungeon.'
Gen 40:16 The chief baker, seeing that the interpretation had been favorable, said to Joseph, 'I too had a dream; there were three wicker trays on my head.
Gen 40:17 In the top tray there were all kinds of pastries for Pharaoh, such as a baker might make, and the birds were eating them off the tray on my head.'
Gen 40:18 Joseph replied as follows, 'This is what it means: the three trays are three days.
Gen 40:19 In another three days Pharaoh will lift up your head by hanging you on a gallows, and the birds will eat the flesh off your bones.'
Gen 40:20 And so it happened; the third day was Pharaoh's birthday and he gave a banquet for all his officials. Of his officials he lifted up the head of the chief cup-bearer and the chief baker,
Gen 40:21 the chief cup-bearer by restoring him to his cup-bearing, so that he again handed Pharaoh his cup;
Gen 40:22 and by hanging the chief baker, as Joseph had explained to them.
Gen 40:23 But the chief cup-bearer did not remember Joseph; he had forgotten him.
Gen 41:1 Two years later it happened that Pharaoh had a dream: there he was, standing by the Nile,
Gen 41:2 and there, coming up from the Nile, were seven cows, sleek and fat, and they began to feed among the rushes.
Gen 41:3 And then seven other cows, wretched and lean, came up from the Nile, behind them; and these went over and stood beside the other cows on the bank of the Nile.
Gen 41:4 The wretched and lean cows ate the seven sleek and fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
Gen 41:5 He fell asleep and dreamed a second time: there, growing on one stalk, were seven ears of grain, full and ripe.
Gen 41:6 And then sprouting up, behind them, came seven ears of grain, meagre and scorched by the east wind.
Gen 41:7 The scanty ears of grain swallowed the seven full and ripe ears of grain. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.
Gen 41:8 In the morning Pharaoh, feeling disturbed, had all the magicians and wise men of Egypt summoned to him. Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was no one to interpret it for Pharaoh.
Gen 41:9 Then the chief cup-bearer addressed Pharaoh, 'Today, I recall having been at fault.
Gen 41:10 When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, he put myself and the chief baker in custody in the house of the commander of the guard.
Gen 41:11 We had a dream on the same night, he and I, and each man's dream had a meaning for himself.
Gen 41:12 There was a young Hebrew with us, one of the slaves belonging to the commander of the guard. We told our dreams to him and he interpreted them for us, telling each of us what his dream meant.
Gen 41:13 It turned out exactly according to his interpretation: I was restored to my position, but the other man was hanged.'
Gen 41:14 Then Pharaoh had Joseph summoned, and they hurried him from the dungeon. He shaved and changed his clothes, and presented himself before Pharaoh.
Gen 41:15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I have had a dream, and there is no one to interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can interpret a dream the instant you hear it.'
Gen 41:16 'Not I,' Joseph replied to Pharaoh, 'God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.'
Gen 41:17 So Pharaoh told Joseph, 'In my dream there I was, standing on the bank of the Nile.
Gen 41:18 And there were seven cows, fat and sleek, coming up out of the Nile, and they began to feed among the rushes.
Gen 41:19 And then seven other cows came up, behind them, starved, very wretched and lean; I have never seen such poor cows in all Egypt.
Gen 41:20 The lean and wretched cows ate up the first seven fat cows.
Gen 41:21 But when they had eaten them up, it was impossible to tell they had eaten them, for they looked as wretched as ever. Then I woke up.
Gen 41:22 And then again in my dream, there, growing on one stalk, were seven ears of grain, beautifully ripe;
Gen 41:23 but then sprouting up behind them came seven ears of grain, withered, meagre and scorched by the east wind.
Gen 41:24 Then the shrivelled ears of grain swallowed the seven ripe ears of grain. I have told the magicians, but no one has given me the answer.'
Gen 41:25 Joseph said to Pharaoh, 'Pharaoh's dreams are one and the same: God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is going to do.
Gen 41:26 The seven fine cows are seven years and the seven ripe ears of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream.
Gen 41:27 The seven gaunt and lean cows coming up behind them are seven years, as are the seven shrivelled ears of grain scorched by the east wind: there will be seven years of famine.
Gen 41:28 It is as I have told Pharaoh: God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is going to do.
Gen 41:29 Seven years are coming, bringing great plenty to the whole of Egypt,
Gen 41:30 but seven years of famine will follow them, when all the plenty in Egypt will be forgotten, and famine will exhaust the land.
Gen 41:31 The famine that is to follow will be so very severe that no one will remember what plenty the country used to enjoy.
Gen 41:32 The reason why Pharaoh had the same dream twice is that the event is already determined by God, and God will shortly bring it about.
Gen 41:33 'Pharaoh should now find someone intelligent and wise to govern Egypt.
Gen 41:34 Pharaoh should take action and appoint supervisors for the country, and impose a tax of one-fifth on Egypt during the seven years of plenty.
Gen 41:35 They will collect all the food produced during these good years that are coming, and store the grain under Pharaoh's authority, putting it in the towns and keeping it.
Gen 41:36 This food will form a reserve for the country against the seven years of famine which are coming on Egypt, so that the country will not be destroyed by the famine.'
Gen 41:37 Pharaoh and all his ministers approved of what he had said.
Gen 41:38 Then Pharaoh asked his ministers, 'Can we find anyone else endowed with the spirit of God, like him?'
Gen 41:39 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Since God has given you knowledge of all this, there can be no one as intelligent and wise as you.
Gen 41:40 You shall be my chancellor, and all my people shall respect your orders; only this throne shall set me above you.'
Gen 41:41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I hereby make you governor of the whole of Egypt.'
Gen 41:42 Pharaoh took the ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain round his neck.
Gen 41:43 He made him ride in the best chariot he had after his own, and they shouted 'Abrek!' ahead of him. Thus he became governor of the whole of Egypt.
Gen 41:44 Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Although I am Pharaoh, no one is to move hand or foot without your permission throughout Egypt.'
Gen 41:45 Pharaoh named Joseph Zaphenath-Paneah, and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph began to journey all over Egypt.
Gen 41:46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. After leaving Pharaoh's presence, Joseph travelled throughout the length and breadth of Egypt.
Gen 41:47 During the seven years of plenty, the soil yielded generously.
Gen 41:48 He collected all the food of the seven years while there was an abundance in Egypt, and stored the food in the towns, placing in each the food from the surrounding countryside.
Gen 41:49 Joseph gathered in grain like the sand of the sea, in such quantity that he gave up keeping count, since it was past accounting.
Gen 41:50 Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph: Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore him these.
Gen 41:51 Joseph named the first-born Manasseh, 'Because', he said, 'God has made me completely forget my hardships and my father's House.'
Gen 41:52 He named the second Ephraim, 'Because', he said, 'God has made me fruitful in the country of my misfortune.'
Gen 41:53 Then the seven years of plenty that there had been in Egypt came to an end,
Gen 41:54 and the seven years of famine set in, as Joseph had predicted. There was famine in every country, but throughout Egypt there was food.
Gen 41:55 But when all Egypt too began to feel the famine and the people appealed to Pharaoh for food, Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, 'Go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.'
Gen 41:56 There was famine all over the world. Then Joseph opened all the granaries and rationed out grain to the Egyptians, as the famine grew even worse in Egypt.
Gen 41:57 People came to Egypt from all over the world to get supplies from Joseph, for the famine had grown severe throughout the world.
Gen 42:1 Jacob, seeing that there were supplies to be had in Egypt, said to his sons, 'Why do you keep staring at one another?
Gen 42:2 I hear', he said, 'that there are supplies in Egypt. Go down and procure some for us there, so that we may survive and not die.'
Gen 42:3 So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to procure grain in Egypt.
Gen 42:4 But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers. 'Nothing must happen to him,' he thought.
Gen 42:5 Thus the sons of Israel were among the other people who came to get supplies, there being famine in Canaan.
Gen 42:6 It was Joseph, as the man in authority over the country, who allocated the rations to the entire population. So Joseph's brothers went and bowed down before him, their faces touching the ground.
Gen 42:7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them. But he did not make himself known to them, and he spoke harshly to them. 'Where have you come from?' he asked. 'From Canaan to get food,' they replied.
Gen 42:8 Now when Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him,
Gen 42:9 Joseph remembered the dreams he had had about them, and said to them, 'You are spies. You have come to discover the country's weak points.'
Gen 42:10 'No, my lord,' they said, 'your servants have come to get food.
Gen 42:11 We are all sons of the same man. We are honest men, your servants are not spies.'
Gen 42:12 'Oh no,' he replied, 'you have come to discover the country's weak points.'
Gen 42:13 'Your servants were twelve brothers,' they said, 'sons of the same man in Canaan, but the youngest is at present with our father, and the other one is no more.'
Gen 42:14 To which Joseph retorted, 'It is as I said, you are spies.
Gen 42:15 This is the test you are to undergo: as sure as Pharaoh lives you shall not leave unless your youngest brother comes here.
Gen 42:16 Send one of your number to fetch your brother; you others will remain under arrest, so that your statements can be tested to see whether or not you are honest. If not, then as sure as Pharaoh lives you are spies.'
Gen 42:17 Whereupon, he put them all into custody for three days.
Gen 42:18 On the third day Joseph said to them, 'Do this and you will live, for I am a man who fears God.
Gen 42:19 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be detained where you are imprisoned; the rest of you, go and take supplies home for your starving families.
Gen 42:20 But you must bring your youngest brother back to me; in this way, what you have said will be verified, and you will not have to die!' And this is what they did.
Gen 42:21 And they said to one another, 'Clearly, we are being punished for what we did to our brother. We saw his deep misery when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen, and now this misery has come home to us.'
Gen 42:22 Reuben retorted to them, 'Did I not tell you not to wrong the boy? But you would not listen. Now comes the accounting.'
Gen 42:23 They did not know that Joseph understood, because there was an interpreter between them.
Gen 42:24 He turned away from them and wept. When he was able to speak to them again, he chose Simeon out of their number and had him bound while they looked on.
Gen 42:25 Joseph gave the order to fill their panniers with grain, to put back each man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them.
Gen 42:26 Then they loaded their supplies on their donkeys and went away.
Gen 42:27 But when they camped for the night, one of them opened his sack to give his donkey some fodder and saw his money -- there it was in the mouth of his sack.
Gen 42:28 He said to his brothers, 'My money has been put back; here it is, in my sack!' Their hearts sank, and they looked at one another in panic, saying, 'What is this that God has done to us?'
Gen 42:29 Returning to their father Jacob in Canaan, they gave him a full report of what had happened to them,
Gen 42:30 'The man who is lord of the country spoke harshly to us, accusing us of spying on the country.
Gen 42:31 We told him, "We are honest men, we are not spies.
Gen 42:32 We were twelve brothers, sons of the same father. One of us is no more, and the youngest is at present with our father in Canaan."
Gen 42:33 But the man who is lord of the country said to us, "This is how I shall know whether you are honest: leave one of your brothers with me. Take supplies for your starving families and be gone,
Gen 42:34 but bring me back your youngest brother and then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I shall give your brother back to you and you will be free to move about the country." '
Gen 42:35 As they emptied their sacks, each discovered his bag of money in his sack. On seeing their bags of money they were afraid, and so was their father.
Gen 42:36 Then their father Jacob said to them, 'You are robbing me of my children; Joseph is no more; Simeon is no more; and now you want to take Benjamin. I bear the brunt of all this!'
Gen 42:37 Then Reuben said to his father, 'You may put my two sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my care and I will bring him back to you.'
Gen 42:38 But he replied, 'My son is not going down with you, for now his brother is dead he is the only one left. If any harm came to him on the journey you are undertaking, you would send my white head down to Sheol with grief!'
Gen 43:1 But the famine in the country grew worse,
Gen 43:2 and when they had finished eating the supplies which they had brought from Egypt their father said to them, 'Go back and get us a little food.'
Gen 43:3 'But', Judah replied, 'the man expressly warned us, "You will not be admitted to my presence unless your brother is with you."
Gen 43:4 If you are ready to send our brother with us, we will go down and get food for you.
Gen 43:5 But if you are not ready to send him, we will not go down, in view of the man's warning, "You will not be admitted to my presence unless your brother is with you." '
Gen 43:6 Then Israel said, 'Why did you bring this misery on me by telling the man you had another brother?'
Gen 43:7 They replied, 'He kept questioning us about ourselves and our family, asking, "Is your father still alive?" and, "Have you another brother?" That is why we told him. How could we know he was going to say, "Bring your brother down here"?'
Gen 43:8 Judah then said to his father Israel, 'Send the boy with me, and let us be off and go, if we are to survive and not die, we, you, and our dependants.
Gen 43:9 I will go surety for him, and you can hold me responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and produce him before you, let me bear the blame all my life.
Gen 43:10 Indeed, if we had not wasted so much time we should have been there and back twice by now!'
Gen 43:11 Then their father Israel said to them, 'If it must be so, then do this: take some of the country's best products in your baggage and take them to the man as a gift: some balsam, some honey, gum tragacanth, resin, pistachio nuts and almonds.
Gen 43:12 Take double the amount of money with you and return the money put back in the mouths of your sacks; it may have been a mistake.
Gen 43:13 Take your brother, and go back to the man.
Gen 43:14 May El Shaddai move the man to be kind to you, and allow you to bring back your other brother and Benjamin. As for me, if I must be bereaved, bereaved I must be.'
Gen 43:15 The men took this gift; they took double the amount of money with them, and Benjamin. They set off, went down to Egypt and presented themselves before Joseph.
Gen 43:16 When Joseph saw Benjamin with them he said to his chamberlain, 'Take these men into the house. Slaughter a beast and prepare it, for these men are to eat with me at midday.'
Gen 43:17 The man did as Joseph had ordered, and took the men to Joseph's house.
Gen 43:18 The men were afraid at being taken to Joseph's house and said, 'We are being taken there because of the money replaced in our sacks the first time. They will set on us; they will fall on us and make slaves of us, and take our donkeys too.'
Gen 43:19 So they went up to Joseph's chamberlain and spoke to him at the entrance to the house.
Gen 43:20 'By your leave, sir,' they said, 'we came down once before to get supplies,
Gen 43:21 and when we reached camp and opened our sacks, there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, to the full. But we have brought it back with us,
Gen 43:22 and we have brought more money with us for the supplies. We do not know who put our money in our sacks.'
Gen 43:23 'Set your minds at ease,' he replied, 'do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.' And he brought Simeon out to them.
Gen 43:24 The man then took the men into Joseph's house. He offered them water to wash their feet, and gave their donkeys fodder.
Gen 43:25 They arranged their gift while they waited for Joseph to come at midday, for they had heard they were to dine there.
Gen 43:26 When Joseph arrived at the house they offered him the gift they had with them, bowing low before him.
Gen 43:27 He greeted them pleasantly, asking, 'Is your father well, the old man you told me of ? Is he still alive?'
Gen 43:28 'Your servant our father is well,' they replied, 'he is still alive,' and they bowed respectfully.
Gen 43:29 Looking about, he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son. 'Is this your youngest brother', he asked, 'of whom you told me?' And he added, 'God be good to you, my son.'
Gen 43:30 Joseph hurried out; so strong was the affection he felt for his brother that he wanted to cry. He went into his room and there he wept.
Gen 43:31 After washing his face he returned and, controlling himself, gave the order: 'Serve the meal.'
Gen 43:32 He was served separately; so were they, and so were the Egyptians who ate in his household, for the Egyptians could not take food with Hebrews; Egyptians have a horror of doing so.
Gen 43:33 They were placed facing him in order of seniority, from the eldest to the youngest, and the men looked at one another in amazement.
Gen 43:34 He had portions carried to them from his own dish, the portion for Benjamin being five times larger than any of the others. And they feasted with him and drank freely.
Gen 44:1 Then Joseph instructed his chamberlain as follows: 'Fill these men's sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack.
Gen 44:2 And put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack as well as the money for his rations.' He did as Joseph had instructed.
Gen 44:3 At daybreak, the men were sent off with their donkeys.
Gen 44:4 They had gone only a little way from the city, when Joseph said to his chamberlain, 'Away now and follow those men. When you catch up with them, say to them, "Why have you repaid good with evil?
Gen 44:5 Is this not what my lord uses for drinking and also for reading omens? What you have done is wrong." '
Gen 44:6 So when he caught up with them he repeated these words.
Gen 44:7 They asked him, 'What does my lord mean? Your servants would never think of doing such a thing.
Gen 44:8 Look, we brought you back the money we found in the mouths of our sacks, all the way from Canaan. Are we likely to have stolen silver or gold from your master's house?
Gen 44:9 Whichever of your servants is found to have it shall die, and the rest of us shall be slaves of my lord.'
Gen 44:10 'Very well, then, it shall be as you say,' he replied, 'the one on whom it is found shall become my slave, but the rest of you can go free.'
Gen 44:11 Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each opened his own.
Gen 44:12 He searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and found the cup in Benjamin's sack.
Gen 44:13 Then they tore their clothes, and when each man had reloaded his donkey they returned to the city.
Gen 44:14 When Judah and his brothers arrived at Joseph's house he was still there, so they fell on the ground in front of him.
Gen 44:15 'What do you mean by doing this?' Joseph asked them. 'Did you not know that a man such as I am is a reader of omens?'
Gen 44:16 'What can we answer my lord?' Judah replied. 'What can we say? How can we clear ourselves? God himself has uncovered your servants' guilt. Here we are then, my lord's slaves, we no less than the one in whose possession the cup was found.'
Gen 44:17 'I could not think of doing such a thing,' he replied. 'The man in whose possession the cup was found shall be my slave, but you can go back unhindered to your father.'
Gen 44:18 At this, Judah went up to him and said, 'May it please my lord, let your servant have a word privately with my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself.
Gen 44:19 My lord questioned his servants, "Have you father or brother?"
Gen 44:20 And we said to my lord, "We have an old father, and a younger brother born of his old age. His brother is dead, so he is the only one by that mother now left, and his father loves him."
Gen 44:21 Then you said to your servants, "Bring him down to me, so that I can set eyes on him."
Gen 44:22 We replied to my lord, "The boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves him, his father will die."
Gen 44:23 But you said to your servants, "If your youngest brother does not come down with you, you will not be admitted to my presence again."
Gen 44:24 When we went back to your servant my father, we repeated to him what my lord had said.
Gen 44:25 So when our father said, "Go back and get us a little food,"
Gen 44:26 we said, "We cannot go down. We shall go only if our youngest brother is with us for, unless our youngest brother is with us, we shall not be admitted to the man's presence."
Gen 44:27 So your servant our father said to us, "You know that my wife bore me two children.
Gen 44:28 When one of them left me, I supposed that he must have been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since.
Gen 44:29 If you take this one from me too and any harm comes to him, you will send my white head down to Sheol with grief."
Gen 44:30 If I go to your servant my father now, and we do not have the boy with us, he will die as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, for his heart is bound up with him;
Gen 44:31 and your servants will have sent your servant our father's white head down to Sheol with grief.
Gen 44:32 Now your servant went surety to my father for the boy. I said: "If I do not bring him back to you, let me bear the blame before my father all my life."
Gen 44:33 Let your servant stay, then, as my lord's slave in place of the boy, I implore you, and let the boy go back with his brothers.
Gen 44:34 How indeed could I go back to my father and not have the boy with me? I could not bear to see the misery that would overwhelm my father.'
Gen 45:1 Then Joseph could not control his feelings in front of all his retainers, and he exclaimed, 'Let everyone leave me.' No one therefore was present with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers,
Gen 45:2 but he wept so loudly that all the Egyptians heard, and the news reached Pharaoh's palace.
Gen 45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph. Is my father really still alive?' His brothers could not answer him, they were so dumbfounded at seeing him.
Gen 45:4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, 'Come closer to me.' When they had come closer to him he said, 'I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 But now, do not grieve, do not reproach yourselves for having sold me here, since God sent me before you to preserve your lives.
Gen 45:6 For this is the second year there has been famine in the country, and there are still five years to come without ploughing or harvest.
Gen 45:7 God sent me before you to assure the survival of your race on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So it was not you who sent me here but God, and he has set me up as a father to Pharaoh, as lord of all his household and governor of the whole of Egypt.
Gen 45:9 'Return quickly to your father and tell him, "Your son Joseph says this: 'God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me without delay.
Gen 45:10 You will live in the region of Goshen where you will be near me, you, your children and your grandchildren, your flocks, your cattle and all your possessions.
Gen 45:11 There I shall provide for you -- for there are five years of famine still to come -- so that you, your household and all yours are not reduced to penury.' "
Gen 45:12 You can see with your own eyes, and my brother Benjamin can see too, that I am who I say I am.
Gen 45:13 Give my father a full report of all the honor I enjoy in Egypt, and of all you have seen; and quickly bring my father down here.'
Gen 45:14 Then throwing his arms round the neck of his brother Benjamin he wept; and Benjamin wept on his shoulder.
Gen 45:15 He kissed all his brothers, weeping on each one. Only then were his brothers able to talk to him.
Gen 45:16 News reached Pharaoh's palace that Joseph's brothers had come, and Pharaoh was pleased to hear it, as were his servants.
Gen 45:17 Pharaoh told Joseph, 'Say to your brothers, "Do this: load your beasts and hurry away to Canaan.
Gen 45:18 Fetch your father and your families, and come back to me. I will give you the best territory in Egypt, where you will live off the fat of the land."
Gen 45:19 And you, for your part, give them this order: "Do this: take waggons from Egypt, for your little ones and your wives. Get your father and come.
Gen 45:20 Never mind about your property, for the best of all Egypt will be yours." '
Gen 45:21 Israel's sons did as they were told. Joseph gave them waggons as Pharaoh had ordered, and he gave them provisions for the journey.
Gen 45:22 To each and every one he gave new clothes, and to Benjamin three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.
Gen 45:23 And to his father he sent ten donkeys laden with the best that Egypt offered, and ten she-donkeys laden with grain, bread and food for his father's journey.
Gen 45:24 And so he sent his brothers on their way. His final words to them were, 'And let there be no upsets on the way!'
Gen 45:25 And so they left Egypt. When they reached their father Jacob in Canaan,
Gen 45:26 they gave him this report, 'Joseph is still alive. He is at this moment governor of all Egypt!' But he was as one stunned, for he did not believe them.
Gen 45:27 However, when they told him all Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to fetch him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived,
Gen 45:28 and Israel said, 'That is enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him before I die.'
Gen 46:1 So Israel set out with all his possessions. Arriving at Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
Gen 46:2 God spoke to Israel in a vision at night, 'Jacob, Jacob,' he said. 'Here I am,' he replied.
Gen 46:3 'I am El, God of your father,' he said. 'Do not be afraid of going down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there.
Gen 46:4 I shall go down to Egypt with you and I myself shall bring you back again, and Joseph's hand will close your eyes.'
Gen 46:5 So Jacob left Beersheba. Israel's sons conveyed their father Jacob, their little children and their wives in the waggons Pharaoh had sent to fetch him.
Gen 46:6 Taking their livestock and all that they had acquired in Canaan, they arrived in Egypt -- Jacob and all his offspring.
Gen 46:7 With him to Egypt, he brought his sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters -- all his offspring.
Gen 46:8 These were the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who arrived in Egypt: Reuben, Jacob's first-born,
Gen 46:9 and the sons of Reuben: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi.
Gen 46:10 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of the Canaanite woman.
Gen 46:11 The sons of Levi: Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
Gen 46:12 The sons of Judah: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (Er and Onan had died in Canaan), and Hezron and Hamul sons of Perez.
Gen 46:13 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puvah, Jashub and Shimron.
Gen 46:14 The sons of Zebulun: Sered, Elon and Jahleel.
Gen 46:15 These were the sons that Leah had borne to Jacob in Paddan-Aram, besides his daughter Dinah; in all, his sons and daughters numbered thirty-three.
Gen 46:16 The sons of Gad: Ziphion, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi and Areli.
Gen 46:17 The sons of Asher: Jimnah, Jishvah, Jishvi, Beriah, with their sister Serah; the sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel.
Gen 46:18 These were the sons of Zilpah whom Laban gave to his daughter Leah; she bore these to Jacob -- sixteen persons.
Gen 46:19 The sons of Rachel wife of Jacob: Joseph and Benjamin.
Gen 46:20 Born to Joseph in Egypt were: Manasseh and Ephraim sons of Asenath, daughter of Potiphera priest of On.
Gen 46:21 The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.
Gen 46:22 These were the sons that Rachel bore to Jacob -- fourteen persons in all.
Gen 46:23 The sons of Dan: Hushim.
Gen 46:24 The sons of Naphtali: Jahzeel, Guni, Jezer and Shillem.
Gen 46:25 These were the sons of Bilhah whom Laban gave to his daughter Rachel; she bore these to Jacob -- seven persons in all.
Gen 46:26 Altogether, the members of Jacob's family who arrived with him in Egypt -- his own issue, not counting the wives of Jacob's sons -- numbered sixty-six all told.
Gen 46:27 With Joseph's sons born to him in Egypt -- two persons -- the members of Jacob's family who went to Egypt totalled seventy.
Gen 46:28 Israel sent Judah ahead to Joseph, so that Judah might present himself to Joseph in Goshen. When they arrived in Goshen,
Gen 46:29 Joseph had his chariot made ready and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as he appeared he threw his arms round his neck and for a long time wept on his shoulder.
Gen 46:30 Israel said to Joseph, 'Now I can die, now that I have seen you in person and seen you still alive.'
Gen 46:31 Then Joseph said to his brothers and his father's family, 'I shall go back and break the news to Pharaoh. I shall tell him, "My brothers and my father's family who were in Canaan have come to me.
Gen 46:32 The men are shepherds and look after livestock, and they have brought their flocks and cattle and all their possessions."
Gen 46:33 Thus, when Pharaoh summons you and asks, "What is your occupation?",
Gen 46:34 you are to say, "Ever since our boyhood your servants have looked after livestock, we and our fathers before us," so that you can stay in the Goshen region -- for the Egyptians have a horror of all shepherds.'
Gen 47:1 So Joseph went and told Pharaoh, 'My father and brothers have arrived from Canaan with their flocks and cattle and all their possessions. Here they are, in the region of Goshen.'
Gen 47:2 He had taken five of his brothers, and he now presented them to Pharaoh.
Gen 47:3 Pharaoh asked his brothers, 'What is your occupation?' and they gave Pharaoh the answer, 'Your servants are shepherds, like our fathers before us.'
Gen 47:4 They went on to tell Pharaoh, 'We have come to stay in this country for the time being, since there is no pasturage for your servants' flocks, Canaan being stricken with famine. So now please allow your servants to settle in the region of Goshen.'
Gen 47:5 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph,'They may stay in the region of Goshen, and if you know of any capable men among them, put them in charge of my own livestock.' Jacob and his sons went to Egypt where Joseph was. Pharaoh king of Egypt heard about this and said to Joseph, 'Your father and brothers have come to you.
Gen 47:6 The country of Egypt is open to you: settle your father and brothers in the best region.'
Gen 47:7 Joseph brought his father and presented him to Pharaoh. Jacob paid his respects to Pharaoh.
Gen 47:8 Pharaoh asked Jacob, 'How many years have you lived?'
Gen 47:9 Jacob said to Pharaoh, 'The years of my stay on earth add up to one hundred and thirty years. Few and unhappy my years have been, falling short of my ancestors' years in their stay on earth.'
Gen 47:10 Jacob then took leave of Pharaoh and withdrew from his presence.
Gen 47:11 Joseph then settled his father and brothers, giving them land holdings in Egypt, in the best part of the country, the region of Rameses, as Pharaoh had ordered.
Gen 47:12 Joseph provided his father, brothers and all his father's family with food, down to the least of them.
Gen 47:13 And on all the earth around there was now no food anywhere, for the famine had grown very severe, and Egypt and Canaan were both weak with hunger.
Gen 47:14 Joseph accumulated all the money to be found in Egypt and Canaan, in exchange for the supplies being handed out, and put the money in Pharaoh's palace.
Gen 47:15 When all the money in Egypt and Canaan was exhausted, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, pleading, 'Give us food, unless you want us to die before your eyes! For our money has come to an end.'
Gen 47:16 Joseph replied, 'Hand over your livestock and I shall issue you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money has come to an end.'
Gen 47:17 So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for horses and livestock, whether sheep or cattle, and for donkeys. Thus he saw them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock.
Gen 47:18 When that year was over, they came to him the next year, and said to him, 'We cannot hide it from my lord: the truth is, our money has run out and the livestock is in my lord's possession. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies and our land.
Gen 47:19 If we and our land are not to perish, take us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will become Pharaoh's serfs; only give us seed, so that we can survive and not die and the land not revert to desert!'
Gen 47:20 Thus Joseph acquired all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh, since one by one the Egyptians sold their fields, so hard pressed were they by the famine; and the whole country passed into Pharaoh's possession,
Gen 47:21 while the people he reduced to serfdom from one end of Egypt to the other.
Gen 47:22 The only land he did not acquire belonged to the priests, for the priests received an allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Hence they had no need to sell their land.
Gen 47:23 Then Joseph said to the people, 'This is how we stand: I have bought you out, with your land, on Pharaoh's behalf. Here is seed for you to sow the land.
Gen 47:24 But of the harvest you must give a fifth to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you can have for sowing your fields, to provide food for yourselves and your households, and food for your children.'
Gen 47:25 'You have saved our lives!' they replied. 'If it please my lord, we will become serfs to Pharaoh.'
Gen 47:26 So Joseph made a law, still in force today, as regards the soil of Egypt, that one-fifth should go to Pharaoh. Only the land of the priests did not go to Pharaoh.
Gen 47:27 Thus Israel settled in Egypt, in the region of Goshen. They acquired property there; they were fruitful and grew very numerous.
Gen 47:28 Jacob lived seventeen years in Egypt; thus Jacob's total age came to a hundred and forty-seven years.
Gen 47:29 When Israel's time to die drew near he sent for his son Joseph and said to him, 'If you really love me, place your hand under my thigh as pledge that you will act with faithful love towards me: do not bury me in Egypt!
Gen 47:30 When I lie down with my ancestors, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their tomb.' 'I shall do as you say,' he replied.
Gen 47:31 'Swear to me,' he insisted. So he swore to him, and Israel sank back on the pillow.
Gen 48:1 Some time later, Joseph was informed, 'Your father has been taken ill.' So he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim.
Gen 48:2 When Jacob was told, 'Look, your son Joseph has come to you,' Israel, summoning his strength, sat up in bed.
Gen 48:3 'El Shaddai appeared to me at Luz in Canaan,' Jacob told Joseph, 'and he blessed me,
Gen 48:4 saying to me, "I shall make you fruitful and numerous, and shall make you into an assembly of peoples and give this country to your descendants after you, to own in perpetuity."
Gen 48:5 Now your two sons, born to you in Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, shall be mine; Ephraim and Manasseh shall be as much mine as Reuben and Simeon.
Gen 48:6 But with regard to the children you have had since them, they shall be yours, and they shall be known by their brothers' names for the purpose of their inheritance.
Gen 48:7 'When I was on my way from Paddan, to my sorrow death took your mother Rachel from me in Canaan, on the journey while only a short distance from Ephrath. I buried her there on the road to Ephrath -- now Bethlehem.'
Gen 48:8 When Israel saw Joseph's two sons, he asked, 'Who are these?'
Gen 48:9 'They are my sons, whom God has given me here,' Joseph told his father. 'Then bring them to me', he said, 'so that I may bless them.'
Gen 48:10 Now, Israel's eyes were dim with age, and he could not see. So Joseph made them come closer to him and he kissed and embraced them.
Gen 48:11 Then Israel said to Joseph, 'I did not think I should ever see you again, and now God has let me see your children as well!'
Gen 48:12 Then Joseph took them from his lap and bowed to the ground.
Gen 48:13 Then Joseph took the two of them, Ephraim with his right hand so that he should be on Israel's left, and Manasseh with his left hand, so that he should be on Israel's right, and brought them close to him.
Gen 48:14 But Israel held out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, the younger, and his left on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands -- Manasseh was, in fact, the elder.
Gen 48:15 Then he blessed Joseph saying: May the God in whose presence my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd from my birth until this day,
Gen 48:16 the Angel who has saved me from all harm, bless these boys, so that my name may live on in them, and the names of my ancestors Abraham and Isaac, and they grow into teeming multitudes on earth!
Gen 48:17 Joseph saw that his father was laying his right hand on the head of Ephraim, and this he thought was wrong, so he took his father's hand and tried to shift it from the head of Ephraim to the head of Manasseh.
Gen 48:18 Joseph protested to his father, 'Not like that, father! This one is the elder; put your right hand on his head.'
Gen 48:19 But his father refused. 'I know, my son, I know,' he said. 'He too shall become a people; he too will be great. But his younger brother will be greater, his offspring will be sufficient to constitute nations.'
Gen 48:20 So he blessed them that day, saying: By you shall Israel bless itself, saying, 'God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!' putting Ephraim before Manasseh.
Gen 48:21 Then Israel said to Joseph, 'Now I am about to die. But God will be with you and take you back to the land of your ancestors.
Gen 48:22 As for me, I give you a Shechem more than your brothers, the one I took from the Amorites with my sword and bow.'
Gen 49:1 Jacob called his sons and said, 'Gather round, so that I can tell you what is in store for you in the final days.
Gen 49:2 Gather round, sons of Jacob, and listen; listen to Israel your father.
Gen 49:3 Reuben, you are my first-born, my vigour, and the first-fruit of my manhood, foremost in pride, foremost in strength,
Gen 49:4 uncontrolled as water: you will not be foremost, for you climbed into your father's bed, and so defiled my couch, to my sorrow.
Gen 49:5 Simeon and Levi are brothers in carrying out their malicious plans.
Gen 49:6 May my soul not enter their council nor my heart join their company, for in their rage they have killed men and hamstrung oxen at their whim.
Gen 49:7 Accursed be their rage for its ruthlessness, their wrath for its ferocity. I shall disperse them in Jacob, I shall scatter them through Israel.
Gen 49:8 Judah, your brothers will praise you: you grip your enemies by the neck, your father's sons will do you homage.
Gen 49:9 Judah is a lion's whelp; You stand over your prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, a mighty lion: who dare rouse him?
Gen 49:10 The scepter shall not pass from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute be brought him and the peoples render him obedience.
Gen 49:11 He tethers his donkey to the vine, to its stock the foal of his she-donkey. He washes his clothes in wine, his robes in the blood of the grape.
Gen 49:12 His eyes are darkened with wine and his teeth are white with milk.
Gen 49:13 Zebulun will live by the seashore and be a sailor on board the ships, with Sidon on his flank.
Gen 49:14 Issachar is a strong donkey lying down among sheepfolds.
Gen 49:15 When he saw how good the resting-place and how pleasant the country, he bowed his shoulder to the load and became a slave to forced labour.
Gen 49:16 Dan will govern his people like any other of the tribes of Israel.
Gen 49:17 May Dan be a snake on the road, a viper on the path, who bites the horse on the hock so that its rider falls off backwards!
Gen 49:18 I long for your deliverance, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Gen 49:19 Gad will be raided by raiders, and he will raid at their heels.
Gen 49:20 Rich the food produced by Asher: he will furnish food fit for kings.
Gen 49:21 Naphtali is a swift hind bearing lovely fawns.
Gen 49:22 Joseph is a fruitful plant near a spring whose tendrils reach over the wall.
Gen 49:23 Archers in their hostility drew their bows and attacked him.
Gen 49:24 But their bows were broken by a mighty One, the sinews of their arms were snapped by the power of the Mighty One of Jacob, by the Name of the Stone of Israel,
Gen 49:25 the God of your father who assists you, El Shaddai who blesses you: blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep lying below, blessings of the breasts and womb,
Gen 49:26 blessings of the grain and flowers, blessings of the eternal mountains, bounty of the everlasting hills -- may they descend on Joseph's head, on the crown of the one dedicated from among his brothers!
Gen 49:27 Benjamin is a ravening wolf, in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he is still sharing out the spoil.'
Gen 49:28 All these make up the tribes of Israel, twelve in number, and this is what their father said to them as he bade them farewell, giving each an appropriate blessing.
Gen 49:29 Then he gave them these instructions, 'I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my ancestors, in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
Gen 49:30 in the cave in the field at Machpelah, facing Mamre, in Canaan, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site of his own.
Gen 49:31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried. There Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried; and there I buried Leah-
Gen 49:32 the field and the cave in it which were bought from the Hittites.'
Gen 49:33 When Jacob had finished giving his instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, and breathing his last was gathered to his people.
Gen 50:1 At this Joseph threw himself on his father's face, covering it with tears and kisses.
Gen 50:2 Then Joseph ordered the doctors in his service to embalm his father. The doctors embalmed Israel,
Gen 50:3 and it took them forty days, for embalming takes forty days to complete. The Egyptians mourned him for seventy days.
Gen 50:4 When the period of mourning for him was over, Joseph said to Pharaoh's household, 'If you have any affection for me, see that this message reaches Pharaoh's ears,
Gen 50:5 "My father put me under oath, saying: I am about to die. In the tomb which I dug for myself in Canaan, that is where you are to bury me. So may I have leave to go up and bury my father, and then come back?" '
Gen 50:6 Pharaoh replied, 'Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.'
Gen 50:7 Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went all Pharaoh's officials, the dignitaries of his palace and all the dignitaries of Egypt,
Gen 50:8 as well as all Joseph's family, his brothers and his father's family. The only people they left behind in Goshen were those unfit to travel, and their flocks and cattle.
Gen 50:9 Chariots and horsemen went up with him too; it was a very large retinue.
Gen 50:10 On arriving at Goren-ha-Atad, which is across the Jordan, they there held a long and solemn lamentation, and Joseph observed seven days' mourning for his father.
Gen 50:11 When the Canaanites, the local inhabitants, witnessed the mourning at Goren-ha-Atad, they said, 'This is a solemn act of mourning by the Egyptians,' which is why the place was given the name Abel-Mizraim-it is across the Jordan.
Gen 50:12 His sons did what he had ordered them to do for him.
Gen 50:13 His sons carried him to Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field at Machpelah, facing Mamre, which Abraham had bought from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site of his own.
Gen 50:14 Then Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all those who had come up with him to bury his father.
Gen 50:15 Seeing that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers said, 'What if Joseph intends to treat us as enemies and pay us back for all the wrong we did him?'
Gen 50:16 So they sent this message to Joseph: 'Before your father died, he gave us this order:
Gen 50:17 "You are to say to Joseph: Now please forgive the crime and faults of your brothers and all the wrong they did you." So now please forgive the crime of the servants of your father's God.' Joseph wept at the message they sent to him.
Gen 50:18 Then his brothers went to him themselves and, throwing themselves at his feet, said, 'Take us as your slaves!'
Gen 50:19 But Joseph replied, 'Do not be afraid; is it for me to put myself in God's place?
Gen 50:20 The evil you planned to do me has by God's design been turned to good, to bring about the present result: the survival of a numerous people.
Gen 50:21 So there is no need to be afraid; I shall provide for you and your dependants.' In this way he reassured them by speaking affectionately to them.
Gen 50:22 So Joseph stayed in Egypt with his father's family; and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years.
Gen 50:23 Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim's line, as also the children of Machir son of Manasseh, who were born on Joseph's lap.
Gen 50:24 At length Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am about to die; but God will be sure to remember you kindly and take you out of this country to the country which he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.'
Gen 50:25 And Joseph put Israel's sons on oath, saying, 'When God remembers you with kindness, be sure to take my bones away from here.'
Gen 50:26 Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten; he was embalmed and laid in a coffin in Egypt.
Exo 1:1 These are the names of the Israelites who went with Jacob to Egypt, each of them went with his family:
Exo 1:2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah,
Exo 1:3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin,
Exo 1:4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher.
Exo 1:5 In all, the descendants of Jacob numbered seventy persons. Joseph was in Egypt already.
Exo 1:6 Then Joseph died, and his brothers, and all that generation.
Exo 1:7 But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific; they became so numerous and powerful that eventually the whole land was full of them.
Exo 1:8 Then there came to power in Egypt a new king who had never heard of Joseph.
Exo 1:9 'Look,' he said to his people, 'the Israelites are now more numerous and stronger than we are.
Exo 1:10 We must take precautions to stop them from increasing any further, or if war should break out, they might join the ranks of our enemies. They might take arms against us and then escape from the country.'
Exo 1:11 Accordingly they put taskmasters over the Israelites to wear them down by forced labour. In this way they built the store-cities of Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh.
Exo 1:12 But the harder their lives were made, the more they increased and spread, until people came to fear the Israelites.
Exo 1:13 So the Egyptians gave them no mercy in the demands they made,
Exo 1:14 making their lives miserable with hard labour: with digging clay, making bricks, doing various kinds of field -- work -- all sorts of labour that they imposed on them without mercy.
Exo 1:15 The king of Egypt then spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was called Shiphrah, and the other Puah.
Exo 1:16 'When you attend Hebrew women in childbirth,' he said, 'look at the two stones. If it is a boy, kill him; if a girl, let her live.'
Exo 1:17 But the midwives were God-fearing women and did not obey the orders of the king of Egypt, but allowed the boys to live.
Exo 1:18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, 'What do you mean by allowing the boys to live?'
Exo 1:19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, 'Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women, they are hardy and give birth before the midwife can get to them.'
Exo 1:20 For this, God was good to the midwives, and the people went on increasing and growing more powerful;
Exo 1:21 and since the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
Exo 1:22 Pharaoh then gave all his people this command: 'Throw every new-born boy into the river, but let all the girls live.'
Exo 2:1 There was a man descended from Levi who had taken a woman of Levi as his wife.
Exo 2:2 She conceived and gave birth to a son and, seeing what a fine child he was, she kept him hidden for three months.
Exo 2:3 When she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him; coating it with bitumen and pitch, she put the child inside and laid it among the reeds at the River's edge.
Exo 2:4 His sister took up position some distance away to see what would happen to him.
Exo 2:5 Now Pharaoh's daughter went down to bathe in the river, while her maids walked along the riverside. Among the reeds she noticed the basket, and she sent her maid to fetch it.
Exo 2:6 She opened it and saw the child: the baby was crying. Feeling sorry for it, she said, 'This is one of the little Hebrews.'
Exo 2:7 The child's sister then said to Pharaoh's daughter, 'Shall I go and find you a nurse among the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?'
Exo 2:8 'Yes,' said Pharaoh's daughter, and the girl went and called the child's own mother.
Exo 2:9 Pharaoh's daughter said to her, 'Take this child away and nurse it for me. I shall pay you myself for doing so.' So the woman took the child away and nursed it.
Exo 2:10 When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter who treated him like a son; she named him Moses 'because', she said, 'I drew him out of the water.'
Exo 2:11 It happened one day, when Moses was grown up, that he went to see his kinsmen. While he was watching their forced labour he also saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen.
Exo 2:12 Looking this way and that and seeing no one in sight, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Exo 2:13 On the following day he came back, and there were two Hebrews, fighting. He said to the man who was in the wrong, 'What do you mean by hitting your kinsman?'
Exo 2:14 'And who appointed you', the man retorted, 'to be prince over us and judge? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?' Moses was frightened. 'Clearly that business has come to light,' he thought.
Exo 2:15 When Pharaoh heard of the matter, he tried to put Moses to death, but Moses fled from Pharaoh. He went into Midianite territory and sat down beside a well.
Exo 2:16 Now there was a priest of Midian with seven daughters. They used to come to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father's flock.
Exo 2:17 Some shepherds came and drove them away, but Moses sprang to their help and watered their flock.
Exo 2:18 When they returned to their father Reuel, he said to them, 'Why are you back so early today?'
Exo 2:19 'An Egyptian protected us from the shepherds,' they said, 'and he even drew water for us and watered the flock.'
Exo 2:20 'And where is he?' he asked his daughters. 'Why did you leave the man there? Ask him to eat with us.'
Exo 2:21 Moses agreed to stay on there with the man, who gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage.
Exo 2:22 She gave birth to a son, whom he named Gershom 'because', he said, 'I am an alien in a foreign land.'
Exo 2:23 During this long period the king of Egypt died. The Israelites, groaning in their slavery, cried out for help and from the depths of their slavery their cry came up to God.
Exo 2:24 God heard their groaning; God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Exo 2:25 God saw the Israelites and took note.
Exo 3:1 Moses was looking after the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led it to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.
Exo 3:2 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to him in a flame blazing from the middle of a bush. Moses looked; there was the bush blazing, but the bush was not being burnt up.
Exo 3:3 Moses said, 'I must go across and see this strange sight, and why the bush is not being burnt up.'
Exo 3:4 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saw him going across to look, God called to him from the middle of the bush. 'Moses, Moses!' he said. 'Here I am,' he answered.
Exo 3:5 'Come no nearer,' he said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
Exo 3:6 I am the God of your ancestors,' he said, 'the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this Moses covered his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Exo 3:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying for help on account of their taskmasters. Yes, I am well aware of their sufferings.
Exo 3:8 And I have come down to rescue them from the clutches of the Egyptians and bring them up out of that country, to a country rich and broad, to a country flowing with milk and honey, to the home of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Exo 3:9 Yes indeed, the Israelites' cry for help has reached me, and I have also seen the cruel way in which the Egyptians are oppressing them.
Exo 3:10 So now I am sending you to Pharaoh, for you to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.'
Exo 3:11 Moses said to God, 'Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?'
Exo 3:12 'I shall be with you,' God said, 'and this is the sign by which you will know that I was the one who sent you. After you have led the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.'
Exo 3:13 Moses then said to God, 'Look, if I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your ancestors has sent me to you," and they say to me, "What is his name?" what am I to tell them?'
Exo 3:14 God said to Moses, 'I am he who is.' And he said, 'This is what you are to say to the Israelites, "I am has sent me to you." '
Exo 3:15 God further said to Moses, 'You are to tell the Israelites, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you." This is my name for all time, and thus I am to be invoked for all generations to come.
Exo 3:16 'Go, gather the elders of Israel together and tell them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of your ancestors, has appeared to me -- the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob -- and has indeed visited you and seen what is being done to you in Egypt,
Exo 3:17 and has said: I shall bring you out of the misery of Egypt to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a country flowing with milk and honey."
Exo 3:18 They will listen to your words, and you and the elders of Israel are to go to the king of Egypt and say to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of the Hebrews, has encountered us. So now please allow us to make a three-days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God."
Exo 3:19 I am well aware that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless he is compelled by a mighty hand;
Exo 3:20 he will not let you go until I have stretched out my arm and struck Egypt with all the wonders I intend to work there.
Exo 3:21 'I shall ensure that the Egyptians are so much impressed with this people that when you go, you will not go empty-handed.
Exo 3:22 Every woman will ask her neighbor and the woman staying in her house for silver and golden jewellery, and clothing. In these you will dress your own sons and daughters, despoiling the Egyptians of them.'
Exo 4:1 Moses replied as follows, 'But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my words, and say to me, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not appeared to you"?'
Exo 4:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said, 'What is that in your hand?' 'A staff,' he said.
Exo 4:3 'Throw it on the ground,' said Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Moses threw it on the ground; the staff turned into a snake and Moses recoiled from it.
Exo 4:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Reach out your hand and catch it by the tail.' He reached out his hand, caught it, and in his hand it turned back into a staff.
Exo 4:5 'Thus they may believe that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of their ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.'
Exo 4:6 Next, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'Put your hand inside your tunic.' He put his hand inside his tunic, then drew it out again: and his hand was diseased, white as snow.
Exo 4:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said, 'Put your hand back inside your tunic.' He put his hand back inside his tunic and when he drew it out, there it was restored, just like the rest of his flesh.
Exo 4:8 'Even so: should they not believe you nor be convinced by the first sign, the second sign will convince them;
Exo 4:9 but should they not be convinced by either of these two signs and refuse to listen to what you say, you are to take some water from the River and pour it on the ground, and the water you have taken from the River will turn to blood on the dry land.'
Exo 4:10 Moses said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Please, my Lord, I have never been eloquent, even since you have spoken to your servant, for I am slow and hesitant of speech.'
Exo 4:11 'Who gave a person a mouth?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him. 'Who makes a person dumb or deaf, gives sight or makes blind? Is it not I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?
Exo 4:12 Now go, I shall help you speak and instruct you what to say.'
Exo 4:13 'Please, my Lord,' Moses replied, 'send anyone you decide to send!'
Exo 4:14 At this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger kindled against Moses, and he said to him, 'There is your brother Aaron the Levite, is there not? I know that he is a good speaker. Here he comes to meet you. When he sees you, his heart will be full of joy.
Exo 4:15 You will speak to him and tell him what message to give. I shall help you speak, and him too, and instruct you what to do.
Exo 4:16 He will speak to the people in your place; he will be your mouthpiece, and you will be as the god inspiring him.
Exo 4:17 And take this staff in your hand; with this you will perform the signs.'
Exo 4:18 Moses went back to his father-in-law Jethro and said to him, 'Give me leave to return to my kinsmen in Egypt and see if they are still alive.' And Jethro said to Moses, 'Go in peace.'
Exo 4:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses in Midian, 'Go, return to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.'
Exo 4:20 So Moses took his wife and his son and, putting them on a donkey, started back for Egypt; and Moses took the staff of God in his hand.
Exo 4:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Think of the wonders I have given you power to perform, once you are back in Egypt! You are to perform them before Pharaoh, but I myself shall make him obstinate, and he will not let the people go.
Exo 4:22 You will then say to Pharaoh, "This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says: Israel is my first-born son.
Exo 4:23 I told you: Let my son go and worship me; but since you refuse to let him go, well then! I shall put your first-born son to death." '
Exo 4:24 On the journey, when he had halted for the night, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) encountered him and tried to kill him.
Exo 4:25 Then Zipporah, taking up a flint, cut off her son's foreskin and with it touched his feet and said, 'You are my blood-bridegroom!'
Exo 4:26 So he let him go. She said, 'Blood-bridegroom' then, with reference to the circumcision.
Exo 4:27 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Aaron, 'Go into the desert to meet Moses.' So he went, and met him at the mountain of God and kissed him.
Exo 4:28 Moses then told Aaron all that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said when sending him and all the signs he had ordered him to perform.
Exo 4:29 Moses and Aaron then went and gathered all the elders of the Israelites together,
Exo 4:30 and Aaron repeated everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said to Moses, and in the sight of the people performed the signs.
Exo 4:31 The people were convinced, and they rejoiced that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had visited the Israelites and seen their misery, and they bowed to the ground in worship.
Exo 5:1 After this, Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says, "Let my people go, so that they can hold a feast in my honor in the desert." '
Exo 5:2 'Who is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' Pharaoh replied, 'for me to obey what he says and let Israel go? I know nothing of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I will not let Israel go.'
Exo 5:3 'The God of the Hebrews has encountered us,' they replied. 'Give us leave to make a three -days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, or he will strike us with a plague or with the sword.'
Exo 5:4 The king of Egypt said to them, 'Moses and Aaron, what do you mean by distracting the people from their work? Get back to your forced labour.'
Exo 5:5 And Pharaoh said, 'Now that the people have grown to such numbers in the country, what do you mean by interrupting their forced labour?'
Exo 5:6 That very day, Pharaoh gave the order to the people's taskmasters and their scribes,
Exo 5:7 'Do not go on providing the people with straw for brickmaking as before; let them go and gather straw for themselves.
Exo 5:8 But you will exact the same quantity of bricks from them as before, not reducing it at all, since they are lazy, and that is why their cry is, "Let us go and sacrifice to our God."
Exo 5:9 Give these people more work to do, and see they do it instead of listening to lying speeches.'
Exo 5:10 The people's taskmasters and scribes went out to speak to the people and said, 'Pharaoh says this, "I shall not provide you with any more straw.
Exo 5:11 Go and collect straw for yourselves where you can find it. But your output is not to be any less." '
Exo 5:12 So the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble for their straw.
Exo 5:13 The taskmasters harassed them. 'You must complete your daily quota,' they said, 'just as when the straw was there.'
Exo 5:14 And the Israelites' foremen whom Pharaoh's taskmasters had put in charge of them, were flogged and asked, 'Why have you not fulfilled your quota of bricks made today as before?'
Exo 5:15 The Israelites' foremen went and appealed to Pharaoh. 'Why do you treat your servants like this?' they said.
Exo 5:16 'No straw is provided for your servants, yet still the cry is, "Make bricks!" And now your servants are being flogged!. . .'
Exo 5:17 'You are lazy, lazy,' he retorted. 'That is why you say, "Let us go and sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Exo 5:18 Get back to your work at once. You will not be provided with straw; all the same, you will deliver the quota of bricks.'
Exo 5:19 The Israelites' foremen saw they were in a difficult position on being told, 'You will not reduce your daily production of bricks.'
Exo 5:20 As they left Pharaoh's presence, they met Moses and Aaron who were standing in their way.
Exo 5:21 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) look down at you and judge!' they said to them. 'You have brought us into bad odour with Pharaoh and his officials; you have put a sword into their hand to kill us.'
Exo 5:22 Moses went back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, 'Lord, why do you treat this people so harshly? Why did you send me?
Exo 5:23 Ever since I came to Pharaoh and spoke to him in your name, he has ill-treated this people, and you have done nothing at all about rescuing your people.'
Exo 6:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Now you will see what I am going to do to Pharaoh. A mighty hand will force him to let them go, a mighty hand will force him to expel them from his country.'
Exo 6:2 God spoke to Moses and said to him, 'I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 6:3 To Abraham, Isaac and Jacob I appeared as El Shaddai, but I did not make my name Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) known to them.
Exo 6:4 I also made my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the country in which they were living as aliens.
Exo 6:5 Furthermore, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, enslaved by the Egyptians, and have remembered my covenant.
Exo 6:6 So say to the Israelites, "I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I shall free you from the forced labour of the Egyptians; I shall rescue you from their slavery and I shall redeem you with outstretched arm and mighty acts of judgement.
Exo 6:7 I shall take you as my people and I shall be your God. And you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, who have freed you from the forced labour of the Egyptians.
Exo 6:8 Then I shall lead you into the country which I swore I would give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and shall give it to you as your heritage, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Exo 6:9 And Moses repeated this to the Israelites, but they would not listen to Moses, so crushed was their spirit and so cruel their slavery.
Exo 6:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses,
Exo 6:11 'Go to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and tell him to let the Israelites leave his country.'
Exo 6:12 But Moses spoke out in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence and said, 'The Israelites have not listened to me, so why should Pharaoh take any notice of a poor speaker like me?'
Exo 6:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and Aaron and sent them to Pharaoh king of Egypt, to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
Exo 6:14 These were their heads of families: The sons of Reuben, Israel's first-born: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron and Carmi: these are the clans of Reuben.
Exo 6:15 The sons of Simeon: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shaul son of the Canaanite woman: these are the clans of Simeon.
Exo 6:16 These were the names of the sons of Levi with their descendants: Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Levi lived for a hundred and thirty-seven years.
Exo 6:17 The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimei, with their clans.
Exo 6:18 The sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel. Kohath lived for a hundred and thirty-three years.
Exo 6:19 The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the clans of Levi with their descendants.
Exo 6:20 Amram married Jochebed, his aunt, who bore him Aaron and Moses. Amram lived for a hundred and thirty-seven years.
Exo 6:21 The sons of Izhar were: Korah, Nepheg and Zichri.
Exo 6:22 And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael, Elzaphan and Sithri.
Exo 6:23 Aaron married Elisheba daughter of Amminadab and sister of Nahshon, and she bore him Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Exo 6:24 The sons of Korah: Assir, Elkanah and Abiasaph. These are the clans of the Korahites.
Exo 6:25 Eleazar, son of Aaron, married one of Putiel's daughters who bore him Phinehas. These were the Levitical heads of families, according to clan.
Exo 6:26 It was to this Aaron and Moses that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'Lead the Israelites out of Egypt in their armies.'
Exo 6:27 It was they who spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to lead the Israelites out of Egypt -- namely Moses and Aaron.
Exo 6:28 Now the day when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses in Egypt,
Exo 6:29 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Tell Pharaoh king of Egypt everything that I am going to say to you.'
Exo 6:30 But Moses said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s face, 'I am a poor speaker, so why should Pharaoh take any notice of me?'
Exo 7:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Look, I have made you as a god for Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron is to be your prophet.
Exo 7:2 You must say whatever I command you, and your brother Aaron will repeat to Pharaoh that he is to let the Israelites leave his country.
Exo 7:3 But I myself shall make Pharaoh stubborn and shall perform many a sign and wonder in Egypt.
Exo 7:4 Since Pharaoh will not listen to you, I shall lay my hand on Egypt and with great acts of judgement lead my armies, my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.
Exo 7:5 And the Egyptians will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when I stretch out my hand against the Egyptians and lead the Israelites out of their country.'
Exo 7:6 Moses and Aaron did exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered.
Exo 7:7 Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh.
Exo 7:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses and Aaron,
Exo 7:9 'If Pharaoh says to you, "Display some marvel," you must say to Aaron, "Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and let it turn into a serpent!" '
Exo 7:10 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered. Aaron threw down his staff in front of Pharaoh and his officials, and it turned into a serpent.
Exo 7:11 Then Pharaoh in his turn called for the sages and sorcerers, and by their spells the magicians of Egypt did the same.
Exo 7:12 Each threw his staff down and these turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up theirs.
Exo 7:13 Pharaoh, however, remained obstinate and, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold, refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.
Exo 7:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Pharaoh is adamant. He refuses to let the people go.
Exo 7:15 Go to Pharaoh tomorrow morning as he makes his way to the water, confront him on the river bank and in your hand take the staff that turned into a snake.
Exo 7:16 Say to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of the Hebrews, sent me to say: Let my people go and worship in the desert. Up till now, you have refused to listen.
Exo 7:17 This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says: You will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by this: with the staff that is in my hand I shall strike the waters of the River and they will turn to blood.
Exo 7:18 The fish in the river will die, and the River will stink, and the Egyptians will not be able to drink the river water." '
Exo 7:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron, "Take your staff and stretch out your hand over the waters of Egypt -- over their rivers and canals, their marshland, and all their reservoirs -- and they will turn to blood. There will be blood throughout the whole of Egypt, even in sticks and stones." '
Exo 7:20 Moses and Aaron did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered. He raised his staff and struck the waters of the River, with Pharaoh and his officials looking on, and all the water in the River turned to blood.
Exo 7:21 The fish in the River died, and the River stank; and the Egyptians could no longer drink the River water. Throughout the whole of Egypt there was blood.
Exo 7:22 But by their spells the magicians of Egypt did the same; Pharaoh remained obstinate and, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold, refused to listen to Moses and Aaron.
Exo 7:23 Pharaoh turned away and went back into his palace, taking no notice even of this.
Exo 7:24 And the Egyptians all dug holes along the river-bank in search of drinking water, since they could not drink the River water.
Exo 7:25 After Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck the River, seven days went by.
Exo 7:26 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh and say to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Let my people go and worship me.
Exo 7:27 If you refuse to let them go, I shall strike your whole territory with frogs.
Exo 7:28 The River will swarm with frogs; they will make their way into your palace, into your bedroom, onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and subjects, into your ovens, into your kneading bowls.
Exo 7:29 The frogs will actually clamber onto you, onto your subjects and onto all your officials." '
Exo 8:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron, "Stretch out your hand with your staff, over the rivers, the canals and the marshland, and bring the frogs up over the land of Egypt." '
Exo 8:2 So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:3 But by their spells the magicians did the same, bringing frogs over the land of Egypt.
Exo 8:4 Pharaoh then summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'Entreat Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to take the frogs away from me and my subjects, and I promise to let the people go and sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Exo 8:5 Moses said to Pharaoh, 'You are the one to gain by it: when would you like me to pray for you, your officials and your subjects, so as to rid you and your houses of the frogs so that they will be left only in the River?'
Exo 8:6 'Tomorrow,' he said. Moses said, 'It shall be as you say, so that you will know that there is no one like Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.
Exo 8:7 The frogs will leave you, your houses, your officials and your subjects and will be left only in the River.'
Exo 8:8 Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh's presence, and Moses pleaded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) about the frogs which he had inflicted on Pharaoh.
Exo 8:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did as Moses asked, and in house and courtyard and field the frogs died.
Exo 8:10 They piled them up in heaps and the country stank.
Exo 8:11 But once Pharaoh saw that there had been a respite, he became obstinate and, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold, refused to listen to them.
Exo 8:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Say to Aaron, "Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, and it will turn into mosquitoes throughout the whole of Egypt." '
Exo 8:13 Aaron stretched out his hand, with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were mosquitoes on man and beast; all the dust of the earth turned into mosquitoes throughout the whole of Egypt.
Exo 8:14 By their spells the magicians tried to produce mosquitoes in the same way but failed, and there were mosquitoes on man and beast.
Exo 8:15 So the magicians said to Pharaoh, 'This is the finger of God.' But Pharaoh was obstinate and, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold, refused to listen to them.
Exo 8:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he makes his way to the water. Say to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Let my people go and worship me.
Exo 8:17 But if you will not let my people go, I shall send horseflies on you, on your officials, your subjects and your houses. The Egyptians' houses will swarm with horseflies, and so will the very ground they stand on.
Exo 8:18 But I shall exempt the region of Goshen, where my people are living, that day; there will be no horseflies there, so that you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), here in this country.
Exo 8:19 I shall make a distinction between my people and your people. This sign will take place tomorrow." '
Exo 8:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did this, and great swarms of horseflies found their way into Pharaoh's palace, into his officials' houses and all over Egypt; the country was ruined by the horseflies.
Exo 8:21 Pharaoh then summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'Go and sacrifice to your God, inside the country.'
Exo 8:22 'That would never do,' Moses said, 'since what we sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God is outrageous to the Egyptians. If the Egyptians see us offering sacrifices which outrage them, won't they stone us?
Exo 8:23 We shall make a three-days' journey into the desert to sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, as he has ordered us.'
Exo 8:24 Pharaoh said, 'I will let you go and sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the desert, provided you do not go very far. Pray for me.'
Exo 8:25 'The moment I leave you,' Moses said, 'I shall pray to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Tomorrow morning the horseflies will leave Pharaoh, his officials and his subjects. But Pharaoh must stop trifling with us by not allowing the people to go and sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Exo 8:26 Moses then left Pharaoh's presence and prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Exo 8:27 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did as Moses asked; the horseflies left Pharaoh, his officials and his subjects; not one remained.
Exo 8:28 But Pharaoh became obstinate this time too and did not let the people go.
Exo 9:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh and say to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of the Hebrews, says this: Let my people go and worship me.
Exo 9:2 If you refuse to let them go and detain them any longer,
Exo 9:3 look, the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will strike your livestock in the fields, horses, donkeys, camels, oxen and flocks with a deadly plague.
Exo 9:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will discriminate between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt: nothing of what belongs to the Israelites will die.
Exo 9:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has fixed the time. Tomorrow, he has said, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will do this in the country." '
Exo 9:6 Next day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did this: all the Egyptians' livestock died, but nothing of the livestock owned by the Israelites died.
Exo 9:7 Pharaoh had enquiries made, and found that of the livestock owned by the Israelites not a single beast had died. But Pharaoh was obstinate and did not let the people go.
Exo 9:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses and Aaron, 'Take handfuls of soot from the kiln, and before Pharaoh's eyes let Moses throw it in the air.
Exo 9:9 It will turn into fine dust over the whole of Egypt and produce boils breaking into sores on man and beast throughout the whole of Egypt.'
Exo 9:10 So they took soot from the kiln and stood in front of Pharaoh, and Moses threw it in the air, and on man and beast it brought out boils breaking into sores.
Exo 9:11 And the magicians could not compete with Moses in the matter of the boils, for the magicians were covered with boils like all the other Egyptians.
Exo 9:12 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made Pharaoh stubborn and, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold to Moses, he did not listen to them.
Exo 9:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh. Say to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of the Hebrews, says this: Let my people go and worship me.
Exo 9:14 For this time I am going to inflict all my plagues on you, on your officials and on your subjects, so that you will know that there is no one like me in the whole world.
Exo 9:15 Had I stretched out my hand to strike you and your subjects with pestilence, you would have been swept from the earth.
Exo 9:16 But I have let you survive for this reason: to display my power to you and to have my name talked of throughout the world.
Exo 9:17 Since you take a high hand with my people, refusing to let them go,
Exo 9:18 very well, at about this time tomorrow, I shall cause so severe a hail to fall as was never known in Egypt from the day of its foundation until now.
Exo 9:19 So now send word to have your livestock and everything else you own in the fields put under cover. On man or beast, all that happen to be in the fields and are not brought indoors, the hail will fall and they will die." '
Exo 9:20 Those of Pharaoh's officials who respected what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, brought their slaves and livestock indoors,
Exo 9:21 but those who did not take to heart what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said left their slaves and livestock in the fields.
Exo 9:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand towards heaven so that it hails throughout the whole of Egypt, on man and beast and on everything growing anywhere in Egypt.'
Exo 9:23 Moses stretched out his staff towards heaven, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) thundered and rained down hail. Lightning struck the earth and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rained down hail on Egypt.
Exo 9:24 And so there was hail, and lightning accompanied the hail, very severe, such as had never been known anywhere in Egypt since it first became a nation.
Exo 9:25 All over Egypt the hail struck down everything in the fields, man and beast, and the hail beat down everything growing in the fields and shattered all the trees in the fields.
Exo 9:26 The only place where there was no hail was in the Goshen region, where the Israelites lived.
Exo 9:27 Pharaoh then sent for Moses and Aaron and said, 'This time, I have sinned. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is in the right; I and my subjects are in the wrong.
Exo 9:28 Pray to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for we cannot bear any more of this thunder and hail. I promise to let you go. You need stay no longer.'
Exo 9:29 Moses said to him, 'The moment I leave the city I shall stretch out my hands to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). The thunder will stop, and there will be no more hail, so that you may know that the earth belongs to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 9:30 But as for you and your officials, I know very well that you still have no respect for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God.'
Exo 9:31 The flax and the barley were ruined, since the barley was in the ear and the flax in bud,
Exo 9:32 but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, being late crops.
Exo 9:33 Moses left Pharaoh and went out of the city. He stretched out his hands to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the thunder and hail ceased and the rain stopped pouring down on the earth.
Exo 9:34 When Pharaoh saw that rain and hail and thunder had stopped, he relapsed into sin,
Exo 9:35 and he and his officials became obstinate again. Pharaoh was stubborn and, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold through Moses, refused to let the Israelites go.
Exo 10:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh, for I have made him and his officials stubborn, to display these signs of mine among them;
Exo 10:2 so that you can tell your sons and your grandsons how I made fools of the Egyptians and what signs I performed among them, so that you would know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Exo 10:3 Moses and Aaron then went to Pharaoh and said to him, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of the Hebrews, says this, "How much longer will you refuse to submit to me? Let my people go and worship me.
Exo 10:4 Or, if you refuse to let my people go, tomorrow I shall send locusts into your country.
Exo 10:5 They will cover the surface of the soil so that the soil cannot be seen. They will devour the remainder of what has escaped, of what you have been left after the hail; they will devour all your trees growing in the fields;
Exo 10:6 they will fill your houses, all your officials' houses and all the Egyptians' houses -- something your ancestors and your ancestors' ancestors have never seen from the day they first appeared on earth until now." ' Then he turned on his heel and left Pharaoh's presence.
Exo 10:7 At which, Pharaoh's officials said to him, 'How much longer are we to be tricked by this fellow? Let the people go and worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God. Do you not finally realize that Egypt is on the brink of ruin?'
Exo 10:8 So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh who said to them, 'Go and worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. But who are to go?'
Exo 10:9 Moses replied, 'We shall take our young men and our old men, we shall take our sons and daughters, our flocks and our herds, since we are going to hold a feast in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor.'
Exo 10:10 Pharaoh said, 'So I must let you go with your wives and children! May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) preserve you! Plainly, you are up to no good!
Exo 10:11 Oh no! You men may go and worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since that was your original request.' With that, they were driven from Pharaoh's presence.
Exo 10:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over Egypt for the locusts. Let them invade Egypt and devour whatever is growing in the country, whatever the hail has left!'
Exo 10:13 Moses stretched his staff over Egypt, and over the country Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent an east wind which blew all that day and night. By morning, the east wind had brought the locusts.
Exo 10:14 The locusts invaded the whole of Egypt and settled all over Egypt, in great swarms; never had there been so many locusts before, nor would there be again.
Exo 10:15 They covered the surface of the ground till the land was devastated. They devoured whatever was growing in the fields and all the fruit on the trees that the hail had left. No green was left on tree or plant in the fields anywhere in Egypt.
Exo 10:16 Pharaoh sent urgently for Moses and Aaron and said, 'I have sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and against you.
Exo 10:17 Now forgive my sin, I implore you, just this once, and entreat Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God to turn this deadly thing away from me.'
Exo 10:18 When Moses left Pharaoh's presence he prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Exo 10:19 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) changed the wind into a west wind, very strong, which carried the locusts away and swept them into the Sea of Reeds. There was not one locust left in the whole of Egypt.
Exo 10:20 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made Pharaoh stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites go.
Exo 10:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand towards heaven, and let darkness, darkness so thick that it can be felt, cover Egypt.'
Exo 10:22 So Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven, and for three days there was thick darkness over the whole of Egypt.
Exo 10:23 No one could see anyone else or move about for three days, but all the Israelites did have light where they were living.
Exo 10:24 Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, 'Go and worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but your flocks and herds are to stay here. Your wives and children can go with you too.'
Exo 10:25 Moses said, 'But now you must give us sacrifices and burnt offerings to offer to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.
Exo 10:26 And our livestock will go with us too; not a hoof will be left behind; for we may need animals from these to worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God; for until we get there we ourselves cannot tell how we are to worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Exo 10:27 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made Pharaoh stubborn, and he refused to let them go.
Exo 10:28 Pharaoh said to Moses, 'Out of my sight! Be sure you never see my face again, for the next time you see my face you die!'
Exo 10:29 Moses then said, 'You yourself have said it. I shall never see your face again.'
Exo 11:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'I shall inflict one more plague on Pharaoh and Egypt, after which he will let you go away. When he lets you go, he will actually drive you out!
Exo 11:2 Now instruct the people that every man is to ask his neighbor, and every woman hers, for silver and golden jewellery.'
Exo 11:3 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made the Egyptians impressed with the people, while Moses himself was a man of great importance in Egypt in the opinion of Pharaoh's officials and the people.
Exo 11:4 Moses then said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "At midnight I shall pass through Egypt,
Exo 11:5 and all the first-born in Egypt will die, from the first-born of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the first-born of the slave-girl at the mill, and all the first-born of the livestock.
Exo 11:6 And throughout Egypt there will be great wailing, such as never was before, nor will be again.
Exo 11:7 But against the Israelites, whether man or beast, never a dog shall bark, so that you may know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) discriminates between Egypt and Israel.
Exo 11:8 Then all these officials of yours will come down to me and, bowing low before me, say: Go away, you and all the people who follow you! After which, I shall go." ' And, hot with anger, he left Pharaoh's presence.
Exo 11:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Pharaoh will not listen to you, so that more of my wonders may be displayed in Egypt.'
Exo 11:10 Moses and Aaron worked all these wonders in Pharaoh's presence, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made Pharaoh stubborn, and he did not let the Israelites leave his country.
Exo 12:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt,
Exo 12:2 'This month must be the first of all the months for you, the first month of your year.
Exo 12:3 Speak to the whole community of Israel and say, "On the tenth day of this month each man must take an animal from the flock for his family: one animal for each household.
Exo 12:4 If the household is too small for the animal, he must join with his neighbor nearest to his house, depending on the number of persons. When you choose the animal, you will take into account what each can eat.
Exo 12:5 It must be an animal without blemish, a male one year old; you may choose it either from the sheep or from the goats.
Exo 12:6 You must keep it till the fourteenth day of the month when the whole assembly of the community of Israel will slaughter it at twilight.
Exo 12:7 Some of the blood must then be taken and put on both door-posts and the lintel of the houses where it is eaten.
Exo 12:8 That night, the flesh must be eaten, roasted over the fire; it must be eaten with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
Exo 12:9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with the head, feet and entrails.
Exo 12:10 You must not leave any of it over till the morning: whatever is left till morning you must burn.
Exo 12:11 This is how you must eat it: with a belt round your waist, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. You must eat it hurriedly: it is a Passover in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor.
Exo 12:12 That night, I shall go through Egypt and strike down all the first-born in Egypt, man and beast alike, and shall execute justice on all the gods of Egypt, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Exo 12:13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. When I see the blood I shall pass over you, and you will escape the destructive plague when I strike Egypt.
Exo 12:14 This day must be commemorated by you, and you must keep it as a feast in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor. You must keep it as a feast-day for all generations; this is a decree for all time.
Exo 12:15 "For seven days you must eat unleavened bread. On the first day you must clean the leaven out of your houses, for anyone who eats leavened bread from the first to the seventh day must be outlawed from Israel.
Exo 12:16 On the first day you must hold a sacred assembly, and on the seventh day a sacred assembly. On those days no work may be done; you will prepare only what each requires to eat.
Exo 12:17 You must keep the feast of Unleavened Bread because it was on that same day that I brought your armies out of Egypt. You will keep that day, generation after generation; this is a decree for all time.
Exo 12:18 In the first month, from the evening of the fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day, you must eat unleavened bread.
Exo 12:19 For seven days there may be no leaven in your houses, since anyone, either stranger or citizen of the country, who eats leavened bread will be outlawed from the community of Israel.
Exo 12:20 You will eat nothing with leaven in it; wherever you live, you will eat unleavened bread." '
Exo 12:21 Moses summoned all the elders of Israel and said to them, 'Go and choose a lamb or kid for your families, and kill the Passover victim.
Exo 12:22 Then take a bunch of hyssop, dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and with the blood from the basin touch the lintel and both door-posts; then let none of you venture out of the house till morning.
Exo 12:23 Then, when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) goes through Egypt to strike it, and sees the blood on the lintel and on both door-posts, he will pass over the door and not allow the Destroyer to enter your homes and strike.
Exo 12:24 You will observe this as a decree binding you and your children for all time,
Exo 12:25 and when you have entered the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will give you, as he has promised, you will observe this ritual.
Exo 12:26 And when your children ask you, "What does this ritual mean?"
Exo 12:27 you will tell them, "It is the Passover sacrifice in honor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, and struck Egypt but spared our houses." ' And the people bowed in worship.
Exo 12:28 The Israelites then went away and did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses and Aaron.
Exo 12:29 And at midnight Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck down all the first-born in Egypt from the first-born of Pharaoh, heir to his throne, to the first-born of the prisoner in the dungeon, and the first-born of all the livestock.
Exo 12:30 Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up in the night, and there was great wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without its dead.
Exo 12:31 It was still dark when Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, 'Up, leave my subjects, you and the Israelites! Go and worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as you have asked!
Exo 12:32 And take your flocks and herds as you have asked, and go! And bless me too!'
Exo 12:33 The Egyptians urged the people on and hurried them out of the country because, they said, 'Otherwise we shall all be dead.'
Exo 12:34 So the people carried off their dough still unleavened, their bowls wrapped in their cloaks, on their shoulders.
Exo 12:35 The Israelites did as Moses had told them and asked the Egyptians for silver and golden jewellery, and clothing.
Exo 12:36 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made the Egyptians so much impressed with the people that they gave them what they asked. So they despoiled the Egyptians.
Exo 12:37 The Israelites left Rameses for Succoth, about six hundred thousand on the march-men, that is, not counting their families.
Exo 12:38 A mixed crowd of people went with them, and flocks and herds, quantities of livestock.
Exo 12:39 And with the dough which they had brought from Egypt they baked unleavened cakes, because the dough had not risen, since they had been driven out of Egypt without time to linger or to prepare food for themselves.
Exo 12:40 The time that the Israelites spent in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years.
Exo 12:41 And on the very day the four hundred and thirty years ended, all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s armies left Egypt.
Exo 12:42 The night when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) kept vigil to bring them out of Egypt must be kept as a vigil in honor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by all Israelites, for all generations.
Exo 12:43 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses and Aaron, 'This is the ritual for the Passover: no alien may eat it,
Exo 12:44 but any slave bought for money may eat it, once you have circumcised him.
Exo 12:45 No stranger and no hired servant may eat it.
Exo 12:46 It must be eaten in one house alone; you will not take any of the meat out of the house; nor may you break any of its bones.
Exo 12:47 'The whole community of Israel must keep it.
Exo 12:48 Should a stranger residing with you wish to keep the Passover in honor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all the males of his household must be circumcised: he will then be allowed to keep it and will count as a citizen of the country. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.
Exo 12:49 The same law will apply to the citizen and the stranger resident among you.'
Exo 12:50 The Israelites all did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses and Aaron,
Exo 12:51 and that same day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought the Israelites out of Egypt in their armies.
Exo 13:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 13:2 'Consecrate all the first-born to me, the first birth from every womb, among the Israelites. Whether man or beast, it is mine.'
Exo 13:3 Moses said to the people, 'Remember this day, on which you came out of Egypt, from the place of slave-labour, for by the strength of his hand Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought you out of it; no leavened bread may be eaten.
Exo 13:4 On this day, in the month of Abib, you are leaving,
Exo 13:5 and when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has brought you into the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, flowing with milk and honey, which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you, then you must observe this rite in the same month.
Exo 13:6 For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there must be a feast in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor.
Exo 13:7 During these seven days unleavened bread may be eaten; no leavened bread may be seen among you, no leaven among you throughout your territory.
Exo 13:8 And on that day you will explain to your son, "This is because of what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did for me when I came out of Egypt."
Exo 13:9 This will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a reminder on your forehead, and in that way the law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be ever on your lips: for with a mighty hand Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought you out of Egypt.
Exo 13:10 You shall observe this law at its appointed time, year by year.
Exo 13:11 'When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has brought you into the Canaanites' country, as he swore to you and your ancestors that he would, and given it to you,
Exo 13:12 to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) you must make over whatever first issues from the womb, and every first-born cast by animals belonging to you: these males belong to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 13:13 But every first-born donkey you will redeem with a lamb or kid; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. All the human first-born, however, among your sons, you will redeem.
Exo 13:14 And when your son asks you in days to come, "What does this mean?" you will tell him, "By the strength of his hand Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought us out of Egypt, out of the place of slave-labour.
Exo 13:15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) killed all the first-born in Egypt, of man and beast alike. This is why I sacrifice every male first issuing from the womb to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and redeem every first-born of my sons."
Exo 13:16 This will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a headband on your forehead, for by the strength of his hand Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought us out of Egypt.'
Exo 13:17 When Pharaoh had let the people go, God did not let them take the road to the Philistines' territory, although that was the shortest, 'in case', God thought, 'the prospect of fighting makes the people change their minds and turn back to Egypt.'
Exo 13:18 Instead, God led the people a roundabout way through the desert of the Sea of Reeds. The Israelites left Egypt fully armed.
Exo 13:19 Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, since Joseph had put the Israelites on solemn oath with the words, 'It is sure that God will visit you,' he had said, 'and when that day comes you must take my bones away from here with you.'
Exo 13:20 They set out from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the desert.
Exo 13:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) preceded them, by day in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could march by day and by night.
Exo 13:22 The pillar of cloud never left its place ahead of the people during the day, nor the pillar of fire during the night.
Exo 14:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 14:2 'Tell the Israelites to turn back and pitch camp in front of Pi-Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, facing Baal-Zephon. You must pitch your camp opposite this place, beside the sea,
Exo 14:3 and then Pharaoh will think, "The Israelites are wandering to and fro in the countryside; the desert has closed in on them."
Exo 14:4 I shall then make Pharaoh stubborn and he will set out in pursuit of them; and I shall win glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and his whole army, and then the Egyptians will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' And the Israelites did this.
Exo 14:5 When Pharaoh king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, he and his officials changed their attitude towards the people. 'What have we done,' they said, 'allowing Israel to leave our service?'
Exo 14:6 So Pharaoh had his chariot harnessed and set out with his troops,
Exo 14:7 taking six hundred of the best chariots and all the other chariots in Egypt, with officers in each.
Exo 14:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made Pharaoh king of Egypt stubborn, and he gave chase to the Israelites. The Israelites marched confidently away,
Exo 14:9 but the Egyptians, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, his horsemen and his army, gave chase and caught up with them where they lay encamped beside the sea near Pi-Hahiroth, facing Baal-Zephon.
Exo 14:10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up -- and there were the Egyptians in pursuit of them! The Israelites were terrified and cried out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for help.
Exo 14:11 To Moses they said, 'Was it for lack of graves in Egypt, that you had to lead us out to die in the desert? What was the point of bringing us out of Egypt?
Exo 14:12 Did we not tell you as much in Egypt? Leave us alone, we said, we would rather work for the Egyptians! We prefer to work for the Egyptians than to die in the desert!'
Exo 14:13 Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid! Stand firm, and you will see what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will do to rescue you today: the Egyptians you see today you will never see again.
Exo 14:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will do the fighting for you; all you need to do is to keep calm.'
Exo 14:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Why cry out to me? Tell the Israelites to march on.
Exo 14:16 Your part is to raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, so that the Israelites can walk through the sea on dry ground,
Exo 14:17 while I, for my part, shall make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will follow them, and I shall win glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and all his army, chariots and horsemen.
Exo 14:18 And when I have won glory for myself at the expense of Pharaoh and his chariots and horsemen, the Egyptians will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Exo 14:19 Then the angel of God, who preceded the army of Israel, changed station and followed behind them. The pillar of cloud moved from their front and took position behind them.
Exo 14:20 It came between the army of the Egyptians and the army of Israel. The cloud was dark, and the night passed without the one drawing any closer to the other the whole night long.
Exo 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) drove the sea back with a strong easterly wind all night and made the sea into dry land. The waters were divided
Exo 14:22 and the Israelites went on dry ground right through the sea, with walls of water to right and left of them.
Exo 14:23 The Egyptians gave chase, and all Pharaoh's horses, chariots and horsemen went into the sea after them.
Exo 14:24 In the morning watch, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looked down on the army of the Egyptians from the pillar of fire and cloud and threw the Egyptian army into confusion.
Exo 14:25 He so clogged their chariot wheels that they drove on only with difficulty, which made the Egyptians say, 'Let us flee from Israel, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is fighting on their side against the Egyptians!'
Exo 14:26 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Stretch out your hand over the sea and let the waters flow back on the Egyptians and on their chariots and their horsemen.'
Exo 14:27 Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and, as day broke, the sea returned to its bed. The fleeing Egyptians ran straight into it, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea.
Exo 14:28 The returning waters washed right over the chariots and horsemen of Pharaoh's entire army, which had followed the Israelites into the sea; not a single one of them was left.
Exo 14:29 The Israelites, however, had marched through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water to right and left of them.
Exo 14:30 That day, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rescued Israel from the clutches of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the sea-shore.
Exo 14:31 When Israel saw the mighty deed that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had performed against the Egyptians, the people revered Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and put their faith in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and in Moses, his servant.
Exo 15:1 It was then that Moses and the Israelites sang this song in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor: I shall sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he has covered himself in glory, horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
Exo 15:2 Yah is my strength and my song, to him I owe my deliverance. He is my God and I shall praise him, my father's God and I shall extol him.
Exo 15:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a warrior; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is his name.
Exo 15:4 Pharaoh's chariots and army he has hurled into the sea the pick of his officers have been drowned in the Sea of Reeds.
Exo 15:5 The ocean has closed over them; they have sunk to the bottom like a stone.
Exo 15:6 Your right hand, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), wins glory by its strength, your right hand, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), shatters your foes,
Exo 15:7 and by your great majesty you fell your assailants; you unleash your fury, it consumes them like chaff.
Exo 15:8 A blast from your nostrils and the waters piled high; the waves stood firm as a dyke; the bed of the sea became firm ground.
Exo 15:9 The enemy said, 'I shall give chase and overtake, 'I shall share out the spoil and glut myself on them, 'I shall draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.'
Exo 15:10 You blew with your breath, the sea closed over them; they sank like lead in the terrible waters.
Exo 15:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who is like you, majestic in sanctity, who like you among the holy ones, fearsome of deed, worker of wonders?
Exo 15:12 You stretched your right hand out, the earth swallowed them!
Exo 15:13 In your faithful love you led out the people you had redeemed, in your strength you have guided them to your holy dwelling.
Exo 15:14 Hearing of this, the peoples tremble; pangs seize on the people of Philistia;
Exo 15:15 the chieftains of Edom are dismayed, Moab's princes -- panic has seized them, all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
Exo 15:16 On them fall terror and dread; through the power of your arm they are still as stone while your people are passing, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), while the people you have purchased are passing.
Exo 15:17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain which is your heritage, the place which you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have made your dwelling, the sanctuary, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), prepared by your own hands.
Exo 15:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be king for ever and ever.
Exo 15:19 For when Pharaoh's cavalry, with his chariots and horsemen, had gone into the sea, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought the waters of the sea back over them, though the Israelites went on dry ground right through the sea.
Exo 15:20 The prophetess Miriam, Aaron's sister, took up a tambourine, and all the women followed her with tambourines, dancing,
Exo 15:21 while Miriam took up from them the refrain: Sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he has covered himself in glory, horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
Exo 15:22 Moses led Israel away from the Sea of Reeds, and they entered the desert of Shur. They then travelled through the desert for three days without finding water.
Exo 15:23 When they reached Marah, they could not drink the Marah water because it was bitter; this is why the place was named Marah.
Exo 15:24 The people complained to Moses saying, 'What are we to drink?'
Exo 15:25 Moses appealed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for help, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) showed him a piece of wood. When Moses threw it into the water, the water became sweet. There he laid down a statute and law for them and there he put them to the test. Then he said,
Exo 15:26 'If you listen carefully to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and do what he regards as right, if you pay attention to his commandments and keep all his laws, I shall never inflict on you any of the diseases that I inflicted on the Egyptians, for I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your Healer.'
Exo 15:27 So they came to Elim where there were twelve springs and seventy palm trees; and there they pitched camp beside the water.
Exo 16:1 Setting out from Elim, the whole community of Israelites entered the desert of Sin, lying between Elim and Sinai -- on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had left Egypt.
Exo 16:2 And the whole community of Israelites began complaining about Moses and Aaron in the desert
Exo 16:3 and said to them, 'Why did we not die at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand in Egypt, where we used to sit round the flesh pots and could eat to our heart's content! As it is, you have led us into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death!'
Exo 16:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Look, I shall rain down bread for you from the heavens. Each day the people must go out and collect their ration for the day; I propose to test them in this way to see whether they will follow my law or not.
Exo 16:5 On the sixth day, however, when they prepare what they have brought in, this must be twice as much as they collect on ordinary days.'
Exo 16:6 Moses and Aaron then said to the whole community of Israelites, 'This evening you will know that it was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who brought you out of Egypt,
Exo 16:7 and tomorrow morning you will see the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has heard your complaints about him. What are we, that your complaint should be against us?'
Exo 16:8 Moses then said, 'This evening Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will give you meat to eat, and tomorrow morning bread to your heart's content, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has heard your complaints about him. What do we count for? Your complaints are not against us, but against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Exo 16:9 Moses then said to Aaron, 'Say to the whole community of Israelites, "Approach Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, for he has heard your complaints." '
Exo 16:10 As Aaron was speaking to the whole community of Israelites, they turned towards the desert, and there the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared in the cloud.
Exo 16:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 16:12 'I have heard the Israelites' complaints. Speak to them as follows, "At twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will have bread to your heart's content, and then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God." '
Exo 16:13 That evening, quails flew in and covered the camp, and next morning there was a layer of dew all round the camp.
Exo 16:14 When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the desert was something fine and granular, as fine as hoarfrost on the ground.
Exo 16:15 As soon as the Israelites saw this, they said to one another, 'What is that ?' not knowing what it was. 'That', Moses told them, 'is the food which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given you to eat.
Exo 16:16 These are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s orders: Each of you must collect as much as he needs to eat -- a homer per head for each person in his tent.'
Exo 16:17 The Israelites did this. They collected it, some more, some less.
Exo 16:18 When they measured out what they had collected by the homer, no one who had collected more had too much, no one who had collected less had too little. Each had collected as much as he needed to eat.
Exo 16:19 Moses then said, 'No one may keep any of it for tomorrow.'
Exo 16:20 But some of them took no notice of Moses and kept part of it for the following day, and it bred maggots and smelt foul; and Moses was angry with them.
Exo 16:21 Morning by morning they collected it, each man as much as he needed to eat, and once the sun grew hot, it melted away.
Exo 16:22 Now, on the sixth day they collected twice the amount of food: two homer per person, and all the leaders of the community came and told Moses this.
Exo 16:23 Moses replied, 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, "Tomorrow is a day of complete rest, a Sabbath sacred to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Bake what you want to bake, boil what you want to boil; put aside what is left over, to be kept for tomorrow."
Exo 16:24 So, as Moses ordered, they put it aside for the following day, and its smell was not foul nor were there maggots in it.
Exo 16:25 'Eat it today,' Moses said, 'for today is a Sabbath for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); you will find none in the fields today.
Exo 16:26 For six days you will collect it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.'
Exo 16:27 On the seventh day some of the people went out to collect it, but they found none.
Exo 16:28 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'How much longer will you refuse to obey my commandments and laws?
Exo 16:29 Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given you the Sabbath; this is why he gives you two days' food on the sixth day; each of you must stay in his place; on the seventh day no one may leave his home.'
Exo 16:30 So on the seventh day the people rested.
Exo 16:31 The House of Israel named it 'manna'. It was like coriander seed; it was white and its taste was like that of wafers made with honey.
Exo 16:32 Moses then said, 'These are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s orders: Fill a homer with it and preserve it for your descendants, so that they can see the bread on which I fed you in the desert when I brought you out of Egypt.'
Exo 16:33 Moses then said to Aaron, 'Take a jar and in it put a full homer of manna and store it in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, to be kept for your descendants.'
Exo 16:34 Accordingly, Aaron stored it in front of the Testimony, to be preserved, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 16:35 The Israelites ate manna for forty years, up to the time they reached inhabited country: they ate manna up to the time they reached the frontiers of Canaan.
Exo 16:36 A homer is one-tenth of an ephah.
Exo 17:1 The whole community of Israelites left the desert of Sin, traveling by stages as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered. They pitched camp at Rephidim where there was no water for the people to drink.
Exo 17:2 The people took issue with Moses for this and said, 'Give us water to drink.' Moses replied, 'Why take issue with me? Why do you put Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the test?'
Exo 17:3 But tormented by thirst, the people complained to Moses. 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt,' they said, 'only to make us, our children and our livestock, die of thirst?'
Exo 17:4 Moses appealed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for help. 'How am I to deal with this people?' he said. 'Any moment now they will stone me!'
Exo 17:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Go on ahead of the people, taking some of the elders of Israel with you; in your hand take the staff with which you struck the River, and go.
Exo 17:6 I shall be waiting for you there on the rock (at Horeb). Strike the rock, and water will come out for the people to drink.' This was what Moses did, with the elders of Israel looking on.
Exo 17:7 He gave the place the names Massah and Meribah because of the Israelites' contentiousness and because they put Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the test by saying, 'Is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with us, or not?'
Exo 17:8 The Amalekites then came and attacked Israel at Rephidim.
Exo 17:9 Moses said to Joshua, 'Pick some men and tomorrow morning go out and engage Amalek. I, for my part, shall take my stand on the hilltop with the staff of God in my hand.'
Exo 17:10 Joshua did as Moses had told him and went out to engage Amalek, while Moses, Aaron and Hur went up to the top of the hill.
Exo 17:11 As long as Moses kept his arms raised, Israel had the advantage; when he let his arms fall, the advantage went to Amalek.
Exo 17:12 But Moses' arms grew heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him and on this he sat, with Aaron and Hur supporting his arms on each side. Thus his arms remained unwavering till sunset,
Exo 17:13 and Joshua defeated Amalek, putting their people to the sword.
Exo 17:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Write this down in a book to commemorate it, and repeat it over to Joshua, for I shall blot out all memory of Amalek under heaven.'
Exo 17:15 Moses then built an altar and named it Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-Nissi
Exo 17:16 meaning, 'Lay hold of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s banner! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be at war with Amalek generation after generation.'
Exo 18:1 Jethro, priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, had heard all about what God had done for Moses and for Israel his people: how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had brought Israel out of Egypt.
Exo 18:2 Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, then took back Zipporah, Moses' wife, whom Moses had sent home,
Exo 18:3 with her two sons; one of them was called Gershom because, he had said, 'I am an alien in a foreign land,'
Exo 18:4 and the other called Eliezer because 'My father's God is my help and has delivered me from Pharaoh's sword.'
Exo 18:5 Then Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, with Moses' sons and wife, came to Moses in the desert where he was encamped, at the mountain of God.
Exo 18:6 'Here is your father-in-law Jethro approaching', Moses was told, 'with your wife and her two sons.'
Exo 18:7 So Moses went out to greet his father-in-law, bowed low to him and kissed him; and when each had asked how the other was they went into the tent.
Exo 18:8 Moses then told his father-in-law all about what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel's sake, and about all the hardships that they had encountered on the way, and how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had rescued them.
Exo 18:9 And Jethro was delighted at all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s goodness to Israel in having rescued them from the clutches of the Egyptians.
Exo 18:10 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)', Jethro exclaimed, 'for having rescued you from the clutches of the Egyptians and the clutches of Pharaoh, for having rescued the people from the grasp of the Egyptians!
Exo 18:11 Now I know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is greater than all other gods. . .'
Exo 18:12 Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, then offered a burnt offering and other sacrifices to God; and Aaron and all the elders of Israel came and ate with Moses' father-in-law in the presence of God.
Exo 18:13 On the following day, Moses took his seat to administer justice for the people, and the people were standing round him from morning till evening.
Exo 18:14 Seeing all he did for the people, Moses' father-in-law said to him, 'Why do you do this for the people, why sit here alone with the people standing round you from morning till evening?'
Exo 18:15 Moses replied to his father-in-law, 'Because the people come to me to consult God.
Exo 18:16 When they have a problem they come to me, and I give a ruling between the one and the other and make God's statutes and laws known to them.'
Exo 18:17 Moses' father-in-law then said to him, 'What you are doing is not right.
Exo 18:18 You will only tire yourself out, and the people with you too, for the work is too heavy for you. You cannot do it all yourself.
Exo 18:19 Now listen to the advice I am going to give you, and God be with you! Your task is to represent the people to God, to lay their cases before God,
Exo 18:20 and to teach them the statutes and laws, and show them the way they ought to follow and how they ought to behave.
Exo 18:21 At the same time, from the people at large choose capable and God-fearing men, men who are trustworthy and incorruptible, and put them in charge of them as heads of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens,
Exo 18:22 and make them the people's permanent judges. They will refer all important matters to you, but all minor matters they will decide themselves, so making things easier for you by sharing the burden with you.
Exo 18:23 If you do this -- and may God so command you -- you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.'
Exo 18:24 Moses took his father-in-law's advice and did just as he said.
Exo 18:25 Moses chose capable men from all Israel and put them in charge of the people as heads of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens.
Exo 18:26 These acted as the people's permanent judges. They referred hard cases to Moses but decided minor matters themselves.
Exo 18:27 Moses then set his father-in-law on his way, and he travelled back to his own country.
Exo 19:1 Three months to the day after leaving Egypt, the Israelites reached the desert of Sinai.
Exo 19:2 Setting out from Rephidim, they reached the desert of Sinai and pitched camp in the desert; there, facing the mountain, Israel pitched camp.
Exo 19:3 Moses then went up to God, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called to him from the mountain, saying, 'Say this to the House of Jacob! Tell the Israelites,
Exo 19:4 "You have seen for yourselves what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you away on eagle's wings and brought you to me.
Exo 19:5 So now, if you are really prepared to obey me and keep my covenant, you, out of all peoples, shall be my personal possession, for the whole world is mine.
Exo 19:6 For me you shall be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation." Those are the words you are to say to the Israelites.'
Exo 19:7 So Moses went and summoned the people's elders and acquainted them with everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had bidden him,
Exo 19:8 and the people all replied with one accord, 'Whatever Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said, we will do.' Moses then reported to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) what the people had said.
Exo 19:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Look, I shall come to you in a dense cloud so that the people will hear when I speak to you and believe you ever after.' Moses then told Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) what the people had said.
Exo 19:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Go to the people and tell them to sanctify themselves today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes
Exo 19:11 and be ready for the day after tomorrow; for the day after tomorrow, in the sight of all the people, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will descend on Mount Sinai.
Exo 19:12 You will mark out the limits of the mountain and say, "Take care not to go up the mountain or to touch the edge of it. Anyone who touches the mountain will be put to death.
Exo 19:13 No one may lay a hand on him: he must be stoned or shot by arrow; whether man or beast, he shall not live." When the ram's horn sounds a long blast, they must go up the mountain.'
Exo 19:14 So Moses came down from the mountain to the people; he made the people sanctify themselves and they washed their clothes.
Exo 19:15 He then said to the people, 'Be ready for the day after tomorrow; do not touch a woman.'
Exo 19:16 Now at daybreak two days later, there were peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, dense cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast; and, in the camp, all the people trembled.
Exo 19:17 Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they took their stand at the bottom of the mountain.
Exo 19:18 Mount Sinai was entirely wrapped in smoke, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had descended on it in the form of fire. The smoke rose like smoke from a furnace and the whole mountain shook violently.
Exo 19:19 Louder and louder grew the trumpeting. Moses spoke, and God answered him in the thunder.
Exo 19:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) descended on Mount Sinai, on the top of the mountain, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called Moses to the top of the mountain; and Moses went up.
Exo 19:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Go down and warn the people not to break through to look at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), or many of them will perish.
Exo 19:22 Even the priests, who do have access to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), must sanctify themselves, or Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) may burst out against them.'
Exo 19:23 Moses said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, since you yourself warned us to mark out the limits of the mountain and declare it sacred.'
Exo 19:24 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'Away with you! Go down! Then come back bringing Aaron with you. But do not allow the priests and people to break through to come up to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), or he may burst out against them.'
Exo 19:25 So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.
Exo 20:1 Then God spoke all these words. He said,
Exo 20:2 'I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you lived as slaves.
Exo 20:3 'You shall have no other gods to rival me.
Exo 20:4 'You shall not make yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth.
Exo 20:5 'You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, am a jealous God and I punish a parent's fault in the children, the grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren among those who hate me;
Exo 20:6 but I act with faithful love towards thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Exo 20:7 'You shall not misuse the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not leave unpunished anyone who misuses his name.
Exo 20:8 'Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
Exo 20:9 For six days you shall labour and do all your work,
Exo 20:10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You shall do no work that day, neither you nor your son nor your daughter nor your servants, men or women, nor your animals nor the alien living with you.
Exo 20:11 For in six days Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made the heavens, earth and sea and all that these contain, but on the seventh day he rested; that is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has blessed the Sabbath day and made it sacred.
Exo 20:12 'honor your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you.
Exo 20:13 'You shall not kill.
Exo 20:14 'You shall not commit adultery.
Exo 20:15 'You shall not steal.
Exo 20:16 'You shall not give false evidence against your neighbor.
Exo 20:17 'You shall not set your heart on your neighbor's house. You shall not set your heart on your neighbor's spouse, or servant, man or woman, or ox, or donkey, or any of your neighbor's possessions.'
Exo 20:18 Seeing the thunder pealing, the lightning flashing, the trumpet blasting and the mountain smoking, the people were all terrified and kept their distance.
Exo 20:19 'Speak to us yourself,' they said to Moses, 'and we will obey; but do not let God speak to us, or we shall die.'
Exo 20:20 Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid; God has come to test you, so that your fear of him, being always in your mind, may keep you from sinning.'
Exo 20:21 So the people kept their distance while Moses approached the dark cloud where God was.
Exo 20:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Tell the Israelites this, "You have seen for yourselves how I have spoken to you from heaven.
Exo 20:23 You must not make gods of silver to rival me, nor must you make yourselves gods of gold.
Exo 20:24 "You must make me an altar of earth on which to sacrifice your burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, your sheep and cattle. Wherever I choose to have my name remembered, I shall come to you and bless you.
Exo 20:25 If you make me an altar of stone, do not build it of dressed stones; for if you use a chisel on it, you will profane it.
Exo 20:26 You must not go up to my altar by steps, in case you expose your nakedness on them." '
Exo 21:1 'These are the laws you must give them:
Exo 21:2 'When you buy a Hebrew slave, his service will last for six years. In the seventh year he will leave a free man without paying compensation.
Exo 21:3 If he came single, he will depart single; if he came married, his wife will depart with him.
Exo 21:4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children will belong to her master, and he will depart alone.
Exo 21:5 But if the slave says, "I love my master and my wife and children; I do not wish to be freed,"
Exo 21:6 then his master will bring him before God and then, leading him to the door or the doorpost, his master will pierce his ear with an awl, and the slave will be permanently his.
Exo 21:7 If a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not leave as male slaves do.
Exo 21:8 If she does not please her master who intended her for himself, he must let her be bought back: he has not the right to sell her to foreigners, for this would be a breach of faith with her.
Exo 21:9 If he intends her for his son, he must treat her as custom requires daughters to be treated.
Exo 21:10 If he takes another wife, he must not reduce the food, clothing or conjugal rights of the first one.
Exo 21:11 Should he deprive her of these three things she will leave a free woman, without paying compensation.
Exo 21:12 'Anyone who by violence causes a death must be put to death.
Exo 21:13 If, however, he has not planned to do it but it comes from God by his hand, he can take refuge in a place which I shall appoint for you.
Exo 21:14 But should any person dare to kill another with deliberate planning, you will take that person even from my altar to be put to death.
Exo 21:15 'Anyone who strikes father or mother will be put to death.
Exo 21:16 Anyone who abducts a person -- whether that person has since been sold or is still held -- will be put to death.
Exo 21:17 Anyone who curses father or mother will be put to death.
Exo 21:18 'If people quarrel and one strikes the other a blow with stone or fist so that the injured party, though not dead, is confined to bed,
Exo 21:19 but later recovers and can go about, even with a stick, the one who struck the blow will have no liability, other than to compensate the injured party for the enforced inactivity and to take care of the injured party until the cure is complete.
Exo 21:20 'If someone beats his slave, male or female, and the slave dies at his hands, he must pay the penalty.
Exo 21:21 But should the slave survive for one or two days, he will pay no penalty because the slave is his by right of purchase.
Exo 21:22 'If people, when brawling, hurt a pregnant woman and she suffers a miscarriage but no further harm is done, the person responsible will pay compensation as fixed by the woman's master, paying as much as the judges decide.
Exo 21:23 If further harm is done, however, you will award life for life,
Exo 21:24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Exo 21:25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stroke for stroke.
Exo 21:26 'If anyone strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys the use of it, he will give the slave his freedom to compensate for the eye.
Exo 21:27 If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he will give the slave his freedom to compensate for the tooth.
Exo 21:28 'If an ox gores a man or woman to death, the ox will be stoned and its meat will not be eaten, but the owner of the ox will not be liable.
Exo 21:29 But if the ox has been in the habit of goring before, and if its owner has been warned but has not kept it under control, then should this ox kill a man or woman, it will be stoned and its owner put to death.
Exo 21:30 If a ransom is imposed on the owner, he will pay whatever is imposed, to redeem his life.
Exo 21:31 If the ox gores a boy or a girl, it will be treated in accordance with this same rule.
Exo 21:32 If the ox gores a slave, male or female, its owner will pay the price -- thirty shekels -- to their master, and the ox will be stoned.
Exo 21:33 'If anyone leaves a pit uncovered, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox, or donkey falls into it,
Exo 21:34 then the owner of the pit will make good the loss by compensating its owner, and the dead animal will be his.
Exo 21:35 If anyone's ox injures anyone else's ox causing its death, the owners will sell and share the money for it; they will also share the dead animal.
Exo 21:36 But if it is common knowledge that the ox has been in the habit of goring before, and its owner has not kept it under control, the owner will repay ox for ox, and will keep the dead animal.
Exo 21:37 'If anyone steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters or sells it, he will pay back five beasts from the herd for the ox, and four animals from the flock for the sheep.'
Exo 22:1 'If a thief is caught breaking in and is struck a mortal blow, his blood may not be avenged,
Exo 22:2 but if it happens after sunrise, his blood may be avenged. He will make full restitution; if he has not the means, he will be sold to pay for what he has stolen.
Exo 22:3 If the stolen animal is found alive in his possession, be it ox, donkey or animal from the flock, he will pay back double.
Exo 22:4 'If anyone puts his animals out to graze in a field or vineyard and lets them graze in someone else's field, he will make restitution for the part of the field that has been grazed on the basis of its yield. But if he has let the whole field be grazed, he will make restitution in proportion to the best crop of the field or vineyard.
Exo 22:5 'If a fire breaks out, setting light to thorn bushes and burning stacks, standing corn or the field as a result, the person who started the fire will make full restitution.
Exo 22:6 'If anyone entrusts money or goods to someone else's keeping and these are stolen from that person's house, the thief, if he can be discovered, will repay double.
Exo 22:7 Should the thief not be discovered, the owner of the house will come into the presence of God, to declare that he has not laid hands on the other person's property.
Exo 22:8 'In every case of law-breaking involving an ox, donkey, animal from the flock, clothing or lost property of any sort, the ownership of which is disputed, both parties will lay their case before God. The party whom God pronounces guilty will pay back double to the other.
Exo 22:9 'If anyone entrusts a donkey, ox, animal from the flock or any other animal to someone else's keeping, and it dies or breaks a limb or is carried off without anyone seeing,
Exo 22:10 an oath by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will decide between the two parties whether the keeper has laid hands on the other's property or not. The owner will take what remains, the keeper will not have to make good the loss.
Exo 22:11 Only if the animal has been stolen from him, will he make restitution to the owner.
Exo 22:12 If it has been savaged by a wild animal, he must bring the savaged remains of the animal as evidence, and will then not have to make restitution.
Exo 22:13 'If anyone borrows an animal from someone else, and it breaks a limb or dies in the owner's absence, he will make full restitution.
Exo 22:14 But if the animal's owner has been present, he will not have to make good the loss. If the owner has hired it out, he will get the cost of its hire.
Exo 22:15 'If a man seduces a virgin who is not engaged to be married, he will pay her bride-price and make her his wife.
Exo 22:16 If her father absolutely refuses to let him have her, he will pay a sum equivalent to the bride-price of a virgin.
Exo 22:17 'You will not allow a sorceress to live.
Exo 22:18 'Anyone who has intercourse with an animal will be put to death.
Exo 22:19 'Anyone who sacrifices to other gods will be put under the curse of destruction.
Exo 22:20 'You will not molest or oppress aliens, for you yourselves were once aliens in Egypt.
Exo 22:21 You will not ill-treat widows or orphans;
Exo 22:22 if you ill-treat them in any way and they make an appeal to me for help, I shall certainly hear their appeal,
Exo 22:23 my anger will be roused and I shall put you to the sword; then your own wives will be widows and your own children orphans.
Exo 22:24 'If you lend money to any of my people, to anyone poor among you, you will not play the usurer with him: you will not demand interest from him.
Exo 22:25 'If you take someone's cloak in pledge, you will return it to him at sunset.
Exo 22:26 It is all the covering he has; it is the cloak he wraps his body in; what else will he sleep in? If he appeals to me, I shall listen. At least with me he will find compassion!
Exo 22:27 'You will not revile God, nor curse your people's leader.
Exo 22:28 'Do not be slow about making offerings from your abundance and your surplus. You will give me the first-born of your children;
Exo 22:29 you will do the same with your flocks and herds. For the first seven days the first-born will stay with its mother; on the eighth day you will give it to me.
Exo 22:30 'You must be people consecrated to me. You will not eat the meat of anything in the countryside savaged by wild animals; you will throw it to the dogs.'
Exo 23:1 'You will not spread false rumours. You will not lend support to the wicked by giving untrue evidence.
Exo 23:2 You will not be led into wrong-doing by the majority nor, when giving evidence in a lawsuit, side with the majority to pervert the course of justice;
Exo 23:3 nor will you show partiality to the poor in a lawsuit.
Exo 23:4 'If you come on your enemy's ox or donkey straying, you will take it back to him.
Exo 23:5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, do not stand back; you must go and help him with it.
Exo 23:6 'You will not cheat the poor among you of their rights at law.
Exo 23:7 Keep clear of fraud. Do not cause the death of the innocent or upright, and do not acquit the guilty.
Exo 23:8 You will accept no bribes, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and is the ruin of the cause of the upright.
Exo 23:9 'You will not oppress the alien; you know how an alien feels, for you yourselves were once aliens in Egypt.
Exo 23:10 'For six years you will sow your land and gather its produce,
Exo 23:11 but in the seventh year you will let it lie fallow and forgo all produce from it, so that those of your people who are poor can take food from it and the wild animals eat what they have left. You will do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.
Exo 23:12 'For six days you will do your work, and on the seventh you will rest, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the child of your slave-girl have a breathing space, and the alien too.
Exo 23:13 'Take notice of everything I have told you and do not mention the name of any other god: let none ever be heard from your lips.
Exo 23:14 'Three times a year you will hold a festival in my honor.
Exo 23:15 You will observe the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in that month you came out of Egypt. No one will appear before me empty-handed.
Exo 23:16 You will also observe the feast of Harvest, of the first-fruits of your labours in sowing the fields, and the feast of Ingathering, at the end of the year, once you have brought the fruits of your labours in from the fields.
Exo 23:17 Three times a year all your menfolk will appear before Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 23:18 'You will not offer the blood of my victim with leavened bread, nor will the fat of my feast be kept till the following day.
Exo 23:19 'You will bring the best of the first-fruits of your soil to the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. 'You will not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
Exo 23:20 'Look, I am sending an angel to precede you, to guard you as you go and bring you to the place that I have prepared.
Exo 23:21 Revere him and obey what he says. Do not defy him: he will not forgive any wrong-doing on your part, for my name is in him.
Exo 23:22 If, however, you obey what he says and do whatever I order, I shall be an enemy to your enemies and a foe to your foes.
Exo 23:23 My angel will precede you and lead you to the home of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, whom I shall exterminate.
Exo 23:24 You will not bow down to their gods or worship them or observe their rites, but throw them down and smash their cultic stones.
Exo 23:25 You will worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and then I shall bless your food and water, and keep you free of sickness.
Exo 23:26 In your country no woman will miscarry, none be sterile, and I shall give you your full term of life.
Exo 23:27 'I shall send terror of myself ahead of you; I shall throw all the peoples you encounter into confusion, and make all your enemies take to their heels.
Exo 23:28 I shall send hornets ahead of you to drive Hivite, Canaanite and Hittite out before you.
Exo 23:29 I shall not drive them out ahead of you in a single year, or the land might become a desert where wild animals would multiply to your cost.
Exo 23:30 I shall drive them out little by little before you, until your numbers grow sufficient for you to take possession of the land.
Exo 23:31 And your frontiers I shall fix from the Sea of Reeds to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River, for I shall put the inhabitants of the territory at your mercy, and you will drive them out before you.
Exo 23:32 You will make no pact with them or with their gods.
Exo 23:33 They may not stay in your country or they might make you sin against me, for you would serve their gods, and that would be a snare for you!'
Exo 24:1 He then said to Moses, 'Come up to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel and bow down at a distance.
Exo 24:2 Moses alone will approach Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); the others will not approach, nor will the people come up with him.'
Exo 24:3 Moses went and told the people all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s words and all the laws, and all the people answered with one voice, 'All the words Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken we will carry out!'
Exo 24:4 Moses put all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s words into writing, and early next morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain, with twelve standing-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Exo 24:5 Then he sent certain young Israelites to offer burnt offerings and sacrifice bullocks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as communion sacrifices.
Exo 24:6 Moses then took half the blood and put it into basins, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar.
Exo 24:7 Then, taking the Book of the Covenant, he read it to the listening people, who then said, 'We shall do everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said; we shall obey.'
Exo 24:8 Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it over the people, saying, 'This is the blood of the covenant which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made with you, entailing all these stipulations.'
Exo 24:9 Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu and seventy elders of Israel then went up,
Exo 24:10 and they saw the God of Israel beneath whose feet there was what looked like a sapphire pavement pure as the heavens themselves,
Exo 24:11 but he did no harm to the Israelite notables; they actually gazed on God and then ate and drank.
Exo 24:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Come up to me on the mountain. Stay there, and I will give you the stone tablets -- the law and the commandment -- which I have written for their instruction.'
Exo 24:13 Moses made ready, with Joshua his assistant, and they went up the mountain of God.
Exo 24:14 He said to the elders, 'Wait here for us until we come back to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you; if anyone has any matter to settle, let him go to them.'
Exo 24:15 Moses then went up the mountain. Cloud covered the mountain.
Exo 24:16 The glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rested on Mount Sinai and the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called to Moses from inside the cloud.
Exo 24:17 To the watching Israelites, the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looked like a devouring fire on the mountain top.
Exo 24:18 Moses went right into the cloud and went on up the mountain. Moses stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.
Exo 25:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 25:2 'Tell the Israelites to set aside a contribution for me; you will accept a contribution from everyone whose heart prompts him to give it.
Exo 25:3 And this is what you will accept from them: gold, silver and bronze;
Exo 25:4 materials dyed violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, fine linen, goats' hair;
Exo 25:5 rams' skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood;
Exo 25:6 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and fragrant incense;
Exo 25:7 cornelian and other stones to be set in the ephod and breastplate.
Exo 25:8 Make me a sanctuary so that I can reside among them.
Exo 25:9 You will make it all according to the design for the Dwelling and the design for its furnishings which I shall now show you.
Exo 25:10 'You must make me an ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and one and a half cubits high.
Exo 25:11 You will overlay it, inside and out, with pure gold and make a gold moulding all round it.
Exo 25:12 You will cast four gold rings for it and fix them to its four supports: two rings on one side and two rings on the other.
Exo 25:13 You will also make shafts of acacia wood and overlay them with gold
Exo 25:14 and pass the shafts through the rings on the sides of the ark, by which to carry it.
Exo 25:15 The shafts will stay in the rings of the ark and not be withdrawn.
Exo 25:16 Inside the ark you will put the Testimony which I am about to give you.
Exo 25:17 'You will also make a mercy-seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide,
Exo 25:18 and you will model two great winged creatures of beaten gold, you will make them at the two ends of the mercy-seat.
Exo 25:19 Model one of the winged creatures at one end and the other winged creature at the other end; you will model the winged creatures of a piece with the mercy-seat at either end.
Exo 25:20 The winged creatures must have their wings spread upwards, protecting the mercy-seat with their wings and facing each other, their faces being towards the mercy-seat.
Exo 25:21 You will put the mercy-seat on the top of the ark, and inside the ark you will put the Testimony which I am about to give you.
Exo 25:22 There I shall come to meet you; from above the mercy-seat, from between the two winged creatures which are on the ark of the Testimony, I shall give you all my orders for the Israelites.
Exo 25:23 'You must also make a table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high.
Exo 25:24 You will overlay it with pure gold, and make a gold moulding all round it.
Exo 25:25 You will fit it with struts of a hand's breadth and make a gold moulding round the struts.
Exo 25:26 You will make four gold rings for it and fix the four rings at the four corners where the four legs are.
Exo 25:27 The rings must lie close to the struts to hold the shafts for carrying the table.
Exo 25:28 You must make the shafts of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. The table must be carried by these.
Exo 25:29 You must make dishes, cups, jars and libation bowls for it; you must make these of pure gold,
Exo 25:30 and on the table, in my presence, you will always put the loaves of permanent offering.
Exo 25:31 'You will also make a lamp-stand of pure gold; the lamp-stand must be of beaten gold, base and stem. Its cups, calyxes and petals, must be of a piece with it.
Exo 25:32 Six branches must spring from its sides: three of the lamp-stand's branches from one side, three of the lamp-stand's branches from the other.
Exo 25:33 The first branch must carry three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyx and petals; the second branch, too, must carry three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyx and bud, and similarly for all six branches springing from the lamp-stand.
Exo 25:34 The lamp-stand itself must carry four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyx and bud:
Exo 25:35 one calyx under the first two branches springing from the lamp-stand, one calyx under the next pair of branches and one calyx under the last pair of branches -- thus for all six branches springing from the lamp-stand.
Exo 25:36 The calyxes and the branches will be of a piece with the lamp-stand, and the whole made from a single piece of pure gold, beaten out.
Exo 25:37 You will also make seven lamps for it and mount the lamps in such a way that they light up the space in front of it.
Exo 25:38 The snuffers and trays must be of pure gold.
Exo 25:39 You will use a talent of pure gold for the lamp-stand and all its accessories;
Exo 25:40 and see that you work to the design which was shown you on the mountain.'
Exo 26:1 'The Dwelling itself you will make with ten sheets of finely woven linen dyed violet-purple, red-purple and crimson. You will have them embroidered with great winged creatures.
Exo 26:2 The length of a single sheet is to be twenty-eight cubits, its width four cubits, all the sheets to be of the same size.
Exo 26:3 Five of the sheets are to be joined to one another, and the other five sheets are to be joined to one another.
Exo 26:4 You will make violet loops along the edge of the first sheet, at the end of the set, and do the same along the edge of the last sheet in the other set.
Exo 26:5 You will make fifty loops on the first sheet and fifty loops along the outer edge of the sheet of the second set, the loops corresponding to one another.
Exo 26:6 You will also make fifty gold clasps, and join the sheets together with the clasps. In this way the Dwelling will be a unified whole.
Exo 26:7 'You will make sheets of goats' hair to form a tent over the Dwelling; you will make eleven of these.
Exo 26:8 The length of a single sheet must be thirty cubits and its width four cubits, the eleven sheets to be all of the same size.
Exo 26:9 You will join five sheets together into one set, and six sheets into another; the sixth you will fold double over the front of the tent.
Exo 26:10 You will make fifty loops along the edge of the first sheet, at the end of the first set, and fifty loops along the edge of the sheet of the second set.
Exo 26:11 You will make fifty bronze clasps and insert the clasps into the loops, to draw the tent together and to make it a unified whole.
Exo 26:12 'Of the extra part of the sheets that overlap, half is to hang down the back of the Dwelling.
Exo 26:13 The extra cubit on either side along the length of the tent sheets must hang down the sides of the Dwelling on either side to cover it.
Exo 26:14 'And for the tent you will make a cover of rams' skins dyed red and a cover of fine leather over that.
Exo 26:15 'For the Dwelling you will make vertical frames of acacia wood.
Exo 26:16 Each frame must be ten cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.
Exo 26:17 Each frame must have twin tenons; that is how all the frames for the Dwelling must be made.
Exo 26:18 You will make frames for the Dwelling: twenty frames for the south side, to the south,
Exo 26:19 and make forty silver sockets under the twenty frames, two sockets under one frame for its two tenons, two sockets under the next frame for its two tenons;
Exo 26:20 and for the other side of the Dwelling, the north side, twenty frames
Exo 26:21 and forty silver sockets, two sockets under one frame, two sockets under the next frame.
Exo 26:22 For the back of the Dwelling, on the west, you will make six frames,
Exo 26:23 and make two frames for the corners at the back of the Dwelling;
Exo 26:24 these must be coupled together at the bottom, and right up to the top, to the level of the first ring; this for the two frames that must form the two corners.
Exo 26:25 Thus there will be eight frames with their silver sockets: sixteen sockets; two sockets under one frame and two sockets under the next frame.
Exo 26:26 'You will make crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames of the first side of the Dwelling,
Exo 26:27 five crossbars for the frames of the opposite side of the Dwelling, and five crossbars for the frames which form the back of the Dwelling, to the west.
Exo 26:28 The middle bar must join the frames from one end to the other, halfway up.
Exo 26:29 You will overlay the frames with gold, make gold rings for them, through which to place the crossbars, and overlay the crossbars with gold.
Exo 26:30 This is how you must erect the Dwelling, following the design shown you on the mountain.
Exo 26:31 'You will make a curtain of finely woven linen, dyed violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, and embroidered with great winged creatures,
Exo 26:32 and put it on four poles of acacia wood overlaid with gold, with golden hooks for them, set in four sockets of silver.
Exo 26:33 You will put the curtain below the clasps, so that inside behind the curtain, you can place the ark of the Testimony, and the curtain will mark the division for you between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.
Exo 26:34 You will put the mercy-seat on the ark of the Testimony in the Holy of Holies.
Exo 26:35 You will place the table outside the curtain, and the lamp-stand on the south side of the Dwelling, opposite the table; you will put the table on the north side.
Exo 26:36 For the entrance to the tent you will make a screen of finely woven linen embroidered with violet-purple, red-purple and crimson,
Exo 26:37 and for the screen you will make five poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold, with golden hooks, and for them you will cast five sockets of bronze.'
Exo 27:1 'You will make the altar of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; the altar will be square and three cubits high.
Exo 27:2 At its four corners you will make horns, the horns must be of a piece with it, and you will overlay it with bronze.
Exo 27:3 And for it you will make pans for taking away the fatty ashes, and shovels, sprinkling basins, hooks and fire pans; you will make all the altar accessories of bronze.
Exo 27:4 You will also make a grating for it of bronze network, and on the four corners of the grating you will make four bronze rings.
Exo 27:5 You will put it below the ledge of the altar, underneath, so that it comes halfway up the altar.
Exo 27:6 You will make shafts for the altar, shafts of acacia wood and overlay them with bronze.
Exo 27:7 The shafts will be passed through the rings in such a way that the shafts are on either side of the altar, for carrying it.
Exo 27:8 You will make the altar hollow, out of boards; you will make it as you were shown on the mountain.
Exo 27:9 'Then you will make the court of the Dwelling. On the south side, the curtaining of the court must be of finely woven linen, one hundred cubits long (for the first side),
Exo 27:10 its twenty poles and their twenty sockets being of bronze, and the poles' hooks and rods of silver.
Exo 27:11 So too for the north side, there must be a hundred cubits of curtaining, its twenty poles and their twenty sockets being of bronze, and the poles' hooks and rods of silver.
Exo 27:12 Across the width of the court, on the west side, there must be fifty cubits of curtaining, with its ten poles and their ten sockets.
Exo 27:13 The width of the court on the east side, facing the sunrise, must be fifty cubits,
Exo 27:14 with fifteen cubits of curtaining on one side of the entrance, with its three poles and their three sockets,
Exo 27:15 and on the other side of the entrance, fifteen cubits of curtaining, with its three poles and their three sockets;
Exo 27:16 and for the gateway to the court there must be a twenty-cubit screen of finely woven linen embroidered with violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, with its four poles and their four sockets.
Exo 27:17 All the poles round the court must be connected by silver rods; their hooks must be of silver and their sockets of bronze.
Exo 27:18 The length of the court must be one hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits and its height five cubits. All the curtaining must be made of finely woven linen, and their sockets of bronze.
Exo 27:19 All the accessories for general use in the Dwelling, all its pegs and all the pegs of the court, must be of bronze.
Exo 27:20 'You will order the Israelites to bring you pure pounded olive oil for the light, and to keep a lamp burning all the time.
Exo 27:21 Aaron and his sons will tend it in the Tent of Meeting, outside the curtain hanging in front of the Testimony, from dusk to dawn, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is a perpetual decree for all generations of Israelites.'
Exo 28:1 'From among the Israelites, summon your brother Aaron and his sons to be priests in my service: Aaron and Aaron's sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Exo 28:2 For your brother Aaron you will make sacred vestments to give dignity and magnificence.
Exo 28:3 You will instruct all the skilled men, whom I have endowed with skill, to make Aaron's vestments for his consecration to my priesthood.
Exo 28:4 These are the vestments which they must make: a pectoral, an ephod, a robe, an embroidered tunic, a turban and a belt. They must make sacred vestments for your brother Aaron and his sons, for them to be priests in my service.
Exo 28:5 They will use gold and violet material, red-purple and crimson, and finely woven linen.
Exo 28:6 'They will make the ephod of finely woven linen embroidered with gold, violet-purple, red-purple and crimson.
Exo 28:7 It will have two shoulder-straps joined to it; it will be joined to them by its two edges.
Exo 28:8 The waistband on the ephod to hold it in position must be of the same workmanship and be of a piece with it: of gold, violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and finely woven linen.
Exo 28:9 You will then take two cornelians and engrave them with the names of the sons of Israel,
Exo 28:10 six of their names on one stone, the remaining six names on the other, in the order of their birth.
Exo 28:11 By the stone-carver's art -- seal engraving -- you will engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You will have them mounted in gold settings
Exo 28:12 and will put the two stones on the shoulder-straps of the ephod, to commemorate the sons of Israel. In this way Aaron will bear their names on his two shoulders, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as a reminder.
Exo 28:13 You will also make golden rosettes,
Exo 28:14 and two chains of pure gold twisted like cord, and will attach the cord-like chains to the rosettes.
Exo 28:15 'You will make the breastplate of judgement of the same embroidered work as the ephod; you will make it of gold, violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and finely woven linen.
Exo 28:16 It must be square and doubled over, a span in length and a span in width.
Exo 28:17 In it you will set four rows of stones: a sard, topaz and emerald for the first row;
Exo 28:18 for the second row, a garnet, sapphire and diamond;
Exo 28:19 for the third row, a hyacinth, a ruby and an amethyst;
Exo 28:20 and for the fourth row, a beryl, a cornelian and a jasper. These must be mounted in gold settings.
Exo 28:21 The stones will correspond to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve like their names, engraved like seals, each with the name of one of the twelve tribes.
Exo 28:22 For the breastplate you will make chains of pure gold twisted like cords,
Exo 28:23 and on the breastplate you will make two gold rings, putting the two rings on the two outside edges of the breastplate
Exo 28:24 and fastening the two gold cords to the two rings on the outside edges of the breastplate.
Exo 28:25 The other two ends of the cords you will fasten to the two rosettes, putting these on the shoulder-straps of the ephod, on the front.
Exo 28:26 You will also make two gold rings and put them on the two edges of the breastplate, on the inner side, against the ephod;
Exo 28:27 and you will make two gold rings and put them low down on the front of the two shoulder-pieces of the ephod, close to the join, above the waistband of the ephod.
Exo 28:28 The breastplate will be secured by a violet-purple cord passed through its rings and those of the ephod, so that the breastplate will sit above the waistband and not come apart from the ephod.
Exo 28:29 Thus Aaron will bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgement, on his heart, when he enters the sanctuary, as a reminder, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), always.
Exo 28:30 To the breastplate of judgement you will add the urim and the thummim, and these will be on Aaron's heart when he goes into Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, and Aaron will bear the Israelites' judgement on his heart, in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, always.
Exo 28:31 'You will make the robe of the ephod entirely of violet-purple.
Exo 28:32 In the centre it will have an opening for the head, the opening to have round it a border woven like the neck of a coat of mail, so that it will not get torn.
Exo 28:33 On its lower hem, you will make pomegranates of violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, and finely woven linen all round the hem, with golden bells between them all round:
Exo 28:34 a golden bell and then a pomegranate, alternately, all round the lower hem of the robe.
Exo 28:35 Aaron must wear it when he officiates, and the tinkling will be heard when he goes into the sanctuary into Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, or leaves it, and so he will not incur death.
Exo 28:36 'You will make a flower of pure gold and on it, as you would engrave a seal, you will engrave, "Consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)".
Exo 28:37 You will put it on a violet-purple cord; it will go on the turban; the front of the turban is the place where it must go.
Exo 28:38 This will go on Aaron's brow, and Aaron will thus take on himself the short-comings in the holy things consecrated by the Israelites, in all their holy offerings. It will be on his brow permanently, to make them acceptable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 28:39 The tunic you will weave of fine linen, and make a turban of fine linen, and an embroidered waistband.
Exo 28:40 'For the sons of Aaron you will make tunics and waistbands. You will also make them head-dresses to give dignity and magnificence.
Exo 28:41 You will dress your brother Aaron and his sons in these; you will then anoint them, invest them and consecrate them to serve me in the priesthood.
Exo 28:42 You will also make them linen breeches reaching from waist to thigh, to cover their bare flesh.
Exo 28:43 Aaron and his sons will wear these when they go into the Tent of Meeting and when they approach the altar to serve in the sanctuary, as a precaution against incurring mortal guilt. This is a perpetual decree for Aaron and for his descendants after him.'
Exo 29:1 'This is what you will do to them, to consecrate them to my priesthood. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish;
Exo 29:2 also unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, made from fine wheat flour,
Exo 29:3 and put these into a basket and present them in the basket, at the same time as the bull and the two rams.
Exo 29:4 'You will bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and bathe them.
Exo 29:5 You will then take the vestments and dress Aaron in the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and tie the waistband of the ephod round his waist.
Exo 29:6 Then you will place the turban on his head, and on it put the symbol of holy consecration.
Exo 29:7 You will then take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and so anoint him.
Exo 29:8 'Next, you will bring his sons and dress them in tunics,
Exo 29:9 and fasten waistbands round their waists and put the head-dresses on their heads. By perpetual decree the priesthood will be theirs. Then you will invest Aaron and his sons.
Exo 29:10 'You will bring the bull in front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons will lay their hands on the bull's head.
Exo 29:11 You will then slaughter the bull before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Exo 29:12 You will then take some of the bull's blood and with your finger put it on the horns of the altar. Next, pour out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar.
Exo 29:13 And then take all the fat covering the entrails, the fatty mass over the liver, the two kidneys with their covering fat, and burn them on the altar.
Exo 29:14 But the young bull's flesh, its skin and its offal, you will burn outside the camp, for this is a sin offering.
Exo 29:15 'Next, you will take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons will lay their hands on the ram's head.
Exo 29:16 You will then slaughter the ram, take its blood and pour it against the altar, all round.
Exo 29:17 Next, cut the ram into quarters, wash the entrails and legs and put them on the quarters and head.
Exo 29:18 Then burn the whole ram on the altar. This will be a burnt offering for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a pleasing smell, a food offering burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 29:19 'Next, you will take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons will lay their hands on the ram's head.
Exo 29:20 You will then slaughter the ram, take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear, on the lobes of his sons' right ears, the thumbs of their right hands, and the big toes of their right feet, and pour the rest of the blood against the altar, all round.
Exo 29:21 You will then take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his vestments and on his sons and on his sons' vestments: so that he and his vestments will be consecrated and his sons too, and his sons' vestments.
Exo 29:22 'You will then take the fatty parts of the ram: the tail, the fat covering the entrails, the fatty mass over the liver, the two kidneys with their covering fat and also the right thigh -- for this is a ram of investiture-
Exo 29:23 and a loaf of bread, a cake of bread made with oil, and a wafer, from the basket of unleavened bread before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Exo 29:24 and put it all on the palms of Aaron and his sons, and make the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 29:25 Then you will take them back and burn them on the altar, on top of the burnt offering, as a smell pleasing before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a food offering burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 29:26 'You will then take the forequarters of the ram of Aaron's investiture and with it make the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); this will be your portion.
Exo 29:27 You will consecrate the forequarters that have been thus offered, as also the thigh that is set aside -- what has been offered and what has been set aside from the ram of investiture of Aaron and his sons.
Exo 29:28 This, by perpetual decree, will be the portion that Aaron and his sons will receive from the Israelites, since it is the portion set aside, the portion set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by the Israelites from their communion sacrifices: a portion set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 29:29 'Aaron's sacred vestments must pass to his sons after him, and they will wear them for their anointing and investiture.
Exo 29:30 Whichever of the sons of Aaron succeeds him in the priesthood and enters the Tent of Meeting to serve in the sanctuary, will wear them for seven days.
Exo 29:31 'You will take the ram of investiture and cook its meat in a holy place.
Exo 29:32 Aaron and his sons will eat the meat of the ram and the bread which is in the basket, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Exo 29:33 They will eat what was used in making expiation for them at their investiture and consecration. No unauthorised person may eat these; they are holy things.
Exo 29:34 If any of the meat from the investiture sacrifice, or the bread, should be left till morning, you will burn what is left. It may not be eaten; it is a holy thing.
Exo 29:35 This is what you will do for Aaron and his sons, implementing all the orders I have given you. You will take seven days over their investiture.
Exo 29:36 'On each of the days you will also offer a young bull as a sacrifice for sin, in expiation. You will offer a sin sacrifice for the altar when you make expiation for it; then you will consecrate it by anointing it.
Exo 29:37 For seven days you will make expiation for the altar, then you will consecrate it; it will then be especially holy, and whatever touches the altar will become holy.
Exo 29:38 'This is what you must offer on the altar: two yearling male lambs each day in perpetuity.
Exo 29:39 The first lamb you will offer at dawn, and the second at twilight,
Exo 29:40 and with the first lamb, one-tenth of a measure of fine flour mixed with one-quarter of a hin of pounded olive oil and, for a libation, one-quarter of a hin of wine.
Exo 29:41 The second lamb you will offer at twilight, and do it with a similar cereal offering and libation as at dawn, as a pleasing smell, as an offering burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Exo 29:42 a perpetual burnt offering for all your generations to come, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), where I shall meet you and speak to you.
Exo 29:43 'There I shall meet the Israelites in the place consecrated by my glory.
Exo 29:44 I shall consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar; I shall also consecrate Aaron and his sons, to be priests in my service.
Exo 29:45 And I shall live with the Israelites and be their God,
Exo 29:46 and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God, who brought them out of Egypt to live among them: I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.'
Exo 30:1 'You will make an altar on which to burn incense; you will make it of acacia wood,
Exo 30:2 one cubit long, and one cubit wide -- it must be square -- and two cubits high; its horns must be of a piece with it.
Exo 30:3 You will overlay its top, its sides all round and its horns with pure gold and make a gold moulding to go all round.
Exo 30:4 You will make two gold rings for it below the moulding on its two opposite sides, to take the shafts used for carrying it.
Exo 30:5 You will make the shafts of acacia wood and overlay them with gold.
Exo 30:6 'You will put it in front of the curtain by the ark of Testimony, in front of the mercy-seat which is on the Testimony, where I shall meet you.
Exo 30:7 On it Aaron will burn fragrant incense each morning; when he trims the lamps, he will burn incense on it;
Exo 30:8 and when Aaron puts back the lamps at twilight, he will burn incense on it, incense perpetually before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for all your generations to come.
Exo 30:9 You will not offer unauthorised incense, or burnt offering, or cereal offering on it, and you will not pour any libation over it.
Exo 30:10 Once a year, Aaron will perform the rite of expiation on the horns of the altar; once a year, on the Day of Expiation, with the blood of the sacrifice for sin, he will make expiation for himself, for all your generations to come. It is especially holy for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Exo 30:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 30:12 'When you count the Israelites by census, each one of them must pay Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a ransom for his life, to avoid any incidence of plague among them while you are holding the census.
Exo 30:13 Everyone subject to the census will pay half a shekel, reckoning by the sanctuary shekel: twenty gerah to the shekel. This half-shekel will be set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 30:14 Everyone subject to the census, that is to say of twenty years and over, will pay the sum set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 30:15 The rich man must not give more, nor the poor man less, than half a shekel when he pays the sum set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in ransom for your lives.
Exo 30:16 You will take the ransom money of the Israelites and apply it to the service of the Tent of Meeting, for it to be a reminder of the Israelites before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as the ransom for your lives.'
Exo 30:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 30:18 'You will also make a bronze basin on its bronze stand, for washing. You will put it between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it,
Exo 30:19 in which Aaron and his sons will wash their hands and feet.
Exo 30:20 Whenever they are to enter the Tent of Meeting, they will wash, to avoid incurring death; and whenever they approach the altar for their service, to burn an offering for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Exo 30:21 they will wash their hands and feet, to avoid incurring death. This is a perpetual decree for him and his descendants for all their generations to come.'
Exo 30:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke further to Moses and said,
Exo 30:23 'Take the finest spices: five hundred shekels of fresh myrrh, half as much (two hundred and fifty shekels) of fragrant cinnamon, two hundred and fifty shekels of scented reed,
Exo 30:24 five hundred shekels (reckoning by the sanctuary shekel) of cassia, and one hin of olive oil.
Exo 30:25 You will make this into a holy anointing oil, such a blend as the perfumer might make; this will be a holy anointing oil.
Exo 30:26 With it you will anoint the Tent of Meeting and the ark of the Testimony,
Exo 30:27 the table and all its accessories, the lamp-stand and its accessories, the altar of incense,
Exo 30:28 the altar of burnt offerings and all its accessories, and the basin with its stand,
Exo 30:29 consecrating them, so that they will be especially holy and whatever touches them will become holy.
Exo 30:30 You will also anoint Aaron and his sons and consecrate them to be priests in my service.
Exo 30:31 You will then speak to the Israelites and say, "This anointing oil will be holy for you for all your generations to come.
Exo 30:32 It must not be used for anointing the human body, nor may you make any of the same mixture. It is a holy thing; you will regard it as holy.
Exo 30:33 Anyone who makes up the same oil or uses it on an unauthorised person will be outlawed from his people." '
Exo 30:34 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Take sweet spices: storax, onycha, galbanum, sweet spices and pure frankincense in equal parts,
Exo 30:35 and compound an incense, such a blend as the perfumer might make, salted, pure, and holy.
Exo 30:36 You will grind some of this up very fine and put it in front of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, where I shall meet you. You will regard it as especially holy.
Exo 30:37 You may not make any incense of similar composition for your own use. You will regard it as holy, reserved for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Anyone who makes up the same thing to use as perfume will be outlawed from his people.'
Exo 31:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 31:2 'Look, I have singled out Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
Exo 31:3 and have filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, knowledge and skill in every kind of craft:
Exo 31:4 in designing and carrying out work in gold and silver and bronze,
Exo 31:5 in cutting stones to be set, in wood carving and in executing every kind of work.
Exo 31:6 And to help him I have given him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, and have endowed the hearts of all the skilled men with the skill to make everything I have ordered you:
Exo 31:7 the Tent of Meeting; the ark of the Testimony; the mercy-seat above it; and all the furniture of the tent;
Exo 31:8 the table and all its accessories; the pure lamp-stand and all its equipment; the altar of incense;
Exo 31:9 the altar of burnt offerings and all its accessories; the basin and its stand;
Exo 31:10 the liturgical vestments, the sacred vestments for Aaron the priest, and the vestments for his sons, for their priestly functions;
Exo 31:11 the anointing oil and the fragrant incense for the sanctuary. They will do everything as I have ordered you.'
Exo 31:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses,
Exo 31:13 'Speak to the Israelites and say, "You will keep my Sabbaths properly, for this is a sign between myself and you for all your generations to come, so that you will know that it is I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who sanctify you.
Exo 31:14 You will keep the Sabbath, then; you will regard it as holy. Anyone who profanes it will be put to death; anyone who does any work on that day will be outlawed from his people.
Exo 31:15 Work must be done for six days, but the seventh day will be a day of complete rest, consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Anyone who works on the Sabbath day will be put to death.
Exo 31:16 The Israelites will keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath for all their generations to come: this is an eternal covenant.
Exo 31:17 Between myself and the Israelites, this is a sign for ever, for in six days Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day he rested and drew breath."
Exo 31:18 When he had finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.
Exo 32:1 When the people saw that Moses was a long time before coming down the mountain, they gathered round Aaron and said to him, 'Get to work, make us a god to go at our head; for that Moses, the man who brought us here from Egypt -- we do not know what has become of him.'
Exo 32:2 Aaron replied, 'Strip off the gold rings in the ears of your wives and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me.'
Exo 32:3 The people all stripped off the gold rings from their ears and brought them to Aaron.
Exo 32:4 He received what they gave him, melted it down in a mould and with it made the statue of a calf. 'Israel,' the people shouted, 'here is your God who brought you here from Egypt!'
Exo 32:5 Observing this, Aaron built an altar before the statue and made this proclamation, 'Tomorrow will be a feast in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor.'
Exo 32:6 Early next morning they sacrificed burnt offerings and brought communion sacrifices. The people then sat down to eat and drink, and afterwards got up to amuse themselves.
Exo 32:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Go down at once, for your people whom you brought here from Egypt have become corrupt.
Exo 32:8 They have quickly left the way which I ordered them to follow. They have cast themselves a metal calf, worshipped it and offered sacrifice to it, shouting, "Israel, here is your God who brought you here from Egypt!" '
Exo 32:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'I know these people; I know how obstinate they are!
Exo 32:10 So leave me now, so that my anger can blaze at them and I can put an end to them! I shall make a great nation out of you instead.'
Exo 32:11 Moses tried to pacify Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'why should your anger blaze at your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt by your great power and mighty hand?
Exo 32:12 Why should the Egyptians say, "He brought them out with evil intention, to slaughter them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth?" Give up your burning wrath; relent over this disaster intended for your people.
Exo 32:13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to whom you swore by your very self and made this promise: "I shall make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, and this whole country of which I have spoken, I shall give to your descendants, and it will be their heritage for ever." '
Exo 32:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then relented over the disaster which he had intended to inflict on his people.
Exo 32:15 Moses turned and came down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, tablets inscribed on both sides, inscribed on the front and on the back.
Exo 32:16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing on them was God's writing, engraved on the tablets.
Exo 32:17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, 'There is the sound of battle in the camp!'
Exo 32:18 But he replied: No song of victory is this sound, no lament for defeat this sound; but answering choruses I hear!
Exo 32:19 And there, as he approached the camp, he saw the calf and the groups dancing. Moses blazed with anger. He threw down the tablets he was holding, shattering them at the foot of the mountain.
Exo 32:20 He seized the calf they had made and burned it, grinding it into powder which he scattered on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.
Exo 32:21 Moses then said to Aaron, 'What have these people done to you for you to have brought so great a sin on them?'
Exo 32:22 Aaron replied, 'My lord should not be so angry. You yourself know what a bad state these people are in!
Exo 32:23 They said to me, "Make us a god to go at our head; for that Moses, the man who brought us here from Egypt -- we do not know what has become of him."
Exo 32:24 I then said to them, "Anyone with gold, strip it off!" They gave it to me. I threw it into the fire and out came this calf!'
Exo 32:25 When Moses saw that the people were out of hand -- for Aaron had let them get out of hand to the derision of their enemies all round them-
Exo 32:26 Moses then stood at the gate of the camp and shouted, 'Who is for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? To me!' And all the Levites rallied round him.
Exo 32:27 He said to them, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "Buckle on your sword, each of you, and go up and down the camp from gate to gate, every man of you slaughtering brother, friend and neighbor." '
Exo 32:28 The Levites did as Moses said, and of the people about three thousand men perished that day.
Exo 32:29 'Today', Moses said, 'you have consecrated yourselves to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), one at the cost of his son, another of his brother; and so he bestows a blessing on you today.'
Exo 32:30 On the following day Moses said to the people, 'You have committed a great sin. But now I shall go up to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): perhaps I can secure expiation for your sin.'
Exo 32:31 Moses then went back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, 'Oh, this people has committed a great sin by making themselves a god of gold.
Exo 32:32 And yet, if it pleased you to forgive their sin. . .! If not, please blot me out of the book you have written!'
Exo 32:33 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Those who have sinned against me are the ones I shall blot out of my book.
Exo 32:34 So now go and lead the people to the place I promised to you. My angel will indeed go at your head but, on the day of punishment, I shall punish them for their sin.'
Exo 32:35 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) punished the people for having made the calf, the one Aaron had made.
Exo 33:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Leave, move on from here, you and the people whom you have brought here from Egypt, to the country that I swore to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that I would give to their descendants.
Exo 33:2 I shall send an angel in front of you and drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Exo 33:3 Move on towards a country flowing with milk and honey, but I myself shall not be going with you or I might annihilate you on the way, for you are an obstinate people.'
Exo 33:4 On hearing these stern words the people went into mourning and no one wore his ornaments.
Exo 33:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Say to the Israelites, "You are an obstinate people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I should annihilate you. So now take off your ornaments, and then I shall decide how to deal with you!" '
Exo 33:6 So, from Mount Horeb onwards, the Israelites stripped themselves of their ornaments.
Exo 33:7 Moses used to take the Tent and pitch it outside the camp, far away from the camp. He called it the Tent of Meeting. Anyone who wanted to consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) would go out to the Tent of Meeting, outside the camp.
Exo 33:8 Whenever Moses went out to the Tent, the people would all stand up and every man would stand at the door of his tent and watch Moses until he went into the Tent.
Exo 33:9 And whenever Moses went into the Tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and station itself at the entrance to the Tent, while Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke with Moses.
Exo 33:10 The people could all see the pillar of cloud stationed at the entrance to the Tent and the people would all stand up and bow low, each at the door of his tent.
Exo 33:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) would talk to Moses face to face, as a man talks to his friend, and afterwards he would come back to the camp, but the young man who was his servant, Joshua son of Nun, never left the inside of the Tent.
Exo 33:12 Moses said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Look, you say to me, "Make the people move on," but you have not told me whom you are going to send with me, although you have said, "I know you by name and you enjoy my favor."
Exo 33:13 If indeed I enjoy your favor, please show me your ways, so that I understand you and continue to enjoy your favor; consider too that this nation is your people.'
Exo 33:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said, 'I myself shall go with you and I shall give you rest.'
Exo 33:15 To which he said, 'If you do not come yourself, do not make us move on from here,
Exo 33:16 for how can it be known that I and my people enjoy your favor, if not by your coming with us? By this we shall be marked out, I and your people, from all the peoples on the face of the earth.'
Exo 33:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Again I shall do what you have asked, because you enjoy my favor and because I know you by name.'
Exo 33:18 He then said, 'Please show me your glory.'
Exo 33:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'I shall make all my goodness pass before you, and before you I shall pronounce the name Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); and I am gracious to those to whom I am gracious and I take pity on those on whom I take pity.
Exo 33:20 But my face', he said, 'you cannot see, for no human being can see me and survive.'
Exo 33:21 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'Here is a place near me. You will stand on the rock,
Exo 33:22 and when my glory passes by, I shall put you in a cleft of the rock and shield you with my hand until I have gone past.
Exo 33:23 Then I shall take my hand away and you will see my back; but my face will not be seen.'
Exo 34:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke.
Exo 34:2 Be ready at dawn; at dawn come up Mount Sinai and wait for me there at the top of the mountain.
Exo 34:3 No one may come up with you, no one may be seen anywhere on the mountain; the flocks and herds may not even graze in front of this mountain.'
Exo 34:4 So he cut two tablets of stone like the first and, with the two tablets of stone in his hands, Moses went up Mount Sinai in the early morning as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered.
Exo 34:5 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) descended in a cloud and stood with him there and pronounced the name Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 34:6 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) passed before him and called out, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy,
Exo 34:7 maintaining his faithful love to thousands, forgiving fault, crime and sin, yet letting nothing go unchecked, and punishing the parent's fault in the children and in the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation!'
Exo 34:8 Moses immediately bowed to the ground in worship,
Exo 34:9 then he said, 'If indeed I do enjoy your favor, please, my Lord, come with us, although they are an obstinate people; and forgive our faults and sins, and adopt us as your heritage.'
Exo 34:10 He then said, 'Look, I am now making a covenant: I shall work such wonders at the head of your whole people as have never been worked in any other country or nation, and all the people round you will see what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) can do, for what I shall do through you will be awe-inspiring.
Exo 34:11 Mark, then, what I command you today. I am going to drive out the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites before you.
Exo 34:12 Take care you make no pact with the inhabitants of the country which you are about to enter, or they will prove a snare in your community.
Exo 34:13 You will tear down their altars, smash their cultic stones and cut down their sacred poles,
Exo 34:14 for you will worship no other god, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name is the Jealous One; he is a jealous God.
Exo 34:15 Make no pact with the inhabitants of the country or, when they prostitute themselves to their own gods and sacrifice to them, they will invite you and you will partake of their sacrifice,
Exo 34:16 and then you will choose wives for your sons from among their daughters, and their daughters, prostituting themselves to their own gods, will induce your sons to prostitute themselves to their gods.
Exo 34:17 'You will not cast metal gods for yourself.
Exo 34:18 'You will observe the feast of Unleavened Bread. For seven days you will eat unleavened bread, as I have commanded you, at the appointed time in the month of Abib, for in the month of Abib you came out of Egypt.
Exo 34:19 'All that first issues from the womb belongs to me: every male, every first-born of flock or herd.
Exo 34:20 But the first-born donkey you will redeem with an animal from the flock; if you do not redeem it, you must break its neck. All the first-born of your sons you will redeem, and no one will appear before me empty-handed.
Exo 34:21 'For six days you will labour, but on the seventh day you will rest; you will stop work even during ploughing and harvesting.
Exo 34:22 'You will observe the feast of Weeks, of the first-fruits of the wheat harvest, and the feast of Ingathering at the close of the year.
Exo 34:23 'Three times a year all your menfolk will appear before Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel,
Exo 34:24 for I shall dispossess the nations before you and extend your frontiers, and no one will set his heart on your territory when you go away to appear before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God three times a year.
Exo 34:25 'You will not offer the blood of my sacrificial victim with leavened bread, nor is the victim offered at the feast of Passover to be left until the following day.
Exo 34:26 'You will bring the best of the first-fruits of your soil to the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. 'You will not boil a kid in its mother's milk.'
Exo 34:27 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Put these words in writing, for they are the terms of the covenant which I have made with you and with Israel.'
Exo 34:28 He stayed there with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for forty days and forty nights, eating and drinking nothing, and on the tablets he wrote the words of the covenant -- the Ten Words.
Exo 34:29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands, as he was coming down the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face was radiant because he had been talking to him.
Exo 34:30 And when Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin on his face was so radiant that they were afraid to go near him.
Exo 34:31 But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the community rejoined him, and Moses talked to them,
Exo 34:32 after which all the Israelites came closer, and he passed on to them all the orders that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given to him on Mount Sinai.
Exo 34:33 Once Moses had finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face.
Exo 34:34 Whenever Moses went into Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence to speak with him, he took the veil off until he came out. And when he came out, he would tell the Israelites what orders he had been given,
Exo 34:35 and the Israelites would see Moses' face radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak to him next time.
Exo 35:1 Moses assembled the whole community of Israelites and said, 'These are the things Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered to be done:
Exo 35:2 Work must be done for six days, but the seventh must be a holy day for you, a day of complete rest, in honor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Anyone who does any work on that day will be put to death.
Exo 35:3 You will not light a fire on the Sabbath day in any of your homes.'
Exo 35:4 Moses spoke to the whole community of Israelites. 'This', he said, 'is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered:
Exo 35:5 Set aside a contribution for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) out of your possessions. Everyone whose heart prompts him to do so should bring a contribution for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): gold, silver and bronze;
Exo 35:6 materials dyed violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, finely woven linen, goats' hair,
Exo 35:7 rams' skins dyed red, fine leather, acacia wood,
Exo 35:8 oil for the light, spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense;
Exo 35:9 cornelian and other stones to be set in the ephod and breastplate.
Exo 35:10 And all those of you who have the skill must come and make everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered:
Exo 35:11 the Dwelling, its tent and its covering, its clasps and its frames, its crossbars, its pillars and its sockets;
Exo 35:12 the ark, its shafts and all its accessories, the mercy-seat and the screening curtain;
Exo 35:13 the table, its shafts and all its accessories, and the loaves of permanent offering;
Exo 35:14 the lamp-stand for the light, its accessories, its lamps, and the oil for the light;
Exo 35:15 the altar of incense and its shafts, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense, and the screen for the entrance, for the entrance of the tent;
Exo 35:16 the altar of burnt offerings and its bronze grating, its shafts, and all its accessories; the basin and its stand;
Exo 35:17 the curtaining for the court, its poles, its sockets, and the screen for the entrance to the court;
Exo 35:18 the pegs for the Dwelling and the pegs for the court, and their cords;
Exo 35:19 the liturgical vestments for service in the sanctuary -- the sacred vestments for Aaron the priest, and the vestments for his sons, for their priestly functions.'
Exo 35:20 The whole community of Israelites then withdrew from Moses' presence.
Exo 35:21 And all those whose heart stirred them and all those whose spirit prompted them brought a contribution for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the work on the Tent of Meeting, for its general service and for the sacred vestments.
Exo 35:22 Men and women, they came, all those whose heart prompted them, bringing brooches, rings, bracelets, necklaces, golden objects of every kind -- all those who had vowed gold to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Exo 35:23 while all those who happened to own violet-purple, red-purple or crimson materials, finely woven linen, goats' hair, rams' skins dyed red, or fine leather, brought that.
Exo 35:24 All those offering a contribution of silver or bronze brought their contribution for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and all who happened to own acacia wood, suitable for any of the work to be done, brought that.
Exo 35:25 All the skilled women set their hands to spinning, and brought what they had spun: violet-purple, red-purple or crimson materials, and fine linen,
Exo 35:26 while all those women whose heart stirred them by virtue of their skill, spun goats' hair.
Exo 35:27 The leaders brought cornelians and other stones to be set in the ephod and breastplate,
Exo 35:28 and the spices and oil for the light, for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense.
Exo 35:29 All those Israelites, men and women, whose heart prompted them to contribute to the entire work that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered through Moses to be done, brought a contribution to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Exo 35:30 Moses then said to the Israelites, 'Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has singled out Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,
Exo 35:31 and has filled him with the spirit of God in wisdom, knowledge and skill in every kind of craft:
Exo 35:32 in designing and carrying out work in gold and silver and bronze,
Exo 35:33 in cutting stones to be set, in wood carving and in executing every kind of work.
Exo 35:34 And on him and on Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, he has bestowed the gift of teaching,
Exo 35:35 and filled them with the skill to carry out every kind of work, that of the engraver, that of the embroiderer, that of the needleworker in violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and fine linen, that of the weaver, and indeed that of every kind of craftsman and designer.'
Exo 36:1 'Bezalel, Oholiab and all the men whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has endowed with the skill and knowledge to know how to carry out all the work to be done on the sanctuary, will do exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered.'
Exo 36:2 Moses then summoned Bezalel, Oholiab and all the skilled men whose hearts Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had endowed with skill, all whose heart stirred them to come forward and do the work.
Exo 36:3 From Moses they received everything that the Israelites had brought as contributions for carrying out the work of building the sanctuary, and, as they went on bringing their offerings every morning,
Exo 36:4 the skilled men who were doing all the work for the sanctuary, all left their particular work
Exo 36:5 and said to Moses, 'The people are bringing more than is needed for the work Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered to be done.'
Exo 36:6 Moses then gave the order and proclamation was made throughout the camp, 'No one, whether man or woman, must do anything more towards contributing for the sanctuary.' So the people were prevented from bringing any more,
Exo 36:7 for the material to hand was enough, and more than enough, to complete all the work.
Exo 36:8 All the most skilled of the men doing the work made the Dwelling. Moses made it with ten sheets of finely woven linen, dyed violet-purple, red-purple and crimson and embroidered with great winged creatures.
Exo 36:9 The length of a single sheet was twenty-eight cubits, its width four cubits, all the sheets being of the same size.
Exo 36:10 He joined five of the sheets to one another, and the other five sheets to one another.
Exo 36:11 He made violet loops along the edge of the first sheet, at the end of the set, and did the same along the edge of the last sheet in the other set.
Exo 36:12 He made fifty loops on the first sheet and fifty loops along the outer edge of the sheet of the second set, the loops corresponding to one another.
Exo 36:13 He made fifty gold clasps and joined the sheets together with the clasps. In this way the Dwelling was a unified whole.
Exo 36:14 Next he made sheets of goats' hair for the tent over the Dwelling; he made eleven of these.
Exo 36:15 The length of a single sheet was thirty cubits and its width four cubits; the eleven sheets were all of the same size.
Exo 36:16 He joined five sheets together into one set and six sheets into another.
Exo 36:17 He made fifty loops along the edge of the last sheet of the first set, and fifty loops along the edge of the sheet of the second set.
Exo 36:18 He made fifty bronze clasps, to draw the tent together and make it a unified whole.
Exo 36:19 And for the tent he made a cover of rams' skins dyed red, and a cover of fine leather over that.
Exo 36:20 For the Dwelling he made vertical frames of acacia wood.
Exo 36:21 Each frame was ten cubits long and one and a half cubits wide.
Exo 36:22 Each frame had twin tenons; this was how he made all the frames for the Dwelling.
Exo 36:23 He made frames for the Dwelling: twenty frames for the south side, to the south,
Exo 36:24 and made forty silver sockets under the twenty frames, two sockets under one frame for its two tenons, two sockets under the next frame for its two tenons;
Exo 36:25 and for the other side of the Dwelling, the north side, twenty frames
Exo 36:26 and forty silver sockets, two sockets under one frame, two sockets under the next frame.
Exo 36:27 For the back of the Dwelling, on the west, he made six frames.
Exo 36:28 He also made two frames for the corners at the back of the Dwelling;
Exo 36:29 these were coupled together at the bottom, staying so up to the top, to the level of the first ring; this he did with the two frames forming the two corners.
Exo 36:30 Thus there were eight frames with their sixteen silver sockets; two sockets under each frame.
Exo 36:31 He made crossbars of acacia wood: five for the frames of the first side of the Dwelling,
Exo 36:32 five crossbars for the frames of the other side of the Dwelling and five crossbars for the frames which formed the back of the Dwelling, to the west.
Exo 36:33 He made the middle bar, to join the frames from one end to the other, halfway up.
Exo 36:34 He overlaid the frames with gold, made gold rings for them, through which to place the crossbars, and overlaid the crossbars with gold.
Exo 36:35 He made a curtain of finely woven linen, dyed violet-purple, red-purple and crimson and embroidered with great winged creatures,
Exo 36:36 and for it he made four poles of acacia wood, overlaying them with gold, with golden hooks for them, for which he cast four sockets of silver.
Exo 36:37 For the entrance to the tent he made a screen of finely woven linen embroidered with violet-purple, red-purple and crimson,
Exo 36:38 as also the five columns for it and their hooks; he overlaid their capitals and rods with gold, but their five sockets were of bronze.
Exo 37:1 Bezalel made the ark of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, one and a half cubits wide and one and a half cubits high.
Exo 37:2 He overlaid it, inside and out, with pure gold, and made a gold moulding all round it.
Exo 37:3 He cast four gold rings for it at its four supports: two rings on one side and two rings on the other.
Exo 37:4 He also made shafts of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold,
Exo 37:5 and passed the shafts through the rings on the sides of the ark, by which to carry it.
Exo 37:6 He also made a mercy-seat of pure gold, two and a half cubits long and one and a half cubits wide,
Exo 37:7 and modelled two great winged creatures of beaten gold, putting them at the two ends of the mercy-seat,
Exo 37:8 one winged creature at one end and the other winged creature at the other end, making the winged creatures of a piece with the mercy-seat at either end.
Exo 37:9 The winged creatures had their wings spread upwards, protecting the ark with their wings and facing each other, their faces being towards the mercy-seat.
Exo 37:10 He made the table of acacia wood, two cubits long, one cubit wide and one and a half cubits high,
Exo 37:11 and made a gold moulding all round it.
Exo 37:12 He fitted it with struts a hand's breadth wide and made a gold moulding round the struts.
Exo 37:13 He cast four gold rings for it and fixed the rings at the four corners where the four legs were.
Exo 37:14 The rings lay close to the struts to hold the shafts for carrying the table.
Exo 37:15 He made the shafts of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold; these were for carrying the table.
Exo 37:16 He made the accessories which were to go on the table: its dishes, cups, jars and libation bowls, of pure gold.
Exo 37:17 He also made the lamp-stand of pure gold, making the lamp-stand, base and stem, of beaten gold, its cups, calyxes and bud being of a piece with it.
Exo 37:18 Six branches sprang from its sides: three of the lamp-stand's branches from one side, three of the lamp-stand's branches from the other.
Exo 37:19 The first branch carried three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyx and bud; the second branch, too, carried three cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyx and bud, and similarly all six branches springing from the lamp-stand.
Exo 37:20 The lamp-stand itself carried four cups shaped like almond blossoms, each with its calyx and bud:
Exo 37:21 one calyx under the first two branches springing from the lamp-stand, one calyx under the next pair of branches and one calyx under the last pair of branches -- thus for all six branches springing from the lamp-stand.
Exo 37:22 The calyxes and the branches were of a piece with the lamp-stand, and the whole was made from a single piece of pure gold, beaten out.
Exo 37:23 He also made its seven lamps, its snuffers and trays of pure gold.
Exo 37:24 He made the lamp-stand and all its accessories from a talent of pure gold.
Exo 37:25 He made the altar of incense of acacia wood, one cubit long, and one cubit wide -- it was square -- and two cubits high, its horns were of a piece with it.
Exo 37:26 He overlaid its top, its sides all round and its horns with pure gold and made a moulding to go all round.
Exo 37:27 He made two gold rings for it below the moulding on its two opposite sides, to take the shafts used for carrying it.
Exo 37:28 He made the shafts of acacia wood and overlaid them with gold.
Exo 37:29 He also made the holy anointing oil and the fragrant incense, blending it as a perfumer would.
Exo 38:1 He made the altar of burnt offerings of acacia wood, five cubits long and five cubits wide; it was square and three cubits high.
Exo 38:2 At its four corners he made horns, the horns being of a piece with it, and overlaid it with bronze.
Exo 38:3 He made all the altar accessories: the ash pans, shovels, sprinkling basins, hooks and fire pans; he made all the altar accessories of bronze.
Exo 38:4 He also made a grating for the altar of bronze network, below its ledge, underneath, coming halfway up.
Exo 38:5 He cast four rings for the four corners of the bronze grating to take the shafts.
Exo 38:6 He made the shafts of acacia wood and overlaid them with bronze.
Exo 38:7 He passed the shafts through the rings on the sides of the altar for carrying it. He made the altar hollow, out of boards.
Exo 38:8 He made the bronze basin and its bronze stand from the mirrors of the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Exo 38:9 He made the court. On the south side, on the south, the curtaining of the court was of finely woven linen a hundred cubits long.
Exo 38:10 Its twenty poles and their sockets being of bronze, and their hooks and rods of silver;
Exo 38:11 and on the north side, a hundred cubits of curtaining, its twenty poles and their twenty sockets being of bronze, and their hooks and rods of silver.
Exo 38:12 On the west side there were fifty cubits of curtaining, with its ten poles and their ten sockets, the poles' hooks and rods being of silver;
Exo 38:13 and on the east side on the east, there were fifty cubits.
Exo 38:14 On the one side there were fifteen cubits of curtaining, with its three poles and their three sockets,
Exo 38:15 and on the other side -- either side of the gateway to the court -- there were fifteen cubits of curtaining with its three poles and their three sockets.
Exo 38:16 All the curtaining round the court was of finely woven linen,
Exo 38:17 the sockets for the poles were of bronze, the poles' hooks and rods of silver, their capitals were overlaid with silver and all the poles of the court had silver rods.
Exo 38:18 The screen for the gateway to the court was of finely woven linen embroidered with violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, twenty cubits long and five cubits high (all the way along) like the curtaining of the court,
Exo 38:19 its four poles and their four sockets being of bronze, their hooks of silver, their capitals overlaid with silver, and their rods of silver.
Exo 38:20 All the pegs round the Dwelling and the court were of bronze.
Exo 38:21 These are the accounts for the Dwelling -- the Dwelling of the Testimony -- drawn up by order of Moses, the work of Levites, produced by Ithamar son of Aaron, the priest.
Exo 38:22 Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered Moses to make,
Exo 38:23 his assistant being Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver, embroiderer and needleworker in violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and fine linen.
Exo 38:24 The amount of gold used for the work, for the entire work for the sanctuary (the gold consecrated for the purpose) was twenty-nine talents and seven hundred and thirty shekels, reckoned by the sanctuary shekel.
Exo 38:25 The silver from the census of the community was one hundred talents and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels, reckoned by the sanctuary shekel,
Exo 38:26 one beqa per head, half a shekel reckoned by the sanctuary shekel, for everyone of twenty years and over included in the census, for six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty persons.
Exo 38:27 A hundred talents of silver were used for casting the sockets for the sanctuary and the sockets for the curtain: a hundred sockets from a hundred talents, one talent per socket.
Exo 38:28 From the one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five shekels he made the hooks for the poles, overlaid their capitals and made the rods for them.
Exo 38:29 The bronze consecrated for the purpose amounted to seventy talents and two thousand four hundred shekels,
Exo 38:30 and from it he made the sockets for the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, the bronze altar, its bronze grating and all the altar accessories,
Exo 38:31 the sockets all round the court, the sockets for the gateway to the court, all the pegs for the Dwelling and all the pegs round the court.
Exo 39:1 From the violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials, they made the liturgical vestments for service in the sanctuary. They made the sacred vestments for Aaron, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:2 They made the ephod of gold, of violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and finely woven linen.
Exo 39:3 They beat gold into thin plates and cut these into threads to work into the violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and the fine linen by needlework.
Exo 39:4 For the ephod they made shoulder-straps which were joined to it at its two edges.
Exo 39:5 The waistband on the ephod to hold it in position, was of a piece with it and of the same workmanship: of gold, violet-purple, red-purple and finely woven linen, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:6 They worked the cornelians, mounted in gold setting, and engraved, like an engraved seal, with the names of the sons of Israel,
Exo 39:7 and put the stones on the shoulder-straps of the ephod, to commemorate the sons of Israel, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:8 They made the breastplate of the same embroidered work as the ephod: of gold, violet-purple, red-purple and crimson materials and finely woven linen.
Exo 39:9 It was square and doubled over, a span in length and a span in width.
Exo 39:10 In it they set four rows of stones: a sard, a topaz and an emerald, for the first row;
Exo 39:11 for the second row, a garnet, a sapphire and a diamond;
Exo 39:12 for the third row, a hyacinth, a ruby and an amethyst;
Exo 39:13 and for the fourth row, a beryl, a cornelian and a jasper: mounted in gold settings,
Exo 39:14 the stones corresponding to the names of the sons of Israel, twelve like their names, engraved like seals, each with the name of one of the twelve tribes.
Exo 39:15 For the breastplate they made chains of pure gold twisted like cords,
Exo 39:16 and they made two gold rosettes and two gold rings, putting the two rings on the two outside edges of the breastplate
Exo 39:17 and fastening the two gold cords to the two rings on the outside edges of the breastplate.
Exo 39:18 The other two ends of the cords they fastened to the two rosettes, putting these on the shoulder-straps of the ephod, on the front.
Exo 39:19 They also made two gold rings and put them on the two outside edges of the breastplate, on the inner side, against the ephod;
Exo 39:20 and they made two more gold rings and put them low down on the front of the two shoulder-straps of the ephod, close to the join, above the waistband of the ephod.
Exo 39:21 They secured the pectoral by a violet-purple cord passed through its rings and those of the ephod, so that the pectoral would sit above the waistband and not come apart from the ephod, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:22 They made the robe of the ephod woven entirely of violet-purple.
Exo 39:23 The opening in the centre of the robe was like the neck of a coat of mail; round the opening was a border, so that it would not get torn.
Exo 39:24 On the lower hem of the robe, they made pomegranates of violet-purple, red-purple and crimson and finely woven linen,
Exo 39:25 and made bells of pure gold, putting the bells between the pomegranates all round the lower hem of the robe:
Exo 39:26 alternately, a bell and then a pomegranate, all round the lower hem of the robe of office, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:27 They made the tunics of finely woven linen for Aaron and his sons,
Exo 39:28 the turban of fine linen, the head-dresses of fine linen, the breeches of finely woven linen,
Exo 39:29 the waistbands of finely woven linen embroidered with violet-purple, red-purple and crimson, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:30 They also made the flower -- the symbol of holy consecration -- of pure gold and on it, like an engraved seal, they engraved, 'Consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'.
Exo 39:31 They put it on a violet-purple cord, to fasten it high up on the turban, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:32 So all the work for the Dwelling, for the Tent of Meeting, was completed. They had done everything exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:33 They then brought Moses the Dwelling, the Tent and all its accessories: its clasps, frames, crossbars, poles and sockets;
Exo 39:34 the cover of rams' skins dyed red, the cover of fine leather and the screening curtain;
Exo 39:35 the ark of the Testimony and its shafts, and the mercy-seat;
Exo 39:36 the table, all its accessories and the loaves of permanent offering;
Exo 39:37 the lamp-stand of pure gold, its lamps -- the array of lamps -- and all its accessories, and the oil for the light;
Exo 39:38 the golden altar, the anointing oil, the fragrant incense and the screen for the entrance to the tent;
Exo 39:39 the bronze altar and its bronze grating, its shafts and all its accessories; the basin and its stand;
Exo 39:40 the curtaining for the court, its poles, its sockets, and the screen for the gateway to the court, its cords, its pegs and all the accessories for the service of the Dwelling, for the Tent of Meeting;
Exo 39:41 the liturgical vestments for officiating in the sanctuary -- the sacred vestments for Aaron the priest, and the vestments for his sons -- for the priestly functions.
Exo 39:42 The Israelites had done all the work exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 39:43 Moses inspected all the work: they had indeed done it as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered; and Moses blessed them.
Exo 40:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Exo 40:2 'On the first day of the first month, you will erect the Dwelling, the Tent of Meeting,
Exo 40:3 and place the ark of the Testimony in it and screen the ark with the curtain.
Exo 40:4 You will then bring in the table and arrange what has to be arranged on it. You will then bring in the lamp-stand and set up its lamps.
Exo 40:5 You will place the golden altar of incense in front of the ark of the Testimony, and place the screen at the entrance to the Dwelling.
Exo 40:6 You will place the altar of burnt offerings in front of the entrance to the Dwelling, the Tent of Meeting,
Exo 40:7 and you will place the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and fill it with water.
Exo 40:8 You will then set up the surrounding court and hang the screen at the gateway of the court.
Exo 40:9 Then, taking the anointing oil, you will anoint the Dwelling and everything inside, consecrating it and all its accessories; it will then be holy.
Exo 40:10 You will then anoint the altar of burnt offerings and all its accessories, consecrating the altar; the altar will then be especially holy.
Exo 40:11 You will then anoint the basin and its stand, and consecrate it.
Exo 40:12 You will then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, bathe them thoroughly
Exo 40:13 and then dress Aaron in the sacred vestments, and anoint and consecrate him, to serve me in the priesthood.
Exo 40:14 You will then bring his sons, dress them in tunics
Exo 40:15 and anoint them as you anointed their father, to serve me in the priesthood. Their anointing will confer an everlasting priesthood on them for all their generations to come.'
Exo 40:16 Moses did this; he did exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered him.
Exo 40:17 On the first day of the first month in the second year the Dwelling was erected.
Exo 40:18 Moses erected the Dwelling. He fixed its sockets, set up its frames, put its crossbars in position and set up its poles.
Exo 40:19 He spread the tent over the Dwelling and the covering for the tent over that, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 40:20 He took the Testimony and put it in the ark, positioned the shafts on the ark and put the mercy-seat on top of the ark.
Exo 40:21 He brought the ark into the Dwelling and put the screening curtain in place, screening the ark of the Testimony, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 40:22 He put the table inside the Tent of Meeting, against the side of the Dwelling, on the north, outside the curtain,
Exo 40:23 and on it arranged the loaves before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 40:24 He put the lamp-stand inside the Tent of Meeting, opposite the table, on the south side of the Dwelling,
Exo 40:25 and set up the lamps before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 40:26 He put the golden altar inside the Tent of Meeting, in front of the curtain,
Exo 40:27 and on it burnt fragrant incense, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 40:28 He then put the screen at the entrance to the Dwelling.
Exo 40:29 He put the altar of burnt offerings at the entrance to the Dwelling, to the Tent of Meeting, and on it offered the burnt offering and cereal offering, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 40:30 He put the basin between the Tent of Meeting and the altar and put water in it for the ablutions,
Exo 40:31 where Moses, Aaron and his sons washed their hands and feet,
Exo 40:32 whenever they entered the Tent of Meeting or approached the altar they washed, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Exo 40:33 He then set up the court round the Dwelling and the altar and set up the screen at the gate-way to the court. Thus Moses completed the work.
Exo 40:34 The cloud then covered the Tent of Meeting and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) filled the Dwelling.
Exo 40:35 Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting, since the cloud stayed over it and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) filled the Dwelling.
Exo 40:36 At every stage of their journey, whenever the cloud rose from the Dwelling, the Israelites would resume their march.
Exo 40:37 If the cloud did not rise, they would not resume their march until the day it did rise.
Exo 40:38 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s cloud stayed over the Dwelling during the daytime and there was fire inside the cloud at night, for the whole House of Israel to see, at every stage of their journey.
Lev 1:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) summoned Moses and, speaking to him from the Tent of Meeting, said,
Lev 1:2 'Speak to the Israelites; say to them, "When any of you brings an offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he can offer an animal either from the herd or from the flock.
Lev 1:3 "If his offering is to be a burnt offering from the herd, he must offer an unblemished male; he will offer it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, to make it acceptable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 1:4 He must lay his hand on the victim's head, and it will be accepted as effectual for his expiation.
Lev 1:5 He will then slaughter the bull before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the priests descended from Aaron will offer the blood. They will pour it all around the altar which stands at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 1:6 He will then skin the victim and quarter it.
Lev 1:7 The priests descended from Aaron will put a fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.
Lev 1:8 The priests descended from Aaron will then arrange the quarters, the head and the fat on the wood on the fire on the altar.
Lev 1:9 He will wash the entrails and shins in water, and the priest will burn it all on the altar as a burnt offering, food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 1:10 "If his offering is to be of an animal from the flock, of a lamb or a goat to be offered as a burnt offering, he must offer an unblemished male.
Lev 1:11 He will slaughter it on the north side of the altar, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the priests descended from Aaron will pour the blood all around the altar.
Lev 1:12 He will then quarter it, and the priest will arrange the quarters, the head and the fat on the wood on the fire on the altar.
Lev 1:13 He will wash the entrails and shins in water, and the priest will burn it all on the altar as a burnt offering, food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 1:14 "If his offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is to be a burnt offering of a bird, he must offer a turtledove or a young pigeon.
Lev 1:15 The priest will offer it at the altar and wring off its head, which he will burn on the altar; its blood must then be squeezed out on the side of the altar.
Lev 1:16 He will then remove the crop and the feathers and throw them on the eastern side of the altar, where the fatty ashes are put.
Lev 1:17 He will then split it in half with a wing on each side, but without separating the two parts. The priest will then burn it on the altar, on the wood which is on the fire, as a burnt offering, food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Lev 2:1 ' "If anyone offers Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a cereal offering, his offering must consist of wheaten flour on which he must pour wine and put incense.
Lev 2:2 He will bring it to the priests descended from Aaron; he will take a handful of the wheaten flour, some of the oil and all the incense, and this the priest will burn on the altar as a memorial, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 2:3 The remainder of the cereal offering will revert to Aaron and his sons, an especially holy portion of the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 2:4 "When you offer a cereal offering of dough baked in the oven, the wheaten flour must be prepared either in the form of unleavened cakes mixed with oil, or in the form of unleavened wafers spread with oil.
Lev 2:5 "If your offering is a cereal offering cooked on the griddle, the wheaten flour mixed with oil must contain no leaven.
Lev 2:6 You will break it in pieces and pour oil over it. It is a cereal offering.
Lev 2:7 "If your offering is a cereal offering cooked in the pan, the wheaten flour must be prepared with oil.
Lev 2:8 "You will bring Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the cereal offering thus prepared and present it to the priest; he will take it to the altar.
Lev 2:9 And from the cereal offering the priest will take the memorial and burn it on the altar, food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 2:10 The remainder of the cereal offering will revert to Aaron and his descendants: it is especially holy since it is taken from the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 2:11 "None of the cereal offerings which you offer to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) must be prepared with leaven, for you must never include leaven or honey in food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 2:12 You may offer them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as an offering of first-fruits, but they will not make a pleasing smell if they are burnt on the altar.
Lev 2:13 You will put salt in every cereal offering that you offer, and you will not fail to put the salt of the covenant of your God on your cereal offering; to every offering you will add an offering of salt to your God.
Lev 2:14 If you offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a cereal offering of first-fruits, you will offer it in the form of roasted ears of wheat or of bread made from ground wheat.
Lev 2:15 You will add oil to it and put incense on it; it is a cereal offering;
Lev 2:16 and from it the priest will burn the memorial with some bread and oil (and all the incense) as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Lev 3:1 ' "If his sacrifice is a communion sacrifice, and if he offers an animal from the herd, be it male or female, whatever he offers before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) must be unblemished.
Lev 3:2 He will lay his hand on the victim's head and slaughter it at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. The priests descended from Aaron will then pour the blood all around the altar.
Lev 3:3 He will offer part of the communion sacrifice as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): the fat covering the entrails, all the fat on the entrails,
Lev 3:4 both kidneys, the fat on them and on the loins, the mass of fat which he will remove from the liver and kidneys.
Lev 3:5 The priests descended from Aaron will then burn this on the altar, in addition to the burnt offering, on the wood of the fire, food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 3:6 "If it is an animal from the flock which he offers as a communion sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), be the animal that he offers male or female, it must be unblemished.
Lev 3:7 "If he offers a sheep, he will offer it before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Lev 3:8 he will lay his hand on the victim's head and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Meeting; the priests descended from Aaron will then pour its blood all around the altar.
Lev 3:9 Of the communion sacrifice he will offer the following as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): the fat, all the tail taken off near the base of the spine, the fat covering the entrails, all the fat on the entrails,
Lev 3:10 both kidneys, the fat on them and on the loins, the mass of fat which he will remove from the liver and kidneys.
Lev 3:11 The priest will then burn this on the altar as food, as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 3:12 "If his offering is a goat, he will offer it before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Lev 3:13 he will lay his hand on the victim's head and slaughter it in front of the Tent of Meeting, and the descendants of Aaron will then pour its blood all around the altar.
Lev 3:14 This is what he will then offer of it as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): the fat covering the entrails, all the fat on the entrails,
Lev 3:15 both kidneys, the fat on them and on the loins, the mass of fat which he will remove from the liver and kidneys.
Lev 3:16 The priest will then burn these pieces on the altar as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). "All the fat belongs to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 3:17 This is a perpetual law for all your descendants, wherever you may live: that you will not eat either fat or blood." '
Lev 4:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 4:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "If anyone sins inadvertently against any of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s commandments and does anything prohibited by them,
Lev 4:3 if the one who sins is the anointed priest, thus making the people guilty, then for the sin which he has committed he must offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a young bull, an unblemished animal from the herd, as a sacrifice for sin.
Lev 4:4 He will bring the bull before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, will lay his hand on its head and slaughter it before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 4:5 The anointed priest will then take some of the bull's blood and carry it into the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 4:6 He will then dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times in front of the sanctuary curtain, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 4:7 The priest will then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of incense smoking before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the Tent of Meeting, and will pour all the rest of the bull's blood at the foot of the altar of burnt offerings at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 4:8 "Of the bull offered as a sacrifice for sin, he will set aside all the fat: the fat covering the entrails, all the fat on the entrails,
Lev 4:9 both kidneys, the fat on them and on the loins, the mass of fat which he will remove from the liver and kidneys-
Lev 4:10 exactly as was done with the portion set aside in the communion sacrifice -- and the priest will burn these pieces on the altar of burnt offerings.
Lev 4:11 "The bull's skin and all its meat, its head, its shins, its entrails and its offal,
Lev 4:12 the whole bull he will then have carried out of the camp to a clean place, the place where the fatty ashes are thrown, and will burn it on a wood fire; it must be burnt where the ashes are thrown.
Lev 4:13 "If the whole community of Israel has sinned inadvertently and, without being aware of it has incurred guilt by doing something forbidden by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s commandments,
Lev 4:14 once the sin of which it is guilty has been discovered, the community must offer a young bull, an unblemished animal from the herd, as a sacrifice for sin, and bring it in front of the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 4:15 The elders of the community will then lay their hands on the bull's head before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the bull will be slaughtered before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 4:16 "The anointed priest will then take some of the bull's blood into the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 4:17 He will then dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times in front of the curtain, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 4:18 He will then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar standing before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) inside the Tent of Meeting, and then pour all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar of burnt offerings at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 4:19 "He will then set aside all the fat from the animal and burn it on the altar.
Lev 4:20 He will then deal with the bull as he did with the bull in the sacrifice for sin. It will be dealt with in the same way; and once the priest has performed the rite of expiation for the people, they will be forgiven.
Lev 4:21 "He will then have the bull carried out of the camp and will burn it as he burned the first one. This is the sacrifice for the sin of the community.
Lev 4:22 "When a leader has sinned and inadvertently incurred guilt by doing something forbidden by the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God
Lev 4:23 (or if the sin which he has committed is drawn to his attention), he must bring a he-goat as his offering, an unblemished male.
Lev 4:24 He will then lay his hand on the goat's head and slaughter it on the spot where the burnt offerings are slaughtered before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is a sacrifice for sin;
Lev 4:25 the priest will take some of the victim's blood on his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings. He will then pour the rest of its blood at the foot of the altar of burnt offerings
Lev 4:26 and burn all the fat on the altar, as with the fat in the communion sacrifice. This is how the priest must perform the rite of expiation for him to free him from his sin, and he will be forgiven.
Lev 4:27 "If one of the country people sins inadvertently and incurs guilt by doing something forbidden by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s commandments
Lev 4:28 (or if the sin which he has committed is drawn to his attention), he must bring a she-goat as his offering for the sin which he has committed, an unblemished female.
Lev 4:29 He will then lay his hand on the victim's head and slaughter it on the spot where the burnt offerings are slaughtered.
Lev 4:30 The priest will take some of its blood on his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings. He will then pour all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar.
Lev 4:31 He will then remove all the fat, as the fat was removed for the communion sacrifice, and the priest will burn it on the altar as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is how the priest must perform the rite of expiation for him, and he will be forgiven.
Lev 4:32 "If he wishes to bring a lamb as an offering for this kind of sacrifice, he must bring an unblemished female.
Lev 4:33 He will then lay his hand on the victim's head and slaughter it as a sacrifice for sin on the spot where the burnt offerings are slaughtered.
Lev 4:34 The priest will take some of the victim's blood on his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offerings. He will then pour all the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar.
Lev 4:35 He will then remove all the fat, as was done for the sheep in the communion sacrifice, and the priest will burn it as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is how the priest must perform for him the rite of expiation for the sin which he has committed, and he will be forgiven." '
Lev 5:1 ' "If someone sins in any of these following cases: "He should have come forward to give evidence when he heard the formal adjuration, having seen the incident or known the facts; but he has not spoken out, and so bears the consequences of his guilt;
Lev 5:2 "or someone touches something unclean, whatever it may be -- the dead body of an unclean animal, wild or tame, or of one of the unclean reptiles -- and without realising it becomes unclean, he becomes answerable for it;
Lev 5:3 "or he touches some human uncleanness, whatever it may be, contact with which makes him unclean; he does not notice it, then, realising it later, he becomes answerable for it;
Lev 5:4 "or someone lets slip an oath to do something either evil or good, in any of those matters on which someone may let slip an oath; he does not notice it, then, realising it later, he becomes answerable for it;
Lev 5:5 "if he is answerable in any of those cases, he will have to confess the sin committed.
Lev 5:6 As a sacrifice of reparation for the sin committed, he will bring Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a female from the flock (sheep or goat) as a sacrifice for sin; and the priest will perform the rite of expiation for him to free him from his sin.
Lev 5:7 "If he cannot afford an animal from the flock as a sacrifice of reparation for the sin he has committed, he will bring Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) two turtledoves or two young pigeons -- one as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a burnt offering.
Lev 5:8 He will bring them to the priest who will first offer the one intended for the sacrifice for sin. The priest will wring its neck but not remove the head.
Lev 5:9 He will sprinkle the side of the altar with the victim's blood, and then squeeze out the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar. This is a sacrifice for sin.
Lev 5:10 He will then offer the other bird as a burnt offering according to the ritual. This is how the priest must perform the rite of expiation for the person for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven.
Lev 5:11 "If he cannot afford two turtledoves or two young pigeons, he will bring a tenth of an ephah of wheaten flour as an offering for the sin committed; he must not mix oil with it or put incense on it, since this is a sacrifice for sin.
Lev 5:12 He will bring it to the priest, who will take a handful of it as a memorial, and burn this on the altar in addition to the offerings of food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is a sacrifice for sin.
Lev 5:13 This is how the priest must perform the rite of expiation for the person for the sin he has committed in any of those cases, and he will be forgiven. In this case, the priest has the same rights as in the case of a cereal offering." '
Lev 5:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 5:15 'If someone is unfaithful and sins inadvertently by infringing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sacred rights, as a sacrifice of reparation he must bring Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) an unblemished ram from his flock, the value of which will be decided by you in silver shekels according to the rate of the sanctuary-shekel.
Lev 5:16 He will make amends for what his sin subtracted from the sacred rights, adding one-fifth to the value, and give it to the priest. The priest will then perform the rite of expiation for him with the ram for the sacrifice of reparation and he will be forgiven.
Lev 5:17 'If someone sins and without realising it does one of the things forbidden by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s commandments, he will answer for it and bear the consequences of his guilt.
Lev 5:18 As a sacrifice of reparation he must bring the priest an unblemished ram from his flock to the value which you decide, and the priest will perform the rite of expiation for him for the oversight unwittingly committed, and he will be forgiven.
Lev 5:19 This is a sacrifice of reparation; the man was certainly answerable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Lev 5:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 5:21 'If someone sins and is unfaithful against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by deceiving his fellow-countryman over a deposit or a security, or by withholding something due to him or by exploiting him;
Lev 5:22 'or if he finds lost property and denies it; 'or if he perjures himself about anything that a human being may do criminally in such matters;
Lev 5:23 'if he sins and so becomes answerable, he must restore what he has taken or demanded in excess: the deposit confided to him, the lost property that he has found,
Lev 5:24 or any object about which he has perjured himself. He will add one-fifth to the principal and pay the whole to the person who held the property rights on the day when he incurred the guilt.
Lev 5:25 He will then bring Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) an unblemished ram from his flock to the value which you decide, to the priest as a sacrifice of reparation,
Lev 5:26 and the priest will perform the rite of expiation for him before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he will be forgiven, whatever the act by which he incurred guilt.'
Lev 6:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 6:2 'Give these orders to Aaron and his sons: "This is the ritual for the burnt offering (that is, the burnt offering that stays on the altar brazier all night until morning and is consumed by the altar fire).
Lev 6:3 "The priest will put on his linen tunic and put his linen drawers on to cover himself. He will then remove the fatty ashes of the burnt offering consumed by the altar fire and put them at the side of the altar.
Lev 6:4 He will then take off his clothes, put on others and carry the ashes to a clean place outside the camp.
Lev 6:5 "The fire on the altar that consumes the burnt offering must not be allowed to go out. Every morning the priest will make it up with wood, arranging the burnt offering on it and burning the fat from the communion sacrifices.
Lev 6:6 The fire must always be burning on the altar; it must never go out.
Lev 6:7 'This is the ritual for the cereal offering: "One of the descendants of Aaron will bring it into Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence in front of the altar,
Lev 6:8 will take a handful of the wheaten flour (with the oil and all the incense which have been added to it) and burn the memorial on the altar as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Lev 6:9 and Aaron and his sons will eat the remainder in the form of unleavened loaves. They will eat it inside the holy place, in the court of the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 6:10 The portion I give them of the food burnt for me must not be baked with leaven; it is especially holy, like the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation.
Lev 6:11 All male descendants of Aaron are entitled to eat this portion of the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) (this is a perpetual law for all your descendants) and anyone who touches it will become holy." '
Lev 6:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 6:13 'This is the offering that Aaron and his sons must make to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the day they are anointed: one-tenth of an ephah of wheaten flour as a perpetual cereal offering, half in the morning and half in the evening.
Lev 6:14 It will be prepared on the griddle and mixed with oil; you will bring the paste as a cereal offering in several pieces, offering them as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 6:15 When one of his sons is anointed priest to succeed him, he will do the same. This is a perpetual law. 'The entire cereal offering will be burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 6:16 Every cereal offering made by a priest will be a total sacrifice; none of it will be eaten.'
Lev 6:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Lev 6:18 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and say: "This is the ritual for the sacrifice for sin: "The victim must be slaughtered before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the spot where the burnt offerings are slaughtered. It is especially holy.
Lev 6:19 The priest who offers this sacrifice will eat it. It will be eaten inside the holy place, in the court of the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 6:20 Everything touching the victim's meat will become holy, and if any of the blood splashes on clothing, the stain will be washed off inside the holy place.
Lev 6:21 The earthenware vessel in which the meat is cooked must be broken; if a bronze vessel has been used for the cooking, it must be scrubbed and thoroughly rinsed with water.
Lev 6:22 Any male who is a priest may eat the sacrifice. It is especially holy.
Lev 6:23 But no one may eat any of the victims offered for sin, the blood of which has been taken into the Tent of Meeting to make expiation inside the sanctuary. These must be burnt." '
Lev 7:1 ' "This is the ritual for the sacrifice of reparation: "It is especially holy.
Lev 7:2 The victim must be slaughtered where the burnt offerings are slaughtered, and the priest will pour the blood all around the altar.
Lev 7:3 He will then offer all the fat: the tail, the fat covering the entrails,
Lev 7:4 both kidneys, the fat on them and on the loins, the mass of fat which he will remove from the liver and kidneys.
Lev 7:5 The priest will burn these pieces on the altar as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is a sacrifice of reparation.
Lev 7:6 Every male who is a priest may eat it. It will be eaten inside the holy place; it is especially holy.
Lev 7:7 "As with the sacrifice for sin, so with the sacrifice of reparation -- the ritual is the same for both. The offering with which the priest performs the rite of expiation will revert to the priest.
Lev 7:8 The hide of the victim presented by someone to the priest to be offered as a burnt offering will revert to the priest.
Lev 7:9 Every cereal offering baked in the oven, every cereal offering cooked in the pan or on the griddle will revert to the priest who offers it.
Lev 7:10 Every cereal offering, mixed with oil or dry, will revert to all the descendants of Aaron without distinction.
Lev 7:11 "This is the ritual for the communion sacrifice to be offered to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Lev 7:12 "If this is offered as a sacrifice with praise, to the latter must be added an offering of unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers spread with oil, and wheaten flour in the form of cakes mixed with oil.
Lev 7:13 This offering, then, must be added to the cakes of leavened bread and to the communion sacrifice with praise.
Lev 7:14 One of the cakes of this offering must be presented as an offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); it will revert to the priest who pours out the blood of the communion sacrifice.
Lev 7:15 The meat of the victim will be eaten on the day the offering is made; nothing may be left until next morning.
Lev 7:16 "If the victim is offered as a votive or a voluntary sacrifice, it must be eaten on the day it is offered, and the remainder may be eaten on the following day;
Lev 7:17 but on the third day whatever is left of the meat of the victim must be burnt.
Lev 7:18 "If any of the meat of a victim offered as a communion sacrifice is eaten on the third day, the person who has offered it will not be acceptable and will receive no credit for it. It will count as rotten meat, and the person who eats it will bear the consequences of the guilt.
Lev 7:19 "Meat that has touched anything unclean cannot be eaten; it must be burnt. "Anyone clean may eat the meat,
Lev 7:20 but anyone unclean who eats the meat of a communion sacrifice offered to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be outlawed from his people.
Lev 7:21 Furthermore, if anyone touches anything unclean, human or animal, or any foul thing, and then eats the meat of a communion sacrifice offered to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that individual will be outlawed from his people." '
Lev 7:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Lev 7:23 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "You may not eat the fat of ox, sheep or goat.
Lev 7:24 The fat of an animal that has died a natural death or been savaged by beasts may be used for any other purpose, but you are not to eat it.
Lev 7:25 Anyone who eats the fat of an animal offered as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be outlawed from his people.
Lev 7:26 "Wherever you live, you will never eat blood, whether it be of bird or of beast.
Lev 7:27 Anyone who eats any blood will be outlawed from his people." '
Lev 7:28 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Lev 7:29 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "Anyone who offers Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a communion sacrifice must bring him part of his sacrifice as an offering.
Lev 7:30 He must bring the food to be burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that is to say, the fat adhering to the forequarters, with his own hands. He will bring it, and also the forequarters, with which he will make the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 7:31 The priest will then burn the fat on the altar, and the forequarters will revert to Aaron and his descendants.
Lev 7:32 You will set aside the right thigh from your communion sacrifice and give it to the priest.
Lev 7:33 The right thigh will be the portion of the descendant of Aaron who offers the blood and fat of the communion sacrifice.
Lev 7:34 For I have deprived the Israelites of the forequarter offered and the thigh presented in their communion sacrifices, and given them to the priest Aaron and his descendants; this is a perpetual law for the Israelites." '
Lev 7:35 Such was the portion of Aaron and his descendants in the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the day he presented them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for them to become his priests.
Lev 7:36 This was what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered the Israelites to give them on the day they were anointed: a perpetual law for all their descendants.
Lev 7:37 Such was the ritual for burnt offering, cereal offering, sacrifice for sin, sacrifice of reparation, investiture sacrifice and communion sacrifice,
Lev 7:38 which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) laid down for Moses on Mount Sinai, the day he ordered the Israelites to make their offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the desert of Sinai.
Lev 8:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 8:2 'Take Aaron and with him his sons, the vestments, the anointing oil, the bull for the sacrifice for sin, the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread.
Lev 8:3 Then call the whole community together at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.'
Lev 8:4 Moses did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered; the community gathered at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,
Lev 8:5 and Moses said to them, 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered to be done.'
Lev 8:6 He made Aaron and his sons come forward and washed them with water.
Lev 8:7 He then dressed him in the tunic, passed the waistband round his waist, vested him in the robe and put the ephod on him. He then put the waistband of the ephod round his waist, fastening it to him.
Lev 8:8 He put the breastplate on him, and placed the urim and thummim in it.
Lev 8:9 He put the turban on his head, and on the front of the turban, the golden flower; this was the symbol of holy consecration, which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had prescribed to Moses.
Lev 8:10 Moses then took the anointing oil and anointed the Dwelling and everything inside it, to consecrate them.
Lev 8:11 He sprinkled the altar seven times and anointed the altar and its accessories, the basin and its stand, to consecrate them.
Lev 8:12 He then poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him.
Lev 8:13 Moses then made Aaron's sons come forward; he dressed them in tunics, passed the waistbands round their waists and put on their head-dresses, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered him.
Lev 8:14 He then had the bull for the sacrifice for sin brought forward. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the victim's head
Lev 8:15 and Moses slaughtered it. He then took the blood and with his finger put some of it on the horns on the corners of the altar to purify the altar. He then poured the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar, which he consecrated by performing the rite of expiation over it.
Lev 8:16 He then took all the fat covering the entrails, the mass of fat over the liver, both kidneys and their fat; and he burnt this on the altar,
Lev 8:17 but the bull's skin, its meat and its offal he burnt outside the camp, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Lev 8:18 He then had the ram for the burnt offering brought forward. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the ram's head
Lev 8:19 and Moses slaughtered it. He poured its blood all around the altar.
Lev 8:20 He then quartered the ram and burned the head, the quarters and the fat.
Lev 8:21 He then washed the entrails and shins, and burnt the whole ram on the altar, as a burnt offering, offered to be a pleasing smell, as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Lev 8:22 He then had the other ram brought forward, the ram for the investiture sacrifice. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head
Lev 8:23 and Moses slaughtered it. He took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot.
Lev 8:24 He then made Aaron's sons come forward and he put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Next, Moses poured the rest of the blood all around the altar.
Lev 8:25 He then took the fat: the tail, all the fat covering the entrails, the mass of fat over the liver, both kidneys and their fat, and the right thigh.
Lev 8:26 From the basket of unleavened bread placed before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he took an unleavened cake, a cake of bread made with oil, and a wafer; he placed these on the fat and the right thigh,
Lev 8:27 and put it all into Aaron's hands and those of his sons, and made the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 8:28 Moses then took them away from them and burned them on the altar, with the burnt offering. This was the investiture sacrifice, offered to be a pleasing smell, as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 8:29 Moses then took the forequarter and made the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This was the portion of the ram of investiture that reverted to Moses, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Lev 8:30 Moses then took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled Aaron and his vestments, and his sons and their vestments, with it. In this way he consecrated Aaron and his vestments and his sons and their vestments.
Lev 8:31 Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, 'Cook the meat at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and eat it there, as also the bread of the investiture sacrifice still in the basket of the investiture offerings, as I ordered, when I said, "Aaron and his sons must eat it."
Lev 8:32 What remains of the meat and bread you will burn.
Lev 8:33 For seven days you will not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, until the time of your investiture is complete; for your investiture will require seven days.
Lev 8:34 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered us to do as we have done today to perform the rite of expiation for you;
Lev 8:35 hence, for seven days, day and night, you will remain at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting observing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s ritual; do this, and you will not incur death. For this was the order I received.'
Lev 8:36 So Aaron and his sons did everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered through Moses.
Lev 9:1 On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel;
Lev 9:2 he said to Aaron, 'Take a calf to offer a sacrifice for sin, and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and bring them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 9:3 Then say to the Israelites, "Take a goat to be offered as a sacrifice for sin, a calf and a lamb one year old (both without blemish) for a burnt offering,
Lev 9:4 a bull and a ram for communion sacrifices to be slaughtered before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and a cereal offering mixed with oil. For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will appear to you today." '
Lev 9:5 They brought what Moses had ordered in front of the Tent of Meeting; then the whole community approached and stood before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 9:6 Moses then said, 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered you to do, so that his glory may be visible to you.'
Lev 9:7 Moses then addressed Aaron, 'Go to the altar and offer your sacrifice for sin and your burnt offering, and so perform the rite of expiation for yourself and your family. Then present the people's offering and perform the rite of expiation for them, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered.'
Lev 9:8 Aaron went to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sacrifice for his own sin.
Lev 9:9 Aaron's sons then presented the blood to him; he dipped his finger in it and put some on the horns of the altar, and then poured the rest of the blood at the foot of the altar.
Lev 9:10 The fat of the sacrifice for sin and the kidneys and the mass of fat over the liver he burned on the altar, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses,
Lev 9:11 and the meat and the skin he burned outside the camp.
Lev 9:12 He then slaughtered the burnt offering; Aaron's sons then handed him the blood, which he poured all around the altar.
Lev 9:13 They then handed him the quartered victim and the head, and he burned these on the altar.
Lev 9:14 He then washed the entrails and shins and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar.
Lev 9:15 He then presented the people's offering. He took the goat for the people's sacrifice for sin, slaughtered it, and made a sacrifice for sin with it in the same way as with the first.
Lev 9:16 He then had the burnt offering brought forward and proceeded according to the ritual.
Lev 9:17 He then had the cereal offering brought forward, took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning burnt offering.
Lev 9:18 Then he slaughtered the bull and the ram as a communion sacrifice for the people. Aaron's sons handed him the blood and he poured it all around the altar.
Lev 9:19 The fat of the bull and the ram, the tail, the covering fat, the kidneys, the mass of fat over the liver,
Lev 9:20 he placed on the ribs and then burned on the altar.
Lev 9:21 With the ribs and the right thigh Aaron made the gesture of offering as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Lev 9:22 Aaron then raised his hands towards the people and blessed them. Having thus performed the sacrifice for sin, the burnt offering and the communion sacrifice, he came down
Lev 9:23 and entered the Tent of Meeting with Moses. Then they came out together to bless the people and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to the entire people:
Lev 9:24 a flame leapt out from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence and consumed the burnt offering and fat on the altar. At this sight the entire people shouted for joy and fell on their faces.
Lev 10:1 Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu each took his censer, put fire in it and incense on the fire, and presented unauthorised fire before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), which was not in accordance with his orders.
Lev 10:2 At this a flame leapt out from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence and swallowed them up, and they perished before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 10:3 Moses then said to Aaron, 'That is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) meant when he said: In those who are close to me I show my holiness, and before all the people I show my glory.' Aaron remained silent.
Lev 10:4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron's uncle Uzziel, and said to them, 'Come here and take your brothers away from the sanctuary, out of the camp.'
Lev 10:5 They came and carried them away, still in their tunics, out of the camp, as Moses had said.
Lev 10:6 Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, 'Do not disorder your hair or tear your clothes; or you may incur death and his retribution may overtake the whole community. No, it is for the entire House of Israel to lament your brothers who have been the victims of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s fire.
Lev 10:7 To avoid incurring death, do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointing oil is on you.' And they did as Moses said.
Lev 10:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Aaron and said:
Lev 10:9 'When you come to the Tent of Meeting, you and your sons with you, to avoid incurring death you may not drink wine or any other fermented liquor. This is a perpetual law for all your descendants.
Lev 10:10 And so shall it be also when you separate the sacred from the profane, the unclean from the clean,
Lev 10:11 and when you teach the Israelites any of the decrees that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has pronounced for them through Moses.'
Lev 10:12 Moses said to Aaron and his surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, 'Take the cereal offering left over from the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Eat the unleavened part of it beside the altar, since it is especially holy.
Lev 10:13 Eat it in the holy place, since it is the portion of the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that is prescribed for you and your sons; this is the order I have received.
Lev 10:14 'You, your sons and daughters with you, will eat in a clean place the forequarter offered and the thigh presented, for these have been given to you and your children as your due from the Israelites' communion sacrifices.
Lev 10:15 The thigh presented and the forequarter offered, once the fat has been burnt, revert to you and your sons with you, after they have been presented before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with the gesture of offering, in virtue of a perpetual law as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered.'
Lev 10:16 Moses then enquired carefully about the goat offered as a sacrifice for sin, and found that they had burnt it. He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's surviving sons, and said,
Lev 10:17 'Why did you not eat this victim for sin in the holy place, since it is especially holy and was given to you to take away the community's guilt, by performing the rite of expiation for them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?
Lev 10:18 Since its blood was not taken inside the sanctuary, you should have eaten its meat there, as I ordered you.'
Lev 10:19 Aaron said to Moses, 'Look, today they offered their sacrifice for sin and their burnt offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and these disasters have befallen me. If I had eaten the sin offering today, would this have met with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s approval?'
Lev 10:20 And when Moses heard this, he was satisfied.
Lev 11:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and Aaron and said to them,
Lev 11:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "Of all animals living on land these are the creatures you may eat:
Lev 11:3 "You may eat any animal that has a cloven hoof, divided into two parts, and that is a ruminant.
Lev 11:4 The following, which either chew the cud or have a cloven hoof, are the ones that you may not eat: you will regard the camel as unclean, because though it is ruminant, it does not have a cloven hoof;
Lev 11:5 you will regard the coney as unclean, because though it is ruminant, it does not have a cloven hoof;
Lev 11:6 you will regard the hare as unclean, because though it is ruminant, it does not have a cloven hoof;
Lev 11:7 you will regard the pig as unclean, because though it has a cloven hoof, divided into two parts, it is not a ruminant.
Lev 11:8 You will not eat the meat of these or touch their dead bodies; you will regard them as unclean.
Lev 11:9 "Of all that lives in water, these you may eat: "Anything that has fins and scales, and lives in the water, whether in sea or river, you may eat.
Lev 11:10 But anything in sea or river that does not have fins and scales, of all the small water-creatures and all the living things found there, you will regard as detestable.
Lev 11:11 You will regard them as detestable; you must not eat their meat and you will regard their carcases as detestable.
Lev 11:12 Anything that lives in water, but not having fins and scales, you will regard as detestable.
Lev 11:13 "Of the birds these are the ones that you will regard as detestable; they may not be eaten, they are detestable for eating: "The tawny vulture, the griffon, the osprey,
Lev 11:14 the kite, the various kinds of buzzard,
Lev 11:15 all kinds of raven,
Lev 11:16 the ostrich, the screech owl, the seagull, the various kinds of hawk,
Lev 11:17 horned owl, night owl, cormorant, barn owl,
Lev 11:18 ibis, pelican, white vulture,
Lev 11:19 stork, the various kinds of heron, the hoopoe and the bat.
Lev 11:20 "All winged insects moving on four feet you will regard as detestable for eating.
Lev 11:21 Of all these winged insects you may eat only the following: those with the sort of legs above their feet which enable them to leap over the ground.
Lev 11:22 These are the ones you may eat: the various kinds of migratory locust, the various kinds of solham locust, hargol locust and hagab locust.
Lev 11:23 But all other winged insects on four feet you will regard as detestable for eating.
Lev 11:24 "By the following you will be made unclean. Anyone who touches the carcase of one will be unclean until evening.
Lev 11:25 Anyone who picks up their carcases must wash his clothing and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 11:26 Animals that have hoofs, but not cloven, and that are not ruminant, you will regard as unclean; anyone who touches them will be unclean.
Lev 11:27 Those four-footed animals which walk on the flat of their paws you will regard as unclean; anyone who touches their carcases will be unclean until evening,
Lev 11:28 and anyone who picks up their carcases must wash his clothing and will be unclean until evening. You will regard them as unclean.
Lev 11:29 "Of the small creatures which crawl along the ground, these are the ones which you will regard as unclean: the mole, the rat, the various kinds of lizard:
Lev 11:30 gecko, koah, letaah, chameleon and tinshamet.
Lev 11:31 "Of all the small creatures, these are the animals which you must regard as disgusting. Anyone who touches them when they are dead will be unclean until evening.
Lev 11:32 "Any object on which one of these creatures falls when it is dead becomes unclean: wooden utensil, clothing, skin, sacking, any utensil whatever. It must be immersed in water and will remain unclean until evening: then it will be clean.
Lev 11:33 If the creature falls into an earthenware vessel, the vessel must be broken; whatever the vessel contains is unclean.
Lev 11:34 Any edible food will be unclean if the water touches it; any drinkable liquid will be unclean, no matter what its container.
Lev 11:35 Anything on which the carcase of such a creature may fall will be unclean: be it oven or stove, it must be destroyed; for they are unclean and you will regard them as unclean
Lev 11:36 (although springs, wells and stretches of water will remain clean); anyone who touches one of their carcases will be unclean.
Lev 11:37 If one of their carcases falls on any kind of seed, the seed will remain clean;
Lev 11:38 but if the seed has been moistened and one of their carcases falls on it, you will regard it as unclean.
Lev 11:39 "If one of the animals that you use as food dies, anyone who touches the carcase will be unclean until evening;
Lev 11:40 anyone who eats any of the carcase must wash his clothing and will remain unclean until evening; anyone who picks up the carcase must wash his clothing and will remain unclean until evening.
Lev 11:41 "Any creature that swarms on the ground is detestable for eating; it must not be eaten.
Lev 11:42 Anything that moves on its belly, anything that moves on four legs or more -- in short all the creatures that swarm on the ground -- you will not eat, since they are detestable.
Lev 11:43 Do not make yourselves detestable with all these swarming creatures; do not defile yourselves with them, do not be defiled by them.
Lev 11:44 For it is I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who am your God. You have been sanctified and have become holy because I am holy: do not defile yourselves with all these creatures that swarm on the ground.
Lev 11:45 Yes, it is I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who brought you out of Egypt to be your God: you must therefore be holy because I am holy." '
Lev 11:46 Such is the law concerning animals, birds, all living creatures that move in water and all creatures that swarm on the ground.
Lev 11:47 Its purpose is to distinguish the clean from the unclean, the creatures that may be eaten from those that may not be eaten.
Lev 12:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Lev 12:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "If a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy, she will be unclean for seven days as when in a state of pollution due to menstruation.
Lev 12:3 On the eighth day the child's foreskin must be circumcised,
Lev 12:4 and she will wait another thirty-three days for her blood to be purified. She will not touch anything consecrated nor go to the sanctuary until the time of her purification is over.
Lev 12:5 "If she gives birth to a girl, she will be unclean for two weeks, as during her monthly periods; and will wait another sixty-six days for her blood to be purified.
Lev 12:6 "When the period of her purification is over, for either boy or girl, she will bring the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a lamb one year old for a burnt offering, and a young pigeon or turtledove as a sacrifice for sin.
Lev 12:7 The priest must offer this before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), perform the rite of expiation for her, and she will be purified from her discharge of blood. "Such is the law concerning a woman who gives birth to either a boy or a girl.
Lev 12:8 If she cannot afford a lamb, she must take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for the burnt offering and the other for the sacrifice for sin. The priest will perform the rite of expiation for her and she will be purified." '
Lev 13:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses and Aaron,
Lev 13:2 'If a swelling or scab or spot appears on someone's skin, which could develop into a contagious skin-disease, that person must then be taken to the priest, either Aaron or one of his sons.
Lev 13:3 The priest will examine the disease on the skin. If the hair on the diseased part has turned white, or if the disease bites into the skin, the skin-disease is contagious, and after examination the priest will declare the person unclean.
Lev 13:4 But if there is a white spot on the skin without any visible depression of the skin or whitening of the hair, the priest will isolate the sick person for seven days.
Lev 13:5 On the seventh day he will examine the person, and if he observes that the disease persists though without spreading over the skin, he will isolate the person for a further seven days
Lev 13:6 and examine him again on the seventh. If he finds that the disease has faded and has not spread over the skin, the priest will declare the person clean. This was merely a scab. Once he has washed his clothing he will be clean.
Lev 13:7 'But if the scab spreads over the skin after the sick person has been examined by the priest and declared clean, then he will let himself be examined again by the priest.
Lev 13:8 After examining him and certifying the spread of the scab over the skin, the priest will declare him unclean: it is a contagious skin-disease.
Lev 13:9 'Someone who has a contagious skin-disease must be taken to the priest.
Lev 13:10 The priest will examine the sick person, and if he finds a whitish swelling with whitening of the hair and an ulcer forming on the skin,
Lev 13:11 this is a dormant skin-disease, and the priest will declare the person unclean. He will not isolate him; he is obviously unclean.
Lev 13:12 'But if the disease spreads all through the skin, if it covers the person entirely from head to foot so far as the priest can see,
Lev 13:13 the priest will then examine the sick person and, if he finds that the skin-disease covers his whole body, declare the sick person clean. Since it has all become white, he is clean.
Lev 13:14 But as soon as an ulcer appears on him, he will be unclean.
Lev 13:15 After examining the ulcer, the priest will declare him unclean: the ulcer is unclean, it is contagious.
Lev 13:16 But if the ulcer becomes white again, the sick person will go to the priest;
Lev 13:17 the priest will examine him and if he finds that the disease has turned white, he will declare the sick person clean: he is clean.
Lev 13:18 'When an ulcer appears on someone's skin, and then gets better,
Lev 13:19 and if then a white swelling or a reddish-white spot forms on the same place, the sick person will show himself to the priest.
Lev 13:20 The priest will examine him, and if he finds a visible depression in the skin and a whitening of the hair, he will declare the person unclean: this is a case of contagious skin-disease breaking out in an ulcer.
Lev 13:21 But if on examination the priest finds neither white hair nor depression of the skin, but a fading of the affected part, he will isolate the sick person for seven days.
Lev 13:22 If the disease has then spread over the skin, he will declare the person unclean: this is a case of contagious skin-disease.
Lev 13:23 But if the spot has stayed where it was and has not spread, it is the scar of the ulcer and the priest will declare the person clean.
Lev 13:24 'If someone has a burn on the skin and an abscess, a reddish-white or white spot, forms on the burn,
Lev 13:25 the priest will then examine it. If he finds a whitening of the hair or a visible depression of the mark on the skin, a contagious disease has broken out in the burn. The priest will declare the sick person unclean: this is a contagious skin-disease.
Lev 13:26 If on the other hand the priest on examination does not find white hair on the mark or depression of the skin, but a fading of the mark, the priest will isolate the person for seven days.
Lev 13:27 He will examine the person on the seventh day and, if the disease has spread over the skin, he will declare the sick person unclean: this is a case of contagious skin-disease.
Lev 13:28 If the mark has stayed where it was and has not spread over the skin, but has faded instead, it was only a swelling due to the burn. The priest will declare the person clean: it is merely a burn scar.
Lev 13:29 'If a man or a woman has a sore on the head or chin,
Lev 13:30 the priest will examine the sore; and if he finds a depression visible in the skin, with the hair on it yellow and thin, he will declare the sick person unclean: this is tinea, that is to say, a contagious skin-disease of the head or chin.
Lev 13:31 If on examining this case of tinea the priest finds no visible depression in the skin and no yellow hair, he will isolate the person so affected for seven days.
Lev 13:32 He will examine the infected part on the seventh day, and if he finds that the tinea has not spread, that the hair on it is not yellow, and that there is no visible depression in the skin,
Lev 13:33 the sick person will shave his hair off, all except the part affected with tinea, and the priest will again isolate him for seven days.
Lev 13:34 He will examine the infected part on the seventh day, and if he finds that it has not spread over the skin, and that there is no visible depression of the skin, the priest will declare the sick person clean. After washing his clothes the person will be clean.
Lev 13:35 But if after this purification the tinea does spread over the skin,
Lev 13:36 the priest will examine the person; if he finds that the tinea has indeed spread over the skin, the sick person is unclean, and there is no need to verify whether the hair is yellow.
Lev 13:37 Whereas if, so far as he can see, the tinea is arrested and dark hair is beginning to grow on it, the sick person is cured. He is clean, and the priest will declare him clean.
Lev 13:38 'If spots break out on the skin of a man or woman, and if these spots are white,
Lev 13:39 the priest will examine them. If he finds that the spots are of a dull white, this is a rash that has broken out on the skin: the sick person is clean.
Lev 13:40 'If someone loses the hair of the scalp, this is baldness of the scalp but the person is clean.
Lev 13:41 If he loses hair off the front of the head, this is baldness of the forehead but the person is clean.
Lev 13:42 If, however, a reddish-white sore appears on scalp or forehead, a contagious skin-disease has broken out on the scalp or forehead.
Lev 13:43 The priest will examine it, and if he finds a reddish-white swelling on scalp or forehead, looking like a contagious skin-disease,
Lev 13:44 the person has such a disease: he is unclean. The priest will declare him unclean; he has a contagious skin-disease of the head.
Lev 13:45 'Anyone with a contagious skin-disease will wear torn clothing and disordered hair; and will cover the upper lip and shout, "Unclean, unclean."
Lev 13:46 As long as the disease lasts, such a person will be unclean and, being unclean, will live alone and live outside the camp.
Lev 13:47 'When a piece of clothing is infected with mould, be it woollen or linen clothing,
Lev 13:48 linen or woollen fabric or covering, or leather or anything made of leather,
Lev 13:49 if the spot on the clothing, leather, fabric, covering or object made of leather is a greenish or reddish colour, it is a disease to be shown to the priest.
Lev 13:50 The priest will examine the infection and isolate the object for seven days.
Lev 13:51 If on the seventh day he observes that the infection has spread on the clothing, fabric, covering, leather or object made of leather, whatever it may be, this is a contagious disease and the object is unclean.
Lev 13:52 He will burn this clothing, fabric, linen or woollen covering or leather object whatever it may be, on which the infection has appeared; for this is a contagious disease which must be destroyed by fire.
Lev 13:53 'But if on examination the priest finds that the infection has not spread on the clothing, fabric, covering, or leather object whatever it may be,
Lev 13:54 he will order the infected object to be washed and will isolate it again for a period of seven days.
Lev 13:55 After the washing, he will examine the infection and if he finds that there is no change in its appearance, even though it has not spread, the article is unclean. You will burn it; it is infected through and through.
Lev 13:56 'But if on examination the priest finds that the infection has diminished after washing, he will tear it out of the clothing, leather, fabric or covering.
Lev 13:57 But if the infection reappears on the same clothing, fabric, covering or leather object whatever it may be, this means that the infection is active; you will burn whatever is infected.
Lev 13:58 The clothing, fabric, covering or leather object whatever it may be, from which the infection disappears after being washed, will be clean after it has been washed a second time.
Lev 13:59 'Such is the law governing disease in a linen or woollen garment, a fabric or covering or leather object whatever it may be, when it is a question of declaring them clean or unclean.'
Lev 14:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 14:2 'This is the law to be applied on the day of the purification of someone who has suffered from a contagious skin-disease. Such a person will be taken to the priest,
Lev 14:3 and the priest will go outside the camp. If he finds on examination that the person has recovered from the disease,
Lev 14:4 he will order the following to be brought for his purification: two live birds that are clean, some cedar wood, scarlet material and hyssop.
Lev 14:5 He will then order one of the birds to be slaughtered in an earthenware pot over running water.
Lev 14:6 He will then take the live bird, the cedar wood, the scarlet material and the hyssop and dip all this (including the live bird) into the blood of the bird slaughtered over running water.
Lev 14:7 He will then sprinkle the person to be purified of the skin-disease seven times, and having declared the person clean, will set the live bird free to fly off into the countryside.
Lev 14:8 The person who is being purified will then wash all clothing, shave off all hair, and wash, and will then be clean. After this he will return to the camp, although he will remain outside his tent for seven days.
Lev 14:9 On the seventh day he will shave off all his hair-head, beard and eyebrows; he will shave off all his hair. After washing his clothing and his body he will be clean.
Lev 14:10 'On the eighth day he will take two unblemished lambs, an unblemished ewe one year old, three-tenths of wheaten flour mixed with oil for the cereal offering, and one log of oil.
Lev 14:11 The priest who is performing the purification will place the person who is being purified, with all his offerings, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 14:12 He will then take one of the lambs and offer it as a sacrifice of reparation, as also the log of oil. With these he will make the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 14:13 He will then slaughter the lamb on that spot inside the holy place where the victims for the sacrifice for sin and for the burnt offering are slaughtered. This reparatory offering, like the sacrifice for sin, will revert to the priest: it is especially holy.
Lev 14:14 The priest will then take some blood of this sacrifice and put it on the lobe of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the big toe of the right foot of the person who is being purified.
Lev 14:15 He will then take the log of oil and pour a little into the hollow of his left hand.
Lev 14:16 He will dip a finger of his right hand into the oil in the hollow of his left hand, and sprinkle the oil with his finger seven times before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 14:17 He will then take some of the oil left in the hollow of his hand and put it on the lobe of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the big toe of the right foot of the person being purified, in addition to the blood of the sacrifice of reparation.
Lev 14:18 The rest of the oil in the hollow of his hand he will put on the head of the person who is being purified. This is how the priest will perform the rite of expiation for such a person before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 14:19 'The priest will then offer the sacrifice for sin, and perform the rite of expiation for uncleanness for the person who is being purified. After this, he will slaughter the burnt offering
Lev 14:20 and offer this and the cereal offering on the altar. So, when the priest has performed the rite of expiation for him the person will be clean.
Lev 14:21 'If he is poor and cannot afford all this, he need take only one lamb, the one for the sacrifice of reparation, and this will be presented with the gesture of offering to perform the rite of expiation for him. And for the cereal offering he will only take one-tenth of wheaten flour mixed with oil, and the log of oil,
Lev 14:22 and two turtledoves or two young pigeons, whichever he can afford, one for a sacrifice for sin and the other for the burnt offering.
Lev 14:23 He will bring these on the eighth day to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for his purification.
Lev 14:24 The priest will take the lamb for the sacrifice of reparation and the log of oil, and present them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with the gesture of offering.
Lev 14:25 He will then slaughter the lamb for the sacrifice of reparation, take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of the right foot of the person who is being purified.
Lev 14:26 He will pour the oil into the hollow of his left hand,
Lev 14:27 and with his finger sprinkle the oil in the hollow of his left hand seven times before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 14:28 He will then put some of the oil on the lobe of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and the big toe of the right foot of the person who is being purified, as he did with the blood of the sacrifice of reparation.
Lev 14:29 The remainder of the oil in the hollow of his hand he will put on the head of the person who is being purified, thus performing the rite of expiation for him before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 14:30 Of the two turtledoves or two young pigeons -- whatever he has been able to afford -- he will offer
Lev 14:31 a sacrifice for sin with one, and with the other a burnt offering with a cereal offering -- whatever he has been able to afford. This is how the priest will perform before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the rite of expiation for the person who is being purified.
Lev 14:32 'Such is the law concerning someone with a contagious skin-disease who cannot afford the means of purification.'
Lev 14:33 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and Aaron and said:
Lev 14:34 'When you reach Canaan, which I am giving you as your possession, if I infect a house with a disease in the country which you are to possess,
Lev 14:35 the owner will come and inform the priest and say, "I have seen something like a skin-disease in the house."
Lev 14:36 The priest will order the house to be emptied before he goes to examine the infection, or everything in the house will become unclean; after which, the priest will go inside and examine the house;
Lev 14:37 and if on examination he finds the walls of the house pitted with reddish or greenish depressions which appear to be eating away the wall,
Lev 14:38 the priest will then go out of the house, to the door, and shut it up for seven days.
Lev 14:39 On the seventh day, the priest will come back and if on examination he finds that the infection has spread over the walls of the house,
Lev 14:40 he will order the infected stones to be removed and thrown into some unclean place outside the town.
Lev 14:41 He will then have all the inside of the house scraped, and the plaster that comes off will be emptied in an unclean place outside the town.
Lev 14:42 The stones will then be replaced with new ones and the house given a new coat of plaster.
Lev 14:43 'If the infection spreads again after the stones have been removed and the house scraped and replastered,
Lev 14:44 the priest will come and examine it. If he finds that the infection has spread, this means that there is a contagious disease in the house: it is unclean.
Lev 14:45 It must be pulled down and the stones, woodwork and all the plaster be taken to an unclean place outside the town.
Lev 14:46 'Anyone who enters the house while it is closed will be unclean until evening.
Lev 14:47 Anyone who sleeps there will wash his clothes. Anyone who eats there will wash his clothes.
Lev 14:48 But if the priest finds, when he comes to examine the infection, that it has not spread in the house since it was plastered, he will declare the house clean, for the infection is cured.
Lev 14:49 'As a sacrifice for the defilement of the house, he will take two birds, some cedar wood, scarlet material and hyssop.
Lev 14:50 He will slaughter one of the birds in an earthenware pot over running water.
Lev 14:51 He will then take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet material and the live bird, dip them into the blood of the slaughtered bird and into the running water and sprinkle the house seven times;
Lev 14:52 and after offering the sacrifice for the defilement of the house with the blood of the bird, the running water, the live bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop and the scarlet material,
Lev 14:53 he will set the live bird free to fly out of the town into the countryside. Once the rite of expiation has been performed for the house in this way it will be clean.
Lev 14:54 'Such is the law governing all kinds of skin-disease and tinea,
Lev 14:55 diseases of clothing and houses,
Lev 14:56 swellings, scabs and spots. It defines the occasions when things are unclean and when clean.
Lev 14:57 Such is the law on skin-diseases.'
Lev 15:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and Aaron and said:
Lev 15:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: "When a man has a discharge from his body, that discharge is unclean.
Lev 15:3 While the discharge continues, the nature of his uncleanness is as follows: "Whether his body allows the discharge to flow or whether it retains it, he is unclean.
Lev 15:4 "Any bed the man lies on and anything he sits on will be unclean.
Lev 15:5 "Anyone who touches his bed must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:6 "Anyone who sits where the man has sat must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:7 "Anyone who touches the body of the man with the discharge must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:8 "If the man with the discharge spits on someone who is clean, that person must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:9 "Any saddle the man has ridden on will be unclean.
Lev 15:10 "All those who touch any object that has been under him will be unclean until evening. "Anyone who picks up such an object must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:11 "All those whom the man with the discharge touches without having washed his hands must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:12 "The earthenware vessel he touches must be broken and any wooden utensil must be rinsed.
Lev 15:13 "Once the man with the discharge is cured, he will allow seven days for his purification. He will wash his clothes and wash his body in running water and he will be clean.
Lev 15:14 On the eighth day he will take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and come before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and give them to the priest.
Lev 15:15 The priest will offer one of them as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a burnt offering. And in this way the priest will perform the rite of expiation for him before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his discharge.
Lev 15:16 "When a man has a seminal discharge, he must wash his whole body with water and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:17 Any clothing or leather touched by the seminal discharge must be washed and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:18 When a woman has had intercourse with a man, both of them must wash and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:19 "Whenever a woman has a discharge and the discharge from her body is of blood, she will remain in a state of menstrual pollution for seven days. "Anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:20 "Anything she lies on in this polluted state will be unclean; anything she sits on will be unclean.
Lev 15:21 "Anyone who touches her bed must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:22 "Anyone who touches anything she has sat on must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:23 If there is anything on the bed or where she is sitting, anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:24 "If a man goes so far as to sleep with her, he will contract her menstrual pollution and will be unclean for seven days. Any bed he lies on will be unclean.
Lev 15:25 "If a woman has a prolonged discharge of blood outside the period, or if the period is prolonged, during the time this discharge lasts she will be in the same state of uncleanness as during her monthly periods.
Lev 15:26 Any bed she lies on during the time this discharge lasts will be polluted in the same way as the bed she lies on during her monthly periods. Anything she sits on will be unclean as during her monthly periods.
Lev 15:27 Anyone who touches it will be unclean and must wash clothing and body and will be unclean until evening.
Lev 15:28 "Once she is cured of her discharge, she will allow seven days to go by; after that she will be clean.
Lev 15:29 On the eighth day she will take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 15:30 The priest will offer one of them as a sacrifice for sin and the other as a burnt offering. And in this way the priest will perform the rite of expiation for her before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the discharge which made her unclean.
Lev 15:31 "Hence you will warn the Israelites against contracting a state of uncleanness, rather than incurring death by defiling my Dwelling which is among them.
Lev 15:32 "Such is the law governing a man with a discharge or who is made unclean by a seminal discharge,
Lev 15:33 a woman in a state of pollution due to menstruation, a man or a woman with a discharge, or a man who sleeps with a woman when she is unclean." '
Lev 16:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron who died when offering unauthorised fire.
Lev 16:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said: 'Tell Aaron your brother that he may not enter the sanctuary inside the curtain in front of the mercy-seat on the ark whenever he chooses, in case he incurs death, for I appear in a cloud on the mercy-seat.
Lev 16:3 'This is how he must enter the sanctuary: with a young bull for a sacrifice for sin and a ram for a burnt offering.
Lev 16:4 He will put on a tunic of consecrated linen, wear linen drawers on his body, a linen waistband round his waist, and a linen turban on his head. These are the sacred vestments he will put on after washing himself.
Lev 16:5 'From the community of Israelites he will receive two he-goats for a sacrifice for sin and a ram for a burnt offering.
Lev 16:6 After offering the bull as a sacrifice for his own sin and performing the rite of expiation for himself and his family,
Lev 16:7 he will take the two he-goats and place them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Lev 16:8 Aaron will then draw lots over the two goats, one lot to be for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the other lot for Azazel.
Lev 16:9 Aaron will then take the goat on which the lot "For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)" has fallen, and offer it as a sacrifice for sin.
Lev 16:10 But the goat on which the lot "For Azazel" has fallen, will be placed alive before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the rite of expiation to be performed with it, and for it then to be sent to Azazel in the desert.
Lev 16:11 'Having offered the bull as a sacrifice for his own sin and performed the rite of expiation for himself and for his family, and slaughtered the bull as a sacrifice for sin,
Lev 16:12 Aaron will then fill a censer with live coals from the altar before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), take two handfuls of finely ground aromatic incense and bring this inside the curtain.
Lev 16:13 He will then put the incense on the fire before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), so that the cloud of incense hides the mercy-seat which is on the Testimony and he does not incur death.
Lev 16:14 He will then take some of the bull's blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the eastern side of the mercy-seat. He will sprinkle some of the blood seven times with his finger in front of the mercy-seat.
Lev 16:15 'He will then slaughter the goat for the sacrifice for the sin of the people, and take its blood inside the curtain, and with this blood do as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it on the mercy-seat and in front of it.
Lev 16:16 This is how he must perform the rite of expiation for the sanctuary for the uncleanness of the Israelites, for their acts of rebellion and all their sins. 'And this is what he must do for the Tent of Meeting which remains with them, surrounded by their uncleanness.
Lev 16:17 No one must be inside the Tent of Meeting, from the moment he enters to make expiation in the sanctuary until the time he comes out. 'When he has made expiation for himself, for his family, and for the whole community of Israel,
Lev 16:18 he must come outside, go to the altar before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and perform the rite of expiation for it. He will take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it on the horns at the corners of the altar all around it,
Lev 16:19 and sprinkle some of the blood on it seven times with his finger, thus purifying it and setting it apart from the uncleanness of the Israelites.
Lev 16:20 'Once expiation for the sanctuary, the Tent of Meeting and the altar is complete, he will bring the goat which is still alive.
Lev 16:21 Aaron will then lay both his hands on its head and over it confess all the guilt of the Israelites, all their acts of rebellion and all their sins. Having thus laid them on the goat's head, he will send it out into the desert under the charge of a man waiting ready,
Lev 16:22 and the goat will bear all their guilt away into some desolate place. 'When he has sent the goat into the desert,
Lev 16:23 Aaron will go back into the Tent of Meeting and take off the linen vestments which he wore to enter the sanctuary and leave them there.
Lev 16:24 He will then wash his body inside the holy place, put on his vestments and come outside to offer his own and the people's burnt offering. He will perform the rite of expiation for himself and for the people,
Lev 16:25 and burn the fat of the sacrifice for sin on the altar.
Lev 16:26 'The man who led the goat away to Azazel will wash his clothes and body before entering the camp.
Lev 16:27 The bull and the goat offered as a sacrifice for sin, the blood of which was taken into the sanctuary for the rite of expiation, must be taken outside the camp, where their skin, meat and offal are to be burnt.
Lev 16:28 The man who burns them will wash his clothes and body before entering the camp.
Lev 16:29 'This will be a perpetual law for you. 'On the tenth day of the seventh month you will fast and refrain from work, both citizen and resident alien;
Lev 16:30 for this is the day on which the rite of expiation will be performed for you to purify you, to purify you before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from all your sins.
Lev 16:31 It will be a sabbatical rest for you and you will fast. This is a perpetual law.
Lev 16:32 'The rite of expiation will be performed by the priest who has been anointed and installed to officiate in succession to his father. He will put on the linen vestments, the sacred vestments,
Lev 16:33 and perform the rite of expiation for the holy sanctuary, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and will then perform the rite of expiation for the priests and all the people of the community.
Lev 16:34 This will be a perpetual law for you; once a year the rite of expiation will be made for the Israelites for all their sins.' And as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered Moses, so it was done.
Lev 17:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 17:2 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and say: "This is the order that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given:
Lev 17:3 "Any man of the House of Israel who slaughters a bull, lamb or goat, whether inside the camp or outside it,
Lev 17:4 without bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to make an offering of it to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in front of his Dwelling, that man will be answerable for bloodshed; he has shed blood, and that man will be outlawed from his people.
Lev 17:5 The purpose of this is that the Israelites should instead bring their sacrifices, which they would otherwise offer in the countryside, to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, to the priest, and offer them as communion sacrifices to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Lev 17:6 and the priest will sprinkle the blood on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s altar at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and will burn the fat as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 17:7 No longer may they offer their sacrifices to the satyrs in whose service they used to prostitute themselves. This is a perpetual law for them and for their descendants."
Lev 17:8 'You will also say to them, "Any member of the House of Israel or any resident alien who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice
Lev 17:9 without bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to offer it to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will be outlawed from his people.
Lev 17:10 "If any member of the House of Israel or any resident alien consumes blood of any kind, I shall set my face against that individual who consumes blood and shall outlaw him from his people.
Lev 17:11 For the life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you for performing the rite of expiation on the altar for your lives, for blood is what expiates for a life.
Lev 17:12 That is why I told the Israelites: None of you will consume blood, nor will any resident alien consume blood.
Lev 17:13 "Anyone, whether Israelite or resident alien, who hunts and catches game, whether animal or bird, which it is lawful to eat, must pour out its blood and cover it with earth.
Lev 17:14 For the life of every creature is its blood, and I have told the Israelites: You will not consume the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood, and anyone who consumes it will be outlawed.
Lev 17:15 "Anyone, citizen or alien, who eats an animal that has died a natural death or been savaged, must wash clothing and body, and will be unclean until evening, but will then be clean.
Lev 17:16 But anyone who does not wash clothing and body will bear the consequences of his guilt." '
Lev 18:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 18:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God:
Lev 18:3 You must not behave as they do in Egypt where you used to live; you must not behave as they do in Canaan where I am taking you, nor must you follow their laws.
Lev 18:4 You must observe my customs and keep my laws, following them. "I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am your God:
Lev 18:5 hence you will keep my laws and my customs. Whoever complies with them will find life in them. "I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 18:6 "None of you will approach a woman who is closely related to him, to have intercourse with her. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 18:7 "You will not have intercourse with your father or your mother. She is your mother -- you will not have intercourse with her.
Lev 18:8 "You will not have intercourse with your father's wife; it is your father's sexual prerogative.
Lev 18:9 "You will not have intercourse with your sister, whether she is your father's or your mother's daughter. Whether she was born in the same house or elsewhere, you will not have intercourse with her.
Lev 18:10 "You will not have intercourse with your son's or your daughter's daughter; for their sexual privacy is your own.
Lev 18:11 "You will not have intercourse with the daughter of your father's wife, born to your father. She is your sister; you will not have intercourse with her.
Lev 18:12 "You will not have intercourse with your father's sister; for she is your father's own flesh and blood.
Lev 18:13 "You will not have intercourse with your mother's sister; for she is your mother's own flesh and blood.
Lev 18:14 "You will not have intercourse with your father's brother; you will not approach his wife. She is your aunt.
Lev 18:15 "You will not have intercourse with your daughter-in-law. She is your son's wife; you will not have intercourse with her.
Lev 18:16 "You will not have intercourse with your brother's wife; it is your brother's sexual prerogative.
Lev 18:17 "You will not have intercourse with a woman and her daughter; nor will you take her son's or her daughter's daughter, to have intercourse with them. They are your own flesh and blood; it would be incest.
Lev 18:18 "You will not take a woman and her sister into your harem at the same time, to have intercourse with the latter while the former is still alive.
Lev 18:19 "You will not approach and have intercourse with a woman who is in a state of menstrual pollution.
Lev 18:20 "Furthermore, you will not have intercourse with your fellow-citizen's wife; you would become unclean by doing so.
Lev 18:21 "You will not allow any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, thus profaning the name of your God. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 18:22 "You will not have intercourse with a man as you would with a woman. This is a hateful thing.
Lev 18:23 "You will not have intercourse with any kind of animal; you would become unclean by doing so. Nor will a woman offer herself to an animal, to have intercourse with it. This would be a violation of nature.
Lev 18:24 "Do not make yourselves unclean by any of these practices, for it was by such things that the nations that I am driving out before you made themselves unclean.
Lev 18:25 The country has become unclean; hence I am about to punish it for its guilt, and the country itself will vomit out its inhabitants.
Lev 18:26 "You, however, must keep my laws and customs and not do any of these hateful things: none of your citizens, none of your resident aliens.
Lev 18:27 For all these hateful things were done by the people who lived in the country before you, and the country became unclean.
Lev 18:28 If you make it unclean, will it not vomit you out as it vomited out the nations there before you?
Lev 18:29 Yes, anyone who does any of these hateful things, whatever it may be, any person doing so, will be outlawed from his people;
Lev 18:30 so keep my rules and do not observe any of the hateful laws which were in force before you came; then you will not be made unclean by them. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God." '
Lev 19:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 19:2 'Speak to the whole community of Israelites and say: "Be holy, for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, am holy.
Lev 19:3 "Each of you will respect father and mother. "And you will keep my Sabbaths; I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 19:4 "Do not turn to idols and do not cast metal gods for yourselves. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 19:5 "If you offer a communion sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), make it in such a way as to be acceptable.
Lev 19:6 It must be eaten the same day or the day after; whatever is left on the third day must be burnt.
Lev 19:7 If eaten on the third day it would be rotten food and not be acceptable.
Lev 19:8 Anyone who eats it must bear the consequences of this guilt, having profaned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s holiness; that person will be outlawed from his people.
Lev 19:9 "When you reap the harvest of your land, you will not reap to the very edges of the field, nor will you gather the gleanings of the harvest;
Lev 19:10 nor will you strip your vineyard bare, nor pick up the fallen grapes. You will leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 19:11 "You will not steal, nor deal deceitfully or fraudulently with your fellow-citizen.
Lev 19:12 You will not swear by my name with intent to deceive and thus profane the name of your God. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 19:13 You will not exploit or rob your fellow. You will not keep back the labourer's wage until next morning.
Lev 19:14 You will not curse the dumb or put an obstacle in the way of the blind, but will fear your God. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 19:15 "You will not be unjust in administering justice. You will neither be partial to the poor nor overawed by the great, but will administer justice to your fellow-citizen justly.
Lev 19:16 You will not go about slandering your own family, nor will you put your neighbor's life in jeopardy. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 19:17 You will not harbour hatred for your brother. You will reprove your fellow-countryman firmly and thus avoid burdening yourself with a sin.
Lev 19:18 You will not exact vengeance on, or bear any sort of grudge against, the members of your race, but will love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 19:19 "You will keep my laws. "You will not mate your cattle with those of another kind; you will not sow two kinds of grain in your field; you will not wear a garment made from two kinds of fabric.
Lev 19:20 "If someone has intercourse with a woman who is the concubine slave of a man from whom she has not been redeemed and she has not been given her freedom, he will be liable for a fine, but they will not incur death, since she was not a free woman.
Lev 19:21 He will bring a sacrifice of reparation for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. This will be a ram of reparation,
Lev 19:22 and with the ram of reparation the priest will perform the rite of expiation for him before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the sin committed; and the sin he has committed will be forgiven.
Lev 19:23 "Once you have entered the country and planted any kind of fruit tree, you will regard its fruit as uncircumcised. For three years you will count it as uncircumcised and it will not be eaten;
Lev 19:24 in the fourth year, all its fruit will be consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in a feast of praise;
Lev 19:25 and in the fifth year you may eat its fruit, so that it may yield you even more. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 19:26 "You will eat nothing with blood in it. You will not practise divination or magic.
Lev 19:27 "You will not round off your hair at the edges or trim the edges of your beard.
Lev 19:28 You will not gash your bodies when someone dies, and you will not tattoo yourselves. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 19:29 "Do not profane your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the country itself will become prostituted and filled with incest.
Lev 19:30 "You will keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 19:31 "Do not have recourse to the spirits of the dead or to magicians; they will defile you. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am your God.
Lev 19:32 "You will stand up in the presence of grey hair, you will honor the person of the aged and fear your God. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 19:33 "If you have resident aliens in your country, you will not molest them.
Lev 19:34 You will treat resident aliens as though they were native-born and love them as yourself -- for you yourselves were once aliens in Egypt. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 19:35 "You will not be unjust in administering justice as regards measures of length, weight or capacity.
Lev 19:36 You will have just scales, just weights, a just ephah and a just hin. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who brought you out of Egypt;
Lev 19:37 hence you are to keep all my laws and all my customs and put them into practice. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Lev 20:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 20:2 'Say to the Israelites: "Anyone, be he Israelite or alien resident in Israel, who gives any of his children to Molech, will be put to death. The people of the country must stone him,
Lev 20:3 and I shall set my face against that man and outlaw him from his people; for by giving a child of his to Molech he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.
Lev 20:4 If the people of the country choose to close their eyes to the man's action when he gives a child of his to Molech, and do not put him to death,
Lev 20:5 I myself shall turn my face against that man and his clan. I shall outlaw them from their people, both him and all those after him who prostitute themselves by following Molech.
Lev 20:6 "If anyone has recourse to the spirits of the dead or to magicians, to prostitute himself by following them, I shall set my face against him and outlaw him from his people.
Lev 20:7 "Sanctify yourselves and be holy, for I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 20:8 "You will keep my laws and put them into practice, for it is I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who make you holy.
Lev 20:9 Hence: "Anyone who curses father or mother will be put to death. Having cursed father or mother, the blood will be on that person's own head.
Lev 20:10 "The man who commits adultery with his neighbor's wife will be put to death, he and the woman.
Lev 20:11 "The man who has intercourse with his father's wife has infringed his father's sexual prerogative. Both of them will be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Lev 20:12 "The man who has intercourse with his daughter-in-law: both of them will be put to death; they have violated nature, their blood will be on their own heads.
Lev 20:13 "The man who has intercourse with a man in the same way as with a woman: they have done a hateful thing together; they will be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Lev 20:14 "The man who marries a woman and her mother: this is incest. They will be burnt alive, he and they; you will not tolerate incest.
Lev 20:15 "The man who has intercourse with an animal will be put to death; you will kill the animal too.
Lev 20:16 "The woman who approaches any animal to have intercourse with it: you will kill the woman and the animal. They will be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.
Lev 20:17 "The man who marries his father's or his mother's daughter: if they have intercourse together, this is an outrage. They will be executed in public, for the man has had intercourse with his sister; he will bear the consequences of his guilt.
Lev 20:18 "The man who has intercourse with a woman during her monthly periods and exposes her nakedness: he has laid bare the source of her blood, and she has exposed the source of her blood, and both of them will be outlawed from their people.
Lev 20:19 "You will not have intercourse with your mother's sister or your father's sister. Whoever does so, has had intercourse with a close relation; they will bear the consequences of their guilt.
Lev 20:20 "The man who has intercourse with the wife of his paternal uncle has infringed his uncle's sexual prerogative; they will bear the consequences of their guilt and die childless.
Lev 20:21 "The man who marries his brother's wife: this is pollution; he has infringed his brother's sexual prerogative; they will die childless.
Lev 20:22 "You will keep all my laws, all my decisions, and put them into practice, so that the country where I am taking you to live will not vomit you out.
Lev 20:23 You will not follow the laws of the nations whom I am driving out before you; they practised all these things, which is why I detested them.
Lev 20:24 As I have already told you, you will take possession of their soil, I myself shall give you possession of it, a country flowing with milk and honey. "Since I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, have set you apart from these peoples,
Lev 20:25 you for your part will make a distinction between clean animals and unclean ones and between unclean birds and clean ones, and will not make yourselves detestable with any animal or bird or reptile, which I have set apart from you as unclean.
Lev 20:26 "Be consecrated to me, for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am holy, and I shall set you apart from all these peoples, for you to be mine.
Lev 20:27 "Any man or woman of yours who is a necromancer or magician will be put to death; they will be stoned to death; their blood will be on their own heads." '
Lev 21:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses: 'Speak to the priests descended from Aaron and say: "None of them must make himself unclean by touching the corpse of one of his people,
Lev 21:2 unless it be of one of his closest relations-father, mother, son, daughter, brother,
Lev 21:3 or virgin sister, since she being unmarried is still his close relation: he can make himself unclean for her;
Lev 21:4 but for a close female relation who is married he will not make himself unclean; he would profane himself.
Lev 21:5 "They will not make tonsures on their heads, shave the edges of their beards, or gash their bodies.
Lev 21:6 They will be consecrated to their God and will not profane the name of their God. For their function is to offer the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the food of their God, and so they must be holy.
Lev 21:7 "They will not marry a woman profaned by prostitution, or one divorced by her husband, for the priest is consecrated to his God.
Lev 21:8 "You will treat him as holy, for he offers the food of your God. For you, he will be a holy person, for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who sanctify you, am holy.
Lev 21:9 "If a priest's daughter profanes herself by prostitution, she profanes her father and will be burnt alive.
Lev 21:10 "The priest who is pre-eminent over his brothers, on whose head the anointing oil has been poured, and who, robed in the sacred vestments, has received investiture, will not disorder his hair or tear his clothes;
Lev 21:11 he will not go near any corpse or make himself unclean even for his father or mother.
Lev 21:12 He will not leave the holy place in such a way as to profane the sanctuary of his God; for he bears the consecration of the anointing oil of his God. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 21:13 "He will marry a woman who is still a virgin.
Lev 21:14 He will not marry a woman who has been widowed or divorced or profaned by prostitution, but will marry a virgin from his own people:
Lev 21:15 he must not make his own children profane, for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have sanctified him." '
Lev 21:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 21:17 'Speak to Aaron and say: "None of your descendants, for all time, may come forward to offer the food of his God if he has any infirmity,
Lev 21:18 for none may come forward if he has an infirmity, be he blind or lame, disfigured or deformed,
Lev 21:19 or with an injured foot or arm,
Lev 21:20 a hunchback, someone with rickets or ophthalmia or the scab or running sores, or a eunuch.
Lev 21:21 No descendant of the priest Aaron may come forward to offer the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) if he has any infirmity; if he has an infirmity, he will not come forward to offer the food of his God.
Lev 21:22 "He may eat the food of his God, things especially holy and things holy,
Lev 21:23 but he will not go near the curtain or approach the altar, since he has an infirmity and must not profane my holy things; for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have sanctified them." '
Lev 21:24 And Moses promulgated this to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the Israelites.
Lev 22:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 22:2 'Speak to Aaron and his sons. They must be consecrated by the holy offerings of the Israelites and must not profane my holy name; for my sake they must sanctify it; I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:3 Say to them: "Any one of your descendants, for all time, who in a state of uncleanness approaches the holy offerings consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by the Israelites, will be outlawed from my presence. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:4 "Anyone of Aaron's line who is afflicted with a contagious skin-disease or a discharge will not eat holy things until he is clean. Anyone who touches anything made unclean by a dead body, or who has a seminal discharge,
Lev 22:5 or who is made unclean by touching any kind of reptile or any one who has contaminated him with his own uncleanness, be it what it may,
Lev 22:6 in short, anyone who has had any such contact will be unclean until evening, and must not eat holy things until he has washed his body.
Lev 22:7 At sunset he will be clean and may then eat holy things, for these are his food.
Lev 22:8 "He must not eat an animal that has died a natural death or been savaged; he would contract uncleanness from it. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:9 "They must keep my rules and not burden themselves with sin. If they profane them, they will incur death; I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have sanctified them.
Lev 22:10 "No lay person may eat anything holy; no guest or employee of a priest may eat anything holy.
Lev 22:11 But if the priest has acquired a slave by purchase, the slave may eat it like anyone born in his household; they will share his food.
Lev 22:12 "If a priest's daughter marries a layman, she will have no share in the holy things set aside,
Lev 22:13 but if she is widowed or divorced and, being childless, has had to return to her father's house as when she was young, she may share her father's food. No lay person may share it;
Lev 22:14 anyone who does eat a holy thing by inadvertence, will restore it to the priest with one-fifth added.
Lev 22:15 "They may not profane the holy offerings which the Israelites have set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:16 By eating these, they would burden them with guilt requiring a sacrifice of reparation; for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have sanctified these offerings." '
Lev 22:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 22:18 'Speak to Aaron, to his sons, and to all the Israelites and say: "Any member of the House of Israel or any alien resident in Israel who brings an offering either in payment of a vow or as a voluntary gift, and offers it as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Lev 22:19 must, if he is to be acceptable, offer an unblemished male, be it bull or sheep or goat.
Lev 22:20 You will not offer anything with a blemish, for it would not make you acceptable.
Lev 22:21 "If anyone offers Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a communion sacrifice, either to fulfill a vow or as a voluntary offering, the animal, be it from the herd or flock, must be perfect, if he is to be acceptable; it must be unblemished.
Lev 22:22 You will not offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) any animal which is blind, lame, mutilated, ulcerous, scabby or covered in sores. No part of such an animal will be offered on the altar as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:23 As a voluntary offering, you may offer a bull or a lamb that is underdeveloped or deformed; but such will not be acceptable in payment of a vow.
Lev 22:24 You will not offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) an animal if its testicles have been bruised, crushed, torn or cut off. You may not do that in your country,
Lev 22:25 and you may not accept any such from the hands of a stranger, to be offered as food for your God. Their deformity is a blemish, and they would not make you acceptable." '
Lev 22:26 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 22:27 'A calf, lamb, or kid will stay with its dam for seven days after being born. From the eighth day onwards, it will be acceptable as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:28 But no animal, whether cow or ewe, will be slaughtered on the same day as its young.
Lev 22:29 'If you offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a sacrifice with praise, do it in the acceptable manner;
Lev 22:30 it must be eaten the same day; you will leave nothing over till next morning. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:31 'You will keep my commands and put them into practice. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 22:32 You will not profane my holy name -- so that I may be honored as holy among the Israelites, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who make you holy,
Lev 22:33 I who brought you out of Egypt, to be your God, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Lev 23:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 23:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: (The solemn festivals of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to which you will summon them are my sacred assemblies.) "These are my solemn festivals:
Lev 23:3 "You will work for six days, but the seventh will be a day of complete rest, a day for the sacred assembly on which you do no work at all. Wherever you live, this is a Sabbath for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 23:4 "These are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s solemn festivals, the sacred assemblies to which you will summon the Israelites on the appointed day:
Lev 23:5 "The fourteenth day of the first month, at twilight, is the Passover of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Lev 23:6 and the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of Unleavened Bread for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). For seven days you will eat unleavened bread.
Lev 23:7 On the first day you will hold a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work.
Lev 23:8 For seven days you will offer food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). On the seventh day there will be a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work." '
Lev 23:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 23:10 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "When you enter the country which I am giving you and reap the harvest there, you will bring the priest the first sheaf of your harvest,
Lev 23:11 and he will present it to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with the gesture of offering, for you to be acceptable. The priest will make this offering on the day after the Sabbath,
Lev 23:12 and on the same day as you make this offering, you will offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) an unblemished lamb one year old as a burnt offering.
Lev 23:13 The cereal offering for that day will be two-tenths of wheaten flour mixed with oil, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). The libation will be a quarter of a hin of wine.
Lev 23:14 You will eat no bread, roasted ears of wheat or fresh produce before this day, before making the offering to your God. This is a perpetual law for all your descendants, wherever you live.
Lev 23:15 "From the day after the Sabbath, the day on which you bring the sheaf of offering, you will count seven full weeks.
Lev 23:16 You will count fifty days, to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then you will offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a new cereal offering.
Lev 23:17 You will bring bread from your homes to present with the gesture of offering -- two loaves, made of two-tenths of wheaten flour baked with leaven; these are first-fruits for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 23:18 In addition to the bread, you will offer seven unblemished lambs a year old, a young bull and two rams, as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with a cereal offering and a libation, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 23:19 You will also offer a goat as a sacrifice for sin, and two lambs a year old as communion sacrifice.
Lev 23:20 The priest will present them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with the gesture of offering, in addition to the bread of the first-fruits. These, and the two lambs, are holy things for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and will revert to the priest.
Lev 23:21 "On the same day, you will hold an assembly; for you this will be a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work. This is a perpetual law for your descendants, wherever you live.
Lev 23:22 "When you reap the harvest in your country, you will not reap to the very edges of your field, nor will you gather the gleanings of the harvest. You will leave them for the poor and the stranger. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God." '
Lev 23:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 23:24 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "The first day of the seventh month will be a day of rest for you, of remembrance and acclamation, a sacred assembly.
Lev 23:25 You will do no heavy work and you will offer food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Lev 23:26 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 23:27 'But the tenth day of this seventh month will be the Day of Expiation. You will hold a sacred assembly. You will fast and offer food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 23:28 You will do no work that day, for it is the Day of Expiation, on which the rite of expiation will be performed for you before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 23:29 Anyone who fails to fast that day will be outlawed from his people;
Lev 23:30 anyone who works that day I shall eliminate from his people.
Lev 23:31 No work will be done -- this is a perpetual law for your descendants wherever you live.
Lev 23:32 It must be a day of complete rest for you. You will fast; on the evening of the ninth day of the month, from this evening till the following evening, you will rest completely.'
Lev 23:33 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 23:34 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "On the fifteenth day of this seventh month there will be the feast of Shelters for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), lasting for seven days.
Lev 23:35 The first day will be a day of sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work.
Lev 23:36 For seven days you will offer food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). On the eighth day you will hold a sacred assembly and you will offer food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). It is a day of solemn meeting; you will do no heavy work.
Lev 23:37 "These are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s solemn festivals to which you will summon the Israelites, the sacred assemblies for the purpose of offering food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), consisting of burnt offerings, cereal offerings, sacrifices and libations, each on its appropriate day,
Lev 23:38 besides Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Sabbaths, and your presents and all your votive and voluntary gifts that you make to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 23:39 "But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you will celebrate the feast of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for seven days. The first and eighth days will be days of rest.
Lev 23:40 On the first day you will take choice fruit, palm branches, boughs of leafy trees and flowering shrubs from the river bank, and for seven days enjoy yourselves before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 23:41 You will celebrate a feast for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in this way for seven days every year. This is a perpetual law for your descendants. "You will keep this feast in the seventh month.
Lev 23:42 For seven days you will live in shelters: all the citizens of Israel will live in shelters,
Lev 23:43 so that your descendants may know that I made the Israelites live in shelters when I brought them out of Egypt, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God." '
Lev 23:44 Moses then promulgated Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s solemn festivals to the Israelites.
Lev 24:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 24:2 'Order the Israelites to bring you crushed-olive oil for the lamp-stand, and keep a flame burning there continually.
Lev 24:3 Aaron will keep it permanently in trim from evening to morning, outside the curtain of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is a perpetual decree for your descendants:
Lev 24:4 Aaron will keep the lamps permanently trimmed on the pure lamp-stand before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 24:5 'You will take wheaten flour and with it bake twelve loaves, each of two-tenths of an ephah.
Lev 24:6 You will then place them in two rows of six on the pure table before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)
Lev 24:7 and put pure incense on each row, to make it food offered as a memorial, food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 24:8 Every Sabbath they will be arranged before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). The Israelites will provide them as a permanent covenant.
Lev 24:9 They will belong to Aaron and his sons, who will eat them inside the holy place since, for him, they are an especially holy part of the food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is a permanent law.'
Lev 24:10 There was a man whose mother was an Israelite woman and whose father was an Egyptian. He came out of his house and, in the camp, surrounded by the Israelites, he began to quarrel with a man who was an Israelite.
Lev 24:11 Now the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name and cursed it. He was then taken to Moses (his mother's name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan).
Lev 24:12 He was then put under guard until Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s will should be made clear to them.
Lev 24:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 24:14 'Take the man who pronounced the curse outside the camp. All those who heard him must then lay their hands on his head, and the whole community must then stone him.
Lev 24:15 Then say to the Israelites: "Anyone who curses his God will bear the consequences of his sin,
Lev 24:16 and anyone who blasphemes the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be put to death; the whole community will stone him; be he alien or native-born, if he blasphemes the Name, he will be put to death.
Lev 24:17 "Anyone who strikes down any other human being will be put to death.
Lev 24:18 "Anyone who strikes down an animal will make restitution for it: a life for a life.
Lev 24:19 "Anyone who injures a neighbor shall receive the same in return,
Lev 24:20 broken limb for broken limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As the injury inflicted, so will be the injury suffered.
Lev 24:21 Whoever strikes down an animal will make restitution for it, and whoever strikes down a human being will be put to death.
Lev 24:22 The sentence you pass will be the same, whether on native-born or on alien; for I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God." '
Lev 24:23 Moses having told the Israelites this, they took the man who had pronounced the curse out of the camp and stoned him. And so the Israelites carried out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order to Moses.
Lev 25:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai and said:
Lev 25:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them: "When you enter the country which I am giving you, the land must keep a Sabbath's rest for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 25:3 For six years you will sow your field, for six years you will prune your vineyard and gather its produce.
Lev 25:4 But in the seventh year the land will have a sabbatical rest, a Sabbath for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). You will neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard,
Lev 25:5 nor reap any grain which has grown of its own accord, nor gather the grapes from your untrimmed vine. It will be a year of rest for the land.
Lev 25:6 But what the land produces in its Sabbath will serve to feed you, your slave, male or female, your employee and your guest residing with you;
Lev 25:7 for your cattle too, and the wild animals of your country, whatever it produces will serve as food.
Lev 25:8 "You will count seven weeks of years -- seven times seven years, that is to say a period of seven weeks of years, forty-nine years.
Lev 25:9 And on the tenth day of the seventh month you will sound the trumpet; on the Day of Expiation you will sound the trumpet throughout the land.
Lev 25:10 You will declare this fiftieth year to be sacred and proclaim the liberation of all the country's inhabitants. You will keep this as a jubilee: each of you will return to his ancestral property, each to his own clan.
Lev 25:11 This fiftieth year will be a jubilee year for you; in it you will not sow, you will not harvest the grain that has come up on its own or in it gather grapes from your untrimmed vine.
Lev 25:12 The jubilee will be a holy thing for you; during it you will eat whatever the fields produce.
Lev 25:13 "In this year of jubilee, each of you will return to his ancestral property.
Lev 25:14 If you buy land from, or sell land to, your fellow-countryman, neither of you may exploit the other.
Lev 25:15 In buying from your fellow-countryman, you will take account of the number of years since the jubilee; the sale-price he fixes for you will depend on the number of productive years still to run.
Lev 25:16 The greater the number of years, the higher the price you will ask for it; the fewer the number of years, the greater the reduction; for what he is selling you is a certain number of harvests.
Lev 25:17 So you will not exploit one another, but fear your God, for I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Lev 25:18 "Hence, you will put my laws and customs into practice; you will keep them and put them into practice, and you will live securely in the country.
Lev 25:19 The land will give its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live in security.
Lev 25:20 "In case you should ask: What shall we eat in this seventh year if we do not sow or harvest our produce?
Lev 25:21 I shall order my blessing to be on you in the sixth year, which will yield you enough produce for three years.
Lev 25:22 You will have the old produce to eat while you are sowing in the eighth year, and even in the ninth year, you will be eating the old produce, while waiting for the harvest of that year.
Lev 25:23 "Land will not be sold absolutely, for the land belongs to me, and you are only strangers and guests of mine.
Lev 25:24 You will allow a right of redemption over any ancestral property.
Lev 25:25 If your brother becomes impoverished and sells off part of his ancestral property, his nearest male relative will come and exercise his family rights over what his brother has sold.
Lev 25:26 The man who has no one to exercise this right may, once he has found the means to effect the redemption,
Lev 25:27 calculate the number of years that the alienation would have lasted, repay to the purchaser the sum due for the time still to run, and so recover his ancestral property.
Lev 25:28 If he cannot find the sum in compensation, the property sold will remain in the possession of the purchaser until the jubilee year. In the jubilee year, the latter will vacate it and return to his own ancestral property.
Lev 25:29 "If anyone sells a dwelling house inside a walled town, he will have the right of redemption until the expiry of the year following the sale. His right of redemption is limited to the year;
Lev 25:30 and if the redemption has not been effected by the end of the year, the house in the walled town will become the property of the purchaser and his descendants in perpetuity; he need not vacate it at the jubilee.
Lev 25:31 But houses in villages not enclosed by walls will be considered as situated in the open country; they carry the right of redemption, and the purchaser will vacate them at the jubilee.
Lev 25:32 "As regards the towns of the Levites, town houses forming part of their ancestral property will carry a perpetual right of redemption in their favor.
Lev 25:33 If a Levite is the one to be affected by the right of redemption, at the jubilee he will vacate the purchased property and return to his own home, to the town in which he has a title to property. The houses in the Levites' towns represent their ancestral property in Israel,
Lev 25:34 and the arable land depending on these towns cannot be sold, being their ancestral property for ever.
Lev 25:35 "If your brother becomes impoverished and cannot support himself in the community, you will assist him as you would a stranger or guest, so that he can go on living with you.
Lev 25:36 Do not charge him interest on a loan, but fear your God, and let your brother live with you.
Lev 25:37 You will not lend him money on interest or give him food to make a profit out of it.
Lev 25:38 I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and be your God.
Lev 25:39 "If your brother becomes impoverished while with you and sells himself to you, you will not make him do the work of a slave;
Lev 25:40 you will treat him like an employee or guest, and he will work for you until the jubilee year.
Lev 25:41 He will then leave you, both he and his children, and return to his clan and regain possession of his ancestral property.
Lev 25:42 For they are my servants whom I have brought out of Egypt, and they may not be bought and sold as slaves.
Lev 25:43 You will not oppress your brother-Israelites harshly but will fear your God.
Lev 25:44 "The male and female slaves you have will come from the nations round you; from these you may purchase male and female slaves.
Lev 25:45 As slaves, you may also purchase the children of aliens resident among you, and also members of their families living with you who have been born on your soil; and they will become your property,
Lev 25:46 and you may leave them as a legacy to your sons after you as their perpetual possession. These you may have for slaves; but you will not oppress your brother-Israelites.
Lev 25:47 "If a stranger or guest living with you gets rich and your brother, in the course of dealings with him, becomes impoverished and sells himself to this stranger or guest, or to the descendant of a stranger's family,
Lev 25:48 he will enjoy the right of redemption after being sold, and one of his brothers may redeem him.
Lev 25:49 His paternal uncle, his uncle's son, or a member of his own family may redeem him; if he has the means, he may redeem himself.
Lev 25:50 By agreement with his purchaser, he will count the number of years between the year of sale and the jubilee year; his sale-price will be proportionate to the number of years, his time being valued as that of an employee.
Lev 25:51 If there are still many years to run, in proportion to their number he will refund part of his sale-price as payment for his redemption.
Lev 25:52 And if there are only a few years still to run before the jubilee year, he will calculate with him what should be refunded for his redemption, in proportion to their number,
Lev 25:53 as though he were hired by the year. You will see to it that he is not harshly oppressed.
Lev 25:54 "If he has not been redeemed in any of these ways, he will go free in the jubilee year, both he and his children;
Lev 25:55 for the Israelites are my servants; they are my servants whom I brought out of Egypt. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God." '
Lev 26:1 ' "You will not make idols for yourselves; you will not erect statues or cultic stones, or erect carved stones in your country, for you to worship: for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am your God.
Lev 26:2 You will keep my Sabbaths and revere my sanctuary. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 26:3 "If you live according to my laws, if you keep my commandments and put them into practice,
Lev 26:4 I shall give you the rain you need at the right time; the soil will yield its produce and the trees of the countryside their fruit;
Lev 26:5 you will thresh until vintage time and gather grapes until sowing time. You will eat your fill of bread and live secure in your land.
Lev 26:6 "I shall give peace in the land, and you will go to sleep with no one to frighten you. I shall rid the land of beasts of prey. The sword will not pass through your land.
Lev 26:7 You will pursue your enemies and they will fall before your sword;
Lev 26:8 five of you pursuing a hundred of them, one hundred pursuing ten thousand; and your enemies will fall before your sword.
Lev 26:9 "I shall turn towards you, I shall make you fertile and make your numbers grow, and I shall uphold my covenant with you.
Lev 26:10 "Having eaten all you need of last year's harvest, you will throw out the old to make room for the new.
Lev 26:11 "I shall fix my home among you and never reject you.
Lev 26:12 I shall live among you; I shall be your God and you will be my people,
Lev 26:13 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you should be their slaves no longer, and who broke the bonds of your yoke and made you walk with head held high.
Lev 26:14 "But if you will not listen to me and do not put all these commandments into practice,
Lev 26:15 if you reject my laws and detest my customs, and you break my covenant by not putting all my commandments into practice,
Lev 26:16 this is how I shall treat you: "I shall subject you to terror, consumption and fever, making you dim of sight and short of breath. You will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
Lev 26:17 I shall turn against you and you will be defeated by your enemies. Your foes will have the mastery over you, and you will flee when no one is pursuing you.
Lev 26:18 "And if, in spite of this, you will not listen to me, I shall punish you seven times over for your sins.
Lev 26:19 I shall break your proud strength. I shall make the sky like iron for you, and your soil like bronze.
Lev 26:20 You will wear out your strength in vain, your land will not yield its produce, nor the trees of the country their fruit.
Lev 26:21 "And if you go against me and will not listen to me, I shall heap seven times more plagues on you for your sins.
Lev 26:22 I shall send wild animals to attack you and rob you of your children, destroy your cattle and reduce your numbers until your roads are deserted.
Lev 26:23 "And if that does not reform you, and you still go against me,
Lev 26:24 then I shall go against you and punish you another seven times over for your sins.
Lev 26:25 I shall bring the sword on you, which will avenge the covenant, and when you huddle inside your towns, I shall send pestilence among you, and you will fall into the enemy's clutches.
Lev 26:26 When I take away the bread which supports you, ten women will be able to bake your bread in one oven and will then dole your bread out by weight; you will eat but not be satisfied.
Lev 26:27 "And if, in spite of this, you will not listen to me but go against me,
Lev 26:28 I shall go against you in fury and punish you seven times over for your sins.
Lev 26:29 You will eat the flesh of your own sons, you will eat the flesh of your own daughters.
Lev 26:30 I shall destroy your high places and smash your incense-altars; I shall pile your corpses on the corpses of your foul idols and shall reject you.
Lev 26:31 I shall reduce your cities to ruins; I shall lay waste your sanctuary and refuse to inhale from you smells intended to please.
Lev 26:32 I shall make such a desolation of the country that your enemies who come to live there will be appalled by it.
Lev 26:33 And I shall scatter you among the nations. I shall unsheathe the sword against you, reducing your country to desert and your towns to ruins.
Lev 26:34 Then the country will indeed observe its Sabbaths, all the while it lies deserted, while you are in the country of your enemies. Then indeed the country will rest and observe its Sabbaths.
Lev 26:35 And as it lies deserted it will rest, as it never did on your Sabbaths when you were living there.
Lev 26:36 I shall strike such fear into the hearts of those of you who survive in the countries of their enemies that the sound of a falling leaf will set them fleeing; they will flee as though fleeing from the sword, and fall when no one is pursuing.
Lev 26:37 They will stumble over one another as though fleeing before the sword, when no one is pursuing. You will be powerless to stand up to your enemies;
Lev 26:38 you will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will swallow you up.
Lev 26:39 Those of you who survive will pine away in their guilt in the countries of their enemies and, bearing the guilt of their ancestors too, will pine away like them.
Lev 26:40 "Then they shall admit their guilt and that of their ancestors and their infidelities against me, and further, their setting themselves against me.
Lev 26:41 "I in my turn will go against them and bring them into the land of their enemies. Then their uncircumcised hearts will grow humble and then they will accept the punishment for their guilt.
Lev 26:42 I shall remember my covenant with Jacob, I shall remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham; and I shall remember the country too.
Lev 26:43 "Abandoned, the country will keep its Sabbaths, as it lies deserted in their absence, and they will have to accept the punishment for their guilt, since they detested my customs and rejected my laws.
Lev 26:44 "Yet, in spite of all this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I shall not so utterly reject or detest them as to destroy them completely and break my covenant with them; for I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.
Lev 26:45 For their sake I shall remember the covenant I made with those first generations that I brought out of Egypt while other nations watched, so that I should be their God, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Lev 26:46 Such were the decrees, customs and laws which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) established between himself and the Israelites on Mount Sinai through Moses.
Lev 27:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Lev 27:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "If anyone vows the value of a person to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and wishes to discharge the vow:
Lev 27:3 "a man between twenty and sixty years of age will be valued at fifty silver shekels -- the sanctuary shekel;
Lev 27:4 a woman will be valued at thirty shekels;
Lev 27:5 "between five and twenty years, a boy will be valued at twenty shekels, a girl at ten shekels;
Lev 27:6 "between one month and five years, a boy will be valued at five silver shekels, a girl at three silver shekels;
Lev 27:7 "at sixty years and over, a man will be valued at fifteen shekels and a woman at ten shekels.
Lev 27:8 "If the person who made the vow cannot meet this valuation, he will present the person concerned to the priest, and the priest will set a value proportionate to the resources of the person who made the vow.
Lev 27:9 "In the case of an animal suitable for offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), any such animal given to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be holy.
Lev 27:10 It cannot be exchanged or replaced, a good one instead of a bad one, or a bad one instead of a good one. If one animal is substituted for another, both of them will become holy.
Lev 27:11 In the case of an unclean animal unsuitable for offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), whatever it may be, it will be presented to the priest
Lev 27:12 and he will set a value on it, in relation to its worth. His valuation will be decisive;
Lev 27:13 but if the person wishes to redeem it, he will add one-fifth to the valuation.
Lev 27:14 "If a man consecrates his house to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the priest will set a value on it, in relation to its worth. His valuation will be decisive.
Lev 27:15 If the man who has vowed his house wishes to redeem it, he will add one-fifth to the valuation, and it will revert to him.
Lev 27:16 "If a man consecrates one of the fields of his ancestral property to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), its value will be calculated in terms of its yield, at the rate of fifty silver shekels to one homer of barley.
Lev 27:17 "If he consecrates the field during the jubilee year, he will abide by this valuation.
Lev 27:18 But if he consecrates it after the jubilee, the priest will calculate the price in terms of the number of years still to run until the next jubilee and the valuation will be reduced accordingly.
Lev 27:19 "If he wishes to redeem the field, he will add one-fifth to the valuation, and the field will revert to him.
Lev 27:20 If he does not redeem it but sells it to someone else, the right of redemption ceases;
Lev 27:21 when the purchaser has to vacate it at the jubilee year, it becomes consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), like a field vowed unconditionally; ownership of it passes to the priest.
Lev 27:22 "If he consecrates to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a field which he has bought, but which is not part of his ancestral property,
Lev 27:23 the priest will calculate the valuation in terms of the number of years still to run before the jubilee year; and the man will pay this sum the same day since it is consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 27:24 In the jubilee year the field will revert to the vendor, the man to whose ancestral property the land belongs.
Lev 27:25 All your valuations will be made in sanctuary shekels, at the rate of twenty gerah to the shekel.
Lev 27:26 "The first-born of livestock is born to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); no one may consecrate it, whether it be cattle or sheep, for it belongs to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) anyway.
Lev 27:27 But if it is an unclean animal, it may be redeemed at the valuation price with one-fifth added; if the animal is not redeemed, it will be sold at the valuation price.
Lev 27:28 "Nothing, however, that someone vows unconditionally to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) may be redeemed, nothing he possesses, be it a human being or animal or field of his ancestral property. What is vowed unconditionally is especially holy and belongs to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 27:29 A human being vowed unconditionally cannot be redeemed but will be put to death.
Lev 27:30 "All tithes on land, levied on the produce of the soil or on the fruit of trees, belong to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); they are consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lev 27:31 If anyone wishes to redeem part of his tithe, he will add one-fifth to its value.
Lev 27:32 "In all tithes on herds or flocks, the tenth animal of all that pass under the herdsman's staff will be consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Lev 27:33 there will be no examining whether it is good or bad, and no substitution. If substitution takes place, the animal and its substitute will both become holy without possibility of redemption." '
Lev 27:34 Such were the orders which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave Moses on Mount Sinai for the Israelites.
Num 1:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses, in the desert of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after the exodus from Egypt, and said:
Num 1:2 'Take a census of the whole community of Israelites by clans and families, taking a count of the names of all the males, head by head.
Num 1:3 You and Aaron will register all those in Israel, twenty years of age and over, fit to bear arms, company by company;
Num 1:4 you will have one man from each tribe, the head of his family, to help you.
Num 1:5 'These are the names of those who must help you: For Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur.
Num 1:6 For Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.
Num 1:7 For Judah, Nahshon son of Amminadab.
Num 1:8 For Issachar, Nethanel son of Zuar.
Num 1:9 For Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon.
Num 1:10 Of the sons of Joseph: for Ephraim, Elishama son of Ammihud; for Manasseh, Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.
Num 1:11 For Benjamin, Abidan son of Gideoni.
Num 1:12 For Dan, Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
Num 1:13 For Asher, Pagiel son of Ochran.
Num 1:14 For Gad, Eliasaph son of Reuel.
Num 1:15 For Naphtali, Ahira son of Enan.'
Num 1:16 These were men of repute in the community; they were the leaders of their ancestral tribes, the heads of Israel's thousands.
Num 1:17 Moses and Aaron took these men who had been named
Num 1:18 and on the first day of the second month they mustered the whole community. The Israelites established their pedigrees by clans and families, and one by one the names of all men of twenty years and over were recorded.
Num 1:19 As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered, Moses registered them in the desert of Sinai.
Num 1:20 Once the pedigrees of the descendants of Reuben, Israel's first-born, had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:21 The total of these for the tribe of Reuben was forty-six thousand five hundred.
Num 1:22 Once the pedigrees of Simeon's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:23 The total of these for the tribe of Simeon was fifty-nine thousand three hundred.
Num 1:24 Once the pedigrees of Gad's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:25 The total of these for the tribe of Gad was forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty.
Num 1:26 Once the pedigrees of Judah's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:27 The total of these for the tribe of Judah was seventy-four thousand six hundred.
Num 1:28 Once the pedigrees of Issachar's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:29 The total of these for the tribe of Issachar was fifty-four thousand four hundred.
Num 1:30 Once the pedigrees of Zebulun's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:31 The total of these for the tribe of Zebulun was fifty-seven thousand four hundred.
Num 1:32 As regards the descendants of Joseph: once the pedigrees of Ephraim's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:33 The total of these for the tribe of Ephraim was forty thousand five hundred.
Num 1:34 Once the pedigrees of Manasseh's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:35 The total of these for the tribe of Manasseh was thirty-two thousand two hundred.
Num 1:36 Once the pedigrees of Benjamin's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:37 The total of these for the tribe of Benjamin was thirty-five thousand four hundred.
Num 1:38 Once the pedigrees of Dan's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:39 The total of these for the tribe of Dan was sixty-two thousand seven hundred.
Num 1:40 Once the pedigrees of Asher's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:41 The total of these for the tribe of Asher was forty-one thousand five hundred.
Num 1:42 Once the pedigrees of Naphtali's descendants had been established by clans and families, the names of all the males of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were recorded one by one.
Num 1:43 The total of these for the tribe of Naphtali was fifty-three thousand four hundred.
Num 1:44 Such were the men registered by Moses, Aaron and the leaders of Israel, of whom there were twelve, each representing his family.
Num 1:45 All the Israelites of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms, were counted by families.
Num 1:46 Altogether, the total came to six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.
Num 1:47 But the Levites and their tribes were not included in the count.
Num 1:48 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 1:49 'Do not, however, take a census of the Levites, or register them with the other Israelites,
Num 1:50 but enrol the Levites to take charge of the Dwelling where the Testimony is and of all its furnishings and belongings. They must carry the Dwelling and all its furnishings; they must look after the Dwelling and pitch their camp round it.
Num 1:51 Whenever the Dwelling is moved, the Levites will dismantle it; whenever the Dwelling stops for the night, the Levites will erect it. Any unauthorised person coming near it will be put to death.
Num 1:52 The Israelites will pitch their tents, each in their own encampment and by their own standard, company by company,
Num 1:53 but the Levites will pitch their tents round the Dwelling where the Testimony is. In this way Retribution will be kept from falling on the whole community of Israelites, and the Levites will keep charge of the Dwelling of the Testimony.'
Num 1:54 The Israelites did exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses. They did as he said.
Num 2:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and to Aaron and said:
Num 2:2 'The Israelites must pitch their tents, each man by his own standard, under their family emblems. They must pitch their tents round the Dwelling where the Testimony is, some distance away.
Num 2:3 'Encamped on the east side: 'Furthest towards the east, the standard of the camp of Judah, unit by unit. Leader of the Judahites: Nahshon son of Amminadab.
Num 2:4 His company: seventy-four thousand six hundred men.
Num 2:5 'Next to him: 'The tribe of Issachar. Leader of the Issacharites: Nethanel son of Zuar.
Num 2:6 His company: fifty-four thousand four hundred men.
Num 2:7 'The tribe of Zebulun. Leader of the Zebulunites: Eliab son of Helon.
Num 2:8 His company: fifty-seven thousand four hundred men.
Num 2:9 'The tribal forces in the camp of Judah number in all a hundred and eighty-six thousand four hundred. These will be the first to break camp.
Num 2:10 'On the south side, the standard of the camp of Reuben, unit by unit. Leader of the Reubenites: Elizur son of Shedeur.
Num 2:11 His company: forty-six thousand five hundred men.
Num 2:12 'Next to him: 'The tribe of Simeon. Leader of the Simeonites: Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.
Num 2:13 His company: fifty-nine thousand three hundred men.
Num 2:14 'The tribe of Gad. Leader of the Gadites: Eliasaph son of Reuel.
Num 2:15 His company: forty-five thousand six hundred and fifty men.
Num 2:16 'The tribal forces in the camp of Reuben number in all a hundred and fifty-one thousand four hundred and fifty. They will be second to break camp.
Num 2:17 'Next, the Tent of Meeting will move, since the camp of the Levites is situated in the middle of the other camps. The order of movement will be the order of encampment, each man under his own standard.
Num 2:18 'On the west side, the standard of the camp of Ephraim, unit by unit. Leader of the Ephraimites: Elishama son of Ammihud.
Num 2:19 His company: forty thousand five hundred men.
Num 2:20 'Next to him: 'The tribe of Manasseh. Leader of the Manassehites: Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.
Num 2:21 His company: thirty-two thousand two hundred men.
Num 2:22 'The tribe of Benjamin. Leader of the Benjaminites: Abidan son of Gideoni.
Num 2:23 His company: thirty-five thousand four hundred men.
Num 2:24 'The tribal forces in the camp of Ephraim number in all a hundred and eight thousand one hundred. They will be third to break camp.
Num 2:25 'On the north side, the standard of the camp of Dan, unit by unit. Leader of the Danites: Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
Num 2:26 His company: sixty-two thousand seven hundred men.
Num 2:27 'Next to him: 'The tribe of Asher. Leader of the Asherites: Pagiel son of Ochran.
Num 2:28 His company: forty-one thousand five hundred men.
Num 2:29 'The tribe of Naphtali. Leader of the Naphtalites: Ahira son of Enan.
Num 2:30 His company: fifty-three thousand four hundred men.
Num 2:31 'The tribal forces in the camp of Dan number in all a hundred and fifty-seven thousand six hundred. They will be the last to break camp. 'All under their appropriate standards.'
Num 2:32 Such was the tally of the Israelites when the census was taken by families. The full count of the entire camp, unit by unit, came to six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty.
Num 2:33 But, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses, the Levites were not included in the census of the Israelites.
Num 2:34 The Israelites did exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses. This was how they pitched camp, grouped by standards. This was how they broke camp, each man in his own clan, each man with his own family.
Num 3:1 These were the descendants of Aaron and Moses, at the time when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Num 3:2 These were the names of Aaron's sons: Nadab the eldest, then Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Num 3:3 Such were the names of Aaron's sons, priests anointed and invested with the powers of the priesthood.
Num 3:4 Nadab and Abihu died in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, in the desert of Sinai, when they offered unauthorised fire before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). They left no children and so it fell to Eleazar and Ithamar to exercise the priesthood under their father Aaron.
Num 3:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 3:6 'Muster the tribe of Levi and put it at the disposal of the priest Aaron: they must be at his service.
Num 3:7 They will undertake the duties incumbent on him and the whole community before the Tent of Meeting, in serving the Dwelling,
Num 3:8 and they will be in charge of all the furnishings of the Tent of Meeting and undertake the duties incumbent on the Israelites in serving the Dwelling.
Num 3:9 You will present the Levites to Aaron and his sons as men dedicated; they will be given to him by the Israelites.
Num 3:10 'You will register Aaron and his sons, who will carry out their priestly duty. But any unauthorised person who comes near must be put to death.'
Num 3:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 3:12 'Look, I myself have chosen the Levites from the Israelites instead of all the first-born, those who emerge first from the womb in Israel; the Levites therefore belong to me.
Num 3:13 For every first-born belongs to me. On the day when I struck down all the first-born in Egypt, I consecrated all the first-born in Israel, human and animal, to be my own. They are mine, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s.'
Num 3:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses in the desert of Sinai and said:
Num 3:15 'You must take a census of Levi's descendants by families and clans; all the males of the age of one month and over will be counted.'
Num 3:16 At Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word Moses took a census of them, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered.
Num 3:17 These were the names of Levi's sons: Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
Num 3:18 These were the names of Gershon's sons by their clans: Libni and Shimei;
Num 3:19 Kohath's sons by their clans: Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel;
Num 3:20 Merari's sons by their clans: Mahli and Mushi. These were the clans of Levi, grouped by families.
Num 3:21 From Gershon were descended the Libnite and Shimeite clans; these were the Gershonite clans.
Num 3:22 Their full number, counting the males of one month and over, came to seven thousand five hundred.
Num 3:23 The Gershonite clans pitched their camp behind the Dwelling, on the west side.
Num 3:24 The leader of the House of Gershon was Eliasaph son of Lael.
Num 3:25 As regards the Tent of Meeting, the Gershonites had charge of the Dwelling, the Tent and its covering, the screen for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,
Num 3:26 the curtaining of the court, the screen for the entrance to the court surrounding the Dwelling and the altar, and the cords required in dealing with all this.
Num 3:27 From Kohath were descended the Amramite, Izharite, Hebronite and Uzzielite clans; these were the Kohathite clans.
Num 3:28 Their full number, counting the males of one month and over, came to eight thousand three hundred. They were in charge of the sanctuary.
Num 3:29 The Kohathite clans pitched their camp on the south side of the Dwelling.
Num 3:30 The leader of the house of the Kohathite clans was Elizaphan son of Uzziel.
Num 3:31 They were in charge of the ark, the table, the lamp-stand, the altars, the sacred vessels used in the liturgy, and the curtain with all its fittings.
Num 3:32 The chief of the Levite leaders was Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest. He supervised the people responsible for the sanctuary.
Num 3:33 From Merari were descended the Mahlite and Mushite clans; these were the Merarite clans.
Num 3:34 Their full number, counting the males of one month and over, came to six thousand two hundred.
Num 3:35 The leader of the House of the Merarite clans was Zuriel, son of Abihail. They pitched their camp on the north side of the Dwelling.
Num 3:36 The Merarites were in charge of the framework of the Dwelling, with its crossbars, poles, sockets and all its accessories and fittings,
Num 3:37 and also the poles round the court, with their sockets, pegs and cords.
Num 3:38 Finally, on the east side, in front of the Dwelling, in front of the Tent of Meeting, towards the east, was the camp of Moses and Aaron and his sons, who had charge of the sanctuary on behalf of the Israelites. Any unauthorised person coming near was to be put to death.
Num 3:39 The total number of male Levites of the age of one month and over, whom Moses counted by clans as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered, came to twenty-two thousand.
Num 3:40 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses: 'Take a census of all the first-born of the Israelites, all the males from the age of one month and over; take a census of them by name.
Num 3:41 You will then present the Levites to me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), instead of Israel, and similarly the Levites' cattle instead of the first-born cattle of the Israelites.'
Num 3:42 As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered, Moses took a census of all the first-born of the Israelites.
Num 3:43 The total count, by name, of the first-born from the age of one month and over came to twenty-two thousand two hundred and seventy-three.
Num 3:44 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said:
Num 3:45 'Take the Levites instead of all the first-born of the Israelites, and the Levites' cattle instead of their cattle; the Levites will be mine, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s.
Num 3:46 For the ransom of the two hundred and seventy-three first-born of the Israelites in excess of the number of Levites,
Num 3:47 you will take five shekels for each, by the sanctuary shekel, at twenty gerah to the shekel;
Num 3:48 you will then give this money to Aaron and his sons as the ransom for the extra number.'
Num 3:49 Moses took the ransom money for the extra ones unransomed by the Levites;
Num 3:50 he took the money for the first-born of the Israelites: one thousand three hundred and sixty-five shekels, by the sanctuary shekel;
Num 3:51 and Moses then handed over their ransom money to Aaron and his sons, at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s bidding, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 4:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 4:2 'Take a census by clans and families of the Levites descended from Kohath:
Num 4:3 all the men between thirty and fifty years of age and eligible for military service, who will have their duties in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 4:4 'These are the duties of the Kohathites: looking after those things that are especially holy.
Num 4:5 'When camp is broken, Aaron and his sons must come and take down the screening curtain, and cover the ark of the Testimony with it.
Num 4:6 Over this, they will put a covering of fine leather, over which they will spread a cloth entirely of violet-purple. They will then fix the poles to the ark.
Num 4:7 'Over the offertory table they will spread a violet cloth, and on it put the dishes, cups, bowls and libation jars; the bread of permanent offering will also be on it.
Num 4:8 Over these they will spread a scarlet cloth and cover the whole with a covering of fine leather. They will then fix the poles to the table.
Num 4:9 'They will then take a violet cloth and cover the lamp-stand, its lamps, snuffers, trays and all the oil jars used for it,
Num 4:10 and will lay it and all its accessories in a covering of fine leather and put it on the litter.
Num 4:11 'Over the golden altar they will spread a violet cloth, and cover that with a covering of fine leather. They will then fix the poles to it.
Num 4:12 'They will then take all the other objects used in the service of the sanctuary, put them in a violet cloth, with a covering of fine leather, and put it all on the litter.
Num 4:13 'When they have removed the ashes from the altar, they will spread a scarlet cloth over it,
Num 4:14 and on this place all the objects used in the liturgy, the fire pans, hooks, scoops, sprinkling basins and all the altar accessories. Over this they will spread a covering of fine leather. They will then fix the poles to it.
Num 4:15 'Once Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy things and all their accessories at the breaking of camp, the Kohathites will come and carry them, but without touching any of the holy things on pain of death. Such is the load for the Kohathites in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 4:16 But Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, is responsible for looking after the oil for the light, the fragrant incense, the daily cereal offering and the anointing oil, and for supervising the entire Dwelling and everything in it, the holy things and their accessories.'
Num 4:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 4:18 'You must not let the group of Kohathite clans be lost to the rest of the Levites.
Num 4:19 But deal with them in this way, so that they may survive and not incur death by approaching those things that are especially holy. Aaron and his sons will go in and assign to each of them his task and load,
Num 4:20 in such a way that they have no need to incur the death penalty by going in and setting eyes on the holy things, even for an instant.'
Num 4:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 4:22 'Take a census of the Gershonites by families and clans, too:
Num 4:23 all the men between thirty and fifty years of age, eligible for military service, who will have their duties in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 4:24 'These are the duties of the Gershonite clans, their functions and their loads.
Num 4:25 They will carry the curtaining of the Dwelling, the Tent of Meeting with its covering and the covering of fine leather that goes over it, the screen for the entrance to the Tent of Meeting,
Num 4:26 the curtaining of the court, the screen for the entrance to the court surrounding the Dwelling and the altar, the cords, all the accessories for worship, and all the necessary equipment. 'They will be responsible for these things.
Num 4:27 All the duties of the Gershonites, their functions and their loads, will be carried out under the direction of Aaron and his sons: you will see that they fulfill their charge.
Num 4:28 Such are the duties of the Gershonite clans in the Tent of Meeting. Their work will be supervised by Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.
Num 4:29 'You will take a census of the Merarites by clans and families.
Num 4:30 You will take a census of all the men between thirty and fifty years of age, eligible for military service, who will have their duties in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 4:31 'The load they carry and the duties incumbent on them in the Tent of Meeting will be as follows: the framework of the Dwelling, its cross-bars, poles and sockets,
Num 4:32 the poles round the court with their sockets, pegs, cords and all their tackle. You will draw up a list of their names with the loads for which each is responsible.
Num 4:33 'Such are the duties of the Merarite clans. All their duties in the Tent of Meeting will be supervised by Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.'
Num 4:34 Moses, Aaron and the leaders of the community took a census of the Kohathites by clans and families:
Num 4:35 all the men between thirty and fifty years of age, eligible for military service, for duties in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 4:36 The number of men counted in their clans came to two thousand seven hundred and fifty.
Num 4:37 Such was the total number of men in the Kohathite clans who were eligible for duties in the Tent of Meeting and whom Moses and Aaron counted at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s bidding through Moses.
Num 4:38 A census was taken of the Gershonites by clans and families:
Num 4:39 all the men between thirty and fifty years of age, eligible for military service, for duties in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 4:40 The number of men counted in their clans and families came to two thousand six hundred and thirty.
Num 4:41 Such was the total number of men in the Gershonite clans who were eligible for duties in the Tent of Meeting, and whom Moses and Aaron counted at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s bidding.
Num 4:42 A census was taken of the Merarite clans by clans and families:
Num 4:43 all the men between thirty and fifty years of age, eligible for military service, for duties in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 4:44 The number of men counted in their clans came to three thousand two hundred.
Num 4:45 Such was the total number of men in the Merarite clans, whom Moses and Aaron counted at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s bidding through Moses.
Num 4:46 The total number of Levites whom Moses, Aaron and the leaders of Israel counted in their clans and families,
Num 4:47 all the men between thirty and fifty years of age, eligible for religious duties and for those of transporting the Tent of Meeting
Num 4:48 came to eight thousand five hundred and eighty.
Num 4:49 At Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s bidding through Moses, a census was taken of them and each man was assigned his duty and load. And so the census was conducted by Moses as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered him.
Num 5:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 5:2 'Order the Israelites to expel from the camp all those suffering from a contagious skin-disease or from a discharge, or who have become unclean by touching a corpse.
Num 5:3 Whether man or woman, you will expel them; you will expel them from the camp, so that they do not pollute their encampments, in the heart of which I dwell.'
Num 5:4 The Israelites did so: they expelled them from the camp. The Israelites did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told Moses.
Num 5:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 5:6 'Speak to the Israelites: "If a man or woman commits any of the sins by which people break faith with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that person incurs guilt.
Num 5:7 "The person must confess the sin committed and restore in full the amount owed, with one-fifth added. Payment is to be made to the person wronged.
Num 5:8 "If, however, the latter has no relation to whom restitution can be made, the restitution due to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) reverts to the priest, apart from the ram of expiation with which the priest makes expiation for the guilty party.
Num 5:9 For of everything the Israelites consecrate and bring to the priest he has a right to the portion set aside.
Num 5:10 Whatever anyone consecrates is his own; whatever is given to the priest belongs to the priest." '
Num 5:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 5:12 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "If anyone has a wife who goes astray and is unfaithful to him,
Num 5:13 if some other man sleeps with the woman without the husband's knowledge, and she secretly makes herself unclean, without any witness against her, and without anyone catching her in the act;
Num 5:14 if, then, a spirit of suspicion comes over the husband and makes him suspicious of the wife who has disgraced herself, or again if this spirit of suspicion comes over him and makes him suspicious of his wife even when she is innocent,
Num 5:15 the man will bring his wife before the priest, and on her behalf make an offering of one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal. He will not pour oil over it or put incense on it, because this is a cereal offering for a case of suspicion, a memorial offering to recall guilt to mind.
Num 5:16 "The priest will then bring the woman forward and place her before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 5:17 The priest will then take fresh water in an earthen jar, and on the water throw dust that he has taken from the floor of the Dwelling.
Num 5:18 After he has placed the woman before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he will unbind her hair and put the commemorative cereal offering (that is, the cereal offering for a case of suspicion) into her hands. In his own hands the priest will hold the water of bitterness and cursing.
Num 5:19 "The priest will then put the woman on oath. He will say to her: If it is not true that a man has slept with you, that you have gone astray and made yourself unclean while under your husband's authority, may this water of bitterness and cursing do you no harm.
Num 5:20 But if it is true that you have gone astray while under your husband's authority, that you have made yourself unclean and that a man other than your husband has slept with you . . .
Num 5:21 Here the priest will impose an imprecatory oath on the woman. He will say to her: . . . May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) make you the object of your people's execration and curses, by making your sexual organs shrivel and your belly swell!
Num 5:22 May this water of cursing entering your bowels, make your belly swell and your sexual organs shrivel! To which the woman will reply: Amen! Amen!
Num 5:23 "Having written these curses on a scroll and washed them off in the water of bitterness,
Num 5:24 the priest will make the woman drink the water of bitterness and cursing; when the water of cursing enters into her, it will become bitter.
Num 5:25 "The priest will then take the cereal offering for a case of suspicion from the woman's hands, and hold it up before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with a gesture of offering, and so carry it up to the altar.
Num 5:26 He will take a handful of it as a memorial and burn it on the altar. "After this, he will make the woman drink the water.
Num 5:27 After he has made her drink it, if it is true that she has made herself unclean and been unfaithful to her husband, the water of cursing then entering into her will indeed be bitter: her belly will swell and her sexual organs shrivel, and she will be an object of execration to her people.
Num 5:28 But if she has not made herself unclean, but is clean, then she will go unscathed and will bear children.
Num 5:29 "Such is the ritual in cases of suspicion, when a woman has gone astray and made herself unclean while under her husband's authority,
Num 5:30 or when a spirit of suspicion has come over a man and made him suspicious of his wife. When a husband brings such a woman before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the priest will apply this ritual to her in full.
Num 5:31 The husband will be guiltless, but the woman will bear the consequences of her guilt." '
Num 6:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 6:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "If a man or a woman wishes to make a vow, the nazirite vow, to vow himself to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Num 6:3 he will abstain from wine and fermented liquor, he will not drink vinegar derived from one or the other, he will not drink grape-juice or eat grapes, be they fresh or dried.
Num 6:4 For the duration of his vow he will eat nothing that comes from the vine, not even juice of unripe grapes or skins of grapes.
Num 6:5 As long as he is bound by his vow, no razor will touch his head; until the time for which he has vowed himself to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is completed, he remains consecrated and will let his hair grow freely.
Num 6:6 For the entire period of his vow to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he will not go near a corpse,
Num 6:7 he will not make himself unclean for his father or his mother, or his brother or his sister, should they die, since on his head he carries his vow to his God.
Num 6:8 Throughout the whole of his vow he is a person consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 6:9 "If anyone suddenly dies near him, making his vowed hair unclean, he will shave his head on the day he is purified, he will shave his head on the seventh day.
Num 6:10 On the eighth day, he will bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Num 6:11 The priest will offer one as a sacrifice for sin, and the other as a burnt offering and will then perform for the person the rite of expiation for the pollution which he has contracted from the corpse. He will consecrate his head that same day;
Num 6:12 he will vow himself to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the period of his nazirate, and will bring a male yearling lamb as a sacrifice of reparation. The time already spent will not count, since his hair had become unclean.
Num 6:13 "This is the ritual for the nazirite on the day when the period of his vow is completed. He will be led to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting,
Num 6:14 bringing his offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): an unblemished male yearling lamb as a burnt offering, an unblemished yearling ewe lamb as a sacrifice for sin, an unblemished ram as a peace offering,
Num 6:15 and a basket of unleavened loaves made of fine flour mixed with oil, and of unleavened wafers spread with oil, with the cereal offerings and libations appropriate to them.
Num 6:16 The priest, having brought all this before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will offer the nazirite's sin sacrifice and burnt offering.
Num 6:17 The latter will then offer the ram as a communion sacrifice with the basket of unleavened bread, and the priest will offer the accompanying cereal offering and libation.
Num 6:18 The nazirite will then shave off his vowed hair at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and, taking the locks of his vowed head, he will put them in the fire of the communion sacrifice.
Num 6:19 The priest will take the shoulder of the ram, as soon as it is cooked, with an unleavened cake from the basket, and an unleavened wafer, and put them into the hands of the nazirite once he has shaved off his hair.
Num 6:20 With these he will make the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); as it is a holy thing, it reverts to the priest, in addition to the forequarter that has been presented and the thigh that has been set aside. After this, the nazirite may drink wine.
Num 6:21 "Such is the ritual for the nazirite. If, besides his hair, he has also vowed a personal offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he will (apart from anything else that his means allow) fulfill the vow that he has made, in addition to what the ritual prescribes for his hair." '
Num 6:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 6:23 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and say: "This is how you must bless the Israelites. You will say:
Num 6:24 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bless you and keep you.
Num 6:25 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
Num 6:26 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) show you his face and bring you peace."
Num 6:27 This is how they must call down my name on the Israelites, and then I shall bless them.'
Num 7:1 On the day Moses finished erecting the Dwelling, he anointed and consecrated it and all its furniture, as well as the altar and all its equipment. When he had anointed and consecrated it all,
Num 7:2 the leaders of Israel made an offering; they were the heads of their families, the tribal leaders who had presided over the census.
Num 7:3 They brought their offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): six covered wagons and twelve oxen, one wagon for every two leaders and one ox each. They brought them in front of the Dwelling.
Num 7:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 7:5 'Accept these from them, and let them be set apart for the service of the Tent of Meeting. You will give them to the Levites, to each as his duties require.'
Num 7:6 Moses took the wagons and oxen, and gave them to the Levites.
Num 7:7 To the Gershonites he gave two wagons and four oxen for the duties they had to perform.
Num 7:8 To the Merarites he gave four wagons and eight oxen for the duties they had to perform under the direction of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest.
Num 7:9 But to the Kohathites he gave none at all, because the sacred charge entrusted to them had to be carried on their shoulders.
Num 7:10 The leaders then made an offering for the dedication of the altar, on the day it was anointed. They brought their offering before the altar,
Num 7:11 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Each day one of the leaders must bring his offering for the dedication of the altar.'
Num 7:12 On the first day an offering was brought by Nahshon son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah.
Num 7:13 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:14 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:15 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:16 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:17 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab.
Num 7:18 On the second day an offering was brought by Nethanel son of Zuar, leader of Issachar.
Num 7:19 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:20 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:21 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:22 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:23 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Nethanel son of Zuar.
Num 7:24 On the third day an offering was brought by Eliab son of Helon, leader of the Zebulunites.
Num 7:25 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:26 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:27 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:28 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:29 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Eliab son of Helon.
Num 7:30 On the fourth day an offering was brought by Elizur son of Shedeur, leader of the Reubenites.
Num 7:31 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:32 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:33 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:34 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:35 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Elizur son of Shedeur.
Num 7:36 On the fifth day an offering was brought by Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai, leader of the Simeonites.
Num 7:37 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:38 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:39 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:40 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:41 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.
Num 7:42 On the sixth day an offering was brought by Eliasaph son of Reuel, leader of the Gadites.
Num 7:43 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:44 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:45 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:46 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:47 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Eliasaph son of Reuel.
Num 7:48 On the seventh day an offering was brought by Elishama son of Ammihud, leader of the Ephraimites.
Num 7:49 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:50 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:51 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:52 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:53 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Elishama son of Ammihud.
Num 7:54 On the eighth day an offering was brought by Gamaliel son of Pedahzur, leader of the Manassehites.
Num 7:55 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:56 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:57 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:58 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:59 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Gamaliel son of Pedahzur.
Num 7:60 On the ninth day an offering was brought by Abidan son of Gideoni, leader of the Benjaminites.
Num 7:61 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:62 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:63 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:64 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:65 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Abidan son of Gideoni.
Num 7:66 On the tenth day an offering was brought by Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai, leader of the Danites.
Num 7:67 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:68 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:69 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:70 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:71 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai.
Num 7:72 On the eleventh day an offering was brought by Pagiel son of Ochran, leader of the Asherites.
Num 7:73 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:74 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:75 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:76 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:77 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Pagiel son of Ochran.
Num 7:78 On the twelfth day an offering was brought by Ahira son of Enan, leader of the Naphtalites.
Num 7:79 His offering consisted of: one silver bowl weighing a hundred and thirty shekels, one silver sprinkling bowl weighing seventy shekels (sanctuary shekels), both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil as a cereal offering,
Num 7:80 one golden bowl weighing ten shekels, full of incense,
Num 7:81 one young bull, one ram and one male yearling lamb as a burnt offering,
Num 7:82 one he-goat as a sacrifice for sin,
Num 7:83 and two bulls, five rams, five he-goats and five male yearling lambs as a communion sacrifice. Such was the offering of Ahira son of Enan.
Num 7:84 Such were the offerings made by the leaders of Israel for the dedication of the altar on the day it was anointed: twelve silver bowls, twelve silver sprinkling bowls, and twelve golden bowls.
Num 7:85 Each silver bowl weighed a hundred and thirty shekels, and each sprinkling bowl seventy, the silver of these objects weighing in all two thousand four hundred sanctuary shekels.
Num 7:86 The twelve golden bowls full of incense each weighed ten shekels (sanctuary shekels), the gold of these bowls weighing in all a hundred and twenty shekels.
Num 7:87 The sum total of animals for the burnt offering: twelve bulls, twelve rams, twelve male yearling lambs, with their cereal offerings. For the sacrifice for sin, twelve he-goats.
Num 7:88 The sum total of animals for the communion sacrifice: twenty-four bulls, sixty rams, sixty he-goats and sixty male yearling lambs. Such were the offerings for the dedication of the altar, after it had been anointed.
Num 7:89 When Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with him, he heard the voice speaking to him from above the mercy-seat on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two great winged creatures. He then spoke to him.
Num 8:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 8:2 'Speak to Aaron and say, "When you set up the lamps, the seven lamps must throw their light towards the front of the lamp-stand." '
Num 8:3 Aaron did this. He set up the lamps to the front of the lamp-stand, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 8:4 This lamp-stand was worked in beaten gold, including its stem and its petals, which were also of beaten gold. This lamp-stand had been made according to the pattern Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had shown to Moses.
Num 8:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 8:6 'Separate the Levites from the Israelites and purify them.
Num 8:7 This is how you must purify them: you will sprinkle them with purifying water, and they will shave their bodies all over and wash their clothes. They will then be clean.
Num 8:8 They will then take a young bull, with the accompanying cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil, and you will take a second young bull for a sacrifice for sin.
Num 8:9 You will then bring the Levites in front of the Tent of Meeting, and assemble the whole community of Israelites.
Num 8:10 Once you have brought the Levites before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Israelites will lay their hands on them.
Num 8:11 Aaron will then offer the Levites, making the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on behalf of the Israelites, admitting them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s service.
Num 8:12 'The Levites will then lay their hands on the heads of the bulls, one of which you will offer as a sacrifice for sin, and the other as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to perform the rite of expiation for the Levites.
Num 8:13 Having brought the Levites before Aaron and his sons, you will present them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with the gesture of offering.
Num 8:14 That is how you will set the Levites apart from the Israelites, for them to be mine.
Num 8:15 The Levites will then begin their ministry in the Tent of Meeting. 'You will purify them and offer them with the gesture of offering
Num 8:16 because, of the Israelites, they have been dedicated to me in place of all those who first emerge from the womb, instead of the first-born; of all the Israelites, I have taken them for my own.
Num 8:17 For all the first-born of the Israelites, whether human or animal, do indeed belong to me: the day I struck down all the first-born in Egypt, I consecrated them to myself,
Num 8:18 and now, in place of all the first-born of the Israelites, I have taken the Levites.
Num 8:19 Of the Israelites, I give the Levites to Aaron and his sons, as dedicated men, to minister in the Tent of Meeting on behalf of the Israelites and perform the rite of expiation for them, so that no disaster befalls the Israelites when the Israelites come close to the sanctuary.'
Num 8:20 Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israelites dealt with the Levites exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses concerning them; this is what the Israelites did with them.
Num 8:21 The Levites purified themselves and washed their clothes, and Aaron presented them with the gesture of offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). He then performed the rite of expiation for them to purify them.
Num 8:22 The Levites were then allowed to perform their ministry in the Tent of Meeting in the presence of Aaron and his sons. As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses concerning the Levites, so it was done with them.
Num 8:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 8:24 'This concerns the Levites. From the age of twenty-five onwards, the Levite will exercise his ministry and do duty in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 8:25 After the age of fifty, he is no longer bound to the ministry; he will have no further duties;
Num 8:26 but he will still help his brothers to assure the services in the Tent of Meeting, though he himself will no longer have any ministry. That is how you will act as regards the ministry of the Levites.'
Num 9:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses, in the desert of Sinai, in the second year after the exodus from Egypt, in the first month, and said:
Num 9:2 'The Israelites must keep the Passover at its appointed time.
Num 9:3 The fourteenth day of this month, at twilight, is the time appointed for you to keep it. You will keep it with all the laws and customs proper to it.'
Num 9:4 Moses told the Israelites to keep the Passover.
Num 9:5 They kept it, in the desert of Sinai, in the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, at twilight. The Israelites did everything as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 9:6 It happened that some men had become unclean by touching a dead body; they could not keep the Passover that day. They came the same day to Moses and Aaron,
Num 9:7 and said, 'We have become unclean by touching a dead body. Why should we be excluded from bringing an offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the proper time with the rest of the Israelites?'
Num 9:8 Moses replied, 'Wait here until I hear what order Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives about you.'
Num 9:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 9:10 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "Any of you or your descendants who becomes unclean by touching a dead body, or is away on a long journey, can still keep a Passover for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 9:11 Such persons will keep it in the second month, on the fourteenth day, at twilight. They will eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs;
Num 9:12 nothing of it must be left over until morning, nor will they break any of its bones. They will keep it, following the entire Passover ritual.
Num 9:13 But anyone who is clean, or who is not on a journey, but fails to keep the Passover, such a person will be outlawed from his people. For not having brought the offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at its appointed time, the person will bear the consequences of the sin.
Num 9:14 "A resident alien who keeps a Passover for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will keep it in accordance with the ritual and customs of the Passover. You will have one law for alien and citizen alike." '
Num 9:15 On the day the Dwelling was erected, the cloud covered the Dwelling, the Tent of the Testimony. From nightfall until morning it remained over the Dwelling looking like fire.
Num 9:16 So the cloud covered it all the time, and at night it looked like fire.
Num 9:17 Whenever the cloud rose from the Tent, the Israelites broke camp, and wherever the cloud halted, there the Israelites pitched camp.
Num 9:18 At Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, the Israelites set out and, at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, the Israelites pitched camp. They remained in camp for as long as the cloud rested on the Dwelling.
Num 9:19 If the cloud stayed for many days on the Dwelling, the Israelites performed their duty to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and did not set out.
Num 9:20 But if the cloud happened to stay for only a few days on the Dwelling, just as they had pitched camp at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order they set out.
Num 9:21 If the cloud happened to remain only from evening to morning, they set out when it lifted the next morning. Or, if it stayed for a whole day and night, they set out only when it lifted.
Num 9:22 Sometimes it stayed there for two days, a month, or a longer time; however long the cloud rested on the Dwelling, the Israelites remained in camp, and when it lifted they set out.
Num 9:23 At Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order they pitched camp, and at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order they set out. They performed their duty to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered through Moses.
Num 10:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 10:2 'Make yourself two trumpets; make them of beaten silver, so that you can use them for summoning the community, and for sounding the order to break camp.
Num 10:3 Whenever they are sounded, the whole community must gather round you, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Num 10:4 But if only one trumpet is sounded, then only the leaders, the heads of Israel's thousands, must gather round you.
Num 10:5 'When the trumpet blast is accompanied by a battle cry, the encampments pitched to the east will set out.
Num 10:6 At the second blast accompanied by a battle cry, the encampments pitched to the south will set out. For breaking camp, the trumpet blast will be accompanied by a battle cry,
Num 10:7 but for assembling the community the trumpets will be sounded without battle cry.
Num 10:8 The Aaronite priests will sound the trumpets; this is a perpetual decree for you and your descendants.
Num 10:9 'When in your country you go to war against an enemy who is oppressing you, you will sound trumpets with a battle cry, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will remember you, and you will be delivered from your enemies.
Num 10:10 At your festivals, solemnities and new-moon feasts, you will sound the trumpets over your burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, so that they recall you to the remembrance of your God. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.'
Num 10:11 In the second year, in the second month, on the twentieth day of the month, the cloud rose from where the Dwelling of the Testimony was,
Num 10:12 and the Israelites set out, in marching order, from the desert of Sinai. The cloud came to rest in the desert of Paran.
Num 10:13 These were the men who set out in the vanguard, at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order through Moses:
Num 10:14 first went the standard of the camp of the Judahites and their units, with Nahshon son of Amminadab commanding that contingent;
Num 10:15 Nethanel son of Zuar commanding the tribal contingent of the Issacharites;
Num 10:16 and Eliab son of Helon commanding the tribal contingent of the Zebulunites.
Num 10:17 The Dwelling was then dismantled and the Gershonites and Merarites set out, carrying the Dwelling.
Num 10:18 Then came the standard of the camp of the Reubenites and their units, with Elizur son of Shedeur commanding that contingent;
Num 10:19 Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai commanding the tribal contingent of the Simeonites;
Num 10:20 and Eliasaph son of Reuel commanding the tribal contingent of the Gadites.
Num 10:21 Then came the Kohathites carrying the sanctuary (the Dwelling was erected before they arrived).
Num 10:22 Then came the standard of the camp of the Ephraimites and their units, with Elishama son of Ammihud commanding that contingent;
Num 10:23 Gamaliel son of Pedahzur commanding the tribal contingent of the Manassehites;
Num 10:24 and Abidan son of Gideoni commanding the tribal contingent of the Benjaminites.
Num 10:25 Last of all, the rearguard of all the camps, came the standard of the camp of the Danites and their units, with Ahiezer son of Ammishaddai commanding that contingent;
Num 10:26 Pagiel son of Ochran commanding the tribal contingent of the Asherites;
Num 10:27 and Ahira son of Enan commanding the tribal contingent of the Naphtalites.
Num 10:28 Such was the order of march for the Israelites, unit by unit. So they set out.
Num 10:29 Moses said to Hobab son of Reuel the Midianite, his father-in-law, 'We are setting out for the country of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said: I shall give it to you. Come with us, and we will treat you well, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has promised good things for Israel.'
Num 10:30 'I will not come with you,' he replied, 'but shall go to my own country and kin.'
Num 10:31 'Do not leave us,' Moses said, 'for you know where we can camp in the desert, and so you will be our eyes.
Num 10:32 If you come with us, we shall share with you whatever blessings Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives us.'
Num 10:33 They set out from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s mountain and travelled for three days, while the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) preceded them on the three-day journey, searching out a place for them to halt.
Num 10:34 In the daytime, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s cloud was over them, once they had broken camp.
Num 10:35 Whenever the ark set out, Moses would say: Rise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), may your enemies be scattered and those who hate you flee at your approach!
Num 10:36 And when it halted, he would say: Come back, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to the countless thousands of Israel!
Num 11:1 Now the people began to complain, which was offensive to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s ears. When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard, his anger was aroused and the fire of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) broke out among them; it devoured one end of the camp.
Num 11:2 The people appealed to Moses who interceded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the fire died down.
Num 11:3 So the place was called Taberah, because the fire of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had broken out among them.
Num 11:4 The rabble who had joined the people were feeling the pangs of hunger, and the Israelites began to weep again. 'Who will give us meat to eat?' they said.
Num 11:5 'Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic!
Num 11:6 But now we are withering away; there is nothing wherever we look except this manna!'
Num 11:7 The manna was like coriander seed and had the appearance of bdellium.
Num 11:8 The people went round gathering it, and ground it in a mill or crushed it with a pestle; it was then cooked in a pot and made into pancakes. It tasted like cake made with oil.
Num 11:9 When the dew fell on the camp at night-time, the manna fell with it.
Num 11:10 Moses heard the people weeping, each family at the door of its tent. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger was greatly aroused; Moses too found it disgraceful,
Num 11:11 and he said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): 'Why do you treat your servant so badly? In what respect have I failed to win your favor, for you to lay the burden of all these people on me?
Num 11:12 Was it I who conceived all these people, was I their father, for you to say to me, "Carry them in your arms, like a foster-father carrying an unweaned child, to the country which I swore to give their fathers"?
Num 11:13 Where am I to find meat to give all these people, pestering me with their tears and saying, "Give us meat to eat"?
Num 11:14 I cannot carry all these people on my own; the weight is too much for me.
Num 11:15 If this is how you mean to treat me, please kill me outright! If only I could win your favor and be spared the sight of my misery!'
Num 11:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Collect me seventy of the elders of Israel, men you know to be the people's elders and scribes. Bring them to the Tent of Meeting, and let them stand beside you there.
Num 11:17 I shall come down and talk to you there and shall take some of the spirit which is on you and put it on them. Then they will bear the burden of the people with you, and you will no longer have to bear it on your own.
Num 11:18 'And say to the people, "Purify yourselves for tomorrow and you will have meat to eat, since you have wept in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hearing, saying: Who will give us meat to eat? How happy we were in Egypt! Very well, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will give you meat to eat.
Num 11:19 You will eat it not for one day, or two, or five, or ten or twenty,
Num 11:20 but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and sickens you, since you have rejected Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who is among you, and have wept before him saying: Why did we ever leave Egypt?" '
Num 11:21 Moses said, 'The people round me number six hundred thousand foot soldiers, and you say, "I shall give them meat to eat for a whole month"!
Num 11:22 If all the flocks and herds were slaughtered, would that be enough for them? If all the fish in the seas were collected, would that be enough for them?'
Num 11:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Is the arm of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) so short? You shall see whether the promise I have made to you comes true or not.'
Num 11:24 Moses went out and told the people what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said. Then he collected seventy of the people's elders and stationed them round the Tent.
Num 11:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) descended in the cloud. He spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the spirit came on them they prophesied -- but only once.
Num 11:26 Two men had stayed back in the camp; one was called Eldad and the other Medad. The spirit came down on them; though they had not gone to the Tent, their names were enrolled among the rest. These began to prophesy in the camp.
Num 11:27 A young man ran to tell Moses this. 'Look,' he said, 'Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.'
Num 11:28 Joshua son of Nun, who had served Moses since he was a boy, spoke up and said, 'My lord Moses, stop them!'
Num 11:29 Moses replied, 'Are you jealous on my account? If only all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people were prophets, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given them his spirit!'
Num 11:30 Moses then went back to the camp with the elders of Israel.
Num 11:31 A wind, sent by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), started blowing from the sea bringing quails which it deposited on the camp. They lay for a distance of a day's march either side of the camp, two cubits thick on the ground.
Num 11:32 The people were up all that day and night and all the next day collecting quails: the least gathered by anyone was ten homer; then they spread them out round the camp.
Num 11:33 The meat was still between their teeth, not even chewed, when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger was aroused by the people. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck them with a very great plague.
Num 11:34 The name given to this place was Kibroth-ha-Taavah, because it was there that they buried the people who had indulged their greed.
Num 11:35 From Kibroth-ha-Taavah the people set out for Hazeroth, and at Hazeroth they pitched camp.
Num 12:1 Miriam, and Aaron too, criticised Moses over the Cushite woman he had married. He had indeed married a Cushite woman.
Num 12:2 They said, 'Is Moses the only one through whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken? Has he not spoken through us too?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard this.
Num 12:3 Now Moses was extremely humble, the humblest man on earth.
Num 12:4 Suddenly Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, 'Come out, all three of you, to the Tent of Meeting.' They went, all three of them,
Num 12:5 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) descended in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the Tent. He called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forward.
Num 12:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said: Listen to my words! if there is a prophet among you, I reveal myself to him in a vision, I speak to him in a dream.
Num 12:7 Not so with my servant Moses; to him my whole household is entrusted;
Num 12:8 to him I speak face to face, plainly and not in riddles, and he sees Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s form. How, then, could you dare to criticise my servant Moses?
Num 12:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger was aroused by them. He went away,
Num 12:10 and as soon as the cloud left the Tent, there was Miriam covered with a virulent skin-disease, white as snow! Aaron turned to look at her and saw that she had contracted a virulent skin-disease.
Num 12:11 Aaron said to Moses: 'Oh, my Lord, please do not punish us for the sin we have been foolish enough to commit.
Num 12:12 Do not let her be like some monster with its flesh half eaten away when it leaves its mother's womb!'
Num 12:13 Moses pleaded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). 'O God,' he said, 'I beg you, please heal her!'
Num 12:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'If her father had done no more than spit in her face, would she not be unclean for seven days? Have her shut out of the camp for seven days, and then have her brought in again.'
Num 12:15 Miriam was shut out of the camp for seven days. The people did not set out until she returned.
Num 12:16 Then the people moved on from Hazeroth and pitched camp in the desert of Paran.
Num 13:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 13:2 'Send out men, one from each tribe, to reconnoitre the land of Canaan which I am giving the Israelites. Each of them is to be a leading man of the tribe.'
Num 13:3 At Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, Moses sent them from the desert of Paran. All of them were leading men of Israel.
Num 13:4 These were their names: For the tribe of Reuben, Shammua son of Zaccur:
Num 13:5 for the tribe of Simeon, Shaphat son of Hori;
Num 13:6 for the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
Num 13:7 for the tribe of of Issachar, Igal son of Joseph;
Num 13:8 for the tribe of Ephraim, Hoshea son of Nun;
Num 13:9 for the tribe of Benjamin, Palti son of Raphu;
Num 13:10 for the tribe of Zebulun, Gaddiel son of Sodi;
Num 13:11 for the tribe of Joseph, for the tribe of Manasseh, Gaddi son of Susi;
Num 13:12 for the tribe of Dan, Ammiel son of Gemalli;
Num 13:13 for the tribe of Asher, Sethur son of Michael;
Num 13:14 for the tribe of Naphtali, Nahbi son of Vophsi;
Num 13:15 for the tribe of Gad, Geuel son of Machi.
Num 13:16 Such were the names of the men whom Moses sent to reconnoitre the country. Moses then gave Hoshea son of Nun the name Joshua.
Num 13:17 Moses sent them to reconnoitre the land of Canaan, 'Go up into the Negeb,' he said, 'then go up into the highlands.
Num 13:18 See what sort of country it is, and what sort of people the inhabitants are, whether they are strong or weak, few or many,
Num 13:19 what sort of land they live on, whether it is good or poor; what sort of towns they live in, whether they are open or fortified;
Num 13:20 what sort of land it is, fertile or barren, wooded or open. Be bold, and bring back some of the country's produce.' It was the season for early grapes.
Num 13:21 They went up and reconnoitered the country from the desert of Zin to Rehob, the Pass of Hamath.
Num 13:22 They went up by way of the Negeb as far as Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmai, the Anakim, lived. (Hebron was founded seven years before Tanis in Egypt.)
Num 13:23 Reaching the Vale of Eshcol, there they lopped off a vine branch with a cluster of grapes, which two of them carried away on a pole, as well as pomegranates and figs.
Num 13:24 This place was called the Vale of Eshcol after the cluster which the Israelites cut there.
Num 13:25 After forty days they returned from reconnoitring the country.
Num 13:26 Making their way to Moses, Aaron and the whole community of Israel, in the desert of Paran, at Kadesh, they made their report to them and the whole community, and displayed the country's produce.
Num 13:27 This was the report they gave: 'We made our way into the country where you sent us. It does indeed flow with milk and honey; here is what it produces.
Num 13:28 At the same time, its inhabitants are a powerful people; the towns are fortified and very big; yes, and we saw the Anakim there.
Num 13:29 The Amalekites occupy the Negeb area, the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites the highlands, and the Canaanites the sea coast and the banks of the Jordan.'
Num 13:30 Caleb called the people round Moses to silence and then said, 'We must march in immediately and take it; we are certainly able to conquer it.'
Num 13:31 But the men who had been with him said, 'We cannot attack these people; they are stronger than we are.'
Num 13:32 And they began disparaging to the Israelites the country they had reconnoitered, saying, 'The country we have been to reconnoitre is a country that devours its inhabitants. All the people we saw there were of enormous size.
Num 13:33 We saw giants there too (the Anakim, descended from the Giants). We felt like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.'
Num 14:1 The whole community then cried out in dismay, and the people wept all that night.
Num 14:2 All the Israelites muttered at Moses and Aaron, and the whole community said to them, 'Would to God we had died in Egypt, or even that we had died in this desert!
Num 14:3 Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought us to this country, for us to perish by the sword and our wives and children to be seized as booty? Should we not do better to go back to Egypt?'
Num 14:4 And they said to one another, 'Let us appoint a leader and go back to Egypt.'
Num 14:5 At this, Moses and Aaron threw themselves on their faces in front of the whole assembled community of Israelites,
Num 14:6 while Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, two of the men who had reconnoitered the country, tore their clothes
Num 14:7 and addressed the whole community of Israelites as follows, 'The country we went to reconnoitre is a good country, an excellent country.
Num 14:8 If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is pleased with us, he will lead us into this country and give it to us. It is a country flowing with milk and honey.
Num 14:9 But do not rebel against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) or be afraid of the people of the country, for we shall gobble them up. Their protecting shade has deserted them, while we have Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on our side. Do not be afraid of them.'
Num 14:10 The whole community was talking of stoning them, when the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to all the Israelites, inside the Tent of Meeting,
Num 14:11 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses: 'How much longer will these people treat me with contempt? How much longer will they refuse to trust me, in spite of all the signs I have displayed among them?
Num 14:12 I shall strike them with pestilence and disown them. And of you I shall make a new nation, greater and mightier than they are.'
Num 14:13 Moses said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): 'Suppose the Egyptians hear about this -- for by your power you brought these people out of their country-
Num 14:14 and tell the people living in this country. They have heard that you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are with this people, and that you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), show yourself to them face to face; that your cloud stands over them and that you go before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
Num 14:15 If you kill this people now as though it were one man, then the nations who have heard about you will say,
Num 14:16 "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was not able to bring this people into the country which he had sworn to give them, and so he has slaughtered them in the desert."
Num 14:17 No, my Lord! Now is the time to assert your power as you promised when you said, earlier,
Num 14:18 "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), slow to anger and rich in faithful love, forgiving faults and transgression, and yet letting nothing go unchecked, punishing the parents' guilt in the children to the third and fourth generation."
Num 14:19 In your most faithful love, please forgive this people's guilt, as you have done from Egypt until now.'
Num 14:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'I forgive them as you ask.
Num 14:21 But -- as I live, and as the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) fills the whole world-
Num 14:22 of all these people who have seen my glory and the signs that I worked in Egypt and in the desert, who have put me to the test ten times already and not obeyed my voice,
Num 14:23 not one shall see the country which I promised to give their ancestors. Not one of those who have treated me contemptuously will see it.
Num 14:24 However, since my servant Caleb is of another spirit and since he has obeyed me completely, I shall bring him into the country where he has been, and his descendants will own it
Num 14:25 (the Amalekites and Canaanites occupy the plain). Tomorrow you will turn about and go back into the desert, in the direction of the Sea of Suph.'
Num 14:26 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and Aaron and said:
Num 14:27 'How much longer am I to endure this perverse community muttering against me? I have heard what the Israelites mutter against me.
Num 14:28 Say to them, "As I live, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall do to you what I have heard you saying.
Num 14:29 In this desert your dead bodies will fall, all you who were counted in the census, from the age of twenty years and over who have muttered against me.
Num 14:30 I swear none of you will enter the country where I swore most solemnly to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh, and Joshua son of Nun.
Num 14:31 Your children, who you said would be seized as booty, will be the ones whom I shall bring in so that they get to know the country you disdained,
Num 14:32 but, as for you, your dead bodies will fall in this desert
Num 14:33 and your children will be nomads in the desert for forty years, bearing the consequences of your faithlessness, until the last one of you lies dead in the desert.
Num 14:34 For forty days you reconnoitered the country. Each day will count as a year: for forty years you will bear the consequences of your guilt and learn what it means to reject me."
Num 14:35 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken: this is how I swear to treat this entire perverse community united against me. In this desert, to the last man, they shall die.'
Num 14:36 The men whom Moses had sent to reconnoitre the country and who on their return had incited the whole community of Israel to mutter about him by disparaging it,
Num 14:37 these men who had disparaged the country were all struck dead before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 14:38 Of the men who had gone to reconnoitre the country, only Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh were left alive.
Num 14:39 When Moses told all the Israelites what had been said, the people set up a great outcry.
Num 14:40 Early next morning they set out for the heights of the hill country saying, 'Look, we will set out for the place about which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said that we have sinned.'
Num 14:41 To which, Moses said, 'Why disobey Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order? No success will come of doing so.
Num 14:42 Do not go, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is not among you, and you will be defeated by your enemies.
Num 14:43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are ahead of you, and you will be put to the sword, since you have turned away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is not with you.'
Num 14:44 All the same, they presumptuously set off for the heights of the hill country. Neither the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) nor Moses left the camp.
Num 14:45 The Amalekites and Canaanites living in those highlands then came down, defeated them and harried them all the way to Hormah.
Num 15:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 15:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "When you have arrived in the country where you are to live and which I am giving to you,
Num 15:3 and you burn food as an offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) either as a burnt offering or as a sacrifice, whether in payment of a vow, or as a voluntary gift, or on the occasion of one of your solemn feasts, from your herds and flocks as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Num 15:4 the offerer will, as his personal gift to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), bring a cereal offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-quarter of a hin of oil.
Num 15:5 You will also make a libation of wine, one-quarter of a hin to each lamb, in addition to the burnt offering or sacrifice.
Num 15:6 For a ram, you will make a cereal offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-third of a hin of oil,
Num 15:7 and a libation of one-third of a hin of wine as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 15:8 If you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice, in payment of a vow or as a communion sacrifice for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Num 15:9 in addition to the animal you will offer a cereal offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with half a hin of oil,
Num 15:10 and you will offer a libation of half a hin of wine, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 15:11 This will be done for every bull, every ram, every lamb or kid.
Num 15:12 Whatever the number of victims you intend to offer, you will do the same for each of them, however many there are.
Num 15:13 "Every citizen of the country will act in this way whenever he offers food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Num 15:14 and if an alien residing with you or with your descendants intends to offer food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he will do as you do.
Num 15:15 There will be one law for you, members of the community, and the resident alien alike, a law binding your descendants for ever: before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) you and the resident alien are no different.'
Num 15:16 One law, one statute, will apply for you and the resident alien." '
Num 15:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 15:18 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "When you have entered the country to which I am bringing you,
Num 15:19 you will set a portion aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when you eat that country's bread.
Num 15:20 You will set one cake aside as the first-fruits of your dough; you will set this offering aside like the one set aside from your threshing.
Num 15:21 For all future generations you will set a portion of your dough aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 15:22 "If through inadvertence you fail in any of these orders which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given to Moses
Num 15:23 (whatever orders Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given you or your descendants through Moses, from the day when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave his orders),
Num 15:24 this is what must be done: "If it is an inadvertence on the part of the community, the community as a whole will offer a young bull as a burnt offering, as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with the prescribed accompanying cereal offering and libation, and a he-goat as a sacrifice for sin.
Num 15:25 The priest will perform the rite of expiation for the entire community of Israelites, and they will be forgiven, since it was an inadvertence. Once they have brought their offering as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and have presented their sacrifice for sin before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to make amends for their inadvertence,
Num 15:26 the whole community of Israelites will be forgiven, as also the alien residing with them, since the entire people acted by inadvertence.
Num 15:27 "If it is an individual who has sinned by inadvertence, he will offer a yearling kid as a sacrifice for sin.
Num 15:28 The priest will perform the rite of expiation before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the person who has gone astray owing to this sin of inadvertence and, expiation having been made for him, he will be forgiven;
Num 15:29 whether he is an Israelite citizen or a resident alien, you will have one law for anyone who sins by inadvertence.
Num 15:30 "But the individual who acts deliberately, be he citizen or alien, commits an outrage against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and such a man will be outlawed from his people.
Num 15:31 Since he has treated Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word with contempt and has disobeyed his order, such a man will be outlawed absolutely and will bear the consequences of his guilt." '
Num 15:32 While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was caught gathering wood on the Sabbath day.
Num 15:33 Those who caught him gathering wood brought him before Moses, Aaron and the whole community.
Num 15:34 He was kept in custody, because the penalty he should undergo had not yet been fixed.
Num 15:35 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'This man must be put to death. The whole community will stone him outside the camp.'
Num 15:36 The whole community took him outside the camp and stoned him till he was dead, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 15:37 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 15:38 'Speak to the Israelites and tell them, for all generations to come, to put tassels on the hems of their clothes and work a violet thread into the tassel at the hem.
Num 15:39 You will thus have a tassel, and the sight of it will remind you of all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s orders and how you are to put them into practice, and not follow the dictates of your own heart and eyes, which have led you to be unfaithful.
Num 15:40 'This will remind you of all my orders; put them into practice, and you will be consecrated to your God.
Num 15:41 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, have brought you out of Egypt, to be your God, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.'
Num 16:1 Now Korah son of Izhar, son of Kohath the Levite, and the Reubenites Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab, and On son of Peleth were proud
Num 16:2 and rebelled against Moses with two hundred and fifty Israelites who were leaders of the community, prominent at the solemn feasts, men of repute.
Num 16:3 These banded together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, 'You take too much on yourselves! The whole community, all its members, are consecrated, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives among them. Why set yourselves higher than Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s community?'
Num 16:4 On hearing this, Moses threw himself on his face.
Num 16:5 Then he said to Korah and all in his party, 'Tomorrow morning Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will reveal who is his, who the consecrated man whom he will allow to approach him. The one he allows to approach is the one whom he has chosen.
Num 16:6 This is what you must do: take the censers of Korah and all in his party,
Num 16:7 put fire in them and put incense in them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) tomorrow, and the one whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) chooses will be the consecrated man. Levites, you take too much on yourselves!'
Num 16:8 Moses then said to Korah, 'Now listen, you Levites!
Num 16:9 Is it not enough for you that the God of Israel has singled you out of the community of Israel, and called you to be near him, to serve in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Dwelling and to represent the community by officiating on its behalf?
Num 16:10 He has called you to be near him, you and all your brother Levites with you, and now you want to be priests as well!
Num 16:11 For which reason, you and all in your party have banded together against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself: for what is Aaron, that you should mutter against him?'
Num 16:12 Moses then summoned Dathan and Abiram sons of Eliab. They replied, 'We will not come.
Num 16:13 Is it not enough for you to have brought us away from a country flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the desert, without your making yourself our absolute ruler?
Num 16:14 What is more, you have not brought us to a country flowing with milk and honey and you have not given us fields and vineyards for our heritage. Do you think you can hoodwink these people? We will not come.'
Num 16:15 Moses flew into a rage and said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Disregard their cereal offering! I have not taken so much as a donkey from them, nor have I wronged any of them.'
Num 16:16 Moses said to Korah, 'You and all your party, come before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) tomorrow, you and they, and Aaron too.
Num 16:17 Each will take his censer, put incense in it, and bring his censer before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- two hundred and fifty censers. You and Aaron too will each bring his censer.'
Num 16:18 Each of them took his censer, put fire in it and placed incense on it, and stood at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting with Moses and Aaron.
Num 16:19 Then, Korah having assembled the whole community to confront them at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to the whole community.
Num 16:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said,
Num 16:21 'Get away from this community. I am going to destroy them here and now.'
Num 16:22 They threw themselves on their faces and cried out, 'O God, God of the spirits that give life to every living thing, will you be angry with the whole community because one man has sinned?'
Num 16:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses,
Num 16:24 'Speak to the community and say, "Stand well clear of Korah's tent." '
Num 16:25 Moses stood up and went to Dathan and Abiram; the elders of Israel followed him.
Num 16:26 He spoke to the community and said, 'Stand away, I tell you, from the tents of these sinners, and touch nothing that belongs to them, for fear that with all their sins you too will be swept away.'
Num 16:27 So they moved away from Korah's tent. Dathan and Abiram had come out and were standing at their tent doors, with their wives, their sons and their little ones.
Num 16:28 Moses said, 'This is how you will know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself has sent me to perform all these tasks and that I am not doing them of my own accord.
Num 16:29 If these people die a natural death such as people commonly die, then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not sent me.
Num 16:30 But if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does something utterly new, if the earth should open its mouth and swallow them and all their belongings, so that they go down alive to Sheol, then you will know that they held Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in contempt.'
Num 16:31 The moment he finished saying all this, the ground split apart under their feet,
Num 16:32 the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their families, all Korah's people and all their property.
Num 16:33 They went down alive to Sheol with all their belongings. The earth closed over them and they disappeared in the middle of the community.
Num 16:34 At their cries, all the Israelites round them took to their heels, saying, 'We do not want the earth to swallow us too!'
Num 16:35 Fire then shot out from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and consumed the two hundred and fifty men offering incense.
Num 17:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Num 17:2 'Tell Eleazar son of Aaron the priest to pick the censers out of the smouldering remains and scatter the fire from them away from here,
Num 17:3 for these sinful censers have become sanctified at the price of human lives. Since they were brought before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and thus became consecrated, they must be hammered into sheets to cover the altar. They will be an object-lesson to the Israelites.'
Num 17:4 The priest Eleazar took the bronze censers which had been carried by the men destroyed by the fire. They were hammered into sheets to cover the altar.
Num 17:5 They are a reminder to the Israelites that no unauthorised person, no one not of Aaron's line, may approach and offer incense before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), on pain of suffering the fate of Korah and his party, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said through Moses.
Num 17:6 On the following day, the whole community of Israelites were muttering against Moses and Aaron and saying, 'You are responsible for killing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people!'
Num 17:7 Now, as the community was banding together against Moses and Aaron, they turned towards the Tent of Meeting, and there was the cloud covering it, and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared.
Num 17:8 Moses and Aaron then went to the front of the Tent of Meeting.
Num 17:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 17:10 'Get away from this community. I am going to destroy them here and now.' They threw themselves on their faces.
Num 17:11 Moses then said to Aaron, 'Take a censer, put fire in it from the altar, place incense on it and hurry to the community to perform the rite of expiation for them: for retribution has come from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), plague has broken out.'
Num 17:12 Aaron took it as Moses said and ran into the middle of the community, but plague had already broken out among the people. He put in the incense and performed the rite of expiation for the people.
Num 17:13 Then he stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped.
Num 17:14 There were fourteen thousand seven hundred victims of the plague, apart from those who died because of Korah.
Num 17:15 Aaron then went back to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting; the plague had been halted.
Num 17:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 17:17 'Tell the Israelites to give you a branch for each of their families, one for each leader of each family: twelve branches. Write the name of each on his branch;
Num 17:18 and on the branch of Levi write Aaron's name, since the head of the Levite families must have a branch too.
Num 17:19 You will then put them inside the Tent of Meeting in front of the Testimony, where I make myself known to you.
Num 17:20 The man whose branch sprouts will be the one I have chosen; this is how I shall put an end to the mutterings of the Israelites about you.'
Num 17:21 Moses spoke to the Israelites, and all their leaders gave him one branch each, twelve branches in all for their families; Aaron's branch was among them.
Num 17:22 Moses placed them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the Tent of the Testimony.
Num 17:23 On the following day Moses went to the Tent of the Testimony and there, already sprouting, was Aaron's branch, representing the House of Levi; buds had formed, flowers had bloomed and almonds had already ripened.
Num 17:24 Moses then brought out all the branches from before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to all the Israelites; they examined them and each one took back his own branch.
Num 17:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Put Aaron's branch back in front of the Testimony, where it will have its ritual place as a warning to the rebellious; thus you will rid me of their muttering for good, without their incurring death.'
Num 17:26 Moses did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered. That is what he did.
Num 17:27 The Israelites then said to Moses, 'We are lost! We are dead men! We are all dead men!
Num 17:28 Anyone who approaches Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Dwelling with an offering will die. Are we to be doomed to the last man?'
Num 18:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Aaron: 'You, your sons and your ancestor's line with you will be answerable for offenses against the sanctuary. You and your sons with you will be answerable for the offenses of your priesthood.
Num 18:2 You will admit your brothers of the branch of Levi, your ancestor's tribe, to join you and serve you, yourself and your sons, before the Tent of the Testimony.
Num 18:3 They must be at your service and the service of the whole Tent. Provided they do not come near the sacred vessels or the altar, they will be in no more danger of death than you.
Num 18:4 They must join you, they must take charge of the Tent of Meeting for the entire ministry of the Tent, and no unauthorised person will come near you.
Num 18:5 You will take charge of the sanctuary and charge of the altar, and retribution will never again befall the Israelites.
Num 18:6 Of the Israelites, I myself have chosen your brothers the Levites as a gift to you. As men dedicated, they will belong to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to serve at the Tent of Meeting.
Num 18:7 You and your sons will undertake the priestly duties in all that concerns the altar and all that lies behind the curtain. You will perform the liturgy, the duties of which I entrust to your priesthood. But an unauthorised person approaching will incur death.'
Num 18:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Aaron: 'I myself have put you in charge of everything set aside for me. Everything consecrated by the Israelites I give to you and your sons as your portion by perpetual decree.
Num 18:9 Of the things especially holy, of the food offered, this is what will revert to you: every offering that the Israelites give back to me, whether it be a cereal offering, a sacrifice for sin or a sacrifice of reparation, is a thing especially holy and will revert to you and your sons.
Num 18:10 You will eat the things especially holy. Every male may eat them. You will regard them as sacred.
Num 18:11 'To you will revert also whatever is set aside from the offerings of the Israelites, whatever is held out with the gesture of offering; this I give to you and your sons and daughters, by perpetual decree. All members of your household may eat it unless they are unclean.
Num 18:12 All the best of the oil, all the best of the new wine and wheat, these first-fruits offered by them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I give to you.
Num 18:13 All the first produce of the country brought by them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will revert to you. All members of your household may eat it unless they are unclean.
Num 18:14 Everything in Israel put under the curse of destruction will revert to you.
Num 18:15 Every first-born of all creatures brought to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), human or animal, will revert to you, but you will have to redeem the first-born of man; you will also redeem the first-born of an unclean animal.
Num 18:16 You will redeem it in the month in which it is born, valuing it at five shekels, at the sanctuary shekel, which is twenty gerah.
Num 18:17 But you will not redeem the first-born of cow, sheep and goat. They are holy: you will sprinkle their blood on the altar and burn the fat as food burnt to be a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Num 18:18 the meat will revert to you, as will the forequarter that has been presented with the gesture of offering, and the right thigh.
Num 18:19 Everything the Israelites set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from the holy things, I give to you and your sons and daughters, by perpetual decree. This is a covenant of salt for ever before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for you and your descendants too.'
Num 18:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Aaron: 'You will have no heritage in their country, you will not have a portion like them; I shall be your portion and your heritage among the Israelites.
Num 18:21 'Look, as heritage I give the Levites all the tithes collected in Israel, in return for their services, for the ministry they render in the Tent of Meeting.
Num 18:22 The Israelites will no longer approach the Tent of Meeting, on pain of committing a deadly sin.
Num 18:23 Levi will discharge the duties of the Tent of Meeting, and the Levites will bear the consequences of their own guilt. This is a perpetual decree binding all your descendants: the Levites will have no heritage among the Israelites,
Num 18:24 for the tithe which the Israelites set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the heritage I have given the Levites. This is why I have told them that they will have no heritage among the Israelites.'
Num 18:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 18:26 'Speak to the Levites and say: "When from the Israelites you receive the tithe which I have given you from them as your heritage, you will set a portion of this aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): a tithe of the tithe.
Num 18:27 It will take the place of the portion set aside that is due from you, like the wheat from the threshing-floor and new wine from the press.
Num 18:28 Thus you too will set a portion aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) out of all the tithes you receive from the Israelites. You will give what you have set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the priest Aaron.
Num 18:29 Out of all the gifts you receive, you will set a portion aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Out of all these things, you will set aside the best, the sacred portion."
Num 18:30 'You will say to them, "After you have set the best aside, the remainder will take the place, in the Levites' case, of the produce of the threshing-floor and wine-press.
Num 18:31 You may consume this anywhere, you and the members of your households; this is your recompense for serving in the Tent of Meeting,
Num 18:32 and you will not incur sin by doing so, once you have set aside the best; you will not be profaning the things consecrated by the Israelites and will not incur death." '
Num 19:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and Aaron and said:
Num 19:2 'This is a decree of the Law which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has prescribed. Tell the Israelites, they are to bring you a red heifer without fault or blemish that has never borne the yoke.
Num 19:3 You will give it to the priest Eleazar. It will then be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
Num 19:4 The priest Eleazar will then take some of the victim's blood on his finger, and sprinkle this blood seven times towards the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Num 19:5 The heifer will then be burnt while he looks on; its hide, flesh, blood and offal will be burnt.
Num 19:6 The priest will then take some cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet material and throw them on the fire where the heifer is burning.
Num 19:7 He will then wash his clothes and bathe himself; after which he will go back to the camp, though he will remain unclean until evening.
Num 19:8 The man who has burnt the heifer will wash his clothes and bathe himself and will remain unclean until evening.
Num 19:9 The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must be ritually clean; he will deposit them outside the camp, in a clean place. They will be kept for the ritual use of the Israelite community for making water for purification; it is a sacrifice for sin.
Num 19:10 The man who has gathered up the ashes of the heifer will wash his clothes and remain unclean until evening. For the Israelites as for the resident alien, this will be a perpetual decree.
Num 19:11 'Anyone who touches the corpse of anyone whatever will be unclean for seven days.
Num 19:12 Such a person must be purified with these waters on the third and seventh day and will then be clean; otherwise he will not be clean.
Num 19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of anyone who has died and is not purified, defiles Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Dwelling; such a person will be outlawed from Israel, since the water for purification has not been sprinkled over him; he is unclean, and his uncleanness remains in him.
Num 19:14 'This is the law when someone dies in a tent. Anyone who goes into the tent, or anyone who is already in it, will be unclean for seven days,
Num 19:15 and every open vessel with no cover tied over it will also be unclean.
Num 19:16 'Anyone in the open country who touches a murder victim, a corpse, human bones or a grave will be unclean for seven days.
Num 19:17 'For someone thus unclean, some of the ashes of the victim burnt as a sacrifice for sin will be taken and spring water must be poured over them, in a vessel.
Num 19:18 Someone who is ritually clean will then take some hyssop and dip it in the water. This person will then sprinkle the tent, all the vessels and people who were there, and similarly anyone who has touched human bones, a murder victim, a corpse or a grave.
Num 19:19 On the third and the seventh day the clean one will sprinkle the unclean, who on the seventh day will be clean. The latter will then wash his clothes and bathe in water, and in the evening he will be clean.
Num 19:20 Anyone who fails to be purified in this way will be outlawed from the community, and would defile Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary. Such a person is unclean, not having been sprinkled with the water for purification.
Num 19:21 'This will be a perpetual decree for them. The person who sprinkles the water for purification will wash his clothes, and anyone who touches the water for purification will be unclean until evening.
Num 19:22 Anything that an unclean person touches will be unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.'
Num 20:1 The Israelites, the whole community, arrived in the first month at the desert of Zin. The people settled at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
Num 20:2 There was no water for the community, so they banded together against Moses and Aaron.
Num 20:3 The people laid the blame on Moses. 'We would rather have died', they said, 'as our brothers died before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Num 20:4 Why have you brought Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s community into this desert, for us and our livestock to die here?
Num 20:5 Why did you lead us out of Egypt, only to bring us to this wretched place? It is a place unfit for sowing, it has no figs, no vines, no pomegranates, and there is not even water to drink!'
Num 20:6 Leaving the assembly, Moses and Aaron went to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. They threw themselves on their faces, and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to them.
Num 20:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Num 20:8 'Take the branch and call the community together, you and your brother Aaron. Then, in full view of them, order this rock to release its water. You will release water from the rock for them and provide drink for the community and their livestock.'
Num 20:9 Moses took up the branch from before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as he had directed him.
Num 20:10 Moses and Aaron then called the assembly together in front of the rock. He then said to them, 'Listen now, you rebels. Shall we make water gush from this rock for you?'
Num 20:11 Moses then raised his hand and struck the rock twice with the branch; water gushed out in abundance, and the community and their livestock drank.
Num 20:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not believe that I could assert my holiness before the Israelites' eyes, you will not lead this assembly into the country which I am giving them.'
Num 20:13 These were the Waters of Meribah, where the Israelites laid the blame on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and where, by their means, he asserted his holiness.
Num 20:14 Moses sent messengers from Kadesh: 'To the king of Edom. Your brother Israel says this: You are aware of the great hardships we have encountered.
Num 20:15 Our ancestors went down to Egypt and there we stayed for a long time. But the Egyptians treated us badly, as they had our ancestors.
Num 20:16 When we appealed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he heard our cry and, sending an angel, brought us out of Egypt, and here we are, now, at Kadesh, a town on the borders of your territory.
Num 20:17 We ask permission to pass through your country. We shall not go through the fields or vineyards; we shall not drink the water from the wells; we shall keep to the king's highway without turning to right or left until we have passed through your territory.'
Num 20:18 To which, Edom replied, 'You will not pass through my country; if you do, I shall oppose you by force of arms.'
Num 20:19 To which the Israelites replied, 'We shall keep to the high road; if I and my flocks drink any of your water, I am willing to pay for it. All I am asking is to pass through on foot.'
Num 20:20 Edom replied: 'You shall not pass,' and Edom opposed them in great numbers and great force.
Num 20:21 At Edom's refusal to grant Israel passage through his territory, Israel turned away.
Num 20:22 They set out from Kadesh, and the Israelites, the whole community, came to Mount Hor.
Num 20:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor, on the frontier of Edom, and said,
Num 20:24 'Aaron is to be gathered to his people; he will not enter the country which I have given to the Israelites, since you both disobeyed my order at the Waters of Meribah.
Num 20:25 Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up Mount Hor.
Num 20:26 Then take Aaron's robes off him and dress his son Eleazar in them. Aaron will then be gathered to his people; that is where he will die.'
Num 20:27 Moses did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered. With the whole community watching, they went up Mount Hor.
Num 20:28 Moses took Aaron's robes off him and dressed his son Eleazar in them, and there Aaron died, on the mountain-top. Moses and Eleazar then came back down the mountain.
Num 20:29 The whole community saw that Aaron had died, and for thirty days the whole House of Israel mourned for Aaron.
Num 21:1 The king of Arad, the Canaanite living in the Negeb, learned that Israel was coming by way of Atharim. He attacked Israel and took some prisoners.
Num 21:2 Israel then made this vow to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'If you deliver this people into my power, I shall curse their towns with destruction.'
Num 21:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard Israel's words and delivered the Canaanites into their power, and they destroyed them in accordance with their curse. Hence the place was given the name Hormah.
Num 21:4 They left Mount Hor by the road to the Sea of Suph, to skirt round Edom. On the way the people lost patience.
Num 21:5 They spoke against God and against Moses, 'Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the desert? For there is neither food nor water here; we are sick of this meagre diet.'
Num 21:6 At this, God sent fiery serpents among the people; their bite brought death to many in Israel.
Num 21:7 The people came and said to Moses, 'We have sinned by speaking against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and against you. Intercede for us with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to save us from these serpents.' Moses interceded for the people,
Num 21:8 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Make a fiery serpent and raise it as a standard. Anyone who is bitten and looks at it will survive.'
Num 21:9 Moses then made a serpent out of bronze and raised it as a standard, and anyone who was bitten by a serpent and looked at the bronze serpent survived.
Num 21:10 The Israelites set out and camped at Oboth.
Num 21:11 Then they left Oboth and camped at Iye-Abarim, in the desert on the eastern border of Moab.
Num 21:12 They set out from there and camped in the gorge of the Zered.
Num 21:13 They set out from there and camped on the other side of the Arnon. This gorge in the desert begins in the territory of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the frontier of Moab, between the Moabites and the Amorites.
Num 21:14 That is why it says in the Book of the Wars of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): '. . .Waheb near Suphah and the gorges of the Arnon
Num 21:15 and the slope of the ravine running down to the site of Ar and over against the frontier of Moab.'
Num 21:16 And from there they went to Beer, that being the well in connection with which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said to Moses, 'Call the people together and I will give them water.'
Num 21:17 Then it was that Israel sang this song: Spring up, well! Sing out for the well,
Num 21:18 sunk by the princes, dug by the people's leaders with the scepter, with their staves! -and from the desert to Mattanah,
Num 21:19 and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
Num 21:20 and from Bamoth to the valley that opens into the country of Moab, towards the heights of Pisgah overlooking the desert.
Num 21:21 Israel sent messengers to say to Sihon king of the Amorites,
Num 21:22 'I wish to pass through your country. We shall not stray into the fields or vineyards; we shall not drink the water from the wells; we shall keep to the king's highway until we have passed through your territory.'
Num 21:23 But Sihon would not give Israel leave to pass through his country. He assembled all his people, marched into the desert to meet Israel, and reached Jahaz, where he gave battle to Israel.
Num 21:24 Israel defeated him by force of arms and conquered his country from the Arnon to the Jabbok, as far as the Ammonites, for Jazer marked the Ammonite frontier.
Num 21:25 Israel took all these towns. Israel occupied all the Amorite towns, Heshbon and all its dependencies,
Num 21:26 Heshbon being the capital of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had made war on the first king of Moab and captured all his territory as far as the Arnon.
Num 21:27 Hence the poets say: Come to Heshbon! Let the city of Sihon be rebuilt on firm foundations!
Num 21:28 For fire has burst from Heshbon, a flame from the city of Sihon, devouring Ar of Moab, engulfing the heights of the Arnon.
Num 21:29 Oh, unhappy Moab! People of Chemosh, you are lost! He has resigned his sons as fugitives, and his daughters as prisoners to Sihon king of the Amorites.
Num 21:30 Their posterity has been destroyed from Heshbon all the way to Dibon, and we have lit a fire all the way from Nophah to Medeba.
Num 21:31 Thus Israel occupied the Amorites' territory.
Num 21:32 Moses then sent men to reconnoitre Jazer, and Israel took it and its dependencies, evicting the Amorites who lived there.
Num 21:33 They then turned and marched on Bashan. Og king of Bashan and all his people marched to meet them and give battle at Edrei.
Num 21:34 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Do not be afraid of him, for I have put him, all his people and his country at your mercy. Treat him as you treated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon.'
Num 21:35 So they pressed their attack against him, his sons and all his people until there was no one left alive. And they took possession of his country.
Num 22:1 The Israelites then set out and pitched their camp in the Plains of Moab, beyond the Jordan opposite Jericho.
Num 22:2 Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites,
Num 22:3 and Moab was terrified of the people, because there were so many of them. Moab was afraid of the Israelites;
Num 22:4 he said to the elders of Midian, 'This horde will soon have cropped everything round us as closely as an ox crops grass in the countryside.' Now Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at the time.
Num 22:5 He sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, at Pethor on the River, in the territory of the Amawites, saying, 'Look, a people coming from Egypt has overrun the whole countryside; they have halted at my very door.
Num 22:6 I beg you come and curse this people for me, for they are stronger than I am. We may then be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country. For this I know: anyone you bless is blessed, anyone you curse is accursed.'
Num 22:7 The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian set out, taking the fee for the divination with them. They found Balaam and gave him Balak's message.
Num 22:8 He said to them, 'Stay the night here, and I will answer as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) directs me.' So the chiefs of Moab stayed with Balaam.
Num 22:9 God came to Balaam and said, 'Who are these men staying with you?'
Num 22:10 Balaam said to God, 'Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent me this message,
Num 22:11 "Look, a people coming from Egypt has overrun the whole countryside. Come now and curse them for me; I may then be able to defeat them and drive them out." '
Num 22:12 God said to Balaam, 'You are not to go with them. You are not to curse the people, for they are blessed.'
Num 22:13 In the morning Balaam got up and said to the chiefs sent by Balak, 'Go back to your country, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not let me go with you.'
Num 22:14 So the chiefs of Moab got up, went back to Balak and said, 'Balaam refuses to come with us.'
Num 22:15 And again Balak sent chiefs, more numerous and more renowned than the first.
Num 22:16 They came to Balaam and said, 'A message from Balak son of Zippor, "Now do not refuse to come to me.
Num 22:17 I will load you with honors and do whatever you say. I beg you come and curse this people for me." '
Num 22:18 In reply, Balaam said to Balak's envoys, 'Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go against the order of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God in anything, great or small.
Num 22:19 Now please stay the night here yourselves, and I will learn what else Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has to tell me.'
Num 22:20 God came to Balaam during the night and said to him, 'Have not these men come to summon you? Get up, go with them, but do only what I tell you to do.'
Num 22:21 Balaam got up and saddled his donkey and set out with the chiefs of Moab.
Num 22:22 His going kindled Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger, and the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) took his stand on the road to bar his way. Balaam was riding his donkey and his two servants were with him.
Num 22:23 Now the donkey saw the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand, and she turned off the road into the open country. Balaam then struck the donkey to turn her back onto the road.
Num 22:24 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then went and stood on a narrow path among the vineyards, with a wall to the right and a wall to the left.
Num 22:25 The donkey saw the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and scraped against the wall, scraping Balaam's foot against it, so he struck her again.
Num 22:26 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then moved and stood in a place so narrow that there was no room to pass either to right or left.
Num 22:27 When the donkey saw the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), she lay down under Balaam. Balaam flew into a rage and struck the donkey with his stick.
Num 22:28 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then gave the donkey the power to talk, and she said to Balaam, 'What harm have I done you, for you to strike me three times like this?'
Num 22:29 Balaam answered the donkey, 'Because you have been making a fool of me! If I had been carrying a sword, I should have killed you by now.'
Num 22:30 The donkey said to Balaam, 'Am I not your donkey, and have I not been your mount all your life? Have I ever behaved like this with you before?' 'No,' he replied.
Num 22:31 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) standing in the road with a drawn sword in his hand; and he bowed his head and threw himself on his face.
Num 22:32 And the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'Why did you strike your donkey three times like that? I myself had come to bar your way; while I am here your road is blocked.
Num 22:33 The donkey saw me and turned aside because of me three times. You are lucky she did turn aside, or I should have killed you by now, though I would have spared her.'
Num 22:34 Balaam said to the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'I have sinned. I did not know you were standing in the road to stop me. But if what I am doing displeases you, I will go home again.'
Num 22:35 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Balaam, 'Go with these men, but say only what I tell you to say.' So Balaam went on with the chiefs sent by Balak.
Num 22:36 Balak learned that Balaam was coming and went out to meet him, in the direction of Ar in Moab, at the Arnon frontier on the country's furthest boundary.
Num 22:37 Balak said to Balaam, 'Did I not send messengers to summon you? Why did you not come to me? Did you think, perhaps, I could confer no honors on you?'
Num 22:38 Balaam said to Balak, 'I have come to you after all. I suppose you know I cannot say anything on my own? The words God puts into my mouth are what I shall say.'
Num 22:39 Balaam set out with Balak. They came to Kiriath-Huzoth.
Num 22:40 Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and offered portions to Balaam and the chiefs who were with him.
Num 22:41 Next morning Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-Baal, from where he could see the edge of the camp.
Num 23:1 Balaam said to Balak, 'Build me seven altars here and prepare me seven bulls and seven rams.'
Num 23:2 Balak did as Balaam said and offered a burnt offering of one bull and one ram on each altar.
Num 23:3 Balaam then said to Balak, 'Stand beside your burnt offerings while I go away. Perhaps Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will come and meet me. If he does, I shall tell you whatever he reveals to me.' And he withdrew to a bare hill.
Num 23:4 God came to meet Balaam, who said to him, 'I have prepared the seven altars and offered a burnt offering of one bull and one ram on each altar.'
Num 23:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then put a prophecy into his mouth and said to him, 'Go back to Balak, and that is what you must say to him.'
Num 23:6 So Balaam went back to him, and found him still standing beside his burnt offering, with all the chiefs of Moab.
Num 23:7 He then declaimed his poem as follows: Balak has brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the hills of Kedem: 'Come and curse Jacob for me, come and denounce Israel!'
Num 23:8 How shall I curse someone whom God has not cursed, how denounce someone God has not denounced?
Num 23:9 Yes, from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I descry him: a people that dwells on its own, not to be reckoned among other nations!
Num 23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob? Who can number the cloud of Israel? May I die the death of the just, and may my future be like theirs!
Num 23:11 Balak said to Balaam, 'What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and you have heaped blessings on them!'
Num 23:12 Balaam replied, 'Am I to depart from what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) puts into my mouth?'
Num 23:13 Balak then said, 'Please come somewhere else. From here you can see only the fringe of them, you cannot see them all. Curse them for me over there.'
Num 23:14 He led him to the Lookouts' Field on the top of Pisgah. There he built seven altars and offered a burnt offering of one bull and one ram on each altar.
Num 23:15 Balaam said to Balak, 'Stand here beside your burnt offerings while I wait over there.'
Num 23:16 God came to meet Balaam, he put a prophecy into his mouth and said to him, 'Go back to Balak, and that is what you must say to him.'
Num 23:17 So Balaam went to him and found him still standing beside his burnt offering and all the chiefs of Moab with him. 'What did Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) say?' Balak said to him.
Num 23:18 Balaam then declaimed his poem, as follows: Stand up, Balak, and listen, give ear to me, son of Zippor.
Num 23:19 God is no human being that he should lie, no child of Adam to change his mind. Is it his to say and not to do, is it his to speak and not fulfil?
Num 23:20 The charge laid on me is to bless, I shall bless, and I cannot reverse it.
Num 23:21 I have perceived no guilt in Jacob, have seen no perversity in Israel. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God is with him, and a royal acclamation to greet him.
Num 23:22 God has brought him out of Egypt, is like the wild ox's horns to him.
Num 23:23 There is no omen whatever against Jacob, no augury at all against Israel. Well may people say of Jacob, of Israel, 'What has God achieved?'
Num 23:24 for here is a people like a lioness rising, poised like a lion to spring; nor will he lie down till he has devoured his prey and drunk the blood of his slain.
Num 23:25 Balak said to Balaam, 'Very well! Do not curse them. But at least do not bless them!'
Num 23:26 Balaam retorted to Balak, 'Did I not tell you? Whatever Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, I must do.'
Num 23:27 Balak then said to Balaam, 'Come with me now and I shall take you somewhere else. From there perhaps it will please God to curse them for me.'
Num 23:28 So Balak led Balaam to the summit of Peor, overlooking the wastelands.
Num 23:29 Balaam then said to Balak, 'Build me seven altars here and prepare me seven bulls and seven rams.'
Num 23:30 Balak did as Balaam said and offered a burnt offering of one bull and one ram on each altar.
Num 24:1 Balaam then saw that it pleased Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to bless Israel. He did not go as before to seek omens but turned towards the desert.
Num 24:2 Raising his eyes Balaam saw Israel settled tribe by tribe; the spirit of God came on him
Num 24:3 and he declaimed his poem, as follows: The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of the man with far-seeing eyes,
Num 24:4 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God. He sees what Shaddai makes him see, receives the divine answer, and his eyes are opened.
Num 24:5 How fair your tents are, Jacob, how fair your dwellings, Israel,
Num 24:6 like valleys that stretch afar, like gardens by the banks of a river, like aloes planted by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), like cedars beside the waters!
Num 24:7 A hero arises from their stock, he reigns over countless peoples. His king is greater than Agag, and his kingship held in honor.
Num 24:8 God has brought him out of Egypt, is like the wild ox's horns to him. He devours the corpses of his enemies, breaking their bones, piercing them with his arrows.
Num 24:9 He has crouched, he has lain down, like a lion, like a lioness; who dare rouse him? Blessed be those who bless you, and accursed be those who curse you!
Num 24:10 Balak flew into a rage with Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to Balaam, 'I brought you to curse my enemies, and you have insisted on blessing them three times over!
Num 24:11 So now go home as fast as your legs can carry you. I promised to load you with honors. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself has deprived you of them.'
Num 24:12 Balaam retorted to Balak, 'Did I not tell the messengers you sent me,
Num 24:13 "Even if Balak gave me his house full of gold and silver I could not go against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order and do anything of my own accord, whether for good or ill; whatever Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says is what I shall say"?
Num 24:14 Now that I am going back to my own folk, let me warn you what this people will do to your people, in days to come.'
Num 24:15 He then declaimed his poem, as follows: The prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of the man with far-seeing eyes,
Num 24:16 the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, of one who knows the knowledge of the Most High. He sees what Shaddai makes him see, receives the divine answer, and his eyes are opened.
Num 24:17 I see him -- but not in the present. I perceive him -- but not close at hand: a star is emerging from Jacob, a scepter is rising from Israel, to strike the brow of Moab, the skulls of all the children of Seth.
Num 24:18 Edom too will be a conquered land, Seir too will be a conquered land, when Israel exerts his strength,
Num 24:19 when Jacob tramples on his enemies and destroys the last survivors of Ar.
Num 24:20 Balaam then looked at Amalek and declaimed his poem, as follows: Amalek, the earliest of nations! But his posterity will perish forever.
Num 24:21 He then looked at the Kenites and declaimed his poem, as follows: Your dwelling was firm, Kain, your nest perched high in the rock.
Num 24:22 But the nest belongs to Beor; how long will you be Asshur's captive?
Num 24:23 He then declaimed his poem, as follows: The Sea-people are gathering in the north,
Num 24:24 the vessels from the coasts of Kittim. They will bear down on Asshur, bear down on Eber; he too will perish forever.
Num 24:25 Balaam then got up, left and went home, and Balak too went his way.
Num 25:1 Israel settled at Shittim. The people gave themselves over to prostitution with Moabite women.
Num 25:2 These invited them to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down before their gods.
Num 25:3 With Israel thus committed to the Baal of Peor, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger was aroused against them.
Num 25:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Take all the leaders of the people. Impale them facing the sun, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to deflect his burning anger from Israel.'
Num 25:5 Moses said to the judges of Israel, 'Each of you will put to death those of his people who have committed themselves to the Baal of Peor.'
Num 25:6 One of the Israelites came along, bringing the Midianite woman into his family, under the very eyes of Moses and the whole community of Israelites as they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
Num 25:7 The priest Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, on seeing this, stood up, left the assembly, seized a lance,
Num 25:8 followed the Israelite into the alcove, and there ran them both through, the Israelite and the woman, through the stomach. Thus the plague which had struck the Israelites was arrested.
Num 25:9 In the plague twenty-four thousand of them had died.
Num 25:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke and said,
Num 25:11 'The priest Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron has deflected my wrath from the Israelites, he being the only one of them to have the same zeal as I have; for which reason, I did not make an end of the Israelites in my zeal.
Num 25:12 For this reason I say: To him I grant my covenant of peace.
Num 25:13 To him and his descendants after him, this covenant will assure the priesthood for ever. In reward for his zeal for his God, he will have the right to perform the ritual of expiation for the Israelites.'
Num 25:14 The Israelite who had been killed (the one who was killed with the Midianite woman) was called Zimri son of Salu, leader of one of the Simeonite families.
Num 25:15 The woman, the Midianite who was killed, was called Cozbi, daughter of Zur, chief of a clan, of a family, in Midian.
Num 25:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Num 25:17 'Harass the Midianites, strike them down,
Num 25:18 for harassing you with their guile in the Peor affair and in the affair of their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, the woman who was killed the day the plague came on account of the business of Peor.'
Num 26:1 After this plague, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and to the priest Eleazar son of Aaron and said:
Num 26:2 'Take a census of the whole community of Israelites, by families: all those of twenty years and over, fit to bear arms in Israel.'
Num 26:3 So Moses and the priest Eleazar took a census of them on the Plains of Moab, near the Jordan by Jericho. They counted
Num 26:4 (as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses and the Israelites after leaving Egypt) men of twenty years and over:
Num 26:5 Reuben, the first-born of Israel. The sons of Reuben: for Hanoch, the Hanochite clan; for Pallu, the Palluite clan;
Num 26:6 for Hezron, the Hezronite clan; for Carmi, the Carmite clan.
Num 26:7 These were the Reubenite clans. They numbered forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty men.
Num 26:8 The sons of Pallu: Eliab.
Num 26:9 The sons of Eliab: Nemuel, Dathan and Abiram. These two, Dathan and Abiram, men of repute in the community, were the ones who revolted against Moses and Aaron; they belonged to Korah's group when it revolted against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 26:10 The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them (with Korah when that group perished), when fire consumed the two hundred and fifty men. They were a sign.
Num 26:11 Korah's sons, however, did not perish.
Num 26:12 The sons of Simeon by clans: for Nemuel, the Nemuelite clan; for Jamin, the Jaminite clan; for Jachin, the Jachinite clan;
Num 26:13 for Zerah, the Zerahite clan; for Shaul, the Shaulite clan.
Num 26:14 These were the Simeonite clans. They numbered twenty-two thousand two hundred men.
Num 26:15 The sons of Gad by clans: for Zephon, the Zephonite clan; for Haggi, the Haggite clan; for Shuni, the Shunite clan;
Num 26:16 for Ozni, the Oznite clan; for Eri, the Erite clan;
Num 26:17 for Arod, the Arodite clan; for Areli, the Arelite clan.
Num 26:18 These were the clans of the sons of Gad. They numbered forty thousand five hundred men.
Num 26:19 The sons of Judah: Er and Onan. Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan.
Num 26:20 The other sons of Judah became clans: for Shelah, the Shelahite clan; for Perez, the Perezzite clan; for Zerah, the Zerahite clan.
Num 26:21 The sons of Perez were: for Hezron, the Hezronite clan; for Hamul, the Hamulite clan.
Num 26:22 These were the clans of Judah. They numbered seventy-six thousand five hundred men.
Num 26:23 The sons of Issachar by clans: for Tola, the Tolaite clan; for Puvah, the Puvahite clan;
Num 26:24 for Jashub, the Jashubite clan; for Shimron, the Shimronite clan.
Num 26:25 These were the clans of Issachar. They numbered sixty-four thousand three hundred men.
Num 26:26 The sons of Zebulun by clans: for Sered, the Seredite clan; for Elon, the Elonite clan; for Jahleel, the Jahleelite clan.
Num 26:27 These were the clans of Zebulun. They numbered sixty thousand five hundred men.
Num 26:28 The sons of Joseph by clans: Manasseh and Ephraim.
Num 26:29 The sons of Manasseh: for Machir, the Machirite clan; Machir fathered Gilead: for Gilead, the Gileadite clan.
Num 26:30 These were the sons of Gilead: for Iezer, the Iezerite clan; for Helek, the Helekite clan;
Num 26:31 Asriel, the Asrielite clan; Shechem, the Shechemite clan;
Num 26:32 Shemida, the Shemidaite clan; Hepher, the Hepherite clan.
Num 26:33 Zelophehad son of Hepher had no sons, only daughters; the names of Zelophehad's daughters were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.
Num 26:34 These were the clans of Manasseh. They numbered fifty-two thousand seven hundred men.
Num 26:35 These were the sons of Ephraim by clans: for Shuthelah, the Shuthelahite clan; for Becher, the Becherite clan; for Tahan, the Tahanite clan.
Num 26:36 These were the sons of Shuthelah: for Eran, the Eranite clan.
Num 26:37 These were the clans of Ephraim. They numbered thirty-two thousand five hundred men. These were the sons of Joseph by clans.
Num 26:38 The sons of Benjamin by clans: for Bela, the Belaite clan; for Ashbel, the Ashbelite clan; for Ahiram, the Ahiramite clan;
Num 26:39 for Shephupham, the Shephuphamite clan; for Hupham, the Huphamite clan.
Num 26:40 Bela's sons were Ard and Naaman; for Ard, the Ardite clan; for Naaman, the Naamanite clan.
Num 26:41 These were the sons of Benjamin by clans. They numbered forty-five thousand six hundred men.
Num 26:42 These were the sons of Dan by clans: for Shuham, the Shuhamite clan. These were the sons of Dan by clans.
Num 26:43 All the Shuhamite clans numbered sixty-four thousand four hundred men.
Num 26:44 The sons of Asher by clans: for Imnah, the Imnahite clan; for Ishvi, the Ishvihite clan; for Beriah, the Beriahite clan.
Num 26:45 For the sons of Beriah: for Heber, the Heberite clan; for Malchiel, the Malchielite clan.
Num 26:46 The daughter of Asher was called Serah.
Num 26:47 These were the clans of Asher. They numbered fifty-three thousand four hundred men.
Num 26:48 The sons of Naphtali by clans: for Jahzeel, the Jahzeelite clan; for Guni, the Gunite clan;
Num 26:49 for Jezer, the Jezerite clan; for Shillem, the Shillemite clan.
Num 26:50 These were the clans of Naphtali as divided into clans. The sons of Naphtali numbered forty-five thousand four hundred men.
Num 26:51 Of the Israelites thus numbered, there were six hundred and one thousand seven hundred and thirty men.
Num 26:52 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Moses and said,
Num 26:53 'The country must be shared out among these as a heritage, proportionately to the number of those inscribed.
Num 26:54 To the large in number you will give a large area of land, to the small in number a small area; to each the heritage will be in proportion to the number registered.
Num 26:55 The sharing out of the country must, however, be done by lot. Each will receive a heritage proportionate to the number of names in their patriarchal tribes;
Num 26:56 the heritage of each tribe will be shared out by lot, depending on its larger or smaller numbers.'
Num 26:57 These, by clans, are the Levites that were registered: for Gershon, the Gershonite clan; for Kohath, the Kohathite clan; for Merari, the Merarite clan.
Num 26:58 These are the Levite clans: the Libnite clan, the Hebronite clan, the Mahlite clan, the Mushite clan, the Korahite clan. Kohath fathered Amram.
Num 26:59 Amram's wife was called Jokebed daughter of Levi, born to him in Egypt. To Amram she bore Aaron, Moses and Miriam their sister.
Num 26:60 Aaron fathered Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Num 26:61 Nadab and Abihu died when they brought unauthorised fire before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 26:62 Altogether twenty-three thousand males of one month and over were registered. They were not registered with the Israelites, since they were given no heritage with the Israelites.
Num 26:63 Such were the men registered by Moses and the priest Eleazar who took a census of the Israelites on the Plains of Moab near the Jordan by Jericho.
Num 26:64 Not one of them was among those whom Moses and the priest Aaron had registered when they counted the Israelites in the desert of Sinai;
Num 26:65 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told them that these were to die in the desert and that none of them would be left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.
Num 27:1 There then came forward the daughters of Zelophehad son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh; he belonged to the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph. His daughters' names were Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.
Num 27:2 They appeared before Moses, the priest Eleazar, the leaders and the whole community, at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, and said,
Num 27:3 'Our father died in the desert. He was not a member of the party who banded together against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Korah's party; it was for his own sin that he died without sons.
Num 27:4 Why should our father's name be lost to his clan? Since he had no son, give us some property like our father's kinsmen.'
Num 27:5 Moses took their case before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Num 27:6 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 27:7 'Zelophehad's daughters are right in what they say. You will indeed give them a property to be their heritage among their father's kinsmen; see that their father's heritage is passed on to them.
Num 27:8 Then speak to the Israelites and say, "If a man dies without sons, his heritage will pass to his daughter.
Num 27:9 If he has no daughter, the heritage will go to his brothers.
Num 27:10 If he has no brothers, his heritage will go to his father's brothers.
Num 27:11 If his father has no brothers, his heritage will go to the member of his clan who is most nearly related; it will become his property. This will be a legal rule for the Israelites, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered Moses." '
Num 27:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'Climb this mountain of the Abarim range, and look at the country which I have given to the Israelites.
Num 27:13 After you have seen it, you will be gathered to your people, as Aaron your brother was.
Num 27:14 For you both rebelled in the desert of Zin when the community disputed with me and when I ordered you to assert my holiness before their eyes by means of the water.' (These were the Waters of Meribah of Kadesh, in the desert of Zin.)
Num 27:15 Moses then said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Num 27:16 'May it please Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of the spirits that give life to all living creatures, to appoint a leader for this community,
Num 27:17 to be at their head in all their undertakings, a man who will lead them out and bring them in, so that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s community will not be like sheep without a shepherd.'
Num 27:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Moses, 'Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom the spirit dwells, and lay your hand on him.
Num 27:19 Bring him before the priest Eleazar and the whole community and give him your orders in their presence,
Num 27:20 conferring some of your own authority on him, so that the whole community of Israelites will obey him.
Num 27:21 He will present himself to the priest Eleazar who will consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on his behalf by means of the rite of the urim; at his command, they will go out and, at his command, they will come in, he and all the Israelites with him, the whole community.'
Num 27:22 Moses did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered. He took Joshua, brought him before the priest Eleazar and the whole community,
Num 27:23 laid his hands on him and gave him his orders, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had directed through Moses.
Num 28:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 28:2 'Give the Israelites this order: "Take care to bring me my offering, my sustenance in the form of food burnt as a smell pleasing to me, at the proper time."
Num 28:3 'You will then say to them: "This is the food which you will burn in offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): "Every day, two unblemished yearling lambs as a perpetual burnt offering.
Num 28:4 You will offer the first lamb in the morning and the second lamb at twilight,
Num 28:5 with a cereal offering of one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-quarter of a hin of crushed-olive oil.
Num 28:6 Such was the perpetual burnt offering made on Mount Sinai as a pleasing smell, as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 28:7 The accompanying libation will be of one-quarter of a hin for each lamb; the libation of fermented liquor for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be poured inside the sanctuary.
Num 28:8 The second lamb you will offer at twilight, offering it with the same cereal offering and the same libation as in the morning, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 28:9 "On the Sabbath day, you will offer two unblemished yearling lambs and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour as a cereal offering, mixed with oil, as well as the accompanying libation.
Num 28:10 The Sabbath burnt offering will be offered every Sabbath in addition to the perpetual burnt offering, and the accompanying libation similarly.
Num 28:11 "At the beginning of each of your months you will offer a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): two young bulls, one ram and seven yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 28:12 for each bull a cereal offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil; for each ram, a cereal offering of two-tenths of fine flour mixed with oil;
Num 28:13 for each lamb, a cereal offering of one-tenth of fine flour mixed with oil: as a burnt offering, as a pleasing smell, as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 28:14 The accompanying libations will be of half a hin of wine for a bull, one-third of a hin for a ram and one-quarter of a hin for a lamb. This will be the monthly burnt offering, month after month, every month of the year.
Num 28:15 In addition to the perpetual burnt offering, a goat will be offered to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as a sacrifice for sin, with its accompanying libation.
Num 28:16 "The fourteenth day of the first month is the Passover of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Num 28:17 and the fifteenth day of this month is a feast day. For seven days unleavened bread will be eaten.
Num 28:18 On the first day there will be a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work.
Num 28:19 As food burnt as a burnt offering you will offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) two young bulls, a ram and seven yearling lambs, without blemish.
Num 28:20 The accompanying cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil will be three-tenths of an ephah for a bull, two-tenths for a ram,
Num 28:21 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs.
Num 28:22 There will also be a goat as a sacrifice for sin, for performing the rite of expiation for you.
Num 28:23 You will offer these in addition to the morning burnt offering, which is a perpetual burnt offering.
Num 28:24 You will do this every day for seven days. It is sustenance, food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to be offered in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its accompanying libation.
Num 28:25 On the seventh day you will hold a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work.
Num 28:26 "On the day of the first-fruits, when you make your offering of new fruits to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at your feast of Weeks, you will hold a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work.
Num 28:27 As a burnt offering as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you will offer two young bulls, one ram and seven yearling lambs.
Num 28:28 The accompanying cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil will be three-tenths of an ephah for each bull, two-tenths for the ram,
Num 28:29 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs.
Num 28:30 There will also be a goat as a sacrifice for sin, for performing the rite of expiation for you.
Num 28:31 You will offer these in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its accompanying cereal offering and libations." '
Num 29:1 ' "In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you will hold a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work. For you this will be a day of Acclamations.
Num 29:2 As a burnt offering, as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you will offer one young bull, one ram and seven yearling lambs, without blemish.
Num 29:3 The accompanying cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil will be three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram,
Num 29:4 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs.
Num 29:5 There will also be a goat as a sacrifice for sin, for performing the rite of expiation for you.
Num 29:6 This is in addition to the monthly burnt offering and its cereal offering, the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering, and the accompanying libations enjoined by law, as a pleasing smell, as food burnt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 29:7 "On the tenth day of this seventh month, you will hold a sacred assembly; you will fast and do no work.
Num 29:8 As a burnt offering for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as a pleasing smell, you will offer one young bull, one ram and seven yearling lambs, which you will choose as being without blemish.
Num 29:9 The accompanying cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil will be three-tenths of an ephah for the bull, two-tenths for the ram,
Num 29:10 and one-tenth for each of the seven lambs.
Num 29:11 And a goat will be offered as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the victim for sin at the feast of Expiation, to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering, and their accompanying libations.
Num 29:12 "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month you will hold a sacred assembly; you will do no heavy work, and for seven days you will celebrate a feast for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 29:13 As a burnt offering, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you will offer thirteen young bulls, two rams and fourteen yearling lambs, without blemish.
Num 29:14 The accompanying cereal offering of fine flour mixed with oil will be three-tenths of an ephah for each of the thirteen bulls, two-tenths for each of the two rams,
Num 29:15 and one-tenth for each of the fourteen lambs;
Num 29:16 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libation.
Num 29:17 "On the second day: twelve young bulls, two rams and fourteen yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 29:18 the accompanying cereal offering and libations, as prescribed, in proportion to the number of bulls, rams and lambs;
Num 29:19 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libations.
Num 29:20 "On the third day: eleven bulls, two rams and fourteen yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 29:21 the accompanying cereal offering and libations, as prescribed, in proportion to the number of bulls, rams and lambs;
Num 29:22 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libations.
Num 29:23 "On the fourth day: ten bulls, two rams and fourteen yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 29:24 the accompanying cereal offering and libations, as prescribed, in proportion to the number of bulls, rams and lambs;
Num 29:25 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libation.
Num 29:26 "On the fifth day: nine bulls, two rams and fourteen yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 29:27 the accompanying cereal offering and libations, as prescribed, in proportion to the number of bulls, rams and lambs;
Num 29:28 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libation.
Num 29:29 "On the sixth day: eight bulls, two rams and fourteen yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 29:30 the accompanying cereal offering and libations, as prescribed, in proportion to the number of bulls, rams and lambs;
Num 29:31 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libations.
Num 29:32 "On the seventh day: seven bulls, two rams and fourteen yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 29:33 the accompanying cereal offering and libations, as prescribed, in proportion to the number of bulls, rams and lambs;
Num 29:34 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libation.
Num 29:35 "On the eighth day you will hold an assembly; you will do no heavy work.
Num 29:36 As a burnt offering, as food burnt as a smell pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you will offer one bull, one ram and seven yearling lambs, without blemish;
Num 29:37 the accompanying cereal offering and libations, as prescribed, in proportion to the number of bulls, rams and lambs;
Num 29:38 also one goat as a sacrifice for sin. This is in addition to the perpetual burnt offering and its cereal offering and libation.
Num 29:39 "This is what you are to do for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at your solemn feasts, over and above your votive offerings and your voluntary offerings, your burnt offerings, cereal offerings and libations, and your peace offerings." '
Num 30:1 Moses told the Israelites exactly what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered him.
Num 30:2 Moses spoke to the tribal leaders of the Israelites and said, 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered:
Num 30:3 "If a man makes a vow to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) or a formal pledge under oath, he must not break his word: whatever he promises by word of mouth he must do.
Num 30:4 "If a woman makes a vow to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) or a formal pledge during her youth, while she is still in her father's house,
Num 30:5 and if her father hears about this vow or pledge made by her and says nothing to her, her vow, whatever it may be, will be binding, and the pledge she has taken, whatever it may be, will be binding.
Num 30:6 But if her father on the day he learns of it expresses his disapproval of it, then none of the vows or pledges she has taken will be binding. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not hold her to it, since her father has expressed his disapproval.
Num 30:7 "If, being bound by vows or by a pledge voiced without due reflection, she then marries,
Num 30:8 and if her husband hears of it but says nothing on the day he learns of it, her vows will be binding and the pledges she has taken will be binding.
Num 30:9 But if on the day he learns of it he expresses his disapproval to her, this will annul the vow that she has made or the pledge that binds her, voiced without due reflection. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not hold her to it.
Num 30:10 "The vow of a widow or a divorced woman and all pledges taken by her are binding on her.
Num 30:11 "If she has made a vow or taken a pledge under oath while in her husband's house,
Num 30:12 and if when the husband learns of it he says nothing to her and does not express disapproval to her, then the vow, whatever it is, will be binding, and the pledge, whatever it is, will be binding.
Num 30:13 But if the husband when he hears of it annuls it on the day he learns of it, no undertaking of hers, be it vow or pledge, will be binding. Since the husband has annulled it, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not hold her to it.
Num 30:14 "Every vow or oath that is binding on the wife may be endorsed or annulled by the husband.
Num 30:15 "If by the following day the husband has said nothing to her, it means that he endorses her vow, whatever it may be, or her pledge, whatever it may be. He endorses them if he says nothing on the day he learns of them.
Num 30:16 But if, having learnt of them, he annuls them later, he will bear the consequences for his wife's guilt." '
Num 30:17 Such were the laws which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) prescribed to Moses, concerning the relationship between a man and his wife, and between a father and his daughter while still young and living in her father's home.
Num 31:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 31:2 'Exact the full vengeance for the Israelites on the Midianites. Afterwards you will be gathered to your people.'
Num 31:3 Moses said to the people, 'Some of you are to take up arms for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s campaign against Midian, to carry out the vengeance of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on Midian.
Num 31:4 You will put a thousand men in the field from each of the tribes of Israel.'
Num 31:5 In this way Israel's thousands provided twelve thousand men equipped for war, one thousand from each tribe:
Num 31:6 Moses put them in the field, one thousand from each tribe, with Phinehas, son of the priest Eleazar, to go with them carrying the sacred objects and the trumpets for the battle cry.
Num 31:7 They made war on Midian, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses, and put every male to death.
Num 31:8 What is more, they killed the kings of Midian, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba, the five Midianite kings; they also put Balaam son of Beor to the sword.
Num 31:9 The Israelites took the Midianite women and their little ones captive and carried off all their cattle, all their flocks and all their goods as booty.
Num 31:10 They set fire to the towns where they lived and to all their encampments.
Num 31:11 Then, taking all their booty, everything they had captured, human and animal,
Num 31:12 they brought the captives, spoil and booty to Moses, the priest Eleazar and the whole community of Israelites at the camp on the Plains of Moab, near the Jordan by Jericho.
Num 31:13 Moses, the priest Eleazar and all the leaders of the community went out of the camp to meet them.
Num 31:14 Moses was enraged with the officers of the army, the commanders of the thousands and commanders of the hundreds, who had come back from this military expedition.
Num 31:15 He said, 'Why have you spared the life of all the women?
Num 31:16 They were the very ones who, on Balaam's advice, caused the Israelites to be unfaithful to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the affair at Peor: hence the plague which struck Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s community.
Num 31:17 So kill all the male children and kill all the women who have ever slept with a man;
Num 31:18 but spare the lives of the young girls who have never slept with a man, and keep them for yourselves.
Num 31:19 As for you, bivouac outside the camp for seven days, everyone who has killed anyone or touched a corpse. Purify yourselves and your prisoners on the third and seventh days,
Num 31:20 and purify all clothing, everything made of skin, everything woven of goat's hair and everything made of wood.'
Num 31:21 The priest Eleazar said to the soldiers who had come back from the campaign, 'This is an article of the Law which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) prescribed to Moses:
Num 31:22 although gold, silver, bronze, iron, tin and lead,
Num 31:23 everything that can withstand fire can be cleaned by being passed through fire, it must still be purified with water for purification. Whatever cannot resist fire you must pass through water.
Num 31:24 'Wash your clothes on the seventh day and you will then be clean. You may then re-enter the camp.'
Num 31:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 31:26 'With the priest Eleazar and the heads of families in the community, take a count of the spoils and captives, human and animal.
Num 31:27 You will then share out the spoil, half and half, between those who fought the campaign and the rest of the community.
Num 31:28 From the share of the combatants who took part in the campaign, you will set aside one out of every five hundred persons, oxen, donkeys and sheep as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s portion.
Num 31:29 You will take this from the half share coming to them and give it to the priest Eleazar as the portion set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 31:30 From the half coming to the Israelites, you will take one out of every fifty persons, oxen, donkeys, sheep, and all other animals, and give them to the Levites who are responsible for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Dwelling.'
Num 31:31 Moses and the priest Eleazar did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 31:32 The spoils, the remainder of the booty captured by the soldiers, came to six hundred and seventy-five thousand sheep and goats,
Num 31:33 seventy-two thousand head of cattle,
Num 31:34 sixty-one thousand donkeys,
Num 31:35 and in persons, women who had never slept with a man, thirty-two thousand in all.
Num 31:36 Half was assigned to those who had taken part in the war, namely three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep and goats,
Num 31:37 of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s portion was six hundred and seventy-five,
Num 31:38 thirty-six thousand head of cattle, of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s portion was seventy-two,
Num 31:39 thirty thousand five hundred donkeys, of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s portion was sixty-one,
Num 31:40 and sixteen thousand persons, of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s portion was thirty-two.
Num 31:41 Moses gave the priest Eleazar the portion set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 31:42 As for the half coming to the Israelites which Moses had separated from that of the combatants,
Num 31:43 this half, the community's share, came to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred sheep and goats,
Num 31:44 thirty-six thousand head of cattle,
Num 31:45 thirty thousand five hundred donkeys
Num 31:46 and sixteen thousand persons.
Num 31:47 From this half, the Israelites' share, Moses took one out of every fifty, human and animal, and gave them to the Levites who were responsible for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Dwelling, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 31:48 The officers of the thousands who had fought the campaign, the commanders of the thousands and commanders of the hundreds, came to Moses
Num 31:49 and said, 'Your servants have numbered the soldiers under their command: none of our men is missing.
Num 31:50 So, as an offering for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), we have brought what each of us has found in the way of gold ornaments, armlets and bracelets, rings, earrings and breastplates, to make expiation for ourselves before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Num 31:51 Moses and the priest Eleazar accepted this gold from them, all this jewellery.
Num 31:52 This portion of gold given to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by the commanders of the thousands and commanders of the hundreds amounted to sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels.
Num 31:53 Each of the soldiers took his own booty.
Num 31:54 But Moses and the priest Eleazar, having accepted the gold from the commanders of the thousands and commanders of the hundreds, brought it into the Tent of Meeting, to be a reminder of the Israelites before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Num 32:1 Now, the Reubenites and Gadites owned very large herds of cattle. Having seen that the territories of Jazer and Gilead formed an ideal region for raising stock,
Num 32:2 the Gadites and Reubenites went to Moses, the priest Eleazar and the leaders of the community, and said to them,
Num 32:3 'The territory of Ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Sebam, Nebo and Beon,
Num 32:4 which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has conquered before the advancing community of Israel, is ideal land for raising stock, and your servants are cattle breeders.
Num 32:5 So', they said, 'if you approve, give your servants this land for us to own; do not make us cross the Jordan.'
Num 32:6 Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, 'Do you intend your brothers to go into battle while you stay here?
Num 32:7 Why are you discouraging the Israelites from crossing to the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given them?
Num 32:8 Your fathers behaved in the same way when I sent them from Kadesh-Barnea to see the country,
Num 32:9 for, having gone as far as the Valley of Eshcol and seen the country, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given them.
Num 32:10 Hence Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger was aroused that day and he swore this oath,
Num 32:11 "No man of twenty years and over, who left Egypt, shall set eyes on the country which I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob . . . , for they have not followed me absolutely,
Num 32:12 except for Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, and Joshua son of Nun: these indeed have followed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) absolutely."
Num 32:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger being aroused by Israel, he made them wander in the desert for forty years, until the generation that offended Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had all disappeared.
Num 32:14 And now you rise up in your father's place, offshoot of sinful stock, to increase Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burning anger with Israel even more!
Num 32:15 If you turn away from him, he will prolong the time spent in the desert, and you will bring about this entire people's ruin.'
Num 32:16 They came to Moses and said, 'We should like to build sheepfolds here for our flocks and towns for our little ones.
Num 32:17 We ourselves will take up arms and lead the Israelites until we have brought them to the place appointed for them, while our little ones stay in the fortified towns to be safe from the local inhabitants.
Num 32:18 We will not return to our homes until every one of the Israelites has taken possession of his heritage.
Num 32:19 For we shall have no heritage with them on the other bank of the Jordan or beyond, since our heritage has fallen to us here, east of the Jordan.'
Num 32:20 Moses said to them, 'If you do as you have said, if you are prepared to fight before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Num 32:21 and if all those of you who bear arms cross the Jordan before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), until he has driven all his enemies out before him,
Num 32:22 then, once the country has become subject to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you may go back, and will have discharged your obligation to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and Israel, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will consider this territory yours.
Num 32:23 But if you do not, you will sin against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and be sure your sin will find you out.
Num 32:24 Build towns, then, for your little ones and folds for your flocks; but do what you have promised.'
Num 32:25 The Gadites and Reubenites said to Moses, 'Your servants will do as my lord directs.
Num 32:26 Our little ones, our wives, our flocks and all our livestock will stay in the towns of Gilead,
Num 32:27 but your servants, each armed for war, will cross in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name and fight, as my lord says.'
Num 32:28 So Moses gave orders about them to the priest Eleazar, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of families in the Israelite tribes.
Num 32:29 Moses said to them, 'If the Gadites and Reubenites, all those under arms, cross the Jordan with you to fight in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name, then, once the country has become subject to you, you will give them the territory of Gilead as theirs.
Num 32:30 But if they will not cross with you under arms, they will receive their domains in Canaan with the rest of you.'
Num 32:31 To this, the Gadites and Reubenites replied, 'What Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said to your servants, we shall do.
Num 32:32 Under arms, we shall cross in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name into Canaan, so that ownership of our heritage on this side of the Jordan will be ours.'
Num 32:33 Moses then gave them -- the Gadites, the Reubenites and the half-tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph -- the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the country and the towns within its territory, and the country's frontier-towns.
Num 32:34 The Gadites rebuilt Dibon, Ataroth, Aroer,
Num 32:35 Atroth-Shophan, Jazer, Jogbehah,
Num 32:36 Beth-Nimrah and Beth-Haran as fortified towns with folds for the flocks.
Num 32:37 The Reubenites rebuilt Heshbon, Elealeh, Kiriathaim,
Num 32:38 Nebo and Baal-Meon (the names of which were altered), and Sibmah, giving new names to the towns which they rebuilt.
Num 32:39 The descendants of Machir son of Manasseh went to Gilead. They conquered it and drove out the Amorites who were there.
Num 32:40 Moses gave Gilead to Machir son of Manasseh, and he settled there.
Num 32:41 Jair son of Manasseh went and seized their encampments, renaming them the Encampments of Jair.
Num 32:42 Nobah went and seized Kenat with its dependent townships, and called it Nobah after himself.
Num 33:1 These were the stages of the journey made by the Israelites when they left Egypt in their companies under the leadership of Moses and Aaron.
Num 33:2 Moses recorded their starting-points in writing whenever they moved on at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order. The stages, from one starting-point to another, were as follows:
Num 33:3 They left Rameses in the first month. It was the fifteenth day of the first month, the day following the Passover, when the Israelites confidently set out, under the eyes of all Egypt.
Num 33:4 The Egyptians were burying those of their own people whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had struck down, all the first-born; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had carried out his judgement on their gods.
Num 33:5 The Israelites left Rameses and camped at Succoth.
Num 33:6 Then they left Succoth and encamped at Etham which is on the edge of the desert.
Num 33:7 They left Etham, turned back to Pi-Hahiroth, opposite Baal-Zephon, and encamped before Migdol.
Num 33:8 They left Pi-Hahiroth, crossed the sea into the desert, and after marching for three days in the desert of Etham they encamped at Marah.
Num 33:9 They left Marah and reached Elim. At Elim there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees; they encamped there.
Num 33:10 They left Elim and encamped by the Sea of Reeds.
Num 33:11 They left the Sea of Reeds and encamped in the desert of Sin.
Num 33:12 They left the desert of Sin and encamped at Dophkah.
Num 33:13 They left Dophkah and encamped at Alush.
Num 33:14 They left Alush and encamped at Rephidim; the people found no drinking water there.
Num 33:15 They left Rephidim and encamped in the desert of Sinai.
Num 33:16 They left the desert of Sinai and encamped at Kibroth-ha-Taavah.
Num 33:17 They left Kibroth-ha-Taavah and encamped at Hazeroth.
Num 33:18 They left Hazeroth and encamped at Rithmah.
Num 33:19 They left Rithmah and encamped at Rimmon-Perez.
Num 33:20 They left Rimmon-Perez and encamped at Libnah.
Num 33:21 They left Libnah and encamped at Rissah.
Num 33:22 They left Rissah and encamped at Kehelathah.
Num 33:23 They left Kehelathah and encamped at Mount Shepher.
Num 33:24 They left Mount Shepher and encamped at Haradah.
Num 33:25 They left Haradah and encamped at Makheloth.
Num 33:26 They left Makheloth and encamped at Tahath.
Num 33:27 They left Tahath and encamped at Terah.
Num 33:28 They left Terah and encamped at Mithkah.
Num 33:29 They left Mithkah and encamped at Hashmonah.
Num 33:30 They left Hashmonah and encamped at Moseroth.
Num 33:31 They left Moseroth and encamped at Bene-Jaakan.
Num 33:32 They left Bene-Jaakan and encamped at Hor-Gidgad.
Num 33:33 They left Hor-Gidgad and encamped at Jotbathah.
Num 33:34 They left Jotbathah and encamped at Abronah.
Num 33:35 They left Abronah and encamped at Ezion-Geber.
Num 33:36 They left Ezion-Geber and encamped in the desert of Zin, that is, at Kadesh.
Num 33:37 They left Kadesh and encamped at Mount Hor, on the borders of the land of Edom.
Num 33:38 The priest Aaron went up Mount Hor on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s orders and died there in the fortieth year of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, in the fifth month, on the first day of the month.
Num 33:39 Aaron was a hundred and twenty-three years old when he died on Mount Hor.
Num 33:40 The king of Arad, the Canaanite who lived in the Negeb of Canaan, heard of the Israelites' arrival.
Num 33:41 They left Mount Hor and encamped at Zalmonah.
Num 33:42 They left Zalmonah and encamped at Punon.
Num 33:43 They left Punon and encamped at Oboth.
Num 33:44 They left Oboth and encamped in Moabite territory at Iye-Abarim.
Num 33:45 They left Iyim and encamped at Dibon-Gad.
Num 33:46 They left Dibon-Gad and encamped at Almon-Diblathaim.
Num 33:47 They left Almon-Diblathaim and encamped in the Abarim mountains facing Nebo.
Num 33:48 They left the Abarim mountains and encamped on the Plains of Moab, near the Jordan opposite Jericho.
Num 33:49 They encamped near the Jordan between Beth-ha-Jeshimoth and Abel-ha-Shittim, on the Plains of Moab.
Num 33:50 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses on the Plains of Moab, near the Jordan by Jericho, and said:
Num 33:51 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "When you have crossed the Jordan into Canaan,
Num 33:52 you will drive out all the local inhabitants before you. You will destroy all their painted images, you will destroy all their metal statues and you will demolish all their high places.
Num 33:53 You will take possession of the country and settle in it, for I have given you the country as your property.
Num 33:54 You will share it out by lot among your clans. To a large clan you will give a larger heritage, and to a smaller clan you will give a smaller heritage. Where the lot falls for each, that will be his. Your heritage will depend on the size of your tribe.
Num 33:55 If, however, you do not drive out the local inhabitants before you, the ones you allow to remain will be thorns in your eyes and thistles in your sides and will harass you in the country where you are living,
Num 33:56 and I shall treat you as I intended to treat them." '
Num 34:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said,
Num 34:2 'Give the Israelites this order. Say: "When you enter the country (Canaan), this will be the country which forms your heritage. This is Canaan as defined by its boundaries:
Num 34:3 "The southern part of your country will start from the desert of Zin, on the borders of Edom. Your southern boundary will start on the east at the end of the Salt Sea.
Num 34:4 It will then turn south towards the Ascent of the Scorpions and go by Zin to end in the south at Kadesh-Barnea. It will then run towards Hazar-Addar and pass through Azmon.
Num 34:5 From Azmon the boundary will turn towards the Torrent of Egypt and end at the Sea.
Num 34:6 "Your seaboard will be on the Great Sea; this will be your western boundary.
Num 34:7 "Your northern boundary will be as follows: you will draw a line from the Great Sea to Mount Hor,
Num 34:8 then from Mount Hor you will draw a line to the Pass of Hamath, and the boundary will end at Zedad.
Num 34:9 From there it will run on to Ziphron and end at Hazar-Enan. This will be your northern boundary.
Num 34:10 "You will then draw your eastern boundary from Hazar-Enan to Shepham.
Num 34:11 The boundary will run down from Shepham towards Riblah on the east side of Ain. Further down it will keep to the eastern shore of the Sea of Chinnereth.
Num 34:12 The frontier will then follow the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea. "Such will be your country with the boundaries surrounding it." '
Num 34:13 Moses then gave the Israelites this order: 'This is the country, where your heritages will be assigned by lot, and which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered to be given to the nine tribes and the half-tribe,
Num 34:14 for the tribe of the Reubenites with their families and the tribe of the Gadites with their families have already received their heritage; the half-tribe of Manasseh has also received its heritage.
Num 34:15 These two tribes and the half-tribe have received their heritage on the other side of the Jordan by Jericho, to the east, towards the sunrise.'
Num 34:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 34:17 'Here are the names of the men who will divide the country up for you: the priest Eleazar and Joshua son of Nun,
Num 34:18 and you will take one leader from each tribe to divide the country up into heritages.
Num 34:19 Here are the names of these men: 'For the tribe of Judah, Caleb son of Jephunneh;
Num 34:20 'for the tribe of the Simeonites, Shemuel son of Ammihud;
Num 34:21 'for the tribe of Benjamin, Elidad son of Chislon;
Num 34:22 'for the tribe of the Danites, the leader Bukki son of Jogli;
Num 34:23 'for the sons of Joseph: for the tribe of Manasseh, the leader Hanniel son of Ephod;
Num 34:24 'for the tribe of the Ephraimites, the leader Kemuel son of Shiphtan;
Num 34:25 'for the tribe of the Zebulunites, the leader Elizaphan son of Parnach;
Num 34:26 'for the tribe of the Issacharites, the leader Paltiel son of Azzan;
Num 34:27 'for the tribe of the Asherites, the leader Ahihud son of Shelomi;
Num 34:28 'for the tribe of the Naphtalites, the leader Pedahel son of Ammihud.'
Num 34:29 These were the men whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered to divide Canaan into heritages for the Israelites.
Num 35:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses on the Plains of Moab, near the Jordan by Jericho, and said:
Num 35:2 'Order the Israelites, from the heritage they possess, to give the Levites towns in which to live and pasture land round the towns. You will give these to the Levites.
Num 35:3 The towns must be their homes and the surrounding pasture land must be for their cattle, their possessions and all their animals.
Num 35:4 The pasture land surrounding the towns which you give to the Levites will extend, from the walls of the towns, for a thousand cubits all round.
Num 35:5 'Outside the town, measure two thousand cubits to the east, two thousand cubits to the south, two thousand cubits to the west and two thousand cubits to the north, the town lying in the centre; such will be the pasture lands of these towns.
Num 35:6 The towns you give to the Levites will be six cities of refuge, ceded by you as sanctuary for those who commit manslaughter; and you will give forty-two towns in addition.
Num 35:7 Altogether you will give the Levites forty-eight towns, with their pasture lands.
Num 35:8 Of the towns which you give from the Israelites' possessions, you will give more from those who have more, and less from those who have less. Each will give some of his towns to the Levites, in proportion to the heritage he himself has received.'
Num 35:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses and said:
Num 35:10 'Speak to the Israelites and say: "Once you have crossed the Jordan into Canaan,
Num 35:11 you will find towns, some of which you will make into cities of refuge where those who have accidentally committed manslaughter can take sanctuary.
Num 35:12 These towns will afford you refuge from the avenger of blood, so that the killer will not be put to death before standing trial before the community.
Num 35:13 Of the towns you give, six will serve you as cities of refuge:
Num 35:14 as cities of refuge, you will give three towns on the other side of the Jordan and will give three towns in Canaan.
Num 35:15 These six towns will serve as refuge for the Israelites, for the foreigner and for the resident alien, where anyone who has accidentally killed someone can take sanctuary.
Num 35:16 "But if he has struck the person with an iron object so as to cause death, he is a murderer. The murderer will be put to death.
Num 35:17 If he has struck him with a stone meant for killing, and has killed him, he is a murderer. The murderer will be put to death.
Num 35:18 Or if he has struck him with a wooden instrument meant for killing, and has killed him, he is a murderer. The murderer will be put to death.
Num 35:19 The avenger of blood will put the murderer to death. Whenever he finds him, he will put him to death.
Num 35:20 "If the killer has maliciously manhandled his victim, or thrown some lethal missile to strike him down,
Num 35:21 or out of enmity dealt him the death-blow with his fist, then he who struck the blow will be put to death; he is a murderer; the avenger of blood will put him to death whenever he finds him.
Num 35:22 If, however, he has manhandled his victim by chance, without malice, or thrown some missile at him not meaning to hit him
Num 35:23 or, without seeing him, dropped on him a stone meant for killing and so killed him, so long as he bore him no malice and wished him no harm,
Num 35:24 then the community will decide in accordance with these rules between the one who struck the blow and the avenger of blood,
Num 35:25 and will save the killer from the clutches of the avenger of blood. They will send him back to the city of refuge where he had taken sanctuary, and there he will stay until the death of the high priest who has been anointed with the holy oil.
Num 35:26 Should the killer leave the bounds of the city of refuge in which he has taken sanctuary
Num 35:27 and the avenger of blood encounter him outside the bounds of his city of refuge, the avenger of blood may kill him without fear of reprisal;
Num 35:28 since the killer should stay in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest; only after the death of the high priest is he free to go back to his own piece of property.
Num 35:29 Such will be the legal rule for you and your descendants, wherever you may live.
Num 35:30 "In any case of homicide, the evidence of witnesses will determine whether the killer must be put to death; but a single witness is not enough to sustain a capital charge.
Num 35:31 You will not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer condemned to death; he must die.
Num 35:32 Nor will you accept a ransom for anyone who, having taken sanctuary in his city or refuge, wishes to come back and live at home before the death of the high priest.
Num 35:33 Do not profane the country you live in. Blood profanes the country and, for the country, the only expiation for the blood shed in it is the blood of the man who shed it.
Num 35:34 So do not defile the country which you live in and where I live; for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), live among the Israelites." '
Num 36:1 Then the heads of families of the clan descended from Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, one of the clans descended from Joseph, came forward and, addressing Moses and the leaders, the Israelite heads of families,
Num 36:2 they said: 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordered my lord to apportion the Israelites' heritages in the country by lot and my lord has been ordered by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to give the heritage of our brother Zelophehad to his daughters.
Num 36:3 Now, if they marry someone from another Israelite tribe, their heritage will be alienated from our ancestral heritage. The heritage of the tribe to which they will then belong will be increased, and the heritage allotted to us will be diminished.
Num 36:4 And when the jubilee for the Israelites comes round, these women's heritage will become part of the heritage of the tribe to which they then belong, and be alienated from the heritage of our ancestral tribe.'
Num 36:5 At Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s bidding, Moses gave the Israelites this order. He said: 'What the Josephite tribe says is true.
Num 36:6 This is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s ruling for Zelophehad's daughters: "They may marry whom they please, providing they marry into a clan of their father's tribe.
Num 36:7 But the heritages of Israelites are not to be transferred from tribe to tribe; each Israelite will stick to the heritage of his own tribe.
Num 36:8 Any daughter who owns a heritage in an Israelite tribe will marry into a clan of her own paternal tribe, so that the Israelites may each preserve the heritage of his father.
Num 36:9 No heritage may be transferred from one tribe to another; each Israelite tribe will stick to its own heritage." '
Num 36:10 Zelophehad's daughters did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Num 36:11 Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah, daughters of Zelophehad, married the sons of their father's brothers.
Num 36:12 Since they married into clans descended from Manasseh son of Joseph, their heritage reverted to the tribe of their father's clan.
Num 36:13 Such were the commandments and laws that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) prescribed for the Israelites through Moses on the Plains of Moab near the Jordan by Jericho.
Deu 1:1 These are the words which Moses addressed to all Israel beyond the Jordan, in the desert, in the Arabah facing Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth and Dizahab.
Deu 1:2 It is eleven days' journey from Horeb by way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-Barnea.
Deu 1:3 It was in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, that Moses told the Israelites everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered him to tell them.
Deu 1:4 He had defeated Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who lived at Ashtaroth and Edrei.
Deu 1:5 There, in Moab beyond the Jordan, Moses resolved to expound this Law. He said:
Deu 1:6 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God said to us at Horeb, "You have stayed long enough at this mountain.
Deu 1:7 Move on, continue your journey, go to the highlands of the Amorites, to all those who live in the Arabah, in the highlands, in the lowlands, in the Negeb and in the coastland; go into Canaan and to Lebanon as far as the great River Euphrates.
Deu 1:8 Look, that is the country I have given you; go and take possession of the country that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) promised on oath to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendants after them."
Deu 1:9 'At the same time, I told you, "I cannot be responsible for you by myself.
Deu 1:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has increased your numbers, until you are now as numerous as the stars of heaven.
Deu 1:11 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is going to increase you a thousand times more, and bless you as he has promised you.
Deu 1:12 So how can I cope by myself with the bitter burden that you are, and with your bickering?
Deu 1:13 From each of your tribes pick wise, shrewd and experienced men for me to make your leaders."
Deu 1:14 You replied, "Your plan is good."
Deu 1:15 So I took your tribal leaders, wise, experienced men, and appointed them to lead you, as captains of thousands, hundreds, fifties, tens, and as scribes for your tribes.
Deu 1:16 At that same time I told your judges, "You must give your brothers a fair hearing and see justice done between one person and his brother or the foreigner living with him.
Deu 1:17 You must be impartial in judgement and give an equal hearing to small and great alike. Do not be afraid of any human person, for the verdict is God's. Should a case be too difficult, bring it for me to hear.
Deu 1:18 And on that occasion I gave you instructions about everything you were to do."
Deu 1:19 'So, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God had ordered, we left Horeb and made our way through that vast and terrible desert, which you saw on the way to the Amorite highlands, and arrived at Kadesh-Barnea.
Deu 1:20 I then said, "You have now reached the Amorite highlands, which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has given us.
Deu 1:21 Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has given you this country. March in, take possession of it as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of your ancestors, has said; do not be afraid or discouraged."
Deu 1:22 Then you all came to me and said, "Let us send men ahead of us to explore the country; they shall report to us which way we ought to take and what towns we shall come to."
Deu 1:23 This seemed good advice to me and I selected twelve men from among you, one from each tribe.
Deu 1:24 These men made towards the highlands and went up into them; they reached the Valley of Eshcol and reconnoitered it.
Deu 1:25 They collected some of the produce of the country and brought it down to us; and they made us this report, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has given us a fine country."
Deu 1:26 You, however, refused to go up there and rebelled against the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 1:27 You muttered in your tents, saying, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) hates us, and that is why he has brought us out of Egypt, to put us into the Amorites' power and so destroy us.
Deu 1:28 What kind of place are we making for? Our brothers have discouraged us by saying that the people are stronger and taller than we are, the cities immense, with walls reaching to the sky. And we have seen Anakim there too."
Deu 1:29 'And I said to you, "Do not take fright, do not be afraid of them.
Deu 1:30 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God goes ahead of you and will be fighting on your side, just as you saw him act in Egypt.
Deu 1:31 You have seen him in the desert too: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God continued to support you, as a man supports his son, all along the road you followed until you arrived here."
Deu 1:32 But for all this, you put no faith in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God,
Deu 1:33 going ahead of you on the journey to find you a camping ground, by night in the fire to light your path, and in the cloud by day.
Deu 1:34 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard what you were saying and in his anger swore this oath,
Deu 1:35 "Not one of these people, this perverse generation, will see the fine country I swore to give your ancestors,
Deu 1:36 except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it. To him and to his children I shall give the land he has set foot on, for he has been perfectly obedient to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Deu 1:37 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was angry with me too, because of you. "You will not go in either," he said.
Deu 1:38 "Your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will be the one to enter. Encourage him, since he is to bring Israel into possession of the country.
Deu 1:39 And your little ones too, who, you said, would be seized as booty, these children of yours who do not yet know good from evil, they will go in; I shall give it to them and they will own it.
Deu 1:40 But, as regards yourselves, turn round, go back into the desert, towards the Sea of Suph."
Deu 1:41 'In reply, you then said to me, "We have sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God. We shall go up and fight just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has ordered us." And each one of you buckled on his arms and equipped himself to march up into the highlands.
Deu 1:42 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, "Tell them this: Do not go up and fight. I am not with you. Do not let yourselves be defeated by your enemies."
Deu 1:43 So I told you, but you would not listen, and you rebelled against the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); presumptuously you marched into the highlands.
Deu 1:44 The Amorites, who live in that country of hills, came swarming out against you like bees, pursued you and beat you from Seir to Hormah.
Deu 1:45 On your return, you wept in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, but he would not listen to your cries or pay attention.
Deu 1:46 That was why you had to stay at Kadesh as long as you did.'
Deu 2:1 'We then turned round and made for the desert, in the direction of the Sea of Suph, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered me. For many days we skirted Mount Seir.
Deu 2:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to me,
Deu 2:3 "You have gone far enough round this mountain; now turn north.
Deu 2:4 And give the people this order: You are about to pass through the territory of your kinsmen, the sons of Esau who live in Seir. They are afraid of you, and you will be well protected.
Deu 2:5 Do not provoke them, for I shall give you none of their land, no, not so much as a foot's length of it. I have given the highlands of Seir to Esau as his domain.
Deu 2:6 Pay them in money for what food you eat; and pay them in money for the water you drink.
Deu 2:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has blessed you in all you do; he has watched over your journeying through this vast desert. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has been with you these forty years and you have never been in want."
Deu 2:8 'So we passed beyond those relatives of ours, the children of Esau who live in Seir, by the road through the Arabah, Elath and Ezion-Geber; then, changing direction, we took the road towards the Plains of Moab.
Deu 2:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to me, "Do not attack Moab, do not provoke him to fight, for I shall give you none of his land, since I have given Ar to the children of Lot as their domain."
Deu 2:10 (At one time the Emim lived there, a great and numerous people, tall as the Anakim;
Deu 2:11 and, like the Anakim, they were considered to be Rephaim, though the Moabites call them Emim.
Deu 2:12 The Horites, too, lived in Seir at one time; these, however, were dispossessed and exterminated by the children of Esau who settled there in place of them, just as Israel has done in the country given to it by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as a heritage.)
Deu 2:13 "On your way, then! Cross the Wadi Zered!" 'And so we crossed the Wadi Zered.
Deu 2:14 From Kadesh-Barnea to the crossing of the Wadi Zered our wanderings had taken thirty-eight years; as a result of which, the entire generation of those of age to bear arms had been eliminated, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had sworn to them.
Deu 2:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand had been against them, to eliminate them completely from the camp.
Deu 2:16 'When death had carried off from the people those of age to bear arms, to the last man,
Deu 2:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said this to me,
Deu 2:18 "You are now crossing Ar, the country of Moab,
Deu 2:19 and soon you will encounter the children of Ammon. Do not attack them, do not provoke them, for I shall give you none of the land belonging to the children of Ammon as your domain. I have given it to the children of Lot as theirs."
Deu 2:20 (This used also to be considered as Rephaim territory; at one time the Rephaim lived there, though the Ammonites call them Zamzummim,
Deu 2:21 a great and numerous people, and tall like the Anakim. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) exterminated them for the Ammonites who dispossessed them and settled there in place of them,
Deu 2:22 just as he had done for the children of Esau who live in Seir, so that they dispossessed the Horites and settled there instead of them and are still there now.
Deu 2:23 It was the same with the Avvites who occupied encampments as far as Gaza: the Caphtorim, coming from Caphtor, exterminated them and settled there instead.)
Deu 2:24 "On your way! Break camp and cross the Wadi Arnon. See, I am putting Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, at your mercy, and his country too. Set about the conquest; engage him in battle.
Deu 2:25 Today and henceforth, I shall fill the peoples under all heaven with fear and terror of you; whoever hears word of your approach will tremble and writhe in anguish because of you."
Deu 2:26 'So, from the desert of Kedemoth I sent envoys to Sihon king of Heshbon with this peaceful message,
Deu 2:27 "I intend to cross your country. I shall go my way, straying neither to right nor to left.
Deu 2:28 I shall eat and pay for the food you choose to sell me, and I shall drink and pay for the water you let me have. I only want to march through,
Deu 2:29 just as the children of Esau who live in Seir permitted, as well as the Moabites who live in Ar, until I cross the Jordan into the country that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God is giving us."
Deu 2:30 'But Sihon king of Heshbon would not give us leave to pass through his territory; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God had made his spirit obstinate and his heart stubborn, to put him at your mercy, as he still is.
Deu 2:31 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, "You see, I am starting to give you Sihon and his country. Begin the conquest by seizing his country."
Deu 2:32 Sihon marched out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Jahaz.
Deu 2:33 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God handed him over to us: we defeated him and his sons and all his people.
Deu 2:34 We captured all his towns and laid all these towns under the curse of destruction: men, women and children, we left no survivors
Deu 2:35 except the livestock which we took as our booty, and the spoils of the captured towns.
Deu 2:36 From Aroer on the edge of the Arnon valley and from the town down in the valley, as far as Gilead, not one town was beyond our reach; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God delivered them all to us.
Deu 2:37 You did not, however, go near the country of the Ammonites, or the region of the River Jabbok, or the towns in the highlands, or anywhere forbidden us by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.'
Deu 3:1 'We then turned on Bashan and invaded that. And Og king of Bashan marched out against us, he and all his people, to give battle at Edrei.
Deu 3:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, "Do not be afraid of him, for I have put him at your mercy, him, all his people and his country. You will treat him as you treated Sihon king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon."
Deu 3:3 So, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God put Og king of Bashan at our mercy too, with all his people. We beat him so thoroughly that nobody was left.
Deu 3:4 That was when we captured all his towns; there was not a town of theirs we did not take: sixty towns, the whole confederation of Argob, Og's kingdom in Bashan,
Deu 3:5 all of them fortresses defended by high walls and fortified with gates and bars, not to mention the Perizzite towns, which were very numerous.
Deu 3:6 We laid them under the curse of destruction as we had done Sihon king of Heshbon, laying all these towns under the curse of destruction: men, women and children-
Deu 3:7 but we seized the livestock and spoils of the towns as booty for ourselves.
Deu 3:8 'Thus, by then we had taken the country of the two Amorite kings beyond the Jordan, stretching from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon
Deu 3:9 (the Sidonians call Hermon 'Sirion' and the Amorites call it 'Senir'):
Deu 3:10 all the towns of the tableland, all Gilead, and all Bashan as far as Salecah and Edrei, the capital cities of Og in Bashan.
Deu 3:11 (Og king of Bashan was the last survivor of the Rephaim; his bed was the iron bed that can be seen at Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites, nine cubits long and four wide, according to the human cubit.)
Deu 3:12 'Then we took possession of this country, from Aroer on the Wadi Arnon. To the Reubenites and Gadites I gave half the highlands of Gilead with its towns.
Deu 3:13 To the half-tribe of Manasseh I gave the rest of Gilead and the whole of Bashan, Og's kingdom. (The whole confederation of Argob and the whole of Bashan is called the country of the Rephaim.
Deu 3:14 Since Jair son of Manasseh occupied the whole confederation of Argob as far as the frontiers of the Geshurites and Maacathites, after him Bashan is called the Encampments of Jair even today.)
Deu 3:15 To Machir I gave Gilead.
Deu 3:16 To the Reubenites and the Gadites I gave the region from Gilead to the Wadi Arnon, the middle of the ravine marking the boundary, and up as far as the Jabbok, the ravine marking the frontier of the Ammonites.
Deu 3:17 The Arabah and the Jordan serve as frontiers from Chinnereth down to the Sea of the Arabah (the Salt Sea), at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah on the east.
Deu 3:18 'I then gave you this order: "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has given you this country to be yours. Armed, every one of you fit to fight must go ahead of your brothers the Israelites.
Deu 3:19 Only your wives, your children and your flocks (you have many flocks, I know) must stay behind in the towns which I have given you,
Deu 3:20 until Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has brought your brothers to rest as he has already brought you, and they too possess the territory which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving them on the other side of the Jordan; after that, you can go home, each to the domain I have given you."
Deu 3:21 I then gave Joshua this order, "You can see for yourself everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has done to these two kings; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will do the same to all the kingdoms through which you pass.
Deu 3:22 Do not be afraid of them: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God himself is fighting for you."
Deu 3:23 'I then pleaded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 3:24 "My Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)," I said, "now that you have begun to reveal your greatness and your power to your servant with works and mighty deeds no God in heaven or on earth can rival,
Deu 3:25 may I not go across and see this fine country on the other side of the Jordan, that fine upland country and the Lebanon?"
Deu 3:26 But, because of you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was angry with me and would not listen. "Enough!" he said, "Do not mention this subject again!
Deu 3:27 Climb to the top of Pisgah; turn your eyes to the west, the north, the south, the east. Look well, for across this Jordan you shall not go.
Deu 3:28 Give Joshua your instructions; encourage him, strengthen him; for he will be the one to cross at the head of this people; he will be the one to bring them into possession of the country which you will see."
Deu 3:29 'We then stayed in the valley, close to Beth-Peor.'
Deu 4:1 'And now, Israel, listen to the laws and customs which I am teaching you today, so that, by observing them, you may survive to enter and take possession of the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, is giving you.
Deu 4:2 You must add nothing to what I command you, and take nothing from it, but keep the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God just as I lay them down for you.
Deu 4:3 You can see for yourselves what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done about the Baal of Peor; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has destroyed all those of you who followed the Baal of Peor;
Deu 4:4 but those of you who stayed faithful to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God are all alive today.
Deu 4:5 Look: as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God commanded me, I have taught you laws and customs, for you to observe in the country of which you are going to take possession.
Deu 4:6 Keep them, put them into practice, and other peoples will admire your wisdom and prudence. Once they know what all these laws are, they will exclaim, "No other people is as wise and prudent as this great nation!"
Deu 4:7 And indeed, what great nation has its gods as near as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God is to us whenever we call to him?
Deu 4:8 And what great nation has laws and customs as upright as the entirety of this Law which I am laying down for you today?
Deu 4:9 'But take care, as you value your lives! Do not forget the things which you yourselves have seen, or let them slip from your heart as long as you live; teach them, rather, to your children and to your children's children.
Deu 4:10 The day you stood at Horeb in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, "Summon the people to me; I want them to hear me speaking, so that they will learn to fear me all the days they live on earth, and teach this to their children."
Deu 4:11 So you came and stood at the foot of the mountain, and the mountain flamed to the very sky, a sky darkened by cloud, murky and thunderous.
Deu 4:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to you from the heart of the fire; you heard the sound of words but saw no shape; there was only a voice.
Deu 4:13 He revealed his covenant to you and commanded you to observe it, the Ten Words which he inscribed on two tablets of stone.
Deu 4:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then ordered me to teach you the laws and customs that you were to observe in the country into which you are about to cross, to take possession of it.
Deu 4:15 'Hence, be very careful what you do. Since you saw no shape that day at Horeb when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to you from the heart of the fire,
Deu 4:16 see that you do not corrupt yourselves by making an image in the shape of anything whatever: be it statue of man or of woman,
Deu 4:17 or of any animal on the earth, or of any bird that flies in the heavens,
Deu 4:18 or of any reptile that crawls on the ground, or of any fish in the waters under the earth.
Deu 4:19 When you raise your eyes to heaven, when you see the sun, the moon, the stars -- the entire array of heaven -- do not be tempted to worship them and serve them. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has allotted these to all the other peoples under heaven,
Deu 4:20 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen you, bringing you out of the iron-foundry, Egypt, to be his own people, his own people as you still are today.
Deu 4:21 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is angry with me because of you; he has sworn that I shall not cross the Jordan or enter the fine country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you as your heritage.
Deu 4:22 Yes, I am to die in this country; I shall not cross this Jordan; you will go over and take possession of that rich land.
Deu 4:23 Be careful not to forget the covenant which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has made with you, by sculpting an image or making a statue of anything, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has forbidden this;
Deu 4:24 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Deu 4:25 'When you have fathered children and grandchildren and have grown old in the country, when you have grown corrupt and made some image, doing what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as wrong and so provoking his anger-
Deu 4:26 today I call heaven and earth to witness against you -- you will quickly vanish from the country which you are crossing the Jordan to possess. Your days will not be prolonged there, for you will be utterly destroyed.
Deu 4:27 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will scatter you among the peoples, and only a small number of you will remain among the nations where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will have driven you.
Deu 4:28 There you will serve gods made by human hand, of wood and of stone, that cannot see or hear, eat or smell.
Deu 4:29 'If, however, from there you start searching once more for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and if you search for him honestly and sincerely, you will find him.
Deu 4:30 You will suffer; everything I have said will befall you, but in the final days you will return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and listen to his voice.
Deu 4:31 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is a merciful God and will not desert or destroy you or forget the covenant which he made on oath with your ancestors.
Deu 4:32 'Put this question, then, to the ages that are past, that have gone before you, from when God created the human race on earth: Was there ever a word so majestic, from one end of heaven to the other? Was anything like it ever heard?
Deu 4:33 Did ever a people hear the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire, as you have heard it, and remain alive?
Deu 4:34 Has it ever been known before that any god took action himself to bring one nation out of another one, by ordeals, signs, wonders, war with mighty hand and outstretched arm, by fearsome terrors -- all of which things Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has done for you before your eyes in Egypt?
Deu 4:35 'This he showed you, so that you might know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the true God and that there is no other.
Deu 4:36 To instruct you, he made you hear his voice from heaven, and on earth he let you see his great fire, and from the heart of the fire you heard his words.
Deu 4:37 Because he loved your ancestors and, after them, chose their descendants, he has brought you out of Egypt, displaying his presence and mighty power,
Deu 4:38 dispossessing for you nations who were larger and stronger than you, to make way for you and to give you their country as your heritage, as it still is today.
Deu 4:39 'Hence, grasp this today and meditate on it carefully: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the true God, in heaven above as on earth beneath, he and no other.
Deu 4:40 Keep his laws and commandments as I give them to you today, so that you and your children after you may prosper and live long in the country that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you for ever.'
Deu 4:41 Moses then set aside three towns in the east, beyond the Jordan,
Deu 4:42 to which any killer might flee who had accidentally, without any previous feud, killed his fellow; by taking refuge in one of these towns he could save his life.
Deu 4:43 These were, for the Reubenites, Bezer in the desert on the tableland; for the Gadites, Ramoth in Gilead; for the Manassehites, Golan in Bashan.
Deu 4:44 This is the Law which Moses presented to the Israelites.
Deu 4:45 These are the stipulations, the laws and the customs which Moses gave the Israelites after they had left Egypt,
Deu 4:46 beyond the Jordan in the valley near Beth-Peor, in the country of Sihon the Amorite king who had lived at Heshbon. Moses and the Israelites had defeated him when they left Egypt,
Deu 4:47 and had taken possession of his country, as well as that of Og king of Bashan -- two Amorite kings to the east beyond the Jordan,
Deu 4:48 from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, all the way to Mount Sion (that is, Hermon) -
Deu 4:49 and of the whole Arabah east of the Jordan as far as the Sea of the Arabah, at the foot of the slopes of Pisgah.
Deu 5:1 Moses called all Israel together and said to them, 'Listen, Israel, to the laws and customs that I proclaim to you today. Learn them and take care to observe them.
Deu 5:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
Deu 5:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made this covenant not with our ancestors, but with us, with all of us alive here today.
Deu 5:4 On the mountain, from the heart of the fire, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to you face to face,
Deu 5:5 while I stood between you and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to let you know what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was saying, since you were afraid of the fire and had not gone up the mountain. He said:
Deu 5:6 ' "I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of slave-labour.
Deu 5:7 ' "You will have no gods other than me.
Deu 5:8 ' "You must not make yourselves any image or any likeness of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters under the earth;
Deu 5:9 you must not bow down to these gods or serve them. For I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, am a jealous God and I punish the parents' fault in the children, the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren, among those who hate me;
Deu 5:10 but I show faithful love to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments.
Deu 5:11 ' "You must not misuse the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not leave unpunished anyone who uses his name for what is false.
Deu 5:12 ' "Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has commanded you.
Deu 5:13 Labour for six days, doing all your work,
Deu 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You must not do any work that day, neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servants -- male or female -- nor your ox, nor your donkey, nor any of your animals, nor the foreigner who has made his home with you;
Deu 5:15 so that your servants, male and female, may rest, as you do. Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt, and that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God brought you out of there with mighty hand and outstretched arm; this is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.
Deu 5:16 ' "honor your father and your mother, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has commanded you, so that you may have long life and may prosper in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you.
Deu 5:17 ' "You must not kill.
Deu 5:18 ' "You must not commit adultery.
Deu 5:19 ' "You must not steal.
Deu 5:20 ' "You must not give false evidence against your fellow.
Deu 5:21 ' "You must not set your heart on your neighbor's spouse, you must not set your heart on your neighbor's house, or field, or servant-man or woman -- or ox, or donkey or any of your neighbor's possessions."
Deu 5:22 'These were the words Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to you when you were all assembled on the mountain. Thunderously, he spoke to you from the heart of the fire, in cloud and thick darkness. He added nothing, but wrote them on two tablets of stone which he gave to me.
Deu 5:23 'Now, having heard this voice coming out of the darkness, while the mountain was all on fire, you came to me, all of you, heads of tribes and elders,
Deu 5:24 and said, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice from the heart of the fire. Today we have seen that God can speak with a human being and that person still live.
Deu 5:25 So why should we expose ourselves to death again? For this great fire might devour us if we go on listening to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, and then we should die.
Deu 5:26 For what creature of flesh could possibly live after hearing, as we have heard, the voice of the living God speaking from the heart of the fire?
Deu 5:27 Go nearer yourself and listen to everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God may say, and then tell us everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has told you; we shall listen and put it into practice!"
Deu 5:28 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard what you were saying to me, and he then said to me, "I have heard what these people are saying. Everything they have said is well said.
Deu 5:29 If only their heart were always so, set on fearing me and on keeping my commandments, so that they and their children might prosper for ever!
Deu 5:30 Go and tell them to go back to their tents.
Deu 5:31 But you yourself stay here with me, and I shall tell you all the commandments, the laws and the customs which you are to teach them and which they are to observe in the country which I am giving them as their possession."
Deu 5:32 'Keep them and put them into practice: such is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command to you. Stray neither to right nor to left.
Deu 5:33 Follow the whole way that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has marked for you, and you will survive to prosper and live long in the country which you are going to possess.'
Deu 6:1 'Such, then, are the commandments, the laws and the customs which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has instructed me to teach you, for you to observe in the country which you are on your way to possess.
Deu 6:2 And hence, if, throughout your lives, you fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and keep all his laws and commandments, which I am laying down for you today, you will live long, you and your child and your grandchild.
Deu 6:3 Listen then, Israel, keep and observe what will make you prosperous and numerous, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, has promised you, in giving you a country flowing with milk and honey.
Deu 6:4 'Listen, Israel: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God is the one, the only Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 6:5 You must love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.
Deu 6:6 Let the words I enjoin on you today stay in your heart.
Deu 6:7 You shall tell them to your children, and keep on telling them, when you are sitting at home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are standing up;
Deu 6:8 you must fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a headband;
Deu 6:9 you must write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deu 6:10 'When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has brought you into the country which he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give you, with great and prosperous cities you have not built,
Deu 6:11 with houses full of good things you have not provided, with wells you have not dug, with vineyards and olive trees you have not planted, and then, when you have eaten as much as you want,
Deu 6:12 be careful you do not forget Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who has brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of slave-labour.
Deu 6:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is the one you must fear, him alone you must serve, his is the name by which you must swear.
Deu 6:14 'Do not follow other gods, gods of the peoples round you,
Deu 6:15 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God among you is a jealous God; the wrath of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God would blaze out against you, and he would wipe you off the face of the earth.
Deu 6:16 Do not put Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God to the test as you tested him at Massah.
Deu 6:17 Keep the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and his instructions and laws which he has laid down for you,
Deu 6:18 and do what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right and good, so that you may prosper and take possession of the fine country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) swore to give your ancestors,
Deu 6:19 driving out your enemies before you; such was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s promise.
Deu 6:20 'In times to come, when your child asks you, "What is the meaning of these instructions, laws and customs which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has laid down for you?"
Deu 6:21 you are to tell your child, "Once we were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought us out of Egypt by his mighty hand.
Deu 6:22 Before our eyes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) worked great and terrible signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and his entire household.
Deu 6:23 And he brought us out of there, to lead us into the country which he had sworn to our ancestors that he would give us.
Deu 6:24 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has commanded us to observe all these laws and to fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, so as to be happy for ever and to survive, as we do to this day.
Deu 6:25 For us, right living will mean this: to keep and observe all these commandments in obedience to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, as he has commanded us." '
Deu 7:1 'When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has brought you into the country which you are going to make your own, many nations will fall before you: Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than yourselves.
Deu 7:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will put them at your mercy and you will conquer them. You must put them under the curse of destruction. You must not make any treaty with them or show them any pity.
Deu 7:3 You must not intermarry with them; you must not give a daughter of yours to a son of theirs, or take a daughter of theirs for a son of yours,
Deu 7:4 for your son would be seduced from following me into serving other gods; the wrath of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) would blaze out against you and he would instantly destroy you.
Deu 7:5 Instead, treat them like this: tear down their altars, smash their standing-stones, cut down their sacred poles and burn their idols.
Deu 7:6 For you are a people consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; of all the peoples on earth, you have been chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God to be his own people.
Deu 7:7 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) set his heart on you and chose you not because you were the most numerous of all peoples -- for indeed you were the smallest of all-
Deu 7:8 but because he loved you and meant to keep the oath which he swore to your ancestors: that was why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought you out with his mighty hand and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deu 7:9 From this you can see that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is the true God, the faithful God who, though he is true to his covenant and his faithful love for a thousand generations as regards those who love him and keep his commandments,
Deu 7:10 punishes in their own persons those that hate him. He destroys anyone who hates him, without delay; and it is in their own persons that he punishes them.
Deu 7:11 Hence, you must keep and observe the commandments, laws and customs which I am laying down for you today.
Deu 7:12 'Listen to these ordinances, be true to them and observe them, and in return Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will be true to the covenant and love which he promised on oath to your ancestors.
Deu 7:13 He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers; he will bless the fruit of your body and the produce of your soil, your corn, your new wine, your oil, the issue of your cattle, the young of your flock, in the country which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.
Deu 7:14 You will be the most blessed of all peoples. None of you, man or woman, will be sterile, no male or female of your beasts infertile.
Deu 7:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will deflect all illness from you; he will not afflict you with those evil plagues of Egypt which you have known, but will inflict them on all who hate you.
Deu 7:16 'So, devour all the peoples whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God puts at your mercy, show them no pity, do not serve their gods: or you will be ensnared.
Deu 7:17 'You may say in your heart, "These nations outnumber me; how shall I be able to dispossess them?"
Deu 7:18 Do not be afraid of them: remember how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God treated Pharaoh and all Egypt,
Deu 7:19 the great ordeals that you yourselves have seen, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm with which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God brought you out. This is how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will treat all the peoples whom you fear to face.
Deu 7:20 And what is more, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will send hornets to destroy those who are left and who hide from you.
Deu 7:21 'Do not be afraid of them, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is among you, a great and terrible God.
Deu 7:22 Little by little, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will clear away these nations before you; you cannot destroy them all at once, or wild animals will breed and be disastrous for you.
Deu 7:23 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will put them at your mercy, and disaster after disaster will overtake them until they are finally destroyed.
Deu 7:24 He will put their kings at your mercy and you will blot out their names under heaven; no one will be able to resist you -- until you have destroyed them all.
Deu 7:25 'You must burn the statues of their gods, not coveting the gold and silver that covers them; take it and you will be caught in a snare: it is detestable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 7:26 You must not bring any detestable thing into your house: or you, like it, will come under the curse of destruction. You must regard them as unclean and loathsome, for they are under the curse of destruction.'
Deu 8:1 'You must keep and put into practice all the commandments which I enjoin on you today, so that you may survive and increase in numbers and enter the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) promised on oath to your ancestors, and make it your own.
Deu 8:2 Remember the long road by which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God led you for forty years in the desert, to humble you, to test you and know your inmost heart -- whether you would keep his commandments or not.
Deu 8:3 He humbled you, he made you feel hunger, he fed you with manna which neither you nor your ancestors had ever known, to make you understand that human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 8:4 The clothes on your back did not wear out and your feet were not swollen, all those forty years.
Deu 8:5 'Learn from this that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God was training you as a man trains his child,
Deu 8:6 and keep the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and so follow his ways and fear him.
Deu 8:7 'But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is bringing you into a fine country, a land of streams and springs, of waters that well up from the deep in valleys and hills,
Deu 8:8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines, of figs, of pomegranates, a land of olives, of oil, of honey,
Deu 8:9 a land where you will eat bread without stint, where you will want nothing, a land where the stones are iron and where the hills may be quarried for copper.
Deu 8:10 You will eat and have all you want and you will bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the fine country which he has given you.
Deu 8:11 'Be careful not to forget Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, by neglecting his commandments, customs and laws which I am laying down for you today.
Deu 8:12 When you have eaten all you want, when you have built fine houses to live in,
Deu 8:13 when you have seen your flocks and herds increase, your silver and gold abound and all your possessions grow great,
Deu 8:14 do not become proud of heart. Do not then forget Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the place of slave-labour,
Deu 8:15 who guided you through this vast and dreadful desert, a land of fiery snakes, scorpions, thirst;
Deu 8:16 who in this waterless place brought you water out of the flinty rock; who in this desert fed you with manna unknown to your ancestors, to humble you and test you and so make your future the happier.
Deu 8:17 'Beware of thinking to yourself, "My own strength and the might of my own hand have given me the power to act like this."
Deu 8:18 Remember Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; he was the one who gave you the strength to act effectively like this, thus keeping then, as today, the covenant which he swore to your ancestors.
Deu 8:19 Be sure: if you forget Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, if you follow other gods, if you serve them and bow down to them -- I testify to you today -- you will perish.
Deu 8:20 Like the nations Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is to destroy before you, so you yourselves will perish, for not having listened to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.'
Deu 9:1 'Listen, Israel; today you are about to cross the Jordan, to go and dispossess nations greater and stronger than yourself, and cities immense, with walls reaching to the sky.
Deu 9:2 A people great and tall, these Anakim, as you know; you have heard the saying: Who can stand up to the sons of Anak?
Deu 9:3 Know then today that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God himself will go ahead of you, destroying them like a devouring fire, and that he himself will subdue them before you so that you can dispossess and quickly make an end of them, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has already said.
Deu 9:4 Do not think to yourself, once Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has driven them before you, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has brought me into possession of this country because I am upright," when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is dispossessing these nations for you, because they do wrong.
Deu 9:5 You are not going into their country to take possession because of any right behavior or uprightness on your part; rather, it is because of their wickedness that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is dispossessing these nations for you, and also to keep the pact which he swore to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deu 9:6 Be clear about this: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is not giving you possession of this fine country because of any right conduct on your part, for you are an obstinate people.
Deu 9:7 'Remember; never forget how you provoked Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the desert. From the very day that you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebels against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 9:8 At Horeb, you provoked Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you.
Deu 9:9 I had gone up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was making with you. I stayed forty days and forty nights on the mountain, with nothing to eat or drink.
Deu 9:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave me the two stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God, exactly corresponding to what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said to you on the mountain, from the heart of the fire, on the day of the Assembly.
Deu 9:11 After forty days and forty nights, having given me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant,
Deu 9:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, "Get up, go down quickly, for your people, whom you have brought out of Egypt, are corrupting one another. They have been quick to leave the way I marked out for them; they have cast themselves a metal idol."
Deu 9:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to me, "I have seen this people, and what an obstinate people they are!
Deu 9:14 Leave me, I am going to destroy them and wipe out their name under heaven; and I shall make you into a mightier and more numerous nation than they are!"
Deu 9:15 'I went back down the mountain, which was blazing with fire, and in my hands were the two tablets of the covenant.
Deu 9:16 When I looked, I saw that you had been sinning against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You had cast yourselves a metal calf; you had been quick to leave the way marked out for you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 9:17 I seized the two tablets and with my two hands threw them down and broke them before your eyes.
Deu 9:18 Then I fell prostrate before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); as before, I spent forty days and forty nights with nothing to eat or drink, on account of all the sins which you had committed, by doing what was displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and thus arousing his anger.
Deu 9:19 For I was afraid of this anger, of the fury which so roused Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) against you that he was ready to destroy you. And, once again, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard my prayer.
Deu 9:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was enraged with Aaron and was ready to destroy him too; I also pleaded for Aaron on that occasion.
Deu 9:21 That work of sin, the calf you had made, I took and burned and broke to pieces; having ground it to the finest dust, I threw its dust into the stream that comes down from the mountain.
Deu 9:22 'At Taberah too and at Massah and Kibroth-ha-Taavah, you provoked Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 9:23 And when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), meaning you to leave Kadesh-Barnea, said, "Go up and take possession of the country which I have given you," you rebelled against the command of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and would not believe him or listen to his voice.
Deu 9:24 You have been rebels against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from the day he first knew you.
Deu 9:25 'So I fell prostrate before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and lay there those forty days and forty nights, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) having said that he was going to destroy you.
Deu 9:26 And I pleaded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). "My Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)," I said, "do not destroy your people, your heritage whom in your greatness you have redeemed, whom you have brought out of Egypt with your mighty hand.
Deu 9:27 Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; take no notice of this people's stubbornness, their wickedness, and their sin,
Deu 9:28 so that, in the country from which you have brought us, it may not be said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was not able to bring them to the country which he had promised them. He hated them; that was why he brought them out -- to slaughter them in the desert.'
Deu 9:29 But these are your people, your heritage, whom you yourself have brought out by your great power and your outstretched arm." '
Deu 10:1 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to me, "Cut two stone tablets like the first ones, and come up to me on the mountain. Make an ark of wood;
Deu 10:2 on the tablets I shall inscribe the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; put them in the ark."
Deu 10:3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, cut two stone tablets like the first and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand.
Deu 10:4 And he inscribed the tablets, as he had inscribed them before, with the Ten Words which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said to you on the mountain, from the heart of the fire, on the day of the Assembly. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then gave them to me.
Deu 10:5 I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark I had made, and there they stayed, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had commanded me.
Deu 10:6 'The Israelites left the wells of the Bene-Jaakan for Moserah, where Aaron died; he was buried there, and his son Eleazar succeeded him in the priesthood.
Deu 10:7 From there, they set out for Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah for Jotbathah, an area rich in streams.
Deu 10:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s covenant, to stand in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to serve him and to bless in his name, as they still do today.
Deu 10:9 This is why Levi has no share or heritage with his brothers: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is his heritage, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God then told him.
Deu 10:10 'And, as before, I stayed on the mountain for forty days and forty nights. And again Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard my prayer and agreed not to destroy you.
Deu 10:11 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, "Be on your way at the head of this people, so that they can go and take possession of the country which I swore to their ancestors that I would give them."
Deu 10:12 'And now, Israel, what does Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God ask of you? Only this: to fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, to follow all his ways, to love him, to serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God with all your heart and all your soul,
Deu 10:13 to keep the commandments and laws of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), which I am laying down for you today for your own good.
Deu 10:14 'Look, to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth and everything on it;
Deu 10:15 yet it was on your ancestors, for love of them, that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) set his heart to love them, and he chose their descendants after them, you yourselves, out of all nations, up to the present day.
Deu 10:16 Circumcise your heart then and be obstinate no longer;
Deu 10:17 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, triumphant and terrible, free of favoritism, never to be bribed.
Deu 10:18 He it is who sees justice done for the orphan and the widow, who loves the stranger and gives him food and clothing.
Deu 10:19 (Love the stranger then, for you were once strangers in Egypt.)
Deu 10:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is the one whom you must fear and serve; to him you must hold firm; in his name take your oaths.
Deu 10:21 Him you must praise, he is your God: for you he has done these great and terrible things which you have seen for yourselves;
Deu 10:22 and, although your ancestors numbered only seventy persons when they went down to Egypt, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has now made you as many as the stars of heaven.'
Deu 11:1 'You must love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and always keep his observances, his laws, his customs, his commandments.
Deu 11:2 You are the ones who have had the experience, not your children. They have not had the experience, they have not witnessed the lessons of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,
Deu 11:3 the signs and the deeds which he performed in the heart of Egypt, against Pharaoh king of Egypt and his entire country,
Deu 11:4 what he did to the armies of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots, by overwhelming them with the waters of the Sea of Reeds when they were pursuing you, and leaving no trace of them to this day;
Deu 11:5 what he did for you in the desert, until you arrived here;
Deu 11:6 what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when, with all Israel standing round, the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their families, their tents and all their supporters.
Deu 11:7 All these great deeds of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) you have seen with your own eyes.
Deu 11:8 'You must keep all the commandments which I enjoin on you today, so that you may have the strength to conquer the country into which you are about to cross, to take possession of it,
Deu 11:9 and so that you may live long in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) promised on oath to bestow on your ancestors and their descendants, a country flowing with milk and honey.
Deu 11:10 'For the country which you are about to enter and make your own is not like the country of Egypt from which you have come, where, having done your sowing, you had to water the seed by foot, as though in a vegetable garden.
Deu 11:11 No, the country which you are about to enter and make your own, is a country of hills and valleys watered by the rain of heaven.
Deu 11:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God looks after this country, the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end.
Deu 11:13 Depend on it: if you faithfully obey the commandments I enjoin on you today, loving Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and serving him with all your heart and all your soul,
Deu 11:14 I shall give your country rain at the right time, rain in autumn, rain in spring, so that you can harvest your wheat, your new wine and your oil.
Deu 11:15 I shall provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat to your heart's content.
Deu 11:16 Beware of letting your heart be seduced: if you go astray, serve other gods and bow down to them,
Deu 11:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger will be kindled against you, he will shut the heavens, there will be no more rain, the soil will not yield its produce and, in the fine country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you will quickly perish.
Deu 11:18 'Let these words of mine remain in your heart and in your soul; fasten them on your hand as a sign and on your forehead as a headband.
Deu 11:19 Teach them to your children, and keep on telling them, when you are sitting at home, when you are out and about, when you are lying down and when you are standing up.
Deu 11:20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
Deu 11:21 so that you and your children may live long in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) swore to your ancestors that he would give them for as long as there is a sky above the earth.
Deu 11:22 'For if you faithfully keep and observe all these commandments that I enjoin on you today, loving Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, following all his ways and holding fast to him,
Deu 11:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will dispossess all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and more powerful than yourselves.
Deu 11:24 Wherever the sole of your foot treads will be yours; your territory will run from the desert all the way to the Lebanon; and from the River, from the River Euphrates, as far as the Western Sea, will be your territory.
Deu 11:25 No one will be able to resist you; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will make you feared and dreaded throughout the territory you tread, as he has promised you.
Deu 11:26 'Today, look, I am offering you a blessing and a curse:
Deu 11:27 a blessing, if you obey the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God which I enjoin on you today;
Deu 11:28 a curse, if you disobey the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and leave the way which today I have marked out for you, by following other gods hitherto unknown to you.
Deu 11:29 And when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has brought you into the country which you are about to enter and make your own, you must set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Deu 11:30 (These mountains, as everyone knows, are on the other side of the Jordan on the westward road, in the territory of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the Oak of Moreh.)
Deu 11:31 For you are about to cross the Jordan, to enter and take possession of the country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You will possess it, you will live in it,
Deu 11:32 and you must keep and observe all the laws and customs promulgated by me to you today.'
Deu 12:1 'Now, these are the laws and customs which you must keep in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, is giving you as yours, and which you must observe every day that you live in that country.
Deu 12:2 'You must completely destroy all the places where the nations you dispossess have served their gods, on high mountains, on hills, under any spreading tree;
Deu 12:3 you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, burn their sacred poles, hack to bits the statues of their gods and obliterate their name from that place.
Deu 12:4 'Not so must you behave towards Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 12:5 You must seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the place which he will choose from all your tribes, there to set his name and give it a home: that is where you must go.
Deu 12:6 That is where you must bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and offerings held high, your votive offerings and your voluntary offerings, and the first-born of your herd and flock;
Deu 12:7 and that is where you must eat in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, rejoicing over your labours, you and your households, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has blessed you.
Deu 12:8 'You must not behave as we are behaving here today, each of you doing what he himself sees fit,
Deu 12:9 since you have not yet come to the resting place and the heritage that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is going to give you.
Deu 12:10 You are about to cross the Jordan and live in the country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God as your heritage; he will grant you peace from all the enemies surrounding you, and you will live in safety.
Deu 12:11 To the place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God as a home for his name, to that place you must bring all the things that I am laying down for you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and offerings held high, and all the best of your possessions dedicated by you to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 12:12 That is where you will rejoice in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, you and your sons and daughters, your serving men and women, and the Levite living in your community since he has no share or heritage of his own among you.
Deu 12:13 'Take care you do not offer your burnt offerings in all the sacred places you see;
Deu 12:14 only in the place that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) chooses in one of your tribes may you offer your burnt offerings and do all the things which I have commanded you.
Deu 12:15 'This notwithstanding, and whenever you wish, you may slaughter and eat meat wherever you live -- as much as the blessing of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) affords you. Clean or unclean may eat it, as though it were gazelle or deer.
Deu 12:16 You will not, however, eat the blood, but will pour that like water on the ground.
Deu 12:17 'You must not eat the tithe of your wheat, of your new wine or of your oil, or the first-born of your herd or flock, or any of your votive offerings or voluntary offerings, or your offerings held high to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at home.
Deu 12:18 You must eat these in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the place Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God chooses and there alone, you, your son and your daughter, your serving man and serving woman, and the Levite living in your community, expressing your joy in all your labours in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 12:19 As long as you live on your soil, be careful not to neglect the Levite.
Deu 12:20 'When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God enlarges your territory as he has promised you, and you say, "I should like to eat meat," if you want to eat meat you may eat as much as you like.
Deu 12:21 If the place in which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God chooses to set his name is too far away, you may slaughter any of your herd or flock that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given you, as I have prescribed for you; you may eat as much of it as you please at home.
Deu 12:22 But you must eat it as you would gazelle or deer; clean and unclean may eat it together.
Deu 12:23 Take care, however, not to eat the blood, since blood is life, and you must not eat the life with the meat.
Deu 12:24 You must not eat it, but must pour it like water on the ground.
Deu 12:25 You must not eat it -- so that you, and your children after you, may prosper, doing what is right in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes.
Deu 12:26 But the holy things of yours and the things which you have dedicated, you must go and take to the place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 12:27 The burnt offerings of meat and blood must be presented on the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; whereas, in your sacrifices, the blood must be poured on the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; the meat you yourselves may eat.
Deu 12:28 Faithfully keep and obey all these orders which I am giving you, so that you and your children after you may prosper for ever, doing what is good and right in the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 12:29 'When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has annihilated the nations confronting you, whom you are going to dispossess, and when you have dispossessed them and made your home in their country,
Deu 12:30 beware of being entrapped into copying them, after they have been destroyed to make way for you, and do not enquire about their gods, saying, "How did these nations worship their gods? I am going to do the same too."
Deu 12:31 This is not the way to treat Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. For in honor of their gods they have done everything detestable that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) hates; yes, in honor of their gods, they even burn their own sons and daughters as sacrifices!'
Deu 13:1 'Whatever I am now commanding you, you must keep and observe, adding nothing to it, taking nothing away.
Deu 13:2 'If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you, offering you some sign or wonder,
Deu 13:3 and the sign or wonder comes about; and if he then says to you, "Let us follow other gods (hitherto unknown to you) and serve them,"
Deu 13:4 you must not listen to that prophet's words or to that dreamer's dreams. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is testing you to know if you love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God with all your heart and all your soul.
Deu 13:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is the one whom you must follow, him you must fear, his commandments you must keep, his voice you must obey, him you must serve, to him you must hold fast.
Deu 13:6 That prophet or that dreamer of dreams must be put to death, since he has preached apostasy from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the place of slave-labour; and he would have diverted you from the way in which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has commanded you to walk. You must banish this evil from among you.
Deu 13:7 'If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the spouse whom you embrace, or your most intimate friend, tries secretly to seduce you, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," unknown to you or your ancestors before you,
Deu 13:8 gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near you or far away, anywhere throughout the world,
Deu 13:9 you must not consent, you must not listen to him; you must show him no pity, you must not spare him or conceal his guilt.
Deu 13:10 No, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of the rest of the people following.
Deu 13:11 You must stone him to death, since he has tried to divert you from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who brought you out of Egypt, from the place of slave-labour.
Deu 13:12 All Israel, hearing of this, will be afraid, and none of you will do such a wicked thing again.
Deu 13:13 'If you hear that in one of the towns which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has given you for a home,
Deu 13:14 there are men, scoundrels from your own stock, who have led their fellow-citizens astray, saying, "Let us go and serve other gods," hitherto unknown to you,
Deu 13:15 it is your duty to look into the matter, examine it, and enquire most carefully. If it is proved and confirmed that such a hateful thing has taken place among you,
Deu 13:16 you must put the inhabitants of that town to the sword; you must lay it under the curse of destruction -- the town and everything in it.
Deu 13:17 You must pile up all its loot in the public square and burn the town and all its loot, offering it all to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. It is to be a ruin for all time, and never rebuilt.
Deu 13:18 From what is thus put under the curse of destruction you must keep nothing back, so that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) may turn from the ferocity of his anger and show you mercy, and have pity on you and increase your numbers, as he swore he would to your ancestors,
Deu 13:19 on condition that you listen to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God by keeping all his commandments which I am enjoining on you today, and by doing what is right in the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.'
Deu 14:1 'You are children of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You must not gash yourselves or shave your foreheads for the dead.
Deu 14:2 For you are a people consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen you to be his own people from all the peoples on the earth.
Deu 14:3 'You must not eat anything disgusting.
Deu 14:4 These are the animals you may eat: ox, sheep, goat,
Deu 14:5 deer, gazelle, roebuck, ibex, antelope, oryx, mountain sheep.
Deu 14:6 You may eat any animal that has a divided and cloven hoof and that is a ruminant.
Deu 14:7 Of those, however, that are ruminants and of those that have a divided and cloven hoof you may not eat the following: the camel, the hare and the coney, which are ruminants but have no cloven hoof; you must class them as unclean.
Deu 14:8 So also the pig, which though it has a cloven hoof is not a ruminant; you must class it as unclean. You must neither eat the meat of such animals nor touch their dead bodies.
Deu 14:9 'Of whatever lives in water you may eat the following: you may eat anything that has fins and scales.
Deu 14:10 But you must not eat anything without fins and scales: you must class it as unclean.
Deu 14:11 'You may eat all clean birds,
Deu 14:12 but the following birds you must not eat: the tawny vulture, the griffon, the osprey,
Deu 14:13 the kite and the several kinds of buzzard,
Deu 14:14 all kinds of raven,
Deu 14:15 the ostrich, the screech owl, the seagull, the several kinds of hawk,
Deu 14:16 owl, barn owl, ibis,
Deu 14:17 pelican, white vulture, cormorant,
Deu 14:18 stork, the several kinds of heron, hoopoe and bat.
Deu 14:19 You are to class all winged insects as unclean and must not eat them.
Deu 14:20 You may eat any clean fowl.
Deu 14:21 'You must not eat any animal that has died a natural death. You may give it to a resident foreigner to eat, or sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. 'You must not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
Deu 14:22 'Every year, you must take a tithe of what your fields produce from what you have sown
Deu 14:23 and, in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, in the place where he chooses to give his name a home, you must eat the tithe of your wheat, of your new wine and of your oil, and the first-born of your herd and flock; and by so doing, you will learn always to fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 14:24 'If the road is too long for you, if you cannot bring your tithe because the place in which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) chooses to make a home for his name is too far away, when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has blessed you,
Deu 14:25 you must convert it into money and, with the money clasped in your hand, you must go to the place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God;
Deu 14:26 there you may spend the money on whatever you like, oxen, sheep, wine, fermented liquor, anything you please. There you must eat in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and rejoice, you and your household.
Deu 14:27 Do not neglect the Levite living in your community, since he has no share or heritage of his own among you.
Deu 14:28 'At the end of every three years, you must take all the tithes of your harvests for that year and collect them in your community.
Deu 14:29 Then the Levite -- since he has no share or heritage of his own among you -- the foreigner, the orphan and the widow living in your community, will come and eat all they want. And so Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will bless you in all the labours that you undertake.'
Deu 15:1 'At the end of every seven years, you must grant remission.
Deu 15:2 The nature of the remission is as follows: any creditor holding a personal pledge obtained from his fellow must release him from it; he must not exploit his fellow or his brother once the latter has appealed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for remission.
Deu 15:3 A foreigner you may exploit, but you must remit whatever claim you have on your brother.
Deu 15:4 There must, then, be no poor among you. For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will grant you his blessing in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you to possess as your heritage,
Deu 15:5 only if you pay careful attention to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, by keeping and practising all these commandments which I am enjoining on you today.
Deu 15:6 If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God blesses you as he has promised, you will be creditors to many nations but debtors to none; you will rule over many nations, and be ruled by none.
Deu 15:7 'Is there anyone poor among you, one of your brothers, in any town of yours in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you? Do not harden your heart or close your hand against that poor brother of yours,
Deu 15:8 but be open handed with him and lend him enough for his needs.
Deu 15:9 Do not allow this mean thought in your heart, "The seventh year, the year of remission, is near," and scowl at your poor brother and give him nothing; he could appeal against you to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and you would incur guilt!
Deu 15:10 When you give to him, you must give with an open heart; for this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will bless you in all your actions and in all your undertakings.
Deu 15:11 Of course, there will never cease to be poor people in the country, and that is why I am giving you this command: Always be open handed with your brother, and with anyone in your country who is in need and poor.
Deu 15:12 'If your fellow Hebrew, man or woman, sells himself to you, he can serve you for six years. In the seventh year you must set him free,
Deu 15:13 and in setting him free you must not let him go empty handed.
Deu 15:14 By way of present, you will load his shoulders with things from your flock, from your threshing-floor and from your winepress; as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has blessed you, so you must give to him.
Deu 15:15 Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt and that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God redeemed you; that is why I am giving you this order today.
Deu 15:16 'But if he says to you, "I do not want to leave you," because he loves you and your household and is happy with you,
Deu 15:17 you must take an awl and drive it through his ear into the door and he will be your servant for ever. You must do the same to a female slave.
Deu 15:18 'Do not think it hard on you to have to give him his freedom; he is worth twice what a paid servant would cost you, and has served you for six years. And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will bless you in everything you do.
Deu 15:19 'You must consecrate every first-born male from your herd and flock to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You must not put the first-born of your herd to work, or shear the first-born of your flock.
Deu 15:20 You must eat it, you and your household, each year, in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, in the place which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) chooses.
Deu 15:21 If it has any defect, if it is lame or blind -- any serious defect -- you must not sacrifice it to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 15:22 You will eat it at home, unclean and clean together, as you would gazelle or deer;
Deu 15:23 only, you will not eat its blood, but pour that like water on the ground.'
Deu 16:1 'Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, because it was in the month of Abib that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God brought you out of Egypt by night.
Deu 16:2 You must sacrifice a Passover from your flock or herd for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the place where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) chooses to give his name a home.
Deu 16:3 You must not eat leavened bread with this; for seven days you must eat it with unleavened bread -- the bread of affliction -- since you left Egypt in great haste; this is so that, as long as you live, you will remember the day you came out of Egypt.
Deu 16:4 For seven days no leaven must be found in any house throughout your territory, nor must any of the meat that you sacrifice in the evening of the first day be kept overnight until the next day.
Deu 16:5 You must sacrifice the Passover not in any of the towns given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God,
Deu 16:6 but in the place where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God chooses to give his name a home; there you must sacrifice the Passover, in the evening at sunset, at the hour when you came out of Egypt.
Deu 16:7 You will cook it and eat it in the place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and in the morning you must return and go to your tents.
Deu 16:8 For six days you will eat unleavened bread; on the seventh day there will be an assembly for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; and you must do no work.
Deu 16:9 'You must count seven weeks, counting these seven weeks from the time you begin to put your sickle into the standing corn.
Deu 16:10 You will then celebrate the feast of Weeks for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God with the gift of a voluntary offering proportionate to the degree in which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has blessed you.
Deu 16:11 You must rejoice in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, in the place where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God chooses to give his name a home, you, your son and your daughter, your serving men and women, the Levite living in your community, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow living among you.
Deu 16:12 Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt, and carefully observe these laws.
Deu 16:13 'You must celebrate the feast of Shelters for seven days, at the time when you gather in the produce of your threshing-floor and winepress.
Deu 16:14 You must rejoice at your feast, you, your son and your daughter, your serving men and women, the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow living in your community.
Deu 16:15 For seven days, you must celebrate the feast for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will bless you in all your produce and in all your undertakings, so that you will have good reason to rejoice.
Deu 16:16 'Three times a year all your menfolk must appear before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the place chosen by him: at the feast of Unleavened Bread, at the feast of Weeks, at the feast of Shelters. No one must appear empty-handed before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Deu 16:17 but each must give what he can, in proportion to the blessing which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has bestowed on you.
Deu 16:18 'You must appoint judges and scribes in each of the towns that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you, for all your tribes; these are to mete out proper justice to the people.
Deu 16:19 You must not pervert the law; you must be impartial; you will take no bribes, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and ruins the cause of the upright.
Deu 16:20 Strict justice must be your ideal, so that you may live long in possession of the country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 16:21 'You must not plant a sacred pole of any wood whatsoever beside the altar which you erect for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God;
Deu 16:22 nor will you set up a standing-stone, a thing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God would abhor.'
Deu 17:1 'To Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God you must sacrifice nothing from herd or flock that has any blemish or defect whatsoever, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God holds this detestable.
Deu 17:2 'If there is anyone, man or woman, among you in any of the towns given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, who does what is wrong in the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God by violating his covenant,
Deu 17:3 who goes and serves other gods and worships them, or the sun or the moon or any of heaven's array -- a thing I have forbidden-
Deu 17:4 and this person is denounced to you: if after careful enquiry it is found true and confirmed that this hateful thing has been done in Israel,
Deu 17:5 you must take the man or woman guilty of this evil deed outside your city gates, and there you must stone that man or woman to death.
Deu 17:6 A death sentence may be passed only on the word of two witnesses or three; and no one must be put to death on the word of one witness alone.
Deu 17:7 The witnesses' hands must strike the first blow in putting the condemned to death, the rest of the people following. You must banish this evil from among you.
Deu 17:8 'If a case comes before you which is too difficult for you, a case of murder, conflicting claims, damage to property -- any kind of dispute -- in your towns, you must make your way to the place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God,
Deu 17:9 and approach the levitical priests and the judge then in office. They will hold an enquiry and let you know their sentence.
Deu 17:10 You must abide by the verdict which they give you in this place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and you will take care to carry out all their instructions.
Deu 17:11 You will abide by the decision which they give you and by the sentence which they pronounce, not deviating to right or to left from the verdict which they have given you.
Deu 17:12 If anyone presumes to disobey either the priest who is there in the service of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, or the judge, that person must die. You must banish this evil from Israel.
Deu 17:13 And when the people hear of this they will all be afraid and not act presumptuously any more.
Deu 17:14 'If, having reached the country given by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and having taken possession of it and, while living there, you think, "I should like to appoint a king to rule me -- like all the surrounding nations,"
Deu 17:15 the king whom you appoint to rule you must be chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; the appointment of a king must be made from your own brothers; on no account must you appoint as king some foreigner who is not a brother of yours.
Deu 17:16 'He must not, however, acquire more and more horses, or send the people back to Egypt with a view to increasing his cavalry, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has told you, "You must never go back that way again."
Deu 17:17 Nor must he keep on acquiring more and more wives, for that could lead his heart astray. Nor must he acquire vast quantities of silver and gold.
Deu 17:18 Once seated on his royal throne, and for his own use, he must write a copy of this Law on a scroll, at the dictation of the levitical priests.
Deu 17:19 It must never leave him, and he must read it every day of his life and learn to fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God by keeping all the words of this Law and observing these rules,
Deu 17:20 so that he will not think himself superior to his brothers, and not deviate from these commandments either to right or to left. So doing, long will he occupy his throne, he and his sons, in Israel.'
Deu 18:1 'The levitical priests, the whole tribe of Levi will be without share or heritage of their own in Israel; they will live on the foods offered to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and on his heritage.
Deu 18:2 Levi will have no heritage of his own among his brothers; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be his heritage, as he has promised him.
Deu 18:3 'This is what is due to the priests from the people, from those who offer an ox or a sheep in sacrifice: the priest must be given the shoulder, the cheeks and the stomach.
Deu 18:4 You must give him the first-fruits of your wheat, of your new wine and of your oil, as well as the first-fruits of your sheep-shearing.
Deu 18:5 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has chosen him from all your tribes to stand before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, to do the duties of the sacred ministry, and to bless in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name -- him and his sons for all time.
Deu 18:6 'If a Levite living in one of your towns anywhere in Israel decides to move to the place chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Deu 18:7 he shall minister there in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God like all his fellow Levites who stand ministering there in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Deu 18:8 eating equal shares with them -- what he has from the sale of his patrimony notwithstanding.
Deu 18:9 'When you have entered the country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, you must not learn to imitate the detestable practices of the nations there already.
Deu 18:10 There must never be anyone among you who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire of sacrifice, who practises divination, who is soothsayer, augur or sorcerer,
Deu 18:11 weaver of spells, consulter of ghosts or mediums, or necromancer.
Deu 18:12 For anyone who does these things is detestable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; it is because of these detestable practices that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is driving out these nations before you.
Deu 18:13 'You must be faultless in your relationship with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 18:14 For these nations whom you are going to dispossess have listened to soothsayers and mediums, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God does not permit you to do this. From among yourselves, from among your own brothers,
Deu 18:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will raise up a prophet like me; you will listen to him.
Deu 18:16 This is exactly what you asked Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God to do -- at Horeb, on the day of the Assembly, when you said, "Never let me hear the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God or see this great fire again, or I shall die."
Deu 18:17 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me,
Deu 18:18 "What they have said is well said. From their own brothers I shall raise up a prophet like yourself;
Deu 18:19 I shall put my words into his mouth and he will tell them everything I command him. Anyone who refuses to listen to my words, spoken by him in my name, will have to render an account to me.
Deu 18:20 But the prophet who presumes to say something in my name which I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die."
Deu 18:21 'You may be privately wondering, "How are we to tell that a prophecy does not come from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?"
Deu 18:22 When a prophet speaks in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the thing does not happen and the word is not fulfilled, then it has not been said by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). The prophet has spoken presumptuously. You have nothing to fear from him.'
Deu 19:1 'When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has annihilated the nations whose country Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is going to give you, and you have dispossessed them and are living in their towns and in their houses,
Deu 19:2 you must set aside three towns, centrally placed in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you for your own.
Deu 19:3 You will keep the approaches to them in good order, dividing the area of the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you as your heritage, into three parts, so that any killer can flee to these towns.
Deu 19:4 Here is an example of how someone may save his life by fleeing to them. 'If anyone has struck his fellow accidentally, without any previous feud with him
Deu 19:5 (for example, he goes with his fellow into the forest to cut wood; his arm swings the axe to fell a tree; the head slips off the handle and strikes his companion dead), that man may take refuge in one of these towns and save his life.
Deu 19:6 It must not be allowed that the avenger of blood, in the heat of his anger, should pursue the killer and that the length of the road should help him to overtake and wound him fatally; for the man has not deserved to die, having had no previous feud with his victim.
Deu 19:7 'Hence I am giving you this order: You must set aside three towns,
Deu 19:8 and if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God enlarges your territory, as he swore to your ancestors that he would, and gives you the whole country which he promised to give to your ancestors-
Deu 19:9 provided that you keep and observe all the commandments which I am enjoining on you today, loving Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and always following his ways-then, to those three towns you will add three more.
Deu 19:10 In this way, innocent blood will not be shed in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is going to give you as your heritage; otherwise you would incur blood-guilt.
Deu 19:11 'But if it happens that a man has a feud with his fellow and lies in wait for him and attacks him and fatally wounds him and he dies, and the man takes refuge in one of these towns,
Deu 19:12 the elders of his own town must send there and have him taken and handed over to the avenger of blood, to be put to death.
Deu 19:13 You must show him no pity. You must banish the shedding of innocent blood from Israel, and then you will prosper.
Deu 19:14 'You must not displace your neighbor's boundary mark, positioned by men of old in the heritage soon to be yours, in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is about to give you.
Deu 19:15 'A single witness will not suffice to convict anyone of a crime or offense of any kind; whatever the misdemeanour, the evidence of two witnesses or three is required to sustain the charge.
Deu 19:16 'If someone gives false evidence against anyone, laying a charge of apostasy,
Deu 19:17 both parties to this dispute before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) must appear before the priests and judges then in office.
Deu 19:18 The judges will make a careful enquiry, and if it turns out that the witness is a liar and has made a false accusation against his brother,
Deu 19:19 you must treat the witness as he would have treated his brother. You must banish this evil from among you.
Deu 19:20 The rest, hearing of this, will be afraid and never again do such an evil thing among you.
Deu 19:21 You must show no pity. 'Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.'
Deu 20:1 'When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than your own, you must not be afraid of them; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is with you, he who brought you out of Egypt.
Deu 20:2 When you are about to join battle, the priest must come forward and address the people.
Deu 20:3 He must say to them, "Listen, Israel: today you are about to join battle with your enemies. Do not be faint hearted. Let there be no fear or trembling or alarm as you face them.
Deu 20:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is marching with you, to fight your enemies for you and make you victorious."
Deu 20:5 'The scribes will then address the people, as follows: "Has anyone built a new house and not yet dedicated it? Let him go home, in case he dies in battle and someone else performs the dedication.
Deu 20:6 "Has anyone planted a vineyard and not yet enjoyed its fruit? Let him go home, in case he dies in battle and someone else enjoys its fruit.
Deu 20:7 "Has anyone contracted to marry a girl and not yet married her? Let him go home, in case he dies in battle and someone else marries her."
Deu 20:8 'Finally, the scribes will say to the people: "Is anyone frightened or faint hearted? Let him go home, in case he makes his brothers faint hearted too!"
Deu 20:9 'Then, when the scribes have finished speaking to the people, commanders will be appointed to lead them.
Deu 20:10 'When you advance on a town to attack it, first offer it peace-terms.
Deu 20:11 If it accepts these and opens its gates to you, all the people inside will owe you forced labour and work for you.
Deu 20:12 But if it refuses peace and gives battle, you must besiege it.
Deu 20:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God having handed it over to you, you will put the whole male population to the sword.
Deu 20:14 But the women, children, livestock and whatever the town contains by way of spoil, you may take for yourselves as booty. You will feed on the spoils of the enemies whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has handed over to you.
Deu 20:15 'That is how you will treat towns far away and not belonging to the nations near you.
Deu 20:16 But as regards the towns of those peoples whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you as your heritage, you must not spare the life of any living thing.
Deu 20:17 Instead, you must lay them under the curse of destruction: Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has commanded,
Deu 20:18 so that they may not teach you to do all the detestable things which they do to honor their gods: in doing these, you would sin against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 20:19 'If, when attacking a town, you have to besiege it for a long time before you capture it, you must not destroy its trees by taking the axe to them: eat their fruit but do not cut them down. Is the tree in the fields human, that you should besiege it too?
Deu 20:20 Any trees, however, which you know are not fruit trees, you may destroy and cut down and use to build siege-works against the hostile town until it falls.'
Deu 21:1 'If, in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God gives you as your possession, a victim of murder is found lying in the open country and it is not known who has killed that person,
Deu 21:2 your elders and scribes must measure the distance between the victim and the surrounding towns,
Deu 21:3 and establish which town is the nearest to the victim. The elders of that town must then take a heifer that has not yet been put to work or used as a draught animal under the yoke.
Deu 21:4 The elders of that town must bring the heifer down to a permanently flowing river, to a spot that has been neither ploughed nor sown, and there by the river they must break the heifer's neck.
Deu 21:5 The priests, the sons of Levi, will then step forward, these being the men whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has chosen to serve him and to bless in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name, and it being their business to settle all cases of dispute or of violence.
Deu 21:6 All the elders of the town nearest to the victim of murder must then wash their hands in the stream, over the slaughtered heifer.
Deu 21:7 They must pronounce these words, "Our hands have not shed this blood and our eyes have seen nothing.
Deu 21:8 O Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed, and let no innocent blood be shed among your people Israel. May this bloodshed be forgiven them!"
Deu 21:9 You must banish all shedding of innocent blood from among you, if you mean to do what is right in the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 21:10 'When you go to war against your enemies and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God delivers them into your power and you take prisoners,
Deu 21:11 and among the prisoners you see a beautiful woman, and you fall in love with her, and you take her to be your wife
Deu 21:12 and bring her home; she must shave her head and cut her nails,
Deu 21:13 and take off her prisoner's garb; she must stay inside your house and mourn her father and mother for a full month. You may then go to her and be a husband to her, and she will be your wife.
Deu 21:14 Should she cease to please you, you will let her go where she wishes, not selling her for money: you must not make any profit out of her, since you have exploited her.
Deu 21:15 'If a man has two wives, one loved and the other unloved, and the loved one and the unloved both bear him children, and if the first-born son is of the unloved wife,
Deu 21:16 when the man comes to bequeath his goods to his sons, he may not treat the son of the wife whom he loves as the first-born, at the expense of the son of the wife whom he does not love, the true first-born.
Deu 21:17 As his first-born he must acknowledge the son of the wife whom he does not love, giving him a double share of his estate; this son being the first-fruit of his vigour, the right of the first-born is his.
Deu 21:18 'If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not listen to the voice either of his father or of his mother and, even when they punish him, still will not pay attention to them,
Deu 21:19 his father and mother must take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place.
Deu 21:20 To the elders of his town, they will say, "This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and will not listen to us; he is a wastrel and a drunkard."
Deu 21:21 All his fellow-citizens must then stone him to death. You must banish this evil from among you. All Israel, hearing of this, will be afraid.
Deu 21:22 'If a man guilty of a capital offense is to be put to death, and you hang him from a tree,
Deu 21:23 his body must not remain on the tree overnight; you must bury him the same day, since anyone hanged is a curse of God, and you must not bring pollution on the soil which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you as your heritage.'
Deu 22:1 'If you see your brother's ox or one of his sheep straying, you must not disregard it: you must take it back to your brother.
Deu 22:2 And if he is not close at hand or you do not know who he is, you must take it home with you and keep it by you until your brother comes to look for it; you will then return it to him.
Deu 22:3 'You must do the same with his donkey, the same with his cloak, the same with anything that your brother loses and that you find; you must not disregard it.
Deu 22:4 'If you see your brother's donkey or ox fall over on the road, you must not disregard it, but must help your brother get it on its feet again.
Deu 22:5 'A woman must not dress like a man, nor a man like a woman; anyone who does this is detestable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 22:6 'If, when out walking, you come across a bird's nest, in a tree or on the ground, with chicks or eggs and the mother bird sitting on the chicks or the eggs, you must not take the mother as well as the chicks.
Deu 22:7 Let the mother go; the young you may take for yourself. Thus will you have prosperity and long life.
Deu 22:8 'When you build a new house, you must give your roof a parapet; then your house will not incur blood-vengeance, should anyone fall off the top.
Deu 22:9 'You must not sow any other crop in your vineyard, or the whole yield may become forfeit, both the crop you have sown and the yield of your vines.
Deu 22:10 'You must not plough with ox and donkey together.
Deu 22:11 'You must not wear clothing woven part of wool, part of linen.
Deu 22:12 'You must make tassels for the four corners of the cloak in which you wrap yourself.
Deu 22:13 'If a man marries a woman, has sexual intercourse with her and then, turning against her,
Deu 22:14 taxes her with misconduct and publicly defames her by saying, "I married this woman and when I had sexual intercourse with her I did not find evidence of her virginity,"
Deu 22:15 the girl's father and mother must take the evidence of her virginity and produce it before the elders of the town, at the gate.
Deu 22:16 To the elders, the girl's father will say, "I gave this man my daughter for a wife and he has turned against her,
Deu 22:17 and now he taxes her with misconduct, saying, I have found no evidence of virginity in your daughter. Here is the evidence of my daughter's virginity!"
Deu 22:18 They must then display the cloth to the elders of the town.
Deu 22:19 The elders of the town in question will have the man arrested and flogged, and fine him a hundred silver shekels for publicly defaming a virgin of Israel, and give this money to the girl's father. She will remain his wife; as long as he lives, he may not divorce her.
Deu 22:20 'But if the accusation that the girl cannot show evidence of virginity is substantiated,
Deu 22:21 she must be taken out, and at the door of her father's house her fellow-citizens must stone her to death for having committed an infamy in Israel by bringing disgrace on her father's family. You must banish this evil from among you.
Deu 22:22 'If a man is caught having sexual intercourse with another man's wife, both must be put to death: the man who has slept with her and the woman herself. You must banish this evil from Israel.
Deu 22:23 'If a virgin is engaged to a man, and another man encounters her in the town and has sexual intercourse with her,
Deu 22:24 you will take them both to the gate of the town in question and stone them to death: the girl, for not having called for help in the town; the man, for having exploited his fellow-citizen's wife. You must banish this evil from among you.
Deu 22:25 But if the man ran into the betrothed girl in the open country and slept with her, having taken her by force, her ravisher alone must die;
Deu 22:26 you must do nothing to the girl, she has not committed a capital offense. The case is like that of a man who attacks and kills his fellow:
Deu 22:27 since he came across her in the open country, the betrothed girl may have called out, without anyone's coming to her rescue.
Deu 22:28 'If a man meets a young virgin who is not betrothed and seizes her, sleeps with her and is caught in the act,
Deu 22:29 her ravisher must give the girl's father fifty silver shekels; since he has exploited her, she must be his wife and, as long as he lives, he may not divorce her.'
Deu 23:1 'A man must not take his father's wife; he must not withdraw the skirt of his father's cloak from her.
Deu 23:2 'A man whose testicles have been crushed or whose male member has been cut off must not be admitted to the assembly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 23:3 No half-breed may be admitted to the assembly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); not even his descendants to the tenth generation may be admitted to the assembly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 23:4 No Ammonite or Moabite may be admitted to the assembly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); not even his descendants to the tenth generation may be admitted to the assembly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and this is for all time;
Deu 23:5 since they did not come to meet you with food and drink when you were on your way out of Egypt, and even hired Balaam son of Beor to oppose you by cursing you, from Pethor in Aram Naharaim.
Deu 23:6 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God refused to listen to Balaam, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God turned the curse on you into a blessing, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God loved you.
Deu 23:7 Never, as long as you live, must you seek their welfare or their prosperity.
Deu 23:8 'You must not regard the Edomite as detestable, for he is your brother; you must not regard the Egyptian as detestable, since you were once a foreigner in his country.
Deu 23:9 The third generation of children born to these may be admitted to the assembly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Deu 23:10 'When you are in camp, at war with your enemies, you must avoid anything bad.
Deu 23:11 If any one of you is unclean by reason of a nocturnal emission, he must leave and not come back into camp,
Deu 23:12 but towards evening wash himself, and return to camp at sunset.
Deu 23:13 'You must have a latrine outside the camp, and go out to this;
Deu 23:14 you must have a trowel in your equipment and, when you squat outside, you must scrape a hole with it, then turn round and cover up your excrement.
Deu 23:15 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God goes about the inside of your camp to guard you and put your enemies at your mercy. Your camp must therefore be a holy place; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) must not see anything indecent there or he will desert you.
Deu 23:16 'You must not allow a master to imprison a slave who has escaped from him and come to you.
Deu 23:17 Let him make his home with you and yours, wherever he pleases in whichever of your towns he prefers; you must not molest him.
Deu 23:18 'There must be no sacred prostitute among the women of Israel, and no sacred prostitute among the men of Israel.
Deu 23:19 You must not bring the wages of a prostitute or the earnings of a 'dog' to the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, whatever vow you may have made: both are detestable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 23:20 'You must not lend on interest to your brother, whether the loan be of money, of food, or of anything else that may earn interest.
Deu 23:21 You may demand interest on a loan to a foreigner, but you must not demand interest from your brother; so that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God may bless you in all your labours, in the country which you are about to enter and make your own.
Deu 23:22 'If you make a vow to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, you must not be slack about fulfilling it: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will certainly hold you answerable for it and you will incur guilt.
Deu 23:23 If, however, you make no vow, you do not incur guilt.
Deu 23:24 Whatever passes your lips you must keep to, and the vow that you have made to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your generous God, you must fulfil.
Deu 23:25 'If you go into your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat as many grapes as you please, but you must not put any in your basket.
Deu 23:26 If you go into your neighbor's standing corn, you may pick ears by hand, but you must not put a sickle into your neighbor's corn.'
Deu 24:1 'Suppose a man has taken a wife and consummated the marriage; but she has not pleased him and he has found some impropriety of which to accuse her; he has therefore made out a writ of divorce for her and handed it to her and then dismissed her from his house;
Deu 24:2 she leaves his home and goes away to become the wife of another man.
Deu 24:3 Then suppose this second man who has married her takes a dislike to her and makes out a writ of divorce for her and hands it to her and dismisses her from his house or if this other man who took her as his wife dies,
Deu 24:4 her first husband, who has repudiated her, may not take her back as his wife now that she has been made unclean in this way. For that is detestable in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes and you must not bring guilt on the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you as your heritage.
Deu 24:5 'If a man is newly married, he must not join the army, nor must he be pestered at home; he must be left at home, free of all obligations for one year, to make his new wife happy.
Deu 24:6 'No one may take a mill or a millstone in pledge; that would be to take life itself in pledge.
Deu 24:7 'If anyone is caught, having kidnapped one of his brother-Israelites, whether he makes him his slave or sells him, that thief must die. You must banish this evil from among you.
Deu 24:8 'In a case of a virulent skin-disease, take care you faithfully observe and exactly carry out everything that the levitical priests direct you to do. You must keep and observe everything that I have commanded them.
Deu 24:9 Remember what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God did to Miriam when you were on your way out of Egypt.
Deu 24:10 'If you are making your brother a loan on pledge, you must not go into his house and seize the pledge, whatever it may be.
Deu 24:11 You must stay outside, and the man to whom you are making the loan must bring the pledge out to you.
Deu 24:12 And if the man is poor, you must not go to bed with his pledge in your possession;
Deu 24:13 you must return it to him at sunset so that he can sleep in his cloak and bless you; and it will be an upright action on your part in God's view.
Deu 24:14 'You must not exploit a poor and needy wage-earner, be he one of your brothers or a foreigner resident in your community.
Deu 24:15 You must pay him his wages each day, not allowing the sun to set before you do, since he, being poor, needs them badly; otherwise he may appeal to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) against you, and you would incur guilt.
Deu 24:16 'Parents may not be put to death for their children, nor children for parents, but each must be put to death for his own crime.
Deu 24:17 'You must not infringe the rights of the foreigner or the orphan; you must not take a widow's clothes in pledge.
Deu 24:18 Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt and that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God redeemed you from that. That is why I am giving you this order.
Deu 24:19 'If, when reaping the harvest in your field, you overlook a sheaf in that field, do not go back for it. The foreigner, the orphan and the widow shall have it, so that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God may bless you in all your undertakings.
Deu 24:20 'When you beat your olive tree, you must not go over the branches twice. The foreigner, the orphan and the widow shall have the rest.
Deu 24:21 'When you harvest your vineyard, you must not pick it over a second time. The foreigner, the orphan and the widow shall have the rest.
Deu 24:22 'Remember that you were once a slave in Egypt. That is why I am giving you this order.'
Deu 25:1 'If people fall out, they must go to court for judgement; the judges must declare the one who is right to be in the right, the one who is wrong to be in the wrong.
Deu 25:2 If the one who is in the wrong deserves a flogging, the judge must have him laid on the ground and flogged in his presence, the number of strokes proportionate to his offense.
Deu 25:3 He may impose forty strokes but no more; otherwise, by the infliction of more, serious injury may be caused and your brother be humiliated before you.
Deu 25:4 'You must not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn.
Deu 25:5 'If brothers live together and one of them dies childless, the dead man's wife may not marry a stranger outside the family. Her husband's brother must come to her and, exercising his duty as brother, make her his wife,
Deu 25:6 and the first son she bears must assume the dead brother's name; by this means his name will not be obliterated from Israel.
Deu 25:7 But if the man declines to take his brother's wife, she must go to the elders at the gate and say, "I have no brother-in-law willing to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he declines to exercise his duty as brother in my favor."
Deu 25:8 The elders of the town must summon the man and talk to him. If, on appearing before them, he says, "I refuse to take her,"
Deu 25:9 then the woman to whom he owes duty as brother must go up to him in the presence of the elders, take the sandal off his foot, spit in his face, and pronounce the following words, "This is what is done to the man who refuses to restore his brother's house,"
Deu 25:10 and his family must henceforth be known in Israel as House of the Unshod.
Deu 25:11 'If, when two men are fighting, the wife of one intervenes to protect her husband from the other's blows by reaching out and seizing the other by his private parts,
Deu 25:12 you must cut off her hand and show no pity.
Deu 25:13 'You must not keep two different weights in your bag, one heavy, one light.
Deu 25:14 You must not keep two different measures in your house, one large, one small.
Deu 25:15 You must keep one weight, full and accurate, so that you may have long life in the country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 25:16 For anyone who does things of this kind and acts dishonestly is detestable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 25:17 'Remember how Amalek treated you when you were on your way out of Egypt.
Deu 25:18 He met you on your way and, after you had gone by, he fell on you from the rear and cut off the stragglers; when you were faint and weary, he had no fear of God.
Deu 25:19 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has granted you peace from all the enemies surrounding you, in the country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God to own as your heritage, you must blot out the memory of Amalek under heaven. Do not forget.'
Deu 26:1 'When you have entered the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you as heritage, when you have taken possession of it and are living in it,
Deu 26:2 you must set aside the first-fruits of all the produce of the soil raised by you in your country, given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You must put these in a basket and go to the place where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God chooses to give his name a home.
Deu 26:3 You will go to the priest then in office and say to him, "Today I declare to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God that I have reached the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) swore to our ancestors that he would give us."
Deu 26:4 'The priest will then take the basket from your hand and lay it before the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 26:5 In the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, you will then pronounce these words: "My father was a wandering Aramaean, who went down to Egypt with a small group of men, and stayed there, until he there became a great, powerful and numerous nation.
Deu 26:6 The Egyptians ill-treated us, they oppressed us and inflicted harsh slavery on us.
Deu 26:7 But we called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of our ancestors. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard our voice and saw our misery, our toil and our oppression;
Deu 26:8 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought us out of Egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm, with great terror, and with signs and wonders.
Deu 26:9 He brought us here and has given us this country, a country flowing with milk and honey.
Deu 26:10 Hence, I now bring the first-fruits of the soil that you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have given me." 'You will then lay them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and prostrate yourself in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 26:11 You must then rejoice in all the good things that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has bestowed on you and your family-you, the Levite and the foreigner living with you.
Deu 26:12 'In the third year, the tithing year, when you have finished taking the tithe of your whole income and have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow so that, in your towns, they may eat to their heart's content,
Deu 26:13 in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, you must say: "I have cleared my house of what was consecrated. Yes, I have given it to the Levite, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, in accordance with all the commandments you have imposed on me, neither going beyond your commandments nor neglecting them.
Deu 26:14 When in mourning, I have not eaten any of it; when unclean, I have taken none of it away; I have given none of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God and I have behaved in every way as you have commanded me.
Deu 26:15 Look down from your holy dwelling, from heaven, and bless your people Israel and the country which you have given us, as you swore to our ancestors, a country flowing with milk and honey." '
Deu 26:16 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God commands you today to observe these laws and customs; you must keep and observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deu 26:17 'Today you have obtained this declaration from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): that he will be your God, but only if you follow his ways, keep his statutes, his commandments, his customs, and listen to his voice.
Deu 26:18 And today Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has obtained this declaration from you: that you will be his own people -- as he has said -- but only if you keep all his commandments;
Deu 26:19 then for praise and renown and honor, he will raise you higher than every other nation he has made, and you will be a people consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as he has promised.'
Deu 27:1 Moses and the elders of Israel gave the people this command: 'Keep all the commandments which I am laying down for you today.
Deu 27:2 After you have crossed the Jordan into the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you, you must set up tall stones, coat them with lime
Deu 27:3 and on them write all the words of this Law, when you have crossed and entered the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you, a country flowing with milk and honey, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, has promised you.
Deu 27:4 'When you have crossed the Jordan, you must erect these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with lime.
Deu 27:5 There, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, you must build an altar of stones, on which no iron has been used.
Deu 27:6 You must build the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God of rough stones, and on this altar you will present burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God,
Deu 27:7 and immolate communion sacrifices and eat them there, rejoicing in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 27:8 On these stones you must write all the words of this Law; cut them carefully.'
Deu 27:9 Moses and the levitical priests then said to all Israel: 'Be silent, Israel, and listen. Today you have become a people for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 27:10 You must listen to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and observe the commandments and laws which I am laying down for you today.'
Deu 27:11 That day Moses gave the people this order:
Deu 27:12 'When you have crossed the Jordan, the following will stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon and Levi, Judah and Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin.
Deu 27:13 And the following will stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad and Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.
Deu 27:14 The Levites will then speak, proclaiming loudly to all the Israelites:
Deu 27:15 "Accursed be anyone who makes a carved or cast idol, a thing detestable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a workman's artifact, and sets it up in secret." And the people are all to respond by saying, Amen.
Deu 27:16 "Accursed be anyone who treats father or mother dishonorably." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:17 "Accursed be anyone who displaces a neighbor's boundary mark." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:18 "Accursed be anyone who leads the blind astray on the road." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:19 "Accursed be anyone who violates the rights of the foreigner, the orphan and the widow." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:20 "Accursed be anyone who has sexual intercourse with his father's wife and withdraws the skirt of his father's cloak from her." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:21 "Accursed be anyone who has sexual intercourse with any kind of animal." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:22 "Accursed be anyone who has sexual intercourse with his sister, the daughter of his father or of his mother." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:23 "Accursed be anyone who has sexual intercourse with his mother-in-law." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:24 "Accursed be anyone who secretly strikes down his neighbor." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:25 "Accursed be anyone who accepts a bribe to take an innocent life." And the people must all say, Amen.
Deu 27:26 "Accursed be anyone who does not make the words of this Law effective by putting them into practice." And the people must all say, Amen.'
Deu 28:1 'But if you faithfully obey the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, by keeping and observing all his commandments, which I am laying down for you today, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will raise you higher than every other nation in the world,
Deu 28:2 and all these blessings will befall and overtake you, for having obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 28:3 'You will be blessed in the town and blessed in the countryside;
Deu 28:4 blessed, the offspring of your body, the yield of your soil, the yield of your livestock, the young of your cattle and the increase of your flocks;
Deu 28:5 blessed, your basket and your kneading trough.
Deu 28:6 You will be blessed in coming home, and blessed in going out.
Deu 28:7 The enemies who attack you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will defeat before your eyes; they will advance on you from one direction and flee from you in seven.
Deu 28:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will command blessedness to be with you, on your barns and on all your undertakings, and he will bless you in the country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 28:9 'From you Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will make a people consecrated to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and follow his ways.
Deu 28:10 The peoples of the world, seeing that you bear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name, will all be afraid of you.
Deu 28:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will make you abound in possessions: in the offspring of your body, in the yield of your cattle and in the yield of your soil, in the country which he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.
Deu 28:12 For you Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will open his treasury of rain, the heavens, to give your country its rain at the right time, and to bless all your labours. You will make many nations your subjects, yet you will be subject to none.
Deu 28:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will put you at the head, not at the tail; you will always be on top and never underneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, which I am laying down for you today, and then keep them and put them into practice,
Deu 28:14 not deviating to right or to left from any of the words which I am laying down for you today, by following other gods and serving them.
Deu 28:15 'But if you do not obey the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and do not keep and observe all his commandments and laws which I am laying down for you today then all these curses will befall and overtake you.
Deu 28:16 'You will be accursed in the town and accursed in the countryside;
Deu 28:17 accursed, your basket and your kneading trough;
Deu 28:18 accursed, the offspring of your body, the yield of your soil, the young of your cattle and the increase of your flock.
Deu 28:19 You will be accursed in coming home, and accursed in going out.
Deu 28:20 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will send a curse on you, a spell, an imprecation on all your labours until you have been destroyed and quickly perish, because of your perverse behaviour, for having deserted me.
Deu 28:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will fasten the plague on you, until it has exterminated you from the country which you are about to enter and make your own.
Deu 28:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will strike you down with consumption, fever, inflammation, burning fever, drought, wind-blast, mildew, and these will pursue you to your ruin.
Deu 28:23 The heavens above you will be brass, the earth beneath you iron.
Deu 28:24 Your country's rain Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will turn into dust and sand; it will fall on you from the heavens until you perish.
Deu 28:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will have you defeated by your enemies; you will advance on them from one direction and flee from them in seven; and you will be a terrifying object-lesson to all the kingdoms of the world.
Deu 28:26 Your carcase will be carrion for all wild birds and all wild animals, with no one to scare them away.
Deu 28:27 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will strike you down with Egyptian ulcers, with swellings in the groin, with scurvy and the itch, for which you will find no cure.
Deu 28:28 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will strike you down with madness, blindness, distraction of mind,
Deu 28:29 until you grope your way at noon like a blind man groping in the dark, and your steps will lead you nowhere. 'You will never be anything but exploited and plundered, with no one to save you.
Deu 28:30 Get engaged to a woman, another man will have her; build a house, you will not live in it; plant a vineyard, you will not gather its first-fruits.
Deu 28:31 Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes and you will eat none of it; your donkey will be carried off in front of you and not be returned to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will come to your help.
Deu 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be handed over to another people, and every day you will wear your eyes out watching for them, while your hands are powerless.
Deu 28:33 A nation hitherto unknown to you will eat the yield of your soil and of all your hard work. You will never be anything but exploited and crushed.
Deu 28:34 You will be driven mad by the sights you will see.
Deu 28:35 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will strike you down with foul ulcers on knee and leg, for which you will find no cure -- from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
Deu 28:36 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will send away both you and the king whom you have appointed to rule you to a nation unknown either to you or to your ancestors, and there you will serve other gods, made of wood and stone.
Deu 28:37 And you will be the astonishment, the byword, the laughing-stock of all the peoples where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is taking you.
Deu 28:38 'You will cast seed in plenty on the fields but harvest little, since the locust will devour it.
Deu 28:39 You will plant and till your vineyards but not drink the wine or gather the grapes, since the grub will eat them up.
Deu 28:40 You will grow olive trees throughout your territory but not anoint yourself with the oil, since your olive trees will be cut down.
Deu 28:41 You will father sons and daughters but they will not belong to you, since they will go into captivity.
Deu 28:42 All your trees and the whole yield of your soil will be the prey of insects.
Deu 28:43 'The foreigners living with you will rise higher and higher at your expense, while you yourself sink lower and lower.
Deu 28:44 You will be subject to them, not they to you; they will be the ones at the head, and you the one at the tail.
Deu 28:45 'All these curses will befall you, pursue you and overtake you until you have been destroyed, for not having obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God by keeping his commandments and laws which he has laid down for you.
Deu 28:46 They will be a sign and a wonder over you and your descendants for ever.
Deu 28:47 'For not having joyfully and with happy heart served Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, despite the abundance of everything,
Deu 28:48 you will have to serve the enemy whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will send against you, in hunger, thirst, lack of clothing and total privation. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you.
Deu 28:49 'Against you Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will raise a distant nation from the ends of the earth like an eagle taking wing: a nation whose language you do not understand,
Deu 28:50 a nation grim of face, with neither respect for the old, nor pity for the young.
Deu 28:51 He will eat the yield of your cattle and the yield of your soil until you have been destroyed; he will leave you neither wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor the young of your cattle, nor increase of your flock, until he has made an end of you.
Deu 28:52 He will besiege you inside all your towns until your loftiest and most strongly fortified walls collapse, on which, throughout your country, you have relied. He will besiege you inside all the towns throughout your country, given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 28:53 During the siege and in the distress to which your enemy will reduce you, you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of the sons and daughters given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Deu 28:54 The gentlest and tenderest of your men will scowl at his brother, and at the wife whom he embraces, and at his remaining children,
Deu 28:55 not willing to give any of them any of his own children's flesh, which he is eating; because of the siege and the distress to which your enemy will reduce you in all your towns, he will have nothing left.
Deu 28:56 The most refined and fastidious of your women, so refined, so fastidious that she has never ventured to set the sole of her foot to the ground, will scowl at the husband whom she embraces, and at her son and daughter, and at the after-birth when it leaves her womb, and at the child to which she has given birth-
Deu 28:57 she will hide away and eat them, so complete will be the starvation resulting from the siege and the distress to which your enemy will reduce you in all your towns.
Deu 28:58 'If you do not keep and observe all the words of this Law, which are written in this book, in the fear of this glorious and awe-inspiring name: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God,
Deu 28:59 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will strike you down with monstrous plagues, you and your descendants: with plagues grievous and lasting, diseases pernicious and enduring.
Deu 28:60 He will afflict you with all the maladies of Egypt which you used to dread, and they will fasten on you.
Deu 28:61 What is more, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will afflict you with all the plagues and all the diseases not mentioned in the book of this Law, until you have been destroyed.
Deu 28:62 There will only be a small group of you left, you who were once as numerous as the stars of heaven. 'For not having obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God,
Deu 28:63 just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) used to delight in making you happy and in making your numbers grow, so will he take delight in ruining you and destroying you. You will be torn from the country which you are about to enter and make your own.
Deu 28:64 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will scatter you throughout every people, from one end of the earth to the other; there you will serve other gods made of wood and stone, hitherto unknown either to you or to your ancestors.
Deu 28:65 Among these nations there will be no repose for you, no rest for the sole of your foot; there Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will give you a quaking heart, weary eyes, halting breath.
Deu 28:66 Your life ahead of you will hang in doubt; you will be afraid day and night, uncertain of your life.
Deu 28:67 In the morning you will say, "How I wish it were evening!", and in the evening you will say, "How I wish it were morning!", such terror will grip your heart and such sights you will see!
Deu 28:68 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will send you back to Egypt, either by ship or by a road which I promised you would never see again. And there you will want to offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as serving men and women, but no one will buy you.'
Deu 28:69 These are the words of the covenant which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant which he had made with them at Horeb.
Deu 29:1 Moses called all Israel together and said to them: 'You have seen everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did before your eyes in Egypt, to Pharaoh, to his servants and to his whole country-
Deu 29:2 the great ordeals which you yourselves witnessed, those signs and the great wonders.
Deu 29:3 But until today Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not given you a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.
Deu 29:4 'I have been leading you for forty years in the desert, yet the clothes which you have been wearing have not worn out, nor have the sandals on your feet.
Deu 29:5 You have had no bread to eat, you have had no wine or fermented liquor to drink, so that you would learn that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am your God.
Deu 29:6 'When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out to do battle against us; we defeated them.
Deu 29:7 We conquered their country and gave it as heritage to Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Deu 29:8 'Keep the words of this covenant, put them into practice, and you will thrive in everything you do.
Deu 29:9 'All of you are standing here today in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God: your tribal leaders, your elders, your scribes, all the men of Israel,
Deu 29:10 with your children and your wives (and the foreigner too who is in your camp, be he your wood-cutter or your water-carrier),
Deu 29:11 and you are about to pass into the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, sworn with imprecation, which he has made with you today,
Deu 29:12 and by which, today, he makes you a nation for himself and he himself becomes a God to you, as he has promised you, and as he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deu 29:13 Not only on your behalf am I today making this covenant and pronouncing this solemn curse,
Deu 29:14 not only on behalf of those standing here with us in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God today, but also on behalf of those not here with us today.
Deu 29:15 'Yes, you know the people with whom we used to live in Egypt, and those through whose countries we have travelled -- the nations through whom we have passed.
Deu 29:16 You have seen their abominations and their idols made of wood and stone, silver and gold, which were there.
Deu 29:17 'Let there be no man or woman of you, no clan or tribe, whose heart turns away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God today, to go and serve the gods of these nations. Among you let there be no root which bears poison or wormwood.
Deu 29:18 If, after hearing this imprecation, anyone, blessing himself, should say in his heart, "I shall do well enough if I follow the dictates of my heart; much water drives away thirst,"
Deu 29:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not pardon him. The wrath and jealousy of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will blaze against such a person; every curse written in this book will fall on him, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will blot his name out under heaven.
Deu 29:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will single him out of all the tribes of Israel for misfortune, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in the book of this Law.
Deu 29:21 'The future generation, that of your children coming after you, and the foreigner arriving from some far-away land, on seeing the plagues and diseases inflicted on this country by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will exclaim,
Deu 29:22 "Sulphur! Salt!-The whole country is burning! No one will sow, nothing grow, no vegetation spring ever again! Devastation like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, devastated by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in his furious wrath!"
Deu 29:23 And all the nations will exclaim, "Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) treated this country like this? Why this great blaze of anger?"
Deu 29:24 'And people will say, "Because they deserted the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors, the covenant which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt;
Deu 29:25 because they went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods hitherto unknown to them, gods that were no part of their heritage from him:
Deu 29:26 this is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger has blazed against this country, afflicting it with all the curses written in this book.
Deu 29:27 In anger, in fury, in fierce wrath, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has torn them from their own country and flung them into another country, where they are today."
Deu 29:28 Things hidden belong to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, but things revealed are ours and our children's for ever, so that we can put all the words of this Law into practice.'
Deu 30:1 'And when all these words have come true for you -- the blessing and the curse, which I have offered you -- if you meditate on them in your heart wherever among the nations Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has driven you,
Deu 30:2 if you return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, if with all your heart and with all your soul you obey his voice, you and your children, in everything that I am laying down for you today,
Deu 30:3 then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will bring back your captives, he will have pity on you and gather you back from all the peoples among whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has scattered you.
Deu 30:4 Should you have been banished to the very sky's end, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will gather you again even from there, will come there to reclaim you
Deu 30:5 and bring you back to the country which belonged to your ancestors, so that you may possess it in your turn, and be made prosperous there and more numerous than your ancestors.
Deu 30:6 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God with all your heart and soul, and so will live.
Deu 30:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will make all these curses recoil on your foes and on your enemies who have persecuted you.
Deu 30:8 And once again you will obey the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and you will put all his commandments into practice, which I am laying down for you today.
Deu 30:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will make you prosper in all your labours, in the offspring of your body, in the yield of your cattle and in the yield of your soil. For once again Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will delight in your prosperity as he used to take delight in the prosperity of your ancestors,
Deu 30:10 if you obey the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, by keeping his commandments and decrees written in the book of this Law, and if you return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God with all your heart and soul.
Deu 30:11 'For this Law which I am laying down for you today is neither obscure for you nor beyond your reach.
Deu 30:12 It is not in heaven, so that you need to wonder, "Who will go up to heaven for us and bring it down to us, so that we can hear and practise it?"
Deu 30:13 Nor is it beyond the seas, so that you need to wonder, "Who will cross the seas for us and bring it back to us, so that we can hear and practise it?"
Deu 30:14 No, the word is very near to you, it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to put into practice.
Deu 30:15 'Look, today I am offering you life and prosperity, death and disaster.
Deu 30:16 If you obey the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, which I am laying down for you today, if you love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and follow his ways, if you keep his commandments, his laws and his customs, you will live and grow numerous, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will bless you in the country which you are about to enter and make your own.
Deu 30:17 But if your heart turns away, if you refuse to listen, if you let yourself be drawn into worshipping other gods and serving them,
Deu 30:18 I tell you today, you will most certainly perish; you will not live for long in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
Deu 30:19 Today, I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live,
Deu 30:20 in the love of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, obeying his voice, holding fast to him; for in this your life consists, and on this depends the length of time that you stay in the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that he would give them.'
Deu 31:1 Moses went and spoke to all Israel as follows,
Deu 31:2 'Today, I am one hundred and twenty years old, and can no longer act as leader. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has told me, "You shall not cross this Jordan."
Deu 31:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God himself will lead you across, he himself will destroy and dispossess these nations confronting you; Joshua too will lead you across, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said.
Deu 31:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will treat them as he has treated Sihon and Og the Amorite kings and their country -- he destroyed them.
Deu 31:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will put them at your mercy, and you will deal with them exactly as prescribed by the commandments which I have laid down for you.
Deu 31:6 Be strong, stand firm, have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is going with you; he will not fail you or desert you.'
Deu 31:7 Moses then summoned Joshua and, in the presence of all Israel, said to him, 'Be strong, stand firm; you will be the one to go with this people into the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sworn to their ancestors that he would give them; you are to be the one who puts them into possession of it.
Deu 31:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself will lead you; he will be with you; he will not fail you or desert you. Have no fear, do not be alarmed.'
Deu 31:9 Moses committed this Law to writing and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s covenant, and to all the elders of Israel.
Deu 31:10 And Moses gave them this command, 'At the end of every seven years, at the time fixed for the year of remission, at the feast of Shelters,
Deu 31:11 when all Israel assembles in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in the place chosen by him, you must proclaim this Law in the hearing of all Israel.
Deu 31:12 Call the people together, men, women, children, and the foreigner residing with you, so that, hearing it, they may learn to fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and keep and observe all the words of this Law.
Deu 31:13 Their children, who as yet do not know it, will hear it and learn to fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, all the time you live in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to possess.'
Deu 31:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'And now the time is near when you must die. Summon Joshua and take your places at the Tent of Meeting, so that I can give him his orders.' Moses and Joshua went and took their places at the Tent of Meeting,
Deu 31:15 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) showed himself at the Tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the door of the Tent.
Deu 31:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, 'You will soon be sleeping with your ancestors, and this people is about to play the harlot by following the gods of the foreigners of the country, among whom they are going to live. They will desert me and break my covenant, which I have made with them.
Deu 31:17 That very day, my anger will blaze against them; I shall desert them and hide my face from them. A host of disasters and misfortunes will overtake them to devour them, and when that day comes they will say, "If such disasters overtake me, surely Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God cannot be with me?"
Deu 31:18 Yes indeed, I shall hide my face that day, on account of all the evil which they will have done by turning to other gods.
Deu 31:19 'Now write down this song for you to use; teach it to the Israelites, put it into their mouths, for it to be a witness on my behalf against the Israelites:
Deu 31:20 against Israel, whom I am bringing into the country which I swore to his ancestors that I would give him, a country flowing with milk and honey: against Israel, who will eat to his heart's content and grow fat, and will then turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant.
Deu 31:21 When a host of disasters and misfortunes overtakes him, this song, like a witness, will give evidence against him, since his descendants will not have forgotten it. Yes, even today, before I have brought him to the country which I have promised him on oath, I know what plans he has in mind.'
Deu 31:22 So, that day, Moses wrote out this song and taught it to the Israelites.
Deu 31:23 To Joshua son of Nun, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave this order, 'Be strong and stand firm, for you are to be the one to bring the Israelites into the country which I have promised them on oath, and I myself shall be with you.'
Deu 31:24 When Moses had completely finished writing the words of this Law in a book,
Deu 31:25 he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s covenant:
Deu 31:26 'Take the book of this Law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. Let it lie there as evidence against you.
Deu 31:27 For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If today, while I am still alive and with you, you rebel against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), how much more will you rebel against him after my death!
Deu 31:28 'Gather all your tribal elders and scribes round me, so that I may be sure that they hear these words, as I call heaven and earth to witness against them.
Deu 31:29 For I know that after my death you are certain to grow corrupt; you will leave the way which I have marked out for you; in the final days disaster will befall you for having done what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, for having provoked his anger by your behaviour.'
Deu 31:30 In the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel, Moses then recited the words of this song to the end:
Deu 32:1 Listen, heavens, while I speak; hear, earth, the words that I shall say!
Deu 32:2 May my teaching fall like the rain, may my word drop down like the dew, like showers on the grass, like light rain on the turf!
Deu 32:3 For I shall proclaim the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Oh, tell the greatness of our God!
Deu 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are equitable. A trustworthy God who does no wrong, he is the Honest, the Upright One!
Deu 32:5 They have acted perversely, those he fathered without blemish, a deceitful and underhand brood.
Deu 32:6 Is this the return you make to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? O people brainless and unwise! Is this not your father, who gave you being, who made you, by whom you subsist?
Deu 32:7 Think back on the days of old, think over the years, down the ages. Question your father, let him explain to you, your elders, and let them tell you!
Deu 32:8 When the Most High gave the nations each their heritage, when he partitioned out the human race, he assigned the boundaries of nations according to the number of the children of God,
Deu 32:9 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s portion was his people, Jacob was to be the measure of his inheritance.
Deu 32:10 In the desert he finds him, in the howling expanses of the wastelands. He protects him, rears him, guards him as the pupil of his eye.
Deu 32:11 Like an eagle watching its nest, hovering over its young, he spreads out his wings to hold him, he supports him on his pinions.
Deu 32:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) alone is his guide; no alien god for him!
Deu 32:13 He gives him the heights of the land to ride, he feeds him on the yield of the mountains, he gives him honey from the rock to taste, and oil from the flinty crag;
Deu 32:14 curds from the cattle, milk from the flock, and the richness of the pasture, rams of Bashan's breed, and goats, the richness of the wheat kernel; the fermented blood of the grape for drink.
Deu 32:15 Jacob has eaten to his heart's content, Jeshurun, grown fat, has now lashed out. (You have grown fat, gross, bloated.) He has disowned the God who made him, and dishonored the Rock, his salvation,
Deu 32:16 whose jealousy they aroused with foreigners -- with things detestable they angered him.
Deu 32:17 They sacrificed to demons who are not God, to gods hitherto unknown to them, to newcomers of yesterday whom their ancestors had never respected.
Deu 32:18 (You forget the Rock who fathered you, the God who made you, you no longer remember.)
Deu 32:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saw it and, in anger, he spurned his sons and daughters.
Deu 32:20 'I shall hide my face from them,' he said, 'and see what will become of them. For they are a deceitful brood, children with no loyalty in them.
Deu 32:21 They have roused me to jealousy with a non-god, they have exasperated me with their idols. In my turn I shall rouse them to jealousy with a non-people, I shall exasperate them with a stupid nation.
Deu 32:22 Yes, a fire has blazed from my anger, it will burn right down to the depths of Sheol; it will devour the earth and all its produce, it will set fire to the footings of the mountains.
Deu 32:23 I shall hurl disasters on them, on them I shall use up all my arrows.
Deu 32:24 They will be weakened by hunger, eaten away by plague and the bitter scourge. Against them I shall send the fang of wild animals and the poison of snakes that glide in the dust.
Deu 32:25 Outside, the sword bereaves, while inside terror will reign. Young man and girl alike will perish, suckling and greybeard both together.
Deu 32:26 I should crush them to dust, I said, I should wipe out all memory of them,
Deu 32:27 did I not fear the boasting of the enemy.' But do not let their foes be mistaken! Do not let them say, 'We have got the upper hand and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) plays no part in this.'
Deu 32:28 What a short-sighted nation this is, how thoroughly imperceptive!
Deu 32:29 Were they wise, they would succeed, they would be able to read their destiny.
Deu 32:30 How else could one man rout a thousand, how could two put ten thousand to flight, were it not that their Rock has sold them, that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has delivered them up?
Deu 32:31 But their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies cannot pray for us!
Deu 32:32 For their vine springs from the stock of Sodom and from the groves of Gomorrah: their grapes are poisonous grapes, their clusters are bitter;
Deu 32:33 their wine is snakes' poison, the vipers' cruel venom.
Deu 32:34 But he, is he not safe with me, sealed inside my treasury?
Deu 32:35 Vengeance is mine, I will pay them back, for the time when they make a false step. For the day of their ruin is close, doom is rushing towards them, for he will see to it that their power fails. that neither serf nor free man remains.
Deu 32:36 (For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will see his people righted, he will take pity on his servants.)
Deu 32:37 'Where are their gods then?' he will ask, 'the rock where they sought refuge,
Deu 32:38 who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libations?' Let these arise and help you, let these be the shelter above you!
Deu 32:39 See now that I, I am he, and beside me there is no other god. It is I who deal death and life; when I have struck, it is I who heal (no one can rescue anyone from me).
Deu 32:40 Yes, I raise my hand to heaven, and I say, 'As surely as I live for ever,
Deu 32:41 When I have whetted my flashing sword, I shall enforce justice, I shall return vengeance to my foes, I shall take vengeance on my foes.
Deu 32:42 I shall make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will feed on flesh: the blood of the wounded and the prisoners, the dishevelled heads of the enemy!'
Deu 32:43 Heavens, rejoice with him, let all the children of God pay him homage! Nations, rejoice with his people, let God's envoys tell of his power! For he will avenge the blood of his servants, he will return vengeance to my foes, he will repay those who hate him and purify his people's country.
Deu 32:44 Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the people's hearing.
Deu 32:45 When Moses had finished reciting these words to all Israel,
Deu 32:46 he said to them, 'Take all these words to heart; I intend them today to be evidence against you. You must order your children to keep and observe all the words of this Law.
Deu 32:47 You must not think of this as empty words, for the Law is your life, and by its means you will live long in the country which you are crossing the Jordan to possess.'
Deu 32:48 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Moses that same day and said to him,
Deu 32:49 'Climb this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, in the country of Moab, opposite Jericho, and view the Canaan which I am giving to the Israelites as their domain.
Deu 32:50 Die on the mountain you have climbed, and be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people.
Deu 32:51 Because, with the other Israelites, you broke faith with me at the Waters of Meribah-Kadesh in the desert of Zin, because you did not make my holiness clear to the Israelites;
Deu 32:52 you may only see the country from outside; you cannot enter it -- the country which I am giving to the Israelites.'
Deu 33:1 This is the blessing that Moses, man of God, pronounced over the Israelites before he died.
Deu 33:2 He said: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came from Sinai, from Seir he dawned on us, from Mount Paran blazed forth, For them he came, after the mustering at Kadesh, from his zenith as far as the foothills.
Deu 33:3 You who love the ancestors! Your holy ones are all at your command. At your feet they fell, under your guidance went swiftly on.
Deu 33:4 (Moses enjoined a law on us.) The assembly of Jacob comes into its inheritance;
Deu 33:5 there was a king in Jeshurun when the heads of the people foregathered and the tribes of Israel were all assembled!
Deu 33:6 May Reuben survive and not die out, survive though his men be few!
Deu 33:7 Of Judah he said this: Listen, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to the voice of Judah, and bring him back to his people. That his hands may defend his rights, come to his help against his foes!
Deu 33:8 Of Levi he said: To Levi, give your urim, to your faithful one, your thummim, having tested him at Massah, having striven with him at the Waters of Meribah.
Deu 33:9 Of his father and mother, he says, 'I have not seen them.' He does not acknowledge his brothers, nor does he know his own children. Yes, they have kept your word, they hold firmly to your covenant.
Deu 33:10 They will teach your customs to Jacob, and your Law to Israel. They will put incense before you and burnt offerings on your altar.
Deu 33:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), bless his worthiness, and accept the actions he performs. Crush the loins of those who rise against him and of his foes, so that they rise no more!
Deu 33:12 Of Benjamin he said: Beloved of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he rests trustfully near him. The Most High protects him day after day and dwells between his hillsides.
Deu 33:13 Of Joseph he said: His land is blessed by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). For him the best of heaven's dew and of the deep that lies below,
Deu 33:14 the best of what the sun makes grow, of what springs with every month,
Deu 33:15 the first-fruits of the ancient mountains, the best from the hills of old
Deu 33:16 the best of the land and all it holds, the favor of him who dwells in the Bush. May the hair grow thick on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the consecrated one among his brothers!
Deu 33:17 First-born of the Bull, his the glory. His horns are the wild ox's horns, with which he gores the peoples to the very ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, such are the thousands of Manasseh.
Deu 33:18 Of Zebulun he said: Prosper, Zebulun, in your expeditions, and you, Issachar, in your tents!
Deu 33:19 On the mountain where the people come to pray they offer upright sacrifices, for they taste the riches of the seas and the treasures hidden in the sands.
Deu 33:20 Of Gad he said: Blessed be he who gives Gad space enough! He lies there like a lioness; he has savaged arm and face and head.
Deu 33:21 Then he took the first portion for himself, saw that there was stored up for him a leader's share. He has come at the head of the people, has carried out the saving justice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his judgements on Israel.
Deu 33:22 Of Dan he said: Dan is a lion cub leaping from Bashan.
Deu 33:23 Of Naphtali he said: Naphtali, sated with favors, filled with the blessings of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): the west and south are to be his domain.
Deu 33:24 Of Asher he said: Most blessed of the sons let Asher be! Let him be the most privileged of his brothers and let him bathe his feet in oil!
Deu 33:25 Be your bolts of iron and of bronze and your security as lasting as your days!
Deu 33:26 No one is like the God of Jeshurun: he rides the heavens to your rescue, rides the clouds in his majesty!
Deu 33:27 The God of old is your refuge, his the eternal arm which here below drives the enemy before you; he it is who says, 'Destroy!'
Deu 33:28 Israel rests trustfully. The well-spring of Jacob is chosen out for a land of corn and wine; there heaven itself rains down dew.
Deu 33:29 Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, O victorious people? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the shield that protects you and the sword that leads you to triumph. Your enemies will try to corrupt you, but you yourself will trample on their backs.
Deu 34:1 Then, leaving the Plains of Moab, Moses went up Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah opposite Jericho, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) showed him the whole country: Gilead as far as Dan,
Deu 34:2 the whole of Naphtali, the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, the whole country of Judah as far as the Western Sea,
Deu 34:3 the Negeb, and the region of the Valley of Jericho, city of palm trees, as far as Zoar.
Deu 34:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'This is the country which I promised on oath to give to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, saying: I shall give it to your descendants. I have allowed you to see it for yourself, but you will not cross into it.'
Deu 34:5 There in the country of Moab, Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), died as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) decreed;
Deu 34:6 he buried him in the valley, in the country of Moab, opposite Beth-Peor; but to this day no one has ever found his grave.
Deu 34:7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye undimmed, his vigour unimpaired.
Deu 34:8 The Israelites wept for Moses on the Plains of Moab for thirty days. The days of weeping for the mourning rites of Moses came to an end.
Deu 34:9 Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him, and him the Israelites obeyed, carrying out the order which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given to Moses.
Deu 34:10 Since then, there has never been such a prophet in Israel as Moses, the man whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) knew face to face.
Deu 34:11 What signs and wonders Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) caused him to perform in Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants and his whole country!
Deu 34:12 How mighty the hand and great the fear that Moses wielded in the eyes of all Israel!
Jos 1:1 When Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), was dead, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' adjutant. He said,
Jos 1:2 'Moses my servant is dead; go now and cross this Jordan, you and this whole people, into the country which I am giving to them (the Israelites).
Jos 1:3 Every place you tread with the soles of your feet I shall give you, as I declared to Moses that I would.
Jos 1:4 From the desert and the Lebanon, to the Great River, the Euphrates (the entire country of the Hittites), and as far as the Great Sea to westward, is to be your territory.
Jos 1:5 As long as you live, no one will be able to resist you; I shall be with you as I was with Moses; I shall not fail you or desert you.
Jos 1:6 'Be strong and stand firm, for you are the man to give this people possession of the land which I swore to their ancestors that I would give them.
Jos 1:7 Only be strong and stand very firm and be careful to keep the whole Law which my servant Moses laid down for you. Do not swerve from this either to right or to left, and then you will succeed wherever you go.
Jos 1:8 Have the book of this Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may carefully keep everything that is written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper, then you will have success.
Jos 1:9 Have I not told you: Be strong and stand firm? Be fearless and undaunted, for go where you may, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is with you.'
Jos 1:10 Joshua then gave the people's officials this instruction:
Jos 1:11 'Go through the camp and give the people this order, "Make provisions ready, for in three days' time you will cross this Jordan and go on to take possession of the land which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving you as your own." '
Jos 1:12 Joshua then said to the Reubenites and Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh,
Jos 1:13 'Remember the order given you by Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, in bringing you to rest, has given you the land where we are.
Jos 1:14 Your wives, your little ones and your cattle must stay in the country given you by Moses beyond the Jordan. But all you fighting men must cross in battle formation at the head of your brothers and help them,
Jos 1:15 until Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) grants rest to your brothers and you alike, when they too have taken possession of the land which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is giving to them. Then you may go back and take possession of the land which belongs to you and which Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), has given you on the eastern side of the Jordan.'
Jos 1:16 They answered Joshua, 'We will do whatever you order us, and wherever you send us we will go.
Jos 1:17 We obeyed Moses in everything, and now we will obey you. Only may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God be with you as he was with Moses!
Jos 1:18 If anyone rebels against your orders or will not listen to your commands, let him be put to death. Only be strong and stand firm.'
Jos 2:1 From Shittim, Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men to reconnoitre. He said, 'Go and explore the country and Jericho.' They left; they went into the house of a prostitute called Rahab, to spend the night there.
Jos 2:2 The king of Jericho was told, 'Some men have come here tonight from the Israelites, to reconnoitre the country.'
Jos 2:3 The king of Jericho then sent a message to Rahab, 'Send out the men who came to you and are lodging in your house, for they have come to reconnoitre the whole country.'
Jos 2:4 But the woman took the two men and hid them. 'It is true,' she said, 'the men did come to me, but I did not know where they came from.
Jos 2:5 When the city gate was about to be closed at nightfall, the men went out and I cannot say where they have gone. Follow them quickly and you will overtake them.'
Jos 2:6 She had taken them up to the roof and hidden them under some stalks of flax which she had laid out there.
Jos 2:7 The men hurried in pursuit of them towards the Jordan, as far as the fords, and the gate was shut once the pursuers had gone through.
Jos 2:8 The two men had not yet settled down for the night when Rahab came up to them on the roof.
Jos 2:9 She said to them, 'I know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given you this country, that we are afraid of you and that everyone living in this country has been seized with terror at your approach;
Jos 2:10 for we have heard how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) dried up the Sea of Reeds before you when you came out of Egypt and what you did to the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you put under the curse of destruction.
Jos 2:11 When we heard this, our hearts failed us, and now no one has any courage left to resist you, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is God both in heaven above and on earth beneath.
Jos 2:12 So, swear to me now by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since I have been kind to you,
Jos 2:13 that you in your turn will be kind to my father's family; and give me a sure sign of this: that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters and all who belong to them, and will preserve us from death.'
Jos 2:14 The men replied, 'We pledge you our lives, provided that you say nothing about our mission. When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given us the country, we shall treat you kindly and faithfully.'
Jos 2:15 She then let them down from the window on a rope, as her house was against the city wall and she actually lived in the wall.
Jos 2:16 'Make for the hills,' she said, 'or you may run into your pursuers. Hide there for three days, until your pursuers have come back, and then go on your way.'
Jos 2:17 The men said, 'This is how we shall fulfill the oath which you have made us swear:
Jos 2:18 when we invade the country, you must tie this scarlet cord to the window from which you let us down, and collect your father, mother, brothers and entire family inside your house.
Jos 2:19 If anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head and we shall not be to blame; but the blood of all staying inside the house with you will be on our heads if a hand is laid on any of them.
Jos 2:20 But if you divulge our mission in the meanwhile, we shall be free of the oath which you have made us swear.'
Jos 2:21 She replied, 'Let it be as you say.' She let them go, and they left. She then tied the scarlet cord to the window.
Jos 2:22 They left and made for the hills. They stayed there for three days, until their pursuers had gone home, having scoured the countryside without finding them.
Jos 2:23 The two men then came down again from the hills, crossed over and, going to Joshua son of Nun, told him everything that had happened to them.
Jos 2:24 To Joshua they said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has put the whole country at our mercy, and its inhabitants are all panic-stricken at our approach.'
Jos 3:1 Early in the morning, Joshua struck camp and set out from Shittim with all the Israelites. They went as far as the Jordan and there they camped before they crossed.
Jos 3:2 Three days later, the officials went through the camp
Jos 3:3 and gave the people these instructions, 'When you see the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God being carried by the levitical priests, you will leave your position and follow it,so that you may know which way to take, since you have never gone this way before.
Jos 3:4 Between you and the ark, however, keep a distance of about two thousand cubits: do not go near it.'
Jos 3:5 Joshua said to the people, 'Sanctify yourselves, since tomorrow Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will work wonders among you.'
Jos 3:6 Joshua then said to the priests, 'Take up the ark of the covenant and cross at the head of the people.' They took up the ark of the covenant and moved to the head of the people.
Jos 3:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Joshua, 'This very day, I shall begin to make you great in the eyes of all Israel so that they will know that, as I was with Moses, so I shall be with you.
Jos 3:8 Now, give this order to the priests carrying the ark of the covenant, "When you have reached the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you must halt in the Jordan itself." '
Jos 3:9 To the Israelites, Joshua then said, 'Come closer and hear the words of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.'
Jos 3:10 Joshua said, 'By this, you are to know that the living God is with you and without a doubt will expel the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites before you.
Jos 3:11 Look, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of the whole earth is about to move into the Jordan at your head.
Jos 3:12 Now choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from each tribe.
Jos 3:13 As soon as the priests carrying the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Lord of the whole earth, have set the soles of their feet in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off; the upper waters flowing down will stop as a single mass.'
Jos 3:14 Accordingly, when the people left their tents to cross the Jordan, the priests carried the ark of the covenant ahead of the people.
Jos 3:15 As soon as the bearers of the ark reached the Jordan and the feet of the priests carrying the ark touched the waters -- the Jordan is in spate throughout the harvest season-
Jos 3:16 the upper waters stood still and formed a single mass over a great distance, at Adam, the town near Zarethan, while those flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely separated. The people crossed opposite Jericho.
Jos 3:17 The priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) stood firm on dry ground in mid-Jordan, while all Israel crossed on dry ground, until the whole nation had completed its crossing of the Jordan.
Jos 4:1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Joshua and said,
Jos 4:2 'Choose twelve men from the people, one man from each tribe, and give them this order,
Jos 4:3 "Here, from mid-Jordan, from the place where the priests' feet were standing, take twelve stones; carry them with you and set them down in the camp where you pass the night." '
Jos 4:4 Joshua called the twelve men whom he had selected from the Israelites, one man from each tribe,
Jos 4:5 and Joshua said to them, 'Go on ahead of the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God into mid-Jordan, and each of you take one stone on his shoulder, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel,
Jos 4:6 to make this a sign among you; and when, in the future, your children ask you, "What do these stones mean for you?"
Jos 4:7 you will then tell them, "The waters of the Jordan separated before the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the river separated. These stones are an everlasting reminder of this to the Israelites."
Jos 4:8 The Israelites did as Joshua ordered; they took twelve stones from mid-Jordan corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told Joshua; they carried them over to the camp and set them down there.
Jos 4:9 Joshua then erected twelve stones in mid-Jordan, on the spot where the feet of the priests carrying the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are still there today.
Jos 4:10 The priests carrying the ark stood still in mid-Jordan, until everything had been done that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Joshua to tell the people (in accordance with everything that Moses had ordered Joshua); and the people hurried across.
Jos 4:11 When the people had finished crossing, the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then crossed, with the priests, to the head of the people.
Jos 4:12 The sons of Reuben, the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh crossed in battle formation at the head of the Israelites, as Moses had told them.
Jos 4:13 Some forty thousand warriors in arms, they crossed in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, ready for battle, towards the plain of Jericho.
Jos 4:14 That day, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made Joshua great in the eyes of all Israel, who respected him as they had respected Moses, as long as he lived.
Jos 4:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Joshua,
Jos 4:16 'Order the priests carrying the ark of the Testimony to come up out of the Jordan.'
Jos 4:17 And Joshua gave the order to the priests, 'Come up, out of the Jordan!'
Jos 4:18 Now, when the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came up out of mid-Jordan, no sooner had the soles of the priests' feet touched solid ground, than the waters of the Jordan returned to their bed and ran on, in spate as before.
Jos 4:19 It was the tenth day of the first month when the people came up from the Jordan and made their camp at Gilgal, on the eastern border of Jericho.
Jos 4:20 As regards those twelve stones, which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set them up at Gilgal.
Jos 4:21 He then said to the Israelites, 'When, in the future, your children ask their fathers, "What are these stones?"
Jos 4:22 you will explain to your children, "Israel crossed this Jordan dry-shod.
Jos 4:23 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God dried up the waters of the Jordan in front of you until you had crossed, just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God did to the Sea of Reeds, which he dried up before us until we had crossed it;
Jos 4:24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know how mighty the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is, and always stand in awe of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God." '
Jos 5:1 When all the kings of the Amorites living to westward across the Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites living on the seaboard, heard that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dried up the waters of the Jordan before the Israelites until they had crossed, their hearts failed and they lost all courage to resist the Israelites.
Jos 5:2 At this time Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Joshua, 'Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites again (a second time).
Jos 5:3 Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the Israelites on the Hill of Foreskins.
Jos 5:4 The reason why Joshua circumcised them was this. All the males of the people who had come out of Egypt of age to bear arms had died in the desert on their journey after leaving Egypt.
Jos 5:5 Now, all the people who came out had been circumcised; but none of those born in the desert, during the journey, after leaving Egypt, had been circumcised;
Jos 5:6 for the Israelites walked the desert for forty years, until the whole nation had died out, that is, the men who had come out of Egypt of age to bear arms; they had not obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had sworn to them never to let them see the land which he had sworn to their ancestors that he would give us, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Jos 5:7 But in place of these he set their sons, and these were the ones whom Joshua circumcised: they were uncircumcised because they had not been circumcised during the journey.
Jos 5:8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they stayed resting in the camp till they were well again.
Jos 5:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Joshua, 'Today I have taken the shame of Egypt away from you.' Hence, the place has been called Gilgal ever since.
Jos 5:10 The Israelites pitched their camp at Gilgal and kept the Passover there on the fourteenth day of the month, at evening, in the plain of Jericho.
Jos 5:11 On the very next day after the Passover, they ate what the land produced, unleavened bread and roasted ears of corn.
Jos 5:12 The manna stopped the day after they had eaten the produce of the land. The Israelites from that year onwards ate the produce of Canaan and had no more manna.
Jos 5:13 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him, grasping a naked sword. Joshua walked towards him and said to him, 'Are you on our side or on that of our enemies?'
Jos 5:14 He replied, 'On neither side. I have come now as the captain of the army of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' Joshua fell on his face to the ground, worshipping him, and said, 'What has my Lord to say to his servant?'
Jos 5:15 The captain of the army of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) answered Joshua, 'Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so.
Jos 6:1 Now, Jericho had shut and barricaded its gates (against the Israelites): no one came out and no one went in.
Jos 6:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Joshua, 'Look, I am putting Jericho, its picked troops and its king, at your mercy.
Jos 6:3 All you warriors must march round the city (go right round the city once, doing the same on six successive days.
Jos 6:4 Seven priests must carry seven ram's-horn trumpets in front of the ark. On the seventh day, you will go seven times round the city and the priests will blow their trumpets).
Jos 6:5 When the ram's horn sounds (when you hear the sound of the trumpet), the entire people must utter a mighty war cry and the city wall will collapse then and there; the people will then go into the assault, each man straight ahead.'
Jos 6:6 Joshua son of Nun summoned the priests and said to them, 'Take up the ark of the covenant, and let seven priests carry seven ram's-horn trumpets ahead of the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Jos 6:7 To the people he then said, 'Forward! March round the city, and let the vanguard march ahead of the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!'
Jos 6:8 (Everything was done as Joshua had given orders to the people.) Seven priests, carrying seven ram's-horn trumpets ahead of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), moved forward blowing their trumpets; the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came behind them,
Jos 6:9 the vanguard marched ahead of the priests, who blew their trumpets, the rearguard followed behind the ark; the men marched, the trumpets sounded.
Jos 6:10 Joshua had given the people the following orders, 'Do not raise a war cry, do not let your voice be heard (not a word must pass your lips), until the day when I say, "Raise the war cry." That is when you must raise the war cry.'
Jos 6:11 He made the ark go round the city (going round it once), then they went back to camp, where they spent the night.
Jos 6:12 Joshua got up early, and the priests took up the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jos 6:13 Carrying the seven ram's-horn trumpets, the seven priests walked ahead of the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), blowing their trumpets as they went, while the vanguard marched ahead of them and the rearguard behind the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the march went on to the sound of the trumpet.
Jos 6:14 They marched once round the city (on the second day) and went back to camp; and so on for six days.
Jos 6:15 On the seventh day, they got up at dawn and marched (in the same manner) round the city seven times. (This was the only day when they marched round the city seven times.)
Jos 6:16 At the seventh time, the priests blew their trumpets and Joshua said to the people, 'Raise the war cry, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given you the city!
Jos 6:17 'The city and everyone in it must be devoted to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) under the curse of destruction; the life of Rahab the prostitute alone must be spared, with all those with her in her house, since she hid the messengers we sent.
Jos 6:18 But beware of the curse of destruction, yourselves, for fear that, moved by greed, you take something lying under the curse; that would put the camp of Israel under the same curse and bring disaster on it.
Jos 6:19 All the silver and all the gold, everything made of bronze or iron, will be consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and put in his treasury.'
Jos 6:20 The people raised the war cry, the trumpets sounded. When the people heard the sound of the trumpet, they raised a mighty war cry and the wall collapsed then and there. At once the people stormed the city, each man going straight forward; and they captured the city.
Jos 6:21 They enforced the curse of destruction on everyone in the city: men and women, young and old, including the oxen, the sheep and the donkeys, slaughtering them all.
Jos 6:22 Joshua said to the two men who had reconnoitered the country, 'Go into the prostitute's house, and bring the woman out with all who belong to her, as you swore to her that you would.'
Jos 6:23 The young men who had been spies went and brought Rahab out, with her father and mother and brothers and all who belonged to her. They brought out all her clansmen too, and put them in a place of safety outside the camp of Israel.
Jos 6:24 They burned the city and everything inside it, except the silver, the gold and the things of bronze and iron; these they put into the treasury of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s house.
Jos 6:25 But Rahab the prostitute, her father's family and all who belonged to her, these Joshua spared. She is still living in Israel even today, for having hidden the messengers whom Joshua sent to reconnoitre Jericho.
Jos 6:26 At that time Joshua made them take this oath before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): Accursed before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be the man who rises up and rebuilds this city (Jericho)! On his first-born will he lay its foundations, on his youngest son set up its gates!
Jos 6:27 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with Joshua, whose fame spread throughout the country.
Jos 7:1 But the Israelites were unfaithful to the curse of destruction. Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took something that fell under the curse of destruction, and the anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was aroused against the Israelites.
Jos 7:2 Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai (which is near Beth-Aven), to the east of Bethel, having said to them, 'Go up and reconnoitre the country.' They went up and reconnoitered Ai.
Jos 7:3 Coming back to Joshua, they said, 'There is no need for the whole people to go up; let some two or three thousand go and attack Ai. Spare the whole people such an effort; there are only a few of them!'
Jos 7:4 Of the people, some three thousand marched up, but these broke before the people of Ai,
Jos 7:5 who killed some thirty-six of them and pursued them from the town gate as far as Shebarim, and on the slope cut them to pieces. The hearts of the people melted away and turned to water.
Jos 7:6 Joshua then tore his clothes and prostrated himself before the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) till nightfall; the elders of Israel did the same, and all poured dust on their heads.
Jos 7:7 And Joshua said, 'Alas, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), why did you bother to bring this nation across the Jordan, if it was only to put us at the mercy of the Amorites and destroy us? If only we could have settled down on the other side of the Jordan!
Jos 7:8 Forgive me, Lord, but what can I say, now that Israel has turned tail on the enemy?
Jos 7:9 The Canaanites, all the inhabitants of the land, will hear of it; they will unite against us to wipe our name from the earth. And what will you do about your great Name then?'
Jos 7:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Joshua, 'Stand up! Why are you lying prostrate like this?
Jos 7:11 Israel has sinned; they have violated the covenant which I imposed on them. They have gone so far as to take what was under the curse of destruction, they have even stolen it; they have actually hidden it; they have put it in their baggage.
Jos 7:12 That is why the Israelites cannot stand up to their foes, why they have turned tail on their enemies: because they have come under the curse of destruction themselves. Unless you get rid of the object among you which has been put under the curse of destruction, I shall be with you no longer.'
Jos 7:13 'Get up, sanctify the people and say, "Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, declares: The curse of destruction has now fallen on you, Israel; you will not be able to stand up to your enemies, until you have rid yourselves of that object which has been put under the curse of destruction.
Jos 7:14 Tomorrow morning, therefore, you will come forward tribe by tribe, and then the tribe which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) selects by lot will come forward clan by clan, and the clan which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) selects by lot will come forward family by family, and the family which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) selects by lot will come forward man by man.
Jos 7:15 And the man indicated by lot as regards the object which has been put under the curse of destruction will be delivered to the flames, he and all his possessions, for having violated the covenant with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and for having committed an infamy in Israel." '
Jos 7:16 Joshua got up early; he made Israel come forward tribe by tribe, and the lot indicated the tribe of Judah.
Jos 7:17 He summoned the clans of Judah, and the lot indicated the clan of Zerah. He summoned the clan of Zerah, family by family, and the lot indicated Zabdi.
Jos 7:18 Joshua then summoned the family of Zabdi, man by man, and the lot indicated Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah.
Jos 7:19 Joshua then said to Achan, 'My son, give glory to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, and confess; tell me what you have done and hide nothing from me.'
Jos 7:20 Achan replied to Joshua, 'Yes, I am the man who has sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, and this is what I have done.
Jos 7:21 In the loot, I saw a fine robe from Shinar and two hundred shekels of silver and an ingot of gold weighing fifty shekels, I set my heart on them and I took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent, with the silver underneath.'
Jos 7:22 Joshua sent messengers; they ran to the tent, and the robe was indeed hidden in the tent, with the silver underneath.
Jos 7:23 They took the things out of the tent and, bringing them to Joshua and all the Israelites, laid them out before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jos 7:24 Joshua then took Achan son of Zerah and led him up to the Vale of Achor, with the silver and the robe and the ingot of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his goats, his tent and all his belongings. All Israel went with him.
Jos 7:25 Joshua said, 'Why have you brought misfortune on us? Today may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bring misfortune on you!' And all Israel stoned him to death (and they burned them and threw stones at them).
Jos 7:26 Over him, they raised a great mound of stones, which is still there today. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then relented from his fierce anger. That was why the place was called the Vale of Achor, as it still is today.
Jos 8:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Joshua, 'Be fearless and undaunted. Take all your fighting men with you. Up! March against Ai. Look, I have put the king of Ai, his people, his town and his territory at your mercy.
Jos 8:2 You must treat Ai and its king as you treated Jericho and its king. The only booty you will take are the spoils and the cattle. Take up a concealed position by the town, to the rear of it.'
Jos 8:3 Joshua set out to march against Ai with all the fighting men. Joshua chose thirty thousand of the bravest and sent them out under cover of dark,
Jos 8:4 having given them these orders, 'Pay attention! You must take up a concealed position by the town, at the rear, not very far from the town, and be sure you all keep alert!
Jos 8:5 I, and the whole people with me, shall advance on the town, and when the people of Ai come out to engage us as they did the first time, we shall run away from them.
Jos 8:6 They will then give chase, and we shall draw them away from the town, since they will think, "They are running away from us as they did the first time."
Jos 8:7 You will then burst out of your concealed position and seize the town; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will put it at your mercy.
Jos 8:8 When you have captured the town, set fire to it, in obedience to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command. Well then, these are my orders.'
Jos 8:9 Joshua sent them off, and they made their way to the place of ambush and took up position between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai. Joshua spent the night with the people,
Jos 8:10 then, getting up early next morning, reviewed the people and, with the elders of Israel, marched on Ai at their head.
Jos 8:11 All the warriors marching with him advanced on the front of the town and pitched camp north of Ai, with the valley between them and the town.
Jos 8:12 Joshua took about five thousand men and concealed these between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the town.
Jos 8:13 The people pitched the main camp to the north of the town and set up its ambush to the west of the town. Joshua went that night into the middle of the plain.
Jos 8:14 The king of Ai had seen this; the people of the town got up early and hurried out, so that he and all his people could engage Israel in battle on the slope facing the Arabah; but he did not know that an ambush had been laid for him to the rear of the town.
Jos 8:15 Joshua and all Israel pretended to be beaten by them and took to their heels along the road to the desert.
Jos 8:16 All the people in the town joined in the pursuit and, in pursuing Joshua, were drawn away from the town.
Jos 8:17 Not a man was left in Ai (nor in Bethel), who had not gone in pursuit of Israel; and in pursuing Israel they left the town undefended.
Jos 8:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Joshua, 'Point the sabre in your hand at Ai; for I am about to put the town at your mercy.' Joshua pointed the sabre in his hand towards the town.
Jos 8:19 No sooner had he stretched out his hand than the men in ambush burst from their position, ran forward, entered the town, captured it and quickly set it on fire.
Jos 8:20 When the men of Ai looked back, they saw smoke rising from the town into the sky. None of them had the courage to run in any direction, for the people fleeing towards the desert turned back on their pursuers.
Jos 8:21 For, once Joshua and all Israel saw that the town had been seized by the men in ambush, and that smoke was rising from the town, they turned about and attacked the men of Ai.
Jos 8:22 The others came out from the town to engage them too, and the men of Ai were thus surrounded by Israelites, some on this side and some on that. The Israelites struck them down until not one was left alive and none to flee;
Jos 8:23 but the king of Ai was taken alive, and brought to Joshua.
Jos 8:24 When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open ground, and in the desert where they had pursued them, and when every single one had fallen to the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and slaughtered its remaining population.
Jos 8:25 The number of those who fell that day, men and women together, was twelve thousand, all people of Ai.
Jos 8:26 Joshua did not draw back the hand with which he had pointed the sabre until he had subjected all the inhabitants of Ai to the curse of destruction.
Jos 8:27 For booty, Israel took only the cattle and the spoils of this town, in accordance with the order that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given to Joshua.
Jos 8:28 Joshua then burned Ai, making it a ruin for evermore, a desolate place even today.
Jos 8:29 He hanged the king of Ai from a tree till evening; but at sunset Joshua ordered his body to be taken down from the tree. It was then thrown down at the entrance to the town gate and on top of it was raised a great mound of stones, which is still there today.
Jos 8:30 Joshua then built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, on Mount Ebal,
Jos 8:31 as Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), had ordered the Israelites, as is written in the law of Moses: an altar of undressed stones, on which no iron has been used. On this they presented burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and communion sacrifices as well.
Jos 8:32 There, Joshua wrote on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which Moses had written in the presence of the Israelites.
Jos 8:33 All Israel, with their elders, their officials and their judges, stood on either side of the ark, facing the levitical priests who were carrying the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), foreigners with the native-born, half of them on the upper slopes of Mount Gerizim, and half of them on the upper slopes of Mount Ebal, as Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), had originally ordered for the blessing of the people of Israel.
Jos 8:34 After this, Joshua read all the words of the Law -- the blessing and the cursing -- exactly as it stands written in the Book of the Law.
Jos 8:35 Of every word laid down by Moses, not one was left unread by Joshua in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, including the women and children, and the foreigners living with them.
Jos 9:1 Hearing these things, all the kings on this side of the Jordan, in the highlands and in the lowlands, all along the coast of the Great Sea towards the Lebanon, Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, with one consent
Jos 9:2 formed a fighting alliance against Joshua and Israel.
Jos 9:3 When the inhabitants of Gibeon learned how Joshua had treated Jericho and Ai, for their part,
Jos 9:4 they had recourse to a ruse. They provided themselves with supplies, and loaded their donkeys with old sacks and with old wineskins which had burst and been sewn up again.
Jos 9:5 They put on patched old sandals and worn-out clothes. The only bread they took with them to eat was dried up and crumbling.
Jos 9:6 They came to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, and to him and the men of Israel they said, 'We come from a distant country, so make a treaty with us.'
Jos 9:7 The Israelites answered these Hivites, 'For all we know, you may live right among us. How then could we make a treaty with you?'
Jos 9:8 They said to Joshua, 'We are your servants.' 'But who are you?' Joshua asked them, 'and where do you come from?'
Jos 9:9 They said, 'Your servants have come from a country very far away, because of the fame of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; for we have heard of him and of all that he did in Egypt,
Jos 9:10 and of all that he did to the two Amorite kings who used to live on the other side of the Jordan: Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who used to live at Ashtaroth.
Jos 9:11 Because of which, our elders and all the people of our country said to us, "Take provisions with you for the journey; go and meet them and say to them: We are your servants; so make a treaty with us."
Jos 9:12 Here is our bread; it was warm when we took it from home to provide for our journey the day we set out to come to you, and now, you can see, it is dried up and crumbling.
Jos 9:13 These wineskins were new when we filled them; you can see, they have burst; and these clothes and sandals of ours are worn out from traveling such a long way.'
Jos 9:14 The leaders sampled some of the food they offered, but they did not ask Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s orders.
Jos 9:15 Joshua made peace with them, and struck a treaty with them guaranteeing their lives, and the leaders of the community ratified it by oath.
Jos 9:16 Now it so happened that three days after the treaty had been made, it became known that they were a neighboring people, living in Israel's region.
Jos 9:17 The Israelites set out from camp, arriving in their towns three days later. Their towns were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath-Jearim.
Jos 9:18 The Israelites did not attack them, since the leaders of the community had sworn to them by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, but the whole community muttered against the leaders.
Jos 9:19 The leaders, however, all said to the whole community, 'Since we have sworn an oath to them by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, we cannot touch them now.
Jos 9:20 This is what we shall do with them: let them live, rather than bring retribution down on ourselves on account of the oath which we have sworn to them.'
Jos 9:21 And the leaders went on, 'Let them live, but let them be wood-cutters and water-carriers for the whole community.' Thus spoke the leaders.
Jos 9:22 Joshua sent for the Gibeonites and asked them, 'Why did you deceive us by saying, "We live very far away," when in fact you live right among us?
Jos 9:23 From now on, you are accursed and will for ever be serfs, as wood-cutters and water-carriers in the house of my God.'
Jos 9:24 Their answer to Joshua was, 'We did it because your servants had been rightly told that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God had ordered his servant Moses to give you the whole of this country and destroy all its inhabitants before you; also because, as you advanced on us, we feared very greatly for our lives. That was why we did this.
Jos 9:25 Now, as you see, we are at your mercy; do to us whatever you think good and right.'
Jos 9:26 What he did with them was this: he saved them from the hand of the Israelites, who did not kill them.
Jos 9:27 But that very day Joshua made them wood-cutters and water-carriers for the community and for the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at the place which he would eventually choose; and so they are today.
Jos 10:1 Now, it happened that Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem, learned that Joshua had conquered Ai and put the town under the curse of destruction, treating Ai and its king as he had already treated Jericho and its king; and also that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were living with them.
Jos 10:2 There was consternation at this, since Gibeon was as important a town as any of the royal towns themselves (it was larger than Ai), while all its citizens were fighting men.
Jos 10:3 Consequently, Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon,
Jos 10:4 'Join me up here and help me to conquer Gibeon, since it has made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.'
Jos 10:5 The five Amorite kings joined forces and went up there, that is, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish and the king of Eglon, they and all their armies; laying siege to Gibeon, they attacked it.
Jos 10:6 The men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal, 'Do not desert your servants; come up here quickly to save us and help us, since all the Amorite kings living in the highlands have allied themselves against us.'
Jos 10:7 Joshua came up from Gilgal, he, all the fighting men and all the bravest of his army.
Jos 10:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid of these people; I have put them at your mercy; not one of them will put up any resistance.'
Jos 10:9 Having marched from Gilgal throughout the night, Joshua caught them unawares.
Jos 10:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) threw them into disorder at the sight of Israel, defeating them completely at Gibeon; furthermore, he pursued them by way of the Descent of Beth-Horon and harassed them as far as Azekah (and as far as Makkedah).
Jos 10:11 And as they fled from Israel down the Descent of Beth-Horon, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) hurled huge hailstones from heaven on them all the way to Azekah, and they died. More of them died under the hailstones than under the swords of the Israelites.
Jos 10:12 Joshua then spoke to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) delivered the Amorites to the Israelites. In the presence of Israel, Joshua said: Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and, moon, you too, over the Vale of Aijalon!
Jos 10:13 And the sun stood still, and the moon halted, until the people had taken vengeance on their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of the Just? The sun stood still in the middle of the sky and delayed its setting for almost a whole day.
Jos 10:14 There was never a day like that before or since, when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) obeyed the voice of a man -- for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was fighting for Israel.
Jos 10:15 Joshua, and all Israel with him, then went back to the camp at Gilgal.
Jos 10:16 As regards the five kings, these had fled and hidden in the cave of Makkedah,
Jos 10:17 and news of this was brought to Joshua. 'The five kings have been found hiding in the cave at Makkedah.'
Jos 10:18 Joshua said, 'Roll great stones over the mouth of the cave and post men there to keep guard.
Jos 10:19 You yourselves, do not stay there doing nothing; pursue the enemy, cut off their line of retreat and do not let them enter their towns, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has put them at your mercy.'
Jos 10:20 When Joshua and the Israelites had finished inflicting a very great defeat on them, to the point of destroying them, those who had escaped alive took refuge in their fortresses.
Jos 10:21 The people came back to Joshua's camp at Makkedah; they were all safe and sound, and no one dared to attempt anything against the Israelites.
Jos 10:22 Joshua then said, 'Clear the mouth of the cave and bring the five kings out to me.'
Jos 10:23 They did so, and brought the five kings out of the cave to take them to him: the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish and the king of Eglon.
Jos 10:24 When these kings had been brought out, Joshua assembled all the men of Israel and said to the chiefs of the warriors who had fought with him, 'Come forward and put your feet on the necks of these kings!' They came forward and put their feet on their necks.
Jos 10:25 'Be fearless and undaunted,' Joshua went on, 'be strong and stand firm, for this is how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will deal with all the enemies you fight.'
Jos 10:26 With this, Joshua struck and killed them and had them hanged on five trees; they hung there till evening.
Jos 10:27 At the hour of sunset, on Joshua's orders, they were taken down from the trees and thrown into the cave where they had been hiding. Great stones were laid over the mouth of the cave, and these are still there to this very day.
Jos 10:28 The same day Joshua captured Makkedah, putting it and its king to the sword; he delivered them over to the curse of destruction, with every living creature there, and let no one escape, and he treated the king of Makkedah as he had treated the king of Jericho.
Jos 10:29 Joshua, and all Israel with him, went on from Makkedah to Libnah and attacked it
Jos 10:30 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put this, too, and its king at Israel's mercy; and Israel put every living creature there to the sword, and left none alive, and treated its king like the king of Jericho.
Jos 10:31 Joshua, and all Israel with him, went on from Libnah to Lachish and besieged it and attacked it.
Jos 10:32 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put Lachish at Israel's mercy, and Israel took it on the second day and put it and every living creature in it to the sword, as they had treated Libnah.
Jos 10:33 Horam king of Gezer then marched up to help Lachish, but Joshua beat him and his people until not one was left alive.
Jos 10:34 Joshua, and all Israel with him, went on from Lachish to Eglon. They besieged it and attacked it.
Jos 10:35 The same day they took it and put it to the sword. That day he delivered over to the curse of destruction every living creature there, treating it as he had treated Lachish.
Jos 10:36 Joshua, and all Israel with him, went on up from Eglon to Hebron. They attacked it,
Jos 10:37 took it and put it to the sword, with its king, its dependencies and every living creature in it. As he had treated Eglon, so here, he left no one alive. He delivered it over to the curse of destruction, with every living creature in it.
Jos 10:38 Joshua, and all Israel with him, then turned back on Debir and attacked it.
Jos 10:39 He took it and its king and all the places belonging to it; they put them to the sword, and every living creature there they delivered over to the curse of destruction. He left no one alive. As he had treated Hebron, as he had treated Libnah and its king, so he treated Debir and its king.
Jos 10:40 Thus Joshua subjugated the whole country: the highlands, the Negeb, the lowlands and watered foothills, and all their kings. He left not one survivor and put every living thing under the curse of destruction, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, had commanded.
Jos 10:41 Joshua conquered them from Kadesh-Barnea to Gaza, and the whole region of Goshen as far as Gibeon.
Jos 10:42 All these kings and their territory Joshua captured in a single campaign, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, fought for Israel.
Jos 10:43 And then Joshua, and all Israel with him, went back to the camp at Gilgal.
Jos 11:1 When Jabin king of Hazor heard about this, he sent word to Jobab king of Merom, to the king of Shimron, to the king of Achshaph
Jos 11:2 and to the kings in the northern highlands, in the plain south of Chinneroth, and those in the lowlands and on the slopes of Dor to the west.
Jos 11:3 To eastward and to westward lived the Canaanites: in the highlands, the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites and Jebusites; the Hivites, at the foot of Hermon in the area of Mizpah.
Jos 11:4 They set out with all their troops, a people as numerous as the sands of the sea, with a huge number of horses and chariots.
Jos 11:5 These kings, having all agreed on a meeting place, came and set up camp together at the Waters of Merom, to fight Israel.
Jos 11:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Joshua, 'Do not be afraid of them, for by this time tomorrow I shall hand them all over, cut to pieces, to Israel; you will hamstring their horses and burn their chariots.'
Jos 11:7 With all his warriors Joshua caught them unawares near the Waters of Merom and fell on them.
Jos 11:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put them at Israel's mercy and they defeated them and pursued them as far as Sidon the Great, and as far as Misrephoth to the west, and as far as the Vale of Mizpah to the east; they harried them until not one of them was left alive.
Jos 11:9 Joshua treated them as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told him; he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots.
Jos 11:10 Joshua then turned back and captured Hazor, putting its king to the sword. Hazor in olden days was the capital of all these kingdoms.
Jos 11:11 In compliance with the curse of destruction, they put every living creature there to the sword. Not a living soul was left, and Hazor was burnt to the ground.
Jos 11:12 All these royal cities and all their kings Joshua put to the sword in compliance with the curse of destruction, as Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), had ordered.
Jos 11:13 Yet of all these towns standing on their mounds, Israel burned none, apart from Hazor, burnt by Joshua.
Jos 11:14 All the spoils of these towns, including the livestock, the Israelites took as booty for themselves. But they put all the human beings to the sword till they had destroyed them completely; they did not leave a living soul.
Jos 11:15 What Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered his servant Moses, Moses in turn had ordered Joshua, and Joshua carried it out, leaving nothing undone of what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Jos 11:16 In consequence, Joshua captured this entire country: the highlands, the whole Negeb and the whole of Goshen, the lowlands, the Arabah, the highlands and lowlands of Israel.
Jos 11:17 From Mount Halak, which rises towards Seir, to Baal-Gad in the Vale of Lebanon at the foot of Mount Hermon, he captured all their kings, struck them down and put them to death.
Jos 11:18 For many a day Joshua made war on all these kings;
Jos 11:19 no city had made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites who lived at Gibeon; all the rest had been captured in battle.
Jos 11:20 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had decided to harden the hearts of these men, so that they would engage Israel in battle and thus come under the curse of destruction and so receive no quarter but be exterminated, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses.
Jos 11:21 Joshua then went and wiped out the Anakim of the highlands, of Hebron, of Debir, of Anab, of all the highlands of Judah and of all the highlands of Israel; he delivered them and their towns over to the curse of destruction.
Jos 11:22 No Anakim were left in the territory of the Israelites, except at Gaza, Gath and Ashdod.
Jos 11:23 Joshua captured the entire country, just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told Moses, and he gave it as heritage to Israel, to be shared out between their tribes. And the country had rest from warfare.
Jos 12:1 The kings of the country, whom the Israelites conquered and whose territory they took, on the further, eastern side of the Jordan, from the Wadi Arnon to Mount Hermon, with the entire Arabah to the east, were as follows:
Jos 12:2 Sihon king of the Amorites, who lived at Heshbon, ruled from Aroer which is on the edge of the Arnon Valley, including the bottom of the valley, half Gilead and as far as the Jabbok, the river forming the frontier with the Ammonites;
Jos 12:3 the eastern Arabah up to the Sea of Chinneroth, and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, or Salt Sea, on the eastern side, in the direction of Beth-Jeshimoth, and, in the south, the watered foothills of Mount Pisgah.
Jos 12:4 Og king of Bashan, one of the last of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and Edrei,
Jos 12:5 ruled over Mount Hermon and Salecah, the whole of Bashan to the frontier of the Geshurites and Maacathites, and half Gilead to the frontier of Sihon king of Heshbon.
Jos 12:6 Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the Israelites conquered these, and Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), conferred their territory on the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Jos 12:7 The kings of the country whom Joshua and the Israelites conquered on the nearer, western side of the Jordan, from Baal-Gad in the Vale of Lebanon to Mount Halak rising towards Seir, and whose heritage Joshua distributed to the tribes of Israel, dividing it up between them, were as follows:
Jos 12:8 In the highlands and the lowlands, in the Arabah and in the watered foothills, in the desert and in the Negeb, belonging to the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites:
Jos 12:9 the king of Jericho, one; the king of Ai near Bethel, one;
Jos 12:10 the king of Jerusalem, one; the king of Hebron, one;
Jos 12:11 the king of Jarmuth, one; the king of Lachish, one;
Jos 12:12 the king of Eglon, one; the king of Gezer, one;
Jos 12:13 the king of Debir, one; the king of Geder, one;
Jos 12:14 the king of Hormah, one; the king of Arad, one;
Jos 12:15 the king of Libnah, one; the king of Adullam, one;
Jos 12:16 the king of Makkedah, one; the king of Bethel, one;
Jos 12:17 the king of Tappuah, one; the king of Hepher, one;
Jos 12:18 the king of Aphek, one; the king of Sharon, one;
Jos 12:19 the king of Merom, one; the king of Hazor, one;
Jos 12:20 the king of Shimron Meron, one; the king of Achshaph, one;
Jos 12:21 the king of Taanach, one; the king of Megiddo, one;
Jos 12:22 the king of Kedesh, one; the king of Jokneam in Carmel, one;
Jos 12:23 the king of Dor, on the Slopes of Dor, one; the king of the nations in Galilee, one;
Jos 12:24 the king of Tirzah, one; Total number of all these kings: thirty-one.
Jos 13:1 Now Joshua had grown old and advanced in years. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'You are now old and advanced in years, yet there is still a great deal of territory left to be taken possession of.
Jos 13:2 This is all the territory left: 'All the districts of the Philistines and the whole country of the Geshurites;
Jos 13:3 from the Shihor, facing Egypt, to the frontier of Ekron in the north, is reckoned as Canaanite territory. The five rulers of the Philistines have their seats at Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath and Ekron, respectively; the Avvites are in
Jos 13:4 the south. The entire territory of the Canaanites, and Mearah which belongs to the Sidonians, as far as Aphekah and as far as the frontier of the Amorites;
Jos 13:5 and then the country of the Gebalites with the entire Lebanon eastwards from Baal-Gad at the foot of Mount Hermon to the Pass of Hamath.
Jos 13:6 'All who live in the highlands from the Lebanon to Misrephoth in the west -- all the Sidonians -- I myself shall dispossess before the Israelites. All you have to do is to distribute the territory as a heritage for the Israelites as I have ordered you.
Jos 13:7 The time has come to divide this territory as a heritage between the nine tribes and the half-tribe of Manasseh: from the Jordan as far as the Great Sea in the west, you must give it them; the Great Sea will be their limit.'
Jos 13:8 As regards the other half-tribe of Manasseh, this and the Reubenites and Gadites had already received their heritage, given them by Moses on the further, eastern side of the Jordan, the one which Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), had already given them:
Jos 13:9 The country onwards from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, with the town in the bottom of the valley and the entire tableland from Medeba to Dibon;
Jos 13:10 all the towns of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had reigned in Heshbon, to the frontier of the Ammonites;
Jos 13:11 then Gilead and the territory of the Geshurites and Maacathites with the whole Hermon range and the whole of Bashan as far as Salecah;
Jos 13:12 and in Bashan, the whole kingdom of Og, who had reigned in Ashtaroth and Edrei, and was the last of the survivors of the Rephaim. Moses had conquered and dispossessed these two kings.
Jos 13:13 The Israelites did not, however, dispossess either the Geshurites or the Maacathites, hence Geshur and Maacah survive inside Israel even today.
Jos 13:14 To the tribe of Levi alone no heritage was given; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, was his heritage, as he had told him.
Jos 13:15 Moses had given the tribe of the sons of Reuben a share by clans.
Jos 13:16 Thus, their territory was the entire tableland from Aroer on the edge of the Arnon Valley, with the town in the bottom of the valley, as far as Medeba,
Jos 13:17 Heshbon with all the towns on the tableland: Dibon, Bamoth-Baal, Beth-Baal-Meon,
Jos 13:18 Jahaz, Kedemoth, Mephaath,
Jos 13:19 Kiriathaim, Sibmah and, in the highlands of the Arabah, Zereth-Shahar;
Jos 13:20 Beth-Peor, the watered foothills of Mount Pisgah, Beth-ha-Jeshimoth,
Jos 13:21 all the towns on the tableland and the entire kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who had reigned in Heshbon; he had been defeated by Moses, and with him the princes of Midian, Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba, vassals of Sihon, formerly living in the country.
Jos 13:22 As regards Balaam son of Beor, the soothsayer, the Israelites had put him to the sword with those whom they had killed.
Jos 13:23 The boundary of the Reubenites was the Jordan and its territory. Such was the heritage of the sons of Reuben, by clans, with the towns and villages belonging to them.
Jos 13:24 Moses had given the tribe of Gad, the sons of Gad, a share by clans.
Jos 13:25 Their territory was Jazer, all the towns of Gilead, half the country of the Ammonites as far as Aroer facing Rabbah,
Jos 13:26 and from Heshbon to Ramath-Mizpeh and Betonim; from Mahanaim as far as the territory of Lo-Debar,
Jos 13:27 and in the valley: Beth-Haram, Beth-Nimrah, Succoth, and Zaphon -- the rest of the kingdom of Sihon king of Heshbon -- the Jordan and the territory running to the tip of the Sea of Chinneroth, on the further, eastern side of the Jordan.
Jos 13:28 Such was the heritage of the sons of Gad, by clans, with their towns and villages belonging to them.
Jos 13:29 Moses had given the half-tribe of Manasseh a share by clans.
Jos 13:30 Their territory, starting from Mahanaim, was the whole of Bashan, the entire kingdom of Og king of Bashan, all the Encampments of Jair in Bashan: sixty towns.
Jos 13:31 Half of Gilead, with Ashtaroth, and Edrei, the royal cities of Og in Bashan, were allotted to the sons of Machir son of Manasseh, to half of the sons of Machir, by clans.
Jos 13:32 This was what Moses had conferred in heritage on the Plains of Moab on the further, eastern side of the Jordan opposite Jericho.
Jos 13:33 To the tribe of Levi, however, Moses gave no heritage; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, was his heritage, as he had told him.
Jos 14:1 This was what the Israelites received as their heritage in Canaan, which was given them as their heritage by the priest, Eleazar, and by Joshua son of Nun, with the heads of families of the tribes of Israel.
Jos 14:2 They received their heritage by lot, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered through Moses, as regards the nine tribes and the half-tribe.
Jos 14:3 For Moses himself had given the two-and-a-half tribes their heritage on the further side of the Jordan, although to the Levites he had given no heritage with them.
Jos 14:4 Since the sons of Joseph formed two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim, no share in the country was given to the Levites, apart from some towns to live in, with their pasture lands for their livestock and their possessions.
Jos 14:5 The Israelites did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered Moses, and shared out the country.
Jos 14:6 Some sons of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, 'You know what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Moses, man of God, at Kadesh-Barnea concerning you and me.
Jos 14:7 I was forty years old when Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), sent me from Kadesh-Barnea to reconnoitre this country, and I made him a completely honest report.
Jos 14:8 The brothers, however, who had gone up with me discouraged the people, whereas I myself scrupulously obeyed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God.
Jos 14:9 That day Moses swore this oath, "Be sure of this, that the country your foot has trodden will be a heritage for you and your children for ever, since you have scrupulously obeyed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God."
Jos 14:10 From then till now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has kept me alive in observance of his promise. It is forty-five years since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said this to Moses -- Israel was then going through the desert -- and now I am eighty-five years old.
Jos 14:11 Today I am still as strong as the day when Moses sent me out on that errand; for fighting, for going and coming, I am as strong now as then.
Jos 14:12 It is time you gave me the highlands, of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to me that day. You heard that day that there were Anakim and large, fortified towns there; but if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is with me, I shall drive them out, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said.'
Jos 14:13 Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as heritage.
Jos 14:14 And hence Hebron down to the present day has remained the heritage of Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite, since he had scrupulously obeyed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
Jos 14:15 Hebron in olden days was called Kiriath-Arba. Arba had been the greatest of the Anakim. And the country had rest from warfare.
Jos 15:1 The portion falling to the tribe of the sons of Judah, by clans, was near the frontier of Edom, from the desert of Zin southwards to Kadesh in the south.
Jos 15:2 Their southern frontier began at the tip of the Salt Sea, at the southerly bay;
Jos 15:3 it proceeded south of the Ascent of Scorpions, crossed Zin and came up to Kadesh-Barnea from the south; past Hezron, it went on to Addar and turned towards Karka;
Jos 15:4 the frontier then went on to Azmon, came out at the Torrent of Egypt and reached as far as the sea. This is to be your southern frontier.
Jos 15:5 The eastern frontier was the Salt Sea as far as the mouth of the Jordan.
Jos 15:6 The northern boundary began at the bay at the mouth of the Jordan. The boundary went up to Beth-Hoglah, passed north of Beth-ha-Arabah and went on to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben.
Jos 15:7 The boundary then went on to Debir from the Vale of Achor and turned north towards the stone circle opposite the Ascent of Adummim, which is south of the Torrent; the boundary went on to the Waters of En-Shemesh and came out at En-Rogel.
Jos 15:8 It then went back up the Valley of Hinnom, coming from the south to the flank of the Jebusite -- that is, Jerusalem -- and climbed to the crest of the mountain barring the Valley of Hinnom to the west, at the northern end of the Valley of the Rephaim.
Jos 15:9 From the mountain top, the boundary curved round to the spring of the Waters of Nephtoah, went on to the towns of Mount Ephron and then turned towards Baalah -- that is, Kiriath-Jearim.
Jos 15:10 From Baalah, the boundary curved westwards to the highlands of Seir, skirted the northern slope of Mount Jearim -- that is, Chesalon -- went down to Beth-Shemesh and through Timnah,
Jos 15:11 came out on the northern flank of Ekron, turned towards Shikkeron and, passing through the highlands of Baalah, came out at Jabneel, and reached as far as the sea.
Jos 15:12 The western boundary was the Great Sea itself. Such was the frontier surrounding the sons of Judah, by clans.
Jos 15:13 Caleb son of Jephunneh was given a share within that of the sons of Judah, in accordance with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order to Joshua: Kiriath-Arba, the town of the father of Anak -- that is, Hebron.
Jos 15:14 Caleb drove out the three sons of Anak: Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, descended from Anak.
Jos 15:15 From there he marched on the inhabitants of Debir; Debir in olden days was called Kiriath-Sepher.
Jos 15:16 Caleb then said, 'To the man who attacks and takes Kiriath-Sepher, I shall give my daughter Achsah as wife.'
Jos 15:17 The man who captured it was Othniel son of Kenaz, brother of Caleb, who gave him his daughter Achsah as wife.
Jos 15:18 When she arrived, he urged her to ask her father for arable land, but when she alighted from the donkey and Caleb asked her, 'What is the matter?'
Jos 15:19 she said to him, 'Grant me a blessing! As the land you have given me is the Negeb, give me springs of water too!' So Caleb gave her what she wanted, the upper springs and the lower springs.
Jos 15:20 Such was the heritage of the tribe of the sons of Judah, by clans.
Jos 15:21 Towns at the extremity of the tribe of the sons of Judah, near the frontier of Edom in the Negeb: Kabzeel, Arad, Jagur,
Jos 15:22 Kinah, Dimon, Aroer,
Jos 15:23 Kedesh, Hazor-Ithnan,
Jos 15:24 Ziph, Telem, Bealoth,
Jos 15:25 Hazor-Hadattah, Kiriath-Hezron -- that is, Hazor-
Jos 15:26 Amam, Shema, Moladah,
Jos 15:27 Hazar-Gaddah, Heshmon, Beth-Pelet,
Jos 15:28 Hazar-Shual, Beersheba and its dependencies,
Jos 15:29 Baalah, Iim, Ezem,
Jos 15:30 Eltolad, Chesil, Hormah,
Jos 15:31 Ziklag, Madmannah, Sansannah,
Jos 15:32 Lebaoth, Shilhim, Ain and Rimmon: in all, twenty-nine towns with their villages.
Jos 15:33 In the lowlands: Eshtaol, Zorah, Ashnah,
Jos 15:34 Zanoah, En-Gannim, Tappuah, Enam,
Jos 15:35 Jarmuth, Adullam, Socoh, Azekah,
Jos 15:36 Shaaraim, Aditaim, Ha-Gederah and Gederothaim: fourteen towns with their villages.
Jos 15:37 Zenan, Hadashah, Migdal-Gad,
Jos 15:38 Dilean, Ha-Mizpeh, Jokteel,
Jos 15:39 Lachish, Bozkath, Eglon,
Jos 15:40 Cabbon, Lahmas, Chitlish,
Jos 15:41 Gederoth, Beth-Dagon, Naamah and Makkedah: sixteen towns with their villages.
Jos 15:42 Libna, Ether, Asham,
Jos 15:43 Iphtah, Ashnah, Nezib,
Jos 15:44 Keilah, Achzib and Mareshah: nine towns with their villages.
Jos 15:45 Ekron with its dependencies and its villages.
Jos 15:46 From Ekron to the sea, everything to the side of Ashdod, with its villages.
Jos 15:47 Ashdod with its dependencies and its villages; Gaza with its dependencies and its villages as far as the Torrent of Egypt, the Great Sea forming the boundary.
Jos 15:48 In the highlands: Shamir, Jattir, Socoh,
Jos 15:49 Dannah, Kiriath-Sepher, now Debir,
Jos 15:50 Anab, Eshtemoh, Anim,
Jos 15:51 Goshen, Holon and Giloh: eleven towns with their villages.
Jos 15:52 Arab, Dumah, Eshan,
Jos 15:53 Janum, Beth-Tappuah, Aphekah,
Jos 15:54 Humtah, Kiriath-Arba, now Hebron, and Zior: nine towns with their villages.
Jos 15:55 Maon, Carmel, Ziph, Juttah,
Jos 15:56 Jezreel, Jokdeam, Zanoah,
Jos 15:57 Ha-Kain, Gibeah and Timnah: ten towns with their villages.
Jos 15:58 Halhul, Beth-Zur, Gedor,
Jos 15:59 Maarath, Beth-Anoth and Eltekon: six towns with their villages. Tekoa, Ephrathah, now Bethlehem, Peor, Etam, Kulon, Tatam, Sores, Carem, Gallim, Bether and Manach: eleven towns with their villages.
Jos 15:60 Kiriath-Baal, that is Kiriath-Jearim, and Rabbah: two towns with their villages.
Jos 15:61 In the desert: Beth-Arabah, Middin, Secacah,
Jos 15:62 Nibshan, Salt Town and En-Gedi: six towns with their villages.
Jos 15:63 The Jebusites, however, who lived in Jerusalem, the sons of Judah were unable to dispossess, and the Jebusites still live in Jerusalem today, side by side with the sons of Judah.
Jos 16:1 The portion of the sons of Joseph started on the east at the Jordan opposite Jericho (the Waters of Jericho) through the desert rising from Jericho into the highlands of Bethel;
Jos 16:2 from Bethel it went to Luz, and on towards the frontier of the Archites at Ataroth;
Jos 16:3 then passed downwards and westwards to the frontier of the Japhletites as far as the border of Lower Beth-Horon and on to Gezer, and reached as far as the sea.
Jos 16:4 Such was the heritage of the sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Jos 16:5 As regards the territory of the sons of Ephraim, by clans, the frontier of their heritage ran from Ataroth-Arach to Upper Beth-Horon;
Jos 16:6 the frontier then reached as far as the sea . . . the Michmethath in the north, and the frontier turned east to Tanaath-Shiloh which it crossed in an easterly direction to Janoah;
Jos 16:7 it ran down to Ataroth and Naarah, touched Jericho and ended at the Jordan.
Jos 16:8 From Tappuah, the frontier ran westwards to the Torrent of Kanah and reached as far as the sea. Such was the heritage of the tribe of the sons of Ephraim, by clans,
Jos 16:9 apart from the towns reserved for the sons of Ephraim inside the heritage of the sons of Manasseh, all these towns and their villages.
Jos 16:10 The Canaanites living in Gezer were not driven out; they have remained in Ephraim to the present day but are obliged to do forced labour.
Jos 17:1 The portion of the tribe of Manasseh, who was in fact Joseph's first-born -- went to Machir, Manasseh's first-born, father of Gilead, for he was a warrior; he had Gilead and Bashan.
Jos 17:2 The other sons of Manasseh had theirs, by clans: for the sons of Abiezer, for the sons of Helek, for the sons of Asriel, for the sons of Shechem, for the sons of Hepher, and for the sons of Shemida: these were the male children of Manasseh son of Joseph, by clans.
Jos 17:3 Zelophehad son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, had no sons but only daughters, whose names were these: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah.
Jos 17:4 These approached the priest Eleazar, Joshua son of Nun and the leaders, and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered Moses to give us a heritage among our brothers.' In compliance with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, therefore, they were given a heritage among their father's brothers.
Jos 17:5 In this way ten portions fell to Manasseh, apart from Gilead and Bashan lying on the further side of the Jordan,
Jos 17:6 since Manasseh's daughters received a heritage as well as his sons. Gilead itself belonged to Manasseh's other sons.
Jos 17:7 On the side of Asher, the frontier of Manasseh was the Michmethath, which is opposite Shechem, and thence continued to the right to Jashib, which is at the spring of Tappuah.
Jos 17:8 The territory of Tappuah belonged to Manasseh, but Tappuah on Manasseh's border belonged to the sons of Ephraim.
Jos 17:9 The boundary went down to the Torrent of Kanah; south of the Torrent were the towns of Ephraim, excluding those owned by Ephraim among the towns of Manasseh; the boundary of Manasseh was north of the Torrent and reached as far as the sea.
Jos 17:10 The south belonged to Ephraim and the north to Manasseh and reached as far as the sea; they touched Asher to the north and Issachar to the east.
Jos 17:11 With Issachar and Asher, Manasseh shared Beth-Shean and its dependent towns, Ibleam and its dependent towns, the inhabitants of Dor and of its dependent towns, the inhabitants of Taanach and Megiddo and of their dependent towns: the Three of the Slopes.
Jos 17:12 But because the sons of Manasseh could not take possession of these towns, the Canaanites managed to live on in that territory.
Jos 17:13 When, however, the Israelites became stronger, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labour, though they never dispossessed them.
Jos 17:14 The sons of Joseph spoke as follows to Joshua, 'Why have you given me only one share, only one portion, as heritage, when I am a numerous people, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has so blessed me?'
Jos 17:15 Joshua replied, 'If your people are so many, go up to the wooded area and clear space for yourselves in the area belonging to the Perizzites and Rephaim, since the highlands of Ephraim are too small for you.'
Jos 17:16 The sons of Joseph replied, 'The highlands are not enough for us, and what is more, all the Canaanites living on the land of the plain have iron chariots, so do those in Beth-Shean and its dependent towns, and those in the plain of Jezreel.'
Jos 17:17 Joshua said to the House of Joseph, to Ephraim and to Manasseh, 'You are a numerous people and your strength is great; you will not only have one share,
Jos 17:18 but a mountain will be yours as well; even if it is a forest, you can clear it and its territories will be yours. And you will dispossess the Canaanites, although they have iron chariots and although they are strong.'
Jos 18:1 The whole community of the Israelites assembled at Shiloh, and the Tent of Meeting was set up there; the whole country had been subdued for them.
Jos 18:2 But among the Israelites there were still seven tribes left who had not received their heritage.
Jos 18:3 Joshua then said to the Israelites, 'How much more time are you going to waste before you go and take possession of the country which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, has given to you?
Jos 18:4 Choose three men from each tribe for me to send all over the country so that they can make a survey with a view to their inheritances and then come back to me.
Jos 18:5 They will divide the country into seven portions. Judah will remain in his territory in the south, and those of the House of Joseph will remain in their territory in the north.
Jos 18:6 You must survey the country in seven sections and bring your findings to me here, so that I can cast lots for you here, in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.
Jos 18:7 The Levites, however, will have no portion with the rest of you; the priesthood of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be their heritage. As regards Gad and Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh, they have received their heritage on the further, eastern side of the Jordan, the one given them by Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Jos 18:8 The men stood up and set off. To those who were to survey the country Joshua gave this order, 'Start out, then, go all over the country, survey it, and then come back to me; and I shall cast lots for you here, in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at Shiloh.'
Jos 18:9 The men left, went all over the country and surveyed it by towns, in seven sections, writing down their findings in a book, and then went back to Joshua in the camp at Shiloh.
Jos 18:10 Joshua cast lots for them in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence at Shiloh, and there Joshua divided the country between the Israelites, share by share.
Jos 18:11 A portion fell first to the tribe of the sons of Benjamin, by clans: the territory of their portion lay between the sons of Judah and the sons of Joseph.
Jos 18:12 Their northern frontier began at the Jordan, went up the flank of Jericho to the north, climbed westwards through the highlands and came out at the desert of Beth-Aven.
Jos 18:13 Thence, the frontier went on to Luz, on the southern flank of Luz -- now Bethel-and then down to Ataroth-Arach, on the mountain south of Lower Beth-Horon.
Jos 18:14 At this westerly point, the frontier curved round and turned south, from the mountain facing Beth-Horon from the south and came out at Kiriath-Baal, now Kiriath-Jearim, a town of the sons of Judah. That was the western side.
Jos 18:15 This was the south side: from the tip of Kiriath-Jearim, the frontier went to Gasin and came out near the spring of the Waters of Nephtoah,
Jos 18:16 it then went down to the edge of the mountain facing the Valley of Hinnom, in the Valley of the Rephaim to the north; it then went down into the Valley of Hinnom, past the southerly flank of the Jebusite, and went down to En-Rogel.
Jos 18:17 It then curved northwards, coming out at En-Shemesh, and came out at the stone circle opposite the Ascent of Adummim, then went down to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben.
Jos 18:18 It then went on to Cheteph on the flank of Beth-ha-Arabah northwards, and went down into the Arabah;
Jos 18:19 the frontier then passed round the northern flank of Beth-Hoglah, and the frontier came out at the northern bay of the Salt Sea, at the southern end of the Jordan. Such was the southern frontier.
Jos 18:20 The Jordan itself formed the frontier on the east. Such was the heritage of the sons of Benjamin as defined by their frontier, by clans.
Jos 18:21 The towns of the tribe of the sons of Benjamin, by clans, were:
Jos 18:22 Jericho, Beth-Hoglah, Emek-Keziz;
Jos 18:23 Beth-Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel; Avvim, Parah, Ophrah;
Jos 18:24 Chephar-Ammoni, Ophni, Geba: twelve towns and their villages.
Jos 18:25 Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth;
Jos 18:26 Mizpeh, Chephirah, Mozah;
Jos 18:27 Rekem, Irpeel, Taralah;
Jos 18:28 Zela-ha-Eleph, the Jebusite -- that is, Jerusalem -- Gibeah and Kiriath: fourteen towns with their villages. Such was the heritage of the sons of Benjamin, by clans.
Jos 19:1 The second lot to come out was for Simeon, for the tribe of the sons of Simeon, by clans; their heritage was within the heritage of the sons of Judah.
Jos 19:2 As heritage, they received:
Jos 19:3 Beersheba, Shema, Moladah,
Jos 19:4 Hazar-Shual, Balah, Ezem, Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah,
Jos 19:5 Ziklag, Beth-ha-Marcaboth, Hazar-Susa,
Jos 19:6 Beth-Lebaoth and Sharuhen: thirteen towns and their villages.
Jos 19:7 Ain, Rimmon, Ether and Ashan: four towns and their villages,
Jos 19:8 with all the villages situated near these towns as far as Baalath-Beer and Ramah of the Negeb. Such was the heritage of the tribe of the sons of Simeon, by clans.
Jos 19:9 The heritage of the sons of Simeon was taken out of the portion of the sons of Judah, because the share of the sons of Judah was too large for them; hence, the sons of Simeon received their heritage within the heritage of the sons of Judah.
Jos 19:10 The third lot fell to the sons of Zebulun, by clans; the territory of their heritage stretched as far as Sadud;
Jos 19:11 their frontier climbed westwards to Maraalah, touching Dabbesheth and the torrent facing Jokneam.
Jos 19:12 From Sadud, the frontier turned east, towards the rising sun, as far as the frontier of Chisloth-Tabor; it came out at Dobrath and went up to Japhia.
Jos 19:13 Thence, it went east, towards the sunrise, to Gath-Hepher and Ittah-Kazin, came out at Rimmon and turned towards Neah.
Jos 19:14 The northern frontier turned towards Hannathon and came to an end in the Valley of Iphtah-El;
Jos 19:15 with Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Iralah and Bethlehem: twelve towns with their villages.
Jos 19:16 Such was the heritage of the sons of Zebulun, by clans: these towns with their villages.
Jos 19:17 The fourth lot came out for Issachar, for the sons of Issachar, by clans.
Jos 19:18 Their territory stretched towards Jezreel and included Chesulloth, Shunem,
Jos 19:19 Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath,
Jos 19:20 Dobrath, Kishion, Ebez,
Jos 19:21 Remeth, En-Gannim, En-Haddah and Beth-Pazzez.
Jos 19:22 Their frontier touched Tabor, Shahazimah and Beth-Shemesh, and the frontier came to an end at the Jordan: sixteen towns with their villages.
Jos 19:23 Such was the heritage of the tribe of the sons of Issachar, by clans: the towns and their villages.
Jos 19:24 The fifth lot came out for the tribe of the sons of Asher, by clans.
Jos 19:25 Their territory included Helkath, Hali, Beten, Achshaph,
Jos 19:26 Alammelech, Amad and Mishal.
Jos 19:27 On the west, it touched Carmel and the course of the Libnath. On the side of the rising sun, it went as far as Beth-Dagon, touched Zebulun, the Valley of Iphtah-El on the north side, Beth-ha-Emek and Neiel, coming out with Cabul on the left,
Jos 19:28 with Abdon, Rehob, Hammon and Kanah as far as Sidon the Great. The frontier then turned towards Ramah, as far as the fortress-town of Tyre;
Jos 19:29 the frontier then went to Hosah and reached as far as the sea at Mahalab and Achzib,
Jos 19:30 with Acco, Aphek and Rehob: twenty-two towns with their villages.
Jos 19:31 Such was the heritage of the tribe of the sons of Asher, by clans; these towns and their villages.
Jos 19:32 To the sons of Naphtali fell the sixth portion, to the sons of Naphtali, by clans.
Jos 19:33 Their frontier went from Heleph and the Oak of Zanaannim, with Adami-ha-Negeb and Jabneel, as far as Lakkum, and ended at the Jordan.
Jos 19:34 The westward boundary ran to Aznoth-Tabor and thence came out at Hukkok, marching with Zebulun in the south, Asher in the west and the Jordan in the east.
Jos 19:35 The fortified towns were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Chinnereth,
Jos 19:36 Adamah, Ramah, Hazor,
Jos 19:37 Kedesh, Edrei, En-Hazor,
Jos 19:38 Jiron, Migdal-El, Horem, Beth-Anath and Beth-Shemesh: nineteen towns and their villages.
Jos 19:39 Such was the heritage of the sons of Naphtali, by clans: the towns and their villages.
Jos 19:40 To the tribe of the sons of Dan, by clans, fell the seventh portion.
Jos 19:41 The territory of their heritage comprised: Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir-Shemesh,
Jos 19:42 Shaalbim, Aijalon, Silatha,
Jos 19:43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron,
Jos 19:44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon,
Jos 19:45 Baalath, Azor, Bene-Berak and Gath-Rimmon;
Jos 19:46 and, by the sea, Jerakon with the territory facing Jaffa.
Jos 19:47 The territory of the sons of Dan eluded them, however, and the sons of Dan consequently went up and attacked Leshem, captured it and put it to the sword. Having gained possession of it, they settled there and called Leshem, Dan, after Dan their ancestor.
Jos 19:48 Such was the heritage of the tribe of the sons of Dan, by clans: these towns and their villages.
Jos 19:49 Having finished dividing the country, frontier by frontier, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun a heritage among themselves;
Jos 19:50 at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command, they gave him the town which he had asked for, Timnath-Serah in the highlands of Ephraim; he rebuilt the town and settled there.
Jos 19:51 Such are the heritages which the priest Eleazar, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of each family apportioned by lot between the tribes of Israel at Shiloh, in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, at the door of the Tent of Meeting; and thus the apportioning of the country was completed.
Jos 20:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Joshua,
Jos 20:2 'Speak to the Israelites and say to them, "Choose yourselves the cities of refuge of which I spoke to you through Moses,
Jos 20:3 to which anyone who has accidentally (unintentionally) killed someone else may flee, and which will serve you as refuge from the avenger of blood.
Jos 20:4 (The killer must flee to one of these towns. He will stop at the entrance to the town gate and explain his case to the town elders. These will admit him to their town and assign him a place to live among them.
Jos 20:5 If the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not hand the killer over to him, since he has killed his fellow unintentionally and was not motivated by long-standing hatred for him.
Jos 20:6 He must stay in this town) until he is brought to trial before the community (until the death of the high priest then in office. Only then may the killer go back to his own town and to his own house in the town from which he has fled)."
Jos 20:7 For this purpose they designated Kedesh in Galilee, in the highlands of Naphtali, Shechem in the highlands of Ephraim, and Kiriath-Arba -- now Hebron -- in the highlands of Judah.
Jos 20:8 On the other, eastern, side of the Jordan opposite Jericho, in the desert of the tableland, they chose Bezer of the tribe of Reuben, Ramoth in Gilead of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan of the tribe of Manasseh.
Jos 20:9 Such were the towns designated for all the Israelites and for foreigners living among them, so that anyone who had accidentally killed someone could flee there and might escape the hand of the avenger of blood, until brought to trial before the community.
Jos 21:1 The heads of families of the Levites then came to the priest, Eleazar, Joshua son of Nun and the heads of families of the tribes of Israel-
Jos 21:2 they were then at Shiloh in Canaan. They said to them, 'Through Moses, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered us to be given towns to live in, with their pasture lands for our livestock.'
Jos 21:3 In compliance with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, the Israelites consequently and from their own heritage gave the Levites the following towns with their pasture lands:
Jos 21:4 Lots were cast for the clans of the Kohathites: to those Levites who were sons of Aaron the priest, fell thirteen towns from the tribes of Judah, Simeon and Benjamin;
Jos 21:5 to the other sons of Kohath, by clans,
Jos 21:6 fell ten towns from the tribes of Ephraim, Dan, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. To the sons of Gershon, by clans, fell thirteen towns from the tribes of Issachar, Asher, Naphtali and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
Jos 21:7 To the sons of Merari, by clans, fell twelve towns from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Zebulun.
Jos 21:8 The Israelites assigned these towns and their pasture lands to the Levites by lot, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered through Moses.
Jos 21:9 From the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Simeon, they gave the towns named below.
Jos 21:10 The first portion was for the sons of Aaron, belonging to the clans of the Kohathites, to the sons of Levi, since the first lot was theirs.
Jos 21:11 They gave them Kiriath-Arba, Anak's father's town -- now Hebron -- in the highlands of Judah, with its surrounding pasture lands.
Jos 21:12 The fields and villages of this town, however, they gave to Caleb son of Jephunneh as his property.
Jos 21:13 To the sons of Aaron the priest they gave Hebron, a city of refuge for those who had killed, with its pasture lands, as well as Libnah with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:14 Jattir with its pasture lands, Eshtemoa with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:15 Holon with its pasture lands, Debir with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:16 Ashan with its pasture lands, Juttah with its pasture lands, and Beth-Shemesh with its pasture lands: nine towns taken from these two tribes;
Jos 21:17 and, from the tribe of Benjamin, Gibeon with its pasture lands, Geba with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:18 Anathoth with its pasture lands and Almon with its pasture lands: four towns.
Jos 21:19 Total number of towns for the priests, the sons of Aaron: thirteen towns with their pasture lands.
Jos 21:20 As regards the clans of the sons of Kohath, those Levites still left of the sons of Kohath, the towns of their lot were taken from the tribe of Ephraim.
Jos 21:21 They were given Shechem, a city of refuge for those who had killed, with its pasture lands, in the highlands of Ephraim, as well as Gezer with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:22 Kibzaim with its pasture lands, and Beth-Horon with its pasture lands: four towns;
Jos 21:23 from the tribe of Dan, Elteke with its pasture lands, Gibbethon with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:24 Aijalon with its pasture lands and Gath-Rimmon with its pasture lands: four towns;
Jos 21:25 and, from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Taanach with its pasture lands and Jibleam with its pasture lands: two towns.
Jos 21:26 In all: ten towns with their pasture lands for the remaining clans of the sons of Kohath.
Jos 21:27 To the sons of Gershon, of the levitical clans, were given: from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Golan in Bashan, a city of refuge for those who had killed, with its pasture lands, and Ashtaroth with its pasture lands -- two towns;
Jos 21:28 from the tribe of Issachar, Kishion with its pasture lands, Dobrath with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:29 Jarmuth with its pasture lands and En-Gannim with its pasture lands -- four towns;
Jos 21:30 from the tribe of Asher, Mishal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:31 Helkath with its pasture lands and Rehob with its pasture lands -- four towns;
Jos 21:32 and, from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee, a city of refuge for those who had killed, with its pasture lands, Hammoth-Dor with its pasture lands and Kartan with its pasture lands -- three towns.
Jos 21:33 Total number of towns of the Gershonites, by clans: thirteen towns with their pasture lands.
Jos 21:34 To the clans of the sons of Merari, the remainder of the Levites, fell: from the tribe of Zebulun, Jokneam with its pasture lands, Kartah with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:35 Rimmon with its pasture lands and Nahalal with its pasture lands -- four towns;
Jos 21:36 on the other side of the Jordan opposite Jericho, from the tribe of Reuben, Bezer in the desert, on the tableland, a city of refuge for those who had killed, with its pasture lands, Jahaz with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:37 Kedemoth with its pasture lands and Mephaath with its pasture lands -- four towns;
Jos 21:38 and, from the tribe of Gad, Ramoth in Gilead, a city of refuge for those who had killed, with its pasture lands, Mahanaim with its pasture lands,
Jos 21:39 Heshbon with its pasture lands and Jazer with its pasture lands -- four towns.
Jos 21:40 Total number of towns forming the lot of the sons of Merari by clans, of the remaining levitical clans: twelve towns.
Jos 21:41 The total number of towns for the Levites in Israelite territory was forty-eight towns with their pasture lands.
Jos 21:42 These towns consisted in each case of the town itself and the pasture land round it. This was the case with all the towns.
Jos 21:43 This was how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave the Israelites the entire country which he had sworn to give to their ancestors. They took possession of it and settled in it.
Jos 21:44 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) granted them tranquillity on all their frontiers just as he had sworn to their ancestors and, of all their enemies, not one succeeded in resisting them. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put all their enemies at their mercy.
Jos 21:45 Of all the promises that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had made to the House of Israel, not one failed; all were fulfilled.
Jos 22:1 Joshua then summoned the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh
Jos 22:2 and said to them, 'You have observed everything that Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), ordered you, and whenever I have given you an order you have listened to me.
Jos 22:3 You have not deserted your brothers, from long ago until today, keeping the observance of the commandment of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Jos 22:4 Now that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has granted your brothers the rest that he promised them, go back to your tents, to the country belonging to you which Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), gave you on the other side of the Jordan.
Jos 22:5 But take great care to practise the commandments and the Law which Moses, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), has given you: to love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, always to follow his paths, to keep his commandments, to be loyal to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.'
Jos 22:6 Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went home to their tents.
Jos 22:7 To one half of the tribe of Manasseh, Moses had given a territory in Bashan; to the other half, Joshua gave another among their brothers on the west bank of the Jordan. As Joshua sent them home to their tents, he blessed them
Jos 22:8 and said to them, 'You are going back to your tents with great wealth, with a great deal of livestock, with silver and gold, bronze and iron and great quantities of clothing; share the spoils of your enemies with your brothers.'
Jos 22:9 The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned home, leaving the Israelites at Shiloh in Canaan, and made for Gilead, the territory which belonged to them as a result of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order given through Moses.
Jos 22:10 When they came to the stone circle by the Jordan, in Canaanite territory, the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar there beside the Jordan, a large, imposing altar.
Jos 22:11 This came to the ears of the Israelites. 'Look,' the word went round, 'the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built this altar on the Canaanite side, near the stone circle by the Jordan, on the Israelites' bank.'
Jos 22:12 At this news, the whole community of the Israelites mustered at Shiloh, to march against them and make war on them.
Jos 22:13 The Israelites sent the priest Phinehas son of Eleazar to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, in Gilead,
Jos 22:14 and with him ten leading men, one man from a leading family from each of the tribes of Israel, each of them being head of his family in the clans of Israel.
Jos 22:15 Having reached the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, they said this:
Jos 22:16 'The whole community of Israel says as follows, "What do you mean by this infidelity, which you have committed against the God of Israel by now repudiating your allegiance to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and by building yourselves an altar with the intention now of rebelling against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?
Jos 22:17 "Was the crime which we committed at Peor so slight -- although we have not managed to purify ourselves from that even now, in spite of the plague which has ravaged the community of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-
Jos 22:18 that you must now repudiate your allegiance to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? For since you are in rebellion against him today, tomorrow his anger will be aroused against the whole community of Israel.
Jos 22:19 "Is the country in which you have settled unclean? Then cross over into the country where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has settled, there where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Dwelling now stands, and settle among us. But do not rebel against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) or involve us in your rebellion by building a rival altar to the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.
Jos 22:20 When Achan son of Zerah was unfaithful to the curse of destruction, did not the retribution come down on the whole community of Israel, although he was only one man? Did he not have to die for his crime?" '
Jos 22:21 The Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh spoke in their turn and answered the heads of the clans of Israel:
Jos 22:22 'The God of gods, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of gods, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) well knows, and let Israel know it too: if there has been rebellion or infidelity to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on our part, may he refuse to save us today!
Jos 22:23 And if we have built ourselves an altar with the intention of repudiating our allegiance to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and of presenting burnt offering and oblation or of offering communion sacrifices on it, may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself call us to account for it!
Jos 22:24 The truth is, we have done this as a precaution: in the future, your descendants might say to ours, "What connection do you have with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel?
Jos 22:25 Has not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) set the frontier of the Jordan between us and you, you Reubenites and Gadites? You have no share in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." Thus, your descendants would be the cause of stopping ours from fearing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jos 22:26 'So we said to each other, "Let us build this altar, not for burnt offerings or other sacrifices
Jos 22:27 but as a witness between us and you and between our descendants after us, attesting that we too have the right to worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in his presence, with our burnt offerings, our victims and our communion sacrifices. And so, in the future your descendants will not be able to say to ours: You have no share in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Jos 22:28 And we furthermore said, "If ever it were to happen that they did say this either to us or to our descendants in the future, we should reply: Look at this structure, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s altar, made by our ancestors not for burnt offerings or other sacrifices but as a witness between us and you."
Jos 22:29 Far be it from us to rebel against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) or now to repudiate our allegiance to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by building an altar for burnt offerings or oblations or sacrifices, in rivalry with the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God that stands before his Dwelling!'
Jos 22:30 When the priest Phinehas, the leaders of the community and the heads of the clans of Israel who were with him, heard the words spoken by the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassehites, they approved of them.
Jos 22:31 The priest Phinehas son of Eleazar then said to the Reubenites, the Gadites and the Manassehites, 'Today, we can see that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is among us, since you have not been unfaithful to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in this matter; this means that you have spared the Israelites from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s avenging hand.'
Jos 22:32 The priest Phinehas son of Eleazar and the leaders left the Reubenites and the Gadites and went back from Gilead to Canaan and the Israelites, to whom they reported the answer.
Jos 22:33 The Israelites were pleased to hear this; the Israelites gave thanks to God and spoke no more of marching against them to make war on them and to ravage the country inhabited by the Reubenites and the Gadites.
Jos 22:34 The Reubenites and the Gadites called the altar . . . , 'Because', they said, 'it will be a witness between us that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God.'
Jos 23:1 Now long after Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given Israel rest from all the enemies surrounding them -- Joshua was old now, far advanced in years-
Jos 23:2 Joshua summoned all Israel, their elders, leaders, judges and officials, and said to them, 'I myself am old, far advanced in years;
Jos 23:3 you for your part have witnessed all that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has done to all these nations for your sake; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God himself has fought for you.
Jos 23:4 Look, these nations still remaining, and all the nations which I have exterminated from the Jordan all the way to the Great Sea in the west, I have allotted to you as the heritage for your tribes.
Jos 23:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will himself drive them out before you; he will dispossess them before you and you will take possession of their country, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has promised you.
Jos 23:6 'So be very firm about keeping and doing everything written in the Book of the Law of Moses, not swerving from that either to right or to left.
Jos 23:7 Never mix with the peoples who are still left beside you. Do not utter the names of their gods, do not swear by them, do not serve them and do not bow down to them.
Jos 23:8 On the contrary, you must be loyal to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God as you have been till now.
Jos 23:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has dispossessed great and powerful nations before you, and no one so far has been able to resist you.
Jos 23:10 One man of you was able to rout a thousand of them, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God was himself fighting for you, as he had promised you.
Jos 23:11 Be very careful, as you value your life, to love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Jos 23:12 'But should you in any way relapse, if you make friends with the remnant of these nations still living beside you, if you intermarry with them, if you mix with them and they with you,
Jos 23:13 then know for certain that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God will stop dispossessing these nations before you, and for you they will be a snare, a pitfall, thorns in your sides and thistles in your eyes, until you vanish from this fine country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Jos 23:14 'Today, you see, I am going the way of all the earth. Acknowledge with all your heart and soul that of all the promises made to you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, not one has failed: all have been fulfilled -- not one has failed.
Jos 23:15 'As every promise made to you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has been fulfilled for you, by the same token Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will fulfill all his threats against you, even to exterminating you from this fine country given you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Jos 23:16 'For if you violate the covenant which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God has imposed on you, if you go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger will be roused against you and you will quickly vanish from the fine country which he has given you.'
Jos 24:1 Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel together at Shechem; he then summoned all the elders of Israel, its leaders, judges and officials, and they presented themselves in God's presence.
Jos 24:2 Joshua then said to all the people: 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, says this, "From time immemorial, your ancestors, Terah, father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River, and served other gods.
Jos 24:3 I then brought your ancestor Abraham from beyond the River and led him through the length and breadth of Canaan. I increased his descendants and I gave him Isaac.
Jos 24:4 To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. To Esau I gave possession of the mountainous country of Seir. Jacob and his sons went down into Egypt.
Jos 24:5 I then sent Moses and Aaron, and plagued Egypt with the wonders that I worked there; finally I brought you out.
Jos 24:6 I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, and you came to the Sea; the Egyptians pursued your ancestors with chariots and horsemen, to the Sea of Reeds.
Jos 24:7 They then called to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and he spread a thick fog between you and the Egyptians, and made the sea go back on them and cover them. You saw with your own eyes what I did in Egypt. Then, for a long while, you lived in the desert.
Jos 24:8 I then brought you into the country of the Amorites, who used to live on the further side of the Jordan; they made war on you and I put them at your mercy; after which, you took possession of their country, since I destroyed them before you.
Jos 24:9 Next, Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, rose to make war on Israel, and sent for Balaam son of Beor to come and curse you.
Jos 24:10 But I would not listen to Balaam; instead, he had to bless you, and I saved you from his power.
Jos 24:11 "You then crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho, but the inhabitants of Jericho made war on you: Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites, and I put them all at your mercy.
Jos 24:12 I sent hornets ahead of you, which drove out the two Amorite kings before you; this was not the work of your sword or of your bow.
Jos 24:13 And now I have given you a country for which you have not toiled, towns you have not built, although you live in them, vineyards and olive groves you have not planted, although you eat their fruit."
Jos 24:14 'So now, fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and serve him truly and sincerely; banish the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jos 24:15 But if serving Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seems a bad thing to you, today you must make up your minds whom you do mean to serve, whether the gods whom your ancestors served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now living. As regards my family and me, we shall serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Jos 24:16 The people replied, 'Far be it from us to desert Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and to serve other gods!
Jos 24:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God was the one who brought us and our ancestors here from Egypt, from the place of slave-labour, who worked those great wonders before our eyes and who kept us safe all along the way we travelled and among all the peoples through whom we passed.
Jos 24:18 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has driven all the nations out for us, including the Amorites who used to live in the country. We too shall serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he is our God.'
Jos 24:19 Joshua then said to the people, 'You will not be able to serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since he is a holy God, he is a jealous God who will not tolerate either your misdeeds or your sins.
Jos 24:20 If you desert Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and serve the foreigners' gods, he will turn and maltreat you anew and, in spite of having been good to you in the past, will destroy you.'
Jos 24:21 The people replied to Joshua, 'No! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the one we mean to serve.'
Jos 24:22 Joshua then said to the people, 'You are witnesses to yourselves that you have chosen Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to serve him.' They replied, 'Witnesses we are!'
Jos 24:23 'Then banish the foreign gods which you have with you and give your allegiance to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel!'
Jos 24:24 The people replied to Joshua, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God is the one whom we shall serve; his voice we shall obey!'
Jos 24:25 That day Joshua made a covenant for the people; he laid down a statute and ordinance for them at Shechem.
Jos 24:26 Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. He then took a large stone and set it up there, under the oak tree in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary.
Jos 24:27 Joshua then said to all the people, 'Look, this stone will be a witness to us, since it has heard all the words that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken to us: it will be a witness against you, in case you should deny your God.'
Jos 24:28 Joshua then dismissed the people, every one to his own heritage.
Jos 24:29 After this, Joshua son of Nun, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), died; he was a hundred and ten years old.
Jos 24:30 He was buried on the estate which he had received as his heritage, at Timnath-Serah which lies in the highlands of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Jos 24:31 Israel served Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) throughout the lifetime of Joshua and throughout the lifetime of those elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the deeds which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had done for the sake of Israel.
Jos 24:32 As regards the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought from Egypt, these were buried at Shechem in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor father of Shechem, and which had become the heritage of the sons of Joseph.
Jos 24:33 Eleazar son of Aaron then died and was buried at Gibeah, the town of his son Phinehas, which had been given to him in the highlands of Ephraim.
Jdg 1:1 Now after Joshua's death, the Israelites consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), asking, 'Which of us is to march on the Canaanites first, to make war on them?'
Jdg 1:2 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Judah is to march on them first; I am delivering the country into his hands.'
Jdg 1:3 Judah then said to his brother Simeon, 'March with me into the territory allotted to me; we shall make war on the Canaanites, and then I in my turn shall march into your territory with you.' And Simeon marched with him.
Jdg 1:4 So Judah marched on them, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) delivered the Canaanites and Perizzites into their hands, and they defeated them at Bezek-ten thousand of them!
Jdg 1:5 At Bezek they came upon Adoni-Bezek; they joined battle with him and defeated the Canaanites and Perizzites.
Jdg 1:6 Adoni-Bezek took to flight, but they chased and captured him and cut off his thumbs and big toes.
Jdg 1:7 Adoni-Bezek said, 'Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to pick up the crumbs under my table. As I did, God does to me.' He was taken to Jerusalem, and there he died.
Jdg 1:8 (The sons of Judah attacked Jerusalem and took it: they put its people to the sword and set fire to the city.)
Jdg 1:9 After this the sons of Judah went down to make war on the Canaanites who were living in the highlands, the Negeb and the lowlands.
Jdg 1:10 Judah next marched on the Canaanites living in Hebron -- the name of Hebron in olden days was Kiriath-Arba -- and beat Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.
Jdg 1:11 From there, he marched on the inhabitants of Debir -- the name of Debir in olden days was Kiriath-Sepher.
Jdg 1:12 Caleb said, 'To the man who conquers and captures Kiriath-Sepher, I shall give my daughter Achsah as wife.'
Jdg 1:13 The man who captured it was Othniel son of Kenaz, younger brother of Caleb, who gave him his daughter Achsah as wife.
Jdg 1:14 When she arrived, he urged her to ask her father for arable land, but when she alighted from the donkey and Caleb asked her, 'What is the matter?'
Jdg 1:15 she said to him, 'Grant me a blessing! As the land you have given me is the Negeb, give me springs of water, too!' So Caleb gave her what she wanted: the upper springs and the lower springs.
Jdg 1:16 The sons of Hobab the Kenite, father-in-law of Moses, marched up with the sons of Judah from the City of Palm Trees into the desert of Judah lying in the Negeb of Arad, where they went and settled among the people.
Jdg 1:17 Judah then set out with his brother Simeon. They beat the Canaanites who lived in Zephath and delivered it over to the curse of destruction; hence the town was given the name of Hormah.
Jdg 1:18 Judah then captured Gaza and its territory, Ashkelon and its territory, Ekron and its territory.And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with Judah, who made himself master of the highlands;
Jdg 1:19 he could not, however, dispossess the inhabitants of the plain, since they had iron chariots.
Jdg 1:20 As Moses had directed, Hebron was given to Caleb, and he drove the three sons of Anak out of it.
Jdg 1:21 As regards the Jebusites living in Jerusalem, the sons of Benjamin did not dispossess them, and the Jebusites have been living in Jerusalem with the sons of Benjamin ever since.
Jdg 1:22 Similarly, the House of Joseph marched on Bethel, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with them.
Jdg 1:23 The House of Joseph made a reconnaissance of Bethel. (In olden days, the name of the town was Luz.)
Jdg 1:24 The scouts saw a man coming out of the town and said to him, 'Show us how to get into the town and we shall show you faithful love.'
Jdg 1:25 And when he had shown them a way into the town, they put the town to the sword but let the man and his whole clan go.
Jdg 1:26 The man went off to the country of the Hittites and built a town which he called Luz; and that has been its name ever since.
Jdg 1:27 Manasseh did not dispossess Beth-Shean and its dependencies, nor Taanach and its dependencies, nor the inhabitants of Dor and its dependencies, nor the inhabitants of Ibleam and its dependencies, nor the inhabitants of Megiddo and its dependencies; in those parts the Canaanites held their ground.
Jdg 1:28 But when the Israelites became stronger, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labour, although they did not dispossess them.
Jdg 1:29 Nor did Ephraim dispossess the Canaanites living in Gezer; thus, the Canaanites went on living in Gezer with him.
Jdg 1:30 Zebulun did not dispossess the inhabitants of Kitron or of Nahalol. The Canaanites lived on with Zebulun but were subjected to forced labour.
Jdg 1:31 Asher did not dispossess the inhabitants of Acco, nor those of Sidon, of Mahalab, of Achzib, of Helbah, of Aphek or of Rehob.
Jdg 1:32 So the Asherites lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the country, not having dispossessed them.
Jdg 1:33 Naphtali did not dispossess the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh or of Beth-Anath; they settled among the Canaanite inhabitants of the country, but the inhabitants of Beth-Shemesh and of Beth-Anath were subjected to forced labour for them.
Jdg 1:34 The Amorites drove the Danites back into the highlands and would not let them come down into the plain.
Jdg 1:35 The Amorites held their ground at Har -- Heres and Shaalbim, but when the hand of the House of Joseph grew heavier, they were subjected to forced labour. (
Jdg 1:36 The territory of the Edomites begins at the Ascent of Scorpions, runs to the Rock and continues on upwards.)
Jdg 2:1 The Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) went up from Gilgal to Bethel and said, 'I have brought you out of Egypt and led you into this country, which I promised on oath to your ancestors. I said, "I shall never break my covenant with you.
Jdg 2:2 You for your part must make no covenant with the inhabitants of this country; you will destroy their altars." But you have not listened to my voice. What is the reason for this?
Jdg 2:3 Very well, I now say this, "I am not going to drive these nations out before you. They will become your oppressors, and their gods will be a snare for you."
Jdg 2:4 When the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had spoken these words to all the Israelites, the people began to wail at the top of their voices.
Jdg 2:5 And they called the place Bochim, and offered sacrifices to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) there.
Jdg 2:6 Joshua having dismissed the people, the Israelites then went away, each one to his own heritage, to occupy the country.
Jdg 2:7 The people served Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) throughout the lifetime of Joshua and throughout the lifetime of those elders who outlived Joshua and had known all the great deeds which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had done for the sake of Israel.
Jdg 2:8 Joshua son of Nun, servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), was a hundred and ten years old when he died.
Jdg 2:9 He was buried on the estate which he had received as his heritage at Timnath-Heres in the highlands of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
Jdg 2:10 And when that whole generation had been gathered to its ancestors, another generation followed it which knew neither Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) nor the deeds which he had done for the sake of Israel.
Jdg 2:11 The Israelites then did what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes and served the Baals.
Jdg 2:12 They deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt, and they followed other gods, from those of the surrounding peoples. They bowed down to these; they provoked Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Jdg 2:13 they deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to serve Baal and Astartes.
Jdg 2:14 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger grew hot against Israel. He handed them over to pillagers who plundered them; he delivered them to the enemies surrounding them, and they were no longer able to resist their enemies.
Jdg 2:15 Whenever they mounted an expedition, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand was there to foil them, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told them and as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had sworn to them, so that they were in dire distress.
Jdg 2:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then appointed them judges, who rescued them from the hands of their plunderers.
Jdg 2:17 But even to their judges they refused to listen. They prostituted themselves to other gods and bowed down before these. Very quickly they left the path which their ancestors had trodden in obedience to the orders of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); they did not follow their example.
Jdg 2:18 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appointed judges for them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with the judge and rescued them from the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) relented at their groans under their persecutors and oppressors.
Jdg 2:19 But once the judge was dead, they relapsed into even worse corruption than their ancestors. They followed other gods; they served them and bowed before them and would not give up the practices and stubborn ways of their ancestors at all.
Jdg 2:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger then blazed out against Israel, and he said, 'Since this people has broken the covenant which I laid down for their ancestors, since they have not listened to my voice,
Jdg 2:21 in future I shall not drive before them any one of those nations which Joshua left when he died,
Jdg 2:22 in order, by means of them, to put Israel to the test, to see whether or not they would tread the paths of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as once their ancestors had trodden them.'
Jdg 2:23 Hence, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) allowed these nations to remain; he did not hurry to drive them out, and did not deliver them into the hands of Joshua.
Jdg 3:1 These are the nations which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) allowed to remain, by their means to put all those Israelites to the test who had not experienced any of the Canaanite wars
Jdg 3:2 (this was only to instruct the Israelites' descendants, to teach them the art of war, those at least who had not experienced it previously):
Jdg 3:3 the five chiefs of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hittites who lived in the range of the Lebanon, from the uplands of Baal-Hermon to the Pass of Hamath.
Jdg 3:4 They were used to put Israel to the test and see if they would keep the orders which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given their ancestors through Moses.
Jdg 3:5 The Israelites lived among the Canaanites, Hittites and Amorites, the Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites;
Jdg 3:6 they married their daughters, they gave their own sons to their daughters and they served their gods.
Jdg 3:7 The Israelites did what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes. They forgot Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God and served Baals and Asherahs.
Jdg 3:8 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger blazed out against Israel: he handed them over to Cushan-Rishathaim king of Edom, and the Israelites were enslaved to Cushan-Rishathaim for eight years.
Jdg 3:9 The Israelites then cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) raised for the Israelites a deliverer who rescued them, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother.
Jdg 3:10 The spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was on him; he became judge in Israel and set out for war. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Edom into his hands, and he triumphed over Cushan- Rishathaim.
Jdg 3:11 The country then had peace for forty years. Othniel son of Kenaz then died.
Jdg 3:12 Again the Israelites began doing what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) strengthened Eglon king of Moab against Israel, since they were doing what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes.
Jdg 3:13 Eglon in conjunction with the sons of Ammon and Amalek marched on Israel, beat them and captured the City of Palm Trees.
Jdg 3:14 The Israelites were enslaved to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
Jdg 3:15 The Israelites then cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) raised a deliverer for them, Ehud son of Gera, a Benjaminite; he was left-handed. The Israelites appointed him to take their tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
Jdg 3:16 Ehud made himself a dagger -- it was double-edged and a foot long -- and strapped it under his clothes on his right thigh.
Jdg 3:17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab. This Eglon was a very fat man.
Jdg 3:18 Having presented the tribute, Ehud sent away the men who had been carrying it;
Jdg 3:19 but he himself, on reaching the Idols which are near Gilgal, went back and said, 'I have a secret message for you, O king.' The king commanded silence, and all his attendants withdrew.
Jdg 3:20 Ehud went up to him; he was sitting in his private room upstairs, where it was cool. Ehud said to him, 'I have a message from God for you, O king.' The latter immediately rose from his seat.
Jdg 3:21 Then Ehud, reaching with his left hand, drew the dagger he was carrying on his right thigh and thrust it into the king's belly.
Jdg 3:22 The hilt too went in after the blade, and the fat closed over the blade, since Ehud did not pull the dagger out of his belly again.
Jdg 3:23 Ehud went out through the privies, having shut and bolted the doors of the upstairs room behind him.
Jdg 3:24 When he had gone, the servants came back and looked; the doors of the upstairs room were bolted. They thought, 'He is probably covering his feet in the inner part of the cool room.'
Jdg 3:25 They waited until they became embarrassed, but still he did not open the doors of the upstairs room. Eventually, they took the key and opened the door; and there lay their master, dead, on the ground.
Jdg 3:26 Meanwhile, Ehud had got away, passed the Idols and made good his escape to safety in Seirah.
Jdg 3:27 Once there, he sounded the horn in the highlands of Ephraim, and the Israelites came down from the hills with him at their head.
Jdg 3:28 And he said to them, 'Follow me, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has delivered your enemy Moab into your hands.' So they followed him, seized the fords of the Jordan against Moab and allowed no one to cross.
Jdg 3:29 On that occasion they beat the Moabites, some ten thousand men, all tough and seasoned fighters, and not one escaped.
Jdg 3:30 That day Moab was humbled under the hand of Israel, and the country had peace for eighty years.
Jdg 3:31 After him came Shamgar son of Anath. He routed six hundred of the Philistines with an ox-goad; he too was a deliverer of Israel.
Jdg 4:1 Once Ehud was dead, the Israelites again began doing what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes,
Jdg 4:2 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) handed them over to Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned at Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Haroshet-ha-Goiim.
Jdg 4:3 The Israelites then cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); for Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.
Jdg 4:4 Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at the time.
Jdg 4:5 She used to sit under Deborah's Palm between Ramah and Bethel in the highlands of Ephraim, and the Israelites would come to her for justice.
Jdg 4:6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, 'Has not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, commanded, "Go! March to Mount Tabor and with you take ten thousand of the sons of Naphtali and the sons of Zebulun.
Jdg 4:7 I shall entice Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army, to encounter you at the Torrent of Kishon with his chariots and troops; and I shall put him into your power"? '
Jdg 4:8 Barak replied, 'If you come with me, I shall go; if you will not come, I shall not go, for I do not know how to choose the day when the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will grant me success.'
Jdg 4:9 'I shall go with you then,' she said, 'but, the way you are going about it, the glory will not be yours; for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.' Deborah then stood up and went with Barak to Kedesh.
Jdg 4:10 Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men marched behind him, and Deborah went with him.
Jdg 4:11 Heber the Kenite had parted company with the tribe of Kain and with the sons of Hobab, father-in-law of Moses; he had pitched his tent near the Oak of Zaanannim, not far from Kedesh.
Jdg 4:12 Sisera was informed that Barak son of Abinoam had encamped on Mount Tabor.
Jdg 4:13 Sisera summoned all his chariots -- nine hundred iron chariots -- and all the troops he had, from Harosheth-ha-Goiim to the Torrent of Kishon.
Jdg 4:14 Deborah said to Barak, 'Up! For today is the day when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has put Sisera into your power. Is not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) marching at your head?' And Barak charged down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him.
Jdg 4:15 At Barak's advance, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck terror into Sisera, all his chariots and his entire army. Sisera leapt down from his chariot and fled on foot.
Jdg 4:16 Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-ha-Goiim. Sisera's whole army fell by the edge of the sword; not one man was spared.
Jdg 4:17 Sisera meanwhile fled on foot towards the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.
Jdg 4:18 Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, 'Stay here, my lord, with me; do not be afraid!' He stayed with her in her tent, and she covered him with a rug.
Jdg 4:19 He said to her, 'Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.' She opened the skin of milk, gave him some to drink and covered him up again.
Jdg 4:20 Then he said to her, 'Stand at the tent door, and if anyone comes and questions you -- if he asks, "Is there a man here?" say, "No." '
Jdg 4:21 But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent-peg and picked up a mallet; she crept up softly to him and drove the peg into his temple right through to the ground. He was lying fast asleep, worn out; and so he died.
Jdg 4:22 And now Barak came up in pursuit of Sisera. Jael went out to meet him and said, 'Come in, and I will show you the man you are looking for.' He went into her tent; and there was Sisera dead, with the tent-peg through his temple.
Jdg 4:23 Thus God that day humbled Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.
Jdg 4:24 And the Israelites bore down more and more heavily on that king of Canaan, Jabin, until he was utterly destroyed.
Jdg 5:1 They sang a song that day, Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam, and the words were:
Jdg 5:2 That the warriors in Israel unbound their hair, that the people came forward with a will, bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Jdg 5:3 Listen, you kings! Give ear, you princes! From me, from me comes a song for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I shall glorify Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
Jdg 5:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when you set out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens pelted, the clouds pelted down water.
Jdg 5:5 The mountains melted before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) of Sinai, before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
Jdg 5:6 In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, there were no more caravans; those who went forth on their travels took their way along by-paths.
Jdg 5:7 The villages in Israel were no more, they were no more until you arose, O Deborah, until you arose, mother of Israel!
Jdg 5:8 They were choosing new gods when war was at the gates. Was there one shield, one spear to be found among the forty thousand men in Israel?
Jdg 5:9 My heart is with the leaders of Israel, with the people who came forward with a will! Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Jdg 5:10 You who ride white donkeys and sit on saddle-blankets as you ride, and you who go on foot,
Jdg 5:11 sing -- to the sound of the shepherds at the watering places! There they extol Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s blessings, his saving acts for his villages in Israel! (Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people marched down to the gates.)
Jdg 5:12 Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, declaim a song! Take heart, to your feet, Barak, capture your captors, son of Abinoam!
Jdg 5:13 Then Israel marched down to the gates; like champions, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people marched down to fight for him!
Jdg 5:14 The princes of Ephraim are in the valley. Behind you, Benjamin is in your ranks. Captains have come down from Machir, those who wield the commander's staff, from Zebulun.
Jdg 5:15 The princes of Issachar are with Deborah; Naphtali, with Barak, in the valley follows in hot pursuit. In the clans of Reuben there was much searching of heart.
Jdg 5:16 Why did you stay among the sheepfolds, listening for the whistle, with the flocks? (In the clans of Reuben, there was much searching of heart.)
Jdg 5:17 Gilead stayed on the other side of the Jordan, and why should Dan have stayed aboard ship? Asher remained beside the sea, peacefully living within his ports.
Jdg 5:18 Zebulun is a people who have braved death, Naphtali too, on the high ground of the country.
Jdg 5:19 The kings came and they fought, how they fought, those kings of Canaan, at Taanach, near the Waters of Megiddo, but no booty of silver did they take!
Jdg 5:20 The stars fought from heaven, from their orbits they fought against Sisera.
Jdg 5:21 The torrent of Kishon swept them away, the torrent of old, the torrent of Kishon. -March on, be strong my soul!
Jdg 5:22 The horses' hooves then hammer the ground: galloping, galloping go his steeds.
Jdg 5:23 'Curse Meroz,' said the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'curse, curse the people living there for not having come to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s help, to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s help as warriors!'
Jdg 5:24 Most blessed of women be Jael (the wife of Heber the Kenite); of tent-dwelling women, may she be most blessed!
Jdg 5:25 He asked for water; she gave him milk; she offered him curds in a lordly dish.
Jdg 5:26 She reached her hand out to seize the peg, her right hand to seize the workman's mallet. She hammered Sisera, she crushed his head, she pierced his temple and shattered it.
Jdg 5:27 Between her feet, he crumpled, he fell, he lay; at her feet, he crumpled, he fell. Where he crumpled, there he fell, destroyed.
Jdg 5:28 At the window, she leans and watches, Sisera's mother, through the lattice, 'Why is his chariot so long coming? Why so delayed the hoof-beats from his chariot?'
Jdg 5:29 The wisest of her ladies answers, and she to herself repeats,
Jdg 5:30 'Are they not collecting and sharing out the spoil: a girl, two girls for each warrior; a booty of coloured and embroidered stuff for Sisera, one scarf, two embroidered scarves for me!'
Jdg 5:31 So perish all your enemies, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! And let those who love you be like the sun when he emerges in all his strength! And the country had peace for forty years.
Jdg 6:1 The Israelites did what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, and for seven years Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) handed them over to Midian;
Jdg 6:2 and Midian bore down heavily on Israel. To escape from the Midianites the Israelites used the mountain clefts and the caves and shelters.
Jdg 6:3 Whenever Israel sowed seed the Midianites would march up with Amalek and the sons of the East. They would march on Israel.
Jdg 6:4 They would pitch camp on their territory and destroy the produce of the country as far as Gaza. They left Israel nothing to live on, not a sheep or an ox or a donkey,
Jdg 6:5 for they came up as thick as locusts with their cattle and their tents; they and their camels were innumerable, they invaded the country to pillage it.
Jdg 6:6 Thus, Midian brought Israel to great distress, and the Israelites cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jdg 6:7 When the Israelites cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) because of Midian,
Jdg 6:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent a prophet to the Israelites. He said to them, 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says, "It was I who brought you out of Egypt, and led you out of the place of slave-labour.
Jdg 6:9 I rescued you from the power of the Egyptians and from the power of all who oppressed you. I drove them out before you and gave their country to you.
Jdg 6:10 And I said to you: I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. You are not to fear the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now living. But you have not listened to my voice." '
Jdg 6:11 The Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah which belonged to Joash of Abiezer. Gideon his son was threshing wheat inside the wine-press, to keep it hidden from Midian,
Jdg 6:12 and the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to him and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is with you, valiant warrior!'
Jdg 6:13 Gideon replied, 'Excuse me, my lord, but if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is with us, why is all this happening to us? And where are all his miracles which our ancestors used to tell us about when they said, "Did not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bring us out of Egypt?" But now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has deserted us; he has abandoned us to Midian.'
Jdg 6:14 At this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) turned to him and said, 'Go in this strength of yours, and you will rescue Israel from the power of Midian. Am I not sending you myself?'
Jdg 6:15 Gideon replied, 'Forgive me, my lord, but how can I deliver Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh and I am the least important of my father's family.'
Jdg 6:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'I shall be with you and you will crush Midian as though it were one man.'
Jdg 6:17 Gideon said, 'If I have found favor in your sight, give me a sign that you are speaking to me.
Jdg 6:18 Please do not go away from here until I come back to you, bringing you my offering and laying it before you.' And he replied, 'I shall stay until you come back.'
Jdg 6:19 Gideon went away, he prepared a young goat and from an ephah of flour he made unleavened cakes. He put the meat into a basket and the broth into a pot, then brought it all to him under the terebinth. As he approached,
Jdg 6:20 the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'Take the meat and unleavened cakes, put them on this rock and pour the broth over them.' Gideon did so.
Jdg 6:21 The Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then stretched out the tip of the staff which he was carrying, and touched the meat and unleavened cakes. Fire sprang from the rock and consumed the meat and unleavened cakes, and the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) vanished before his eyes.
Jdg 6:22 Gideon then knew that this was the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and he said, 'Alas, my Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! Now I have seen the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) face to face!'
Jdg 6:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) answered, 'Peace be with you; have no fear; you will not die.'
Jdg 6:24 Gideon built an altar there to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and called it Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-Peace. This altar stands in our own day at Ophrah of Abiezer.
Jdg 6:25 Now that night, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Gideon, 'Take your father's bull, the seven-year-old bull, and pull down the altar to Baal belonging to your father and cut down the sacred pole beside it.
Jdg 6:26 Then, on top of this strong-point, build a proper altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. Then take the bull and burn it as a burnt offering on the wood of the sacred pole which you have cut down.'
Jdg 6:27 Gideon then took ten of his servants and did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered him. But, being too frightened of his family and of the townspeople to do it in daylight, he did it at night.
Jdg 6:28 Next morning, when the townspeople got up, they found that the altar to Baal had been destroyed, the sacred pole standing beside it had been cut down and the bull had been sacrificed as a burnt offering on the newly built altar.
Jdg 6:29 'Who has done this?' they asked one another. They searched, made enquiries and declared, 'Gideon son of Joash has done it.'
Jdg 6:30 The townspeople then said to Joash, 'Bring out your son; he must die for having destroyed Baal's altar and cut down the sacred pole which stood beside it.'
Jdg 6:31 To the people all crowding round him, Joash replied, 'Is it your job to plead for Baal? Is it your job to champion his cause? (Anyone who pleads for Baal must be put to death before dawn.) If he is a god, let him plead for himself, now that Gideon has destroyed his altar.'
Jdg 6:32 That day, Gideon was given the name Jerubbaal, because, they said, 'Baal must plead against him, because he has destroyed his altar!'
Jdg 6:33 All Midian and Amalek and the sons of the East joined forces and, having crossed the Jordan, pitched camp in the plain of Jezreel.
Jdg 6:34 And the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) clothed Gideon around; he sounded the horn and Abiezer rallied behind him.
Jdg 6:35 He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, and Manasseh too rallied behind him; he sent messengers to Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, and they marched out to meet him.
Jdg 6:36 Gideon said to God, 'If it is really you delivering Israel by means of me, as you have said,
Jdg 6:37 look, I am going to put a woollen fleece on the threshing-floor; if there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground stays dry, then I shall know that you will deliver Israel by means of me, as you have said.'
Jdg 6:38 And so it happened. Early next morning, Gideon got up, squeezed the fleece and wrung enough dew out of the fleece to fill a cup.
Jdg 6:39 Gideon then said to God, 'Do not be angry with me if I speak just once more. Allow me to make the fleece-test just once more: let the fleece alone be dry and there be dew all over the ground!'
Jdg 6:40 And God did so that night. The fleece alone stayed dry, and there was dew all over the ground.
Jdg 7:1 Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) got up very early, as did all the people who were with him; he pitched camp at En-Harod; the camp of Midian was north of his, under the Hill of Moreh in the valley.
Jdg 7:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Gideon, 'There are too many people with you for me to put Midian into their power; Israel might claim the credit for themselves at my expense: they might say, "My own hand has rescued me."
Jdg 7:3 So now make this proclamation to the people, "Anyone trembling with fear is to go back and watch from Mount Gilboa." ' Twenty-two thousand of the people went back, and ten thousand remained.
Jdg 7:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Gideon, 'There are still too many people. Take them down to the waterside and I shall sort them out for you there. If I say of someone, "He is to go with you," that man is to go with you. And if I say of anyone, "He is not to go with you," that man is not to go.'
Jdg 7:5 So Gideon took the people down to the waterside, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'All those who lap the water with their tongues, as a dog laps, put these on one side. And all those who kneel down to drink, put these on the other side.'
Jdg 7:6 The number of those who lapped with their hands to their mouth was three hundred; all the rest of the people had knelt to drink.
Jdg 7:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Gideon, 'With the three hundred who lapped the water, I shall rescue you and put Midian into your power. Let the people as a whole disperse to their homes.'
Jdg 7:8 So they took the people's provisions and their horns, and then Gideon sent all the Israelites back to their tents, keeping only the three hundred. The camp of Midian was below his in the valley.
Jdg 7:9 Now it happened, that same night, that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'Get up and go down to the camp. I am putting it into your power.
Jdg 7:10 If, however, you are nervous about going down, go down to the camp with your servant Purah;
Jdg 7:11 listen to what they are saying, and that will encourage you to go down to the camp.' So, with his servant Purah, he went down to the edge of the outposts of the camp.
Jdg 7:12 Midian, Amalek and all the sons of the East were deployed in the valley as thick as locusts; their camels were as innumerable as the sand on the seashore.
Jdg 7:13 Gideon got there just as a man was telling his comrade a dream; he was saying, 'This was the dream I had: a cake made of barley bread came rolling into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent, struck against it and turned it upside down.'
Jdg 7:14 His comrade replied, 'This can only be the sword of Gideon son of Joash the Israelite. God has put Midian and the whole camp into his power.'
Jdg 7:15 When Gideon heard the dream thus told and interpreted, he bowed in reverence; he then went back to the camp of Israel and said, 'On your feet, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has put the camp of Midian into your power!'
Jdg 7:16 Gideon then divided his three hundred men into three groups. To each he gave a horn and an empty pitcher, with a torch inside each pitcher.
Jdg 7:17 He said to them, 'Watch me, and do as I do. When I reach the edge of the camp, whatever I do, you must do also.
Jdg 7:18 I shall blow my horn, and so will all those who are with me; you too will then blow your horns all round the camp and shout, "For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and for Gideon!"
Jdg 7:19 Gideon and his hundred companions reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when the new sentries had just been posted; they blew their horns and smashed the pitchers in their hands.
Jdg 7:20 The three groups blew their horns and smashed their pitchers; with their left hands they grasped the torches, with their right hands the horns for blowing them; and they shouted, 'The sword for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and for Gideon!'
Jdg 7:21 And they stood still, spaced out round the camp. The whole camp was thrown into confusion and the Midianites fled, shouting.
Jdg 7:22 While the three hundred blew their horns, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made each man turn his sword against his comrade throughout the entire camp. They all fled as far as Beth-ha-Shittah in the direction of Zarethan, as far as the bank of Abel-Meholah opposite Tabbath.
Jdg 7:23 The men of Israel mustered from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh, and pursued Midian.
Jdg 7:24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the highlands of Ephraim to say, 'Come down to meet Midian, seize the water-points ahead of them as far as Beth-Barah and the Jordan.' All the men of Ephraim mustered and seized the water-points as far as Beth-Barah and the Jordan.
Jdg 7:25 They captured the two Midianite chieftains, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at Oreb's Rock and Zeeb at Zeeb's Winepress. They pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon on the other side of the Jordan.
Jdg 8:1 Now the men of Ephraim said to Gideon, 'What do you mean by treating us like this, not summoning us when you went to fight Midian?' And they reproached him bitterly.
Jdg 8:2 He replied, 'What have I achieved, compared with you? Is not the gleaning of Ephraim's grapes better than the vintage of Abiezer?
Jdg 8:3 God delivered Oreb and Zeeb, the chieftains of Midian, into your power. What was I able to do, in comparison with what you have done?' At these words, their anger with him died down.
Jdg 8:4 Gideon reached the Jordan and crossed it, but he and his three hundred companions were exhausted with the pursuit.
Jdg 8:5 So he said to the men of Succoth, 'Please give my followers some loaves of bread, since they are exhausted, and I am pursuing Zebah and Zalmunna the kings of Midian.'
Jdg 8:6 The headmen of Succoth replied, 'Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your grasp, that we should give bread to your army?'
Jdg 8:7 'Very well,' retorted Gideon, 'when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has put Zebah and Zalmunna into my power, I shall tear your flesh off with desert-thorn and thistles.'
Jdg 8:8 From there he went up to Penuel and asked the men of Penuel the same thing; they replied as those of Succoth had done.
Jdg 8:9 And to those of Penuel he made a similar retort, 'When I return victorious, I shall destroy this tower.'
Jdg 8:10 Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army, about fifteen thousand men, all that was left of the entire army of the sons of the East. Of men bearing arms, a hundred and twenty thousand had fallen.
Jdg 8:11 Gideon approached them by the tent-dwellers' route, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army when it thought itself in safety.
Jdg 8:12 Zebah and Zalmunna fled. He pursued them; he took the two kings of Midian prisoner -- Zebah and Zalmunna -- and the whole army he routed in panic.
Jdg 8:13 After the battle Gideon came back by the Ascent of Heres.
Jdg 8:14 He caught a young man, one of the people of Succoth, and questioned him, and the latter wrote down the names of the headmen and elders of Succoth for him -- seventy-seven men.
Jdg 8:15 Gideon son of Joash then went to the people of Succoth and said, 'Here you see Zebah and Zalmunna, about whom you taunted me and said, "Are the hands of Zebah and Zalmunna already in your grasp, that we should give bread to your exhausted troops?" '
Jdg 8:16 He then seized the elders of the town and, taking desert-thorn and thistles, tore the men of Succoth to pieces.
Jdg 8:17 He destroyed the tower of Penuel and slaughtered the townsmen.
Jdg 8:18 He then said to Zebah and Zalmunna, 'The men you killed at Tabor -- what were they like?' They replied, 'They looked like you. Every one of them carried himself like the son of a king.'
Jdg 8:19 Gideon replied, 'They were my brothers, the sons of my own mother; as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, if you had spared their lives I would not kill you.'
Jdg 8:20 To Jether his eldest son he said, 'Stand up and kill them!' But the boy did not draw his sword; he dared not; he was still only a lad.
Jdg 8:21 Zebah and Zalmunna then said, 'Stand up yourself, and strike us down; for as a man is, so is his strength.' Then Gideon stood up and killed Zebah and Zalmunna; and he took the crescents from round their camels' necks.
Jdg 8:22 The men of Israel said to Gideon, 'Rule over us, you, your son and your grandson, since you have rescued us from the power of Midian.'
Jdg 8:23 But Gideon replied, 'I will not rule you, neither will my son. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) shall rule you.'
Jdg 8:24 Gideon went on, however, 'Let me make you one request. Each of you give me one ring out of his booty' -- for the vanquished had had gold rings, being Ishmaelites.
Jdg 8:25 'We shall give them gladly,' they replied. So he spread out his cloak, and on it each of them threw a ring from his booty.
Jdg 8:26 The weight of the gold rings which he had asked for amounted to seventeen hundred shekels of gold, besides the crescents and the earrings and purple garments worn by the kings of Midian, and besides the collars round their camels' necks.
Jdg 8:27 From this Gideon made an ephod and set it up in his town, in Ophrah. All Israel, following his example, prostituted themselves to it, and it was a snare for Gideon and his family.
Jdg 8:28 Thus Midian was humbled before the Israelites. He did not raise his head again, and the country had peace for forty years, as long as Gideon lived.
Jdg 8:29 So Jerubbaal son of Joash went to live at home.
Jdg 8:30 Gideon had seventy sons begotten by him, for he had many wives.
Jdg 8:31 His concubine, who lived in Shechem, also bore him a son, to whom he gave the name Abimelech.
Jdg 8:32 Gideon son of Joash died after a happy old age and was buried in the tomb of Joash his father, at Ophrah of Abiezer.
Jdg 8:33 After Gideon's death, the people of Israel again began to prostitute themselves to the Baals, taking Baal-Berith for their god.
Jdg 8:34 The Israelites no longer remembered Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God, who had rescued them from all the enemies round them.
Jdg 8:35 And to the family of Jerubbaal -- Gideon -- they showed no faithful gratitude for all the good which it had done for Israel.
Jdg 9:1 Abimelech son of Jerubbaal confronted his mother's brothers at Shechem and, to them and to the whole clan of his maternal grandfather's family, he said,
Jdg 9:2 'Please put this question to the leading men of Shechem: Which is better for you: to be ruled by seventy people -- all Jerubbaal's sons -- or to be ruled by one? Remember too that I am your own flesh and bone.'
Jdg 9:3 His mother's brothers said all this on his behalf to all the leading men of Shechem, and their feelings swayed them to follow Abimelech, since they argued, 'He is our brother.'
Jdg 9:4 So they gave him seventy shekels of silver from the temple of Baal-Berith, and with this Abimelech paid violent adventurers to follow him.
Jdg 9:5 He then went to his father's house at Ophrah and put his brothers, Jerubbaal's seventy sons, to death on one and the same stone. Jotham, however, Jerubbaal's youngest son, escaped by going into hiding.
Jdg 9:6 All the leading men of Shechem and all Beth-Millo then met and proclaimed Abimelech king at the oak of the cultic stone at Shechem.
Jdg 9:7 News of this was brought to Jotham. He went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim and shouted at the top of his voice: Hear me, leaders of Shechem, so that God may also hear you!
Jdg 9:8 One day the trees went out to anoint a king to rule them. They said to the olive tree, 'Be our king!'
Jdg 9:9 The olive tree replied, 'Must I forgo my oil which gives honor to gods and men, to stand and sway over the trees?'
Jdg 9:10 Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come and be our king!'
Jdg 9:11 The fig tree replied, 'Must I forgo my sweetness, forgo my excellent fruit, to go and sway over the trees?'
Jdg 9:12 Then the trees said to the vine, 'You come and be our king!'
Jdg 9:13 The vine replied, 'Must I forgo my wine which cheers gods and men, to go and sway over the trees?'
Jdg 9:14 Then the trees all said to the thorn bush, 'You come and be our king!'
Jdg 9:15 And the thorn bush replied to the trees, 'If you are anointing me in good faith to be your king, come and shelter in my shade. But, if not, fire will come out of the thorn bush and devour the cedars of Lebanon.'
Jdg 9:16 'Now then, if you have acted in sincerity and good faith in making Abimelech king, if you have dealt honorably with Jerubbaal and his family, and have treated him as his actions deserved,
Jdg 9:17 my father having fought for you, risked his life and rescued you from the power of Midian,
Jdg 9:18 and you today having risen up against my father's family, murdered his sons -- seventy of them on one and the same stone -- and appointed Abimelech, his slave-girl's son, to rule the leading men of Shechem, because he is your brother!-
Jdg 9:19 if, I say, you have acted in sincerity and good faith towards Jerubbaal and his family, then may Abimelech be your joy and may you be his!
Jdg 9:20 If not, may fire come out of Abimelech and devour the leading men of Shechem and Beth-Millo, and fire come out of the leading men of Shechem and Beth-Millo to devour Abimelech!'
Jdg 9:21 Jotham then took to his heels; he fled and made his way to Beer; and there he stayed, to be out of his brother Abimelech's reach.
Jdg 9:22 Abimelech ruled Israel for three years.
Jdg 9:23 God then sent a spirit of discord between Abimelech and the leaders of Shechem, and the leaders of Shechem betrayed Abimelech.
Jdg 9:24 And this was so that the crime committed against Jerubbaal's seventy sons should be avenged, and their blood recoil on their brother Abimelech who had murdered them, and on those leaders of Shechem who had helped him to murder his brothers.
Jdg 9:25 The leaders of Shechem put men to ambush him on the mountain tops, and these robbed anyone traveling their way. Abimelech was told of this.
Jdg 9:26 Gaal son of Obed, with his brothers, happened to pass through Shechem and win the confidence of the leaders of Shechem.
Jdg 9:27 These went out into the countryside to harvest their vineyards; they trod the grapes and made merry and went into the temple of their god. They ate and drank there and cursed Abimelech.
Jdg 9:28 Gaal son of Obed said, 'Who is Abimelech, and what is Shechem, for us to be his slaves? Should not Jerubbaal's son and his lieutenant, Zebul, be serving the men of Hamor, father of Shechem? Why should we be his slaves?
Jdg 9:29 Who will put this people under my command, so that I can expel Abimelech? I should say to him, "Reinforce your army and come out!" '
Jdg 9:30 Zebul the governor of the town was told what Gaal son of Obed had said, and he was furious.
Jdg 9:31 He sent messengers secretly to Abimelech to say, 'Look! Gaal son of Obed has come to Shechem with his brothers, and they are stirring up the town against you.
Jdg 9:32 So, move under cover of dark, you and the men you have with you, and take up concealed positions in the countryside;
Jdg 9:33 then in the morning at sunrise, break cover and rush on the town. When Gaal and his supporters come out to meet you, treat them as occasion offers.'
Jdg 9:34 So Abimelech set off under cover of dark with all his own supporters and took up concealed positions over against Shechem, in four groups.
Jdg 9:35 As Gaal son of Obed was coming out and pausing at the entrance of the town gate, Abimelech and his supporters rose from their ambush.
Jdg 9:36 Gaal saw these men and said to Zebul, 'Look, there are men coming down from the tops of the mountains!' Zebul answered, 'You mistake the shadow of the mountains for men.'
Jdg 9:37 But Gaal insisted, 'Look, there are men coming down from the Navel of the Earth and another group is coming from the direction of the Diviners' Oak.'
Jdg 9:38 Zebul then said, 'Where are your mouthings now about "Who is Abimelech, for us to be his slaves?" Are not these the men you made light of? Sally out, then, and fight him.'
Jdg 9:39 Gaal sallied out at the head of the leaders of Shechem and engaged Abimelech.
Jdg 9:40 Abimelech drove Gaal off, who turned tail, many of his men falling dead before they could reach the gate.
Jdg 9:41 Abimelech then stayed at Aruma, and Zebul expelled Gaal and his brothers and prevented them from living in Shechem.
Jdg 9:42 Next day, when the people went out into the countryside, Abimelech was told of this.
Jdg 9:43 He took his men, divided them into three groups and lay in wait in the fields. When he saw the people leaving the town, he bore down on them and slaughtered them.
Jdg 9:44 While Abimelech and his group rushed forward and took position at the entrance to the town gate, the two other groups fell on everyone in the fields and slaughtered them.
Jdg 9:45 All that day Abimelech attacked the town. He stormed it and slaughtered the people inside, razed the town and sowed it with salt.
Jdg 9:46 On hearing this, all the leading men inside Migdal-Shechem took refuge in the crypt of the temple of El-Berith.
Jdg 9:47 As soon as Abimelech heard that the leading men inside Migdal-Shechem had all gathered there,
Jdg 9:48 he went up Mount Zalmon with all his men. Then taking an axe in his hands, he cut off the branch of a tree, picked it up and put it on his shoulder, and said to the men with him, 'Hurry and do what you have seen me do.'
Jdg 9:49 Each of his men similarly cut off a branch; then, following Abimelech, they piled the branches over the crypt and set it on fire over those who were inside; so that all the people in Migdal-Shechem died too, about a thousand men and women.
Jdg 9:50 Abimelech then marched on Thebez, besieged it and captured it.
Jdg 9:51 In the middle of the town there was a fortified tower in which all the men and women and all the leading men of the town took refuge. They locked the door behind them and climbed up to the roof of the tower.
Jdg 9:52 Abimelech reached the tower and attacked it. As he was approaching the door of the tower to set it on fire,
Jdg 9:53 a woman threw down a millstone on his head and cracked his skull.
Jdg 9:54 He instantly called his young armour-bearer and said, 'Draw your sword and kill me, so that it will not be said of me that "A woman killed him".' His armour-bearer ran him through, and he died.
Jdg 9:55 When the men of Israel saw that Abimelech was dead, they dispersed to their homes.
Jdg 9:56 Thus God made to recoil on Abimelech the evil he had done his father by murdering his seventy brothers,
Jdg 9:57 and all the evil that the men of Shechem had done God made recoil on their heads too. And so the curse of Jotham son of Jerubbaal came true for them.
Jdg 10:1 After Abimelech, Tola son of Puah, son of Dodo, rose to deliver Israel. He belonged to Issachar and lived at Shamir in the mountain country of Ephraim.
Jdg 10:2 He was judge in Israel for twenty-three years; he then died and was buried at Shamir.
Jdg 10:3 After him rose Jair of Gilead, who judged Israel for twenty-two years.
Jdg 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty young donkeys and who owned thirty towns, still known today as the Encampments of Jair, in the territory of Gilead.
Jdg 10:5 Jair then died and was buried at Kamon.
Jdg 10:6 The Israelites again began doing what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes. They served Baal and Astarte, and the gods of Aram and Sidon, the gods of Moab and those of the Ammonites and Philistines. They deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and served him no more.
Jdg 10:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger then grew hot against Israel and he gave them over into the power of the Philistines and the power of the Ammonites,
Jdg 10:8 who from that year onwards crushed and oppressed the Israelites for eighteen years -- all those Israelites living on the other side of the Jordan in Amorite territory, in Gilead.
Jdg 10:9 Furthermore, the Ammonites would cross the Jordan and also make war on Judah, Benjamin and the House of Ephraim, so that Israel was in distress.
Jdg 10:10 The Israelites then cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, 'We have sinned against you, because we have turned from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God to serve Baals.'
Jdg 10:11 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to the Israelites, 'When Egyptians and Amorites, Ammonites and Philistines,
Jdg 10:12 when the Sidonians, Amalek and Midian oppressed you and you cried to me, did I not rescue you from their power?
Jdg 10:13 But it is you who have forsaken me and served other gods; and so I shall rescue you no more.
Jdg 10:14 Go and cry to the gods whom you have chosen. Let them rescue you in your time of trouble.'
Jdg 10:15 The Israelites replied to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'We have sinned. Treat us as you see fit, but please rescue us today.'
Jdg 10:16 They got rid of their foreign gods and served Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who could bear Israel's suffering no longer.
Jdg 10:17 The Ammonites gathered and pitched camp in Gilead. The Israelites rallied and pitched camp at Mizpah.
Jdg 10:18 The people, the chieftains of Gilead, then said to one another, 'Who will volunteer to attack the Ammonites? He shall be chief of all who live in Gilead!'
Jdg 11:1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a valiant warrior. He was a prostitute's son. Gilead was Jephthah's father,
Jdg 11:2 but Gilead's wife also bore him sons, and the sons of this wife, when they grew up, drove Jephthah away, saying, 'No share of the paternal heritage for you, since you are a son of another woman.'
Jdg 11:3 Jephthah fled far from his brothers and settled in the territory of Tob. Jephthah enlisted a group of adventurers who used to go raiding with him.
Jdg 11:4 It was some time after this that the Ammonites made war on Israel.
Jdg 11:5 And when the Ammonites had attacked Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jephthah from the territory of Tob.
Jdg 11:6 'Come', they said, 'and be our commander, so that we can fight the Ammonites.'
Jdg 11:7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, 'Didn't you hate me and drive me out of my father's house? Why come to me now, when you are in trouble?'
Jdg 11:8 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, 'That is why we are turning to you now. Come with us; fight the Ammonites and be our chief, chief of all the people living in Gilead.'
Jdg 11:9 Jephthah then said to the elders of Gilead, 'If you bring me home to fight the Ammonites and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) defeats them for me, I am to be your chief?'
Jdg 11:10 And the elders of Gilead then said to Jephthah, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be witness between us, if we do not do as you have said!'
Jdg 11:11 So Jephthah set off with the elders of Gilead. The people put him at their head as chief and commander; and Jephthah repeated all his conditions at Mizpah in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence.
Jdg 11:12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites to say to him, 'What do you have against us, for you to come and make war on my country?'
Jdg 11:13 The king of the Ammonites replied to Jephthah's messengers, 'The reason is that when Israel came up from Egypt, they seized my country from the Arnon to the Jabbok and to the Jordan; so now restore it to me peacefully.'
Jdg 11:14 Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of the Ammonites
Jdg 11:15 with this answer, 'Jephthah says this, "Israel seized neither the country of Moab nor the country of the Ammonites.
Jdg 11:16 When Israel came out of Egypt, they marched through the desert as far as the Sea of Reeds and, having reached Kadesh,
Jdg 11:17 Israel then sent messengers to the king of Edom to say: Please let me pass through your country, but the king of Edom would not listen. They sent similarly to the king of Moab, but he refused, and Israel remained at Kadesh;
Jdg 11:18 later, moving on through the desert and skirting the countries of Edom and Moab until arriving to the east of Moabite territory, the people camped on the other side of the Arnon but did not enter Moabite territory, the Arnon being the Moabite frontier.
Jdg 11:19 Israel then sent messengers to Sihon, king of the Amorites, ruling in Heshbon. Israel's message was: Please let me pass through your country to my destination.
Jdg 11:20 But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory; he mustered his whole army; they encamped at Jahaz, and he then joined battle with Israel.
Jdg 11:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, delivered Sihon and his whole army into the power of Israel, who defeated them; as the result of which, Israel took possession of the entire territory of the Amorites living in that region.
Jdg 11:22 Israel took possession of all the Amorite territory from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan.
Jdg 11:23 And now that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites before his people Israel, do you think you can dispossess us?
Jdg 11:24 Will you not keep as your possession whatever Chemosh, your god, has given you? And, just the same, we shall keep as ours whatever Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has given us, to inherit from those who were before us!
Jdg 11:25 Are you a better man than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he pick a quarrel with Israel? Did he make war on them?
Jdg 11:26 When Israel settled in Heshbon and its dependencies, and in Aroer and its dependencies, or in any of the towns on the banks of the Arnon (three hundred years ago), why did you not recover them then?
Jdg 11:27 I for my part have done you no harm, but you are wronging me by making war on me. Let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the Judge give judgement today between the Israelites and the king of the Ammonites." '
Jdg 11:28 But the king of the Ammonites took no notice of the message that Jephthah sent him.
Jdg 11:29 The spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was on Jephthah, who crossed Gilead and Manasseh, crossed by way of Mizpah in Gilead, and from Mizpah in Gilead crossed into Ammonite territory.
Jdg 11:30 And Jephthah made a vow to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'If you deliver the Ammonites into my grasp,
Jdg 11:31 the first thing to come out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from fighting the Ammonites shall belong to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I shall sacrifice it as a burnt offering.'
Jdg 11:32 Jephthah crossed into Ammonite territory to attack them, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) delivered them into his grasp.
Jdg 11:33 He beat them from Aroer to the border of Minnith (twenty towns) and to Abel-Keramim. It was a very severe defeat, and the Ammonites were humbled by the Israelites.
Jdg 11:34 As Jephthah returned to his house at Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, dancing to the sound of tambourines. She was his only child; apart from her, he had neither son nor daughter.
Jdg 11:35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and exclaimed, 'Oh my daughter, what misery you have brought upon me! You have joined those who bring misery into my life! I have made a promise before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which I cannot retract.'
Jdg 11:36 She replied, 'Father, you have made a promise to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); treat me as the promise that you have made requires, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has granted you vengeance on your enemies the Ammonites.'
Jdg 11:37 She then said to her father, 'Grant me this! Let me be free for two months. I shall go and wander in the mountains, and with my companions bewail my virginity.'
Jdg 11:38 He replied, 'Go,' and let her go away for two months. So she went away with her companions and bewailed her virginity in the mountains.
Jdg 11:39 When the two months were over she went back to her father, and he treated her as the vow that he had uttered bound him. She had remained a virgin. And hence, the custom in Israel
Jdg 11:40 for the daughters of Israel to leave home year by year and lament over the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite for four days every year.
Jdg 12:1 The men of Ephraim mobilised; they crossed the Jordan near Zaphon and said to Jephthah, 'Why did you go and make war on the Ammonites without asking us to go with you? We shall burn down your house over your head!'
Jdg 12:2 Jephthah replied, 'My people and I were in serious conflict with the Ammonites. I summoned you, but you did not come to rescue me from them.
Jdg 12:3 When I saw that no one was coming to rescue me, I took my life in my hands and marched against the Ammonites, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) handed them over to me. So why advance on me today to make war on me?'
Jdg 12:4 Jephthah then mustered all the men of Gilead and made war on Ephraim, and the men of Gilead defeated Ephraim -- since the latter used to say, 'You are only fugitives from Ephraim, you Gileadites in the heart of Ephraim and Manasseh.'
Jdg 12:5 Gilead then cut Ephraim off from the fords of the Jordan, and whenever Ephraimite fugitives said, 'Let me cross,' the men of Gilead would ask, 'Are you an Ephraimite?' If he said, 'No,'
Jdg 12:6 they then said, 'Very well, say Shibboleth.' If anyone said, "Sibboleth", because he could not pronounce it, then they would seize him and kill him by the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites fell on this occasion.
Jdg 12:7 Jephthah judged Israel for six years. Jephthah the Gileadite then died and was buried in his town, in Gilead.
Jdg 12:8 After him, Ibzan of Bethlehem was judge in Israel.
Jdg 12:9 He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters in marriage outside his clan and brought in thirty brides from outside for his sons. He was judge in Israel for seven years.
Jdg 12:10 Ibzan then died and was buried in Bethlehem.
Jdg 12:11 After him, Elon of Zebulun was judge in Israel. He was judge in Israel for ten years.
Jdg 12:12 Elon of Zebulun then died and was buried at Aijalon in the territory of Zebulun.
Jdg 12:13 After him, Abdon son of Hillel of Pirathon was judge in Israel.
Jdg 12:14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons who rode seventy young donkeys. He was judge in Israel for eight years.
Jdg 12:15 Abdon son of Hillel of Pirathon then died and was buried at Pirathon in the territory of Ephraim, in the Amalekite highlands.
Jdg 13:1 Again the Israelites began doing what is evil in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) delivered them into the power of the Philistines for forty years.
Jdg 13:2 There was a man of Zorah of the tribe of Dan, called Manoah. His wife was barren; she had borne no children.
Jdg 13:3 The Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to this woman and said to her, 'You are barren and have had no child, but you are going to conceive and give birth to a son.
Jdg 13:4 From now on, take great care. Drink no wine or fermented liquor, and eat nothing unclean.
Jdg 13:5 For you are going to conceive and give birth to a son. No razor is to touch his head, for the boy is to be God's nazirite from his mother's womb; and he will start rescuing Israel from the power of the Philistines.'
Jdg 13:6 The woman then went and told her husband, 'A man of God has just come to me, who looked like the Angel of God, so majestic was he. I did not ask him where he came from, and he did not tell me his name.
Jdg 13:7 But he said to me, "You are going to conceive and will give birth to a son. From now on, drink no wine or fermented liquor, and eat nothing unclean. For the boy is to be God's nazirite from his mother's womb to his dying day." '
Jdg 13:8 Manoah then pleaded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, 'I beg you, Lord, let the man of God that you sent come to us again and instruct us what to do about the child when he is born.'
Jdg 13:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard Manoah's prayer, and the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) visited the woman again while she was sitting in a field and when her husband Manoah was not with her.
Jdg 13:10 The woman quickly ran and told her husband, 'Look,' she said, 'the man who came to me the other day has appeared to me again.'
Jdg 13:11 Manoah got up, followed his wife, came to the man and said to him, 'Are you the man who spoke to this woman?' He replied, 'I am.'
Jdg 13:12 Manoah then said, 'When your words come true, what will be the boy's way of life?'
Jdg 13:13 The Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied to Manoah, 'From everything that I forbade this woman, let her abstain.
Jdg 13:14 Let her swallow nothing that comes from the vine, let her drink no wine or fermented liquor, let her eat nothing unclean and let her obey all the orders that I have given her.'
Jdg 13:15 Manoah then said to the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Allow us to detain you while we prepare a kid for you' -- for Manoah did not know that this was the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jdg 13:16 The Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Manoah, 'Even if you did detain me, I should not eat your food; but if you wish to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Jdg 13:17 Manoah then said to the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?'
Jdg 13:18 The Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Why ask my name? It is a name of wonder.'
Jdg 13:19 Manoah then took the kid and the oblation and offered it on the rock as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the Wonderworker. Manoah and his wife looked on.
Jdg 13:20 Now, as the flame rose heavenwards from the altar, the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ascended in this flame before the eyes of Manoah and his wife, and they fell face downwards on the ground.
Jdg 13:21 After this, the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did not appear any more to Manoah and his wife, but Manoah understood that this had been the Angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jdg 13:22 And Manoah said to his wife, 'We are certain to die, because we have seen God.'
Jdg 13:23 His wife replied, 'If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and oblation from us, he would not have let us see all this and, at the same time, have told us such things.'
Jdg 13:24 The woman gave birth to a son and called him Samson. The child grew, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blessed him;
Jdg 13:25 and the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) began to stir him in the Camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.
Jdg 14:1 Samson went down to Timnah, and at Timnah he noticed a woman, a Philistine girl.
Jdg 14:2 He went home again and told his father and mother this. 'At Timnah', he said, 'I noticed a woman, a Philistine girl. So now get her for me, to be my wife.'
Jdg 14:3 His father and mother said to him, 'Is there no woman among your brothers' daughters or in our entire nation, for you to go and take a wife among these uncircumcised Philistines?' But Samson said to his father, 'Get that one for me; she is the one I am fond of.'
Jdg 14:4 His father and mother did not know that all this came from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who was seeking grounds for a quarrel with the Philistines, since at this time the Philistines dominated Israel.
Jdg 14:5 Samson went down to Timnah and, as he reached the vineyards of Timnah, he saw a young lion coming roaring towards him.
Jdg 14:6 The spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seized on him and he tore the lion to pieces with his bare hands as though it were a kid; but he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
Jdg 14:7 He went down and talked to the woman, and he became fond of her.
Jdg 14:8 Not long after this, Samson went back to marry her. He went out of his way to look at the carcase of the lion, and there was a swarm of bees in the lion's body, and honey.
Jdg 14:9 He took up some honey in his hand and ate it as he went along. On returning to his father and mother, he gave some to them, which they ate too, but he did not tell them that he had taken it from the lion's carcase.
Jdg 14:10 His father then went down to the woman, and Samson made a feast there, as is the custom for young men.
Jdg 14:11 And when the Philistines saw him, they chose thirty companions to stay with him.
Jdg 14:12 Samson then said to them, 'Let me ask you a riddle. If you can give me the answer during the seven days of feasting, I shall give you thirty pieces of fine linen and thirty festal robes.
Jdg 14:13 But if you cannot tell me the answer, then you in your turn must give me thirty pieces of fine linen and thirty festal robes.' 'Ask your riddle,' they replied, 'we are listening.'
Jdg 14:14 So he said to them: Out of the eater came what is eaten, and out of the strong came what is sweet. But three days went by and they could not solve the riddle.
Jdg 14:15 On the fourth day they said to Samson's wife, 'Cajole your husband into explaining the riddle to us, or we shall burn you and your father's family to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?'
Jdg 14:16 Samson's wife then went to him in tears and said, 'You only hate me, you do not love me. You have asked my fellow countrymen a riddle and told not even me the answer.' He said to her, 'I have not told even my father or mother; why should I tell you?'
Jdg 14:17 She wept on his neck for the seven days that their feasting lasted. She was so persistent that on the seventh day he told her the answer, and she told her fellow-countrymen.
Jdg 14:18 So on the seventh day, before he went into the bedroom, the men of the town said to him: What is sweeter than honey, and what stronger than a lion? He retorted: If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you would never have solved my riddle.
Jdg 14:19 Then the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seized on him. He went down to Ashkelon, killed thirty men there, took what they wore and gave the festal robes to those who had answered the riddle, then burning with rage returned to his father's house.
Jdg 14:20 Samson's wife was then given to the companion who had acted as his best man.
Jdg 15:1 Not long after this, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson visited his wife, with a kid; he said, 'I wish to go to my wife in her room.' But her father would not let him enter.
Jdg 15:2 'I felt sure', he said, 'that you had taken a real dislike to her, so I gave her to your companion. But would not her younger sister suit you better? Have her instead.'
Jdg 15:3 But Samson answered them, 'I can get my revenge on the Philistines now only by doing them some damage.'
Jdg 15:4 So Samson went off and caught three hundred foxes, then took torches and, turning the foxes tail to tail, put a torch between each pair of tails.
Jdg 15:5 He lit the torches and set the foxes free in the Philistines' cornfields. In this way he burned both sheaves and standing corn, and the vines and olive trees as well.
Jdg 15:6 The Philistines asked, 'Who has done this?' and received the answer, 'Samson, who married the Timnite's daughter; his father-in-law took the wife back again and gave her to his companion instead.' The Philistines then went and burned the woman and her father's family to death.
Jdg 15:7 Samson said to them, 'If that is how you behave, I swear I will not rest till I have had my revenge on you.'
Jdg 15:8 And he fell on them systematically and caused great havoc. Then he went down to the cave in the Rock of Etham and lived there.
Jdg 15:9 The Philistines came up and encamped in Judah and made a foray against Lehi.
Jdg 15:10 The men of Judah said to them, 'Why are you attacking us?' They replied, 'We have come to seize Samson and to treat him as he has treated us.'
Jdg 15:11 Three thousand men of Judah then went down to the cave of the Rock of Etham and said to him, 'Don't you know that the Philistines have us in their power? Now what have you done to us?' He replied, 'I have treated them only as they treated me.'
Jdg 15:12 They then said, 'We have come down to take you, to hand you over to the Philistines.' He said, 'Swear to me not to kill me yourselves.'
Jdg 15:13 They replied, 'No; we only want to bind you and hand you over to them; we certainly do not want to kill you.' They then bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the Rock.
Jdg 15:14 As he was approaching Lehi, and the Philistines came running towards him with triumphant shouts, the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was on him; the ropes on his arms became like burnt strands of flax and the cords round his hands came untied.
Jdg 15:15 Coming across the fresh jawbone of a donkey, he reached out and snatched it up; and with it he slaughtered a thousand men.
Jdg 15:16 And Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey I have laid them in heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have felled a thousand men.
Jdg 15:17 And with that he hurled the jawbone away; and that is why the place was called Ramath-Lehi.
Jdg 15:18 And as he was very thirsty, he called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, 'You yourself have worked this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now must I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?'
Jdg 15:19 Then God opened a hollow in the ground, the hollow there is at Lehi, and water gushed out of it. Samson drank; his vigour returned and he revived. And therefore this spring was called En-ha-Kore; it is still at Lehi today.
Jdg 15:20 Samson was judge in Israel in the days of the Philistines for twenty years.
Jdg 16:1 Samson then went to Gaza and, seeing a prostitute there, went in to her.
Jdg 16:2 The men of Gaza being told, 'Samson has arrived,' surrounded the place and kept watch for him the whole night at the town gate. All that night they were going to make no move, thinking, 'Let us wait until daybreak, and then kill him.'
Jdg 16:3 Till midnight, however, Samson stayed in bed, and then at midnight he got up, seized the doors of the town gate and the two posts as well; he tore them up, bar and all, hoisted them on to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill overlooking Hebron.
Jdg 16:4 After this, he fell in love with a woman in the Vale of Sorek; she was called Delilah.
Jdg 16:5 The Philistine chiefs visited her and said, 'Cajole him and find out where his great strength comes from, and how we can master him, so that we can bind him and subdue him. In return we shall each give you eleven hundred silver shekels.'
Jdg 16:6 Delilah said to Samson, 'Please tell me where your great strength comes from, and what would be needed to bind and subdue you.'
Jdg 16:7 Samson replied, 'If I were bound with seven new bowstrings which had not yet been dried, I should lose my strength and become like any other man.'
Jdg 16:8 The Philistine chiefs brought Delilah seven new bowstrings which had not yet been dried and she took them and bound him with them.
Jdg 16:9 She had men concealed in her room, and she shouted, 'The Philistines are on you, Samson!' Then he snapped the bowstrings as a strand of tow snaps at a touch of the fire. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.
Jdg 16:10 Delilah then said to Samson, 'You have been laughing at me and telling me lies. But now please tell me what would be needed to bind you.'
Jdg 16:11 He replied, 'If I were bound tightly with new ropes which have never been used, I should lose my strength and become like any other man.'
Jdg 16:12 Delilah then took new ropes and bound him with them, and she shouted, 'The Philistines are on you, Samson!' She had men concealed in her room, but he snapped the ropes round his arms like thread.
Jdg 16:13 Delilah then said to Samson, 'Up to now you have been laughing at me and telling me lies. Tell me what would be needed to bind you.' He replied, 'If you wove the seven locks of my hair into the warp of a cloth and beat them together tight with the reed, I should lose my strength and become like any other man.'
Jdg 16:14 She lulled him to sleep, then wove the seven locks of his hair into the warp, beat them together tight with the reed and shouted, 'The Philistines are on you, Samson!' He woke from his sleep and pulled out both reed and warp. So the secret of his strength remained unknown.
Jdg 16:15 Delilah said to him, 'How can you say that you love me, when your heart is not with me? Three times now you have laughed at me and have not told me where your great strength comes from.'
Jdg 16:16 And day after day she pestered him with her talk, nagging him till he grew sick to death of it.
Jdg 16:17 At last he confided everything to her; he said to her, 'A razor has never touched my head, because I have been God's nazirite from my mother's womb. If my head were shorn, then my power would leave me and I should lose my strength and become like any other man.'
Jdg 16:18 Delilah then realized that he had really confided in her; she sent for the Philistine princes with the message, 'Come just once more: he has confided everything to me.' And the Philistine chiefs came to her with the money in their hands.
Jdg 16:19 She lulled Samson to sleep in her lap, summoned a man and had him shear off the seven locks from his head. Thus for the first time she got control over him, and his strength left him.
Jdg 16:20 She cried, 'The Philistines are on you, Samson!' He awoke from sleep, thinking, 'I shall break free as I have done time after time and shake myself clear.' But he did not know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had left him.
Jdg 16:21 The Philistines seized him, put out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. They fettered him with a double chain of bronze and he spent his time turning the mill in the prison.
Jdg 16:22 But his hair began to grow again when it had been cut off.
Jdg 16:23 The Philistine chiefs assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god. And amid their festivities they said: Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy.
Jdg 16:24 And as soon as the people saw their god, they acclaimed him, shouting his praises: Into our hands our god has delivered Samson our enemy, the man who laid our country waste and killed so many of us.
Jdg 16:25 And as their hearts were full of joy, they shouted, 'Summon Samson out to amuse us.' So Samson was summoned from prison, and he performed feats in front of them; then he was put to stand between the pillars.
Jdg 16:26 Samson then said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, 'Lead me where I can touch the pillars supporting the building, so that I can lean against them.'
Jdg 16:27 Now the building was crowded with men and women. All the Philistine chiefs were there, while about three thousand men and women were watching Samson's feats from the terrace.
Jdg 16:28 Samson called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and cried out, 'Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I beg you, remember me; give me strength again this once, O God, and let me be revenged on the Philistines at one blow for my two eyes.'
Jdg 16:29 And Samson took hold of the two central pillars supporting the building, and braced himself with his right arm round one and his left round the other;
Jdg 16:30 and he shouted, 'Let me die with the Philistines!' He then heaved with all his might, and the building fell on the chiefs and on all the people there. Those whom he brought to their death by his death outnumbered those whom he had done to death during his life.
Jdg 16:31 His brothers and the whole of his father's family came down and carried him away. They took him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of Manoah his father. He had judged Israel for twenty years.
Jdg 17:1 In the highlands of Ephraim there was a man called Micayehu.
Jdg 17:2 He said to his mother, 'The eleven hundred silver shekels which were taken from you and concerning which you uttered a curse, having said in my hearing . . . Look, I have got that silver. I was the one who took it.' His mother said, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bless my boy!'
Jdg 17:3 He gave the eleven hundred shekels back to his mother, who said, 'I have indeed vowed to give this silver to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for my son, to have a statue carved and an idol cast in metal, but now I should like to give it back to you.' He, however, returned the money to his mother.
Jdg 17:4 His mother then took two hundred silver shekels and gave them to the metalworker. With them, he carved a statue (and cast an idol in metal) which was put in Micayehu's house.
Jdg 17:5 This man Micah owned a shrine; he made an ephod and some domestic images, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.
Jdg 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did as he saw fit.
Jdg 17:7 There was a young man of Bethlehem in Judah, of the clan of Judah, who was a Levite and resided there as a stranger.
Jdg 17:8 This man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle wherever he could find a home. On his travels he came to the highlands of Ephraim and to Micah's house.
Jdg 17:9 Micah asked him, 'Where do you come from?' The other replied, 'I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am traveling, and am going to settle wherever I can find a home.'
Jdg 17:10 Micah said to him, 'Stay here with me; be my father and priest and I shall give you ten silver shekels a year, and clothing and food.'
Jdg 17:11 The Levite agreed to remain in the man's house, and the young man became like one of his sons to him.
Jdg 17:12 Micah installed the Levite; the young man became Micah's priest and stayed in his house.
Jdg 17:13 And Micah said, 'Now I know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will treat me well, since I have this Levite as priest.'
Jdg 18:1 In those days there was no king in Israel. Now in those days the tribe of Dan was in search of a territory to live in, for until then no territory had fallen to them among the tribes of Israel.
Jdg 18:2 From their clan the Danites sent five brave men from Zorah and Eshtaol to reconnoitre the country and explore it. They said to them, 'Go and explore the country.' The five men came to the highlands of Ephraim, as far as Micah's house, and spent the night there.
Jdg 18:3 When they were near Micah's house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite and, going nearer, said to him, 'Who brought you here? What are you doing here? What is keeping you here?'
Jdg 18:4 He replied, 'Micah has made certain arrangements with me. He pays me a wage and I act as his priest.'
Jdg 18:5 They replied, 'Then consult God, so that we may know whether the journey we are on will lead to success.'
Jdg 18:6 The priest replied, 'Go in peace; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is watching over your journey.'
Jdg 18:7 The five men then left and, arriving at Laish, saw that the people living there had an untroubled existence, according to the customs of the Sidonians, peaceful and trusting, that there was no lack or shortage of any sort in the territory, that they were a long way away from the Sidonians and that they had no contact with the Aramaeans.
Jdg 18:8 They then went back to their brothers at Zorah and Eshtaol and, when the latter asked them, 'What have you to report?'
Jdg 18:9 they said, 'Up! we must go against them, since we have looked at the country and it is excellent, though you take no action! Waste no time in setting out and taking possession of the country.
Jdg 18:10 When you get there, you will find a trusting people. The country is wide, and God has put it at your mercy. It is a place where there is no lack of anything on earth.'
Jdg 18:11 From these places, consequently, from the clan of Danites at Zorah and Eshtaol, six hundred men set out equipped for war.
Jdg 18:12 They went up and camped at Kiriath-Jearim in Judah; and for this reason the place is still called the Camp of Dan today. It lies to the west of Kiriath-Jearim.
Jdg 18:13 From there they entered the highlands of Ephraim and came to Micah's house.
Jdg 18:14 The five men who had been to reconnoitre the country then spoke to their brothers. 'Do you know', they said, 'that in these houses there is an ephod, some domestic images, a carved statue and an idol cast in metal? So now work out what you have got to do!'
Jdg 18:15 So, turning off the road, they went to the young Levite's dwelling, to Micah's house, and greeted him peacefully.
Jdg 18:16 While the six hundred men of the Danites, equipped for war, stood at the threshold of the gate,
Jdg 18:17 the five who had been to reconnoitre the country went on into the house and took the carved statue, the ephod, the domestic images and the idol cast in metal; meanwhile the priest remained at the threshold of the gate with the six hundred men equipped for war.
Jdg 18:18 These men, having entered Micah's house, took the carved statue, the ephod, the domestic images and the idol cast in metal. The priest, however, said, 'What are you doing?'
Jdg 18:19 'Be quiet,' they replied. 'Put your hand over your mouth and come with us, and become our father and priest. Are you better off as domestic priest to one man, or as priest to a tribe and clan in Israel?'
Jdg 18:20 The priest was delighted; he took the ephod, the domestic images and the carved statue, and went off among the people.
Jdg 18:21 Resuming their original line of march, they set off, having put the women, children, livestock and baggage out in front.
Jdg 18:22 They had gone some distance from Micah's house, when the people living in the houses near Micah's house raised the alarm and set off in pursuit of the Danites.
Jdg 18:23 As they shouted after the Danites, the latter, turning about, said to Micah, 'What is the matter with you, that you are shouting like this?'
Jdg 18:24 He replied, 'You have taken away my god, which I have had made, and the priest as well. You are going away, and what have I got left? And now you ask me, "What is the matter?" '
Jdg 18:25 The Danites said, 'Let us hear no more from you, or quick-tempered men may set about you, and this might cost you your life and the lives of your family!'
Jdg 18:26 So the Danites went on their way; and Micah, seeing that they were the stronger, turned and went home.
Jdg 18:27 So, having taken the god made by Micah, and the priest who had been his, the Danites marched on Laish, on a peaceful and trusting people. They put it to the sword and they burned down the town.
Jdg 18:28 There was no one to come to the rescue, since it was a long way from Sidon and had no contact with the Aramaeans. It lay in the valley running towards Beth-Rehob. They rebuilt the town and settled in it
Jdg 18:29 and called it Dan, from the name of Dan their ancestor who had been born to Israel; originally, however, the town had been called Laish.
Jdg 18:30 The Danites erected the carved statue for themselves. Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Moses, and his sons after him were priests for the tribe of Dan till the day when the inhabitants of the country were carried away into exile.
Jdg 18:31 The carved statue made by Micah they installed for their own use, and there it stayed as long as the house of God remained at Shiloh.
Jdg 19:1 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a man, a Levite, whose home was deep in the highlands of Ephraim. He took as concubine a woman from Bethlehem in Judah.
Jdg 19:2 In a fit of anger his concubine left him and went back to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah, and she stayed there for some time -- four months.
Jdg 19:3 Her husband then set out after her, to appeal to her affections and fetch her back; he had his servant and two donkeys with him. As he was arriving at the house of the girl's father, the father saw him and came happily to meet him.
Jdg 19:4 His father-in-law, the girl's father, kept him there; and he stayed with him for three days; they ate and drank and spent the nights there.
Jdg 19:5 On the fourth day they got up early, and the Levite was preparing to leave when the girl's father said to his son-in-law, 'Have something to eat to gather strength; you can leave later.'
Jdg 19:6 So they sat down and began eating and drinking, the two of them together; then the girl's father said to the young man, 'Please agree to spend tonight here too and enjoy yourself.'
Jdg 19:7 And when the man got up to leave, the father-in-law pressed him again, and he spent another night there.
Jdg 19:8 On the fifth day, the Levite got up early to leave, but the girl's father said to him, 'Please gather strength first!' So they stayed on until the sun began to go down, and the two men had a meal together.
Jdg 19:9 The husband was getting up to leave with his concubine and his servant when his father-in-law, the girl's father, said, 'Look, day is fading into evening. Please spend the night here. Look, the day is nearly over. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Then, early tomorrow, you can leave on your journey and go back home.'
Jdg 19:10 But the man, refusing to stay the night, got up and went on his way, until he arrived within sight of Jebus -- that is, Jerusalem. He had with him two donkeys saddled, his concubine and his servant.
Jdg 19:11 By the time they were near Jebus, the light was going fast. The servant said to his master, 'Come on, please, let us turn off into this Jebusite town and spend the night there.'
Jdg 19:12 His master replied, 'We shall not turn off into a town of foreigners, of people who are not Israelites; we shall go on to Gibeah.'
Jdg 19:13 He then said to his servant, 'Come on, we shall try to reach one or other of those places, either Gibeah or Ramah, and spend the night there.'
Jdg 19:14 So they kept going and went on with their journey. As they approached Gibeah in Benjamin, the sun was setting.
Jdg 19:15 So they turned that way to spend the night in Gibeah. Once inside, the Levite sat down in the town square, but no one offered to take them in for the night.
Jdg 19:16 Eventually, an old man came along at nightfall from his work in the fields. He too was from the highlands of Ephraim, although he was living in Gibeah; the people of the place, however, were Benjaminites.
Jdg 19:17 Looking up, he saw the traveller in the town square. 'Where are you going?' said the old man, 'And where have you come from?'
Jdg 19:18 'We are on our way', the other replied, 'from Bethlehem in Judah to a place deep in the highlands of Ephraim. That is where I come from. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going home, but no one has offered to take me into his house,
Jdg 19:19 although we have straw and provender for our donkeys, and I also have bread and wine for myself, and this maidservant and the young man who is traveling with your servant; we are short of nothing.'
Jdg 19:20 'Welcome,' said the old man. 'I shall see that you have all you want. You cannot spend the night in the square.'
Jdg 19:21 So he took him into his house and gave the donkeys provender. The travellers washed their feet, then ate and drank.
Jdg 19:22 While they were enjoying themselves, some townsmen, scoundrels, came crowding round the house; they battered on the door and said to the old man, master of the house, 'Send out the man who went into your house, we should like to have intercourse with him!'
Jdg 19:23 The master of the house went out to them and said, 'No, brothers, please, do not be so wicked. Since this man is now under my roof, do not commit such an infamy.
Jdg 19:24 Here is my daughter; she is a virgin; I shall bring her out to you. Ill-treat her, do what you please with her, but do not commit such an infamy against this man.'
Jdg 19:25 But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them. They had intercourse with her and ill-treated her all night till morning; when dawn was breaking they let her go.
Jdg 19:26 At daybreak the girl came and fell on the threshold of her husband's host, and she stayed there until it was light.
Jdg 19:27 In the morning her husband got up and, opening the door of the house, was going out to continue his journey when he saw the woman, his concubine, lying at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.
Jdg 19:28 'Get up,' he said, 'we must leave!' There was no answer. He then loaded her on his donkey and began the journey home.
Jdg 19:29 Having reached his house, he took his knife, took hold of his concubine and cut her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces; he then sent her throughout the territory of Israel.
Jdg 19:30 He gave instructions to his messengers, 'This is what you are to say to all the Israelites, "Has anything like this been done since the day when the Israelites came out of Egypt until today? Take this to heart, discuss it; then give your verdict." ' And all who saw it declared, 'Never has such a thing been done or been seen since the Israelites came out of Egypt until today.'
Jdg 20:1 The Israelites then all turned out and, as one man, the entire community from Dan to Beersheba, including Gilead, assembled in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence at Mizpah.
Jdg 20:2 The leaders of the entire people, of all the tribes of Israel, were present at this assembly of God's people, four hundred thousand trained infantry.
Jdg 20:3 The Benjaminites heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah. The Israelites then said, 'Tell us how this crime was committed.'
Jdg 20:4 The Levite, husband of the murdered woman, spoke in reply and said,
Jdg 20:5 'The men of Gibeah ganged up against me and, during the night, surrounded the house where I was lodging. They intended to murder me. They raped my concubine to death.
Jdg 20:6 I then took my concubine, cut her up and sent her throughout the entire territory of the heritage of Israel, since these men had committed a shameful act, an infamy, in Israel.
Jdg 20:7 Now, all you Israelites, discuss the matter and give your decision here and now.'
Jdg 20:8 The whole people stood up as one man and said, 'None of us will go home, none of us will go back to his house!
Jdg 20:9 And this is what we are now going to do to Gibeah. We shall draw lots
Jdg 20:10 and, throughout the tribes of Israel, select ten men out of a hundred, a hundred out of a thousand and a thousand out of ten thousand to collect food for the people, so that, on their arrival, the latter may treat Gibeah in Benjamin as this infamy perpetrated in Israel deserves.'
Jdg 20:11 Thus, as one man, all the men of Israel mustered against the town.
Jdg 20:12 The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin to say, 'What is this crime which has been committed in your territory?
Jdg 20:13 Now, give up these men, these scoundrels, living in Gibeah, so that we can put them to death and wipe out this evil from Israel.' The Benjaminites, however, would not listen to their brother Israelites.
Jdg 20:14 The Benjaminites left their towns and mustered at Gibeah to fight the Israelites.
Jdg 20:15 At the time, a count was made of the Benjaminites from the various towns: there were twenty-six thousand swordsmen; and the count excluded the inhabitants of Gibeah.
Jdg 20:16 In this great army there were seven hundred first-rate left-handers, every man of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss it.
Jdg 20:17 A count was also held of the men of Israel, excluding Benjamin: there were four hundred thousand men, all experienced swordsmen.
Jdg 20:18 They moved off, up to Bethel, to consult God. The Israelites put the question, 'Which of us is to go first into battle against the Benjaminites?' And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Judah is to go first.'
Jdg 20:19 In the morning, the Israelites moved off and pitched their camp over against Gibeah.
Jdg 20:20 The men of Israel advanced to do battle with Benjamin; they drew up their battle line in front of Gibeah.
Jdg 20:21 But the Benjaminites sallied out from Gibeah and that day massacred twenty-two thousand Israelites.
Jdg 20:22 The army of the men of Israel then took fresh heart and again drew up their battle line in the same place as the day before.
Jdg 20:23 The Israelites went and wept before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) until evening; they then consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); they asked, 'Shall we join battle again with the sons of our brother Benjamin?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'March against him!'
Jdg 20:24 This second day, the Israelites advanced against the Benjaminites,
Jdg 20:25 and, this second day, Benjamin sallied out from Gibeah to meet them and massacred another eighteen thousand Israelites, all experienced swordsmen.
Jdg 20:26 Then all the Israelites and the whole people went off to Bethel; they wept and sat in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence; they fasted all day till the evening and presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jdg 20:27 The Israelites then consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). In those days, the ark of the covenant of God was there,
Jdg 20:28 and Phinehas son of Eleazer, son of Aaron was its minister at the time. They said, 'Ought I to go into battle against the sons of my brother Benjamin again, or should I stop?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'March! For tomorrow I shall deliver him into your hands.'
Jdg 20:29 Israel then positioned troops in ambush all round Gibeah.
Jdg 20:30 On the third day the Israelites marched against the Benjaminites and, as before, drew up their line in front of Gibeah.
Jdg 20:31 The Benjaminites sallied out to engage the people and let themselves be drawn away from the town. As before, they began by killing those of the people who were on the roads, one of which runs up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah through open country: some thirty men of Israel.
Jdg 20:32 The Benjaminites thought, 'We have beaten them, as we did the first time,' but the Israelites had decided, 'We shall run away and draw them away from the town along the roads.'
Jdg 20:33 All the Israelites then retreated and reformed at Baal-Tamar, while the Israelite troops in ambush surged from their positions to the west of Gibeah.
Jdg 20:34 Ten thousand picked men, chosen from the whole of Israel, launched their attack on Gibeah. The battle was fierce; and the others knew nothing of the disaster impending.
Jdg 20:35 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) defeated Benjamin before Israel and that day the Israelites killed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin, all of them trained swordsmen.
Jdg 20:36 The Benjaminites saw that they were beaten. The Israelites had given ground to Benjamin, since they were relying on the ambush which they had positioned close to Gibeah.
Jdg 20:37 The troops in ambush threw themselves against Gibeah at top speed; fanning out, they put the whole town to the sword.
Jdg 20:38 Now it had been agreed between the Israelites and those of the ambush that the latter should raise a smoke signal from the town,
Jdg 20:39 whereupon the Israelites in the thick of the battle would turn about. Benjamin began by killing some of the Israelites, about thirty men, and thought, 'We have certainly beaten them, as we did in the first battle.'
Jdg 20:40 But the signal, a column of smoke, began to rise from the town, and the Benjaminites looking back saw the whole town going up in flames to the sky.
Jdg 20:41 The Israelites then turned about, and the Benjaminites were seized with terror, for they saw that disaster had struck them.
Jdg 20:42 They broke before the Israelite onslaught and made for the desert, but the fighters pressed them hard, while the others coming out of the town took and slaughtered them from the rear.
Jdg 20:43 They hemmed in the Benjaminites, pursued them relentlessly, crushing them opposite Gibeah on the east.
Jdg 20:44 Of Benjamin, eighteen thousand men fell, all of them brave men.
Jdg 20:45 They then turned tail and fled into the desert, towards the Rock of Rimmon. Five thousand of them were picked off on the roads, and the rest were relentlessly pursued as far as Gideon, two thousand of them being killed.
Jdg 20:46 The total number of Benjaminites who fell that day was twenty-five thousand swordsmen, all of them brave men.
Jdg 20:47 Six hundred men, however, turned tail and escaped into the desert, to the Rock of Rimmon, and there they stayed for four months.
Jdg 20:48 The men of Israel then went back to the Benjaminites, and put them to the sword-people, livestock and everything else that came their way in the town. And they fired all the towns involved.
Jdg 21:1 The men of Israel had sworn this oath at Mizpah, 'None of us is to give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.'
Jdg 21:2 The people went to Bethel and stayed there until evening, sitting before God and raising their voices, made a great lament,
Jdg 21:3 and exclaiming, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel that a tribe should be missing from Israel today?
Jdg 21:4 The next day the people got up early and built an altar there; they presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices.
Jdg 21:5 The Israelites then said, 'Out of all the tribes of Israel, who has not come to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to the assembly?' -- for they had sworn a solemn oath that anyone who did not come to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at Mizpah would certainly die.
Jdg 21:6 Now the Israelites felt sorry about Benjamin their brother. 'Today', they said, 'a tribe has been amputated from Israel.
Jdg 21:7 What shall we do to provide wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) not to give them any of our own daughters in marriage?'
Jdg 21:8 They then asked, 'Out of the tribes of Israel, who is it that has not come to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at Mizpah?' It was discovered that no one from Jabesh in Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly;
Jdg 21:9 for, a muster having been called of the people, none of the inhabitants of Jabesh in Gilead was present.
Jdg 21:10 The community then despatched twelve thousand of their bravest men there, with these orders: 'Go and slaughter all the inhabitants of Jabesh in Gilead, including the women and children.
Jdg 21:11 This is what you are to do. All males and all those women who have ever slept with a man, you will put under the curse of destruction, but the lives of the virgins you will spare.' And this they did.
Jdg 21:12 Among the inhabitants of Jabesh in Gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and brought them to the camp (to Shiloh in the territory of Canaan).
Jdg 21:13 The whole community then sent messengers to offer peace to the Benjaminites who were at the Rock of Rimmon.
Jdg 21:14 Benjamin then came home: they were given those of the women of Jabesh in Gilead whose lives had been spared, but there were not enough for all.
Jdg 21:15 The people felt sorry about Benjamin, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) having made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
Jdg 21:16 And the elders of the community said, 'What shall we do to provide wives for the survivors, since the women of Benjamin have been wiped out?'
Jdg 21:17 They went on, 'How can we preserve a remnant for Benjamin so that a tribe may not be lost to Israel?
Jdg 21:18 We cannot give them our own daughters in marriage' -- for the Israelites had taken an oath, 'Accursed be the man who gives a wife to Benjamin!'
Jdg 21:19 'However,' they said, 'there is the feast of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), held every year at Shiloh.' (The town lies north of Bethel, east of the highway that runs from Bethel up to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.)
Jdg 21:20 So they told the Benjaminites to do as follows, 'Put yourselves in ambush in the vineyards.
Jdg 21:21 Keep watch: when the girls of Shiloh come out in groups to dance, you then come out of the vineyards, each of you seize a wife from the girls of Shiloh and make for Benjaminite territory.
Jdg 21:22 If their fathers or brothers come and complain to us, we shall say, "Let us have them, since we could not take wives for everyone in the battle; and you could not give them to them, or you would then have been guilty." '
Jdg 21:23 The Benjaminites did this and, from the dancers whom they caught, took as many wives as there were men and then, setting off, went back to their heritage, rebuilt the towns and settled down in them.
Jdg 21:24 The Israelites then dispersed, each man to rejoin his tribe and clan, each leaving that place for his own heritage.
Jdg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel, and everyone did as he saw fit.
Rut 1:1 In the days when the Judges were governing, a famine occurred in the country and a certain man from Bethlehem of Judah went-he, his wife and his two sons -- to live in the Plains of Moab.
Rut 1:2 The man was called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Going to the Plains of Moab, they settled there.
Rut 1:3 Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she and her two sons were left.
Rut 1:4 These married Moabite women: one was called Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years.
Rut 1:5 Mahlon and Chilion then both died too, and Naomi was thus bereft of her two sons and her husband.
Rut 1:6 She then decided to come back from the Plains of Moab with her daughters-in-law, having heard in the Plains of Moab that God had visited his people and given them food.
Rut 1:7 So, with her daughters-in-law, she left the place where she was living and they took the road back to Judah.
Rut 1:8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, 'Go back, each of you to your mother's house.
Rut 1:9 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) show you faithful love, as you have done to those who have died and to me. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) grant that you may each find happiness with a husband!' She then kissed them, but they began weeping loudly,
Rut 1:10 and said, 'No, we shall go back with you to your people.'
Rut 1:11 'Go home, daughters,' Naomi replied. 'Why come with me? Have I any more sons in my womb to make husbands for you?
Rut 1:12 Go home, daughters, go, for I am now too old to marry again. Even if I said, "I still have a hope: I shall take a husband this very night and shall bear more sons,"
Rut 1:13 would you be prepared to wait for them until they were grown up? Would you refuse to marry for their sake? No, daughters, I am bitterly sorry for your sakes that the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) should have been raised against me.'
Rut 1:14 They started weeping loudly all over again; Orpah then kissed her mother-in-law and went back to her people. But Ruth stayed with her.
Rut 1:15 Naomi then said, 'Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go home, too; follow your sister-in-law.'
Rut 1:16 But Ruth said, 'Do not press me to leave you and to stop going with you, for wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, I shall live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
Rut 1:17 Where you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried. Let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills, too, if anything but death should part me from you!'
Rut 1:18 Seeing that Ruth was determined to go with her, Naomi said no more.
Rut 1:19 The two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival set the whole town astir, and the women said, 'Can this be Naomi?'
Rut 1:20 To this she replied, 'Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for Shaddai has made my lot bitter.
Rut 1:21 I departed full, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has brought me home empty. Why, then, call me Naomi, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has pronounced against me and Shaddai has made me wretched?'
Rut 1:22 This was how Naomi came home with her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, on returning from the Plains of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Rut 2:1 Naomi had a kinsman on her husband's side, well-to-do and of Elimelech's clan. His name was Boaz.
Rut 2:2 Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, 'Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favor.' She replied, 'Go, daughter.'
Rut 2:3 So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech's clan.
Rut 2:4 Boaz, as it happened, had just come from Bethlehem. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be with you!' he said to the reapers. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bless you!' they replied.
Rut 2:5 Boaz said to a servant of his who was in charge of the reapers, 'To whom does this young woman belong?'
Rut 2:6 And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, 'The girl is the Moabitess, the one who came back with Naomi from the Plains of Moab.
Rut 2:7 She said, "Please let me glean and pick up what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers." Thus she came, and here she stayed, with hardly a rest from morning until now.'
Rut 2:8 Boaz said to Ruth, 'Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work-women.
Rut 2:9 Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.'
Rut 2:10 Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, 'How have I attracted your favor, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?'
Rut 2:11 Boaz replied, 'I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother-in-law since your husband's death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing.
Rut 2:12 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!'
Rut 2:13 She said, 'My lord, I hope you will always look on me with favor! You have comforted and encouraged me, though I am not even the equal of one of your work-women.'
Rut 2:14 When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, 'Come and eat some of this bread and dip your piece in the vinegar.' Ruth sat down beside the reapers and Boaz made a heap of roasted grain for her; she ate till her hunger was satisfied, and she had some left over.
Rut 2:15 When she had got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his work-people, 'Let her glean among the sheaves themselves. Do not molest her.
Rut 2:16 And be sure you pull a few ears of corn out of the bundles and drop them. Let her glean them, and do not scold her.'
Rut 2:17 So she gleaned in the field till evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it came to about a bushel of barley.
Rut 2:18 Taking it with her, she went back to the town. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth also took out what she had kept after eating all she wanted, and gave that to her.
Rut 2:19 Her mother-in-law said, 'Where have you been gleaning today? Where have you been working? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!' Ruth told her mother-in-law in whose field she had been working. 'The name of the man with whom I have been working today', she said, 'is Boaz.'
Rut 2:20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, 'May he be blessed by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who does not withhold his faithful love from living or dead! This man', Naomi added, 'is a close relation of ours. He is one of those who have the right of redemption over us.'
Rut 2:21 Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother-in-law, 'He also said, "Stay with my work-people until they have finished my whole harvest." '
Rut 2:22 Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, 'It is better for you, daughter, to go with his work-women than to go to some other field where you might be ill-treated.'
Rut 2:23 So she stayed with Boaz's work-women, and gleaned until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she went on living with her mother-in-law.
Rut 3:1 Her mother-in-law Naomi then said, 'Daughter, is it not my duty to see you happily settled?
Rut 3:2 And Boaz, the man with whose work-women you were, is he not our kinsman? Tonight he will be winnowing the barley on the threshing-floor.
Rut 3:3 So wash and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing-floor. Don't let him recognize you while he is still eating and drinking.
Rut 3:4 But when he lies down, take note where he lies, then go and turn back the covering at his feet and lie down yourself. He will tell you what to do.'
Rut 3:5 Ruth said, 'I shall do everything you tell me.'
Rut 3:6 So she went down to the threshing-floor and did everything her mother-in-law had told her.
Rut 3:7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he went off happily and lay down beside the pile of barley. Ruth then quietly went, turned back the covering at his feet and lay down.
Rut 3:8 In the middle of the night, he woke up with a shock and looked about him; and there lying at his feet was a woman.
Rut 3:9 'Who are you?' he said; and she replied, 'I am your servant Ruth. Spread the skirt of your cloak over your servant for you have the right of redemption over me.'
Rut 3:10 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bless you, daughter,' he said, 'for this second act of faithful love of yours is greater than the first, since you have not run after young men, poor or rich.
Rut 3:11 Don't be afraid, daughter, I shall do everything you ask, since the people at the gate of my town all know that you are a woman of great worth.
Rut 3:12 But, though it is true that I have the right of redemption over you, you have a kinsman closer than myself.
Rut 3:13 Stay here for tonight and, in the morning, if he wishes to exercise his right over you, very well, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to do so, then as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, I shall redeem you. Lie here till morning.'
Rut 3:14 So she lay at his feet till morning, but got up before the hour when one man can recognize another; and he thought, 'It must not be known that this woman came to the threshing-floor.'
Rut 3:15 He then said, 'Let me have the cloak you are wearing, hold it out!' She held it out while he put six measures of barley into it and then loaded it on to her; and off she went to the town.
Rut 3:16 When Ruth got home, her mother-in-law asked her, 'How did things go with you, daughter?' She then told her everything that the man had done for her.
Rut 3:17 'He gave me these six measures of barley and said, "You must not go home empty-handed to your mother-in-law." '
Rut 3:18 Naomi said, 'Do nothing, daughter, until you see how things have gone; I am sure he will not rest until he has settled the matter this very day.'
Rut 4:1 Boaz, meanwhile, had gone up to the gate and sat down, and the relative of whom he had spoken then came by. Boaz said to him, 'Here, my friend, come and sit down'; the man came and sat down.
Rut 4:2 Boaz then picked out ten of the town's elders and said, 'Sit down here'; they sat down.
Rut 4:3 Boaz then said to the man who had the right of redemption, 'Naomi, who has come back from the Plains of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother, Elimelech.
Rut 4:4 I thought I should tell you about this and say, "Acquire it in the presence of the men who are sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to use your right of redemption, redeem it; if you do not, tell me so that I know, for I am the only person to redeem it besides yourself, and I myself come after you." ' The man said, 'I am willing to redeem it.'
Rut 4:5 Boaz then said, 'The day you acquire the field from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the man who has died, to perpetuate the dead man's name in his inheritance.'
Rut 4:6 The man with the right of redemption then said, 'I cannot use my right of redemption without jeopardising my own inheritance. Since I cannot use my right of redemption, exercise the right yourself.'
Rut 4:7 Now, in former times, it was the custom in Israel to confirm a transaction in matters of redemption or inheritance by one of the parties taking off his sandal and giving it to the other. This was how agreements were ratified in Israel.
Rut 4:8 So, when the man with the right of redemption said to Boaz, 'Acquire it for yourself,' he took off his sandal.
Rut 4:9 Boaz then said to the elders and all the people there, 'Today you are witnesses that from Naomi I acquire everything that used to belong to Elimelech, and everything that used to belong to Mahlon and Chilion
Rut 4:10 and that I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, to be my wife, to perpetuate the dead man's name in his inheritance, so that the dead man's name will not be lost among his brothers and at the gate of his town. Today you are witnesses to this.'
Rut 4:11 All the people at the gate said, 'We are witnesses'; and the elders said, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) make the woman about to enter your family like Rachel and Leah who together built up the House of Israel. Grow mighty in Ephrathah, be renowned in Bethlehem!
Rut 4:12 And through the children Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will give you by this young woman, may your family be like the family of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.'
Rut 4:13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when they came together, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made her conceive and she bore a son.
Rut 4:14 And the women said to Naomi, 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who has not left you today without anyone to redeem you. May his name be praised in Israel!
Rut 4:15 The child will be a comfort to you and the prop of your old age, for he has been born to the daughter-in-law who loves you and is more to you than seven sons.'
Rut 4:16 And Naomi, taking the child, held him to her breast; and she it was who looked after him.
Rut 4:17 And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name. 'A son', they said, 'has been born to Naomi,' and they called him Obed. This was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
Rut 4:18 These are the descendants of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron,
Rut 4:19 Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab,
Rut 4:20 Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
Rut 4:21 Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed,
Rut 4:22 Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.
1Sa 1:1 There was a man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the highlands of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
1Sa 1:2 He had two wives, one called Hannah, the other Peninnah; Peninnah had children but Hannah had none.
1Sa 1:3 Every year this man used to go up from his town to worship, and to sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth at Shiloh. (The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there as priests of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).)
1Sa 1:4 One day Elkanah offered a sacrifice. Now he used to give portions to Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters;
1Sa 1:5 to Hannah, however, he would give only one portion: for, although he loved Hannah more, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had made her barren.
1Sa 1:6 Furthermore, her rival would taunt and provoke her, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had made her womb barren.
1Sa 1:7 And this went on year after year; every time they went up to the temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) she used to taunt her. On that day she wept and would not eat anything;
1Sa 1:8 so her husband Elkanah said, 'Hannah, why are you crying? Why are you not eating anything? Why are you so sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?'
1Sa 1:9 When they had finished eating in the room, Hannah got up and stood before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Eli the priest was sitting on his seat by the doorpost of the temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 1:10 In the bitterness of her soul she prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with many tears,
1Sa 1:11 and she made this vow, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth! Should you condescend to notice the humiliation of your servant and keep her in mind instead of disregarding your servant, and give her a boy, I will give him to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the whole of his life and no razor shall ever touch his head.'
1Sa 1:12 While she went on praying to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Eli was watching her mouth,
1Sa 1:13 for Hannah was speaking under her breath; her lips were moving but her voice could not be heard, and Eli thought that she was drunk.
1Sa 1:14 Eli said, 'How much longer are you going to stay drunk? Get rid of your wine.'
1Sa 1:15 'No, my lord,' Hannah replied, 'I am a woman in great trouble; I have not been drinking wine or strong drink -- I am pouring out my soul before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 1:16 Do not take your servant for a worthless woman; all this time I have been speaking from the depth of my grief and my resentment.'
1Sa 1:17 Eli then replied, 'Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant what you have asked of him.'
1Sa 1:18 To which she said, 'May your servant find favor in your sight.' With that, the woman went away; she began eating and was dejected no longer.
1Sa 1:19 They got up early in the morning and, after worshipping Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), set out and went home to Ramah. Elkanah lay with his wife Hannah, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) remembered her.
1Sa 1:20 Hannah conceived and, in due course, gave birth to a son, whom she named Samuel, 'since', she said, 'I asked Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for him.'
1Sa 1:21 Elkanah, the husband, went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and to fulfill his vow.
1Sa 1:22 However, Hannah did not go up, having said to her husband, 'Not before the child has been weaned. Then I shall bring him and present him before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he will stay there for ever.'
1Sa 1:23 Elkanah her husband then said to her, 'Do what you think fit; wait until you have weaned him. May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bring about what he has said.' So the woman stayed behind and nursed her child until she weaned him.
1Sa 1:24 When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, as well as a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and took him into the temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at Shiloh; the child was very young.
1Sa 1:25 They sacrificed the bull and led the child to Eli.
1Sa 1:26 She said, 'If you please, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood beside you here, praying to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 1:27 This is the child for which I was praying, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has granted me what I asked of him.
1Sa 1:28 Now I make him over to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the whole of his life. He is made over to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' They then worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) there.
1Sa 2:1 Hannah then prayed as follows: My heart exults in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in my God is my strength lifted up, my mouth derides my foes, for I rejoice in your deliverance.
1Sa 2:2 There is no Holy One like Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), (indeed, there is none but you) no Rock like our God.
1Sa 2:3 Do not keep talking so proudly, let no arrogance come from your mouth, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a wise God, his to weigh up deeds.
1Sa 2:4 The bow of the mighty has been broken but those who were tottering are now braced with strength.
1Sa 2:5 The full fed are hiring themselves out for bread but the hungry need labour no more; the barren woman bears sevenfold but the mother of many is left desolate.
1Sa 2:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives death and life, brings down to Sheol and draws up;
1Sa 2:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) makes poor and rich, he humbles and also exalts.
1Sa 2:8 He raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the dunghill to give them a place with princes, to assign them a seat of honor; for to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) belong the pillars of the earth, on these he has poised the world.
1Sa 2:9 He safeguards the steps of his faithful but the wicked vanish in darkness (for human strength can win no victories).
1Sa 2:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), his enemies are shattered, the Most High thunders in the heavens. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) judges the ends of the earth, he endows his king with power, he raises up the strength of his Anointed.
1Sa 2:11 Elkanah then went home to Ramah, but the child stayed in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s service, in the presence of Eli the priest.
1Sa 2:12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they cared nothing for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)
1Sa 2:13 nor for what was due to the priests from the people. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being cooked;
1Sa 2:14 he would thrust this into cauldron or pan, or dish or pot, and the priest claimed for his own whatever the fork brought up. That was how they behaved with all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh.
1Sa 2:15 The priest's servant would even come up before the fat had been burnt and say to the person who was making the sacrifice, 'Give the priest some meat for him to roast. He will not accept boiled meat from you, only raw.'
1Sa 2:16 Then, if the person replied, 'Let the fat be burnt first, and then take for yourself whatever you choose,' he would retort, 'No! You must give it to me now or I shall take it by force.'
1Sa 2:17 The young men's sin was very great in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, because they treated with contempt the offering made to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 2:18 Samuel was in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s service, a child wearing a linen loincloth.
1Sa 2:19 His mother used to make him a little coat which she brought him each year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
1Sa 2:20 Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) grant you an heir by this woman in exchange for the one which she has made over to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' and they would go home.
1Sa 2:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) visited Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the child Samuel grew up in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence.
1Sa 2:22 Although very old, Eli heard about everything that his sons were doing to all Israel,
1Sa 2:23 and said, 'Why are you behaving as all the people say you are?
1Sa 2:24 No, my sons, what I hear reported by the people of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is not good.
1Sa 2:25 If one person sins against another, God will be the arbiter, but if he sins against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who will intercede for him?' But they did not listen to their father's words, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was bent on killing them.
1Sa 2:26 Meanwhile, the child Samuel went on growing in stature and in favor both with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and with people.
1Sa 2:27 A man of God came to Eli and said to him, 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, "Did I not reveal myself to your father's family when they were in Egypt as slaves in Pharaoh's household?
1Sa 2:28 Did I not single him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn the offering, to carry the ephod in my presence; and did I not grant all the burnt offerings made by the Israelites to your father's family?
1Sa 2:29 Why do you trample on the offering and on the sacrifice which I have ordered for my Dwelling, and honor your sons more than me, by growing fat on the best of the offerings of Israel, my people?
1Sa 2:30 Whereas -- this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, declares -- I had promised that your family and your father's family would walk in my presence for ever, now, however -- this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares -- nothing of the sort! Those who honor me I honor in my turn, and those who despise me will be an object of contempt.
1Sa 2:31 Be sure, the days are coming when I shall cut off your strength and the strength of your father's family, so that no one in your family will live to old age.
1Sa 2:32 Beside the Dwelling, you will see all the benefits that I shall confer on Israel, but no one in your family will ever live to old age.
1Sa 2:33 I shall keep one of you at my altar for his eyes to go blind and his soul to wither, but the bulk of your family will die by the sword.
1Sa 2:34 ' "What happens to your two sons Hophni and Phinehas will be a sign for you: on the same day both will die.
1Sa 2:35 I shall raise myself a faithful priest, who will do as I intend and as I desire. I shall build him an enduring House and he will walk in the presence of my Anointed for ever.
1Sa 2:36 The members of your House who survive will come and beg him on their knees for a silver coin and a loaf of bread and say: Please give me some priestly work, so that I can have a scrap of bread to eat." '
1Sa 3:1 Now, the boy Samuel was serving Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the presence of Eli; in those days it was rare for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to speak; visions were uncommon.
1Sa 3:2 One day, it happened that Eli was lying down in his room. His eyes were beginning to grow dim; he could no longer see.
1Sa 3:3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary, where the ark of God was,
1Sa 3:4 when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called, 'Samuel! Samuel!' He answered, 'Here I am,'
1Sa 3:5 and, running to Eli, he said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' Eli said, 'I did not call. Go back and lie down.' So he went and lay down.
1Sa 3:6 And again Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called, 'Samuel! Samuel!' He got up and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' He replied, 'I did not call, my son; go back and lie down.'
1Sa 3:7 As yet, Samuel had no knowledge of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had not yet been revealed to him.
1Sa 3:8 Again Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called, the third time. He got up and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, as you called me.' Eli then understood that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was calling the child,
1Sa 3:9 and he said to Samuel, 'Go and lie down, and if someone calls say, "Speak, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); for your servant is listening." ' So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
1Sa 3:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then came and stood by, calling as he had done before, 'Samuel! Samuel!' Samuel answered, 'Speak, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); for your servant is listening.'
1Sa 3:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Samuel, 'I am going to do something in Israel which will make the ears of all who hear of it ring.
1Sa 3:12 I shall carry out that day against Eli everything that I have said about his family, from beginning to end.
1Sa 3:13 You are to tell him that I condemn his family for ever, since he is aware that his sons have been cursing God and yet has not corrected them.
1Sa 3:14 Therefore -- I swear it to the family of Eli -- no sacrifice or offering shall ever expiate the guilt of Eli's family.'
1Sa 3:15 Samuel lay where he was until morning and then opened the doors of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s temple. Samuel was afraid to tell Eli about the vision,
1Sa 3:16 but Eli called Samuel and said, 'Samuel, my son.' 'Here I am,' he replied.
1Sa 3:17 Eli asked, 'What message did he give you? Please do not hide it from me. May God bring unnameable ills on you and worse ones, too, if you hide from me anything of what he said to you.'
1Sa 3:18 Samuel then told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Eli said, 'He is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); let him do what he thinks good.'
1Sa 3:19 Samuel grew up. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with him and did not let a single word fall to the ground of all that he had told him.
1Sa 3:20 All Israel knew, from Dan to Beersheba, that Samuel was attested as a prophet of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 3:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) continued to manifest himself at Shiloh, revealing himself to Samuel there,
1Sa 4:1 and, for all Israel, the word of Samuel was as the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); since Eli was very old and his sons persisted in their wicked behavior towards Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). It happened at that time that the Philistines mustered to make war on Israel and Israel went out to meet them in war, pitching camp near Ebenezer while the Philistines pitched camp at Aphek.
1Sa 4:2 The Philistines drew up their battle-line against Israel, the fighting was fierce, and Israel was beaten by the Philistines: about four thousand men in their ranks were killed on the field of battle.
1Sa 4:3 When the troops returned to camp, the elders of Israel said, 'Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) caused us to be beaten by the Philistines today? Let us fetch the ark of our God from Shiloh so that, when it goes with us, it may save us from the clutches of our enemies.'
1Sa 4:4 So the troops sent to Shiloh and brought away the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth enthroned on the winged creatures; the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, came with the ark.
1Sa 4:5 When the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) arrived in the camp, all Israel raised a great war cry so that the earth resounded.
1Sa 4:6 When the Philistines heard the noise of the war cry, they said, 'What can this great war cry in the Hebrew camp mean?' And they realized that the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had come into the camp.
1Sa 4:7 At this, the Philistines were afraid; for they said, 'God has come into the camp. Disaster!' they said. 'For nothing like this has ever happened before.
1Sa 4:8 Disaster! Who will rescue us from the clutches of this mighty God? This was the God who struck down Egypt with every kind of misfortune in the desert.
1Sa 4:9 But take courage and be men, Philistines, or you will become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been slaves to you. Be men and fight.'
1Sa 4:10 So the Philistines gave battle and Israel was defeated, each man fleeing to his tent. The slaughter was very great: on the Israelite side, thirty thousand foot soldiers fell.
1Sa 4:11 The ark of God was captured too, and Hophni and Phinehas the two sons of Eli died.
1Sa 4:12 A Benjaminite ran from the battle-line and reached Shiloh the same day, his clothes torn and dust on his head.
1Sa 4:13 When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat beside the gate watching the road, for his heart was trembling for the ark of God. The man came into the town and told the news, whereupon cries of anguish filled the town.
1Sa 4:14 Eli heard the sound and asked, 'What does this uproar mean?' The man hurried on and told Eli.
1Sa 4:15 Eli was ninety-eight years old; his gaze was fixed; he was blind.
1Sa 4:16 The man said to Eli, 'I have come from the camp. I escaped from the battle-line today.' 'My son,' said Eli, 'what happened?'
1Sa 4:17 The messenger replied, 'Israel has fled before the Philistines; the army has been utterly routed. What is worse, your two sons are dead and the ark of God has been captured.'
1Sa 4:18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backwards off his seat by the gate and broke his neck and died, for he was old and heavy. He had been judge of Israel for forty years.
1Sa 4:19 Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was with child and near her time. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and husband were dead she crouched down and gave birth, for her labour pains had come on.
1Sa 4:20 When she was at the point of death, the women at her side said, 'Do not be afraid; you have given birth to a son.' But she did not answer and took no notice.
1Sa 4:21 She named the child Ichabod, saying, 'The glory has gone from Israel,' alluding to the capture of the ark of God and to her father-in-law and husband.
1Sa 4:22 She said, 'The glory has gone from Israel, because the ark of God has been captured.'
1Sa 5:1 When the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod.
1Sa 5:2 Taking the ark of God, the Philistines put it in the temple of Dagon, setting it down beside Dagon.
1Sa 5:3 When the people of Ashdod got up the following morning and went to the temple of Dagon, there lay Dagon face down on the ground before the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). They picked Dagon up and put him back in his place.
1Sa 5:4 But when they got up on the following morning, there lay Dagon face down on the ground before the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Dagon's head and two hands lay severed on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left in its place.
1Sa 5:5 This is why the priests of Dagon and the people frequenting Dagon's temple never step on Dagon's threshold in Ashdod, even today.
1Sa 5:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) oppressed the people of Ashdod; he ravaged them and afflicted them with tumors -- Ashdod and its territory. When the people of Ashdod saw what was happening they said,
1Sa 5:7 'The ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us, for he is oppressing us and our god Dagon.'
1Sa 5:8 So they summoned all the Philistine chiefs to them, and said, 'What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?' They decided, 'The ark of the God of Israel shall be taken away to Gath.' So they took the ark of the God of Israel to Gath.
1Sa 5:9 But after they had taken it there, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) oppressed that town and a great panic broke out; afflicting the people of the town from highest to lowest, he brought them out in tumors too.
1Sa 5:10 They then sent the ark of God to Ekron, but when it came to Ekron the Ekronites shouted, 'They have brought me the ark of the God of Israel to kill me and my people!'
1Sa 5:11 They summoned all the Philistine chiefs and said, 'Send the ark of the God of Israel away; let it go back to where it belongs and not kill me and my people' -- for there was mortal panic throughout the town; God was oppressing them.
1Sa 5:12 The people who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the wailing from the town rose to the sky.
1Sa 6:1 The ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was in Philistine territory for seven months.
1Sa 6:2 The Philistines then called for their priests and diviners and asked, 'What shall we do with the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? Tell us how to send it back to where it belongs.'
1Sa 6:3 They replied, 'If you send the ark of the God of Israel away, you must certainly not send it away without a gift; you must pay him a guilt offering. You will then recover and will realize why he continually oppressed you.'
1Sa 6:4 They then asked, 'What guilt offering ought we to pay him?' They replied, 'Corresponding to the number of Philistine chiefs: five golden tumors and five golden rats, since the same plague afflicted your chiefs as the rest of you.
1Sa 6:5 So make models of your tumors and models of your rats ravaging the territory, and pay honor to the God of Israel. Then perhaps he will stop oppressing you, your gods and your country.
1Sa 6:6 Why should you be as stubborn as Egypt and Pharaoh were? After he had brought disasters on them, did they not let the people leave?
1Sa 6:7 Now, then, take and fit out a new cart, and two milch cows that have never borne the yoke. Then harness the cows to the cart and take their calves back to the byre.
1Sa 6:8 Then take the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), place it on the cart, and put the golden objects which you are paying him as guilt offering in a box beside it; and then send it off on its own.
1Sa 6:9 Watch it; if it goes up the road to its own territory, towards Beth-Shemesh, then he was responsible for this great harm to us; but if not, we shall know that it was not his hand that struck us, and that this has happened to us by chance.'
1Sa 6:10 The people did this. They took two milch cows and harnessed them to the cart, shutting their calves in the byre.
1Sa 6:11 They then put the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the cart, with the box and the golden rats and the models of their tumors.
1Sa 6:12 The cows made straight for Beth-Shemesh, keeping to the one road, lowing as they went and turning neither to right nor to left. The Philistine chiefs followed them as far as the boundaries of Beth-Shemesh.
1Sa 6:13 The people of Beth-Shemesh were reaping the wheat harvest in the plain when they looked up and saw the ark and went joyfully to meet it.
1Sa 6:14 When the cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh, it stopped. There was a large stone there, and they cut up the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 6:15 The Levites had taken down the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the box with it containing the golden objects and put these on the large stone. That day the people of Beth-Shemesh presented burnt offerings and made sacrifices to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 6:16 The five chiefs of the Philistines, having witnessed this, went back to Ekron the same day.
1Sa 6:17 The golden tumors paid by the Philistines as a guilt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) were as follows: one for Ashdod, one for Gaza, one for Ashkelon, one for Gath, one for Ekron;
1Sa 6:18 and golden rats to the number of all the Philistine towns, those of the five chiefs, from fortified towns down to open villages: still to this day the large stone in the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh, on which they put the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), is a witness.
1Sa 6:19 Of the people of Beth-Shemesh the sons of Jeconiah had not rejoiced when they saw the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck down seventy of them. The people mourned because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had struck them so fiercely.
1Sa 6:20 The people of Beth-Shemesh then said, 'Who can stand his ground before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), this holy God? To whom shall he go, so that we are rid of him?'
1Sa 6:21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jearim, to say, 'The Philistines have sent back the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); come down and take it up to your town.'
1Sa 7:1 The men of Kiriath-Jearim came and, taking up the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated his son Eleazar to guard the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 7:2 From the day when the ark was installed at Kiriath-Jearim, a long time went by -- twenty years -- and the whole House of Israel longed for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 7:3 Samuel then spoke as follows to the whole House of Israel, 'If you are returning to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all your heart, banish the foreign gods and Astartes which you now have, and set your heart on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and serve him alone; and he will deliver you from the power of the Philistines.'
1Sa 7:4 And the Israelites banished the Baals and Astartes and served Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) alone.
1Sa 7:5 Samuel then said, 'Muster all Israel at Mizpah and I shall plead with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for you.'
1Sa 7:6 So they mustered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). They fasted that day and declared, 'We have sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' And Samuel was judge over the Israelites at Mizpah.
1Sa 7:7 When the Philistines heard that the Israelites had mustered at Mizpah, the Philistine chiefs marched on Israel; and when the Israelites heard this, they were afraid of the Philistines.
1Sa 7:8 They said to Samuel, 'Do not stop calling on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God to rescue us from the power of the Philistines.'
1Sa 7:9 Samuel took a sucking lamb and presented it as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and he called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on behalf of Israel and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard him.
1Sa 7:10 While Samuel was in the act of presenting burnt offering, the Philistines joined battle with Israel, but that day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) thundered violently over the Philistines, threw them into panic and Israel defeated them.
1Sa 7:11 The men of Israel sallied out from Mizpah in pursuit of the Philistines and beat them all the way to below Beth-Car.
1Sa 7:12 Samuel then took a stone and erected it between Mizpah and the Tooth, and gave it the name Ebenezer, saying, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) helped us as far as this.'
1Sa 7:13 So the Philistines were humbled and no longer came into Israelite territory; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) oppressed the Philistines throughout the life of Samuel.
1Sa 7:14 The towns which the Philistines had taken from Israel were given back to Israel, from Ekron all the way to Gath, and Israel freed their territory from the power of the Philistines. There was peace, too, between Israel and the Amorites.
1Sa 7:15 Samuel was judge over Israel throughout his life.
1Sa 7:16 Each year he went on circuit through Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel in all these places.
1Sa 7:17 He would then return to Ramah, since his home was there; there too he judged Israel. And there he built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 8:1 When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges of Israel.
1Sa 8:2 His eldest son was called Joel and his second one, Abijah; they were judges at Beersheba.
1Sa 8:3 His sons did not follow his example but, seduced by the love of money, took bribes and gave biased verdicts.
1Sa 8:4 The elders of Israel all assembled, went back to Samuel at Ramah, and said,
1Sa 8:5 'Look, you are old, and your sons are not following your example. So give us a king to judge us, like the other nations.'
1Sa 8:6 Samuel thought that it was wrong of them to say, 'Let us have a king to judge us,' so he prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 8:7 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Samuel, 'Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you: it is not you they have rejected
1Sa 8:8 but me, not wishing me to reign over them any more. They are now doing to you exactly what they have done to me since the day I brought them out of Egypt until now, deserting me and serving other gods.
1Sa 8:9 So, do what they ask; only, you must give them a solemn warning, and must tell them what the king who is to reign over them will do.'
1Sa 8:10 Everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said, Samuel then repeated to the people who were asking him for a king.
1Sa 8:11 He said, 'This is what the king who is to reign over you will do. He will take your sons and direct them to his chariotry and cavalry, and they will run in front of his chariot.
1Sa 8:12 He will use them as leaders of a thousand and leaders of fifty; he will make them plough his fields and gather in his harvest and make his weapons of war and the gear for his chariots.
1Sa 8:13 He will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers.
1Sa 8:14 He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards and your olive groves and give them to his officials.
1Sa 8:15 He will tithe your crops and vineyards to provide for his courtiers and his officials.
1Sa 8:16 He will take the best of your servants, men and women, of your oxen and your donkeys, and make them work for him.
1Sa 8:17 He will tithe your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
1Sa 8:18 When that day comes, you will cry aloud because of the king you have chosen for yourselves, but on that day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not hear you.'
1Sa 8:19 The people, however, refused to listen to Samuel. They said, 'No! We are determined to have a king,
1Sa 8:20 so that we can be like the other nations, with our own king to rule us and lead us and fight our battles.'
1Sa 8:21 Samuel listened to all that the people had to say and repeated it in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s ear.
1Sa 8:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Samuel, 'Do as they ask and give them a king.' Samuel then said to the Israelites, 'Go home, each of you, to his own town.'
1Sa 9:1 Among the men of Benjamin was a man called Kish son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah; a Benjaminite and a person of rank.
1Sa 9:2 He had a son called Saul, a handsome man in the prime of life. Of all the Israelites there was no one more handsome than he; he stood head and shoulders taller than anyone else.
1Sa 9:3 Now since the donkeys belonging to Kish, Saul's father, had strayed, Kish said to his son Saul, 'My son, take one of the servants with you and be off; go and look for the donkeys.'
1Sa 9:4 They went through the highlands of Ephraim, they went through the territory of Shalishah, and did not find them; they went through the territory of Shaalim but they were not there; they went through the territory of Benjamin and did not find them.
1Sa 9:5 When they reached the territory of Zuph, Saul said to the servant who was with him, 'Come on, let us go back or my father will stop worrying over the donkeys and start being anxious about us.'
1Sa 9:6 The servant, however, replied, 'Look, there is a man of God in this town, a man who is held in honor; everything he says comes true. Let us go there, then; perhaps he will be able to show us the way that we should take.'
1Sa 9:7 Saul said to his servant, 'But if we do go, what can we take to the man? The food in our sacks is finished, and we have no present to offer the man of God. What else have we got?'
1Sa 9:8 The servant spoke up again and said to Saul, 'Look, I happen to have a quarter of a silver shekel; I shall give that to the man of God, for him to tell us which way to go.'
1Sa 9:9 In Israel, in olden days, when anyone used to go to consult God, he would say, 'Come on, let us go to the seer,' for a man who is now called a 'prophet' used to be called a 'seer' in olden days.
1Sa 9:10 Saul then said to his servant, 'Well said! Come on, let us go.' And they went off to the town where the man of God was.
1Sa 9:11 As they were going up the slope to the town they came across some girls going out to draw water, and said to them, 'Is the seer there?'
1Sa 9:12 The girls replied, 'He is. He arrived a moment or two ahead of you. You had better hurry: he has just come to town because the people are having a sacrifice today on the high place.
1Sa 9:13 You can catch him as soon as you go into the town, before he goes up to the high place for the meal. The people will not eat until he comes, since he must bless the sacrifice; after that, the guests will start eating. If you go up now, you will find him straight away.'
1Sa 9:14 So they went up to the town and, as they were going through the gate, Samuel came out towards them on his way to the high place.
1Sa 9:15 Now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given Samuel a revelation the day before Saul came, saying,
1Sa 9:16 'About this time tomorrow, I shall send you a man from the territory of Benjamin; you are to anoint him as prince of my people Israel, and he will save my people from the power of the Philistines; for I have seen the misery of my people and their cries of anguish have come to me.'
1Sa 9:17 When Samuel saw Saul, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) told him, 'That is the man of whom I said to you, "He is to govern my people." '
1Sa 9:18 Saul accosted Samuel in the gateway and said, 'Tell me, please, where the seer's house is.'
1Sa 9:19 Samuel replied to Saul, 'I am the seer. Go up ahead of me to the high place. You must eat with me today. Tomorrow, when I let you go, I shall tell you whatever is on your mind.
1Sa 9:20 As regards your donkeys, however, which strayed three days ago, do not worry about them; they have been found. And for whom is the whole wealth of Israel destined, if not for you and for all the members of your father's family?'
1Sa 9:21 To this, Saul replied, 'Am I not a Benjaminite, from the smallest of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why are you saying a thing like this to me?'
1Sa 9:22 Samuel then took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall and gave them a place at the head of the guests, of whom there were about thirty.
1Sa 9:23 Samuel then said to the cook, 'Serve the portion which I gave you and told you to put on one side.'
1Sa 9:24 The cook then picked up the leg and the tail and put it in front of Saul, saying, 'This is for you. This is what was left. Make a good meal . . .' That day, Saul ate with Samuel.
1Sa 9:25 They came down from the high place into the town. A bed was made for Saul on the roof and he lay down there.
1Sa 9:26 At dawn, Samuel called to Saul on the roof, 'Get up, and I shall send you on your way.' Saul got up, and Samuel and he went outside together.
1Sa 9:27 They had walked as far as the end of the town when Samuel said to Saul, 'Tell the servant to go on ahead of us, but you stand still for a moment, so that I can make known to you the word of God.'
1Sa 10:1 Samuel took a phial of oil and poured it on Saul's head; he then kissed him and said, 'Has not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) anointed you as leader of his people Israel? You are the man who is to govern Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people and save them from the power of the enemies surrounding them. The sign for you that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has anointed you as prince of his heritage is this:
1Sa 10:2 after leaving me today, you will meet two men near the tomb of Rachel, on the frontier of Benjamin . . . and they will say to you, "The donkeys which you went looking for have been found, and your father has lost interest in the matter of the donkeys and is worrying about you and wondering, What am I to do about my son?"
1Sa 10:3 Going on from there, you will come to the Oak of Tabor, where you will meet three men going up to God at Bethel; one will be carrying three kids, one three loaves of bread and the third a skin of wine.
1Sa 10:4 They will greet you and give you two loaves of bread which you must accept from them.
1Sa 10:5 After this, you will come to Gibeah of God (where the Philistine garrison is) and, when you are just outside the town, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place, headed by lyre, tambourine, pipe and harp; they will be in a state of ecstasy.
1Sa 10:6 The spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will then seize on you, and you will go into ecstasy with them, and be changed into another man.
1Sa 10:7 When these signs have occurred, act as occasion serves, for God is with you.
1Sa 10:8 You will then go down, ahead of me, to Gilgal, and I shall join you there to make burnt offerings and to offer communion sacrifices. You must wait seven days for me to come to you, and I shall then reveal to you what you must do.'
1Sa 10:9 As soon as he had turned his back to leave Samuel, God changed his heart. And all these signs occurred that very day . . .
1Sa 10:10 From there, they came to Gibeah: and there was a group of prophets coming to meet him! The spirit of God seized on him and he fell into ecstasy with them.
1Sa 10:11 Seeing him prophesying with the prophets, all the people who had known him previously said to one another, 'What has come over the son of Kish? Is Saul one of the prophets too?'
1Sa 10:12 And one of the local people retorted, 'But who is their father?' Hence the origin of the proverb: Is Saul one of the prophets too?
1Sa 10:13 When he came out of his ecstasy, he went into Gibeah.
1Sa 10:14 Saul's uncle asked him and his servant, 'Where have you been?' 'Looking for the donkeys,' he replied, 'and when we could not find them anywhere, we went to Samuel.'
1Sa 10:15 Saul's uncle said, 'Tell me please what Samuel said to you.'
1Sa 10:16 Saul said to his uncle, 'He merely told us that the donkeys were already found,' but did not mention anything that Samuel had said about the kingship.
1Sa 10:17 Samuel summoned the people to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at Mizpah
1Sa 10:18 and said to the Israelites, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "I brought Israel out of Egypt and delivered you from the power of the Egyptians and of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you."
1Sa 10:19 But today you have rejected your God, him who saves you from all your difficulties and troubles; and you have said, "No, you must set a king over us." Very well, take your positions before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), tribe by tribe and clan by clan.'
1Sa 10:20 Samuel then made all the tribes of Israel come forward, and the lot indicated the tribe of Benjamin.
1Sa 10:21 He then made the tribe of Benjamin come forward clan by clan, and the lot indicated the clan of Matri; he then made the clan of Matri come forward one by one, and the lot indicated Saul son of Kish, but when they looked for him, he was not to be found.
1Sa 10:22 Again they consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Has the man come here?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'There he is, hiding among the baggage.'
1Sa 10:23 So they ran and fetched him out and, as he stood among the people, he was head and shoulders taller than any of them.
1Sa 10:24 Samuel then said to all the people, 'You have seen the man whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen, and that among the whole people he has no equal.' And all the people acclaimed him, shouting, 'Long live the king!'
1Sa 10:25 Samuel then explained the king's constitutional position to the people and inscribed this in a book which he placed before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Samuel then sent all the people away, everyone back to his home.
1Sa 10:26 Saul too went home to Gibeah and with him went those strong men whose hearts God had touched.
1Sa 10:27 But there were some scoundrels who said, 'How can this fellow save us?' These treated him with contempt and offered him no present.
1Sa 11:1 About a month later, Nahash the Ammonite marched up and laid siege to Jabesh in Gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, 'Make a treaty with us and we will be your subjects.'
1Sa 11:2 Nahash the Ammonite replied, 'I shall make a treaty with you only on this condition, that I put out all your right eyes, and I will make it a taunt to the whole of Israel.'
1Sa 11:3 The elders of Jabesh said to him, 'Give us seven days' grace while we send messengers throughout the territory of Israel, and if no one comes to our help, we will come out to you.'
1Sa 11:4 The messengers came to Gibeah of Saul, and reported this to the people, and all the people wept aloud.
1Sa 11:5 Now Saul was just then coming in from the fields behind his oxen, and he said, 'What is wrong? Why are the people weeping?' They explained to him what the men of Jabesh had said.
1Sa 11:6 And the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seized on Saul when he heard these words, and he fell into a fury.
1Sa 11:7 He took a yoke of oxen, cut them into pieces and sent these by messengers throughout the territory of Israel with these words, 'Anyone who will not march with Saul will have the same done to his oxen!' At this, a panic from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) swept on the people and they marched out as one man.
1Sa 11:8 Saul inspected them at Bezek; there were three hundred thousand of Israel and thirty thousand of Judah.
1Sa 11:9 Then he said to the messengers who had come, 'This is what you are to say to the people of Jabesh in Gilead, "Tomorrow, by the time that the sun is hot, help will reach you." ' The messengers went and reported this to the people of Jabesh who were overjoyed;
1Sa 11:10 they said to Nahash, 'Tomorrow we shall come out to you and you can do whatever you like to us.'
1Sa 11:11 The next day, Saul disposed the army in three contingents, which burst into the middle of the camp during the dawn watch and slaughtered the Ammonites until high noon. The survivors were so scattered that no two of them were left together.
1Sa 11:12 The people then said to Samuel, 'Who said, "Must we have Saul reigning over us?" Hand the men over, for us to put them to death.'
1Sa 11:13 'No one must be put to death today,' Saul said, 'for today Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has intervened to rescue Israel.'
1Sa 11:14 Samuel then said to the people, 'Let us now go to Gilgal and reaffirm the monarchy there.'
1Sa 11:15 The people then all went to Gilgal. And there, at Gilgal, they proclaimed Saul king before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); they offered communion sacrifices before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and there Saul and all the people of Israel gave themselves over to great rejoicing.
1Sa 12:1 Samuel said to all Israel, 'I have faithfully done all that you asked of me, and have appointed you a king.
1Sa 12:2 In future, the king will lead you. As for me, I am old and grey, and in any case you have my sons. I have been your leader ever since I was young until today.
1Sa 12:3 Here I am. Bear witness against me before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Have I wronged or oppressed anyone? Have I taken a consideration from anyone for looking the other way? If so, I will make amends.'
1Sa 12:4 They said, 'You have neither wronged nor oppressed us nor accepted anything from anyone.'
1Sa 12:5 He said to them, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is your witness and his anointed is witness today that you have found nothing in my hands?' They replied, 'He is witness.'
1Sa 12:6 Samuel then said to the people, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is witness, he who raised up Moses and Aaron and who brought your ancestors out of Egypt.
1Sa 12:7 So now, stay where you are, while I plead with you before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and remind you of all the saving acts which he has done for you and for your ancestors.
1Sa 12:8 After Jacob had arrived in Egypt, the Egyptians oppressed them, and your ancestors cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and gave them a settled home here.
1Sa 12:9 They then forgot Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God and he sold them into the power of Sisera, general of the army of Hazor, and also into the power of the Philistines and of the king of Moab, who made war on them.
1Sa 12:10 They cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), "We have sinned," they said, "for we have deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and served the Baals and the Astartes. Rescue us now from the power of our enemies, and we will serve you."
1Sa 12:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel. He rescued you from the power of the enemies surrounding you, and you lived in security.
1Sa 12:12 'But when you saw Nahash, king of the Ammonites, marching on you, you said to me, "No, we must have a king to rule us"-although Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is your king.
1Sa 12:13 So, here is the king whom you have chosen; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has appointed you a king.
1Sa 12:14 If you fear and serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and obey his voice and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who rules you follow Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, all will be well.
1Sa 12:15 But if you do not obey Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice but rebel against his commands, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand will be against you and against your king.
1Sa 12:16 'Stay where you are and see the wonder which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will do before your eyes.
1Sa 12:17 Is it not now the wheat harvest? I shall call on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he will send thunder and rain, so that you may clearly understand what a very wicked thing you have done, in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, by asking for a king.'
1Sa 12:18 Samuel then called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent thunder and rain the same day, and all the people held Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and Samuel in great awe.
1Sa 12:19 They all said to Samuel, 'Pray for your servants to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, to save us from death; for to all our sins we have added this wrong of asking for a king.'
1Sa 12:20 Samuel said to the people, 'Do not be afraid. Although you have done all these wicked things, do not withdraw your allegiance from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Instead, serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all your heart.
1Sa 12:21 Do not transfer your allegiance to useless idols which, being useless, are futile and cannot save anybody;
1Sa 12:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the sake of his great name, will not desert his people, for it has pleased Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to make you his people.
1Sa 12:23 For my part, far be it from me to sin against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by ceasing to pray for you or to instruct you in the good and right way.
1Sa 12:24 Fear none but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and serve him faithfully with all your heart, bearing in mind the wonder which he has just performed. But, if you persist in wickedness, you and your king will perish.'
1Sa 13:1 Saul was . . . years old when he became king, and reigned over Israel for . . . years.
1Sa 13:2 Saul selected three thousand men of Israel; two thousand of them were with Saul at Michmash and in the highlands of Bethel, and one thousand with Jonathan at Geba of Benjamin; the rest of the people Saul sent home, everyone to his tent.
1Sa 13:3 Jonathan killed the Philistine governor stationed at Gibeah and the Philistines were informed that the Hebrews had risen in revolt. Saul had the trumpet sounded throughout the country,
1Sa 13:4 and all Israel heard the news, 'Saul has killed the Philistine governor, and now Israel has antagonised the Philistines.' So all the people rallied behind Saul at Gilgal.
1Sa 13:5 The Philistines mustered to make war on Israel, three thousand chariots, six thousand horse and a force as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They came up and pitched camp at Michmash, to the east of Beth-Aven.
1Sa 13:6 When the Israelites saw that their plight was desperate, being so hard pressed, the people hid in caves, in holes, in crevices, in vaults, in wells.
1Sa 13:7 Some also crossed the Jordan fords into the territory of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people who followed him were trembling.
1Sa 13:8 He waited for seven days, the period fixed by Samuel, but Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the army, deserting Saul, began dispersing.
1Sa 13:9 Saul then said, 'Bring me the burnt offering and the communion sacrifices.' And he presented the burnt offering.
1Sa 13:10 Just as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, Samuel arrived, and Saul went out to meet and greet him.
1Sa 13:11 Samuel said, 'What have you been doing?' Saul replied, 'I saw the army deserting me and dispersing, and you had not come at the time fixed, while the Philistines were mustering at Michmash.
1Sa 13:12 So I thought: Now the Philistines are going to fall on me at Gilgal and I have not implored the favor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). So I felt obliged to make the burnt offering myself.'
1Sa 13:13 Samuel said to Saul, 'You have acted like a fool. You have not obeyed the order which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God gave you. Otherwise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) would have confirmed your sovereignty over Israel for ever.
1Sa 13:14 But now your sovereignty will not last; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has discovered a man after his own heart and designated him as leader of his people, since you have not carried out what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered you.'
1Sa 13:15 Samuel then got up and left Gilgal to continue his journey. Those people remaining followed Saul as he went to join the warriors, and went from Gilgal to Geba of Benjamin. Saul reviewed the force that was with him; there were about six hundred men.
1Sa 13:16 Saul, his son Jonathan, and the force that was with them took up their quarters in Geba of Benjamin while the Philistines camped at Michmash.
1Sa 13:17 The raiding company sallied out of the Philistine camp in three groups: one group made for Ophrah in the territory of Shual;
1Sa 13:18 one group made for Beth-Horon; and one group made for the high ground overlooking the Valley of the Hyenas, in the direction of the desert.
1Sa 13:19 There was not a single blacksmith throughout the territory of Israel, the Philistines' reasoning being, 'We do not want the Hebrews making swords or spears.'
1Sa 13:20 Hence, the Israelites were all in the habit of going down individually to the Philistines to sharpen their ploughshares, axes, mattocks and scythes.
1Sa 13:21 The price was two-thirds of a shekel for ploughshares and axes, and one-third for sharpening mattocks and straightening goads.
1Sa 13:22 So it was that on the day of the battle, no one in the army with Saul and Jonathan was equipped with either sword or spear; only Saul and his son Jonathan were so equipped.
1Sa 13:23 A Philistine unit set out for the Pass of Michmash.
1Sa 14:1 One day, Jonathan son of Saul said to his armour-bearer, 'Come on, let us go across to the Philistine outpost over on the other side.' But he did not inform his father.
1Sa 14:2 Saul was on the outskirts of Geba, sitting under the pomegranate tree that stands near the threshing-floor; the force with him numbered about six hundred men.
1Sa 14:3 Ahijah son of Ahitub, brother of Ichabod, son of Phinehas, son of Eli, the priest of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at Shiloh, was carrying the ephod. The force did not know that Jonathan had left.
1Sa 14:4 In the pass that Jonathan was trying to cross to reach the Philistine outpost, there is a rocky spur on one side and a rocky spur on the other; one is called Bozez, the other Seneh.
1Sa 14:5 The first spur stands to the north facing Michmash, the other to the south facing Geba.
1Sa 14:6 Jonathan said to his armour-bearer, 'Come on, let us go across to these uncircumcised people's outpost; perhaps Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will do something for us, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is free to grant deliverance through a few men, just as much as through many.'
1Sa 14:7 His armour-bearer replied, 'Do exactly as you think. I am with you; our hearts are as one.'
1Sa 14:8 Jonathan then said, 'Look, we will go across to these people and let ourselves be seen.
1Sa 14:9 If they say, "Do not move until we come to you," we shall stay where we are and not go up to them.
1Sa 14:10 But if they say, "Come up to us," we shall go up, for that will be the sign for us that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given them into our power.'
1Sa 14:11 When the two of them let themselves be seen by the Philistine outpost, the Philistines said, 'Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes where they have been hiding.'
1Sa 14:12 The men of the outpost then hailed Jonathan and his armour-bearer. 'Come up to us,' they said, 'we have something to tell you.' Jonathan then said to his armour-bearer, 'Follow me up; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given them into the power of Israel.'
1Sa 14:13 Jonathan clambered up on hands and feet, with his armour-bearer behind him; the Philistines fell at Jonathan's onslaught, and his armour-bearer, coming behind, finished them off.
1Sa 14:14 This first killing made by Jonathan and his armour-bearer accounted for about twenty men . . .
1Sa 14:15 There was panic in the camp, in the field and throughout the army; outpost and raiding company too were panic-stricken; the earth quaked: it was a panic from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 14:16 Saul's look-out men in Geba of Benjamin could see the camp scattering in all directions.
1Sa 14:17 Saul then said to the force that was with him, 'Call the roll and see who has left us.' So they called the roll, and Jonathan and his armour-bearer were missing.
1Sa 14:18 Saul then said to Ahijah, 'Bring the ephod,' since he was the man who carried the ephod in Israel.
1Sa 14:19 But while Saul was speaking to the priest, the turmoil in the Philistine camp grew worse and worse; and Saul said to the priest, 'Withdraw your hand.'
1Sa 14:20 Saul and the whole force with him then formed up and advanced to where the fighting was going on: and there they all were, drawing their swords on one another in wild confusion.
1Sa 14:21 Those Hebrews who had earlier taken service with the Philistines and had accompanied them into camp, now defected to the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.
1Sa 14:22 Similarly, all those Israelites who had been hiding in the highlands of Ephraim, hearing that the Philistines were on the run, chased after them and joined in the fight.
1Sa 14:23 That day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave Israel the victory. The fighting reached the other side of Beth-Horon.
1Sa 14:24 As the men of Israel were hard pressed that day, Saul pronounced this imprecation over the people, 'A curse on anyone who eats food before evening, before I have taken revenge on my enemies!' So none of the people so much as tasted food.
1Sa 14:25 Now there was a honeycomb out in the open.
1Sa 14:26 The people came to the honeycomb, the honey was dripping out, but no one put a hand to his mouth, the people being in awe of the oath.
1Sa 14:27 Jonathan, however, not having heard his father bind the people with the oath, reached with the end of the stick which he was carrying, thrust it into the honeycomb and put it to his mouth; whereupon his eyes grew brighter.
1Sa 14:28 One of the people then spoke up. 'Your father', he said, 'has bound the people with this oath: "A curse on anyone who eats anything today." '
1Sa 14:29 'My father has brought trouble on the country,' Jonathan replied. 'See how much brighter my eyes are for having eaten this mouthful of honey.
1Sa 14:30 By the same token, if the people had been allowed to eat some of the booty which they had captured from the enemy today, would not the defeat of the Philistines have been all the greater?'
1Sa 14:31 That day the Philistines were beaten from Michmash all the way to Aijalon, until the people were utterly exhausted.
1Sa 14:32 The people flung themselves on the booty and, taking sheep, bullocks and calves, slaughtered them there on the ground and ate them with the blood.
1Sa 14:33 Saul was informed, 'The people are sinning against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by eating with the blood!' He said, 'You have not kept faith! Roll me a large stone here!'
1Sa 14:34 Saul then said, 'Scatter among the people and say, "Everyone is to bring his bullock or his sheep to me here." You will slaughter them here and eat, and not sin against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by eating with the blood.' Each individual brought what he happened to have that night, and they all slaughtered in the same place.
1Sa 14:35 Saul built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); it was the first altar he had built to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 14:36 Saul said, 'Let us go down under cover of dark and plunder the Philistines until dawn; we shall not leave one of them alive.' 'Do whatever you think right,' they replied. But the priest said, 'Let us approach God here.'
1Sa 14:37 Saul consulted God, 'Shall I go down and pursue the Philistines? Will you hand them over to Israel?' But he gave him no reply that day.
1Sa 14:38 Saul then said, 'Come forward, all you leaders of the people; consider carefully where today's sin may lie;
1Sa 14:39 for as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives who gives victory to Israel, even if the sin lies with Jonathan my son, he shall be put to death.' But not one out of all the people answered.
1Sa 14:40 He then said to all Israel, 'Stand on one side, and I and Jonathan my son will stand on the other.' And the people replied to Saul, 'Do as you think right.'
1Sa 14:41 Saul then said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, why did you not answer your servant today? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, if the fault lies with me or with my son Jonathan, give urim: if the fault lies with your people Israel, give thummim.' Jonathan and Saul were indicated and the people went free.
1Sa 14:42 Saul said, 'Cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan,' and Jonathan was indicated.
1Sa 14:43 'I only tasted a mouthful of honey off the end of the stick which I was carrying. But I am ready to die.'
1Sa 14:44 Saul said, 'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ones too, if you do not die, Jonathan!'
1Sa 14:45 But the people said to Saul, 'Must Jonathan die after winning this great victory for Israel? We will never allow that! As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground, for his deeds today have been done with the help of God.' And so the people ransomed Jonathan and he was not put to death.
1Sa 14:46 Saul decided not to pursue the Philistines, and the Philistines retired to their own territory.
1Sa 14:47 Saul consolidated his rule over Israel and made war on all his enemies on all fronts: on Moab, the Ammonites, Edom, the king of Zobah and the Philistines; whichever way he turned, he was victorious.
1Sa 14:48 He did great deeds of valour; he defeated the Amalekites and delivered Israel from those who used to pillage him.
1Sa 14:49 Saul's sons were: Jonathan, Ishvi and Malchishua. The names of his two daughters were: the elder, Merab, and the younger, Michal.
1Sa 14:50 The name of Saul's wife was Ahinoam daughter of Ahimaaz. The name of his army commander was Abner son of Ner, Saul's uncle.
1Sa 14:51 Kish father of Saul, and Ner father of Abner were the sons of Abiel.
1Sa 14:52 There was fierce warfare with the Philistines throughout Saul's life. Any strong or valiant man who caught Saul's eye, he recruited into his service.
1Sa 15:1 Samuel said to Saul, 'I am the man whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent to anoint you as king of his people Israel, so now listen to the words of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 15:2 This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says, "I intend to punish what Amalek did to Israel -- laying a trap for him on the way as he was coming up from Egypt.
1Sa 15:3 Now, go and crush Amalek; put him under the curse of destruction with all that he possesses. Do not spare him, but kill man and woman, babe and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey." '
1Sa 15:4 Saul summoned the people and reviewed them at Telaim: two hundred thousand foot soldiers (and ten thousand men of Judah).
1Sa 15:5 Saul advanced on the town of Amalek and lay in ambush in the river bed.
1Sa 15:6 Saul said to the Kenites, 'Go away, leave your homes among the Amalekites, in case I destroy you with them -- you acted with faithful love towards all the Israelites when they were coming up from Egypt.' So the Kenites moved away from the Amalekites.
1Sa 15:7 Saul then crushed the Amalekites, beginning at Havilah in the direction of Shur, which is to the east of Egypt.
1Sa 15:8 He took Agag king of the Amalekites alive and, executing the curse of destruction, put all the people to the sword.
1Sa 15:9 But Saul and the army spared Agag with the best of the sheep and cattle, the fatlings and lambs and all that was good. They did not want to consign these to the curse of destruction; they consigned only what was poor and worthless.
1Sa 15:10 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Samuel,
1Sa 15:11 'I regret having made Saul king, since he has broken his allegiance to me and not carried out my orders.' Samuel was appalled and cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) all night long.
1Sa 15:12 In the morning, Samuel set off to find Saul. Samuel was told, 'Saul has been to Carmel, to raise himself a monument there, but now has turned about, moved on and gone down to Gilgal.'
1Sa 15:13 When Samuel reached Saul, Saul said, 'May you be blessed by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! I have carried out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s orders.'
1Sa 15:14 Samuel replied, 'Then what is this bleating of sheep in my ears and the lowing of cattle that I hear?'
1Sa 15:15 Saul said, 'They have been brought from Amalek, the people having spared the best of the sheep and cattle to sacrifice them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your God; the rest we have consigned to the curse of destruction.'
1Sa 15:16 Samuel then said to Saul, 'Stop! Let me tell you what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me last night.' He said, 'Go on.'
1Sa 15:17 Samuel said, 'Small as you may be in your own eyes, are you not the leader of the tribes of Israel? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has anointed you as king of Israel.
1Sa 15:18 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent you on a mission he said to you, "Go and put those sinners, the Amalekites, under the curse of destruction and make war on them until they are exterminated."
1Sa 15:19 Why then did you not obey Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice? Why did you fall on the booty and do what is wrong in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes?'
1Sa 15:20 Saul replied to Samuel, 'But I did obey Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice. I went on the mission which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave me; I brought back Agag king of the Amalekites; I put Amalek under the curse of destruction;
1Sa 15:21 and from the booty the people have taken the best sheep and cattle of what was under the curse of destruction only to sacrifice them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God in Gilgal.'
1Sa 15:22 To which, Samuel said: Is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) pleased by burnt offerings and sacrifices or by obedience to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice? Truly, obedience is better than sacrifice, submissiveness than the fat of rams.
1Sa 15:23 Rebellion is a sin of sorcery, presumption a crime of idolatry! 'Since you have rejected Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word, he has rejected you as king.'
1Sa 15:24 Saul then said to Samuel, 'I have sinned, having broken Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order and your instructions because I was afraid of the people and yielded to their demands.
1Sa 15:25 Now, please forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I can worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
1Sa 15:26 Samuel said to Saul, 'I will not come back with you, since you have rejected Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has rejected you as king of Israel.'
1Sa 15:27 As Samuel turned away to leave, Saul caught at the hem of his cloak and it tore,
1Sa 15:28 and Samuel said to him, 'Today Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has torn the kingdom of Israel from you and given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.'
1Sa 15:29 (The Glory of Israel, however, does not lie or go back on his word, not being human and liable to go back on his word.)
1Sa 15:30 'I have sinned,' Saul said, 'but please still show me respect in front of my people's elders and in front of Israel, and come back with me, so that I can worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.'
1Sa 15:31 Samuel followed Saul back and Saul worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 15:32 Samuel then said, 'Bring me Agag king of the Amalekites!' Agag came towards him unsteadily saying, 'Truly death is bitter!'
1Sa 15:33 Samuel said: As your sword has left women childless, so will your mother be left childless among women! Samuel then butchered Agag before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at Gilgal.
1Sa 15:34 Samuel left for Ramah, and Saul went up home to Gibeah of Saul.
1Sa 15:35 Samuel did not see Saul again till his dying day. Samuel indeed mourned over Saul, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regretted having made Saul king of Israel.
1Sa 16:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Samuel, 'How much longer do you mean to go on mourning over Saul, now that I myself have rejected him as ruler of Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have found myself a king from among his sons.'
1Sa 16:2 Samuel replied, 'How can I go? When Saul hears of it he will kill me.' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said, 'Take a heifer with you and say, "I have come to sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
1Sa 16:3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I shall reveal to you what you must do; and you will anoint for me the one I indicate to you.'
1Sa 16:4 Samuel did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered and went to Bethlehem. The elders of the town came trembling to meet him and asked, 'Seer, is your coming favorable for us,'
1Sa 16:5 'Yes,' he replied. 'I have come to sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Purify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.' He purified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
1Sa 16:6 When they arrived, he looked at Eliab and thought, 'This must be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed now before him,'
1Sa 16:7 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Samuel, 'Take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him; God does not see as human beings see; they look at appearances but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looks at the heart.'
1Sa 16:8 Jesse then called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel, who said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not chosen this one either.'
1Sa 16:9 Jesse then presented Shammah, but Samuel said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not chosen this one either.'
1Sa 16:10 Jesse thus presented seven of his sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not chosen these.'
1Sa 16:11 He then asked Jesse, 'Are these all the sons you have?' Jesse replied, 'There is still one left, the youngest; he is looking after the sheep.' Samuel then said to Jesse, 'Send for him, for we shall not sit down to eat until he arrives.'
1Sa 16:12 Jesse had him sent for; he had ruddy cheeks, with fine eyes and an attractive appearance. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'Get up and anoint him: he is the one!'
1Sa 16:13 At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him, surrounded by his brothers; and the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seized on David from that day onwards. Samuel, for his part, set off and went to Ramah.
1Sa 16:14 Now the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had withdrawn from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) afflicted him with terrors.
1Sa 16:15 Saul's servants said to him, 'An evil spirit from God is undoubtedly the cause of your terrors.
1Sa 16:16 Let our lord give the order, and your servants who wait on you will look for a skilled harpist; when the evil spirit from God comes over you, he will play and it will do you good.'
1Sa 16:17 Saul said to his attendants, 'Find me, please, a man who plays well, and bring him to me.'
1Sa 16:18 One of the servants then spoke up and said, 'I have seen one of the sons of Jesse the Bethlehemite: he is a skilled player, a brave man and a fighter, well spoken, good-looking and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is with him.'
1Sa 16:19 So Saul sent messengers to Jesse with the order, 'Send me your son David (who is with the sheep).'
1Sa 16:20 Jesse took five loaves, a skin of wine and a kid, and sent them to Saul by his son David.
1Sa 16:21 David went to Saul and entered his service; Saul became very fond of him and David became his armour-bearer.
1Sa 16:22 Saul then sent a message to Jesse, 'Let David stay in my service, since he has won my favor.'
1Sa 16:23 And whenever the spirit from God came over Saul, David would take a harp and play; Saul would then be soothed; it would do him good, and the evil spirit would leave him.
1Sa 17:1 The Philistines mustered their troops for war; they assembled at Socoh in Judah and pitched camp between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-Dammim.
1Sa 17:2 Saul and the Israelites also mustered, pitching camp in the Valley of the Terebinth, and drew up their battle-line opposite the Philistines.
1Sa 17:3 The Philistines occupied the high ground on one side and the Israelites occupied the high ground on the other side, with the valley between them.
1Sa 17:4 A champion stepped out from the Philistine ranks; his name was Goliath, from Gath; he was six cubits and one span tall.
1Sa 17:5 On his head was a bronze helmet and he wore a breastplate of scale-armour; the breastplate weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.
1Sa 17:6 He had bronze greaves on his legs and a bronze scimitar slung across his shoulders.
1Sa 17:7 The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his spear weighed six hundred shekels of iron. A shield-bearer walked in front of him.
1Sa 17:8 Taking position in front of the Israelite lines, he shouted, 'Why have you come out to range yourselves for battle? Am I not a Philistine and are you not Saul's lackeys? Choose a man and let him come down to me.
1Sa 17:9 If he can fight it out with me and kill me, we will be your servants; but if I can beat him and kill him, you become our servants and serve us.'
1Sa 17:10 The Philistine then said, 'I challenge the ranks of Israel today. Give me a man and we will fight it out!'
1Sa 17:11 When Saul and all Israel heard what the Philistine said, they were dismayed and terrified.
1Sa 17:12 David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem of Judah whose name was Jesse; Jesse had eight sons and, by Saul's time, he was old and well on in years.
1Sa 17:13 Jesse's eldest three sons followed Saul to the war. The names of the three sons who went to the war were: the eldest Eliab, the second Abinadab and the third Shammah.
1Sa 17:14 David was the youngest; the eldest three followed Saul.
1Sa 17:15 David alternated between serving Saul and looking after his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
1Sa 17:16 Morning and evening, the Philistine advanced, presenting himself thus for forty days.
1Sa 17:17 Jesse said to his son David, 'Take your brothers this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves, and hurry to the camp, to your brothers.
1Sa 17:18 And take these ten cheeses to their commanding officer; find out how your brothers are and bring some token back from them;
1Sa 17:19 they are with Saul and all the men of Israel in the Valley of the Terebinth, fighting the Philistines.'
1Sa 17:20 David got up early in the morning and, leaving the sheep with someone to guard them, took up his load and went off as Jesse had ordered; he reached the encampment just as the troops were leaving to take up battle stations and shouting the war cry.
1Sa 17:21 Israel and the Philistines drew up their lines facing one another.
1Sa 17:22 David left his bundle in charge of the baggage guard and, running to the battle-line, went and asked his brothers how they were.
1Sa 17:23 While he was talking to them, the champion (Goliath, the Philistine from Gath) came up from the Philistine ranks and made his usual speech, which David heard.
1Sa 17:24 As soon as the Israelites saw this man, they all ran away from him and were terrified.
1Sa 17:25 The Israelites said, 'You saw that man who just came up? He comes to challenge Israel. The king will lavish riches on the man who kills him, he will give him his daughter in marriage and exempt his father's family from all taxes in Israel.'
1Sa 17:26 David asked the men who were standing near him, 'What would be the reward for killing this Philistine and saving Israel from disgrace? Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, to challenge the armies of the living God?'
1Sa 17:27 The people told him what they had been saying, 'That would be the reward for killing him,' they said.
1Sa 17:28 His eldest brother Eliab heard David talking to the men and grew angry with him. 'Why have you come down here?' he said. 'Whom have you left in charge of those few sheep in the desert? I know how impudent and artful you are; you have come to watch the battle!'
1Sa 17:29 David retorted, 'What have I done? May I not even speak?'
1Sa 17:30 And he turned away from him to someone else and asked the same question, to which the people replied as before.
1Sa 17:31 David's words were noted, however, and reported to Saul, who sent for him.
1Sa 17:32 David said to Saul, 'Let no one be discouraged on his account; your servant will go and fight this Philistine.'
1Sa 17:33 Saul said to David, 'You cannot go and fight the Philistine; you are only a boy and he has been a warrior since his youth.'
1Sa 17:34 David said to Saul, 'Your servant used to look after the sheep for his father and whenever a lion or a bear came and took a sheep from the flock,
1Sa 17:35 I used to follow it up, lay into it and snatch the sheep out of its jaws. If it turned on me, I would seize it by the beard and batter it to death.
1Sa 17:36 Your servant has killed both lion and bear, and this uncircumcised Philistine will end up like one of them for having challenged the armies of the living God.'
1Sa 17:37 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' David went on, 'who delivered me from the claws of lion and bear, will deliver me from the clutches of this Philistine.' Then Saul said to David, 'Go, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be with you!'
1Sa 17:38 Saul dressed David in his own armour; he put a bronze helmet on his head, dressed him in a breastplate
1Sa 17:39 and buckled his own sword over David's armour. David tried to walk but, not being used to them, said to Saul, 'I cannot walk in these; I am not used to them.' So they took them off again.
1Sa 17:40 He took his stick in his hand, selected five smooth stones from the river bed and put them in his shepherd's bag, in his pouch; then, sling in hand, he walked towards the Philistine.
1Sa 17:41 The Philistine, preceded by his shield-bearer, came nearer and nearer to David.
1Sa 17:42 When the Philistine looked David up and down, what he saw filled him with scorn, because David was only a lad, with ruddy cheeks and an attractive appearance.
1Sa 17:43 The Philistine said to David, 'Am I a dog for you to come after me with sticks?' And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
1Sa 17:44 The Philistine said to David, 'Come over here and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the wild beasts!'
1Sa 17:45 David retorted to the Philistine, 'You come to me with sword, spear and scimitar, but I come to you in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of the armies of Israel, whom you have challenged.
1Sa 17:46 Today, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will deliver you into my hand; I shall kill you, I shall cut off your head; today, I shall give your corpse and the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the wild beasts, so that the whole world may know that there is a God in Israel,
1Sa 17:47 and this whole assembly know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does not give victory by means of sword and spear -- for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is lord of the battle and he will deliver you into our power.'
1Sa 17:48 No sooner had the Philistine started forward to confront David than David darted out of the lines and ran to meet the Philistine.
1Sa 17:49 Putting his hand in his bag, he took out a stone, slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead; the stone penetrated his forehead and he fell face downwards on the ground.
1Sa 17:50 Thus David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; he hit the Philistine and killed him, though he had no sword in his hand.
1Sa 17:51 David ran and stood over the Philistine, seized his sword, pulled it from the scabbard, despatched him and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.
1Sa 17:52 The men of Israel and of Judah started forward, shouting their war cry, and pursued the Philistines as far as the approaches of Gath and the gates of Ekron. The Philistine dead lay all along the road from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron.
1Sa 17:53 Turning back from their ferocious pursuit of the Philistines, the Israelites plundered their camp.
1Sa 17:54 And David took the Philistine's head and brought it to Jerusalem; his weapons, however, he put in his own tent.
1Sa 17:55 When Saul saw David going to engage the Philistine he said to Abner, the army commander, 'Abner, whose son is that boy?' 'On your life, O king,' Abner replied, 'I do not know.'
1Sa 17:56 The king said, 'Find out whose son the lad is.'
1Sa 17:57 When David came back after killing the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him before Saul with the Philistine's head in his hand.
1Sa 17:58 Saul asked him, 'Whose son are you, young man?' David replied, 'The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.'
1Sa 18:1 When David had finished talking to Saul, Jonathan felt an instant affection for David; Jonathan loved him like his very self;
1Sa 18:2 Saul engaged him that very day and would not let him go home to his father.
1Sa 18:3 Jonathan made a pact with David, since he loved him like his very self;
1Sa 18:4 Jonathan took off the cloak which he was wearing and gave it to David, and his armour too, even including his sword, his bow and his belt.
1Sa 18:5 Wherever David was sent on a mission by Saul, he was successful, and Saul put him in command of the fighting men; all the people respected him and so did Saul's staff.
1Sa 18:6 On their return, when David was coming back from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul, with tambourines, sistrums and cries of joy;
1Sa 18:7 and as they danced the women sang: Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.
1Sa 18:8 Saul was very angry; the incident displeased him. 'They have given David the tens of thousands,' he said, 'but me only the thousands; what more can he have, except the throne?'
1Sa 18:9 And Saul watched David jealously from that day onwards.
1Sa 18:10 The following day, an evil spirit from God seized on Saul and he fell into a frenzy while he was indoors. David played the harp as on other occasions; Saul had a spear in his hand.
1Sa 18:11 Saul brandished the spear; he said, 'I will pin David to the wall!' David evaded him twice.
1Sa 18:12 Saul feared David, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with him and had withdrawn from Saul.
1Sa 18:13 So Saul removed him from his presence and appointed him commander of a thousand; he led the people on campaign.
1Sa 18:14 In all his expeditions, David was successful and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with him.
1Sa 18:15 And Saul, seeing how very successful he was, was afraid of him.
1Sa 18:16 All Israel and Judah loved David, however, since he was their leader on campaign.
1Sa 18:17 Saul said to David, 'This is my elder daughter Merab; I shall give her to you in marriage; but you must serve me bravely and fight Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s wars.' Saul thought, 'Better than strike the blow myself, let the Philistines do it!'
1Sa 18:18 David replied to Saul, 'Who am I and what is my lineage -- and my father's family -- in Israel, for me to become the king's son-in-law?'
1Sa 18:19 When the time came for Merab daughter of Saul to be given to David, she was given to Adriel of Meholah instead.
1Sa 18:20 Now Michal daughter of Saul fell in love with David. When Saul heard this he was pleased.
1Sa 18:21 He thought, 'Yes, I shall give her to him; she can be the snare for him, so that the Philistines will get him.' (On two occasions, Saul told David, 'Today, you shall be my son-in-law.')
1Sa 18:22 Saul gave instructions to his servants, 'Have a private word with David and say, "Look, the king is fond of you and all his servants love you -- why not be the king's son-in-law?" '
1Sa 18:23 Saul's servants repeated these words in David's ear, to which David replied, 'Do you think that becoming the king's son-in-law is a trivial matter; I have neither wealth nor position.'
1Sa 18:24 Saul's servants then reported back, 'This is what David said.'
1Sa 18:25 Saul replied, 'Tell David this, "The king desires no bride-price except one hundred Philistine foreskins, in vengeance on the king's enemies." ' Saul was counting on getting David killed by the Philistines.
1Sa 18:26 When his servants repeated this to David, David thought it would be a fine thing to be the king's son-in-law. And no time was lost
1Sa 18:27 before David got up to go, he and his men, and killed two hundred of the Philistines. David brought their foreskins back and counted them out before the king, so that he could be the king's son-in-law. Saul then gave him his daughter Michal in marriage.
1Sa 18:28 Saul could not but see that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with David, and that the whole House of Israel loved him;
1Sa 18:29 Saul became more afraid of David than ever, and became his inveterate enemy.
1Sa 18:30 The Philistine chiefs kept mounting their campaigns but, whenever they did so, David proved more successful than any of Saul's staff; consequently he gained great renown.
1Sa 19:1 Saul let his son Jonathan and all his servants know of his intention to kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, held David in great affection;
1Sa 19:2 and Jonathan warned David, 'My father Saul is looking for a way to kill you, so be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding, stay out of sight.
1Sa 19:3 I shall go out and keep my father company in the countryside where you will be, and shall talk to my father about you; I shall see what the situation is and then tell you.'
1Sa 19:4 Jonathan spoke highly of David to Saul his father and said, 'The king should not harm his servant David; far from harming you, what he has done has been greatly to your advantage.
1Sa 19:5 He took his life in his hands, he killed the Philistine, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought about a great victory for all Israel. You saw for yourself. How pleased you were! Why then sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?'
1Sa 19:6 Saul was impressed by Jonathan's words. Saul swore, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, I will not kill him.'
1Sa 19:7 Jonathan called David and told him all this. Jonathan then brought him to Saul, and David remained in attendance as before.
1Sa 19:8 War broke out again and David sallied out to fight the Philistines; he inflicted a great defeat on them and they fled before him.
1Sa 19:9 An evil spirit from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came over Saul while he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand; David was playing the harp.
1Sa 19:10 Saul tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, but he avoided Saul's thrust and the spear stuck in the wall. David fled and made good his escape. That same night
1Sa 19:11 Saul sent agents to watch David's house, intending to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David's wife, warned him, 'If you do not escape tonight, you will be a dead man tomorrow!'
1Sa 19:12 Michal then let David down through the window, and he made off, took to flight and so escaped.
1Sa 19:13 Michal then took a domestic image, laid it on the bed, put a tress of goats' hair at the head of the bed and put a cover over it.
1Sa 19:14 When Saul sent the agents to arrest David, she said, 'He is ill.'
1Sa 19:15 Saul sent the agents back to see David, with the words, 'Bring him to me on his bed, for me to kill him!'
1Sa 19:16 So in the agents went, and there in bed was the image, with the tress of goats' hair on its head!
1Sa 19:17 Saul then said to Michal, 'Why have you deceived me like this and let my enemy go, and so make his escape?' Michal replied to Saul, 'He said, "Let me go, or I shall kill you!" '
1Sa 19:18 David, having fled and made his escape, went to Samuel at Ramah and told him exactly how Saul had treated him; he and Samuel went and lived in the huts.
1Sa 19:19 Word was brought to Saul, 'David is in the huts at Ramah.'
1Sa 19:20 Saul accordingly sent agents to capture David; when they saw the community of prophets prophesying, and Samuel there as their leader, the spirit of God came over Saul's agents, and they too fell into frenzy.
1Sa 19:21 When Saul was told of this, he sent other agents, and they too fell into frenzy; Saul then sent a third group of agents, and they fell into frenzy too.
1Sa 19:22 He then went to Ramah himself and, arriving at the large storage-well at Seku, asked, 'Where are Samuel and David?' And someone said, 'Why, they are in the huts at Ramah!'
1Sa 19:23 Making his way from there to the huts at Ramah, the spirit of God came over him too, and he went along in a frenzy until he arrived at the huts at Ramah.
1Sa 19:24 He too stripped off his clothes and he too fell into a frenzy in Samuel's presence, then collapsed naked on the ground for the rest of that day and all night. Hence the saying: Is Saul one of the prophets too?
1Sa 20:1 Fleeing from the huts at Ramah, David went and confronted Jonathan, 'What have I done, what is my guilt, how have I wronged your father, for him to want to take my life?'
1Sa 20:2 He replied, 'You must not think that! You are not going to die. My father, you see, does nothing, important or unimportant, without confiding in me, so why should my father hide this from me? It is not true.'
1Sa 20:3 In reply, David swore, 'Your father knows very well that I enjoy your favor, and thinks, "Jonathan must not know about this or he will be upset." But, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives and as you yourself live, there is only a step between me and death.'
1Sa 20:4 At which, Jonathan said to David, 'Whatever you think best, I will certainly do for you.'
1Sa 20:5 David replied, 'Look, tomorrow is New Moon and I ought to sit at table with the king, but you must let me go and hide in the countryside until the evening.
1Sa 20:6 If your father notices my absence, you must say, "David insistently asked me for permission to hurry over to Bethlehem, his home town, because they are holding the annual sacrifice there for the whole clan."
1Sa 20:7 If he says, "Very well," your servant is safe, but if he flies into a rage, you may be sure that he has some evil plan.
1Sa 20:8 Show your servant faithful love, since you have bound your servant to you by a pact in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name. But if I am guilty, then kill me yourself -- why take me to your father?'
1Sa 20:9 Jonathan replied, 'Perish the thought! If I knew for sure that my father was determined to do you a mischief, would I not have told you?'
1Sa 20:10 David then said to Jonathan, 'Who will let me know if your father gives you a harsh answer?'
1Sa 20:11 Jonathan then said to David, 'Come on, let us go out into the country,' and the pair of them went out into the country.
1Sa 20:12 Jonathan then said to David, 'By Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel! I shall sound my father this time tomorrow; if all is well for David and I do not then send and inform you,
1Sa 20:13 may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bring unnameable ills to Jonathan and worse ones too! If my father intends to do you a mischief, I shall tell you so and let you get away, so that you can be safe. And may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be with you as he used to be with my father!
1Sa 20:14 If I am still alive, show your servant faithful love; if I die,
1Sa 20:15 never withdraw your faithful love from my family. When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has exterminated every enemy of David's from the face of the earth,
1Sa 20:16 do not let Jonathan's name be exterminated with Saul's family, or may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) call David to account!'
1Sa 20:17 Jonathan then renewed his oath to David, since he loved him like his very soul.
1Sa 20:18 Jonathan then said to David, 'Tomorrow is New Moon; your absence will be noticed, since your place will be empty.
1Sa 20:19 The day after tomorrow your absence will be very marked, and you must go to the place where you hid on the day of the deed, and stay beside that mound.
1Sa 20:20 For my part, the day after tomorrow I shall shoot three arrows in that direction, as though at a target.
1Sa 20:21 I shall then send a servant to go and find the arrows. If I say to him, "The arrows are this side of you, get them," come out, since all will be well for you and nothing the matter, as sure as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives.
1Sa 20:22 But if I say to him, "The arrows are ahead of you," then be off, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself will be sending you away.
1Sa 20:23 And as regards the agreement we made, you and I, why, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is witness between us for ever.'
1Sa 20:24 So David hid in the country; New Moon came and the king sat down to his meal.
1Sa 20:25 He sat in his usual place with his back to the wall, Jonathan sat facing him and Abner sat next to Saul; but David's place was empty.
1Sa 20:26 Saul said nothing that day, thinking, 'It is sheer chance; he is unclean.'
1Sa 20:27 On the day after New Moon, the second day, David's place was still empty.
1Sa 20:28 Saul said to his son Jonathan, 'Why did not the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?'
1Sa 20:29 Jonathan answered Saul, 'David insistently asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. "Please let me go," he said, "for we are holding the clan sacrifice in the town and my brothers have ordered me to attend. So now, if I enjoy your favor, let me get away and see my brothers." That is why he has not come to the king's table.'
1Sa 20:30 Saul flew into a rage with Jonathan and said, 'Son of a rebellious slut! Don't I know that you side with the son of Jesse to your own shame and your mother's dishonor?
1Sa 20:31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on earth, neither you nor your royal rights are secure. Now have him fetched and brought to me; he deserves to die.'
1Sa 20:32 Jonathan retorted to his father Saul, 'Why should he die? What has he done?'
1Sa 20:33 But Saul brandished his spear at him to strike him, and Jonathan realized that his father was determined that David should die.
1Sa 20:34 Hot with anger, Jonathan got up from the table and ate nothing on the second day of the month, being upset about David -- and because his father had insulted him.
1Sa 20:35 Next morning, Jonathan went out into the country at the time agreed with David, taking a young servant with him.
1Sa 20:36 He said to his servant, 'Run and find the arrows which I am going to shoot,' and the servant ran while Jonathan shot an arrow ahead of him.
1Sa 20:37 When the servant reached the spot to which Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan shouted after him, 'Is not the arrow ahead of you?'
1Sa 20:38 Again Jonathan shouted after the servant, 'Quick! Hurry, do not stand around.' Jonathan's servant picked up the arrow and brought it back to his master.
1Sa 20:39 The servant suspected nothing; only Jonathan and David knew what was meant.
1Sa 20:40 Jonathan then gave his weapons to his servant and said, 'Go and carry them to the town.'
1Sa 20:41 As soon as the servant had gone, David stood up beside the mound, threw himself to the ground, prostrating himself three times. They then embraced each other, both weeping copiously.
1Sa 20:42 Jonathan then said to David, 'Go in peace. And as regards the oath that both of us have sworn by the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be witness between you and me, between your descendants and mine for ever.'
1Sa 21:1 David then got up and left, and Jonathan went back to the town.
1Sa 21:2 David then went to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came out trembling to meet David and said, 'Why are you alone? Why is nobody with you?'
1Sa 21:3 David replied to Ahimelech the priest, 'The king has given me an order and said to me, "Do not let anyone know anything about the mission on which I am sending you, or about the order which I have given you." I have arranged to meet the guards at such and such a place.
1Sa 21:4 Meanwhile, if you have five loaves of bread to hand, give them to me, or whatever there is.'
1Sa 21:5 The priest replied to David, 'I have no ordinary bread to hand; there are only consecrated loaves of permanent offering -- provided that the men have kept themselves from women?'
1Sa 21:6 David replied to the priest, 'Certainly, women have been forbidden to us, as always when I set off on a campaign. The men's things are clean. Though this is a profane journey, they are certainly clean today as far as their things are concerned.'
1Sa 21:7 The priest then gave him what had been consecrated, for the only bread there was the loaves of permanent offering, which is taken out of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, to be replaced by warm bread on the day when it is removed.
1Sa 21:8 Now one of Saul's servants happened to be there that day, detained in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence; his name was Doeg the Edomite and he was the strongest of Saul's shepherds.
1Sa 21:9 David then said to Ahimelech, 'Have you no spear or sword here to hand? I did not bring either my sword or my weapons with me, because the king's business was urgent.'
1Sa 21:10 The priest replied, 'The sword of Goliath the Philistine whom you killed in the Valley of the Terebinth is here, wrapped in a piece of clothing behind the ephod; if you care to take it, do so, for that is the only one here.' David said, 'There is nothing like that one; give it to me.'
1Sa 21:11 David journeyed on and that day fled out of Saul's reach, going to Achish king of Gath.
1Sa 21:12 Achish's servants said to him, 'Is not this David, the king of the country? Was it not of him that they sang as they danced: Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands?'
1Sa 21:13 David pondered on these words and became very frightened of Achish king of Gath.
1Sa 21:14 When their eyes were on him, he played the madman and, when they held him, he feigned lunacy. He drummed his feet on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
1Sa 21:15 Achish said to his servants, 'You can see that this man is mad. Why bring him to me?
1Sa 21:16 Have I not enough madmen, without your bringing me this one to weary me with his antics? Is he to join my household?'
1Sa 22:1 David left there and took refuge in the Cave of Adullam; his brothers and his father's whole family heard this and joined him there.
1Sa 22:2 All those in distress, all those in debt, all those who had a grievance, gathered round him and he became their leader. There were about four hundred men with him.
1Sa 22:3 From there David went to Mizpah in Moab and said to the king of Moab, 'Allow my father and mother to stay with you until I know what God intends to do for me.'
1Sa 22:4 He left them with the king of Moab and there they stayed all the time that David was in the stronghold.
1Sa 22:5 The prophet Gad, however, said to David, 'Do not stay in the stronghold; leave and make your way into the territory of Judah.' David then left and went to the forest of Hereth.
1Sa 22:6 When Saul heard that David and the men with him had been discovered, Saul was at Gibeah, seated under the tamarisk on the high place, spear in hand, with all his staff standing round him.
1Sa 22:7 'Listen, Benjaminites!' said Saul to them, 'Is the son of Jesse going to give you all fields and vineyards and make all of you commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds
1Sa 22:8 that you all conspire against me? No one warned me when my son made a pact with the son of Jesse; none of you felt sorry for me or warned me when my son incited my servant to become my enemy, as he is now.'
1Sa 22:9 Then, up spoke Doeg the Edomite, who was in command of Saul's staff, 'I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech son of Ahitub.
1Sa 22:10 That man consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on his behalf, gave him provisions and also the sword of Goliath the Philistine.'
1Sa 22:11 The king then sent for the priest Ahimelech son of Ahitub and his whole family, the priests of Nob; they all came to the king.
1Sa 22:12 Saul said, 'Now listen, son of Ahitub!' He replied, 'Here I am, my lord.'
1Sa 22:13 'Why have you conspired against me,' said Saul, 'you and the son of Jesse, giving him bread and a sword and consulting God on his behalf, for him to rebel against me as is now the case?'
1Sa 22:14 Ahimelech replied to the king, 'Of all those in your service, who is more loyal than David son-in-law to the king, captain of your bodyguard, honored in your household?
1Sa 22:15 Was today the first time I ever consulted God on his behalf? Indeed it was not! The king has no grounds for bringing any charge against his servant or against his whole family, for your servant knew nothing whatever about all this.'
1Sa 22:16 The king retorted, 'You must die, Ahimelech, you and your whole family.'
1Sa 22:17 The king said to the scouts who were standing round him, 'Forward! and put the priests of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to death, for they too are on David's side, they knew that he was escaping, yet did not warn me of it.' The king's professional soldiers, however, would not lift a hand to strike the priests of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Sa 22:18 The king then said to Doeg, 'Forward, you! Fall on the priests!' Doeg the Edomite stepped forward and fell on the priests, himself that day killing eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.
1Sa 22:19 Nob, the town of the priests, Saul put to the sword: men and women, children and infants, cattle, donkeys and sheep.
1Sa 22:20 One son of Ahimelech son of Ahitub alone escaped. His name was Abiathar, and he fled away to join David.
1Sa 22:21 When Abiathar told David that Saul had slaughtered the priests of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
1Sa 22:22 David said to Abiathar, 'I knew, that day when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would be sure to inform Saul. I am responsible for the death of all your kinsmen.
1Sa 22:23 Stay with me, do not be afraid, for he who seeks your life seeks mine; you will be safe with me.'
1Sa 23:1 News was then brought to David, 'The Philistines are besieging Keilah and plundering the threshing-floors'.
1Sa 23:2 David consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Shall I go and fight these Philistines?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied to David, 'Go and fight the Philistines and save Keilah.'
1Sa 23:3 But David's men said to him, 'We are already afraid here in Judah; how much more, then, if we go to Keilah to fight the Philistine troops!'
1Sa 23:4 So David consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) again and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Be on your way; go down to Keilah, since I shall give the Philistines into your power.'
1Sa 23:5 So David and his men went to Keilah and fought the Philistines and carried off their cattle and inflicted a great defeat on them. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Keilah.
1Sa 23:6 When Abiathar son of Ahimelech took refuge with David, he went down to Keilah with the ephod in his hand.
1Sa 23:7 When word was brought to Saul that David had gone to Keilah he said, 'God has delivered him into my power: he has trapped himself by going into a town with gates and bars.'
1Sa 23:8 Saul called all the people to arms, to go down to Keilah and besiege David and his men.
1Sa 23:9 David, however, was aware that Saul was plotting evil against him, and said to Abiathar the priest, 'Bring the ephod.'
1Sa 23:10 David said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, your servant has heard that Saul is preparing to come to Keilah and destroy the town because of me.
1Sa 23:11 Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, I beg you, let your servant know.' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'He will come down.'
1Sa 23:12 David then went on to ask, 'Will the notables of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'They will hand you over.'
1Sa 23:13 At this, David made off with his men, about six hundred in number; they left Keilah and went where they could. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he abandoned the expedition.
1Sa 23:14 David stayed in the desert, in the strongholds; he stayed in the mountains, in the desert of Ziph; Saul kept looking for him day after day, but God did not deliver him into his power.
1Sa 23:15 David was aware that Saul had mounted an expedition to take his life. David was then at Horesh in the desert of Ziph.
1Sa 23:16 Jonathan son of Saul set off and went to David at Horesh and encouraged him in the name of God.
1Sa 23:17 'Do not be afraid,' he said, 'for my father Saul's hand will not reach you. You are to reign over Israel, and I shall be second to you. Saul my father is himself aware of this.'
1Sa 23:18 And the two made a pact before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). David stayed at Horesh and Jonathan went home.
1Sa 23:19 Some men from Ziph then went up to Saul at Gibeah and said, 'Look, David is hiding among us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the Hill of Hachilah to the south of the wastelands.
1Sa 23:20 Now whenever you wish to go down, my lord king, do so; we shall make it our task to hand him over to the king.'
1Sa 23:21 Saul replied, 'May you be blessed by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for sympathising with me.
1Sa 23:22 Go and make doubly sure, find out exactly what place he frequents, for I have been told that he is very cunning.
1Sa 23:23 Take careful note of all the hiding places where he lurks, and come back to me when you are certain. I shall then come with you and, if he is in the country, I shall track him down through every clan in Judah!'
1Sa 23:24 Setting off they went to Ziph ahead of Saul. Meanwhile, David and his men were in the desert of Maon, in the plain to the south of the wastelands.
1Sa 23:25 When Saul and his men set out in search, David was told and went down to the gorge running through the desert of Maon.
1Sa 23:26 Saul and his men proceeded along one side of the mountain, David and his men along the other. David was hurrying to escape from Saul, while Saul and his men were trying to cross over to David and his men's side, to capture them,
1Sa 23:27 when a messenger came to Saul and said, 'Come at once, the Philistines have invaded the country.'
1Sa 23:28 So Saul broke off his pursuit of David and went to oppose the Philistines. That is why the place is called the Gorge of Separations.
1Sa 24:1 From there David went up and installed himself in the strongholds of En-Gedi.
1Sa 24:2 Once Saul was back from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, 'David is now in the desert of En-Gedi.'
1Sa 24:3 Saul thereupon took three thousand men selected from all Israel and went in search of David and his men east of the Rocks of the Mountain Goats.
1Sa 24:4 He came to the sheepfolds along the route, where there was a cave, and went in to cover his feet. Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave;
1Sa 24:5 David's men said to him, 'Today is the day of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to you, "I shall deliver your enemy into your power; do what you like with him." ' David got up and, unobserved, cut off the border of Saul's cloak.
1Sa 24:6 Afterwards David reproached himself for having cut off the border of Saul's cloak.
1Sa 24:7 He said to his men, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) preserve me from doing such a thing to my lord as to raise my hand against him, since he is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed.'
1Sa 24:8 By these words David restrained his men and would not let them attack Saul.
1Sa 24:9 Saul then left the cave and went on his way. After this, David too left the cave and called after Saul, 'My lord king!' Saul looked behind him and David, bowing to the ground, prostrated himself.
1Sa 24:10 David then said to Saul, 'Why do you listen to people who say, "David intends your ruin"?
1Sa 24:11 This very day you have seen for yourself how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put you in my power in the cave and how, refusing to kill you, I spared you saying, "I will not raise my hand against my lord, since he is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed."
1Sa 24:12 Look, father, look at the border of your cloak in my hand. Since, although I cut the border off your cloak, I did not kill you, surely you realize that I intend neither mischief nor crime. I have not wronged you, and yet you hunt me down to take my life.
1Sa 24:13 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be judge between me and you, and may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) avenge me on you; but I shall never lay a hand on you!
1Sa 24:14 (As the old proverb says: Wickedness comes out of wicked people, but I shall never lay a hand on you!)
1Sa 24:15 On whose trail is the king of Israel campaigning? Whom are you pursuing? On the trail of a dead dog, of a flea!
1Sa 24:16 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be the judge and decide between me and you; may he examine and defend my cause and give judgement for me by rescuing me from your clutches!'
1Sa 24:17 When David had finished saying this to Saul, Saul said, 'Is that your voice, my son David?' And Saul began to weep aloud.
1Sa 24:18 'You are upright and I am not,' he said to David, 'since you have behaved well to me, whereas I have behaved badly to you.
1Sa 24:19 And today you have shown how well you have behaved to me, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had put me in your power but you did not kill me.
1Sa 24:20 When a man comes on his enemy, does he let him go unmolested? May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) reward you for the good you have done me today!
1Sa 24:21 Now I know that you will indeed reign and that the sovereignty in Israel will pass into your hands.
1Sa 24:22 Now swear to me by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that you will not suppress my descendants once I am gone, or blot my name out of my family.'
1Sa 24:23 This David swore to Saul, and Saul went home while David and his men went back to the stronghold.
1Sa 25:1 Samuel died and all Israel assembled to mourn for him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. David then set off and went down to the desert of Maon.
1Sa 25:2 Now, there was a man in Maon whose business was at Carmel; the man was very rich: he owned three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was then at Carmel, having his sheep shorn.
1Sa 25:3 The man's name was Nabal and his wife's Abigail. She was a woman of intelligence and beauty, but the man was miserly and churlish. He was a Calebite.
1Sa 25:4 When David heard in the desert that Nabal was at his sheepshearing,
1Sa 25:5 he sent ten men off, having said to them, 'Go up to Carmel, visit Nabal and greet him from me.
1Sa 25:6 And this is what you are to say to my brother, "Peace to you, peace to your family, peace to all that is yours!
1Sa 25:7 I hear that you now have the shearers; your shepherds were with us recently: we did not molest them, nor did they lose anything all the while they were at Carmel.
1Sa 25:8 Ask your young men and they will tell you. I hope that you will give the men a welcome, coming as we do on a festival. Whatever you have to hand please give to your servants and to your son David." '
1Sa 25:9 David's men went and said all this to Nabal for David, and waited.
1Sa 25:10 Nabal retorted to the men in David's service, 'Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse?
1Sa 25:11 There are many servants nowadays who run away from their masters. Am I to take my bread and my wine and the meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men who come from I know not where?'
1Sa 25:12 David's men turned on their heels and went back, and on their arrival told him exactly what had been said.
1Sa 25:13 David then said to his men, 'Every man buckle on his sword!' And they buckled on their swords, and David buckled on his too; about four hundred followed David while two hundred stayed with the baggage.
1Sa 25:14 Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife. He said, 'David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, but he flared up at them.
1Sa 25:15 Now, these men were very good to us; they did not molest us and we lost nothing all the time we had anything to do with them while we were out in the country.
1Sa 25:16 Night and day, they were like a rampart to us, all the time we were with them, minding the sheep.
1Sa 25:17 So now make up your mind what you should do, for the ruin of our master and his whole family is a certainty, and he is such a brute that no one can say a word to him.'
1Sa 25:18 Abigail hastily took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready prepared, five measures of roasted grain, a hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and loaded them on donkeys.
1Sa 25:19 She said to her servants, 'Go on ahead, I shall follow you' -- but she did not tell her husband Nabal.
1Sa 25:20 As she was riding her donkey down behind a fold in the mountain, David and his men happened to be coming down in her direction; and she met them.
1Sa 25:21 Now, David had decided, 'It was a waste of time my guarding all this man's property in the desert so that he lost nothing at all! He has repaid me bad for good.
1Sa 25:22 May God bring unnameable ills on David and worse ones, too, if by morning I leave a single manjack alive of all who belong to him!'
1Sa 25:23 As soon as Abigail saw David, she quickly dismounted from the donkey and, falling on her face in front of David, prostrated herself on the ground.
1Sa 25:24 She fell at his feet and said, 'Let me take the blame, my lord. Let your servant speak in your ear; listen to what your servant has to say!
1Sa 25:25 My lord, please pay no attention to this brute Nabal for his nature is like his name; "Brute" is his name and brutal he is. But I, your servant, did not see the men whom my lord sent.
1Sa 25:26 And now, my lord, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives and as your soul lives, by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who kept you from the crime of bloodshed and from taking vengeance with your own hand, may your enemies and all those ill-disposed towards you become like Nabal.
1Sa 25:27 As for the present which your servant has brought my lord, I should like this to be given to the men in your service.
1Sa 25:28 Please forgive your servant for any offense I have given you, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will certainly assure you of a lasting dynasty, since you are fighting Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s battles and no fault has been found in you throughout your life.
1Sa 25:29 Should anyone set out to hunt you down and try to kill you, your life will be kept close in the wallet of life with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, while your enemies' lives he will fling out of the pouch of the sling.
1Sa 25:30 Once Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done for you all the good things which he has said he will do for you, and made you ruler of Israel,
1Sa 25:31 you must have no anxiety, my lord, no remorse, over having wantonly shed blood, over having taken a revenge. When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done well by you, then remember your servant.'
1Sa 25:32 David said to Abigail, 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, who sent you to meet me today!
1Sa 25:33 Blessed be your wisdom and blessed you yourself for today having restrained me from the crime of bloodshed and from exacting revenge!
1Sa 25:34 But as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, lives, who prevented me from harming you, had you not hurried out to meet me, I swear Nabal would not have had a single manjack left alive by morning!'
1Sa 25:35 David then accepted what she had brought him and said, 'Go home in peace; yes, I have listened to you and have pardoned you.'
1Sa 25:36 Abigail returned to Nabal. He was holding a feast, a princely feast, in his house; Nabal was in high spirits, and as he was very drunk she told him nothing at all till it was daylight.
1Sa 25:37 In the morning, when Nabal's wine had left him and his wife told him everything that had happened, his heart died within him and he became like a stone.
1Sa 25:38 About ten days later Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck Nabal, and he died.
1Sa 25:39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for having defended my cause over the insult which I received from Nabal, and for having restrained his servant from doing wrong! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made Nabal's wickedness rebound on his own head!'
1Sa 25:40 David then sent Abigail an offer of marriage. When the men in David's service came to Abigail at Carmel, they said, 'David has sent us to take you to him, to be his wife.'
1Sa 25:41 She stood up, then prostrated herself on the ground. 'Consider your servant a slave', she said, 'to wash the feet of my lord's servants.'
1Sa 25:42 Quickly Abigail stood up again and mounted a donkey; followed by five of her servant-girls, she followed David's messengers and became his wife.
1Sa 25:43 David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel and he kept them both as wives.
1Sa 25:44 Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti son of Laish, from Gallim.
1Sa 26:1 Some men from Ziph went to Saul at Gibeah and said, 'Look, David is hiding on the Hill of Hachilah on the edge of the wastelands!'
1Sa 26:2 So Saul set off and went down to the desert of Ziph, accompanied by three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David in the desert of Ziph.
1Sa 26:3 Saul pitched camp on the Hill of Hachilah, which is on the edge of the wastelands near the road. David was then living in the desert and saw that Saul had come after him into the desert.
1Sa 26:4 Accordingly, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed arrived.
1Sa 26:5 Setting off, David went to the place where Saul had pitched camp. He saw the place where Saul and Abner son of Ner, commander of his army, had bedded down. Saul had bedded down inside the camp with the troops bivouacking round him.
1Sa 26:6 Speaking to Ahimelech the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, David said, 'Who will come down with me to the camp, to Saul?' Abishai answered, 'I will go down with you.'
1Sa 26:7 So in the dark David and Abishai made their way towards the force, where they found Saul lying asleep inside the camp, his spear stuck in the ground beside his head, with Abner and the troops lying round him.
1Sa 26:8 Abishai then said to David, 'Today God has put your enemy in your power; so now let me pin him to the ground with his own spear. Just one stroke! I shall not need to strike him twice.'
1Sa 26:9 David said to Abishai, 'Do not kill him, for who could raise his hand against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed and go unpunished?
1Sa 26:10 As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives,' David said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself will strike him down: either the day will come for him to die, or he will go into battle and perish then.
1Sa 26:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) forbid that I should raise my hand against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed! But now let us take the spear beside his head and the pitcher of water, and let us go away.'
1Sa 26:12 David took the spear and the pitcher of water from beside Saul's head, and they made off. No one saw, no one knew, no one woke up; they were all asleep, because a torpor from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had fallen on them.
1Sa 26:13 David crossed to the other side and halted on the top of the mountain a long way off; there was a wide space between them.
1Sa 26:14 David then called out to the troops and to Abner son of Ner, 'Abner, why don't you answer?' Abner replied, 'Who is that calling?'
1Sa 26:15 David said to Abner, 'Are you not a man? Who is your equal in Israel? Why, then, did you not guard the king your lord? One of the people came to kill the king your lord.
1Sa 26:16 What you did was not well done. As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, you all deserve to die since you did not guard your lord, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed. Look where the king's spear is now, and the pitcher of water which was beside his head!'
1Sa 26:17 Recognising David's voice, Saul said, 'Is that your voice, my son David?' David replied, 'It is my voice, my lord king.
1Sa 26:18 Why is my lord pursuing his servant?' he said. 'What have I done? What crime have I committed?
1Sa 26:19 May my lord king now listen to his servant's words: if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has incited you against me, may he be appeased with an offering; but if human beings have done it, may they be accursed before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since they have as effectively banished me today from sharing in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s heritage as if they had said, "Go and serve other gods!"
1Sa 26:20 So I pray now that my blood shall not be shed on soil remote from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, when the king of Israel has mounted an expedition to take my life, as one might hunt a partridge in the mountains!'
1Sa 26:21 Saul replied, 'I have done wrong! Come back, my son David; I shall never harm you again, since today you have shown respect for my life. Yes, I have behaved like a fool, I have been profoundly in the wrong.'
1Sa 26:22 In reply, David said, 'Here is the king's spear. Let one of the men come across and get it.
1Sa 26:23 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) reward each as each has been upright and loyal. Today Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put you in my power but I would not raise my hand against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed.
1Sa 26:24 As today I set great value by your life, so may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) set great value by my life and deliver me from every tribulation!'
1Sa 26:25 Saul then said, 'May you be blessed, my son David! In what you undertake, you will certainly succeed.' David then went on his way and Saul returned home.
1Sa 27:1 'One of these days,' David thought, 'I shall perish at the hand of Saul. The best thing that I can do is to get away into the country of the Philistines; then Saul will give up tracking me through the length and breadth of Israel and I shall be safe from him.'
1Sa 27:2 So David set off and went over, he and his six hundred men, to Achish son of Maoch, king of Gath.
1Sa 27:3 He settled at Gath with Achish, he and his men, each with his family and David with his two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel.
1Sa 27:4 When news reached Saul that David had fled to Gath, he stopped searching for him.
1Sa 27:5 David said to Achish, 'If I have won your favor, let me be given a place in one of the outlying towns, where I can live. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?'
1Sa 27:6 That very day Achish gave him Ziklag; and this is why Ziklag has been the property of the kings of Judah to the present day.
1Sa 27:7 The time that David stayed in Philistine territory amounted to a year and four months.
1Sa 27:8 David and his men went out on raids against the Geshurites, Girzites and Amalekites, for these are the tribes inhabiting the region which, from Telam, goes in the direction of Shur, as far as Egypt.
1Sa 27:9 David laid the countryside waste and left neither man nor woman alive; he carried off the sheep and cattle, the donkeys, camels and clothing, and then came back again to Achish.
1Sa 27:10 Achish would ask, 'Where did you go raiding today?' David would reply, 'Against the Negeb of Judah,' or 'the Negeb of Jerahmeel,' or 'the Negeb of the Kenites.'
1Sa 27:11 David spared neither man nor woman to bring back alive to Gath, 'in case', as he thought, 'they inform on us and say, "David did such and such." ' This was the way David conducted his raids all the time he stayed in Philistine territory.
1Sa 27:12 Achish trusted David. 'He has made himself detested by his own people Israel,' he thought, 'and so will be my servant for ever.'
1Sa 28:1 It then happened that the Philistines mustered their forces for war, to fight Israel, and Achish said to David, 'It is understood that you and your men go into battle with me.'
1Sa 28:2 David said to Achish, 'In that case, you will soon see what your servant can do.' Achish replied to David, 'Right, I shall appoint you as my permanent bodyguard.'
1Sa 28:3 Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned him and buried him at Ramah, his own town. Saul had expelled the necromancers and wizards from the country.
1Sa 28:4 Meanwhile the Philistines had mustered and had come and pitched camp at Shunem. Saul mustered all Israel and they encamped at Gilboa.
1Sa 28:5 When Saul saw the Philistine camp, he was afraid and his heart trembled violently.
1Sa 28:6 Saul consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave him no answer, either by dream, divination or prophet.
1Sa 28:7 Saul then said to his servants, 'Find a necromancer for me, so that I can go and consult her.' His servants replied, 'There is a necromancer at En-Dor.'
1Sa 28:8 And so Saul, disguising himself and changing his clothes, set out accompanied by two men; their visit to the woman took place at night. 'Disclose the future to me', he said, 'by means of a ghost. Conjure up the one I shall name to you.'
1Sa 28:9 The woman replied, 'Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has outlawed necromancers and wizards from the country; why are you setting a trap for my life, then, to have me killed?'
1Sa 28:10 But Saul swore to her by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives,' he said, 'no blame shall attach to you for this business.'
1Sa 28:11 The woman asked, 'Whom shall I conjure up for you?' He replied, 'Conjure up Samuel.'
1Sa 28:12 The woman then saw Samuel and, giving a great cry, she said to Saul, 'Why have you deceived me? You are Saul!'
1Sa 28:13 The king said, 'Do not be afraid! What do you see?' The woman replied to Saul, 'I see a ghost rising from the earth.'
1Sa 28:14 'What is he like?' he asked. She replied, 'It is an old man coming up; he is wrapped in a cloak.' Saul then knew that it was Samuel and, bowing to the ground, prostrated himself.
1Sa 28:15 Samuel said to Saul, 'Why have you disturbed my rest by conjuring me up?' Saul replied, 'I am in great distress; the Philistines are waging war on me, and God has abandoned me and no longer answers me either by prophet or by dream; and so I have summoned you to tell me what I ought to do.'
1Sa 28:16 Samuel said, 'Why consult me, when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has abandoned you and has become your enemy?
1Sa 28:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has treated you as he foretold through me; he has snatched the sovereignty from your hand and given it to your neighbor, David,
1Sa 28:18 because you disobeyed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice and did not execute his fierce anger against Amalek. That is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is treating you like this today.
1Sa 28:19 What is more, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will deliver Israel and you too, into the power of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me; and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will hand over the army of Israel into the power of the Philistines.'
1Sa 28:20 Immediately Saul fell full length on the ground. He was terrified by what Samuel had said and was also weak from having eaten nothing all that day and night.
1Sa 28:21 The woman went to Saul and, seeing his terror, said, 'Look, your servant has obeyed your order; I have taken my life in my hands and obeyed the command which you gave me.
1Sa 28:22 Now please, you in your turn listen to what your servant has to say. Let me offer you a piece of bread. Eat something and get some strength for your journey.'
1Sa 28:23 But he refused. 'I will not eat,' he said. His servants however pressed him, and so did the woman. Allowing himself to be persuaded by them, he got up from the ground and sat on the bed.
1Sa 28:24 The woman owned a fattened calf which she quickly slaughtered, and she took some flour and kneaded it and with it baked some unleavened cakes
1Sa 28:25 which she served to Saul and his servants; they ate, and then set off and left the same night.
1Sa 29:1 The Philistines mustered all their forces at Aphek while the Israelites pitched camp near the spring in Jezreel.
1Sa 29:2 The Philistine commanders marched past with their hundreds and their thousands, and David and his men brought up the rear with Achish.
1Sa 29:3 The Philistine chiefs asked, 'What are these Hebrews doing?' Achish replied to them, 'Why, this is David the servant of Saul, king of Israel, who has been with me for the last year or two. I have had no fault to find with him from the day he gave himself up to me until the present time.'
1Sa 29:4 But the Philistine chiefs were angry with him. 'Send the man back,' they said, 'make him go back to the place which you assigned to him. He cannot go into battle with us, in case he turns on us once battle is joined. Would there be a better way for the man to regain his master's favor than with the heads of these men here?
1Sa 29:5 Is not this the David of whom they sang as they danced: Saul has killed his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?
1Sa 29:6 So Achish called David and said, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, you are loyal, and I am quite content with all your doings in our campaigning together, since I have found no fault with you from the day you came to me until the present time. But you are not acceptable to the chiefs.
1Sa 29:7 So go home, in peace, rather than antagonise them.'
1Sa 29:8 'But what have I done,' David asked Achish, 'what fault have you had to find with your servant from the day I entered your service to the present time, for me not to be allowed to go and fight the enemies of my lord the king?'
1Sa 29:9 In reply, Achish said to David, 'In my opinion, it is true, you are as good as an angel of God; but the Philistine chiefs have said, "He must not go into battle with us."
1Sa 29:10 So get up early tomorrow morning, with your master's servants who came with you, and go to the place which I assigned to you. Do not harbour resentment, since personally I have no fault to find with you. Get up early tomorrow morning and, as soon as it is light, be off.'
1Sa 29:11 So David and his men got up early to leave at dawn and go back to Philistine territory. And the Philistines marched on Jezreel.
1Sa 30:1 Now by the time David and his men reached Ziklag three days later, the Amalekites had raided the Negeb and Ziklag; they had sacked Ziklag and burnt it down.
1Sa 30:2 They had taken the women prisoner, and everyone who was there, both small and great. They had not killed anyone, but had carried them off and gone away.
1Sa 30:3 When David and his men arrived, they found the town burnt down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.
1Sa 30:4 Then David and the people with him wept aloud till they were too weak to weep any more.
1Sa 30:5 David's two wives had been captured: Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel.
1Sa 30:6 David was in great trouble, since the people were talking of stoning him; the people all felt very bitter, each man for his own sons and daughters. But David took courage from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God.
1Sa 30:7 To the priest Abiathar son of Ahimelech, David said, 'Bring me the ephod.' Abiathar brought the ephod to David.
1Sa 30:8 David then consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Shall I go in pursuit of these raiders? Will I overtake them?' The answer was, 'Go in pursuit; you will certainly overtake them and rescue the captives.'
1Sa 30:9 David accordingly set off with the six hundred men who were with him and reached the torrent of Besor.
1Sa 30:10 David then continued the pursuit with four hundred men, two hundred staying behind who were too exhausted to cross the torrent of Besor.
1Sa 30:11 Out in the country they found an Egyptian and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and some water to drink;
1Sa 30:12 they also gave him a piece of fig cake and two bunches of raisins; he ate these and his spirits revived -- he had had nothing to eat or drink for three days and three nights.
1Sa 30:13 David then said to him, 'Whose man are you and where do you come from?' He replied, 'I am a young Egyptian, the slave of an Amalekite; my master abandoned me because I fell sick three days ago.
1Sa 30:14 We raided the Negeb of the Cherethites, and the Negeb of Judah, and the Negeb of Caleb too, and we burnt Ziklag down.'
1Sa 30:15 David said, 'Will you guide me to these raiders?' He replied, 'Swear to me by God not to kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will guide you to these raiders.'
1Sa 30:16 He guided him to them, and there they were, scattered over the whole countryside, eating, drinking and celebrating, on account of the enormous booty which they had brought back from the territory of the Philistines and the territory of Judah.
1Sa 30:17 David slaughtered them from dawn until the evening of the following day. No one escaped, except four hundred young men who mounted camels and fled.
1Sa 30:18 He rescued everything that the Amalekites had taken -- David also rescued his two wives.
1Sa 30:19 Nothing of theirs was lost, whether small or great, from the booty or sons and daughters -- everything that had been taken from them; David recovered everything.
1Sa 30:20 They captured the flocks and herds as well and drove them in front of him. 'This is David's booty,' they shouted.
1Sa 30:21 When David reached the two hundred men who had been too exhausted to follow him and whom he had left at the torrent of Besor, they came out to meet David and the party accompanying him; David approached with his party and greeted them.
1Sa 30:22 But all the rogues and scoundrels among the men who had gone with David began saying, 'Since they did not go with us, we shall not give them any of the booty which we have rescued, except that each of them can have his wife and children. Let them take them away and be off.'
1Sa 30:23 But David said, 'Do not behave like this, brothers, with what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given us; he has protected us and has handed over to us the raiders who attacked us.
1Sa 30:24 Who would agree with you on this? No: As the share of the man who goes into battle, so is the share of the man who stays with the baggage. They will share alike.'
1Sa 30:25 And from that day on, he made that a rule and custom for Israel, which obtains to the present day.
1Sa 30:26 When David reached Ziklag, he sent parts of the booty to the elders of Judah, town by town, with this message, 'Here is a present for you, taken from the booty of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s enemies':
1Sa 30:27 to those in Bethel, to those in Ramoth of the Negeb,
1Sa 30:28 to those in Jattir, to those in Aroer, to those in Siphmoth, to those in Eshtemoa,
1Sa 30:29 to those in Carmel, to those in the towns of Jerahmeel, to those in the towns of the Kenites,
1Sa 30:30 to those in Hormah, to those in Borashan, to those in Athach,
1Sa 30:31 to those in Hebron and to all the places which David and his men had frequented.
1Sa 31:1 The Philistines gave battle to Israel, and the Israelites, fleeing from the Philistines, fell and were slaughtered on Mount Gilboa.
1Sa 31:2 The Philistines bore down on Saul and his sons, and they killed Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
1Sa 31:3 The fighting grew fiercer round Saul; the archers came upon him, and he was severely wounded
1Sa 31:4 by the archers. Saul then said to his armour-bearer, 'Draw your sword and run me through with it; I do not want these uncircumcised men to come and make fun of me.' But his armour-bearer was very much afraid and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
1Sa 31:5 His armour-bearer, seeing that Saul was dead, fell on his sword too and died with him.
1Sa 31:6 Thus died Saul, his three sons and his armour-bearer, together on the same day.
1Sa 31:7 When the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan saw that the Israelites had been routed and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. The Philistines then came and occupied them.
1Sa 31:8 When the Philistines came on the following day to strip the dead, they found Saul and his three sons lying on Mount Gilboa.
1Sa 31:9 They cut off his head and, stripping him of his armour, had these carried round the territory of the Philistines to proclaim the good news to their idols and their people.
1Sa 31:10 They put his armour in the temple of Astarte; and his body they fastened to the walls of Beth-Shean.
1Sa 31:11 When the inhabitants of Jabesh in Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul,
1Sa 31:12 the warriors all set out and, having marched all night, took the bodies of Saul and his sons off the walls of Beth-Shean; they brought them to Jabesh and burned them there.
1Sa 31:13 They then took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk of Jabesh, and fasted for seven days.
2Sa 1:1 Saul was dead and David, returning after his victory over the Amalekites, had been at Ziklag for two days.
2Sa 1:2 On the third day, a man arrived from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and earth on his head. When he came to David, he fell to the ground and prostrated himself.
2Sa 1:3 David asked him, 'Where have you come from?' 'I have escaped from the Israelite camp,' he said.
2Sa 1:4 David said, 'What has happened? Tell me.' He replied, 'The people fled from the battle, and many of them have fallen and are dead. Saul and his son Jonathan are dead too.'
2Sa 1:5 Then David asked the young man who brought the news, 'How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?'
2Sa 1:6 The young man replied, 'I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul, leaning on his spear, with the chariots and the cavalry bearing down on him.
2Sa 1:7 Glancing behind him and seeing me, he shouted to me. I replied, "Here I am!"
2Sa 1:8 He said, "Who are you?" I replied, "I am an Amalekite."
2Sa 1:9 He then said, "Come here and kill me. My head is swimming, although I still have all my strength."
2Sa 1:10 So I went over to him and killed him, because I knew that once he fell he could not survive. I then took the crown which he had on his head and the bracelet on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.'
2Sa 1:11 David then took hold of his clothes and tore them, and all the men with him did the same.
2Sa 1:12 They mourned and wept and fasted until the evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, for the people of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and for the House of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
2Sa 1:13 David said to the young man who had brought the news, 'Where are you from?' He replied, 'I am the son of a resident foreigner, an Amalekite.'
2Sa 1:14 David said, 'How was it that you were not afraid to lift your hand to destroy Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed?'
2Sa 1:15 Then David called one of the young men. 'Come here,' he said, 'strike him down.' The man struck him and he died.
2Sa 1:16 David said, 'Your blood be on your own head. You convicted yourself out of your own mouth by saying, "I killed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed." '
2Sa 1:17 David sang the following lament over Saul and his son Jonathan
2Sa 1:18 (it is for teaching archery to the children of Judah; it is written in the Book of the Just):
2Sa 1:19 Does the splendor of Israel lie dead on your heights? How did the heroes fall?
2Sa 1:20 Do not speak of it in Gath, nor broadcast it in the streets of Ashkelon, for fear the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, for fear the daughters of the uncircumcised gloat.
2Sa 1:21 You mountains of Gilboa, no dew, no rain fall on you, O treacherous fields where the heroes' shield lies dishonored! Not greased with oil, the shield of Saul,
2Sa 1:22 but with the blood of wounded men, the fat of warriors! The bow of Jonathan never turned back, the sword of Saul never came home unsated!
2Sa 1:23 Saul and Jonathan, beloved and handsome, were divided neither in life, nor in death. Swifter than eagles were they, stronger than lions.
2Sa 1:24 O daughters of Israel, weep for Saul who gave you scarlet and fine linen to wear, who pinned golden jewellery on your dresses!
2Sa 1:25 How did the heroes fall in the thick of the battle? Jonathan, by your dying I too am stricken,
2Sa 1:26 I am desolate for you, Jonathan my brother. Very dear you were to me, your love more wonderful to me than the love of a woman.
2Sa 1:27 How did the heroes fall and the weapons of war succumb!
2Sa 2:1 After this David consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), asking, 'Shall I go up to one of the towns of Judah?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Go up!' 'Which one shall I go to?' David asked. 'To Hebron,' was the reply.
2Sa 2:2 So David went up, with his two wives Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel.
2Sa 2:3 In addition David brought up the men who were with him, each with his family, and they settled in the towns of Hebron.
2Sa 2:4 The men of Judah came, and there they anointed David as king of the House of Judah. They told David that the people of Jabesh in Gilead had given Saul burial,
2Sa 2:5 so David sent messengers to the people of Jabesh in Gilead. 'May you be blessed by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'for showing this faithful love to Saul your lord, and for burying him.
2Sa 2:6 And now may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) show faithful love and constancy towards you! I too shall treat you well because you have done this.
2Sa 2:7 And now take courage and be men of valour. Saul your lord is dead, but the House of Judah has anointed me to be their king.'
2Sa 2:8 Abner son of Ner, Saul's army commander, had taken Ishbaal son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim.
2Sa 2:9 He had made him king of Gilead, of the Asherites, of Jezreel, of Ephraim, of Benjamin and indeed of all Israel.
2Sa 2:10 Ishbaal son of Saul was forty years old when he became king of Israel, and he reigned for two years. Only the House of Judah supported David.
2Sa 2:11 The length of David's reign over Judah in Hebron was seven years and six months.
2Sa 2:12 Abner son of Ner, with the retainers of Ishbaal son of Saul, marched out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
2Sa 2:13 Joab son of Zeruiah, with David's retainers, also took the field, encountering them at the pool of Gibeon. There they halted, one party on one side of the pool, and the other opposite.
2Sa 2:14 Abner then said to Joab, 'Let the men come forward and fight it out between us!' Joab replied, 'Let them come forward.'
2Sa 2:15 So they came forward and were numbered off, twelve from Benjamin for Ishbaal son of Saul, and twelve of David's retainers.
2Sa 2:16 Each caught his opponent by the head and drove his sword into his side; and thus they all fell together. Hence the place was called the Field of Sides; it is at Gibeon.
2Sa 2:17 That day a very fierce battle took place, and Abner and the men of Israel were beaten by David's retainers.
2Sa 2:18 The three sons of Zeruiah were there, Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel could run like a wild gazelle.
2Sa 2:19 Asahel chased Abner, not swerving to the right or left from pursuing him.
2Sa 2:20 Abner turned and said, 'Asahel, is that you?' He replied, 'It is.'
2Sa 2:21 Abner said, 'Turn to your right or your left, catch one of the men and take his spoil!' But Asahel would not break off the pursuit.
2Sa 2:22 Again Abner spoke to Asahel, 'Stop following me, unless you want me to strike you to the ground; and then how could I look your brother Joab in the face?'
2Sa 2:23 But he refused to be diverted, so Abner struck him in the belly with the butt of his spear so that the shaft came out through his back; and he fell at his feet and died on the spot. On coming to the place where Asahel had fallen and died, everyone halted.
2Sa 2:24 Joab and Abishai took up the pursuit of Abner and at sunset reached the Hill of Ammah, which is to the east of Giah on the road through the desert of Gibeon.
2Sa 2:25 The Benjaminites gathered in close formation behind Abner and halted on the top of a hill.
2Sa 2:26 Abner called out to Joab, 'Is the sword to go on devouring for ever? Surely you see that this can only end in bitterness? How long will it be before you order those people to stop pursuing their brothers?'
2Sa 2:27 Joab replied, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, if you had not spoken, these men would not have given up the pursuit of their brothers until morning.'
2Sa 2:28 Joab then sounded the trumpet and all the troops halted; they pursued Israel no further and fought no more.
2Sa 2:29 All that night Abner and his men made their way through the Arabah; they crossed the Jordan and, marching throughout the morning, came to Mahanaim.
2Sa 2:30 Joab, having stopped pursuing Abner, mustered the whole contingent; David's retainers had lost nineteen men in addition to Asahel,
2Sa 2:31 but had killed three hundred and sixty of Benjamin, Abner's men.
2Sa 2:32 They took up Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb, which is at Bethlehem. Joab and his men then marched throughout the night, reaching Hebron at daybreak.
2Sa 3:1 So the war dragged on between the House of Saul and the House of David, but David grew steadily stronger and the House of Saul steadily weaker.
2Sa 3:2 The sons born to David at Hebron were: his first-born Amnon, by Ahinoam of Jezreel;
2Sa 3:3 his second Chileab, by Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel; the third Absalom son of Maacah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
2Sa 3:4 the fourth Adonijah son of Haggith; the fifth Shephatiah son of Abital;
2Sa 3:5 the sixth Ithream, by David's wife, Eglah. These were born to David at Hebron.
2Sa 3:6 This is what took place during the war between the House of Saul and the House of David. Abner took complete control in the House of Saul.
2Sa 3:7 Now, there was a concubine of Saul's called Rizpah daughter of Aiah, and Abner took her. Ishbaal said to Abner, 'Why have you slept with my father's concubine?'
2Sa 3:8 At these words of Ishbaal, Abner flew into a rage. 'Am I a dog's head?' he shouted. 'Here am I, full of faithful love towards the House of Saul your father, his brothers and his friends, not leaving you to the hands of David, and now you find fault with me over a woman!
2Sa 3:9 May God bring unnameable ills on Abner, and worse ones, too, if I do not bring about what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sworn to David:
2Sa 3:10 to take the sovereignty from the House of Saul, and establish David's throne over Israel as well as Judah, from Dan to Beersheba!'
2Sa 3:11 Ishbaal dared not say a single word to Abner in reply, as he was afraid of him.
2Sa 3:12 Abner sent messengers on his own behalf to say to David, '. . . and furthermore, come to an agreement with me and I will give you my support to win all Israel over to you.'
2Sa 3:13 'Very well,' David said, 'I will come to an agreement with you. I impose one condition however; you will not be admitted to my presence unless you bring me Michal, Saul's daughter, when you come to see me.'
2Sa 3:14 David then sent messengers to say to Ishbaal son of Saul, 'Give me back my wife Michal, whom I acquired for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.'
2Sa 3:15 So Ishbaal sent for her to be taken from her husband Paltiel son of Laish.
2Sa 3:16 Her husband set off with her and followed her, weeping as he went, as far as Bahurim; but Abner said to him, 'Go back!' and he went.
2Sa 3:17 Now Abner conferred with the elders of Israel. 'For a long time now,' he said, 'you have wanted David as your king.
2Sa 3:18 Now you must take action, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said of David, "By the hand of my servant David I shall deliver my people Israel from the clutches of the Philistines and all their enemies." '
2Sa 3:19 Abner also spoke to the men of Benjamin and then went to Hebron to tell David everything that had been agreed by Israel and the House of Benjamin.
2Sa 3:20 Abner, accompanied by twenty men, came to David at Hebron, and David held a feast for Abner and the men who were with him.
2Sa 3:21 Abner then said to David, 'I must get up and go. I am going to rally all Israel to my lord the king, so that they will make an alliance with you, and you will reign over all that you desire.' So David allowed Abner to go, and he went unmolested.
2Sa 3:22 David's retainers were just then coming back with Joab from a raid, bringing a great quantity of booty with them. Abner was no longer with David at Hebron, since David had allowed him to go, and he had gone unmolested.
2Sa 3:23 When Joab and the whole company with him had arrived, Joab was told, 'Abner son of Ner has been to the king, and the king has allowed Abner to go away unmolested.'
2Sa 3:24 Joab then went to the king and said, 'What have you done? Abner comes to you and you let him go away and now he has gone-why?
2Sa 3:25 You know Abner son of Ner! He came to trick you, to discover your every move, to find out what you are doing.'
2Sa 3:26 Joab left David's presence and sent messengers after Abner and these, unknown to David, brought him back from the storage-well at Sirah.
2Sa 3:27 When Abner reached Hebron, Joab took him aside in the town-gate, as if to have a quiet word with him, and there struck him a mortal blow in the belly to avenge the blood of his brother Asahel.
2Sa 3:28 Afterwards, when David heard of this, he said, 'I and my kingdom are for ever innocent before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) of the blood of Abner son of Ner;
2Sa 3:29 may it fall on the head of Joab and on all his family! May the House of Joab never be free of men afflicted with haemorrhage or a virulent skin-disease, whose strength is in the distaff, who fall by the sword, who lack food.'
2Sa 3:30 (Joab and his brother Abishai had murdered Abner because he killed their brother Asahel at the battle of Gibeon.)
2Sa 3:31 David then said to Joab and the whole company with him, 'Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn over Abner,' and King David walked behind the bier.
2Sa 3:32 They buried Abner at Hebron, and the king wept aloud on his grave, and the people all wept too.
2Sa 3:33 The king made this lament over Abner: Should Abner have died as a brute dies?
2Sa 3:34 Your hands were not tied, your feet not chained; you fell as a man falls at the hands of criminals. And all the people wept for him louder than ever.
2Sa 3:35 The people then all tried to persuade David to have some food while it was still daylight, but David swore this oath, 'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ills, too, if I taste bread or anything whatever until the sun is down!'
2Sa 3:36 All the people took note of this and it pleased them; indeed, everything the king did pleased the people.
2Sa 3:37 That day, all the people and all Israel understood that the king had had no part in the murder of Abner son of Ner.
2Sa 3:38 The king said to his retainers, 'Do you not realize that a prince, a great man, has fallen in Israel today?
2Sa 3:39 I, though anointed king, am weak at present, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too strong for me. May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) repay the criminal as his crime deserves!'
2Sa 4:1 When Saul's son heard that Abner had died at Hebron, his heart failed him, and all Israel was alarmed.
2Sa 4:2 Now, Saul's son had two freebooting chieftains; one was called Baanah, the other Rechab. They were the sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, and Benjaminites -- for Beeroth is regarded as belonging to Benjamin.
2Sa 4:3 The people of Beeroth had taken refuge in Gittaim, where they have remained to this day as resident foreigners.
2Sa 4:4 Jonathan son of Saul had a son with crippled feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled but, as she hurried away, he fell and was lamed. His name was Meribbaal.
2Sa 4:5 The sons of Rimmon of Beeroth, Rechab and Baanah, set out; they came to Ishbaal's house at the hottest part of the day when he was taking his midday rest.
2Sa 4:6 The woman who kept the door had been cleaning wheat and had drowsed off to sleep.
2Sa 4:7 Rechab and his brother Baanah stole past her and entered the house, where he was lying on his bed in his bedroom. They struck him and killed him, then cut off his head and, taking the head with them, travelled all night by way of the Arabah.
2Sa 4:8 They brought Ishbaal's head to David at Hebron. 'Here', they said to the king, 'is the head of Ishbaal son of Saul, your enemy, who meant to take your life. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has avenged my lord the king today on Saul and on his offspring.'
2Sa 4:9 But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon, by saying, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, who has rescued me from every danger,
2Sa 4:10 when someone told me, "Saul is dead!" supposing himself to be bringing me good news, I seized and put him to death at Ziklag, and that was how I rewarded him for his news!
2Sa 4:11 How much more when bandits have killed an upright man in his house, and on his bed! Am I not to demand an account of his blood from you, and rid the earth of you?'
2Sa 4:12 David then gave an order to the men, who put them to death, cut off their hands and feet, and hung them up beside the pool of Hebron. Ishbaal's head they took and buried in Abner's grave at Hebron.
2Sa 5:1 All the tribes of Israel then came to David at Hebron and said, 'Look, we are your own flesh and bone.
2Sa 5:2 In days past when Saul was our king, it was you who led Israel on its campaigns, and to you it was that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) promised, "You are to shepherd my people Israel and be leader of Israel." '
2Sa 5:3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a pact with them in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence at Hebron, and they anointed David as king of Israel.
2Sa 5:4 David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned for forty years.
2Sa 5:5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months; then he reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel and Judah for thirty-three years.
2Sa 5:6 The king and his men then marched on Jerusalem, on the Jebusites living in the territory. These said to David, 'You will not get in here. The blind and the lame will hold you off.' (That is to say: David will never get in here.)
2Sa 5:7 But David captured the citadel of Zion, that is, the City of David.
2Sa 5:8 That day, David said, 'Whoever gets up the tunnel and kills a Jebusite . . .' As for the blind and the lame, David hated them with his whole being. (Hence the saying: the blind and the lame may not enter the Temple.)
2Sa 5:9 David went to live in the citadel and called it the City of David. David then built a wall round it, from the Millo inwards.
2Sa 5:10 David grew stronger and stronger, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Sabaoth, was with him.
2Sa 5:11 Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, with cedar wood, carpenters and stone-cutters, who built David a palace.
2Sa 5:12 David then knew that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had confirmed him as king of Israel and, for the sake of his people Israel, had extended his sovereignty.
2Sa 5:13 After coming from Hebron, David took other concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and sons and daughters were born to him.
2Sa 5:14 These are the names of those born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
2Sa 5:15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,
2Sa 5:16 Elishama, Eliada, Eliphelet.
2Sa 5:17 When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed as king of Israel, they all went up to seek him out. On hearing this, David went down to the stronghold.
2Sa 5:18 When the Philistines arrived, they deployed in the Valley of the Rephaim.
2Sa 5:19 David consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and asked, 'Shall I attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my power?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied to David, 'Attack! I shall certainly deliver the Philistines into your power.'
2Sa 5:20 Accordingly, David went to Baal-Perazim and there David defeated them. He said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made a breach in my enemies for me, as though they had been breached by a flood.' This is why the place was given the name Baal-Perazim.
2Sa 5:21 They had left their gods behind them there, and David and his men carried them off.
2Sa 5:22 Again the Philistines invaded and deployed in the Valley of the Rephaim.
2Sa 5:23 David consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who replied, 'Do not attack them from the front; go round to their rear and engage them opposite the balsam trees.
2Sa 5:24 When you hear the sound of footsteps in the tops of the balsam trees, advance, for that will be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) going out ahead of you to defeat the Philistine army.'
2Sa 5:25 David did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered and beat the Philistines from Gibeon to the Pass of Gezer.
2Sa 6:1 David again mustered all the picked troops of Israel, thirty thousand men.
2Sa 6:2 Setting off with the whole force then with him, David went to Baalah of Judah, from there to bring up the ark of God, who bears the title 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, enthroned on the winged creatures'.
2Sa 6:3 They transported the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of Abinadab's house which is on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the cart,
2Sa 6:4 Uzzah walked alongside the ark of God and Ahio went in front.
2Sa 6:5 David and the whole House of Israel danced before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all their might, singing to the accompaniment of harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.
2Sa 6:6 When they came to Nacon's threshing-floor, Uzzah reached his hand out to the ark of God and steadied it, as the oxen were making it tilt.
2Sa 6:7 This roused Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger against Uzzah, and for this crime God struck him down on the spot, and there he died beside the ark of God.
2Sa 6:8 David resented Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s having broken out against Uzzah, and the place was given the name Perez-Uzzah, which it still has today.
2Sa 6:9 That day David felt afraid of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). 'How can the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) come to be with me?' he said.
2Sa 6:10 So David decided not to take the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with him into the city of David but diverted it to the house of Obed-Edom of Gath.
2Sa 6:11 The ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) remained in the house of Obed-Edom of Gath for three months, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blessed Obed-Edom and his whole family.
2Sa 6:12 King David was informed that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had blessed Obed-Edom's family and everything belonging to him on account of the ark of God. David accordingly went and, amid great rejoicing, brought the ark of God up from Obed-Edom's house to the City of David.
2Sa 6:13 When the bearers of the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fat sheep.
2Sa 6:14 And David danced whirling round before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all his might, wearing a linen loincloth.
2Sa 6:15 Thus with war cries and blasts on the horn, David and the entire House of Israel brought up the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Sa 6:16 Now as the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) entered the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul was watching from the window and when she saw King David leaping and whirling round before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the sight of him filled her with contempt.
2Sa 6:17 They brought the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in and put it in position, inside the tent which David had erected for it; and David presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence.
2Sa 6:18 And when David had finished presenting burnt offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
2Sa 6:19 To all the people, to the whole multitude of Israelites, men and women, he then distributed to each a loaf of bread, a portion of dates and a raisin cake. Then the people all went back to their homes.
2Sa 6:20 As David was coming back to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him. 'Much honor the king of Israel has won today,' she said, 'making an exhibition of himself under the eyes of his servant-maids, making an exhibition of himself like a buffoon!'
2Sa 6:21 David replied to Michal, 'I was dancing for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), not for them. As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, who chose me in preference to your father and his whole family to make me leader of Israel, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people, I shall dance before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and
2Sa 6:22 lower myself even further than that. In your eyes I may be base, but by the maids you speak of, by them, I shall be held in honor!'
2Sa 6:23 And to the day of her death, Michal, daughter of Saul, had no children.
2Sa 7:1 Once the king had settled into his palace and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had granted him rest from all the enemies surrounding him,
2Sa 7:2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, 'Look, I am living in a cedar-wood palace, while the ark of God is under awnings.'
2Sa 7:3 Nathan said to the king, 'Go and do whatever you have in mind, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is with you.'
2Sa 7:4 But that very night, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Nathan:
2Sa 7:5 'Go and tell my servant David, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Are you to build me a temple for me to live in?
2Sa 7:6 I have never lived in a house from the day when I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, but have kept traveling with a tent for shelter.
2Sa 7:7 In all my travels with all the Israelites, did I say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I had commanded to shepherd my people Israel: Why do you not build me a cedar-wood temple?"
2Sa 7:8 This is what you must say to my servant David, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel;
2Sa 7:9 I have been with you wherever you went; I have got rid of all your enemies for you. I am going to make your fame as great as the fame of the greatest on earth.
2Sa 7:10 I am going to provide a place for my people Israel; I shall plant them there, and there they will live and never be disturbed again; nor will they be oppressed by the wicked any more, as they were in former times
2Sa 7:11 ever since the time when I instituted judges to govern my people Israel; and I shall grant you rest from all your enemies. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) furthermore tells you that he will make you a dynasty.
2Sa 7:12 And when your days are over and you fall asleep with your ancestors, I shall appoint your heir, your own son to succeed you (and I shall make his sovereignty secure.
2Sa 7:13 He will build a temple for my name) and I shall make his royal throne secure for ever.
2Sa 7:14 I shall be a father to him and he a son to me; if he does wrong, I shall punish him with a rod such as men use, with blows such as mankind gives.
2Sa 7:15 But my faithful love will never be withdrawn from him as I withdrew it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
2Sa 7:16 Your dynasty and your sovereignty will ever stand firm before me and your throne be for ever secure." '
2Sa 7:17 Nathan related all these words and this whole revelation to David.
2Sa 7:18 King David then went in, sat down in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence and said: 'Who am I, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and what is my lineage, for you to have led me as far as this?
2Sa 7:19 Yet, to you, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), this seemed too little, and now you extend your promises for your servant's family into the distant future. Such is human destiny, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Sa 7:20 What more can David say to you, since you, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), know all about your servant?
2Sa 7:21 Because of your promise and since you were so inclined, you have had the generosity to reveal this to your servant.
2Sa 7:22 That is why you are great, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); there is no one like you, no God but you alone, as everything that we have heard confirms.
2Sa 7:23 Is there another people on earth like your people, like Israel, whom a god proceeded to redeem, to make them his people and to make a name for himself by performing great and terrible things on their behalf, by driving out nations and their gods before his people? -
2Sa 7:24 for you constituted your people Israel your own people for ever and you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), became their God.
2Sa 7:25 'Now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, may the promise which you have made for your servant and for his family stand firm forever as you have said,
2Sa 7:26 so that your name will be exalted for ever and people will say, "Israel's God is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth." Your servant David's dynasty will be secure before you,
2Sa 7:27 since you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, have disclosed to your servant, "I am going to build you a dynasty." Hence, your servant has ventured to offer this prayer to you.
2Sa 7:28 Yes, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you are God indeed, your words are true and you have made this generous promise to your servant.
2Sa 7:29 What is more, you have deigned to bless your servant's dynasty, so that it may remain for ever before you; for you, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken; and may your servant's dynasty be blessed with your blessing for ever.'
2Sa 8:1 After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. From the grip of the Philistines he wrested . . .
2Sa 8:2 He also defeated the Moabites and, making them lie on the ground, measured them off by the line; he measured out two lines to be put to death and one full line to have their lives spared. The Moabites became David's subjects and paid him tribute.
2Sa 8:3 David defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when the latter mounted an expedition to extend his power over the River.
2Sa 8:4 David captured one thousand seven hundred charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers from him; David hamstrung all the chariot teams, keeping only a hundred of them.
2Sa 8:5 The Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer king of Zobah, but David killed twenty-two thousand of the Aramaeans.
2Sa 8:6 David then imposed governors on Aram of Damascus, and the Aramaeans became David's subjects and paid him tribute. Wherever David went, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave him victory.
2Sa 8:7 David took the golden shields carried by Hadadezer's guards and brought them to Jerusalem.
2Sa 8:8 From Betah and Berothai, towns belonging to Hadadezer, King David captured a great quantity of bronze.
2Sa 8:9 When Tou king of Hamath heard that David had defeated Hadadezer's entire army,
2Sa 8:10 he sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him on having made war on Hadadezer and on having defeated him, since Hadadezer was at war with Tou. Hadoram brought with him objects made of silver, gold and bronze,
2Sa 8:11 which King David also consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as he had already consecrated the silver and gold taken from all the nations which he had subjugated-
2Sa 8:12 from Aram, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and Amalek; and from the spoil of Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
2Sa 8:13 David became famous when he came home from defeating the Edomites in the Valley of Salt -- eighteen thousand of them.
2Sa 8:14 He imposed governors on Edom and all the Edomites became David's subjects. Wherever David went, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave him victory.
2Sa 8:15 David ruled over all Israel, administering law and justice to all his people.
2Sa 8:16 Joab son of Zeruiah was in command of the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was herald;
2Sa 8:17 Zadok and Abiathar son of Ahimelech, son of Ahitub, were priests; Seraiah was secretary;
2Sa 8:18 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and Pelethites; David's sons were priests.
2Sa 9:1 David asked, 'Is there anyone belonging to Saul's family left, to whom I might show faithful love for Jonathan's sake?'
2Sa 9:2 Now Saul's family had a servant whose name was Ziba. When he had been summoned to David, the king said, 'Are you Ziba?' 'At your service,' he replied.
2Sa 9:3 The king said, 'Is there no one left, belonging to Saul's family, for me to treat with God's own faithful love?' Ziba said to the king, 'There is still one of Jonathan's sons. He has crippled feet.'
2Sa 9:4 The king asked 'Where is he?' Ziba replied, 'He is living in the household of Machir son of Ammiel, at Lo-Debar.'
2Sa 9:5 So King David sent for him to be fetched from the house of Machir son of Ammiel at Lo-Debar.
2Sa 9:6 On entering David's presence, Meribbaal son of Jonathan, son of Saul, fell on his face and prostrated himself. David said, 'Meribbaal!' He replied, 'Here I am, at your service.'
2Sa 9:7 David then said, 'Do not be afraid; I will indeed treat you with faithful love for your father Jonathan's sake. I shall restore all your grandfather Saul's estates to you, and you will always eat at my table.'
2Sa 9:8 Meribbaal prostrated himself and said, 'Who is your servant, for you to show favor to a dead dog like me?'
2Sa 9:9 The king then summoned Saul's servant Ziba and said, 'Everything belonging to Saul and his family, I give to your master's son.
2Sa 9:10 You must work the land for him, you and your sons and your slaves; you must harvest the produce to provide food for your master's family to eat. But Meribbaal, your master's son, will always take his own meals at my table.' Now, Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty slaves.
2Sa 9:11 Ziba said to the king, 'Your servant will do everything my lord the king has ordered his servant.' So Meribbaal ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.
2Sa 9:12 Meribbaal had a young son whose name was Micha. All the people living in Ziba's household entered Meribbaal's service.
2Sa 9:13 Meribbaal lived in Jerusalem, since he always ate at the king's table. He was crippled in both feet.
2Sa 10:1 After this, when the king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him,
2Sa 10:2 David thought, 'I shall show Hanun son of Nahash the same faithful love as his father showed me.' And David sent his representatives to offer him condolences over his father. But, when David's representatives reached the Ammonites' country,
2Sa 10:3 the Ammonite princes said to Hanun their master, 'Do you really think David means to honor your father when he sends you messengers with sympathy? On the contrary, the reason why David has sent his representatives to you is to explore the city, to reconnoitre and so overthrow it.'
2Sa 10:4 Whereupon Hanun seized David's representatives, shaved off half their beards, cut their clothes off halfway up, at their buttocks, and sent them away.
2Sa 10:5 When David was told, he sent someone to meet them, since the men were overcome with shame. 'Stay in Jericho', the king said, 'until your beards have grown again, and come back then.'
2Sa 10:6 When the Ammonites realized that they had antagonised David, they sent agents to hire twenty thousand foot soldiers from the Aramaeans of Beth-Rehob and the Aramaeans of Zobah, one thousand men from the king of Maacah and twelve thousand men from the prince of Tob.
2Sa 10:7 When David heard this, he sent Joab with the whole army, the champions.
2Sa 10:8 The Ammonites marched out and drew up their line of battle at the city gate, while the Aramaeans of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah kept their distance in the open country.
2Sa 10:9 Joab, seeing that he had to fight on two fronts, to his front and to his rear, chose the best of Israel's picked men and drew them up in line facing the Aramaeans.
2Sa 10:10 He entrusted the rest of the army to his brother Abishai, and drew them up in line facing the Ammonites.
2Sa 10:11 'If the Aramaeans prove too strong for me,' he said, 'you must come to my help; if the Ammonites prove too strong for you, I shall come to yours.
2Sa 10:12 Be brave! Let us acquit ourselves like men for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God. And let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) do as he thinks right!'
2Sa 10:13 Joab and the force with him joined battle with the Aramaeans, who fled at his onslaught.
2Sa 10:14 When the Ammonites saw that the Aramaeans had fled, they too fled from Abishai and withdrew into the city. Hence, Joab broke off his campaign against the Ammonites and returned to Jerusalem.
2Sa 10:15 The Aramaeans, realising that Israel had got the better of them, concentrated their forces.
2Sa 10:16 Hadadezer sent messengers and mobilised the Aramaeans living on the other side of the river; and these arrived at Helam, with Shobach the commander of Hadadezer's army, at their head.
2Sa 10:17 David, being informed of this, mustered all Israel, crossed the Jordan and arrived at Helam. The Aramaeans drew up in line facing David and engaged him.
2Sa 10:18 But the Aramaeans fled from Israel, and David killed seven hundred of their chariot teams and forty thousand men; he also cut down Shobach the commander of their army, who died there.
2Sa 10:19 When all Hadadezer's vassal kings saw that Israel had got the better of them, they made peace with the Israelites and became their subjects. The Aramaeans were afraid to give any more help to the Ammonites.
2Sa 11:1 At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go campaigning, David sent Joab and with him his guards and all Israel. They massacred the Ammonites and laid siege to Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites. David, however, remained in Jerusalem.
2Sa 11:2 It happened towards evening when David had got up from resting and was strolling on the palace roof, that from the roof he saw a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful.
2Sa 11:3 David made enquiries about this woman and was told, 'Why, that is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.'
2Sa 11:4 David then sent messengers to fetch her. She came to him, and he lay with her, just after she had purified herself from her period. She then went home again.
2Sa 11:5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, 'I am pregnant.'
2Sa 11:6 David then sent word to Joab, 'Send me Uriah the Hittite,' whereupon Joab sent Uriah to David.
2Sa 11:7 When Uriah reached him, David asked how Joab was and how the army was and how the war was going.
2Sa 11:8 David then said to Uriah, 'Go down to your house and wash your feet.' Uriah left the palace and was followed by a present from the king's table.
2Sa 11:9 Uriah, however, slept at the palace gate with all his master's bodyguard and did not go down to his house.
2Sa 11:10 This was reported to David; 'Uriah', they said 'has not gone down to his house.' So David asked Uriah, 'Haven't you just arrived from the journey? Why didn't you go down to your house?'
2Sa 11:11 To which Uriah replied, 'The ark, Israel and Judah are lodged in huts; my master Joab and my lord's guards are camping in the open. Am I to go to my house, then, and eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, and as you yourself live, I shall do no such thing!'
2Sa 11:12 David then said to Uriah, 'Stay on here today; tomorrow I shall send you off.' So Uriah stayed that day in Jerusalem.
2Sa 11:13 The next day, David invited him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk. In the evening, Uriah went out and bedded down with his master's bodyguard, but did not go down to his house.
2Sa 11:14 Next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah.
2Sa 11:15 In the letter he wrote, 'Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest and then fall back, so that he gets wounded and killed.'
2Sa 11:16 Joab, then besieging the city, stationed Uriah at a point where he knew that there would be tough fighters.
2Sa 11:17 The people of the city sallied out and engaged Joab; there were casualties in the army, among David's guards, and Uriah the Hittite was killed as well.
2Sa 11:18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle.
2Sa 11:19 To the messenger he gave this order: 'When you have finished telling the king all about the battle,
2Sa 11:20 if the king's anger is aroused and he says, "Why did you go near the town to give battle? Didn't you know that they would shoot from the ramparts?
2Sa 11:21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?" you are to say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too." '
2Sa 11:22 So the messenger set off and, on his arrival, told David everything that Joab had instructed him to say. David flew into a rage with Joab and said to the messenger, 'Why did you go near the ramparts? Who killed Abimelech son of Jerubbaal? Wasn't it a woman who dropped a millstone on him from the ramparts, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you go near the ramparts?'
2Sa 11:23 The messenger replied to David, 'Their men had won an initial advantage and then came out to engage us in the open. We then drove them back into the gateway,
2Sa 11:24 but the archers shot at your retainers from the ramparts; some of the king's retainers lost their lives, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead too.'
2Sa 11:25 David then said to the messenger, 'Say this to Joab, "Do not take the matter to heart; the sword devours now one and now another. Attack the town in greater force and destroy it." That will encourage him.'
2Sa 11:26 When Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for her husband.
2Sa 11:27 When the period of mourning was over, David sent to have her brought to his house; she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done displeased Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Sa 12:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent the prophet Nathan to David. He came to him and said: In the same town were two men, one rich, the other poor.
2Sa 12:2 The rich man had flocks and herds in great abundance;
2Sa 12:3 the poor man had nothing but a ewe lamb, only a single little one which he had bought. He fostered it and it grew up with him and his children, eating his bread, drinking from his cup, sleeping in his arms; it was like a daughter to him.
2Sa 12:4 When a traveller came to stay, the rich man would not take anything from his own flock or herd to provide for the wayfarer who had come to him. Instead, he stole the poor man's lamb and prepared that for his guest.
2Sa 12:5 David flew into a great rage with the man. 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives,' he said to Nathan 'the man who did this deserves to die.
2Sa 12:6 For doing such a thing and for having shown no pity, he shall make fourfold restitution for the lamb.'
2Sa 12:7 Nathan then said to David, 'You are the man! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "I anointed you king of Israel, I saved you from Saul's clutches,
2Sa 12:8 I gave you your master's household and your master's wives into your arms, I gave you the House of Israel and the House of Judah; and, if this is still too little, I shall give you other things as well.
2Sa 12:9 Why did you show contempt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), by doing what displeases him? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword, you took his wife to be your wife, causing his death by the sword of the Ammonites.
2Sa 12:10 For this, your household will never be free of the sword, since you showed contempt for me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite, to make her your wife."
2Sa 12:11 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Out of your own household I shall raise misfortune for you. Before your very eyes I shall take your wives and give them to your neighbor, who will lie with your wives in broad daylight.
2Sa 12:12 You have worked in secret, but I shall work this for all Israel to see, in broad daylight." '
2Sa 12:13 David said to Nathan, 'I have sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' Nathan then said to David, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for his part, forgives your sin; you are not to die.
2Sa 12:14 But, since you have outraged Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by doing this, the child born to you will die.'
2Sa 12:15 And Nathan went home. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck the child which Uriah's wife had borne to David and it fell gravely ill.
2Sa 12:16 David pleaded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the child; he kept a strict fast and went home and spent the night lying on the ground, covered with sacking.
2Sa 12:17 The officials of his household stood round him, intending to get him off the ground, but he refused, nor would he take food with them.
2Sa 12:18 On the seventh day the child died. David's retinue were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. 'Even when the child was alive', they thought, 'we reasoned with him and he would not listen to us. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He will do something desperate.'
2Sa 12:19 David, however, noticed that his retinue were whispering among themselves, and realized that the child was dead. 'Is the child dead?' he asked the officers. They replied, 'He is dead.'
2Sa 12:20 David got off the ground, bathed and anointed himself and put on fresh clothes. Then he went into Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary and prostrated himself. On returning to his house, he asked to be served with food and ate it.
2Sa 12:21 His retinue said, 'Why are you acting like this? When the child was alive, you fasted and wept; now that the child is dead, you get up and take food!'
2Sa 12:22 'When the child was alive', he replied, 'I fasted and wept because I kept thinking, "Who knows? Perhaps Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will take pity on me and the child will live."
2Sa 12:23 But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him but he cannot come back to me.'
2Sa 12:24 David consoled his wife Bathsheba. He went to her and slept with her. She conceived and gave birth to a son, whom she called Solomon. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loved him
2Sa 12:25 and made this known by means of the prophet Nathan, who named him Jedidiah, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had instructed.
2Sa 12:26 Joab assaulted Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites and captured the royal town.
2Sa 12:27 He then sent messengers to tell David, 'I have assaulted Rabbah and captured the water supply.
2Sa 12:28 So now muster the rest of the army, lay siege to the town and take it, or I will take it and the town will be called after me!'
2Sa 12:29 So David mustered the whole army and marched on Rabbah; he assaulted the town and captured it.
2Sa 12:30 He took the crown off Milcom's head; it weighed one talent of gold, and in it was set a precious stone which went on David's head instead. He carried off great quantities of booty from the town.'
2Sa 12:31 And he expelled its inhabitants, setting them to work with saws, iron picks and iron axes, employing them at brickmaking. He treated all the Ammonite towns in the same way. David and the whole army returned to Jerusalem.
2Sa 13:1 After this, the following events took place. Absalom son of David had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar; Amnon son of David fell in love with her.
2Sa 13:2 Amnon was so obsessed with his sister Tamar that it made him ill, since she was a virgin and Amnon thought it impossible to do anything to her.
2Sa 13:3 But Amnon had a friend called Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother, and Jonadab was a very shrewd man.
2Sa 13:4 'Son of the king,' he said, 'tell me why, morning after morning, you look so worn? Won't you tell me?' Amnon replied, 'I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister.'
2Sa 13:5 Then Jonadab said, 'Take to your bed, pretend to be ill and, when your father comes to visit you, say, "Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat; let her prepare the food where I can see. What she gives me I shall eat." '
2Sa 13:6 So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill. The king then came to visit him and Amnon said to the king, 'Please let my sister Tamar come and make a cake or two where I can watch. What she gives me, I shall eat.'
2Sa 13:7 David then sent word to Tamar at the palace, 'Go to your brother Amnon's house and prepare some food for him.'
2Sa 13:8 Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon who was lying there in bed. She took dough and kneaded it, and she made some cakes while he watched, and baked the cakes.
2Sa 13:9 She then took the pan and dished them up in front of him, but he refused to eat. Amnon said, 'Let everyone leave me!' So everyone withdrew.
2Sa 13:10 Amnon then said to Tamar, 'Bring the food to the inner room, so that I can eat what you give me.' So Tamar took the cakes which she had made and brought them to her brother Amnon in the inner room.
2Sa 13:11 And as she was offering the food to him, he caught hold of her and said, 'Come to bed with me, sister!'
2Sa 13:12 She replied, 'No, brother! Do not force me! This is no way to behave in Israel. Do not do anything so disgraceful!
2Sa 13:13 Wherever should I go? I should be marked with this shame, while you would become disgraced in Israel. Why not go and speak to the king? He will not refuse to give me to you.'
2Sa 13:14 But he would not listen to her; he overpowered her and raped her.
2Sa 13:15 Amnon was then seized with extreme hatred for her; the hatred he now felt for her was greater than his earlier love. 'Get up and go!' he said.
2Sa 13:16 She said, 'No, brother! To send me away would be worse than the other wrong you have done me!' But he would not listen to her.
2Sa 13:17 He called his personal servant. 'Rid me of this woman!' he said. 'Throw her out and bolt the door behind her!'
2Sa 13:18 (She was wearing a magnificent dress, for this was what the king's unmarried daughters wore in days gone by.) So the servant put her out and bolted the door behind her.
2Sa 13:19 Tamar put dust on her head, tore the magnificent dress which she was wearing, laid her hand on her head, and went away, crying aloud as she went.
2Sa 13:20 Her brother Absalom said to her, 'Has Amnon your brother been with you? Sister, be quiet; he is your brother; do not take the matter to heart!' Tamar, however, went back to her brother Absalom's house inconsolable.
2Sa 13:21 When King David heard the whole story, he was very angry; but he had no wish to harm his son Amnon, whom he loved because he was his first-born.
2Sa 13:22 Absalom, however, would not so much as speak to Amnon, since he hated Amnon for having raped his sister Tamar.
2Sa 13:23 Two years later, when Absalom had the sheep-shearers at Baal-Hazor, which is near Ephraim, he invited all the king's sons.
2Sa 13:24 Absalom went to the king and said, 'Now sir, your servant has the sheep-shearers. Will the king and his retinue be pleased to come with your servant?'
2Sa 13:25 'No, my son,' the king replied, 'we must not all come and be a burden to you.' And though Absalom was insistent, he would not go but dismissed him.
2Sa 13:26 Absalom persisted, 'Then at least let my brother Amnon come with us.' The king said, 'Why should he go with you?'
2Sa 13:27 On Absalom's insistence, however, he let Amnon and all the king's sons to go with him. Absalom prepared a royal banquet
2Sa 13:28 and then gave this order to the servants, 'Listen carefully; when Amnon's heart is merry with wine and I say, "Strike Amnon down", then kill him. Don't be afraid. Have I not myself given you the order? Use your strength and show your mettle!'
2Sa 13:29 Absalom's servants treated Amnon as Absalom had ordered. The king's sons all leapt to their feet, mounted their mules and fled.
2Sa 13:30 While they were on the road, word reached David, 'Absalom has killed all the king's sons; not one of them is left.'
2Sa 13:31 The king stood up, tore his clothes and threw himself on the ground. All his officers tore their clothes too.
2Sa 13:32 Jonadab son of Shimeah, David's brother, then spoke up and said, 'Do not let my lord take to heart the report that all the young men, the king's sons, have been killed, since only Amnon is dead: for Absalom has been promising himself to do this since the day when Amnon raped his sister Tamar.
2Sa 13:33 So my lord the king must not imagine that all the king's sons are dead; only Amnon is dead
2Sa 13:34 and Absalom has fled.' The man on sentry duty looked up and saw a large troop coming along the road from Bahurim. The sentry came to tell the king, 'I have seen some people coming down the Bahurim road on the mountainside.'
2Sa 13:35 Jonadab then said to the king, 'These are the king's sons arriving: what your servant said is exactly what happened.'
2Sa 13:36 He had scarcely finished speaking when the king's sons arrived and wept aloud; the king and all his retinue wept aloud too.
2Sa 13:37 Absalom had gone to Talmai son of Ammihud, king of Geshur. The king mourned for his son every day.
2Sa 13:38 When Absalom had gone to Geshur, he stayed there for three years.
2Sa 13:39 Once the king was consoled over Amnon's death, his anger against Absalom subsided.
2Sa 14:1 Now, Joab son of Zeruiah observed that the king was favorably inclined to Absalom.
2Sa 14:2 Joab therefore sent to Tekoa for a wise woman. 'Pretend to be in mourning,' he said. 'Dress yourself in mourning, do not perfume yourself; act like a woman who has long been mourning for the dead.
2Sa 14:3 Then go to the king and say this to him.' And Joab put the words into her mouth which she was to say.
2Sa 14:4 So the woman of Tekoa went to the king and, falling on her face to the ground, prostrated herself. 'Help, my lord king!' she said.
2Sa 14:5 The king said, 'What is the matter?' 'As you see,' she replied, 'I am a widow; my husband is dead.
2Sa 14:6 Your servant had two sons and out in the fields, where there was no one to intervene, they had a quarrel. And one of them struck the other one and killed him.
2Sa 14:7 And now the whole clan has risen against your servant. "Give up the man who killed his brother," they say, "so that we can put him to death, to atone for the life of the brother whom he has murdered; and thus we shall destroy the heir as well." By this means, they will extinguish the ember still left to me, leaving my husband neither name nor survivor on the face of the earth.'
2Sa 14:8 Then the king said to the woman, 'Go home; I myself shall give orders about your case.'
2Sa 14:9 The woman of Tekoa said to the king, 'My lord king! May the guilt be on me and on my family; the king and his throne are innocent of it.'
2Sa 14:10 'Bring me the man who threatened you,' the king replied, 'and he shall never hurt you again.'
2Sa 14:11 She then said, 'Let the king be pleased to pronounce the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, so that the avenger of blood may not do greater harm and destroy my son.' 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives,' he said, 'not one of your son's hairs shall fall to the ground!'
2Sa 14:12 Then the woman said, 'Permit your servant to say something else to my lord the king.' 'Go on,' he said.
2Sa 14:13 The woman said, 'Why then has the king, who by giving this verdict has condemned himself, conceived the idea, against God's people's interests, of not bringing home the son whom he has banished?
2Sa 14:14 We are all mortal; we are like water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, nor does God raise up a corpse; let the king therefore make plans for his banished son not to remain far away from him in exile.
2Sa 14:15 'Now, the reason why I came to speak about this to my lord the king is that I was being intimidated, and your servant thought, "I shall speak to the king; perhaps the king will do what his servant asks.
2Sa 14:16 Surely the king will consent to save his servant from the clutches of the man who is trying to cut both me and my son off from God's heritage.
2Sa 14:17 Let a word from my lord the king, restore the peace!" your servant thought, "for my lord the king is like the Angel of God in understanding good and evil." May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God be with you!'
2Sa 14:18 Replying to the woman, the king said, 'Now do not evade the question which I am going to ask you.' The woman said, 'Let my lord the king ask his question.'
2Sa 14:19 'Is not Joab's hand behind you in all this?' the king asked. The woman replied, 'As you live, my lord king, I cannot escape what my lord the king says, either to right or to left. Yes, it was your servant Joab who gave me my orders; he put all these words into your servant's mouth.
2Sa 14:20 Your servant Joab did this to approach the matter indirectly, but my lord has the wisdom of the Angel of God; he knows everything that happens on earth!'
2Sa 14:21 The king then said to Joab, 'Very well, the suit is granted. Go and bring the young man Absalom back.'
2Sa 14:22 Joab fell on his face to the ground, prostrated himself and blessed the king. 'My lord king,' Joab said, 'today your servant knows that he has won your favor, since the king has done what his servant asked.'
2Sa 14:23 Joab then set off, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem.
2Sa 14:24 The king, however, said, 'Let him retire to his own house; he is not to appear in my presence.' So Absalom retired to his own house and was not received by the king.
2Sa 14:25 In all Israel there was no one more praised for his beauty than Absalom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, he could not be faulted.
2Sa 14:26 When he cut his hair -- he shaved it once a year because his hair got too heavy -- he would weigh the hair: two hundred shekels, king's weight.
2Sa 14:27 To Absalom were born three sons and one daughter called Tamar; she was a beautiful woman.
2Sa 14:28 Absalom lived in Jerusalem for two years without being received by the king.
2Sa 14:29 Absalom then summoned Joab, intending to send him to the king, but Joab would not come to him. He sent for him a second time, but still he would not come.
2Sa 14:30 At this, Absalom said to his retainers, 'Look, Joab's field is next to mine and he has barley in it; go and set it on fire.' Absalom's retainers set fire to the field.
2Sa 14:31 Joab then stirred himself, went to Absalom in his house and asked, 'Why have your retainers set my field on fire?'
2Sa 14:32 Absalom replied to Joab, 'Look, I sent word to you: Come here, so that I can send you to the king to say, "Why come back from Geshur? Better for me to have been there still!" Now I want to be received by the king, and if I am guilty, let him put me to death!'
2Sa 14:33 Joab went to the king and told him this. He then summoned Absalom, who prostrated himself with his face to the ground before the king. And the king kissed Absalom.
2Sa 15:1 After this, Absalom procured a chariot and horses, with fifty men to run ahead of him.
2Sa 15:2 He would get up early and stand beside the road leading to the city gate; and whenever a man with some lawsuit had to come before the king's tribunal, Absalom would call out to him and ask, 'Which town are you from?' If he answered, 'Your servant is from one of the tribes of Israel,'
2Sa 15:3 then Absalom would say, 'Look, your case is sound and just, but not one of the king's deputies will listen to you.'
2Sa 15:4 Absalom would say, 'Oh, who will appoint me judge in the land? Then anyone with a lawsuit or a plea could come to me and I should see he had justice!'
2Sa 15:5 And whenever anyone came up to him to prostrate himself, he would stretch out his hand, draw him to him and kiss him.
2Sa 15:6 Absalom acted like this with every Israelite who appealed to the king's tribunal, and so Absalom won the Israelites' hearts.
2Sa 15:7 When four years had gone by, Absalom said to the king, 'Allow me to go to Hebron and fulfill the vow which I have made to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
2Sa 15:8 for, when I was in Geshur, in Aram, your servant made this vow, "If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brings me back to Jerusalem, I shall pay my devotions to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Hebron." '
2Sa 15:9 The king said to him, 'Go in peace.' So he set off and went to Hebron.
2Sa 15:10 Absalom sent couriers throughout the tribes of Israel to say, 'When you hear the trumpet sound, you are to say, "Absalom is king at Hebron!" '
2Sa 15:11 With Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem; they had been invited and had gone in all innocence, unaware of what was going on.
2Sa 15:12 Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counsellor, from Giloh his town, and had him with him while offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy grew in strength, since Absalom's supporters grew in number.
2Sa 15:13 A messenger came and told David, 'The men of Israel have shifted their allegiance to Absalom.'
2Sa 15:14 David said to all his retinue then with him in Jerusalem, 'Up, let us flee, or we shall not escape from Absalom! Leave as quickly as you can, in case he mounts a sudden attack, overcomes us and puts the city to the sword.'
2Sa 15:15 The king's retinue replied, 'Whatever my lord the king decides, we are at your service.'
2Sa 15:16 The king set out on foot with his whole household, leaving ten concubines to look after the palace.
2Sa 15:17 The king set out on foot with everyone following, and they halted at the last house.
2Sa 15:18 All his officers stood at his side. All the Cherethites and all the Pelethites, with Ittai and all the six hundred Gittites who had come in his retinue from Gath, marched past the king.
2Sa 15:19 The king said to Ittai the Gittite, 'You, why are you coming with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner, indeed an exile from your homeland.
2Sa 15:20 You arrived only yesterday; should I take you wandering with us today, when I do not know myself where I am going? Go back, take your fellow countrymen with you, and may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) show you mercy and faithful love!'
2Sa 15:21 Ittai replied to the king, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, for death or life, your servant will be there too.'
2Sa 15:22 David then said to Ittai, 'Go ahead, march past!' And Ittai of Gath marched past with all his men and with all his children too.
2Sa 15:23 The entire population was weeping aloud as the king stood in the bed of the Kidron and everyone marched past him, making for the desert.
2Sa 15:24 Zadok was there too, and all the Levites with him, carrying the ark of God. They set the ark of God down beside Abiathar until everyone had finished marching out of the town.
2Sa 15:25 The king then said to Zadok, 'Take the ark of God back into the city. Should I win Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s favor, he will bring me back and allow me to see it and its tent once more.
2Sa 15:26 But should he say, "You displease me," here I am: let him treat me as he sees fit.'
2Sa 15:27 The king said to Zadok the priest, 'Look, you and Abiathar go back quietly into the city, with your two sons, your own son Ahimaaz and Jonathan son of Abiathar.
2Sa 15:28 You see, I shall wait in the passes of the desert plain until word comes from you bringing me news.'
2Sa 15:29 So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and stayed there.
2Sa 15:30 David then made his way up the Mount of Olives, weeping as he went, his head covered and his feet bare. And all the people with him had their heads covered and made their way up, weeping as they went.
2Sa 15:31 David was then informed that Ahithophel was among the conspirators with Absalom. David said, 'I beg you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), turn Ahithophel's advice to folly.'
2Sa 15:32 As David reached the summit, where God is worshipped, he saw Hushai the Archite, his friend, coming to meet him with his tunic torn and with earth on his head.
2Sa 15:33 David said, 'If you go along with me, you will be a burden to me.
2Sa 15:34 But if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, "I am at your service, my lord king; once I was in your father's service, but now I shall serve you," you will be able to thwart Ahithophel's advice for me.
2Sa 15:35 Surely the priests Zadok and Abiathar will be with you? Anything you hear from the palace you must report to the priests Zadok and Abiathar.
2Sa 15:36 You see, their two sons are there with them, Zadok's son Ahimaaz, and Abiathar's son Jonathan; through these, you will send me word of everything you hear.'
2Sa 15:37 Hushai, David's friend, entered the city just as Absalom was reaching Jerusalem.
2Sa 16:1 When David had passed a little beyond the summit, Meribbaal's retainer, Ziba, met him with a pair of donkeys, saddled and laden with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred of the season's fruits, and a skin of wine.
2Sa 16:2 The king said to Ziba, 'What are you going to do with that?' 'The donkeys', Ziba replied, 'are for the king's family to ride, the bread and the fruit for the soldiers to eat, the wine is for drinking by those who get exhausted in the desert.'
2Sa 16:3 The king asked 'And where is your master's son?' Ziba replied to the king, 'Why, he has stayed in Jerusalem because, he says, "Today, the House of Israel will give me back my father's kingdom." '
2Sa 16:4 Then the king said to Ziba, 'Everything owned by Meribbaal is yours.' Ziba said, 'I prostrate myself! May I be worthy of your favor, my lord king!'
2Sa 16:5 As David was reaching Bahurim, out came a man of the same clan as Saul's family. His name was Shimei son of Gera and, as he came, he uttered curse after curse
2Sa 16:6 and threw stones at David and at all King David's retinue, even though the whole army and all the champions formed an escort round the king on either side.
2Sa 16:7 The words of his curse were these, 'Off with you, off with you, man of blood, scoundrel!
2Sa 16:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has paid you back for all the spilt blood of the House of Saul whose sovereignty you have usurped; and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has transferred the sovereign power to Absalom your son. Now your wickedness has overtaken you, man of blood that you are.'
2Sa 16:9 Abishai son of Zeruiah said to the king, 'Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me go over and cut his head off.'
2Sa 16:10 But the king replied, 'What concern is my business to you, sons of Zeruiah? Let him curse! If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said to him, "Curse David!" what right has anyone to say, "Why have you done so?" '
2Sa 16:11 David said to Abishai and all his retinue, 'Why, the son sprung from my own body is now seeking my life; all the more reason for this Benjaminite to do so! Let him curse on, if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has told him to!
2Sa 16:12 Perhaps Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will look on my wretchedness and will repay me with good for his curses today.'
2Sa 16:13 So David and his men went on their way, and Shimei kept pace with him along the opposite mountainside, cursing as he went, throwing stones and flinging dust.
2Sa 16:14 The king and all the people who were with him arrived exhausted at . . . . . . and there they drew breath.
2Sa 16:15 Absalom entered Jerusalem with all the men of Israel; with him was Ahithophel.
2Sa 16:16 When Hushai the Archite, David's friend, reached Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, 'Long live the king! Long live the king!'
2Sa 16:17 Absalom said to Hushai, 'Is this your faithful love for your friend? Why didn't you go away with your friend?'
2Sa 16:18 Hushai replied to Absalom, 'No, the man whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, he is the man for me, and with him will I stay!
2Sa 16:19 Besides, whom should I serve, if not his son? As I served your father, so shall I serve you.'
2Sa 16:20 Absalom said to Ahithophel, 'Think carefully. What shall we do?'
2Sa 16:21 Ahithophel replied to Absalom, 'Go to your father's concubines whom he left to look after the palace; then all Israel will hear that you have thoroughly antagonised your father, and the resolution of all your supporters will be strengthened.'
2Sa 16:22 So a tent was pitched for Absalom on the flat roof and, with all Israel watching, Absalom went to his father's concubines.
2Sa 16:23 At the time, whatever advice Ahithophel gave was treated like a decision obtained from God; as by David, so by Absalom, was all Ahithophel's advice regarded.
2Sa 17:1 Ahithophel said to Absalom, 'Let me choose twelve thousand men and set off this very night in pursuit of David.
2Sa 17:2 I shall fall on him while he is tired and dispirited; I shall strike terror into him, and all the people who are with him will run away. I shall kill only the king,
2Sa 17:3 and I shall then bring all the people back to you, like a bride returning to her husband. You seek the life of one individual only; the people as a whole will have peace.'
2Sa 17:4 The suggestion seemed a good one to Absalom and all the elders of Israel.
2Sa 17:5 Then Absalom said, 'Now call Hushai the Archite, for us to hear what he too has to say.'
2Sa 17:6 When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom said, 'This is what Ahithophel says. Are we to do as he suggests? If not, suggest something yourself.'
2Sa 17:7 Hushai said to Absalom, 'On this occasion the advice given by Ahithophel is not good.
2Sa 17:8 You know', Hushai went on, 'that your father and his men are great fighters and that they are now as angry as a wild bear robbed of her cubs. Your father is a man of war: he will not let the army rest during the night.
2Sa 17:9 At this moment he is concealed in some hollow or other place. If at the outset there are casualties among our troops, word will go round that the army supporting Absalom has met with disaster.
2Sa 17:10 And then even the valiant, the truly lion-hearted, will be demoralised; for all Israel knows that your father is a champion and that the men with him are valiant.
2Sa 17:11 For my part, I offer this advice: Summon all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, to rally to you, as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and you take the field in person with them.
2Sa 17:12 We shall reach him wherever he is to be found; we shall fall on him as the dew falls on the ground, and not leave him or any one of the men with him.
2Sa 17:13 Should he retire into a town, all Israel will bring ropes to that town, and we shall drag it into the river-bed until not a pebble of it is to be found.'
2Sa 17:14 Then Absalom and all the people of Israel said, 'Hushai the Arkite's advice is better than Ahithophel's,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) having resolved to thwart Ahithophel's shrewd advice and so bring disaster on Absalom.
2Sa 17:15 Hushai then told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, 'Ahithophel gave such and such advice to Absalom and the elders of Israel, but I advised so and so.
2Sa 17:16 Send with all speed to David and say, "Do not camp in the desert passes tonight, but get through them as fast as you can, or the king and his whole army may be annihilated." '
2Sa 17:17 Jonathan and Ahimaaz were posted at the Fuller's Spring; a servant-girl was to go and warn them and they in turn were to warn King David, since they could not give themselves away by coming into the city themselves.
2Sa 17:18 A young man saw them nonetheless and told Absalom. The pair of them, however, made off quickly, reaching the house of a man in Bahurim. In his courtyard was a storage-well and they got down into it.
2Sa 17:19 The woman took a piece of canvas and, spreading it over the mouth of the storage-well, scattered crushed grain on it so that nothing showed.
2Sa 17:20 When Absalom's servants reached the woman at the house, they said, 'Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?' The woman said, 'They have gone further on, towards the water.' They searched but, having found nothing, went back to Jerusalem.
2Sa 17:21 When they had gone, the men climbed out of the storage-well and went to warn King David. 'Set out!' they told David. 'Cross the water quickly, for Ahithophel has given such and such advice against you!'
2Sa 17:22 So David and all the troops with him set off and crossed the Jordan. By dawn no one was left, all had crossed the Jordan.
2Sa 17:23 When Ahithophel saw that his advice had not been followed, he saddled his donkey and set off and went home to his own town. Then, having set his house in order, he hanged himself. He was buried in his father's tomb.
2Sa 17:24 David had reached Mahanaim by the time that Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel.
2Sa 17:25 Absalom had put Amasa in command of the army in place of Joab. This Amasa was the son of a man called Ithra the Ishmaelite, who had married Abigail, daughter of Jesse and sister of Zeruiah, mother of Joab.
2Sa 17:26 Israel and Absalom pitched their camp in the territory of Gilead.
2Sa 17:27 When David reached Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites, Machir son of Ammiel from Lo-Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim
2Sa 17:28 brought bedding, rugs, bowls and crockery; and wheat, barley, meal, roasted grain, beans, lentils,
2Sa 17:29 honey, curds and cows' cheese and sheep's cheese, which they presented to David and the people with him for them to eat. 'The army', they said, 'must have been hungry, tired and thirsty in the desert.'
2Sa 18:1 David reviewed the troops who were with him and appointed commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds to lead them.
2Sa 18:2 David divided the army into three groups, one under the command of Joab, another under the command of Abishai son of Zeruiah and brother of Joab, and the third under the command of Ittai the Gittite. David then said to the troops, 'I shall take the field in person with you.'
2Sa 18:3 But the troops replied, 'You are not to take the field. No one will bother about us if we run away, they will not even bother about us if half of us are killed, but you are ten thousand times more valuable. So it is better if you stay inside the town, in case we need reinforcements.'
2Sa 18:4 David said, 'I will do what you think best.' And the king stood beside the gate as the troops marched out by their hundreds and their thousands.
2Sa 18:5 The king gave orders to Joab, Abishai and Ittai, 'For my sake, treat young Absalom gently!' And the troops all heard the king give all the commanders these orders about Absalom.
2Sa 18:6 So the troops marched out into the open to engage Israel, and the battle took place in the Forest of Ephraim.
2Sa 18:7 There, the army of Israel was beaten by David's retainers; it was a great defeat that day, with twenty thousand casualties.
2Sa 18:8 The fighting spread throughout the region and that day the forest claimed more victims than the sword.
2Sa 18:9 Absalom happened to run into some of David's guards. Absalom was riding his mule and the mule passed under the thick branches of a great oak. Absalom's head got caught in the oak and he was left hanging between heaven and earth, while the mule he was riding went on.
2Sa 18:10 Someone saw this and reported to Joab, 'I have just seen Absalom hanging from an oak.'
2Sa 18:11 Joab said to the man who had informed him, 'If you saw him, why did you not strike him to the ground then and there? I would have made it my business to give you ten silver shekels and a belt!'
2Sa 18:12 The man replied to Joab, 'Even if I could feel the weight of a thousand silver shekels in my hand, I would not lift my hand against the king's son. In our own hearing, the king gave you and Abishai and Ittai these orders, "For my sake, spare young Absalom."
2Sa 18:13 Even if I had deceived myself, nothing stays hidden from the king and you would have dissociated yourself from me.'
2Sa 18:14 Joab then said, 'I cannot waste time arguing with you!' And, taking three darts in his hand, he planted them in Absalom's heart, while he was still alive, deep in the oak-tree.
2Sa 18:15 Ten soldiers, Joab's armour-bearers, then came in close, struck Absalom and killed him.
2Sa 18:16 Joab then had the trumpet sounded, and the troops left off pursuing Israel, since Joab held the troops back.
2Sa 18:17 They took Absalom, flung him into a deep pit in the forest and raised a huge cairn over him. All the Israelites had fled, dispersing to their homes.
2Sa 18:18 Now, during his lifetime, Absalom had made and erected a pillar to himself, which is in the Valley of the King. 'I have no son', he said, 'to preserve the memory of my name.' He gave his own name to the pillar, and today it is still called Absalom's Monument.
2Sa 18:19 Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, 'Let me run and tell the king the good news that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has vindicated his cause by ridding him of his enemies.'
2Sa 18:20 But Joab said, 'Today you would be no bearer of good news, some other day you may be; but today you would not be bringing good news, since the king's son is dead.'
2Sa 18:21 Joab then said to the Cushite, 'Go and tell the king what you have seen.' The Cushite prostrated himself to Joab and ran off.
2Sa 18:22 But Ahimaaz son of Zadok persisted. 'Come what may,' he said to Joab, 'please let me run after the Cushite.' 'My son,' Joab said, 'why run? You will get no reward for your news.'
2Sa 18:23 But he replied, 'Come what may, let me run!' and Joab said 'Run, then!' So Ahimaaz ran off along the road through the Plain, outrunning the Cushite.
2Sa 18:24 David was sitting between the two gates. The sentry, having gone up to the roof of the gate, looked out from the ramparts and saw a man running alone.
2Sa 18:25 The sentry called down to the king and told him. The king said, 'If he is alone, he is bringing good news.'
2Sa 18:26 As the man drew steadily nearer, the lookout man saw another man running, and the sentry above the gate shouted, 'Here comes another man, running alone!' David said, 'He too is a bearer of good news.'
2Sa 18:27 The sentry said, 'I recognize the way the first man runs; Ahimaaz son of Zadok runs like that.' 'He is a good man', said the king, 'and comes with good news.'
2Sa 18:28 Ahimaaz went up to the king. 'All hail!' he said, prostrating himself on the ground before the king. 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God', he said, 'who has handed over the men who rebelled against my lord the king!'
2Sa 18:29 'Is all well with young Absalom?' the king asked. Ahimaaz replied, 'I saw a great commotion when Joab, the king's servant, sent your servant off, but I do not know what it was.'
2Sa 18:30 The king said, 'Go and stand over there.' He stood to one side and waited.
2Sa 18:31 Then the Cushite arrived. 'Good news for my lord the king!' the Cushite shouted. 'Today Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has vindicated your cause, by ridding you of all who had risen up against you.'
2Sa 18:32 'Is all well with young Absalom?' the king asked the Cushite. 'May the enemies of my lord the king', the Cushite answered, 'and all who rise up to harm you, share the fate of that young man!'
2Sa 19:1 The king shuddered. He went up to the room over the gate and burst into tears; and, as he wept, he kept saying, 'Oh, my son Absalom! My son! My son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you! Oh, Absalom my son, my son!'
2Sa 19:2 Word was brought to Joab, 'The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom.'
2Sa 19:3 And for the entire army that day, victory was turned to mourning, the troops having learnt that the king was grieving for his son.
2Sa 19:4 And that day the troops came furtively back into town, like troops creeping shamefacedly away when deserting in battle.
2Sa 19:5 The king had covered his face and kept crying aloud, 'My son Absalom! Oh, Absalom my son, my son!'
2Sa 19:6 Joab went inside to the king and said, 'Today you have made all your servants feel ashamed-today, when they have saved your life, the lives of your sons and daughters, the lives of your wives and the lives of your concubines!-because you love those who hate you and hate those who love you.
2Sa 19:7 Today you have made it plain that commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you -- for today I can see that you would be content if we were all dead, provided that Absalom was alive!
2Sa 19:8 Now get up, come out and reassure your soldiers; for if you do not come out, I swear by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), not one man will stay with you tonight; and this will be a worse misfortune for you than anything that has happened to you from your youth until now!'
2Sa 19:9 The king got up and took his seat at the gate. An announcement was made to the whole army: 'The king is sitting at the gate.' And the whole army assembled in front of the king.
2Sa 19:10 Israel had fled, dispersing to their homes. Throughout the tribes of Israel all was dissension and people began saying, 'The king, having freed us from the clutches of our enemies, having saved us from the clutches of the Philistines, has himself had to flee the country to escape from Absalom;
2Sa 19:11 and now Absalom, whom we had anointed to reign over us, has died in battle. Why does no one suggest that the king should be brought back?'What was being said throughout Israel reached the king.
2Sa 19:12 King David then sent word to the priests Zadok and Abiathar, 'Say to the elders of Judah, "Why should you be the last to bring the king home?
2Sa 19:13 You are my brothers, you are my own flesh and bone: why should you be the last to bring the king back?"
2Sa 19:14 And say to Amasa, "Are you not my own flesh and bone? May God bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills, too, if you do not become my permanent army commander instead of Joab!" '
2Sa 19:15 Thus he rallied the hearts of the men of Judah to a man and, as a result, they sent word to the king, 'Come back, you and all who serve you.'
2Sa 19:16 So the king started home and reached the Jordan. Judah, coming to meet the king to escort him across the Jordan, had arrived at Gilgal.
2Sa 19:17 Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite of Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David.
2Sa 19:18 With him were a thousand men from Benjamin. Ziba, servant of the House of Saul, with his fifteen sons and twenty servants, arrived at the Jordan before the king
2Sa 19:19 and worked manfully ferrying the king's family across and doing whatever he required. While the king was crossing the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera fell at the king's feet
2Sa 19:20 and said to the king, 'I hope my lord does not regard me as guilty of a crime! Forget about the wrong your servant did on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. Let my lord not hold my guilt against me.
2Sa 19:21 For your servant is aware of having sinned, and that is why I have come today -- the first member of the whole House of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.'
2Sa 19:22 At this, Abishai son of Zeruiah spoke up and said, 'Does Shimei not deserve death for having cursed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed?'
2Sa 19:23 To which David replied, 'What concern is my business to you, sons of Zeruiah, that you should oppose my wishes today? Could anyone be put to death in Israel today? Today I know for sure that I am king of Israel?'
2Sa 19:24 'Your life is spared,' the king said. And the king gave him his oath.
2Sa 19:25 Meribbaal son of Saul also went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or hands, he had not trimmed his moustache or washed his clothes from the day of the king's departure till the day of his peaceful return.
2Sa 19:26 When he arrived from Jerusalem to greet the king, the king asked him, 'Why did you not come with me, Meribbaal?'
2Sa 19:27 'My lord king,' he replied, 'my retainer deceived me. Your servant said to him, "Saddle the donkey for me to ride, so that I can go with the king," your servant being lame.
2Sa 19:28 He has slandered your servant to my lord the king. My lord the king, however, is like the Angel of God, so do as you think right.
2Sa 19:29 My father's entire family deserved no better than death from my lord the king, and yet you admitted your servant to the ranks of those who eat at your table. What right have I to make any further appeal to the king?'
2Sa 19:30 The king said, 'You need say no more. I rule that you and Ziba divide the property between you.'
2Sa 19:31 'Let him take it all,' Meribbaal said to the king, 'since my lord the king has come back home in peace!'
2Sa 19:32 Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim and accompanied the king towards the Jordan, intending to take leave of him at the Jordan.
2Sa 19:33 Barzillai was a man of great age; he was eighty years old. He had kept the king in provisions during his stay at Mahanaim, being a very wealthy man.
2Sa 19:34 'Come with me', the king said to Barzillai, 'and I will provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.'
2Sa 19:35 Barzillai replied to the king, 'How many years have I left to live, for me to go up to Jerusalem with the king?
2Sa 19:36 I am now eighty years old; can I tell the good from the bad? Has your servant any taste for his food and drink? Can I still hear the voices of men and women singers? Why should your servant be a further burden to my lord the king?
2Sa 19:37 Your servant will go a little way across the Jordan with the king; but why should the king reward me so generously for that?
2Sa 19:38 Please allow your servant to go home again, so that I can die in my own town near the grave of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham; let him go with my lord the king; treat him as you think right.'
2Sa 19:39 The king said, 'Let Chimham come along with me then; I shall do whatever you wish for him, and anything you request I shall do for your sake.'
2Sa 19:40 The people then all crossed the Jordan, and the king, having crossed, kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and the latter went home.
2Sa 19:41 The king went on to Gilgal and Chimham went with him. All the people of Judah accompanied the king, and also half the people of Israel.
2Sa 19:42 All the men of Israel then came to the king. 'Why', they asked the king, 'have our brothers, the men of Judah, carried you off and brought the king and his family across the Jordan, and all David's men with him?'
2Sa 19:43 All the men of Judah retorted to the men of Israel, 'Because the king is more closely related to us. Why do you take offense at this? Have we been eating at the king's expense? Have we taken any position for ourselves?'
2Sa 19:44 The men of Israel replied to the men of Judah, 'We have ten shares in the king and, what is more, we are your elder brothers, so why have you slighted us? Were we not the first to suggest bringing back our king?' The men of Judah's words were even more intemperate than those of the men of Israel.
2Sa 20:1 Now there happened to be a scoundrel there called Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, who sounded the trumpet and shouted: We have no share in David, we have no heritage in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, O Israel!
2Sa 20:2 At this all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stuck close to their king, from the Jordan all the way to Jerusalem.
2Sa 20:3 David returned to his palace in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines, whom he had left to look after the palace, and put them under guard. He provided for their upkeep but never went near them again; they were shut away until the day they died, widows, as it were, of a living man.
2Sa 20:4 The king said to Amasa, 'Summon me the men of Judah and be here yourself within three days.'
2Sa 20:5 Amasa went off to summon Judah, but he took longer than the time fixed by David.
2Sa 20:6 David then said to Abishai, 'Sheba son of Bichri is now in a position to do us more damage even than Absalom. Take your master's retainers and be after him, before he can reach any fortified towns and elude us.'
2Sa 20:7 Joab, the Cherethites, the Pelethites and all the champions took the field under Abishai, setting off from Jerusalem in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.
2Sa 20:8 They were near the great stone at Gibeon when Amasa met them, coming the other way. Joab was wearing his uniform, over which he had buckled on a sword hanging from his waist in its scabbard; the sword came out and fell.
2Sa 20:9 Joab said to Amasa, 'Are you well, brother?' and, with his right hand, took Amasa by the beard to kiss him.
2Sa 20:10 Amasa paid no attention to the sword, which Joab had now picked up, and Joab struck him with it in the belly, spilling his entrails all over the ground. He did not need to strike a second blow; and Amasa died, while Joab and Abishai hurried on in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.
2Sa 20:11 One of Joab's men stood on guard beside Amasa, shouting, 'Whoever is on Joab's side, whoever is for David, follow Joab!'
2Sa 20:12 Amasa meanwhile lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the road. Seeing that everyone was stopping, the man dragged Amasa off the road into the field and threw a cloak over him, having realized that everyone passing would stop.
2Sa 20:13 Once Amasa had been taken off the road, the men all carried on, following Joab in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri.
2Sa 20:14 Sheba crossed all the tribes of Israel as far as Abel Beth-Maacah, and the Bichrites all . . . They formed up and followed him.
2Sa 20:15 Laying siege to him in Abel Beth-Maacah, they threw up a ramp against the outer wall of the town,
2Sa 20:16 while the whole army accompanying Joab undermined the wall to bring it down. A quick-witted woman shouted from the town, 'Listen!
2Sa 20:17 Listen! Say to Joab, "Come here, I want to speak to you." ' He came forward, and the woman said, 'Are you Joab?' 'I am', he replied. She said, 'Listen to what your servant says.' 'I am listening,' he replied.
2Sa 20:18 She then spoke as follows, 'In olden days people used to say, "Abel and Dan are where you should enquire
2Sa 20:19 whether a tradition established by the faithful of Israel has finally died out." And yet you are trying to destroy a town, a metropolis of Israel. Why do you want to devour Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s heritage?'
2Sa 20:20 'The last thing I want to do', said Joab, 'is either to devour or to destroy.
2Sa 20:21 This is not the issue; a man from the highlands of Ephraim, called Sheba son of Bichri, has revolted against the king, against David. Hand that one man over and I will raise the siege of the town.' 'Very well,' the woman said to Joab, 'his head will be thrown over the wall to you.'
2Sa 20:22 The woman went and spoke to all the people as her wisdom dictated. They cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it down to Joab. He had the trumpet sounded and they withdrew from the town and all went home, while Joab himself went back to the king in Jerusalem.
2Sa 20:23 Joab commanded the whole army; Benaiah son of Jehoiada commanded the Cherethites and Pelethites;
2Sa 20:24 Adoram was in charge of forced labour; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was herald;
2Sa 20:25 Shiya was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;
2Sa 20:26 also: Ira the Jairite was David's priest.
2Sa 21:1 In the days of David there was a famine which lasted for three years on end. David consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'Saul and his family have incurred blood-guilt, by putting the Gibeonites to death.'
2Sa 21:2 Then the king summoned the Gibeonites and said-now, the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but were a remnant of the Amorites, to whom the Israelites had bound themselves by oath; Saul, however, in his zeal for the Israelites and for Judah, had done his best to exterminate them -- hence David said to the Gibeonites,
2Sa 21:3 'What can I do for you? How can I make amends, so that you will call a blessing down on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s heritage?'
2Sa 21:4 The Gibeonites replied, 'Our quarrel with Saul and his family cannot be settled for silver or gold, nor by putting to death one man in Israel.' David said, 'Say what you want and I will do it for you.'
2Sa 21:5 Then they replied to the king, 'The man who dismembered us and planned to annihilate us, so that we should not exist anywhere in Israelite territory-
2Sa 21:6 we want seven of his descendants handed over to us; and we shall dismember them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at Gibeon on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hill.' 'I shall hand them over,' said the king.
2Sa 21:7 The king, however, spared Meribbaal son of Jonathan, son of Saul, on account of the oath by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) binding them together, binding David and Jonathan son of Saul.
2Sa 21:8 The king took the two sons born to Saul by Rizpah daughter of Aiah: Armoni and Meribbaal; and the five sons borne by Merab daughter of Saul to Adriel son of Barzillai, of Meholah.
2Sa 21:9 He handed these over to the Gibeonites who dismembered them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the hill. The seven of them perished together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
2Sa 21:10 Rizpah daughter of Aiah, wearing sacking and spreading some out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of the barley harvest until the rain fell on them from heaven, kept the birds of the sky away from them in the daytime, and the wild animals away at night.
2Sa 21:11 David was told of what Saul's concubine, Rizpah daughter of Aiah, had done.
2Sa 21:12 David went and recovered the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the notables of Jabesh in Gilead. The latter had stolen them from the square in Beth-Shean, where the Philistines had hung them, when the Philistines had defeated Saul at Gilboa.
2Sa 21:13 David fetched the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. The bones of the men who had been dismembered were collected
2Sa 21:14 and these, with the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan, were buried in the territory of Benjamin, at Zela, in the tomb of Saul's father, Kish. The king's orders were carried out to the letter and after that, God took pity on the country.
2Sa 21:15 Once again the Philistines made war on Israel. David went down with his retainers; they fought the Philistines and David began to tire.
2Sa 21:16 There was a champion, one of the sons of Rapha. His spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze; he was wearing a new sword and was confident of killing David.
2Sa 21:17 Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his rescue, however, attacking the Philistine and killing him. Then it was that David's men swore the following oath to him, 'You are never to go into battle with us again, in case you should extinguish the lamp of Israel!'
2Sa 21:18 After this, war with the Philistines broke out again at Gob. This was when Sibbecai of Hushah killed Saph, one of the sons of Rapha.
2Sa 21:19 Again, war with the Philistines broke out at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair, of Bethlehem, killed Goliath of Gath, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
2Sa 21:20 There was further warfare at Gath, where there was a man of huge stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all. He too was a son of Rapha.
2Sa 21:21 When he defied Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, brother of David cut him down.
2Sa 21:22 These four were sons of Rapha in Gath and fell at the hands of David and his retainers.
2Sa 22:1 David addressed the words of this song to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had delivered him from the clutches of all his enemies and from the clutches of Saul.
2Sa 22:2 He said: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my rock and my fortress,
2Sa 22:3 my deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge. My Savior, you have saved me from violence;
2Sa 22:4 I call to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my foes.
2Sa 22:5 With Death's breakers closing in on me, Belial's torrents ready to swallow me,
2Sa 22:6 Sheol's snares on every side of me, Death's traps lying ahead of me,
2Sa 22:7 I called to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in my anguish, I cried for help to my God, from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears!
2Sa 22:8 Then the earth quaked and rocked, the heavens' foundations shuddered, they quaked at his blazing anger.
2Sa 22:9 Smoke rose from his nostrils, from his mouth devouring fire (coals were kindled at it).
2Sa 22:10 He parted the heavens and came down, a storm-cloud underneath his feet;
2Sa 22:11 riding one of the winged creatures, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.
2Sa 22:12 He wrapped himself in darkness, his pavilion dark waters and dense cloud.
2Sa 22:13 A brightness lit up before him, hail and blazing fire.
2Sa 22:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) thundered from the heavens, the Most High made his voice heard.
2Sa 22:15 He shot his arrows and scattered them, his lightning flashed and routed them.
2Sa 22:16 The very springs of ocean were exposed, the world's foundations were laid bare, at the roaring of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at the blast of breath from his nostrils!
2Sa 22:17 He reached down from on high, snatched me up, pulled me from the watery depths,
2Sa 22:18 rescued me from my mighty foe, from my enemies who were stronger than I.
2Sa 22:19 They assailed me on my day of disaster, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was there to support me,
2Sa 22:20 he freed me, set me at large, he rescued me, because he loves me.
2Sa 22:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rewards me for my uprightness, as my hands are pure so he repays me,
2Sa 22:22 since I have kept the ways of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and not fallen away from my God.
2Sa 22:23 His judgements are all before me, his statutes I have not put away from me;
2Sa 22:24 I am blameless before him, I keep myself clear of evil.
2Sa 22:25 Hence Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) repaid me for acting uprightly because he could see I was pure.
2Sa 22:26 Faithful you are to the faithful, blameless with the blameless,
2Sa 22:27 sincere to the sincere but cunning to the crafty,
2Sa 22:28 you save a people that is humble and humiliate those with haughty looks.
2Sa 22:29 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you yourself are my lamp, my God lights up my darkness;
2Sa 22:30 with you I storm the rampart with my God I can scale any wall.
2Sa 22:31 This God, his way is blameless; the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is refined in the furnace, for he alone is the shield of all who take refuge in him.
2Sa 22:32 For who is God but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who is a rock but our God:
2Sa 22:33 this God who girds me with strength, who makes my way free from blame,
2Sa 22:34 who makes me as swift as a deer and sets me firmly on the heights,
2Sa 22:35 who trains my hands for battle my arms to bend a bow of bronze.
2Sa 22:36 You give me your invincible shield, you never cease to listen to me,
2Sa 22:37 you give me the strides of a giant, give me ankles that never weaken-
2Sa 22:38 I pursue my enemies and exterminate them, not turning back till they are annihilated;
2Sa 22:39 I strike them down, and they cannot rise, they fall, they are under my feet.
2Sa 22:40 You have girded me with strength for the fight, bent down my assailants beneath me,
2Sa 22:41 made my enemies retreat before me; and those who hate me I destroy.
2Sa 22:42 They cry out, there is no one to save, to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but no answer comes.
2Sa 22:43 I crumble them like the dust of the squares, trample them like the mud of the streets.
2Sa 22:44 You free me from the quarrels of my people, you place me at the head of the nations, a people I did not know are now my servants,
2Sa 22:45 foreigners come wooing my favor, no sooner do they hear than they obey me,
2Sa 22:46 foreigners grow faint of heart, they come trembling out of their fastnesses.
2Sa 22:47 Life to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be the God of my salvation,
2Sa 22:48 the God who gives me vengeance and crushes the peoples under me,
2Sa 22:49 who takes me away from my enemies. You lift me high above those who attack me, you deliver me from the man of violence.
2Sa 22:50 For this I will praise you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), among the nations, and sing praise to your name.
2Sa 22:51 He saves his king, time after time, displays faithful love for his anointed, for David and his heirs for ever.
2Sa 23:1 These are the last words of David: Thus speaks David son of Jesse, thus speaks the man raised to eminence, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the singer of the songs of Israel:
2Sa 23:2 The spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) speaks through me, his word is on my tongue;
2Sa 23:3 the God of Jacob has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: He whose rule is upright on earth, who rules in the fear of God,
2Sa 23:4 is like the morning light at sunrise (on a cloudless morning) making the grass of the earth sparkle after rain.
2Sa 23:5 Yes, my House stands firm with God: he has made an eternal covenant with me, all in order, well assured; does he not bring to fruition my every victory and desire?
2Sa 23:6 But men of Belial he rejects like thorns, for these are never taken up in the hand:
2Sa 23:7 no one touches them except with a pitchfork or spear-shaft, and then only to burn them to nothing!
2Sa 23:8 These are the names of David's champions: Ishbaal the Hachmonite leader of the Three; it was he who brandished his spear over eight hundred men whom he had killed at one time.
2Sa 23:9 Next, there was Eleazar son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three champions. He was with David at Pas-Dammim when the Philistines mustered for battle there and the men of Israel had disbanded.
2Sa 23:10 But he stood his ground and cut down the Philistines until his hand was so stiff that he could not let go of the sword. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought about a great victory that day, and the people rallied behind him, although only to plunder.
2Sa 23:11 Next, there was Shamma son of Elah, the Hararite. The Philistines had mustered at Lehi. There was a field full of lentils there; the people fled from the Philistines,
2Sa 23:12 but he took his stand in the middle of the field, held it, and cut down the Philistines; and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought about a great victory.
2Sa 23:13 Three members of the Thirty went down at the beginning of the harvest and came to David at the Cave of Adullam while a company of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of the Rephaim.
2Sa 23:14 David was then in the stronghold, and there was a Philistine garrison in Bethlehem.
2Sa 23:15 Longingly David said, 'If only someone would fetch me a drink of water from the well that stands by the gate at Bethlehem!'
2Sa 23:16 At this, the three champions, forcing their way through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well that stands by the gate of Bethlehem and, taking it away, presented it to David. He, however, would not drink any of it, but poured it out as a libation to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Sa 23:17 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) preserve me', he said, 'from doing such a thing! This is the blood of men who went at risk of their lives.' That was why he would not drink. Such were the deeds of these three champions.
2Sa 23:18 Abishai, brother of Joab and son of Zeruiah, was leader of the Thirty. It was he who brandished his spear over three hundred men whom he had killed, winning himself a name among the Thirty.
2Sa 23:19 He was a most illustrious member of the Thirty and became their captain, but he was not equal to the Three.
2Sa 23:20 Benaiah of Kabzeel was the son of Jehoiada and hero of many exploits. He it was who slaughtered two formidable Moabites and, one snowy day, climbed down and slaughtered the lion in the storage-well.
2Sa 23:21 He also slaughtered an Egyptian of great stature. The Egyptian was armed with a spear, but he took him on with a staff, tore the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed the man with it.
2Sa 23:22 Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada, winning him a name among the thirty champions.
2Sa 23:23 He was a most illustrious member of the Thirty, but he was not equal to the Three. David put him in command of his bodyguard.
2Sa 23:24 Asahel brother of Joab was one of the Thirty; Elhanan son of Dodo, of Bethlehem;
2Sa 23:25 Shammah of Harod; Elika of Harod;
2Sa 23:26 Helez of Beth-Pelet; Ira son of Ikkesh, of Tekoa;
2Sa 23:27 Abiezer of Anathoth; Sibbecai of Hushah;
2Sa 23:28 Zalmon of Ahoh; Maharai of Netophah;
2Sa 23:29 Heled son of Baanah, of Netophah; Ittai son of Ribai, of Gibeah in Benjamin;
2Sa 23:30 Benaiah of Pirathon; Hiddai of the Torrents of Gaash;
2Sa 23:31 Abibaal of Beth-ha-Arabah; Azmaveth of Bahurim;
2Sa 23:32 Eliahba of Shaalbon; Jashen of Gimzo; Jonathan
2Sa 23:33 son of Shammah, of Harar; Ahiam son of Sharar, of Harar;
2Sa 23:34 Eliphelet son of Ahasbai, of Beth-Maacah; Eliam son of Ahithophel, of Gilo;
2Sa 23:35 Hezro of Carmel; Paarai of Arab;
2Sa 23:36 Igal son of Nathan, of Zobah; Bani the Gadite;
2Sa 23:37 Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai of Beeroth squire to Joab, son of Zeruiah;
2Sa 23:38 Ira of Jattir; Gareb of Jattir;
2Sa 23:39 Uriah the Hittite- thirty-seven in all.
2Sa 24:1 Again, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger was aroused against Israel, and he incited David against them. 'Go,' he said, 'take a census of Israel and Judah.'
2Sa 24:2 The king said to Joab and the senior army officers who were with him, 'Now, go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and take a census of the people; I wish to know the size of the population.'
2Sa 24:3 Joab said to the king, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God multiply the people a hundred times -- however many there are -- while my lord the king still has eyes to see it, but why should my lord the king be set on this?'
2Sa 24:4 The king nonetheless enforced his order on Joab and the senior officers, and Joab and the senior officers left the king's presence, to take a census of the people of Israel.
2Sa 24:5 They crossed the Jordan and made a start with Aroer and the town in the middle of the valley, then moved on to the Gadites and to Jazer.
2Sa 24:6 They then went to Gilead and the territory of the Hittites, to Kadesh; they then went to Dan and from Dan cut across to Sidon.
2Sa 24:7 They then went to the fortress of Tyre and to all the towns of the Hittites and Canaanites ending up in the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba.
2Sa 24:8 Having travelled throughout the country, after nine months and twenty days they returned to Jerusalem.
2Sa 24:9 Joab gave the king the census results for the people; Israel had eight hundred thousand fighting men who could wield a sword, and Judah five hundred thousand.
2Sa 24:10 But afterwards David's heart misgave him for having taken a census of the people. David then said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'I have committed a grave sin by doing this. But now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I beg you to forgive your servant for this fault, for I have acted very foolishly.'
2Sa 24:11 When, however, David got up next morning, the following message had come from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the prophet Gad, David's seer,
2Sa 24:12 'Go and say to David, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I offer you three things; choose which one of them I am to inflict on you." '
2Sa 24:13 So Gad went to David and said, 'Which do you prefer: to have three years of famine befall your country; to flee for three months before a pursuing army; or to have three days of epidemic in your country? Now think, and decide how I am to answer him who sends me.'
2Sa 24:14 David said to Gad, 'I am very apprehensive . . . Better to fall into Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hands, since his mercies are great, than to fall into the hands of men!'
2Sa 24:15 So David chose the epidemic. It was the time of the wheat harvest. So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) unleashed an epidemic on Israel from that morning until the time determined; plague ravaged the people and, of the people from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand died.
2Sa 24:16 But when the angel stretched his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) felt sorry about the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, 'Enough now! Hold your hand!' The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was standing by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
2Sa 24:17 When David saw the angel who was ravaging the people, he said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'I was the one who sinned. I was the one who acted wrongly. But these, the flock, what have they done? Let your hand lie heavy on me and on my family!'
2Sa 24:18 Gad went to David that day and said, 'Go up and raise an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.'
2Sa 24:19 So, at Gad's bidding, David went up, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered.
2Sa 24:20 When Araunah looked up and saw the king and his retinue advancing towards him-Araunah was threshing the wheat -- Araunah came forward and prostrated himself on the ground at the king's feet.
2Sa 24:21 'Why has my lord the king come to his servant?' Araunah asked. David replied, 'To buy the threshing-floor from you, to build an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), so that the plague may be lifted from the people.'
2Sa 24:22 Araunah said to David, 'Let my lord the king take it and make what offerings he thinks fit. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing-sleds and the oxen's yokes for the wood.
2Sa 24:23 My lord the king's servant will give the king everything. And', Araunah said to the king, 'may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God accept what you offer!'
2Sa 24:24 'No,' said the king to Araunah, 'I shall give you a price for it; I will not offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God burnt offerings which have cost me nothing.' David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2Sa 24:25 David built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and offered burnt offerings and communion sacrifices. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then took pity on the country and the plague was lifted from Israel.
1Ki 1:1 King David was now a very old man, and though wrapped in bedclothes he could not keep warm.
1Ki 1:2 So his servants said to him, 'Let us find a young girl for my lord the king, to wait on the king and look after him; she will lie close beside you and this will keep my lord the king warm.'
1Ki 1:3 Having searched for a beautiful girl throughout the territory of Israel, they found Abishag of Shunem and brought her to the king.
1Ki 1:4 The girl was very beautiful. She looked after the king and waited on him but the king did not have intercourse with her.
1Ki 1:5 Now Adonijah son of Haggith was growing pretentious and saying, 'I shall be king!' Accordingly, he procured a chariot and team with fifty guards to run ahead of him.
1Ki 1:6 Never once in his life had his father crossed him by saying, 'Why are you behaving like that?' He was very handsome too; his mother had given birth to him after Absalom.
1Ki 1:7 He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, who both rallied to Adonijah's cause;
1Ki 1:8 but neither Zadok the priest, nor Benaiah son of Jehoiada, nor the prophet Nathan, nor Shimei and Rei, nor David's champions, supported Adonijah.
1Ki 1:9 One day when Adonijah was sacrificing sheep, oxen and fattened calves at the Sliding Stone which is beside the Fuller's Spring, he invited all his brothers, the royal princes, and all the men of Judah in the king's service;
1Ki 1:10 but he did not invite the prophet Nathan, or Benaiah, or the champions, or his brother Solomon.
1Ki 1:11 Nathan then said to Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, 'Have you not heard that, unknown to our lord David, Adonijah son of Haggith has become king?
1Ki 1:12 Well, this is my advice to you if you want to save your own life and the life of your son Solomon.
1Ki 1:13 Go straight in to King David and say, "My lord king, did you not make your servant this promise on oath: Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne? How is it, then, that Adonijah is king?"
1Ki 1:14 And while you are still there talking to the king, I shall come in after you and confirm what you say.'
1Ki 1:15 So Bathsheba went to the king in his room (he was very old and Abishag of Shunem was in attendance on him).
1Ki 1:16 She knelt, prostrated herself before the king, and the king said, 'What do you want?'
1Ki 1:17 'My lord,' she replied, 'you swore to your servant by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, "Your son Solomon is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne."
1Ki 1:18 And now here is Adonijah king, and you, my lord king, knowing nothing about it!
1Ki 1:19 He has sacrificed quantities of oxen, fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the army commander; but he has not invited your servant Solomon.
1Ki 1:20 Yet you are the man, my lord king, to whom all Israel looks, to tell them who is to succeed my lord the king.
1Ki 1:21 And when my lord the king falls asleep with his ancestors, Solomon and I shall be made to suffer for this.'
1Ki 1:22 She was still speaking to the king when the prophet Nathan came in.
1Ki 1:23 The king was told, 'The prophet Nathan is here'; and he came into the king's presence and prostrated himself on his face before the king.
1Ki 1:24 'My lord king,' said Nathan, 'is this, then, your decree, "Adonijah is to be king after me; he is the one who is to sit on my throne"?
1Ki 1:25 For he has gone down today and sacrificed quantities of oxen, fattened calves and sheep, and invited all the royal princes, the army commanders, and the priest Abiathar; and they are there now, eating and drinking in his presence and shouting, "Long live King Adonijah!"
1Ki 1:26 He has not, however, invited me your servant, Zadok the priest, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, or your servant Solomon.
1Ki 1:27 Can it be that this is done with my lord the king's approval and that you have not told those loyal to you who is to succeed to the throne of my lord the king?'
1Ki 1:28 King David then spoke. 'Call Bathsheba to me,' he said. And she came into the king's presence and stood before him.
1Ki 1:29 Then the king swore this oath, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, who has delivered me from all adversity,
1Ki 1:30 just as I swore to you by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, that your son Solomon should be king after me and take my place on my throne, so I shall bring it about this very day.'
1Ki 1:31 Bathsheba knelt down, prostrated herself on her face before the king and said, 'May my lord King David live for ever!'
1Ki 1:32 Then King David said, 'Summon Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan and Benaiah son of Jehoiada.' So they came into the king's presence.
1Ki 1:33 'Take the royal guard with you,' said the king, 'mount my son Solomon on my own mule and escort him down to Gihon.
1Ki 1:34 There Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan are to anoint him king of Israel; then sound the trumpet and shout, "Long live King Solomon!"
1Ki 1:35 Then you are to escort him back, and he is then to assume my throne and be king in place of me, for he is the man whom I have appointed as ruler of Israel and of Judah.'
1Ki 1:36 Benaiah son of Jehoiada answered the king. 'Amen!' he said. 'And may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of my lord the king, confirm it!
1Ki 1:37 As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has been with my lord the king, so may he be with Solomon and make his throne even greater than the throne of my lord King David!'
1Ki 1:38 Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and Pelethites then went down; they mounted Solomon on King David's mule and escorted him to Gihon.
1Ki 1:39 Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the Tent and anointed Solomon. They sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, 'Long live King Solomon!'
1Ki 1:40 The people all escorted him back, with pipes playing and loud rejoicing and shouts to split the earth.
1Ki 1:41 Adonijah and his guests, who had by then finished their meal, all heard the noise. Joab too heard the sound of the trumpet and said, 'What is that noise of uproar in the city?'
1Ki 1:42 While he was still speaking, Jonathan son of Abiathar the priest arrived. 'Come in,' Adonijah said, 'you are an honest man, so you must be bringing good news.'
1Ki 1:43 'The truth is,' Jonathan answered, 'our lord King David has made Solomon king.
1Ki 1:44 With him, the king sent Zadok the priest, the prophet Nathan, Benaiah son of Jehoiada and the Cherethites and Pelethites; they mounted him on the king's mule,
1Ki 1:45 and Zadok the priest and the prophet Nathan have anointed him king at Gihon; and they have gone back again with shouts of joy and the city is now in an uproar; that was the noise you heard.
1Ki 1:46 What is more, Solomon is seated on the royal throne.
1Ki 1:47 And further, the king's officers have been to congratulate our lord King David with the words, "May your God make the name of Solomon more glorious than yours, and his throne more exalted than your own!" And the king bowed down on his bed,
1Ki 1:48 and then said, "Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, for setting one of my own sons on the throne while I am still alive to see it!" '
1Ki 1:49 At this, all Adonijah's guests, taking fright, got up and made off in their several directions.
1Ki 1:50 Adonijah, in terror of Solomon, got up and ran off to cling to the horns of the altar.
1Ki 1:51 Solomon was told, 'You should know that Adonijah is terrified of King Solomon and is now clinging to the horns of the altar, saying, "Let King Solomon first swear to me that he will not have his servant executed." '
1Ki 1:52 'Should he bear himself honorably,' Solomon answered, 'not one hair of his shall fall to the ground; but if he proves difficult, he shall die.'
1Ki 1:53 King Solomon then sent for him to be brought down from the altar; he came and threw himself prostrate before King Solomon; Solomon said to him, 'Go to your house.'
1Ki 2:1 As David's life drew to its close he laid this charge on his son Solomon,
1Ki 2:2 'I am going the way of all the earth. Be strong and show yourself a man.
1Ki 2:3 Observe the injunctions of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, following his ways and keeping his laws, his commandments, his ordinances and his decrees, as stands written in the Law of Moses, so that you may be successful in everything you do and undertake,
1Ki 2:4 and that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) may fulfill the promise which he made me, "If your sons are careful how they behave, and walk loyally before me with all their heart and soul, you will never want for a man on the throne of Israel."
1Ki 2:5 'You know too what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two commanders of the army of Israel, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether; how he murdered them, shedding the blood of war in time of peace and staining the belt round my waist and the sandals on my feet with the blood of war.
1Ki 2:6 You will be wise not to let his grey head go down to Sheol in peace.
1Ki 2:7 As regards the sons of Barzillai of Gilead, treat them with faithful love, let them be among those who eat at your table, for they were as kind to me when I was fleeing from your brother Absalom.
1Ki 2:8 You also have with you Shimei son of Gera, the Benjaminite from Bahurim. He called down a terrible curse on me the day I left for Mahanaim, but he came down to meet me at the Jordan and I swore to him by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that I would not put him to death.
1Ki 2:9 But you, you must not let him go unpunished; you are a wise man and will know how to deal with him, to bring his grey head down to Sheol in blood.'
1Ki 2:10 So David fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David.
1Ki 2:11 David was king of Israel for a period of forty years: he reigned at Hebron for seven years, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three.
1Ki 2:12 Solomon then sat on the throne of David, and his sovereignty was securely established.
1Ki 2:13 Adonijah son of Haggith went to Bathsheba mother of Solomon. 'Do you bring peace?' she asked. He replied, 'Yes, peace.'
1Ki 2:14 Then he said, 'I have something to say to you.' 'Say on,' she replied.
1Ki 2:15 'You know', he said, 'that the kingdom should have come to me, and that all Israel expected me to be king; but the crown eluded me and fell to my brother, since it came to him from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 2:16 Now I have one request to make you; do not refuse me.' 'Go on,' she said.
1Ki 2:17 He went on, 'Please ask King Solomon -- for he will not refuse you -- to give me Abishag of Shunem in marriage.'
1Ki 2:18 'Very well,' Bathsheba replied, 'I shall speak to the king about you.'
1Ki 2:19 So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him about Adonijah; the king got up to meet her and bowed before her; he then sat down on his throne; a seat was brought for the king's mother, and she sat down on his right.
1Ki 2:20 She said, 'I have one small request to make you; do not refuse me.' 'Mother,' the king replied, 'make your request, for I shall not refuse you.'
1Ki 2:21 'Let Abishag of Shunem', she said, 'be given in marriage to your brother Adonijah.'
1Ki 2:22 King Solomon replied to his mother, 'And why do you request Abishag of Shunem for Adonijah? You might as well request the kingdom for him, since he is my elder brother and Abiathar the priest and Joab son of Zeruiah are on his side.'
1Ki 2:23 And King Solomon swore by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): 'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ills, too,' he said, 'if Adonijah does not pay for these words of his with his life!
1Ki 2:24 As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives who has set me securely on the throne of my father David, and who, as he promised, has given him a dynasty, Adonijah shall be put to death this very day.'
1Ki 2:25 And King Solomon commissioned Benaiah son of Jehoiada to strike him down, and that was how he died.
1Ki 2:26 As for Abiathar the priest, the king said to him, 'Go to Anathoth to your estate. You deserve to die, but I am not going to put you to death now, since you carried the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the presence of my father David and shared all my father's hardships.'
1Ki 2:27 Solomon deprived Abiathar of the priesthood of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), thus fulfilling the prophecy which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had uttered against the House of Eli at Shiloh.
1Ki 2:28 When the news reached Joab -- for Joab had lent his support to Adonijah, though he had not supported Absalom -- he fled to the Tent of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and clung to the horns of the altar.
1Ki 2:29 King Solomon was told, 'Joab has fled to the Tent of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he is there beside the altar.' On this, Solomon sent word to Joab, 'What reason did you have for fleeing to the altar?' Joab replied, 'I was afraid of you and fled to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' Solomon then sent Benaiah son of Jehoiada. 'Go', he said, 'and strike him down.'
1Ki 2:30 Accordingly Benaiah went to the Tent of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). 'By order of the king,' he said, 'come out!' 'No,' he said, 'I will die here.' So Benaiah brought word back to the king, 'This is what Joab said, and the answer he gave me.'
1Ki 2:31 'Do as he says,' the king replied. 'Strike him down and bury him, and so rid me and my family today of the innocent blood which Joab has shed.
1Ki 2:32 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will bring his blood down on his own head, because he struck down two more upright and better men than he, and, without my father David's knowledge, put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of the army of Israel, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of the army of Judah.
1Ki 2:33 May their blood come down on the head of Joab and his descendants for ever, but may David, his descendants, his dynasty, his throne, have peace for ever from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
1Ki 2:34 Whereupon Benaiah son of Jehoiada went out, struck Joab down and put him to death; he was buried at his home in the desert.
1Ki 2:35 In his place as head of the army the king appointed Benaiah son of Jehoiada and, in place of Abiathar, the priest Zadok.
1Ki 2:36 The king had Shimei summoned to him. 'Build yourself a house in Jerusalem,' he told him. 'You are to live there; do not leave it to go anywhere at all.
1Ki 2:37 The day you go out and cross the ravine of the Kidron, be sure you will certainly die. Your blood will be on your own head.'
1Ki 2:38 'That is a fair demand,' Shimei replied to the king, 'your servant will do as my lord the king orders.' And for a long time Shimei lived in Jerusalem.
1Ki 2:39 But when three years had gone by, it happened that two of Shimei's slaves ran away to Achish son of Maacah, king of Gath; Shimei was told, 'Your slaves are in Gath.'
1Ki 2:40 On this, Shimei got up and saddled his donkey and went to Akish at Gath to find his slaves. He went off and brought his slaves back from Gath.
1Ki 2:41 Solomon was informed that Shimei had left Jerusalem for Gath and come back again.
1Ki 2:42 The king had Shimei summoned to him. 'Did I not make you swear by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'and did I not warn you, "The day you leave to go anywhere at all, be sure you will certainly die"? To which you replied, "That is a fair demand."
1Ki 2:43 Why did you not keep the oath to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the order which I imposed on you?'
1Ki 2:44 The king then said to Shimei, 'You know well all the evil you did to my father David. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is about to bring your wickedness down on your own head.
1Ki 2:45 But may King Solomon be blessed, and may the throne of David be kept secure before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for ever!'
1Ki 2:46 The king gave orders to Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he went out and struck Shimei down; and that was how he died. And now the kingdom was securely in Solomon's hands.
1Ki 3:1 Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh king of Egypt; he married Pharaoh's daughter, and took her to the City of David until he could complete the building of his palace, the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the ramparts of Jerusalem.
1Ki 3:2 The people, however, were still sacrificing on the high places, because at that time a dwelling-place for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had not yet been built.
1Ki 3:3 Solomon loved Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): he followed the precepts of his father David, except that he offered sacrifice and incense on the high places.
1Ki 3:4 The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, since that was the principal high place -- Solomon presented a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
1Ki 3:5 At Gibeon Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to Solomon in a dream during the night. God said, 'Ask what you would like me to give you.'
1Ki 3:6 Solomon replied, 'You showed most faithful love to your servant David, my father, when he lived his life before you in faithfulness and uprightness and integrity of heart; you have continued this most faithful love to him by allowing a son of his to sit on his throne today.
1Ki 3:7 Now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, you have made your servant king in succession to David my father. But I am a very young man, unskilled in leadership.
1Ki 3:8 And here is your servant, surrounded with your people whom you have chosen, a people so numerous that its number cannot be counted or reckoned.
1Ki 3:9 So give your servant a heart to understand how to govern your people, how to discern between good and evil, for how could one otherwise govern such a great people as yours?'
1Ki 3:10 It pleased Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that Solomon should have asked for this.
1Ki 3:11 'Since you have asked for this,' God said, 'and not asked for long life for yourself or riches or the lives of your enemies but have asked for a discerning judgement for yourself,
1Ki 3:12 here and now I do what you ask. I give you a heart wise and shrewd as no one has had before and no one will have after you.
1Ki 3:13 What you have not asked I shall give you too: such riches and glory as no other king can match.
1Ki 3:14 And I shall give you a long life, if you follow my ways, keeping my laws and commandments, as your father David followed them.'
1Ki 3:15 Then Solomon woke up; it had been a dream. He returned to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices and held a banquet for all those in his service.
1Ki 3:16 Later two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.
1Ki 3:17 'If it please you, my lord,' one of the women said, 'this woman and I live in the same house, and while she was in the house I gave birth to a child.
1Ki 3:18 Now it happened on the third day after my delivery that this woman also gave birth to a child. We were alone together; there was no one else in the house with us; just the two of us in the house.
1Ki 3:19 Now one night this woman's son died; she overlaid him.
1Ki 3:20 And in the middle of the night she got up and took my son from beside me while your servant was asleep; she took him in her arms and put her own dead son in mine.
1Ki 3:21 When I got up to suckle my child, there he was, dead. But in the morning I looked at him carefully, and he was not the child I had borne at all.'
1Ki 3:22 Then the other woman spoke. 'That is not true! My son is the live one, yours is the dead one'; and the first retorted, 'That is not true! Your son is the dead one, mine is the live one.' And so they wrangled before the king.
1Ki 3:23 'This one says,' the king observed, ' "My son is the one who is alive; your son is dead," while the other says, "That is not true! Your son is the dead one, mine is the live one."
1Ki 3:24 Bring me a sword,' said the king; and a sword was brought into the king's presence.
1Ki 3:25 'Cut the living child in two,' the king said, 'and give half to one, half to the other.'
1Ki 3:26 At this the woman who was the mother of the living child addressed the king, for she felt acutely for her son. 'I beg you, my lord,' she said, 'let them give her the live child; on no account let them kill him!' But the other said, 'He shall belong to neither of us. Cut him in half!'
1Ki 3:27 Then the king gave his decision. 'Give the live child to the first woman,' he said, 'and do not kill him. She is his mother.'
1Ki 3:28 All Israel came to hear of the judgement which the king had pronounced and held the king in awe, recognising that he possessed divine wisdom for dispensing justice.
1Ki 4:1 King Solomon was king of all Israel,
1Ki 4:2 and these were his high officials: Azariah son of Zadok, priest;
1Ki 4:3 Elihaph and Ahijah sons of Shisha, secretaries; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud, herald.
1Ki 4:4 (Benaiah son of Jehoiada, commander of the army. Zadok and Abiathar, priests);
1Ki 4:5 Azariah son of Nathan, chief administrator; Zabud son of Nathan, Friend of the King;
1Ki 4:6 Ahishar, master of the palace; Eliab son of Joab, commander of the army; Adoram son of Abda, in charge of forced labour.
1Ki 4:7 Solomon had twelve administrators for all Israel who saw to the provisioning of the king and his household; each had to provide for one month in the year.
1Ki 4:8 These are their names: Son of Hur, in the mountain country of Ephraim.
1Ki 4:9 Son of Deker, in Makaz, Shaalbim, Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Beth-Hanan.
1Ki 4:10 Son of Hesed, in Arubboth; his district was Socoh and the whole territory of Hepher.
1Ki 4:11 Son of Abinadab, all the Slopes of Dor. Tabaath Solomon's daughter was his wife.
1Ki 4:12 Baana son of Ahilud, in Taanach and Megiddo as far as the other side of Jokmeam, and all Beth-Shean below Jezreel, from Beth-Shean as far as Abel-Meholah by Zarethan.
1Ki 4:13 Son of Geber, in Ramoth-Gilead: his district was the Encampments of Jair son of Manasseh, which are in Gilead; he had the region of Argob, which is in Bashan: sixty fortified towns, walled and with bolts of bronze.
1Ki 4:14 Ahinadab son of Iddo, in Mahanaim.
1Ki 4:15 Ahimaaz in Naphtali; he too married a daughter of Solomon, Basemath.
1Ki 4:16 Baana son of Hushai, in Asher and in the highlands.
1Ki 4:17 Jehoshaphat son of Paruah, in Issachar.
1Ki 4:18 Shimei son of Ela, in Benjamin.
1Ki 4:19 Geber son of Uri, in the territory of Gad, the territory of Sihon king of the Amorites and of Og king of Bashan. In addition, there was one administrator in the country.
1Ki 4:20 Judah and Israel were numerous, as numerous as the sand on the sea-shore; they ate and drank and were happy.
1Ki 5:1 Solomon was overlord of all the kingdoms from the River to the territory of the Philistines and the Egyptian border. They brought tribute and served him all his life long.
1Ki 5:2 The daily provisions for Solomon were: thirty measures of fine flour and sixty measures of meal,
1Ki 5:3 ten fattened oxen, twenty free-grazing oxen, one hundred sheep, besides deer and gazelles, roebucks and fattened poultry.
1Ki 5:4 For he was master of all Transeuphrates -- of all the kings of Transeuphrates from Tiphsah to Gaza -- and he enjoyed peace on all his frontiers.
1Ki 5:5 Judah and Israel lived in security, everyone under his vine and his fig tree, from Dan to Beersheba, throughout the lifetime of Solomon.
1Ki 5:6 And Solomon had four thousand stalls of horses for his chariots and twelve thousand cavalrymen.
1Ki 5:7 These administrators provided the food for Solomon and for all those who were admitted by him to the royal table, each for the period of a month; they ensured that nothing was wanting.
1Ki 5:8 They also provided the barley and straw for the horses and draught animals, where required, each according to the quota demanded of him.
1Ki 5:9 God gave Solomon immense wisdom and understanding, and a heart as vast as the sand on the sea-shore.
1Ki 5:10 The wisdom of Solomon surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the East and all the wisdom of Egypt.
1Ki 5:11 He was wiser than anyone else, wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, than the sons of Mahol, Heman, Calcol and Darda; his fame spread to all the surrounding nations.
1Ki 5:12 He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five.
1Ki 5:13 He could discourse on plants from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop growing on the wall; and he could discourse on animals and birds and reptiles and fish.
1Ki 5:14 Men from all nations came to hear Solomon's wisdom, and he received gifts from all the kings in the world, who had heard of his wisdom.
1Ki 5:15 Hiram king of Tyre sent an embassy to Solomon, having learnt that he had been anointed king in succession to his father and because Hiram had always been a friend of David.
1Ki 5:16 And Solomon sent this message to Hiram,
1Ki 5:17 'You are aware that my father David was unable to build a temple for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God, on account of the wars waged on him from every side, until Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put his enemies under the soles of his feet.
1Ki 5:18 But now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God has given me peace on every side: not one enemy, no calamities.
1Ki 5:19 I propose, then, to build a temple for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, in accordance with what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) told my father David, "Your son whom I shall place on your throne to succeed you will be the man to build a temple for my name."
1Ki 5:20 So now have cedars of Lebanon cut down for me; my servants will work with your servants, and I shall pay for the hire of your servants at whatever rate you fix. As you know, we have no one as skilled in felling trees as the Sidonians.'
1Ki 5:21 When Hiram heard what Solomon had said, he was delighted. 'Now blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'who has given David a wise son to rule over this great people!'
1Ki 5:22 And Hiram sent word to Solomon, 'I have received your message. For my part, I shall supply you with all you require in the way of cedar wood and juniper.
1Ki 5:23 Your servants will bring these down from Lebanon to the sea, and I shall have them towed by sea to any place you name; I shall discharge them there, and you will take them over. For your part, you will see to the provisioning of my household as I desire.'
1Ki 5:24 So Hiram provided Solomon with all the cedar wood and juniper he wanted
1Ki 5:25 while Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand kor of wheat to feed his household, and twenty thousand kor of pure oil. Solomon gave Hiram this every year.
1Ki 5:26 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave Solomon wisdom as he had promised him; good relations persisted between Solomon and Hiram, and the two of them concluded a treaty.
1Ki 5:27 King Solomon raised a levy throughout Israel for forced labour: the levy numbered thirty thousand men.
1Ki 5:28 He sent these to Lebanon in relays, ten thousand a month; they spent one month in Lebanon and two months at home. Adoram was in charge of the forced labour.
1Ki 5:29 Solomon also had seventy thousand porters and eighty thousand quarrymen in the mountains,
1Ki 5:30 as well as the administrators, officials who supervised the work, three thousand three hundred of them in charge of the men employed in the work.
1Ki 5:31 At the king's orders they quarried huge stones, special stones for the laying of the temple foundations, dressed stones.
1Ki 5:32 Solomon's workmen and Hiram's workmen and the Giblites cut and assembled the wood and stone for the building of the Temple.
1Ki 6:1 In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, he began building the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 6:2 The temple which King Solomon built for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was sixty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and twenty-five high.
1Ki 6:3 The portico in front of the Hekal of the Temple was twenty cubits long across the width of the Temple and ten cubits wide along the length of the Temple.
1Ki 6:4 He made windows for the Temple with frames and latticework.
1Ki 6:5 He also built an annex against the Temple wall, right round the Hekal and Debir. He built lateral storeys all round;
1Ki 6:6 the lowest lateral storey was five cubits wide, the middle one six cubits, and the third seven cubits, for he had made the outside of the Temple wall correspondingly stepped back all round, so that the annex was not attached to the Temple walls.
1Ki 6:7 (The building of the Temple was done with quarry -- dressed stone; no sound of hammer or pick or any iron tool was to be heard in the Temple while it was being built.)
1Ki 6:8 The entrance to the lowest storey was at the right-hand corner of the Temple; access to the middle storey was by a spiral staircase, and so from the middle storey to the third.
1Ki 6:9 Having finished building the Temple, he roofed the Temple with a coffered ceiling of cedar wood.
1Ki 6:10 Round the outside of the Temple he then built the annex which was five cubits high and was joined to the Temple by cedar-wood beams.
1Ki 6:11 And the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Solomon,
1Ki 6:12 'With regard to this temple which you are now building, if you follow my statutes and obey my ordinances and faithfully follow my commandments, I shall fulfill the promise which I made about you to your father David.
1Ki 6:13 And I shall make my home among the Israelites and never forsake Israel my people.'
1Ki 6:14 Solomon finished building the Temple.
1Ki 6:15 He lined the inside of the Temple walls with panels of cedar wood-panelling them on the inside from the floor of the Temple to the beams of the ceiling -- and laid the floor of the Temple with juniper planks.
1Ki 6:16 The twenty cubits measured from the end of the Temple he built of cedar planks from the floor to the beams, and this part was reserved as the Debir, the Holy of Holies.
1Ki 6:17 The Temple measured forty cubits -- the Hekal -- in front of the Debir.
1Ki 6:18 There was cedar wood round the inside of the Temple, ornamentally carved with gourds and rosettes; all was cedar wood, with no stone showing.
1Ki 6:19 In the inner part of the Temple he designed a Debir, to contain the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 6:20 The Debir was twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide, and twenty high, and he overlaid it on the inside with pure gold. He made an altar of cedar wood
1Ki 6:21 in front of the Debir and overlaid it with gold.
1Ki 6:22 He overlaid the whole Temple with gold, the whole Temple entirely.
1Ki 6:23 In the Debir he made two great winged creatures of wild-olive wood. . .It was ten cubits high.
1Ki 6:24 One winged creature's wing was five cubits long and the other wing five cubits: ten cubits from wing tip to wing tip.
1Ki 6:25 The other winged creature also measured ten cubits; both had the same measurements and the same shape.
1Ki 6:26 The height of one was the same as the other's.
1Ki 6:27 He placed them in the middle of the inner chamber; their wings were spread out so that the wing of one touched one of the walls and the wing of the other touched the other wall, while their wings met in the middle of the chamber wing to wing.
1Ki 6:28 And he overlaid them with gold.
1Ki 6:29 All round the Temple walls he carved figures of winged creatures, palm trees and rosettes, both inside and outside.
1Ki 6:30 He overlaid the floor of the Temple with gold, both inside and outside.
1Ki 6:31 He made the door of the Debir with uprights of wild-olive wood, and door jambs with five indented sections,
1Ki 6:32 and the two leaves of wild-olive wood. He carved figures of great winged creatures, palm trees and rosettes which he overlaid with gold, and he gilded winged creatures and palm trees.
1Ki 6:33 Similarly, he made uprights of wild-olive wood for the door of the Hekal, and door jambs with four indented sections,
1Ki 6:34 and the two leaves of juniper: one leaf had two ribs binding it, and the other had two ribs binding it.
1Ki 6:35 He carved winged creatures, palm trees and rosettes, which he overlaid with gold laid evenly over the carvings.
1Ki 6:36 He built the wall of the inner court in three courses of dressed stone and one course of cedar beams.
1Ki 6:37 In the fourth year, in the month of Ziv, the foundations of the Temple were laid;
1Ki 6:38 in the eleventh year, in the month of Bul -- that is, the eighth month -- the Temple was completed exactly as it had been planned and designed. Solomon took seven years to build it.
1Ki 7:1 As regards his palace, Solomon spent thirteen years on it before the building was completed.
1Ki 7:2 He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon, a hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide, and thirty cubits high, on four rows of cedar-wood pillars,
1Ki 7:3 with lengths of cedar wood laid horizontally on the pillars. The upper part was panelled with cedar right down to the tie-beams on forty-five pillars, fifteen in each row.
1Ki 7:4 There were three rows of window-frames, with the windows corresponding to one another at three levels.
1Ki 7:5 All the doorways and windows were rectangular, with the windows corresponding to one another at three levels.
1Ki 7:6 He also made the Colonnade, fifty cubits long and thirty cubits broad, with a cornice in front.
1Ki 7:7 He also made the Hall of the Throne where he used to dispense justice, that is, the Hall of Justice; it was panelled in cedar from floor to beams.
1Ki 7:8 His own living quarters, in the other court and inwards from the Hall, were of the same construction. And there was a house similar to this Hall for Pharaoh's daughter whom he had taken in marriage.
1Ki 7:9 All these buildings were of special stones cut to measure, trimmed on the inner and outer sides with the saw, from the foundations to the coping-
1Ki 7:10 the foundations were of special stones, huge stones, of ten and eight cubits,
1Ki 7:11 and, above these, special stones, cut to measure, and cedar wood-
1Ki 7:12 and, on the outside, the great court had three courses of dressed stone round it and one course of cedar beams; so also had the inner court of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the vestibule of the Temple.
1Ki 7:13 King Solomon sent for Hiram of Tyre;
1Ki 7:14 he was the son of a widow of the tribe of Naphtali, but his father had been a Tyrian, a bronzeworker. He was a highly intelligent craftsman, skilled in all types of bronzework. He came to King Solomon and did all this work for him.
1Ki 7:15 He cast the two bronze pillars; the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and a cord twelve cubits long gave the measurement of its girth; so also was the second pillar.
1Ki 7:16 He made two capitals of cast bronze for the tops of the pillars; the height of one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other five cubits.
1Ki 7:17 He made two sets of filigree to cover the moulding of the two capitals surmounting the pillars, one filigree for one capital and one filigree for the other.
1Ki 7:18 He also made pomegranates: two rows of them round each filigree,four hundred in all,
1Ki 7:19 The capitals surrounding the pillars were lily-shaped.
1Ki 7:20 applied on the raised moulding behind the filigree; there were two hundred pomegranates round one capital and the same round the other capital.
1Ki 7:21 He erected the pillars in front of the portico of the Temple, he erected the right-hand pillar and named it Jachin; he erected the left-hand pillar and named it Boaz.
1Ki 7:22 Thus, the work on the pillars was completed.
1Ki 7:23 He made the Sea of cast metal, ten cubits from rim to rim, circular in shape and five cubits high; a cord thirty cubits long gave the measurement of its girth.
1Ki 7:24 Under its rim and completely encircling it were gourds surrounding the Sea; over a length of thirty cubits the gourds were in two rows, of one and the same casting with the rest.
1Ki 7:25 It rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east; on these, their hindquarters all turned inwards, stood the Sea.
1Ki 7:26 It was a hand's breadth in thickness, and its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup, lily-shaped. It could hold two thousand measures.
1Ki 7:27 He made the ten bronze stands; each stand was four cubits long, four cubits wide, and three high.
1Ki 7:28 They were designed as follows; they had an undercarriage and crosspieces to the undercarriage.
1Ki 7:29 On the crosspieces of the undercarriage were lions and bulls and winged creatures, and on top of the undercarriage was a support; under the lions and oxen there were scrolls in the style of. . .
1Ki 7:30 Each stand had four bronze wheels with bronze axles; its four feet had shoulderings under the basin, and the shoulderings were cast. . .
1Ki 7:31 Its mouth measured one and a half cubits from where the shoulderings met to the top; its mouth was round like a stand for a vessel, and on the mouth there were engravings too; the crosspieces, however, were rectangular and not round.
1Ki 7:32 The four wheels were under the crosspieces. The axles of the wheels were inside the stands; the height of the wheels was one and a half cubits.
1Ki 7:33 The wheels were designed like chariot wheels: their axles, felloes, spokes and naves had all been cast.
1Ki 7:34 There were four shoulderings at the four corners of each stand: the stand and the shoulderings were all of a piece.
1Ki 7:35 At the top of the stand there was a support, circular in shape and half a cubit high; and on top of the stand there were lugs. The crosspieces were of a piece with the stand.
1Ki 7:36 On the bands he engraved winged creatures and lions and palm leaves. . . and scrolls right round.
1Ki 7:37 He made the ten stands like this: the same casting and the same measurements for all.
1Ki 7:38 He made ten bronze basins; each basin held forty measures and each basin measured four cubits, one basin to each of the ten stands.
1Ki 7:39 He arranged the stands, five on the right-hand side of the Temple, five on the left-hand side of the Temple; the Sea he placed on the right-hand side of the Temple, to the south east.
1Ki 7:40 Hiram made the ash containers, the scoops and the sprinkling bowls. He finished all the work that he did for King Solomon on the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
1Ki 7:41 Two pillars; the two mouldings of the capitals surrounding the pillars; the two sets of filigree to cover the two mouldings of the capitals surmounting the pillars;
1Ki 7:42 the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of filigree -- two rows of pomegranates for each set of filigree;
1Ki 7:43 the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands;
1Ki 7:44 the one Sea and the twelve oxen beneath the Sea;
1Ki 7:45 the ash containers, the scoops, and sprinkling bowls. All these objects made by Hiram for King Solomon for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) were of burnished bronze.
1Ki 7:46 He made them by the process of sand casting, in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zarethan.
1Ki 7:47 There were so many of them, that the weight of the bronze was never calculated.
1Ki 7:48 Solomon made all the objects designed for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): the golden altar and the gold table for the loaves of permanent offering;
1Ki 7:49 the lamp-stands, five on the right and five on the left in front of the Debir, of pure gold; the floral work, the lamps, the tongs, of gold;
1Ki 7:50 the basins, the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, the incense ladles and the pans, of real gold; the door panels -- for the inner shrine -- that is, the Holy of Holies -- and for the Hekal, of gold.
1Ki 7:51 Thus all the work done by King Solomon for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was completed, and Solomon brought in the gifts which his father David had consecrated; and he had the silver, the gold and the utensils put into the treasuries of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 8:1 Solomon then summoned the elders of Israel to Jerusalem to bring the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) up from the City of David, that is, Zion.
1Ki 8:2 All the men of Israel assembled round King Solomon in the month of Ethanim, at the time of the feast (that is, the seventh month).
1Ki 8:3 When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark
1Ki 8:4 and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred utensils which were in the Tent.
1Ki 8:5 King Solomon and all Israel, present with him before the ark, sacrificed countless, innumerable sheep and oxen.
1Ki 8:6 The priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to its place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the winged creatures
1Ki 8:7 for the winged creatures spread their wings over the place where the ark stood, forming a canopy over the ark and its shafts.
1Ki 8:8 These were so long, however, that the ends of the shafts could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the Debir, though they could not be seen from outside. They are still there today.
1Ki 8:9 There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets which Moses had placed in it at Horeb, the tablets of the covenant which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.
1Ki 8:10 Now when the priests came out of the Holy Place, the cloud filled the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
1Ki 8:11 and because of the cloud the priests could not stay and perform their duties. For the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) filled the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 8:12 Then Solomon said: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen to dwell in thick cloud.
1Ki 8:13 I have built you a princely dwelling, a residence for you for ever.
1Ki 8:14 The king then turned round and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood.
1Ki 8:15 He said, 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, who has carried out by his hand what he promised with his mouth to my father David, when he said,
1Ki 8:16 "From the day I brought my people Israel out of Egypt I chose no city, in any of the tribes of Israel, to have a temple built where my name should be; but I did choose David to rule my people Israel."
1Ki 8:17 My father David had set his heart on building a temple for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel,
1Ki 8:18 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to my father David, "You have set your heart on building a temple for my name, and in this you have done well;
1Ki 8:19 and yet, you are not the man to build the temple; but your son, yet to be born to you, will be the one to build the temple for my name."
1Ki 8:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has kept the promise which he made: I have succeeded my father David and am seated on the throne of Israel, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) promised; I have built the temple for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel,
1Ki 8:21 and in it I have made a place for the ark containing the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt.'
1Ki 8:22 Then, in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, Solomon stood facing the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and, stretching out his hands towards heaven,
1Ki 8:23 said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, as loyal to the covenant and faithful in love to your servants as long as they walk wholeheartedly in your way.
1Ki 8:24 You have kept the promise you made to your servant, my father David, as you promised him you would. Today you have carried it out by your power.
1Ki 8:25 And now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, keep the promise which you made to your servant David when you said, "You will never lack for a man to sit before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your sons are careful how they behave, walking before me as you yourself have done."
1Ki 8:26 So now, God of Israel, let the words come true which you spoke to your servant, my father David.
1Ki 8:27 Yet will God really live with human beings on earth? Why, the heavens, the highest of the heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple built by me!
1Ki 8:28 Even so, listen favorably to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant makes to you today:
1Ki 8:29 day and night may your eyes watch over this temple, over this place of which you have said, "My name will be there." Listen to the prayer which your servant offers in this place.
1Ki 8:30 'Listen to the entreaty of your servant and of your people Israel; whenever they pray in this place, listen from the place where you reside in heaven; and when you hear, forgive.
1Ki 8:31 'If someone has wronged his neighbor and a curse is laid on him to make him swear an oath here before your altar in this Temple,
1Ki 8:32 then listen from the place where you reside in heaven and do justice between your servants: condemning the guilty one by making him suffer for his conduct, and acquitting the upright by rewarding him as his uprightness deserves.
1Ki 8:33 'When your people Israel are defeated by the enemy because they have sinned against you, but then return to you and acknowledge your name, and pray and seek your favors in this Temple,
1Ki 8:34 then listen from the place where you reside in heaven; forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the country which you gave to their ancestors.
1Ki 8:35 'When the heavens are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray in this place and praise your name and, having been humbled by you, desist from their sin,
1Ki 8:36 then listen from the place where you reside in heaven and forgive the sin of your servant and your people Israel -- for you are constantly showing them the good way which they must follow -- and send rain on your country, which you have given to your people as their heritage.
1Ki 8:37 'Should there be famine in the country, or pestilence, wind-blast or mildew, locust or caterpillar; should their enemy lay siege to one of their gates; should there be any plague or any disease:
1Ki 8:38 whatever be the prayer or entreaty of any individual aware of a particular affliction: when that person stretches out the hands towards this Temple,
1Ki 8:39 then listen from heaven where you reside; forgive and, since you know what is in the heart, deal with each as their conduct deserves -- for you alone know what is in every human heart-
1Ki 8:40 so that they may reverence you throughout their lives in the country which you gave to our ancestors.
1Ki 8:41 'Even the foreigner, not belonging to your people Israel but coming from a distant country, attracted by your name-
1Ki 8:42 for they too will hear of your name, of your mighty hand and outstretched arm -- if a foreigner comes and prays in this Temple,
1Ki 8:43 listen from heaven where you reside, and grant all that the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may acknowledge your name and, like your people Israel, revere you and know that this Temple, which I have built, bears your name.
1Ki 8:44 'If your people go out to war against the enemy, on whatever missions you send them, and they pray to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), turning towards the city which you have chosen and towards the Temple which I have built for your name,
1Ki 8:45 then listen from heaven to their prayer and their entreaty, and uphold their cause.
1Ki 8:46 'When they sin against you -- for there is no one who does not sin -- and you are angry with them and abandon them to the enemy, and their captors carry them off to a hostile country, be it far away or near,
1Ki 8:47 if they come to their senses in the country to which they have been taken as captives and repent and entreat you in the country of their captors, saying, "We have sinned, we have acted perversely and wickedly,"
1Ki 8:48 and turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the country of the enemies who have taken them captive, and pray to you, turning towards the country which you gave to their ancestors, towards the city which you have chosen and towards the Temple which I have built for your name,
1Ki 8:49 listen to their prayer and their entreaty from the place where you reside in heaven, uphold their case,
1Ki 8:50 forgive your people for having sinned against you and for all the crimes against you of which they have been guilty, and allow them to arouse the pity of their captors so that these may have pity on them:
1Ki 8:51 for they are your people and your heritage whom you brought out of Egypt, that iron foundry!
1Ki 8:52 'May your eyes be open to the entreaty of your servant and the entreaty of your people Israel, to listen to them, whatever they ask of you.
1Ki 8:53 For you it was who set them apart from all the peoples of the earth to be your heritage, as you declared through your servant Moses when you brought our ancestors out of Egypt, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
1Ki 8:54 When Solomon had finished offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) this whole prayer and entreaty, he rose from where he was kneeling with hands stretched out towards heaven before the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
1Ki 8:55 and stood upright. And in a loud voice he blessed the whole assembly of Israel.
1Ki 8:56 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'who has granted rest to his people Israel, keeping all his promises. Of all the promises of good that he made through his servant Moses, not one has failed.
1Ki 8:57 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God be with us, as he was with our ancestors; may he never desert us or cast us off.
1Ki 8:58 May he turn our hearts towards him so that we may follow all his ways and keep the commandments and laws and ordinances which he gave to our ancestors.
1Ki 8:59 May these words of mine, of my entreaty before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), be present with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God day and night, that he may uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of Israel his people, as each day requires,
1Ki 8:60 so that all the peoples of the earth may come to know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God indeed and that there is no other.
1Ki 8:61 May your hearts be wholly with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, following his laws and keeping his commandments as at this present day.'
1Ki 8:62 The king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 8:63 Solomon offered a communion sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); and thus the king and all the Israelites dedicated the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 8:64 On the same day the king consecrated the middle part of the court in front of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); for that was where he presented the burnt offerings, oblations and fatty parts of the communion sacrifices, since the bronze altar which stood before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was too small to hold the burnt offering, oblation and the fatty parts of the communion sacrifice.
1Ki 8:65 And then Solomon and with him all Israel from the Pass of Hamath to the Torrent of Egypt -- a great assembly -- celebrated the feast before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God for seven days.
1Ki 8:66 On the eighth day he dismissed the people, who bade farewell to the king and went home joyful and happy of heart over all the goodness which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had shown to his servant and his people Israel.
1Ki 9:1 When Solomon had finished building the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the royal palace and everything else which Solomon had wanted to do,
1Ki 9:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.
1Ki 9:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'I have heard your prayer and the entreaty which you have before me. I consecrate this temple which you have built: I place my name there for ever; my eyes and my heart will be there always.
1Ki 9:4 For your part, if you walk before me in innocence of heart and in honesty, like your father David, if you do everything that I command and keep my laws and my ordinances,
1Ki 9:5 I shall make your royal throne secure over Israel for ever, as I promised your father David when I said, "You will never lack for a man on the throne of Israel."
1Ki 9:6 But if you turn away from me, either you or your descendants, and instead of keeping my commandments and laws which I have laid down for you, you go and serve other gods and worship them,
1Ki 9:7 then I shall banish Israel from the country which I have given them, and shall disown this Temple which I have consecrated for my name, and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
1Ki 9:8 As for this once-exalted Temple, everyone who passes by will be appalled, and they will whistle and say, "Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) treated this country and this Temple like this?"
1Ki 9:9 And the answer will be, "Because they deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God who brought their ancestors out of Egypt, and they adopted other gods and worshipped and served them; that is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has brought all these disasters on them." '
1Ki 9:10 At the end of the twenty years that it took Solomon to erect the two buildings, the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the royal palace
1Ki 9:11 (Hiram king of Tyre had provided Solomon with all the cedar wood, juniper wood and gold that he wanted), King Solomon gave Hiram twenty towns in the territory of Galilee.
1Ki 9:12 But when Hiram came from Tyre to view the towns that Solomon had given him, he was not pleased with them.
1Ki 9:13 He said, 'What kind of towns are these you have given me, brother?' And to this day they are known as 'cabul-land'.
1Ki 9:14 Hiram sent the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold.
1Ki 9:15 This is an account of the forced labour levied by King Solomon for building the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), his own palace, the Millo and the fortifications of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer
1Ki 9:16 (Pharaoh king of Egypt mounted an expedition, captured Gezer, burnt it down and massacred the Canaanites living there; he then gave the town as a dowry to his daughter, Solomon's wife,
1Ki 9:17 and Solomon rebuilt Gezer), Lower Beth-Horon,
1Ki 9:18 Baalath, Tamar in the desert, inside the country,
1Ki 9:19 all Solomon's storage towns owned by Solomon, all the towns for his chariots and horses, and whatever Solomon was pleased to build in Jerusalem, in the Lebanon and in all the countries under his rule.
1Ki 9:20 All those who survived of the Amorite, Hittite, Perizzite, Hivite and Jebusite peoples, who were not Israelites-
1Ki 9:21 their descendants still remaining in the country on whom the Israelites had not been able to enforce the curse of destruction -- these Solomon levied as forced labourers, as is still the case today.
1Ki 9:22 Solomon did not, however, impose forced labour on the Israelites; for they were soldiers, his officials, his administrators, his officers and his chariot and cavalry commanders.
1Ki 9:23 There were five hundred and fifty officials in charge of the foremen over Solomon's work, who supervised the people employed on the work.
1Ki 9:24 After Pharaoh's daughter had moved from the City of David up to the palace which he had built for her, he then built the Millo.
1Ki 9:25 Three times a year Solomon presented burnt offerings and communion sacrifices on the altar which he had built for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and set his burnt offerings smoking before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Thus he completed the Temple.
1Ki 9:26 King Solomon equipped a fleet at Ezion-Geber, which is near Elath on the shores of the Red Sea, in Edom.
1Ki 9:27 For this fleet Hiram sent men of his, experienced sailors, to serve with those in Solomon's service.
1Ki 9:28 They went to Ophir and took on four hundred and twenty talents of gold, which they brought back to Solomon.
1Ki 10:1 The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame and came to test him with difficult questions.
1Ki 10:2 She arrived in Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels laden with spices and an immense quantity of gold and precious stones. Having reached Solomon, she discussed with him everything that she had in mind,
1Ki 10:3 and Solomon had an answer for all her questions; not one of them was too obscure for the king to answer for her.
1Ki 10:4 When the queen of Sheba saw how very wise Solomon was, the palace which he had built,
1Ki 10:5 the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings which he presented in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), it left her breathless,
1Ki 10:6 and she said to the king, 'The report I heard in my own country about your wisdom in handling your affairs was true then!
1Ki 10:7 Until I came and saw for myself, I did not believe the reports, but clearly I was told less than half: for wisdom and prosperity, you surpass what was reported to me.
1Ki 10:8 How fortunate your wives are! How fortunate these courtiers of yours, continually in attendance on you and listening to your wisdom!
1Ki 10:9 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who has shown you his favor by setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to administer law and justice.'
1Ki 10:10 And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
1Ki 10:11 Similarly, Hiram's fleet, which brought the gold from Ophir, also brought back great cargoes of almug timber and precious stones.
1Ki 10:12 Of the almug timber the king made supports for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and for the royal palace, and harps and lyres for the musicians; no more of this almug timber has since come or been seen to this day.
1Ki 10:13 And King Solomon, in his turn, presented the queen of Sheba with everything that she expressed a wish for, besides those presents which he gave her with a munificence worthy of King Solomon. After which, she went home to her own country, she and her servants.
1Ki 10:14 The weight of gold received annually by Solomon amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
1Ki 10:15 besides what tolls and foreign trade, as well as everything the Arab kings and the provincial governors brought in.
1Ki 10:16 King Solomon made two hundred great shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of gold going into one shield;
1Ki 10:17 also three hundred small shields of beaten gold, three mina of gold going into one shield; and the king put these into the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
1Ki 10:18 The king also made a great ivory throne which he overlaid with refined gold.
1Ki 10:19 The throne had six steps, a back with a rounded top, and arms on each side of the seat; two lions stood beside the arms,
1Ki 10:20 and twelve lions stood on each side of the six steps. Nothing like it has ever been made in any other kingdom.
1Ki 10:21 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the plate in the House of the Forest of Lebanon was of pure gold; silver was little thought of in Solomon's days,
1Ki 10:22 since the king had a fleet of Tarshish at sea with Hiram's fleet, and once every three years the fleet of Tarshish would come back laden with gold and silver, ivory, apes and baboons.
1Ki 10:23 For riches and for wisdom, King Solomon surpassed all kings on earth,
1Ki 10:24 and the whole world consulted Solomon to hear the wisdom which God had implanted in his heart;
1Ki 10:25 and everyone would bring a present with him: things made of silver, things made of gold, robes, armour, spices, horses and mules; and this went on year after year.
1Ki 10:26 Solomon then built up a force of chariots and cavalry; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses, these he stationed in the chariot towns and near the king in Jerusalem.
1Ki 10:27 In Jerusalem the king made silver as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as sycamore in the lowlands.
1Ki 10:28 Solomon's horses were imported from Muzur and Cilicia. The king's dealers acquired them from Cilicia at the prevailing price.
1Ki 10:29 A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred silver shekels and a horse from Cilicia for a hundred and fifty. They also supplied the Hittite and Aramaean kings, who all used them as middlemen.
1Ki 11:1 King Solomon loved many foreign women: not only Pharaoh's daughter but Moabites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites,
1Ki 11:2 from those peoples of whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said to the Israelites, 'You are not to go among them nor they among you, or they will be sure to sway your hearts to their own gods.' But Solomon was deeply attached to them.
1Ki 11:3 He had seven hundred wives of royal rank and three hundred concubines.
1Ki 11:4 When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God as his father David's had been.
1Ki 11:5 Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination.
1Ki 11:6 He did what was displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and was not a wholehearted follower of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as his father David had been.
1Ki 11:7 Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites.
1Ki 11:8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.
1Ki 11:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, who had twice appeared to him
1Ki 11:10 and had forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order.
1Ki 11:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) therefore said to Solomon, 'Since you have behaved like this and have not kept my covenant or the laws which I laid down for you, I shall tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.
1Ki 11:12 For your father David's sake, however, I shall not do this during your lifetime, but shall tear it out of your son's hands.
1Ki 11:13 Even so, I shall not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I shall leave your son one tribe.'
1Ki 11:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) raised an enemy against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, of the kingly stock of Edom.
1Ki 11:15 After David had crushed Edom, Joab the army commander had gone to bury the dead and had slaughtered the entire male population of Edom
1Ki 11:16 (Joab stayed there with all Israel for six months until he had exterminated the entire male population of Edom),
1Ki 11:17 but Hadad with a number of Edomites in his father's service had fled to Egypt. Hadad had been only a boy at the time.
1Ki 11:18 They set out from Midian, and on reaching Paran, took a number of men from Paran with them and went on to Egypt, to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, who provided him with a house, undertook to maintain him, and assigned him an estate.
1Ki 11:19 Hadad became a great favorite of Pharaoh who gave him his own wife's sister in marriage, the sister of the Great Lady Tahpenes.
1Ki 11:20 The sister of Tahpenes bore him his son Genubath whom Tahpenes brought up in Pharaoh's palace, Genubath living in Pharaoh's palace with Pharaoh's own children.
1Ki 11:21 But when news reached Hadad in Egypt that David had fallen asleep with his ancestors and that Joab the army commander was dead, he said to Pharaoh, 'Give me leave to go that I may return to my own country.'
1Ki 11:22 'What do you lack here with me,' Pharaoh said, 'for you to want to go back to your country?' 'Nothing,' he replied, 'but please let me go.'Hence the harm which Hadad caused: he loathed Israel and ruled Edom.
1Ki 11:23 God raised a second enemy against Solomon, Rezon son of Eliada. He had fled from his master, Hadadezer king of Zobah.
1Ki 11:24 A number of men having rallied to him, he became leader of a marauding band (which was then massacred by David). Rezon captured Damascus and settled there and became king of Damascus.
1Ki 11:25 He was hostile to Israel as long as Solomon lived.
1Ki 11:26 Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah; the name of his mother, a widow, was Zeruah; he was in Solomon's service but revolted against the king.
1Ki 11:27 This is the account of his revolt. Solomon was building the Millo and closing the breach in the City of David his father.
1Ki 11:28 Now this Jeroboam was a man of great energy; Solomon, noticing how the young man set about his work, put him in charge of all the forced labour of the House of Joseph.
1Ki 11:29 One day when Jeroboam had gone out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh accosted him on the road. Ahijah was wearing a new cloak; the two of them were in the open country by themselves.
1Ki 11:30 Ahijah took the new cloak which he was wearing and tore it into twelve strips,
1Ki 11:31 saying to Jeroboam: 'Take ten strips for yourself, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "I am going to tear the kingdom from Solomon's hand and give ten tribes to you.
1Ki 11:32 He will keep one tribe for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel;
1Ki 11:33 for he has forsaken me to worship Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, Milcom the god of the Ammonites; he has not followed my ways by doing what I regard as right, or by keeping my laws and ordinances as his father David did.
1Ki 11:34 But it is not from his hands that I will take the kingdom, since I have made him a prince for as long as he lives, for the sake of my servant David who kept my commandments and laws.
1Ki 11:35 I shall, however, take the kingdom from the hand of his son, and I shall give it to you, that is, the ten tribes.
1Ki 11:36 I shall give one tribe to his son, so that my servant David may always have a lamp in my presence in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen as a dwelling-place for my name.
1Ki 11:37 You nonetheless I shall appoint to rule over as much as you wish, and you will be king of Israel.
1Ki 11:38 If you listen to all my orders and follow my ways, by doing what I regard as right and by keeping my laws and commandments as my servant David did, then I shall be with you and shall build you as enduring a dynasty as the one which I built for David. I shall give Israel to you,
1Ki 11:39 and I shall humble the descendants of David, but not for ever." '
1Ki 11:40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam but he made off and fled to Egypt, to Shishak king of Egypt, and he remained in Egypt until Solomon's death.
1Ki 11:41 The rest of the history of Solomon, his entire career, his wisdom, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of Solomon?
1Ki 11:42 Solomon's reign in Jerusalem over all Israel lasted forty years.
1Ki 11:43 When Solomon fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David his father; his son Rehoboam succeeded him.
1Ki 12:1 Rehoboam then went to Shechem, all Israel having come to Shechem to proclaim him king.
1Ki 12:2 (As soon as Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news -- he was still in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon -- he returned from Egypt.
1Ki 12:3 They now sent for him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came.) And they spoke as follows to Rehoboam,
1Ki 12:4 'Your father laid a cruel yoke on us; if you will lighten your father's cruel slavery, that heavy yoke which he imposed on us, we are willing to serve you.'
1Ki 12:5 He said to them, 'Go away for three days and then come back to me.' And the people went away.
1Ki 12:6 King Rehoboam then consulted the elders who had been in attendance on his father Solomon while he was alive, and said, 'How do you advise me to answer this people?'
1Ki 12:7 They replied, 'If you become the servant of this people today, and submit to them and give them a fair reply, then they will remain your servants for ever.'
1Ki 12:8 But he rejected the advice given him by the elders and consulted the young men in attendance on him, who had grown up with him.
1Ki 12:9 He said, 'How do you advise us to answer these people who have been saying, "Lighten the yoke which your father imposed on us!"? '
1Ki 12:10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, 'This is the way to answer these people who have been saying, "Your father made our yoke heavy, you must lighten it for us!" This is the right thing to say to them, "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.
1Ki 12:11 Although my father laid a heavy yoke on you, I shall make it heavier still. My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash!" '
1Ki 12:12 On the third day Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam in obedience to the king's instruction: 'Come back to me in three days' time.'
1Ki 12:13 And the king gave the people a harsh answer, rejecting the advice given him by the elders
1Ki 12:14 and speaking to them as the young men had recommended, 'My father made your yoke heavy, I shall make it heavier still! My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash!'
1Ki 12:15 Thus the king refused to listen to the people, and this was brought about by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to fulfill the promise which he had made through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
1Ki 12:16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king thus: What share have we in David? -No heritage in the son of Jesse! Away to your tents, Israel! Now look after your own House, David! So Israel went home again.
1Ki 12:17 Rehoboam, however, reigned over those Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.
1Ki 12:18 When King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of forced labour, all Israel stoned him to death, while King Rehoboam managed to mount his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.
1Ki 12:19 And Israel has remained in rebellion against the House of David from that day to this.
1Ki 12:20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king of all Israel; no one remained loyal to the House of David, except the tribe of Judah.
1Ki 12:21 When Rehoboam reached Jerusalem he mustered the whole House of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to fight the House of Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
1Ki 12:22 But the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Shemaiah, man of God,
1Ki 12:23 'Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole House of Judah, to Benjamin and to the rest of the people,
1Ki 12:24 "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Do not go and make war on your brothers, the Israelites; let everyone go home, for this is my doing." ' They obeyed the command of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and turned back in accordance with his word.
1Ki 12:25 Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the mountain country of Ephraim and made that his residence. Then, leaving there, he fortified Penuel.
1Ki 12:26 Jeroboam thought to himself, 'As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David.
1Ki 12:27 If this people continues to go up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people's heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death.'
1Ki 12:28 So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people, 'You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt!'
1Ki 12:29 He set one up at Bethel,
1Ki 12:30 and the people went in procession in front of the other one all the way to Dan. In Israel this gave rise to sin, for the people went to Bethel to worship the one, and all the way to Dan to worship the other.
1Ki 12:31 He set up shrines on the high places and appointed priests from ordinary families, who were not of levitical descent.
1Ki 12:32 Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, like the feast kept in Judah, when he offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did at Bethel, offering sacrifices to the calves which he had made and, at Bethel, installing the priests of the high places which he had set up.
1Ki 12:33 On the fifteenth of the eighth month, the month which he had chosen deliberately, he offered sacrifices on the altar which he had made at Bethel; he instituted a feast for the Israelites and himself went up to the altar to burn the sacrifice.
1Ki 13:1 There came to Bethel at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command a man of God from Judah, just as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer the sacrifice,
1Ki 13:2 and at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command this man denounced the altar. 'Altar, altar,' he said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "A son is to be born to the House of David, Josiah by name, and on you he will slaughter the priests of the high places who have offered sacrifice on you, and on you he will burn human bones." '
1Ki 13:3 At the same time he gave a sign. 'This is the sign', he said, 'that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken, "This altar will burst apart and the ashes which are on it will be spilt." '
1Ki 13:4 When the king heard how the man of God denounced the altar of Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, 'Seize him!' But the hand he stretched out against the man withered, and he could not draw it back,
1Ki 13:5 and the altar burst apart and the ashes from the altar were spilt, in accordance with the sign given by the man of God at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command.
1Ki 13:6 The king said to the man of God, 'I beg you to placate Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and so restore me the use of my hand.' The man of God placated Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); the king's hand was restored as it had been before.
1Ki 13:7 The king then said to the man of God, 'Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I shall give you a present,'
1Ki 13:8 but the man of God replied to the king, 'Were you to give me half your palace, I would not go with you. I will eat and drink nothing here,
1Ki 13:9 for I have had Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, "You are to eat or drink nothing, nor to return by the way you came." '
1Ki 13:10 And he left by another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
1Ki 13:11 Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons came to tell him all that the man of God had done in Bethel that day; and the words which he had said to the king, they told these to their father too.
1Ki 13:12 'Which road did he take?' their father asked. His sons showed him the road which the man of God who came from Judah had taken.
1Ki 13:13 'Saddle the donkey for me,' he said to his sons; they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted.
1Ki 13:14 He followed the man of God and found him sitting under a terebinth. 'Are you the man of God', he said, 'who came from Judah?' 'I am,' he replied.
1Ki 13:15 'Come home with me,' he said, 'and take some food.'
1Ki 13:16 'I cannot go back with you,' he answered, 'or eat or drink anything here,
1Ki 13:17 for I have received Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, "You are to eat or drink nothing there, nor to return by the way you came." '
1Ki 13:18 'I too am a prophet like you,' the other replied, 'and an angel told me this by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command, "Bring him back with you to your house to eat and drink." ' He was lying to him.
1Ki 13:19 The man of God went back with him; he ate and drank at his house.
1Ki 13:20 As they were sitting at table a word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to the prophet who had brought him back,
1Ki 13:21 and he addressed the man of God who came from Judah. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this,' he said. ' "Since you have defied Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command and not obeyed the orders which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God gave you,
1Ki 13:22 but have come back and eaten and drunk where he forbade you to eat and drink, your corpse will never reach the tomb of your ancestors." '
1Ki 13:23 After he had eaten and drunk, the prophet saddled the donkey for him, and he turned about and went away.
1Ki 13:24 A lion met him on the road and killed him; his corpse lay stretched out on the road; the donkey stood there beside it; the lion stood by the corpse too.
1Ki 13:25 People going by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing by the corpse, and went and spoke about it in the town where the old prophet lived.
1Ki 13:26 When the prophet who had made the man turn back heard about it, he said, 'That is the man of God who defied Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has handed him over to the lion, which has mauled and killed him, just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold it would.'
1Ki 13:27 He said to his sons, 'Saddle the donkey for me,' and they saddled it.
1Ki 13:28 He set off and found the man's corpse lying on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor mauled the donkey.
1Ki 13:29 The prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and put it on the donkey and brought it back to the town where he lived to hold mourning for him and bury him.
1Ki 13:30 He laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they raised the mourning cry for him, 'Alas, my brother!'
1Ki 13:31 After burying him, the prophet said to his sons, 'When I die, bury me in the same tomb as the man of God, lay my bones beside his.
1Ki 13:32 For the word he uttered at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command against the altar of Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.'
1Ki 13:33 Jeroboam did not give up his wicked ways after this incident, but went on appointing priests for the high places from the common people. He consecrated as priests of the high places any who wished to be.
1Ki 13:34 Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful House, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.
1Ki 14:1 At that time Abijah, Jeroboam's son, fell sick,
1Ki 14:2 and Jeroboam said to his wife, 'Come, please disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you as Jeroboam's wife, and go to Shiloh; the prophet Ahijah is there, the man who said I was to be king of this people.
1Ki 14:3 Go to him, and take ten loaves and some savoury food and a jar of honey; he will tell you what will happen to the child.'
1Ki 14:4 Jeroboam's wife did this: she set out, went to Shiloh and came to Ahijah's house.
1Ki 14:5 Now Ahijah could not see, his eyes were fixed with age, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told him, 'Jeroboam's wife is now on her way to ask you for a prophecy about her son, as he is sick. You will tell her such and such. When she comes, she will pretend to be some other woman.'
1Ki 14:6 So when Ahijah heard her footsteps at the door, he called, 'Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why pretend to be someone else? I have bad news for you.
1Ki 14:7 Go and tell Jeroboam, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: I raised you from the people and made you leader of my people Israel;
1Ki 14:8 I tore the kingdom from the House of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only what I regard as right;
1Ki 14:9 you have done more evil than all your predecessors, you have gone and made yourself other gods, idols of cast metal, provoking my anger, and you have turned your back on me.
1Ki 14:10 For this I shall bring disaster on the House of Jeroboam, I shall wipe out every manjack of the family of Jeroboam, fettered or free in Israel, I shall sweep away the House of Jeroboam as a man sweeps dung away till none is left.
1Ki 14:11 Those of Jeroboam's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken."
1Ki 14:12 Now get up and go home; at the moment your feet enter the town, the child will die.
1Ki 14:13 All Israel will mourn for him, and bury him; and he alone of Jeroboam's family will have a proper burial, for in him alone of the House of Jeroboam can Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, find anything good.
1Ki 14:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will set a king over Israel, who will put an end to the House of Jeroboam.
1Ki 14:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will make Israel shake, till it quivers like a reed in the water; he will uproot Israel from this prosperous land which he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the River for provoking Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to anger by making their sacred poles.
1Ki 14:16 He will abandon Israel for the sins which Jeroboam has committed and made Israel commit.'
1Ki 14:17 Jeroboam's wife rose and left. She arrived at Tirzah, and when she crossed the threshold of the palace, the child was already dead.
1Ki 14:18 They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold through his servant Ahijah the prophet.
1Ki 14:19 The rest of the history of Jeroboam, what wars he waged, how he governed, this is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.
1Ki 14:20 Jeroboam's reign lasted twenty-two years. Then he fell asleep with his ancestors; his son Nadab succeeded him.
1Ki 14:21 In Judah, Rehoboam son of Solomon became king; he was forty-one years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to give his name a home there. His mother's name was Naamah, the Ammonite.
1Ki 14:22 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), arousing his resentment more than his ancestors by all the sins which they had committed;
1Ki 14:23 they had built themselves high places, and had set up pillars and sacred poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree.
1Ki 14:24 There were even male sacred prostitutes in the country. He copied all the shameful practices of the nations whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dispossessed for the Israelites.
1Ki 14:25 And so it happened that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt advanced on Jerusalem
1Ki 14:26 and carried off all the treasures of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the treasures of the royal palace; he took everything away, including all the golden shields which Solomon had made.
1Ki 14:27 To replace those King Rehoboam made bronze shields, entrusting them to the commanders of the guard who guarded the king's palace gate.
1Ki 14:28 Whenever the king went to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the guards would carry them, returning them to the guardroom afterwards.
1Ki 14:29 The rest of the history of Rehoboam, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
1Ki 14:30 Warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam went on throughout the period.
1Ki 14:31 When Rehoboam fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David; his son Abijam succeeded him.
1Ki 15:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam became king of Judah
1Ki 15:2 and reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah descendant of Absalom.
1Ki 15:3 In everything he followed the sinful example of his father before him; his heart was not wholly with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God, as the heart of David his ancestor had been.
1Ki 15:4 However, for David's sake, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, with a son to succeed him, so keeping Jerusalem secure;
1Ki 15:5 for David had done what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regarded as right and had never in all his life disobeyed whatever he commanded him (except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite).
1Ki 15:6
1Ki 15:7 The rest of the history of Abijam, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? Abijam and Jeroboam made war on each other.
1Ki 15:8 When Abijam fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David; his son Asa succeeded him.
1Ki 15:9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah
1Ki 15:10 and reigned for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah descendant of Absalom.
1Ki 15:11 Asa did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, as his ancestor David had done.
1Ki 15:12 He drove the male prostitutes out of the country and got rid of all the idols which his ancestors had made.
1Ki 15:13 He even deprived his grandmother Maacah of the dignity of Great Lady for having made an obscenity for Asherah; Asa cut down her obscenity and burnt it in the ravine of the Kidron.
1Ki 15:14 Though the high places were not abolished, Asa's heart was loyal to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) throughout his life.
1Ki 15:15 He deposited his father's and his own dedicated gifts of silver, gold and sacred vessels in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 15:16 Asa and Baasha king of Israel were at war with each other throughout their reigns.
1Ki 15:17 Baasha king of Israel marched on Judah and fortified Ramah to blockade Asa king of Judah.
1Ki 15:18 Asa then took all the remaining silver and gold left in the treasuries of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the royal palace. Entrusting this to his servants, King Asa sent them with the following message to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon, son of Hezion, the king of Aram who lived in Damascus,
1Ki 15:19 'Let us make an alliance between myself and yourself, between my father and your father! Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Come, break off your alliance with Baasha king of Israel, which will make him withdraw from me.'
1Ki 15:20 Ben-Hadad listened favorably to King Asa, and sent the generals of his armies to attack the towns of Israel; he ravaged Ijon, Dan, Abel-Beth-Maacah, all Chinneroth, and the whole territory of Naphtali.
1Ki 15:21 When Baasha heard this he gave up fortifying Ramah and retired to Tirzah.
1Ki 15:22 King Asa then summoned all Judah, no one was exempt; they took away the stones and timber with which Baasha had been fortifying Ramah, and King Asa used them to fortify Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.
1Ki 15:23 The rest of the history of Asa, all his valour, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? In his old age, however, he contracted a disease of his feet.
1Ki 15:24 When Asa fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried with his ancestors in the City of his ancestor David; his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him.
1Ki 15:25 Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years.
1Ki 15:26 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he copied his father's example and the sin into which he had led Israel.
1Ki 15:27 Baasha son of Ahijah, of the House of Issachar, plotted against him and murdered him at Gibbethon, a Philistine town which Nadab and all Israel were besieging.
1Ki 15:28 Baasha killed Nadab and succeeded him in the third year of Asa king of Judah.
1Ki 15:29 No sooner was he king than he butchered the entire House of Jeroboam, not sparing a soul, and put an end to it, just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold through his servant Ahijah of Shiloh,
1Ki 15:30 because of the sins which he had committed and into which he had led Israel, and because he had provoked the anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
1Ki 15:31 The rest of the history of Nadab, his entire career, is this not recorded in
1Ki 15:32 the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
1Ki 15:33 In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel at Tirzah for twenty-four years.
1Ki 15:34 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he copied the example of Jeroboam and the sin into which he had led Israel.
1Ki 16:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha:
1Ki 16:2 'I raised you from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you have followed Jeroboam's example and led my people Israel into sins which provoke my anger.
1Ki 16:3 Now I shall sweep away Baasha and his House; I shall make your House like the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat.
1Ki 16:4 Those of Baasha's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat.'
1Ki 16:5 The rest of the history of Baasha, his career, his valour, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
1Ki 16:6 When Baasha fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in Tirzah; his son Elah succeeded him.
1Ki 16:7 Furthermore, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was delivered through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani against Baasha and his House, first because of the many ways in which he had displeased Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), provoking him to anger by his actions and becoming like the House of Jeroboam; secondly because he had destroyed that House.
1Ki 16:8 In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah son of Baasha became king of Israel at Tirzah, for two years.
1Ki 16:9 Zimri, one of his officers, captain of half his chariotry, plotted against him. While he was at Tirzah, drinking himself senseless in the house of Arza who was master of the palace in Tirzah,
1Ki 16:10 Zimri came in, struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and succeeded him.
1Ki 16:11 On his accession, as soon as he was seated on the throne, he butchered Baasha's entire family, not leaving him one manjack of them alive, neither relative nor friend.
1Ki 16:12 Zimri destroyed the whole House of Baasha, in accordance with the word which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had spoken against Baasha through the prophet Jehu,
1Ki 16:13 because of all the sins of Baasha and his son Elah into which they had led Israel, provoking the anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, with their worthless idols.
1Ki 16:14 The history of Elah, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
1Ki 16:15 In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri became king for seven days, at Tirzah. The people were then encamped in front of Gibbethon, a Philistine town.
1Ki 16:16 When news reached the camp of how Zimri had not only plotted against but actually killed the king, all Israel proclaimed the army commander Omri as king of Israel in the camp that very day.
1Ki 16:17 Omri, and all Israel with him, raised the siege of Gibbethon and laid siege to Tirzah.
1Ki 16:18 When Zimri saw that the town had been captured, he went into the keep of the royal palace, burned the palace over his own head, and died.
1Ki 16:19 This was because of the sin which he had committed in doing what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), by copying the example of Jeroboam and the sin into which he had led Israel.
1Ki 16:20 The rest of the history of Zimri and of his conspiracy, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
1Ki 16:21 The people of Israel then split into two factions: one half following Tibni son of Ginath to make him king, the other half following Omri.
1Ki 16:22 But the faction of Omri proved stronger than that of Tibni son of Ginath; thus Tibni lost his life and Omri became king.
1Ki 16:23 In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king of Israel and reigned for twelve years. He reigned for six years at Tirzah.
1Ki 16:24 Then for two talents of silver he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer and on it built a town which he named Samaria after Shemer who had owned the hill.
1Ki 16:25 Omri did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and was worse than all his predecessors.
1Ki 16:26 In every way he copied the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat and the sins into which he had led Israel, provoking the anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, with their worthless idols.
1Ki 16:27 The rest of the history of Omri, his career, his valour, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
1Ki 16:28 When Omri fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in Samaria; his son Ahab succeeded him.
1Ki 16:29 Ahab son of Omri became king of Israel in the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned over Israel for twenty-two years in Samaria.
1Ki 16:30 Ahab son of Omri did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and was worse than all his predecessors.
1Ki 16:31 The least that he did was to follow the sinful example of Jeroboam son of Nebat: he married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and worship him.
1Ki 16:32 He erected an altar to him in the temple of Baal which he built in Samaria.
1Ki 16:33 Ahab also put up a sacred pole and committed other crimes as well, provoking the anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, more than all the kings of Israel his predecessors.
1Ki 16:34 It was in his time that Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. Laying its foundations cost him his eldest son Abiram and erecting its gates cost him his youngest son Segub, just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold through Joshua son of Nun.
1Ki 17:1 Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, 'By the life of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain these coming years unless I give the word.'
1Ki 17:2 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to him,
1Ki 17:3 'Go away from here, go east and hide by the torrent of Cherith, east of the Jordan.
1Ki 17:4 You can drink from the stream, and I have ordered the ravens to bring you food there.'
1Ki 17:5 So he set out and did as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said; he went and stayed by the torrent of Cherith, east of the Jordan.
1Ki 17:6 The ravens brought him bread in the morning and meat in the evening, and he quenched his thirst at the stream.
1Ki 17:7 But after a while the stream dried up, for the country had had no rain.
1Ki 17:8 And then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to him,
1Ki 17:9 'Up and go to Zarephath in Sidonia, and stay there. I have ordered a widow there to give you food.'
1Ki 17:10 So he went off to Sidon. And when he reached the city gate, there was a widow gathering sticks. Addressing her he said, 'Please bring a little water in a pitcher for me to drink.'
1Ki 17:11 She was on her way to fetch it when he called after her. 'Please', he said, 'bring me a scrap of bread in your hand.'
1Ki 17:12 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God lives,' she replied, 'I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug; I am just gathering a stick or two to go and prepare this for myself and my son to eat, and then we shall die.'
1Ki 17:13 But Elijah said to her, 'Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son.
1Ki 17:14 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sends rain on the face of the earth.'
1Ki 17:15 The woman went and did as Elijah told her and they ate the food, she, himself and her son.
1Ki 17:16 The jar of meal was not spent nor the jug of oil emptied, just as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold through Elijah.
1Ki 17:17 It happened after this that the son of the mistress of the house fell sick; his illness was so severe that in the end he expired.
1Ki 17:18 And the woman said to Elijah, 'What quarrel have you with me, man of God? Have you come here to bring my sins home to me and to kill my son?'
1Ki 17:19 'Give me your son,' he said and, taking him from her lap, he carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his bed.
1Ki 17:20 He cried out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, by killing her son do you mean to bring grief even to the widow who is looking after me?'
1Ki 17:21 He stretched himself on the child three times and cried out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, may the soul of this child, I beg you, come into him again!'
1Ki 17:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard Elijah's prayer and the child's soul came back into his body and he revived.
1Ki 17:23 Elijah took the child, brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. 'Look,' Elijah said, 'your son is alive.'
1Ki 17:24 And the woman replied, 'Now I know you are a man of God and the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in your mouth is truth itself.'
1Ki 18:1 A long time went by, and the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Elijah in the third year, 'Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the country.'
1Ki 18:2 So Elijah set off to present himself to Ahab. As the famine was particularly severe in Samaria,
1Ki 18:3 Ahab summoned Obadiah, the master of the palace -- Obadiah held Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in great reverence:
1Ki 18:4 when Jezebel was butchering the prophets of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them, fifty at a time, in a cave, and kept them provided with food and water-
1Ki 18:5 and Ahab said to Obadiah, 'Come along, we must scour the country, all the springs and all the ravines in the hope of finding grass to keep horses and mules alive, or we shall have to slaughter some of our stock.'
1Ki 18:6 They divided the country for the purpose of their survey; Ahab went one way by himself and Obadiah went another way by himself.
1Ki 18:7 While Obadiah was on his way, whom should he meet but Elijah. Recognising him he fell on his face and said, 'So it is you, my lord Elijah!'
1Ki 18:8 'Yes,' he replied, 'go and tell your master, "Elijah is here." '
1Ki 18:9 But Obadiah said, 'What sin I have committed, for you to put your servant into Ahab's power and cause my death?
1Ki 18:10 As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent in search of you; and when they said, "He is not there," he made the kingdom or nation swear an oath that they did not know where you were.
1Ki 18:11 And now you say to me, "Go and tell your master: Elijah is here."
1Ki 18:12 But as soon as I leave you, the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will carry you away and I shall not know where; I shall go and tell Ahab; he will not be able to find you, and then he will kill me. Yet from his youth your servant has revered Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 18:13 Has no one told my lord what I did when Jezebel butchered the prophets of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), how I hid a hundred of them in a cave, fifty at a time, and kept them provided with food and water?
1Ki 18:14 And now you say to me, "Go and tell your master: Elijah is here." Why, he will kill me!'
1Ki 18:15 Elijah replied, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth lives, whom I serve, I shall present myself to him today!'
1Ki 18:16 Obadiah went to find Ahab and tell him the news, and Ahab then went to find Elijah.
1Ki 18:17 When he saw Elijah, Ahab said, 'So there you are, you scourge of Israel!'
1Ki 18:18 'Not I,' he replied, 'I am not the scourge of Israel, you and your family are; because you have deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and followed Baal.
1Ki 18:19 Now give orders for all Israel to gather round me on Mount Carmel, and also the four hundred prophets of Baal who eat at Jezebel's table.'
1Ki 18:20 Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.
1Ki 18:21 Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. 'How long', he said, 'do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.' But the people had nothing to say.
1Ki 18:22 Elijah then said to them, 'I, I alone, am left as a prophet of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty.
1Ki 18:23 Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it but not set fire to it. I in my turn shall prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it.
1Ki 18:24 You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.' The people all answered, 'Agreed!'
1Ki 18:25 Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, 'Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.'
1Ki 18:26 They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. 'O Baal, answer us!' they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar which they had made.
1Ki 18:27 Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. 'Call louder,' he said, 'for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and needs to be woken up!'
1Ki 18:28 So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them.
1Ki 18:29 Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time when the offering is presented; but there was no voice, no answer, no sign of attention.
1Ki 18:30 Then Elijah said to all the people, 'Come over to me,' and all the people came over to him. He repaired Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s altar which had been torn down.
1Ki 18:31 Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had come, 'Israel is to be your name,'
1Ki 18:32 and built an altar in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed.
1Ki 18:33 He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood.
1Ki 18:34 Then he said, 'Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.' They did this. He said, 'Do it a second time;' they did it a second time. He said, 'Do it a third time;' they did it a third time.
1Ki 18:35 The water flowed round the altar until even the trench itself was full of water.
1Ki 18:36 At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,' he said, 'let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command.
1Ki 18:37 Answer me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), answer me, so that this people may know that you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are God and are winning back their hearts.'
1Ki 18:38 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s fire fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and licked up the water in the trench.
1Ki 18:39 When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God,' they cried, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God!'
1Ki 18:40 Elijah said, 'Seize the prophets of Baal: do not let one of them escape.' They seized them, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon, and there he slaughtered them.
1Ki 18:41 Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go back now, eat and drink; for I hear the approaching sound of rain.'
1Ki 18:42 While Ahab went back to eat and drink, Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel and bowed down to the ground, putting his face between his knees.
1Ki 18:43 'Now go up', he told his servant, 'and look out to sea.' He went up and looked. 'There is nothing at all,' he said. Seven times Elijah told him to go back.
1Ki 18:44 The seventh time, the servant said, 'Now there is a cloud, small as a man's hand, rising from the sea.' Elijah said, 'Go and say to Ahab, "Harness the chariot and go down before the rain stops you." '
1Ki 18:45 And with that the sky grew dark with cloud and storm, and rain fell in torrents. Ahab mounted his chariot and made for Jezreel.
1Ki 18:46 But the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had come on Elijah and, hitching up his clothes, he ran ahead of Ahab all the way to Jezreel.
1Ki 19:1 When Ahab told Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, and how he had put all the prophets to the sword,
1Ki 19:2 Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, 'May the gods bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills too, if by this time tomorrow I have not made your life like one of theirs!'
1Ki 19:3 He was afraid and fled for his life. He came to Beersheba, a town of Judah, where he left his servant.
1Ki 19:4 He himself went on into the desert, a day's journey, and sitting under a furze bush wished he were dead. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'I have had enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.'
1Ki 19:5 Then he lay down and went to sleep. Then all of a sudden an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat.'
1Ki 19:6 He looked round, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.
1Ki 19:7 But the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you.'
1Ki 19:8 So he got up and ate and drank, and strengthened by that food he walked for forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, God's mountain.
1Ki 19:9 There he went into a cave and spent the night there. Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to him saying, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'
1Ki 19:10 He replied, 'I am full of jealous zeal for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, have torn down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left, and now they want to kill me.'
1Ki 19:11 Then he was told, 'Go out and stand on the mountain before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' For at that moment Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was going by. A mighty hurricane split the mountains and shattered the rocks before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was not in the hurricane. And after the hurricane, an earthquake. But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was not in the earthquake.
1Ki 19:12 And after the earthquake, fire. But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was not in the fire. And after the fire, a light murmuring sound.
1Ki 19:13 And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then a voice came to him, which said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'
1Ki 19:14 He replied, 'I am full of jealous zeal for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, because the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, have torn down your altars and put your prophets to the sword. I am the only one left and now they want to kill me.'
1Ki 19:15 'Go,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'go back by the same way to the desert of Damascus. You must go and anoint Hazael as king of Aram.
1Ki 19:16 You must anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shaphat, of Abel-Meholah, as prophet to succeed you.
1Ki 19:17 Anyone who escapes the sword of Hazael will be put to death by Jehu; and anyone who escapes the sword of Jehu will be put to death by Elisha.
1Ki 19:18 But I shall spare seven thousand in Israel; all the knees that have not bent before Baal, all the mouths that have not kissed him.'
1Ki 19:19 Leaving there, he came on Elisha son of Shaphat as he was ploughing behind twelve yoke of oxen, he himself being with the twelfth. Elijah passed near to him and threw his cloak over him.
1Ki 19:20 Elisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah. 'Let me kiss my father and mother, then I will follow you,' he said. Elijah answered, 'Go, go back; for have I done anything to you?'
1Ki 19:21 Elisha turned away, took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He used the oxen's tackle for cooking the meat, which he gave the people to eat. He then rose and, following Elijah, became his servant.
1Ki 20:1 Ben-Hadad king of Aram mustered his whole army -- thirty-two kings were with him, and horses and chariots -- and marched on Samaria, to besiege it and take it by assault.
1Ki 20:2 He sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel to tell him, 'Ben-Hadad says this,
1Ki 20:3 "Your silver and gold are mine. Your wives and children remain yours." '
1Ki 20:4 The king of Israel replied, 'As you command, my lord king. Myself and all I have are yours.'
1Ki 20:5 The messengers came again, this time they said, 'Ben-Hadad says this, "I have already sent you an order to hand over your silver and your gold, your wives and your children;
1Ki 20:6 but I swear, this time tomorrow, I shall send my servants to ransack your house and your servants' houses and lay hands on everything that they value and take it away." '
1Ki 20:7 The king of Israel summoned all the elders of the country and said, 'You can see clearly how this man intends to ruin us. He has already demanded my wives and my children, although I have not refused him my silver and gold.'
1Ki 20:8 All the elders and all the people said, 'Take no notice. Do not consent.'
1Ki 20:9 So he gave this answer to Ben-Hadad's messengers, 'Say to my lord the king, "All you first required of your servant I will do, but this I cannot do." ' And the messengers went back with the answer.
1Ki 20:10 Ben-Hadad then sent him the following message, 'May the gods bring unnameable ills on me and worse ills too, if there is enough dust in Samaria for each of my followers to have a handful!'
1Ki 20:11 But the king of Israel returned this answer, 'Say: the man who puts on his armour is not the one to boast, but the man who takes it off.'
1Ki 20:12 When Ben-Hadad heard this message -- he was under the awnings drinking with the kings -- he gave orders to his servants, 'Take up position!' And they took up their positions against the city.
1Ki 20:13 A prophet then arrived, looking for Ahab king of Israel. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this,' he said. ' "You have seen this huge army? This very day I shall deliver it into your hands, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
1Ki 20:14 'By whose means?' Ahab asked. The prophet replied, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "By means of the guards of the district governors." ' 'Who will co-ordinate the attack?' Ahab asked. 'You will,' the prophet replied.
1Ki 20:15 So Ahab inspected the guards of the district governors: there were two hundred and thirty-two. After these he reviewed the army, all the Israelites: there were seven thousand.
1Ki 20:16 They made a sortie at midday, when Ben-Hadad was drinking himself senseless under the awnings, he and the thirty-two kings who were allies.
1Ki 20:17 The guards of the district governors led the sortie. A report was made to Ben-Hadad: 'Some men have come out of Samaria.'
1Ki 20:18 He said, 'If they have come out for peace, take them alive; if they have come out for war, take them alive too.'
1Ki 20:19 So they made a sortie from the city, the district governors' guards and behind them the army,
1Ki 20:20 and each struck down his man. Aram took to flight and Israel pursued; Ben-Hadad king of Aram escaped on horseback.
1Ki 20:21 The king of Israel then advanced, capturing horses and chariots and inflicting a great defeat on Aram.
1Ki 20:22 The prophet then went to the king of Israel and said, 'Now is the time to be resolute and think carefully about what you should do, for at the turn of the year the king of Aram will march against you.'
1Ki 20:23 The servants of the king of Aram said to him, 'Their gods are gods of the mountains; that is why they have proved stronger than we are. But if we fight them on level ground, we shall certainly beat them.
1Ki 20:24 This is what you must do: remove all these kings from their commands and appoint professional soldiers in their place.
1Ki 20:25 You, for your part, must recruit an army as large as the one which deserted you, with as many horses and as many chariots; then if we fight them on level ground, we shall certainly beat them.' He listened to their advice and acted accordingly.
1Ki 20:26 At the turn of the year, Ben-Hadad mustered the Aramaeans and marched on Aphek to fight Israel.
1Ki 20:27 The Israelites were already mobilised and provisioned, and marched out to meet them. Encamped opposite them, the Israelites looked like two herds of goats, whereas the Aramaeans filled the countryside.
1Ki 20:28 The man of God then went to the king of Israel and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Since Aram has said that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a god of the mountains and not a god of the plains, I shall put the whole of this huge army into your power, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
1Ki 20:29 For seven days they were encamped opposite each other. On the seventh day battle was joined and the Israelites slaughtered the Aramaeans, a hundred thousand foot soldiers in one day.
1Ki 20:30 The rest fled to Aphek, into the citadel, but the city walls collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of the survivors. Now Ben-Hadad had fled and taken refuge in an inner room inside the citadel.
1Ki 20:31 'Look,' his servants said to him, 'we have heard that the kings of Israel are faithful and kind kings. Let us put sackcloth round our waists and cords round our heads and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.'
1Ki 20:32 So they wrapped sackcloth round their waists and put cords round their heads and went to the king of Israel, and said, 'Your servant Ben-Hadad says, "Spare my life." '
1Ki 20:33 'So he is still alive?' he replied. 'He is my brother.' The men took this for a good omen and quickly seized on his words. 'Yes,' they said, 'Ben-Hadad is your brother.' Ahab said, 'Go and fetch him.' Then Ben-Hadad came out to him and Ahab made him get up into his chariot.
1Ki 20:34 Ben-Hadad said, 'I shall restore the towns which my father took from your father and you may set up a trading quarter for yourself in Damascus as my father did in Samaria.' 'With a treaty,' Ahab said, 'I shall set you free.' Granting him a treaty, Ahab let him go.
1Ki 20:35 At Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command a member of the brotherhood of prophets said to a companion of his, 'Strike me,' but the man refused to strike him.
1Ki 20:36 So he said to him, 'Since you have disobeyed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order, the very moment you leave me a lion will kill you.' And no sooner had he left him than he met a lion, which killed him.
1Ki 20:37 The prophet then went to find another man and said, 'Strike me,' and the man struck him and wounded him.
1Ki 20:38 The prophet then went and stood waiting for the king on the road, disguising himself with a bandage over his eyes.
1Ki 20:39 As the king passed, he called out to him, 'Your servant was making his way to where the fight was thickest when someone left the fighting to bring a man to me, and said, "Guard this man; if he is found missing, your life will pay for his, or else you will have to pay one talent of silver."
1Ki 20:40 But your servant was busy with one thing and another, the man disappeared.' The king of Israel said, 'That is your sentence then. You have pronounced it yourself.'
1Ki 20:41 At this the man quickly pulled off the bandage over his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets.
1Ki 20:42 He said to the king, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Since you have let the man escape who was under my curse of destruction, your life will pay for his, your people for his people." '
1Ki 20:43 And the king of Israel went home, gloomy and out of temper, back to Samaria.
1Ki 21:1 This is what happened next: Naboth of Jezreel had a vineyard close by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria,
1Ki 21:2 and Ahab said to Naboth, 'Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it adjoins my palace; I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will give you its value in money.'
1Ki 21:3 Naboth, however, said to Ahab, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) forbid that I should give you my ancestral heritage!'
1Ki 21:4 Ahab went home gloomy and out of temper at the words of Naboth of Jezreel, 'I will not give you my heritage from my ancestors.' He lay down on his bed and turned his face away and refused to eat.
1Ki 21:5 His wife Jezebel came to him. 'Why are you so dispirited,' she said, 'that you refuse to eat?'
1Ki 21:6 He said, 'I have been talking to Naboth of Jezreel. I said, "Give me your vineyard either for money or, if you prefer, for another vineyard in exchange." But he said, "I will not give you my vineyard." '
1Ki 21:7 Then his wife Jezebel said, 'Some king of Israel you make! Get up, eat and take heart; I myself shall get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.'
1Ki 21:8 So she wrote a letter in Ahab's name and sealed it with his seal, sending the letter to the elders and notables of the city where Naboth lived.
1Ki 21:9 In the letter, she wrote, 'Proclaim a fast, and put Naboth in a prominent place among the people.
1Ki 21:10 There confront him with a couple of scoundrels who will accuse him as follows, "You have cursed God and the king." Then take him outside and stone him to death.'
1Ki 21:11 The men of Naboth's city, the elders and notables living in his city, did what Jezebel ordered, as was written in the letter which she had sent him.
1Ki 21:12 They proclaimed a fast and put Naboth in a prominent place among the people.
1Ki 21:13 The two scoundrels then came and confronted him, and the scoundrels then publicly accused Naboth as follows, 'Naboth has cursed God and the king.' He was then taken outside the city and stoned to death.
1Ki 21:14 They then sent word to Jezebel, 'Naboth has been stoned to death.'
1Ki 21:15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, 'Get up! Take possession of the vineyard which Naboth of Jezreel refused to sell you, for Naboth is no longer alive, he is dead.'
1Ki 21:16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel and take possession of it.
1Ki 21:17 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Elijah the Tishbite,
1Ki 21:18 'Up! Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, in Samaria. You will find him in Naboth's vineyard; he has gone down to take possession of it.
1Ki 21:19 You are to say this to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You have committed murder and now you usurp as well. For this -- and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this -- in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood too." '
1Ki 21:20 Ahab said to Elijah, 'So you have caught me, O my enemy!' Elijah answered, 'I have caught you! For your double dealing, and since you have done what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
1Ki 21:21 I shall now bring disaster down on you; I shall sweep away your descendants and wipe out every manjack of the House of Ahab, fettered or free in Israel.
1Ki 21:22 I shall treat your House as I treated the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah, for provoking my anger and leading Israel into sin.
1Ki 21:23 (Against Jezebel too Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke these words, "The dogs will eat Jezebel in the Field of Jezreel.")
1Ki 21:24 Those of Ahab's family who die in the city, the dogs will eat; and those who die in the open country, the birds of the air will eat.'
1Ki 21:25 And indeed there never was anyone like Ahab for double dealing and for doing what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), urged on by Jezebel his wife.
1Ki 21:26 He behaved in the most abominable way, adhering to idols, just as the Amorites had, whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dispossessed for the Israelites.
1Ki 21:27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his garments and put sackcloth next to his skin and fasted; he slept in the sackcloth; he walked with slow steps.
1Ki 21:28 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Elijah the Tishbite,
1Ki 21:29 'Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Since he has humbled himself before me, I shall not bring the disaster in his days; I shall bring the disaster down on his House in his son's days.'
1Ki 22:1 There was a lull of three years, with no fighting between Aram and Israel.
1Ki 22:2 Then, in the third year, Jehoshaphat king of Judah paid a visit to the king of Israel.
1Ki 22:3 The king of Israel said to his officers, 'You are aware that Ramoth in Gilead belongs to us? And yet we do nothing to wrest it away from the king of Aram.'
1Ki 22:4 He said to Jehoshaphat, 'Will you come with me to attack Ramoth in Gilead?' Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, 'I will be as you, my men as yours, my horses as yours.'
1Ki 22:5 Jehoshaphat, however, said to the king of Israel, 'First, please enquire what the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is.'
1Ki 22:6 The king of Israel then called the prophets together, about four hundred of them. 'Should I go and attack Ramoth in Gilead,' he asked, 'or should I hold back?' 'Go ahead,' they replied, 'for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has already given it to the king.'
1Ki 22:7 Jehoshaphat, however, said, 'Is there no other prophet of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) here, so that we can enquire through him?'
1Ki 22:8 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'There is one more man through whom we can consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but I hate him because he never has a favorable prophecy for me, only unfavorable ones; he is Micaiah son of Imlah.' 'I hope the king's words are unjustified,' said Jehoshaphat.
1Ki 22:9 The king of Israel then summoned a court official and said, 'Bring Micaiah son of Imlah immediately.'
1Ki 22:10 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, wearing their robes, in an open space just outside the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets in a state of ecstasy before them.
1Ki 22:11 Zedekiah son of Kenaanah, who had made himself some iron horns, said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, "With horns like these you will gore the Aramaeans till you make an end of them." '
1Ki 22:12 And all the prophets cried ecstatically in the same vein, saying, 'March on Ramoth in Gilead! Success is sure, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has already given it to the king!'
1Ki 22:13 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, 'Look here, what the prophets are saying is uniformly favorable to the king. I hope you will say the same as they do and speak favorably.'
1Ki 22:14 Micaiah said, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, I shall speak as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) tells me!'
1Ki 22:15 When he came to the king, the king said, 'Micaiah, should we go and attack Ramoth in Gilead, or should we hold back?' He replied, 'Go ahead! Success is sure, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has already given it to the king!'
1Ki 22:16 The king then said, 'How often must I put you on oath to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?'
1Ki 22:17 Then he spoke out: I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'These have no master, let them all go safely home!'
1Ki 22:18 At this the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'Did I not tell you that he never gives me favorable prophecies, but only unfavorable ones?'
1Ki 22:19 Micaiah went on, 'Now listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I saw Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seated on his throne with the whole array of heaven standing by him, on his right and on his left.
1Ki 22:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, "Who will entice Ahab into marching to his death at Ramoth in Gilead?" At which some answered one way, and some another.
1Ki 22:21 A spirit then came forward and stood before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, "I will entice him."
1Ki 22:22 "How?" Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked. He replied, "I shall go and be a deceptive spirit in the mouths of all his prophets." Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, "You will succeed in enticing him. Go and do it."
1Ki 22:23 And now, you see, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has put a deceptive spirit into the mouths of all your prophets here, for in fact Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has pronounced disaster on you.'
1Ki 22:24 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah then came up, struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, 'Which way did Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s spirit leave me, to speak to you?'
1Ki 22:25 'That is what you will find out,' Micaiah retorted, 'the day you go from room to room, trying to hide.'
1Ki 22:26 The king of Israel said, 'Seize Micaiah and hand him over to Amon, governor of the city, and Joash, the king's son,
1Ki 22:27 and say, "These are the king's orders: Put this man in prison and feed him on nothing but bread and water until I am safely home." '
1Ki 22:28 Micaiah said, 'If you ever do get home safely, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not spoken through me.'
1Ki 22:29 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah marched on Ramoth in Gilead.
1Ki 22:30 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'I shall disguise myself to go into battle, but you put on your robes.' So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
1Ki 22:31 Now, the king of Aram had given his chariot commanders the following order, 'Do not attack anyone of whatever rank, except the king of Israel.'
1Ki 22:32 So, when the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, 'That is obviously the king of Israel,' and surrounded him to attack. But when Jehoshaphat shouted his war cry
1Ki 22:33 the chariot commanders, realising that he was not the king of Israel, broke off their pursuit.
1Ki 22:34 Someone, however, drawing his bow without any special aim, shot the king of Israel between the joints of his armour. 'Turn about!' said the king to his charioteer. 'Get me out of the fighting; I am collapsing.'
1Ki 22:35 But the battle grew fiercer as the day went on and the king had to be held upright in his chariot facing the Aramaeans, the blood from the wound running into the bottom of the chariot, until in the evening he died.
1Ki 22:36 At sundown a shout ran through the ranks, 'Every man back to his town, every man back to his country!
1Ki 22:37 The king is dead.' He was taken to Samaria and in Samaria the king was buried.
1Ki 22:38 They washed the chariot at the Pool of Samaria; the dogs licked up the blood, and the prostitutes washed in it, in accordance with the word which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had spoken.
1Ki 22:39 The rest of the history of Ahab, his entire career, the ivory house he erected, all the towns he built, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
1Ki 22:40 When Ahab fell asleep with his ancestors, his son Ahaziah succeeded him.
1Ki 22:41 Jehoshaphat son of Asa became king of Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel.
1Ki 22:42 Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.
1Ki 22:43 In every way he followed the example of his father Asa undeviatingly, doing what is pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ki 22:44 The high places, however, were not abolished; the people still offered sacrifice and incense on the high places.
1Ki 22:45 Jehoshaphat was at peace with the king of Israel.
1Ki 22:46 The rest of the history of Jehoshaphat, the valour he showed, the wars he waged, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
1Ki 22:47 The few male sacred prostitutes left over from the days of his father Asa, he expelled from the country.
1Ki 22:48 At the time, Edom had no king, and King
1Ki 22:49 Jehoshaphat built ships of Tarshish to go to Ophir for gold, but they never made the voyage since the ships were wrecked at Ezion-Geber.
1Ki 22:50 Ahaziah son of Ahab then proposed to Jehoshaphat, 'Let my men go to sea with yours.' But Jehoshaphat would not agree.
1Ki 22:51 When Jehoshaphat fell asleep with his ancestors he was buried in the City of his ancestor, David; his son Jehoram succeeded him.
1Ki 22:52 Ahaziah son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned over Israel for two years.
1Ki 22:53 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), by following the example of his father and mother, and of Jeroboam son of Nebat who had led Israel into sin.
1Ki 22:54 He served Baal and worshipped him, and provoked the anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God of Israel just as his father had done.
2Ki 1:1 After Ahab's death Moab rebelled against Israel.
2Ki 1:2 Ahaziah had fallen from the balcony of his upper room in Samaria, and was lying ill; so he sent messengers, saying to them, 'Go and consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron and ask whether I shall recover from my illness.'
2Ki 1:3 But the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Elijah the Tishbite, 'Up! Go and intercept the king of Samaria's messengers. Say to them, "Is there no God in Israel, for you to go and consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron?
2Ki 1:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You will never leave the bed you have got into; you are certainly going to die." ' And Elijah set out.
2Ki 1:5 The messengers returned to the king, who said, 'Why have you come back?'
2Ki 1:6 'A man came to meet us,' they answered. 'He said, "Go back to the king who sent you and tell him: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Is there no God in Israel, for you to go and consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron? For this, you will never leave the bed you have got into; you are certainly going to die." '
2Ki 1:7 He said, 'This man who met you and said all this, what was he like?'
2Ki 1:8 'A man wearing a hair cloak', they answered, 'and a leather loincloth.' 'It was Elijah the Tishbite,' he said.
2Ki 1:9 He then sent a captain of fifty soldiers with his fifty men to Elijah, whom they found sitting on top of a hill; the captain went up to him and said, 'Man of God, the king says, "Come down." '
2Ki 1:10 Elijah answered the captain, 'If I am a man of God, may fire fall from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men.' And fire fell from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men.
2Ki 1:11 The king sent a second captain of fifty to him, again with fifty men, and he too went up and said, 'Man of God, this is the king's order, "Come down at once." '
2Ki 1:12 Elijah answered them, 'If I am a man of God, may fire fall from heaven and destroy both you and your fifty men.' And lightning fell from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty men.
2Ki 1:13 The king then sent a third captain of fifty to him, with another fifty men. The third captain of fifty came up to Elijah, fell on his knees before him and pleaded with him. 'Man of God,' he said, 'may my life and the lives of these fifty servants of yours count for something in your eyes.
2Ki 1:14 Fire has fallen from heaven and destroyed two captains of fifties and their companies, but this time may my life count for something in your eyes!'
2Ki 1:15 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Elijah, 'Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.' He rose and accompanied him down to the king,
2Ki 1:16 and said to him, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Since you sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub god of Ekron, you will never leave the bed you have got into; you are certainly going to die." '
2Ki 1:17 And, in accordance with the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which Elijah had uttered, he died. Since he had no son, his brother Jehoram succeeded him, in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.
2Ki 1:18 The rest of the history of Ahaziah, and his career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
2Ki 2:1 This is what happened when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) took Elijah up to heaven in the whirlwind: Elijah and Elisha set out from Gilgal,
2Ki 2:2 and Elijah said to Elisha, 'You stay here, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is only sending me to Bethel.' But Elisha replied, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!' and they went down to Bethel.
2Ki 2:3 The brotherhood of prophets living at Bethel came out to meet Elisha and said, 'Do you know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will carry your lord and master away today?' 'Yes, I know,' he said, 'be quiet.'
2Ki 2:4 Elijah said, 'Elisha, you stay here, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is only sending me to Jericho.' But he replied, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!' and they went on to Jericho.
2Ki 2:5 The brotherhood of prophets living at Jericho went up to Elisha and said, 'Do you know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will carry your lord and master away today?' 'Yes, I know,' he said, 'be quiet.'
2Ki 2:6 Elijah said, 'Elisha, you stay here, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is only sending me to the Jordan.' But he replied, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you!' And they went on together.
2Ki 2:7 Fifty of the brotherhood of prophets followed them, halting some distance away as the two of them stood beside the Jordan.
2Ki 2:8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water; and the water divided to left and right, and the two of them crossed over dry-shod.
2Ki 2:9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, 'Make your request. What can I do for you before I am snatched away from you?' Elisha answered, 'Let me inherit a double share of your spirit.'
2Ki 2:10 'Your request is difficult,' Elijah said. 'If you see me while I am being snatched away from you, it will be as you ask; if not, it will not be so.'
2Ki 2:11 Now as they walked on, talking as they went, a chariot of fire appeared and horses of fire coming between the two of them; and Elijah went up to heaven in the whirlwind.
2Ki 2:12 Elisha saw it, and shouted, 'My father! My father! Chariot of Israel and its chargers!' Then he lost sight of him, and taking hold of his own clothes he tore them in half.
2Ki 2:13 He picked up Elijah's cloak which had fallen, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
2Ki 2:14 He took Elijah's cloak and struck the water. 'Where is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Elijah?' he cried. As he struck the water it divided to right and left, and Elisha crossed over.
2Ki 2:15 The brotherhood of prophets saw him in the distance, and said, 'The spirit of Elijah has come to rest on Elisha'; they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.
2Ki 2:16 'Look,' they said, 'your servants have fifty strong men with them, let them go and look for your master; the Spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) may have taken him up and thrown him down on a mountain or into a valley.' 'Send no one,' he replied.
2Ki 2:17 But they so shamed him with their insistence that he consented. So they sent fifty men who searched for three days without finding him.
2Ki 2:18 They then came back to Elisha who had stayed in Jericho; he said, 'Didn't I tell you not to go?'
2Ki 2:19 The people of the city said to Elisha, 'The city is pleasant to live in, as my lord indeed can see, but the water is foul and the country suffers from miscarriages.'
2Ki 2:20 'Bring me a new bowl,' he said, 'and put some salt in it.' They brought it to him.
2Ki 2:21 Then he went to the source of the water, threw salt into it and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "I make this water wholesome: neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it any more." '
2Ki 2:22 And the water became wholesome, as it is today, exactly as Elisha had said it would.
2Ki 2:23 From there he went up to Bethel, and while he was on the road, some small boys came out of the town and jeered at him. 'Hurry up, baldy!' they shouted. 'Come on up, baldy!'
2Ki 2:24 He turned round and looked at them; and he cursed them in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). And two bears came out of the forest and savaged forty-two of the boys.
2Ki 2:25 From there he went on to Mount Carmel and then returned to Samaria.
2Ki 3:1 Jehoram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned for twelve years.
2Ki 3:2 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), though not like his father and mother, for he did away with the pillar to Baal which his father had made.
2Ki 3:3 Nonetheless, he continued to practise the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel and did not give them up.
2Ki 3:4 Mesha king of Moab was a sheep-breeder and used to pay the king of Israel in tribute a hundred thousand lambs and a hundred thousand rams with their wool.
2Ki 3:5 But when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
2Ki 3:6 At once King Jehoram left Samaria and mustered all Israel.
2Ki 3:7 After this he sent word to the king of Judah, 'The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go to war with me against Moab?' 'I will,' he replied. 'I will be as you, my men as yours, my horses as yours,'
2Ki 3:8 and added, 'Which way are we to attack?' 'Through the desert of Edom,' the other answered.
2Ki 3:9 So they set out, the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom. They carried out a flanking movement for seven days, until there was no water left for the troops or for the beasts of their baggage train.
2Ki 3:10 'Alas!' the king of Israel exclaimed, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has summoned us three kings, only to put us into the power of Moab.'
2Ki 3:11 But the king of Judah said, 'Is there no prophet of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) here for us to consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) through him?' One of the king of Israel's servants answered, 'Elisha son of Shaphat is here, who used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.'
2Ki 3:12 'The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is with him,' the king of Judah said. So the king of Israel, the king of Judah and the king of Edom went to consult him.
2Ki 3:13 But Elisha said to the king of Israel, 'What business have you with me? Go to your father's and your mother's prophets.' 'No,' the king of Israel answered, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the one who has summoned us three kings, only to put us into the power of Moab.' Elisha replied,
2Ki 3:14 'By the life of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth whom I serve, if I did not respect the king of Judah, I would take no notice of you, nor so much as look at you.
2Ki 3:15 Now bring me someone who can play the lyre.' And as the musician played, the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came on him
2Ki 3:16 and he said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Dig in this valley ditch after ditch,"
2Ki 3:17 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, "You will see no wind, you will see no rain, but this valley will become full of water, and you and your troops and your baggage animals will drink."
2Ki 3:18 But this is only a trifle in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, for he will put Moab itself into your power.
2Ki 3:19 You will storm every fortified town, fell every productive tree, block every water-hole, ruin all the best fields with stones.'
2Ki 3:20 Next morning at the time when the oblation was being offered, water came from the direction of Edom, and the whole terrain was flooded.
2Ki 3:21 When the Moabites learned that the kings were advancing to fight them, all those of an age to bear arms were mobilised; they took up position on the frontier.
2Ki 3:22 In the morning when they got up, the sun was shining on the water; and in the distance the Moabites saw the water as red as blood.
2Ki 3:23 'This is blood!' they said. 'The kings must have fought among themselves and killed one another. So now for the booty, Moab!'
2Ki 3:24 But when they reached the Israelite camp, the Israelites launched their attack and the Moabites fled before them, and as they advanced they cut the Moabites to pieces.
2Ki 3:25 They laid the towns in ruins, and each man threw a stone into all the best fields to fill them up, and they blocked every water-hole and felled every productive tree. In the end, there was only Kir-Hareseth left, which the slingers surrounded and bombarded.
2Ki 3:26 When the king of Moab saw that the battle had turned against him, he mustered seven hundred swordsmen in the hope of breaking a way out and going to the king of Aram, but he failed.
2Ki 3:27 Then he took his eldest son who was to succeed him and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. Alarmed at this, the Israelites withdrew and retired to their own territory.
2Ki 4:1 The wife of a member of the prophetic brotherhood appealed to Elisha. 'Your servant my husband is dead,' she said, 'and you know how your servant revered Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). A creditor has now come to take my two children and make them his slaves.'
2Ki 4:2 Elisha said, 'What can I do for you? Tell me, what have you got in the house?' 'Your servant has nothing in the house,' she replied, 'except a flask of oil.'
2Ki 4:3 Then he said, 'Go outside and borrow jars from all your neighbors, empty jars and not too few.
2Ki 4:4 When you come back, shut the door on yourself and your sons, and pour the oil into all these jars, putting each aside when it is full.'
2Ki 4:5 So she left him; and she shut the door on herself and her sons; they passed her the jars and she went on pouring.
2Ki 4:6 When the jars were full, she said to her son, 'Pass me another jar.' 'There are no more,' he replied. Then the oil stopped flowing.
2Ki 4:7 She went and told the man of God, who said, 'Go and sell the oil and redeem your pledge; you and your children can live on the remainder.'
2Ki 4:8 One day as Elisha was on his way to Shunem, a woman of rank who lived there pressed him to stay and eat there. After this he always broke his journey for a meal when he passed that way.
2Ki 4:9 She said to her husband, 'Look, I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God.
2Ki 4:10 Let us build him a small walled room, and put him a bed in it, and a table and chair and lamp; whenever he comes to us he can rest there.'
2Ki 4:11 One day when he came, he retired to the upper room and lay down.
2Ki 4:12 He said to his servant Gehazi, 'Call our Shunammite.' He called her and when she appeared, Elisha said,
2Ki 4:13 'Tell her this: "Look, you have gone to all this trouble for us, what can we do for you? Is there anything you would like said for you to the king or to the commander of the army?" ' But she replied, 'I live with my own people about me.'
2Ki 4:14 'What can I do for you then?' he asked. Gehazi replied, 'Well, she has no son and her husband is old.'
2Ki 4:15 Elisha said, 'Call her.' The servant called her and she stood at the door.
2Ki 4:16 'This time next year', he said, 'you will hold a son in your arms.' But she said, 'No, my lord, do not deceive your servant.'
2Ki 4:17 But the woman did conceive, and she gave birth to a son at the time that Elisha had said she would.
2Ki 4:18 The child grew up; one day he went to his father who was with the reapers,
2Ki 4:19 and exclaimed to his father, 'Oh, my head! My head!' The father told a servant to carry him to his mother.
2Ki 4:20 He lifted him up and took him to his mother, and the boy lay on her lap until midday, when he died.
2Ki 4:21 She went upstairs, laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out.
2Ki 4:22 She called her husband and said, 'Send me one of the servants with a donkey. I must hurry to the man of God and back.'
2Ki 4:23 'Why go to him today?' he asked. 'It is not New Moon or Sabbath.' But she replied, 'Never mind.'
2Ki 4:24 She had the donkey saddled and said to her servant, 'Lead on, go! Do not draw rein until I give the order.'
2Ki 4:25 She set off and made her way to the man of God at Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her in the distance, he said to his servant Gehazi, 'Look, here comes our Shunammite!
2Ki 4:26 Now run and meet her and ask her, "Are you well? Is your husband well? Your child well?" ' 'Yes,' she replied.
2Ki 4:27 When she came to the man of God there on the mountain, she took hold of his feet. Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, 'Leave her; there is bitterness in her soul and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has hidden it from me, he has not told me.'
2Ki 4:28 She said, 'Did I ask my lord for a son? Did I not say: Don't deceive me?'
2Ki 4:29 Elisha said to Gehazi, 'Hitch up your clothes, take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; if anyone greets you, do not answer him. You are to stretch out my staff over the child.'
2Ki 4:30 But the child's mother said, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.' Then he stood up and followed her.
2Ki 4:31 Gehazi had gone ahead of them and had stretched out the staff over the child, but there was no sound or response. He went back to meet Elisha and told him. 'The child has not woken up,' he said.
2Ki 4:32 Elisha then went to the house, and there on his bed lay the child, dead.
2Ki 4:33 He went in and shut the door on the two of them and prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 4:34 Then he climbed on to the bed and stretched himself on top of the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes to his eyes, and his hands on his hands, and as he lowered himself on to him, the child's flesh grew warm.
2Ki 4:35 Then he got up and walked to and fro inside the house, and then climbed on to the bed again and lowered himself on to the child seven times in all; then the child sneezed and opened his eyes.
2Ki 4:36 He then summoned Gehazi. 'Call our Shunammite,' he said. He called her. When she came to him, he said, 'Pick up your son.'
2Ki 4:37 She went in and, falling at his feet, prostrated herself on the floor and then picked up her son and went out.
2Ki 4:38 Elisha went back to Gilgal while there was famine in the country. As the brotherhood of prophets were sitting with him, he said to his servant, 'Put the large pot on the fire and cook some soup for the brotherhood.'
2Ki 4:39 One of them went into the fields to gather herbs and came on some wild vine, off which he gathered enough gourds to fill his lap. On his return, he cut them up into the pot of soup; they did not know what they were.
2Ki 4:40 They then poured the soup out for the men to eat, but they had no sooner tasted the soup than they cried, 'Man of God, there is death in the pot!' And they could not eat it.
2Ki 4:41 'Bring some meal then,' Elisha said. This he threw into the pot, and said, 'Pour out, for the company to eat!' And there was nothing harmful in the pot.
2Ki 4:42 A man came from Baal-Shalishah, bringing the man of God bread from the first-fruits, twenty barley loaves and fresh grain still in the husk. 'Give it to the company to eat,' Elisha said.
2Ki 4:43 But his servant replied, 'How can I serve this to a hundred men?' 'Give it to the company to eat,' he insisted, 'for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "They will eat and have some left over." '
2Ki 4:44 He served them; they ate and had some left over, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said.
2Ki 5:1 Naaman, army commander to the king of Aram, was a man who enjoyed his master's respect and favor, since through him Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had granted victory to the Aramaeans.
2Ki 5:2 But the man suffered from a virulent skin-disease. Now, on one of their raids into Israelite territory, the Aramaeans had carried off a little girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife.
2Ki 5:3 She said to her mistress, 'If only my master would approach the prophet of Samaria! He would cure him of his skin-disease.'
2Ki 5:4 Naaman went and told his master. 'This and this', he reported, 'is what the girl from Israel has said.'
2Ki 5:5 'Go by all means,' said the king of Aram, 'I shall send a letter to the king of Israel.' So Naaman left, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten festal robes.
2Ki 5:6 He presented the letter to the king of Israel. It read, 'With this letter, I am sending my servant Naaman to you for you to cure him of his skin-disease.'
2Ki 5:7 When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes. 'Am I a god to give death and life,' he said, 'for him to send a man to me and ask me to cure him of his skin-disease? Listen to this and take note of it and see how he intends to pick a quarrel with me.'
2Ki 5:8 When Elisha heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent word to the king, 'Why have you torn your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will find there is a prophet in Israel.'
2Ki 5:9 So Naaman came with his team and chariot and drew up at the door of Elisha's house.
2Ki 5:10 And Elisha sent him a messenger to say, 'Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will become clean once more.'
2Ki 5:11 But Naaman was indignant and went off, saying, 'Here was I, thinking he would be sure to come out to me, and stand there, and call on the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God, and wave his hand over the spot and cure the part that was diseased.
2Ki 5:12 Surely, Abana and Parpar, the rivers of Damascus, are better than any water in Israel? Could I not bathe in them and become clean?' And he turned round and went off in a rage.
2Ki 5:13 But his servants approached him and said, 'Father, if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? All the more reason, then, when he says to you, "Bathe, and you will become clean." '
2Ki 5:14 So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as Elisha had told him to do. And his flesh became clean once more like the flesh of a little child.
2Ki 5:15 Returning to Elisha with his whole escort, he went in and, presenting himself, said, 'Now I know that there is no God anywhere on earth except in Israel. Now, please, accept a present from your servant.'
2Ki 5:16 But Elisha replied, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing.' Naaman pressed him to accept, but he refused.
2Ki 5:17 Then Naaman said, 'Since your answer is "No," allow your servant to be given as much earth as two mules may carry, since your servant will no longer make burnt offerings or sacrifice to any god except Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 5:18 Only -- and may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) forgive your servant for this -- when my master goes to the temple of Rimmon to worship there, he leans on my arm, and I bow down in the temple of Rimmon when he does; may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) forgive your servant for doing this!'
2Ki 5:19 'Go in peace,' Elisha replied.
2Ki 5:20 Naaman had gone a small distance, when Gehazi, Elisha's servant, said to himself, 'My master has let this Aramaean Naaman off lightly, by not accepting what he offered. As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, I will run after him and get something out of him.'
2Ki 5:21 So Gehazi set off in pursuit of Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he jumped down from his chariot to meet him. 'Is all well?' he asked.
2Ki 5:22 'All is well,' he said. 'My master has sent me to say, "This very moment two young men of the prophetic brotherhood have arrived from the highlands of Ephraim. Be kind enough to give them a talent of silver and two festal robes." '
2Ki 5:23 'Please accept two talents,' Naaman replied, and pressed him, tying up the two talents of silver in two bags with the two festal robes and consigning them to two of his servants who carried them ahead of Gehazi.
2Ki 5:24 When he reached Ophel, he took these from them and put them away in the house. He then dismissed the men, who went away.
2Ki 5:25 He, for his part, went and presented himself to his master. Elisha said, 'Gehazi, where have you been?' 'Your servant has not been anywhere,' he replied.
2Ki 5:26 But Elisha said to him, 'Was not my heart present there when someone left his chariot to meet you? Now you have taken the money, you can buy gardens with it, and olive groves, sheep and oxen, male and female slaves.
2Ki 5:27 But Naaman's disease of the skin will cling to you and your descendants for ever.' And Gehazi left his presence white as snow from skin-disease.
2Ki 6:1 The brotherhood of prophets said to Elisha, 'Look, the place where we are living with you is too small for us.
2Ki 6:2 Let us go to the Jordan, then, and each of us cut a beam there, and we will make our living quarters there.' He replied, 'Go.'
2Ki 6:3 'Be good enough to go with your servants,' one of them said. 'I will go,' he replied,
2Ki 6:4 and went with them. On reaching the Jordan they began cutting down timber.
2Ki 6:5 But, as one of them was felling his beam, the iron axehead fell into the water. 'Alas, my lord,' he exclaimed, 'and it was a borrowed one too!'
2Ki 6:6 'Where did it fall?' the man of God asked; and he showed him the spot. Then, cutting a stick, Elisha threw it in at that point and made the iron axehead float.
2Ki 6:7 'Lift it out,' he said; and the man stretched out his hand and took it.
2Ki 6:8 The king of Aram was at war with Israel. He conferred with his officers and said, 'You must attack at such and such a place.'
2Ki 6:9 Elisha, however, sent word to the king of Israel, 'Be on your guard about such and such a place, because the Aramaeans are going to attack it.'
2Ki 6:10 The king of Israel accordingly sent men to the place which Elisha had named. And he kept warning the king, and the king stayed on the alert; and this happened more than once or twice.
2Ki 6:11 The king of Aram grew very much disturbed over this. He summoned his officers, and said, 'Tell me which of you is betraying us to the king of Israel.'
2Ki 6:12 'No one, my lord king,' one of his officers replied. 'It is Elisha, the prophet in Israel. The words you utter in your bedchamber, he reveals to the king of Israel.'
2Ki 6:13 'Go and find out where he is,' the king said, 'so that I can send people to capture him.' Word was brought to him, 'He is now in Dothan.'
2Ki 6:14 So he sent horses and chariots there, and a large force; and these, arriving during the night, surrounded the town.
2Ki 6:15 Next day, Elisha got up early and went out; and there surrounding the town was an armed force with horses and chariots. 'Oh, my lord,' his servant said, 'what are we to do?'
2Ki 6:16 'Do not be afraid,' he replied, 'for there are more on our side than on theirs.'
2Ki 6:17 And Elisha prayed. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'open his eyes and make him see.' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) opened the servant's eyes, and he saw the mountain covered in fiery horses and chariots surrounding Elisha.
2Ki 6:18 As the Aramaeans came down towards him, Elisha prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'I beg you to strike these people sun-blind.' And, at Elisha's word, he struck them sun-blind.
2Ki 6:19 Then Elisha said to them, 'This is not the road, nor is this the town. Follow me; I shall lead you to the man you are looking for.' But he led them to Samaria.
2Ki 6:20 As they entered Samaria, Elisha said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), open these people's eyes, and let them see.' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) opened their eyes and they saw; they were inside Samaria.
2Ki 6:21 When the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, 'Shall I kill them, father?'
2Ki 6:22 'Do not kill them,' he replied. 'Do you kill your own prisoners with sword and bow? Offer them food and water, so that they can eat and drink, and then let them go back to their master.'
2Ki 6:23 So the king provided a great feast for them; and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them off and they went back to their master. Aramaean raiding parties never invaded the territory of Israel again.
2Ki 6:24 It happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Aram, mustering his whole army, marched on and laid siege to Samaria.
2Ki 6:25 In Samaria there was great famine, and so strict was the siege that the head of a donkey sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one quarter-kab of wild onions for five shekels of silver.
2Ki 6:26 Now as the king was passing along the city wall, a woman shouted, 'Help, my lord king!'
2Ki 6:27 'If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does not help you,' he retorted, 'where can I find help for you? From the threshing-floor? From the winepress?'
2Ki 6:28 Then the king asked, 'What is the matter?' 'This woman here', she answered, 'said to me, "Give up your son; we will eat him today, and eat my son tomorrow."
2Ki 6:29 So we cooked my son and ate him. Next day, I said to her, "Give up your son for us to eat." But she has hidden her son.'
2Ki 6:30 On hearing the woman's words, the king tore his clothes; the king was walking on the wall, and the people saw that underneath he was wearing sackcloth next his body.
2Ki 6:31 'May God bring unnameable ills on me, and worse ills, too,' he said, 'if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!'
2Ki 6:32 Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead but, before the man arrived, Elisha had said to the elders, 'Do you see how this son of a murderer has given orders to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door; hold the door against him. Isn't that the sound of his master's step behind him?'
2Ki 6:33 He was still actually speaking, when the king arrived and said, 'This misery plainly comes from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Why should I still trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?'
2Ki 7:1 'Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' Elisha said. 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "By this time tomorrow a measure of finest flour will sell for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel, at the gate of Samaria." '
2Ki 7:2 The equerry on whose arm the king was leaning retorted to Elisha, 'Even if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made windows in the sky, could this word come true?' 'You will see it with your own eyes,' Elisha replied, 'though you will eat none of it.'
2Ki 7:3 Now at the entrance to the gate -- for they were afflicted with virulent skin-disease -- there were four men and they debated among themselves, 'Why sit here waiting for death?
2Ki 7:4 If we decide to go into the city, what with the famine in it, we shall die there; if we stay where we are, we shall die just the same. Come on, let us go over to the Aramaean camp; if they spare our lives, we live; if they kill us, well, then we die.'
2Ki 7:5 So at dusk they set out and made for the Aramaean camp, but when they reached the confines of the camp there was not a soul there.
2Ki 7:6 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had caused the Aramaeans in their camp to hear a noise of chariots and horses, the noise of a great army; and they had said to one another, 'Listen! The king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings against us, to attack us.'
2Ki 7:7 So in the dusk they had made off and fled, abandoning their tents, their horses and their donkeys; leaving the camp just as it was, they had fled for their lives.
2Ki 7:8 The men with skin-disease, then, reached the confines of the camp. They went into one of the tents and ate and drank, and from it carried off silver and gold and clothing; these they took and hid. Then they came back and, entering another tent, looted it too, and took and hid their booty.
2Ki 7:9 Then they said to one another, 'We are doing wrong. This is a day of good news, yet we are holding our tongues! If we wait till morning, we shall certainly be punished. Come on, let us go and take the news to the palace.'
2Ki 7:10 Off they went and shouted out to the guards on the city gate, 'We have been to the Aramaean camp. There was not a soul there, no sound of anyone, only tethered horses and tethered donkeys, and their tents just as they were.'
2Ki 7:11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, which was reported inside the palace.
2Ki 7:12 The king got up while it was still dark and said to his officers, 'I can tell you what the Aramaeans have done to us. They know we are starving, so they have left the camp to hide in the open country. "They will come out of the city," they think, "we shall catch them alive and get into the city." '
2Ki 7:13 One of his officers replied, 'Five of the surviving horses still left us had better be taken -- they would die in any case like all the rest. Let us send them and see.'
2Ki 7:14 So they took two chariot teams and the king sent them after the Aramaean army, saying, 'Go and see.'
2Ki 7:15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, finding the whole way strewn with clothes and gear which the Aramaeans had thrown away in their panic. The scouts returned and informed the king.
2Ki 7:16 Then the people went out and plundered the Aramaean camp: a measure of finest flour sold for one shekel, and two measures of barley for one shekel, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had promised they would.
2Ki 7:17 The king had detailed the equerry, on whose arm he leaned, as commander of the guard on the gate, but the people trampled on him in the gateway and he died, as the man of God had foretold when the king had come down to him.
2Ki 7:18 (What Elisha had said to the king came true, 'Two measures of barley will sell for one shekel, and a measure of finest flour for one shekel, by this time tomorrow at the gate of Samaria.'
2Ki 7:19 And the equerry in question had replied to the man of God, 'Even if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made windows in the sky, could this word come true?' 'You will see it with your own eyes,' Elisha had answered, 'though you will eat none of it.'
2Ki 7:20 And that was what happened to him: for the people trampled on him in the gateway and he died.)
2Ki 8:1 Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had raised to life, 'Move away with your family, and live where you can in some foreign country, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has called up a famine -- it is already coming on the country -- for seven years.'
2Ki 8:2 The woman hurried to do what the man of God had told her: she set out, she and her family, and for seven years she lived in Philistine territory.
2Ki 8:3 When the seven years were over, the woman returned from Philistine territory and went to lodge a claim with the king for her house and land.
2Ki 8:4 Now the king was talking to Gehazi, the servant of the man of God. 'Tell me', he was saying, 'all about the marvels which Elisha did.'
2Ki 8:5 Gehazi was just telling the king how Elisha had raised the dead child to life, when the woman whose son Elisha had raised lodged her claim with the king for her house and land. 'My lord king,' Gehazi said, 'this is the very woman, and that is her son whom Elisha raised to life.'
2Ki 8:6 The king questioned the woman, who told him the story. The king then delegated one of the officials to her with this order, 'See that all her property is restored to her, and all the revenue from her land from the day she left the country until now.'
2Ki 8:7 Elisha went to Damascus. Ben-Hadad king of Aram was ill, and was told, 'The man of God has come all the way to us.'
2Ki 8:8 Then the king said to Hazael, 'Take a present with you and go and meet the man of God; consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) through him, and find out if I shall recover from my illness.'
2Ki 8:9 So Hazael went to meet Elisha, taking with him as a present the best that Damascus could offer, a load for forty camels. He arrived and, presenting himself, said, 'Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to ask you, "Shall I recover from my illness?" '
2Ki 8:10 Elisha replied, 'Go and tell him, "You might recover," though Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has shown me that he will certainly die.'
2Ki 8:11 Then the face of the man of God went rigid, and his look grew strangely fixed, and he wept.
2Ki 8:12 'Why', Hazael asked, 'does my lord weep?' 'Because I know', Elisha replied, 'what harm you will do to the Israelites: you will burn down their fortresses, put their picked warriors to the sword, dash their little children to pieces, disembowel their pregnant women.'
2Ki 8:13 'But what is your servant?' Hazael said. 'How could this dog achieve anything so great?' 'In a vision from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' Elisha replied, 'I have seen you king of Aram.'
2Ki 8:14 Leaving Elisha, Hazael went back to his master who asked, 'What did Elisha say to you?' He replied, 'He told me that you might recover.'
2Ki 8:15 Next day he took a blanket, soaked it in water, and spread it over his face. So died Ben-Hadad, and Hazael succeeded him.
2Ki 8:16 In the fifth year of Jehoram son of Ahab, king of Israel, Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat became king of Judah.
2Ki 8:17 He was thirty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.
2Ki 8:18 He followed the example of the kings of Israel as the House of Ahab were doing; he had married one of Ahab's daughters; and he did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 8:19 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was unwilling to destroy Judah, because of his servant David, and was faithful to the promise which he had made him to leave him a lamp for ever in his presence.
2Ki 8:20 In his time Edom threw off the domination of Judah and set up a king for itself.
2Ki 8:21 Jehoram crossed to Zair, and with him all the chariots . . . Under cover of dark, he and his chariot commanders broke through the Edomites surrounding him; the people fled to their tents.
2Ki 8:22 Even so, Edom threw off the domination of Judah, remaining free to the present day. Libnah also revolted at that time.
2Ki 8:23 The rest of the history of Jehoram, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 8:24 Then Jehoram fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David; his son Ahaziah succeeded him.
2Ki 8:25 In the twelfth year of Jehoram son of Ahab, king of Israel, Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, became king.
2Ki 8:26 Ahaziah was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah granddaughter of Omri king of Israel.
2Ki 8:27 He followed the example of the House of Ahab and did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as the House of Ahab were doing, to whom he was related by marriage.
2Ki 8:28 He went with Jehoram son of Ahab to make war on Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth in Gilead, but the Aramaeans wounded Jehoram.
2Ki 8:29 King Jehoram returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received at Ramah, fighting against Hazael king of Aram. Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to visit Jehoram son of Ahab because he was ailing.
2Ki 9:1 The prophet Elisha summoned a member of the prophetic brotherhood to him, 'Hitch up your clothes, take this flask of oil, and go to Ramoth in Gilead.
2Ki 9:2 When you arrive there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi. Then, when you find him, tell him to get up and leave his companions, and take him into an inner room.
2Ki 9:3 Take the flask of oil then and pour it over his head, and say, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I have anointed you king of Israel." Then open the door and flee as fast as you can.'
2Ki 9:4 The young man left for Ramoth in Gilead
2Ki 9:5 and when he arrived, found the senior officers of the army sitting together. 'I have a message for you, commander,' he said. 'For which of us?' asked Jehu. 'For you, commander,' he answered.
2Ki 9:6 Jehu then got up and went into the house. And the young man poured the oil on his head, saying, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "I have anointed you king of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people, of Israel.
2Ki 9:7 You will strike down the family of Ahab your master, and I shall avenge the blood of my servants the prophets and all of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s servants, on Jezebel
2Ki 9:8 and on the whole family of Ahab. I shall destroy every manjack of Ahab's family, fettered or free in Israel.
2Ki 9:9 I shall make the House of Ahab like the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat and of Baasha son of Ahijah.
2Ki 9:10 As for Jezebel, the dogs will eat her in the field of Jezreel; no one will bury her." ' With this, he opened the door and made his escape.
2Ki 9:11 Jehu came out to his master's officers. 'Is all well?' they asked him. 'Why did this madman come to you?' 'You know the fellow and how he talks,' he answered.
2Ki 9:12 'Evasion!' they cried, 'Come on, tell us.' He replied, 'He said this and that to me. He said, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I have anointed you king of Israel." '
2Ki 9:13 Whereupon they all took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps; they sounded the trumpet and shouted, 'Jehu is king!'
2Ki 9:14 Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, son of Nimshi plotted against Jehoram. (At the time, Jehoram, with all Israel, was holding Ramoth in Gilead against an attack by Hazael king of Aram,
2Ki 9:15 but King Jehoram had gone back to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received from the Aramaeans while he was fighting against Hazael king of Aram.) 'If you agree,' Jehu said, 'let no one leave the town to go and take the news to Jezreel.'
2Ki 9:16 Jehu then mounted his chariot and left for Jezreel; Jehoram had taken to his bed there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit him.
2Ki 9:17 The lookout posted on the tower of Jezreel saw Jehu's troop approaching. 'I can see a body of men,' he shouted. Jehoram gave the order: 'Have a horseman sent to meet them and ask, "Is all well?" '
2Ki 9:18 The horseman went to meet Jehu and said, 'The king says, "Is all well?" ' 'What has it to do with you whether all is well?' Jehu replied. 'Fall in behind me.' The lookout reported, 'The messenger has reached them and is not coming back.'
2Ki 9:19 The king sent a second horseman who reached them and said, 'The king says, "Is all well?" ' 'What has it to do with you whether all is well?' Jehu replied. 'Fall in behind me.'
2Ki 9:20 The lookout reported, 'He has reached them and is not coming back. The manner of driving is like that of Jehu son of Nimshi: he drives like a madman.'
2Ki 9:21 'Harness!' Jehoram cried; and they harnessed his chariot. Then Jehoram king of Israel and Ahaziah king of Judah, each in his chariot, set out to meet Jehu. They reached him in the field of Naboth of Jezreel.
2Ki 9:22 As soon as Jehoram saw Jehu he asked, 'Is all well, Jehu?' 'What a question!' he replied, 'when all the while the prostitutions and countless sorceries of your mother Jezebel go on.'
2Ki 9:23 At this, Jehoram wheeled and fled, saying to Ahaziah, 'Treason, Ahaziah!'
2Ki 9:24 But Jehu had drawn his bow; he struck Jehoram between the shoulder-blades, the arrow went through the king's heart, and he sank down in his chariot.
2Ki 9:25 'Pick him up,' Jehu said to Bidkar, his equerry, 'and throw him into the field of Naboth of Jezreel. Remember how, when you and I manned a chariot together behind Ahab his father, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) pronounced this sentence against him,
2Ki 9:26 "This I swear. Yesterday I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this. And in this same field I shall requite you -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this." So pick him up, and throw him into the field, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declared should happen!'
2Ki 9:27 When Ahaziah king of Judah saw this, he fled along the Beth-ha-Gan road, but Jehu went in pursuit of him. 'Strike him down too,' he said. And they wounded him in his chariot at the slope of Gur, which is near Ibleam, and he took refuge in Megiddo, where he died.
2Ki 9:28 His servants carried him in a chariot to Jerusalem and buried him in his tomb in the City of David.
2Ki 9:29 Ahaziah had become king of Judah in the eleventh year of Jehoram son of Ahab.
2Ki 9:30 When Jehu went back to Jezreel, Jezebel was told. She made up her eyes with mascara, adorned her head and appeared at the window.
2Ki 9:31 As Jehu came through the gateway she said, 'How did Zimri get on after killing his master?'
2Ki 9:32 Jehu looked up to the window and said, 'Who is on my side? Who?' And two or three officials looked down at him.
2Ki 9:33 'Throw her down,' he said. They threw her down and her blood spattered the walls and the horses; and Jehu rode over her.
2Ki 9:34 He went in and ate and drank, then said, 'See to this accursed woman, and give her burial; after all, she was a king's daughter.'
2Ki 9:35 But when they went to bury her, they found nothing but her skull, feet and hands.
2Ki 9:36 They came back and told Jehu, who said, 'This is the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which he spoke through his servant Elijah the Tishbite, "The dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel in the field of Jezreel;
2Ki 9:37 the corpse of Jezebel will be like dung spread on the fields, so that no one will be able to say: This was Jezebel." '
2Ki 10:1 There were seventy of Ahab's sons in Samaria. Jehu sent to Samaria, to the authorities of the city, to the elders and to the guardians of Ahab's children. He said,
2Ki 10:2 'Now, when this letter reaches you, you have your master's sons with you; you also have chariots and horses, a fortified city and weapons.
2Ki 10:3 See which of your master's sons is the best and worthiest, put him on his father's throne and fight for your master's dynasty!'
2Ki 10:4 They were utterly terrified. 'We have seen how the two kings could not stand up to him,' they said, 'so how could we?'
2Ki 10:5 Consequently the master of the palace, the governor of the city, the elders and the guardians sent word to Jehu, 'We are your servants. We shall do whatever you order us. We shall not proclaim a king; act as you think best.'
2Ki 10:6 Jehu then wrote them a second letter. He said, 'If you are for me and if you are prepared to accept orders from me, take the heads of the men of your master's family and come to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.' (There were seventy of Ahab's sons being educated there by the leading men of the city.)
2Ki 10:7 When this letter reached them, they took the king's sons and butchered all seventy of them, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.
2Ki 10:8 The messenger came and told Jehu, 'They have brought the heads of the king's sons.' 'Leave them in two heaps at the entrance to the gate until morning,' he replied.
2Ki 10:9 When morning came, he went out and, standing, said to all the people, 'No guilt attaches to you! I did indeed plot against my master and have killed him; but what about all these? Who struck them?
2Ki 10:10 Know, then, that nothing will fail to be fulfilled of the prophecy uttered by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) against the House of Ahab; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done what he said through his servant Elijah.'
2Ki 10:11 Jehu then killed every member of the House of Ahab surviving in Jezreel, all his leading men, his close friends, his priests; he did not leave a single one alive.
2Ki 10:12 Jehu then set out for Samaria. As he was on his way, at Beth-Eked of the Shepherds,
2Ki 10:13 he met the brothers of Ahaziah king of Judah. 'Who are you?' he asked. 'We are Ahaziah's brothers,' they replied, 'and we are on our way to pay our respects to the king's sons and the queen mother's sons.'
2Ki 10:14 'Take them alive,' he said. They took them alive, and he slaughtered them at the storage-well of Beth-Eked, forty-two of them; he did not spare a single one.
2Ki 10:15 Leaving there, he came on Jehonadab son of Rechab who was on his way to meet him. He greeted him and said, 'Is your heart true to mine, as my heart is to yours?' Jehonadab replied, 'Yes.' 'If so,' Jehu said, 'give me your hand.' Jehonadab gave him his hand, and Jehu took him up beside him in his chariot.
2Ki 10:16 'Come with me,' he said, 'and witness my zeal for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' and took him along in his chariot.
2Ki 10:17 When he entered Samaria, he killed all the survivors of Ahab's family there; he destroyed it, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told Elijah it would happen.
2Ki 10:18 Then Jehu assembled all the people. 'Ahab did Baal some small service,' he said, 'but Jehu will do him a great one.
2Ki 10:19 Now call me all the prophets of Baal and all his priests. Not one is to be absent: I have a great sacrifice to offer to Baal. If anyone is absent, he will forfeit his life.' This was a trick on Jehu's part to destroy the devotees of Baal.
2Ki 10:20 'Summon a sacred assembly for Baal,' he commanded; and they summoned it.
2Ki 10:21 Jehu sent messengers throughout Israel, and all the devotees of Baal arrived, not a man was left who did not attend. They crowded into the temple of Baal until it was full from wall to wall.
2Ki 10:22 Jehu then said to the keeper of the wardrobe, 'Bring out vestments for all the devotees of Baal'; he brought out the vestments for them.
2Ki 10:23 Jehu then went into the temple of Baal with Jehonadab son of Rechab and said to Baal's devotees, 'Make quite sure that there are no devotees of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in here with you, but only devotees of Baal.'
2Ki 10:24 He then proceeded to present sacrifices and burnt offerings. Now Jehu had stationed eighty of his men outside, having said, 'Whoever lets one of the people go whom I am now putting within your clutches, will pay for it with his life.'
2Ki 10:25 When he had finished making the burnt offering, he gave the order to the guards and equerries, 'Go in, strike them down! Let no one out!' The guards and equerries went in, putting everyone to the sword all the way to the sanctuary of Baal's temple.
2Ki 10:26 They took the sacred pole out of Baal's temple and burned it.
2Ki 10:27 They demolished Baal's image and demolished Baal's temple too, making it into a latrine, which it still is today.
2Ki 10:28 Thus Jehu rid Israel of Baal.
2Ki 10:29 Even so, Jehu did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel, the golden calves of Bethel and Dan.
2Ki 10:30 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Jehu, 'Since you have done well in carrying out what pleases me, and have done everything I required to be done to the House of Ahab, your sons will occupy the throne of Israel down to the fourth generation.'
2Ki 10:31 Jehu, however, did not faithfully and wholeheartedly follow the law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel; he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.
2Ki 10:32 At that time Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) began to whittle Israel down, and Hazael defeated the Israelites throughout the territory east of the Jordan:
2Ki 10:33 the whole territory of Gilead -- of the Gadites, the Reubenites and the Manassehites -- from Aroer on the River Arnon: Gilead and Bashan.
2Ki 10:34 The rest of the history of Jehu, his entire career, all his prowess, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
2Ki 10:35 Then he fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria; his son Jehoahaz succeeded him.
2Ki 10:36 Jehu's reign over Israel in Samaria lasted twenty-eight years.
2Ki 11:1 When Athaliah mother of Ahaziah learned that her son was dead, she promptly murdered all those of royal stock.
2Ki 11:2 But Jehosheba, daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, surreptitiously rescued Jehoash son of Ahaziah from among the princes who were to be murdered, and put him with his nurse in the sleeping quarters; in this way she hid him from Athaliah, and he was not killed.
2Ki 11:3 He stayed, hidden with her in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for six years, while Athaliah governed the country.
2Ki 11:4 In the seventh year, Jehoiada sent for the regimental commanders of the Carians and the guards, and had them brought to him in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). He made a pact with them, put them on oath, then showed them the king's son. He gave them this order,
2Ki 11:5 'This is what you must do: a third of you who come on duty on the Sabbath must mount guard at the royal palace,
2Ki 11:6
2Ki 11:7 and your two other sections who come off duty on the Sabbath and mount guard at the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)
2Ki 11:8 must surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hand; anyone forcing his way through the ranks is to be killed. And you will escort the king as he leaves and as he comes in.'
2Ki 11:9 The regimental commanders did everything as Jehoiada the priest had ordered, and each one brought his men, those coming on duty on the Sabbath and those going off duty on the Sabbath, and reported to Jehoiada the priest.
2Ki 11:10 The priest then issued the regimental commanders with King David's spears and shields, which were kept in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 11:11 The guards then took position, each man with his weapons in his hand, from the south corner of the Temple to the north corner of the Temple, all round the altar and the Temple.
2Ki 11:12 Then Jehoiada brought the king's son out -- crowned him and gave him a copy of the covenant; and they made him king and anointed him, and they clapped their hands and shouted, 'Long live the king!'
2Ki 11:13 On hearing the people shouting, Athaliah joined the people in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 11:14 When she looked, there stood the king on a dais, as the custom was, with the officers and trumpeters at the king's side, and all the people of the country rejoicing and blowing the trumpets; then Athaliah tore her clothes and shouted, 'Treason, treason!'
2Ki 11:15 Jehoiada the priest then gave the orders to the commanders in charge of the troops, 'Take her out under guard and put to death anyone who follows her.' 'For', the priest had already said, 'she must not be killed inside the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
2Ki 11:16 They seized her, and when she reached the horses' entry to the palace, she was killed there.
2Ki 11:17 Jehoiada made a covenant between Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the king and the people that they would remain Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people; and another one between the king and the people.
2Ki 11:18 All the people of the country then went to the temple of Baal and demolished it; they smashed its altars and its images and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars. The priest made arrangements for the security of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 11:19 He then took the regimental commanders, the Carians, the guards and all the people of the country, and they escorted the king down from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), entering the palace through the Gate of the Guards. Jehoash took his seat on the throne of the kings.
2Ki 11:20 All the people of the country were delighted; the city, however, made no move. And Athaliah was put to death inside the palace.
2Ki 12:1 Jehoash was seven years old when he came to the throne.
2Ki 12:2 Jehoash became king in the seventh year of Jehu, and reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2Ki 12:3 All his life Jehoash did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, having been instructed by Jehoiada the priest.
2Ki 12:4 The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.
2Ki 12:5 Jehoash said to the priests, 'All the money from the sacred revenues brought to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the money from personal taxes, and all the money voluntarily offered to the Temple-
2Ki 12:6 the priests are to receive this individually from people of their acquaintance and will carry out all the repairs to the Temple which need to be made.'
2Ki 12:7 Now in the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had done no repairs to the Temple;
2Ki 12:8 so King Jehoash summoned Jehoiada the priest and the other priests. 'Why are you not repairing the Temple?' he asked. 'You are no longer to accept money from people of your acquaintance but are to hand it over for the Temple repairs.'
2Ki 12:9 The priests agreed to accept no money from the people and no longer to be responsible for repairs to the Temple.
2Ki 12:10 Jehoiada the priest took a chest, bored a hole in the lid and placed it beside the pillar, to the right of the entry to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); in it the priests who guarded the threshold put all the money which was given for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 12:11 Whenever they saw that there was a great deal of money in the chest, the king's secretary would come, and they would empty it out and reckon the money then in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 12:12 Once checked, they paid this money over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and these in turn spent it on carpenters and builders working on the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ki 12:13 on masons and stonecutters, and on buying timber and dressed stone to be used for repairs to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); in short, for all the costs of the Temple repairs.
2Ki 12:14 But no silver basins, knives, sprinkling bowls, trumpets or gold or silver objects were made for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) out of the money presented,
2Ki 12:15 which was all given to the masters of works for repairing the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 12:16 No accounts were kept with the men to whom the money was paid over to be spent on the workmen, since they were honest in their work.
2Ki 12:17 Money offered in expiation of an offense or of a sin was not given to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); that was for the priests.
2Ki 12:18 At that time Hazael king of Aram went to war against Gath, and captured it; he then prepared to attack Jerusalem.
2Ki 12:19 Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred offerings dedicated by his ancestors, the kings of Judah, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram and Ahaziah, with those which he himself had dedicated, and all the gold which was to be found in the treasuries of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and of the palace; he sent it all to Hazael king of Aram, who retired from Jerusalem.
2Ki 12:20 The rest of the history of Joash, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 12:21 His own retainers rebelled and hatched a plot; they murdered Joash in the palace of the Millo . . .
2Ki 12:22 Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer were the retainers who struck the blows from which he died. He was buried with his ancestors in the City of David; his son Amaziah succeeded him.
2Ki 13:1 In the twenty-third year of Joash son of Ahaziah, king of Judah, Jehoahaz son of Jehu became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for seventeen years.
2Ki 13:2 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and copied the sin into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel; he did not give it up.
2Ki 13:3 This aroused Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger against the Israelites, and he delivered them without respite into the power of Hazael king of Aram and of Ben-Hadad son of Hazael.
2Ki 13:4 Jehoahaz, however, tried to placate Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) heard him, for he had seen the oppression which the king of Aram was inflicting on Israel.
2Ki 13:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave Israel a Savior who freed them from the grip of Aram, and the Israelites lived in their tents as in the past.
2Ki 13:6 But they did not give up the sin into which Jeroboam had led Israel; they persisted in it, and even the sacred pole stayed standing in Samaria.
2Ki 13:7 Of Jehoahaz's army Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) left only fifty horsemen, ten chariots and ten thousand foot soldiers. The king of Aram had destroyed them, making them like dust trampled under foot.
2Ki 13:8 The rest of the history of Jehoahaz, his entire career, his prowess, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
2Ki 13:9 Then Jehoahaz fell asleep with his ancestors, and was buried in Samaria; his son Joash succeeded him.
2Ki 13:10 In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for sixteen years.
2Ki 13:11 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he did not give up the sin into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel; he persisted in it.
2Ki 13:12 The rest of the history of Joash, his entire career, his prowess, how he waged war on Amaziah king of Judah, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
2Ki 13:13 Then Joash fell asleep with his ancestors, and Jeroboam ascended his throne. Joash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel.
2Ki 13:14 When Elisha had fallen ill of the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and shedding tears over him said, 'Father! Father! Chariot of Israel and its chargers!'
2Ki 13:15 Elisha said to him, 'Bring bow and arrows,' and he sent for a bow and arrows.
2Ki 13:16 Then Elisha said to the king, 'Draw the bow,' and he drew it. Elisha put his hands over the hands of the king,
2Ki 13:17 then he said, 'Open the window towards the east,' and he opened it. Then Elisha said, 'Shoot!' And he shot. Elisha said, 'Arrow of victory over Aram! You will defeat Aram at Aphek-completely.'
2Ki 13:18 Elisha said, 'Take the arrows,' and he took them. Then he said to the king, 'Strike the ground,' and he struck it three times, then stopped.
2Ki 13:19 At this the man of God grew angry with him. 'You should have struck half a dozen times,' he said, 'and you would have beaten Aram completely; now you will beat Aram only three times.'
2Ki 13:20 Elisha died and was buried. Bands of Moabites were making incursions into the country every year.
2Ki 13:21 Some people happened to be carrying a man out for burial; at the sight of one of these bands, they flung the man into the tomb of Elisha and made off. The man had no sooner touched the bones of Elisha than he came to life and stood up on his feet.
2Ki 13:22 Hazael king of Aram had oppressed the Israelites throughout the lifetime of Jehoahaz,
2Ki 13:23 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was kind and took pity on them. Because of the covenant which he had made with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he relented towards them; he had no wish to destroy them, he did not cast them out of his presence.
2Ki 13:24 Hazael king of Aram died, and his son Ben-Hadad succeeded him.
2Ki 13:25 From Ben-Hadad son of Hazael, Jehoash son of Jehoahaz recaptured the towns which Hazael had seized from his father Jehoahaz by force of arms. Joash defeated him three times and recovered the Israelite towns.
2Ki 14:1 In the second year of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash became king of Judah.
2Ki 14:2 He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem.
2Ki 14:3 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, though not like his ancestor David; he imitated his father Joash in all respects.
2Ki 14:4 The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.
2Ki 14:5 Once the kingdom was firmly under his control, he killed those of his retainers who had murdered the king his father.
2Ki 14:6 But he did not put the murderers' sons to death, in accordance with what is written in the Book of Moses, where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has commanded: 'Parents may not be put to death for their children, nor children for parents, but each must be put to death for his own crime.'
2Ki 14:7 It was he who slaughtered the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, ten thousand of them, and captured the Rock; he gave it the name Joktheel, which it bears to the present day.
2Ki 14:8 Amaziah then sent messengers to Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel, saying, 'Come and make a trial of strength!'
2Ki 14:9 Jehoash king of Israel sent back word to Amaziah king of Judah, 'The thistle of Lebanon sent a message to the cedar of Lebanon, saying, "Give my son your daughter in marriage"; but a wild animal of the Lebanon ran over the thistle and squashed it.
2Ki 14:10 You have conquered Edom and now aspire to even greater glory. Stay where you belong! Why provoke disaster, to your own and Judah's ruin?'
2Ki 14:11 But Amaziah would not listen, so Jehoash king of Israel marched to the attack. And at Beth-Shemesh, which belongs to Judah, he and Amaziah king of Judah made their trial of strength.
2Ki 14:12 Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone fled to his tent.
2Ki 14:13 The king of Judah, Amaziah son of Jehoash, son of Ahaziah, was taken prisoner at Beth-Shemesh by Jehoash king of Israel who led him off to Jerusalem, where he demolished four hundred cubits of the city wall between the Ephraim Gate and the Corner Gate;
2Ki 14:14 all the gold and silver, and all the vessels to be found in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and in the palace treasury, and hostages besides, he then took back with him to Samaria.
2Ki 14:15 The rest of the history of Jehoash, his entire career, his prowess, how he waged war on Amaziah king of Judah, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
2Ki 14:16 Then Joash fell asleep with his ancestors, and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; his son Jeroboam succeeded him.
2Ki 14:17 Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Jehoash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.
2Ki 14:18 The rest of the history of Amaziah, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 14:19 A plot having been hatched against him in Jerusalem, he fled to Lachish; but he was followed to Lachish where he was murdered.
2Ki 14:20 He was then transported by horse and buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors in the City of David.
2Ki 14:21 All the people of Judah then chose Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in succession to his father Amaziah.
2Ki 14:22 It was he who rebuilt Elath, recovering it for Judah, after the king had fallen asleep with his ancestors.
2Ki 14:23 In the fifteenth year of Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, Jeroboam son of Joash became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for forty-one years.
2Ki 14:24 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and did not give up any of the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.
2Ki 14:25 It was he who recovered the territory of Israel from the Pass of Hamath to the Sea of the Arabah, in accordance with the word which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, had spoken through his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet from Gath-Hepher.
2Ki 14:26 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had seen how very bitter the affliction of Israel was, with no one, either fettered or free, to come to Israel's help.
2Ki 14:27 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had resolved not to blot out the name of Israel under heaven; he rescued them by means of Jeroboam son of Joash.
2Ki 14:28 The rest of the history of Jeroboam, his entire career, his prowess, what wars he waged, how he brought Damascus and Hamath back to their allegiance to Judah and Israel, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
2Ki 14:29 Then Jeroboam fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; his son Zechariah succeeded him.
2Ki 15:1 In the seventeenth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Uzziah son of Amaziah became king of Judah.
2Ki 15:2 He was sixteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
2Ki 15:3 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, just as his father Amaziah had done.
2Ki 15:4 The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places.
2Ki 15:5 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck the king, and he was afflicted with a virulent skin-disease till his dying day. He lived confined to his room, while Jotham the king's son, who was master of the palace, governed the country.
2Ki 15:6 The rest of the history of Uzziah, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 15:7 Then Uzziah fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David; his son Jotham then succeeded him.
2Ki 15:8 In the thirty-eighth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in Samaria for six months.
2Ki 15:9 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as his fathers had done; he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel. Shallum son of Jabesh plotted against him, murdered him at Ibleam,
2Ki 15:10 and succeeded him.
2Ki 15:11 The rest of the history of Zechariah is recorded in the Book of Annals of the Kings of Israel.
2Ki 15:12 This was the word which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had spoken to Jehu, 'Your sons will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.' And so it turned out.
2Ki 15:13 Shallum son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah and reigned for one month in Samaria.
2Ki 15:14 Then Menahem son of Gadi marched from Tirzah, entered Samaria, murdered Shallum son of Jabesh there and succeeded him.
2Ki 15:15 The rest of the history of Shallum, and the plot he hatched, is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.
2Ki 15:16 Menahem then sacked Tappuah -- killing all who were in it -- and its territory from Tirzah onwards, because it had not opened its gates to him; he sacked the town and disembowelled all the pregnant women.
2Ki 15:17 In the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Menahem son of Gadi became king of Israel. He reigned for ten years in Samaria.
2Ki 15:18 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel. In his days
2Ki 15:19 Pul king of Assyria invaded the country. Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in return for his support in strengthening his hold on the royal power.
2Ki 15:20 Menahem levied this sum from Israel, from all the men of rank, at the rate of fifty shekels a head, to be given to the king of Assyria, who then withdrew and did not stay in the country.
2Ki 15:21 The rest of the history of Menahem, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?
2Ki 15:22 Then Menahem fell asleep with his ancestors; his son Pekahiah succeeded him.
2Ki 15:23 In the fiftieth year of Uzziah king of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for two years.
2Ki 15:24 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.
2Ki 15:25 Pekah son of Remaliah, his equerry, plotted against him and assassinated him in the palace keep . . . He had fifty Gileadites with him. He killed the king and succeeded him.
2Ki 15:26 The rest of the history of Pekahiah, his entire career, is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.
2Ki 15:27 In the fifty-second year of Uzziah king of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah became king of Israel in Samaria. He reigned for twenty years.
2Ki 15:28 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he did not give up the sins into which Jeroboam son of Nebat had led Israel.
2Ki 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-Beth-Maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead and Galilee -- the whole territory of Naphtali and deported the population to Assyria.
2Ki 15:30 Hoshea son of Elah hatched a plot against Pekah son of Remaliah; he murdered the king and succeeded him.
2Ki 15:31 The rest of the history of Pekah, his entire career, is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.
2Ki 15:32 In the second year of Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham son of Uzziah became king of Judah.
2Ki 15:33 He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha daughter of Zadok.
2Ki 15:34 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, just as his father Uzziah had done.
2Ki 15:35 The high places, however, were not abolished, and the people still offered sacrifices and incense on the high places. It was he who built the Upper Gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 15:36 The rest of the history of Jotham, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 15:37 At that time Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) began sending Razon king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah.
2Ki 15:38 Then Jotham fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David, his ancestor; his son Ahaz succeeded him.
2Ki 16:1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king of Judah.
2Ki 16:2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God regards as right, as his ancestor David had done.
2Ki 16:3 He followed the example of the kings of Israel, even causing his son to pass through the fire of sacrifice, also copying the disgusting practices of the nations whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dispossessed for the Israelites.
2Ki 16:4 He offered sacrifices and incense on the high places, on the hills and under every luxuriant tree.
2Ki 16:5 Then it was that Razon king of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah, king of Israel, launched their campaign against Jerusalem. They besieged it but could not reduce it.
2Ki 16:6 (At that time, the king of Edom recovered Elath for Edom; he drove the Judaeans out of Elath, and the Edomites occupied it and have been there ever since.)
2Ki 16:7 Ahaz then sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria to say, 'I am your servant and your son. Come and rescue me from the king of Aram and the king of Israel who are making war on me.'
2Ki 16:8 And Ahaz took what silver and gold was to be found in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and in the palace treasury, and sent this as a present to the king of Assyria.
2Ki 16:9 The king of Assyria granted his request and, marching on Damascus, captured it; he deported its population to Kir and put Razon to death.
2Ki 16:10 When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, he saw the altar which was in Damascus. King Ahaz then sent a picture and model of the altar, with details of its construction, to Uriah the priest.
2Ki 16:11 Uriah the priest constructed the altar; all the instructions sent by King Ahaz from Damascus were carried out by Uriah the priest before King Ahaz returned from Damascus.
2Ki 16:12 When the king arrived from Damascus, he inspected the altar, he approached it and ascended it.
2Ki 16:13 And on the altar he made his burnt offering and his oblation; he poured out his libation and sprinkled the blood of his communion sacrifices.
2Ki 16:14 The altar which used to stand before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) he removed from the front of the Temple, where it had stood between the new altar and the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and placed it at the north side of the new altar.
2Ki 16:15 King Ahaz gave this order to Uriah the priest, 'In future you will present the morning burnt offering, the evening oblation, the king's burnt offering and oblation, the burnt offering, the oblation and the libations of all the people of the country on the large altar; on it you will pour out all the blood of the burnt offerings and sacrifices. As regards the bronze altar, I shall see to that.'
2Ki 16:16 Uriah the priest did everything that King Ahaz had ordered.
2Ki 16:17 King Ahaz broke up the wheeled stands; removed the crosspieces and the basins from them, and took the bronze Sea off the oxen supporting it, and rested it on the stone pavement.
2Ki 16:18 And from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in deference to the king of Assyria, he removed the dais for the throne which had been built inside, and the royal entrance on the outside.
2Ki 16:19 The rest of the history of Ahaz, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 16:20 Then Ahaz fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David; his son Hezekiah succeeded him.
2Ki 17:1 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and reigned for nine years.
2Ki 17:2 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), though not like the preceding kings of Israel.
2Ki 17:3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria made war on Hoshea who submitted to him and paid him tribute.
2Ki 17:4 But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea was playing a double game with him; he had sent messengers to Sais, to the king of Egypt, and had not, as in previous years, handed over the tribute to the king of Assyria. For this the king of Assyria imprisoned him in chains.
2Ki 17:5 The king of Assyria invaded the whole country and, coming to Samaria, laid siege to it for three years.
2Ki 17:6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2Ki 17:7 This happened because the Israelites had sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God who had brought them out of Egypt, out of the grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshipped other gods,
2Ki 17:8 they followed the practices of the nations which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dispossessed for them.
2Ki 17:9 The Israelites spoke slightingly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God. They built themselves high places wherever they lived, from watchtower to fortified town.
2Ki 17:10 They set up pillars and sacred poles for themselves on every high hill and under every luxuriant tree.
2Ki 17:11 They sacrificed on all the high places like the nations which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had expelled for them, and did wicked things there, provoking Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger.
2Ki 17:12 They served idols, although Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told them, 'This you must not do.'
2Ki 17:13 And yet through all the prophets and the seers, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given Israel and Judah this warning, 'Turn from your wicked ways and keep my commandments and my laws in accordance with the entire Law which I laid down for your fathers and delivered to them through my servants the prophets.'
2Ki 17:14 But they would not listen, they were as stubborn as their ancestors, who had no faith in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.
2Ki 17:15 They despised his laws and the covenant which he had made with their ancestors and the warnings which he had given them. Pursuing futility, they themselves became futile through copying the nations round them, although Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered them not to act as they did.
2Ki 17:16 They rejected all the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God and cast themselves metal idols, two calves; they made themselves sacred poles, they worshipped the whole array of heaven, and they served Baal.
2Ki 17:17 They caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire of sacrifice, also they practised divination and sorcery, they sold themselves to doing what displeases Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), provoking his anger.
2Ki 17:18 Because of which, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) became enraged with Israel and thrust them away from him. The tribe of Judah was the only one left.
2Ki 17:19 Judah did not keep the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God either but copied the practices which Israel had introduced.
2Ki 17:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rejected the whole race of Israel; he brought them low, delivering them into the hands of marauders, until at length he thrust them away from him.
2Ki 17:21 And indeed he had torn Israel away from the House of David, and they had made Jeroboam son of Nebat king; Jeroboam had drawn Israel away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and led them into a great sin.
2Ki 17:22 The Israelites copied the sin which Jeroboam had committed; they did not give it up,
2Ki 17:23 until at length Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) thrust Israel away from him, as he had foretold through all his servants the prophets; he deported the Israelites from their own country to Assyria, where they have been ever since.
2Ki 17:24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath and Sepharvaim, and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites; these took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns.
2Ki 17:25 When they first came to live there, they did not worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); hence, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) set lions on them, which killed a number of them.
2Ki 17:26 Consequently, the king of Assyria was informed as follows, 'The nations whom you deported and settled in the towns of Samaria do not know how to worship the local god, and he has set lions on them; and now these are killing them because they do not know how to worship the local god.'
2Ki 17:27 So the king of Assyria gave this order, 'Send back one of the priests whom I deported from there; let him go and live there and teach them how to worship the local god.'
2Ki 17:28 Accordingly, one of the priests who had been deported from Samaria came to live in Bethel; he taught them how to worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 17:29 Each nationality made gods of its own and put them in the shrines on the high places built by the Samaritans; each nationality did this in the towns where it lived.
2Ki 17:30 The people from Babylon had made a Succoth-Benoth, the people from Cuthah a Nergal, the people from Hamath an Ashima,
2Ki 17:31 the Avvites a Nibhaz and a Tartak; while the Sepharvites caused their children to pass through the fire of sacrifice to Adrammelech and Anammelech, gods of Sepharvaim.
2Ki 17:32 They worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as well, and they appointed priests out of their own number for the high places, and these officiated in the shrines on the high places.
2Ki 17:33 They worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and served their own gods at the same time, with the rites of the countries from which they had been deported.
2Ki 17:34 They still follow their old rites even now. They did not worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and did not conform to his statutes or ritual, or the law or the commandments, which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had laid down for the sons of Jacob to whom he gave the name Israel.
2Ki 17:35 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had made a covenant with them and had given them this command, 'You are not to worship alien gods, you are not to bow down to them or serve them or offer them sacrifices.
2Ki 17:36 You are to bow down and offer sacrifice only to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who brought you out of Egypt with great power and outstretched arm.
2Ki 17:37 You are to observe the statutes and ritual, the law and the commandments which he has given you in writing and to which you are always to conform; you are not to worship alien gods.
2Ki 17:38 Do not forget the covenant which I have made with you, and do not venerate alien gods.
2Ki 17:39 But venerate Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and he will deliver you from the clutches of all your enemies.'
2Ki 17:40 But they would not listen and still followed their old rites.
2Ki 17:41 These nationalities, then, worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and served their idols as well, as did their children; and their children's children still behave today as their ancestors behaved in the past.
2Ki 18:1 In the third year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Hezekiah son of Ahaz became king of Judah.
2Ki 18:2 He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.
2Ki 18:3 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, just as his ancestor David had done.
2Ki 18:4 He abolished the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles and smashed the bronze serpent which Moses had made; for up to that time the Israelites had offered sacrifices to it; it was called Nehushtan.
2Ki 18:5 He put his trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel. No king of Judah after him could be compared with him -- nor any of those before him.
2Ki 18:6 He was devoted to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), never turning from him, but keeping the commandments which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had laid down for Moses.
2Ki 18:7 And so Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with him, and he was successful in all that he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and refused to serve him.
2Ki 18:8 He beat the Philistines back to Gaza, laying their territory waste from watchtower to fortified town.
2Ki 18:9 In the fourth year of Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria marched on Samaria and laid siege to it.
2Ki 18:10 He captured it after three years. Samaria fell in the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel.
2Ki 18:11 The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah on the Habor, a river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
2Ki 18:12 This happened because they had not obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God and had broken his covenant, everything that Moses servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had laid down. They neither listened to it nor put it into practice.
2Ki 18:13 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced on all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them.
2Ki 18:14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent this message to the king of Assyria at Lachish, 'I have been at fault. Call off the attack, and I will submit to whatever you impose on me.' The king of Assyria exacted three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold from Hezekiah king of Judah,
2Ki 18:15 and Hezekiah gave him all the silver in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and in the palace treasury.
2Ki 18:16 At which time, Hezekiah stripped the facing from the leaves and jambs of the doors of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), which an earlier king of Judah had put on, and gave it to the king of Assyria.
2Ki 18:17 From Lachish the king of Assyria sent the cupbearer-in-chief with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. He marched on Jerusalem and, on his arrival, took up position near the conduit of the upper pool which is on the road to the Fuller's Field.
2Ki 18:18 He summoned the king. The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph went out to him.
2Ki 18:19 The cupbearer-in-chief said to them, 'Say to Hezekiah, "The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What makes you so confident?
2Ki 18:20 Do you think empty words are as good as strategy and military strength? Who are you relying on, to dare to rebel against me?
2Ki 18:21 There you are, relying on that broken reed Egypt, which pricks and pierces the hand of whoever leans on it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him.
2Ki 18:22 You may say to me: We rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God. But have his high places and altars not been suppressed by Hezekiah who told Judah and Jerusalem: Here, in Jerusalem, is the altar before which you must worship?
2Ki 18:23 Very well, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find horsemen to ride them.
2Ki 18:24 How could you repel a single one of the least of my master's soldiers? And yet you have relied on Egypt for chariots and horsemen.
2Ki 18:25 And lastly, have I marched on this place to lay it waste without warrant from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself said to me: March on this country and lay it waste." '
2Ki 18:26 Eliakim, Shebnah and Joah said to the cupbearer-in-chief, 'Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the Judaean language within earshot of the people on the ramparts.'
2Ki 18:27 But the cupbearer-in-chief said, 'Do you think my lord sent me here to say these things to your master or to you? On the contrary, it was to the people sitting on the ramparts who, like you, are doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine.'
2Ki 18:28 The cupbearer-in-chief then drew himself up and shouted loudly in the Judaean language, 'Listen to the word of the great king, the king of Assyria.
2Ki 18:29 The king says this, "Do not let Hezekiah delude you. He will be powerless to save you from my clutches.
2Ki 18:30 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by saying: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is sure to save us; this city will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches.
2Ki 18:31 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says this: Make peace with me, surrender to me, and every one of you will be free to eat the fruit of his own vine and of his own fig tree and to drink the water of his own storage-well
2Ki 18:32 until I come and take you away to a country like your own, a land of corn and good wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil and honey: and so you will survive and not die. Do not listen to Hezekiah; he is deluding you when he says: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will save us.
2Ki 18:33 Has any god of any nation been able to save his country from the king of Assyria's clutches?
2Ki 18:34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivvah? Where are the local gods of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from my clutches?
2Ki 18:35 Of all the local gods, which ones have saved their countries from my clutches, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to be able to save Jerusalem from my clutches?" '
2Ki 18:36 The people, however, kept quiet and said nothing in reply, since the king had given the order, 'You are not to answer him.'
2Ki 18:37 The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph, with their clothes torn, went to Hezekiah and reported what the cupbearer-in-chief had said.
2Ki 19:1 On hearing this, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and went to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 19:2 He sent Eliakim master of the palace, Shebnah the secretary and the elders of the priests, wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
2Ki 19:3 They said to him, 'This is what Hezekiah says, "Today is a day of suffering, of punishment, of disgrace. Children come to birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth.
2Ki 19:4 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God hear the words of the cupbearer-in-chief whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to insult the living God, and may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God punish the words he has heard. Offer your prayer for the remnant still remaining." '
2Ki 19:5 King Hezekiah's ministers went to Isaiah,
2Ki 19:6 and Isaiah said to them, 'Say to your master, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard or the blasphemies which the king of Assyria's minions have uttered against me.
2Ki 19:7 Look, I am going to put a spirit in him and, on the strength of a rumour, he will go back to his own country, and in that country I shall make him fall by the sword." '
2Ki 19:8 The cupbearer turned about and rejoined the king of Assyria, who was then attacking Libnah, as the cupbearer had learnt that the king had already left Lachish
2Ki 19:9 on hearing that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to attack him.
2Ki 19:10 Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 'Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this, "Do not let your God on whom you are relying deceive you with the promise: Jerusalem will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches.
2Ki 19:11 You have learnt by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Are you likely to be saved?
2Ki 19:12 Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors devastated save them-Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the Edenites who were in Tel Basar?
2Ki 19:13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah?" '
2Ki 19:14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it; he then went up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and spread it out before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 19:15 Hezekiah said this prayer in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, enthroned on the winged creatures, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world, you made heaven and earth.
2Ki 19:16 Give ear, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and listen; open your eyes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and see! Hear the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to insult the living God.
2Ki 19:17 It is true, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations,
2Ki 19:18 they have thrown their gods on the fire, for these were not gods but human artifacts -- wood and stone -- and hence they have destroyed them.
2Ki 19:19 But now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, save us from his clutches, I beg you, and let all the kingdoms of the world know that you alone are God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
2Ki 19:20 Isaiah son of Amoz then sent the following message to Hezekiah, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "I have heard the prayer which you have addressed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria."
2Ki 19:21 Here is the pronouncement which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made about him: "She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion; she tosses her head at you, the daughter of Jerusalem!
2Ki 19:22 Whom have you insulted, whom have you blasphemed? Against whom raised your voice and lifted your haughty eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel!
2Ki 19:23 Through your envoys you have insulted the Lord, thinking: With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain-tops, the utmost peaks of Lebanon. I have felled its mighty cedars, its finest cypresses, have reached its furthest recesses, its forest garden.
2Ki 19:24 Yes, I have dug and drunk of foreign waters; under the soles of my feet I have dried up all Egypt's rivers.
2Ki 19:25 "Do you hear? Long ago I prepared this, from days of old I actually planned it, now I carry it out. You were to lay walled cities in heaps of ruins;
2Ki 19:26 that was why their inhabitants, feeble of hand, were dismayed and discomfited, were weak as grass, were frail as plants, were like grass of housetop and meadow under the east wind.
2Ki 19:27 But whether you stand up or you sit down, whether you go out or you come in, I know it.
2Ki 19:28 Because you have raved against me, and your arrogance has reached my ears, I shall put a hook through your nostrils and a muzzle on your lips, and make you return by the road by which you came.
2Ki 19:29 "And this will be the sign for you: this year will be eaten the self-sown grain, next year what sprouts in the fallow; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
2Ki 19:30 The surviving remnant of the House of Judah will bring forth new roots below and fruits above;
2Ki 19:31 for a remnant will issue from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth's jealous love will accomplish this.
2Ki 19:32 "This, then, is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says about the king of Assyria: "He will not enter this city, will shoot no arrow at it, confront it with no shield, throw up no earthwork against it.
2Ki 19:33 By the road by which he came, by that he will return; he will not enter this city, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 19:34 I shall protect this city and save it for my sake and my servant David's sake." '
2Ki 19:35 That same night the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. In the early morning when it was time to get up, there they lay, so many corpses.
2Ki 19:36 Sennacherib struck camp and left; he returned home and stayed in Nineveh.
2Ki 19:37 One day when he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped into the territory of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him.
2Ki 20:1 About then Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live." '
2Ki 20:2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ki 20:3 'Ah, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), remember, I beg you, that I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what you regard as right.' And Hezekiah shed many tears.
2Ki 20:4 Isaiah had not left the middle court, before the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to him,
2Ki 20:5 'Go back and say to Hezekiah, prince of my people, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you: in three days' time you will go up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 20:6 I shall add fifteen years to your life. I shall save you and this city from the king of Assyria's clutches and defend this city for my sake and my servant David's sake." '
2Ki 20:7 'Bring a fig poultice,' Isaiah said; they brought one, applied it to the ulcer, and the king recovered.
2Ki 20:8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'What is the sign to tell me that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will cure me and that I shall be going up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in three days' time?'
2Ki 20:9 'Here', Isaiah replied, 'is the sign from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that he will do what he has said; would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or to go back ten steps?'
2Ki 20:10 'It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps,' Hezekiah replied. 'No, I would rather the shadow went back ten steps.'
2Ki 20:11 The prophet Isaiah then called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who made the shadow cast by the declining sun on the steps -- the steps to Ahaz's roof-room -- go back ten steps.
2Ki 20:12 At that time the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard of his illness and his recovery.
2Ki 20:13 Hezekiah was delighted at this and showed the ambassadors his entire treasury, the silver, gold, spices, precious oil, his armoury too, and everything to be seen in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in his whole domain that Hezekiah did not show them.
2Ki 20:14 The prophet Isaiah then came to King Hezekiah and asked him, 'What have these men said, and where have they come from?' Hezekiah answered, 'They have come from a distant country, from Babylon.'
2Ki 20:15 Isaiah said, 'What have they seen in your palace?' 'They have seen everything in my palace,' Hezekiah answered. 'There is nothing in my storehouses that I have not shown them.'
2Ki 20:16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ki 20:17 "The days are coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have amassed until now, will be carried off to Babylon. Not a thing will be left," Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
2Ki 20:18 "Sons sprung from you, sons fathered by you, will be abducted to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." '
2Ki 20:19 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'This word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that you announce is reassuring,' for he was thinking, 'And why not? So long as there is peace and security during my lifetime.'
2Ki 20:20 The rest of the history of Hezekiah, all his prowess, how he constructed the pool and the conduit to bring water into the city, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 20:21 Then Hezekiah fell asleep with his ancestors; his son Manasseh succeeded him.
2Ki 21:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.
2Ki 21:2 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), copying the disgusting practices of the nations whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dispossessed for the Israelites.
2Ki 21:3 He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had destroyed, he set up altars to Baal and made a sacred pole as Ahab king of Israel had done, he worshipped the whole array of heaven and served it.
2Ki 21:4 He built altars in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said, 'Jerusalem is where I shall put my name.'
2Ki 21:5 He built altars to the whole array of heaven in the two courts of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 21:6 He caused his son to pass through the fire of sacrifice, he also practised soothsaying and divination and set up mediums and spirit guides. He did very many more things displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), thus provoking his anger.
2Ki 21:7 He had an image of Asherah carved and placed it inside the Temple of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said to David and his son Solomon, 'In this Temple and in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall put my Name for ever.
2Ki 21:8 Nor shall I ever again set Israel's footsteps wandering outside the country which I gave to their ancestors, provided they are careful to observe all I have commanded them as laid down in the whole Law which my servant Moses prescribed for them.'
2Ki 21:9 But they would not listen, and Manasseh misled them into doing worse things than the nations whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had destroyed for the Israelites.
2Ki 21:10 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke through his servants the prophets as follows,
2Ki 21:11 'Since Manasseh king of Judah has done these shameful deeds, doing more wicked deeds than anything which the Amorites did before him, and has led Judah too into sin with his idols,
2Ki 21:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "Look, I shall bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah as will make the ears of all who hear of it tingle.
2Ki 21:13 Over Jerusalem I shall stretch the same measuring line as over Samaria, the same plumb-rule as for the House of Ahab; I shall scour Jerusalem as someone scours a dish and, having scoured it, turns it upside down.
2Ki 21:14 I shall cast away the remnant of my heritage, delivering them into the clutches of their enemies and making them the prey and booty of all their enemies,
2Ki 21:15 because they have done what is displeasing to me and have provoked my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until now." '
2Ki 21:16 Manasseh shed innocent blood, too, in such great quantity that he flooded Jerusalem from one end to the other, besides the sins into which he led Judah by doing what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 21:17 The rest of the history of Manasseh, his entire career, the sins he committed, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 21:18 Then Manasseh fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his palace, the Garden of Uzza; his son Amon succeeded him.
2Ki 21:19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth daughter of Haruz, of Jotbah.
2Ki 21:20 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as Manasseh his father had done.
2Ki 21:21 In every respect he followed the example of his father, serving the idols which his father had served, and worshipping them.
2Ki 21:22 He abandoned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of his ancestors; he did not follow the way of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 21:23 Amon's retinue plotted against the king and killed him in his own palace.
2Ki 21:24 The people of the country, however, slaughtered all those who had plotted against King Amon and proclaimed his son Josiah as his successor.
2Ki 21:25 The rest of the history of Amon, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 21:26 He was buried in his father's tomb in the Garden of Uzza; his son Josiah succeeded him.
2Ki 22:1 Josiah was eight years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah, of Bozkath.
2Ki 22:2 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, and in every respect followed the example of his ancestor David, not deviating from it to right or left.
2Ki 22:3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent the secretary Shaphan son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 22:4 'Go to Hilkiah the high priest,' he told him, 'and tell him to melt down the silver contributed to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and collected by the guardians of the threshold from the people.
2Ki 22:5 He is to hand it over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for them to pay it over to men working on the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to repair the damaged parts of the Temple:
2Ki 22:6 to the carpenters, builders and masons, and for buying timber and dressed stone for the Temple repairs.'
2Ki 22:7 The latter were not required to render account of the money handed over to them, since they were conscientious in their work.
2Ki 22:8 The high priest Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, who read it.
2Ki 22:9 Shaphan the secretary went to the king, reporting furthermore to him as follows, 'Your servants have melted down the silver which was in the Temple and have handed it over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
2Ki 22:10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, 'The priest Hilkiah has given me a book'; and Shaphan read it aloud in the king's presence.
2Ki 22:11 On hearing the words of the Book of the Law he tore his clothes.
2Ki 22:12 Then the king gave the following order to the priest Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's minister:
2Ki 22:13 'Go and consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on behalf of me and the people about the words of the book that has been discovered; for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s furious wrath has been kindled against us because our ancestors disobeyed the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by not doing what this book says they ought to have done.'
2Ki 22:14 The priest Hilkiah, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to the prophetess Huldah wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, son of Harhas the keeper of the wardrobe; she lived in Jerusalem in the new town. They put the matter to her,
2Ki 22:15 and she replied, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "To the man who sent you to me say this:
2Ki 22:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am going to bring disaster on this place and the people who live in it -- all the words of the book read by the king of Judah.
2Ki 22:17 Because they have abandoned me and sacrificed to other gods, so as to provoke my anger by their every action, my wrath is kindled against this place, and nothing can stop it.
2Ki 22:18 As for the king of Judah who sent you to consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), say this to him: As regards the words you have heard . . .
2Ki 22:19 But since your heart has been touched and you have humbled yourself before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on hearing what I have decreed against this place and the people who live in it, how they will become an object of horror and cursing, and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I too have heard -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this.
2Ki 22:20 So look, when I gather you to your ancestors, you will be gathered into your grave in peace; you will not live to see the great disaster that I am going to bring on this place." ' They took this answer to the king.
2Ki 23:1 The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned to him,
2Ki 23:2 and the king went up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, priests, prophets and the whole populace, high and low. In their hearing he read out the entire contents of the Book of the Covenant discovered in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 23:3 The king then, standing on the dais, bound himself by the covenant before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to follow Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to keep his commandments, decrees and laws with all his heart and soul, and to carry out the terms of the covenant as written in this book. All the people pledged their allegiance to the covenant.
2Ki 23:4 The king ordered Hilkiah with the priest next in rank and the guardians of the threshold to remove all the cult objects which had been made for Baal, Asherah and the whole array of heaven; he burnt them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and had the ashes taken to Bethel.
2Ki 23:5 He exterminated the spurious priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed and who offered sacrifice on the high places, in the towns of Judah and the neighborhood of Jerusalem; also those who offered sacrifice to Baal, to the sun, the moon, the constellations and the whole array of heaven.
2Ki 23:6 And from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) he took the sacred pole outside Jerusalem to the Kidron valley and in the Kidron valley he burnt it, reducing it to ashes and throwing its ashes on the common burial-ground.
2Ki 23:7 He pulled down the house of the sacred male prostitutes which was in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and where the women wove veils for Asherah.
2Ki 23:8 He brought all the priests in from the towns of Judah, and from Geba to Beersheba he rendered unsanctified the high places where these priests had offered sacrifice. He pulled down the High Place of the Gates, which stood at the gate of Joshua, the governor of the city, to the left of the entry to the city.
2Ki 23:9 The priests of the high places, however, did not officiate at the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem, although they did share the unleavened bread of their brother-priests.
2Ki 23:10 He rendered unsanctified Tophet in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, so that no one could pass his son or daughter through the fire of sacrifice to Molech.
2Ki 23:11 He destroyed the horses which the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun at the entrance to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), near the apartment of Nathan-Melech the official, in the precincts, and he burned the solar chariot.
2Ki 23:12 The king pulled down altars which the kings of Judah had built on the roof and those which Manasseh had built in the two courts of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and broke them to pieces on the spot, throwing their rubble into the Kidron valley.
2Ki 23:13 The king rendered unsanctified the high places facing Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Olives, which Solomon king of Israel had built for Astarte the Sidonian abomination, for Chemosh the Moabite abomination, and for Milcom the Ammonite abomination.
2Ki 23:14 He also smashed the sacred pillars, cut down the sacred poles, and covered with human bones the places where they had stood.
2Ki 23:15 As for the altar which was at Bethel, the high place built by Jeroboam son of Nebat who had led Israel into sin, he demolished this altar and this high place as well, in the same way, breaking up its stones and reducing them to powder. The sacred pole he burned.
2Ki 23:16 On looking round, Josiah saw the tombs there on the hillside; he had the bones fetched from the tombs and burned them on the altar. This he rendered unsanctified, in accordance with the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which the man of God had proclaimed when Jeroboam was standing by the altar at the time of the feast. On looking round, Josiah caught sight of the tomb of the man of God who had foretold these things.
2Ki 23:17 'What is that monument I see?' he asked. The townspeople replied, 'It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and foretold what you have done to the altar.'
2Ki 23:18 'Let him rest,' the king said, 'and let no one disturb his bones.' So they left his bones untouched, with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.
2Ki 23:19 Josiah also destroyed all the shrines on the high places which were in the towns of Samaria and which the kings of Israel had built to provoke Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger; he treated these places exactly as he had treated the one at Bethel.
2Ki 23:20 All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars, and on those altars burned human bones. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:21 The king gave this order to the whole people: 'Celebrate a Passover to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, as prescribed in this Book of the Covenant.'
2Ki 23:22 No Passover like this had ever been celebrated since the days when the judges ruled Israel, nor throughout the entire period of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah.
2Ki 23:23 The eighteenth year of King Josiah was the only time when such a Passover was celebrated in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor in Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:24 What is more, the spirit-guides and mediums, the household gods and idols, and all the abominations to be seen in the country of Judah and in Jerusalem, were swept away by Josiah to give effect to the words of the Law written in the book found by the priest Hilkiah in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ki 23:25 No king before him turned to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as he did, with all his heart, all his soul, all his strength, in perfect loyalty to the Law of Moses; nor did any king like him arise again.
2Ki 23:26 Yet Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did not renounce the heat of his great anger which had been aroused against Judah by all the provocations which Manasseh had caused him.
2Ki 23:27 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'I shall thrust Judah away from me too, as I have already thrust Israel; I shall cast off Jerusalem, this city which I have chosen, and the Temple of which I have said: My Name shall be there.'
2Ki 23:28 The rest of the history of Josiah, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 23:29 In his times, Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt was advancing to meet the king of Assyria at the River Euphrates, and King Josiah went to intercept him; but Necho killed him at Megiddo in the first encounter.
2Ki 23:30 His retainers carried his body from Megiddo by chariot; they brought him to Jerusalem and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the country then took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and anointed him, proclaiming him king in succession to his father.
2Ki 23:31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, of Libnah.
2Ki 23:32 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), just as his ancestors had done.
2Ki 23:33 Pharaoh Necho put him in chains at Riblah in Hamath, to prevent his reigning any longer in Jerusalem, and imposed a levy of a hundred talents of silver and ten talents of gold on the country.
2Ki 23:34 Pharaoh Necho then made Eliakim son of Josiah king in succession to Josiah his father, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Carrying off Jehoahaz, he took him to Egypt, where he died.
2Ki 23:35 Jehoiakim paid over the silver and gold to Pharaoh, but first had to tax the people of the country before he could raise the sum which Pharaoh demanded: he levied the silver and gold to be paid over to Pharaoh Necho from each according to his means.
2Ki 23:36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
2Ki 23:37 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), just as his ancestors had done.
2Ki 24:1 In his times, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded, and Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, but then rebelled against him a second time.
2Ki 24:2 So he sent armed bands of Chaldaeans, Aramaeans, Moabites and Ammonites against him; he sent these against Judah to destroy it, in accordance with the word which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had spoken through his servants the prophets.
2Ki 24:3 It was entirely due to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger that this happened to Judah; he had resolved to thrust them away from him because of Manasseh's sins and all that he had done,
2Ki 24:4 and also because of the innocent blood which he had shed, flooding Jerusalem with innocent blood. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) would not forgive.
2Ki 24:5 The rest of the history of Jehoiakim, his entire career, is this not recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?
2Ki 24:6 Then Jehoiakim fell asleep with his ancestors; his son Jehoiachin succeeded him.
2Ki 24:7 The king of Egypt did not leave his own country again, because the king of Babylon had conquered everywhere belonging to the king of Egypt, from the Torrent of Egypt to the River Euphrates.
2Ki 24:8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
2Ki 24:9 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), just as his father had done.
2Ki 24:10 At that time the troops of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
2Ki 24:11 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on the city and his generals laid siege to it.
2Ki 24:12 Jehoiachin king of Judah-he, his mother, his retinue, his nobles and his officials -- then surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the king of Babylon took them prisoner in the eighth year of his reign.
2Ki 24:13 The latter carried off all the treasures of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the treasures of the palace and broke up all the golden furnishings which Solomon king of Israel had made for the sanctuary of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had foretold.
2Ki 24:14 He carried all Jerusalem off into exile, all the nobles and all the notables, ten thousand of these were exiled, with all the blacksmiths and metalworkers; only the poorest people in the country were left behind.
2Ki 24:15 He deported Jehoiachin to Babylon, as also the king's mother, his officials and the nobility of the country; he made them all leave Jerusalem for exile in Babylon.
2Ki 24:16 All the men of distinction, seven thousand of them, the blacksmiths and metalworkers, one thousand of them, all the men capable of bearing arms, were led off into exile in Babylon by the king of Babylon.
2Ki 24:17 The king of Babylon deposed Jehoiachin in favor of his paternal uncle Mattaniah, whose name he changed to Zedekiah.
2Ki 24:18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamital daughter of Jeremiah, of Libnah.
2Ki 24:19 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), just as Jehoiakim had done.
2Ki 24:20 It was entirely due to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger that this happened to Jerusalem and Judah. It resulted in his casting them from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
2Ki 25:1 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem with his entire army; he pitched camp in front of the city and threw up earthworks round it.
2Ki 25:2 The city lay under siege till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
2Ki 25:3 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, when famine was raging in the city and there was no food for the populace,
2Ki 25:4 a breach was made in the city wall. The king then made his escape under cover of dark, with all the fighting men, by way of the gate between the two walls, which is near the king's garden -- the Chaldaeans had surrounded the city -- and made his way towards the Arabah.
2Ki 25:5 The Chaldaean troops pursued the king and caught up with him in the Plains of Jericho, where all his troops deserted.
2Ki 25:6 The Chaldaeans captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah, who passed sentence on him.
2Ki 25:7 He had Zedekiah's sons slaughtered before his eyes, then put out Zedekiah's eyes and, loading him with chains, carried him off to Babylon.
2Ki 25:8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month -- it was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon -- Nebuzaradan commander of the guard, a member of the king of Babylon's staff, entered Jerusalem.
2Ki 25:9 He burned down the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the royal palace and all the houses in Jerusalem.
2Ki 25:10 The Chaldaean troops who accompanied the commander of the guard demolished the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
2Ki 25:11 Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported the remainder of the population left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the common people.
2Ki 25:12 But the commander of the guard left some of the poor country people behind as vineyard workers and ploughmen.
2Ki 25:13 The Chaldaeans broke up the bronze pillars from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the wheeled stands and the bronze Sea, which were in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and took the bronze away to Babylon.
2Ki 25:14 They also took the ash containers, the scoops, the knives, the incense boats, and all the bronze furnishings used in worship.
2Ki 25:15 The commander of the guard also took the censers and the sprinkling bowls, everything made of gold and everything made of silver.
2Ki 25:16 As regards the two pillars, the one Sea and the wheeled stands, which Solomon of bronze in all these objects.
2Ki 25:17 The height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, and on it stood a capital of bronze, the height of the capital being five cubits; round the capital were filigree and pomegranates, all in bronze. So also for the second pillar.
2Ki 25:18 The commander of the guard took prisoner Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three guardians of the threshold.
2Ki 25:19 In the city he took prisoner an official who was in command of the fighting men, five of the king's personal friends who were discovered in the city, the secretary to the army commander, responsible for military conscription, and sixty men of distinction discovered in the city.
2Ki 25:20 Nebuzaradan commander of the guard took these men and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah,
2Ki 25:21 and at Riblah in the territory of Hamath the king of Babylon had them put to death. Thus Judah was deported from its country.
2Ki 25:22 For the people remaining in the country of Judah whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had left behind, he appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan as governor.
2Ki 25:23 When the military leaders and their men all heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they went to him at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the Maacathite, they and their men.
2Ki 25:24 To them and to their men Gedaliah swore an oath. 'Do not be afraid of the Chaldaeans,' he said, 'stay in the country, serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well with you.'
2Ki 25:25 But in the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, and ten men with him, came and murdered Gedaliah, as well as the Judaeans and Chaldaeans who were with him at Mizpah.
2Ki 25:26 Then all the people, high and low, with the military leaders, set off and went to Egypt, being afraid of the Chaldaeans.
2Ki 25:27 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year he came to the throne, pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.
2Ki 25:28 He treated him with kindness and allotted him a seat above those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
2Ki 25:29 So Jehoiachin laid aside his prisoner's garb, and for the rest of his life always ate at the king's table.
2Ki 25:30 And his upkeep was permanently ensured by the king, day after day, for the rest of his life.
1Ch 1:1 Adam, Seth, Enosh,
1Ch 1:2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared,
1Ch 1:3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech,
1Ch 1:4 Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
1Ch 1:5 Sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, the Medes, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, Tiras.
1Ch 1:6 Sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath, Togarmah.
1Ch 1:7 Sons of Javan: Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittim, the Dananites.
1Ch 1:8 Sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, Canaan.
1Ch 1:9 Sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabta, Raama, Sabeteca. Sons of Raamah: Sheba, Dedan.
1Ch 1:10 Cush fathered Nimrod, the first mighty warrior on earth.
1Ch 1:11 Mizraim fathered the people of Lud, of Anam, of Lehab, of Naphtuh,
1Ch 1:12 of Pathros, Casluh and Caphtor, from which the Philistines came.
1Ch 1:13 Canaan fathered Sidon, his first-born, then Heth,
1Ch 1:14 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites,
1Ch 1:15 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites,
1Ch 1:16 Arvadites, Zemarites, Hamathites.
1Ch 1:17 Sons of Shem: Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, Aram. Sons of Aram: Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshech.
1Ch 1:18 Arpachshad fathered Shelah, and Shelah fathered Eber.
1Ch 1:19 To Eber were born two sons; the first was called Peleg, because it was in his time that the earth was divided into districts, and his brother was called Joktan.
1Ch 1:20 Joktan fathered Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah,
1Ch 1:21 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah,
1Ch 1:22 Ebal, Abimael, Sheba,
1Ch 1:23 Ophir, Havilah, Jobab; all these are sons of Joktan.
1Ch 1:24 Arpachshad, Shelah,
1Ch 1:25 Eber, Peleg, Reu,
1Ch 1:26 Serug, Nahor, Terah,
1Ch 1:27 Abram, that is, Abraham.
1Ch 1:28 Sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael.
1Ch 1:29 These are their descendants: The first-born of Ishmael, Nebaioth; then Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam,
1Ch 1:30 Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hada, Tema,
1Ch 1:31 Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael.
1Ch 1:32 Sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she gave birth to Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Sons of Jokshan: Sheba and Dedan.
1Ch 1:33 Sons of Midian: Ephah, Epher, Hanoch, Abida, Eldaah. All these are sons of Keturah.
1Ch 1:34 Abraham fathered Isaac. Sons of Isaac: Esau and Israel.
1Ch 1:35 Sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam and Korah.
1Ch 1:36 Sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zephi, Gatam, Kenaz, Timna, Amalek.
1Ch 1:37 Sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, Mizzah.
1Ch 1:38 Sons of Seir: Lotan, Shobal, Zibeon, Anah, Dishon, Ezer, Dishan.
1Ch 1:39 Sons of Lotan: Hori and Homam. Sister of Lotan: Timma.
1Ch 1:40 Sons of Shobal: Alian, Manahath, Ebal, Shephi, Onam. Sons of Zibeon: Aiah and Anah.
1Ch 1:41 Son of Anah: Dishon. Sons of Dishon: Hamran, Eshban, Ithran, Cheran.
1Ch 1:42 Sons of Ezer: Bilhan, Zaavan, Jaakan. Sons of Dishan: Uz and Aran.
1Ch 1:43 These are the kings who ruled in Edom before an Israelite king ruled: Bela son of Beor; his city was called Dinhabah.
1Ch 1:44 Bela died and Jobab son of Zerah, from Bozrah, succeeded.
1Ch 1:45 Jobab died and Husham from the territory of the Temanites succeeded.
1Ch 1:46 Husham died and Hada son of Bedad succeeded; he defeated the Midianites in Moab, and his city was called Avith.
1Ch 1:47 Hadad died and Samlah of Masrekah succeeded.
1Ch 1:48 Samlah died and Shaul of Rehoboth-ha-Nahar succeeded.
1Ch 1:49 Shaul died and Baal-Hanan son of Achbor succeeded.
1Ch 1:50 Baal-Hanan died and Hadad succeeded. His city was called Pai; his wife's name was Mehetabel daughter of Matred, daughter of Mezahab.
1Ch 1:51 Hadad died, and then there were chiefs in Edom: Chief Timna, Chief Aliah, Chief Jetheth,
1Ch 1:52 Chief Oholibamah, Chief Elah, Chief Pinon,
1Ch 1:53 Chief Kenaz, Chief Teman, Chief Mibzar,
1Ch 1:54 Chief Magdiel, Chief Iram. These were the chiefs of Edom.
1Ch 2:1 These are the sons of Israel: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun.
1Ch 2:2 Dan, Joseph, and Benjamin, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.
1Ch 2:3 Sons of Judah: Er, Onan and Shelah. These three were born to him by Bath-shua the Canaanite woman. Er, Judah's first-born, displeased Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who put him to death.
1Ch 2:4 Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law, bore him Perez and Zerah. Judah had five sons in all.
1Ch 2:5 Sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.
1Ch 2:6 Sons of Zerah: Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Calcol and Dara, five in all.
1Ch 2:7 Sons of Carmi: Achar, who brought trouble on Israel by being unfaithful to the curse of destruction.
1Ch 2:8 Sons of Ethan: Azariah.
1Ch 2:9 Sons of Hezron: there were born to him Jerahmeel, Ram, Chelubai.
1Ch 2:10 Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon chief of the sons of Judah,
1Ch 2:11 Nahshon fathered Salma, Salma fathered Boaz.
1Ch 2:12 Boaz fathered Obed, Obed fathered Jesse.
1Ch 2:13 Jesse fathered Eliab, his first-born, Abinadab second, Shimea third,
1Ch 2:14 Nethanel fourth, Raddai fifth,
1Ch 2:15 Ozem sixth, David seventh.
1Ch 2:16 Their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. Sons of Zeruiah: Abishai, Joab and Asahel: three.
1Ch 2:17 Abigail gave birth to Amasa; father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmaelite.
1Ch 2:18 Caleb son of Hezron fathered Jerioth by Azubah his wife; these are her sons: Jesher, Shobab and Ardon.
1Ch 2:19 Azubah died, and Caleb married Ephrath, who bore him Hur.
1Ch 2:20 Hur fathered Uri, Uri fathered Bezalel.
1Ch 2:21 Afterwards, Hezron married the daughter of Machir, father of Gilead; he married her when he was sixty years old and she bore him Segub.
1Ch 2:22 Segub fathered Jair who held twenty-three towns in the territory of Gilead.
1Ch 2:23 From them, however, Geshur and Aram took the Encampments of Jair and Kenath with its dependencies: sixty towns. All these used to belong to the sons of Machir father of Gilead.
1Ch 2:24 After Hezron's death, Caleb married Ephrathah, wife of Hezron his father, who bore him Ashhur father of Tekoa.
1Ch 2:25 Jerahmeel, Hezron's eldest son, fathered Hezron, his first-born, Ram, Bunah, Oren, Ozem, Ahijah.
1Ch 2:26 Jerahmeel had another wife called Atarah; she was the mother of Onam.
1Ch 2:27 Sons of Ram, Jerahmeel's first-born: Maaz, Jamin and Eker.
1Ch 2:28 Sons of Onam: Shammai and Jada. Sons of Shammai: Nadab and Abishur.
1Ch 2:29 Abishur's wife was called Abihail; she bore him Ahban and Molid.
1Ch 2:30 Sons of Nadab: Seled and Ephraim. Seled died leaving no son.
1Ch 2:31 Son of Ephraim: Ishi; son of Ishi: Sheshan; son of Sheshan: Ahlai.
1Ch 2:32 Sons of Jada, Shammai's brother: Jether and Jonathan. Jether died leaving no sons.
1Ch 2:33 Sons of Jonathan: Peleth and Zaza. These were the sons of Jerahmeel.
1Ch 2:34 Sheshan had no sons, only daughters. He had an Egyptian slave Jarha
1Ch 2:35 to whom Sheshan gave his daughter in marriage. She bore him Attai.
1Ch 2:36 Attai fathered Nathan, Nathan fathered Zabad,
1Ch 2:37 Zabad fathered Ephlal, Ephlal fathered Obed,
1Ch 2:38 Obed fathered Jehu, Jehu fathered Azariah,
1Ch 2:39 Azariah fathered Helez, Helez fathered Eleasah,
1Ch 2:40 Eleasah fathered Sismai, Sismai fathered Shallum,
1Ch 2:41 Shallum fathered Jekamiah, Jekamiah fathered Elishama.
1Ch 2:42 Sons of Caleb, Jerahmeel's brother: Mesha, his first-born, who fathered Ziph. His son was Mareshah, father of Hebron.
1Ch 2:43 Sons of Hebron: Korah, Tappuah, Rekem and Shema.
1Ch 2:44 Shema fathered Raham, father of Jorkeam. Rekem fathered Shammai.
1Ch 2:45 Shammai's son was Maon, and Maon fathered Beth-Zur.
1Ch 2:46 Ephah, Caleb's concubine, gave birth to Haran, Moza and Gazez. Haran fathered Gazez.
1Ch 2:47 Sons of Jahdai: Regem, Jotham, Geshan, Pelet, Ephah and Shaaph.
1Ch 2:48 Maacah, Caleb's concubine, gave birth to Sheber and Tirhanah.
1Ch 2:49 She gave birth to Shaaph, who fathered Madmannah, and Sheva, who fathered Machbenah and Gibea. The daughter of Caleb was Achsah.
1Ch 2:50 These were the sons of Caleb. Sons of Hur, the first-born of Ephrathah: Shobal fathered Kiriath-Jearim;
1Ch 2:51 Salma fathered Bethlehem; Hareph fathered Beth-Gader.
1Ch 2:52 Shobal, father of Kiriath-Jearim, had sons: Haroeh, that is, half of the Manahathites,
1Ch 2:53 and the clans of Kiriath-Jearim: the Ithrites, Puthites, Shumathites and Mishraites. Their descendants are the people of Zorah and Eshtaol.
1Ch 2:54 Sons of Salma: Bethlehem, the Netophathites, Atroth Beth-Joab, half of the Manahathites, the Zorathites,
1Ch 2:55 the Sophrite clans living at Jabez, the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, the Sucathites. They were the Kenites descended from Hammath, father of the House of Rechab.
1Ch 3:1 These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the first-born Amnon, by Ahinoam of Jezreel; second, Daniel, by Abigail of Carmel;
1Ch 3:2 third, Absalom son of Maacah, daughter of Talmai king of Geshur; fourth, Adonijah son of Haggith;
1Ch 3:3 fifth, Shephatiah by Abital, sixth, Ithream by his wife Eglah.
1Ch 3:4 Six, therefore, were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for three years and six months. He reigned for thirty-three years in Jerusalem.
1Ch 3:5 These are the sons who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, the four of them children of Bath-Shua daughter of Ammiel;
1Ch 3:6 Ibhar, Elishama, Eliphelet,
1Ch 3:7 Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,
1Ch 3:8 Elishama, Eliada, Eliphelet: nine.
1Ch 3:9 All these were sons of David, not counting the sons of the concubines. Tamar was their sister.
1Ch 3:10 Sons of Solomon: Rehoboam; Abijah his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,
1Ch 3:11 Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,
1Ch 3:12 Amaziah his son, Azariah his son, Jotham his son,
1Ch 3:13 Ahaz his son, Hezekiah his son, Manasseh his son,
1Ch 3:14 Amon his son, Josiah his son.
1Ch 3:15 Sons of Josiah: Johanan, the first-born, Jehoiakim second, Zedekiah third, Shallum fourth.
1Ch 3:16 The sons of Jehoiakim: Jeconiah his son, Zedekiah his son.
1Ch 3:17 Sons of Jeconiah the captive: Shealtiel his son,
1Ch 3:18 then Malchiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jechamiah, Hoshama, Nedabiah.
1Ch 3:19 Sons of Pedaiah: Zerubbabel and Shimei. Sons of Zerubbabel: Meshullam and Hananiah; Shelomith was their sister.
1Ch 3:20 Sons of Meshullam: Hashubah, Ohel, Berechiah, Hasadiah, Jushab-Hesed: five.
1Ch 3:21 Sons of Hananiah: Pelatiah; Jeshaiah his son, Rephaiah his son, Arnan his son, Obadiah his son, Shecaniah his son.
1Ch 3:22 Sons of Shecaniah: Shemaiah, Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, Shaphat: six.
1Ch 3:23 Sons of Neariah: Elioenai, Hizkiah, Azrikam: three.
1Ch 3:24 Sons of Elioenai: Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, Anani: seven.
1Ch 4:1 Sons of Judah: Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, Shobal.
1Ch 4:2 Reaiah son of Shobal fathered Jahath, and Jahath fathered Ahumai and Lahad. These are the Zoreathite clans.
1Ch 4:3 These are Abi-Etam, Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash, whose sister was called Hazzelelponi.
1Ch 4:4 Penuel fathered Gedor, and Ezer fathered Hushah. These were the sons of Hur, first-born of Ephrathah and father of Bethlehem.
1Ch 4:5 Ashhur, father of Tekoa, had two wives: Helah and Naarah.
1Ch 4:6 Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, the Timnites, and the Ahashtarites -- these were the sons of Naarah.
1Ch 4:7 Sons of Helah: Zereth, Zohar, Ethnan.
1Ch 4:8 Koz fathered Anub, Hazzobebah and the clans of Aharhel son of Harum.
1Ch 4:9 Jabez was better known than his brothers. His mother gave him the name Jabez, 'because', she said, 'in distress I gave birth to him.'
1Ch 4:10 Jabez called on the God of Israel. 'If you truly bless me,' he said, 'you will extend my lands, your hand will be with me, you will keep harm away and my distress will cease.' God granted him what he had asked.
1Ch 4:11 Chelub, Shuhah's brother, fathered Mehir, who fathered Eshton.
1Ch 4:12 Eshton fathered Bethrapha, Paseah and Tehinnah father of Irnahash. These were the men of Recab.
1Ch 4:13 Sons of Kenaz: Othniel and Seraiah. Sons of Othniel: Hathath and Meonothai;
1Ch 4:14 Meonothai fathered Ophrah. Seraiah fathered Joab, father of Geharashim -- for they were craftsmen.
1Ch 4:15 Sons of Caleb son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah and Naam. Sons of Elah: Kenaz.
1Ch 4:16 Sons of Jehallelel: Ziph, Ziphah, Tiria, Asarel.
1Ch 4:17 Sons of Ezrah: Jether, Mered, Epher, Jalon. She conceived Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah, the father of Eshtemoa,
1Ch 4:18 whose Judaean wife gave birth to Jered father of Gedor, Heber father of Soco, and Jekuthiel, father of Zanoah. These were the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh whom Mered had married.
1Ch 4:19 The sons of Hodiah's wife, sister of Naham father of Keilah the Garmite and of Eshtemoa the Maacathite . . .
1Ch 4:20 Sons of Shimon: Amnon, Rinnah, Ben-Hanan, Tilon. Sons of Ishi: Zoheth and Ben-Zoheth.
1Ch 4:21 Sons of Shelah son of Judah: Er father of Lecah, Laadah father of Mareshah, and the clans of linenworkers at Beth-Ashbea,
1Ch 4:22 Jokim, the men of Cozeba, Joash and Saraph where Moab found wives and then returned to Bethlehem. (These are old traditions.)
1Ch 4:23 These were potters and lived at Netaim and Gederah; they resided there, working for the king.
1Ch 4:24 Sons of Simeon: Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah, Saul;
1Ch 4:25 Shallum was his son, Mibsam his son, Mishma his son.
1Ch 4:26 The sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son.
1Ch 4:27 Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many children, and the sum of their clans did not multiply as the sons of Judah did.
1Ch 4:28 They lived in Beersheba, Moladah and Hazar-Shual,
1Ch 4:29 Bilhah, Ezem and Tolad,
1Ch 4:30 Bethuel, Hormah and Ziklag,
1Ch 4:31 Beth-Marcaboth, Hazar-Susim, Beth-Biri, Shaaraim.
1Ch 4:32 These were their towns until the reign of David. Their settlements were: Etam, Ain, Rimmon, Tochen and Ashan, five towns,
1Ch 4:33 and all the dependencies surrounding these towns as far as Baalath. That was where they lived and they had an official genealogy.
1Ch 4:34 Meshobab, Jamlech, Joshah son of Amaziah,
1Ch 4:35 Joel, Jehu son of Joshibiah, son of Seraiah, son of Asiel,
1Ch 4:36 Elioenai, Jaakobah, Jeshohaiah, Asaiah, Adiel, Jesimiel, Benaiah,
1Ch 4:37 Ziza, Ben-Shiphi, Ben-Allon, Ben-Jedaiah, Ben-Shimri, Ben-Shemaiah-
1Ch 4:38 these above named were princes in their clans in their ancestral home. Their numbers increased enormously.
1Ch 4:39 In search of pasture for their flocks, they spread from the Pass of Gerar to the eastern end of the valley,
1Ch 4:40 where they found good, fat pasture; the land was broad, untroubled, peaceful. Hamites had been living there before them.
1Ch 4:41 These Simeonites, recorded by name, arrived there in the time of Hezekiah king of Judah; they overran their tents and the dwellings which they found there. They put them under a curse of destruction still in force today and settled in their place, since there was pasturage for their flocks.
1Ch 4:42 Five hundred of them, of the Simeonites, went to Mount Seir, their leaders being Pelatiah, Neariah, Rephaiah, and Uzziel, the sons of Ishi.
1Ch 4:43 They defeated the surviving fugitives of Amalek and still live there today.
1Ch 5:1 Sons of Reuben, first-born of Israel. He was indeed the first-born but, when he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, and he was no longer reckoned as the eldest son.
1Ch 5:2 Although Judah grew greater than his brothers and a leader came from him, the birthright was Joseph's.
1Ch 5:3 Sons of Reuben, first-born of Israel: Henoch, Pallu, Hezron, Carmi.
1Ch 5:4 Sons of Joel: Shemaiah his son, Gog his son, Shimei his son,
1Ch 5:5 Micah his son, Reaiah his son, Baal his son.
1Ch 5:6 Beerah his son, whom Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria carried off into exile, was the chief of the Reubenites.
1Ch 5:7 His brothers, by families, were grouped according to relationship. Jeiel was first, then Zechariah
1Ch 5:8 and Bela son of Azaz, son of Shema, son of Joel. It was Reuben who lived in Aroer and his territory extended as far as Nebo and Baal-Meon.
1Ch 5:9 To eastward, what he occupied extended to the edge of the desert and the River Euphrates, for they had many herds in Gilead.
1Ch 5:10 In the time of Saul, they made war on the Hagrites, whom they defeated and who were then living in their tents throughout the eastern front of Gilead.
1Ch 5:11 Next to them, in Bashan as far as Salecah, lived the sons of Gad.
1Ch 5:12 Joel was the first, Shapham the second, then Janai and Shaphat in Bashan.
1Ch 5:13 Their brothers, by families, were Michael, Meshullam, Sheba, Jorai, Jacan, Zia, Eber: seven.
1Ch 5:14 These were the sons of Abihail: Ben-Huri, Ben-Jaroah, Ben-Gilead, Ben-Michael, Ben-Jeshishai, Ben-Jahdo, Ben-Buz.
1Ch 5:15 Ahi son of Abdiel, son of Guni, was the head of their families.
1Ch 5:16 They inhabited Gilead, Bashan and its dependencies, as well as all the pasture lands of Sharon on their extremities.
1Ch 5:17 In the time of Jotham king of Judah and in the time of Jeroboam king of Israel, all of them were included in the official genealogy.
1Ch 5:18 The sons of Reuben, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh had warriors, men armed with shield and sword who could handle the bow and were trained for war, to the number of forty-four thousand seven hundred and sixty fit for service.
1Ch 5:19 They made war on the Hagrites, on Jetur, Naphish and Nodab.
1Ch 5:20 God came to their help, and the Hagrites and all their allies fell into their hands, for they called on God as they fought, and because they put their trust in him he heard their prayer.
1Ch 5:21 Of their livestock they carried off fifty thousand camels, two hundred and fifty thousand sheep, two thousand donkeys and a hundred thousand people.
1Ch 5:22 Because the war was of God, the slaughter was great. They continued to live in their territory until the exile.
1Ch 5:23 The sons of the half-tribe of Manasseh lived in the territory between Bashan and Baal-Hermon, Senir and Mount Hermon. They were numerous.
1Ch 5:24 These were the heads of their families: Epher, Ishi, Eliel, Azriel, Jeremiah, Hodaviah, Jahdiel -- stout fighting men, men of renown, heads of their families.
1Ch 5:25 But since they were unfaithful to the God of their ancestors and prostituted themselves to the gods of the peoples of the country whom God had destroyed before them,
1Ch 5:26 the God of Israel roused the hostility of Pul, king of Assyria, that is the wrath of Tiglath-Pileser, king of Assyria who deported them -- the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh -- taking them off to Halah, Habor, Hara and the river of Gozan. They are still there today.
1Ch 5:27 Sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath and Merari.
1Ch 5:28 Sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel.
1Ch 5:29 Children of Amram: Aaron, Moses and Miriam. Sons of Aaron: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
1Ch 5:30 Eleazar fathered Phinehas, Phinehas fathered Abishua,
1Ch 5:31 Abishua fathered Bukki, Bukki fathered Uzzi.
1Ch 5:32 Uzzi fathered Zerahiah, Zerahiah fathered Meraioth.
1Ch 5:33 Meraioth fathered Amariah, Amariah fathered Ahitub,
1Ch 5:34 Ahitub fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Ahimaaz.
1Ch 5:35 Ahimaaz fathered Azariah, Azariah fathered Johanan.
1Ch 5:36 Johanan fathered Azariah. He it was who officiated as priest in the Temple which Solomon built in Jerusalem.
1Ch 5:37 Azariah fathered Amariah, Amariah fathered Ahitub,
1Ch 5:38 Ahitub fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Shallum,
1Ch 5:39 Shallum fathered Hilkiah, Hilkiah fathered Azariah,
1Ch 5:40 Azariah fathered Seraiah, Seraiah fathered Jehozadak,
1Ch 5:41 and Jehozadak went into exile when, at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) exiled Judah and Jerusalem.
1Ch 6:1 Sons of Levi: Gershom, Kohath and Merari.
1Ch 6:2 These are the names of the sons of Gershom: Libni and Shimei.
1Ch 6:3 Sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel.
1Ch 6:4 Sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. These are the levitical clans according to their father.
1Ch 6:5 Of Gershom: Libni his son, Jahath his son, Zimmah his son,
1Ch 6:6 Joah his son, Iddo his son, Zerah his son, Jeatherai his son.
1Ch 6:7 Sons of Kohath: Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son,
1Ch 6:8 Elkanah his son, Ebiasaph his son, Assir his son.
1Ch 6:9 Tahath his son, Uriel his son, Uzziah his son, Shaul his son.
1Ch 6:10 Sons of Elkanah: Amasai and Ahimoth.
1Ch 6:11 Elkanah his son, Zophai his son, Nahath his son,
1Ch 6:12 Eliab his son, Jeroham his son, Elkanah his son.
1Ch 6:13 Sons of Elkanah: Samuel his first-born, the second Abijah.
1Ch 6:14 Sons of Merari: Mahli, Libni his son,
1Ch 6:15 Shimei his son, Haggiah his son, Asaiah his son.
1Ch 6:16 These are the men whom David nominated to lead the singing in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) after the ark had come to rest there.
1Ch 6:17 They were responsible for the singing before the Dwelling, the Tent of Meeting, until Solomon had built the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem and then continued their customary duties.
1Ch 6:18 These were the persons in office, with their sons: Of the sons of Kohath: Heman the singer, son of Joel, son of Samuel,
1Ch 6:19 son of Elkanah, son of Jeroham, son of Eliel, son of Toah,
1Ch 6:20 son of Zuph, son of Elkanah, son of Mahath, son of Amasai,
1Ch 6:21 son of Elkanah, son of Joel, son of Azariah, son of Zephaniah,
1Ch 6:22 son of Tahath, son of Assir, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah,
1Ch 6:23 son of Izhar, son of Kohath, son of Levi, son of Israel.
1Ch 6:24 His brother Asaph stood on his right: Asaph son of Berechiah, son of Shimea,
1Ch 6:25 son of Michael, son of Baaseiah, son of Malchijah,
1Ch 6:26 son of Ethni, son of Zerah, son of Adaiah,
1Ch 6:27 son of Ethan, son of Zimmah, son of Shimei,
1Ch 6:28 son of Jahath, son of Gershom, son of Levi.
1Ch 6:29 On the left, the sons of Merari: Ethan son of Kishi, son of Abdi, son of Malluch,
1Ch 6:30 son of Hashabiah, son of Amaziah, son of Hilkiah,
1Ch 6:31 son of Amzi, son of Bani, son of Shemer,
1Ch 6:32 son of Mahli, son of Mushi, son of Merari, son of Levi.
1Ch 6:33 Their brother Levites were dedicated for all the other duties of the Dwelling, the Temple of God,
1Ch 6:34 but Aaron and his sons burned the offerings on the altar of burnt offering and on the altar of incense; they were entirely responsible for the most holy things and for the ritual of expiation for Israel, in accordance with all that Moses, servant of God, had commanded.
1Ch 6:35 These were the sons of Aaron: Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son,
1Ch 6:36 Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son,
1Ch 6:37 Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son,
1Ch 6:38 Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.
1Ch 6:39 These were their places of settlement within their prescribed territory: The sons of Aaron of the Kohathite clan -- for to these the first lot fell-
1Ch 6:40 were given Hebron in the territory of Judah with its surrounding pasture lands.
1Ch 6:41 But the open country of the town and its dependencies were given to Caleb son of Jephunneh.
1Ch 6:42 The sons of Aaron were also given the cities of refuge, Hebron, Libnah with its pasture lands, Jattir, Eshtemoa with its pasture lands.
1Ch 6:43 Hilen with its pasture lands, Debir with its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:44 Ashan with its pasture lands and Beth-Shemesh with its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:45 and, from the tribe of Benjamin, Geba with its pasture lands, Alemeth with its pasture lands and Anathoth with its pasture lands. In all, the towns distributed among their clans numbered thirteen.
1Ch 6:46 The remaining sons of Kohath were allotted ten towns from the clans of the tribe, that is, from the half-tribe of Manasseh.
1Ch 6:47 The sons of Gershom and their clans were allotted thirteen towns from the tribe of Issachar, from the tribe of Asher, from the tribe of Naphtali and from the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan.
1Ch 6:48 The sons of Merari and their clans were allotted twelve towns from the tribe of Reuben, from the tribe of Gad and from the tribe of Zebulun.
1Ch 6:49 The Israelites gave these towns with their pasture lands to the Levites.
1Ch 6:50 From the tribe of the sons of Judah, from the tribe of the sons of Simeon and from the tribe of the sons of Benjamin, they also allotted them those towns to which they gave their names.
1Ch 6:51 Towns from the tribe of Ephraim were also assigned to the territory of some clans of the sons of Kohath.
1Ch 6:52 They were given the cities of refuge: Shechem in the highlands of Ephraim with its pasture lands, Gezer and its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:53 Jokmeam with its pasture lands, Beth-Horon with its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:54 Aijalon with its pasture lands and Gath-Rimmon with its pasture lands
1Ch 6:55 and from the half-tribe of Manasseh, Aner with its pasture lands and Bileam with its pasture lands. So much was given to the remaining families of the sons of Kohath.
1Ch 6:56 From the half-tribe of Manasseh, the sons of Gershom according to family were given Golan in Bashan with its pasture lands and Ashtaroth with its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:57 from the tribe of Issachar, Kedesh with its pasture lands, Daberath with its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:58 Ramoth with its pasture lands and Anem with its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:59 from the tribe of Asher: Mashal with its pasture lands, Abdon with its pasture lands.
1Ch 6:60 Hukok with its pasture lands and Rehob with its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:61 from the tribe of Naphtali, Kedesh in Galilee with its pasture lands, Hammon with its pasture lands and Kiriataim with its pasture lands.
1Ch 6:62 To the remainder of the sons of Merari: from the tribe of Zebulun, Rimmon with its pasture lands and Tabor with its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:63 in Transjordan, near Jericho, east of the Jordan, from the tribe of Reuben: Bezer in the desert with its pasture lands, Jahzah with its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:64 Kedemoth with its pasture lands and Mephaath with its pasture lands;
1Ch 6:65 from the tribe of Gad: Ramoth in Gilead with its pasture lands, Mahanaim with its pasture lands,
1Ch 6:66 Heshbon with its pasture lands and Jazer with its pasture lands.
1Ch 7:1 For the sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, Shimron: four.
1Ch 7:2 Sons of Tola: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Ibsam, Shemuel, heads of their families of Tola. In the time of David, these numbered twenty-two thousand six hundred stout fighting men, grouped according to their kinship.
1Ch 7:3 Sons of Uzzi: Izrahiah. Sons of Izrahiah: Michael, Obadiah, Joel, Isshiah. In all five chiefs,
1Ch 7:4 responsible for fighting companies amounting to thirty-six thousand troops, according to relationship and family, for they had many women and children.
1Ch 7:5 They had kinsmen belonging to all the clans of Issachar, eighty-seven thousand stout fighting men, all belonging to one related group.
1Ch 7:6 Sons of Benjamin: Bela, Becher, Jediael: three.
1Ch 7:7 Sons of Bela: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth and Iri: five, chiefs of families and warriors. Their official genealogy included twenty-two thousand and thirty-four members.
1Ch 7:8 Sons of Becher: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezar, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, Alemeth, all these were the sons of Becher.
1Ch 7:9 The official genealogy of the descendants of the chiefs of their families included twenty thousand two hundred warriors.
1Ch 7:10 Sons of Jediael: Bilhan. Sons of Bilhan: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Chenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, Ahishahar.
1Ch 7:11 All these sons of Jediael, became heads of families, stout fighting men, numbering seventeen thousand two hundred men fit for active service.
1Ch 7:12 Shuppim and Huppim. Son of Ir: Hushim; his son: Aher.
1Ch 7:13 Sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, Shallum. These were the sons of Bilhah.
1Ch 7:14 Sons of Manasseh: Asriel, born of his Aramaean concubine. She gave birth to Machir, father of Gilead.
1Ch 7:15 Machir took a wife for Huppim and Shuppim. His sister's name was Maacah. The name of the second son was Zelophehad. Zelophehad had daughters.
1Ch 7:16 Maacah the wife of Machir gave birth to a son whom she called Peresh. His brother was called Sheresh and his sons Ulam and Rakem.
1Ch 7:17 Sons of Ulam: Bedan. These were the sons of Gilead son of Machir, son of Manasseh.
1Ch 7:18 His sister Hammoleketh gave birth to Ishod, Abiezer and Mahlah.
1Ch 7:19 Shemida had sons: Ahian, Shechem, Likhi and Aniam.
1Ch 7:20 Sons of Ephraim: Shuthelah, Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son,
1Ch 7:21 Zabad his son, Shuthelah his son and Ezer and Elead whom the men of Gath, natives of the country, killed when they came down to raid their cattle.
1Ch 7:22 Their father Ephraim mourned for a long time and his brothers came to comfort him.
1Ch 7:23 He had intercourse with his wife, who conceived and gave birth to a son whom he called Beriah because his house was in misfortune.
1Ch 7:24 He had a daughter, Sheerah, who built Upper and Lower Beth-Horon and Uzzen-Sheerah.
1Ch 7:25 Rephah was his son, Shuthelah his son, Tahan his son,
1Ch 7:26 Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son,
1Ch 7:27 Nun his son, Joshua his son.
1Ch 7:28 They had lands and settlements in Bethel and its dependencies from Naaran on the east to Gezer and its dependencies on the west, as well as Shechem and its dependencies as far as Ayyah and its dependencies.
1Ch 7:29 Beth-Shean with its dependencies, Taanach and its dependencies, Megiddo and its dependencies and Dor with its dependencies were in the hands of the sons of Manasseh. There lived the sons of Joseph son of Israel.
1Ch 7:30 Sons of Asher: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, Beriah; their sister Serah.
1Ch 7:31 Sons of Beriah: Heber and Malchiel. He fathered Birzaith.
1Ch 7:32 Heber fathered Japhlet, Shomer, Hotham and their sister Shua.
1Ch 7:33 Sons of Japhlet: Pasach, Bimhal and Ashvath. These were the sons of Japhlet.
1Ch 7:34 Sons of Shomer his brother: Rohgah, Hubbah and Aram.
1Ch 7:35 Sons of Helem his brother: Zophah, Imna, Shelesh and Amal.
1Ch 7:36 Sons of Zophah: Suah, Harnepher, Shual, Beri and Imrah.
1Ch 7:37 Bezer, Hod, Shamma, Shilshah, Ithran and Beerah.
1Ch 7:38 Sons of Ithran: Jephunneh, Pispa, Ara.
1Ch 7:39 Sons of Ulla: Arah, Hanniel, Rizia.
1Ch 7:40 All these were the sons of Asher, heads of families, picked men, warriors and senior princes. They were registered in fighting companies to the number of twenty-six thousand men.
1Ch 8:1 Benjamin was father of Bela, his first-born, Ashbel second, Ahiram third,
1Ch 8:2 Nohah fourth, Rapha fifth.
1Ch 8:3 Bela had sons: Addar, Gera father of Ehud,
1Ch 8:4 Abishua, Naaman, Ahoah,
1Ch 8:5 Gera, Shephuphan and Huram.
1Ch 8:6 These are the sons of Ehud. They were heads of families of the inhabitants of Geba and led them into exile at Manahath:
1Ch 8:7 Naaman, Ahijah and Gera. It was he who led them into exile; he became the father of Uzza and Ahihud.
1Ch 8:8 Shaharaim had children in the Plains of Moab after he had dismissed his wives, Hushim and Baara.
1Ch 8:9 By his new wife he had sons: Jobab, Zibia, Mesha, Malcam,
1Ch 8:10 Jeuz, Sachia, Mirmah. These were his sons, heads of families.
1Ch 8:11 By Hushim he had sons: Abitub and Elpaal.
1Ch 8:12 The sons of Elpaal were Eber, Misham and Shemed, who built Ono and Lud and its dependencies.
1Ch 8:13 Beriah and Shema were the chiefs of the families who lived at Aijalon; they routed the inhabitants of Gath.
1Ch 8:14 His brother was Shashak. Jeremoth,
1Ch 8:15 Zebadiah, Arad, Eder,
1Ch 8:16 Michael, Ishpah, Joha were the sons of Beriah.
1Ch 8:17 Zebadiah, Meshullam, Hizki, Haber,
1Ch 8:18 Ishmerai, Izliah, Jobab were the sons of Elpaal.
1Ch 8:19 Jakim, Zichri, Zabdi,
1Ch 8:20 Elienai, Zillethai, Eliel,
1Ch 8:21 Adaiah, Beraiah, Shimrath were the sons of Shimei.
1Ch 8:22 Ishpan, Eber, Eliel,
1Ch 8:23 Abdon, Zichri, Hanan,
1Ch 8:24 Hananiah, Elam, Anthothijah,
1Ch 8:25 Iphdeiah, Penuel were the sons of Shashak.
1Ch 8:26 Shamsherai, Shehariah, Athaliah,
1Ch 8:27 Jaareshaiah, Elijah, Zichri were the sons of Jeroham.
1Ch 8:28 These were chiefs of families according to their relationship. They lived in Jerusalem.
1Ch 8:29 At Gibeon lived Jeiel the father of Gibeon, whose wife was called Maacah.
1Ch 8:30 His first-born son was Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab,
1Ch 8:31 Gedor, Ahio, Zecher
1Ch 8:32 and Mikloth. Mikloth fathered Shimeah. But they, unlike their brothers, lived at Jerusalem with their brothers.
1Ch 8:33 Ner fathered Kish, Kish fathered Saul, Saul fathered Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab and Eshbaal.
1Ch 8:34 Son of Jonathan: Meribbaal. Meribbaal fathered Micah.
1Ch 8:35 Sons of Micah: Pithon, Melech, Tarea, Ahaz.
1Ch 8:36 Ahaz fathered Jehoaddah, Jehoaddah fathered Alemeth, Azmaveth and Zimri. Zimri fathered Moza,
1Ch 8:37 Moza fathered Binea, Raphah his son, Eleasah his son and Azel his son.
1Ch 8:38 Azel had six sons, whose names were these: Azrikam, his first-born, then Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, Hanan. All these were sons of Azel.
1Ch 8:39 Sons of Eshek his brother: Ulam, his first-born, Jeush second, Eliphelet third.
1Ch 8:40 The sons of Ulam were warriors-archers. They had as many as a hundred and fifty sons and grandsons. All these belonged to the sons of Benjamin.
1Ch 9:1 Thus, all Israel's official genealogies had been entered in the records of the kings of Israel and Judah before they were deported to Babylon for their infidelity.
1Ch 9:2 Now the first citizens to return to their property in their cities were the Israelites, the priests, the Levites and the temple slaves.
1Ch 9:3 In Jerusalem, there settled Judaeans, Benjaminites, Ephraimites and Manassehites.
1Ch 9:4 Uthai son of Ammihud, son of Omri, son of Imri, son of Bani, one of the sons of Perez son of Judah.
1Ch 9:5 Of the descendants of Shelah: Asaiah, the first-born, and his sons.
1Ch 9:6 Of the sons of Zerah: Jeuel. And six hundred and ninety of their kinsmen.
1Ch 9:7 And of the sons of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam, son of Hodaviah, son of Hassenuah;
1Ch 9:8 Ibneiah son of Jeroham; Elah son of Uzzi, son of Michri; and Meshullam son of Shephatiah, son of Reuel, son of Ibnijah.
1Ch 9:9 Their kinsmen, according to their relationship, numbered nine hundred and fifty-six. All these men were chiefs of their families.
1Ch 9:10 Of the priests there were Jedaiah, Jehoiarib, Jachin,
1Ch 9:11 Azariah son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, the chief of the Temple of God;
1Ch 9:12 Adaiah son of Jeroham, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah; and Maasai son of Adiel, son of Jahzerah, son of Meshullam, son of Meshillemith, son of Immer.
1Ch 9:13 Their kinsmen, heads of families, numbered one thousand seven hundred and sixty-men expert in the ministerial service of the Temple of God.
1Ch 9:14 Of the Levites there were Shemaiah son of Hasshub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah of the sons of Merari,
1Ch 9:15 Bakbakar, Heresh, Galai, Mattaniah son of Mica, son of Zichri, son of Asaph.
1Ch 9:16 Obadiah son of Shemaiah, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun and Berechiah son of Asa, son of Elkanah, who lived in the dependencies of the Netophathites.
1Ch 9:17 The gatekeepers were Shallum, Akkub, Talmon, Ahiman and their kinsmen. Shallum was the chief
1Ch 9:18 and is still gatekeeper of the King's Gate to the east. They were the gatekeepers of the camps of the sons of Levi.
1Ch 9:19 Shallum son of Kore, son of Ebiasaph, son of Korah, and his brothers belonging to his family, the Korahites, were also in charge of the ministerial service as doorkeepers of the Tent, as their ancestors had been keepers of the entrance to the camp of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 9:20 Formerly, Phinehas son of Eleazar had been in charge of them -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be with him!
1Ch 9:21 Zechariah son of Meshelemiah was gatekeeper at the door of the Tent of Meeting.
1Ch 9:22 All the keepers of the gate at the thresholds were picked men; there were two hundred and twelve of them. They were grouped by relationship in their various villages. These were confirmed in office by David and Samuel the seer because of their dependability.
1Ch 9:23 They and their sons continued in charge as guards of the gates of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the house of the Tent.
1Ch 9:24 The gatekeepers were assigned to the four sides, east, west, north and south,
1Ch 9:25 and their brothers in their villages were required to assist them from time to time for a week,
1Ch 9:26 since the four head gatekeepers were permanently on duty. They were Levites and were in charge of the accommodation and supplies of the Temple of God.
1Ch 9:27 They spent the night in the precincts of the Temple of God, their duties being to guard it and open it every morning.
1Ch 9:28 Some of them were in charge of the implements of worship, having to count them when they took them out and when they put them away.
1Ch 9:29 Others of them were put in charge of the implements, of all the objects in the sanctuary and of the flour, the wine, the oil, the incense and the perfume.
1Ch 9:30 Members of the priestly caste, however, mixed the ointment for the perfume.
1Ch 9:31 One of the Levites, Mattithiah -- he was the first-born of Shallum the Korahite -- had regular charge of baking operations.
1Ch 9:32 Some of their kinsmen the Kohathites were responsible for the loaves to be set out in rows Sabbath by Sabbath.
1Ch 9:33 In addition, there were the singers, the heads of the levitical families, who were accommodated in the Temple, free of other responsibilities because they were on duty day and night.
1Ch 9:34 Such were the chiefs of the levitical families, according to their relationship; these lived in Jerusalem.
1Ch 9:35 Jeiel father of Gibeon lived at Gibeon and his wife was called Maacah.
1Ch 9:36 His first-born son was Abdon, then Zur, Kish, Baal, Ner, Nadab,
1Ch 9:37 Gedor, Ahio, Zechariah and Mikloth.
1Ch 9:38 Mikloth fathered Shimeam. But they, unlike their brothers, lived at Jerusalem with their brothers.
1Ch 9:39 Ner fathered Kish, Kish fathered Saul, Saul fathered Jonathan, Malchishua, Abinadab and Eshbaal.
1Ch 9:40 Son of Jonathan: Meribbaal. Meribbaal fathered Micah.
1Ch 9:41 Sons of Micah: Pithon, Melech, Tahrea.
1Ch 9:42 Ahaz fathered Jarah, Jarah fathered Alemeth, Azmaveth and Zimri; Zimri fathered Moza,
1Ch 9:43 Moza fathered Binea, Rephaiah his son, Eleasah his son and Azel his son.
1Ch 9:44 Azel had six sons; their names were these: Azrikam his first-born, Ishmael, Sheariah, Obadiah, Hanan. These were the sons of Azel.
1Ch 10:1 The Philistines gave battle to Israel and the Israelites, fleeing from the Philistines, fell and were slaughtered on Mount Gilboa.
1Ch 10:2 The Philistines bore down on Saul and his sons, and they killed Jonathan, Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
1Ch 10:3 The fighting grew fiercer round Saul; the archers came upon him, and he was wounded by the archers.
1Ch 10:4 Saul then said to his armour-bearer, 'Draw your sword and run me through with it. I do not want these uncircumcised men to come and make fun of me.' But his armour-bearer was very much afraid and would not do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.
1Ch 10:5 His armour-bearer, seeing that Saul was dead, fell on his sword too and died with him.
1Ch 10:6 Thus died Saul, his three sons and his entire household together.
1Ch 10:7 When all the Israelites who were in the valley saw that the Israelites had been routed and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their towns and fled. The Philistines then came and occupied them.
1Ch 10:8 When the Philistines came on the following day to strip the dead, they found Saul and his sons lying on Mount Gilboa.
1Ch 10:9 They stripped him and, taking his head and his armour, had these carried round the territory of the Philistines to proclaim the good news to their idols and their people.
1Ch 10:10 They placed his armour in the temple of their gods and nailed his head up in the temple of Dagon.
1Ch 10:11 When all the inhabitants of Jabesh in Gilead heard everything that the Philistines had done to Saul,
1Ch 10:12 the warriors all set out and took the bodies of Saul and his sons away; they brought them to Jabesh and buried their bones under the tamarisk of Jabesh and fasted for seven days.
1Ch 10:13 Thus died Saul in the infidelity of which he had been guilty towards Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in that he had not obeyed the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and because he had consulted a necromancer for guidance.
1Ch 10:14 He had not consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who therefore caused his death and transferred the monarchy to David son of Jesse.
1Ch 11:1 All Israel then rallied to David at Hebron and said, 'Look, we are your own flesh and bone.
1Ch 11:2 In days past when Saul was king, it was you who led Israel on its campaigns, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God promised you, "You are to shepherd my people Israel and be leader of my people Israel." '
1Ch 11:3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and David made a pact with them in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence at Hebron, and they anointed David as king of Israel, in accordance with the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) through Samuel.
1Ch 11:4 David and all Israel then marched on Jerusalem (that is to say, Jebus); the inhabitants of the territory were the Jebusites.
1Ch 11:5 The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, 'You will not get in here.' But David captured the citadel of Zion, that is, the City of David.
1Ch 11:6 David said, 'The first man to kill a Jebusite will be made army commander and chief.' Joab son of Zeruiah was the first man to go up, and was made commander of the army.
1Ch 11:7 David went to live in the citadel, and that is how it came to be called the City of David.
1Ch 11:8 He then built a wall round the city, all round, beginning from the Millo, and Joab restored the rest of the city.
1Ch 11:9 Thus David grew stronger and stronger, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth was with him.
1Ch 11:10 These are David's principal champions who joined forces with him in his kingdom, with all Israel, to make him king in accordance with the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) concerning Israel.
1Ch 11:11 This is the roll of David's champions: Jashobeam son of Hachmoni, head of the Three; he it was who brandished his spear over three hundred men whom he had killed at one time.
1Ch 11:12 Next, there was Eleazar son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three champions.
1Ch 11:13 He was with David at Pas-Dammim when the Philistines mustered for battle there. There was a field full of barley there; and the people fled from the Philistines.
1Ch 11:14 And they took their stand in the middle of the field, held it and cut down the Philistines; and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought about a great victory.
1Ch 11:15 Three members of the Thirty went down to David at the rock near the Cave of Adullam while a company of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of the Rephaim.
1Ch 11:16 David was then in the stronghold and there was a Philistine garrison in Bethlehem.
1Ch 11:17 Longingly, David said, 'If only someone would fetch me a drink of water from the well that stands by the gate at Bethlehem!'
1Ch 11:18 At this the three champions, forcing their way through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well that stands by the gate of Bethlehem and, bringing it away, presented it to David. David, however, would not drink any of it, but poured it out as a libation to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 11:19 'God preserve me', he said, 'from doing such a thing! Am I to drink these men's blood? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.' And so he would not drink. Such were the deeds of the three champions.
1Ch 11:20 Abishai, brother of Joab, was leader of the Thirty. He it was who brandished his spear over three hundred men whom he had killed, winning himself a name among the Thirty.
1Ch 11:21 He was a most illustrious member of the Thirty and became their captain, but he was not equal to the Three.
1Ch 11:22 Benaiah son of Jehoiada from Kabzeel was the hero of many exploits; he it was who slaughtered two formidable Moabites and, one snowy day, climbed down and slaughtered the lion in the storage-well.
1Ch 11:23 He also slaughtered an Egyptian, a man who was seven and a half feet tall. The Egyptian was armed with a spear in his hand like a weaver's beam, but he took him on with a staff, tore the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed the man with it.
1Ch 11:24 Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada, winning him a name among the thirty champions.
1Ch 11:25 He was a most illustrious member of the Thirty, but he was not equal to the Three. David put him in command of his bodyguard.
1Ch 11:26 The military champions were: Asahel brother of Joab; Elhanan son of Dodo, of Bethlehem;
1Ch 11:27 Shammoth of Haror; Helez the Pelonite;
1Ch 11:28 Ira son of Ikkesh, of Tekoa; Abiezer of Anathoth;
1Ch 11:29 Sibbecai of Hushah; Ilai of Ahoh;
1Ch 11:30 Maharai of Netophah; Heled son of Baanah, of Netophah.
1Ch 11:31 Ithai son of Ribai, of Gibeah in Benjamin. Benaiah of Pirathon;
1Ch 11:32 Hurai of the Torrents of Gaash; Abiel of Beth-ha-Arabah;
1Ch 11:33 Azmaveth of Bahurim; Eliahba of Shaalbon;
1Ch 11:34 the sons of Hashem of Gizon; Jonathan son of Shagee, of Harar;
1Ch 11:35 Ahiam son of Sachar, of Harar; Eliphelet son of Ur;
1Ch 11:36 Hepher of Mecherah; Ahijah the Pelonite;
1Ch 11:37 Hezro of Carmel; Naarai son of Ezbai;
1Ch 11:38 Joel brother of Nathan; Mibhar son of Hagri;
1Ch 11:39 Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai of Beeroth, armour-bearer to Joab son of Zeruiah;
1Ch 11:40 Ira of Jattir; Gareb of Jattir;
1Ch 11:41 Uriah the Hittite; Zabad son of Ahlai;
1Ch 11:42 Adina son of Shiza the Reubenite, chief of the Reubenites and commander of the Thirty;
1Ch 11:43 Hanan son of Maacah; Joshaphat the Mithnite;
1Ch 11:44 Uzzia of Ashteroth; Shama and Jeiel sons of Hotham of Aroer;
1Ch 11:45 Jediael son of Shimri, and Joha his brother, the Tizite;
1Ch 11:46 Eliel the Mahavite; Jeribai and Joshaviah sons of Elnaam; Ithmah the Moabite;
1Ch 11:47 Eliel, Obed, and Jaasiel of Zobah.
1Ch 12:1 These are the men who rallied to David at Ziklag while he was still being kept away from Saul son of Kish; they were among the champions, the warriors.
1Ch 12:2 They were equipped with bows and could sling stones or shoot arrows from the bow with either right hand or left. Of Saul's fellow-tribesmen from Benjamin:
1Ch 12:3 Ahiezer the leader, and Joash, sons of Hassemar of Gibeah, Jeziel and Peleth, sons of Azmaveth, Berachah and Jehu of Anathoth,
1Ch 12:4 Ishmaiah of Gibeon, one of the champions in the Thirty and commander of the Thirty,
1Ch 12:5 Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan and Jozabed of Gederoth,
1Ch 12:6 Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah, Shemariah, Shephatiah of Hariph,
1Ch 12:7 Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer and Jashobeam the Korahites,
1Ch 12:8 Joelah, Zebadiah, sons of Jeroham of Gedor.
1Ch 12:9 From the Gadites, some good, capable fighting men defected and came to David at the stronghold in the desert -- all skilled with shield and spear, fierce as lions and nimble as mountain gazelles.
1Ch 12:10 Ezer was the leader, Obadiah second, Eliab third,
1Ch 12:11 Mishmannah fourth, Jeremiah fifth,
1Ch 12:12 Attai sixth, Eliel seventh,
1Ch 12:13 Johanan eighth, Elzabad ninth,
1Ch 12:14 Jeremiah tenth, Machbannai eleventh.
1Ch 12:15 These Gadites were the leaders of the troops, the least of them a match for a hundred men and the greatest a match for a thousand.
1Ch 12:16 These were the men who once crossed the Jordan in the first month, when it had overflowed its banks and had driven out all the lowlanders to east and west.
1Ch 12:17 Some of the Benjaminites and Judahites also joined David at the stronghold.
1Ch 12:18 When David came forward to meet them, he responded to them by saying, 'If you have come to me with peaceful intent to help me, you will find me a good friend. But if it is to betray me to my enemies, seeing that I have done nothing wrong, may the God of our ancestors take note and condemn you.'
1Ch 12:19 Then the Spirit invested Amasai the leader of the Thirty: 'We are your men, David; with you, son of Jesse! Peace be with you, peace be with you; peace be with those who help you! For your God has helped you!' And David accepted them, including them among his more senior officers.
1Ch 12:20 Some Manassehites also defected to David as he was setting out with the Philistines to fight Saul. But he did not help the Philistines because, after consultation, their chiefs sent him away, saying, 'He will defect to his master Saul and it will cost us our heads!'
1Ch 12:21 He was on his way to Ziklag when these Manassehites deserted to him: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu, Zillethai, chiefs of thousands in Manasseh.
1Ch 12:22 They helped David and his band, since they were all men of standing and became officers in the army.
1Ch 12:23 Indeed reinforcements reached David day after day, so that his camp grew into a camp of prodigious size.
1Ch 12:24 These are the numbers of fully armed men who joined David at Hebron to transfer Saul's kingdom to him in accordance with the order of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
1Ch 12:25 Judahites carrying shield and spear: six thousand eight hundred fully armed warriors;
1Ch 12:26 Simeonites; seven thousand one hundred champions valiant in war;
1Ch 12:27 Levites: four thousand six hundred,
1Ch 12:28 in addition to Jehoiada, in command of the Aaronites, with three thousand seven hundred of these,
1Ch 12:29 Zadok, a young and valiant champion, and twenty-two commanders of his family;
1Ch 12:30 Benjaminites: three thousand kinsmen of Saul, most of them hitherto in the service of the House of Saul;
1Ch 12:31 Ephraimites: twenty thousand eight hundred valiant champions, men famous in their families;
1Ch 12:32 of the half-tribe of Manasseh: eighteen thousand men assigned by name to go and proclaim David king;
1Ch 12:33 Issacharites, sound judges of the times when Israel should take action, and the way to do it: two hundred chiefs and all their kinsmen under their command;
1Ch 12:34 Zebulunites: fifty thousand men fit for service, marshalled for battle, with warlike weapons of every kind, staunch-hearted auxiliaries;
1Ch 12:35 Naphtalites: a thousand commanders, and with them thirty-seven thousand men armed with shield and spear;
1Ch 12:36 Danites: twenty-eight thousand six hundred men marshalled for battle;
1Ch 12:37 Asherites: forty thousand men fit for service, marshalled for battle;
1Ch 12:38 from Transjordan: a hundred and twenty thousand men of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh, with warlike weapons of every kind.
1Ch 12:39 All these warriors in battle array came to David at Hebron with the firm determination of making David king of all Israel; and the rest of Israel, too, was of one mind in wanting to make David king.
1Ch 12:40 For three days they stayed there with David, eating and drinking, their fellow-tribesmen having made preparations for them;
1Ch 12:41 their neighbors too, from as far away as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, came bringing food on donkeys, camels, mules and oxen-supplies of flour, fig cakes, bunches of raisins, wine, oil, quantities of oxen and sheep -- for there was joy in Israel.
1Ch 13:1 David conferred with the commanders of the thousands and the hundreds, in fact with all the leaders.
1Ch 13:2 Then, to the whole assembly of Israel, David said, 'If this has your approval, and if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God wills it so, we shall send messengers to the rest of our brothers throughout the territories of Israel, and also to the priests and Levites in their towns and pasture lands, bidding them join us.
1Ch 13:3 And then we will go and recover the ark of our God, for in the days of Saul we neglected to do it.'
1Ch 13:4 The whole assembly agreed to this, because all the people thought that this was the right thing to do.
1Ch 13:5 So David summoned all Israel from the Shihor of Egypt to the Pass of Hamath, to bring the ark of God from Kiriath-Jearim.
1Ch 13:6 David and all Israel then went up to Baalah, to Kiriath-Jearim in Judah, from there to bring up the ark of God, which bears the title 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) enthroned on the winged creatures'.
1Ch 13:7 They transported the ark of God out of Abinadab's house on a new cart. Uzzah and Ahio drove the cart.
1Ch 13:8 David and all Israel danced before God with all their might, singing to the accompaniment of harps, lyres, tambourines, cymbals and trumpets.
1Ch 13:9 When they came to the threshing-floor of the Javelin, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, as the oxen were making it tilt.
1Ch 13:10 This roused Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had laid his hand on the Ark, and there he died before God.
1Ch 13:11 David resented Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s having broken out against Uzzah, and the place was given the name Perez-Uzzah, which it still has today.
1Ch 13:12 That day David felt afraid of God. 'How can I bring the ark of God to be with me?' he said.
1Ch 13:13 So David did not take the ark with him into the City of David but had it put in the house of Obed-Edom of Gath.
1Ch 13:14 The ark of God remained with Obed-Edom, in his house, for three months, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blessed Obed-Edom's family and everything that belonged to him.
1Ch 14:1 Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, with cedar wood, stone-cutters and carpenters, to build him a palace.
1Ch 14:2 David then knew that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had confirmed him as king of Israel and, for the sake of his people, had extended his sovereignty.
1Ch 14:3 David took more wives in Jerusalem and fathered more sons and daughters.
1Ch 14:4 These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
1Ch 14:5 Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet,
1Ch 14:6 Nogah, Nepheg, Japhia,
1Ch 14:7 Elishama, Beeliada, Eliphelet.
1Ch 14:8 When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed as king of all Israel, they all invaded to seek him out. On hearing this, David marched out towards them.
1Ch 14:9 When the Philistines arrived, they deployed in the Valley of the Rephaim.
1Ch 14:10 David consulted God and asked, 'Shall I attack the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my power?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied to him, 'Attack! I shall deliver them into your power.'
1Ch 14:11 Accordingly, they went up to Baal-Perazim and there David defeated them. David said, 'Through me God has made a breach in my enemies, as though they had been breached by a flood.' This is why the place was given the name Baal-Perazim.
1Ch 14:12 They had left their gods behind there, and David ordered them to be burnt.
1Ch 14:13 Again the Philistines deployed in the valley.
1Ch 14:14 David again consulted God, and God replied, 'Do not attack them from the front; go round and engage them opposite the balsam trees.
1Ch 14:15 When you hear the sound of footsteps in the tops of the balsam trees, launch your attack, for that will be God going out ahead of you to defeat the Philistine army.'
1Ch 14:16 David did as God had ordered, and they beat the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer.
1Ch 14:17 David's fame then spread to every country, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made him feared by every nation.
1Ch 15:1 After he had put up buildings for himself in the City of David, he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it.
1Ch 15:2 David then said, 'No one but the Levites should carry the ark of God, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen them to carry the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and to minister to him for ever.'
1Ch 15:3 David then summoned all Israel to Jerusalem, to move the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the place which he had prepared for it.
1Ch 15:4 David also called the sons of Aaron and the Levites together:
1Ch 15:5 of the sons of Kohath: Uriel the chief and his hundred and twenty kinsmen;
1Ch 15:6 of the sons of Merari: Asaiah the chief and his two hundred and twenty kinsmen;
1Ch 15:7 of the sons of Gershom: Joel the chief and his hundred and thirty kinsmen;
1Ch 15:8 of the sons of Elizaphan: Shemaiah the chief and his two hundred kinsmen;
1Ch 15:9 of the sons of Hebron: Eliel the chief and eighty kinsmen;
1Ch 15:10 of the sons of Uzziel: Amminadab the chief and his hundred and twelve kinsmen.
1Ch 15:11 David then sent for the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel and Amminadab.
1Ch 15:12 To them he said, 'You are the heads of the levitical families. Sanctify yourselves, you and your kinsmen, so that you can move the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, to the place which I have prepared for it.
1Ch 15:13 Because you were not there the first time, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God broke out at us because we did not handle it properly.'
1Ch 15:14 So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves, to move the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel,
1Ch 15:15 and the Levites carried the ark of God with the shafts on their shoulders, as Moses had ordered in accordance with the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 15:16 David also told the heads of the Levites to appoint their kinsmen as singers with the accompaniment of musical instruments, lyres, harps, and cymbals to play joyfully.
1Ch 15:17 The Levites then appointed Heman son of Joel, Asaph son of Berechiah, one of his brothers, Ethan son of Kushaiah, one of their Merarite kinsmen;
1Ch 15:18 and with them their kinsmen of the second rank: Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, and Obed-Edom and Jehiel the gatekeepers.
1Ch 15:19 The singers, Heman, Asaph and Ethan, were to play the bronze cymbals.
1Ch 15:20 Zechariah, Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab, Maaseiah and Benaiah were to play the lyre.
1Ch 15:21 Mattithiah, Eliphelehu, Mikneiah, Obed-Edom, Jehiel and Azaziah, giving the beat, were to play the harp.
1Ch 15:22 Chenaniah, the levitical director of transport was in charge of the transport, being skillful at it.
1Ch 15:23 Berechiah and Elkanah were gatekeepers for the ark.
1Ch 15:24 The priests Shebaniah, Joshaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah and Eliezer blew trumpets before the ark of God, while Obed-Edom and Jehiah were also gatekeepers for the ark.
1Ch 15:25 David, the elders of Israel and the commanders of the thousands accordingly went, amid great rejoicing, to bring the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) up from Obed-Edom's house,
1Ch 15:26 and since God was helping the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams.
1Ch 15:27 David, all the Levites who carried the ark, the singers and Chenaniah, director of transport, wore cloaks of fine linen. David also wore a linen ephod.
1Ch 15:28 Thus, with war-cries and the sounding of the horn, the trumpets and the cymbals, and the music of lyres and harps, all Israel transported the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 15:29 Now, as the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) entered the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul was watching from the window and, when she saw King David dancing and playing, the sight of him filled her with contempt.
1Ch 16:1 They brought the ark of God in and put it inside the tent which David had erected for it, and brought burnt offerings and made communion sacrifices in God's presence.
1Ch 16:2 And when David had finished making burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, he blessed the people in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 16:3 To all the Israelites, both men and women, to each, he then distributed a loaf of bread, a portion of meat and a raisin cake.
1Ch 16:4 He appointed some of the Levites as ministers before the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to extol, glorify and praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel;
1Ch 16:5 first Asaph, second Zechariah, then Uzziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel, who played the lyre and harp, while Asaph played the cymbals.
1Ch 16:6 The priests Benaiah and Jahaziel continually blew the trumpet before the ark of the covenant of God.
1Ch 16:7 On that day, David was the first to assign to Asaph and his kinsmen the giving of thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
1Ch 16:8 Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), call his name aloud, proclaim his deeds to the peoples.
1Ch 16:9 Chant to him, play to him, sing about all his wonders!
1Ch 16:10 Take pride in his holy name, let your heart rejoice, you seekers of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
1Ch 16:11 Seek out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), seek his strength, continually seek out his presence!
1Ch 16:12 Remember what wonders he has done, what miracles, what rulings he has given,
1Ch 16:13 you offspring of Israel his servant, you children of Jacob his chosen one!
1Ch 16:14 For he is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, his authority extends throughout the world.
1Ch 16:15 For ever remember his covenant, the pact imposed for a thousand generations,
1Ch 16:16 which he concluded with Abraham, which was sworn by him to Isaac,
1Ch 16:17 since he confirmed it as a law for Jacob, as an eternal covenant for Israel,
1Ch 16:18 saying, 'I will give you the country; Canaan is the measure of your inheritance,
1Ch 16:19 'though you are few in number, only a few strangers there!'
1Ch 16:20 As they wandered from nation to nation, from this kingdom to that people,
1Ch 16:21 he would not let anyone oppress them and on their account he admonished kings,
1Ch 16:22 'You are not to touch my anointed ones, my prophets are not to be harmed!'
1Ch 16:23 Sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all the earth, day after day proclaim his salvation!
1Ch 16:24 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvels to every people!
1Ch 16:25 Great is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), worthy of all praise, more awesome than any of the gods.
1Ch 16:26 Nothingness, all the gods of the nations. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) it was who made the heavens,
1Ch 16:27 in his presence are splendor and majesty, in his sanctuary strength and joy.
1Ch 16:28 Give Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his due, families of peoples, give Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his due of glory and power,
1Ch 16:29 give Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the glory due to his name! Bring an offering and enter his courts, bow down to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in his sacred court,
1Ch 16:30 tremble before him, all the earth! The world is firm, it cannot be moved,
1Ch 16:31 let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad! Say among the nations, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is king!'
1Ch 16:32 Let the sea thunder and all it holds, the countryside exult and everything that is in it,
1Ch 16:33 and all the trees of the forest cry out for joy at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s approach, for he is coming to judge the earth.
1Ch 16:34 Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he is good, for his faithful love lasts for ever!
1Ch 16:35 Say, 'Save us, God of our salvation, gather us together and free us from the nations, so that we may give thanks to your holy name -- to be extolled whenever you are praised!'
1Ch 16:36 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! To which all the people said, 'Amen, Alleluia!'
1Ch 16:37 There before the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) David left Asaph and his kinsmen to maintain a permanent ministry before the ark as each day's ritual required,
1Ch 16:38 and also Obed-Edom with his sixty-eight kinsmen. Obed-Edom son of Jeduthun, and Hosah were gatekeepers.
1Ch 16:39 Zadok the priest and the priests, his kinsmen, he left before the dwelling of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the high place at Gibeon
1Ch 16:40 to bring burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) unfailingly, morning and evening, on the altar of burnt offering, and to carry out all that is written in the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) laid down for Israel.
1Ch 16:41 With them were Heman and Jeduthun and the rest of those who were chosen and assigned by name to give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'for his faithful love lasts for ever'.
1Ch 16:42 With them were Heman and Jeduthun to play trumpets and cymbals, as well as instruments for accompanying sacred song. The sons of Jeduthun were in charge of the gates.
1Ch 16:43 Then all the people went back to their homes, and David went back to bless his household.
1Ch 17:1 It happened, once David had settled into his palace, that David said to the prophet Nathan, 'Here am I living in a cedar-wood palace, while the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is under awnings.'
1Ch 17:2 Nathan said to David, 'Do whatever you have in mind, for God is with you.'
1Ch 17:3 But that very night the word of God came to Nathan, as follows:
1Ch 17:4 'Go and tell my servant David, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You must not build a temple for me to live in.
1Ch 17:5 I have never lived in a house from the day when I brought Israel out until today, but have kept traveling from tent to tent and from shelter to shelter.
1Ch 17:6 In all my travels with all Israel, did I say to any of the judges of Israel, whom I had commanded to shepherd my people: Why do you not build me a cedar-wood temple?
1Ch 17:7 This is what you must say to my servant David: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be leader of my people Israel.
1Ch 17:8 I have been with you wherever you went; I have got rid of all your enemies for you. I am going to make your fame like that of the greatest men on earth.
1Ch 17:9 I am going to provide a place for my people Israel; I shall plant them there and there they will live and never be disturbed again; nor will they be oppressed by the wicked as they were in former times
1Ch 17:10 ever since I instituted judges to govern my people Israel; I shall subdue all your enemies. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) moreover tells you that he will build you a dynasty.
1Ch 17:11 And when your days are over and you have gone to join your ancestors, I shall appoint your heir -- who will be one of your sons -- to succeed you, and I shall make his sovereignty secure.
1Ch 17:12 He will build a temple for me and I shall make his throne secure for ever.
1Ch 17:13 I shall be his father and he will be my son, and I shall not withdraw my favor from him, as I withdrew it from your predecessor.
1Ch 17:14 I shall set him over my temple and kingdom for ever and his throne will be for ever secure." '
1Ch 17:15 Nathan related all these words and this whole revelation to David.
1Ch 17:16 King David then went in, sat down in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence and said: 'Who am I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, and what is my lineage, that you have led me as far as this?
1Ch 17:17 Yet, to you, O God, this seemed too little, and now you extend your promises for your servant's family into the distant future, making me see as it were a whole succession of men, and it is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God himself who raises it up.
1Ch 17:18 What more can David reply to you for the honor you have given to your servant? You yourself have singled out your servant.
1Ch 17:19 For your servant, and since you were so inclined, you have had the generosity to reveal all this greatness to come.
1Ch 17:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), there is no one like you, no God but you alone, as everything that we have heard confirms.
1Ch 17:21 Is there another people on earth like your people Israel, whom a god has proceeded to redeem, to make them his people and to make them famous and do for them great and terrible deeds, by driving out nations before your people, whom you redeemed from Egypt? -
1Ch 17:22 for you made your people Israel your own people for ever and you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), became their God.
1Ch 17:23 'Now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), may the promise which you have made for your servant and as regards his family hold good for ever, and do as you have said.
1Ch 17:24 May it hold good, so your name will be exalted for ever and people will say, "Israel's God is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth; he is God for Israel." Your servant David's dynasty will be secure before you
1Ch 17:25 since you, my God, have disclosed to your servant that you are going to build him a dynasty. Hence, your servant has ventured to offer this prayer to you.
1Ch 17:26 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you are God indeed, and you have made this generous promise to your servant.
1Ch 17:27 What is more, you have deigned to bless your servant's dynasty, so that it may remain for ever before you; and since you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have blessed it, blessed will it be for ever.'
1Ch 18:1 After this David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. From the grip of the Philistines he wrested Gath and its dependencies.
1Ch 18:2 He also defeated the Moabites; the Moabites became David's subjects and paid him tribute.
1Ch 18:3 David also defeated Hadadezer king of Zobah, which lies in the direction of Hamath, when the latter mounted an expedition to assert his rule on the River Euphrates.
1Ch 18:4 David captured one thousand chariots, seven thousand charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers from him; David hamstrung all the chariot teams, keeping only a hundred of them.
1Ch 18:5 The Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer king of Zobah, but David killed twenty-two thousand of the Aramaeans.
1Ch 18:6 David then imposed governors in Aram of Damascus, and the Aramaeans became David's subjects and paid him tribute. Wherever David went, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave him victory.
1Ch 18:7 David took the golden shields carried by Hadadezer's guards and brought them to Jerusalem.
1Ch 18:8 From Tibhath and from Cun, towns belonging to Hadadezer, David captured a great quantity of bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze Sea, the pillars and the bronze implements.
1Ch 18:9 When Tou king of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer king of Zobah,
1Ch 18:10 he sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet him and to congratulate him on having made war on Hadadezer and on having defeated him, since Hadadezer was at war with Tou. He also sent all sorts of objects made of gold, silver and bronze,
1Ch 18:11 which King David also consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as well as the silver and gold which he had levied from all the nations, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and Amalek.
1Ch 18:12 Abishai son of Zeruiah defeated the Edomites in the Valley of Salt -- eighteen thousand of them.
1Ch 18:13 He stationed garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites became David's subjects. Wherever David went, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave him victory.
1Ch 18:14 David ruled over all Israel, administering law and justice to all his people.
1Ch 18:15 Joab son of Zeruiah was in command of the army; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was herald;
1Ch 18:16 Zadok son of Ahitub and Abiathar son of Ahimelech were priests; Shusha was secretary;
1Ch 18:17 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and Pelethites; David's sons took first place after the king.
1Ch 19:1 After this, when Nahash king of the Ammonites died and his son Hanun succeeded him,
1Ch 19:2 David thought, 'I shall show Hanun son of Nahash the same faithful love as his father showed me.' And David sent representatives to offer him condolences over his father. But when David's representatives reached Hanun in the Ammonites' country to present these condolences,
1Ch 19:3 the Ammonite leaders said to Hanun, 'Do you really think David means to honor your father when he sends you messengers with sympathy? On the contrary, the reason why his representatives have come to you is to explore, overthrow and reconnoitre the country.'
1Ch 19:4 Whereupon Hanun seized David's representatives, shaved them, cut their clothes off half-way up, right by their buttocks, and sent them away.
1Ch 19:5 As soon as David was told how the men had been treated, he sent someone to meet them, since the men were overcome with shame. 'Stay in Jericho,' the king said, 'until your beards have grown, and come back then.'
1Ch 19:6 When the Ammonites realized that they had antagonised David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and cavalry from the Aramaeans of Upper Mesopotamia, of Maacah and of Zobah.
1Ch 19:7 They hired thirty-two thousand chariots and the king of Maacah with his people, who came and encamped before Medeba, while the Ammonites, having left their towns and mustered, were advancing to the war.
1Ch 19:8 When David heard this, he sent Joab with the whole army, the champions.
1Ch 19:9 The Ammonites marched out and drew up their line of battle at the city gate, while the kings who had come kept their distance in the open country.
1Ch 19:10 Joab, seeing that he had to fight on two fronts, to his front and to his rear, chose the best of Israel's picked men and drew them up in line facing the Aramaeans.
1Ch 19:11 He entrusted the rest of the army to his brother Abishai, and drew them up in line facing the Ammonites.
1Ch 19:12 'If the Aramaeans prove too strong for me,' he said, 'you must come to my help; if the Ammonites prove too strong for you, I shall come to yours.
1Ch 19:13 Be brave and let us fight valiantly, for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God! And let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) dispose as he thinks fit!'
1Ch 19:14 Joab and the force with him joined battle with the Aramaeans, who fled at his onslaught.
1Ch 19:15 When the Ammonites saw that the Aramaeans had fled, they too fled from his brother Abishai and withdrew into the city. Joab then returned to Jerusalem.
1Ch 19:16 The Aramaeans, realising that Israel had got the better of them, sent messengers and mobilised the Aramaeans living on the other side of the River, with Shophach, commander of Hadadezer's army, at their head.
1Ch 19:17 David, being informed of this, mustered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, made contact with them and took up position near them. David drew up his line of battle facing the Aramaeans, who then engaged him.
1Ch 19:18 But the Aramaeans fled from Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their chariot teams and forty thousand men; and also Shophach, the commander of the army.
1Ch 19:19 When Hadadezer's vassals saw that Israel had got the better of them, they made peace with David and became his subjects. The Aramaeans were unwilling to give any more help to the Ammonites.
1Ch 20:1 At the turn of the year, at the time when kings go campaigning, Joab led out the troops and, having ravaged the Ammonites' territory, proceeded to lay siege to Rabbah. David, however, remained in Jerusalem. Joab reduced Rabbah and dismantled it.
1Ch 20:2 David took the crown off Milcom's head and found that it weighed a talent of gold, and in it was set a precious stone which went on David's head instead. He carried off great quantities of booty from the city.
1Ch 20:3 And he expelled its inhabitants, setting them to work with saws, iron picks and axes. David treated all the Ammonite towns in the same way. David and all the people then returned to Jerusalem.
1Ch 20:4 After this war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. This was when Sibbecai of Hushah killed Sippai, one of the Rephaim, and the Philistines were subdued.
1Ch 20:5 Again, war with the Philistines broke out, and Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi brother of Goliath of Gath, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
1Ch 20:6 There was further warfare at Gath, where there was a man of huge stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all. He too was a son of Rapha.
1Ch 20:7 When he defied Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, brother of David cut him down.
1Ch 20:8 These men were sons of Rapha in Gath and fell at the hands of David and his guards.
1Ch 21:1 Satan took his stand against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.
1Ch 21:2 David said to Joab and the people's princes, 'Go, and take a census of Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, then bring it back to me and let me know the total.'
1Ch 21:3 Joab replied, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) multiply his people to a hundred times what they are today! But my lord king, are they not all my lord's servants in any case? Why should my lord insist on this? Why should he involve Israel in guilt?'
1Ch 21:4 But the king enforced his order on Joab, and Joab set out, travelled throughout all Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem.
1Ch 21:5 Joab gave David the census results for the people: all Israel had eleven hundred thousand men who could wield a sword; Judah had four hundred and seventy thousand men who could wield a sword.
1Ch 21:6 Joab had found the king's command so distasteful that he did not include Levi and Benjamin.
1Ch 21:7 God looked with displeasure on this and punished Israel in consequence.
1Ch 21:8 David then said to God, 'I have committed a grave sin by doing this. But now I beg you to forgive your servant for this fault, for I have acted very foolishly.'
1Ch 21:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke to Gad, David's seer,
1Ch 21:10 'Go and say to David, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I offer you three things; choose which one of them I am to inflict on you." '
1Ch 21:11 So Gad went to David and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this,
1Ch 21:12 "Take your choice between three years of famine; or three months of disaster at the hands of your enemies, with your enemies' sword overtaking you; or three days of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sword, an epidemic in the country, while the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) wreaks havoc throughout the territory of Israel." Now decide how I am to answer him who sends me.'
1Ch 21:13 David said to Gad, 'I am very apprehensive. Better for me to fall into Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand, since his mercies are very great, than for me to fall into the hands of human enemies.'
1Ch 21:14 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) unleashed an epidemic on Israel, and seventy thousand Israelites succumbed.
1Ch 21:15 Next, God sent the angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was about to destroy it, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looked down and felt sorry about the calamity; and he said to the destroying angel, 'Enough now! Hold your hand!' The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was standing by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1Ch 21:16 David, raising his eyes, saw the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) standing between earth and heaven, a drawn sword in his hand stretched out towards Jerusalem. David and the elders then put on sackcloth and fell on their faces,
1Ch 21:17 and David said to God, 'Did I not order the people to be counted? I was the one who sinned and actually committed the wrong. But these, the flock, what have they done? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, let your hand lie heavy on me and on my family; but spare your people from the plague!'
1Ch 21:18 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then ordered Gad to tell David that David should go up and erect an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
1Ch 21:19 So, at Gad's bidding, given in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name, David went up.
1Ch 21:20 Ornan had turned round and seen the angel, and he and his four sons with him had hidden.
1Ch 21:21 When David arrived Ornan was threshing wheat. He looked up and saw David and came off the threshing-floor and prostrated himself on the ground at David's feet.
1Ch 21:22 David then said to Ornan, 'Let me have the site of the threshing-floor, so that I can build an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on it; let me have it at the full price -- so that the plague may be lifted from the people.' Ornan said to David,
1Ch 21:23 'Take it, and let my lord the king do what he thinks fit. Look, I shall give you the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing-sleds for the wood and the wheat for the oblation. I shall give everything.'
1Ch 21:24 'No,' said King David to Ornan, 'I insist on buying it at the full price. I will not offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) what belongs to you or bring burnt offerings which have cost me nothing.'
1Ch 21:25 So David gave Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the site.
1Ch 21:26 There David built an altar to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and brought burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.
1Ch 21:27 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordered the angel to sheathe his sword.
1Ch 21:28 Whereupon, seeing that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had answered him on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, David offered sacrifice there.
1Ch 21:29 The Dwelling which Moses had made in the desert and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon,
1Ch 21:30 but David could not go there to consult God because he was terrified of the angel's sword.
1Ch 22:1 David then said, 'This is to be the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God and this the altar of burnt offering for Israel.'
1Ch 22:2 David then gave orders for all foreigners in Israel to be rounded up, and appointed quarrymen to cut dressed stone for building the house of God.
1Ch 22:3 David also prepared great quantities of iron to make nails for the leaves of the doors and for the clamps, and more bronze than could be weighed,
1Ch 22:4 as well as innumerable cedar-wood logs, as the Sidonians and Tyrians had brought cedar logs to David in great quantities.
1Ch 22:5 David then said, 'My son Solomon is young and immature, and the house to be built for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) must be superlatively fine, the most famous and splendid in any country. I shall now make the preparations for it.' And so, before he died, David made ample preparations.
1Ch 22:6 He then summoned his son Solomon and commanded him to build a house for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
1Ch 22:7 'My son,' David said to Solomon, 'my heart was set on building a house for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God.
1Ch 22:8 But the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to me, "You have shed much blood and fought great wars; it is not for you to build a house for my name, since you have shed much blood in my sight on earth.
1Ch 22:9 Look, a son will be born to you. He will be a man of peace, and I shall give him peace from his enemies on all sides; for Solomon is to be his name, and in his days I shall give Israel peace and tranquillity.
1Ch 22:10 He must build a house for my name; he will be my son and I shall be his father, and I shall make the throne of his kingdom secure over Israel for ever."
1Ch 22:11 Now, my son, may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be with you and give you success in building a house for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, as he has promised about you.
1Ch 22:12 And especially, may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) give you discretion and discernment, may he give you his orders for Israel, so that you may observe the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
1Ch 22:13 Success will be yours, only if you observe the statutes and ordinances which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave Moses as regulations for Israel. Be strong and stand fast, be fearless, be dauntless.
1Ch 22:14 Now, poor as I am, I have set aside for the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver and more bronze and iron than can be weighed, there being so much. I have also provided timber and stone, to which you may add more.
1Ch 22:15 Furthermore, you have a large number of workmen, quarrymen, masons, carpenters and all sorts of craftsmen for every kind of work,
1Ch 22:16 while your gold and silver, bronze and iron will be beyond reckoning. Set to work, then, and may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be with you!'
1Ch 22:17 David then commanded all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon.
1Ch 22:18 'Has not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God been with you and given you peace on all sides, having put the inhabitants of the country into my power and the country now having been subdued for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his people?
1Ch 22:19 So now devote heart and soul to searching for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. Set to and build the sanctuary of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, so that you can bring the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the holy vessels of God into the house built for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
1Ch 23:1 When David had become old and full of days, he made his son Solomon king of Israel,
1Ch 23:2 and then summoned all the leaders of Israel, with the priests and Levites.
1Ch 23:3 A census was taken of those Levites thirty years old and upwards. On a count of heads, they numbered thirty-eight thousand men;
1Ch 23:4 twenty-four thousand were responsible for the service of the House of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), six thousand were officials and judges,
1Ch 23:5 four thousand were gatekeepers and four thousand praised Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the instruments which David had made for praising him.
1Ch 23:6 David then divided the Levites into classes: Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
1Ch 23:7 Of the Gershonites there were Ladan and Shimei.
1Ch 23:8 Sons of Ladan: Jehiel first, Zetham, Joel; three in all.
1Ch 23:9 Sons of Shimei: Shelomoth, Haziel, Haran; three in all. These are the heads of families of Ladan.
1Ch 23:10 Sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, Jeush, Beriah; these were the sons of Shimei; four in all.
1Ch 23:11 Jahath was the eldest, Zizah the second, then Jeush and Beriah, who had not many children and were reckoned as one family.
1Ch 23:12 Sons of Kohath: Amram, Izhar, Hebron, Uzziel; four in all.
1Ch 23:13 Sons of Amram: Aaron and Moses. Aaron was set apart to consecrate the things that were especially holy, he and his sons for ever, to burn incense in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to serve him and to bless in his name for ever.
1Ch 23:14 Moses, man of God, and his sons were reckoned with the tribe of Levi.
1Ch 23:15 Sons of Moses: Gershom and Eliezer.
1Ch 23:16 Sons of Gershom: Shebuel, the first.
1Ch 23:17 Of the sons of Eliezer, Rehabiah was the first. Eliezer had no other sons, but the sons of Rehabiah were very numerous.
1Ch 23:18 Sons of Izhar: Shelomith, the first.
1Ch 23:19 Sons of Hebron: Jeriah first, Amariah second, Jahaziel third, Jekameam fourth.
1Ch 23:20 Sons of Uzziel: Micah first, Isshiah second.
1Ch 23:21 Sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi. Sons of Mahli: Eleazar and Kish.
1Ch 23:22 Eleazar died without sons, but he did have daughters, whom their cousins, the sons of Kish, married.
1Ch 23:23 Sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder, Jeremoth: three in all.
1Ch 23:24 These were the sons of Levi by their families, the heads of families, and those registered by name, individually; whoever was twenty years old or upwards had his function in the service of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 23:25 For David said, 'Since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, has given rest to his people Israel and has taken up residence in Jerusalem for ever,
1Ch 23:26 the Levites need no longer carry the Dwelling or any of the objects required for its service.'
1Ch 23:27 For, according to the last words of David, the Levites who had been registered were of twenty years and upwards.
1Ch 23:28 Their duty now is to help the sons of Aaron in the service of the House of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the care of the courts and rooms, the purification of all the holy things, the work for the service of the House of God,
1Ch 23:29 the loaves of permanent offering, the flour for the oblation, the wafers of unleavened bread, the pan-baked materials, the unmixed materials and all measures of volume and length.
1Ch 23:30 Furthermore, they have to be present every morning to give thanks and praise to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and also in the evening,
1Ch 23:31 and at the bringing of every burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on Sabbath, New Moon or solemn feast, appearing regularly before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in accordance with the numbers required of them.
1Ch 23:32 In serving the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) they observe the ritual of the Tent of Meeting, the ritual of the sanctuary and the ritual of their kinsmen, the sons of Aaron.'
1Ch 24:1 Orders of the sons of Aaron: Sons of Aaron: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar.
1Ch 24:2 Nadab and Abihu died in their father's lifetime leaving no children, so Eleazar and Ithamar filled the office of priest.
1Ch 24:3 With Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, David allocated them according to the classification of their duties.
1Ch 24:4 Since the sons of Eleazar were found to have more headmen than the sons of Ithamar, they allocated sixteen heads of families to the sons of Eleazar and eight heads of families to the sons of Ithamar.
1Ch 24:5 They allocated them by lot, both alike, there being religious officials and officials of God among the sons of Eleazar, as among the sons of Ithamar.
1Ch 24:6 The levitical scribe Shemaiah son of Nethanel, recorded them in the presence of the king, the leaders, Zadok the priest, Ahimelech son of Abiathar and the heads of the priestly and levitical families, so that two families were selected for Eleazar for each one selected for Ithamar.
1Ch 24:7 The first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah,
1Ch 24:8 the third to Harim, the fourth to Seorim,
1Ch 24:9 the fifth to Malchijah, the sixth to Mijamin,
1Ch 24:10 the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah,
1Ch 24:11 the ninth to Jeshua, the tenth to Shecaniah,
1Ch 24:12 the eleventh to Eliashib, the twelfth to Jakim,
1Ch 24:13 the thirteenth to Huppah, the fourteenth to Ishbaal,
1Ch 24:14 the fifteenth to Bilgah, the sixteenth to Immer,
1Ch 24:15 the seventeenth to Hezir, the eighteenth to Happizzez,
1Ch 24:16 the nineteenth to Pethahiah, the twentieth to Jehezkel,
1Ch 24:17 the twenty-first to Jachin, the twenty-second to Gamul,
1Ch 24:18 the twenty- third to Delaiah and the twenty-fourth to Maaziah.
1Ch 24:19 These were their classifications for their duties when they entered the House of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in accordance with their prescriptions laid down by Aaron their ancestor as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, had commanded him.
1Ch 24:20 As regards the rest of the sons of Levi: Of the sons of Amram: Shubael. Of the sons of Shubael: Jehdeiah.
1Ch 24:21 As regards Rehabiah, of the sons of Rehabiah: Isshiah, the first one.
1Ch 24:22 Of the sons of Izhar: Shelomoth; of the sons of Shelomoth: Jahath.
1Ch 24:23 Of the sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third, Jekameam the fourth.
1Ch 24:24 The son of Uzziel was Micah; of the sons of Micah: Shamir.
1Ch 24:25 The brother of Micah was Isshiah; of the sons of Isshiah, Zechariah.
1Ch 24:26 The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi; of his sons: Jaaziah his son.
1Ch 24:27 The sons of Merari by his son Jaaziah were Shoham, Zaccur and Ibri.
1Ch 24:28 Of Mahli, there was Eleazar who had no sons,
1Ch 24:29 and Kish; and of the sons of Kish: Jerahmeel.
1Ch 24:30 The sons of Mushi were Mahli, Eder and Jerimoth. These were the Levites according to families.
1Ch 24:31 Like their kinsmen, the sons of Aaron, these heads of families, senior and junior alike, also drew lots in the presence of King David, Zadok, Ahimelech, and the heads of the priestly and levitical families.
1Ch 25:1 For the liturgy, David and the religious officials selected the sons of Asaph, of Heman and of Jeduthun, who were to prophesy to the accompaniment of harps, lyres and cymbals. The list of ministrants for this service was as follows:
1Ch 25:2 Of the sons of Asaph: Zaccur, Joseph, Nethaniah, Asharelah; the sons of Asaph were under the direction of Asaph who prophesied at the king's direction.
1Ch 25:3 Of Jeduthun there were the sons of Jeduthun: Gedaliah, Zeri, Jeshaiah, Hashabiah and Mattithiah, six, under the direction of their father Jeduthun who, with the harp, prophesied when thanks and praise were to be given to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 25:4 Of Heman there were the sons of Heman: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamti-Ezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth.
1Ch 25:5 All these were sons of Heman, the king's seer; at God's word they blew the horn. God gave Heman fourteen sons and three daughters.
1Ch 25:6 Under the king's direction all these had the duty of singing to the accompaniment of cymbal, lyre and harp for the liturgy of the house of God under the direction of their fathers. Asaph, Jeduthun and Heman,
1Ch 25:7 trained in the songs of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with their brothers, numbered two hundred and eighty-eight, all expert.
1Ch 25:8 Junior and senior, master and pupil alike, they drew lots for their term of duty.
1Ch 25:9 The first to whom the lot fell was the Asaphite, Joseph. The second was Gedaliah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:10 The third was Zaccur, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:11 The fourth was Izri, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:12 The fifth was Nethaniah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:13 The sixth was Bukkiah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:14 The seventh was Jesharelah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:15 The eighth was Jeshaiah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:16 The ninth was Mattaniah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:17 The tenth was Shimei, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:18 The eleventh was Azarel, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:19 The twelfth was Hashabiah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:20 The thirteenth was Shubael, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:21 The fourteenth was Mattithiah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:22 The fifteenth was Jeremoth, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:23 The sixteenth was Hananiah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:24 The seventeenth was Joshbekashah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:25 The eighteenth was Hanani, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:26 The nineteenth was Mallothi, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:27 The twentieth was Eliathah, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:28 The twenty-first was Hothir, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:29 The twenty-second was Giddalti, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:30 The twenty-third was Mahazioth, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 25:31 The twenty-fourth was Romamti-Ezer, who with his sons and brothers made twelve.
1Ch 26:1 As regards the orders of the gatekeepers: Of the Korahites there was Meshelemiah son of Kore, one of the sons of Ebiasaph,
1Ch 26:2 and Meshelemiah's sons: Zechariah the first-born, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth,
1Ch 26:3 Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth, Elioenai the seventh.
1Ch 26:4 Obed-Edom's sons were: Shemaiah the first-born, Jehozabad the second, Joah the third, Sacar the fourth, Nethanel the fifth,
1Ch 26:5 Ammiel the sixth, Issachar the seventh, Peullethai the eighth; God had indeed blessed him.
1Ch 26:6 His son Shemaiah also had sons who wielded authority in their family, because they were men of outstanding quality.
1Ch 26:7 The sons of Shemaiah were: Othni, Rephael, Obed and Elzabad, whose brothers Elihu and Semachiah were outstanding men.
1Ch 26:8 All these were sons of Obed-Edom, who with their sons and brothers were men of standing, well fitted for their task. Obed-Edom had sixty-two.
1Ch 26:9 Meshelemiah had eighteen outstanding sons and brothers.
1Ch 26:10 Hosah, one of the sons of Merari, had sons: Shimri was the first, for although he was not the first-born his father had made him the chief.
1Ch 26:11 Hilkiah was the second, Tebaliah the third, Zechariah the fourth: Hosah had thirteen sons and brothers in all.
1Ch 26:12 These orders of gatekeepers, allocated according to their headmen, had duties, just like their brothers, of serving in the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 26:13 Similarly, they drew lots for each gate, whether their families were large or small.
1Ch 26:14 For the eastern one, the lot fell to Shelemiah; and when they drew lots for Zechariah his son, a shrewd counsellor, his lot came out for the north.
1Ch 26:15 To Obed-Edom went the south, and to his sons the storehouses.
1Ch 26:16 To Shuppim and Hosah went the west with the Gate of the Felled Tree-trunk on the upper road. The corresponding guards were as follows:
1Ch 26:17 for the east gate, six per day; for the north gate, four per day; for the south gate, four per day; for the storehouses, two each;
1Ch 26:18 for the Parbar at the west gate, four by the road and two for the Parbar.
1Ch 26:19 These were the orders of the gatekeepers of the sons of Korah and the sons of Merari.
1Ch 26:20 The Levites, their brothers, who were responsible for the treasures of the house of God and for the treasures of consecrated gifts,
1Ch 26:21 were the sons of Ladan and belonged to the Gershonites -- the heads of the families of Ladan were descended from Ladan the Gershonite -- that is to say, the Jehielites.
1Ch 26:22 The sons of the Jehielites, Zetham and Joel his brother, were responsible for the treasures of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 26:23 Over the Amramites, Izharites, Hebronites, and Uzzielites
1Ch 26:24 was Shebuel son of Gershom, son of Moses, who was governor of the treasures;
1Ch 26:25 and his brothers of the line of Eliezer were Rehabiah his son, Jeshaiah his son, Joram his son, Zichri his son and Shelomoth his son.
1Ch 26:26 This Shelomoth and his kinsmen were responsible for all the consecrated treasures dedicated by King David, by the heads of families, by the commanders of the thousands and hundreds and by the commanders of the army,
1Ch 26:27 who had dedicated a part of the spoils of war to the service of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
1Ch 26:28 and also for all that Samuel the seer, Saul son of Kish, Abner son of Ner and Joab son of Zeruiah had dedicated. In fact, whatever was dedicated was the responsibility of Shelomoth and his kinsmen.
1Ch 26:29 Of the Izharites, Chananiah and his sons were assigned to secular duties for Israel as officials and judges.
1Ch 26:30 Of the Hebronites, Hashabiah and his kinsmen, one thousand seven hundred outstanding men were in charge of Israel west of Jordan in everything pertaining to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and to the service of the king.
1Ch 26:31 Of the Hebronites, Jerijah was the head. In the fortieth year of David's reign research was done on the lineage and relationships of the Hebronites, and men of outstanding quality from among them were found at Jazer in Gilead.
1Ch 26:32 There were twenty-seven hundred outstanding men, heads of families, whom King David put in charge of the Reubenites, the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh in all matters pertaining to God and the king.
1Ch 27:1 The Israelites listed according to heads of families, commanders of thousands and hundreds, with their officials in the king's service who dealt with all matters affecting the companies on monthly duty, month by month throughout the year, each company consisting of twenty-four thousand men:
1Ch 27:2 The commander of the first company detailed for the first month was Jashobeam son of Zabdiel, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:3 He belonged to the family of Perez and was the senior military officer of all those detailed for the first month.
1Ch 27:4 The commander of the company for the second month was Dodai the Ahohite, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:5 The officer commanding the third body of men for the third month was Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the chief priest, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:6 This was the Benaiah who was an important member of the Thirty and his company. His son was Ammizabad.
1Ch 27:7 The fourth for the fourth month was Asahel brother of Joab, and his son Zebadiah after him, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:8 The fifth officer commanding for the fifth month was Shamhuth the Zerahite, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:9 The sixth for the sixth month was Ira son of Ikkesh of Tekoa, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:10 The seventh for the seventh month was Helez the Pelonite, one of the Ephraimites, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:11 The eighth for the eighth month was Sibbecai of Hushah, a Zerahite, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:12 The ninth for the ninth month was Abiezer of Anathoth, a Benjaminite, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:13 The tenth for the tenth month was Maharai of Netophah, a Zerahite, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:14 The eleventh for the eleventh month was Benaiah of Pirathon, an Ephraimite, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:15 The twelfth for the twelfth month was Heldai of Netophah, of Othniel, whose company consisted of twenty-four thousand men.
1Ch 27:16 Responsible for the tribes of Israel were chief Eliezer son of Zichri for the Reubenites, Shephatiah son of Maacah for the Simeonites,
1Ch 27:17 Hashabiah son of Kemuel for the Levites, Zadok for the Aaronites,
1Ch 27:18 Elihu, one of David's brothers, for Judah, Omri son of Michael for Issachar,
1Ch 27:19 Ishmaiah son of Obadiah for Zebulun, Jerimoth son of Azriel for Naphtali,
1Ch 27:20 Hoshea son of Azaziah for the Ephraimites, Joel son of Pedaiah for the half-tribe of Manasseh,
1Ch 27:21 Iddo son of Zechariah for the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead, Jaasiel son of Abner for Benjamin,
1Ch 27:22 and Azarel son of Jeroham for Dan. These were the tribal chiefs of Israel.
1Ch 27:23 Now in the census David did not include those who were twenty years old and under, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars of heaven.
1Ch 27:24 Joab son of Zeruiah began the count but never finished. This is why retribution came upon Israel, and the number did not come up to that recorded in the annals of King David.
1Ch 27:25 Overseer of the king's supplies: Azmaveth son of Adiel. Overseer of supplies in the countryside, towns, villages and fortresses: Jonathan son of Uzziah.
1Ch 27:26 Overseer of the farmers who tilled the land: Ezri son of Chelub.
1Ch 27:27 Overseer of vineyards: Shimei of Ramah. Overseer of those in the vineyards who looked after the wine cellars: Zabdi of Shepham.
1Ch 27:28 Overseer of olive and sycamore trees in the Shephelah: Baal-Hanan of Geder. Overseer of oil supplies: Joash.
1Ch 27:29 Overseer of cattle at pasture in the plains of Sharon: Shitrai of Sharon. Overseer of cattle in the valleys: Shaphat son of Adlai.
1Ch 27:30 Overseer of camels: Obil the Ishmaelite.
1Ch 27:31 Overseer of donkeys: Jehdeiah of Meranoth. Overseer of flocks: Jaziz the Hagrite. All the above supervised the property belonging to King David.
1Ch 27:32 Jonathan, David's uncle, a councillor, wise man and scribe, and Jehiel son of Hachmoni took care of the king's sons.
1Ch 27:33 Ahitophel was the king's counsellor and Hushai, the Archite, was Friend of the King.
1Ch 27:34 Jehoiada son of Benaiah and Abiathar succeeded Ahitophel -- Joab was commander of the king's army.
1Ch 28:1 David then summoned to Jerusalem all the officials of Israel -- the tribal chiefs, the senior officials in the royal service, the commanders of the thousands, the commanders of the hundreds and the overseers of all the property and livestock belonging to the king and to his sons -- including the court officials, the champions and all the men of standing.
1Ch 28:2 King David then rose to his feet and said: 'My brothers and my people, listen to me. I have set my heart on building a settled home for the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the footstool for our God, but when I was ready to build it,
1Ch 28:3 God said to me, "You must not build a house for my name, for you have been a man of war and have shed blood."
1Ch 28:4 'Even so, out of my entire family, it was I whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, chose to reign over Israel for ever. Having chosen Judah as leader, and my family out of the House of Judah, it pleased him out of all my father's sons to make me king of all Israel.
1Ch 28:5 Out of all my sons -- for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given me many -- he has chosen my son Solomon to sit on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sovereign throne over Israel.
1Ch 28:6 Furthermore, he has told me, "Solomon your son is the man to build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son and I shall be his father.
1Ch 28:7 I shall make his sovereignty secure for ever if he sturdily carries out my commandments and ordinances as he does now."
1Ch 28:8 'So now in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and in the hearing of our God, I charge you to observe and adhere strictly to all the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, so that you may retain possession of this fine country and leave it to your sons after you as a heritage for ever.
1Ch 28:9 'And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with an undivided heart and willing mind; for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) scrutinises all hearts and understands whatever plans they may devise. If you seek him, he will let you find him; but forsake him and he will cast you off for ever.
1Ch 28:10 So, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen you to build a house for his sanctuary, go resolutely to work!'
1Ch 28:11 David then gave his son Solomon the plans for the portico, the plans for the buildings, its storehouses, its upper rooms, its inner rooms and the room for the throne of mercy
1Ch 28:12 as well as the plans for everything that he had in mind: for the courts of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for all the surrounding rooms, for the treasuries of the house of God and for the sacred treasuries,
1Ch 28:13 for the orders of priests and Levites, for all the duties to be carried out in the service of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and for all the liturgical objects to be used in the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
1Ch 28:14 for the gold bullion, for all the golden liturgical objects of various uses; for the silver bullion, for all the silver liturgical objects of various uses;
1Ch 28:15 for the gold bullion for the golden lamp-stands and for their lamps, and for the silver bullion for the silver lamp-stands and their lights, depending on the function of each lamp-stand;
1Ch 28:16 for the gold bullion for each of the tables for the loaves of permanent offering and the silver for the silver tables;
1Ch 28:17 for the pure gold for the forks, the bowls and the jars, for the gold bullion for each of the golden basins and for the silver bullion for each of the silver basins;
1Ch 28:18 and for the refined gold bullion for the altar of incense; also for the gold for the model of the chariot and of the great winged creatures which cover the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with wings outspread-
1Ch 28:19 all this was in the document conveying Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s instructions, by which he revealed the pattern of what was to be done.
1Ch 28:20 David then said to his son Solomon, 'Be resolute and courageous in your work, do not be afraid or disheartened, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, my God, is with you. He will not fail you or forsake you before you have finished all the work to be done for the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
1Ch 28:21 And besides, there are the orders of priests and Levites for whatever is needed in connection with the house of God, and you have at your disposal every kind of craftsman for whatever has to be done, as well as the officials and all the people entirely at your command.'
1Ch 29:1 David then addressed the whole assembly, 'Solomon my son, whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has specifically chosen, is young and immature, and the work is great; this palace is not for any human being but for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God.
1Ch 29:2 With all the resources I can command, for the house of my God I have provided gold for what must be made of gold, silver for what must be made of silver, bronze for what must be made of bronze, iron for what must be made of iron, wood for what must be made of wood, as well as cornelian for inlay work, slabs of multi-coloured mosaic, every kind of precious stone and quantities of alabaster.
1Ch 29:3 Furthermore, because my affections are set on the house of my God, I have also given what gold and silver I personally own for the house of my God, over and above everything which I have already provided for the holy Temple-
1Ch 29:4 that is to say, three thousand talents of gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver for overlaying the walls of the buildings,
1Ch 29:5 the gold being for what must be made of gold, and the silver for what must be made of silver: and for whatever the craftsmen must make. Who, then, is willing to devote himself to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s service today?'
1Ch 29:6 At this, the heads of families, the tribal chiefs of Israel, the commanders of the thousands and the hundreds and those who managed the king's affairs,
1Ch 29:7 volunteered a gift of five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze and a hundred thousand talents of iron,
1Ch 29:8 while those who owned precious stones presented them to the treasury of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the custody of Jehiel the Gershonite.
1Ch 29:9 The people rejoiced at what these had given so readily, since they had presented their freewill offerings wholeheartedly to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). King David too was filled with joy.
1Ch 29:10 Hence, in the presence of the whole assembly David blessed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). David said: 'May you be blessed, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel our ancestor, for ever and for ever!
1Ch 29:11 Yours, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), is the greatness, the power, the splendor, length of days and glory, everything in heaven and on earth is yours. Yours is the sovereignty, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); you are exalted, supreme over all.
1Ch 29:12 Wealth and riches come from you, you are ruler of all, in your hand lie strength and power, and you bestow greatness and might on whomsoever you please.
1Ch 29:13 So now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your majestic name,
1Ch 29:14 for who am I and what is my people, for us to be able to volunteer offerings like this? - since everything has come from you and we have given you only what you bestowed in the first place,
1Ch 29:15 and we are guests before you, and passing visitors as were all our ancestors, our days on earth fleeting as a shadow and without hope.
1Ch 29:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, all this wealth, which we have provided to build a house for your holy name, has come from you and all belongs to you.
1Ch 29:17 'Knowing, my God, how you examine our motives and how you delight in integrity, with integrity of motive I have willingly given all this and have been overjoyed to see your people, now present here, willingly offering their gifts to you.
1Ch 29:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel our ancestors, watch over this for ever, shape the purpose of your people's heart and direct their hearts to you,
1Ch 29:19 and give an undivided heart to Solomon my son to keep your commandments, your decrees and your statutes, to put them all into effect and to build the palace for which I have made provision.'
1Ch 29:20 David then addressed the whole assembly: 'Now bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God!' And the whole assembly blessed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors, bowing down in homage to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and to the king.
1Ch 29:21 On the day following this, they slaughtered sacrifices and brought burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on behalf of Israel -- a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, a thousand lambs with their libations, as well as many other sacrifices-
1Ch 29:22 and they ate and drank that day in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence with great joy. They then made Solomon son of David king a second time, anointing him as leader for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and Zadok as priest.
1Ch 29:23 Solomon took his seat on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s throne, to reign in succession to David his father. He prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.
1Ch 29:24 All the chiefs, all the leading citizens and all King David's other sons pledged allegiance to King Solomon.
1Ch 29:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made Solomon exceedingly powerful, as all Israel could see, and gave him a reign of such splendor as no previous king of Israel ever had.
1Ch 29:26 David son of Jesse was king of all Israel.
1Ch 29:27 He was king of Israel for a period of forty years; he reigned at Hebron for seven years, and in Jerusalem for thirty-three.
1Ch 29:28 He died at a good old age, full of days, riches and honor. Then his son Solomon succeeded him.
1Ch 29:29 The history of King David, from first to last, is all written down in the records of Samuel the seer, the records of Nathan the prophet and the records of Gad the seer,
1Ch 29:30 with his entire reign, his mighty deeds and the times which he, Israel and all the kings of other countries, had experienced.
2Ch 1:1 Solomon son of David then made himself secure over his kingdom. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God was with him, making him more and more powerful.
2Ch 1:2 Solomon then spoke to all Israel, to the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, to the judges and to every leader in all Israel, the heads of families.
2Ch 1:3 Solomon, and the whole assembly with him, then went to the high place at Gibeon, where God's Tent of Meeting was, which Moses, servant of God, had made in the desert.
2Ch 1:4 The ark of the covenant, however, David had brought from Kiriath-Jearim to the place which he had prepared for it, having pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem.
2Ch 1:5 The bronze altar which Bezalel son of Uri, son of Hur, had made was there, in front of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Dwelling, where Solomon and the assembly consulted him.
2Ch 1:6 There Solomon presented a burnt offering before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the bronze altar of the Tent of Meeting, making on it one thousand burnt offerings.
2Ch 1:7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said, 'Ask what you would like me to give you.'
2Ch 1:8 Solomon replied to God, 'You showed most faithful love to David my father, and you have made me king in succession to him.
2Ch 1:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, the promise you made to David my father has now been fulfilled, since you have made me king over a people as numerous as the dust of the earth.
2Ch 1:10 Therefore give me wisdom and knowledge to act as leader of this people, for how otherwise could such a great people as yours be governed?'
2Ch 1:11 'Since that is what you want,' God said to Solomon, 'since you have asked, not for riches, treasure, honor, the lives of your enemies, or even for a long life, but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people of whom I have made you king,
2Ch 1:12 therefore wisdom and knowledge are granted you. I give you riches too, and treasure, and honor such as no king had before you and none will have after you.'
2Ch 1:13 So Solomon came away from the high place at Gibeon, from the Tent of Meeting, to Jerusalem and reigned over Israel.
2Ch 1:14 Solomon then built up a force of chariots and cavalry; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horses; these he kept in the chariot towns and near the king at Jerusalem.
2Ch 1:15 In Jerusalem the king made silver and gold as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as sycamore in the lowlands.
2Ch 1:16 Solomon's horses were imported from Muzur and Cilicia. The king's dealers acquired them in Cilicia at the prevailing price.
2Ch 1:17 A chariot was imported from Egypt for six hundred silver shekels and a horse from Cilicia for a hundred and fifty. They also supplied the Hittite and Aramaean kings, who all used them as middlemen.
2Ch 1:18 Solomon then gave the order to build a house for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and a palace in which to reign.
2Ch 2:1 And Solomon allocated seventy thousand men to be porters and eighty thousand to quarry in the hills and three thousand six hundred overseers for them.
2Ch 2:2 And Solomon sent this message to Huram king of Tyre, 'Do as you did for my father David when you sent him cedars for him to build himself a palace to live in.
2Ch 2:3 You see, I am building a house for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, to acknowledge his holiness so that perfumed incense may be burnt before him, the loaves of permanent offering be perpetually laid out and the burnt offerings be made morning and evening, on the Sabbaths, New Moons and solemn festivals of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, as prescribed to Israel for ever;
2Ch 2:4 and the house which I am building must be large, for our God is greater than all gods;
2Ch 2:5 even so, who would not find it an impossible task to build a house for him, when the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain him? And who am I to build a house for him except to burn incense before him?
2Ch 2:6 So now send me a man skilled at working in gold, silver, bronze, iron, scarlet, crimson and violet materials, and who knows the art of engraving too; he is to work with my skilled men in Judah and Jerusalem, whom my father David has provided.
2Ch 2:7 Also send me cedar, juniper and algum trunks from the Lebanon, for I know that your servants know the art of felling timber in the Lebanon. And, my servants will work with your servants
2Ch 2:8 in preparing a vast quantity of timber for me, since the house which I intend to build is to be of a size to marvel at.
2Ch 2:9 Furthermore, for the upkeep of the woodcutters whom you employ to cut the timber, I shall provide twenty thousand kor of wheat, twenty thousand kor of barley, twenty thousand bat of wine and twenty thousand bat of oil.'
2Ch 2:10 In a letter sent to King Solomon, Huram king of Tyre replied, 'Because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves his people he has made you their king!'
2Ch 2:11 Huram went on to say, 'Praised be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, who made heaven and earth and has given King David a wise son, endowed with discretion and discernment, to build a house for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and a palace in which to reign!-
2Ch 2:12 I am now sending you a skilled and intelligent man, Huram-Abi
2Ch 2:13 the son of a Danite woman by a Tyrian father. He knows the arts of working in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, wood, scarlet, violet, fine linen and crimson materials, and is competent to carry out any kind of engraving and to execute any design which may be entrusted to him, in collaboration with your skilled men and those of my lord David, your father.
2Ch 2:14 'So now let my lord send his servants the wheat, barley, oil and wine as promised
2Ch 2:15 and we will fell all the wood you need from Lebanon, and bring it you in rafts by sea to Jaffa; and it will be your responsibility to transport it to Jerusalem.'
2Ch 2:16 Solomon then took a census of all the aliens resident in Israel similar to the census which his father David had taken; it was found that there were a hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred.
2Ch 2:17 He impressed seventy thousand of them as porters, eighty thousand as quarrymen in the hills and three thousand six hundred as overseers to make sure the people worked.
2Ch 3:1 Solomon then began building the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah where David his father had had a vision -- on the site which David had prepared -- on the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
2Ch 3:2 He began building it on the second day of the second month of the fourth year of his reign.
2Ch 3:3 These are the dimensions which Solomon fixed for the structure of the house of God: its length in cubits, according to the old standard, was sixty cubits and its width twenty cubits;
2Ch 3:4 and the portico in front of the house was the full width of the house, that is, twenty cubits, and its height was a hundred and twenty cubits; on the inside he overlaid it with pure gold.
2Ch 3:5 The Great Hall he lined with juniper, which he overlaid with fine gold and ornamented with palm trees and festoons,
2Ch 3:6 and he decorated the hall beautifully with precious stones and with gold from Parvaim,
2Ch 3:7 overlaying the hall, its beams and its thresholds, its walls and its doors, with gold and engraving the walls with great winged creatures.
2Ch 3:8 He also made the Holy of Holies, the length of which corresponded to the width of the Great Hall, being twenty cubits, with a width of twenty cubits, and this he overlaid with fine gold weighing six hundred talents,
2Ch 3:9 while the weight of the gold nails was fifty shekels. He also overlaid the upper rooms with gold.
2Ch 3:10 In the Holy of Holies he modelled two winged creatures of wrought metal work and overlaid them with gold.
2Ch 3:11 The total span of their wings was twenty cubits; one wing, being five cubits long, touched the wall of the house and the other wing, being five cubits long, touched the wing of the other winged creature;
2Ch 3:12 while one wing of the other, five cubits long, touched the other wall of the house and the other wing, five cubits long, touched the wing of the other winged creature.
2Ch 3:13 The spread of these creatures' wings was twenty cubits. They stood in an upright position, with their faces towards the Hall.
2Ch 3:14 He also made the Curtain of violet, scarlet, crimson and fine linen, working a design of winged creatures on it.
2Ch 3:15 In front of the Hall he made two pillars thirty-five cubits high, and on the top of each a capital measuring five cubits.
2Ch 3:16 He made festoons, in the Debir, to go at the tops of the pillars, and made a hundred pomegranates to go on the festoons.
2Ch 3:17 He erected the pillars in front of the Temple, one on the right, the other on the left; the one on the right he called Jachin and the one on the left, Boaz.
2Ch 4:1 He made a bronze altar, twenty cubits long, twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high.
2Ch 4:2 He made the Sea of cast metal, ten cubits from rim to rim, circular in shape and five cubits high; a cord thirty cubits long gave the measurement of its girth.
2Ch 4:3 Under it and completely encircling it were things like oxen, ten to the cubit round the entire Sea; the oxen were in two rows, of one and the same casting with the rest.
2Ch 4:4 It rested on twelve oxen, three facing north, three facing west, three facing south, three facing east; on these, their hindquarters all turned inwards, stood the Sea.
2Ch 4:5 It was a hand's breadth in thickness, and its rim was shaped like the rim of a cup-lily-shaped. It could hold three thousand bat.
2Ch 4:6 He made ten basins, putting five on the right and five on the left, for washing in; the things to be offered as burnt offerings were to be rinsed in these, but the Sea was for the priests to wash in.
2Ch 4:7 He made the ten golden lamp-stands according to the pattern and placed them in the Hekal, five on the right and five on the left.
2Ch 4:8 He made ten tables which he set up in the Hekal, five on the right and five on the left. He also made a hundred golden sprinkling bowls.
2Ch 4:9 He made the court of the priests and the great court with its gates and plated the gates with bronze.
2Ch 4:10 The Sea he placed on the right-hand side of the Temple, to the south-east.
2Ch 4:11 Huram made the ash containers, the scoops and the sprinkling bowls. Thus Huram completed all the work done for King Solomon for the Temple of God:
2Ch 4:12 the two pillars; the mouldings of the capitals surmounting the two pillars; the two sets of filigree to cover the two mouldings of the capitals surmounting the pillars;
2Ch 4:13 the four hundred pomegranates for the two sets of filigree -- two rows of pomegranates for each set of filigree;
2Ch 4:14 the ten stands and the ten basins on the stands;
2Ch 4:15 the one Sea and the twelve oxen beneath it;
2Ch 4:16 the ash containers, scoops and forks. All these utensils made by Huram-Abi for King Solomon for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) were of burnished bronze.
2Ch 4:17 The King made them by the process of sand casting, in the plain of the Jordan between Succoth and Zeredah.
2Ch 4:18 There was such an enormous quantity of them that the weight of the bronze could not be calculated.
2Ch 4:19 Solomon made all the objects designed for the Temple of God, as well as the golden altar and the tables for the loaves of permanent offering;
2Ch 4:20 the lamp-stands with their lamps to burn, as prescribed, in front of the Debir, of pure gold;
2Ch 4:21 the floral work, the lamps, the tongs, of gold (and it was pure gold);
2Ch 4:22 the snuffers, the sprinkling bowls, incense ladles and the pans, of real gold; and the entrance to the Temple, the inner doors (for the Holy of Holies) and the doors of the Temple itself, that is of the Hekal, were also made of gold.
2Ch 5:1 Thus all the work done by Solomon for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was completed, and Solomon brought in the gifts which his father David had consecrated; and he had the silver, the gold and all the utensils put into the treasuries of the Temple of God.
2Ch 5:2 Solomon then assembled the elders of Israel to Jerusalem, all the tribal chiefs, the princes of the families of Israel, to bring the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) up from the City of David, that is, Zion.
2Ch 5:3 All the men of Israel assembled round the king at the time of the feast, that is, in the seventh month.
2Ch 5:4 When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark;
2Ch 5:5 they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred utensils which were in the Tent; the levitical priests brought them up.
2Ch 5:6 King Solomon and the whole assembly of Israel present with him before the ark sacrificed countless, innumerable sheep and oxen.
2Ch 5:7 The priests brought the ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to its place, in the Debir of the Temple, that is, in the Holy of Holies, under the wings of the winged creatures;
2Ch 5:8 for they spread their wings over the place where the ark stood, forming a canopy over the ark and its shafts.
2Ch 5:9 The shafts were so long, however, that the ends of the shafts of the ark could be seen in front of the Holy Place in front of the Debir, though they could not be seen from outside. They are still there today.
2Ch 5:10 There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses had placed in it at Horeb, when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of Egypt.
2Ch 5:11 Now when the priests came out of the Holy Place -- for all the priests present had sanctified themselves regardless of the orders to which they belonged,
2Ch 5:12 and all the levitical singers, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun with their sons and brothers, dressed in linen, were standing to the east of the altar with cymbals, lyres and harps and with them one hundred and twenty priests blowing the trumpets,
2Ch 5:13 and the harmony between trumpeters and singers was such that only one melody could be heard as they praised and gave thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- and the singing began, to the accompaniment of trumpets, cymbals and musical instruments, and they praised Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) 'for he is good, for his faithful love is everlasting' -- then the Temple was filled with the cloud of the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ch 5:14 and because of the cloud the priests could not stay and perform their duties. For the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) filled the Temple of God.
2Ch 6:1 Then Solomon said: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen to dwell in thick cloud,
2Ch 6:2 and I have built you a princely dwelling, a residence for you for ever.
2Ch 6:3 Then the king turned round and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while the whole assembly of Israel stood.
2Ch 6:4 He said, 'Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, who has carried out by his hand what he promised verbally to my father David, when he said,
2Ch 6:5 "From the day I brought my people out of Egypt I chose no city, in any of the tribes of Israel, to have a temple built where my name should be, nor did I choose anyone to be prince of my people Israel;
2Ch 6:6 but I did choose Jerusalem for my name to be there, and I did choose David to rule my people Israel."
2Ch 6:7 My father David had set his heart on building a temple for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel,
2Ch 6:8 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to my father David, "You have set your heart on building a temple for my name, and in this you have done well;
2Ch 6:9 and yet, you are not the man to build the temple; but your son, yet to be born to you, will be the one to build the temple for my name."
2Ch 6:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has kept the promise which he made: I have succeeded my father David and am seated on the throne of Israel, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) promised; I have built the temple for the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel,
2Ch 6:11 and I have placed in it the ark containing the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), which he made with the Israelites.'
2Ch 6:12 Then in the presence of the whole assembly of Israel, he stood facing the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and stretched out his hands-
2Ch 6:13 for Solomon had made a bronze platform, five cubits long, five cubits wide and five cubits high, which he had placed in the middle of the court and on which he was standing; he knelt down in front of the whole assembly of Israel, stretched out his hands to heaven-
2Ch 6:14 and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, there is no god like you in heaven or on earth, you who are loyal to the covenant and show faithful love to your servants as long as they walk wholeheartedly in your way.
2Ch 6:15 You have kept it with your servant, my father David, as you promised him you would. What you promised verbally today you have carried out by your hand.
2Ch 6:16 And now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, keep the promise which you made to your servant David when you said, "You will never lack for a man to sit in my presence before me on the throne of Israel, provided that your sons are careful how they behave, following my law as you yourself have done."
2Ch 6:17 So now, God of Israel, let the words come true which you spoke to your servant, my father David.
2Ch 6:18 Yet will God really live with the people on earth? Why, the heavens and the heavens of the heavens cannot contain you! How much less this temple built by me!
2Ch 6:19 Even so, listen favorably to the prayer and entreaty of your servant, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God; listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant makes to you:
2Ch 6:20 Day and night, may your eyes watch over this temple, over this place in which you have promised to put your name. Listen to the prayer which your servant offers in this place.
2Ch 6:21 'Listen to the entreaties of your servant and of your people Israel; whenever they pray in this place, listen from the place where you reside in heaven; and when you hear, forgive.
2Ch 6:22 'If someone has wronged his neighbor and a curse is laid on him to make him swear here before your altar in this Temple,
2Ch 6:23 then listen from heaven and do justice between your servants, paying back the guilty one by making him suffer for his conduct, and acquitting the upright by rewarding him as his uprightness deserves.
2Ch 6:24 'If your people Israel are defeated by the enemy because they have sinned against you, but then return to you and acknowledge your name, and pray and seek your favor in this temple,
2Ch 6:25 then listen from heaven; forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the country which you gave to them and their ancestors.
2Ch 6:26 'When the heavens are shut and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray in this place and praise your name and, having been humbled by you, desist from their sin,
2Ch 6:27 then listen from heaven and forgive the sin of your servant and of your people Israel -- for you are constantly showing them the good way which they must follow -- and send rain on your country, which you have given to your people as their heritage.
2Ch 6:28 'Should there be famine in the country, or pestilence, wind-blast or mildew, locust or caterpillar; should their enemy lay siege to their territory; should there be any plague or any disease;
2Ch 6:29 whatever be the prayer or entreaty of any individual, or of all your people Israel, each being aware of his own affliction and pain; when he stretches out his hands towards this Temple,
2Ch 6:30 then listen from heaven where you reside; forgive and, since you know what is in his heart, deal with each as his conduct deserves -- for you alone know what is in the human heart-
2Ch 6:31 so that they may revere you by following your directions, which you gave to our ancestors, throughout their lives on earth.
2Ch 6:32 'Even the foreigner, not belonging to your people Israel but coming from a distant country, attracted by your great name, your mighty hand and outstretched arm, if he comes and prays in this Temple,
2Ch 6:33 then listen from heaven where you reside, and grant all that the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may acknowledge your name and, like your people Israel, revere you, and know that this Temple, which I have built, bears your name.
2Ch 6:34 'If your people go out to war against their enemies, on whatever mission you send them, and they pray to you, turning towards this city which you have chosen and towards the Temple which I have built for your name,
2Ch 6:35 then listen from heaven to their prayer and their entreaty, and uphold their cause.
2Ch 6:36 'When they sin against you -- for there is no one who does not sin -- and you are angry with them and abandon them to the enemy, and their captors carry them off to a country be it far away or near,
2Ch 6:37 if they come to their senses in the country to which they have been taken as captives and pray to you once again in the country of their captivity, saying, "We have sinned, we have acted wrongly and wickedly,"
2Ch 6:38 and turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the country of their captivity to which they have been carried away as captives, and pray, turning towards the country which you gave to their ancestors, towards the city you have chosen, and towards the Temple which I have built for your name,
2Ch 6:39 then listen from heaven where you reside, hear their prayer and entreaties, uphold their cause and forgive your people for having sinned against you.
2Ch 6:40 'Now, O my God, may your eyes be open and your ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.
2Ch 6:41 And now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, go up to your resting-place, you and your fortress, the Ark! Let your priests, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, be robed in salvation, let your faithful rejoice in what is good!
2Ch 6:42 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, do not rebuff your Anointed -- remember the faithful love of your servant David!'
2Ch 7:1 When Solomon had finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) filled the Temple.
2Ch 7:2 The priests could not enter the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), because the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) filled the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 7:3 When all the Israelites saw the fire come down and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) resting on the Temple, they bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the earth, worshipping and praising Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with 'For he is good, for his faithful love lasts for ever!'
2Ch 7:4 Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 7:5 King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep; and thus the king and all the people dedicated the Temple of God.
2Ch 7:6 The priests stood in their places, as did the Levites with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s musical instruments which King David had provided, to render 'Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for his faithful love lasts for ever!' whenever David offered praise to their accompaniment. Opposite them, the priests blew trumpets, while all Israel stood.
2Ch 7:7 Solomon also consecrated the middle part of the court in front of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); for that was where he presented the burnt offerings and the fatty parts of the communion sacrifices, since the bronze altar which Solomon had made could not hold the burnt offering, the oblation and the fatty parts.
2Ch 7:8 And then Solomon and with him all Israel from the Pass of Hamath to the Torrent of Egypt -- a very great assembly -- celebrated the feast for seven days.
2Ch 7:9 On the eighth day they held the assembly, for they had devoted seven days to the dedication of the altar and seven days to the feast.
2Ch 7:10 On the twenty-third day of the seventh month Solomon dismissed the people to their homes, rejoicing and happy of heart over the goodness which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had shown to David, to Solomon and to his people Israel.
2Ch 7:11 Thus Solomon finished the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the royal palace, and he successfully concluded everything that he was of a mind to do in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and in his own palace.
2Ch 7:12 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) appeared to Solomon in the night and said, 'I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.
2Ch 7:13 If I shut the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the country, or if I send pestilence among my people,
2Ch 7:14 if my people who bear my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my presence and turn from their wicked ways, then I will listen from heaven and forgive their sins and restore their country.
2Ch 7:15 Now and for the future my eyes are open and my ears attentive to prayer offered in this place,
2Ch 7:16 for now I have chosen and consecrated this Temple, for my name to be there for ever; my eyes and my heart will constantly be there.
2Ch 7:17 And if, for your part, you walk before me as your father David did, and do everything that I have commanded you to do, and keep my laws and my ordinances,
2Ch 7:18 I shall make your royal throne secure, as I covenanted with your father David when I said: You will never lack for a male to rule in Israel.
2Ch 7:19 But if you turn away and forsake my laws and commandments which I have laid down for you, and go and serve other gods and worship them,
2Ch 7:20 then I shall uproot them from the country which I have given them, and shall disown this Temple which I have consecrated for my name and make it a proverb and a byword among all the peoples.
2Ch 7:21 And at this once-exalted Temple, everyone who passes by will be appalled, and will say, "Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) treated this country and this Temple like this?"
2Ch 7:22 And the answer will be, "Because they deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of their ancestors, who brought them out of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshipped and served them; that is why he has brought all these disasters on them." '
2Ch 8:1 At the end of the twenty years which it took Solomon to build the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his own palace,
2Ch 8:2 and to rebuild the towns which Huram had given him and settle them with Israelites,
2Ch 8:3 Solomon mounted an expedition against Hamath-Zobah and captured it.
2Ch 8:4 He also fortified Tadmor in the desert and all the storage towns which he had built in Hamath.
2Ch 8:5 He also built Upper Beth-Horon and Lower Beth-Horon as fortified towns with walls and gates and bars,
2Ch 8:6 also Baalath and all Solomon's storage towns, all the towns for his chariots and horses, and everything which Solomon was pleased to build in Jerusalem, in the Lebanon and throughout the territory under his rule.
2Ch 8:7 All those who survived of the Hittite, Amorite, Perizzite, Hivite and Jebusite peoples, who did not belong to Israel-
2Ch 8:8 those of their descendants still remaining in the country, whom the Israelites had not exterminated, these Solomon levied for forced labour, as is still the case today.
2Ch 8:9 Solomon did not, however, impose forced labour on the Israelites for his work -- for they were soldiers, his senior officers and his chariot and cavalry commanders.
2Ch 8:10 There were two hundred and fifty of King Solomon's officials in charge of the foremen who supervised the people.
2Ch 8:11 Solomon moved Pharaoh's daughter up from the City of David to the palace which he had built for her. 'I must not be responsible', he said, 'for a woman living in the palace of David king of Israel, for these buildings to which the ark of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has come are sacred.'
2Ch 8:12 Thereafter, Solomon made burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which he had built in front of the portico,
2Ch 8:13 in accordance with the regular prescriptions for burnt sacrifice as commanded by Moses, on the Sabbaths, New Moons and the three annual feasts; the feast of Unleavened Bread, the feast of Weeks and the feast of Shelters.
2Ch 8:14 Following the prescriptions of his father David, he assigned the orders of priests to their duties and the Levites to their tasks of praise and of assisting the priests in accordance with day-to-day requirements; as also the gatekeepers in their various orders to each gate -- for such was the command of David, man of God.
2Ch 8:15 Nor was there deviation on any point from the king's command as regards the priests, the Levites or even the storehouses.
2Ch 8:16 Thus, all the work was over which Solomon had put in hand when the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was founded until it was finished. The Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was complete in every detail.
2Ch 8:17 Solomon then mounted an expedition to Ezion-Geber and Elath on the sea-coast of Edom.
2Ch 8:18 Huram sent him ships through his agents, as well as experienced sailors, who went to Ophir with men in Solomon's service, where they took on four hundred and fifty talents of gold, which they brought back to King Solomon.
2Ch 9:1 The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon's fame and came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with difficult questions, with a very large retinue with camels laden with spices and an immense quantity of gold and precious stones. Having reached Solomon, she discussed everything that she had in mind with him,
2Ch 9:2 and Solomon had an answer for all her questions; not one of them was too obscure for Solomon to answer for her.
2Ch 9:3 When the queen of Sheba saw how wise Solomon was, the palace which he had built,
2Ch 9:4 the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cupbearers and the way they were dressed, and the burnt offerings, which he made in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), it left her breathless,
2Ch 9:5 and she said to the king, 'The report I heard in my own country about you and about your wisdom in handling your affairs was true, then!
2Ch 9:6 Until I came and saw for myself, I did not believe the reports, but clearly I was told less than half about the true extent of your wisdom. You surpass what was reported to me.
2Ch 9:7 How fortunate your people are! How fortunate your courtiers, continually in attendance on you and listening to your wisdom!
2Ch 9:8 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. Because your God loved Israel and meant to keep it secure for ever, he has made you its king to administer law and justice.'
2Ch 9:9 And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones. There never were such spices as those which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
2Ch 9:10 Similarly, the men employed by Huram and the men employed by Solomon, who brought the gold from Ophir, also brought back algum wood and precious stones.
2Ch 9:11 Of the algum wood the king made steps for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and for the royal palace, and harps and lyres for the musicians, the like of which had never before been seen in Judah.
2Ch 9:12 And King Solomon, in his turn, presented the queen of Sheba with everything that she expressed a wish for, besides what he gave her in exchange for what she had brought to the king. After which, she went home to her own country, she and her servants.
2Ch 9:13 The weight of the gold received annually by Solomon amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,
2Ch 9:14 besides what tolls and foreign trade brought in; all the Arab kings and the provincial governors also brought gold and silver to Solomon.
2Ch 9:15 King Solomon made two hundred great shields of beaten gold, six hundred shekels of beaten gold going into one shield;
2Ch 9:16 also three hundred small shields of beaten gold, three hundred shekels of gold going into one shield; and the king put these into the House of the Forest of Lebanon.
2Ch 9:17 The king also made a great ivory throne which he overlaid with refined gold.
2Ch 9:18 The throne had six steps with a golden foot-rest attached to the throne, and arms on each side of the seat and two lions standing beside the arms,
2Ch 9:19 and twelve lions stood on either side of the six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.
2Ch 9:20 All King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the plate in the House of the Forest of Lebanon was of pure gold; silver was little thought of in Solomon's days,
2Ch 9:21 since the king's ships went to Tarshish with Huram's employees, and once every three years the merchantmen would come back laden with gold and silver, ivory, apes and baboons.
2Ch 9:22 For riches and for wisdom, King Solomon surpassed all kings on earth,
2Ch 9:23 and all the kings in the world consulted Solomon to hear the wisdom which God had implanted in his heart,
2Ch 9:24 and everyone would bring a present with him: objects of silver and of gold, robes, armour, spices, horses and mules; and this went on year after year.
2Ch 9:25 Solomon also had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand cavalrymen; these he stationed in the chariot towns and near the king in Jerusalem.
2Ch 9:26 He was overlord of all the kings from the River to the territory of the Philistines and the Egyptian border.
2Ch 9:27 In Jerusalem the king made silver as common as stones, and cedar wood as plentiful as sycamore in the Lowlands.
2Ch 9:28 Horses were imported for Solomon from Muzur and all the other countries too.
2Ch 9:29 The rest of the history of Solomon, from first to last, is this not all written down in the records of Nathan the prophet, in the Prophecy of Ahijah of Shiloh, and in the Vision of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat?
2Ch 9:30 Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.
2Ch 9:31 When Solomon fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of his father David; Rehoboam his son succeeded him.
2Ch 10:1 Rehoboam then went to Shechem, all Israel having come to Shechem to proclaim him king.
2Ch 10:2 As soon as Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news -- he was in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon -- he returned from Egypt.
2Ch 10:3 They now sent for him, so Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke as follows to Rehoboam,
2Ch 10:4 'Your father laid a cruel yoke on us; if you will lighten your father's cruel slavery, that heavy yoke which he imposed on us, we are willing to serve you.'
2Ch 10:5 He said to them, 'Come back to me in three days' time.' And the people went away.
2Ch 10:6 King Rehoboam then consulted the elders, who had been in attendance on his father Solomon while he was alive, and said, 'How do you advise me to answer this people?'
2Ch 10:7 They replied, 'If you are fair to these people, pleasant to them and give them a fair reply, they will remain your servants for ever.'
2Ch 10:8 But he rejected the advice given him by the elders and consulted the young men in attendance on him, who had grown up with him.
2Ch 10:9 He said, 'How do you advise us to answer these people who have been saying, "Lighten the yoke which your father imposed on us"?'
2Ch 10:10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, 'This is the way to answer the people who have been saying, "Your father made our yoke heavy, you must lighten it for us!" This is the right thing to say to them, "My little finger is thicker than my father's loins!
2Ch 10:11 Although my father laid a heavy yoke on you, I shall make it heavier still! My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash!" '
2Ch 10:12 On the third day, Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam in obedience to the king's instructions, 'Come back to me in three days' time.'
2Ch 10:13 And the king gave them a harsh answer. King Rehoboam, rejecting the advice of the elders,
2Ch 10:14 spoke to them as the young men had recommended, 'My father made your yoke heavy, but I shall add to it. My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash.'
2Ch 10:15 Thus the king refused to listen to the people, and this was brought about by God, so that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) might fulfill the promise which he had made through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
2Ch 10:16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king thus: What share have we in David? -no heritage in the son of Jesse! Each of you, to your tents, Israel! Now look to your own house, David! So Israel went home again.
2Ch 10:17 Rehoboam, however, reigned over those Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.
2Ch 10:18 When King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was in charge of forced labour, the Israelites stoned him to death, while King Rehoboam managed to mount his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.
2Ch 10:19 And Israel has remained in rebellion against the House of David from that day to this.
2Ch 11:1 When Rehoboam reached Jerusalem, he mustered a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors of the House of Judah and Benjamin to fight Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam.
2Ch 11:2 But the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Shemaiah, man of God,
2Ch 11:3 'Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,
2Ch 11:4 "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Do not go and make war on your brothers; let everyone go home, for this is my doing." ' They obeyed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s command and went back instead of marching against Jeroboam.
2Ch 11:5 Rehoboam, residing in Jerusalem, fortified a number of towns for the defence of Judah.
2Ch 11:6 He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,
2Ch 11:7 Beth-Zur, Soco, Adullam,
2Ch 11:8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,
2Ch 11:9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,
2Ch 11:10 Zorah, Aijalon, Hebron, these being the fortified towns in Judah and Benjamin.
2Ch 11:11 He equipped these fortresses, stationing commanders in them, with supplies of food, oil and wine,
2Ch 11:12 and shields and spears in each of these towns, making them extremely strong and thus retaining control of Judah and Benjamin.
2Ch 11:13 The priests and the Levites from all over Israel left their districts to put themselves at his disposal.
2Ch 11:14 The Levites, indeed, abandoned their pasture lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had excluded them from the priesthood of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 11:15 Jeroboam had appointed his own priests for the high places dedicated to the satyrs and calves which he had made.
2Ch 11:16 And those members of all the tribes of Israel who were determined to seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, followed those priests and Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors.
2Ch 11:17 These added strength to the kingdom of Judah and gave their support to Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years. For three years they remained loyal to David and Solomon.
2Ch 11:18 Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth, son of David, and of Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse,
2Ch 11:19 and she bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham.
2Ch 11:20 After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith.
2Ch 11:21 Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom, more than all his other wives and concubines. He had in fact a total of eighteen wives and sixty concubines and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
2Ch 11:22 Rehoboam named Abijah son of Maacah as head, hence leader, of his brothers, with a view to making him king,
2Ch 11:23 and acted wisely by distributing his sons throughout the territories of Judah and Benjamin, some in each fortified town, where he provided plenty of food for them and found them wives.
2Ch 12:1 When Rehoboam had consolidated the kingdom and become strong, he, and all Israel with him, abandoned the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
2Ch 12:2 and thus it happened that in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt marched on Jerusalem, because they had been unfaithful to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ch 12:3 with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand cavalry and countless hordes of Libyans, Sukkiim and Cushites who came from Egypt with him.
2Ch 12:4 They captured the fortified towns of Judah and reached Jerusalem.
2Ch 12:5 The prophet Shemaiah then came to Rehoboam and the generals of Judah, who had fallen back on Jerusalem before Shishak's advance, and said to them, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "You have abandoned me and so I have abandoned you into Shishak's clutches." '
2Ch 12:6 At this, the Israelite generals and the king humbled themselves and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is just!'
2Ch 12:7 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Shemaiah as follows, 'They have humbled themselves. I shall not destroy them but shall grant them some degree of deliverance. My retribution will not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak;
2Ch 12:8 they are nonetheless to become his slaves, so that they may learn the difference between serving me and serving kings of other countries.'
2Ch 12:9 So Shishak king of Egypt advanced on Jerusalem and carried off the treasures of the Temple and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything away, including the golden shields which Solomon had made.
2Ch 12:10 To replace these, King Rehoboam made bronze shields, entrusting them to the commanders of the guard who guarded the king's palace gate.
2Ch 12:11 Whenever the king went to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the guards would come out carrying them, returning them to the guardroom afterwards.
2Ch 12:12 Because King Rehoboam had humbled himself, the retribution of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) turned away from him so as not to destroy him completely; and there were also some good features in Judah.
2Ch 12:13 Thus he was able to strengthen his position in Jerusalem and continue as king; for Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he came to the throne and remained king for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city chosen by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite.
2Ch 12:14 But he did wrong in not setting his heart on seeking Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 12:15 The history of Rehoboam, from first to last, is this not all written down in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer? Warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam went on throughout the period.
2Ch 12:16 When Rehoboam fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David; his son Abijah succeeded him.
2Ch 13:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah
2Ch 13:2 and reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. When war broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam,
2Ch 13:3 Abijah took the field with an army of four hundred thousand picked warriors, while Jeroboam took the field against him with eight hundred thousand picked warriors.
2Ch 13:4 Abijah took position on Mount Zemaraim, in the highlands of Ephraim. 'Jeroboam and all Israel,' he cried, 'listen to me!
2Ch 13:5 Do you not know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, has given eternal sovereignty of Israel to David and his sons by an inviolable covenant?
2Ch 13:6 Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, the slave of Solomon son of David, rose in revolt against his master.
2Ch 13:7 Worthless men, scoundrels, rallied to him, proving too strong for Rehoboam son of Solomon, as Rehoboam was then inexperienced and timid and unable to resist them.
2Ch 13:8 And now you propose to resist Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sovereignty as exercised by the sons of David because there is a great number of you and you have the golden calves that Jeroboam made you for gods!
2Ch 13:9 Have you not driven out the priests of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the sons of Aaron and the Levites, to make priests of your own like the peoples of foreign countries? Anyone who comes with a bull and seven rams to get himself consecrated can become priest of these gods that are no gods.
2Ch 13:10 But for our part, our God is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and we have not abandoned him; our priests are sons of Aaron who minister to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and those who serve are Levites;
2Ch 13:11 morning after morning, evening after evening, they present burnt offerings and perfumed incense to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they put the bread of permanent offering on the clean table and nightly light the lamps on the golden lamp-stand; for we keep the decree of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, although you have abandoned him.
2Ch 13:12 See how God is with us, at our head, and his priests with trumpets to sound the alarm against you! Israelites, do not make war on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, for you will not succeed.'
2Ch 13:13 Now Jeroboam had sent a party round to ambush them from the rear; thus the main force confronted Judah and the ambush lay to their rear.
2Ch 13:14 And when Judah looked round, they found themselves being attacked from front and rear. They called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the priests sounded the trumpets,
2Ch 13:15 and the men of Judah raised the war cry and, as they raised the cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
2Ch 13:16 So the Israelites fled before Judah, because God had given Judah the upper hand,
2Ch 13:17 and Abijah and his army inflicted a great slaughter on them: five hundred thousand of Israel's picked men fell, killed.
2Ch 13:18 So the Israelites were humbled on that occasion, while the Judaeans won, since they had relied on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors.
2Ch 13:19 Abijah pursued Jeroboam, taking from him the towns of Bethel with its dependencies, Jeshanah with its dependencies and Ephron with its dependencies,
2Ch 13:20 nor did Jeroboam regain strength during Abijah's lifetime. Eventually Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck him and he died,
2Ch 13:21 but Abijah grew stronger than ever; he married fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
2Ch 13:22 The rest of the history of Abijah, his conduct and his sayings, are recorded in the midrash of the prophet Iddo.
2Ch 13:23 When Abijah fell asleep with his ancestors, he was buried in the City of David; his son Asa succeeded him. In his time the country was at peace for ten years.
2Ch 14:1 Asa did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God regards as good and right.
2Ch 14:2 He abolished the foreign altars and the high places, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles,
2Ch 14:3 and urged Judah to seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors, and to observe the law and commandment.
2Ch 14:4 Because he abolished the high places and incense altars through the towns of Judah, the kingdom under him was undisturbed.
2Ch 14:5 He rebuilt the fortified towns of Judah, since the country was at peace and free of war during those years, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had granted him peace.
2Ch 14:6 'Let us rebuild these towns,' he told Judah, 'let us surround them with wall and tower, with gate and bar while the country is still ours, for we have sought Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God and he has sought us and given us peace all around.' They built and prospered.
2Ch 14:7 Asa had an army of three hundred thousand men of Judah armed with shields and spears and two hundred and eighty thousand men of Benjamin armed with shields and bows, all of them outstanding soldiers.
2Ch 14:8 Zerah the Cushite took the field against them with an army a million strong and three hundred chariots, and penetrated to Mareshah.
2Ch 14:9 Asa took the field against him and the battle-lines were drawn up in the Valley of Zephathah, at Mareshah.
2Ch 14:10 Asa then called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), numbers and strength make no difference to you when you give your help. Help us, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, for, relying on you, we are confronting this horde in your name. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you are our God. Human strength cannot prevail against you!'
2Ch 14:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) routed the Cushites before Asa and Judah. The Cushites fled,
2Ch 14:12 and Asa pursued them with his army as far as Gerar. So many of the Cushites fell that they were unable to survive. They were cut to pieces by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his army. They carried off a great deal of booty,
2Ch 14:13 they destroyed all the towns round Gerar -- for a panic from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had seized the towns -- and plundered all the towns since they were full of loot.
2Ch 14:14 They also routed the cattle-owners and carried off great numbers of sheep and camels; then they returned to Jerusalem.
2Ch 15:1 The spirit of God then came on Azariah son of Oded;
2Ch 15:2 he went out to meet Asa and said, 'Listen to me, Asa, and all you in Judah and in Benjamin: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be with you so long as you are with him. If you seek him, he will let you find him; but if you desert him, he will desert you.
2Ch 15:3 For a long time Israel did not have the true God or a teacher-priest or a law,
2Ch 15:4 but when in their distress they turned to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, and sought him, he let them find him.
2Ch 15:5 In those times there was no security for people as they went about their business, but great unrest affecting the inhabitants of all countries,
2Ch 15:6 nation being crushed by nation and city by city, since God caused confusion among them by every kind of distress.
2Ch 15:7 So be strong, do not be discouraged, for your deeds will be rewarded.'
2Ch 15:8 When Asa heard these words and the prophecy, he took courage and removed the abominable idols throughout the land of Judah and Benjamin as well as from the towns which he had captured in the highlands of Ephraim, and repaired the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which stood in front of the portico of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 15:9 He summoned all Judah and Benjamin as well as those Ephraimites, Manassehites and Simeonites who had settled with them -- for a great many people from Israel had gone over to Asa when they saw that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God was with him.
2Ch 15:10 They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa's reign,
2Ch 15:11 that day sacrificing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seven hundred oxen and seven thousand sheep from the booty which they had brought back.
2Ch 15:12 They then made a covenant to seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul;
2Ch 15:13 anyone who would not seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether high or low, man or woman.
2Ch 15:14 They pledged their oath to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in ringing tones, with shouts of joy, to the sound of trumpet and horn;
2Ch 15:15 all Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn it wholeheartedly, and sought him so earnestly that he allowed them to find him; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave them peace all round.
2Ch 15:16 King Asa even deprived his mother Maacah of the dignity of Great Lady for having made an obscenity for Asherah; Asa cut down her obscenity, smashed it and burnt it in the ravine of the Kidron.
2Ch 15:17 Though the high places were not abolished in Israel, Asa's heart was loyal throughout his life.
2Ch 15:18 He deposited his father's and his own dedicated gifts of silver, gold and sacred vessels, in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 15:19 Up to the thirty-fifth year of Asa's reign there was no war.
2Ch 16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa's reign, Baasha king of Israel marched on Judah and fortified Ramah to block the communications of Asa king of Judah.
2Ch 16:2 Asa then took silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the royal palace and sent this with the following message to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who lived in Damascus,
2Ch 16:3 'Let us make an alliance between me and you, between my father and your father! Look, I have sent you silver and gold. Come, break off your alliance with Baasha king of Israel, which will make him withdraw from me.'
2Ch 16:4 Ben-Hadad listened favorably to King Asa and sent the generals of his armies to attack the towns of Israel; he ravaged Ijon, Dan, Abel-Maim and all the storage towns of Naphtali.
2Ch 16:5 When Baasha heard this he gave up fortifying Ramah, abandoning this work.
2Ch 16:6 King Asa then had all Judah carry away the stones and timber with which Baasha had been fortifying Ramah, and used them to fortify Geba and Mizpah.
2Ch 16:7 Then it was that Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said, 'Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, the king of Aram's army will slip through your fingers.
2Ch 16:8 Did not the Cushites and Libyans form a vast army with great numbers of chariots and cavalry? Even so, because you relied on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he gave you the upper hand;
2Ch 16:9 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes rove to and fro across the whole world to support those whose hearts are loyal to him. You have acted like a fool in this respect; hence, from now on you will have wars.'
2Ch 16:10 Enraged with the seer, Asa had him put in the stocks in prison, being angry with him over this; at the same time Asa ill-treated some of the people too.
2Ch 16:11 The history of Asa, from first to last, is recorded in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 16:12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa contracted a disease in his feet, which became very severe; in his illness, however, he consulted not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) but the doctors.
2Ch 16:13 Asa then fell asleep with his ancestors, dying in the forty-first year of his reign.
2Ch 16:14 He was buried in the tomb which he had ordered to be cut for him in the City of David. He was laid in the burial chamber which was filled with perfume blended from all sorts of oils, and a very great funeral fire was made for him.
2Ch 17:1 When his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him, he made himself stronger against Israel
2Ch 17:2 by stationing troops in all the fortified towns in Judah and by garrisoning Judah and the towns of Ephraim which his father Asa had captured.
2Ch 17:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father's earlier days and did not have recourse to Baal,
2Ch 17:4 but sought Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of his father, following his commandments and not behaving as Israel did.
2Ch 17:5 Because of this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) put him in secure control of the kingdom, while all Judah gave Jehoshaphat presents until ample riches and honor were his.
2Ch 17:6 He was so enthusiastic about obeying Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that once again he abolished the high places and sacred poles in Judah.
2Ch 17:7 In the third year of his reign he sent his leading men-Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah, to give instruction in the towns of Judah.
2Ch 17:8 With them went the Levites: Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah and Tobijah, the Levites; Elishama and Jehoram the priests went with them.
2Ch 17:9 They gave instruction in Judah, having with them the book of the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and went round all the towns of Judah instructing the people.
2Ch 17:10 A panic from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seized all the kings of the countries surrounding Judah, as a result of which they did not make war on Jehoshaphat.
2Ch 17:11 Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents and a load of silver and the Arabs brought him seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred he-goats.
2Ch 17:12 Jehoshaphat became more and more powerful. He built fortresses and storage towns in Judah.
2Ch 17:13 He accumulated ample supplies in the towns of Judah. He also had warriors, outstanding men, in Jerusalem.
2Ch 17:14 According to family, this is how they were classified: Over the commanders of the thousands of Judah was General Adnah, who had three hundred thousand outstanding men;
2Ch 17:15 Under him was General Jehohanan, who had two hundred and eighty thousand;
2Ch 17:16 Under him was Amasiah son of Zichri, who had volunteered for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and who had two hundred thousand outstanding men;
2Ch 17:17 That outstanding soldier, Eliada, represented Benjamin, and he had two hundred thousand men armed with bow and shield;
2Ch 17:18 And under him Jehozabad, who had one hundred and eighty thousand equipped for war.
2Ch 17:19 These were in attendance on the king, apart from those whom the king had stationed in the fortified towns all over Judah.
2Ch 18:1 Although Jehoshaphat enjoyed great wealth and honor, he allied himself by marriage to Ahab.
2Ch 18:2 After some years he paid a visit to Ahab in Samaria. Ahab slaughtered an immense number of sheep and oxen for him and his retinue, to induce him to attack Ramoth-Gilead.
2Ch 18:3 Ahab king of Israel then said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, 'Will you come with me to Ramoth-Gilead?' He replied, 'I will share in battle with you, my men with yours.'
2Ch 18:4 Jehoshaphat, however, said to the king of Israel, 'First, please consult the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
2Ch 18:5 So the king of Israel called the prophets together, four hundred of them. 'Should we go and attack Ramoth-Gilead,' he asked, 'or should I hold back?' 'March,' they replied, 'for God will deliver it into the king's power.'
2Ch 18:6 Jehoshaphat, however, said, 'Is there no other prophet of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) here, for us to consult?'
2Ch 18:7 The king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, 'There is one more man through whom we can consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but I hate him because he never has a favorable prophecy for me, always unfavorable ones; he is Micaiah son of Imlah.' 'The king should not say such things,' said Jehoshaphat.
2Ch 18:8 The king of Israel then summoned a court official and said, 'Bring Micaiah son of Imlah immediately.'
2Ch 18:9 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, wearing their robes; in an open space just outside the gate of Samaria, with all the prophets prophesying before them,
2Ch 18:10 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, who had made himself some iron horns, said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, "With horns like these, you will gore the Aramaeans till you make an end of them." '
2Ch 18:11 And all the prophets prophesied in the same vein, saying, 'March on Ramoth-Gilead! Success is sure, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has already given it to the king!'
2Ch 18:12 The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him, 'Look! What the prophets are saying is uniformly favorable to the king. So I hope you will say the same as they do and speak favorably.'
2Ch 18:13 Micaiah said, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, I shall speak exactly as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) tells me!'
2Ch 18:14 When he came to the king, the king said, 'Micaiah, should we march to attack Ramoth-Gilead, or should I hold back?' He replied, 'Go and conquer, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will deliver them into your power!'
2Ch 18:15 The king went on, 'How often must I put you on oath to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?'
2Ch 18:16 Then he spoke out. I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'These have no master, let them all go peacefully home!'
2Ch 18:17 At this the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'Did I not tell you that he never gives me favorable prophecies, but only unfavorable ones?'
2Ch 18:18 Micaiah went on, 'Now listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I saw Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seated on his throne with the whole array of heaven standing on his right and on his left.
2Ch 18:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, "Who will entice Ahab king of Israel into marching to his death at Ramoth-Gilead?" At which some answered one way, and some another.
2Ch 18:20 A spirit then came forward and stood before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, "I will entice him." "How?" Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked.
2Ch 18:21 He replied, "I shall go and be a deceptive spirit in the mouths of all his prophets." Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, "You will succeed in enticing him. Go and do it."
2Ch 18:22 And now, you see, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has put a deceptive spirit into the mouths of your prophets here, for in fact Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has pronounced disaster on you.'
2Ch 18:23 Zedekiah son of Chenaanah then came up, struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, 'Which way did Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s spirit leave me, to speak to you?'
2Ch 18:24 'That is what you will find out,' Micaiah retorted, 'the day you go from room to room, trying to hide.'
2Ch 18:25 The king of Israel said, 'Seize Micaiah and hand him over to Amon governor of the city, and Joash the king's son,
2Ch 18:26 and say, "These are the king's orders: Put this man in prison and feed him on nothing but bread and water until I am safely home." '
2Ch 18:27 Micaiah said, 'If you ever do get home safely, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not spoken through me.'
2Ch 18:28 The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah marched on Ramoth-Gilead.
2Ch 18:29 The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'I shall disguise myself to go into battle, but you put on your robes.' So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into battle.
2Ch 18:30 Now, the king of Aram had given his chariot commanders the following order, 'Do not attack anyone of whatever rank, except the king of Israel.'
2Ch 18:31 So, when the chariot commanders saw Jehoshaphat, they thought, 'That is the king of Israel,' and surrounded him to attack. But when Jehoshaphat shouted his war cry, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to his help, God drew them away from him,
2Ch 18:32 for the chariot commanders, realising that he was not the king of Israel, broke off their pursuit.
2Ch 18:33 Someone, however, drawing his bow without any special aim, shot the king of Israel between the joints of his armour. 'Turn about!' he said to his charioteer. 'Get me out of the fighting; I am collapsing.'
2Ch 18:34 But the battle grew fiercer as the day went on, and the king of Israel had to be held upright in his chariot facing the Aramaeans until the evening, and at sunset he died.
2Ch 19:1 Jehoshaphat king of Judah returned home safely, however, to Jerusalem.
2Ch 19:2 Jehu son of Hanani the seer went to meet him and said to King Jehoshaphat, 'Should a man give help to the wicked? Should you love those who hate Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and so bring his retribution on yourself?
2Ch 19:3 All the same, there are good things to your credit, since you have removed the sacred poles from the country and have set your heart on seeking God.'
2Ch 19:4 Jehoshaphat resided in Jerusalem but regularly went on progress among the people, from Beersheba to the highlands of Ephraim, to convert them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors.
2Ch 19:5 He also appointed judges in the country in every one of the fortified towns of Judah,
2Ch 19:6 saying to the judges, 'Be careful what you do, since you are judging not by any human power but in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who will be with you when you pronounce sentence.
2Ch 19:7 This being so, let fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) govern you; be careful what you do, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God will not tolerate malpractice, partiality or the taking of bribes.'
2Ch 19:8 Jehoshaphat also appointed some of the Levites, priests and heads of Israelite families in Jerusalem to settle disputes. They lived in Jerusalem
2Ch 19:9 and Jehoshaphat gave them the following charge: 'In fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and with conscientious integrity, this is how you are to act:
2Ch 19:10 whatever case your brothers living in other towns refer to you, whether involving blood feuds or law and commandment, statutes and judgements, you are to instruct them in such manner that they do not incur guilt before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and that you and your brothers do not incur his anger. If you act thus, you will not incur guilt.
2Ch 19:11 Amariah the chief priest himself will be your president in all religious cases, and Zebadiah son of Ishmael, leader of the House of Judah, in all civil ones, while the Levites will act as officers of the court. Be firm, put this into practice and may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) protect the right!'
2Ch 20:1 Some time later, the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them the Meunites, advanced to war against Jehoshaphat.
2Ch 20:2 Jehoshaphat received the following intelligence, 'A vast horde is advancing on you from the other side of the Sea, from Edom; they are already at Hazazon-Tamar, that is, En-Gedi.'
2Ch 20:3 Jehoshaphat was alarmed and resolved to have recourse to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
2Ch 20:4 So Judah assembled to seek help from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); to seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) they came from every town in Judah.
2Ch 20:5 Then, standing in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in front of the new court among the assembled people of Judah and Jerusalem, Jehoshaphat
2Ch 20:6 said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of our ancestors, are you not God in heaven, and do you not rule all the kingdoms of the nations? Your power and might are such that no one can resist you.
2Ch 20:7 Did not you, our God, dispossess the inhabitants of this country for your people Israel and give it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend, for ever?
2Ch 20:8 They have lived in it and built you a sanctuary there for your name,
2Ch 20:9 saying, "If disaster, war, flood, pestilence or famine befall us, and we stand in front of this Temple, before you -- for your name is in this Temple -- and cry to you in our distress, then you will listen and rescue us."
2Ch 20:10 'Now see, the Ammonites and Moabites and the people of Mount Seir, whom you would not allow Israel to invade when they came out of Egypt -- on the contrary, Israel avoided them, and did not destroy them-
2Ch 20:11 see how they reward us, by coming to drive us out of your possession which you allotted to us!
2Ch 20:12 Our God, will you not pass sentence on them, since we are helpless against this vast horde about to attack us? Because we do not know what to do, we look to you.'
2Ch 20:13 All Judah, including their families, wives and children, were standing before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ch 20:14 when, in the middle of the assembly, the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came on Jahaziel son of Zechariah, son of Benaiah, son of Jeiel, son of Mattaniah the Levite, a member of the clan of Asaph,
2Ch 20:15 who then cried, 'Listen, all Judah and you citizens of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to you, "Do not be afraid, do not be daunted by this vast horde, for the war is not your affair but God's.
2Ch 20:16 Go down against them tomorrow; they are coming up by the Slope of Ziz and you will encounter them at the end of the ravine near the desert of Jeruel.
2Ch 20:17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Take up your position, stand firm, and see what salvation Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has in store for you. Judah and Jerusalem, be fearless, be dauntless; march out against them tomorrow and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be with you." '
2Ch 20:18 Jehoshaphat bowed his head, his face to the ground, and all Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem fell down before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 20:19 Then the Levites -- both the Kohathites and Korahites -- stood up to praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, at the top of their voices.
2Ch 20:20 Early next morning they prepared to set out for the desert of Tekoa. As they were setting out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, 'Listen to me, Judah and you citizens of Jerusalem! Believe in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and you will be secure; believe in his prophets and you will be successful.'
2Ch 20:21 Then, having conferred with the people, he appointed singers who were to praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and go out ahead of the army in sacred vestments, singing Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for his faithful love endures for ever!
2Ch 20:22 The moment they began their shouts of praise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sprang an ambush on the Ammonites, Moabites and the people of Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and that was the end of them,
2Ch 20:23 for the Ammonites and Moabites turned on the people of Mount Seir, and put them under the curse of destruction and then, having finished off the people of Seir, set to work slaughtering one another.
2Ch 20:24 When Judah reached the point overlooking the desert and looked towards the horde, there were nothing but corpses lying on the ground; no one escaped.
2Ch 20:25 When Jehoshaphat arrived to take the booty, they found quantities of cattle and innumerable possessions, clothes and valuables, which they seized for themselves; it was impossible to carry it, and it took them three days to collect it.
2Ch 20:26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Beracah, where they blessed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- hence the place was given the name Valley of Beracah, which it still has today.
2Ch 20:27 Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem returned joyfully to Jerusalem with Jehoshaphat at their head as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given them cause to rejoice over their enemies.
2Ch 20:28 To the sound of lyre, harp and trumpet they came to Jerusalem, to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ch 20:29 and a panic from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) seized all the neighboring kings when they heard how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had fought against the enemies of Israel.
2Ch 20:30 And henceforth Jehoshaphat's reign was undisturbed, for his God gave him peace all round.
2Ch 20:31 So Jehoshaphat reigned over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Azubah daughter of Shilhi.
2Ch 20:32 He followed the example of his father Asa undeviatingly, doing what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right.
2Ch 20:33 The high places, however, were not abolished; the people had still not set their hearts on the God of their ancestors.
2Ch 20:34 The rest of the history of Jehoshaphat, from first to last, is written down in the records of Jehu son of Hanani, which are quoted in the Book of the Kings of Israel.
2Ch 20:35 Afterwards, Jehoshaphat formed a partnership with Ahaziah king of Israel, which was very wrong of him.
2Ch 20:36 He joined him in building some ships to go to Tarshish; they built them at Ezion-Geber.
2Ch 20:37 Eliezer son of Dodavahu of Mareshah then prophesied against Jehoshaphat as follows, 'Because you have become Ahaziah's partner, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has wrecked your efforts.' The ships were wrecked and were never fit to sail for Tarshish.
2Ch 21:1 Then Jehoshaphat fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried with them in the city of David; his son Jehoram succeeded him.
2Ch 21:2 Jehoram's brothers, sons of Jehoshaphat, were Azariah, Jehiel, Zechariah, Azariahu, Michael and Shephatiah -- all of them sons of Jehoshaphat king of Israel.
2Ch 21:3 Their father had lavishly given them presents of silver, gold and other valuables as well as fortified towns in Judah; but the throne he bequeathed to Jehoram since he was the first-born.
2Ch 21:4 Jehoram, having taken control of his father's kingdom and secured his own position, put all his brothers to the sword and some officials of Israel too.
2Ch 21:5 Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 21:6 He followed the example of the kings of Israel as the House of Ahab were doing, he having married one of Ahab's daughters; and he did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 21:7 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) would not destroy the House of David, because of the covenant which he had made with David, promising to provide him and his sons with a lamp for ever.
2Ch 21:8 In his time Edom threw off the domination of Judah and set up a king for itself.
2Ch 21:9 Jehoram crossed the frontier, and with him his commanders and all his chariots. Under cover of dark, he and his chariot commanders broke through the Edomites surrounding him.
2Ch 21:10 Thus Edom threw off the domination of Judah and has remained free to the present day. Libnah revolted against him at the same time, because he had abandoned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of his ancestors.
2Ch 21:11 What is more, he set up high places in the highlands of Judah, leading the citizens of Jerusalem and the people of Judah into apostasy.
2Ch 21:12 Something written by the prophet Elijah then came into his hands. It said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestor David, says this, "Since you have not followed the example of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah,
2Ch 21:13 but have followed the example of the kings of Israel and have led Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem into apostasy, just as the House of Ahab has led Israel into apostasy, and have even murdered your brothers, your own family, who were better men than you,
2Ch 21:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is going to afflict your people, your sons, your wives and all your property with a great calamity,
2Ch 21:15 and you yourself with a severe disease affecting your bowels, as a result of which disease, continuing day after day, you will suffer protrusion of your bowels." '
2Ch 21:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then roused the hostility of the Philistines and of the Arabs living near the Cushites against Jehoram.
2Ch 21:17 They invaded Judah, forcing their way into it and carrying off all the property to be found in the king's palace, as well as his sons and his wives, so that he was left no sons at all except his youngest son Jehoahaz.
2Ch 21:18 And after all this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) afflicted him with an incurable disease of the bowels;
2Ch 21:19 in due time, after about two years, his bowels protruded as a result of his disease and he died in acute pain. His people did not make a funeral pyre for him, as they had for his ancestors.
2Ch 21:20 He was thirty-two years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem. He passed away unlamented and was buried in the City of David, though not in the tombs of the kings.
2Ch 22:1 The inhabitants of Jerusalem then made his youngest son Ahaziah king in succession to him, since the marauders who had attacked the camp with the Arabs had killed all the older ones. That was why Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah became king.
2Ch 22:2 Ahaziah was forty-two years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for one year in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Athaliah, descendant of Omri.
2Ch 22:3 He too followed the example of the House of Ahab, for his mother being his adviser brought about his condemnation.
2Ch 22:4 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as the House of Ahab did, for they were his advisers after his father's death, to his undoing.
2Ch 22:5 He followed their advice and went with Jehoram son of Ahab, king of Israel, to make war on Hazael king of Aram at Ramoth-Gilead. But the Aramaeans wounded Jehoram,
2Ch 22:6 who returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds which he had received at Ramoth, fighting against Hazael king of Aram. Ahaziah son of Jehoram, king of Judah, went down to Jezreel to visit Jehoram son of Ahab because he was ailing.
2Ch 22:7 Through this visit to Jehoram God brought ruin on Ahaziah. On his arrival he went out with Jehoram to meet Jehu son of Nimshi whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had anointed to make an end of the House of Ahab.
2Ch 22:8 While Jehu was executing sentence on the House of Ahab and came across the officers of Judah and Ahaziah's nephews who were in attendance on Ahaziah, he killed them,
2Ch 22:9 and then went in search of Ahaziah. The latter was captured while hiding in Samaria, and taken to Jehu who put him to death. But they gave him burial because, they said, 'He was the grandson of Jehoshaphat who sought Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all his heart.' As a result, there was no member of Ahaziah's family left who was strong enough to rule the kingdom.
2Ch 22:10 When Athaliah mother of Ahaziah learned that her son was dead, she promptly did away with all the royal stock of the House of Judah.
2Ch 22:11 But Jehosheba the king's daughter, surreptitiously rescued Joash son of Ahaziah from among the chiefs who were to be murdered, and put him with his nurse in the sleeping quarters; in this way Jehosheba daughter of King Joram and wife of Jehoiada the priest -- she was the sister of Ahaziah -- hid him from Athaliah, and he was not put to death.
2Ch 22:12 He stayed hidden with them in the Temple of God for six years while Athaliah governed the country.
2Ch 23:1 In the seventh year Jehoiada decided to take action and made a pact with the regimental commanders, Azariah son of Jeroham, Ishmael son of Jehohanan, Azariah son of Obed, Maaseiah son of Adaiah and Elishaphat son of Zichri.
2Ch 23:2 These went all over Judah, gathering the Levites from all the towns of Judah, and the heads of the Israelite families, who then came to Jerusalem,
2Ch 23:3 and the whole assembly made a pact with the king in the Temple of God. Jehoiada said to them, 'Look, the king's son is now to be king, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has promised of the sons of David!
2Ch 23:4 This is what you must do: a third of you priests and Levites who come on duty on the Sabbath must guard the gates,
2Ch 23:5 a third the royal palace, a third the Foundation Gate, while the people must all stay in the courts of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 23:6 No one must enter the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) except the priests and the ministering Levites; they may come in because they are consecrated. But the people must all observe Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s regulations.
2Ch 23:7 The Levites must surround the king, each man with his weapons in his hands; anyone who enters the Temple must be killed. And you will escort the king when he comes in and when he leaves.'
2Ch 23:8 The Levites and all Judah did everything as Jehoiada the priest had ordered, and each one brought his men, those coming on duty on the Sabbath and those going off duty on the Sabbath, for Jehoiada the priest had not released any of the divisions from duty.
2Ch 23:9 Jehoiada the priest then issued the regimental commanders with King David's spears and large and small shields, which were kept in the Temple of God.
2Ch 23:10 He then positioned all the people, each man with his weapon in his hand, from the south side of the Temple to the north side of the Temple, close to the altar and the Temple, to form a circle round the king.
2Ch 23:11 Then they brought the king's son out, crowned him, gave him a copy of the covenant and made him king. When Jehoiada and his sons had anointed him, they shouted, 'Long live the king!'
2Ch 23:12 On hearing the people shouting as they ran to acclaim the king, Athaliah joined the people in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 23:13 When she looked, there stood the king on his dais by the entrance, with the officers and trumpeters at the king's side, and all the people of the country rejoicing and blowing the trumpets, and the singers with their musical instruments leading the hymns of praise. Then Athaliah tore her clothes and shouted, 'Treason, treason!'
2Ch 23:14 Jehoiada the priest then gave the order to the regimental commanders in charge of the troops, 'Take her out between the ranks and put to the sword anyone who follows her.' For the priest had already said, 'Do not kill her inside the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
2Ch 23:15 So they made way for her, and when she reached the entrance to the Horses' Gate of the palace, they killed her there.
2Ch 23:16 Jehoiada made a covenant between himself, all the people and the king to remain Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s people.
2Ch 23:17 All the people then went to the temple of Baal and demolished it; they smashed its altars and its images and killed Mattan the priest of Baal in front of the altars.
2Ch 23:18 Jehoiada entrusted the security of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the priests and Levites, whom David had put in charge of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to present the burnt offerings of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as laid down in the Law of Moses, with joy and song as ordained by David.
2Ch 23:19 He also appointed gatekeepers for the gates of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), so that no one who was unclean might enter for any purpose at all.
2Ch 23:20 He then took the regimental commanders, the nobles, the government officials and all the people of the land and he escorted the king down from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Entering the palace through the Upper Gate, they placed the king on the royal throne.
2Ch 23:21 All the people of the land were delighted, and the city made no move after Athaliah had been put to death.
2Ch 24:1 Joash was seven years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba.
2Ch 24:2 Joash did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right throughout the lifetime of Jehoiada the priest.
2Ch 24:3 Jehoiada found him two wives and he fathered several sons and daughters.
2Ch 24:4 Later, Joash made up his mind to repair the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 24:5 Calling the priests and the Levites together, he said, 'Go out to the towns of Judah and collect money from all Israel for annual repairs to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Do this quickly.' But the Levites were in no hurry,
2Ch 24:6 so the king summoned Jehoiada the chief priest and said, 'Why have you not insisted on the Levites' bringing in the tax from Judah and Jerusalem for the Tent of Witness, as imposed by Moses servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the community of Israel?' --
2Ch 24:7 Athaliah and her sons, whom she corrupted, despoiled the Temple of God and even assigned all the sacred revenues of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to Baal.
2Ch 24:8 So, at the king's order, a chest was made and put outside the gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ch 24:9 and a proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem that the tax, which Moses servant of God had imposed on Israel in the desert, was to be brought to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 24:10 Then all the officials and all the people gladly brought in their contributions, depositing them in the chest until the payment was complete.
2Ch 24:11 Whenever the chest was brought by the Levites for royal inspection and found to contain a large sum of money, the king's secretary and the chief priest's representative would come and empty the chest and then have it returned to its place. This was done day after day and a great deal of money was collected.
2Ch 24:12 The king and Jehoiada handed it over to the foreman attached to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the hired masons and carpenters set about repairing the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); and iron-workers and bronze-workers laboured to repair the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 24:13 The workmen got on with the task -- the repair work made good progress at their hands -- until they had restored the Temple of God to its former state and reconditioned it.
2Ch 24:14 When they had finished, they brought the balance of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with this vessels were made for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), vessels for the liturgy and for the burnt offerings, bowls and other gold and silver vessels. And the perpetual burnt offering was offered in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) throughout Jehoiada's lifetime.
2Ch 24:15 But Jehoiada, growing old, had his fill of days and died. He died at the age of a hundred and thirty years,
2Ch 24:16 and was buried with the kings in the City of David because he had served Israel and God and his Temple well.
2Ch 24:17 After Jehoiada's death the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king listened to their advice,
2Ch 24:18 and they abandoned the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred poles and idols. Judah and Jerusalem incurred wrath because of this guilt of theirs.
2Ch 24:19 He sent their prophets to lead them back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); these put the case against them, but they would not listen.
2Ch 24:20 The spirit of God then invested Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, 'God says this, "Why transgress Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s commands to your certain ruin? For if you abandon Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he will abandon you."
2Ch 24:21 They then plotted against him and, at the king's order, stoned him in the court of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 24:22 Thus King Joash, forgetful of the devotion which Jehoiada father of Zechariah had displayed on his behalf, murdered his son, who cried out as he died, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will see this and avenge it!'
2Ch 24:23 At the turn of the year, the Aramaean army made war on Joash. When they reached Judah and Jerusalem, they massacred all the nation's government officials and sent all their booty to the king of Damascus.
2Ch 24:24 Although the invading Aramaean army was only a small body of men, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) allowed them to defeat a very large army because they had abandoned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors; thus they executed judgement on Joash. After they had retired -- for they left him seriously wounded-
2Ch 24:25 his own retainers plotted against him to avenge the blood of the son of Jehoiada the priest and murdered him in his bed. When he died he was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings.
2Ch 24:26 These were the conspirators: Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite.
2Ch 24:27 As regards his sons, the heavy tribute imposed on him, and the restoration of the Temple of God, this is recorded in the Commentary on the Book of the Kings. His son Amaziah succeeded him.
2Ch 25:1 Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem.
2Ch 25:2 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, though not wholeheartedly.
2Ch 25:3 Once the kingdom was firmly under his control, he killed those of his retainers who had murdered the king his father.
2Ch 25:4 But he did not put their sons to death; this was in accordance with what is written in the Law, in the book of Moses, where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had commanded, 'Parents may not be put to death for children, nor children for parents, but each must be put to death for his own crime.'
2Ch 25:5 Amaziah summoned Judah and organised all Judah and Benjamin by families under commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. He also made a register of those who were twenty years old and upwards, and found there were three hundred thousand picked men, ready for service and capable of wielding spear and shield.
2Ch 25:6 Furthermore, he hired a hundred thousand tough fighting men from Israel for a hundred talents of silver.
2Ch 25:7 A man of God then came to him and said, 'My lord king, do not let the Israelite troops march with you, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is not with Israel or with any of the Ephraimites.
2Ch 25:8 For however valiantly you act in war, God will bring you down before the enemy, for God has the power to uphold or to throw down.'
2Ch 25:9 Amaziah said to the man of God, 'But what about the hundred talents which I have paid for the Israelite troops?' 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) can give you far more than that,' said the man of God.
2Ch 25:10 At this, Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home again. They were furious with Judah and went home in a great rage.
2Ch 25:11 Amaziah then, coming to a decision, led out his own troops and, having reached the Valley of Salt, struck down ten thousand Seirites.
2Ch 25:12 The men of Judah captured ten thousand more alive and, taking them to the summit of the Rock, threw them off the summit of the Rock so that they were all dashed to pieces.
2Ch 25:13 Meanwhile, the troops whom Amaziah had dismissed and not allowed to go into battle with him rased the towns of Judah, from Samaria to Beth-Horon, killing three thousand of their inhabitants and capturing great quantities of plunder.
2Ch 25:14 On returning from his slaughter of the Edomites, Amaziah brought the gods of the Seirites with him; he set these up as his gods, bowing down before them and burning incense to them.
2Ch 25:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger was aroused by Amaziah and he sent him a prophet, who said to him, 'Why do you consult those people's gods when they could not save their own people from your clutches?'
2Ch 25:16 He was still speaking when Amaziah interrupted him. 'Have we appointed you a royal counsellor? Stop, as you value your life!' So the prophet stopped, and then said, 'I know that God has decided to destroy you for having done this and for not listening to my advice.'
2Ch 25:17 After consultation, Amaziah king of Judah then sent a message to Joash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu, king of Israel, saying, 'Come and make a trial of strength!'
2Ch 25:18 Joash king of Israel sent back word to Amaziah king of Judah, 'The thistle of Lebanon sent a message to the cedar of Lebanon, saying, "Give my son your daughter in marriage"; but a wild animal of the Lebanon ran over the thistle and squashed it.
2Ch 25:19 "Look at me, the conqueror of Edom," you say, and now aspire to even greater glory. But stay where you belong! Why challenge disaster, to your own and Judah's ruin?'
2Ch 25:20 But Amaziah would not listen, for this was an act of God to deliver them up for having consulted the gods of Edom.
2Ch 25:21 So Joash king of Israel marched to the attack. And at Beth-Shemesh, which belongs to Judah, he and Amaziah king of Judah made their trial of strength.
2Ch 25:22 Judah was defeated by Israel, and everyone fled to his tent.
2Ch 25:23 The king of Judah, Amaziah son of Joash, son of Ahaziah, was taken prisoner at Beth-Shemesh by Joash king of Israel who led him off to Jerusalem, where he demolished four hundred cubits of the city wall between the Ephraim Gate and the Corner Gate;
2Ch 25:24 he then took back with him to Samaria all the gold and silver, and all the vessels to be found in the Temple of God in the care of Obed-Edom, the treasures in the palace, and hostages besides.
2Ch 25:25 Amaziah son of Joash, king of Judah, lived for fifteen years after the death of Joash son of Jehoahaz, king of Israel.
2Ch 25:26 The rest of the history of Amaziah, from first to last, is this not recorded in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel?
2Ch 25:27 Some time after Amaziah had defected from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a plot having been hatched against him in Jerusalem, he fled to Lachish where he was murdered.
2Ch 25:28 He was then transported by horse and buried with his ancestors in the city of David.
2Ch 26:1 All the people then chose Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king in succession to his father Amaziah.
2Ch 26:2 It was he who rebuilt Elath, recovering it for Judah, after the king had fallen asleep with his ancestors.
2Ch 26:3 Uzziah was sixteen years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem.
2Ch 26:4 He did what is pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), just as his father Amaziah had done;
2Ch 26:5 he consulted God throughout the lifetime of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as he consulted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God gave him success.
2Ch 26:6 He went on campaign against the Philistines, demolished the walls of Gath, the walls of Jabneh and the walls of Ashdod, and built towns in the area of Ashdod and elsewhere in Philistine territory.
2Ch 26:7 God helped him against the Philistines, the Arabs living at Gur-Baal and the Meunites.
2Ch 26:8 The Meunites paid tribute to Uzziah and his fame spread as far as the frontier of Egypt, since he kept growing stronger and stronger.
2Ch 26:9 Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem, at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and fortified them.
2Ch 26:10 He built towers in the desert too, and dug many storage-wells, for he had large herds in the lowlands and on the tableland, and farmers and vine dressers in the hills and fertile lands: for he loved the land.
2Ch 26:11 Uzziah had a trained army ready to go on campaign, organised in companies manned as detailed by the scribe Jeiel and the staff-officer Maaseiah, and commanded by Hananiah one of the king's generals.
2Ch 26:12 The heads of families of the military champions numbered in all two thousand six hundred.
2Ch 26:13 Under them was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred men ready for war, a powerful force to support the king against the enemy.
2Ch 26:14 Uzziah provided shields, spears, helmets, armour, bows and sling-stones for the entire army.
2Ch 26:15 He also erected expertly contrived devices for the towers and angles of Jerusalem from which to shoot arrows and drop large stones. His fame spread far and wide, for he was miraculously helped to become strong.
2Ch 26:16 But once he was strong, his arrogance was such that it led to his downfall; he was unfaithful to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God by entering the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to burn incense on the altar of incense.
2Ch 26:17 Azariah the priest with eight brave priests of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) followed him in;
2Ch 26:18 confronting King Uzziah, they said to him, 'Uzziah, you are not allowed to burn incense to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); only the Aaronite priests consecrated for the purpose may burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful and will have no honor from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God.'
2Ch 26:19 Uzziah, censer in hand to burn incense, flew into a rage. But while he was raging at the priests, a virulent skin-disease broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests, in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), there by the altar of incense.
2Ch 26:20 When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests turned towards him, there was skin-disease on his forehead and they hurried him outside, and he himself was equally anxious to get out, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had struck him.
2Ch 26:21 King Uzziah was afflicted with skin-disease till his dying day. Because of this, he lived confined to his room and was excluded from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), while Jotham his son, who was master of the palace, governed the people of the country.
2Ch 26:22 The rest of the history of Uzziah, from first to last, has been written by the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
2Ch 26:23 Then Uzziah fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried with them in the field beside the burial ground of the kings since, it was reasoned, he was afflicted with virulent skin-disease. His son Jotham then succeeded him.
2Ch 27:1 Jotham was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerushah daughter of Zadok.
2Ch 27:2 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, just as his father Uzziah had done. Only he did not enter Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary. But the people continued to do wrong.
2Ch 27:3 It was he who built the Upper Gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and carried out considerable work on the wall of the Ophel.
2Ch 27:4 He also built towns in the highlands of Judah and built forts and towers in the wooded areas.
2Ch 27:5 He also went to war against the king of the Ammonites and defeated them; and the Ammonites had to give him a hundred talents of silver, ten thousand kor of wheat and ten thousand of barley that year. And the Ammonites paid him the same amount, the second and third years afterwards.
2Ch 27:6 Jotham became powerful because he kept an unswerving course before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God.
2Ch 27:7 The rest of the history of Jotham, all his wars and his policy, are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
2Ch 27:8 He was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 27:9 Then Jotham fell asleep with his ancestors, and was buried in the City of David; his son Ahaz succeeded him.
2Ch 28:1 Ahaz was twenty years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, as his ancestor David had done.
2Ch 28:2 He followed the example of the kings of Israel, even having images cast for the Baals;
2Ch 28:3 he burned incense in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, caused his sons to pass through the fire of sacrifice, copying the disgusting practices of the nations whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dispossessed for the Israelites.
2Ch 28:4 He offered sacrifices and incense on the high places, on the hills and under every green tree.
2Ch 28:5 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God put him at the mercy of the king of Aram, who defeated him and took large numbers of captives, carrying them off to Damascus. He also put him at the mercy of the king of Israel, who inflicted heavy casualties on him.
2Ch 28:6 In a single day, Pekah son of Remaliah killed a hundred and twenty thousand in Judah, all of them prominent men, because they had abandoned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors.
2Ch 28:7 Zichri, an Ephraimite champion, killed Maaseiah the king's son, Azrikam the controller of the household and Elkanah the king's second-in-command.
2Ch 28:8 Of their brothers, the Israelites took two hundred thousand captive including wives, sons, daughters; they also took quantities of booty, carrying everything off to Samaria.
2Ch 28:9 Now there was a prophet of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) there by the name of Oded, who went out to meet the troops returning to Samaria and said, 'Look, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, was angry with Judah, he put them at your mercy, but you have slaughtered them with such fury as reached to heaven,
2Ch 28:10 and now you propose to reduce the children of Judah and Jerusalem to being your male and female slaves! Have you not yourselves committed sins against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God?
2Ch 28:11 Now listen to me: release the captives you have taken from your brothers, for the fierce anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) hangs over you.'
2Ch 28:12 Some of the Ephraimite chieftains -- Azariah son of Jehohanan, Berechaiah son of Meshillemoth, Jehizkiah son of Shallum and Amasa son of Hadlai -- then protested to those returning from the war
2Ch 28:13 and said to them, 'You must not bring the captives here, for we have already sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and you propose to add to our sin and guilt, although our guilt is already great, and fierce anger is hanging over Israel.'
2Ch 28:14 So in the presence of the officials and whole assembly, the soldiers gave up the captives and the booty.
2Ch 28:15 Men nominated for the purpose then took charge of the captives. From the booty they clothed all those of them who were naked; they gave them clothing and sandals, provided them with food and drink, mounted on donkeys all those who were infirm and took them back to Jericho, the city of palm trees, to their brothers. Then they returned to Samaria.
2Ch 28:16 This was when King Ahaz sent asking the king of Assyria to come to his assistance.
2Ch 28:17 The Edomites again invaded, defeated Judah, and carried off captives,
2Ch 28:18 while the Philistines raided the towns in the lowlands and in the Negeb of Judah, capturing Beth-Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco and its dependencies, Timnah and its dependencies and Gimzo and its dependencies, and settled there.
2Ch 28:19 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel, since he behaved without restraint in Judah and had been unfaithful to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 28:20 Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria attacked and besieged him; but he could not overpower him.
2Ch 28:21 Although Ahaz robbed the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the palaces of the king and princes and gave the proceeds to the king of Assyria, he received no help from him.
2Ch 28:22 During the time when he was under siege he disobeyed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) even more grossly, this King Ahaz.
2Ch 28:23 For he offered sacrifices to the gods of Damascus who had defeated him. 'Since the gods of the kings of Aram', he thought, 'have supported them, I shall sacrifice to them, and perhaps they will help me.' But they proved to be his and all Israel's downfall.
2Ch 28:24 Ahaz then collected the equipment of the Temple of God, broke up the equipment of the Temple of God, sealed the doors of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and put his own altars in every corner of Jerusalem;
2Ch 28:25 he set up high places in every town of Judah to burn incense to other gods, thus provoking the anger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of his ancestors.
2Ch 28:26 The rest of his history, his whole policy, from first to last, is recorded in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 28:27 Then Ahaz fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the City, in Jerusalem, though he was not taken to the tombs of the kings of Israel. His son Hezekiah succeeded him.
2Ch 29:1 Hezekiah was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne and he reigned for twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah daughter of Zechariah.
2Ch 29:2 He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) regards as right, just as his ancestor David had done.
2Ch 29:3 In the first month of the first year of his reign, he opened the doors of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), having repaired them.
2Ch 29:4 He then brought in the priests and the Levites, assembled them in the eastern square,
2Ch 29:5 and said to them, 'Listen to me, Levites! First sanctify yourselves, then sanctify the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, and remove the filth from the sanctuary.
2Ch 29:6 Our ancestors were unfaithful, and did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God. They abandoned him, turned their faces away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s home and turned their backs on him.
2Ch 29:7 They even closed the doors of the portico, put out the lamps and stopped burning incense and making burnt offerings in the sanctuary of the God of Israel.
2Ch 29:8 This was why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem and he made them an object of terror, astonishment and derision, as you can see for yourselves.
2Ch 29:9 Yes, our ancestors were put to the sword, and our sons, our daughters and our wives were taken captive because of this.
2Ch 29:10 I am now determined to make a covenant with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, so that his fierce anger may turn away from us.
2Ch 29:11 Now, my sons, do not be remiss, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen you to stand in his presence and serve him by conducting his worship and offering him incense.'
2Ch 29:12 The Levites set about it -- Mahath son of Amasai and Joel son of Azariah, from the Kohathites; Kish son of Abdi and Azariah son of Jehallel, from the Merarites; Joah son of Zimmah and Eden son of Joah, from the Gershonites;
2Ch 29:13 Shimri and Jeuel, of the sons of Elizaphan; Zechariah and Mattaniah of the sons of Asaph;
2Ch 29:14 Jehiel and Shimei of the sons of Heman; Shemaiah and Uzziel of the sons of Jeduthun-
2Ch 29:15 and gathered their brothers together; they sanctified themselves, and in obedience to the king's order, in accordance with the words of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they came to purify the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 29:16 The priests went into the inner part of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to purify it. They brought all the unclean things which they found in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary, out into the court of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), where the Levites collected them and took them out to the Kidron Valley.
2Ch 29:17 They began sanctifying on the first day of the first month, and by the eighth day of the month had reached Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s portico; thus they took eight days to sanctify the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and by the sixteenth day of the first month everything was finished.
2Ch 29:18 They then waited on King Hezekiah and said, 'We have purified the whole Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the altar of burnt offering with all its equipment and the table for the loaves of permanent offering with all their equipment.
2Ch 29:19 We have also got ready and sanctified all the equipment which King Ahaz in his infidelity had removed during his reign. It is all ready in front of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s altar.'
2Ch 29:20 King Hezekiah lost no time but called the officials of the city together and went up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 29:21 They brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs and seven goats as a sin sacrifice for the royal house, for the sanctuary and for Judah, and he ordered the Aaronite priests to offer them on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s altar.
2Ch 29:22 So they slaughtered the bulls and the priests took the blood and sprinkled it over the altar. They then slaughtered the rams and sprinkled the blood over the altar; and they slaughtered the lambs and sprinkled the blood over the altar.
2Ch 29:23 Then they brought the goats, the sacrifice for sin, before the king and the assembly who laid their hands on them.
2Ch 29:24 The priests slaughtered them and made a sacrifice for sin with their blood at the altar to expiate for all Israel, since the king had ordered the burnt offering and the sacrifice for sin on behalf of all Israel.
2Ch 29:25 He positioned the Levites in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with cymbals, lyres and harps, in accordance with the ordinance of David, of Gad the king's seer and of Nathan the prophet, for such was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order conveyed through his prophets.
2Ch 29:26 When the Levites stood with David's musical instruments, and the priests with the trumpets,
2Ch 29:27 Hezekiah ordered the burnt offering to be presented on the altar. And as the burnt offering began, the hymns of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) began too, and the trumpets sounded, to the accompaniment of the instruments of David king of Israel,
2Ch 29:28 while the whole congregation worshipped, the singers singing and the trumpeters sounding the trumpets, continuously until the burnt offering was over.
2Ch 29:29 When the burnt offering was finished, the king and all those present with him fell to their knees and worshipped.
2Ch 29:30 Then King Hezekiah and the officials told the Levites to sing praise to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the words of David and Asaph the seer; and joyfully they sang their praises, then knelt in worship.
2Ch 29:31 Hezekiah spoke again, 'Now that you have consecrated yourselves to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), come forward and bring thanksgiving sacrifices to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' Then the congregation brought thanksgiving sacrifices and those who were generous brought burnt offerings.
2Ch 29:32 The number of burnt offerings brought by the congregation was seventy bulls, a hundred rams and two hundred lambs, all as burnt offerings for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 29:33 The consecrated gifts amounted to six hundred bulls and three thousand sheep.
2Ch 29:34 The priests were too few, however, and were unable to dismember all the burnt offerings, so their brothers, the Levites, helped them until the work was finished and the priests had sanctified themselves; for the Levites had been more conscientious about sanctifying themselves than the priests had.
2Ch 29:35 In addition to the abundance of burnt offerings, there were also the fatty pieces for communion sacrifices and the libations for the burnt offerings. And so the liturgy of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Temple was restored,
2Ch 29:36 and Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had provided for the people, since everything had happened so suddenly.
2Ch 30:1 Hezekiah sent messengers to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh, bidding them come to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover in honor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
2Ch 30:2 For the king and his officials and the whole congregation in Jerusalem had agreed to celebrate the Passover in the second month,
2Ch 30:3 having been unable to celebrate it at the proper time, since the priests had not purified themselves in sufficient number, and the people were not assembled in Jerusalem.
2Ch 30:4 And since this arrangement seemed fitting to the king and the whole congregation,
2Ch 30:5 they resolved to send a proclamation throughout Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, calling on the people to come to Jerusalem and celebrate a Passover in honor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, since they had not celebrated it in a body as prescribed.
2Ch 30:6 So, by order of the king, courtiers set out with letters from the king and his officials for every part of Israel and Judah, saying, 'Israelites, return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and he will return to those of you who are left and have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria.
2Ch 30:7 Do not be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors; he brought them to ruin, as you can see.
2Ch 30:8 Do not be stubborn like your ancestors. Submit to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), come to his sanctuary which he has consecrated for ever, and serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, so that his fierce anger may turn away from you.
2Ch 30:9 For if you return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your brothers and your sons will be treated mercifully by their captors and be allowed to return to this country; for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn his face away from you, if you return to him.'
2Ch 30:10 The courtiers went from town to town through the territory of Ephraim and Manasseh and as far as Zebulon but the people laughed and scoffed at them;
2Ch 30:11 even so, some people from Asher and Manasseh and Zebulon were humble enough to come to Jerusalem,
2Ch 30:12 while in Judah the hand of God was also at work inspiring a unanimous desire to obey the order of the king and the officials in accordance with the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 30:13 A huge crowd assembled in Jerusalem to celebrate the feast of Unleavened Bread in the second month. An immense crowd
2Ch 30:14 set to work removing the altars then in Jerusalem; they also removed all the incense altars and threw them into the Kidron Valley.
2Ch 30:15 They then slaughtered the Passover victims on the fourteenth day of the second month. Ashamed of themselves, the priests and Levites had in the meanwhile sanctified themselves and brought burnt offerings to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ch 30:16 so they now stood in their positions prescribed in the Law of Moses man of God, the priests sprinkling the blood handed to them by the Levites.
2Ch 30:17 Since many people in the congregation had not sanctified themselves, the Levites took care of the slaughter of the Passover victims to consecrate them to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for all who were not clean.
2Ch 30:18 For a great many people, especially from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulon, had not purified themselves, since they did not eat the Passover as prescribed. But Hezekiah prayed for them as follows, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in his goodness pardon
2Ch 30:19 everyone whose heart is set on seeking God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of his ancestors, even if he has not been purified as holy things demand.'
2Ch 30:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) listened to Hezekiah and left the people unharmed.
2Ch 30:21 Amid great rejoicing, the Israelites present in Jerusalem celebrated the feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days, while day after day the Levites and the priests praised Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all their might.
2Ch 30:22 Hezekiah then encouraged all the Levites who had such understanding of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Having finished the seven-day festival, during which they sacrificed communion sacrifices and praised Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors,
2Ch 30:23 the whole congregation decided to celebrate for a further seven days. So they joyfully celebrated for another seven days,
2Ch 30:24 Hezekiah king of Judah contributing a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the congregation, and the officials another thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep. And a large number of priests sanctified themselves.
2Ch 30:25 The whole congregation of Judah, the priests, the Levites, the whole congregation coming from Israel and the foreigners coming from the territory of Israel as well as those resident in Judah, rejoiced.
2Ch 30:26 There was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for since the days of Solomon son of David, king of Israel, nothing comparable had ever occurred in Jerusalem.
2Ch 30:27 The levitical priests then stood up and blessed the people and their voice was heard, and their prayer reached his holy dwelling in heaven.
2Ch 31:1 When all this was complete, all Israel present went out to the towns of Judah, broke the pillars, cut down the sacred poles, wrecked the high places and the altars, and did away with them entirely throughout Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh. Then all the Israelites returned to their towns, everyone to his property.
2Ch 31:2 Hezekiah re-established the priestly and levitical orders, each man in his proper order according to his duties, whether priest or Levite, to bring burnt offerings and communion sacrifices, to serve and to give thanks and praise within the gates of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s camp.
2Ch 31:3 He also established a king's portion from his possessions for the morning and evening burnt offerings, and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths, New Moons and festivals, as laid down in the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 31:4 He furthermore requested the people living in Jerusalem to present the portion for the priests and Levites so that they might devote themselves to the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 31:5 As soon as the order had been promulgated, the Israelites provided the first fruits of grain, new wine, olive oil, honey and every other kind of agricultural produce in abundance; they brought in an abundant tithe of everything.
2Ch 31:6 The Israelites and Judaeans living in the towns of Judah also brought in the tithe of cattle and sheep, and the tithe of sacred gifts consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God, laying them in heaps.
2Ch 31:7 They began accumulating the heaps in the third month and had finished them by the seventh.
2Ch 31:8 When Hezekiah and the officials came to inspect the heaps they praised Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his people Israel.
2Ch 31:9 While Hezekiah was questioning the priests and Levites about the heaps,
2Ch 31:10 Azariah, the chief priest, of the family of Zadok, replied as follows, 'Since they began bringing the contributions to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' he said, 'we have had enough to eat and quantities left over, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has blessed his people; this mass of stuff is left.'
2Ch 31:11 Hezekiah then ordered them to have storerooms prepared in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and, when they had got them ready,
2Ch 31:12 they conscientiously brought in the contributions, tithes and consecrated gifts, Conaniah the Levite was put in charge of them, with Shimei his brother as his assistant,
2Ch 31:13 and with Jehiel, Azaziah, Nahath, Asahel, Jeremith, Jozabad, Eliel, Ismachiah, Mahath, and Benaiah as overseers under Conaniah and his brother Shimei, by order of King Hezekiah and of Azariah, the chief of the Temple of God.
2Ch 31:14 Kore son of Jimnah the Levite, keeper of the eastern gate, was made responsible for the voluntary offerings to God and for providing the portion set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the most holy gifts.
2Ch 31:15 Supporting him loyally in the priestly towns were Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah and Shechaniah, who made the distributions to their brothers in their various orders, whether high or low,
2Ch 31:16 irrespective of their official genealogy, to the males of thirty years and upwards -- to each one who attended the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to fulfill his daily obligations -- for the performance of their duties appropriate to their orders:
2Ch 31:17 the priests being registered according to family and the Levites of twenty years and upwards according to their duties within their orders.
2Ch 31:18 And the official genealogy included all their household, their wives, their sons and their daughters, throughout the community, since these men were obliged to keep sanctifying themselves anew.
2Ch 31:19 The Aaronite priests who lived on the pasture lands belonging to their towns, had men named in every town to distribute portions to every male among the priests and to everyone included in the official genealogy of the Levites.
2Ch 31:20 Hezekiah did this throughout all Judah. He did what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God regards as good and right and loyal.
2Ch 31:21 Everything that he undertook, whether in the service of the Temple of God or in connection with the law or the commandments, he did in absolute devotion to his God, and so succeeded.
2Ch 32:1 After these loyal actions, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced and invaded Judah, and laid siege to the fortified towns, intending to demolish them.
2Ch 32:2 Hezekiah, realising that Sennacherib's advance was the preliminary to an attack on Jerusalem,
2Ch 32:3 consulted his officers and warriors about sealing off the waters of the springs outside the city, and they supported him.
2Ch 32:4 So a large number of people were called out to block all the springs and cut off the watercourse flowing through the country. 'Why', they said, 'should the kings of Assyria find plenty of water when they arrive?'
2Ch 32:5 Acting with determination, he also repaired all the damaged parts of the wall, built towers on it, constructed a second wall on the outer side, strengthened the Millo of the City of David and made quantities of missiles and shields.
2Ch 32:6 He then appointed generals to command the people, summoned them to him in the square by the city gate and spoke as follows to encourage them,
2Ch 32:7 'Be strong and brave; do not be afraid or tremble when you face the king of Assyria and the whole horde he brings with him, for there are more on our side than on his.
2Ch 32:8 He has only human strength, but we have Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God to help us and fight our battles.' The people took heart at the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.
2Ch 32:9 Next, Sennacherib king of Assyria, who was then besieging Lachish with all his forces, sent his representatives to Jerusalem, to Hezekiah king of Judah, and all Judah at Jerusalem, with the following message,
2Ch 32:10 'Sennacherib king of Assyria says this, "What gives you the confidence to remain in the fortress of Jerusalem?
2Ch 32:11 Isn't Hezekiah deluding you, only to condemn you to die of famine and thirst, when he says: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God will save us from the King of Assyria's clutches?
2Ch 32:12 Isn't Hezekiah the very man who has suppressed his high places and altars, and given the order to Judah and to Jerusalem: You must worship before one altar and on that alone offer incense?
2Ch 32:13 Don't you know what I and my ancestors have done to all the peoples of the other countries? Have the national gods of those countries had the slightest success in saving their countries from my clutches?
2Ch 32:14 Of all the gods of those nations whom my ancestors devoted to destruction, which one has been able to save his people from my clutches, for your god to be able to save you from my clutches?
2Ch 32:15 Do not let Hezekiah mislead you. Do not let him delude you like this. Do not believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to save his people from me or from my ancestors' clutches. No more will your god be able to save you from my clutches." '
2Ch 32:16 And his representatives said a great deal more, maligning Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, and his servant Hezekiah.
2Ch 32:17 He also wrote a letter to insult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, maligning him as follows, 'Just as the national gods of the other countries could not save their peoples from my clutches, so Hezekiah's god cannot save his people from my clutches.'
2Ch 32:18 They then shouted loudly in the Judaean language to the people of Jerusalem on the ramparts to frighten and confuse them, in the hope of capturing the city,
2Ch 32:19 maligning the God of Jerusalem as though he were one of the man-made gods of other peoples in the world.
2Ch 32:20 Then King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed and cried out to Heaven about this,
2Ch 32:21 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent an angel who destroyed every warrior, commander and officer in the king of Assyria's camp. So he had to retire shamefacedly to his own country and when he went into the temple of his god, some of his own sons there struck him down with the sword.
2Ch 32:22 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the clutches of Sennacherib king of Assyria and of everyone else, and gave them peace on every side.
2Ch 32:23 Many people then brought gifts to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem and valuable presents to Hezekiah king of Judah; from then on, all the other nations held him in high esteem.
2Ch 32:24 About then Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. He prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who heard him and granted him a sign.
2Ch 32:25 But Hezekiah made no return for the benefit which he had received; he became proud and brought retribution on himself and on Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch 32:26 Then, however, Hezekiah did humble himself in his pride, and so did the inhabitants of Jerusalem; as a result of which, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s retribution did not overtake them during Hezekiah's lifetime.
2Ch 32:27 Hezekiah enjoyed immense riches and honor. He built himself treasuries for gold, silver, precious stones, spices, jewels and every kind of desirable object,
2Ch 32:28 as well as storehouses for his returns of grain, new wine and olive oil, and stalls for all kinds of cattle and pens for the flocks.
2Ch 32:29 He also provided himself with donkeys in addition to his immense wealth of flocks and herds, since God had made him immensely wealthy.
2Ch 32:30 It was Hezekiah who stopped the upper outlet of the waters of Gihon and directed them straight down on the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah succeeded in all that he undertook,
2Ch 32:31 although when the envoys were sent to him by the rulers of Babylon to enquire about the extraordinary thing which had taken place in the country, God left him alone to test him and discover what lay in his heart.
2Ch 32:32 The rest of the history of Hezekiah, and his deeds of faithful love, are recorded in the Vision of the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz, in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel.
2Ch 32:33 Then Hezekiah fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the upper section of the tombs of the sons of David. All Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem paid him honors at his death. His son Manasseh succeeded him.
2Ch 33:1 Manasseh was twelve years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 33:2 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), copying the disgusting practices of the nations whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had dispossessed for the Israelites.
2Ch 33:3 He rebuilt the high places which his father Hezekiah had demolished, he set up altars to Baal and made sacred poles, he worshipped the whole array of heaven and served it.
2Ch 33:4 He built altars in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), of which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said, 'My name will be in Jerusalem for ever.'
2Ch 33:5 He built altars to the whole array of heaven in the two courts of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 33:6 He caused his sons to pass through the fire of sacrifice in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom. He practised soothsaying, divination and sorcery, and had dealings with mediums and spirit-guides. He did very many more things displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), thus provoking his anger.
2Ch 33:7 He put a sculpted image, an idol which he had had made, inside the Temple of which God had said to David and his son Solomon, 'In this Temple and in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I shall put my name for ever.
2Ch 33:8 Nor shall I ever again remove Israel's foot from the soil on which I established your ancestors on condition that they were careful to observe all I commanded them as laid down in the whole Law, the statutes and the ordinances, given through Moses.'
2Ch 33:9 But Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem into doing worse things than the nations which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had destroyed for the Israelites.
2Ch 33:10 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Manasseh and his people, they would not listen.
2Ch 33:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then brought down on them the generals of the king of Assyria's army who captured Manasseh with hooks, put him in chains and took him to Babylon.
2Ch 33:12 While in his distress, he placated Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God by genuinely humbling himself before the God of his ancestors.
2Ch 33:13 When he prayed to him, he was moved by his entreaty, heard his supplication and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Manasseh realized then that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God.
2Ch 33:14 Afterwards, he rebuilt the outer wall of the City of David, to the west of Gihon, in the valley, up to the Fish Gate and round the Ophel, and made it very much higher. And he stationed military governors in all the fortified towns of Judah.
2Ch 33:15 He also removed the foreign gods and the idol from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as well as all the altars which he had built on the mountain of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city.
2Ch 33:16 He repaired the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and offered communion sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
2Ch 33:17 The people, however, went on sacrificing at the high places, although only to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.
2Ch 33:18 The rest of the history of Manasseh, his prayer to his God, and the prophecies of the seers who spoke to him in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, can be found in the Annals of the Kings of Israel.
2Ch 33:19 His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, all his sins, his infidelity, the sites where he built high places and set up sacred poles and idols before humbling himself, are set down in the records of Hozai.
2Ch 33:20 Then Manasseh fell asleep with his ancestors and was buried in the garden of his palace. His son Amon succeeded him.
2Ch 33:21 Amon was twenty-two years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for two years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 33:22 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as his father Manasseh had done, for Amon sacrificed to all the images which his father Manasseh had made, and served them.
2Ch 33:23 He did not humble himself before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as his father Manasseh had done; on the contrary, Amon wilfully added to his guilt.
2Ch 33:24 His retinue plotted against him and killed him in his own palace.
2Ch 33:25 The people of the country, however, slaughtered all those who had plotted against King Amon and proclaimed his son Josiah as his successor.
2Ch 34:1 Josiah was eight years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:2 He did what is pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and followed the example of his ancestor David, not deviating from it to right or to left.
2Ch 34:3 In the eighth year of his reign, when he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David. In the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the sacred poles and the sculpted and cast images.
2Ch 34:4 He superintended the smashing of the altars of Baal, he broke up the incense altars standing above them, he shattered the sacred poles and the sculpted and cast images and reduced them to powder, scattering the powder on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.
2Ch 34:5 He burned the bones of their priests on their altars and so purified Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim and Simeon, as far as Naphtali, and round their open spaces,
2Ch 34:7 he smashed the altars and sacred poles, reduced the sculpted images to powder and broke up all the incense altars throughout the territory of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:8 In the eighteenth year of his reign, after purging the country and the Temple, he commissioned Shaphan son of Azaliah, Maaseiah governor of the city and the herald Joah son of Joahaz, to repair the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God.
2Ch 34:9 When they came to the high priest Hilkiah, they handed over the money contributed to the Temple of God and collected by the levitical guardians of the threshold from Manasseh and Ephraim, from all the rest of Israel, from all Judah and Benjamin, and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
2Ch 34:10 They handed it over to the masters of works attached to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and these gave it to the men working on the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to repair and restore the Temple;
2Ch 34:11 they gave it to the craftsmen and builders for buying dressed stone and timber for beams, to underpin the buildings which the kings of Judah had allowed to fall into decay.
2Ch 34:12 The men were conscientious in doing their work; their foremen were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites descended from Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, descended from Kohath, who supervised. The Levites -- all of whom were skilled instrumentalists-
2Ch 34:13 were in charge of the carriers and supervised all the workmen at their various jobs, while some of the Levites acted as secretaries, book-keepers and gatekeepers.
2Ch 34:14 While bringing out the money contributed to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the priest Hilkiah found the book of the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) given through Moses.
2Ch 34:15 Hilkiah then said to Shaphan the secretary, 'I have found the Book of the Law in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan.
2Ch 34:16 Shaphan took the book to the king, reporting furthermore to him as follows, 'Your servants have done everything entrusted to them.
2Ch 34:17 They have melted down the silver which was in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and have handed it over to the supervisors and the masters of works.'
2Ch 34:18 Shaphan the secretary also informed the king, 'The priest Hilkiah has given me a book'; and Shaphan read extracts from it in the king's presence.
2Ch 34:19 On hearing the words of the Law, the king tore his clothes.
2Ch 34:20 Then the king gave the following order to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's minister,
2Ch 34:21 'Go and consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on behalf of me and of those left in Israel and Judah about the words of the book that has been discovered: for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s furious wrath has been pouring down on us because our ancestors did not obey the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by doing what this book says they ought to have done.'
2Ch 34:22 Hilkiah and those whom the king had designated went to the prophetess Huldah wife of Shallum, son of Tokhath, son of Hasrah, the keeper of the wardrobe; she lived in Jerusalem in the new town. They spoke to her about this,
2Ch 34:23 and she replied, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "To the man who sent you to me reply:
2Ch 34:24 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am going to bring disaster on this place and the people who live in it -- all the curses set down in the book read in the king of Judah's presence.
2Ch 34:25 Because they have abandoned me and burnt incense to other gods, so as to provoke my anger by their every action, my wrath is about to be poured down on this place, and nothing can stop it.
2Ch 34:26 As for the king of Judah who sent you to consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), say this to him: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: The words you have heard . . .
2Ch 34:27 But since your heart has been touched and you have humbled yourself before God on hearing what he has decreed against this place and the people who live in it, have torn your clothes and wept before me, I too have heard"-Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this.
2Ch 34:28 "Look, when I gather you to your ancestors, you will be gathered into your grave in peace; you will not live to see the great disaster that I am going to bring on this place and on the people who live in it." ' They took this answer to the king.
2Ch 34:29 The king then had all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem summoned,
2Ch 34:30 and the king went up to the temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, priests, Levites and all the people, high and low. In their hearing he read out the entire contents of the Book of the Covenant discovered in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 34:31 The king then, standing on the dais, bound himself by the covenant before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to follow Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to keep his commandments, decrees and laws with all his heart and soul and to carry out the terms of the covenant as written in this book.
2Ch 34:32 He made all those present in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge their allegiance to it. The citizens of Jerusalem took action in keeping with the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors,
2Ch 34:33 while Josiah removed all the abominations throughout the territories belonging to the Israelites and required all inhabitants of Israel to serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God; throughout his lifetime they did not deviate from following Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors.
2Ch 35:1 Josiah then celebrated a Passover to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem. The Passover victims were slaughtered on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2Ch 35:2 He assigned the priests to their posts, encouraging them to do their duty in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 35:3 Then he said to the Levites, who had understanding for all Israel and were consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Put the sacred ark in the Temple built by Solomon son of David, king of Israel. You need not carry it about on your shoulders any more. Now serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and Israel his people!
2Ch 35:4 Prepare yourselves by families according to your orders, as laid down in the decree of David king of Israel and that of Solomon his son,
2Ch 35:5 and take up positions in the sanctuary corresponding to the family divisions of your brothers the laity, so that there are Levites for each family division.
2Ch 35:6 Slaughter the Passover, sanctify yourselves and prepare it so that your brothers can observe it in the way the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) through Moses requires.'
2Ch 35:7 For the laity Josiah provided small livestock, that is, lambs and young goats -- everything for the Passover offerings for all who attended -- to the number of thirty thousand, as well as three thousand bullocks; these were from the king's own possessions.
2Ch 35:8 His officials also made voluntary contributions for the people, the priests and the Levites; and Hilkiah, Zechariah and Jehiel, the chiefs of the Temple of God, gave two thousand six hundred lambs and three hundred bullocks to the priests for the Passover offerings;
2Ch 35:9 while Conaniah, Shemaiah, Nethanel his brother, Hashabiah, Jeiel and Jozabad, the head Levites, provided five thousand lambs and five hundred bullocks as Passover offerings for the Levites.
2Ch 35:10 So the service was arranged, the priests stood in their places and the Levites in their orders as the king had commanded.
2Ch 35:11 Then they slaughtered the Passover victims and while the priests sprinkled the blood as they received it from the Levites, the latter did the skinning.
2Ch 35:12 Next they put the burnt offering aside for presentation to the family divisions of the laity, so that they could offer it to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the way prescribed in the Book of Moses; they did the same with the bullocks.
2Ch 35:13 They roasted the Passover victim over an open fire in accordance with the regulation and boiled the consecrated offerings in pots, kettles and pans, which they then distributed to all the laity as quickly as they could.
2Ch 35:14 Afterwards they provided for themselves and the priests, since the Aaronite priests were kept busy till nightfall making the burnt offerings and offering the fat; that was why the Levites prepared the Passover for themselves and for the Aaronite priests.
2Ch 35:15 The Asaphite singers were at their places, in accordance with the command of David and Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king's seer; so were the gatekeepers at each gate. Because they could not leave their duties, their brothers the Levites prepared the Passover for them.
2Ch 35:16 So the whole service of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was arranged that day to celebrate the Passover and to bring burnt offerings on the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in accordance with King Josiah's command.
2Ch 35:17 On that occasion the Israelites who were present celebrated the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
2Ch 35:18 No Passover like this one had ever been celebrated in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel, nor had any of the kings of Israel ever celebrated a Passover like the one celebrated by Josiah, the priests, the Levites, all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
2Ch 35:19 This Passover was celebrated in the eighteenth year of Josiah's reign.
2Ch 35:20 After all this, when Josiah had provided for the Temple, Necho king of Egypt advanced to give battle at Carchemish on the Euphrates and Josiah went to intercept him.
2Ch 35:21 Necho however sent him messengers to say, 'Why be concerned about me, king of Judah? I have not come today to attack you; my quarrel is with another dynasty. God has commanded me to move quickly, so keep well clear of the god who is with me!'
2Ch 35:22 But Josiah was not to be deflected from his determination to fight him, and would not listen to Necho's words, which came from the mouth of God. He gave battle in the plain of Megiddo.
2Ch 35:23 The archers shot King Josiah. The king then said to his retainers, 'Take me away; I am badly wounded.'
2Ch 35:24 So his retainers lifted him out of his own chariot, transferred him to one which he had in reserve and brought him to Jerusalem, where he died and was buried in the tombs of his ancestors. All Judah and Jerusalem held mourning for Josiah.
2Ch 35:25 Jeremiah composed a lament for Josiah and all the male and female singers to this day lament Josiah in their dirges; they have made it a rule in Israel; they are recorded in the Lamentations.
2Ch 35:26 The rest of the history of Josiah, his deeds of faithful love conforming to what is prescribed in the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
2Ch 35:27 his history from first to last, are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
2Ch 36:1 The people of the land then took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and proclaimed him king of Jerusalem in succession to his father.
2Ch 36:2 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for three months in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:3 The king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and imposed a levy of a hundred talents of silver and one talent of gold on the country.
2Ch 36:4 The king of Egypt then made his brother Eliakim king of Judah and Jerusalem, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. Carrying off his brother Jehoahaz, Necho took him to Egypt.
2Ch 36:5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God.
2Ch 36:6 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him, loaded him with chains and took him to Babylon.
2Ch 36:7 To Babylon Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the objects belonging to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and put them in his palace in Babylon.
2Ch 36:8 The rest of the history of Jehoiakim, the shameful things that he did and what happened to him in consequence, these are recorded in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. His son Jehoiachin succeeded him.
2Ch 36:9 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 36:10 At the turn of the year, King Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and had him taken to Babylon, with the valuables belonging to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and made his brother Zedekiah king of Judah and Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:12 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God. He did not listen humbly to the prophet Jeremiah who spoke for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
2Ch 36:13 Furthermore, he rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance to him by God. He became stubborn, and obstinately refused to return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
2Ch 36:14 Furthermore, all the leaders of Judah, the priests and the people too, added infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which he himself had consecrated in Jerusalem.
2Ch 36:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of their ancestors, continuously sent them word through his messengers because he felt sorry for his people and his dwelling,
2Ch 36:16 but they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s wrath with his people became so fierce that there was no further remedy.
2Ch 36:17 So against them he summoned the king of the Chaldaeans and he put their young men to the sword within the very building of their Temple, not sparing young man or girl, or the old and infirm; he put them all at his mercy.
2Ch 36:18 All the things belonging to the Temple of God, whether large or small, the treasures of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the treasures of the king and his officials, everything he took to Babylon.
2Ch 36:19 He burned down the temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces to the ground and destroyed everything of value in it.
2Ch 36:20 And those who had escaped the sword he deported to Babylon, where they were enslaved by him and his descendants until the rise of the kingdom of Persia,
2Ch 36:21 to fulfill Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s prophecy through Jeremiah: Until the country has paid off its Sabbaths, it will lie fallow for all the days of its desolation -- until the seventy years are complete.
2Ch 36:22 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia -- to fulfill the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) through Jeremiah -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom:
2Ch 36:23 'Cyrus king of Persia says this, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up." '
Ezr 1:1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia -- to fulfill the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoken through Jeremiah -Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom:
Ezr 1:2 'Cyrus king of Persia says this, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah.
Ezr 1:3 Whoever among you belongs to the full tally of his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem, in Judah, and build the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, who is the God in Jerusalem.
Ezr 1:4 And let each survivor, wherever he lives, be helped by the people of his locality with silver, gold, equipment and riding beasts, as well as voluntary offerings for the Temple of God which is in Jerusalem." '
Ezr 1:5 Then the heads of families of Judah and of Benjamin, the priests and the Levites, in fact all whose spirit had been roused by God, prepared to go and rebuild the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem;
Ezr 1:6 and all their neighbors gave them every kind of help: silver, gold, equipment, riding beasts and valuable presents, in addition to their voluntary offerings.
Ezr 1:7 Furthermore, King Cyrus handed over the articles belonging to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and put in the temple of his god.
Ezr 1:8 Cyrus king of Persia handed them over to Mithredath the treasurer who checked them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.
Ezr 1:9 The inventory was as follows: thirty gold dishes; one thousand silver dishes, twenty-nine repaired;
Ezr 1:10 thirty gold bowls; a thousand silver bowls, four hundred and ten damaged; one thousand other articles.
Ezr 1:11 In all, five thousand four hundred articles of gold and silver. Sheshbazzar took all these with him when he led the exiles back from Babylon to Jerusalem.
Ezr 2:1 These were the people of the province who returned from the captivity of the Exile, those whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported to Babylon, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.
Ezr 2:2 They were the ones who arrived with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of the country of Israel:
Ezr 2:3 sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two;
Ezr 2:4 sons of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two;
Ezr 2:5 sons of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five;
Ezr 2:6 sons of Pahath-Moab, that is to say the sons of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and twelve;
Ezr 2:7 sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;
Ezr 2:8 sons of Zattu, nine hundred and forty-five;
Ezr 2:9 sons of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty;
Ezr 2:10 sons of Bani, six hundred and forty-two;
Ezr 2:11 sons of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-three;
Ezr 2:12 sons of Azgad, one thousand two hundred and twenty-two;
Ezr 2:13 sons of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-six;
Ezr 2:14 sons of Bigvai, two thousand and fifty-six;
Ezr 2:15 sons of Adin, four hundred and fifty-four;
Ezr 2:16 sons of Ater, that is to say of Hezekiah, ninety-eight;
Ezr 2:17 sons of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-three;
Ezr 2:18 sons of Jorah, one hundred and twelve;
Ezr 2:19 sons of Hashum, two hundred and twenty-three;
Ezr 2:20 sons of Gibbar, ninety-five;
Ezr 2:21 sons of Bethlehem, one hundred and twenty-three;
Ezr 2:22 men of Netophah, fifty-six;
Ezr 2:23 men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight;
Ezr 2:24 sons of Azmaveth, forty-two;
Ezr 2:25 sons of Kiriath-Jearim, Chephirah and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three;
Ezr 2:26 sons of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one;
Ezr 2:27 men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two;
Ezr 2:28 men of Bethel and Ai, two hundred and twenty-three;
Ezr 2:29 sons of Nebo, fifty-two;
Ezr 2:30 of Magbish, one hundred and fifty-six;
Ezr 2:31 sons of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;
Ezr 2:32 sons of Harim, three hundred and twenty;
Ezr 2:33 sons of Lod, Hadid and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-five;
Ezr 2:34 sons of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five;
Ezr 2:35 sons of Senaah, three thousand six hundred and thirty.
Ezr 2:36 The priests: sons of Jedaiah, of the House of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three;
Ezr 2:37 sons of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two;
Ezr 2:38 sons of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven;
Ezr 2:39 sons of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.
Ezr 2:40 The Levites: sons of Jeshua and Kadmiel, of the line of Hodaviah, seventy-four.
Ezr 2:41 The singers: sons of Asaph, one hundred and twenty-eight.
Ezr 2:42 The sons of the gatekeepers: sons of Shallum, sons of Ater, sons of Talmon, sons of Akkub, sons of Hatita, sons of Shobai: in all, one hundred and thirty-nine.
Ezr 2:43 The temple slaves: sons of Ziha, sons of Hasupha, sons of Tabbaoth,
Ezr 2:44 sons of Keros, sons of Siaha, sons of Padon,
Ezr 2:45 sons of Lebanah, sons of Hagabah, sons of Akkub,
Ezr 2:46 sons of Hagab, sons of Shamlai, sons of Hanan,
Ezr 2:47 sons of Giddel, sons of Gahar, sons of Reaiah,
Ezr 2:48 sons of Rezin, sons of Nekoda, sons of Gazzam,
Ezr 2:49 sons of Uzza, sons of Paseah, sons of Besai,
Ezr 2:50 sons of Asnah, sons of the Meunites, sons of the Nephisites,
Ezr 2:51 sons of Bakbuk, sons of Hakupha, sons of Harhur,
Ezr 2:52 sons of Bazluth, sons of Mehida, sons of Harsha,
Ezr 2:53 sons of Barkos, sons of Sisera, sons of Temah,
Ezr 2:54 sons of Neziah, sons of Hatipha.
Ezr 2:55 The sons of Solomon's slaves: sons of Sotai, sons of Hassophereth, sons of Peruda,
Ezr 2:56 sons of Jaalah, sons of Darkon, sons of Giddel,
Ezr 2:57 sons of Shephatiah, sons of Hattil, sons of Pochereth-ha-Zebaim, sons of Ami.
Ezr 2:58 The total of the temple slaves and the sons of Solomon's slaves: three hundred and ninety-two.
Ezr 2:59 The following, who came from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Addan and Immer, could not prove that their families and ancestry were of Israelite origin:
Ezr 2:60 the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda: six hundred and fifty-two.
Ezr 2:61 And among the sons of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai -- who had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, whose name he adopted.
Ezr 2:62 These had looked for their entries in the official genealogies but were not to be found there, and were hence disqualified from the priesthood.
Ezr 2:63 Consequently, His Excellency forbade them to eat any of the consecrated food until a priest appeared who could consult urim and thummim.
Ezr 2:64 The whole assembly numbered forty-two thousand, three hundred and sixty people,
Ezr 2:65 not counting their male and female slaves to the number of seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. They also had two hundred male and female singers.
Ezr 2:66 Their horses numbered seven hundred and thirty-six, their mules two hundred and forty-five,
Ezr 2:67 their camels four hundred and thirty-five and their donkeys six thousand seven hundred and twenty.
Ezr 2:68 When they arrived at the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem, a certain number of heads of families made voluntary offerings for the Temple of God, for its rebuilding on its site.
Ezr 2:69 In accordance with their means they gave sixty-one thousand gold drachmas, five thousand silver minas and one hundred priestly robes to the sacred treasury.
Ezr 2:70 The priests, the Levites and some of the people settled in Jerusalem; the singers, the gatekeepers and the temple slaves in their appropriate towns; and all the other Israelites in their own towns.
Ezr 3:1 When the seventh month came after the Israelites had been resettled in their towns, the people gathered as one person in Jerusalem.
Ezr 3:2 Then Jeshua son of Jozadak, with his brother priests, and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, with his brothers, set about rebuilding the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it as prescribed in the Law of Moses man of God.
Ezr 3:3 They erected the altar on its old site, despite their fear of the people of the country, and on it they presented burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), burnt offerings morning and evening;
Ezr 3:4 they celebrated the feast of Shelters as prescribed, offering daily the number of burnt offerings required from day to day,
Ezr 3:5 and in addition presented the continual burnt offerings prescribed for the Sabbaths, for the New Moons and for all the festivals sacred to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as well as those voluntary offerings made by individuals to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Ezr 3:6 From the first day of the seventh month they began presenting burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), though the foundations of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had not yet been laid.
Ezr 3:7 They also contributed money for the masons and carpenters, and food, drink and oil for the Sidonians and Tyrians for bringing cedar wood from Lebanon by sea to Jaffa, for which Cyrus king of Persia had given permission.
Ezr 3:8 It was in the second month of the second year after their arrival at the Temple of God in Jerusalem that Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak, with the rest of their brothers, the priests, the Levites and all the people who had returned to Jerusalem from captivity, began the work by appointing some of the Levites who were twenty years old or more to superintend the work on the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Ezr 3:9 The Levites, Jeshua, his sons and his brothers, with Kadmiel, Binnui and his sons, the sons of Hodaviah, agreed to superintend the men working on the Temple of God.
Ezr 3:10 When the builders had laid the foundations of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the priests in their robes stood forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) according to the ordinances of David king of Israel.
Ezr 3:11 They chanted praise and thanksgiving to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) because for Israel, they said, 'he is good, and everlasting in his faithful love.' Then all the people raised a mighty shout of praise to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since the foundations of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had now been laid.
Ezr 3:12 Many of the older priests, Levites and heads of families, who had seen the first temple, wept very loudly when the foundations of this one were laid before their eyes, but many others shouted aloud for joy,
Ezr 3:13 so that nobody could distinguish the noise of the joyful shout from the noise of the people's weeping; for the people shouted so loudly that the noise could be heard far away.
Ezr 4:1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel,
Ezr 4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the heads of families and said, 'Let us help you build, for we resort to your God as you do and we have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.'
Ezr 4:3 Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other heads of Israelite families replied, 'It is out of the question that you should join us in building a Temple for our God. We shall build for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, on our own, as King Cyrus king of Persia has commanded us.'
Ezr 4:4 The people of the country then set about demoralising the people of Judah and deterring them from building;
Ezr 4:5 they also bribed counsellors against them to frustrate their purpose throughout the lifetime of Cyrus king of Persia right on into the reign of Darius king of Persia.
Ezr 4:6 In the reign of Xerxes, at the beginning of his reign, they drew up an accusation against the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem.
Ezr 4:7 In the days of Artaxerxes, Mithredath, Tabeel and their other associates wrote to Artaxerxes king of Persia against Jerusalem; the text of the letter was written in Aramaic writing and dialect.
Ezr 4:8 Then Rehum the governor and Shimshai the secretary wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes, denouncing Jerusalem as follows:
Ezr 4:9 'From Rehum the governor and Shimshai the secretary and their other associates, the judges, the legates, the Persian officials, the people of Uruk, Babylon and Susa -- that is, the Elamites-
Ezr 4:10 and the other peoples whom the great and illustrious Ashurbanipal deported and settled in the towns of Samaria and in the rest of Transeuphrates.'
Ezr 4:11 This is the text of the letter which they sent him: 'To King Artaxerxes, from your servants the people of Transeuphrates:
Ezr 4:12 'May the king now please be informed that the Jews, who have come up from you to us, have arrived in Jerusalem and are rebuilding the rebellious and evil city; they have begun rebuilding the walls and are laying the foundations;
Ezr 4:13 and now the king should be informed that once this city is rebuilt and the walls are restored, they will refuse to pay tribute, tax or toll, thus the king will incur a loss;
Ezr 4:14 and now, because we eat the palace salt, it is not proper for us to see this affront offered to the king; we therefore send this information to the king
Ezr 4:15 so that a search may be made in the archives of your ancestors: in which archives you will find and learn that this city is a rebellious city, the bane of kings and provinces, and that sedition has been stirred up there from ancient times; that is why this city was destroyed.
Ezr 4:16 We inform the king that if this city is rebuilt and its walls are restored, you will soon have no territories left in Transeuphrates.'
Ezr 4:17 The king sent this reply: 'To Rehum the governor, to Shimshai the secretary, and to their other associates resident in Samaria and elsewhere in Transeuphrates: Greetings!
Ezr 4:18 'And now, the document which you sent us has been accurately translated for me,
Ezr 4:19 and by my orders search has been made, and it has been found that this city has rebelled against the kings in the past and that revolt and sedition have been contrived in it;
Ezr 4:20 and that powerful kings have reigned in Jerusalem, governing the whole of Transeuphrates and exacting tribute, tax and toll;
Ezr 4:21 now give orders for these men to cease work; this city is not to be rebuilt until I give the order.
Ezr 4:22 Beware of acting negligently in this matter. Why should the harm grow, to endanger the king?'
Ezr 4:23 As soon as the text of King Artaxerxes' document had been read to Rehum the governor, Shimshai the secretary and their associates, they hurried to the Jews in Jerusalem and stopped their work by force of arms.
Ezr 4:24 Work on the Temple of God in Jerusalem then ceased, and was discontinued until the second year of the reign of Darius King of Persia.
Ezr 5:1 When the prophets Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel who was over them,
Ezr 5:2 Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Jeshua son of Jozadak began rebuilding the Temple of God in Jerusalem; with them were the prophets of God, supporting them.
Ezr 5:3 It was then that Tattenai governor of Transeuphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and their associates came to them and asked, 'Who gave you the order to rebuild this Temple and complete this structure?
Ezr 5:4 What are the names of the men putting up this building?'
Ezr 5:5 But the eyes of their God were watching over the elders of the Jews, so they were not forced to stop until a report could reach Darius and an official reply about the matter could be received from him.
Ezr 5:6 A copy of the letter which Tattenai, governor of Transeuphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and his associates, the officials in Transeuphrates, sent to King Darius.
Ezr 5:7 They sent him a report which ran as follows: 'To King Darius, hearty greetings!
Ezr 5:8 'The king should be informed that we went to the province of Judah, to the Temple of the great God, which is being rebuilt with large stones; beams are being embedded in the walls; the work is being carried out energetically and is making good progress.
Ezr 5:9 Questioning these elders, we asked them, "Who gave you permission to rebuild this Temple and complete this structure?"
Ezr 5:10 We also asked them their names, to inform you, so that we could record the names of the men who were their leaders.
Ezr 5:11 'They gave us the following answer, "We are the servants of the God of heaven and earth; we are rebuilding the Temple built many years ago, which a great king of Israel had built and completed.
Ezr 5:12 But because our ancestors angered the God of heaven, he handed them over to Nebuchadnezzar the Chaldaean king of Babylon who destroyed this Temple and deported the people to Babylon.
Ezr 5:13 In the first year of Cyrus king of Babylon, however, King Cyrus issued an official order that this Temple of God should be rebuilt;
Ezr 5:14 furthermore, those gold and silver articles belonging to the Temple of God, which Nebuchadnezzar had removed from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to the temple of Babylon, King Cyrus in turn removed from the temple of Babylon and handed back to a certain Sheshbazzar whom he had appointed governor.
Ezr 5:15 He said to him, 'Take these articles; go and return them to the Temple which is in Jerusalem and let the Temple of God be rebuilt on its original site;'
Ezr 5:16 this Sheshbazzar then came and laid the foundations of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, and it has been under construction ever since, and is not yet finished."
Ezr 5:17 'Hence, if it please the king, let search be made in the royal treasuries in Babylon, to find out if it is true that an official order was issued by King Cyrus for this temple of God in Jerusalem to be rebuilt; and let the king's decision on this matter be sent to us.'
Ezr 6:1 Then, on the order of King Darius, search was made in the archives deposited in the treasuries in Babylon
Ezr 6:2 and a scroll was found in the fortress of Ecbatana, which ran as follows: 'Memorandum.
Ezr 6:3 'In the first year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus issued this order: "Temple of God in Jerusalem. "The Temple is to be rebuilt as a place of offering sacrifice and its foundations retained. Its height is to be sixty cubits, its width sixty cubits,
Ezr 6:4 with three layers of large stones and one layer of timber. The cost is to be met by the royal treasury.
Ezr 6:5 Furthermore, the gold and silver articles belonging to the Temple of God which Nebuchadnezzar took from the Temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon are to be given back and returned to the temple in Jerusalem, each to its proper place, and deposited in the Temple of God."
Ezr 6:6 'Hence, Tattenai governor of Transeuphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and your associates, the officials of Transeuphrates, keep away from there!
Ezr 6:7 Leave the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews alone, to get on with their work on that Temple of God; they are permitted to rebuild that Temple of God on that site.
Ezr 6:8 And herewith are my instructions as to how you will assist these elders of the Jews in the rebuilding of that Temple of God: the cost is to be paid in full to these men from the royal revenue, that is, from the taxes of Transeuphrates, and without interruption.
Ezr 6:9 And whatever is required -- young bulls, rams, lambs for burnt offerings to the God of heaven, wheat, salt, wine, oil, as the priests in Jerusalem request -- is to be given them day by day without fail,
Ezr 6:10 so that they may offer sacrifices acceptable to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king and his sons.
Ezr 6:11 Furthermore I have issued an instruction that if anyone disobeys this order, a beam is to be torn from his house, he is to be impaled on it and his house is to be reduced to a rubbish-heap for his offense;
Ezr 6:12 and may the God who has caused his name to live there overthrow the king of any people who dares to defy this and destroy that Temple of God in Jerusalem! I, Darius, have issued this order. Let it be punctiliously obeyed!'
Ezr 6:13 Tattenai governor of Transeuphrates, Shethar-Bozenai and their associates punctiliously obeyed the instructions sent by King Darius;
Ezr 6:14 and the elders of the Jews made good progress over their building, thanks to the prophetic activity of the prophet Haggai and Zechariah son of Iddo, completing the reconstruction in accordance with the command of the God of Israel and the order of Cyrus and of Darius.
Ezr 6:15 This Temple was completed on the twenty-third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
Ezr 6:16 The Israelites -- the priests, the Levites and the remainder of the exiles -- joyfully celebrated the dedication of this Temple of God;
Ezr 6:17 for the dedication of this Temple of God they offered one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs and, as a sin offering for all Israel, twelve he-goats, corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel.
Ezr 6:18 Then they installed the priests in their orders and the Levites in their positions for the ministry of the Temple of God in Jerusalem, as prescribed in the Book of Moses.
Ezr 6:19 The exiles celebrated the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month.
Ezr 6:20 The Levites, as one man, had purified themselves; all were pure, so they sacrificed the Passover for all the exiles, for their brothers the priests and for themselves.
Ezr 6:21 So the Israelites who had returned from exile and all those who had renounced the filthy practices of the people of the country to join them in resorting to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, ate the Passover.
Ezr 6:22 For seven days they joyfully celebrated the feast of Unleavened Bread, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had given them cause to rejoice, having moved the heart of the king of Assyria in their favor to support them in their work on the Temple of God, the God of Israel.
Ezr 7:1 After these events, in the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, son of Azariah, son of Hilkiah,
Ezr 7:2 son of Shallum, son of Zadok, son of Ahitub,
Ezr 7:3 son of Amariah, son of Azariah, son of Meraioth,
Ezr 7:4 son of Zerahiah, son of Uzzi, son of Bukki,
Ezr 7:5 son of Abishua, son of Phinehas, son of Eleazar, son of the chief priest Aaron-
Ezr 7:6 this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a scribe versed in the Law of Moses, which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, had given. The king gave him everything that he asked for, since the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God was over him.
Ezr 7:7 A number of Israelites, priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple slaves went up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of the reign of King Artaxerxes.
Ezr 7:8 Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month, in the seventh year of the king's reign;
Ezr 7:9 for he had ordered the departure from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, since the kindly hand of his God was over him.
Ezr 7:10 For Ezra had devoted himself to studying the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) so as to put into practice and teach its statutes and rulings.
Ezr 7:11 This is the text of the document which King Artaxerxes gave to Ezra, the priest-scribe, a student of matters pertaining to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s commandments and statutes relating to Israel:
Ezr 7:12 'Artaxerxes, king of kings, to the priest Ezra, Secretary of the Law of the God of heaven: greetings!
Ezr 7:13 'Now here are my orders. All members of the people of Israel in my kingdom, including their priests and Levites, who freely choose to go to Jerusalem, may go with you,
Ezr 7:14 for you are being sent by the king and his seven counsellors to investigate how the Law of your God, in which you are expert, is being applied in Judah and Jerusalem,
Ezr 7:15 and to transport the silver and gold which the king and his counsellors have voluntarily offered to the God of Israel who resides in Jerusalem,
Ezr 7:16 as well as all the silver and gold which you receive throughout the province of Babylon and the voluntary offerings freely contributed by the people and the priests for the Temple of their God in Jerusalem.
Ezr 7:17 'This money you will punctiliously use for the purchase of bulls, rams, lambs and the materials for the oblations and libations which go with them, offering these on the altar of the Temple of your God in Jerusalem,
Ezr 7:18 and using the remainder of the silver and gold in accordance with the will of your God as you and your brothers may think fit.
Ezr 7:19 'You will deliver the articles which have been given you for the ministry of the Temple of your God, to the God of Jerusalem,
Ezr 7:20 and whatever else is needed and you are obliged to supply for the Temple of your God, you will supply from the royal treasury.
Ezr 7:21 'I, King Artaxerxes, have issued the following instruction to all the treasurers of Transeuphrates: Whatever the priest Ezra, Secretary of the Law of the God of heaven, may request of you is to be punctiliously complied with:
Ezr 7:22 up to one hundred talents of silver, one hundred kor of wheat, one hundred bat of wine, one hundred bat of oil, and unlimited salt.
Ezr 7:23 Whatever the God of heaven demands for the Temple of the God of heaven must be diligently provided; why should retribution come on the realm of the king and of his sons?
Ezr 7:24 You are further informed that it is against the law to impose tribute, tax or toll on any of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple slaves or other servants of this temple of God.
Ezr 7:25 'And you, Ezra, by virtue of the wisdom of your God, which you possess, are to appoint magistrates and scribes to administer justice for the whole people of Transeuphrates, that is, for all who know the Law of your God; and you are to teach it to those who do not know it.
Ezr 7:26 And on anyone who will not comply with the Law of your God and the Law of the king let sentence be swiftly executed, whether it be death, banishment, fine or imprisonment.'
Ezr 7:27 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of our ancestors, who moved the king's heart in this way to restore the beauty of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Jerusalem,
Ezr 7:28 won for me the faithful love of the king, his counsellors and all the most powerful of the king's officials! Taking heart since the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God was over me, I assembled those Israelite heads of families who were to go with me.
Ezr 8:1 These, with their genealogies, were the heads of families who set out from Babylon with me in the reign of King Artaxerxes:
Ezr 8:2 Of the sons of Phinehas: Gershom; of the sons of Ithamar: Daniel; of the sons of David: Hattush
Ezr 8:3 son of Shechaniah; of the sons of Parosh: Zechariah, and with him a hundred and fifty males officially registered;
Ezr 8:4 of the sons of Pahath-Moab: Elioenai son of Zerahiah, and with him two hundred males;
Ezr 8:5 of the sons of Zattu: Shechaniah son of Jahaziel, and with him three hundred males;
Ezr 8:6 of the sons of Adin: Ebed son of Jonathan, and with him fifty males;
Ezr 8:7 of the sons of Elam: Jeshaiah son of Athaliah, and with him seventy males;
Ezr 8:8 of the sons of Shephatiah: Zebadiah son of Michael, and with him eighty males;
Ezr 8:9 of the sons of Joab: Obadiah son of Jehiel, and with him two hundred and eighteen males;
Ezr 8:10 of the sons of Bani: Shelomith son of Josiphiah, and with him a hundred and sixty males;
Ezr 8:11 of the sons of Bebai: Zechariah son of Bebai, and with him twenty-eight males;
Ezr 8:12 of the sons of Azgad: Johanan son of Hakkatan, and with him a hundred and ten males;
Ezr 8:13 of the sons of Adonikam: the younger sons, whose names are: Eliphelet, Jeiel and Shemaiah, and with them sixty males;
Ezr 8:14 and of the sons of Bigvai: Uthai son of Zabud, and with him seventy males.
Ezr 8:15 I assembled them near the canal which runs to Ahava, where we camped for three days. I noticed laymen and priests, but I could not discover any Levites there.
Ezr 8:16 I then sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah and Meshullam, judicious men,
Ezr 8:17 and sent them to Iddo, the leading man of a place called Casiphia; I told them what they were to say to Iddo and his kinsmen, living at the place called Casiphia, that is, to provide us with people to serve the Temple of our God.
Ezr 8:18 And because the hand of God was good to us, they sent us a wise man of the sons of Mahli son of Levi, son of Israel, a certain Sherebiah with his sons and kinsmen: eighteen men;
Ezr 8:19 also Hashabiah and with him his brother Jeshaiah of the sons of Merari with his kinsmen and sons: twenty men;
Ezr 8:20 and two hundred and twenty temple slaves -- descendants of the temple slaves whom David and the princes had assigned to serve the Levites -- all of them designated by name.
Ezr 8:21 There, beside the Ahava Canal, I then proclaimed a fast, to humble ourselves before our God and to pray to him for a successful journey for us, our dependants and all our belongings.
Ezr 8:22 For I should have been ashamed to ask the king for a company of cavalry to protect us from hostile people on our road, as we had already said to the king, 'The hand of our God is over all who seek him for their protection, but his mighty retribution befalls all those who forsake him.'
Ezr 8:23 So we fasted and pleaded with our God about this, and he heard us.
Ezr 8:24 I next chose twelve of the leading priests, and also Sherebiah and Hashabiah with ten of their kinsmen.
Ezr 8:25 To them I weighed out the silver, the gold and the utensils, the contributions which the king, his counsellors, his notables and all the Israelites there present had made for the Temple of our God.
Ezr 8:26 To them I weighed out and handed over six hundred and fifty talents of silver, one hundred utensils of silver valued at two talents, one hundred talents of gold,
Ezr 8:27 twenty golden bowls valued at a thousand darics and two utensils of fine burnished copper as precious as gold.
Ezr 8:28 I said to them, 'You are consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); these utensils are consecrated too; the silver and gold are a voluntary offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors.
Ezr 8:29 Guard them carefully until you weigh them out to the leading priests, the Levites, and the heads of families of Israel in Jerusalem in the rooms of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Ezr 8:30 The priests and Levites then took charge of the silver, the gold and the utensils thus weighed, to bring them to Jerusalem to the Temple of our God.
Ezr 8:31 On the twelfth day of the first month we left the Ahava Canal to make our way to Jerusalem; the hand of our God was over us and protected us from enemies and surprise attacks on our way.
Ezr 8:32 When we arrived in Jerusalem, we rested for three days.
Ezr 8:33 On the fourth day the silver, the gold and the utensils were weighed in the Temple of our God and handed over to the priest Meremoth son of Uriah and, with him, Eleazar son of Phinehas; with them were the Levites Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui.
Ezr 8:34 By number and weight all was there. The total weight was recorded at the same time.
Ezr 8:35 When the exiles arrived from their captivity, they offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel -- twelve bulls on behalf of all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-two lambs, and as a sin offering twelve he-goats: the whole of this as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Ezr 8:36 They also delivered the king's instructions to the king's satraps and the governors of Transeuphrates, who then supported the people and the Temple of God.
Ezr 9:1 Once this was done, the officials approached me to say, 'The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, have not renounced the disgusting practices of the people of the country -- the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Moabites, the Egyptians and the Amorites-
Ezr 9:2 since they and their sons have married some of their women, as a result of which the holy race has been contaminated by the people of the country. The officials and leaders have been the worst offenders in this act of infidelity.'
Ezr 9:3 On hearing this, I tore my clothes and my cloak; I pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down in horror.
Ezr 9:4 All who trembled at the words of the God of Israel gathered round me, when faced with the infidelity of the exiles, while I went on sitting there in horror until the evening sacrifice.
Ezr 9:5 At the evening sacrifice I came out of my stupor and, falling on my knees in my torn clothes and cloak, stretched out my hands to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God,
Ezr 9:6 and said: 'My God, I am ashamed, I blush to lift my face to you, my God. For our iniquities have increased, until they are higher than our heads, and our guilt has risen as high as heaven.
Ezr 9:7 From the days of our ancestors until now we have been deeply guilty and, because of our iniquities, we, our kings and our priests, have been handed over to the kings of other countries, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, to shame, as is the case today.
Ezr 9:8 And now, for a brief moment, the favor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has allowed a remnant of us to escape and given us a stable home in his holy place, so that our God can raise our spirits and revive us a little in our slavery.
Ezr 9:9 For we are slaves; but God has not forgotten us in our slavery; he has extended his faithful love to us even under the kings of Persia and revived us to rebuild the Temple of our God, restore its ruins and provide us with a refuge in Judah and in Jerusalem.
Ezr 9:10 But now, our God, what can we say after this? For we have abandoned your commandments,
Ezr 9:11 which you gave through your servants the prophets in these terms, "The country which you are about to possess is a polluted country, polluted by the people of the country and their disgusting practices, which have filled it with their filth from end to end.
Ezr 9:12 Hence you are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons, or let their daughters marry your sons, or ever concern yourselves about peace or good relations with them, if you want to grow stronger, to live off the fat of the land and bequeath it to your sons for ever."
Ezr 9:13 'After all that has befallen us because of our evil deeds and our deep guilt -- though you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have allowed us to escape like this-
Ezr 9:14 are we to break your commandments again and intermarry with people with these disgusting practices? Would you not be enraged with us to the point of destroying us, leaving neither remnant nor survivor?
Ezr 9:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, you are upright. We survive only as the remnant we are today. We come before you in our guilt; because of it we cannot stand in your presence.'
Ezr 10:1 While Ezra, weeping and prostrating himself in front of the Temple of God, was praying and making confession, a very large crowd of men, women and children of Israel gathered round him, the people weeping bitterly.
Ezr 10:2 Then Shechaniah son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, spoke up and said to Ezra, 'We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the people of the country. But, in spite of this, there is still some hope for Israel.
Ezr 10:3 We will make a covenant with our God to send away all the foreign wives and their children in obedience to the advice of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let us act in accordance with the Law.
Ezr 10:4 Go ahead, do your duty; we support you. Be brave, take action!'
Ezr 10:5 Then Ezra stood up and put the leading priests and Levites and all Israel on oath to do what had been said. They took the oath.
Ezr 10:6 Ezra then left his place in front of the Temple of God and went to the room of Jehohanan son of Eliashib, where he spent the night without eating food or drinking water, because he was still mourning over the exiles' infidelity.
Ezr 10:7 A proclamation was issued throughout Judah and Jerusalem that all the exiles were to assemble in Jerusalem,
Ezr 10:8 and that anyone who failed within three days to answer the summons of the officials and elders was to forfeit all his possessions and himself be excluded from the community of the exiles.
Ezr 10:9 As a result, all the men of Judah and Benjamin assembled in Jerusalem within the three days; it was the twentieth day of the ninth month. All the people sat down in the square in front of the Temple of God, trembling because of the matter in hand and because of the heavy rain.
Ezr 10:10 The priest Ezra then stood up and said to them, 'You have been unfaithful and have married foreign wives, thus adding to Israel's guilt.
Ezr 10:11 So now give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of your ancestors, and do his will by holding aloof from the people of the country and from foreign wives.'
Ezr 10:12 In ringing tones, the whole assembly answered, 'Yes, our duty is to do as you say.
Ezr 10:13 But there are many people here and it is the rainy season; we cannot stay out in the open; besides, this is not something that can be dealt with in one or two days, since many of us have been unfaithful over this.
Ezr 10:14 Let our officials deputise for the whole community, and all the people in our towns who have married foreign wives can come at stated times, accompanied by elders and judges from each town, until our God's fierce anger over this is turned away from us.'
Ezr 10:15 Only Jonathan son of Asahel and Jahzeiah son of Tikvah, supported by Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite, were opposed to this.
Ezr 10:16 The exiles did as had been proposed. And the priest Ezra selected the family heads of the various families, all of them by name, who began their sittings on the first day of the tenth month to look into the matter.
Ezr 10:17 And by the first day of the first month they had dealt with all the men who had married foreign women.
Ezr 10:18 Among the priests who were found to have married foreign wives were: of the sons of Jeshua son of Jozadak and his brothers: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib and Gedaliah,
Ezr 10:19 who agreed to send their wives away; their guilt offering was a ram from the flock for their guilt;
Ezr 10:20 of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah;
Ezr 10:21 of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, Elijah, Shemaiah, Jehiel and Uzziah;
Ezr 10:22 of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad and Elasah;
Ezr 10:23 of the Levites: Jozabad, Shimei, Kelaiah -- that is, Kelita-Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer;
Ezr 10:24 of the singers: Eliashib and Zaccur; of the gatekeepers: Shallum, Telem and Uri;
Ezr 10:25 and of the Israelites: of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, Izziah, Malchijah, Mijamin, Eleazar, Malchijah and Benaiah;
Ezr 10:26 of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, Jehiel, Abdi, Jeremoth and Elijah;
Ezr 10:27 of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, Jeremoth, Zabad and Aziza;
Ezr 10:28 of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Atlai;
Ezr 10:29 of the sons of Bigvai: Meshullam, Malluch, Jedaiah, Jashub, Sheal, Jeremoth;
Ezr 10:30 of the sons of Pahath-Moab: Adna, Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, Binnui and Manasseh;
Ezr 10:31 of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon,
Ezr 10:32 Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah;
Ezr 10:33 of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei;
Ezr 10:34 of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, Uel,
Ezr 10:35 Benaiah, Bediah, Jeluhi,
Ezr 10:36 Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib,
Ezr 10:37 Mattaniah, Mattenai and Jaasau;
Ezr 10:38 of the sons of Binnui: Shimei,
Ezr 10:39 Shelemiah, Nathan and Adaiah;
Ezr 10:40 of the sons of Zaccai: Shashai, Sharai,
Ezr 10:41 Azarel, Shelemiah, Shemariah,
Ezr 10:42 Shallum, Amariah, Joseph;
Ezr 10:43 of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Jaddai, Joel, Benaiah.
Ezr 10:44 All these had married foreign wives but sent them away with their children.
Neh 1:1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. It happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa,
Neh 1:2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with some men from Judah. I asked them about the Jews -- those who had escaped and those who survived from the captivity -- and about Jerusalem.
Neh 1:3 They replied, 'The survivors remaining there in the province since the captivity are in a very bad and demoralised condition: the walls of Jerusalem are in ruins and its gates have been burnt down.'
Neh 1:4 On hearing this I sat down and wept; for some days I mourned, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
Neh 1:5 I said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of heaven -- the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps a covenant of faithful love with those who love him and obey his commandments-
Neh 1:6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to listen to your servant's prayer, which I now offer to you day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I admit the sins of the Israelites, which we have committed against you. Both I and my father's House have sinned;
Neh 1:7 we have acted very wickedly towards you by not keeping the commandments, laws and rulings which you enjoined on your servant Moses.
Neh 1:8 Remember, I beg you, the promise which you solemnly made to your servant Moses, "If you are unfaithful, I shall scatter you among the peoples;
Neh 1:9 but if you come back to me and keep my commandments and practise them, even though those who have been banished are at the very sky's end, I shall gather them from there and bring them back to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling-place for my name."
Neh 1:10 Since they are your servants, your people, whom you have redeemed with your mighty power and strong hand,
Neh 1:11 O Lord, let your ear now be attentive to your servant's prayer and to the prayer of your servants who want to revere your name. I beg you let your servant be successful today and win this man's compassion.' At the time I was cupbearer to the king.
Neh 2:1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, since I was in charge of the wine, I took the wine and offered it to the king. Now, he had never seen me looking depressed before.
Neh 2:2 So the king said to me, 'Why are you looking depressed? You are not sick! This must be a sadness of the heart.' Thoroughly alarmed by this,
Neh 2:3 I said to the king, 'May the king live for ever! How can I not look depressed when the city where the tombs of my ancestors are lies in ruins and its gates have been burnt down?'
Neh 2:4 The king then said to me, 'What would you like me to do?' Praying to the God of heaven,
Neh 2:5 I said to the king, 'If the king approves and your servant enjoys your favor, send me to Judah, to the city of the tombs of my ancestors, so that I can rebuild it.'
Neh 2:6 The king -- with the queen sitting beside him-said, 'How long will your journey take, and when will you come back?' Once I had given him a definite time, the king approved my mission.
Neh 2:7 I then said to the king, 'If the king approves, may I be given orders for the governors of Transeuphrates to let me pass through on my way to Judah?
Neh 2:8 Also an order for Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, to supply me with timber for the beams of the gates of the citadel of the Temple, for the city walls and for the house which I am to occupy?' These the king granted me because the kindly hand of my God was over me.
Neh 2:9 When I reached the governors of Transeuphrates, I gave them the king's orders. The king had sent an escort of army officers and cavalry along with me.
Neh 2:10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the official of Ammon heard about this, they were exceedingly displeased that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites.
Neh 2:11 And so I reached Jerusalem. After I had been there three days,
Neh 2:12 I got up during the night with a few other men -- I had not told anyone what my God had inspired me to do for Jerusalem -- taking no animal with me other than my own mount.
Neh 2:13 Under cover of dark I went out through the Valley Gate towards the Dragon's Fountain as far as the Dung Gate, and examined the wall of Jerusalem where it was broken down and its gates burnt out.
Neh 2:14 I then crossed to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but it was impassable to my mount.
Neh 2:15 So I went up the Valley in the dark, examining the wall; I then went in again through the Valley Gate, coming back
Neh 2:16 without the officials knowing where I had gone or what I had been doing. So far I had said nothing to the Jews: neither to the priests, the nobles, the officials nor any other persons involved in the undertaking.
Neh 2:17 I then said to them, 'You see what a sorry state we are in: Jerusalem is in ruins and its gates have been burnt down. Come on, we must rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and put an end to our humiliating position!'
Neh 2:18 And I told them how the kindly hand of my God had been over me, and the words which the king had said to me. At this they said, 'Let us start building at once!' and they set their hands to the good work.
Neh 2:19 When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the official of Ammon, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they laughed at us and jeered. They said, 'What is this you are doing? Are you going to revolt against the king?'
Neh 2:20 But I gave them this answer, 'The God of heaven will grant us success and we, his servants, mean to start building; as for you, you have neither share nor right nor memorial in Jerusalem.'
Neh 3:1 Eliashib the high priest with his brother priests then set to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate; they made the framework, hung its doors, fixed its bolts and bars and proceeded as far as the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel.
Neh 3:2 The men of Jericho built next to him; Zaccur son of Imri built next to them.
Neh 3:3 The sons of Ha-Senaah rebuilt the Fish Gate; they made the framework, hung its doors and fixed its bolts and bars.
Neh 3:4 Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, carried out repairs next to them; Meshullam son of Berechiah, son of Meshezabel, carried out repairs next to him; and Zadok son of Baana carried out repairs next to him.
Neh 3:5 The men of Tekoa carried out repairs next to him, though their nobles would not demean themselves to help their masters.
Neh 3:6 Joiada son of Paseah and Meshullam son of Besodeiah repaired the gate of the New Quarter; they made the framework, hung its doors and fixed its bolts and bars.
Neh 3:7 Next to them repairs were carried out by Melatiah of Gibeon, Jadon of Meronoth, and the men of Gibeon and Mizpah, for the sake of the governor of Transeuphrates.
Neh 3:8 Next to them repairs were carried out by Uzziel son of Harhaiah, a member of the metal-workers' guild, and next to him repairs were carried out by Hananiah of the perfumers' guild. These renovated the wall of Jerusalem as far as the Broad Wall.
Neh 3:9 Next to them repairs were carried out by Rephaiah son of Hur, who was head of one half of the district of Jerusalem.
Neh 3:10 Next to them Jedaiah son of Harumaph carried out repairs opposite his own house; next to him repairs were carried out by Hattush son of Hashabneiah.
Neh 3:11 Malchijah son of Harim and Hasshub son of Pahath-Moab repaired another section as far as the Furnace Tower.
Neh 3:12 Next to them repairs were carried out by Shallum son of Hallohesh, head of the other half of the district of Jerusalem, by him and his sons.
Neh 3:13 Hanun and the inhabitants of Zanoah repaired the Valley Gate: they rebuilt it, hung its doors and fixed its bolts and bars; they also repaired a thousand cubits of wall up to the Dung Gate.
Neh 3:14 Malchijah son of Rechab, head of the district of Beth-ha-Cherem, repaired the Dung Gate; he rebuilt it, hung its doors and fixed its bolts and bars.
Neh 3:15 Shallum son of Col-Hozeh, head of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate; he rebuilt it, roofed it, hung its doors and fixed its bolts and bars. He also rebuilt the wall of the Pool of Siloah, adjoining the king's garden, as far as the steps going down from the City of David.
Neh 3:16 After him, Nehemiah son of Azbuk, head of half the district of Beth-Zur, carried out repairs from a point opposite the Davidic Tombs to the artificial pool and the House of the Champions.
Neh 3:17 After him, repairs were carried out by the Levites: Rehum son of Bani; and next to him Hashabiah, head of one half of the district of Keilah, carried out repairs for his own district.
Neh 3:18 After him, repairs were carried out by their brothers: Binnui son of Henadad, head of the other half of the district of Keilah.
Neh 3:19 Next to him, Ezer son of Jeshua, headman of Mizpah, repaired another section in front of the ascent to the armoury at the Angle.
Neh 3:20 After him, Baruch son of Zabbai repaired another section from the Angle to the door of the house of Eliashib the high priest.
Neh 3:21 After him, Meremoth son of Uriah, son of Hakkoz, repaired another section from the door of Eliashib's house as far as the end of Eliashib's house.
Neh 3:22 And after him repairs were carried out by the priests who lived in the district.
Neh 3:23 After them repairs were carried out by Benjamin and Hasshub, opposite their own house. After them repairs were carried out by Azariah son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, beside his own house.
Neh 3:24 After him, Binnui son of Henadad repaired another section from Azariah's house as far as the Angle at the corner.
Neh 3:25 After him, Palal son of Uzai carried out repairs in front of the Angle and the tower projecting from the king's Upper Palace by the Court of the Guard; and after him, Pedaiah son of Parosh carried out the repairs
Neh 3:26 to a point by the Water Gate to the east and the projecting tower.
Neh 3:27 After him, the men of Tekoa repaired another section from in front of the great projecting tower as far as the wall of Ophel.
Neh 3:28 From the Horse Gate onwards repairs were carried out by the priests, each in front of his own house.
Neh 3:29 After them repairs were carried out by Zadok son of Immer in front of his house, and after him repairs were carried out by Shemaiah son of Shechaniah, keeper of the East Gate.
Neh 3:30 After him Hananiah son of Shelemiah and Hanun sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section, after whom repairs were carried out by Meshullam son of Berechiah in front of his room.
Neh 3:31 After him Malchijah, of the metal-workers' guild, repaired as far as the Hall of the temple slaves and merchants, in front of the Muster Gate, as far as the upper room at the corner.
Neh 3:32 And between the upper room at the corner and the Sheep Gate repairs were carried out by the goldsmiths and the merchants.
Neh 3:33 When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became furiously angry.
Neh 3:34 He ridiculed the Jews and in front of his kinsmen and the aristocracy of Samaria he exclaimed, 'What are these pathetic Jews doing . . . ? Are they going to give up? Or offer sacrifices? Or complete the work in a day? Can they put new life into stones taken from rubbish heaps and even charred?'
Neh 3:35 And beside him Tobiah of Ammon remarked, 'If a jackal were to jump on what they are building, it would knock their stone wall down!'
Neh 3:36 Listen, our God, for we are despised! Make their sneers fall back on their own heads! Send them as booty to a land of captivity!
Neh 3:37 Do not pardon their wickedness, may their sin never be erased before you, for they have insulted the builders to their face!
Neh 3:38 Meanwhile we were rebuilding the wall, which was soon joined up all the way round to mid-height; the people put their hearts into the work.
Neh 4:1 When Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that repairs to the walls of Jerusalem were going forward -- that the gaps were beginning to fill up -- they became very angry,
Neh 4:2 and they all plotted to come and attack Jerusalem and upset my plans.
Neh 4:3 We, however, prayed to our God and organised a guard day and night to protect the city from them.
Neh 4:4 But in Judah the saying went, 'The strength of the carrier falters, the rubbish heap is so vast that by ourselves we cannot rebuild the wall!'
Neh 4:5 And our opponents said, 'They will never know or see a thing, until we are in there among them, and then we shall massacre them and put a stop to the work.'
Neh 4:6 Now when the Jews who lived near them had warned us ten times over, 'They are coming up against us from every place they live in,'
Neh 4:7 men took up position in the space behind the wall at those points where it was lowest, and I organised the people by families with their swords, spears and bows.
Neh 4:8 Aware of their anxiety, I then addressed the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'Do not be afraid of them. Remember the great and awe-inspiring Lord and fight for your kinsmen, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your homes.'
Neh 4:9 Once our enemies heard that we were forewarned and that God had thwarted their plan, they withdrew and we all went back to the wall, each one to his work.
Neh 4:10 From then on, half my own retainers went on working, while the other half stood by, armed with spears, shields, bows and armour to protect the whole House of Judah as they rebuilt the wall.
Neh 4:11 The carriers were armed, working with one hand and holding a spear in the other.
Neh 4:12 Each builder had his sword strapped to his side as he built. Beside me stood a trumpeter.
Neh 4:13 I then said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'The work is great and widely spread out, and we are deployed along the wall some way from one another.
Neh 4:14 Rally to us wherever you hear the trumpet sounding; our God will fight for us.'
Neh 4:15 And so we went on with the work from break of day until the stars came out.
Neh 4:16 At the same time I also told the people, 'Let every man, with his attendant, spend the night inside Jerusalem; we shall spend the night on guard and the day at work.'
Neh 4:17 Neither I, nor my brothers, nor my attendants, nor my bodyguards, ever took off our clothes; each one kept his spear in his right hand.
Neh 5:1 There was a great outcry from the people, and from their wives, against their brother Jews.
Neh 5:2 Some said, 'We are having to pledge our sons and daughters to get enough grain to eat and keep us alive.'
Neh 5:3 Others said, 'We are having to mortgage our fields, our vineyards and our houses to get grain because of the shortage.'
Neh 5:4 Still others said, 'We have had to borrow money on our fields and our vineyards to pay the royal tax;
Neh 5:5 and though we belong to the same race as our brothers, and our children are as good as theirs, we shall have to sell our sons and our daughters into slavery; some of our daughters have been sold into slavery already. We can do nothing about it, since our fields and our vineyards now belong to others.'
Neh 5:6 When I heard their complaints and these words I was very angry.
Neh 5:7 Having turned the matter over in my mind, I reprimanded the nobles and the officials as follows, 'Each of you is imposing a burden on his brother.' Summoning a great assembly to deal with them,
Neh 5:8 I said to them, 'To the best of our power, we have redeemed our brother Jews who were forced to sell themselves to foreigners, and now you in turn are selling your brothers, for them to be bought back by us!' They were silent and could find nothing to say.
Neh 5:9 'What you are doing', I went on, 'is wrong. Do you not want to walk in the fear of our God and escape the sneers of the nations, our enemies?
Neh 5:10 I too, with my brothers and retainers, have lent them money and grain. Let us cancel these pledges.
Neh 5:11 This very day return them their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, and cancel the claim on the money, grain, new wine and olive oil, which you have lent them.'
Neh 5:12 'We shall make restitution,' they replied, 'we shall claim nothing more from them; we shall do as you say.' Summoning the priests, I then made them swear to do as they had promised.
Neh 5:13 Then, shaking out the fold of my garment, I said, 'May God thus shake out of house and possessions anyone who does not make good this promise; may he be shaken out thus and left empty!' And the whole assembly answered, 'Amen' and praised Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). And the people kept this promise.
Neh 5:14 What is more, from the time when the king appointed me to be their governor in Judah, from the twentieth to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ever levied the governor's subsistence allowance,
Neh 5:15 whereas the former governors, my predecessors, had been a burden on the people, from whom they took forty silver shekels a day for food and wine, while their attendants oppressed the people too. But I, fearing God, never did this.
Neh 5:16 Also, not acquiring any land, I concentrated on the work of this wall and all my attendants joined in the work together, too.
Neh 5:17 Furthermore, magistrates and officials to the number of a hundred and fifty ate at my table, not to mention those who came to us from the surrounding nations.
Neh 5:18 Every day, one ox, six fine sheep, as well as poultry, were prepared for me; every ten days, skins of wine were brought in bulk. But even so, I never claimed the governor's subsistence allowance, since the people already had burden enough to bear.
Neh 5:19 To my credit, my God, remember all I have done for this people.
Neh 6:1 When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and our other enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that not a single gap was left -- though at that time I had not fixed the doors to the gates-
Neh 6:2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message, 'Come and meet us at Ha-Chephirim in the Vale of Ono.' But they had evil designs on me.
Neh 6:3 So I sent messengers to them to say, 'I am engaged in a great undertaking, so I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?'
Neh 6:4 Four times they sent me the same invitation and I made them the same reply.
Neh 6:5 The fifth time, with the same purpose in mind, Sanballat sent me his servant bearing an open letter.
Neh 6:6 It ran, 'There is a rumour among the nations -- and Gashmu confirms it -- that you and the Jews are thinking of rebelling, which is why you are rebuilding the wall, and you intend to become their king;
Neh 6:7 and that you have even briefed prophets to acclaim you in Jerusalem with the cry, "There is a king in Judah!" Now, these rumours are going to reach the king; so you had better come and discuss them with us.'
Neh 6:8 To this I sent him the following reply, 'As regards what you say, nothing of the sort has occurred; it is a figment of your own imagination.'
Neh 6:9 For they were all trying to terrorise us, thinking, 'They will become demoralised over the work and it will not get finished.' But my morale rose even higher.
Neh 6:10 Then, when I went to visit Shemaiah son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, since he was prevented from coming to me, he said: We must gather at the Temple of God, inside the sanctuary itself; we must shut the sanctuary doors, for they are coming to kill you, they are coming to kill you tonight!
Neh 6:11 But I retorted, 'Should a man like me run away? Would a man like me go into the Temple to save his life? I shall not go in!'
Neh 6:12 I realized that God had not sent him to say this, but that he had produced this prophecy for me because Tobiah was paying him
Neh 6:13 to terrorise me into doing as he said and committing a sin, so that they would have grounds for blackening my reputation and blaming me.
Neh 6:14 Remember Tobiah, my God, for what he did; and Noadiah the prophetess, and the other prophets who tried to terrorise me.
Neh 6:15 The wall was finished within fifty-two days, on the twenty-fifth of Elul.
Neh 6:16 When all our enemies heard about it and all the surrounding nations saw it, they thought it a wonderful thing, because they realized that this work had been accomplished by the power of our God.
Neh 6:17 During this same period, the nobles of Judah kept sending letter after letter to Tobiah, and letters from Tobiah kept arriving for them;
Neh 6:18 for he had many sworn to his interest in Judah, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berechiah.
Neh 6:19 They even cried up his good deeds in my presence, and they reported what I said back to him. And Tobiah kept sending letters to terrorise me.
Neh 7:1 Now, when the wall had been rebuilt and I had hung the doors, the gatekeepers (the singers and the Levites) were then appointed.
Neh 7:2 I entrusted the administration of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani, and to Hananiah the commander of the citadel, for he was a more trustworthy, God-fearing man than many others.
Neh 7:3 I said to them, 'The gates of Jerusalem must not be opened until the sun gets hot; and the doors must be shut and barred before it begins to go down. Detail guards from the residents of Jerusalem, each to his post, in front of his own house.'
Neh 7:4 The city was large and spacious but the population was small, and the houses had not been rebuilt.
Neh 7:5 My God then inspired me to assemble the nobles, the officials and the people for the purpose of taking a census by families. I discovered the genealogical register of those who had returned in the first group, and there I found entered:
Neh 7:6 These are the people of the province who returned from the captivity of the Exile, those whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported, and who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town.
Neh 7:7 They were the ones who arrived with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel:
Neh 7:8 sons of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two;
Neh 7:9 sons of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two;
Neh 7:10 sons of Arah, six hundred and fifty-two;
Neh 7:11 sons of Pahath-Moab, that is to say sons of Jeshua and Joab, two thousand eight hundred and eighteen;
Neh 7:12 sons of Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;
Neh 7:13 sons of Zattu, eight hundred and forty-five;
Neh 7:14 sons of Zaccai, seven hundred and sixty;
Neh 7:15 sons of Binnui, six hundred and forty-eight;
Neh 7:16 sons of Bebai, six hundred and twenty-eight;
Neh 7:17 sons of Azgad, two thousand three hundred and twenty-two;
Neh 7:18 sons of Adonikam, six hundred and sixty-seven;
Neh 7:19 sons of Bigvai, two thousand and sixty-seven;
Neh 7:20 sons of Adin, six hundred and fifty-five;
Neh 7:21 sons of Ater, that is to say of Hezekiah, ninety-eight;
Neh 7:22 sons of Hashum, three hundred and twenty-eight;
Neh 7:23 sons of Bezai, three hundred and twenty-four;
Neh 7:24 sons of Hariph, one hundred and twelve;
Neh 7:25 sons of Gibeon, ninety-five;
Neh 7:26 men of Bethlehem and Netophah, one hundred and eighty-eight;
Neh 7:27 men of Anathoth, one hundred and twenty-eight;
Neh 7:28 men of Beth-Azmaveth, forty-two;
Neh 7:29 men of Kiriath-Jearim, Chephirah and Beeroth, seven hundred and forty-three;
Neh 7:30 men of Ramah and Geba, six hundred and twenty-one;
Neh 7:31 men of Michmas, one hundred and twenty-two;
Neh 7:32 men of Bethel and Ai, one hundred and twenty-three;
Neh 7:33 men of the other Nebo, fifty-two;
Neh 7:34 sons of the other Elam, one thousand two hundred and fifty-four;
Neh 7:35 sons of Harim, three hundred and twenty;
Neh 7:36 sons of Jericho, three hundred and forty-five;
Neh 7:37 sons of Lod, Hadid and Ono, seven hundred and twenty-one;
Neh 7:38 sons of Senaah, three thousand nine hundred and thirty.
Neh 7:39 The priests: sons of Jedaiah, of the House of Jeshua, nine hundred and seventy-three;
Neh 7:40 sons of Immer, one thousand and fifty-two;
Neh 7:41 sons of Pashhur, one thousand two hundred and forty-seven;
Neh 7:42 sons of Harim, one thousand and seventeen.
Neh 7:43 The Levites: sons of Jeshua, of Kadmiel, of the sons of Hodiah, seventy-four.
Neh 7:44 The singers: sons of Asaph, one hundred and forty-eight.
Neh 7:45 The gatekeepers: sons of Shallum, sons of Ater, sons of Talmon, sons of Akkub, sons of Hatita, sons of Shobai, one hundred and thirty-eight.
Neh 7:46 The temple slaves: sons of Ziha, sons of Hasupha, sons of Tabbaoth,
Neh 7:47 sons of Keros, sons of Sia, sons of Padon,
Neh 7:48 sons of Lebana, sons of Hagaba, sons of Shalmai,
Neh 7:49 sons of Hanan, sons of Giddel, sons of Gahar,
Neh 7:50 sons of Reaiah, sons of Rezin, sons of Nekoda,
Neh 7:51 sons of Gazzam, sons of Uzza, sons of Paseah,
Neh 7:52 sons of Besai, sons of the Meunites, sons of the Nephusites,
Neh 7:53 sons of Bakbuk, sons of Hakupha, sons of Harhur,
Neh 7:54 sons of Bazlith, sons of Mehida, sons of Harsha,
Neh 7:55 sons of Barkos, sons of Sisera, sons of Temah,
Neh 7:56 sons of Nezaiah, sons of Hatipha.
Neh 7:57 The sons of Solomon's slaves: sons of Sotai, sons of Sophereth, sons of Perida,
Neh 7:58 sons of Jaala, sons of Darkon, sons of Giddel,
Neh 7:59 sons of Shephatiah, sons of Hattil, sons of Pochereth-ha-Zebaim, sons of Amon.
Neh 7:60 The total of the temple slaves and the sons of Solomon's slaves: three hundred and ninety-two.
Neh 7:61 The following, who came from Tel-Melah, Tel-Harsha, Cherub, Addon and Immer, could not prove that their families and ancestry were of Israelite origin:
Neh 7:62 the sons of Delaiah, the sons of Tobiah, the sons of Nekoda: six hundred and forty-two.
Neh 7:63 And among the priests: the sons of Hobaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai -- who had married one of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, whose name he adopted.
Neh 7:64 These had looked for their entries in the official genealogies but were not to be found there, and were hence disqualified from the priesthood.
Neh 7:65 Consequently, His Excellency forbade them to eat any of the consecrated food until a priest appeared who could consult urim and thummim.
Neh 7:66 The whole assembly numbered forty-two thousand three hundred and sixty people,
Neh 7:67 not counting their slaves and maidservants to the number of seven thousand three hundred and thirty-seven. They also had two hundred and forty-five male and female singers.
Neh 7:68 They had four hundred and thirty-five camels and six thousand seven hundred and twenty donkeys.
Neh 7:69 A certain number of heads of families contributed to the work. His Excellency contributed one thousand gold drachmas, fifty bowls, and thirty priestly robes to the fund.
Neh 7:70 And heads of families gave twenty thousand gold drachmas and two thousand two hundred silver minas to the work fund.
Neh 7:71 The gifts made by the rest of the people amounted to twenty thousand gold drachmas, two thousand silver minas, and sixty-seven priestly robes.
Neh 7:72 The priests, the Levites and some of the people lived in Jerusalem and thereabouts; the singers, the gatekeepers, and the temple slaves in their appropriate towns; and all the other Israelites, in their own towns. Now when the seventh month came round -- the Israelites being in their towns-
Neh 8:1 all the people gathered as one man in the square in front of the Water Gate, and asked the scribe Ezra to bring the Book of the Law of Moses which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had prescribed for Israel.
Neh 8:2 Accordingly, on the first day of the seventh month, the priest Ezra brought the Law before the assembly, consisting of men, women and all those old enough to understand.
Neh 8:3 In the square in front of the Water Gate, in the presence of the men and women, and of those old enough to understand, he read from the book from dawn till noon; all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.
Neh 8:4 The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden dais erected for the purpose; beside him stood, on his right, Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah and Maaseiah; on his left, Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam.
Neh 8:5 In full view of all the people -- since he stood higher than them all -- Ezra opened the book; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
Neh 8:6 Then Ezra blessed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the great God, and all the people raised their hands and answered, 'Amen! Amen!'; then they bowed down and, face to the ground, prostrated themselves before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Neh 8:7 And Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabab, Hanan, Pelaiah, who were Levites, explained the Law to the people, while the people all kept their places.
Neh 8:8 Ezra read from the book of the Law of God, translating and giving the sense; so the reading was understood.
Neh 8:9 Then His Excellency Nehemiah and the priest-scribe Ezra and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all the people, 'Today is sacred to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. Do not be mournful, do not weep.' For the people were all in tears as they listened to the words of the Law.
Neh 8:10 He then said, 'You may go; eat what is rich, drink what is sweet and send a helping to the man who has nothing prepared. For today is sacred to our Lord. Do not be sad: the joy of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is your stronghold.'
Neh 8:11 And the Levites calmed all the people down, saying, 'Keep quiet; this is a sacred day. Do not be sad.'
Neh 8:12 Then all the people went off to eat and drink and give helpings away and enjoy themselves to the full, since they had understood the meaning of what had been proclaimed to them.
Neh 8:13 On the second day, the heads of families of the whole people, and the priests and Levites, gathered round the scribe Ezra to study the words of the Law.
Neh 8:14 And written in the Law that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had prescribed through Moses they found that the Israelites were to live in shelters during the feast of the seventh month.
Neh 8:15 So they issued a proclamation and had it circulated in all their towns and in Jerusalem: 'Go into the hills and bring branches of olive, pine, myrtle, palm and other leafy trees to make shelters, as it says in the book.'
Neh 8:16 The people went out; they brought branches and made shelters for themselves, each man on his roof, in their courtyards, in the precincts of the Temple of God, in the square of the Water Gate and in the square of the Ephraim Gate.
Neh 8:17 The whole assembly, all who had returned from the captivity, put up shelters and lived in them; this the Israelites had not done from the days of Joshua son of Nun till that day, and there was very great merrymaking.
Neh 8:18 Each day, from the first day to the last one, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the feast for seven days; on the eighth day, as prescribed, they held a solemn assembly.
Neh 9:1 On the twenty-fourth day of this month the Israelites, in sackcloth and with dust on their heads, assembled for a fast.
Neh 9:2 Then those of Israelite stock who had severed relations with all foreigners stood up and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their ancestors.
Neh 9:3 Standing, each man in his place, they read from the Book of the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God for one quarter of the day; for another quarter they confessed their sins and worshipped Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.
Neh 9:4 On the Levites' platform stood Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, calling to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God in ringing tones.
Neh 9:5 The Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah said, 'Stand up and bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God! 'Blessed are you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God from everlasting to everlasting, and blessed be your glorious name, surpassing all blessing and praise!
Neh 9:6 'You, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are the one, only Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you have created the heavens, the heaven of heavens and all their array, the earth and all it bears, the seas and all they hold. To all of them you give life, and the array of heaven worships you.
Neh 9:7 'You are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God, who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur in Chaldaea and changed his name to Abraham.
Neh 9:8 Finding his heart was faithful to you, you made a covenant with him, to give the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites and the Girgashites to him and his descendants. And you have made good your promises, for you are upright.
Neh 9:9 'You saw the distress of our ancestors in Egypt, you heard their cry by the Sea of Reeds.
Neh 9:10 You displayed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, against all his servants and all the people of his land; for you knew how arrogantly they treated them. You won a reputation which you keep to this day.
Neh 9:11 You opened up the sea in front of them: they walked on dry ground right through the sea. Into the depths you hurled their pursuers like a stone into the raging waters.
Neh 9:12 With a pillar of cloud you led them by day, with a pillar of fire by night: to light the way ahead of them by which they were to go.
Neh 9:13 You came down on Mount Sinai and spoke with them from heaven; you gave them right rules, reliable laws, good statutes and commandments;
Neh 9:14 you revealed your holy Sabbath to them; you laid down commandments, statutes and law for them through your servant Moses.
Neh 9:15 For their hunger you gave them bread from heaven, for their thirst you brought them water out of a rock, and you told them to go in and take possession of the country which you had sworn to give them.
Neh 9:16 'But they and our ancestors acted arrogantly, grew obstinate and flouted your commands.
Neh 9:17 They refused to obey, forgetful of the wonders which you had worked for them; they grew obstinate and made up their minds to return to their slavery in Egypt. But because you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, patient and rich in faithful love, you did not abandon them!
Neh 9:18 'Even when they cast themselves a calf out of molten metal and said, "This is your God who brought you up from Egypt!" and committed monstrous impieties,
Neh 9:19 you, in your great compassion, did not abandon them in the desert: the pillar of cloud did not leave them, leading them on their path by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, lighting the way ahead of them by which they were to go.
Neh 9:20 You gave them your good spirit to instruct them, you did not withhold your manna from their mouths, you gave them water for their thirst.
Neh 9:21 For forty years you cared for them in the desert, so that they went short of nothing, their clothes did not wear out, nor were their feet swollen.
Neh 9:22 'You gave them kingdoms and peoples, allotting them these as frontier lands; they occupied the country of Sihon king of Heshbon, and the country of Og king of Bashan.
Neh 9:23 You gave them as many children as there are stars in the sky, and brought them into the country which you had promised their ancestors that they would enter and possess.
Neh 9:24 The children entered and took possession of the country and before them you subdued the country's inhabitants, the Canaanites, whom you put at their mercy, with their kings and the peoples of the country, for them to treat as they pleased;
Neh 9:25 they captured fortified towns and a fertile countryside, they took possession of houses stocked with all kinds of goods, of storage-wells ready-hewn, of vineyards, olive groves and fruit trees in profusion; so they ate, were full, grew fat and revelled in your great goodness.
Neh 9:26 'But they grew disobedient, rebelled against you and thrust your law behind their backs; they slaughtered your prophets who had reproved them to bring them back to you, and committed monstrous impieties.
Neh 9:27 So you put them at the mercy of their enemies who oppressed them. But when they were being oppressed and called to you, you heard them from heaven and because of your great compassion you gave them deliverers who rescued them from their oppressors' clutches.
Neh 9:28 But once at peace again, again they did what was wrong before you; so you put them at the mercy of their enemies who then became their rulers. When they called to you again, you heard them from heaven and, because of your compassion, rescued them many times.
Neh 9:29 You warned them, to bring them back to your law, but they became arrogant, did not obey your commandments and sinned against your rules, in whose observance is life; they turned a stubborn shoulder, were obstinate, and disobeyed.
Neh 9:30 You were patient with them for many years and warned them by your spirit through your prophets, but they would not listen; so you put them at the mercy of the people of the country.
Neh 9:31 But, because of your great compassion, you did not destroy them completely nor abandon them, for you are a gracious, compassionate God.
Neh 9:32 Now, our God -- the great God, the Mighty and Awe-inspiring One, maintaining the covenant and your faithful love- count as no small thing this misery which has befallen us, our kings, our princes, our priests, our prophets, and all your people from the times of the Assyrian kings to the present day.
Neh 9:33 You have been upright in all that has happened to us, for you acted faithfully, while we did wrong.
Neh 9:34 Our kings, our princes, our priests and our ancestors did not keep your law or pay attention to your commandments and obligations which you imposed upon them.
Neh 9:35 Even in their own kingdom, despite your great goodness which you bestowed on them, despite the wide and fertile country which you had lavished on them, they did not serve you or renounce their evil deeds.
Neh 9:36 See, we are slaves today, slaves in the country which you gave to our ancestors for them to eat the good things it produces.
Neh 9:37 Its abundant produce goes to the kings whom, for our sins, you have set over us, who rule over our persons and over our cattle as they please. We are in great distress.'
Neh 10:1 In view of all this we make a firm agreement, in writing. Our princes, our Levites, our priests and the rest of the people have put their names to the document under seal.
Neh 10:2 On the sealed document were the names of: Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah, and Zedekiah;
Neh 10:3 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah,
Neh 10:4 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah,
Neh 10:5 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch,
Neh 10:6 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah,
Neh 10:7 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch,
Neh 10:8 Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin,
Neh 10:9 Maaziah, Bilgai, Shemaiah: these were the priests.
Neh 10:10 The Levites were: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel,
Neh 10:11 and their kinsmen Shebaniah, Hodaviah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan,
Neh 10:12 Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah,
Neh 10:13 Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah,
Neh 10:14 Hodiah, Bani, Chenani.
Neh 10:15 The leaders of the people were: Parosh, Pahath-Moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani,
Neh 10:16 Bunni, Azgad, Bebai,
Neh 10:17 Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin,
Neh 10:18 Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur,
Neh 10:19 Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai,
Neh 10:20 Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai,
Neh 10:21 Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir,
Neh 10:22 Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua,
Neh 10:23 Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah,
Neh 10:24 Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub,
Neh 10:25 Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek,
Neh 10:26 Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah,
Neh 10:27 Ahijah, Hanan, Anan,
Neh 10:28 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.
Neh 10:29 And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple slaves and all those who had severed relations with the people of the country to adhere to the law of God, as also their wives, their sons, their daughters, that is, all those who had reached the age of discretion,
Neh 10:30 have joined their esteemed brothers in a solemn oath to follow the law of God given through Moses, servant of God, and to observe and practise all the commandments of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our Lord, with his rules and his statutes.
Neh 10:31 We will not give our daughters in marriage to the peoples of the country, nor allow their daughters to marry our sons.
Neh 10:32 If the people of the country bring goods or foodstuff of any kind to sell on the Sabbath day, we will buy nothing from them on Sabbath or holy day. In the seventh year, we will forgo the produce of the soil and the exaction of all debts.
Neh 10:33 We recognize the following obligations: to give one-third of a shekel yearly for the service of the Temple of our God:
Neh 10:34 for the loaves of permanent offering, for the perpetual oblation, for the perpetual burnt offering, for the sacrifices on Sabbaths, on New Moons and on festivals, for the consecrated gifts, the sin offerings to expiate for Israel, in short, for the whole work of the Temple of our God;
Neh 10:35 Furthermore, as regards deliveries of wood for burning on the altar of our God as the law prescribes, we have arranged, by drawing lots, how these deliveries are to be made at the Temple of our God by the priests, the Levites and the people by families, at stated times every year.We will no longer neglect the Temple of our God.
Neh 10:36 and further, to bring yearly to the Temple of our God the first-fruits of our soil and the first-fruits of all our orchards,
Neh 10:37 also the first-born of our sons and of our cattle, as the law prescribes, the first-born of our herds and flocks should be taken to the Temple of our God for the priests officiating in the Temple of our God.
Neh 10:38 Furthermore, we shall bring the best of our dough, of every kind of fruit, of the new wine and of the oil to the priests, to the storerooms of the Temple of our God, and the tithe on our soil to the Levites -- the Levites will themselves collect the tithes from all the towns of our religion.
Neh 10:39 An Aaronite priest will accompany the Levites when they collect the tithes, and the Levites will bring a tenth part
Neh 10:40 a,b of the tithes to the Temple of our God, into the treasury storerooms; for these rooms are where the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of corn, wine and oil, and where the vessels of the sanctuary are, and the officiating priests, the gatekeepers and the singers.
Neh 11:1 Now the leaders of the people took up residence in Jerusalem; so the rest of the people drew lots: one man in ten was to come and live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the other nine were to stay in the towns outside.
Neh 11:2 The people praised all those who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.
Neh 11:3 In the towns of Judah each man lived on his own property, but these are the provincial leaders, the Israelites, the priests, the Levites, the temple slaves and the descendants of Solomon's slaves, who made their homes in Jerusalem:
Neh 11:4 Of the sons of Judah and the sons of Benjamin who made their homes in Jerusalem there were: Of the sons of Judah: Athaiah son of Uzziah, son of Zechariah, son of Amariah, son of Shephatiah, son of Mehalalel, of the descendants of Perez;
Neh 11:5 and Maaseiah son of Baruch, son of Col-Hozeh, son of Hazaiah, son of Adaiah, son of Joiarib, son of Zechariah, descendant of Shelah.
Neh 11:6 The total number of the descendants of Perez living in Jerusalem was four hundred and sixty-eight outstanding people.
Neh 11:7 These are the sons of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam, son of Joed, son of Pedaiah, son of Kolaiah, son of Maaseiah, son of Ithiel, son of Jeshaiah,
Neh 11:8 and his brothers Gabbai and Sallai; nine hundred and twenty-eight.
Neh 11:9 Joel son of Zichri was their chief, and Judah son of Hassenuah was second in command of the city.
Neh 11:10 Of the priests there were Jedaiah son of Joiakim, son of
Neh 11:11 Seraiah, son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub, the chief of the Temple of God,
Neh 11:12 and their kinsmen who performed the Temple liturgy: eight hundred and twenty-two; Adaiah son of Jeroham, son of Pelaliah, son of Amzi, son of Zechariah, son of Pashhur, son of Malchijah,
Neh 11:13 and his kinsfolk, heads of families: two hundred and forty-two; and Amashai son of Azarel, son of Ahzai, son of Meshillemoth, son of Immer,
Neh 11:14 and his kinsfolk, outstanding people: one hundred and twenty-eight. Their chief was Zabdiel son of Haggadol.
Neh 11:15 Of the Levites there were Shemaiah son of Hasshub, son of Azrikam, son of Hashabiah, son of Bunni;
Neh 11:16 Shabbethai and Jozabad, the levitical leaders responsible for work outside the Temple of God;
Neh 11:17 Mattaniah son of Mica, son of Zabdi, son of Asaph, who led the praises and intoned the thanksgiving associated with the prayer, Bakbukiah being his junior colleague; and Obadiah son of Shammua, son of Galal, son of Jeduthun.
Neh 11:18 The total number of Levites in the holy city was two hundred and eighty-four.
Neh 11:19 The gatekeepers: Akkub, Talmon and their kinsmen, who kept watch at the gates: one hundred and seventy-two.
Neh 11:20 The rest of Israel, including the priests and Levites, made their homes throughout the towns of Judah, each man on his own inheritance,
Neh 11:21 The temple slaves lived on Ophel; Ziha and Gishpa were in charge of the temple slaves.
Neh 11:22 The official in charge of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, son of Hashabiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Mica, of the sons of Asaph, who led the singing in the liturgy of the Temple of God;
Neh 11:23 for the singers were under royal orders, with regulations laying down what was required of them day by day.
Neh 11:24 Petahiah son of Meshezabel, of the sons of Zerah son of Judah, was the king's minister for all matters connected with the people.
Neh 11:25 and in the villages near their lands. Some of the sons of Judah made their homes in Kiriath-Arba and its dependencies, Dibon and its dependencies, Jekabzeel and its dependencies,
Neh 11:26 Jeshua, Moladah, Beth-Pelet,
Neh 11:27 Hazar-Shual, Beersheba and its dependencies,
Neh 11:28 Ziklag, Meconah and its dependencies,
Neh 11:29 En-Rimmon, Zorah, Jarmuth,
Neh 11:30 Zanoah, Adullam and their villages, Lachish and its lands, and Azekah and its dependencies; thus, they settled from Beersheba as far as the Valley of Hinnom.
Neh 11:31 And some Benjaminites made their homes in Geba, Michmash, Aija, Bethel and its dependencies,
Neh 11:32 Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah,
Neh 11:33 Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim,
Neh 11:34 Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat,
Neh 11:35 Lod, Ono and the Valley of Craftsmen.
Neh 11:36 Some levitical groups lived in Judah, some in Benjamin.
Neh 12:1 These are the priests and the Levites who came back with Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua:
Neh 12:2 Seraiah, Jeremiah, Ezra,
Neh 12:3 Amariah, Malluch, Hattush, Shecaniah, Rehum, Meremoth,
Neh 12:4 Iddo, Ginnethoi, Abijah,
Neh 12:5 Mijamin, Maadiah, Bilgah,
Neh 12:6 Shemaiah, and Joiarib, Jedaiah,
Neh 12:7 Sallu, Amok, Hilkiah, Jedaiah -- these were the heads of the priests and their kinsmen in the days of Jeshua.
Neh 12:8 The Levites were Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, Sherebiah, Judah, Mattaniah -- this last, with his brothers, was in charge of the songs of praise,
Neh 12:9 while Bakbukiah and Unno, their colleagues, formed the alternate choir to theirs.
Neh 12:10 Jeshua fathered Joiakim, Joiakim fathered Eliashib, Eliashib fathered Joiada,
Neh 12:11 Joiada fathered Johanan, and Johanan fathered Jaddua.
Neh 12:12 In the days of Joiakim the heads of the priestly families were: family of Seraiah, Meraiah; of Jeremiah, Hananiah;
Neh 12:13 of Ezra, Meshullam; of Amariah, Jehohanan;
Neh 12:14 of Malluch, Jonathan; of Shebaniah, Joseph;
Neh 12:15 of Harim, Adna; of Meremoth, Helkai;
Neh 12:16 of Iddo, Zechariah; of Ginnethon, Meshullam;
Neh 12:17 of Abijah, Zichri; of Minjamin, . . .; of Moadiah, Piltai;
Neh 12:18 of Bilgah, Shammua; of Shemaiah, Jehonathan;
Neh 12:19 and of Jojarib, Mattenai; of Jedaiah, Uzzi;
Neh 12:20 of Sallai, Kallai; of Amok, Eber;
Neh 12:21 of Hilkiah, Hashabiah; of Jedaiah, Nethanel.
Neh 12:22 In the time of Eliashib, Joiada, Johanan and Jaddua, the heads of the families of priests were registered in the Book of Chronicles, up to the reign of Darius the Persian.
Neh 12:23 The Levites who were heads of families were registered in the Book of Chronicles up to the time of Johanan, grandson of Eliashib.
Neh 12:24 The heads of the Levites were Hashabiah, Sherebiah, Jeshua, Binnui, Kadmiel, while their brothers who formed an alternate choir for the hymns of praise and thanksgiving, as David, man of God, had prescribed, section corresponding to section,
Neh 12:25 were Mattaniah, Bakbukiah and Obadiah. Meshullam, Talmon and Akkub were the gatekeepers guarding the stores at the gates.
Neh 12:26 These lived in the days of Joiakim son of Jeshua, son of Jozadak, and in the days of Nehemiah the governor and of Ezra the priest-scribe.
Neh 12:27 At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem the Levites were sent for, wherever they lived, to come to Jerusalem and joyfully perform the dedication with hymns of thanksgiving and songs to the accompaniment of cymbals, lyres and harps.
Neh 12:28 Accordingly, the levitical singers assembled from the district round Jerusalem, from the villages of the Netophathites,
Neh 12:29 from Beth-Gilgal and from their farms at Geba and Azmaveth -- for the singers had built themselves villages all round Jerusalem.
Neh 12:30 When the priests and Levites had purified themselves, they then purified the people, the gates and the wall.
Neh 12:31 I then made the leaders of Judah come on to the top of the wall and appointed two large choirs. One made its way along the top of the wall, to the right, towards the Dung Gate;
Neh 12:32 bringing up the rear were Hoshaiah and half the leaders of Judah,
Neh 12:33 and also Azariah, Ezra, Meshullam,
Neh 12:34 Judah, Benjamin, Shemaiah and Jeremiah,
Neh 12:35 of the priests, with trumpets; then Zechariah son of Jonathan, son of Shemaiah, son of Mattaniah, son of Micaiah, son of Zaccur, son of Asaph,
Neh 12:36 with his kinsmen, Shemaiah, Azarel, Milalai, Gilalai, Maai, Nethanel, Juda, Hanani, with the musical instruments of David, man of God. The scribe Ezra walked at their head.
Neh 12:37 At the Fountain Gate they went straight on up the steps of the City of David, along the top of the rampart by the stairway of the wall, above the Palace of David as far as the Water Gate, on the east.
Neh 12:38 The other choir made its way to the left; I and half the leaders of the people followed them along the top of the wall from the Tower of the Furnaces to the Broad Wall,
Neh 12:39 from the Ephraim Gate, the Fish Gate, the Tower of Hananel and the Tower of the Hundred as far as the Sheep Gate, and they came to a halt at the Prison Gate.
Neh 12:40 The two choirs then took their places in the Temple of God. But I had half the magistrates with me
Neh 12:41 as well as the priests, Eliakim, Maaseiah, Miniamin, Micaiah, Elioenai, Zechariah, Hananiah with the trumpets,
Neh 12:42 and Maaseiah, Shemaiah, Eleazar, Uzzi, Jehohanan, Malchijah, Elam and Ezer. The singers sang loudly under the direction of Jezrahiah.
Neh 12:43 There were great sacrifices offered that day and the people rejoiced, God having given them good cause for rejoicing; the women and children rejoiced too, and the joy of Jerusalem could be heard from far away.
Neh 12:44 For the rooms intended for the treasures, contributions, first-fruits and tithes, supervisors were then appointed whose business it was to collect in them those portions from the town lands awarded by the Law to the priests and Levites. For Judah rejoiced in the officiating priests and Levites,
Neh 12:45 since they -- with the singers and gatekeepers -- performed the liturgy of their God and the rites of purification as ordained by David and his son Solomon.
Neh 12:46 For from ancient times, from the days of David and Asaph, they had been the leaders in rendering hymns of praise and thanksgiving to God.
Neh 12:47 In the days of Zerubbabel and Nehemiah, all Israel supplied regular daily portions for the singers and gatekeepers, and gave the dedicated contributions to the Levites; and the Levites gave the dedicated contributions to the Aaronites.
Neh 13:1 At that time they were reading to the people from the Book of Moses, when they found this written in it, 'No Ammonite or Moabite is to be admitted to the assembly of God, and this is for all time,
Neh 13:2 since they did not come to meet the Israelites with bread and water, and even hired Balaam to oppose them by cursing them; but our God turned the curse into a blessing.'
Neh 13:3 Having heard the Law, they excluded all foreigners from Israel.
Neh 13:4 Earlier, Eliashib the priest, who was in charge of the rooms of the Temple of our God, and who was close to Tobiah,
Neh 13:5 had provided him with a large room where they previously used to store the meal offerings, incense, utensils, tithes of corn, wine and oil, that is, the part of the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests.
Neh 13:6 While all this was going on I was away from Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I had gone to see the king. But after some time I asked the king for permission to leave,
Neh 13:7 and returned to Jerusalem, where I learned about the crime which Eliashib had committed for Tobiah's benefit, by providing him with a room in the courts of the Temple of God.
Neh 13:8 I was extremely displeased and threw all Tobiah's household goods out of the room and into the street.
Neh 13:9 I then gave orders for the room to be purified, and had the utensils of the Temple of God, the meal offerings and the incense, all replaced.
Neh 13:10 I also learned that the Levites had not been receiving their allocations, as a result of which the Levites and singers who performed the liturgy had all withdrawn to their farms.
Neh 13:11 I then reprimanded the officials. 'Why is the Temple of God deserted?' I asked. And I collected them together again and brought them back to their posts;
Neh 13:12 and all Judah then delivered the tithe of corn, wine and oil to the storehouses.
Neh 13:13 As supervisors of the storehouses I appointed Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, Pedaiah one of the Levites and, as their assistant, Hanan son of Zaccur, son of Mattaniah, since they were considered reliable people; their duty was to make the distributions to their kinsmen.
Neh 13:14 Remember me for this, my God, and do not blot out the good deeds which I have done for the Temple of my God and its observances!
Neh 13:15 At the same time I saw people in Judah treading the winepress, bringing in sacks of grain and loading donkeys on the Sabbath; they were also bringing wine, grapes, figs and every kind of merchandise into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I forbade them to sell the food.
Neh 13:16 Tyrians living there were bringing in fish and every kind of merchandise which they were selling to the Judaeans on the Sabbath in Jerusalem itself.
Neh 13:17 So I also reprimanded the leading men of Judah, saying to them, 'What a wicked way to behave, profaning the Sabbath day!
Neh 13:18 Was this not exactly what your ancestors did, with the result that our God brought all this misery down on us and on this city? And now you are adding to the wrath hanging over Israel by profaning the Sabbath yourselves!'
Neh 13:19 So when the gates of Jerusalem were getting dark at the approach of the Sabbath, I gave orders for the doors to be shut and directed that they were not to be opened again until the Sabbath was over. I stationed some of my attendants at the gates to make sure that no merchandise was brought in on the Sabbath day.
Neh 13:20 So the traders and dealers in goods of all kinds spent the night outside Jerusalem once or twice,
Neh 13:21 until I reprimanded them. I said to them, 'Why are you spending the night in front of the wall? Do it again, and I shall use force on you.' After this, they did not come on the Sabbath.
Neh 13:22 I then ordered the Levites to purify themselves and act as guards at the gates, so that the Sabbath day might be kept holy. Remember this also to my credit, have pity on me in the greatness of your faithful love.
Neh 13:23 At that time too, I saw Jews who had married wives from Ashdod, Ammon and Moab;
Neh 13:24 as regards their children, half of them spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of one of the other peoples, but could no longer speak the language of Judah.
Neh 13:25 I reprimanded them, I cursed them, I struck several of them and tore out their hair and adjured them by God, 'You are not to give your daughters in marriage to their sons or let their daughters marry your sons, or marry them yourselves!
Neh 13:26 Was it not because of women like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Although among many nations there was no king like him and he was loved by his God, and God made him king of all Israel, even then foreign women led him into sinning!
Neh 13:27 Were you obedient when you committed this very grave crime: breaking faith with our God by marrying foreign wives?'
Neh 13:28 One of the sons of Jehoiada, son of Eliashib the high priest, was a son-in-law of Sanballat the Horonite; I drove him from my presence.
Neh 13:29 Remember them, my God, for having defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priests and Levites!
Neh 13:30 And so I purged them of everything foreign; I drew up regulations for the priests and Levites, defining each man's duty,
Neh 13:31 as well as for the deliveries of wood at the proper times, and for the first-fruits. Remember this, my God, to my credit!
Tob 1:1 The tale of Tobit son of Tobiel, son of Ananiel, son of Aduel, son of Gabael, of the lineage of Asiel and tribe of Naphtali.
Tob 1:2 In the days of Shalmaneser king of Assyria, he was exiled from Thisbe, which is south of Kedesh-Naphtali in Upper Galilee, above Hazor, some distance to the west, north of Shephat.
Tob 1:3 I, Tobit, have walked in paths of truth and in good works all the days of my life. I have given much in alms to my brothers and fellow country-folk, exiled like me to Nineveh in the country of Assyria.
Tob 1:4 In my young days, when I was still at home in the land of Israel, the whole tribe of Naphtali my ancestor broke away from the House of David and from Jerusalem, though this was the city chosen out of all the tribes of Israel for their sacrifices; here, the Temple -- God's dwelling-place -- had been built and hallowed for all generations to come.
Tob 1:5 All my brothers and the House of Naphtali sacrificed on every hill-top in Galilee to the calf that Jeroboam king of Israel had made at Dan.
Tob 1:6 Often I was quite alone in making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, fulfilling the Law that binds all Israel perpetually. I would hurry to Jerusalem with the first yield of fruits and beasts, the tithe of cattle and the sheep's first shearings.
Tob 1:7 I would give these to the priests, the sons of Aaron, for the altar. To the Levites ministering at Jerusalem I would give my tithe of wine and corn, olives, pomegranates and other fruits. Six years in succession I took the second tithe in money and went and paid it annually at Jerusalem.
Tob 1:8 I gave the third to orphans and widows and to the strangers who live among the Israelites; I brought it them as a gift every three years. When we ate, we obeyed both the ordinances of the law of Moses and the exhortations of Deborah the mother of our ancestor Ananiel; for my father had died and left me an orphan.
Tob 1:9 When I came to man's estate, I married a woman from our kinsfolk whose name was Anna; she bore me a son whom I called Tobias.
Tob 1:10 When the banishment into Assyria came, I was taken away and went to Nineveh. All my brothers and the people of my race ate the food of the heathen,
Tob 1:11 but for my part I was careful not to eat the food of the heathen.
Tob 1:12 And because I had kept faith with my God with my whole heart,
Tob 1:13 the Most High granted me the favor of Shalmaneser, and I became the king's purveyor.
Tob 1:14 Until his death I used to travel to Media, where I transacted business on his behalf, and I deposited sacks of silver worth ten talents with Gabael the brother of Gabrias at Rhages in Media.
Tob 1:15 On the death of Shalmaneser his son Sennacherib succeeded; the roads into Media were barred, and I could no longer go there.
Tob 1:16 In the days of Shalmaneser I had often given alms to the people of my race;
Tob 1:17 I gave my bread to the hungry and clothes to those who lacked them; and I buried, when I saw them, the bodies of my country-folk thrown over the walls of Nineveh.
Tob 1:18 I also buried those who were killed by Sennacherib. When Sennacherib was beating a disorderly retreat from Judaea after the King of heaven had punished his blasphemies, he killed a great number of Israelites in his rage. So I stole their bodies to bury them; Sennacherib looked for them and could not find them.
Tob 1:19 A Ninevite went and told the king it was I who had buried them secretly. When I knew that the king had been told about me and saw myself being hunted by men who would put me to death, I was afraid and fled.
Tob 1:20 All my goods were seized; they were all confiscated by the treasury; nothing was left me but my wife Anna and my son Tobias.
Tob 1:21 Less than forty days after this, the king was murdered by his two sons, who then fled to the mountains of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded. Ahikar the son of my brother Anael, was appointed chancellor of the exchequer for the kingdom and given the main ordering of affairs.
Tob 1:22 Ahikar then interceded for me and I was allowed to return to Nineveh, since Ahikar had been chief cupbearer, keeper of the signet, administrator and treasurer under Sennacherib king of Assyria, and Esarhaddon had kept him in office. He was a relation of mine; he was my nephew.
Tob 2:1 In the reign of Esarhaddon, therefore, I returned home, and my wife Anna was restored to me with my son Tobias. At our feast of Pentecost (the feast of Weeks) there was a good dinner. I took my place for the meal;
Tob 2:2 the table was brought to me and various dishes were brought. I then said to my son Tobias, 'Go, my child, and seek out some poor, loyal-hearted man among our brothers exiled in Nineveh, and bring him to share my meal. I will wait until you come back, my child.'
Tob 2:3 So Tobias went out to look for some poor man among our brothers, but he came back again and said, 'Father!' I replied, 'What is it, my child?' He went on, 'Father, one of our nation has just been murdered; he has been strangled and then thrown down in the market place; he is there still.'
Tob 2:4 I sprang up at once, left my meal untouched, took the man from the market place and laid him in one of my rooms, waiting until sunset to bury him.
Tob 2:5 I came in again and washed myself and ate my bread in sorrow,
Tob 2:6 remembering the words of the prophet Amos concerning Bethel: I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into lamentation.
Tob 2:7 And I wept. When the sun was down, I went and dug a grave and buried him.
Tob 2:8 My neighbors laughed and said, 'See! He is not afraid any more.' (You must remember that a price had been set on my head earlier for this very thing.) 'Once before he had to flee, yet here he is, beginning to bury the dead again.'
Tob 2:9 That night I took a bath; then I went into the courtyard and lay down by the courtyard wall. Since it was hot I left my face uncovered.
Tob 2:10 I did not know that there were sparrows in the wall above my head; their hot droppings fell into my eyes. This caused white spots to form, which I went to have treated by the doctors. But the more ointments they tried me with, the more the spots blinded me, and in the end, I became completely blind. I remained without sight four years; all my brothers were distressed on my behalf; and Ahikar provided for my upkeep for two years, until he left for Elymais.
Tob 2:11 My wife Anna then undertook woman's work; she would spin wool and take cloth to weave;
Tob 2:12 she used to deliver whatever had been ordered from her and then receive payment. Now on the seventh day of the month of Dystros, she finished a piece of work and delivered it to her customers. They paid her all that was due, and into the bargain presented her with a kid for a meal.
Tob 2:13 When the kid came into my house, it began to bleat. I called to my wife and said, 'Where does this creature come from? Suppose it has been stolen! Let the owners have it back; we have no right to eat stolen goods'.
Tob 2:14 She said, 'No, it was a present given me over and above my wages.' I did not believe her, and told her to give it back to the owners (I felt deeply ashamed of her). To which, she replied, 'What about your own alms? What about your own good works? Everyone knows what return you have had for them.'
Tob 3:1 Then, sad at heart, I sighed and wept, and began this prayer of lamentation:
Tob 3:2 You are just, O Lord, and just are all your works. All your ways are grace and truth, and you are the Judge of the world.
Tob 3:3 Therefore, Lord, remember me, look on me. Do not punish me for my sins or for my needless faults or those of my ancestors.
Tob 3:4 For we have sinned against you and broken your commandments; and you have given us over to be plundered, to captivity and death, to be the talk, the laughing-stock and scorn of all the nations among whom you have dispersed us.
Tob 3:5 And now all your decrees are true when you deal with me as my faults deserve, and those of my ancestors. For we have neither kept your commandments nor walked in truth before you.
Tob 3:6 So now, do with me as you will; be pleased to take my life from me; so that I may be delivered from earth and become earth again. Better death than life for me, for I have endured groundless insult and am in deepest sorrow. Lord, be pleased to deliver me from this affliction. Let me go away to my everlasting home; do not turn your face from me, O Lord. Better death for me than life prolonged in the face of unrelenting misery: I can no longer bear to listen to insults.
Tob 3:7 It chanced on the same day that Sarah the daughter of Raguel, who lived in Media at Ecbatana, also heard insults from one of her father's maids.
Tob 3:8 For she had been given in marriage seven times, and Asmodeus, the worst of demons, had killed her bridegrooms one after another before ever they had slept with her as man with wife. The servant-girl said, 'Yes, you kill your bridegrooms yourself. That makes seven already to whom you have been given, and you have not once been in luck yet.
Tob 3:9 Just because your bridegrooms have died, that is no reason for punishing us. Go and join them, and may we be spared the sight of any child of yours!'
Tob 3:10 That day, she grieved, she sobbed, and she went up to her father's room intending to hang herself. But then she thought, 'Suppose they were to blame my father! They would say, "You had an only daughter whom you loved, and now she has hanged herself for grief." I cannot cause my father a sorrow which would bring down his old age to the dwelling of the dead. I should do better not to hang myself, but to beg the Lord to let me die and not live to hear any more insults.'
Tob 3:11 And at this, by the window, with outstretched arms she said this prayer: You are blessed, O God of mercy! May your name be blessed for ever, and may all things you have made bless you everlastingly.
Tob 3:12 And now I turn my face and I raise my eyes to you.
Tob 3:13 Let your word deliver me from earth; I can hear myself insulted no longer.
Tob 3:14 O Lord, you know that I have remained pure; no man has touched me;
Tob 3:15 I have not dishonored your name or my father's name in this land of exile. I am my father's only daughter, he has no other child as heir; he has no brother at his side, nor has he any kinsman left for whom I ought to keep myself. I have lost seven husbands already; why should I live any longer? If it does not please you to take my life, then look on me with pity; I can no longer bear to hear myself defamed.
Tob 3:16 This time the prayer of each of them found favor before the glory of God,
Tob 3:17 and Raphael was sent to bring remedy to them both. He was to take the white spots from the eyes of Tobit, so that he might see God's light with his own eyes; and he was to give Sarah the daughter of Raguel as bride to Tobias son of Tobit, and to rid her of Asmodeus, that worst of demons. For it was to Tobias before all other suitors that she belonged by right. Tobit was coming back from the courtyard into the house at the same moment as Sarah the daughter of Raguel was coming down from the upper room.
Tob 4:1 The same day Tobit remembered the silver that he had left with Gabael at Rhages in Media
Tob 4:2 and thought, 'I have come to the point of praying for death; I should do well to call my son Tobias and tell him about the money before I die.'
Tob 4:3 He summoned his son Tobias and told him, 'When I die, give me an honorable burial. honor your mother, and never abandon her all the days of your life. Do all that she wants, and give her no reason for sorrow.
Tob 4:4 Remember, my child, all the risks she ran for your sake when you were in her womb. And when she dies, bury her at my side in the same grave.
Tob 4:5 'My child, be faithful to the Lord all your days. Never entertain the will to sin or to transgress his laws. Do good works all the days of your life, never follow ways that are not upright;
Tob 4:6 for if you act in truthfulness, you will be successful in all your actions, as everyone is who practises what is upright.
Tob 4:7 'Set aside part of your goods for almsgiving. Never turn your face from the poor and God will never turn his from you.
Tob 4:8 Measure your alms by what you have; if you have much, give more; if you have little, do not be afraid to give less in alms.
Tob 4:9 So doing, you will lay up for yourself a great treasure for the day of necessity.
Tob 4:10 For almsgiving delivers from death and saves people from passing down to darkness.
Tob 4:11 Almsgiving is a most effective offering for all those who do it in the presence of the Most High.
Tob 4:12 'My child, avoid all loose conduct. Choose a wife of your father's stock. Do not take a foreign wife outside your father's tribe, because we are the children of the prophets. Remember Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our ancestors from the beginning. All of them took wives from their own kindred, and they were blessed in their children, and their race will inherit the earth.
Tob 4:13 You, too, my child, must love your own brothers; never presume to despise your brothers, the sons and daughters of your people; choose your wife from among them. For pride brings ruin and much worry; idleness causes need and poverty, for the mother of famine is idleness.
Tob 4:14 'Do not keep back until next day the wages of those who work for you; pay them at once. If you serve God you will be rewarded. Be careful, my child, in all you do, well-disciplined in all your behaviour.
Tob 4:15 Do to no one what you would not want done to you. Do not drink wine to the point of drunkenness; do not let excess be your traveling companion.
Tob 4:16 'Give your bread to those who are hungry, and your clothes to those who lack clothing. Of whatever you own in plenty, devote a proportion to almsgiving; and when you give alms, do it ungrudgingly.
Tob 4:17 Be generous with bread and wine on the graves of upright people, but not for the sinner.
Tob 4:18 'Ask advice of every wise person; never scorn any profitable advice.
Tob 4:19 Bless the Lord God in everything; beg him to guide your ways and bring your paths and purposes to their end. For wisdom is not the property of every nation; their desire for what is good is conferred by the Lord. At his will he lifts up or he casts down to the depths of the dwelling of the dead. So now, my child, remember these precepts and never let them fade from your heart.
Tob 4:20 'Now, my child, I must tell you I have left ten talents of silver with Gabael son of Gabrias, at Rhages in Media.
Tob 4:21 Do not be afraid, my child, if we have grown poor. You have great wealth if you fear God, if you shun every kind of sin and if you do what is pleasing to the Lord your God.'
Tob 5:1 Tobias then replied to his father Tobit, 'Father, I shall do everything you have told me.
Tob 5:2 But how am I to recover the silver from him? He does not know me, nor I him. What token am I to give him for him to believe me and hand the silver over to me? And besides, I do not know what roads to take for this journey into Media.'
Tob 5:3 Then Tobit answered his son Tobias, 'Each of us set his signature to a note which I cut in two, so that each could keep half of it. I took one piece, and put the other with the silver. To think it was twenty years ago I left this silver in his keeping! And now, my child, find a trustworthy traveling companion -- we shall pay him for his time until you arrive back -- and then go and collect the silver from Gabael.'
Tob 5:4 Tobias went out to look for a man who knew the way to go with him to Media. Outside he found Raphael the angel standing facing him, though he did not guess he was an angel of God.
Tob 5:5 He said, 'Where do you come from, friend?' The angel replied, 'I am one of your brother Israelites; I have come to these parts to look for work.' Tobias asked, 'Do you know the road to Media?'
Tob 5:6 The other replied, 'Certainly I do, I have been there many times; I have knowledge and experience of all the ways. I have often been to Media and stayed with Gabael one of our kinsmen who lives at Rhages in Media. It usually takes two full days to get from Ecbatana to Rhages; Rhages lies in the mountains, and Ecbatana is in the middle of the plain.'
Tob 5:7 Tobias said, 'Wait for me, friend, while I go and tell my father; I need you to come with me; I shall pay you for your time.'
Tob 5:8 The other replied, 'Good, I shall wait; but do not be long.'
Tob 5:9 Tobias went in and told his father that he had found one of their brother Israelites. And the father said, 'Fetch him in; I want to find out about his family and tribe. I must see if he is going to be a reliable companion for you, my child.' So Tobias went out and called him, 'Friend,' he said, 'my father wants you.'
Tob 5:10 The angel came into the house; Tobit greeted him, and the other answered, wishing him happiness in plenty. Tobit replied, 'Can I ever be happy again? I am a blind man; I no longer see the light of heaven; I am sunk in darkness like the dead who see the light no more. I am a man buried alive; I hear people speak but cannot see them.' The angel said, 'Take comfort; before long God will heal you. Take comfort.' Tobit said, 'My son Tobias wishes to go to Media. Will you join him as his guide? Brother, I will pay you.' He replied, 'I am willing to go with him; I know all the ways; I have often been to Media, I have crossed all its plains and mountains, and I know all its roads.'
Tob 5:11 Tobit said, 'Brother, what family and what tribe do you belong to? Will you tell me, brother?'
Tob 5:12 'What does my tribe matter to you?' the angel said. Tobit said, 'I want to be quite sure whose son you are and what your name is.'
Tob 5:13 The angel said, 'I am Azarias, son of the great Ananias, one of your kinsmen.'
Tob 5:14 'Welcome and greetings, brother! Do not be offended at my wanting to know the name of your family; I find you are my kinsman of a good and honorable line. I know Ananias and Nathan, the two sons of the great Shemaiah. They used to go to Jerusalem with me; we have worshipped together there and they have never strayed from the right path. Your brothers are worthy men; you come of good stock; welcome.'
Tob 5:15 He went on, 'I engage you at a drachma a day, with the same expenses as my own son's. Complete the journey with my son
Tob 5:16 and I shall go beyond the agreed wage.' The angel replied, 'I shall complete the journey with him. Do not be afraid. On the journey outward all will be well; on the journey back all will be well; the road is safe.'
Tob 5:17 Tobit said, 'Blessings on you, brother!' Then he turned to his son. 'My child', he said, 'prepare what you need for the journey, and set off with your brother. May God in heaven protect you abroad and bring you both back to me safe and sound! May his angel go with you and protect you, my child!' Tobias left the house to set out and kissed his father and mother. Tobit said, 'A happy journey!'
Tob 5:18 His mother burst into tears and said to Tobit, 'Why must you send my child away? Is he not the staff of our hands, as he goes about before us?
Tob 5:19 Surely money is not the only thing that matters? Surely it is not as precious as our child?
Tob 5:20 The way of life God had already given us was good enough.'
Tob 5:21 He said, 'Do not think such thoughts. Going away and coming back, all will be well with our child. You will see for yourself when he comes back safe and sound! Do not think such thoughts; do not worry on their account, my sister.
Tob 5:22 A good angel will go with him; he will have a good journey and come back to us well and happy.'
Tob 6:1 And she dried her tears.
Tob 6:2 The boy left with the angel, and the dog followed behind. The two walked on, and when the first evening came they camped beside the Tigris.
Tob 6:3 The boy had gone down to the river to wash his feet, when a great fish leapt out of the water and tried to swallow his foot. The boy gave a shout
Tob 6:4 and the angel said, 'Catch the fish; do not let it go.' The boy mastered the fish and pulled it onto the bank.
Tob 6:5 The angel said, 'Cut it open; take out gall, heart and liver; set these aside and throw the entrails away, for gall and heart and liver have curative properties.'
Tob 6:6 The boy cut the fish open and took out gall and heart and liver. He fried part of the fish for his meal and kept some for salting. Then they walked on again together until they were nearly in Media.
Tob 6:7 Then the boy asked the angel this question, 'Brother Azarias, what can the fish's heart, liver and gall cure?'
Tob 6:8 He replied, 'You burn the fish's heart and liver, and their smoke is used in the case of a man or woman plagued by a demon or evil spirit; any such affliction disappears for good, leaving no trace.
Tob 6:9 As regards the gall, this is used as an eye ointment for anyone having white spots on his eyes; after using it, you have only to blow on the spots to cure them.'
Tob 6:10 They entered Media and had nearly reached Ecbatana
Tob 6:11 when Raphael said to the boy, 'Brother Tobias.' 'Yes?' he replied. The angel went on, 'Tonight we are to stay with Raguel, who is a kinsman of yours. He has a daughter called Sarah,
Tob 6:12 but apart from Sarah he has no other son or daughter. Now you are her next of kin; she belongs to you before anyone else and you may claim her father's inheritance. She is a thoughtful, courageous and very lovely girl, and her father loves her dearly.
Tob 6:13 You have the right to marry her. Listen, brother; this very evening I shall speak about the girl to her father and arrange for her to be betrothed to you, and when we come back from Rhages we can celebrate the marriage. I assure you, Raguel has no right whatever to refuse you or to betroth her to anyone else. That would be asking for death, as prescribed in the Book of Moses, once he is aware that kinship gives you the pre-eminent right to marry his daughter. So listen, brother. This very evening we shall speak about the girl and ask for her hand in marriage. When we come back from Rhages we shall fetch her and take her home with us.'
Tob 6:14 Tobias replied to Raphael, 'Brother Azarias, I have been told that she has already been given in marriage seven times and that each time her bridegroom has died in the bridal room. He died the same night as he entered her room; and I have heard people say it was a demon that killed them,
Tob 6:15 and this makes me afraid. To her the demon does no harm because he loves her, but as soon as a man tries to approach her, he kills him. I am my father's only son, and I have no wish to die. I do not want my father and mother to grieve over me for the rest of their lives; they have no other son to bury them.'
Tob 6:16 The angel said, 'Have you forgotten your father's advice? After all, he urged you to choose a wife from your father's family. Listen then, brother. Do not worry about the demon; take her. This very evening, I promise, she will be given you as your wife.
Tob 6:17 Then once you are in the bridal room, take the heart and liver of the fish and lay a little of it on the burning incense. The reek will rise,
Tob 6:18 the demon will smell it and flee, and there is no danger that he will ever be found near the girl again. Then, before you sleep together, first stand up, both of you, and pray. Ask the Lord of heaven to grant you his grace and protection. Do not be afraid; she was destined for you from the beginning, and you are the one to save her. She will follow you, and I pledge my word she will give you children who will be like brothers to you. Do not worry.' And when Tobias heard Raphael say this, when he understood that Sarah was his sister, a kinswoman of his father's family, he fell so deeply in love with her that he could no longer call his heart his own.
Tob 7:1 As they entered Ecbatana, Tobias said, 'Brother Azarias, take me at once to our brother Raguel's.' And he showed him the way to the house of Raguel, whom they found sitting beside his courtyard door. They greeted him first, and he replied, 'Welcome and greetings, brothers.' And he took them into his house.
Tob 7:2 He said to his wife Edna, 'How like my brother Tobit this young man is!'
Tob 7:3 Edna asked them where they came from; they said, 'We are sons of Naphtali exiled in Nineveh.'
Tob 7:4 'Do you know our brother Tobit?' 'Yes.' 'How is he?'
Tob 7:5 'He is alive and well.' And Tobias added, 'He is my father.'
Tob 7:6 Raguel leapt to his feet and kissed him and wept.
Tob 7:7 Then, finding words, he said, 'Blessings on you, child! You are the son of a noble father. How sad it is that someone so bright and full of good deeds should have gone blind!' He fell on the neck of his kinsman Tobias and wept.
Tob 7:8 And his wife Edna wept for him, and so did his daughter Sarah.
Tob 7:9 Raguel killed a ram from the flock, and they gave them a warm welcome. They washed and bathed and sat down to table. Then Tobias said to Raphael, 'Brother Azarias, will you ask Raguel to give me my sister Sarah?'
Tob 7:10 Raguel overheard the words, and said to the young man, 'Eat and drink, and make the most of your evening; no one else has the right to take my daughter Sarah -- no one but you, my brother. In any case even I am not at liberty to give her to anyone else, since you are her next of kin. However, my boy, I must be frank with you:
Tob 7:11 I have tried to find a husband for her seven times among our kinsmen, and all of them have died the first evening, on going to her room. But for the present, my boy, eat and drink; the Lord will grant you his grace and peace.' Tobias spoke out, 'I will not hear of eating and drinking till you have come to a decision about me.' Raguel answered, 'Very well. Since, by the prescription of the Book of Moses she is given to you, Heaven itself decrees she shall be yours. I therefore entrust your sister to you. From now on you are her brother and she is your sister. She is given to you from today for ever. The Lord of heaven favor you tonight, my child, and grant you his grace and peace.'
Tob 7:12 Raguel called for his daughter Sarah, took her by the hand and gave her to Tobias with these words, 'I entrust her to you; the law and the ruling recorded in the Book of Moses assign her to you as your wife. Take her; bring her home safe and sound to your father's house. The God of heaven grant you a good journey in peace.'
Tob 7:13 Then he turned to her mother and asked her to fetch him writing paper. He drew up the marriage contract, and so he gave his daughter as bride to Tobias according to the ordinance of the Law of Moses.
Tob 7:14 After this they began to eat and drink.
Tob 7:15 Raguel called his wife Edna and said, 'My sister, prepare the second room and take her there.'
Tob 7:16 She went and made the bed in this room as he had ordered, and took her daughter to it. She wept over her, then wiped away her tears and said, 'Courage, daughter! May the Lord of heaven turn your grief to joy! Courage, daughter!' And she went out.
Tob 8:1 When they had finished eating and drinking and it seemed time to go to bed, the young man was taken from the dining room to the bedroom.
Tob 8:2 Tobias remembered Raphael's advice; he went to his bag, took the fish's heart and liver out of it and put some on the burning incense.
Tob 8:3 The reek of the fish distressed the demon, who fled through the air to Egypt. Raphael pursued him there, shackled him and strangled him forthwith.
Tob 8:4 The parents meanwhile had gone out and shut the door behind them. Tobias rose from the bed, and said to Sarah, 'Get up, my sister! You and I must pray and petition our Lord to win his grace and his protection.'
Tob 8:5 She stood up, and they began praying for protection, and this was how he began: You are blessed, O God of our fathers; blessed too is your name for ever and ever. Let the heavens bless you and all things you have made for evermore.
Tob 8:6 You it was who created Adam, you who created Eve his wife to be his help and support; and from these two the human race was born. You it was who said, 'It is not right that the man should be alone; let us make him a helper like him.'
Tob 8:7 And so I take my sister not for any lustful motive, but I do it in singleness of heart. Be kind enough to have pity on her and on me and bring us to old age together.
Tob 8:8 And together they said, 'Amen, Amen,'
Tob 8:9 and lay down for the night. But Raguel rose and called his servants, who came and helped him dig a grave.
Tob 8:10 He had thought, 'Heaven grant he does not die! We should be overwhelmed with ridicule and shame.'
Tob 8:11 When the grave was ready, Raguel went back to the house, called his wife
Tob 8:12 and said, 'Will you send a maid to the room to see if Tobias is still alive? For if he is dead, we may be able to bury him without anyone else knowing.'
Tob 8:13 They sent the maid, lit the lamp, opened the door and the maid went in. She found the two fast asleep together;
Tob 8:14 she came out again and whispered, 'He is not dead; all is well.'
Tob 8:15 Then Raguel blessed the God of heaven with these words: You are blessed, my God, with every blessing that is pure; may you be blessed for evermore!
Tob 8:16 You are blessed for having made me glad. What I feared has not happened, instead you have shown us your boundless mercy.
Tob 8:17 You are blessed for taking pity on this only son, this only daughter. Grant them, Master, your mercy and your protection; let them live out their lives in happiness and in mercy.
Tob 8:18 And he made his servants fill the grave in before dawn broke.
Tob 8:19 He told his wife to make an ovenful of bread; he went to his flock, brought back two oxen and four sheep and gave orders for them to be cooked; and preparations began.
Tob 8:20 He called Tobias and said, 'I will not hear of your leaving here for a fortnight. You are to stay where you are, eating and drinking, with me. You will make my daughter happy again after all her troubles.
Tob 8:21 After that, take away a half of all I have, and take her safe and sound back to your father. When my wife and I are dead you shall have the other half. Courage, my boy! I am your father, and Edna is your mother. We are your parents in future, as we are your sister's. Courage, my son!'
Tob 9:1 Then Tobias turned to Raphael.
Tob 9:2 'Brother Azarias,' he said, 'take four servants and two camels and leave for Rhages.
Tob 9:3 Go to Gabael's house, give him the receipt and see about the money; then invite him to come with you to my wedding feast.
Tob 9:4 You know that my father must be counting the days and that I cannot lose a single one without worrying him.
Tob 9:5 You see what Raguel has pledged himself to do; I am bound by his oath.' So Raphael left for Rhages in Media with the four servants and two camels. They stayed with Gabael, and Raphael showed him the receipt. He told him about the marriage of Tobias son of Tobit and gave him his invitation to the wedding feast. Gabael started counting out the sacks to him -- the seals were intact -- and they loaded them on to the camels.
Tob 9:6 Early in the morning they set off together for the feast, and reached Raguel's house where they found Tobias dining. He rose to greet Gabael, who burst into tears and blessed him with the words, 'Excellent son of a father beyond reproach, just and generous in his dealings! The Lord give heaven's blessing to you, to your wife, to your wife's father and mother! Blessed be God for granting me the sight of this living image of my cousin Tobit!'
Tob 10:1 Every day, meanwhile, Tobit kept reckoning the days required for the journey there and the journey back. The full number went by, and still his son had not come.
Tob 10:2 Then he thought, 'I hope he has not been delayed there! I hope Gabael is not dead, so that no one will give him the silver.'
Tob 10:3 And he began to worry.
Tob 10:4 His wife Anna kept saying, 'My son is dead! He is no longer among the living!' And she began to weep and mourn over her son. She kept saying,
Tob 10:5 'Alas! I should never have let you leave me, my child, you, the light of my eyes.'
Tob 10:6 And Tobit would reply, 'Hush, my sister! Do not worry. All is well with him. Something has happened there to delay them. His companion is someone we can trust, one of our kinsmen at that. Do not lose heart, my sister.
Tob 10:7 He will soon be here.' But all she would say was, 'Leave me alone; do not try to deceive me. My child is dead.' And every day she would go abruptly out to watch the road by which her son had left. She trusted no eyes but her own. Once the sun had set she would come home again, only to weep and moan all night, unable to sleep. After the fourteen days of feasting that Raguel had sworn to keep for his daughter's marriage, Tobias came to him and said, 'Let me go now; my father and mother must have lost all hope of seeing me again. So I beg you, father, to let me return to my father's house; I have told you the plight he was in when I left him.'
Tob 10:8 Raguel said to Tobias, 'Stay, my son, stay with me. I shall send messengers to your father Tobit to give him news of you.'
Tob 10:9 But Tobias pressed him, 'No, I beg you to let me go back to my father's house.'
Tob 10:10 Without more ado, Raguel committed Sarah his bride into his keeping. He gave Tobias half his wealth, slaves, men and women, oxen and sheep, donkeys and camels, clothes and money and household things.
Tob 10:11 And so he let them leave happily. To Tobias he said these parting words, 'Good health, my son, and a happy journey! May the Lord of heaven be gracious to you and to your wife Sarah! I hope to see your children before I die.'
Tob 10:12 To his daughter Sarah he said, 'Go now to your father-in-law's house, since henceforward they are as much your parents as those who gave you life. Go in peace, my daughter, I hope to hear nothing but good of you, as long as I live.' He said goodbye to them and let them go. Edna in her turn said to Tobias, 'Dear son and brother, may it please the Lord to bring you back again! I hope to live long enough to see the children of you and my daughter Sarah before I die. In the sight of the Lord I give my daughter into your keeping. Never make her unhappy as long as you live. Go in peace, my son. Henceforward I am your mother and Sarah is your sister. May we all live happily for the rest of our lives!' And she kissed them both and saw them set out happily.
Tob 10:13 Tobias left Raguel's house with his mind at ease. In his gladness he blessed the Lord of heaven and earth, the King of all that is, for the happy issue of his travels. He gave this blessing to Raguel and his wife Edna, 'May it be my happiness to honor you for the rest of my life!'
Tob 11:1 They were nearly at Kaserin, opposite Nineveh,
Tob 11:2 when Raphael said, 'You know the plight in which we left your father;
Tob 11:3 let us go on ahead of your wife and prepare the house ourselves while she travels behind with the others.'
Tob 11:4 They went on together (Raphael warned Tobias to take the gall with him) and the dog followed them.
Tob 11:5 Anna was sitting, watching the road by which her son would come.
Tob 11:6 She was sure at once it must be he and said to the father, 'Here comes your son, with his companion.'
Tob 11:7 Raphael said to Tobias before he reached his father, 'I give you my word that your father's eyes will open.
Tob 11:8 You must put the fish's gall to his eyes; the medicine will smart and will draw a filmy white skin off his eyes. And your father will no more be blind but will be able to see the light.'
Tob 11:9 The mother ran forward and threw her arms round her son's neck. 'Now I can die,' she said, 'I have seen you again.' And she wept.
Tob 11:10 Tobit rose to his feet and stumbled across the courtyard through the door. Tobias came on towards him
Tob 11:11 (he had the fish's gall in his hand). He blew into his eyes and said, steadying him, 'Take courage, father!' With this he applied the medicine, left it there a while,
Tob 11:12 then with both hands peeled away a filmy skin from the corners of his eyes.
Tob 11:13 Then his father fell on his neck
Tob 11:14 and wept. He exclaimed, 'I can see you, my son, the light of my eyes!' And he said: Blessed be God! Blessed be his great name! Blessed be all his holy angels! Blessed be his great name for evermore!
Tob 11:15 For, having afflicted me, he has had pity on me and now I see my son Tobias! Tobias went indoors, joyfully blessing God at the top of his voice. Then he told his father everything; how his journey had been successful and he had brought the silver back; how he had married Sarah the daughter of Raguel; how she was following him now, close behind, and could not be far from the gates of Nineveh.
Tob 11:16 Tobit set off to the gates of Nineveh to meet his daughter-in-law, giving joyful praise to God as he went. When the people of Nineveh saw him walking without a guide and stepping forward as briskly as of old, they were astonished.
Tob 11:17 Tobit described to them how God had taken pity on him and had opened his eyes. Then Tobit met Sarah the bride of his son Tobias, and blessed her in these words. 'Welcome, daughter! Blessed be your God for sending you to us, my daughter. Blessings on your father, blessings on my son Tobias, blessings on yourself, my daughter. Welcome now to your own house in joyfulness and in blessedness. Come in, my daughter.' That day brought joy to the Jews of Nineveh,
Tob 11:18 and his cousins Ahikar and Nadab came to share in Tobit's happiness.
Tob 12:1 When the wedding feast was over, Tobit called his son Tobias and said, 'My son, you ought to think about paying the amount due to your fellow traveller; give him more than the figure agreed on.'
Tob 12:2 'Father,' he replied, 'how much am I to give him for his help? Even if I give him half the goods he brought back with me, I shall not be the loser.
Tob 12:3 He has brought me back safe and sound, he has cured my wife, he has brought the money back too, and now he has cured you as well. How much am I to give him for all this?'
Tob 12:4 Tobit said, 'He has richly earned half what he brought back'.
Tob 12:5 So Tobias called his companion and said, 'Take half of what you brought back, in payment for all you have done, and go in peace.'
Tob 12:6 Then Raphael took them both aside and said, 'Bless God, utter his praise before all the living for the favor he has shown you. Bless and extol his name. Proclaim before all people the deeds of God as they deserve, and never tire of giving him thanks.
Tob 12:7 It is right to keep the secret of a king, yet right to reveal and publish the works of God as they deserve. Do what is good, and no evil can befall you.
Tob 12:8 'Prayer with fasting and alms with uprightness are better than riches with iniquity. Better to practise almsgiving than to hoard up gold.
Tob 12:9 Almsgiving saves from death and purges every kind of sin. Those who give alms have their fill of days;
Tob 12:10 those who commit sin and do evil bring harm on themselves.
Tob 12:11 'I am going to tell you the whole truth, hiding nothing from you. I have already told you that it is right to keep the secret of a king, yet right too to reveal in a worthy way the words of God.
Tob 12:12 So you must know that when you and Sarah were at prayer, it was I who offered your supplications before the glory of the Lord and who read them; so too when you were burying the dead.
Tob 12:13 When you did not hesitate to get up and leave the table to go and bury a dead man, I was sent to test your faith,
Tob 12:14 and at the same time God sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah.
Tob 12:15 I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ever ready to enter the presence of the glory of the Lord.'
Tob 12:16 They were both overwhelmed with awe; they fell on their faces in terror.
Tob 12:17 But the angel said, 'Do not be afraid; peace be with you. Bless God for ever.
Tob 12:18 As far as I was concerned, when I was with you, my presence was not by any decision of mine, but by the will of God; he is the one whom you must bless as long as you live, he the one that you must praise.
Tob 12:19 You thought you saw me eating, but that was appearance and no more.
Tob 12:20 Now bless the Lord on earth and give thanks to God. I am about to return to him who sent me from above. Write down all that has happened.' And he rose in the air.
Tob 12:21 When they stood up again, he was no longer visible. They praised God with hymns; they thanked him for having performed such wonders; had not an angel of God appeared to them?
Tob 13:1 And he said: Blessed be God who lives for ever, for his reign endures throughout all ages!
Tob 13:2 For he both punishes and pardons; he sends people down to the depths of the underworld and draws them up from utter Destruction; no one can escape his hand.
Tob 13:3 Declare his praise before the nations, you who are the children of Israel! For if he has scattered you among them,
Tob 13:4 there too he has shown you his greatness. Extol him before all the living; he is our Lord and he is our God; he is our Father, and he is God for ever and ever.
Tob 13:5 Though he punishes you for your iniquities, he will take pity on you all; he will gather you from every nation wherever you have been scattered.
Tob 13:6 If you return to him with all your heart and all your soul, behaving honestly towards him, then he will return to you and hide his face from you no longer. Consider how well he has treated you; loudly give him thanks. Bless the Lord of justice and extol the King of the ages. I for my part sing his praise in the country of my exile; I make his power and greatness known to a nation that has sinned. Sinners, return to him; let your conduct be upright before him; perhaps he will be gracious to you and take pity on you.
Tob 13:7 I for my part extol God and my soul rejoices in the King of heaven. Let his greatness
Tob 13:8 be on every tongue, his praises be sung in Jerusalem.
Tob 13:9 Jerusalem, Holy City, God has scourged you for what you have done but will still take pity on the children of the upright.
Tob 13:10 Thank the Lord as he deserves and bless the King of the ages, that your Temple may be rebuilt with joy within you; within you he may comfort every exile, and within you he may love all those who are distressed, for all generations to come.
Tob 13:11 A bright light will shine over all the regions of the earth; many nations will come from far away, from all the ends of the earth, to dwell close to the holy name of the Lord God, with gifts in their hands for the King of heaven. Within you, generation after generation will proclaim their joy, and the name of her who is Elect will endure through the generations to come.
Tob 13:12 Cursed be any who affront you, cursed be any who destroy you, who throw down your walls, who rase your towers, who burn your houses! Eternally blessed be he who rebuilds you!
Tob 13:13 Then you will exult, and rejoice over the children of the upright, for they will all have been gathered in and will bless the Lord of the ages.
Tob 13:14 Blessed are those who love you, blessed those who rejoice over your peace, blessed those who have mourned over all your punishment! For they will soon rejoice within you, witness all your blessedness in days to come.
Tob 13:15 My soul blesses the Lord, the great King
Tob 13:16 because Jerusalem will be built anew and his house for ever and ever. What bliss, if one of my family be left to see your glory and praise the King of heaven! The gates of Jerusalem will be built of sapphire and of emerald, and all your walls of precious stone, the towers of Jerusalem will be built of gold and their battlements of pure gold.
Tob 13:17 The streets of Jerusalem will be paved with ruby and with stones from Ophir; the gates of Jerusalem will resound with songs of exultation; and all her houses will say, 'Alleluia! Blessed be the God of Israel.' Within you they will bless the holy name for ever and ever.
Tob 14:1 The end of the hymns of Tobit. Tobit died when he was a hundred and twelve years old and received an honorable burial in Nineveh.
Tob 14:2 He had been sixty-two when he went blind; and after his cure, he lived in comfort, practising almsgiving and continually praising God and extolling his greatness.
Tob 14:3 When he was at the point of death he summoned his son Tobias and gave him these instructions,
Tob 14:4 'My son, take your children and hurry away to Media, since I believe the word of God pronounced over Nineveh by Nahum. Everything will come true, everything happen that the emissaries of God, the prophets of Israel, have predicted against Assyria and Nineveh; not one of their words will prove empty. It will all take place in due time. You will be safer in Media than in Assyria or in Babylonia. Since I for my part know and believe that everything God has said will come true; so it will be, and not a word of the prophecies will fail. 'A census will be taken of our brothers living in the land of Israel and they will be exiled far from their own fair country. The entire territory of Israel will become a desert, and Samaria and Jerusalem will become a desert, and the house of God, for a time, will be laid waste and burnt.
Tob 14:5 Then once again God will take pity on them and bring them back to the land of Israel. They will rebuild his house, although it will be less beautiful than the first, until the time is fulfilled. But after this, all will return from captivity and rebuild Jerusalem in all her glory, and the house of God will be rebuilt within her as the prophets of Israel have foretold.
Tob 14:6 And all the people of the whole earth will be converted and will reverence God with all sincerity. All will renounce their false gods who have led them astray into error,
Tob 14:7 and will bless the God of ages in uprightness. All the Israelites spared in those days will remember God in sincerity of heart. They will come and gather in Jerusalem and thereafter dwell securely in the land of Abraham, which will be theirs. And those who sincerely love God will rejoice. And those who commit sin and wickedness will vanish from the earth.
Tob 14:8 'And now, my children, I lay this duty on you; serve God sincerely, and do what is pleasing to him. And lay on your children the obligation to behave uprightly, to give alms, to keep God in mind and to bless his name always, sincerely and with all their might.
Tob 14:9 'So then, my son, leave Nineveh, do not stay here.
Tob 14:10 As soon as you have buried your mother next to me, go the same day, whenever it may be, and do not linger in this country where I see wickedness and perfidy unashamedly triumphant. Consider, my child, all the things done by Nadab to his foster-father Ahikar. Was not Ahikar forced to go underground, though still a living man? But God made the criminal pay for his outrage before his victim's eyes, since Ahikar came back to the light of day, while Nadab went down to everlasting darkness in punishment for plotting against Ahikar's life. Because of his good works Ahikar escaped the deadly snare Nadab had laid for him, and Nadab fell into it to his own ruin.
Tob 14:11 So, my children, you see what comes of almsgiving, and what wickedness leads to, I mean to death. But now breath fails me.' They laid him back on his bed; he died and was buried with honor.
Tob 14:12 When his mother died, Tobias buried her beside his father. Then he left for Media with his wife and children. He lived in Ecbatana with Raguel, his father-in-law.
Tob 14:13 He treated the ageing parents of his wife with every care and respect, and later buried them in Ecbatana in Media. Tobias inherited the patrimony of Raguel besides that of his father Tobit.
Tob 14:14 Much honored, he lived to the age of a hundred and seventeen years.
Tob 14:15 Before he died he witnessed the ruin of Nineveh. He saw the Ninevites taken prisoner and deported to Media by Cyaxares king of Media. He blessed God for everything he inflicted on the Ninevites and Assyrians. Before his death he had the opportunity of rejoicing over the fate of Nineveh, and he blessed the Lord God for ever and ever. Amen.
Jdt 1:1 It was the twelfth year of Nebuchadnezzar who reigned over the Assyrians in the great city of Nineveh. Arphaxad was then reigning over the Medes in Ecbatana.
Jdt 1:2 He surrounded this city with walls of dressed stones three cubits thick and six cubits long, making the rampart seventy cubits high and fifty cubits wide.
Jdt 1:3 At the gates he placed towers one hundred cubits high and, at the foundations, sixty cubits wide,
Jdt 1:4 the gates themselves being seventy cubits high and forty wide to allow his forces to march out in a body and his infantry to parade freely.
Jdt 1:5 About this time King Nebuchadnezzar gave battle to King Arphaxad in the great plain lying in the territory of Ragae.
Jdt 1:6 Supporting him were all the peoples from the highlands, all from the Euphrates and Tigris and Hydaspes, and those from the plains who were subject to Arioch, king of the Elymaeans. Thus many nations had mustered to take part in the battle of the Cheleoudites.
Jdt 1:7 Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent a message to all the inhabitants of Persia, to all the inhabitants of the western countries, Cilicia, Damascus, Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, to all those along the coast,
Jdt 1:8 to the peoples of Carmel, Gilead, Upper Galilee, the great plain of Esdraelon,
Jdt 1:9 to the people of Samaria and its outlying towns, to those beyond Jordan, as far away as Jerusalem, Bethany, Chelous, Kadesh, the river of Egypt, Tahpanhes, Rameses and the whole territory of Goshen,
Jdt 1:10 beyond Tanis too and Memphis, and to all the inhabitants of Egypt as far as the frontiers of Ethiopia.
Jdt 1:11 But the inhabitants of these countries ignored the summons of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians and did not rally to him to make war. They were not afraid of him, since in their view he appeared isolated. Hence they sent his ambassadors back with nothing achieved and in disgrace.
Jdt 1:12 Nebuchadnezzar was furious with all these countries. He swore by his throne and kingdom to take revenge on all the territories of Cilicia, Damascus and Syria, of the Moabites and of the Ammonites, of Judaea and Egypt as far as the limits of the two seas, and to ravage them with the sword.
Jdt 1:13 In the seventeenth year, he gave battle with his whole army to King Arphaxad and in this battle defeated him. He routed Arphaxad's entire army and all his cavalry and chariots;
Jdt 1:14 he occupied his towns and advanced on Ecbatana; he seized its towers and plundered its market places, reducing its former magnificence to a mockery.
Jdt 1:15 He later captured Arphaxad in the mountains of Ragae and, thrusting him through with his spears, destroyed him once and for all.
Jdt 1:16 He then retired with his troops and all who had joined forces with him: a vast horde of armed men. Then he and his army gave themselves up to carefree feasting for a hundred and twenty days.
Jdt 2:1 In the eighteenth year, on the twenty-second day of the first month, a rumour ran through the palace that Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians was to have his revenge on all the countries, as he had threatened.
Jdt 2:2 Summoning his general staff and senior officers, he held a secret conference with them, and with his own lips pronounced utter destruction on the entire area.
Jdt 2:3 It was then decreed that everyone should be put to death who had not answered the king's appeal.
Jdt 2:4 When the council was over, Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians sent for Holofernes, general-in-chief of his armies and subordinate only to himself. He said to him,
Jdt 2:5 'Thus speaks the Great King, lord of the whole world, "Go; take men of proven valour, about a hundred and twenty thousand foot soldiers and a strong company of horse with twelve thousand cavalrymen;
Jdt 2:6 then advance against all the western lands, since these people have disregarded my call.
Jdt 2:7 Bid them have earth and water ready, because in my rage I am about to march on them; the feet of my soldiers will cover the whole face of the earth, and I shall plunder it.
Jdt 2:8 Their wounded will fill the valleys and the torrents, and rivers, blocked with their dead, will overflow.
Jdt 2:9 I shall lead them captive to the ends of the earth.
Jdt 2:10 Now go! Begin by conquering this whole region for me. If they surrender to you, hold them for me until the time comes to punish them.
Jdt 2:11 But if they resist, look on no one with clemency, hand them over to slaughter and plunder throughout the territory entrusted to you.
Jdt 2:12 For by my life and by the living power of my kingdom I have spoken. All this I shall do by my power.
Jdt 2:13 And you, neglect none of your master's commands, act strictly according to my orders without further delay." '
Jdt 2:14 Leaving the presence of his sovereign, Holofernes immediately summoned all the marshals, generals and officers of the Assyrian army
Jdt 2:15 and detailed the picked troops as his master had ordered, about a hundred and twenty thousand men and a further twelve thousand mounted archers.
Jdt 2:16 He organised these in the normal battle formation.
Jdt 2:17 He then secured vast numbers of camels, donkeys and mules to carry the baggage, and innumerable sheep, oxen and goats for food supplies.
Jdt 2:18 Every man received full rations and a generous sum of gold and silver from the king's purse.
Jdt 2:19 He then set out for the campaign with his whole army, in advance of King Nebuchadnezzar, to overwhelm the whole western region with his chariots, his horsemen and his picked body of foot.
Jdt 2:20 A motley gathering followed in his rear, as numerous as locusts or the grains of sand on the ground; there was no counting their multitude.
Jdt 2:21 Thus they set out from Nineveh and marched for three days towards the Plain of Bectileth. From Bectileth they went on to pitch camp near the mountains that lie to the north of Upper Cilicia.
Jdt 2:22 From there Holofernes advanced into the highlands with his whole army, infantry, horsemen, chariots.
Jdt 2:23 He cut his way through Put and Lud, carried away captive all the sons of Rassis and sons of Ishmael living on the verge of the desert south of Cheleon,
Jdt 2:24 marched along the Euphrates, crossed Mesopotamia, rased all the fortified towns controlling the Wadi Abron and reached the sea.
Jdt 2:25 Next he attacked the territories of Cilicia, butchering all who offered him resistance, advanced on the southern frontiers of Japheth, facing Arabia,
Jdt 2:26 completely encircled the Midianites, burned their tents and plundered their sheep-folds,
Jdt 2:27 made his way down to the Damascus plain at the time of the wheat harvest, set fire to the fields, destroyed the flocks and herds, sacked the towns, laid the countryside waste and put all the young men to the sword.
Jdt 2:28 Fear and trembling seized all the coastal peoples; those of Sidon and Tyre, those of Sur, Ocina and Jamnia. The populations of Azotos and Ascalon were panic-stricken.
Jdt 3:1 They therefore sent envoys to him to sue for peace, to say,
Jdt 3:2 'We are servants of the great King Nebuchadnezzar; we lie prostrate before you. Treat us as you think fit.
Jdt 3:3 Our cattle-farms, all our land, all our wheat fields, our flocks and herds, all the sheep-folds in our encampments are at your disposal. Do with them as you please.
Jdt 3:4 Our towns and their inhabitants too are at your service; go and treat them as you think fit.'
Jdt 3:5 These men came to Holofernes and delivered the message as above.
Jdt 3:6 He then made his way down to the coast with his army and stationed garrisons in all the fortified towns, levying outstanding men there as auxiliaries.
Jdt 3:7 The people of these cities and of all the other towns in the neighborhood welcomed him, wearing garlands and dancing to the sound of tambourines.
Jdt 3:8 But he demolished their shrines and cut down their sacred trees, carrying out his commission to destroy all local gods so that the nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar alone and people of every language and nationality should hail him as a god.
Jdt 3:9 Thus he reached the edge of Esdraelon, in the neighborhood of Dothan, a village facing the great ridge of Judaea.
Jdt 3:10 He pitched camp between Geba and Scythopolis and stayed there a full month to re-provision his forces.
Jdt 4:1 When the Israelites living in Judaea heard how Holofernes, general-in-chief of Nebuchadnezzar king of the Assyrians, had treated the various nations, plundering their temples and destroying them,
Jdt 4:2 they were thoroughly alarmed at his approach and trembled for Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord their God.
Jdt 4:3 They had returned from captivity only a short time before, and the resettlement of the people in Judaea and the reconsecration of the sacred furnishings, of the altar, and of the Temple, which had been profaned, were of recent date.
Jdt 4:4 They therefore alerted the whole of Samaria, Kona, Beth-Horon, Belmain, Jericho, Choba, Aesora and the Salem valley.
Jdt 4:5 They occupied the summits of the highest mountains and fortified the villages on them; they laid in supplies for the coming war, as the fields had just been harvested.
Jdt 4:6 Joakim the high priest, resident in Jerusalem at the time, wrote to the inhabitants of Bethulia and of Betomesthaim, two towns facing Esdraelon, towards the plain of Dothan.
Jdt 4:7 He ordered them to occupy the mountain passes, the only means of access to Judaea, for there it would be easy for them to halt an attacking force, the narrowness of the approach not allowing men to advance more than two abreast.
Jdt 4:8 The Israelites carried out the orders of Joakim the high priest and of the people's Council of Elders in session at Jerusalem.
Jdt 4:9 All the men of Israel cried most fervently to God and humbled themselves before him.
Jdt 4:10 They, their wives, their children, their cattle, all their resident aliens, hired or slave, wrapped sackcloth round their loins.
Jdt 4:11 All the Israelites in Jerusalem, including women and children, lay prostrate in front of the Temple, and with ashes on their heads stretched out their hands before the Lord.
Jdt 4:12 They draped the altar itself in sackcloth and fervently joined together in begging the God of Israel not to let their children be carried off, their wives distributed as booty, the towns of their heritage destroyed, the Temple profaned and desecrated for the heathen to gloat over.
Jdt 4:13 The Lord heard them and looked kindly on their distress. The people fasted for many days throughout Judaea as well as in Jerusalem before the sanctuary of the Lord Almighty.
Jdt 4:14 Joakim the high priest and all who stood before the Lord, the Lord's priests and ministers, wore sackcloth round their loins as they offered the perpetual burnt offering and the votive and voluntary offerings of the people.
Jdt 4:15 With ashes on their turbans they earnestly called on the Lord to look kindly on the House of Israel.
Jdt 5:1 Holofernes, general-in-chief of the Assyrian army, received the intelligence that the Israelites were preparing for war, that they had closed the mountain passes, fortified all the high peaks and laid obstructions in the plains.
Jdt 5:2 Holofernes was furious. He summoned all the princes of Moab, all the generals of Ammon and all the satraps of the coastal regions.
Jdt 5:3 'Men of Canaan,' he said, 'tell me: what people is this that occupies the hill-country? What towns does it inhabit? How large is its army? What are the sources of its power and strength? Who is the king who rules it and commands its army?
Jdt 5:4 Why have they disdained to wait on me, as all the western peoples have?'
Jdt 5:5 Achior, leader of all the Ammonites, replied, 'May my lord be pleased to listen to what your servant is going to say. I shall give you the facts about these mountain folk whose home lies close to you. You will hear no lie from the mouth of your servant.
Jdt 5:6 These people are descended from the Chaldaeans.
Jdt 5:7 They once came to live in Mesopotamia, because they did not want to follow the gods of their ancestors who lived in Chaldaea.
Jdt 5:8 They abandoned the way of their ancestors to worship the God of heaven, the God they learnt to acknowledge. Banished from the presence of their own gods, they fled to Mesopotamia where they lived for a long time.
Jdt 5:9 When God told them to leave their home and set out for Canaan, they settled there and accumulated gold and silver and great herds of cattle.
Jdt 5:10 Next, famine having overwhelmed the land of Canaan, they went down to Egypt where they stayed till they were well nourished. There they became a great multitude, a race beyond counting.
Jdt 5:11 But the king of Egypt turned against them and exploited them by forcing them to make bricks; he degraded them, reducing them to slavery.
Jdt 5:12 They cried to their God, who struck the entire land of Egypt with incurable plagues, and the Egyptians expelled them.
Jdt 5:13 God dried up the Red Sea before them
Jdt 5:14 and led them forward by way of Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea. Having driven off all the inhabitants of the desert,
Jdt 5:15 they settled in the land of the Amorites and in their strength exterminated the entire population of Heshbon. Then, having crossed the Jordan, they took possession of all the hill-country,
Jdt 5:16 driving out the Canaanites before them and the Perizzites, Jebusites, Shechemites and all the Girgashites, and lived there for many years.
Jdt 5:17 All the while they did not sin before their God, prosperity was theirs, for they have a God who hates wickedness.
Jdt 5:18 But when they turned from the path he had marked out for them some were exterminated in a series of battles, others were taken captive to a foreign land. The Temple of their God was rased to the ground and their towns were seized by their enemies.
Jdt 5:19 Then having turned once again to their God, they came back from the places to which they had been dispersed and scattered, regained possession of Jerusalem, where they have their Temple, and reoccupied the hill-country which had been left deserted.
Jdt 5:20 So, now, master and lord, if this people has committed any fault, if they have sinned against their God, let us first be sure that they really have this reason to fail, then advance and attack them.
Jdt 5:21 But if their nation is guiltless, my lord would do better to abstain, for fear that their Lord and God should protect them. We should then become the laughing-stock of the whole world.'
Jdt 5:22 When Achior had ended this speech, all the people crowding round the tent began protesting. Holofernes' own senior officers, as well as all the coastal peoples and the Moabites, threatened to tear him limb from limb.
Jdt 5:23 'Why should we be afraid of the Israelites? They are a weak and powerless people, quite unable to stand a stiff attack.
Jdt 5:24 Forward! Advance! Your army, Holofernes our master, will swallow them in one mouthful!'
Jdt 6:1 When the uproar of those crowding round the council had subsided, Holofernes, general-in-chief of the Assyrian army, reprimanded Achior in front of the whole crowd of foreigners and Ammonites.
Jdt 6:2 'Achior, who do you think you are, you and the Ephraimite mercenaries, playing the prophet like this with us today, and trying to dissuade us from making war on the people of Israel? You claim their God will protect them. And who is God if not Nebuchadnezzar? He himself will display his power and wipe them off the face of the earth, and their God will certainly not save them.
Jdt 6:3 But we, his servants, shall destroy them as easily as a single individual. They can never resist the strength of our cavalry.
Jdt 6:4 We shall burn them all. Their mountains will be drunk with their blood and their plains filled with their corpses. Far from being able to resist us, every one of them will die; thus says King Nebuchadnezzar, lord of the whole world. For he has spoken, and his words will not prove empty.
Jdt 6:5 As for you, Achior, you Ammonite mercenary, who in a rash moment said these words, you will not see my face again until the day when I have taken my revenge on this brood from Egypt.
Jdt 6:6 And then the swords of my soldiers and the spears of my officers will pierce your sides. You will fall among their wounded, the moment I turn on Israel.
Jdt 6:7 My servants will now take you into the hill-country and leave you near one of the towns in the passes;
Jdt 6:8 you will not die, until you share their ruin.
Jdt 6:9 No need to look so sad if you cherish the secret hope that they will not be captured! I have spoken; none of my words will prove idle.'
Jdt 6:10 Holofernes having commanded his tent-orderlies to seize Achior, to take him to Bethulia and to hand him over to the Israelites,
Jdt 6:11 the orderlies took him, escorted him out of the camp and across the plain, and then, making for the hill-country, reached the springs below Bethulia.
Jdt 6:12 As soon as the men of the town sighted them, they snatched up their weapons, left the town and made for the mountain tops, while all the slingers pelted them with stones to prevent them from coming up.
Jdt 6:13 However, they managed to take cover at the foot of the slope, where they bound Achior and left him lying at the bottom of the mountain and returned to their master.
Jdt 6:14 The Israelites then came down from their town, stopped by him, unbound him and took him to Bethulia, where they brought him before the chief men of the town,
Jdt 6:15 who at that time were Uzziah son of Micah of the tribe of Simeon, Chabris son of Gothoniel and Charmis son of Melchiel.
Jdt 6:16 These summoned all the elders of the town. The young men and the women also hurried to the assembly. Achior was made to stand with all the people surrounding him, and Uzziah questioned him about what had happened.
Jdt 6:17 He answered by telling them what had been said at Holofernes' council, and what he himself had said in the presence of the Assyrian leaders, and how Holofernes had bragged of what he would do to the House of Israel.
Jdt 6:18 At this the people fell to the ground and worshipped God.
Jdt 6:19 'Lord God of heaven,' they cried, 'take notice of their arrogance and have pity on the humiliation of our race. Look kindly today on those who are consecrated to you.'
Jdt 6:20 They then spoke reassuringly to Achior and praised him warmly.
Jdt 6:21 After the assembly Uzziah took him home and gave a banquet for the elders; all that night they called on the God of Israel for help.
Jdt 7:1 The following day Holofernes issued orders to his whole army and to the whole host of auxiliaries who had joined him, to break camp and march on Bethulia, to occupy the mountain passes and so open the campaign against the Israelites.
Jdt 7:2 The troops broke camp that same day. The actual fighting force numbered one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and twelve thousand cavalry, not to mention the baggage train with the vast number of men on foot concerned with that.
Jdt 7:3 They penetrated the valley in the neighborhood of Bethulia, near the spring, and deployed on a wide front from Dothan to Balbaim and, in depth, from Bethulia to Cyamon, which faces Esdraelon.
Jdt 7:4 When the Israelites saw this horde, they were all appalled and said to each other, 'Now they will lick the whole country clean. Not even the loftiest peaks, the gorges or the hills will be able to stand the weight of them.'
Jdt 7:5 Each man snatched up his arms; they lit beacons on their towers and spent the whole night on watch.
Jdt 7:6 On the second day Holofernes deployed his entire cavalry in sight of the Israelites in Bethulia.
Jdt 7:7 He reconnoitered the slopes leading up to the town, located the water-points, seized them and posted pickets over them and returned to the main body.
Jdt 7:8 The chieftains of the sons of Esau, all the leaders of the Moabites and the generals of the coastal district then came to him and said,
Jdt 7:9 'If our master will be pleased to listen to us, his forces will not sustain a single wound.
Jdt 7:10 These Israelites do not rely so much on their spears as on the height of the mountains where they live. And admittedly it is not at all easy to scale these heights of theirs.
Jdt 7:11 'This being the case, master, avoid engaging them in a pitched battle and then you will not lose a single man.
Jdt 7:12 Stay in camp, keep all your troops there too, while your servants seize the spring which rises at the foot of the mountain,
Jdt 7:13 since that is what provides the population of Bethulia with their water supply. Thirst will then force them to surrender their town. Meanwhile, we and our men will climb the nearest mountain tops and form advance posts there to prevent anyone from leaving the town.
Jdt 7:14 Hunger will waste them, with their wives and children, and before the sword can reach them they will already be lying in the streets outside their houses.
Jdt 7:15 And you will make them pay dearly for their defiance and their refusal to meet you peaceably.'
Jdt 7:16 Their words pleased Holofernes as well as all his officers, and he decided to do as they suggested.
Jdt 7:17 Accordingly, a troop of Moabites moved forward with a further five thousand Assyrians. They penetrated the valley and seized the Israelites' waterpoints and springs.
Jdt 7:18 Meanwhile the Edomites and Ammonites went and took up positions in the highlands opposite Dothan, sending some of their men to the south-east opposite Egrebel near Chous on the Wadi Mochmur. The rest of the Assyrian army took up positions in the plain, covering every inch of the ground; their tents and equipment made an immense encampment, so vast were their numbers.
Jdt 7:19 The Israelites called on the Lord their God, dispirited because the enemy had surrounded them and cut all line of retreat.
Jdt 7:20 For thirty-four days the Assyrian army, infantry, chariots, cavalrymen, had them surrounded. Every water-jar the inhabitants of Bethulia had was empty,
Jdt 7:21 their storage-wells were drying up; on no day could a man drink his fill, since their water was rationed.
Jdt 7:22 Their little children pined away, the women and young men grew weak with thirst; they collapsed in the streets and gateways of the town; they had no strength left.
Jdt 7:23 Young men, women, children, the whole people thronged clamouring round Uzziah and the chief men of the town, shouting in the presence of the assembled elders,
Jdt 7:24 'May God be judge between you and us! For you have done us great harm, by not suing for peace with the Assyrians.
Jdt 7:25 And now there is no one to help us. God has delivered us into their hands to be prostrated before them in thirst and utter helplessness.
Jdt 7:26 Call them in at once; hand the whole town over to be sacked by Holofernes' men and all his army.
Jdt 7:27 After all, we should be much better off as their booty than we are now; no doubt we shall be enslaved, but at least we shall be alive and not see our little ones dying before our eyes or our wives and children perishing.
Jdt 7:28 By heaven and earth and by our God, the Lord of our fathers, who is punishing us for our sins and the sins of our ancestors, we implore you to take this course now, today.'
Jdt 7:29 Bitter lamentations rose from the whole assembly, and they all cried loudly to the Lord God.
Jdt 7:30 Then Uzziah spoke to them, 'Take heart, brothers! Let us hold out five days more. By then the Lord our God will take pity on us, for he will not desert us altogether.
Jdt 7:31 At the end of this time, if no help is forthcoming, I shall do as you have said.'
Jdt 7:32 With that he dismissed the people to their various quarters. The men went to man the walls and towers of the town, sending the women and children home. The town was full of despondency.
Jdt 8:1 Judith was informed at the time of what had happened. She was the daughter of Merari son of Ox, son of Joseph, son of Oziel, son of Elkiah, son of Ananias, son of Gideon, son of Raphaim, son of Ahitub, son of Elijah, son of Hilkiah, son of Eliab, son of Nathanael, son of Salamiel, son of Sarasadai, son of Israel.
Jdt 8:2 Her husband Manasseh, of her own tribe and family, had died at the time of the barley harvest.
Jdt 8:3 He was supervising the men as they bound up the sheaves in the field when he caught sunstroke and had to take to his bed. He died in Bethulia, his home town, and was buried with his ancestors in the field that lies between Dothan and Balamon.
Jdt 8:4 As a widow, Judith stayed inside her home for three years and four months.
Jdt 8:5 She had had an upper room built for herself on the roof. She wore sackcloth next to the skin and dressed in widow's weeds.
Jdt 8:6 She fasted every day of her widowhood except for the Sabbath eve, the Sabbath itself, the eve of New Moon, the feast of New Moon and the joyful festivals of the House of Israel.
Jdt 8:7 Now she was very beautiful, charming to see. Her husband Manasseh had left her gold and silver, menservants and maidservants, herds and land; and she lived among all her possessions
Jdt 8:8 without anyone finding a word to say against her, so devoutly did she fear God.
Jdt 8:9 Hearing how the water shortage had demoralised the people and how they had complained bitterly to the headman of the town, and being also told what Uzziah had said to them and how he had given them his oath to surrender the town to the Assyrians in five days' time,
Jdt 8:10 Judith immediately sent the serving-woman who ran her household to summon Chabris and Charmis, two elders of the town.
Jdt 8:11 When these came in she said: 'Listen to me, leaders of the people of Bethulia. You were wrong to speak to the people as you did today and to bind yourself by oath, in defiance of God, to surrender the town to our enemies if the Lord did not come to your help within a set number of days.
Jdt 8:12 Who are you, to put God to the test today, you, of all people, to set yourselves above him?
Jdt 8:13 You put the Lord Almighty to the test! You do not understand anything, and never will.
Jdt 8:14 If you cannot sound the depths of the human heart or unravel the arguments of the human mind, how can you fathom the God who made all things, or sound his mind or unravel his purposes? No, brothers, do not provoke the anger of the Lord our God.
Jdt 8:15 Although it may not be his will to help us within the next five days, he has the power to protect us for as many days as he pleases, just as he has the power to destroy us before our enemies.
Jdt 8:16 But you have no right to demand guarantees where the designs of the Lord our God are concerned. For God is not to be threatened as a human being is, nor is he, like a mere human, to be cajoled.
Jdt 8:17 Rather, as we wait patiently for him to save, let us plead with him to help us. He will hear our voice if such is his good pleasure.
Jdt 8:18 'And indeed of recent times and still today there is not one tribe of ours, or family, or village, or town that has worshipped gods made by human hand, as once was done,
Jdt 8:19 which was the reason why our ancestors were delivered over to sword and sack, and perished in misery at the hands of our enemies.
Jdt 8:20 We for our part acknowledge no other God but him; and so we may hope he will not look on us disdainfully or desert our nation.
Jdt 8:21 'If indeed they capture us, as you expect, then all Judaea will be captured too, and our holy places plundered, and we shall answer with our blood for their profanation.
Jdt 8:22 The slaughter of our brothers, the captivity of our country, the unpeopling of our heritage, will recoil on our own heads among the nations whose slaves we shall become, and our new masters will look down on us as an outrage and a disgrace;
Jdt 8:23 for our surrender will not reinstate us in their favor; no, the Lord our God will make it a thing to be ashamed of.
Jdt 8:24 So now, brothers, let us set an example to our brothers, since their lives depend on us, and the sanctuary -- Temple and altar -- rests on us.
Jdt 8:25 'All this being so, let us rather give thanks to the Lord our God who, as he tested our ancestors, is now testing us.
Jdt 8:26 Remember how he treated Abraham, all the ordeals of Isaac, all that happened to Jacob in Syrian Mesopotamia while he kept the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother.
Jdt 8:27 For as these ordeals were intended by him to search their hearts, so now this is not vengeance that God is exacting on us, but a warning inflicted by the Lord on those who are near his heart.'
Jdt 8:28 Uzziah replied, 'Everything you have just said comes from an honest heart and no one will contradict a word of it.
Jdt 8:29 Not that today is the first time your wisdom has been displayed; from your earliest years all the people have known how shrewd you are and of how sound a heart.
Jdt 8:30 But, parched with thirst, the people forced us to act as we had promised them and to bind ourselves by an inviolable oath.
Jdt 8:31 You are a devout woman; pray to the Lord, then, to send us a downpour to fill our storage-wells, so that our faintness may pass.'
Jdt 8:32 Judith replied, 'Listen to me, I intend to do something, the memory of which will be handed down to the children of our race from age to age.
Jdt 8:33 Tonight you must be at the gate of the town. I shall make my way out with my attendant. Before the time fixed by you for surrendering the town to our enemies, the Lord will make use of me to rescue Israel.
Jdt 8:34 You must not ask what I intend to do; I shall not tell you until I have done it.'
Jdt 8:35 Uzziah and the chief men said, 'Go in peace. May the Lord show you a way to take revenge on our enemies.'
Jdt 8:36 And leaving the upper room they went back to their posts.
Jdt 9:1 Judith threw herself face to the ground, scattered ashes on her head, undressed as far as the sackcloth she was wearing and cried loudly to the Lord. At the same time in Jerusalem the evening incense was being offered in the Temple of God. Judith said:
Jdt 9:2 Lord, God of my ancestor Simeon, you armed him with a sword to take vengeance on the foreigners who had undone a virgin's belt to her shame, laid bare her thigh to her confusion, violated her womb to her dishonor, since, though you said, 'This must not be,' they did it.
Jdt 9:3 For this you handed their leaders over to slaughter, and their bed, defiled by their treachery, was itself betrayed in blood. You struck the slaves with the chieftains and the chieftains with their retainers.
Jdt 9:4 You left their wives to be carried off, their daughters to be taken captive, and their spoils to be shared out among the sons you loved, who had been so zealous for you, had loathed the stain put on their blood and called on you for help. O God, my God, now hear this widow too;
Jdt 9:5 for you have made the past, and what is happening now, and what will follow. What is, what will be, you have planned; what has been, you designed.
Jdt 9:6 Your purposes stood forward; 'See, here we are!' they said. For all your ways are prepared and your judgements delivered with foreknowledge.
Jdt 9:7 See the Assyrians, with their army abounding glorying in their horses and their riders, exulting in the strength of their infantry. Trust as they may in shield and spear, in bow and sling, in you they have not recognized the Lord, the breaker of battle-lines;
Jdt 9:8 yours alone is the title of Lord. Break their violence with your might, in your anger bring down their strength. For they plan to profane your holy places, to defile the tabernacle, the resting place of your glorious name, and to hack down the horn of your altar.
Jdt 9:9 Observe their arrogance, send your fury on their heads, give the strength I have in mind to this widow's hand.
Jdt 9:10 By guile of my lips strike down slave with master, and master with retainer. Break their pride by a woman's hand.
Jdt 9:11 Your strength does not lie in numbers, nor your might in strong men; since you are the God of the humble, the help of the oppressed, the support of the weak, the refuge of the forsaken, the Savior of the despairing.
Jdt 9:12 Please, please, God of my father, God of the heritage of Israel, Master of heaven and earth, Creator of the waters, King of your whole creation, hear my prayer.
Jdt 9:13 Give me a beguiling tongue to wound and kill those who have formed such cruel designs against your covenant, against your holy dwelling-place, against Mount Zion, against the house belonging to your sons.
Jdt 9:14 And demonstrate to every nation, every tribe, that you are the Lord, God of all power, all might, and that the race of Israel has no protector but you.
Jdt 10:1 Thus Judith called on the God of Israel. When she had finished praying,
Jdt 10:2 she got up from the floor, summoned her maid and went down into the rooms which she used on Sabbath days and festivals.
Jdt 10:3 There she removed the sackcloth she was wearing and taking off her widow's dress, she washed all over, anointed herself plentifully with perfumes, dressed her hair, wrapped a turban round it and put on the robe of joy she used to wear when her husband Manasseh was alive.
Jdt 10:4 She put sandals on her feet, put on her necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings and all her jewellery, and made herself beautiful enough to beguile the eye of any man who saw her.
Jdt 10:5 Then she handed her maid a skin of wine and a flask of oil, filled a bag with barley girdle-cakes, cakes of dried fruit and pure loaves, and wrapping all these provisions up gave them to her as well.
Jdt 10:6 They then went out, making for the town gate of Bethulia. There they found Uzziah waiting with the two elders of the town, Chabris and Charmis.
Jdt 10:7 When they saw Judith, her face so changed and her clothes so different, they were lost in admiration of her beauty. They said to her:
Jdt 10:8 May the God of our ancestors keep you in his favor! May he crown your designs with success to the glory of the children of Israel, to the greater glory of Jerusalem!
Jdt 10:9 Judith worshipped God, and then she said, 'Have the town gate opened for me so that I can go out and fulfill all the wishes you expressed to me.' They did as she asked and gave orders to the young men to open the gate for her.
Jdt 10:10 This done, Judith went out accompanied by her maid, while the men of the town watched her all the way down the mountain and across the valley, until they lost sight of her.
Jdt 10:11 As the women were making straight through the valley, an advance unit of Assyrians intercepted them,
Jdt 10:12 and, seizing Judith, began to question her. 'Which side are you on? Where do you come from? Where are you going?' 'I am a daughter of the Hebrews,' she replied, 'and I am fleeing from them since they will soon be your prey.
Jdt 10:13 I am on my way to see Holofernes, the general of your army, to give him trustworthy information. I shall show him the road to take if he wants to capture all the hill-country without losing one man or one life.'
Jdt 10:14 As the men listened to what she was saying, they stared in astonishment at the sight of such a beautiful woman.
Jdt 10:15 'It will prove the saving of you,' they said to her, 'coming down to see our master of your own accord. You had better go to his tent; some of our men will escort you and hand you over to him.
Jdt 10:16 Once you are in his presence do not be afraid. Tell him what you have just told us and you will be well treated.'
Jdt 10:17 They then detailed a hundred of their men as escort for herself and her attendant, and these led them to the tent of Holofernes.
Jdt 10:18 News of her coming had already spread through the tents, and there was a general stir in the camp. She was still outside the tent of Holofernes waiting to be announced, when a crowd began forming round her.
Jdt 10:19 They were immediately impressed by her beauty and impressed with the Israelites because of her. 'Who could despise a people who have women like this?' they kept saying. 'Better not leave one of them alive; let any go and they could twist the whole world round their fingers!'
Jdt 10:20 The bodyguard and adjutants of Holofernes then came out and led Judith into the tent.
Jdt 10:21 Holofernes was resting on his bed under a canopy of purple and gold studded with emeralds and precious stones.
Jdt 10:22 The men announced her and he came out to the entrance to the tent, with silver torches carried before him.
Jdt 10:23 When Judith confronted the general and his adjutant, the beauty of her face astonished them all. She fell on her face and did homage to him, but his servants raised her from the ground.
Jdt 11:1 'Courage, woman,' Holofernes said, 'do not be afraid. I have never hurt anyone who chose to serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of the whole world.
Jdt 11:2 Even now, if your nation of mountain dwellers had not insulted me, I would not have raised a spear against them. This was their fault, not mine.
Jdt 11:3 But tell me, why have you fled from them and come to us? . . . Anyhow, this will prove the saving of you. Courage! You will live through this night, and many after.
Jdt 11:4 No one will hurt you. On the contrary, you will be treated as well as any who serve my lord King Nebuchadnezzar.'
Jdt 11:5 Judith said, 'Please listen favorably to what your slave has to say. Permit your servant to speak in your presence, I shall speak no word of a lie to my lord tonight.
Jdt 11:6 You have only to follow your servant's advice and God will bring your work to a successful conclusion; in what my lord undertakes he will not fail.
Jdt 11:7 Long life to Nebuchadnezzar, king of the whole world, who has sent you to set every living soul to rights; may his power endure! Since, thanks to you, he is served not only by human beings, but because of your might the wild animals themselves, the cattle, and the birds of the air are to live in the service of Nebuchadnezzar and his whole House.
Jdt 11:8 'We have indeed heard of your genius and adroitness of mind. It is known everywhere in the world that throughout the empire you have no rival for ability, wealth of experience and brilliance in waging war.
Jdt 11:9 We have also heard what Achior said in his speech to your council. The men of Bethulia having spared him, he has told them everything that he said to you.
Jdt 11:10 Now, master and lord, do not disregard what he said; keep it in your mind, since it is true; our nation will not be punished, the sword will indeed have no power over them, unless they sin against their God.
Jdt 11:11 But as it is, my lord need expect no repulse or setback, since death is about to fall on their heads, for sin has gained a hold over them, provoking the anger of their God each time that they commit it.
Jdt 11:12 As they are short of food and their water is giving out, they have resolved to fall back on their cattle and decided to make use of all the things that God has, by his laws, forbidden them to eat.
Jdt 11:13 Not only have they made up their minds to eat the first-fruits of corn and the tithes of wine and oil, though these have been consecrated by them and set apart for the priests who serve in Jerusalem in the presence of our God, and may not lawfully even be handled by ordinary people,
Jdt 11:14 but they have sent men to Jerusalem -- where the inhabitants are doing much the same -- to bring them back authorisation from the Council of Elders.
Jdt 11:15 Now this will be the outcome: when the permission arrives and they act on it, that very day they will be delivered over to you for destruction.
Jdt 11:16 'When I, your servant, came to know all this, I fled from them. God has sent me to do things with you at which the world will be astonished when it hears.
Jdt 11:17 Your servant is a devout woman; she honors the God of heaven day and night. I therefore propose, my lord, to stay with you. I, your servant, shall go out every night into the valley and pray to God to let me know when they have committed their sin.
Jdt 11:18 I shall then come and tell you, so that you can march out with your whole army; and none of them will be able to resist you.
Jdt 11:19 I shall be your guide right across Judaea until you reach Jerusalem; there I shall enthrone you in the very middle of the city. And then you can round them up like shepherd-less sheep, with never a dog daring to bark at you. Foreknowledge tells me this; this has been foretold to me and I have been sent to reveal it to you.'
Jdt 11:20 Her words pleased Holofernes, and all his adjutants. Full of admiration at her wisdom they exclaimed,
Jdt 11:21 'There is no woman like her from one end of the earth to the other, so lovely of face and so wise of speech!'
Jdt 11:22 Holofernes said, 'God has done well to send you ahead of the others. Strength will be ours, and ruin theirs who have insulted my lord.
Jdt 11:23 As for you, you are as beautiful as you are eloquent; if you do as you have promised, your God shall be my God, and you yourself shall make your home in the palace of King Nebuchadnezzar and be famous throughout the world.'
Jdt 12:1 With that he had her brought in to where his silver dinner service was already laid, and had his own food served to her and his own wine poured out for her.
Jdt 12:2 But Judith said, 'I would rather not eat this, in case I incur some fault. What I have brought will be enough for me.'
Jdt 12:3 'Suppose your provisions run out,' Holofernes asked, 'how could we get more of the same sort? We have no one belonging to your race here.'
Jdt 12:4 'May your soul live, my lord,' Judith answered, 'the Lord will have used me to accomplish his plan, before your servant has finished these provisions.'
Jdt 12:5 Holofernes' adjutants then took her to a tent where she slept until midnight. A little before the morning watch, she got up.
Jdt 12:6 She had already sent this request to Holofernes, 'Let my lord kindly give orders for your servant to be allowed to go out and pray,'
Jdt 12:7 and Holofernes had ordered his guards not to prevent her. She stayed in the camp for three days; she went out each night to the valley of Bethulia and washed at the spring where the picket had been posted.
Jdt 12:8 As she went she prayed to the Lord God of Israel to guide her in her plan to relieve the children of her people.
Jdt 12:9 Having purified herself, she would return and stay in her tent until her meal was brought her in the evening.
Jdt 12:10 On the fourth day Holofernes gave a banquet, inviting only his own staff and none of the other officers.
Jdt 12:11 He said to Bagoas, the officer in charge of his personal affairs, 'Go and persuade that Hebrew woman you are looking after to come and join us and eat and drink in our company.
Jdt 12:12 We shall be disgraced if we let a woman like this go without seducing her. If we do not seduce her, everyone will laugh at us!'
Jdt 12:13 Bagoas then left Holofernes and went to see Judith. 'Would this young and lovely woman condescend to come to my lord?' he asked. 'She will occupy the seat of honor opposite him, drink the joyful wine with us and be treated today like one of the Assyrian ladies who stand in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.'
Jdt 12:14 'Who am I', Judith replied, 'to resist my lord? I shall not hesitate to do whatever he wishes, and doing this will be my joy to my dying day.'
Jdt 12:15 So she got up and put on her dress and all her feminine adornments. Her maid preceded her, and on the floor in front of Holofernes spread the fleece which Bagoas had given Judith for her daily use to lie on as she ate.
Jdt 12:16 Judith came in and took her place. The heart of Holofernes was ravished at the sight; his very soul was stirred. He was seized with a violent desire to sleep with her; and indeed since the first day he saw her, he had been waiting for an opportunity to seduce her.
Jdt 12:17 'Drink then!' Holofernes said. 'Enjoy yourself with us!'
Jdt 12:18 'I am delighted to do so, my lord, for since my birth I have never felt my life more worthwhile than today.'
Jdt 12:19 She took what her maid had prepared, and ate and drank facing him.
Jdt 12:20 Holofernes was so enchanted with her that he drank far more wine than he had drunk on any other day in his life.
Jdt 13:1 It grew late and his staff hurried away. Bagoas closed the tent from the outside, having shown out those who still lingered in his lord's presence. They went to their beds wearied with too much drinking,
Jdt 13:2 and Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes who had collapsed wine-sodden on his bed.
Jdt 13:3 Judith then told her maid to stay just outside the bedroom and wait for her to come out, as she did every morning. She had let it be understood she would be going out to her prayers and had also spoken of her intention to Bagoas.
Jdt 13:4 By now everyone had left Holofernes, and no one, either important or unimportant, was left in the bedroom. Standing beside the bed, Judith murmured to herself: Lord God, to whom all strength belongs, prosper what my hands are now to do for the greater glory of Jerusalem;
Jdt 13:5 now is the time to recover your heritage and to further my plans to crush the enemies arrayed against us.
Jdt 13:6 With that she went up to the bedpost by Holofernes' head and took down his scimitar;
Jdt 13:7 coming closer to the bed she caught him by the hair and said, 'Make me strong today, Lord God of Israel!'
Jdt 13:8 Twice she struck at his neck with all her might, and cut off his head.
Jdt 13:9 She then rolled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the bedposts. After which, she went out and gave the head of Holofernes to her maid
Jdt 13:10 who put it in her food bag. The two then left the camp together, as they always did when they went to pray. Once they were out of the camp, they skirted the ravine, climbed the slope to Bethulia and made for the gates.
Jdt 13:11 From a distance, Judith shouted to the guards on the gates, 'Open the gate! Open! For the Lord our God is with us still, displaying his strength in Israel and his might against our enemies, as he has done today!'
Jdt 13:12 Hearing her voice, the townsmen hurried down to the town gate and summoned the elders.
Jdt 13:13 Everyone, great and small, came running down, since her arrival was unexpected. They threw the gate open, welcomed the women, lit a fire to see by and crowded round them.
Jdt 13:14 Then Judith raised her voice and said, 'Praise God! Praise him! Praise the God who has not withdrawn his mercy from the House of Israel, but has shattered our enemies by my hand tonight!'
Jdt 13:15 She pulled the head out of the bag and held it for them to see. 'This is the head of Holofernes, general-in-chief of the Assyrian army; here is the canopy under which he lay drunk! The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman!
Jdt 13:16 Glory to the Lord who has protected me in the course I took! My face seduced him, only to his own undoing; he committed no sin with me to shame me or disgrace me.'
Jdt 13:17 Overcome with emotion, the people all prostrated themselves and worshipped God, exclaiming with one voice, 'Blessings on you, our God, for confounding your people's enemies today!'
Jdt 13:18 Uzziah then said to Judith: May you be blessed, my daughter, by God Most High, beyond all women on earth; and blessed be the Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth, who guided you to cut off the head of the leader of our enemies!
Jdt 13:19 The trust which you have shown will not pass from human hearts, as they commemorate the power of God for evermore.
Jdt 13:20 God grant you may be always held in honor and rewarded with blessings, since you did not consider your own life when our nation was brought to its knees, but warded off our ruin, walking in the right path before our God. And the people all said, 'Amen! Amen!'
Jdt 14:1 Judith said, 'Listen to me, brothers. Take this head and hang it on your battlements.
Jdt 14:2 When morning comes and the sun is up, let every man take his arms and every able-bodied man leave the town. Appoint a leader for them, as if you meant to march down to the plain against the Assyrian advanced post. But you must not do this.
Jdt 14:3 The Assyrians will gather up their equipment, make for their camp and wake up their commanders; they in turn will rush to the tent of Holofernes and not be able to find him. They will then be seized with panic and flee at your advance.
Jdt 14:4 All you and the others who live in the territory of Israel will have to do is to give chase and slaughter them as they retreat.
Jdt 14:5 'But before you do this, call me Achior the Ammonite, for him to see and identify the man who held the House of Israel in contempt, the man who sent him to us as someone already doomed to die.'
Jdt 14:6 So they had Achior brought from Uzziah's house. No sooner had he arrived and seen the head of Holofernes held by a member of the people's assembly than he fell on his face in a faint.
Jdt 14:7 They lifted him up. He then threw himself at Judith's feet and, prostrate before her, exclaimed: May you be blessed in all the tents of Judah and in every nation; those who hear your name will be seized with dread!
Jdt 14:8 'Now tell me everything that you have done in these past few days.' And surrounded by the people, Judith told him everything she had done from the day she left Bethulia to the moment when she was speaking.
Jdt 14:9 When she came to the end, the people cheered at the top of their voices until the town echoed.
Jdt 14:10 Achior, recognising all that the God of Israel had done, believed ardently in him and, accepting circumcision, was permanently incorporated into the House of Israel.
Jdt 14:11 At daybreak they hung the head of Holofernes on the ramparts. Every man took his arms and they all went out in groups to the slopes of the mountain.
Jdt 14:12 Seeing this, the Assyrians sent word to their leaders, who in turn reported to the generals, the captains of thousands and all the other officers;
Jdt 14:13 and these in their turn reported to the tent of Holofernes. 'Rouse our master,' they said to his major-domo, 'these slaves have dared to march down on us to attack -- and to be wiped out to a man!'
Jdt 14:14 Bagoas went inside and struck the curtain dividing the tent, thinking that Holofernes was sleeping with Judith.
Jdt 14:15 But as no one seemed to hear, he drew the curtain and went into the bedroom, to find him thrown down dead on the threshold, with his head cut off.
Jdt 14:16 He gave a great shout, wept, sobbed, shrieked and rent his clothes.
Jdt 14:17 He then went into the tent which Judith had occupied and could not find her either. Then, rushing out to the men, he shouted,
Jdt 14:18 'The slaves have rebelled! A single Hebrew woman has brought shame on the House of Nebuchadnezzar. Holofernes is lying dead on the ground, without his head!'
Jdt 14:19 When they heard this, the leaders of the Assyrian army tore their tunics in consternation, and the camp rang with their wild cries and their shouting.
Jdt 15:1 When the men who were still in their tents heard the news they were appalled.
Jdt 15:2 Panic-stricken and trembling, no two of them could keep together, the rout was complete, with one accord they fled along every track across the plain or through the mountains.
Jdt 15:3 The men who had been bivouacking in the mountains round Bethulia were fleeing too. Then all the Israelite warriors charged down on them.
Jdt 15:4 Uzziah sent messengers to Betomasthaim, Bebai, Choba, Kola, throughout the whole territory of Israel, to inform them of what had happened and to urge them all to hurl themselves on the enemy and annihilate them.
Jdt 15:5 As soon as the Israelites heard the news, they fell on them as one man and massacred them all the way to Choba. The men of Jerusalem and the entire mountain country also rallied to them, once they had been informed of the events in the enemy camp. Then the men of Gilead and Galilee attacked them on the flank and struck at them fiercely till they neared Damascus and its territory.
Jdt 15:6 All the other inhabitants of Bethulia fell on the Assyrian camp and looted it to their great profit.
Jdt 15:7 The Israelites returning from the slaughter seized what was left. The hamlets and villages of the mountain country and the plain also captured a great deal of booty, since there were vast stores of it.
Jdt 15:8 Joakim the high priest and the entire Council of Elders of Israel, who were in Jerusalem, came to gaze on the benefits that the Lord had lavished on Israel and to see Judith and congratulate her.
Jdt 15:9 On coming to her house, they blessed her with one accord, saying: You are the glory of Jerusalem! You are the great pride of Israel! You are the highest honor of our race!
Jdt 15:10 By doing all this with your own hand you have deserved well of Israel, and God has approved what you have done. May you be blessed by the Lord Almighty in all the days to come! And the people all said, 'Amen!'
Jdt 15:11 The people looted the camp for thirty days. They gave Judith the tent of Holofernes, all his silver plate, his divans, his drinking bowls and all his furniture. She took this, loaded her mule, harnessed her carts and heaped the things into them.
Jdt 15:12 All the women of Israel, hurrying to see her, formed choirs of dancers in her honor. Judith took wands of vine-leaves in her hand and distributed them to the women who accompanied her;
Jdt 15:13 she and her companions put on wreaths of olive. Then she took her place at the head of the procession and led the women as they danced. All the men of Israel, armed and garlanded, followed them, singing hymns.
Jdt 15:14 With all Israel round her, Judith broke into this song of thanksgiving and the whole people sang this hymn:
Jdt 16:1 Break into song for my God, to the tambourine, sing in honor of the Lord, to the cymbal, let psalm and canticle mingle for him, extol his name, invoke it!
Jdt 16:2 For the Lord is a God who breaks battle-lines; he has pitched his camp in the middle of his people to deliver me from the hands of my oppressors.
Jdt 16:3 Assyria came down from the mountains of the north, came with tens of thousands of his army. Their multitude blocked the ravines, their horses covered the hills.
Jdt 16:4 He threatened to burn up my country, destroy my young men with the sword, dash my sucklings to the ground, make prey of my little ones, carry off my maidens;
Jdt 16:5 but the Lord Almighty has thwarted them by a woman's hand.
Jdt 16:6 For their hero did not fall at the young men's hands, it was not the sons of Titans struck him down, no proud giants made that attack, but Judith, the daughter of Merari, who disarmed him with the beauty of her face.
Jdt 16:7 She laid aside her widow's dress to raise up those who were oppressed in Israel; she anointed her face with perfume,
Jdt 16:8 bound her hair under a turban, put on a linen gown to seduce him.
Jdt 16:9 Her sandal ravished his eye, her beauty took his soul prisoner and the scimitar cut through his neck!
Jdt 16:10 The Persians trembled at her boldness, the Medes were daunted by her daring.
Jdt 16:11 These were struck with fear when my lowly ones raised the war cry, these were seized with terror when my weak ones shouted, and when they raised their voices these gave ground.
Jdt 16:12 The children of mere girls ran them through, pierced them like the offspring of deserters. They perished in the battle of my Lord!
Jdt 16:13 I shall sing a new song to my God. Lord, you are great, you are glorious, wonderfully strong, unconquerable.
Jdt 16:14 May your whole creation serve you! For you spoke and things came into being, you sent your breath and they were put together, and no one can resist your voice.
Jdt 16:15 Should mountains be tossed from their foundations to mingle with the waves, should rocks melt like wax before your face, to those who fear you, you would still be merciful.
Jdt 16:16 A little thing indeed is a sweetly smelling sacrifice, still less the fat burned for you in burnt offering; but whoever fears the Lord is great for ever.
Jdt 16:17 Woe to the nations who rise against my race! The Lord Almighty will punish them on judgement day. He will send fire and worms in their flesh and they will weep with pain for evermore.
Jdt 16:18 When they reached Jerusalem they fell on their faces before God and, once the people had been purified, they presented their burnt offerings, voluntary offerings and gifts.
Jdt 16:19 All Holofernes' property given her by the people, and the canopy she herself had stripped from his bed, Judith vowed to God as a dedicated offering.
Jdt 16:20 For three months the people gave themselves up to rejoicings in front of the Temple in Jerusalem, where Judith stayed with them.
Jdt 16:21 When this was over, everyone returned home. Judith went back to Bethulia and lived on her property; as long as she lived, she enjoyed a great reputation throughout the country.
Jdt 16:22 She had many suitors, but all her days, from the time her husband Manasseh died and was gathered to his people, she never gave herself to another man.
Jdt 16:23 Her fame spread more and more, the older she grew in her husband's house; she lived to the age of one hundred and five. She emancipated her maid, then died in Bethulia and was buried in the cave where Manasseh her husband lay.
Jdt 16:24 The House of Israel mourned her for seven days. Before her death she had distributed her property among her own relations and those of her husband Manasseh.
Jdt 16:25 Never again during the lifetime of Judith, nor indeed for a long time after her death, did anyone trouble the Israelites.
Est 1:1 It was in the days of Ahasuerus, the Ahasuerus whose empire stretched from India to Ethiopia and comprised one hundred and twenty-seven provinces. (a) In the second year of the reign of the Great King, Ahasuerus, on the first day of Nisan, a dream came to Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin, (b) a Jew living at Susa and holding high office at the royal court. (c) He was one of the captives whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported from Jerusalem with Jeconiah king of Judah. (d) This was his dream. There were cries and noise, thunder and earthquakes, and disorder over the whole earth. (e) Then two great dragons came forward, each ready for the fray, and set up a great roar. (f) At the sound of them every nation made ready to wage war against the nation of the just. (g) A day of darkness and gloom, of affliction and distress, oppression and great disturbance on earth! (h) The entire upright nation was thrown into consternation at the fear of the evils awaiting it and prepared for death, crying out to God. (i) Then from its cry, as from a little spring, there grew a great river, a flood of water. (j) Light came as the sun rose, and the humble were raised up and devoured the mighty. (k) On awakening from this dream and vision of God's designs, Mordecai thought deeply about the matter, trying his best all day to discover what its meaning might be. (l) Mordecai was lodging at court with Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs who guarded the palace. (m) Having got wind of their plotting and gained knowledge of their designs, he discovered that they were preparing to assassinate King Ahasuerus, and he warned the king against them. (n) The king gave orders for the two officers to be tortured; they confessed and were executed. (o) He then had these events entered in his Record Book, while Mordecai himself also wrote an account of them. (p) The king then appointed Mordecai to an office at court and rewarded him with presents. (q) But Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, who enjoyed high favor with the king, determined to injure Mordecai in revenge for the affair of the king's two officers.
Est 1:2 In those days, when King Ahasuerus was sitting on his royal throne in the citadel of Susa,
Est 1:3 in the third year of his reign, he gave a banquet at his court for all his officers-of-state and ministers, Persian and Median army-commanders, nobles and provincial governors.
Est 1:4 Thus he displayed the riches and splendor of his empire and the pomp and glory of his majesty; the festivities went on for a long time, a hundred and eighty days.
Est 1:5 When this period was over, for seven days the king gave a banquet for all the people living in the citadel of Susa, to high and low alike, on the esplanade in the gardens of the royal palace.
Est 1:6 There were white and violet hangings fastened with cords of fine linen and purple thread to silver rings on marble columns, couches of gold and silver on a pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and precious stones.
Est 1:7 For drinking there were golden cups of various design and plenty of wine provided by the king with royal liberality.
Est 1:8 The royal edict did not, however, make drinking obligatory, the king having instructed the officials of his household to treat each guest according to the guest's own wishes.
Est 1:9 Queen Vashti, for her part, gave a banquet for the women in the royal palace of King Ahasuerus.
Est 1:10 On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar and Carkas, the seven officers in attendance on the person of King Ahasuerus,
Est 1:11 to bring Queen Vashti before the king, crowned with her royal diadem, in order to display her beauty to the people and the officers-of-state, since she was very beautiful.
Est 1:12 But Queen Vashti refused to come at the king's command delivered by the officers. The king was very angry at this and his rage grew hot.
Est 1:13 Addressing himself to the wise men who were versed in the law -- it being the practice to refer matters affecting the king to expert lawyers and jurists-
Est 1:14 he summoned Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, seven Persian and Median officers-of-state who had privileged access to the royal presence and occupied the leading positions in the kingdom.
Est 1:15 'According to law,' he said, 'what is to be done to Queen Vashti for not obeying the command of King Ahasuerus delivered by the officers?'
Est 1:16 In the presence of the king and the officers-of-state, Memucan replied, 'Queen Vashti has wronged not only the king but also all the officers-of-state and all the peoples inhabiting the provinces of King Ahasuerus.
Est 1:17 The queen's conduct will soon become known to all the women, who will adopt a contemptuous attitude towards their own husbands. They will say, "King Ahasuerus himself commanded Queen Vashti to appear before him and she did not come."
Est 1:18 Before the day is out, the wives of the Persian and Median officers-of-state will be telling every one of the king's officers-of-state what they have heard about the queen's behaviour; and that will mean contempt and anger all round.
Est 1:19 If it is the king's pleasure, let him issue a royal edict, to be irrevocably incorporated into the laws of the Persians and Medes, to the effect that Vashti is never to appear again before King Ahasuerus, and let the king confer her royal dignity on a worthier woman.
Est 1:20 Let this edict issued by the king be proclaimed throughout his empire -- which is great -- and all the women will henceforth bow to the authority of their husbands, both high and low alike.'
Est 1:21 This speech pleased the king and the officers-of-state, and the king did as Memucan advised.
Est 1:22 He sent letters to all the provinces of the kingdom, to each province in its own script and to each nation in its own language, ensuring that every husband should be master in his own house.
Est 2:1 Some time after this, when the king's wrath had subsided, Ahasuerus remembered Vashti, how she had behaved, and the measures taken against her.
Est 2:2 The king's gentlemen-in-waiting said, 'A search should be made on the king's behalf for beautiful young virgins,
Est 2:3 and the king appoint commissioners throughout the provinces of his realm to bring all these beautiful young virgins to the citadel of Susa, to the harem under the authority of Hegai the king's eunuch, custodian of the women. Here he will give them whatever they need for enhancing their beauty,
Est 2:4 and the girl who pleases the king can take Vashti's place as queen.' This advice pleased the king and he acted on it.
Est 2:5 Now in the citadel of Susa there lived a Jew called Mordecai son of Jair, son of Shimei, son of Kish, of the tribe of Benjamin,
Est 2:6 who had been deported from Jerusalem among the captives taken away with Jeconiah king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
Est 2:7 and was now bringing up a certain Hadassah, otherwise called Esther, his uncle's daughter, who had lost both father and mother; the girl had a good figure and a beautiful face, and on the death of her parents Mordecai had adopted her as his daughter.
Est 2:8 On the promulgation of the royal command and edict a great number of girls were brought to the citadel of Susa where they were entrusted to Hegai. Esther, too, was taken to the king's palace and entrusted to Hegai, the custodian of the women.
Est 2:9 The girl pleased him and won his favor. Not only did he quickly provide her with all she needed for her dressing room and her meals, but he gave her seven special maids from the king's household and transferred her and her maids to the best part of the harem.
Est 2:10 Esther had not divulged her race or parentage, since Mordecai had forbidden her to do so.
Est 2:11 Mordecai walked up and down in front of the courtyard of the harem all day and every day, to learn how Esther was and how she was being treated.
Est 2:12 Each girl had to appear in turn before King Ahasuerus after a delay of twelve months fixed by the regulations for the women; this preparatory period was occupied as follows: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with spices and lotions commonly used for feminine beauty treatment.
Est 2:13 When each girl went to the king, she was given whatever she wanted to take with her, since she then moved from the harem into the royal household.
Est 2:14 She went there in the evening, and the following morning returned to another harem entrusted to the care of Shaashgaz, the king's officer, custodian of the concubines. She did not go to the king any more, unless he was particularly pleased with her and had her summoned by name.
Est 2:15 But when it was the turn of Esther the daughter of Abihail, whose nephew Mordecai had adopted her as his own daughter, to go into the king's presence, she did not ask for anything beyond what had been assigned her by Hegai, the king's officer, custodian of the women. Esther won the approval of all who saw her.
Est 2:16 She was brought to King Ahasuerus in his royal apartments in the tenth month, which is called Tebeth, in the seventh year of his reign;
Est 2:17 and the king liked Esther better than any of the other women; none of the other girls found so much favor and approval with him. So he set the royal diadem on her head and proclaimed her queen instead of Vashti.
Est 2:18 The king then gave a great banquet, Esther's banquet, for all his officers-of-state and ministers, decreed a holiday for all the provinces and distributed largesse with royal prodigality.
Est 2:19 When Esther, like the other girls, had been transferred to the second harem,
Est 2:20 she did not divulge her parentage or race, in obedience to the orders of Mordecai, whose instructions she continued to follow as when she had been under his care.
Est 2:21 At this time Mordecai was attached to the Chancellery and two malcontents, Bigthan and Teresh, officers in the king's service as Guards of the Threshold, plotted to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
Est 2:22 Mordecai came to hear of this and informed Queen Esther, who in turn, on Mordecai's authority, told the king.
Est 2:23 The matter was investigated and proved to be true. The two conspirators were sent to the gallows, and the incident was recorded in the Annals, in the royal presence.
Est 3:1 Shortly afterwards, King Ahasuerus singled out Haman son of Hammedatha, a native of Agag, for promotion. He raised him in rank, granting him precedence over all his colleagues, the other officers-of-state,
Est 3:2 and all the royal officials employed at the Chancellery used to bow low and prostrate themselves whenever Haman appeared -- such was the king's command. Mordecai refused either to bow or to prostrate himself.
Est 3:3 'Why do you flout the royal command?' the officials of the Chancellery asked Mordecai.
Est 3:4 Day after day they asked him this, but he took no notice of them. In the end they reported the matter to Haman, to see whether Mordecai would persist in his attitude, since he had told them that he was a Jew.
Est 3:5 Haman could see for himself that Mordecai did not bow or prostrate himself in his presence; he became furiously angry.
Est 3:6 And, on being told what race Mordecai belonged to, he thought it beneath him merely to get rid of Mordecai, but made up his mind to wipe out all the members of Mordecai's race, the Jews, living in Ahasuerus' entire empire.
Est 3:7 In the first month, that is the month of Nisan, of the twelfth year of King Ahasuerus, the pur (that is, the lot) was cast in Haman's presence, to determine the day and the month. The lot falling on the twelfth month, which is Adar,
Est 3:8 Haman said to King Ahasuerus, 'There is a certain unassimilated nation scattered among the other nations throughout the provinces of your realm; their laws are different from those of all the other nations, and the royal laws they ignore; hence it is not in the king's interests to tolerate them.
Est 3:9 If their destruction be signed, so please the king, I am ready to pay ten thousand talents of silver to the king's receivers, to be credited to the royal treasury.'
Est 3:10 The king then took his signet ring off his hand and gave it to Haman son of Hammedatha, the persecutor of the Jews.
Est 3:11 'Keep the money,' he said, 'and you can have the people too; do what you like with them.'
Est 3:12 The royal scribes were therefore summoned for the thirteenth day of the first month, when they wrote out the orders addressed by Haman to the king's satraps, to the governors ruling each province and to the principal officials of each people, to each province in its own script and to each people in its own language. The edict was signed in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with his ring,
Est 3:13 and letters were sent by runners to every province of the realm, ordering the destruction, slaughter and annihilation of all Jews, young and old, including women and children, on the same day -- the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar -- and the seizing of their possessions. (a) The text of the letter was as follows: 'The Great King, Ahasuerus, to the governors of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia, and to their subordinate district commissioners: (b) 'Being placed in authority over many nations and ruling the whole world, I have resolved never to be carried away by the insolence of power, but always to rule with moderation and clemency, so as to assure for my subjects a life ever free from storms and, offering my kingdom the benefits of civilisation and free transit from end to end, to restore that peace which all men desire. (c) In consultation with our advisers as to how this aim is to be effected, we have been informed by one of them, eminent among us for prudence and well proved for his unfailing devotion and unshakeable trustworthiness, and in rank second only to our majesty, Haman by name, (d) that there is, mingled among all the tribes of the earth, a certain ill-disposed people, opposed by its laws to every other nation and continually defying the royal ordinances, in such a way as to obstruct that form of government assured by us to the general good. (e) 'Considering therefore that this people, unique of its kind, is in complete opposition to all humanity from which it differs by its outlandish laws, that it is hostile to our interests and that it commits the most heinous crimes, to the point of endangering the stability of the realm: (f) 'We command that those persons designated to you in the letters written by Haman, who was appointed to watch over our interests and is a second father to us, be all destroyed, root and branch, including women and children, by the swords of their enemies, without any pity or mercy, on the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, of the present year, (g) so that, these past and present malcontents being in one day forcibly thrown down to Hades, our government may henceforward enjoy perpetual stability and peace.'
Est 3:14 Copies of this decree, to be promulgated as law in each province, were published to the various peoples, so that each might be ready for the day aforementioned.
Est 3:15 At the king's command, the runners set out with all speed; the decree was first promulgated in the citadel of Susa. While the king and Haman gave themselves up to feasting and drinking, consternation reigned in the city of Susa.
Est 4:1 When Mordecai learned what had happened, he tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. Then he walked into the centre of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly,
Est 4:2 until he arrived in front of the Chancellery, which no one clothed in sackcloth was allowed to enter.
Est 4:3 And in every province, no sooner had the royal command and edict arrived, than among the Jews there was great mourning, fasting, weeping and wailing, and many lay on sackcloth and ashes.
Est 4:4 When Queen Esther's maids and officers came and told her, she was overcome with grief. She sent clothes for Mordecai to put on instead of his sackcloth, but he refused them.
Est 4:5 Esther then summoned Hathach, an officer whom the king had appointed to wait on her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai and enquire what the matter was and why he was acting in this way.
Est 4:6 Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the Chancellery,
Est 4:7 and Mordecai told him what had happened to him personally, and also about the sum of money which Haman had offered to pay into the royal treasury to procure the destruction of the Jews.
Est 4:8 He also gave him a copy of the edict of extermination published in Susa for him to show Esther for her information, with the message that she was to go to the king and implore his favor and plead with him for the race to which she belonged. (a) 'Remember your humbler circumstances,' he said, 'when you were fed by my hand. Since Haman, the second person in the realm, has petitioned the king for our deaths, (b) invoke the Lord, speak to the king for us and save us from death!'
Est 4:9 Hathach came back and told Esther what Mordecai had said;
Est 4:10 and she replied with the following message for Mordecai,
Est 4:11 'Royal officials and people living in the provinces alike all know that for anyone, man or woman, who approaches the king in the private apartments without having been summoned there, there is only one law: he must die, unless the king, by pointing his golden scepter towards him, grants him his life. And I have not been summoned to the king for the last thirty days.'
Est 4:12 These words of Esther were reported to Mordecai,
Est 4:13 who sent back the following reply, 'Do not suppose that, because you are in the king's palace, you are going to be the one Jew to escape.
Est 4:14 No; if you persist in remaining silent at such a time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another quarter, but both you and your father's whole family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to the throne for just such a time as this.'
Est 4:15 Whereupon Esther sent this reply to Mordecai,
Est 4:16 'Go and assemble all the Jews now in Susa and fast for me. Do not eat or drink day or night for three days. For my part, I and my waiting-women shall keep the same fast, after which I shall go to the king in spite of the law; and if I perish, I perish.'
Est 4:17 Mordecai went away and carried out Esther's instructions. (a) Then calling to mind all the wonderful works of the Lord, he offered this prayer: (b) Lord, Lord, Almighty King, everything is subject to your power, and there is no one who can withstand you in your determination to save Israel. (c) You have made heaven and earth, and all the marvels that are under heaven. You are the Master of the universe and no one can resist you, Lord. (d) You know all things, you, Lord, know that neither pride, self-esteem nor vainglory prompted me to do what I have done: to refuse to prostrate myself before proud Haman. Gladly would I have kissed the soles of his feet, had this assured the safety of Israel. (e) But what I have done, I have done, rather than place the glory of a man above the glory of God; and I shall not prostrate myself to anyone except, Lord, to you, and, in so doing, I shall not be acting in pride. (f) And now, Lord God, King, God of Abraham spare your people! For our ruin is being plotted, there are plans to destroy your ancient heritage. (g) Do not overlook your inheritance, which you redeemed from Egypt to be yours. (h) Hear my supplication, have mercy on your heritage, and turn our grief into rejoicing, so that we may live, Lord, to hymn your name. Do not suffer the mouths of those who praise you to perish. (i) And all Israel cried out with all their might, since death was staring them in the face. (k) Queen Esther also took refuge with the Lord in the mortal peril which had overtaken her. She took off her sumptuous robes and put on sorrowful mourning. Instead of expensive perfumes, she covered her head with ashes and dung. She mortified her body severely, and the former scenes of her happiness and elegance were now littered with tresses torn from her hair. She besought the Lord God of Israel in these words: (l) My Lord, our King, the Only One, come to my help, for I am alone and have no helper but you and am about to take my life in my hands. (m) I have been taught from infancy in the bosom of my family that you, Lord, have chosen Israel out of all the nations and our ancestors out of all before them, to be your heritage for ever; and that you have treated them as you promised. (n) But we have sinned against you and you have handed us over to our enemies for paying honor to their gods. Lord, you are upright. (o) But they are not satisfied with the bitterness of our slavery: they have pledged themselves to their idols to abolish the decree that your own lips have uttered, to blot out your heritage, to stop the mouths of those who praise you, to quench your altar and the glory of your House, (p) and instead to open the mouths of the heathen, to sing the praise of worthless idols and for ever to idolise a king of flesh. (q) Do not yield your scepter, Lord, to what does not exist. Never let our ruin be matter for laughter. Turn these plots against their authors, and make an example of the man who leads the attack on us. (r) Remember, Lord; reveal yourself in the time of our distress. As for me, give me courage, King of gods and Master of all powers! (s) Put persuasive words into my mouth when I face the lion; change his feeling into hatred for our enemy, so that he may meet his end, and all those like him! (t) As for ourselves, save us by your hand, and come to my help, for I am alone and have no one but you, Lord. (u) You have knowledge of all things, and you know that I hate honors from the godless, that I loathe the bed of the uncircumcised, of any foreigner whatever. (w) You know I am under constraint, that I loathe the symbol of my high position bound round my brow when I appear at court; I loathe it as if it were a filthy rag and do not wear it on my days of leisure. (x) Your servant has not eaten at Haman's table, nor taken pleasure in the royal banquets, nor drunk the wine of libations. (y) Nor has your servant found pleasure from the day of her promotion until now except in you, Lord, God of Abraham. (z) O God, whose strength prevails over all, listen to the voice of the desperate, save us from the hand of the wicked, and free me from my fear!
Est 5:1 (a) On the third day, when she had finished praying, she took off her suppliant's mourning attire and dressed herself in her full splendor. Radiant as she then appeared, she invoked God who watches over all people and saves them. With her, she took two ladies-in-waiting. With a delicate air she leaned on one, while the other accompanied her carrying her train. (b) Rosy with the full flush of her beauty, her face radiated joy and love: but her heart shrank with fear. (c) Having passed through door after door, she found herself in the presence of the king. He was sitting on his royal throne, dressed in all his robes of state, glittering with gold and precious stones -- a formidable sight. (d) He looked up, afire with majesty and, blazing with anger, saw her. The queen sank to the floor. As she fainted, the colour drained from her face and her head fell against the lady-in-waiting beside her. (e) But God changed the king's heart, inducing a milder spirit. He sprang from his throne in alarm and took her in his arms until she recovered, comforting her with soothing words. (f) 'What is the matter, Esther?' he said. 'I am your brother. Take heart, you are not going to die; our order applies only to ordinary people. Come to me.' (g) And raising his golden scepter he laid it on Esther's neck, embraced her and said, 'Speak to me.'
Est 5:2 (a) 'Sire,' she said, 'to me you looked like one of God's angels, and my heart was moved with fear of your majesty. For you are a figure of wonder, my lord, and your face is full of graciousness.' (b) But as she spoke she fell down in a faint. The king grew more agitated, and his courtiers all set about reviving her.
Est 5:3 'What is the matter, Queen Esther?' the king said. 'Tell me what you want; even if it is half my kingdom, I grant it you.'
Est 5:4 'Would it please the king,' Esther replied, 'to come with Haman today to the banquet I have prepared for him?'
Est 5:5 The king said, 'Tell Haman to come at once, so that Esther may have her wish.'
Est 5:6 So the king and Haman came to the banquet that Esther had prepared and, during the banquet, the king again said to Esther, 'Tell me your request; I grant it to you. Tell me what you want; even if it is half my kingdom, it is yours for the asking.'
Est 5:7 'What do I want, what is my request?' Esther replied.
Est 5:8 'If I have found favor in the king's eyes, and if it is his pleasure to grant what I ask and to agree to my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet I intend to give them tomorrow, and then I shall do as the king says.'
Est 5:9 Haman left full of joy and high spirits that day; but when he saw Mordecai at the Chancellery, neither standing up nor stirring at his approach, he felt a gust of anger.
Est 5:10 He restrained himself, however. Returning home, he sent for his friends and Zeresh his wife
Est 5:11 and held forth to them about his dazzling wealth, his many children, how the king had raised him to a position of honor and promoted him over the heads of the king's officers-of-state and ministers.
Est 5:12 'What is more,' he added, 'Queen Esther has just invited me and the king -- no one else except me -- to a banquet she was giving, and better still she has invited me and the king again tomorrow.
Est 5:13 But what do I care about all this when all the while I see Mordecai the Jew sitting there at the Chancellery?'
Est 5:14 'Have a fifty-cubit gallows run up,' said Zeresh his wife and all his friends, 'and in the morning ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on it. Then you can go with the king to the banquet, without a care in the world!' Delighted with this advice, Haman had the gallows erected.
Est 6:1 That night the king could not sleep; he called for the Record Book, or Annals, to be brought and read to him.
Est 6:2 They contained an account of how Mordecai had denounced Bigthan and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs serving as Guards of the Threshold, who had plotted to assassinate King Ahasuerus.
Est 6:3 'And what honor and dignity', the king asked, 'was conferred on Mordecai for this?' 'Nothing has been done for him,' the gentlemen-in-waiting replied.
Est 6:4 The king then said, 'Who is outside in the antechamber?' Haman had, that very moment, entered the outer antechamber of the private apartments, to ask the king to have Mordecai hanged on the gallows which he had just put up for the purpose.
Est 6:5 So the king's gentlemen-in-waiting replied, 'It is Haman out in the antechamber.' 'Bring him in,' the king said,
Est 6:6 and, as soon as Haman came in, went on to ask, 'What is the right way to treat a man whom the king wishes to honor?' 'Whom', thought Haman, 'would the king wish to honor, if not me?'
Est 6:7 So he replied, 'If the king wishes to honor someone,
Est 6:8 royal robes should be brought from the king's wardrobe, and a horse from the king's stable, sporting a royal diadem on its head.
Est 6:9 The robes and horse should be entrusted to one of the noblest of the king's officers-of-state, who should then array the man whom the king wishes to honor and lead him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him: "This is the way a man shall be treated whom the king wishes to honor." '
Est 6:10 'Hurry,' the king said to Haman, 'take the robes and the horse, and do everything you have just said to Mordecai the Jew, who works at the Chancellery. On no account leave out anything that you have mentioned.'
Est 6:11 So taking the robes and the horse, Haman arrayed Mordecai and led him on horseback through the city square, proclaiming before him: 'This is the way a man shall be treated whom the king wishes to honor.'
Est 6:12 After this Mordecai returned to the Chancellery, while Haman went hurrying home in dejection and covering his face.
Est 6:13 He told his wife Zeresh and all his friends what had just happened. His wife Zeresh and his friends said, 'You are beginning to fall, and Mordecai to rise; if he is Jewish, you will never get the better of him. With him against you, your fall is certain.'
Est 6:14 While they were still talking, the king's officers arrived in a hurry to escort Haman to the banquet that Esther was giving.
Est 7:1 The king and Haman went to Queen Esther's banquet,
Est 7:2 and this second day, during the banquet, the king again said to Esther, 'Tell me your request, Queen Esther. I grant it to you. Whatever you want; even if it is half my kingdom, it is yours for the asking.'
Est 7:3 'If I have found favor in your eyes, O king,' Queen Esther replied, 'and if it please your majesty, grant me my life -- that is my request; and the lives of my people -- that is what I want.
Est 7:4 For we have been handed over, my people and I, to destruction, slaughter and annihilation; had we merely been sold as slaves and servant-girls, I should not have said anything; but in the present case, it will be beyond the persecutor's means to make good the loss that the king is about to sustain.'
Est 7:5 King Ahasuerus interrupted Queen Esther, 'Who is this man?' he exclaimed. 'Where is the man who has thought of doing such a thing?'
Est 7:6 Esther replied, 'The persecutor, the enemy? Why, this wretch Haman!' Haman quaked with terror in the presence of the king and queen.
Est 7:7 In a rage the king got up from the banquet and went into the palace garden; while Haman, realising that the king was determined on his ruin, stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.
Est 7:8 When the king came back from the palace garden into the banqueting hall, he found Haman sprawled across the couch where Esther was reclining. 'What!' the king exclaimed. 'Is he going to rape the queen in my own palace?' The words were scarcely out of his mouth than a veil was thrown over Haman's face.
Est 7:9 In the royal presence, Harbona, one of the officers, said, 'There is that fifty-cubit gallows, too, which Haman ran up for Mordecai, who spoke up to the king's great advantage. It is all ready at his house.' 'Hang him on it,' said the king.
Est 7:10 So Haman was hanged on the gallows which he had erected for Mordecai, and the king's wrath subsided.
Est 8:1 That same day King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther the house of Haman, the persecutor of the Jews. Mordecai was presented to the king, Esther having revealed their mutual relationship.
Est 8:2 The king, who had recovered his signet ring from Haman, took it off and gave it to Mordecai, while Esther gave Mordecai charge of Haman's house.
Est 8:3 Esther again went to speak to the king. She fell at his feet, weeping and imploring his favor, to frustrate the malice that Haman the Agagite had been plotting against the Jews.
Est 8:4 The king held out the golden scepter to her, whereupon Esther stood up and faced him.
Est 8:5 'If such is the king's good pleasure,' she said, 'and if I have found favor before him, if my petition seems proper to him and if I myself am pleasing to his eyes, may he be pleased to issue a written revocation of the letters which Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, has had written, ordering the destruction of the Jews throughout the royal provinces.
Est 8:6 For how can I look on, while my people suffer what is proposed for them? How can I bear to witness the extermination of my relatives?'
Est 8:7 King Ahasuerus said to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, 'I for my part have given Esther Haman's house, and have had him hanged on the gallows for planning to destroy the Jews.
Est 8:8 You, for your part, write what you please as regards the Jews, in the king's name, and seal it with the king's signet; for any edict written in the king's name and sealed with his signet is irrevocable.'
Est 8:9 The royal scribes were summoned at once -- it was the third month, the month of Sivan, on the twenty-third day -- and at Mordecai's dictation an order was written to the Jews, the satraps, governors and principal officials of the provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia, a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to each province in its own script, and to each people in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.
Est 8:10 These letters, written in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed with the king's signet, were carried by couriers mounted on horses from the king's own stud-farms.
Est 8:11 In them the king granted the Jews, in whatever city they lived, the right to assemble in self-defence, with permission to destroy, slaughter and annihilate any armed force of any people or province that might attack them, together with their women and children, and to plunder their possessions,
Est 8:12 with effect from the same day throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus -- the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar. (a) The text of the letter was as follows: (b) 'The Great King, Ahasuerus, to the satraps of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces which stretch from India to Ethiopia, to the provincial governors and to all our loyal subjects, greeting: (c) 'Many people, repeatedly honored by the extreme bounty of their benefactors, only grow the more arrogant. It is not enough for them to seek our subjects' injury, but unable as they are to support the weight of their own surfeit they turn to scheming against their benefactors themselves. (d) Not content with banishing gratitude from the human heart, but elated by the plaudits of people unacquainted with goodness, notwithstanding that all is for ever under the eye of God, they expect to escape his justice, so hostile to the wicked. (e) Thus it has often happened to those placed in authority that, having entrusted friends with the conduct of affairs and allowed themselves to be influenced by them, they find themselves sharing with these the guilt of innocent blood and involved in irremediable misfortunes, (f) the upright intentions of rulers having been misled by false arguments of the evilly disposed. (g) This may be seen without recourse to the history of earlier times to which we have referred; you have only to look at what is before you, at the crimes perpetrated by a plague of unworthy officials. (h) For the future, we shall exert our efforts to assure the tranquillity and peace of the realm for all, (i) by adopting new policies and by always judging matters that are brought to our notice in the most equitable spirit. (k) 'Thus Haman son of Hammedatha, a Macedonian, without a drop of Persian blood and far removed from our goodness, enjoyed our hospitality (l) and was treated by us with the benevolence which we show to every nation, even to the extent of being proclaimed our 'father' and being accorded universally the prostration of respect as second in dignity to the royal throne. (m) But he, unable to keep within his own high rank, schemed to deprive us of our realm and of our life. (n) Furthermore, by tortuous wiles and arguments, he would have had us destroy Mordecai, our Savior and constant benefactor, with Esther the blameless partner of our majesty, and their whole nation besides. (o) He thought by these means to leave us without support and so to transfer the Persian empire to the Macedonians. (p) 'But we find that the Jews, marked out for annihilation by this arch-scoundrel, are not criminals: they are in fact governed by the most just of laws. (q) They are children of the Most High, the great and living God to whom we and our ancestors owe the continuing prosperity of our realm. (r) You will therefore do well not to act on the letters sent by Haman son of Hammedatha, since their author has been hanged at the gates of Susa with his whole household: a fitting punishment, which God, Master of the Universe, has speedily inflicted on him. (s) Put up copies of this letter everywhere, allow the Jews to observe their own customs without fear, and come to their help against anyone who attacks them on the day originally chosen for their maltreatment, that is, the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is Adar. (t) For the all-powerful God has made this day a day of joy and not of ruin for the chosen people. (u) You, for your part, among your solemn festivals celebrate this as a special day with every kind of feasting, so that now and in the future, for you and for Persians of good will, it may commemorate your rescue, and for your enemies may stand as a reminder of their ruin. (v) 'Every city and, more generally, every country, which does not follow these instructions, will be mercilessly devastated with fire and sword, and made not only inaccessible to human beings but hateful to wild animals and even birds for ever.'
Est 8:13 Copies of this edict, to be promulgated as law in each province, were published to the various peoples, so that the Jews could be ready on the day stated to avenge themselves on their enemies.
Est 8:14 The couriers, mounted on the king's horses, set out in great haste and urgency at the king's command. The edict was also published in the citadel of Susa.
Est 8:15 Mordecai left the royal presence in a princely gown of violet and white, with a great golden crown and a cloak of fine linen and purple. The city of Susa shouted for joy.
Est 8:16 For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor.
Est 8:17 In every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and decree arrived, there was joy and gladness among the Jews, with feasting and holiday-making. Of the country's population many became Jews, since now the Jews were feared.
Est 9:1 The king's command and decree came into force on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar, and the day on which the enemies of the Jews had hoped to crush them produced the very opposite effect: the Jews it was who crushed their enemies.
Est 9:2 In their towns throughout the provinces of King Ahasuerus, the Jews assembled to strike at those who had planned to injure them. No one resisted them, since the various peoples were now all afraid of them.
Est 9:3 Provincial officers-of-state, satraps, governors and royal officials, all supported the Jews for fear of Mordecai.
Est 9:4 And indeed Mordecai was a power in the palace and his fame was spreading through all the provinces; Mordecai was steadily growing more powerful.
Est 9:5 So the Jews struck down all their enemies with the sword, with resulting slaughter and destruction, and worked their will on their opponents.
Est 9:6 In the citadel of Susa alone, the Jews put to death and slaughtered five hundred men,
Est 9:7 notably Parshandatha, Dalphon, Aspatha,
Est 9:8 Poratha, Adalia, Aridatha,
Est 9:9 Parmashtha, Arisai, Aridai and Jezatha,
Est 9:10 the ten sons of Haman son of Hammedatha, the persecutor of the Jews. But they took no plunder.
Est 9:11 The number of those killed in the citadel of Susa was reported to the king that same day.
Est 9:12 The king said to Queen Esther, 'In the citadel of Susa the Jews have killed five hundred men and also the ten sons of Haman. What must they have done in the other provinces of the realm? Tell me your request; I grant it to you. Tell me what else you would like; it is yours for the asking.'
Est 9:13 'If such is the king's pleasure,' Esther replied, 'let the Jews of Susa be allowed to enforce today's decree tomorrow as well. And as for the ten sons of Haman, let their bodies be hanged on the gallows.'
Est 9:14 Whereupon, the king having given the order, the edict was promulgated in Susa and the ten sons of Haman were hanged.
Est 9:15 Thus the Jews of Susa reassembled on the fourteenth day of the month of Adar and killed three hundred men in the city. But they took no plunder.
Est 9:16 The other Jews who lived in the king's provinces also assembled to defend their lives and rid themselves of their enemies. They slaughtered seventy-five thousand of their opponents. But they took no plunder.
Est 9:17 This was on the thirteenth day of the month of Adar. On the fourteenth day they rested and made it a day of feasting and gladness.
Est 9:18 But for the Jews of Susa, who had assembled on the thirteenth and fourteenth days, the fifteenth was the day they rested, making that a day of feasting and gladness.
Est 9:19 This is why Jewish country people, those who live in undefended villages, keep the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a day of gladness, feasting and holiday-making, and the exchanging of presents with one another, (a) whereas for those who live in cities the day of rejoicing and exchanging presents with their neighbors is the fifteenth day of Adar.
Est 9:20 Mordecai committed these events to writing. Then he sent letters to all the Jews living in the provinces of King Ahasuerus, both near and far,
Est 9:21 enjoining them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar every year,
Est 9:22 as the days on which the Jews had rid themselves of their enemies, and the month in which their sorrow had been turned into gladness, and mourning into a holiday. He therefore told them to keep these as days of festivity and gladness when they were to exchange presents and make gifts to the poor.
Est 9:23 Once having begun, the Jews continued observing these practices, Mordecai having written them an account
Est 9:24 of how Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, the persecutor of all the Jews, had plotted their destruction and had cast the pur, that is, the lot, for their overthrow and ruin;
Est 9:25 but how, when he went back to the king to ask him to order the hanging of Mordecai, the wicked scheme which he had devised against the Jews recoiled on his own head, and both he and his sons were hanged on the gallows;
Est 9:26 and that, hence, these days were called Purim, from the word pur. And so, because of what was written in this letter, and because of what they had seen for themselves and of what had happened to them,
Est 9:27 the Jews willingly bound themselves, their descendants and all who should join them, to celebrate these two days without fail, in the manner prescribed and at the time appointed, year after year.
Est 9:28 Thus commemorated and celebrated from generation to generation, in every family, in every province, in every city, these days of Purim will never be abrogated among the Jews, nor will their memory perish from their race.
Est 9:29 Queen Esther, the daughter of Abihail, wrote with full authority to ratify this second letter,
Est 9:30 and sent letters to all the Jews of the hundred and twenty-seven provinces of the realm of Ahasuerus, in terms of peace and loyalty
Est 9:31 enjoining them to observe these days of Purim at the appointed time, as Mordecai the Jew had recommended, and in the manner prescribed for themselves and their descendants, with additional ordinances for fasts and lamentations.
Est 9:32 The ordinance of Esther fixed the law of Purim, which was then recorded in a book.
Est 10:1 King Ahasuerus put not only the mainland under tribute but the Mediterranean islands as well.
Est 10:2 All his feats of power and valour, and the account of the high honor to which he raised Mordecai: all this is recorded in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Media and Persia.
Est 10:3 And Mordecai the Jew was next in rank to King Ahasuerus. He was a man held in respect among the Jews, esteemed by thousands of his brothers, a man who sought the good of his people and cared for the welfare of his entire race. (a) And Mordecai said, 'All this is God's doing. (b) I remember the dream I had about these matters, nothing of which has failed to come true: (c) the little spring that became a river, the light that shone, the sun, the flood of water. Esther is the river -- she whom the king married and made queen. (d) The two dragons are Haman and myself. (e) The nations are those that banded together to blot out the name of Jew. (f) The single nation, mine, is Israel, those who cried out to God and were saved. Yes, the Lord has saved his people, the Lord has delivered us from all these evils, God has worked such signs and great wonders as have never occurred among the nations. (g) 'Two destinies he appointed, one for his own people, one for the nations at large. (h) And these two destinies were worked out at the hour and time and day laid down by God, involving all the nations. (i) In this way God has remembered his people and vindicated his heritage; (k) and for them these days, the fourteenth and fifteenth of the month of Adar, are to be days of assembly, of joy and of gladness before God, through all generations and for ever among his people Israel.' (l) In the fourth year of the reign of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, Dositheus, who affirmed that he was a priest and Levite, and Ptolemy his son brought the foregoing letter concerning Purim. They vouched for its authenticity, the translation having been made by Lysimachus son of Ptolemy, a member of the Jerusalem community.
1Ma 1:1 Alexander of Macedon son of Philip had come from the land of Kittim and defeated Darius king of the Persians and Medes, whom he succeeded as ruler, at first of Hellas.
1Ma 1:2 He undertook many campaigns, gained possession of many fortresses, and put the local kings to death.
1Ma 1:3 So he advanced to the ends of the earth, plundering nation after nation; the earth grew silent before him, and his ambitious heart swelled with pride.
1Ma 1:4 He assembled very powerful forces and subdued provinces, nations and princes, and they became his tributaries.
1Ma 1:5 But the time came when Alexander took to his bed, in the knowledge that he was dying.
1Ma 1:6 He summoned his officers, noblemen who had been brought up with him from his youth, and divided his kingdom among them while he was still alive.
1Ma 1:7 Alexander had reigned twelve years when he died.
1Ma 1:8 Each of his officers established himself in his own region.
1Ma 1:9 All assumed crowns after his death, they and their heirs after them for many years, bringing increasing evils on the world.
1Ma 1:10 From these there grew a wicked offshoot, Antiochus Epiphanes son of King Antiochus; once a hostage in Rome, he became king in the 107th year of the kingdom of the Greeks.
1Ma 1:11 It was then that there emerged from Israel a set of renegades who led many people astray. 'Come,' they said, 'let us ally ourselves with the gentiles surrounding us, for since we separated ourselves from them many misfortunes have overtaken us.'
1Ma 1:12 This proposal proved acceptable,
1Ma 1:13 and a number of the people eagerly approached the king, who authorised them to practise the gentiles' observances.
1Ma 1:14 So they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem, such as the gentiles have,
1Ma 1:15 disguised their circumcision, and abandoned the holy covenant, submitting to gentile rule as willing slaves of impiety.
1Ma 1:16 Once Antiochus had seen his authority established, he determined to make himself king of Egypt and the ruler of both kingdoms.
1Ma 1:17 He invaded Egypt in massive strength, with chariots and elephants (and cavalry) and a large fleet.
1Ma 1:18 He engaged Ptolemy king of Egypt in battle, and Ptolemy turned back and fled before his advance, leaving many casualties.
1Ma 1:19 The fortified cities of Egypt were captured, and Antiochus plundered the country.
1Ma 1:20 After his conquest of Egypt, in the year 143, Antiochus turned about and advanced on Israel and Jerusalem in massive strength.
1Ma 1:21 Insolently breaking into the sanctuary, he removed the golden altar and the lamp-stand for the light with all its fittings,
1Ma 1:22 together with the table for the loaves of permanent offering, the libation vessels, the cups, the golden censers, the veil, the crowns, and the golden decoration on the front of the Temple, which he stripped of everything.
1Ma 1:23 He made off with the silver and gold and precious vessels; he discovered the secret treasures and seized them
1Ma 1:24 and, removing all these, he went back to his own country, having shed much blood and uttered words of extreme arrogance.
1Ma 1:25 There was deep mourning for Israel throughout the country:
1Ma 1:26 Rulers and elders groaned; girls and young men wasted away; the women's beauty suffered a change;
1Ma 1:27 every bridegroom took up a dirge, the bride sat grief-stricken on her marriage-bed.
1Ma 1:28 The earth quaked because of its inhabitants and the whole House of Jacob was clothed with shame.
1Ma 1:29 Two years later the king sent the Mysarch through the cities of Judah. He came to Jerusalem with an impressive force,
1Ma 1:30 and addressing them with what appeared to be peaceful words, he gained their confidence; then suddenly he fell on the city, dealing it a terrible blow, and destroying many of the people of Israel.
1Ma 1:31 He pillaged the city and set it on fire, tore down its houses and encircling wall,
1Ma 1:32 took the women and children captive and commandeered the cattle.
1Ma 1:33 They then rebuilt the City of David with a great strong wall and strong towers and made this their Citadel.
1Ma 1:34 There they installed a brood of sinners, of renegades, who fortified themselves inside it,
1Ma 1:35 storing arms and provisions, and depositing there the loot they had collected from Jerusalem; they were to prove a great trouble.
1Ma 1:36 It became an ambush for the sanctuary, an evil adversary for Israel at all times.
1Ma 1:37 They shed innocent blood all round the sanctuary and defiled the sanctuary itself.
1Ma 1:38 The citizens of Jerusalem fled because of them, she became a dwelling-place of strangers; estranged from her own offspring, her children forsook her.
1Ma 1:39 Her sanctuary became as forsaken as a desert, her feasts were turned into mourning, her Sabbaths into a mockery, her honor into reproach.
1Ma 1:40 Her dishonor now fully matched her former glory, her greatness was turned into grief.
1Ma 1:41 The king then issued a proclamation to his whole kingdom that all were to become a single people, each nation renouncing its particular customs.
1Ma 1:42 All the gentiles conformed to the king's decree,
1Ma 1:43 and many Israelites chose to accept his religion, sacrificing to idols and profaning the Sabbath.
1Ma 1:44 The king also sent edicts by messenger to Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, directing them to adopt customs foreign to the country,
1Ma 1:45 banning burnt offerings, sacrifices and libations from the sanctuary, profaning Sabbaths and feasts,
1Ma 1:46 defiling the sanctuary and everything holy,
1Ma 1:47 building altars, shrines and temples for idols, sacrificing pigs and unclean beasts,
1Ma 1:48 leaving their sons uncircumcised, and prostituting themselves to all kinds of impurity and abomination,
1Ma 1:49 so that they should forget the Law and revoke all observance of it.
1Ma 1:50 Anyone not obeying the king's command was to be put to death.
1Ma 1:51 Writing in such terms to every part of his kingdom, the king appointed inspectors for the whole people and directed all the towns of Judah to offer sacrifice city by city.
1Ma 1:52 Many of the people -- that is, every apostate from the Law -- rallied to them and so committed evil in the country,
1Ma 1:53 forcing Israel into hiding in any possible place of refuge.
1Ma 1:54 On the fifteenth day of Chislev in the year 145 the king built the appalling abomination on top of the altar of burnt offering; and altars were built in the surrounding towns of Judah
1Ma 1:55 and incense offered at the doors of houses and in the streets.
1Ma 1:56 Any books of the Law that came to light were torn up and burned.
1Ma 1:57 Whenever anyone was discovered possessing a copy of the covenant or practising the Law, the king's decree sentenced him to death.
1Ma 1:58 Month after month they took harsh action against any offenders they discovered in the towns of Israel.
1Ma 1:59 On the twenty-fifth day of each month, sacrifice was offered on the altar erected on top of the altar of burnt offering.
1Ma 1:60 Women who had had their children circumcised were put to death according to the edict
1Ma 1:61 with their babies hung round their necks, and the members of their household and those who had performed the circumcision were executed with them.
1Ma 1:62 Yet there were many in Israel who stood firm and found the courage to refuse unclean food.
1Ma 1:63 They chose death rather than contamination by such fare or profanation of the holy covenant, and they were executed.
1Ma 1:64 It was a truly dreadful retribution that visited Israel.
1Ma 2:1 About then, Mattathias son of John, son of Simeon, a priest of the line of Joarib, left Jerusalem and settled in Modein.
1Ma 2:2 He had five sons, John known as Gaddi,
1Ma 2:3 Simon called Thassi,
1Ma 2:4 Judas called Maccabaeus,
1Ma 2:5 Eleazar, called Avaran, and Jonathan called Apphus.
1Ma 2:6 When he saw the blasphemies being committed in Judah and Jerusalem,
1Ma 2:7 he said, 'Alas that I should have been born to witness the ruin of my people and the ruin of the Holy City, and to sit by while she is delivered over to her enemies, and the sanctuary into the hand of foreigners.
1Ma 2:8 'Her Temple has become like someone of no repute,
1Ma 2:9 the vessels that were her glory have been carried off as booty, her babies have been slaughtered in her streets, her young men by the enemy's sword.
1Ma 2:10 Is there a nation that has not claimed a share of her royal prerogatives, that has not taken some of her spoils?
1Ma 2:11 All her ornaments have been snatched from her, her former freedom has become slavery.
1Ma 2:12 See how the Holy Place, our beauty, our glory, is now laid waste, see how the gentiles have profaned it!
1Ma 2:13 What have we left to live for?'
1Ma 2:14 Mattathias and his sons tore their garments, put on sackcloth, and observed deep mourning.
1Ma 2:15 The king's commissioners who were enforcing the apostasy came to the town of Modein for the sacrifices.
1Ma 2:16 Many Israelites gathered round them, but Mattathias and his sons drew apart.
1Ma 2:17 The king's commissioners then addressed Mattathias as follows, 'You are a respected leader, a great man in this town; you have sons and brothers to support you.
1Ma 2:18 Be the first to step forward and conform to the king's decree, as all the nations have done, and the leaders of Judah and the survivors in Jerusalem; you and your sons shall be reckoned among the Friends of the King, you and your sons will be honored with gold and silver and many presents.'
1Ma 2:19 Raising his voice, Mattathias retorted, 'Even if every nation living in the king's dominions obeys him, each forsaking its ancestral religion to conform to his decrees,
1Ma 2:20 I, my sons and my brothers will still follow the covenant of our ancestors.
1Ma 2:21 May Heaven preserve us from forsaking the Law and its observances.
1Ma 2:22 As for the king's orders, we will not follow them: we shall not swerve from our own religion either to right or to left.'
1Ma 2:23 As he finished speaking, a Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer sacrifice on the altar in Modein as the royal edict required.
1Ma 2:24 When Mattathias saw this, he was fired with zeal; stirred to the depth of his being, he gave vent to his legitimate anger, threw himself on the man and slaughtered him on the altar.
1Ma 2:25 At the same time he killed the king's commissioner who was there to enforce the sacrifice, and tore down the altar.
1Ma 2:26 In his zeal for the Law he acted as Phinehas had against Zimri son of Salu.
1Ma 2:27 Then Mattathias went through the town, shouting at the top of his voice, 'Let everyone who has any zeal for the Law and takes his stand on the covenant come out and follow me.'
1Ma 2:28 Then he fled with his sons into the hills, leaving all their possessions behind in the town.
1Ma 2:29 Many people who were concerned for virtue and justice went down to the desert and stayed there,
1Ma 2:30 taking with them their sons, their wives and their cattle, so oppressive had their sufferings become.
1Ma 2:31 Word was brought to the royal officials and forces stationed in Jerusalem, in the City of David, that those who had repudiated the king's edict had gone down to the hiding places in the desert.
1Ma 2:32 A strong detachment went after them, and when it came up with them ranged itself against them in battle formation, preparing to attack them on the Sabbath day,
1Ma 2:33 and said, 'Enough of this! Come out and do as the king orders and you will be spared.'
1Ma 2:34 The others, however, replied, 'We refuse to come out, and we will not obey the king's orders and profane the Sabbath day.'
1Ma 2:35 The royal forces at once went into action,
1Ma 2:36 but the others offered no opposition; not a stone was thrown, there was no barricading of the hiding places.
1Ma 2:37 They only said, 'Let us all die innocent; let heaven and earth bear witness that you are massacring us with no pretence of justice.'
1Ma 2:38 The attack was pressed home on the Sabbath itself, and they were slaughtered, with their wives and children and cattle, to the number of one thousand persons.
1Ma 2:39 When the news reached Mattathias and his friends, they mourned them bitterly
1Ma 2:40 and said to one another, 'If we all do as our brothers have done, and refuse to fight the gentiles for our lives and institutions, they will only destroy us the sooner from the earth.'
1Ma 2:41 So then and there they came to this decision, 'If anyone attacks us on the Sabbath day, whoever he may be, we shall resist him; we must not all be killed, as our brothers were in the hiding places.'
1Ma 2:42 Soon they were joined by the Hasidaean party, stout fighting men of Israel, each one a volunteer on the side of the Law.
1Ma 2:43 All the refugees from the persecution rallied to them, giving them added support.
1Ma 2:44 They organised themselves into an armed force, striking down the sinners in their anger, and the renegades in their fury, and those who escaped them fled to the gentiles for safety.
1Ma 2:45 Mattathias and his friends made a tour, overthrowing the altars
1Ma 2:46 and forcibly circumcising all the boys they found uncircumcised in the territories of Israel.
1Ma 2:47 They hunted down the upstarts and managed their campaign to good effect.
1Ma 2:48 They wrested the Law out of the control of the gentiles and the kings and reduced the sinners to impotence.
1Ma 2:49 As the days of Mattathias were drawing to a close, he said to his sons, 'Arrogance and outrage are now in the ascendant; it is a period of turmoil and bitter hatred.
1Ma 2:50 This is the time, my children, for you to have a burning zeal for the Law and to give your lives for the covenant of our ancestors.
1Ma 2:51 Remember the deeds performed by our ancestors, each in his generation, and you will win great honor and everlasting renown.
1Ma 2:52 Was not Abraham tested and found faithful, was that not considered as justifying him?
1Ma 2:53 Joseph in the time of his distress maintained the Law, and so became lord of Egypt.
1Ma 2:54 Phinehas, our father, in return for his burning zeal, received the covenant of everlasting priesthood.
1Ma 2:55 Joshua, for carrying out his task, became judge of Israel.
1Ma 2:56 Caleb, for his testimony before the assembled people, received an inheritance in the land.
1Ma 2:57 David for his generous heart inherited the throne of an everlasting kingdom.
1Ma 2:58 Elijah for his consuming fervour for the Law was caught up to heaven itself.
1Ma 2:59 Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, for their fidelity, were saved from the flame.
1Ma 2:60 Daniel for his singleness of heart was rescued from the lion's jaws.
1Ma 2:61 Know then that, generation after generation, no one who hopes in him will be overcome.
1Ma 2:62 Do not fear the threats of the sinner, all his brave show must come to the dunghill and the worms.
1Ma 2:63 Exalted today, tomorrow he is nowhere to be found, for he has returned to the dust he came from and his scheming is brought to nothing.
1Ma 2:64 My children, be resolute and courageous for the Law, for it will bring you glory.
1Ma 2:65 'Here is your brother Simeon, I know he is a man of sound judgement. Listen to him all your lives; let him take your father's place.
1Ma 2:66 Judas Maccabaeus, strong and brave from his youth, let him be your general and conduct the war against the gentiles.
1Ma 2:67 The rest of you are to enrol in your ranks all those who keep the Law, and to assure the vengeance of your people.
1Ma 2:68 Pay back the gentiles to the full, and hold fast to the ordinance of the Law.'
1Ma 2:69 Then he blessed them and was joined to his ancestors.
1Ma 2:70 He died in the year 146 and was buried in his ancestral tomb at Modein, and all Israel mourned him deeply.
1Ma 3:1 His son, Judas, known as Maccabaeus, then took his place.
1Ma 3:2 All his brothers, and all who had attached themselves to his father, supported him, and they fought for Israel with a will.
1Ma 3:3 He extended the fame of his people. Like a giant, he put on the breastplate and buckled on his war harness; he engaged in battle after battle, protecting the ranks with his sword.
1Ma 3:4 He was like a lion in his exploits, like a young lion roaring over its prey.
1Ma 3:5 He pursued and tracked down the renegades, he consigned those who troubled his people to the flames.
1Ma 3:6 The renegades quailed with the terror he inspired, all evil-doers were utterly confounded, and deliverance went forward under his leadership.
1Ma 3:7 He brought bitterness to many a king and rejoicing to Jacob by his deeds, his memory is blessed for ever and ever.
1Ma 3:8 He went through the towns of Judah eliminating the irreligious from them, and diverted the Retribution from Israel.
1Ma 3:9 His name resounded to the ends of the earth, he rallied those who were on the point of perishing.
1Ma 3:10 Next, Apollonius mustered the gentiles and a large force from Samaria to make war on Israel.
1Ma 3:11 When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and routed and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the survivors took to flight.
1Ma 3:12 Their spoils were seized and the sword of Apollonius was taken by Judas, who used it to fight with throughout his life.
1Ma 3:13 On hearing that Judas had raised a mixed force of believers and seasoned fighters,
1Ma 3:14 Seron, commander of the Syrian troops, said, 'I shall make a name for myself and gain honor in the kingdom if I fight Judas and those supporters of his who are so contemptuous of the king's orders.'
1Ma 3:15 He therefore launched another expedition, with a strong army of unbelievers to support him in taking revenge on the Israelites.
1Ma 3:16 He had nearly reached the descent of Beth-Horon when Judas went out to confront him with a handful of men.
1Ma 3:17 But as soon as these saw the force advancing to meet them, they said to Judas, 'How can we, few as we are, engage such overwhelming numbers? We are exhausted as it is, not having had anything to eat today.'
1Ma 3:18 'It is easy', Judas answered, 'for a great number to be defeated by a few; indeed, in the sight of Heaven, deliverance, whether by many or by few, is all one;
1Ma 3:19 for victory in war does not depend on the size of the fighting force: Heaven accords the strength.
1Ma 3:20 They are coming against us in full-blown insolence and lawlessness to destroy us, our wives and our children, and to plunder us;
1Ma 3:21 but we are fighting for our lives and our laws,
1Ma 3:22 and he will crush them before our eyes; do not be afraid of them.'
1Ma 3:23 When he had finished speaking, he made a sudden sally against Seron and his force and overwhelmed them.
1Ma 3:24 Judas pursued them down from Beth-Horon as far as the plain. About eight hundred of their men fell, and the rest took refuge in the country of the Philistines.
1Ma 3:25 Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and alarm seized the surrounding peoples.
1Ma 3:26 His name even reached the king's ears, and among the nations there was talk of Judas and his battles.
1Ma 3:27 The news of these events infuriated Antiochus, and he ordered mobilization of all the forces in his kingdom, a very powerful army.
1Ma 3:28 Opening his treasury, he distributed a year's pay to his troops, telling them to be prepared for any eventuality.
1Ma 3:29 He then found that the money in his coffers had run short and that the tribute of the province had decreased, as a result of the dissension and disaster brought on the country by his own abrogation of laws that had been in force from antiquity.
1Ma 3:30 He began to fear that, as had happened more than once, he would not have enough to cover the expenses and the lavish bounties he had previously been accustomed to make on a larger scale than his predecessors on the throne.
1Ma 3:31 In this grave quandary he resolved to invade Persia, there to levy tribute on the provinces and so accumulate substantial funds.
1Ma 3:32 He therefore left Lysias, a nobleman and member of the royal family, to manage the royal affairs between the River Euphrates and the Egyptian frontier,
1Ma 3:33 making him responsible for the education of his son Antiochus, until he should come back.
1Ma 3:34 To him Antiochus made over half his forces, with the elephants, giving him instructions about what he wanted done, particularly with regard to the inhabitants of Judaea and Jerusalem,
1Ma 3:35 against whom he was to send a force, to crush and destroy the power of Israel and the remnant of Jerusalem, to wipe out their very memory from the place,
1Ma 3:36 to settle foreigners in all parts of their territory and to distribute their land into lots.
1Ma 3:37 The king took the remaining half of his troops with him and set out from Antioch, the capital of his kingdom, in the year 147; he crossed the River Euphrates and made his way through the Upper Provinces.
1Ma 3:38 Lysias chose Ptolemy son of Dorymenes, with Nicanor and Gorgias, influential men from among the Friends of the King,
1Ma 3:39 and, under their command, despatched forty thousand foot and seven thousand horse to invade the land of Judah and devastate it, as the king had ordered.
1Ma 3:40 The entire force set out and reached the neighborhood of Emmaus in the lowlands, where they pitched camp.
1Ma 3:41 The local merchants, hearing the news of this, arrived at the camp, bringing with them a large amount of gold and silver, and fetters as well, proposing to buy the Israelites as slaves; they were accompanied by a company from Idumaea and the Philistine country.
1Ma 3:42 Judas and his brothers saw that the situation was going from bad to worse and that armies were camping in their territory; they were also well aware that the king had ordered the people's total destruction.
1Ma 3:43 So they said to each other, 'Let us restore the ruins of our people and fight for our people and our sanctuary.'
1Ma 3:44 The Assembly was summoned, to prepare for war, to offer prayer and to implore compassion and mercy.
1Ma 3:45 Jerusalem was as empty as a desert, none of her children to go in and out. The sanctuary was trodden underfoot, men of an alien race held the Citadel, which had become a lodging for gentiles. There was no more rejoicing for Jacob, the flute and lyre were mute.
1Ma 3:46 After mustering, they made their way to Mizpah, opposite Jerusalem, since Mizpah was traditionally a place of prayer for Israel.
1Ma 3:47 That day they fasted and put on sackcloth, covering their heads with ashes and tearing their garments.
1Ma 3:48 For the guidance that the gentiles would have sought from the images of their false gods, they opened the Book of the Law.
1Ma 3:49 They also brought out the priestly vestments, with first-fruits and tithes, and marshalled the Nazirites who had completed the period of their vow.
1Ma 3:50 Then, raising their voices to Heaven, they cried, 'What shall we do with these people, and where are we to take them?
1Ma 3:51 Your holy place has been trampled underfoot and defiled, your priests mourn in their humiliation,
1Ma 3:52 and now the gentiles are in alliance to destroy us: you know what they have in mind for us.
1Ma 3:53 How can we stand up and face them if you do not come to our aid?'
1Ma 3:54 Then they sounded the trumpets and raised a great shout.
1Ma 3:55 Next, Judas appointed leaders for the people, to command a thousand, a hundred, fifty or ten men.
1Ma 3:56 Those who were in the middle of building a house, or were about to be married, or were planting a vineyard, or were afraid, he told to go home again, as the Law allowed.
1Ma 3:57 The column then marched off and took up a position south of Emmaus.
1Ma 3:58 'Stand to your arms,' Judas told them, 'acquit yourselves bravely, in the morning be ready to fight these gentiles massed against us to destroy us and our sanctuary.
1Ma 3:59 Better for us to die in battle than to watch the ruin of our nation and our Holy Place.
1Ma 3:60 Whatever be the will of Heaven, he will perform it.'
1Ma 4:1 Gorgias took with him five thousand foot and a thousand picked cavalry, and the force moved off by night
1Ma 4:2 with the object of attacking the Jewish position and dealing them an unexpected blow; the men from the Citadel were there to guide him.
1Ma 4:3 Judas got wind of it and himself moved off with his fighters to strike at the royal army at Emmaus,
1Ma 4:4 while its fighting troops were still dispersed outside the camp.
1Ma 4:5 Hence, when Gorgias reached Judas' camp, he found no one and began looking for the Jews in the mountains. 'For', he said, 'we have got them on the run.'
1Ma 4:6 First light found Judas in the plain with three thousand men, although these lacked the armour and swords they would have wished.
1Ma 4:7 They could now see the gentile encampment with its strong fortifications and cavalry surrounding it, clearly people who understood warfare.
1Ma 4:8 Judas said to his men, 'Do not be afraid of their numbers, and do not flinch at their attack.
1Ma 4:9 Remember how our ancestors were delivered at the Red Sea when Pharaoh was pursuing them in force.
1Ma 4:10 And now let us call on Heaven: if he cares for us, he will remember his covenant with our ancestors and will destroy this army confronting us today;
1Ma 4:11 then all the nations will know for certain that there is One who ransoms and saves Israel.'
1Ma 4:12 The foreigners looked up and, seeing the Jews advancing against them,
1Ma 4:13 came out of the camp to join battle. Judas' men sounded the trumpet
1Ma 4:14 and engaged them. The gentiles were defeated and fled towards the plain
1Ma 4:15 and all the stragglers fell by the sword. The pursuit continued as far as Gezer and the plains of Idumaea, Azotus and Jamnia, and the enemy lost about three thousand men.
1Ma 4:16 Breaking off the pursuit, Judas returned with his men
1Ma 4:17 and said to the people, 'Never mind the booty, for we have another battle ahead of us.
1Ma 4:18 Gorgias and his troops are still near us in the mountains. First stand up to our enemies and fight them, and then you can safely collect the booty.'
1Ma 4:19 The words were hardly out of Judas' mouth, when a detachment came into view, peering down from the mountain.
1Ma 4:20 Observing that their own troops had been routed and that the camp had been fired -- since the smoke, which they could see, attested the fact-
1Ma 4:21 they were panic-stricken at the sight; and when, furthermore, they saw Judas' troops drawn up for battle on the plain,
1Ma 4:22 they all fled into Philistine territory.
1Ma 4:23 Judas then turned back to plunder the camp, and a large sum in gold and silver, with violet and sea-purple stuffs, and many other valuables were carried off.
1Ma 4:24 On their return, the Jews chanted praises to Heaven, singing, 'He is kind and his love is everlasting!'
1Ma 4:25 That day had seen a remarkable deliverance in Israel.
1Ma 4:26 Those of the foreigners who had escaped came and gave Lysias an account of all that had happened.
1Ma 4:27 The news shocked and dismayed him, for affairs in Israel had not gone as he intended, and the result was quite the opposite to what the king had ordered.
1Ma 4:28 The next year he mobilised sixty thousand picked troops and five thousand cavalry with the intention of finishing off the Jews.
1Ma 4:29 They advanced into Idumaea and made their base at Beth-Zur, where Judas met them with ten thousand men.
1Ma 4:30 When he saw their military strength he offered this prayer, 'Blessed are you, Savior of Israel, who shattered the mighty warrior's attack at the hand of your servant David, and delivered the Philistine camp into the hands of Jonathan son of Saul, and his armour-bearer.
1Ma 4:31 Crush this expedition in the same way at the hands of your people Israel; let their troops and cavalry bring them nothing but shame.
1Ma 4:32 Sow panic in their ranks, confound the confidence they put in their numbers and send them reeling in defeat.
1Ma 4:33 Overthrow them by the sword of those who love you, and all who acknowledge your name will sing your praises.'
1Ma 4:34 The two forces engaged, and five thousand men of Lysias' troops fell in hand-to-hand fighting.
1Ma 4:35 Seeing the rout of his army and the courage of Judas' troops and their readiness to live or die nobly, Lysias withdrew to Antioch, where he recruited mercenaries for a further invasion of Judaea in even greater strength.
1Ma 4:36 Judas and his brothers then said, 'Now that our enemies have been defeated, let us go up to purify the sanctuary and dedicate it.'
1Ma 4:37 So they marshalled the whole army, and went up to Mount Zion.
1Ma 4:38 There they found the sanctuary deserted, the altar desecrated, the gates burnt down, and vegetation growing in the courts as it might in a wood or on some mountain, while the storerooms were in ruins.
1Ma 4:39 They tore their garments and mourned bitterly, putting dust on their heads.
1Ma 4:40 They prostrated themselves on the ground, and when the trumpets gave the signal they cried aloud to Heaven.
1Ma 4:41 Judas then ordered his men to keep the Citadel garrison engaged until he had purified the sanctuary.
1Ma 4:42 Next, he selected priests who were blameless and zealous for the Law
1Ma 4:43 to purify the sanctuary and remove the stones of the 'Pollution' to some unclean place.
1Ma 4:44 They discussed what should be done about the altar of burnt offering which had been profaned,
1Ma 4:45 and very properly decided to pull it down, rather than later be embarrassed about it since it had been defiled by the gentiles. They therefore demolished it
1Ma 4:46 and deposited the stones in a suitable place on the hill of the Dwelling to await the appearance of a prophet who should give a ruling about them.
1Ma 4:47 They took unhewn stones, as the Law prescribed, and built a new altar on the lines of the old one.
1Ma 4:48 They restored the Holy Place and the interior of the Dwelling, and purified the courts.
1Ma 4:49 They made new sacred vessels, and brought the lamp-stand, the altar of incense, and the table into the Temple.
1Ma 4:50 They burned incense on the altar and lit the lamps on the lamp-stand, and these shone inside the Temple.
1Ma 4:51 They placed the loaves on the table and hung the curtains and completed all the tasks they had undertaken.
1Ma 4:52 On the twenty-fifth of the ninth month, Chislev, in the year 148 they rose at dawn
1Ma 4:53 and offered a lawful sacrifice on the new altar of burnt offering which they had made.
1Ma 4:54 The altar was dedicated, to the sound of hymns, zithers, lyres and cymbals, at the same time of year and on the same day on which the gentiles had originally profaned it.
1Ma 4:55 The whole people fell prostrate in adoration and then praised Heaven who had granted them success.
1Ma 4:56 For eight days they celebrated the dedication of the altar, joyfully offering burnt offerings, communion and thanksgiving sacrifices.
1Ma 4:57 They ornamented the front of the Temple with crowns and bosses of gold, renovated the gates and storerooms, providing the latter with doors.
1Ma 4:58 There was no end to the rejoicing among the people, since the disgrace inflicted by the gentiles had been effaced.
1Ma 4:59 Judas, with his brothers and the whole assembly of Israel, made it a law that the days of the dedication of the altar should be celebrated yearly at the proper season, for eight days beginning on the twenty-fifth of the month of Chislev, with rejoicing and gladness.
1Ma 4:60 They then proceeded to build high walls with strong towers round Mount Zion, to prevent the gentiles from coming and riding roughshod over it as in the past.
1Ma 4:61 Judas stationed a garrison there to guard it; he also fortified Beth-Zur, so that the people would have a fortress confronting Idumaea.
1Ma 5:1 When the surrounding nations heard that the altar had been rebuilt and the sanctuary restored to what it had been before, they became very angry
1Ma 5:2 and decided to destroy the descendants of Jacob living among them; they began to murder and evict our people.
1Ma 5:3 Judas made war on the sons of Esau in Idumaea, in the region of Acrabattene where they were besieging the Israelites. He dealt them a serious blow, drove them off and despoiled them.
1Ma 5:4 He also remembered the wickedness of the sons of Baean, who were a menace and a trap for the people with their ambushes on the roads.
1Ma 5:5 Having blockaded them in their town and besieged them, he put them under the curse of destruction; he then set fire to their towers and burned them down with everyone inside.
1Ma 5:6 Next, he crossed over to the Ammonites where he found a strong fighting force and a numerous people, commanded by Timotheus.
1Ma 5:7 He fought many battles with them, defeated them and cut them to pieces.
1Ma 5:8 Having captured Jazer and its dependent villages, he retired to Judaea.
1Ma 5:9 Next, the gentiles of Gilead banded together to destroy the Israelites living in their territory. The latter, however, took refuge in the fortress of Dathema,
1Ma 5:10 and sent the following letter to Judas and his brothers: 'The gentiles round us have banded themselves together against us to destroy us,
1Ma 5:11 and they are preparing to storm the fortress in which we have taken refuge; Timotheus is in command of their forces.
1Ma 5:12 Come at once and rescue us from their clutches, for we have already suffered great losses.
1Ma 5:13 All our countrymen living in Tobias' country have been killed, their women and children have been taken into captivity, their property has been seized, and about a thousand men have been destroyed there.'
1Ma 5:14 While the letter was being read, other messengers arrived from Galilee with their garments torn, bearing similar news,
1Ma 5:15 'The people of Ptolemais, Tyre and Sidon have joined forces with the whole of gentile Galilee to destroy us!'
1Ma 5:16 When Judas and the people heard this, they held a great assembly to decide what should be done for their oppressed countrymen who were under attack from their enemies.
1Ma 5:17 Judas said to his brother Simon, 'Pick your men and go and relieve your countrymen in Galilee, while my brother Jonathan and I make our way into Gilead.'
1Ma 5:18 He left Joseph son of Zechariah and the people's leader Azariah with the remainder of the army in Judaea to keep guard, and gave them these orders,
1Ma 5:19 'You are to be responsible for our people. Do not engage the gentiles until we return.'
1Ma 5:20 Simon was allotted three thousand men for the expedition into Galilee, Judas eight thousand for Gilead.
1Ma 5:21 Simon advanced into Galilee, engaged the gentiles in several battles and swept all before him;
1Ma 5:22 he pursued them to the gate of Ptolemais, and they lost about three thousand men, whose spoils he collected.
1Ma 5:23 With him, he took away the Jews of Galilee and Arbatta, with their wives and children and all their possessions, and brought them into Judaea with great rejoicing.
1Ma 5:24 Meanwhile Judas Maccabaeus and his brother Jonathan crossed the Jordan and made a three-days' march through the desert,
1Ma 5:25 where they encountered the Nabataeans, who gave them a friendly reception and told them everything that had been happening to their brothers in Gilead,
1Ma 5:26 many of whom, they said, were shut up in Bozrah and Bosor, Alema, Chaspho, Maked and Carnaim, all large fortified towns.
1Ma 5:27 Others were blockaded in the other towns of Gilead, and the enemy planned to attack and capture these strongholds the very next day, and destroy all the people inside them on one day.
1Ma 5:28 Judas and his army at once turned off by the desert road to Bozrah. He took the town and, having put all the males to the sword and collected the booty, burned it down.
1Ma 5:29 When night came, he left the place, and they continued their march until they reached the fortress.
1Ma 5:30 In the light of dawn they looked, and there was an innumerable horde, setting up ladders and engines to capture the fortress; the assault was just beginning.
1Ma 5:31 When Judas saw that the attack had begun and that the war cry was rising to heaven from the city, mingled with trumpet calls and a great clamour,
1Ma 5:32 he said to the men of his army, 'Into battle today for your brothers!'
1Ma 5:33 Dividing them into three commands, he advanced on the enemy's rear, with trumpets sounding and prayers shouted aloud.
1Ma 5:34 The troops of Timotheus, recognising that this was Maccabaeus, fled before his advance; Maccabaeus dealt them a crushing defeat; about eight thousand of their men fell that day.
1Ma 5:35 Then, wheeling on Alema, he attacked and captured it and, having killed all the males and collected the booty, burned the place down.
1Ma 5:36 From there he moved on and took Chaspho, Maked, Bosor and the remaining towns of Gilead.
1Ma 5:37 After these events, Timotheus mustered another force and pitched camp opposite Raphon, on the far side of the stream-bed.
1Ma 5:38 Judas sent men to reconnoitre the camp, and these reported back as follows, 'With him are massed all the gentiles surrounding us, making a very numerous army,
1Ma 5:39 with Arab mercenaries as auxiliaries; they are encamped on the far side of the stream-bed, and ready to launch an attack on you.' Judas then advanced to engage them,
1Ma 5:40 and was approaching the watercourse with his troops when Timotheus told the commanders of his army, 'If he crosses first we shall not be able to resist him, because he will have a great advantage over us;
1Ma 5:41 but if he is afraid and camps on the other side of the stream, we shall cross over to him and the advantage will then be ours.'
1Ma 5:42 As soon as Judas reached the watercourse, he posted people's scribes along it, giving them this order: 'Do not let anyone pitch his tent; all are to go into battle!'
1Ma 5:43 He was himself the first across to the enemy side, with all the people following. He defeated all the opposing gentiles, who threw down their arms and ran for refuge in the sanctuary of Carnaim.
1Ma 5:44 The Jews first captured the town and then burned down the temple with everyone inside. And so Carnaim was overthrown, and the enemy could offer no further resistance to Judas.
1Ma 5:45 Next, Judas assembled all the Israelites living in Gilead, from the least to the greatest, with their wives, children and belongings, an enormous muster, to take them to Judaea.
1Ma 5:46 They reached Ephron, a large town straddling the road and strongly fortified. As it was impossible to by-pass it either to right or to left, there was nothing for it but to march straight through.
1Ma 5:47 But the people of the town denied them passage and barricaded the gates with stones.
1Ma 5:48 Judas sent them a conciliatory message in these terms, 'We want to pass through your territory to reach our own; no one will do you any harm, we only want to go through on foot.' But they would not open up for him.
1Ma 5:49 So Judas sent an order down the column for everyone to halt where he stood.
1Ma 5:50 The fighting men took up their positions; Judas attacked the town all day and night, and the town fell to him.
1Ma 5:51 He put all the males to the sword, rased the town to the ground, plundered it and marched through the town square over the bodies of the dead.
1Ma 5:52 They then crossed the Jordan into the Great Plain, opposite Beth-Shean,
1Ma 5:53 Judas all the time rallying the stragglers and encouraging the people the whole way until they reached Judaea.
1Ma 5:54 They climbed Mount Zion in joy and gladness and presented burnt offerings because they had returned safe and sound without having lost a single man.
1Ma 5:55 While Judas and Jonathan were in Gilead and Simon his brother in Galilee outside Ptolemais,
1Ma 5:56 Joseph son of Zechariah, and Azariah, who were in command of the army, heard of their valiant deeds and of the battles they had been fighting,
1Ma 5:57 and said, 'Let us make a name for ourselves too and go and fight the nations around us.'
1Ma 5:58 So they issued orders to the men under their command and marched on Jamnia.
1Ma 5:59 Gorgias and his men came out of the town and gave battle.
1Ma 5:60 Joseph and Azariah were routed and pursued as far as the frontiers of Judaea. That day about two thousand Israelites lost their lives.
1Ma 5:61 Our people thus met with a great reverse, because they had not listened to Judas and his brothers, thinking that they would do something equally valiant.
1Ma 5:62 They were not, however, of the same breed of men as those to whom the deliverance of Israel was entrusted.
1Ma 5:63 The noble Judas and his brothers, however, were held in high honor throughout Israel and among all the nations wherever their name was heard,
1Ma 5:64 and people thronged round to acclaim them.
1Ma 5:65 Judas marched out with his brothers to fight the Edomites in the country towards the south; he stormed Hebron and its dependent villages, threw down its fortifications and burned down its encircling towers.
1Ma 5:66 Leaving there, he made for the country of the Philistines and passed through Marisa.
1Ma 5:67 Among the fallen in that day's fighting were some priests who sought to prove their courage there by joining in the battle, a foolhardy venture.
1Ma 5:68 Judas next turned on Azotus, which belonged to the Philistines; he overthrew their altars, burned the statues of their gods and, having pillaged their towns, withdrew to Judaea.
1Ma 6:1 King Antiochus, meanwhile, was making his way through the Upper Provinces; he had heard that in Persia there was a city called Elymais, renowned for its riches, its silver and gold,
1Ma 6:2 and its very wealthy temple containing golden armour, breastplates and weapons, left there by Alexander son of Philip, the king of Macedon, the first to reign over the Greeks.
1Ma 6:3 He therefore went and attempted to take the city and pillage it, but without success, the citizens having been forewarned.
1Ma 6:4 They resisted him by force of arms. He was routed, and began retreating, very gloomily, towards Babylon.
1Ma 6:5 But, while he was still in Persia, news reached him that the armies which had invaded Judaea had been routed,
1Ma 6:6 and that Lysias in particular had advanced in massive strength, only to be forced to turn and flee before the Jews; that the latter were now stronger than ever, thanks to the arms, supplies and abundant spoils acquired from the armies they had cut to pieces,
1Ma 6:7 and that they had pulled down the abomination which he had erected on the altar in Jerusalem, had encircled the sanctuary with high walls as in the past, and had fortified Beth-Zur, one of his cities.
1Ma 6:8 When the king heard this news he was amazed and profoundly shaken; he threw himself on his bed and fell sick with grief, since things had not turned out for him as he had planned.
1Ma 6:9 And there he remained for many days, subject to deep and recurrent fits of melancholy, until he realized that he was dying.
1Ma 6:10 Then, summoning all his Friends, he said to them, 'Sleep evades my eyes, and my heart is cowed by anxiety.
1Ma 6:11 I have been wondering how I could have come to such a pitch of distress, so great a flood as that which now engulfs me -- I who was so generous and well-loved in my heyday.
1Ma 6:12 But now I recall how wrongly I acted in Jerusalem when I seized all the vessels of silver and gold there and ordered the extermination of the inhabitants of Judah for no reason at all.
1Ma 6:13 This, I am convinced, is why these misfortunes have overtaken me, and why I am dying of melancholy in a foreign land.'
1Ma 6:14 He summoned Philip, one of his Friends, and made him regent of the whole kingdom.
1Ma 6:15 He entrusted him with his diadem, his robe and his signet, on the understanding that he was to educate his son Antiochus and train him for the throne.
1Ma 6:16 King Antiochus then died, in the year 149.
1Ma 6:17 Lysias, learning that the king was dead, established on the throne in succession to him his son Antiochus, whom he had brought up from childhood -- and styled him Eupator.
1Ma 6:18 The people in the Citadel at the time were blockading Israel round the sanctuary and were taking every opportunity to harm them and to support the gentiles.
1Ma 6:19 Judas decided that they must be destroyed, and he mobilised the whole people to besiege them.
1Ma 6:20 They assembled and laid siege to the Citadel in the year 150, building batteries and siege-engines.
1Ma 6:21 But some of the besieged broke through the blockade, and to these a number of renegades from Israel attached themselves.
1Ma 6:22 They made their way to the king and said, 'How much longer are you going to wait before you see justice done and avenge our fellows?
1Ma 6:23 We were content to serve your father, to comply with his orders, and to obey his edicts.
1Ma 6:24 As a result our own people will have nothing to do with us; what is more, they have killed all those of us they could catch, and looted our family property.
1Ma 6:25 Nor is it on us alone that their blows have fallen, but on all your territories.
1Ma 6:26 At this moment, they are laying siege to the Citadel of Jerusalem, to capture it, and they have fortified the sanctuary and Beth-Zur.
1Ma 6:27 Unless you forestall them at once, they will go on to even bigger things, and then you will never be able to control them.'
1Ma 6:28 The king was furious when he heard this and summoned all his Friends, the generals of his forces and the marshals of horse.
1Ma 6:29 He recruited mercenaries from other kingdoms and the Mediterranean islands.
1Ma 6:30 His forces numbered a hundred thousand foot soldiers, twenty thousand cavalry and thirty-two elephants with experience of battle conditions.
1Ma 6:31 They advanced through Idumaea and besieged Beth-Zur, pressing the attack for days on end; they also constructed siege-engines, but the defenders made a sortie and set these on fire, putting up a brave resistance.
1Ma 6:32 At this, Judas left the Citadel and pitched camp at Beth-Zechariah opposite the royal encampment.
1Ma 6:33 The king rose at daybreak and marched his army at top speed down the road to Beth-Zechariah, where his forces took up their battle formations and sounded the trumpets.
1Ma 6:34 The elephants were given a syrup of grapes and mulberries to prepare them for the battle.
1Ma 6:35 These animals were distributed among the phalanxes, to each elephant being allocated a thousand men dressed in coats of mail with bronze helmets on their heads; five hundred picked horsemen were also assigned to each beast.
1Ma 6:36 The horsemen anticipated every move their elephant made; wherever it went they went with it, never quitting it.
1Ma 6:37 On each elephant, to protect it, was a stout wooden tower, kept in position by girths, each with its three combatants, as well as its mahout.
1Ma 6:38 The remainder of the cavalry was stationed on one or other of the two flanks of the army, to harass the enemy and cover the phalanxes.
1Ma 6:39 When the sun glinted on the bronze and golden shields, the mountains caught the glint and gleamed like fiery torches.
1Ma 6:40 One part of the royal army was deployed on the upper slopes of the mountain and the other in the valley below; they advanced in solid, well-disciplined formation.
1Ma 6:41 Everyone trembled at the noise made by this vast multitude, the thunder of the troops on the march and the clanking of their armour, for it was an immense and mighty army.
1Ma 6:42 Judas and his army advanced to give battle, and six hundred of the king's army were killed.
1Ma 6:43 Eleazar, called Avaran, noticing that one of the elephants was royally caparisoned and was also taller than all the others, and supposing that the king was mounted on it,
1Ma 6:44 sacrificed himself to save his people and win an imperishable name.
1Ma 6:45 Boldly charging towards the creature through the thick of the phalanx, dealing death to right and left, so that the enemy scattered on either side at his onslaught,
1Ma 6:46 he darted in under the elephant, thrust at it from underneath, and killed it. The beast collapsed on top of him, and he died on the spot.
1Ma 6:47 The Jews however realising how strong the king was and how ferocious his army, retreated ahead of them.
1Ma 6:48 The royal army moved up to encounter them outside Jerusalem, and the king began to blockade Judaea and Mount Zion.
1Ma 6:49 He granted peace terms to the people of Beth-Zur, who evacuated the town; it lacked store of provisions to withstand a siege, since the land was enjoying a sabbatical year.
1Ma 6:50 Having occupied Beth-Zur, the king stationed a garrison there to hold it.
1Ma 6:51 He besieged the sanctuary for a long time, erecting batteries and siege-engines, flame-throwers and ballistas, scorpions to discharge arrows, and catapults.
1Ma 6:52 The defenders countered these by constructing their own engines and were thus able to prolong their resistance.
1Ma 6:53 But they had no food in their stores since it was the seventh year, and because those who had taken refuge in Judaea from the gentiles had eaten up the last of their reserves.
1Ma 6:54 Only a few men were left in the Holy Place, owing to the severity of the famine; the rest had dispersed and gone home.
1Ma 6:55 Meanwhile Philip, whom King Antiochus before his death had appointed to train his son Antiochus for the throne,
1Ma 6:56 had returned from Persia and Media with the forces that had accompanied the king, and was planning to seize control of affairs.
1Ma 6:57 On hearing this, Lysias at once decided to leave, and said to the king, the generals of the army and the men, 'We are growing weaker every day, we are short of food, and the place we are besieging is well fortified; moreover the affairs of the kingdom demand our attention.
1Ma 6:58 Let us offer the hand of friendship to these men and make peace with them and with their whole nation.
1Ma 6:59 Let us grant them permission to follow their own customs as before, since it is our abolition of these customs that has provoked them into acting like this.'
1Ma 6:60 The king and his commanders approved this argument, and he offered the Jews peace terms, which they accepted.
1Ma 6:61 The king and the generals ratified the treaty by oath, and the besieged accordingly left the fortress.
1Ma 6:62 The king then entered Mount Zion, but on seeing how impregnable the place was, he broke the oath he had sworn and gave orders for the encircling wall to be demolished.
1Ma 6:63 He then hurriedly withdrew, making off for Antioch, where he found Philip already master of the city. Antiochus gave battle and captured the city by force of arms.
1Ma 7:1 In the year 151, Demetrius son of Seleucus left Rome and arrived with a few men at a town on the coast, where he inaugurated his reign.
1Ma 7:2 It so happened that, as he was entering the royal residence of his ancestors, the army captured Antiochus and Lysias, and intended to bring them to him.
1Ma 7:3 On hearing this, he said, 'Keep them out of my sight.'
1Ma 7:4 The army put them to death, and Demetrius ascended his throne.
1Ma 7:5 Next, all those Israelites without law or piety, led by Alcimus, whose ambition was to become high priest,
1Ma 7:6 approached the king and denounced our people to him. 'Judas and his brothers', they said, 'have killed all your friends, and he has driven us out of our country.
1Ma 7:7 Send someone now whom you can trust; let him go and see the wholesale ruin Judas has brought on us and on the king's dominions, and let him punish the wretches and all who assist them.'
1Ma 7:8 The king chose Bacchides, one of the Friends of the King, governor of Transeuphrates, an important personage in the kingdom and loyal to the king.
1Ma 7:9 He sent him with the godless Alcimus, whom he confirmed in the high priesthood, with orders to exact retribution from the Israelites.
1Ma 7:10 So they set out with a large force and, on reaching Judaea, sent emissaries to Judas and his brothers with proposals peaceable yet treacherous.
1Ma 7:11 The latter, however, did not put any faith in their words, aware that they had come with a large force.
1Ma 7:12 Nevertheless, a commission of scribes presented themselves before Alcimus and Bacchides, to sue for just terms.
1Ma 7:13 The first among the Israelites to ask them for peace terms were the Hasidaeans,
1Ma 7:14 who reasoned thus, 'This is a priest of Aaron's line who has come with the armed forces; he will not wrong us.'
1Ma 7:15 He did in fact discuss peace terms with them and gave them his oath, 'We shall not attempt to injure you or your friends.'
1Ma 7:16 They believed him, but he arrested sixty of them and put them to death on one day, fulfilling the words of scripture:
1Ma 7:17 They have scattered the bodies of your faithful, and shed their blood all round Jerusalem, leaving no one to bury them!
1Ma 7:18 At this, fear and dread gripped the whole people. 'There is no truth or virtue in them,' they said, 'they have broken their agreement and their sworn oath.'
1Ma 7:19 Bacchides then left Jerusalem and encamped at Beth-Zeth, and from there sent and arrested many of the men who had deserted him and a few of our people too; he had them killed and thrown down the great well.
1Ma 7:20 He then put Alcimus in charge of the province, leaving an army with him to support him; Bacchides himself returned to the king.
1Ma 7:21 Alcimus continued his struggle to become high priest,
1Ma 7:22 and all who were disturbing the peace of their own people rallied to him, and, having won control of Judaea, did much harm in Israel.
1Ma 7:23 Seeing that all the wrongs done to the Israelites by Alcimus and his supporters exceeded what the gentiles had done,
1Ma 7:24 Judas went right round the whole territory of Judaea to take vengeance on those who had deserted him and to prevent their free movement about the country.
1Ma 7:25 When Alcimus saw how strong Judas and his supporters had grown and realized that he was powerless to resist them, he went back to the king, to whom he made malicious accusations against them.
1Ma 7:26 The king sent Nicanor, one of his generals ranking as Illustrious and a bitter enemy of Israel, with orders to exterminate the people.
1Ma 7:27 Reaching Jerusalem with a large force, Nicanor sent a friendly, yet treacherous, message to Judas and his brothers, as follows:
1Ma 7:28 'Let us have no fighting between you and me; I shall come with a small escort for a peaceful meeting with you.'
1Ma 7:29 He met Judas and they exchanged friendly greetings; the enemy, however, had made preparations to abduct Judas.
1Ma 7:30 When Judas became aware of Nicanor's treacherous purpose in coming to see him, he took fright and refused any further meeting.
1Ma 7:31 Nicanor then realized that his plan had been discovered, and took the field against Judas, to give battle near Caphar-Salama.
1Ma 7:32 About five hundred of Nicanor's men fell; the rest took refuge in the City of David.
1Ma 7:33 After these events Nicanor went up to Mount Zion. Some of the priests came out of the Holy Place with some elders, to give him a friendly welcome and show him the burnt offering being presented for the king.
1Ma 7:34 But he ridiculed them, laughed at them, defiled them and used insolent language, swearing in his rage,
1Ma 7:35 'Unless Judas is handed over to me this time with his army, as soon as I am safely back, I promise you, I shall burn this building down!'
1Ma 7:36 Then he went off in a fury. At this, the priests went in again, and stood weeping in front of the altar and the Temple, saying,
1Ma 7:37 'You have chosen this house to be called by your name, to be a house of prayer and petition for your people.
1Ma 7:38 Take vengeance on this man and on his army, and let them fall by the sword; remember their blasphemies and give them no respite.'
1Ma 7:39 Nicanor left Jerusalem and encamped at Beth-Horon, where he was joined by an army from Syria.
1Ma 7:40 Judas, meanwhile, camped at Adasa with three thousand men, and offered this prayer,
1Ma 7:41 'When the king's envoys blasphemed, your angel went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand of his men.
1Ma 7:42 In the same way let us see you crush this army today, so that everyone else may know that this man has spoken blasphemously against your sanctuary: pass judgement on him as his wickedness deserves!'
1Ma 7:43 The armies met in battle on the thirteenth of the month Adar, and Nicanor's army was crushed, he himself being the first to fall in the battle.
1Ma 7:44 When Nicanor's soldiers saw him fall, they threw down their arms and fled.
1Ma 7:45 The Jews pursued them a day's journey, from Adasa to the approaches of Gezer; they sounded their trumpets in warning as they followed them,
1Ma 7:46 and people came out of all the surrounding Judaean villages to encircle the fugitives, who then turned back on their own men. All fell by the sword, not one being left alive.
1Ma 7:47 Having collected the spoils and booty, they cut off Nicanor's head and the right hand he had stretched out in a display of insolence; these were taken and displayed within sight of Jerusalem.
1Ma 7:48 The people were overjoyed and kept that day as a great holiday:
1Ma 7:49 indeed they decided to celebrate it annually on the thirteenth of Adar.
1Ma 7:50 For a short while Judaea enjoyed peace.
1Ma 8:1 Now Judas had heard of the reputation of the Romans: how strong they were, and how well disposed towards any who made common cause with them, making a treaty of friendship with anyone who approached them.
1Ma 8:2 (And, indeed, they were extremely powerful.) He had been told of their wars and of their prowess among the Gauls, whom they had conquered and put under tribute;
1Ma 8:3 and of all they had done in the province of Spain to gain possession of the silver and gold mines there,
1Ma 8:4 making themselves masters of the whole country by their determination and perseverance, despite its great distance from their own; of the kings who came from the ends of the earth to attack them, only to be crushed by them and overwhelmed with disaster, and of others who paid them annual tribute;
1Ma 8:5 Philip, Perseus king of the Kittim, and others who had dared to make war on them, had been defeated and reduced to subjection,
1Ma 8:6 while Antiochus the Great, king of Asia, who had advanced to attack them with a hundred and twenty elephants, cavalry, chariots and a very large army, had also suffered defeat at their hands;
1Ma 8:7 they had taken him alive and imposed on him and his successors, on agreed terms, the payment of an enormous tribute, the surrender of hostages, and the cession
1Ma 8:8 of the Indian territory, with Media, Lydia, and some of their best provinces, which they took from him and gave to King Eumenes.
1Ma 8:9 Judas had also heard how, when the Greeks planned an expedition to destroy the Romans,
1Ma 8:10 the latter had got wind of it and, sending a single general against them, had fought a campaign in which they inflicted heavy casualties, carried their women and children away into captivity, pillaged their goods, subdued their country, tore down their fortresses and reduced them to a slavery lasting to the present day;
1Ma 8:11 and how they had destroyed and subjugated all the other kingdoms and islands that resisted them.
1Ma 8:12 But where their friends and those who relied on them were concerned, they had always stood by their friendship. They had subdued kings far and near, and all who heard their name went in terror of them.
1Ma 8:13 One man, if they determined to help him and advance him to a throne, would certainly occupy it, while another, if they so determined, would find himself deposed; their influence was paramount.
1Ma 8:14 In spite of all this, no single one of them had assumed a crown or put on the purple for his own aggrandisement.
1Ma 8:15 They had set up a senate, where three hundred and twenty councillors deliberated daily, constantly debating how best to regulate public affairs.
1Ma 8:16 They entrusted their government to one man for a year at a time, with absolute power over their whole empire, and this man was obeyed by all without envy or jealousy.
1Ma 8:17 Having chosen Eupolemus son of John, of the family of Accos, and Jason son of Eleazar, Judas sent them to Rome to make a treaty of friendship and alliance with these people,
1Ma 8:18 in the hope of being rid of the yoke, for they could see that Greek rule was reducing Israel to slavery.
1Ma 8:19 The envoys made the lengthy journey to Rome and presented themselves before the Senate with their formal proposal:
1Ma 8:20 'Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers, with the Jewish people, have sent us to you to conclude a treaty of alliance and peace with you, and to enrol ourselves as your allies and friends.'
1Ma 8:21 The proposal met with the approval of the senators.
1Ma 8:22 Here is a copy of the rescript which they engraved on bronze tablets and sent to Jerusalem to be kept there by the Jews as a record of peace and alliance:
1Ma 8:23 'Good fortune attend the Romans and the Jewish nation by sea and land for ever; may sword or enemy be far from them!
1Ma 8:24 'If war comes first to Rome or any of her allies throughout her dominions,
1Ma 8:25 the Jewish nation will take action as her ally, as occasion may require, and do it wholeheartedly.
1Ma 8:26 They will not give or supply to the enemy any grain, arms, money or ships: thus has Rome decided, and they are to honor their obligations without guarantees.
1Ma 8:27 In the same way, if war comes first to the Jewish nation, the Romans will support them energetically as occasion may offer,
1Ma 8:28 and the aggressor will not be furnished with grain, arms, money or ships: such is the Roman decision, and they will honor these obligations without treachery.
1Ma 8:29 Such are the articles under which the Romans have concluded their treaty with the Jewish people.
1Ma 8:30 If, later, either party should decide to make any addition or deletion, they will be free to do so, and any such addition or deletion will be binding.
1Ma 8:31 'As regards the wrongs done to them by King Demetrius, we have written to him in these terms: Why have you made your yoke lie heavy on our friends and allies the Jews?
1Ma 8:32 If they appeal against you again, we shall uphold their rights and make war on you by sea and land.'
1Ma 9:1 Demetrius, hearing that Nicanor and his army had fallen in battle, sent Bacchides and Alcimus a second time into Judaea, and with them the right wing of his army.
1Ma 9:2 They took the road to Galilee and besieged Mesaloth in Arbela, and captured it, putting many people to death.
1Ma 9:3 In the first month of the year 152, they encamped outside Jerusalem;
1Ma 9:4 they then moved on, making their way to Beer-Zaith with twenty thousand foot and two thousand horse.
1Ma 9:5 Judas lay in camp at Elasa, with three thousand picked men.
1Ma 9:6 When they saw the huge size of the enemy forces they were terrified, and many slipped out of the camp, until no more than eight hundred of the force were left.
1Ma 9:7 With battle now inevitable, Judas realized that his army had melted away; he was aghast, for he had no time to rally them.
1Ma 9:8 Yet, dismayed as he was, he said to those who were left, 'Up! Let us face the enemy; we may yet have the strength to fight them.'
1Ma 9:9 His men tried to dissuade him, declaring, 'We have no strength for anything but to escape with our lives this time; then we can come back with our brothers to fight them; by ourselves we are too few.'
1Ma 9:10 Judas retorted, 'That I should do such a thing as run away from them! If our time has come, at least let us die like men for our countrymen, and leave nothing to tarnish our reputation.'
1Ma 9:11 The army marched out of camp and drew up, facing the enemy. The cavalry was drawn up in two squadrons; the slingers and archers marched in the van of the army, and all the best fighters were put in the front rank;
1Ma 9:12 Bacchides was on the right wing. The phalanx advanced from between the two squadrons, sounding the trumpets; the men on Judas' side also blew their trumpets,
1Ma 9:13 and the earth shook with the noise of the armies. The engagement lasted from morning until evening.
1Ma 9:14 Judas saw that Bacchides and the main strength of his army lay on the right; all the stout-hearted rallied to him,
1Ma 9:15 and they crushed the right wing, pursuing them as far as the Azara Hills.
1Ma 9:16 But when the Syrians on the left wing saw that the right had been broken, they turned and followed hot on the heels of Judas and his men to take them in the rear.
1Ma 9:17 The fight became desperate, and there were many casualties on both sides.
1Ma 9:18 Judas himself fell, and the remnant fled.
1Ma 9:19 Jonathan and Simon took up their brother Judas and buried him in his ancestral tomb at Modein.
1Ma 9:20 All Israel wept and mourned him deeply and for many days they repeated this dirge.
1Ma 9:21 'What a downfall for the strong man, the man who kept Israel safe!'
1Ma 9:22 The other deeds of Judas, the battles he fought, the exploits he performed, and all his titles to greatness have not been recorded; but they were very many.
1Ma 9:23 After the death of Judas, the renegades came out of hiding throughout Israel and all the evil-doers reappeared.
1Ma 9:24 At that time there was a severe famine, and the country went over to their side.
1Ma 9:25 Bacchides deliberately chose the enemies of religion to administer the country.
1Ma 9:26 These traced and searched out the friends of Judas and brought them before Bacchides, who ill-treated and mocked them.
1Ma 9:27 A terrible oppression began in Israel; there had been nothing like it since the disappearance of prophecy among them.
1Ma 9:28 The friends of Judas then all united in saying to Jonathan,
1Ma 9:29 'Since your brother Judas died, there has been no one like him to head the resistance against our enemies, people like Bacchides and others who hate our nation.
1Ma 9:30 Accordingly, we have today chosen you to take his place as our ruler and leader and to fight our campaigns.'
1Ma 9:31 Whereupon, Jonathan took command, in succession to his brother Judas.
1Ma 9:32 Bacchides, when he heard the news, made plans to kill Jonathan.
1Ma 9:33 But this became known to Jonathan, his brother Simon and all his supporters, and they took refuge in the desert of Tekoa, camping by the water-supply at Asphar storage-well.
1Ma 9:34 (Bacchides came to know of this on the Sabbath day, and he too crossed the Jordan with his entire army.)
1Ma 9:35 Jonathan sent his brother, who was one of his commanders, to ask his friends the Nabataeans to store their considerable baggage for them.
1Ma 9:36 The sons of Amrai, however, those of Medeba, intercepted them, captured John and everything he had and made off with their prize.
1Ma 9:37 Later, Jonathan and his brother Simon were told that the sons of Amrai were celebrating an important wedding, and were escorting the bride, a daughter of one of the great notables of Canaan, from Nabata with a large retinue.
1Ma 9:38 Remembering the bloody end of their brother John, they went up and hid under cover of the mountain.
1Ma 9:39 As they were keeping watch, a noisy procession came into sight with a great deal of baggage, and the bridegroom, with his groomsmen and his family, came out to meet it with tambourines and a band, and rich, warlike display.
1Ma 9:40 The Jews rushed down on them from their ambush and killed them, inflicting heavy casualties; the survivors escaped to the mountain, leaving their entire baggage train to be captured.
1Ma 9:41 Thus, the wedding was turned into mourning and the music of their band into lamentation.
1Ma 9:42 Having in this way avenged in full the blood of their brother, they returned to the marshes of the Jordan.
1Ma 9:43 As soon as Bacchides heard this, he came on the Sabbath day with a considerable force to the steep banks of the Jordan.
1Ma 9:44 Jonathan said to his men, 'Up! Let us fight for our lives, for today it is not as in the old days.
1Ma 9:45 You can see, we shall have to fight on our front and to our rear; we have the waters of the Jordan on one side, the marsh and scrub on the other, and we have no line of withdrawal.
1Ma 9:46 This is the moment to call on Heaven, to deliver you from the clutches of your enemies.'
1Ma 9:47 The engagement was begun by Jonathan, who aimed a blow at Bacchides, but the Syrian disengaged himself and withdrew,
1Ma 9:48 whereupon Jonathan and his men leapt into the Jordan and swam to the other bank; the enemy did not, however, cross the Jordan in pursuit.
1Ma 9:49 That day, Bacchides lost about a thousand men.
1Ma 9:50 Bacchides went back to Jerusalem and began fortifying some of the Judaean towns: the fortresses of Jericho, Emmaus, Beth-Horon, Bethel, Timnath, Pharathon and Tephon, with high walls and barred gates,
1Ma 9:51 and stationed a garrison in each of them to harass Israel.
1Ma 9:52 He also fortified the town of Beth-Zur, Gezer and the Citadel, and placed troops in them with supplies of provisions.
1Ma 9:53 He took the sons of the leading men of the country as hostages, and had them placed under guard in the Citadel of Jerusalem.
1Ma 9:54 In the year 153, in the second month, Alcimus ordered the demolition of the wall of the inner court of the sanctuary, destroying the work of the prophets. Alcimus had just begun the demolition
1Ma 9:55 when he suffered a stroke, and his work was interrupted. His mouth became obstructed, and his paralysis made him incapable of speaking at all or giving directions to his household;
1Ma 9:56 it was not long before he died in great agony.
1Ma 9:57 On the death of Alcimus, Bacchides went back to the king, and Judaea was left in peace for two years.
1Ma 9:58 The renegades then all agreed on a plan. 'Now is the time,' they said, 'while Jonathan and his supporters are living in peace and are full of confidence, for us to bring back Bacchides, and he will arrest the lot of them in one night.'
1Ma 9:59 So they went to him and reached an understanding.
1Ma 9:60 Bacchides at once set out with a large force, and sent secret instructions to all his allies in Judaea to seize Jonathan and his supporters. But they were unable to do this because their plan became known,
1Ma 9:61 and Jonathan and his men arrested some fifty of the men of the country who were ringleaders in the plot, and put them to death.
1Ma 9:62 Jonathan and Simon then retired with their partisans to Beth-Bassi in the desert; they rebuilt the ruinous parts of the place and fortified it.
1Ma 9:63 When Bacchides heard this, he mustered his whole force and notified his adherents in Judaea.
1Ma 9:64 He then proceeded to lay siege to Beth-Bassi, the fighting was protracted, and he constructed siege-engines.
1Ma 9:65 Jonathan, however, leaving his brother Simon in the town, broke out into the countryside with a handful of men.
1Ma 9:66 He launched a blow at Odomera and his brothers, and at the sons of Phasiron in their encampment; whereupon, these too came into the struggle, joining forces with him.
1Ma 9:67 Simon and his people, meanwhile, made a sortie from the town and set fire to the siege-engines.
1Ma 9:68 Taking the offensive against Bacchides, they defeated him. He was greatly disconcerted to find that his plan and his assault had come to nothing,
1Ma 9:69 and vented his anger on those renegades who had induced him to enter the country, putting many of them to death; he then decided to take his own troops home.
1Ma 9:70 Discovering this, Jonathan sent envoys to negotiate peace terms and the release of prisoners with him.
1Ma 9:71 Bacchides agreed to this, accepting his proposals and swearing never to seek occasion to harm him for the rest of his life.
1Ma 9:72 Having surrendered to Jonathan those prisoners he had earlier taken in Judaea, he turned about and withdrew to his own country, and never again came near their frontiers.
1Ma 9:73 The sword no longer hung over Israel, and Jonathan settled in Michmash, where he began to judge the people and to rid Israel of the godless.
1Ma 10:1 In the year 160, Alexander, son of Antiochus Epiphanes, raised an army and occupied Ptolemais. He was well received, and there inaugurated his reign.
1Ma 10:2 On hearing this, King Demetrius assembled a very large army and marched off to do battle with him.
1Ma 10:3 Demetrius furthermore sent Jonathan a most conciliatory letter, promising to promote him in rank,
1Ma 10:4 for, as he said, 'We had better move first to come to terms with these people before he makes common cause with Alexander against us;
1Ma 10:5 he will not have forgotten all the wrongs we inflicted on him and his brothers, and on his nation.'
1Ma 10:6 He even authorised him to raise an army, to manufacture arms, and to describe himself as his ally, and ordered the hostages in the Citadel to be surrendered to him.
1Ma 10:7 Jonathan went straight to Jerusalem and read the letter in the hearing of the whole people and of the men in the Citadel.
1Ma 10:8 They were terrified when they heard that the king had given him authority to raise an army.
1Ma 10:9 The men in the Citadel surrendered the hostages to Jonathan, who handed them back to their parents.
1Ma 10:10 Jonathan then took up residence in Jerusalem and began the rebuilding and restoration of the city.
1Ma 10:11 He ordered those responsible for the work to build the walls and the defences round Mount Zion of squared stone blocks to make them stronger, and this was done.
1Ma 10:12 The foreigners in the fortresses built by Bacchides abandoned them,
1Ma 10:13 one after another leaving his post to go back to his own country.
1Ma 10:14 Only at Beth-Zur were a few left of those who had forsaken the Law and the precepts, since this was their refuge.
1Ma 10:15 King Alexander heard of all the promises Demetrius had sent to Jonathan, and he was also given an account of the battles and exploits of this man and his brothers and of the hardships they had endured.
1Ma 10:16 'Shall we ever find another man like him?' he exclaimed. 'We must make him our friend and ally!'
1Ma 10:17 He therefore wrote him a letter, addressing him in these terms:
1Ma 10:18 'King Alexander to his brother Jonathan, greetings.
1Ma 10:19 'You have been brought to our notice as a strong man of action and as someone who deserves to be our friend.
1Ma 10:20 Accordingly, we have today appointed you high priest of your nation, with the title of "Friend of the King" ' -- he also sent him a purple robe and a golden crown-'and you are to study our interests and maintain friendly relations with us.'
1Ma 10:21 Jonathan put on the sacred vestments in the seventh month of the year 160, on the feast of Shelters; he then set about raising troops and manufacturing arms in quantity.
1Ma 10:22 Demetrius was displeased when he heard what had happened.
1Ma 10:23 'What have we been doing,' he said, 'for Alexander to forestall us in winning the friendship of the Jews and so improving his own position?
1Ma 10:24 I too shall address an appeal to them, offering them advancement and riches as an inducement to support me.'
1Ma 10:25 And he wrote to them as follows: 'King Demetrius to the Jewish nation, greetings.
1Ma 10:26 'We have heard how you have kept your agreement with us and have maintained friendly relations with us and have not gone over to our enemies, and it has given us great satisfaction.
1Ma 10:27 If you now continue to keep faith with us, we shall make you a handsome return for what you do on our behalf.
1Ma 10:28 We shall accord you many exemptions and grant you privileges.
1Ma 10:29 'Henceforth I release you and exempt all the Jews from the tribute, the salt dues and the crown levies,
1Ma 10:30 and whereas I am entitled to one-third of the grain and one-half of the fruit of the trees, I release from this levy, from today and for the future, Judaea and the three districts annexed to it from Samaria-Galilee, from this day henceforth in perpetuity.
1Ma 10:31 Jerusalem will be sacred and exempt, with its territory, from tithes and dues.
1Ma 10:32 I relinquish control of the Citadel in Jerusalem and make it over to the high priest, so that he may man it with a garrison of his own choosing.
1Ma 10:33 Every Jewish person taken from Judaea into captivity in any part of my kingdom I set free without ransom, and decree that all will be exempt from taxes, even on their livestock.
1Ma 10:34 All festivals, Sabbaths, New Moons and days of special observance, and the three days before and three days after a festival, will be days of exemption and quittance for all the Jews in my kingdom,
1Ma 10:35 and no one will have the right to exact payment from, or to molest, any of them for any matter whatsoever.
1Ma 10:36 'Jews will be enrolled in the king's forces to the number of thirty thousand men and receive maintenance on the same scale as the rest of the king's forces.
1Ma 10:37 Some of them will be stationed in the king's major fortresses, and from among others appointments will be made to positions of trust in the kingdom. Their officers and commanders will be appointed from their own number and will live under their own laws, as the king has prescribed for Judaea.
1Ma 10:38 'As regards the three districts annexed to Judaea from the province of Samaria, these will be integrated into Judaea and considered as coming under one governor, obeying the high priest's authority and no other.
1Ma 10:39 Ptolemais and the land thereto pertaining I present to the sanctuary in Jerusalem, to meet the necessary expenses of public worship.
1Ma 10:40 And I make a personal grant of fifteen thousand silver shekels annually chargeable to the royal revenue from appropriate places.
1Ma 10:41 And the entire surplus, which has not been paid in by the officials as in previous years, will henceforth be paid over by them for work on the Temple.
1Ma 10:42 In addition, the sum of five thousand silver shekels, levied annually on the profits of the sanctuary, as shown in the annual accounts, is also relinquished as the perquisite of the priests who perform the liturgy.
1Ma 10:43 Anyone who takes refuge in the Temple in Jerusalem or any of its precincts, when in debt to the royal exchequer or otherwise, will be discharged in full possession of all the goods he owns in my kingdom.
1Ma 10:44 As regards the building and restoration of the sanctuary, the expense of the work will be met from the royal exchequer.
1Ma 10:45 The reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem and the fortification of the perimeter will also be a charge on the royal exchequer, as also the reconstruction of other city walls in Judaea.'
1Ma 10:46 When Jonathan and the people heard these proposals, they put no faith in them and refused to accept them, remembering what great wrongs Demetrius had done to Israel and how cruelly he had oppressed them.
1Ma 10:47 They decided in favor of Alexander, since he seemed to offer the better inducements of the two, and they became his constant allies.
1Ma 10:48 King Alexander now mustered large forces and advanced against Demetrius.
1Ma 10:49 The two kings met in battle. Alexander's army was routed, and Demetrius pursued him and defeated his troops.
1Ma 10:50 He continued the battle with vigour until sunset. Demetrius himself, however, was killed the same day.
1Ma 10:51 Alexander sent ambassadors to Ptolemy king of Egypt, with this message:
1Ma 10:52 'Since I have returned to my kingdom, have ascended the throne of my ancestors, have gained control by crushing Demetrius, and so recovered our country-
1Ma 10:53 for I fought him and we crushed both him and his army, and I now occupy his royal throne-
1Ma 10:54 let us now make a treaty of friendship. Give me your daughter in marriage: as your son-in-law, I shall give you, and her, presents which are worthy of you.'
1Ma 10:55 King Ptolemy replied as follows: 'Happy the day when you returned to the land of your ancestors and ascended their royal throne!
1Ma 10:56 I shall at once do for you what your letter proposes; but meet me at Ptolemais, so that we can see one another, and I shall become your father-in-law, as you have asked.'
1Ma 10:57 Ptolemy left Egypt with his daughter Cleopatra and reached Ptolemais in the year 162.
1Ma 10:58 King Alexander went to meet him, and Ptolemy gave him the hand of his daughter Cleopatra and celebrated her wedding in Ptolemais with great magnificence, as kings do.
1Ma 10:59 King Alexander then wrote to Jonathan to come and meet him.
1Ma 10:60 Jonathan made his way in state to Ptolemais and met the two kings; he gave them and their friends silver and gold, and many gifts, and made a favorable impression on them.
1Ma 10:61 A number of scoundrels, the pest of Israel, combined to denounce him, but the king paid no attention to them.
1Ma 10:62 In fact, the king commanded that Jonathan should be divested of his own garments and clothed in the purple, which was done.
1Ma 10:63 The king then seated him by his side and said to his officers, 'Escort him into the centre of the city and proclaim that no one is to bring charges against him on any count; no one is to molest him for any reason.'
1Ma 10:64 And so, when his accusers saw the honor done him by this proclamation, and Jonathan himself invested in the purple, they all fled.
1Ma 10:65 The king did him the honor of enrolling him among the First Friends, and appointed him commander-in-chief and governor-general.
1Ma 10:66 Jonathan then returned to Jerusalem in peace and gladness.
1Ma 10:67 In the year 165, Demetrius son of Demetrius came from Crete to the land of his ancestors.
1Ma 10:68 When King Alexander heard of it he was plunged into gloom, and retired to Antioch.
1Ma 10:69 Demetrius confirmed Apollonius as governor of Coele-Syria; the latter assembled a large force, encamped at Jamnia and sent the following message to Jonathan the high priest:
1Ma 10:70 'You are entirely alone in rising against us, and now I find myself ridiculed and reproached on your account. Why do you use your authority to our disadvantage in the mountains?
1Ma 10:71 If you are so confident in your forces, come down now to meet us on the plain and let us take each other's measure there; on my side I have the strength of the towns.
1Ma 10:72 Ask and learn who I am and who the others supporting us are. You will hear that you cannot stand up to us, since your ancestors were twice routed on their own ground,
1Ma 10:73 nor will you now be able to withstand the cavalry or so great an army on the plain, where there is neither rock, nor stone, nor refuge of any kind.'
1Ma 10:74 On hearing Apollonius' words, Jonathan's spirit was roused; he picked ten thousand men and left Jerusalem, and his brother Simon joined him with reinforcements.
1Ma 10:75 He drew up his forces outside Joppa, the citizens having shut him out, since Apollonius had a garrison in Joppa. When they began the attack,
1Ma 10:76 the citizens took fright and opened the gates, and Jonathan occupied Joppa.
1Ma 10:77 Hearing this, Apollonius marshalled three thousand cavalry and a large army and made his way to Azotus as though intending to march through, while in fact pressing on into the plain, since he had a great number of cavalry on which he was relying.
1Ma 10:78 Jonathan pursued him as far as Azotus, where the armies joined battle.
1Ma 10:79 Now, Apollonius had left a thousand horsemen in concealment behind them.
1Ma 10:80 Jonathan knew of this enemy position behind him; the horsemen surrounded his army, firing their arrows into his men from morning till evening.
1Ma 10:81 But the troops stood firm, as Jonathan had ordered. Once the cavalry was exhausted,
1Ma 10:82 Simon sent his own troops into attack against the phalanx, which he cut to pieces and routed.
1Ma 10:83 The cavalry scattered over the plain and fled to Azotus, where they took sanctuary in Beth-Dagon, the temple of their idol.
1Ma 10:84 Jonathan, however, set fire to Azotus and the surrounding towns, plundered them, and burned down the temple of Dagon, with all the fugitives who had crowded into it.
1Ma 10:85 The enemy losses, counting those who fell by the sword and those burnt to death, totalled about eight thousand men.
1Ma 10:86 Jonathan then left and pitched camp outside Ascalon, where the citizens came out to meet him with great ceremony.
1Ma 10:87 Jonathan then returned to Jerusalem with his followers, laden with booty.
1Ma 10:88 In the event, when King Alexander heard what had happened, he awarded Jonathan further honors:
1Ma 10:89 he sent him the golden brooch, of the kind customarily presented to the King's Cousins, and gave him proprietary rights over Ekron and the land adjoining it.
1Ma 11:1 The king of Egypt then assembled an army as numerous as the sands of the seashore, with many ships, and set out to take possession of Alexander's kingdom by a ruse and add it to his own kingdom.
1Ma 11:2 He set off for Syria with protestations of peace, and the people of the towns opened their gates to him and came out to meet him, since King Alexander's orders were to welcome him, Ptolemy being his father-in-law.
1Ma 11:3 On entering the towns, however, Ptolemy quartered troops as a garrison in each one.
1Ma 11:4 When he reached Azotus he was shown the burnt-out temple of Dagon, with Azotus and its suburbs in ruins, corpses scattered here and there, and the charred remains of those whom Jonathan had burnt to death in the battle, piled into heaps along his route.
1Ma 11:5 They explained to the king what Jonathan had done, hoping for his disapproval; but the king said nothing.
1Ma 11:6 Jonathan went in state to meet the king at Joppa, where they greeted each other and spent the night.
1Ma 11:7 Jonathan accompanied the king as far as the river called Eleutherus, and then returned to Jerusalem.
1Ma 11:8 King Ptolemy for his part occupied the coastal towns as far as Seleucia on the coast, all the while maturing his wicked designs against Alexander.
1Ma 11:9 He sent envoys to King Demetrius to say, 'Come and let us make a treaty; I shall give you my daughter, whom Alexander now has, and you shall rule your father's kingdom.
1Ma 11:10 I regret having given my daughter to that man, since he has tried to kill me.'
1Ma 11:11 He made this accusation because he coveted his kingdom.
1Ma 11:12 Having carried off his daughter and bestowed her on Demetrius, he broke with Alexander, and their enmity became open.
1Ma 11:13 Ptolemy next entered Antioch and assumed the crown of Asia; he now wore on his head the two crowns of Egypt and Asia.
1Ma 11:14 King Alexander was in Cilicia at the time, since the people of those parts had risen in revolt,
1Ma 11:15 but when he heard the news, he advanced on his rival to give battle, while Ptolemy for his part also took the field, met him with a strong force and routed him.
1Ma 11:16 Alexander fled to Arabia for refuge, and King Ptolemy reigned supreme.
1Ma 11:17 Zabdiel the Arab cut off Alexander's head and sent it to Ptolemy.
1Ma 11:18 Three days later King Ptolemy died, and the Egyptian garrisons in the strongholds were killed by the local inhabitants.
1Ma 11:19 So Demetrius became king in the year 167.
1Ma 11:20 At the same time, Jonathan mustered the men of Judaea for an assault on the Citadel of Jerusalem, and they set up numerous siege-engines against it.
1Ma 11:21 But some renegades who hated their nation made their way to the king and told him that Jonathan was besieging the Citadel.
1Ma 11:22 The king was angered by the news. No sooner had he been informed than he set out and came to Ptolemais. He wrote to Jonathan, telling him to raise the siege and to meet him for a conference in Ptolemais as soon as possible.
1Ma 11:23 When Jonathan heard this, he gave orders for the siege to continue; he then selected a deputation from the elders of Israel and the priests, and took the deliberate risk
1Ma 11:24 of himself taking silver and gold, clothing and numerous other presents, and going to Ptolemais to face the king, whose favor he succeeded in winning;
1Ma 11:25 and although one or two renegades of his nation brought charges against him,
1Ma 11:26 the king treated him as his predecessors had treated him, and promoted him in the presence of all his friends.
1Ma 11:27 He confirmed him in the high-priesthood and whatever other distinctions he already held, and had him ranked among the First Friends.
1Ma 11:28 Jonathan asked the king to exempt Judaea and the three Samaritan districts from taxation, promising him three hundred talents in return.
1Ma 11:29 The king consented, and wrote Jonathan a rescript covering the whole matter, in these terms:
1Ma 11:30 'King Demetrius to Jonathan his brother, and to the Jewish nation, greetings.
1Ma 11:31 'We have written to Lasthenes our cousin concerning you, and now send you this copy of our rescript for your own information:
1Ma 11:32 "King Demetrius to his father Lasthenes, greetings.
1Ma 11:33 "The nation of the Jews is our ally; they fulfill their obligations to us, and in view of their goodwill towards us we have decided to show them our bounty.
1Ma 11:34 We confirm them in their possession of the territory of Judaea and the three districts of Aphairema, Lydda and Ramathaim; these were annexed to Judaea from Samaritan territory, with all their dependencies, in favor of all who offer sacrifice in Jerusalem, instead of the royal dues which the king formerly received from them every year, from the yield of the soil and the fruit crops.
1Ma 11:35 As regards our other rights over the tithes and taxes due to us, over the salt marshes, and the crown taxes due to us, as from today we release them from them all.
1Ma 11:36 None of these grants will be revoked henceforth or anywhere.
1Ma 11:37 You will make yourself responsible for having a copy of this made, to be given to Jonathan and displayed on the holy mountain in a conspicuous place." '
1Ma 11:38 When King Demetrius saw that the country was at peace under his rule and that no resistance was offered him, he dismissed his forces, and sent all the men home, except for the foreign troops that he had recruited in the foreign island, thus incurring the enmity of the veterans who had served his ancestors.
1Ma 11:39 Now Trypho, one of Alexander's former supporters, noting that all the troops were muttering against Demetrius, went to see Iamleku, the Arab who was bringing up Antiochus, Alexander's young son,
1Ma 11:40 and repeatedly urged him to let him have the boy, so that he might succeed his father as king; he told him of Demetrius' decision and of the resentment it had aroused among his troops. He spent a long time there.
1Ma 11:41 Jonathan, meanwhile, sent to ask King Demetrius to withdraw the garrisons from the Citadel in Jerusalem and from the other fortresses, since they were constantly fighting Israel.
1Ma 11:42 Demetrius sent word back to Jonathan, 'Not only will I do this for you and for your nation, but I shall heap honors on you and your nation if I find a favorable opportunity.
1Ma 11:43 For the present, you would do well to send me reinforcements, since all my troops have deserted.'
1Ma 11:44 Jonathan sent three thousand experienced soldiers to him in Antioch; when they reached the king, he was delighted at their arrival.
1Ma 11:45 The citizens crowded together in the centre of the city, to the number of some hundred and twenty thousand, intending to kill the king.
1Ma 11:46 The king took refuge in the palace, while the citizens occupied the thoroughfares of the city and began to attack.
1Ma 11:47 The king then called on the Jews for help; and these all rallied round him, then fanned out through the city, and that day killed about a hundred thousand of its inhabitants.
1Ma 11:48 They fired the city, seizing a great deal of plunder at the same time, and secured the king's safety.
1Ma 11:49 When the citizens saw that the Jews had the city at their mercy, their courage failed them, and they made an abject appeal to the king,
1Ma 11:50 'Give us the right hand of peace, and let the Jews stop their fight against us and the city.'
1Ma 11:51 They threw down their arms and made peace. The Jews were covered in glory, in the eyes of the king and of everyone else in his kingdom. Having won renown in his kingdom, they returned to Jerusalem laden with booty.
1Ma 11:52 Thus, King Demetrius sat all the more securely on his royal throne, and the country was quiet under his government.
1Ma 11:53 But he gave the lie to all the promises he had made, and changed his attitude to Jonathan, giving nothing in return for the services Jonathan had rendered him, but thwarting him at every turn.
1Ma 11:54 After this, Trypho came back with the little boy Antiochus, who became king and was crowned.
1Ma 11:55 All the troops that Demetrius had summarily dismissed rallied to Antiochus, and made war on Demetrius, who turned tail and fled.
1Ma 11:56 Trypho captured the elephants and seized Antioch.
1Ma 11:57 Young Antiochus then wrote as follows to Jonathan: 'I confirm you in the high-priesthood and set you over the four districts and appoint you one of the Friends of the King.'
1Ma 11:58 He sent him a service of gold plate, and granted him the right to drink from gold vessels, and to wear the purple and the golden brooch.
1Ma 11:59 He appointed his brother Simon commander-in-chief of the region from the Ladder of Tyre to the frontiers of Egypt.
1Ma 11:60 Jonathan then set out and made a progress through Transeuphrates and its towns, and the entire Syrian army rallied to his support. He came to Ascalon and was received in state by the inhabitants.
1Ma 11:61 From there he proceeded to Gaza, but the people of Gaza shut him out, so he laid siege to it, burning down its suburbs and plundering them.
1Ma 11:62 The people of Gaza then pleaded with Jonathan, and he made peace with them; but he took the sons of their chief men as hostages and sent them away to Jerusalem. He then travelled through the country as far as Damascus.
1Ma 11:63 Jonathan now learned that Demetrius' generals had arrived at Kadesh in Galilee with a large army, intending to remove him from office,
1Ma 11:64 and went to engage them, leaving his brother Simon inside the country.
1Ma 11:65 Simon laid siege to Beth-Zur, attacking it day after day, and blockading the inhabitants
1Ma 11:66 till they sued for peace, which he granted them, though he expelled them from the town and occupied it, stationing a garrison there.
1Ma 11:67 Jonathan and his army, meanwhile, having pitched camp by the Lake of Gennesar, rose early, and by morning were already in the plain of Hazor.
1Ma 11:68 The foreigners' army advanced to fight them on the plain, having first positioned an ambush for him in the mountains. While the main body was advancing directly towards the Jews,
1Ma 11:69 the troops in ambush broke cover and attacked first.
1Ma 11:70 All the men with Jonathan fled; no one was left, except Mattathias son of Absalom and Judas son of Chalphi, the generals of his army.
1Ma 11:71 At this, Jonathan tore his garments, put dust on his head, and prayed.
1Ma 11:72 Then he returned to the fight and routed the enemy, who fled.
1Ma 11:73 When the fugitives from his own forces saw this, they came back to him and joined in the pursuit as far as Kadesh where the enemy encampment was, and there they themselves pitched camp.
1Ma 11:74 About three thousand of the foreign troops fell that day. Jonathan then returned to Jerusalem.
1Ma 12:1 When Jonathan saw that circumstances were working in his favor, he sent a select mission to Rome to confirm and renew his treaty of friendship with the Romans.
1Ma 12:2 He also sent letters to the same effect to the Spartans and to other places.
1Ma 12:3 The envoys made their way to Rome, entered the Senate and said, 'Jonathan the high priest and the Jewish nation have sent us to renew your treaty of friendship and alliance with them as before.'
1Ma 12:4 The Senate gave them letters to the authorities of each place, to procure their safe conduct to Judaea.
1Ma 12:5 The following is the copy of the letter Jonathan wrote to the Spartans:
1Ma 12:6 'Jonathan the high priest, the senate of the nation, the priests and the rest of the Jewish people to the Spartans their brothers, greetings.
1Ma 12:7 'In the past, a letter was sent to Onias, the high priest, from Areios, one of your kings, stating that you are indeed our brothers, as the copy subjoined attests.
1Ma 12:8 Onias received the envoy with honor, and accepted the letter, in which a clear declaration was made of friendship and alliance.
1Ma 12:9 For our part, though we have no need of these, having the consolation of the holy books in our possession,
1Ma 12:10 we venture to send to renew our fraternal friendship with you, so that we may not become strangers to you, a long time having elapsed since you last wrote to us.
1Ma 12:11 We, for our part, on every occasion, at our festivals and on other appointed days, unfailingly remember you in the sacrifices we offer and in our prayers, as it is right and fitting to remember brothers.
1Ma 12:12 We rejoice in your renown.
1Ma 12:13 'We ourselves, however, have had many trials and many wars, the neighboring kings making war on us.
1Ma 12:14 We were unwilling to trouble you or our other allies and friends during these wars,
1Ma 12:15 since we have the support of Heaven to help us, thanks to which we have been delivered from our enemies, and they are the ones who have been brought low.
1Ma 12:16 We have therefore chosen Numenius son of Antiochus, and Antipater son of Jason, and sent them to the Romans to renew our former treaty of friendship and alliance,
1Ma 12:17 and we have ordered them also to visit you, to greet you and deliver you this letter of ours concerning the renewal of our brotherhood;
1Ma 12:18 we shall be grateful for an answer to it.'
1Ma 12:19 The following is the copy of the letter sent to Onias:
1Ma 12:20 'Areios king of the Spartans, to Onias the high priest, greetings.
1Ma 12:21 'It has been discovered in records regarding the Spartans and Jews that they are brothers, and of the race of Abraham.
1Ma 12:22 Now that this has come to our knowledge, we shall be obliged if you will send us news of your welfare.
1Ma 12:23 Our own message to you is this: your flocks and your possessions are ours, and ours are yours, and we are instructing our envoys to give you a message to this effect.'
1Ma 12:24 Jonathan learned that Demetrius' generals had returned with a larger army than before to make war on him.
1Ma 12:25 He therefore left Jerusalem and went to engage them in the area of Hamath, not giving them the time to invade his own territory.
1Ma 12:26 He sent spies into their camp, who told him on their return that the enemy were taking up positions for a night attack on the Jews.
1Ma 12:27 At sunset, Jonathan ordered his men to keep watch with their weapons at hand, in readiness to fight at any time during the night, and posted advance guards all round the camp.
1Ma 12:28 On learning that Jonathan and his men were ready to fight, the enemy took fright and, with quaking hearts, lit fires in their bivouac and decamped.
1Ma 12:29 Jonathan and his men, watching the glow of the fires, were unaware of their withdrawal until morning,
1Ma 12:30 and although Jonathan pursued them, he failed to overtake them, for they had already crossed the river Eleutherus.
1Ma 12:31 So Jonathan wheeled round on the Arabs called Zabadaeans, beat them and plundered them;
1Ma 12:32 then, breaking camp, he went to Damascus, thus crossing the whole province.
1Ma 12:33 Simon, meanwhile, had also set out and had penetrated as far as Ascalon and the neighboring towns. He then turned on Joppa and moved quickly to occupy it,
1Ma 12:34 for he had heard of their intention to hand over this strong point to the supporters of Demetrius; he stationed a garrison there to hold it.
1Ma 12:35 Jonathan, on his return, called a meeting of the elders of the people and decided with them to build fortresses in Judaea
1Ma 12:36 and to heighten the walls of Jerusalem and erect a high barrier between the Citadel and the city, to cut the former off from the city and isolate it, to prevent the occupants from buying or selling.
1Ma 12:37 Rebuilding the city was a co-operative effort: part of the wall over the eastern ravine had fallen down; he restored the quarter called Chaphenatha.
1Ma 12:38 Simon, meanwhile, rebuilt Adida in the lowlands, fortifying it, and erecting gates with bolts.
1Ma 12:39 Trypho's ambition was to become king of Asia, assume the crown, and overpower King Antiochus.
1Ma 12:40 He was apprehensive that Jonathan might not allow him to do this, and might even make war on him, so he set out and came to Beth-Shean, in the hopes of finding some pretext for having him arrested and put to death.
1Ma 12:41 Jonathan went out to intercept him, with forty thousand picked men in battle order, and arrived at Beth-Shean.
1Ma 12:42 When Trypho saw him there with a large force, he hesitated to make any move against him.
1Ma 12:43 He even received him with honor, commended him to all his friends, gave him presents and ordered his friends and his troops to obey him as they would himself.
1Ma 12:44 He said to Jonathan, 'Why have you given all these people so much trouble, when there is no threat of war between us?
1Ma 12:45 Send them back home; pick yourself a few men as your bodyguard, and come with me to Ptolemais, which I am going to hand over to you, with the other fortresses and the remaining troops and all the officials; after which, I shall take the road for home. This was my purpose in coming here.'
1Ma 12:46 Jonathan trusted him and did as he said; he dismissed his forces, who went back to Judaea.
1Ma 12:47 With him he retained three thousand men, of whom he left two thousand in Galilee, while a thousand accompanied him.
1Ma 12:48 But as soon as Jonathan had entered Ptolemais, the people of Ptolemais closed the gates, seized him, and put all those who had entered with him to the sword.
1Ma 12:49 Trypho sent troops and cavalry into Galilee and the Great Plain to destroy all Jonathan's supporters.
1Ma 12:50 These, concluding that he had been taken and had perished with his companions, encouraged one another, marching with closed ranks and ready to give battle,
1Ma 12:51 and when their pursuers saw that they would fight for their lives, they turned back.
1Ma 12:52 All reached Judaea safe and sound, and there they lamented Jonathan and his companions, being very frightened indeed; all Israel was plunged into mourning.
1Ma 12:53 The surrounding nations were all now looking for ways of destroying them: 'They have no leader,' they said, 'no ally; we have only to attack them now, and we shall blot out their very memory from all peoples.'
1Ma 13:1 Simon heard that Trypho had collected a large army to invade and devastate Judaea,
1Ma 13:2 and when he saw how the people were quaking with fear, he went up to Jerusalem, called the people together,
1Ma 13:3 and exhorted them thus, 'You know yourselves how much I and my brothers and my father's family have done for the laws and the sanctuary; you know what wars and hardships we have experienced.
1Ma 13:4 That is why my brothers are all dead, for Israel's sake, and I am the only one left.
1Ma 13:5 Far be it from me, then, to be sparing of my own life in any time of oppression, for I am not worth more than my brothers.
1Ma 13:6 Rather will I avenge my nation and the sanctuary and your wives and children, now that the foreigners are all united in malice to destroy us.'
1Ma 13:7 The people's spirit rekindled as they listened to his words,
1Ma 13:8 and they shouted back at him, 'You are our leader in place of Judas and your brother Jonathan.
1Ma 13:9 Fight our battles for us, and we will do whatever you tell us.'
1Ma 13:10 So he assembled all the fighting men and hurried on with completing the walls of Jerusalem, fortifying the whole perimeter.
1Ma 13:11 He sent a considerable force to Joppa under Jonathan son of Absalom who drove out the inhabitants and remained there in occupation.
1Ma 13:12 Trypho now left Ptolemais with a large army to invade Judaea, taking Jonathan with him under guard.
1Ma 13:13 Simon pitched camp in Adida, facing the plain.
1Ma 13:14 When Trypho learned that Simon had taken the place of his brother Jonathan and that he intended to join battle with him, he sent envoys to him with this message,
1Ma 13:15 'Your brother Jonathan was in debt to the royal exchequer for the offices he held; that is why we are detaining him.
1Ma 13:16 If you send a hundred talents of silver and two of his sons as hostages, to make sure that on his release he does not revolt against us, we shall release him.'
1Ma 13:17 Although Simon was aware that the message was a ruse, he sent for the money and the boys for fear of incurring great hostility from the people,
1Ma 13:18 who would have said that Jonathan had died because Simon would not send Trypho the money and the children.
1Ma 13:19 He therefore sent both the boys and the hundred talents, but Trypho broke his word and did not release Jonathan.
1Ma 13:20 Next, Trypho set about the invasion and devastation of the country; he made a detour along the Adora road, but Simon and his army confronted him wherever he attempted to go.
1Ma 13:21 The men in the Citadel kept sending messengers to Trypho, urging him to get through to them by way of the desert and send them supplies.
1Ma 13:22 Trypho organised his entire cavalry to go, but that night it snowed so heavily that he could not get through for the snow, so he left there and moved off into Gilead.
1Ma 13:23 As he approached Baskama he killed Jonathan, who was buried there.
1Ma 13:24 Trypho turned back and regained his own country.
1Ma 13:25 Simon sent and recovered the bones of his brother Jonathan, and buried him in Modein, the town of his ancestors.
1Ma 13:26 All Israel kept solemn mourning for him and long bewailed him.
1Ma 13:27 Over the tomb of his father and brothers, Simon raised a monument high enough to catch the eye, using dressed stone back and front.
1Ma 13:28 He erected seven pyramids facing each other, for his father and mother and his four brothers,
1Ma 13:29 surrounding them with a structure consisting of tall columns surmounted by trophies of arms to their everlasting memory and, beside the trophies of arms, ships sculpted on a scale to be seen by all who sail the sea.
1Ma 13:30 Such was the monument he constructed at Modein, and it is still there today.
1Ma 13:31 Now Trypho, betraying the trust of young King Antiochus, put him to death.
1Ma 13:32 He usurped his throne, assuming the crown of Asia, and brought great havoc on the country.
1Ma 13:33 Simon built up the fortresses of Judaea, surrounding them with high towers, great walls and gates with bolts, and stocked these fortresses with food.
1Ma 13:34 He also sent a delegation to King Demetrius, to get him to grant the province a remission, since all Trypho did was to despoil.
1Ma 13:35 King Demetrius replied to his request in a letter framed as follows:
1Ma 13:36 'King Demetrius to Simon, high priest and Friend of Kings, and to the elders and nation of the Jews, greetings.
1Ma 13:37 'It has pleased us to accept the golden crown and the palm you have sent us, and we are disposed to make a general peace with you, and to write to the officials to grant you remissions.
1Ma 13:38 Everything that we have decreed concerning you remains in force, and the fortresses you have built may remain in your hands.
1Ma 13:39 We pardon all offenses, unwitting or intentional, hitherto committed, and remit the crown tax you now owe us; and whatever other taxes were levied in Jerusalem are no longer to be levied.
1Ma 13:40 If any of you are suitable for enrolment in our bodyguard, let them be enrolled, and let there be peace between us.'
1Ma 13:41 The gentile yoke was thus lifted from Israel in the year 170,
1Ma 13:42 when our people began engrossing their documents and contracts: 'In the first year of Simon, eminent high priest, commander-in-chief and ethnarch of the Jews'.
1Ma 13:43 About that time Simon laid siege to Gezer, surrounding it with his troops. He constructed a mobile tower, brought it up to the city, opened a breach in one of the bastions and took it.
1Ma 13:44 The men in the mobile tower sprang out into the city, where great confusion ensued.
1Ma 13:45 The citizens, accompanied by their wives and children, mounted the ramparts with their garments torn and loudly implored Simon to make peace with them:
1Ma 13:46 'Treat us', they said, 'not as our wickedness deserves, but as your mercy prompts you.'
1Ma 13:47 Simon came to terms with them and stopped the fighting; but he expelled them from the city, purified the houses which contained idols, and then made his entry with songs of praise.
1Ma 13:48 He banished all impurity from it, settled in it people who observed the Law, and having fortified it, built a residence there for himself.
1Ma 13:49 The occupants of the Citadel in Jerusalem, prevented as they were from coming out and going into the countryside to buy and sell, were in desperate need of food, and numbers of them were being carried off by starvation.
1Ma 13:50 They begged Simon to make peace with them, and he granted this, though he expelled them and purified the Citadel from its pollutions.
1Ma 13:51 The Jews made their entry on the twenty-third day of the second month in the year 171, with acclamations and carrying palms, to the sound of lyres, cymbals and harps, chanting hymns and canticles, since a great enemy had been crushed and thrown out of Israel. Simon made it a day of annual rejoicing.
1Ma 13:52 He fortified the Temple hill on the Citadel side, and took up residence there with his men.
1Ma 13:53 Since his son John had come to manhood, Simon appointed him general-in-chief, with his residence in Gezer.
1Ma 14:1 In the year 172, King Demetrius assembled his forces and marched into Media to raise help for the fight against Trypho.
1Ma 14:2 When Arsaces king of Persia and Media heard that Demetrius had entered his territory, he sent one of his generals to capture him alive.
1Ma 14:3 The general defeated the army of Demetrius, seized him and brought him to Arsaces, who imprisoned him.
1Ma 14:4 The country was at peace throughout the days of Simon. He sought the good of his nation and they were well pleased with his authority, as with his magnificence, throughout his life.
1Ma 14:5 To crown his titles to glory, he took Joppa and made it a harbour, gaining access to the Mediterranean Isles.
1Ma 14:6 He enlarged the frontiers of his nation, keeping his mastery over the homeland,
1Ma 14:7 resettling a host of captives. He conquered Gezer, Beth-Zur and the Citadel, ridding them of every impurity, and no one could resist him.
1Ma 14:8 The people farmed their land in peace; the land gave its produce, the trees of the plain their fruit.
1Ma 14:9 The elders sat at ease in the squares, all their talk was of their prosperity; the young men wore splendid armour.
1Ma 14:10 He kept the towns supplied with provisions and furnished with fortifications, until his fame resounded to the ends of the earth.
1Ma 14:11 He established peace in the land, and Israel knew great joy.
1Ma 14:12 Each man sat under his own vine and his own fig tree, and there was no one to make them afraid.
1Ma 14:13 No enemy was left in the land to fight them, the very kings of those times had been crushed.
1Ma 14:14 He encouraged the afflicted members of his people, suppressing every wicked man and renegade. He strove to observe the Law,
1Ma 14:15 and gave new splendor to the Temple, enriching it with many sacred vessels.
1Ma 14:16 When it became known in Rome and as far as Sparta that Jonathan was dead, people were deeply grieved.
1Ma 14:17 But as soon as they heard that his brother Simon had succeeded him as high priest and was master of the country and the cities in it,
1Ma 14:18 they wrote to him on bronze tablets to renew the treaty of friendship and alliance which they had made with his brothers, Judas and Jonathan,
1Ma 14:19 and the document was read out before the assembly in Jerusalem.
1Ma 14:20 This is the copy of the letter sent by the Spartans: 'The rulers and the city of Sparta, to Simon the high priest and to the elders and priests and the rest of the people of the Jews, greetings.
1Ma 14:21 'The ambassadors whom you sent to our people have informed us of your glory and prosperity, and we are delighted with their visit.
1Ma 14:22 We have recorded their declarations in the minutes of our public assemblies, as follows, "Numenius son of Antiochus, and Antipater son of Jason, ambassadors of the Jews, came to us to renew their friendship with us.
1Ma 14:23 And it was the people's pleasure to receive these personages with honor and to deposit a copy of their statements in the public archives, so that the people of Sparta might preserve a record of them. A copy was also made for Simon the high priest." '
1Ma 14:24 After this, Simon sent Numenius to Rome as the bearer of a large golden shield weighing a thousand mina, to confirm the alliance with them.
1Ma 14:25 When these events were reported to our people, they said, 'What mark of appreciation shall we give to Simon and his sons?
1Ma 14:26 He stood firm, he and his brothers and his father's house: he fought off the enemies of Israel and secured its freedom.' So they recorded an inscription on bronze tablets and set it up on pillars on Mount Zion.
1Ma 14:27 This is a copy of the text: 'The eighteenth of Elul, in the year 172, being the third year of Simon, eminent high priest:
1Ma 14:28 'In Asaramel, in the Grand Assembly of priests and people, of princes of the nation and of elders of the country: 'We are acquainted with the matters following:
1Ma 14:29 'When there was almost incessant fighting in the country Simon, son of Mattathias, a priest of the line of Joarib, and his brothers courted danger and withstood their nation's enemies to safeguard the integrity of their sanctuary and of the Law, and so brought their nation great glory;
1Ma 14:30 'For when, Jonathan having rallied his nation and become its high priest and having then been gathered to his ancestors,
1Ma 14:31 the enemy planned to invade the country, intending to devastate their territory and to lay hands on their sanctuary,
1Ma 14:32 Simon next came forward to fight for his nation: spending much of his personal wealth on arming his nation's fighting men and on providing their pay;
1Ma 14:33 fortifying the towns of Judaea, as well as Beth-Zur on the Judaean frontier where the enemy arsenal had formerly been, and stationing in it a garrison of Jewish soldiers;
1Ma 14:34 fortifying Joppa on the coast, and Gezer on the borders of Azotus, a place formerly inhabited by the enemy, founding a Jewish colony there, and providing the settlers with everything they needed to set them on their feet;
1Ma 14:35 'In consequence of which, the people, aware of Simon's loyalty and of the glory which he was determined to win for his nation, have made him their ethnarch and high priest, for all his services and for the integrity and loyalty which he has shown towards his nation, and for having by every means sought to enhance his people's power;
1Ma 14:36 'It has fallen to him in his time to expel the foreigners from his country, including those in the City of David in Jerusalem, who had converted it into a citadel for their own use, from which they would sally out to defile the surroundings of the sanctuary and to violate its sacred character;
1Ma 14:37 to station Jewish soldiers there instead for the security of the country and the city; and to heighten the walls of Jerusalem;
1Ma 14:38 'And since King Demetrius has heard that the Romans call the Jews their friends, allies and brothers,
1Ma 14:39 and that they have given an honorable reception to Simon's ambassadors, and, furthermore,
1Ma 14:40 that the Jews and priests are happy that Simon should, pending the advent of a genuine prophet, be their ethnarch and high priest for life
1Ma 14:41 therefore he has confirmed him in the high-priestly office, has raised him to the rank of Friend and has showered great honors on him, also confirming him as their commander-in-chief,
1Ma 14:42 with the right to appoint officials to oversee the fabric of the sanctuary and to administer the country, munitions and fortresses;
1Ma 14:43 he is to have personal charge of the sanctuary, and to be obeyed by all; all official documents in the country must be drawn up in his name; and he may assume the purple and may wear golden ornaments;
1Ma 14:44 'Furthermore, it is against the law for any member of the public or of the priesthood to contravene any of these enactments or to contest his decisions, or to convene a meeting anywhere in the country without his permission, or to assume the purple or wear the golden brooch;
1Ma 14:45 and anyone acting contrary to, or rejecting any article of, these enactments is liable to punishment;
1Ma 14:46 'And since the people have unanimously agreed to grant Simon the right to act as aforesaid, and
1Ma 14:47 since Simon, for his part, has given his assent, and has consented to assume the high-priestly office and to be commander-in-chief and ethnarch of the Jews and their priests, and to preside over all:
1Ma 14:48 'So, be it now enacted: that this record be inscribed on bronze tablets and be erected at some conspicuous place within the precincts of the Temple,
1Ma 14:49 and that copies be deposited in the Treasury for Simon and his descendants.'
1Ma 15:1 Antiochus son of King Demetrius addressed a letter from the Mediterranean Isles to Simon, priest and ethnarch of the Jews, and to the whole nation;
1Ma 15:2 this was how it read: 'King Antiochus to Simon, high priest and ethnarch, and to the Jewish nation, greetings.
1Ma 15:3 'Whereas certain scoundrels have seized control of the kingdom of our fathers, and I propose to claim back the kingdom so that I may re-establish it as it was before, and whereas I have accordingly recruited very large forces and fitted out warships,
1Ma 15:4 intending to make a landing in the country and to hunt down the men who have ruined it and laid waste many towns in my kingdom;
1Ma 15:5 'I now, therefore, confirm in your favor all remissions of taxes granted to you by the kings my predecessors, as well as the waiving of whatever presents they may have conceded.
1Ma 15:6 I hereby authorise you to mint your own coinage as legal tender for your own country.
1Ma 15:7 I declare Jerusalem and the sanctuary to be free; all the arms you have manufactured and the fortresses you have built and now occupy may remain yours.
1Ma 15:8 All debts to the royal treasury, present or future, are cancelled henceforth in perpetuity.
1Ma 15:9 Furthermore, when we have won back our kingdom, we shall bestow such great honor on yourself, your nation and the sanctuary as will make your glory known throughout the world.'
1Ma 15:10 Antiochus invaded the land of his ancestors in the year 174 and, since the troops all rallied to him, Trypho was left with few supporters.
1Ma 15:11 Antiochus pursued the usurper, who took refuge in Dora on the coast,
1Ma 15:12 knowing that misfortunes were piling up on him and that his troops had deserted him.
1Ma 15:13 Antiochus pitched camp outside Dora with a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men and eight thousand cavalry.
1Ma 15:14 He laid siege to the city while the ships closed in from the sea, so that he had the city under attack from land and sea, and allowed no one to go in or come out.
1Ma 15:15 Numenius and his companions, meanwhile, arrived from Rome, bringing letters addressed to various kings and states, in the following terms:
1Ma 15:16 'Lucius, consul of the Romans, to King Ptolemy, greetings.
1Ma 15:17 'The Jewish ambassadors have come to us as our friends and allies to renew our original friendship and alliance in the name of the high priest Simon and the Jewish people.
1Ma 15:18 They have brought a golden shield worth a thousand mina.
1Ma 15:19 Accordingly, we have seen fit to write to various kings and states, warning them neither to molest the Jewish people nor to attack either them or their towns or their country, nor to ally themselves with any such aggressors.
1Ma 15:20 We have seen fit to accept the shield from them.
1Ma 15:21 If, therefore, any scoundrels have fled their country to take refuge with you, hand them over to Simon the high priest, to be punished by him according to their law.'
1Ma 15:22 The consul sent the same letter to King Demetrius, to Attalus, Ariarathes and Arsaces,
1Ma 15:23 and to all states, including Sampsames, the Spartans, Delos, Myndos, Sicyon, Caria, Samos, Pamphylia, Lycia, Halicarnassus, Rhodes, Phaselis, Cos, Side, Arados, Gortyn, Cyprus and Cyrene.
1Ma 15:24 They also drew up a copy for Simon the high priest.
1Ma 15:25 Antiochus, meanwhile, from his positions on the outskirts of Dora, was continually throwing detachments against the town. He constructed siege-engines, and blockaded Trypho, preventing movement in or out.
1Ma 15:26 Simon sent him two thousand picked men to support him in the fight, with silver and gold and plenty of equipment.
1Ma 15:27 But Antiochus would not accept them; instead, he repudiated all his previous agreements with Simon and completely changed his attitude to him.
1Ma 15:28 He sent him Athenobius, one of his Friends, to confer with him and say, 'You are now occupying Joppa and Gezer and the Citadel in Jerusalem, which are towns in my kingdom.
1Ma 15:29 You have laid waste their territory and done immense harm to the country; and you have seized control of many places properly in my kingdom.
1Ma 15:30 Either now surrender the towns you have taken and the taxes from the places you have seized outside the frontiers of Judaea,
1Ma 15:31 or else pay me five hundred talents of silver in compensation for them and for the destruction you have done, and another five hundred talents for the taxes from the towns; otherwise we shall come and make war on you.'
1Ma 15:32 When the King's Friend, Athenobius, reached Jerusalem and saw Simon's magnificence, his cabinet of gold and silver plate and the state he kept, he was dumbfounded. He delivered the king's message,
1Ma 15:33 but Simon gave him this answer, 'We have not taken foreign territory or any alien property but have occupied our ancestral heritage, for some time unjustly wrested from us by our enemies;
1Ma 15:34 now that we have a favorable opportunity, we are merely recovering our ancestral heritage.
1Ma 15:35 As regards Joppa and Gezer, which you claim, these were towns that did great harm to our people and laid waste our country; we are prepared to give a hundred talents for them.' Without so much as a word in answer,
1Ma 15:36 the envoy went back to the king in a rage and reported on Simon's answer and his magnificence, and on everything he had seen, at which the king fell into a fury.
1Ma 15:37 Trypho now boarded a ship and escaped to Orthosia.
1Ma 15:38 The king appointed Cendebaeus military governor of the coastal region and allotted him a force of infantry and cavalry.
1Ma 15:39 He ordered him to deploy his men facing Judaea, and instructed him to rebuild Kedron and fortify its gates, and to make war on our people, while the king himself went in pursuit of Trypho.
1Ma 15:40 Cendebaeus arrived at Jamnia and began to provoke our people forthwith, invading Judaea, taking prisoners, and massacring.
1Ma 15:41 Having rebuilt Kedron, he stationed cavalry and troops there to make sorties and patrol the roads of Judaea, as the king had ordered.
1Ma 16:1 John then went up from Gezer and reported to his father Simon what Cendebaeus was busy doing.
1Ma 16:2 At this, Simon summoned his two elder sons, Judas and John, and said to them, 'My brothers and I, and my father's House, have fought the enemies of Israel from our youth until today, and many a time we have been successful in rescuing Israel.
1Ma 16:3 But now I am an old man, while you, by the mercy of Heaven, are the right age; take the place of my brother and myself, go out and fight for our nation, and may Heaven's aid be with you.'
1Ma 16:4 He then selected twenty thousand of the country's fighting men and cavalry, and these marched against Cendebaeus, spending the night at Modein.
1Ma 16:5 Making an early start, they marched into the plain, to find a large army opposing them, both infantry and cavalry; there was, however, a stream-bed in between.
1Ma 16:6 John drew up facing them, he and his army and, seeing that the men were afraid to cross the stream-bed, crossed over first himself. When his men saw this, they too crossed after him.
1Ma 16:7 He divided his army into two, with the cavalry in the centre and the infantry on either flank, as the opposing cavalry was very numerous.
1Ma 16:8 The trumpets rang out; Cendebaeus and his army were put to flight, many of them falling mortally wounded and the rest of them fleeing to the fortress.
1Ma 16:9 Then it was that Judas, John's brother, was wounded, but John pursued them until Cendebaeus reached Kedron, which he had rebuilt.
1Ma 16:10 Their flight took them as far as the towers in the countryside of Azotus, and John burnt these down. The enemy losses amounted to ten thousand men; John returned safely to Judaea.
1Ma 16:11 Ptolemy son of Abubos had been appointed general in command of the Plain of Jericho; he owned a great deal of silver and gold,
1Ma 16:12 and was the high priest's son-in-law.
1Ma 16:13 His ambition was fired; he hoped to make himself master of the whole country and therefore treacherously began to plot the destruction of Simon and his sons.
1Ma 16:14 Simon, who was inspecting the towns up and down the country and attending to their administration, had come down to Jericho with his sons Mattathias and Judas, in the year 172, in the eleventh month, the month of Shebat.
1Ma 16:15 The son of Abubos lured them into a small fortress called Dok, which he had built, where he offered them a great banquet, having previously hidden men in the place.
1Ma 16:16 When Simon and his sons were drunk, Ptolemy and his men reached for their weapons, rushed on Simon in the banqueting hall and killed him with his two sons and some of his servants.
1Ma 16:17 He thus committed a great act of treachery and rendered evil for good.
1Ma 16:18 Ptolemy wrote a report of the affair and sent it to the king, in the expectation of being sent reinforcements and of having the cities and the province made over to him.
1Ma 16:19 He also sent people to Gezer to murder John, and sent written orders to the military commanders to come to him so that he could give them silver, gold and presents;
1Ma 16:20 and he also sent others to seize control of Jerusalem and the Temple mount.
1Ma 16:21 But someone had been too quick for him and had already informed John in Gezer that his father and brothers had perished, adding, 'He is sending someone to kill you too!'
1Ma 16:22 Overcome as John was by the news, he arrested the men who had come to kill him and put them to death, being forewarned of their murderous design.
1Ma 16:23 The rest of John's acts, the battles he fought and the exploits he performed, the city walls he built, and all his other achievements,
1Ma 16:24 from the day he succeeded his father as high priest, are recorded in the annals of his pontificate.
2Ma 1:1 'To their brothers, the Jews living in Egypt, from their brothers, the Jews in Jerusalem and Judaea, greetings and untroubled peace.
2Ma 1:2 'May God prosper you, remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, his faithful servants.
2Ma 1:3 May he give you all a heart to worship him and to do his will with a generous mind and a willing spirit.
2Ma 1:4 May he open your hearts to his Law and his precepts, and give you peace.
2Ma 1:5 May he hear your prayers and be reconciled with you, and not abandon you in time of evil.
2Ma 1:6 Such is our prayer for you.
2Ma 1:7 'During the reign of Demetrius, in the year 169, we Jews wrote to you as follows, "In the extremity of trouble that befell us in the years after Jason and his associates had betrayed the Holy Land and the kingdom,
2Ma 1:8 burning down the Temple gateway and shedding innocent blood, we prayed to the Lord and were then heard. And we then offered a sacrifice, with wheat-flour, we lit the lamps and we set out the loaves."
2Ma 1:9 'And we now recommend you too to keep the feast of Shelters in the month of Chislev, in the year one hundred and eighty-eight.'
2Ma 1:10 'The people of Jerusalem and of Judaea, the senate and Judas, to Aristobulus, tutor to King Ptolemy and one of the family of the anointed priests, and to the Jews in Egypt, greetings and good health.
2Ma 1:11 'Since we have been rescued by God from great danger, we give him great thanks for championing our cause against the king,
2Ma 1:12 for he it was who carried off those who had taken up arms against the Holy City.
2Ma 1:13 For when their leader reached Persia with his seemingly irresistible army, he was cut to pieces in the temple of Nanaea, as the result of a ruse employed by the priests who served that goddess.
2Ma 1:14 On the pretext of marrying Nanaea, Antiochus came to the place with his friends, intending to take its many treasures as a dowry.
2Ma 1:15 The priests of Nanaea had put these on display, and he for his part had entered the temple precincts with only a small retinue. As soon as Antiochus had gone inside the temple, the priests shut him in,
2Ma 1:16 opened a trap-door hidden in the ceiling and struck the leader down by hurling stones like thunderbolts. They then cut him into pieces and threw his head to those who were waiting outside.
2Ma 1:17 Blessed in all things be our God, who has delivered the sacrilegious over to death!
2Ma 1:18 'As we shall be celebrating the purification of the Temple on the twenty-fifth of Chislev, we consider it proper to notify you, so that you too may celebrate it, as you do the feast of Shelters and the fire that appeared when Nehemiah, the builder of the Temple and the altar, offered sacrifice.
2Ma 1:19 For when our ancestors were being deported to Persia, the devout priests of the time took some of the fire from the altar and hid it secretly in a hole like a dry well, where they concealed it in such a way that the place was unknown to anyone.
2Ma 1:20 When some years had elapsed, in God's good time, Nehemiah, commissioned by the king of Persia, sent the descendants of the priests who had hidden the fire to look for it. When they reported that in fact they had found not fire but a thick liquid, Nehemiah ordered them to draw some out and bring it back.
2Ma 1:21 When they had done this, Nehemiah ordered the priests to pour this liquid over the sacrificial materials, that is, the wood and what lay on it.
2Ma 1:22 When this had been done, and when in due course the sun, which had previously been clouded over, shone out, a great fire flared up, to the astonishment of all.
2Ma 1:23 While the sacrifice was being burned, the priests offered prayer, Jonathan intoning with all the priests, and the rest responding with Nehemiah.
2Ma 1:24 The prayer took this form, "Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, awesome, strong, just, merciful, the only king and benefactor,
2Ma 1:25 the only provider, who alone are just, almighty and everlasting, the deliverer of Israel from every evil, who made our fathers your chosen ones and sanctified them,
2Ma 1:26 accept this sacrifice on behalf of all your people Israel, and protect your heritage and consecrate it.
2Ma 1:27 Bring together those of us who are dispersed, set free those in slavery among the heathen, look favorably on those held in contempt or abhorrence, and let the heathen know that you are our God.
2Ma 1:28 Punish those who oppress us and affront us by their insolence,
2Ma 1:29 and plant your people firmly in your Holy Place, as Moses promised."
2Ma 1:30 'The priests then chanted hymns accompanied by the harp.
2Ma 1:31 When the sacrifice had been burnt, Nehemiah ordered the remaining liquid to be poured over large stones,
2Ma 1:32 and when this was done a flame flared up, to be absorbed in a corresponding blaze of light from the altar.
2Ma 1:33 When the matter became known and the king of the Persians heard that, in the place where the exiled priests had hidden the fire, a liquid had appeared, with which Nehemiah and his people had purified the sacrificial offerings,
2Ma 1:34 the king, after verifying the facts, had the place enclosed and pronounced sacred.
2Ma 1:35 To the people on whom the king bestowed it, he granted a part of the considerable revenue he derived from it.
2Ma 1:36 Nehemiah and his people termed this stuff "nephtar", which means "purification", but it is commonly called "naphta".
2Ma 2:1 'It is on record that the prophet Jeremiah ordered the deportees to take the fire, as we have described,
2Ma 2:2 and how, having given them the Law, the prophet warned the deportees never to forget the Lord's precepts, nor to let their thoughts be tempted by the sight of gold and silver statues or the finery adorning them.
2Ma 2:3 Among other similar admonitions, he urged them not to let the Law depart from their hearts.
2Ma 2:4 'The same document also describes how the prophet, warned by an oracle, gave orders for the tent and the ark to go with him, when he set out for the mountain which Moses had climbed to survey God's heritage.
2Ma 2:5 On his arrival, Jeremiah found a cave-dwelling, into which he put the tent, the ark and the altar of incense, afterwards blocking up the entrance.
2Ma 2:6 Some of his companions went back later to mark out the path but were unable to find it.
2Ma 2:7 When Jeremiah learned this, he reproached them, "The place is to remain unknown", he said, "until God gathers his people together again and shows them his mercy.
2Ma 2:8 Then the Lord will bring these things once more to light, and the glory of the Lord will be seen, and so will the cloud, as it was revealed in the time of Moses and when Solomon prayed that the holy place might be gloriously hallowed."
2Ma 2:9 'It was also recorded how Solomon in his wisdom offered the sacrifice of the dedication and completion of the sanctuary.
2Ma 2:10 As Moses had prayed to the Lord and fire had come down from heaven and burned up the sacrifice, so Solomon also prayed, and the fire from above consumed the burnt offerings.
2Ma 2:11 Moses had said, "Because the sacrifice for sin had not been eaten, it was burnt instead."
2Ma 2:12 Solomon similarly observed the eight-day festival.
2Ma 2:13 'In addition to the above, it was also recorded, both in these writings and in the Memoirs of Nehemiah, how Nehemiah founded a library and made a collection of the books dealing with the kings and the prophets, the writings of David and the letters of the kings on the subject of offerings.
2Ma 2:14 Similarly, Judas made a complete collection of the books dispersed in the late war, and these we still have.
2Ma 2:15 If you need any of them, send someone to fetch them.
2Ma 2:16 'Since we are about to celebrate the purification, we now write, requesting you to observe the same days.
2Ma 2:17 God, who has saved his whole people, conferring heritage, kingdom, priesthood and sanctification on all of us,
2Ma 2:18 as he has promised in the Law, will surely, as our hope is in him, be swift to show us mercy and gather us together from everywhere under heaven to the holy place, since he has rescued us from great evils and has purified it.'
2Ma 2:19 The story of Judas Maccabaeus and his brothers, the purification of the great Temple, the dedication of the altar,
2Ma 2:20 together with the wars against Antiochus Epiphanes and his son Eupator,
2Ma 2:21 and the celestial manifestations that came to hearten the brave champions of Judaism, so that, few though they were, they pillaged the whole country, routed the barbarian hordes,
2Ma 2:22 recovered the sanctuary renowned the whole world over, liberated the city and re-established the laws by then all but abolished, the Lord showing his favor by all his gracious help to them-
2Ma 2:23 all this, already related in five books by Jason of Cyrene, we shall attempt to condense into a single work.
2Ma 2:24 Considering the spate of figures and the difficulty encountered, because of the mass of material, by those who wish to immerse themselves in historical records,
2Ma 2:25 we have aimed at providing diversion for those who merely want something to read, a saving of labour for those who enjoy committing things to memory, and profit for each and all.
2Ma 2:26 For us who have undertaken the drudgery of this abridgement, it has been no easy task but a matter of sweat and midnight oil,
2Ma 2:27 comparable to the exacting task of someone organising a banquet, whose aim is to satisfy a variety of tastes. Nevertheless, for the sake of rendering a general service, we remain glad to endure this drudgery,
2Ma 2:28 leaving accuracy of detail to the historian, and concentrating our effort on tracing the outlines in this condensed version.
2Ma 2:29 Just as the architect of a new house is responsible for the construction as a whole, while the man undertaking the ceramic painting has to take into consideration only the decorative requirements, so, I think, it is with us.
2Ma 2:30 To make the subject his own, to explore its by-ways, to be meticulous about details, is the business of the original historian,
2Ma 2:31 but the person making the adaptation must be allowed to aim at conciseness of expression and to forgo any exhaustive treatment of his subject.
2Ma 2:32 So now let us begin our narrative, without adding any more to what has been said above; there would be no sense in expanding the preface to the history and curtailing the history itself.
2Ma 3:1 While the holy city was inhabited in all peace and the laws were observed as perfectly as possible, owing to the piety of Onias the high priest and his hatred of wickedness,
2Ma 3:2 it came about that the kings themselves honored the holy place and enhanced the glory of the Temple with the most splendid offerings,
2Ma 3:3 even to the extent that Seleucus king of Asia defrayed from his own revenues all the expenses arising out of the sacrificial liturgy.
2Ma 3:4 But a certain Simon, of the tribe of Bilgah, on being appointed administrator of the Temple, came into conflict with the high priest over the regulation of the city markets.
2Ma 3:5 Unable to get the better of Onias, he went off to Apollonius, son of Thraseos, who was at that time commander-in-chief of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia,
2Ma 3:6 and made out to him that the Treasury in Jerusalem was groaning with untold wealth, that the amount contributed was incalculable and out of all proportion to expenditure on the sacrifice, but that it could all be brought under the control of the king.
2Ma 3:7 Apollonius met the king and told him about the wealth that had been disclosed to him; whereupon the king selected Heliodorus, his chancellor, and sent him with instructions to effect the removal of the reported wealth.
2Ma 3:8 Heliodorus lost no time in setting out, ostensibly to inspect the towns of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, but in fact to accomplish the king's purpose.
2Ma 3:9 On his arrival in Jerusalem, and after a hospitable reception from the high priest and the city, he announced what had been disclosed, thus revealing the reason for his presence, and asked if this was indeed the true situation.
2Ma 3:10 The high priest explained that there were funds set aside for widows and orphans,
2Ma 3:11 with some belonging to Hyrcanus son of Tobias, a man occupying a very exalted position, and that the whole sum, in contrast to what the evil Simon had alleged, amounted to four hundred talents of silver and two hundred of gold.
2Ma 3:12 He also added that it was entirely out of the question that an injustice should be done to those who had put their trust in the sanctity of the place and in the inviolable majesty of a Temple venerated throughout the entire world.
2Ma 3:13 But Heliodorus, because of his instructions from the king, peremptorily insisted that the funds must be confiscated for the royal exchequer.
2Ma 3:14 Fixing a day for the purpose, he went in to draw up an inventory of the funds. There was no little consternation throughout the city;
2Ma 3:15 the priests in their sacred vestments prostrated themselves before the altar and prayed to Heaven, to the Author of the law governing deposits, to preserve these funds intact for the depositors.
2Ma 3:16 The appearance of the high priest was enough to pierce the heart of the beholder, his expression and his altered colour betraying the anguish of his soul;
2Ma 3:17 the man was so overwhelmed by fear and bodily trembling that those who saw him could not possibly mistake the distress he was suffering.
2Ma 3:18 People rushed headlong from the houses, intent on making public supplication because of the indignity threatening the holy place.
2Ma 3:19 Women thronged the streets swathed in sackcloth below their breasts; girls secluded indoors came running, some to the doorways, some to the city walls, while others leaned out of the windows,
2Ma 3:20 all stretching out their hands to Heaven in entreaty.
2Ma 3:21 It was pitiful to see the people crowding together to prostrate themselves, and the foreboding of the high priest in his deep anguish.
2Ma 3:22 While they were calling on the all-powerful Lord to preserve the deposits intact for the depositors, in full security,
2Ma 3:23 Heliodorus set about his appointed task.
2Ma 3:24 He had already arrived with his bodyguard near the Treasury, when the Sovereign of spirits and of every power caused so great an apparition that all who had dared to accompany Heliodorus were dumbfounded at the power of God and reduced to abject terror.
2Ma 3:25 Before their eyes appeared a horse richly caparisoned and carrying a fearsome rider. Rearing violently, it struck at Heliodorus with its forefeet. The rider was seen to be accoutred entirely in gold.
2Ma 3:26 Two other young men of outstanding strength and radiant beauty, magnificently apparelled, appeared to him at the same time and, taking their stand on each side of him, flogged him unremittingly, inflicting stroke after stroke.
2Ma 3:27 Suddenly Heliodorus fell to the ground, enveloped in thick darkness. His men came to his rescue and placed him in a litter,
2Ma 3:28 this man who but a moment before had made his way into the Treasury, as we said above, with a great retinue and his whole bodyguard; and as they carried him away, powerless to help himself, they openly acknowledged the sovereign power of God.
2Ma 3:29 While Heliodorus lay prostrate under the divine visitation, speechless and bereft of all hope of deliverance,
2Ma 3:30 the Jews blessed the Lord who had miraculously glorified his own holy place. And the Temple, which a little while before had been filled with terror and commotion, now overflowed with joy and gladness at the manifestation of the almighty Lord.
2Ma 3:31 Some of Heliodorus' companions quickly begged Onias to entreat the Most High to grant the man his life, lying as he did at the very point of death.
2Ma 3:32 The high priest, afraid that the king might suspect the Jews of some foul play concerning Heliodorus, did indeed offer a sacrifice for the man's recovery.
2Ma 3:33 And while the high priest was performing the rite of expiation, the same young men again appeared to Heliodorus, wearing the same apparel and, standing beside him, said, 'Be very grateful to Onias the high priest, since it is for his sake that the Lord has granted you your life.
2Ma 3:34 As for you, who have been scourged by Heaven, you must proclaim to everyone the grandeur of God's power.' So saying, they vanished.
2Ma 3:35 Heliodorus offered sacrifice to the Lord and made most solemn vows to the preserver of his life, and then took courteous leave of Onias and marched his forces back to the king.
2Ma 3:36 He openly testified to everyone about the works of the supreme God which he had seen with his own eyes.
2Ma 3:37 When the king asked Heliodorus what sort of man would be the right person to send to Jerusalem on a second occasion, he replied,
2Ma 3:38 'If you have some enemy or anyone disloyal to the state, send him there, and you will get him back well flogged, if he survives at all, since some peculiarly divine power attaches to the holy place.
2Ma 3:39 He who has his dwelling in heaven watches over the place and defends it, and he strikes down and destroys those who come to harm it.'
2Ma 3:40 This was the outcome of the affair of Heliodorus and the preservation of the Treasury.
2Ma 4:1 The Simon mentioned above as the informer against the funds and against his country began slandering Onias, insinuating that the latter had been responsible for the assault on Heliodorus and himself had contrived this misfortune.
2Ma 4:2 Simon now had the effrontery to name this benefactor of the city, this protector of his compatriots, this zealot for the laws, as an enemy of the public good.
2Ma 4:3 This hostility reached such proportions that murders were actually committed by some of Simon's agents,
2Ma 4:4 and at this point Onias, recognising how mischievous this rivalry was, and aware that Apollonius son of Menestheus, the general commanding Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, was encouraging Simon in his malice,
2Ma 4:5 went to see the king, not to play the accuser of his fellow-citizens, but having the public and private welfare of the entire people at heart.
2Ma 4:6 He saw that, without some intervention by the king, an orderly administration would no longer be possible, nor would Simon put a stop to his folly.
2Ma 4:7 When Seleucus had departed this life and Antiochus styled Epiphanes had succeeded to the kingdom, Jason, brother of Onias, usurped the high priesthood:
2Ma 4:8 he approached the king with a promise of three hundred and sixty talents of silver, with eighty talents to come from some other source of revenue.
2Ma 4:9 He further committed himself to paying another hundred and fifty, if the king would empower him to set up a gymnasium and youth centre, and to register the Antiochists of Jerusalem.
2Ma 4:10 When the king gave his assent, Jason, as soon as he had seized power, imposed the Greek way of life on his fellow-countrymen.
2Ma 4:11 He suppressed the liberties which the kings had graciously granted to the Jews at the instance of John, father of that Eupolemus who was later to be sent on an embassy to negotiate a treaty of friendship and alliance with the Romans and, overthrowing the lawful institutions, introduced new usages contrary to the Law.
2Ma 4:12 He went so far as to found a gymnasium at the very foot of the Citadel, and to fit out the noblest of his young men in the petasos.
2Ma 4:13 Godless wretch that he was and no true high priest, Jason set no bounds to his impiety; indeed the hellenising process reached such a pitch
2Ma 4:14 that the priests ceased to show any interest in serving the altar; but, scorning the Temple and neglecting the sacrifices, they would hurry, on the stroke of the gong, to take part in the distribution, forbidden by the Law, of the oil on the exercise ground;
2Ma 4:15 setting no store by the honors of their fatherland, they esteemed hellenic glories best of all.
2Ma 4:16 But all this brought its own retribution; the very people whose way of life they envied, whom they sought to resemble in everything, proved to be their enemies and executioners.
2Ma 4:17 It is no small thing to violate the divine laws, as the period that followed will demonstrate.
2Ma 4:18 On the occasion of the quadrennial games at Tyre in the presence of the king,
2Ma 4:19 the vile Jason sent an embassy of Antiochists from Jerusalem, taking with them three hundred silver drachmas for the sacrifice to Hercules. But even those who brought the money did not think it would be right to spend it on the sacrifice and decided to reserve it for some other item of expenditure;
2Ma 4:20 and so what the sender had intended for the sacrifice to Hercules was in fact applied, at the suggestion of those who brought it, to the construction of triremes.
2Ma 4:21 Apollonius son of Menestheus had been sent to Egypt to attend the wedding of King Philometor. Antiochus, having learnt that the latter had become hostile to his affairs, began thinking about his own safety: that was why he had come to Joppa. He then moved to Jerusalem,
2Ma 4:22 where he was given a magnificent welcome by Jason and the city, and escorted in by torchlight with acclamation. After which, he marched his army into Phoenicia.
2Ma 4:23 When three years had passed, Jason sent Menelaus, brother of the Simon mentioned above, to convey the money to the king and to complete negotiations on various essential matters.
2Ma 4:24 But Menelaus, on being presented to the king, flattered him by his own appearance of authority, and so secured the high priesthood for himself, outbidding Jason by three hundred talents of silver.
2Ma 4:25 He returned with the royal mandate, bringing nothing worthy of the high priesthood and supported only by the fury of a cruel tyrant and the rage of a savage beast.
2Ma 4:26 Thus Jason, who had supplanted his own brother, was in turn supplanted by a third, and obliged to take refuge in Ammanitis.
2Ma 4:27 As for Menelaus, he secured the office, but defaulted altogether on the sums promised to the king,
2Ma 4:28 although Sostratus, the commandant of the Citadel, whose business it was to collect the revenue, kept demanding payment. The pair of them in consequence were summoned before the king,
2Ma 4:29 Menelaus leaving his brother Lysimachus as deputy high priest, while Sostratus left Crates, the commander of the Cypriots, to act for him.
2Ma 4:30 While all this was going on, it happened that the people of Tarsus and Mallus revolted, because their towns had been given as a present to Antiochis, the king's concubine.
2Ma 4:31 The king therefore hurried off to settle the affair, leaving Andronicus, one of his dignitaries, to act as his deputy.
2Ma 4:32 Thinking he had found a favorable opportunity, Menelaus abstracted a number of golden vessels from the Temple and presented them to Andronicus, and managed to sell others to Tyre and the surrounding cities.
2Ma 4:33 On receiving clear evidence to this effect, Onias retired to a place of sanctuary at Daphne near Antioch and then taxed him with it.
2Ma 4:34 Menelaus then had a quiet word with Andronicus, urging him to get rid of Onias. Andronicus sought out Onias and, resorting to the trick of offering him his right hand on oath, succeeded in persuading him, despite the latter's lingering suspicions, to leave sanctuary; whereupon, in defiance of all justice, he immediately put him to death.
2Ma 4:35 The result was that not only Jews but many people of other nationalities were appalled and outraged by the unjust murder of this man.
2Ma 4:36 On the king's return from the region of Cilicia, the Jews of the capital, and those Greeks who shared their hatred of the crime, appealed to him about the unjustified murder of Onias.
2Ma 4:37 Antiochus was profoundly grieved and filled with pity, and he wept for the prudence and moderation of the dead man.
2Ma 4:38 Burning with indignation, he immediately stripped Andronicus of the purple, tore his garments off him and, parading him through the length of the city, rid the world of the assassin on the very spot where he had laid impious hands on Onias, the Lord dealing out to him the punishment he deserved.
2Ma 4:39 Now Lysimachus with the connivance of Menelaus had committed many sacrilegious thefts in the city, and when the facts became widely known, the populace rose against Lysimachus, who had already disposed of many pieces of gold plate.
2Ma 4:40 The infuriated mob was becoming menacing, and Lysimachus armed nearly three thousand men and took aggressive action; the troops were led by a certain Auranus, a man advanced in years and no less in folly.
2Ma 4:41 Recognising this act of aggression as the work of Lysimachus, some snatched up stones, others cudgels, while others scooped up handfuls of ashes lying at hand, and all hurled everything indiscriminately at Lysimachus' men,
2Ma 4:42 to such effect that they wounded many of them, even killing a few, and routed them all; the sacrilegious thief himself they killed near the Treasury.
2Ma 4:43 As a result of this, legal proceedings were taken against Menelaus.
2Ma 4:44 When the king came down to Tyre, three men deputed by the Senate pleaded their case before him.
2Ma 4:45 Menelaus, seeing the case had gone against him, promised a substantial sum to Ptolemy son of Dorymenes if he would influence the king in his favor.
2Ma 4:46 Ptolemy then took the king aside into a colonnade, as though for a breath of fresh air, and persuaded him to change his mind;
2Ma 4:47 the king then dismissed the charges against Menelaus, the cause of all this evil, while he condemned to death the other poor wretches who, had they pleaded even before Scythians, would have been let off scot-free.
2Ma 4:48 No time was lost in carrying out this unjust punishment on those who had championed the cause of the city, the townships and the sacred vessels.
2Ma 4:49 Some Tyrians even were so outraged by the crime that they provided sumptuously for their funeral,
2Ma 4:50 while, as a result of the greed of the powerful, Menelaus remained in power, growing more wicked than ever and establishing himself as the chief enemy of his fellow-citizens.
2Ma 5:1 At about this time, Antiochus was preparing for his second attack on Egypt.
2Ma 5:2 It then happened that all over the city for nearly forty days there were apparitions of horsemen galloping through the air in cloth of gold, troops of lancers fully armed,
2Ma 5:3 squadrons of cavalry in order of battle, attacks and charges this way and that, a flourish of shields, a forest of pikes, a brandishing of swords, a hurling of missiles, a glittering of golden accoutrements and armour of all kinds.
2Ma 5:4 So everyone prayed that this manifestation might prove a good omen.
2Ma 5:5 Then, on the strength of a false report that Antiochus was dead, Jason took at least a thousand men and launched an unexpected attack on the city. When the walls had been breached and the city was finally on the point of being taken, Menelaus took refuge in the Citadel.
2Ma 5:6 Jason, however, made a pitiless slaughter of his fellow-citizens, oblivious of the fact that success against his own countrymen was the greatest of disasters, but rather picturing himself as winning trophies from some enemy, and not from his fellow- countrymen.
2Ma 5:7 Even so, he did not manage to seize power; and, in the end, his machinations brought him nothing but shame, and he took refuge once more in Ammanitis.
2Ma 5:8 His career of wickedness was thus brought to a halt: imprisoned by Aretas, the Arab despot, escaping from his town, hunted by everyone, detested for having overthrown the laws, abhorred as the butcher of his country and his countrymen, he drifted to Egypt.
2Ma 5:9 He who had exiled so many from their fatherland, himself perished on foreign soil, having travelled to Sparta, hoping that, for kinship's sake, he might find harbour there.
2Ma 5:10 So many carcases he had thrust out to lie unburied; now he himself had none to mourn him, no funeral rites, no place in the tomb of his ancestors.
2Ma 5:11 When the king came to hear of what had happened, he concluded that Judaea was in revolt. He therefore marched from Egypt, raging like a wild beast, and began by storming the city.
2Ma 5:12 He then ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy everyone they encountered, and to butcher all who took refuge in their houses.
2Ma 5:13 It was a massacre of young and old, a slaughter of women and children, a butchery of young girls and infants.
2Ma 5:14 There were eighty thousand victims in the course of those three days, forty thousand dying by violence and as many again being sold into slavery.
2Ma 5:15 Not content with this, he had the audacity to enter the holiest Temple in the entire world, with Menelaus, that traitor to the laws and to his country, as his guide;
2Ma 5:16 with impure hands he seized the sacred vessels; with impious hands he seized the offerings presented by other kings for the aggrandisement, glory and dignity of the holy place.
2Ma 5:17 Holding so high an opinion of himself, Antiochus did not realize that the Lord was temporarily angry at the sins of the inhabitants of the city, hence his unconcern for the holy place.
2Ma 5:18 Had they not been entangled in many sins, Antiochus too, like Heliodorus when King Seleucus sent him to inspect the Treasury, would have been flogged the moment he arrived and checked in his presumption.
2Ma 5:19 The Lord, however, had not chosen the people for the sake of the holy place, but the holy place for the sake of the people;
2Ma 5:20 and so the holy place itself, having shared the disasters that befell the people, in due course also shared their good fortune; having been abandoned by the Almighty in his anger, once the great Sovereign was placated it was reinstated in all its glory.
2Ma 5:21 Antiochus, having extracted eighteen hundred talents from the Temple, hurried back to Antioch; in his pride he would have undertaken to make the dry land navigable and the sea passable on foot, so high his arrogance soared.
2Ma 5:22 But he left officials behind to plague the nation: in Jerusalem, Philip, a Phrygian by race, and by nature more barbarous than the man who appointed him;
2Ma 5:23 on Mount Gerizim, Andronicus; and, besides these, Menelaus, who lorded it over his countrymen worse than all the others. In his rooted hostility to the Jews,
2Ma 5:24 the king also sent the Mysarch Apollonius at the head of an army twenty-two thousand strong, with orders to put to death all men in their prime and to sell the women and children.
2Ma 5:25 Arriving in Jerusalem and posing as a man of peace, this man waited until the holy day of the Sabbath and then, taking advantage of the Jews as they rested from work, ordered his men to parade fully armed;
2Ma 5:26 all those who came out to watch he put to the sword; then, rushing into the city with his armed troops, he cut down an immense number of people.
2Ma 5:27 Judas, also known as Maccabaeus, however, with about nine others, withdrew into the desert. He lived like the wild animals in the hills with his companions, eating nothing but wild plants to avoid contracting defilement.
2Ma 6:1 Shortly afterwards, the king sent Gerontes the Athenian to force the Jews to violate their ancestral customs and live no longer by the laws of God;
2Ma 6:2 and to profane the Temple in Jerusalem and dedicate it to Olympian Zeus, and the one on Mount Gerizim to Zeus, Patron of Strangers, as the inhabitants of the latter place had requested.
2Ma 6:3 The advent of these evils was painfully hard for all the people to bear.
2Ma 6:4 The Temple was filled with revelling and debauchery by the gentiles, who took their pleasure with prostitutes and had intercourse with women in the sacred precincts, introducing other indecencies besides.
2Ma 6:5 The altar of sacrifice was loaded with victims proscribed by the law as profane.
2Ma 6:6 No one might either keep the Sabbath or observe the traditional feasts, or so much as admit to being a Jew.
2Ma 6:7 People were driven by harsh compulsion to take part in the monthly ritual meal commemorating the king's birthday; and when a feast of Dionysus occurred, they were forced to wear ivy wreaths and walk in the Dionysiac procession.
2Ma 6:8 A decree was issued at the instance of the people of Ptolemais for the neighboring Greek cities, enforcing the same conduct on the Jews there, obliging them to share in the sacrificial meals,
2Ma 6:9 and ordering the execution of those who would not voluntarily conform to Greek customs. So it became clear that disaster was imminent.
2Ma 6:10 For example, two women were charged with having circumcised their children. They were paraded publicly round the town, with their babies hung at their breasts, and then hurled over the city wall.
2Ma 6:11 Other people, who had assembled in some near-by caves to keep the seventh day without attracting attention, were denounced to Philip, and were then all burnt to death together, since their consciences would not allow them to defend themselves, out of respect for the holiness of the day.
2Ma 6:12 Now, I urge anyone who may read this book not to be dismayed at these calamities, but to reflect that such visitations are intended not to destroy our race but to discipline it.
2Ma 6:13 Indeed, when evil-doers are not left for long to their own devices but incur swift retribution, it is a sign of great benevolence.
2Ma 6:14 In the case of other nations, the Master waits patiently for them to attain the full measure of their sins before he punishes them, but with us he has decided to deal differently,
2Ma 6:15 rather than have to punish us later, when our sins come to full measure.
2Ma 6:16 And so he never entirely withdraws his mercy from us; he may discipline us by some disaster, but he does not desert his own people.
2Ma 6:17 Let this be said simply by way of reminder; we must return to our story without more ado.
2Ma 6:18 Eleazar, one of the foremost teachers of the Law, a man already advanced in years and of most noble appearance, had his mouth forced open, to make him eat a piece of pork.
2Ma 6:19 But he, resolving to die with honor rather than to live disgraced, walked of his own accord to the torture of the wheel,
2Ma 6:20 having spat the stuff out, as befits those with the courage to reject what is not lawful to taste, rather than live.
2Ma 6:21 The people supervising the ritual meal, forbidden by the Law, because of the length of time for which they had known him, took him aside and privately urged him to have meat brought of a kind he could properly use, prepared by himself, and only pretend to eat the portions of sacrificial meat as prescribed by the king;
2Ma 6:22 this action would enable him to escape death, by availing himself of an act of kindness prompted by their long friendship.
2Ma 6:23 But having taken a noble decision worthy of his years and the dignity of his great age and the well-earned distinction of his grey hairs, worthy too of his impeccable conduct from boyhood, and above all of the holy legislation established by God himself, he answered accordingly, telling them to send him at once to Hades.
2Ma 6:24 'Pretence', he said, 'does not befit our time of life; many young people would suppose that Eleazar at the age of ninety had conformed to the foreigners' way of life
2Ma 6:25 and, because I had played this part for the sake of a paltry brief spell of life, might themselves be led astray on my account; I should only bring defilement and disgrace on my old age.
2Ma 6:26 Even though for the moment I avoid execution by man, I can never, living or dead, elude the grasp of the Almighty.
2Ma 6:27 Therefore if I am man enough to quit this life here and now, I shall prove myself worthy of my old age,
2Ma 6:28 and I shall have left the young a noble example of how to make a good death, eagerly and generously, for the venerable and holy laws.' So saying, he walked straight to the wheel,
2Ma 6:29 while those who were escorting him, recently so well disposed towards him, turned against him after this declaration, which they regarded as sheer madness.
2Ma 6:30 He for his part, just before he died under the blows, gave a sigh and said, 'The Lord whose knowledge is holy sees clearly that, though I might have escaped death, from awe of him I gladly endure these agonies of body under the lash, and that in my soul I am glad to suffer.'
2Ma 6:31 This was how he died, leaving his death as an example of nobility and a record of virtue not only for the young but for the greater part of the nation.
2Ma 7:1 It also happened that seven brothers were arrested with their mother. The king tried to force them to taste some pork, which the Law forbids, by torturing them with whips and scourges.
2Ma 7:2 One of them, acting as spokesman for the others, said, 'What are you trying to find out from us? We are prepared to die rather than break the laws of our ancestors.'
2Ma 7:3 The king, in a fury, ordered pans and cauldrons to be heated over a fire.
2Ma 7:4 As soon as these were red-hot, he commanded that their spokesman should have his tongue cut out, his head scalped and his extremities cut off, while the other brothers and his mother looked on.
2Ma 7:5 When he had been rendered completely helpless, the king gave orders for him to be brought, still breathing, to the fire and fried alive in a pan. As the smoke from the pan drifted about, his mother and the rest encouraged one another to die nobly, with such words as these,
2Ma 7:6 'The Lord God is watching and certainly feels sorry for us, as Moses declared in his song, which clearly states that "he will take pity on his servants." '
2Ma 7:7 When the first had left the world in this way, they brought the second forward to be tortured. After stripping the skin from his head, hair and all, they asked him, 'Will you eat some pork, before your body is tortured limb by limb?'
2Ma 7:8 Replying in his ancestral tongue, he said, 'No!' So he too was put to the torture in his turn.
2Ma 7:9 With his last breath he exclaimed, 'Cruel brute, you may discharge us from this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up, since we die for his laws, to live again for ever.'
2Ma 7:10 After him, they tortured the third, who on being asked for his tongue promptly thrust it out and boldly held out his hands,
2Ma 7:11 courageously saying, 'Heaven gave me these limbs; for the sake of his laws I have no concern for them; from him I hope to receive them again.'
2Ma 7:12 The king and his attendants were astounded at the young man's courage and his utter indifference to suffering.
2Ma 7:13 When this one was dead they subjected the fourth to the same torments and tortures.
2Ma 7:14 When he neared his end he cried, 'Ours is the better choice, to meet death at men's hands, yet relying on God's promise that we shall be raised up by him; whereas for you there can be no resurrection to new life.'
2Ma 7:15 Next they brought forward the fifth and began torturing him.
2Ma 7:16 But he looked at the king and said, 'You have power over human beings, mortal as you are, and can act as you please. But do not think that our race has been deserted by God.
2Ma 7:17 Only wait, and you will see in your turn how his mighty power will torment you and your descendants.'
2Ma 7:18 After him, they led out the sixth, and his dying words were these, 'Do not delude yourself: we are suffering like this through our own fault, having sinned against our own God; hence, appalling things have befallen us-
2Ma 7:19 but do not think you yourself will go unpunished for attempting to make war on God.'
2Ma 7:20 But the mother was especially admirable and worthy of honorable remembrance, for she watched the death of seven sons in the course of a single day, and bravely endured it because of her hopes in the Lord.
2Ma 7:21 Indeed she encouraged each of them in their ancestral tongue; filled with noble conviction, she reinforced her womanly argument with manly courage, saying to them,
2Ma 7:22 'I do not know how you appeared in my womb; it was not I who endowed you with breath and life, I had not the shaping of your every part.
2Ma 7:23 And hence, the Creator of the world, who made everyone and ordained the origin of all things, will in his mercy give you back breath and life, since for the sake of his laws you have no concern for yourselves.'
2Ma 7:24 Antiochus thought he was being ridiculed, suspecting insult in the tone of her voice; and as the youngest was still alive he appealed to him not with mere words but with promises on oath to make him both rich and happy if he would abandon the traditions of his ancestors; he would make him his Friend and entrust him with public office.
2Ma 7:25 The young man took no notice at all, and so the king then appealed to the mother, urging her to advise the youth to save his life.
2Ma 7:26 After a great deal of urging on his part she agreed to try persuasion on her son.
2Ma 7:27 Bending over him, she fooled the cruel tyrant with these words, uttered in their ancestral tongue, 'My son, have pity on me; I carried you nine months in my womb and suckled you three years, fed you and reared you to the age you are now, and provided for you.
2Ma 7:28 I implore you, my child, look at the earth and sky and everything in them, and consider how God made them out of what did not exist, and that human beings come into being in the same way.
2Ma 7:29 Do not fear this executioner, but prove yourself worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that I may receive you back with them in the day of mercy.'
2Ma 7:30 She had hardly finished, when the young man said, 'What are you all waiting for? I will not comply with the king's ordinance; I obey the ordinance of the Law given to our ancestors through Moses.
2Ma 7:31 As for you, who have contrived every kind of evil against the Hebrews, you will certainly not escape the hands of God.
2Ma 7:32 We are suffering for our own sins;
2Ma 7:33 and if, to punish and discipline us, our living Lord is briefly angry with us, he will be reconciled with us in due course.
2Ma 7:34 But you, unholy wretch and wickedest of villains, what cause have you for pride, nourishing vain hopes and raising your hand against his servants? -
2Ma 7:35 for you have not yet escaped the judgement of God the almighty, the all-seeing.
2Ma 7:36 Our brothers, having endured brief pain, for the sake of ever-flowing life have died for the covenant of God, while you, by God's judgement, will have to pay the just penalty for your arrogance.
2Ma 7:37 I too, like my brothers, surrender my body and life for the laws of my ancestors, begging God quickly to take pity on our nation, and by trials and afflictions to bring you to confess that he alone is God,
2Ma 7:38 so that with my brothers and myself there may be an end to the wrath of the Almighty, rightly let loose on our whole nation.'
2Ma 7:39 The king fell into a rage and treated this one more cruelly than the others, for he was himself smarting from the young man's scorn.
2Ma 7:40 And so the last brother met his end undefiled and with perfect trust in the Lord.
2Ma 7:41 The mother was the last to die, after her sons.
2Ma 7:42 But let this be sufficient account of the ritual meals and monstrous tortures.
2Ma 8:1 Judas, otherwise known as Maccabaeus, and his companions made their way secretly among the villages, rallying their fellow-countrymen; they recruited those who remained loyal to Judaism and assembled about six thousand.
2Ma 8:2 They called on the Lord to have regard for the people oppressed on all sides, to take pity on the Temple profaned by the godless,
2Ma 8:3 to have mercy on the city now being destroyed and levelled to the ground, to hear the blood of the victims that cried aloud to him,
2Ma 8:4 to remember too the criminal slaughter of innocent babies and to avenge the blasphemies perpetrated against his name.
2Ma 8:5 As soon as Maccabaeus had an organised force, he at once proved invincible to the foreigners, the Lord's anger having turned into compassion.
2Ma 8:6 Making surprise attacks on towns and villages, he fired them; he captured favorable positions and inflicted very heavy losses on the enemy,
2Ma 8:7 generally availing himself of the cover of night for such enterprises. The fame of his valour spread far and wide.
2Ma 8:8 When Philip saw Judas was making steady progress and winning more and more frequent successes, he wrote to Ptolemy, the general officer commanding Coele-Syria and Phoenicia, asking for reinforcements in the royal interest.
2Ma 8:9 Ptolemy chose Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the king's First Friends, and sent him without delay at the head of an international force of at least twenty thousand men to exterminate the entire Jewish race. As his associate he appointed Gorgias, a professional general of wide military experience.
2Ma 8:10 Nicanor for his part proposed, by the sale of Jewish prisoners of war, to raise the two thousand talents of tribute money owed by the king to the Romans.
2Ma 8:11 He lost no time in sending the seaboard towns an invitation to come and buy Jewish manpower, promising delivery of ninety head for one talent; but he did not reckon on the judgement from the Almighty that was soon to overtake him.
2Ma 8:12 When news reached Judas of Nicanor's advance, he warned his men of the enemy's approach,
2Ma 8:13 whereupon the cowardly ones and those who lacked confidence in the justice of God took to their heels and ran away.
2Ma 8:14 The rest sold all their remaining possessions, at the same time praying the Lord to deliver them from the godless Nicanor, who had sold them even in advance of any encounter-
2Ma 8:15 if not for their own sakes, then at least out of consideration for the covenants made with their ancestors, and because they themselves bore his sacred and majestic name.
2Ma 8:16 Maccabaeus marshalled his men, who numbered about six thousand, and exhorted them not to be dismayed at the enemy or discouraged at the vast horde of gentiles wickedly advancing against them, but to fight bravely,
2Ma 8:17 keeping before their eyes the outrage committed by them against the holy place and the infamous and scornful treatment inflicted on the city, not to mention the destruction of their traditional way of life.
2Ma 8:18 'They may put their trust in their weapons and their exploits,' he said, 'but our confidence is in almighty God, who is able with a single nod to overthrow both those marching on us and the whole world with them.'
2Ma 8:19 He reminded them of the occasions on which their ancestors had received help: that time when, under Sennacherib, a hundred and eighty-five thousand men had perished;
2Ma 8:20 that time in Babylonia when in the battle with the Galatians the Jewish combatants numbered only eight thousand, with four thousand Macedonians, yet when the Macedonians were hard pressed, the eight thousand had destroyed a hundred and twenty thousand, thanks to the help they had received from Heaven, and had taken great booty as a result.
2Ma 8:21 Having so roused their courage by these words that they were ready to die for the laws and their country, he then divided his army into four,
2Ma 8:22 putting his brothers, Simon, Joseph and Jonathan in command of one division each, and assigning them fifteen hundred men apiece.
2Ma 8:23 Next, he ordered Esdrias to read the Holy Book aloud and gave them their watchword 'Help from God'. Then, putting himself at the head of the first division, he attacked Nicanor.
2Ma 8:24 With the Almighty for their ally they slaughtered over nine thousand of the enemy, wounded and crippled the greater part of Nicanor's army and put them all to flight.
2Ma 8:25 The money of their prospective purchasers fell into their hands. After pursuing them for a good while, they turned back, since time was pressing:
2Ma 8:26 it was the eve of the Sabbath, and for that reason they did not prolong their pursuit.
2Ma 8:27 They collected the enemy's weapons and stripped them of their spoils, and because of the Sabbath even more heartily blessed and praised the Lord, who had saved them and who had chosen that day for the first manifestation of his compassion.
2Ma 8:28 When the Sabbath was over, they distributed some of the booty among the victims of the persecution and the widows and orphans; the rest they divided among themselves and their children.
2Ma 8:29 They then joined in public supplication, imploring the merciful Lord to be fully reconciled with his servants.
2Ma 8:30 They also challenged the forces of Timotheus and Bacchides and destroyed over twenty thousand of them, gaining possession of several high fortresses. They divided their enormous booty into two equal shares, one for themselves, the other for the victims of the persecution and the orphans and widows, not forgetting the aged.
2Ma 8:31 They carefully collected the enemy's weapons and stored them in suitable places. The rest of the spoils they took to Jerusalem.
2Ma 8:32 They killed the tribal chieftain on Timotheus' staff, an extremely wicked man who had done great harm to the Jews.
2Ma 8:33 In the course of their victory celebrations in Jerusalem, they burned the men who had fired the Holy Gates; with Callisthenes they had taken refuge in one small house; so these received a fitting reward for their sacrilege.
2Ma 8:34 The triple-dyed scoundrel Nicanor, who had brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews,
2Ma 8:35 finding himself with the Lord's help humbled by men he had himself reckoned as of very little account, stripped off his robes of state, and made his way across country unaccompanied, like a runaway slave, reaching Antioch by a singular stroke of fortune, since his army had been destroyed.
2Ma 8:36 Thus the man who had promised the Romans to make good their tribute money by selling the prisoners from Jerusalem, bore witness that the Jews had a defender and that they were in consequence invulnerable, since they followed the laws which that defender had ordained.
2Ma 9:1 At about the same time, Antiochus was beating a disorderly retreat from Persia.
2Ma 9:2 He had entered the city called Persepolis, planning to rob the temple and occupy the city; but the population at once sprang to arms to defend themselves, with the result that Antiochus was routed by the inhabitants and forced to beat a humiliating retreat.
2Ma 9:3 On his arrival in Ecbatana he learned what had happened to Nicanor and to Timotheus' forces.
2Ma 9:4 Flying into a passion, he resolved to make the Jews pay for the disgrace inflicted by those who had routed him, and with this in mind he ordered his charioteer to drive without stopping and get the journey over. But the sentence of Heaven was already hanging over him. In his pride, he had said, 'When I reach Jerusalem, I shall turn it into a mass grave for the Jews.'
2Ma 9:5 But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him with an incurable and unseen complaint. The words were hardly out of his mouth when he was seized with an incurable pain in his bowels and with excruciating internal torture;
2Ma 9:6 and this was only right, since he had inflicted many barbaric tortures on the bowels of others.
2Ma 9:7 Even so, he in no way diminished his arrogance; still bursting with pride, breathing fire in his wrath against the Jews, he was in the act of ordering an even keener pace when the chariot gave a sudden lurch and out he fell and, in this serious fall, was dragged along, every joint of his body wrenched out of place.
2Ma 9:8 He who only a little while before had thought in his superhuman boastfulness he could command the waves of the sea, he who had imagined he could weigh mountain peaks in a balance, found himself flat on the ground and then being carried in a litter, a visible demonstration to all of the power of God,
2Ma 9:9 in that the very eyes of this godless man teemed with worms and his flesh rotted away while he lingered on in agonising pain, and the stench of his decay sickened the whole army.
2Ma 9:10 A short while before, he had thought to grasp the stars of heaven; now no one could bring himself to act as his bearer, for the stench was intolerable.
2Ma 9:11 Then and there, as a consequence, in his shattered state, he began to shed his excessive pride and come to his senses under the divine lash, spasms of pain overtaking him.
2Ma 9:12 His stench being unbearable even to himself, he exclaimed, 'It is right to submit to God; no mortal should aspire to equality with the Godhead.'
2Ma 9:13 The wretch began to pray to the Master, who would never take pity on him now, declaring
2Ma 9:14 that the holy city, towards which he had been speeding to rase it to the ground and turn it into a mass grave, should be declared free;
2Ma 9:15 as for the Jews, whom he had considered as not even worth burying, so much carrion to be thrown out with their children for birds and beasts to prey on, he would give them all equal rights with the Athenians;
2Ma 9:16 the holy Temple which he had once plundered he would now adorn with the finest offerings; he would restore all the sacred vessels many times over; he would defray from his personal revenue the expenses incurred for the sacrifices;
2Ma 9:17 and, to crown all, he would himself turn Jew and visit every inhabited place, proclaiming the power of God.
2Ma 9:18 Finding no respite at all from his suffering, God's just sentence having overtaken him, he abandoned all hope for himself and wrote the Jews the letter transcribed below, which takes the form of an appeal in these terms:
2Ma 9:19 'To the excellent Jews, to the citizens, Antiochus, king and commander-in-chief, sends hearty greetings, wishing them all health and prosperity.
2Ma 9:20 'If you and your children are well and your affairs as you would wish, we are profoundly thankful.
2Ma 9:21 For my part, I cherish affectionate memories of you. 'On my return from the country of Persia I fell seriously ill, and thought it necessary to make provision for the common security of all.
2Ma 9:22 Not that I despair of my condition, for I have great hope of shaking off the malady,
2Ma 9:23 but considering how my father, whenever he was making an expedition into the uplands, would designate his successor
2Ma 9:24 so that, in case of any unforeseen event or disquieting rumour, the people of the provinces might know to whom he had left the conduct of affairs, and thus remain undisturbed;
2Ma 9:25 furthermore, being well aware that the sovereigns on our frontiers and the neighbors of our realm are watching for opportunities and waiting to see what will happen, I have designated as king my son Antiochus, whom I have more than once entrusted and commended to most of you when I was setting out for the upland satrapies; a transcript of my letter to him is appended hereto.
2Ma 9:26 I therefore urge and require you, being mindful of the benefits both public and personal received from me, that you each persist in those sentiments of goodwill that you harbour towards me.
2Ma 9:27 I am confident that he will pursue my own policy with benevolence and humanity, and will prove accommodating to your interests.'
2Ma 9:28 And so this murderer and blasphemer, having endured sufferings as terrible as those which he had made others endure, met his pitiable fate, and ended his life in the mountains far from his home.
2Ma 9:29 His comrade Philip brought back his body, and then, fearing Antiochus' son, withdrew to Egypt, to the court of Ptolemy Philometor.
2Ma 10:1 Maccabaeus and his companions, under the Lord's guidance, restored the Temple and the city,
2Ma 10:2 and pulled down the altars erected by the foreigners in the market place, as well as the shrines.
2Ma 10:3 They purified the sanctuary and built another altar; then, striking fire from flints and using this fire, they offered the first sacrifice for two years, burning incense, lighting the lamps and setting out the loaves.
2Ma 10:4 When they had done this, prostrating themselves on the ground, they implored the Lord never again to let them fall into such adversity, but if they should ever sin, to correct them with moderation and not to deliver them over to blasphemous and barbarous nations.
2Ma 10:5 This day of the purification of the Temple fell on the very day on which the Temple had been profaned by the foreigners, the twenty-fifth of the same month, Chislev.
2Ma 10:6 They kept eight festal days with rejoicing, in the manner of the feast of Shelters, remembering how, not long before at the time of the feast of Shelters, they had been living in the mountains and caverns like wild beasts.
2Ma 10:7 Then, carrying thyrsuses, leafy boughs and palms, they offered hymns to him who had brought the cleansing of his own holy place to a happy outcome.
2Ma 10:8 They also decreed by public edict, ratified by vote, that the whole Jewish nation should celebrate those same days every year.
2Ma 10:9 Such were the circumstances attending the death of Antiochus styled Epiphanes.
2Ma 10:10 Our task now is to unfold the history of Antiochus Eupator, son of that godless man, and briefly to relate the evil effects of the wars.
2Ma 10:11 On coming to the throne, this prince put at the head of affairs a certain Lysias, the general officer commanding Coele-Syria and Phoenicia,
2Ma 10:12 whereas Ptolemy, known as Macron, and the first person to govern the Jews justly, had done his best to govern them peacefully to make up for the wrongs inflicted on them in the past.
2Ma 10:13 Denounced, in consequence, to Eupator by the Friends of the King, he heard himself called traitor at every turn: for having abandoned Cyprus, which had been entrusted to him by Philometer, for having gone over to Antiochus Epiphanes, and for having shed no lustre on his illustrious office: he committed suicide by poisoning himself.
2Ma 10:14 Gorgias now became general of the area; he maintained a force of mercenaries and a continual state of war with the Jews.
2Ma 10:15 At the same time, the Idumaeans, who controlled important fortresses, were harassing the Jews, welcoming outlaws from Jerusalem and endeavouring to maintain a state of war.
2Ma 10:16 Maccabaeus and his men, after making public supplication to God, entreating him to support them, began operations against the Idumaean fortresses.
2Ma 10:17 Vigorously pressing home their attack, they seized possession of these vantage points, beating off all who fought on the ramparts; they slaughtered all who fell into their hands, accounting for no fewer than twenty thousand.
2Ma 10:18 Nine thousand at least took refuge in two exceptionally strong towers with everything they needed to withstand a siege,
2Ma 10:19 whereupon, Maccabaeus left Simon and Joseph, with Zacchaeus and his forces, in sufficient numbers to besiege them, and himself went off to other places requiring his attention.
2Ma 10:20 But Simon's men were greedy for money and allowed themselves to be bribed by some of the men in the towers; accepting seventy thousand drachmas, they let a number of them escape.
2Ma 10:21 When Maccabaeus was told what had happened, he summoned the people's commanders and accused the offenders of having sold their brothers for money by releasing their enemies to fight them.
2Ma 10:22 Having executed them as traitors, he at once proceeded to capture both towers.
2Ma 10:23 Successful in all that he undertook by force of arms, in these two fortresses he slaughtered more than twenty thousand men.
2Ma 10:24 Timotheus, who had been beaten by the Jews once before, now assembled an enormous force of mercenaries, mustering cavalry from Asia in considerable numbers, and soon appeared in Judaea, expecting to conquer it by force of arms.
2Ma 10:25 At his approach, Maccabaeus and his men made their supplications to God, sprinkling earth on their heads and putting sackcloth round their waists.
2Ma 10:26 Prostrating themselves on the terrace before the altar, they begged him to support them and to show himself the enemy of their enemies, the adversary of their adversaries, as the Law clearly states.
2Ma 10:27 After these prayers, they armed themselves and advanced a fair distance from the city, halting when they were close to the enemy.
2Ma 10:28 As the first light of dawn began to spread, the two sides joined battle, the one having as their pledge of success and victory not only their own valour but their recourse to the Lord, the other making their own ardour their mainstay in the fight.
2Ma 10:29 When the battle was at its height, the enemy saw five magnificent men appear from heaven on horses with golden bridles and put themselves at the head of the Jews;
2Ma 10:30 surrounding Maccabaeus and screening him with their own armour, they kept him unscathed, while they rained arrows and thunderbolts on the enemy until, blinded and confused, they scattered in complete disorder.
2Ma 10:31 Twenty thousand five hundred infantry and six hundred cavalry were slaughtered.
2Ma 10:32 Timotheus himself fled to a strongly guarded citadel called Gezer, where Chaereas was in command.
2Ma 10:33 For four days Maccabaeus and his men eagerly besieged the fortress,
2Ma 10:34 while the defenders, confident in the security of the place, hurled fearful blasphemies and godless insults at them.
2Ma 10:35 At daybreak on the fifth day, twenty young men of Maccabaeus' forces, fired with indignation at the blasphemies, manfully assaulted the wall, with wild courage cutting down everyone they encountered.
2Ma 10:36 Others, in a similar scaling operation, took the defenders in the rear, and set fire to the towers, lighting pyres on which they burned the blasphemers alive. The first, meanwhile, breaking open the gates, let the rest of the army in and, at their head, captured the town.
2Ma 10:37 Timotheus had hidden in a storage-well, but they killed him, with his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes.
2Ma 10:38 When all this was over, with hymns and thanksgiving they blessed the Lord, who had shown such great kindness to Israel and given them the victory.
2Ma 11:1 Almost immediately afterwards, Lysias, the king's tutor and cousin, chief minister of the realm, much disturbed at the turn of events,
2Ma 11:2 mustered about eighty thousand foot soldiers and his entire cavalry and advanced against the Jews, intending to make the city a place for Greeks to live in,
2Ma 11:3 to levy a tax on the Temple as on other national shrines, and to put the office of high priest up for sale every year;
2Ma 11:4 he took no account at all of the power of God, being sublimely confident in his tens of thousands of infantrymen, his thousands of cavalry, and his eighty elephants.
2Ma 11:5 Invading Judaea, he approached Beth-Zur, a fortified position about twenty miles from Jerusalem, and began to subject it to strong pressure.
2Ma 11:6 When Maccabaeus and his men learned that Lysias was besieging the fortresses, they and the populace with them begged the Lord with lamentation and tears to send a good angel to save Israel.
2Ma 11:7 Maccabaeus himself was the first to take up his weapons, and he urged the rest to risk their lives with him in support of their brothers; so they sallied out resolutely, as one man.
2Ma 11:8 They were still near Jerusalem when a rider attired in white appeared at their head, brandishing golden weapons.
2Ma 11:9 With one accord they all blessed the God of mercy, and found themselves filled with such courage that they were ready to lay low not men only but the fiercest beasts and walls of iron.
2Ma 11:10 They advanced in battle order with the aid of their celestial ally, the Lord having had mercy on them.
2Ma 11:11 Charging like lions on the enemy, they laid low eleven thousand of the infantry and sixteen hundred horsemen, and routed all the rest.
2Ma 11:12 Of those, the majority got away, wounded and weaponless. Lysias himself escaped only by ignominious flight.
2Ma 11:13 Now Lysias was not lacking in intelligence and, as he reflected on the reverse he had just suffered, he realized that the Hebrews were invincible because the mighty God fought for them. He therefore sent them a delegation
2Ma 11:14 to persuade them to accept reasonable terms all round, and promised to compel the king to become their friend.
2Ma 11:15 Maccabaeus, thinking only of the common good, agreed to all that Lysias proposed, and whatever Maccabaeus submitted to Lysias in writing concerning the Jews was granted by the king.
2Ma 11:16 Here is the text of the letter Lysias wrote to the Jews: 'Lysias to the Jewish people, greetings.
2Ma 11:17 'John and Absalom, your envoys, have delivered to me the communication transcribed below, requesting me to approve its provisions.
2Ma 11:18 Anything requiring the king's attention I have put before him; whatever was possible, I have granted.
2Ma 11:19 Provided you maintain your goodwill towards the interests of the State, I shall do my best in the future to promote your well-being.
2Ma 11:20 As regards the details, I have given orders for your envoys and my own officials to discuss these with you.
2Ma 11:21 May you prosper. 'The twenty-fourth day of Dioscorus, in the year one hundred and forty-eight.'
2Ma 11:22 The king's letter ran as follows: 'King Antiochus to his brother Lysias, greetings.
2Ma 11:23 'Now that our father has taken his place among the gods, our will is that the subjects of the realm be left undisturbed to attend to their own affairs.
2Ma 11:24 We understand that the Jews do not approve our father's policy, the adoption of Greek customs, but prefer their own way of life and ask to be allowed to observe their own laws.
2Ma 11:25 Accordingly, since we intend this people to be free from vexation like any other, our ruling is that the Temple be restored to them and that they conduct their affairs according to the customs of their ancestors.
2Ma 11:26 'It will therefore be your concern to send them a mission of friendship, so that on learning our policy they may have confidence and happily go about their business.'
2Ma 11:27 The king's letter to the Jewish nation was in these terms: 'King Antiochus to the Jewish Senate and the rest of the Jews, greetings.
2Ma 11:28 'If you are well, that is as we would wish; we ourselves are in good health.
2Ma 11:29 'Menelaus informs us that you wish to return home and attend to your own affairs.
2Ma 11:30 Accordingly, all those who return before the thirtieth day of Xanthicus may rest assured that they have nothing to fear.
2Ma 11:31 The Jews may make use of their own kind of food and their own laws as formerly, and none of them is to be molested in any way for any unwitting offenses.
2Ma 11:32 I am in fact sending Menelaus to set your minds at rest.
2Ma 11:33 Farewell. 'The fifteenth day of Xanthicus in the year one hundred and forty-eight.'
2Ma 11:34 The Romans also sent the Jews a letter, which read as follows: 'Quintus Memmius, Titus Manilius, Manius Sergius, legates of the Romans, to the people of the Jews, greetings.
2Ma 11:35 'Whatever Lysias, the king's Cousin, has granted you we also approve.
2Ma 11:36 As for the matters he decided to refer to the king, consider them carefully and send someone without delay, if we are to interpret them to your advantage, because we are leaving for Antioch.
2Ma 11:37 Lose no time, therefore, in sending us those who can tell us what your intentions are.
2Ma 11:38 Farewell. 'The fifteenth day of Dioscorus in the year one hundred and forty-eight.'
2Ma 12:1 These agreements once concluded, Lysias returned to the king and the Jews went back to their farming.
2Ma 12:2 Among the local generals, Timotheus and Apollonius son of Gennaeus, as also Hieronymus and Demophon, and Nicanor the Cypriarch as well, would not allow the Jews to live in peace and quiet.
2Ma 12:3 The people of Joppa committed a particularly wicked crime: they invited the Jews living among them to go aboard some boats they had lying ready, taking their wives and children. There was no hint of any intention to harm them;
2Ma 12:4 there had been a public vote by the citizens, and the Jews accepted, as well they might, being peaceable people with no reason to suspect anything. But once out in the open sea they were all sent to the bottom, a company of at least two hundred.
2Ma 12:5 When Judas heard of the cruel fate of his countrymen, he issued his orders to his men
2Ma 12:6 and after invoking God, the just judge, he attacked his brothers' murderers. Under cover of dark he set fire to the port, burned the boats and put to the sword everyone who had taken refuge there.
2Ma 12:7 As the town gates were closed, he withdrew, intending to come back and wipe out the whole community of Joppa.
2Ma 12:8 But hearing that the people of Jamnia were planning to treat their resident Jews in the same way,
2Ma 12:9 he made a night attack on the Jamnites and fired the port with its fleet; the glow of the flames was seen as far off as Jerusalem, thirty miles away.
2Ma 12:10 When they had left the town barely a mile behind them in their advance on Timotheus, Judas was attacked by an Arab force of at least five thousand foot soldiers, with five hundred cavalry.
2Ma 12:11 A fierce engagement followed, and with God's help Judas' men won the day; the defeated nomads begged Judas to offer them the right hand of friendship, and promised to surrender their herds and make themselves generally useful to him.
2Ma 12:12 Realising that they might indeed prove valuable in many ways, Judas consented to make peace with them and after an exchange of pledges the Arabs withdrew to their tents.
2Ma 12:13 Judas also attacked a certain fortified town, closed by ramparts and inhabited by a medley of races; its name was Caspin.
2Ma 12:14 Confident in the strength of their walls and their stock of provisions, the besieged adopted an insolent attitude to Judas and his men, reinforcing their insults with blasphemies and profanity.
2Ma 12:15 But Judas and his men invoked the great Sovereign of the world who without battering-ram or siege-engine had overthrown Jericho in the days of Joshua; they then made a fierce assault on the wall.
2Ma 12:16 By God's will, having captured the town, they made such indescribable slaughter that the nearby lake, a quarter of a mile across, seemed filled to overflowing with blood.
2Ma 12:17 Ninety-five miles further on from there, they reached the Charax, in the country of Jews known as Tubians.
2Ma 12:18 They did not find Timotheus himself in that neighborhood; he had already left the district, having achieved nothing apart from leaving a very strong garrison at one point.
2Ma 12:19 Dositheus and Sosipater, two of the Maccabaean generals, marched out and destroyed the force Timotheus had left behind in the fortress, amounting to more than ten thousand men.
2Ma 12:20 Maccabaeus himself divided his army into cohorts to which he assigned commanders, and then hurried in pursuit of Timotheus, whose troops numbered one hundred and twenty thousand infantry and two thousand five hundred cavalry.
2Ma 12:21 Timotheus' first move on learning of Judas' advance was to send away the women and children and the rest of the baggage train to the place called the Carnaim, since it was an impregnable position, difficult of access owing to the narrowness of all the approaches.
2Ma 12:22 Judas' cohort came into sight first. The enemy, seized with fright and panic-stricken by the manifestation of the All-seeing, began to flee, one running this way, one running that, often wounding one another in consequence and running on the points of one another's swords.
2Ma 12:23 Judas pursued them with a will, cutting the sinners to pieces and killing something like thirty thousand men.
2Ma 12:24 Timotheus himself, having fallen into the hands of Dositheus and Sosipater and their men, very craftily pleaded with them to let him go with his life, on the grounds that he had the relatives and even the brothers of many of them in his power, and that these could otherwise expect short shrift.
2Ma 12:25 When at long last he convinced them that he would honor his promise and return these people safe and sound, they let him go for the sake of saving their brothers.
2Ma 12:26 Reaching the Carnaim and the Atargateion, Judas slaughtered twenty-five thousand men.
2Ma 12:27 Having defeated and destroyed them, he led his army against Ephron, a fortified town, where Lysanias was living. Stalwart young men drawn up outside the walls offered vigorous resistance, while inside there were quantities of war-engines and missiles in reserve.
2Ma 12:28 But the Jews, having invoked the Sovereign who by his power shatters enemies' defences, gained control of the town and cut down nearly twenty-five thousand of the people inside.
2Ma 12:29 Moving off from there, they pressed on to Scythopolis,
2Ma 12:30 seventy-five miles from Jerusalem. But as the Jews who had settled there assured Judas that the people of Scythopolis had always treated them well and had been particularly kind to them when times were at their worst,
2Ma 12:31 he and his men thanked them and urged them to extend the same friendship to his race in the future. They reached Jerusalem shortly before the feast of Weeks.
2Ma 12:32 After Pentecost, as it is called, they marched against Gorgias, the general commanding Idumaea.
2Ma 12:33 He came out at the head of three thousand infantry and four hundred cavalry;
2Ma 12:34 in the course of the ensuing battle a few Jews lost their lives.
2Ma 12:35 A man called Dositheus, a horseman of the Tubian contingent, a valiant man, overpowered Gorgias and, gripping him by the cloak, was forcibly dragging him along, intending to take the accursed man alive, but one of the Thracian cavalry, hurling himself on Dositheus, slashed his shoulder, and Gorgias escaped to Marisa.
2Ma 12:36 Meanwhile, since Esdrias and his men had been fighting for a long time and were exhausted, Judas called on the Lord to show himself their ally and leader in battle.
2Ma 12:37 Then, chanting the battle cry and hymns at the top of his voice in his ancestral tongue, by a surprise attack he routed Gorgias' troops.
2Ma 12:38 Judas then rallied his army and moved on to the town of Adullam where, as it was the seventh day of the week, they purified themselves according to custom and kept the Sabbath.
2Ma 12:39 Next day, they came to find Judas (since the necessity was by now urgent) to have the bodies of the fallen taken up and laid to rest among their relatives in their ancestral tombs.
2Ma 12:40 But when they found on each of the dead men, under their tunics, objects dedicated to the idols of Jamnia, which the Law prohibits to Jews, it became clear to everyone that this was why these men had lost their lives.
2Ma 12:41 All then blessed the ways of the Lord, the upright judge who brings hidden things to light,
2Ma 12:42 and gave themselves to prayer, begging that the sin committed might be completely forgiven. Next, the valiant Judas urged the soldiers to keep themselves free from all sin, having seen with their own eyes the effects of the sin of those who had fallen;
2Ma 12:43 after this he took a collection from them individually, amounting to nearly two thousand drachmas, and sent it to Jerusalem to have a sacrifice for sin offered, an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by his belief in the resurrection.
2Ma 12:44 For had he not expected the fallen to rise again, it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead,
2Ma 12:45 whereas if he had in view the splendid recompense reserved for those who make a pious end, the thought was holy and devout. Hence, he had this expiatory sacrifice offered for the dead, so that they might be released from their sin.
2Ma 13:1 In the year one hundred and forty-nine, Judas and his men discovered that Antiochus Eupator was advancing in force against Judaea,
2Ma 13:2 and with him Lysias his tutor and chief minister; he had moreover a Greek force of one hundred and ten thousand infantry, five thousand three hundred cavalry, twenty-two elephants, and three hundred chariots fitted with scythes.
2Ma 13:3 Menelaus, too, joined them and very craftily kept urging Antiochus on, not for the welfare of his own country but in the hope of being restored to office.
2Ma 13:4 But the King of kings stirred up the anger of Antiochus against the guilty wretch, and when Lysias made it clear to the king that Menelaus was the cause of all the troubles, Antiochus gave orders for him to be taken to Beroea and there put to death by the local method of execution.
2Ma 13:5 In that place there is a tower fifty cubits high, full of ash, with an internal lip all round overhanging the ashes.
2Ma 13:6 If anyone is convicted of sacrilegious theft or of some other heinous crime, he is taken up to the top and pushed over to perish.
2Ma 13:7 In such a manner was the renegade fated to die; Menelaus had not even the privilege of burial.
2Ma 13:8 Deserved justice, this; since he had committed many sins against the altar, the fire and ashes of which were holy, it was in ashes that he met his death.
2Ma 13:9 The king, then, was advancing, his mind filled with barbarous designs, to give the Jews a demonstration of far worse things than anything that had happened under his father.
2Ma 13:10 When Judas heard of this, he ordered the people day and night to call on the Lord as never before, to come to the help of those who were in peril of being deprived of the Law, their fatherland and the holy Temple,
2Ma 13:11 and not to allow the people, just when they were beginning to breathe again, to fall into the power of ill-famed foreigners.
2Ma 13:12 When they had all, with one voice, obeyed his instructions and had made their petitions to the merciful Lord, weeping, fasting and prostrating themselves for three days continuously, Judas spoke words of encouragement and told them to keep close to him.
2Ma 13:13 After separate consultation with the elders, he resolved not to wait for the king's army to invade Judaea and take possession of the city, but to march out and settle the whole matter with the Lord's help.
2Ma 13:14 Having thus committed the outcome to the Creator of the world, and having exhorted his soldiers to fight bravely to the death for the laws, the Temple, the city, their country and their way of life, he encamped his army near Modein.
2Ma 13:15 Giving his men the password 'Victory from God', he made a night attack on the king's pavilion with a picked band of the bravest young men. Inside the camp he destroyed about two thousand, and his men cut down the largest of the elephants with its mahout;
2Ma 13:16 having eventually filled the camp with terror and confusion, they successfully withdrew,
2Ma 13:17 just as dawn was breaking. This was achieved, thanks to the protection which the Lord granted Judas.
2Ma 13:18 The king, having had a taste of Jewish daring, now tried to capture their positions by trickery.
2Ma 13:19 He advanced on Beth-Zur, a strong fortress of the Jews, but was checked, overcome and so repulsed.
2Ma 13:20 Judas supplied the garrison with what they needed,
2Ma 13:21 but Rhodocus, of the Jewish army, supplied the enemy with secret information; the man was identified, arrested, and dealt with.
2Ma 13:22 A second time, the king parleyed with the garrison of Beth-Zur; he offered and accepted pledges of friendship, retired, then attacked Judas and his men, but lost the battle.
2Ma 13:23 He was then told that Philip, left in charge of affairs, had rebelled in Antioch. He was stunned by this, opened negotiations with the Jews, came to an agreement, and swore to abide by all reasonable conditions. Agreement reached, he offered a sacrifice, honored the Temple, and made generous gifts to the holy place.
2Ma 13:24 He received Maccabaeus kindly and, leaving Hegemonides to exercise command from Ptolemais to the territory of the Gerrenians,
2Ma 13:25 went to Ptolemais. The inhabitants of the place disapproved of the treaty; they complained furiously and wanted to annul its provisions.
2Ma 13:26 Lysias mounted the rostrum and made a convincing defence of the provisions which convinced and calmed them and won their goodwill. He then withdrew to Antioch. So much for the episode of the king's offensive and retreat.
2Ma 14:1 Three years after this, Judas and his men learned that Demetrius son of Seleucus had landed at the port of Tripolis with a strong army and a fleet,
2Ma 14:2 and that he had occupied the country and had killed Antiochus and his tutor Lysias.
2Ma 14:3 A certain Alcimus, a former high priest, had wilfully incurred defilement at the time of the insurrection; realising that whichever way he turned there was no security for him, nor any further access to the holy altar,
2Ma 14:4 he went to King Demetrius in about the year one hundred and fifty-one and presented him with a golden crown and a palm, together with the traditional olive branches from the Temple; there, for that day, he let the matter rest.
2Ma 14:5 Presently he found an opportunity to further his mad plan. When Demetrius called him into his council and questioned him about the dispositions and intentions of the Jews, he replied,
2Ma 14:6 'Those Jews called Hasidaeans, who are led by Judas Maccabaeus, are war-mongers and rebels who are preventing the kingdom from finding stability.
2Ma 14:7 That is why, after being deprived of my hereditary dignity -- I mean the high priesthood -- I have come here now,
2Ma 14:8 first out of genuine concern for the king's interests, and secondly, out of a regard for our own fellow-citizens, because the irresponsible behavior of those I have mentioned has brought no slight misery on our entire race.
2Ma 14:9 When your majesty has taken note of all these points, may it please you to make provision for the welfare of our country and our oppressed nation, as befits the gracious benevolence you extend to all;
2Ma 14:10 for, as long as Judas remains alive, the State will never enjoy peace.'
2Ma 14:11 No sooner had he spoken thus than the rest of the King's Friends, who were hostile to Judas' activities, stoked Demetrius' anger.
2Ma 14:12 The latter at once selected Nicanor, then commander of the elephants, promoted him to the command of Judaea and despatched him
2Ma 14:13 with instructions to dispose of Judas, disperse his followers and instal Alcimus as high priest of the greatest of temples.
2Ma 14:14 The foreigners in Judaea, who had fled before Judas, flocked to join Nicanor, thinking that the misfortunes and troubles of the Jews would be to their own advantage.
2Ma 14:15 When the Jews heard that Nicanor was coming and that the foreigners were about to attack, they sprinkled dust over themselves and made supplication to him who had established his people for ever and who never failed to support his own heritage by direct manifestations.
2Ma 14:16 On their leader's orders, they at once left the place where they were and confronted the enemy at the village of Dessau.
2Ma 14:17 Simon, brother of Judas, engaged Nicanor but, owing to the sudden arrival of the enemy, suffered a slight reverse.
2Ma 14:18 Nicanor, however, had heard how brave Judas and his men were and how resolutely they always fought for their country, and he did not dare allow bloodshed to decide the issue.
2Ma 14:19 And so he sent Posidonius, Theodotus and Mattathias to offer the Jews pledges of friendship and to accept theirs.
2Ma 14:20 After careful consideration of his terms, the leader communicated them to his troops, and since they were all clearly of one mind they agreed to the treaty.
2Ma 14:21 A day was fixed on which the respective leaders were to meet as individuals. A litter came out from either side and seats were set up.
2Ma 14:22 Judas had posted armed men in strategic positions, in case of a sudden treacherous move by the enemy. The leaders held their conference and reached agreement.
2Ma 14:23 Nicanor took up residence in Jerusalem and did nothing out of place there; indeed, he sent away the crowds that had flocked to join him.
2Ma 14:24 He kept Judas constantly with him, becoming deeply attached to him
2Ma 14:25 and encouraged him to marry and have children. Judas married, settled down and led a normal life.
2Ma 14:26 When Alcimus saw how friendly the two men had become, he went to Demetrius with a copy of the treaty they had signed and told him that Nicanor was harbouring thoughts against the interests of the State, and was planning that Judas, an enemy of the realm, should fill the next vacancy among the Friends of the King.
2Ma 14:27 The king flew into a rage; roused by the slanders of this villain, he wrote to Nicanor, telling him of his strong displeasure at these agreements and ordering him immediately to send Maccabaeus to Antioch in chains.
2Ma 14:28 When the letter reached Nicanor, he was very much upset, for he disliked the prospect of breaking an agreement with a man who had done nothing wrong.
2Ma 14:29 Since, however, there was no way of opposing the king, he waited for an opportunity to carry out the order by a stratagem.
2Ma 14:30 Maccabaeus began to notice that Nicanor was treating him more sharply and that his manner of speaking to him was more abrupt than it had been, and he concluded that such sharpness could have no very good motive. He therefore collected a considerable number of his followers and got away from Nicanor.
2Ma 14:31 The latter, realising that the man had well and truly outmanoeuvred him, went to the greatest and holiest of Temples when the priests were offering the customary sacrifices, and ordered them to surrender Judas.
2Ma 14:32 When they protested on oath that they did not know where the wanted man could be,
2Ma 14:33 he stretched out his right hand towards the Temple and swore this oath, 'If you do not hand Judas over to me as prisoner, I shall rase this dwelling of God to the ground, I shall demolish the altar, and on this very spot I shall erect a splendid temple to Dionysus.'
2Ma 14:34 With these words he left them. The priests stretched out their hands to heaven, calling on him who has at all times done battle for our nation; this was their prayer:
2Ma 14:35 'O Lord in need of nothing, it has pleased you that the Temple where you dwell should be here with us.
2Ma 14:36 Now, therefore, holy Lord of all holiness, preserve for ever from all profanation this House, so newly purified.'
2Ma 14:37 Now, a man called Razis, one of the elders of Jerusalem, was denounced to Nicanor. He was a man who loved his countrymen and stood high in their esteem, and he was known as the father of the Jews because of his kindness.
2Ma 14:38 In the earlier days of the insurrection he had been convicted of Judaism, and he had risked both life and limb for Judaism with the utmost zeal.
2Ma 14:39 Nicanor, by way of demonstrating the enmity he had for the Jews, sent over five hundred soldiers to arrest him,
2Ma 14:40 reckoning that if he eliminated this man he would be dealing them a severe blow.
2Ma 14:41 When the troops were on the point of capturing the tower and were forcing the outer door and calling for fire to set the doors alight, Razis, finding himself completely surrounded, fell on his own sword,
2Ma 14:42 nobly resolving to die rather than fall into the clutches of these villains and suffer outrages unworthy of his noble birth.
2Ma 14:43 But in the heat of conflict he missed his thrust, and while the troops swarmed in through the doorways, he ran nimbly upstairs to the parapet and manfully threw himself down among the troops.
2Ma 14:44 But, as they immediately drew back, he fell into the middle of the empty space.
2Ma 14:45 Still breathing, and blazing with anger, he struggled to his feet, blood spurting in all directions, and despite his terrible wounds ran right through the crowd; then, taking his stand on a steep rock,
2Ma 14:46 although he had now lost every drop of blood, he tore out his entrails and taking them in both hands flung them down on the crowd, calling on the Master of his life and spirit to give them back to him one day. Thus he died.
2Ma 15:1 Nicanor heard that Judas and his men were in the neighborhood of Samaria, so he decided to attack them, at no risk to himself, on the day of rest.
2Ma 15:2 Those Jews who had been compelled to follow him, said, 'Do not massacre them in such a savage, barbarous way. Respect the day on which the All-seeing has conferred a special holiness.'
2Ma 15:3 At this the triple-dyed scoundrel asked if there were in heaven a sovereign who had ordered the keeping of the Sabbath day.
2Ma 15:4 When they answered, 'The living Lord himself, the Heavenly Sovereign, has ordered the observance of the seventh day,'
2Ma 15:5 he retorted, 'And I, as sovereign on earth, order you to take up arms and do the king's business.' For all that, he did not manage to carry out his wicked plan.
2Ma 15:6 While Nicanor, in his unlimited boastfulness and pride, was planning to erect a general trophy with the spoils taken from Judas and his men,
2Ma 15:7 Maccabaeus remained firm in his confident conviction that the Lord would stand by him.
2Ma 15:8 He urged his men not to be dismayed by the foreigners' attacks but, keeping in mind the help that had come to them from Heaven in the past, to be confident that this time too victory would be theirs with the help of the Almighty.
2Ma 15:9 He put fresh heart into them by citing the Law and the Prophets and, by stirring up memories of the battles they had already won, he filled them with new enthusiasm.
2Ma 15:10 Having thus aroused their courage, he ended his exhortation by demonstrating the treachery of the foreigners and how they had violated their oaths.
2Ma 15:11 Having armed each one of them not so much with the safety given by shield and lance as with that confidence which springs from noble language, he encouraged them all by describing to them a convincing dream -- a vision, as it were.
2Ma 15:12 What he had seen was this: Onias, the former high priest, that paragon of men, modest of bearing and gentle of manners, suitably eloquent and trained from boyhood in the practice of every virtue -- Onias was stretching out his hands and praying for the whole Jewish community.
2Ma 15:13 Next, there appeared a man equally remarkable for his great age and dignity and invested with a marvellous and impressive air of majesty.
2Ma 15:14 Onias began to speak: 'This is a man', he said, 'who loves his brothers and prays much for the people and the holy city-Jeremiah, the prophet of God.'
2Ma 15:15 Jeremiah then stretched out his right hand and presented Judas with a golden sword, saying as he gave it,
2Ma 15:16 'Take this holy sword as a gift from God; with it you will shatter the enemy.'
2Ma 15:17 Encouraged by the noble words of Judas, which had the power to inspire valour and give the young the spirit of mature men, they decided not to entrench themselves in a camp, but bravely to take the offensive and, in hand-to-hand fighting, to commit the result to the fortune of war, since the city, their holy religion and the Temple were in danger.
2Ma 15:18 Their concern for their wives and children, their brothers and relatives, had shrunk to minute importance; their chief and greatest fear was for the consecrated Temple.
2Ma 15:19 Those left behind in the city felt a similar anxiety, alarmed as they were about the forthcoming encounter in the open country.
2Ma 15:20 Everyone now awaited the coming issue. The enemy had already concentrated their forces and stood formed up in order of battle, with the elephants drawn up in a strategic position and the cavalry disposed on the wings.
2Ma 15:21 Maccabaeus took note of these masses confronting him, the glittering array of armour and the fierce aspect of the elephants; then, raising his hands to heaven, he called on the Lord who works miracles, in the knowledge that it is not by force of arms but as he sees fit to decide, that victory is granted by him to such as deserve it.
2Ma 15:22 His prayer was worded thus: 'You, Master, sent your angel in the days of Hezekiah king of Judaea, and he destroyed no less than one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib's army;
2Ma 15:23 now, once again, Sovereign of heaven, send a good angel before us to spread terror and dismay.
2Ma 15:24 May these men be struck down by the might of your arm, since they have come with blasphemy on their lips to attack your holy people.' And on these words he finished.
2Ma 15:25 Nicanor and his men advanced to the sound of trumpets and war songs,
2Ma 15:26 but the men of Judas closed with the enemy uttering invocations and prayers.
2Ma 15:27 Fighting with their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they cut down at least thirty-five thousand men and were greatly cheered by this manifestation of God.
2Ma 15:28 When the engagement was over and they were withdrawing in triumph, they recognized Nicanor, lying dead in full armour.
2Ma 15:29 With shouting and confusion all around, they blessed the sovereign Master in their ancestral tongue.
2Ma 15:30 He who, as protagonist, had devoted himself, body and soul, to his fellow-citizens, and had preserved the love he felt even in youth for those of his own race, gave orders for Nicanor's head to be cut off, with his arm up to the shoulder, and taken to Jerusalem.
2Ma 15:31 When he arrived there himself, he called his countrymen together, stationed the priests in front of the altar and then sent for the people from the Citadel.
2Ma 15:32 He showed them the head of the abominable Nicanor, and the hand which this infamous man had stretched out so insolently against the holy House of the Almighty.
2Ma 15:33 Then, cutting out godless Nicanor's tongue, he gave orders for it to be fed piecemeal to the birds, and for the salary of his folly to be hung up in front of the Temple.
2Ma 15:34 At this, everyone sent blessings heavenwards to the glorious Lord, saying, 'Blessed be he who has preserved his holy place from pollution!'
2Ma 15:35 He hung Nicanor's head from the Citadel, a clear and evident sign to all of the help of the Lord.
2Ma 15:36 They all decreed by public vote never to let that day go by unobserved, but to celebrate the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, called Adar in Aramaic, the eve of what is called the Day of Mordecai.
2Ma 15:37 So ends the episode of Nicanor, and as, since then, the city has remained in the possession of the Hebrews, I shall bring my own work to an end here too.
2Ma 15:38 If it is well composed and to the point, that is just what I wanted. If it is worthless and mediocre, that is all I could manage.
2Ma 15:39 Just as it is injurious to drink wine by itself, or again water alone, whereas wine mixed with water is pleasant and produces a delightful sense of well-being, so skill in presenting the incidents is what delights the understanding of those who read the book. And here I close.
Job 1:1 There was once a man in the land of Uz called Job: a sound and honest man who feared God and shunned evil.
Job 1:2 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him.
Job 1:3 And he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she-donkeys, and many servants besides. This man was the most prosperous of all the Sons of the East.
Job 1:4 It was the custom of his sons to hold banquets in one another's houses in turn, and to invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Job 1:5 Once each series of banquets was over, Job would send for them to come and be purified, and at dawn on the following day he would make a burnt offering for each of them. 'Perhaps', Job would say, 'my sons have sinned and in their heart blasphemed.' So that was what Job used to do each time.
Job 1:6 One day when the sons of God came to attend on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), among them came Satan.
Job 1:7 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Satan, 'Where have you been?' 'Prowling about on earth,' he answered, 'roaming around there.'
Job 1:8 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked him, 'Did you pay any attention to my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth: a sound and honest man who fears God and shuns evil.'
Job 1:9 'Yes,' Satan said, 'but Job is not God-fearing for nothing, is he?
Job 1:10 Have you not put a wall round him and his house and all his domain? You have blessed all he undertakes, and his flocks throng the countryside.
Job 1:11 But stretch out your hand and lay a finger on his possessions: then, I warrant you, he will curse you to your face.'
Job 1:12 'Very well,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Satan, 'all he has is in your power. But keep your hands off his person.' So Satan left the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Job 1:13 On the day when Job's sons and daughters were eating and drinking in their eldest brother's house,
Job 1:14 a messenger came to Job. 'Your oxen', he said, 'were at the plough, with the donkeys grazing at their side,
Job 1:15 when the Sabaeans swept down on them and carried them off, and put the servants to the sword: I alone have escaped to tell you.'
Job 1:16 He had not finished speaking when another messenger arrived. 'The fire of God', he said, 'has fallen from heaven and burnt the sheep and shepherds to ashes: I alone have escaped to tell you.'
Job 1:17 He had not finished speaking when another messenger arrived. 'The Chaldaeans,' he said, 'three bands of them, have raided the camels and made off with them, and put the servants to the sword: I alone have escaped to tell you.'
Job 1:18 He had not finished speaking when another messenger arrived. 'Your sons and daughters', he said, 'were eating and drinking at their eldest brother's house,
Job 1:19 when suddenly from the desert a gale sprang up, and it battered all four corners of the house which fell in on the young people. They are dead: I alone have escaped to tell you.'
Job 1:20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe and shaved his head. Then, falling to the ground, he prostrated himself
Job 1:21 and said: Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return again. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has taken back. Blessed be the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Job 1:22 In all this misfortune Job committed no sin, and he did not reproach God.
Job 2:1 Another day, the sons of God came to attend on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and Satan came with them too.
Job 2:2 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Satan, 'Where have you been?' 'Prowling about on earth,' he answered, 'roaming around there.'
Job 2:3 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked him, 'Did you pay any attention to my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth: a sound and honest man who fears God and shuns evil. He persists in his integrity still; you achieved nothing by provoking me to ruin him.'
Job 2:4 'Skin after skin!' Satan replied. 'Someone will give away all he has to save his life.
Job 2:5 But stretch out your hand and lay a finger on his bone and flesh; I warrant you, he will curse you to your face.'
Job 2:6 'Very well,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Satan, 'he is in your power. But spare his life.'
Job 2:7 So Satan left the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). He struck Job down with malignant ulcers from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.
Job 2:8 Job took a piece of pot to scrape himself, and went and sat among the ashes.
Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, 'Why persist in this integrity of yours? Curse God and die.'
Job 2:10 'That is how a fool of a woman talks,' Job replied. 'If we take happiness from God's hand, must we not take sorrow too?' And in all this misfortune Job uttered no sinful word.
Job 2:11 The news of all the disasters that had fallen on Job came to the ears of three of his friends. Each of them set out from home -- Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah and Zophar of Naamath -- and by common consent they decided to go and offer him sympathy and consolation.
Job 2:12 Looking at him from a distance, they could not recognize him; they wept aloud and tore their robes and threw dust over their heads.
Job 2:13 They sat there on the ground beside him for seven days and seven nights. To Job they spoke never a word, for they saw how much he was suffering.
Job 3:1 In the end it was Job who broke the silence and cursed the day of his birth.
Job 3:2 This is what he said:
Job 3:3 Perish the day on which I was born and the night that told of a boy conceived.
Job 3:4 May that day be darkness, may God on high have no thought for it, may no light shine on it.
Job 3:5 May murk and shadow dark as death claim it for their own, clouds hang over it, eclipse swoop down on it.
Job 3:6 See! Let obscurity seize on it, from the days of the year let it be excluded, into the reckoning of the months not find its way.
Job 3:7 And may that night be sterile, devoid of any cries of joy!
Job 3:8 Let it be cursed by those who curse certain days and are ready to rouse Leviathan.
Job 3:9 Dark be the stars of its morning, let it wait in vain for light and never see the opening eyes of dawn.
Job 3:10 Since it would not shut the doors of the womb on me to hide sorrow from my eyes.
Job 3:11 Why was I not still-born, or why did I not perish as I left the womb?
Job 3:12 Why were there knees to receive me, breasts for me to suck?
Job 3:13 Now I should be lying in peace, wrapped in a restful slumber,
Job 3:14 with the kings and high viziers of earth who have built their dwellings in desolate places,
Job 3:15 or with princes who have quantities of gold and silver cramming their tombs;
Job 3:16 or, put away like an abortive child, I should not have existed, like little ones that never see the light.
Job 3:17 Down there, the wicked bustle no more, there the weary rest.
Job 3:18 Prisoners, all left in peace, hear no more the shouts of the oppressor.
Job 3:19 High and low are there together, and the slave is free of his master.
Job 3:20 Why give light to a man of grief? Why give life to those bitter of heart,
Job 3:21 who long for a death that never comes, and hunt for it more than for buried treasure?
Job 3:22 They would be glad to see the grave-mound and shout with joy if they reached the tomb.
Job 3:23 Why give light to one who does not see his way, whom God shuts in all alone?
Job 3:24 My only food is sighs, and my groans pour out like water.
Job 3:25 Whatever I fear comes true, whatever I dread befalls me.
Job 3:26 For me, there is no calm, no peace; my torments banish rest.
Job 4:1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:
Job 4:2 If we say something to you, will you bear with us? Who in any case could refrain from speaking now?
Job 4:3 You have schooled many others, giving strength to feeble hands;
Job 4:4 your words supported any who wavered and strengthened every failing knee.
Job 4:5 And now your turn has come, and you lose patience, at the first touch on yourself you are overwhelmed!
Job 4:6 Does not your piety give you confidence, and your integrity of life give you hope?
Job 4:7 Can you recall anyone guiltless that perished? Where then have the honest been wiped out?
Job 4:8 I speak from experience: those who plough iniquity and sow disaster, reap just that.
Job 4:9 Under the breath of God, they perish: a blast of his anger, and they are destroyed;
Job 4:10 the lion's roars, his savage growls, like the fangs of a lion cub, are broken off.
Job 4:11 The lion dies for lack of prey and the lioness's whelps are dispersed.
Job 4:12 I have received a secret revelation, a whisper has come to my ears;
Job 4:13 by night when dreams confuse the mind and slumber lies heavy on everyone,
Job 4:14 a shiver of horror ran through me and filled all my bones with fright.
Job 4:15 A breath slid over my face, the hairs of my body bristled.
Job 4:16 Someone stood there -- I did not know his face, but the form stayed there before my eyes. Silence -- then I heard a voice,
Job 4:17 'Can a mortal seem upright to God, would anybody seem pure in the presence of his Maker?
Job 4:18 God cannot rely even on his own servants, even with his angels he finds fault.
Job 4:19 What then of those who live in houses of clay, who are founded on dust?
Job 4:20 They are crushed as easily as a moth, between morning and evening they are ground to powder. They vanish for ever, with no one to bring them back.
Job 4:21 Their tent-peg is snatched from them, and they die devoid of wisdom.'
Job 5:1 Make your appeal then. Will you find an answer? To which of the holy ones will you turn?
Job 5:2 Resentment kills the senseless, and anger brings death to the fool.
Job 5:3 I have seen the senseless taking root, when a curse fell suddenly on his house.
Job 5:4 His children are deprived of prop and stay, ruined at the gate, and no one to defend them;
Job 5:5 their harvest goes to feed the hungry, God snatches it from their mouths, and covetous people thirst for their possessions.
Job 5:6 No, misery does not grow out of the soil, nor sorrow spring from the ground.
Job 5:7 It is people who breed trouble for themselves as surely as eagles fly to the height.
Job 5:8 If I were you, I should appeal to God and lay my case before him.
Job 5:9 His works are great, past all reckoning, marvels beyond all counting.
Job 5:10 He sends down rain to the earth, pours down water on the fields.
Job 5:11 If his will is to raise up the downcast, or exalt the afflicted to the heights of prosperity,
Job 5:12 he frustrates the plans of the artful so that they cannot succeed in their intrigues.
Job 5:13 He traps the crafty in the snare of their own trickery, throws the plans of the cunning into disarray.
Job 5:14 In daylight they come up against darkness, and grope their way as if noon were night.
Job 5:15 He rescues the bankrupt from their jaws, and the needy from the grasp of the mighty.
Job 5:16 Hope springs afresh for the weak, and wickedness must shut its mouth.
Job 5:17 Blessed are those whom God corrects! Do not then scorn the lesson of Shaddai!
Job 5:18 For he who wounds is he who soothes the sore, and the hand that hurts is the hand that heals.
Job 5:19 Six times he will deliver you from sorrow, and the seventh time, evil will not touch you.
Job 5:20 In time of famine, he will save you from death, and in wartime from the stroke of the sword.
Job 5:21 You will be safe from the lash of the tongue, unafraid at the approach of the despoiler.
Job 5:22 You will laugh at drought and frost, and have no fear of the beasts of the earth.
Job 5:23 You will have a pact with the stones of the field, and live in amity with wild beasts.
Job 5:24 You will know that your tent is secure, and your sheepfold unharmed when you inspect it.
Job 5:25 You will see your descendants multiply, your offspring grow like the grass in the fields.
Job 5:26 At a ripe age you will go to the grave, like a wheatsheaf stacked in due season.
Job 5:27 All this we have observed and it is so! Heed it, you will be the wiser for it!
Job 6:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 6:2 If only my misery could be weighed, and all my ills be put together on the scales!
Job 6:3 But they outweigh the sands of the seas: what wonder then if my words are wild?
Job 6:4 The arrows of Shaddai stick fast in me, my spirit absorbs their poison, God's terrors stand paraded against me.
Job 6:5 Does a wild donkey bray when it has grass, or an ox low when its fodder is within reach?
Job 6:6 Is not food insipid, eaten without salt, is there any taste in egg-white?
Job 6:7 But the very things my appetite revolts at are now my diet in sickness.
Job 6:8 Will no one hear my prayer, will not God himself grant my hope?
Job 6:9 May it please God to crush me, to give his hand free play and do away with me!
Job 6:10 This thought, at least, would give me comfort (a thrill of joy in unrelenting pain), that I never rebelled against the Holy One's decrees.
Job 6:11 But have I the strength to go on waiting? And why be patient, when doomed to such an end?
Job 6:12 Is mine the strength of stone, is my flesh made of bronze?
Job 6:13 Can I support myself on nothing? Has not all help deserted me?
Job 6:14 Refuse faithful love to your neighbor and you forsake the fear of Shaddai.
Job 6:15 Like the torrent, my brothers have proved deceptive, as fleeting torrents they flow:
Job 6:16 the ice makes their waters turgid when, above them, the snow melts,
Job 6:17 but, come the burning summer, they run dry, they vanish in the heat of the sun.
Job 6:18 Caravans leave the trail to find them, go deep into wastelands, and are lost.
Job 6:19 The caravans of Tema look to them, and on them Sheba's convoys build their hopes.
Job 6:20 Their trust brings only embarrassment, they reach them only to be thwarted.
Job 6:21 And this is how you now treat me, terrified at the sight of me, you take fright.
Job 6:22 Have I said to you, 'Give me something, make some present for me at your own cost,
Job 6:23 snatch me from the grasp of an oppressor, ransom me from the grip of a violent man'?
Job 6:24 Put me right, and I shall say no more; show me where I have been at fault.
Job 6:25 Fair comment can be borne without resentment, but what are your strictures aimed at?
Job 6:26 Do you think mere words deserve censure, desperate speech that the wind blows away?
Job 6:27 Soon you will be haggling over the price of an orphan, and selling your friend at bargain price!
Job 6:28 Come, I beg you, look at me: man to man, I shall not lie.
Job 6:29 Relent then, no harm is done; relent then, since I am upright.
Job 6:30 Is evil to be found on my lips? Can I not recognize misfortune when I taste it?
Job 7:1 Is not human life on earth just conscript service? Do we not live a hireling's life?
Job 7:2 Like a slave, sighing for the shade, or a hireling with no thought but for his wages,
Job 7:3 I have months of futility assigned to me, nights of suffering to be my lot.
Job 7:4 Lying in bed I wonder, 'When will it be day?' No sooner up than, 'When will evening come?' And crazy thoughts obsess me till twilight falls.
Job 7:5 Vermin and loathsome scabs cover my body; my skin is cracked and oozes pus.
Job 7:6 Swifter than a weaver's shuttle my days have passed, and vanished, leaving no hope behind.
Job 7:7 Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.
Job 7:8 The eye that once saw me will look on me no more, your eyes will turn my way, and I shall not be there.
Job 7:9 A cloud dissolves and is gone, so no one who goes down to Sheol ever comes up again,
Job 7:10 ever comes home again, and his house knows that person no more.
Job 7:11 That is why I cannot keep quiet: in my anguish of spirit I shall speak, in my bitterness of soul I shall complain.
Job 7:12 Am I the Sea, or some sea monster, that you should keep me under guard?
Job 7:13 If I say, 'My bed will comfort me, my couch will lighten my complaints,'
Job 7:14 you then frighten me with dreams and terrify me with visions,
Job 7:15 so that strangling would seem welcome in comparison, yes, death preferable to what I suffer.
Job 7:16 I am wasting away, my life is not unending; leave me then, for my days are but a breath.
Job 7:17 What are human beings that you should take them so seriously, subjecting them to your scrutiny,
Job 7:18 that morning after morning you should examine them and at every instant test them?
Job 7:19 Will you never take your eyes off me long enough for me to swallow my spittle?
Job 7:20 Suppose I have sinned, what have I done to you, you tireless watcher of humanity? Why do you choose me as your target? Why should I be a burden to you?
Job 7:21 Can you not tolerate my sin, not overlook my fault? For soon I shall be lying in the dust, you will look for me and I shall be no more.
Job 8:1 Bildad of Shuah spoke next. He said:
Job 8:2 How much longer are you going to talk like this and go blustering on in this way?
Job 8:3 Can God deflect the course of right or Shaddai falsify justice?
Job 8:4 If your sons sinned against him, he has punished them for their wrong-doing.
Job 8:5 You for your part, if you are pure and honest, must now seek God, plead with Shaddai.
Job 8:6 Forthwith his light will shine on you and he will restore an upright man's house to prosperity.
Job 8:7 Your former state will seem as nothing to you, so great will your future be.
Job 8:8 Question the generation that has passed, meditate on the experience of its ancestors-
Job 8:9 for we children of yesterday, we know nothing, our life on earth passes like a shadow-
Job 8:10 but they will teach you, they will tell you, and their thought is expressed in these sayings,
Job 8:11 'Can papyrus flourish except in marshes? Without water can the rushes grow?
Job 8:12 Even when green and before being cut, fastest of all plants they wither.
Job 8:13 Such is the fate of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
Job 8:14 His hope is nothing but gossamer, his confidence a spider's web.
Job 8:15 Let him lean on his house, it will not stand firm; cling to it, it will not hold.
Job 8:16 Like some lush plant in the sunlight, he sent his young shoots sprouting over the garden;
Job 8:17 but his roots were twined in a heap of stones, he drew his life among the rocks.
Job 8:18 Snatch him from his bed, and it denies it ever saw him.
Job 8:19 Now he rots on the roadside, and others are springing up in the soil.
Job 8:20 Believe me, God neither spurns anyone of integrity, nor lends his aid to the evil.
Job 8:21 Once again laughter may fill your mouth and cries of joy break from your lips.
Job 8:22 Your enemies will be covered with shame and the tent of the wicked will vanish!'
Job 9:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 9:2 Indeed, I know it is as you say: how could anyone claim to be upright before God?
Job 9:3 Anyone trying to argue matters with him, could not give him one answer in a thousand.
Job 9:4 Among the wisest and the hardiest, who then can successfully defy him?
Job 9:5 He moves the mountains, though they do not know it; he throws them down when he is angry.
Job 9:6 He shakes the earth, and moves it from its place, making all its pillars tremble.
Job 9:7 The sun, at his command, forbears to rise, and on the stars he sets a seal.
Job 9:8 He and no other has stretched out the heavens and trampled on the back of the Sea.
Job 9:9 He has made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the Mansions of the South.
Job 9:10 The works he does are great and unfathomable, and his marvels cannot be counted.
Job 9:11 If he passes me, I do not see him; he slips by, imperceptible to me.
Job 9:12 If he snatches his prey, who is going to stop him or dare to ask, 'What are you doing?'
Job 9:13 God does not renounce his anger: beneath him, Rahab's minions still lie prostrate.
Job 9:14 And here am I, proposing to defend myself and select my arguments against him!
Job 9:15 Even if I am upright, what point is there in answering him? I can only plead for mercy with my judge!
Job 9:16 And if he deigned to answer my citation, I cannot believe he would listen to what I said,
Job 9:17 he who crushes me for one hair, who, for no reason, wounds and wounds again,
Job 9:18 not even letting me regain my breath, with so much bitterness he fills me!
Job 9:19 Shall I try force? Look how strong he is! Or go to court? But who will summon him?
Job 9:20 If I prove myself upright, his mouth may condemn me, even if I am innocent, he may pronounce me perverse.
Job 9:21 But am I innocent? I am no longer sure, and life itself I despise!
Job 9:22 It is all one, and hence I boldly say: he destroys innocent and guilty alike.
Job 9:23 When a sudden deadly scourge descends, he laughs at the plight of the innocent.
Job 9:24 When a country falls into the power of the wicked, he veils the faces of its judges. Or if not he, who else?
Job 9:25 My days pass: more swiftly than a runner they flee away with never a glimpse of happiness,
Job 9:26 they skim past like a reed canoe, like an eagle swooping on its prey.
Job 9:27 If I decide to stifle my complaining, change countenance, and wear a smiling face,
Job 9:28 fear seizes me at the thought of all my woes, for I know you do not regard me as innocent.
Job 9:29 And if I have done wrong, why should I put myself to useless trouble?
Job 9:30 If I wash myself in melted snow, clean my hands with soda,
Job 9:31 you will only plunge me into the dung, till my clothes themselves recoil from me!
Job 9:32 For he is not human like me: impossible for me to answer him or appear alongside him in court.
Job 9:33 There is no arbiter between us, to lay his hand on both,
Job 9:34 to stay his rod from me, or keep away his daunting terrors.
Job 9:35 Nonetheless, unafraid of him, I shall speak: since I do not see myself like that at all!
Job 10:1 Since I have lost all taste for life, I shall give free rein to my complaining; I shall let my embittered soul speak out.
Job 10:2 I shall say to God, 'Do not condemn me, tell me what your case is against me.
Job 10:3 Is it right for you to attack me, in contempt for what you yourself have made, thus abetting the schemes of the wicked?
Job 10:4 Are your eyes mere human eyes, do you see as human beings see?
Job 10:5 Are you mortal like human beings? do your years pass as human days pass?
Job 10:6 You, who enquire into my faults and investigate my sins,
Job 10:7 you know very well that I am innocent, and that no one can rescue me from your grasp.
Job 10:8 Your hands having shaped and created me, now you change your mind and mean to destroy me!
Job 10:9 Having made me, remember, as though of clay, now you mean to turn me back into dust!
Job 10:10 Did you not pour me out like milk, and then let me thicken like curds,
Job 10:11 clothe me with skin and flesh, and weave me of bone and sinew?
Job 10:12 In your love you gave me life, and in your care watched over my every breath.
Job 10:13 Yet, all the while, you had a secret plan: I know that you were biding your time
Job 10:14 to see if I should sin and then not acquit me of my faults.
Job 10:15 Woe to me, if I am guilty; even if I am upright, I dare not lift my head, so overwhelmed with shame and drunk with pain am I!
Job 10:16 Proud as a lion, you hunt me down, multiplying your exploits at my expense,
Job 10:17 attacking me again and again, your fury against me ever increasing, your troops assailing me, wave after wave.
Job 10:18 Why did you bring me out of the womb? I should have perished then, unseen by any eye,
Job 10:19 a being that had never been, to be carried from womb to grave.
Job 10:20 The days of my life are few enough: turn your eyes away, leave me a little joy,
Job 10:21 before I go to the place of no return, to the land of darkness and shadow dark as death,
Job 10:22 where dimness and disorder hold sway, and light itself is like dead of night.
Job 11:1 Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:
Job 11:2 Is babbling to go without an answer? Is wordiness a proof of uprightness?
Job 11:3 Do you think your talking strikes people dumb, will you jeer with no one to refute you?
Job 11:4 These were your words, 'My conduct is pure, in your eyes I am free of blame!'
Job 11:5 Will no one let God speak, open his lips and give you answer,
Job 11:6 show you the secrets of wisdom which put all cleverness to shame? Then you would realize that God is calling you to account for your sin.
Job 11:7 Can you claim to fathom the depth of God, can you reach the limit of Shaddai?
Job 11:8 It is higher than the heavens: what can you do? It is deeper than Sheol: what can you know?
Job 11:9 It would be longer to measure than the earth and broader than the sea.
Job 11:10 If he intervenes to close or convoke the assembly, who is to prevent him?
Job 11:11 He knows how deceptive human beings are, and he sees their misdeeds too, and marks them well.
Job 11:12 Hence empty-headed people would do well to study sense and people who behave like wild donkeys to let themselves be tamed.
Job 11:13 Come, reconsider your attitude, stretch out your hands towards him!
Job 11:14 If you repudiate the sin which you have doubtless committed and do not allow wickedness to live on in your tents,
Job 11:15 you will be able to raise an unsullied face, unwavering and free from fear,
Job 11:16 for you will forget about your misery, thinking of it only as a flood that passed long ago.
Job 11:17 Then begins an existence more radiant than noon, and the very darkness will be bright as morning.
Job 11:18 Confident because there is hope; after your troubles, you will sleep secure.
Job 11:19 When you lie down to rest, no one will trouble you, and many will seek your favor.
Job 11:20 But as for the wicked, their eyes are weary, there is no refuge for them; their only hope is to breathe their last.
Job 12:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 12:2 Doubtless, you are the voice of the people, and when you die, wisdom will die with you!
Job 12:3 But I have a brain, as well as you, I am in no way inferior to you, and who, in any case, does not know all that?
Job 12:4 Anyone becomes a laughing-stock to his friends if he cries to God and expects an answer. People laugh at anyone who has integrity and is upright.
Job 12:5 'Add insult to injury,' think the prosperous, 'strike the fellow now that he is staggering!'
Job 12:6 And yet the tents of brigands are left in peace: those who provoke God dwell secure and so does anyone who makes a god of his fist!
Job 12:7 You have only to ask the cattle, for them to instruct you, and the birds of the sky, for them to inform you.
Job 12:8 The creeping things of earth will give you lessons, and the fish of the sea provide you an explanation:
Job 12:9 there is not one such creature but will know that the hand of God has arranged things like this!
Job 12:10 In his hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of every human being!
Job 12:11 Can the ear not distinguish the value of what is said, just as the palate can tell one food from another?
Job 12:12 Wisdom is found in the old, and discretion comes with great age.
Job 12:13 But in him there is wisdom, and power too, and good counsel no less than discretion.
Job 12:14 What he destroys, no one can rebuild; whom he imprisons, no one can release.
Job 12:15 Is there a drought? He has withheld the waters. Do they play havoc on earth? He has let them loose.
Job 12:16 In him is strength, in him resourcefulness, beguiler and beguiled alike are his.
Job 12:17 He robs a country's counsellors of their wits, turns judges into fools.
Job 12:18 He undoes the belts of kings and knots a rope round their waists.
Job 12:19 He makes priests walk barefoot, and overthrows the powers that are established.
Job 12:20 He strikes the most assured of speakers dumb and robs old people of their discretion.
Job 12:21 He pours contempt on the nobly born, and unbuckles the belt of the strong.
Job 12:22 He unveils the depths of darkness, brings shadow dark as death to the light.
Job 12:23 He builds nations up, then ruins them, he makes peoples expand, then suppresses them.
Job 12:24 He strips a country's leaders of their judgement, and leaves them to wander in a trackless waste,
Job 12:25 to grope about in unlit darkness, lurching to and fro as though drunk.
Job 13:1 I have seen all this with my own eyes, heard with my own ears and understood.
Job 13:2 Whatever you know, I know too; I am in no way inferior to you.
Job 13:3 But my words are intended for Shaddai; I mean to remonstrate with God.
Job 13:4 As for you, you are only charlatans, all worthless as doctors!
Job 13:5 Will no one teach you to be quiet -- the only wisdom that becomes you!
Job 13:6 Kindly listen to my accusation and give your attention to the way I shall plead.
Job 13:7 Do you mean to defend God by prevarication and by dishonest argument,
Job 13:8 and, taking his side like this, appoint yourselves as his advocates?
Job 13:9 How would you fare, if he were to scrutinise you? Can he be duped as mortals are duped?
Job 13:10 He would inflict a harsh rebuke on you for your covert partiality.
Job 13:11 Does his majesty not affright you? Does his terror not overcome you?
Job 13:12 Your received ideas are maxims of ash, your retorts, retorts of clay.
Job 13:13 Be quiet! Kindly let me do the talking, happen to me what may.
Job 13:14 I am putting my flesh between my teeth, I am taking my life in my hands;
Job 13:15 let him kill me if he will; I have no other hope than to justify my conduct in his eyes.
Job 13:16 And this is what will save me, for the wicked would not dare to appear before him.
Job 13:17 Listen carefully to my words, and pay attention to what I am going to say.
Job 13:18 You see, I shall proceed by form of law, knowing that I am upright.
Job 13:19 Who wants to contest my case? In advance, I agree to be silenced and to die!
Job 13:20 Only grant me two concessions, and then I shall not hide away from your face:
Job 13:21 remove your hand, which lies so heavy on me, no longer make me cower from your terror.
Job 13:22 Then call me forward and I shall answer, or rather, I shall speak and you will answer.
Job 13:23 How many faults and crimes have I committed? Tell me what my misdeed has been, what my sin?
Job 13:24 Why do you hide your face and look on me as your enemy?
Job 13:25 Do you want to intimidate a wind-blown leaf, do you want to pursue a dry straw?
Job 13:26 You who lay bitter allegations against me and tax me with the faults of my youth
Job 13:27 and have put my feet in the stocks; you examine my every step and measure my footprints one by one!
Job 13:28 For his part, he crumbles away like rotten wood, or like a moth-eaten garment,
Job 14:1 a human being, born of woman, whose life is short but full of trouble.
Job 14:2 Like a flower, such a one blossoms and withers, fleeting as a shadow, transient.
Job 14:3 And this is the creature on whom you fix your gaze, and bring to judgement before you!
Job 14:4 But will anyone produce the pure from what is impure? No one can!
Job 14:5 Since his days are measured out, since his tale of months depends on you, since you assign him bounds he cannot pass,
Job 14:6 turn your eyes from him, leave him alone, like a hired labourer, to finish his day in peace.
Job 14:7 There is always hope for a tree: when felled, it can start its life again; its shoots continue to sprout.
Job 14:8 Its roots may have grown old in the earth, its stump rotting in the ground,
Job 14:9 but let it scent the water, and it buds, and puts out branches like a plant newly set.
Job 14:10 But a human being? He dies, and dead he remains, breathes his last, and then where is he?
Job 14:11 The waters of the sea will vanish, the rivers stop flowing and run dry:
Job 14:12 a human being, once laid to rest, will never rise again, the heavens will wear out before he wakes up, or before he is roused from his sleep.
Job 14:13 Will no one hide me in Sheol, and shelter me there till your anger is past, fixing a certain day for calling me to mind-
Job 14:14 can the dead come back to life? - day after day of my service, I should be waiting for my relief to come.
Job 14:15 Then you would call, and I should answer, you would want to see once more what you have made.
Job 14:16 Whereas now you count every step I take, you would then stop spying on my sin;
Job 14:17 you would seal up my crime in a bag, and put a cover over my fault.
Job 14:18 Alas! Just as, eventually, the mountain falls down, the rock moves from its place,
Job 14:19 water wears away the stones, the cloudburst erodes the soil; so you destroy whatever hope a person has.
Job 14:20 You crush him once for all, and he is gone; first you disfigure him, then you dismiss him.
Job 14:21 His children may rise to honors -- he does not know it; they may come down in the world -- he does not care.
Job 14:22 He feels no pangs, except for his own body, makes no lament, except for his own self.
Job 15:1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:
Job 15:2 Does anyone wise respond with windy arguments, or feed on an east wind?
Job 15:3 Or make a defence with ineffectual words and speeches good for nothing?
Job 15:4 You do worse: you suppress reverence, you discredit discussion before God.
Job 15:5 Your very fault incites you to speak like this, hence you adopt this language of cunning.
Job 15:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; your own lips bear witness against you.
Job 15:7 Are you the first-born of the human race, brought into the world before the hills?
Job 15:8 Have you been a listener at God's council, or established a monopoly of wisdom?
Job 15:9 What knowledge do you have that we have not, what understanding that is not ours too?
Job 15:10 One of us is an old, grey-headed man loaded with more years than your father!
Job 15:11 Can you ignore these divine consolations and the moderate tone of our words?
Job 15:12 How passion carries you away! And how you roll your eyes,
Job 15:13 when you vent your anger on God and speeches come tripping off your tongue!
Job 15:14 How can anyone be pure, anyone born of woman be upright?
Job 15:15 God cannot rely even on his holy ones, to him, even the heavens seem impure.
Job 15:16 How much more, this hateful, corrupt thing, humanity, which soaks up wickedness like water!
Job 15:17 Listen to me, I have a lesson for you: I am going to impart my own experience
Job 15:18 and the tradition of the sages who have remained faithful to their ancestors,
Job 15:19 to whom alone the land was given -- no foreigner included among them.
Job 15:20 The life of the wicked is unceasing torment, the years allotted to the tyrant are numbered.
Job 15:21 A cry of panic echoes in his ear; when all is peace, his destroyer swoops down on him.
Job 15:22 No more can he count on escaping from the dark, but knows that he is destined for the sword,
Job 15:23 marked down as meat for the vulture. He knows that his ruin is at hand.
Job 15:24 The hour of darkness terrifies him, distress and anguish assail him as when a king is poised for the assault.
Job 15:25 He raised his hand against God, boldly he defied Shaddai!
Job 15:26 Head lowered, he charged him, with his massively bossed shield.
Job 15:27 His face had grown full and fat, and his thighs too heavy with flesh.
Job 15:28 He had occupied the towns he had destroyed, with their uninhabited houses about to fall into ruins;
Job 15:29 but no great profit to him, his luck will not hold, he will cast his shadow over the country no longer,
Job 15:30 (he will not escape the dark). A flame will scorch his young shoots, the wind will carry off his blossom.
Job 15:31 Let him not trust in his great height or delusion will be his.
Job 15:32 His palm trees will wither before their time and his branches never again be green.
Job 15:33 Like the vine, he will shake off his unripe fruit, like the olive tree, shed his blossom.
Job 15:34 Yes, sterile is the spawn of the sinner, and fire consumes the tents of the venal.
Job 15:35 Whoever conceives malice, breeds disaster, bears as offspring only a false hope.
Job 16:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 16:2 How often have I heard all this before! What sorry comforters you are!
Job 16:3 'When will these windy arguments be over?' or again, 'What sickness drives you to defend yourself?'
Job 16:4 Oh yes! I too could talk as you do, if you were in my place; I could overwhelm you with speeches, shaking my head over you,
Job 16:5 and speak words of encouragement, and then have no more to say.
Job 16:6 When I speak, my suffering does not stop; if I say nothing, is it in any way reduced?
Job 16:7 And now it is driving me to distraction; you have struck my whole acquaintanceship with horror,
Job 16:8 now it rounds on me, my slanderer has now turned witness, he appears against me, accusing me face to face;
Job 16:9 his anger tears and hounds me with gnashing teeth. My enemies look daggers at me,
Job 16:10 and open gaping jaws. Their sneers strike like slaps in the face; and they all set on me at once.
Job 16:11 Yes, God has handed me over to the godless, and cast me into the hands of the wicked.
Job 16:12 I was living at peace, until he made me totter, taking me by the neck to shatter me. He has set me up as his target:
Job 16:13 he shoots his arrows at me from all sides, pitilessly pierces my loins, and pours my gall out on the ground.
Job 16:14 Breach after breach he drives through me, charging on me like a warrior.
Job 16:15 I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, thrown my forehead in the dust.
Job 16:16 My face is red with tears, and shadow dark as death covers my eyelids.
Job 16:17 Nonetheless, my hands are free of violence, and my prayer is pure.
Job 16:18 Cover not my blood, O earth, and let my cry mount without cease!
Job 16:19 Henceforth I have a witness in heaven, my defender is there on high.
Job 16:20 Interpreter of my thoughts there with God, before whom flow my tears,
Job 16:21 let my anguish plead the cause of a man at grips with God, just as a man might defend his fellow.
Job 16:22 For the years of my life are numbered, and I am leaving by the road of no return.
Job 17:1 My breathing is growing weaker and the gravediggers are gathering for me.
Job 17:2 Scoffers are my only companions, their harshness haunts my nights.
Job 17:3 So you must go bail for me to yourself, for which of them cares to clap his hand on mine?
Job 17:4 For you have shut their hearts to reason, hence not a hand is lifted.
Job 17:5 Just so is a man who invites his friends to share his property while the eyes of his own children languish.
Job 17:6 I have become a byword among foreigners, and a creature on whose face to spit,
Job 17:7 since I am nearly blind with grief and my limbs are reduced to a shadow.
Job 17:8 Any honest person is appalled at the sight, the innocent is indignant at the sinner.
Job 17:9 Anyone upright grows stronger step by step: and anyone whose hands are clean grows ever in vigour!
Job 17:10 Come on then, all of you, back to the attack! I shall not find one wise man among you!
Job 17:11 My days are over, so are my plans, my heart-strings are broken;
Job 17:12 yet they would have me believe that night is day, that light to dispel the darkness is at hand,
Job 17:13 when all I want, in fact, is to dwell in Sheol and in that darkness there to make my bed!
Job 17:14 To the tomb, I cry, 'You are my father!' -- to the worm, 'You are my mother-you, my sister!'
Job 17:15 Where then is my hope? Who can see any happiness for me?
Job 17:16 unless they come down to Sheol with me, all of us sinking into the dust together?
Job 18:1 Bildad of Shuah spoke next. He said:
Job 18:2 What prevents you others from saying something? Think -- for it is our turn to speak!
Job 18:3 Why do you regard us as animals, considering us no more than brutes?
Job 18:4 Tear yourself to pieces if you will, but the world, for all your rage, will not turn to desert, the rocks will not shift from their places.
Job 18:5 The light of the wicked must certainly be put out, the lamp that gives him light cease to shine.
Job 18:6 In his tent the light is dimmed, the lamp that shone on him is snuffed.
Job 18:7 His vigorous stride loses its power, his own designs falter.
Job 18:8 For into the net his own feet carry him, he walks into the snares.
Job 18:9 A spring grips him by the heel, a trap snaps shut, and he is caught.
Job 18:10 Hidden in the ground is a snare to catch him, pitfalls lie across his path.
Job 18:11 Terrors threaten him from all sides following him step by step.
Job 18:12 Hunger becomes his companion, by his side Disaster stands.
Job 18:13 Disease devours his skin, Death's First-Born gnaws his limbs.
Job 18:14 He will be torn from the shelter of his tent, and you will drag him to the King of Terrors.
Job 18:15 You can live in the tent, since it is no longer his, and brimstone will be scattered on his sheepfold.
Job 18:16 Below, his roots dry out and his branches are blasted above.
Job 18:17 His memory fades from the land, his name is forgotten in the countryside.
Job 18:18 Driven from the light into the darkness, he is banished from the world,
Job 18:19 without issue or posterity among his own people or a single survivor where he used to live.
Job 18:20 His end appals the west and fills the east with terror.
Job 18:21 Such indeed is the fate of the places where wickedness dwells -- the home of everyone who knows not God.
Job 19:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 19:2 How much longer are you going to torment me and crush me by your speeches?
Job 19:3 You have insulted me ten times already: have you no shame at maltreating me?
Job 19:4 Even if I had gone astray, my error would still be my own affair.
Job 19:5 But, whereas you take this superior attitude and claim that my disgrace is my own fault,
Job 19:6 I tell you that God has wronged me and enveloped me in his net.
Job 19:7 If I protest against such violence, I am not heard, if I appeal against it, judgement is never given.
Job 19:8 He has built an impassable wall across my path and covered my way with darkness.
Job 19:9 He has deprived me of my glory and taken the crown from my head.
Job 19:10 He assails me from all directions to make me vanish; he uproots my hope as he might a tree.
Job 19:11 Inflamed with anger against me, he regards me as his foe.
Job 19:12 His troops have come in force, directing their line of advance towards me, they are now encamped round my tent.
Job 19:13 He has alienated my brothers from me, my relatives take care to avoid me,
Job 19:14 my intimate friends have gone away and the guests in my house have forgotten me.
Job 19:15 My slave-girls regard me as an intruder, a stranger as far as they are concerned.
Job 19:16 My servant does not answer when I call him, I am obliged to beg favors from him!
Job 19:17 My breath is unbearable to my wife, my stench to my own brothers.
Job 19:18 Even the children look down on me, whenever I stand up, they start jeering at me.
Job 19:19 All my dearest friends recoil from me in horror: those I loved best have turned against me.
Job 19:20 My flesh is rotting under my skin, my bones are sticking out like teeth.
Job 19:21 Pity me, pity me, my friends, since I have been struck by the hand of God.
Job 19:22 Must you persecute me just as God does, and give my body no peace?
Job 19:23 Will no one let my words be recorded, inscribed on some monument
Job 19:24 with iron chisel and engraving tool, cut into the rock for ever?
Job 19:25 I know that I have a living Defender and that he will rise up last, on the dust of the earth.
Job 19:26 After my awakening, he will set me close to him, and from my flesh I shall look on God.
Job 19:27 He whom I shall see will take my part: my eyes will be gazing on no stranger. My heart sinks within me.
Job 19:28 When you say, 'How can we confound him? What pretext can we discover against him?'
Job 19:29 You yourselves had best beware the sword, since the wrath bursts into flame at wicked deeds and then you will learn that there is indeed a judgement!
Job 20:1 Zophar of Naamath spoke next. He said:
Job 20:2 My thoughts urge me to reply to this, and hence the impatience that grips me.
Job 20:3 I have put up with prating that outrages me and now my mind inspires me with an answer.
Job 20:4 Do you not know, that since time began and human beings were set on the earth,
Job 20:5 the triumph of the wicked has always been brief, and the sinner's gladness has never lasted long?
Job 20:6 Towering to the sky he may have been, his head touching the clouds;
Job 20:7 but he vanishes, like a phantom, once for all, while those who used to see him, ask, 'Where is he?'
Job 20:8 Like a dream that leaves no trace he takes his flight, like a vision in the night he flies away.
Job 20:9 The eye accustomed to see him sees him no more, his home will never set eyes on him again.
Job 20:10 His sons will have to reimburse the poor and his children pay back his riches.
Job 20:11 His bones used to be full of youthful vigour: and there it lies, in the dust with him, now!
Job 20:12 Evil was sweet to his mouth, he would shelter it under his tongue;
Job 20:13 cultivating it carefully, he would let it linger on his palate.
Job 20:14 Such food goes bad in his belly, working inside him like the poison of a viper.
Job 20:15 Now he has to vomit up the wealth that he has swallowed, God makes him disgorge it.
Job 20:16 He used to suck vipers' venom, and the tongue of the adder kills him.
Job 20:17 No more will he know the streams of oil or the torrents of honey and cream.
Job 20:18 When he gives back his winnings, his cheerfulness will fade, and the satisfied air he had when business was thriving.
Job 20:19 Since he once destroyed the huts of the poor, plundering houses instead of building them up,
Job 20:20 since his avarice could never be satisfied, now all his hoarding will not save him;
Job 20:21 since nothing could escape his greed, his prosperity will not last.
Job 20:22 When he has everything he needs, want will seize him, and misery will light on him with all its force.
Job 20:23 On him God looses all his burning wrath, hurling against his flesh a hail of arrows.
Job 20:24 If he escapes the weapons of iron, the bow of bronze will transfix him.
Job 20:25 Out of his back sticks an arrow, from his gall a shining point. The terrors advance on him,
Job 20:26 all the hidden darknesses are waiting to carry him off. A fire unlit by human hand devours him, and consumes what is left in his tent.
Job 20:27 The heavens lay bare his iniquity, and the earth rises up against him.
Job 20:28 The income of his house pours away, like the torrents, on the day of retribution.
Job 20:29 Such is the fate God reserves for the wicked, the inheritance he assigns to the accursed!
Job 21:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 21:2 Listen carefully to my words; let this be the consolation you allow me.
Job 21:3 Permit me to speak in my turn; you may jeer when I have spoken.
Job 21:4 Is my complaint just about a fellow-mortal? I have good grounds to be perturbed!
Job 21:5 Give your attention to me; you will be dumbfounded and will place your hand over your mouth.
Job 21:6 I myself am appalled at the very thought, and my flesh creeps.
Job 21:7 Why do the wicked still live on, their power increasing with their age?
Job 21:8 They see their posterity assured, and their offspring secure before their eyes.
Job 21:9 The peace of their houses has nothing to fear, the rod that God wields is not for them.
Job 21:10 No mishap with their bull at breeding-time, nor miscarriage with their cow at calving.
Job 21:11 They let their infants frisk like lambs, their children dance like deer.
Job 21:12 They sing to the tambourine and harp, and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.
Job 21:13 They end their lives in happiness and go down in peace to Sheol.
Job 21:14 Yet these are the ones who say to God, 'Go away! We do not want to learn your ways.
Job 21:15 What is the point of our serving Shaddai? What should we gain from praying to him?'
Job 21:16 Surely they have won their own prosperity, since God is kept so far from their plans?
Job 21:17 Do we often see the light of the wicked put out, or disaster overtake him, or the retribution of God destroy his possessions,
Job 21:18 or the wind blow him away like a straw, or a whirlwind carry him off like chaff?
Job 21:19 So God is storing up punishment for his children? But the wicked himself should be punished, and should know it!
Job 21:20 He himself should witness his own ruin, and himself drink the anger of Shaddai.
Job 21:21 Once he is gone, what joy can he gain from his family, once the number of his months has been cut off?
Job 21:22 But who can teach wisdom to God, to him who is judge of those on high?
Job 21:23 And again: one person dies in the fullness of strength, in all possible happiness and ease,
Job 21:24 thighs padded with fat and the marrow in the bones good and moist.
Job 21:25 Another dies in bitterness of heart, never having tasted happiness.
Job 21:26 They lie together down in the dust and the worms soon cover them both.
Job 21:27 Oh, I know what is in your minds, what you so spitefully think about me!
Job 21:28 'What has become of the great lord's house,' you say, 'where is the tent where the wicked used to live?'
Job 21:29 Have you never questioned people who travel, do you not understand the testimony they give:
Job 21:30 on the day of disaster, the wicked is spared, on the day of retribution, he is kept safe?
Job 21:31 And who is there then to reproach him for his deeds and to pay him back for the things he has done?
Job 21:32 He is carried away to the cemetery, and a watch is kept at his tomb.
Job 21:33 The clods of the ravine lie easy on him, and the whole population walk behind.
Job 21:34 So what sense is there in your empty consolation? your answers are the left-overs of infidelity!
Job 22:1 Eliphaz of Teman spoke next. He said:
Job 22:2 Can a human being contribute anything to God, when even someone intelligent can benefit only himself?
Job 22:3 Does Shaddai derive any benefit from your uprightness, or profit from your blameless conduct?
Job 22:4 Do you think he is punishing you for your piety and bringing you to justice for that?
Job 22:5 No, for your great wickedness, more likely, for your unlimited sins!
Job 22:6 You have exacted unearned pledges from your brothers, stripped people naked of their clothes,
Job 22:7 failed to give water to the thirsty and refused bread to the hungry;
Job 22:8 handed the land over to a strong man, for some favored person to move in,
Job 22:9 sent widows away empty-handed and crushed the arms of orphans.
Job 22:10 No wonder, then, if snares are all around you, and sudden terrors make you afraid;
Job 22:11 if light has turned to darkness, so that you cannot see, and you have been submerged in the flood.
Job 22:12 Does not God live high in the heavens, does he not see the zenith of the stars?
Job 22:13 And because he is up there, you have said, 'What does God know? Can he judge through the dark cloud?
Job 22:14 The clouds, to him, are an impenetrable veil, as he goes his way on the rim of the heavens.'
Job 22:15 And will you still follow the ancient trail trodden by the wicked,
Job 22:16 those who were borne off before their time, whose foundations were swamped by a flood,
Job 22:17 for having said to God, 'Go away! What can Shaddai do to us?'
Job 22:18 Yet he himself had filled their houses with good things, although excluded from the plans of the wicked!
Job 22:19 At such a spectacle, the upright rejoice, and the innocent deride them:
Job 22:20 'See how our enemies have been destroyed! See how their wealth has perished in the flames!'
Job 22:21 Well then! Make peace with him, be reconciled, and all your happiness will be restored to you.
Job 22:22 Welcome the teaching from his lips, and keep his words close to your heart.
Job 22:23 If you return, humbled, to Shaddai and drive wickedness far from your tent,
Job 22:24 if you lay your gold down on the dust, Ophir down among the pebbles of the torrent,
Job 22:25 Shaddai will be bars of gold to you and silver piled in heaps.
Job 22:26 Then Shaddai will be all your delight, and you will lift your face to God.
Job 22:27 You will pray, and he will hear; and you will be able to fulfill your vows.
Job 22:28 Whatever you undertake will go well, and light will shine on your path;
Job 22:29 for he casts down the pride of the arrogant, but he saves those of downcast eyes.
Job 22:30 He rescues anyone who is innocent; have your hands clean, and you will be saved.
Job 23:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 23:2 My lament is still rebellious; despite my groans, his hand is just as heavy.
Job 23:3 Will no one help me to know how to travel to his dwelling?
Job 23:4 I should set out my case to him, advancing any number of grievances.
Job 23:5 Then I could learn his defence, every word of it, taking note of everything he said to me.
Job 23:6 Would he put all his strength into this debate with me? No, he would only have to give his attention to me,
Job 23:7 to recognize his opponent as upright and so I should win my case for ever.
Job 23:8 If I go to the east, he is not there; or to the west, I still cannot see him.
Job 23:9 If I seek him in the north, he is not to be found, invisible as ever, if I turn to the south.
Job 23:10 And yet he knows every step I take! Let him test me in the crucible: I shall come out pure gold.
Job 23:11 My footsteps have followed close in his, I have walked in his way without swerving;
Job 23:12 I have not neglected the commandment of his lips, in my heart I have cherished the words of his mouth.
Job 23:13 But once he has made up his mind, who can change it? Whatever he plans, that he carries out.
Job 23:14 No doubt, then, but he will carry out my sentence, like so many other decrees that he has made.
Job 23:15 That is why I am full of fear before him, and the more I think, the greater grows my dread of him.
Job 23:16 God has undermined my courage, Shaddai has filled me with fear.
Job 23:17 The darkness having failed to destroy me, I am plunged back into obscurity by him!
Job 24:1 Why does Shaddai not make known the times he has fixed; why do his faithful never see his Days?
Job 24:2 The wicked move boundary-marks away, they carry off flock and shepherd.
Job 24:3 They drive away the orphan's donkey, as security, they seize the widow's ox.
Job 24:4 The needy have to keep out of the way, poor country people have to keep out of sight.
Job 24:5 Like wild desert donkeys, they go out to work, searching from dawn for food, and at evening for something on which to feed their children.
Job 24:6 They go harvesting in the field of some scoundrel, they go pilfering in the vineyards of the wicked.
Job 24:7 They spend the night naked, lacking clothes, with no covering against the cold.
Job 24:8 Mountain rainstorms cut them through, unsheltered, they hug the rocks.
Job 24:9 The orphan child is torn from the breast, the child of the poor is exacted as security.
Job 24:10 They go about naked, lacking clothes, and starving while they carry the sheaves.
Job 24:11 Two little walls, their shelter at high noon; parched with thirst, they have to tread the winepress.
Job 24:12 From the towns come the groans of the dying and the gasp of the wounded crying for help. Yet God remains deaf to prayer!
Job 24:13 In contrast, there are those who reject the light: who know nothing of its ways and who do not frequent its paths.
Job 24:14 When all is dark the murderer leaves his bed to kill the poor and needy. During the night the thief goes on the prowl,
Job 24:15 The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight, 'No one will see me,' he mutters as he masks his face.In the daytime they keep out of sight, these people who do not want to know the light.
Job 24:16 breaking into houses while the darkness lasts.
Job 24:17 For all of them, morning is a time of shadow dark as death, since that is when they know what fear is.
Job 24:18
Job 24:19
Job 24:20
Job 24:21
Job 24:22
Job 24:23
Job 24:24
Job 24:25 Is this not so? Who can prove me a liar or show that my words have no substance?
Job 25:1 Bildad of Shuah spoke next. He said:
Job 25:2 What sovereignty, what awe, is his who creates peace on his heights!
Job 25:3 Who can count his armies? Against whom does his lightning not surge forth?
Job 25:4 Could anyone think God regards him as virtuous, the child of woman as pure!
Job 25:5 Why, the very moon lacks lustre, the very stars seem impure to him! The Shadows tremble underneath the earth, the waters and their denizens are afraid.
Job 25:6 How much less a human, this maggot, the child of man, this worm! Before his eyes, Sheol is bare, Perdition itself is uncovered.
Job 25:7 He it was who spread the North above the void and poised the earth on nothingness.
Job 25:8 He fastens up the waters in his clouds, without the clouds giving way under their weight.
Job 25:9 He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his cloud across it.
Job 25:10 He has traced a ring on the surface of the waters, at the boundary between light and dark.
Job 25:11 The pillars of the heavens tremble, awe-struck at his threats.
Job 25:12 By his power, he has whipped up the Sea, by his skill, he has crushed Rahab.
Job 25:13 His breath has made the heavens luminous, his hand transfixed the Fleeing Serpent.
Job 25:14 This is only a fraction of what he has done and all we catch of it is the feeblest echo. But who can conceive the thunder of his power?
Job 26:1 Job spoke next. He said:
Job 26:2 To one so weak, what a help you are, for the arm that is powerless, what a rescuer!
Job 26:3 What excellent advice you give the unlearned, you are never at a loss for a helpful suggestion!
Job 26:4 For whom are these words of yours intended and whence comes that wit you are now displaying?
Job 27:1 And Job continued his solemn discourse. He said:
Job 27:2 I swear by the living God who denies me justice, by Shaddai who has filled me with bitterness,
Job 27:3 that as long as a shred of life is left in me, and the breath of God breathes in my nostrils,
Job 27:4 my lips will never speak evil nor my tongue utter any lie.
Job 27:5 Far from admitting you to be in the right, I shall maintain my integrity to my dying day.
Job 27:6 I take my stand on my uprightness, I shall not stir: in my heart I need not be ashamed of my days.
Job 27:7 Let my enemy meet the fate of the wicked, my adversary, the lot of the evil-doer!
Job 27:8 For what hope does the godless have when he prays and raises his soul to God?
Job 27:9 Is God likely to hear his cries when disaster descends on him?
Job 27:10 Did he make Shaddai all his delight, calling on him at every turn?
Job 27:11 But I am showing you the way that God works, making no secret of Shaddai's designs.
Job 27:12 And if you had all understood them for yourselves, you would not have wasted your breath in empty words.
Job 27:13 This is the fate that God assigns to the wicked, the inheritance that the violent receive from Shaddai.
Job 27:14 Though he have many children, it is but for the sword; his descendants will never have enough to eat.
Job 27:15 Plague will bury those he leaves behind him, and their widows will have no chance to mourn them.
Job 27:16 Though he amass silver like dust and gather fine clothes like clay,
Job 27:17 let him gather!-some good man will wear them, while his silver is shared among the upright.
Job 27:18 All he has built himself is a spider's web, made himself a watchman's shack.
Job 27:19 He goes to bed rich, but never again: he wakes to find it has all gone. As drought and heat make snow disappear, so does Sheol anyone who has sinned.
Job 27:20 Terror assails him in broad daylight, and at night a whirlwind sweeps him off. The womb that shaped him forgets him and his name is recalled no longer. Thus wickedness is blasted as a tree is struck.
Job 27:21 An east wind picks him up and drags him away, snatching him up from his homestead. He used to ill-treat the childless woman and show no kindness to the widow.
Job 27:22 Pitilessly he is turned into a target, and forced to flee from the hands that menace him. But he who lays mighty hold on tyrants rises up to take away a life that seemed secure.
Job 27:23 His downfall is greeted with applause, he is hissed wherever he goes. He is no more than a straw floating on the water, his estate is accursed throughout the land, nobody goes near his vineyard. He let him build his hopes on false security, but kept his eyes on every step he took.
Job 27:24 He had his time of glory, now he vanishes, wilting like the saltwort once it is picked, and withering like an ear of corn.
Job 28:1 Silver has its mines, and gold a place for refining.
Job 28:2 Iron is extracted from the earth, the smelted rocks yield copper.
Job 28:3 Man makes an end of darkness, to the utmost limit he digs the black rock in shadow dark as death.
Job 28:4 Foreigners bore into ravines in unfrequented places, swinging suspended far from human beings.
Job 28:5 That earth from which bread comes is ravaged underground by fire.
Job 28:6 There, the rocks have veins of sapphire and their dust contains gold.
Job 28:7 That is a path unknown to birds of prey, unseen by the eye of any vulture;
Job 28:8 a path not trodden by the lordly beasts, where no lion ever walked.
Job 28:9 Man attacks the flint, upturning mountains by their roots.
Job 28:10 He cuts canals through the rock, on the watch for anything precious.
Job 28:11 He explores the sources of rivers, bringing hidden things to light.
Job 28:12 But where does Wisdom come from? Where is Intelligence to be found?
Job 28:13 No human being knows the way to her, she is not to be found on earth where they live.
Job 28:14 'She is not in me,' says the Abyss; 'Nor here,' replies the Sea.
Job 28:15 She cannot be bought with solid gold, nor paid for with any weight of silver,
Job 28:16 nor valued against gold of Ophir, precious agate or sapphire.
Job 28:17 Neither gold nor glass compares with her, for her, a vase of fine gold would be no exchange,
Job 28:18 let alone coral or crystal: better go fishing for Wisdom than for pearls!
Job 28:19 Topaz from Cush is worthless in comparison, and gold, even refined, is valueless.
Job 28:20 But where does Wisdom come from? Where is Intelligence to be found?
Job 28:21 She cannot be seen by any living creature, she is hidden from the birds of the sky.
Job 28:22 Perdition and Death both say, 'We have heard only rumours of her.'
Job 28:23 God alone understands her path and knows where she is to be found.
Job 28:24 (For he sees to the remotest parts of the earth, and observes all that lies under heaven.)
Job 28:25 When he willed to give weight to the wind and measured out the waters with a gauge,
Job 28:26 when he imposed a law on the rain and mapped a route for thunderclaps to follow,
Job 28:27 then he saw and evaluated her, looked her through and through, assessing her.
Job 28:28 Then he said to human beings, 'Wisdom? - that is fear of the Lord; Intelligence? - avoidance of evil.'
Job 29:1 And Job continued his solemn discourse. He said:
Job 29:2 Will no one bring back to me the months that have gone, and the days when God was my guardian,
Job 29:3 when his lamp shone over my head, and his light was my guide in the darkness?
Job 29:4 Shall I ever see my days of harvest again when God protected my tent;
Job 29:5 when Shaddai still dwelt with me, and my children were around me;
Job 29:6 when my feet were bathed in milk, and streams of oil poured from the rocks?
Job 29:7 When I went out to the gate of the city, when I took my seat in the square,
Job 29:8 as soon as I appeared, the young men stepped aside, and the old men rose to their feet.
Job 29:9 Men of note broke off their speeches, and put their hands over their mouths;
Job 29:10 the voices of rulers were silenced, and their tongues stayed still in their mouths.
Job 29:11 On hearing me, people congratulated me, on seeing me, people deferred to me,
Job 29:12 because I freed the poor in distress and the orphan who had no helper.
Job 29:13 The dying man's blessing rested on me and I gave the widow's heart cause to rejoice.
Job 29:14 Uprightness I wore as a garment, fair judgement was my cloak and my turban.
Job 29:15 I was eyes for the blind, and feet for the lame.
Job 29:16 Who but me was father of the poor? The stranger's case had a hearing from me.
Job 29:17 I used to break the fangs of the wicked, and snatch their prey from their jaws.
Job 29:18 And I used to say, 'I shall die in honor, after days as numerous as the sand.
Job 29:19 My roots can reach the water, the dews of night settle on my leaves.
Job 29:20 My glory will be for ever new and the bow in my hand for ever strong.'
Job 29:21 They waited anxiously to hear me, and listened in silence to what I had to say.
Job 29:22 When I had finished, no one contradicted, my words dropping on them, one by one.
Job 29:23 They waited for me as though for rain, open-mouthed as though for a late shower.
Job 29:24 If I smiled at them, it was too good to be true, they watched my face for the least sign of favor.
Job 29:25 As their chief, I told them which course to take, like a king living among his troops, and I led them wherever I chose.
Job 30:1 And now I am the laughing-stock of people who are younger than I am and whose parents I would have disdained to put with the dogs guarding my flock.
Job 30:2 And what use to me was the strength of their hands? - enfeebled as they were,
Job 30:3 worn out by want and hunger, for they used to gnaw the roots of the thirsty ground -- that place of gloom, ruin and desolation-
Job 30:4 they used to pick saltwort among the scrub, making their meals off roots of broom.
Job 30:5 Outlawed from human company, which raised hue and cry against them, as against thieves,
Job 30:6 they made their homes in the sides of ravines, in holes in the earth or in clefts of rock.
Job 30:7 You could hear them braying from the bushes as they huddled together in the thistles.
Job 30:8 Children of scoundrels, worse, nameless people, the very outcasts of society!
Job 30:9 And these are the ones who now make up songs about me and use me as a byword!
Job 30:10 Filled with disgust, they keep their distance, on seeing me, they spit without restraint.
Job 30:11 And since God has loosened my bow-string and afflicted me, they too throw off the bridle in my presence.
Job 30:12 Their brats surge forward on my right, to see when I am having a little peace, and advance on me with threatening strides.
Job 30:13 They cut off all means of escape seizing the chance to destroy me, and no one stops them.
Job 30:14 They move in, as if through a wide breach, and I go tumbling beneath the rubble.
Job 30:15 Terror rounds on me, my confidence is dispersed as though by the wind, my hope of safety vanishes like a cloud.
Job 30:16 And now the life in me trickles away, days of grief have gripped me.
Job 30:17 At night-time sickness saps my bones I am gnawed by wounds that never sleep.
Job 30:18 Violently, he has caught me by my clothes, has gripped me by the collar of my coat.
Job 30:19 He has thrown me into the mud; I am no more than dust and ashes.
Job 30:20 I cry to you, and you give me no answer; I stand before you, but you take no notice.
Job 30:21 You have grown cruel to me, and your strong hand torments me unmercifully.
Job 30:22 You carry me away astride the wind and blow me to pieces in a tempest.
Job 30:23 Yes, I know that you are taking me towards death, to the common meeting-place of all the living.
Job 30:24 Yet have I ever laid a hand on the poor when they cried out for justice in calamity?
Job 30:25 Have I not wept for those whose life is hard, felt pity for the penniless?
Job 30:26 I hoped for happiness, but sorrow came; I looked for light, but there was darkness.
Job 30:27 My stomach seethes, is never still, days of suffering have struck me.
Job 30:28 Sombre I go, yet no one comforts me, and if I rise in the council, I rise to weep.
Job 30:29 I have become brother to the jackal and companion to the ostrich.
Job 30:30 My skin has turned black on me, my bones are burnt with fever.
Job 30:31 My harp is tuned to dirges, my pipe to the voice of mourners.
Job 31:1 I had made an agreement with my eyes not to linger on any virgin.
Job 31:2 Now what portion does God allot from above, what fate does Shaddai apportion from his heaven-
Job 31:3 if not the disasters appropriate to the wicked and the calamities fit for evil-doers?
Job 31:4 But surely he sees how I behave, does he not count all my steps?
Job 31:5 Have I been a fellow-traveller with falsehood, or hastened my steps towards deceit?
Job 31:6 Let him weigh me on accurate scales: then he, God, will recognize my integrity!
Job 31:7 If my feet have wandered from the rightful path, or if my eyes have led my heart astray, or if my hands are smirched with any stain,
Job 31:8 let someone else eat what I have sown and let my young shoots all be rooted out.
Job 31:9 If my heart has been seduced by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,
Job 31:10 let my wife go and grind for someone else, let others have intercourse with her!
Job 31:11 For I would have committed a sin of lust, a crime punishable by the law,
Job 31:12 a fire, indeed, burning all to Perdition, which would have devoured my whole revenue.
Job 31:13 If I have ever infringed the rights of slave or slave-girl in legal actions against me-
Job 31:14 what shall I do, when God stands up? What shall I say, when he holds his assize?
Job 31:15 Did he not create them in the womb like me, the same God forming us in the womb?
Job 31:16 Have I been insensible to the needs of the poor, or let a widow's eyes grow dim?
Job 31:17 Have I eaten my bit of bread on my own without sharing it with the orphan?
Job 31:18 I, whom God has fostered father-like from childhood, and guided since I left my mother's womb,
Job 31:19 have I ever seen a wretch in need of clothing, or the poor with nothing to wear,
Job 31:20 without his having cause to bless me from his heart, as he felt the warmth of the fleece from my lambs?
Job 31:21 Have I raised my hand against an orphan, presuming on my credit at the gate?
Job 31:22 If so, let my shoulder fall from its socket, let my arm break off at the elbow!
Job 31:23 For the terror of God would fall on me and I could not then stand my ground before his majesty.
Job 31:24 Have I put my faith in gold, saying to fine gold, 'Ah, my security'?
Job 31:25 Have I ever gloated over my great wealth, or the riches that my hands have won?
Job 31:26 Or has the sight of the sun in its glory, or the glow of the moon as it walked the sky,
Job 31:27 secretly stolen my heart, so that I blew them a kiss?
Job 31:28 That too would be a criminal offense, to have denied the supreme God.
Job 31:29 Have I rejoiced at my enemy's misfortune, or exulted when disaster overtook him? -
Job 31:30 I, who would not allow my tongue to sin or to lay his life under a curse.
Job 31:31 The people of my tent, did they not say, 'Will anyone name a person whom he has not filled with meat?'
Job 31:32 No stranger ever had to sleep outside, my door was always open to the traveller.
Job 31:33 Have I ever concealed my transgression from others or kept my fault a secret in my breast?
Job 31:34 Have I ever stood in fear of common gossip, or dreaded any family's contempt, and so kept quiet, not venturing out of doors?
Job 31:35 Will no one give me a hearing? I have said my last word; now let Shaddai reply! When my adversary has drafted his writ against me
Job 31:36 I shall wear it on my shoulder, and bind it round my head like a royal turban.
Job 31:37 I shall give him an account of my every step and go as boldly as a prince to meet him.End of the words of Job.
Job 31:38 If my land cries for vengeance against me and its furrows weep in concert,
Job 31:39 if I have eaten its produce without paying, and caused the death of its owners,
Job 31:40 let brambles grow instead of wheat, rank weeds instead of barley!
Job 32:1 These three men stopped arguing with Job, because he was convinced of his uprightness.
Job 32:2 But Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite, of the clan of Ram, became very angry. He fumed with rage against Job for thinking that he was right and God was wrong;
Job 32:3 and he was equally angry with the three friends for giving up the argument and thus putting God in the wrong.
Job 32:4 While they and Job were talking, Elihu had waited, because they were older than he was;
Job 32:5 but when he saw that the three men had not another word to say in answer, his anger burst out.
Job 32:6 And Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite began to speak. He said: I am still young, and you are old, so I was shy and hesitant to tell you what I know.
Job 32:7 I thought, 'Age ought to speak, advancing years will convey wisdom.'
Job 32:8 There is, you see, a spirit residing in humanity, the breath of God conferring intelligence.
Job 32:9 Great age does not give wisdom, nor seniority fair judgement.
Job 32:10 And so I ask you for a hearing; now it is my turn to tell what I know.
Job 32:11 Up to now, I was hanging on your words, I paid attention to your arguments as each of you chose his words.
Job 32:12 I paid very close attention; and I see that none of you has confounded Job, not one of you has refuted what he says.
Job 32:13 So do not say, 'We have found wisdom; our teaching is divine and not human.'
Job 32:14 I am not going to follow the same line of argument; my reply to Job will be couched in different terms.
Job 32:15 They are nonplussed for an answer, words have failed them.
Job 32:16 I have been waiting. Since they do not speak, since they have given up the argument,
Job 32:17 now I shall have my say, my turn has come to say what I know.
Job 32:18 For I am full of words and forced to speak by a spirit within me;
Job 32:19 within me, it feels like new wine seeking a vent, bursting out of new wine-skins.
Job 32:20 To gain relief, I must speak, I must open my lips and reply.
Job 32:21 I shall not take anyone's side, I shall not flatter anyone.
Job 32:22 I do not know how to flatter -- or my Creator would make short work of me.
Job 33:1 So, Job, please listen to my words and attend to all I have to say.
Job 33:2 Now as I open my mouth, and my tongue shapes words against my palate,
Job 33:3 I shall utter words of wisdom from the heart, my lips will speak in all sincerity.
Job 33:4 God's was the spirit that made me, Shaddai's the breath that gave me life.
Job 33:5 Refute me, if you can. Prepare yourself, take up your position!
Job 33:6 Look, I am your equal, not some god, like you I was moulded out of clay.
Job 33:7 No fear of me, therefore, need affright you, my hand will not lie heavy over you.
Job 33:8 How could you say in my hearing -- for the sound of your words did not escape me-
Job 33:9 'I am clean, and sinless, I am pure, without fault.
Job 33:10 But he keeps inventing excuses against me and regards me as his enemy.
Job 33:11 He puts me in the stocks, he watches my every path'?
Job 33:12 In saying so, I tell you, you are wrong: for God is greater than any human being.
Job 33:13 Why then quarrel with him for not replying to you, word for word?
Job 33:14 God speaks first in one way, and then in another, although we do not realize it.
Job 33:15 In dreams and in night-visions, when slumber has settled on humanity and people are asleep in bed,
Job 33:16 he speaks in someone's ear, frightens him with apparitions
Job 33:17 to turn him from what he is doing and to put an end to his pride.
Job 33:18 And thus he preserves his soul from the abyss, his life from passing down the Canal.
Job 33:19 Or again, he corrects by the sufferings of the sick-bed, when someone's bones tremble continuously
Job 33:20 and the thought of food revolts him, however tasty it is,
Job 33:21 and his flesh rots away while you watch it and the bones beneath begin to show,
Job 33:22 and his soul is drawing nearer to the abyss and his life to the dwelling of the dead.
Job 33:23 Then, if there is an Angel near him, a Mediator, one in a thousand, to remind him where his duty lies,
Job 33:24 to take pity on him and to say, 'Spare him from going down to the abyss: I have found the ransom for his life,'
Job 33:25 his flesh will recover its childhood freshness, he will return to the days of his youth.
Job 33:26 He will pray to God who has restored him to favor, and will come into his presence with joy. He will tell others how he has received saving justice
Job 33:27 and sing this hymn before his companions, 'I sinned and left the path of right, but God has not punished me as my sin deserved.
Job 33:28 He has spared my soul from going down to the abyss and is making my life see the light.'
Job 33:29 All this is what God keeps doing again and yet again for human beings,
Job 33:30 to snatch souls back from the abyss and to make the light of the living still shine.
Job 33:31 Pay attention, Job, listen to me: keep quiet, I have more to say.
Job 33:32 If you have anything to say, refute me, speak out, for I would gladly accept that you are upright.
Job 33:33 If not, then listen to me: keep quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.
Job 34:1 Elihu continued his speech. He said:
Job 34:2 And now, you sages, listen to what I say, lend me your ears, you learned men.
Job 34:3 The ear distinguishes the value of what is said, just as the palate can tell one food from another.
Job 34:4 Let us consider together God's ruling and decide what we all mean by good.
Job 34:5 Job has been saying, 'I am upright and God denies me fair judgement.
Job 34:6 My judge is treating me cruelly, my wound is incurable, for no fault of mine.'
Job 34:7 Can anyone else exist like Job, who laps up mockery like water,
Job 34:8 who consorts with evil-doers and marches in step with the wicked?
Job 34:9 Did he not say, 'No one derives any benefit from enjoying the society of God'?
Job 34:10 Listen to me then, like intelligent people. Far be evil from God or injustice from Shaddai!
Job 34:11 For he pays people back for what they do, treating each as his own conduct deserves.
Job 34:12 Be sure of it: God never does wrong, Shaddai does not pervert what is just.
Job 34:13 Did someone else entrust the world to his care was he given charge of the universe by someone else?
Job 34:14 If he were to recall his spirit, to concentrate his breath back in himself,
Job 34:15 all flesh would instantly perish and all people would return to dust.
Job 34:16 If you have any intelligence, listen to this, lend your ear to the sound of my words.
Job 34:17 Could an enemy of fair judgement ever govern? Would you dare condemn the Upright One, the Almighty,
Job 34:18 who says to a king, 'You are a scoundrel!' and to nobles, 'You are wicked!',
Job 34:19 who is unimpressed by princes and makes no distinction between rich and poor, since all alike have been made by him?
Job 34:20 They die suddenly, at dead of night, they perish -- these great ones -- and disappear: it costs him no effort to remove a tyrant.
Job 34:21 For his eyes keep watch on human ways, and he observes every step.
Job 34:22 No darkness, no shadow dark as death where wrong-doers can hide!
Job 34:23 He serves no writ on anyone, no summons to appear before God's court:
Job 34:24 he breaks the powerful without enquiry and sets up others in their places.
Job 34:25 He knows the sort of things they do! He overthrows them at night, to be trampled on.
Job 34:26 He beats them like criminals chained up for all to see,
Job 34:27 since they have turned their backs on him, having understood so little of his ways
Job 34:28 as to make the cries of the weak rise to him and let him hear the appeal of the afflicted.
Job 34:29 But if he is still silent and no one can move him, if he veils his face, so that no one can see him, he is taking pity on nations and individuals,
Job 34:30 is setting some wrong-doer free from the meshes of affliction.
Job 34:31 When such a one says to God, 'I was misled, I shall not do wrong any more;
Job 34:32 although I have sinned, instruct me; although I did wrong, I will not do it again,'
Job 34:33 in your opinion, should he punish such a one -- you who have rejected his decisions? This is for you to decide -- not for me!- so kindly enlighten us!
Job 34:34 Ordinary sensible people, however, will say to me, and so will any sage who has been listening to me,
Job 34:35 'Job's words are spoken without any knowledge, what he says shows no intelligence.
Job 34:36 Kindly examine him thoroughly, since his answers imply that he is a criminal.
Job 34:37 For to his sin he now adds rebellion, bringing law to an end among us and heaping abuse on God.'
Job 35:1 Elihu continued his speech. He said:
Job 35:2 Do you think you can prove yourself upright and establish your uprightness before God
Job 35:3 by daring to say to him, 'What does it matter to you, or how does it benefit me, whether I have sinned or not?'
Job 35:4 Very well, I shall tell you and your friends as well.
Job 35:5 Take a look at the skies and see, observe how high the clouds are above you.
Job 35:6 If you sin, how can you affect him? If you heap up crimes, what effect has it on him?
Job 35:7 If you are upright, what do you give him, what benefit does he receive at your hands?
Job 35:8 Your wickedness affects only your fellows, your uprightness, other human beings.
Job 35:9 They too groan under the weight of oppression, they cry for help under the tyranny of the mighty,
Job 35:10 but none of them thinks of saying, 'Where is God, my Maker, who makes glad songs ring out at night,
Job 35:11 who has made us more intelligent than wild animals wiser than birds in the sky?'
Job 35:12 Cry they may, but get no answer, to be spared from the arrogance of the wicked.
Job 35:13 Of course God does not listen to trivialities, Shaddai pays no attention to them.
Job 35:14 And how much less when you say, 'I cannot see him, my case is open and I am waiting for him.'
Job 35:15 Or, 'His anger never punishes, he does not seem aware of human rebellion.'
Job 35:16 Hence, when Job speaks, he talks nonsense, ignorantly babbling on and on.
Job 36:1 Elihu went on speaking. He said:
Job 36:2 Be patient a little longer while I explain, for I have more to say on God's behalf.
Job 36:3 I shall range far afield for my arguments to prove my Maker just.
Job 36:4 I guarantee, nothing I shall say will be untrue: you have a man of sound learning here.
Job 36:5 God does not reject anyone whose heart is pure
Job 36:6 or let the sinner live on in all his power. He does accord fair judgement to the afflicted;
Job 36:7 he does uphold what the upright deserve. When he raises kings to thrones, if they grow proud of their unending rule,
Job 36:8 then he fetters them with chains, they are caught in the bonds of affliction.
Job 36:9 He shows them the import of their deeds, of the sins of pride they have committed.
Job 36:10 In their ears he sounds a warning, ordering them to turn back from doing wrong.
Job 36:11 If they take notice and obey him, the rest of their days are prosperous and the years pass pleasantly.
Job 36:12 If not, they go down the Canal and perish in their stupidity.
Job 36:13 The stubborn, who cherish their anger and do not cry for help when he chains them,
Job 36:14 die in the bloom of youth or live among the male prostitutes of the temple.
Job 36:15 But God saves the afflicted by his affliction, warning him in his misery.
Job 36:16 You, too, he would like to snatch from torment. While you were enjoying boundless abundance, with rich food piled high on your table,
Job 36:17 you did not bring the wicked to trial and did not give fair judgement to the orphan.
Job 36:18 Beware of being led astray by abundance, of being corrupted by expensive presents.
Job 36:19 Take the powerful to law, not merely the penniless, those whose arm is strong, not merely the weak.
Job 36:20 Do not crush people you do not know to install your relations in their place.
Job 36:21 Avoid any tendency to wrong-doing, for this is why affliction is testing you now.
Job 36:22 See, God is sublime in his strength and who can teach lessons as he does?
Job 36:23 Who has even told him which course to take, or dared to say to him, 'You have done wrong'?
Job 36:24 Consider, rather, how you may praise his work, a theme that many have sung.
Job 36:25 This is something that everyone can see, gazing, as we do, from afar.
Job 36:26 Yes, the greatness of God exceeds our knowledge, the number of his years is past counting.
Job 36:27 It is he who makes the raindrops small and pulverises the rain into mist.
Job 36:28 And the clouds then pour this out, sending it streaming down on the human race.
Job 36:29 And who can fathom how he spreads the clouds, or why such crashes thunder from his tent?
Job 36:30 He spreads a mist before him and covers the tops of the mountains.
Job 36:31 By these means, he sustains the peoples, giving them plenty to eat.
Job 36:32 He gathers up the lightning in his hands, assigning it the mark where to strike.
Job 36:33 His crashing gives warning of its coming, anger flashes out against iniquity.
Job 37:1 At this, my very heart quakes and leaps out of its place.
Job 37:2 Listen, oh listen, to the blast of his voice and the sound that issues from his mouth.
Job 37:3 His lightning is hurled across the heaven, it strikes to the extremities of earth.
Job 37:4 After it comes a roaring sound, God thunders with majestic voice. He does not check his thunderbolts until his voice resounds no more.
Job 37:5 Yes, certainly God shows us marvels and does great deeds that we cannot understand.
Job 37:6 When he says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth!' to the showers, 'Now rain hard!'
Job 37:7 he brings all human activity to a standstill, for everyone to acknowledge his work.
Job 37:8 The animals go back to their dens and take shelter in their lairs.
Job 37:9 The storm wind comes from the Mansion of the South, and the north winds usher in the cold.
Job 37:10 At the breath of God, ice comes next, the surface of the waters hardens over.
Job 37:11 He weighs the clouds down with moisture, and the storm clouds radiate his lightning.
Job 37:12 He himself guides their wheeling motion presiding over their seasonal changes. They carry out his orders to the letter all over this earthly world.
Job 37:13 Whether to punish earth's peoples or as a work of faithful love, he despatches them.
Job 37:14 Listen to this, Job, without flinching and reflect on the marvellous works of God.
Job 37:15 Do you know how God controls them or how his clouds make the lightning flash?
Job 37:16 Do you know how he balances the clouds -- a miracle of consummate skill?
Job 37:17 When your clothes are hot to your body and the earth lies still under the south wind,
Job 37:18 can you, like him, stretch out the sky, tempered like a mirror of cast metal?
Job 37:19 Teach me what we should say to him: but better discuss no further, since we are in the dark.
Job 37:20 Does he take note when I speak? When human beings give orders, does he take it in?
Job 37:21 There are times when the light vanishes, behind darkening clouds; then comes the wind, sweeping them away.
Job 37:22 and brightness spreads from the north. God is clothed in fearful splendor:
Job 37:23 he, Shaddai, is far beyond our reach. Supreme in power, in equity, excelling in saving justice, yet no oppressor-
Job 37:24 no wonder then that people fear him: everyone thoughtful holds him in awe!
Job 38:1 Then from the heart of the tempest Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave Job his answer. He said:
Job 38:2 Who is this, obscuring my intentions with his ignorant words?
Job 38:3 Brace yourself like a fighter; I am going to ask the questions, and you are to inform me!
Job 38:4 Where were you when I laid the earth's foundations? Tell me, since you are so well-informed!
Job 38:5 Who decided its dimensions, do you know? Or who stretched the measuring line across it?
Job 38:6 What supports its pillars at their bases? Who laid its cornerstone
Job 38:7 to the joyful concert of the morning stars and unanimous acclaim of the sons of God?
Job 38:8 Who pent up the sea behind closed doors when it leapt tumultuous from the womb,
Job 38:9 when I wrapped it in a robe of mist and made black clouds its swaddling bands;
Job 38:10 when I cut out the place I had decreed for it and imposed gates and a bolt?
Job 38:11 'Come so far,' I said, 'and no further; here your proud waves must break!'
Job 38:12 Have you ever in your life given orders to the morning or sent the dawn to its post,
Job 38:13 to grasp the earth by its edges and shake the wicked out of it?
Job 38:14 She turns it as red as a clay seal, she tints it as though it were a dress,
Job 38:15 stealing the light from evil-doers and breaking the arm raised to strike.
Job 38:16 Have you been right down to the sources of the sea and walked about at the bottom of the Abyss?
Job 38:17 Have you been shown the gates of Death, have you seen the janitors of the Shadow dark as death?
Job 38:18 Have you an inkling of the extent of the earth? Tell me all about it if you have!
Job 38:19 Which is the way to the home of the Light, and where does darkness live? -
Job 38:20 You could then show them the way to their proper places, you could put them on the path home again!
Job 38:21 If you do know, you must have been born when they were, you must be very old by now!
Job 38:22 Have you visited the place where the snow is stored? Have you seen the stores of hail,
Job 38:23 which I keep for times of distress, for days of battle and war?
Job 38:24 From which direction does the lightning fork, where in the world does the east wind blow itself out?
Job 38:25 Who bores a channel for the downpour or clears the way for the rolling thunder
Job 38:26 so that rain may fall on lands where no one lives, and the deserts void of human dwelling,
Job 38:27 to meet the needs of the lonely wastes and make grass sprout on the thirsty ground?
Job 38:28 Has the rain a father? Who begets the dewdrops?
Job 38:29 What womb brings forth the ice, who gives birth to the frost of heaven,
Job 38:30 when the waters grow hard as stone and the surface of the deep congeals?
Job 38:31 Can you fasten the harness of the Pleiades, or untie Orion's bands?
Job 38:32 Can you guide the Crown season by season and show the Bear and its cubs which way to go?
Job 38:33 Have you grasped the celestial laws? Could you make their writ run on the earth?
Job 38:34 Can your voice carry as far as the clouds and make the pent-up waters do your bidding?
Job 38:35 Will lightning flashes come at your command and answer, 'Here we are'?
Job 38:36 Who endowed the ibis with wisdom and gave the cock his intelligence?
Job 38:37 Whose skill details every cloud and tilts the water-skins of heaven
Job 38:38 until the dust solidifies and the cracks in the ground close up?
Job 38:39 Do you go hunting prey for the lioness; do you satisfy the hunger of young lions
Job 38:40 where they crouch in their den, waiting eagerly in the bushes?
Job 38:41 Who makes provision for the raven when his little ones cry out to God craning their necks in search of food?
Job 39:1 Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you ever watched deer in labour?
Job 39:2 Have you ever counted the months that they carry their young? Do you know when they give birth?
Job 39:3 They crouch to drop their young, they get rid of their burdens
Job 39:4 and the calves, having grown big and strong, go off into the desert and never come back to them.
Job 39:5 Who has given the wild donkey his freedom, who has undone the harness of the brayer?
Job 39:6 I have given him the wastelands as his home, the salt plain as his habitat.
Job 39:7 He scorns the turmoil of the town, obeys no donkey-man's shouts.
Job 39:8 The mountains are the pastures that he ranges in quest of anything green.
Job 39:9 Is the wild ox willing to serve you or spend a night beside your manger?
Job 39:10 If you tie a rope round his neck will he harrow the furrows for you?
Job 39:11 Can you rely on his massive strength and leave him to do your heavy work?
Job 39:12 Can you depend on him to come home and pile your grain on your threshing-floor?
Job 39:13 Can the wing of the ostrich be compared with the plumage of stork or falcon?
Job 39:14 She leaves her eggs on the ground with only earth to warm them;
Job 39:15 forgetting that a foot may tread on them or a wild animal crush them.
Job 39:16 Cruel to her chicks as if they were not hers, little she cares if her labour goes for nothing.
Job 39:17 God, you see, has deprived her of wisdom and given her no share of intelligence.
Job 39:18 Yet, if she bestirs herself to use her height, she can make fools of horse and rider too.
Job 39:19 Are you the one who makes the horse so brave and covers his neck with flowing mane?
Job 39:20 Do you make him leap like a grasshopper? His haughty neighing inspires terror.
Job 39:21 Exultantly he paws the soil of the valley, and charges the battle-line in all his strength.
Job 39:22 He laughs at fear; he is afraid of nothing, he recoils before no sword.
Job 39:23 On his back the quiver rattles, the flashing spear and javelin.
Job 39:24 Trembling with impatience, he eats up the miles; when the trumpet sounds, there is no holding him.
Job 39:25 At each trumpet blast he neighs exultantly. He scents the battle from afar, the thundering of the commanders and the war cry.
Job 39:26 Is it your wisdom that sets the hawk flying when he spreads his wings to travel south?
Job 39:27 Does the eagle soar at your command to make her eyrie in the heights?
Job 39:28 She spends her nights among the crags with a needle of rock as her fortress,
Job 39:29 from which she watches for prey, fixing it with her far-ranging eye.
Job 39:30 Even her young drink blood; where anyone has been killed, she is there.
Job 40:1 Still speaking to Job, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said:
Job 40:2 Is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s opponent going to give way? Has God's critic thought up an answer?
Job 40:3 Job replied to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Job 40:4 My words have been frivolous: what can I reply? I had better lay my hand over my mouth.
Job 40:5 I have spoken once, I shall not speak again; I have spoken twice, I have nothing more to say.
Job 40:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave Job his answer from the heart of the tempest. He said:
Job 40:7 Brace yourself like a fighter, I am going to ask the questions, and you are to inform me!
Job 40:8 Do you really want to reverse my judgement, put me in the wrong and yourself in the right?
Job 40:9 Has your arm the strength of God's, can your voice thunder as loud?
Job 40:10 Come on, display your majesty and grandeur, robe yourself in splendor and glory.
Job 40:11 Let the fury of your anger burst forth, humble the haughty at a glance!
Job 40:12 At a glance, bring down all the proud, strike down the wicked where they stand.
Job 40:13 Bury the lot of them in the ground, shut them, every one, in the Dungeon.
Job 40:14 And I shall be the first to pay you homage, since your own right hand is strong enough to save you.
Job 40:15 But look at Behemoth, my creature, just as you are! He feeds on greenstuff like the ox,
Job 40:16 but what strength he has in his loins, what power in his stomach muscles!
Job 40:17 His tail is as stiff as a cedar, the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
Job 40:18 His bones are bronze tubes, his frame like forged iron.
Job 40:19 He is the first of the works of God. His Maker threatened him with the sword,
Job 40:20 forbidding him the mountain regions and all the wild animals that play there.
Job 40:21 Under the lotus he lies, he hides among the reeds in the swamps.
Job 40:22 The leaves of the lotus give him shade, the willows by the stream shelter him.
Job 40:23 If the river overflows, he does not worry: Jordan might come up to his mouth, but he would not care.
Job 40:24 Who is going to catch him by the eyes or put poles through his nose?
Job 40:25 Leviathan, too! Can you catch him with a fish-hook or hold his tongue down with a rope?
Job 40:26 Can you put a cane through his nostrils or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Job 40:27 Will he plead lengthily with you, addressing you in diffident tones?
Job 40:28 Will he strike a bargain with you to become your slave for life?
Job 40:29 Will you make a pet of him, like a bird, keep him on a lead to amuse your little girls?
Job 40:30 Is he to be sold by the fishing guild and then retailed by merchants?
Job 40:31 Riddle his hide with darts? Or his head with fishing spears?
Job 40:32 You have only to lay a finger on him never to forget the struggle or risk it again!
Job 41:1 Any hope you might have would be futile, the mere sight of him would overwhelm you.
Job 41:2 When roused, he grows ferocious, who could ever stand up to him?
Job 41:3 Who has ever attacked him with impunity? No one beneath all heaven!
Job 41:4 Next I will talk of his limbs and describe his matchless strength-
Job 41:5 who can undo the front of his tunic or pierce the double armour of his breastplate?
Job 41:6 Who dare open the gates of his mouth? Terror reigns round his teeth!
Job 41:7 His back is like rows of shields, sealed with a stone seal,
Job 41:8 touching each other so close that no breath could pass between,
Job 41:9 sticking to one another making an impervious whole.
Job 41:10 His sneezes radiate light, his eyes are like the eyelashes of the dawn.
Job 41:11 From his mouth come fiery torches, sparks of fire fly out of it.
Job 41:12 His nostrils belch smoke like a cauldron boiling on the fire.
Job 41:13 His breath could kindle coals, flame issues from his mouth.
Job 41:14 His strength resides in his neck, violence leaps before him as he goes.
Job 41:15 The strips of his flesh are jointed together, firmly set in and immovable.
Job 41:16 His heart is as hard as rock unyielding as the lower millstone.
Job 41:17 When he stands up, the waves take fright and the billows of the sea retreat.
Job 41:18 Sword may strike but will not stick in him, no more will spear, javelin or lance.
Job 41:19 Iron means no more to him than straw, nor bronze than rotten wood.
Job 41:20 No arrow can make him flee, a sling-stone tickles him like hay.
Job 41:21 Club seems to him like straw, he laughs at the whirring javelin.
Job 41:22 He has sharp potsherds underneath, and moves across the slime like a harrow.
Job 41:23 He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron, he makes the sea fume like a scent burner.
Job 41:24 Behind him he leaves a glittering wake -- a white fleece seems to float on the deeps.
Job 41:25 He has no equal on earth, being created without fear.
Job 41:26 He looks the haughtiest in the eye; of all the lordly beasts he is king.
Job 42:1 This was the answer Job gave to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Job 42:2 I know that you are all-powerful: what you conceive, you can perform.
Job 42:3 I was the man who misrepresented your intentions with my ignorant words. You have told me about great works that I cannot understand, about marvels which are beyond me, of which I know nothing.
Job 42:4 (Listen, please, and let me speak: I am going to ask the questions, and you are to inform me.)
Job 42:5 Before, I knew you only by hearsay but now, having seen you with my own eyes,
Job 42:6 I retract what I have said, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:7 When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had finished saying this to Job, he said to Eliphaz of Teman, 'I burn with anger against you and your two friends, for not having spoken correctly about me as my servant Job has done.
Job 42:8 So now find seven bullocks and seven rams, and take them back with you to my servant Job and make a burnt offering for yourselves, while Job, my servant, offers prayers for you. I shall show him favor and shall not inflict my displeasure on you for not having spoken about me correctly, as my servant Job has done.'
Job 42:9 Eliphaz of Teman, Bildad of Shuah and Zophar of Naamath went away to do as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) listened to Job with favor.
Job 42:10 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) restored Job's condition, while Job was interceding for his friends. More than that, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave him double what he had before.
Job 42:11 And all his brothers and all his sisters and all his friends of former times came to see him. Over dinner in his house, they showed their sympathy and comforted him for all the evils Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had inflicted on him. Each of them gave him a silver coin, and each a gold ring.
Job 42:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blessed Job's latter condition even more than his former one. He came to own fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-donkeys.
Job 42:13 He had seven sons and three daughters;
Job 42:14 his first daughter he called 'Turtledove', the second 'Cassia' and the third 'Mascara'.
Job 42:15 Throughout the land there were no women as beautiful as the daughters of Job. And their father gave them inheritance rights like their brothers.
Job 42:16 After this, Job lived for another one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and his children's children to the fourth generation.
Job 42:17 Then, old and full of days, Job died.
Psa 1:1 How blessed is anyone who rejects the advice of the wicked and does not take a stand in the path that sinners tread, nor a seat in company with cynics,
Psa 1:2 but who delights in the law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and murmurs his law day and night.
Psa 1:3 Such a one is like a tree planted near streams; it bears fruit in season and its leaves never wither, and every project succeeds.
Psa 1:4 How different the wicked, how different! Just like chaff blown around by the wind
Psa 1:5 the wicked will not stand firm at the Judgement nor sinners in the gathering of the upright.
Psa 1:6 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) watches over the path of the upright, but the path of the wicked is doomed.
Psa 2:1 Why this uproar among the nations, this impotent muttering of the peoples?
Psa 2:2 Kings of the earth take up position, princes plot together against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his anointed,
Psa 2:3 'Now let us break their fetters! Now let us throw off their bonds!'
Psa 2:4 He who is enthroned in the heavens laughs, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) makes a mockery of them,
Psa 2:5 then in his anger rebukes them, in his rage he strikes them with terror.
Psa 2:6 'I myself have anointed my king on Zion my holy mountain.'
Psa 2:7 I will proclaim the decree of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): He said to me, 'You are my son, today have I fathered you.
Psa 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give you the nations as your birthright, the whole wide world as your possession.
Psa 2:9 With an iron scepter you will break them, shatter them like so many pots.'
Psa 2:10 So now, you kings, come to your senses, you earthly rulers, learn your lesson!
Psa 2:11 In fear be submissive to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Psa 2:12 with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry and your way come to nothing, for his fury flares up in a moment. How blessed are all who take refuge in him!
Psa 3:1 [Psalm Of David When he was fleeing from his son Absalom] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), how countless are my enemies, how countless those who rise up against me,
Psa 3:2 how countless those who say of me, 'No salvation for him from his God!'Pause
Psa 3:3 But you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the shield at my side, my glory, you hold my head high.
Psa 3:4 I cry out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he answers from his holy mountain.Pause
Psa 3:5 As for me, if I lie down and sleep, I shall awake, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sustains me.
Psa 3:6 I have no fear of people in their thousands upon thousands, who range themselves against me wherever I turn.
Psa 3:7 Arise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), rescue me, my God! You strike all my foes across the face, you break the teeth of the wicked.
Psa 3:8 In Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is salvation, on your people, your blessing!Pause
Psa 4:1 [For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Of David] When I call, answer me, God, upholder of my right. In my distress you have set me at large; take pity on me and hear my prayer!
Psa 4:2 Children of men, how long will you be heavy of heart, why love what is vain and chase after illusions?Pause
Psa 4:3 realize that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) performs wonders for his faithful, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) listens when I call to him.
Psa 4:4 Be careful not to sin, speak in your hearts, and on your beds keep silence.Pause
Psa 4:5 Loyally offer sacrifices, and trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 4:6 Many keep saying, 'Who will put happiness before our eyes?' Let the light of your face shine on us. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Psa 4:7 to my heart you are a richer joy than all their corn and new wine.
Psa 4:8 In peace I lie down and at once fall asleep, for it is you and none other, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who make me rest secure.
Psa 5:1 [For the choirmaster For flutes Psalm Of David] Give ear to my words, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), spare a thought for my sighing.
Psa 5:2 Listen to my cry for help, my King and my God! To you I pray,
Psa 5:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). At daybreak you hear my voice; at daybreak I lay my case before you and fix my eyes on you.
Psa 5:4 You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil, no sinner can be your guest.
Psa 5:5 Boasters cannot stand their ground under your gaze. You hate evil-doers,
Psa 5:6 liars you destroy; the violent and deceitful Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) detests.
Psa 5:7 But, so great is your faithful love, I may come into your house, and before your holy temple bow down in reverence of you.
Psa 5:8 In your saving justice, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), lead me, because of those who lie in wait for me; make your way plain before me.
Psa 5:9 Not a word from their lips can be trusted, through and through they are destruction, their throats are wide -- open graves, their tongues seductive.
Psa 5:10 Lay the guilt on them, God, make their intrigues their own downfall; for their countless offenses, thrust them from you, since they have rebelled against you.
Psa 5:11 But joy for all who take refuge in you, endless songs of gladness! You shelter them, they rejoice in you, those who love your name.
Psa 5:12 It is you who bless the upright, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you surround them with favor as with a shield.
Psa 6:1 [For the choirmaster For strings For the octachord Psalm Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), let your rebuke to me not be in anger, your punishment not in the heat of wrath.
Psa 6:2 Have pity on me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for I am fading away. Heal me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my bones are shaken,
Psa 6:3 my spirit is shaken to its very depths. But you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) . . . how long?
Psa 6:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), relent and save my life rescue me because of your faithful love,
Psa 6:5 for in death there is no remembrance of you; who could sing your praises in Sheol?
Psa 6:6 I am worn out with groaning, every night I drench my pillow and soak my bed with tears.
Psa 6:7 My eyes waste away with vexation. Arrogance from all my foes!
Psa 6:8 Away from me, all evil-doers! For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has heard the sound of my weeping,
Psa 6:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has heard my pleading. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will accept my prayer.
Psa 6:10 Let all my enemies be put to confusion, shaken to their depths, let them retreat in sudden confusion.
Psa 7:1 [Lament Of David Which he sang to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) about Cush the Benjaminite] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, I take refuge in you, save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Psa 7:2 or he will savage me like a lion, carry me off with no one to rescue me.
Psa 7:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, if I have done this: if injustice has stained my hands,
Psa 7:4 if I have repaid my ally with treachery or spared one who attacked me unprovoked,
Psa 7:5 may an enemy hunt me down and catch me, may he trample my life into the ground and crush my vital parts into the dust.Pause
Psa 7:6 Arise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in your anger, rise up against the arrogance of my foes. Awake, my God, you demand judgement.
Psa 7:7 Let the assembly of nations gather round you; return above it on high!
Psa 7:8 (Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) judges the nations.) Judge me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as my uprightness and my integrity deserve.
Psa 7:9 Put an end to the malice of the wicked, make the upright stand firm, you who discern hearts and minds, God the upright.
Psa 7:10 God is a shield that protects me, saving the honest of heart.
Psa 7:11 God is an upright judge, slow to anger, but a God at all times threatening
Psa 7:12 for those who will not repent. Let the enemy whet his sword, draw his bow and make ready;
Psa 7:13 but he is making ready instruments of death for himself and tipping his arrows with fire;
Psa 7:14 look at him: pregnant with malice, conceiving spite, he gives birth to treachery.
Psa 7:15 He digs a trap, scoops it out, but he falls into the snare he made himself.
Psa 7:16 His spite recoils on his own head, his brutality falls back on his own skull.
Psa 7:17 I thank Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his saving justice. I sing to the name of the Most High.
Psa 8:1 [For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Psalm Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our Lord, how majestic is your name throughout the world! Whoever keeps singing of your majesty higher than the heavens,
Psa 8:2 even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms, you make him a fortress, firm against your foes, to subdue the enemy and the rebel.
Psa 8:3 I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers, at the moon and the stars you set firm-
Psa 8:4 what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him?
Psa 8:5 Yet you have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty,
Psa 8:6 made him lord of the works of your hands, put all things under his feet,
Psa 8:7 sheep and cattle, all of them, and even the wild beasts,
Psa 8:8 birds in the sky, fish in the sea, when he makes his way across the ocean.
Psa 8:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our Lord, how majestic your name throughout the world!
Psa 9:1 [For the choirmaster On oboe and harp Psalm Of David] I thank you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with my whole heart, I recount all your wonders,
Psa 9:2 I rejoice and delight in you, I sing to your name, Most High.
Psa 9:3 My enemies are in retreat, they stumble and perish at your presence,
Psa 9:4 for you have given fair judgement in my favor, seated on your throne as upright judge.
Psa 9:5 You have rebuked the nations, destroyed the wicked, blotted out their name for ever and ever;
Psa 9:6 the enemy is wiped out -- mere ruins for ever -- you have annihilated their cities, their memory has perished. See,
Psa 9:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is enthroned for ever, keeping his throne firm for judgement;
Psa 9:8 he will himself judge the world in uprightness, will give a true verdict on the nations.
Psa 9:9 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble!
Psa 9:10 Those who revere your name can rely on you, you never desert those who seek you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 9:11 Sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who dwells in Zion, tell the nations his mighty deeds,
Psa 9:12 for the avenger of blood does not forget them, he does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.
Psa 9:13 Have pity on me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), see my affliction, pull me back from the gates of death,
Psa 9:14 that I may recount all your praises at the gates of the daughter of Zion and rejoice in your salvation.
Psa 9:15 The nations have fallen into the trap they made, their feet caught in the snare they laid.
Psa 9:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made himself known, given judgement, he has ensnared the wicked in the work of their own hands.Muted music Pause
Psa 9:17 May the wicked turn away to Sheol, all the nations forgetful of God.
Psa 9:18 For the needy is not forgotten for ever, not for ever does the hope of the poor come to nothing.
Psa 9:19 Arise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); human strength shall not prevail. The nations shall stand trial before you.
Psa 9:20 Strike them with terror, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); the nations shall know that they are no more than human!Pause
Psa 10:1 Why, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do you keep so distant, stay hidden in times of trouble?
Psa 10:2 In his pride the wicked hunts down the weak, who is caught in the schemes he devises.
Psa 10:3 The wicked is proud of his inmost desires, by his blasphemies the grasping spurns Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Psa 10:4 the wicked in his arrogance does not look very far; 'There is no God,' is his only thought.
Psa 10:5 In all circumstances his step is assured; your judgements are above his head. His rivals? He scoffs at them all.
Psa 10:6 He says in his heart, 'I shall never be shaken,' free of trouble himself,
Psa 10:7 he wishes it on others. His speech is full of lies and browbeating, under his tongue lurk spite and wickedness.
Psa 10:8 In the undergrowth he lies in ambush, in his hiding-place he murders the innocent. He watches intently for the downtrodden,
Psa 10:9 lurking unseen like a lion in his lair, lurking to pounce on the poor; he pounces on him and drags him off in his net.
Psa 10:10 He keeps watch, crouching down low, the poor wretch falls into his clutches;
Psa 10:11 he says in his heart, 'God forgets, he has turned away his face to avoid seeing the end.'
Psa 10:12 Rise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! God, raise your hand, do not forget the afflicted!
Psa 10:13 Why should the wicked spurn God, assuring himself you will never follow it up?
Psa 10:14 You have seen for yourself the trouble and vexation, you watch so as to take it in hand. The oppressed relies on you; you are the only recourse of the orphan.
Psa 10:15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil, seek out wickedness till there is none left to be found.
Psa 10:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is king for ever and ever, the heathen has vanished from his country.
Psa 10:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you listen to the laments of the poor, you give them courage, you grant them a hearing,
Psa 10:18 to give judgement for the orphaned and exploited, so that earthborn humans may strike terror no more.
Psa 11:1 [For the choirmaster Of David] In Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I have found refuge. How can you say to me, 'Bird, flee to your mountain?
Psa 11:2 'For look, the wicked are drawing their bows, fitting their arrows to the string to shoot honest men from the shadows.
Psa 11:3 If the foundations fall to ruin, what can the upright do?'
Psa 11:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in his holy temple! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), his throne is in heaven; his eyes watch over the world, his gaze scrutinises the children of Adam.
Psa 11:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) examines the upright and the wicked, the lover of violence he detests.
Psa 11:6 He will rain down red-hot coals, fire and sulphur on the wicked, a scorching wind will be their lot.
Psa 11:7 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is upright and loves uprightness, the honest will ever see his face.
Psa 12:1 [For the choirmaster On the octachord Psalm Of David] Help, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! No one loyal is left, the faithful have vanished from among the children of Adam.
Psa 12:2 Friend tells lies to friend, and, smooth-tongued, speaks from an insincere heart.
Psa 12:3 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) cut away every smooth lip, every boastful tongue,
Psa 12:4 those who say, 'In our tongue lies our strength, our lips are our allies; who can master us?'
Psa 12:5 'For the poor who are plundered, the needy who groan, now will I act,' says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'I will grant salvation to those who sigh for it.'
Psa 12:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s promises are promises unalloyed, natural silver which comes from the earth seven times refined.
Psa 12:7 You, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will watch over them, you will protect them from that brood for ever.
Psa 12:8 The wicked will scatter in every direction, as the height of depravity among the children of Adam.
Psa 13:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] How long, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will you forget me? For ever? How long will you turn away your face from me?
Psa 13:2 How long must I nurse rebellion in my soul, sorrow in my heart day and night? How long is the enemy to domineer over me?
Psa 13:3 Look down, answer me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God! Give light to my eyes or I shall fall into the sleep of death.
Psa 13:4 Or my foe will boast, 'I have overpowered him,' and my enemy have the joy of seeing me stumble.
Psa 13:5 As for me, I trust in your faithful love, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Let my heart delight in your saving help, let me sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his generosity to me, let me sing to the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the Most High!
Psa 14:1 [For the choirmaster Of David] The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.' Their deeds are corrupt and vile, not one of them does right.
Psa 14:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looks down from heaven at the children of Adam. To see if a single one is wise, a single one seeks God.
Psa 14:3 All have turned away, all alike turned sour, not one of them does right, not a single one.
Psa 14:4 Are they not aware, all these evil-doers? They are devouring my people, this is the bread they eat, and they never call to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 14:5 They will be gripped with fear, where there is no need for fear, for God takes the side of the upright;
Psa 14:6 you may mock the plans of the poor, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is their refuge.
Psa 14:7 Who will bring from Zion salvation for Israel? When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brings his people home, what joy for Jacob, what happiness for Israel!
Psa 15:1 [Psalm Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who can find a home in your tent, who can dwell on your holy mountain?
Psa 15:2 Whoever lives blamelessly, who acts uprightly, who speaks the truth from the heart,
Psa 15:3 who keeps the tongue under control, who does not wrong a comrade, who casts no discredit on a neighbor,
Psa 15:4 who looks with scorn on the vile, but honors those who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who stands by an oath at any cost,
Psa 15:5 who asks no interest on loans, who takes no bribe to harm the innocent. No one who so acts can ever be shaken.
Psa 16:1 [In a quiet voice Of David] Protect me, O God, in you is my refuge.
Psa 16:2 To Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I say, 'You are my Lord, my happiness is in none
Psa 16:3 of the sacred spirits of the earth.' They only take advantage of all who love them.
Psa 16:4 People flock to their teeming idols. Never shall I pour libations to them! Never take their names on my lips.
Psa 16:5 My birthright, my cup is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); you, you alone, hold my lot secure.
Psa 16:6 The measuring-line marks out for me a delightful place, my birthright is all I could wish.
Psa 16:7 I bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who is my counsellor, even at night my heart instructs me.
Psa 16:8 I keep Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) before me always, for with him at my right hand, nothing can shake me.
Psa 16:9 So my heart rejoices, my soul delights, my body too will rest secure,
Psa 16:10 for you will not abandon me to Sheol, you cannot allow your faithful servant to see the abyss.
Psa 16:11 You will teach me the path of life, unbounded joy in your presence, at your right hand delight for ever.
Psa 17:1 [Prayer Of David] Listen, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to an upright cause, pay attention to my cry, lend an ear to my prayer, my lips free from deceit.
Psa 17:2 From your presence will issue my vindication, your eyes fixed on what is right.
Psa 17:3 You probe my heart, examine me at night, you test me by fire and find no evil. I have not sinned with my mouth
Psa 17:4 as most people do. I have treasured the word from your lips,
Psa 17:5 my steps never stray from the paths you lay down, from your tracks; so my feet never stumble.
Psa 17:6 I call upon you, God, for you answer me; turn your ear to me, hear what I say.
Psa 17:7 Show the evidence of your faithful love, Savior of those who hope in your strength against attack.
Psa 17:8 Guard me as the pupil of an eye, shelter me in the shadow of your wings
Psa 17:9 from the presence of the wicked who would maltreat me; deadly enemies are closing in on me.
Psa 17:10 Engrossed in themselves they are mouthing arrogant words.
Psa 17:11 They are advancing against me, now they are closing in, watching for the chance to hurl me to the ground,
Psa 17:12 like a lion preparing to pounce, like a young lion crouching in ambush.
Psa 17:13 Arise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), confront him and bring him down, with your sword save my life from the wicked,
Psa 17:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), from mortals, by your hand, from mortals whose part in life is in this world. You fill their bellies from your store, their children will have all they desire, and leave their surplus to their children.
Psa 17:15 But I in my uprightness will see your face, and when I awake I shall be filled with the vision of you.
Psa 18:1 [For the choirmaster Of David, the servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who addressed the words of this song to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had delivered him from all his enemies and from the clutches of Saul. He said:] I love you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my strength (my Savior, you have saved me from violence).
Psa 18:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my rock and my fortress, my deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge.
Psa 18:3 I call to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my foes.
Psa 18:4 With Death's breakers closing in on me, Belial's torrents ready to swallow me,
Psa 18:5 Sheol's snares every side of me, Death's traps lying ahead of me,
Psa 18:6 I called to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in my anguish, I cried for help to my God; from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears.
Psa 18:7 Then the earth quaked and rocked, the mountains' foundations shuddered, they quaked at his blazing anger.
Psa 18:8 Smoke rose from his nostrils, from his mouth devouring fire (coals were kindled at it).
Psa 18:9 He parted the heavens and came down, a storm-cloud underneath his feet;
Psa 18:10 riding one of the winged creatures, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.
Psa 18:11 His covering he made the darkness, his pavilion dark waters and dense cloud.
Psa 18:12 A brightness lit up before him, hail and blazing fire.
Psa 18:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) thundered from the heavens, the Most High made his voice heard.
Psa 18:14 He shot his arrows and scattered them, he hurled his lightning and routed them.
Psa 18:15 The very springs of ocean were exposed, the world's foundations were laid bare, at your roaring, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at the blast of breath from your nostrils!
Psa 18:16 He reached down from on high, snatched me up, pulled me from the watery depths,
Psa 18:17 rescued me from my mighty foe, from my enemies who were stronger than I.
Psa 18:18 They assailed me on my day of disaster but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was there to support me;
Psa 18:19 he freed me, set me at large, he rescued me because he loves me.
Psa 18:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rewards me for my uprightness, as my hands are pure, so he repays me,
Psa 18:21 since I have kept the ways of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and not fallen away from my God.
Psa 18:22 His judgements are all before me, his statutes I have not put away from me.
Psa 18:23 I am blameless before him, I keep myself clear of evil.
Psa 18:24 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) repaid me for acting uprightly because he could see I was pure.
Psa 18:25 You are faithful to the faithful, blameless with the blameless,
Psa 18:26 sincere to the sincere, but cunning to the crafty,
Psa 18:27 you save a people that is humble and humiliate those with haughty looks.
Psa 18:28 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you yourself are my lamp, my God lights up my darkness;
Psa 18:29 with you I storm the rampart, with my God I can scale any wall.
Psa 18:30 This God, his way is blameless; the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is refined in the furnace, for he alone is the shield of all who take refuge in him.
Psa 18:31 For who is God but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who is a rock but our God?
Psa 18:32 This God who girds me with strength, who makes my way free from blame,
Psa 18:33 who makes me as swift as a deer and sets me firmly on the heights,
Psa 18:34 who trains my hands for battle, my arms to bend a bow of bronze.
Psa 18:35 You give me your invincible shield (your right hand upholds me) you never cease to listen to me,
Psa 18:36 you give me the strides of a giant, give me ankles that never weaken.
Psa 18:37 I pursue my enemies and overtake them, not turning back till they are annihilated;
Psa 18:38 I strike them down and they cannot rise, they fall, they are under my feet.
Psa 18:39 You have girded me with strength for the fight, bent down my assailants beneath me,
Psa 18:40 made my enemies retreat before me; and those who hate me I destroy.
Psa 18:41 They cry out, there is no one to save; to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but no answer comes.
Psa 18:42 I crumble them like dust before the wind, trample them like the mud of the streets.
Psa 18:43 You free me from the quarrels of my people, you place me at the head of the nations, a people I did not know are now my servants;
Psa 18:44 foreigners come wooing my favor, no sooner do they hear than they obey me;
Psa 18:45 foreigners grow faint of heart, they come trembling out of their fastnesses.
Psa 18:46 Life to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be the God of my salvation,
Psa 18:47 the God who gives me vengeance, and subjects whole peoples to me,
Psa 18:48 who rescues me from my raging enemies. You lift me high above those who attack me, you deliver me from the man of violence.
Psa 18:49 For this I will praise you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), among the nations, and sing praise to your name.
Psa 18:50 He saves his king time after time, displays his faithful love for his anointed, for David and his heirs for ever.
Psa 19:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] The heavens declare the glory of God, the vault of heaven proclaims his handiwork,
Psa 19:2 day discourses of it to day, night to night hands on the knowledge.
Psa 19:3 No utterance at all, no speech, not a sound to be heard,
Psa 19:4 but from the entire earth the design stands out, this message reaches the whole world. High above, he pitched a tent for the sun,
Psa 19:5 who comes forth from his pavilion like a bridegroom, delights like a champion in the course to be run.
Psa 19:6 Rising on the one horizon he runs his circuit to the other, and nothing can escape his heat.
Psa 19:7 The Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is perfect, refreshment to the soul; the decree of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is trustworthy, wisdom for the simple.
Psa 19:8 The precepts of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) are honest, joy for the heart; the commandment of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is pure, light for the eyes.
Psa 19:9 The fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is pure, lasting for ever; the judgements of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) are true, upright, every one,
Psa 19:10 more desirable than gold, even than the finest gold; his words are sweeter than honey, that drips from the comb.
Psa 19:11 Thus your servant is formed by them; observing them brings great reward.
Psa 19:12 But who can detect his own failings? Wash away my hidden faults.
Psa 19:13 And from pride preserve your servant, never let it be my master. So shall I be above reproach, free from grave sin.
Psa 19:14 May the words of my mouth always find favor, and the whispering of my heart, in your presence, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my rock, my redeemer.
Psa 20:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) answer you in time of trouble, may the name of the God of Jacob protect you!
Psa 20:2 May he send you help from the sanctuary, give you support from Zion!
Psa 20:3 May he remember all your sacrifices and delight in your burnt offerings! Pause
Psa 20:4 May he grant you your heart's desire and crown all your plans with success!
Psa 20:5 So that with joy we can hail your victory and draw up our ranks in the name of our God. May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) grant all your petitions.
Psa 20:6 Now I know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives victory to his anointed. He will respond from his holy heavens with great deeds of victory from his right hand.
Psa 20:7 Some call on chariots, some on horses, but we on the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.
Psa 20:8 They will crumple and fall, while we stand upright and firm.
Psa 20:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), save the king, answer us when we call.
Psa 21:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the king rejoices in your power; How your saving help fills him with joy!
Psa 21:2 You have granted him his heart's desire, not denied him the prayer of his lips.Pause
Psa 21:3 For you come to meet him with blessings of prosperity, put a crown of pure gold on his head.
Psa 21:4 He has asked for life, you have given it him, length of days for ever and ever.
Psa 21:5 Great his glory through your saving help; you invest him with splendor and majesty.
Psa 21:6 You confer on him everlasting blessings, you gladden him with the joy of your presence.
Psa 21:7 For the king puts his trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); the faithful love of the Most High will keep him from falling.
Psa 21:8 Your hand will reach all your enemies, your right hand all who hate you.
Psa 21:9 You will hurl them into a blazing furnace on the day when you appear; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will engulf them in his anger, and fire will devour them.
Psa 21:10 You will purge the earth of their descendants, the human race of their posterity.
Psa 21:11 They have devised evil against you but, plot as they may, they will not succeed,
Psa 21:12 since you will make them turn tail, by shooting your arrows in their faces.
Psa 21:13 Rise, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in your power! We will sing and make music in honor of your strength.
Psa 22:1 [For the choirmaster To 'the Doe of the Dawn' Psalm Of David] My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The words of my groaning do nothing to save me.
Psa 22:2 My God, I call by day but you do not answer, at night, but I find no respite.
Psa 22:3 Yet you, the Holy One, who make your home in the praises of Israel,
Psa 22:4 in you our ancestors put their trust, they trusted and you set them free.
Psa 22:5 To you they called for help and were delivered; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
Psa 22:6 But I am a worm, less than human, scorn of mankind, contempt of the people;
Psa 22:7 all who see me jeer at me, they sneer and wag their heads,
Psa 22:8 'He trusted himself to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) set him free! Let him deliver him, as he took such delight in him.'
Psa 22:9 It was you who drew me from the womb and soothed me on my mother's breast.
Psa 22:10 On you was I cast from my birth, from the womb I have belonged to you.
Psa 22:11 Do not hold aloof, for trouble is upon me, and no one to help me!
Psa 22:12 Many bulls are encircling me, wild bulls of Bashan closing in on me.
Psa 22:13 Lions ravening and roaring open their jaws at me.
Psa 22:14 My strength is trickling away, my bones are all disjointed, my heart has turned to wax, melting inside me.
Psa 22:15 My mouth is dry as earthenware, my tongue sticks to my jaw. You lay me down in the dust of death.
Psa 22:16 A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of villains closing in on me as if to hack off my hands and my feet.
Psa 22:17 I can count every one of my bones, while they look on and gloat;
Psa 22:18 they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
Psa 22:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not hold aloof! My strength, come quickly to my help,
Psa 22:20 rescue my soul from the sword, the one life I have from the grasp of the dog!
Psa 22:21 Save me from the lion's mouth, my poor life from the wild bulls' horns!
Psa 22:22 I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly:
Psa 22:23 'You who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), praise him! All the race of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all the race of Israel!'
Psa 22:24 For he has not despised nor disregarded the poverty of the poor, has not turned away his face, but has listened to the cry for help.
Psa 22:25 Of you is my praise in the thronged assembly, I will perform my vows before all who fear him.
Psa 22:26 The poor will eat and be filled, those who seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will praise him, 'May your heart live for ever.'
Psa 22:27 The whole wide world will remember and return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all the families of nations bow down before him.
Psa 22:28 For to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), ruler of the nations, belongs kingly power!
Psa 22:29 All who prosper on earth will bow before him, all who go down to the dust will do reverence before him. And those who are dead,
Psa 22:30 their descendants will serve him, will proclaim his name to generations
Psa 22:31 still to come; and these will tell of his saving justice to a people yet unborn: he has fulfilled it.
Psa 23:1 [Psalm Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
Psa 23:2 In grassy meadows he lets me lie. By tranquil streams he leads me
Psa 23:3 to restore my spirit. He guides me in paths of saving justice as befits his name.
Psa 23:4 Even were I to walk in a ravine as dark as death I should fear no danger, for you are at my side. Your staff and your crook are there to soothe me.
Psa 23:5 You prepare a table for me under the eyes of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup brims over.
Psa 23:6 Kindness and faithful love pursue me every day of my life. I make my home in the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for all time to come.
Psa 24:1 [Psalm Of David] To Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) belong the earth and all it contains, the world and all who live there;
Psa 24:2 it is he who laid its foundations on the seas, on the flowing waters fixed it firm.
Psa 24:3 Who shall go up to the mountain of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? Who shall take a stand in his holy place?
Psa 24:4 The clean of hands and pure of heart, whose heart is not set on vanities, who does not swear an oath in order to deceive.
Psa 24:5 Such a one will receive blessing from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), saving justice from the God of his salvation.
Psa 24:6 Such is the people that seeks him, that seeks your presence, God of Jacob.Pause
Psa 24:7 Gates, lift high your heads, raise high the ancient gateways, and the king of glory shall enter!
Psa 24:8 Who is he, this king of glory? It is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), strong and valiant, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) valiant in battle.
Psa 24:9 Gates, lift high your heads, raise high the ancient gateways, and the king of glory shall enter!
Psa 24:10 Who is he, this king of glory? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, he is the king of glory.Pause
Psa 25:1 [Of David] ADORATION I offer, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Psa 25:2 to you, my God. BUT in my trust in you do not put me to shame, let not my enemies gloat over me.
Psa 25:3 CALLING to you, none shall ever be put to shame, but shame is theirs who groundlessly break faith.
Psa 25:4 DIRECT me in your ways, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and teach me your paths.
Psa 25:5 ENCOURAGE me to walk in your truth and teach me since you are the God who saves me. FOR my hope is in you all day long -- such is your generosity, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 25:6 GOODNESS and faithful love have been yours for ever, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not forget them.
Psa 25:7 HOLD not my youthful sins against me, but remember me as your faithful love dictates.
Psa 25:8 INTEGRITY and generosity are marks of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for he brings sinners back to the path.
Psa 25:9 JUDICIOUSLY he guides the humble, instructing the poor in his way.
Psa 25:10 KINDNESS unfailing and constancy mark all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s paths, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
Psa 25:11 LET my sin, great though it is, be forgiven, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the sake of your name.
Psa 25:12 MEN who respect Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), what of them? He teaches them the way they must choose.
Psa 25:13 neighborS to happiness will they live, and their children inherit the land.
Psa 25:14 ONLY those who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) have his secret and his covenant, for their understanding.
Psa 25:15 PERMANENTLY my eyes are on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he will free my feet from the snare.
Psa 25:16 QUICK, turn to me, pity me, alone and wretched as I am!
Psa 25:17 RELIEVE the distress of my heart, bring me out of my constraint.
Psa 25:18 SPARE a glance for my misery and pain, take all my sins away.
Psa 25:19 TAKE note how countless are my enemies, how violent their hatred for me.
Psa 25:20 UNLESS you guard me and rescue me I shall be put to shame, for you are my refuge.
Psa 25:21 VIRTUE and integrity be my protection, for my hope, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), is in you.
Psa 25:22 Ransom Israel, O God, from all its troubles.
Psa 26:1 [Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), be my judge! I go on my way in innocence, my trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) never wavers.
Psa 26:2 Probe me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), examine me, Test my heart and my mind in the fire.
Psa 26:3 For your faithful love is before my eyes, and I live my life by your truth.
Psa 26:4 No sitting with wastrels for me, no traveling with hypocrites;
Psa 26:5 I hate the company of sinners, I refuse to sit down with the wicked.
Psa 26:6 I will wash my hands in innocence and join the procession round your altar, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Psa 26:7 to make heard the sound of thanksgiving, to proclaim all your wonders.
Psa 26:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I love the beauty of your house and the place where your glory dwells.
Psa 26:9 Do not couple me with sinners, nor my life with men of violence,
Psa 26:10 whose hands are stained with guilt, their right hands heavy with bribes.
Psa 26:11 In innocence I will go on my way; ransom me, take pity on me.
Psa 26:12 I take my stand on the right path; I will bless you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the assemblies.
Psa 27:1 [Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my light and my salvation, whom should I fear? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the fortress of my life, whom should I dread?
Psa 27:2 When the wicked advance against me to eat me up, they, my opponents, my enemies, are the ones who stumble and fall.
Psa 27:3 Though an army pitch camp against me, my heart will not fear, though war break out against me, my trust will never be shaken.
Psa 27:4 One thing I ask of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), one thing I seek: to dwell in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s house all the days of my life, to enjoy the sweetness of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to seek out his temple.
Psa 27:5 For he hides me away under his roof on the day of evil, he folds me in the recesses of his tent, sets me high on a rock.
Psa 27:6 Now my head is held high above the enemies who surround me; in his tent I will offer sacrifices of acclaim. I will sing, I will make music for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 27:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hear my voice as I cry, pity me, answer me!
Psa 27:8 Of you my heart has said, 'Seek his face!' Your face, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I seek;
Psa 27:9 do not turn away from me. Do not thrust aside your servant in anger, without you I am helpless. Never leave me, never forsake me, God, my Savior.
Psa 27:10 Though my father and mother forsake me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will gather me up.
Psa 27:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), teach me your way, lead me on the path of integrity because of my enemies;
Psa 27:12 do not abandon me to the will of my foes -- false witnesses have risen against me, and are breathing out violence.
Psa 27:13 This I believe: I shall see the goodness of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the land of the living.
Psa 27:14 Put your hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), be strong, let your heart be bold, put your hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 28:1 [Of David] To you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I cry, my rock, do not be deaf to me! If you stay silent I shall be like those who sink into oblivion.
Psa 28:2 Hear the sound of my prayer when I call upon you, when I raise my hands, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), towards your Holy of Holies.
Psa 28:3 Do not drag me away with the wicked, with evil-doers, who talk to their partners of peace with treachery in their hearts.
Psa 28:4 Repay them as their deeds deserve, as befits their treacherous actions; as befits their handiwork repay them, let their deserts fall back on themselves.
Psa 28:5 They do not comprehend the deeds of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the work of his hands. May he pull them down and not rebuild them!
Psa 28:6 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for he hears the sound of my prayer.
Psa 28:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my strength and my shield, in him my heart trusts. I have been helped; my body has recovered its vigour, with all my heart I thank him.
Psa 28:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the strength of his people, a safe refuge for his anointed.
Psa 28:9 Save your people, bless your heritage, shepherd them and carry them for ever!
Psa 29:1 [Psalm Of David] Give Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his due, sons of God, give Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his due of glory and strength,
Psa 29:2 give Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the glory due to his name, adore Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the splendor of holiness.
Psa 29:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice over the waters, the God of glory thunders; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) over countless waters,
Psa 29:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice in power, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice in splendor;
Psa 29:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice shatters cedars, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) shatters cedars of Lebanon,
Psa 29:6 he makes Lebanon skip like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.
Psa 29:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice carves out lightning-shafts,
Psa 29:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice convulses the desert, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) convulses the desert of Kadesh,
Psa 29:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice convulses terebinths, strips forests bare. In his palace all cry, 'Glory!'
Psa 29:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was enthroned for the flood, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is enthroned as king for ever.
Psa 29:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will give strength to his people, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blesses his people with peace.
Psa 30:1 [Psalm Canticle for the Dedication of the House Of David] I praise you to the heights, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for you have raised me up, you have not let my foes make merry over me.
Psa 30:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my God, I cried to you for help and you healed me.
Psa 30:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you have lifted me out of Sheol, from among those who sink into oblivion you have given me life.
Psa 30:4 Make music for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all you who are faithful to him, praise his unforgettable holiness.
Psa 30:5 His anger lasts but a moment, his favor through life; In the evening come tears, but with dawn cries of joy.
Psa 30:6 Carefree, I used to think, 'Nothing can ever shake me!'
Psa 30:7 Your favor, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), set me on impregnable heights, but you turned away your face and I was terrified.
Psa 30:8 To you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I call, to my God I cry for mercy.
Psa 30:9 What point is there in my death, my going down to the abyss? Can the dust praise you or proclaim your faithfulness?
Psa 30:10 Listen, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), take pity on me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), be my help!
Psa 30:11 You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have stripped off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy.
Psa 30:12 So my heart will sing to you unceasingly, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my God, I shall praise you for ever.
Psa 31:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] In you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I have taken refuge, let me never be put to shame, in your saving justice deliver me, rescue me,
Psa 31:2 turn your ear to me, make haste. Be for me a rock-fastness, a fortified citadel to save me.
Psa 31:3 You are my rock, my rampart; true to your name, lead me and guide me!
Psa 31:4 Draw me out of the net they have spread for me, for you are my refuge;
Psa 31:5 to your hands I commit my spirit, by you have I been redeemed. God of truth,
Psa 31:6 you hate those who serve useless idols; but my trust is in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Psa 31:7 I will delight and rejoice in your faithful love! You, who have seen my misery, and witnessed the miseries of my soul,
Psa 31:8 have not handed me over to the enemy, but have given me freedom to roam at large.
Psa 31:9 Take pity on me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for I am in trouble. Vexation is gnawing away my eyes, my soul deep within me.
Psa 31:10 For my life is worn out with sorrow, and my years with sighs. My strength gives way under my misery, and my bones are all wasted away.
Psa 31:11 The sheer number of my enemies makes me contemptible, loathsome to my neighbors, and my friends shrink from me in horror. When people see me in the street they take to their heels.
Psa 31:12 I have no more place in their hearts than a corpse, or something lost.
Psa 31:13 All I hear is slander -- terror wherever I turn -- as they plot together against me, scheming to take my life.
Psa 31:14 But my trust is in you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); I say, 'You are my God,'
Psa 31:15 every moment of my life is in your hands, rescue me from the clutches of my foes who pursue me;
Psa 31:16 let your face shine on your servant, save me in your faithful love.
Psa 31:17 I call on you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), so let disgrace fall not on me, but on the wicked. Let them go down to Sheol in silence,
Psa 31:18 muzzles on their lying mouths, which speak arrogantly against the upright in pride and contempt.
Psa 31:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), what quantities of good things you have in store for those who fear you, and bestow on those who make you their refuge, for all humanity to see.
Psa 31:20 Safe in your presence you hide them, far from human plotting, shielding them in your tent, far from contentious tongues.
Psa 31:21 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who works for me miracles of his faithful love (in a fortified city)!
Psa 31:22 In a state of terror I cried, 'I have been cut off from your sight!' Yet you heard my plea for help when I cried out to you.
Psa 31:23 Love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all his faithful: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) protects his loyal servants, but he repays the arrogant with interest.
Psa 31:24 Be brave, take heart, all who put your hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 32:1 [Of David Poem] How blessed are those whose offense is forgiven, whose sin blotted out.
Psa 32:2 How blessed are those to whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) imputes no guilt, whose spirit harbours no deceit.
Psa 32:3 I said not a word, but my bones wasted away from groaning all the day;
Psa 32:4 day and night your hand lay heavy upon me; my heart grew parched as stubble in summer drought.Pause
Psa 32:5 I made my sin known to you, did not conceal my guilt. I said, 'I shall confess my offense to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' And you, for your part, took away my guilt, forgave my sin.Pause
Psa 32:6 That is why each of your faithful ones prays to you in time of distress. Even if great floods overflow, they will never reach your faithful.
Psa 32:7 You are a refuge for me, you guard me in trouble, with songs of deliverance you surround me.Pause
Psa 32:8 I shall instruct you and teach you the way to go; I shall not take my eyes off you.
Psa 32:9 Be not like a horse or a mule; that does not understand bridle or bit; if you advance to master them, there is no means of bringing them near.
Psa 32:10 Countless troubles are in store for the wicked, but one who trusts in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is enfolded in his faithful love.
Psa 32:11 Rejoice in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), exult all you upright, shout for joy, you honest of heart.
Psa 33:1 Shout for joy, you upright; praise comes well from the honest.
Psa 33:2 Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the lyre, play for him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Psa 33:3 Sing to him a new song, make sweet music for your cry of victory.
Psa 33:4 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is straightforward, all he does springs from his constancy.
Psa 33:5 He loves uprightness and justice; the faithful love of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) fills the earth.
Psa 33:6 By the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the heavens were made, by the breath of his mouth all their array.
Psa 33:7 He collects the waters of the sea like a dam, he stores away the abyss in his treasure-house.
Psa 33:8 Let the whole earth fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), let all who dwell in the world revere him;
Psa 33:9 for, the moment he spoke, it was so, no sooner had he commanded, than there it stood!
Psa 33:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) thwarts the plans of nations, frustrates the counsels of peoples;
Psa 33:11 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s own plan stands firm for ever, his heart's counsel from age to age.
Psa 33:12 How blessed the nation whose God is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the people he has chosen as his heritage.
Psa 33:13 From heaven Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looks down, he sees all the children of Adam,
Psa 33:14 from the place where he sits he watches all who dwell on the earth;
Psa 33:15 he alone moulds their hearts, he understands all they do.
Psa 33:16 A large army will not keep a king safe, nor his strength save a warrior's life;
Psa 33:17 it is delusion to rely on a horse for safety, for all its power it cannot save.
Psa 33:18 But see how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his faithful love,
Psa 33:19 to rescue them from death and keep them alive in famine.
Psa 33:20 We are waiting for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he is our help and our shield,
Psa 33:21 for in him our heart rejoices, in his holy name we trust.
Psa 33:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), let your faithful love rest on us, as our hope has rested in you.
Psa 34:1 [Of David, when he had feigned insanity before Abimelech, and Abimelech sent him away] I will bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at all times, his praise continually on my lips.
Psa 34:2 I will praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from my heart; let the humble hear and rejoice.
Psa 34:3 Proclaim with me the greatness of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), let us acclaim his name together.
Psa 34:4 I seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he answers me, frees me from all my fears.
Psa 34:5 Fix your gaze on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and your face will grow bright, you will never hang your head in shame.
Psa 34:6 A pauper calls out and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) hears, saves him from all his troubles.
Psa 34:7 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) encamps around those who fear him, and rescues them.
Psa 34:8 Taste and see that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is good. How blessed are those who take refuge in him.
Psa 34:9 Fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you his holy ones; those who fear him lack for nothing.
Psa 34:10 Young lions may go needy and hungry, but those who seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lack nothing good.
Psa 34:11 Come, my children, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 34:12 Who among you delights in life, longs for time to enjoy prosperity?
Psa 34:13 Guard your tongue from evil, your lips from any breath of deceit.
Psa 34:14 Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.
Psa 34:15 The eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) are on the upright, his ear turned to their cry.
Psa 34:16 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s face is set against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Psa 34:17 They cry in anguish and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) hears, and rescues them from all their troubles.
Psa 34:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near to the broken-hearted, he helps those whose spirit is crushed.
Psa 34:19 Though hardships without number beset the upright, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brings rescue from them all.
Psa 34:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) takes care of all their bones, not one of them will be broken.
Psa 34:21 But to the wicked evil brings death, those who hate the upright will pay the penalty.
Psa 34:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ransoms the lives of those who serve him, and there will be no penalty for those who take refuge in him.
Psa 35:1 [Of David] Accuse my accusers, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), attack my attackers.
Psa 35:2 Grasp your buckler and shield, up, and help me.
Psa 35:3 Brandish spear and pike to confront my pursuers, give me the assurance, 'I am your Savior.'
Psa 35:4 Shame and humiliation on those who are out to kill me! Defeat and repulse in dismay on those who plot my downfall.
Psa 35:5 May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to chase them.
Psa 35:6 May their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to hound them.
Psa 35:7 Unprovoked they laid their snare for me, unprovoked dug a trap to kill me.
Psa 35:8 Ruin comes upon them unawares; the snare they have laid will catch them, and into their own trap they will fall.
Psa 35:9 Then I shall delight in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), rejoice that he has saved me.
Psa 35:10 My very bones will all exclaim, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who can compare with you in rescuing the poor from the oppressor; the needy from the exploiter?
Psa 35:11 False witnesses come forward against me asking me questions I cannot answer, they cross-examine me,
Psa 35:12 repay my kindness with cruelty, make my life barren.
Psa 35:13 But I, when they were ill, had worn sackcloth, and mortified myself with fasting, praying ever anew in my heart,
Psa 35:14 as if for a friend or brother; I had wandered restless, as if mourning a mother, so bowed had I been in sorrow.
Psa 35:15 When I stumble they gather in glee, gather around me; strangers I never even knew tear me apart incessantly.
Psa 35:16 If I fall they surround me, grinding their teeth at me.
Psa 35:17 How much longer, Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their onslaughts, from young lions rescue the one life that I have.
Psa 35:18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly praise you where the people gather.
Psa 35:19 Let not my lying enemies gloat over me; those who hate me unprovoked look askance at me.
Psa 35:20 They have no greeting of peace to the peace-loving people of the land; they think up deceptive speeches.
Psa 35:21 Their mouths wide open to accuse me, they say, 'Come on now, we saw you.'
Psa 35:22 You saw it, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not stay silent; Lord, do not stand aloof from me.
Psa 35:23 Up, awake, to my defence, my God and my Lord, to my cause.
Psa 35:24 In your saving justice give judgement for me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, and do not let them gloat over me.
Psa 35:25 Do not let them think, 'Just as we hoped,' nor, 'Now we have swallowed him up.'
Psa 35:26 Shame and dismay on them all who gloat over my misfortunes. Let all who profit at my expense be covered with shame and disgrace.
Psa 35:27 But let all who delight in my uprightness shout for joy and gladness; let them constantly say, 'Great is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who delights to see his servant in peace.'
Psa 35:28 And my tongue shall recount your saving justice, all day long sing your praise.
Psa 36:1 [For the choirmaster Of the servant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Of David] Sin is the oracle of the wicked in the depths of his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.
Psa 36:2 He sees himself with too flattering an eye to detect and detest his guilt;
Psa 36:3 all he says is malicious and deceitful, he has turned his back on wisdom. To get his way
Psa 36:4 he hatches malicious plots even in his bed; once set on his evil course no wickedness is too much for him.
Psa 36:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your faithful love is in the heavens, your constancy reaches to the clouds,
Psa 36:6 your saving justice is like towering mountains, your judgements like the mighty deep. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you support both man and beast;
Psa 36:7 how precious, God, is your faithful love. So the children of Adam take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Psa 36:8 They feast on the bounty of your house, you let them drink from your delicious streams;
Psa 36:9 in you is the source of life, by your light we see the light.
Psa 36:10 Maintain your faithful love to those who acknowledge you, and your saving justice to the honest of heart.
Psa 36:11 Do not let the foot of the arrogant overtake me or wicked hands drive me away.
Psa 36:12 There they have fallen, the evil-doers, flung down, never to rise again.
Psa 37:1 [Of David] Do not get heated about the wicked or envy those who do wrong.
Psa 37:2 Quick as the grass they wither, fading like the green of the fields.
Psa 37:3 Put your trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and do right, make your home in the land and live secure.
Psa 37:4 Make Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your joy and he will give you your heart's desires.
Psa 37:5 Commit your destiny to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), be confident in him, and he will act,
Psa 37:6 making your uprightness clear as daylight, and the justice of your cause as the noon.
Psa 37:7 Stay quiet before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), wait longingly for him, do not get heated over someone who is making a fortune, succeeding by devious means.
Psa 37:8 Refrain from anger, leave rage aside, do not get heated -- it can do no good;
Psa 37:9 for evil-doers will be annihilated, while those who hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) shall have the land for their own.
Psa 37:10 A little while and the wicked will be no more, however well you search for the place, the wicked will not be there;
Psa 37:11 but the poor will have the land for their own, to enjoy untroubled peace.
Psa 37:12 The wicked plots against the upright and gnashes his teeth at him,
Psa 37:13 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) only laughs at his efforts, knowing that his end is in sight.
Psa 37:14 Though the wicked draw his sword and bend his bow to slaughter the honest and bring down the poor and the needy,
Psa 37:15 his sword will pierce his own heart, and his bow will be shattered.
Psa 37:16 What little the upright possesses outweighs all the wealth of the wicked;
Psa 37:17 for the weapons of the wicked shall be shattered, while Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) supports the upright.
Psa 37:18 The lives of the just are in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s care, their birthright will endure for ever;
Psa 37:19 they will not be put to shame when bad times come, in time of famine they will have plenty.
Psa 37:20 The wicked, enemies of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will be destroyed, they will vanish like the green of the pasture, they will vanish in smoke.
Psa 37:21 The wicked borrows and will not repay, but the upright is generous in giving;
Psa 37:22 those he blesses will have the land for their own, and those he curses be annihilated.
Psa 37:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) guides a strong man's steps and keeps them firm; and takes pleasure in him.
Psa 37:24 When he trips he is not thrown sprawling, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) supports him by the hand.
Psa 37:25 Now I am old, but ever since my youth I never saw an upright person abandoned, or the descendants of the upright forced to beg their bread.
Psa 37:26 The upright is always compassionate, always lending, so his descendants reap a blessing.
Psa 37:27 Turn your back on evil and do good, you will have a home for ever,
Psa 37:28 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves justice and will not forsake his faithful. Evil-doers will perish eternally, the descendants of the wicked be annihilated,
Psa 37:29 but the upright shall have the land for their own, there they shall live for ever.
Psa 37:30 Wisdom comes from the lips of the upright, and his tongue speaks what is right;
Psa 37:31 the law of his God is in his heart, his foot will never slip.
Psa 37:32 The wicked keeps a close eye on the upright, looking out for a chance to kill him;
Psa 37:33 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will never abandon him to the clutches of the wicked, nor let him be condemned if he is tried.
Psa 37:34 Put your hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), keep to his path, he will raise you up to make the land your own; you will look on while the wicked are annihilated.
Psa 37:35 I have seen the wicked exultant, towering like a cedar of Lebanon.
Psa 37:36 When next I passed he was gone, I searched for him and he was nowhere to be found.
Psa 37:37 Observe the innocent, consider the honest, for the lover of peace will not lack children.
Psa 37:38 But the wicked will all be destroyed together, and their children annihilated.
Psa 37:39 The upright have Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for their Savior, their refuge in times of trouble;
Psa 37:40 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) helps them and rescues them, he will rescue them from the wicked, and save them because they take refuge in him.
Psa 38:1 [Psalm Of David In commemoration] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not correct me in anger, do not discipline me in wrath.
Psa 38:2 For your arrows have pierced deep into me, your hand has pressed down upon me.
Psa 38:3 Your indignation has left no part of me unscathed, my sin has left no health in my bones.
Psa 38:4 My sins stand higher than my head, they weigh on me as an unbearable weight.
Psa 38:5 I have stinking, festering wounds, thanks to my folly.
Psa 38:6 I am twisted and bent double, I spend my days in gloom.
Psa 38:7 My loins burn with fever, no part of me is unscathed.
Psa 38:8 Numbed and utterly crushed I groan in distress of heart.
Psa 38:9 Lord, all my longing is known to you, my sighing no secret from you,
Psa 38:10 my heart is throbbing, my strength has failed, the light has gone out of my eyes.
Psa 38:11 Friends and companions shun my disease, even the dearest of them keep their distance.
Psa 38:12 Those with designs on my life lay snares, those who wish me ill speak of violence and hatch treachery all day long.
Psa 38:13 But I hear nothing, as though I were deaf, as though dumb, saying not a word.
Psa 38:14 I am like the one who, hearing nothing, has no sharp answer to make.
Psa 38:15 For in you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I put my hope, you, Lord my God, will give answer.
Psa 38:16 I said, 'Never let them gloat over me, do not let them take advantage of me if my foot slips.'
Psa 38:17 There is no escape for me from falling, no relief from my misery.
Psa 38:18 But I make no secret of my guilt, I am anxious at the thought of my sin.
Psa 38:19 There is no numbering those who oppose me without cause, no counting those who hate me unprovoked,
Psa 38:20 repaying me evil for good, slandering me for trying to do them good.
Psa 38:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not desert me, my God, do not stand aloof from me.
Psa 38:22 Come quickly to my help, Lord, my Savior!
Psa 39:1 [For the choirmaster For Jeduthun Psalm Of David] I said, 'I will watch how I behave so that I do not sin by my tongue. I will keep a muzzle on my mouth as long as any sinner is near.'
Psa 39:2 I stayed dumb, silent, speechless, but the sinner's prosperity redoubled my torment.
Psa 39:3 My heart had been smouldering within me, but at the thought of this it flared up and the words came bursting out,
Psa 39:4 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), let me know my fate, how much longer I have to live. Show me just how frail I am.
Psa 39:5 'Look, you have given me but a hand's breadth or two of life, the length of my life is as nothing to you. Every human being that stands on earth is a mere puff of wind,
Psa 39:6 every human being that walks only a shadow; a mere puff of wind is the wealth stored away -- no knowing who will profit from it.'
Psa 39:7 So now, Lord, what am I to hope for? My hope is in you.
Psa 39:8 Save me from all my sins, do not make me the butt of fools.
Psa 39:9 I keep silence, I speak no more since you yourself have been at work.
Psa 39:10 Take your scourge away from me. I am worn out by the blows you deal me.
Psa 39:11 You correct human beings by punishing sin, like a moth you eat away all their desires -- a human being is a mere puff of wind.
Psa 39:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hear my prayer, listen to my cry for help, do not remain deaf to my weeping. For I am a stranger in your house, a nomad like all my ancestors.
Psa 39:13 Turn away your gaze that I may breathe freely before I depart and am no more!
Psa 40:1 [For the choirmaster Of David Psalm] I waited, I waited for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), then he stooped to me and heard my cry for help.
Psa 40:2 He pulled me up from the seething chasm, from the mud of the mire. He set my feet on rock, and made my footsteps firm.
Psa 40:3 He put a fresh song in my mouth, praise of our God. Many will be awestruck at the sight, and will put their trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 40:4 How blessed are those who put their trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who have not sided with rebels and those who have gone astray in falsehood.
Psa 40:5 How much you have done, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my God -- your wonders, your plans for us -- you have no equal. I will proclaim and speak of them; they are beyond number.
Psa 40:6 You wanted no sacrifice or cereal offering, but you gave me an open ear, you did not ask for burnt offering or sacrifice for sin;
Psa 40:7 then I said, 'Here I am, I am coming.' In the scroll of the book it is written of me,
Psa 40:8 my delight is to do your will; your law, my God, is deep in my heart.
Psa 40:9 I proclaimed the saving justice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the great assembly. See, I will not hold my tongue, as you well know.
Psa 40:10 I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart, but have spoken of your constancy and saving help. I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love, in the great assembly.
Psa 40:11 You, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have not withheld your tenderness from me; your faithful and steadfast love will always guard me.
Psa 40:12 For troubles surround me, until they are beyond number; my sins have overtaken me; I cannot see my way. They outnumber the hairs of my head, and my heart fails me.
Psa 40:13 Be pleased, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to rescue me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), come quickly and help me!
Psa 40:14 Shame and dismay to all who seek to take my life. Back with them, let them be humiliated who delight in my misfortunes.
Psa 40:15 Let them be aghast with shame, those who say to me, 'Aha, aha!'
Psa 40:16 But joy and happiness in you to all who seek you! Let them ceaselessly cry, 'Great is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)' who love your saving power.
Psa 40:17 Poor and needy as I am, the Lord has me in mind. You, my helper, my Savior, my God, do not delay.
Psa 41:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] Blessed is anyone who cares for the poor and the weak; in time of trouble Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rescues him.
Psa 41:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) protects him, gives him life and happiness on earth. Do not abandon him to his enemies' pleasure!
Psa 41:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sustains him on his bed of sickness; you transform altogether the bed where he lies sick.
Psa 41:4 For my part I said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), take pity on me! Cure me for I have sinned against you.'
Psa 41:5 My enemies speak to me only of disaster, 'When will he die and his name disappear?'
Psa 41:6 When people come to see me their talk is hollow, when they get out they spread the news with spite in their hearts.
Psa 41:7 All who hate me whisper together about me and reckon I deserve the misery I suffer.
Psa 41:8 'A fatal sickness has a grip on him; now that he is down, he will never get up again.'
Psa 41:9 Even my trusted friend on whom I relied, who shared my table, takes advantage of me.
Psa 41:10 But you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), take pity on me! Put me on my feet and I will give them their due.
Psa 41:11 This will convince me that you delight in me, if my enemy no longer exults over me.
Psa 41:12 Then you will keep me unscathed, and set me in your presence for ever.
Psa 41:13 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity. Amen, Amen.
Psa 42:1 [For the choirmaster Poem Of the sons of Korah] As a deer yearns for running streams, so I yearn for you, my God.
Psa 42:2 I thirst for God, the living God; when shall I go to see the face of God?
Psa 42:3 I have no food but tears day and night, as all day long I am taunted, 'Where is your God?'
Psa 42:4 This I remember as I pour out my heart, how I used to pass under the roof of the Most High used to go to the house of God, among cries of joy and praise, the sound of the feast.
Psa 42:5 Why be so downcast, why all these sighs? Hope in God! I will praise him still, my Savior,
Psa 42:6 my God. When I am downcast I think of you: from the land of Jordan and Hermon, I think of you, humble mountain.
Psa 42:7 Deep is calling to deep by the roar of your cataracts, all your waves and breakers have rolled over me.
Psa 42:8 In the daytime God sends his faithful love, and even at night; the song it inspires in me is a prayer to my living God.
Psa 42:9 I shall say to God, my rock, 'Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go around in mourning, harassed by the enemy?'
Psa 42:10 With death in my bones, my enemies taunt me, all day long they ask me, 'Where is your God?'
Psa 42:11 Why so downcast, why all these sighs? Hope in God! I will praise him still, my Savior, my God.
Psa 43:1 Judge me, God, defend my cause against a people who have no faithful love; from those who are treacherous and unjust, rescue me.
Psa 43:2 For you are the God of my strength; why abandon me? Why must I go around in mourning, harassed by the enemy?
Psa 43:3 Send out your light and your truth; they shall be my guide, to lead me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell.
Psa 43:4 Then I shall go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy. I will rejoice and praise you on the harp, O God, my God.
Psa 43:5 Why so downcast, why all these sighs? Hope in God! I will praise him still, my Savior, my God.
Psa 44:1 [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Poem] God, we have heard for ourselves, our ancestors have told us, of the deeds you did in their days, in days of old,
Psa 44:2 by your hand. To establish them in the land you drove out nations, to make room for them you harried peoples.
Psa 44:3 It was not their own sword that won the land, nor their own arms which made them victorious, but your hand it was and your arm, and the light of your presence, for you loved them.
Psa 44:4 You are my king, my God, who decreed Jacob's victories;
Psa 44:5 through you we conquered our opponents, in your name we trampled down those who rose up against us.
Psa 44:6 For my trust was not in my bow, my victory was not won by my sword;
Psa 44:7 it was you who saved us from our opponents, you who put to shame those who hate us.
Psa 44:8 Our boast was always of God, we praised your name without ceasing.Pause
Psa 44:9 Yet now you have abandoned and humiliated us, you no longer take the field with our armies,
Psa 44:10 you leave us to fall back before the enemy, those who hate us plunder us at will.
Psa 44:11 You hand us over like sheep for slaughter, you scatter us among the nations,
Psa 44:12 you sell your people for a trifle and make no profit on the sale.
Psa 44:13 You make us the butt of our neighbors, the mockery and scorn of those around us,
Psa 44:14 you make us a by-word among nations, other peoples shake their heads over us.
Psa 44:15 All day long I brood on my disgrace, the shame written clear on my face,
Psa 44:16 from the sound of insult and abuse, from the sight of hatred and vengefulness.
Psa 44:17 All this has befallen us though we had not forgotten you, nor been disloyal to your covenant,
Psa 44:18 our hearts never turning away, our feet never straying from your path.
Psa 44:19 Yet you have crushed us in the place where jackals live, and immersed us in shadow dark as death.
Psa 44:20 Had we forgotten the name of our God and stretched out our hands to a foreign god,
Psa 44:21 would not God have found this out, for he knows the secrets of the heart?
Psa 44:22 For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered.
Psa 44:23 Wake, Lord! Why are you asleep? Awake! Do not abandon us for good.
Psa 44:24 Why do you turn your face away, forgetting that we are poor and harassed?
Psa 44:25 For we are bowed down to the dust, and lie prone on the ground.
Psa 44:26 Arise! Come to our help! Ransom us, as your faithful love demands.
Psa 45:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Lilies . . .' Of the sons of Korah Poem Love song] My heart is stirred by a noble theme, I address my poem to the king, my tongue the pen of an expert scribe.
Psa 45:2 Of all men you are the most handsome, gracefulness is a dew upon your lips, for God has blessed you for ever.
Psa 45:3 Warrior, strap your sword at your side, in your majesty and splendor advance,
Psa 45:4 ride on in the cause of truth, gentleness and uprightness. Stretch the bowstring tight, lending terror to your right hand.
Psa 45:5 Your arrows are sharp, nations lie at your mercy, the king's enemies lose heart.
Psa 45:6 Your throne is from God, for ever and ever, the scepter of your kingship a scepter of justice,
Psa 45:7 you love uprightness and detest evil. This is why God, your God, has anointed you with oil of gladness, as none of your rivals,
Psa 45:8 your robes all myrrh and aloes. From palaces of ivory, harps bring you joy,
Psa 45:9 in your retinue are daughters of kings, the consort at your right hand in gold of Ophir.
Psa 45:10 Listen, my daughter, attend to my words and hear; forget your own nation and your ancestral home,
Psa 45:11 then the king will fall in love with your beauty; he is your lord, bow down before him.
Psa 45:12 The daughter of Tyre will court your favor with gifts, and the richest of peoples
Psa 45:13 with jewels set in gold. Clothed
Psa 45:14 in brocade, the king's daughter is led within to the king with the maidens of her retinue; her companions are brought to her,
Psa 45:15 they enter the king's palace with joy and rejoicing.
Psa 45:16 Instead of your ancestors you will have sons; you will make them rulers over the whole world.
Psa 45:17 I will make your name endure from generation to generation, so nations will sing your praise for ever and ever.
Psa 46:1 [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah For oboe Song] God is both refuge and strength for us, a help always ready in trouble;
Psa 46:2 so we shall not be afraid though the earth be in turmoil, though mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,
Psa 46:3 and its waters roar and seethe, and the mountains totter as it heaves. (Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is with us, our citadel, the God of Jacob.)Pause
Psa 46:4 There is a river whose streams bring joy to God's city, it sanctifies the dwelling of the Most High.
Psa 46:5 God is in the city, it cannot fall; at break of day God comes to its rescue.
Psa 46:6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are tumbling, when he raises his voice the earth crumbles away.
Psa 46:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is with us, our citadel, the God of Jacob. Pause
Psa 46:8 Come, consider the wonders of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the astounding deeds he has done on the earth;
Psa 46:9 he puts an end to wars over the whole wide world, he breaks the bow, he snaps the spear, shields he burns in the fire.
Psa 46:10 'Be still and acknowledge that I am God, supreme over nations, supreme over the world.'
Psa 46:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is with us, our citadel, the God of Jacob.Pause
Psa 47:1 [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Clap your hands, all peoples, acclaim God with shouts of joy.
Psa 47:2 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Most High, is glorious, the great king over all the earth.
Psa 47:3 He brings peoples under our yoke and nations under our feet.
Psa 47:4 He chooses for us our birthright, the pride of Jacob whom he loves.Pause
Psa 47:5 God goes up to shouts of acclaim, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to a fanfare on the ram's horn.
Psa 47:6 Let the music sound for our God, let it sound, let the music sound for our king, let it sound.
Psa 47:7 For he is king of the whole world; learn the music, let it sound for God!
Psa 47:8 God reigns over the nations, seated on his holy throne.
Psa 47:9 The leaders of the nations rally to the people of the God of Abraham. The shields of the earth belong to God, who is exalted on high.
Psa 48:1 [Song Psalm Of the sons of Korah] Great is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and most worthy of praise in the city of our God, the holy mountain,
Psa 48:2 towering in beauty, the joy of the whole world: Mount Zion in the heart of the north, the settlement of the great king;
Psa 48:3 God himself among its palaces has proved himself its bulwark.
Psa 48:4 For look, kings made alliance, together they advanced;
Psa 48:5 without a second glance, when they saw, they panicked and fled away.
Psa 48:6 Trembling seized them on the spot, pains like those of a woman in labour;
Psa 48:7 it was the east wind, that wrecker of ships from Tarshish.
Psa 48:8 What we had heard we saw for ourselves in the city of our God, in the city of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, which God has established for ever.Pause
Psa 48:9 We reflect on your faithful love, God, in your temple!
Psa 48:10 Both your name and your praise, God, are over the whole wide world. Your right hand is full of saving justice,
Psa 48:11 Mount Zion rejoices, the daughters of Judah delight because of your saving justice.
Psa 48:12 Go round Zion, walk right through her, count her bastions,
Psa 48:13 admire her walls, examine her palaces, to tell future generations
Psa 48:14 that such is God; our God for ever and ever, he is our guide!
Psa 49:1 [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Hear this, all nations, listen, all who dwell on earth,
Psa 49:2 people high and low, rich and poor alike!
Psa 49:3 My lips have wisdom to utter, my heart good sense to whisper.
Psa 49:4 I listen carefully to a proverb, I set my riddle to the music of the harp.
Psa 49:5 Why should I be afraid in times of trouble? Malice dogs me and hems me in.
Psa 49:6 They trust in their wealth, and boast of the profusion of their riches.
Psa 49:7 But no one can ever redeem himself or pay his own ransom to God,
Psa 49:8 the price for himself is too high; it can never be
Psa 49:9 that he will live on for ever and avoid the sight of the abyss.
Psa 49:10 For he will see the wise also die no less than the fool and the brute, and leave their wealth behind for others.
Psa 49:11 For ever no home but their tombs, their dwelling-place age after age, though they gave their name to whole territories.
Psa 49:12 In prosperity people lose their good sense, they become no better than dumb animals.
Psa 49:13 So they go on in their self-assurance, right up to the end they are content with their lot.Pause
Psa 49:14 They are penned in Sheol like sheep, Death will lead them to pasture, and those who are honest will rule over them. In the morning all trace of them will be gone, Sheol will be their home.
Psa 49:15 But my soul God will ransom from the clutches of Sheol, and will snatch me up.Pause
Psa 49:16 Do not be overawed when someone gets rich, and lives in ever greater splendor;
Psa 49:17 when he dies he will take nothing with him, his wealth will not go down with him.
Psa 49:18 Though he pampered himself while he lived -- and people praise you for looking after yourself-
Psa 49:19 he will go to join the ranks of his ancestors, who will never again see the light.
Psa 49:20 In prosperity people lose their good sense, they become no better than dumb animals.
Psa 50:1 [Psalm Of Asaph] The God of gods, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), is speaking, from east to west he summons the earth.
Psa 50:2 From Zion, perfection of beauty, he shines forth;
Psa 50:3 he is coming, our God, and will not be silent. Devouring fire ahead of him, raging tempest around him,
Psa 50:4 he summons the heavens from on high, and the earth to judge his people.
Psa 50:5 'Gather to me my faithful, who sealed my covenant by sacrifice.'
Psa 50:6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice, 'God himself is judge.'Pause
Psa 50:7 'Listen, my people, I am speaking, Israel, I am giving evidence against you, I, God, your God.
Psa 50:8 'It is not with your sacrifices that I find fault, those burnt offerings constantly before me;
Psa 50:9 I will not accept any bull from your homes, nor a single goat from your folds.
Psa 50:10 'For all forest creatures are mine already, the animals on the mountains in their thousands.
Psa 50:11 I know every bird in the air, whatever moves in the fields is mine.
Psa 50:12 'If I am hungry I shall not tell you, since the world and all it holds is mine.
Psa 50:13 Am I to eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?
Psa 50:14 'Let thanksgiving be your sacrifice to God, fulfill the vows you make to the Most High;
Psa 50:15 then if you call to me in time of trouble I will rescue you and you will honor me.'
Psa 50:16 But to the wicked, God says: 'What right have you to recite my statutes, to take my covenant on your lips,
Psa 50:17 when you detest my teaching, and thrust my words behind you?
Psa 50:18 'You make friends with a thief as soon as you see one, you feel at home with adulterers,
Psa 50:19 your conversation is devoted to wickedness, and your tongue to inventing lies.
Psa 50:20 'You sit there, slandering your own brother, you malign your own mother's son.
Psa 50:21 You do this, and am I to say nothing? Do you think that I am really like you? I charge you, indict you to your face.
Psa 50:22 'Think it out, you who forget God, or I will tear you apart without hope of a rescuer.
Psa 50:23 honor to me is a sacrifice of thanksgiving; to the upright I will show God's salvation.'
Psa 51:1 [For the choirmaster Of David When the prophet Nathan had come to him because he had gone to Bathsheba] Have mercy on me, O God, in your faithful love, in your great tenderness wipe away my offenses;
Psa 51:2 wash me clean from my guilt, purify me from my sin.
Psa 51:3 For I am well aware of my offenses, my sin is constantly in mind.
Psa 51:4 Against you, you alone, I have sinned, I have done what you see to be wrong, that you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence, and your victory may appear when you give judgement,
Psa 51:5 remember, I was born guilty, a sinner from the moment of conception.
Psa 51:6 But you delight in sincerity of heart, and in secret you teach me wisdom.
Psa 51:7 Purify me with hyssop till I am clean, wash me till I am whiter than snow.
Psa 51:8 Let me hear the sound of joy and gladness, and the bones you have crushed will dance.
Psa 51:9 Turn away your face from my sins, and wipe away all my guilt.
Psa 51:10 God, create in me a clean heart, renew within me a resolute spirit,
Psa 51:11 do not thrust me away from your presence, do not take away from me your spirit of holiness.
Psa 51:12 Give me back the joy of your salvation, sustain in me a generous spirit.
Psa 51:13 I shall teach the wicked your paths, and sinners will return to you.
Psa 51:14 Deliver me from bloodshed, God, God of my salvation, and my tongue will acclaim your saving justice.
Psa 51:15 Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will speak out your praise.
Psa 51:16 Sacrifice gives you no pleasure, burnt offering you do not desire.
Psa 51:17 Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken, contrite heart you never scorn.
Psa 51:18 In your graciousness do good to Zion, rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
Psa 51:19 Then you will delight in upright sacrifices,-burnt offerings and whole oblations -- and young bulls will be offered on your altar.
Psa 52:1 [For the choirmaster Poem Of David When Doeg the Edomite went and warned Saul, 'David has gone to Abimelech's house'] Why take pride in being wicked, you champion in villainy, all day long
Psa 52:2 plotting crime? Your tongue is razor-sharp, you artist in perfidy.
Psa 52:3 You prefer evil to good, lying to uprightness. Pause
Psa 52:4 You revel in destructive talk, treacherous tongue!
Psa 52:5 That is why God will crush you, destroy you once and for all, snatch you from your tent, uproot you from the land of the living.Pause
Psa 52:6 The upright will be awestruck as they see it, they will mock him,
Psa 52:7 'So much for someone who would not place his reliance in God, but relied on his own great wealth, and made himself strong by crime.'
Psa 52:8 But I, like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God, put my trust in God's faithful love, for ever and ever.
Psa 52:9 I shall praise you for ever for what you have done, and shall trust in your name, so full of goodness, in the presence of your faithful.
Psa 53:1 [For the choirmaster In sickness Poem Of David] The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God!' They are corrupt, vile and unjust, not one of them does right.
Psa 53:2 God looks down from heaven at the children of Adam, to see if a single one is wise, a single one seeks God.
Psa 53:3 All have proved faithless, all alike turned sour, not one of them does right, not a single one.
Psa 53:4 Are they not aware, these evil-doers? They are devouring my people; this is the bread they eat, and they never call upon God.
Psa 53:5 They will be gripped with fear, just where there is no need for fear, for God scatters the bones of him who besieges you; they are mocked because God rejects them.
Psa 53:6 Who will bring from Zion salvation for Israel? When God brings his people home, what joy for Jacob, what happiness for Israel!
Psa 54:1 [For the choirmaster On stringed instruments Poem Of David When the Ziphites went to Saul and said,'Is not David hiding with us?'] God, save me by your name, in your power vindicate me.
Psa 54:2 God, hear my prayer, listen to the words I speak.
Psa 54:3 Arrogant men are attacking me, bullies hounding me to death, no room in their thoughts for God.Pause
Psa 54:4 But now God is coming to my help, the Lord, among those who sustain me.
Psa 54:5 May their wickedness recoil on those who lie in wait for me. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in your constancy destroy them.
Psa 54:6 How gladly will I offer you sacrifice, and praise your name, for it is good,
Psa 54:7 for it has rescued me from all my troubles, and my eye has feasted on my enemies.
Psa 55:1 [For the choirmaster For strings Poem Of David] God, hear my prayer, do not hide away from my plea,
Psa 55:2 give me a hearing, answer me, my troubles give me no peace. I shudder
Psa 55:3 at the enemy's shouts, at the outcry of the wicked; they heap up charges against me, in their anger bring hostile accusations against me.
Psa 55:4 My heart writhes within me, the terrors of death come upon me,
Psa 55:5 fear and trembling overwhelm me, and shuddering grips me.
Psa 55:6 And I say, 'Who will give me wings like a dove, to fly away and find rest?'
Psa 55:7 How far I would escape, and make a nest in the desert!Pause
Psa 55:8 I would soon find a refuge from the storm of abuse, from the
Psa 55:9 destructive tempest, Lord, from the flood of their tongues. For I see violence and strife in the city,
Psa 55:10 day and night they make their rounds along the city walls, Inside live malice and mischief,
Psa 55:11 inside lives destruction, tyranny and treachery never absent from its central square.
Psa 55:12 Were it an enemy who insulted me, that I could bear; if an opponent pitted himself against me, I could turn away from him.
Psa 55:13 But you, a person of my own rank, a comrade and dear friend,
Psa 55:14 to whom I was bound by intimate friendship in the house of God! May they recoil in disorder,
Psa 55:15 may death descend on them, may they go down alive to Sheol, since evil shares their home with them.
Psa 55:16 For my part, I appeal to God, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saves me;
Psa 55:17 evening, morning, noon, I complain and I groan. He hears my cry,
Psa 55:18 he ransoms me and gives me peace from the feud against me, for they are taking me to law.
Psa 55:19 But God will listen and will humble them, he who has been enthroned from the beginning; no change of heart for them, for they do not fear God.
Psa 55:20 They attack those at peace with them, going back on their oaths;
Psa 55:21 though their mouth is smoother than butter, enmity is in their hearts; their words more soothing than oil, yet sharpened like swords.
Psa 55:22 Unload your burden onto Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he will sustain you; never will he allow the upright to stumble.
Psa 55:23 You, God, will thrust them down to the abyss of destruction, men bloodthirsty and deceptive, before half their days are spent. For my part, I put my trust in you.
Psa 56:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'The oppression of distant princes' Of David In a quiet voice When the Philistines seized him in Gath] Take pity on me, God, as they harry me, pressing their attacks home all day.
Psa 56:2 Those who harry me lie in wait for me all day, countless are those who attack me from the heights.
Psa 56:3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you,
Psa 56:4 in God, whose word I praise, in God I put my trust and have no fear, what power has human strength over me?
Psa 56:5 All day long they carp at my words, their only thought is to harm me,
Psa 56:6 they gather together, lie in wait and spy on my movements, as though determined to take my life.
Psa 56:7 Because of this crime reject them, in your anger, God, strike down the nations.
Psa 56:8 You yourself have counted up my sorrows, collect my tears in your wineskin.
Psa 56:9 Then my enemies will turn back on the day when I call. This I know, that God is on my side.
Psa 56:10 In God whose word I praise, in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) whose word I praise,
Psa 56:11 in God I put my trust and have no fear; what can mortal man do to me?
Psa 56:12 I am bound by the vows I have made, God, I will pay you the debt of thanks,
Psa 56:13 for you have saved my life from death to walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
Psa 57:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Of David In a quiet voice When he escaped from Saul in the cave] Take pity on me, God, take pity on me, for in you I take refuge, in the shadow of your wings I take refuge, until the destruction is past.
Psa 57:2 I call to God the Most High, to God who has done everything for me;
Psa 57:3 may he send from heaven and save me, and check those who harry me;Pause may God send his faithful love and his constancy.
Psa 57:4 I lie surrounded by lions, greedy for human prey, their teeth are spears and arrows, their tongue a sharp sword.
Psa 57:5 Be exalted above the heavens, God! Your glory over all the earth!
Psa 57:6 They laid a snare in my path -- I was bowed with care -- they dug a pit ahead of me, but fell in it themselves.Pause
Psa 57:7 My heart is ready, God, my heart is ready; I will sing, and make music for you.
Psa 57:8 Awake, my glory, awake, lyre and harp, that I may awake the Dawn.
Psa 57:9 I will praise you among the peoples, Lord, I will make music for you among nations,
Psa 57:10 for your faithful love towers to heaven, your constancy to the clouds.
Psa 57:11 Be exalted above the heavens, God! Your glory over all the earth!
Psa 58:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Of David In a quiet voice] Divine as you are, do you truly give upright verdicts? do you judge fairly the children of Adam?
Psa 58:2 No! You devise injustice in your hearts, and with your hands you administer tyranny on the earth.
Psa 58:3 Since the womb they have gone astray, the wicked, on the wrong path since their birth, with their unjust verdicts.
Psa 58:4 They are poisonous as any snake, deaf as an adder that blocks its ears
Psa 58:5 so as not to hear the magician's music, however skillful his spells.
Psa 58:6 God, break the teeth in their mouths, snap off the fangs of these young lions, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 58:7 May they drain away like water running to waste, may they wither like trampled grass,
Psa 58:8 like the slug that melts as it moves or a still-born child that never sees the sun.
Psa 58:9 Before they sprout thorns like the bramble, green or burnt up, may retribution whirl them away.
Psa 58:10 The upright will rejoice to see vengeance done, and will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
Psa 58:11 'So', people will say, 'the upright does have a reward; there is a God to dispense justice on earth.'
Psa 59:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Of David In a quiet voice When Saul sent men to watch David's house in order to have him killed] Rescue me from my enemies, my God, be my stronghold from my assailants,
Psa 59:2 rescue me from evil-doers, from men of violence save me.
Psa 59:3 Look at them, lurking to ambush me, violent men are attacking me, for no fault, no sin of mine, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Psa 59:4 for no guilt, they come running to take up position. Wake up, stand by me and keep watch,
Psa 59:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Sabaoth, God of Israel, rise up, to punish all the nations, show no mercy to all these malicious traitors.Pause
Psa 59:6 Back they come at nightfall, snarling like curs, prowling through the town.
Psa 59:7 Look how they rant in speech with swords on their lips, 'Who is there to hear us?'
Psa 59:8 For your part, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you laugh at them, you make mockery of all nations.
Psa 59:9 My strength, I keep my eyes fixed on you. For my stronghold is God,
Psa 59:10 the God who loves me faithfully is coming to meet me, God will let me feast my eyes on those who lie in wait for me.
Psa 59:11 Do not annihilate them, or my people may forget; shake them in your power, bring them low, Lord, our shield.
Psa 59:12 Sin is in their mouths, sin on their lips, so let them be trapped in their pride for the curses and lies that they utter.
Psa 59:13 Destroy them in your anger, destroy them till they are no more, and let it be known that God is Master in Jacob and the whole wide world.Pause
Psa 59:14 Back they come at nightfall, snarling like curs, prowling through the town,
Psa 59:15 scavenging for something to eat, growling unless they have their fill.
Psa 59:16 And so I will sing of your strength, in the morning acclaim your faithful love; you have been a stronghold for me, a refuge when I was in trouble.
Psa 59:17 My strength, I will make music for you, for my stronghold is God, the God who loves me faithfully.
Psa 60:1 [For the choirmaster To the tune 'The decree is a lily' In a quiet voice Of David To be learnt When he was at war with Aram-Naharaim and Aram-Zobah, and Joab marched back to destroy twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt] God, you have rejected us, broken us, you were angry, come back to us!
Psa 60:2 You made the earth tremble, split it open; now mend the rifts, it is tottering still.
Psa 60:3 You have forced your people to drink a bitter draught, forced us to drink a wine that made us reel.
Psa 60:4 You gave a signal to those who fear you to let them escape out of range of the bow.Pause
Psa 60:5 To rescue those you love, save with your right hand and answer us.
Psa 60:6 God has spoken from his sanctuary, 'In triumph I will divide up Shechem, and share out the Valley of Succoth.
Psa 60:7 'Mine is Gilead, mine Manasseh, Ephraim the helmet on my head, Judah my commander's baton,
Psa 60:8 'Moab a bowl for me to wash in, on Edom I plant my sandal. Now try shouting "Victory!" over me, Philistia!'
Psa 60:9 Who will lead me against a fortified city, who will guide me into Edom,
Psa 60:10 if not you, the God who has rejected us? God, you no longer march with our armies.
Psa 60:11 Bring us help in our time of crisis, any human help is worthless.
Psa 60:12 With God we shall do deeds of valour, he will trample down our enemies.
Psa 61:1 [For the choirmaster For strings Of David] God, hear my cry, listen to my prayer.
Psa 61:2 From the end of the earth I call to you with fainting heart. Lead me to the high rock that stands far out of my reach.
Psa 61:3 For you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.
Psa 61:4 Let me stay in your tent for ever, taking refuge in the shelter of your wings!
Psa 61:5 For you, God, accept my vows, you grant me the heritage of those who fear your name.
Psa 61:6 Let the king live on and on, let his years continue age after age.
Psa 61:7 May his throne be always in God's presence, your faithful love and constancy watch over him.
Psa 61:8 Then I shall always sing to your name, day after day fulfilling my vows.
Psa 62:1 [For the choirmaster . . . Jeduthun Psalm Of David] In God alone there is rest for my soul, from him comes my safety;
Psa 62:2 he alone is my rock, my safety, my stronghold so that I stand unshaken.
Psa 62:3 How much longer will you set on a victim, all together, intent on murder, like a rampart already leaning over, a wall already damaged?
Psa 62:4 Trickery is their only plan, deception their only pleasure, with lies on their lips they pronounce a blessing, with a curse in their hearts.Pause
Psa 62:5 Rest in God alone, my soul! He is the source of my hope.
Psa 62:6 He alone is my rock, my safety, my stronghold, so that I stand unwavering.
Psa 62:7 In God is my safety and my glory, the rock of my strength. In God is my refuge;
Psa 62:8 trust in him, you people, at all times. Pour out your hearts to him, God is a refuge for us.Pause
Psa 62:9 Ordinary people are a mere puff of wind, important people a delusion; set both on the scales together, and they are lighter than a puff of wind.
Psa 62:10 Put no trust in extortion, no empty hopes in robbery; however much wealth may multiply, do not set your heart on it.
Psa 62:11 Once God has spoken, twice have I heard this: Strength belongs to God,
Psa 62:12 to you, Lord, faithful love; and you repay everyone as their deeds deserve.
Psa 63:1 [Psalm Of David When he was in the desert of Judah] God, you are my God, I pine for you; my heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you, as a land parched, dreary and waterless.
Psa 63:2 Thus I have gazed on you in the sanctuary, seeing your power and your glory.
Psa 63:3 Better your faithful love than life itself; my lips will praise you.
Psa 63:4 Thus I will bless you all my life, in your name lift up my hands.
Psa 63:5 All my longings fulfilled as with fat and rich foods, a song of joy on my lips and praise in my mouth.
Psa 63:6 On my bed when I think of you, I muse on you in the watches of the night,
Psa 63:7 for you have always been my help; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice;
Psa 63:8 my heart clings to you, your right hand supports me.
Psa 63:9 May those who are hounding me to death go down to the depths of the earth,
Psa 63:10 given over to the blade of the sword, and left as food for jackals.
Psa 63:11 Then the king shall rejoice in God, all who swear by him shall gain recognition, for the mouths of liars shall be silenced.
Psa 64:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] Listen, God, to my voice as I plead, protect my life from fear of the enemy;
Psa 64:2 hide me from the league of the wicked, from the gang of evil-doers.
Psa 64:3 They sharpen their tongues like a sword, aim their arrows of poisonous abuse,
Psa 64:4 shoot at the innocent from cover, shoot suddenly, with nothing to fear.
Psa 64:5 They support each other in their evil designs, they discuss how to lay their snares. 'Who will see us?' they say,
Psa 64:6 'or will penetrate our secrets?' He will do that, he who penetrates human nature to its depths, the depths of the heart.
Psa 64:7 God has shot them with his arrow, sudden were their wounds.
Psa 64:8 He brings them down because of their tongue, and all who see them shake their heads.
Psa 64:9 Everyone will be awestruck, proclaim what God has done, and understand why he has done it.
Psa 64:10 The upright will rejoice in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will take refuge in him, and all the honest will praise him.
Psa 65:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David Song] Praise is rightfully yours, God, in Zion. Vows to you shall be fulfilled,
Psa 65:2 for you answer prayer. All humanity must come to you
Psa 65:3 with its sinful deeds. Our faults overwhelm us, but you blot them out.
Psa 65:4 How blessed those whom you choose and invite to dwell in your courts. We shall be filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple.
Psa 65:5 You respond to us with the marvels of your saving justice, God our Savior, hope of the whole wide world, even the distant islands.
Psa 65:6 By your strength you hold the mountains steady, being clothed in power,
Psa 65:7 you calm the turmoil of the seas, the turmoil of their waves. The nations are in uproar, in panic those who live at the ends of the earth;
Psa 65:8 your miracles bring shouts of joy to the gateways of morning and evening.
Psa 65:9 You visit the earth and make it fruitful, you fill it with riches; the river of God brims over with water, you provide the grain. To that end
Psa 65:10 you water its furrows abundantly, level its ridges, soften it with showers and bless its shoots.
Psa 65:11 You crown the year with your generosity, richness seeps from your tracks,
Psa 65:12 the pastures of the desert grow moist, the hillsides are wrapped in joy,
Psa 65:13 the meadows are covered with flocks, the valleys clothed with wheat; they shout and sing for joy.
Psa 66:1 [For the choirmaster Song Psalm] Acclaim God, all the earth,
Psa 66:2 sing psalms to the glory of his name, glorify him with your praises,
Psa 66:3 say to God, 'How awesome you are! 'Your achievements are the measure of your power, your enemies woo your favor,
Psa 66:4 all the earth bows down before you, sings psalms to you, sings psalms to your name.'Pause
Psa 66:5 Come and see the marvels of God, his awesome deeds for the children of Adam:
Psa 66:6 he changed the sea into dry land, they crossed the river on foot. So let us rejoice in him,
Psa 66:7 who rules for ever by his power; his eyes keep watch on the nations to forestall rebellion against him.Pause
Psa 66:8 Nations, bless our God, let the sound of his praise be heard;
Psa 66:9 he brings us to life and keeps our feet from stumbling.
Psa 66:10 God, you have put us to the test, refined us like silver,
Psa 66:11 let us fall into the net; you have put a heavy strain on our backs,
Psa 66:12 let men ride over our heads; but now the ordeal by fire and water is over, you have led us out to breathe again.
Psa 66:13 I bring burnt offerings to your house, I fulfill to you my vows,
Psa 66:14 the vows that rose to my lips, that I pronounced when I was in trouble.
Psa 66:15 I will offer you rich burnt offerings, with the smoke of burning rams. I will sacrifice to you bullocks and goats.Pause
Psa 66:16 Come and listen, all who fear God, while I tell what he has done for me.
Psa 66:17 To him I cried aloud, high praise was on my tongue.
Psa 66:18 Had I been aware of guilt in my heart, the Lord would not have listened,
Psa 66:19 but in fact God did listen, attentive to the sound of my prayer.
Psa 66:20 Blessed be God who has not turned away my prayer, nor his own faithful love from me.
Psa 67:1 [For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Song] May God show kindness and bless us, and make his face shine on us.Pause
Psa 67:2 Then the earth will acknowledge your ways, and all nations your power to save.
Psa 67:3 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.
Psa 67:4 Let the nations rejoice and sing for joy, for you judge the world with justice, you judge the peoples with fairness, you guide the nations on earth.Pause
Psa 67:5 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.
Psa 67:6 The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God has blessed us.
Psa 67:7 May God continue to bless us, and be revered by the whole wide world.
Psa 68:1 [For the choirmaster Of David Psalm Song] Let God arise, let his enemies scatter, let his opponents flee before him.
Psa 68:2 You disperse them like smoke; as wax melts in the presence of a fire, so the wicked melt at the presence of God.
Psa 68:3 The upright rejoice in the presence of God, delighted and crying out for joy.
Psa 68:4 Sing to God, play music to his name, build a road for the Rider of the Clouds, rejoice in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), dance before him.
Psa 68:5 Father of orphans, defender of widows, such is God in his holy dwelling.
Psa 68:6 God gives the lonely a home to live in, leads prisoners out into prosperity, but rebels must live in the bare wastelands.
Psa 68:7 God, when you set out at the head of your people, when you strode over the desert,
Psa 68:8 the earth rocked,Pause the heavens pelted down rain at the presence of God, at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
Psa 68:9 God, you rained down a shower of blessings, when your heritage was weary you gave it strength.
Psa 68:10 Your family found a home, which you in your generosity provided for the humble.
Psa 68:11 The Lord gave a command, the good news of a countless army.
Psa 68:12 The chieftains of the army are in flight, in flight, and the fair one at home is sharing out the spoils.
Psa 68:13 While you are at ease in the sheepfolds, the wings of the Dove are being covered with silver, and her feathers with a sheen of green gold;
Psa 68:14 when Shaddai scatters the chieftains, through her it snows on the Dark Mountain.
Psa 68:15 A mountain of God, the mountain of Bashan! a haughty mountain, the mountain of Bashan!
Psa 68:16 Why be envious, haughty mountains, of the mountain God has chosen for his dwelling? There God will dwell for ever.
Psa 68:17 The chariots of God are thousand upon thousand; God has come from Sinai to the sanctuary.
Psa 68:18 You have climbed the heights, taken captives, you have taken men as tribute, even rebels that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God might have a dwelling-place.
Psa 68:19 Blessed be the Lord day after day, he carries us along, God our Savior.Pause
Psa 68:20 This God of ours is a God who saves; from Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) comes escape from death;
Psa 68:21 but God smashes the head of his enemies, the long-haired skull of the prowling criminal.
Psa 68:22 The Lord has said, 'I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the depths of the sea,
Psa 68:23 so that you may bathe your feet in blood, and the tongues of your dogs feast on your enemies.'
Psa 68:24 Your processions, God, are for all to see, the processions of my God, of my king, to the sanctuary;
Psa 68:25 singers ahead, musicians behind, in the middle come girls, beating their drums.
Psa 68:26 In choirs they bless God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since the foundation of Israel.
Psa 68:27 Benjamin was there, the youngest in front, the princes of Judah in bright-coloured robes, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.
Psa 68:28 Take command, my God, as befits your power, the power, God, which you have wielded for us,
Psa 68:29 from your temple high above Jerusalem. Kings will come to you bearing tribute.
Psa 68:30 Rebuke the Beast of the Reeds, that herd of bulls, that people of calves, who bow down with ingots of silver. Scatter the people who delight in war.
Psa 68:31 From Egypt nobles will come, Ethiopia will stretch out its hands to God.
Psa 68:32 Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, play for
Psa 68:33 the Rider of the Heavens, the primeval heavens.Pause There he speaks, with a voice of power!
Psa 68:34 Acknowledge the power of God. Over Israel his splendor, in the clouds his power.
Psa 68:35 Awesome is God in his sanctuary. He, the God of Israel, gives strength and power to his people. Blessed be God.
Psa 69:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Lilies . . .' Of David] Save me, God, for the waters have closed in on my very being.
Psa 69:2 I am sinking in the deepest swamp and there is no firm ground. I have stepped into deep water and the waves are washing over me.
Psa 69:3 I am exhausted with calling out, my throat is hoarse, my eyes are worn out with searching for my God.
Psa 69:4 More numerous than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without reason. Those who seek to get rid of me are powerful, my treacherous enemies. (Must I give back what I have never stolen?)
Psa 69:5 God, you know how foolish I am, my offenses are not hidden from you.
Psa 69:6 Those who hope in you must not be made fools of, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, because of me! Those who seek you must not be disgraced, God of Israel, because of me!
Psa 69:7 It is for you I bear insults, my face is covered with shame,
Psa 69:8 I am estranged from my brothers, alienated from my own mother's sons;
Psa 69:9 for I am eaten up with zeal for your house, and insults directed against you fall on me.
Psa 69:10 I mortify myself with fasting, and find myself insulted for it,
Psa 69:11 I dress myself in sackcloth and become their laughing-stock,
Psa 69:12 the gossip of people sitting at the gate, and the theme of drunkards' songs.
Psa 69:13 And so, I pray to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at the time of your favor; in your faithful love answer me, in the constancy of your saving power.
Psa 69:14 Rescue me from the mire before I sink in; so I shall be saved from those who hate me, from the watery depths.
Psa 69:15 Let not the waves wash over me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit close its mouth on me.
Psa 69:16 Answer me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for your faithful love is generous; in your tenderness turn towards me;
Psa 69:17 do not turn away from your servant, be quick to answer me, for I am in trouble.
Psa 69:18 Come to my side, redeem me, ransom me because of my enemies.
Psa 69:19 You know well the insults, the shame and disgrace I endure. Every one of my oppressors is known to you.
Psa 69:20 Insult has broken my heart past cure. I hoped for sympathy, but in vain, for consolers -- not one to be found.
Psa 69:21 To eat they gave me poison, to drink, vinegar when I was thirsty.
Psa 69:22 May their own table prove a trap for them, and their abundance a snare;
Psa 69:23 may their eyes grow so dim that they cannot see, all their muscles lose their strength.
Psa 69:24 Vent your fury on them, let your burning anger overtake them.
Psa 69:25 Reduce their encampment to ruin, and leave their tents untenanted,
Psa 69:26 for hounding someone you had already stricken, for redoubling the pain of one you had wounded.
Psa 69:27 Charge them with crime after crime, exclude them from your saving justice,
Psa 69:28 erase them from the book of life, do not enrol them among the upright.
Psa 69:29 For myself, wounded wretch that I am, by your saving power raise me up!
Psa 69:30 I will praise God's name in song, I will extol him by thanksgiving,
Psa 69:31 for this will please Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) more than an ox, than a bullock horned and hoofed.
Psa 69:32 The humble have seen and are glad. Let your courage revive, you who seek God.
Psa 69:33 For God listens to the poor, he has never scorned his captive people.
Psa 69:34 Let heaven and earth and seas, and all that stirs in them, acclaim him!
Psa 69:35 For God will save Zion, and rebuild the cities of Judah, and people will live there on their own land;
Psa 69:36 the descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell there.
Psa 70:1 [For the choirmaster Of David In commemoration] Be pleased, God, to rescue me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), come quickly and help me!
Psa 70:2 Shame and dismay to those who seek my life! Back with them! Let them be humiliated who delight in my misfortunes.
Psa 70:3 Let them shrink away covered with shame, those who say to me, 'Aha, aha!'
Psa 70:4 But joy and happiness in you to all who seek you. Let them ceaselessly cry, 'God is great', who love your saving power.
Psa 70:5 Poor and needy as I am, God, come quickly to me! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my helper, my Savior, do not delay!
Psa 71:1 In you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I take refuge, I shall never be put to shame.
Psa 71:2 In your saving justice rescue me, deliver me, listen to me and save me.
Psa 71:3 Be a sheltering rock for me, always accessible; you have determined to save me, for you are my rock, my fortress.
Psa 71:4 My God, rescue me from the clutches of the wicked, from the grasp of the rogue and the ruthless.
Psa 71:5 For you are my hope, Lord, my trust, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since boyhood.
Psa 71:6 On you I have relied since my birth, since my mother's womb you have been my portion, the constant theme of my praise.
Psa 71:7 Many were bewildered at me, but you are my sure refuge.
Psa 71:8 My mouth is full of your praises, filled with your splendor all day long.
Psa 71:9 Do not reject me in my old age, nor desert me when my strength is failing,
Psa 71:10 for my enemies are discussing me, those with designs on my life are plotting together.
Psa 71:11 'Hound him down, for God has deserted him! Seize him, there is no one to rescue him.'
Psa 71:12 God, do not stand aloof, my God, come quickly to help me.
Psa 71:13 Shame and ruin on those who slander me, may those intent on harming me be covered with insult and infamy.
Psa 71:14 As for me, my hope will never fade, I will praise you more and more.
Psa 71:15 My lips shall proclaim your saving justice, your saving power all day long.
Psa 71:16 I will come in the power of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to tell of your justice, yours alone.
Psa 71:17 God, you have taught me from boyhood, and I am still proclaiming your marvels.
Psa 71:18 Now that I am old and grey-haired, God, do not desert me, till I have proclaimed your strength to generations still to come, your power
Psa 71:19 and justice to the skies. You have done great things, God, who is like you?
Psa 71:20 You have shown me much misery and hardship, but you will give me life again, You will raise me up again from the depths of the earth,
Psa 71:21 prolong my old age, and comfort me again.
Psa 71:22 For my part, I will thank you on the lyre for your constancy, my God. I will play the harp in your honor, Holy One of Israel.
Psa 71:23 My lips sing for joy as I play to you, because you have redeemed me,
Psa 71:24 and all day long my tongue muses on your saving justice. Shame and disgrace on those intent to harm me!
Psa 72:1 [Of Solomon] God, endow the king with your own fair judgement, the son of the king with your own saving justice,
Psa 72:2 that he may rule your people with justice, and your poor with fair judgement.
Psa 72:3 Mountains and hills, bring peace to the people! With justice
Psa 72:4 he will judge the poor of the people, he will save the children of the needy and crush their oppressors.
Psa 72:5 In the sight of the sun and the moon he will endure, age after age.
Psa 72:6 He will come down like rain on mown grass, like showers moistening the land.
Psa 72:7 In his days uprightness shall flourish, and peace in plenty till the moon is no more.
Psa 72:8 His empire shall stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the limits of the earth.
Psa 72:9 The Beast will cower before him, his enemies lick the dust;
Psa 72:10 the kings of Tarshish and the islands will pay him tribute. The kings of Sheba and Saba will offer gifts;
Psa 72:11 all kings will do him homage, all nations become his servants.
Psa 72:12 For he rescues the needy who calls to him, and the poor who has no one to help.
Psa 72:13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the needy from death.
Psa 72:14 From oppression and violence he redeems their lives, their blood is precious in his sight.
Psa 72:15 (Long may he live; may the gold of Sheba be given him!) Prayer will be offered for him constantly, and blessings invoked on him all day.
Psa 72:16 May wheat abound in the land, waving on the heights of the hills, like Lebanon with its fruits and flowers at their best, like the grasses of the earth.
Psa 72:17 May his name be blessed for ever, and endure in the sight of the sun. In him shall be blessed every race in the world, and all nations call him blessed.
Psa 72:18 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, who alone works wonders;
Psa 72:19 blessed for ever his glorious name. May the whole world be filled with his glory! Amen! Amen!
Psa 72:20 End of the prayers of David, son of Jesse.
Psa 73:1 [Psalm Of Asaph] Indeed God is good to Israel, the Lord to those who are pure of heart.
Psa 73:2 My feet were on the point of stumbling, a little more and I had slipped,
Psa 73:3 envying the arrogant as I did, and seeing the prosperity of the wicked.
Psa 73:4 For them no such thing as pain, untroubled, their comfortable portliness;
Psa 73:5 exempt from the cares which are the human lot, they have no part in Adam's afflictions.
Psa 73:6 So pride is a necklace to them, violence the garment they wear.
Psa 73:7 From their fat oozes out malice, their hearts drip with cunning.
Psa 73:8 Cynically they advocate evil, loftily they advocate force.
Psa 73:9 Their mouth claims heaven for themselves, and their tongue is never still on earth.
Psa 73:10 That is why my people turn to them, and enjoy the waters of plenty,
Psa 73:11 saying, 'How can God know? What knowledge can the Most High have?'
Psa 73:12 That is what the wicked are like, piling up wealth without any worries.
Psa 73:13 Was it useless, then, to have kept my own heart clean, to have washed my hands in innocence?
Psa 73:14 When I was under a hail of blows all day long, and punished every morning,
Psa 73:15 had I said, 'I shall talk like them,' I should have betrayed your children's race.
Psa 73:16 So I set myself to understand this: how difficult I found it!
Psa 73:17 Until I went into the sanctuaries of the gods and understood what was destined to become of them.
Psa 73:18 You place them on a slippery slope and drive them down into chaos.
Psa 73:19 How sudden their hideous destruction! They are swept away, annihilated by terror!
Psa 73:20 Like a dream upon waking, Lord, when you awake, you dismiss their image.
Psa 73:21 My heart grew embittered, my affections dried up,
Psa 73:22 I was stupid and uncomprehending, a clumsy animal in your presence.
Psa 73:23 Even so, I stayed in your presence, you grasped me by the right hand;
Psa 73:24 you will guide me with advice, and will draw me in the wake of your glory.
Psa 73:25 Who else is there for me in heaven? And, with you, I lack nothing on earth.
Psa 73:26 My heart and my flesh are pining away: my heart's rock, my portion, God for ever!
Psa 73:27 Truly, those who abandon you will perish; you destroy those who adulterously desert you,
Psa 73:28 whereas my happiness is to be near God. I have made the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my refuge, to tell of all your works.
Psa 74:1 [Poem Of Asaph] God, why have you finally rejected us, your anger blazing against the flock you used to pasture?
Psa 74:2 Remember the people you took to yourself long ago, your own tribe which you redeemed, and this Mount Zion where you came to live.
Psa 74:3 Come up to these endless ruins! The enemy have sacked everything in the sanctuary;
Psa 74:4 your opponents made uproar in the place of assemblies, they fixed their emblems over the entrance, emblems
Psa 74:5 never known before. Their axes deep in the wood,
Psa 74:6 hacking at the panels, they battered them down with axe and pick;
Psa 74:7 they set fire to your sanctuary, profanely rased to the ground the dwelling-place of your name.
Psa 74:8 They said to themselves, 'Let us crush them at one stroke!' They burned down every sacred shrine in the land.
Psa 74:9 We see no signs, no prophet any more, and none of us knows how long it will last.
Psa 74:10 How much longer, God, will the enemy blaspheme? Is the enemy to insult your name for ever?
Psa 74:11 Why hold back your hand, keep your right hand hidden in the folds of your robe?
Psa 74:12 Yet, God, my king from the first, author of saving acts throughout the earth,
Psa 74:13 by your power you split the sea in two, and smashed the heads of the monsters on the waters.
Psa 74:14 You crushed Leviathan's heads, gave him as food to the wild animals.
Psa 74:15 You released the springs and brooks, and turned primordial rivers into dry land.
Psa 74:16 Yours is the day and yours the night, you caused sun and light to exist,
Psa 74:17 you fixed all the boundaries of the earth, you created summer and winter.
Psa 74:18 Remember, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the enemy's blasphemy, a foolish people insults your name.
Psa 74:19 Do not surrender your turtledove to the beast; do not forget for ever the life of your oppressed people.
Psa 74:20 Look to the covenant! All the hiding-places of the land are full, haunts of violence.
Psa 74:21 Do not let the downtrodden retreat in confusion, give the poor and needy cause to praise your name.
Psa 74:22 Arise, God, champion your own cause, remember how fools blaspheme you all day long!
Psa 74:23 Do not forget the shouting of your enemies, the ever-mounting uproar of your adversaries.
Psa 75:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'Do not destroy' Psalm Of Asaph Song] We give thanks to you, God, we give thanks to you, as we call upon your name, as we recount your wonders.
Psa 75:2 'At the appointed time I myself shall dispense justice.
Psa 75:3 The earth quakes and all its inhabitants; it is I who hold its pillars firm.Pause
Psa 75:4 'I said to the boastful, "Do not boast!" to the wicked, "Do not flaunt your strength!
Psa 75:5 Do not flaunt your strength so proudly, do not talk with that arrogant stance." '
Psa 75:6 No longer from east to west, no longer in the mountainous desert,
Psa 75:7 is God judging in uprightness, bringing some down, raising others.
Psa 75:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is holding a cup filled with a heady blend of wine; he will pour it, they will drink it to the dregs, all the wicked on earth will drink it.
Psa 75:9 But I shall speak out for ever, shall make music for the God of Jacob.
Psa 75:10 I shall break down all the strength of the wicked, and the strength of the upright will rise high.
Psa 76:1 [For the choirmaster For strings Psalm Of Asaph Song] God is acknowledged in Judah, his name is great in Israel,
Psa 76:2 his tent is pitched in Salem, his dwelling is in Zion;
Psa 76:3 there he has broken the lightning-flashes of the bow, shield and sword and war.Pause
Psa 76:4 Radiant you are, and renowned for the mountains of booty
Psa 76:5 taken from them. Heroes are now sleeping their last sleep, the warriors' arms have failed them;
Psa 76:6 at your reproof, God of Jacob, chariot and horse stand stunned.
Psa 76:7 You, you alone, strike terror! Who can hold his ground in your presence when your anger strikes?
Psa 76:8 From heaven your verdicts thunder, the earth is silent with dread
Psa 76:9 when God takes his stand to give judgement, to save all the humble of the earth.Pause
Psa 76:10 Human anger serves only to praise you, the survivors of your anger will huddle round you.
Psa 76:11 Make and fulfill your vows to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, let those who surround him make offerings to the Awesome One.
Psa 76:12 He cuts short the breath of princes, strikes terror in earthly kings.
Psa 77:1 [For the choirmaster . . . Jeduthun Of Asaph Psalm] I cry to God in distress, I cry to God and he hears me.
Psa 77:2 In the day of my distress I sought the Lord; all night I tirelessly stretched out my hands, my heart refused to be consoled.
Psa 77:3 I sigh as I think of God, my spirit faints away as I ponder on him. Pause
Psa 77:4 You kept me from closing my eyes, I was too distraught to speak;
Psa 77:5 I thought of former times, years long past
Psa 77:6 I recalled; through the night I ponder in my heart, as I reflect, my spirit asks this question:
Psa 77:7 Is the Lord's rejection final? Will he never show favor again?
Psa 77:8 Is his faithful love gone for ever? Has his Word come to an end for all time?
Psa 77:9 Does God forget to show mercy? In anger does he shut off his tenderness?Pause
Psa 77:10 And I said, 'This is what wounds me, the right hand of the Most High has lost its strength.'
Psa 77:11 Remembering Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s great deeds, remembering your wonders in the past,
Psa 77:12 I reflect on all that you did, I ponder all your great deeds.
Psa 77:13 God, your ways are holy! What god is as great as our God?
Psa 77:14 You are the God who does marvellous deeds, brought nations to acknowledge your power,
Psa 77:15 with your own arm redeeming your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph.Pause
Psa 77:16 When the waters saw you, God, when the waters saw you they writhed in anguish, the very depths shook with fear.
Psa 77:17 The clouds pelted down water, the sky thundered, your arrows shot back and forth.
Psa 77:18 The rolling of your thunder was heard, your lightning-flashes lit up the world, the earth shuddered and shook.
Psa 77:19 Your way led over the sea, your path over the countless waters, and none could trace your footsteps.
Psa 77:20 You guided your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
Psa 78:1 [Psalm Of Asaph] My people, listen to my teaching, pay attention to what I say.
Psa 78:2 I will speak to you in poetry, unfold the mysteries of the past.
Psa 78:3 What we have heard and know, what our ancestors have told us
Psa 78:4 we shall not conceal from their descendants, but will tell to a generation still to come: the praises of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), his power, the wonderful deeds he has done.
Psa 78:5 He instituted a witness in Jacob, he established a law in Israel, he commanded our ancestors to hand it down to their descendants,
Psa 78:6 that a generation still to come might know it, children yet to be born. They should be sure to tell their own children,
Psa 78:7 and should put their trust in God, never forgetting God's great deeds, always keeping his commands,
Psa 78:8 and not, like their ancestors, be a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation weak of purpose, their spirit fickle towards God.
Psa 78:9 The archer sons of Ephraim turned tail when the time came for fighting;
Psa 78:10 they failed to keep God's covenant, they refused to follow his Law;
Psa 78:11 they had forgotten his great deeds, the marvels he had shown them;
Psa 78:12 he did marvels in the sight of their ancestors in Egypt, in the plains of Tanis.
Psa 78:13 He split the sea and brought them through, made the waters stand up like a dam;
Psa 78:14 he led them with a cloud by day, and all the night with the light of a fire;
Psa 78:15 he split rocks in the desert, let them drink as though from the limitless depths;
Psa 78:16 he brought forth streams from a rock, made waters flow down in torrents.
Psa 78:17 But they only sinned against him more than ever, defying the Most High in barren country;
Psa 78:18 they deliberately challenged God by demanding food to their hearts' content.
Psa 78:19 They insulted God by saying, 'Can God make a banquet in the desert?
Psa 78:20 True, when he struck the rock, waters gushed out and flowed in torrents; but what of bread? Can he give that, can he provide meat for his people?'
Psa 78:21 When he heard them Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) vented his anger, fire blazed against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,
Psa 78:22 because they had no faith in God, no trust in his power to save.
Psa 78:23 Even so he gave orders to the skies above, he opened the sluice-gates of heaven;
Psa 78:24 he rained down manna to feed them, he gave them the wheat of heaven;
Psa 78:25 mere mortals ate the bread of the Mighty, he sent them as much food as they could want.
Psa 78:26 He roused an east wind in the heavens, despatched a south wind by his strength;
Psa 78:27 he rained down meat on them like dust, birds thick as sand on the seashore,
Psa 78:28 tumbling into the middle of his camp, all around his dwelling-place.
Psa 78:29 They ate as much food as they wanted, he satisfied all their cravings;
Psa 78:30 but their cravings were still upon them, the food was still in their mouths,
Psa 78:31 when the wrath of God attacked them, slaughtering their strongest men, laying low the flower of Israel.
Psa 78:32 Despite all this, they went on sinning, they put no faith in his marvels.
Psa 78:33 He made their days vanish in mist, their years in sudden ruin.
Psa 78:34 Whenever he slaughtered them, they began to seek him, they turned back and looked eagerly for him,
Psa 78:35 recalling that God was their rock, God the Most High, their redeemer.
Psa 78:36 They tried to hoodwink him with their mouths, their tongues were deceitful towards him;
Psa 78:37 their hearts were not loyal to him, they were not faithful to his covenant.
Psa 78:38 But in his compassion he forgave their guilt instead of killing them, time and again repressing his anger instead of rousing his full wrath,
Psa 78:39 remembering they were creatures of flesh, a breath of wind that passes, never to return.
Psa 78:40 How often they defied him in the desert! How often they grieved him in the wastelands!
Psa 78:41 Repeatedly they challenged God, provoking the Holy One of Israel,
Psa 78:42 not remembering his hand, the time when he saved them from the oppressor,
Psa 78:43 he who did his signs in Egypt, his miracles in the plains of Tanis,
Psa 78:44 turning their rivers to blood, their streams so that they had nothing to drink.
Psa 78:45 He sent horseflies to eat them up, and frogs to devastate them,
Psa 78:46 consigning their crops to the caterpillar, the fruit of their hard work to the locust;
Psa 78:47 he killed their vines with hail, their sycamore trees with frost,
Psa 78:48 delivering up their cattle to hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
Psa 78:49 He loosed against them the full heat of his anger, fury, rage and destruction, a detachment of destroying angels;
Psa 78:50 he gave free course to his anger. He did not exempt their own selves from death, delivering up their lives to the plague.
Psa 78:51 He struck all the first-born in Egypt, the flower of the youth in the tents of Ham.
Psa 78:52 He brought out his people like sheep, guiding them like a flock in the desert,
Psa 78:53 leading them safe and unafraid, while the sea engulfed their enemies.
Psa 78:54 He brought them to his holy land, the hill-country won by his right hand;
Psa 78:55 he dispossessed nations before them, measured out a heritage for each of them, and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
Psa 78:56 But still they challenged the Most High God and defied him, refusing to keep his decrees;
Psa 78:57 as perverse and treacherous as their ancestors, they gave way like a faulty bow,
Psa 78:58 provoking him with their high places, rousing his jealousy with their idols.
Psa 78:59 God listened and vented his wrath, he totally rejected Israel;
Psa 78:60 he forsook his dwelling in Shiloh, the tent where he used to dwell on the earth.
Psa 78:61 He abandoned his power to captivity, his splendor to the enemy's clutches;
Psa 78:62 he gave up his people to the sword, he vented his wrath on his own heritage.
Psa 78:63 Fire devoured their young men, their young girls had no wedding-song;
Psa 78:64 their priests fell by the sword and their widows sang no dirge.
Psa 78:65 The Lord arose as though he had been asleep, like a strong man fighting-mad with wine,
Psa 78:66 he struck his enemies on the rump, and put them to everlasting shame.
Psa 78:67 Rejecting the tents of Joseph, passing over the tribe of Ephraim,
Psa 78:68 he chose the tribe of Judah, his well-loved mountain of Zion;
Psa 78:69 he built his sanctuary like high hills, like the earth set it firm for ever.
Psa 78:70 He chose David to be his servant, took him from the sheepfold,
Psa 78:71 took him from tending ewes to pasture his servant Jacob, and Israel his heritage.
Psa 78:72 He pastured them with unblemished heart, with a sensitive hand he led them.
Psa 79:1 [Psalm Of Asaph] God, the pagans have invaded your heritage, they have defiled your holy temple, they have laid Jerusalem in ruins,
Psa 79:2 they have left the corpses of your servants as food for the birds of the air, the bodies of your faithful for the wild beasts.
Psa 79:3 Around Jerusalem they have shed blood like water, leaving no one to bury them.
Psa 79:4 We are the scorn of our neighbors, the butt and laughing-stock of those around us.
Psa 79:5 How long will you be angry, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? For ever? Is your jealousy to go on smouldering like a fire?
Psa 79:6 Pour out your anger on the nations who do not acknowledge you, and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name;
Psa 79:7 for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his home.
Psa 79:8 Do not count against us the guilt of former generations, in your tenderness come quickly to meet us, for we are utterly weakened;
Psa 79:9 help us, God our Savior, for the glory of your name; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), wipe away our sins, rescue us for the sake of your name.
Psa 79:10 Why should the nations ask, 'Where is their God?' Let us see the nations suffer vengeance for shedding your servants' blood.
Psa 79:11 May the groans of the captive reach you, by your great strength save those who are condemned to death!
Psa 79:12 Repay our neighbors sevenfold for the insults they have levelled at you, Lord.
Psa 79:13 And we, your people, the flock that you pasture, will thank you for ever, will recite your praises from age to age.
Psa 80:1 [For the choirmaster Tune: 'The decrees are lilies' Of Asaph Psalm] Shepherd of Israel, listen, you who lead Joseph like a flock, enthroned on the winged creatures, shine forth
Psa 80:2 over Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh; rouse your valour and come to our help.
Psa 80:3 God, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.
Psa 80:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, how long will you flare up at your people's prayer?
Psa 80:5 You have made tears their food, redoubled tears their drink.
Psa 80:6 You let our neighbors quarrel over us, our enemies mock us.
Psa 80:7 God Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.
Psa 80:8 You brought a vine out of Egypt, to plant it you drove out nations;
Psa 80:9 you cleared a space for it, it took root and filled the whole country.
Psa 80:10 The mountains were covered with its shade, and the cedars of God with its branches,
Psa 80:11 its boughs stretched as far as the sea, its shoots as far as the River.
Psa 80:12 Why have you broken down its fences? Every passer-by plucks its grapes,
Psa 80:13 boars from the forest tear at it, wild beasts feed on it.
Psa 80:14 God Sabaoth, come back, we pray, look down from heaven and see, visit this vine;
Psa 80:15 protect what your own hand has planted.
Psa 80:16 They have thrown it on the fire like dung, the frown of your rebuke will destroy them.
Psa 80:17 May your hand protect those at your side, the child of Adam you have strengthened for yourself!
Psa 80:18 Never again will we turn away from you, give us life and we will call upon your name.
Psa 80:19 God Sabaoth, bring us back, let your face shine on us and we shall be safe.
Psa 81:1 [For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Of Asaph] Sing for joy to God our strength, shout in triumph to the God of Jacob.
Psa 81:2 Strike up the music, beat the tambourine, play the melodious harp and the lyre;
Psa 81:3 blow the trumpet for the new month, for the full moon, for our feast day!
Psa 81:4 For Israel has this statute, a decision of the God of Jacob,
Psa 81:5 a decree he imposed on Joseph, when he went to war against Egypt. I heard a voice unknown to me,
Psa 81:6 'I freed his shoulder from the burden, his hands were able to lay aside the labourer's basket.
Psa 81:7 You cried out in your distress, so I rescued you. 'Hidden in the storm, I answered you, I tested you at the waters of Meribah.Pause
Psa 81:8 Listen, my people, while I give you warning; Israel, if only you would listen to me!
Psa 81:9 'You shall have no strange gods, shall worship no alien god.
Psa 81:10 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am your God, who brought you here from Egypt, you have only to open your mouth for me to fill it.
Psa 81:11 'My people would not listen to me, Israel would have none of me.
Psa 81:12 So I left them to their stubborn selves, to follow their own devices.
Psa 81:13 'If only my people would listen to me, if only Israel would walk in my ways,
Psa 81:14 at one stroke I would subdue their enemies, turn my hand against their opponents.
Psa 81:15 'Those who hate Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) would woo his favor, though their doom was sealed for ever,
Psa 81:16 while I would feed him on pure wheat, would give you your fill of honey from the rock.'
Psa 82:1 [Psalm Of Asaph] God takes his stand in the divine assembly, surrounded by the gods he gives judgement.
Psa 82:2 'How much longer will you give unjust judgements and uphold the prestige of the wicked?
Psa 82:3 Let the weak and the orphan have justice, be fair to the wretched and the destitute.Pause
Psa 82:4 'Rescue the weak and the needy, save them from the clutches of the wicked.
Psa 82:5 'Ignorant and uncomprehending, they wander in darkness, while the foundations of the world are tottering.
Psa 82:6 I had thought, "Are you gods, are all of you sons of the Most High?"
Psa 82:7 No! you will die as human beings do, as one man, princes, you will fall.'
Psa 82:8 Arise, God, judge the world, for all nations belong to you.
Psa 83:1 [Song Psalm Of Asaph] God, do not remain silent, do not stay quiet or unmoved, God!
Psa 83:2 See how your enemies are in uproar, how those who hate you are rearing their heads.
Psa 83:3 They are laying plans against your people, conspiring against those you cherish;
Psa 83:4 they say, 'Come, let us annihilate them as a nation, the name of Israel shall be remembered no more!'
Psa 83:5 They conspire with a single mind, they conclude an alliance against you,
Psa 83:6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites,
Psa 83:7 Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia and the Tyrians;
Psa 83:8 even Assyria has joined them to reinforce the children of Lot.Pause
Psa 83:9 Treat them like Midian and Sisera, like Jabin at the river Kishon;
Psa 83:10 wiped out at En-Dor, they served to manure the ground.
Psa 83:11 Treat their leaders like Oreb and Zeeb, all their commanders like Zebah and Zalmunna,
Psa 83:12 for they said, 'Let us take for ourselves God's settlements.'
Psa 83:13 My God, treat them like thistledown, like chaff at the mercy of the wind.
Psa 83:14 As fire devours a forest, as a flame sets mountains ablaze,
Psa 83:15 so drive them away with your tempest, by your whirlwind fill them with terror.
Psa 83:16 Shame written all over their faces, let them seek your name, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Psa 83:17 Dishonor and terror be always theirs, death also and destruction.
Psa 83:18 Let them know that you alone bear the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Most High over all the earth.
Psa 84:1 [For the choirmaster On the . . . of Gath Of the sons of Korah Psalm] How lovely are your dwelling-places, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Psa 84:2 My whole being yearns and pines for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s courts, My heart and my body cry out for joy to the living God.
Psa 84:3 Even the sparrow has found a home, the swallow a nest to place its young: your altars, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, my King and my God.
Psa 84:4 How blessed are those who live in your house; they shall praise you continually. Pause
Psa 84:5 Blessed those who find their strength in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage.
Psa 84:6 As they pass through the Valley of the Balsam, they make there a water-hole, and -- a further blessing -- early rain fills it.
Psa 84:7 They make their way from height to height, God shows himself to them in Zion.
Psa 84:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, hear my prayer, listen, God of Jacob.
Psa 84:9 God, our shield, look, and see the face of your anointed.
Psa 84:10 Better one day in your courts than a thousand at my own devices, to stand on the threshold of God's house than to live in the tents of the wicked.
Psa 84:11 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God is a rampart and shield, he gives grace and glory; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) refuses nothing good to those whose life is blameless.
Psa 84:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, blessed is he who trusts in you.
Psa 85:1 [For the choirmaster Of the sons of Korah Psalm] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you are gracious to your land, you bring back the captives of Jacob,
Psa 85:2 you take away the guilt of your people, you blot out all their sin.Pause
Psa 85:3 You retract all your anger, you renounce the heat of your fury.
Psa 85:4 Bring us back, God our Savior, appease your indignation against us!
Psa 85:5 Will you be angry with us for ever? Will you prolong your wrath age after age?
Psa 85:6 Will you not give us life again, for your people to rejoice in you?
Psa 85:7 Show us, Lord, your faithful love, grant us your saving help.
Psa 85:8 I am listening. What is God's message? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s message is peace for his people, for his faithful, if only they renounce their folly.
Psa 85:9 His saving help is near for those who fear him, his glory will dwell in our land.
Psa 85:10 Faithful Love and Loyalty join together, Saving Justice and Peace embrace.
Psa 85:11 Loyalty will spring up from the earth, and Justice will lean down from heaven.
Psa 85:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will himself give prosperity, and our soil will yield its harvest.
Psa 85:13 Justice will walk before him, treading out a path.
Psa 86:1 [Prayer Of David] Listen to me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), answer me, for I am poor and needy.
Psa 86:2 Guard me, for I am faithful, save your servant who relies on you. You are my God,
Psa 86:3 take pity on me, Lord, for to you I cry all the day.
Psa 86:4 Fill your servant's heart with joy, Lord, for to you I raise up my heart.
Psa 86:5 Lord, you are kind and forgiving, rich in faithful love for all who call upon you.
Psa 86:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hear my prayer, listen to the sound of my pleading.
Psa 86:7 In my day of distress I call upon you, because you answer me, Lord;
Psa 86:8 among the gods there is none to compare with you, no great deeds to compare with yours.
Psa 86:9 All nations will come and adore you, Lord, and give glory to your name.
Psa 86:10 For you are great and do marvellous deeds, you, God, and none other.
Psa 86:11 Teach me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your ways, that I may not stray from your loyalty; let my heart's one aim be to fear your name.
Psa 86:12 I thank you with all my heart, Lord my God, I will glorify your name for ever,
Psa 86:13 for your faithful love for me is so great that you have rescued me from the depths of Sheol.
Psa 86:14 Arrogant men, God, are rising up against me, a brutal gang is after my life, in their scheme of things you have no place.
Psa 86:15 But you, Lord, God of tenderness and mercy, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and loyalty,
Psa 86:16 turn to me and pity me. Give to your servant your strength, to the child of your servant your saving help,
Psa 86:17 give me a sign of your kindness.
Psa 86:18 My enemies will see to their shame that you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), help and console me.
Psa 87:1 [Of the sons of Korah Psalm Song] With its foundations on the holy mountains,
Psa 87:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves his city, he prefers the gates of Zion to any dwelling-place in Jacob.
Psa 87:3 He speaks of glory for you, city of God,Pause
Psa 87:4 'I number Rahab and Babylon among those that acknowledge me; look at Tyre, Philistia, Ethiopia, so and so was born there.'
Psa 87:5 But of Zion it will be said, 'Every one was born there,' her guarantee is the Most High.
Psa 87:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in his register of peoples will note against each, 'Born there',Pause
Psa 87:7 princes no less than native-born; all make their home in you.
Psa 88:1 [Song Psalm Of the sons of Korah In sickness In suffering Poem For Heman the native-born] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of my salvation, when I cry out to you in the night,
Psa 88:2 may my prayer reach your presence, hear my cry for help.
Psa 88:3 For I am filled with misery, my life is on the brink of Sheol;
Psa 88:4 already numbered among those who sink into oblivion, I am as one bereft of strength,
Psa 88:5 left alone among the dead, like the slaughtered lying in the grave, whom you remember no more, cut off as they are from your protection.
Psa 88:6 You have plunged me to the bottom of the grave, in the darkness, in the depths;
Psa 88:7 weighted down by your anger, kept low by your waves.Pause
Psa 88:8 You have deprived me of my friends, made me repulsive to them, imprisoned, with no escape;
Psa 88:9 my eyes are worn out with suffering. I call to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all day, I stretch out my hands to you.
Psa 88:10 Do you work wonders for the dead, can shadows rise up to praise you?Pause
Psa 88:11 Do they speak in the grave of your faithful love, of your constancy in the place of perdition?
Psa 88:12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, your saving justice in the land of oblivion?
Psa 88:13 But, for my part, I cry to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), every morning my prayer comes before you;
Psa 88:14 why, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do you rebuff me, turn your face away from me?
Psa 88:15 Wretched and close to death since childhood, I have borne your terrors -- I am finished!
Psa 88:16 Your anger has overwhelmed me, your terrors annihilated me.
Psa 88:17 They flood around me all day long, close in on me all at once.
Psa 88:18 You have deprived me of friends and companions, and all that I know is the dark.
Psa 89:1 [Poem For Ethan the native-born] I shall sing the faithful love of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for ever, from age to age my lips shall declare your constancy,
Psa 89:2 for you have said: love is built to last for ever, you have fixed your constancy firm in the heavens.
Psa 89:3 'I have made a covenant with my Chosen One, sworn an oath to my servant David:
Psa 89:4 I have made your dynasty firm for ever, built your throne stable age after age.'Pause
Psa 89:5 The heavens praise your wonders, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your constancy in the gathering of your faithful.
Psa 89:6 Who in the skies can compare with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? Who among the sons of god can rival him?
Psa 89:7 God, awesome in the assembly of holy ones, great and dreaded among all who surround him,
Psa 89:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, who is like you? Mighty Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your constancy is all round you!
Psa 89:9 You control the pride of the ocean, when its waves ride high you calm them.
Psa 89:10 You split Rahab in two like a corpse, scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.
Psa 89:11 Yours are the heavens and yours the earth, the world and all it holds, you founded them;
Psa 89:12 you created the north and the south, Tabor and Hermon hail your name with joy.
Psa 89:13 Yours is a strong arm, mighty your hand, your right hand raised high;
Psa 89:14 Saving Justice and Fair Judgement the foundations of your throne, Faithful Love and Constancy march before you.
Psa 89:15 How blessed the nation that learns to acclaim you! They will live, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the light of your presence.
Psa 89:16 In your name they rejoice all day long, by your saving justice they are raised up.
Psa 89:17 You are the flower of their strength, by your favor our strength is triumphant;
Psa 89:18 for to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) belongs our shield, to the Holy One of Israel our king.
Psa 89:19 Once you spoke in a vision, to your faithful you said: 'I have given strength to a warrior, I have raised up a man chosen from my people.
Psa 89:20 'I have found David my servant, and anointed him with my holy oil.
Psa 89:21 My hand will always be with him, my arm will make him strong.
Psa 89:22 'No enemy will be able to outwit him, no wicked man overcome him;
Psa 89:23 I shall crush his enemies before him, strike his opponents dead.
Psa 89:24 'My constancy and faithful love will be with him, in my name his strength will be triumphant.
Psa 89:25 I shall establish his power over the sea, his dominion over the rivers.
Psa 89:26 'He will cry to me, "You are my father, my God, the rock of my salvation!"
Psa 89:27 So I shall make him my first-born, the highest of earthly kings.
Psa 89:28 'I shall maintain my faithful love for him always, my covenant with him will stay firm.
Psa 89:29 I have established his dynasty for ever, his throne to be as lasting as the heavens.
Psa 89:30 'Should his descendants desert my law, and not keep to my rulings,
Psa 89:31 should they violate my statutes, and not observe my commandments,
Psa 89:32 'then I shall punish their offenses with the rod, their guilt with the whip,
Psa 89:33 but I shall never withdraw from him my faithful love, I shall not belie my constancy.
Psa 89:34 'I shall not violate my covenant, I shall not withdraw the word once spoken.
Psa 89:35 I have sworn by my holiness, once and for all, never will I break faith with David.
Psa 89:36 'His dynasty shall endure for ever, his throne like the sun before me,
Psa 89:37 as the moon is established for ever, a faithful witness in the skies.'Pause
Psa 89:38 Yet you yourself -- you have spurned and rejected, and have vented your wrath on your anointed,
Psa 89:39 you have repudiated the covenant with your servant, dishonored his crown in the dust.
Psa 89:40 You have pierced all his defences, and laid his strongholds in ruins,
Psa 89:41 everyone passing by plunders him, he has become the butt of his neighbors.
Psa 89:42 You have raised high the right hand of his opponents, have made all his enemies happy;
Psa 89:43 you have snapped off his sword on a rock, and failed to support him in battle.
Psa 89:44 You have stripped him of his splendid scepter, and toppled his throne to the ground.
Psa 89:45 You have aged him before his time, enveloped him in shame.Pause
Psa 89:46 How long, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will you remain hidden? For ever? Is your anger to go on smouldering like a fire?
Psa 89:47 Remember me; how long have I left? For what pointless end did you create all the children of Adam?
Psa 89:48 Who can live and never see death? Who can save himself from the clutches of Sheol?Pause
Psa 89:49 Lord, what of those pledges of your faithful love? You made an oath to David by your constancy.
Psa 89:50 Do not forget the insults to your servant; I take to heart the taunts of the nations,
Psa 89:51 which your enemies have levelled, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have levelled at the footsteps of your anointed!
Psa 89:52 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for ever. Amen, Amen.
Psa 90:1 [Prayer Of Moses, man of God] Lord, you have been our refuge from age to age.
Psa 90:2 Before the mountains were born, before the earth and the world came to birth, from eternity to eternity you are God.
Psa 90:3 You bring human beings to the dust, by saying, 'Return, children of Adam.'
Psa 90:4 A thousand years are to you like a yesterday which has passed, like a watch of the night.
Psa 90:5 You flood them with sleep -- in the morning they will be like growing grass:
Psa 90:6 in the morning it is blossoming and growing, by evening it is withered and dry.
Psa 90:7 For we have been destroyed by your wrath, dismayed by your anger.
Psa 90:8 You have taken note of our guilty deeds, our secrets in the full light of your presence.
Psa 90:9 All our days pass under your wrath, our lives are over like a sigh.
Psa 90:10 The span of our life is seventy years -- eighty for those who are strong -- but their whole extent is anxiety and trouble, they are over in a moment and we are gone.
Psa 90:11 Who feels the power of your anger, or who that fears you, your wrath?
Psa 90:12 Teach us to count up the days that are ours, and we shall come to the heart of wisdom.
Psa 90:13 Come back, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! How long must we wait? Take pity on your servants.
Psa 90:14 Each morning fill us with your faithful love, we shall sing and be happy all our days;
Psa 90:15 let our joy be as long as the time that you afflicted us, the years when we experienced disaster.
Psa 90:16 Show your servants the deeds you do, let their children enjoy your splendor!
Psa 90:17 May the sweetness of the Lord be upon us, to confirm the work we have done!
Psa 91:1 You who live in the secret place of Elyon, spend your nights in the shelter of Shaddai,
Psa 91:2 saying to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'My refuge, my fortress, my God in whom I trust!'
Psa 91:3 He rescues you from the snare of the fowler set on destruction;
Psa 91:4 he covers you with his pinions, you find shelter under his wings. His constancy is shield and protection.
Psa 91:5 You need not fear the terrors of night, the arrow that flies in the daytime,
Psa 91:6 the plague that stalks in the darkness, the scourge that wreaks havoc at high noon.
Psa 91:7 Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, you yourself will remain unscathed.
Psa 91:8 You have only to keep your eyes open to see how the wicked are repaid,
Psa 91:9 you who say, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my refuge!' and make Elyon your fortress.
Psa 91:10 No disaster can overtake you, no plague come near your tent;
Psa 91:11 he has given his angels orders about you to guard you wherever you go.
Psa 91:12 They will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.
Psa 91:13 You will walk upon wild beast and adder, you will trample young lions and snakes.
Psa 91:14 'Since he clings to me I rescue him, I raise him high, since he acknowledges my name.
Psa 91:15 He calls to me and I answer him: in distress I am at his side, I rescue him and bring him honor.
Psa 91:16 I shall satisfy him with long life, and grant him to see my salvation.'
Psa 92:1 [Psalm Song For the Sabbath] It is good to give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to make music for your name, Most High,
Psa 92:2 to proclaim your faithful love at daybreak, and your constancy all through the night,
Psa 92:3 on the lyre, the ten-stringed lyre, to the murmur of the harp.
Psa 92:4 You have brought me joy, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), by your deeds, at the work of your hands I cry out,
Psa 92:5 'How great are your works, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), immensely deep your thoughts!'
Psa 92:6 Stupid people cannot realize this, fools do not grasp it.
Psa 92:7 The wicked may sprout like weeds, and every evil-doer flourish, but only to be eternally destroyed;
Psa 92:8 whereas you are supreme for ever, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 92:9 Look how your enemies perish, how all evil-doers are scattered!
Psa 92:10 You give me the strength of the wild ox, you anoint me with fresh oil;
Psa 92:11 I caught sight of the ambush against me, overheard the plans of the wicked.
Psa 92:12 The upright will flourish like the palm tree, will grow like a cedar of Lebanon.
Psa 92:13 Planted in the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they will flourish in the courts of our God.
Psa 92:14 In old age they will still bear fruit, will remain fresh and green,
Psa 92:15 to proclaim Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s integrity; my rock, in whom no fault can be found.
Psa 93:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is king, robed in majesty, robed is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and girded with power.
Psa 93:2 The world is indeed set firm, it can never be shaken; your throne is set firm from of old, from all eternity you exist.
Psa 93:3 The rivers lift up, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the rivers lift up their voices, the rivers lift up their thunder.
Psa 93:4 Greater than the voice of many waters, more majestic than the breakers of the sea, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is majestic in the heights.
Psa 93:5 Your decrees stand firm, unshakeable, holiness is the beauty of your house, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for all time to come.
Psa 94:1 God of vengeance, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of vengeance, shine forth!
Psa 94:2 Arise, judge of the world, give back the proud what they deserve!
Psa 94:3 How long are the wicked, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), how long are the wicked to triumph?
Psa 94:4 They bluster and boast, they flaunt themselves, all the evil-doers.
Psa 94:5 They crush your people, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they oppress your heritage,
Psa 94:6 they murder the widow and the stranger, bring the orphan to a violent death.
Psa 94:7 They say, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is not looking, the God of Jacob is taking no notice.'
Psa 94:8 Take notice yourselves, you coarsest of people! Fools, when will you learn some sense?
Psa 94:9 Shall he who implanted the ear not hear, he who fashioned the eye not see?
Psa 94:10 Shall he who instructs nations not punish? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the teacher of all people,
Psa 94:11 knows human plans and how insipid they are.
Psa 94:12 How blessed are those you instruct, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), whom you teach by means of your law,
Psa 94:13 to give them respite in evil times, till a pit is dug for the wicked.
Psa 94:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will not abandon his people, he will not desert his heritage;
Psa 94:15 for judgement will again become saving justice, and in its wake all upright hearts will follow.
Psa 94:16 Who rises up on my side against the wicked? Who stands firm on my side against all evil-doers?
Psa 94:17 If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did not come to my help, I should soon find myself dwelling in the silence.
Psa 94:18 I need only say, 'I am slipping,' for your faithful love, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to support me;
Psa 94:19 however great the anxiety of my heart, your consolations soothe me.
Psa 94:20 Are you partner to a destructive court, that gives disorder the status of law?
Psa 94:21 They make an attack on the life of the upright, and condemn innocent blood.
Psa 94:22 No! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a stronghold to me, my God is my rock of refuge.
Psa 94:23 He turns back their guilt on themselves, annihilates them for their wickedness, he annihilates them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.
Psa 95:1 Come, let us cry out with joy to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Psa 95:2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving, acclaim him with music.
Psa 95:3 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a great God, a king greater than all the gods.
Psa 95:4 In his power are the depths of the earth, the peaks of the mountains are his;
Psa 95:5 the sea belongs to him, for he made it, and the dry land, moulded by his hands.
Psa 95:6 Come, let us bow low and do reverence; kneel before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who made us!
Psa 95:7 For he is our God, and we the people of his sheepfold, the flock of his hand. If only you would listen to him today!
Psa 95:8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as at the time of Massah in the desert,
Psa 95:9 when your ancestors challenged me, put me to the test, and saw what I could do!
Psa 95:10 For forty years that generation sickened me, and I said, 'Always fickle hearts; they cannot grasp my ways.'
Psa 95:11 Then in my anger I swore they would never enter my place of rest.
Psa 96:1 Sing a new song to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! Sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all the earth!
Psa 96:2 Sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), bless his name! Proclaim his salvation day after day,
Psa 96:3 declare his glory among the nations, his marvels to every people!
Psa 96:4 Great is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), worthy of all praise, more awesome than any of the gods.
Psa 96:5 All the gods of the nations are idols! It was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who made the heavens;
Psa 96:6 in his presence are splendor and majesty, in his sanctuary power and beauty.
Psa 96:7 Give to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), families of nations, give to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) glory and power,
Psa 96:8 give to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the glory due to his name! Bring an offering and enter his courts,
Psa 96:9 adore Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the splendor of his holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth.
Psa 96:10 Say among the nations, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is king.' The world is set firm, it cannot be moved. He will judge the nations with justice.
Psa 96:11 Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad! Let the sea thunder, and all it holds!
Psa 96:12 Let the countryside exult, and all that is in it, and all the trees of the forest cry out for joy,
Psa 96:13 at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s approach, for he is coming, coming to judge the earth; he will judge the world with saving justice, and the nations with constancy.
Psa 97:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is king! Let earth rejoice, the many isles be glad!
Psa 97:2 Cloud, black cloud enfolds him, saving justice and judgement the foundations of his throne.
Psa 97:3 Fire goes before him, sets ablaze his enemies all around;
Psa 97:4 his lightning-flashes light up the world, the earth sees it and quakes.
Psa 97:5 The mountains melt like wax, before the Lord of all the earth.
Psa 97:6 The heavens proclaim his saving justice, all nations see his glory.
Psa 97:7 Shame on all who serve images, who pride themselves on their idols; bow down to him, all you gods!
Psa 97:8 Zion hears and is glad, the daughters of Judah exult, because of your judgements, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 97:9 For you are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Most High over all the earth, far transcending all gods.
Psa 97:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves those who hate evil, he keeps safe his faithful, rescues them from the clutches of the wicked.
Psa 97:11 Light dawns for the upright, and joy for honest hearts.
Psa 97:12 Rejoice in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you who are upright, praise his unforgettable holiness.
Psa 98:1 [Psalm] Sing a new song to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he has performed wonders, his saving power is in his right hand and his holy arm.
Psa 98:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made known his saving power, revealed his saving justice for the nations to see,
Psa 98:3 mindful of his faithful love and his constancy to the House of Israel. The whole wide world has seen the saving power of our God.
Psa 98:4 Acclaim Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all the earth, burst into shouts of joy!
Psa 98:5 Play to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the harp, to the sound of instruments;
Psa 98:6 to the sound of trumpet and horn, acclaim the presence of the King.
Psa 98:7 Let the sea thunder, and all that it holds, the world and all who live in it.
Psa 98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands, and the mountains shout for joy together,
Psa 98:9 at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s approach, for he is coming to judge the earth; he will judge the world with saving justice and the nations with fairness.
Psa 99:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is king, the peoples tremble; he is enthroned on the winged creatures, the earth shivers;
Psa 99:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is great in Zion. He is supreme over all nations;
Psa 99:3 let them praise your name, great and awesome; holy is he
Psa 99:4 and mighty! You are a king who loves justice, you established honesty, justice and uprightness; in Jacob it is you who are active.
Psa 99:5 Exalt Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, bow down at his footstool; holy is he!
Psa 99:6 Moses and Aaron are among his priests, and Samuel, calling on his name; they called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he answered them.
Psa 99:7 He spoke with them in the pillar of fire, they obeyed his decrees, the Law he gave them.
Psa 99:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, you answered them, you were a God of forgiveness to them, but punished them for their sins.
Psa 99:9 Exalt Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, bow down at his holy mountain; holy is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God!
Psa 100:1 [Psalm For thanksgiving] Acclaim Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all the earth,
Psa 100:2 serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with gladness, come into his presence with songs of joy!
Psa 100:3 Be sure that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God, he made us, we belong to him, his people, the flock of his sheepfold.
Psa 100:4 Come within his gates giving thanks, to his courts singing praise, give thanks to him and bless his name!
Psa 100:5 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is good, his faithful love is everlasting, his constancy from age to age.
Psa 101:1 [Of David Psalm] I will sing of faithful love and judgement; to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will I make music.
Psa 101:2 I will go forward in the path of the blameless; when will you come to me? I will live in purity of heart, in my house,
Psa 101:3 I will not set before my eyes anything sordid. I hate those who act crookedly; this has no attraction for me.
Psa 101:4 Let the perverse of heart keep away from me; the wicked I disregard.
Psa 101:5 One who secretly slanders a comrade, I reduce to silence; haughty looks, proud heart, these I cannot abide.
Psa 101:6 I look to the faithful of the land to be my companions, only he who walks in the path of the blameless shall be my servant.
Psa 101:7 There is no room in my house for anyone who practises deceit; no liar will stand his ground where I can see him.
Psa 101:8 Morning after morning I reduce to silence all the wicked in the land, banishing from the city of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) all evil-doers.
Psa 102:1 [Prayer of someone afflicted, who in misfortune pours out sorrows before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hear my prayer, let my cry for help reach you.
Psa 102:2 Do not turn away your face from me when I am in trouble; bend down and listen to me, when I call, be quick to answer me!
Psa 102:3 For my days are vanishing like smoke, my bones burning like an oven;
Psa 102:4 like grass struck by blight, my heart is withering, I forget to eat my meals.
Psa 102:5 From the effort of voicing my groans my bones stick out through my skin.
Psa 102:6 I am like a desert-owl in the wastes, a screech-owl among ruins,
Psa 102:7 I keep vigil and moan like a lone bird on a roof.
Psa 102:8 All day long my enemies taunt me, those who once praised me now use me as a curse.
Psa 102:9 Ashes are the food that I eat, my drink is mingled with tears,
Psa 102:10 because of your fury and anger, since you have raised me up only to cast me away;
Psa 102:11 my days are like a fading shadow, I am withering up like grass.
Psa 102:12 But you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are enthroned for ever, each generation in turn remembers you.
Psa 102:13 Rise up, take pity on Zion! the time has come to have mercy on her, the moment has come;
Psa 102:14 for your servants love her very stones, are moved to pity by her dust.
Psa 102:15 Then will the nations revere the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and all the kings of the earth your glory;
Psa 102:16 when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) builds Zion anew, he will be seen in his glory;
Psa 102:17 he will turn to hear the prayer of the destitute, and will not treat their prayer with scorn.
Psa 102:18 This shall be put on record for a future generation, and a people yet to be born shall praise God:
Psa 102:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has leaned down from the heights of his sanctuary, has looked down from heaven to earth,
Psa 102:20 to listen to the sighing of the captive, and set free those condemned to death,
Psa 102:21 to proclaim the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in Zion, his praise in Jerusalem;
Psa 102:22 nations will gather together, and kingdoms to worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 102:23 In my journeying my strength has failed on the way;
Psa 102:24 let me know the short time I have left. Do not take me away before half my days are done, for your years run on from age to age.
Psa 102:25 Long ago you laid earth's foundations, the heavens are the work of your hands.
Psa 102:26 They pass away but you remain; they all wear out like a garment, like outworn clothes you change them;
Psa 102:27 but you never alter, and your years never end.
Psa 102:28 The children of those who serve you will dwell secure, and their descendants live on in your presence.
Psa 103:1 [Of David] Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul, from the depths of my being, his holy name;
Psa 103:2 bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul, never forget all his acts of kindness.
Psa 103:3 He forgives all your offenses, cures all your diseases,
Psa 103:4 he redeems your life from the abyss, crowns you with faithful love and tenderness;
Psa 103:5 he contents you with good things all your life, renews your youth like an eagle's.
Psa 103:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) acts with uprightness, with justice to all who are oppressed;
Psa 103:7 he revealed to Moses his ways, his great deeds to the children of Israel.
Psa 103:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is tenderness and pity, slow to anger and rich in faithful love;
Psa 103:9 his indignation does not last for ever, nor his resentment remain for all time;
Psa 103:10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve, nor repay us as befits our offenses.
Psa 103:11 As the height of heaven above earth, so strong is his faithful love for those who fear him.
Psa 103:12 As the distance of east from west, so far from us does he put our faults.
Psa 103:13 As tenderly as a father treats his children, so Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) treats those who fear him;
Psa 103:14 he knows of what we are made, he remembers that we are dust.
Psa 103:15 As for a human person -- his days are like grass, he blooms like the wild flowers;
Psa 103:16 as soon as the wind blows he is gone, never to be seen there again.
Psa 103:17 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s faithful love for those who fear him is from eternity and for ever; and his saving justice to their children's children;
Psa 103:18 as long as they keep his covenant, and carefully obey his precepts.
Psa 103:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has fixed his throne in heaven, his sovereign power rules over all.
Psa 103:20 Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all his angels, mighty warriors who fulfill his commands, attentive to the sound of his words.
Psa 103:21 Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all his armies, servants who fulfill his wishes.
Psa 103:22 Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all his works, in every place where he rules. Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul.
Psa 104:1 Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my God, how great you are! Clothed in majesty and splendor,
Psa 104:2 wearing the light as a robe! You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
Psa 104:3 build your palace on the waters above, making the clouds your chariot, gliding on the wings of the wind,
Psa 104:4 appointing the winds your messengers, flames of fire your servants.
Psa 104:5 You fixed the earth on its foundations, for ever and ever it shall not be shaken;
Psa 104:6 you covered it with the deep like a garment, the waters overtopping the mountains.
Psa 104:7 At your reproof the waters fled, at the voice of your thunder they sped away,
Psa 104:8 flowing over mountains, down valleys, to the place you had fixed for them;
Psa 104:9 you made a limit they were not to cross, they were not to return and cover the earth.
Psa 104:10 In the ravines you opened up springs, running down between the mountains,
Psa 104:11 supplying water for all the wild beasts; the wild asses quench their thirst,
Psa 104:12 on their banks the birds of the air make their nests, they sing among the leaves.
Psa 104:13 From your high halls you water the mountains, satisfying the earth with the fruit of your works:
Psa 104:14 for cattle you make the grass grow, and for people the plants they need, to bring forth food from the earth,
Psa 104:15 and wine to cheer people's hearts, oil to make their faces glow, food to make them sturdy of heart.
Psa 104:16 The trees of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon which he sowed;
Psa 104:17 there the birds build their nests, on the highest branches the stork makes its home;
Psa 104:18 for the wild goats there are the mountains, in the crags the coneys find refuge.
Psa 104:19 He made the moon to mark the seasons, the sun knows when to set.
Psa 104:20 You bring on darkness, and night falls, when all the forest beasts roam around;
Psa 104:21 young lions roar for their prey, asking God for their food.
Psa 104:22 The sun rises and away they steal, back to their lairs to lie down,
Psa 104:23 and man goes out to work, to labour till evening falls.
Psa 104:24 How countless are your works, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all of them made so wisely! The earth is full of your creatures.
Psa 104:25 Then there is the sea, with its vast expanses teeming with countless creatures, creatures both great and small;
Psa 104:26 there ships pass to and fro, and Leviathan whom you made to sport with.
Psa 104:27 They all depend upon you, to feed them when they need it.
Psa 104:28 You provide the food they gather, your open hand gives them their fill.
Psa 104:29 Turn away your face and they panic; take back their breath and they die and revert to dust.
Psa 104:30 Send out your breath and life begins; you renew the face of the earth.
Psa 104:31 Glory to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for ever! May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) find joy in his creatures!
Psa 104:32 At his glance the earth trembles, at his touch the mountains pour forth smoke.
Psa 104:33 I shall sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) all my life, make music for my God as long as I live.
Psa 104:34 May my musings be pleasing to him, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives me joy.
Psa 104:35 May sinners vanish from the earth, and the wicked exist no more! Bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul.
Psa 105:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), call on his name, proclaim his deeds to the peoples!
Psa 105:2 Sing to him, make music for him, recount all his wonders!
Psa 105:3 Glory in his holy name, let the hearts that seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rejoice!
Psa 105:4 Seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his strength, tirelessly seek his presence!
Psa 105:5 Remember the marvels he has done, his wonders, the judgements he has spoken.
Psa 105:6 Stock of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob whom he chose!
Psa 105:7 He is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, his judgements touch the whole world.
Psa 105:8 He remembers his covenant for ever, the promise he laid down for a thousand generations,
Psa 105:9 which he concluded with Abraham, the oath he swore to Isaac.
Psa 105:10 He established it as a statute for Jacob, an everlasting covenant with Israel,
Psa 105:11 saying, 'To you I give a land, Canaan, your allotted birthright.'
Psa 105:12 When they were insignificant in numbers, a handful of strangers in the land,
Psa 105:13 wandering from country to country, from one kingdom and nation to another,
Psa 105:14 he allowed no one to oppress them; for their sake he instructed kings,
Psa 105:15 'Do not touch my anointed ones, to my prophets you may do no harm.'
Psa 105:16 He called down famine on the land, he took away their food supply;
Psa 105:17 he sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave.
Psa 105:18 So his feet were weighed down with shackles, his neck was put in irons.
Psa 105:19 In due time his prophecy was fulfilled, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) proved him true.
Psa 105:20 The king sent orders to release him, the ruler of nations set him free;
Psa 105:21 he put him in charge of his household, the ruler of all he possessed,
Psa 105:22 to instruct his princes as he saw fit, to teach his counsellors wisdom.
Psa 105:23 Then Israel migrated to Egypt, Jacob settled in the country of Ham.
Psa 105:24 He made his people increase in numbers, he gave them more strength than their enemies,
Psa 105:25 whose heart he turned to hate his own people, to double-cross his servants.
Psa 105:26 He sent his servant Moses, and Aaron, the man of his choice.
Psa 105:27 They worked there the wonders he commanded, marvels in the country of Ham.
Psa 105:28 Darkness he sent, and darkness fell, but that nation defied his orders.
Psa 105:29 He turned their rivers to blood, and killed all the fish in them.
Psa 105:30 Their country was overrun with frogs, even in the royal apartments;
Psa 105:31 at his word came flies, and mosquitoes throughout the country.
Psa 105:32 He gave them hail as their rain, flames of fire in their land;
Psa 105:33 he blasted their vine and their fig tree, and shattered the trees of the country.
Psa 105:34 At his word came locusts, hoppers beyond all counting;
Psa 105:35 they devoured every green thing in the land, devoured all the produce of the soil.
Psa 105:36 He struck all the first-born in their land, the flower of all their manhood;
Psa 105:37 he led Israel out with silver and gold; in their tribes there was none who stumbled.
Psa 105:38 Egypt was glad at their leaving, for terror of Israel had seized them.
Psa 105:39 He spread out a cloud to cover them, and fire to light up the night.
Psa 105:40 They asked and he brought them quails, food from heaven to their hearts' content;
Psa 105:41 he opened a rock, the waters gushed out, and flowed in dry ground as a river.
Psa 105:42 Faithful to his sacred promise, given to his servant Abraham,
Psa 105:43 he led out his people with rejoicing, his chosen ones with shouts of joy.
Psa 105:44 He gave them the territories of nations, they reaped the fruit of other people's labours,
Psa 105:45 on condition that they kept his statutes, and remained obedient to his laws.
Psa 106:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he is good, his faithful love is everlasting!
Psa 106:2 Who can recount all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s triumphs, who can fully voice his praise?
Psa 106:3 How blessed are those who keep to what is just, whose conduct is always upright!
Psa 106:4 Remember me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in your love for your people. Come near to me with your saving power,
Psa 106:5 let me share the happiness of your chosen ones, let me share the joy of your people, the pride of your heritage.
Psa 106:6 Like our ancestors, we have sinned, we have acted wickedly, guiltily;
Psa 106:7 our ancestors in Egypt never grasped the meaning of your wonders. They did not bear in mind your countless acts of love, at the Sea of Reeds they defied the Most High;
Psa 106:8 but for the sake of his name he saved them, to make known his mighty power.
Psa 106:9 At his rebuke the Sea of Reeds dried up, he let them pass through the deep as though it were desert,
Psa 106:10 so he saved them from their opponents' clutches, rescued them from the clutches of their enemies.
Psa 106:11 The waters enveloped their enemies, not one of whom was left.
Psa 106:12 Then they believed what he had said, and sang his praises.
Psa 106:13 But they soon forgot his achievements, they did not even wait for his plans;
Psa 106:14 they were overwhelmed with greed in the wastelands, in the solitary wastes they challenged God.
Psa 106:15 He gave them all they asked for, but struck them with a deep wasting sickness;
Psa 106:16 in the camp they grew jealous of Moses, and of Aaron, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s holy one.
Psa 106:17 The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, closed in on Abiram's faction;
Psa 106:18 fire flamed out against their faction, the renegades were engulfed in flames.
Psa 106:19 At Horeb they made a calf, bowed low before cast metal;
Psa 106:20 they exchanged their glory for the image of a grass-eating bull.
Psa 106:21 They forgot the God who was saving them, who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Psa 106:22 such wonders in the land of Ham, such awesome deeds at the Sea of Reeds.
Psa 106:23 He thought of putting an end to them, had not Moses, his chosen one, taken a stand in the breach and confronted him, to turn his anger away from destroying them.
Psa 106:24 They counted a desirable land for nothing, they put no trust in his promise;
Psa 106:25 they stayed in their tents and grumbled, they would not listen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice.
Psa 106:26 So he lifted his hand against them, to strike them down in the desert,
Psa 106:27 to strike down their descendants among the nations, to scatter them all over the world.
Psa 106:28 They committed themselves to serve Baal-Peor, and ate sacrifices made to lifeless gods.
Psa 106:29 They so provoked him by their actions that a plague broke out among them.
Psa 106:30 Then up stood Phinehas to intervene, and the plague was checked;
Psa 106:31 for this he is the example of uprightness, from age to age for ever.
Psa 106:32 At the waters of Meribah they so angered Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that Moses suffered on their account,
Psa 106:33 for they had embittered his spirit, and he spoke without due thought.
Psa 106:34 They did not destroy the nations, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had told them to do,
Psa 106:35 but intermarried with them, and adopted their ways.
Psa 106:36 They worshipped those nations' false gods, till they found themselves entrapped,
Psa 106:37 and sacrificed their own sons and their daughters to demons.
Psa 106:38 Innocent blood they shed, the blood of their sons and daughters; offering them to the idols of Canaan, they polluted the country with blood.
Psa 106:39 They defiled themselves by such actions, their behavior was that of a harlot.
Psa 106:40 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger blazed out at his people, his own heritage filled him with disgust.
Psa 106:41 He handed them over to the nations, and their opponents became their masters;
Psa 106:42 their enemies lorded it over them, crushing them under their rule.
Psa 106:43 Time and again he rescued them, but they still defied him deliberately, and sank ever deeper in their guilt;
Psa 106:44 even so he took pity on their distress, as soon as he heard them cry out.
Psa 106:45 Bearing his covenant with them in mind, he relented in his boundless and faithful love;
Psa 106:46 he ensured that they received compassion, in their treatment by all their captors.
Psa 106:47 Save us, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and may glory in praising you.
Psa 106:48 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, from all eternity and for ever! Let all the people say, 'Amen'.
Psa 107:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for he is good, his faithful love lasts for ever.
Psa 107:2 So let them say whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) redeemed, whom he redeemed from the power of their enemies,
Psa 107:3 bringing them back from foreign lands, from east and west, north and south.
Psa 107:4 They were wandering in the desert, in the wastelands, could find no way to an inhabited city;
Psa 107:5 they were hungry and thirsty, their life was ebbing away.
Psa 107:6 They cried out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,
Psa 107:7 he set them on the road, straight to an inhabited city.
Psa 107:8 Let them thank Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
Psa 107:9 He has fed the hungry to their hearts' content, filled the starving with good things.
Psa 107:10 Sojourners in gloom and shadow dark as death, fettered in misery and chains,
Psa 107:11 for defying the orders of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for scorning the plan of the Most High-
Psa 107:12 he subdued their spirit by hard labour; if they fell there was no one to help.
Psa 107:13 They cried out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,
Psa 107:14 he brought them out from gloom and shadow dark as death, and shattered their chains.
Psa 107:15 Let them thank Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
Psa 107:16 He broke open gates of bronze and smashed iron bars.
Psa 107:17 Fools for their rebellious ways, wretched because of their sins,
Psa 107:18 finding all food repugnant, brought close to the gates of death-
Psa 107:19 they cried out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in their distress; he rescued them from their plight,
Psa 107:20 he sent out his word and cured them, and rescued their life from the abyss.
Psa 107:21 Let them thank Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
Psa 107:22 Let them offer thanksgiving sacrifices, and recount with shouts of joy what he has done!
Psa 107:23 Voyagers on the sea in ships, plying their trade on the great ocean,
Psa 107:24 have seen the works of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25 By his word he raised a storm-wind, lashing up towering waves.
Psa 107:26 Up to the sky then down to the depths! Their stomachs were turned to water;
Psa 107:27 they staggered and reeled like drunkards, and all their skill went under.
Psa 107:28 They cried out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in their distress, he rescued them from their plight,
Psa 107:29 he reduced the storm to a calm, and all the waters subsided,
Psa 107:30 and he brought them, overjoyed at the stillness, to the port where they were bound.
Psa 107:31 Let them thank Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his faithful love, for his wonders for the children of Adam!
Psa 107:32 Let them extol him in the assembly of the people, and praise him in the council of elders.
Psa 107:33 He has turned rivers into desert, bubbling springs into arid ground,
Psa 107:34 fertile country into salt-flats, because the people living there were evil.
Psa 107:35 But he has turned desert into stretches of water, arid ground into bubbling springs,
Psa 107:36 and has given the hungry a home, where they have built themselves a city.
Psa 107:37 There they sow fields and plant vines, and reap a harvest of their produce.
Psa 107:38 He blesses them and their numbers increase, he keeps their cattle at full strength.
Psa 107:39 Their numbers had fallen, they had grown weak, under pressure of disaster and hardship;
Psa 107:40 he covered princes in contempt, left them to wander in trackless wastes.
Psa 107:41 But the needy he raises from their misery, makes their families as numerous as sheep.
Psa 107:42 At the sight the honest rejoice, and the wicked have nothing to say.
Psa 107:43 Who is wise? Such a one should take this to heart, and come to understand Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s faithful love.
Psa 108:1 [Song Psalm Of David] My heart is ready, God, I will sing and make music; come, my glory!
Psa 108:2 Awake, lyre and harp, I will awake the Dawn!
Psa 108:3 I will praise you among the peoples, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I will play to you among nations,
Psa 108:4 for your faithful love towers to heaven, and your constancy to the clouds.
Psa 108:5 Be exalted above the heavens, God. Your glory over the whole earth!
Psa 108:6 To rescue those you love, save with your right hand and answer us.
Psa 108:7 God has spoken from his sanctuary, 'In triumph I will divide up Shechem, and share out the Valley of Succoth.
Psa 108:8 'Mine is Gilead, mine Manasseh, Ephraim the helmet on my head, Judah my commander's baton,
Psa 108:9 'Moab a bowl for me to wash in, on Edom I plant my sandal, over Philistia I cry victory.'
Psa 108:10 Who will lead me against a fortified city, who will guide me into Edom,
Psa 108:11 if not you, the God who has rejected us? God, you no longer march with our armies.
Psa 108:12 Bring us help in our time of crisis, any human assistance is worthless.
Psa 108:13 With God we shall do deeds of valour, he will trample down our enemies.
Psa 109:1 [For the choirmaster Of David Psalm] God whom I praise, do not be silent!
Psa 109:2 Wicked and deceiving words are being said about me, false accusations are cast in my teeth.
Psa 109:3 Words of hate fly all around me, though I give no cause for hostility.
Psa 109:4 In return for my friendship they denounce me, and all I can do is pray!
Psa 109:5 They repay my kindness with evil, and friendship with hatred.
Psa 109:6 'Set up a wicked man against him as accuser to stand on his right.
Psa 109:7 At his trial may he emerge as guilty, even his prayer construed as a crime!
Psa 109:8 'May his life be cut short, someone else take over his office,
Psa 109:9 his children be orphaned, his wife be widowed.
Psa 109:10 'May his children wander perpetually, beggars, driven from the ruins of their house,
Psa 109:11 a creditor seize all his goods, and strangers make off with his earnings.
Psa 109:12 'May there be none left faithful enough to show him love, no one take pity on his orphans,
Psa 109:13 the line of his descendants cut off, his name wiped out in one generation.
Psa 109:14 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) never forget the crimes of his ancestors, and his mother's sins not be wiped out;
Psa 109:15 may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) keep these constantly in mind, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.'
Psa 109:16 He had no thought of being loyal, but hounded the poor and the needy and the broken-hearted to their death.
Psa 109:17 He had a taste for cursing; let it recoil on him! No taste for blessing; let it never come his way!
Psa 109:18 Cursing has been the uniform he wore; let it soak into him like water, like oil right into his bones.
Psa 109:19 Let it be as a robe which envelops him completely, a sash which he always wears.
Psa 109:20 Let this be the salary Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) pays the accusers who blacken my name.
Psa 109:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), treat them as your name demands; as your faithful love is generous, deliver me.
Psa 109:22 Poor and needy as I am, my wounds go right to the heart;
Psa 109:23 I am passing away like a fading shadow, they have shaken me off like a locust.
Psa 109:24 My knees are weak from lack of food, my body lean for lack of fat.
Psa 109:25 I have become the butt of their taunts, they shake their heads at the sight of me.
Psa 109:26 Help me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God, save me as your faithful love demands.
Psa 109:27 Let them know that yours is the saving hand, that this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), is your work.
Psa 109:28 Let them curse, provided that you bless; let their attacks bring shame to them and joy to your servant!
Psa 109:29 Let my accusers be clothed in disgrace, enveloped in a cloak of shame.
Psa 109:30 With generous thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on my lips, I shall praise him before all the people,
Psa 109:31 for he stands at the side of the poor, to save their lives from those who sit in judgement on them.
Psa 110:1 [Of David Psalm] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declared to my Lord, 'Take your seat at my right hand, till I have made your enemies your footstool.'
Psa 110:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will stretch out the scepter of your power; from Zion you will rule your foes all around you.
Psa 110:3 Royal dignity has been yours from the day of your birth, sacred honor from the womb, from the dawn of your youth.
Psa 110:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sworn an oath he will never retract, you are a priest for ever of the order of Melchizedek.
Psa 110:5 At your right hand, Lord, he shatters kings when his anger breaks out.
Psa 110:6 He judges nations, heaping up corpses, he breaks heads over the whole wide world.
Psa 110:7 He drinks from a stream as he goes, and therefore he holds his head high.
Psa 111:1 Alleluia! I give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with all my heart, in the meeting-place of honest people, in the assembly.
Psa 111:2 Great are the deeds of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to be pondered by all who delight in them.
Psa 111:3 Full of splendor and majesty his work, his saving justice stands firm for ever.
Psa 111:4 He gives us a memorial of his great deeds; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is mercy and tenderness.
Psa 111:5 He gives food to those who fear him, he keeps his covenant ever in mind.
Psa 111:6 His works show his people his power in giving them the birthright of the nations.
Psa 111:7 The works of his hands are fidelity and justice, all his precepts are trustworthy,
Psa 111:8 established for ever and ever, accomplished in fidelity and honesty.
Psa 111:9 Deliverance he sends to his people, his covenant he imposes for ever; holy and awesome his name.
Psa 111:10 The root of wisdom is fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); those who attain it are wise. His praise will continue for ever.
Psa 112:1 Alleluia! How blessed is anyone who fears Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who delights in his commandments!
Psa 112:2 His descendants shall be powerful on earth, the race of the honest shall receive blessings:
Psa 112:3 Riches and wealth for his family; his uprightness stands firm for ever.
Psa 112:4 For the honest he shines as a lamp in the dark, generous, tender-hearted, and upright.
Psa 112:5 All goes well for one who lends generously, who is honest in all his dealing;
Psa 112:6 for all time to come he will not stumble, for all time to come the upright will be remembered.
Psa 112:7 Bad news holds no fears for him, firm is his heart, trusting in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 112:8 His heart held steady, he has no fears, till he can gloat over his enemies.
Psa 112:9 To the needy he gives without stint, his uprightness stands firm for ever; his reputation is founded on strength.
Psa 112:10 The wicked are vexed at the sight, they grind their teeth and waste away. The desires of the wicked will be frustrated.
Psa 113:1 Alleluia! Praise, servants of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), praise the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 113:2 Blessed be the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), henceforth and for ever.
Psa 113:3 From the rising of the sun to its setting, praised be the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Psa 113:4 Supreme over all nations is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), supreme over the heavens his glory.
Psa 113:5 Who is like Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God? His throne is set on high,
Psa 113:6 but he stoops to look down on heaven and earth.
Psa 113:7 He raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the dunghill,
Psa 113:8 to give them a place among princes, among princes of his people.
Psa 113:9 He lets the barren woman be seated at home, the happy mother of sons.
Psa 114:1 Alleluia! When Israel came out of Egypt, the House of Jacob from a people of foreign speech,
Psa 114:2 Judah became his sanctuary, and Israel his domain.
Psa 114:3 The sea fled at the sight, the Jordan turned back,
Psa 114:4 the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like sheep.
Psa 114:5 Sea, what makes you flee? Jordan, why turn back?
Psa 114:6 Why skip like rams, you mountains? Why like sheep, you hills?
Psa 114:7 Tremble, earth, at the coming of the Lord, at the coming of the God of Jacob,
Psa 114:8 who turns rock into pool, flint into fountain.
Psa 115:1 Not to us, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), not to us, but to your name give the glory, for your faithful love and your constancy!
Psa 115:2 Why should the nations ask, 'Where is their God?'
Psa 115:3 Our God is in heaven, he creates whatever he chooses.
Psa 115:4 They have idols of silver and gold, made by human hands.
Psa 115:5 These have mouths but say nothing, have eyes but see nothing,
Psa 115:6 have ears but hear nothing, have noses but smell nothing.
Psa 115:7 They have hands but cannot feel, have feet but cannot walk, no sound comes from their throats.
Psa 115:8 Their makers will end up like them, and all who rely on them.
Psa 115:9 House of Israel, rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he is their help and their shield.
Psa 115:10 House of Aaron, rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he is their help and their shield.
Psa 115:11 You who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he is their help and their shield.
Psa 115:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will keep us in mind, he will bless, he will bless the House of Israel, he will bless the House of Aaron,
Psa 115:13 he will bless those who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), small and great alike.
Psa 115:14 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) add to your numbers, yours and your children's too!
Psa 115:15 May you be blessed by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who made heaven and earth.
Psa 115:16 Heaven belongs to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but earth he has given to the children of Adam.
Psa 115:17 The dead cannot praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), those who sink into silence,
Psa 115:18 but we, the living, shall bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), henceforth and for ever.
Psa 116:1 Alleluia! I am filled with love when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) listens to the sound of my prayer,
Psa 116:2 when he bends down to hear me, as I call.
Psa 116:3 The bonds of death were all round me, the snares of Sheol held me fast; distress and anguish held me in their grip,
Psa 116:4 I called on the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Deliver me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I beg you.
Psa 116:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is merciful and upright, our God is tenderness.
Psa 116:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looks after the simple, when I was brought low he gave me strength.
Psa 116:7 My heart, be at peace once again, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has treated you generously.
Psa 116:8 He has rescued me from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.
Psa 116:9 I shall pass my life in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the land of the living.
Psa 116:10 My trust does not fail even when I say, 'I am completely wretched.'
Psa 116:11 In my terror I said, 'No human being can be relied on.'
Psa 116:12 What return can I make to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his generosity to me?
Psa 116:13 I shall take up the cup of salvation and call on the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 116:14 I shall fulfill my vows to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), witnessed by all his people.
Psa 116:15 Costly in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sight is the death of his faithful.
Psa 116:16 I beg you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! I am your servant, I am your servant and my mother was your servant; you have undone my fetters.
Psa 116:17 I shall offer you a sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 116:18 I shall fulfill my vows to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), witnessed by all his people,
Psa 116:19 in the courts of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in your very heart, Jerusalem.
Psa 117:1 Alleluia! Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all nations, extol him, all peoples,
Psa 117:2 for his faithful love is strong and his constancy never-ending.
Psa 118:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for he is good, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 118:2 Let the House of Israel say, 'His faithful love endures for ever.'
Psa 118:3 Let the House of Aaron say, 'His faithful love endures for ever.'
Psa 118:4 Let those who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) say, 'His faithful love endures for ever.'
Psa 118:5 In my distress I called to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he heard me and brought me relief.
Psa 118:6 With Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on my side I fear nothing; what can human beings do to me?
Psa 118:7 With Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on my side as my help, I gloat over my enemies.
Psa 118:8 It is better to take refuge in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) than to rely on human beings;
Psa 118:9 better to take refuge in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) than to rely on princes.
Psa 118:10 Nations were swarming around me, in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I cut them down;
Psa 118:11 they swarmed around me, pressing upon me, in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I cut them down.
Psa 118:12 They swarmed around me like bees, they flared up like a brushwood fire, in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I cut them down.
Psa 118:13 I was pushed hard, to make me fall, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to my help.
Psa 118:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my strength and my song, he has been my Savior.
Psa 118:15 Shouts of joy and salvation, in the tents of the upright, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s right hand is triumphant,
Psa 118:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s right hand is victorious, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s right hand is triumphant!'
Psa 118:17 I shall not die, I shall live to recount the great deeds of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 118:18 Though Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) punished me sternly, he has not abandoned me to death.
Psa 118:19 Open for me the gates of saving justice, I shall go in and thank Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 118:20 This is the gate of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), where the upright go in.
Psa 118:21 I thank you for hearing me, and making yourself my Savior.
Psa 118:22 The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
Psa 118:23 This is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s doing, and we marvel at it.
Psa 118:24 This is the day which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made, a day for us to rejoice and be glad.
Psa 118:25 We beg you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), save us, we beg you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), give us victory!
Psa 118:26 Blessed in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is he who is coming! We bless you from the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 118:27 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is God, he gives us light. Link your processions, branches in hand, up to the horns of the altar.
Psa 118:28 You are my God, I thank you, all praise to you, my God. I thank you for hearing me, and making yourself my Savior.
Psa 118:29 Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for he is good, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 119:1 How blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the Law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Psa 119:2 Blessed are those who observe his instructions, who seek him with all their hearts,
Psa 119:3 and, doing no evil, who walk in his ways.
Psa 119:4 You lay down your precepts to be carefully kept.
Psa 119:5 May my ways be steady in doing your will.
Psa 119:6 Then I shall not be shamed, if my gaze is fixed on your commandments.
Psa 119:7 I thank you with a sincere heart for teaching me your upright judgements.
Psa 119:8 I shall do your will; do not ever abandon me wholly.
Psa 119:9 How can a young man keep his way spotless? By keeping your words.
Psa 119:10 With all my heart I seek you, do not let me stray from your commandments.
Psa 119:11 In my heart I treasure your promises, to avoid sinning against you.
Psa 119:12 Blessed are you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), teach me your will!
Psa 119:13 With my lips I have repeated all the judgements you have given.
Psa 119:14 In the way of your instructions lies my joy, a joy beyond all wealth.
Psa 119:15 I will ponder your precepts and fix my gaze on your paths.
Psa 119:16 I find my delight in your will, I do not forget your words.
Psa 119:17 Be generous to your servant and I shall live, and shall keep your words.
Psa 119:18 Open my eyes and I shall fix my gaze on the wonders of your Law.
Psa 119:19 Wayfarer though I am on the earth, do not hide your commandments from me.
Psa 119:20 My heart is pining away with longing at all times for your judgements.
Psa 119:21 You have rebuked the arrogant, the accursed, who stray from your commandments.
Psa 119:22 Set me free from taunts and contempt since I observe your instructions.
Psa 119:23 Though princes sit plotting against me, your servant keeps pondering your will.
Psa 119:24 Your instructions are my delight, your wishes my counsellors.
Psa 119:25 Down in the dust I lie prostrate; true to your word, revive me.
Psa 119:26 I tell you my ways and you answer me; teach me your wishes.
Psa 119:27 Show me the way of your precepts, that I may reflect on your wonders.
Psa 119:28 I am melting away for grief; true to your word, raise me up.
Psa 119:29 Keep me far from the way of deceit, grant me the grace of your Law.
Psa 119:30 I have chosen the way of constancy, I have moulded myself to your judgements.
Psa 119:31 I cling to your instructions, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not disappoint me.
Psa 119:32 I run the way of your commandments, for you have given me freedom of heart.
Psa 119:33 Teach me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the way of your will, and I will observe it.
Psa 119:34 Give me understanding and I will observe your Law, and keep it wholeheartedly.
Psa 119:35 Guide me in the way of your commandments, for my delight is there.
Psa 119:36 Bend my heart to your instructions, not to selfish gain.
Psa 119:37 Avert my eyes from pointless images, by your word give me life.
Psa 119:38 Keep your promise to your servant so that all may hold you in awe.
Psa 119:39 Avert the taunts that I dread, for your judgements are generous.
Psa 119:40 See how I yearn for your precepts; in your saving justice give me life.
Psa 119:41 Let your faithful love come to me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), true to your promise, save me!
Psa 119:42 Give me an answer to the taunts against me, since I rely on your word.
Psa 119:43 Do not deprive me of that faithful word, since my hope lies in your judgements.
Psa 119:44 I shall keep your Law without fail for ever and ever.
Psa 119:45 I shall live in all freedom because I have sought your precepts.
Psa 119:46 I shall speak of your instructions before kings and will not be shamed.
Psa 119:47 Your commandments fill me with delight, I love them dearly.
Psa 119:48 I stretch out my hands to your commandments that I love, and I ponder your judgements.
Psa 119:49 Keep in mind your promise to your servant on which I have built my hope.
Psa 119:50 It is my comfort in distress, that your promise gives me life.
Psa 119:51 Endlessly the arrogant have jeered at me, but I have not swerved from your Law.
Psa 119:52 I have kept your age -- old judgements in mind, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I am comforted.
Psa 119:53 Fury grips me when I see the wicked who abandon your Law.
Psa 119:54 Your judgements are my song where I live in exile.
Psa 119:55 All night, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I hold your name in mind, I keep your Law.
Psa 119:56 This is what it means to me, observing your precepts.
Psa 119:57 My task, I have said, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), is to keep your word.
Psa 119:58 Wholeheartedly I entreat your favor; true to your promise, take pity on me!
Psa 119:59 I have reflected on my ways, and I turn my steps to your instructions.
Psa 119:60 I hurry without delay to keep your commandments.
Psa 119:61 Though caught in the snares of the wicked, I do not forget your Law.
Psa 119:62 At midnight I rise to praise you for your upright judgements.
Psa 119:63 I am a friend to all who fear you and keep your precepts.
Psa 119:64 Your faithful love fills the earth, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), teach me your judgements.
Psa 119:65 You have been generous to your servant, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), true to your promise.
Psa 119:66 Teach me judgement and knowledge, for I rely on your commandments.
Psa 119:67 Before I was punished I used to go astray, but now I keep to your promise.
Psa 119:68 You are generous and act generously, teach me your will.
Psa 119:69 The arrogant blacken me with lies though I wholeheartedly observe your precepts.
Psa 119:70 Their hearts are gross like rich fat, but my delight is in your Law.
Psa 119:71 It was good for me that I had to suffer, the better to learn your judgements.
Psa 119:72 The Law you have uttered is more precious to me than all the wealth in the world.
Psa 119:73 Your hands have made me and held me firm, give me understanding and I shall learn your commandments.
Psa 119:74 Those who fear you rejoice at the sight of me since I put my hope in your word.
Psa 119:75 I know, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that your judgements are upright, and in punishing me you show your constancy.
Psa 119:76 Your faithful love must be my consolation, as you have promised your servant.
Psa 119:77 Treat me with tenderness and I shall live, for your Law is my delight.
Psa 119:78 Let the arrogant who tell lies against me be shamed, while I ponder your precepts.
Psa 119:79 Let those who fear you rally to me, those who understand your instructions.
Psa 119:80 My heart shall be faultless towards your will; then I shall not be ashamed.
Psa 119:81 I shall wear myself out for your salvation, for your word is my hope.
Psa 119:82 My eyes, too, are worn out waiting for your promise, when will you have pity on me?
Psa 119:83 For I am like a smoked wineskin, but I do not forget your will.
Psa 119:84 How long has your servant to live? When will you bring my persecutors to judgement?
Psa 119:85 The arrogant have dug pitfalls for me in defiance of your Law.
Psa 119:86 All your commandments show constancy. Help me when they pursue me dishonestly.
Psa 119:87 They have almost annihilated me on earth, but I have not deserted your precepts.
Psa 119:88 True to your faithful love, give me life, and I shall keep the instructions you have laid down.
Psa 119:89 For ever, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your word is planted firm in heaven.
Psa 119:90 Your constancy endures from age to age; you established the earth and it stands firm.
Psa 119:91 Through your judgements all stands firm to this day, for all creation is your servant.
Psa 119:92 Had your Law not been my delight, I would have perished in my misery.
Psa 119:93 I shall never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life.
Psa 119:94 I am yours, save me, for I seek your precepts.
Psa 119:95 The wicked may hope to destroy me, but all my thought is of your instructions.
Psa 119:96 I have seen that all perfection is finite, but your commandment has no limit.
Psa 119:97 How I love your Law! I ponder it all day long.
Psa 119:98 You make me wiser than my enemies by your commandment which is mine for ever.
Psa 119:99 I am wiser than all my teachers because I ponder your instructions.
Psa 119:100 I have more understanding than the aged because I keep your precepts.
Psa 119:101 I restrain my foot from evil paths to keep your word.
Psa 119:102 I do not turn aside from your judgements, because you yourself have instructed me.
Psa 119:103 How pleasant your promise to my palate, sweeter than honey in my mouth!
Psa 119:104 From your precepts I learn wisdom, so I hate all deceptive ways.
Psa 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.
Psa 119:106 I have sworn -- and shall maintain it -- to keep your upright judgements.
Psa 119:107 I am utterly wretched, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); true to your promise, give me life.
Psa 119:108 Accept, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the tribute from my mouth, and teach me your judgements.
Psa 119:109 My life is in your hands perpetually, I do not forget your Law.
Psa 119:110 The wicked have laid out a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.
Psa 119:111 Your instructions are my eternal heritage, they are the joy of my heart.
Psa 119:112 I devote myself to obeying your statutes, their recompense is eternal.
Psa 119:113 I hate a divided heart, I love your Law.
Psa 119:114 You are my refuge and shield, I put my hope in your word.
Psa 119:115 Leave me alone, you wicked, I shall observe the commandments of my God.
Psa 119:116 True to your word, support me and I shall live; do not disappoint me of my hope.
Psa 119:117 Uphold me and I shall be saved, my gaze fixed on your will.
Psa 119:118 You shake off all who stray from your will; deceit fills their horizon.
Psa 119:119 In your sight all the wicked of the earth are like rust, so I love your instructions.
Psa 119:120 My whole body trembles before you, your judgements fill me with fear.
Psa 119:121 All my conduct has been just and upright, do not hand me over to my oppressors.
Psa 119:122 Guarantee the well-being of your servant, do not let the proud oppress me.
Psa 119:123 My eyes are languishing for your salvation and for the saving justice you have promised.
Psa 119:124 Show your faithful love to your servant, teach me your judgements.
Psa 119:125 Your servant am I; give me understanding and I shall know your instructions.
Psa 119:126 It is time to take action, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your Law is being broken.
Psa 119:127 So I love your commandments more than gold, purest gold.
Psa 119:128 So I rule my life by your precepts, I hate all deceptive paths.
Psa 119:129 Wonderful are your instructions, so I observe them.
Psa 119:130 As your word unfolds it gives light, and even the simple understand.
Psa 119:131 I open wide my mouth, panting eagerly for your commandments.
Psa 119:132 Turn to me, pity me; those who love your name deserve it.
Psa 119:133 Keep my steps firm in your promise; that no evil may triumph over me.
Psa 119:134 Rescue me from human oppression, and I will observe your precepts.
Psa 119:135 Let your face shine on your servant, teach me your will.
Psa 119:136 My eyes stream with tears because your Law is disregarded.
Psa 119:137 You are upright, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and your judgements are honest.
Psa 119:138 You impose uprightness as a witness to yourself, it is constancy itself.
Psa 119:139 My zeal is burning me up because my oppressors forget your word.
Psa 119:140 Your promise is well tested, your servant holds it dear.
Psa 119:141 Puny and despised as I am, I do not forget your precepts.
Psa 119:142 Your saving justice is for ever just, and your Law is trustworthy.
Psa 119:143 Though anguish and distress grip me your commandments are my delight.
Psa 119:144 Your instructions are upright for ever, give me understanding and I shall live.
Psa 119:145 I call with all my heart; answer me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I will observe your judgements.
Psa 119:146 I call to you; save me, and I will keep your instructions.
Psa 119:147 I am awake before dawn to cry for help, I put my hope in your word.
Psa 119:148 My eyes are awake before each watch of the night, to ponder your promise.
Psa 119:149 In your faithful love, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), listen to my voice, let your judgements give me life.
Psa 119:150 My pursuers are coming closer to their wicked designs, and further from your Law.
Psa 119:151 You are close to me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and all your commandments are true.
Psa 119:152 Long have I known that your instructions were laid down to last for ever.
Psa 119:153 Look at my suffering and rescue me, for I do not forget your Law.
Psa 119:154 Plead my cause and defend me; as you promised, give me life.
Psa 119:155 Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek your will.
Psa 119:156 Your kindnesses to me are countless, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); true to your judgements, give me life.
Psa 119:157 Though my enemies and oppressors are countless, I do not turn aside from your instructions.
Psa 119:158 The sight of these renegades appals me; they do not observe your promise.
Psa 119:159 See how I love your precepts; true to your faithful love, give me life.
Psa 119:160 Faithfulness is the essence of your word, your upright judgements hold good for ever.
Psa 119:161 Though princes hound me unprovoked, what fills me with awe is your word.
Psa 119:162 I rejoice in your promise like one who finds a vast treasure.
Psa 119:163 Falsehood I hate and detest, my love is for your Law.
Psa 119:164 Seven times a day I praise you for your upright judgements.
Psa 119:165 Great peace for those who love your Law; no stumbling-blocks for them!
Psa 119:166 I am waiting for your salvation, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I fulfill your commandments.
Psa 119:167 I observe your instructions, I love them dearly.
Psa 119:168 I observe your precepts, your judgements, for all my ways are before you.
Psa 119:169 May my cry approach your presence, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); by your word give me understanding.
Psa 119:170 May my prayer come into your presence, rescue me as you have promised.
Psa 119:171 May my lips proclaim your praise, for you teach me your will.
Psa 119:172 May my tongue recite your promise, for all your commandments are upright.
Psa 119:173 May your hand be there to help me, since I have chosen your precepts.
Psa 119:174 I long for your salvation, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your Law is my delight.
Psa 119:175 May I live only to praise you, may your judgements be my help.
Psa 119:176 I am wandering like a lost sheep, come and look for your servant, for I have not forgotten your commandments.
Psa 120:1 [Song of Ascents *\{* The Songs of Ascents (Pss 120-134) were sung by pilgrims on their way up to Jerusalem.\} ] To Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when I am in trouble I call and he answers me.
Psa 120:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), save me from lying lips and a treacherous tongue!
Psa 120:3 What will he repay you, what more, treacherous tongue?
Psa 120:4 War-arrows made sharp over red-hot charcoal.
Psa 120:5 How wretched I am, living in Meshech, dwelling in the tents of Kedar!
Psa 120:6 Too long have I lived among people who hate peace.
Psa 120:7 When I speak of peace they are all for war!
Psa 121:1 [Song of Ascents] I lift up my eyes to the mountains; where is my help to come from?
Psa 121:2 My help comes from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who made heaven and earth.
Psa 121:3 May he save your foot from stumbling; may he, your guardian, not fall asleep!
Psa 121:4 You see -- he neither sleeps nor slumbers, the guardian of Israel.
Psa 121:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is your guardian, your shade, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at your right hand.
Psa 121:6 By day the sun will not strike you, nor the moon by night.
Psa 121:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) guards you from all harm Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) guards your life,
Psa 121:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) guards your comings and goings, henceforth and for ever.
Psa 122:1 [Song of Ascents Of David] I rejoiced that they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Psa 122:2 At last our feet are standing at your gates, Jerusalem!
Psa 122:3 Jerusalem, built as a city, in one united whole,
Psa 122:4 there the tribes go up, the tribes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a sign for Israel to give thanks to the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 122:5 For there are set the thrones of judgement, the thrones of the house of David.
Psa 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, prosperity for your homes!
Psa 122:7 Peace within your walls, prosperity in your palaces!
Psa 122:8 For love of my brothers and my friends I will say, 'Peace upon you!'
Psa 122:9 For love of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God I will pray for your well-being.
Psa 123:1 [Song of Ascents] I lift up my eyes to you who are enthroned in heaven.
Psa 123:2 Just as the eyes of slaves are on their masters' hand, or the eyes of a slave-girl on the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, for him to take pity on us.
Psa 123:3 Have pity on us, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have pity, for we have had our full share of scorn,
Psa 123:4 more than our share of jeers from the complacent. (Scorn is for the proud.)
Psa 124:1 [Song of Ascents Of David] If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had not been on our side -- let Israel repeat it-
Psa 124:2 if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had not been on our side when people attacked us,
Psa 124:3 they would have swallowed us alive in the heat of their anger.
Psa 124:4 Then water was washing us away, a torrent running right over us;
Psa 124:5 running right over us then were turbulent waters.
Psa 124:6 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for not letting us fall a prey to their teeth!
Psa 124:7 We escaped like a bird from the fowlers' net. The net was broken and we escaped;
Psa 124:8 our help is in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who made heaven and earth.
Psa 125:1 [Song of Ascents] Whoever trusts in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is like Mount Zion: unshakeable, it stands for ever.
Psa 125:2 Jerusalem! The mountains encircle her: so Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) encircles his people, henceforth and for ever.
Psa 125:3 The scepter of the wicked will not come to rest over the heritage of the upright; or the upright might set their own hands to evil.
Psa 125:4 Do good, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to those who are good, to the sincere at heart.
Psa 125:5 But the crooked, the twisted, turn them away, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with evil-doers. Peace to Israel!
Psa 126:1 [Song of Ascents] When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought back Zion's captives we lived in a dream;
Psa 126:2 then our mouths filled with laughter, and our lips with song. Then the nations kept saying, 'What great deeds Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done for them!'
Psa 126:3 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) did great deeds for us, and we were overjoyed.
Psa 126:4 Bring back, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), our people from captivity like torrents in the Negeb!
Psa 126:5 Those who sow in tears sing as they reap.
Psa 126:6 He went off, went off weeping, carrying the seed. He comes back, comes back singing, bringing in his sheaves.
Psa 127:1 [Song of Ascents Of Solomon] If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does not build a house in vain do its builders toil. If Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does not guard a city in vain does its guard keep watch.
Psa 127:2 In vain you get up earlier, and put off going to bed, sweating to make a living, since it is he who provides for his beloved as they sleep.
Psa 127:3 Sons are a birthright from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), children are a reward from him.
Psa 127:4 Like arrows in a warrior's hand are the sons you father when young.
Psa 127:5 How blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them; in dispute with his enemies at the city gate he will not be worsted.
Psa 128:1 [Song of Ascents] How blessed are all who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who walk in his ways!
Psa 128:2 Your own labours will yield you a living, happy and prosperous will you be.
Psa 128:3 Your wife a fruitful vine in the inner places of your house. Your children round your table like shoots of an olive tree.
Psa 128:4 Such are the blessings that fall on those who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 128:5 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bless you from Zion! May you see Jerusalem prosper all the days of your life,
Psa 128:6 and live to see your children's children! Peace to Israel!
Psa 129:1 [Song of Ascents] Often as men have attacked me since I was young -- let Israel repeat it-
Psa 129:2 often as men have attacked me since I was young, they have never overcome me.
Psa 129:3 On my back ploughmen have set to work, making long furrows,
Psa 129:4 but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the upright has shattered the yoke of the wicked.
Psa 129:5 Let all who hate Zion be thrown back in confusion,
Psa 129:6 let them be like grass on a roof, dried up before it is cut,
Psa 129:7 never to fill the reaper's arm nor the binder's lap.
Psa 129:8 And no passer-by will say, 'The blessing of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be on you! 'We bless you in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Psa 130:1 [Song of Ascents] From the depths I call to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Psa 130:2 Lord, hear my cry. Listen attentively to the sound of my pleading!
Psa 130:3 If you kept a record of our sins, Lord, who could stand their ground?
Psa 130:4 But with you is forgiveness, that you may be revered.
Psa 130:5 I rely, my whole being relies, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), on your promise.
Psa 130:6 My whole being hopes in the Lord, more than watchmen for daybreak; more than watchmen for daybreak
Psa 130:7 let Israel hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). For with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is faithful love, with him generous ransom;
Psa 130:8 and he will ransom Israel from all its sins.
Psa 131:1 [Song of Ascents] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my heart is not haughty, I do not set my sights too high. I have taken no part in great affairs, in wonders beyond my scope.
Psa 131:2 No, I hold myself in quiet and silence, like a little child in its mother's arms, like a little child, so I keep myself.
Psa 131:3 Let Israel hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) henceforth and for ever.
Psa 132:1 [Song of Ascents] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), remember David and all the hardships he endured,
Psa 132:2 the oath he swore to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), his vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
Psa 132:3 'I will not enter tent or house, will not climb into bed,
Psa 132:4 will not allow myself to sleep, not even to close my eyes,
Psa 132:5 till I have found a place for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob!'
Psa 132:6 Listen, we heard of it in Ephrathah, we found it at Forest-Fields.
Psa 132:7 Let us go into his dwelling-place, and worship at his footstool.
Psa 132:8 Go up, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to your resting-place, you and the ark of your strength.
Psa 132:9 Your priests are robed in saving justice, your faithful are shouting for joy.
Psa 132:10 For the sake of your servant David, do not reject your anointed.
Psa 132:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sworn to David, and will always remain true to his word, 'I promise that I will set a son of yours upon your throne.
Psa 132:12 If your sons observe my covenant and the instructions I have taught them, their sons too for evermore will occupy your throne.'
Psa 132:13 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen Zion, he has desired it as a home.
Psa 132:14 'Here shall I rest for evermore, here shall I make my home as I have wished.
Psa 132:15 'I shall generously bless her produce, give her needy their fill of food,
Psa 132:16 I shall clothe her priests with salvation, and her faithful will sing aloud for joy.
Psa 132:17 'There I shall raise up a line of descendants for David, light a lamp for my anointed;
Psa 132:18 I shall clothe his enemies with shame, while his own crown shall flourish.'
Psa 133:1 [Song of Ascents] How good, how delightful it is to live as brothers all together!
Psa 133:2 It is like a fine oil on the head, running down the beard, running down Aaron's beard, onto the collar of his robes.
Psa 133:3 It is like the dew of Hermon falling on the heights of Zion; for there Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bestows his blessing, everlasting life.
Psa 134:1 [Song of Ascents] Come, bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all you who serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), serving in the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the courts of the house of our God. Through the night watches
Psa 134:2 stretch out your hands towards the sanctuary and bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 134:3 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!
Psa 135:1 Alleluia! Praise the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you who serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), praise him,
Psa 135:2 serving in the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the courts of the house of our God.
Psa 135:3 Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is good, make music for his name -- it brings joy-
Psa 135:4 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession.
Psa 135:5 For I know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is great, our Lord is above all gods.
Psa 135:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does whatever he pleases in heaven, on earth, in the waters and all the depths.
Psa 135:7 He summons up clouds from the borders of earth, sends rain with lightning-flashes, and brings the wind out of his storehouse.
Psa 135:8 He struck the first-born in Egypt, man and beast alike,
Psa 135:9 he sent signs and wonders into the heart of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his officials.
Psa 135:10 He struck down many nations, he slaughtered mighty kings,
Psa 135:11 Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan.
Psa 135:12 He gave their land as a birthright, a birthright to his people Israel.
Psa 135:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your name endures for ever, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your memory is fresh from age to age.
Psa 135:14 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) vindicates his people, feels compassion for his servants.
Psa 135:15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands.
Psa 135:16 These have mouths but say nothing, have eyes but see nothing,
Psa 135:17 have ears but hear nothing, and they have no breath in their mouths.
Psa 135:18 Their makers will end up like them, everyone who relies on them.
Psa 135:19 House of Israel, bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), House of Aaron, bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Psa 135:20 House of Levi, bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you who fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), bless Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Psa 135:21 Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem!
Psa 136:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for he is good, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:4 He alone works wonders, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:5 In wisdom he made the heavens, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:6 He set the earth firm on the waters, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:7 He made the great lights, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:8 The sun to rule the day, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:9 Moon and stars to rule the night, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:10 He struck down the first-born of Egypt, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:11 He brought Israel out from among them, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:12 With mighty hand and outstretched arm, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:13 He split the Sea of Reeds in two, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:14 Let Israel pass through the middle, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:15 And drowned Pharaoh and all his army, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:16 He led his people through the desert, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:17 He struck down mighty kings, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:18 Slaughtered famous kings, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:19 Sihon king of the Amorites, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:20 And Og king of Bashan, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:21 He gave their land as a birthright, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:22 A birthright to his servant Israel, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:23 He kept us in mind when we were humbled, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:24 And rescued us from our enemies, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:25 He provides food for all living creatures, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 136:26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his faithful love endures for ever.
Psa 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept at the memory of Zion.
Psa 137:2 On the poplars there we had hung up our harps.
Psa 137:3 For there our gaolers had asked us to sing them a song, our captors to make merry, 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'
Psa 137:4 How could we sing a song of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on alien soil?
Psa 137:5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither!
Psa 137:6 May my tongue remain stuck to my palate if I do not keep you in mind, if I do not count Jerusalem the greatest of my joys.
Psa 137:7 Remember, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to the Edomites' cost, the day of Jerusalem, how they said, 'Down with it! Rase it to the ground!'
Psa 137:8 Daughter of Babel, doomed to destruction, a blessing on anyone who treats you as you treated us,
Psa 137:9 a blessing on anyone who seizes your babies and shatters them against a rock!
Psa 138:1 [Of David] I thank you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with all my heart, for you have listened to the cry I uttered. In the presence of angels I sing to you,
Psa 138:2 I bow down before your holy Temple. I praise your name for your faithful love and your constancy; your promises surpass even your fame.
Psa 138:3 You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart.
Psa 138:4 All the kings of the earth give thanks to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when they hear the promises you make;
Psa 138:5 they sing of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s ways, 'Great is the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!'
Psa 138:6 Sublime as he is, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looks on the humble, the proud he picks out from afar.
Psa 138:7 Though I live surrounded by trouble you give me life -- to my enemies' fury! You stretch out your right hand and save me,
Psa 138:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will do all things for me. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your faithful love endures for ever, do not abandon what you have made.
Psa 139:1 [For the choirmaster Of David Psalm] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you examine me and know me,
Psa 139:2 you know when I sit, when I rise, you understand my thoughts from afar.
Psa 139:3 You watch when I walk or lie down, you know every detail of my conduct.
Psa 139:4 A word is not yet on my tongue before you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), know all about it.
Psa 139:5 You fence me in, behind and in front, you have laid your hand upon me.
Psa 139:6 Such amazing knowledge is beyond me, a height to which I cannot attain.
Psa 139:7 Where shall I go to escape your spirit? Where shall I flee from your presence?
Psa 139:8 If I scale the heavens you are there, if I lie flat in Sheol, there you are.
Psa 139:9 If I speed away on the wings of the dawn, if I dwell beyond the ocean,
Psa 139:10 even there your hand will be guiding me, your right hand holding me fast.
Psa 139:11 I will say, 'Let the darkness cover me, and the night wrap itself around me,'
Psa 139:12 even darkness to you is not dark, and night is as clear as the day.
Psa 139:13 You created my inmost self, knit me together in my mother's womb.
Psa 139:14 For so many marvels I thank you; a wonder am I, and all your works are wonders. You knew me through and through,
Psa 139:15 my being held no secrets from you, when I was being formed in secret, textured in the depths of the earth.
Psa 139:16 Your eyes could see my embryo. In your book all my days were inscribed, every one that was fixed is there.
Psa 139:17 How hard for me to grasp your thoughts, how many, God, there are!
Psa 139:18 If I count them, they are more than the grains of sand; if I come to an end, I am still with you.
Psa 139:19 If only, God, you would kill the wicked!-Men of violence, keep away from me!-
Psa 139:20 those who speak blasphemously about you, and take no account of your thoughts.
Psa 139:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do I not hate those who hate you, and loathe those who defy you?
Psa 139:22 My hate for them has no limits, I regard them as my own enemies.
Psa 139:23 God, examine me and know my heart, test me and know my concerns.
Psa 139:24 Make sure that I am not on my way to ruin, and guide me on the road of eternity.
Psa 140:1 [For the choirmaster Psalm Of David] Rescue me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), from evil men, protect me from violent men,
Psa 140:2 whose heart is bent on malice, day after day they harbour strife;
Psa 140:3 their tongues as barbed as a serpent's, viper's venom behind their lips.Pause
Psa 140:4 Keep me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), from the clutches of the wicked, protect me from violent men, who are bent on making me stumble,laying out snares where I walk,
Psa 140:5 in their arrogance hiding pitfall and nooseto trap me as I pass.Pause
Psa 140:6 I said to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'You are my God.' Listen, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to the sound of my prayer.
Psa 140:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my Lord, my saving strength, you shield my head when battle comes.
Psa 140:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not grant the wicked their wishes, do not let their plots succeed.Pause Do not let my attackers
Psa 140:9 prevail, but let them be overwhelmed by their own malice.
Psa 140:10 May red-hot embers rain down on them, may they be flung into the mire once and for all.
Psa 140:11 May the slanderer find no rest anywhere, may evil hunt down violent men implacably.
Psa 140:12 I know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will give judgement for the wretched, justice for the needy.
Psa 140:13 The upright shall praise your name, the honest dwell in your presence.
Psa 141:1 [Psalm Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I am calling, hurry to me, listen to my voice when I call to you.
Psa 141:2 May my prayer be like incense in your presence, my uplifted hands like the evening sacrifice.
Psa 141:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), mount a guard over my mouth, a guard at the door of my lips.
Psa 141:4 Check any impulse to speak evil, to share the foul deeds of evil-doers. I shall not sample their delights!
Psa 141:5 May the upright correct me with a friend's rebuke; but the wicked shall never anoint my head with oil, for that would make me party to their crimes.
Psa 141:6 They are delivered into the power of the rock, their judge, those who took pleasure in hearing me say,
Psa 141:7 'Like a shattered millstone on the ground our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.'
Psa 141:8 To you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I turn my eyes, in you I take refuge, do not leave me unprotected.
Psa 141:9 Save me from the traps that are set for me, the snares of evil-doers.
Psa 141:10 Let the wicked fall each into his own net, while I pass on my way.
Psa 142:1 [Psalm Of David When he was in the cave Prayer] To Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I cry out with my plea. To Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) I cry out with entreaty.
Psa 142:2 I pour out my worry in his presence, in his presence I unfold my troubles.
Psa 142:3 However faint my spirit; you are watching over my path. On the road I have to travel they have hidden a trap for me.
Psa 142:4 Look on my right and see -- there is no one who recognizes me. All refuge is denied me, no one cares whether I live or die.
Psa 142:5 I cry out to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I affirm, 'You are my refuge, my share in the land of the living!'
Psa 142:6 Listen to my calling, for I am miserably weak. Rescue me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.
Psa 142:7 Lead me out of prison that I may praise your name. The upright gather round me because of your generosity to me.
Psa 143:1 [Psalm Of David] Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hear my prayer, listen to my pleading; in your constancy answer me, in your saving justice;
Psa 143:2 do not put your servant on trial, for no one living can be found guiltless at your tribunal.
Psa 143:3 An enemy is in deadly pursuit, crushing me into the ground, forcing me to live in darkness, like those long dead.
Psa 143:4 My spirit is faint, and within me my heart is numb with fear.
Psa 143:5 I recall the days of old, reflecting on all your deeds, I ponder the works of your hands.
Psa 143:6 I stretch out my hands to you, my heart like a land thirsty for you.Pause
Psa 143:7 Answer me quickly, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my spirit is worn out; do not turn away your face from me, or I shall be like those who sink into oblivion.
Psa 143:8 Let dawn bring news of your faithful love, for I place my trust in you; show me the road I must travel for you to relieve my heart.
Psa 143:9 Rescue me from my enemies, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since in you I find protection.
Psa 143:10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your generous spirit lead me on even ground.
Psa 143:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the sake of your name, in your saving justice give me life, rescue me from distress.
Psa 143:12 In your faithful love annihilate my enemies, destroy all those who oppress me, for I am your servant.
Psa 144:1 [Of David] Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle,
Psa 144:2 my faithful love, my bastion, my citadel, my Savior; I shelter behind him, my shield, he makes the peoples submit to me.
Psa 144:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), what is a human being for you to notice, a child of Adam for you to think about?
Psa 144:4 Human life, a mere puff of wind, days as fleeting as a shadow.
Psa 144:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), part the heavens and come down, touch the mountains, make them smoke.
Psa 144:6 Scatter them with continuous lightning-flashes, rout them with a volley of your arrows.
Psa 144:7 Stretch down your hand from above, save me, rescue me from deep waters, from the clutches of foreigners,
Psa 144:8 whose every word is worthless, whose right hand is raised in perjury.
Psa 144:9 God, I sing to you a new song, I play to you on the ten-stringed lyre,
Psa 144:10 for you give kings their victories, you rescue your servant David. From the sword of evil
Psa 144:11 save me, rescue me from the clutches of foreigners whose every word is worthless, whose right hand testifies to falsehood.
Psa 144:12 May our sons be like plants growing tall from their earliest days, our daughters like pillars carved fit for a palace,
Psa 144:13 our barns filled to overflowing with every kind of crop, the sheep in our pastures be numbered in thousands and tens of thousands,
Psa 144:14 our cattle well fed, free of raids and pillage, free of outcry in our streets.
Psa 144:15 How blessed the nation of whom this is true, blessed the nation whose God is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Psa 145:1 [Hymn of Praise Of David] I shall praise you to the heights, God my King, I shall bless your name for ever and ever.
Psa 145:2 Day after day I shall bless you, I shall praise your name for ever and ever.
Psa 145:3 Great is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and worthy of all praise, his greatness beyond all reckoning.
Psa 145:4 Each age will praise your deeds to the next, proclaiming your mighty works.
Psa 145:5 Your renown is the splendor of your glory, I will ponder the story of your wonders.
Psa 145:6 They will speak of your awesome power, and I shall recount your greatness.
Psa 145:7 They will bring out the memory of your great generosity, and joyfully acclaim your saving justice.
Psa 145:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is tenderness and pity, slow to anger, full of faithful love.
Psa 145:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is generous to all, his tenderness embraces all his creatures.
Psa 145:10 All your creatures shall thank you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and your faithful shall bless you.
Psa 145:11 They shall speak of the glory of your kingship and tell of your might,
Psa 145:12 making known your mighty deeds to the children of Adam, the glory and majesty of your kingship.
Psa 145:13 Your kingship is a kingship for ever, your reign lasts from age to age. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is trustworthy in all his words, and upright in all his deeds.
Psa 145:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) supports all who stumble, lifts up those who are bowed down.
Psa 145:15 All look to you in hope and you feed them with the food of the season.
Psa 145:16 And, with generous hand, you satisfy the desires of every living creature.
Psa 145:17 Upright in all that he does, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) acts only in faithful love.
Psa 145:18 He is close to all who call upon him, all who call on him from the heart.
Psa 145:19 He fulfils the desires of all who fear him, he hears their cry and he saves them.
Psa 145:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) guards all who love him, but all the wicked he destroys.
Psa 145:21 My mouth shall always praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), let every creature bless his holy name for ever and ever.
Psa 146:1 Alleluia! Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul!
Psa 146:2 I will praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) all my life, I will make music to my God as long as I live.
Psa 146:3 Do not put your trust in princes, in any child of Adam, who has no power to save.
Psa 146:4 When his spirit goes forth he returns to the earth, on that very day all his plans come to nothing.
Psa 146:5 How blessed is he who has Jacob's God to help him, his hope is in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) his God,
Psa 146:6 who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. He keeps faith for ever,
Psa 146:7 gives justice to the oppressed, gives food to the hungry; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sets prisoners free.
Psa 146:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives sight to the blind, lifts up those who are bowed down.
Psa 146:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) protects the stranger, he sustains the orphan and the widow. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves the upright,but he frustrates the wicked.
Psa 146:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) reigns for ever, your God, Zion, from age to age.
Psa 147:1 Alleluia! Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- it is good to sing psalms to our God -- how pleasant to praise him.
Psa 147:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Builder of Jerusalem! He gathers together the exiles of Israel,
Psa 147:3 healing the broken-hearted and binding up their wounds;
Psa 147:4 he counts out the number of the stars, and gives each one of them a name.
Psa 147:5 Our Lord is great, all-powerful, his wisdom beyond all telling.
Psa 147:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sustains the poor, and humbles the wicked to the ground.
Psa 147:7 Sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in thanksgiving, play the harp for our God.
Psa 147:8 He veils the sky with clouds, and provides the earth with rain, makes grass grow on the hills and plants for people to use,
Psa 147:9 gives fodder to cattle and to young ravens when they cry.
Psa 147:10 He takes no delight in the power of horses, no pleasure in human sturdiness;
Psa 147:11 his pleasure is in those who fear him, in those who hope in his faithful love.
Psa 147:12 Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God.
Psa 147:13 For he gives strength to the bars of your gates, he blesses your children within you,
Psa 147:14 he maintains the peace of your frontiers, gives you your fill of finest wheat.
Psa 147:15 He sends his word to the earth, his command runs quickly,
Psa 147:16 he spreads the snow like flax, strews hoarfrost like ashes,
Psa 147:17 he sends ice-crystals like breadcrumbs, and who can withstand that cold?
Psa 147:18 When he sends his word it thaws them, when he makes his wind blow, the waters are unstopped.
Psa 147:19 He reveals his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgements to Israel.
Psa 147:20 For no other nation has he done this, no other has known his judgements.
Psa 148:1 Alleluia! Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from the heavens, praise him in the heights.
Psa 148:2 Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his host!
Psa 148:3 Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all shining stars,
Psa 148:4 praise him, highest heavens, praise him, waters above the heavens.
Psa 148:5 Let them praise the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at whose command they were made;
Psa 148:6 he established them for ever and ever by an unchanging decree.
Psa 148:7 Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from the earth, sea-monsters and all the depths,
Psa 148:8 fire and hail, snow and mist, storm-winds that obey his word,
Psa 148:9 mountains and every hill, orchards and every cedar,
Psa 148:10 wild animals and all cattle, reptiles and winged birds,
Psa 148:11 kings of the earth and all nations, princes and all judges on earth,
Psa 148:12 young men and girls, old people and children together.
Psa 148:13 Let them praise the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for his name alone is sublime, his splendor transcends earth and heaven.
Psa 148:14 For he heightens the strength of his people, to the praise of all his faithful, the children of Israel, the people close to him.
Psa 149:1 Alleluia! Sing a new song to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): his praise in the assembly of the faithful!
Psa 149:2 Israel shall rejoice in its Maker, the children of Zion delight in their king;
Psa 149:3 they shall dance in praise of his name, play to him on tambourines and harp!
Psa 149:4 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves his people, he will crown the humble with salvation.
Psa 149:5 The faithful exult in glory, shout for joy as they worship him,
Psa 149:6 praising God to the heights with their voices, a two-edged sword in their hands,
Psa 149:7 to wreak vengeance on the nations, punishment on the peoples,
Psa 149:8 to load their kings with chains and their nobles with iron fetters,
Psa 149:9 to execute on them the judgement passed -- to the honor of all his faithful.
Psa 150:1 Alleluia! Praise God in his holy place, praise him in the heavenly vault of his power,
Psa 150:2 praise him for his mighty deeds, praise him for all his greatness.
Psa 150:3 Praise him with fanfare of trumpet, praise him with harp and lyre,
Psa 150:4 praise him with tambourines and dancing, praise him with strings and pipes,
Psa 150:5 praise him with the clamour of cymbals, praise him with triumphant cymbals,
Psa 150:6 Let everything that breathes praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Alleluia!
Pro 1:1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:
Pro 1:2 for learning what wisdom and discipline are, for understanding words of deep meaning,
Pro 1:3 for acquiring a disciplined insight, uprightness, justice and fair dealing;
Pro 1:4 for teaching sound judgement to the simple, and knowledge and reflection to the young;
Pro 1:5 Let the wise listen and learn yet more, and a person of discernment will acquire the art of guidance.
Pro 1:6 for perceiving the meaning of proverbs and obscure sayings, the sayings of the sages and their riddles.
Pro 1:7 The fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the beginning of knowledge; fools spurn wisdom and discipline.
Pro 1:8 Listen, my child, to your father's instruction, do not reject your mother's teaching:
Pro 1:9 they will be a crown of grace for your head, a circlet for your neck.
Pro 1:10 My child, if sinners try to seduce you, do not go with them.
Pro 1:11 If they say, 'Come with us: let us lie in ambush to shed blood; if we plan an ambush for the innocent without provocation,
Pro 1:12 we can swallow them alive, like Sheol, and whole, like those who sink into oblivion.
Pro 1:13 We shall find treasures of every sort, we shall fill our houses with plunder;
Pro 1:14 throw in your lot with us: one purse between us all.'
Pro 1:15 My child, do not follow them in their way, keep your steps out of their path
Pro 1:16 for their feet hasten to evil, they are quick to shed blood;
Pro 1:17 for the net is spread in vain if any winged creature can see it.
Pro 1:18 It is for their own blood such people lie in wait, their ambush is against their own selves!
Pro 1:19 Such are the paths of all who seek dishonest gain: which robs of their lives all who take it for their own.
Pro 1:20 Wisdom calls aloud in the streets, she raises her voice in the public squares;
Pro 1:21 she calls out at the street corners, she delivers her message at the city gates.
Pro 1:22 'You simple people, how much longer will you cling to your simple ways? How much longer will mockers revel in their mocking and fools go on hating knowledge?
Pro 1:23 Pay attention to my warning. To you I will pour out my heart and tell you what I have to say.
Pro 1:24 Since I have called and you have refused me, since I have beckoned and no one has taken notice,
Pro 1:25 since you have ignored all my advice and rejected all my warnings,
Pro 1:26 I, for my part, shall laugh at your distress, I shall jeer when terror befalls you,
Pro 1:27 when terror befalls you, like a storm, when your distress arrives, like a whirlwind, when ordeal and anguish bear down on you.
Pro 1:28 Then they will call me, but I shall not answer, they will look eagerly for me and will not find me.
Pro 1:29 They have hated knowledge, they have not chosen the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Pro 1:30 they have taken no notice of my advice, they have spurned all my warnings:
Pro 1:31 so they will have to eat the fruits of their own ways of life, and choke themselves with their own scheming.
Pro 1:32 For the errors of the simple lead to their death, the complacency of fools works their own ruin;
Pro 1:33 but whoever listens to me may live secure, will have quiet, fearing no mischance.'
Pro 2:1 My child, if you take my words to heart, if you set store by my commandments,
Pro 2:2 tuning your ear to wisdom, tuning your heart to understanding,
Pro 2:3 yes, if your plea is for clear perception, if you cry out for understanding,
Pro 2:4 if you look for it as though for silver, search for it as though for buried treasure,
Pro 2:5 then you will understand what the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is, and discover the knowledge of God.
Pro 2:6 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself is giver of wisdom, from his mouth issue knowledge and understanding.
Pro 2:7 He reserves his advice for the honest, a shield to those whose ways are sound;
Pro 2:8 he stands guard over the paths of equity, he keeps watch over the way of those faithful to him.
Pro 2:9 Then you will understand uprightness, equity and fair dealing, the paths that lead to happiness.
Pro 2:10 When wisdom comes into your heart and knowledge fills your soul with delight,
Pro 2:11 then prudence will be there to watch over you, and understanding will be your guardian
Pro 2:12 to keep you from the way that is evil, from those whose speech is deceitful,
Pro 2:13 from those who leave the paths of honesty to walk the roads of darkness:
Pro 2:14 those who find their joy in doing wrong, and their delight in deceitfulness,
Pro 2:15 whose tracks are twisted, and the paths that they tread crooked.
Pro 2:16 To keep you, too, from the woman who belongs to another, from the stranger, with her wheedling words;
Pro 2:17 she has left the partner of her younger days, she has forgotten the covenant of her God;
Pro 2:18 her house is tilting towards Death, down to the Shades go her paths.
Pro 2:19 Of those who go to her not one returns, they never regain the paths of life.
Pro 2:20 Thus you will tread the way of good people, persisting in the paths of the upright.
Pro 2:21 For the land will be for the honest to live in, the innocent will have it for their home;
Pro 2:22 while the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the faithless rooted out of it.
Pro 3:1 My child, do not forget my teaching, let your heart keep my principles,
Pro 3:2 since they will increase your length of days, your years of life and your well-being.
Pro 3:3 Let faithful love and constancy never leave you: tie them round your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
Pro 3:4 Thus you will find favor and success in the sight of God and of people.
Pro 3:5 Trust wholeheartedly in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), put no faith in your own perception;
Pro 3:6 acknowledge him in every course you take, and he will see that your paths are smooth.
Pro 3:7 Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom, fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and turn your back on evil:
Pro 3:8 health-giving, this, to your body, relief to your bones.
Pro 3:9 honor Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with what goods you have and with the first-fruits of all your produce;
Pro 3:10 then your barns will be filled with corn, your vats overflowing with new wine.
Pro 3:11 My child, do not scorn correction from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not resent his reproof;
Pro 3:12 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) reproves those he loves, as a father the child whom he loves.
Pro 3:13 Blessed are those who have discovered wisdom, those who have acquired understanding!
Pro 3:14 Gaining her is more rewarding than silver, her yield is more valuable than gold.
Pro 3:15 She is beyond the price of pearls, nothing you could covet is her equal.
Pro 3:16 In her right hand is length of days; in her left hand, riches and honor.
Pro 3:17 Her ways are filled with delight, her paths all lead to contentment.
Pro 3:18 She is a tree of life for those who hold her fast, those who cling to her live happy lives.
Pro 3:19 In wisdom, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) laid the earth's foundations, in understanding he spread out the heavens.
Pro 3:20 Through his knowledge the depths were cleft open, and the clouds distil the dew.
Pro 3:21 My child, hold to sound advice and prudence, never let them out of sight;
Pro 3:22 they will give life to your soul and beauty to your neck.
Pro 3:23 You will go on your way in safety, your feet will not stumble.
Pro 3:24 When you go to bed, you will not be afraid; once in bed, your sleep will be sweet.
Pro 3:25 Have no fear either of sudden terror or of attack mounted by wicked men,
Pro 3:26 since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be your guarantor, he will keep your steps from the snare.
Pro 3:27 Refuse no kindness to those who have a right to it, if it is in your power to perform it.
Pro 3:28 Do not say to your neighbor, 'Go away! Come another time! I will give it you tomorrow,' if you can do it now.
Pro 3:29 Do not plot harm against your neighbor who is living unsuspecting beside you.
Pro 3:30 Do not pick a groundless quarrel with anyone who has done you no harm.
Pro 3:31 Do not envy the man of violence, never model your conduct on his;
Pro 3:32 for the wilful wrong-doer is abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who confides only in the honest.
Pro 3:33 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s curse lies on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the upright.
Pro 3:34 He mocks those who mock, but accords his favor to the humble.
Pro 3:35 Glory is the portion of the wise, all that fools inherit is contempt.
Pro 4:1 Listen, my children, to a father's instruction; pay attention, and learn what understanding is.
Pro 4:2 What I am offering you is sound doctrine: do not forsake my teaching.
Pro 4:3 I too was once a child with a father, in my mother's eyes a tender child, unique.
Pro 4:4 This was what he used to teach me, 'Let your heart treasure what I have to say, keep my principles and you will live;
Pro 4:5 acquire wisdom, acquire understanding, never forget her, never deviate from my words.
Pro 4:6 Do not desert her, she will keep you safe; love her, she will watch over you.
Pro 4:7 The first principle of wisdom is: acquire wisdom; at the cost of all you have, acquire understanding!
Pro 4:8 Hold her close, and she will make you great; embrace her, and she will be your pride;
Pro 4:9 she will provide a graceful garland for your head, bestow a crown of honor on you.'
Pro 4:10 Listen, my child, take my words to heart, and the years of your life will be multiplied.
Pro 4:11 I have educated you in the ways of wisdom, I have guided you along the path of honesty.
Pro 4:12 When you walk, your going will be unhindered, if you run, you will not stumble.
Pro 4:13 Hold fast to discipline, never let her go, keep your eyes on her, she is your life.
Pro 4:14 Do not follow the path of the wicked, do not walk the way that the evil go.
Pro 4:15 Avoid it, do not take it, turn your back on it, pass it by.
Pro 4:16 For they cannot sleep unless they have first done wrong, they miss their sleep if they have not made someone stumble;
Pro 4:17 for the bread of wickedness is what they eat, and the wine of violence is what they drink.
Pro 4:18 The path of the upright is like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day;
Pro 4:19 the way of the wicked is as dark as night, they cannot tell the obstacles they stumble over.
Pro 4:20 My child, pay attention to what I am telling you, listen carefully to my words;
Pro 4:21 do not let them out of your sight, keep them deep in your heart.
Pro 4:22 For they are life to those who find them and health to all humanity.
Pro 4:23 More than all else, keep watch over your heart, since here are the wellsprings of life.
Pro 4:24 Turn your back on the mouth that misleads, keep your distance from lips that deceive.
Pro 4:25 Let your eyes be fixed ahead, your gaze be straight before you.
Pro 4:26 Let the path you tread be level and all your ways be firm.
Pro 4:27 Turn neither to right nor to left, keep your foot clear of evil.
Pro 5:1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully to what I know;
Pro 5:2 so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,
Pro 5:3 for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil,
Pro 5:4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Pro 5:5 Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps;
Pro 5:6 far from following the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.
Pro 5:7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:
Pro 5:8 set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house,
Pro 5:9 or she will hand over your honor to others, the years of your life to a man without pity,
Pro 5:10 and strangers will batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,
Pro 5:11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you will groan
Pro 5:12 and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned all correction;
Pro 5:13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.
Pro 5:14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'
Pro 5:15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.
Pro 5:16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:
Pro 5:17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.
Pro 5:18 May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,
Pro 5:19 fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that ever holds you captive.
Pro 5:20 Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another?
Pro 5:21 For the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) observe human ways, and survey all human paths.
Pro 5:22 The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin.
Pro 5:23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.
Pro 6:1 My child, if you have gone surety for your neighbor, if you have guaranteed the bond of a stranger,
Pro 6:2 if you have committed yourself with your lips, if through words of yours you have been entrapped,
Pro 6:3 do this, my child, to extricate yourself -- since you have put yourself in the power of your neighbor: go, humble yourself, plead with your neighbor,
Pro 6:4 give your eyes no sleep, your eyelids no rest,
Pro 6:5 break free like a gazelle from the trap, like a bird from the fowler's clutches.
Pro 6:6 Idler, go to the ant; ponder her ways and grow wise:
Pro 6:7 no one gives her orders, no overseer, no master,
Pro 6:8 yet all through the summer she gets her food ready, and gathers her supplies at harvest time.
Pro 6:9 How long do you intend to lie there, idler? When are you going to rise from your sleep?
Pro 6:10 A little sleep, a little drowsiness, a little folding of the arms to lie back,
Pro 6:11 and poverty comes like a vagrant and, like a beggar, dearth.
Pro 6:12 A scoundrel, a vicious man, he goes with a leer on his lips,
Pro 6:13 winking his eye, shuffling his foot, beckoning with his finger.
Pro 6:14 Trickery in his heart, always scheming evil, he sows dissension.
Pro 6:15 Disaster will overtake him sharply for this, suddenly, irretrievably, he will be broken.
Pro 6:16 There are six things that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) hates, seven that he abhors:
Pro 6:17 a haughty look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
Pro 6:18 a heart that weaves wicked plots, feet that hurry to do evil,
Pro 6:19 a false witness who lies with every breath, and one who sows dissension among brothers.
Pro 6:20 Keep your father's precept, my child, do not spurn your mother's teaching.
Pro 6:21 Bind them ever to your heart, tie them round your neck.
Pro 6:22 While you are active, they will guide you, when you fall asleep, they will watch over you, when you wake up, they will converse with you.
Pro 6:23 For the precept is a lamp, the teaching is a light; correction and discipline are the way to life,
Pro 6:24 preserving you from the woman of bad character, from the wheedling talk of a woman who belongs to another.
Pro 6:25 Do not covet her beauty in your heart or let her captivate you with the play of her eyes;
Pro 6:26 a prostitute can be bought for a hunk of bread, but a married woman aims to snare a precious life.
Pro 6:27 Can a man carry fire inside his shirt without setting his clothes alight?
Pro 6:28 Can you walk on red-hot coals without burning your feet?
Pro 6:29 Just so, the man who makes love to his neighbor's wife: no one who touches her will get off unpunished.
Pro 6:30 People attach but little blame to a thief who steals only to satisfy his hunger;
Pro 6:31 yet even he, if caught, will have to repay sevenfold and hand over all his family resources.
Pro 6:32 But the adulterer has no sense; he works his own destruction.
Pro 6:33 All he will get is blows and contempt, and dishonor never to be blotted out.
Pro 6:34 For jealousy inflames the husband who will show no mercy when the day comes for revenge;
Pro 6:35 he will not consider any compensation; lavish what gifts you may, he will not be placated.
Pro 7:1 My child, keep my words, and treasure my precepts,
Pro 7:2 keep my precepts and you will live, keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Pro 7:3 Bind these to your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
Pro 7:4 Say to Wisdom, 'You are my sister!' Call Understanding your relation,
Pro 7:5 to save yourself from the woman that belongs to another, from the stranger, with her seductive words.
Pro 7:6 While I was at the window of my house, I was looking out through the lattice
Pro 7:7 and I saw, among the callow youths, I noticed among the lads, one boy who had no sense.
Pro 7:8 Going along the lane, near the corner where she lives, he reaches the path to her house,
Pro 7:9 at twilight when day is declining, at dead of night and in the dark.
Pro 7:10 And look, a woman is coming to meet him, dressed like a prostitute, false of heart.
Pro 7:11 She is loud and brazen; her feet cannot rest at home.
Pro 7:12 Once in the street, once in the square, she lurks at every corner.
Pro 7:13 She catches hold of him, she kisses him, the bold-faced creature says to him,
Pro 7:14 'I had to offer a communion sacrifice, I have discharged my vows today;
Pro 7:15 that is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and now I have found you.
Pro 7:16 I have spread coverlets over my divan, embroidered stuff, Egyptian material,
Pro 7:17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, with aloes and cinnamon.
Pro 7:18 Come on, we'll make love as much as we like, till morning. Let us enjoy the delights of love!
Pro 7:19 For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a very long journey,
Pro 7:20 taking his moneybags with him; he will not be back till the moon is full.'
Pro 7:21 With her persistent coaxing she overcomes him, lures him on with her wheedling patter.
Pro 7:22 Forthwith he follows her, like an ox on its way to the slaughterhouse, like a madman on his way to the stocks,
Pro 7:23 until an arrow pierces him to the liver, like the bird that dashes into the net without realising that its life is at stake.
Pro 7:24 And now, son, listen to me, pay attention to the words I have to say:
Pro 7:25 do not let your heart stray into her ways, or wander into her paths;
Pro 7:26 she has done so many to death, and the strongest have all been her victims.
Pro 7:27 Her house is the way to Sheol, the descent to the courts of death.
Pro 8:1 Is not Wisdom calling? Is not Understanding raising her voice?
Pro 8:2 On the heights overlooking the road, at the crossways, she takes her stand;
Pro 8:3 by the gates, at the entrance to the city, on the access-roads, she cries out,
Pro 8:4 'I am calling to you, all people, my words are addressed to all humanity.
Pro 8:5 Simpletons, learn how to behave, fools, come to your senses.
Pro 8:6 Listen, I have something important to tell you, when I speak, my words are right.
Pro 8:7 My mouth proclaims the truth, for evil is abhorrent to my lips.
Pro 8:8 All the words from my mouth are upright, nothing false there, nothing crooked,
Pro 8:9 everything plain, if you can understand, straight, if you have acquired knowledge.
Pro 8:10 Accept my discipline rather than silver, and knowledge of me in preference to finest gold.
Pro 8:11 For Wisdom is more precious than jewels, and nothing else is so worthy of desire.
Pro 8:12 'I, Wisdom, share house with Discretion, I am mistress of the art of thought.
Pro 8:13 (Fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) means hatred of evil.) I hate pride and arrogance, wicked behavior and a lying mouth.
Pro 8:14 To me belong good advice and prudence, I am perception: power is mine!
Pro 8:15 By me monarchs rule and princes decree what is right;
Pro 8:16 by me rulers govern, so do nobles, the lawful authorities.
Pro 8:17 I love those who love me; whoever searches eagerly for me finds me.
Pro 8:18 With me are riches and honor, lasting wealth and saving justice.
Pro 8:19 The fruit I give is better than gold, even the finest, the return I make is better than pure silver.
Pro 8:20 I walk in the way of uprightness in the path of justice,
Pro 8:21 to endow my friends with my wealth and to fill their treasuries.
Pro 8:22 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) created me, first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works.
Pro 8:23 From everlasting, I was firmly set, from the beginning, before the earth came into being.
Pro 8:24 The deep was not, when I was born, nor were the springs with their abounding waters.
Pro 8:25 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I came to birth;
Pro 8:26 before he had made the earth, the countryside, and the first elements of the world.
Pro 8:27 When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there, when he drew a circle on the surface of the deep,
Pro 8:28 when he thickened the clouds above, when the sources of the deep began to swell,
Pro 8:29 when he assigned the sea its boundaries -- and the waters will not encroach on the shore -- when he traced the foundations of the earth,
Pro 8:30 I was beside the master craftsman, delighting him day after day, ever at play in his presence,
Pro 8:31 at play everywhere on his earth, delighting to be with the children of men.
Pro 8:32 'And now, my children, listen to me. Happy are those who keep my ways.
Pro 8:33 Listen to instruction and become wise, do not reject it.
Pro 8:34 Blessed, whoever listens to me, who day after day keeps watch at my gates to guard my portals.
Pro 8:35 For whoever finds me finds life, and obtains the favor of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Pro 8:36 but whoever misses me harms himself, all who hate me are in love with death.'
Pro 9:1 Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn her seven pillars,
Pro 9:2 she has slaughtered her beasts, drawn her wine, she has laid her table.
Pro 9:3 She has despatched her maidservants and proclaimed from the heights above the city,
Pro 9:4 'Who is simple? Let him come this way.' To the fool she says,
Pro 9:5 'Come and eat my bread, drink the wine which I have drawn!
Pro 9:6 Leave foolishness behind and you will live, go forwards in the ways of perception.'
Pro 9:7 Reprove a mocker and you attract contempt, rebuke the wicked and you attract dishonor.
Pro 9:8 Do not rebuke the mocker, he will hate you. Rebuke the wise and he will love you for it.
Pro 9:9 Be open with the wise, he grows wiser still, teach the upright, he will gain yet more.
Pro 9:10 The first principle of wisdom is the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), What God's holy ones know -- this is understanding.
Pro 9:11 For by me your days will be multiplied, and your years of life increased.
Pro 9:12 Are you wise? You are wise to your own good. A mocker? The burden is yours alone.
Pro 9:13 A silly woman acts on impulse, is foolish and knows nothing.
Pro 9:14 She sits at the door of her house, on a throne high up in the city,
Pro 9:15 calling to the passers-by, who are walking straight past on their way,
Pro 9:16 'Who is simple? Turn aside, come over here.' To the fool she says,
Pro 9:17 'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread tastes better when eaten in secret.'
Pro 9:18 But the fool does not know that this is where the Shades are and that her guests are already in the vales of Sheol.
Pro 10:1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise child is a father's joy, a foolish child a mother's grief.
Pro 10:2 Treasures wickedly come by give no benefit, but uprightness brings delivery from death.
Pro 10:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does not let the upright go hungry, but he thwarts the greed of the wicked.
Pro 10:4 A slack hand brings poverty, but the hand of the diligent brings wealth.
Pro 10:5 Reaping at harvest-time is the mark of the prudent, sleeping at harvest-time is the sign of the worthless.
Pro 10:6 Blessings are on the head of the upright, but the mouth of the godless is a cover for violence.
Pro 10:7 The upright is remembered with blessings, the name of the wicked rots away.
Pro 10:8 The wise of heart takes orders, but a gabbling fool heads for ruin.
Pro 10:9 Anyone whose ways are honorable walks secure, but whoever follows crooked ways is soon unmasked.
Pro 10:10 A wink of the eye brings trouble, a bold rebuke brings peace.
Pro 10:11 The mouth of the upright is a life-giving fountain, but the mouth of the godless is a cover for violence.
Pro 10:12 Hatred provokes disputes, but love excuses all offenses.
Pro 10:13 On the lips of the discerning is found wisdom, on the back of a fool, the stick.
Pro 10:14 Wise people store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool makes ruin imminent.
Pro 10:15 The wealth of the rich is their stronghold, poverty is the undoing of the weak.
Pro 10:16 The wage of the upright affords life, but sin is all the wicked earns.
Pro 10:17 Whoever abides by discipline, walks towards life, whoever ignores correction goes astray.
Pro 10:18 Liars' lips are a cover for hatred, whoever utters slander is a fool.
Pro 10:19 A flood of words is never without fault; whoever controls the lips is wise.
Pro 10:20 The tongue of the upright is purest silver, the heart of the wicked is of trumpery value.
Pro 10:21 The lips of the upright nourish many peoples, but fools die for want of sense.
Pro 10:22 The blessing of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is what brings riches, to this, hard toil has nothing to add.
Pro 10:23 A fool takes pleasure in doing wrong, the intelligent in cultivating wisdom.
Pro 10:24 What the wicked fears overtakes him, what the upright desires comes to him as a present.
Pro 10:25 When the storm is over, the wicked is no more, but the upright stands firm for ever.
Pro 10:26 As vinegar to the teeth, smoke to the eyes, so the sluggard to the one who sends him.
Pro 10:27 The fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) adds length to life, the years of the wicked will be cut short.
Pro 10:28 The hope of the upright is joy, the expectations of the wicked come to nothing.
Pro 10:29 The way of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a rampart for the honest, for evil-doers nothing but ruin.
Pro 10:30 The upright will never have to give way, but the land will offer no home for the wicked.
Pro 10:31 The mouth of the upright utters wisdom, the tongue that deceives will be cut off.
Pro 10:32 The lips of the upright know about kindness, the mouth of the wicked about deceit.
Pro 11:1 A false balance is abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a just weight is pleasing to him.
Pro 11:2 Pride comes first; disgrace soon follows; with the humble is wisdom found.
Pro 11:3 The honest have their own honesty for guidance, the treacherous are ruined by their own perfidy.
Pro 11:4 In the day of retribution riches will be useless, but uprightness delivers from death.
Pro 11:5 The uprightness of the good makes their way straight, the wicked fall by their own wickedness.
Pro 11:6 Their uprightness sets the honest free, the treacherous are imprisoned by their own desires.
Pro 11:7 The hope of the wicked perishes with death, hope placed in riches comes to nothing.
Pro 11:8 The upright escapes affliction, the wicked incurs it instead.
Pro 11:9 Through his mouth the godless is the ruin of his neighbor, but by knowledge the upright are safeguarded.
Pro 11:10 When the upright prosper the city rejoices, when the wicked are ruined there is a shout of joy.
Pro 11:11 A city is raised on the blessing of the honest, and demolished by the mouth of the wicked.
Pro 11:12 Whoever looks down on a neighbor lacks good sense; the intelligent keeps a check on the tongue.
Pro 11:13 A tittle-tattler lets secrets out, the trustworthy keeps things hidden.
Pro 11:14 For want of leadership a people perishes, safety lies in many advisers.
Pro 11:15 Whoever goes bail for a stranger does himself harm, but one who shuns going surety is safe.
Pro 11:16 A gracious woman acquires honor, violent people acquire wealth.
Pro 11:17 Faithful love brings its own reward, the inflexible injure their own selves.
Pro 11:18 Disappointment crowns the labours of the wicked, whoever sows uprightness reaps a solid reward.
Pro 11:19 Whoever establishes uprightness is on the way to life, whoever pursues evil, on the way to death.
Pro 11:20 Tortuous hearts are abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), dear to him, those whose ways are blameless.
Pro 11:21 Be sure of it, the wicked will not go unpunished, but the race of the upright will come to no harm.
Pro 11:22 A golden ring in the snout of a pig is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.
Pro 11:23 The hope of the upright is nothing but good, the expectation of the wicked is retribution.
Pro 11:24 One scatters money around, yet only adds to his wealth, another is excessively mean, but only grows the poorer.
Pro 11:25 The soul who blesses will prosper, whoever satisfies others will also be satisfied.
Pro 11:26 The people's curse is on those who hoard the wheat, their blessing on the head of those who sell it.
Pro 11:27 Whoever strives for good obtains favor, whoever looks for evil will get an evil return.
Pro 11:28 Whoever trusts in riches will have a fall, the upright will flourish like the leaves.
Pro 11:29 Whoever misgoverns a house inherits the wind, and the fool becomes slave to the wise.
Pro 11:30 The fruit of the upright is a tree of life: the sage captivates souls.
Pro 11:31 If here on earth the upright gets due reward, how much more the wicked and the sinner!
Pro 12:1 Whoever loves discipline, loves knowledge, stupid are those who hate correction.
Pro 12:2 The honest obtains Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s favor, the schemer incurs his condemnation.
Pro 12:3 No one is made secure by wickedness, but nothing shakes the roots of the upright.
Pro 12:4 A capable wife, her husband's crown, a shameless wife, a cancer in his bones.
Pro 12:5 The plans of the upright are honest, the intrigues of the wicked are full of deceit.
Pro 12:6 The words of the wicked are snares to shed blood, what the honest say keeps them safe.
Pro 12:7 Once thrown down, the wicked are no more, but the house of the upright stands firm.
Pro 12:8 Prudence wins praise, but a tortuous heart incurs only contempt.
Pro 12:9 Better a common fellow who has a slave than someone who gives himself airs and has nothing to eat.
Pro 12:10 The upright has compassion on his animals, but the heart of the wicked is ruthless.
Pro 12:11 Whoever works his land shall have bread and to spare, but no one who chases fantasies has any sense.
Pro 12:12 The godless delights in the snare of the wicked, but the root of the upright bears fruit.
Pro 12:13 In the sin of the lips lies a disastrous trap, but the upright finds a way out of misfortune.
Pro 12:14 Abundance of good things is the fruit of the lips; labour brings its own return.
Pro 12:15 Fools think the way they go is straight, the wise listens to advice.
Pro 12:16 The fool shows anger straightaway, the discreet conceals dislike.
Pro 12:17 To tell the truth is to further justice, a false witness is nothing but deceit.
Pro 12:18 Thoughtless words can wound like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.
Pro 12:19 Sincere lips endure for ever, the lying tongue lasts only a moment.
Pro 12:20 Deceit is in the heart of the schemer, joy with those who give counsels of peace.
Pro 12:21 No harm can come to the upright, but the wicked are swamped by misfortunes.
Pro 12:22 Lying lips are abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); dear to him those who make truth their way of life.
Pro 12:23 The discreet keeps knowledge hidden, the heart of fools proclaims their folly.
Pro 12:24 For the diligent hand, authority; for the slack hand, forced labour.
Pro 12:25 Worry makes a heart heavy, a kindly word makes it glad.
Pro 12:26 The upright shows the way to a friend; the way of the wicked leads them astray.
Pro 12:27 The idle has no game to roast; diligence is anyone's most precious possession.
Pro 12:28 In the way of uprightness is life, the ways of the vengeful lead to death.
Pro 13:1 A wise child listens to a father's discipline, a cynic will not listen to reproof.
Pro 13:2 The fruit of the mouth provides a good meal, but the soul of the treacherous feeds on violence.
Pro 13:3 A guard on the mouth makes life secure, whoever talks too much is lost.
Pro 13:4 The idler hungers but has no food; hard workers get their fill.
Pro 13:5 The upright hates a lying word, but the wicked slanders and defames.
Pro 13:6 Uprightness stands guard over one whose way is honest, sin causes the ruin of the wicked.
Pro 13:7 There are some who, on nothing, pretend to be rich, some, with great wealth, pretend to be poor.
Pro 13:8 The ransom for life is a person's wealth; but the poor will not hear the reproof.
Pro 13:9 The light of the upright is joyful, the lamp of the wicked goes out.
Pro 13:10 Insolence breeds only disputes, wisdom lies with those who take advice.
Pro 13:11 A sudden fortune will dwindle away, accumulation little by little is the way to riches.
Pro 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
Pro 13:13 Contempt for the word is self-destructive, respect for the commandment wins salvation.
Pro 13:14 The teaching of the wise is a life-giving fountain for eluding the snares of death.
Pro 13:15 Good sense wins favor, but the way of the treacherous is hard.
Pro 13:16 Anyone of discretion acts by the light of knowledge, the fool parades his folly.
Pro 13:17 A bad messenger falls into misfortune, a trusty messenger brings healing.
Pro 13:18 Whoever rejects discipline wins poverty and scorn; for anyone who accepts correction: honor.
Pro 13:19 Desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul; fools are loth to turn -- from evil.
Pro 13:20 Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, whoever mixes with fools will be ruined.
Pro 13:21 Evil will pursue the sinner, but good will reward the upright.
Pro 13:22 The good bequeaths a heritage to children's children, the wealth of the sinner is stored away for the upright.
Pro 13:23 Though the farms of the poor yield much food, some perish for lack of justice.
Pro 13:24 Whoever fails to use the stick hates his child; whoever is free with correction loves him.
Pro 13:25 The upright eats to the full, the belly of the wicked goes empty.
Pro 14:1 Wisdom builds herself a house; with her own hands Folly pulls it down.
Pro 14:2 Whoever keeps to an honest course fears Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), whoever deserts his paths shows contempt for him.
Pro 14:3 Pride sprouts in the mouth of the fool, the lips of the wise keep them safe.
Pro 14:4 No oxen, empty manger; strong bull, much cash.
Pro 14:5 The truthful witness tells no lies, the false witness lies with every breath.
Pro 14:6 In vain the mocker looks for wisdom, knowledge comes easy to the intelligent.
Pro 14:7 Keep well clear of the fool, you will not find wise lips there.
Pro 14:8 With people of discretion, wisdom keeps a watch over their conduct, but the folly of fools leads them astray.
Pro 14:9 Fools mock at the sacrifice for sin, but favor resides among the honest.
Pro 14:10 The heart knows its own grief best, nor can a stranger share its joy.
Pro 14:11 The house of the wicked will be destroyed, the tent of the honest will prosper.
Pro 14:12 There are ways that some think straight, but they lead in the end to death.
Pro 14:13 Even in laughter the heart finds sadness, and joy makes way for sorrow.
Pro 14:14 The miscreant will reap the reward of his conduct, and the good the reward of his deeds.
Pro 14:15 The simpleton believes any message, a person of discretion treads a careful path.
Pro 14:16 The wise fears evil and avoids it, the fool is insolent and conceited.
Pro 14:17 A quick-tempered person commits rash acts, but a schemer is detestable.
Pro 14:18 Simpletons have folly for their portion, people of discretion knowledge for their crown.
Pro 14:19 The evil bow down before the good, the wicked, at the gates of the upright.
Pro 14:20 The poor is detestable even to a friend, but many are they who love someone rich.
Pro 14:21 One who despises the needy is at fault, one who takes pity on the poor is blessed.
Pro 14:22 Plan evil -- isn't this to go astray? Those who plan for good can earn faithful love and constancy.
Pro 14:23 Hard work always yields its profit, idle talk brings only want.
Pro 14:24 The crown of the wise is their riches; the folly of fools is folly.
Pro 14:25 A truthful witness saves lives, whoever utters lies is a deceiver.
Pro 14:26 In the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is powerful security; for his children he is a refuge.
Pro 14:27 The fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a life-giving spring for eluding the snares of death.
Pro 14:28 Large population, monarch's glory; dwindling population, ruler's ruin.
Pro 14:29 Mastery of temper is high proof of intelligence, a quick temper makes folly worse than ever.
Pro 14:30 The life of the body is a tranquil heart, but envy is a cancer in the bones.
Pro 14:31 To oppress the weak insults the Creator, kindness to the needy honors the Creator.
Pro 14:32 For evil-doing, the wicked will be flung headlong, but in integrity the upright will find refuge.
Pro 14:33 Wisdom resides in an understanding heart; she is not to be found in the hearts of fools.
Pro 14:34 Uprightness makes a nation great, by sin whole races are disgraced.
Pro 14:35 A king shows favor to a wise minister, but anger to one who shames him.
Pro 15:1 A mild answer turns away wrath, sharp words stir up anger.
Pro 15:2 The tongue of the wise makes knowledge welcome, the mouth of a fool spews folly.
Pro 15:3 The eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) are everywhere: observing the wicked and the good.
Pro 15:4 The tongue that soothes is a tree of life; the perverse tongue, a breaker of hearts.
Pro 15:5 Only a fool spurns a father's discipline, whoever accepts correction is discreet.
Pro 15:6 In the house of the upright there is no lack of treasure, the earnings of the wicked are fraught with anxiety.
Pro 15:7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge, not so the hearts of fools.
Pro 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), dear to him is the prayer of the honest.
Pro 15:9 The conduct of the wicked is abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but he loves the person whose goal is uprightness.
Pro 15:10 Correction is severe for one who leaves the way; whoever hates being reprimanded will die.
Pro 15:11 Sheol and Perdition lie open to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); how much more the human heart!
Pro 15:12 The mocker does not care to be reprimanded, and will not choose the wise as companions.
Pro 15:13 Glad heart means happy face, where the heart is sad the spirit is broken.
Pro 15:14 The heart of the wise seeks knowledge, a fool's mouth feeds on folly.
Pro 15:15 For the poor every day is evil, for the joyous heart it is always festival time.
Pro 15:16 Better to have little and with it fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) than immense wealth and with it anxiety.
Pro 15:17 Better a dish of herbs when love is there than a fattened ox and hatred to go with it.
Pro 15:18 The hot-headed provokes disputes, the equable allays dissension.
Pro 15:19 The way of the lazy is like a thorny hedge, the path of the honest is a broad highway.
Pro 15:20 A wise child is a father's joy; only a brute despises his mother.
Pro 15:21 Folly appeals to someone without sense, a person of understanding goes straight forward.
Pro 15:22 Without deliberation plans come to nothing. Plans succeed where counsellors are many.
Pro 15:23 Anyone who has a ready answer has joy too: how satisfying is the apt reply!
Pro 15:24 For the prudent, the path of life leads upwards thus avoiding Sheol below.
Pro 15:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) pulls down the house of the proud, but he keeps the widow's boundaries intact.
Pro 15:26 Wicked scheming is abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but words that are kind are pure.
Pro 15:27 Craving for dishonest gain brings trouble on a house, hatred of bribery earns life.
Pro 15:28 The heart of the upright reflects before answering, the mouth of the wicked spews out wickedness.
Pro 15:29 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) keeps his distance from the wicked, but he listens to the prayers of the upright.
Pro 15:30 A kindly glance gives joy to the heart, good news lends strength to the bones.
Pro 15:31 The ear attentive to wholesome correction finds itself at home in the company of the wise.
Pro 15:32 Whoever rejects correction lacks self-respect, whoever accepts reproof grows in understanding.
Pro 15:33 The fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a school of wisdom, before there can be glory, there must be humility.
Pro 16:1 A human heart makes the plans, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives the answer.
Pro 16:2 A person's own acts seem right to the doer, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the weigher of souls.
Pro 16:3 Commend what you do to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and what you plan will be achieved.
Pro 16:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) made everything for its own purpose, yes, even the wicked for the day of disaster.
Pro 16:5 Every arrogant heart is abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): be sure this will not go unpunished.
Pro 16:6 By faithful love and constancy sin is expiated; by fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) evil is avoided.
Pro 16:7 Let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be pleased with someone's way of life and he makes that person's very enemies into friends.
Pro 16:8 Better have little and with it uprightness than great revenues with injustice.
Pro 16:9 The human heart may plan a course, but it is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who makes the steps secure.
Pro 16:10 The lips of the king utter prophecies, he keeps faith when he speaks in judgement.
Pro 16:11 The balances and scales belong to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all the weights in the bag are of his making.
Pro 16:12 Evil-doing is abhorrent to kings, since uprightness is a throne's foundation.
Pro 16:13 Upright lips are welcome to a king, he loves someone of honest words.
Pro 16:14 The king's wrath is the herald of death, but the wise will appease it.
Pro 16:15 When the king's face brightens it spells life, his favor is like the rain in spring.
Pro 16:16 Better gain wisdom than gold, choose understanding in preference to silver.
Pro 16:17 To turn from evil is the way of the honest; whoever watches the path keeps life safe.
Pro 16:18 Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Pro 16:19 Better be humble with the poor than share the booty with the proud.
Pro 16:20 Whoever listens closely to the word finds happiness; whoever trusts Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is blessed.
Pro 16:21 The wise of heart is acclaimed as intelligent, sweetness of speech increases knowledge.
Pro 16:22 Shrewdness is a fountain of life for its possessor, the folly of fools is their own punishment.
Pro 16:23 The heart of the wise lends shrewdness to speech and makes words more persuasive.
Pro 16:24 Kindly words are a honeycomb, sweet to the taste, wholesome to the body.
Pro 16:25 There is a way that some think straight, but it leads in the end to death.
Pro 16:26 A worker's appetite works on his behalf, for his hunger urges him on.
Pro 16:27 A worthless person concocts evil, such a one's talk is like a scorching fire.
Pro 16:28 A troublemaker sows strife, a slanderer divides friend from friend.
Pro 16:29 The violent lures his neighbor astray and leads him by a way that is not good.
Pro 16:30 Whoever narrows the eyes to think up tricks and purses the lips has already done wrong.
Pro 16:31 White hairs are a crown of honor, they are found in the ways of uprightness.
Pro 16:32 Better an equable person than a hero, someone with self-mastery than one who takes a city.
Pro 16:33 In the fold of the garment the lot is thrown, but from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) comes the decision.
Pro 17:1 Better a mouthful of dry bread with peace than a house filled with quarrelsome sacrifices.
Pro 17:2 A shrewd servant comes off better than an unworthy child, he will share the inheritance with the brothers.
Pro 17:3 A furnace for silver, a foundry for gold, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for the testing of hearts!
Pro 17:4 An evil-doer pays heed to malicious talk, a liar listens to a slanderous tongue.
Pro 17:5 To mock the poor is to insult the Creator, no one who laughs at distress will go unpunished.
Pro 17:6 The crown of the aged is their children's children; the children's glory is their father.
Pro 17:7 Fine words do not become the foolish, false words become a prince still less.
Pro 17:8 A gift works like a talisman for one who holds it: it brings prosperity at every turn.
Pro 17:9 Whoever covers an offense promotes love, whoever again raises the matter divides friends.
Pro 17:10 A reproof makes more impression on a person of understanding than a hundred strokes on a fool.
Pro 17:11 The wicked person thinks of nothing but rebellion, but a cruel messenger will be sent to such a one.
Pro 17:12 Rather come on a bear robbed of her cubs than on a fool in his folly.
Pro 17:13 Disaster will never be far from the house of one who returns evil for good.
Pro 17:14 As well unleash a flood as start a dispute; desist before the quarrel breaks out.
Pro 17:15 To absolve the guilty and condemn the upright, both alike are abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Pro 17:16 What good is money in the hand of a fool? To buy wisdom with it? The desire is not there.
Pro 17:17 A friend is a friend at all times, it is for adversity that a brother is born.
Pro 17:18 Whoever offers guarantees lacks sense and goes surety for a neighbor.
Pro 17:19 The double-dealer loves sin, the proud courts ruin.
Pro 17:20 The tortuous of heart finds no happiness, the perverse of speech falls into misery.
Pro 17:21 He who fathers a stupid child does so to his sorrow, the father of a fool knows no joy.
Pro 17:22 A glad heart is excellent medicine, a depressed spirit wastes the bones away.
Pro 17:23 Under cover of his cloak a bad man takes a gift to pervert the course of justice.
Pro 17:24 The intelligent has wisdom there before him, but the eyes of a fool range to the ends of the earth.
Pro 17:25 A foolish child is a father's sorrow, and the grief of her who gave the child birth.
Pro 17:26 To fine the upright is indeed a crime, to strike the noble is an injustice.
Pro 17:27 Whoever can control the tongue knows what knowledge is, someone of understanding keeps a cool temper.
Pro 17:28 If the fool holds his tongue, he may pass for wise; if he seals his lips, he may pass for intelligent.
Pro 18:1 Whoever lives alone follows private whims, and is angered by advice of any kind.
Pro 18:2 A fool takes no pleasure in understanding but only in airing an opinion.
Pro 18:3 When wickedness comes, indignity comes too, and, with contempt, dishonor.
Pro 18:4 Deep waters, such are human words: a gushing stream, the utterance of wisdom.
Pro 18:5 It is not good to show partiality for the wicked and so to deprive the upright when giving judgement.
Pro 18:6 The lips of a fool go to the law-courts with a mouth that pleads for a beating.
Pro 18:7 The mouth of the fool works its owner's ruin, the lips of a fool are a snare for their owner's life.
Pro 18:8 The words of a slanderer are tasty morsels that go right down into the belly.
Pro 18:9 Whoever is idle at work is blood-brother to the destroyer.
Pro 18:10 The name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a strong tower; the upright runs to it and is secure.
Pro 18:11 The wealth of the rich forms a stronghold, a high wall, as the rich supposes.
Pro 18:12 The human heart is haughty until destruction comes, before there can be glory there must be humility.
Pro 18:13 To retort without first listening is both foolish and embarrassing.
Pro 18:14 Sickness the human spirit can endure, but when the spirit is broken, who can bear this?
Pro 18:15 The heart of the intelligent acquires learning, the ears of the wise search for knowledge.
Pro 18:16 A present will open all doors and win access to the great.
Pro 18:17 The first to plead is adjudged to be upright, until the next comes and cross-examines him.
Pro 18:18 The lot puts an end to disputes and decides between men of power.
Pro 18:19 A brother offended is worse than a fortified city, and quarrels are like the locks of a keep.
Pro 18:20 From the fruit of the mouth is a stomach filled, it is the yield of the lips that gives contentment.
Pro 18:21 Death and life are in the gift of the tongue, those who indulge it must eat the fruit it yields.
Pro 18:22 He who finds a wife finds happiness, receiving a mark of favor from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Pro 18:23 The language of the poor is entreaty, the answer of the rich harshness.
Pro 18:24 There are friends who point the way to ruin, others are closer than a brother.
Pro 19:1 Better the poor living an honest life than the adept at double-talk who is a fool.
Pro 19:2 Where knowledge is wanting, zeal is not good; whoever goes too quickly stumbles.
Pro 19:3 Folly leads conduct astray, yet it is against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that the heart rages.
Pro 19:4 Wealth multiplies friends, but the one friend the poor has is taken away.
Pro 19:5 The false witness will not go unpunished, no one who utters lies will go free.
Pro 19:6 The nobleman has many to court his favor, to a giver of gifts, everyone is friend.
Pro 19:7 The poor man's brothers hate him, every one; his friends -- how much the more do these desert him! He goes in search of words, but there are none to be had.
Pro 19:8 Whoever acquires sense wins profit from it, whoever treasures understanding finds happiness.
Pro 19:9 The false witness will not go unpunished, whoever utters lies will be destroyed.
Pro 19:10 It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury, still less for a slave to govern princes.
Pro 19:11 Good sense makes for self-control, and for pride in overlooking an offense.
Pro 19:12 Like the roaring of a lion, the anger of a king, but like dew on the grass his favor.
Pro 19:13 A foolish child is a disaster for the father, the bickerings of a wife are like an ever-dripping gutter.
Pro 19:14 From fathers comes inheritance of house and wealth, from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) a wife who is discreet.
Pro 19:15 Idleness lulls to sleep, the feckless soul will go hungry.
Pro 19:16 Keeping the commandment is self-preservation, but whoever despises these ways will die.
Pro 19:17 Whoever is kind to the poor is lending to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who will repay him the kindness done.
Pro 19:18 While there is hope for him, chastise your child, but do not get so angry as to kill him.
Pro 19:19 The violent lays himself open to a penalty; spare him, and you aggravate his crime.
Pro 19:20 Listen to advice, accept correction, to be the wiser in the time to come.
Pro 19:21 Many are the plans in the human heart, but the purpose of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- that stands firm.
Pro 19:22 Faithful love is what people look for in a person; they prefer the poor to a liar.
Pro 19:23 The fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) leads to life, it brings food and shelter, without fear of evil.
Pro 19:24 Into the dish the idler dips his hand, but bring it back to his mouth he cannot.
Pro 19:25 Strike a cynic, and simpletons will be more wary; reprove the intelligent and he will understand your meaning.
Pro 19:26 He who ill-treats his father and drives out his mother is a child both worthless and depraved.
Pro 19:27 Give up listening to instruction, my child, if you mean to stray from words of knowledge.
Pro 19:28 A perjured witness holds the law in scorn; the mouth of the wicked feasts on evil-doing.
Pro 19:29 Punishments were made for mockers, and beating for the backs of fools.
Pro 20:1 Wine is reckless, liquor rowdy; unwise is anyone whom it seduces.
Pro 20:2 Like the roaring of a lion is the fury of a king; whoever provokes him sins against himself.
Pro 20:3 It is praiseworthy to stop short of a law-suit; only a fool flies into a rage.
Pro 20:4 In autumn the idler does not plough, at harvest time he looks -- nothing there!
Pro 20:5 The resources of the human heart are like deep waters: an understanding person has only to draw on them.
Pro 20:6 Many describe themselves as people of faithful love, but who can find someone really to be trusted?
Pro 20:7 The upright whose ways are blameless -- blessed the children who come after!
Pro 20:8 A king enthroned on the judgement seat with one look scatters all that is evil.
Pro 20:9 Who can say, 'I have cleansed my heart, I am purified of my sin'?
Pro 20:10 One weight here, another there; here one measure, there another: both alike are abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Pro 20:11 A young man's character appears in what he does, if his behavior is pure and straight.
Pro 20:12 Ear that hears, eye that sees, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made both of these.
Pro 20:13 Do not love sleep or you will know poverty; keep your eyes open and have your fill of food.
Pro 20:14 'No good, no good!' says the buyer, but he goes off congratulating himself.
Pro 20:15 There are gold and jewels of every type, but a priceless ornament is speech informed by knowledge.
Pro 20:16 Take the man's clothes! He has gone surety for a stranger. Take a pledge from him to the profit of persons unknown!
Pro 20:17 Bread is sweet when it is got by fraud, but later the mouth is full of grit.
Pro 20:18 Plans are matured by consultation; take wise advice when waging war.
Pro 20:19 The bearer of gossip lets out secrets; do not mingle with chatterers.
Pro 20:20 Whoever curses father or mother will have his lamp put out in the deepest darkness.
Pro 20:21 Property quickly come by at first will not be blessed in the end.
Pro 20:22 Do not say, 'I shall repay evil'; put your hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he will keep you safe.
Pro 20:23 One weight here, another there: this is abhorrent to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), false scales are not good.
Pro 20:24 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) guides the steps of the powerful: but who can comprehend human ways?
Pro 20:25 Anyone is trapped who cries 'Dedicated!' and begins to reflect only after the vow.
Pro 20:26 A wise king winnows the wicked and makes the wheel pass over them.
Pro 20:27 The human spirit is the lamp of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- searching the deepest self.
Pro 20:28 Faithful love and loyalty mount guard over the king, his throne is founded on saving justice.
Pro 20:29 The pride of the young is their strength, the ornament of the old, grey hairs.
Pro 20:30 Wounding strokes are good medicine for evil, blows have an effect on the inmost self.
Pro 21:1 Like flowing water is a king's heart in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand; he directs it wherever he pleases.
Pro 21:2 All actions are straight in the doer's own eyes, but it is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who weighs hearts.
Pro 21:3 To do what is upright and just is more pleasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) than sacrifice.
Pro 21:4 Haughty eye, proud heart, lamp of the wicked, nothing but sin.
Pro 21:5 The hardworking is thoughtful, and all is gain; too much haste, and all that comes of it is want.
Pro 21:6 To make a fortune with the help of a lying tongue: such is the idle fantasy of those who look for death.
Pro 21:7 The violence of the wicked proves their ruin, for they refuse to do what is right.
Pro 21:8 The way of the felon is devious, the conduct of the innocent straight.
Pro 21:9 Better the corner of a roof to live on than a house shared with a quarrelsome woman.
Pro 21:10 The soul of the wicked is intent on evil, to such a person no neighbor can ever do right.
Pro 21:11 When a cynic is punished, simpletons grow wiser, but someone of understanding acquires knowledge by instruction.
Pro 21:12 The Upright One watches the house of the wicked; he hurls the wicked to destruction.
Pro 21:13 Whoever refuses to listen to the cry of the weak, will in turn plead and not be heard.
Pro 21:14 Anger is mollified by a covert gift, raging fury by a present under cover of the cloak.
Pro 21:15 Doing what is right fills the upright with joy, but evil-doers with terror.
Pro 21:16 Whoever strays far from the way of prudence will rest in the assembly of shadows.
Pro 21:17 Pleasure-lovers stay poor, no one will grow rich who loves wine and good living.
Pro 21:18 The wicked is a ransom for the upright; and the law-breaker for the honest.
Pro 21:19 Better to live in a desert land than with a quarrelsome and irritable woman.
Pro 21:20 The wise has valuables and oil at home, but a fool soon runs through both.
Pro 21:21 Whoever pursues uprightness and faithful love will find life, uprightness and honor.
Pro 21:22 A sage can scale a garrisoned city and shatter the rampart on which it relied.
Pro 21:23 Watch kept over mouth and tongue keeps the watcher safe from disaster.
Pro 21:24 Insolent, haughty -- the name is 'Cynic'; overweening pride marks such behaviour.
Pro 21:25 The idler's desires are the death of him, since his hands will do no work.
Pro 21:26 All day long the godless is racked by desire, the upright gives without ever refusing.
Pro 21:27 The sacrifice of the wicked is abhorrent, above all if it is offered for bad motives.
Pro 21:28 The false witness will perish, but no one who knows how to listen will ever be silenced.
Pro 21:29 The wicked man's strength shows on his face, but the honest it is whose steps are firm.
Pro 21:30 No wisdom, no understanding, no advice is worth anything before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Pro 21:31 Fit out the cavalry for the day of battle, but the victory is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s.
Pro 22:1 Fame is preferable to great wealth, favor, to silver and gold.
Pro 22:2 Rich and poor rub shoulders, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made them both.
Pro 22:3 The discreet sees danger and takes shelter, simpletons go ahead and pay the penalty.
Pro 22:4 The reward of humility is the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and riches, honor and life.
Pro 22:5 Thorns and snares line the path of the wilful, whoever values life will stay at a distance.
Pro 22:6 Give a lad a training suitable to his character and, even when old, he will not go back on it.
Pro 22:7 The rich lords it over the poor, the borrower is the lender's slave.
Pro 22:8 Whoever sows injustice reaps disaster, and the rod of such anger will disappear.
Pro 22:9 A kindly eye will earn a blessing, such a person shares out food with the poor.
Pro 22:10 Expel the mocker and strife goes too, law-suits and dislike die down.
Pro 22:11 Whoever loves the pure of heart and is gracious of speech has the king for a friend.
Pro 22:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes protect knowledge, but he confounds deceitful speeches.
Pro 22:13 'There is a lion outside,' says the idler, 'I shall be killed in the street!'
Pro 22:14 The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit, into it falls the man whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rebukes.
Pro 22:15 Folly is anchored in the heart of a youth, the whip of instruction will rid him of it.
Pro 22:16 Harsh treatment enriches the poor, but a gift impoverishes the rich.
Pro 22:17 Give ear, listen to the sayings of the sages, and apply your heart to what I know,
Pro 22:18 for it will be a delight to keep them deep within you to have them all ready on your lips.
Pro 22:19 So that your trust may be in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), it is you whom I wish to instruct today.
Pro 22:20 Have I not written for you thirty chapters of advice and knowledge,
Pro 22:21 to make you know the certainty of true sayings, so that you can return with sound answers to those who sent you?
Pro 22:22 Do not despoil the weak, for he is weak, and do not oppress the poor at the gate,
Pro 22:23 for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) takes up their cause, and extorts the life of their extortioners.
Pro 22:24 Do not make friends with one who gives way to anger, make no one quick-tempered a companion of yours,
Pro 22:25 for fear you learn such behavior and in it find a snare for yourself.
Pro 22:26 Do not be one of those who go guarantor, who go surety for debts:
Pro 22:27 if you have no means of paying your bed will be taken from under you.
Pro 22:28 Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone set by your ancestors.
Pro 22:29 You see someone alert at his business? His aim will be to serve kings; not for him the service of the obscure.
Pro 23:1 If you take your seat at a great man's table, take careful note of what you have before you;
Pro 23:2 if you have a big appetite put a knife to your throat.
Pro 23:3 Do not hanker for his delicacies, for they are deceptive food.
Pro 23:4 Do not wear yourself out in quest of wealth, stop applying your mind to this.
Pro 23:5 Fix your gaze on it, and it is there no longer, for it is able to sprout wings like an eagle that flies off to the sky.
Pro 23:6 Do not eat the food of anyone whose eye is jealous, do not hanker for his delicacies.
Pro 23:7 For what he is really thinking about is himself: 'Eat and drink,' he tells you, but his heart is not with you.
Pro 23:8 You will spit out whatever you have eaten and find your compliments wasted.
Pro 23:9 Do not waste words on a fool, who will not appreciate the shrewdness of your remarks.
Pro 23:10 Do not displace the ancient boundary-stone, or encroach on orphans' lands,
Pro 23:11 for they have a powerful avenger, and he will take up their cause against you.
Pro 23:12 Apply your heart to discipline, and your ears to instructive sayings.
Pro 23:13 Do not be chary of correcting a child, a stroke of the cane is not likely to be fatal.
Pro 23:14 Give him a stroke of the cane, you will save his soul from Sheol.
Pro 23:15 My child, if your heart is wise, then my own heart is glad,
Pro 23:16 and my inmost self rejoices when from your lips come honest words.
Pro 23:17 Do not let your heart be envious of sinners but remain steady every day in the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH);
Pro 23:18 for there is a future, and your hope will not come to nothing.
Pro 23:19 Listen, my child, and be wise, and guide your heart in the way.
Pro 23:20 Do not be one of those forever tippling wine nor one of those who gorge themselves with meat;
Pro 23:21 for the drunkard and glutton impoverish themselves, and sleepiness is clothed in rags.
Pro 23:22 Listen to your father from whom you are sprung, do not despise your mother in her old age.
Pro 23:23 Purchase truth -- never sell it-wisdom, discipline, and discernment.
Pro 23:24 The father of the upright will rejoice indeed, he who fathers a wise child will have joy of it.
Pro 23:25 Your father and mother will be happy, and she who bore you joyful.
Pro 23:26 My child, pay attention to me, let your eyes take pleasure in my way:
Pro 23:27 a prostitute is a deep pit, a narrow well, the woman who belongs to another.
Pro 23:28 Yes, like a brigand, she lies in wait, increasing the number of law-breakers.
Pro 23:29 For whom is pity, for whom contempt, for whom is strife, for whom complaint, for whom blows struck at random, for whom the clouded eye?
Pro 23:30 For those who linger over wine too long, ever on the look-out for the blended liquors.
Pro 23:31 Do not gaze at wine, how red it is, how it sparkles in the cup! How smoothly it slips down the throat!
Pro 23:32 In the end its bite is like a serpent's, its sting as sharp as an adder's.
Pro 23:33 Your eyes will see peculiar things, you will talk nonsense from your heart.
Pro 23:34 You will be like someone sleeping in mid-ocean, like one asleep at the mast-head.
Pro 23:35 'Struck me, have they? But I'm not hurt. Beaten me? I don't feel anything. When shall I wake up? . . I'll ask for more of it!'
Pro 24:1 Do not be envious of the wicked or wish for their company,
Pro 24:2 for their hearts are scheming violence, their lips talking mischief.
Pro 24:3 By wisdom a house is built, by understanding it is made strong;
Pro 24:4 by knowledge its storerooms are filled with riches of every kind, rare and desirable.
Pro 24:5 The wise is mighty in power, strength is reinforced by science;
Pro 24:6 for it is by strategy that you wage war, and victory depends on having many counsellors.
Pro 24:7 For a fool wisdom is an inaccessible fortress: at the city gate he does not open his mouth.
Pro 24:8 Anyone intent on evil-doing is known as a master in cunning.
Pro 24:9 Folly dreams of nothing but sin, the mocker is abhorrent.
Pro 24:10 If you lose heart when things go wrong, your strength is not worth much.
Pro 24:11 Save those being dragged towards death, but can you rescue those on their way to execution?
Pro 24:12 If you say, 'But look, we did not know,' will the Weigher of the heart pay no attention? Will not the Guardian of your soul be aware and repay you as your deeds deserve?
Pro 24:13 Eat honey, my child, since it is good; honey that drips from the comb is sweet to the taste:
Pro 24:14 and so, for sure, will wisdom be to your soul: find it and you will have a future and your hope will not be cut short.
Pro 24:15 Do not lurk, wicked man, round the upright man's dwelling, do not despoil his house.
Pro 24:16 For though the upright falls seven times, he gets up again; the wicked are the ones who stumble in adversity.
Pro 24:17 Should your enemy fall, do not rejoice, when he stumbles do not let your heart exult:
Pro 24:18 for fear that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be displeased at the sight and turn his anger away from him.
Pro 24:19 Do not be indignant about the wicked, do not be envious of the evil,
Pro 24:20 for there is no future for the evil, the lamp of the wicked will go out.
Pro 24:21 Fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my child, and fear the king; do not ally yourself with innovators;
Pro 24:22 for suddenly disaster will loom for them, and who knows what ruin will seize them and their friends?
Pro 24:23 The following are also taken from the sages: To show partiality in judgement is not good.
Pro 24:24 Whoever tells the wicked, 'You are upright,' peoples curse him, nations revile him;
Pro 24:25 but those who correct him, come out of it well, on them will come a happy blessing.
Pro 24:26 Whoever returns an honest answer, plants a kiss on the lips.
Pro 24:27 Plan what you want on the open ground, make your preparation in the field; then go and build your house.
Pro 24:28 Do not bear witness lightly against your neighbor, nor deceive with your lips.
Pro 24:29 Do not say, 'I will treat my neighbor as my neighbor treated me; I will repay everyone what each has earned.'
Pro 24:30 By the idler's field I was passing, by the vineyard of a man who had no sense,
Pro 24:31 there it all lay, deep in thorns, entirely overgrown with weeds, and its stone wall broken down.
Pro 24:32 And as I gazed I pondered, I drew this lesson from the sight,
Pro 24:33 'A little sleep, a little drowsiness, a little folding of the arms to lie back
Pro 24:34 and poverty comes like a vagrant, and, like a beggar, dearth.'
Pro 25:1 Here are some more of Solomon's proverbs, transcribed at the court of Hezekiah king of Judah:
Pro 25:2 To conceal a matter, this is the glory of God, to sift it thoroughly, the glory of kings.
Pro 25:3 The heavens for height and the earth for depth, unfathomable, as are the hearts of kings.
Pro 25:4 From silver remove the dross and it emerges wholly purified;
Pro 25:5 from the king's presence remove the wicked and on uprightness his throne is founded.
Pro 25:6 In the presence of the king do not give yourself airs, do not take a place among the great;
Pro 25:7 better to be invited, 'Come up here', than be humiliated in the presence of the prince.
Pro 25:8 What your eyes have witnessed do not produce too quickly at the trial, for what are you to do at the end should your neighbor confute you?
Pro 25:9 Have the quarrel out with your neighbor. but do not disclose another's secret,
Pro 25:10 for fear your listener put you to shame, and the loss of repute be irremediable.
Pro 25:11 Like apples of gold inlaid with silver is a word that is aptly spoken.
Pro 25:12 A golden ring, an ornament of finest gold, is a wise rebuke to an attentive ear.
Pro 25:13 The coolness of snow in harvest time, such is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him: he revives the soul of his master.
Pro 25:14 Clouds and wind, but no rain: such is anyone whose promises are princely but never kept.
Pro 25:15 With patience a judge may be cajoled: a soft tongue breaks bones.
Pro 25:16 Eat to your satisfaction what honey you may find, but not to excess or you will bring it up again.
Pro 25:17 Do not set foot too often in your neighbor's house, for fear the neighbor tire of you and come to hate you.
Pro 25:18 A mace, a sword, a piercing arrow, such is anyone who bears false witness against a companion.
Pro 25:19 Decaying tooth, lame foot, such is the fickle when trusted in time of trouble:
Pro 25:20 as well take off your coat in bitter weather. You are pouring vinegar on a wound when you sing songs to a sorrowing heart.
Pro 25:21 If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink.
Pro 25:22 By this you will be heaping red-hot coals on his head, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will reward you.
Pro 25:23 The north wind begets the rain, and a backbiting tongue, black looks.
Pro 25:24 Better the corner of a roof to live on than a house shared with a quarrelsome woman.
Pro 25:25 Cold water to a thirsty throat; such is good news from a distant land.
Pro 25:26 A churned -- up spring, a fountain fouled; such is the upright person trembling before the wicked.
Pro 25:27 It is not good to eat too much honey, nor to seek for glory on top of glory.
Pro 25:28 An open town, and without defences: such is anyone who lacks self-control.
Pro 26:1 Snow no more befits the summer, nor rain the harvest-time, than honors befit a fool.
Pro 26:2 As the sparrow escapes, and the swallow flies away, so the undeserved curse will never hit its mark.
Pro 26:3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and for the backs of fools, a stick.
Pro 26:4 Do not answer a fool in the terms of his folly for fear you grow like him yourself.
Pro 26:5 Answer a fool in the terms of his folly for fear he imagine himself wise.
Pro 26:6 He wounds himself, he takes violence for his drink, who sends a message by a fool.
Pro 26:7 Unreliable as the legs of the lame, so is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Pro 26:8 As well tie the stone to the sling as pay honor to a fool.
Pro 26:9 A thorn branch in a drunkard's hand, such is a proverb in the mouth of fools.
Pro 26:10 An archer wounding everyone, such is he who hires the passing fool and drunkard.
Pro 26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool reverts to his folly.
Pro 26:12 You see someone who thinks himself wise? More to be hoped for from a fool than from him!
Pro 26:13 'A wild beast on the road!' says the idler, 'a lion in the streets!'
Pro 26:14 The door turns on its hinges, the idler on his bed.
Pro 26:15 Into the dish the idler dips his hand, but is too tired to bring it back to his mouth.
Pro 26:16 The idler thinks himself wiser than seven people who answer with discretion.
Pro 26:17 He takes a stray dog by the ears, who meddles in someone else's quarrel.
Pro 26:18 Like a madman hurling firebrands, arrows and death,
Pro 26:19 so is anyone who lies to a companion and then says, 'Aren't I amusing?'
Pro 26:20 No wood, and the fire goes out; no slanderer, and quarrelling dies down.
Pro 26:21 Charcoal for live embers, wood for fire, and the quarrelsome for kindling strife.
Pro 26:22 The words of a slanderer are tasty morsels that go right down into the belly.
Pro 26:23 Base silver-plate on top of clay: such are fervent lips and a wicked heart.
Pro 26:24 Whoever hates may hide it in speech, but deep within lies treachery;
Pro 26:25 do not trust such a person's pretty speeches, since in the heart lurk seven abominations.
Pro 26:26 Hatred may disguise itself with guile, to reveal its wickedness later in the assembly.
Pro 26:27 Whoever digs a pit falls into it, the stone comes back on him that rolls it.
Pro 26:28 The lying tongue hates its victims, the wheedling mouth causes ruin.
Pro 27:1 Do not congratulate yourself about tomorrow, since you do not know what today will bring forth.
Pro 27:2 Let someone else sing your praises, but not your own mouth, a stranger, but not your own lips.
Pro 27:3 Heavy is the stone, weighty is the sand; heavier than both -- a grudge borne by a fool.
Pro 27:4 Cruel is wrath, overwhelming is anger; but jealousy, who can withstand that?
Pro 27:5 Better open reproof than feigned love.
Pro 27:6 Trustworthy are blows from a friend, deceitful are kisses from a foe.
Pro 27:7 The gorged throat revolts at honey, the hungry throat finds all bitterness sweet.
Pro 27:8 Like a bird that strays from its nest, so is anyone who strays away from home.
Pro 27:9 Oil and perfume gladden the heart, and the sweetness of friendship rather than self-reliance.
Pro 27:10 Do not give up your friend or your father's friend; when trouble comes, do not go off to your brother's house, better a near neighbor than a distant brother.
Pro 27:11 Learn to be wise, my child, and gladden my heart, that I may have an answer for anyone who insults me.
Pro 27:12 The discreet sees danger and takes shelter, simpletons go ahead and pay the penalty.
Pro 27:13 Take the man's clothes! He has gone surety for a stranger. Take a pledge from him, for persons unknown.
Pro 27:14 Whoever at dawn loudly blesses his neighbor -- it will be reckoned to him as a curse.
Pro 27:15 The dripping of a gutter on a rainy day and a quarrelsome woman are alike;
Pro 27:16 whoever can restrain her, can restrain the wind, and take a firm hold on grease.
Pro 27:17 Iron is sharpened by iron, one person is sharpened by contact with another.
Pro 27:18 Whoever tends the fig tree eats its figs, whoever looks after his master will be honored.
Pro 27:19 As water reflects face back to face, so one human heart reflects another.
Pro 27:20 Sheol and Perdition are never satisfied, insatiable, too, are human eyes.
Pro 27:21 A furnace for silver, a foundry for gold: a person is worth what his reputation is worth.
Pro 27:22 Pound a fool in a mortar, among grain with a pestle, his folly will not leave him.
Pro 27:23 Know your flocks' condition well, take good care of your herds;
Pro 27:24 for riches do not last for ever, crowns do not hand themselves on from age to age.
Pro 27:25 The grass once gone, the aftergrowth appearing, the hay gathered in from the mountains,
Pro 27:26 you should have lambs to clothe you, goats to buy you a field,
Pro 27:27 goat's milk sufficient to feed you, to feed your household and provide for your serving girls.
Pro 28:1 The wicked flees when no one is pursuing, the upright is bold as a lion.
Pro 28:2 A country in revolt throws up many leaders: with one person wise and experienced, you have stability.
Pro 28:3 The wicked oppresses the weak: here is a devastating rain -- and farewell, bread!
Pro 28:4 Those who forsake the law sing the praises of the wicked, those who observe the law are angered by them.
Pro 28:5 The wicked do not know what justice means, those who seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) understand everything.
Pro 28:6 Better someone poor living an honest life than someone of devious ways however rich.
Pro 28:7 An intelligent child is one who keeps the Law; an associate of profligates brings shame on his father.
Pro 28:8 Whoever increases wealth by usury and interest amasses it for someone else who will bestow it on the poor.
Pro 28:9 Whoever refuses to listen to the Law, such a one's very prayer is an abomination.
Pro 28:10 Whoever seduces the honest to evil ways will fall into his own pit. The blameless are the heirs to happiness.
Pro 28:11 The rich may think himself wise, but the intelligent poor will unmask him.
Pro 28:12 When the upright triumph, there is great exultation: when the wicked are in the ascendant, people take cover.
Pro 28:13 No one who conceals his sins will prosper, whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.
Pro 28:14 Blessed the person who is never without fear, whoever hardens his heart will fall into distress.
Pro 28:15 Like a roaring lion or a springing bear is a wicked ruler of a powerless people.
Pro 28:16 An unenlightened ruler is rich in rapacity, one who hates greed will lengthen his days.
Pro 28:17 A man guilty of murder will flee till he reaches his tomb: let no one halt him!
Pro 28:18 Whoever lives an honest life will be safe, whoever wavers between two ways falls down in one of them.
Pro 28:19 Whoever works his land shall have bread and to spare, but no one who chases fantasies has any sense.
Pro 28:20 A trustworthy person will be overwhelmed with blessings, but no one who tries to get rich quickly will go unpunished.
Pro 28:21 It is not good to show partiality, but people will do wrong for a mouthful of bread.
Pro 28:22 The person of greedy eye chases after wealth, not knowing that want will be the result.
Pro 28:23 Anyone who reproves another will enjoy more favor in the end than the flatterer.
Pro 28:24 Whoever robs father and mother saying, 'Nothing wrong in that!' is comrade for a brigand.
Pro 28:25 The covetous provokes disputes, whoever trusts in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will prosper.
Pro 28:26 Whoever trusts his own wit is a fool, anyone whose ways are wise will be safe.
Pro 28:27 No one who gives to the poor will ever go short, but whoever closes his eyes will have curses in plenty.
Pro 28:28 When the wicked are in the ascendant, people take cover, but when they perish, the upright multiply.
Pro 29:1 Whoever is stiff-necked under reproof will be suddenly and irremediably broken.
Pro 29:2 When the upright are on the increase, the people rejoice; when the wicked are in power, the people groan.
Pro 29:3 The lover of Wisdom makes his father glad, but the patron of prostitutes fritters his wealth away.
Pro 29:4 A king gives a country stability by justice, an extortioner brings it to ruin.
Pro 29:5 Whoever flatters his companion spreads a net for his feet.
Pro 29:6 In the sin of the wicked lies a snare, but the upright exults and rejoices.
Pro 29:7 The upright understands the cause of the weak, the wicked has not the wit to understand it.
Pro 29:8 Scoffers set a city in ferment, but the wise moderate anger.
Pro 29:9 Let someone wise argue with a fool, anger and good humour alike will be wasted.
Pro 29:10 The bloodthirsty hate the honest, but the upright seek them out.
Pro 29:11 The fool blurts out every angry feeling, but the wise subdues and restrains them.
Pro 29:12 When a ruler listens to false reports, all his ministers will be scoundrels.
Pro 29:13 Poor and oppressor are found together, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives light to the eyes of both.
Pro 29:14 The king who judges the weak with equity sees his throne set firm for ever.
Pro 29:15 The stick and the reprimand bestow wisdom, a young man left to himself brings shame on his mother.
Pro 29:16 When the wicked are on the increase, sin multiplies, but the upright will witness their downfall.
Pro 29:17 Correct your child, and he will give you peace of mind; he will delight your soul.
Pro 29:18 Where there is no vision the people get out of hand; happy are they who keep the law.
Pro 29:19 Not by words is a slave corrected: even if he understands, he will take no notice.
Pro 29:20 You see someone too ready of speech? There is more to be hoped for from a fool!
Pro 29:21 If a slave is pampered from childhood, he will prove ungrateful in the end.
Pro 29:22 The hot-head provokes disputes, someone in a rage commits all sorts of sins.
Pro 29:23 Pride brings humiliation, whoever humbles himself will win honor.
Pro 29:24 To hear the curse and disclose nothing is to share with the thief and to hate oneself.
Pro 29:25 To be afraid of human beings is a snare, whoever trusts in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is secure.
Pro 29:26 Many people seek a ruler's favor, but the rights of each come from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Pro 29:27 Abhorrent to the upright is the sinful, abhorrent to the wicked is one whose way is straight.
Pro 30:1 The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh, of Massa. Prophecy of this man for Ithiel, for Ithiel and for Ucal.
Pro 30:2 I am myself the stupidest of people, bereft of human intelligence,
Pro 30:3 I have not learnt wisdom, and I lack the knowledge of the holy ones.
Pro 30:4 Who has mounted to the heavens, then come down again? Who has gathered the wind in the clasp of his hand? Who has wrapped the waters in his cloak? Who has set all the ends of the earth firm? What is his name? What is his child's name? Do you know?
Pro 30:5 Every word of God is unalloyed, a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Pro 30:6 To his words make no addition, lest he reprove you and account you a liar.
Pro 30:7 Two things I beg of you, do not grudge me them before I die:
Pro 30:8 keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, grant me only my share of food,
Pro 30:9 for fear that, surrounded by plenty, I should fall away and say, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-who is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?' or else, in destitution, take to stealing and profane the name of my God.
Pro 30:10 Do not blacken a slave's name to his master, lest he curse you, and you suffer for it.
Pro 30:11 There is a breed of person that curses his father and does not bless his mother;
Pro 30:12 a breed that, laying claim to purity, has not yet been cleansed of its filth;
Pro 30:13 a breed haughty of eye, with disdain in every glance;
Pro 30:14 a breed with swords for teeth, with knives for jaws, devouring the oppressed from the earth and the needy from the land.
Pro 30:15 The leech has two daughters: 'Give! Give!' There are three insatiable things, four, indeed, that never say, 'Enough!'
Pro 30:16 Sheol, the barren womb, earth which can never have its fill of water, fire which never says, 'Enough!'
Pro 30:17 The eye which looks jeeringly on a father, and scorns the obedience due to a mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, and eaten by the vultures.
Pro 30:18 There are three things beyond my comprehension, four, indeed, that I do not understand:
Pro 30:19 the way of an eagle through the skies, the way of a snake over the rock, the way of a ship in mid-ocean, the way of a man with a girl.
Pro 30:20 This is how an adulteress behaves: she eats, then wipes her mouth and says, 'I have done nothing wrong!'
Pro 30:21 There are three things at which the earth trembles, four, indeed, which it cannot endure:
Pro 30:22 a slave become king, a brute gorged with food,
Pro 30:23 a hateful woman wed at last, a servant girl inheriting from her mistress.
Pro 30:24 There are four creatures little on the earth, though they are wisest of the wise:
Pro 30:25 ants, a race with no strength, yet in the summer they make sure of their food;
Pro 30:26 the coneys, a race without defences, yet they make their home in the rocks;
Pro 30:27 locusts, which have no king, yet they all march in good order;
Pro 30:28 lizards, which you can catch in your hand, yet they frequent the palaces of kings.
Pro 30:29 There are three things of stately tread, four, indeed, of stately walk:
Pro 30:30 the lion, bravest of beasts, he will draw back from nothing;
Pro 30:31 a vigorous cock, a he-goat, and the king when he harangues his people.
Pro 30:32 If you have been foolish enough to fly into a passion and now have second thoughts, lay your hand on your lips.
Pro 30:33 For by churning the milk you produce butter, by wringing the nose you produce blood, and by whipping up anger you produce strife.
Pro 31:1 The sayings of Lemuel king of Massa, taught him by his mother:
Pro 31:2 What, my son! What, son of my womb! What, son of my vows!
Pro 31:3 Do not expend your energy on women nor your wealth on those who ruin kings.
Pro 31:4 Not for kings, O Lemuel, not for kings the drinking of wine, not for princes the love of liquor,
Pro 31:5 for fear that in liquor they forget what they have decreed and pervert the course of justice against all the poor.
Pro 31:6 Procure strong drink for someone about to die, wine for him whose heart is heavy:
Pro 31:7 let him drink and forget his misfortune, and remember his misery no more.
Pro 31:8 Make your views heard, on behalf of the dumb, on behalf of all the unwanted;
Pro 31:9 make your views heard, pronounce an upright verdict, defend the cause of the poor and the wretched.
Pro 31:10 The truly capable woman -- who can find her? She is far beyond the price of pearls.
Pro 31:11 Her husband's heart has confidence in her, from her he will derive no little profit.
Pro 31:12 Advantage and not hurt she brings him all the days of her life.
Pro 31:13 She selects wool and flax, she does her work with eager hands.
Pro 31:14 She is like those merchant vessels, bringing her food from far away.
Pro 31:15 She gets up while it is still dark giving her household their food, giving orders to her serving girls.
Pro 31:16 She sets her mind on a field, then she buys it; with what her hands have earned she plants a vineyard.
Pro 31:17 She puts her back into her work and shows how strong her arms can be.
Pro 31:18 She knows that her affairs are going well; her lamp does not go out at night.
Pro 31:19 She sets her hands to the distaff, her fingers grasp the spindle.
Pro 31:20 She holds out her hands to the poor, she opens her arms to the needy.
Pro 31:21 Snow may come, she has no fears for her household, with all her servants warmly clothed.
Pro 31:22 She makes her own quilts, she is dressed in fine linen and purple.
Pro 31:23 Her husband is respected at the city gates, taking his seat among the elders of the land.
Pro 31:24 She weaves materials and sells them, she supplies the merchant with sashes.
Pro 31:25 She is clothed in strength and dignity, she can laugh at the day to come.
Pro 31:26 When she opens her mouth, she does so wisely; on her tongue is kindly instruction.
Pro 31:27 She keeps good watch on the conduct of her household, no bread of idleness for her.
Pro 31:28 Her children stand up and proclaim her blessed, her husband, too, sings her praises:
Pro 31:29 'Many women have done admirable things, but you surpass them all!'
Pro 31:30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty empty; the woman who fears Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the one to praise.
Pro 31:31 Give her a share in what her hands have worked for, and let her works tell her praises at the city gates.
Ecc 1:1 Composition of Qoheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Ecc 1:2 Sheer futility, Qoheleth says. Sheer futility: everything is futile!
Ecc 1:3 What profit can we show for all our toil, toiling under the sun?
Ecc 1:4 A generation goes, a generation comes, yet the earth stands firm for ever.
Ecc 1:5 The sun rises, the sun sets; then to its place it speeds and there it rises.
Ecc 1:6 Southward goes the wind, then turns to the north; it turns and turns again; then back to its circling goes the wind.
Ecc 1:7 Into the sea go all the rivers, and yet the sea is never filled, and still to their goal the rivers go.
Ecc 1:8 All things are wearisome. No one can say that eyes have not had enough of seeing, ears their fill of hearing.
Ecc 1:9 What was, will be again, what has been done, will be done again, and there is nothing new under the sun!
Ecc 1:10 Take anything which people acclaim as being new: it existed in the centuries preceding us.
Ecc 1:11 No memory remains of the past, and so it will be for the centuries to come -- they will not be remembered by their successors.
Ecc 1:12 I, Qoheleth, have reigned over Israel in Jerusalem.
Ecc 1:13 Wisely I have applied myself to investigation and exploration of everything that happens under heaven. What a wearisome task God has given humanity to keep us busy!
Ecc 1:14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun: how futile it all is, mere chasing after the wind!
Ecc 1:15 What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is not there cannot be counted.
Ecc 1:16 I thought to myself: I have acquired a greater stock of wisdom than anyone before me in Jerusalem. I myself have mastered every kind of wisdom and science.
Ecc 1:17 I have applied myself to understanding philosophy and science, stupidity and folly, and I now realize that all this too is chasing after the wind.
Ecc 1:18 Much wisdom, much grief; the more knowledge, the more sorrow.
Ecc 2:1 I thought to myself, 'Very well, I will try pleasure and see what enjoyment has to offer.' And this was futile too.
Ecc 2:2 This laughter, I reflected, is a madness, this pleasure no use at all.
Ecc 2:3 I decided to hand my body over to drinking wine, my mind still guiding me in wisdom; I resolved to embrace folly, to discover the best way for people to spend their days under the sun.
Ecc 2:4 I worked on a grand scale: built myself palaces, planted vineyards;
Ecc 2:5 made myself gardens and orchards, planting every kind of fruit tree in them;
Ecc 2:6 had pools made for watering the young trees of my plantations.
Ecc 2:7 I bought slaves, male and female, had home-born slaves as well; herds and flocks I had too, more than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
Ecc 2:8 I amassed silver and gold, the treasures of kings and provinces; acquired singers, men and women, and every human luxury, chest upon chest of it.
Ecc 2:9 So I grew great, greater than anyone in Jerusalem before me; nor did my wisdom leave me.
Ecc 2:10 I denied my eyes nothing that they desired, refused my heart no pleasure, for I found all my hard work a pleasure, such was the return for all my efforts.
Ecc 2:11 I then reflected on all that my hands had achieved and all the effort I had put into its achieving. What futility it all was, what chasing after the wind! There is nothing to be gained under the sun.
Ecc 2:12 My reflections then turned to wisdom, stupidity and folly. For instance, what can the successor of a king do? What has been done already.
Ecc 2:13 More is to be gained from wisdom than from folly, just as one gains more from light than from darkness; this, of course, I see:
Ecc 2:14 The wise have their eyes open, the fool walks in the dark. No doubt! But I know, too, that one fate awaits them both.
Ecc 2:15 'Since the fool's fate', I thought to myself, 'will be my fate too, what is the point of my having been wise?' I realized that this too is futile.
Ecc 2:16 For there is no lasting memory for the wise or the fool, and in the days to come both will be forgotten; the wise, no less than the fool, must die.
Ecc 2:17 Life I have come to hate, for what is done under the sun disgusts me, since all is futility and chasing after the wind.
Ecc 2:18 All I have toiled for under the sun and now bequeath to my successor I have come to hate;
Ecc 2:19 who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all the work into which I have put my efforts and wisdom under the sun. That is futile too.
Ecc 2:20 I have come to despair of all the efforts I have expended under the sun.
Ecc 2:21 For here is one who has laboured wisely, skillfully and successfully and must leave what is his own to someone who has not toiled for it at all. This is futile too, and grossly unjust;
Ecc 2:22 for what does he gain for all the toil and strain that he has undergone under the sun-
Ecc 2:23 since his days are full of sorrow, his work is full of stress and even at night he has no peace of mind? This is futile too.
Ecc 2:24 There is no happiness except in eating and drinking, and in enjoying one's achievements; and I see that this too comes from God's hand;
Ecc 2:25 for who would get anything to eat or drink, unless all this came from him?
Ecc 2:26 Wisdom, knowledge and joy, God gives to those who please him, but on the sinner he lays the task of gathering and storing up for someone else who is pleasing to him. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.
Ecc 3:1 There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven:
Ecc 3:2 A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted.
Ecc 3:3 A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building.
Ecc 3:4 A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing.
Ecc 3:5 A time for throwing stones away, a time for gathering them; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing.
Ecc 3:6 A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for discarding.
Ecc 3:7 A time for tearing, a time for sewing; a time for keeping silent, a time for speaking.
Ecc 3:8 A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace.
Ecc 3:9 What do people gain from the efforts they make?
Ecc 3:10 I contemplate the task that God gives humanity to labour at.
Ecc 3:11 All that he does is apt for its time; but although he has given us an awareness of the passage of time, we can grasp neither the beginning nor the end of what God does.
Ecc 3:12 I know there is no happiness for a human being except in pleasure and enjoyment through life.
Ecc 3:13 And when we eat and drink and find happiness in all our achievements, this is a gift from God.
Ecc 3:14 I know that whatever God does will be for ever. To this there is nothing to add, from this there is nothing to subtract, and the way God acts inspires dread.
Ecc 3:15 What is, has been already, what will be, is already; God seeks out anyone who is persecuted.
Ecc 3:16 Again I observe under the sun: crime is where justice should be, the criminal is where the upright should be.
Ecc 3:17 And I think to myself: the upright and the criminal will both be judged by God, since there is a time for every thing and every action here.
Ecc 3:18 I think to myself: where human beings are concerned, this is so that God can test them and show them that they are animals.
Ecc 3:19 For the fate of human and the fate of animal is the same: as the one dies, so the other dies; both have the selfsame breath. Human is in no way better off than animal -- since all is futile.
Ecc 3:20 Everything goes to the same place, everything comes from the dust, everything returns to the dust.
Ecc 3:21 Who knows if the human spirit mounts upward or if the animal spirit goes downward to the earth?
Ecc 3:22 I see there is no contentment for a human being except happiness in achievement; such is the lot of a human beings. No one can tell us what will happen after we are gone.
Ecc 4:1 Then again, I contemplate all the oppression that is committed under the sun. Take for instance the tears of the oppressed. No one to comfort them! The power their oppressors wield. No one to comfort them!
Ecc 4:2 So, rather than the living who still have lives to live, I congratulate the dead who have already met death;
Ecc 4:3 happier than both of these are those who are yet unborn and have not seen the evil things that are done under the sun.
Ecc 4:4 I see that all effort and all achievement spring from mutual jealousy. This too is futility and chasing after the wind.
Ecc 4:5 The fool folds his arms and eats his own flesh away.
Ecc 4:6 Better one hand full of repose than two hands full of achievements to chase after the wind.
Ecc 4:7 And something else futile I observe under the sun:
Ecc 4:8 a person is quite alone -- no child, no brother; and yet there is no end to his efforts, his eyes can never have their fill of riches. For whom, then, do I work so hard and grudge myself pleasure? This too is futile, a sorry business.
Ecc 4:9 Better two than one alone, since thus their work is really rewarding.
Ecc 4:10 If one should fall, the other helps him up; but what of the person with no one to help him up when he falls?
Ecc 4:11 Again: if two sleep together they keep warm, but how can anyone keep warm alone?
Ecc 4:12 Where one alone would be overcome, two will put up resistance; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Ecc 4:13 Better a youngster poor and wise than a monarch old and silly who will no longer take advice-
Ecc 4:14 even though stepping from prison to the throne, even though born a beggar in that kingdom.
Ecc 4:15 I observe that all who live and move under the sun support the young newcomer who takes over.
Ecc 4:16 He takes his place at the head of innumerable subjects; but his successors will not think the more kindly of him for that. This too is futile and chasing after the wind.
Ecc 4:17 Watch your step when you go to the House of God: drawing near to listen is better than the offering of a sacrifice by fools, though they do not know that they are doing wrong.
Ecc 5:1 Be in no hurry to speak; do not hastily declare yourself before God; for God is in heaven, you on earth. Be sparing, then, of speech:
Ecc 5:2 From too much worrying comes illusion, from too much talking, the accents of folly.
Ecc 5:3 If you make a vow to God, discharge it without delay, for God has no love for fools. Discharge your vow.
Ecc 5:4 Better a vow unmade than made and not discharged.
Ecc 5:5 Do not allow your mouth to make a sinner of you, and do not say to the messenger that it was a mistake. Why give God occasion to be angry with you and ruin all the work that you have done?
Ecc 5:6 From too many illusions come futility and too much talk. Therefore, fear God.
Ecc 5:7 If in a province you see the poor oppressed, fair judgement and justice violated, do not be surprised, for over every official there watches a higher official, and over these, higher officials still.
Ecc 5:8 But what the land yields is for the benefit of all, a king is served by the fields.
Ecc 5:9 No one who loves money ever has enough, no one who loves luxury has any income; this, too, is futile.
Ecc 5:10 Where goods abound, parasites abound: where is the owner's profit, apart from feasting his eyes?
Ecc 5:11 The labourer's sleep is sweet, whether he has eaten little or much, but the surfeit of the rich will not let him sleep at all.
Ecc 5:12 Something grossly unjust I observe under the sun: riches stored and turning to loss for their owner.
Ecc 5:13 An unlucky venture, and those riches are lost; a son is born to him, and he has nothing to leave him.
Ecc 5:14 Naked from his mother's womb he came; as naked as he came will he depart; not one of his achievements can he take with him.
Ecc 5:15 And something else grossly unjust: that as he came, so must he go; what profit can he show after toiling to earn the wind,
Ecc 5:16 as he spends the rest of his days in darkness, mourning, many sorrows, sickness and exasperation.
Ecc 5:17 So my conclusion is this: true happiness lies in eating and drinking and enjoying whatever has been achieved under the sun, throughout the life given by God: for this is the lot of humanity.
Ecc 5:18 And whenever God gives someone riches and property, with the ability to enjoy them and to find contentment in work, this is a gift from God.
Ecc 5:19 For such a person will hardly notice the passing of time, so long as God keeps his heart occupied with joy.
Ecc 6:1 I see another evil under the sun, which goes hard with people:
Ecc 6:2 suppose someone has received from God riches, property, honors -- nothing at all left to wish for; but God does not give the chance to enjoy them, and some stranger enjoys them. This is futile, and grievous suffering too.
Ecc 6:3 Or take someone who has had a hundred children and lived for many years, and, having reached old age, has never enjoyed the good things of life and has not even got a tomb; it seems to me, a still-born child is happier.
Ecc 6:4 In futility it came, into darkness it departs, and in darkness will its name be buried.
Ecc 6:5 It has never so much as seen or known the sun; all the same, it will rest more easily than that person,
Ecc 6:6 who would never have known the good things of life, even by living a thousand years twice over. Do we not all go to the same place in the end?
Ecc 6:7 All toil is for the mouth, yet the appetite is never satisfied.
Ecc 6:8 What advantage has the wise over the fool? And what of the pauper who knows how to behave in society?
Ecc 6:9 Better the object seen than the sting of desire: for the latter too is futile and chasing after the wind.
Ecc 6:10 What has been is already defined -- we know what people are: They cannot bring to justice one who is stronger than themselves.
Ecc 6:11 The more we say, the more futile it is: what good can we derive from it?
Ecc 6:12 And who knows what is best for someone during life, during the days of futile life which are spent like a shadow? Who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun?
Ecc 7:1 Better a good name than costly oil, the day of death than the day of birth.
Ecc 7:2 Better go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for to this end everyone comes, let the living take this to heart.
Ecc 7:3 Better sadness than laughter: a joyful heart may be concealed behind sad looks.
Ecc 7:4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, the heart of fools in the house of gaiety.
Ecc 7:5 Better attend to the reprimand of the wise than listen to a song sung by a fool.
Ecc 7:6 For like the crackling of thorns under the cauldron is the laughter of fools: and that too is futile.
Ecc 7:7 But being oppressed drives a sage mad, and a present corrupts the heart.
Ecc 7:8 Better the end of a matter than its beginning, better patience than ambition.
Ecc 7:9 Do not be too easily exasperated, for exasperation dwells in the heart of fools.
Ecc 7:10 Do not ask why the past was better than the present, for this is not a question prompted by wisdom.
Ecc 7:11 Wisdom is as good as a legacy, profitable to those who enjoy the light of the sun.
Ecc 7:12 For as money protects, so does wisdom, and the advantage of knowledge is this: that wisdom bestows life on those who possess her.
Ecc 7:13 Consider God's creation: who, for instance, can straighten what God has bent?
Ecc 7:14 When things are going well, enjoy yourself, and when they are going badly, consider this: God has designed the one no less than the other so that we should take nothing for granted.
Ecc 7:15 In my futile life, I have seen everything: the upright person perishing in uprightness and the wicked person surviving in wickedness.
Ecc 7:16 Do not be upright to excess and do not make yourself unduly wise: why should you destroy yourself?
Ecc 7:17 Do not be wicked to excess, and do not be a fool: why die before your time?
Ecc 7:18 It is wise to hold on to one and not let go of the other, since the godfearing will find both.
Ecc 7:19 Wisdom makes the wise stronger than a dozen governors in a city.
Ecc 7:20 No one on earth is sufficiently upright to do good without ever sinning.
Ecc 7:21 Again, do not listen to all that people say, then you will not hear your servant abusing you.
Ecc 7:22 For often, as you very well know, you have abused others.
Ecc 7:23 Thanks to wisdom, I have found all this to be true; I resolved to be wise, but this was beyond my reach!
Ecc 7:24 The past is out of reach, buried deep -- who can discover it?
Ecc 7:25 But I have reached the point where, having learnt, explored and investigated wisdom and reflection, I recognize evil as being a form of madness, and folly as something stupid.
Ecc 7:26 And I find woman more bitter than Death, she is a snare, her heart is a net, and her arms are chains. The man who is pleasing to God eludes her, but the sinner is captured by her.
Ecc 7:27 This is what I think, says Qoheleth, having examined one thing after another to draw some conclusion,
Ecc 7:28 which I am still looking for, although unsuccessfully: one man in a thousand, I may find, but a woman better than other women-never.
Ecc 7:29 This alone is my conclusion: God has created man straightforward, and human artifices are human inventions.
Ecc 8:1 Who compares with the sage? Who else knows how to explain things? Wisdom lights up the face, enlivening a grim expression.
Ecc 8:2 Obey the king's command and, because of the divine promise,
Ecc 8:3 be in no hurry to depart from it; do not be obstinate in a bad cause, since the king will do as he likes in any case.
Ecc 8:4 Since the word of a king is sovereign, what is the point of saying, 'Why do that?'
Ecc 8:5 One who obeys the command will come to no harm; the heart of the sage knows the right moment and verdict,
Ecc 8:6 for there is a right moment and verdict for everything; but misfortune lies heavy upon anyone
Ecc 8:7 who does not know what the outcome will be, no one is going to say how things will turn out.
Ecc 8:8 No one can control the wind and stop it from blowing, no one can control the day of death. From war there is no escape, no more can wickedness save the person who commits it.
Ecc 8:9 I have seen all this to be so, having carefully studied everything taking place under the sun, while one person tyrannises over another to the former's detriment.
Ecc 8:10 And again, I have observed the wicked carried to their graves, and people leaving the holy place and, once out in the city, forgetting how the wicked used to behave; how futile this is too!
Ecc 8:11 Because the sentence on the evil-doer is not carried out on the instant, people's hearts are full of desire to do wrong.
Ecc 8:12 The sinner who does wrong a hundred times lives on. But this too I know, that there is good in store for people who fear God, because they fear him,
Ecc 8:13 but there is no good in store for the wicked because he does not fear God, and so, like a shadow, he will not prolong his days.
Ecc 8:14 Another futile thing that happens on earth: upright people being treated as though they were wicked and wicked people being treated as though they were upright. To me this is one more example of futility.
Ecc 8:15 And therefore I praise joy, since human happiness lies only in eating and drinking and in taking pleasure; this comes from what someone achieves during the days of life that God gives under the sun.
Ecc 8:16 Having applied myself to acquiring wisdom and to observing the activity taking place in the world -- for day and night our eyes enjoy no rest-
Ecc 8:17 I have scrutinised God's whole creation: you cannot get to the bottom of everything taking place under the sun; you may wear yourself out in the search, but you will never find it. Not even a sage can get to the bottom of it, even if he says that he has done so.
Ecc 9:1 Yes, I have applied myself to all this and experienced all this to be so: that is to say, that the upright and the wise, with their activities, are in the hands of God. We do not understand either love or hate, where we are concerned, both of them are
Ecc 9:2 futile. And for all of us is reserved a common fate, for the upright and for the wicked, for the good and for the bad; whether we are ritually pure or not, whether we offer sacrifice or not: it is the same for the good and for the sinner, for someone who takes a vow, as for someone who fears to do so.
Ecc 9:3 This is another evil among those occurring under the sun: that there should be the same fate for everyone. The human heart, however, is full of wickedness; folly lurks in our hearts throughout our lives, until we end among the dead.
Ecc 9:4 But there is hope for someone still linked to the rest of the living: better be a live dog than a dead lion.
Ecc 9:5 The living are at least aware that they are going to die, but the dead know nothing whatever. No more wages for them, since their memory is forgotten.
Ecc 9:6 Their love, their hate, their jealousy, have perished long since, and they will never have any further part in what goes on under the sun.
Ecc 9:7 So, eat your bread in joy, drink your wine with a glad heart, since God has already approved your actions.
Ecc 9:8 At all times, dress in white and keep your head well scented.
Ecc 9:9 Spend your life with the woman you love, all the days of futile life God gives you under the sun, throughout your futile days, since this is your lot in life and in the effort you expend under the sun.
Ecc 9:10 Whatever work you find to do, do it with all your might, for there is neither achievement, nor planning, nor science, nor wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
Ecc 9:11 Another thing I have observed under the sun: that the race is not won by the speediest, nor the battle by the champions; it is not the wise who get food, nor the intelligent wealth, nor the learned favor: chance and mischance befall them all.
Ecc 9:12 We do not know when our time will come: like fish caught in the treacherous net, like birds caught in the snare, just so are we all trapped by misfortune when it suddenly overtakes us.
Ecc 9:13 Here is another example of the wisdom I have acquired under the sun and it strikes me as important:
Ecc 9:14 There was once a small town, with only a few inhabitants; a mighty king made war on it, laying siege to it and building great siege-works round it.
Ecc 9:15 But there was in that town a poverty-stricken sage who by his wisdom saved the town. No one remembered this poor man afterwards.
Ecc 9:16 So I say: Wisdom is more effective than brute force, but the wisdom of a poor man is not valued: no one listens to what he has to say.
Ecc 9:17 The calm words of the wise make themselves heard above the shouts of someone commanding an army of fools.
Ecc 9:18 Wisdom is worth more than weapons of war, but a single sin undoes a deal of good.
Ecc 10:1 One dead fly can spoil the scent-maker's oil: a grain of stupidity outweighs wisdom and glory.
Ecc 10:2 The sage's heart leads him aright, the fool's leads him astray.
Ecc 10:3 A fool walks down the road, he has no wit -- and everyone remarks, 'How silly he is!'
Ecc 10:4 If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your post; composure mitigates grave offenses.
Ecc 10:5 One evil I observe under the sun: the sort of misjudgement to which rulers are prone-
Ecc 10:6 folly promoted to the top and the rich taking the lowest place.
Ecc 10:7 I see slaves riding on horses and princes on foot like slaves.
Ecc 10:8 He who digs a pit falls into it, he who undermines a wall gets bitten by a snake,
Ecc 10:9 he who quarries stones gets hurt by them, he who chops wood takes a risk from it.
Ecc 10:10 If, for want of sharpening, the blade is blunt, you have to work twice as hard; but it is the outcome that makes wisdom rewarding.
Ecc 10:11 If, for want of charming, the snake bites, the snake-charmer gets nothing out of it.
Ecc 10:12 The sayings of a sage give pleasure, what a fool says procures his own ruin:
Ecc 10:13 his words have their origin in stupidity and their ending in treacherous folly.
Ecc 10:14 A fool talks a great deal, but none of us in fact can tell the future; what will happen after us, who can tell?
Ecc 10:15 A fool finds hard work very tiring, he cannot even find his own way into town.
Ecc 10:16 Woe to you, country with a lad for king, and where princes start feasting in the morning!
Ecc 10:17 Happy the land whose king is nobly born, where princes eat at a respectable hour to keep themselves strong and not merely to revel!
Ecc 10:18 Thanks to idleness, the roof-tree gives way, thanks to carelessness, the house lets in the rain.
Ecc 10:19 We give parties to enjoy ourselves, wine makes us cheerful and money has an answer for everything.
Ecc 10:20 Do not abuse the king, even in thought, do not abuse a rich man, even in your bedroom, for a bird of the air might carry the news, a winged messenger might repeat what you have said.
Ecc 11:1 Cast your bread on the water, eventually you will recover it.
Ecc 11:2 Offer a share to seven or to eight people, you can never tell what disaster may occur.
Ecc 11:3 When clouds are full of rain, they will shed it on the earth. If a tree falls, whether south or north, where it falls, there it will lie.
Ecc 11:4 Keep watching the wind and you will never sow, keep staring at the clouds and you will never reap.
Ecc 11:5 You do not understand how the wind blows, or how the embryo grows in a woman's womb: no more can you understand the work of God, the Creator of all.
Ecc 11:6 In the morning, sow your seed, until evening, do not cease from labour, for of any two things you do not know which will succeed, or which of the two is the better.
Ecc 11:7 How sweet light is, how delightful it is to see the sun!
Ecc 11:8 However many years you live, enjoy them all, but remember, the days of darkness will be many: futility awaits you at the end.
Ecc 11:9 Young man, enjoy yourself while you are young, make the most of the days of your youth, follow the prompting and desire of heart and eye, but remember, God will call you to account for everything.
Ecc 11:10 Rid your heart of indignation, keep your body clear of suffering, though youth and the age of black hair are both futile.
Ecc 12:1 Remember your Creator while you are still young, before the bad days come, before the years come which, you will say, give you no pleasure;
Ecc 12:2 before the sun and the light grow dim and the moon and stars, before the clouds return after the rain;
Ecc 12:3 the time when your watchmen become shaky, when strong men are bent double, when the women, one by one, quit grinding, and, as they look out of the window, find their sight growing dim.
Ecc 12:4 When the street-door is kept shut, when the sound of grinding fades away, when the first cry of a bird wakes you up, when all the singing has stopped;
Ecc 12:5 when going uphill is an ordeal and you are frightened at every step you take- yet the almond tree is in flower and the grasshopper is weighed down and the caper-bush loses its tang; while you are on the way to your everlasting home and the mourners are assembling in the street;
Ecc 12:6 before the silver thread snaps, or the golden bowl is cracked, or the pitcher shattered at the fountain, or the pulley broken at the well-head:
Ecc 12:7 the dust returns to the earth from which it came, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Ecc 12:8 Sheer futility, Qoheleth says, everything is futile.
Ecc 12:9 Besides being a sage, Qoheleth taught the people what he himself knew, having weighed, studied and emended many proverbs.
Ecc 12:10 Qoheleth took pains to write in an attractive style and by it to convey truths.
Ecc 12:11 The sayings of a sage are like goads, like pegs positioned by shepherds: the same shepherd finds a use for both.
Ecc 12:12 Furthermore, my child, you must realize that writing books involves endless hard work, and that much study wearies the body.
Ecc 12:13 To sum up the whole matter: fear God and keep his commandments, for that is the duty of everyone.
Ecc 12:14 For God will call all our deeds to judgement, all that is hidden, be it good or bad.
Sol 1:1 Solomon's Song of Songs:
Sol 1:2 BELOVED: Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for your love-making is sweeter than wine;
Sol 1:3 delicate is the fragrance of your perfume, your name is an oil poured out, and that is why girls love you.
Sol 1:4 Draw me in your footsteps, let us run. The king has brought me into his rooms; you will be our joy and our gladness. We shall praise your love more than wine; how right it is to love you.
Sol 1:5 BELOVED: I am black but lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the pavilions of Salmah.
Sol 1:6 Take no notice of my dark colouring, it is the sun that has burnt me. My mother's sons turned their anger on me, they made me look after the vineyards. My own vineyard I had not looked after!
Sol 1:7 Tell me then, sweetheart, where will you lead your flock to graze, where will you rest it at noon? That I may no more wander like a vagabond beside the flocks of your companions.
Sol 1:8 CHORUS: If you do not know this, O loveliest of women, follow the tracks of the flock, and take your kids to graze close by the shepherds' tents.
Sol 1:9 LOVER: I compare you, my love, to my mare harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot.
Sol 1:10 Your cheeks show fair between their pendants and your neck within its necklaces.
Sol 1:11 We shall make you golden earrings and beads of silver.
Sol 1:12 DUO: -While the king rests in his own room my nard yields its perfume.
Sol 1:13 My love is a sachet of myrrh lying between my breasts.
Sol 1:14 My love is a cluster of henna flowers among the vines of En-Gedi.
Sol 1:15 -How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves.
Sol 1:16 -How beautiful you are, my love, and how you delight me! Our bed is the greensward.
Sol 1:17 -The beams of our house are cedar trees, its panelling the cypress.
Sol 2:1 -I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys.
Sol 2:2 -As a lily among the thistles, so is my beloved among girls.
Sol 2:3 -As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my love among young men. In his delightful shade I sit, and his fruit is sweet to my taste.
Sol 2:4 He has taken me to his cellar, and his banner over me is love.
Sol 2:5 Feed me with raisin cakes, restore me with apples, for I am sick with love.
Sol 2:6 His left arm is under my head, his right embraces me.
Sol 2:7 -I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by all gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.
Sol 2:8 BELOVED: I hear my love. See how he comes leaping on the mountains, bounding over the hills.
Sol 2:9 My love is like a gazelle, like a young stag. See where he stands behind our wall. He looks in at the window, he peers through the opening.
Sol 2:10 My love lifts up his voice, he says to me, 'Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.
Sol 2:11 For see, winter is past, the rains are over and gone.
Sol 2:12 'Flowers are appearing on the earth. The season of glad songs has come, the cooing of the turtledove is heard in our land.
Sol 2:13 The fig tree is forming its first figs and the blossoming vines give out their fragrance. Come then, my beloved, my lovely one, come.
Sol 2:14 'My dove, hiding in the clefts of the rock, in the coverts of the cliff, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.'
Sol 2:15 Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that make havoc of the vineyards, for our vineyards are in fruit.
Sol 2:16 My love is mine and I am his. He pastures his flock among the lilies.
Sol 2:17 Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, return! Be, my love, like a gazelle, like a young stag, on the mountains of Bether.
Sol 3:1 On my bed at night I sought the man who is my sweetheart: I sought but could not find him!
Sol 3:2 So I shall get up and go through the city; in the streets and in the squares, I shall seek my sweetheart. I sought but could not find him!
Sol 3:3 I came upon the watchmen -- those who go on their rounds in the city: 'Have you seen my sweetheart?'
Sol 3:4 Barely had I passed them when I found my sweetheart. I caught him, would not let him go, not till I had brought him to my mother's house, to the room where she conceived me!
Sol 3:5 LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, by gazelles and wild does, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved before she pleases.
Sol 3:6 POET: What is this coming up from the desert like a column of smoke, breathing of myrrh and frankincense and every exotic perfume?
Sol 3:7 Here comes Solomon's litter. Around it are sixty champions, the flower of the warriors of Israel;
Sol 3:8 all of them skilled swordsmen, expert in war. Each man has his sword at his side, against alarms by night.
Sol 3:9 King Solomon has had a palanquin made of wood from Lebanon.
Sol 3:10 He has had the posts made of silver, the canopy of gold, the seat of purple; the centre is inlaid with ebony.
Sol 3:11 Daughters of Zion, come and see King Solomon, wearing the diadem with which his mother crowned him on his wedding day, on the day of his heart's joy.
Sol 4:1 LOVER: How beautiful you are, my beloved, how beautiful you are! Your eyes are doves, behind your veil; your hair is like a flock of goats surging down Mount Gilead.
Sol 4:2 Your teeth, a flock of sheep to be shorn when they come up from the washing. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.
Sol 4:3 Your lips are a scarlet thread and your words enchanting. Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate.
Sol 4:4 Your neck is the Tower of David built on layers, hung round with a thousand bucklers, and each the shield of a hero.
Sol 4:5 Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that feed among the lilies.
Sol 4:6 Before the day-breeze rises, before the shadows flee, I shall go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.
Sol 4:7 You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and without a blemish.
Sol 4:8 Come from Lebanon, my promised bride, come from Lebanon, come on your way. Look down from the heights of Amanus, from the crests of Senir and Hermon, the haunt of lions, the mountains of leopards.
Sol 4:9 You ravish my heart, my sister, my promised bride, you ravish my heart with a single one of your glances, with a single link of your necklace.
Sol 4:10 What spells lie in your love, my sister, my promised bride! How delicious is your love, more delicious than wine! How fragrant your perfumes, more fragrant than all spices!
Sol 4:11 Your lips, my promised bride, distil wild honey. Honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of Lebanon.
Sol 4:12 She is a garden enclosed, my sister, my promised bride; a garden enclosed, a sealed fountain.
Sol 4:13 Your shoots form an orchard of pomegranate trees, bearing most exquisite fruit:
Sol 4:14 nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the incense-bearing trees; myrrh and aloes, with the subtlest odours.
Sol 4:15 Fountain of the garden, well of living water, streams flowing down from Lebanon!
Sol 4:16 BELOVED: Awake, north wind, come, wind of the south! Breathe over my garden, to spread its sweet smell around. Let my love come into his garden, let him taste its most exquisite fruits.
Sol 5:1 LOVER: I come into my garden, my sister, my promised bride, I pick my myrrh and balsam, I eat my honey and my honeycomb, I drink my wine and my milk. POET: Eat, friends, and drink, drink deep, my dearest friends.
Sol 5:2 BELOVED: I sleep, but my heart is awake. I hear my love knocking. 'Open to me, my sister, my beloved, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my hair with the drops of night.'
Sol 5:3 -'I have taken off my tunic, am I to put it on again? I have washed my feet, am I to dirty them again?'
Sol 5:4 My love thrust his hand through the hole in the door; I trembled to the core of my being.
Sol 5:5 Then I got up to open to my love, myrrh ran off my hands, pure myrrh off my fingers, on to the handle of the bolt.
Sol 5:6 I opened to my love, but he had turned and gone. My soul failed at his flight, I sought but could not find him, I called, but he did not answer.
Sol 5:7 The watchmen met me, those who go on their rounds in the city. They beat me, they wounded me, they took my cloak away from me: those guardians of the ramparts!
Sol 5:8 I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you should find my love, what are you to tell him? -That I am sick with love!
Sol 5:9 CHORUS: What makes your lover better than other lovers, O loveliest of women? What makes your lover better than other lovers, to put us under such an oath?
Sol 5:10 BELOVED: My love is fresh and ruddy, to be known among ten thousand.
Sol 5:11 His head is golden, purest gold, his locks are palm fronds and black as the raven.
Sol 5:12 His eyes are like doves beside the water-courses, bathing themselves in milk, perching on a fountain-rim.
Sol 5:13 His cheeks are beds of spices, banks sweetly scented. His lips are lilies, distilling pure myrrh.
Sol 5:14 His hands are golden, rounded, set with jewels of Tarshish. His belly a block of ivory covered with sapphires.
Sol 5:15 His legs are alabaster columns set in sockets of pure gold. His appearance is that of Lebanon, unrivalled as the cedars.
Sol 5:16 His conversation is sweetness itself, he is altogether lovable. Such is my love, such is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Sol 6:1 CHORUS: Where did your lover go, O loveliest of women? Which way did your lover turn so that we can help you seek him?
Sol 6:2 BELOVED: My love went down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock on the grass and gather lilies.
Sol 6:3 I belong to my love, and my love to me. He pastures his flock among the lilies.
Sol 6:4 LOVER: You are fair as Tirzah, my beloved, enchanting as Jerusalem, formidable as an army!
Sol 6:5 Turn your eyes away from me, they take me by assault! Your hair is like a flock of goats surging down the slopes of Gilead.
Sol 6:6 Your teeth are like a flock of ewes as they come up from being washed. Each one has its twin, not one unpaired with another.
Sol 6:7 Your cheeks, behind your veil, are halves of pomegranate.
Sol 6:8 There are sixty queens and eighty concubines (and countless girls).
Sol 6:9 My dove is my only one, perfect and mine. She is the darling of her mother, the favorite of the one who bore her. Girls have seen her and proclaimed her blessed, queens and concubines have sung her praises,
Sol 6:10 'Who is this arising like the dawn, fair as the moon, resplendent as the sun, formidable as an army?'
Sol 6:11 I went down to the nut orchard to see the fresh shoots in the valley, to see if the vines were budding and the pomegranate trees in flower.
Sol 6:12 Before I knew . . . my desire had hurled me onto the chariots of Amminadib!
Sol 7:1 CHORUS: Come back, come back, girl from Shulam, come back, come back, where we can look at you! Why are you looking at the girl from Shulam, dancing between two lines of dancers?
Sol 7:2 LOVER: How beautiful are your feet in their sandals, O prince's daughter! The curve of your thighs is like the curve of a necklace, work of a master hand.
Sol 7:3 Your navel is a bowl well rounded with no lack of wine, your belly a heap of wheat surrounded with lilies.
Sol 7:4 Your two breasts are two fawns, twins of a gazelle.
Sol 7:5 Your neck is an ivory tower. Your eyes, the pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-Rabbim. Your nose, the Tower of Lebanon, sentinel facing Damascus.
Sol 7:6 Your head is held high like Carmel, and its hair is as dark as purple; a king is held captive in your tresses.
Sol 7:7 How beautiful you are, how charming, my love, my delight!
Sol 7:8 In stature like the palm tree, its fruit-clusters your breasts.
Sol 7:9 I have decided, 'I shall climb the palm tree, I shall seize its clusters of dates!' May your breasts be clusters of grapes, your breath sweet-scented as apples,
Sol 7:10 and your palate like sweet wine. BELOVED: Flowing down the throat of my love, as it runs on the lips of those who sleep.
Sol 7:11 I belong to my love, and his desire is for me.
Sol 7:12 Come, my love, let us go to the fields. We will spend the night in the villages,
Sol 7:13 and in the early morning we will go to the vineyards. We will see if the vines are budding, if their blossoms are opening, if the pomegranate trees are in flower. Then I shall give you the gift of my love.
Sol 7:14 The mandrakes yield their fragrance, the most exquisite fruits are at our doors; the new as well as the old, I have stored them for you, my love.
Sol 8:1 Ah, why are you not my brother, nursed at my mother's breast! Then if I met you out of doors, I could kiss you without people thinking ill of me.
Sol 8:2 I should lead you, I should take you into my mother's house, and you would teach me! I should give you spiced wine to drink, juice of my pomegranates.
Sol 8:3 His left arm is under my head and his right embraces me.
Sol 8:4 LOVER: I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem, do not rouse, do not wake my beloved, before she pleases!
Sol 8:5 Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? I awakened you under the apple tree, where your mother conceived you, where she who bore you conceived you.
Sol 8:6 BELOVED: Set me like a seal on your heart, like a seal on your arm. For love is strong as Death, passion as relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself.
Sol 8:7 Love no flood can quench, no torrents drown. Were a man to offer all his family wealth to buy love, contempt is all that he would gain.
Sol 8:8 Our sister is little: her breasts are not yet formed. What shall we do for our sister on the day she is spoken for?
Sol 8:9 If she is a rampart, on the crest we shall build a battlement of silver; if she is a door, we shall board her up with planks of cedar.
Sol 8:10 I am a wall, and my breasts represent its towers. And under their eyes I have found true peace.
Sol 8:11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-Hamon. He entrusted it to overseers, and each one was to pay him the value of its produce, a thousand shekels of silver.
Sol 8:12 But I tend my own vineyard myself. You, Solomon, may have your thousand shekels, and those who oversee its produce their two hundred.
Sol 8:13 You who dwell in the gardens, my companions listen for your voice; let me hear it.
Sol 8:14 Haste away, my love, be like a gazelle, a young stag, on the spice-laden mountains.
Wis 1:1 Love uprightness you who are rulers on earth, be properly disposed towards the Lord and seek him in simplicity of heart;
Wis 1:2 for he will be found by those who do not put him to the test, revealing himself to those who do not mistrust him.
Wis 1:3 Perverse thoughts, however, separate people from God, and power, when put to the test, confounds the stupid.
Wis 1:4 Wisdom will never enter the soul of a wrong-doer, nor dwell in a body enslaved to sin;
Wis 1:5 for the holy spirit of instruction flees deceitfulness, recoils from unintelligent thoughts, is thwarted by the onset of vice.
Wis 1:6 Wisdom is a spirit friendly to humanity, though she will not let a blasphemer's words go unpunished; since God observes the very soul and accurately surveys the heart, listening to every word.
Wis 1:7 For the spirit of the Lord fills the world, and that which holds everything together knows every word said.
Wis 1:8 No one who speaks what is wrong will go undetected, nor will avenging Justice pass by such a one.
Wis 1:9 For the schemes of the godless will be examined, and a report of his words will reach the Lord to convict him of his crimes.
Wis 1:10 There is a jealous ear that overhears everything, not even a murmur of complaint escapes it.
Wis 1:11 So beware of uttering frivolous complaints, restrain your tongue from finding fault; even what is said in secret has repercussions, and a lying mouth deals death to the soul.
Wis 1:12 Do not court death by the errors of your ways, nor invite destruction through the work of your hands.
Wis 1:13 For God did not make Death, he takes no pleasure in destroying the living.
Wis 1:14 To exist -- for this he created all things; the creatures of the world have health in them, in them is no fatal poison, and Hades has no power over the world:
Wis 1:15 for uprightness is immortal.
Wis 1:16 But the godless call for Death with deed and word, counting him friend, they wear themselves out for him; with him they make a pact, worthy as they are to belong to him.
Wis 2:1 And this is the false argument they use, 'Our life is short and dreary, there is no remedy when our end comes, no one is known to have come back from Hades.
Wis 2:2 We came into being by chance and afterwards shall be as though we had never been. The breath in our nostrils is a puff of smoke, reason a spark from the beating of our hearts;
Wis 2:3 extinguish this and the body turns to ashes, and the spirit melts away like the yielding air.
Wis 2:4 In time, our name will be forgotten, nobody will remember what we have done; our life will pass away like wisps of cloud, dissolving like the mist that the sun's rays drive away and that its heat dispels.
Wis 2:5 For our days are the passing of a shadow, our end is without return, the seal is affixed and nobody comes back.
Wis 2:6 'Come then, let us enjoy the good things of today, let us use created things with the zest of youth:
Wis 2:7 take our fill of the dearest wines and perfumes, on no account forgo the flowers of spring
Wis 2:8 but crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither,
Wis 2:9 no meadow excluded from our orgy; let us leave the signs of our revelry everywhere, since this is our portion, this our lot!
Wis 2:10 'As for the upright man who is poor, let us oppress him; let us not spare the widow, nor respect old age, white-haired with many years.
Wis 2:11 Let our might be the yardstick of right, since weakness argues its own futility.
Wis 2:12 Let us lay traps for the upright man, since he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our sins against the Law, and accuses us of sins against our upbringing.
Wis 2:13 He claims to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord.
Wis 2:14 We see him as a reproof to our way of thinking, the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;
Wis 2:15 for his kind of life is not like other people's, and his ways are quite different.
Wis 2:16 In his opinion we are counterfeit; he avoids our ways as he would filth; he proclaims the final end of the upright as blessed and boasts of having God for his father.
Wis 2:17 Let us see if what he says is true, and test him to see what sort of end he will have.
Wis 2:18 For if the upright man is God's son, God will help him and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.
Wis 2:19 Let us test him with cruelty and with torture, and thus explore this gentleness of his and put his patience to the test.
Wis 2:20 Let us condemn him to a shameful death since God will rescue him -- or so he claims.'
Wis 2:21 This is the way they reason, but they are misled, since their malice makes them blind.
Wis 2:22 They do not know the hidden things of God, they do not hope for the reward of holiness, they do not believe in a reward for blameless souls.
Wis 2:23 For God created human beings to be immortal, he made them as an image of his own nature;
Wis 2:24 Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy, as those who belong to him find to their cost.
Wis 3:1 But the souls of the upright are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them.
Wis 3:2 To the unenlightened, they appeared to die, their departure was regarded as disaster,
Wis 3:3 their leaving us like annihilation; but they are at peace.
Wis 3:4 If, as it seemed to us, they suffered punishment, their hope was rich with immortality;
Wis 3:5 slight was their correction, great will their blessings be. God was putting them to the test and has proved them worthy to be with him;
Wis 3:6 he has tested them like gold in a furnace, and accepted them as a perfect burnt offering.
Wis 3:7 At their time of visitation, they will shine out; as sparks run through the stubble, so will they.
Wis 3:8 They will judge nations, rule over peoples, and the Lord will be their king for ever.
Wis 3:9 Those who trust in him will understand the truth, those who are faithful will live with him in love; for grace and mercy await his holy ones, and he intervenes on behalf of his chosen.
Wis 3:10 But the godless will be duly punished for their reasoning, for having neglected the upright and deserted the Lord.
Wis 3:11 Yes, wretched are they who scorn wisdom and discipline: their hope is void, their toil unavailing, their achievements unprofitable;
Wis 3:12 their wives are reckless, their children depraved, their descendants accursed.
Wis 3:13 Blessed the sterile woman if she be blameless, and has not known an unlawful bed, for she will have fruit at the visitation of souls.
Wis 3:14 Blessed, too, the eunuch whose hand commits no crime, and who harbours no resentment against the Lord: a special favor will be granted to him for his loyalty, a most desirable portion in the temple of the Lord.
Wis 3:15 For the fruit of honest labours is glorious, and the root of understanding does not decay.
Wis 3:16 But the children of adulterers will not reach maturity, the offspring of an unlawful bed will disappear.
Wis 3:17 Even if they live long, they will count for nothing, their old age will go unhonored at the last;
Wis 3:18 while if they die early, they have neither hope nor comfort on the day of judgement,
Wis 3:19 for the end of a race of evil-doers is harsh.
Wis 4:1 Better to have no children yet to have virtue, since immortality perpetuates its memory; for God and human beings both recognize it.
Wis 4:2 Present, we imitate it, absent, we long for it; crowned, it holds triumph through eternity, having striven for untainted prizes and emerged the victor.
Wis 4:3 But the offspring of the godless come to nothing, however prolific, sprung from a bastard stock, they will never strike deep roots, never put down firm foundations.
Wis 4:4 They may branch out for a time, but, on unsteady foundations, they will be rocked by the wind and uprooted by the force of the storm;
Wis 4:5 their branches, yet unformed, will be snapped off, their fruit be useless, too unripe to eat, fit for nothing.
Wis 4:6 For children begotten of unlawful bed witness, when put on trial, to their parents' wickedness.
Wis 4:7 The upright, though he die before his time, will find rest.
Wis 4:8 Length of days is not what makes age honorable, nor number of years the true measure of life;
Wis 4:9 understanding, this is grey hairs, untarnished life, this is ripe old age.
Wis 4:10 Having won God's favor, he has been loved and, as he was living among sinners, has been taken away.
Wis 4:11 He has been carried off so that evil may not warp his understanding or deceitfulness seduce his soul;
Wis 4:12 for the fascination of evil throws good things into the shade, and the whirlwind of desire corrupts a simple heart.
Wis 4:13 Having come to perfection so soon, he has lived long;
Wis 4:14 his soul being pleasing to the Lord, he has hurried away from the wickedness around him. Yet people look on, uncomprehending; and it does not enter their heads
Wis 4:15 that grace and mercy await his chosen ones and that he intervenes on behalf of his holy ones.
Wis 4:16 The upright who dies condemns the godless who survive, and youth quickly perfected condemns the lengthy old age of the wicked.
Wis 4:17 These people see the end of the wise without understanding what the Lord has in store or why he has taken such a one to safety;
Wis 4:18 they look on and sneer, but the Lord will laugh at them.
Wis 4:19 Soon they will be corpses without honor, objects of horror among the dead for ever. For he will shatter them and fling them headlong and dumbfounded. He will shake them from their foundations; they will be utterly laid waste, a prey to grief, and their memory will perish.
Wis 4:20 When the count of their sins has been drawn up, in terror they will come, and their crimes, confronting them, will accuse them.
Wis 5:1 Then the upright will stand up boldly to face those who had oppressed him and had thought so little of his sufferings.
Wis 5:2 And, seeing him, they will be seized with terrible fear, amazed that he should have been so unexpectedly saved.
Wis 5:3 Stricken with remorse, they will say to one another with groans and labouring breath,
Wis 5:4 'This is the one whom we used to mock, making him the butt of our insults, fools that we were! His life we regarded as madness, his ending as without honor.
Wis 5:5 How has he come to be counted as one of the children of God and to have his lot among the holy ones?
Wis 5:6 Clearly we have strayed from the way of truth; the light of justice has not shone for us, the sun has not risen for us.
Wis 5:7 We have left no path of lawlessness or ruin unexplored, we have crossed deserts where there was no track, but the way of the Lord is one we have never known.
Wis 5:8 What good has arrogance been to us? What has been the purpose of our riches and boastfulness?
Wis 5:9 All those things have passed like a shadow, passed like a fleeting rumour.
Wis 5:10 Like a ship that cuts through heaving waves -- leaving no trace to show where it has passed, no wake from its keel in the waves.
Wis 5:11 Or like a bird flying through the air -- leaving no proof of its passing; it whips the light air with the stroke of its pinions, tears it apart in its whirring rush, drives its way onward with sweeping wing, and afterwards no sign is seen of its passage.
Wis 5:12 Or like an arrow shot at a mark, the pierced air closing so quickly on itself, there is no knowing which way the arrow has passed.
Wis 5:13 So with us: scarcely born, we disappear; of virtue not a trace have we to show, we have spent ourselves in our own wickedness!'
Wis 5:14 For the hope of the godless is like chaff carried on the wind, like fine spray driven by the storm; it disperses like smoke before the wind, goes away like the memory of a one-day guest.
Wis 5:15 But the upright live for ever, their recompense is with the Lord, and the Most High takes care of them.
Wis 5:16 So they will receive the glorious crown and the diadem of beauty from the Lord's hand; for he will shelter them with his right hand and with his arm he will shield them.
Wis 5:17 For armour he will take his jealous love, he will arm creation to punish his enemies;
Wis 5:18 he will put on justice as a breastplate, and for helmet wear his forthright judgement;
Wis 5:19 he will take up invincible holiness for shield,
Wis 5:20 of his pitiless wrath he will forge a sword, and the universe will march with him to fight the reckless.
Wis 5:21 Bolts truly aimed, the shafts of lightning will leap, and from the clouds, as from a full-drawn bow, fly to their mark;
Wis 5:22 and the catapult will hurl hailstones charged with fury. The waters of the sea will rage against them, the rivers engulf them without pity,
Wis 5:23 a mighty gale will rise against them and winnow them like a hurricane. Thus wickedness will lay the whole earth waste and evil-doing bring down the thrones of the mighty.
Wis 6:1 Listen then, kings, and understand; rulers of remotest lands, take warning;
Wis 6:2 hear this, you who govern great populations, taking pride in your hosts of subject nations!
Wis 6:3 For sovereignty is given to you by the Lord and power by the Most High, who will himself probe your acts and scrutinise your intentions.
Wis 6:4 If therefore, as servants of his kingdom, you have not ruled justly nor observed the law, nor followed the will of God,
Wis 6:5 he will fall on you swiftly and terribly. On the highly placed a ruthless judgement falls;
Wis 6:6 the lowly are pardoned, out of pity, but the mighty will be mightily tormented.
Wis 6:7 For the Lord of all does not cower before anyone, he does not stand in awe of greatness, since he himself has made small and great and provides for all alike;
Wis 6:8 but a searching trial awaits those who wield power.
Wis 6:9 So, monarchs, my words are meant for you, so that you may learn wisdom and not fall into error;
Wis 6:10 for those who in holiness observe holy things will be adjudged holy, and, accepting instruction from them, will find their defence in them.
Wis 6:11 Set your heart, therefore, on what I have to say, listen with a will, and you will be instructed.
Wis 6:12 Wisdom is brilliant, she never fades. By those who love her, she is readily seen, by those who seek her, she is readily found.
Wis 6:13 She anticipates those who desire her by making herself known first.
Wis 6:14 Whoever gets up early to seek her will have no trouble but will find her sitting at the door.
Wis 6:15 Meditating on her is understanding in its perfect form, and anyone keeping awake for her will soon be free from care.
Wis 6:16 For she herself searches everywhere for those who are worthy of her, benevolently appearing to them on their ways, anticipating their every thought.
Wis 6:17 For Wisdom begins with the sincere desire for instruction, care for instruction means loving her,
Wis 6:18 loving her means keeping her laws, attention to her laws guarantees incorruptibility,
Wis 6:19 and incorruptibility brings us near to God;
Wis 6:20 the desire for Wisdom thus leads to sovereignty.
Wis 6:21 If then thrones and scepters delight you, monarchs of the nations, honor Wisdom, so that you may reign for ever.
Wis 6:22 What Wisdom is and how she was born, I shall now explain; I shall hide no mysteries from you, but shall follow her steps from the outset of her origin, setting out what we know of her in full light, without departing from the truth.
Wis 6:23 Blighting envy is no companion for me, for envy has nothing in common with Wisdom.
Wis 6:24 In the greatest number of the wise lies the world's salvation, in a sagacious king the stability of a people.
Wis 6:25 Learn, therefore, from my words; the gain will be yours.
Wis 7:1 I too am mortal like everyone else, a descendant of the first man formed from the earth. I was modelled in flesh inside a mother's womb,
Wis 7:2 where, for ten months, in blood I acquired substance -- the result of virile seed and pleasure, sleep's companion.
Wis 7:3 I too, when I was born, drew in the common air, I fell on the same ground that bears us all, and crying was the first sound I made, like everyone else.
Wis 7:4 I was nurtured in swaddling clothes, with every care.
Wis 7:5 No king has known any other beginning of existence;
Wis 7:6 for there is only one way into life, and one way out of it.
Wis 7:7 And so I prayed, and understanding was given me; I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.
Wis 7:8 I esteemed her more than scepters and thrones; compared with her, I held riches as nothing.
Wis 7:9 I reckoned no precious stone to be her equal, for compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her, silver ranks as mud.
Wis 7:10 I loved her more than health or beauty, preferred her to the light, since her radiance never sleeps.
Wis 7:11 In her company all good things came to me, and at her hands incalculable wealth.
Wis 7:12 All these delighted me, since Wisdom brings them, though I did not then realize that she was their mother.
Wis 7:13 What I learned diligently, I shall pass on liberally, I shall not conceal how rich she is.
Wis 7:14 For she is to human beings an inexhaustible treasure, and those who acquire this win God's friendship, commended to him by the gifts of instruction.
Wis 7:15 May God grant me to speak as he would wish and conceive thoughts worthy of the gifts I have received, since he is both guide to Wisdom and director of sages;
Wis 7:16 for we are in his hand, yes, ourselves and our sayings, and all intellectual and all practical knowledge.
Wis 7:17 He it was who gave me sure knowledge of what exists, to understand the structure of the world and the action of the elements,
Wis 7:18 the beginning, end and middle of the times, the alternation of the solstices and the succession of the seasons,
Wis 7:19 the cycles of the year and the position of the stars,
Wis 7:20 the natures of animals and the instincts of wild beasts, the powers of spirits and human mental processes, the varieties of plants and the medical properties of roots.
Wis 7:21 And now I understand everything, hidden or visible, for Wisdom, the designer of all things, has instructed me.
Wis 7:22 For within her is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold, subtle, mobile, incisive, unsullied, lucid, invulnerable, benevolent, shrewd,
Wis 7:23 irresistible, beneficent, friendly to human beings, steadfast, dependable, unperturbed, almighty, all-surveying, penetrating all intelligent, pure and most subtle spirits.
Wis 7:24 For Wisdom is quicker to move than any motion; she is so pure, she pervades and permeates all things.
Wis 7:25 She is a breath of the power of God, pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; so nothing impure can find its way into her.
Wis 7:26 For she is a reflection of the eternal light, untarnished mirror of God's active power, and image of his goodness.
Wis 7:27 Although she is alone, she can do everything; herself unchanging, she renews the world, and, generation after generation, passing into holy souls, she makes them into God's friends and prophets;
Wis 7:28 for God loves only those who dwell with Wisdom.
Wis 7:29 She is indeed more splendid than the sun, she outshines all the constellations; compared with light, she takes first place,
Wis 7:30 for light must yield to night, but against Wisdom evil cannot prevail.
Wis 8:1 Strongly she reaches from one end of the world to the other and she governs the whole world for its good.
Wis 8:2 Wisdom I loved and searched for from my youth; I resolved to have her as my bride, I fell in love with her beauty.
Wis 8:3 She enhances her noble birth by sharing God's life, for the Master of All has always loved her.
Wis 8:4 Indeed, she shares the secrets of God's knowledge, and she chooses what he will do.
Wis 8:5 If in this life wealth is a desirable possession, what is more wealthy than Wisdom whose work is everywhere?
Wis 8:6 Or if it be the intellect that is at work, who, more than she, designs whatever exists?
Wis 8:7 Or if it be uprightness you love, why, virtues are the fruit of her labours, since it is she who teaches temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude; nothing in life is more useful for human beings.
Wis 8:8 Or if you are eager for wide experience, she knows the past, she forecasts the future; she knows how to turn maxims, and solve riddles; she has foreknowledge of signs and wonders, and of the unfolding of the ages and the times.
Wis 8:9 I therefore determined to take her to share my life, knowing that she would be my counsellor in prosperity and comfort me in cares and sorrow.
Wis 8:10 'Thanks to her, I shall be admired by the masses and honored, though young, by the elders.
Wis 8:11 I shall be reckoned shrewd as a judge, and the great will be amazed at me.
Wis 8:12 They will wait on my silences, and pay attention when I speak; if I speak at some length, they will lay their hand on their lips.
Wis 8:13 By means of her, immortality will be mine, I shall leave an everlasting memory to my successors.
Wis 8:14 I shall govern peoples, and nations will be subject to me;
Wis 8:15 at the sound of my name fearsome despots will be afraid; I shall show myself kind to the people and valiant in battle.
Wis 8:16 'When I go home I shall take my ease with her, for nothing is bitter in her company, when life is shared with her there is no pain, nothing but pleasure and joy.'
Wis 8:17 Having meditated on all this, and having come to the conclusion that immortality resides in kinship with Wisdom,
Wis 8:18 noble contentment in her friendship, inexhaustible riches in her activities, understanding in cultivating her society, and renown in conversing with her, I went all ways, seeking how to get her.
Wis 8:19 I was a boy of happy disposition, I had received a good soul as my lot,
Wis 8:20 or rather, being good, I had entered an undefiled body;
Wis 8:21 but, realising that I could never possess Wisdom unless God gave her to me, -a sign of intelligence in itself, to know in whose gift she lay -- I prayed to the Lord and entreated him, and with all my heart I said:
Wis 9:1 'God of our ancestors, Lord of mercy, who by your word have made the universe,
Wis 9:2 and in your wisdom have fitted human beings to rule the creatures that you have made,
Wis 9:3 to govern the world in holiness and saving justice and in honesty of soul to dispense fair judgement,
Wis 9:4 grant me Wisdom, consort of your throne, and do not reject me from the number of your children.
Wis 9:5 For I am your servant, son of your serving maid, a feeble man, with little time to live, with small understanding of justice and the laws.
Wis 9:6 Indeed, were anyone perfect among the sons of men, if he lacked the Wisdom that comes from you, he would still count for nothing.
Wis 9:7 'You have chosen me to be king over your people, to be judge of your sons and daughters.
Wis 9:8 You have bidden me build a temple on your holy mountain, and an altar in the city where you have pitched your tent, a copy of the holy Tent which you prepared at the beginning.
Wis 9:9 With you is Wisdom, she who knows your works, she who was present when you made the world; she understands what is pleasing in your eyes and what agrees with your commandments.
Wis 9:10 Despatch her from the holy heavens, send her forth from your throne of glory to help me and to toil with me and teach me what is pleasing to you;
Wis 9:11 since she knows and understands everything she will guide me prudently in my actions and will protect me with her glory.
Wis 9:12 Then all I do will be acceptable, I shall govern your people justly and be worthy of my father's throne.
Wis 9:13 'What human being indeed can know the intentions of God? And who can comprehend the will of the Lord?
Wis 9:14 For the reasoning of mortals is inadequate, our attitudes of mind unstable;
Wis 9:15 for a perishable body presses down the soul, and this tent of clay weighs down the mind with its many cares.
Wis 9:16 It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth, laborious to know what lies within our reach; who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?
Wis 9:17 And who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from above?
Wis 9:18 Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened and people have been taught what pleases you, and have been saved, by Wisdom.'
Wis 10:1 It was Wisdom who protected the first man to be fashioned, the father of the world, who had been created all alone, she it was who rescued him from his fall
Wis 10:2 and gave him the strength to subjugate all things.
Wis 10:3 But when in his wrath a wicked man deserted her, he perished in his fratricidal fury.
Wis 10:4 When because of him the earth was drowned, it was Wisdom again who saved it, piloting the upright man on valueless timber.
Wis 10:5 Again, when, concurring in wickedness, the nations had been thrown into confusion, she singled out the upright man, preserved him blameless before God and fortified him against pity for his child.
Wis 10:6 She it was who, while the godless perished, saved the upright man as he fled from the fire raining down on the Five Cities,
Wis 10:7 in witness against whose evil ways a desolate land still smokes, where plants bear fruit that never ripens and where, monument to an unbelieving soul, there stands a pillar of salt.
Wis 10:8 For, by ignoring the path of Wisdom, not only did they suffer the loss of not knowing the good, but they left the world a memorial to their folly, so that their offenses could not pass unnoticed.
Wis 10:9 But Wisdom delivered her servants from their ordeals.
Wis 10:10 The upright man, fleeing from the anger of his brother, was led by her along straight paths. She showed him the kingdom of God and taught him the knowledge of holy things. She brought him success in his labours and gave him full return for all his efforts;
Wis 10:11 she stood by him against grasping and oppressive men and she made him rich.
Wis 10:12 She preserved him from his enemies and saved him from the traps they set for him. In an arduous struggle she awarded him the prize, to teach him that piety is stronger than all.
Wis 10:13 She did not forsake the upright man when he was sold, but snatched him away from sin;
Wis 10:14 she accompanied him down into the pit, nor did she abandon him in his chains until she had brought him the scepter of a kingdom and authority over his despotic masters, thus exposing as liars those who had traduced him, and giving him honor everlasting.
Wis 10:15 It was Wisdom who delivered a holy people, a blameless race, from a nation of oppressors.
Wis 10:16 She entered the soul of a servant of the Lord, and withstood fearsome kings with wonders and signs.
Wis 10:17 To the holy people she gave the wages of their labours; she guided them by a marvellous road, herself their shelter by day -- and their starlight through the night.
Wis 10:18 She brought them across the Red Sea, leading them through an immensity of water,
Wis 10:19 whereas she drowned their enemies, then spat them out from the depths of the abyss.
Wis 10:20 So the upright despoiled the godless; Lord, they extolled your holy name, and with one accord praised your protecting hand;
Wis 10:21 for Wisdom opened the mouths of the dumb and made eloquent the tongues of babes.
Wis 11:1 She made their actions successful, by means of a holy prophet.
Wis 11:2 They journeyed through an unpeopled desert and pitched their tents in inaccessible places.
Wis 11:3 They stood firm against their enemies, fought off their foes.
Wis 11:4 On you they called when they were thirsty, and from the rocky cliff water was given them, from hard stone a remedy for their thirst.
Wis 11:5 Thus, what had served to punish their enemies became a benefit for them in their difficulties.
Wis 11:6 Whereas their enemies had only the ever-flowing source of a river fouled with mingled blood and mud,
Wis 11:7 to punish them for their decree of infanticide, you gave your people, against all hope, water in abundance,
Wis 11:8 once you had shown by the thirst that they were experiencing how severely you were punishing their enemies.
Wis 11:9 From their own ordeals, which were only loving correction, they realized how an angry sentence was tormenting the godless;
Wis 11:10 for you had tested your own as a father admonishes, but the others you had punished as a pitiless king condemns,
Wis 11:11 and, whether far or near, they were equally afflicted.
Wis 11:12 For a double sorrow seized on them, and a groaning at the memory of the past;
Wis 11:13 when they learned that the punishments they were receiving were beneficial to the others, they realized it was the Lord,
Wis 11:14 while for the man whom long before they had exposed and later mockingly rebuffed, they felt only admiration when all was done, having suffered a thirst so different from that of the upright.
Wis 11:15 For their foolish and wicked notions which led them astray into worshipping mindless reptiles and contemptible beetles, you sent a horde of mindless animals to punish them
Wis 11:16 and to teach them that the agent of sin is the agent of punishment.
Wis 11:17 And indeed your all-powerful hand which created the world from formless matter, did not lack means to unleash a horde of bears or savage lions on them
Wis 11:18 or unknown beasts, newly created, full of rage, breathing out fire, or puffing out stinking smoke, or flashing fearful sparks from their eyes,
Wis 11:19 beasts able not only to destroy them, being so savage, but even to strike them dead by their terrifying appearance.
Wis 11:20 However, without these, one breath could have blown them over, pursued by Justice, whirled away by the breath of your power. You, however, ordered all things by measure, number and weight.
Wis 11:21 For your great power is always at your service, and who can withstand the might of your arm?
Wis 11:22 The whole world, for you, can no more than tip a balance, like a drop of morning dew falling on the ground.
Wis 11:23 Yet you are merciful to all, because you are almighty, you overlook people's sins, so that they can repent.
Wis 11:24 Yes, you love everything that exists, and nothing that you have made disgusts you, since, if you had hated something, you would not have made it.
Wis 11:25 And how could a thing subsist, had you not willed it? Or how be preserved, if not called forth by you?
Wis 11:26 No, you spare all, since all is yours, Lord, lover of life!
Wis 12:1 For your imperishable spirit is in everything!
Wis 12:2 And thus, gradually, you correct those who offend; you admonish and remind them of how they have sinned, so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord.
Wis 12:3 The ancient inhabitants of your holy land
Wis 12:4 you hated for their loathsome practices, their acts of sorcery, and unholy rites.
Wis 12:5 Those ruthless murderers of children, those eaters of entrails at feasts of human flesh and of blood, those initiates of secret brotherhoods,
Wis 12:6 those murderous parents of defenceless beings, you determined to destroy at our ancestors' hands,
Wis 12:7 so that this land, dearer to you than any other, might receive a worthy colony of God's children.
Wis 12:8 Even so, since these were human, you treated them leniently, sending hornets as forerunners of your army, to exterminate them little by little.
Wis 12:9 Not that you were unable to hand the godless over to the upright in pitched battle or destroy them at once by savage beasts or one harsh word;
Wis 12:10 but, by carrying out your sentences gradually, you gave them a chance to repent, although you knew that they were inherently evil, innately wicked,
Wis 12:11 and fixed in their cast of mind; for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Nor was it from awe of anyone that you let their sins go unpunished.
Wis 12:12 For who is there to ask, 'What have you done?' Or who is there to disagree with your sentence? Who to arraign you for destroying nations which you have created? Who to confront you by championing the wicked?
Wis 12:13 For there is no god, other than you, who cares for every one, to whom you have to prove that your sentences have been just.
Wis 12:14 No more could any king or despot challenge you over those whom you have punished.
Wis 12:15 For, being upright yourself, you rule the universe uprightly, and hold it as incompatible with your power to condemn anyone who has not deserved to be punished.
Wis 12:16 For your strength is the basis of your saving justice, and your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.
Wis 12:17 You show your strength when people will not believe in your absolute power, and you confound any insolence in those who do know it.
Wis 12:18 But you, controlling your strength, are mild in judgement, and govern us with great lenience, for you have only to will, and your power is there.
Wis 12:19 By acting thus, you have taught your people that the upright must be kindly to his fellows, and you have given your children the good hope that after sins you will grant repentance.
Wis 12:20 For, if with such care and indulgence you have punished your children's enemies, though doomed to death, and have given them time and place to be rid of their wickedness,
Wis 12:21 with what exact attention have you not judged your children, to whose ancestors, by oaths and covenants, you made such generous promises?
Wis 12:22 Thus, you instruct us, when you punish our enemies in moderation, that we should reflect on your kindness when we judge, and, when we are judged, we should look for mercy.
Wis 12:23 And this is why people leading foolish and wicked lives were tortured by you with their own abominations;
Wis 12:24 for they had strayed too far on the paths of error by taking the vilest and most despicable of animals for gods, being deluded like silly little children.
Wis 12:25 So, as to children with no sense, you gave them a sentence making fools of them.
Wis 12:26 Those, however, who would not take warning from a mocking reproof were soon to endure a sentence worthy of God.
Wis 12:27 The creatures that made them suffer and against which they protested, those very creatures that they had taken for gods and by which they were punished they saw in their true light; and he whom hitherto they had refused to know, they realized was true God. And this is why the final condemnation fell on them.
Wis 13:1 Yes, naturally stupid are all who are unaware of God, and who, from good things seen, have not been able to discover Him-who-is, or, by studying the works, have not recognized the Artificer.
Wis 13:2 Fire, however, or wind, or the swift air, the sphere of the stars, impetuous water, heaven's lamps, are what they have held to be the gods who govern the world.
Wis 13:3 If, charmed by their beauty, they have taken these for gods, let them know how much the Master of these excels them, since he was the very source of beauty that created them.
Wis 13:4 And if they have been impressed by their power and energy, let them deduce from these how much mightier is he that has formed them,
Wis 13:5 since through the grandeur and beauty of the creatures we may, by analogy, contemplate their Author.
Wis 13:6 Small blame, however, attaches to them, for perhaps they go astray only in their search for God and their eagerness to find him;
Wis 13:7 familiar with his works, they investigate them and fall victim to appearances, seeing so much beauty.
Wis 13:8 But even so, they have no excuse:
Wis 13:9 if they are capable of acquiring enough knowledge to be able to investigate the world, how have they been so slow to find its Master?
Wis 13:10 But wretched are they, with their hopes set on dead things, who have given the title of gods to human artifacts, gold or silver, skillfully worked, figures of animals, or useless stone, carved by some hand long ago.
Wis 13:11 Take a woodcutter. He fells a suitable tree, neatly strips off the bark all over and then with admirable skill works the wood into an object useful in daily life.
Wis 13:12 The bits left over from his work he uses for cooking his food, then eats his fill.
Wis 13:13 There is still a good-for-nothing bit left over, a gnarled and knotted billet: he takes it and whittles it with the concentration of his leisure hours, he shapes it with the skill of experience, he gives it a human shape
Wis 13:14 or perhaps he makes it into some vile animal, smears it with ochre, paints its surface red, coats over all its blemishes.
Wis 13:15 He next makes a worthy home for it, lets it into the wall, fixes it with an iron clamp.
Wis 13:16 Thus he makes sure that it will not fall down -- being well aware that it cannot help itself, since it is only an image, and needs to be helped.
Wis 13:17 And yet, if he wishes to pray for his goods, for his marriage, for his children, he does not blush to harangue this lifeless thing -- for health, he invokes what is weak,
Wis 13:18 for life, he pleads with what is dead, for help, he goes begging to total inexperience, for a journey, what cannot even use its feet,
Wis 13:19 for profit, an undertaking, and success in pursuing his craft, he asks skill from something whose hands have no skill whatever.
Wis 14:1 Or someone else, taking ship to cross the wild waves, loudly invokes a piece of wood frailer than the vessel that bears him.
Wis 14:2 Agreed, the ship is the product of a craving for gain, its building embodies the wisdom of the shipwright;
Wis 14:3 but your providence, Father, is what steers it, you having opened a pathway even through the sea, and a safe way over the waves,
Wis 14:4 showing that you can save, whatever happens, so that, even without experience, someone may put to sea.
Wis 14:5 It is not your will that the works of your Wisdom should be sterile, so people entrust their lives to the smallest piece of wood, cross the waves on a raft, yet are kept safe and sound.
Wis 14:6 Why, in the beginning, when the proud giants were perishing, the hope of the world took refuge on a raft and, steered by your hand, preserved the seed of a new generation for the ages to come.
Wis 14:7 For blessed is the wood which serves the cause of uprightness
Wis 14:8 but accursed the man-made idol, yes, it and its maker, he for having made it, and it because, though perishable, it has been called god.
Wis 14:9 For God holds the godless and his godlessness in equal hatred;
Wis 14:10 both work and workman will alike be punished.
Wis 14:11 Hence even the idols of the nations will have a visitation since, in God's creation, they have become an abomination, a scandal for human souls, a snare for the feet of the foolish.
Wis 14:12 The idea of making idols was the origin of fornication, their discovery corrupted life.
Wis 14:13 They did not exist at the beginning, they will not exist for ever;
Wis 14:14 human vanity brought them into the world, and a quick end is therefore reserved for them.
Wis 14:15 A father afflicted by untimely mourning has an image made of his child so soon carried off, and now pays divine honors to what yesterday was only a corpse, handing on mysteries and ceremonies to his people;
Wis 14:16 time passes, the custom hardens and is observed as law.
Wis 14:17 Rulers were the ones who ordered that statues should be worshipped: people who could not honor them in person, because they lived too far away, would have a portrait made of their distant countenance, to have an image that they could see of the king whom they honored; meaning, by such zeal, to flatter the absent as if he were present.
Wis 14:18 Even people who did not know him were stimulated into spreading his cult by the artist's enthusiasm;
Wis 14:19 for the latter, doubtless wishing to please his ruler, exerted all his skill to surpass the reality,
Wis 14:20 and the crowd, attracted by the beauty of the work, mistook for a god someone whom recently they had honored as a man.
Wis 14:21 And this became a snare for life: that people, whether enslaved by misfortune or by tyranny, should have conferred the ineffable Name on sticks and stones.
Wis 14:22 It is not enough, however, for them to have such misconceptions about God; for, living in the fierce warfare of ignorance, they call these terrible evils peace.
Wis 14:23 With their child-murdering rites, their occult mysteries, or their frenzied orgies with outlandish customs,
Wis 14:24 they no longer retain any purity in their lives or their marriages, one treacherously murdering another or wronging him by adultery.
Wis 14:25 Everywhere a welter of blood and murder, theft and fraud, corruption, treachery, riot, perjury,
Wis 14:26 disturbance of decent people, forgetfulness of favors, pollution of souls, sins against nature, disorder in marriage, adultery and debauchery.
Wis 14:27 For the worship of idols with no name is the beginning, cause, and end of every evil.
Wis 14:28 For these people either carry their merrymaking to the point of frenzy, or they prophesy what is not true, or they live wicked lives, or they perjure themselves without hesitation;
Wis 14:29 since they put their trust in lifeless idols they do not reckon their false oaths can harm them.
Wis 14:30 But they will be justly punished for this double crime: for degrading the concept of God by adhering to idols; and for wickedly perjuring themselves in contempt for what is holy.
Wis 14:31 For it is not the power of the things by which they swear but the punishment reserved for sinners that always follows the offenses of wicked people.
Wis 15:1 But you, our God, are kind and true, slow to anger, governing the universe with mercy.
Wis 15:2 Even if we sin, we are yours, since we acknowledge your power, but we will not sin, knowing we count as yours.
Wis 15:3 To know you is indeed the perfect virtue, and to know your power is the root of immortality.
Wis 15:4 We have not been duped by inventions of misapplied human skill, or by the sterile work of painters, by figures daubed with assorted colours,
Wis 15:5 the sight of which sets fools yearning and hankering for the lifeless form of an unbreathing image.
Wis 15:6 Lovers of evil and worthy of such hopes are those who make them, those who want them and those who worship them.
Wis 15:7 Take a potter, now, laboriously working the soft earth, shaping each object for us to use. Out of the self-same clay, he models vessels intended for a noble use and those for a contrary purpose, all alike: but which of these two uses each will have is for the potter himself to decide.
Wis 15:8 Then -- ill -- spent effort!-from the same clay he models a futile god, although so recently made out of earth himself and shortly to return to what he was taken from, when asked to give back the soul that has been lent to him.
Wis 15:9 Even so, he does not worry about having to die or about the shortness of his life, but strives to outdo the goldsmiths and silversmiths, imitates the bronzeworkers, and prides himself on modelling counterfeits.
Wis 15:10 Ashes, his heart; more vile than earth, his hope; more wretched than clay, his life!
Wis 15:11 For he has misconceived the One who has modelled him, who breathed an active soul into him and inspired a living spirit.
Wis 15:12 What is more, he looks on this life of ours as a kind of game, and our time here like a fair, full of bargains. 'However foul the means,' he says, 'a man must make a living.'
Wis 15:13 He, more than any other, knows he is sinning, he who from one earthy stuff makes both brittle pots and idols.
Wis 15:14 But most foolish, more pitiable even than the soul of a little child, are the enemies who once played the tyrant with your people,
Wis 15:15 and have taken all the idols of the heathen for gods; these can use neither their eyes for seeing nor their nostrils for breathing the air nor their ears for hearing nor the fingers on their hands for handling nor their feet for walking.
Wis 15:16 They have been made, you see, by a human being, modelled by a being whose own breath is borrowed. No man can model a god to resemble himself;
Wis 15:17 subject to death, his impious hands can produce only something dead. He himself is worthier than the things he worships; he will at least have lived, but never they.
Wis 15:18 And they worship even the most loathsome of animals, worse than the rest in their degree of stupidity,
Wis 15:19 without a trace of beauty -- if that is what is attractive in animals- and excluded from God's praises and blessing.
Wis 16:1 Thus they were appropriately punished by similar creatures and tormented by swarms of vermin.
Wis 16:2 In contrast to this punishment, you did your people a kindness and, to satisfy their sharp appetite, provided quails -- a luscious rarity -- for them to eat.
Wis 16:3 Thus the Egyptians, at the repulsive sight of the creatures sent against them, were to find that, though they longed for food, they had lost their natural appetite; whereas your own people, after a short privation, were to have a rare relish for their portion.
Wis 16:4 Inevitable that relentless want should seize on the former oppressors; enough for your people to be shown how their enemies were being tortured.
Wis 16:5 Even when the fearful rage of wild animals overtook them and they were perishing from the bites of writhing snakes, your retribution did not continue to the end.
Wis 16:6 Affliction struck them briefly, by way of warning, and they had a saving token to remind them of the commandment of your Law,
Wis 16:7 for whoever turned to it was saved, not by what he looked at, but by you, the Savior of all.
Wis 16:8 And by such means you proved to our enemies that you are the one who delivers from every evil;
Wis 16:9 for them, the bites of locusts and flies proved fatal and no remedy could be found to save their lives, since they deserved to be punished by such creatures.
Wis 16:10 But your children, not even the fangs of poisonous snakes could bring them down; for your mercy came to their help and cured them.
Wis 16:11 One sting -- how quickly healed!-to remind them of your pronouncements rather than that, by sinking into deep forgetfulness, they should be cut off from your kindness.
Wis 16:12 No herb, no poultice cured them, but your all-healing word, Lord.
Wis 16:13 Yes, you are the one with power over life and death, bringing to the gates of Hades and back again.
Wis 16:14 A human being out of malice may put to death, but cannot bring the departed spirit back or free the soul that Hades has once received.
Wis 16:15 It is not possible to escape your hand.
Wis 16:16 The godless who refused to acknowledge you were scourged by the strength of your arm, pursued by no ordinary rains, hail and unrelenting downpours, and consumed by fire.
Wis 16:17 Even more wonderful, in the water -- which quenches all -- the fire raged fiercer than ever; for the elements fight for the upright.
Wis 16:18 At one moment, the fire would die down, to avoid consuming the animals sent against the godless and to make clear to them by that sight, that the sentence of God was pursuing them;
Wis 16:19 at another, in the very heart of the water, it would burn more fiercely than fire to ruin the produce of a wicked land.
Wis 16:20 How differently with your people! You gave them the food of angels, from heaven untiringly providing them bread already prepared, containing every delight, to satisfy every taste.
Wis 16:21 And the substance you gave showed your sweetness towards your children, for, conforming to the taste of whoever ate it, it transformed itself into what each eater wished.
Wis 16:22 Snow and ice endured the fire, without melting; this was to show them that, to destroy the harvests of their enemies, fire would burn even in hail and flare in falling rain,
Wis 16:23 whereas, on the other hand, it would even forget its own strength in the service of feeding the upright.
Wis 16:24 For the creation, being at the service of you, its Creator, tautens to punish the wicked and slackens for the benefit of those who trust in you.
Wis 16:25 And this is why, by changing into all things, it obediently served your all-nourishing bounty, conforming to the wishes of those who were in need;
Wis 16:26 so that your beloved children, Lord, might learn that the various crops are not what provide nourishment, but your word which preserves all who believe in you.
Wis 16:27 For that which fire could not destroy melted in the heat of a single fleeting sunbeam,
Wis 16:28 to show that, to give you thanks, we must rise before the sun and meet you at the dawning of the day;
Wis 16:29 whereas the hope of the ungrateful melts like winter frost and flows away like water running to waste.
Wis 17:1 Yes, your judgements are great and impenetrable, which is why uninstructed souls have gone astray.
Wis 17:2 While the wicked supposed they had a holy nation in their power, they themselves lay prisoners of the dark, in the fetters of long night, confined under their own roofs, banished from eternal providence.
Wis 17:3 While they thought to remain unnoticed with their secret sins, curtained by dark forgetfulness, they were scattered in fearful dismay, terrified by apparitions.
Wis 17:4 The hiding place sheltering them could not ward off their fear; terrifying noises echoed round them; and gloomy, grim-faced spectres haunted them.
Wis 17:5 No fire had power enough to give them light, nor could the brightly blazing stars illuminate that dreadful night.
Wis 17:6 The only light for them was a great, spontaneous blaze -- a fearful sight to see! And in their terror, once that sight had vanished, they thought what they had seen more terrible than ever.
Wis 17:7 Their magical illusions were powerless now, and their claims to intelligence were ignominiously confounded;
Wis 17:8 for those who promised to drive out fears and disorders from sick souls were now themselves sick with ludicrous fright.
Wis 17:9 Even when there was nothing frightful to scare them, the vermin creeping past and the hissing of reptiles filled them with panic;
Wis 17:10 they died convulsed with fright, refusing even to look at empty air, which cannot be eluded anyhow!
Wis 17:11 Wickedness is confessedly very cowardly, and it condemns itself; under pressure from conscience it always assumes the worst.
Wis 17:12 Fear, indeed, is nothing other than the failure of the help offered by reason;
Wis 17:13 the less you rely within yourself on this, the more alarming it is not to know the cause of your suffering.
Wis 17:14 And they, all locked in the same sleep, while that darkness lasted -- which was in fact quite powerless and had issued from the depths of equally powerless Hades-
Wis 17:15 were now chased by monstrous spectres, now paralysed by the fainting of their souls; for a sudden, unexpected terror had attacked them.
Wis 17:16 And thus, whoever it might be that fell there stayed clamped to the spot in this prison without bars.
Wis 17:17 Whether he was ploughman or shepherd, or somebody at work in the desert, he was still overtaken and suffered the inevitable fate, for all had been bound by the one same chain of darkness.
Wis 17:18 The soughing of the wind, the tuneful noise of birds in the spreading branches, the measured beat of water in its powerful course, the headlong din of rocks cascading down,
Wis 17:19 the unseen course of bounding animals, the roaring of the most savage of wild beasts, the echo rebounding from the clefts in the mountains, all held them paralysed with fear.
Wis 17:20 For the whole world shone with the light of day and, unhindered, went about its work;
Wis 17:21 over them alone there spread a heavy darkness, image of the dark that would receive them. But heavier than the darkness was the burden they were to themselves.
Wis 18:1 For your holy ones, however, there was a very great light. The Egyptians, who could hear them but not see them, called them fortunate because they had not suffered too;
Wis 18:2 they thanked them for doing no injury in return for previous wrongs and asked forgiveness for their past ill-will.
Wis 18:3 In contrast to the darkness, you gave your people a pillar of blazing fire to guide them on their unknown journey, a mild sun for their ambitious migration.
Wis 18:4 But well those others deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness, for they had kept in captivity your children, by whom the incorruptible light of the Law was to be given to the world.
Wis 18:5 As they had resolved to kill the infants of the holy ones, and as of those exposed only one child had been saved, you punished them by carrying off their horde of children and by destroying them all in the wild water.
Wis 18:6 That night had been known in advance to our ancestors, so that, well knowing him in whom they had put their trust, they would be sure of his promises.
Wis 18:7 Your people thus were waiting both for the rescue of the upright and for the ruin of the enemy;
Wis 18:8 for by the very vengeance that you exacted on our adversaries, you glorified us by calling us to you.
Wis 18:9 So the holy children of the good offered sacrifice in secret and with one accord enacted this holy law: that the holy ones should share good things and dangers alike; and forthwith they chanted the hymns of the ancestors.
Wis 18:10 In echo came the discordant cries of their enemies, and the pitiful wails of people mourning for their children could be heard from far away.
Wis 18:11 One and the same punishment had struck slave and master alike, and now commoner and king had the same sufferings to endure.
Wis 18:12 Struck by the same death, all had innumerable dead. There were not enough living left to bury them, for, at one stroke, the flower of their offspring had perished.
Wis 18:13 Those whose spells had made them completely incredulous, when faced with the destruction of their first-born, acknowledged this people to be child of God.
Wis 18:14 When peaceful silence lay over all, and night had run the half of her swift course,
Wis 18:15 down from the heavens, from the royal throne, leapt your all-powerful Word like a pitiless warrior into the heart of a land doomed to destruction. Carrying your unambiguous command like a sharp sword,
Wis 18:16 it stood, and filled the universe with death; though standing on the earth, it touched the sky.
Wis 18:17 Immediately, dreams and gruesome visions overwhelmed them with terror, unexpected fears assailed them.
Wis 18:18 Hurled down, some here, some there, half dead, they were able to say why they were dying;
Wis 18:19 for the dreams that had troubled them had warned them why beforehand, so that they should not perish without knowing why they were being afflicted.
Wis 18:20 Experience of death, however, touched the upright too, and a great many were struck down in the desert. But the Retribution did not last long,
Wis 18:21 for a blameless man hurried to their defence. Wielding the weapons of his sacred office, prayer and expiating incense, he confronted Retribution and put an end to the plague, thus showing that he was your servant.
Wis 18:22 He overcame Hostility, not by physical strength, nor by force of arms; but by word he prevailed over the Punisher, by recalling the oaths made to the Fathers, and the covenants.
Wis 18:23 Already the corpses lay piled in heaps, when he interposed and beat Retribution back and cut off its approach to the living.
Wis 18:24 For the whole world was on his flowing robe, the glorious names of the Fathers engraved on the four rows of stones, and your Majesty on the diadem on his head.
Wis 18:25 From these the Destroyer recoiled, he was afraid of these. This one experience of Retribution was enough.
Wis 19:1 But the godless were assailed by merciless anger to the very end, for he knew beforehand what they would do,
Wis 19:2 how, after letting his people leave and hastening their departure, they would change their minds and give chase.
Wis 19:3 They were actually still conducting their mourning rites and lamenting at the tombs of their dead, when another mad scheme came into their heads and they set out to pursue, as though runaways, the people whom they had expelled and begged to go.
Wis 19:4 A well-deserved fate urged them to this extreme and made them forget what had already happened, so that they would add to their torments the one punishment outstanding
Wis 19:5 and, while your people were experiencing a journey contrary to all expectations, would themselves meet an extraordinary death.
Wis 19:6 For the whole creation, submissive to your commands, had its very nature re-created, so that your children should be preserved from harm.
Wis 19:7 Overshadowing the camp there was the cloud; where there had been water, dry land was seen to rise; the Red Sea became an unimpeded way, the tempestuous waves, a green plain;
Wis 19:8 sheltered by your hand, the whole nation passed across, gazing at these amazing prodigies.
Wis 19:9 They were like horses at pasture, they skipped like lambs, singing your praises, Lord, their deliverer.
Wis 19:10 For they still remembered the events of their exile, how the land had bred mosquitoes instead of animals and the River had disgorged millions of frogs instead of fish.
Wis 19:11 Later they were to see a new way for birds to come into being, when, goaded by greed, they demanded something tasty,
Wis 19:12 and quails came up out of the sea to satisfy them.
Wis 19:13 On the sinners, however, punishments rained down not without violent thunder as early warning; and they suffered what their own crimes had justly deserved since they had shown such bitter hatred to foreigners.
Wis 19:14 Others, indeed, had failed to welcome strangers who came to them, but the Egyptians had enslaved their own guests and benefactors.
Wis 19:15 The sinners, moreover, will certainly be punished for it, since they gave the foreigners a hostile welcome;
Wis 19:16 but the latter, having given a festive reception to people who already shared the same rights as themselves, later overwhelmed them with terrible labours.
Wis 19:17 Hence they were struck with blindness, like the sinners at the gate of the upright, when, yawning darkness all around them, each had to grope his way through his own door.
Wis 19:18 A new attuning of the elements occurred, as on a harp the notes may change their rhythm, though all the while preserving the same tone; and this is just what happened:
Wis 19:19 land animals became aquatic, swimming ones took to the land,
Wis 19:20 fire reinforced its strength in water, and water forgot the power of extinguishing it;
Wis 19:21 flames, on the other hand, did not char the flesh of delicate animals that ventured into them; nor did they melt the heavenly food resembling ice and as easily melted.
Wis 19:22 Yes, Lord, in every way you have made your people great and glorious; you have never failed to help them at any time or place.
Sir 1:1 [The Law, the Prophets,and the other writers succeeding them have passed on to us great lessons,in consequence of which Israel must be commended for learning and wisdom. Furthermore, it is a duty, not only to acquire learning by reading,but also, once having acquired it, to make oneself of use to people outsideby what one can say or write. My grandfather Jesus, having long devoted himself to the readingof the Law,the Prophetsand other books of the Fathersand having become very learned in them,himself decided to write something on the subjects of learning and wisdom,so that people who wanted to learn might, by themselves accepting these disciplines,learn how better to live according to the Law.You are therefore askedto read this bookwith good will and attentionand to show indulgencein those places where, notwithstanding our efforts at interpretation, we may seemto have failed to give an adequate rendering of this or that expression;the fact is that there is no equivalentfor things originally written in Hebrew when it is a question of translating them into another language;what is more,the Law itself, the Prophetsand the other booksdiffer considerably in translation from what appears in the original text. It was in the thirty-eighth year of the late King Euergetesthat, coming to Egypt and spending some time here,and finding life here consistent with a high degree of wisdom,I became convinced of an immediate duty to apply myself in my turn with pains and diligence to the translation of the book that follows;and I spent much time and learning on itin the course of this period,to complete the work and to publish the bookfor the benefit of those too who, domiciled abroad, wish to study,to reform their behaviour, and to live as the Law requires.] All wisdom comes from the Lord, she is with him for ever.
Sir 1:2 The sands of the sea, the drops of rain, the days of eternity -- who can count them?
Sir 1:3 The height of the sky, the breadth of the earth, the depth of the abyss -- who can explore them?
Sir 1:4 Wisdom was created before everything, prudent understanding subsists from remotest ages.
Sir 1:5
Sir 1:6 For whom has the root of wisdom ever been uncovered? Her resourceful ways, who knows them?
Sir 1:7
Sir 1:8 One only is wise, terrible indeed,
Sir 1:9 seated on his throne, the Lord. It was he who created, inspected and weighed her up, and then poured her out on all his works-
Sir 1:10 as much to each living creature as he chose -- bestowing her on those who love him.
Sir 1:11 The fear of the Lord is glory and pride, happiness and a crown of joyfulness.
Sir 1:12 The fear of the Lord gladdens the heart, giving happiness, joy and long life.
Sir 1:13 For those who fear the Lord, all will end well: on their dying day they will be blessed.
Sir 1:14 The basis of wisdom is to fear the Lord; she was created with the faithful in their mothers' womb;
Sir 1:15 she has made a home in the human race, an age -- old foundation, and to their descendants will she faithfully cling.
Sir 1:16 The fullness of wisdom is to fear the Lord; she intoxicates them with her fruits;
Sir 1:17 she fills their entire house with treasures and their storerooms with her produce.
Sir 1:18 The crown of wisdom is to fear the Lord: she makes peace and health flourish.
Sir 1:19 The Lord has seen and assessed her, he has showered down knowledge and intelligence, he has exalted the renown of those who possess her.
Sir 1:20 The root of wisdom is to fear the Lord, and her branches are long life.
Sir 1:21
Sir 1:22 The rage of the wicked cannot put him in the right, for the weight of his rage is his downfall.
Sir 1:23 A patient person puts up with things until the right time comes: but his joy will break out in the end.
Sir 1:24 Till the time comes he keeps his thoughts to himself, and many a lip will affirm how wise he is.
Sir 1:25 Wisdom's treasuries contain the maxims of knowledge, the sinner, however, holds piety in abhorrence.
Sir 1:26 If you desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord will bestow it on you.
Sir 1:27 For the fear of the Lord is wisdom and instruction, and what pleases him is faithfulness and gentleness.
Sir 1:28 Do not stand out against fear of the Lord, do not practise it with a double heart.
Sir 1:29 Do not act a part in public, keep watch over your lips.
Sir 1:30 Do not grow too high and mighty, for fear you fall and cover yourself in disgrace; for the Lord would then reveal your secrets and overthrow you before the whole community for not having practised fear of the Lord and for having a heart full of deceit.
Sir 2:1 My child, if you aspire to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for an ordeal.
Sir 2:2 Be sincere of heart, be steadfast, and do not be alarmed when disaster comes.
Sir 2:3 Cling to him and do not leave him, so that you may be honored at the end of your days.
Sir 2:4 Whatever happens to you, accept it, and in the uncertainties of your humble state, be patient,
Sir 2:5 since gold is tested in the fire, and the chosen in the furnace of humiliation.
Sir 2:6 Trust him and he will uphold you, follow a straight path and hope in him.
Sir 2:7 You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy; do not turn aside, for fear you fall.
Sir 2:8 You who fear the Lord, trust him, and you will not be robbed of your reward.
Sir 2:9 You who fear the Lord, hope for those good gifts of his, everlasting joy and mercy.
Sir 2:10 Look at the generations of old and see: whoever trusted in the Lord and was put to shame? Or whoever, steadfastly fearing him, was forsaken? Or whoever called to him and was ignored?
Sir 2:11 For the Lord is compassionate and merciful, he forgives sins and saves in the time of distress.
Sir 2:12 Woe to faint hearts and listless hands, and to the sinner who treads two paths.
Sir 2:13 Woe to the listless heart that has no faith, for such will have no protection.
Sir 2:14 Woe to you who have lost the strength to endure; what will you do at the Lord's visitation?
Sir 2:15 Those who fear the Lord do not disdain his words, and those who love him keep his ways.
Sir 2:16 Those who fear the Lord do their best to please him, and those who love him will find satisfaction in the Law.
Sir 2:17 Those who fear the Lord keep their hearts prepared and humble themselves in his presence.
Sir 2:18 Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, not into any human clutches; for as his majesty is, so too is his mercy.
Sir 3:1 Children, listen to me for I am your father: do what I tell you, and so be safe;
Sir 3:2 for the Lord honors the father above his children and upholds the rights of a mother over her sons.
Sir 3:3 Whoever respects a father expiates sins,
Sir 3:4 whoever honors a mother is like someone amassing a fortune.
Sir 3:5 Whoever respects a father will in turn be happy with children, the day he prays for help, he will be heard.
Sir 3:6 Long life comes to anyone who honors a father, whoever obeys the Lord makes a mother happy.
Sir 3:7 Such a one serves parents as well as the Lord.
Sir 3:8 Respect your father in deed as well as word, so that blessing may come on you from him;
Sir 3:9 since a father's blessing makes his children's house firm, while a mother's curse tears up its foundations.
Sir 3:10 Do not make a boast of disgrace overtaking your father, your father's disgrace reflects no honor on you;
Sir 3:11 for a person's own honor derives from the respect shown to his father, and a mother held in dishonor is a reproach to her children.
Sir 3:12 My child, support your father in his old age, do not grieve him during his life.
Sir 3:13 Even if his mind should fail, show him sympathy, do not despise him in your health and strength;
Sir 3:14 for kindness to a father will not be forgotten but will serve as reparation for your sins.
Sir 3:15 On your own day of ordeal God will remember you: like frost in sunshine, your sins will melt away.
Sir 3:16 Whoever deserts a father is no better than a blasphemer, and whoever distresses a mother is accursed of the Lord.
Sir 3:17 My child, be gentle in carrying out your business, and you will be better loved than a lavish giver.
Sir 3:18 The greater you are, the more humbly you should behave, and then you will find favor with the Lord;
Sir 3:19
Sir 3:20 for great though the power of the Lord is, he accepts the homage of the humble.
Sir 3:21 Do not try to understand things that are too difficult for you, or try to discover what is beyond your powers.
Sir 3:22 Concentrate on what has been assigned you, you have no need to worry over mysteries.
Sir 3:23 Do not meddle with matters that are beyond you; what you have been taught already exceeds the scope of the human mind.
Sir 3:24 For many have been misled by their own notions, wicked presumption having warped their judgement.
Sir 3:25
Sir 3:26 A stubborn heart will come to a bad end, and whoever dallies with danger will perish in it.
Sir 3:27 A stubborn heart is weighed down with troubles, the sinner heaps sin on sin.
Sir 3:28 For the disease of the proud there is no cure, since an evil growth has taken root there.
Sir 3:29 The heart of the sensible will reflect on parables, an attentive ear is the sage's dream.
Sir 3:30 Water puts out a blazing fire, almsgiving expiates sins.
Sir 3:31 Whoever gives favors in return is mindful of the future; at the moment of falling, such a person will find support.
Sir 4:1 My child, do not refuse the poor a livelihood, do not tantalise the needy.
Sir 4:2 Do not add to the sufferings of the hungry, do not bait anyone in distress.
Sir 4:3 Do not aggravate a heart already angry, nor keep the destitute waiting for your alms.
Sir 4:4 Do not repulse a hard-pressed beggar, nor turn your face from the poor.
Sir 4:5 Do not avert your eyes from the needy, give no one occasion to curse you;
Sir 4:6 for if someone curses you in distress, his Maker will give ear to the imprecation.
Sir 4:7 Gain the love of the community, in the presence of the great bow your head.
Sir 4:8 To the poor lend an ear, and courteously return the greeting.
Sir 4:9 Save the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, and do not be mean-spirited in your judgements.
Sir 4:10 Be like a father to the fatherless and as good as a husband to their mothers. And you will be like a child to the Most High, who will love you more than your own mother does.
Sir 4:11 Wisdom brings up her own children and cares for those who seek her.
Sir 4:12 Whoever loves her loves life, those who seek her early will be filled with joy.
Sir 4:13 Whoever possesses her will inherit honor, and wherever he walks the Lord will bless him.
Sir 4:14 Those who serve her minister to the Holy One, and the Lord loves those who love her.
Sir 4:15 Whoever obeys her rules the nations, whoever pays attention to her dwells secure.
Sir 4:16 If he trusts himself to her he will inherit her, and his descendants will remain in possession of her;
Sir 4:17 for though she takes him at first through winding ways, bringing fear and faintness on him, trying him out with her discipline till she can trust him, and testing him with her ordeals,
Sir 4:18 she then comes back to him on the straight road, makes him happy and reveals her secrets to him.
Sir 4:19 If he goes astray, however, she abandons him and leaves him to his own destruction.
Sir 4:20 Take circumstances into account and beware of evil, and have no cause to be ashamed of yourself;
Sir 4:21 for there is a shame that leads to sin and a shame that is honorable and gracious.
Sir 4:22 Do not be too severe on yourself, do not let shame lead you to ruin.
Sir 4:23 Do not refrain from speaking when it will do good, and do not hide your wisdom;
Sir 4:24 for your wisdom is made known by what you say, your erudition by the words you utter.
Sir 4:25 Do not contradict the truth, rather blush for your own ignorance.
Sir 4:26 Do not be ashamed to confess your sins, do not struggle against the current of the river.
Sir 4:27 Do not grovel to the foolish, do not show partiality to the influential.
Sir 4:28 Fight to the death for truth, and the Lord God will war on your side.
Sir 4:29 Do not be bold of tongue, yet idle and slack in deed;
Sir 4:30 do not be like a lion at home, or cowardly towards your servants.
Sir 4:31 Do not let your hands be outstretched to receive, yet tight-fisted when the time comes to give back.
Sir 5:1 Do not put your confidence in your money or say, 'With this I am self-sufficient.'
Sir 5:2 Do not be led by your appetites and energy to follow the passions of your heart.
Sir 5:3 And do not say, 'Who has authority over me?' for the Lord will certainly give you your deserts.
Sir 5:4 Do not say, 'I have sinned, but what harm has befallen me?' for the Lord's forbearance is long.
Sir 5:5 Do not be so sure of forgiveness that you add sin to sin.
Sir 5:6 And do not say, 'His compassion is great, he will forgive me my many sins'; for with him are both mercy and retribution, and his anger does not pass from sinners.
Sir 5:7 Do not delay your return to the Lord, do not put it off day after day; for suddenly the Lord's wrath will blaze out, and on the day of punishment you will be utterly destroyed.
Sir 5:8 Do not set your heart on ill-gotten gains, they will be of no use to you on the day of disaster.
Sir 5:9 Do not winnow in every wind, or walk along every by-way (as the double-talking sinner does).
Sir 5:10 Be steady in your convictions, and be a person of your word.
Sir 5:11 Be quick to listen, and deliberate in giving an answer.
Sir 5:12 If you understand the matter, give your neighbor an answer, if not, keep your hand over your mouth.
Sir 5:13 Both honor and disgrace come from talking, the tongue is its owner's downfall.
Sir 5:14 Do not get a name for scandal-mongering, do not set traps with your tongue; for as shame lies in store for the thief, so harsh condemnation awaits the deceitful.
Sir 5:15 Avoid offenses in great as in small matters, and do not exchange friendship for enmity,
Sir 6:1 for a bad name will earn you shame and reproach, as happens to the double-talking sinner.
Sir 6:2 Do not get carried aloft on the wings of passion, for fear your strength tear itself apart like a bull,
Sir 6:3 and you devour your own foliage and destroy your own fruit and end by making yourself like a piece of dried-up wood.
Sir 6:4 An evil temper destroys the person who has it and makes him the laughing-stock of his enemies.
Sir 6:5 A kindly turn of speech attracts new friends, a courteous tongue invites many a friendly response.
Sir 6:6 Let your acquaintances be many, but for advisers choose one out of a thousand.
Sir 6:7 If you want to make a friend, take him on trial, and do not be in a hurry to trust him;
Sir 6:8 for one kind of friend is so only when it suits him but will not stand by you in your day of trouble.
Sir 6:9 Another kind of friend will fall out with you and to your dismay make your quarrel public,
Sir 6:10 and a third kind of friend will share your table, but not stand by you in your day of trouble:
Sir 6:11 when you are doing well he will be your second self, ordering your servants about;
Sir 6:12 but, if disaster befalls you, he will recoil from you and keep out of your way.
Sir 6:13 Keep well clear of your enemies, and be wary of your friends.
Sir 6:14 A loyal friend is a powerful defence: whoever finds one has indeed found a treasure.
Sir 6:15 A loyal friend is something beyond price, there is no measuring his worth.
Sir 6:16 A loyal friend is the elixir of life, and those who fear the Lord will find one.
Sir 6:17 Whoever fears the Lord makes true friends, for as a person is, so is his friend too.
Sir 6:18 My child, from your earliest youth choose instruction, and till your hair is white you will keep finding wisdom.
Sir 6:19 Like ploughman and sower, cultivate her and wait for her fine harvest, for in tilling her you will toil a little while, but very soon you will be eating her crops.
Sir 6:20 How very harsh she is to the undisciplined! The senseless does not stay with her for long:
Sir 6:21 she will weigh as heavily on the senseless as a touchstone and such a person will lose no time in throwing her off;
Sir 6:22 for Wisdom is true to her name, she is not accessible to many.
Sir 6:23 Listen, my child, and take my advice, do not reject my counsel:
Sir 6:24 put your feet into her fetters, and your neck into her collar;
Sir 6:25 offer your shoulder to her burden, do not be impatient of her bonds;
Sir 6:26 court her with all your soul, and with all your might keep in her ways;
Sir 6:27 search for her, track her down: she will reveal herself; once you hold her, do not let her go.
Sir 6:28 For in the end you will find rest in her and she will take the form of joy for you:
Sir 6:29 her fetters you will find a mighty defence, her collars, a precious necklace.
Sir 6:30 Her yoke will be a golden ornament, and her bonds be purple ribbons;
Sir 6:31 you will wear her like a robe of honor, you will put her on like a crown of joy.
Sir 6:32 If you wish it, my child, you can be taught; apply yourself, and you will become intelligent.
Sir 6:33 If you love listening, you will learn, if you pay attention, you will become wise.
Sir 6:34 Attend the gathering of elders; if there is a wise man there, attach yourself to him.
Sir 6:35 Listen willingly to any discourse coming from God, do not let wise proverbs escape you.
Sir 6:36 If you see a man of understanding, visit him early, let your feet wear out his doorstep.
Sir 6:37 Reflect on the injunctions of the Lord, busy yourself at all times with his commandments. He will strengthen your mind, and the wisdom you desire will be granted you.
Sir 7:1 Do no evil, and evil will not befall you;
Sir 7:2 shun wrong, and it will avoid you.
Sir 7:3 My child, do not sow in the furrows of wickedness, for fear you have to reap them seven times over.
Sir 7:4 Do not ask the Lord for the highest place, or the king for a seat of honor.
Sir 7:5 Do not parade your uprightness before the Lord, or your wisdom before the king.
Sir 7:6 Do not scheme to be appointed judge, for fear you should not be strong enough to stamp out injustice, for fear of being swayed by someone influential and so of risking the loss of your integrity.
Sir 7:7 Do not wrong the general body of citizens and so lower yourself in popular esteem.
Sir 7:8 Do not be drawn to sin twice over, for you will not go unpunished even once.
Sir 7:9 Do not say, 'God will be impressed by my numerous offerings; when I sacrifice to God Most High, he is bound to accept.'
Sir 7:10 Do not be hesitant in prayer; do not neglect to give alms.
Sir 7:11 Do not laugh at someone who is sad of heart, for he who brings low can lift up high.
Sir 7:12 Do not make up lies against your brother, nor against a friend either.
Sir 7:13 Mind you tell no lies, for no good can come of it.
Sir 7:14 Do not talk too much at the gathering of elders, and do not repeat yourself at your prayers.
Sir 7:15 Do not shirk tiring jobs or farm work, ordained by the Most High.
Sir 7:16 Do not swell the ranks of sinners, remember that the retribution will not delay.
Sir 7:17 Be very humble, since the recompense for the godless is fire and worms.
Sir 7:18 Do not barter a friend away for the sake of profit, nor a true brother for the gold of Ophir.
Sir 7:19 Do not turn against a wise and good wife; her gracious presence is worth more than gold.
Sir 7:20 Do not ill-treat a slave who is an honest worker, or a wage-earner who is devoted to you.
Sir 7:21 Love an intelligent slave with all your heart, and do not deny such a slave his freedom.
Sir 7:22 Have you cattle? Look after them; if they are making you a profit, keep them.
Sir 7:23 Have you children? Educate them, from childhood make them bow the neck.
Sir 7:24 Have you daughters? Take care of their bodies, but do not be over-indulgent.
Sir 7:25 Marry a daughter off, and you have finished a great work; but give her to a man of sense.
Sir 7:26 Have you a wife to your liking? Do not turn her out; but if you do not love her, never trust her.
Sir 7:27 With all your heart honor your father, never forget the birthpangs of your mother.
Sir 7:28 Remember that you owe your birth to them; how can you repay them for what they have done for you?
Sir 7:29 With all your soul, fear the Lord and revere his priests.
Sir 7:30 With all your might love him who made you, and do not abandon his ministers.
Sir 7:31 Fear the Lord and honor the priest and give him the portion enjoined on you: first-fruits, sacrifice of reparation, shoulder-gift, sanctification sacrifice, first-fruits of the holy things.
Sir 7:32 And also give generously to the poor, so that your blessing may lack nothing.
Sir 7:33 Let your generosity extend to all the living, do not withhold it even from the dead.
Sir 7:34 Do not turn your back on those who weep, but share the grief of the grief-stricken.
Sir 7:35 Do not shrink from visiting the sick; in this way you will make yourself loved.
Sir 7:36 In everything you do, remember your end, and you will never sin.
Sir 8:1 Do not try conclusions with anyone influential, in case you later fall into his clutches.
Sir 8:2 Do not quarrel with anyone rich, in case he puts his weight against you; for gold has destroyed many, and has swayed the hearts of kings.
Sir 8:3 Do not argue with anyone argumentative, do not pile wood on that fire.
Sir 8:4 Do not joke with anyone uncouth, for fear of hearing your ancestors insulted.
Sir 8:5 Do not revile a repentant sinner; remember that we all are guilty.
Sir 8:6 Do not despise anyone in old age; after all, some of us too are growing old.
Sir 8:7 Do not gloat over anyone's death; remember that we all have to die.
Sir 8:8 Do not scorn the discourse of the wise, but make yourself familiar with their maxims, since from these you will learn the theory and the art of serving the great.
Sir 8:9 Do not dismiss what the old people have to say, for they too were taught by their parents; from them you will learn how to think, and the art of the timely answer.
Sir 8:10 Do not kindle the coals of the sinner, in case you scorch yourself in his blaze.
Sir 8:11 Refuse to be provoked by the insolent, for fear that such a one try to trap you in your words.
Sir 8:12 Do not lend to anyone who is stronger than you are -- if you do lend, resign yourself to loss.
Sir 8:13 Do not stand surety beyond your means; if you do stand surety, be prepared to pay up.
Sir 8:14 Do not go to law with a judge, since judgement will be given in his favor.
Sir 8:15 Do not go traveling with a rash man, for fear he becomes burdensome to you; he will act as the whim takes him, and you will both be ruined by his folly.
Sir 8:16 Do not argue with a quick-tempered man, do not go with him where there are no other people, since blood counts for nothing in his eyes, and where no help is to be had, he will strike you down.
Sir 8:17 Do not ask a fool for advice, since a fool will not be able to keep a confidence.
Sir 8:18 In a stranger's presence do nothing that should be kept secret, since you cannot tell what use the stranger will make of it.
Sir 8:19 Do not open your heart to all comers, nor lay claim to their good offices.
Sir 9:1 Do not be jealous of the wife you love, do not teach her lessons in how to harm you.
Sir 9:2 Do not put yourself in a woman's hands or she may come to dominate you completely.
Sir 9:3 Do not keep company with a prostitute, in case you get entangled in her snares.
Sir 9:4 Do not dally with a singing girl, in case you get caught by her wiles.
Sir 9:5 Do not stare at a pretty girl, in case you and she incur the same punishment.
Sir 9:6 Do not give your heart to whores, or you will ruin your inheritance.
Sir 9:7 Keep your eyes to yourself in the streets of a town, do not prowl about its unfrequented quarters.
Sir 9:8 Turn your eyes away from a handsome woman, do not stare at a beauty belonging to someone else. Because of a woman's beauty, many have been undone; this makes passion flare up like a fire.
Sir 9:9 Never sit down with a married woman, or sit at table with her drinking wine, in case you let your heart succumb to her and you lose all self-control and slide to disaster.
Sir 9:10 Do not desert an old friend; the new one will not be his match. New friend, new wine; when it grows old, you drink it with pleasure.
Sir 9:11 Do not envy the sinner his success; you do not know how that will end.
Sir 9:12 Do not take pleasure in what pleases the godless; remember they will not go unpunished here below.
Sir 9:13 Keep your distance from the man who has the power to put to death, and you will not be haunted by the fear of dying. If you do approach him, make no false move, or he may take your life. realize that you are treading among trip-lines, that you are strolling on the battlements.
Sir 9:14 Cultivate your neighbors to the best of your ability, and consult with the wise.
Sir 9:15 For conversation seek the intelligent, let all your discussions bear on the law of the Most High.
Sir 9:16 Have the upright for your table companions, and let your pride be in fearing the Lord.
Sir 9:17 Work from skilled hands will earn its praise, but a leader of the people must be skillful in words.
Sir 9:18 A chatterbox is a terror to his town, a loose talker is detested.
Sir 10:1 A sagacious ruler educates his people, and he makes his subjects understand order.
Sir 10:2 As the magistrate is, so will his officials be, as the governor is, so will be the inhabitants of his city.
Sir 10:3 An undisciplined king will be the ruin of his people, a city owes its prosperity to the intelligence of its leading men.
Sir 10:4 The government of the earth is in the hands of the Lord, he sets the right leader over it at the right time.
Sir 10:5 Human success is in the hands of the Lord. He invests the scribe with honor.
Sir 10:6 Do not resent your neighbor's every offense, and never act in a fit of passion.
Sir 10:7 Pride is hateful to God and humanity, and injustice is abhorrent to both.
Sir 10:8 Sovereignty passes from nation to nation because of injustice, arrogance and money.
Sir 10:9 What has dust and ashes to pride itself on? Even in life its entrails are repellent.
Sir 10:10 A long illness makes a fool of the doctor; a king today is a corpse tomorrow.
Sir 10:11 For in death the portion of all alike will be insects, wild animals and worms.
Sir 10:12 The first stage of pride is to desert the Lord and to turn one's heart away from one's Maker.
Sir 10:13 Since the first stage of pride is sin, whoever clings to it will pour forth filth. This is why the Lord inflicts unexpected punishments on such people, utterly destroying them.
Sir 10:14 The Lord has turned mighty princes off their thrones and seated the humble there instead.
Sir 10:15 The Lord has plucked up the proud by the roots, and planted the lowly in their place.
Sir 10:16 The Lord has overthrown the lands of the nations and destroyed them to the very foundations of the earth.
Sir 10:17 Sometimes he has taken them away and destroyed them, and blotted out their memory from the earth.
Sir 10:18 Pride was not created for human beings, nor furious rage for those born of woman.
Sir 10:19 What race deserves honor? The human race. What race deserves honor? Those who fear the Lord. What race deserves contempt? The human race. What race deserves contempt? Those who break the Law.
Sir 10:20 A leader is honored by his brothers, and those who fear the Lord are honored by him.
Sir 10:21
Sir 10:22 The rich, the noble, the poor, let them pride themselves on fearing the Lord.
Sir 10:23 It is not right to despise one who is poor but intelligent, and it is not good to honor one who is a sinner.
Sir 10:24 Magnate, magistrate, potentate, all are to be honored, but none is greater than the one who fears the Lord.
Sir 10:25 A wise slave will have free men waiting on him, and the enlightened will not complain.
Sir 10:26 Do not try to be smart when you do your work, do not put on airs when you are in difficulties.
Sir 10:27 Better the hardworking who has plenty of everything, than the pretentious at a loss for a meal.
Sir 10:28 My child, be modest in your self-esteem, and value yourself at your proper worth.
Sir 10:29 Who can justify one who inflicts injuries on himself, or respect one who is full of self-contempt?
Sir 10:30 The poor is honored for wit, and the rich for wealth.
Sir 10:31 honored in poverty, how much the more in wealth! Dishonored in wealth, how much the more in poverty!
Sir 11:1 Wisdom enables the poor to stand erect, and gives to the poor a place with the great.
Sir 11:2 Do not praise anyone for good looks, nor dislike anyone for mere appearance.
Sir 11:3 Small among winged creatures is the bee but her produce is the sweetest of the sweet.
Sir 11:4 Do not grow proud when people honor you; for the works of the Lord are wonderful but hidden from human beings.
Sir 11:5 Many monarchs have been made to sit on the ground, and the person nobody thought of has worn the crown.
Sir 11:6 Many influential people have been utterly disgraced, and prominent people have fallen into the power of others.
Sir 11:7 Do not find fault before making thorough enquiry; first reflect, then give a reprimand.
Sir 11:8 Listen before you answer, and do not interrupt a speech before it is finished.
Sir 11:9 Do not wrangle about something that does not concern you, do not interfere in the quarrels of sinners.
Sir 11:10 My child, do not take on a great amount of business; if you multiply your interests, you are bound to suffer for it; hurry as fast as you can, yet you will never arrive, nor will you escape by running away.
Sir 11:11 Some people work very hard at top speed, only to find themselves falling further behind.
Sir 11:12 Or there is the slow kind of person, needing help, poor in possessions and rich in poverty; and the Lord turns a favorable eye on him, lifts him out of his wretched condition,
Sir 11:13 and enables him to hold his head high, thus causing general astonishment.
Sir 11:14 Good and bad, life and death, poverty and wealth, all come from the Lord.
Sir 11:15
Sir 11:16
Sir 11:17 To the devout the Lord's gift remains constant, and his favor will be there to lead them for ever.
Sir 11:18 Others grow rich by pinching and scraping, and here is the reward they receive for it:
Sir 11:19 although they say, 'Now I can sit back and enjoy the benefit of what I have got,' they do not know how long this will last; they will have to leave their goods to others and die.
Sir 11:20 Stick to your job, work hard at it and grow old at your work.
Sir 11:21 Do not admire the achievements of sinners, trust the Lord and mind your own business; since it is a trifle in the eyes of the Lord, in a moment, suddenly to make the poor rich.
Sir 11:22 The blessing of the Lord is the reward of the devout, in a moment God brings his blessing to flower.
Sir 11:23 Do not say, 'What are my needs, how much shall I have in the future?'
Sir 11:24 And do not say, 'I am self-sufficient, what disaster can affect me now?'
Sir 11:25 In prosperous times, disasters are forgotten and in times of disaster, no one remembers prosperity.
Sir 11:26 Yet it is a trifle for the Lord on the day someone dies to repay him as his conduct deserves.
Sir 11:27 A moment's adversity, and pleasures are forgotten; in a person's last hour his deeds will stand revealed.
Sir 11:28 Call no one fortunate before his death; it is by his end that someone will be known.
Sir 11:29 Do not bring everyone home with you, for many are the traps of the crafty.
Sir 11:30 Like a captive partridge in a cage, so is the heart of the proud: like a spy he watches for your downfall,
Sir 11:31 ever on the look-out, turning good into bad and finding fault with what is praiseworthy.
Sir 11:32 A hearthful of glowing coals starts from a single spark, and the sinner lurks for the chance to spill blood.
Sir 11:33 Beware of a scoundrel and his evil contrivances, in case he puts a smear on you for ever.
Sir 11:34 Give a home to a stranger and he will start trouble and estrange you from your own family.
Sir 12:1 If you mean to do a kindness, choose the right person, then your good deeds will not be wasted.
Sir 12:2 Do good to someone devout, and you will be rewarded, if not by that person, then certainly by the Most High.
Sir 12:3 No good will come to one who persists in evil, or who refuses to give alms.
Sir 12:4 Give to the devout, do not go to the help of a sinner.
Sir 12:5 Do good to the humble, give nothing to the godless. Refuse him bread, do not give him any, it might make him stronger than you are; then you would be repaid evil twice over for all the good you had done him.
Sir 12:6 For the Most High himself detests sinners, and will repay the wicked with what they deserve.
Sir 12:7 Give to the good, and do not go to the help of a sinner.
Sir 12:8 In prosperity you cannot always tell a true friend, but in adversity you cannot mistake an enemy.
Sir 12:9 When someone is doing well that person's enemies are sad, when someone is doing badly, even a friend will keep at a distance.
Sir 12:10 Do not ever trust an enemy; as bronze tarnishes, so does an enemy's malice.
Sir 12:11 Even if he behaves humbly and comes bowing and scraping, maintain your reserve and be on your guard against him. Behave towards him as if you were polishing a mirror, you will find that his tarnish cannot last.
Sir 12:12 Do not stand him beside you in case he thrusts you out and takes your place. Do not seat him on your right, or he will be after your position, and then you will remember what I have said and sadly admit that I was right.
Sir 12:13 Who feels sorry for a snake-charmer bitten by a snake, or for those who take risks with savage animals? -
Sir 12:14 just so for one who consorts with a sinner, and becomes an accomplice in his sins.
Sir 12:15 He will stay with you for a while, but if you once give way he will press his advantage.
Sir 12:16 An enemy may have sweetness on his lips, and in his heart a scheme to throw you into the ditch. An enemy may have tears in his eyes, but if he gets a chance there can never be too much blood for him.
Sir 12:17 If you meet with misfortune, you will find him there before you, and, pretending to help you, he will trip you up.
Sir 12:18 He will wag his head and clap his hands, he will whisper a lot and his expression will change.
Sir 13:1 Whoever touches pitch will be defiled, and anyone who associates with the proud will come to be like them.
Sir 13:2 Do not try to carry a burden too heavy for you, do not associate with someone more powerful and wealthy than yourself. Why put the clay pot next to the iron cauldron? It will only break when they bang against each other.
Sir 13:3 The rich does wrong and takes a high line; the poor is wronged and has to beg for pardon.
Sir 13:4 If you are useful the rich will exploit you, if you go bankrupt he will desert you.
Sir 13:5 Are you well off? - he will live with you, he will clean you out without a single qualm.
Sir 13:6 Does he need you? - he will hoodwink you, smile at you and raise your hopes; he will speak politely to you and say, 'Is there anything you need?'
Sir 13:7 He will make you feel small at his dinner parties and, having cleaned you out two or three times over, will end by laughing at you. Afterwards, when he sees you, he will avoid you and shake his head about you.
Sir 13:8 Take care you are not hoodwinked and thus humiliated through your own stupidity.
Sir 13:9 When an influential person invites you, show reluctance, and he will press his invitation all the more.
Sir 13:10 Do not thrust yourself forward, in case you are pushed aside, but do not stand aloof, or you will be overlooked.
Sir 13:11 Do not affect to treat him as an equal, do not trust his flow of words; since all this talking is expressly meant to test you, under cover of geniality he will be weighing you up.
Sir 13:12 Pitiless is anyone who retails gossip; he will not spare you either blows or chains.
Sir 13:13 Be wary, take very great care, because you are walking with your own downfall.
Sir 13:14
Sir 13:15 Every living thing loves its own sort, and every man his fellow.
Sir 13:16 Every creature mixes with its kind, and human beings stick to their own sort.
Sir 13:17 How can wolf and lamb agree? - Just so with sinner and devout.
Sir 13:18 What peace can there be between hyena and dog? And what peace between rich and poor?
Sir 13:19 Wild desert donkeys are the prey of lions; so too, the poor is the quarry of the rich.
Sir 13:20 The proud thinks humility abhorrent; so too, the rich abominates the poor.
Sir 13:21 When the rich stumbles he is supported by friends; when the poor falls, his friends push him away.
Sir 13:22 When the rich slips, there are many hands to catch him, if he talks nonsense he is congratulated. The poor slips, and is blamed for it, he may talk good sense, but no room is made for him.
Sir 13:23 The rich speaks and everyone stops talking, and then they praise his discourse to the skies. The poor speaks and people say, 'Who is this?' and if he stumbles, they trip him up yet more.
Sir 13:24 Wealth is good where there is no sin, poverty is evil, the godless say.
Sir 13:25 The heart moulds a person's expression whether for better or worse.
Sir 13:26 Happy heart, cheerful expression; but wearisome work, inventing proverbs.
Sir 14:1 Blessed is anyone who has not sinned in speech and who needs feel no remorse for sins.
Sir 14:2 Blessed is anyone whose conscience brings no reproach and who has never given up hope.
Sir 14:3 Wealth is not the right thing for the niggardly, and what use are possessions to the covetous?
Sir 14:4 Whoever hoards by stinting himself is hoarding for others, and others will live sumptuously on his riches.
Sir 14:5 If someone is mean to himself, whom does he benefit? he does not even enjoy what is his own.
Sir 14:6 No one is meaner than the person who is mean to himself, this is how his wickedness repays him.
Sir 14:7 If he does any good, he does it unintentionally, and in the end he himself reveals his wickedness.
Sir 14:8 Wicked the person who has an envious eye, averting his face, and careless of others' lives.
Sir 14:9 The eye of the grasping is not content with what he has, greed shrivels up the soul.
Sir 14:10 The miser is grudging of bread, there is famine at his table.
Sir 14:11 My child, treat yourself as well as you can afford, and bring worthy offerings to the Lord.
Sir 14:12 Remember that death will not delay, and that you have never seen Sheol's contract.
Sir 14:13 Be kind to your friend before you die, treat him as generously as you can afford.
Sir 14:14 Do not refuse yourself the good things of today, do not let your share of what is lawfully desired pass you by.
Sir 14:15 Will you not have to leave your fortune to another, and the fruit of your labour to be divided by lot?
Sir 14:16 Give and receive, enjoy yourself -- there are no pleasures to be found in Sheol.
Sir 14:17 Like clothes, every body will wear out, the age -- old law is, 'Everyone must die.'
Sir 14:18 Like foliage growing on a bushy tree, some leaves falling, others growing, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies, another is born.
Sir 14:19 Every achievement rots away and perishes, and with it goes its author.
Sir 14:20 Blessed is anyone who meditates on wisdom, and reasons with intelligence,
Sir 14:21 who studies her ways in his heart, and ponders her secrets.
Sir 14:22 He pursues her like a hunter, and lies in wait by her path;
Sir 14:23 he peeps in at her windows, and listens at her doors;
Sir 14:24 he lodges close to her house, and fixes his peg in her walls;
Sir 14:25 he pitches his tent at her side, and lodges in an excellent lodging;
Sir 14:26 he sets his children in her shade, and camps beneath her branches;
Sir 14:27 he is sheltered by her from the heat, and in her glory he makes his home.
Sir 15:1 Whoever fears the Lord will act like this, and whoever grasps the Law will obtain wisdom.
Sir 15:2 She will come to meet him like a mother, and receive him like a virgin bride.
Sir 15:3 She will give him the bread of understanding to eat, and the water of wisdom to drink.
Sir 15:4 He will lean on her and will not fall, he will rely on her and not be put to shame.
Sir 15:5 She will raise him high above his neighbors, and in full assembly she will open his mouth.
Sir 15:6 He will find happiness and a crown of joy, he will inherit an everlasting name.
Sir 15:7 Fools will not gain possession of her, nor will sinners set eyes on her.
Sir 15:8 She stands remote from pride, and liars cannot call her to mind.
Sir 15:9 Praise is unseemly in a sinner's mouth, since it has not been put there by the Lord.
Sir 15:10 For praise should be uttered only in wisdom, and the Lord himself then prompts it.
Sir 15:11 Do not say, 'The Lord was responsible for my sinning,' for he does not do what he hates.
Sir 15:12 Do not say, 'It was he who led me astray,' for he has no use for a sinner.
Sir 15:13 The Lord hates all that is foul, and no one who fears him will love it either.
Sir 15:14 He himself made human beings in the beginning, and then left them free to make their own decisions.
Sir 15:15 If you choose, you will keep the commandments and so be faithful to his will.
Sir 15:16 He has set fire and water before you; put out your hand to whichever you prefer.
Sir 15:17 A human being has life and death before him; whichever he prefers will be given him.
Sir 15:18 For vast is the wisdom of the Lord; he is almighty and all-seeing.
Sir 15:19 His eyes are on those who fear him, he notes every human action.
Sir 15:20 He never commanded anyone to be godless, he has given no one permission to sin.
Sir 16:1 Do not long for a brood of worthless children, and do not take pleasure in godless sons.
Sir 16:2 However many you have, take no pleasure in them, unless the fear of the Lord lives among them.
Sir 16:3 Do not count on their having long life, do not put too much faith in their number; for better have one than a thousand, better die childless than have children who are godless.
Sir 16:4 One person of sense can populate a city, but a race of lawless people will be destroyed.
Sir 16:5 My eyes have seen many such things, my ears have heard things even more impressive.
Sir 16:6 Fire is kindled in a sinful society, Retribution blazes in a rebellious nation.
Sir 16:7 God did not pardon the giants of old who, confident in their strength, had rebelled.
Sir 16:8 He did not spare the people with whom Lot lived; he abhorred them, rather, for their pride.
Sir 16:9 He was pitiless to the nation of perdition -- those people who gloried in their sins-
Sir 16:10 as also to the six hundred thousand men on the march, who had banded together in their obstinacy.
Sir 16:11 And had there been only one man stubborn, it would have been amazing had he escaped unpunished, since mercy and wrath alike belong to the Lord who is mighty to forgive and to pour out wrath.
Sir 16:12 As great as his mercy, so is his severity; he judges each person as his deeds deserve:
Sir 16:13 the sinner will not escape with his ill-gotten gains nor the patience of the devout go for nothing.
Sir 16:14 He takes note of every charitable action, and everyone is treated as he deserves.
Sir 16:15
Sir 16:16
Sir 16:17 Do not say, 'I shall hide from the Lord; who is going to remember me up there? I shall not be noticed among so many people; what am I in the immensity of creation?'
Sir 16:18 For see, the sky and the heavens above the sky, the abyss and the earth shake at his visitation.
Sir 16:19 The mountains and earth's foundations alike quail and tremble when he looks at them.
Sir 16:20 But to all this no one gives thought. Who keeps his movements in mind?
Sir 16:21 The storm wind itself is invisible, and most of what he does goes undetected.
Sir 16:22 'Who will report whether justice has been done? Who will be watching? The covenant is remote!'
Sir 16:23 Such are the thoughts of the person of little sense, stupid, misguided, cherishing his folly.
Sir 16:24 Listen to me, my child, and learn knowledge, and give your whole mind to my words.
Sir 16:25 I shall expound discipline methodically and proclaim knowledge with precision.
Sir 16:26 When God created his works in the beginning, he assigned them their places as soon as they were made.
Sir 16:27 He determined his works for all time, from their origins to their distant generations. They know neither hunger nor weariness, and they never desert their duties.
Sir 16:28 Not one has ever got in the way of another, and they will never disobey his word.
Sir 16:29 And afterwards the Lord looked at the earth, and filled it with his good things.
Sir 16:30 He covered its surface with every kind of animal, and to it they will return.
Sir 17:1 The Lord fashioned human beings from the earth, to consign them back to it.
Sir 17:2 He gave them so many days and so much time, he gave them authority over everything on earth.
Sir 17:3 He clothed them in strength, like himself, and made them in his own image.
Sir 17:4 He filled all living things with dread of human beings, making them masters over beasts and birds.
Sir 17:5
Sir 17:6 He made them a tongue, eyes and ears, and gave them a heart to think with.
Sir 17:7 He filled them with knowledge and intelligence, and showed them what was good and what evil.
Sir 17:8 He put his own light in their hearts to show them the magnificence of his works,
Sir 17:9
Sir 17:10 so that they would praise his holy name as they told of his magnificent works.
Sir 17:11 He set knowledge before them, he endowed them with the law of life.
Sir 17:12 He established an eternal covenant with them, and revealed his judgements to them.
Sir 17:13 Their eyes saw the majesty of his glory, and their ears heard the glory of his voice.
Sir 17:14 He said to them, 'Beware of all wrong-doing'; he gave each a commandment concerning his neighbor.
Sir 17:15 Their ways are always under his eye, they cannot be hidden from his sight.
Sir 17:16
Sir 17:17 Over each nation he has set a governor, but Israel is the Lord's own portion.
Sir 17:18
Sir 17:19 Their actions are all as plain as the sun to him, and his eyes rest constantly on their conduct.
Sir 17:20 Their iniquities are not hidden from him, all their sins are before the Lord.
Sir 17:21
Sir 17:22 Almsgiving is like a signet ring to him, he cherishes generosity like the pupil of an eye.
Sir 17:23 One day he will rise and reward them, he will repay their deserts on their own heads.
Sir 17:24 But to those who repent he permits return, and he encourages those who have lost hope.
Sir 17:25 Return to the Lord and renounce your sins, plead before his face, stop offending him.
Sir 17:26 Come back to the Most High, turn away from iniquity and hold all that is foul in abhorrence.
Sir 17:27 Who is going to praise the Most High in Sheol if we do not glorify him while we are alive?
Sir 17:28 The dead can praise no more than those who do not exist, only those with life and health can praise the Lord.
Sir 17:29 How great is the mercy of the Lord, his pardon for those who turn to him!
Sir 17:30 For we cannot have everything, human beings are not immortal.
Sir 17:31 What is brighter than the sun? And yet it fades. Flesh and blood think of nothing but evil.
Sir 17:32 He surveys the armies of the lofty sky, and all of us are only dust and ashes.
Sir 18:1 He who lives for ever has created the sum of things.
Sir 18:2 The Lord alone will be found just.
Sir 18:3
Sir 18:4 He has given no one the power to proclaim his works to the end, and who can fathom his magnificent deeds?
Sir 18:5 Who can assess his magnificent strength, and who can go further and tell all of his mercies?
Sir 18:6 Nothing can be added to them, nothing subtracted, it is impossible to fathom the marvels of the Lord.
Sir 18:7 When someone finishes he is only beginning, and when he stops he is as puzzled as ever.
Sir 18:8 What is a human being, what purpose does he serve? What is good and what is bad for him?
Sir 18:9 The length of his life: a hundred years at most.
Sir 18:10 Like a drop of water from the sea, or a grain of sand, such are these few years compared with eternity.
Sir 18:11 This is why the Lord is patient with them and pours out his mercy on them.
Sir 18:12 He sees and recognizes how wretched their end is, and so he makes his forgiveness the greater.
Sir 18:13 Human compassion extends to neighbors, but the Lord's compassion extends to everyone; rebuking, correcting and teaching, bringing them back as a shepherd brings his flock.
Sir 18:14 He has compassion on those who accept correction, and who fervently search for his judgements.
Sir 18:15 My child, do not temper your favors with blame nor any of your gifts with words that hurt.
Sir 18:16 Does not dew relieve the heat? In the same way a word is worth more than a gift.
Sir 18:17 Why surely, a word is better than a good present, but a generous person is ready with both.
Sir 18:18 A fool will offer nothing but insult, and a grudging gift makes the eyes smart.
Sir 18:19 Learn before you speak, take care of yourself before you fall ill.
Sir 18:20 Examine yourself before judgement comes, and on the day of visitation you will be acquitted.
Sir 18:21 Humble yourself before you fall ill, repent as soon as the sin is committed.
Sir 18:22 Let nothing prevent your discharging a vow in good time, and do not wait till death to set matters right.
Sir 18:23 Prepare yourself before making a vow, and do not be like someone who tempts the Lord.
Sir 18:24 Bear in mind the retribution of the last days, the time of vengeance when God averts his face.
Sir 18:25 In a time of plenty remember times of famine, think of poverty and want when you are rich.
Sir 18:26 The time slips by between dawn and dusk, everything passes quickly for the Lord.
Sir 18:27 The wise will be cautious in everything, in sinful times will take care not to offend.
Sir 18:28 Every person of sense recognizes wisdom, and will respect anyone who has found her.
Sir 18:29 Those who understand sayings have toiled for their wisdom and have poured out accurate maxims.
Sir 18:30 Do not be governed by your passions, restrain your desires.
Sir 18:31 If you allow yourself to satisfy your desires, this will make you the laughing-stock of your enemies.
Sir 18:32 Do not indulge in luxurious living, do not get involved in such society.
Sir 18:33 Do not beggar yourself by banqueting on credit when there is nothing in your pocket.
Sir 19:1 A drunken workman will never grow rich, and one who makes light of small matters will gradually sink.
Sir 19:2 Wine and women corrupt intelligent men, the customer of whores loses all sense of shame.
Sir 19:3 Grubs and worms will have him as their legacy, and the man who knows no shame will lose his life.
Sir 19:4 Being too ready to trust shows shallowness of mind, and sinning harms the sinner.
Sir 19:5 Taking pleasure in evil earns condemnation;
Sir 19:6 by hating gossip one avoids evil.
Sir 19:7 Never repeat what you are told and you will come to no harm;
Sir 19:8 whether to friend or foe, do not talk about it, unless it would be sinful not to, do not reveal it;
Sir 19:9 you would be heard out, then mistrusted, and in due course you would be hated.
Sir 19:10 Have you heard something? Let it die with you. Courage! It will not burst you!
Sir 19:11 A fool will suffer birthpangs over a piece of news, like a woman labouring with child.
Sir 19:12 Like an arrow stuck in the flesh of the thigh, so is a piece of news inside a fool.
Sir 19:13 Question your friend, he may have done nothing at all; and if he has done anything, he will not do it again.
Sir 19:14 Question your neighbor, he may have said nothing at all; and if he has said anything, he will not say it again.
Sir 19:15 Question your friend, for slander is very common, do not believe all you hear.
Sir 19:16 People sometimes make a slip, without meaning what they say; and which of us has never sinned by speech?
Sir 19:17 Question your neighbor before you threaten him, and defer to the Law of the Most High.
Sir 19:18
Sir 19:19
Sir 19:20 Wisdom consists entirely in fearing the Lord, and wisdom is entirely constituted by the fulfilling of the Law.
Sir 19:21
Sir 19:22 Being learned in evil, however, is not wisdom, there is no prudence in the advice of sinners.
Sir 19:23 There is a cleverness that is detestable; whoever has no wisdom is a fool.
Sir 19:24 Better be short of sense and full of fear, than abound in shrewdness and violate the Law.
Sir 19:25 There is a wickedness which is scrupulous but nonetheless dishonest, and there are those who misuse kindness to win their case.
Sir 19:26 There is the person who will walk bowed down with grief, when inwardly this is nothing but deceit:
Sir 19:27 he hides his face and pretends to be deaf, if he is not unmasked, he will take advantage of you.
Sir 19:28 There is the person who is prevented from sinning by lack of strength, yet he will do wrong when he gets the chance.
Sir 19:29 You can tell a person by his appearance, you can tell a thinker by the look on his face.
Sir 19:30 The way a person dresses, the way he laughs, the way he walks, tell you what he is.
Sir 20:1 There is the rebuke that is untimely, and there is the person who keeps quiet, and he is the shrewd one.
Sir 20:2 But how much better to rebuke than to fume!
Sir 20:3 The person who acknowledges a fault wards off punishment.
Sir 20:4 Like a eunuch trying to take a girl's virginity is someone who tries to impose justice by force.
Sir 20:5 There is the person who keeps quiet and is considered wise, another incurs hatred for talking too much.
Sir 20:6 There is the person who keeps quiet, not knowing how to answer, another keeps quiet, knowing when to speak.
Sir 20:7 The wise will keep quiet till the right moment, but a garrulous fool will always misjudge it.
Sir 20:8 Someone who talks too much will earn dislike, and someone who usurps authority will earn hatred.
Sir 20:9 There is the person who finds misfortune a boon, and the piece of luck that turns to loss.
Sir 20:10 There is the gift that affords you no profit, and the gift that repays you double.
Sir 20:11 There is the honor that leads to humiliation, and there are people in a low state who raise their heads.
Sir 20:12 There is the person who buys much for little, yet pays for it seven times over.
Sir 20:13 The wise wins love with words, while fools may shower favors in vain.
Sir 20:14 The gift of the stupid will bring you no advantage, his eyes look for seven times as much in return.
Sir 20:15 He gives little and reviles much, he opens his mouth like the town crier, he lends today and demands payment tomorrow; he is a detestable fellow.
Sir 20:16 The fool will say, 'I have no friends, I get no gratitude for my good deeds;
Sir 20:17 those who eat my bread have malicious tongues.' How often he will be laughed at, and by how many!
Sir 20:18 Better a slip on the pavement than a slip of the tongue; this is how ruin takes the wicked by surprise.
Sir 20:19 A coarse-grained person is like an indiscreet story endlessly retold by the ignorant.
Sir 20:20 A maxim is rejected when coming from a fool, since the fool does not utter it on the apt occasion.
Sir 20:21 There is a person who is prevented from sinning by poverty; no qualms of conscience disturb that person's rest.
Sir 20:22 There is a person who courts destruction out of false shame, courts destruction for the sake of a fool's opinion.
Sir 20:23 There is a person who out of false shame makes promises to a friend, and so makes an enemy for nothing.
Sir 20:24 Lying is an ugly blot on anyone, and ever on the lips of the undisciplined.
Sir 20:25 A thief is preferable to an inveterate liar, but both are heading for ruin.
Sir 20:26 Lying is an abominable habit, the liar's disgrace lasts for ever.
Sir 20:27 The wise gains advancement by words, the shrewd wins favor from the great.
Sir 20:28 Whoever tills the soil will have a full harvest, whoever wins favor from the great will secure pardon for offenses.
Sir 20:29 Presents and gifts blind the eyes of the wise and stifle rebukes like a muzzle on the mouth.
Sir 20:30 Wisdom concealed, and treasure undiscovered, what use is either of these?
Sir 20:31 Better one who conceals his folly than one who conceals his wisdom.
Sir 21:1 My child, have you sinned? Do so no more, and ask forgiveness for your previous faults.
Sir 21:2 Flee from sin as from a snake, if you approach it, it will bite you; its teeth are lion's teeth, they take human life away.
Sir 21:3 All law-breaking is like a two-edged sword, the wounds it inflicts are beyond cure.
Sir 21:4 Terror and violence make havoc of riches, similarly, desolation overtakes the houses of the proud.
Sir 21:5 A plea from the mouth of the poor goes straight to the ear of God, whose judgement comes without delay.
Sir 21:6 Whoever resents reproof walks in the sinner's footsteps; whoever fears the Lord is repentant of heart.
Sir 21:7 The glib speaker is known far and wide, but the wary detects every slip.
Sir 21:8 To build your house with other people's money is like collecting stones for your own tomb.
Sir 21:9 A meeting of the lawless is like a heap of tow: they will end in a blazing fire.
Sir 21:10 The sinner's road is smoothly paved, but it ends at the pit of Sheol.
Sir 21:11 Whoever keeps the Law will master his instincts; the fear of the Lord is made perfect in wisdom.
Sir 21:12 No one who lacks aptitude can be taught, but certain aptitudes give rise to bitterness.
Sir 21:13 The sage's knowledge is as rich as the abyss and his advice is like a living spring.
Sir 21:14 The heart of a fool is like a broken jar, it will not hold any knowledge.
Sir 21:15 If the educated hears a wise saying, he praises it and caps it with another; if a debauchee hears it, he does not like it and tosses it behind his back.
Sir 21:16 The talk of a fool is like a load on a journey, but it is a pleasure to listen to the intelligent.
Sir 21:17 The utterance of the shrewd will be eagerly awaited in the assembly, what he says will be given serious consideration.
Sir 21:18 The wisdom of a fool is like the wreckage of a house, the knowledge of a dolt is incoherent talk.
Sir 21:19 To the senseless fellow instruction is like fetters on the feet, like manacles on the right hand.
Sir 21:20 A fool laughs at the top of his voice, but the intelligent quietly smiles.
Sir 21:21 To the shrewd instruction is like a golden ornament, like a bracelet on the right arm.
Sir 21:22 The step of a fool goes straight into a house, but a person of much experience makes a respectful approach;
Sir 21:23 the stupid peeps inside through the door, a well-bred person waits outside.
Sir 21:24 Listening at doors is a sign of bad upbringing, the perceptive would be ashamed to do so.
Sir 21:25 The lips of gossips repeat the words of others, the words of the wise are carefully weighed.
Sir 21:26 The heart of fools is in their mouth, but the mouth of the wise is in their heart.
Sir 21:27 When the godless curses Satan, he is cursing himself.
Sir 21:28 The scandal-monger sullies himself and earns the hatred of the neighborhood.
Sir 22:1 An idler is like a stone covered in filth, everyone whistles at his disgrace.
Sir 22:2 An idler is like a lump of dung, anyone picking it up shakes it off his hand.
Sir 22:3 It is a disgrace to have fathered a badly brought-up son, but the birth of any daughter is a loss;
Sir 22:4 a sensible daughter will find a husband, but a shameless one is a grief to her father.
Sir 22:5 A brazen daughter puts father and mother to shame, and will be disowned by both.
Sir 22:6 An untimely remonstrance is like music at a funeral, but a thrashing and correction are wisdom at all times.
Sir 22:7
Sir 22:8
Sir 22:9 Teaching a fool is like gluing bits of pottery together -- you are rousing someone who is besotted with sleep.
Sir 22:10 You might as well talk to someone sound asleep; when you have finished the fool will say, 'What's up?'
Sir 22:11 Shed tears for the dead, who has left the light behind; shed tears for the fool, who has left his wits behind. Shed quieter tears for the dead who is at rest, for the fool life is worse than death.
Sir 22:12 Mourning for the dead lasts seven days, for the foolish and ungodly all the days of their lives.
Sir 22:13 Do not waste many words on the stupid, do not go near a dolt. Beware of him, or you will have trouble and be soiled by contact with him; keep away from him, and you will have peace of mind and not be exasperated by his folly.
Sir 22:14 What is heavier than lead, and what is its name if not 'fool'?
Sir 22:15 Sand and salt and a lump of iron are a lighter burden than a dolt.
Sir 22:16 A tie-beam bonded into a building will not be dislodged by an earthquake; so too, a heart resolved after due reflection will not flinch at the critical moment.
Sir 22:17 A heart founded on intelligent reflection is like a stucco decoration on a smooth wall.
Sir 22:18 Pebbles placed on top of a wall will not stand up to the wind; no more can the heart of a fool frightened at his own thoughts stand up to fear.
Sir 22:19 Prick an eye and you will draw a tear, prick a heart and you reveal its feelings.
Sir 22:20 Throw stones at birds and you scare them away, reproach a friend and you destroy a friendship.
Sir 22:21 If you have drawn your sword on a friend, do not despair; there is a way back.
Sir 22:22 If you have opened your mouth against your friend, do not worry; there is hope for reconciliation; but insult, arrogance, betrayal of secrets, and the stab in the back -- in these cases any friend is lost.
Sir 22:23 Win your neighbor's confidence when he is poor, so that you may enjoy his later good fortune with him; stand by him in times of trouble, in order to have your share when he comes into a legacy.
Sir 22:24 Fire is heralded by the reek of the furnace and smoke, so too, bloodshed by insults.
Sir 22:25 I shall not be ashamed to shelter a friend nor shall I hide away from him,
Sir 22:26 and if evil comes to me through him, everyone who hears about it will beware of him.
Sir 22:27 Who will set a guard on my mouth, and an efficient seal on my lips, to keep me from falling, and my tongue from causing my ruin?
Sir 23:1 Lord, father and master of my life, do not abandon me to their whims, do not let me fall because of them.
Sir 23:2 Who will lay whips to my thoughts, and the discipline of wisdom to my heart, to be merciless to my errors and not let my sins go unchecked,
Sir 23:3 for fear my errors should multiply and my sins then abound and I fall before my adversaries, and my enemy gloat over me?
Sir 23:4 Lord, father and God of my life, do not let my eyes be proud,
Sir 23:5 turn envy away from me,
Sir 23:6 do not let lechery and lust grip me, do not leave me a prey to shameless desire.
Sir 23:7 Children, listen to what I teach, no one who keeps it will be caught out.
Sir 23:8 The sinner is ensnared by his own lips, both the abusive and the proud are tripped by them.
Sir 23:9 Do not get into the habit of swearing, do not make a habit of naming the Holy One;
Sir 23:10 for just as a slave who is constantly overseen will never be without bruises, so someone who is always swearing and uttering the Name will not be exempt from sin.
Sir 23:11 A man for ever swearing is full of iniquity, and the scourge will not depart from his house. If he offends, his sin will be on him, if he did it unheedingly, he has doubly sinned; if he swears a false oath, he will not be treated as innocent, for his house will be filled with calamities.
Sir 23:12 One way of talking is like death, let it not be found in the heritage of Jacob since devout people have nothing to do with that: they will not wallow in sin.
Sir 23:13 Do not get into the habit of using coarse and foul language since this involves sinful words.
Sir 23:14 Remember your father and mother when you are sitting with the great, for fear you forget yourself in their presence and behave like a fool, and then wish you had not been born and curse the day of your birth.
Sir 23:15 No one in the habit of using shameful language will break himself of it as long as he lives.
Sir 23:16 There are two types of people who commit sin after sin and a third who attracts retribution-
Sir 23:17 desire, blazing like a furnace, will not die down until it has been sated- the man who lusts after members of his own family is not going to stop until he is quite burnt out; every food is sweet to the promiscuous, and he will not desist until he dies;
Sir 23:18 and the man who sins against the marriage bed and says to himself, 'Who can see me? There is darkness all round me, the walls hide me, no one can see me, why should I worry? The Most High will not remember my sins.'
Sir 23:19 What he fears are human eyes, he does not realize that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, observing every aspect of human behaviour, seeing into the most secret corners.
Sir 23:20 All things were known to him before they were created, and are still, now that they are finished.
Sir 23:21 This man will be punished in view of the whole town, and will be seized when he least expects it.
Sir 23:22 Similarly the woman unfaithful to her husband, who provides him with an heir by another man:
Sir 23:23 first, she has disobeyed the Law of the Most High; secondly, she has been false to her husband; and thirdly, she has gone whoring in adultery
Sir 23:24 and conceived children by another man. She will be led before the assembly, an enquiry will be held about her children.
Sir 23:25 Her children will strike no root, her branches will bear no fruit.
Sir 23:26 She will leave an accursed memory behind her, her shame will never be wiped out.
Sir 23:27 And those who survive her will recognize that nothing is better than fearing the Lord, and nothing sweeter than adherence to the Lord's commandments.
Sir 24:1 Wisdom speaks her own praises, in the midst of her people she glories in herself.
Sir 24:2 She opens her mouth in the assembly of the Most High, she glories in herself in the presence of the Mighty One:
Sir 24:3 'I came forth from the mouth of the Most High, and I covered the earth like mist.
Sir 24:4 I had my tent in the heights, and my throne was a pillar of cloud.
Sir 24:5 Alone, I have made the circuit of the heavens and walked through the depths of the abyss.
Sir 24:6 Over the waves of the sea and over the whole earth, and over every people and nation I have held sway.
Sir 24:7 Among all these I searched for rest, and looked to see in whose territory I might pitch camp.
Sir 24:8 Then the Creator of all things instructed me and he who created me fixed a place for my tent. He said, "Pitch your tent in Jacob, make Israel your inheritance."
Sir 24:9 From eternity, in the beginning, he created me, and for eternity I shall remain.
Sir 24:10 In the holy tent I ministered before him and thus became established in Zion.
Sir 24:11 In the beloved city he has given me rest, and in Jerusalem I wield my authority.
Sir 24:12 I have taken root in a privileged people, in the Lord's property, in his inheritance.
Sir 24:13 I have grown tall as a cedar on Lebanon, as a cypress on Mount Hermon;
Sir 24:14 I have grown tall as a palm in En-Gedi, as the rose bushes of Jericho; as a fine olive in the plain, as a plane tree, I have grown tall.
Sir 24:15 Like cinnamon and acanthus, I have yielded a perfume, like choice myrrh, have breathed out a scent, like galbanum, onycha, labdanum, like the smoke of incense in the tent.
Sir 24:16 I have spread my branches like a terebinth, and my branches are glorious and graceful.
Sir 24:17 I am like a vine putting out graceful shoots, my blossoms bear the fruit of glory and wealth.
Sir 24:18
Sir 24:19 Approach me, you who desire me, and take your fill of my fruits,
Sir 24:20 for memories of me are sweeter than honey, inheriting me is sweeter than the honeycomb.
Sir 24:21 They who eat me will hunger for more, they who drink me will thirst for more.
Sir 24:22 No one who obeys me will ever have to blush, no one who acts as I dictate will ever sin.'
Sir 24:23 All this is no other than the Book of the Covenant of the Most High God, the Law that Moses enjoined on us, an inheritance for the communities of Jacob.
Sir 24:24
Sir 24:25 This is what makes wisdom brim over like the Pishon, like the Tigris in the season of fruit,
Sir 24:26 what makes intelligence overflow like the Euphrates, like the Jordan at harvest time;
Sir 24:27 and makes discipline flow like the Nile, like the Gihon when the grapes are harvested.
Sir 24:28 The first man did not finish discovering about her, nor has the most recent tracked her down;
Sir 24:29 for her thoughts are wider than the sea, and her designs more profound than the abyss.
Sir 24:30 And I, like a conduit from a river, like a watercourse running into a garden,
Sir 24:31 I said, 'I am going to water my orchard, I intend to irrigate my flower beds.' And see, my conduit has grown into a river, and my river has grown into a sea.
Sir 24:32 Making discipline shine forth from daybreak, I shall send its light far and wide.
Sir 24:33 I shall pour out teaching like prophecy, as a legacy to all future generations.
Sir 24:34 And note, I have been working not merely for myself, but for all who are seeking wisdom.
Sir 25:1 There are three things my soul delights in, and which are delightful to God and to all people: concord between brothers, friendship between neighbors, and a wife and husband who live happily together.
Sir 25:2 There are three sorts of people my soul hates, and whose existence I consider an outrage: the poor swollen with pride, the rich who is a liar and an adulterous old man who has no sense.
Sir 25:3 If you have gathered nothing in your youth, how can you discover anything in your old age?
Sir 25:4 How fine a thing: sound judgement with grey hairs, and for greybeards to know how to advise!
Sir 25:5 How fine a thing: wisdom in the aged, and considered advice coming from people of distinction!
Sir 25:6 The crown of the aged is ripe experience, their glory, the fear of the Lord.
Sir 25:7 There are nine things I can think of which strike me as happy, and a tenth which is now on my tongue: the man who can be proud of his children, he who lives to see the downfall of his enemies;
Sir 25:8 happy is he who keeps house with a sensible wife; he who does not toil with ox and donkey; he who has never sinned with his tongue; he who does not serve a man less worthy than himself;
Sir 25:9 happy is he who has acquired good sense and can find attentive ears for what he has to say;
Sir 25:10 how great is he who has acquired wisdom; but unsurpassed is one who fears the Lord.
Sir 25:11 The fear of the Lord surpasses everything; what can compare with someone who has mastered that?
Sir 25:12
Sir 25:13 Any wound rather than a wound of the heart! Any spite rather than the spite of woman!
Sir 25:14 Any evil rather than an evil caused by an enemy! Any vengeance rather than the vengeance of a foe!
Sir 25:15 There is no poison worse than the poison of a snake, there is no fury worse than the fury of an enemy.
Sir 25:16 I would sooner keep house with a lion or a dragon than keep house with a spiteful wife.
Sir 25:17 A woman's spite changes her appearance and makes her face as grim as a bear's.
Sir 25:18 When her husband goes out to dinner with his neighbors, he cannot help heaving bitter sighs.
Sir 25:19 No spite can approach the spite of a woman, may a sinner's lot be hers!
Sir 25:20 Like the climbing of a sandhill for elderly feet, such is a garrulous wife for a quiet husband.
Sir 25:21 Do not be taken in by a woman's beauty, never lose your head over a woman.
Sir 25:22 Bad temper, insolence and shame hold sway where the wife supports the husband.
Sir 25:23 Low spirits, gloomy face, stricken heart: such is a spiteful wife. Slack hands and sagging knees: such is the wife who does not make her husband happy.
Sir 25:24 Sin began with a woman, and thanks to her we must all die.
Sir 25:25 Do not let water find a leak, nor a spiteful woman give free rein to her tongue.
Sir 25:26 If she will not do as you tell her, get rid of her.
Sir 26:1 How blessed is the husband of a really good wife; the number of his days will be doubled.
Sir 26:2 A perfect wife is the joy of her husband, he will live out the years of his life in peace.
Sir 26:3 A good wife is the best of portions, reserved for those who fear the Lord;
Sir 26:4 rich or poor, their hearts will be glad, their faces cheerful, whatever the season.
Sir 26:5 There are three things that I dread, and a fourth which terrifies me: slander by a whole town, the gathering of a mob, and a false accusation -- these are all worse than death;
Sir 26:6 but a woman jealous of a woman means heartbreak and sorrow, and all this is the scourge of the tongue.
Sir 26:7 A bad wife is a badly fitting ox-yoke, trying to master her is like grasping a scorpion.
Sir 26:8 A drunken wife will goad anyone to fury, she cannot conceal her own degradation.
Sir 26:9 A woman's wantonness shows in her wide-eyed look, her eyelashes leave no doubt.
Sir 26:10 Keep a headstrong daughter under firm control, or, feeling free, she will take advantage of it.
Sir 26:11 Keep a strict watch on her shameless eye, do not be surprised if she disgraces you.
Sir 26:12 Like a thirsty traveller she will open her mouth and drink any water she comes across; she will sit down in front of every tent-peg and open her quiver to any arrow.
Sir 26:13 The grace of a wife will charm her husband, her understanding will make him the stronger.
Sir 26:14 A silent wife is a gift from the Lord, no price can be put on a well-trained character.
Sir 26:15 A modest wife is a boon twice over, a chaste character cannot be over-valued.
Sir 26:16 Like the sun rising over the mountains of the Lord, such is the beauty of a good wife in a well-run house.
Sir 26:17 Like a lamp shining on the sacred lamp-stand, such is a beautiful face on a well-proportioned body.
Sir 26:18 Like golden pillars on a silver base, such are shapely legs on firm-set heels.
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Sir 26:28 There are two things which grieve my heart and a third arouses my anger: a warrior wasting away through poverty, the intelligent treated with contempt, someone turning back from virtue to sin -- the Lord marks out such a person for a violent death.
Sir 26:29 It is difficult for a merchant to avoid doing wrong and for a trader not to incur sin.
Sir 27:1 Many have sinned for the sake of profit, one who hopes to be rich must turn a blind eye.
Sir 27:2 A peg will stick in the joint between two stones, and sin will wedge itself between selling and buying.
Sir 27:3 Whoever does not firmly hold to the fear of the Lord, his house will soon be overthrown.
Sir 27:4 In a shaken sieve the rubbish is left behind, so too the defects of a person appear in speech.
Sir 27:5 The kiln tests the work of the potter, the test of a person is in conversation.
Sir 27:6 The orchard where the tree grows is judged by its fruit, similarly words betray what a person feels.
Sir 27:7 Do not praise anyone who has not yet spoken, since this is where people are tested.
Sir 27:8 If you pursue virtue, you will attain it and put it on like a festal gown.
Sir 27:9 Birds consort with their kind, truth comes home to those who practise it.
Sir 27:10 The lion lies in wait for its prey, so does sin for those who do wrong.
Sir 27:11 The conversation of the devout is wisdom at all times, but the fool is as changeable as the moon.
Sir 27:12 When visiting stupid people, choose the right moment, but among the thoughtful take your time.
Sir 27:13 The conversation of fools is disgusting, raucous their laughter in their sinful pleasures.
Sir 27:14 The talk of hard-swearing people makes your hair stand on end, their brawling makes you stop your ears.
Sir 27:15 A quarrel between the proud leads to bloodshed, and their insults are embarrassing to hear.
Sir 27:16 A betrayer of secrets forfeits all trust and will never find the kind of friend he wants.
Sir 27:17 Be fond of a friend and keep faith with him, but if you have betrayed his secrets, do not go after him any more;
Sir 27:18 for, as one destroys a person by killing him, so you have killed your neighbor's friendship,
Sir 27:19 and as you let a bird slip through your fingers, so you have let your friend go, and will not catch him.
Sir 27:20 Do not go after him -- he is far away, he has fled like a gazelle from the snare.
Sir 27:21 For a wound can be bandaged and abuse forgiven, but for the betrayer of a secret there is no hope.
Sir 27:22 Someone with a sly wink is plotting mischief, no one can dissuade him from it.
Sir 27:23 Honey-tongued to your face, he is lost in admiration at your words; but behind your back he has other things to say, and turns your words into a stumbling-block.
Sir 27:24 I have found many things to hate, but nothing as much as him, and the Lord hates him too.
Sir 27:25 Whoever throws a stone in the air, throws it on to his own head; a treacherous blow cuts both ways.
Sir 27:26 The man who digs a pit falls into it, whoever sets a snare will be caught by it.
Sir 27:27 On anyone who does evil, evil will recoil, without his knowing where it comes from.
Sir 27:28 Sarcasm and abuse are the mark of the arrogant, but vengeance lies in wait like a lion for such a one.
Sir 27:29 The trap will close on all who rejoice in the downfall of the devout, and pain will eat them up before they die.
Sir 27:30 Resentment and anger, these are foul things too, and a sinner is a master at them both.
Sir 28:1 Whoever exacts vengeance will experience the vengeance of the Lord, who keeps strict account of sin.
Sir 28:2 Pardon your neighbor any wrongs done to you, and when you pray, your sins will be forgiven.
Sir 28:3 If anyone nurses anger against another, can one then demand compassion from the Lord?
Sir 28:4 Showing no pity for someone like oneself, can one then plead for one's own sins?
Sir 28:5 Mere creature of flesh, yet cherishing resentment!-who will forgive one for sinning?
Sir 28:6 Remember the last things, and stop hating, corruption and death, and be faithful to the commandments.
Sir 28:7 Remember the commandments, and do not bear your fellow ill-will, remember the covenant of the Most High, and ignore the offense.
Sir 28:8 Avoid quarrelling and you will sin less; for the hot-tempered provokes quarrels,
Sir 28:9 a sinner sows trouble between friends, introducing discord among the peaceful.
Sir 28:10 The way a fire burns depends on its fuel, a quarrel spreads in proportion to its violence; a man's rage depends on his strength, his fury grows fiercer in proportion to his wealth.
Sir 28:11 A sudden quarrel kindles fire, a hasty dispute leads to bloodshed.
Sir 28:12 Blow on a spark and up it flares, spit on it and out it goes; both are the effects of your mouth.
Sir 28:13 A curse on the scandal-monger and double-talker, such a person has ruined many who lived in concord.
Sir 28:14 That third tongue has shattered the peace of many and driven them from nation to nation; it has pulled down fortified cities, and overthrown the houses of the great.
Sir 28:15 The third tongue has had upright wives divorced, depriving them of reward for their hard work.
Sir 28:16 No one who listens to it will ever know peace of mind, will ever live in peace again.
Sir 28:17 A stroke of the whip raises a weal, but a stroke of the tongue breaks bones.
Sir 28:18 Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but many more have fallen by the tongue.
Sir 28:19 Blessed is anyone who has been sheltered from it, and has not experienced its fury, who has not dragged its yoke about, or been bound in its chains;
Sir 28:20 for its yoke is an iron yoke, its chains are bronze chains;
Sir 28:21 the death it inflicts is a miserable death, Sheol is preferable to it.
Sir 28:22 It cannot gain a hold over the devout, they are not burnt by its flames.
Sir 28:23 Those who desert the Lord will fall into it, it will flare up inextinguishably among them, it will be let loose against them like a lion, it will tear them like a leopard.
Sir 28:24 Be sure you put a thorn-hedge round your property, lock away your silver and gold;
Sir 28:25 then make scales and weights for your words, and put a door with bolts across your mouth.
Sir 28:26 Take care you take no false step through it, in case you fall a prey to him who lies in wait.
Sir 29:1 Making your neighbor a loan is an act of mercy, to lend him a helping hand is to keep the commandments.
Sir 29:2 Lend to your neighbor in his time of need, and in your turn repay your neighbor on time.
Sir 29:3 Be as good as your word and keep faith with him, and you will find your needs met every time.
Sir 29:4 Many treat a loan as a windfall, and embarrass those who have come to their rescue.
Sir 29:5 Until he gets something, a man will kiss his neighbor's hand, and refer diffidently to his wealth; but when the loan falls due, he puts this off, he repays with offhand words, and pleads the inconvenience of the time.
Sir 29:6 Even if he can be made to pay, his creditor will recover barely half, and consider even that a windfall. But otherwise he will be cheated of his money, and undeservedly gain himself an enemy; the man will pay him back in curses and abuse, and with insults instead of honor.
Sir 29:7 Many, not out of malice, refuse to lend; they are merely anxious not to be cheated for nothing.
Sir 29:8 Nevertheless, be patient with those who are badly off, do not keep them waiting on your generosity.
Sir 29:9 In obedience to the commandment, help the poor; do not turn the poor away empty-handed in their need.
Sir 29:10 Spend your money on your brother or your friend, do not leave it under a stone to rust away.
Sir 29:11 Use your wealth as the Most High has decreed; you will find that more profitable than gold.
Sir 29:12 Stock your store-rooms with almsgiving; this will save you from all misfortune.
Sir 29:13 Better than sturdy shield or weighty spear, this will fight for you against the enemy.
Sir 29:14 A good man will go surety for his neighbor; only a shameless wretch would desert him.
Sir 29:15 Do not forget the favor your guarantor has done you; he has given his life for you.
Sir 29:16 A sinner is careless of his guarantor's prosperity, the ungrateful forgets his deliverer.
Sir 29:17 Going surety has ruined many who were prosperous, tossing them about in a heavy sea.
Sir 29:18 It has driven the powerful from home to wander among foreign nations.
Sir 29:19 A wicked man in a hurry to stand guarantor in the hope of profit, is hurrying to be sentenced.
Sir 29:20 Come to your neighbor's help as far as you can, but take care not to fall into the same plight.
Sir 29:21 The first thing in life is water, and bread, and clothing, and a house for the sake of privacy.
Sir 29:22 Better the life of the poor under a roof of planks, than lavish fare in somebody else's house.
Sir 29:23 Whether you have little or much, be content with it, and you will not hear your household complaining.
Sir 29:24 It is a miserable life, going from house to house; wherever you stay, you dare not open your mouth,
Sir 29:25 you do not belong, you receive no thanks for the drink you pour out and hear embittering words into the bargain:
Sir 29:26 'Come along, stranger, lay the table, what have you got ready? give me something to eat!'
Sir 29:27 'Go away, stranger, make room for someone important; my brother is coming to stay, I need the house.'
Sir 29:28 It is hard for the reasonable to be begrudged hospitality to be shamed like a debtor.
Sir 30:1 Whoever loves his son will beat him frequently so that in after years the son may be his comfort.
Sir 30:2 Whoever is strict with his son will reap the benefit, and be able to boast of him to his acquaintances.
Sir 30:3 Whoever educates his son will be the envy of his enemy, and will be proud of him among his friends.
Sir 30:4 Even when the father dies, he might well not be dead, since he leaves his likeness behind him.
Sir 30:5 In life he has had the joy of his company, dying, he has no anxieties.
Sir 30:6 He leaves an avenger against his enemies and a rewarder of favors for his friends.
Sir 30:7 Whoever coddles his son will bandage his wounds, his heart will turn over at every cry.
Sir 30:8 A badly broken-in horse turns out stubborn, a son left to himself turns out headstrong.
Sir 30:9 Pamper your child and he will terrorise you, play along with him and he will bring you sorrow.
Sir 30:10 Do not laugh with him, or one day you will weep with him and end up gnashing your teeth.
Sir 30:11 While he is young, do not allow him his freedom and do not wink at his mistakes.
Sir 30:12 Bend his neck in youth, bruise his ribs while he is a child, or else he will grow stubborn and disobedient, and hurt you very deeply.
Sir 30:13 Be strict with your son, and persevere with him, or you will rue his insolence.
Sir 30:14 Better be poor if healthy and fit than rich if tormented in body.
Sir 30:15 Health and strength are better than any gold, a robust body than untold wealth.
Sir 30:16 No riches can outweigh bodily health, no enjoyment surpass a cheerful heart.
Sir 30:17 Better death than a wretched life, and everlasting rest than chronic illness.
Sir 30:18 Good things lavished on a closed mouth are like food offerings put on a grave.
Sir 30:19 What use is an offering to an idol which can neither eat nor smell? How describe someone pursued by the Lord's displeasure?
Sir 30:20 He looks and sighs like a eunuch embracing a pretty girl -- how he sighs!
Sir 30:21 Do not abandon yourself to sorrow, do not torment yourself with brooding.
Sir 30:22 Gladness of heart is life to anyone, joy is what gives length of days.
Sir 30:23 Give your cares the slip, console your heart, chase sorrow far away; for sorrow has been the ruin of many, and is no use to anybody.
Sir 30:24 Jealousy and anger shorten your days, and worry brings premature old age.
Sir 30:25 A genial heart makes a good trencherman, someone who enjoys a good meal.
Sir 31:1 The sleeplessness brought by wealth makes a person lose weight, the worry it causes drives away sleep.
Sir 31:2 The worries of the daytime prevent you from sleeping, like a serious illness, they keep sleep at bay.
Sir 31:3 The rich for ever toils, piling up money, and then, leaving off, he is gorged with luxuries;
Sir 31:4 the poor for ever toils, barely making a living, and then, leaving off, is poorer than ever.
Sir 31:5 No one who loves money can easily avoid sinning, whoever pursues profit will be corrupted by it.
Sir 31:6 Gold has been the ruin of many; their coming destruction was self-evident,
Sir 31:7 since it is a snare for those who sacrifice to it and stupid people all get caught in it.
Sir 31:8 Happy the rich who is found to be blameless and does not go chasing after gold.
Sir 31:9 Who is he, so that we can congratulate him, for he has achieved marvels among his fellows?
Sir 31:10 Who has been through this test and emerged perfect? He may well be proud of that! Who has had the chance to sin and has not sinned, had the chance to do wrong and has not done it?
Sir 31:11 His fortune will be firmly based and the assembly will acclaim his generosity.
Sir 31:12 If you are sitting down to a lavish table, do not display your greed, do not say, 'What a lot to eat!'
Sir 31:13 Remember, it is bad to have a greedy eye. Is any creature more wicked than the eye? - That is why it is always weeping!
Sir 31:14 Do not reach out for anything your host has his eye on, do not jostle him at the dish.
Sir 31:15 Judge your fellow-guest's needs by your own, be thoughtful in every way.
Sir 31:16 Eat what is offered you like a well brought-up person, do not wolf your food or you will earn dislike.
Sir 31:17 For politeness' sake be the first to stop; do not act the glutton, or you will give offense,
Sir 31:18 and if you are sitting with a large party, do not help yourself before the others do.
Sir 31:19 A little is quite enough for a well-bred person; his breathing is easy when he lies in bed.
Sir 31:20 A moderate diet ensures sound sleep, one gets up early, in the best of spirits. Sleeplessness, biliousness and gripe are what the glutton has to endure.
Sir 31:21 If you are forced to eat too much, get up, go and vomit, and you will feel better.
Sir 31:22 Listen to me, my child, do not disregard me, eventually you will see the force of my words. Be moderate in all your activities and illness will never overtake you.
Sir 31:23 People praise the person who keeps a splendid table, and their opinion of his munificence is sound.
Sir 31:24 But a niggardly host provokes universal resentment and people will retail instances of his meanness.
Sir 31:25 Do not play the valiant at your wine, for wine has been the undoing of many.
Sir 31:26 The furnace proves the temper of steel, and wine proves hearts in the drinking bouts of braggarts.
Sir 31:27 Wine gives life if drunk in moderation. What is life worth without wine? It came into being to make people happy.
Sir 31:28 Drunk at the right time and in the right amount, wine makes for a glad heart and a cheerful mind.
Sir 31:29 Bitterness of soul comes of wine drunk to excess out of temper or bravado.
Sir 31:30 Drunkenness excites the stupid to a fury to his own harm, it reduces his strength while leading to blows.
Sir 31:31 Do not provoke your fellow-guest at a wine feast, do not make fun of him when he is enjoying himself, do not take him to task or annoy him by reclaiming money owed.
Sir 32:1 Have they made you the presider? Do not let it go to your head, behave like everyone else in the party, see that they are happy and then sit down yourself.
Sir 32:2 Having discharged your duties, take your place so that your joy may be through theirs, and you may receive the crown for your competence.
Sir 32:3 Speak, old man -- it is proper that you should -- but with discretion: do not spoil the music.
Sir 32:4 If someone is singing, do not ramble on and do not play the sage at the wrong moment.
Sir 32:5 An amber seal on a precious stone, such is a concert of music at a wine feast.
Sir 32:6 An emerald seal in a golden setting, such are strains of music with a vintage wine.
Sir 32:7 Speak, young man, when you must, but twice at most, and then only if questioned.
Sir 32:8 Keep to the point, say much in few words; give the impression of knowing but not wanting to speak.
Sir 32:9 Among eminent people do not behave as though you were their equal; do not make frivolous remarks when someone else is speaking.
Sir 32:10 Lightning comes before the thunder, favor goes ahead of a modest person.
Sir 32:11 Leave in good time, do not bring up the rear, and hurry home without loitering.
Sir 32:12 There amuse yourself, and do what you have a mind to, but do not sin by arrogant talk.
Sir 32:13 And for all this bless your Creator, who intoxicates you with his favors.
Sir 32:14 Whoever fears the Lord will accept his correction; those who look for him will win his favor.
Sir 32:15 Whoever seeks the Law will be nourished by it, the hypocrite will find it a stumbling-block.
Sir 32:16 Those who fear the Lord win his approval, their good deeds shining like a light.
Sir 32:17 The sinner waves reproof aside, he finds an excuse for headstrong behaviour.
Sir 32:18 A sensible person never scorns a warning; foreigners and the proud do not know about fear.
Sir 32:19 Never act without reflection, and you will not regret your actions.
Sir 32:20 Do not venture on a rough road, for fear of stumbling over the stones.
Sir 32:21 Do not be over-confident on an even road
Sir 32:22 and beware of your own children.
Sir 32:23 Watch yourself in everything you do; this is also the way to keep the commandments.
Sir 32:24 Anyone who trusts in the Law obeys its precepts, no one who has confidence in the Lord will come to harm.
Sir 33:1 No evil will befall one who fears the Lord, such a one will be rescued even in the ordeal.
Sir 33:2 No one who hates the Law is wise, one who is hypocritical about it is like a storm-tossed ship.
Sir 33:3 An intelligent person will put faith in the Law, for such a one the Law is as dependable as a prophecy.
Sir 33:4 Prepare what you have to say and you will get a hearing, marshal your information before you answer.
Sir 33:5 The feelings of a fool are like a cart-wheel, a fool's thought revolves like a turning axle.
Sir 33:6 A rutting stallion is like a sarcastic friend; he neighs, whoever rides him.
Sir 33:7 Why is one day better than another, though the sun gives the same daylight throughout the year?
Sir 33:8 They have been differentiated in the mind of the Lord, who has diversified the seasons and feasts;
Sir 33:9 some he has made more important and has hallowed, others he has made ordinary days.
Sir 33:10 Human beings come from the ground, Adam himself was formed out of earth;
Sir 33:11 in the fullness of his wisdom the Lord has made distinctions between them, and diversified their conditions.
Sir 33:12 Some of them he has blessed, hallowing and setting them near him; others he has cursed and humiliated by degrading them from their positions.
Sir 33:13 Like clay in the hands of the potter to mould as it pleases him, so are human beings in the hands of their Maker to reward as he judges right.
Sir 33:14 Opposite evil stands good, opposite death, life; so too opposite the devout stands the sinner.
Sir 33:15 Contemplate all the works of the Most High, you will find they go in pairs, by opposites.
Sir 33:16 Although the last to come, I have kept my eyes open like a man picking up what the grape-pickers have left.
Sir 33:17 By the blessing of the Lord I have come in first, and like a true grape-picker have filled my winepress.
Sir 33:18 And note, I have not been working merely for myself, but for all who seek instruction.
Sir 33:19 Listen to me, important public figures, presidents of the assembly, give ear!
Sir 33:20 Neither to son nor wife, brother nor friend, give power over yourself during your own lifetime. And do not give your property to anyone else, in case you regret it and have to ask for it back.
Sir 33:21 As long as you live and there is breath in your body, do not yield power over yourself to anyone;
Sir 33:22 better for your children to come begging to you, than for you to have to go begging to them.
Sir 33:23 In all you do be the master, and leave a reputation unstained.
Sir 33:24 The day your life draws to a close, at the hour of death, then distribute your heritage.
Sir 33:25 Fodder, the stick and burdens for a donkey, bread, discipline and work for a slave.
Sir 33:26 Work your slave hard, and you will have peace of mind, leave his hands idle, and he will be asking for his freedom.
Sir 33:27 Yoke and harness will bow the neck, for a bad servant, torments and the rack.
Sir 33:28 Set him to work, so that he will not be idle; idleness teaches every kind of mischief.
Sir 33:29 Keep him at his duties, where he should be, if he is disobedient, clap him in irons.
Sir 33:30 But do not be over-exacting with anyone, and do nothing contrary to justice.
Sir 33:31 You have only one slave? Treat him like yourself, since you have acquired him with blood.
Sir 33:32 You have only one slave? Treat him as a brother, since you need him as you need yourself.
Sir 33:33 If you ill-treat him and he runs away, which way will you go to look for him?
Sir 34:1 Vain and deceptive hopes are for the foolish, and dreams lend wings to fools.
Sir 34:2 As well clutch at shadows and chase the wind as put any faith in dreams.
Sir 34:3 Dreams are no different from mirrors; confronting a face, the reflection of that face.
Sir 34:4 What can be cleansed by uncleanness, what can be verified by falsehood?
Sir 34:5 Divinations, auguries and dreams are nonsense, like the fantasies of a pregnant woman.
Sir 34:6 Unless sent as emissaries from the Most High, do not give them a thought;
Sir 34:7 for dreams have led many astray, and those who relied on them have come to grief.
Sir 34:8 Fulfilling the Law requires no such falsehood, and wisdom is perfected in veracity.
Sir 34:9 A much travelled man knows many things, and a man of great experience will talk sound sense.
Sir 34:10 Someone who has never had his trials knows little; but the travelled man is master of every situation.
Sir 34:11 I have seen many things on my travels, I have understood more than I can put into words.
Sir 34:12 I have often been in danger of death, but I have been spared, and this is why:
Sir 34:13 the spirit of those who fear the Lord can survive, for their hope is in someone with power to save them.
Sir 34:14 No one who fears the Lord need ever hesitate, or ever be daunted, since the Lord is his hope.
Sir 34:15 Happy the soul of one who fears the Lord. On whom does he rely? Who supports him?
Sir 34:16 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who love him, he is their powerful protection and their strong support, their screen from the desert wind, their shelter from the midday sun, a guard against stumbling, an assurance against a fall.
Sir 34:17 He revives the spirit and brightens the eyes, he gives health, life and blessing.
Sir 34:18 The sacrifice of an offering unjustly acquired is a mockery; the gifts of the impious are unacceptable.
Sir 34:19 The Most High takes no pleasure in offerings from the godless, multiplying sacrifices will not gain pardon for sin.
Sir 34:20 Offering sacrifice from the property of the poor is as bad as slaughtering a son before his father's eyes.
Sir 34:21 A meagre diet is the very life of the poor, to deprive them of it is to commit murder.
Sir 34:22 To take away a fellow-man's livelihood is to kill him, to deprive an employee of his wages is to shed blood.
Sir 34:23 If one person builds while another pulls down, what will they get out of it but trouble?
Sir 34:24 If one person prays and another calls down a curse, to which one's voice is the Master going to listen?
Sir 34:25 If someone washes after touching a corpse, and then touches it again, what is the good of his washing?
Sir 34:26 Just so with someone who fasts for sin, and then goes and commits it again. Who is going to hear that person's prayer? What is the good of the self-abasement?
Sir 35:1 One who keeps the Law multiplies offerings; one who follows the commandments offers communion sacrifices.
Sir 35:2 Proof of gratitude is an offering of fine flour, almsgiving a sacrifice of praise.
Sir 35:3 To abandon wickedness is what pleases the Lord, to give up wrong-doing is an expiatory sacrifice.
Sir 35:4 Do not appear empty-handed in the Lord's presence; for all these things are due under the commandment.
Sir 35:5 The offering of the upright graces the altar, and its savour rises before the Most High.
Sir 35:6 The sacrifice of the upright is acceptable, its memorial will not be forgotten.
Sir 35:7 honor the Lord with generosity, do not stint the first-fruits you bring.
Sir 35:8 Add a smiling face to all your gifts, and be cheerful as you dedicate your tithes.
Sir 35:9 Give to the Most High as he has given to you, as generously as your means can afford;
Sir 35:10 for the Lord is a good rewarder, he will reward you seven times over.
Sir 35:11 Do not try to bribe him with presents, he will not accept them, do not put your faith in wrongly motivated sacrifices;
Sir 35:12 for the Lord is a judge who is utterly impartial.
Sir 35:13 He never shows partiality to the detriment of the poor, he listens to the plea of the injured party.
Sir 35:14 He does not ignore the orphan's supplication, nor the widow's as she pours out her complaint.
Sir 35:15 Do the widow's tears not run down her cheeks, as she accuses the man who is the cause of them?
Sir 35:16 Whoever wholeheartedly serves God will be accepted, his petitions will carry to the clouds.
Sir 35:17 The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds: and until it does, he is not to be consoled,
Sir 35:18 nor will he desist until the Most High takes notice of him, acquits the upright and delivers judgement.
Sir 35:19 And the Lord will not be slow, nor will he be dilatory on their behalf,
Sir 35:20 until he has crushed the loins of the merciless and exacted vengeance on the nations,
Sir 35:21 until he has eliminated the hordes of the arrogant and broken the scepters of the wicked,
Sir 35:22 until he has repaid all people as their deeds deserve and human actions as their intentions merit,
Sir 35:23 until he has judged the case of his people and made them rejoice in his mercy.
Sir 35:24 Mercy is welcome in time of trouble, like rain clouds in time of drought.
Sir 36:1 Take pity on us, Master, Lord of the universe, look at us, spread fear of yourself throughout all other nations.
Sir 36:2 Raise your hand against the foreign nations and let them see your might.
Sir 36:3 As, in their sight, you have proved yourself holy to us, so now, in our sight, prove yourself great to them.
Sir 36:4 Let them acknowledge you, just as we have acknowledged that there is no God but you, Lord.
Sir 36:5 Send new portents, do fresh wonders, win glory for your hand and your right arm.
Sir 36:6 Rouse your fury, pour out your rage, destroy the opponent, annihilate the enemy.
Sir 36:7 Hasten the day, remember the oath, and let people tell of your mighty deeds.
Sir 36:8 Let fiery wrath swallow up the survivor, and destruction overtake those who oppress your people.
Sir 36:9 Crush the heads of hostile rulers who say, 'There is no one else but us!'
Sir 36:10 Gather together all the tribes of Jacob, restore them their heritage as at the beginning.
Sir 36:11 Take pity, Lord, on the people called by your name, on Israel whom you have made your first-born.
Sir 36:12 Have compassion on your holy city, on Jerusalem, the place where you rest.
Sir 36:13 Fill Zion with your praises and your sanctuary with your glory.
Sir 36:14 Vindicate those whom you created first, fulfill what has been prophesied in your name.
Sir 36:15 Give those who wait for you their reward, let your prophets be proved true.
Sir 36:16 Grant, Lord, the prayer of your servants, in the terms of Aaron's blessing on your people,
Sir 36:17 so that all the earth's inhabitants may acknowledge that you are the Lord, the everlasting God.
Sir 36:18 The stomach takes in all kinds of food, but some foods are better than others.
Sir 36:19 As the palate discerns the flavour of game, so a shrewd listener detects lying words.
Sir 36:20 A perverse character causes depression in others; it needs experience to know how to repay such a one.
Sir 36:21 A woman will accept any husband, but some daughters are better than others.
Sir 36:22 A woman's beauty delights the beholder, a man likes nothing better.
Sir 36:23 If her tongue is kind and gentle, her husband is the happiest of men.
Sir 36:24 The man who takes a wife has the makings of a fortune, a helper to match himself, a pillar of support.
Sir 36:25 When property has no fence, it is open to plunder, when a man has no wife, he is aimless and querulous.
Sir 36:26 Will anyone trust an armed thief who flits from town to town?
Sir 36:27 So it is with the man who has no nest, and lodges wherever night overtakes him.
Sir 37:1 Any friend will say, 'I am your friend too,' but some friends are friends only in name.
Sir 37:2 Is it not a deadly sorrow when a comrade or a friend turns enemy?
Sir 37:3 O evil inclination, why were you created, to cover the earth with deceit?
Sir 37:4 One kind of comrade congratulates a friend in prosperity but in time of trouble appears on the other side.
Sir 37:5 One kind of comrade genuinely feels for a friend and when it comes to a fight, springs to arms.
Sir 37:6 Do not forget the genuine friend, do not push him out of mind once you are rich.
Sir 37:7 Any adviser will offer advice, but some are governed by self-interest.
Sir 37:8 Beware of someone who offers advice; first find out what he wants himself- since his advice coincides with his own interest -- in case he has designs on you
Sir 37:9 and tells you, 'You are on the right road,' but stands well clear to see what will happen to you.
Sir 37:10 Do not consult anyone who looks at you askance, conceal your plans from people jealous of you.
Sir 37:11 Do not consult a woman about her rival, or a coward about war, a merchant about prices, or a buyer about selling, anyone mean about gratitude, or anyone selfish about kindness, a lazy fellow about any sort of work, or a casual worker about finishing a job, an idle servant about a major undertaking -- do not rely on these for any advice.
Sir 37:12 But have constant recourse to some devout person, whom you know to be a keeper of the commandments, whose soul matches your own, and who, if you go wrong, will be sympathetic.
Sir 37:13 Finally, stick to the advice your own heart gives you, no one can be truer to you than that;
Sir 37:14 since a person's soul often gives a clearer warning than seven watchmen perched on a watchtower.
Sir 37:15 And besides all this beg the Most High to guide your steps into the truth.
Sir 37:16 Reason should be the basis for every activity, reflection must come before any undertaking.
Sir 37:17 Thoughts are rooted in the heart, and this sends out four branches:
Sir 37:18 good and evil, life and death, and mistress of them always is the tongue.
Sir 37:19 One kind of person is clever at teaching others, yet is no good whatever to himself;
Sir 37:20 another, very eloquent, is detested and ends by starving to death,
Sir 37:21 not having won the favor of the Lord, and being destitute of all wisdom.
Sir 37:22 Another considers himself wise and proclaims his intellectual conclusions as certainties.
Sir 37:23 But the truly wise instructs his people and his intellectual conclusions are certainties.
Sir 37:24 The wise is showered with blessings, and all who see him will call him happy.
Sir 37:25 Human life lasts a number of days, but the days of Israel are beyond counting.
Sir 37:26 The wise will earn confidence among the people, his name will live for ever.
Sir 37:27 During your life, my child, see what suits your constitution, do not give it what you find disagrees with it;
Sir 37:28 for not everything is good for everybody, nor does everybody like everything.
Sir 37:29 Do not be insatiable for any delicacy, do not be greedy for food,
Sir 37:30 for over-eating leads to illness and excess leads to liver-attacks.
Sir 37:31 Many people have died from over-eating; control yourself, and so prolong your life.
Sir 38:1 Treat the doctor with the honor that is his due, in consideration of his services; for he too has been created by the Lord.
Sir 38:2 Healing itself comes from the Most High, like a gift received from a king.
Sir 38:3 The doctor's learning keeps his head high, and the great regard him with awe.
Sir 38:4 The Lord has brought forth medicinal herbs from the ground, and no one sensible will despise them.
Sir 38:5 Did not a piece of wood once sweeten the water, thus giving proof of its power?
Sir 38:6 He has also given some people knowledge, so that they may draw credit from his mighty works.
Sir 38:7 He uses these for healing and relieving pain; the druggist makes up a mixture from them.
Sir 38:8 Thus, there is no end to his activities; thanks to him, well-being exists throughout the world.
Sir 38:9 My child, when you are ill, do not rebel, but pray to the Lord and he will heal you.
Sir 38:10 Renounce your faults, keep your hands unsoiled, and cleanse your heart from all sin.
Sir 38:11 Offer incense and a memorial of fine flour, make as rich an offering as you can afford.
Sir 38:12 Then let the doctor take over -- the Lord created him too -- do not let him leave you, for you need him.
Sir 38:13 There are times when good health depends on doctors.
Sir 38:14 For they, in their turn, will pray the Lord to grant them the grace to relieve and to heal, and so prolong your life.
Sir 38:15 Whoever sins in the eyes of his Maker, let such a one come under the care of the doctor!
Sir 38:16 My child, shed tears over the dead, lament for the dead to show your sorrow, then bury the body with due ceremony and do not fail to honor the grave.
Sir 38:17 Weep bitterly, beat your breast, observe the mourning the dead deserves for a day or two, to avoid censorious comment, and then be comforted in your sorrow;
Sir 38:18 for grief can lead to death, a grief-stricken heart loses all energy.
Sir 38:19 In affliction sorrow persists, a life of grief is hard to bear.
Sir 38:20 Do not abandon your heart to grief, drive it away, bear your own end in mind.
Sir 38:21 Do not forget, there is no coming back; you cannot help the dead, and you will harm yourself.
Sir 38:22 'Remember my doom, since it will be yours too; I yesterday, you today!'
Sir 38:23 Once the dead are laid to rest, let their memory rest, do not fret for them, once their spirit departs.
Sir 38:24 Leisure gives the scribe the chance to acquire wisdom; a man with few commitments can grow wise.
Sir 38:25 How can the ploughman become wise, whose sole ambition is to wield the goad, driving his oxen, engrossed in their work, his conversation limited to bullocks,
Sir 38:26 his thoughts absorbed in the furrows he traces and his long evenings spent in fattening heifers?
Sir 38:27 Similarly with all workmen and craftsmen, toiling day and night; those who engrave seals, for ever trying to think of a new design, concentrating on catching a good likeness and staying up late to get the work done.
Sir 38:28 Similarly with the blacksmith sitting by his anvil; he considers what to do with the pig-iron, the breath of the fire scorches his skin, as he contends with the heat of the furnace; the noise of the hammer deafens him, his eyes are fixed on the pattern; he concentrates on getting the job done well and stays up late to apply the finishing touches.
Sir 38:29 Similarly with the potter, sitting at his work, turning the wheel with his feet; constantly on the alert over his work, each flick of the finger premeditated;
Sir 38:30 he pummels the clay with his arm, and with his feet he kneads it; he concentrates on applying the glaze right and stays up late to clean the kiln.
Sir 38:31 All these people rely on their hands and each is skilled at his own craft.
Sir 38:32 A town could not be inhabited without them, there would be no settling, no traveling.
Sir 38:33 But you will not find them in the parliament, they do not hold high rank in the assembly. They do not sit on the judicial bench, and they do not meditate on the Law.
Sir 38:34 They are not remarkable for their culture or judgement, nor are they found frequenting the philosophers. They sustain the structure of the world, and their prayer is concerned with their trade.
Sir 39:1 Not so with one who concentrates his mind and his meditation on the Law of the Most High. He researches into the wisdom of all the Ancients, he occupies his time with the prophecies.
Sir 39:2 He preserves the discourses of famous men, he is at home with the niceties of parables.
Sir 39:3 He researches into the hidden sense of proverbs, he ponders the obscurities of parables.
Sir 39:4 He enters the service of princes, he is seen in the presence of rulers. He travels in foreign countries, he has experienced human good and human evil.
Sir 39:5 At dawn and with all his heart he turns to the Lord his Creator; he pleads in the presence of the Most High, he opens his mouth in prayer and makes entreaty for his sins.
Sir 39:6 If such be the will of the great Lord, he will be filled with the spirit of intelligence, he will shower forth words of wisdom, and in prayer give thanks to the Lord.
Sir 39:7 He will grow upright in purpose and learning, he will ponder the Lord's hidden mysteries.
Sir 39:8 He will display the instruction he has received, taking his pride in the Law of the Lord's covenant.
Sir 39:9 Many will praise his intelligence and it will never be forgotten. His memory will not disappear, generation after generation his name will live.
Sir 39:10 Nations will proclaim his wisdom, the assembly will celebrate his praises.
Sir 39:11 If he lives long, his name will be more glorious than a thousand others, and if he dies, that will satisfy him just as well.
Sir 39:12 And here are some more of my reflections: yes, I am as full as the moon at the full!
Sir 39:13 Listen to me, devout children, and blossom like the rose that grows on the bank of a watercourse.
Sir 39:14 Give off a sweet smell like incense, flower like the lily, spread your fragrance abroad, sing a song of praise blessing the Lord for all his works.
Sir 39:15 Declare the greatness of his name, proclaim his praise with song and with lyre, and this is how you must sing his praises:
Sir 39:16 'How wonderful, the actions of the Lord! Whatever he orders is done at the proper time!' You must not say, 'What is this? Why is that?' There is a proper time for every question.
Sir 39:17 At his word, the water stops and piles up high, at his voice, the watery reservoirs take shape,
Sir 39:18 at his command, whatever he wants is done, no one can stop him, if he intends to save.
Sir 39:19 He can see whatever human beings are doing, nothing can be hidden from his eye;
Sir 39:20 his gaze stretches from eternity to eternity, and nothing can astonish him.
Sir 39:21 You must not say, 'What is this? Why is that?' for everything has been made for a purpose.
Sir 39:22 As his blessing covers the dry land like a river and soaks it like a flood,
Sir 39:23 so retribution is his legacy to the nations, just as he has turned fresh waters to salt.
Sir 39:24 His ways are as smooth for the devout, as they are full of obstacles for the wicked.
Sir 39:25 Good things were created from the beginning for good people, as bad ones were for sinners.
Sir 39:26 The prime needs of human beings for living are water and fire, iron and salt, wheat-flour, milk and honey, the juice of the grape, oil and clothing.
Sir 39:27 All these are good for those who are good, but turn out bad for sinners.
Sir 39:28 Some winds have been created for punishing, in his fury, he uses them as scourges; on the day of doom, they unleash their violence and appease the wrath of their Creator.
Sir 39:29 Fire and hail, famine and death, have all been created for punishing.
Sir 39:30 Wild animals' fangs, scorpions, vipers, the avenging sword for the ruin of the godless:
Sir 39:31 all of them exult in discharging his orders, ready on earth whenever the need arises and, when their time comes, not falling short of his word.
Sir 39:32 That is why I was determined from the outset, why I have pondered and why I have written,
Sir 39:33 'The works of the Lord are all good, when the time is right, he gives whatever is needed.
Sir 39:34 You must not say, "This is worse than that," for, sooner or later, everything proves its worth.
Sir 39:35 So now, sing with all your heart and voice, and bless the name of the Lord!'
Sir 40:1 A hard lot has been created for human beings, a heavy yoke lies on the children of Adam from the day they come out of their mother's womb, till the day they return to the mother of them all.
Sir 40:2 What fills them with foreboding and their hearts with fear is dread of the day of death.
Sir 40:3 From the one who sits on a glorious throne to the wretch in dust and ashes,
Sir 40:4 from the one who wears purple and a crown to the one dressed in sacking, all is fury and jealousy, turmoil and unrest, fear of death, rivalry, strife.
Sir 40:5 And even at night while he rests on his bed his sleep only gives a new twist to his worries:
Sir 40:6 scarcely has he lain down to rest, when in his sleep, as if in broad daylight, he is troubled with nightmares, like one who has escaped from a battle,
Sir 40:7 and at the moment of rescue he wakes up, amazed that there was nothing to be afraid of!
Sir 40:8 For all creatures, human and animal -- and seven times more for sinners-
Sir 40:9 there is death and blood and strife and the sword, disasters, famine, affliction, plague.
Sir 40:10 These things were all created for the wicked, and the Flood came because of them.
Sir 40:11 All that comes from the earth returns to the earth, and what comes from the water returns to the sea.
Sir 40:12 All bribery and injustice will be blotted out, but good faith will stand for ever.
Sir 40:13 Ill-gotten wealth will vanish like a torrent, like the single thunder-clap that heralds rain.
Sir 40:14 When he opens his hand, he rejoices, by the same token, sinners come to ruin.
Sir 40:15 The sprigs of the godless will not make many branches, tainted roots find only hard rock.
Sir 40:16 The reed that grows by every lake and river's edge is the first plant to be uprooted.
Sir 40:17 Charity is a very paradise of blessing and almsgiving endures for ever.
Sir 40:18 For a person of private means and one who works hard, life is pleasant, better off than either, one who finds a treasure.
Sir 40:19 Children and the founding of a city perpetuate a name: more esteemed than either, a perfect wife.
Sir 40:20 Wine and music cheer the heart; better than either, the love of wisdom.
Sir 40:21 Flute and harp add sweetness to a song; better than either, a melodious voice.
Sir 40:22 The eye longs for grace and beauty; better than either, the green of spring corn.
Sir 40:23 Friend or comrade -- it is always well met; better than either, a wife and husband.
Sir 40:24 Brothers and allies are good in times of trouble; better than either, almsgiving to the rescue.
Sir 40:25 Gold and silver will steady your feet; more esteemed than either, good advice.
Sir 40:26 Money and strength make a confident heart; better than either, the fear of the Lord. With fear of the Lord, nothing is lacking: no need to seek for other help.
Sir 40:27 Fear of the Lord is a paradise of blessing, a better protection than the highest reputation.
Sir 40:28 My child, do not live by sponging off others, better be dead than be a sponger.
Sir 40:29 A life spent in eyeing someone else's table cannot be accounted a life at all. Other people's food defiles the gullet; a wise, well-brought-up person will beware of doing this.
Sir 40:30 What a sponger says may sound very sweet but in his belly there burns a fire.
Sir 41:1 O death, how bitter it is to remember you for someone peacefully living with his possessions, for someone with no worries and everything going well and who can still enjoy his food!
Sir 41:2 O death, your sentence is welcome to one in want, whose strength is failing, to one worn out with age and a thousand worries, resentful and impatient!
Sir 41:3 Do not dread death's sentence; remember those who came before you and those who will come after.
Sir 41:4 This is the sentence passed on all living creatures by the Lord, so why object to what seems good to the Most High? Whether your life lasts ten or a hundred or a thousand years, its length will not be held against you in Sheol.
Sir 41:5 Hateful brats, such are the children of sinners, who foregather in the haunts of the godless.
Sir 41:6 The inheritance of sinners' children is doomed to perish, their posterity will endure lasting reproach.
Sir 41:7 A godless father will be blamed by his children for the reproach he has brought on them.
Sir 41:8 A bad outlook for you, godless people, who have forsaken the Law of God Most High.
Sir 41:9 When you were born, you were born to be accursed, and when you die, that curse will be your portion.
Sir 41:10 All that comes from the earth returns to the earth, so too the wicked proceed from curse to destruction.
Sir 41:11 Mourning concerns only the bodies of the dead, but the worthless name of sinners will be blotted out.
Sir 41:12 Be careful of your reputation, for it will last you longer than a thousand great hoards of gold.
Sir 41:13 A good life lasts a certain number of days, but a good reputation lasts for ever.
Sir 41:14 Keep my instructions and be at peace, my children. Wisdom hidden away and treasure undisplayed, what use is either of these?
Sir 41:15 Better someone who hides his folly than one who hides his wisdom.
Sir 41:16 Preserve a sense of shame in the following matters, for not every kind of shame is right to harbour, nor is every situation correctly appraised by all.
Sir 41:17 Be ashamed, before father and mother, of depraved behaviour, and before prince or potentate of telling lies;
Sir 41:18 of wrong-doing before judge or magistrate, and of impiety before the assembly of the people;
Sir 41:19 of sharp practice before your companion and your friend, and of theft before the neighborhood you live in.
Sir 41:20 Before the truth and covenant of God, be ashamed of leaning elbows on the table,
Sir 41:21 of being ungracious when giving or receiving, of ignoring those who greet you,
Sir 41:22 of gazing at a loose woman, of repulsing your fellow-countryman,
Sir 41:23 of misappropriating another's portion or gift, of paying court to another man's wife,
Sir 41:24 of making advances to his servant-girl -- do not go near her bed-
Sir 41:25 of saying disagreeable things to friends -- do not follow up a gift with a taunt-
Sir 41:26 of repeating everything you hear and of betraying confidences.
Sir 41:27 Then you will know what true shame is, and you will find yourself in everyone's graces.
Sir 42:1 The following things you should not be ashamed of, and do not sin from fear of what others think:
Sir 42:2 of the Law of the Most High or of the covenant, of a verdict that acquits the godless,
Sir 42:3 of keeping accounts with a traveling companion, of settling property on your friends,
Sir 42:4 of being accurate over scales and weights, of making small and large profits,
Sir 42:5 of gaining from commercial transactions, of disciplining your children strictly, of lashing a wicked slave till you draw blood.
Sir 42:6 With an interfering wife, it is as well to use your seal, and where there are many hands, lock things up.
Sir 42:7 Whatever stores you issue, do it by number and weight, spendings and takings, put everything in writing.
Sir 42:8 Do not be ashamed to correct a stupid person or a fool, or an old dotard who bickers with young people. Then you will show yourself really educated and win the approval of everyone.
Sir 42:9 Unknown to her, a daughter keeps her father awake, the worry she gives him drives away his sleep: in her youth, in case she never marries, married, in case she should be disliked,
Sir 42:10 as a virgin, in case she should be defiled and found with child in her father's house, having a husband, in case she goes astray, married, in case she should be sterile!
Sir 42:11 Your daughter is headstrong? Keep a sharp look-out that she does not make you the laughing-stock of your enemies, the talk of the town, the object of common gossip, and put you to public shame.
Sir 42:12 Do not stare at any man for his good looks, do not sit down with women;
Sir 42:13 for moth comes out of clothes, and woman's spite out of woman.
Sir 42:14 Better a man's spite than a woman's kindness: women give rise to shame and reproach.
Sir 42:15 Next, I shall remind you of the works of the Lord, and tell of what I have seen. By the words of the Lord his works come into being and all creation obeys his will.
Sir 42:16 The shining sun looks down on all things, and the work of the Lord is full of his glory.
Sir 42:17 The Lord has not granted the Holy Ones the power to tell of all his marvels which the Almighty Lord has solidly constructed for the universe to stand firm in his glory.
Sir 42:18 He has fathomed both the abyss and the human heart and seen into their devious ways; for the Most High knows all there is to know and sees the signs of the times.
Sir 42:19 He declares what is past and what will be, and reveals the trend of hidden things.
Sir 42:20 Not a thought escapes him, not a single word is hidden from him.
Sir 42:21 He has embellished the magnificent works of his wisdom, he is from everlasting to everlasting, nothing can be added to him, nothing taken away, he needs no one's advice.
Sir 42:22 How lovely, all his works, how dazzling to the eye!
Sir 42:23 They all live and last for ever, and, whatever the circumstances, all obey.
Sir 42:24 All things go in pairs, by opposites, he has not made anything imperfect:
Sir 42:25 one thing complements the excellence of another. Who could ever grow tired of gazing at his glory?
Sir 43:1 Pride of the heights, a clear vault of the sky -- such is the beauty of the heavens, a glorious sight.
Sir 43:2 The sun, as he emerges, proclaims at his rising, 'How wonderful a thing, the work of the Most High!'
Sir 43:3 At his zenith, he parches the ground, who can withstand his blaze?
Sir 43:4 We have to blow the furnace to produce any heat, the sun burns the mountains three times as much; breathing out blasts of fire, flashing his rays, he dazzles the eyes.
Sir 43:5 Great is the Lord who created him and whose word speeds him on his course.
Sir 43:6 And then the moon, ever punctual to mark the times, an everlasting sign:
Sir 43:7 It is the moon that signals the feasts, a luminary that wanes after being full.
Sir 43:8 The month derives its name from hers, she waxes wonderfully in her phases, banner of the hosts on high, shining in the vault of heaven.
Sir 43:9 The glory of the stars makes the beauty of the sky, a brilliant adornment of the Lord on High.
Sir 43:10 At the words of the Holy One they stand as he decrees, and never grow slack at their watch.
Sir 43:11 See the rainbow and praise its Maker, so superbly beautiful in its splendor.
Sir 43:12 Across the sky it forms a glorious arc drawn by the hands of the Most High.
Sir 43:13 By his command he sends the snow, he speeds the lightning by his command.
Sir 43:14 In the same way, his treasuries open and the clouds fly out like birds.
Sir 43:15 His great power solidifies the clouds, then pulverises them into hail.
Sir 43:16 at the sight of him, the mountains quake. At his will the south wind blows,or the storm from the north and the whirlwind.
Sir 43:17 At the roar of his thunder, the earth writhes in labour,
Sir 43:18 He sprinkles snow like birds alighting, it comes down like locusts settling. The eye marvels at the beauty of its whiteness, and the mind is amazed at its falling.
Sir 43:19 Over the earth, like salt, he also pours hoarfrost, which, when it freezes, bristles like thorns.
Sir 43:20 The cold wind blows from the north, and ice forms on the water; it forms on every piece of standing water, covering it like a breastplate.
Sir 43:21 The wind swallows up the mountains and scorches the desert, like a fire it consumes the vegetation.
Sir 43:22 But cloud brings swift healing, and dew brings joy after the heat.
Sir 43:23 By his own resourcefulness he has tamed the abyss, and planted it with islands.
Sir 43:24 Those who sail the sea tell of its dangers, their accounts fill our ears with amazement:
Sir 43:25 for there too exist strange and wonderful works, animals of every kind and huge sea creatures.
Sir 43:26 Thanks to God, his messenger reaches port, everything works out according to his word.
Sir 43:27 We could say much more and still fall short; to put it concisely, 'He is all.'
Sir 43:28 Where shall we find sufficient power to glorify him, since he is the Great One, above all his works,
Sir 43:29 the awe-inspiring Lord, stupendously great, and wonderful in his power?
Sir 43:30 Exalt the Lord in your praises as high as you may -- still he surpasses you. Exert all your strength when you exalt him, do not grow tired -- you will never come to the end.
Sir 43:31 Who has ever seen him to describe him? Who can glorify him as he deserves?
Sir 43:32 Many mysteries remain even greater than these, for we have seen only a few of his works,
Sir 43:33 the Lord himself having created all things and given wisdom to those who are devout.
Sir 44:1 Next let us praise illustrious men, our ancestors in their successive generations.
Sir 44:2 The Lord has created an abundance of glory, and displayed his greatness from earliest times.
Sir 44:3 Some wielded authority as kings and were renowned for their strength; others were intelligent advisers and uttered prophetic sayings.
Sir 44:4 Others directed the people by their advice, by their understanding of the popular mind, and by the wise words of their teaching;
Sir 44:5 others composed musical melodies and set down ballads;
Sir 44:6 others were rich and powerful, living peacefully in their homes.
Sir 44:7 All these were honored by their contemporaries and were the glory of their day.
Sir 44:8 Some of them left a name behind them, so that their praises are still sung.
Sir 44:9 While others have left no memory, and disappeared as though they had not existed. They are now as though they had never been, and so too, their children after them.
Sir 44:10 But here is a list of illustrious men whose good works have not been forgotten.
Sir 44:11 In their descendants they find a rich inheritance, their posterity.
Sir 44:12 Their descendants stand by the commandments and, thanks to them, so do their children's children.
Sir 44:13 Their offspring will last for ever, their glory will not fade.
Sir 44:14 Their bodies have been buried in peace, and their name lives on for all generations.
Sir 44:15 The peoples will proclaim their wisdom, the assembly will celebrate their praises.
Sir 44:16 Enoch pleased the Lord and was transferred to heaven, an example for the conversion of all generations.
Sir 44:17 Noah was found perfectly upright, in the time of retribution he became the heir: because of him a remnant was preserved for the earth at the coming of the Flood.
Sir 44:18 Everlasting covenants were made with him that never again should every living creature perish by flood.
Sir 44:19 Abraham, the great ancestor of a host of nations, no one was ever his equal in glory.
Sir 44:20 He observed the Law of the Most High, and entered into a covenant with him. He confirmed the covenant in his own flesh, and proved himself faithful under ordeal.
Sir 44:21 The Lord therefore promised him on oath to bless the nations through his descendants, to multiply him like the dust on the ground, to exalt his descendants like the stars, and to give them the land as their heritage, from one sea to the other, from the River to the ends of the earth.
Sir 44:22 To Isaac too, for the sake of Abraham his father, he assured
Sir 44:23 the blessing of all humanity; he caused the covenant to rest on the head of Jacob. He confirmed him in his blessings and gave him the land as his inheritance; he divided it into portions, and shared it out among the twelve tribes.
Sir 45:1 From Jacob's stock he produced a generous man who found favor in the eyes of all humanity, beloved by God and people, Moses, of blessed memory.
Sir 45:2 He made him the equal of the holy ones in glory and made him strong, to the terror of his enemies.
Sir 45:3 By the word of Moses, he made prodigies cease and raised him high in the respect of kings; he gave him commandments for his people, and showed him something of his glory.
Sir 45:4 For his loyalty and gentleness he sanctified him, choosing him alone out of all human beings;
Sir 45:5 he allowed him to hear his voice, and led him into the darkness;
Sir 45:6 he gave him the commandments face to face, the law of life and knowledge, to teach Jacob his ordinances and Israel his decrees. He raised up Aaron, a holy man like Moses, his brother, of the tribe of Levi.
Sir 45:7 He made an everlasting covenant with him, and gave him the priesthood of the people. He adorned him with impressive vestments, he dressed him in a robe of glory.
Sir 45:8 He clothed him in glorious perfection and invested him with rich ornaments, the breeches, the long robe, the ephod.
Sir 45:9 To surround the robe he gave him pomegranates, and many gold bells all round to chime at every step, for their sound to be heard in the Temple as a reminder to the children of his people;
Sir 45:10 and a sacred vestment of gold and aquamarine and scarlet, the work of an embroiderer; the pectoral of judgement, the urim and thummim, of plaited crimson, the work of a craftsman;
Sir 45:11 precious stones cut like seals mounted in gold, the work of a jeweller, as a reminder with their engraved inscriptions of the number of the tribes of Israel;
Sir 45:12 and a golden diadem on his turban, engraved with the seal of consecration; superb ornamentation, magnificent work, adornment to delight the eye.
Sir 45:13 There had never been such lovely things before him, and no one else has ever put them on, but only his own sons, and his descendants for all time.
Sir 45:14 His sacrifices were to be burnt entirely, twice each day and for ever.
Sir 45:15 Moses consecrated him and anointed him with holy oil; and this was an everlasting covenant for him, and for his descendants as long as the heavens endure, that he should preside over worship, act as priest, and bless the people in the name of the Lord.
Sir 45:16 He chose him out of all the living to offer sacrifices to the Lord, incense and perfume as a memorial to make expiation for the people.
Sir 45:17 He entrusted him with his commandments, committed to him the statutes of the Law for him to teach Jacob his decrees and enlighten Israel on his Law.
Sir 45:18 Others plotted against him, they were jealous of him in the desert, Dathan and Abiram and their men, Korah and his crew in fury and rage.
Sir 45:19 The Lord saw it and was displeased, his raging fury made an end of them; he worked miracles on them, consuming them by his flaming fire.
Sir 45:20 And he added to Aaron's glory, he gave him an inheritance; he allotted him the offerings of the first-fruits, before all else, as much bread as he could want.
Sir 45:21 Thus they eat the sacrifices of the Lord which he gave to him and his posterity.
Sir 45:22 But of the people's territory he inherits nothing, he alone of all the people has no share, 'For I myself am your share and heritage.'
Sir 45:23 Phinehas son of Eleazar is third in glory because of his zeal in the fear of the Lord, because he stood firm when the people revolted, with a staunch and courageous heart; and in this way made expiation for Israel.
Sir 45:24 Hence a covenant of peace was sealed with him, making him governor of both sanctuary and people, and securing to him and his descendants the high priestly dignity for ever.
Sir 45:25 There was also a covenant with David son of Jesse, of the tribe of Judah, a royal succession by exclusively linear descent, but the succession of Aaron passes to all his descendants.
Sir 45:26 May God endow your hearts with wisdom to judge his people uprightly, so that the virtues of your ancestors may never fade, and their glory may pass to all their descendants!
Sir 46:1 Mighty in war was Joshua son of Nun, successor to Moses in the prophetic office, who well deserved his name, and was a great Savior of the chosen people, wreaking vengeance on the enemies who opposed him, and so bringing Israel into its inheritance.
Sir 46:2 How splendid he was when, arms uplifted, he brandished his sword against cities!
Sir 46:3 Who had ever shown such determination as his? He himself led the battles of the Lord.
Sir 46:4 Was not the sun held back by his hand, and one day drawn out into two?
Sir 46:5 He called on the Most High, the Mighty One, while pressing the enemies from all directions, and the great Lord answered him with hard and violent hailstones.
Sir 46:6 He fell on that enemy nation, and at the Descent destroyed all resistance to make the nations acknowledge his warlike prowess and that he was waging war on behalf of the Lord.
Sir 46:7 For he was a follower of the Mighty One, in the time of Moses showing his devotion, he and Caleb son of Jephunneh, by opposing the whole community, by preventing the people from sinning, and by silencing the mutters of rebellion.
Sir 46:8 Hence these two alone were preserved out of six hundred thousand men on the march, and brought into their inheritance, into a land where milk and honey flow.
Sir 46:9 And the Lord conferred strength on Caleb too, which stayed by him into old age, so that he could invest the highlands of the country which his descendants kept as their inheritance,
Sir 46:10 so that every Israelite might see that it is good to follow the Lord.
Sir 46:11 The Judges too, each when he was called, all men whose hearts were never disloyal, who never turned their backs on the Lord -- may their memory be blessed!
Sir 46:12 May their bones flourish again from the tomb, and may the names of those illustrious men be worthily borne by their sons!
Sir 46:13 Samuel was the beloved of his Lord; prophet of the Lord, he instituted the kingdom, and anointed rulers over his people.
Sir 46:14 By the Law of the Lord he judged the assembly, and the Lord watched over Jacob.
Sir 46:15 By his loyalty he was recognized as a prophet, by his words he was known to be a trustworthy seer.
Sir 46:16 He called on the Lord, the Mighty One, when his enemies pressed in from all directions, by offering a sucking lamb.
Sir 46:17 And the Lord thundered from heaven, and made his voice heard in a rolling peal;
Sir 46:18 he massacred the leaders of the enemy, and all the rulers of the Philistines.
Sir 46:19 Before the time of his everlasting rest he bore witness to the Lord and his anointed, 'Of no property, not even a pair of sandals, have I ever deprived a soul.' Nor did anyone accuse him.
Sir 46:20 And, having fallen asleep, he prophesied again, warning the king of his end; he spoke from the depths of the earth in prophecy, to blot out the wickedness of the people.
Sir 47:1 After him arose Nathan, to prophesy in the time of David.
Sir 47:2 As the fat is set apart from the communion sacrifice, so was David chosen out of the Israelites.
Sir 47:3 He played with lions as though with kids, and with bears as though with lambs.
Sir 47:4 While still a boy, did he not slay the giant and take away the people's shame, by hurling a stone from his sling and cutting short the boasting of Goliath?
Sir 47:5 For he called on the Lord Most High, who gave strength to his right arm to put a mighty warrior to death and assert the strength of his own people.
Sir 47:6 Hence they gave him credit for ten thousand, and praised him while they blessed the Lord, by offering him a crown of glory.
Sir 47:7 For he destroyed the enemies on every front, he annihilated his foes, the Philistines, and crushed their strength for ever.
Sir 47:8 In all his activities he gave thanks to the Holy One Most High in words of glory; he put all his heart into his songs out of love for his Creator.
Sir 47:9 He placed singers before the altar, melodiously to sing;
Sir 47:10 he gave the feasts their splendor, the festivals their solemn pomp, causing the Lord's holy name to be praised and the sanctuary to resound from dawn.
Sir 47:11 The Lord took away his sins, making his strength ever greater; he gave him a royal covenant, and a glorious throne in Israel.
Sir 47:12 A wise son succeeded him, who lived content, thanks to him.
Sir 47:13 Solomon reigned in a time of peace, and God gave him peace all round so that he could raise a house to his name and prepare an everlasting sanctuary.
Sir 47:14 How wise you were despite your youth, like a river, brimming over with intelligence!
Sir 47:15 Your mind ranged the earth, you filled it with mysterious sayings.
Sir 47:16 Your name reached the distant islands, and you were loved for your peace.
Sir 47:17 Your songs, your proverbs, your sayings and your answers were the wonder of the world.
Sir 47:18 In the name of the Lord God, of him who is called the God of Israel, you amassed gold like so much tin, and made silver as common as lead.
Sir 47:19 You abandoned your body to women, you became the slave of your appetites.
Sir 47:20 You stained your honor, you profaned your stock, so bringing retribution on your children and affliction for your folly:
Sir 47:21 the empire split in two, from Ephraim arose a rebel kingdom.
Sir 47:22 But the Lord never goes back on his mercy, never cancels any of his words, will neither deny offspring to his elect nor stamp out the line of the man who loved him. And hence, he has granted a remnant to Jacob and to David a root sprung from him.
Sir 47:23 Solomon rested with his ancestors, leaving one of his stock as his successor, the stupidest member of the nation, brainless Rehoboam, who drove the people to rebel.
Sir 47:24 Next, Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, and set Ephraim on the way of evil; from then on their sins multiplied so excessively as to drive them out of their country;
Sir 47:25 for they tried out every kind of wickedness, until vengeance overtook them.
Sir 48:1 Then the prophet Elijah arose like a fire, his word flaring like a torch.
Sir 48:2 It was he who brought famine on them and decimated them in his zeal.
Sir 48:3 By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens, three times also he brought down fire.
Sir 48:4 How glorious you were in your miracles, Elijah! Has anyone reason to boast as you have? -
Sir 48:5 rousing a corpse from death, from Sheol, by the word of the Most High;
Sir 48:6 dragging kings down to destruction, and high dignitaries from their beds;
Sir 48:7 hearing a rebuke on Sinai and decrees of punishment on Horeb;
Sir 48:8 anointing kings as avengers, and prophets to succeed you;
Sir 48:9 taken up in the whirlwind of fire, in a chariot with fiery horses;
Sir 48:10 designated in the prophecies of doom to allay God's wrath before the fury breaks, to turn the hearts of fathers towards their children, and to restore the tribes of Jacob.
Sir 48:11 Blessed, those who will see you, and those who have fallen asleep in love; for we too shall certainly have life.
Sir 48:12 Such was Elijah, who was enveloped in a whirlwind; and Elisha was filled with his spirit; throughout his life no ruler could shake him, and no one could subdue him.
Sir 48:13 No task was too hard for him, and even in death his body prophesied.
Sir 48:14 In his lifetime he performed wonders, and in death his works were marvellous.
Sir 48:15 Despite all this the people did not repent, nor did they give up their sins, until they were herded out of their country and scattered all over the earth;
Sir 48:16 only a few of the people were left, with a ruler of the House of David. Some of them did what pleased the Lord, others piled sin on sin.
Sir 48:17 Hezekiah fortified his city, and laid on a water-supply inside it; with iron he tunnelled through the rock and constructed storage-tanks.
Sir 48:18 In his days Sennacherib invaded and sent Rabshakeh; he lifted his hand against Zion, and boasted loudly in his arrogance.
Sir 48:19 Then their hearts and hands trembled, they felt the pangs of a woman in labour,
Sir 48:20 but they called on the merciful Lord, stretching out their hands towards him. Swiftly the Holy One heard them from heaven and delivered them by the agency of Isaiah;
Sir 48:21 he struck the camp of the Assyrians and his Angel annihilated them.
Sir 48:22 For Hezekiah did what is pleasing to the Lord, and was steadfast in the ways of David his father, enjoined on him by the prophet Isaiah, a great man trustworthy in his vision.
Sir 48:23 In his days the sun moved back; he prolonged the life of the king.
Sir 48:24 In the power of the spirit he saw the last things, he comforted the mourners of Zion,
Sir 48:25 he revealed the future to the end of time, and hidden things long before they happened.
Sir 49:1 The memory of Josiah is like blended incense prepared by the perfumer's art; it is as sweet as honey to all mouths, and like music at a wine feast.
Sir 49:2 He took the right course, of converting the people, he rooted out the iniquitous abominations,
Sir 49:3 he set his heart on the Lord, in godless times he upheld the cause of religion.
Sir 49:4 Apart from David, Hezekiah and Josiah, they all heaped wrong on wrong, they abandoned the Law of the Most High: the kings of Judah disappeared;
Sir 49:5 for they handed their power over to others and their honor to a foreign nation.
Sir 49:6 The holy, chosen city was burnt down, her streets were left deserted,
Sir 49:7 as Jeremiah had predicted; for they had ill-treated him, though consecrated a prophet in his mother's womb, to tear up and afflict and destroy, but also to build up and to plant.
Sir 49:8 Ezekiel saw a vision of glory which God showed to him above the chariot of the great winged creatures,
Sir 49:9 for he mentioned the enemies in the downpour to the advantage of those who follow the right way.
Sir 49:10 As for the twelve prophets, may their bones flower again from the tomb, since they have comforted Jacob and redeemed him in faith and hope.
Sir 49:11 How shall we extol Zerubbabel? He was like a signet ring on the right hand,
Sir 49:12 so too was Joshua son of Jozadak; they who in their days built the Temple and raised a sanctuary sacred to the Lord, destined to everlasting glory.
Sir 49:13 Great too is the memory of Nehemiah, who rebuilt our walls which lay in ruins, erected the bolted gates and rebuilt our houses.
Sir 49:14 No one else has ever been created on earth to equal Enoch, for he was taken up from earth.
Sir 49:15 And no one else ever born has been like Joseph, the leader of his brothers, the prop of his people; his bones received a visitation.
Sir 49:16 Shem and Seth were the most honored of men, but above every living creature is Adam.
Sir 50:1 It was the High Priest Simon son of Onias who repaired the Temple during his lifetime and in his day fortified the sanctuary.
Sir 50:2 He laid the foundations of double depth, the high buttresses of the Temple precincts.
Sir 50:3 In his day the pool was excavated, a reservoir as huge as the sea.
Sir 50:4 Anxious to save the people from ruin, he fortified the city against siege.
Sir 50:5 How splendid he was with the people thronging round him, when he emerged from the curtained shrine,
Sir 50:6 like the morning star among the clouds, like the moon at the full,
Sir 50:7 like the sun shining on the Temple of the Most High, like the rainbow gleaming against brilliant clouds,
Sir 50:8 like a rose in springtime, like a lily by a spring, like a branch of the incense tree in summer,
Sir 50:9 like fire and incense in the censer, like a massive golden vessel encrusted with every kind of precious stone,
Sir 50:10 like an olive tree loaded with fruit, like a cypress soaring to the clouds;
Sir 50:11 when he took his ceremonial robe and put on his magnificent ornaments, when he went up to the holy altar and filled the sanctuary precincts with his grandeur;
Sir 50:12 when he received the portions from the hands of the priests, himself standing by the altar hearth, crowned with the circle of his brothers, as a cedar of Lebanon is by its foliage, as though surrounded by the trunks of palm trees.
Sir 50:13 When all the sons of Aaron in their glory, with the offerings of the Lord in their hands, stood before the whole assembly of Israel,
Sir 50:14 while he completed the rites at the altars, nobly presenting the offerings to the Almighty, Most High!
Sir 50:15 He would reach out his hand to the cup and pour a libation of wine, pouring it at the foot of the altar, a fragrance pleasing to the Most High, King of All;
Sir 50:16 then the sons of Aaron would shout and blow their metal trumpets, making a mighty sound ring out as a reminder before the Most High;
Sir 50:17 and immediately the people all together would fall on their faces to the ground, in adoration of their Lord, the Almighty, God Most High,
Sir 50:18 and with the cantors chanting their hymns of praise. Sweet was the melody of all these voices,
Sir 50:19 as the people pleaded with the Lord Most High and prayed in the presence of the Merciful, until the service of the Lord was completed and the ceremony at an end.
Sir 50:20 Then he would come down and raise his hands over the whole assembly of the Israelites, to give them the Lord's blessing from his lips, being privileged to pronounce his name;
Sir 50:21 and once again the people would bow low to receive the blessing of the Most High.
Sir 50:22 And now bless the God of all things, the doer of great deeds everywhere, who has exalted our days from the womb and has acted mercifully towards us.
Sir 50:23 May he grant us cheerful hearts and bring peace in our time, in Israel for ages on ages.
Sir 50:24 May his mercy be faithfully with us, may he redeem us in our own times!
Sir 50:25 There are two nations that my soul detests, the third is not a nation at all:
Sir 50:26 the inhabitants of Mount Seir, the Philistines, and the stupid people living at Shechem.
Sir 50:27 Instruction in wisdom and knowledge is what has been written in this book by Jesus son of Sira Eleazar of Jerusalem, who has poured a rain of wisdom from his heart.
Sir 50:28 Blessed is he who devotes his time to these and grows wise by taking them to heart!
Sir 50:29 If he practises them he will be strong enough for anything, since the light of the Lord is his path.
Sir 51:1 I shall give thanks to you, Lord and King, and praise you, God my Savior, I give thanks to your name;
Sir 51:2 for you have been my guard and support and redeemed my body from destruction, from the snare of the lying tongue, from lips that fabricate falsehood; in the presence of my assailants, you were on my side; you have been my support, you have redeemed me,
Sir 51:3 true to your abounding kindness -- and the greatness of your name -- you liberated me from the fangs of those seeking to devour me, from the clutches of those seeking my life, from the many ordeals which I have endured,
Sir 51:4 from the stifling heat which hemmed me in, from the heart of a fire which I had not kindled,
Sir 51:5 from deep in the belly of Sheol,
Sir 51:6 treacherous denunciations to the king. My soul has been close to death, my life had gone down to the brink of Sheol.
Sir 51:7 I was completely surrounded, there was no one to help me; I looked for someone to help me, there was no one.
Sir 51:8 Then I remembered your mercy, Lord, and your deeds from earliest times, how you deliver those who wait for you patiently, and save them from the clutches of their enemies.
Sir 51:9 And I sent up my plea from the earth, I begged to be delivered from death.
Sir 51:10 I called on the Lord, the father of my Lord, 'Do not desert me in the days of ordeal, in the days of the proud, when we are helpless. I shall praise your name unceasingly and gratefully sing its praises.'
Sir 51:11 And my plea was heard, for you saved me from destruction, you delivered me from that time of evil.
Sir 51:12 And therefore I shall thank you and praise you, and bless the name of the Lord.
Sir 51:13 When I was still a youth, before I went traveling, in my prayers I asked outright for wisdom.
Sir 51:14 Outside the sanctuary I would pray for her, and to the last I shall continue to seek her.
Sir 51:15 From her blossoming to the ripening of her grape my heart has taken its delight in her. My foot has pursued a straight path, I have sought her ever since my youth.
Sir 51:16 By bowing my ear a little, I have received her, and have found much instruction.
Sir 51:17 Thanks to her I have advanced; glory be to him who has given me wisdom!
Sir 51:18 For I was determined to put her into practice, have earnestly pursued the good, and shall not be put to shame.
Sir 51:19 My soul has fought to possess her, I have been scrupulous in keeping the Law; I have stretched out my hands to heaven and bewailed how little I knew of her;
Sir 51:20 I have directed my soul towards her, and in purity I have found her; having my heart fixed on her from the outset, I shall never be deserted;
Sir 51:21 my very core having yearned to discover her, I have now acquired a good possession.
Sir 51:22 In reward the Lord has given me a tongue with which I shall sing his praises.
Sir 51:23 Come close to me, you ignorant, take your place in my school.
Sir 51:24 Why complain about lacking these things when your souls are so thirsty for them?
Sir 51:25 I have opened my mouth, I have said: 'Buy her without money,
Sir 51:26 put your necks under her yoke, let your souls receive instruction, she is near, within your reach.'
Sir 51:27 See for yourselves: how slight my efforts have been to win so much peace.
Sir 51:28 Buy instruction with a large sum of silver, thanks to her you will gain much gold.
Sir 51:29 May your souls rejoice in the mercy of the Lord, may you never be ashamed of praising him.
Sir 51:30 Do your work before the appointed time and at the appointed time he will give you your reward. (Subscript:) Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sira.
Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem, which he received in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2 Listen, you heavens; earth, attend, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is speaking, 'I have reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me.
Isa 1:3 The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master's crib; Israel does not know, my people do not understand.'
Isa 1:4 Disaster, sinful nation, people weighed down with guilt, race of wrong-doers, perverted children! They have abandoned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), despised the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away from him.
Isa 1:5 Where shall I strike you next, if you persist in treason? The whole head is sick, the whole heart is diseased,
Isa 1:6 from the sole of the foot to the head there is nothing healthy: only wounds, bruises and open sores not dressed, not bandaged, not soothed with ointment,
Isa 1:7 your country a desolation, your towns burnt down, your soil, foreigners lay it waste before your eyes, a desolation like devastation by foreigners.
Isa 1:8 The daughter of Zion is left like a shanty in a vineyard, like a shed in a cucumber field, like a city besieged.
Isa 1:9 Had Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth not left us a few survivors, we should be like Sodom, we should be the same as Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10 Hear what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, you rulers of Sodom; listen to what our God teaches, you people of Gomorrah.
Isa 1:11 'What are your endless sacrifices to me?' says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). 'I am sick of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of calves. I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
Isa 1:12 When you come and present yourselves before me, who has asked you to trample through my courts?
Isa 1:13 Bring no more futile cereal offerings, the smoke from them fills me with disgust. New Moons, Sabbaths, assemblies -- I cannot endure solemnity combined with guilt.
Isa 1:14 Your New Moons and your meetings I utterly detest; to me they are a burden I am tired of bearing.
Isa 1:15 When you stretch out your hands I turn my eyes away. You may multiply your prayers, I shall not be listening. Your hands are covered in blood,
Isa 1:16 wash, make yourselves clean. Take your wrong-doing out of my sight. Cease doing evil.
Isa 1:17 Learn to do good, search for justice, discipline the violent, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.
Isa 1:18 'Come, let us talk this over,' says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
Isa 1:19 If you are willing to obey, you shall eat the good things of the earth.
Isa 1:20 But if you refuse and rebel, the sword shall eat you instead -- for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s mouth has spoken.'
Isa 1:21 The faithful city, what a harlot she has become! Zion, once full of fair judgement, where saving justice used to dwell, but now assassins!
Isa 1:22 Your silver has turned into dross, your wine is watered.
Isa 1:23 Your princes are rebels, accomplices of brigands. All of them greedy for presents and eager for bribes, they show no justice to the orphan, and the widow's cause never reaches them.
Isa 1:24 Hence, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the Mighty One of Israel, says this, 'Disaster, I shall get the better of my enemies, I shall avenge myself on my foes.
Isa 1:25 'I shall turn my hand against you, I shall purge your dross as though with potash, I shall remove all your alloy.
Isa 1:26 'And I shall restore your judges as at first, your counsellors as in bygone days, after which you will be called City of Saving Justice, Faithful City.'
Isa 1:27 Zion will be redeemed by fair judgement, and those who return, by saving justice.
Isa 1:28 Rebels and sinners alike will be destroyed, and those who abandon Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will perish.
Isa 1:29 How ashamed you will be of the terebinths which gave you such delight; and how you will blush for the gardens which you chose!
Isa 1:30 For you will be like a terebinth with faded leaves, like a garden without water;
Isa 1:31 the strong will become like tinder, his work like the spark; both will go up in flames together, with no one to put them out.
Isa 2:1 The vision of Isaiah son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Isa 2:2 It will happen in the final days that the mountain of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s house will rise higher than the mountains and tower above the heights. Then all the nations will stream to it,
Isa 2:3 many peoples will come to it and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.' For the Law will issue from Zion and the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from Jerusalem.
Isa 2:4 Then he will judge between the nations and arbitrate between many peoples. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, no longer will they learn how to make war.
Isa 2:5 House of Jacob, come, let us walk in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s light.
Isa 2:6 You have rejected your people, the House of Jacob, for it has long been full of sorcerers like the Philistines, and is overrun with foreigners.
Isa 2:7 The country is full of silver and gold and treasures unlimited, the country is full of horses, its chariots are unlimited;
Isa 2:8 the country is full of idols. They bow down before the work of their hands, before what their own fingers have made.
Isa 2:9 Human nature has been humbled, humankind brought low: do not raise them again!
Isa 2:10 Go into the rock, hide in the dust, in terror of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at the brilliance of his majesty, when he arises to make the earth quake.
Isa 2:11 Human pride will lower its eyes, human arrogance will be humbled, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) alone will be exalted, on that day.
Isa 2:12 That will be a day for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, for all who are majestic and haughty, for all who are proud, to be brought low,
Isa 2:13 for all the cedars of Lebanon, high and proud, and for all the oaks of Bashan;
Isa 2:14 for all the high mountains and for all the proud hills;
Isa 2:15 for every lofty tower and for every towering wall;
Isa 2:16 for all the ships of Tarshish and for everything held precious.
Isa 2:17 Human pride will be humbled, human arrogance brought low, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) alone will be exalted, on that day.
Isa 2:18 When the idols all disappear,
Isa 2:19 they will go into the caverns of the rocks and into the fissures of the earth in terror of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at the brilliance of his majesty, when he arises to make the earth quake.
Isa 2:20 That day, people will fling to moles and bats the silver idols and golden idols which have been made for them to worship,
Isa 2:21 and go into the crevices of the rocks and the clefts in the cliffs, in terror of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at the brilliance of his majesty, when he arises to make the earth quake.
Isa 2:22 Have no more to do with humankind, which has only the breath in its nostrils. How much is this worth?
Isa 3:1 Now the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is about to deprive Jerusalem and Judah of resources and provisions -- all reserves of food, all reserves of water-
Isa 3:2 of hero, warrior, judge, prophet, diviner, elder,
Isa 3:3 captain, dignitary, counsellor, architect, soothsayer.
Isa 3:4 'I shall give them boys for princes, raw lads to rule over them.'
Isa 3:5 People will be ill-treated by one another, each by his neighbor; the young will insult the aged, and the low, the respected.
Isa 3:6 Yes, a man will catch hold of his brother in their father's house, to say, 'You have a cloak, so you be leader, and rule this heap of ruins.'
Isa 3:7 And, that day, the other will protest, 'I am no healer; in my house there is neither food nor clothing; do not make me leader of the people.'
Isa 3:8 For Jerusalem has collapsed and Judah has fallen, because their words and deeds affront Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and insult his glorious gaze.
Isa 3:9 Their complacency bears witness against them, they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not conceal it, all the worse for them, for they have hatched their own downfall.
Isa 3:10 Say, 'Blessed the upright, for he will feed on the fruit of his deeds;
Isa 3:11 woe to the wicked, it will go ill with him, for he will be treated as his actions deserve.'
Isa 3:12 O my people, their oppressors pillage them and extortioners rule over them! O my people, your rulers mislead you and efface the paths you ought to follow!
Isa 3:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has risen to accuse, is standing to pass judgement on the people.
Isa 3:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is about to try the elders and the princes of his people, 'You are the ones who have ravaged the vineyard, the spoils of the poor are in your houses.
Isa 3:15 By what right do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?' says the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Isa 3:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says: Because Zion's daughters are proud and walk with heads held high and enticing eyes -- with mincing steps they go, jingling the bangles on their feet-
Isa 3:17 the Lord will give Zion's daughters scabby heads, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will lay their foreheads bare.
Isa 3:18 That day the Lord will take away the ornamental chains, medallions, crescents,
Isa 3:19 pendants, bracelets, trinkets,
Isa 3:20 diadems, ankle-chains, necklaces, scent bottles, amulets,
Isa 3:21 finger-rings, nose-rings,
Isa 3:22 party dresses, cloaks, scarves, purses,
Isa 3:23 mirrors, linen clothes, turbans and mantillas.
Isa 3:24 Then, instead of perfume, a stink; instead of belt, a rope, instead of hair elaborately dressed, a shaven scalp, instead of gorgeous clothes, sacking round the waist, and brand marks instead of beauty.
Isa 3:25 Your men will fall by the sword, your warriors in battle,
Isa 3:26 and her gates will moan and mourn; she will sit on the ground, deserted.
Isa 4:1 That day, seven women will catch hold of one man and say, 'We will eat our own food, and wear our own clothing, but just let us bear your name. Take our disgrace away.'
Isa 4:2 That day, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s seedling will turn to beauty and glory, what the earth brings forth will turn to the pride and ornament of Israel's survivors.
Isa 4:3 Those who are left in Zion and remain in Jerusalem will be called holy, all those in Jerusalem noted down to live.
Isa 4:4 When the Lord has washed away the filth of Zion's daughters and with the wind of judgement and the wind of burning cleansed Jerusalem of the blood shed in her,
Isa 4:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will create, over every house on Mount Zion and over those who assemble there, a cloud by day, and by night smoke with the brightness of a flaring fire. For over all will be the Glory as canopy
Isa 4:6 and tent to give shade by day from the heat, refuge and shelter from the storm and the rain.
Isa 5:1 Let me sing my beloved the song of my friend for his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
Isa 5:2 He dug it, cleared it of stones, and planted it with red grapes. In the middle he built a tower, he hewed a press there too. He expected it to yield fine grapes: wild grapes were all it yielded.
Isa 5:3 And now, citizens of Jerusalem and people of Judah, I ask you to judge between me and my vineyard.
Isa 5:4 What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not done? Why, when I expected it to yield fine grapes, has it yielded wild ones?
Isa 5:5 Very well, I shall tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I shall take away its hedge, for it to be grazed on, and knock down its wall, for it to be trampled on.
Isa 5:6 I shall let it go to waste, unpruned, undug, overgrown by brambles and thorn-bushes, and I shall command the clouds to rain no rain on it.
Isa 5:7 Now, the vineyard of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is the House of Israel, and the people of Judah the plant he cherished. He expected fair judgement, but found injustice, uprightness, but found cries of distress.
Isa 5:8 Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until there is nowhere left and they are the sole inhabitants of the country.
Isa 5:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has sworn this in my hearing, 'Many houses will be brought to ruin, great and fine ones left untenanted;
Isa 5:10 for ten acres of vineyard will yield only one barrel, and ten bushel of seed will yield only one bushel.'
Isa 5:11 Woe to those who get up early to go after strong drink, and stay up late at night inflamed with wine.
Isa 5:12 Nothing but harp and lyre, tambourine and pipe, and wine for their drinking bouts. Never a thought for the works of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), never a glance for what his hands have done.
Isa 5:13 That is why my people is in exile, for want of perception; her dignitaries starving, her populace parched with thirst.
Isa 5:14 That is why Sheol opens wide its throat and gapes with measureless jaw and down go her noblemen and populace and her loud revellers merry to the last!
Isa 5:15 Human nature has been humbled, humankind brought low, and the eyes of the proud have been humbled.
Isa 5:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is the more respected for his judgement, God the Holy One has displayed his holiness by his justice!
Isa 5:17 Now the lambs will graze in their old pastures, and the fields laid waste by fat cattle will feed the kids.
Isa 5:18 Woe to those who drag guilt along by the reins of duplicity, drag along sin as though with a cart rope;
Isa 5:19 to those who say, 'Why doesn't he do his work quickly so that we can see it; why doesn't the Holy One of Israel's design hurry up and come true so that we can experience it?'
Isa 5:20 Woe to those who call what is bad, good, and what is good, bad, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Isa 5:21 Woe to those who think themselves wise and believe themselves enlightened.
Isa 5:22 Woe to those whose might lies in wine bibbing, their heroism in mixing strong drinks,
Isa 5:23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe and deny justice to the upright.
Isa 5:24 Yes, as the flame devours the stubble, as the straw flares up and disappears, their root will be like decay and their shoot be carried off like dust, for having rejected the law of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, for having despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 5:25 This is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger has blazed out against his people; and he has raised his hand against them to strike them; why the mountains have shuddered and why corpses are lying like dung in the streets. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!
Isa 5:26 He hoists a signal for a distant nation, he whistles them up from the ends of the earth; and see how swift, how fleet they come!
Isa 5:27 None of them tired, none of them stumbling, none of them asleep or drowsy, none of them with belt unfastened, none of them with broken sandal-strap.
Isa 5:28 Their arrows are sharpened, their bows all strung, their horses' hoofs you would think were flint and their wheels, a whirlwind!
Isa 5:29 Their roar is like that of a lioness, like fierce young lions they roar, growling they seize their prey and carry it off, with no one to prevent it,
Isa 5:30 growling at it, that day, like the growling of the sea. Only look at the country: darkness and distress, and the light turned to darkness by the clouds.
Isa 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne; his train filled the sanctuary.
Isa 6:2 Above him stood seraphs, each one with six wings: two to cover its face, two to cover its feet and two for flying;
Isa 6:3 and they were shouting these words to each other: Holy, holy, holy is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth. His glory fills the whole earth.
Isa 6:4 The door-posts shook at the sound of their shouting, and the Temple was full of smoke.
Isa 6:5 Then I said: 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.'
Isa 6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding in its hand a live coal which it had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.
Isa 6:7 With this it touched my mouth and said: 'Look, this has touched your lips, your guilt has been removed and your sin forgiven.'
Isa 6:8 I then heard the voice of the Lord saying: 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I, send me.'
Isa 6:9 He said: 'Go, and say to this people, "Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!"
Isa 6:10 Make this people's heart coarse, make their ears dull, shut their eyes tight, or they will use their eyes to see, use their ears to hear, use their heart to understand, and change their ways and be healed.'
Isa 6:11 I then said, 'Until when, Lord?' He replied, 'Until towns are in ruins and deserted, houses untenanted and a great desolation reigns in the land,
Isa 6:12 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has driven the people away and the country is totally abandoned.
Isa 6:13 And suppose one-tenth of them are left in it, that will be stripped again, like the terebinth, like the oak, cut back to the stock; their stock is a holy seed.'
Isa 7:1 In the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham, son of Uzziah king of Judah, Razon king of Aram advanced on Jerusalem with Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel, to attack it; but he was unable to attack it.
Isa 7:2 The House of David was informed: 'Aram has halted in Ephraimite territory.' At this, his heart and his people's hearts shook like forest trees shaking in the wind.
Isa 7:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to Isaiah, 'Go out with your son Shear-Jashub, and meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the road to the Fuller's Field,
Isa 7:4 and say to him, "Pay attention and keep calm. Do not be frightened or demoralised by these two smouldering sticks of firewood, by the fierce anger of Razon, Aram and the son of Remaliah,
Isa 7:5 or because Aram, Ephraim and the son of Remaliah have been plotting against you and saying:
Isa 7:6 Let us mount an attack on Judah, destroy it, force it onto our side and install the son of Tabeel there as king.
Isa 7:7 "Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: This will not happen, it will never occur,
Isa 7:8 for the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Razon; another sixty-five years, and Ephraim will cease to be a people.
Isa 7:9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not take your stand on me you will not stand firm." '
Isa 7:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to Ahaz again and said:
Isa 7:11 Ask Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God for a sign, either in the depths of Sheol or in the heights above.
Isa 7:12 But Ahaz said, 'I will not ask. I will not put Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the test.'
Isa 7:13 He then said: Listen now, House of David: are you not satisfied with trying human patience that you should try my God's patience too?
Isa 7:14 The Lord will give you a sign in any case: It is this: the young woman is with child and will give birth to a son whom she will call Immanuel.
Isa 7:15 On curds and honey will he feed until he knows how to refuse the bad and choose the good.
Isa 7:16 Before the child knows how to refuse the bad and choose the good, the lands whose two kings are frightening you will be deserted.
Isa 7:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will bring times for you, your people and your ancestral House, such as have not been seen since Ephraim broke away from Judah (the king of Assyria).
Isa 7:18 When that day comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will whistle up mosquitoes from the distant streams of Egypt and bees from the land of Assyria,
Isa 7:19 and they will all come and settle on the streams in the gullies, in the holes in the rocks, on all the thorn-bushes and on all the water-points.
Isa 7:20 That day the Lord will shave, with a razor hired from the other side of the River (with the king of Assyria), the head and the hair of the leg, and take off the beard, too.
Isa 7:21 When that day comes, each man will raise one heifer and two sheep,
Isa 7:22 and because of the abundant milk they give (on curds will he feed) all who are left in the country will feed on curds and honey.
Isa 7:23 When that day comes, wherever there used to be a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver, all will be brambles and thorn-bushes;
Isa 7:24 to be ventured into only with arrows and bow, for the country will be nothing but brambles and thorn-bushes.
Isa 7:25 No more will you venture on any hillside formerly under the hoe for fear of the brambles and thorn-bushes; it will be fit only for pasturing the cattle, a tramping-ground for sheep.
Isa 8:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Take a large tablet and on it with an ordinary stylus write, "Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz".
Isa 8:2 And take reliable witnesses, the priest Uriah and Zechariah son of Jeberechiah.'
Isa 8:3 I then had intercourse with the prophetess, who then conceived and gave birth to a son. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Call him Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz,
Isa 8:4 for before the child knows how to say "mother" or "father", the wealth of Damascus and the booty of Samaria will be carried away while the king of Assyria looks on.'
Isa 8:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to me again and said,
Isa 8:6 'Since this people has rejected the waters of Shiloah which flow smoothly, and has trembled before Razon and the son of Remaliah,
Isa 8:7 now, against it, the Lord will bring the mighty, swelling waters of the River (the king of Assyria and all his glory); the River will flood up all its channels and overflow all its banks;
Isa 8:8 it will flow into Judah, flooding everything and passing on; it will reach right up to the neck, and the spreading of its wings will cover the whole extent of your country, Immanuel!
Isa 8:9 realize this, peoples, and be afraid, listen, all members of far-off nations! Arm yourselves yet be afraid! Arm yourselves yet be afraid!
Isa 8:10 Devise plans as you may: they will come to nothing! Make what pronouncements you like; it will not come about! For God is with us!'
Isa 8:11 For this was how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to me when his hand seized hold of me and he taught me not to follow the path of this people, saying,
Isa 8:12 'Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy; do not dread what they dread, have no fear of that.
Isa 8:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is the one you will proclaim holy, him you will dread, him you will fear.
Isa 8:14 He will be a sanctuary, a stumbling-stone, a rock to trip up the two Houses of Israel; a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Isa 8:15 over which many of them will stumble, fall and be broken, be ensnared and made captive.
Isa 8:16 Bind up the testimony, seal the instruction in the heart of my disciples.'
Isa 8:17 My trust is in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who hides his face from the House of Jacob; I put my hope in him.
Isa 8:18 Look, I and the children whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given me shall become signs and portents in Israel on behalf of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth who dwells on Mount Zion.
Isa 8:19 And should people say to you, 'Go and consult ghosts and wizards that whisper and mutter' -- a people should certainly consult its gods and the dead on behalf of the living!
Isa 8:20 As regards instruction and testimony, without doubt this is how they will talk, and hence there will be no dawn for them.
Isa 8:21 Oppressed and starving he will wander the country; and, once starving, he will become frenzied and curse his king and his God; turning his gaze upward,
Isa 8:22 then down to earth, there will be only anguish, gloom, the confusion of night, swirling darkness.
Isa 8:23 For is not everything dark as night for a country in distress? As the past humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, so the future will glorify the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, the territory of the nations.
Isa 9:1 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on the inhabitants of a country in shadow dark as death light has blazed forth.
Isa 9:2 You have enlarged the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at harvest time, as they exult when they are dividing the spoils.
Isa 9:3 For the yoke that weighed on it, the bar across its shoulders, the rod of its oppressor, these you have broken as on the day of Midian.
Isa 9:4 For all the footgear clanking over the ground and all the clothing rolled in blood, will be burnt, will be food for the flames.
Isa 9:5 For a son has been born for us, a son has been given to us, and dominion has been laid on his shoulders; and this is the name he has been given, 'Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God, Eternal-Father, Prince-of-Peace'
Isa 9:6 to extend his dominion in boundless peace, over the throne of David and over his kingdom to make it secure and sustain it in fair judgement and integrity. From this time onwards and for ever, the jealous love of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth will do this.
Isa 9:7 The Lord has launched a word at Jacob and it has fallen on Israel;
Isa 9:8 and the people will all soon know it, Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in the pride of their arrogant hearts,
Isa 9:9 'The bricks have fallen down but we shall rebuild with dressed stone; the sycamores have been felled but we shall replace them with cedars.'
Isa 9:10 But, against them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has raised their foe Razon, he has whipped up their enemies,
Isa 9:11 Aram to the east, Philistines to the west, to devour Israel with gaping jaws. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!
Isa 9:12 But the people would not come back to him who struck them, they would not seek out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth;
Isa 9:13 hence Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has topped and tailed Israel, cutting off palm and reed in a single day.
Isa 9:14 (The 'top' is the elder and the man of rank; the 'tail' is the prophet teaching lies.)
Isa 9:15 This people's leaders have led them astray, and those who are led by them are swallowed up.
Isa 9:16 Hence the Lord will no longer take delight in their young people, or pity on their orphans and widows, since all of them are godless and evil, and everything they say is madness. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!
Isa 9:17 Yes, wickedness has been burning like a fire, devouring bramble and thorn-bush, setting the forest thickets ablaze -- up they go in billowing smoke!
Isa 9:18 The country has been set on fire by the fury of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, and the people are like food for the flames. No one spares a thought for his brother.
Isa 9:19 They have sliced to the right and are still hungry, they have eaten to the left and are not satisfied; each devours the flesh of his own arm.
Isa 9:20 Manasseh devours Ephraim, Ephraim Manasseh, together they turn against Judah. After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!
Isa 10:1 Woe to those who enact unjust decrees, who compose oppressive legislation
Isa 10:2 to deny justice to the weak and to cheat the humblest of my people of fair judgement, to make widows their prey and to rob the orphan.
Isa 10:3 What will you do on the day of punishment, when disaster comes from far away? To whom will you run for help and where will you leave your riches,
Isa 10:4 to avoid squatting among the captives or falling among the slain? After all this, his anger is not spent. No, his hand is still raised!
Isa 10:5 Woe to Assyria, rod of my anger, the club in their hands is my fury!
Isa 10:6 I was sending him against a godless nation, commissioning him against the people who enraged me, to pillage and plunder at will and trample on them like the mud in the streets.
Isa 10:7 But this was not his intention nor did his heart plan it so, for he dreamed of putting an end to them, of liquidating nations without number!
Isa 10:8 For he thought, 'Are not my officers all kings?
Isa 10:9 Is not Calno like Carchemish, Hamath like Arpad, Samaria like Damascus?
Isa 10:10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the false gods, where there were more images than in Jerusalem and Samaria,
Isa 10:11 as I have treated Samaria and her false gods shall I not treat Jerusalem and her statues too?'
Isa 10:12 When the Lord has completed all his work on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will punish the fruit of the king of Assyria's boastful heart and the insolence of his haughty looks.
Isa 10:13 For he thinks: 'By the strength of my own arm I have done this and by my own wisdom: how intelligent I have been! I have abolished the frontiers between peoples, I have plundered their treasures, like a hero, I have subjugated their inhabitants.
Isa 10:14 My hand has found, as though a bird's nest, the riches of the peoples. Like someone collecting deserted eggs, I have collected the whole world while no one has fluttered a wing or opened a beak to squawk.'
Isa 10:15 Does the axe claim more credit than the man who wields it, or the saw more strength than the man who handles it? As though a staff controlled those who raise it, or the club could raise what is not made of wood!
Isa 10:16 That is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is going to inflict leanness on his stout men, and beneath his glory kindle a fever burning like a fire.
Isa 10:17 The light of Israel will become a fire and its Holy One a flame burning and devouring his thorn-bushes and brambles in a day.
Isa 10:18 He will consume his luxuriant forest and productive ground, he will ravage body and soul: it will be like a consumptive wasting away;
Isa 10:19 and what remain of the trees of his forest will be so few that a child could write their number.
Isa 10:20 When that day comes, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the House of Jacob will stop relying on the man who strikes them and will truly rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 10:21 A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.
Isa 10:22 Israel, though your people are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return: a destruction has been decreed which will make justice overflow,
Isa 10:23 for, throughout the country, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth will enforce the destruction now decreed.
Isa 10:24 That is why the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: My people who live in Zion, do not be afraid of Assyria! He may strike you with the rod, he may raise the club against you (on the way from Egypt),
Isa 10:25 but in a very short time the retribution will come to an end, and my anger will destroy them.
Isa 10:26 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth will brandish a whip at him as he struck Midian at Oreb's Rock, will brandish his rod at the Sea as he raised it on the way from Egypt.
Isa 10:27 When that day comes, his burden will fall from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed . . .
Isa 10:28 He has reached Aiath, he has moved on to Migron, he has left his baggage train at Michmash.
Isa 10:29 They have passed through the defile, they have bivouacked at Geba. Ramah quaked, Gibeah of Saul has fled.
Isa 10:30 Cry your loudest, Bath-Gallim! Pay attention, Laish! Answer her, Anathoth!
Isa 10:31 Madmenah has run away, the inhabitants of Gebim have taken cover.
Isa 10:32 This very day, as he halts at Nob, he will shake his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.
Isa 10:33 See how the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth violently lops off the foliage! The ones standing highest are cut down, the proudest are laid low!
Isa 10:34 The forest thickets fall beneath the axe, and the Lebanon falls to the blows of a Mighty One.
Isa 11:1 A shoot will spring from the stock of Jesse, a new shoot will grow from his roots.
Isa 11:2 On him will rest the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the spirit of wisdom and insight, the spirit of counsel and power, the spirit of knowledge and fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Isa 11:3 his inspiration will lie in fearing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). His judgement will not be by appearances. his verdict not given on hearsay.
Isa 11:4 He will judge the weak with integrity and give fair sentence for the humblest in the land. He will strike the country with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips bring death to the wicked.
Isa 11:5 Uprightness will be the belt around his waist, and constancy the belt about his hips.
Isa 11:6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the panther lie down with the kid, calf, lion and fat-stock beast together, with a little boy to lead them.
Isa 11:7 The cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together. The lion will eat hay like the ox.
Isa 11:8 The infant will play over the den of the adder; the baby will put his hand into the viper's lair.
Isa 11:9 No hurt, no harm will be done on all my holy mountain, for the country will be full of knowledge of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as the waters cover the sea.
Isa 11:10 That day, the root of Jesse, standing as a signal for the peoples, will be sought out by the nations and its home will be glorious.
Isa 11:11 When that day comes, the Lord will raise his hand a second time to ransom the remnant of his people, those still left, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, Cush and Elam, from Shinar, Hamath and the islands of the Sea.
Isa 11:12 He will hoist a signal for the nations and assemble the outcasts of Israel; he will gather the scattered people of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Isa 11:13 Then Ephraim's jealousy will cease and Judah's enemies be suppressed; Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah nor Judah any longer hostile to Ephraim,
Isa 11:14 but together they will swoop on the Philistines' back, to the west, and together pillage the people of the east. Edom and Moab will be subject to their sway and the Ammonites will obey them.
Isa 11:15 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will dry up the gulf of the Sea of Egypt, he will raise his hand against the River with the heat of his breath. He will divide it into seven streams for them to cross dry-shod.
Isa 11:16 And there will be a highway for the remnant of his people for those still left, from Assyria, as there was for Israel when he came out of Egypt.
Isa 12:1 And, that day, you will say: 'I praise you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you have been angry with me but your anger is now appeased and you have comforted me.
Isa 12:2 Look, he is the God of my salvation: I shall have faith and not be afraid, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my strength and my song, he has been my salvation.'
Isa 12:3 Joyfully you will draw water from the springs of salvation
Isa 12:4 and, that day, you will say, 'Praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), invoke his name. Proclaim his deeds to the people, declare his name sublime.
Isa 12:5 Sing of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for his works are majestic, make them known throughout the world.
Isa 12:6 Cry and shout for joy, you who live in Zion, For the Holy One of Israel is among you in his greatness.'
Isa 13:1 Proclamation about Babylon, seen by Isaiah son of Amoz.
Isa 13:2 On a bare hill hoist a signal, shout for them, beckon them to come to the Nobles' Gate.
Isa 13:3 I have issued orders to my sacred warriors, I have summoned my heroes to serve my anger, my proud champions.
Isa 13:4 The noise of a great crowd in the mountains, like an immense people, the tumultuous sound of kingdoms, of nations mustering: it is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth marshalling the troops for battle.
Isa 13:5 They come from a distant country, from the far horizons, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the instruments of his fury to lay the whole country waste.
Isa 13:6 Howl! For the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near, coming like devastation from Shaddai.
Isa 13:7 This is why all hands fall limp, why all the men are losing heart;
Isa 13:8 they are panic-stricken, seized with pains and convulsions; they writhe like a woman in labour, they look at one another appalled, with feverish faces.
Isa 13:9 Look, the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is coming, merciless, with wrath and burning anger, to reduce the country to a desert and root out the sinners from it.
Isa 13:10 For in the sky the stars and Orion will shed their light no longer, the sun will be dark when it rises, and the moon will no longer give its light.
Isa 13:11 I am going to punish the world for its wickedness and the wicked for their guilt, and put an end to the pride of the arrogant and humble the haughtiness of despots.
Isa 13:12 I shall make people scarcer than pure gold, human life scarcer than the gold of Ophir.
Isa 13:13 This is why I am going to shake the heavens, why the earth will reel on its foundations, under the wrath of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the day when his anger ignites.
Isa 13:14 Then like a hunted gazelle, like sheep that nobody gathers in, everyone will head back to his people, everyone will flee to his native land.
Isa 13:15 All those who are found will be stabbed, all those captured will fall by the sword,
Isa 13:16 their babies dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses plundered, their wives raped.
Isa 13:17 Look, against them I am stirring up the Medes who care nothing for silver, who set no value by gold.
Isa 13:18 Bows will annihilate the young men, they will have no pity for the fruit of the womb, or mercy in their eyes for children.
Isa 13:19 And Babylon, that pearl of kingdoms, that splendid jewel of the Chaldaeans, will, like Sodom and Gomorrah, be overthrown by God.
Isa 13:20 Never again will anyone live there or reside there for all generations to come. Never again will the Arab pitch his tent there, or the shepherds bring their flocks to rest.
Isa 13:21 But beasts of the desert will make their haunt there and owls fill their houses, there ostriches will settle their home, there goats will dance.
Isa 13:22 Hyenas will howl in its towers, jackals in its delightful palaces, for its doom is about to come and its days will not last long.
Isa 14:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will have pity on Jacob, he will choose Israel once more and resettle them on their native soil. Foreigners will join them, attaching themselves to the House of Jacob.
Isa 14:2 Peoples will take them and escort them home, and the House of Israel will take them as slaves, men and women on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s soil. They will enslave those who enslaved them and will master their oppressors.
Isa 14:3 When that day comes, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives you rest from your suffering and torment and the grim servitude to which you have been subjected,
Isa 14:4 you will recite this satire on the king of Babylon and say: 'How did the tyrant end? How did his arrogance end?
Isa 14:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of rulers,
Isa 14:6 furiously lashing peoples with continual blows, angrily hammering nations, pursuing without respite.
Isa 14:7 The whole world is at rest and calm, shouts of joy resounding,
Isa 14:8 the cypresses, the cedars of Lebanon, rejoice aloud at your fate, "Now that you have been laid low, no one comes up to fell us."
Isa 14:9 'On your account, Sheol below is astir to greet your arrival. He has roused the ghosts to greet you, all the rulers of the world. He has made all the kings of the nations get up from their thrones.
Isa 14:10 They will all greet you with the words, "So, you too are now as weak as we are! You, too, have become like us.
Isa 14:11 Your pride has been flung down to Sheol with the music of your lyres; under you a mattress of maggots, over you a blanket of worms.
Isa 14:12 How did you come to fall from the heavens, Daystar, son of Dawn? How did you come to be thrown to the ground, conqueror of nations?
Isa 14:13 You who used to think to yourself: I shall scale the heavens; higher than the stars of God I shall set my throne. I shall sit on the Mount of Assembly far away to the north.
Isa 14:14 I shall climb high above the clouds, I shall rival the Most High."
Isa 14:15 Now you have been flung down to Sheol, into the depths of the abyss!
Isa 14:16 'When they see you, they will scrutinise you and consider what you have become, "Is this the man who made the world tremble, who overthrew kingdoms?
Isa 14:17 He made the world a desert, he levelled cities and never freed his prisoners to go home."
Isa 14:18 All other kings of nations, all of them, lie honorably, each in his own tomb;
Isa 14:19 but you have been thrown away, unburied, like a loathsome branch, covered with heaps of the slain pierced by the sword who fall on the rocks of the abyss like trampled carrion.
Isa 14:20 'You will not rejoin them in the grave, for you have brought your country to ruin and destroyed your people. The offspring of the wicked leave no name behind them.
Isa 14:21 Make ready to slaughter his sons for the guilt of their father! Never again must they rise to conquer the world and cover the face of the earth with their cities.
Isa 14:22 'I will rise against them, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, and deprive Babylon of name, remnant, offspring and posterity, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 14:23 I shall turn it into the haunt of hedgehogs, a swamp. I shall sweep it with the broom of destruction, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.'
Isa 14:24 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has sworn it, 'Yes, what I have planned will take place, what I have decided will be so:
Isa 14:25 'I shall break Assyria in my country, I shall trample on him on my mountains. Then his yoke will slip off them, his burden will slip from their shoulders.'
Isa 14:26 This is the decision taken in defiance of the whole world; this, the hand outstretched in defiance of all nations.
Isa 14:27 Once Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has decided, who will stop him? Once he stretches out his hand, who can withdraw it?
Isa 14:28 In the year Ahaz died came this proclamation:
Isa 14:29 All Philistia, do not rejoice because the rod which used to beat you is now broken, for the serpent stock will produce a viper, its offspring will be a flying dragon.
Isa 14:30 While the first-born of the poor are grazing and the destitute are resting in safety, I shall make your stock die of hunger and then slaughter what remains of you.
Isa 14:31 Howl, gate! Shriek, city! Totter, all Philistia! For a smoke is coming from the north, and there are no deserters in those battalions.
Isa 14:32 What reply will be given then to the messengers of that nation? - That Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) founded Zion and there the poor of his people will find refuge.
Isa 15:1 Proclamation about Moab: Laid waste in a night, Ar-Moab lies silent; Laid waste in a night, Kir-Moab lies silent.
Isa 15:2 The daughter of Dibon has climbed to the high places to weep; on Nebo and in Medeba Moab laments. Every head shaven, every beard cut off,
Isa 15:3 they wear sackcloth in their streets; on their roofs and in their squares, everyone is lamenting and collapsing in tears.
Isa 15:4 Heshbon and Elealeh are crying out in distress, their voices can be heard as far as Jahaz. That is why the warriors of Moab are shivering, his soul trembles at the sound.
Isa 15:5 His heart cries out in distress for Moab, whose fugitives are already at Zoar, nearly at Eglath-Shelishiyah. They climb the slope of Luhith, weeping as they go; on the road to Horonaim they utter heart-rending cries.
Isa 15:6 The Waters of Nimrim have become a waste land, the grass dried up, the plants withered away, nothing green any more.
Isa 15:7 That is why they are carrying what they could save of their stores across the Ravine of the Willows.
Isa 15:8 For the cry for help re-echoes round the territory of Moab; their wailing, right to Eglaim, to Beer-Elim, their wailing;
Isa 15:9 Dimon's waters are swollen with blood, and I have worse in store for Dimon: a lion for those of Moab who survive, for those left on its soil.
Isa 16:1 Send the lamb to the ruler of the land, from Sela by the desert, to the mountain of the daughter of Zion,
Isa 16:2 for soon, like a fluttered bird, like nestlings cast out, will be the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.
Isa 16:3 Hold a council, make a decision. At noon spread your shadow as if it were night. Hide those who have been driven out, do not betray the fugitive,
Isa 16:4 let those who have been driven out of Moab come and live with you; be their refuge in the face of the devastator. Once the oppression is past, and the devastation has stopped and those now trampling on the country have gone away,
Isa 16:5 the throne will be made secure in faithful love and on it will sit in constancy within the tent of David, a judge seeking fair judgement and pursuing uprightness.
Isa 16:6 We have heard about Moab's pride, about how very proud it is, about its arrogance, its pride, its rage, its bravado, which will come to nothing!
Isa 16:7 And so Moab is wailing for Moab, wailing, every one of them. For the raisin cakes of Kir-Hareseth you mourn, stricken with grief.
Isa 16:8 For Heshbon's vineyards are withering, the vine of Sibmah whose red grapes used to overcome the overlords of the nations. It used to reach to Jazer, had wound its way into the desert, its shoots grew so numerous they spread across the sea.
Isa 16:9 And so I weep, as Jazer weeps, for the vine of Sibmah. I water you with my tears, Heshbon and Elealeh. For over your harvest and vintage the cheering has died away;
Isa 16:10 joy and gladness have vanished from the orchards. No more revelry in the vineyards, no more happy shouting; no more the treader treads wine in the presses, the cheering has ceased.
Isa 16:11 That is why my whole being quivers like harp strings for Moab, my very heart, for Kir-Heres.
Isa 16:12 Moab will be seen, wearing itself out on the high places and going to its temple to pray, but it will accomplish nothing.
Isa 16:13 Such was the word which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke about Moab in the past.
Isa 16:14 And now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken in these terms, 'Within three years, as a hired worker reckons them, the glory of Moab will be humbled, despite its teeming population. It will be reduced to nothing, an insignificant remnant.'
Isa 17:1 Proclamation about Damascus: Damascus will soon cease to be a city, it will become a heap of ruins.
Isa 17:2 Its towns, abandoned for ever, will be pastures for flocks; there they will rest with no one to disturb them.
Isa 17:3 Ephraim will be stripped of its defences and Damascus of its sovereignty; and the remnant of Aram will be treated like the glory of the Israelites -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Isa 17:4 When that day comes, Jacob's glory will diminish, from being fat he will grow lean;
Isa 17:5 as when a reaper gathers in the standing corn, harvesting the ears of corn with his arm, or when they glean the ears in the Valley of Rephaim,
Isa 17:6 nothing will remain but pickings, as when an olive tree is beaten; two or three berries left on the topmost bough, four or five berries on the branches of the tree -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel.
Isa 17:7 That day, a man will look to his Creator and his eyes will turn to the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 17:8 He will no longer look to altars, his own handiwork, or to what his own fingers have made: the sacred poles and incense-altars.
Isa 17:9 That day, its cities of refuge will be abandoned as were the woods and heaths at the Israelites' advance: there will be desolation.
Isa 17:10 Since you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and failed to keep the Rock, your refuge, in mind, you plant pleasure-gardens, you sow exotic seeds;
Isa 17:11 the day you plant them, you get them to sprout, and, next morning, your seedlings are in flower; but the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.
Isa 17:12 Disaster! The thunder of vast hordes, a thunder like the thunder of the seas, the roar of nations roaring like the roar of mighty floods,
Isa 17:13 of nations roaring like the roar of ocean! He rebukes them and far away they flee, driven like chaff on the mountains before the wind, like an eddy of dust before the storm.
Isa 17:14 At evening all is terror, by morning all have disappeared. Such will be the lot of those who plunder us, such, the fate of our despoilers.
Isa 18:1 Disaster! Land of the whirring locust beyond the rivers of Cush,
Isa 18:2 who send ambassadors by sea, in little reed-boats across the waters! Go, swift messengers to a nation tall and bronzed, to a people feared far and near, a mighty and masterful nation whose country is criss-crossed with rivers.
Isa 18:3 All you who inhabit the world, you who people the earth, when the signal is hoisted on the mountains, you will see, when the ram's-horn is sounded, you will hear.
Isa 18:4 For this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has told me, 'I shall sit here quietly looking down, like the burning heat in the daytime, like a dewy mist in the heat of harvest.'
Isa 18:5 For, before the harvest, once the flowering is over and blossom turns into ripening grape, the branches will be cut off with pruning knives, and the shoots taken off, cut away.
Isa 18:6 All has been abandoned to the mountain birds of prey and the wild animals: the birds of prey will summer on them, and all the wild animals winter on them.
Isa 18:7 Then, an offering will be brought to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth on behalf of a people tall and bronzed, on behalf of a people feared far and near, on behalf of a mighty and masterful nation whose country is criss-crossed with rivers: to the place where the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth resides, Mount Zion.
Isa 19:1 Proclamation about Egypt: Look! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), riding a swift cloud, is coming to Egypt. The false gods of Egypt totter before him and Egypt's heart quails within her.
Isa 19:2 I shall stir up Egypt against Egypt, they will fight one another, brother against brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
Isa 19:3 Egypt's spirit will fail within her and I shall confound her deliberations. They will consult false gods and wizards, ghosts and sorcerers.
Isa 19:4 And I shall hand Egypt over to the clutches of a cruel master, a ruthless king will rule them -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Isa 19:5 The waters will ebb from the sea, the river will dry up and run low,
Isa 19:6 the streams will become foul, the rivers of Egypt sink and dry up. Rush and reed will turn black,
Isa 19:7 the Nile-plants on the banks of the Nile; all the vegetation of the Nile, will wither, blow away and be no more.
Isa 19:8 The fishermen will groan, it will be mourning for all who cast hook in the Nile; those who spread nets on the waters will lose heart.
Isa 19:9 The workers of carded flax and the weavers of white cloth will be confounded,
Isa 19:10 the weavers dismayed, all the workmen dejected.
Isa 19:11 Yes, the princes of Zoan are fools, Pharaoh's wisest councillors make up a stupid council. How dare you say to Pharaoh, 'I am descended from sages, I am descended from bygone kings'?
Isa 19:12 Where are these sages of yours? Let them tell you, so that all may know, the plans Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has made against Egypt!
Isa 19:13 The princes of Zoan are fools, the princes of Noph, self-deceivers, the top men of her provinces have led Egypt astray.
Isa 19:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has infused them with a giddy spirit; they have led Egypt astray in all she undertakes like a drunkard straying about as he vomits.
Isa 19:15 Nowadays no one does for Egypt what top and tail, palm and reed used to do.
Isa 19:16 That day Egypt will be like women, trembling and terrified at the threatening hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, when he raises it against her.
Isa 19:17 The land of Judah will become Egypt's shame; whenever she is reminded of it, she will be terrified, because of the plan which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has laid against her.
Isa 19:18 That day in Egypt there will be five towns speaking the language of Canaan and pledging themselves to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth; one of them will be called City of the Sun.
Isa 19:19 That day there will be an altar dedicated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the centre of Egypt and, close to the frontier, a pillar dedicated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Isa 19:20 and this will be a sign and a witness to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth in Egypt. When they cry to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for help because of oppressors, he will send them a Savior and leader to deliver them.
Isa 19:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will reveal himself to Egypt, and the Egyptians will acknowledge Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that day and will offer sacrifices and cereal offerings, and will make vows to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and perform them.
Isa 19:22 And if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) strikes Egypt, having struck he will heal, and they will turn to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who will hear their prayers and heal them.
Isa 19:23 That day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. Assyria will have access to Egypt and Egypt have access to Assyria. Egypt will serve with Assyria.
Isa 19:24 That day Israel will make a third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing at the centre of the world,
Isa 19:25 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth will bless them in the words, 'Blessed be my people Egypt, Assyria my creation, and Israel my heritage.'
Isa 20:1 The year the general-in-chief, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and stormed and captured it
Isa 20:2 at that time Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz and said, 'Go, undo the sackcloth round your waist and take the sandals off your feet.' And he did so, and walked about, naked and barefoot.
Isa 20:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said, 'As my servant Isaiah has been walking about naked and barefoot for the last three years as a sign and portent for Egypt and Cush,
Isa 20:4 so the king of Assyria will lead the captives of Egypt and the exiles of Cush, young and old, naked and barefoot, their buttocks bared, to the shame of Egypt.
Isa 20:5 Then they will be afraid and ashamed of Cush their hope and Egypt their pride,
Isa 20:6 and the inhabitants of this coast will say on that day, "Look what has happened to our hope, to those to whom we fled for help, to escape from the king of Assyria. How are we going to escape?" '
Isa 21:1 Proclamation about the coastal desert: As whirlwinds sweeping over the Negeb, he comes from the desert, from a fearsome country.
Isa 21:2 A harsh vision has been shown me, 'The traitor betrays and the despoiler despoils. Advance, Elam, lay siege, Media!' I have cut short all groaning.
Isa 21:3 This is why my loins are racked with pain, why I am seized with pangs like the pangs of a woman in labour; I am too distressed to hear, too afraid to look.
Isa 21:4 My heart is bewildered, dread overwhelms me, the twilight I longed for has become my horror.
Isa 21:5 They lay the table, spread the cloth, they eat, they drink. Up, princes, grease the shield!
Isa 21:6 For this is what the Lord has told me, 'Go, post a look-out, let him report what he sees.
Isa 21:7 He will see cavalry, horsemen two by two, men mounted on donkeys, men mounted on camels; let him watch alertly, be very alert indeed!'
Isa 21:8 Then the look-out shouted, 'On the watchtower, Lord, I stay all day and at my post I stand all night.
Isa 21:9 Now the cavalry is coming, horsemen two by two.' He shouted again and said, 'Babylon has fallen, has fallen, and all the images of her gods he has shattered to the ground!'
Isa 21:10 You whom I have threshed, grain of my threshing-floor, what I have heard from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, I am telling you now.
Isa 21:11 Proclamation about Dumah: From Seir, someone shouts to me, 'Watchman, what time of night? Watchman, what time of night?'
Isa 21:12 The watchman answers, 'Morning is coming, then night again. If you want to ask, ask! Come back! Come here!'
Isa 21:13 Proclamation about the wastelands: In the thickets, on the wastelands, you spend the night, you caravans of Dedanites.
Isa 21:14 Bring water for the thirsty! The inhabitants of Tema went with bread to greet the fugitive.
Isa 21:15 For these have fled before the sword, the naked sword and the bent bow, the press of battle.
Isa 21:16 For this is what the Lord has told me, 'In one year's time as a hired worker reckons it, all the glory of Kedar will be finished
Isa 21:17 and, of the valiant archers, the Kedarites, hardly any will be left, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, has spoken.'
Isa 22:1 Prophecy on the Valley of Vision: Now what is the matter with you for you all to be up on the housetops,
Isa 22:2 full of excitement, boisterous town, joyful city? Your slain have not fallen to the sword nor died in battle.
Isa 22:3 Your leaders have all fled together, captured without a bow between them, all who could be found have been captured at a blow, far though they had fled.
Isa 22:4 That is why I said, 'Turn your eyes away from me, let me weep bitterly; do not try to comfort me over the ruin of the daughter of my people.'
Isa 22:5 For this is a day of rout, panic and confusion, the work of the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth in the Valley of Vision. The wall is sapped, cries for help ring out to the mountains.
Isa 22:6 Elam has picked up his quiver, with manned chariots and horsemen, and Kir has bared his shield.
Isa 22:7 Your fairest valleys are full of chariots and the horsemen take up positions at the gates;
Isa 22:8 thus falls the defence of Judah. That day you turned your gaze to the weapons in the House of the Forest.
Isa 22:9 You saw how many breaches there were in the City of David. You collected the waters of the lower pool.
Isa 22:10 You surveyed the houses in Jerusalem and pulled houses down to strengthen the wall.
Isa 22:11 Between the two walls you made a reservoir for the waters of the old pool. But you did not look to the Creator of these things, you did not look to the One who fashioned them long ago.
Isa 22:12 That day the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth called on you to weep and mourn, to shave your heads, to put on sackcloth.
Isa 22:13 But instead there is joy and merriment, killing of oxen, slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat, drinking of wine, 'Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall be dead.'
Isa 22:14 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth revealed this to my ears, 'This guilt will never be forgiven you, until you are dead,' says the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Isa 22:15 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Go and find that steward, Shebna, the master of the palace:
Isa 22:16 'What do you own here, who gave you the right for you to hew yourself a tomb here?' He is hewing himself a tomb, is digging a resting-place for himself in the rock.
Isa 22:17 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will throw you away, strong as you are, will grasp you in his grip,
Isa 22:18 will screw you up into a ball, a ball thrown into a vast space. There you will die, with your splendid chariots, disgrace to your master's palace!
Isa 22:19 I shall hound you from your office, I shall snatch you from your post
Isa 22:20 and, when that day comes, I shall summon my servant Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
Isa 22:21 I shall dress him in your tunic, I shall put your sash round his waist, I shall invest him with your authority; and he will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the House of Judah.
Isa 22:22 I shall place the key of David's palace on his shoulder; when he opens, no one will close, when he closes, no one will open.
Isa 22:23 I shall drive him like a nail into a firm place; and he will become a throne of glory for his family.
Isa 22:24 'On him will depend all the glory of his family, the descendants and offspring, all the vessels of small capacity too, from cups to pitchers.
Isa 22:25 That day, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the nail driven into a firm place will give way, will be torn out and fall. And the whole load hanging on it will be lost. For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken.'
Isa 23:1 Proclamation about Tyre: Howl, ships of Tarshish, for all has been destroyed- no more houses, no way of getting in: the news has reached them from Kittim.
Isa 23:2 Be struck dumb, inhabitants of the coast, you merchants of Sidon, whose messengers cross the sea
Isa 23:3 to the wide ocean. The grain of the Canal, the harvest of the Nile, formed her revenue. She was the market for the nations.
Isa 23:4 Blush, Sidon (citadel of the seas), for this is what the sea has said, 'I have felt no birth-pangs, never given birth, never reared boys nor brought up girls.'
Isa 23:5 When the news reaches Egypt, they will tremble to hear Tyre's fate.
Isa 23:6 Cross to Tarshish, howl, inhabitants of the coast.
Isa 23:7 Is this your proud city founded far back in the past, whose steps led her far afield to found her colonies?
Isa 23:8 Who took this decision against Tyre, who used to hand out crowns, whose traders were princes, whose merchants, men honored in the city?
Isa 23:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth took this decision to wither the pride of all beauty and humiliate those honored in the city.
Isa 23:10 Cultivate your country like the Delta, daughter of Tarshish, for your marine docks are no more.
Isa 23:11 He has raised his hand against the sea, he has shaken kingdoms, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ordained the destruction of the fortresses of Canaan.
Isa 23:12 He has said, 'Exult no more, ill-treated virgin daughter of Sidon! Get up, cross to Kittim, no respite for you there, either.'
Isa 23:13 Look at the land of the Chaldaeans, a people who used not to exist! Assyria assigned it to the creatures of the wilds; they raised their siege-towers against it, demolished its bastions, reduced it to ruin.
Isa 23:14 Howl, ships of Tarshish, for your fortress has been destroyed.
Isa 23:15 When that day comes, Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years, the length of one king's life. But when the seventy years are over, Tyre will become like the whore in the song:
Isa 23:16 'Take your harp, walk the town, whore whom men have forgotten! Play sweetly, song after song, to make them remember you.'
Isa 23:17 At the end of the seventy years Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will visit Tyre. She will receive her pay again and play the whore with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth.
Isa 23:18 But her profits and wages will be dedicated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). They will not be stored or hoarded, but her profits will go to those who live in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence, for them to have as much food as they want and splendid clothes.
Isa 24:1 See how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lays the earth waste, makes it a desert, buckles its surface, scatters its inhabitants,
Isa 24:2 priest and people alike, master and slave, mistress and maid, seller and buyer, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.
Isa 24:3 Ravaged, ravaged the earth will be, despoiled, despoiled, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has uttered this word.
Isa 24:4 The earth is mourning, pining away, the pick of earth's people are withering away.
Isa 24:5 The earth is defiled by the feet of its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the decree, broken the everlasting covenant.
Isa 24:6 That is why the curse has consumed the earth and its inhabitants pay the penalty, that is why the inhabitants of the earth have been burnt up and few people are left.
Isa 24:7 The new wine is mourning, the vine is withering away, the once merry-hearted are sighing.
Isa 24:8 The cheerful sound of tambourines is silent, the sound of revelling is over, the cheerful sound of the harp is silent.
Isa 24:9 No more will they sing over their wine, liquor will taste bitter to the drinker.
Isa 24:10 The city of nothingness is in ruins, every house is shut, no one can enter.
Isa 24:11 People shout in the streets to try to get wine; all joy has vanished, happiness has been banished from the country.
Isa 24:12 Nothing but rubble in the city, the gate has collapsed in ruins.
Isa 24:13 For at the heart of earth's life, among the peoples, it is as at the beating of the olive trees, as at the gleaning of the grapes when the grape harvest is over.
Isa 24:14 They raise their voices, shouting for joy, in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s honor they shout from the west.
Isa 24:15 'Yes, in the east, give glory to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the islands of the sea, to the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel!'
Isa 24:16 We have heard psalms from the remotest parts of earth, 'Glory to the Upright One!' But I thought, 'What an ordeal, what an ordeal! What misery for me!' The traitors have betrayed, the traitors have acted most treacherously.
Isa 24:17 Fear, the pit and the snare for you, inhabitants of the city!
Isa 24:18 And whoever flees from the cry of fear will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. Yes, the sluice-gates above are open, the foundations of the earth are quaking.
Isa 24:19 A cracking, the earth cracks open, a jolting, the earth gives a jolt, a lurching, the earth lurches backwards and forwards.
Isa 24:20 The earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard, it will be shaken like a shanty; so heavy will be its sin on it, it will fall, never to rise again.
Isa 24:21 When that day comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will punish the armies of the sky above and on earth the kings of the earth;
Isa 24:22 they will be herded together, herded together like prisoners in a dungeon and shut up in gaol, and, after long years, punished.
Isa 24:23 The moon will be confused and the sun ashamed, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is king on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and the Glory will radiate on their elders.
Isa 25:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you are my God, I shall praise you to the heights, I shall praise your name; for you have accomplished marvels, plans long-conceived, faithfully, firmly.
Isa 25:2 For you have made the town a heap of stones, the fortified city a ruin. The foreigners' citadel is a city no longer, it will never be rebuilt.
Isa 25:3 Hence mighty peoples will honor you, the city of pitiless nations hold you in awe;
Isa 25:4 For you have been a refuge for the weak, a refuge for the needy in distress, a shelter from the storm, shade from the heat; for the breath of the pitiless is like a winter storm.
Isa 25:5 Like heat in a dry land you calm the foreigners' tumult; as heat under the shadow of a cloud, so the song of the pitiless dies away.
Isa 25:6 On this mountain, for all peoples, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is preparing a banquet of rich food, a banquet of fine wines, of succulent food, of well-strained wines.
Isa 25:7 On this mountain, he has destroyed the veil which used to veil all peoples, the pall enveloping all nations;
Isa 25:8 he has destroyed death for ever. Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has wiped away the tears from every cheek; he has taken his people's shame away everywhere on earth, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken.
Isa 25:9 And on that day, it will be said, 'Look, this is our God, in him we put our hope that he should save us, this is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), we put our hope in him. Let us exult and rejoice since he has saved us.'
Isa 25:10 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand will rest on this mountain, and Moab will be trodden under his feet as straw is trodden into the dung-heap.
Isa 25:11 He may stretch his hands wide on the mountain like a swimmer stretching out his hands to swim. But he will humble his pride despite what his hands may attempt.
Isa 25:12 And the impregnable fortress of your walls, he has overthrown, laid low, flung to the ground, in the dust.
Isa 26:1 That day, this song will be sung in Judah: 'We have a fortress city, the walls and ramparts provide safety.
Isa 26:2 Open the gates! Let the upright nation come in, the nation that keeps faith!
Isa 26:3 This is the plan decreed: you will guarantee peace, the peace entrusted to you.
Isa 26:4 Trust in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for ever, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a rock for ever.
Isa 26:5 He has brought low the dwellers on the heights, the lofty citadel; he lays it low, brings it to the ground, flings it down in the dust.
Isa 26:6 It will be trodden under foot, by the feet of the needy, the steps of the weak.'
Isa 26:7 The path of the Upright One is honesty; you smooth the honest way of the upright.
Isa 26:8 Following the path of your judgements, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), we set our hopes in you, your name, your memory are all our soul desires.
Isa 26:9 At night my soul longs for you and my spirit within me seeks you out; for when your judgements appear on earth the inhabitants of the world learn what saving justice is.
Isa 26:10 If pity is shown to the wicked without his learning what saving justice is, he will act wrongly in the land of right conduct and not see the majesty of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 26:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your hand is raised but they do not see! The antagonists of your people will look and grow pale; with your fiery wrath you will devour your enemies.
Isa 26:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you will grant us peace, having completed all our undertakings for us.
Isa 26:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, other lords than you have ruled us but, loyal to you alone, we invoke your name.
Isa 26:14 The dead will not come back to life, the shadows will not rise again, for you have punished them, annihilated them, wiping out their very memory.
Isa 26:15 You have made the nation larger, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), made the nation larger and won yourself glory, you have rolled back the frontiers of the country.
Isa 26:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in distress they had recourse to you, they expended themselves in prayer, since your punishment was on them.
Isa 26:17 As a pregnant woman near her time of delivery writhes and cries out in her pangs, so have we been, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in your eyes:
Isa 26:18 we have been pregnant, we have writhed, but we have given birth only to wind: we have not given salvation to the earth, no inhabitants for the world have been brought to birth.
Isa 26:19 Your dead will come back to life, your corpses will rise again. Wake up and sing, you dwellers in the dust, for your dew will be a radiant dew, but the earth will give birth to the shades.
Isa 26:20 Go, my people, go to your private room, shut yourselves in. Hide yourselves a little while until the retribution has passed.
Isa 26:21 For see, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) emerges from his dwelling to punish the inhabitants of earth for their guilt; and the earth will reveal the blood shed on it and no longer hide its slain.
Isa 27:1 That day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will punish, with his unyielding sword, massive and strong, Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will kill that dragon that lives in the sea.
Isa 27:2 That day, sing of the splendid vineyard!
Isa 27:3 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am its guardian, from time to time I water it; so that no harm befall it, I guard it night and day.
Isa 27:4 -I do not have a wall. Who can reduce me to brambles and thorn-bushes? -I shall make war and trample on it and at the same time burn it.
Isa 27:5 Or should they beg for my protection, let them make their peace with me, peace let them make with me.
Isa 27:6 In days to come, Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and the surface of the world be one vast harvest.
Isa 27:7 Has he struck him as he was struck by those who struck him? Has he murdered him as he was murdered by those who murdered him?
Isa 27:8 By expelling, by excluding him, you have executed a sentence, he has blown him away with a breath as rough as the east wind.
Isa 27:9 For that is how Jacob's guilt will be forgiven, such will be the result of renouncing his sin, when all the altar-stones have been smashed to pieces like lumps of chalk, when the sacred poles and incense-altars stand no longer.
Isa 27:10 For the fortified city is abandoned now, deserted, forsaken as a desert where calves browse, where they lie down, destroying its branches.
Isa 27:11 When boughs go dry, they get burnt, women come and use them for firewood. Now, this is a people that does not understand, and so its Maker will not take pity on it, he who formed it will not show it any mercy.
Isa 27:12 When that day comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will start his threshing from the course of the River to the Torrent of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, Israelites!
Isa 27:13 When that day comes, the great ram's-horn will be sounded, and those lost in Assyria will come, and those banished to Egypt, and they will worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on the holy mountain, in Jerusalem.
Isa 28:1 Woe to the haughty crown of Ephraim's drunkards, to the fading flower of its proud splendor sited at the head of the lush valley, to those prostrated by wine!
Isa 28:2 See, a strong and mighty man in the Lord's service, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like immense flood-waters overflowing, with his hand he throws them to the ground.
Isa 28:3 They will be trampled underfoot, the haughty crown of Ephraim's drunkards,
Isa 28:4 and the faded flower of its proud splendor sited at the head of the lush valley. Like a fig ripe before summer comes: whoever spots it forthwith picks and swallows it.
Isa 28:5 That day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth will be a crown of splendor and a proud diadem for the remnant of his people,
Isa 28:6 a spirit of fair judgement for him who sits in judgement, and the strength of those who repel the assault on the gate.
Isa 28:7 These too have been confused by wine, have gone astray owing to liquor. Priest and prophet have become confused by liquor, are sodden with wine, have strayed owing to liquor, have become confused in their visions, have strayed in their decisions.
Isa 28:8 Yes, every table is covered in filthy vomit, not one is clean!
Isa 28:9 'Whom does he think he is lecturing? Whom does he think his message is for? Babies just weaned? Babies just taken from the breast?
Isa 28:10 With his "Sav lasav, sav lasav, kav lakav, kav lakav, zeer sham, zeer sham!"
Isa 28:11 Now, with stammering lips and in a foreign language, he will talk to this nation.
Isa 28:12 He used to say to them, 'Here you can rest! Here you can let the weary rest! Here all is quiet.' But they refused to listen.
Isa 28:13 Now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is going to say this to them, 'Sav lasav, sav lasav, kav lakav, kav lakav, zeer sham, zeer sham.' So that when they walk they will fall over backwards and so be broken, trapped and taken captive.
Isa 28:14 Hence listen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word, you insolent men, rulers of this people in Jerusalem.
Isa 28:15 Because you have said, 'We have made a treaty with Death and have struck a pact with Sheol. When the scourging flood comes over, it will not touch us, for we have made lies our refuge and hidden under falsehood.'
Isa 28:16 So the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Now I shall lay a stone in Zion, a granite stone, a precious corner-stone, a firm foundation-stone: no one who relies on this will stumble.
Isa 28:17 And I will make fair judgement the measure, and uprightness the plumb-line.' But hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and floods wash away the hiding-place;
Isa 28:18 your treaty with Death will be broken and your pact with Sheol will not hold. When the scourging flood comes over, you will be trodden down by it;
Isa 28:19 every time it comes over, it will seize on you, for it will come over, morning after morning, day by day and night by night. Nothing but fear will make you understand what you hear.
Isa 28:20 For the bed is too short to stretch in, the blanket too narrow for covering.
Isa 28:21 Yes, as on Mount Perazim, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will rise, as in the Valley of Gibeon, he will storm to do his work, his mysterious work, to do his deed, his extraordinary deed.
Isa 28:22 Stop scoffing, then, or your bonds will be tightened further, for I have heard it: it has been irrevocably decided as regards the whole country by the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Isa 28:23 Listen closely to my words, be attentive, understand what I am saying.
Isa 28:24 Does the ploughman plough all day to sow, breaking up and harrowing his ground?
Isa 28:25 Once he has levelled its surface, does he not scatter fennel, sow cummin? Then he puts in wheat, millet, barley and, round the edges, spelt,
Isa 28:26 for his God has taught him this rule and instructed him.
Isa 28:27 Fennel must not be crushed with a sledge, nor cart-wheels driven over cummin; fennel must be beaten with a stick, and cummin with a flail.
Isa 28:28 When you are threshing wheat, you do not waste time crushing it; you get the horse and cart-wheel moving, but you do not grind it fine.
Isa 28:29 All this is a gift from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, marvellous advice leading to great achievements.
Isa 29:1 Woe, Ariel, Ariel, city where David encamped. Let year after year pass, let the feasts make their full round,
Isa 29:2 then I shall inflict trouble on Ariel, and there will be sighing and sobbing, and I shall make it truly Ariel.
Isa 29:3 I shall encamp all round you, I shall lay siege to you and mount siege-works against you.
Isa 29:4 You will be laid low, will speak from the underworld, your words will rise like a murmur from the dust. Your voice from the earth will be like a ghost's, it will whisper as though coming from the dust.
Isa 29:5 The horde of your enemies will be like fine dust, the horde of the warriors like flying chaff. And suddenly, in an instant,
Isa 29:6 you will be visited by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth with thunder, earthquake, mighty din, hurricane, tempest, flame of devouring fire.
Isa 29:7 It will be like a dream, like a vision at night: the horde of all the nations at war with Ariel, all those fighting, besieging and troubling it.
Isa 29:8 It will be like the dream of a hungry man: he eats, then wakes up with an empty belly; or like the dream of a thirsty man: he drinks, then wakes up exhausted with a parched throat. So will it be with the horde of all the nations making war on Mount Zion.
Isa 29:9 Be stupefied and stunned, go blind, unseeing, drunk but not on wine, staggering but not through liquor.
Isa 29:10 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has infused you with a spirit of lethargy, he has closed your eyes (the prophets), he has veiled your heads (the seers).
Isa 29:11 For to you every vision has become like the words of a sealed book. You give it to someone able to read and say, 'Read that.' He replies, 'I cannot, because it is sealed.'
Isa 29:12 You then give the book to someone who cannot read, and say, 'Read that.' He replies, 'I cannot read.'
Isa 29:13 The Lord then said: Because this people approaches me only in words, honors me only with lip-service while their hearts are far from me, and reverence for me, as far as they are concerned, is nothing but human commandment, a lesson memorised,
Isa 29:14 very well, I shall have to go on astounding this people with prodigies and wonders: for the wisdom of its wise men is doomed, the understanding of any who understand will vanish.
Isa 29:15 Woe to those who burrow down to conceal their plans from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who scheme in the dark and say, 'Who can see us? Who knows who we are?'
Isa 29:16 How perverse you are! Is the potter no better than the clay? Something that was made, can it say of its maker, 'He did not make me'? Or a pot say of the potter, 'He does not know his job'?
Isa 29:17 Is it not true that in a very short time the Lebanon will become productive ground, so productive you might take it for a forest?
Isa 29:18 That day the deaf will hear the words of the book and, delivered from shadow and darkness, the eyes of the blind will see.
Isa 29:19 The lowly will find ever more joy in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and the poorest of people will delight in the Holy One of Israel;
Isa 29:20 for the tyrant will be no more, the scoffer has vanished and all those on the look-out for evil have been destroyed:
Isa 29:21 those who incriminate others by their words, those who lay traps for the arbitrator at the gate and groundlessly deprive the upright of fair judgement.
Isa 29:22 That is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of the House of Jacob, Abraham's redeemer, says this, 'No longer shall Jacob be disappointed, no more shall his face grow pale,
Isa 29:23 for when he sees his children, my creatures, home again with him, he will acknowledge my name as holy, he will acknowledge the Holy One of Jacob to be holy and will hold the God of Israel in awe.
Isa 29:24 Erring spirits will learn to understand and murmurers accept instruction.'
Isa 30:1 Woe to the rebellious children -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- who make plans which do not come from me and make alliances not inspired by me, and so add sin to sin!
Isa 30:2 They are leaving for Egypt, without consulting me, to take refuge in Pharaoh's protection, to shelter in Egypt's shadow.
Isa 30:3 Pharaoh's protection will be your shame, the shelter of Egypt's shadow your confounding.
Isa 30:4 For his princes have gone to Zoan and his messengers have reached Hanes.
Isa 30:5 Everyone has been disappointed by a people who cannot help, who bring neither aid nor profit, only disappointment and confusion.
Isa 30:6 Proclamation about the beasts of the Negeb: Into the land of distress and of anguish, of lioness and roaring lion, of viper and flying dragon, they bear their riches on donkeys' backs, their treasures on camels' humps, to a nation that cannot help:
Isa 30:7 Egypt, whose help is vain and futile; and so I call her 'Rahab -the-collapsed'.
Isa 30:8 Now go, inscribe this on a tablet, write it on a scroll, so that it may serve for time to come for ever and for ever.
Isa 30:9 This is a rebellious people, they are lying children, children who will not listen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Law.
Isa 30:10 To the seers they say, 'See nothing!' To the prophets, 'Do not prophesy the truth to us; tell us flattering things; have illusory visions;
Isa 30:11 turn aside from the way, leave the path, rid us of the Holy One of Israel.'
Isa 30:12 So the Holy One of Israel says this, 'Since you have rejected this word and put your trust in fraud and disloyalty and rely on these,
Isa 30:13 for you this guilt will prove to be a breach opening up, a bulge at the top of a wall which suddenly and all at once comes crashing down.
Isa 30:14 He will shatter it like an earthenware pot, ruthlessly knocking it to pieces, so that of the fragments not one shard can be found with which to take up fire from the hearth or scoop water from the storage-well.'
Isa 30:15 For Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Holy One of Israel, says this, 'Your salvation lay in conversion and tranquillity, your strength in serenity and trust and you would have none of it.
Isa 30:16 "No," you said, "we shall flee on horses." And so flee you will! And again, "We shall ride on swift ones." And so your pursuers will be swift!
Isa 30:17 A thousand will quake at the threat of one and when five threaten you will flee, until what is left of you will be like a flagstaff on a mountain top, like a signal on a hill.'
Isa 30:18 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is waiting to be gracious to you, the Exalted One, to take pity on you, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a God of fair judgement; blessed are all who hope in him.
Isa 30:19 Yes, people of Zion living in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will be gracious to you when your cry for help rings out; as soon as he hears it, he will answer you.
Isa 30:20 When the Lord has given you the bread of suffering and the water of distress, he who is your teacher will hide no longer, and you will see your teacher with your own eyes.
Isa 30:21 Your ears will hear these words behind you, 'This is the way, keep to it,' whether you turn to right or left.
Isa 30:22 You will hold unclean the silverplating of your idols and the goldplating of your images. You will throw them away like the polluted things they are, shouting after them, 'Good riddance!'
Isa 30:23 He will send rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the bread that the ground provides will be rich and nourishing. That day, your cattle will graze in wide pastures.
Isa 30:24 Oxen and donkeys that work the land will eat for fodder wild sorrel, spread by the shovel-load and fork-load.
Isa 30:25 On every lofty mountain, on every high hill there will be streams and water-courses, on the day of the great slaughter when the strongholds fall.
Isa 30:26 Then moonlight will be bright as sunlight and sunlight itself be seven times brighter -- like the light of seven days in one -- on the day Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) dresses his people's wound and heals the scars of the blows they have received.
Isa 30:27 See, the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) comes from afar, blazing his anger, heavy his threat. His lips are brimming over with fury, his tongue is like a devouring fire.
Isa 30:28 His breath is like a river in spate coming up to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, to harness the peoples in a bridle, that will lead them astray.
Isa 30:29 Your song will be like that on a festal night, and there will be joy in your hearts as when to the sound of the flute people make a pilgrimage to the mountain of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Rock of Israel.
Isa 30:30 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will make his majestic voice ring out, he will show the weight of his arm in the heat of his anger, with a devouring fire, with thunderbolt, downpour and hailstones.
Isa 30:31 Yes, at Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice Assyria will be terrified, he will strike him with his rod;
Isa 30:32 each time he goes by, will fall the punishing rod that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will lay on him, to the sound of tambourines and harps, in the battles which he will wage against him with uplifted hand.
Isa 30:33 Yes, Topheth has been ready for a long time now, that too is ready for the king, deep and wide his pyre, fire and wood in plenty. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s breath, like a stream of brimstone, will set fire to it.
Isa 31:1 Woe to those going down to Egypt for help, who put their trust in horses, who rely on the quantity of chariots, and on great strength of cavalrymen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 31:2 Yet he too is wise and can bring disaster and he will not go back on his word; he will rise against the breed of evil-doers and against those who protect wrong-doers.
Isa 31:3 The Egyptian is human, not divine, his horses are flesh, not spirit; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will stretch out his hand: the protector will stumble, the protected will fall and all will perish together.
Isa 31:4 Yes, this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said to me: As a lion or lion cub growls over its prey, when scores of shepherds are summoned to drive it off, without being frightened by their shouting or cowed by the noise they make, just so will Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth descend to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
Isa 31:5 Like hovering birds, so will Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth protect Jerusalem; by protecting it, he will save it, by supporting it, he will deliver it.
Isa 31:6 Come back to the one whom the Israelites have so deeply betrayed!
Isa 31:7 For, that day, each of you will throw away the false gods of silver and the false gods of gold which your own sinful hands have made.
Isa 31:8 Assyria will fall by the sword, not that of a man, will be devoured by the sword, of no human being, he will flee before the sword and his young warriors will be enslaved.
Isa 31:9 In his terror he will abandon his rock, and his panic-stricken officers desert the standard -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace, in Jerusalem.
Isa 32:1 There will be a king who reigns uprightly and princes who rule with fair judgement;
Isa 32:2 each will be like a shelter from the wind, a refuge from the storm, like streams on arid ground, like the shade of a solid rock in a desolate land.
Isa 32:3 The eyes of seers will no longer be closed, the ears of hearers will be alert,
Isa 32:4 the heart of the hasty will learn to think things over, and the tongue of stammerers will speak promptly and clearly.
Isa 32:5 The fool will no longer be called generous, nor the rascal be styled bountiful.
Isa 32:6 For the fool speaks folly and his heart is set on villainy; he is godless in his actions and his words ascribe error to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he starves the hungry of their food and refuses drink to the thirsty.
Isa 32:7 Everything to do with the rascal is evil, he devises infamous plans to ruin the poor with lying words even when the needy has right on his side;
Isa 32:8 but the noble person plans only noble things, noble his every move.
Isa 32:9 Stand up, you haughty women, listen to my words; you over-confident daughters, pay attention to what I say.
Isa 32:10 Within one year and a few days you will tremble, you over-confident women; grape-harvesting will be finished, gathering will never happen again.
Isa 32:11 Shudder, you haughty women, tremble, you over-confident women; strip, undress, put sackcloth round your waists.
Isa 32:12 Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine,
Isa 32:13 for my people's soil where the bramble-bush will be growing and for all the happy houses, for the rejoicing city.
Isa 32:14 For the citadel will be abandoned and the thronged city deserted, Ophel and the Keep will be denuded for ever, the playground of wild donkeys and the pasture of flocks,
Isa 32:15 until the spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes an orchard, and an orchard that seems like a forest.
Isa 32:16 Fair judgement will fix its home in the desert, and uprightness live in this orchard,
Isa 32:17 and the product of uprightness will be peace, the effect of uprightness being quiet and security for ever.
Isa 32:18 My people will live in a peaceful home, in peaceful houses, tranquil dwellings.
Isa 32:19 And should the forest be totally destroyed and the city gravely humiliated,
Isa 32:20 You will be happy to sow wherever there is water and to let the ox and donkey roam free.
Isa 33:1 Woe to you, destroying though not yourself destroyed, betraying though not yourself betrayed; when you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed, when you have stopped betraying, you will be betrayed.
Isa 33:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), show us your mercy, we hope in you. Be our arm every morning and our salvation in time of distress.
Isa 33:3 At the sound of tumult the peoples flee, when you stand up the nations scatter.
Isa 33:4 Your spoil is gathered in as a grasshopper gathers in, like a swarm of locusts people descend on it.
Isa 33:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is exalted, for he is enthroned above, he has filled Zion with fair judgement and saving justice.
Isa 33:6 You can count on this all your days: wisdom and knowledge are the riches that save, the fear of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is his treasure.
Isa 33:7 Look, Ariel is lamenting in the streets, the ambassadors of peace are weeping bitterly.
Isa 33:8 The highways are deserted, no travellers any more on the roads. Agreements are broken, witnesses held in contempt, there is respect for no one.
Isa 33:9 The land pines away in mourning, the Lebanon is withering with shame, Sharon has become like the wasteland, Bashan and Carmel are shuddering.
Isa 33:10 'Now I shall stand up,' says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'now I shall rise, now draw myself up.
Isa 33:11 You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw: like fire, my breath will devour you.
Isa 33:12 The peoples will be burnt up as though by quicklime, like cut thorns they will be burnt on the fire.
Isa 33:13 You who are far away, listen to what I have done, and you who are near, realize my strength.'
Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are panic-stricken and fear seizes on the godless, 'Which of us can survive the devouring fire, which of us survive everlasting burning?'
Isa 33:15 The one who acts uprightly and speaks honestly, who scorns to get rich by extortion, who rejects bribes out of hand, who refuses to listen to plans involving bloodshed and shuts his eyes rather than countenance crime:
Isa 33:16 such a man will live on the heights, the craggy rocks will be his refuge, he will be fed, he will not want for water.
Isa 33:17 Your eyes will gaze on the king in his beauty, they will look on a country stretching far and wide.
Isa 33:18 Your heart will meditate on past terrors, 'Where is the man who did the counting? Where is the man who did the weighing? Where is the man who counted off the towers?'
Isa 33:19 No more will you see that insolent people, that people of unintelligible speech, of barbarous and meaningless tongue.
Isa 33:20 Gaze at Zion, city of our feasts; your eyes will see Jerusalem as a home that is secure, a tent not to be moved, none of its tent-pegs ever to be pulled out, none of its guy-ropes ever to be broken.
Isa 33:21 There it is that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) shows us his power, like a place of rivers and very wide canals on which will row no galley, over which will pass no majestic ship.
Isa 33:22 (For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is our judge, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our lawgiver, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is our king and our Savior.)
Isa 33:23 Your tackle has given way, it cannot support the mast, it cannot hoist the pennon. And so there is much booty to be shared out; the lame fall to plundering,
Isa 33:24 and no one living there will say, 'I am sickly'; the people living there will find their guilt forgiven.
Isa 34:1 Come near and listen, you nations, pay attention, you peoples. Let the earth and its contents listen, the world and its entire population.
Isa 34:2 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is angry with all the nations, enraged with all their hordes. He has vowed them to destruction, handed them over to slaughter.
Isa 34:3 Their dead will be thrown away, the stench will rise from their corpses, the mountains will run with their blood,
Isa 34:4 the entire array of heaven will fall apart. The heavens will be rolled up like a scroll and all their array will fade away, as fade the leaves falling from the vine, as fade those falling from the fig tree.
Isa 34:5 For my sword has drunk deep in the heavens: see how it now falls on Edom, on the people vowed to destruction, to punish them.
Isa 34:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sword is gorged with blood, it is greasy with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has a sacrifice in Bozrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
Isa 34:7 The wild oxen will fall with them, the bullocks with the bulls; their land will be drenched with blood and their dust will be greasy with fat.
Isa 34:8 For this will be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s day of vengeance, the year of retribution in Zion's lawsuit.
Isa 34:9 Its streams will turn into pitch, its dust into brimstone, its country will turn into blazing pitch.
Isa 34:10 Never quenched night or day, its smoke rising for ever, it will lie waste age after age, no one will travel through it for ever and ever.
Isa 34:11 It will be the haunt of pelican and hedgehog, the owl and the raven will live there; over it Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will stretch the measuring line of chaos and the plumb-line of emptiness.
Isa 34:12 There will be no more nobles to proclaim the royal authority; there will be an end of all its princes.
Isa 34:13 Brambles will grow in its bastions, nettles and thorn-bushes in its fortresses, it will be the lair of jackals, an enclosure for ostriches.
Isa 34:14 Wild cats will meet hyenas there, satyr will call to satyr, there Lilith too will lurk and find somewhere to rest.
Isa 34:15 The snake will nest and lay eggs there, will hatch and gather its young into the shade; and there the vultures will assemble, each one with its mate.
Isa 34:16 Search in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s book, and read, not one of these will be missing, not one of them lacking a mate; for thus his mouth has ordained it, and his spirit has brought them together.
Isa 34:17 He has thrown the lot for each, his hand has measured out their share; they will possess it for ever, and live there age after age.
Isa 35:1 Let the desert and the dry lands be glad, let the wasteland rejoice and bloom; like the asphodel,
Isa 35:2 let it burst into flower, let it rejoice and sing for joy. The glory of Lebanon is bestowed on it, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon; then they will see the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the splendor of our God.
Isa 35:3 Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees
Isa 35:4 and say to the faint-hearted, 'Be strong! Do not be afraid. Here is your God, vengeance is coming, divine retribution; he is coming to save you.'
Isa 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed,
Isa 35:6 then the lame will leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing for joy; for water will gush in the desert and streams in the wastelands,
Isa 35:7 the parched ground will become a marsh and the thirsty land springs of water; the lairs where the jackals used to live will become plots of reed and papyrus.
Isa 35:8 And through it will run a road for them and a highway which will be called the Sacred Way; the unclean will not be allowed to use it; He will be the one to use this road, the fool will not stray along it.
Isa 35:9 No lion will be there, no ferocious beast set foot on it, nothing of the sort be found; it will be used by the redeemed.
Isa 35:10 For those whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ransomed will return, they will come to Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with joy unending; rejoicing and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.
Isa 36:1 In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria advanced on all the fortified towns of Judah and captured them.
Isa 36:2 From Lachish the king of Assyria sent the cupbearer-in-chief with a large force to King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The cupbearer-in-chief took up position near the conduit of the upper pool on the road to the Fuller's Field.
Isa 36:3 The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph went out to him.
Isa 36:4 The cupbearer-in-chief said to them, 'Say to Hezekiah, "The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What makes you so confident?
Isa 36:5 Do you think empty words are as good as strategy and military strength? Who are you relying on, to dare to rebel against me?
Isa 36:6 There you are, relying on that broken reed, Egypt, which pricks and pierces the hand of the person who leans on it. That is what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like to all who rely on him.
Isa 36:7 You may say to me: We rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God. But haven't his high places and altars been suppressed by Hezekiah, who told Judah and Jerusalem: This is the altar before which you must worship?
Isa 36:8 Very well, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find horsemen to ride them.
Isa 36:9 How could you repulse a single one of the least of my master's soldiers? And yet you have relied on Egypt for chariots and horsemen.
Isa 36:10 And lastly, have I marched on this country to lay it waste without warrant from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself said to me: March on this country and lay it waste."
Isa 36:11 Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to the cupbearer-in-chief, 'Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; do not speak to us in the Judaean language within earshot of the people on the ramparts.'
Isa 36:12 But the cupbearer-in-chief said, 'Do you think my lord sent me here to say these things to your master or to you? On the contrary, it was to the people sitting on the ramparts who, like you, are doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own urine.'
Isa 36:13 The cupbearer-in-chief then drew himself up and shouted loudly in the Judaean language, 'Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria.
Isa 36:14 The king says this, "Do not let Hezekiah delude you! He will be powerless to save you.
Isa 36:15 Do not let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by saying: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is sure to save us; this city will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches.
Isa 36:16 Do not listen to Hezekiah, for the king of Assyria says this: Make peace with me,
Isa 36:17 surrender to me, and every one of you will be free to eat the fruit of his own vine and of his own fig tree and to drink the water of his own storage-well until I come and take you away to a country like your own, a land of corn and good wine, a land of bread and vineyards.
Isa 36:18 Do not let Hezekiah delude you by saying: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will save us. Has any god of any nation been able to save his country from the king of Assyria's clutches?
Isa 36:19 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Where are the national gods of Samaria? Did they save Samaria from my clutches?
Isa 36:20 Of all the national gods, which ones have saved their countries from my clutches, that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) should be able to save Jerusalem from my clutches?" '
Isa 36:21 They, however, kept quiet and said nothing in reply, since the king had given the order, 'You are not to answer him.'
Isa 36:22 The master of the palace, Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebna the secretary and the herald Joah son of Asaph, with their clothes torn, went to Hezekiah and reported what the cupbearer-in-chief had said.
Isa 37:1 On hearing this, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and went to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 37:2 He sent Eliakim master of the palace, Shebna the secretary and the elders of the priests, wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.
Isa 37:3 They said to him, 'This is what Hezekiah says, "Today is a day of suffering, of punishment, of disgrace. Children come to birth and there is no strength to bring them forth.
Isa 37:4 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God hear the words of the cupbearer-in-chief whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to insult the living God, and may Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God punish the words he has heard! Offer your prayer for the remnant still left." '
Isa 37:5 When King Hezekiah's ministers came to Isaiah,
Isa 37:6 he said to them, 'Say to your master, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard or the blasphemies which the king of Assyria's minions have uttered against me.
Isa 37:7 Look, I am going to put a spirit in him and, on the strength of a rumour, he will go back to his own country, and in that country I shall make him fall by the sword." '
Isa 37:8 The cupbearer turned about and rejoined the king of Assyria, who was then attacking Libnah, the cupbearer having learnt that the king had already left Lachish
Isa 37:9 on hearing that Tirhakah king of Cush was on his way to attack him. Sennacherib again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying,
Isa 37:10 'Tell Hezekiah king of Judah this, "Do not let your God on whom you are relying deceive you with the promise: Jerusalem will not fall into the king of Assyria's clutches.
Isa 37:11 You have learnt by now what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, putting them under the curse of destruction. Are you likely to be saved?
Isa 37:12 Did the gods of the nations whom my ancestors devastated save them-Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the Edenites who were in Tel Basar?
Isa 37:13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of Lair, of Sepharvaim, of Hena, of Ivvah?" '
Isa 37:14 Hezekiah took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it; he then went up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and spread it out before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 37:15 Hezekiah said this prayer in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Isa 37:16 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, enthroned on the winged creatures, you alone are God of all the kingdoms of the world, you made heaven and earth.
Isa 37:17 Give ear, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and listen; open your eyes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and see! Hear the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to insult the living God.
Isa 37:18 It is true, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations (and their countries);
Isa 37:19 they have thrown their gods on the fire, for these were not gods but human artifacts -- wood and stone -- and hence they have destroyed them.
Isa 37:20 But now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, save us from his clutches, I beg you, and let all the kingdoms of the world know that you alone are God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Isa 37:21 Isaiah son of Amoz then sent the following message to Hezekiah, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "In answer to the prayer which you have addressed to me about Sennacherib king of Assyria.
Isa 37:22 Here is the pronouncement which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made about him: She despises you, she scorns you, the virgin daughter of Zion; she tosses her head at you, the daughter of Jerusalem!
Isa 37:23 Whom have you insulted, whom did you blaspheme? Against whom raised your voice and lifted your haughty eyes? Against the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 37:24 Through your minions you have insulted the Lord, thinking: With my many chariots I have climbed the mountain-tops, the utmost peaks of Lebanon. I have felled its mighty cedars, its finest cypresses, have reached its furthest peak, its forest garden.
Isa 37:25 Yes, I have dug and drunk of foreign waters; under the soles of my feet I have dried up all Egypt's rivers.
Isa 37:26 Do you hear? Long ago I prepared this, from days of old I actually planned it, now I carry it out. You were to lay walled cities in heaps of ruins;
Isa 37:27 that was why their inhabitants, feeble of hand, were dismayed and discomfited, were weak as grass, were frail as plants, were like grass of housetop and meadow under the east wind.
Isa 37:28 But whether you stand up or sit down, whether you go out or come in, I know it (and how you rave against me).
Isa 37:29 Because you have raved against me and your arrogance has reached my ears, I shall put a hook through your nostrils and a muzzle on your lips, and make you return by the road by which you came.
Isa 37:30 And this will be the sign for you: This year will be eaten the self-sown grain, next year what sprouts in the fallow; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Isa 37:31 The surviving remnant of the House of Judah will bring forth new roots below and fruits above;
Isa 37:32 for a remnant will issue from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth's jealous love will accomplish this." '
Isa 37:33 'This, then, is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, will shoot no arrow at it, confront it with no shield, throw up no earthwork against it.
Isa 37:34 By the road by which he came, by that he will return; he will not enter this city, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 37:35 I shall protect this city and save it for my sake and my servant David's sake.'
Isa 37:36 That same night the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) went out and struck down a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. In the early morning when it was time to get up, there they lay, so many corpses.
Isa 37:37 Sennacherib struck camp and left; he returned home and stayed in Nineveh.
Isa 37:38 One day when he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped into the territory of Ararat. His son Esarhaddon succeeded him.
Isa 38:1 About then, Hezekiah fell ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came and said to him, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Put your affairs in order, for you are going to die, you will not live." '
Isa 38:2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and addressed this prayer to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Isa 38:3 'Ah, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), remember, I beg you, that I have behaved faithfully and with sincerity of heart in your presence and done what you regard as right.' And Hezekiah shed many tears.
Isa 38:4 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Isaiah,
Isa 38:5 'Go and say to Hezekiah, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of your ancestor David, says this: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I shall cure you: in three days' time you will go up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I shall add fifteen years to your life.
Isa 38:6 I shall save you and this city from the king of Assyria's clutches and defend this city for my sake and my servant David's sake." '
Isa 38:7 'Here', Isaiah replied, 'is the sign from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that he will do what he has said.
Isa 38:8 Look, I shall make the shadow cast by the declining sun on the steps -- the steps to Ahaz's roof-room-go back ten steps.' And the sun went back the ten steps by which it had declined.
Isa 38:9 Canticle of Hezekiah king of Judah after his illness and recovery.
Isa 38:10 I thought: In the noon of my life I am to depart. At the gates of Sheol I shall be held for the rest of my days.
Isa 38:11 I thought: I shall never see Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) again in the land of the living, I shall never see again a single one of those who live on earth.
Isa 38:12 My home has been pulled up, and thrown away like a shepherd's tent; like a weaver, I have rolled up my life, he has cut me from the loom. From dawn to dark, you have been making an end of me;
Isa 38:13 till daybreak, I cried for help; like a lion, he has crushed all my bones, from dawn to dark, you have been making an end of me.
Isa 38:14 I twitter like a swallow, I moan like a dove, my eyes have grown dim from looking up. Lord, I am overwhelmed, come to my help.
Isa 38:15 How can I speak and what can I say to him? He is the one to act. I must eke out the rest of my years in bitterness of soul.
Isa 38:16 The Lord is over them; they live, and everything in them lives by his spirit. You will cure me. Restore me to life.
Isa 38:17 At once, my bitterness turns to well-being. For you have preserved my soul from the pit of nothingness, you have thrust all my sins behind you.
Isa 38:18 For Sheol cannot praise you, nor Death celebrate you; those who go down to the pit can hope no longer in your constancy.
Isa 38:19 The living, the living are the ones who praise you, as I do today. Fathers tell their sons about your constancy.
Isa 38:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), come to my help and we will make our harps resound all the days of our life in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 38:21 'Bring a fig poultice,' Isaiah said, 'apply it to the ulcer and he will recover.'
Isa 38:22 Hezekiah said, 'What is the sign to tell me that I shall be going up to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?'
Isa 39:1 At that time, the king of Babylon, Merodach-Baladan son of Baladan, sent letters and a gift to Hezekiah, for he had heard of his illness and his recovery.
Isa 39:2 Hezekiah was delighted at this and showed the ambassadors his entire treasury, the silver, gold, spices, precious oil, his armoury too, and everything to be seen in his storehouses. There was nothing in his palace or in his whole domain that Hezekiah did not show them.
Isa 39:3 The prophet Isaiah then came to King Hezekiah and asked him, 'What have these men said, and where have they come to you from?' Hezekiah answered, 'They have come from a distant country, from Babylon.'
Isa 39:4 Isaiah said, 'What have they seen in your palace?' 'They have seen everything in my palace,' Hezekiah answered. 'There is nothing in my storehouses that I have not shown them.'
Isa 39:5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, 'Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth,
Isa 39:6 "The days are coming when everything in your palace, everything that your ancestors have amassed until now, will be carried off to Babylon. Not a thing will be left," Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Isa 39:7 "Sons sprung from you, sons begotten by you, will be abducted to be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon." '
Isa 39:8 Hezekiah said to Isaiah, 'This word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that you announce is reassuring,' for he was thinking, 'There is going to be peace and security during my lifetime.'
Isa 40:1 'Console my people, console them,' says your God.
Isa 40:2 'Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her period of service is ended, that her guilt has been atoned for, that, from the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), she has received double punishment for all her sins.'
Isa 40:3 A voice cries, 'Prepare in the desert a way for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Make a straight highway for our God across the wastelands.
Isa 40:4 Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled, every cliff become a plateau, every escarpment a plain;
Isa 40:5 then the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be revealed and all humanity will see it together, for the mouth of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken.'
Isa 40:6 A voice said, 'Cry aloud!' and I said, 'What shall I cry?' -'All humanity is grass and all its beauty like the wild flower's.
Isa 40:7 The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) blows on them. (The grass is surely the people.)
Isa 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God remains for ever.'
Isa 40:9 Go up on a high mountain, messenger of Zion. Shout as loud as you can, messenger of Jerusalem! Shout fearlessly, say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God.'
Isa 40:10 Here is Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) coming with power, his arm maintains his authority, his reward is with him and his prize precedes him.
Isa 40:11 He is like a shepherd feeding his flock, gathering lambs in his arms, holding them against his breast and leading to their rest the mother ewes.
Isa 40:12 Who was it measured the water of the sea in the hollow of his hand and calculated the heavens to the nearest inch, gauged the dust of the earth to the nearest bushel, weighed the mountains in scales, the hills in a balance?
Isa 40:13 Who directed the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), what counsellor could have instructed him?
Isa 40:14 Whom has he consulted to enlighten him, to instruct him in the path of judgement, to teach him knowledge and show him how to understand?
Isa 40:15 See, the nations are like a drop in a bucket, they count as a grain of dust on the scales. See, coasts and islands weigh no more than fine powder.
Isa 40:16 The Lebanon is not enough for the burning fires nor its animals enough for the burnt offering.
Isa 40:17 All the nations are as nothing before him, for him they count as nothingness and emptiness.
Isa 40:18 To whom can you compare God? What image can you contrive of him?
Isa 40:19 The craftsman casts an idol, a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts silver chains for it.
Isa 40:20 Someone too poor to afford a sacrifice chooses a piece of wood that will not rot; he then seeks out a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not totter.
Isa 40:21 Did you not know, had you not heard? Was it not told you from the beginning? Have you not understood how the earth was set on its foundations?
Isa 40:22 He who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, the inhabitants of which are like grasshoppers, stretches out the heavens like a cloth, spreads them out like a tent to live in.
Isa 40:23 He reduces princes to nothing, the rulers of the world to mere emptiness.
Isa 40:24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the soil, than he blows on them and they wither and the storm carries them away like chaff.
Isa 40:25 'To whom can you compare me, or who is my equal?' says the Holy One.
Isa 40:26 Lift your eyes and look: he who created these things leads out their army in order, summoning each of them by name. So mighty is his power, so great his strength, that not one fails to answer.
Isa 40:27 How can you say, Jacob, how can you repeat, Israel, 'My way is hidden from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my rights are ignored by my God'?
Isa 40:28 Did you not know? Had you not heard? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the everlasting God, he created the remotest parts of the earth. He does not grow tired or weary, his understanding is beyond fathoming.
Isa 40:29 He gives strength to the weary, he strengthens the powerless.
Isa 40:30 Youths grow tired and weary, the young stumble and fall,
Isa 40:31 but those who hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will regain their strength, they will sprout wings like eagles, though they run they will not grow weary, though they walk they will never tire.
Isa 41:1 Coasts and islands, fall silent before me, and let the peoples renew their strength, let them come forward and speak; let us assemble for judgement.
Isa 41:2 'Who has raised from the east him whom saving justice summons in its train, him to whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) delivers up the nations and subjects kings, him who reduces them to dust with his sword, and to driven stubble with his bow,
Isa 41:3 him who pursues them and advances unhindered, his feet scarcely touching the road?
Isa 41:4 Who has acted thus, who has done this? He who calls each generation from the beginning: I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who am the first and till the last I shall still be there.'
Isa 41:5 The coasts and islands have seen and taken fright, the remotest parts of earth are trembling: they are approaching, they are here!
Isa 41:6 People help one another, they say to each other, 'Take heart!'
Isa 41:7 The woodworker encourages the smelter, the polisher encourages the hammerer, saying of the soldering, 'It is sound'; and he fastens it with nails to keep it steady.
Isa 41:8 But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham my friend,
Isa 41:9 whom I have taken to myself, from the remotest parts of the earth and summoned from countries far away, to whom I have said, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you, I have not rejected you,'
Isa 41:10 do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my saving right hand.
Isa 41:11 Look, all those who rage against you will be put to shame and humiliated; those who picked quarrels with you will be reduced to nothing and will perish.
Isa 41:12 You will look for them but will not find them, those who used to fight you; they will be destroyed and brought to nothing, those who made war on you.
Isa 41:13 For I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your God, I grasp you by your right hand; I tell you, 'Do not be afraid, I shall help you.'
Isa 41:14 Do not be afraid, Jacob, you worm! You little handful of Israel! I shall help you, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:15 Look, I am making you into a threshing-sledge, new, with double teeth; you will thresh and beat the mountains to dust and reduce the hills to straw.
Isa 41:16 You will winnow them and the wind will carry them off, the gale will scatter them; whereas you will rejoice in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), will glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:17 The oppressed and needy search for water, and there is none, their tongue is parched with thirst. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), shall answer them, I, the God of Israel, shall not abandon them.
Isa 41:18 I shall open up rivers on barren heights and water-holes down in the ravines; I shall turn the desert into a lake and dry ground into springs of water.
Isa 41:19 I shall plant the desert with cedar trees, acacias, myrtles and olives; in the wastelands I shall put cypress trees, plane trees and box trees side by side;
Isa 41:20 so that people may see and know, so that they may all observe and understand that the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
Isa 41:21 'Present your case,' says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'Produce your arguments,' says Jacob's king.
Isa 41:22 'Let them produce and reveal to us what is going to happen. What happened in the past? Reveal it so that we can consider it and know what the outcome will be. Or tell us about the future,
Isa 41:23 reveal what is to happen next, and then we shall know that you are gods. At least, do something, be it good or bad, so that we may feel alarm and fear.
Isa 41:24 Look, you are less than nothingness, and what you do is less than nothing; to choose you is an outrage.'
Isa 41:25 I have raised him from the north and he has come, from the east he has been summoned by name. He tramples on rulers like mud, like a potter treading clay.
Isa 41:26 Who revealed this from the beginning for us to know, and in the past for us to say, 'That is right'? No one in fact revealed it, no one proclaimed it, no one has heard you speak.
Isa 41:27 First-fruits of Zion, look, here they come! I send a messenger to Jerusalem,
Isa 41:28 and I look -- no one, not a single counsellor among them who, if I asked, could give an answer.
Isa 41:29 Taken altogether they are nothingness, what they do is nothing, their statues, wind and emptiness.
Isa 42:1 Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have sent my spirit upon him, he will bring fair judgement to the nations.
Isa 42:2 He does not cry out or raise his voice, his voice is not heard in the street;
Isa 42:3 he does not break the crushed reed or snuff the faltering wick. Faithfully he presents fair judgement;
Isa 42:4 he will not grow faint, he will not be crushed until he has established fair judgement on earth, and the coasts and islands are waiting for his instruction.
Isa 42:5 Thus says God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who created the heavens and spread them out, who hammered into shape the earth and what comes from it, who gave breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:
Isa 42:6 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have called you in saving justice, I have grasped you by the hand and shaped you; I have made you a covenant of the people and light to the nations,
Isa 42:7 to open the eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison, and those who live in darkness from the dungeon.
Isa 42:8 I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), that is my name! I shall not yield my glory to another, nor my honor to idols.
Isa 42:9 See how the former predictions have come true. Fresh things I now reveal; before they appear I tell you of them.
Isa 42:10 Sing a new song to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! Let his praise be sung from remotest parts of the earth by those who sail the sea and by everything in it, by the coasts and islands and those who inhabit them.
Isa 42:11 Let the desert and its cities raise their voices, the encampments where Kedar lives. Let the inhabitants of the Rock cry aloud for joy and shout from the mountain tops.
Isa 42:12 Let them give glory to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and, in the coasts and islands, let them voice his praise.
Isa 42:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) advances like a hero, like a warrior he rouses his fire. He shouts, he raises the war cry, he shows his might against his foes.
Isa 42:14 'From long ago I have been silent, I have kept quiet, held myself in check, groaning like a woman in labour, panting and gasping for air.
Isa 42:15 I shall ravage mountain and hill, shall wither all their vegetation; I shall turn the torrents into firm ground and dry up the marshes.
Isa 42:16 I shall lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they do not know I shall conduct them. I shall turn the darkness into light before them and the quagmires into solid ground. This I shall do -- without fail.'
Isa 42:17 Those who trust in idols will recoil, they will blush for shame, who say to metal images, 'You are our gods.'
Isa 42:18 Listen, you deaf! Look and see, you blind!
Isa 42:19 Who so blind as my servant, so deaf as the messenger I send? (Who so blind as the friend I have taken to myself, so deaf as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s servant?)
Isa 42:20 You have seen many things but not observed them; your ears are open but you do not hear.
Isa 42:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) wished, because of his saving justice, to make the Law great and glorious.
Isa 42:22 Yet here is a people pillaged and plundered, all of them shut up in caves, imprisoned in dungeons. They have been pillaged, with no one to rescue them, plundered, with no one to say, 'Give it back!'
Isa 42:23 Which of you will listen to this, who pay attention and listen in future?
Isa 42:24 Who surrendered Jacob to the plunderer and Israel to the pillagers? Was it not Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), against whom we had sinned, in whose ways they would not walk and whose Law they would not obey?
Isa 42:25 On him he poured out his blazing anger and the fury of war; it enveloped him in flames and yet he did not understand; it burned him up, but he did not learn a lesson.
Isa 43:1 And now, thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), he who created you, Jacob, who formed you, Israel: Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are mine.
Isa 43:2 Should you pass through the waters, I shall be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you up. Should you walk through fire, you will not suffer, and the flame will not burn you.
Isa 43:3 For I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt for your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.
Isa 43:4 Since I regard you as precious, since you are honored and I love you, I therefore give people in exchange for you, and nations in return for your life.
Isa 43:5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I shall bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west.
Isa 43:6 To the north I shall say, 'Give them up!' and to the south, 'Do not hold them back!' Bring back my sons from far away, and my daughters from the remotest part of the earth,
Isa 43:7 everyone who bears my name, whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, whom I have made.
Isa 43:8 Bring forward the people that is blind, yet has eyes, that is deaf and yet has ears.
Isa 43:9 Let all the nations assemble, let the peoples gather here! Which of them has proclaimed this and revealed things to us in the past? Let them bring their witnesses to justify themselves, let others hear and say, 'It is true.'
Isa 43:10 You yourselves are my witnesses, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that it is I. No god was formed before me, nor will be after me.
Isa 43:11 I, I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and there is no other Savior but me.
Isa 43:12 I have revealed, have saved, and have proclaimed, not some foreigner among you. You are my witnesses, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I am God,
Isa 43:13 yes, from eternity I am. No one can deliver from my hand; when I act, who can thwart me?
Isa 43:14 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake I have sent to Babylon, I shall knock down all the prison bars, and the Chaldaeans' shouts of joy will change to lamentations.
Isa 43:15 I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your king.
Isa 43:16 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who made a way through the sea, a path in the raging waters,
Isa 43:17 who led out chariot and horse together with an army of picked troops: they lay down never to rise again, they were snuffed out, put out like a wick.
Isa 43:18 No need to remember past events, no need to think about what was done before.
Isa 43:19 Look, I am doing something new, now it emerges; can you not see it? Yes, I am making a road in the desert and rivers in wastelands.
Isa 43:20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for bestowing water in the desert and rivers on the wastelands for my people, my chosen one, to drink.
Isa 43:21 The people I have shaped for myself will broadcast my praises.
Isa 43:22 But, Jacob, you have not invoked me; no, Israel, you have grown weary of me.
Isa 43:23 You have not brought me lambs as your burnt offerings and have not honored me with your sacrifices. I have not subjected you to cereal offering, I have not wearied you by demanding incense.
Isa 43:24 You have not bought expensive reed for me or sated me with the fat of your sacrifices. Instead by your sins you have trected me like a slave, you have wearied me with your crimes,
Isa 43:25 I, I it is who blot out your acts of revolt for my own sake and shall not call your sins to mind.
Isa 43:26 Remind me, and we will judge this together; state your own case and justify yourself.
Isa 43:27 Your first ancestor sinned, your interpreters revolted against me.
Isa 43:28 That is why I deposed the chief men of my sanctuary, why I put Jacob under the curse of destruction and subjected Israel to insult.
Isa 44:1 And now listen, Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen.
Isa 44:2 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who made you, who formed you in the womb; he will help you. Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
Isa 44:3 For I shall pour out water on the thirsty soil and streams on the dry ground. I shall pour out my spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your offspring,
Isa 44:4 and they will spring up among the grass, like willows on the banks of a stream.
Isa 44:5 One person will say, 'I belong to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' another will call himself by Jacob's name. On his hand another will write 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s' and be surnamed 'Israel'.
Isa 44:6 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Israel's king, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, his redeemer: I am the first and I am the last; there is no God except me.
Isa 44:7 Who is like me? Let him call out, let him affirm it and convince me it is so; let him say what has been happening since I instituted an eternal people, and predict to them what will happen next!
Isa 44:8 Have no fear, do not be afraid: have I not told you and revealed it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God except me? There is no Rock; I know of none.
Isa 44:9 The makers of idols are all nothingness; the works they delight in serve no purpose. And these are the witness against them: they see nothing, they know nothing; and so they will be put to shame.
Isa 44:10 Who ever fashioned a god or cast an image without hope of gain?
Isa 44:11 Watch how all its devotees will be put to shame, and the men who made it too, who are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forward and feel both fear and shame!
Isa 44:12 The blacksmith makes an axe over the charcoal, beats it into shape with a hammer, works on it with his strong arm. Then he feels hungry and his strength deserts him; having drunk no water, he is exhausted.
Isa 44:13 The wood carver takes his measurements, outlines the image with chalk, executes it with the chisel, following the outline with a compass. He makes it look like a human being, with human standards of beauty, so that it can reside in a house.
Isa 44:14 He has cut down cedars, has selected an oak and a terebinth which he has grown for himself among the trees in the forest and has planted a pine tree which the rain has nourished.
Isa 44:15 Once it is suitable to burn, he takes some of it to warm himself; having kindled it, he bakes bread. But he also makes a god and worships it; he makes an idol from it and bows down before it.
Isa 44:16 Half of it he burns on the fire, over this half he roasts meat, eats it and is replete; at the same time he warms himself and says, 'Ah, how warm I am, watching the flames!'
Isa 44:17 With the remainder he makes a god, his idol, bows down before it, worships it and prays to it. 'Save me,' he says, 'for you are my god.'
Isa 44:18 They know nothing, they understand nothing, since their eyes are incapable of seeing and their hearts of reflecting.
Isa 44:19 Not one of them looks into his heart, not one of them has the knowledge and wit to think, 'I burned half of it on the fire and cooked food over the embers. Am I right to make something disgusting out of what is left? Am I right to bow down before a block of wood?'
Isa 44:20 He hankers after ashes, his deluded heart has led him astray; he will not save himself, he will not think, 'What I have in my hand is nothing but a lie!'
Isa 44:21 Remember these things, Jacob, and Israel, since you are my servant. I formed you, you are my servant; Israel, I shall not forget you.
Isa 44:22 I have dispelled your acts of revolt like a cloud and your sins like a mist. Come back to me, for I have redeemed you.
Isa 44:23 Heavens, shout for joy, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has acted! Underworld, shout aloud! Shout for joy, you mountains, forests and all your trees! For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has redeemed Jacob and displayed his glory in Israel.
Isa 44:24 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your redeemer, he who formed you in the womb: I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have made all things, I alone spread out the heavens. When I hammered the earth into shape, who was with me?
Isa 44:25 I, who foil the omens of soothsayers and make fools of diviners, who confound sages turning their knowledge into folly,
Isa 44:26 who confirm the word of my servant and make the plans of my envoys succeed; who say to Jerusalem, 'You will be inhabited,' and to the towns of Judah, 'You will be rebuilt and I shall restore the ruins of Jerusalem';
Isa 44:27 who say to the ocean, 'Dry up! I shall make your rivers run dry';
Isa 44:28 who say to Cyrus, 'My shepherd.' He will perform my entire will by saying to Jerusalem, 'You will be rebuilt,' and to the Temple, 'You will be refounded.'
Isa 45:1 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to his anointed one, to Cyrus whom, he says, I have grasped by his right hand, to make the nations bow before him and to disarm kings, to open gateways before him so that their gates be closed no more:
Isa 45:2 I myself shall go before you, I shall level the heights, I shall shatter the bronze gateways, I shall smash the iron bars.
Isa 45:3 I shall give you secret treasures and hidden hoards of wealth, so that you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who call you by your name, the God of Israel.
Isa 45:4 It is for the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one, that I have called you by your name, have given you a title though you do not know me.
Isa 45:5 I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and there is no other, there is no other God except me. Though you do not know me, I have armed you
Isa 45:6 so that it may be known from east to west that there is no one except me. I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and there is no other,
Isa 45:7 I form the light and I create the darkness, I make well-being, and I create disaster, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do all these things.
Isa 45:8 Rain down, you heavens, from above, and let the clouds pour down saving justice, let the earth open up and blossom with salvation, and let justice sprout with it; I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have created it!
Isa 45:9 Woe to anyone who argues with his Maker, one earthenware pot among many! Does the clay say to its potter, 'What are you doing? Your work has no hands!'
Isa 45:10 Woe to anyone who asks a father, 'Why are you begetting?' and a woman, 'Why are you giving birth?'
Isa 45:11 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Holy One of Israel and his Maker: I am asked for signs regarding my sons, I am given orders about the work I do.
Isa 45:12 It was I who made the earth and I created human beings on it, mine were the hands that spread out the heavens and I have given the orders to all their array.
Isa 45:13 I myself have raised him in saving justice and I shall make all paths level for him. He will rebuild my city and bring my exiles home without ransom or indemnity, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Isa 45:14 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): The produce of Egypt, the commerce of Cush and the men of Seba, tall of stature, will come over to you and belong to you. They will follow you, walking in chains, they will bow before you, they will pray to you, 'With you alone is God, and there is no other! The gods do not exist.'
Isa 45:15 Truly, you are a God who conceals himself, God of Israel, Savior!
Isa 45:16 They are shamed and humbled, every one of them, humiliated they go, the makers of idols.
Isa 45:17 Israel will be saved by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), saved everlastingly. You will never be ashamed or humiliated for ever and ever.
Isa 45:18 For thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Creator of the heavens -- he is God, who shaped the earth and made it, who set it firm; he did not create it to be chaos, he formed it to be lived in: I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and there is no other.
Isa 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, in some dark corner of the underworld. I did not say, 'Offspring of Jacob, search for me in chaos!' I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): I proclaim saving justice, I say what is true.
Isa 45:20 Assemble, come, all of you gather round, survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge, those who parade their wooden idols and pray to a god that cannot save.
Isa 45:21 Speak up, present your case, let them put their heads together! Who foretold this in the past, who revealed it long ago? Was it not I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? There is no other god except me, no saving God, no Savior except me!
Isa 45:22 Turn to me and you will be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.
Isa 45:23 By my own self I swear it; what comes from my mouth is saving justice, it is an irrevocable word: All shall bend the knee to me, by me every tongue shall swear,
Isa 45:24 saying, 'In Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) alone are saving justice and strength,' until all those who used to rage at him come to him in shame.
Isa 45:25 In Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the whole race of Israel finds justice and glory.
Isa 46:1 Bel is crouching, Nebo cowering, their idols are being put on animals, on beasts of burden, the loads you have been carrying are a burden to a weary beast.
Isa 46:2 They are cowering and crouching together, no one can save this burden, they themselves have gone into captivity.
Isa 46:3 Listen to me, House of Jacob, all who remain of the House of Israel, whom I have carried since the womb, whom I have supported since you were conceived.
Isa 46:4 Until your old age I shall be the same, until your hair is grey I shall carry you. As I have done, so I shall support you, I myself shall carry and shall save you.
Isa 46:5 With whom can you compare me, equate me, to whom can you liken me, making equals of us?
Isa 46:6 They lavish gold from their purses and weigh out silver on the scales. They engage a goldsmith to make a god, then bow low and actually adore!
Isa 46:7 They lift it on their shoulders and carry it, and put it down where it is meant to stand, so that it never moves from the spot. You may cry out to it in distress, it never replies, it never saves anyone in trouble.
Isa 46:8 Remember this and stand firm; rebels, look into your hearts.
Isa 46:9 Remember the things that happened long ago, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.
Isa 46:10 From the beginning I revealed the future, in advance, what has not yet occurred. I say: My purpose will come about, I shall do whatever I please;
Isa 46:11 I call a bird of prey from the east, my man predestined, from a distant land. What I have said, I shall do, what I have planned, I shall perform.
Isa 46:12 Listen to me, you hard-hearted people far removed from saving justice:
Isa 46:13 I am bringing my justice nearer, it is not far away, my salvation will not delay. I shall place my salvation in Zion and my glory in Israel.
Isa 47:1 Step down! Sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground, no throne, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called tender and delicate.
Isa 47:2 Take the grinding mill, crush up the meal. Remove your veil, tie up your skirt, bare your legs, cross the rivers.
Isa 47:3 Let your nakedness be displayed and your shame exposed. I am going to take vengeance and no one will stand in my way.
Isa 47:4 Our redeemer, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is his name, the Holy One of Israel, says:
Isa 47:5 Sit in silence, bury yourself in darkness, daughter of the Chaldaeans, for never again will you be called the mistress of kingdoms.
Isa 47:6 Being angry with my people, I rejected my heritage, surrendering them into your clutches. You showed them no mercy, you made your yoke very heavy on the aged.
Isa 47:7 You thought, 'I shall be a queen for ever.' You did not reflect on these matters or think about the future.
Isa 47:8 Now listen to this, voluptuous woman, lolling at ease and thinking to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters. I shall never be widowed, never know bereavement.'
Isa 47:9 Yet both these things will befall you, suddenly, in one day. Bereavement and widowhood will suddenly befall you in spite of all your witchcraft and the potency of your spells.
Isa 47:10 Confident in your wickedness, you thought, 'No one can see me.' Your wishes and your knowledge were what deluded you, as you thought to yourself, 'I am the only one who matters.'
Isa 47:11 Hence, disaster will befall you which you will not know how to charm away, calamity overtake you which you will not be able to avert, ruination will suddenly befall you, such as you have never known.
Isa 47:12 Keep to your spells then, and all your sorceries, at which you have worked so hard since you were young. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will strike terror!
Isa 47:13 You have had many tiring consultations: let the astrologers come forward now and save you, the star-gazers who announce month by month what will happen to you next.
Isa 47:14 Look, they are like wisps of straw, the fire will burn them up. They will not save their lives from the power of the flame. No embers these, for keeping warm, no fire to sit beside!
Isa 47:15 Such will your wizards prove to be for you, for whom you have worked so hard since you were young; each wandering his own way, none of them can save you.
Isa 48:1 Listen to this, House of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and issued from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and invoke the God of Israel, though not in good faith or uprightness;
Isa 48:2 for they call themselves after the holy city and rely on the God of Israel, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is his name.
Isa 48:3 Things now past I revealed long ago, they issued from my mouth, I proclaimed them; suddenly I acted and they happened.
Isa 48:4 For I knew you to be obstinate, your neck an iron sinew and your forehead bronze.
Isa 48:5 As I told you about it long before, before it happened I revealed it to you, so that you could not say, 'My statue did it, my idol, my metal image, ordained this.'
Isa 48:6 You have heard and seen all this, why won't you admit it? Now I am going to reveal new things to you, secrets that you do not know;
Isa 48:7 they have just been created, not long ago, and until today you have heard nothing about them, so that you cannot say, 'Yes, I knew about this.'
Isa 48:8 No, you have not heard, you have not known, for a long time your ear has not been attentive, for I knew how treacherous you were; you have been called a rebel since the womb.
Isa 48:9 For the sake of my name I shall defer my anger, for the sake of my honor I shall be patient with you, rather than destroy you.
Isa 48:10 Look, I have purchased you, but not for silver, I have chosen you out of the cauldron of affliction.
Isa 48:11 For my sake and my sake only shall I act, for why should my name be profaned? I will not yield my glory to another.
Isa 48:12 Listen to me, Jacob, Israel whom I have called: I, and none else, am the first, I am also the last.
Isa 48:13 My hand laid the foundations of earth and my right hand spread out the heavens. I summon them and they all present themselves together.
Isa 48:14 Assemble, all of you, and listen; which of them has revealed this? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves him; he will do his pleasure on Babylon and the race of the Chaldaeans;
Isa 48:15 I, I have spoken, yes, I have summoned him, I have brought him, and he will succeed.
Isa 48:16 Come near and listen to this: from the first, I never spoke obscurely; when it happened, I was there, and now Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sent me with his spirit.
Isa 48:17 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and teach you for your own good, I lead you in the way you ought to go.
Isa 48:18 If only you had listened to my commandments! Your prosperity would have been like a river and your saving justice like the waves of the sea.
Isa 48:19 Your descendants would have been numbered like the sand, your offspring as many as its grains. Their name would never be cancelled or blotted out from my presence.
Isa 48:20 Come out from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldaeans! Declare this with cries of joy, proclaim it, carry it to the remotest parts of earth, say, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has redeemed his servant Jacob.'
Isa 48:21 Those he led through the arid country never went thirsty; he made water flow for them from the rock, he split the rock and out streamed the water.
Isa 48:22 There is no peace, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the wicked.
Isa 49:1 Coasts and islands, listen to me, pay attention, distant peoples. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) called me when I was in the womb, before my birth he had pronounced my name.
Isa 49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me into a sharpened arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
Isa 49:3 He said to me, 'Israel, you are my servant, through whom I shall manifest my glory.'
Isa 49:4 But I said, 'My toil has been futile, I have exhausted myself for nothing, to no purpose.' Yet all the while my cause was with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and my reward with my God.
Isa 49:5 And now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him and to re-unite Israel to him;-I shall be honored in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes, and my God has been my strength.-
Isa 49:6 He said, 'It is not enough for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back the survivors of Israel; I shall make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of earth.'
Isa 49:7 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, to the one who is despised, detested by the nation, to the slave of despots: Kings will stand up when they see, princes will see and bow low, because of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you.
Isa 49:8 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): At the time of my favor I have answered you, on the day of salvation I have helped you. I have formed you and have appointed you to be the covenant for a people, to restore the land, to return ravaged properties,
Isa 49:9 to say to prisoners, 'Come out,' to those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' Along the roadway they will graze, and any bare height will be their pasture.
Isa 49:10 They will never hunger or thirst, scorching wind and sun will never plague them; for he who pities them will lead them, will guide them to springs of water.
Isa 49:11 I shall turn all my mountains into a road and my highways will be raised aloft.
Isa 49:12 Look! Here they come from far away, look, these from the north and the west, those from the land of Sinim.
Isa 49:13 Shout for joy, you heavens; earth, exult! Mountains, break into joyful cries! For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has consoled his people, is taking pity on his afflicted ones.
Isa 49:14 Zion was saying, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has abandoned me, the Lord has forgotten me.'
Isa 49:15 Can a woman forget her baby at the breast, feel no pity for the child she has borne? Even if these were to forget, I shall not forget you.
Isa 49:16 Look, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands, your ramparts are ever before me.
Isa 49:17 Your rebuilders are hurrying, your destroyers and despoilers will soon go away.
Isa 49:18 Raise your eyes and look around you: all are assembling, coming to you. By my life, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you will put them all on like jewels, like a bride, you will fasten them on.
Isa 49:19 For your desolate places and your ruins and your devastated country from now on will be too cramped for your inhabitants, and your devourers will be far away.
Isa 49:20 Once more they will say in your hearing, the children of whom you were bereft, 'The place is too cramped for me, make room for me to live.'
Isa 49:21 Then you will think to yourself, 'Who has borne me these? I was bereft and barren, exiled, turned out of my home; who has reared these? I was left all alone, so where have these come from?'
Isa 49:22 Thus says Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): Look, I am beckoning to the nations and hoisting a signal to the peoples: they will bring your sons in their arms and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.
Isa 49:23 Kings will be your foster-fathers and their princesses, your foster-mothers. They will fall prostrate before you, faces to the ground, and lick the dust at your feet. And you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); those who hope in me will not be disappointed.
Isa 49:24 Can the body be snatched from the warrior, can the tyrant's captive be set free?
Isa 49:25 But thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): The warrior's captive will indeed be snatched away and the tyrant's booty will indeed be set free; I myself shall fight those who fight you and I myself shall save your children.
Isa 49:26 I shall make your oppressors eat their own flesh, they will be as drunk on their own blood as on new wine. And all humanity will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your Savior, your redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isa 50:1 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): Where is your mother's writ of divorce by which I repudiated her? Or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Look, you have been sold for your own misdeeds, your mother was repudiated for your acts of rebellion.
Isa 50:2 Why was there no one there when I came? Why did no one answer when I called? Is my hand too short to redeem? Have I not strength to save? Look, with a threat I can dry the sea, and turn rivers to desert; the fish in them go rotten for want of water and die of thirst.
Isa 50:3 I dress the heavens in black, I cover them in sackcloth.
Isa 50:4 Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given me a disciple's tongue, for me to know how to give a word of comfort to the weary. Morning by morning he makes my ear alert to listen like a disciple.
Isa 50:5 Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has opened my ear and I have not resisted, I have not turned away.
Isa 50:6 I have offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; I have not turned my face away from insult and spitting.
Isa 50:7 Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) comes to my help, this is why insult has not touched me, this is why I have set my face like flint and know that I shall not be put to shame.
Isa 50:8 He who grants me saving justice is near! Who will bring a case against me? Let us appear in court together! Who has a case against me? Let him approach me!
Isa 50:9 Look, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is coming to my help! Who dares condemn me? Look at them, all falling apart like moth-eaten clothes!
Isa 50:10 Which of you fears Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and listens to his servant's voice? Which of you walks in darkness and sees no light? Let him trust in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and lean on his God!
Isa 50:11 Look, all you who light a fire and arm yourselves with firebrands, walk by the light of your fire and the firebrands you have kindled! This is what you will get from me: you will lie down in torment!
Isa 51:1 Listen to me, you who pursue saving justice, you who seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Consider the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug.
Isa 51:2 Consider Abraham your father and Sarah who gave you birth. When I called him he was the only one but I blessed him and made him numerous.
Isa 51:3 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has pity on Zion, has pity on all her ruins; he will turn her desert into an Eden and her wastelands into the garden of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.
Isa 51:4 Pay attention to me, my people, listen to me, my nation, for a law will come from me, and I shall make my saving justice the light of peoples.
Isa 51:5 My justice is suddenly approaching, my salvation appears, my arm is about to judge the peoples. The coasts and islands will put their hope in me and put their trust in my arm.
Isa 51:6 Raise your eyes to the heavens, look down at the earth; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth wear out like clothing and its inhabitants die like vermin, but my salvation will last for ever and my saving justice remain inviolable.
Isa 51:7 Listen to me, you who know what saving justice means, a people who take my laws to heart: do not fear people's taunts, do not be alarmed by their insults,
Isa 51:8 for the moth will eat them like clothing, the grub will devour them like wool, but my saving justice will last for ever and my salvation for all generations.
Isa 51:9 Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, arm of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Awake, as in the olden days, generations long ago! Was it not you who split Rahab in half, who pierced the Dragon through?
Isa 51:10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great Abyss; who made the sea-bed into a road for the redeemed to go across?
Isa 51:11 This is why those whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ransomed will return, they will enter Zion shouting for joy, their heads crowned with a joy unending; joy and gladness will escort them and sorrow and sighing will take flight.
Isa 51:12 I, I am your consoler. Why then should you be afraid of mortal human beings, of a child of man, whose fate is that of the grass?
Isa 51:13 You forget about Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your Creator who spread out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations; you have never stopped trembling all day long before the fury of the oppressor when he was bent on destruction. Where is the oppressor's fury now?
Isa 51:14 The despairing captive is soon to be set free; he will not die in the dungeon, nor will his food run out.
Isa 51:15 I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who stirs up the sea, making its waves roar -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is my name.
Isa 51:16 I put my words into your mouth, I hid you in the shadow of my hand, to spread out the heavens and lay the earth's foundations and say to Zion, 'You are my people.'
Isa 51:17 Awake, awake! To your feet, Jerusalem! You who from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand have drunk the cup of his wrath. The chalice, the stupefying cup, you have drained to the dregs.
Isa 51:18 There is no one to guide her of all the children she has borne, no one to grasp her hand of all the children she has reared.
Isa 51:19 Double disaster has befallen you -- who is there to sympathise? Pillage and ruin, famine and sword -- who is there to console you?
Isa 51:20 Your children are lying helpless at the end of every street like an antelope trapped in a net; they are filled to the brim with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s wrath, with the rebuke of your God.
Isa 51:21 So listen to this, afflicted one, drunk, though not with wine.
Isa 51:22 Thus says your Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your God, defender of your people: Look, I am taking the stupefying cup from your hand, the chalice, the cup of my wrath, you will not have to drink again.
Isa 51:23 I shall hand it to your tormentors who used to say to you, 'On the ground! So that we can walk over you!' And you would flatten your back like the ground, like a street for them to walk on.
Isa 52:1 Awake, awake! Clothe yourself in strength, Zion. Put on your finest clothes, Jerusalem, Holy City; for the uncircumcised and the unclean will enter you no more.
Isa 52:2 Shake off your dust; get up, captive Jerusalem! The chains have fallen from your neck, captive daughter of Jerusalem!
Isa 52:3 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'You were sold for nothing; you will be redeemed without money.'
Isa 52:4 For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Long ago my people went to Egypt and settled there as aliens; finally Assyria oppressed them for no reason.
Isa 52:5 So now what is to be done,' declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'since my people have been carried off for nothing, their masters howl in triumph,' declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'and my name is held in contempt all day, every day?
Isa 52:6 Because of this my people will know my name, because of this they will know when the day comes, that it is I saying, Here I am!'
Isa 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains, are the feet of the messenger announcing peace, of the messenger of good news, who proclaims salvation and says to Zion, 'Your God is king!'
Isa 52:8 The voices of your watchmen! Now they raise their voices, shouting for joy together, for with their own eyes they have seen Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) returning to Zion.
Isa 52:9 Break into shouts together, shouts of joy, you ruins of Jerusalem; for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has consoled his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
Isa 52:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has bared his holy arm for all the nations to see, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Isa 52:11 Go away, go away, leave that place, do not touch anything unclean. Get out of her, purify yourselves, you who carry Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s vessels!
Isa 52:12 For you are not to hurry away, you are not to leave like fugitives. No, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) marches at your head and the God of Israel is your rearguard.
Isa 52:13 Look, my servant will prosper, will grow great, will rise to great heights.
Isa 52:14 As many people were aghast at him -- he was so inhumanly disfigured that he no longer looked like a man-
Isa 52:15 so many nations will be astonished and kings will stay tight-lipped before him, seeing what had never been told them, learning what they had not heard before.
Isa 53:1 Who has given credence to what we have heard? And who has seen in it a revelation of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s arm?
Isa 53:2 Like a sapling he grew up before him, like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts;
Isa 53:3 he was despised, the lowest of men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, one from whom, as it were, we averted our gaze, despised, for whom we had no regard.
Isa 53:4 Yet ours were the sufferings he was bearing, ours the sorrows he was carrying, while we thought of him as someone being punished and struck with affliction by God;
Isa 53:5 whereas he was being wounded for our rebellions, crushed because of our guilt; the punishment reconciling us fell on him, and we have been healed by his bruises.
Isa 53:6 We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought the acts of rebellion of all of us to bear on him.
Isa 53:7 Ill-treated and afflicted, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb before its shearers he never opened his mouth.
Isa 53:8 Forcibly, after sentence, he was taken. Which of his contemporaries was concerned at his having been cut off from the land of the living, at his having been struck dead for his people's rebellion?
Isa 53:9 He was given a grave with the wicked, and his tomb is with the rich, although he had done no violence, had spoken no deceit.
Isa 53:10 It was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s good pleasure to crush him with pain; if he gives his life as a sin offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his life, and through him Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s good pleasure will be done.
Isa 53:11 After the ordeal he has endured, he will see the light and be content. By his knowledge, the upright one, my servant will justify many by taking their guilt on himself.
Isa 53:12 Hence I shall give him a portion with the many, and he will share the booty with the mighty, for having exposed himself to death and for being counted as one of the rebellious, whereas he was bearing the sin of many and interceding for the rebellious.
Isa 54:1 Shout for joy, barren one who has borne no children! Break into cries and shouts of joy, you who were never in labour! For the children of the forsaken one are more in number than the children of the wedded wife, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 54:2 Widen the space of your tent, extend the curtains of your home, do not hold back! Lengthen your ropes, make your tent-pegs firm,
Isa 54:3 for you will burst out to right and to left, your race will dispossess the nations and repopulate deserted towns.
Isa 54:4 Do not fear, you will not be put to shame again, do not worry, you will not be disgraced again; for you will forget the shame of your youth and no longer remember the dishonor of your widowhood.
Isa 54:5 For your Creator is your husband, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is his name, the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer, he is called God of the whole world.
Isa 54:6 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has called you back like a forsaken, grief-stricken wife, like the repudiated wife of his youth, says your God.
Isa 54:7 I did forsake you for a brief moment, but in great compassion I shall take you back.
Isa 54:8 In a flood of anger, for a moment I hid my face from you. But in everlasting love I have taken pity on you, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your redeemer.
Isa 54:9 For me it will be as in the days of Noah when I swore that Noah's waters should never flood the world again. So now I swear never to be angry with you and never to rebuke you again.
Isa 54:10 For the mountains may go away and the hills may totter, but my faithful love will never leave you, my covenant of peace will never totter, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who takes pity on you.
Isa 54:11 Unhappy creature, storm-tossed, unpitied, look, I shall lay your stones on agates and your foundations on sapphires.
Isa 54:12 I shall make your battlements rubies, your gateways firestone and your entire wall precious stones.
Isa 54:13 All your children will be taught by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and great will be your children's prosperity.
Isa 54:14 In saving justice you will be made firm, free from oppression: you will have nothing to fear; free from terror: it will not approach you.
Isa 54:15 Should anyone attack you, that will not be my doing, and whoever does attack you, for your sake will fall.
Isa 54:16 I created the smith who blows on the charcoal-fire to produce a weapon for his use; I also created the destroyer to ruin it.
Isa 54:17 No weapon forged against you will succeed. Any voice raised against you in court you will refute. Such is the lot of the servants of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the saving justice I assure them, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 55:1 Oh, come to the water all you who are thirsty; though you have no money, come! Buy and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money, free!
Isa 55:2 Why spend money on what cannot nourish and your wages on what fails to satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and you will have good things to eat and rich food to enjoy.
Isa 55:3 Pay attention, come to me; listen, and you will live. I shall make an everlasting covenant with you in fulfilment of the favors promised to David.
Isa 55:4 Look, I have made him a witness to peoples, a leader and lawgiver to peoples.
Isa 55:5 Look, you will summon a nation unknown to you, a nation unknown to you will hurry to you for the sake of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, because the Holy One of Israel has glorified you.
Isa 55:6 Seek out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) while he is still to be found, call to him while he is still near.
Isa 55:7 Let the wicked abandon his way and the evil one his thoughts. Let him turn back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who will take pity on him, to our God, for he is rich in forgiveness;
Isa 55:8 for my thoughts are not your thoughts and your ways are not my ways, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 55:9 For the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.
Isa 55:10 For, as the rain and the snow come down from the sky and do not return before having watered the earth, fertilising it and making it germinate to provide seed for the sower and food to eat,
Isa 55:11 so it is with the word that goes from my mouth: it will not return to me unfulfilled or before having carried out my good pleasure and having achieved what it was sent to do.
Isa 55:12 Yes, you will go out with joy and be led away in safety. Mountains and hills will break into joyful cries before you and all the trees of the countryside clap their hands.
Isa 55:13 Cypress will grow instead of thorns, myrtle instead of nettles. And this will be fame for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), an eternal monument never to be effaced.
Isa 56:1 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): Make fair judgement your concern, act with justice, for soon my salvation will come and my saving justice be manifest.
Isa 56:2 Blessed is anyone who does this, anyone who clings to it, observing the Sabbath, not profaning it, and abstaining from every evil deed.
Isa 56:3 No foreigner adhering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) should say, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will utterly exclude me from his people.' No eunuch should say, 'Look, I am a dried-up tree.'
Isa 56:4 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths and choose to do my good pleasure and cling to my covenant,
Isa 56:5 I shall give them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I shall give them an everlasting name that will never be effaced.
Isa 56:6 As for foreigners who adhere to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to serve him, to love Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name and become his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant:
Isa 56:7 these I shall lead to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
Isa 56:8 Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who gathers the exiles of Israel declares: There are others I shall gather besides those already gathered.
Isa 56:9 Come and gorge, all you wild beasts, all you beasts of the forest!
Isa 56:10 Its watchmen are all blind, they know nothing. Dumb watchdogs all, unable to bark, they dream, lie down, and love to sleep.
Isa 56:11 Greedy dogs, never satisfied, such are the shepherds, who understand nothing; they all go their own way, each to the last man after his own interest.
Isa 56:12 'Come, let me fetch wine; we will get drunk on strong drink, tomorrow will be just as wonderful as today and even more so!'
Isa 57:1 The upright person perishes and no one cares. The faithful is taken off and no one takes it to heart. Yes, because of the evil times the upright is taken off;
Isa 57:2 he will enter peace, and those who follow the right way will find rest on their beds.
Isa 57:3 But you, you children of a witch, come here, adulterous race prostituting yourselves!
Isa 57:4 At whom are you jeering, at whom are you making faces and sticking out your tongue? Are you not the spawn of rebellion, a lying race?
Isa 57:5 Lusting among the terebinths, and under every spreading tree, sacrificing children in the ravines, below the clefts in the rocks.
Isa 57:6 The smooth stones of the ravines will be your portion, yes, these will be your lot. To these you have poured libations, have brought your cereal offering. Can all this appease me?
Isa 57:7 On a mountain high and lofty you have put your bed. Thither, too, you have climbed to offer sacrifice.
Isa 57:8 Behind door and doorpost you have set your reminder. Yes, far from me, you exposed yourself, climbed on to your bed, and made the most of it. You struck a profitable bargain with those whose bed you love, whoring with them often, with your eyes on the sacred symbol.
Isa 57:9 You went to Molech with oil, you were prodigal with your perfumes; you sent your envoys far afield, down to Sheol itself.
Isa 57:10 Though tired by so much traveling, you never said, 'It is no use.' Finding your strength revive, you never gave up.
Isa 57:11 Who was it you dreaded, and feared, that you should betray me, no longer remember me and not spare a thought for me? Was I not silent for a long time? So you cannot have been afraid of me.
Isa 57:12 Now I shall expose this uprightness of yours, and little good it did you.
Isa 57:13 When you cry for help, let those thronging round you save you! The wind will carry them all away, one puff will take them off. But whoever trusts in me will inherit the country, he will own my holy mountain.
Isa 57:14 Then it will be said: Level up, level up, clear the way, remove the obstacle from my people's way,
Isa 57:15 for thus says the High and Exalted One who lives eternally and whose name is holy, 'I live in the holy heights but I am with the contrite and humble, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive the heart of the contrite.
Isa 57:16 'For I do not want to be forever accusing nor always to be angry, or the spirit would fail under my onslaught, the souls that I myself have made.
Isa 57:17 'Angered by his wicked cupidity, I hid and struck him in anger, but he rebelliously went the way of his choice.
Isa 57:18 'I saw how he behaved, but I shall heal him, I shall lead him, fill him with consolation, him and those who mourn for him,
Isa 57:19 bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to far and near, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, and I shall heal him.'
Isa 57:20 The wicked, however, are like the restless sea that cannot be still, whose waters throw up mud and dirt.
Isa 57:21 'No peace', says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), 'for the wicked.'
Isa 58:1 Shout for all you are worth, do not hold back, raise your voice like a trumpet. To my people proclaim their rebellious acts, to the House of Jacob, their sins.
Isa 58:2 They seek for me day after day, they long to know my ways, like a nation that has acted uprightly and not forsaken the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are upright, they long to be near God:
Isa 58:3 'Why have we fasted, if you do not see, why mortify ourselves if you never notice?' Look, you seek your own pleasure on your fastdays and you exploit all your workmen;
Isa 58:4 look, the only purpose of your fasting is to quarrel and squabble and strike viciously with your fist. Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high.
Isa 58:5 Is that the sort of fast that pleases me, a day when a person inflicts pain on himself? Hanging your head like a reed, spreading out sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?
Isa 58:6 Is not this the sort of fast that pleases me: to break unjust fetters, to undo the thongs of the yoke. to let the oppressed go free, and to break all yokes?
Isa 58:7 Is it not sharing your food with the hungry, and sheltering the homeless poor; if you see someone lacking clothes, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own kin?
Isa 58:8 Then your light will blaze out like the dawn and your wound be quickly healed over. Saving justice will go ahead of you and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s glory come behind you.
Isa 58:9 Then you will cry for help and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will answer; you will call and he will say, 'I am here.' If you do away with the yoke, the clenched fist and malicious words,
Isa 58:10 if you deprive yourself for the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, your light will rise in the darkness, and your darkest hour will be like noon.
Isa 58:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will always guide you, will satisfy your needs in the scorched land; he will give strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never run dry.
Isa 58:12 Your ancient ruins will be rebuilt; you will build on age -- old foundations. You will be called 'Breach-mender', 'Restorer of streets to be lived in'.
Isa 58:13 If you refrain from breaking the Sabbath, from taking your own pleasure on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath 'Delightful', and the day sacred to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) 'honorable', if you honor it by abstaining from travel, from seeking your own pleasure and from too much talk,
Isa 58:14 then you will find true happiness in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I shall lead you in triumph over the heights of the land. I shall feed you on the heritage of your father Jacob, for the mouth of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken.
Isa 59:1 No, the arm of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear,
Isa 59:2 but your guilty deeds have made a gulf between you and your God. Your sins have made him hide his face from you so as not to hear you,
Isa 59:3 since your hands are stained with blood and your fingers with guilt; your lips utter lies, your tongues murmur wickedness.
Isa 59:4 No one makes upright accusations or pleads sincerely. All rely on empty words, utter falsehood, conceive trouble and give birth to evil.
Isa 59:5 They are hatching adders' eggs and weaving a spider's web; eat one of their eggs and you die, crush one and a viper emerges.
Isa 59:6 Their webs are useless for clothing, their deeds are useless for wearing; their deeds are deeds of guilt, violence fills their hands.
Isa 59:7 Their feet run to do evil; they are quick to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of guilt, wherever they go there is havoc and ruin.
Isa 59:8 They do not know the way of peace, there is no fair judgement in their course, they have made their own crooked paths, and no one treading them knows any peace.
Isa 59:9 Thus fair judgement is remote from us nor can uprightness overtake us. We looked for light and all is darkness, for brightness and we walk in gloom.
Isa 59:10 Like the blind we feel our way along walls, we grope our way like people without eyes. We stumble as though noon were twilight, among the robust we are like the dead.
Isa 59:11 We growl, all of us, like bears, like doves we make no sound but moaning, waiting for the fair judgement that never comes, for salvation, but that is far away.
Isa 59:12 How often we have rebelled against you and our sins bear witness against us. Our rebellious acts are indeed with us, we are well aware of our guilt:
Isa 59:13 rebellion and denial of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), turning our back on our God, talking violence and revolt, murmuring lies in our heart.
Isa 59:14 Fair judgement is driven away and saving justice stands aloof, for good faith has stumbled in the street and sincerity cannot enter.
Isa 59:15 Good faith has vanished; anyone abstaining from evil is victimised. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) saw this and was displeased that there was no fair judgement.
Isa 59:16 He saw there was no one and wondered there was no one to intervene. So he made his own arm his mainstay, his own saving justice his support.
Isa 59:17 He put on saving justice like a breastplate, on his head the helmet of salvation. He put on the clothes of vengeance like a tunic and wrapped himself in jealousy like a cloak.
Isa 59:18 To each he repays his due, retribution to his enemies, reprisals on his foes, to the coasts and islands he will repay their due.
Isa 59:19 From the west, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name will be feared, and from the east, his glory, for he will come like a pent-up stream impelled by the breath of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 59:20 Then for Zion will come a redeemer, for those who stop rebelling in Jacob, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 59:21 'For my part, this is my covenant with them, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). My spirit with which I endowed you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, will not leave your mouth, or the mouths of your children, or the mouths of your children's children, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), henceforth and for ever.'
Isa 60:1 Arise, shine out, for your light has come, and the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has risen on you.
Isa 60:2 Look! though night still covers the earth and darkness the peoples, on you Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is rising and over you his glory can be seen.
Isa 60:3 The nations will come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness.
Isa 60:4 Lift up your eyes and look around: all are assembling and coming towards you, your sons coming from far away and your daughters being carried on the hip.
Isa 60:5 At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart will throb and dilate, since the riches of the sea will flow to you, the wealth of the nations come to you;
Isa 60:6 camels in throngs will fill your streets, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; everyone in Saba will come, bringing gold and incense and proclaiming Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s praises.
Isa 60:7 All the flocks of Kedar will gather inside you, the rams of Nebaioth will be at your service as acceptable victims on my altar, and I shall glorify my glorious house.
Isa 60:8 Who are these flying like a cloud, like doves to their dovecote?
Isa 60:9 Why, the coasts and islands put their hope in me and the vessels of Tarshish take the lead in bringing your children from far away, and their silver and gold with them, for the sake of the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, of the Holy One of Israel who has made you glorious.
Isa 60:10 Foreigners will rebuild your walls and their kings will serve you. For though I struck you in anger, in mercy I have pitied you.
Isa 60:11 Your gates will always be open, never closed, either day or night, for the riches of the nations to be brought you and their kings to be let in.
Isa 60:12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish, and the nations will be utterly destroyed.
Isa 60:13 The glory of the Lebanon will come to you, cypress, plane-tree, box-tree, one and all, to adorn the site of my sanctuary, for me to honor the place where I stand.
Isa 60:14 Your oppressors' children will humbly approach you, at your feet all who despised you will fall addressing you as 'City of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)', 'Zion of the Holy One of Israel'.
Isa 60:15 Instead of your being forsaken and hated, avoided by everyone, I will make you an object of eternal pride, a source of joy from age to age.
Isa 60:16 You will suck the milk of nations, you will suck the wealth of kings, and you will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am your Savior, that your redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isa 60:17 For bronze I shall bring gold and for iron I shall bring silver, and for wood, bronze, and for stone, iron; I shall make Peace your administration and Saving Justice your government.
Isa 60:18 Violence will no longer be heard of in your country, nor devastation and ruin within your frontiers. You will call your walls 'Salvation' and your gates 'Praise'.
Isa 60:19 No more will the sun give you daylight, nor moonlight shine on you, but Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be your everlasting light, your God will be your splendor.
Isa 60:20 Your sun will set no more nor will your moon wane, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be your everlasting light and your days of mourning will be over.
Isa 60:21 Your people, all of them upright, will possess the country for ever, the shoot I myself have planted, my handiwork, for my own glory.
Isa 60:22 The smallest will grow into a thousand, the weakest one into a mighty nation. When the time is ripe, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), shall quickly bring it about.
Isa 61:1 The spirit of Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is on me for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken-hearted,
Isa 61:2 to proclaim liberty to captives, release to those in prison, to proclaim a year of favor from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and a day of vengeance for our God, to comfort all who mourn
Isa 61:3 (to give to Zion's mourners), to give them for ashes a garland, for mourning-dress, the oil of gladness, for despondency, festal attire; and they will be called 'terebinths of saving justice', planted by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to glorify him.
Isa 61:4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise what has long lain waste, they will restore the ruined cities, all that has lain waste for ages past.
Isa 61:5 Strangers will come forward to feed your flocks, foreigners be your ploughmen and vinedressers;
Isa 61:6 but you will be called 'priests of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)' and be addressed as 'ministers of our God'. You will feed on the wealth of nations, you will supplant them in their glory.
Isa 61:7 To make up for your shame, you will receive double; instead of disgrace, shouts of joy will be their lot; yes, they will have a double portion in their country and everlasting joy will be theirs.
Isa 61:8 For I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): I love fair judgement, I hate robbery and wrong-doing, and I shall reward them faithfully and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Isa 61:9 Their race will be famous throughout the nations and their offspring throughout the peoples. All who see them will admit that they are a race whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has blessed.
Isa 61:10 I exult for joy in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul rejoices in my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation, he has wrapped me in a cloak of saving justice, like a bridegroom wearing his garland, like a bride adorned in her jewels.
Isa 61:11 For as the earth sends up its shoots and a garden makes seeds sprout, so Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) makes saving justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations.
Isa 62:1 About Zion I will not be silent, about Jerusalem I shall not rest until saving justice dawns for her like a bright light and her salvation like a blazing torch.
Isa 62:2 The nations will then see your saving justice, and all kings your glory, and you will be called a new name which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s mouth will reveal.
Isa 62:3 You will be a crown of splendor in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand, a princely diadem in the hand of your God.
Isa 62:4 No more will you be known as 'Forsaken' or your country be known as 'Desolation'; instead, you will be called 'My Delight is in her' and your country 'The Wedded'; for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will take delight in you and your country will have its wedding.
Isa 62:5 Like a young man marrying a virgin, your rebuilder will wed you, and as the bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so will your God rejoice in you.
Isa 62:6 On your walls, Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never fall silent, day or night. No peace for you, as you keep Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s attention!
Isa 62:7 And give him no peace either until he restores Jerusalem and makes her the pride of the world!
Isa 62:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: Never again shall I give your grain to feed your enemies. Never again will foreigners drink the wine for which you have toiled.
Isa 62:9 No, the reapers will eat it and praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the harvesters will drink it in my sacred courts!
Isa 62:10 Pass through, pass through the gates. Clear a way for my people! Level up, level up the highway, remove the stones! Hoist a signal to the peoples!
Isa 62:11 This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has proclaimed to the remotest part of earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, 'Look, your salvation is coming; with him comes his reward, his achievement precedes him!'
Isa 62:12 They will be called 'The Holy People', 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Redeemed', while you will be called 'Sought-after', 'City-not-forsaken'.
Isa 63:1 Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah in crimson garments, so magnificently dressed, marching so full of strength? - It is I, whose word is saving justice, whose power is to save.
Isa 63:2 -Why are your garments red, your clothes like someone treading the winepress?
Isa 63:3 -I have trodden the winepress alone; of my people, not one was with me. So I trod them down in my anger, I trampled on them in my wrath. Their blood squirted over my garments and all my clothes are stained.
Isa 63:4 For I have decided on a day of vengeance, my year of retribution has come.
Isa 63:5 I looked: there was no one to help me; I was appalled but could find no supporter! Then my own arm came to my rescue and my own fury supported me.
Isa 63:6 I crushed the peoples in my anger, I shattered them in my fury and sent their blood streaming to the ground.
Isa 63:7 I shall recount Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s acts of faithful love, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s praises, in return for all that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done for us, for his great kindness to the House of Israel, for all that he has done in his mercy, for the abundance of his acts of faithful love.
Isa 63:8 For he said, 'Truly they are my people, children who will not betray me,' and he became their Savior.
Isa 63:9 In all their troubles, it was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them. In his love and pity he himself redeemed them, lifted them up and carried them throughout the days of old.
Isa 63:10 But they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit. Then he became their enemy and himself waged war on them.
Isa 63:11 But he called the past to mind, Moses his servant. Where is he who saved them from the sea, the Shepherd of his flock? Where was he who put his holy Spirit among them,
Isa 63:12 whose glorious arm led the way by Moses' right hand? Who divided the waters before them to win himself everlasting renown,
Isa 63:13 who led them through the depths as easily as a horse through the desert? They stumbled as little
Isa 63:14 as cattle going down to the plain. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Spirit led them to rest. This was how you guided your people to win yourself glorious renown.
Isa 63:15 Look down from heaven and see from your holy and glorious dwelling. Where is your zeal and your might? Are your deepest feelings, your mercy to me, to be restrained?
Isa 63:16 After all, you are our Father. If Abraham will not own us, if Israel will not acknowledge us, you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are our Father, 'Our Redeemer' is your name from of old.
Isa 63:17 Why, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do you let us wander from your ways and let our hearts grow too hard to fear you? Return, for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage.
Isa 63:18 Your holy people have owned it for so short a time, our enemies have trampled on your sanctuary.
Isa 63:19 We have long been like those you do not rule, people who do not bear your name. Oh, that you would tear the heavens open and come down -- in your presence the mountains would quake,
Isa 64:1 as fire sets brushwood alight, as fire makes water boil -- to make your name known to your foes; the nations would tremble at your presence,
Isa 64:2 at the unexpected miracles you would do. (Oh, that you would come down, in your presence the mountains would quake!)
Isa 64:3 Never has anyone heard, no ear has heard, no eye has seen any god but you act like this for the sake of those who trust him.
Isa 64:4 You come to meet those who are happy to act uprightly; keeping your ways reminds them of you. Yes, you have been angry and we have been sinners; now we persist in your ways and we shall be saved.
Isa 64:5 We have all been like unclean things and our upright deeds like filthy rags. We wither, all of us, like leaves, and all our misdeeds carry us off like the wind.
Isa 64:6 There is no one to invoke your name, to rouse himself to hold fast to you, for you have hidden your face from us and given us up to the power of our misdeeds.
Isa 64:7 And yet, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you are our Father; we the clay and you our potter, all of us are the work of your hands.
Isa 64:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not let your anger go too far and do not remember guilt for ever. Look, please, we are all your people;
Isa 64:9 your holy cities have become a desert, Zion has become a desert, Jerusalem a wasteland.
Isa 64:10 Our holy and glorious Temple, in which our ancestors used to praise you, has been burnt to the ground; all our delight lies in ruins.
Isa 64:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), can you restrain yourself at all this? Will you stay silent and afflict us beyond endurance?
Isa 65:1 I have let myself be approached by those who did not consult me, I have let myself be found by those who did not seek me. I said, 'Here I am, here I am!' to a nation that did not invoke my name.
Isa 65:2 Each day I stretched out my hands to a rebellious people who follow a way which is not good, as the fancy takes them;
Isa 65:3 a people constantly provoking me to my face by sacrificing in gardens, burning incense on bricks,
Isa 65:4 living in tombs, spending the night in dark corners, eating the meat of pigs, putting unclean foods on their plates.
Isa 65:5 'Keep your distance,' they say, 'do not touch me, lest my sanctity come near you!' Such words are like stifling smoke to me, an ever-burning fire.
Isa 65:6 Look, it is inscribed before me: I shall not be silent until I have repaid them, repaid them in full,
Isa 65:7 punished your guilt and your ancestors' guilt together, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. For having burnt incense on the mountains and insulted me on the hills, I shall pay them back in full for what they have done.
Isa 65:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: As when a bunch of grapes is found still to have juice in it, people say, 'Do not destroy it, for it contains a blessing,' so I shall act for my servants' sake, I shall not destroy them all.
Isa 65:9 I shall produce descendants from Jacob and heirs to my mountains from Judah, my chosen ones will own them and my servants will live there.
Isa 65:10 Sharon will be a pasture for flocks, the Valley of Achor a feeding ground for cattle, for those of my people who have sought me.
Isa 65:11 But as for those of you who abandon Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who forget my holy mountain, who lay the table for Gad, who fill cups of mixed wine for Meni,
Isa 65:12 you I shall destine to the sword and all of you will stoop to be slaughtered, because I called and you would not answer, I spoke and you would not listen; you have done what I consider evil, you chose to do what displeases me.
Isa 65:13 Therefore Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You will see my servants eating while you go hungry; you will see my servants drinking while you go thirsty; you will see my servants rejoicing while you are put to shame;
Isa 65:14 you will hear my servants shouting for joy of heart, while you shriek for sorrow of heart and howl with a broken spirit.
Isa 65:15 And you will leave your name behind as a curse for my chosen ones, 'May Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) strike you dead!' But to his servants he will give another name.
Isa 65:16 Whoever blesses himself on earth will bless himself by the God of truth, and whoever swears an oath on earth will swear by the God of truth, for past troubles will be forgotten and hidden from my eyes.
Isa 65:17 For look, I am going to create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered and will come no more to mind.
Isa 65:18 Rather be joyful, be glad for ever at what I am creating, for look, I am creating Jerusalem to be 'Joy' and my people to be 'Gladness'.
Isa 65:19 I shall be joyful in Jerusalem and I shall rejoice in my people. No more will the sound of weeping be heard there, nor the sound of a shriek;
Isa 65:20 never again will there be an infant there who lives only a few days, nor an old man who does not run his full course; for the youngest will die at a hundred, and at a hundred the sinner will be accursed.
Isa 65:21 They will build houses and live in them, they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
Isa 65:22 They will not build for others to live in, or plant for others to eat; for the days of my people will be like the days of a tree, and my chosen ones will themselves use what they have made.
Isa 65:23 They will not toil in vain, nor bear children destined to disaster, for they are the race of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s blessed ones and so are their offspring.
Isa 65:24 Thus, before they call I shall answer, before they stop speaking I shall have heard.
Isa 65:25 The wolf and the young lamb will feed together, the lion will eat hay like the ox, and dust be the serpent's food. No hurt, no harm will be done on all my holy mountain, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Isa 66:1 Thus says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): With heaven my throne and earth my footstool, what house could you build me, what place for me to rest,
Isa 66:2 when all these things were made by me and all belong to me? - declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). But my eyes are drawn to the person of humbled and contrite spirit, who trembles at my word.
Isa 66:3 Some slaughter a bull, some kill a human being, some sacrifice a lamb, some strangle a dog, some present an offering of pig's blood, some burn memorial incense, a revolting blessing; all these people have chosen their own ways and take delight in their disgusting practices.
Isa 66:4 I too take delight in making fools of them, I shall bring what they most fear down on them because I have called and no one would answer, I spoke and no one listened. They have done what I regard as evil, have chosen what displeases me.
Isa 66:5 Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you who tremble at his word. Your brothers, who hate and reject you because of my name, have said, 'Let Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) show his glory, let us witness your joy!' But they will be put to shame.
Isa 66:6 Listen! An uproar from the city! A voice from the Temple! The voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bringing retribution on his enemies.
Isa 66:7 Before being in labour she has given birth. Before the birth pangs came, she has been delivered of a child.
Isa 66:8 Who ever heard of such a thing, who ever saw anything like this? Can a country be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? For Zion, scarcely in labour, has brought forth her children!
Isa 66:9 Shall I open the womb and not bring to birth? says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Shall I, who bring to birth, close the womb? says your God.
Isa 66:10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, be glad for her, all you who love her! Rejoice, rejoice with her, all you who mourned her!
Isa 66:11 So that you may be suckled and satisfied from her consoling breast, so that you may drink deep with delight from her generous nipple.
Isa 66:12 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am going to send peace flowing over her like a river, and like a stream in spate the glory of the nations. You will be suckled, carried on her hip and fondled in her lap.
Isa 66:13 As a mother comforts a child, so I shall comfort you; you will be comforted in Jerusalem.
Isa 66:14 At the sight your heart will rejoice, and your limbs regain vigour like the grass. To his servants Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will reveal his hand, but to his enemies his fury.
Isa 66:15 For see how Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) comes in fire, his chariots like the whirlwind, to assuage his anger with burning, his rebukes with flaming fire.
Isa 66:16 For by fire will Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) execute fair judgement, and by his sword, on all people; and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s victims will be many.
Isa 66:17 As for those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to enter the gardens, following the one in the centre, who eat the flesh of pigs, revolting things and rats: their deeds and their thoughts will perish together, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Isa 66:18 I am coming to gather every nation and every language. They will come to witness my glory.
Isa 66:19 I shall give them a sign and send some of their survivors to the nations: to Tarshish, Put, Lud, Meshech, Tubal and Javan, to the distant coasts and islands that have never heard of me or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory to the nations,
Isa 66:20 and from all the nations they will bring all your brothers as an offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules and on camels, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, like Israelites bringing offerings in clean vessels to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s house.
Isa 66:21 And some of them I shall make into priests and Levites, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Isa 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth I am making will endure before me, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), so will your race and your name endure.
Isa 66:23 From New Moon to New Moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, all humanity will come and bow in my presence, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Isa 66:24 And on their way out they will see the corpses of those who rebelled against me; for their worm will never die nor their fire be put out, and they will be held in horror by all humanity.
Jer 1:1 The words of Jeremiah son of Hilkiah, one of the priests living at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin.
Jer 1:2 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to him in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign;
Jer 1:3 then in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the deportation of Jerusalem, in the fifth month.
Jer 1:4 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to me, saying:
Jer 1:5 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you came to birth I consecrated you; I appointed you as prophet to the nations.'
Jer 1:6 I then said, 'Ah, ah, ah, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); you see, I do not know how to speak: I am only a child!'
Jer 1:7 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Do not say, "I am only a child," for you must go to all to whom I send you and say whatever I command you.
Jer 1:8 Do not be afraid of confronting them, for I am with you to rescue you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.'
Jer 1:9 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) stretched out his hand and touched my mouth, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me: 'There! I have put my words into your mouth.
Jer 1:10 Look, today I have set you over the nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to knock down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.'
Jer 1:11 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to me, asking, 'Jeremiah, what do you see?' I answered, 'I see a branch of the Watchful Tree.'
Jer 1:12 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'Well seen, for I am watching over my word to perform it.'
Jer 1:13 A second time the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to me, asking, 'What do you see?' I answered, 'I see a cooking pot on the boil, with its mouth tilting from the north.'
Jer 1:14 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said: 'From the north disaster will come boiling over on all who live in the country,
Jer 1:15 for I am now summoning all the families of the kingdoms of the north, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. They will come, and each will set his throne in front of the gates of Jerusalem, all round, against its walls and against all the towns of Judah.
Jer 1:16 I shall pronounce my judgements on them because of all their wickedness, since they have abandoned me, offering incense to other gods and worshipping what their own hands have made.
Jer 1:17 'As for you, prepare yourself for action. Stand up and tell them all I command you. Have no fear of them and in their presence I will make you fearless.
Jer 1:18 For look, today I have made you into a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of bronze to stand against the whole country: the kings of Judah, its princes, its priests and the people of the country.
Jer 1:19 They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, to rescue you.'
Jer 2:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to me, saying,
Jer 2:2 'Go and shout this in Jerusalem's ears: 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "I remember your faithful love, the affection of your bridal days, when you followed me through the desert, through a land unsown.
Jer 2:3 Israel was sacred to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); the first-fruits of his harvest; all who ate this incurred guilt, disaster befell them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares." '
Jer 2:4 Listen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word, House of Jacob and all the families of the House of Israel.
Jer 2:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'What did your ancestors find wrong in me for them to have deserted me so far as to follow Futility and become futile themselves?
Jer 2:6 They never said, "Where is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who brought us out of Egypt and led us through the desert, through a land of plains and ravines, through a land of drought, of shadow dark as death, a land through which no one passes and where no human being lives?"
Jer 2:7 I brought you to a country of plenty, to enjoy its produce and good things; but when you entered you defiled my country and made my heritage loathsome.
Jer 2:8 The priests never asked, "Where is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?" Those skilled in the Law did not know me, the shepherds too rebelled against me and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed the Useless Ones.
Jer 2:9 So I must state my case against you once more, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and state my case against your children's children:
Jer 2:10 Cross to the isles of the Kittim and look, send to Kedar and carefully observe, see if anything like this has happened before!
Jer 2:11 Does a nation change its gods? - and these are not gods at all! Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for the Useless One!
Jer 2:12 You heavens, stand aghast at this, horrified, utterly appalled, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 2:13 For my people have committed two crimes: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug water-tanks for themselves, cracked water-tanks that hold no water.
Jer 2:14 'Is Israel a slave? Was he born into serfdom, for him to be preyed on like this?
Jer 2:15 Lions have roared at him, they have made their voices heard. They have left this country a desert, his towns lie burnt and uninhabited.
Jer 2:16 The people of Noph and Tahpanhes have shaved your skull!
Jer 2:17 Have you not brought this on yourself, by abandoning Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, when he was guiding you on your way?
Jer 2:18 What is the good of going to Egypt now to drink the water of the Nile? What is the good of going to Assyria to drink the water of the River?
Jer 2:19 Your wickedness will bring its own punishment, your infidelities will bring you to book, so give thought and see how evil and bitter it is to abandon Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and not to stand in awe of me, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares.
Jer 2:20 'It is long ago now since you broke your yoke, burst your bonds and said, "I will not serve!" Yet on every high hill and under every green tree you have sprawled and played the whore.
Jer 2:21 Yet I had planted you, a red vine of completely sound stock. How is it you have turned into seedlings of a vine that is alien to me?
Jer 2:22 Even though you scrub yourself with soda and put in quantities of soap, the stain of your guilt would still be visible to me, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 2:23 How dare you say, "I am not defiled, I have not run after the Baals?" Look at your behavior in the Valley, realize what you have done.
Jer 2:24 A wild she-donkey, at home in the desert, snuffing the breeze in desire; who can control her when she is on heat? Males need not trouble to look for her, they will find her in her month.
Jer 2:25 Beware! Your own foot will go unshod, your own throat grow dry! But you said, "It is no use! No! For I love the Strangers and they are the ones I shall follow."
Jer 2:26 'Like a thief ashamed at being caught, so will the House of Israel be: they, their kings, their chief men, their priests and their prophets,
Jer 2:27 who say to a piece of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave birth to me." For they turn to me their backs, never their faces; yet when trouble comes they shout, "Get up! Save us!"
Jer 2:28 Where are your gods you made for yourself? Let them get up if they can save you when trouble comes! For you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah!
Jer 2:29 Why make out a case against me? You have all rebelled against me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 2:30 In vain I have struck your children, they have not accepted correction; your own sword has devoured your prophets like a marauding lion.
Jer 2:31 Now you of this generation, listen to what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says: Have I been a desert for Israel, or a land of gloom? Why do my people say, "We are our own masters, we will come to you no more"?
Jer 2:32 Does a girl forget her ornaments, a bride her sash? And yet my people have forgotten me, days beyond number.
Jer 2:33 'How well you set your course in pursuit of love! And so you have schooled your ways to wicked deeds.
Jer 2:34 The very skirts of your robe are stained with the blood of the poor, of innocent men you never caught breaking and entering! And in spite of all this,
Jer 2:35 you say, "I am innocent, let his anger turn from me!" Now I pass sentence on you for saying, "I have not sinned."
Jer 2:36 'How frivolously you undertake a change of course! But you will be disappointed by Egypt just as you were by Assyria.
Jer 2:37 You will have to leave there too with your hands on your head, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has rejected those that you rely on, you will come to no good with them.'
Jer 3:1 'If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and becomes someone else's, has he the right to go back to her? Has not that piece of land been totally polluted? And you, having played the whore with many lovers, you claim the right to come back to me! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands.
Jer 3:2 'Lift your eyes to the bare heights and look! Where have you not offered your sex! You waited by the roadside for them like an Arab in the desert. You have polluted the country with your prostitution and your vices:
Jer 3:3 this is why the showers have been withheld, the late rains have not come. 'But you maintained a prostitute's bold front, with no trace of a blush.
Jer 3:4 From now on, do not cry out at me, "My father! My beloved ever since I was young!
Jer 3:5 Will he keep up his anger for ever, maintain his wrath to the end?" You say this but still go on sinning, being so obstinate.'
Jer 3:6 In the days of King Josiah, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Have you seen what disloyal Israel has done? How she has made her way up every high hill and to every green tree, and played the whore there?
Jer 3:7 I thought, "After doing all this she will come back to me." But she did not come back. Her faithless sister Judah saw this.
Jer 3:8 She also saw that I had repudiated disloyal Israel for all her adulteries and given her her divorce papers. Her faithless sister Judah, however, was not afraid: she too went and played the whore.
Jer 3:9 And with her shameless whoring, she polluted the country; she committed adultery with stones and pieces of wood.
Jer 3:10 Worse than all this: Judah, her faithless sister, has come back to me not in sincerity, but only in pretence, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.'
Jer 3:11 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Disloyal Israel is upright, compared with faithless Judah.
Jer 3:12 So go and shout words towards the north, and say: "Come back, disloyal Israel, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall frown on you no more, since I am merciful, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. I shall not keep my anger for ever.
Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge your guilt: how you have rebelled against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, how you have prostituted yourself with the Strangers under every green tree and have not listened to my voice, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 3:14 "Come back, disloyal children, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, for I alone am your Master, and I will take you, one from a town, two from a family, and bring you to Zion.
Jer 3:15 I shall give you shepherds after my own heart, who will pasture you wisely and discreetly.
Jer 3:16 Then, when you have increased and grown numerous in the country, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, no one will ever again say: The ark of the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! It will not enter their minds, they will not remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made.
Jer 3:17 When that time comes, Jerusalem will be called: The Throne of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and all the nations will converge on her, on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name, on Jerusalem, and will no longer follow their own stubborn and wicked inclinations.
Jer 3:18 "When those days come, the House of Judah will join the House of Israel; together they will come from the land of the north to the country I gave your ancestors as their heritage."
Jer 3:19 'And I was thinking: How am I to rank you as my children? I shall give you a country of delights, the fairest heritage of all the nations! I thought: You will call me Father and will never cease to follow me.
Jer 3:20 But like a woman betraying her lover, House of Israel, you have betrayed me,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 3:21 A noise is heard on the bare heights: the weeping and entreaty of the Israelites, for they have gone wildly astray, have forgotten Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.
Jer 3:22 'Come back, disloyal sons, I want to cure your disloyalty.' 'We are here, we are coming to you, for you are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.
Jer 3:23 The hills are a delusion after all, so is the tumult of the mountains. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God is, after all, the saving of Israel.
Jer 3:24 Shame has devoured what our ancestors worked for ever since we were young, their flocks and herds, their sons and their daughters.
Jer 3:25 Let us lie down in our shame, let our confusion cover us, for we have sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, we and our ancestors, from our youth until today, and have not listened to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.'
Jer 4:1 'If you come back, Israel, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, if you come back to me, if you take your Horrors out of my sight, if you go roving no more,
Jer 4:2 if you swear, "As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives!" truthfully, justly, uprightly, then the nations will bless themselves by him and glory in him.
Jer 4:3 'For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, "Clear the ground that lies neglected, do not sow among thorns.
Jer 4:4 Circumcise yourselves for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), apply circumcision to your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my wrath will leap out like a fire and burn with no one to quench it, in return for the wickedness of your deeds." '
Jer 4:5 Announce it in Judah, proclaim it in Jerusalem, say, 'Sound the trumpet in the countryside, shout the message aloud: Mobilise! Take to the fortified towns!
Jer 4:6 Signpost the way to Zion! Run! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, an immense calamity.
Jer 4:7 The lion is up from his thicket, the destroyer of nations is on his way, he has come from his home to reduce your land to a desert; your towns will be in ruins, uninhabited.
Jer 4:8 So wrap yourselves in sackcloth, lament and wail, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burning anger has not turned away from us.
Jer 4:9 'That day,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, 'the king's heart will fail him, the princes' hearts will fail them too, the priests will stand aghast, the prophets stupefied.'
Jer 4:10 Then I said, 'Ah, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), how sadly you deceived this people and Jerusalem when you used to say, "You will have peace," whereas the sword is now at our throats!
Jer 4:11 When that time comes, this will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: The scorching wind from the desert heights comes towards the daughter of my people -and not to winnow or to cleanse!
Jer 4:12 A gale of wind comes to me from over there. Now I myself shall pass sentence on them!'
Jer 4:13 Look, he is advancing like the clouds, his chariots like a hurricane, his horses swifter than eagles. Disaster for us! We are lost!
Jer 4:14 Wash your heart clean of wickedness, Jerusalem, and so be saved. How long will you go on harbouring your pernicious thoughts?
Jer 4:15 For a voice from Dan shouts the news, proclaims disaster from the highlands of Ephraim.
Jer 4:16 Report it to the nations, proclaim it to Jerusalem, 'Enemies are coming from a distant country, shouting their war cry against the towns of Judah;
Jer 4:17 they surround her like watchmen round a field because she has rebelled against me', Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 4:18 'Your own behavior and actions have brought this on yourself. Your wickedness, how bitter, has stabbed you to the heart!'
Jer 4:19 In the pit of my stomach how great my agony! Walls of my heart! My heart is throbbing! I cannot keep quiet, for I have heard the trumpet call, the battle cry.
Jer 4:20 Ruin on ruin is the news: the whole land is laid waste, my tents are suddenly destroyed, in one moment all that sheltered me.
Jer 4:21 How long must I see the standard and hear the trumpet call?
Jer 4:22 'This is because my people are stupid, they do not know me, they are slow-witted children, they have no understanding, they are clever enough at doing wrong, but do not know how to do right.'
Jer 4:23 I looked to the earth -- it was a formless waste; to the heavens, and their light had gone.
Jer 4:24 I looked to the mountains -- they were quaking and all the hills rocking to and fro.
Jer 4:25 I looked -- there was no one at all, the very birds of heaven had all fled.
Jer 4:26 I looked -- the fruitful land was a desert, all its towns in ruins before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), before his burning anger.
Jer 4:27 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said this, 'The whole country will be laid waste, though I shall not annihilate it completely.
Jer 4:28 For this, the earth will go into mourning and the heavens above grow dark. For I have spoken, I have decided, I shall not change my mind or go back on it.'
Jer 4:29 At the din of horseman and archer the entire city takes to flight: some plunge into the thickets, others scale the rocks; every town is abandoned, not a single person is left there.
Jer 4:30 And, once despoiled, what are you going to do? You may dress yourself in scarlet, put on ornaments of gold, enlarge your eyes with paint but you make yourself pretty in vain. Your former lovers disdain you, your life is what they are seeking.
Jer 4:31 Yes, I hear screams like those of a woman in labour, anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first child; they are the screams of the daughter of Zion, gasping, hands outstretched, 'Unhappy me! I am dying, the murderers have killed me!'
Jer 5:1 Rove the streets of Jerusalem, now look and enquire, see in her squares if you can find an individual, one individual who does right and seeks the truth, and I will pardon her, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Jer 5:2 Although they say, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives,' they are, in fact, swearing a false oath.
Jer 5:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do your eyes not look for truth? You have struck them; they have not felt it. You have annihilated them, for they ignored the lesson. They have set their faces harder than rock, they have refused to repent.
Jer 5:4 I thought, 'These are only the poor! They behave stupidly since they do not know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s way or the ruling of their God.
Jer 5:5 I shall approach the great men and speak to them, for these will know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s way and the ruling of their God.' But these, too, have broken the yoke, have burst the bonds.
Jer 5:6 And so, a lion from the forest will slaughter them, a wolf from the plains will despoil them, a leopard will be lurking round their towns: anyone who goes out will be torn to pieces -- because of their many crimes, their countless infidelities.
Jer 5:7 'Why should I pardon you? Your sons have abandoned me, to swear by gods that are not gods at all. I fed them full, and they became adulterers, they hurried to the brothel.
Jer 5:8 They are well-fed, roving stallions, each neighing for his neighbor's wife.
Jer 5:9 Shall I fail to punish this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands, or on such a nation to exact vengeance?
Jer 5:10 Scale her terraces! Destroy! But do not annihilate her completely! Strip off her branches, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does not own them!
Jer 5:11 How treacherously they have treated me, the House of Israel and the House of Judah! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 5:12 'They have denied Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they have said, "He is nothing; no evil will overtake us, we shall not see sword or famine.
Jer 5:13 And the prophets? Nothing but wind; the word is not in them; let those very things happen to them!" '
Jer 5:14 Because of this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, says this, 'Since you have said such things, now I shall make my words a fire in your mouth, and make this people wood, for the fire to devour.
Jer 5:15 Now I shall bring on you a nation from afar, House of Israel, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know, nor can you grasp what they say.
Jer 5:16 Their quiver a gaping tomb, they are all of them fighters.
Jer 5:17 They will devour your harvest and your food, devour your sons and daughters, devour your flocks and herds, devour your vines and fig trees, and demolish your fortified towns in which you trust -- with the sword!'
Jer 5:18 'Yet even in those days, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall not annihilate you completely.
Jer 5:19 'And when you ask, "Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God done all this to us?" you will give them this answer, "As you abandon me to serve alien gods in your own country, so you must serve aliens in a country not your own."
Jer 5:20 'Announce this in the House of Jacob, proclaim it in Judah, and say,
Jer 5:21 "Now listen to this, stupid, brainless people who have eyes and do not see, who have ears and do not hear!
Jer 5:22 Have you no fear of me? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands. Will you not tremble before me who set the sand as limit to the sea, as an everlasting barrier it cannot pass? Its waves may toss but not prevail, they may roar but cannot pass beyond.
Jer 5:23 But this people has a rebellious, unruly heart; they have rebelled and gone!
Jer 5:24 Nor do they say to themselves: Now we ought to fear Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God who gives the rain, of autumn and of spring, at the right season, and reserves us the weeks appointed for harvest.
Jer 5:25 Your misdeeds have upset all this, your sins have deprived you of these blessings."
Jer 5:26 Yes, there are wicked men among my people who watch like fowlers on the alert; they set traps and they catch human beings.
Jer 5:27 Like a cage full of birds so are their houses full of loot; they have grown rich and powerful because of it,
Jer 5:28 they are fat, they are sleek, in wickedness they go to any lengths: they have no respect for rights, for orphans' rights, and yet they succeed! They have not upheld the cause of the needy.
Jer 5:29 Shall I fail to punish this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands, or on such a nation to exact vengeance?
Jer 5:30 Horrible, disgusting things are happening in the land:
Jer 5:31 the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests exploit the people. And my people love it! But when the end comes, what will you do?
Jer 6:1 Flee in a body, Benjaminites, right away from Jerusalem! Sound the trumpet in Tekoa! Light the beacon on Beth-ha-Cherem! For disaster lowers from the north, an immense calamity.
Jer 6:2 Beautiful, delicate as she is, I shall destroy the daughter of Zion!
Jer 6:3 Shepherds are advancing on her with their flocks. They have pitched their tents all round her, each grazes his part.
Jer 6:4 Prepare for holy war against her! To arms! We shall attack at noon! Disaster for us! The light is fading, the evening shadows lengthen.
Jer 6:5 To arms! We shall attack at night and destroy her palaces.
Jer 6:6 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, 'Cut down trees, throw up an earthwork outside Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished, with nothing but oppression in her.
Jer 6:7 As a well keeps its water fresh so she keeps her wickedness fresh. Violence and ruin are what you hear in her, wounds and blows always forced on my attention.
Jer 6:8 Reform, Jerusalem, or I shall turn my attention away from you and reduce you to a desert, a land without people.'
Jer 6:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, 'They will glean, glean what is left of Israel like a vine. Like a grape-picker, pass your hand again over the branches!'
Jer 6:10 To whom should I speak, whom warn, for them to hear? Look, their ears are uncircumcised, they cannot listen. Look, for them Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word is something to sneer at, they have no taste for it.
Jer 6:11 So I am full of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s wrath, I am weary of holding it in. Then pour it on the children in the streets, and on the bands of youths as well, for husband and wife will both be taken, the greybeard and the man weighed down with years.
Jer 6:12 Their houses will pass to other men, so will their fields and wives. Yes, I shall stretch my hand over those living in this country, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 6:13 For, from the least to greatest, they are all greedy for gain; prophet no less than priest, all of them practise fraud.
Jer 6:14 Without concern they dress my people's wound, saying, 'Peace! Peace!' whereas there is no peace.
Jer 6:15 They should be ashamed of their loathsome deeds. Not they! They feel no shame, they do not even know how to blush. And so as others fall, they too will fall, will be thrown down when I come and punish them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Jer 6:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Stand at the crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the good way? Take it and you will find rest for yourselves. But they have said, "We will not take it."
Jer 6:17 I posted look-outs on your behalf: Listen to the sound of the trumpet! But they said, "We will not listen."
Jer 6:18 Then hear, you nations, and know, assembly, what is going to happen to them!
Jer 6:19 Listen, earth! Watch, I shall bring disaster on this people: it is the fruit of the way they think, since they have not listened to my words nor to my law, but have rejected it.
Jer 6:20 What do I care about incense imported from Sheba, or fragrant cane from a distant country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, your sacrifices do not please me.'
Jer 6:21 And so, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'In front of this people I shall now lay obstacles for them to stumble over; father and son alike, neighbor and friend will perish.'
Jer 6:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Look, a people is coming from the land of the north, from the far ends of the earth a great nation is rising;
Jer 6:23 they are armed with bow and spear, they are cruel and pitiless; their noise is like the roaring of the sea; they are riding horses, they are ready to fight against you as one man, against you, daughter of Zion.
Jer 6:24 We have heard the news, our hands fall limp, anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labour.
Jer 6:25 Do not go out into the countryside, do not venture onto the roads, for the enemy's sword is there, terror on every side.
Jer 6:26 Put on sackcloth, daughter of my people, roll in ashes; mourn as for an only son, a very bitter dirge. For on us suddenly the destroyer is coming.
Jer 6:27 'I have appointed you as tester of my people, to learn and to test how they behave.
Jer 6:28 All of them are total rebels peddlers of slander, hard as bronze and iron, all agents of corruption.
Jer 6:29 The bellows blast away to make the fire burn away the lead. In vain the smelter does his work, for the dross is not purged out.
Jer 6:30 "Silver-reject", men call them, and indeed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has rejected them!'
Jer 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), saying,
Jer 7:2 'Stand at the gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and there proclaim this message. Say, "Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all you of Judah who come in by these gates to worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 7:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behavior and your actions and I will let you stay in this place.
Jer 7:4 Do not put your faith in delusive words, such as: This is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary!
Jer 7:5 But if you really amend your behavior and your actions, if you really treat one another fairly,
Jer 7:6 if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place and if you do not follow other gods, to your own ruin,
Jer 7:7 then I shall let you stay in this place, in the country I gave for ever to your ancestors of old.
Jer 7:8 Look, you are putting your faith in delusive, worthless words!
Jer 7:9 Steal, would you, murder, commit adultery, perjure yourselves, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods of whom you know nothing? -
Jer 7:10 and then come and stand before me in this Temple that bears my name, saying: Now we are safe to go on doing all these loathsome things!
Jer 7:11 Do you look on this Temple that bears my name as a den of bandits? I, at any rate, can see straight, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 7:12 "Now go to the place which used to be mine at Shiloh, where I once gave my name a home; see what I have done to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel!
Jer 7:13 And now, since you have done all these things, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and refused to listen when I spoke so urgently, so persistently, or to answer when I called you,
Jer 7:14 I shall treat this Temple that bears my name, and in which you put your heart, the place that I gave you and your ancestors, just as I treated Shiloh,
Jer 7:15 and I shall drive you out of my sight, as I did all your kinsfolk, the whole race of Ephraim."
Jer 7:16 'You, for your part, must not intercede for this people, nor raise either plea or prayer on their behalf; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you.
Jer 7:17 Can you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 7:18 The children collect the wood, the fathers light the fire, the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven; and, to spite me, they pour libations to alien gods.
Jer 7:19 Is it really me they spite, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands, is it not in fact themselves, to their own confusion?
Jer 7:20 So, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "My anger, my wrath will be poured down on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the countryside and the fruits of the soil; it will burn, and not be quenched."
Jer 7:21 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat all the meat.
Jer 7:22 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I said nothing to them, gave them no orders, about burnt offerings or sacrifices.
Jer 7:23 My one command to them was this: Listen to my voice, then I will be your God and you shall be my people. In everything, follow the way that I mark out for you, and you shall prosper.
Jer 7:24 But they did not listen, they did not pay attention; they followed their own devices, their own stubborn and wicked inclinations, and got worse rather than better.
Jer 7:25 From the day your ancestors left Egypt until today, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, persistently sending them day after day.
Jer 7:26 But they have not listened to me, have not paid attention; they have deliberately resisted, behaving worse than their ancestors.
Jer 7:27 So you will tell them all this, but they will not listen to you; you will call them, but they will not answer you."
Jer 7:28 Then you are to say to them, "This is the nation that will neither listen to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) its God nor take correction. Sincerity is no more, it has vanished from their mouths.
Jer 7:29 "Cut off your tresses, throw them away! On the bare heights raise a dirge, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has rejected, has abandoned, a brood that enrages him!"
Jer 7:30 'Yes, the people of Judah have done what displeases me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. They have set up their Horrors in the Temple that bears my name, to defile it,
Jer 7:31 and have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters: a thing I never ordered, that had never entered my thoughts.
Jer 7:32 So now the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when people will no longer say Topheth or Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a burial ground, for lack of other space;
Jer 7:33 the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of earth, and there will be no one to drive them off.
Jer 7:34 I shall silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and the voices of bridegroom and bride, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be reduced to desert.'
Jer 8:1 'When that time comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its chief men, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, will be taken from their tombs.
Jer 8:2 They will be spread out before the sun, the moon, the whole array of heaven, whom they have loved and served, followed, consulted and worshipped. They will not be gathered or reburied but will be left lying on the surface like dung.
Jer 8:3 And death will seem preferable to life to all the survivors of this wicked race, wherever I have driven them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares.
Jer 8:4 'You are to tell them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: If someone falls, can he not stand up again? If people stray, can they not turn back?
Jer 8:5 Why does this people persist in acts of infidelity, why does Jerusalem persist in continuous infidelity? They cling to illusion, they refuse to turn back.
Jer 8:6 I have listened attentively: they have never said anything like that. Not one repents of wickedness saying: What have I done? Each one keeps returning to the course like a horse charging into battle.
Jer 8:7 Even the stork in the sky knows the appropriate season; turtledove, swallow and crane observe their time of migration. But my people do not know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s laws!" '
Jer 8:8 How can you say, 'We are wise, since we have Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Law?' Look how it has been falsified by the lying pen of the scribes!
Jer 8:9 The wise are put to shame, alarmed, caught out because they have rejected Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word. What price their wisdom now?
Jer 8:10 So I shall give their wives to other men, their fields to new masters, for, from the least to greatest, they are all greedy for gain; prophet no less than priest, all of them practise fraud.
Jer 8:11 Without concern they dress the wound of the daughter of my people, saying, 'Peace! Peace!' whereas there is no peace.
Jer 8:12 They should be ashamed of their loathsome deeds. Not they! They feel no shame, they do not even know how to blush. And so as others fall, they too will fall, will be thrown down when the time for punishing them comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Jer 8:13 I shall put an end to them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, no more grapes on the vine, no more figs on the fig tree only withered leaves: I have found them people to trample on them!
Jer 8:14 Why are we sitting still? Mobilise! Take to the fortified towns and there fall silent, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God means to silence us by giving us poisoned water to drink because we have sinned against him.
Jer 8:15 We are hoping for peace -- no good came of it! For the time of healing -- nothing but terror!
Jer 8:16 From Dan you can hear the snorting of his horses; at the neighing of his stallions the whole country quakes; they are coming to devour the country and its contents, the town and those that live in it.
Jer 8:17 Yes, now I am sending you poisonous snakes against which no charm exists; and they will bite you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 8:18 Incurable sorrow overtakes me, my heart fails me.
Jer 8:19 Hark, from the daughter of my people the cry for help, ringing far and wide throughout the land! 'Is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) no longer in Zion, her King no longer there?' (Why have they provoked me with their idols, with their futile foreign gods?)
Jer 8:20 'Harvest is over, summer at an end, and we have not been saved!'
Jer 8:21 The wound of the daughter of my people wounds me too, all looks dark to me, terror grips me.
Jer 8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead any more? Is no doctor there? Then why is there no progress in the cure of the daughter of my people?
Jer 8:23 Who will turn my head into a fountain, and my eyes into a spring of tears, that I can weep day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people?
Jer 9:1 Who will find me a wayfarer's shelter in the desert, for me to quit my people, and leave them far behind? For all of them are adulterers, a conspiracy of traitors.
Jer 9:2 They bend their tongues like a bow; not truth but falsehood holds sway in the land; yes, they go from crime to crime, but me they do not know, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 9:3 Let each be on his guard against his friend; do not trust a brother, for every brother aims but to supplant, and every friend is a peddler of slander.
Jer 9:4 Each one cheats his friend, never telling the truth; they have trained their tongues to lie and devote all their energies to doing wrong.
Jer 9:5 You live in a world of bad faith! Out of bad faith, they refuse to know me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 9:6 And, so, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares, now I shall purge them and test them, no other way to treat the daughter of my people!
Jer 9:7 Their tongue is a deadly arrow, their words are in bad faith; with his mouth each wishes his neighbor peace, while in his heart plotting a trap for him.
Jer 9:8 Shall I fail to punish them for this, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands, or on such a nation fail to exact vengeance?
Jer 9:9 I raise the wail and lament for the mountains, the dirge for the desert pastures, for they have been burnt: no one passes there, the sound of flocks is heard no more. Birds of the sky and animals, all have fled, all are gone.
Jer 9:10 I shall make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair for jackals, and the towns of Judah an uninhabited wasteland.
Jer 9:11 Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s mouth spoken to explain it? Why is the country annihilated, burnt like the desert where no one passes?
Jer 9:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, 'This is because they have forsaken my Law which I gave them and have not listened to my voice or followed it,
Jer 9:13 but have followed their own stubborn hearts, have followed the Baals as their ancestors taught them.'
Jer 9:14 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, 'Now I shall give this people wormwood to eat and poisoned water to drink.
Jer 9:15 I shall scatter them among nations unknown to their ancestors or to them; and I shall pursue them with the sword until I have annihilated them.'
Jer 9:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, 'Prepare to call for the mourning women! Send for those who are best at it!
Jer 9:17 Let them lose no time in raising the lament over us! Let our eyes rain tears, our eyelids run with weeping!
Jer 9:18 A lament makes itself heard in Zion, "What ruin is ours, what utter shame! For we must leave the country, our homes have been knocked down!" '
Jer 9:19 Now listen, you women, to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word, let your ears take in the word his own mouth speaks. Teach your daughters how to wail and teach one another this dirge,
Jer 9:20 'Death has climbed in at our windows, and made its way into our palaces; it has cut down the children in the street, the young people in the squares-
Jer 9:21 Speak! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares this -- human corpses are strewn like dung in the open field, like sheaves left by the reaper, with no one to gather them.'
Jer 9:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Let the sage not boast of wisdom, nor the valiant of valour, nor the wealthy of riches!
Jer 9:23 But let anyone who wants to boast, boast of this: of understanding and knowing me. For I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who acts with faithful love, justice, and uprightness on earth; yes, these are what please me,' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 9:24 'Look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh:
Jer 9:25 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the men with shaven temples who live in the desert. For all those nations, and the whole House of Israel too, are uncircumcised at heart.'
Jer 10:1 Listen, House of Israel, to the word that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) addresses to you. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this:
Jer 10:2 'Do not learn the ways of the nations or take alarm at the heavenly signs, alarmed though the nations may be at them.
Jer 10:3 Yes, the customs of the peoples are quite futile: wood, nothing more, cut out of a forest, worked with a blade by a carver's hand,
Jer 10:4 then embellished with silver and gold, then fastened with hammer and nails to keep it from moving.
Jer 10:5 Like scarecrows in a melon patch, they cannot talk, they have to be carried, since they cannot walk. Have no fear of them: they can do no harm -- nor any good either!'
Jer 10:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), there is no one like you, so great you are, so great your mighty name.
Jer 10:7 Who would not revere you, King of nations? Yes, this is your due. Since of all the wise among the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is not a single one like you.
Jer 10:8 All of them are brutish and stupid: the Futile Ones' teaching is but wood,
Jer 10:9 silver leaf imported from Tarshish and gold from Ophir, the work of carver or goldsmith; then dressed up in violet and purple, all the work of skilled men.
Jer 10:10 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the true God. He is the living God, the everlasting King. The earth quakes when he is wrathful, the nations cannot endure his fury.
Jer 10:11 'Tell them this, "The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth will vanish from the earth and from under these heavens." '
Jer 10:12 By his power he made the earth, by his wisdom set the world firm, but his discernment spread out the heavens.
Jer 10:13 When he thunders there is a roaring of waters in heaven; he raises clouds from the remotest parts of the earth, makes the lightning flash for the downpour, and brings the wind from his storehouse.
Jer 10:14 At this all people stand stupefied, uncomprehending, every goldsmith blushes for his idols; his castings are but delusion, with no breath in them.
Jer 10:15 They are futile, a laughable production; when the time comes for them to be punished, they will vanish.
Jer 10:16 The Heritage of Jacob is not like these, for he is the maker of everything, and Israel is the tribe that is his heritage. His name is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Jer 10:17 Pick up your pack from the ground, you the besieged!
Jer 10:18 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Now I shall throw out the inhabitants of the country, this time, and bring distress on them, so that they may find me!'
Jer 10:19 Disaster is on me! What a wound! My injury is incurable! And I used to think, 'If this is the worst, I can bear it!'
Jer 10:20 But now my tent is destroyed, all my ropes are snapped, my sons have left me and are no more; no one is left to put my tent up again or to hang the side-cloths.
Jer 10:21 The shepherds are the ones who have been stupid: they have not searched for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is why they have not prospered and why their whole flock has been dispersed.
Jer 10:22 Listen! A terrible noise! A mighty uproar from the land of the north to reduce the towns of Judah to desert, to a lair for jackals!
Jer 10:23 I know, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), no one's course is in his control, nor is it in anyone's power, as he goes his way, to guide his own steps.
Jer 10:24 Correct me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but with moderation, not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.
Jer 10:25 Pour out your anger on the nations who do not acknowledge you, and on the families that do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, have devoured and made an end of him and reduced his home to desolation.
Jer 11:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Jer 11:2 'Hear the terms of this covenant; tell them to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer 11:3 Tell them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: Cursed be anyone who will not listen to the terms of this covenant
Jer 11:4 which I ordained for your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of that iron-foundry. Listen to my voice, I told them, carry out all my orders, then you will be my people and I shall be your God,
Jer 11:5 so that I may fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, that I may give them a country flowing with milk and honey, as is the case today." ' I replied, 'So be it, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!'
Jer 11:6 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Proclaim all these terms in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, "Listen to the terms of this covenant and obey them.
Jer 11:7 For when I brought your ancestors out of Egypt, I solemnly warned them, and have persistently warned them until today, saying: Listen to my voice.
Jer 11:8 But they did not listen, did not pay attention; instead, each followed his own stubborn and wicked inclinations. And against them, in consequence, I put into action the words of this covenant which I had ordered them to obey and which they had not obeyed." '
Jer 11:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Plainly there is conspiracy among the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem.
Jer 11:10 They have reverted to the sins of their ancestors who refused to listen to my words: they too are following other gods and serving them. The House of Israel and the House of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their ancestors.
Jer 11:11 And so, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "I shall now bring a disaster on them which they cannot escape; they will call to me for help, but I shall not listen to them.
Jer 11:12 The towns of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem will then go and call for help to the gods to whom they burn incense, but these will be no help at all to them in their time of distress!
Jer 11:13 "For you have as many gods as you have towns, Judah! You have built as many altars to Shame, as many incense altars to Baal, as Jerusalem has streets!
Jer 11:14 "You, for your part, must not intercede for this people, nor raise either plea or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when their distress forces them to call to me for help."
Jer 11:15 'What is my beloved doing in my house? She has achieved her wicked plans. Can vows and consecrated meat turn disaster from you for you to be so happy?
Jer 11:16 "Green olive-tree covered in fine fruit", was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name for you. With a shattering noise he has set fire to it, its branches are broken.'
Jer 11:17 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you because of the evil the House of Israel and the House of Judah have done, provoking me by burning incense to Baal.
Jer 11:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) informed me and I knew it; you then revealed their scheming to me.
Jer 11:19 I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughterhouse, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me, 'Let us destroy the tree in its strength, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name may no longer be remembered!'
Jer 11:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, whose judgement is upright, tester of motives and thoughts, I shall see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.
Jer 11:21 Against the people of Anathoth who are determined to kill me and say to me, 'Do not prophesy in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) or you will die at our hands!'
Jer 11:22 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'I am about to punish them. Their young people will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.
Jer 11:23 Not one will be left when I bring disaster on the people of Anathoth, when the year for punishing them comes.'
Jer 12:1 Your uprightness is too great, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for me to dispute with you. But I should like to discuss some points of justice with you: Why is it that the way of the wicked prospers? Why do all treacherous people thrive?
Jer 12:2 You plant them, they take root, they flourish, yes, and bear fruit. You are on their lips, yet far from their heart.
Jer 12:3 You know me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you see me, you probe my heart, which is close to yours. Drag them off like sheep for the slaughterhouse, reserve them for the day of butchery.
Jer 12:4 (How long will the land be in mourning, and the grass wither all over the countryside? The animals and birds are dying as a result of the wickedness of the inhabitants.) For they say, 'God does not see our fate.'
Jer 12:5 'If you find it exhausting to race against me on foot, how will you compete against horses? In a country at peace you feel secure, but how will you fare in the thickets of the Jordan?
Jer 12:6 'For even your brothers and your own family will betray you. They will pursue you in full cry. Put no faith in them when they speak you fair!'
Jer 12:7 I have abandoned my house, left my heritage, I have delivered what I dearly loved into the clutches of its enemies.
Jer 12:8 To me, my heritage has behaved like a lion in the forest, it roared at me ferociously: so I now hate it.
Jer 12:9 I see my heritage as a brightly-coloured bird of prey attacked by birds of prey on every side! Go, assemble all the wild animals, make them come and dine!
Jer 12:10 Many shepherds have laid my vineyard waste, have trampled over my plot of land, the plot of land which was my joy, reducing my favorite estate to a deserted wilderness.
Jer 12:11 They have made it a waste; wasted, it mourns before me. The whole country has been devastated and no one takes it to heart.
Jer 12:12 The devastators have arrived on all the bare heights of the desert (for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) wields a devouring sword); from one end of the country to the other, there is no peace for any living thing.
Jer 12:13 Wheat they have sown, thorns they reap: they have worn themselves out, to no profit. They are disappointed in their harvests, because of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burning anger.
Jer 12:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'As regards all my evil neighbors who have laid hands on the heritage I granted my people Israel, look, I shall uproot them from their soil, (though I shall uproot the House of Judah from among them).
Jer 12:15 But having uprooted them, I shall take pity on them again and bring them back each to its own heritage, each to its own country,
Jer 12:16 and if they carefully learn my people's ways and swear by my name, "As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives", as they have taught my people to swear by Baal, then they will be re-established among my people.
Jer 12:17 But if any nation refuses to listen, I shall uproot it for ever and destroy it, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.'
Jer 13:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said this to me, 'Go and buy a linen waistcloth and put it round your waist. But do not dip it in water.'
Jer 13:2 And so, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered, I bought a waistcloth and put it round my waist.
Jer 13:3 A second time the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to me,
Jer 13:4 'Take the waistcloth that you have bought and are wearing round your waist. Up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock.'
Jer 13:5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered me.
Jer 13:6 A long time later, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Up, go to the Euphrates and fetch the waistcloth I ordered you to hide there.'
Jer 13:7 So I went to the Euphrates, and I searched, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And there was the waistcloth ruined, no use for anything.
Jer 13:8 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Jer 13:9 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "In the same way I shall ruin the pride of Judah, the immense pride of Jerusalem.
Jer 13:10 This evil people, these people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow their own stubborn inclinations and run after other gods, serving and worshipping them -- this people will become like this waistcloth, no good for anything.
Jer 13:11 For just as a waistcloth clings to a man's waist, so I made the whole House of Israel and the whole House of Judah cling to me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, to be my people, my glory, my honor and my pride. But they have not listened."
Jer 13:12 'You will also say this to them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: Any jug can be filled with wine." And if they answer you, "Do you think we do not know that any jug can be filled with wine?"
Jer 13:13 you are to say, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I shall fill all the inhabitants of this country, the kings who occupy the throne of David, the priests, the prophets and all the citizens of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
Jer 13:14 Then I shall smash them one against the other, parents and children all together, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. Mercilessly, relentlessly, pitilessly, I shall destroy them." '
Jer 13:15 Listen and pay attention, do not be proud: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is speaking!
Jer 13:16 Give glory to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God before the darkness comes, before your feet stumble on the darkened mountains. You hope for light, but he will turn it to shadow dark as death, will change it to blackness.
Jer 13:17 If you do not listen to this warning, I shall weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and stream with tears, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s flock is being led into captivity.
Jer 13:18 Tell the king and the queen mother, 'Sit in a lower place, since your glorious crown has fallen from your head.
Jer 13:19 The towns of the Negeb are shut off with no one to give access to them. All Judah has been deported, deported wholesale.'
Jer 13:20 Raise your eyes and look at these now coming from the north. Where is the flock once entrusted to you, the flock which was your pride?
Jer 13:21 What will you say when they come and punish you, you yourself having taught them? Against you, in the lead, will come your friends. Then will not anguish grip you as it grips a woman in labour?
Jer 13:22 And should you ask yourself, 'Why is all this happening to me?' it is because of your great guilt that your skirts have been pulled up and you have been manhandled.
Jer 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? And you, can you do right, being so accustomed to wrong?
Jer 13:24 'I shall scatter you like chaff on the desert wind.
Jer 13:25 This is your share, the part allotted you, from me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, because you have forgotten me and put your trust in Delusion.
Jer 13:26 I am the one who pulls your skirts up over your face to let your shame be seen.
Jer 13:27 Oh! Your adulteries, your shrieks of pleasure, your vile prostitution! On the hills, in the fields, I have seen your Horrors. Jerusalem, disaster is coming for you! How much longer till you are made clean?'
Jer 14:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that came to Jeremiah on the occasion of the drought.
Jer 14:2 'Judah is in mourning, her towns are pining, sinking to the ground; a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
Jer 14:3 The nobles send their servants for water, they come to the water-tanks, find no water, and return with their pitchers empty. Dismayed and bewildered, they cover their heads.
Jer 14:4 Because the soil is all cracked since the country has had no rain; the farmers are dismayed, they cover their heads.
Jer 14:5 Even the doe in the countryside giving birth abandons her young, for there is no grass;
Jer 14:6 the wild donkeys standing on the bare heights gasp for air like jackals: their eyes grow dim for lack of pasture.'
Jer 14:7 Although our sins witness against us, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for your name's sake, intervene! Yes, our acts of infidelity have been many, we have sinned against you!
Jer 14:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hope of Israel, its Savior in time of distress, why are you like a stranger in this country, like a traveller staying only for one night?
Jer 14:9 Why are you like someone bemused, like a warrior who has no power to rescue? And yet, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you are among us, we are called by your name. Do not desert us!
Jer 14:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this about this people, 'They take such pleasure in darting hither and thither, they cannot restrain their feet! But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) takes pleasure in them no longer; now he will keep their guilt in mind and punish their sins.'
Jer 14:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to me, 'Do not intercede for this people or their welfare.
Jer 14:12 If they fast, I will not listen to their plea; if they offer burnt offerings and cereal offerings I will not accept them. Rather, I shall make an end of them by sword, famine and plague.'
Jer 14:13 'Ah, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),' I answered, 'here are the prophets telling them, "You will not see the sword, famine will not touch you; I promise you true peace in this place." '
Jer 14:14 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'The prophets are prophesying lies in my name; I have not sent them, I gave them no orders, I never spoke to them. Delusive visions, hollow predictions, daydreams of their own, that is what they prophesy to you.
Jer 14:15 Therefore, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: The prophets who prophesy in my name when I have not sent them, and tell you there will be no sword or famine in this country, these same prophets will meet their end by sword and famine.
Jer 14:16 And as for the people to whom they prophesy, they will be tossed into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and the sword, with not a soul to bury them: neither them nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. I shall pour their own wickedness down on them.
Jer 14:17 'So say this word to them: May my eyes shed tears night and day, unceasingly, since the daughter of my people has sustained a fearsome wound, a crippling injury.
Jer 14:18 If I go into the countryside, there lie those killed by the sword; if I go into the city, I see people tortured with hunger; even prophets and priests roam the country at their wits' end.'
Jer 14:19 Have you rejected Judah altogether? Does your very soul revolt at Zion? Why have you struck us down without hope of cure? We were hoping for peace -- no good came of it! For the moment of cure -- nothing but terror!
Jer 14:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), we acknowledge our wickedness and our ancestors' guilt: we have indeed sinned against you.
Jer 14:21 For your name's sake do not reject us, do not dishonor the throne of your glory. Remember us; do not break your covenant with us.
Jer 14:22 Can any of the nations' Futile Ones make it rain? Can the heavens of their own accord give showers? Are you not the one, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God? In you is our hope, since you make all these things.
Jer 15:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Even if Moses and Samuel pleaded before me, I could not sympathise with this people! Drive them out of my sight; away with them!
Jer 15:2 And if they ask you, "Where shall we go?" tell them this, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Those for the plague, to the plague; those for the sword, to the sword; those for famine, to famine; those for captivity, to captivity!
Jer 15:3 "I shall consign them to four kinds of thing, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the birds of heaven and wild animals of earth to devour and to destroy.
Jer 15:4 I shall make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, and what he did in Jerusalem." '
Jer 15:5 Who is there to pity you, Jerusalem, who to grieve for you, who to go out of his way and ask how you are?
Jer 15:6 'You yourself have rejected me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, you have turned your back on me; so I have stretched my hand over you and destroyed you. Tired of relenting,
Jer 15:7 I have winnowed them with a winnow at the country's gates. They have been bereft, I have destroyed my people, but they refuse to leave their ways.
Jer 15:8 I have made their widows outnumber the sand of the sea. On the mother of young warriors I bring the destroyer in broad daylight. Suddenly I bring anguish and terror down on her.
Jer 15:9 The mother of seven sons grows faint and gasps for breath. It is still day, but already her sun has set, she is dismayed and distracted; and the rest of them I shall consign to the sword, to their enemies, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.'
Jer 15:10 A disaster for me, mother, that you bore me to be a man of strife and dissension for the whole country. I neither lend nor borrow, yet all of them curse me.
Jer 15:11 Have I not genuinely done my best to serve you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? Have I not interceded with you in time of disaster and distress!
Jer 15:12 'Can iron break the iron of the north and the bronze?
Jer 15:13 Your wealth and your treasures I shall hand over to plunder, without repayment, because of all your sins, throughout your territory.
Jer 15:14 I shall enslave you to your enemies in a country which you do not know, for my anger has kindled a fire that will burn you up.'
Jer 15:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you know! Remember me, take care of me, and avenge me on my persecutors. However long your anger endures, do not snatch me away. realize that I suffer insult for your sake.
Jer 15:16 When your words came, I devoured them: your word was my delight and the joy of my heart; for I was called by your Name, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth.
Jer 15:17 I never sat in the company of scoffers amusing myself; with your hands on me I held myself aloof, since you had filled me with indignation.
Jer 15:18 Why is my suffering continual, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Truly, for me you are a deceptive stream with uncertain waters!
Jer 15:19 To which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'If you repent, I shall restore you to plead before me. If you distinguish between the precious and the base, you shall be as my own mouth. They will come back to you, but you must not go back to them.
Jer 15:20 As far as these people are concerned, I shall make you a fortified wall of bronze. They will fight against you but will not overcome you, because I am with you to save you and rescue you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 15:21 I shall rescue you from the clutches of the wicked and redeem you from the grasp of the violent.'
Jer 16:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows:
Jer 16:2 'You are not to marry or have sons and daughters in this place.
Jer 16:3 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this regarding the sons and daughters to be born in this place, about the mothers who give birth to them, and about the fathers who beget them in this land,
Jer 16:4 "They will die of deadly diseases, unlamented and unburied; they will be like dung spread on the ground; they will meet their end by sword and famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of earth."
Jer 16:5 'Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Go into no house where there is mourning, do not go and lament or grieve with them; for I have withdrawn my peace from this people, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and faithful love and pity too.
Jer 16:6 High or low, they will die in this country, without burial or lament; there will be no gashing, no shaving of the head for them.
Jer 16:7 No bread will be broken for the mourner to comfort him for the dead; no cup of consolation will be offered him for his father or his mother.
Jer 16:8 "And do not enter a house where there is feasting, to sit with them and eat and drink.
Jer 16:9 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: In this place, before your eyes, in your own days, I will silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and the voices of bridegroom and bride.
Jer 16:10 "When you tell these people this and they ask you: Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) decreed such complete and total disaster for us? What have we done wrong? What sin have we committed against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God?
Jer 16:11 then you are to answer: It is because your ancestors abandoned me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and followed other gods, and served and worshipped them. They abandoned me and did not keep my Law.
Jer 16:12 And you for your part have behaved even worse than your ancestors. Look, each of you follows his own stubborn and wicked inclinations, without listening to me.
Jer 16:13 And so, I shall eject you from this country into a country unknown to you or to your ancestors, and there you can serve other gods, day and night, for I shall show you no more favor."
Jer 16:14 'Look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when people will no longer say, "As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives who brought the Israelites out of Egypt!"
Jer 16:15 but, "As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives who brought the Israelites back from the land of the north and all the countries to which he had driven them." I shall bring them back to the very soil I gave their ancestors.'
Jer 16:16 'Watch, I shall send for many fishermen, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and these will fish them up; next, I shall send for many huntsmen, and these will hunt them out of every mountain, every hill, and out of the holes in the rocks.
Jer 16:17 For my eyes watch all their ways, these are not hidden from me, and their guilt does not escape my gaze.
Jer 16:18 I shall requite their guilt and their sin twice over, since they have polluted my country with the carcases of their Horrors, and filled my heritage with their Abominations.'
Jer 16:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my strength, my stronghold, my refuge in time of distress! To you the nations will come from the remotest parts of the earth and say, 'Our fathers inherited nothing but Delusion, Futility of no use whatever.
Jer 16:20 Can human beings make their own gods? These are not gods at all!'
Jer 16:21 'Now listen, I will make them acknowledge, this time I will make them acknowledge my hand and my might; and then they will know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my name.'
Jer 17:1 'The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved with a diamond point on the tablet of the heart and on the horns of their altars,
Jer 17:2 while their children remember their altars and their sacred pole beside the green trees, on the lofty hills.
Jer 17:3 My mountain on the plain, your wealth and all your treasures I shall hand over to be plundered, because of the sin of your high places throughout your territory.
Jer 17:4 You will have to relinquish your heritage which I gave you; I will enslave you to your enemies in a country which you do not know, for my fiery anger kindled by you will burn for ever.'
Jer 17:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Accursed be anyone who trusts in human beings, who relies on human strength and whose heart turns from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 17:6 Such a person is like scrub in the wastelands: when good comes, it does not affect him since he lives in the parched places of the desert, uninhabited, salt land.
Jer 17:7 'Blessed is anyone who trusts in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to rely on.
Jer 17:8 Such a person is like a tree by the waterside that thrusts its roots to the stream: when the heat comes it has nothing to fear, its foliage stays green; untroubled in a year of drought, it never stops bearing fruit.
Jer 17:9 'The heart is more devious than any other thing, and is depraved; who can pierce its secrets?
Jer 17:10 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), search the heart, test the motives, to give each person what his conduct and his actions deserve.
Jer 17:11 'The partridge will hatch eggs it has not laid. No different is the person who gets riches unjustly: his days half done, they will desert him and he prove a fool after all.'
Jer 17:12 A glorious throne, sublime from the beginning, such is our Holy Place.
Jer 17:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hope of Israel, all who abandon you will be put to shame, those who turn from you will be registered in the underworld, since they have abandoned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the fountain of living water.
Jer 17:14 Heal me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I shall be healed, save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.
Jer 17:15 Look, they keep saying to me, 'Where is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word? Let it come true then!'
Jer 17:16 Yet I have never urged you to send disaster, I never desired the fatal day, this you know; what came from my lips was not concealed from you.
Jer 17:17 Do not be a terror to me, you, my refuge in time of disaster.
Jer 17:18 Let my persecutors be confounded, not me, let them, not me, be terrified. On them bring the day of disaster, destroy them, destroy them twice over!
Jer 17:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said this to me, 'Go and stand at the Gate of the Sons of the People by which the kings of Judah go in and out -- and at all the gates of Jerusalem.
Jer 17:20 Say to them, "Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah too, and all you inhabitants of Jerusalem who pass through the gates.
Jer 17:21 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: As you value your lives, on no account carry a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem.
Jer 17:22 Bring no burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, and do no work. Keep the Sabbath day holy, as I ordered your ancestors.
Jer 17:23 They would not hear, would not pay attention; they deliberately refused to listen or accept instruction.
Jer 17:24 But if you listen carefully to me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and bring no burden in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, if you keep the Sabbath holy and do no work on that day,
Jer 17:25 then, through the gates of this city, kings and princes occupying the throne of David will continue to make their entry, riding in chariots or on horseback, they, their chief men, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city will be inhabited for ever.
Jer 17:26 They will come from the towns of Judah, from the districts round Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin, from the lowlands, from the highlands, from the Negeb, to offer burnt offering and sacrifice, and cereal offering and incense, to offer thanksgiving sacrifices in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 17:27 But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy, and to refrain from entering the gates of Jerusalem with burdens on the Sabbath day, then I shall set fire to its gates; fire will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched." '
Jer 18:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as follows,
Jer 18:2 'Get up and make your way down to the potter's house, and there I shall tell you what I have to say.'
Jer 18:3 So I went down to the potter's house; and there he was, working at the wheel.
Jer 18:4 But the vessel he was making came out wrong, as may happen with clay when a potter is at work. So he began again and shaped it into another vessel, as he thought fit.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to me as follows,
Jer 18:6 'House of Israel, can I not do to you what this potter does? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands. Yes, like clay in the potter's hand, so you are in mine, House of Israel.
Jer 18:7 Sometimes I announce that I shall uproot, break down and destroy a certain nation or kingdom,
Jer 18:8 but should the nation I have threatened abandon its wickedness, I then change my mind about the disaster which I had intended to inflict on it.
Jer 18:9 Sometimes I announce that I shall build up and plant a certain nation or kingdom,
Jer 18:10 but should that nation do what displeases me and refuse to listen to my voice, I then change my mind about the good which I was intending to confer on it.
Jer 18:11 So now, say this to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Listen, I am preparing a disaster for you, I am working out a plan against you. So now, each one of you, turn back from your evil ways, amend your conduct and actions."
Jer 18:12 They, however, will say, "It is no use! We shall follow our own plans; each of us will act on his own wicked inclinations." '
Jer 18:13 Therefore, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Ask, please, among the nations if anyone has heard anything like this. The Virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
Jer 18:14 Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the rocks of its slopes? Do the rivers of foreign lands, their cold flowing waters, ever run dry?
Jer 18:15 And yet my people have forgotten me! They burn incense to a Nothing! They have been made to stumble in their ways, the ancient paths, to walk in paths, on an unmade road,
Jer 18:16 to make their country an object of horror, everlastingly derided: every passer-by will be appalled at it and shake his head.
Jer 18:17 Like the east wind, I shall scatter them before the enemy. I shall show them my back, not my face, the day they are ruined.'
Jer 18:18 'Come on,' they said, 'let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah, for the Law will not perish for lack of priests, nor advice for lack of wise men, nor the word for lack of prophets. Come on, let us slander him and pay no attention to anything he says.'
Jer 18:19 Pay attention to me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), hear what my adversaries are saying.
Jer 18:20 Should evil be returned for good? Now they are digging a pit for me. Remember how I pleaded before you and spoke good of them, to turn your retribution away from them.
Jer 18:21 So, hand their sons over to famine, abandon them to the edge of the sword. Let their wives become childless and widowed. Let their husbands die of plague, their young men be cut down by the sword in battle.
Jer 18:22 Let cries re-echo from their houses as you bring raiders suddenly on them. For they have dug a pit to catch me, they have laid snares to trap my feet.
Jer 18:23 But you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), know all about their murderous plot against me. Do not forgive their guilt, do not efface their sin from your sight. Let them be hurled down before you, deal with them while you are angry!
Jer 19:1 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Jeremiah, 'Go and buy a potter's earthenware jug. Take some of the people's elders and some of the senior priests with you.
Jer 19:2 Go out towards the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, just outside the Gate of the Potsherds. There proclaim the words I shall say to you.
Jer 19:3 You must say, "Kings of Judah, inhabitants of Jerusalem! Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: I am about to bring such a disaster on this place that the ears of every one who hears of it will ring.
Jer 19:4 For they have abandoned me and have made this place unrecognisable, and offered incense here to other gods which neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew before. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent;
Jer 19:5 for they have built high places for Baal to burn their sons as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing I never ordered, never mentioned, that had never entered my thoughts.
Jer 19:6 So now the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when people will no longer call this place Topheth, or Valley of Ben-Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter.
Jer 19:7 Because of this place, I shall empty Judah and Jerusalem of sound advice; I shall make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those determined to kill them; I shall give their corpses as food to the birds of the sky and the animals of earth.
Jer 19:8 And I shall make this city an object of horror and derision; every passer-by will be appalled at it and whistle at the sight of all the wounds it has sustained.
Jer 19:9 I shall make them eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters: they will eat one another during the siege, in the shortage to which their enemies, and those determined to kill them, will reduce them."
Jer 19:10 'You must break this jug in front of the men who are with you,
Jer 19:11 and say to them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: I am going to break this people and this city just as one breaks a potter's pot, so that it can never be mended again. "Topheth will become a burial ground, for lack of other burial space.
Jer 19:12 That is how I shall treat this place, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and its inhabitants, by making this city like Topheth.
Jer 19:13 The houses of Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah, all the houses on the roofs of which they offered incense to the whole array of heaven and poured libations to other gods, will be unclean, like this place Topheth." '
Jer 19:14 Jeremiah then came back from Topheth where Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said to all the people,
Jer 19:15 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Yes, on this city, and on all the towns belonging to it, I shall bring all the disaster which I had decreed for it, since they have stubbornly refused to listen to my words." '
Jer 20:1 Now the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief of police in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), heard Jeremiah making this prophecy.
Jer 20:2 Pashhur struck the prophet Jeremiah and then put him in the stocks, in the Upper Benjamin Gate leading into the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 20:3 Next day, Pashhur had Jeremiah taken out of the stocks; Jeremiah then said to him, 'Not Pashhur but Terror-on-every-Side is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name for you.
Jer 20:4 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "I am going to hand you over to terror, you and all your friends; they will fall by the sword of their enemies, your own eyes will see it. The whole of Judah, too, I shall hand over to the king of Babylon; he will carry them off captive to Babylon and put them to the sword.
Jer 20:5 And all the wealth of this city, all its stores, all its valuables, all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I shall hand over to their enemies who will plunder them, round them up and carry them off to Babylon.
Jer 20:6 As for you, Pashhur, and your whole household, you will go into captivity; you will go to Babylon; there you will die, and there be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies." '
Jer 20:7 You have seduced me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and I have let myself be seduced; you have overpowered me: you were the stronger. I am a laughing-stock all day long, they all make fun of me.
Jer 20:8 For whenever I speak, I have to howl and proclaim, 'Violence and ruin!' For me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word has been the cause of insult and derision all day long.
Jer 20:9 I would say to myself, 'I will not think about him, I will not speak in his name any more,' but then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not do it.
Jer 20:10 I heard so many disparaging me, 'Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!' All those who were on good terms with me watched for my downfall, 'Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we shall get the better of him and take our revenge!'
Jer 20:11 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is at my side like a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, vanquished, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.
Jer 20:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, you who test the upright, observer of motives and thoughts, I shall see your vengeance on them, for I have revealed my cause to you.
Jer 20:13 Sing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), praise Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for he has delivered the soul of one in need from the clutches of evil doers.
Jer 20:14 A curse on the day when I was born! May the day my mother bore me be unblessed!
Jer 20:15 A curse on the man who brought my father the news, 'A son, a boy has been born to you!' making him overjoyed.
Jer 20:16 May this man be like the towns that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) overthrew without mercy; may he hear the warning-cry at dawn and the shout of battle at high noon,
Jer 20:17 for not killing me in the womb; my mother would have been my grave and her womb pregnant for ever.
Jer 20:18 Why ever did I come out of the womb to see toil and sorrow and end my days in shame?
Jer 21:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malchiah to him, with the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, to say this,
Jer 21:2 'Please consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for us, since Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war on us: perhaps Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will work one of his many miracles for us and force him to withdraw.'
Jer 21:3 Jeremiah said to them, 'Take this answer to Zedekiah,
Jer 21:4 "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: I shall bring back the weapons of war which you are now carrying, and with which you are fighting the king of Babylon and the Chaldaeans now besieging you; from outside the walls, I shall stack them in the centre of this city.
Jer 21:5 And I shall fight against you myself with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, fury and great wrath.
Jer 21:6 I shall strike down the inhabitants of this city, human and animal; they will die of a great plague.
Jer 21:7 Then, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, the people and those of this city who have escaped the plague, the sword, or the famine, into the clutches of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the clutches of their enemies and into the clutches of those determined to kill them; mercilessly, relentlessly, pitilessly, he will put them to the sword."
Jer 21:8 'And you must say to this people, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I offer you a choice between the way of life and the way of death.
Jer 21:9 Anyone who stays in this city will die by sword, by famine, or by plague; but anyone who leaves it and surrenders to the Chaldaeans now besieging you will live; he will escape with his life.
Jer 21:10 For I am determined on disaster, and not prosperity, for this city, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down." '
Jer 21:11 To the royal House of Judah. Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Jer 21:12 House of David! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Each morning give fair judgement, rescue anyone who has been wronged from the hands of his oppressor, or else my wrath will leap out like a fire, it will burn and no one will be able to quench it, because of the wickedness of your actions.
Jer 21:13 My quarrel is with you, resident of the valley, Rock-in-the-Plain, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, with you that say, 'Who would dare attack us and enter our lairs?'
Jer 21:14 I shall punish you as your actions deserve, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall set fire to its forest and it will devour all around it.
Jer 22:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said this, 'Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there say this word,
Jer 22:2 "Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), king of Judah now occupying the throne of David, you, your officials and your people who go through these gates.
Jer 22:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Act uprightly and justly; rescue from the hands of the oppressor anyone who has been wronged, do not exploit or ill-treat the stranger, the orphan, the widow; shed no innocent blood in this place.
Jer 22:4 For if you are scrupulous in obeying this command, then kings occupying the throne of David will continue to make their entry through the gates of this palace riding in chariots or on horseback, they, their officials and their people.
Jer 22:5 But if you do not listen to these words, then I swear by myself, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, this palace shall become a ruin!
Jer 22:6 "Yes, this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says about the palace of the king of Judah: You are like Gilead to me, like a peak of Lebanon. All the same, I will reduce you to a desert, to uninhabited towns.
Jer 22:7 I dedicate men to destroy you, each man with his weapons; they will cut down your finest cedars and throw them on the fire.
Jer 22:8 "And when many nations pass this city, they will say to one another: Why has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) treated this great city like this?
Jer 22:9 And the answer will be: Because they abandoned the covenant of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God to worship other gods and serve them." '
Jer 22:10 Do not weep for the man who is dead, do not raise the dirge for him. Weep rather for the one who has gone away, since he will never come back, never see his native land again.
Jer 22:11 For this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded Josiah his father and was forced to leave this place, 'He will never come back to it
Jer 22:12 but will die in the place to which he has been taken captive; and he will never see this country again.
Jer 22:13 'Disaster for the man who builds his house without uprightness, his upstairs rooms without fair judgement, who makes his fellow-man work for nothing, without paying him his wages,
Jer 22:14 who says, "I shall build myself a spacious palace with airy upstairs rooms," who makes windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it vermilion.
Jer 22:15 Are you more of a king because of your passion for cedar? Did your father go hungry or thirsty? But he did what is just and upright, so all went well for him.
Jer 22:16 He used to examine the cases of poor and needy, then all went well. Is not that what it means to know me? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands.
Jer 22:17 You on the other hand have eyes and heart for nothing but your own interests, for shedding innocent blood and perpetrating violence and oppression.'
Jer 22:18 That is why Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: 'No lamenting for him, "My poor brother! My poor sister!" No lamenting for him, "His poor lordship! His poor majesty!"
Jer 22:19 He will have a donkey's funeral -- dragged away and thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.'
Jer 22:20 'Climb the Lebanon range and shriek, raise your voice in Bashan, shriek from the Abarim, for all your lovers have been ruined!
Jer 22:21 I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, "I will not listen!" From your youth this has been how you behaved, refusing to listen to my voice.
Jer 22:22 The wind will shepherd all your shepherds away and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will blush deep with shame at the thought of all your wickedness.
Jer 22:23 You who have made the Lebanon your home and made your nest among the cedars, how you will groan when anguish overtakes you, pangs like those of a woman in labour!
Jer 22:24 'As I live, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would still wrench you off!
Jer 22:25 I shall hand you over to those determined to kill you, to those you dread, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to the Chaldaeans.
Jer 22:26 I shall hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country; you were not born there but you will both die there.
Jer 22:27 They will not return to the country to which they desperately long to return.'
Jer 22:28 Is he a shoddy broken pot, this man Coniah, a crock that no one wants? Why are he and his offspring ejected, hurled into a country they know nothing of?
Jer 22:29 O land, land, land, listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Jer 22:30 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'List this man as: Childless; a man who made a failure of his life, since none of his offspring will succeed in occupying the throne of David, or ruling in Judah again.'
Jer 23:1 'Disaster for the shepherds who lose and scatter the sheep of my pasture, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 23:2 This, therefore, is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says about the shepherds who shepherd my people, "You have scattered my flock, you have driven them away and have not taken care of them. Right, I shall take care of you for your misdeeds, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares!
Jer 23:3 But the remnant of my flock I myself shall gather from all the countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; they will be fruitful and increase in numbers.
Jer 23:4 For them I shall raise up shepherds to shepherd them and pasture them. No fear, no terror for them any more; not one shall be lost, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares!
Jer 23:5 Look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall raise an upright Branch for David; he will reign as king and be wise, doing what is just and upright in the country.
Jer 23:6 In his days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name he will be called, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-is-our-Saving-Justice.' "
Jer 23:7 'So, look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when people will no longer say, "As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives who brought the Israelites out of Egypt,"
Jer 23:8 but, "As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives who led back and brought home the offspring of the House of Israel from the land of the north and all the countries to which he had driven them, to live on their own soil." '
Jer 23:9 On the prophets. My heart is broken within me, I tremble in all my bones; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome with wine, because of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and his holy words:
Jer 23:10 'For the country is full of adulterers; yes, because of a curse, the country is in mourning and the pasturage in the desert has dried up; they are prompt to do wrong, make no effort to do right.
Jer 23:11 Yes, even prophet and priest are godless, I have detected their wickedness in my own House, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 23:12 Because of this, their way will prove treacherous going for them; in the darkness where they are driven, there they will fall. For I shall bring disaster on them, when the year for punishing them comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 23:13 'In the prophets of Samaria I have seen insanity: they prophesied in the name of Baal and led my people Israel astray.
Jer 23:14 But in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible: adultery, persistent lying, such abetting of the wicked that no one renounces his wickedness. To me they are all like Sodom and its inhabitants are like Gomorrah.
Jer 23:15 So this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says about the prophets, "Now I shall give them wormwood to eat and make them drink poisoned water, since from the prophets of Jerusalem godlessness has spread throughout the land."
Jer 23:16 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "Do not listen to what those prophets prophesy to you; they are deluding you, they retail visions of their own, and not what comes from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s mouth.
Jer 23:17 To those who despise me, they keep saying: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken: you will have peace! and to all who follow their own stubborn inclinations: No disaster will touch you."
Jer 23:18 But who has been present in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s council and seen, and heard his word? Who has paid attention to his word and listened to it?
Jer 23:19 Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hurricane, his wrath, bursts out, a fearsome hurricane, to burst on the heads of the wicked;
Jer 23:20 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger will not withdraw until he has performed, has carried out, what he has in mind. In the final days, you will understand this clearly,
Jer 23:21 'I did not send these prophets, yet they ran! I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied!
Jer 23:22 Had they been present in my council, they could have proclaimed my words to my people and turned them from their evil way and from the wickedness of their deeds!
Jer 23:23 'Am I a God when near, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands, and not a God when far away?
Jer 23:24 Can anyone hide somewhere secret without my seeing him? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands.
Jer 23:25 'I have heard what the prophets say who make their lying prophecies in my name. "I have had a dream," they say, "I have had a dream!"
Jer 23:26 How long are there to be those among the prophets who prophesy lies and are in fact prophets of their own delusions?
Jer 23:27 They are doing their best, by means of the dreams that they keep telling each other, to make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name in favor of Baal.
Jer 23:28 Let the prophet who has had a dream tell it for a dream! And let him who receives a word from me, deliver my word accurately! 'What have straw and wheat in common? Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands.
Jer 23:29 Is my word not like fire, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands, is it not like a hammer shattering a rock?
Jer 23:30 'So, then, I have a quarrel with the prophets, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, that steal my words from one another.
Jer 23:31 I have a quarrel with the prophets, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, who wag their tongues to utter prophecies.
Jer 23:32 I have a quarrel with the prophets who make prophecies out of lying dreams, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, who recount them, and lead my people astray by their lies and their bragging. I certainly never sent them or commissioned them, and they serve no good purpose for this people, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 23:33 'And when this people, or a prophet, or a priest, asks you, "What is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burden?" you must answer, "You are the burden, and I shall get rid of you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares!"
Jer 23:34 'As for the prophet, the priest, or anyone else, who says, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burden", I shall punish that man, and his household too.
Jer 23:35 This is what you must say to one another, among yourselves, "What answer has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) given?" or "What has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said?"
Jer 23:36 But stop using the expression "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burden", for what each man says will be his own responsibility. And you twist the words of the living God, of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, our God.
Jer 23:37 This is the way to speak to a prophet, "What answer has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) given?" or "What has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said?"
Jer 23:38 But if you say, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burden", then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Since you use the expression 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burden', when I have warned you to stop saying, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burden',
Jer 23:39 believe me, I shall pick you up and fling you from my presence, you and the city I gave to you and to your ancestors.
Jer 23:40 I shall bring down everlasting shame on you, everlasting and unforgettable disgrace." '
Jer 24:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gave me a vision: set out in front of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) were two baskets of figs. This was after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had led Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, away into exile from Jerusalem, with the chief men of Judah, the blacksmiths and metalworkers, and had taken them to Babylon.
Jer 24:2 One basket contained excellent figs, like those that ripen first; the other contained very bad figs, so bad they were uneatable.
Jer 24:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'What do you see, Jeremiah?' 'Figs,' I answered, 'the good ones excellent, the bad ones very bad, so bad as to be uneatable.'
Jer 24:4 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me,
Jer 24:5 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, says this, "As these figs are good, so I mean to concern myself with the welfare of the exiles of Judah whom I have sent from this place to the country of the Chaldaeans.
Jer 24:6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, to bring them back to this country, to build them up and not to break them down, to plant them and not to uproot them.
Jer 24:7 I shall give them a heart to acknowledge that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). They will be my people and I shall be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart.
Jer 24:8 As for the bad figs, the figs so bad as to be uneatable-yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this -- that is how I shall treat Zedekiah king of Judah, his chief men and what is left of Jerusalem, those who remain in this country and those living in Egypt.
Jer 24:9 I shall make them an object of horror, a disaster, to all the kingdoms of the earth, a thing of shame, a byword, a laughing-stock, a curse, wherever I shall drive them.
Jer 24:10 Sword, famine and plague I shall send against them until they have vanished from the soil I gave to them and to their ancestors." '
Jer 25:1 The word that was addressed to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah (that is to say the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon).
Jer 25:2 The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed it before all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
Jer 25:3 'For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until today, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has been addressed to me and I have never tired of speaking to you (but you have not listened.
Jer 25:4 Furthermore, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has untiringly sent you all his servants the prophets, but you have not listened or paid attention).
Jer 25:5 The message was this, "Turn back, each one of you, from your evil behavior and your evil actions, and you will go on living on the soil Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) long ago gave to you and your ancestors for ever.
Jer 25:6 (And do not follow other gods to serve and worship them, do not provoke me with things you yourselves have made, and then I shall not harm you.)
Jer 25:7 But you have not listened to me (Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, so that you have now provoked me with things you yourselves have made, and thus harmed yourselves)."
Jer 25:8 'So-this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says, "Since you have not listened to my words,
Jer 25:9 I shall now send for all the families of the north (Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, that is, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant) and bring them down on this country and its inhabitants (and on all these surrounding nations); I shall curse them with utter destruction and make them an object of horror, of scorn, and ruin them for ever.
Jer 25:10 From them I shall banish the shouts of rejoicing and mirth, the voices of bridegroom and bride, the sound of the handmill and the light of the lamp;
Jer 25:11 and this whole country will be reduced to ruin and desolation, and these nations will be enslaved to the king of Babylon for seventy years.
Jer 25:12 (But when the seventy years are over, I shall punish the king of Babylon and that nation, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, for the wrong they have done, that is, the country of the Chaldaeans, and make it desolate for ever),
Jer 25:13 and against that country I shall perform all the words with which I have threatened it, that is, everything written in this book." '
Jer 25:14 What Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ('For these in their turn are to be enslaved to powerful nations and great kings, and I shall pay them back as their deeds and handiwork deserve.')
Jer 25:15 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the God of Israel, said this to me, 'Take this cup of the wine of wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it;
Jer 25:16 they will drink and reel and lose their wits, because of the sword I am sending among them.'
Jer 25:17 I took the cup from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand and made all the nations to whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent me drink it
Jer 25:18 (Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and its chief men, to make them a ruin, an object of horror and derision and a curse, as is the case today):
Jer 25:19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officials, his chief men and all his people,
Jer 25:20 with the whole conglomeration of peoples there (all the kings of the country of Uz); all the kings of the country of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and what is still left of Ashdod;
Jer 25:21 Edom, Moab and the Ammonites;
Jer 25:22 (all) the kings of Tyre, (all) the kings of Sidon, the kings of the island across the sea;
Jer 25:23 Dedan, Tema, Buz, all the people with shaven temples;
Jer 25:24 all the kings of Arabia (and all the kings of the conglomeration of peoples) who live in the desert
Jer 25:25 (all the kings of Zimri), all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media;
Jer 25:26 all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another: in short, all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. (As for the king of Sheshak, he will drink last of all.)
Jer 25:27 'You will say to them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Drink! Get drunk! Vomit! Fall, never to rise again, before the sword that I am sending among you!"
Jer 25:28 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, you will say to them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: You must drink!
Jer 25:29 Look, for a start, I am bringing disaster on the city that bears my name, so are you likely to go unpunished? You certainly will not go unpunished, for next I shall summon a sword against all the inhabitants of the land, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares."
Jer 25:30 'For your part, you are to prophesy all these words to them. Say to them: "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) roars from on high, he thunders from his holy dwelling-place, loudly he roars at his own fold, shouts aloud like those who tread the grape at all the inhabitants of the land.
Jer 25:31 The noise resounds to the remotest parts of the earth. For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is indicting the nations, arraigning all humanity for judgement; the wicked he assigns to the sword, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 25:32 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Look, disaster is spreading from nation to nation, a mighty tempest is rising from the far ends of the earth.
Jer 25:33 "Those slaughtered by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that day will be scattered across the world from end to end. No dirge will be raised for them; no one will gather them or bury them; they will stay lying on the surface like dung.
Jer 25:34 "Howl, shepherds, shriek, roll on the ground, you lords of the flock, for your days have come to be slaughtered and to be scattered, and like a choice vase you will fall.
Jer 25:35 No refuge then for the shepherds, no escape for the lords of the flock!
Jer 25:36 Listen! A shriek from the shepherds, a howl from the lords of the flock! For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has laid their pasture waste,
Jer 25:37 the peaceful sheepfolds are reduced to silence owing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s furious anger.
Jer 25:38 The lion has left his lair and their country is a wasteland now, owing to the devastating fury, owing to his furious anger." '
Jer 26:1 At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Jer 26:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Stand in the court of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). To all the people from the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) you will say everything I have ordered you to say, not omitting one syllable.
Jer 26:3 Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intend because of their misdeeds."
Jer 26:4 Say to them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: If you will not listen to me and follow my Law which I have given you,
Jer 26:5 and pay attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I have never tired of sending to you, although you never have paid attention,
Jer 26:6 I shall treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the world." '
Jer 26:7 The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 26:8 When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets and all the people seized hold of him and said, 'You will die for this!
Jer 26:9 Why have you made this prophecy in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name, "This Temple will become like Shiloh, and this city become an uninhabited ruin"?' And the people all crowded in on Jeremiah in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 26:10 Hearing of this, the chief men of Judah came up from the royal palace to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and took their seats at the entry of the New Gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 26:11 The priests and prophets then said to the chief men and all the people, 'This man deserves to die, since he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.'
Jer 26:12 Jeremiah, however, replied to all the chief men and all the people as follows, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) himself sent me to prophesy against this Temple and this city all the things you have heard.
Jer 26:13 So now amend your behavior and actions, listen to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will relent about the disaster that he has decreed for you.
Jer 26:14 For myself, I am, as you see, in your hands. Do whatever you please or think right with me.
Jer 26:15 But be sure of this, that if you put me to death, you will be bringing innocent blood on yourselves, on this city and on its inhabitants, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has truly sent me to you to say all this for you to hear.'
Jer 26:16 The chief men and all the people then said to the priests and prophets, 'This man does not deserve to die: he has spoken to us in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.'
Jer 26:17 And some of the country's elders rose to address all the assembled people.
Jer 26:18 'Micah of Moresheth,' they said, 'who prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, had this to say to all the people of Judah, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Zion will become ploughland, Jerusalem a heap of rubble and the Temple Mount a wooded height."
Jer 26:19 'Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him to death for this? Did they not rather, fearing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), plead with him, to such effect that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) relented about the disaster which he had decreed for them? Are we now to burden our souls with such a crime?'
Jer 26:20 There was another man, too, who used to prophesy in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name, Uriah son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim. He prophesied exactly the same things against this city and this country as Jeremiah.
Jer 26:21 When King Jehoiakim with all his officers and all the chief men heard what he said, the king was determined to put him to death. On hearing this, Uriah took fright and, fleeing, escaped to Egypt.
Jer 26:22 King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor to Egypt with others,
Jer 26:23 who brought Uriah back from Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to the sword and his body thrown into the common burial ground.
Jer 26:24 But Jeremiah had a protector in Ahikam son of Shaphan, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.
Jer 27:1 (At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):)
Jer 27:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said this to me, 'Make yourself thongs and yokes and put them on your neck.
Jer 27:3 Then send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, through their envoys accredited to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.
Jer 27:4 Give them the following message for their masters, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: You must tell your masters this:
Jer 27:5 I by my great power and outstretched arm made the earth, the human beings and the animals that are on earth, and I give them to whom I please.
Jer 27:6 For the present, I have handed all these countries over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; I have even put the wild animals at his service.
Jer 27:7 (All the nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until the time for his own country comes in its turn, when mighty nations and great kings will enslave him.)
Jer 27:8 Any nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and will not bow its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon, I shall punish that nation with sword, famine and plague, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, until I have destroyed it by his hand.
Jer 27:9 For your own part, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, dreamers, magicians and sorcerers, who tell you: You will not be enslaved by the king of Babylon.
Jer 27:10 They prophesy lies to you, the result of which will be that you will be banished from your soil, that I shall drive you out, and you will perish.
Jer 27:11 The nation, however, that is prepared to bend its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I shall leave in peace on its own soil, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, to farm it and stay on it." '
Jer 27:12 To Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke in exactly the same terms. 'Bend your necks', I told him, 'to the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people and you will survive.
Jer 27:13 (Why so anxious to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague, with which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has threatened the nation refusing to serve the king of Babylon?)
Jer 27:14 Do not listen to the words the prophets say to you, "You will not be enslaved by the king of Babylon." They prophesy lies to you.
Jer 27:15 Since I have not sent them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, they prophesy untruths to you in my name. The result will be that I shall drive you out, you will perish, and so will the prophets who prophesy to you.'
Jer 27:16 I also spoke to the priests and to all this people as follows, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you as follows: Look, the vessels of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will very shortly be brought back from Babylon. They prophesy lies to you.
Jer 27:17 (Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and you will survive. Why should this city become a ruin?)
Jer 27:18 If they are real prophets, if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word is really with them, they ought now to be pleading with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth that the remaining vessels in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the palace of the king of Judah and elsewhere in Jerusalem, do not go to Babylon too!
Jer 27:19 For this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says about (the pillars, the Sea, the stands and) the other vessels still remaining in this city,
Jer 27:20 those not carried off by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon when he took Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (with all the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem).
Jer 27:21 Yes, this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says about the vessels still remaining in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), in the palace of the king of Judah and elsewhere in Jerusalem:
Jer 27:22 They will be carried off to Babylon (and stay there until the day I punish them), Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. (Then I shall bring them back and restore them to this place.)" '
Jer 28:1 That same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, a Gibeonite, spoke as follows to Jeremiah in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the presence of the priests and of all the people,
Jer 28:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
Jer 28:3 In exactly two years' time I shall bring back all the vessels of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from here and carried off to Babylon.
Jer 28:4 And I shall also bring back Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah and all the exiles of Judah who have gone to Babylon, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, for I shall break the yoke of the king of Babylon." '
Jer 28:5 The prophet Jeremiah then replied to the prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people present in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 28:6 'So be it!' the prophet Jeremiah said, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) do so! May he fulfill the words that you have prophesied and bring all the vessels of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon.
Jer 28:7 Listen carefully, however, to this word that I am now going to say for you and all the people to hear:
Jer 28:8 From remote times, the prophets who preceded you and me prophesied war, disaster and plague for many countries and for great kingdoms;
Jer 28:9 the prophet who prophesies peace can be recognized as one truly sent by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) only when his word comes true.'
Jer 28:10 The prophet Hananiah then snatched the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it.
Jer 28:11 In front of all the people Hananiah then said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "This is how, in exactly two years' time, I shall break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and take it off the necks of all the nations." ' At this, the prophet Jeremiah went away.
Jer 28:12 After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke he had snatched off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Jeremiah,
Jer 28:13 'Go to Hananiah and tell him this, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You have broken the wooden yokes only to make iron yokes to replace them!
Jer 28:14 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: An iron yoke is what I now lay on the necks of all these nations to enslave them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. (They will be enslaved to him; I have even given him the wild animals.)" '
Jer 28:15 The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, 'Listen carefully, Hananiah: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not sent you; and thanks to you this people is now relying on what is false.
Jer 28:16 And so, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "I am going to send you off the face of the earth: you will die this year (since you have preached rebellion against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH))." '
Jer 28:17 The prophet Hananiah died the same year, in the seventh month.
Jer 29:1 This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to those who were left of the elders in exile, to the priests, the prophets and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.
Jer 29:2 This was after King Jeconiah had left Jerusalem with the queen mother, the eunuchs, the chief men of Judah and Jerusalem, and the blacksmiths and metalworkers.
Jer 29:3 The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah had sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:
Jer 29:4 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this to all the exiles deported from Jerusalem to Babylon:
Jer 29:5 Build houses, settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce;
Jer 29:6 marry and have sons and daughters; choose wives for your sons, find husbands for your daughters so that these can bear sons and daughters in their turn; you must increase there and not decrease.
Jer 29:7 Work for the good of the city to which I have exiled you; pray to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) on its behalf, since on its welfare yours depends.
Jer 29:8 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Do not be deceived by the prophets who are with you or by your diviners; do not listen to the dreams you have,
Jer 29:9 since they prophesy lies to you in my name. I have not sent them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 29:10 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: When the seventy years granted to Babylon are over, I shall intervene on your behalf and fulfill my favorable promise to you by bringing you back to this place.
Jer 29:11 Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jer 29:12 When you call to me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you.
Jer 29:13 When you search for me, you will find me; when you search wholeheartedly for me,
Jer 29:14 I shall let you find me (Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. I shall restore your fortunes and gather you in from all the nations and wherever I have driven you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. I shall bring you back to the place from which I exiled you).
Jer 29:15 'Since you say: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has raised up prophets for us in Babylon-
Jer 29:16 this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says about the king now occupying the throne of David and all the people living in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile:
Jer 29:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: I am now going to send them sword, famine and plague; I shall make them like rotten figs, so bad as to be uneatable.
Jer 29:18 I shall pursue them with sword, famine and plague. I shall make them an object of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, a thing of horror, scorn and derision to all the nations where I have driven them,
Jer 29:19 because they have refused to listen to my words, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, although I have persistently sent them all my servants the prophets; but they would not listen, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 29:20 But all you exiles, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon, listen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word!
Jer 29:21 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who prophesy lies to you in my name: I shall hand them over now to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon who will put them to death before your very eyes.
Jer 29:22 This curse, based on their fate, will be used by all the exiles of Judah in Babylon: May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, roasted alive by the king of Babylon,
Jer 29:23 because they have done a scandalous thing in Israel, committing adultery with their neighbor's wives and speaking lying words in my name without orders from me. I know all the same and am witness to it, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.'
Jer 29:24 'And to Shemaiah of Nehelam you will speak as follows:
Jer 29:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Since you, on your own initiative, have sent a letter to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah (and to all the priests), saying:
Jer 29:26 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada to keep order in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to put any crazy fellow posing as a prophet in the stocks and collar,
Jer 29:27 why then have you not disciplined Jeremiah of Anathoth, now posing as a prophet to you?
Jer 29:28 Why, he has even sent us a message in Babylon, saying: It will be a long time. Build houses, settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.'. . .
Jer 29:29 (Now, after the priest Zephaniah had read this letter to the prophet Jeremiah),
Jer 29:30 the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came then to Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 29:31 'Send this message to all the exiles, "This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says about Shemaiah of Nehelam: Since Shemaiah has prophesied to you without my sending him, and since he has caused you to rely on what is false
Jer 29:32 for that reason, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall punish Shemaiah of Nehelam and his descendants; no male member of his family will survive among this people to see the happiness that I will bestow on my people (Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, since he has preached rebellion against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH))." '
Jer 30:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as follows,
Jer 30:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "Write for yourself in a book all the words I have spoken to you.
Jer 30:3 For look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall bring back the captives of my people Israel (and Judah), Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says. I shall make them come back and take possession of the country I gave to their ancestors." '
Jer 30:4 These are the words Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke about Israel (and Judah):
Jer 30:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: We have heard a cry of panic, of terror, not of peace.
Jer 30:6 Now ask and see: can a man bear children? Then why do I see each man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labour? Why has every face grown pale?
Jer 30:7 Disaster! This is the great day, no other like it: a time of distress for Jacob, though he will be saved from it.
Jer 30:8 (That day, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares, I shall break the yoke now on your neck and snap your chains; and foreigners will enslave you no more,
Jer 30:9 but Israel and Judah will serve Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God, and David their king whom I shall raise up for them.)
Jer 30:10 So do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, Israel, do not be alarmed: for look, I shall rescue you from distant countries and your descendants from the country where they are captive. Jacob will return and be at peace, secure, with no one to trouble him.
Jer 30:11 For I am with you to save you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall make an end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I shall not make an end of you, only discipline you in moderation, not to let you go quite unpunished.
Jer 30:12 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Your wound is incurable, your injury past healing.
Jer 30:13 There is no one to plead your cause; for an ulcer there are remedies, but for you no cure at all.
Jer 30:14 All your lovers have forgotten you, they look for you no more. Yes, I have struck you as an enemy strikes, with cruel punishment (because of your great guilt and countless sins).
Jer 30:15 Why cry out because of your wound? Your pain is incurable! Because of your great guilt and countless sins, I have treated you like this.
Jer 30:16 But all those who devoured you will be devoured, all your enemies, all, go into captivity, those who despoiled you will be despoiled, and all who pillaged you be pillaged.
Jer 30:17 For I shall restore you to health and heal your wounds, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, you who used to be called 'Outcast', 'Zion for whom no one cares'.
Jer 30:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I shall restore the tents of Jacob and take pity on his dwellings: the town will be rebuilt on its mound, the stronghold where it ought to stand.
Jer 30:19 From them will come thanksgiving and shouts of joy. I shall make them increase, they will not decrease; I shall make them honored, no more to be humbled.
Jer 30:20 Their sons will be as once they were, their community fixed firmly before me, and I shall punish all their oppressors.
Jer 30:21 Their prince will be one of their own, their ruler come from their own people, and I shall permit him to approach me freely; for who, otherwise, would be so bold as to approach me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands?
Jer 30:22 You will be my people and I shall be your God.
Jer 30:23 Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hurricane, his wrath, bursts out, a roaring hurricane, to burst on the heads of the wicked;
Jer 30:24 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burning anger will not turn aside until he has performed, has carried out, what he has in mind. In the final days, you will understand this.
Jer 31:1 When that time comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, I shall be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.
Jer 31:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: They have found pardon in the desert, those who have survived the sword. Israel is marching to his rest.
Jer 31:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has appeared to me from afar; I have loved you with an everlasting love and so I still maintain my faithful love for you.
Jer 31:4 I shall build you once more, yes, you will be rebuilt, Virgin of Israel! Once more in your best attire, and with your tambourines, you will go out dancing gaily.
Jer 31:5 Once more you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria (those who plant will themselves enjoy the fruit).
Jer 31:6 Yes, a day will come when the watchmen shout on the mountains of Ephraim, 'Up! Let us go up to Zion, to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God!'
Jer 31:7 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Shout with joy for Jacob! Hail the chief of nations! Proclaim! Praise! Shout, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has saved his people, the remnant of Israel!'
Jer 31:8 Watch, I shall bring them back from the land of the north and gather them in from the far ends of the earth. With them, the blind and the lame, women with child, women in labour, all together: a mighty throng will return here!
Jer 31:9 In tears they will return, in prayer I shall lead them. I shall guide them to streams of water, by a smooth path where they will not stumble. For I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born son.
Jer 31:10 Listen, nations, to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). On the farthest coasts and islands proclaim it, say, 'He who scattered Israel is gathering him, will guard him as a shepherd guarding his flock.'
Jer 31:11 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has ransomed Jacob, rescued him from a hand stronger than his own.
Jer 31:12 They will come, shouting for joy on the heights of Zion, thronging towards Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s lavish gifts, for wheat, new wine and oil, sheep and cattle; they will be like a well-watered garden, they will sorrow no more.
Jer 31:13 The young girl will then take pleasure in the dance, and young men and old alike; I shall change their mourning into gladness, comfort them, give them joy after their troubles;
Jer 31:14 I shall refresh my priests with rich food, and my people will gorge themselves on my lavish gifts, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 31:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.
Jer 31:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Stop your lamenting dry your eyes, for your labour will have a reward, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and they will return from the enemy's country.
Jer 31:17 There is hope for your future after all, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, your children will return to their homeland.
Jer 31:18 I have indeed heard Ephraim's grieving, 'You flogged me, I took a flogging, like a young, untrained bull. Bring me back, let me come back, for you are Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God!
Jer 31:19 For, since I turned away, I have repented; having understood, I beat my breast. I was deeply ashamed, I blushed, aware of the disgrace incurred when I was young.'
Jer 31:20 Is Ephraim, then, so dear a son to me, a child so favored, that whenever I mention him I remember him lovingly still? That is why I yearn for him, why I must take pity on him, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 31:21 Set up your signposts, raise yourself landmarks, fix your mind on the road, the way by which you went. Come home, Virgin of Israel, come home to these towns of yours.
Jer 31:22 How long will you hesitate, rebellious daughter? For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is creating something new on earth: the Woman sets out to find her Husband again.
Jer 31:23 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, 'In the country of Judah and in its towns, they will use these words once more, when I bring their captives home: "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) bless you, home of saving justice, holy mountain!"
Jer 31:24 'And in this country, Judah and all its towns, the ploughmen and those who wander with their flocks, will live together,
Jer 31:25 for I shall give the weary all they need and satisfy all those whose strength has gone.'
Jer 31:26 At this, I awoke and saw that my sleep had been sweet to me.
Jer 31:27 'Look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall sow the House of Israel and the House of Judah with the seed both of people and of cattle.
Jer 31:28 And as I once watched over them to uproot, to knock down, to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so now I shall watch over them to build and to plant, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 31:29 'In those days people will no longer say: "The fathers have eaten unripe grapes; the children's teeth are set on edge."
Jer 31:30 But each will die for his own guilt. Everyone who eats unripe grapes will have his own teeth set on edge.
Jer 31:31 'Look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall make a new covenant with the House of Israel (and the House of Judah),
Jer 31:32 but not like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, a covenant which they broke, even though I was their Master, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 31:33 No, this is the covenant I shall make with the House of Israel when those days have come, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. Within them I shall plant my Law, writing it on their hearts. Then I shall be their God and they will be my people.
Jer 31:34 There will be no further need for everyone to teach neighbor or brother, saying, "Learn to know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!" No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sin to mind.'
Jer 31:35 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who provides the sun to shine by day, who regulates moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs the sea, making its waves roar, he whose name is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, says this,
Jer 31:36 'Were this established order ever to pass away before me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, then the race of Israel would also cease being a nation for ever before me!'
Jer 31:37 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Were the heavens above ever to be measured, the foundations of the earth below ever to be fathomed, then I too would reject the whole race of Israel for all that they have done, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.'
Jer 31:38 'Look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when the City will be rebuilt for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
Jer 31:39 Then once again the measuring line will stretch straight to the Hill of Gareb, turning then to Goah.
Jer 31:40 And the whole valley, with its corpses and ashes, and all the ground beside the ravine of the Kidron as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, eastwards, will be consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). It will never be destroyed or demolished again.
Jer 32:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.
Jer 32:2 The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the Court of the Guard in the king of Judah's palace,
Jer 32:3 where Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him, saying, 'Why do you keep prophesying like this, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will capture it;
Jer 32:4 and Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the clutches of the Chaldaeans, but will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon, speak to him personally and see him face to face.
Jer 32:5 He will take Zedekiah away to Babylon and there he will stay (until I attend to him, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. If you fight the Chaldaeans you will not succeed!)" '
Jer 32:6 Jeremiah said, 'The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has been addressed to me as follows,
Jer 32:7 "Look, Hanamel the son of your uncle Shallum will come to you and say: Buy my field at Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to purchase it."
Jer 32:8 And, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me, in the Court of the Guard and said, "Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin, for you have the right of inheritance and right of redemption; buy it." I knew then that this was Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s order.
Jer 32:9 Accordingly, I bought the field from my cousin Hanamel of Anathoth and weighed him out the money: seventeen silver shekels.
Jer 32:10 I drew up the deeds and sealed it, called in witnesses and weighed out the money on the scales.
Jer 32:11 I then took both the sealed deed of purchase (with its stipulations and clauses) and its open copy
Jer 32:12 and handed over the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, of the witnesses who had signed the deed of purchase, and of all the Judaeans who then happened to be in the Court of the Guard.
Jer 32:13 In their presence I gave Baruch this order,
Jer 32:14 "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Take these deeds, the sealed deed of purchase and its open copy, and put them in an earthenware pot, so that they may be preserved for a long time.
Jer 32:15 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this country."
Jer 32:16 'After I had entrusted the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as follows,
Jer 32:17 "Ah, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. To you nothing is impossible.
Jer 32:18 You show faithful love to thousands but repay the fathers' guilt in full to their children after them. Great and mighty God, whose name is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth,
Jer 32:19 great in purpose, mighty in deed, whose eyes are open on all human ways, rewarding every individual as that person's ways and actions deserve!
Jer 32:20 You performed signs and wonders in Egypt, as you still do in Israel and among humanity today. You have won the name for yourself which is yours today.
Jer 32:21 You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with mighty hand and outstretched arm and fearsome terror.
Jer 32:22 Then you gave them this country which you had promised on oath to their ancestors, a country flowing with milk and honey.
Jer 32:23 They then entered it, taking possession of it, but they would not listen to your voice nor follow your Law: they would do nothing you ordered them to do; and so you made this total disaster befall them.
Jer 32:24 Look! The earthworks are already in place to take the city and, by means of sword, famine and plague, the city is now within the clutches of the Chaldaeans attacking it. What you said has now come true, as you see.
Jer 32:25 Yet you yourself, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), told me: Buy the field, pay for it, have it witnessed although the city is already in the Chaldaeans' clutches." '
Jer 32:26 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Jer 32:27 'Look, I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of all humanity. Is anything impossible to me?
Jer 32:28 'So, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "I shall hand this city over to the Chaldaeans and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will capture it;
Jer 32:29 the Chaldaeans attacking this city will enter it, fire it and burn it to the ground, with the houses on whose roofs incense has been offered to Baal and libations poured to other gods, to provoke my anger.
Jer 32:30 For the people of Israel and Judah alike have done nothing but what displeases me since they were young. (The people of Israel in fact have done nothing but provoke my anger by their actions, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.)
Jer 32:31 Yes, from the day when this city was built until today, it has been such cause of anger and wrath to me that I mean to remove it from my sight,
Jer 32:32 on account of all the wickedness the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done to provoke my anger; they, their kings, their chief men, their priests, their prophets, the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Jer 32:33 They turned to me their backs, never their faces; and though I taught them so urgently, so untiringly, they would not listen and accept correction.
Jer 32:34 Instead, they set up their Horrors in the Temple that bears my name to defile it,
Jer 32:35 and built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters alive in honor of Molech: a thing I have never ordered, that had never entered my thoughts -- that they would cause Judah to sin by anything so loathsome!
Jer 32:36 "So now, this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says about this city of which you now say: By means of sword, famine and plague, it is already within the king of Babylon's clutches:
Jer 32:37 Look, I shall gather them in from all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, my fury and great wrath. I shall bring them back to this place and make them live in safety.
Jer 32:38 Then they will be my people, and I shall be their God.
Jer 32:39 I shall give them singleness of heart and singleness of conduct so that they will always fear me, for their own good and that of their children after them.
Jer 32:40 I shall make an everlasting covenant with them, never to cease in my efforts for their welfare, and I shall put respect for me in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from me again.
Jer 32:41 My joy will lie in them and in doing them good, and I shall plant them firmly in this country, with all my heart and soul.
Jer 32:42 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Just as I have brought this complete and total disaster on this people, so I shall bring them all the good things I have promised them.
Jer 32:43 Fields will again be bought in this country of which you now say: It is a wasteland without human or animal, already in the clutches of the Chaldaeans.
Jer 32:44 People will buy fields, pay money, draw up deeds, seal them and have them witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the districts round Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah, of the highlands, of the lowlands and of the Negeb. For I shall bring back their captives, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares." '
Jer 33:1 Jeremiah was still confined to the Court of the Guard when the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to him a second time, as follows,
Jer 33:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) who made the earth, who formed it and set it firm -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is his name -- says this,
Jer 33:3 "Call to me and I will answer you; I will tell you great secrets of which you know nothing.
Jer 33:4 For this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah which are about to be destroyed by means of the earthworks and the sword;
Jer 33:5 about those now fighting the Chaldaeans, only to fill the city with corpses, those whom I have slaughtered in my furious anger, those whose wickedness has made me hide my face from this city:
Jer 33:6 Look, I shall bring them remedy and cure; I shall cure them and reveal a new order of peace and loyalty to them.
Jer 33:7 I shall bring back the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel and shall rebuild them as before.
Jer 33:8 I shall cleanse them of all their guilt, by which they have offended me, I shall forgive all their guilty actions, by which they have offended me and rebelled against me.
Jer 33:9 And, for me, Jerusalem will become a name of joy and praise and pride for all the nations on earth to see; when they hear of all the prosperity that I shall give, they will be seized with fear and trembling at all the prosperity and the peace that I provide for it."
Jer 33:10 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "In this place of which you now say: It is a ruin, without human or animal, in the towns of Judah and desolate streets of Jerusalem where there is neither human nor animal, once more will be heard
Jer 33:11 shouts of rejoicing and mirth, the voices of bridegroom and bride, and the singing of those who bring thanksgiving sacrifices to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): Give thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is good, for his faithful love is everlasting. For I shall bring back the country's captives, as before, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says."
Jer 33:12 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "In this ruinous place, without human or animal, in all its towns, once again there will be pastures for the shepherds to rest their flocks.
Jer 33:13 In the towns of the highlands, of the lowlands and the Negeb, in the territory of Benjamin, in the districts round Jerusalem and in the towns of Judah, once again the flocks shall pass under the hand of someone who counts them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Jer 33:14 "Look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall fulfill the promise of happiness I made to the House of Israel and the House of Judah:
Jer 33:15 In those days and at that time, I shall make an upright Branch grow for David, who will do what is just and upright in the country.
Jer 33:16 In those days Judah will triumph and Israel live in safety. And this is the name the city will be called: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-is-our-Saving-Justice."
Jer 33:17 'For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "David will never lack a male descendant to occupy the throne of the House of Israel,
Jer 33:18 nor will the levitical priests ever lack male descendants to stand before me and offer the burnt offering, to burn the cereal offering and offer sacrifice every day." '
Jer 33:19 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 33:20 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "If you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night do not come at their due time,
Jer 33:21 then my covenant with David my servant might also be broken and he would have no son to reign on his throne, and so also might my covenant with the levitical priests, who are my ministers.
Jer 33:22 As surely as the array of heaven cannot be counted, nor the sand of the sea be measured, so surely shall I increase the heirs of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me." '
Jer 33:23 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 33:24 'Have you not noticed what these people say, "The two families which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) chose he has now rejected"? So they despise my people, whom they no longer think of as a nation.
Jer 33:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "If I have not created day and night and fixed the laws governing heaven and earth,
Jer 33:26 why, then I shall reject the descendants of Jacob and of David my servant and cease to choose rulers from his descendants for the heirs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! For I shall bring back their captives and take pity on them." '
Jer 34:1 The word came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his whole army, with all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples, were waging war on Jerusalem and all its towns,
Jer 34:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am going to hand this city over to the power of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.
Jer 34:3 And you yourself will not escape his clutches but will certainly be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon face to face and speak to him personally. Then you will go to Babylon.
Jer 34:4 Even so, listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), Zedekiah king of Judah! This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says about you: You will not die by the sword;
Jer 34:5 you will die in peace. And as spices were burnt for your ancestors, the kings who in times past preceded you, so spices will be burnt for you and a dirge sung for you: Alas for his highness! I have spoken, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares." '
Jer 34:6 The prophet Jeremiah repeated all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
Jer 34:7 while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and all such towns of Judah as still held out, namely Lachish and Azekah, these being the only fortified towns of Judah remaining.
Jer 34:8 The word came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to issue a proclamation freeing their slaves:
Jer 34:9 each man was to free his Hebrew slaves, men and women, no one was any longer to keep a brother Judaean in slavery.
Jer 34:10 All the chief men and all the people who had entered into the covenant had agreed that everyone should free his slaves, men or women, and no longer keep them as slaves: they had agreed on this and set them free.
Jer 34:11 Afterwards, however, they changed their minds, recovered the slaves, men and women, whom they had set free, and reduced them to slavery again.
Jer 34:12 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came then to Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 34:13 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; it said:
Jer 34:14 At the end of seven years each one of you is to free his brother Hebrew who has sold himself to you: he may be your slave for six years, then you must send him away free. But your ancestors did not listen to me and would not pay attention.
Jer 34:15 Now, today you repented and did what pleases me by proclaiming freedom for your neighbor; you made a covenant before me in the Temple that bears my name.
Jer 34:16 And then you changed your minds and, profaning my name, each of you has recovered his slaves, men and women, whom you had sent away free to live their own lives, and has forced them to become your slaves again."
Jer 34:17 'So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "You have disobeyed me, by failing to grant freedom to brother and neighbor. Very well, I in my turn, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, shall leave sword, famine and plague free to deal with you and I shall make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
Jer 34:18 As for the people who have broken my covenant, who have not observed the terms of the covenant which they made before me, I shall treat them like the calf that people cut in two to pass between its pieces.
Jer 34:19 The chief men of Judah and Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the country people who have passed between the pieces of the calf,
Jer 34:20 I shall hand over to their enemies and those determined to kill them, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of earth.
Jer 34:21 As for Zedekiah king of Judah and his chief men, I shall hand them to their enemies, to those determined to kill them, and to the army of the king of Babylon which has just withdrawn.
Jer 34:22 Listen, I shall give the order, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and bring them back to this city to attack it and capture it and burn it down. And I shall make an uninhabited waste of the towns of Judah." '
Jer 35:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,
Jer 35:2 'Go to the clan of the Rechabites and speak to them; bring them into one of the rooms of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and offer them wine to drink.'
Jer 35:3 So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, with his brothers and all his sons, the whole Rechabite clan,
Jer 35:4 and brought them to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) into the room of Ben-Johanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was next to that of the chief men, above the room of Maaseiah son of Shallum, guardian of the threshold.
Jer 35:5 I then set pitchers full of wine, and some cups, before the members of the Rechabite clan and said, 'Drink some wine.'
Jer 35:6 But they replied, 'We do not drink wine, because our ancestor Jonadab son of Rechab gave us this order, "You must not drink wine, neither you nor your sons for ever;
Jer 35:7 nor must you build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards or own them, but must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live long on the soil to which you are alien."
Jer 35:8 We have punctiliously obeyed the orders of our ancestor, Jonadab son of Rechab, never drinking wine ourselves, nor our wives, our sons or our daughters,
Jer 35:9 not building houses to live in, owning neither vineyard nor field nor seed,
Jer 35:10 living in tents. We have obeyed the orders of our ancestor Jonadab, respecting them in every particular.
Jer 35:11 However, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this country, we decided, "We must get away! We will go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldaeans and Aramaeans." So that is why we are living in Jerusalem.'
Jer 35:12 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 35:13 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you never learn the lesson and listen to my words, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) demands?
Jer 35:14 The words of Jonadab son of Rechab, ordering his sons to drink no wine, have been observed; obedient to their ancestor's command, they drink none even today . But to me, who spoke to you so urgently, so untiringly, you have not listened.
Jer 35:15 I have urgently and untiringly sent you all my servants the prophets to say: Turn back, each one of you, from your evil behavior and amend your actions, do not follow other gods to serve them, and you will go on living on the soil I gave to you and your ancestors. But you have not paid attention or listened to me.
Jer 35:16 Thus the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have kept the command their ancestor gave them, but this people has not listened to me.
Jer 35:17 And so, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, on Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem I am going to bring all the disaster which I have decreed for them, because I spoke to them and they would not listen, called to them and they would not answer." '
Jer 35:18 Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabite clan, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this, "Because you have obeyed the orders of your ancestor Jonadab and observed all his rules and done everything he ordered you to do,
Jer 35:19 therefore, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to stand before me for ever." '
Jer 36:1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Jer 36:2 'Take a scroll and on it write all the words I have spoken to you about Israel, Judah and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, in the time of Josiah, until today.
Jer 36:3 Perhaps when the House of Judah hears about all the disaster I intend to inflict on them, they will turn, each one of them, from their evil behaviour, so that I can forgive their sinful guilt.'
Jer 36:4 Jeremiah then summoned Baruch son of Neriah, who at his dictation wrote down on the scroll all the words Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had spoken to him.
Jer 36:5 Jeremiah then gave Baruch this order, 'As I am prevented from entering the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Jer 36:6 you yourself must go and, from the scroll you wrote at my dictation, read all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s words to the people in his Temple on the day of the fast, and in this way you can read them in the hearing also of all the Judaeans who come in from their towns.
Jer 36:7 Perhaps their prayers will move Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and they will turn one and all from their evil behaviour, for great is the furious anger with which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has threatened this people.'
Jer 36:8 Baruch son of Neriah duly carried out the order that the prophet Jeremiah had given him, to read all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s words from the book in his Temple.
Jer 36:9 Now, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people of Jerusalem and all the people who could get to Jerusalem from the towns of Judah were summoned to a fast before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 36:10 Baruch then read Jeremiah's words from the book; this happened in the room of Gemariah son of the scribe Shaphan, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), where all the people could hear.
Jer 36:11 Micaiah son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, having heard all Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s words read from the book,
Jer 36:12 went down to the royal palace, to the scribe's room. All the chief men were in session: the scribe Elishama, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah and all the other chief men;
Jer 36:13 and to them Micaiah reported all the words he heard as Baruch was reading the book aloud to the people.
Jer 36:14 The chief men then by common consent sent Jehudi son of Netaniah to Baruch, with Shelemiah son of Cushi, to say, 'Come, and bring the scroll with you which you have been reading to the people.'
Jer 36:15 Bringing the scroll with him, Baruch son of Neriah appeared before them. 'Sit down,' they said, 'and read it out.' So Baruch read it to them.
Jer 36:16 Having heard all the words they turned to one another in alarm and said to Baruch, 'We must certainly inform the king of this.'
Jer 36:17 They then questioned Baruch, 'Tell us', they said, 'how you came to write all these words.'
Jer 36:18 'Jeremiah dictated them all to me,' Baruch replied, 'and I wrote them down in ink in this book.'
Jer 36:19 The chief men said to Baruch, 'You and Jeremiah had better go into hiding; and do not tell anyone where you are.'
Jer 36:20 Whereupon they went off to the king in the palace court, depositing the scroll in the room of the scribe Elishama. They then informed the king of the whole affair.
Jer 36:21 The king sent Jehudi for the scroll, and he brought it from the room of the scribe Elishama and read it to the king and all the chief men standing round the king.
Jer 36:22 The king was sitting in his winter apartments -- it was the ninth month -- with a fire burning in a brazier in front of him.
Jer 36:23 Each time Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the fire in the brazier until the whole of the scroll had been burnt in the brazier fire.
Jer 36:24 But in spite of hearing all these words, neither the king nor any of his courtiers took alarm or tore their clothes;
Jer 36:25 and although Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn the scroll he would not listen to them,
Jer 36:26 but ordered the king's son Jerahmeel and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had hidden them.
Jer 36:27 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Jeremiah, after the king had burnt the scroll containing the words Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation,
Jer 36:28 'Take another scroll and write down all the words that were written on the first scroll burnt by Jehoiakim king of Judah.
Jer 36:29 And as regards Jehoiakim king of Judah, you are to say, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You have burnt that scroll, saying: Why have you written down: The king of Babylon will certainly come and lay this country waste and leave it without human or animal?
Jer 36:30 So, this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to occupy the throne of David, and his corpse will be tossed out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.
Jer 36:31 I shall punish him, his offspring and his courtiers for their guilt; on them, on the citizens of Jerusalem and on the people of Judah I shall bring the total disaster which I had decreed for them but to which they have paid no attention."
Jer 36:32 Jeremiah then took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, who in it at Jeremiah's dictation wrote all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burnt, with many similar words in addition.
Jer 37:1 Zedekiah son of Josiah became king, succeeding Coniah son of Jehoiakim. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made him king of Judah.
Jer 37:2 But neither he nor his courtiers nor the people of the country paid any attention to the words Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.
Jer 37:3 King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah with this message, 'Intercede for us with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.'
Jer 37:4 Now Jeremiah was still moving freely among the people: he had not yet been put in prison.
Jer 37:5 Meanwhile Pharaoh's army was on the move from Egypt and the Chaldaeans besieging Jerusalem had raised the siege when they heard the news.
Jer 37:6 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to the prophet Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 37:7 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this, "To the king of Judah who sent you to consult me make this reply: Is Pharaoh's army marching to your aid? It will withdraw to its own country, Egypt.
Jer 37:8 The Chaldaeans will return to attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.
Jer 37:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Do not cheer yourselves up by thinking: The Chaldaeans are leaving us for good. They are not leaving.
Jer 37:10 Even if you cut to pieces the whole Chaldaean army now fighting against you until there were only the wounded left, they would stand up again, each man in his tent, to burn this city down." '
Jer 37:11 At the time when the Chaldaean army, threatened by Pharaoh's army, had raised the siege of Jerusalem,
Jer 37:12 Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem for the territory of Benjamin to see about a piece of his property among the people there.
Jer 37:13 He was at the Benjamin Gate when the guard commander there, a certain Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, arrested the prophet Jeremiah, shouting, 'You are deserting to the Chaldaeans!'
Jer 37:14 Jeremiah answered, 'It is a lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldaeans.' But Irijah would not listen to Jeremiah and took him under arrest to the chief men.
Jer 37:15 And the chief men, furious with Jeremiah, had him beaten and shut up in the house of the scribe Jonathan, which had been turned into a prison.
Jer 37:16 Thus Jeremiah found himself in an underground vault. And there for a long time he stayed.
Jer 37:17 Later, King Zedekiah had him sent for, and the king questioned him privately in his palace. 'Is there any word from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)?' he asked. 'There is,' Jeremiah answered, and added, 'you will be handed over to the king of Babylon.'
Jer 37:18 Jeremiah then said to King Zedekiah, 'What wrong have I done you, or your courtiers or this people, for you to have put me in prison?
Jer 37:19 Where are your prophets now who prophesied, "The king of Babylon will not attack you or this country"?
Jer 37:20 So now I beg you to hear me, my lord king! I beg you to approve my request! Do not have me taken back to the house of the scribe Jonathan, or I shall die there.'
Jer 37:21 King Zedekiah then gave an order, and Jeremiah was confined in the Court of the Guard and given a loaf of bread a day from the Street of the Bakers as long as there was bread left in the city. So Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard.
Jer 38:1 But Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words which Jeremiah was saying to all the people,
Jer 38:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Anyone who stays in this city will die by sword, famine or plague; but anyone who leaves it and surrenders to the Chaldaeans will live; he will escape with his life.
Jer 38:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it." '
Jer 38:4 The chief men then said to the king, 'You must have this man put to death: he is unquestionably disheartening the remaining soldiers in the city, and all the people too, by talking like this. This man is seeking not the welfare of the people but their ruin.'
Jer 38:5 King Zedekiah answered, 'He is in your hands as you know, for the king is powerless to oppose you.'
Jer 38:6 So they took Jeremiah and put him into the storage-well of the king's son Malchiah in the Court of the Guard, letting him down with ropes. There was no water in the storage-well, only mud, and into the mud Jeremiah sank.
Jer 38:7 But Ebed-Melech the Cushite, a eunuch attached to the palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the storage-well. As the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,
Jer 38:8 Ebed-Melech came out from the palace and spoke to the king.
Jer 38:9 'My lord king,' he said, 'these men have done a wicked thing by treating the prophet Jeremiah like this: they have thrown him into the storage-well. He will starve to death there, since there is no more food in the city.'
Jer 38:10 At this the king gave Ebed-Melech the Cushite the following order: 'Take thirty men with you from here and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the storage-well before he dies.'
Jer 38:11 Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went into the palace to the Treasury wardrobe; out of it he took some torn, worn-out rags which he lowered on ropes to Jeremiah in the storage-well.
Jer 38:12 Ebed-Melech the Cushite then said to Jeremiah, 'These torn, worn-out rags are for you to put under your armpits to pad the ropes.' Jeremiah did this.
Jer 38:13 Then they hauled Jeremiah up with the ropes and pulled him out of the storage-well. And Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard.
Jer 38:14 King Zedekiah had the prophet Jeremiah summoned to him at the third entrance to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). 'I want to ask you for a word,' the king said to Jeremiah, 'keep nothing back from me.'
Jer 38:15 Jeremiah answered Zedekiah, 'If I do proclaim it to you, are you not sure to have me put to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.'
Jer 38:16 King Zedekiah then secretly swore this oath to Jeremiah, 'As Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives, giver of this life of ours, I will have you neither put to death nor handed over to these men who are determined to kill you.'
Jer 38:17 Jeremiah then said to Zedekiah, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, "If you go out and surrender to the king of Babylon's generals, your life will be safe and this city will not be burnt down; you and your family will survive.
Jer 38:18 But if you do not go out and surrender to the king of Babylon's generals, this city will be handed over to the Chaldaeans and they will burn it down; nor will you yourself escape their clutches." '
Jer 38:19 King Zedekiah then said to Jeremiah, 'I am afraid of the Judaeans who have already gone over to the Chaldaeans: I might be handed over to them and they would ill-treat me.'
Jer 38:20 'You will not be handed over to them,' Jeremiah replied. 'Please listen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice as I have relayed it to you, and then all will go well with you and your life will be safe.
Jer 38:21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has shown me:
Jer 38:22 the sight of all the women left in the king of Judah's palace being led off to the king of Babylon's generals and saying: "They have misled you, they have triumphed over you, those friends of yours! Your feet have sunk in the mud! They are up and away!"
Jer 38:23 'Yes, all your wives and children will be led off to the Chaldaeans, and you yourself will not escape their clutches but will be a prisoner in the clutches of the king of Babylon. And as for this city, it will be burnt down.'
Jer 38:24 Zedekiah then said to Jeremiah, 'Do not let anyone else hear these words or you will die.
Jer 38:25 If the chief men hear that I have been talking to you, and come and say, "Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; keep nothing back from us, or we shall put you to death,"
Jer 38:26 you must reply, "I presented this request to the king: that he would not have me sent back to Jonathan's house to die." '
Jer 38:27 And in fact all the chief men came to Jeremiah and questioned him. He told them exactly what the king had ordered him to say. They then left him in peace, since the conversation had not been overheard.
Jer 38:28 And Jeremiah stayed in the Court of the Guard until the day Jerusalem was captured. And he was there when Jerusalem actually was captured.
Jer 39:1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem with his entire army, and they laid siege to it.
Jer 39:2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, a breach was made in the city wall.
Jer 39:3 The king of Babylon's officials, all having made their entry, took their seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer, Samgar-Nebo, Sar-Sechim a high dignitary of state, Nergal-Sharezer the chief astrologer, and all the king of Babylon's other officials . . .
Jer 39:4 On seeing them, Zedekiah king of Judah and all the fighting men fled, leaving the city under cover of dark, by way of the king's garden through the gate between the two walls, and made their way towards the Arabah.
Jer 39:5 But the Chaldaean troops pursued them and caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath, where he passed sentence on him.
Jer 39:6 The king of Babylon had Zedekiah's sons slaughtered before his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also had all the leading men of Judah put to death.
Jer 39:7 He then put out Zedekiah's eyes and, loading him with chains, carried him off to Babylon.
Jer 39:8 The Chaldaeans burnt down the royal palace and the private houses, and demolished the walls of Jerusalem.
Jer 39:9 Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported the remainder of the population left behind in the city, the deserters who had gone over to him, and the rest of the artisans to Babylon.
Jer 39:10 But Nebuzaradan commander of the guard left some of the poor people behind in the country of Judah, those who had nothing, at the same time giving them vineyards and fields.
Jer 39:11 With regard to Jeremiah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given the following orders to Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard,
Jer 39:12 'Take him, look after him; do him no harm, but treat him as he may ask you.'
Jer 39:13 He entrusted this mission to (Nebuzaradan commander of the guard,) Nebushazban the high dignitary of state, Nergal-Sharezer the chief astrologer and all the king of Babylon's other officials.
Jer 39:14 These despatched men to take Jeremiah from the Court of the Guard and turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan for safe conduct home. So he remained among the people.
Jer 39:15 While Jeremiah was confined in the Court of the Guard, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to him as follows,
Jer 39:16 'Go and say to Ebed-Melech the Cushite, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel says this: Look, I am about to perform my words about this city for its ruin and not for its prosperity. That day they will come true before your eyes.
Jer 39:17 But I shall rescue you that day, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and you will not be handed over to the hands of the men you fear.
Jer 39:18 Yes, I shall certainly rescue you: you will not fall to the sword; you will escape with your life, because you have put your trust in me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares."
Jer 40:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) after Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had released him from Ramah, where he had found him in chains with all the other captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being deported to Babylon:
Jer 40:2 The commander of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God foretold calamity for this country,
Jer 40:3 and now he has brought it. He has done what he threatened to do, because you had sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and would not listen to his voice; so all this has happened to you.
Jer 40:4 Look, today I am having your hands unchained. If you like to come with me to Babylon, come: I shall look after you. If you do not want to come with me to Babylon, do not. Look, you have the whole country before you: go wherever you think it best and most suitable to go.'
Jer 40:5 And before Jeremiah retired, he added, 'You can go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed governor of the towns of Judah, and stay with him among the people, or go anywhere else you think suitable.' With that, the commander of the guard gave him provisions and a present, and dismissed him.
Jer 40:6 Jeremiah went to Mizpah, to Gedaliah son of Ahikam and stayed with him, among those people still left in the country.
Jer 40:7 When the military leaders who with their men were still in the field, all heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor of the country, making him responsible for the men, women and children, and those of the poor country people who had not been deported to Babylon,
Jer 40:8 they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah: Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, Jezaniah son of the Maacathite, they and their men.
Jer 40:9 To them and to their men Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, swore an oath. 'Do not be afraid', he said, 'of serving the Chaldaeans, stay in the country, serve the king of Babylon, and all will go well with you.
Jer 40:10 I for my part, as the man answerable to the Chaldaeans when they come to us, shall stay here at Mizpah, whereas you can harvest the wine, summer fruit and oil, fill your storage jars and settle in the towns which you have seized.'
Jer 40:11 Similarly, when all the Judaeans living in Moab, with the Ammonites, in Edom and elsewhere, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan as their governor,
Jer 40:12 the Judaeans all came back from wherever they had been driven. On their return to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, they harvested an immense quantity of wine and summer fruit.
Jer 40:13 Now Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders still in the field, came to Gedaliah at Mizpah
Jer 40:14 and said to him, 'Are you aware that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to assassinate you?' But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them.
Jer 40:15 Johanan son of Kareah then spoke in secret to Gedaliah at Mizpah, as follows: 'Please let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one will be any the wiser. Why should he assassinate you and cause the dispersal of all the Judaeans who have rallied round you. Why should the remnant of Judah perish?'
Jer 40:16 But Gedaliah son of Ahikam replied to Johanan son of Kareah, 'You will do no such thing, for what you say about Ishmael is false.'
Jer 41:1 In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah son of Elishama, who was of royal descent, came with officers of the king and ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. And as they were taking their meal together, there at Mizpah,
Jer 41:2 Ishmael son of Nethaniah stood up with his ten men, and attacking Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with their swords, they killed the man whom the king of Babylon had made governor of the country.
Jer 41:3 And all the Judaeans who were with him, that is with Gedaliah at Mizpah, and the Chaldaean soldiers who happened to be there, Ishmael killed too.
Jer 41:4 On the day after the murder of Gedaliah, before the news had become known,
Jer 41:5 eighty men arrived from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, with their beards shaved off, their clothing torn, and covered in self-inflicted gashes; they were bringing cereal offerings and incense with them to present to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 41:6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out of Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he met them he said, 'Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.'
Jer 41:7 But once they were well inside the town, Ishmael son of Nethaniah slaughtered them, with the help of his men, and had them thrown into the storage-well.
Jer 41:8 There were ten of them, however, who said to Ishmael, 'Do not kill us: we have stocks of wheat and barley, oil and honey, hidden away in the fields.' So he spared them and did not kill them with their brothers.
Jer 41:9 The storage-well into which Ishmael threw the corpses of all the men he had killed was a large one, the one which King Asa had built as a precaution against Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the slaughtered men.
Jer 41:10 Ishmael then took all the rest of the people prisoner who were at Mizpah, the king's daughters and all the remaining people in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, commander of the guard, had entrusted to Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them prisoner and set out, intending to cross over to the Ammonites.
Jer 41:11 When Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders who were with him heard about all the crimes committed by Ishmael son of Nethaniah,
Jer 41:12 they mustered all their men and set out to attack Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him at the great Pool of Gibeon.
Jer 41:13 At the sight of Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders with him, all the people with Ishmael were delighted.
Jer 41:14 All the people whom Ishmael had taken as prisoners from Mizpah turned about, went back and joined Johanan son of Kareah.
Jer 41:15 Ishmael son of Nethaniah, however, escaped from Johanan with eight of his men and fled to the Ammonites.
Jer 41:16 Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders with him then rallied all the remaining people whom Ishmael son of Nethaniah had taken as prisoners from Mizpah after killing Gedaliah son of Ahikam: men -- fighting men-women, children and eunuchs, whom they brought back from Gibeon.
Jer 41:17 Setting off, they made a halt at Khan Kimham near Bethlehem, intending to go on to Egypt,
Jer 41:18 to get away from the Chaldaeans. They were now terrified of them, since Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam whom the king of Babylon had made governor of the country.
Jer 42:1 Then all the military leaders, in particular Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from least to greatest, approached
Jer 42:2 the prophet Jeremiah and said, 'Please hear our petition and intercede with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God for us and for all this remnant -- and how few of us are left out of many, your own eyes can see-
Jer 42:3 so that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God may show us the way we are to go and what we must do.'
Jer 42:4 The prophet Jeremiah replied, 'I hear you; I will indeed pray to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God as you ask; and whatever answer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God gives you, I will tell you, keeping nothing back from you.'
Jer 42:5 They in their turn said to Jeremiah, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be a true and faithful witness against us, if we do not follow the instructions that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God sends us through you.
Jer 42:6 Whether we like it or not, we shall obey the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God to whom we are sending you, so that we may prosper by obeying the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God.'
Jer 42:7 Ten days later the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came to Jeremiah.
Jer 42:8 He then summoned Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders who were with him, and all the people from least to greatest,
Jer 42:9 and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, to whom you deputed me to present your petition says this,
Jer 42:10 "If you will only stay in this country, I shall build you and not overthrow you; I shall plant you and not uproot you, for I am sorry about the disaster I have inflicted on you.
Jer 42:11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you fear now; do not fear him, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, for I am with you to save you and rescue you from his clutches.
Jer 42:12 I shall take pity on you, so that he pities you and lets you return to your native soil.
Jer 42:13 But if you say: We will not stay in this country; if you disobey the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God,
Jer 42:14 and say: No, Egypt is where we shall go, where we shall not see war or hear the trumpet-call or go short of food; that is where we want to live;
Jer 42:15 in that case, remnant of Judah, listen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: If you are determined to go to Egypt, and if you do go and settle there,
Jer 42:16 the sword you fear will overtake you there in Egypt, and there you will die.
Jer 42:17 Yes, all those who are determined to go to Egypt and settle there, will die by sword, famine and plague: not a single one of them will survive or escape the disaster I shall inflict on them.
Jer 42:18 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Just as my furious anger was poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will my fury be poured out on you if you go to Egypt: you will become an object of execration and horror, a curse, a laughing-stock; and you will never see this place again."
Jer 42:19 Remnant of Judah, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has told you, "Do not go into Egypt." Understand clearly that today I have given you a solemn warning.
Jer 42:20 You were not being sincere when you sent me to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God and said, "Intercede for us with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God; tell us exactly what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God says and we will do it."
Jer 42:21 Today I have told you, but you have not obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God or any part of the message he sent me to give you.
Jer 42:22 So understand this clearly: you will die by sword, famine and plague in the place where you want to go and settle.'
Jer 43:1 When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God, which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God had sent him to tell them -- all the words quoted above-
Jer 43:2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan son of Kareah, and all those arrogant men, said to Jeremiah, 'You are lying. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God did not send you to say, "Do not go to Egypt and settle there."
Jer 43:3 It was Baruch son of Neriah, who keeps inciting you against us, to hand us over to the Chaldaeans so that they can put us to death or deport us to Babylon.'
Jer 43:4 So neither Johanan nor any of the military leaders nor any of the people obeyed the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by staying in the country of Judah.
Jer 43:5 Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the military leaders led off the entire remnant of Judah, those who had come back from all the nations where they had been driven to live in the country of Judah:
Jer 43:6 men, women, children, the royal princesses too, and every single person that Nebuzaradan commander of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, including the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah.
Jer 43:7 And so, in disobedience to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they reached Egypt and arrived at Tahpanhes.
Jer 43:8 At Tahpanhes the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 43:9 'Take some large stones and bury them in the cement on the terrace outside the entrance of Pharaoh's palace in Tahpanhes, where the Judaeans can see you.
Jer 43:10 Then say to them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: Look, I shall send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he will place his throne on these stones I have buried, and spread his canopy above them.
Jer 43:11 When he comes, he will defeat Egypt: Those for the plague, to the plague; those for captivity, to captivity; those for the sword, to the sword!
Jer 43:12 "He will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt; he will burn these gods or take them prisoner; like a shepherd wrapping his cloak round him, so he will wrap Egypt round him, and then leave without anyone laying hands on him.
Jer 43:13 He will break the obelisks of the temple of the Sun in Egypt, and burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt." '
Jer 44:1 The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judaeans living in Egypt, those, that is, living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph and the territory of Pathros.
Jer 44:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, "You have seen all the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah; today they lie in ruins and uninhabited.
Jer 44:3 This was because of the wicked deeds they committed to provoke my anger, by going and offering incense and serving other gods whom neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors knew anything about,
Jer 44:4 although I urgently and untiringly sent you all my servants the prophets to say: You must not do this loathsome thing, which I hate.
Jer 44:5 But they would not listen or pay attention, and turn from their wickedness and stop offering incense to other gods.
Jer 44:6 And so my furious anger overflowed, burning down the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, which were reduced to ruins and wasteland, as they still are today.
Jer 44:7 And now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Why bring complete disaster on yourselves by cutting yourselves off from Judah -- your men, women, children and babes in arms -- so as to leave yourselves no remnant,
Jer 44:8 by provoking my wrath by your actions, offering incense to other gods in Egypt where you have come to settle, as though bent on your own destruction and on becoming a curse and a laughing-stock for all the nations of the earth?
Jer 44:9 Have you forgotten the wicked deeds of your ancestors, of the kings of Judah and of your princes, your own wicked deeds and those of your wives, committed in the country of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 44:10 To this day they have felt neither contrition nor fear; they have not observed my Law or my statutes, which I prescribed for you, as for your ancestors.
Jer 44:11 So, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, I have determined on disaster and shall destroy Judah completely.
Jer 44:12 I shall take the remnant of Judah who were determined to come to Egypt and settle there, and in Egypt they will perish; they will fall to the sword or perish of famine, from least to greatest; by sword and famine they will die and be an object of execration and horror, a curse, a laughing-stock.
Jer 44:13 I shall punish those who live in Egypt just as I punished Jerusalem: by sword, famine and plague.
Jer 44:14 Of the remnant of Judah which has come to settle in Egypt, not a single one will escape or survive to return to the country of Judah where they long to return and live. For none of them will return, except a few refugees." '
Jer 44:15 At this, all the men who knew that their wives offered incense to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, a great crowd (and all the people living in Egypt, in Pathros), answered Jeremiah as follows,
Jer 44:16 'We have no intention of listening to the word you have just spoken to us in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name,
Jer 44:17 but intend to go on doing all we have vowed to do: offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring libations in her honor, as we used to do, we and our ancestors, our kings and our chief men, in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem: we had food in plenty then, we lived well, we suffered no disasters.
Jer 44:18 But since we gave up offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring libations in her honor, we have been destitute and have perished either by sword or by famine.
Jer 44:19 Besides, when we offer incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour libations in her honor, do you think we make cakes for her with her features on them, and pour libations to her, without our husbands' knowledge?'
Jer 44:20 To all the people, men and women, all those who had made this answer, Jeremiah retorted,
Jer 44:21 'The incense you offered in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you, your ancestors, your kings, your chief men and the people at large -- was this not what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) kept remembering, and found so repellent
Jer 44:22 that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) could not endure your misdeeds and your loathsome practices any longer, with the result that your country has become the uninhabited ruin, the object of horror and cursing it is today?
Jer 44:23 Because you offered incense, because you sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), refusing to listen to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), or to observe his Law, his statutes and his decrees -- that is why the present disaster has overtaken you.'
Jer 44:24 Further, Jeremiah said to all the people, and particularly to all the women, 'Listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all you Judaeans in Egypt,
Jer 44:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this, "You and your wives, what your mouths promised, your hands have indeed performed! You said: We shall punctiliously fulfill the vows we have made and offer incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour libations in her honor. Very well, keep your vows, perform them punctiliously!
Jer 44:26 But listen to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all you Judaeans living in Egypt: I swear by my great name, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, that my name will no longer be uttered by any man of Judah throughout Egypt; no one will say: As Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lives.
Jer 44:27 No, I am going to keep my eye on them for disaster, not for prosperity, and all the Judaeans in Egypt will perish either by the sword or by famine until they are wiped out.
Jer 44:28 Yet, though few in number, those who escape the sword will return to the country of Judah from Egypt. Then the entire remnant of Judah which has come and settled in Egypt will know whose word comes true, mine or theirs.
Jer 44:29 "And here is the sign for you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, that I shall punish you in this place: so that you will know that the words with which I threaten you will come true:
Jer 44:30 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I shall hand Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies and to those determined to kill him, just as I handed Zedekiah king of Judah over to his enemy Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was determined to kill him." '
Jer 45:1 The word that the prophet Jeremiah addressed to Baruch son of Neriah when the latter wrote these words down in a book at Jeremiah's dictation in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,
Jer 45:2 'This is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God of Israel says about you, Baruch!
Jer 45:3 "You have been thinking: what disaster for me, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has added further grief to my troubles! I am worn out with groaning, and find no relief!"
Jer 45:4 Say to him as follows, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Now I am knocking down what I have built, am uprooting what I have planted, over the whole country!
Jer 45:5 And you ask for special treatment! Do not ask, for I am now going to bring disaster on all humanity, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, but you I shall allow to escape with your life, wherever you may go." '
Jer 46:1 The words of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that were addressed to the prophet Jeremiah against the nations.
Jer 46:2 On Egypt. Against the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was at Carchemish on the River Euphrates when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated it in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah.
Jer 46:3 Buckler and shield at the ready! Onward to battle!
Jer 46:4 Harness the horses: into the saddle, horsemen! To your ranks! On with your helmets! Sharpen your spears, put on your breastplates!
Jer 46:5 Why do I see them retreating, panic-stricken? Their heroes, beaten back, are fleeing headlong, with not a look behind. Terror on every side, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares!
Jer 46:6 No flight for the swift, no escape for the strong! Up in the north on the River Euphrates, they have collapsed, have fallen.
Jer 46:7 Who was it rose like the Nile, his waters foaming like a torrent?
Jer 46:8 Why, Egypt rose like the Nile, his waters foaming like a torrent. 'I shall rise', he said, 'and drown the earth; sweep away town and its inhabitants!
Jer 46:9 Charge, horses! Forward, chariots! Let the warriors advance, men from Cush and Put with shield in hand, men from Lud who bend the bow!'
Jer 46:10 For this is the Day of Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, a day of vengeance when he takes revenge on his foes: the sword will devour until gorged, until drunk with their blood, for Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is holding a sacrificial feast in the land of the north, on the River Euphrates.
Jer 46:11 Go up to Gilead and fetch balm, virgin daughter of Egypt! You multiply remedies in vain, nothing can cure you!
Jer 46:12 The nations have heard of your shame, your wailing fills the world, for warrior has stumbled against warrior, and both have fallen together.
Jer 46:13 The word that came from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the prophet Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced to attack Egypt.
Jer 46:14 Publish it in Egypt, proclaim it in Migdol, proclaim it in Noph and Tahpanhes! Say, 'Stand your ground, be prepared, for the sword is devouring all round you!'
Jer 46:15 Why has Apis fled? Why has your Mighty One not stood firm? Why, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has overturned him,
Jer 46:16 he has caused many to fall! Falling over one another, they say, 'Up, and back to our own people, to the country where we were born, away from the devastating sword!'
Jer 46:17 They have given Pharaoh king of Egypt the nickname, 'Much-noise-but-he-lets-the-chance-slip-by'!
Jer 46:18 As I live, the King declares, whose name is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, he is coming, a very Tabor among mountains, a Carmel high above the sea!
Jer 46:19 Get your bundle ready for exile, fair inhabitant of Egypt! Noph will be reduced to a desert, desolate, uninhabited.
Jer 46:20 Egypt was a splendid heifer, but a gadfly from the north has settled on her.
Jer 46:21 The mercenaries she had with her, these too were like fattened calves: but they too have taken to their heels, have all run away, not held their ground, for their day of disaster has overtaken them, their time for being punished.
Jer 46:22 Hear her hissing like a snake as they advance in force to fall on her with their axes, like woodcutters,
Jer 46:23 they will fell her forest, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, however impenetrable it was for they are more numerous than locusts, there is no counting them.
Jer 46:24 The daughter of Egypt is put to shame, handed over to a people from the north.
Jer 46:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, has said, 'Look, I shall punish Amon of No, Pharaoh, Egypt, its gods, its kings, Pharaoh and those who put their trust in him.
Jer 46:26 I shall hand him over to those who are determined to kill him, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to his generals. But afterwards, Egypt will be inhabited again as in the past, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 46:27 But do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Israel, do not be alarmed: for look, I shall rescue you from afar and your descendants from the country where they are captive. Jacob will return and be at peace, secure, with no one to trouble him.
Jer 46:28 Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, for I am with you: I shall make an end of all the nations where I have driven you, but I shall not make an end of you, I shall discipline you only as you deserve, not leaving you quite unpunished.
Jer 47:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that came to Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.
Jer 47:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, the waters are rising from the north to become an overwhelming flood, overwhelming the country and all in it, the town and its inhabitants! People cry for help, and there is wailing from all the country's inhabitants
Jer 47:3 at the thunder of his chargers' hoofs, the crash of his chariots, the grinding of his wheels. Fathers forget about their children, their hands fall limp
Jer 47:4 because the day has come for all the Philistines to be destroyed, for Tyre and Sidon to be stripped to the last of their allies. Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is destroying the Philistines, the remnant from the Isle of Caphtor.
Jer 47:5 Baldness has befallen Gaza, Ashkelon has been reduced to silence. You who remain in the valley, how long will you gash yourselves?
Jer 47:6 Oh, sword of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), how long before you rest? Back into your scabbard, stop, keep still!
Jer 47:7 Yet how can it rest when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has given it an order, Ashkelon and the sea coast, the targets assigned to it?
Jer 48:1 On Moab. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, says this: Wretched Nebo, for it has been ravaged, Kiriathaim has been shamed and taken, shame and distraction on the citadel,
Jer 48:2 the pride of Moab is no more! At Heshbon they plotted her downfall, 'Come, let us put an end to her as a nation!' And you too, inhabitants of Madmen, will be silenced, the sword will be after you.
Jer 48:3 A cry of agony goes up from Horonaim, 'Devastation! Dire calamity.
Jer 48:4 Moab has been shattered,' the agonised cries of her little ones ring out.
Jer 48:5 Up the slope of Luhith, weeping they go. On the road down to Horonaim is heard the shriek of disaster,
Jer 48:6 'Away! Flee for your lives like the wild donkey into the desert!'
Jer 48:7 Yes, since you relied on your deeds and your wealth, you will be captured too. Chemosh will go into exile, with all his priests and princes.
Jer 48:8 The despoiler will descend on every town, not one will escape; the Valley will be ravaged, the Plain be plundered as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said.
Jer 48:9 Give Moab wings so that she can fly away, for her towns will be laid in ruins where no one will ever live again.
Jer 48:10 (Accursed be he who does Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s work negligently! Accursed be he who deprives his sword of blood!)
Jer 48:11 From his youth Moab lived at ease, he settled on his lees, never having been decanted, never having gone into exile: and so he kept his own flavour, his aroma was unchanged.
Jer 48:12 And so the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall send him decanters to decant him; they will empty his pitchers and break his wine jars to bits.
Jer 48:13 Moab will be shamed by Chemosh then, as the House of Israel was shamed by Bethel in which they put their trust.
Jer 48:14 How can you say, 'We are heroes, sturdy fighting men'?
Jer 48:15 Moab has been ravaged, his cities scaled, the flower of his youth goes down to the slaughter, declares the King, whose name is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Jer 48:16 Moab's ruin is coming soon, his downfall comes at top speed.
Jer 48:17 Grieve for him, all you living near him, all you who knew his name. Say, 'How shattered it is, that mighty rod, that splendid scepter!'
Jer 48:18 Come down from your glory, sit on the parched ground, daughter of Dibon, for the despoiler of Moab has advanced on you, he has destroyed your strongholds.
Jer 48:19 Stand by the roadside, keep watch, daughter of Aroer. Question fugitive and runaway, ask, 'What has happened?'
Jer 48:20 'Moab has been shattered and shamed. Wail and shriek! Shout along the Arnon, Moab has been laid waste!'
Jer 48:21 Judgement has also come on the Plain, on Holon, Jahzah, Mephaath,
Jer 48:22 Dibon, Nebo, Beth-Diblathaim,
Jer 48:23 Kiriathaim, Beth-Gamul, Beth-Meon,
Jer 48:24 Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the towns of Moab, far and near.
Jer 48:25 Moab's horn has been cut off, his arm is broken, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 48:26 Make him drunk! He has set himself up against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); let Moab wallow in his vomit and become a laughing-stock in his turn.
Jer 48:27 Was Israel not a laughing-stock to you? Was he caught red-handed with the thieves, for you to shake your head whenever you mention him?
Jer 48:28 Leave the towns, make the rocks your home, inhabitants of Moab. Learn from the dove that makes its nest in the walls of the gaping gorge.
Jer 48:29 We have heard about Moab's pride, so very proud! What arrogance! What pride! What conceit! What a haughty heart!
Jer 48:30 -I know all about his presumption, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, his empty boasting, those empty deeds of his!
Jer 48:31 -and so I lament for Moab, for all Moab I raise my cry and mourn for the people of Kir-Heres.
Jer 48:32 More than for Jazer I weep for you, vineyard of Sibmah: your shoots stretched beyond the sea, they reached all the way to Jazer. On your harvest and vintage the despoiler has descended.
Jer 48:33 Gladness and joy have vanished from the orchards of Moab. I have dried up the wine in the presses, the treader of grapes treads no more, the joyful shouting has ceased.
Jer 48:34 The cries of Heshbon and Elealeh can be heard as far as Jahaz. The shrieks resound from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-Shelishiyah, for even the Waters of Nimrim have become a wasteland.
Jer 48:35 And in Moab I shall make an end, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, of anyone offering sacrifice on the high places and anyone offering incense to his gods.
Jer 48:36 That is why my heart sobs like a flute for Moab, sobs like a flute for the people of Kir-Heres, since the wealth he had acquired is lost.
Jer 48:37 Yes, every head is shaved, every beard cut off, gashes are on every hand, sackcloth round every waist.
Jer 48:38 On all the housetops of Moab and in all its squares there is nothing but lamenting, for I have broken Moab like an unwanted pot, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 48:39 How shattered he is! Wail! Moab so shamefully in retreat! Moab has become a laughing-stock, a thing of horror to all his neighbors.
Jer 48:40 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: (Look, like an eagle, he will hover, spreading his wings over Moab.)
Jer 48:41 The towns have been captured, the strongholds seized. (And the heart of Moab's warriors, that day, will be like that of a woman in labour pains.)
Jer 48:42 Moab will be destroyed, no longer a people, for setting itself up against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 48:43 Terror, the pit and the snare for you, inhabitant of Moab, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 48:44 And anyone who escapes from terror will fall into the pit, and anyone who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare. Yes, I shall bring all this on Moab when the year comes for punishing them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 48:45 In the shelter of Heshbon the fugitives have paused, exhausted. But fire will burst from Heshbon, a flame from the palace of Sihon, consuming the brows of Moab, the head of a turbulent brood.
Jer 48:46 Disaster for you, Moab! The people of Chemosh are lost! For your sons have been taken into exile and your daughters into captivity.
Jer 48:47 But I shall bring back Moab's captives in the final days, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. Thus far the judgement on Moab.
Jer 49:1 To the Ammonites. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Has Israel no sons? Has he no heir? Why should Milcom have inherited Gad and his people have settled in its towns?
Jer 49:2 And so the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall make the war cry ring out for Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites. She will become a desolate mound and her daughter towns will be burnt down. Then Israel will inherit from his heirs, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Jer 49:3 Wail, Heshbon, for Ar has been laid waste! Shriek, daughters of Rabbah! Wrap yourself in sackcloth, raise the dirge, run to and fro among the sheep-pens! For Milcom is going into exile, with all his priests and princes.
Jer 49:4 How you used to glory in your Valley, rebellious daughter, confident in your resources, 'Who will dare to attack me?'
Jer 49:5 Look, I shall bring terror on you, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares, from all directions; you shall be driven away, everyone for himself, with no one to rally the fugitives.
Jer 49:6 (But later I shall bring back the captive Ammonites, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.)
Jer 49:7 To Edom. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Is there no wisdom left in Teman? Have the shrewd run out of commonsense, has their wisdom vanished?
Jer 49:8 Away! Take to your heels! Go into hiding, inhabitants of Dedan, for I shall bring ruin on Esau when the time comes for me to punish him.
Jer 49:9 If grape-pickers were to come to you, would they not leave a few gleanings? If robbers came during the night, would they not steal only as much as they wanted?
Jer 49:10 But I for my part have stripped Esau, have laid his hiding places bare: he can hide no longer. His race is destroyed, so are his brothers and neighbors; he is no more!
Jer 49:11 Leave your orphans, I shall support them, and let your widows rely on me!
Jer 49:12 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, 'Look, those who would not have had to drink the cup will have to drink it all the same; so why should you go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but will certainly have to drink.
Jer 49:13 For by my own self I have sworn, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, that Bozrah will become an object of horror, a laughing-stock, a desert, a curse, and all its towns ruins for ever.'
Jer 49:14 I have received a message from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a herald has been sent throughout the nations, 'Muster! March against this people! Prepare for battle!'
Jer 49:15 For look, I shall reduce you to the smallest of nations, to the most despised of people.
Jer 49:16 Your reputation for ferocity, your proud heart has misled you. You whose home is in the crannies of the Rock, who cling to the top of the peak! Though you make your nest as high as the eagle's, I shall bring you down from there, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 49:17 Edom will become an object of horror; everyone going near will be appalled, and whistle at the sight of all her wounds.
Jer 49:18 As at the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring towns, no one will live there any more, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, no human being settle there again.
Jer 49:19 Look, like a lion he climbs from the thickets of the Jordan to the perennial pasture! In a flash, I shall make them run away, and there appoint someone I shall choose. For who is there like me? Who can hale me into court? Name me the shepherd who can stand up to me.
Jer 49:20 So now hear the plan that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has laid against Edom, the schemes he has in mind against the inhabitants of Teman: they will certainly be dragged away like the smallest of the flock! Their pastures will certainly be sacked before their eyes!
Jer 49:21 The earth quakes at the sound of their downfall, the sound of it echoes to the Sea of Reeds.
Jer 49:22 Look, like an eagle, he will soar and hover, spreading his wings over Bozrah. And the heart of Edom's warriors, that day, will be like that of a woman in labour pains.
Jer 49:23 To Damascus. Hamath and Arpad are shamed, for they have heard bad news. They are convulsed with anxiety like the sea that cannot be calmed.
Jer 49:24 Damascus is aghast, she prepares for flight, she is seized with trembling (anguish and sorrow have laid hold on her as on a woman in labour).
Jer 49:25 What now! That famous town deserted, that city of gaiety?
Jer 49:26 And so in her squares her young men will fall, and all her fighting men will perish, that day, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares.
Jer 49:27 I shall light a fire inside the walls of Damascus, to devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad.
Jer 49:28 To Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which were conquered by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Up! March on Kedar, destroy the sons of the east!
Jer 49:29 Let their tents and their flocks be captured, their tent-cloths and all their gear; let their camels be seized and the shout go up, 'Terror on every side!'
Jer 49:30 Away! Get into hiding as fast as you can, inhabitants of Hazor, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has made a plan against you, he has a scheme in mind against you,
Jer 49:31 Up! March on a nation at its ease, living secure, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, that has no gates, no bars, that lives in a remote place!
Jer 49:32 Their camels will be the plunder, their countless sheep the spoil. I shall scatter them to the winds, those Crop-Heads, and bring ruin on them from every side, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 49:33 Hazor will become the lair of jackals, desolate for ever. No one will live there any more, no human being settle there again.
Jer 49:34 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that came to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah.
Jer 49:35 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Look, I shall break Elam's bow, the source of his might.
Jer 49:36 I shall bring four winds on Elam from the four corners of the sky, and I shall scatter them to all these winds: there will not be a single nation to which people expelled from Elam do not go.
Jer 49:37 I shall make the Elamites tremble before their enemies, before those determined to kill them. I shall bring disaster on them, my burning anger, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. I shall pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them all.
Jer 49:38 I shall set up my throne in Elam, uprooting its king and princes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 49:39 In the final days, I shall bring Elam's captives back, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.'
Jer 50:1 The word that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke against Babylon, against the country of the Chaldaeans, through the prophet Jeremiah.
Jer 50:2 Announce it to the nations, proclaim it, hoist a signal and proclaim it, making no secret of it, say, 'Babylon is captured, Bel disgraced, Marduk shattered. (Her idols are disgraced, her Obscenities shattered.)'
Jer 50:3 For a nation is marching on her from the north, to turn her country into a desert: no one will live there any more; human and animal have fled and gone.
Jer 50:4 In those days and at that time the people of Israel will return (they and the people of Judah); they will come weeping in search of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.
Jer 50:5 They will ask the way to Zion and turn their faces towards her, 'Come, let us bind ourselves to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by an everlasting covenant never to be forgotten!'
Jer 50:6 Lost sheep, such were my people; their shepherds led them astray, the mountains misled them; from mountain to hill they went, forgetful of their fold.
Jer 50:7 Whoever came across them devoured them, their enemies said, 'We are not to blame, since they have sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Home of Justice, against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Hope of their ancestors.'
Jer 50:8 Escape from Babylon, leave the country of the Chaldaeans. Be like he-goats, leading the sheep!
Jer 50:9 For look, I shall raise a league of mighty nations to attack Babylon, from the land of the north. They will take up position against her; by them she will be taken. Their arrows, like an experienced soldier's, never return in vain.
Jer 50:10 Chaldaea will be plundered, all her plunderers will be satisfied, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 50:11 Rejoice! Have your triumph, you plunderers of my heritage! Be playful like a heifer let out to grass! Neigh like stallions!
Jer 50:12 But your mother is covered with shame, disgraced is the woman who bore you; she is the least of nations now; a desert, a parched land, a wasteland.
Jer 50:13 Because of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger, no one will live there any more, she will become a total solitude. All who pass by Babylon will be appalled and whistle at the sight of all her wounds.
Jer 50:14 Take position against Babylon, surround her, all you who bend the bow. Shoot at her! Do not spare your arrows, for she has sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Jer 50:15 Raise the war cry against her from all sides. She surrenders! Her bastions fall! Her walls collapse! This is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s vengeance! Take revenge on her. Treat her as she has treated others.
Jer 50:16 Deprive Babylon of the man who sows, of the man who wields the sickle at harvest. Away from the devastating sword, let everyone return to his own people, let everyone flee to his own country!
Jer 50:17 Israel was a straying sheep pursued by lions. First, the king of Assyria devoured him, and latterly Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon crunched his bones.
Jer 50:18 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Look, I shall punish the king of Babylon and his country as I punished the king of Assyria.
Jer 50:19 I will bring Israel back to his pastures to browse on Carmel and in Bashan, on the highlands of Ephraim and in Gilead, and he will be satisfied.
Jer 50:20 In those days and at that time, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, you may look for Israel's guilt, it will not be there, for Judah's sins, you will not find them, for I shall pardon the remnant that I leave.
Jer 50:21 March on the country of Merathaim, march on it and on the inhabitants of Pekod; slaughter and curse with destruction every last one of them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, carry out my orders to the letter!
Jer 50:22 The din of battle fills the country, immense destruction.
Jer 50:23 How utterly shattered that hammer of the whole world! What a thing of horror Babylon has become throughout the nations!
Jer 50:24 I set a snare for you, Babylon; you were caught before you knew it. You have been found and overpowered for having defied Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jer 50:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has opened his armoury and taken out the weapons of his fury. For Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has work to do in the country of the Chaldaeans.
Jer 50:26 Fall on her from every side, open her granaries, pile her in heaps, curse her with destruction, until nothing is left of her.
Jer 50:27 Slaughter all her bulls, down to the slaughterhouse with them! Disaster on them, their day has come, their time for being punished.
Jer 50:28 Listen! Fugitives and runaways from the country of Babylon arrive in Zion and proclaim the revenge of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God, revenge for his Temple!
Jer 50:29 Call up the archers against Babylon! All you who bend the bow, invest her on all sides, leave her no way of escape. Repay her as her deeds deserve; treat her as she has treated others, for she was arrogant to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to the Holy One of Israel.
Jer 50:30 And so in her squares her young men will fall, and all her fighting men will perish, that day, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 50:31 My quarrel is with you, 'Arrogance!' Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares, your day has come, the time for me to punish you.
Jer 50:32 'Arrogance' will stumble, she will fall, no one will lift her up: I shall set fire to her towns and it will devour all around it.
Jer 50:33 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: The people of Israel are oppressed (and the people of Judah too), all their captors hold them fast, they will not let them go.
Jer 50:34 But their redeemer is strong: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth is his name. He will take up their cause, to give our country rest but make the inhabitants of Babylon tremble.
Jer 50:35 A sword against the Chaldaeans, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, against the inhabitants of Babylon, against her princes and her sages!
Jer 50:36 A sword against her diviners: may they lose their wits! A sword against her warriors: may they panic!
Jer 50:37 A sword against her horses, her chariots and the conglomeration of people inside her: may they be like women! A sword against her treasures: may they be plundered!
Jer 50:38 Drought on her waters: may they dry up! For it is a country of idols, and they are mad about those bogeys of theirs!
Jer 50:39 Hence wild cats and jackals will live there, and ostriches make their home there. She will never again be inhabited, for ever, but remain uninhabited age after age.
Jer 50:40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and their neighboring towns, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, no one will live there any more, no human being settle there again.
Jer 50:41 Look, a people is coming from the north, a mighty nation; from the far ends of the earth many kings are stirring.
Jer 50:42 They are armed with bow and spear, they are cruel and pitiless; their noise is like the roaring of the sea; they ride horses, ready as one man to fight you, daughter of Babylon!
Jer 50:43 The king of Babylon has heard the news, his hands fall limp, anguish has seized him, pain like that of a woman in labour.
Jer 50:44 Look, like a lion he climbs the thickets of the Jordan to the perennial pasture! In a flash I shall make them run away and there appoint someone I shall choose. For who is there like me? Who can hale me into court? Name me the shepherd who can stand up to me.
Jer 50:45 So now hear the plan that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has laid against Babylon, the schemes he has in mind against the country of the Chaldaeans: they will certainly be dragged away like the smallest in the flock! Their pastures will certainly be sacked before their eyes!
Jer 50:46 The earth quakes at the sound of Babylon's capture, and the shouting echoes through the nations.
Jer 51:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Against Babylon and the inhabitants of Leb-Kamai I shall rouse a destructive wind.
Jer 51:2 I shall send winnowers to Babylon to winnow her and leave her country bare, for she will be beleaguered on all sides, on the day of disaster.
Jer 51:3 Let no archer bend his bow! Let no man swagger in his breastplate!-No quarter for her young men! Curse her whole army with destruction!
Jer 51:4 In the country of the Chaldaeans the slaughtered will fall, in the streets of Babylon, those run through by the sword.
Jer 51:5 For Israel and Judah have not been bereft of their God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, although their country was full of sin against the Holy One of Israel.
Jer 51:6 Escape from Babylon (save your lives, each one of you); do not perish for her guilt, for now is the time for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s vengeance: he will pay her her reward!
Jer 51:7 Babylon was a golden cup in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s hand, she made the whole world drunk, the nations drank her wine and then went mad.
Jer 51:8 Babylon has suddenly fallen, is broken: wail for her! Fetch balm for her wounds, perhaps she can be cured!
Jer 51:9 -'We tried to cure Babylon; she has got no better. Leave her alone and let us each go to his own country.' -Yes, her sentence reaches to the sky, rises to the very clouds.
Jer 51:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has shown the uprightness of our cause. Come, let us tell in Zion what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God has done.
Jer 51:11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has roused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because he has a plan against Babylon to destroy it; this is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s revenge, revenge for his Temple.
Jer 51:12 Against the walls of Babylon raise the standard! Strengthen the guard! Post the sentries! Take up concealed positions! For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has both planned and done what he promised he would to the inhabitants of Babylon.
Jer 51:13 Enthroned beside abundant waters, rich in treasures, you now meet your end, the finish of your pillaging.
Jer 51:14 By his own self Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has sworn: I shall fill you with men as though with grasshoppers, and over you they will raise the triumph-shout.
Jer 51:15 By his power he made the earth, by his wisdom set the world firm, by his discernment spread out the heavens.
Jer 51:16 When he thunders there is a roaring of waters in heaven; he raises clouds from the furthest limits of the earth, makes the lightning flash for the downpour, and brings the wind from his storehouse.
Jer 51:17 At this everyone stands stupefied, uncomprehending, every goldsmith blushes for his idols; his castings are but delusion, with no breath in them.
Jer 51:18 They are futile, a laughable production, when the time comes for them to be punished, they will vanish.
Jer 51:19 The Heritage of Jacob is not like these, for he is the maker of everything, and Israel is the tribe that is his heritage; His name is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Jer 51:20 You were my mace, a weapon of war. With you I crushed nations, struck kingdoms down,
Jer 51:21 with you crushed horse and rider, with you crushed chariot and charioteer,
Jer 51:22 with you crushed man and woman, with you crushed old man and young, with you crushed young man and girl,
Jer 51:23 with you crushed shepherd and flock, with you crushed ploughman and team, with you crushed governors and magistrates,
Jer 51:24 and I shall repay Babylon and the inhabitants of Chaldaea, before your eyes, for all the wrongs they have done to Zion, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 51:25 I am setting myself against you, mountain of destruction, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, destroyer of the whole world! I shall reach out my hand for you and send you tumbling from the crags and make you a burnt-out mountain.
Jer 51:26 No corner-stone will be taken from you again and no foundation-stone, for you will be a desert for ever, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 51:27 Raise the standard throughout the world, sound the trumpet among the nations! Consecrate nations to make war on her; summon kingdoms against her: Ararat, Minni, Ashkenaz; appoint a recruiting-officer for her enemies, bring up the cavalry, bristling like locusts.
Jer 51:28 Consecrate nations to make war on her: the kings of Media, her governors, all her magistrates and the whole territory under their rule.
Jer 51:29 Then the earth trembled and writhed, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s plan against Babylon was being executed: to change the country of Babylon into an unpopulated desert.
Jer 51:30 The warriors of Babylon have done with fighting, they have stayed inside their fortresses; their courage exhausted, they are now like women. Her houses are on fire, her gates are shattered.
Jer 51:31 Courier follows close on courier, messenger on messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city has been taken from all sides,
Jer 51:32 the fords occupied, the bastions burnt down and the fighting men seized with panic.
Jer 51:33 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: the daughter of Babylon is like a threshing-floor when it is being trodden: a little while, and then the time for harvesting her will come.
Jer 51:34 He devoured me, consumed me, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, left me like an empty dish, like the Dragon he has swallowed me whole, filled his belly with my titbits and threw me out.
Jer 51:35 'On Babylon be the wounds I suffered!' the daughter of Zion will say. 'On the inhabitants of Chaldaea be my blood!' Jerusalem will say.
Jer 51:36 So, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am taking up your cause to make sure you are avenged. I shall dry her river up, make her springs run dry.
Jer 51:37 Babylon will become a heap of stones, the lair of jackals, a thing of horror and of scorn, with no one living in it.
Jer 51:38 Like lions they roar together, they growl like lions' whelps.
Jer 51:39 Are they feverish? I will prepare them a drink and make them drink until they are tipsy and fall into an everlasting sleep, never to wake again, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 51:40 I will drag them away to the slaughterhouse like lambs, like rams and goats.
Jer 51:41 What! Has Sheshak been taken, been conquered, the pride of the whole world? What a thing of horror Babylon has become throughout the nations!
Jer 51:42 The sea has risen over Babylon, she sinks beneath its boisterous waves.
Jer 51:43 Her towns have been turned into wasteland, a parched land, a desert, a country where no one lives and where nobody goes.
Jer 51:44 I shall punish Bel in Babylon and make him disgorge what he has swallowed. In future the nations will stream to him no more. The very walls of Babylon will fall.
Jer 51:45 Get out of her, my people; save your lives, each one of you, from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s furious anger.
Jer 51:46 But do not be faint-hearted! Do not take fright at rumours hawked round the country: one rumour spreads one year, next year another follows; violence rules on earth and one tyrant succeeds another.
Jer 51:47 So look, the days are coming when I shall punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire country will be humbled, with all her slaughtered lying on home-soil.
Jer 51:48 The heaven and earth and all within them will shout for joy over Babylon, for the destroyers from the north are coming to her, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 51:49 Babylon in her turn must fall, you slaughtered ones of Israel, just as through Babylon there fell men slaughtered all over the world.
Jer 51:50 You who have escaped her sword, leave her, do not wait! Remember Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) from afar, let Jerusalem come into your mind.
Jer 51:51 -'We were ashamed when we heard of the outrage, we were covered in confusion because foreigners had entered the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s holy places.'
Jer 51:52 -So look, the days are coming, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, when I shall punish her idols, and the wounded will groan throughout her country.
Jer 51:53 Were Babylon to scale the heavens or reinforce her towering citadel, destroyers would still come to her on my orders, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Jer 51:54 The din of shouting from Babylon, of immense destruction, from the country of the Chaldaeans!
Jer 51:55 Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is laying Babylon waste and silencing her monstrous din, whose waves used to roar like the ocean and their tumultuous voices rang out.
Jer 51:56 For the destroyer has fallen on Babylon, her warriors are captured, their bows are broken. Yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a God of retribution, he never fails to repay.
Jer 51:57 I shall make her princes and her sages drink, her governors, her magistrates, her warriors; they will fall into an everlasting sleep, never to wake again, declares the King, whose name is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Jer 51:58 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: The walls of Babylon the Great will be rased to the ground, and her lofty gates will be burnt down. Thus peoples toil for nothing and nations wear themselves out, for the flames.
Jer 51:59 This is the order that the prophet Jeremiah gave to Seraiah son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah when Seraiah left for Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year of his reign. Seraiah was lord chamberlain.
Jer 51:60 Now, on one sheet, Jeremiah had written down the entire disaster that was to befall Babylon, that is, all these words recorded here against Babylon.
Jer 51:61 Jeremiah then said to Seraiah, 'When you reach Babylon, see to it that you read all these words aloud.
Jer 51:62 Then say, "You, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have promised to destroy this place, so that no one will live here ever again, neither human nor animal, and it will be desolate for ever."
Jer 51:63 Then, when you have finished reading this sheet, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates,
Jer 51:64 with the words, "So shall Babylon sink, never to rise again from the disaster which I am going to bring on her." ' Thus far the words of Jeremiah.
Jer 52:1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he came to the throne, and he reigned for eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamital daughter of Jeremiah, of Libnah.
Jer 52:2 He did what is displeasing to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), just as Jehoiakim had done.
Jer 52:3 That this should happen to Jerusalem and Judah was due to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger, resulting in his casting them away from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Jer 52:4 In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem with his entire army; he pitched camp in front of the city and threw up earthworks round it.
Jer 52:5 The city lay under siege till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.
Jer 52:6 In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, when famine was raging in the city and there was no food for the populace,
Jer 52:7 a breach was made in the city wall. The king and all the fighting men then fled, leaving the city under cover of dark, by way of the gate between the two walls, which is near the king's garden -- the Chaldaeans had surrounded the city -- and made his way towards the Arabah.
Jer 52:8 The Chaldaean troops pursued the king and caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, where all his troops deserted.
Jer 52:9 But the Chaldaeans captured the king and took him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath, where he passed sentence on him.
Jer 52:10 He had Zedekiah's sons slaughtered before his eyes; he also had all the chief men of Judah put to death at Riblah.
Jer 52:11 He then put out Zedekiah's eyes and, loading him with chains, the king of Babylon carried him off to Babylon where he kept him prisoner until his dying day.
Jer 52:12 In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month -- it was in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon -- Nebuzaradan commander of the guard, a member of the king of Babylon's staff, entered Jerusalem.
Jer 52:13 He burnt down the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the royal palace and all the houses in Jerusalem.
Jer 52:14 The Chaldaean troops who accompanied the commander of the guard demolished all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
Jer 52:15 Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported (some of the poor people and) the remainder of the population left in the city, the deserters who had gone over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans.
Jer 52:16 But Nebuzaradan commander of the guard left some of the poor country-people behind as vineyard workers and ploughmen.
Jer 52:17 The Chaldaeans broke up the bronze pillars from the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the wheeled stands and the bronze Sea, which were in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and took all the bronze away to Babylon.
Jer 52:18 They also took the ash containers, the scoops, the knives, the sprinkling bowls, the incense bowls, and all the bronze furnishings used in worship.
Jer 52:19 The commander of the guard also took the bowls, the censers, the sprinkling bowls, the ash containers, the lamp-stands, the goblets and the saucers: everything that was made of gold and everything made of silver.
Jer 52:20 As regards the two pillars, the one Sea, the twelve bronze oxen supporting the Sea, and the wheeled stands, which King Solomon had made for the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), there was no reckoning the weight of bronze in all these objects.
Jer 52:21 As regards the pillars, the height of one pillar was eighteen cubits, its circumference was twelve cubits, it was four fingers thick, and hollow inside;
Jer 52:22 on it stood a capital of bronze, the height of the capital being five cubits; round the capital were filigree and pomegranates, all in bronze. So also for the second pillar.
Jer 52:23 There were ninety-six pomegranates round the sides, making a hundred pomegranates round the filigree in all.
Jer 52:24 The commander of the guard took prisoner Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest next in rank, and the three guardians of the threshold.
Jer 52:25 In the city he took prisoner an official who was in command of the fighting men, seven of the king's personal friends who were discovered in the city, the secretary to the army commander responsible for military conscription, and sixty men of distinction discovered in the city.
Jer 52:26 Nebuzaradan commander of the guard took these men and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah,
Jer 52:27 and at Riblah, in the territory of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them put to death. Thus Judah was deported from its country.
Jer 52:28 The number of people deported by Nebuchadnezzar was as follows. In the seventh year: three thousand and twenty-three Judaeans;
Jer 52:29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two persons were deported from Jerusalem;
Jer 52:30 in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan commander of the guard deported seven hundred and forty-five Judaeans. In all: four thousand six hundred persons.
Jer 52:31 But in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year he came to the throne, pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.
Jer 52:32 He treated him kindly and allotted him a seat above those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.
Jer 52:33 So Jehoiachin laid aside his prisoner's garb and for the rest of his life always ate at the king's table.
Jer 52:34 And his upkeep was permanently ensured by the king, day after day, for the rest of his life until the day he died.
Lam 1:1 How deserted she sits, the city once thronged with people! Once the greatest of nations, she is now like a widow. Once the princess of states, she is now put to forced labour.
Lam 1:2 All night long she is weeping, tears running down her cheeks. Not one of all her lovers remains to comfort her. Her friends have all betrayed her and become her enemies.
Lam 1:3 Judah has gone into exile after much pain and toil. Living among the nations she finds no respite; her persecutors all overtake her where there is no way out.
Lam 1:4 The roads to Zion are in mourning; no one comes to her festivals now. Her gateways are all deserted; her priests groan; her young girls are grief-stricken; she suffers bitterly.
Lam 1:5 Her foes now have the upper hand, her enemies prosper, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has made her suffer for her many, many crimes; her children have gone away into captivity driven in front of the oppressor.
Lam 1:6 And from the daughter of Zion all her splendor has departed. Her princes were like stags which could find no pasture, exhausted, as they flee before the hunter.
Lam 1:7 Jerusalem remembers her days of misery and distress; when her people fell into the enemy's clutches there was no one to help her. Her enemies looked on and laughed at her downfall.
Lam 1:8 Jerusalem has sinned so gravely that she has become a thing unclean. All who used to honor her despise her, having seen her nakedness; she herself groans aloud and turns her face away.
Lam 1:9 Her filth befouls her skirts -- she never thought to end like this, and hence her astonishing fall with no one to comfort her. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), look at my misery, for the enemy is triumphant!
Lam 1:10 The enemy stretched out his hand for everything she treasured; she saw the heathen enter her sanctuary, whom you had forbidden to enter your Assembly.
Lam 1:11 All her people are groaning, looking for something to eat; they have bartered their treasures for food, to keep themselves alive. Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and consider how despised I am!
Lam 1:12 All you who pass this way, look and see: is any sorrow like the sorrow inflicted on me, with which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) struck me on the day of his burning anger?
Lam 1:13 He sent fire from on high deep into my bones; he stretched a net for my feet, he pulled me back; he left me shattered, sick all day long.
Lam 1:14 He has watched out for my offenses, with his hand he enmeshes me, his yoke is on my neck, he has deprived me of strength. The Lord has put me into clutches which I am helpless to resist.
Lam 1:15 The Lord has rejected all my warriors within my walls, he has summoned a host against me to crush my young men; in the winepress the Lord trampled the young daughter of Judah.
Lam 1:16 And that is why I weep; my eyes stream with water, since a comforter who could revive me is far away. My children are shattered, for the enemy has proved too strong.
Lam 1:17 Zion stretches out her hands, with no one to comfort her. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has commanded Jacob's enemies to surround him; they treat Jerusalem as though she were unclean.
Lam 1:18 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is in the right, for I rebelled against his command. Listen, all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My young girls and my young men have gone into captivity. Qophp
Lam 1:19 I called to my lovers; they failed me. My priests and my elders expired in the city, as they searched for food to keep themselves alive.
Lam 1:20 Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I am in distress! My inmost being is in ferment; my heart turns over inside me -- how rebellious I have been! Outside, the sword bereaves; inside it is like death.
Lam 1:21 Listen, for I am groaning, with no one to comfort me. All my enemies have heard of my disaster, they are glad about what you have done. Bring the Day you once foretold, so that they may be like me!
Lam 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before you, and treat them as you have treated me for all my crimes; numberless are my groans, and I am sick at heart.
Lam 2:1 In his anger, with what darkness has the Lord enveloped the daughter of Zion! He has flung the beauty of Israel from heaven to the ground, without regard for his footstool on the day of his anger.
Lam 2:2 The Lord pitilessly engulfed all the homes of Jacob; in his fury he tore down the fortresses of the daughter of Judah; he threw to the ground, he desecrated the kingdom and its princes.
Lam 2:3 In his burning anger he broke all the might of Israel, withdrew his protecting right hand at the coming of the enemy, and blazed against Jacob like a fire that burns up everything near it.
Lam 2:4 Like an enemy he bent his bow, and his right hand held firm; like a foe he slaughtered all those who were a delight to see; on the tent of the daughter of Zion he poured out his fury like fire.
Lam 2:5 The Lord behaved like an enemy; he engulfed Israel, he engulfed all its citadels, he destroyed its fortresses and for the daughter of Judah multiplied weeping on wailing.
Lam 2:6 He wrecked his domain like a garden, destroyed his assembly-points, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) erased the memory of festivals and Sabbaths in Zion; in the heat of his anger he treated king and priest with contempt.
Lam 2:7 The Lord has rejected his altar, he has come to loathe his sanctuary and has given her palace walls into the clutches of the enemy; from the uproar they made in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s temple it might have been a festival day!
Lam 2:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has resolved to destroy the walls of the daughter of Zion, stretching out the line, not staying his hand until he has engulfed everything, thus bringing mourning on wall and rampart; alike they crumbled.
Lam 2:9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; he has broken and shattered their bars. Her king and her princes are among the gentiles, there is no instruction, furthermore her prophets cannot find any vision from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lam 2:10 Mute, they sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The young girls of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
Lam 2:11 My eyes are worn out with weeping, my inmost being is in ferment, my heart plummets at the destruction of my young people, as the children and babies grow faint in the streets of the city.
Lam 2:12 They keep saying to their mothers, 'Where is some food?' as they faint like wounded men in the streets of the city, as they breathe their last on their mothers' breasts.
Lam 2:13 To what can I compare or liken you, daughter of Jerusalem? Who can rescue and comfort you, young daughter of Zion? For huge as the sea is your ruin: who can heal you?
Lam 2:14 The visions your prophets had for you were deceptive whitewash; they did not lay bare your guilt so as to change your fortunes: the visions they told you were deceptive.
Lam 2:15 All who pass your way clap their hands at the sight; they whistle and shake their heads over the daughter of Jerusalem, 'Is this the city they call Perfection of Beauty, the joy of the whole world?'
Lam 2:16 Your enemies open their mouths in chorus against you; they whistle and grind their teeth; they say, 'We have swallowed her up. This is the day we were waiting for; at last we have seen it!'
Lam 2:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done what he planned, has carried out his threat, as he ordained long ago: he has destroyed without pity, increasing the might of your foes -- and letting your foes get the credit.
Lam 2:18 Cry then to the Lord, rampart of the daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night; allow yourself no respite, give your eyes no rest!
Lam 2:19 Up, cry out in the night-time as each watch begins! Pour your heart out like water in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence! Raise your hands to him for the lives of your children (who faint with hunger at the end of every street)!
Lam 2:20 Look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and consider: whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their little ones, the children they have nursed? Should priest and prophet be slaughtered in the Lord's sanctuary?
Lam 2:21 Children and old people are lying on the ground in the streets; my young men and young girls have fallen by the sword; you have killed them, on the day of your anger, you have slaughtered them pitilessly.
Lam 2:22 As though to a festival you called together terrors from all sides, so that, on the day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger, none escaped and none survived. Those whom I had nursed and reared, my enemy has annihilated them all.
Lam 3:1 I am the man familiar with misery under the rod of his fury.
Lam 3:2 He has led and guided me into darkness, not light.
Lam 3:3 Against none but me does he turn his hand, again and again, all day.
Lam 3:4 He has wasted my flesh and skin away, has broken my bones.
Lam 3:5 He has besieged me and made hardship a circlet round my head.
Lam 3:6 He has forced me to dwell where all is dark, like those long-dead in their everlasting home.
Lam 3:7 He has walled me in so that I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains;
Lam 3:8 even when I shout for help, he shuts out my prayer.
Lam 3:9 He has closed my way with blocks of stone, he has obstructed my paths.
Lam 3:10 For me he is a lurking bear, a lion in hiding.
Lam 3:11 Heading me off, he has torn me apart, leaving me shattered.
Lam 3:12 He has bent his bow and used me as a target for his arrows.
Lam 3:13 He has shot deep into me with shafts from his quiver.
Lam 3:14 I have become a joke to all my own people, their refrain all day long.
Lam 3:15 He has given me my fill of bitterness, he has made me drunk with wormwood.
Lam 3:16 He has broken my teeth with gravel, he has fed me on ashes.
Lam 3:17 I have been deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness is
Lam 3:18 and thought, 'My lasting hope in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is lost.'
Lam 3:19 Bring to mind my misery and anguish; it is wormwood and gall!
Lam 3:20 My heart dwells on this continually and sinks within me.
Lam 3:21 This is what I shall keep in mind and so regain some hope:
Lam 3:22 Surely Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s mercies are not over, his deeds of faithful love not exhausted;
Lam 3:23 every morning they are renewed; great is his faithfulness!
Lam 3:24 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is all I have,' I say to myself, 'and so I shall put my hope in him.'
Lam 3:25 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him.
Lam 3:26 It is good to wait in silence for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to save.
Lam 3:27 It is good for someone to bear the yoke from a young age,
Lam 3:28 to sit in solitude and silence when it weighs heavy,
Lam 3:29 to lay one's head in the dust -- maybe there is hope-
Lam 3:30 to offer one's cheek to the striker, to have one's fill of disgrace!
Lam 3:31 For the Lord will not reject anyone for ever.
Lam 3:32 If he brings grief, he will have pity out of the fullness of his faithful love,
Lam 3:33 for it is not for his own pleasure that he torments and grieves the human race.
Lam 3:34 When all the prisoners in a country are crushed underfoot,
Lam 3:35 when human rights are overridden in defiance of the Most High,
Lam 3:36 when someone is cheated of justice, does not the Lord see it?
Lam 3:37 Who has only to speak and it is so done? Who commands, if not the Lord?
Lam 3:38 From where, if not from the mouth of the Most High, do evil and good come?
Lam 3:39 Why then should anyone complain? Better to be bold against one's sins.
Lam 3:40 Let us examine our path, let us ponder it and return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Lam 3:41 Let us raise our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
Lam 3:42 We are the ones who have sinned, who have rebelled, and you have not forgiven.
Lam 3:43 You have enveloped us in anger, pursuing us, slaughtering without pity.
Lam 3:44 You have wrapped yourself in a cloud too thick for prayer to pierce.
Lam 3:45 You have reduced us to rubbish and refuse among the nations.
Lam 3:46 Our enemies open their mouths in chorus against us.
Lam 3:47 Terror and pitfall have been our lot, ravage and ruin.
Lam 3:48 My eyes dissolve in torrents of tears at the ruin of my beloved people.
Lam 3:49 My eyes will weep ceaselessly, without relief,
Lam 3:50 until Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) looks down and sees from heaven.
Lam 3:51 My eyes have grown sore over all the daughters of my city.
Lam 3:52 Unprovoked, my enemies hunted me down like a bird.
Lam 3:53 They shut me finally in a pit, they closed me in with a stone.
Lam 3:54 The waters rose over my head; I thought, 'I am lost!'
Lam 3:55 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I called on your name from the deep pit.
Lam 3:56 You heard my voice, do not close your ear to my prayer, to my cry.
Lam 3:57 You are near when I call to you. You said, 'Do not be afraid!'
Lam 3:58 Lord, you defended my cause, you have redeemed my life.
Lam 3:59 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you have seen the wrong done to me, grant me redress.
Lam 3:60 You have seen their vindictiveness, all their plots against me.
Lam 3:61 You have heard their insults, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all their plots against me,
Lam 3:62 the whispering and murmuring of my enemies against me all day long.
Lam 3:63 Look, whether they sit or stand, I am their refrain.
Lam 3:64 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), repay them as their deeds deserve.
Lam 3:65 Lay hardness of heart as your curse on them.
Lam 3:66 Angrily pursue them, root them out from under your heavens!
Lam 4:1 How the gold has tarnished, how the fine gold has changed! The sacred stones lie scattered at the corner of every street.
Lam 4:2 The children of Zion, as precious as finest gold -- to think that they should now be reckoned like crockery made by a potter!
Lam 4:3 The very jackals give the breast, and suckle their young: but the daughter of my people is as cruel as the ostriches of the desert.
Lam 4:4 The tongue of the baby at the breast sticks to its palate for thirst; little children ask for bread, no one gives them any.
Lam 4:5 Those who used to eat only the best, now lie dying in the streets; those who were reared in the purple claw at the rubbish heaps,
Lam 4:6 for the wickedness of the daughter of my people exceeded the sins of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand being laid on it.
Lam 4:7 Once her young people were brighter than snow, whiter than milk; rosier than coral their bodies, their hue like sapphire.
Lam 4:8 Now their faces are blacker than soot, they are not recognized in the streets, the skin has shrunk over their bones, as dry as a stick.
Lam 4:9 Happier those killed by the sword than those killed by famine: they waste away, sunken for lack of the fruits of the earth.
Lam 4:10 With their own hands, kindly women cooked their children; this was their food when the daughter of my people was ruined.
Lam 4:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) indulged his fury, he vented his fierce anger, he lit a fire in Zion which devoured her foundations.
Lam 4:12 The kings of the earth never believed, nor did any of the inhabitants of the world, that foe or enemy would ever penetrate the gates of Jerusalem.
Lam 4:13 Owing to the sins of her prophets and the crimes of her priests, who had shed the blood of the upright, in the heart of the city,
Lam 4:14 they wandered blindly through the streets, polluted with blood, so that no one dared to touch their clothes.
Lam 4:15 'Keep away! Unclean!' people shouted, 'Keep away! Keep away! Don't touch!' If they left and fled to the nations, they were not allowed to stay there either.
Lam 4:16 The face of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) destroyed them, he will look on them no more. There was no respect for the priests, no deference for the elders.
Lam 4:17 Continually we were wearing out our eyes, watching for help -- in vain. From our towers we watched for a nation which could not save us anyway.
Lam 4:18 Men dogged our steps, to keep us out of our streets. Our end was near, our days were done, our end had come.
Lam 4:19 Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they hounded our steps through the mountains, they lay in ambush for us in the wilds.
Lam 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anointed, was caught in their traps, he of whom we said, 'In his shadow we shall live among the nations.'
Lam 4:21 Rejoice, exult, daughter of Edom, you who reside in Uz! To you in turn the cup will pass; you will get drunk and strip yourself naked!
Lam 4:22 Your wickedness is atoned for, daughter of Zion, he will never banish you again. But your wickedness, daughter of Edom, will he punish, your sins he will lay bare!
Lam 5:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), remember what has happened to us; consider, and see our degradation.
Lam 5:2 Our heritage has passed to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
Lam 5:3 We are orphans, we are fatherless; our mothers are like widows.
Lam 5:4 We have to buy our own water to drink, our own wood we can get only at a price.
Lam 5:5 The yoke is on our necks; we are persecuted; exhausted we are, allowed no rest.
Lam 5:6 We made a pact with Egypt, with Assyria, to have plenty of food.
Lam 5:7 Our ancestors sinned; they are no more, and we bear the weight of their guilt.
Lam 5:8 Slaves rule us; there is no one to rescue us from their clutches.
Lam 5:9 At peril of our lives we earn our bread, by risking the sword of the desert.
Lam 5:10 Our skin is as hot as an oven, from the scorch of famine.
Lam 5:11 The women in Zion have been raped, the young girls in the towns of Judah.
Lam 5:12 Princes have been hanged by their hands; the face of the old has won no respect.
Lam 5:13 Youths have been put to the mill, boys stagger under loads of wood.
Lam 5:14 The elders have deserted the gateway; the young have given up their music.
Lam 5:15 Joy has vanished from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
Lam 5:16 The crown has fallen from our heads. Alas that ever we sinned!
Lam 5:17 This is why our hearts are sick; this is why our eyes are dim:
Lam 5:18 because Mount Zion is desolate; jackals roam to and fro on it.
Lam 5:19 Yet you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), rule from eternity; your throne endures from age to age.
Lam 5:20 Why do you never remember us? Why do you abandon us so long?
Lam 5:21 Make us come back to you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and we will come back. Restore us as we were before!
Lam 5:22 Unless you have utterly rejected us, in an anger which knows no limit.
Bar 1:1 This is the text of the book written in Babylon by Baruch son of Neraiah, son of Mahseiah, son of Zedekiah, son of Hasadiah, son of Hilkiah,
Bar 1:2 in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, at the time when the Chaldaeans had captured Jerusalem and burned it down.
Bar 1:3 Baruch read the text of this book aloud to Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and to all the people who had come to hear the reading,
Bar 1:4 to the nobles and the sons of the king, and to the elders; to the whole people, that is, to the least no less than to the greatest, to all who lived in Babylon beside the river Sud.
Bar 1:5 On hearing it they wept, fasted and prayed before the Lord;
Bar 1:6 and they collected as much money as each could afford
Bar 1:7 and sent it to Jerusalem to the priest Jehoiakim son of Hilkiah, son of Shallum, and the other priests, and all the people who were with him in Jerusalem.
Bar 1:8 Also on the tenth day of Sivan he was given the utensils of the house of the Lord, which had been removed from the Temple, to take them back to the land of Judah; these were silver utensils which Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, had had made
Bar 1:9 after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had deported Jeconiah from Jerusalem to Babylon, together with the princes, the metalworkers, the nobles and the common people.
Bar 1:10 Now, they wrote, we are sending you money to pay for burnt offerings, offerings for sin, and incense. Prepare oblations and offer them on the altar of the Lord our God;
Bar 1:11 and pray for the long life of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and of his son Belshazzar, that they may endure on earth as long as the heavens endure;
Bar 1:12 and that the Lord may give us strength and enlighten our eyes, so that we may lead our lives under the protection of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and of his son Belshazzar, and that we may serve them for a long time and win their favor.
Bar 1:13 Also pray to the Lord our God for us, because we have sinned against him, and the anger, the fury of the Lord, has still not turned away from us.
Bar 1:14 Lastly, you must read the booklet which we are sending you, publicly in the house of the Lord on the feastday and appropriate days.
Bar 1:15 You must say: Saving justice is the Lord's, we have only the look of shame we bear, as is the case today for the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Bar 1:16 for our kings and princes, our priests, our prophets, and for our ancestors,
Bar 1:17 because we have sinned before the Lord,
Bar 1:18 have disobeyed him, and have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God telling us to follow the commandments which the Lord had ordained for us.
Bar 1:19 From the day when the Lord brought our ancestors out of Egypt until today we have been disobedient to the Lord our God, we have been disloyal, refusing to listen to his voice.
Bar 1:20 And we are not free even today of the disasters and the curse which the Lord pronounced through his servant Moses the day he brought our ancestors out of Egypt to give us a land flowing with milk and honey.
Bar 1:21 We have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God in all the words of those prophets he sent us;
Bar 1:22 but, each following the dictates of our evil heart, we have taken to serving alien gods, and doing what is displeasing to the Lord our God.
Bar 2:1 And so the Lord has carried out the sentence which he passed on us, on our judges who governed Israel, on our kings and leaders and on the people of Israel and of Judah;
Bar 2:2 what he did to Jerusalem has never been paralleled under the wide heavens -- in conformity with what was written in the Law of Moses;
Bar 2:3 we were each reduced to eating the flesh of our own sons and daughters.
Bar 2:4 Furthermore, he has handed them over into the power of all the kingdoms that surround us, to be the contempt and execration of all the neighboring peoples among whom the Lord scattered them.
Bar 2:5 Instead of being masters, they found themselves enslaved, because we had sinned against the Lord our God by not listening to his voice.
Bar 2:6 Saving justice is the Lord's; we and our ancestors have only the look of shame we bear today.
Bar 2:7 All those disasters which the Lord pronounced against us have now befallen us.
Bar 2:8 And yet we have not tried to win the favor of the Lord by each of us renouncing the dictates of our own wicked heart;
Bar 2:9 so the Lord has been alert to our misdeeds and has brought disaster down on us, since the Lord is upright in everything he had commanded us to do,
Bar 2:10 and we have not listened to his voice so as to follow the commandments which the Lord had ordained for us.
Bar 2:11 And now, Lord, God of Israel, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with signs and wonders, with great power and with outstretched arm, to win yourself a name such as you have today,
Bar 2:12 we have sinned, we have committed sacrilege; Lord our God, we have broken all your precepts.
Bar 2:13 Let your anger turn from us since we are no more than a little remnant among the nations where you have dispersed us.
Bar 2:14 Listen, Lord, to our prayers and our entreaties; deliver us for your own sake and let us win the favor of the people who have deported us,
Bar 2:15 so that the whole world may know that you are the Lord our God, since Israel and his descendants bear your name.
Bar 2:16 Look down, Lord, from your holy dwelling-place and think of us, bow your ear and listen,
Bar 2:17 open your eyes, Lord, and look; the dead down in Sheol, whose breath has been taken from their bodies, are not the ones to give glory and due recognition to the Lord;
Bar 2:18 whoever is overcome with affliction, who goes along bowed down and frail, with failing eyes and hungering soul, that is the one to give you glory and due recognition, Lord.
Bar 2:19 We do not rely on the merits of our ancestors and of our kings to offer you our humble plea, Lord our God.
Bar 2:20 No, you have sent down your anger and your fury on us, as you threatened through your servants the prophets when they said,
Bar 2:21 'The Lord says this: Bend your necks and serve the king of Babylon, and you will remain in the country which I gave to your ancestors.
Bar 2:22 But if you do not listen to the voice of the Lord and serve the king of Babylon
Bar 2:23 then I shall silence the shouts of rejoicing and mirth and the voices of bridegroom and bride in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, and the whole country will be reduced to desert, with no inhabitants.'
Bar 2:24 But we would not listen to your voice and serve the king of Babylon, and so you carried out what you had threatened through your servants the prophets: that the bones of our kings and of our ancestors would be dragged from their resting places.
Bar 2:25 They were indeed tossed out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. And people died in dreadful agony, from famine, sword and plague.
Bar 2:26 And so, because of the wickedness of the House of Israel and the House of Judah, you have made this House, that bears your name, what it is today.
Bar 2:27 And yet, Lord our God, you have treated us in a way worthy of all your goodness and boundless tenderness,
Bar 2:28 just as you had promised through your servant Moses, the day you told him to write your Law in the presence of the Israelites, and said,
Bar 2:29 'If you do not listen to my voice, this great and innumerable multitude will certainly be reduced to a tiny few among the nations where I shall scatter them-
Bar 2:30 for I knew that, being an obstinate people, they would not listen to me. But in the country of their exile, they will come to themselves
Bar 2:31 and acknowledge that I am the Lord their God. I shall give them a heart and an attentive ear,
Bar 2:32 and they will sing my praises in the country of their exile, they will remember my name;
Bar 2:33 they will stop being obstinate and, remembering what became of their ancestors who sinned before the Lord, will turn from their evil deeds.
Bar 2:34 Then I shall bring them back to the country which I promised on oath to their ancestors Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and make them masters in it. I shall make their numbers grow; they will not dwindle again.
Bar 2:35 And I shall make an everlasting covenant with them; so that I am their God and they are my people. And never again shall I drive my people Israel out of the country which I have given them.'
Bar 3:1 Almighty Lord, God of Israel, a soul in anguish, a troubled heart now cries to you:
Bar 3:2 Listen and have pity, Lord, for we have sinned before you.
Bar 3:3 You sit enthroned for ever, while we are perishing for ever.
Bar 3:4 Almighty Lord, God of Israel, hear the prayer of the dead of Israel, of the children of those who have sinned against you and have not listened to the voice of the Lord their God; hence the disasters which dog us.
Bar 3:5 Do not call to mind the misdeeds of our ancestors, but remember instead your power and your name.
Bar 3:6 You are indeed the Lord our God and we will praise you, Lord,
Bar 3:7 since you have put respect for you in our hearts to encourage us to call on your name. We long to praise you in our exile, for we have rid our hearts of the wickedness of our ancestors who sinned against you.
Bar 3:8 Look, today we are still in exile where you have scattered us as something contemptible, accursed, condemned, for all the misdeeds of our ancestors who had abandoned the Lord our God.
Bar 3:9 Listen, Israel, to commands that bring life; hear, and learn what knowledge means.
Bar 3:10 Why, Israel, why are you in the country of your enemies, growing older and older in an alien land,
Bar 3:11 defiling yourselves with the dead, reckoned with those who go to Sheol?
Bar 3:12 It is because you have forsaken the fountain of wisdom!
Bar 3:13 Had you walked in the way of God, you would be living in peace for ever.
Bar 3:14 Learn where knowledge is, where strength, where understanding, and so learn where length of days is, where life, where the light of the eyes and where peace.
Bar 3:15 But who has found out where she lives, who has entered her treasure house?
Bar 3:16 Where now are the leaders of the nations and those who ruled even the beasts of earth,
Bar 3:17 those who sported with the birds of heaven, those who accumulated silver and gold on which all people rely, and whose possessions had no end,
Bar 3:18 those who worked so carefully in silver -but of whose works no trace is to be found?
Bar 3:19 They have vanished, gone down to Sheol. Others have risen to their places,
Bar 3:20 more recent generations have seen the day and peopled the earth in their turn, but the way of knowledge they have not found;
Bar 3:21 they have not recognized the paths she treads. Nor have their children had any grasp of her, remaining far from her way.
Bar 3:22 Nothing has been heard of her in Canaan, nothing has been seen of her in Teman;
Bar 3:23 the children of Hagar in search of worldly wisdom, the merchants of Midian and Teman, the tale-spinners and the philosophers have none of them found the way to wisdom or remembered the paths she treads.
Bar 3:24 How great, Israel, is the house of God, how wide his domain,
Bar 3:25 immeasurably wide, infinitely lofty!
Bar 3:26 In it were born the giants, famous from the beginning, immensely tall, expert in war;
Bar 3:27 God's choice did not fall on these, he did not show them the way of knowledge;
Bar 3:28 they perished for lack of wisdom, perished by their own folly.
Bar 3:29 Who has ever climbed the sky and seized her to bring her down from the clouds?
Bar 3:30 Who has ever crossed the ocean and found her to bring her back in exchange for the finest gold?
Bar 3:31 No one can learn the way to her, no one can understand the path she treads.
Bar 3:32 But the One who knows all discovers her, he has grasped her with his own intellect, he has set the earth firm for evermore and filled it with four-footed beasts,
Bar 3:33 he sends the light -- and it goes, he recalls it -- and trembling it obeys;
Bar 3:34 the stars shine joyfully at their posts;
Bar 3:35 when he calls them, they answer, 'Here we are'; they shine to delight their Creator.
Bar 3:36 It is he who is our God, no other can compare with him.
Bar 3:37 He has uncovered the whole way of knowledge and shown it to his servant Jacob, to Israel his well-beloved;
Bar 3:38 only then did she appear on earth and live among human beings.
Bar 4:1 She is the book of God's commandments, the Law that stands for ever; those who keep her shall live, those who desert her shall die.
Bar 4:2 Turn back, Jacob, seize her, in her radiance make your way to light:
Bar 4:3 do not yield your glory to another, your privilege to a people not your own.
Bar 4:4 Israel, blessed are we: what pleases God has been revealed to us!
Bar 4:5 Take courage, my people, memorial of Israel!
Bar 4:6 You were sold to the nations, but not for extermination. You provoked God; and so were delivered to your enemies,
Bar 4:7 since you had angered your Creator by offering sacrifices to demons, and not to God.
Bar 4:8 You had forgotten the eternal God who reared you. You had also grieved Jerusalem who nursed you,
Bar 4:9 for when she saw God's anger falling on you, she said: Listen, you neighbors of Zion: God has sent me great sorrow.
Bar 4:10 I have seen my sons and daughters taken into captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them.
Bar 4:11 I had reared them joyfully; in tears, in sorrow, I watched them go away.
Bar 4:12 Do not, any of you, exult over me, a widow, deserted by so many; I am bereaved because of the sins of my children, who turned away from the Law of God,
Bar 4:13 who did not want to know his precepts and would not follow the ways of his commandments or tread the paths of discipline as his justice directed.
Bar 4:14 Come here, neighbors of Zion! Remember my sons' and daughters' captivity, which the Eternal brought down on them.
Bar 4:15 How he brought a distant nation down on them, a ruthless nation speaking a foreign language, they showed neither respect for the aged, nor pity for the child;
Bar 4:16 they carried off the widow's cherished sons, they left her quite alone, bereft of her daughters.
Bar 4:17 For my part, how could I help you?
Bar 4:18 He who brought those disasters down on you, is the one to deliver you from your enemies' clutches.
Bar 4:19 Go, my children, go your way! I must stay bereft and lonely;
Bar 4:20 I have taken off the clothes of peace and put on the sackcloth of entreaty; all my life I shall cry to the Eternal.
Bar 4:21 Take courage, my children, call on God: he will deliver you from tyranny, from the clutches of your enemies;
Bar 4:22 for I look to the Eternal for your rescue, and joy has come to me from the Holy One at the mercy soon to reach you from your Savior, the Eternal.
Bar 4:23 In sorrow and tears I watched you go away, but God will give you back to me in joy and gladness for ever.
Bar 4:24 As the neighbors of Zion have now witnessed your captivity, so will they soon see your rescue by God, which will come upon you with great glory and splendor of the Eternal.
Bar 4:25 My children, patiently bear the anger brought on you by God. Your enemy has persecuted you, but soon you will witness his destruction and set your foot on his neck.
Bar 4:26 My favorite children have travelled by rough roads, carried off like a flock by a marauding enemy.
Bar 4:27 Take courage, my children, call on God: he who brought this on you will remember you.
Bar 4:28 As by your will you first strayed from God, so now turn back and search for him ten times harder;
Bar 4:29 for as he has been bringing down those disasters on you, so will he rescue you and give you eternal joy.
Bar 4:30 Take courage, Jerusalem: he who gave you your name will console you.
Bar 4:31 Disaster will come to all who have ill-treated you and gloated over your fall.
Bar 4:32 Disaster will come to the cities where your children were slaves; disaster to whichever one received your children,
Bar 4:33 for just as she rejoiced at your fall and was happy to see you ruined, so will she grieve over her own desolation.
Bar 4:34 I shall deprive her of the joy of a populous city, and her insolence will turn to mourning;
Bar 4:35 fire from the Eternal will befall her for many a day, and demons will dwell in her for ages.
Bar 4:36 Jerusalem, turn your eyes to the east, see the joy that is coming to you from God.
Bar 4:37 Look, the children you watched go away are on their way home; reassembled from east and west, they are on their way home at the Holy One's command, rejoicing in God's glory.
Bar 5:1 Jerusalem, take off your dress of sorrow and distress, put on the beauty of God's glory for evermore,
Bar 5:2 wrap the cloak of God's saving justice around you, put the diadem of the Eternal One's glory on your head,
Bar 5:3 for God means to show your splendor to every nation under heaven,
Bar 5:4 and the name God gives you for evermore will be, 'Peace-through-Justice, and Glory-through-Devotion'.
Bar 5:5 Arise, Jerusalem, stand on the heights and turn your eyes to the east: see your children reassembled from west and east at the Holy One's command, rejoicing because God has remembered.
Bar 5:6 Though they left you on foot driven by enemies, now God brings them back to you, carried gloriously, like a royal throne.
Bar 5:7 For God has decreed the flattening of each high mountain, of the everlasting hills, the filling of the valleys to make the ground level so that Israel can walk safely in God's glory.
Bar 5:8 And the forests and every fragrant tree will provide shade for Israel, at God's command;
Bar 5:9 for God will guide Israel in joy by the light of his glory, with the mercy and saving justice which come from him. A copy of the letter which Jeremiah sent to those about to be led captive to Babylon by the king of the Babylonians, to tell them what he had been commanded by God:
Bar 6:1 'Because of the sins which you have committed before God you are to be deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar king of the Babylonians.
Bar 6:2 Once you have reached Babylon you will stay there for many years, as long as seven generations; after which I shall bring you home in peace.
Bar 6:3 Now in Babylon you will see gods made of silver, of gold, of wood, being carried shoulder-high, and filling the gentiles with fear.
Bar 6:4 Be on your guard! Do not imitate the foreigners, do not have any fear of their gods
Bar 6:5 as you see their worshippers prostrating themselves before and behind them. Instead, say in your hearts, "Master, it is you that we must worship."
Bar 6:6 For my angel is with you; your lives will be in his care.
Bar 6:7 'Overlaid with gold and silver, their tongues polished smooth by a craftsman, they are counterfeit and have no power to speak.
Bar 6:8 As though for a girl fond of finery, these people take gold and make crowns for the heads of their gods.
Bar 6:9 And sometimes, the priests filch gold and silver from their gods to spend on themselves, even giving some of it to the prostitutes on the terrace.
Bar 6:10 They dress up these gods of silver, gold and wood, in clothes, like human beings; on their own they cannot protect themselves from either tarnish or woodworm;
Bar 6:11 when they have been dressed in purple cloaks, their faces have to be dusted, because of the temple dust which settles thick on them.
Bar 6:12 One holds a scepter like the governor of a province, yet is powerless to put to death anyone who offends him;
Bar 6:13 another holds sword and mace in his right hand, yet is powerless to defend himself against war or thieves.
Bar 6:14 From this it is evident that they are not gods; do not be afraid of them.
Bar 6:15 'Just as a pot in common use becomes useless once it is broken, so are these gods enshrined inside their temples.
Bar 6:16 Their eyes are full of dust raised by the feet of those who enter.
Bar 6:17 Just as the doors are locked on all sides on someone who has offended a king and is under sentence of death, so the priests secure the temples of these gods with gates and bolts and bars for fear of burglary.
Bar 6:18 They light more lamps for them than they do for themselves, and the gods see none of them.
Bar 6:19 They are like one of the temple beams, which are said to be gnawed away from within; the termites creep out of the ground and eat them and their clothes too, and they feel nothing.
Bar 6:20 Their faces are blackened by the smoke that rises from the temple.
Bar 6:21 Bats, swallows, birds of every kind perch on their bodies and heads, and so do cats.
Bar 6:22 From this, you can see for yourselves that they are not gods; do not be afraid of them.
Bar 6:23 'The gold with which they are parading their futility before the world is supposed to make them look beautiful, but if someone does not rub off the tarnish, these gods will not be shining much on their own, and even while they were being cast, they felt nothing.
Bar 6:24 However much was paid for them, there is still no breath of life in them.
Bar 6:25 Being unable to walk, they have to be carried on men's shoulders, which shows how futile they are. It is humiliating for their worshippers, too, who have to stand them up again if they fall over.
Bar 6:26 Once they have been stood up, they cannot move on their own; if they tilt askew, they cannot right themselves; offerings made to them might as well be made to the dead.
Bar 6:27 Whatever is sacrificed to them, the priests re-sell and pocket the profit; while their wives salt down part of it, but give nothing to the poor or to the helpless. As to the sacrifices themselves, why, women during their periods and women in childbed are not afraid to touch them!
Bar 6:28 From all this you can tell that they are not gods; do not be afraid of them.
Bar 6:29 'Indeed, how can they even be called gods, when women do the offering to these gods of silver, gold and wood?
Bar 6:30 In their temples, the priests stay sitting down, their garments torn, heads and beard shaved and heads uncovered;
Bar 6:31 they roar and shriek before their gods as people do at funeral feasts.
Bar 6:32 The priests take robes from the gods to clothe their own wives and children.
Bar 6:33 Whether these gods are treated badly or well, they are incapable of paying back either treatment; as incapable too of making or unmaking kings,
Bar 6:34 equally incapable of distributing wealth or money. If anyone fails to honor a vow he has made to them, they cannot call him to account.
Bar 6:35 They can neither save anyone from death nor rescue the weak from the strong,
Bar 6:36 nor restore sight to the blind, nor save anyone in trouble,
Bar 6:37 nor take pity on a widow, nor be generous to an orphan.
Bar 6:38 These wooden gods overlaid with gold and silver are about as much use as rocks cut out of the mountain side. Their worshippers will be confounded!
Bar 6:39 So how can anyone think or say that they are gods?
Bar 6:40 'The Chaldaeans themselves do them no honor; if they find someone who is dumb and cannot speak, they present him to Bel, entreating him for the gift of speech, as though he could perceive it!
Bar 6:41 And they are incapable of drawing the conclusion and abandoning those gods -- such is their lack of perception.
Bar 6:42 Women with strings round their waists sit in the streets, burning bran like incense;
Bar 6:43 when one of these has been picked up by a passer-by and been to bed with him, she then gloats over her neighbor for not having been thought as worthy as herself and for not having had her string broken.
Bar 6:44 Whatever is done for them is spurious. So how can anyone think or say that they are gods?
Bar 6:45 'Made by woodworkers and goldsmiths, they are only what those workmen decide to make them.
Bar 6:46 Their makers have not long to live themselves, so how can the things they make be gods?
Bar 6:47 Their legacy to their descendants is nothing but delusion and dishonor.
Bar 6:48 If war or disasters befall them, the priests discuss where best to hide themselves and these gods;
Bar 6:49 how can anyone fail to realize that they are not gods, if they cannot save themselves from war or from disasters?
Bar 6:50 And since they are only made of wood overlaid with gold or silver, it will later become apparent that they are spurious; it will be obvious to everyone, to nations as to kings, that they are not gods but the work of human hands, and that there is no divine activity in them.
Bar 6:51 Does anyone still need convincing that they are not gods?
Bar 6:52 'They can neither appoint a king over a country, nor give rain to humankind,
Bar 6:53 nor regulate their own affairs, nor rescue anyone who suffers a wrong; they are as helpless as crows between sky and ground.
Bar 6:54 If fire falls on the temple of these wooden gods overlaid with gold or silver, their priests fly to safety while they for their part stay there like beams, to be burnt.
Bar 6:55 They cannot put up any resistance to a king or to enemies.
Bar 6:56 So how can anyone think or say that they are gods?
Bar 6:57 'These wooden gods overlaid with gold or silver cannot evade thieves or marauders; strong men may rob them of their gold and silver and make off with the robes they are dressed in; yet they are powerless to help even themselves.
Bar 6:58 Better to be a king displaying his prowess, a household pot of use to its owner, than to be these counterfeit gods; or merely the door of a house, protecting what is inside, than these counterfeit gods; or a wooden pillar in a palace than these counterfeit gods.
Bar 6:59 The sun, the moon and the stars, which shine and have been given work to do, are obedient;
Bar 6:60 similarly, the lightning, as it flashes, is a fine sight; in the same way, the wind blows across every country,
Bar 6:61 the clouds execute the order God gives them to pass over the whole earth, and the fire, sent from above to consume mountain and forest, carries out its orders.
Bar 6:62 Now these gods are not their equals, either in beauty or in power.
Bar 6:63 So, no one can think or say that they are gods, powerless as they are to administer justice or to do anyone any good.
Bar 6:64 Therefore, knowing that they are not gods, do not be afraid of them.
Bar 6:65 'For they can neither curse nor bless kings,
Bar 6:66 nor produce signs in heaven for the nations, nor shine like the sun, nor shed light like the moon.
Bar 6:67 The animals are better off than they are, being able to look after themselves by making for cover.
Bar 6:68 There is not the slightest shred of evidence that they are gods; so do not be afraid of them!
Bar 6:69 'Their wooden gods overlaid with gold and silver are like a scarecrow in a field of cucumbers -- protecting nothing.
Bar 6:70 Or again, their wooden gods overlaid with gold and silver are like a thorn-bush in a garden -- any kind of bird may perch on it -- or like a corpse thrown out into the dark.
Bar 6:71 From the purple and linen rotting on their backs you can tell that they are not gods; and in the end, eaten away, they will be the dishonor of the country.
Bar 6:72 Better, then, someone upright who has no idols; dishonor will never come near him.'
Eze 1:1 In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, as I was among the exiles by the River Chebar, heaven opened and I saw visions from God.
Eze 1:2 On the fifth of the month -- it was the fifth year of exile for King Jehoiachin-
Eze 1:3 the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to the priest Ezekiel son of Buzi, in Chaldaea by the River Chebar. There the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came on him.
Eze 1:4 I looked; a stormy wind blew from the north, a great cloud with flashing fire and brilliant light round it, and in the middle, in the heart of the fire, a brilliance like that of amber,
Eze 1:5 and in the middle what seemed to be four living creatures. They looked like this: They were of human form.
Eze 1:6 Each had four faces, each had four wings.
Eze 1:7 Their legs were straight; they had hooves like calves, glittering like polished brass.
Eze 1:8 Below their wings, they had human hands on all four sides corresponding to their four faces and four wings.
Eze 1:9 They touched one another with their wings; they did not turn as they moved; each one moved straight forward.
Eze 1:10 As to the appearance of their faces, all four had a human face, and a lion's face to the right, and all four had a bull's face to the left, and all four had an eagle's face.
Eze 1:11 Their wings were spread upwards, each had one pair touching its neighbor's, and the other pair covering its body.
Eze 1:12 And each one moved straight forward; they went where the spirit urged them, they did not turn as they moved.
Eze 1:13 Between these living creatures were what looked like blazing coals, like torches, darting backwards and forwards between the living creatures; the fire gave a brilliant light, and lightning flashed from the fire,
Eze 1:14 and the living creatures kept disappearing and reappearing like flashes of lightning.
Eze 1:15 Now, as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel touching the ground beside each of the four-faced living creatures.
Eze 1:16 The appearance and structure of the wheels were like glittering chrysolite. All four looked alike, and their appearance and structure were such that each wheel seemed to have another wheel inside it.
Eze 1:17 In whichever of the four directions they moved, they did not need to turn as they moved.
Eze 1:18 Their circumference was of awe-inspiring size, and the rims of all four sparkled all the way round.
Eze 1:19 When the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the living creatures left the ground, the wheels too left the ground.
Eze 1:20 They moved in whichever direction the spirit chose to go, and the wheels rose with them, since the wheels shared the spirit of the animals.
Eze 1:21 When the living creatures moved on, they moved on; when the former halted, the latter halted; when the former left the ground, the wheels too left the ground, since the wheels shared the spirit of the animals.
Eze 1:22 Over the heads of the living creatures was what looked like a solid surface glittering like crystal, spread out over their heads, above them,
Eze 1:23 and under the solid surface, their wings were spread out straight, touching one another, and each had a pair covering its body.
Eze 1:24 I also heard the noise of their wings; when they moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters, like the voice of Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp; and when they halted, they lowered their wings;
Eze 1:25 there was a noise too.
Eze 1:26 Beyond the solid surface above their heads, there was what seemed like a sapphire, in the form of a throne. High above on the form of a throne was a form with the appearance of a human being.
Eze 1:27 I saw a brilliance like amber, like fire, radiating from what appeared to be the waist upwards; and from what appeared to be the waist downwards, I saw what looked like fire, giving a brilliant light all round.
Eze 1:28 The radiance of the encircling light was like the radiance of the bow in the clouds on rainy days. The sight was like the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). I looked and fell to the ground, and I heard the voice of someone speaking to me.
Eze 2:1 He said, 'Son of man, get to your feet; I will speak to you.'
Eze 2:2 As he said these words the spirit came into me and put me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
Eze 2:3 He said, 'Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, to the rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been in revolt against me up to the present day.
Eze 2:4 Because they are stubborn and obstinate children, I am sending you to them, to say, "Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this."
Eze 2:5 Whether they listen or not, this tribe of rebels will know there is a prophet among them.
Eze 2:6 And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or of what they say, though you find yourself surrounded with brambles and sitting on scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or alarmed by their looks, for they are a tribe of rebels.
Eze 2:7 You are to deliver my words to them whether they listen or not, for they are a tribe of rebels.
Eze 2:8 But you, son of man, are to listen to what I say to you; do not be a rebel like that rebellious tribe. Open your mouth and eat what I am about to give you.'
Eze 2:9 When I looked, there was a hand stretch- ing out to me, holding a scroll.
Eze 2:10 He un- rolled it in front of me; it was written on, front and back; on it was written 'Lamentations, dirges and cries of grief '.
Eze 3:1 He then said, 'Son of man, eat what you see; eat this scroll, then go and speak to the House of Israel.'
Eze 3:2 I opened my mouth; he gave me the scroll to eat
Eze 3:3 and then said, 'Son of man, feed on this scroll which I am giving you and eat your fill.' So I ate it, and it tasted sweet as honey.
Eze 3:4 He then said, 'Son of man, go to the House of Israel and tell them what I have said.
Eze 3:5 You are not being sent to a nation that speaks a difficult foreign language; you are being sent to the House of Israel.
Eze 3:6 Not to big nations that speak difficult foreign languages, and whose words you would not understand -- if I sent you to them, they would listen to you;
Eze 3:7 but the House of Israel will not listen to you because it will not listen to me. The whole House of Israel is defiant and obstinate.
Eze 3:8 But now, I am making you as defiant as they are, and as obstinate as they are;
Eze 3:9 I am making your resolution as hard as a diamond, harder than flint. So do not be afraid of them, do not be overawed by them, for they are a tribe of rebels.'
Eze 3:10 Then he said, 'Son of man, take to heart everything I say to you, listen carefully,
Eze 3:11 then go to your exiled countrymen and talk to them. Say to them, "Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this," whether they listen or not.'
Eze 3:12 The spirit lifted me up, and behind me I heard a great vibrating sound, 'Blessed be the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) in his dwelling-place!'
Eze 3:13 This was the sound of the living creatures' wings beating against each other, and the sound of the wheels beside them: a great vibrating sound.
Eze 3:14 The spirit lifted me up and took me, and I went, bitter and angry, and the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) lay heavy on me.
Eze 3:15 I came to Tel Abib, to the exiles beside the River Chebar where they were living, and there I stayed with them in a stupor for seven days.
Eze 3:16 After seven days the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 3:17 'Son of man, I have appointed you as watchman for the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me.
Eze 3:18 If I say to someone wicked, "You will die," and you do not warn this person; if you do not speak to warn someone wicked to renounce evil and so save his life, it is the wicked person who will die for the guilt, but I shall hold you responsible for that death.
Eze 3:19 If, however, you do warn someone wicked who then fails to renounce wickedness and evil ways, the wicked person will die for the guilt, but you yourself will have saved your life.
Eze 3:20 When someone upright renounces uprightness to do evil and I set a trap for him, it is he who will die; since you failed to warn him, he will die for his guilt, and the uprightness he practised will no longer be remembered; but I shall hold you responsible for his death.
Eze 3:21 If, however, you warn someone upright not to sin and this person does not sin, such a one will live, thanks to your warning, and you too will have saved your life.'
Eze 3:22 While I was there the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) came on me; he said, 'Get up, go out into the valley, and there I shall speak to you.'
Eze 3:23 I got up and went out into the valley; the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was resting there, like the glory I had seen by the River Chebar, and I fell to the ground.
Eze 3:24 The spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then entered me and put me on my feet and spoke to me. He said, 'Go and shut yourself in your house.
Eze 3:25 Son of man, you are about to be tied and bound, and unable to mix with other people.
Eze 3:26 I am going to make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth; you will be dumb, and no longer able to reprove them, for they are a tribe of rebels.
Eze 3:27 When I speak to you, however, I shall open your mouth and then you will say to them, "Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Let anyone prepared to listen, listen; let anyone who refuses, refuse!"-for they are a tribe of rebels.'
Eze 4:1 'For your part, son of man, take a brick and lay it in front of you; on it scratch a city, Jerusalem.
Eze 4:2 You are then to besiege it, trench round it, build earthworks, pitch camps and bring up battering-rams all round.
Eze 4:3 Then take an iron pan and place it as though it were an iron wall between you and the city. Then fix your gaze on it; it is being besieged and you are besieging it. This is a sign for the House of Israel.
Eze 4:4 'Lie down on your left side and take the guilt of the House of Israel on yourself. You will bear their guilt for as many days as you lie on that side.
Eze 4:5 Allowing one day for every year of their guilt, I ordain that you bear it for three hundred and ninety days; this is how you will bear the House of Israel's guilt.
Eze 4:6 And when you have finished doing this, you are to lie down again, on your right side, and bear the guilt of the House of Judah for forty days. I have set the length for you as one day for one year.
Eze 4:7 Then fix your gaze on the siege of Jerusalem, raise your bared arm and prophesy against her.
Eze 4:8 Look, I am going to tie you up and you will not be able to turn over from one side to the other until the period of your seclusion is over.
Eze 4:9 'Now take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet and spelt; put them all in the same pot and make them into bread for yourself. You are to eat it for as many days as you are lying on your side -- three hundred and ninety days.
Eze 4:10 Of this food, you are to weigh out a daily portion of twenty shekels and eat it a little piece at a time.
Eze 4:11 And you are to ration the water you drink -- a sixth of a hin -- drinking that a little at a time.
Eze 4:12 You are to eat this in the form of a barley cake baked where they can see you, on human dung.'
Eze 4:13 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'This is how the Israelites will have to eat their defiled food, wherever I disperse them among the nations.'
Eze 4:14 I then said, 'Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my soul is not defiled. From my childhood until now, I have never eaten an animal that has died a natural death or been savaged; no tainted meat has ever entered my mouth.'
Eze 4:15 'Very well,' he said, 'I grant you cow-dung instead of human dung; you are to bake your bread on that.'
Eze 4:16 He then said, 'Son of man, I am going to cut off Jerusalem's food supply; in their extremity, the food they eat will be weighed out; to their horror, the water they drink will be rationed,
Eze 4:17 until there is no food or water left, and they fall into a stupor and waste away because of their guilt.'
Eze 5:1 'Son of man, take a sharp sword, use it like a barber's razor and run it over your head and beard. Then take scales and divide the hair you have cut off.
Eze 5:2 Burn one-third inside the city, while the days of the siege are working themselves out. Then take another third and chop it up with the sword all round the city. The last third you are to scatter to the wind, while I unsheathe the sword behind them.
Eze 5:3 Also take a few hairs and tie them up in the folds of your cloak;
Eze 5:4 and of these again take a few, and throw them on the fire and burn them. From them fire will come on the whole House of Israel.
Eze 5:5 'The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "This is Jerusalem, which I have placed in the middle of the nations, surrounded with foreign countries.
Eze 5:6 She has rebelled more perversely against my observances than the nations have, and against my laws than the surrounding countries have; for they have rejected my observances and not kept my laws."
Eze 5:7 'Therefore, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Because your disorders are worse than those of the nations round you, since you do not keep my laws or respect my observances, and since you do not respect even the observances of the surrounding nations,
Eze 5:8 very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I, too, am against you and shall execute my judgements on you for the nations to see.
Eze 5:9 Because of all your loathsome practices I shall do such things as I have never done before, nor shall ever do again.
Eze 5:10 Those of you who are parents will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I shall execute judgement on you and disperse what remains of you to the winds.
Eze 5:11 For, as I live -- declares Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- as sure as you have defiled my sanctuary with all your horrors and all your loathsome practices, so I too shall reject you without a glance of pity, I shall not spare you.
Eze 5:12 A third of your citizens will die of plague or starve to death inside you; a third will fall by the sword round you; and a third I shall scatter to the winds, unsheathing the sword behind them.
Eze 5:13 I shall sate my anger and bring my fury to rest on them until I am avenged; and when I have sated my fury on them, then they will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), spoke out of jealousy for you.
Eze 5:14 Yes, I shall reduce you to a ruin, an object of derision to the surrounding nations, in the eyes of all who pass by.
Eze 5:15 You will be an object of derision and insults, an example, an object of amazement to the surrounding nations, when I execute judgement on you in furious anger and furious punishments. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken.
Eze 5:16 On them I shall send the deadly arrows of famine, which will destroy you -- for I shall send them to destroy you; then I shall make the famine worse and cut off your food supply.
Eze 5:17 I shall send famine and wild animals on you to rob you of your children; plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I shall bring the sword down on you. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken." '
Eze 6:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 6:2 'Son of man, turn towards the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.
Eze 6:3 Say, "Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to mountains and hills and ravines and valleys: Look, I am going to summon the sword against you and destroy your high places.
Eze 6:4 Your altars will be wrecked, and your incense burners smashed; I shall fling your butchered inhabitants down in front of your foul idols;
Eze 6:5 I shall lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their foul idols and scatter their bones all round your altars.
Eze 6:6 Wherever you live, the towns will be destroyed and the high places wrecked, to the ruin and wrecking of your altars, the shattering and abolition of your foul idols, the smashing of your incense burners and the utter destruction of all your works.
Eze 6:7 As the butchered fall about you, you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 6:8 "But I shall spare some of you to escape the sword among the nations, when you have been dispersed in their lands;
Eze 6:9 and your survivors will remember me among the nations where they are held captive, since I shall have broken their adulterous hearts for having deserted me, and destroyed their eyes for having turned adulterously towards their foul idols. They will loathe themselves for all the wrong they have caused by their loathsome practices.
Eze 6:10 Then they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and that I was not talking lightly when I said that I would inflict these disasters on them."
Eze 6:11 'The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and say: Alas for all the loathsome sins of the House of Israel, which is about to fall by sword, famine and plague!
Eze 6:12 Far off, they will die by plague; near at hand they will fall by the sword; and any who survive or are spared will die of famine. This is how I shall sate my fury on them.
Eze 6:13 Then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when their butchered corpses lie among their foul idols, all round their altars, on every high hill, on every mountain top, under every green tree, under every leafy oak, wherever they offer a smell pleasing to all their idols.
Eze 6:14 I shall point my finger at them and reduce the country to an empty wasteland from the desert to Riblah, everywhere they live, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 7:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 7:2 'Son of man, say, "Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to the land of Israel: Finished! The end is coming for the four corners of the country.
Eze 7:3 This is the end for you; I shall unleash my anger on you, and judge you as your conduct deserves and call you to account for all your loathsome practices.
Eze 7:4 I shall show you no pity, I shall not spare you; I shall repay you for your conduct and for the loathsome practices in which you persist. Then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 7:5 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Disaster, a unique disaster, is coming.
Eze 7:6 The end is coming, the end is coming, it is on the move towards you, it is coming now.
Eze 7:7 Now it is your turn, you who dwell in this country. Doom is coming, the day is near; no joy now, only tumult, on the mountains.
Eze 7:8 Now I shall soon vent my fury on you and sate my anger on you: I shall judge you as your conduct deserves and repay you for all your loathsome practices.
Eze 7:9 I shall show neither pity nor mercy, but shall repay you for your conduct and the loathsome practices in which you persist. Then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and that I strike.
Eze 7:10 "Now is the day, your turn has come, it has come, it appears, the scepter has blossomed, pride is at its peak.
Eze 7:11 Violence has risen to become the scourge of wickedness . . .
Eze 7:12 Doom is coming, the day is near. Neither should buyer rejoice, nor seller regret, for the fury rests on everyone alike.
Eze 7:13 The seller will not be able to go back on his bargain; each persists in his sins; they take no defensive measures.
Eze 7:14 The trumpet sounds, all is ready, but no one goes into battle, since my fury rests on all alike.
Eze 7:15 "Outside, the sword; inside, plague and famine. Whoever is living in the countryside will die by the sword; whoever is living in the city will be devoured by famine and plague.
Eze 7:16 And those who escape will escape to the mountains and there, like doves of the valleys, I shall slaughter them all, each one for his sin.
Eze 7:17 Every hand will grow limp, every knee turn to water.
Eze 7:18 They will put on sackcloth, each one trembling. Every face will be ashamed and every head be shaved.
Eze 7:19 They will throw their silver away in the streets and their gold they will regard as a pollution; neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s fury. Never again will they have enough to eat, never again will they fill their bellies, since that was the occasion for their guilt.
Eze 7:20 They used to pride themselves on the beauty of their jewellery, out of which they made their loathsome images, their horrors; so now I have made it pollute them.
Eze 7:21 I shall hand it over as plunder to foreigners, as loot to the most evil people on earth. They will profane it.
Eze 7:22 I shall turn my face away from them, while my treasure-house is profaned and robbers will force their way in and profane it.
Eze 7:23 "Forge yourself a chain; for the country is full of bloody executions and the city full of deeds of violence,
Eze 7:24 so I shall bring the cruellest of the nations to seize their houses. I shall put an end to the pride of their e'lite, and their sanctuary will be profaned.
Eze 7:25 Terror is on the way: they will look for peace and there will be none.
Eze 7:26 Disaster will follow on disaster, rumour on rumour; they will pester the prophet for a vision; the priest will be at a loss over the law and the elders on how to advise.
Eze 7:27 The king will go into mourning, the prince be plunged in grief, the hands of the country people tremble. I shall treat them as their conduct deserves, and judge them as their own verdicts merit. Then they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!" '
Eze 8:1 In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting at home and the elders of Judah were sitting with me, when suddenly the hand of the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) fell on me there.
Eze 8:2 I looked, and there was a form with the appearance of a human being. Downwards from what seemed to be the waist there was fire; and upwards from the waist there was a brilliance like the glitter of amber.
Eze 8:3 Something like a hand was stretched out and it took me by a lock of my hair; and the spirit lifted me between heaven and earth and, in visions from God, took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the inner north gate, where stands the idol that provokes jealousy.
Eze 8:4 There was the glory of the God of Israel; it looked like what I had seen in the valley.
Eze 8:5 He said, 'Son of man, raise your eyes to the north.' I raised my eyes to the north, and there, to the north of the altar gate, stood this statue of jealousy at the entrance.
Eze 8:6 He said, 'Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the monstrous, loathsome things that the House of Israel is practising here, to drive me out of my sanctuary? And you will see practices more loathsome still.'
Eze 8:7 He next took me to the entrance to the court. I looked; there was a hole in the wall.
Eze 8:8 He said, 'Son of man, bore through the wall.' I bored through the wall, until I had made an opening.
Eze 8:9 He said, 'Go in and look at the loathsome things they are doing inside.'
Eze 8:10 I went in and looked and there was every kind of reptile and repulsive animal, and all the foul idols of the House of Israel, carved all round the walls.
Eze 8:11 Seventy elders of the House of Israel were worshipping the idols -- among them Jaazaniah son of Shaphan -- each one with his censer in his hand, from which rose a fragrant cloud of incense.
Eze 8:12 He said, 'Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the House of Israel do in the dark, each in his personal image-shrine? They say, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) cannot see us; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has abandoned the country." '
Eze 8:13 He said, 'You will see them at practices more loathsome still.'
Eze 8:14 He next took me to the entrance of the north gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) where women were sitting, weeping for Tammuz.
Eze 8:15 He said, 'Son of man, do you see that? You will see even more loathsome things than that.'
Eze 8:16 He then led me to the inner court of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). And there, at the entrance to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary, between the portico and the altar, there were about twenty-five men, with their backs to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary and their faces turned towards the east. They were prostrating themselves to the east, before the rising sun.
Eze 8:17 He said to me, 'Son of man, do you see that? Is it not bad enough for the House of Judah to be doing the loathsome things they are doing here? But they fill the country with violence and provoke my anger further; look at them now putting that branch to their nostrils.
Eze 8:18 And so I shall react in fury; I shall show neither pity nor mercy. They may cry as loudly as they like to me; I will not listen.'
Eze 9:1 Then he shouted loudly for me to hear, 'The scourges of the city are approaching, each carrying his weapon of destruction!'
Eze 9:2 Immediately six men advanced from the upper north gate, each holding a deadly weapon. Among them was a man dressed in linen, with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt. They came in and halted in front of the bronze altar.
Eze 9:3 The glory of the God of Israel rose from above the winged creature where it had been, towards the threshold of the Temple. He called to the man dressed in linen with a scribe's ink-horn in his belt
Eze 9:4 and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to him, 'Go all through the city, all through Jerusalem, and mark a cross on the foreheads of all who grieve and lament over all the loathsome practices in it.'
Eze 9:5 I heard him say to the others, 'Follow him through the city and strike. Not one glance of pity; show no mercy;
Eze 9:6 old men, young men, girls, children, women, kill and exterminate them all. But do not touch anyone with a cross on his forehead. Begin at my sanctuary.' So they began with the old men who were in the Temple.
Eze 9:7 He said to them, 'Defile the Temple; fill the courts with corpses; then go out!' They went out and hacked their way through the city.
Eze 9:8 While they were hacking them down, I was left alone; I fell on my face, crying out, 'Ah, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are you going to annihilate all that is left of Israel by venting your fury on Jerusalem?'
Eze 9:9 He said, 'The guilt of the House of Israel and Judah is immense; the country is full of bloodshed, the city full of perversity, for they say, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has abandoned the country, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) cannot see."
Eze 9:10 Then, I too shall neither give one glance of pity nor show any mercy. I shall repay them for what they have done.'
Eze 9:11 The man dressed in linen with the scribe's ink-horn in his belt then came back and made his report, 'I have carried out your orders.'
Eze 10:1 Then, in vision I saw that above the solid surface over the heads of the winged creatures there was above them something like sapphire, which seemed to be like a throne.
Eze 10:2 He then said to the man dressed in linen, 'Go in between the wheels below the winged creatures; take a handful of burning coal from between the winged creatures and scatter it over the city.' He went in as I watched.
Eze 10:3 The winged creatures were on the right of the Temple as the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.
Eze 10:4 The glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rose from above the winged creatures, towards the threshold of the Temple; the Temple was filled by the cloud and the court was full of the brightness of the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 10:5 The noise of the winged creatures' wings could be heard even in the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks.
Eze 10:6 When he had given the order to the man dressed in linen, 'Take the fire from between the wheels, between the winged creatures,' the man went in and stood by one of the wheels.
Eze 10:7 One of the winged creatures then reached his hand out towards the fire between the winged creatures, took some of it and put it into the hands of the man dressed in linen, who took it and came out again.
Eze 10:8 There appeared to be what looked like a human hand under the winged creatures' wings.
Eze 10:9 And I looked, and there were four wheels beside the winged creatures, one wheel beside each winged creature, and the appearance of the wheels was like the sparkle of chrysolite.
Eze 10:10 In appearance, all four looked alike, as though each wheel had another wheel inside it.
Eze 10:11 In whichever of the four directions they moved, they did not need to turn as they moved, but whichever way the head was facing there they followed; they did not turn as they moved,
Eze 10:12 and their entire bodies, their backs, their hands, their wings, as well as the wheels, had eyes all the way round (the wheels of all four).
Eze 10:13 In my hearing, these wheels were called 'galgal'.
Eze 10:14 Each had four faces; the first was a winged creature's face, the second a human face, the third a lion's face and the fourth an eagle's face.
Eze 10:15 The winged creatures rose; this was the being I had seen by the River Chebar.
Eze 10:16 When the winged creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the winged creatures raised their wings to leave the ground, the wheels did not turn beside them.
Eze 10:17 When the former halted the latter halted; when the former rose, the latter rose with them, since they shared the same living spirit.
Eze 10:18 The glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then came out over the Temple threshold and paused over the winged creatures.
Eze 10:19 These raised their wings and rose from the ground as I watched, and the wheels were beside them. They paused at the entrance to the east gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with the glory of the God of Israel over them, above.
Eze 10:20 This was the winged creature I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the River Chebar; I knew that they were winged creatures.
Eze 10:21 Each had four faces and four wings and what seemed to be human hands under their wings.
Eze 10:22 Their faces were like those I had seen by the River Chebar. Each one moved straight forward.
Eze 11:1 The spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the gate that looks eastwards. There at the entrance to the gate stood twenty-five men, among whom I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.
Eze 11:2 He said to me, 'Son of man, these are the wicked schemers who are spreading their bad advice through this city.
Eze 11:3 They say, "There will be no house-building yet awhile. The city is the cooking pot and we are the meat."
Eze 11:4 So prophesy against them, prophesy, son of man!'
Eze 11:5 The spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) fell on me, and he said to me, 'Say, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I know what you are saying, House of Israel, I know how insolent you are.
Eze 11:6 You have filled this city with more and more of your victims; you have strewn its streets with victims.
Eze 11:7 And so the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Your victims, whom you have put in it, are the meat, and the city is the cooking pot; but I shall take you out of it.
Eze 11:8 You are afraid of the sword and I shall bring the sword down on you -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-
Eze 11:9 and I shall take you out of it and hand you over to foreigners and bring you to justice;
Eze 11:10 you will fall by the sword on the soil of Israel; I shall execute justice on you, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 11:11 This city will be no cooking pot for you, nor will you be the meat inside; I shall execute justice on you on the soil of Israel;
Eze 11:12 and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), whose laws you have not obeyed and whose judgements you have not kept; instead, you have adopted the customs of the nations round you." '
Eze 11:13 Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah dropped dead. I fell to the ground and cried out, 'Ah, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are you going to annihilate the remnant of Israel?'
Eze 11:14 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was then addressed to me as follows,
Eze 11:15 'Son of man, to your brothers one and all, to your kinsfolk and to the whole House of Israel, the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, "Keep well away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This country has now been made over to us!"
Eze 11:16 So say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Yes, I have sent them far away among the nations and I have dispersed them to foreign countries; and for a while I have been a sanctuary for them in the country to which they have gone."
Eze 11:17 So say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall gather you back from the peoples, I shall collect you in from the countries where you have been scattered and give you the land of Israel.
Eze 11:18 When they come back, they will purge it of all its horrors and loathsome practices.
Eze 11:19 I shall give them a single heart and I shall put a new spirit in them; I shall remove the heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,
Eze 11:20 so that they can keep my laws and respect my judgements and put them into practice. Then they will be my people and I shall be their God.
Eze 11:21 But those whose hearts are set on their horrors and loathsome practices I shall repay for their conduct -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 11:22 The winged creatures then raised their wings and the wheels moved with them, with the glory of the God of Israel over them, above.
Eze 11:23 And the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rose from the centre of the city and halted on the mountain to the east of the city.
Eze 11:24 Then the spirit lifted me up and took me, in vision, in the spirit of God, to the exiles in Chaldaea, and the vision which I had seen faded.
Eze 11:25 I then told the exiles everything that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) had shown me.
Eze 12:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 12:2 'Son of man, you are living among a tribe of rebels who have eyes and never see, they have ears and never hear, because they are a tribe of rebels.
Eze 12:3 So, son of man, pack an exile's bundle and set off for exile by daylight while they watch. You will leave your home and go somewhere else while they watch. Then perhaps they will see that they are a tribe of rebels.
Eze 12:4 You will pack your baggage like an exile's bundle, by daylight, while they watch, and leave like an exile in the evening, while they watch.
Eze 12:5 While they watch, make a hole in the wall, and go out through it.
Eze 12:6 While they watch, you will shoulder your pack and go out into the dark; you will cover your face so that you cannot see the ground, since I have made you an omen for the House of Israel.'
Eze 12:7 I did as I had been told. I packed my baggage like an exile's bundle, by daylight; and in the evening I made a hole through the wall with my hands; then I went out into the dark and shouldered my pack while they watched.
Eze 12:8 Next morning the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 12:9 'Son of man, did not the House of Israel, did not that tribe of rebels, ask you, "What are you doing?"
Eze 12:10 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: This prophecy concerns Jerusalem and the whole House of Israel who live there."
Eze 12:11 Say, "I am an omen for you; as I have done, so will be done to them; they will be deported into exile.
Eze 12:12 Their prince will shoulder his pack in the dark and go out through the wall; a hole will be made to let him out; he will cover his face, so that he cannot see the country.
Eze 12:13 I shall throw my net over him and catch him in my mesh; I shall take him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldaeans, though he will not see it; and there he will die.
Eze 12:14 And all those in attendance on him, his army and all his troops, I shall scatter to all the winds and unsheathe the sword behind them.
Eze 12:15 Then they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I scatter them throughout the nations and disperse them in foreign countries.
Eze 12:16 But I shall let a few of them escape the sword, famine and plague, to describe all their loathsome practices to the peoples among whom they will go, so that these too may know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 12:17 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 12:18 'Son of man, you are to tremble as you eat your food and shudder apprehensively as you drink your water,
Eze 12:19 and you are to say to the people of the country, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They will shudder apprehensively as they eat their food, and drink their water in fear, so that the country and its population may be freed from the violence of its inhabitants.
Eze 12:20 When the populous cities have been destroyed and the country has been reduced to desert, then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 12:21 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 12:22 'Son of man, what do you understand by the saying pronounced over the land of Israel, "Days go by and visions fade"?
Eze 12:23 'Very well, tell them, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall put an end to this saying; it will never be used in Israel again." Instead, tell them: "The days are coming when every vision will come true,
Eze 12:24 for there will be no more futile visions or deceptive prophecy in the House of Israel,
Eze 12:25 since I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), shall speak. And what I shall say will come true without delay; for what I shall say, I shall perform in your own lifetime, you tribe of rebels -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 12:26 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 12:27 'Son of man, the House of Israel is now saying, "The vision that this man sees concerns the distant future; he is prophesying for times far ahead."
Eze 12:28 Very well, tell them, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: There will be no further delay in the fulfilling of any of my words. What I have said shall be done now -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 13:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 13:2 'Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel; prophesy, and say to those who make up prophecies out of their own heads, "Hear what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says:
Eze 13:3 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Disaster is in store for the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing!
Eze 13:4 Your prophets, Israel, are like ruin-haunting jackals!
Eze 13:5 "You have not ventured into the breach; you have not built up the wall round the House of Israel, to hold fast in battle on the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 13:6 Theirs are futile visions and false predictions, who say: A prophecy from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not sent them; yet they expect their words to come true.
Eze 13:7 Have not the visions you see been futile, have not the predictions you make been false, although you say: A prophecy of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I have not spoken?
Eze 13:8 "Very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Because of your futile words and false predictions, I am now against you -- declares Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 13:9 My hand will be against the prophets who have futile visions and give false predictions; they will not be admitted to the council of my people, their names will not be entered in the roll of the House of Israel, they will not set foot on the soil of Israel; and they will know that I am the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 13:10 This is because they have misled my people by saying Peace! when there is no peace. When my people were repairing a wall, these men came and plastered it over!
Eze 13:11 Tell these plasterers: It will rain hard, it will hail, it will blow a gale,
Eze 13:12 and down will come the wall! Will not people ask you: What has become of the plaster you slapped on it?
Eze 13:13 Well then, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am going to unleash a stormy wind in my fury, torrential rain in my anger, hailstones in my destructive fury,
Eze 13:14 and I shall shatter the wall you plastered and knock it down and lay its foundations bare. It will fall and you will perish under it; then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 13:15 'When I have sated my anger on the wall and those who plastered it, I shall say to you, "The wall is gone, and so are those who plastered over it,
Eze 13:16 the prophets of Israel who prophesy about Jerusalem and have visions of peace for her when there is no peace -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 13:17 'Also, son of man, turn to the women of your people who make up prophecies out of their own heads; prophesy against them.
Eze 13:18 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Disaster is in store for women who sew ribbons round each wrist and make head-cloths for people of all sizes, in their hunt for souls! Are you to hunt the souls of my people and keep your own souls safe?
Eze 13:19 You dishonor me in front of my people for a few handfuls of barley, a few bits of bread, killing those who ought not to die and sparing those who ought not to live, lying to my people who love listening to lies.
Eze 13:20 "Very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am now against your ribbons, with which you hunt souls like birds, and I shall tear them off your arms and free those souls whom you hunt like birds.
Eze 13:21 I shall tear your head-cloths to pieces and rescue my people from your clutches; no longer will they be fair game for you to ensnare. Then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 13:22 "For having intimidated with lies the heart of the upright whom I had done nothing to alarm, and for having encouraged the wicked not to give up wicked ways and so be saved,
Eze 13:23 very well, you will have no more futile visions and make no more predictions, for I shall rescue my people from your clutches, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 14:1 Next, some elders of Israel visited me and while they were sitting with me,
Eze 14:2 the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 14:3 'Son of man, these men have enshrined their foul idols in their hearts and placed the cause of their sinning right before their eyes. Why should I let myself be consulted by them?
Eze 14:4 So speak to them; tell them this, "Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Every member of the House of Israel who enshrines his foul idols in his heart and places the cause of his sinning right before his eyes, and who then approaches the prophet, will get this answer from me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), as the multiplicity of his idols deserves,
Eze 14:5 and in this way I hope to win back the hearts of the House of Israel who have all been estranged from me by their foul idols."
Eze 14:6 'So say to the House of Israel, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Come back, turn away from your foul idols, turn your backs on all your loathsome practices;
Eze 14:7 for if any member of the House of Israel -- or any foreigner living in Israel -- deserts me to enshrine his foul idols in his heart and places the cause of his sinning right before his eyes and then approaches a prophet to consult me through him, he will get his answer from me, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 14:8 I shall set my face against that person; I shall make him an example and a byword; I shall rid my people of him, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 14:9 And if the prophet is seduced into saying something, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), shall have seduced that prophet; I shall point my finger at him and rid my people Israel of him.
Eze 14:10 Both will be punished for their guilt; the prophet's punishment will be the same as that of the person who consults him,
Eze 14:11 so that the House of Israel will never stray from me again or defile themselves again with these crimes, but be my people and I their God -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 14:12 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me:
Eze 14:13 'Son of man, when a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I point my finger at it and destroy its supply of food, inflicting famine on it and denuding it of human and animal,
Eze 14:14 even if the three men, Noah, Danel and Job, were living in it, they would save no one but themselves by their uprightness -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 14:15 Were I to unleash wild beasts on that country to rob it of its children and reduce it to a desert which no one would dare to cross because of the animals,
Eze 14:16 even if these three men were living there, as I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- they would not be able to save either son or daughter; they alone would be saved, and the country would become a desert.
Eze 14:17 Were I to bring the sword down on that country and say, "Sword, cross the country!" so as to denude it of human and animal,
Eze 14:18 even if these three men were living there, as I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- they would not be able to save either son or daughter; they alone would be saved.
Eze 14:19 If I were to send the plague on that country and vent my fury on it by bloodshed, so as to denude it of human and animal,
Eze 14:20 even if Noah and Danel and Job were living there, as I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- they would be able to save neither son nor daughter, only themselves by their uprightness.
Eze 14:21 'The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Even if I send my four dreadful scourges on Jerusalem-sword, famine, wild beasts and plague -- to denude it of human and animal,
Eze 14:22 even so, there will be a remnant left, a few men and women who come through; when they come to you and you see their conduct and actions, you will take comfort in spite of the disaster which I have brought on Jerusalem, in spite of all I have brought on her.
Eze 14:23 They will comfort you, when you see their conduct and actions, and so you will know that I have not done in vain all I have done to her -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 15:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows:
Eze 15:2 Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than wood from the branch of a forest tree?
Eze 15:3 Is its wood used for making anything? Are pegs on which to hang things made from it?
Eze 15:4 There it is, thrown on the fire for fuel. The fire burns off both ends; the middle is charred; can it be kept for anything now?
Eze 15:5 While it was intact, you could make nothing with it; burned and charred, is it any more useful now?
Eze 15:6 So, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: As the wood of the vine among the forest trees, which I have thrown on the fire for fuel, so shall I treat the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Eze 15:7 I shall set my face against them. They have escaped one fire, but fire will devour them yet. And you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I set my face against them.
Eze 15:8 I shall reduce the country to a desert, because of their infidelity- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 16:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 16:2 'Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her loathsome practices!
Eze 16:3 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: By origin and birth you belong to the land of Canaan. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.
Eze 16:4 At birth, the very day you were born, there was no one to cut your navel-string, or wash you in water to clean you, or rub you with salt, or wrap you in swaddling clothes.
Eze 16:5 No one looked at you with pity enough to do any of these things out of sympathy for you. You were exposed in the open fields in your own dirt on the day you were born.
Eze 16:6 "I saw you kicking on the ground in your blood as I was passing, and I said to you as you lay in your blood: Live!
Eze 16:7 and I made you grow like the grass of the fields. You developed, you grew, you reached marriageable age. Your breasts became firm and your hair grew richly, but you were stark naked.
Eze 16:8 Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I gave you my oath, I made a covenant with you -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- and you became mine.
Eze 16:9 I bathed you in water, I washed the blood off you, I anointed you with oil.
Eze 16:10 I gave you embroidered dresses, fine leather shoes, a linen headband and a cloak of silk.
Eze 16:11 I loaded you with jewels, gave you bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your throat.
Eze 16:12 I gave you nose-ring and earrings; I put a beautiful diadem on your head.
Eze 16:13 You were loaded with gold and silver and dressed in linen and silk and brocade. Your food was the finest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; and you rose to be queen.
Eze 16:14 The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed you with my own splendor -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 16:15 "But you became infatuated with your own beauty and used your fame to play the whore, lavishing your debauchery on all comers.
Eze 16:16 You took some of your clothes to make for yourself high places bright with colours and there you played the whore.
Eze 16:17 You also took your jewellery, made with my gold and silver which I had given you, and made yourself male images to serve your whorings.
Eze 16:18 You took your embroidered clothes and used these to dress them up, and you offered them my oil and my incense.
Eze 16:19 And the bread I gave you, the finest flour, the oil and honey with which I fed you, you offered them as a pleasing smell. "What is more -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-
Eze 16:20 you took the sons and daughters you had borne me and sacrificed them as food to the images. Was not your whoring enough in itself,
Eze 16:21 for you to slaughter my children and hand them over to be burnt in their honor?
Eze 16:22 And in all your loathsome practices and your whorings you never called your early days to mind, when you were stark naked, kicking on the ground in your own blood.
Eze 16:23 "To crown your wickedness -- disaster upon you, disaster! declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-
Eze 16:24 you built yourself a mound and made yourself a high place in every open space.
Eze 16:25 At the entry to every alley you made yourself a high place, defiling your beauty and opening your legs to all comers in countless acts of fornication.
Eze 16:26 You have also fornicated with your big-membered neighbors, the Egyptians, provoking my anger with further acts of fornication.
Eze 16:27 So now I have raised my hand against you, I have cut down on your food, I have put you at the mercy of your enemies, the Philistine women, who blush at your lewd behaviour.
Eze 16:28 Still unsatisfied, you prostituted yourself to the Assyrians; you played the whore with them, but were not satisfied even then.
Eze 16:29 You committed further acts of fornication in the country of merchants, with the Chaldaeans, and these did not satisfy you either.
Eze 16:30 "How simple-minded you are!-declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- for although you do all the things that a professional prostitute would,
Eze 16:31 in building a mound and making yourself a high place in every street, you do not act like a proper prostitute because you disdain to take a fee.
Eze 16:32 An adulteress welcomes strangers instead of her husband.
Eze 16:33 All prostitutes accept presents, but you give presents to all your lovers, you bribe them to come from all over the place to fornicate with you!
Eze 16:34 In fornicating, you are the opposite of other women, since no one runs after you to fornicate with you; since you give the fee and do not get one, you are the very opposite!
Eze 16:35 "Very well, whore, hear the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Eze 16:36 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For having squandered your money and let yourself be seen naked while whoring with your lovers and all the foul idols of your loathsome practices and for giving them your children's blood-
Eze 16:37 for all this, I shall assemble all the lovers to whom you have given pleasure, all the ones you liked and also all the ones you disliked; yes, I shall assemble them round you and strip you naked in front of them, and let them see you naked from head to foot.
Eze 16:38 I shall pass on you the sentence that adulteresses and murderesses receive; I shall hand you over to their jealous fury;
Eze 16:39 I shall hand you over to them; they will destroy your mound and pull down your high place; they will tear off your clothes, take away your jewels and leave you stark naked.
Eze 16:40 Then they will call an assembly of citizens to deal with you, who will stone you to death and hack you to pieces with their swords,
Eze 16:41 and burn down your premises and execute justice on you, while many other women look on; and I shall put an end to your whoring: no more paid lovers for you!
Eze 16:42 Once my fury is exhausted with you, then my jealousy will leave you; I shall be calm and not angry any more.
Eze 16:43 Since you never called to mind your early days and have done nothing but provoke me, now I in my turn shall bring your conduct down on your own head -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! "Have you not added this lewd behavior to your other loathsome practices?
Eze 16:44 So now all dealers in proverbs will apply this one to you: Like mother, like daughter.
Eze 16:45 Yes; you are a true daughter of your mother, who hated her husband and her children; you are a true sister of your sisters, who hated their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.
Eze 16:46 Your elder sister is Samaria, who lives to the north of you with her daughters. Your younger sister is Sodom, who lives to the south of you with her daughters.
Eze 16:47 You never failed to imitate their behavior and copy their loathsome practices, and soon your behavior was more corrupt than theirs was.
Eze 16:48 As I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
Eze 16:49 The crime of your sister Sodom was pride, gluttony, calm complacency; such were hers and her daughters' crimes. They never helped the poor and needy;
Eze 16:50 they were proud, and engaged in loathsome practices before me, and so I swept them away as you have seen.
Eze 16:51 And yet Samaria never committed half the crimes that you have. "You have done more loathsome things than they have. By all your loathsome practices you have made your sisters seem innocent,
Eze 16:52 and now you bear the shame of which you have freed your sisters; since the sins which you have committed are more revolting than theirs, they are more upright than you are. So now, bear the disgrace and shame of having put your sisters in the right.
Eze 16:53 "I shall restore their fortunes, I shall restore Sodom and her daughters, I shall re- store Samaria and her daughters, and then I shall restore your fortune with theirs,
Eze 16:54 so that you can bear your shame and disgrace for all you have done, and so console them.
Eze 16:55 When your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, are restored to what they were, and Samaria and her daughters are restored to what they were, then you too and your daughters will be restored to what you were.
Eze 16:56 Did you not gloat over your sister Sodom when you were so proud,
Eze 16:57 before you were stripped naked? Like her, you are now the laughing-stock of the women of Edom, of all the women round, of the women of Philistia, who pour out their contempt on you.
Eze 16:58 You have brought this on yourself, with your lewdness and your loathsome practices -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 16:59 "For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall treat you as you have deserved for making light of an oath and breaking a covenant,
Eze 16:60 but I shall remember my covenant with you when you were a girl and shall conclude a covenant with you that will last for ever.
Eze 16:61 And you for your part will remember your behavior and feel ashamed of it when you receive your elder and younger sisters and I make them your daughters, although this is not included in my covenant with you.
Eze 16:62 I shall renew my covenant with you; and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Eze 16:63 and so remember and feel ashamed and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I forgive you for everything you have done -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 17:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 17:2 'Son of man, put a riddle, propound a parable to the House of Israel.
Eze 17:3 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: A great eagle with great wings, long-pinioned, rich with many-coloured plumage, came to the Lebanon.
Eze 17:4 He took the top of the cedar tree, he plucked off the top branch, he carried it off to the country of merchants and set it down in a city of shopkeepers.
Eze 17:5 Next, he took one of the country's seeds and put it in a fertile field; by the side of a generous stream, like a willow tree, he placed it.
Eze 17:6 It grew and became a fruitful vine of modest size, grew up towards the eagle, its roots grew downwards. So it became a vine, branching out and sprouting new shoots.
Eze 17:7 But there was another great eagle with great wings and thick plumage. And now the vine twisted its roots towards him and stretched its branches towards him, for him to water it away from the bed where it was planted.
Eze 17:8 It was in a fertile field, by the side of a wide stream that the vine had been planted, to branch out and bear fruit and become a noble vine."
Eze 17:9 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Will it succeed? Will the eagle not tear out its roots and strip off its fruit, so that all the new leaves it puts out will wither, and no great strength is needed nor many people to pull it up by the roots?
Eze 17:10 Planted it may be -- will it succeed? Will it not shrivel up when the east wind blows? It will wither in the bed where it was growing!" '
Eze 17:11 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows:
Eze 17:12 'Say to that tribe of rebels, "Do you not know what this means?" Say this, 'Look, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem; he carried away the king and the princes, and took them to his home in Babylon.
Eze 17:13 He took a member of the royal family and made a treaty with him, forcing him to swear loyalty, having already deported the leading men of the country,
Eze 17:14 so that the kingdom would remain modest and without ambitions, and would keep and honor his treaty.
Eze 17:15 But the prince rebelled against him and sent envoys to Egypt to procure himself horses and a large number of troops. Will he succeed? Will a man who has done this go unpunished? Can he break a treaty and go unpunished?
Eze 17:16 As I live, I swear it -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- in Babylon, in the country of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he has disregarded and whose treaty he has broken, there he will die.
Eze 17:17 Despite the pharaoh's great army and hordes of men, he will not be able to save him by fighting, however many earthworks are raised, however many trenches dug to the loss of many lives.
Eze 17:18 He has disregarded the oath by breaking the treaty to which he had pledged himself and, having done all this, will not go unpunished.
Eze 17:19 "So, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: As I live, I swear it: my oath which he has disregarded, my treaty which he has broken, I shall make them both recoil on his own head.
Eze 17:20 I shall throw my net over him, he will be caught in my mesh; I shall take him to Babylon and punish him there for being unfaithful to me.
Eze 17:21 All the pick of all his troops will fall by the sword, and the survivors be scattered to all the winds. And you will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken.
Eze 17:22 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: From the top of the tall cedar tree, from the highest branch I shall take a shoot and plant it myself on a high and lofty mountain.
Eze 17:23 I shall plant it on the highest mountain in Israel. It will put out branches and bear fruit and grow into a noble cedar tree. Every kind of bird will live beneath it, every kind of winged creature will rest in the shade of its branches.
Eze 17:24 And all the trees of the countryside will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am the one who lays the tall tree low and raises the low tree high, who makes the green tree wither and makes the withered bear fruit. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken, and I will do it." '
Eze 18:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 18:2 'Why do you keep repeating this proverb in the land of Israel: The parents have eaten unripe grapes; and the children's teeth are set on edge?
Eze 18:3 'As I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- you will have no further cause to repeat this proverb in Israel.
Eze 18:4 Look, all life belongs to me; the father's life and the son's life, both alike belong to me. The one who has sinned is the one to die.
Eze 18:5 'But if a man is upright, his actions law-abiding and upright,
Eze 18:6 and he does not eat on the mountains or raise his eyes to the foul idols of the House of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife or touch a woman during her periods,
Eze 18:7 oppresses no one, returns the pledge on a debt, does not rob, gives his own food to the hungry, his clothes to those who lack clothing,
Eze 18:8 does not lend for profit, does not charge interest, abstains from evil, gives honest judgement between one person and another,
Eze 18:9 keeps my laws and sincerely respects my judgements -- someone like this is truly upright and will live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 18:10 'But if he has a son prone to violence and bloodshed, who commits one of these misdeeds-
Eze 18:11 even though the father never has -- a son who dares to eat on the mountains, who defiles his neighbor's wife,
Eze 18:12 who oppresses the poor and needy, robs, fails to return pledges, raises his eyes to foul idols, engages in loathsome practices,
Eze 18:13 lends for profit, or charges interest, such a person will by no means live; having committed all these appalling crimes he will die, and his blood be on his own head.
Eze 18:14 'But if he in turn has a son who, in spite of seeing all the sins that his father has committed, does not imitate him,
Eze 18:15 does not eat on the mountains or raise his eyes to the foul idols of the House of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife,
Eze 18:16 oppresses no one, takes no pledges, does not rob, gives his own food to the hungry, his clothes to those who lack clothing,
Eze 18:17 abstains from evil, does not lend for profit or charge interest, respects my judgements and keeps my laws, he will not die for his father's sins: he will most certainly live.
Eze 18:18 But his father, because he was violent, robbed others and never did good among his people, will most certainly die in his guilt.
Eze 18:19 'Now, you say, "Why doesn't the son bear his father's guilt?" If the son has been law-abiding and upright, has kept all my laws and followed them, most certainly he will live.
Eze 18:20 The one who has sinned is the one who must die; a son is not to bear his father's guilt, nor a father his son's guilt. The upright will be credited with his uprightness, and the wicked with his wickedness.
Eze 18:21 'If the wicked, however, renounces all the sins he has committed, respects my laws and is law-abiding and upright, he will most certainly live; he will not die.
Eze 18:22 None of the crimes he committed will be remembered against him from then on; he will most certainly live because of his upright actions.
Eze 18:23 Would I take pleasure in the death of the wicked -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- and not prefer to see him renounce his wickedness and live?
Eze 18:24 'But if the upright abandons uprightness and does wrong by copying all the loathsome practices of the wicked, is he to live? All his upright actions will be forgotten from then on; for the infidelity of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, he will most certainly die.
Eze 18:25 'Now, you say, "What the Lord does is unjust." Now listen, House of Israel: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust?
Eze 18:26 When the upright abandons uprightness and does wrong and dies, he dies because of the wrong which he himself has done.
Eze 18:27 Similarly, when the wicked abandons wickedness to become law-abiding and upright, he saves his own life.
Eze 18:28 Having chosen to renounce all his previous crimes, he will most certainly live: he will not die.
Eze 18:29 And yet the House of Israel says, "What the Lord does is unjust." Is what I do unjust, House of Israel? Is it not what you do that is unjust?
Eze 18:30 So in future, House of Israel, I shall judge each of you by what that person does -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Repent, renounce all your crimes, avoid all occasions for guilt.
Eze 18:31 Shake off all the crimes you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why die, House of Israel?
Eze 18:32 I take no pleasure in the death of anyone -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- so repent and live!'
Eze 19:1 'Now, raise a lament for the princes of Israel.
Eze 19:2 Say: What was your mother? A lioness among lions; lying among the cubs she nursed her whelps.
Eze 19:3 She reared one of her whelps: he grew into a young lion; he learnt to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.
Eze 19:4 The nations came to hear of him; he was caught in their pit; they dragged him away with hooks to Egypt.
Eze 19:5 Her expectation thwarted, and seeing her hope dashed, she took another of her whelps and made a young lion of him.
Eze 19:6 He prowled among the lions, he grew into a young lion, he learnt to tear his prey; he became a man-eater.
Eze 19:7 He tore down their palaces, he destroyed their cities; the land and all its inhabitants were appalled by the sound of his roars.
Eze 19:8 The nations marched out against him from the surrounding provinces; they spread their net over him; he was caught in their pit.
Eze 19:9 They shackled him with hooks, they took him to the king of Babylon and threw him into a fortress, so that his voice could never again be heard on the mountains of Israel.
Eze 19:10 Your mother was like a vine planted beside the water, fruitful and leafy, because the water flowed so full.
Eze 19:11 She had stout stems which became kingly scepters; she grew higher and higher, up into the clouds; she was admired for her height and the number of her branches.
Eze 19:12 But she was furiously uprooted and thrown on the ground; the east wind dried up her fruit, she was broken to pieces; her stout stem dried up, the fire devoured it.
Eze 19:13 Now she has been transplanted to the desert, to a dry and thirsty land.
Eze 19:14 Fire burst out of her stem devouring her branches and fruit. No more stout stem for her, no more kingly scepter.' This is a lament; it was used as such.
Eze 20:1 In the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, some of the elders of Israel came to consult Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and were sitting with me,
Eze 20:2 when the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 20:3 'Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel. Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Have you come to consult me? As I live, I will not be consulted by you -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 20:4 'Are you ready to judge them? Are you ready to judge them, son of man? Confront them with the loathsome practices of their ancestors.
Eze 20:5 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: On the day when I chose Israel, when I pledged my word to the House of Jacob, I made myself known to them in Egypt; I pledged my word to them and said: I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Eze 20:6 That day I pledged them my word that I would bring them out of Egypt to a country which I had reconnoitered for them, a country flowing with milk and honey, and the loveliest of them all.
Eze 20:7 And I said to them: Each of you must reject the horrors which attract you; do not pollute yourselves with the foul idols of Egypt; I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Eze 20:8 But they rebelled against me and would not listen to me. Not one of them rejected the horrors which attracted them; they did not give up the foul idols of Egypt. I then resolved to vent my fury on them, to sate my anger on them in Egypt.
Eze 20:9 But respect for my own name kept me from letting it be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, and before whom I had made myself known to them and promised to bring them out of Egypt.
Eze 20:10 So I brought them out of Egypt and led them into the desert.
Eze 20:11 I gave them my laws and taught them my judgements, in whose observance people find life.
Eze 20:12 And I also gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between me and them, so that they might know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am the one who sanctifies them.
Eze 20:13 The House of Israel, however, rebelled against me in the desert; they refused to keep my laws, they scorned my judgements, in whose observance people find life, and they grossly profaned my Sabbaths. I then resolved to vent my fury on them in the desert and destroy them.
Eze 20:14 But respect for my own name kept me from letting it be profaned in the eyes of the nations, before whom I had brought them out.
Eze 20:15 Even so, I pledged them my word in the desert that I would not lead them to the country which I had given them, a country flowing with milk and honey, and the loveliest of them all,
Eze 20:16 since they had scorned my judgements, had refused to keep my laws and had profaned my Sabbaths, their hearts being attached to foul idols.
Eze 20:17 In spite of this, I took pity on them; I refrained from destroying them and did not make an end of them in the desert.
Eze 20:18 "I said to their children in the desert: Do not follow the laws of your ancestors, do not practise their judgements, do not defile yourselves with their foul idols.
Eze 20:19 I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. Keep my laws, respect my judgements and practise them.
Eze 20:20 Keep my Sabbaths holy; let them be a sign between me and you, so that people may know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.
Eze 20:21 Their children, however, rebelled against me; they refused to keep my laws, they did not respect or practise my judgements, which must be practised by all who want to live; they profaned my Sabbaths. I then resolved to vent my fury on them, to sate my anger on them in the desert.
Eze 20:22 But I restrained my hand; respect for my own name kept me from letting it be profaned in the eyes of the nations, before whom I had brought them out.
Eze 20:23 Once again, however, I pledged them my word that I would scatter them throughout the nations and disperse them in foreign countries,
Eze 20:24 because they had not followed my judgements but had rejected my laws and profaned my Sabbaths, their eyes being fastened on the foul idols of their ancestors.
Eze 20:25 And for this reason I gave them laws that were not good and judgements by which they could never live;
Eze 20:26 and I polluted them with their own offerings, making them sacrifice every first-born son in order to fill them with revulsion, so that they would know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 20:27 'For this reason, son of man, speak to the House of Israel. Say to them, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Here is another way by which your ancestors outraged me by their infidelity.
Eze 20:28 Once I had brought them into the country which I had pledged my word to give them, they then saw all sorts of high hills, all kinds of leafy trees, and there they performed their sacrifices and made offerings that provoked my anger; there they set out their pleasing smell and poured their libations.
Eze 20:29 I then said to them: What is this high place where you go? And they gave, and still give it, the name of Bamah."
Eze 20:30 'So, say to the House of Israel, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: If you are polluting yourselves as your ancestors did by fornicating with their horrors-
Eze 20:31 for by offering your gifts and by burning your children as sacrifices, you have been polluting yourselves with all your foul idols to this very day -- shall I let myself be consulted by you, House of Israel? As I live -- declares Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- I shall not let myself be consulted by you.
Eze 20:32 And what you sometimes imagine will never be so, when you say: We shall be like the peoples, the tribes of foreign lands, worshipping wood and stone.
Eze 20:33 As I live I swear it -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- I am the one who will reign over you, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, once my fury is sated.
Eze 20:34 With a strong hand and outstretched arm, once my fury is sated, I shall bring you back from the peoples and gather you again from the countries throughout which you have been scattered.
Eze 20:35 I shall lead you into the desert of the nations and there I shall judge you face to face.
Eze 20:36 As I judged your ancestors in the desert of Egypt, so will I judge you -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 20:37 I shall make you pass under the crook, bring you to respect the covenant
Eze 20:38 and rid you of the rebels who have revolted against me; I shall bring them out of the country where they are staying, but they will not enter the country of Israel, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 20:39 House of Israel, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Go on, all of you, worship your foul idols, but later we shall see if you don't listen to me! Then you will stop profaning my holy name with your offerings and your foul idols.
Eze 20:40 For on my holy mountain, on the high mountain of Israel -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- is where the whole House of Israel, everyone in the country, will worship me. There I shall accept and there expect your presents, your choicest offering and all your consecrated gifts.
Eze 20:41 I shall welcome you like a pleasing smell when I bring you back from the peoples and gather you from the countries throughout which you have been scattered, and through you I shall display my holiness for all the nations to see;
Eze 20:42 and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I bring you back to the soil of Israel, to the country which I pledged my word to give to your ancestors.
Eze 20:43 There you will remember your past behavior and all the actions by which you have defiled yourselves, and you will loathe yourselves for all the wrongs which you have committed.
Eze 20:44 And you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I treat you as respect for my own name requires, and not as your wicked behavior and corrupt actions deserve, House of Israel -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 21:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 21:2 'Son of man, turn to the right; utter your word towards the south, prophesy against the forest land of the Negeb.
Eze 21:3 Say to the forest of Negeb, "Hear the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Listen; I am about to kindle a fire in you which will burn up every green tree in you as well as every dry one; it will be an unquenchable blaze and every face will be scorched by it from the Negeb to the north.
Eze 21:4 All humanity will see that it was I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who kindled it, and it will not be extinguished." '
Eze 21:5 I said, 'Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), they say of me, "He does nothing but speak in riddles!"'
Eze 21:6 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 21:7 'Son of man, turn towards Jerusalem, utter your word towards the sanctuary and prophesy against the land of Israel.
Eze 21:8 Say to the land of Israel, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Now I am against you; I am about to unsheathe my sword and rid you of the upright and the wicked alike.
Eze 21:9 Since I am going to rid you of upright and wicked alike, I shall unsheathe my sword against everyone alive, from the Negeb to the north,
Eze 21:10 so that everyone alive will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am the one who has unsheathed my sword; it will not go back again."
Eze 21:11 'Son of man, groan as though your heart were breaking. Utter your bitter groans where they can see you.
Eze 21:12 And if they say, "Why these groans?" reply, "Because of the news which is about to come, all hearts will sink, all hands grow weak, all spirits grow faint and all knees turn to water. It is coming now, it is here!-declares Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 21:13 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 21:14 'Son of man, prophesy. Say, "The Lord says this. Say: The sword, the sword has been sharpened and polished,
Eze 21:15 sharpened for slaughter, polished to flash like lightning . . .
Eze 21:16 He has had it polished to be wielded, this sword sharpened and polished to put in the slaughterer's hand!
Eze 21:17 Shout and wail, son of man, for it will come on my people, on all the chief men of Israel doomed like my people to the sword! So beat your breast,
Eze 21:18 for this will be an ordeal . . . declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 21:19 So prophesy, son of man, and clap your hands! Let the sword pass three times, that sword for victims, that sword for a great victim, threatening them from every side!
Eze 21:20 To make hearts sink and make sure many fall, I have posted the slaughtering sword at every gate to flash like lightning, polished for slaughter.
Eze 21:21 Be sharp, on the right, be ready on the left, whichever way your blade is needed!
Eze 21:22 I too shall clap my hands and sate my fury! I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken." '
Eze 21:23 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 21:24 'Son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come along, making both of them begin from the same country. Then put up a signpost, put it where the road leaves for the city,
Eze 21:25 trace the route which the sword should take for Rabbah-of-the-Ammonites, and for Judah, to the fortress of Jerusalem.
Eze 21:26 For the king of Babylon has halted at the fork where these two roads diverge, to take the omens. He has shaken the arrows, questioned the household gods, inspected the liver.
Eze 21:27 The lot marked 'Jerusalem' is in his right hand: there to set up battering-rams, give the word for slaughter, raise the war cry, level battering-rams against the gates, cast up earthworks, build entrenchments.
Eze 21:28 The inhabitants will believe that these omens are idle, for they have received sworn guarantees, but he will bring their guilt to mind and capture them.
Eze 21:29 And so the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Since you have brought your guilt to mind by parading your misdeeds and flaunting your sins in everything you do: because you have drawn attention to yourselves, you will be captured.
Eze 21:30 As for you, impious and wicked prince of Israel, whose doom is approaching to put an end to your crimes,
Eze 21:31 the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: They will take away your diadem and remove your crown. Everything will be changed; the low will be raised and the high brought low!
Eze 21:32 Ruin, ruin, I shall bring such ruin as never was before, until the rightful ruler comes, on whom I shall bestow it."
Eze 21:33 'Son of man, prophesy and say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: In reply to the Ammonites and their jeers, say: The sword, the sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to devour, to flash like lightning-
Eze 21:34 while you have empty visions and consult lying omens-to cut the throats of the wicked, whose doom is approaching to put an end to their crimes.
Eze 21:35 Put it back in the scabbard. The place where you were created, the land of your origin, will be where I judge you.
Eze 21:36 I shall vent my fury on you, breathe the fire of my rage against you and hand you over to barbarous men whose trade is destruction.
Eze 21:37 You will be fuel for the fire, your blood will flow through the country, you will leave no memory behind you; for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken!" '
Eze 22:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 22:2 'Son of man, are you ready to judge? Are you ready to judge the blood-stained city? Confront her with all her loathsome practices!
Eze 22:3 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: City shedding blood inside yourself to hasten your doom, making foul idols on your soil to defile yourself,
Eze 22:4 you have incurred guilt by the blood you have shed, you have defiled yourself with the foul idols you have made, you have shortened your days, you have come to the end of your years. This is why I have made you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughing-stock to every country.
Eze 22:5 From far and near they will taunt you with your infamous disorders.
Eze 22:6 "Look! In you the princes of Israel, one and all, have furthered their own interests at the cost of bloodshed;
Eze 22:7 in you people have despised their fathers and mothers; in you they have ill-treated the settler; in you they have oppressed the widow and orphan.
Eze 22:8 You have treated my sanctuary with contempt, you have profaned my Sabbaths.
Eze 22:9 In you informers incite to bloodshed; in you people eat on the mountains and act licentiously;
Eze 22:10 in you they have sexual intercourse with their fathers; in you they force themselves on women in their periods;
Eze 22:11 in you one man engages in loathsome practices with his neighbor's wife, another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law, another violates his sister, his own father's daughter.
Eze 22:12 In you people take bribes for shedding blood; you lend for profit and charge interest, you profit from your fellow by extortion and have forgotten about me -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 22:13 "Now I shall clap my hands at your acts of banditry and the blood that flows in you.
Eze 22:14 Will your heart be able to resist, will your hands be steady, the day when I call you to account? I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken and shall act.
Eze 22:15 I shall scatter you among the nations and disperse you in foreign countries, and so put an end to the filthiness now inside you;
Eze 22:16 through your own fault, you will be profaned in the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!" '
Eze 22:17 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 22:18 'Son of man, for me, the House of Israel has become dross: copper, tin, iron, lead, all mixed up together in the melting-pot; they are dross.
Eze 22:19 And so, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Since you have all become dross, right! I shall collect you inside Jerusalem.
Eze 22:20 As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are collected in the melting-pot, and the fire is blown underneath to melt them down, so I shall collect you in my furious anger and have you melted down;
Eze 22:21 I shall collect you and blow up the fire of my rage for you and have you melted down inside the city.
Eze 22:22 As silver is melted in the melting-pot, so you will be melted down inside the city, and you will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have vented my fury on you." '
Eze 22:23 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 22:24 'Son of man, say to her, "You are a land that has not received rain or shower on the day of anger.
Eze 22:25 In you, the princes are like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They have eaten the people, seized wealth and jewels and widowed many inside her.
Eze 22:26 Her priests have violated my law and desecrated my sanctuary; they have made no distinction between sacred and profane, they have not taught people the difference between clean and unclean; they have turned their eyes away from my Sabbaths and I have been dishonored by them.
Eze 22:27 In her the leaders are wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood and killing people to steal their possessions.
Eze 22:28 Her prophets have plastered these things over with their empty visions and lying prophecies, saying: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, although Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not spoken.
Eze 22:29 The people of the country have taken to extortion and banditry; they have oppressed the poor and needy and ill-treated the settler in a way that is unjustifiable.
Eze 22:30 I have been looking for someone among them to build a barricade and oppose me in the breach, to defend the country and prevent me from destroying it; but I have found no one.
Eze 22:31 Hence I have vented my fury on them; I have put an end to them in the fire of my rage. I have made their conduct recoil on their own heads -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 23:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 23:2 'Son of man, there were once two women, daughters of the same mother.
Eze 23:3 They played the whore in Egypt; they played the whore when they were still girls. There their nipples were handled, there their virgin breasts were first fondled.
Eze 23:4 Their names were: Oholah the elder, Oholibah her sister. They belonged to me and bore sons and daughters. As regards their names, Samaria is Oholah, Jerusalem Oholibah.
Eze 23:5 Now Oholah played the whore, although she belonged to me; she lusted after her lovers, her neighbors the Assyrians,
Eze 23:6 dressed in purple, governors and magistrates, all of them young and desirable, and skillful horsemen.
Eze 23:7 She played the whore with all of them, the pick of Assyria, and defiled herself with all the foul idols of all those with whom she was in love,
Eze 23:8 nor did she give up the whoring begun in Egypt, where men had slept with her from her girlhood, fondling her virgin breasts, debauching her over and over again.
Eze 23:9 'That is why I have handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians with whom she was in love.
Eze 23:10 They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters and put her to the sword. She became notorious among women for the justice done on her.
Eze 23:11 'Her sister Oholibah saw all this, but she was even more depraved, and her whorings were worse than her sister's.
Eze 23:12 She fell in love with her neighbors the Assyrians, governors and magistrates, dressed in sumptuous clothes, skillful horsemen, all young and desirable.
Eze 23:13 Then I saw that she had defiled herself, that both sisters were equally bad.
Eze 23:14 She began whoring worse than ever; no sooner had she seen wall-carvings of men, pictures of Chaldaeans coloured vermilion,
Eze 23:15 men with sashes round their waists and elaborate turbans on their heads, all so lordly of bearing, depicting the Babylonians, natives of Chaldaea,
Eze 23:16 than she fell in love with them at first sight and sent messengers to them in Chaldaea.
Eze 23:17 The Babylonians came to her, shared her love-bed and defiled her with their whoring. Once defiled by them, she withdrew her affection from them.
Eze 23:18 Thus she flaunted her whoring, exposing her body, until I withdrew my affection from her as I had withdrawn it from her sister.
Eze 23:19 But she began whoring worse than ever, remembering her girlhood, when she had played the whore in Egypt,
Eze 23:20 when she had been in love with their profligates, big-membered as donkeys, ejaculating as violently as stallions.
Eze 23:21 'You were hankering for the debauchery of your girlhood, when they used to handle your nipples in Egypt and fondle your young breasts.
Eze 23:22 And so, Oholibah, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "I shall set all your lovers against you, from whom you have withdrawn your affection, and bring them to assault you from all directions:
Eze 23:23 the Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, the men of Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, young and desirable, all governors and magistrates, all famous lords and skillful horsemen.
Eze 23:24 From the north, they will advance on you with chariots and wagons and an international army and beset you with shield, buckler and helmet on all sides. I shall charge them to pass sentence on you and they will pass sentence on you as they think fit.
Eze 23:25 I shall direct my jealousy against you; they will treat you with fury; they will cut off your nose and ears, and what is left of your family will fall by the sword; they will seize your sons and daughters, and what is left will be burnt.
Eze 23:26 They will strip off your garments and rob you of your jewels.
Eze 23:27 I shall put an end to your debauchery and to the whorings you began in Egypt; you will not look to the Egyptians any more, you will never think of them again.
Eze 23:28 For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Now, I shall hand you over to those you hate, to those for whom you no longer feel affection.
Eze 23:29 They will treat you with hatred, they will rob you of the entire fruit of your labours and leave you stark naked. And thus your shameful whorings will be exposed, your debauchery and your whorings.
Eze 23:30 This will happen to you because you have played the whore with the nations and have defiled yourself with their foul idols.
Eze 23:31 Since you have copied your sister's behaviour, I shall put her cup in your hand."
Eze 23:32 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You will drink your sister's cup, a cup both deep and wide, leading to laughter and mockery, so ample the draught it holds.
Eze 23:33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow. Cup of affliction and devastation, the cup of your sister Samaria,
Eze 23:34 you will drink it, you will drain it; then you will break it in pieces and lacerate your own breasts. For I have spoken -- declared the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 23:35 "And so, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Since you have forgotten me and have turned your back on me, you too will have to bear the weight of your debauchery and whorings." '
Eze 23:36 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Son of man, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholibah and charge them with their loathsome practices?
Eze 23:37 They have been adulteresses, their hands are dripping with blood, they have committed adultery with their foul idols. As for the children they had borne me, they have offered them as burnt sacrifices to feed them.
Eze 23:38 And here is something else they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary today and have profaned my Sabbaths.
Eze 23:39 The same day as sacrificing their children to their idols, they have been to my sanctuary and profaned it. Yes, this is what they have done in my own house.
Eze 23:40 'Worse still, they summoned men from far away, invited by messenger, and they came. For them you bathed, you painted your eyes, put on your jewels
Eze 23:41 and sat on a sumptuous bed, by which a table was laid out. On this you had put my incense and my oil.
Eze 23:42 The noise of the carefree company resounded, made by the crowd of men brought in from the desert; they put bracelets on the women's arms and magnificent crowns on their heads.
Eze 23:43 I thought, "That woman, worn out with adultery! Are they going to fornicate with her too?"
Eze 23:44 Yet they visit her like any common prostitute, just as they visited those profligate women Oholah and Oholibah.
Eze 23:45 All the same, there are upright men who will judge them as adulteresses and murderesses are judged, since they are adulteresses and their hands are dripping with blood."
Eze 23:46 'The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Summon an assembly to deal with them, and hand them over to terror and pillage;
Eze 23:47 let the assembly stone them and dispatch them with their swords; let their sons and daughters be slaughtered and their houses set on fire.
Eze 23:48 This is how I shall purge the country of debauchery, so that all women will be taught the lesson never to ape your debauchery again.
Eze 23:49 Your debauchery will recoil on yourselves, and you will bear the weight of the sins committed with your foul idols and you will know that I am the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 24:1 In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 24:2 'Son of man, write down today's date, yes, today's, for this very day the king of Babylon began his attack on Jerusalem.
Eze 24:3 So pronounce a parable for this tribe of rebels. Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Put the pot on the fire; put it on; pour the water in!
Eze 24:4 Now put the cuts of meat all in together, all the best cuts, leg and shoulder. Fill it with the best bones.
Eze 24:5 Take the best of the flock, then heap wood underneath; boil it thoroughly until even the bones are cooked.
Eze 24:6 "For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Disaster is in store for the bloody city, for that rusty cooking pot whose rust will not come off! Empty it, bit by bit, not bothering to draw lots;
Eze 24:7 for she is still full of bloodshed, she has put blood on the naked rock; she did not pour it on the ground so as to cover it with dust.
Eze 24:8 To make anger rise, to exact vengeance, I have put her blood on the naked rock, so that it should not be covered:
Eze 24:9 "So, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Disaster is in store for the bloody city! I too plan to build a great fire.
Eze 24:10 Heap on the wood, light it, cook the meat, prepare the seasoning let the bones burn!
Eze 24:11 Put the empty pot on the coals to make it hot, until the bronze glows, the filth inside melts and the rust is burnt away!
Eze 24:12 "But all that rust would not come off in the fire.
Eze 24:13 Your filth is infamous. Since I have tried to purge you and you would not let yourself be purged of your filth, so now you will never be purged of your filth until I have sated my anger on you.
Eze 24:14 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken; this will happen; I shall act and not relent; I shall show no pity, no compassion. You will be judged as your conduct and actions deserve -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 24:15 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 24:16 'Son of man, at a blow I am about to deprive you of the delight of your eyes. But you are not to lament, not to weep, not to let your tears run down.
Eze 24:17 Groan in silence, do not go into mourning for the dead, knot your turban round your head, put your sandals on your feet, do not cover your beard, do not eat the usual food.'
Eze 24:18 I told this to the people in the morning, and my wife died in the evening, and the next morning I did as I had been ordered.
Eze 24:19 The people then said to me, 'Will you not explain what meaning these actions have for us?'
Eze 24:20 I replied, 'The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has been addressed to me as follows,
Eze 24:21 "Say to the House of Israel, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am about to profane my sanctuary, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes, the joy of your hearts. Your sons and daughters whom you have left behind will fall by the sword.
Eze 24:22 Then you will do as I have done: you will not cover your beards or eat the usual food;
Eze 24:23 you will keep your turbans on your heads and your sandals on your feet; you will not lament or weep but will waste away for your crimes, groaning among yourselves.
Eze 24:24 Thus Ezekiel is a sign for you. You will do exactly what he has done. And when this happens, you will know that I am Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!"
Eze 24:25 'And, son of man, the day that I deprive them of their strength, their crowning joy, the delight of their eyes, the joy of their hearts, their sons and daughters,
Eze 24:26 that day a survivor will bring you the news.
Eze 24:27 That day your mouth will be opened to speak to the survivor; you will speak and no longer be dumb; you will be a sign for them, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Eze 25:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 25:2 'Son of man, turn towards the Ammonites and prophesy against them.
Eze 25:3 Say to the Ammonites, "Hear the word of the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "Since you gloated over my sanctuary when it was profaned, and over the land of Israel when it was ravaged, and over the House of Judah when it went into exile,
Eze 25:4 I shall let the sons of the East take possession of you; they will pitch their camps inside you, they will make their home in you. They will be the ones to eat your produce and drink your milk.
Eze 25:5 I shall turn Rabbah into a camel yard and the towns of Ammon into sheepfolds. And so you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 25:6 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Since you have clapped your hands and danced for joy, full of malicious delight at Israel's fate,
Eze 25:7 my hand will be against you for this; I shall hand you over to be looted by the peoples, obliterate you as a nation and wipe you out as a country. I shall reduce you to nothing, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 25:8 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "Since Moab and Seir have said: Look at the House of Judah; it is no different from any other nation;
Eze 25:9 very well, I shall expose Moab's heights; its cities will no longer be cities throughout the land -- the jewels of the country, Beth-Jeshimoth, Baal-Meon and Kiriathaim.
Eze 25:10 I shall let the sons of the East and the Ammonites take possession of them, so that they will no longer be remembered by the nations.
Eze 25:11 I shall bring Moab to justice, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 25:12 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "Since Edom has taken revenge on the House of Judah and committed great crimes in doing so,
Eze 25:13 very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: My hand will be against Edom and denude it of human and animal. I shall lay it waste, from Teman as far as Dedan they will be put to the sword.
Eze 25:14 I shall take vengeance on Edom by means of my people Israel. They will treat Edom as my anger and fury dictate, and they will know this is my vengeance -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 25:15 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Since the Philistines have acted in revenge and, motivated by malice, have taken revenge, doing their best to destroy because of their long-standing hatred,
Eze 25:16 very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: My hand will be against the Philistines; I shall exterminate the Cherethites and destroy the rest of the coastal peoples.
Eze 25:17 I shall perform frightful acts of vengeance and inflict furious punishments on them; and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I exact my vengeance on them." '
Eze 26:1 In the eleventh year, on the first of the month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 26:2 'Son of man, since Tyre has said of Jerusalem: "Aha! She is shattered, the Gateway to the Nations; she now gives way to me. Her riches are ruined!"
Eze 26:3 Very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Now, Tyre, I am against you,
Eze 26:4 I shall raise many nations against you as the sea raises its waves. They will destroy the walls of Tyre, they will demolish her towers; I shall sweep the dust of her away and reduce her to a naked rock.
Eze 26:5 She will be a drying-ground out to sea for fishing-nets. For I have spoken- declares Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). She will be the prey of the nations.
Eze 26:6 As for her daughters on the mainland, these will be put to the sword, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 26:7 'For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "From the north, I shall bring Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings, down on Tyre with horses, chariots, cavalry and an enormous army.
Eze 26:8 He will put your daughters on the mainland to the sword. He will build siege-works against you, cast up a siege-ramp against you, raise a screen against you;
Eze 26:9 he will pound your walls with his battering-rams, and demolish your towers with his siege-engines.
Eze 26:10 His horses are so many that their dust will hide you. The noise of his horsemen and his chariot-wheels will make your walls tremble as he enters your gates as though storming into a city through the breach.
Eze 26:11 With his horses' hoofs he will trample through all your streets; he will put your people to the sword, and throw your massive pillars to the ground.
Eze 26:12 Your wealth will be seized, your merchandise looted, your walls rased, your luxurious houses shattered, your stones, your timbers, your very dust, thrown into the sea.
Eze 26:13 I shall put an end to the sound of your songs; the sound of your harps will not be heard again.
Eze 26:14 I shall reduce you to a naked rock, and make you into a drying-ground for fishing-nets, never to be rebuilt; for I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken -declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 26:15 'The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to Tyre, "Will not the islands quake at the sound of your fall, while the wounded groan and the slaughter takes place inside you?
Eze 26:16 All the princes of the sea will leave their thrones, lay aside their cloaks, take off their embroidered robes. Dressed in terror they will sit on the ground trembling incessantly, stunned at your fate.
Eze 26:17 "They will raise the lament for you as follows: You are destroyed then, vanished from the seas, famous city, former sea-power, who with her citizens, used to spread terror all over the mainland!
Eze 26:18 Now the islands are trembling on the day of your fall; the islands of the sea are terrified by your end.
Eze 26:19 "For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "When I make you a ruined city like other deserted cities, when I raise the deep against you and the ocean covers you,
Eze 26:20 when I fling you down with those who go down into the abyss, with the people of long ago, and put you deep in the underworld, in the ruins of long ago with those who sink into oblivion, so that you can never come back or be restored to the land of the living,
Eze 26:21 I will make you an object of terror; you will not exist. People will look for you but never find you again -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!" '
Eze 27:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 27:2 'Son of man, raise the lament for Tyre.
Eze 27:3 Say to Tyre, "City enthroned at the gateway of the sea, agent between the peoples and the many islands, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Tyre, you used to say: I am a ship perfect in beauty.
Eze 27:4 Your frontiers were far out to sea; those who built you made you perfect in beauty.
Eze 27:5 Cypress from Senir they used for all your planking. They took a cedar from Lebanon to make a mast above you.
Eze 27:6 From oaks of Bashan they made your oars. They built you a deck of cedar inlaid with ivory from the Kittim isles.
Eze 27:7 Embroidered linen from Egypt was used for your sail and for your flag. Purple and scarlet from the Elishah islands formed your deck-tent.
Eze 27:8 The people of Sidon and Arvad were your oarsmen. The sages of Tyre were aboard, serving as sailors.
Eze 27:9 The elders and craftsmen of Gebal were there to caulk your seams. "Every sea-going ship and crew frequented you to guarantee your trade.
Eze 27:10 Men from Persia, Lud and Put served as warriors in your army; hanging up shield and helmet in you, they displayed your splendor.
Eze 27:11 The sons of Arvad with their army manned your walls all round, while the Gammadians manned your towers; hanging their shields all round your walls, they completed your beauty.
Eze 27:12 Tarshish traded with you because of your abundant resources and exchanged your merchandise for silver, iron, tin and lead.
Eze 27:13 Javan, Tubal and Meshech traded with you. For your merchandise they traded slaves and bronze artifacts.
Eze 27:14 The people of Beth-Togarmah traded your horses, chargers, mules.
Eze 27:15 The people of Dedan traded with you; many islands were your customers and paid you in ivory tusks and ebony.
Eze 27:16 Edom traded with you for the sake of your many manufactured goods, exchanging garnets, purple, embroideries, fine linen, coral and rubies for your goods.
Eze 27:17 Judah and the land of Israel also traded with you, bringing corn from Minnith, pannag, honey, oil and balm.
Eze 27:18 Damascus traded with you, for quantities of your manufactured goods and other goods of all kinds, furnishing you with wine from Helbon and wool from Zahar.
Eze 27:19 Dan and Javan, from Uzal onwards, supplied you with wrought iron, cassia and reeds in exchange for your goods.
Eze 27:20 Dedan traded with you in saddle-cloths.
Eze 27:21 Arabia and all the sheikhs of Kedar were your customers; they paid in lambs, rams and he-goats.
Eze 27:22 The merchants of Sheba and Raamah traded with you; they supplied you with the finest spices, precious stones and gold for your merchandise.
Eze 27:23 Haran, Canneh and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad traded with you.
Eze 27:24 They traded rich clothes, embroidered and purple cloaks, multi-coloured materials and strong plaited cords for your markets.
Eze 27:25 Ships of Tarshish sailed on your business; you were full and heavily loaded far out to sea.
Eze 27:26 Out to the open sea your oarsmen rowed you. The east wind has wrecked you far out to sea.
Eze 27:27 Your riches, your goods, your cargo, your seamen, your sailors, your caulkers, your commercial agents, all the warriors you carry, and all the passengers who are aboard will founder far out to sea on the day of your shipwreck.
Eze 27:28 When they hear the cries of your sailors the coasts will tremble.
Eze 27:29 Then the oarsmen will all desert their ships. The sailors and seafaring people will stay ashore.
Eze 27:30 They will raise their voices for you and weep bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in ashes;
Eze 27:31 they will shave their heads for you and put sackcloth round their waists. With heartfelt bitterness they will weep for you, bitterly wail.
Eze 27:32 Wailing, they will raise the lament for you, they will lament over you: Who is like Tyre, far out to sea?
Eze 27:33 When you unloaded your goods to satisfy so many peoples, you enriched the kings of the earth with your excess of wealth and goods.
Eze 27:34 Now you have been wrecked by the waves, by the depths of the sea. Your cargo and all your passengers have foundered with you.
Eze 27:35 All those who live in the islands will be stunned at your fate. Their kings will quake with horror, with downcast expressions.
Eze 27:36 The merchants of the nations will whistle at your fate. You will be an object of terror, gone for ever." '
Eze 28:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 28:2 'Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Because your heart has grown proud, you thought: I am a god; I am divinely enthroned far out to sea. Though you are human, not divine, you have allowed yourself to think like God.
Eze 28:3 So, you are wiser than Danel; no sage as wise as you!
Eze 28:4 By your wisdom and your intelligence you have made yourself a fortune, you have put gold and silver into your treasuries.
Eze 28:5 Such is your skill in trading, your fortune has continued to increase, and your fortune has made your heart grow prouder.
Eze 28:6 "And so, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Since you have allowed yourself to think like God,
Eze 28:7 very well, I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most barbarous of the nations. They will draw sword against your fine wisdom, they will desecrate your splendor,
Eze 28:8 they will throw you down into the grave and you will die a violent death far out to sea.
Eze 28:9 Will you still think: I am a god, when your slaughterers confront you? But you will be human, not divine, in the clutches of the ones who strike you down!
Eze 28:10 You will die like the uncircumcised at the hand of foreigners. "For I have spoken -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 28:11 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 28:12 'Son of man, raise a lament for the king of Tyre. Say to him, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You used to be a model of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty;
Eze 28:13 you were in Eden, in the garden of God. All kinds of gem formed your mantle: sard, topaz, diamond, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, garnet, emerald, and your ear-pendants and spangles were made of gold; all was ready on the day you were created.
Eze 28:14 I made you a living creature with outstretched wings, as guardian, you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked amid red-hot coals.
Eze 28:15 Your behavior was exemplary from the day you were created until guilt first appeared in you,
Eze 28:16 because your busy trading has filled you with violence and sin. I have thrown you down from the mountain of God and destroyed you, guardian winged creature, amid the coals.
Eze 28:17 Your heart has grown proud because of your beauty, your wisdom has been corrupted by your splendor. I have thrown you to the ground; I have made you a spectacle for kings.
Eze 28:18 By the immense number of your crimes, by the dishonesty of your trading, you have defiled your sanctuary. So I have brought fire out of you to devour you; I have reduced you to ashes on the ground before the eyes of all who saw you.
Eze 28:19 Of the nations, all who know you are stunned at your fate. You are an object of terror; gone for ever." '
Eze 28:20 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 28:21 'Son of man, turn towards Sidon and prophesy against her.
Eze 28:22 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am against you, Sidon, I will show my glory in you! They will know I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), once I execute sentence on her and display my holiness in her.
Eze 28:23 For I shall send her the plague, and there will be blood in her streets, and in her the dead will fall under the sword raised against her from all sides, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 28:24 "No more, for the House of Israel, shall any of the hostile nations surrounding them be a thorn that wounds or a briar that tears; and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 28:25 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: When I gather the House of Israel back from the peoples where they are dispersed, I shall display my glory in them for the nations to see. They will live on the soil which I gave to my servant Jacob.
Eze 28:26 They will live there in confidence, build houses, plant vineyards. They will live in safety, once I inflict punishments on all the hostile nations surrounding them, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God." '
Eze 29:1 In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 29:2 'Son of man, turn towards Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against the whole of Egypt.
Eze 29:3 Speak and say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt- the great crocodile wallowing in his Niles who thought: My Nile is mine, I made it.
Eze 29:4 I shall put hooks through your jaws, make your Nile fish stick to your scales, and pull you out of your Niles with all your Nile fish sticking to your scales.
Eze 29:5 I shall drop you in the desert, with all your Nile fish. You will fall in the wilds and not be taken up or buried. I shall give you as food to the wild animals and the birds of heaven,
Eze 29:6 and all the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for they have given no more support than a reed to the House of Israel.
Eze 29:7 Wherever they grasped you, you broke in their hands and cut their hands all over. Whenever they leaned on you, you broke, making all their limbs give way.
Eze 29:8 "So, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall send the sword against you to denude you of human and animal.
Eze 29:9 Egypt will become a desolate waste, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Because he thought: The Nile is mine, I made it,
Eze 29:10 very well, I am against you and your Niles. I shall make Egypt a waste and a desolation, from Migdol to Syene and beyond to the frontiers of Ethiopia.
Eze 29:11 No human foot will pass through it, no animal foot will pass through it. For forty years it will remain uninhabited.
Eze 29:12 I shall make Egypt the most desolate of countries; for forty years its cities will be the most desolate of wasted cities. And I shall scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them among the countries.
Eze 29:13 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), however, says this: After forty years have passed, I shall gather the Egyptians back from the nations where they were dispersed.
Eze 29:14 I shall bring the Egyptian captives back and re-install them in the land of Pathros, in the country of their origin. There they will constitute a modest kingdom.
Eze 29:15 Egypt will be the most modest of kingdoms and no longer dominate other nations; for I shall reduce it, so that it will not rule other nations ever again.
Eze 29:16 It will no longer be anything for the House of Israel to trust in, but will be a reminder of the guilt which lay in turning to it for help. And they will know that I am Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 29:17 In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows:
Eze 29:18 'Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken his army in a great expedition against Tyre. Their heads have all gone bald, their shoulders are all chafed, but even so he has derived no profit, either for himself or for his army, from the expedition mounted against Tyre.
Eze 29:19 Since this is so, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Look, I shall hand Egypt over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off its riches, loot it, put it to the sack; that will be the wages for his army.
Eze 29:20 As wages for the trouble he has taken, I am giving him Egypt instead (for they have been working for me)-declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 29:21 "That day, I shall raise up a new stock for the House of Israel and allow you to open your mouth among them. And they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 30:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 30:2 'Son of man, prophesy and say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Howl: Disaster day!
Eze 30:3 For the day is near, the day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near; it will be a day dark with cloud, a time of doom for the nations.
Eze 30:4 "The sword will come on Egypt, and anguish on the country of Cush when the slaughtered fall in Egypt, when her riches are carried away and her foundations are destroyed.
Eze 30:5 Cush, Put and Lud, all Arabia, Cub and the children of the country of the covenant will fall by the sword with them.
Eze 30:6 "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "The supports of Egypt will fall; the pride of her strength will crumble; they will fall by the sword from Migdol to Syene -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 30:7 "They will be the most desolate of desolate countries, and its cities the most ruined of cities.
Eze 30:8 And they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when I set fire to Egypt and all its supports are shattered.
Eze 30:9 "That day, I shall send messengers by ship to terrify the carefree Cushites, and anguish will overtake them on the day of Egypt -- it is coming now!
Eze 30:10 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall destroy the huge population of Egypt at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
Eze 30:11 He and his people, the most barbarous of nations, will be brought to ravage the country. They will draw the sword against Egypt and fill the country with corpses.
Eze 30:12 I shall dry up the courses of the Nile and sell the country to the wicked. I shall lay the whole country waste and everything in it, at the hand of foreigners. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken.
Eze 30:13 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall destroy the foul idols and take the false gods away from Noph. Egypt will be left without a ruler. I shall spread fear through Egypt.
Eze 30:14 I shall lay Pathros waste, set Zoan on fire, inflict my punishments on No.
Eze 30:15 I shall vent my fury on Sin, the bastion of Egypt; I shall wipe out the throngs of No.
Eze 30:16 I shall set fire to Egypt; Sin will be seized with convulsions; a breach will be opened at No and the waters flood out.
Eze 30:17 The young men of On and Pi-Beseth will fall by the sword and the cities themselves go into captivity.
Eze 30:18 At Tahpanhes day will turn to darkness when I shatter the scepters of Egypt there, when the pride of her strength ceases. A cloud will cover Egypt itself, and its daughters will go into captivity.
Eze 30:19 Such will be the punishments I inflict on Egypt. And they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 30:20 In the eleventh year, on the seventh day of the first month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 30:21 'Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; you can see that no one has dressed his wound by applying remedies to it, by bandaging it and by dressing it, to make it strong enough to wield the sword.
Eze 30:22 This being so, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Look, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt; I shall break his arms, the sound one and the broken one, and make the sword drop from his hand.
Eze 30:23 I shall scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse it among the countries.
Eze 30:24 I shall strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put my sword in his hand. I shall break Pharaoh's arms and, confronted with his enemy, he will groan like a dying man.
Eze 30:25 I shall strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh will fall. And they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I put my sword into the hands of the king of Babylon and he wields it against Egypt.
Eze 30:26 I shall scatter Egypt among the nations and disperse it among the countries; and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 31:1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the third month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 31:2 'Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and his throng of subjects: "What can compare with you for greatness?
Eze 31:3 I know: a cedar tree in the Lebanon with noble branches, dense foliage, lofty height. Its top pierces the clouds.
Eze 31:4 The waters have made it grow, the deep has made it tall, pouring its rivers round the place where it is planted, sending rivulets to all the wild trees.
Eze 31:5 This is why its height was greater than that of other wild trees, its branches increased in number, its boughs stretched wide, because of the plentiful waters making it grow.
Eze 31:6 All the birds of heaven nested in its branches; under its boughs all wild animals dropped their young; in its shade sat many, many people.
Eze 31:7 It was beautiful in its size, in the span of its boughs; for its roots were in plentiful waters.
Eze 31:8 There was no cedar like it in the garden of God, no cypress had branches such as these, no plane tree could match its boughs, no tree in the garden of God could rival its beauty.
Eze 31:9 I had made it so lovely with its many branches that it was the envy of every tree in Eden, in the garden of God.
Eze 31:10 "Very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: "Since it has raised itself to its full height, has lifted its top into the clouds, and has grown arrogant about its height,
Eze 31:11 I have handed it over to the prince of the nations, for him to treat as its wickedness deserves; I have rejected it.
Eze 31:12 Foreigners, the most barbarous of nations, have cut it down and deserted it. On the mountains, in all the valleys, lie its branches; its broken boughs are in every ravine throughout the country; everybody in the country has fled its shade and deserted it.
Eze 31:13 On its wreckage perch all the birds of heaven; all the wild animals have advanced on its branches.
Eze 31:14 "So in future let no tree rear its height beside the waters, none push its top into the clouds, no watered tree stretch its height towards them. For all of them are doomed to death, to the depths of the underworld, with the common run of humanity, with those who sink into oblivion.
Eze 31:15 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: The day it went down to Sheol, I imposed mourning, I closed the deep over it. I stopped its rivers and the plentiful waters dried up; I made Lebanon dark because of it, and all the wild trees wilted because of it.
Eze 31:16 With the noise when it fell I made the nations quake, as I hurled it down to Sheol, with those who sink into oblivion. In the depths of the underworld all the trees of Eden took comfort, the pick of the loveliest trees of the Lebanon, all irrigated by the waters.
Eze 31:17 And its offspring among the nations, once living in its shade, went down to Sheol with it, to those who have been slaughtered by the sword.
Eze 31:18 "Which of the trees of Eden compares with you for glory and greatness? Yet you have been hurled down with the trees of Eden, to the depths of the underworld, among the uncircumcised, and there you lie with those who have been slaughtered by the sword. So much for Pharaoh and all his throng -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 32:1 In the twelfth year, on the first day of the twelfth month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 32:2 'Son of man, raise a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt. Say to him: "Young lion of nations, you are destroyed! Once you were like a crocodile in the lagoons; emerging from your rivers, you churned up the water with your trampling and fouled their streams.
Eze 32:3 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall throw my net over you in a great concourse of nations; and they will trawl you up in my net. Then I shall leave you high and dry,
Eze 32:4 I shall throw you out into the wilds and make all the birds of heaven settle on you, and glut all the beasts of the earth with you.
Eze 32:5 I shall strew your flesh on your mountains and fill the valleys with your corruption;
Eze 32:6 I shall water the country with what flows from you, with your blood, on the mountainsides, and you will fill the ravines.
Eze 32:7 When I extinguish you I shall cover the skies and darken the stars. I shall cover the sun with clouds and the moon will not give its light.
Eze 32:8 I shall dim every luminary in heaven because of you and cover your country in darkness -declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 32:9 "I shall grieve the heart of many peoples when I bring about your destruction among the nations, in countries unknown to you.
Eze 32:10 I shall stun many peoples with shock at your fate; their kings will tremble with horror at your fate, when I brandish my sword before their eyes. The day you fall, each will tremble in terror for his life.
Eze 32:11 For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: The sword of the king of Babylon will overtake you.
Eze 32:12 I shall make your throngs of subjects fall at the swords of my warriors. They are the most barbarous of nations. They will annihilate the pride of Egypt, and all its throngs will be destroyed.
Eze 32:13 I shall also destroy all its cattle beside the plentiful waters. No human foot will churn them, no animal foot will churn them up again;
Eze 32:14 then I shall let their waters settle and make their rivers glide like oil -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 32:15 "When I reduce Egypt to a ruin and the country is stripped of its contents, when I strike all those who live there, they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 32:16 "Such is the lament which the daughters of the nations will raise. They will raise it over Egypt and all its throng. This is the lament they will raise -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 32:17 In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 32:18 'Son of man, lament over the throng of Egypt, for down she must go with the daughters of majestic nations to the depths of the underworld with those who sink into oblivion.
Eze 32:19 'Whom do you surpass in beauty? Down with you, make your bed with the uncircumcised,
Eze 32:20 with those who have been slaughtered by the sword. (The sword has been given, it has been drawn.) She and all her throngs have fallen.
Eze 32:21 From the depths of Sheol, the mightiest heroes, her allies, will say to her, "They have come down, they have lain down, uncircumcised, slaughtered by the sword."
Eze 32:22 'Assyria is there and all her hordes, with their graves all round her; all of them slaughtered, fallen by the sword;
Eze 32:23 their graves have been made in the deepest part of the abyss, and her hordes, with their graves all round her; all of them slaughtered, killed by the sword, who once spread terror through the world of the living.
Eze 32:24 'Elam is there and all her throng round her grave, all of them slaughtered, fallen by the sword; they have gone down uncircumcised to the depths of the underworld, who once spread terror throughout the world of the living. They have borne their shame with those who sink into oblivion.
Eze 32:25 Among the slaughtered, they have put a bed for her, among her throng with their tombs round her, all of them uncircumcised, slaughtered by the sword for having spread terror throughout the world of the living. They have borne their shame with those who sink into oblivion. They have been put among the slaughtered.
Eze 32:26 'Meshech, Tubal are there and all her throng, with their graves round her, all of them uncircumcised, slaughtered by the sword for having spread terror through the world of the living.
Eze 32:27 They do not lie with the heroes who fell long ago, those who went down to Sheol fully armed, who had their swords laid under their heads and their shields put under their bones, since the heroes inspired the world of the living with terror.
Eze 32:28 But you will be broken with the uncircumcised and lie with those slaughtered by the sword.
Eze 32:29 'Edom is there, her kings and all her princes who, despite their valour, have been laid with those slaughtered by the sword. They lie with the uncircumcised, with those who sink into oblivion.
Eze 32:30 'All the princes of the north and all the Sidonians are there, who have gone down with the slaughtered, because of the terror which their power inspired. Ashamed, uncircumcised, they lie among those slaughtered by the sword and bear their shame with those who sink into oblivion.
Eze 32:31 'Pharaoh will see them and take comfort at the sight of all this throng slaughtered by the sword -- Pharaoh and all his throng -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 32:32 For having spread terror through the world of the living, he will be laid with the uncircumcised, with those slaughtered by the sword, Pharaoh and all his throng -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Eze 33:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 33:2 'Son of man, speak to the people of your country. Say to them, "When I send the sword against the people of that country, take one of their number and post him as a watchman;
Eze 33:3 if he sees the sword coming against the country, he must sound his horn to warn the people.
Eze 33:4 If someone hears the sound of the horn but pays no attention and the sword overtakes him and destroys him, he will have been responsible for his own death.
Eze 33:5 He has heard the sound of the horn and paid no attention; his death will be his own responsibility. But the life of someone who pays attention will be secure.
Eze 33:6 "If, however, the watchman has seen the sword coming but has not blown his horn, and so the people are not alerted and the sword overtakes them and destroys a single one of them, that person will indeed die for his guilt, but I shall hold the watchman responsible for his death."
Eze 33:7 'Son of man I have appointed you as watchman for the House of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them from me.
Eze 33:8 If I say to someone wicked, "Evil- doer, you are to die," and you do not speak to warn the wicked person to renounce such ways, the wicked person will die for this guilt, but I shall hold you responsible for the death.
Eze 33:9 If, however, you do warn someone wicked to renounce such ways and repent, and that person does not repent, then the culprit will die for this guilt, but you yourself will have saved your life.
Eze 33:10 'Son of man, say to the House of Israel, "You are continually saying: Our crimes and sins weigh heavily on us; we are wasting away because of them. How are we to go on living?"
Eze 33:11 Say to them, "As I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- I do not take pleasure in the death of the wicked but in the conversion of the wicked who changes his ways and saves his life. Repent, turn back from your evil ways. Why die, House of Israel?"
Eze 33:12 'Son of man, say to the members of your nation, "The uprightness of an upright person will not save him once he takes to wrong-doing; the wickedness of a wicked person will not ruin him once he renounces his wickedness. No one upright will be able to live on the strength of uprightness, having once taken to sinning.
Eze 33:13 If I say to someone upright: You are to live, and then, trusting in this uprightness, he does wrong, none of the uprightness will be remembered; because of the wrong-doing, he will die.
Eze 33:14 If, however, I say to someone wicked: You are to die, and he turns back from sin and does what is lawful and upright,
Eze 33:15 if he returns pledges, restores what he has stolen, keeps the laws that give life and no longer does wrong, he will live and will not die.
Eze 33:16 None of his previous sins will be remembered against him; having done what is lawful and upright, he will live.
Eze 33:17 "But the members of your nation say: What the Lord does is unjust. But it is what you do that is unjust.
Eze 33:18 When an upright person gives up being upright and does wrong, he dies for it.
Eze 33:19 And when a wicked person gives up being wicked and does what is lawful and upright, because of this he lives.
Eze 33:20 But you say: What the Lord does is unjust! I shall judge each of you by what you do, House of Israel." '
Eze 33:21 In the twelfth year of our captivity, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a fugitive arrived from Jerusalem and said to me, 'The city has been taken.'
Eze 33:22 Now the hand of the Lord had been on me the evening before the fugitive arrived; he had opened my mouth before the fugitive came to me the next morning; my mouth had been opened and I was dumb no longer.
Eze 33:23 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was then addressed to me as follows,
Eze 33:24 'Son of man, the people living in those ruins on the soil of Israel say this, "Abraham was alone when he was given possession of this country. But we are many; the country has been given us as our heritage."
Eze 33:25 'Very well, tell them, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You eat blood, you raise your eyes to your foul idols, you shed blood; are you to own the country?
Eze 33:26 You rely on your swords, you engage in loathsome practices, each of you defiles his neighbor's wife; are you to own the country?"
Eze 33:27 Tell them this, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: As I live, I swear it, those in the ruins will fall to the sword, those in the countryside I shall give to the wild animals for them to eat, and those among the crags and in caves will die of plague.
Eze 33:28 I shall make the country a desolate waste, and the pride of its strength will be at an end. The mountains of Israel will be deserted and no one will pass that way again.
Eze 33:29 Then they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I make the country a desolate waste because of all the filthy things they have done."
Eze 33:30 'Son of man, the members of your nation are talking about you on the ramparts and in doorways. They keep saying to one another, "Come and hear the word that has come from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 33:31 They throng towards you; my people sit down in front of you and listen to your words, but they do not act on them. What they act on is the lie in their mouths, and their hearts are set on dishonest gain.
Eze 33:32 As far as they are concerned, you are like a love song pleasantly sung to a good musical accompaniment. They listen to your words, but no one acts on them.
Eze 33:33 When the thing takes place -- and it is beginning now -- they will know that there has been a prophet among them.'
Eze 34:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 34:2 'Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them, "Shepherds, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Disaster is in store for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Are not shepherds meant to feed a flock?
Eze 34:3 Yet you have fed on milk, you have dressed yourselves in wool, you have sacrificed the fattest sheep, but failed to feed the flock.
Eze 34:4 You have failed to make weak sheep strong, or to care for the sick ones, or bandage the injured ones. You have failed to bring back strays or look for the lost. On the contrary, you have ruled them cruelly and harshly.
Eze 34:5 For lack of a shepherd they have been scattered, to become the prey of all the wild animals; they have been scattered.
Eze 34:6 My flock is astray on every mountain and on every high hill; my flock has been scattered all over the world; no one bothers about them and no one looks for them.
Eze 34:7 "Very well, shepherds, hear the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Eze 34:8 As I live, I swear it -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- since my flock has been pillaged and for lack of a shepherd is now the prey of every wild animal, since my shepherds have ceased to bother about my flock, since my shepherds feed themselves rather than my flock,
Eze 34:9 very well, shepherds, hear the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Eze 34:10 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am against the shepherds. I shall take my flock out of their charge and henceforth not allow them to feed my flock. And the shepherds will stop feeding themselves, because I shall rescue my sheep from their mouths to stop them from being food for them.
Eze 34:11 "For the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I myself shall take care of my flock and look after it.
Eze 34:12 As a shepherd looks after his flock when he is with his scattered sheep, so shall I look after my sheep. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered on the day of clouds and darkness.
Eze 34:13 I shall bring them back from the peoples where they are; I shall gather them back from the countries and bring them back to their own land. I shall pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the inhabited parts of the country.
Eze 34:14 I shall feed them in good pasturage; the highest mountains of Israel will be their grazing ground. There they will rest in good grazing grounds; they will browse in rich pastures on the mountains of Israel.
Eze 34:15 I myself shall pasture my sheep, I myself shall give them rest -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 34:16 I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the injured and make the sick strong. I shall watch over the fat and healthy. I shall be a true shepherd to them.
Eze 34:17 "As for you, my sheep, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and he-goats.
Eze 34:18 Not content to drink the clearest of the water, you foul the rest with your feet.
Eze 34:19 And my sheep must graze on what your feet have trampled and drink what your feet have fouled.
Eze 34:20 Very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I myself shall judge between the fat sheep and the thin sheep.
Eze 34:21 Since you have jostled with flank and shoulder and butted all the ailing sheep with your horns, until you have scattered them outside,
Eze 34:22 I shall come and save my sheep and stop them from being victimised. I shall judge between sheep and sheep.
Eze 34:23 "I shall raise up one shepherd, my servant David, and put him in charge of them to pasture them; he will pasture them and be their shepherd.
Eze 34:24 I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), shall be their God, and my servant David will be ruler among them. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken.
Eze 34:25 I shall make a covenant of peace with them; I shall rid the country of wild animals. They will be able to live secure in the desert and go to sleep in the woods.
Eze 34:26 I shall settle them round my hill; I shall send rain at the proper time; it will be a rain of blessings.
Eze 34:27 The trees of the countryside will yield their fruit and the soil will yield its produce; they will be secure on their soil. And they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the clutches of their slave-masters.
Eze 34:28 No more will they be a prey to the nations, no more will the wild animals of the country devour them. They will live secure, with no one to frighten them.
Eze 34:29 I shall make splendid vegetation grow for them; no more will they suffer from famine in the country; no more will they have to bear the insults of other nations.
Eze 34:30 So they will know that I, their God, am with them and that they, the House of Israel, are my people -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 34:31 And you, my sheep, are the flock of my human pasture, and I am your God -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 35:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 35:2 'Son of man, turn towards Mount Seir and prophesy against it.
Eze 35:3 Say to it, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am against you, Mount Seir; I shall stretch out my hand against you; I shall make you a desolate waste;
Eze 35:4 I shall lay your towns in ruins. You will become a waste and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 35:5 Since, following a long-standing hatred, you betrayed the Israelites to the sword on the day of their distress, on the day when an end came for their guilt,
Eze 35:6 very well, as I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- I destine you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. I swear it; you have incurred guilt by shedding blood, and bloodshed will pursue you.
Eze 35:7 I shall make Mount Seir a desolate waste and denude it of anyone traveling to and fro.
Eze 35:8 I shall fill its mountains with its slaughtered; on your hills, in your valleys and in all your ravines, those slaughtered by the sword will fall.
Eze 35:9 I shall make you a perpetual waste, your towns will never be inhabited again, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 35:10 "Since you said: The two nations and the two countries will be mine; we are going to take possession of it, although Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was there,
Eze 35:11 very well, as I live -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- I shall act with the same anger and jealousy as you acted in your hatred for them. I shall make myself known for their sake, when I punish you,
Eze 35:12 and you will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have heard all the blasphemies which you have uttered against the mountains of Israel, such as: They have been laid waste, they have been given to us for us to devour.
Eze 35:13 Great was your insolence towards me, many your speeches against me; I have heard!
Eze 35:14 Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: To the joy of the whole world, I shall make you a waste.
Eze 35:15 Since you rejoiced because the heritage of the House of Israel had been laid waste, I shall do the same to you, Mount Seir; and you will become a waste, and so will the whole of Edom; and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).' "
Eze 36:1 'Son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel. Say, "Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 36:2 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Since the enemy has gloated over you by saying: Aha! These eternal heights are owned by us now,
Eze 36:3 very well, prophesy! Say: The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Since you have been ravaged and seized on from all sides, and have become the property of the rest of the nations, and become the subject of people's talk and gossip,
Eze 36:4 very well, mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, to the devastated ruins and abandoned cities which have been put to the sack and have become a laughing-stock to the rest of the nations all round;
Eze 36:5 very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I swear it in the heat of my jealousy; I am speaking to the rest of the nations and to the whole of Edom who so exultantly and contemptuously took possession of my country to despoil its pastureland."
Eze 36:6 'Because of this, prophesy about the land of Israel. Say to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am speaking in my jealousy and rage; because you are enduring the insults of the nations,
Eze 36:7 very well, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I raise my hand and I swear that the nations all around you shall have their own insults to bear.
Eze 36:8 "Mountains of Israel, you will grow branches and bear fruit for my people Israel, who will soon return.
Eze 36:9 Yes, I am coming to you, I shall turn to you; you will be tilled and sown.
Eze 36:10 I shall increase your population, the whole House of Israel, yes, all. The cities will be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt.
Eze 36:11 I shall increase your population, both human and animal; they will be fertile and reproduce. I shall repopulate you as you were before; I shall make you more prosperous than you were before, and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 36:12 Thanks to me, men will tread your soil again, my people Israel; they will own you and you will be their heritage, and never again will you rob them of their children.
Eze 36:13 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Since people have said of you: You are a man-eater, you have robbed your nation of its children,
Eze 36:14 very well, you will eat no more men, never rob your nation of its children again -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 36:15 I shall never again let you hear the insults of the nations, you will never again have to bear the taunts of the peoples, you will never again rob the nation of its children -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 36:16 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 36:17 'Son of man, the members of the House of Israel used to live in their own territory, but they defiled it by their conduct and actions; to me their conduct was as unclean as a woman's menstruation.
Eze 36:18 I then vented my fury on them because of the blood they shed in the country and the foul idols with which they defiled it.
Eze 36:19 I scattered them among the nations and they were dispersed throughout the countries. I sentenced them as their conduct and actions deserved.
Eze 36:20 They have profaned my holy name among the nations where they have gone, so that people say of them, "These are the people of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); they have been exiled from his land."
Eze 36:21 But I have been concerned about my holy name, which the House of Israel has profaned among the nations where they have gone.
Eze 36:22 And so, say to the House of Israel, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am acting not for your sake, House of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone.
Eze 36:23 I am going to display the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- when in you I display my holiness before their eyes.
Eze 36:24 For I shall take you from among the nations and gather you back from all the countries, and bring you home to your own country.
Eze 36:25 I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your filth and of all your foul idols.
Eze 36:26 I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead.
Eze 36:27 I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws, and respect and practise my judgements.
Eze 36:28 You will live in the country which I gave your ancestors. You will be my people and I shall be your God.
Eze 36:29 I shall save you from everything that defiles you, I shall summon the wheat and make it plentiful and impose no more famines on you.
Eze 36:30 I shall increase the yield of tree and field, so that you will never again bear the ignominy of famine among the nations.
Eze 36:31 Then you will remember your evil conduct and actions. You will loathe yourselves for your guilt and your loathsome practices.
Eze 36:32 I assure you that I am not doing this for your sake -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Be ashamed and blush for your conduct, House of Israel.
Eze 36:33 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: On the day I cleanse you from all your guilt, I shall repopulate the cities and cause the ruins to be rebuilt.
Eze 36:34 Waste land, once desolate for every passer-by to see, will now be farmed again.
Eze 36:35 And people will say: This land, so recently a waste, is now like a garden of Eden, and the ruined cities once abandoned and levelled to the ground are now strongholds with people living in them.
Eze 36:36 And the nations left round you will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have rebuilt what was levelled and replanted what was ruined. I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken and shall do it.
Eze 36:37 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: As a further mark of favor, I shall let myself be consulted by the House of Israel; I shall increase their numbers like a human flock,
Eze 36:38 like a flock of sacrificial animals, like the flock in Jerusalem on her solemn feasts. So your ruined cities will be filled with human flocks, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 37:1 The hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was on me; he carried me away by the spirit of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and set me down in the middle of the valley, a valley full of bones.
Eze 37:2 He made me walk up and down and all around among them. There were vast quantities of these bones on the floor of the valley; and they were completely dry.
Eze 37:3 He said to me, 'Son of man, can these bones live?' I said, 'You know, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Eze 37:4 He said, 'Prophesy over these bones. Say, "Dry bones, hear the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 37:5 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to these bones: I am now going to make breath enter you, and you will live.
Eze 37:6 I shall put sinews on you, I shall make flesh grow on you, I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 37:7 I prophesied as I had been ordered. While I was prophesying, there was a noise, a clattering sound; it was the bones coming together.
Eze 37:8 And as I looked, they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering them, yet there was no breath in them.
Eze 37:9 He said to me, 'Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead, so that they come to life!" '
Eze 37:10 I prophesied as he had ordered me, and the breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet, a great, an immense army.
Eze 37:11 Then he said, 'Son of man, these bones are the whole House of Israel. They keep saying, "Our bones are dry, our hope has gone; we are done for."
Eze 37:12 So, prophesy. Say to them, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am now going to open your graves; I shall raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel.
Eze 37:13 And you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people,
Eze 37:14 and put my spirit in you, and you revive, and I resettle you on your own soil. Then you will know that I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have spoken and done this -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 37:15 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 37:16 'Son of man, take a stick and write on it, "Judah and those Israelites loyal to him." Take another stick and write on it, "Joseph (Ephraim's wood) and all the House of Israel loyal to him."
Eze 37:17 'Join one to the other to make a single piece of wood, a single stick in your hand.
Eze 37:18 And when the members of your nation say, "Will you not tell us what you mean?"
Eze 37:19 say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am taking the stick of Joseph (now in Ephraim's hand) and those tribes of Israel loyal to him and shall join them to the stick of Judah. I shall make one stick out of the two, a single stick in my hand."
Eze 37:20 'When the pieces of wood you have written on are in your hand in full sight of them,
Eze 37:21 say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I shall take the Israelites from the nations where they have gone. I shall gather them to- gether from everywhere and bring them home to their own soil.
Eze 37:22 I shall make them into one nation in the country, on the mountains of Israel, and one king is to be king of them all; they will no longer form two nations, nor be two separate kingdoms.
Eze 37:23 They will no longer defile themselves with their foul idols, their horrors and any of their crimes. I shall save them from the acts of infidelity which they have committed and shall cleanse them; they will be my people and I shall be their God.
Eze 37:24 My servant David will reign over them, one shepherd for all; they will follow my judgements, respect my laws and practise them.
Eze 37:25 They will live in the country which I gave to my servant Jacob, the country in which your ancestors lived. They will live in it, they, their children, their children's children, for ever. David my servant is to be their prince for ever.
Eze 37:26 I shall make a covenant of peace with them, an eternal covenant with them. I shall resettle them and make them grow; I shall set my sanctuary among them for ever.
Eze 37:27 I shall make my home above them; I shall be their God, and they will be my people.
Eze 37:28 And the nations will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary is with them for ever." '
Eze 38:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Eze 38:2 'Son of man, turn towards Gog, to the country of Magog, towards the paramount prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.
Eze 38:3 Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am against you, Gog, paramount prince of Meshech and Tubal.
Eze 38:4 I shall turn you about, I shall fix hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your entire army, horses and horsemen, all perfectly equipped, a huge array armed with shields and bucklers, and all wielding swords.
Eze 38:5 Persia and Cush and Put are with them, all with buckler and helmet;
Eze 38:6 Gomer and all its troops, Beth-Togarmah in the far north and all its troops, and many nations with you.
Eze 38:7 Be ready, be well prepared, you and all your troops and the others rallying to you, and hold yourself at my service.
Eze 38:8 "Many days will pass before you are given orders; in the final years you will march on this country, whose inhabitants will have been living in confidence, remote from other peoples, since they escaped the sword and were gathered in from various nations, here in the long-deserted mountains of Israel.
Eze 38:9 Like a storm you will approach, you will advance and cover the country like a cloud, you, all your troops and many nations with you.
Eze 38:10 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: That day, a thought will enter your mind and you will form a sinister plan.
Eze 38:11 You will think: I shall attack this undefended country and march on this peaceful nation living secure, all living in towns without walls or bars or gates.
Eze 38:12 You will come to plunder and loot and turn your might against the ruins they live in, against this people gathered back from the nations, these stock-breeders and traders who live at the Navel of the World.
Eze 38:13 Sheba and Dedan, the merchants and all the magnates of Tarshish will ask you: Have you come for plunder? Are you massing your troops with a view to looting? To make off with gold and silver, seize cattle and goods, and come away with unlimited spoil?"
Eze 38:14 'So, son of man, prophesy. Say to Gog, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Is it not true that you will set out at a time when my people Israel is living secure?
Eze 38:15 You will leave your home in the far north, you and many nations with you, a great army of countless troops all mounted.
Eze 38:16 You will invade Israel, my people. You will be like a cloud covering the country. In the final days, I myself shall bring you to attack my country, so that the nations will know who I am, when I display my holiness to them, by means of you, Gog.
Eze 38:17 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: It was of you that I spoke in the past through my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days, foretelling your invasion.
Eze 38:18 The day Gog attacks the land of Israel -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- my furious wrath will boil up. In my anger,
Eze 38:19 in my jealousy, in the heat of my fury I say it: That day, I swear, there will be such a huge earthquake in the land of Israel,
Eze 38:20 that the fish in the sea and the birds of heaven, the wild beasts, all the reptiles creeping along the ground, and all people on the surface of the earth will quake before me. Mountains will fall, cliffs crumble, all walls collapse, and
Eze 38:21 I shall summon every kind of sword against him -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- and each will turn his sword against his comrade.
Eze 38:22 I shall punish him with plague and bloodshed, and rain down torrential rain, hailstones, fire and brimstone on him, on his troops and on the many nations with him.
Eze 38:23 I shall display my greatness and holiness and bring the many nations to acknowledge me; and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 39:1 'So, son of man, prophesy against Gog. Say, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am against you, Gog, paramount prince of Meshech and Tubal.
Eze 39:2 I shall turn you about, lead you on, and bring you from the farthest north against the mountains of Israel.
Eze 39:3 I shall break the bow in your left hand and dash the arrows out of your right.
Eze 39:4 You will fall on the mountains of Israel, you, all your troops and the nations with you. I shall make you food for every kind of bird of prey and wild animals.
Eze 39:5 You will fall in the wilds, for I have spoken -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 39:6 I shall send down fire on Magog and on those living undisturbed in the islands, and they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 39:7 I shall see that my holy name is acknowledged by my people Israel, and no longer allow my holy name to be profaned; and the nations will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), holy in Israel.
Eze 39:8 "All this is to happen, all this is to take place -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). This is the day I predicted.
Eze 39:9 "The inhabitants of the towns of Israel will go out and set fire to and burn the weapons, the shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, javelins and spears. They will burn these for seven years
Eze 39:10 and not fetch wood from the countryside or cut it in the forests, since they will be burning the weapons. They will plunder those who plundered them, and despoil those who despoiled them -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 39:11 "That day, I shall give Gog a famous spot in Israel for his grave, the valley of the Obarim, east of the Sea -- the valley that halts the traveller -- and there Gog and his whole throng will be buried, and it will be called the Valley of Hamon-Gog.
Eze 39:12 The House of Israel will take seven months to bury them and cleanse the country.
Eze 39:13 All the people of the country will dig their graves, thus winning themselves renown, the day when I display my glory -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 39:14 And men will be detailed to the permanent duty of going through the country and burying those left above ground and cleansing it. They will begin their search once the seven months are over,
Eze 39:15 and as they go through the country, if one of them sees any human bones, he will set up a marker beside them until the gravediggers have buried them in the valley of Hamon-Gog
Eze 39:16 (and Hamonah is also the name of a town) and have cleansed the country."
Eze 39:17 'Son of man, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Say to the birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Muster, come, gather from everywhere around for the sacrifice I am making for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, so that you can eat flesh and drink blood.
Eze 39:18 You will eat the flesh of heroes, you will drink the blood of the princes of the world. They are all rams and lambs, goats and fat bulls of Bashan.
Eze 39:19 You will glut yourselves on fat and drink yourselves drunk on blood at this sacrifice I am making for you.
Eze 39:20 You will glut yourselves at my table on horses and chargers, on heroes and every kind of warrior -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)."
Eze 39:21 'I shall display my glory to the nations, and all nations will see my sentence when I inflict it and my hand when I strike them.
Eze 39:22 The House of Israel will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God, from that day forward for ever.
Eze 39:23 The nations too will know that the House of Israel were exiled for their guilt; because they were unfaithful to me, I hid my face from them and put them into the clutches of their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword.
Eze 39:24 I treated them as their loathsome acts of infidelity deserved and hid my face from them.
Eze 39:25 'So, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "Now I shall bring Jacob's captives back and take pity on the whole House of Israel and show myself jealous for my holy name.
Eze 39:26 They will forget their disgrace and all the acts of infidelity which they committed against me when they were living safely in their own country, with no one to disturb them.
Eze 39:27 When I bring them home from the peoples, when I gather them back from the countries of their enemies, when I display my holiness in them for many nations to see,
Eze 39:28 they will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God who, having sent them into exile among the nations, have reunited them in their own country, not leaving a single one behind.
Eze 39:29 I shall never hide my face from them again, since I shall pour out my spirit on the House of Israel -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 40:1 In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, fourteen years to the day from the capture of the city, the hand of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was on me. He carried me away:
Eze 40:2 in divine visions, he carried me away to the land of Israel and put me down on a very high mountain, on the south of which there seemed to be built a city.
Eze 40:3 He took me to it, and there I saw a man, whose appearance was like brass. He had a flax cord and a measuring rod in his hand and was standing in the gateway.
Eze 40:4 The man said to me, 'Son of man, look carefully, listen closely and pay attention to everything I show you, since you have been brought here only for me to show it to you. Tell the House of Israel everything that you see.'
Eze 40:5 Now, the Temple was surrounded on all sides by an outer wall. The man was holding a measuring rod six cubits long, each cubit a forearm and a handsbreadth. He measured the thickness of this construction -- one rod; and its height -- one rod.
Eze 40:6 He went to the east gate, climbed the steps and measured its threshold: one rod deep.
Eze 40:7 Each guardroom one rod by one rod; and the piers between the guardrooms five cubits thick, and the threshold of the gate inwards from the porch of the gate: one rod.
Eze 40:8
Eze 40:9 He measured the porch of the gate: eight cubits; its piers: two cubits; the porch of the gate was at the inner end.
Eze 40:10 There were three guardrooms on each side of the east gate, all three of the same size; the piers between them all of the same thickness each side.
Eze 40:11 He measured the width of the entrance: ten cubits; and the width all down the gateway: thirteen cubits.
Eze 40:12 There was a rail in front of the guardrooms; each rail on either side was one cubit. And the guardrooms on either side were six cubits square.
Eze 40:13 He measured the width of the gate from the back wall of one guardroom to the back wall of the other; it was twenty-five cubits across, the openings being opposite each other.
Eze 40:14 He measured the porch: twenty cubits; the court surrounded the gate on all sides.
Eze 40:15 From the front of the entrance gate, to the far end of the porch of the inner gate: fifty cubits.
Eze 40:16 All round inside the gate there were trellised windows in the guardrooms and in their piers; similarly, in the porch there were windows all round and palm trees on the piers.
Eze 40:17 He then took me to the outer court, which had rooms and a paved terrace going all the way round; there were thirty rooms on this terrace.
Eze 40:18 This terrace, which came up to the sides of the gates and matched their depth, was the Lower Terrace. He measured the width of the court,
Eze 40:19 from the front of the lower gate to the fac ade of the inner court, outside: a hundred cubits (on the east and on the north).
Eze 40:20 He measured the length and breadth of the north gate of the outer court.
Eze 40:21 It had three guardrooms on each side; its piers and porch were of the same size as those of the first gate: fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
Eze 40:22 Its windows, its porch and its palm trees were of the same size as those of the east gate. There were seven steps up to it, and its porch was at the inner end.
Eze 40:23 In the inner court there was, opposite the north gate, a gate like the one opposite the east gate. He measured the distance from one gate to the other: a hundred cubits.
Eze 40:24 He took me to the south side where there was a south gate; he measured its guardrooms, piers and porch; they were of the same size as the others.
Eze 40:25 The gateway, as well as its porch, had windows all round, like the windows of the others; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide,
Eze 40:26 and it had seven steps up to it; its porch was at the inner end and had palm trees on its piers, one on either side.
Eze 40:27 The inner court had a south gate; he measured the distance southwards from one gate to the other: a hundred cubits.
Eze 40:28 He then took me into the inner court by the south gate; he measured the south gate which was of the same size as the others.
Eze 40:29 Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others.
Eze 40:30 The gateway, as well as its porch, had windows all round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
Eze 40:31 The porch gave on to the outer court. It had palm trees on its piers and eight steps leading up to it.
Eze 40:32 He took me to the eastern part of the inner court and measured the gate. It was of the same size as the others.
Eze 40:33 Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others. The gateway, as well as its porch, had windows all round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
Eze 40:34 Its porch gave on to the outer court. There were palm trees on its piers on either side and eight steps leading up to it.
Eze 40:35 He then took me to the north gate and measured it.
Eze 40:36 Its guardrooms, piers and porch were of the same size as the others. The gateway had windows all round; it was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.
Eze 40:37 Its porch gave on to the outer court. There were palm trees on its piers on either side and eight steps leading up to it.
Eze 40:38 There was a room, the entrance to which was in the porch of the gateway, where they washed the burnt offerings.
Eze 40:39 And inside the porch of the gateway were slabs, two on either side, for slaughtering the burnt offerings, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation.
Eze 40:40 Outside, at the approach to the entrance of the north gate, were two slabs, and on the other side, at the porch end of the gate were two slabs.
Eze 40:41 There were four slabs on one side and four slabs on the other side of the gateway, eight slabs in all, on which the slaughtering was done.
Eze 40:42 There were also four slabs of dressed stone for the burnt offerings, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high, on which the instruments for slaughtering the burnt offerings and sacrifice were placed;
Eze 40:43 runnels a handsbreadth wide went all round the top, and on these slabs was put the sacrificial flesh.
Eze 40:44 Then he took me into the inner court; there were two rooms in the inner court, one on the side of the north gate, facing south, the other on the side of the south gate, facing north.
Eze 40:45 He told me, 'The room looking south is for the priests responsible for the service of the Temple,
Eze 40:46 and the room looking north is for the priests responsible for the service of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, those of the sons of Levi who approach Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to serve him.'
Eze 40:47 He measured the court; it was a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide, a square with the altar standing in front of the Temple.
Eze 40:48 He took me to the Ulam of the Temple and measured the piers of the Ulam: five cubits either side; and the width of the entrance was three cubits either side.
Eze 40:49 The length of the Ulam was twenty cubits and its width twelve cubits. There were ten steps leading up to it, and there were columns by the piers, one on either side.
Eze 41:1 He took me to the Hekal and measured its piers: six cubits wide on the one side, six cubits wide on the other.
Eze 41:2 The width of the entrance was ten cubits, and the returns of the entrance were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other. He measured its length: forty cubits; and its width: twenty cubits.
Eze 41:3 He then went inside and measured the pier at the entrance: two cubits; then the entrance; six cubits; and the returns of the entrance: seven cubits.
Eze 41:4 He measured its length; twenty cubits; and its width against the Hekal: twenty cubits. He then said to me, 'This is the Holy of Holies.'
Eze 41:5 He then measured the wall of the Temple: six cubits. The width of the lateral structure was four cubits, all round the Temple.
Eze 41:6 The cells were one above the other in three tiers of thirty cells each. The cells were recessed into the wall, the wall of the structure comprising the cells, all round, forming offsets; but there were no offsets in the wall of the Temple itself.
Eze 41:7 The width of the cells increased, storey by storey, corresponding to the amount taken in from the wall from one storey to the next, all round the Temple.
Eze 41:8 Then I saw that there was a paved terrace all round the Temple. The height of this, which formed the base of the side cells, was one complete rod of six cubits.
Eze 41:9 The outer wall of the side cells was five cubits thick. There was a passage between the cells of the Temple
Eze 41:10 and the rooms, twenty cubits wide, all round the Temple.
Eze 41:11 As a way in to the lateral cells on the passage there was one entrance on the north side and one entrance on the south side. The width of the passage was five cubits right round.
Eze 41:12 The building on the west side of the court was seventy cubits wide, the wall of the building was five cubits thick all round and its length was ninety cubits.
Eze 41:13 He measured the length of the Temple: a hundred cubits.
Eze 41:14 The length of the court plus the building and its walls: a hundred cubits.
Eze 41:15 He measured the length of the building, along the court, at the back, and its galleries on either side: a hundred cubits. The inside of the Hekal and the porches of the court,
Eze 41:16 the thresholds, the windows, the galleries on three sides, facing the threshold, were panelled with wood all round from floor to windows, and the windows were screened with latticework.
Eze 41:17 From the door to the inner part of the Temple, as well as outside, and on the wall all round, both inside and out,
Eze 41:18 were carved great winged creatures and palm trees, one palm tree between two winged creatures; each winged creature had two faces:
Eze 41:19 a human face turned towards the palm tree on one side and the face of a lion towards the palm tree on the other side, throughout the Temple, all round.
Eze 41:20 Winged creatures and palm trees were carved on the wall from the floor to above the entrance.
Eze 41:21 The doorposts of the Temple were square. In front of the sanctuary there was something like
Eze 41:22 a wooden altar, three cubits high and two cubits square. Its corners, base and sides were of wood. He said to me, 'This is the table in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Eze 41:23 The Hekal had double doors and the sanctuary
Eze 41:24 double doors. These doors had two hinged leaves, two leaves for the one door, two leaves for the other.
Eze 41:25 On them (on the doors of the Hekal), were carved great winged creatures and palm trees like those carved on the walls. There was a wooden porch roof on the front of the Ulam on the outside,
Eze 41:26 and windows with flanking palm trees on the sides of the Ulam, the cells to the side of the Temple and the porch-roofs.
Eze 42:1 He then took me out into the outer court on the north side and led me to the room facing the court, that is to say, to the front of the building on the north side.
Eze 42:2 Along the front, it was a hundred cubits long on the north side and fifty cubits wide.
Eze 42:3 Facing the gateways of the inner court and facing the paving of the outer court was a gallery in front of the triple gallery,
Eze 42:4 and in front of the rooms was a walk, ten cubits measured inwards and a hundred cubits long; their doors looked north.
Eze 42:5 The top-floor rooms were narrow because the galleries took up part of the width, being narrower than those on the ground floor or those on the middle floor of the building;
Eze 42:6 these were divided into three storeys and had no columns such as the court had. Hence they were narrower than the ground floor ones or the middle-floor ones (below them).
Eze 42:7 The outer wall parallel to the rooms, facing them and giving onto the outer court, was fifty cubits long,
Eze 42:8 the length of the rooms facing the outer court being fifty cubits, while for those facing the hall of the Temple it was a hundred cubits.
Eze 42:9 Beneath the rooms there was an entrance from the east, leading in from the outer court.
Eze 42:10 In the thickness of the wall of the court, on the south side fronting the court and the building, were rooms.
Eze 42:11 A walk ran in front of them, as with the rooms built on the north side; they were of the same length and breadth, and were of similar design with similar doors in and out.
Eze 42:12 Before the rooms on the south side there was an entrance at the end of each walk, opposite the corresponding wall on the east side, at their entries.
Eze 42:13 He said to me, 'The northern and southern rooms giving onto the court are the rooms of the sanctuary, in which the priests who approach Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will eat the most holy things. In them will be placed the most holy things: the oblation, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation, since this is a holy place.
Eze 42:14 Once the priests have entered, they will not go out of the holy place into the outer court without leaving their liturgical vestments there, since these vestments are holy; they will put on other clothes before going near places assigned to the people.'
Eze 42:15 When he had finished measuring the inside of the Temple, he took me out to the east gate and measured it right round the sides.
Eze 42:16 He measured the east side with his measuring rod: a total of five hundred cubits by the measuring rod.
Eze 42:17 He then measured the north side: a total of five hundred cubits by the measuring rod.
Eze 42:18 He then measured the south side: five hundred cubits by the measuring rod
Eze 42:19 was the total. On the west side he measured five hundred cubits by the measuring rod.
Eze 42:20 He measured the entire enclosing wall on all four sides: length five hundred, breadth five hundred, separating the sacred from the profane.
Eze 43:1 He took me to the gate, the one facing east.
Eze 43:2 I saw the glory of the God of Israel approaching from the east. A sound came with him like the sound of the ocean, and the earth shone with his glory.
Eze 43:3 This vision was like the one I had seen when I had come for the destruction of the city, and like the one I had seen by the River Chebar. Then I fell to the ground.
Eze 43:4 The glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) arrived at the Temple by the east gate.
Eze 43:5 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court; I saw the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) fill the Temple.
Eze 43:6 And I heard someone speaking to me from the Temple while the man stood beside me.
Eze 43:7 He said, 'Son of man, this is the dais of my throne, the step on which I rest my feet. I shall live here among the Israelites for ever; and the House of Israel, they and their kings, will never again defile my holy name with their whorings and the corpses of their kings,
Eze 43:8 by putting their threshold beside my threshold and their doorposts beside my door-posts, with a party wall shared by them and me. They used to defile my holy name by their loathsome practices, and this is why I put an end to them in my anger.
Eze 43:9 From now on they will banish their whorings and the corpses of their kings from my presence and I shall live among them for ever.
Eze 43:10 'Son of man, describe this Temple to the House of Israel, to shame them out of their loathsome practices. (Let them draw up the plan of it.)
Eze 43:11 And, if they are ashamed of their behaviour, show them the design and plan of the Temple, its exits and entrances, its shape, how all of it is arranged, the entire design and all its principles. Give them all this in writing so that they can see and take note of its design and the way it is all arranged and carry it out.
Eze 43:12 This is the charter of the Temple: all the surrounding space on the mountain top is an especially holy area. (Such is the charter of the Temple.)'
Eze 43:13 These were the dimensions of the altar, in cubits each of a cubit plus a handsbreadth. The base: one cubit high and one cubit wide; the space by the runnel, all round the edge of the altar, one handsbreadth.
Eze 43:14 From the ground level of the base up to the lower plinth, two cubits high and one cubit wide; from the lesser plinth to the greater plinth, four cubits high and one cubit wide.
Eze 43:15 The altar hearth: four cubits high, with four horns projecting from the hearth,
Eze 43:16 the hearth was four-square: twelve cubits by twelve cubits;
Eze 43:17 and the square plinth: fourteen cubits by fourteen cubits; and the ledge all round: half a cubit; and the base: one cubit all round. The steps were on the east side.
Eze 43:18 He said to me, 'Son of man, the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "As regards the altar, this is how things must be done when it has been built for the sacrifice of the burnt offering and for the pouring of blood.
Eze 43:19 To the levitical priests -- those of the race of Zadok -- who approach me to serve me -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- you must give a young bull as a sacrifice for sin.
Eze 43:20 You must take some of its blood and put it on the four horns, on the four corners of the plinth and on the surrounding ledge. In this way you will purify it and make expiation on it.
Eze 43:21 Then take the bull of the sacrifice for sin and burn it in that part of the Temple which is cut off from the sanctuary.
Eze 43:22 On the second day, you must offer an unblemished he-goat as the sacrifice for sin, and the altar must be purified again as was done with the bull.
Eze 43:23 When you have finished the purification, you must offer a young, unblemished bull and an unblemished ram from the flock.
Eze 43:24 You must present them before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and the priests will sprinkle salt on them and offer them as burnt offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 43:25 As a sacrifice for sin, every day for seven days you must offer a he-goat, a bull and an unblemished ram from the flock.
Eze 43:26 In this way the altar will be expiated and will be purified and inaugurated.
Eze 43:27 At the end of that time, on the eighth day and afterwards, the priest will offer your burnt offerings and your communion sacrifices on the altar, and I shall look favorably on you -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 44:1 He brought me back to the outer east gate of the sanctuary. It was shut.
Eze 44:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'This gate will be kept shut. No one may open it or go through it, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, has been through it. And so it must be kept shut.
Eze 44:3 The prince himself, however, may sit there to take his meal in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). He must enter and leave through the porch of the gate.'
Eze 44:4 He led me through the north gate to the front of the Temple. And then I looked; I saw the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) filling the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); and I fell to the ground.
Eze 44:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Son of man, pay attention, look carefully and listen closely to everything I explain; these are all the arrangements of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and all its laws. Be careful about who is admitted to the Temple and who is excluded from the sanctuary.
Eze 44:6 And say to the rebels of the House of Israel, "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: You have gone beyond all bounds with all your loathsome practices, House of Israel,
Eze 44:7 by admitting aliens, uncircumcised in heart and body, to frequent my sanctuary and profane my Temple, while offering my food, the fat and the blood, and breaking my covenant with all your loathsome practices.
Eze 44:8 Instead of maintaining the service of my holy things, you have deputed someone else to maintain my service in my sanctuary.
Eze 44:9 The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: No alien, uncircumcised in heart and body, may enter my sanctuary, none of the aliens living among the Israelites.
Eze 44:10 "As regards the Levites who abandoned me when Israel strayed far from me by following its idols, they must bear the weight of their own sin.
Eze 44:11 They must be servants in my sanctuary, responsible for guarding the Temple gates and serving the Temple. They will kill the burnt offerings and the sacrifice for the people, and hold themselves at the service of the people.
Eze 44:12 Since they used to be at their service in front of their idols and were an occasion of guilt for the House of Israel, very well, I stretch out my hand against them -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- they will bear the weight of their guilt.
Eze 44:13 They may never approach me again to perform the priestly office in my presence, nor touch my holy things and my most holy things; they must bear the disgrace of their loathsome practices.
Eze 44:14 I shall give them the responsibility of serving the Temple; I shall make them responsible for serving it and for everything to be done in it.
Eze 44:15 "As regards the levitical priests, the sons of Zadok, who maintained the service of my sanctuary when the Israelites strayed far from me, they will approach me to serve me; they will stand in my presence to offer me the fat and blood -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 44:16 They will enter my sanctuary and approach my table to serve me; they will maintain my service.
Eze 44:17 Once they enter the gates of the inner court, they must wear linen vestments; they must wear no wool when they serve inside the gates of the inner court and in the Temple.
Eze 44:18 They must wear linen caps on their heads and linen breeches on their loins; they may not wear anything round their waists that makes them sweat.
Eze 44:19 When they go out to the people in the outer court, they must remove the vestments in which they have performed the liturgy and leave them in the rooms of the Holy Place, and put on other clothes, so as not to hallow the people with their vestments.
Eze 44:20 They may neither shave their heads nor let their hair grow long, but must cut their hair carefully.
Eze 44:21 No priest may drink wine on the day he enters the inner court.
Eze 44:22 They may not marry widows or divorced women, but only virgins of the race of Israel; they may, however, marry a widow, if she is the widow of a priest.
Eze 44:23 They must teach my people the difference between what is sacred and what is profane and make them understand the difference between what is clean and what is unclean.
Eze 44:24 They must be judges in law-suits; they must judge in the spirit of my judgements; they must follow my laws and ordinances at all my feasts and keep my Sabbaths holy.
Eze 44:25 They may not go near a dead person, in case they become unclean, except in these permissible cases, that is, for father, mother, daughter, son, brother or unmarried sister.
Eze 44:26 After one of them has been purified, seven days must elapse;
Eze 44:27 then, the day he enters the Holy Place in the inner court to minister in the Holy Place, he must offer his sacrifice for sin -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 44:28 They may have no heritage; I myself shall be their heritage. You may give them no patrimony in Israel; I myself shall be their patrimony.
Eze 44:29 Their food must be the oblation, the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation. Everything dedicated by vow in Israel shall be for them.
Eze 44:30 The best of all your first-fruits and of all the dues and of everything you offer, must go to the priests; and the best of your dough you must also give to the priests, so that a blessing may rest on your house.
Eze 44:31 Priests must not eat the flesh of anything that has died a natural death or been savaged, be it bird or animal." '
Eze 45:1 ' "When you draw lots to divide the country by heritage, you must set a sacred portion of the country aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH): twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand wide. The whole of this land must be sacred,
Eze 45:2 and of this an area five hundred by five hundred cubits must be for the sanctuary, with a boundary fifty cubits wide right round.
Eze 45:3 Out of this area you must also measure a section twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits, in which will be the sanctuary, the Holy of Holies.
Eze 45:4 This will be the sacred portion of the country, belonging to the priests who officiate in the sanctuary and approach Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to serve him. It will contain room for their houses and room for the sanctuary.
Eze 45:5 A portion twenty-five thousand by ten thousand cubits will be owned by the Levites serving the Temple, with towns for them to live in.
Eze 45:6 You must give the city possession of an area five thousand by twenty-five thousand cubits, near the land belonging to the sanctuary; this must be for the whole House of Israel.
Eze 45:7 "The prince must have a territory either side of the sacred portion and of the property of the city, adjacent to the sacred portion and the property of the city, stretching westwards from the west and eastwards from the east, its size equal to one of the portions between the west and the east frontiers
Eze 45:8 of the country. This will be his property in Israel. Then my princes will no longer oppress my people; they must leave the rest of the country for the House of Israel, for its tribes.
Eze 45:9 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Enough, princes of Israel! Give up your violence and plundering, do what is upright and just, stop crushing my people with taxation -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 45:10 Have fair scales, a fair ephah, a fair bat.
Eze 45:11 Let the ephah and bat be equal, let the bat hold one-tenth of a homer and the ephah one-tenth of a homer. Let the measures be based on the homer.
Eze 45:12 The shekel must be twenty gerah. Twenty shekels, twenty-five shekels and fifteen shekels must make one mina.
Eze 45:13 "This is the offering that you must levy: the sixth of an ephah for every homer of wheat, and the sixth of an ephah for every homer of barley.
Eze 45:14 The dues on oil: one bat of oil out of every ten bat or out of every kor (which is equal to ten bat or one homer, since ten bat equal one homer).
Eze 45:15 You must levy one sheep on every flock of two hundred from the pastures of Israel for the oblation, the burnt offerings and the communion sacrifice. This must form your expiation -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 45:16 Let all the people of the country be subject to this due for the prince of Israel.
Eze 45:17 The prince must make himself responsible for providing the burnt offerings, the oblation and the libations for feasts, New Moons, Sabbaths and all the solemn festivals of the House of Israel. He must provide the sacrifice for sin, the oblation, the burnt offerings and the communion sacrifices to make expiation for the House of Israel.
Eze 45:18 "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: On the first day of the first month, you must take a young bull without blemish, to purify the sanctuary.
Eze 45:19 The priest must take blood from the sacrifice for sin and put it on the doorposts of the Temple, on the four corners of the altar plinth and on the doorposts of the gates of the inner court.
Eze 45:20 You must do the same on the seventh of the month, on behalf of anyone who has sinned through inadvertence or ignorance. This is how you must make expiation for the Temple.
Eze 45:21 On the fourteenth day of the first month, you must celebrate the feast of the Passover. For seven days everyone must eat unleavened loaves.
Eze 45:22 On that day, the prince must offer a bull as a sacrifice for sin, for himself and all the people of the country.
Eze 45:23 For the seven days of the feast, he must offer Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) burnt offerings of seven bulls and seven rams without blemish, daily for a week, and one he-goat daily as a sacrifice for sin,
Eze 45:24 and as an oblation, one ephah for each bull and one ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil for every ephah.
Eze 45:25 "For the feast that falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he must do the same for seven days, offering the sacrifice for sin, the burnt offerings, the oblation and the oil." '
Eze 46:1 ' "The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: The east gate of the inner court must be kept shut for the six working days. On the Sabbath day, however, it must be opened, as also on the day of the New Moon;
Eze 46:2 and the prince must go in through the porch of the outer gate and take his position by the doorposts of the gate. The priests must then offer his burnt offerings and his communion sacrifice. He must prostrate himself on the threshold of the gate and go out, and the gate must not be shut again until the evening.
Eze 46:3 The people of the country must prostrate themselves in the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the entrance to the gate on Sabbaths and days of the New Moon.
Eze 46:4 The burnt offering offered to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) by the prince on the Sabbath day must consist of six unblemished lambs and one unblemished ram,
Eze 46:5 with an oblation of one ephah for the ram, and such oblation as he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.
Eze 46:6 On the day of the New Moon it must consist of an unblemished young bull, six unblemished lambs and one unblemished ram,
Eze 46:7 when he must make an oblation of one ephah for the bull and one ephah for the ram, and what he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.
Eze 46:8 "When the prince goes in, he must enter by the porch of the gate, and he must leave by the same way.
Eze 46:9 When the people of the country come into the presence of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at the solemn festivals, those who have come in by the north gate to prostrate themselves must go out by the south gate, and those who have come in by the south gate must go out by the north gate; no one must turn back to leave through the gate by which he entered but must go out on the opposite side.
Eze 46:10 The prince will be with them, coming in like them and going out like them.
Eze 46:11 "On feast days and solemn festivals the oblation must be one ephah for every bull, one ephah for every ram, what he pleases for the lambs, and a hin of oil for every ephah.
Eze 46:12 When the prince offers Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) voluntary burnt offerings or a voluntary communion sacrifice, the east gate must be opened for him, and he must offer his burnt offerings and his communion sacrifice as he does on the Sabbath day; when he has gone out, the gate must be shut after him.
Eze 46:13 Every day he must offer an unblemished lamb one year old as a burnt offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he must offer this every morning.
Eze 46:14 Every morning in addition he must offer an oblation of one-sixth of an ephah and one-third of a hin of oil, for mixing with the flour. This is the oblation to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a perpetual decree, fixed for ever.
Eze 46:15 The lamb, the oblation and the oil must be offered morning after morning for ever.
Eze 46:16 "Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: If the prince presents part of his hereditary portion to one of his sons, the gift must pass into the ownership of his sons and become their hereditary property.
Eze 46:17 If, however, he presents part of his hereditary portion to one of his slaves, it will belong to the man only until the year of liberation and then must revert to the prince. Only his sons may retain his hereditary portion.
Eze 46:18 The prince may not take any part of the people's hereditary portion, thus robbing them of what is theirs; he must provide the patrimony of his sons out of his own property, so that no member of my people is robbed of what is his!" '
Eze 46:19 He took me through the entrance at the side of the north gate that leads to the rooms of the Holy Place set apart for the priests. And there before us, to the west, was a space at the end.
Eze 46:20 He said to me, 'This is where the priests must boil the slaughtered animals for the sacrifice for sin and the sacrifice of reparation, and where they must bake the oblation, without having to carry them into the outer court and so run the risk of hallowing the people.'
Eze 46:21 He then took me into the outer court and led me to each of its four corners; in each corner of the outer court was a compound;
Eze 46:22 in other words, the four corners of the court contained four small compounds, forty cubits by thirty, all four being the same size.
Eze 46:23 All four were enclosed by a wall, with hearths all round the bottom of the wall.
Eze 46:24 He said, 'These are the kitchens where the Temple servants must boil the sacrifices offered by the people.'
Eze 47:1 He brought me back to the entrance of the Temple, where a stream flowed eastwards from under the Temple threshold, for the Temple faced east. The water flowed from under the right side of the Temple, south of the altar.
Eze 47:2 He took me out by the north gate and led me right round outside as far as the outer east gate where the water flowed out on the right-hand side.
Eze 47:3 The man went off to the east holding his measuring line and measured off a thousand cubits; he then made me wade across the stream; the water reached my ankles.
Eze 47:4 He measured off another thousand and made me wade across the stream again; the water reached my knees. He measured off another thousand and made me wade across the stream again; the water reached my waist.
Eze 47:5 He measured off another thousand; it was now a river which I could not cross; the stream had swollen and was now deep water, a river impossible to cross.
Eze 47:6 He then said, 'Do you see, son of man?' He then took me and brought me back to the bank on the river.
Eze 47:7 Now, when I reached it, I saw an enormous number of trees on each bank of the river.
Eze 47:8 He said, 'This water flows east down to the Arabah and to the sea; and flowing into the sea it makes its waters wholesome.
Eze 47:9 Wherever the river flows, all living creatures teeming in it will live. Fish will be very plentiful, for wherever the water goes it brings health, and life teems wherever the river flows.
Eze 47:10 There will be fishermen on its banks. Fishing nets will be spread from En-Gedi to En-Eglaim. The species of fish will be the same as the fish of the Great Sea.
Eze 47:11 The marshes and lagoons, however, will not become wholesome, but will remain salt.
Eze 47:12 Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.'
Eze 47:13 'The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this, "This will be the territory which you must distribute among the twelve tribes of Israel, with two portions for Joseph.
Eze 47:14 You will each have a fair share of it, since I swore to your fathers that I would give it to them, and this country now falls to you as your heritage.
Eze 47:15 These will be the frontiers of the country. On the north, from the Great Sea, the road from Hethlon to the Pass of Hamath, Zedad,
Eze 47:16 Berothah, Sibraim lying between the territories of Damascus and Hamath, to Hazer-ha-Tikon on the borders of Hauran;
Eze 47:17 the frontier will extend from the sea to Hazer-Enon, with the territory of Damascus and the territory of Hamath to the north; that will be the northern frontier.
Eze 47:18 On the east, the Jordan will serve as frontier between Hauran and Damascus, between Gilead and Israel, down to the Eastern Sea as far as Tamar; that will be the eastern frontier.
Eze 47:19 On the south, from Tamar southward to the Waters of Meribah in Kadesh, to the Wadi and the Great Sea; that will be the southern frontier.
Eze 47:20 And to the west, the Great Sea will serve as frontier up to the point opposite the Pass of Hamath; that will be the western frontier.
Eze 47:21 You must distribute this country among yourselves, among the tribes of Israel.
Eze 47:22 You must distribute it as a heritage for yourselves and the aliens settled among you who have fathered children among you, since you must treat them as citizens of Israel. They must draw lots for their heritage with you, among the tribes of Israel.
Eze 47:23 You will give the alien his heritage in the tribe where he has settled -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Eze 48:1 ' "This is the list of the tribes. One portion in the far north by way of Hethlon to the Pass of Hamath, to Hazer-Enon, with the territory of Damascus to the north, and marching with Hamath, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Dan.
Eze 48:2 One portion bordering Dan, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Asher.
Eze 48:3 One portion bordering Asher, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Naphtali.
Eze 48:4 One portion bordering Naphtali, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Manasseh.
Eze 48:5 One portion bordering Manasseh, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Ephraim.
Eze 48:6 One portion bordering Ephraim, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Reuben.
Eze 48:7 One portion bordering Reuben, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Judah.
Eze 48:8 One portion bordering Judah, from the eastern limit to the western limit, is the portion which you must set aside, twenty-five thousand cubits wide, and as long as each of the other portions from the eastern limit to the western limit. The sanctuary will be in the centre of it.
Eze 48:9 "The portion which you must set aside for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) must be twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits wide.
Eze 48:10 This sacred portion must belong to the priests, being, on the north side, twenty-five thousand cubits; on the west side ten thousand cubits wide, on the east side ten thousand cubits wide and on the south side twenty-five thousand cubits long; the sanctuary of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be in the centre of it.
Eze 48:11 This will be for the consecrated priests, those of the sons of Zadok who maintained my liturgy and did not go astray with the straying Israelites, as the Levites went astray.
Eze 48:12 And so their portion must be taken out of the especially holy portion of the land, near the territory of the Levites.
Eze 48:13 The territory of the Levites, like the territory of the priests, must be twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand wide -- the whole length being twenty-five thousand and the width ten thousand.
Eze 48:14 It will be illegal for them to sell or exchange any part of it, and the domain can never be alienated, since it is consecrated to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 48:15 As regards the remainder, an area of five thousand cubits by twenty-five thousand, this must be for the common use of the city, for houses and pastures. In the middle will be the city.
Eze 48:16 These will be its dimensions: on the north side, four thousand five hundred cubits; on the south side, four thousand five hundred cubits; on the east side, four thousand five hundred cubits; on the west side, four thousand five hundred cubits.
Eze 48:17 The pasture land of the city must extend two hundred and fifty cubits to the north, two hundred and fifty to the south, two hundred and fifty to the east, two hundred and fifty to the west.
Eze 48:18 One strip, contiguous to the sacred portion, must be left over, consisting of ten thousand cubits to eastward and ten thousand to westward, marching with the sacred portion; this will bring in a revenue for feeding the municipal workmen.
Eze 48:19 And the municipal workmen, drawn from all the tribes of Israel, will farm it.
Eze 48:20 The portion must have a total area of twenty-five thousand cubits by twenty-five thousand. You must allocate a square area from the sacred portion to constitute the city.
Eze 48:21 What is left over will be for the prince, on either side of the sacred portion and of the property of the city, marching with the twenty-five thousand cubits to eastward to the eastern frontier, and marching with the twenty-five thousand cubits to westward to the western frontier -- running parallel with the other portions and belonging to the prince. In the centre will be the sacred portion and the sanctuary of the Temple.
Eze 48:22 Thus, apart from the property of the Levites and the property of the city which lie in the middle of the prince's portion, everything between the borders of Judah and the borders of Ben- jamin must belong to the prince.
Eze 48:23 "As regards the rest of the tribes: One portion from the eastern limit to the western limit: Benjamin.
Eze 48:24 One portion bordering Benjamin, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Simeon.
Eze 48:25 One portion bordering Simeon, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Issachar.
Eze 48:26 One portion bordering Issachar, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Zebulun.
Eze 48:27 One portion bordering Zebulun, from the eastern limit to the western limit: Gad.
Eze 48:28 On the southern border of Gad, on the south side, the border will run from Tamar to the Waters of Meribah in Kadesh, to the Wadi and the Great Sea.
Eze 48:29 This is how you must distribute the country to the tribes of Israel as their heritage, and these must be their portions -- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Eze 48:30 "Here are the exits from the city. On the north side, four thousand five hundred cubits are to be measured off.
Eze 48:31 The gates of the city are to be named after the tribes of Israel. Three gates to the north: one the gate of Reuben; one the gate of Judah; one the gate of Levi.
Eze 48:32 On the east side, there will be four thousand five hundred cubits and three gates: one the gate of Joseph; one the gate of Benjamin; one the gate of Dan.
Eze 48:33 On the south side, four thousand five hundred cubits are to be measured off, and there are to be three gates: one the gate of Simeon; one the gate of Issachar; one the gate of Zebulun.
Eze 48:34 On the west side, there will be four thousand five hundred cubits and three gates: one the gate of Gad; one the gate of Asher; one the gate of Naphtali.
Eze 48:35 Total perimeter: eighteen thousand cubits. "The name of the city in future must be: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-is-there." '
Dan 1:1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched on Jerusalem and besieged it.
Dan 1:2 The Lord let Jehoiakim king of Judah fall into his power, as well as some of the vessels belonging to the Temple of God. These he took away to Shinar, putting the vessels into the treasury of his own gods.
Dan 1:3 From the Israelites, the king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief eunuch, to bring a certain number of boys of royal or noble descent;
Dan 1:4 they had to be without any physical defect, of good appearance, versed in every branch of wisdom, well-informed, discerning, suitable for service at the royal court. Ashpenaz was to teach them to speak and write the language of the Chaldaeans.
Dan 1:5 The king assigned them a daily allowance of food and wine from the royal table. They were to receive an education lasting for three years, after which they would enter the royal service.
Dan 1:6 Among them were the Judaeans Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.
Dan 1:7 The chief eunuch gave them other names, calling Daniel Belteshazzar, Hananiah Shadrach, Mishael Meshach, and Azariah Abed-Nego.
Dan 1:8 Daniel, who was determined not to incur pollution by food and wine from the royal table, begged the chief eunuch to spare him this defilement.
Dan 1:9 God allowed Daniel to receive faithful love and sympathy from the chief eunuch.
Dan 1:10 But the eunuch warned Daniel, 'I am afraid of my lord the king: he has assigned you food and drink, and if he sees you looking thinner in the face than the other boys of your age, my head will be in danger with the king because of you.'
Dan 1:11 To the guard assigned to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah by the chief eunuch, Daniel then said,
Dan 1:12 'Please allow your servants a ten days' trial, during which we are given only vegetables to eat and water to drink.
Dan 1:13 You can then compare our looks with those of the boys who eat the king's food; go by what you see, and treat your servants accordingly.'
Dan 1:14 The man agreed to do what they asked and put them on ten days' trial.
Dan 1:15 When the ten days were over, they looked better and fatter than any of the boys who had eaten their allowance from the royal table;
Dan 1:16 so the guard withdrew their allowance of food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.
Dan 1:17 To these four boys God gave knowledge and skill in every aspect of literature and learning; Daniel also had the gift of interpreting every kind of vision and dream.
Dan 1:18 When the time stipulated by the king for the boys to be presented to him came round, the chief eunuch presented them to Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 1:19 The king conversed with them, and among all the boys found none to equal Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they became members of the king's court,
Dan 1:20 and on whatever point of wisdom or understanding he might question them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and soothsayers in his entire kingdom. Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus.
Dan 2:1 In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had a series of dreams; he was perturbed by this and sleep deserted him.
Dan 2:2 The king then had magicians and soothsayers, sorcerers and Chaldaeans summoned to tell him what his dreams meant. They arrived and stood in the king's presence.
Dan 2:3 The king said to them, 'I have had a dream, and my mind is troubled by a wish to understand it.'
Dan 2:4 The Chaldaeans answered the king: 'May your majesty live for ever! Tell your servants the dream, and we shall reveal its meaning for you.'
Dan 2:5 The king answered the Chaldaeans, 'This is my firm resolve: if you cannot tell me what I dreamt and what it means, I shall have you torn limb from limb and your houses turned into dunghills.
Dan 2:6 If, on the other hand, you can tell me what I dreamt and what it means, I shall give you presents, rewards and high honor. So tell me what I dreamt and what it means.'
Dan 2:7 A second time they said, 'Let the king tell his dream to his servants, and we shall reveal its meaning.'
Dan 2:8 But the king retorted, 'It is plain to me that you are trying to gain time, knowing my proclaimed resolve.
Dan 2:9 If you do not interpret my dream for me, there will be but one sentence passed on you all; you have agreed among yourselves to make me misleading and tortuous speeches while the time goes by. So tell me what my dream was, and then I shall know whether you can interpret it.'
Dan 2:10 The Chaldaeans answered the king, 'Nobody in the world could explain the king's problem; what is more, no other king, governor or chief would think of putting such a question to any magician, soothsayer or Chaldaean.
Dan 2:11 The question the king asks is difficult, and no one can find the king an answer to it, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with mortals.'
Dan 2:12 At this the king flew into a rage and ordered all the Babylonian sages to be put to death.
Dan 2:13 On publication of the decree to have the sages killed, search was made for Daniel and his companions to have them put to death.
Dan 2:14 Then, with shrewd and cautious words, Daniel approached Arioch, the king's chief executioner, when he was on his way to kill the Babylonian sages.
Dan 2:15 To this royal official Arioch he said, 'Why has the king issued such a harsh decree?' Arioch explained matters to Daniel,
Dan 2:16 and Daniel went off to ask the king for a stay of execution to give him the opportunity of revealing his interpretation to the king.
Dan 2:17 Daniel then went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah what had happened,
Dan 2:18 urging them to beg the God of heaven to show his mercy and explain the mysterious secret, so that Daniel and his friends might be spared the fate of the other Babylonian sages.
Dan 2:19 The mystery was then revealed to Daniel in a night-vision, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
Dan 2:20 This is what Daniel said: May the name of God be blessed for ever and ever, since wisdom and power are his alone.
Dan 2:21 It is he who controls the procession of times and seasons, who makes and unmakes kings, who confers wisdom on the wise, and knowledge on those with discernment,
Dan 2:22 who uncovers depths and mysteries, who knows what lies in darkness; and light dwells with him.
Dan 2:23 To you, God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for having given me wisdom and strength: to me you have explained what we asked you, to us you have explained the king's problem.
Dan 2:24 So Daniel went to see Arioch, whom the king had made responsible for putting the Babylonian sages to death. Going in, he said, 'Do not put the Babylonian sages to death. Take me into the king's presence and I will reveal the meaning to the king.'
Dan 2:25 Arioch lost no time in bringing Daniel to the king. 'Among the exiles from Judah,' he said, 'I have discovered a man who can reveal the meaning to the king.'
Dan 2:26 The king said to Daniel (who had been given the name Belteshazzar), 'Can you tell me what I dreamt and what it means?'
Dan 2:27 Facing the king, Daniel replied, 'None of the sages, soothsayers, magicians or exorcists has been able to tell the king the truth of the mystery which the king has propounded;
Dan 2:28 but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries and who has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what is to take place in the final days. These, then, are the dream and the visions that passed through your head as you lay in bed:
Dan 2:29 'Your Majesty, on your bed your thoughts turned to what would happen in the future, and the Revealer of Mysteries disclosed to you what is to take place.
Dan 2:30 This mystery has been revealed to me, not that I am wiser than anyone else, but for this sole purpose: that the king should learn what it means, and that you should understand your inmost thoughts.
Dan 2:31 'You have had a vision, Your Majesty; this is what you saw: a statue, a great statue of extreme brightness, stood before you, terrible to see.
Dan 2:32 The head of this statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms were of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze,
Dan 2:33 its legs of iron, its feet part iron, part clay.
Dan 2:34 While you were gazing, a stone broke away, untouched by any hand, and struck the statue, struck its feet of iron and clay and shattered them.
Dan 2:35 Then, iron and clay, bronze, silver and gold, all broke into pieces as fine as chaff on the threshing-floor in summer. The wind blew them away, leaving not a trace behind. And the stone that had struck the statue grew into a great mountain, filling the whole world.
Dan 2:36 This was the dream; we shall now explain to the king what it means.
Dan 2:37 'You, Your Majesty, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given sovereignty, power, strength and honor-
Dan 2:38 human beings, wild animals, birds of the air, wherever they live, he has entrusted to your rule, making you king of them all -- you are the golden head.
Dan 2:39 And, after you, another kingdom will rise, not as great as yours, and then a third, of bronze, which will rule the whole world.
Dan 2:40 There will be a fourth kingdom, hard as iron, as iron that pulverises and crushes all. Like iron that breaks everything to pieces, it will crush and break all the earlier kingdoms.
Dan 2:41 The feet you saw, part earthenware, part iron, are a kingdom which will be split in two, but which will retain something of the strength of iron, just as you saw the iron and the clay of the earthenware mixed together.
Dan 2:42 The feet were part iron, part potter's clay: the kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle.
Dan 2:43 And just as you saw the iron and the clay of the earthenware mixed together, so the two will be mixed together in human seed; but they will not hold together any more than iron will blend with clay.
Dan 2:44 In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and this kingdom will not pass into the hands of another race: it will shatter and absorb all the previous kingdoms and itself last for ever-
Dan 2:45 just as you saw a stone, untouched by hand, break away from the mountain and reduce iron, bronze, earthenware, silver and gold to powder. The Great God has shown the king what is to take place. The dream is true, the interpretation exact.'
Dan 2:46 At this, King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel; he gave orders for Daniel to be offered an oblation and a fragrant sacrifice.
Dan 2:47 The king said to Daniel, 'Your god is indeed the God of gods, the Master of kings, and the Revealer of Mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery.'
Dan 2:48 The king then conferred high rank on Daniel and gave him many handsome presents. He also made him governor of the whole province of Babylon and head of all the sages of Babylon.
Dan 2:49 At Daniel's request, the king entrusted the affairs of the province of Babylon to Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego; Daniel himself remained in attendance on the king.
Dan 3:1 King Nebuchadnezzar had a golden statue made, sixty cubits high and six cubits wide, which he set up on the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
Dan 3:2 King Nebuchadnezzar then summoned the satraps, magistrates, governors, counsellors, treasurers, judges, lawyers, and all the provincial authorities to assemble and attend the dedication of the statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 3:3 Satraps, magistrates, governors, counsellors, treasurers, judges, lawyers and all the provincial authorities then assembled for the dedication of the statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar and stood in front of the statue which King Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Dan 3:4 A herald then loudly proclaimed: 'Peoples, nations, languages! Thus are you commanded:
Dan 3:5 the moment you hear the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and every other kind of instrument, you will prostrate yourselves and worship the golden statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 3:6 Anyone who does not prostrate himself and worship will immediately be thrown into the burning fiery furnace.'
Dan 3:7 And so, the instant all the peoples heard the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and all the other instruments, all the peoples, nations and languages prostrated themselves and worshipped the statue set up by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 3:8 Some Chaldaeans then came forward and maliciously accused the Jews.
Dan 3:9 They said to King Nebuchadnezzar, 'May Your Majesty live for ever!
Dan 3:10 You have issued a decree, Your Majesty, to the effect that everyone on hearing the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and every other kind of instrument is to prostrate himself and worship the golden statue;
Dan 3:11 and that anyone who does not prostrate himself and worship is to be thrown into the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:12 Now, there are certain Jews to whom you have entrusted the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego; these men have ignored your command, Your Majesty; they do not serve your gods, and refuse to worship the golden statue you have set up.'
Dan 3:13 Shaking with fury, Nebuchadnezzar sent for Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. The men were immediately brought before the king.
Dan 3:14 Nebuchadnezzar addressed them, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, is it true that you do not serve my gods, and that you refuse to worship the golden statue I have set up?
Dan 3:15 When you hear the sound of horn, pipe, lyre, zither, harp, bagpipe and every other kind of instrument, are you prepared to prostrate yourselves and worship the statue I have made? If you refuse to worship it, you will be thrown forthwith into the burning fiery furnace; then which of the gods could save you from my power?'
Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego replied to King Nebuchadnezzar, 'Your question needs no answer from us:
Dan 3:17 if our God, the one we serve, is able to save us from the burning fiery furnace and from your power, Your Majesty, he will save us;
Dan 3:18 and even if he does not, then you must know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your god or worship the statue you have set up.'
Dan 3:19 This infuriated King Nebuchadnezzar; his expression was changed now as he looked at Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego. He gave orders for the furnace to be made seven times hotter than usual
Dan 3:20 and commanded certain stalwarts from his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego and throw them into the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:21 They were then bound in their cloaks, trousers, headgear and other garments, and thrown into the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:22 The king's command was so urgent and the heat of the furnace was so fierce, that the men carrying Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego were burnt to death by the flames from the fire;
Dan 3:23 the three men, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego fell, bound, into the burning fiery furnace.
Dan 3:24 And they walked in the heart of the flames, praising God and blessing the Lord.
Dan 3:25 Azariah stood in the heart of the fire, praying aloud thus:
Dan 3:26 May you be blessed and revered, Lord, God of our ancestors, may your name be held glorious for ever.
Dan 3:27 For you are upright in all that you have done for us, all your deeds are true, all your ways right, all your judgements true.
Dan 3:28 True is the sentence you have given in all that you have brought down on us and on Jerusalem, the holy city of our ancestors, for you have treated us rightly and truly, as our sins deserve.
Dan 3:29 Yes, we have sinned and committed a crime by deserting you, yes, we have greatly sinned; we have not listened to your commandments,
Dan 3:30 we have not observed them, we have not done what you commanded us to do for our own good.
Dan 3:31 Yes, all that you have brought down on us, all that you have done to us, you have been fully justified in doing.
Dan 3:32 You have handed us over to our enemies, to a lawless people, the worst of the godless, to an unjust king, the worst in the whole world;
Dan 3:33 today we have no right to open our mouths, shame and dishonor are the lot of those who serve and worship you.
Dan 3:34 Do not abandon us for ever, for the sake of your name; do not repudiate your covenant,
Dan 3:35 do not withdraw your favor from us, for the sake of Abraham, your friend, of Isaac, your servant, and of Israel, your holy one,
Dan 3:36 to whom you promised to make their descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as the grains of sand on the seashore.
Dan 3:37 Lord, we have become the least of all nations, we are put to shame today throughout the world, because of our sins.
Dan 3:38 We now have no leader, no prophet, no prince, no burnt offering, no sacrifice, no oblation, no incense, no place where we can make offerings to you
Dan 3:39 and win your favor. But may the contrite soul, the humbled spirit, be as acceptable to you
Dan 3:40 as burnt offerings of rams and bullocks, as thousands of fat lambs: such let our sacrifice be to you today, and may it please you that we follow you whole-heartedly, since those who trust in you will not be shamed.
Dan 3:41 And now we put our whole heart into following you, into fearing you and seeking your face once more.
Dan 3:42 Do not abandon us to shame but treat us in accordance with your gentleness, in accordance with the greatness of your mercy.
Dan 3:43 Rescue us in accordance with your wonderful deeds and win fresh glory for your name, O Lord.
Dan 3:44 Confusion seize all who ill-treat your servants: may they be covered with shame, deprived of all their power, and may their strength be broken.
Dan 3:45 Let them learn that you alone are God and Lord, glorious over the whole world.
Dan 3:46 All this time, the king's servants, who had thrown them into the furnace, had been stoking it with crude oil, pitch, tow and brushwood
Dan 3:47 until the flames rose forty-nine cubits above the furnace
Dan 3:48 and, leaping out, burnt those Chaldaeans to death who were standing round it.
Dan 3:49 But the angel of the Lord came down into the furnace beside Azariah and his companions; he drove the flames of the fire outwards from the furnace
Dan 3:50 and, in the heart of the furnace, wafted a coolness to them as of the breeze and dew, so that the fire did not touch them at all and caused them no pain or distress.
Dan 3:51 Then all three in unison began to sing, glorifying and blessing God in the furnace, with the words:
Dan 3:52 May you be blessed, Lord, God of our ancestors, be praised and extolled for ever. Blessed be your glorious and holy name, praised and extolled for ever.
Dan 3:53 May you be blessed in the Temple of your sacred glory, exalted and glorified above all for ever:
Dan 3:54 blessed on the throne of your kingdom, exalted above all, glorified for ever:
Dan 3:55 blessed are you who fathom the abyss, enthroned on the winged creatures, praised and exalted above all for ever:
Dan 3:56 blessed in the expanse of the heavens, exalted and glorified for ever.
Dan 3:57 Bless the Lord, all the Lord's creation: praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:58 Bless the Lord, angels of the Lord, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:59 Bless the Lord, heavens, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:60 Bless the Lord, all the waters above the heavens, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:61 Bless the Lord, powers of the Lord, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:62 Bless the Lord, sun and moon, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:63 Bless the Lord, stars of heaven, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:64 Bless the Lord, all rain and dew, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:65 Bless the Lord, every wind, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:66 Bless the Lord, fire and heat, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:67 Bless the Lord, cold and warmth, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:68 Bless the Lord, dew and snow-storm, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:69 Bless the Lord, frost and cold, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:70 Bless the Lord, ice and snow, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:71 Bless the Lord, nights and days, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:72 Bless the Lord, light and darkness, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:73 Bless the Lord, lightning and cloud, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:74 Let the earth bless the Lord: praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:75 Bless the Lord, mountains and hills, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:76 Bless the Lord, every plant that grows, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:77 Bless the Lord, springs of water, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:78 Bless the Lord, seas and rivers, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:79 Bless the Lord, whales, and everything that moves in the waters, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:80 Bless the Lord, every kind of bird, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:81 Bless the Lord, all animals wild and tame, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:82 Bless the Lord, all the human race: praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:83 Bless the Lord, O Israel, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:84 Bless the Lord, priests, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:85 Bless the Lord, his servants, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:86 Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the upright, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:87 Bless the Lord, faithful, humble-hearted people, praise and glorify him for ever!
Dan 3:88 Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael, bless the Lord, praise and glorify him for ever!-For he has rescued us from the Underworld, he has saved us from the hand of Death, he has snatched us from the burning fiery furnace, he has drawn us from the heart of the flame!
Dan 3:89 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his love is everlasting.
Dan 3:90 Bless the Lord, the God of gods, all who fear him, give praise and thanks to him, for his love is everlasting!
Dan 3:91 King Nebuchadnezzar sprang to his feet in amazement. He said to his advisers, 'Did we not have these three men thrown bound into the fire?' They answered the king, 'Certainly, Your Majesty'.
Dan 3:92 'But', he went on, 'I can see four men walking free in the heart of the fire and quite unharmed! And the fourth looks like a child of the gods!'
Dan 3:93 Nebuchadnezzar approached the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and said, 'Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, servants of God Most High, come out, come here!' And from the heart of the fire out came Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego.
Dan 3:94 The satraps, magistrates, governors, and advisers of the king crowded round the three men to examine them: the fire had had no effect on their bodies: not a hair of their heads had been singed, their cloaks were not scorched, no smell of burning hung about them. Nebuchadnezzar said,
Dan 3:95 'Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego: he has sent his angel to rescue his servants who, putting their trust in him, defied the order of the king, and preferred to forfeit their bodies rather than serve or worship any god but their God.
Dan 3:96 I therefore decree as follows, "Peoples, nations, and languages! Let any of you speak disrespectfully of the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego, and I shall have him torn limb from limb and his house turned into a dunghill; for there is no other god who can save like this." '
Dan 3:97 The king then showered favors on Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego in the province of Babylon.
Dan 3:98 'King Nebuchadnezzar, to all peoples, nations and languages dwelling throughout the world: may you prosper more and more!
Dan 3:99 'It is my pleasure to make known the signs and wonders with which the Most High God has favored me.
Dan 3:100 How great his signs, how mighty his wonders! His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, his empire endures age after age!'
Dan 4:1 'I, Nebuchadnezzar, was living comfortably in my house, prosperously in my palace.
Dan 4:2 I had a dream; it appalled me. Dread assailed me as I lay in bed; the visions that passed through my head tormented me.
Dan 4:3 So I decreed that all the sages of Babylon be summoned to explain to me what the dream meant.
Dan 4:4 Magicians, soothsayers, Chaldaeans and exorcists came, and I told them what I had dreamt, but they could not interpret it for me.
Dan 4:5 Daniel, renamed Belteshazzar after my own god, and in whom the spirit of the holy gods resides, then came into my presence. I told him my dream:
Dan 4:6 ' "Belteshazzar, chief of magicians," I said, "I know that the spirit of the holy gods resides in you and that no mystery puts you at a loss. This is the dream I have had; tell me what it means.
Dan 4:7 ' "The visions that passed through my head as I lay in bed were these: I saw a tree in the middle of the world; it was very tall.
Dan 4:8 The tree grew taller and stronger, until its top reached the sky and it could be seen from the very ends of the earth.
Dan 4:9 Its foliage was beautiful, its fruit abundant, in it was food for all. For the wild animals it provided shade, the birds of heaven nested in its branches, all living creatures found their food on it.
Dan 4:10 ' "I watched the visions passing through my head as I lay in bed: Next, a Watchful One, a holy one, came down from heaven.
Dan 4:11 At the top of his voice he shouted: Cut the tree down, lop off its branches, strip off its leaves, throw away its fruit; let the animals flee from its shelter and the birds from its branches.
Dan 4:12 But leave the stump with its roots in the ground, bound with hoops of iron and bronze, in the grass of the countryside. Let it be drenched by the dew of heaven and have its lot with the animals, eating grass!
Dan 4:13 Let it cease to have a human heart, and be given the heart of a beast, and seven times shall pass over him!
Dan 4:14 Such is the sentence proclaimed by the Watchers, the verdict announced by the holy ones- so that every living thing may learn that the Most High rules over human sovereignty; he confers it on whom he pleases, and raises the lowest of humankind.
Dan 4:15 ' "This was the dream I had-I, Nebuchadnezzar the king. Now it is for you, Belteshazzar, to pronounce on its meaning, since not one of the sages in my kingdom has been able to interpret it for me; you, however, can do so, since the spirit of the holy gods resides in you." '
Dan 4:16 Daniel, known as Belteshazzar, was confused for a time and upset. The king said, 'Belteshazzar, do not be upset at the dream and its meaning.' Belteshazzar answered, 'My lord, may the dream apply to those who hate you, and its meaning to your foes!
Dan 4:17 The tree you saw, so large and strong and tall that it reached the sky and could be seen throughout the world,
Dan 4:18 the tree with beautiful foliage and abundant fruit, with food for all in it, providing shade for the wild animals, with the birds of heaven nesting in its branches:
Dan 4:19 that tree is yourself, Your Majesty, for you have grown great and strong; your stature is now so great that it reaches the sky, and your empire extends to the ends of the earth.
Dan 4:20 'And the Watchful One seen by the king, the holy one coming down from heaven and saying, "Cut the tree down and destroy it, but leave stump and roots in the ground, bound with hoops of iron and bronze in the grass of the countryside; let it be drenched by the dew and have its lot with the wild animals until seven times have passed over it":
Dan 4:21 the meaning of this, Your Majesty, the verdict of the Most High passed on my lord the king, is this:
Dan 4:22 You will be driven from human society and will make your home with the wild animals, you will feed on grass, as oxen do, you will be drenched by the dew of heaven; seven times will pass over you until you have learnt that the Most High rules over human sovereignty and confers it on whom he pleases.
Dan 4:23 'And the order, "Leave the stump and roots of the tree", means that your kingdom will be kept for you until you come to understand that Heaven rules all.
Dan 4:24 May it please the king to accept my advice: by upright actions break with your sins, break with your crimes by showing mercy to the poor, and so live long and peacefully.'
Dan 4:25 This all happened to King Nebuchadnezzar.
Dan 4:26 At the end of twelve months, while strolling on the roof of the royal palace in Babylon,
Dan 4:27 the king was saying, 'Great Babylon! Was it not built by me as a royal residence, by the force of my might and for the majesty of my glory?'
Dan 4:28 The words were not out of his mouth when a voice came down from heaven: 'Of you, King Nebuchadnezzar, it is decreed: the empire has been taken from you,
Dan 4:29 you will be driven from human society and will make your home with the wild animals; you will feed on grass, as oxen do, and seven times will pass over you until you have learnt that the Most High rules over human sovereignty and gives it to whom he pleases.'
Dan 4:30 The words were immediately fulfilled: Nebuchadnezzar was driven from human society and ate grass as oxen do; he was drenched by the dew of heaven; his hair grew like an eagle's feathers, and his nails became like a bird's talons.
Dan 4:31 'When the time was over, I, Nebuchad- nezzar, raised my eyes to heaven: my reason returned. And I blessed the Most High, praising and glorifying him who lives for ever, for his empire is an everlasting empire, his kingship endures, age after age.
Dan 4:32 All who dwell on earth count for nothing; as he thinks fit, he disposes the army of heaven and those who dwell on earth. No one can arrest his hand or ask him, "What have you done?"
Dan 4:33 'At that moment my reason returned and, for the honor of my royal state, my glory and splendor returned too. My counsellors and noblemen acclaimed me; I was restored to my throne, and to my past greatness even more was added.
Dan 4:34 And now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, extol and glorify the King of heaven, all of whose deeds are true, all of whose ways are right, and who can humble those who walk in pride.'
Dan 5:1 King Belshazzar gave a great banquet for his noblemen, a thousand of them, and, in the presence of this thousand, he drank his wine.
Dan 5:2 Having tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave orders for the gold and silver vessels to be brought which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the sanctuary in Jerusalem, so that the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him could drink out of them.
Dan 5:3 The gold and silver vessels taken from the sanctuary of the Temple of God in Jerusalem were brought in, and the king, his noblemen, his wives and the women who sang for him drank out of them.
Dan 5:4 They drank their wine and praised their idols of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone.
Dan 5:5 Suddenly, the fingers of a human hand appeared and began to write on the plaster of the palace wall, directly behind the lamp-stand; and the king could see the hand as it wrote.
Dan 5:6 The king turned pale with alarm: his hip-joints went slack and his knees began to knock.
Dan 5:7 He shouted for his soothsayers, Chaldaeans, and exorcists. And the king said to the Babylonian sages, 'Anyone who can read this writing and tell me what it means shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round his neck, and be one of the three men who govern the kingdom.'
Dan 5:8 The king's sages all crowded forward, but they could neither read the writing nor explain to the king what it meant.
Dan 5:9 Greatly alarmed, King Belshazzar turned even paler, and his noblemen were equally disturbed.
Dan 5:10 Then the queen, attracted by the noise made by the king and his noblemen, came into the banqueting hall. 'May Your Majesty live for ever!' said the queen. 'Do not be alarmed, do not look so pale.
Dan 5:11 In your kingdom there is a man in whom lives the spirit of the holy gods. In your father's days he was known for a perception, intelligence and wisdom comparable to that of the gods. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, made him head of the magicians, soothsayers, Chaldaeans and exorcists.
Dan 5:12 Since this man Daniel, whom the king had renamed Belteshazzar, is filled with such a marvellous spirit and such knowledge and intelligence in interpreting dreams, solving enigmas and unravelling difficult problems, send for him; he will be able to tell you what this means.'
Dan 5:13 Daniel was brought into the king's presence; the king said to Daniel, 'Are you the Daniel who was one of the Judaean exiles brought by my father the king from Judah?
Dan 5:14 I am told that the spirit of the gods lives in you, and that you are known for your perception, intelligence and marvellous wisdom.
Dan 5:15 The sages and soothsayers have already been brought to me to read this writing and tell me what it means, but they have been unable to reveal its meaning.
Dan 5:16 I am told that you are able to give interpretations and to unravel difficult problems, so if you can read the writing and tell me what it means, you shall be dressed in purple, and have a chain of gold put round your neck, and be one of the three men who govern the kingdom.'
Dan 5:17 Then Daniel spoke up in the presence of the king. 'Keep your gifts for yourself,' he said, 'and give your rewards to others! I can certainly read the writing to the king and tell him what it means.
Dan 5:18 Your Majesty, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father sovereignty, greatness, majesty and glory.
Dan 5:19 He made him so great that all peoples, nations and languages shook with dread before him: he killed whom he pleased, spared whom he pleased, promoted whom he pleased, degraded whom he pleased.
Dan 5:20 But because his heart grew swollen with pride, and his spirit stiff with arrogance, he was deposed from his sovereign throne and stripped of his glory.
Dan 5:21 He was driven from human society, his heart was more like an animal's than a man's; he lived with the wild donkeys; he fed on grass like oxen; his body was drenched by the dew of heaven, until he had learnt that the Most High rules over human sovereignty and appoints whom he pleases to rule it.
Dan 5:22 But you, Belshazzar, who are his son, you have not humbled your heart, in spite of knowing all this.
Dan 5:23 You have defied the Lord of heaven, you have had the vessels from his Temple brought to you, and you, your noblemen, your wives and the women singing for you have drunk your wine out of them. You have praised gods of gold and silver, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone, which can neither see, hear nor understand; but you have given no glory to the God in whose hands are your breath itself and all your fortunes.
Dan 5:24 That is why he has sent the hand which has written these words.
Dan 5:25 The writing reads: mene, mene, teqel and parsin.
Dan 5:26 The meaning of the words is this: mene: God has measured your sovereignty and put an end to it;
Dan 5:27 teqel: you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting;
Dan 5:28 parsin: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and the Persians.'
Dan 5:29 At Belshazzar's order Daniel was dressed in purple, a chain of gold was put round his neck and he was proclaimed as one of the three men who governed the kingdom.
Dan 5:30 That same night, the Chaldaean king Belshazzar was murdered,
Dan 6:1 and Darius the Mede received the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.
Dan 6:2 It pleased Darius to appoint a hundred and twenty satraps over his kingdom for the various parts,
Dan 6:3 and over them three presidents -- of whom Daniel was one -- to whom the satraps were to be responsible. This was to safeguard the king's interests.
Dan 6:4 This Daniel, by virtue of the marvellous spirit residing in him, was so evidently superior to the other presidents and satraps that the king considered appointing him to rule the whole kingdom.
Dan 6:5 The presidents and satraps, in consequence, started hunting for some affair of state by which they could discredit Daniel; but they could find nothing to his discredit, and no case of negligence; he was so punctilious that they could not find a single instance of maladministration or neglect.
Dan 6:6 These men then thought, 'We shall never find a way of discrediting Daniel unless we try something to do with the law of his God.'
Dan 6:7 The presidents and satraps then went in a body to the king. 'King Darius,' they said, 'live for ever!
Dan 6:8 We are all agreed, presidents of the realm, magistrates, satraps, councillors and governors, that the king should issue an edict enforcing the following regulation: Whoever within the next thirty days prays to anyone, divine or human, other than to yourself, Your Majesty, is to be thrown into the lions' den.
Dan 6:9 Your Majesty, ratify the edict at once by signing this document, making it unalterable, as befits the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.'
Dan 6:10 King Darius accordingly signed the document embodying the edict.
Dan 6:11 When Daniel heard that the document had been signed, he retired to his house. The windows of his upstairs room faced towards Jerusalem. Three times each day, he went down on his knees, praying and giving praise to God as he had always done.
Dan 6:12 These men came along in a body and found Daniel praying and pleading with God.
Dan 6:13 They then went to the king and reminded him of the royal edict, 'Have you not signed an edict forbidding anyone for the next thirty days to pray to anyone, divine or human, other than to yourself, Your Majesty, on pain of being thrown into the lions' den?' 'The decision stands', the king replied, 'as befits the law of the Medes and the Persians, which cannot be revoked.'
Dan 6:14 They then said to the king, 'Your Majesty, this man Daniel, one of the exiles from Judah, disregards both you and the edict which you have signed: he is at his prayers three times each day.'
Dan 6:15 When the king heard these words he was deeply distressed and determined to save Daniel; he racked his brains until sunset to find some way to save him.
Dan 6:16 But the men kept pressing the king, 'Your Majesty, remember that in conformity with the law of the Medes and the Persians, no edict or decree can be altered when once issued by the king.'
Dan 6:17 The king then ordered Daniel to be brought and thrown into the lion pit. The king said to Daniel, 'Your God, whom you have served so faithfully, will have to save you.'
Dan 6:18 A stone was then brought and laid over the mouth of the pit; and the king sealed it with his own signet and with that of his noblemen, so that there could be no going back on the original decision about Daniel.
Dan 6:19 The king returned to his palace, spent the night in fasting and refused to receive any of his concubines. Sleep eluded him,
Dan 6:20 and at the first sign of dawn he got up and hurried to the lion pit.
Dan 6:21 As he approached the pit he called in anguished tones to Daniel, 'Daniel, servant of the living God! Has your God, whom you serve so faithfully, been able to save you from the lions?'
Dan 6:22 Daniel answered the king, 'May Your Majesty live for ever!
Dan 6:23 My God sent his angel who sealed the lions' jaws; they did me no harm, since in his sight I am blameless; neither have I ever done you any wrong, Your Majesty.'
Dan 6:24 The king was overjoyed and ordered Daniel to be released from the pit. Daniel was released from the pit and found to be quite unhurt, because he had trusted in his God.
Dan 6:25 The king then sent for the men who had accused Daniel and had them thrown into the lion pit, and their wives and children too; and before they reached the floor of the pit the lions had seized them and crushed their bones to pieces.
Dan 6:26 King Darius then wrote to all nations, peoples and languages dwelling throughout the world: 'May you prosper more and more!
Dan 6:27 This is my decree: Throughout every dominion of my realm, let all tremble with fear before the God of Daniel: He is the living God, he endures for ever, his kingdom will never be destroyed and his empire never come to an end.
Dan 6:28 He saves, sets free, and works signs and wonders in the heavens and on earth; he has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.'
Dan 6:29 This Daniel flourished in the reign of Darius and the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
Dan 7:1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions that passed through his head as he lay in bed. He wrote the dream down, and this is how the narrative began:
Dan 7:2 Daniel said, 'I have been seeing visions in the night. I saw that the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea;
Dan 7:3 four great beasts emerged from the sea, each different from the others.
Dan 7:4 The first was like a lion with eagle's wings and, as I looked, its wings were torn off, and it was lifted off the ground and set standing on its feet like a human; and it was given a human heart.
Dan 7:5 And there before me was a second beast, like a bear, rearing up on one side, with three ribs in its mouth, between its teeth. "Up!" came the command. "Eat quantities of flesh!"
Dan 7:6 After this I looked; and there before me was another beast, like a leopard, and with four bird's wings on its flanks; it had four heads and was granted authority.
Dan 7:7 Next, in the visions of the night, I saw another vision: there before me was a fourth beast, fearful, terrifying, very strong; it had great iron teeth, and it ate its victims, crushed them, and trampled their remains underfoot. It was different from the previous beasts and had ten horns.
Dan 7:8 'While I was looking at these horns, I saw another horn sprouting among them, a little one; three of the original horns were pulled out by the roots to make way for it; and in this horn I saw eyes like human eyes, and a mouth full of boasting.
Dan 7:9 While I was watching, thrones were set in place and one most venerable took his seat. His robe was white as snow, the hair of his head as pure as wool. His throne was a blaze of flames, its wheels were a burning fire.
Dan 7:10 A stream of fire poured out, issuing from his presence. A thousand thousand waited on him, ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was in session and the books lay open.
Dan 7:11 'I went on watching: then, because of the noise made by the boastings of the horn, as I watched, the beast was put to death, and its body destroyed and committed to the flames.
Dan 7:12 The other beasts were deprived of their empire, but received a lease of life for a season and a time.
Dan 7:13 I was gazing into the visions of the night, when I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man. He came to the One most venerable and was led into his presence.
Dan 7:14 On him was conferred rule, honor and kingship, and all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His rule is an everlasting rule which will never pass away, and his kingship will never come to an end.
Dan 7:15 'I, Daniel, was deeply disturbed and the visions that passed through my head alarmed me.
Dan 7:16 So I approached one of those who were standing by and asked him about all this. And in reply he revealed to me what these things meant.
Dan 7:17 "These four great beasts are four kings who will rise up from the earth.
Dan 7:18 Those who receive royal power are the holy ones of the Most High, and kingship will be theirs for ever, for ever and ever."
Dan 7:19 Then I asked about the fourth beast, different from all the rest, very terrifying, with iron teeth and bronze claws; it ate its victims, crushed them, and trampled their remains underfoot;
Dan 7:20 and about the ten horns on its head -- and why the other horn sprouted and the three original horns fell, and why this horn had eyes and a mouth full of boasting, and why it looked more impressive than its fellows.
Dan 7:21 This was the horn I had watched making war on the holy ones and proving the stronger,
Dan 7:22 until the coming of the One most venerable who gave judgement in favor of the holy ones of the Most High, when the time came for the holy ones to assume kingship.
Dan 7:23 This is what he said: "The fourth beast is to be a fourth kingdom on earth, different from all other kingdoms. It will devour the whole world, trample it underfoot and crush it.
Dan 7:24 As for the ten horns: from this kingdom will rise ten kings, and another after them; this one will be different from the previous ones and will bring down three kings;
Dan 7:25 he will insult the Most High, and torment the holy ones of the Most High. He will plan to alter the seasons and the Law, and the Saints will be handed over to him for a time, two times, and half a time.
Dan 7:26 But the court will sit, and he will be stripped of his royal authority which will be finally destroyed and reduced to nothing.
Dan 7:27 And kingship and rule and the splendors of all the kingdoms under heaven will be given to the people of the holy ones of the Most High, whose royal power is an eternal power, whom every empire will serve and obey."
Dan 7:28 'Here the narrative ends. 'I, Daniel, was greatly disturbed in mind, and I grew pale; but I kept these things to myself.'
Dan 8:1 In the third year of King Belshazzar a vision appeared to me, Daniel, after the one that had originally appeared to me.
Dan 8:2 I gazed at the vision, and as I gazed I found myself in Susa, the citadel in the province of Elam; gazing at the vision, I found myself at the Ulai Gate.
Dan 8:3 I raised my eyes to look, and I saw a ram standing in front of the gate. It had two horns; both were tall, but one taller than the other, and the one that rose the higher was the second.
Dan 8:4 I saw the ram butting westwards, northwards and southwards. No animal could stand up to it, nothing could escape its power. It did as it pleased and became strong.
Dan 8:5 This is what I observed: a he-goat from the west, encroaching over the entire surface of the world though never touching the ground, and between its eyes the goat had one majestic horn.
Dan 8:6 It advanced on the two-horned ram, which I had seen standing in front of the gate, and charged at it in the full force of its fury.
Dan 8:7 I saw it reach the ram; it was enraged with the ram and struck it, breaking both its horns, so that the ram was not strong enough to hold its ground; it threw it to the ground and trampled it underfoot; no one was there to rescue the ram.
Dan 8:8 The he-goat then grew more powerful than ever; but at the height of its strength the great horn snapped, and in its place sprouted four majestic horns, pointing to the four winds of heaven.
Dan 8:9 From one of these, the small one, sprang a horn which grew to great size towards south and east and towards the Land of splendor.
Dan 8:10 It grew right up to the armies of heaven and flung armies and stars to the ground, and trampled them underfoot.
Dan 8:11 It even challenged the power of the Prince of the army; it abolished the perpetual sacrifice and overthrew the foundation of his sanctuary,
Dan 8:12 and the army too; over the sacrifice it installed iniquity and flung truth to the ground; the horn was active and successful.
Dan 8:13 I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one say to the speaker, 'How long is this vision to be -- of perpetual sacrifice, of horrifying iniquity, of sanctuary and army trampled underfoot?'
Dan 8:14 The first replied, 'Until two thousand three hundred evenings and mornings have gone by: then the sanctuary will have its rights restored.'
Dan 8:15 As I, Daniel, gazed at the vision and tried to understand it, I saw someone standing in front of me who looked like a man.
Dan 8:16 I heard a human voice cry over the Ulai, 'Gabriel, tell him the meaning of the vision!'
Dan 8:17 He approached the place where I was standing; as he approached, I was seized with terror and fell prostrate on the ground. 'Son of man,' he said to me, 'understand this: the vision shows the time of the End.'
Dan 8:18 He was still speaking, when I fainted, face downwards on the ground. He touched me, however, and raised me to my feet.
Dan 8:19 'Come,' he said, 'I shall tell you what is going to happen when the Retribution is over, about the final times.
Dan 8:20 As for the ram which you saw, its two horns are the kings of Media and of Persia.
Dan 8:21 The hairy he-goat is the king of Greece, the large horn between its eyes is the first king.
Dan 8:22 The horn which snapped and the four horns which sprouted in its place are four kingdoms rising from his nation but not having his strength.
Dan 8:23 'And at the end of their reign, when the measure of their sins is full, a king will arise, a proud-faced, ingenious-minded man.
Dan 8:24 His power will grow greater and greater, though not through any power of his own; he will plot incredible schemes, he will succeed in whatever he undertakes, he will destroy powerful men and the holy ones, God's people.
Dan 8:25 Such will be his resourcefulness of mind that all his treacherous activities will succeed. He will grow arrogant of heart and destroy many people by taking them unawares. He will challenge the power of the Prince of princes but, without any human intervention, he will be broken.
Dan 8:26 The vision of the evenings and the mornings which has been revealed is true, but you must keep the vision secret, for there are still many days to go.'
Dan 8:27 At this I, Daniel, lost consciousness; I was ill for several days. Then I got up to discharge my duties in the king's service, keeping the vision a secret and still not understanding what it meant.
Dan 9:1 It was the first year of Darius son of Artaxerxes, a Mede by race who assumed the throne of Chaldaea.
Dan 9:2 In the first year of his reign I, Daniel, was studying the scriptures, counting over the number of years -- as revealed by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to the prophet Jeremiah -- that were to pass before the desolation of Jerusalem would come to an end, namely seventy years.
Dan 9:3 I turned my face to the Lord God begging for time to pray and to plead, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
Dan 9:4 I pleaded with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God and made this confession: 'O my Lord, God great and to be feared, you keep the covenant and show faithful love towards those who love you and who observe your commandments:
Dan 9:5 we have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted wickedly, we have betrayed your commandments and rulings and turned away from them.
Dan 9:6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our chief men, our ancestors and all people of the country.
Dan 9:7 Saving justice, Lord, is yours; we have only the look of shame we wear today, we, the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the whole of Israel, near and far away, in every country to which you have dispersed us because of the treachery we have committed against you.
Dan 9:8 To us, our kings, our chief men and our ancestors, belongs the look of shame, O Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), since we have sinned against you.
Dan 9:9 And it is for the Lord our God to have mercy and to pardon, since we have betrayed him,
Dan 9:10 and have not listened to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God nor followed the laws he has given us through his servants the prophets.
Dan 9:11 The whole of Israel has flouted your Law and turned away, unwilling to listen to your voice; and the curse and imprecation written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have come pouring down on us, because we have sinned against him.
Dan 9:12 He has carried out the threats which he made against us and the chief men who governed us -- that he would bring so great a disaster down on us that the fate of Jerusalem would find no parallel under all heaven.
Dan 9:13 And now, as written in the Law of Moses, this whole calamity has befallen us; even so, we have not appeased Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God by renouncing our crimes and learning your truth.
Dan 9:14 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has watched for the right moment to bring disaster on us, since Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God is just in all his dealings with us, and we have not listened to his voice.
Dan 9:15 And now, Lord our God, who by your mighty hand brought us out of Egypt -- the renown you won then endures to this day -- we have sinned, we have done wrong.
Dan 9:16 Lord, by all your acts of saving justice, turn away your anger and your fury from Jerusalem, your city, your holy mountain, for as a result of our sins and the crimes of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are objects of scorn to all who surround us.
Dan 9:17 And now, our God, listen to the prayer and pleading of your servant. For your own sake, Lord, let your face smile again on your desolate sanctuary.
Dan 9:18 Listen, my God, listen to us; open your eyes and look at our plight and at the city that bears your name. Relying not on our upright deeds but on your great mercy, we pour out our plea to you.
Dan 9:19 Listen, Lord! Forgive, Lord! Hear, Lord, and act! For your own sake, my God, do not delay -- since your city and your people alike bear your name.'
Dan 9:20 I was still speaking, still at prayer, confessing my own sins and the sins of my people Israel, and placing my plea before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God for the holy mountain of my God,
Dan 9:21 still speaking, still at prayer, when Gabriel, the being I had originally seen in vision, swooped on me in full flight at the hour of the evening sacrifice.
Dan 9:22 He came, he spoke, he said to me, 'Now, Daniel; I have come down to teach you how to understand.
Dan 9:23 When your pleading began, a word was uttered, and I have come to tell you. You are a man specially chosen. Grasp the meaning of the word, understand the vision:
Dan 9:24 'Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city, for putting an end to transgression, for placing the seal on sin, for expiating crime, for introducing everlasting uprightness for setting the seal on vision and on prophecy, for anointing the holy of holies.
Dan 9:25 Know this, then, and understand: From the time there went out this message: "Return and rebuild Jerusalem" to the coming of an Anointed Prince, seven weeks and sixty-two weeks, with squares and ramparts restored and rebuilt, but in a time of trouble.
Dan 9:26 And after the sixty-two weeks an Anointed One put to death without his . . . city and sanctuary ruined by a prince who is to come. The end of that prince will be catastrophe and, until the end, there will be war and all the devastation decreed.
Dan 9:27 He will strike a firm alliance with many people for the space of a week; and for the space of one half-week he will put a stop to sacrifice and oblation, and on the wing of the Temple will be the appalling abomination until the end, until the doom assigned to the devastator.'
Dan 10:1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was made to Daniel known as Belteshazzar, a true revelation of a great conflict. He grasped the meaning of the revelation; what it meant was disclosed to him in a vision.
Dan 10:2 At that time, I, Daniel, was doing a three-week penance;
Dan 10:3 I ate no agreeable food, touched no meat or wine, and did not anoint myself, until these three weeks were over.
Dan 10:4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I stood on the bank of that great river, the Tigris,
Dan 10:5 I raised my eyes to look about me, and this is what I saw: A man dressed in linen, with a belt of pure gold round his waist:
Dan 10:6 his body was like beryl, his face looked like lightning, his eyes were like fiery torches, his arms and his face had the gleam of burnished bronze, the sound of his voice was like the roar of a multitude.
Dan 10:7 I, Daniel, alone saw the apparition; the men who were with me did not see the vision, but so great a trembling overtook them that they fled to hide.
Dan 10:8 I was left alone, gazing on this great vision; I was powerless, my appearance was changed and contorted; my strength deserted me.
Dan 10:9 I heard a voice speaking, and at the sound of the voice I fell fainting, face downwards on the ground.
Dan 10:10 I felt a hand touching me, setting my knees and my hands trembling.
Dan 10:11 He said, 'Daniel, you are a man specially chosen; understand the words that I am about to say; stand up; I have been sent to you now.' He said this, and I stood up trembling.
Dan 10:12 He then said, 'Daniel, do not be afraid: from that first day when, the better to understand, you resolved to mortify yourself before God, your words have been heard; and your words are the reason why I have come.
Dan 10:13 The Prince of the kingdom of Persia has been resisting me for twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the Chief Princes, came to my assistance. I have left him confronting the kings of Persia
Dan 10:14 and have come to tell you what will happen to your people in the final days. For here is a new vision about those days.'
Dan 10:15 When he had said these things to me, I prostrated myself on the ground, without saying a word;
Dan 10:16 then someone looking like a man touched my lips. I opened my mouth to speak, and I said to the person standing in front of me, 'My lord, anguish overcomes me at this vision, and my strength deserts me.
Dan 10:17 How can your servant speak to my lord now that I have no strength left and my breath fails me?'
Dan 10:18 Once again, the person like a man touched me; he gave me strength.
Dan 10:19 'Do not be afraid,' he said, 'you are a man specially chosen; peace be with you; play the man, be strong!' And as he spoke to me I felt strong again and said, 'Let my lord speak, you have given me strength.'
Dan 10:20 He then said, 'Do you know why I have come to you?
Dan 10:21 It is to tell you what is written in the Book of Truth. I must go back to fight the Prince of Persia; when I have overcome him, the Prince of Javan will come next.In all this, there is no one to lend me support except Michael your Prince,
Dan 11:1 on whom I rely to give me support and to reinforce me.
Dan 11:2 And now I shall tell you the truth about these things. 'Three more kings are going to rise in Persia; a fourth will come and be richer than all the others, and when, thanks to his wealth, he has grown powerful, he will make war on all the kingdoms of Greece.
Dan 11:3 A mighty king will rise and govern a vast empire and do whatever he pleases.
Dan 11:4 But once he has come to power, his empire will be broken up and parceled out to the four winds of heaven, though not to his descendants: it will not be ruled as he ruled it, for his sovereignty will be uprooted and will pass to others than his own descendants.
Dan 11:5 'The king of the south will grow powerful, but one of his princes will grow more powerful still, with an empire greater than his own.
Dan 11:6 Some years later, these will conclude a treaty and, to ratify the agreement, the daughter of the king of the south will go to the king of the north. Her arm will not, however, retain its strength, nor his posterity endure: she will be handed over, she, her escorts and her child, and he who has had authority over her. In due time
Dan 11:7 a sprig from her roots will rise in his place, will march on the defences, force the stronghold of the king of the north, and succeed in overcoming them.
Dan 11:8 He will even carry off all their gods, their statues, their precious gold and silver vessels as booty to Egypt. For some years he will leave the king of the north in peace,
Dan 11:9 but the latter will invade the kingdom of the king of the south, then retire to his own country.
Dan 11:10 His sons will next be on the march, mustering a host of powerful forces; and he will advance, deploy, break through and march on the southern stronghold once again.
Dan 11:11 The king of the south will fly into a rage and set out to give battle to the king of the north, who will have an immense army on his side, but this army will be defeated by him.
Dan 11:12 The army will be annihilated; he will be triumphant; he will overthrow tens of thousands; yet he will have no enduring strength.
Dan 11:13 The king of the north will come back, having recruited an even larger army than before, and finally, after some years, he will advance a second time with a great army and plentiful supplies.
Dan 11:14 At that time, many will take up arms against the king of the south, and the more violent of your own people will rebel in the hope of realising the vision; but they will fail.
Dan 11:15 The king of the north will then come and throw up siege-works to capture a strongly fortified city. The forces of the south will not stand their ground; the pick of the people will not be strong enough to resist.
Dan 11:16 The invader will do as he pleases, no one will be able to resist him: he will take his stand in the Land of splendor, destruction in his hands.
Dan 11:17 He will set about conquering his entire kingdom, but will then make a treaty with him and, to overthrow the kingdom, give him a woman's hand; but this will not last or be to his advantage.
Dan 11:18 He will next turn to the coasts and islands and conquer many of them, but a magistrate will put a stop to his outrages in such a way that he will be unable to repay outrage for outrage.
Dan 11:19 'He will then turn on the strongholds of his own country, but will stumble, fall, and never be seen again.
Dan 11:20 In his place there will rise a man who will send an extortioner to despoil the royal splendor; in a few days he will be shattered, though neither publicly nor in battle.
Dan 11:21 'In his place will rise a wretch: royal honors will not be given to him, but rather he will insinuate himself into them at his pleasure and will gain possession of the kingdom by intrigue.
Dan 11:22 Armies will be utterly routed and crushed by him, the Prince of the covenant too.
Dan 11:23 Through his alliances he will act treacherously and, despite the smallness of his following, grow ever stronger.
Dan 11:24 At his pleasure, he will invade rich provinces, acting as his fathers or his fathers' fathers never acted, distributing among them plunder, spoil and wealth, plotting his stratagems against the fortresses -- for a time.
Dan 11:25 'He will summon up his might and courage against the king of the south with a great army. The king of the south will march to war with a huge and powerful army but will not succeed, since he will be outwitted by trickery.
Dan 11:26 Those who shared his food will ruin him; his army will be swept away, many will fall in the slaughter.
Dan 11:27 'The two kings, seated at one table, hearts bent on evil, will tell their lies; but they will not have their way, for the appointed time is still to come.
Dan 11:28 Then the wretch will return greatly enriched to his own country, his heart set against the holy covenant; he will take action and then return to his own country.
Dan 11:29 In due time, he will make his way southwards again, but this time the outcome will not be as before.
Dan 11:30 The ships of the Kittim will oppose him, and he will be worsted. He will retire and take furious action against the holy covenant and, as before, will favor those who forsake that holy covenant.
Dan 11:31 'Forces of his will come and profane the Citadel-Sanctuary; they will abolish the perpetual sacrifice and install the appalling abomination there.
Dan 11:32 Those who break the covenant he will seduce by his blandishments, but the people who know their God will stand firm and take action.
Dan 11:33 Those of the people who are wise leaders will instruct many; for some days, however, they will stumble from sword and flame, captivity and pillage.
Dan 11:34 And thus stumbling, little help will they receive, though many will be scheming in their support.
Dan 11:35 Of the wise leaders some will stumble, and so a number of them will be purged, purified and made clean -- until the time of the End, for the appointed time is still to come.
Dan 11:36 'The king will do as he pleases, growing more and more arrogant, considering himself greater than all the gods; he will utter incredible blasphemies against the God of gods, and he will thrive until the wrath reaches bursting point; for what has been decreed will certainly be fulfilled.
Dan 11:37 Heedless of his fathers' gods, heedless of the god whom women love, heedless of any god whatever, he will consider himself greatest of all.
Dan 11:38 Instead of them, he will honor the god of fortresses, will honor a god unknown to his ancestors with gold and silver, precious stones and valuable presents.
Dan 11:39 He will use the people of an alien god to defend the fortresses; he will confer great honors on those whom he acknowledges, by giving them wide authority and by parcelling the country out for rent.
Dan 11:40 'When the time comes for the End, the king of the south will try conclusions with him; but the king of the north will come storming down on him with chariots, cavalry, and a large fleet. He will invade countries, overrun them and drive on.
Dan 11:41 He will invade the Land of splendor, and many will fall; but Edom, Moab, and what remains of the sons of Ammon will escape him.
Dan 11:42 'He will reach out to attack countries: Egypt will not escape him.
Dan 11:43 The gold and silver treasures and all the valuables of Egypt will lie in his power. Libyans and Cushites will be at his feet:
Dan 11:44 but reports coming from the East and the north will worry him, and in great fury he will set out to bring ruin and complete destruction to many.
Dan 11:45 He will pitch the tents of his royal headquarters between the sea and the mountains of the Holy splendor. Yet he will come to his end -- there will be no help for him.'
Dan 12:1 'At that time Michael will arise -- the great Prince, defender of your people. That will be a time of great distress, unparalleled since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, your own people will be spared -- all those whose names are found written in the Book.
Dan 12:2 'Of those who are sleeping in the Land of Dust, many will awaken, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting disgrace.
Dan 12:3 Those who are wise will shine as brightly as the expanse of the heavens, and those who have instructed many in uprightness, as bright as stars for all eternity.
Dan 12:4 'But you, Daniel, must keep these words secret and keep the book sealed until the time of the End. Many will roam about, this way and that, and wickedness will continue to increase.'
Dan 12:5 I, Daniel, then looked and saw two other people standing, one on the near bank of the river, the other on the far.
Dan 12:6 One of them said to the man dressed in linen who was standing further up the stream, 'How long until these wonders take place?'
Dan 12:7 I heard the man speak who was dressed in linen, standing further up the stream: he raised his right hand and his left to heaven and swore by him who lives for ever, 'A time and two times, and half a time; and all these things will come true, once the crushing of the holy people's power is over.'
Dan 12:8 I listened but did not understand. I then said, 'My lord, what is to be the outcome?'
Dan 12:9 'Go, Daniel,' he said. 'These words are to remain secret and sealed until the time of the End.
Dan 12:10 Many will be cleansed, made white and purged; the wicked will persist in doing wrong; the wicked will never understand; those who are wise will understand.
Dan 12:11 From the moment that the perpetual sacrifice is abolished and the appalling abomination set up: a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Dan 12:12 Blessed is he who perseveres and attains a thousand three hundred and thirty-five days.
Dan 12:13 But you, go away and rest; and you will rise for your reward at the end of time.'
Dan 13:1 In Babylon there lived a man named Joakim.
Dan 13:2 He was married to a woman called Susanna daughter of Hilkiah, a woman of great beauty; and she was God-fearing, for
Dan 13:3 her parents were worthy people and had instructed their daughter in the Law of Moses.
Dan 13:4 Joakim was a very rich man and had a garden by his house; he used to be visited by a considerable number of the Jews, since he was held in greater respect than any other man.
Dan 13:5 Two elderly men had been selected from the people, that year, to act as judges. Of such the Lord had said, 'Wickedness has come to Babylon through the elders and judges posing as guides to the people.'
Dan 13:6 These men were often at Joakim's house, and all who were engaged in litigation used to come to them.
Dan 13:7 At midday, when the people had gone away, Susanna would take a walk in her husband's garden.
Dan 13:8 The two elders, who used to watch her every day as she came in to take her walk, gradually began to desire her.
Dan 13:9 They threw reason aside, making no effort to turn their eyes to Heaven, and forgetting the demands of virtue.
Dan 13:10 Both were inflamed by passion for her, but they hid their desire from each other,
Dan 13:11 for they were ashamed to admit the longing to sleep with her,
Dan 13:12 but they made sure of watching her every day.
Dan 13:13 One day, having parted with the words, 'Let us go home, then, it is time for the midday meal,' they went off in different directions,
Dan 13:14 only to retrace their steps and find themselves face to face again. Obliged then to explain, they admitted their desire and agreed to look for an opportunity of surprising her alone.
Dan 13:15 So they waited for a favorable moment; and one day Susanna came as usual, accompanied only by two young maidservants. The day was hot and she wanted to bathe in the garden.
Dan 13:16 There was no one about except the two elders, spying on her from their hiding place.
Dan 13:17 She said to the servants, 'Bring me some oil and balsam and shut the garden door while I bathe.'
Dan 13:18 They did as they were told, shutting the garden door and going back to the house by a side entrance to fetch what she had asked for; they knew nothing about the elders, for they had concealed themselves.
Dan 13:19 Hardly were the maids gone than the two elders sprang up and rushed upon her.
Dan 13:20 'Look,' they said, 'the garden door is shut, no one can see us. We want to have you, so give in and let us!
Dan 13:21 Refuse, and we shall both give evidence that a young man was with you and that this was why you sent your maids away.'
Dan 13:22 Susanna sighed. 'I am trapped,' she said, 'whatever I do. If I agree, it means death for me; if I resist, I cannot get away from you.
Dan 13:23 But I prefer to fall innocent into your power than to sin in the eyes of the Lord.'
Dan 13:24 She then cried out as loud as she could. The two elders began shouting too, putting the blame on her,
Dan 13:25 and one of them ran to open the garden door.
Dan 13:26 The household, hearing the shouting in the garden, rushed out by the side entrance to see what had happened to her.
Dan 13:27 Once the elders had told their story, the servants were thoroughly taken aback, since nothing of this sort had ever been said of Susanna.
Dan 13:28 Next day a meeting was held at the house of her husband Joakim. The two elders arrived, full of their wicked plea against Susanna, to have her put to death.
Dan 13:29 They addressed the company, 'Summon Susanna daughter of Hilkiah and wife of Joakim.' She was sent for,
Dan 13:30 and came accompanied by her parents, her children and all her relations.
Dan 13:31 Susanna was very graceful and beautiful to look at;
Dan 13:32 she was veiled, so the wretches made her unveil in order to feast their eyes on her beauty.
Dan 13:33 All her own people were weeping, and so were all the others who saw her.
Dan 13:34 The two elders stood up, with all the people round them, and laid their hands on her head.
Dan 13:35 Tearfully she turned her eyes to Heaven, her heart confident in God.
Dan 13:36 The elders then spoke, 'While we were walking by ourselves in the garden, this woman arrived with two maids. She shut the garden door and then dismissed the servants.
Dan 13:37 A young man, who had been hiding, went over to her and they lay together.
Dan 13:38 From the end of the garden where we were, we saw this crime taking place and hurried towards them.
Dan 13:39 Though we saw them together, we were unable to catch the man: he was too strong for us; he opened the door and took to his heels.
Dan 13:40 We did, however, catch this woman and ask her who the young man was.
Dan 13:41 She refused to tell us. That is our evidence.' Since they were elders of the people and judges, the assembly accepted their word: Susanna was condemned to death.
Dan 13:42 She cried out as loud as she could, 'Eternal God, you know all secrets and everything before it happens;
Dan 13:43 you know that they have given false evidence against me. And now I must die, innocent as I am of everything their malice has invented against me!'
Dan 13:44 The Lord heard her cry
Dan 13:45 and, as she was being led away to die, he roused the holy spirit residing in a young boy called Daniel
Dan 13:46 who began to shout, 'I am innocent of this woman's death!'
Dan 13:47 At this all the people turned to him and asked, 'What do you mean by that?'
Dan 13:48 Standing in the middle of the crowd, he replied, 'Are you so stupid, children of Israel, as to condemn a daughter of Israel unheard, and without troubling to find out the truth?
Dan 13:49 Go back to the scene of the trial: these men have given false evidence against her.'
Dan 13:50 All the people hurried back, and the elders said to Daniel, 'Come and sit with us and tell us what you mean, since God has given you the gifts that elders have.'
Dan 13:51 Daniel said, 'Keep the men well apart from each other, for I want to question them.'
Dan 13:52 When the men had been separated, Daniel had one of them brought to him. 'You have grown old in wickedness,' he said, 'and now the sins of your earlier days have overtaken you,
Dan 13:53 you with your unjust judgements, your condemnation of the innocent, your acquittal of the guilty, although the Lord has said, "You must not put the innocent and upright to death."
Dan 13:54 Now then, since you saw her so clearly, tell me what sort of tree you saw them lying under.' He replied, 'Under an acacia tree.'
Dan 13:55 Daniel said, 'Indeed! Your lie recoils on your own head: the angel of God has already received from him your sentence and will cut you in half.'
Dan 13:56 He dismissed the man, ordered the other to be brought and said to him, 'Son of Canaan, not of Judah, beauty has seduced you, lust has led your heart astray!
Dan 13:57 This is how you have been behaving with the daughters of Israel, and they have been too frightened to resist; but here is a daughter of Judah who could not stomach your wickedness!
Dan 13:58 Now then, tell me what sort of tree you surprised them under.' He replied, 'Under an aspen tree.'
Dan 13:59 Daniel said, 'Indeed! Your lie recoils on your own head: the angel of God is waiting with a sword to rend you in half, and destroy the pair of you.'
Dan 13:60 Then the whole assembly shouted, blessing God, the Savior of those who trust in him.
Dan 13:61 And they turned on the two elders whom Daniel had convicted of false evidence out of their own mouths.
Dan 13:62 As the Law of Moses prescribes, they were given the same punishment as they had schemed to inflict on their neighbor. They were put to death. And thus, that day, an innocent life was saved.
Dan 13:63 Hilkiah and his wife gave thanks to God for their daughter Susanna, and so did her husband Joakim and all his relations, because she had been acquitted of anything dishonorable.
Dan 13:64 From that day onwards, Daniel's reputation stood high with the people.
Dan 14:1 When King Astyages joined his ancestors, Cyrus of Persia succeeded him.
Dan 14:2 Daniel was very close to the king, who respected him more than any of his other friends.
Dan 14:3 Now, in Babylon there was an idol called Bel, to which twelve bushels of the finest flour, forty sheep and six measures of wine were offered every day.
Dan 14:4 The king venerated this idol and used to go and worship it every day. Daniel, however, worshipped his own God.
Dan 14:5 'Why do you not worship Bel?' the king asked Daniel. 'I do not worship idols made by human hand,' Daniel replied, 'I worship the living God who made heaven and earth and who is lord over all living creatures.'
Dan 14:6 'Do you not believe, then,' said the king, 'that Bel is a living god? Can you not see how much he eats and drinks each day?'
Dan 14:7 Daniel laughed. 'Your Majesty,' he said, 'do not be taken in; he is clay inside, and bronze outside, and has never eaten or drunk anything.'
Dan 14:8 This made the king angry; he summoned his priests, 'Tell me who eats all this food,' he said, 'or die. Prove to me that Bel really eats it, and I will have Daniel put to death for blaspheming him.'
Dan 14:9 Daniel said to the king, 'Let it be as you say.'
Dan 14:10 There were seventy of these priests, to say nothing of their wives and children. The king went to the temple of Bel, taking Daniel with him.
Dan 14:11 The priests of Bel said to him, 'We shall now go out, and you, Your Majesty, will lay out the meal and mix the wine and set it out. Then, lock the door and seal it with your personal seal. If, when you return in the morning, you do not find that everything has been eaten by Bel, let us be put to death; otherwise let Daniel, that slanderer!'
Dan 14:12 They were thinking -- hence their confidence -- of a secret entrance which they had made under the table, and by which they came in regularly and took the offerings away.
Dan 14:13 When the priests had gone and the king had set out the food for Bel,
Dan 14:14 Daniel made his servants bring ashes and spread them all over the temple floor, with no other witness than the king. They then left the building, shut the door and, sealing it with the king's seal, went away.
Dan 14:15 That night, as usual, the priests came with their wives and children; they ate and drank everything.
Dan 14:16 The king was up very early next morning, and Daniel with him.
Dan 14:17 'Daniel,' said the king, 'are the seals intact?' 'They are intact, Your Majesty,' he replied.
Dan 14:18 The king then opened the door and, taking one look at the table, exclaimed, 'You are great, O Bel! There is no deception in you!'
Dan 14:19 But Daniel laughed; and, restraining the king from going in any further, he said, 'Look at the floor and take note whose footmarks these are!'
Dan 14:20 'I can see the footmarks of men, of women and of children,' said the king,
Dan 14:21 and angrily ordered the priests to be arrested, with their wives and children. They then showed him the secret door through which they used to come and take what was on the table.
Dan 14:22 The king had them put to death and handed Bel over to Daniel who destroyed both the idol and its temple.
Dan 14:23 There was a great dragon which the Babylonians worshipped too.
Dan 14:24 The king said to Daniel, 'Are you going to tell me that this is made of bronze? Look, it is alive; it eats and drinks; you cannot deny that this is a living god; worship it, then.'
Dan 14:25 Daniel replied, 'I will worship the Lord my God; he is the living God. With your permission, Your Majesty, without using either sword or club, I shall kill this dragon.'
Dan 14:26 'You have my permission,' said the king.
Dan 14:27 Whereupon, Daniel took some pitch, some fat and some hair and boiled them up together, rolled the mixture into balls and fed them to the dragon; the dragon swallowed them and burst. Daniel said, 'Now look at the sort of thing you worship!'
Dan 14:28 The Babylonians were furious when they heard about this and rose against the king. 'The king has turned Jew,' they said, 'he has allowed Bel to be overthrown, and the dragon to be killed, and he has put the priests to death.'
Dan 14:29 So they went to the king and said, 'Hand Daniel over to us or else we shall kill you and your family.'
Dan 14:30 They pressed him so hard that the king found himself forced to hand Daniel over to them.
Dan 14:31 They threw Daniel into the lion pit, and there he stayed for six days.
Dan 14:32 In the pit were seven lions, which were given two human bodies and two sheep every day; but for this period they were not given anything, to make sure they would eat Daniel.
Dan 14:33 Now, the prophet Habakkuk was in Judaea: he had been making a stew and breaking up bread into a basket. He was on his way to the fields, taking this to the harvesters,
Dan 14:34 when the angel of the Lord spoke to him, 'Take the meal you are carrying to Babylon, and give it to Daniel in the lion pit.'
Dan 14:35 'Lord,' replied Habakkuk, 'I have not even seen Babylon and know nothing about this pit.'
Dan 14:36 The angel of the Lord took hold of his head and carried him off by the hair to Babylon where, with a great blast of his breath, he set Habakkuk down on the edge of the pit.
Dan 14:37 'Daniel, Daniel,' Habakkuk shouted, 'take the meal that God has sent you.'
Dan 14:38 And Daniel said, 'You have kept me in mind, O God; you have not deserted those who love you.'
Dan 14:39 Rising to his feet, he ate the meal, while the angel of God carried Habakkuk back in a moment to his own country.
Dan 14:40 On the seventh day, the king came to lament over Daniel; on reaching the pit he looked inside, and there sat Daniel.
Dan 14:41 'You are great, O Lord, God of Daniel,' he exclaimed, 'there is no god but you!'
Dan 14:42 He then had Daniel released from the pit and the plotters of Daniel's ruin thrown in instead, where they were instantly eaten before his eyes.
Hos 1:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hos 1:2 The beginning of what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said through Hosea: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Hosea, 'Go, marry a whore, and get children with a whore; for the country itself has become nothing but a whore by abandoning Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Hos 1:3 So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, who conceived and bore him a son.
Hos 1:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to him, 'Call him Jezreel, for in a little while I shall punish the House of Jehu for the bloodshed at Jezreel and put an end to the sovereignty of the House of Israel.
Hos 1:5 When that day comes, I shall break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.'
Hos 1:6 She conceived a second time and gave birth to a daughter. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then said to him, 'Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I shall show no more pity for the House of Israel, I shall never forgive them again.
Hos 1:7 (Instead, I shall take pity on the House of Judah and shall save them, not by bow or sword or force of arms, not by horses or horsemen, but by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God.)'
Hos 1:8 After weaning Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son.
Hos 1:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people and I do not exist for you.'
Hos 2:1 But the Israelites will become as numerous as the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. In the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' they will be told they are 'Children of the living God'.
Hos 2:2 The Judaeans and Israelites will be reunited and will choose themselves a single head, and will spread far beyond their country, for great will be the Day of Jezreel!
Hos 2:3 Then call your brothers, 'My people', and your sisters, 'You have been pitied'.
Hos 2:4 To court, take your mother to court! For she is no longer my wife nor am I her husband. She must either remove her whoring ways from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts,
Hos 2:5 or I shall strip her and expose her naked as the day she was born; I shall make her as bare as the desert, I shall make her as dry as arid country, and let her die of thirst.
Hos 2:6 And I shall feel no pity for her children since they are the children of her whorings.
Hos 2:7 Yes, their mother has played the whore, she who conceived them has disgraced herself by saying, 'I shall chase after my lovers; they will assure me my keep, my wool, my flax, my oil and my drinks.'
Hos 2:8 This is why I shall block her way with thorns, and wall her in to stop her in her tracks;
Hos 2:9 then if she chases her lovers she will not catch them, if she looks for them she will not find them, and then she will say, 'I shall go back to my first husband, I was better off then than I am now;'
Hos 2:10 she had never realized before that I was the one who was giving her the grain, new wine and oil, giving her more and more silver and gold which they have spent on Baal!
Hos 2:11 This is why I shall take back my grain when it is due and my new wine, when the season for it comes. I shall withdraw my wool and my flax which were to cover her naked body,
Hos 2:12 and then display her infamy before her lovers' eyes- no one will take her from me then!
Hos 2:13 I shall put an end to all her merrymaking, her festivals, her New Moons and her Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts.
Hos 2:14 I shall make her vines and fig trees derelict of which she used to say, 'These are the pay my lovers gave me.' I shall turn them into a jungle: wild animals will feed on them.
Hos 2:15 I mean to make her pay for the feast-days on which she burnt incense to the Baals, when she tricked herself out in her earrings and necklaces to chase after her lovers, and forget me! -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Hos 2:16 But look, I am going to seduce her and lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.
Hos 2:17 There I shall give her back her vineyards, and make the Vale of Achor a gateway of hope. There she will respond as when she was young, as on the day when she came up from Egypt.
Hos 2:18 When that day comes- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- you will call me, 'My husband', no more will you call me, 'My Baal'.
Hos 2:19 I shall banish the names of the Baals from her lips and their name will be mentioned no more.
Hos 2:20 When that day comes I shall make a treaty for them with the wild animals, with the birds of heaven and the creeping things of the earth; I shall break the bow and the sword and warfare, and banish them from the country, and I will let them sleep secure.
Hos 2:21 I shall betroth you to myself for ever, I shall betroth you in uprightness and justice, and faithful love and tenderness.
Hos 2:22 Yes, I shall betroth you to myself in loyalty and in the knowledge of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Hos 2:23 When that day comes, I shall respond -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- I shall respond to the heavens and they will respond to the earth
Hos 2:24 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
Hos 2:25 I shall sow her in the country to be mine, I shall take pity on Lo-Ruhamah, I shall tell Lo-Ammi, 'You are my people,' and he will say, 'You are my God.'
Hos 3:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who loves another man, an adulteress, and love her as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) loves the Israelites although they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.'
Hos 3:2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver, a homer of barley and a skin of wine,
Hos 3:3 and I said to her, 'You will have to spend a long time waiting for me without playing the whore and without giving yourself to any man, and I will behave in the same way towards you.'
Hos 3:4 For the Israelites will have to spend a long time without king or leader, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or domestic images;
Hos 3:5 but after that, the Israel- ites will return and again seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God and David their king, and turn trembling to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for his bounty in the final days.
Hos 4:1 Israelites, hear what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) indicts the citizens of the country: there is no loyalty, no faithful love, no knowledge of God in the country,
Hos 4:2 only perjury and lying, murder, theft, adultery and violence, bloodshed after bloodshed.
Hos 4:3 This is why the country is in mourning and all its citizens pining away, the wild animals also and birds of the sky, even the fish in the sea will disappear.
Hos 4:4 But let no one denounce, no one rebuke; it is you, priest, that I denounce.
Hos 4:5 Priest, you will stumble in broad daylight, and the prophet will stumble with you in the dark, and I will make your mother perish.
Hos 4:6 My people perish for want of knowledge. Since you yourself have rejected knowledge, so I shall reject you from my priesthood; since you have forgotten the teaching of your God, I in my turn shall forget your children.
Hos 4:7 The more of them there have been, the more they have sinned against me; they have bartered their Glory for Shame.
Hos 4:8 They feed on the sin of my people, they are greedy for their iniquity.
Hos 4:9 But as with the people, so with the priest, I shall punish them for their conduct, I shall pay them back for their deeds.
Hos 4:10 They will eat but never be satisfied, they will play the whore but not grow more prolific, since they have deserted Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to give themselves up
Hos 4:11 to whoring. Old wine and new wine addle my people's wits,
Hos 4:12 they consult their block of wood, and their stick explains what they should do. For an urge to go whoring has led them astray and whoring they go and desert their God;
Hos 4:13 they offer sacrifice on the mountain tops, they burn incense on the hills, under oak and poplar and terebinth, for pleasant is their shade. So, although your daughters play the whore and your daughters-in-law commit adultery,
Hos 4:14 I shall not punish your daughters for playing the whore nor your daughters-in-law for committing adultery, when the men themselves are wandering off with whores and offering sacrifice with sacred prostitutes, for a people with no understanding is doomed.
Hos 4:15 Though you, Israel, play the whore, there is no need for Judah to sin too. Do not go to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-Aven, do not swear oaths 'by Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s life',
Hos 4:16 for Israel is as stubborn as a stubborn heifer; so is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) likely to pasture him like a lamb in a broad meadow?
Hos 4:17 Ephraim has made a pact with idols- let him alone!
Hos 4:18 Their drunken orgy over, they do nothing but play the whore, preferring Shame to their Pride;
Hos 4:19 the wind with its wings will carry them off and their sacrifices will bring them nothing but disgrace.
Hos 5:1 Hear this, you priests, listen, House of Israel, pay attention, royal House, for it is you who have justice in your care, but you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net outspread on Tabor.
Hos 5:2 They have dug the ditch deep at Shittim and so I am going to punish them all.
Hos 5:3 Ephraim have I known, Israel is not hidden from me; and yet, Ephraim, you have played the whore, Israel is befouled.
Hos 5:4 Their deeds do not allow them to return to their God, since an urge to play the whore possesses them and they no longer know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Hos 5:5 Israel's arrogance is his accuser, the guilt of Israel and Ephraim is their undoing, Judah too will be undone with them.
Hos 5:6 Though they go in search of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with their sheep and cattle, they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
Hos 5:7 They have betrayed Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) because they have fathered bastards; now the new moon will devour them and their fields.
Hos 5:8 Sound the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah, raise the war cry in Beth-Aven, 'We are behind you, Benjamin!'
Hos 5:9 When the day of punishment comes, Ephraim will be a wasteland; on the tribes of Israel I have pronounced certain doom.
Hos 5:10 The rulers of Judah act like men who move the boundary stone; I shall pour my wrath out on them like a flood.
Hos 5:11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed by the sentence, for having deliberately followed a Lie.
Hos 5:12 Because of this, I shall be like ringworm for Ephraim and like gangrene for the House of Judah.
Hos 5:13 Once Ephraim realized that he was sick and Judah that he had an ulcer, Ephraim then went to Assyria, he sent messengers to the Great King; but he has no power to cure you or to heal you of your sore;
Hos 5:14 for I shall be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the House of Judah; I myself shall rend them, then go my way, shall carry them off, beyond hope of rescue.
Hos 5:15 I shall go back to my place until they confess their guilt and seek me, seek me eagerly in their distress.
Hos 6:1 Come, let us return to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). He has rent us and he will heal us; he has struck us and he will bind up our wounds;
Hos 6:2 after two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his presence.
Hos 6:3 Let us know, let us strive to know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); that he will come is as certain as the dawn. He will come to us like a shower, like the rain of springtime to the earth.
Hos 6:4 What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah? For your love is like morning mist, like the dew that quickly disappears.
Hos 6:5 This is why I have hacked them to pieces by means of the prophets, why I have killed them with words from my mouth, why my sentence will blaze forth like the dawn-
Hos 6:6 for faithful love is what pleases me, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not burnt offerings.
Hos 6:7 But they have broken the covenant at Adam, there they have betrayed me.
Hos 6:8 Gilead is a city of evil-doers, full of bloody footprints.
Hos 6:9 Like so many robbers in ambush, a gang of priests commits murder on the road to Shechem- what infamous behaviour!
Hos 6:10 At Bethel I have seen a horrible thing; there Ephraim plays the whore, Israel is befouled.
Hos 6:11 For you too, Judah, a harvest is in store, when I restore my people's fortunes.
Hos 7:1 Whenever I would heal Israel, I am confronted by the guilt of Ephraim and the evil-doings of Samaria; for deceit is their principle of behaviour; the thief breaks into the house, marauders raid in the open;
Hos 7:2 and they never pause to consider that I remember all their wicked deeds; and now their own deeds hem them in and stare me in the face.
Hos 7:3 They amuse the king with their wickedness and the chief men with their lies.
Hos 7:4 They are all adulterers, hot as an oven which the baker need not stoke from the time he has kneaded the dough until it rises.
Hos 7:5 At the holiday for our king, the ministers become inflamed with wine, while he accepts the homage of people
Hos 7:6 who laugh at him. Their hearts are like an oven as they plot, all night their passion slumbers, then in the morning it bursts into flame;
Hos 7:7 yes, all of them as hot as ovens, they consume their rulers. All their kings have fallen thus, not one of them has ever called on me.
Hos 7:8 Ephraim mixes with the nations. Ephraim is a half-baked cake.
Hos 7:9 Foreigners have eaten his strength away but he is unconscious of it; even his hair is turning grey but he is unconscious of it.
Hos 7:10 (Israel's arrogance is his own accuser; but they do not come back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God or seek him, despite all this.)
Hos 7:11 Ephraim is like a silly, witless pigeon calling on Egypt, turning to Assyria.
Hos 7:12 Wherever they turn, I shall spread my net over them, I shall bring them down like the birds of the sky, I shall punish them for their perversity.
Hos 7:13 Woe to them for having fled from me! Ruin seize them for having wronged me! I have rescued them again and again and they have only told lies about me.
Hos 7:14 Theirs is no heartfelt cry to me when they lament on their beds; when they gash themselves over the grain and new wine, they are still rebelling against me.
Hos 7:15 Though I supported and gave strength to their arms, they plan how to hurt me.
Hos 7:16 They turn to what does not exist, they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their arrogant talk; how they will be laughed at in Egypt!
Hos 8:1 Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle, disaster is swooping on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s home! Because they have violated my covenant and been unfaithful to my Law,
Hos 8:2 in vain will they cry, 'My God!' In vain, 'We, Israel, know you!'
Hos 8:3 Israel has rejected the good, the enemy will pursue them.
Hos 8:4 They have set up kings, but without my consent, and appointed princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold, they have made themselves idols, but only to be destroyed.
Hos 8:5 I spurn your calf, Samaria! My anger blazes against them! How long will it be before they recover their innocence?
Hos 8:6 For it is the product of Israel- a craftsman made the thing, it is no god at all! The calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces!
Hos 8:7 Since they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind; stalk without ear, it will never yield flour- or if it does, foreigners will swallow it.
Hos 8:8 Israel has himself been swallowed; now they are lost among the nations like something no one wants,
Hos 8:9 for having made approaches to Assyria- like a wild donkey, all alone. Ephraim has rented lovers
Hos 8:10 and because he has rented them from the nations I am now going to round them up; soon they will feel the weight of the king of princes!
Hos 8:11 Ephraim keeps building altars for his sins, these very altars are themselves a sin.
Hos 8:12 However much of my Law I write for him, Ephraim regards it as alien to him.
Hos 8:13 They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat, they do not win Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s favor. On the contrary, he will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they will have to go back to Egypt.
Hos 8:14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and has built palaces, while Judah keeps on building fortified towns; but I shall send fire down on his cities to devour their citadels.
Hos 9:1 No merrymaking, Israel, for you, no rejoicing like other peoples, for you have deserted your God to play the whore, you have loved the fee of prostitution on every threshing-floor.
Hos 9:2 The threshing-floor and wine-press will not feed them; they will be disappointed of new wine.
Hos 9:3 No more will they live in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s country; Ephraim will have to go back to Egypt, and eat polluted food in Assyria.
Hos 9:4 No more will they pour libations of wine to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and their sacrifices will not win his favor but will be like funeral fare for them: whoever eats them will be polluted; for their food will be for themselves alone, not being offered in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s home.
Hos 9:5 What will you do on the solemn feast-day, on the day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s festival?
Hos 9:6 What a scene of devastastion they have left! Egypt will round them up, Memphis will bury them, nettles will inherit their fields and thorn-bushes invade their homesteads.
Hos 9:7 The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution are here; Israel knows it! 'The prophet is mad and the inspired man a fool!' Great has been your guilt- all the greater then the hostility!
Hos 9:8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God: it is the prophet- and a fowler's trap is placed on all his paths; and in the shrine of his God there is enmity towards him.
Hos 9:9 They have become deeply corrupt as in the days of Gibeah; he will remember their guilt, he will punish their sins.
Hos 9:10 It was like finding grapes in the desert when I found Israel, like seeing early fruit on a fig tree when I saw your ancestors; but when they reached Baal-Peor they devoted themselves to Shame and became as loathsome as the thing they loved.
Hos 9:11 The glory of Ephraim will fly away like a bird: no giving birth, no pregnancy, no conceiving.
Hos 9:12 If they rear their children, I shall take them away before they grow up! Woe to them indeed when I leave them!
Hos 9:13 Ephraim looked to me like Tyre, planted in a meadow, so Ephraim will present his children to the slaughterer.
Hos 9:14 Give them, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- what are you to give? - give them wombs that miscarry and dried-up breasts.
Hos 9:15 Their wickedness appeared in full at Gilgal, there I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I shall drive them from my home, I shall love them no longer; all their princes are rebels.
Hos 9:16 Ephraim is blasted, their root has dried out, they will bear no more fruit. And even if they do bear children I shall slaughter the darlings of their womb.
Hos 9:17 Because they have not listened to him, my God will cast them off and they will become wanderers among the nations.
Hos 10:1 Israel was a luxuriant vine yielding plenty of fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built; the richer his land became, the richer he made the sacred pillars.
Hos 10:2 Theirs is a divided heart; now they will have to pay for it. He himself will hack down their altars and wreck their sacred pillars.
Hos 10:3 Then they will say, 'We have no king because we have not feared Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but what could the king do for us?'
Hos 10:4 Speeches are made, oaths sworn to no purpose, agreements concluded, and so-called justice spreads like a poisonous weed along the furrows of the fields!
Hos 10:5 Samaria's citizens will tremble for the calf of Beth-Aven; the people there will mourn for it, so will its idol-priests, as they exult in its glory once it has been carried away!
Hos 10:6 It will be carried off to Assyria as tribute to the Great King. Ephraim will reap the shame, and Israel blush for his intentions.
Hos 10:7 Samaria has had her day. Her king is like a straw drifting on the water.
Hos 10:8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; thorns and thistles will grow over their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, 'Cover us!' and to the hills, 'Fall on us!'
Hos 10:9 Since the days of Gibeah, Israel, you have sinned. There they have taken their stand, and will not war overtake the guilty at Gibeah?
Hos 10:10 I am coming to punish them; nations will muster against them to punish them for their two crimes.
Hos 10:11 Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to tread the grain. But I have laid a yoke on her fine neck, I shall put Ephraim into harness, Judah will have to plough, Jacob must draw the harrow.
Hos 10:12 Sow saving justice for yourselves, reap a harvest of faithful love; break up your fallow ground: it is time to seek out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) until he comes to rain saving justice down on you.
Hos 10:13 You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of falsehood. Because you have trusted in your chariots, in your great numbers of warriors,
Hos 10:14 turmoil is going to break out among your people, and all your fortresses will be laid waste. As Shalman laid Beth-Arbel waste on the day of battle, dashing mothers to pieces on their children,
Hos 10:15 so it shall be done to you, Bethel, because of your great wickedness; at dawn, the king of Israel will be no more.
Hos 11:1 When Israel was a child I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2 But the more I called, the further they went away from me; they offered sacrifice to Baal and burnt incense to idols.
Hos 11:3 I myself taught Ephraim to walk, I myself took them by the arm, but they did not know that I was the one caring for them,
Hos 11:4 that I was leading them with human ties, with leading-strings of love, that, with them, I was like someone lifting an infant to his cheek, and that I bent down to feed him.
Hos 11:5 He will not have to go back to Egypt, Assyria will be his king instead! Since he has refused to come back to me,
Hos 11:6 the sword will rage through his cities, destroying the bars of his gates, devouring them because of their plots.
Hos 11:7 My people are bent on disregarding me; if they are summoned to come up, not one of them makes a move.
Hos 11:8 Ephraim, how could I part with you? Israel, how could I give you up? How could I make you like Admah or treat you like Zeboiim? My heart within me is overwhelmed, fever grips my inmost being.
Hos 11:9 I will not give rein to my fierce anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again, for I am God, not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I shall not come to you in anger.
Hos 11:10 They will follow Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); he will roar like a lion, and when he roars, his children will come fluttering from the west,
Hos 11:11 fluttering like sparrows from Egypt, like pigeons from Assyria, and I shall settle them in their homes -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Hos 12:1 Ephraim besieges me with lying, the House of Israel with duplicity. (But Judah still is on God's side, he is faithful to the Holy One.)
Hos 12:2 Ephraim feeds himself on wind, all day he chases the wind from the East, he heaps up cheating and violence; they make a treaty with Assyria, at the same time sending oil to Egypt.
Hos 12:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has a case against Judah, he will punish Jacob as his conduct merits, he will repay him as his deeds deserve.
Hos 12:4 In the very womb he overreached his brother, in maturity he wrestled against God.
Hos 12:5 He wrestled with the angel and beat him, he wept and pleaded with him. He met him at Bethel and there God spoke to us-
Hos 12:6 yes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is his title!
Hos 12:7 So turn back with God's help, maintain faithful love and loyalty and always put your trust in your God.
Hos 12:8 Merchants use fraudulent scales. To defraud is his delight.
Hos 12:9 'How rich I have become!' says Ephraim, 'I have made a fortune.' But of all his gains he will keep nothing because of the sin of which he is guilty.
Hos 12:10 But I have been Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God since your days in Egypt and will make you live in tents again as in the days of Meeting.
Hos 12:11 I will speak through prophets, I will give vision after vision and through the ministry of prophets will speak in parables.
Hos 12:12 Is Gilead a sink of iniquity? Yes, they are a worthless lot! At Gilgal they sacrifice to bulls, that is why their altars are like heaps of stones in a ploughed field.
Hos 12:13 Jacob fled to the countryside of Aram, Israel slaved to win a wife, to win a wife he looked after sheep.
Hos 12:14 By a prophet Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) brought Israel out of Egypt and by a prophet Israel was preserved.
Hos 12:15 Ephraim gave bitter provocation- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will bring his bloodshed down on him, his Lord will repay him for his insult.
Hos 13:1 When Ephraim used to speak, all trembled; he was a power in Israel; but once he had incurred guilt with Baal, he died.
Hos 13:2 And now they compound their sins by casting images for themselves out of their silver, idols of their own invention, the work of craftsmen, all of it! 'Sacrifice to them,' they say! Men bestow kisses to calves!
Hos 13:3 That is why they will be like morning mist, like the dew that quickly disappears, like the chaff whirled from the threshing-floor, like smoke escaping through the window.
Hos 13:4 But I have been Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God since your days in Egypt when you knew no god but me, since you had no one else to save you.
Hos 13:5 I cared for you in the desert, in the land of dreadful drought.
Hos 13:6 I pastured them, and they were satisfied; once satisfied, their hearts grew proud, and therefore they forgot me.
Hos 13:7 So now I shall be like a lion to them, like a leopard I shall lurk beside the road,
Hos 13:8 like a bear robbed of her cubs I shall meet them and rend the membrane of their heart, and there like a lioness I shall eat them, like a wild beast tear them to shreds.
Hos 13:9 Israel, you have destroyed yourself though in me lies your help.
Hos 13:10 Your king, where is he now, to save you, or the governors in all your cities? - whom you once pleaded for, saying, 'Give me a king and princes!'
Hos 13:11 In my anger I gave you a king and in my wrath I have taken him away.
Hos 13:12 Ephraim's guilt is packed away, his sin is locked up.
Hos 13:13 Pangs as of childbirth overtake him, and a stupid child he is; his time is due, but he does not leave the womb.
Hos 13:14 Shall I save them from the clutches of Sheol? Shall I buy them back from Death? Where are your plagues, Death? Where are your scourges, Sheol? Compassion will be banished from my sight!
Hos 13:15 Though Ephraim bears more fruit than his brothers, the wind from the East will come, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s breath blowing up from the desert to dry his spring, to dry up his fountain, to strip his treasury of everything worth having.
Hos 14:1 Samaria will pay the penalty for having rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their little children will be dashed to pieces and their pregnant women disembowelled.
Hos 14:2 Israel, come back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God your guilt was the cause of your downfall.
Hos 14:3 Provide yourself with words and come back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Say to him, 'Take all guilt away and give us what is good, instead of bulls we will dedicate to you our lips.
Hos 14:4 Assyria cannot save us, we will not ride horses any more, or say, "Our God!" to our own handiwork, for you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.'
Hos 14:5 I shall cure them of their disloyalty, I shall love them with all my heart, for my anger has turned away from them.
Hos 14:6 I shall fall like dew on Israel, he will bloom like the lily and thrust out roots like the cedar of Lebanon;
Hos 14:7 he will put out new shoots, he will have the beauty of the olive tree and the fragrance of Lebanon.
Hos 14:8 They will come back to live in my shade; they will grow wheat again, they will make the vine flourish, their wine will be as famous as Lebanon's.
Hos 14:9 What has Ephraim to do with idols any more when I hear him and watch over him? I am like an evergreen cypress, you owe your fruitfulness to me.
Hos 14:10 Let the wise understand these words, let the intelligent grasp their meaning, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s ways are straight and the upright will walk in them, but sinners will stumble.
Joe 1:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) that was addressed to Joel son of Pethuel.
Joe 1:2 Listen to this, you elders; everybody in the country, attend! Has anything like this ever happened in your day, or in your ancestors' days?
Joe 1:3 Tell your children about it and let your children tell their children, and their children the next generation!
Joe 1:4 What the nibbler has left, the grown locust has eaten, what the grown locust has left, the hopper has eaten, and what the hopper has left, the shearer has eaten.
Joe 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! All you wine-bibbers, lament for the new wine: it has been snatched from your lips.
Joe 1:6 For a nation has invaded my country, mighty and innumerable, with teeth like a lion's teeth, with the fangs of a lioness.
Joe 1:7 It has reduced my vines to a desolation and my fig trees to splinters, stripped them and broken them down, leaving their branches white.
Joe 1:8 Mourn, as a virgin-bride in sackcloth for the bridegroom of her youth!
Joe 1:9 Cereal offering and libation are lost to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Temple. The priests, the ministers of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are in mourning.
Joe 1:10 The fields are ruined, the land is in mourning, for the grain has been ruined, the new wine has failed, of olive oil only a trickle.
Joe 1:11 Stand dismayed, you farmers, wail, you vinedressers, for the wheat, for the barley! The harvest of the fields has been lost!
Joe 1:12 The vine has withered, the fig tree wilts away; pomegranate, palm tree, apple tree, every tree in the countryside is dry, and for human beings joy has run dry too.
Joe 1:13 Priests, put on sackcloth and lament! You ministers of the altar, wail! Come here, lie in sackcloth all night long, you ministers of my God! For the Temple of your God has been deprived of cereal offering and libation.
Joe 1:14 Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; you elders, summon everybody in the country to the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God. Cry out to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH):
Joe 1:15 'Alas for the day! For the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near, coming as destruction from Shaddai.'
Joe 1:16 Has not the food disappeared before our very eyes? Have not joy and gladness vanished from the Temple of our God?
Joe 1:17 The seeds shrivel under their clods; the granaries are deserted, the barns are in ruins, because the harvest has dried out.
Joe 1:18 Loudly the cattle groan! The herds of oxen are bewildered because they have no pasture. The flocks of sheep bear the punishment too.
Joe 1:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), to you I cry: for fire has devoured the desert pastures, flame has burnt up all the trees in the countryside.
Joe 1:20 Even the wild animals pant loudly for you, for the watercourses have run dry, and fire has devoured the desert pastures.
Joe 2:1 Blow the ram's-horn in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let everybody in the country tremble, for the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is coming, yes, it is near.
Joe 2:2 Day of darkness and gloom, Day of cloud and blackness. Like the dawn, across the mountains spreads a vast and mighty people, such as has never been before, such as will never be again to the remotest ages.
Joe 2:3 In their van a fire devours, in their rear a flame consumes. The country is like a garden of Eden ahead of them and a desert waste behind them. Nothing escapes them.
Joe 2:4 They look like horses, like chargers they gallop on,
Joe 2:5 with a racket like that of chariots they spring over the mountain tops, with a crackling like a blazing fire devouring the stubble, a mighty army in battle array.
Joe 2:6 At the sight of them, people are appalled and every face grows pale.
Joe 2:7 Like fighting men they press forward, like warriors they scale the walls, each marching straight ahead, not turning from his path;
Joe 2:8 they never jostle each other, each marches straight ahead: arrows fly, they still press forward, never breaking ranks.
Joe 2:9 They hurl themselves at the city, they leap onto the walls, swarm up the houses, getting in through the windows like thieves.
Joe 2:10 As they come on, the earth quakes, the skies tremble, sun and moon grow dark, the stars lose their brilliance.
Joe 2:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice rings out at the head of his troops! For mighty indeed is his army, strong, the enforcer of his orders, for great is the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and very terrible -- who can face it?
Joe 2:12 'But now -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.'
Joe 2:13 Tear your hearts and not your clothes, and come back to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, and he relents about inflicting disaster.
Joe 2:14 Who knows if he will not come back, relent and leave a blessing behind him, a cereal offering and a libation to be presented to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God?
Joe 2:15 Blow the ram's-horn in Zion! Order a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly,
Joe 2:16 call the people together, summon the community, assemble the elders, gather the children, even infants at the breast! Call the bridegroom from his bedroom and the bride from her bower!
Joe 2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), stand weeping between portico and altar, saying, 'Spare your people, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! Do not expose your heritage to the contempt, to the sarcasm of the nations! Why give the peoples cause to say, "Where is their God?" '
Joe 2:18 Then, becoming jealous over his country, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) took pity on his people.
Joe 2:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said in answer to his people, 'Now I shall send you wheat, wine and olive oil until you have enough. Never again will I expose you to the contempt of the nations.
Joe 2:20 I shall take the northerner far away from you and drive him into an arid, desolate land, his vanguard to the eastern sea, his rearguard to the western sea. He will give off a stench, he will give off a foul stink (for what he made bold to do).'
Joe 2:21 Land, do not be afraid; be glad, rejoice, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has done great things.
Joe 2:22 Wild animals, do not be afraid; the desert pastures are green again, the trees bear fruit, vine and fig tree yield their richness.
Joe 2:23 Sons of Zion, be glad, rejoice in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God; for he has given you autumn rain as justice demands, and he will send the rains down for you, the autumn and spring rain as of old.
Joe 2:24 The threshing-floors will be full of grain, the vats overflow with wine and oil.
Joe 2:25 'I will make up to you for the years devoured by grown locust and hopper, by shearer and young locust, my great army which I sent to invade you.
Joe 2:26 'You will eat to your heart's content, and praise the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God who has treated you so wonderfully. (My people will never be humiliated again!)
Joe 2:27 'And you will know that I am among you in Israel, I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God, and no one else. My people will never be humiliated again!'
Joe 3:1 'After this I shall pour out my spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old people shall dream dreams, and your young people see visions.
Joe 3:2 Even on the slaves, men and women, shall I pour out my spirit in those days.
Joe 3:3 I shall show portents in the sky and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.'
Joe 3:4 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the Day comes, that great and terrible Day.
Joe 3:5 All who call on the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be saved, for on Mount Zion will be those who have escaped, as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has said, and in Jerusalem a remnant whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is calling.
Joe 4:1 'For in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
Joe 4:2 I shall gather all the nations together and take them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; there I shall put them on trial because of Israel, my people and my heritage, for having scattered them among the nations and having divided my land among themselves.
Joe 4:3 They drew lots for my people, bartering a boy for a whore and selling a girl for wine to drink.
Joe 4:4 'And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Can you take revenge on me? If you take revenge on me, I shall quickly, instantly, make your revenge recoil on your own heads
Joe 4:5 for having taken my silver and gold away and carried off my valuable treasures to your temples,
Joe 4:6 and for having sold the children of Judah and Jerusalem to the Ionians, to be taken far away from their own frontiers.
Joe 4:7 Look, I shall rouse them from the places to which you have sold them; I shall make your actions recoil on your own heads
Joe 4:8 by selling your sons and daughters to the sons of Judah, who in turn will sell them to the Sabaeans, to a nation far away- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken!'
Joe 4:9 Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare for war! Rouse the champions! All you troops, advance, march!
Joe 4:10 Hammer your ploughshares into swords, your bill-hooks into spears; let the weakling say, 'I am tough!'
Joe 4:11 Hurry and come, all the nations around, and assemble there! (Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), send down your champions!)
Joe 4:12 'Let the nations rouse themselves and march to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I shall sit in judgement on all the nations around.
Joe 4:13 Ply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is full; the vats are overflowing, so great is their wickedness!'
Joe 4:14 Multitude on multitude in the Valley of Decision! For the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near in the Valley of the Verdict!
Joe 4:15 Sun and moon grow dark, the stars lose their brilliance.
Joe 4:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) roars from Zion, he thunders from Jerusalem; heaven and earth tremble. But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be a shelter for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites.
Joe 4:17 'Then you will know that I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God residing on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will then be a sanctuary, no foreigners will overrun it ever again.'
Joe 4:18 When that Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk, and all the stream-beds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Temple and water the Gorge of the Acacias.
Joe 4:19 Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom a desert waste on account of the violence done to the children of Judah whose innocent blood they shed in their country.
Joe 4:20 But Judah will be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation!
Joe 4:21 'I shall avenge their blood and let none go unpunished,' and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will dwell in Zion.
Amo 1:1 Words of Amos one of the shepherds of Tekoa. The visions he had about Israel, in the time of Uzziah king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.
Amo 1:2 He said: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) roars from Zion, and makes himself heard from Jerusalem; the shepherds' pastures mourn, and the crown of Carmel dries up.
Amo 1:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Damascus, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have threshed Gilead with iron threshing-sledges,
Amo 1:4 I shall send fire down on the House of Hazael to devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad;
Amo 1:5 I shall break the gate-bar of Damascus, I shall destroy the inhabitant of Bikath-Aven, the holder of the scepter in Beth-Eden, and the people of Aram will be deported to Kir, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Amo 1:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Gaza, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have deported entire nations as slaves to Edom,
Amo 1:7 I shall send fire down on the walls of Gaza to devour its palaces;
Amo 1:8 I shall destroy the inhabitant of Ashdod, the holder of the scepter in Ashkelon; I shall turn my hand against Ekron and the remnant of the Philistines will perish, says the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 1:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Tyre, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have handed hosts of captives over to Edom, heedless of a covenant of brotherhood,
Amo 1:10 I shall send fire down on the walls of Tyre to devour its palaces.
Amo 1:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Edom, I have made my decree and will not relent: because he has pursued his brother with the sword, because he has stifled any sense of pity, and perpetually nursed his anger and constantly cherished his rage,
Amo 1:12 I shall send fire down on Teman to devour the palaces of Bozrah.
Amo 1:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of the Ammonites, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have disembowelled the pregnant women of Gilead in order to extend their own frontiers,
Amo 1:14 I shall light a fire against the walls of Rabbah to devour its palaces amid war cries on the day of battle, in a whirlwind on the day of storm,
Amo 1:15 and their king shall go into captivity, he and his chief men with him, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 2:1 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Moab, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have burnt the bones of the king of Edom to ash,
Amo 2:2 I shall send fire down into Moab to devour the palaces of Kerioth, and Moab will die in the tumult, amid war cries and the blare of trumpets;
Amo 2:3 I shall destroy the ruler there and slaughter all the chief men there with him, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 2:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Judah, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have despised Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s law and not kept his commandments, since their Falsehoods, which their ancestors followed, have led them astray,
Amo 2:5 I shall send fire down on Judah to devour the palaces of Jerusalem.
Amo 2:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: For the three crimes, the four crimes of Israel, I have made my decree and will not relent: because they have sold the upright for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals,
Amo 2:7 because they have crushed the heads of the weak into the dust and thrust the rights of the oppressed to one side, father and son sleeping with the same girl and thus profaning my holy name,
Amo 2:8 lying down beside every altar on clothes acquired as pledges, and drinking the wine of the people they have fined in the house of their god.
Amo 2:9 Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, he who was as tall as the cedars, as strong as the oaks; I who destroyed his fruit above ground and his roots below.
Amo 2:10 It was I who brought you up from Egypt and for forty years led you through the desert to take possession of the Amorite's country;
Amo 2:11 I who raised up prophets from your sons and Nazirites from your young men. Israelites, is this not true? -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Amo 2:12 But you have made the Nazirite drink wine and given orders to the prophets, 'Do not prophesy.'
Amo 2:13 Very well! Like a cart overloaded with sheaves I shall crush you where you stand;
Amo 2:14 flight will be cut off for the swift, the strong will have no chance to exert his strength nor the warrior be able to save his life;
Amo 2:15 the archer will not stand his ground, the swift of foot will not escape, nor will the horseman save his life;
Amo 2:16 even the bravest of warriors will jettison his arms and run away, that day! -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Amo 3:1 Listen, Israelites, to this prophecy which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) pronounces against you, against the whole family which I brought up from Egypt:
Amo 3:2 You alone have I intimately known of all the families of earth, that is why I shall punish you for all your wrong-doings.
Amo 3:3 Do two people travel together unless they have agreed to do so?
Amo 3:4 Does the lion roar in the forest if it has no prey? Does the young lion growl in his lair if it has caught nothing?
Amo 3:5 Does a bird fall on the ground in a net unless a trap has been set for it? Will the net spring up from the ground without catching something?
Amo 3:6 Does the trumpet sound in the city without the people being alarmed? Does misfortune come to a city if Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has not caused it?
Amo 3:7 No indeed, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.
Amo 3:8 The lion roars: who is not afraid? Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken: who will not prophesy?
Amo 3:9 From the palace roofs of Assyria and from the palace roofs of Egypt, proclaim aloud, 'Assemble on the hills of Samaria and observe the grave disorders inside her and the acts of oppression there!'
Amo 3:10 Little they know of right conduct -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- who cram their palaces with violence and extortion.
Amo 3:11 This is why -- Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this- an enemy will soon besiege the land, he will bring down your strength and your palaces will be looted.
Amo 3:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: As the shepherd rescues two legs or the tip of an ear from the lion's mouth, so will the children of Israel be salvaged who now loll in Samaria in the corners of their beds, on their divans of Damascus.
Amo 3:13 Listen and testify against the House of Jacob -declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth-
Amo 3:14 the day when I punish Israel for his crimes I shall also punish the altars of Bethel; the horns of the altar will be hacked off and will fall to the ground.
Amo 3:15 I shall blast winter house with summer house, ivory houses will be destroyed and many mansions cease to be -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:1 Listen to this saying, you cows of Bashan living on the hill of Samaria, exploiting the weak and ill-treating the poor, saying to your husbands, 'Bring us something to drink!'
Amo 4:2 The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: Look, the days will soon be on you when he will use hooks to drag you away and fish-hooks for the very last of you;
Amo 4:3 through the breaches in the wall you will leave, each one straight ahead, and be herded away towards Hermon -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:4 Go to Bethel, and sin, to Gilgal, and sin even harder! Bring your sacrifices each morning, your tithes every third day,
Amo 4:5 burn your thank-offering of leaven and widely publicise your free-will offerings, for this, children of Israel, is what makes you happy -declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:6 I even gave you clean teeth in all your towns and a shortage of food in all your villages and still you would not come back to me -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:7 I even withheld the rain from you full three months before harvest-time; I caused rain to fall in one town and caused no rain to fall in another; one field was rained on and the next for want of rain dried up;
Amo 4:8 two towns, three towns went tottering to one town for water to drink but went unsatisfied, and still you would not come back to me -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:9 I struck you with blight and mildew, I dried up your gardens and vineyards; the locust devoured your fig trees and olive trees and still you would not come back to me -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:10 I sent plague on you like Egypt's plague, I slaughtered your young men with the sword and at the same time your horses were captured; I filled your nostrils with the stench of your camps and still you would not come back to me -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:11 I overturned you as God overturned Sodom and Gomorrah; you were like a brand snatched from the blaze and still you would not come back to me -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 4:12 So this, Israel, is what I plan to do to you. Because I am going to do this to you, Israel, prepare to meet your God!
Amo 4:13 For look, he it is who forges the mountains, creates the wind, who reveals his mind to humankind, changes the dawn into darkness and strides on the heights of the world: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, is his name.
Amo 5:1 Listen to this word which I utter against you, it is a dirge, House of Israel:
Amo 5:2 She has fallen down, never to rise again, the virgin Israel. There she lies on her own soil, with no one to lift her up.
Amo 5:3 For Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: The town which used to put a thousand in the field will be left with a hundred, and the one which used to put a hundred will be left with ten, to fight for the House of Israel.
Amo 5:4 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this to the House of Israel: Seek me out and you will survive,
Amo 5:5 but do not seek out Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal is going into captivity and Bethel will be brought to nothing.
Amo 5:6 Seek out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and you will survive or else he will sweep like fire upon the House of Joseph and burn it down, with no one at Bethel able to quench the flames.
Amo 5:7 They turn justice into wormwood and throw uprightness to the ground.
Amo 5:8 He it is who makes the Pleiades and Orion, who turns shadow dark as death into morning and day to darkest night, who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the surface of the land. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is his name.
Amo 5:9 He brings destruction on the strong and ruin comes on the fortress.
Amo 5:10 They hate the man who teaches justice at the city gate and detest anyone who declares the truth.
Amo 5:11 For trampling on the poor man and for extorting levies on his wheat: although you have built houses of dressed stone, you will not live in them; although you have planted pleasant vineyards, you will not drink wine from them:
Amo 5:12 for I know how many your crimes are and how outrageous your sins, you oppressors of the upright, who hold people to ransom and thrust the poor aside at the gates.
Amo 5:13 That is why anyone prudent keeps silent now, since the time is evil.
Amo 5:14 Seek good and not evil so that you may survive, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, be with you as you claim he is.
Amo 5:15 Hate evil, love good, let justice reign at the city gate: it may be that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth, will take pity on the remnant of Joseph.
Amo 5:16 Therefore Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the Lord, says this: In every public square there will be lamentation, in every street they will cry out, 'Alas! Alas!' The farmer will be called on to mourn, the professional mourners to lament,
Amo 5:17 and there will be wailing in every vineyard, for I mean to pass through among you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Amo 5:18 Disaster for you who long for the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! What will the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) mean for you? It will mean darkness, not light,
Amo 5:19 as when someone runs away from a lion, only to meet a bear; he goes into his house and puts his hand on the wall, only for a snake to bite him.
Amo 5:20 Will not the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) be darkness, not light, totally dark, without a ray of light?
Amo 5:21 I hate, I scorn your festivals, I take no pleasure in your solemn assemblies.
Amo 5:22 When you bring me burnt offerings . . . your oblations, I do not accept them and I do not look at your communion sacrifices of fat cattle.
Amo 5:23 Spare me the din of your chanting, let me hear none of your strumming on lyres,
Amo 5:24 but let justice flow like water, and uprightness like a never-failing stream!
Amo 5:25 Did you bring me sacrifices and oblations those forty years in the desert, House of Israel?
Amo 5:26 Now you must shoulder Sakkuth your king and the star of your God, Kaiwan, those idols you made for yourselves;
Amo 5:27 for I am about to drive you into captivity beyond Damascus, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says -- God Sabaoth is his name.
Amo 6:1 Disaster for those so comfortable in Zion and for those so confident on the hill of Samaria, the notables of this first of nations, those to whom the House of Israel has recourse!
Amo 6:2 Travel to Calneh and look, go on from there to Hamath the great, then go down to Gath in Philistia. Are they more powerful than these kingdoms? Is their territory larger than yours?
Amo 6:3 Thinking to defer the evil day, you are hastening the reign of violence.
Amo 6:4 Lying on ivory beds and sprawling on their divans, they dine on lambs from the flock, and stall-fattened veal;
Amo 6:5 they bawl to the sound of the lyre and, like David, they invent musical instruments;
Amo 6:6 they drink wine by the bowlful, and lard themselves with the finest oils, but for the ruin of Joseph they care nothing.
Amo 6:7 That is why they will now go into captivity, heading the column of captives. The sprawlers' revelry is over.
Amo 6:8 Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sworn by his own self -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth: I detest the pride of Jacob, I hate his palaces, I shall hand over the city and all in it.
Amo 6:9 If ten people are left in a single house, they will die
Amo 6:10 and a few will be left to carry the bones from the house, and they will say to anyone deep inside the house, 'Any more there?' and he will answer, 'No.' Then he will say, 'Hush!-Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name must not be mentioned.'
Amo 6:11 For look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) gives the command: as he strikes, the great house falls to pieces and the small house is in fragments.
Amo 6:12 Can horses gallop over rocks? Can the sea be ploughed with oxen? Yet you have changed justice into poison, and the fruit of uprightness into wormwood,
Amo 6:13 while rejoicing over Lo-Debar and saying, 'Wasn't it by our own strength that we captured Karnaim?'
Amo 6:14 But look, House of Israel, against you -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God Sabaoth- I am raising a nation to oppress you from the Pass of Hamath to the Gorge of the Arabah.
Amo 7:1 This is what Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) showed me: there was a swarm of locusts when the second crop was sprouting, full-grown locusts, after the king's hay had been cut.
Amo 7:2 When they had eaten all the grass in the land, I said, 'Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), forgive, I beg you. How can Jacob survive, being so small?'
Amo 7:3 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) relented; 'It will not happen,' said Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 7:4 This is what Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) showed me: Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) summoning fire in punishment; it had devoured the great Abyss and was encroaching on the land,
Amo 7:5 when I said, 'Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), stop, I beg you. How can Jacob survive, being so small?'
Amo 7:6 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) relented; 'This will not happen either,' said the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 7:7 This is what he showed me: the Lord standing by a wall, with a plumb-line in his hand.
Amo 7:8 'What do you see, Amos?' Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) asked me. 'A plumb-line,' I said. Then the Lord said, 'Look, I am going to put a plumb-line in among my people Israel; never again will I overlook their offenses.
Amo 7:9 The high places of Isaac will be ruined and the sanctuaries of Israel laid waste, and, sword in hand, I will attack the House of Jeroboam.'
Amo 7:10 Amaziah the priest of Bethel then sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel as follows, 'Amos is plotting against you in the heart of the House of Israel; the country cannot tolerate his speeches.
Amo 7:11 For this is what Amos says, "Jeroboam is going to die by the sword, and Israel will go into captivity far from its native land." '
Amo 7:12 To Amos himself Amaziah said, 'Go away, seer, take yourself off to Judah, earn your living there, and there you can prophesy!
Amo 7:13 But never again will you prophesy at Bethel, for this is a royal sanctuary, a national temple.'
Amo 7:14 'I am not a prophet,' Amos replied to Amaziah, 'nor do I belong to a prophetic brotherhood. I am merely a herdsman and dresser of sycamore-figs.
Amo 7:15 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) took me as I followed the flock, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, "Go and prophesy to my people Israel."
Amo 7:16 So now listen to what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says: "You say: Do not prophesy against Israel, do not foretell doom on the House of Isaac!"
Amo 7:17 Very well, this is what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says, "Your wife will become a prostitute in the streets, your sons and daughters will fall by the sword, your land will be parceled out by measuring line, and you yourself will die on polluted soil and Israel will go into captivity far from its own land!" '
Amo 8:1 This is what Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) showed me: A basket of ripe fruit.
Amo 8:2 'What do you see, Amos?' he asked. 'A basket of ripe fruit,' I said. Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said, 'The time is ripe for my people Israel; I will not continue to overlook their offenses.
Amo 8:3 That day, the palace songs will turn to howls, -declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- the corpses will be many that are thrown down everywhere. Keep silent!'
Amo 8:4 Listen to this, you who crush the needy and reduce the oppressed to nothing,
Amo 8:5 you who say, 'When will New Moon be over so that we can sell our corn, and Sabbath, so that we can market our wheat? Then, we can make the bushel-measure smaller and the shekel-weight bigger, by fraudulently tampering with the scales.
Amo 8:6 We can buy up the weak for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals, and even get a price for the sweepings of the wheat.'
Amo 8:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sworn by the pride of Jacob, 'Never will I forget anything they have done.'
Amo 8:8 Will not the earth tremble for this and all who live on it lament, as it all rises together like the Nile in Egypt, it swells and then subsides like the Egyptian Nile?
Amo 8:9 'On that Day- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- I shall make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight.
Amo 8:10 I shall turn your festivals into mourning and all your singing into lamentation; I shall make you all wear sacking round your waists and have all your heads shaved. I shall make it like the mourning for an only child, and it will end like the bitterest of days.
Amo 8:11 'The days are coming- declares the Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- when I shall send a famine on the country, not hunger for food, not thirst for water, but famine for hearing Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word.
Amo 8:12 People will stagger from sea to sea, will wander from the north to the east, searching for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word, but will not find it.
Amo 8:13 'That Day, fine girls and stalwart youths will faint from thirst.
Amo 8:14 The people who swear by the Sin of Samaria, who say, "Long live your god, Dan!" and "Hurrah for the pilgrimage to Beersheba!" will all fall, never to rise again.'
Amo 9:1 I saw the Lord standing by the altar, and he said, 'Strike the top of the pillar so that the thresholds shake! Smash their heads in, one and all! And I shall put any survivors to the sword; whoever runs away will not run far, whoever escapes will not make good his escape.
Amo 9:2 Should they burrow into Sheol, my hand will haul them out; should they climb to heaven, I shall bring them down.
Amo 9:3 Should they hide on the top of Carmel, I shall track them down and catch them; should they hide from me on the sea bed, I shall order the Serpent there to bite them;
Amo 9:4 if their enemies herd them into captivity, I shall order the sword to kill them there, and I shall fix my eyes on them for evil and not for good.'
Amo 9:5 Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth- he touches the earth and it melts, and all living things on it lament, as all rises together like the Nile in Egypt and then subsides like the Egyptian Nile.
Amo 9:6 He who builds his mansions in the heavens, supporting his vault on the earth; who summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the surface of the land: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is his name.
Amo 9:7 Are not you and the Cushites all the same to me, children of Israel? - declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Did I not bring Israel up from Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Aramaeans from Kir?
Amo 9:8 Look, Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s eyes are on the sinful kingdom, I shall wipe it off the face of the earth, although I shall not destroy the House of Jacob completely -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Amo 9:9 For look, I shall give the command and shall shake out the House of Israel among all nations as a sieve is shaken out without one grain falling on the ground.
Amo 9:10 All the sinners of my people will perish by the sword, who say, 'Disaster will never approach or overtake us.'
Amo 9:11 On that Day, I shall rebuild the tottering hut of David, make good the gaps in it, restore its ruins and rebuild it as it was in the days of old,
Amo 9:12 for them to be master of what is left of Edom and of all the nations once called mine -Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares, and he will perform it.
Amo 9:13 The days are coming- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- when the ploughman will tread on the heels of the reaper, and the treader of grapes on the heels of the sower of seed, and the mountains will run with new wine and the hills all flow with it.
Amo 9:14 I shall restore the fortunes of my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them, they will plant vineyards and drink their wine, they will lay out gardens and eat their produce.
Amo 9:15 And I shall plant them in their own soil and they will never be uprooted again from the country which I have given them, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), your God.
Oba 1:1 Vision of Obadiah: about Edom. I have received a message from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), a herald has been sent throughout the nations: 'Up! Let us march against this people. Into battle!' The Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this:
Oba 1:2 Look, I have reduced you to the smallest of nations, you are now beneath contempt.
Oba 1:3 Your proud heart has misled you, you whose home is in the crannies of the Rock, who make the heights your dwelling, who think to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to earth?'
Oba 1:4 Though you soar like an eagle, though you set your nest among the stars, I shall bring you down from there!-declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Oba 1:5 If thieves were to come to you (or robbers during the night) surely they would steal only as much as they wanted? If grape-pickers were to come to you, surely they would leave a few gleanings? But how you have been pillaged!
Oba 1:6 How Esau has been looted, his hidden treasures routed out!
Oba 1:7 Your allies all pursued you right to the frontier, your confederates kept you in suspense, then got the better of you, your own guests laid a trap for you, 'He has quite lost his wits.'
Oba 1:8 When that day comes- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- shall I not eliminate sages from Edom and intelligence from Mount Esau?
Oba 1:9 Your warriors, Teman, will be so demoralised that the people of Mount Esau will be massacred to the last one. For the slaughter,
Oba 1:10 for the violence done to your brother Jacob, shame will cover you and you will be annihilated for ever.
Oba 1:11 On the day, when you stood aloof while strangers carried off his riches, while foreigners passed through his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were as bad as the rest of them.
Oba 1:12 Do not feast your eyes on your brother on the day of his misfortune. Do not gloat over the children of Judah on the day of their ruin. Do not play the braggart on the day of distress.
Oba 1:13 Do not enter my people's gate on their day of calamity. Do not, you especially, feast your eyes on their suffering on their day of calamity. Do not touch their possessions on their day of calamity.
Oba 1:14 Do not wait at the crossroads to annihilate their fugitives. Do not hand over their survivors on the day of distress.
Oba 1:15 For the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near for all the nations. As you have done, so will it be done to you: your deeds will recoil on your own head.
Oba 1:16 Just as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually, they will drink, will drink greedily, but they will be as though they had never been!
Oba 1:17 But on Mount Zion will be those who have escaped -it will be a sanctuary- and the House of Jacob will recover what is rightfully theirs.
Oba 1:18 Then the House of Jacob will be a fire, the House of Joseph a flame, and the House of Esau like stubble. They will set it alight and burn it up, and no one of the House of Esau will survive. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has spoken.
Oba 1:19 People from the Negeb will occupy the Mount of Esau, people from the lowlands the country of the Philistines; they will occupy Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will occupy Gilead.
Oba 1:20 The exiles of this army, the sons of Israel, will have the Canaanites' land as far as Zarephthah, while the exiles from Jerusalem now in Sepharad will have the cities of the Negeb.
Oba 1:21 Victorious, they will climb Mount Zion to rule over Mount Esau, and sovereignty will be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s!
Jon 1:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to Jonah son of Amittai:
Jon 1:2 'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and proclaim to them that their wickedness has forced itself upon me.'
Jon 1:3 Jonah set about running away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and going to Tarshish. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship bound for Tarshish; he paid his fare and boarded it, to go with them to Tarshish, to get away from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Jon 1:4 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) threw a hurricane at the sea, and there was such a great storm at sea that the ship threatened to break up.
Jon 1:5 The sailors took fright, and each of them called on his own god, and to lighten the ship they threw the cargo overboard. Jonah, however, had gone below, had lain down in the hold and was fast asleep,
Jon 1:6 when the boatswain went up to him and said, 'What do you mean by sleeping? Get up! Call on your god! Perhaps he will spare us a thought and not leave us to die.'
Jon 1:7 Then they said to each other, 'Come on, let us draw lots to find out who is to blame for bringing us this bad luck.' So they cast lots, and the lot pointed to Jonah.
Jon 1:8 Then they said to him, 'Tell us, what is your business? Where do you come from? What is your country? What is your nationality?'
Jon 1:9 He replied, 'I am a Hebrew, and I worship Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Heaven, who made both sea and dry land.'
Jon 1:10 The sailors were seized with terror at this and said, 'Why ever did you do this?' since they knew that he was trying to escape from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), because he had told them so.
Jon 1:11 They then said, 'What are we to do with you, to make the sea calm down for us?' For the sea was growing rougher and rougher.
Jon 1:12 He replied, 'Take me and throw me into the sea, and then it will calm down for you. I know it is my fault that this great storm has struck you.'
Jon 1:13 The sailors rowed hard in an effort to reach the shore, but in vain, since the sea was growing rougher and rougher.
Jon 1:14 So at last they called on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, 'O, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not let us perish for the sake of this man's life, and do not hold us responsible for causing an innocent man's death; for you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), have acted as you saw fit.'
Jon 1:15 And taking hold of Jonah they threw him into the sea; and the sea stopped raging.
Jon 1:16 At this, the men were seized with dread of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); they offered a sacrifice to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and made vows to him.
Jon 2:1 Now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) ordained that a great fish should swallow Jonah; and Jonah remained in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights.
Jon 2:2 From the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), his God; he said:
Jon 2:3 Out of my distress I cried to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and he answered me, from the belly of Sheol I cried out; you heard my voice!
Jon 2:4 For you threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods closed round me. All your waves and billows passed over me;
Jon 2:5 then I thought, 'I am banished from your sight; how shall I ever see your holy Temple again?'
Jon 2:6 The waters round me rose to my neck, the deep was closing round me, seaweed twining round my head.
Jon 2:7 To the roots of the mountains, I sank into the underworld, and its bars closed round me for ever. But you raised my life from the Pit, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God!
Jon 2:8 When my soul was growing ever weaker, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I remembered you, and my prayer reached you in your holy Temple.
Jon 2:9 Some abandon their faithful love by worshipping false gods,
Jon 2:10 but I shall sacrifice to you with songs of praise. The vow I have made I shall fulfil! Salvation comes from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)!
Jon 2:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) spoke to the fish, which then vomited Jonah onto the dry land.
Jon 3:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to Jonah a second time.
Jon 3:2 'Up!' he said, 'Go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach to it as I shall tell you.'
Jon 3:3 Jonah set out and went to Nineveh in obedience to the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Now Nineveh was a city great beyond compare; to cross it took three days.
Jon 3:4 Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city and then proclaimed, 'Only forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown.'
Jon 3:5 And the people of Nineveh believed in God; they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least.
Jon 3:6 When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, put on sackcloth and sat down in ashes.
Jon 3:7 He then had it proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles, as follows: 'No person or animal, herd or flock, may eat anything; they may not graze, they may not drink any water.
Jon 3:8 All must put on sackcloth and call on God with all their might; and let everyone renounce his evil ways and violent behaviour.
Jon 3:9 Who knows? Perhaps God will change his mind and relent and renounce his burning wrath, so that we shall not perish.'
Jon 3:10 God saw their efforts to renounce their evil ways. And God relented about the disaster which he had threatened to bring on them, and did not bring it.
Jon 4:1 This made Jonah very indignant; he fell into a rage.
Jon 4:2 He prayed to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and said, 'Please, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), isn't this what I said would happen when I was still in my own country? That was why I first tried to flee to Tarshish, since I knew you were a tender, compassionate God, slow to anger, rich in faithful love, who relents about inflicting disaster.
Jon 4:3 So now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), please take my life, for I might as well be dead as go on living.'
Jon 4:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'Are you right to be angry?'
Jon 4:5 Jonah then left the city and sat down to the east of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, to see what would happen to the city.
Jon 4:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) God then ordained that a castor-oil plant should grow up over Jonah to give shade for his head and soothe his ill-humour; Jonah was delighted with the castor-oil plant.
Jon 4:7 But at dawn the next day, God ordained that a worm should attack the castor-oil plant -- and it withered.
Jon 4:8 Next, when the sun rose, God ordained that there should be a scorching east wind; the sun beat down so hard on Jonah's head that he was overcome and begged for death, saying, 'I might as well be dead as go on living.'
Jon 4:9 God said to Jonah, 'Are you right to be angry about the castor-oil plant?' He replied, 'I have every right to be angry, mortally angry!'
Jon 4:10 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) replied, 'You are concerned for the castor-oil plant which has not cost you any effort and which you did not grow, which came up in a night and has perished in a night.
Jon 4:11 So why should I not be concerned for Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, to say nothing of all the animals?'
Mic 1:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah kings of Judah. His visions about Samaria and Jerusalem.
Mic 1:2 Listen, all you peoples, attend, earth and everyone on it! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) intends to give evidence against you, the Lord, from his holy temple.
Mic 1:3 For look, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is leaving his home, down he comes, he treads the heights of earth.
Mic 1:4 Beneath him, the mountains melt, and valleys are torn open, like wax near a fire, like water pouring down a slope.
Mic 1:5 All this is because of the crime of Jacob, the sin of the House of Israel. What is the crime of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? What is the sin of the House of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?
Mic 1:6 So I shall make Samaria a ruin in the open country, a place for planting vines. I shall send her stones rolling into the valley, until I have laid her foundations bare.
Mic 1:7 All her images will be shattered, all her earnings consumed by fire. I shall leave all her idols derelict- they were amassed out of prostitutes' earnings and prostitutes' earnings once more they will be.
Mic 1:8 This is why I shall howl and wail, why I shall go barefoot and naked, why I shall howl like the jackals, why I shall shriek like the owls;
Mic 1:9 for there is no cure for the wounds that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) inflicts: the blow falls on Judah, it falls on the gateway of my people, on Jerusalem itself.
Mic 1:10 Do not announce it in Gath, in . . . shed no tears! In Beth-Leaphrah roll in the dust!
Mic 1:11 Sound the horn, inhabitant of Shaphir! She has not left her city, she who lives in Zaanan. Beth-Ezel is torn from its foundations, from its strong supports.
Mic 1:12 What hope has she of happiness, she who lives in Maroth? Instead Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) sent down disaster on the gateway of Jerusalem itself!
Mic 1:13 Harness the horse to the chariot, you inhabitant of Lachish! That is where the sin of the daughter of Zion began; the crimes of Israel can be traced to you!
Mic 1:14 And so you must provide a dowry for Moresheth-Gath. Beth-Achzib will prove a disappointment for the kings of Israel.
Mic 1:15 The plunderer will come to you again, you citizen of Mareshah! And into Adullam will vanish the glory of Israel.
Mic 1:16 Off with your hair, shave your head, for the children that were your joy. Make yourselves bald like the vulture, for they have left you for exile.
Mic 2:1 Disaster for those who plot evil, who lie in bed planning mischief! No sooner is it dawn than they do it, since they have the power to do so.
Mic 2:2 Seizing the fields that they covet, they take over houses as well, owner and house they seize alike, the man himself as well as his inheritance.
Mic 2:3 So Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Look, I am now plotting a disaster for this breed from which you will not extricate your necks; you will not hold your heads up then, for the times will be disastrous indeed.
Mic 2:4 That day they will make a satire on you, they will strike up a dirge and say, 'We have been stripped of everything; my people's land has been divided up, no one else can restore it to them, our fields have been awarded to our despoiler.'
Mic 2:5 Because of this, you will have no one to measure out a share in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s community.
Mic 2:6 'Do not drivel,' they drivel, 'do not drivel like this! Disgrace will not overtake us!
Mic 2:7 'Can the House of Jacob be accursed? Has Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) grown short-tempered? Is that his way of going to work? His prophecies can only be favorable for his people Israel!'
Mic 2:8 But you are the ones who play the enemy to my people. From the inoffensive man you snatch his cloak, on those who feel safe you inflict the damage of war.
Mic 2:9 My people's women you evict from the homes they love, and deprive the children of my glory for ever,
Mic 2:10 saying, 'Up and off with you! You can't stay here!' For a worthless thing you exact an extortionate pledge.
Mic 2:11 If a man of the spirit came and invented this lie, 'I prophesy wine and liquor for you,' he would be the prophet for a people like this.
Mic 2:12 I shall assemble the whole of Jacob, I shall gather the remnant of Israel, I shall gather them together like sheep in an enclosure. And like a flock within their fold, they will bleat far away from anyone,
Mic 2:13 their leader will break out first, then all break out through the gate and escape, with their king leading the way and with Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) at their head.
Mic 3:1 Then I said, 'Kindly listen, you leaders of the House of Jacob, you princes of the House of Israel. Surely you are the ones who ought to know what is right,
Mic 3:2 and yet you hate what is good and love what is evil, skinning people alive, pulling the flesh off their bones,
Mic 3:3 eating my people's flesh, stripping off their skin, breaking up their bones, chopping them up small like flesh for the pot, like meat in the stew-pan?'
Mic 3:4 Then they will call to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), but he will not answer them. When the time comes he will hide his face from them because of the crimes they have committed.
Mic 3:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this against the prophets who lead my people astray: So long as they have something to eat they cry 'Peace'. But on anyone who puts nothing into their mouths they declare war.
Mic 3:6 And so, for you, night will be without vision and for you the darkness without divination. The sun will set for the prophets, the daylight will go black above them.
Mic 3:7 Then the seers will be covered with shame, the diviners with confusion; they will all put their hands over their mouths because there is no answer from God.
Mic 3:8 Not so with me, I am full of strength (full of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s spirit), of the sense of right, of energy to accuse Jacob of his crime and Israel of his sin.
Mic 3:9 Kindly listen to this, you leaders of the House of Jacob, you princes of the House of Israel, who detest justice, wresting it from its honest course,
Mic 3:10 who build Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity!
Mic 3:11 Her leaders give verdicts for presents, her priests take a fee for their rulings, her prophets divine for money and yet they rely on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)! 'Isn't Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) among us?' they say, 'No disaster is going to overtake us.'
Mic 3:12 That is why, thanks to you, Zion will become ploughland, Jerusalem a heap of rubble and the Temple Mount a wooded height.
Mic 4:1 But in days to come Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s Temple Mountain will tower above the mountains, rise higher than the hills.
Mic 4:2 Then the peoples will stream to it, then many nations will come and say, 'Come, we will go up to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s mountain, to the Temple of the God of Jacob, so that he may teach us his ways and we may walk in his paths; for the Law issues from Zion and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s word from Jerusalem.'
Mic 4:3 He will judge between many peoples and arbitrate between mighty nations. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into bill-hooks. Nation will not lift sword against nation or ever again be trained to make war.
Mic 4:4 But each man will sit under his vine and fig tree with no one to trouble him. The mouth of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has spoken.
Mic 4:5 For all peoples go forward, each in the name of its god, while we go forward in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) our God for ever and ever.
Mic 4:6 That day -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- I shall gather in the lame and bring together the strays and those whom I have treated harshly.
Mic 4:7 From the footsore I shall make a remnant, and from the far-flung a mighty nation. And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will reign over them on Mount Zion thenceforth and for ever.
Mic 4:8 And to you, Tower of the Flock, Ophel of the daughter of Zion, to you your former sovereignty will return, the royal power of the daughter of Jerusalem.
Mic 4:9 Why are you crying out now? Have you no king? Has your counsellor perished, for pangs to grip you like those of a woman in labour?
Mic 4:10 Writhe in pain and cry aloud, daughter of Zion, like a woman in labour, for now you must leave the city and camp in the open country; to Babylon you must go, and there you will be rescued; there Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will ransom you from the clutches of your enemies.
Mic 4:11 Now many nations have mustered against you. They say, 'Let us desecrate her, let us gloat over Zion!'
Mic 4:12 But they do not know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s thoughts, they do not understand his design: he has collected them like sheaves on the threshing-floor.
Mic 4:13 Start your threshing, daughter of Zion, for I shall make your horn like iron, I shall make your hooves like bronze, so that you can crush many peoples. And you will devote what they have stolen to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), their wealth to the Lord of the whole earth.
Mic 4:14 Now look to your fortifications, Fortress! They have laid siege to us; the ruler of Israel will be struck on the cheek with a rod.
Mic 5:1 But you (Bethlehem) Ephrathah, the least of the clans of Judah, from you will come for me a future ruler of Israel whose origins go back to the distant past, to the days of old.
Mic 5:2 Hence Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will abandon them only until she who is in labour gives birth, and then those who survive of his race will be reunited to the Israelites.
Mic 5:3 He will take his stand and he will shepherd them with the power of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with the majesty of the name of his God, and they will be secure, for his greatness will extend henceforth to the most distant parts of the country.
Mic 5:4 He himself will be peace! Should the Assyrian invade our country, should he set foot in our land, we shall raise seven shepherds against him, eight leaders of men;
Mic 5:5 they will shepherd Assyria with the sword, the country of Nimrod with naked blade. He will save us from the Assyrian, should he invade our country, should he set foot inside our frontiers.
Mic 5:6 Then what is left of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, will be like a dew from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), like showers on the grass, which do not depend on human agency and are beyond human control.
Mic 5:7 Then what is left of Jacob, surrounded by many peoples, will be like a lion among the forest beasts, like a fierce lion among flocks of sheep trampling as he goes, mangling his prey which no one takes from him.
Mic 5:8 You will be victorious over your foes and all your enemies will be torn to pieces.
Mic 5:9 When that day comes- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)- I shall tear your horses away from you, I shall destroy your chariots;
Mic 5:10 I shall tear the cities from your country, I shall overthrow all your fortresses;
Mic 5:11 I shall tear the spells out of your hands and you will have no more soothsayers;
Mic 5:12 I shall tear away your images and your sacred pillars from among you, and no longer will you worship things which your own hands have made!
Mic 5:13 I shall uproot your sacred poles and shall destroy your cities!
Mic 5:14 In furious anger I shall wreak vengeance on the nations who have disobeyed me!
Mic 6:1 Now listen to what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says: 'Stand up, state your case to the mountains and let the hills hear what you have to say!'
Mic 6:2 Listen, mountains, to the case as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) puts it, give ear, you foundations of the earth, for Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has a case against his people and he will argue it with Israel.
Mic 6:3 'My people, what have I done to you, how have I made you tired of me? Answer me!
Mic 6:4 For I brought you up from Egypt, I ransomed you from the place of slave-labour and sent Moses, Aaron and Miriam to lead you.
Mic 6:5 My people, please remember: what was Balak king of Moab's plan and how did Balaam son of Beor answer him? . . . from Shittim to Gilgal, for you to know Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s saving justice.
Mic 6:6 'With what shall I enter Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s presence and bow down before God All-high? Shall I enter with burnt offerings, with calves one year old?
Mic 6:7 Will he be pleased with rams by the thousand, with ten thousand streams of oil? Shall I offer my eldest son for my wrong-doing, the child of my own body for my sin?
Mic 6:8 'You have already been told what is right and what Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) wants of you. Only this, to do what is right, to love loyalty and to walk humbly with your God.'
Mic 6:9 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s voice! He thunders to the city, 'Listen, tribe of assembled citizens!
Mic 6:10 Can I overlook the false measure, that abomination, the short bushel?
Mic 6:11 Can I connive at rigged scales and at the bag of fraudulent weights?
Mic 6:12 For the rich there are steeped in violence, and the citizens there are habitual liars.
Mic 6:13 'I myself have therefore begun to strike you down, to bring you to ruin for your sins.
Mic 6:14 You will eat but not be satisfied; you will store up but never keep safe; what you do keep safe I shall hand over to the sword;
Mic 6:15 you will sow but will not reap, press the olive but will not rub yourself with oil, tread the grape but will not drink the wine.
Mic 6:16 'For you keep the laws of Omri; what the House of Ahab did, you have done; by modelling yourselves on their standards, you force me to make an appalling example of you and reduce your citizens to a laughing-stock; hence you will endure the scorn of other peoples.'
Mic 7:1 How wretched I am, a harvester in summer time, like a gleaner at the vintage: not a single cluster to eat, none of those early figs I love!
Mic 7:2 The faithful have vanished from the land: there is no one honest left. All of them are on the alert for blood, every man hunting his brother with a net.
Mic 7:3 Their hands are adept at wrong-doing: the official makes his demands, the judge gives judgement for a bribe, the man in power pronounces as he pleases.
Mic 7:4 The best of them is like a briar, the most honest of them like a thorn-hedge. Now from the north their punishment approaches! That will be when they are confounded!
Mic 7:5 Trust no neighbor, put no confidence in a friend; do not open your mouth to the wife who shares your bed.
Mic 7:6 For son insults father, daughter rebels against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law; a person's enemies come from within the household itself.
Mic 7:7 But I shall look to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), my hope is in the God who will save me; my God will hear me.
Mic 7:8 Do not gloat over me, my enemy: though I have fallen, I shall rise; though I live in darkness, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my light.
Mic 7:9 I must endure Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger for I have sinned against him, until he takes up my cause and rights my wrongs; he will bring me out into the light, and then I shall contemplate his saving justice.
Mic 7:10 When my enemy sees this, she will be covered with shame, having sneered, 'Where is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God?' This time, I shall be watching as she is trampled underfoot like mud in the streets.
Mic 7:11 That will be the day for rebuilding your walls! The day for expanding your frontiers!
Mic 7:12 The day when others come to you all the way from Assyria, from Egypt, from Tyre and all the way from the Euphrates, from sea to sea, from the mountains to the mountains!
Mic 7:13 The earth will become a desert by reason of its inhabitants, in return for what they have done.
Mic 7:14 With shepherd's crook lead your people to pasture, the flock that is your heritage, living confined in a forest with meadow land all round. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old!
Mic 7:15 As in the days when you came out of Egypt, grant us to see wonders!
Mic 7:16 The nations will see and be confounded in spite of all their power; they will put their hands over their mouths, their ears will be deafened.
Mic 7:17 They will lick the dust like snakes, like reptiles that crawl on the earth. They will creep trembling out of their lairs, in terror before you.
Mic 7:18 What god can compare with you for pardoning guilt and for overlooking crime? He does not harbour anger for ever, since he delights in showing faithful love.
Mic 7:19 Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults; throw all our sins to the bottom of the sea.
Mic 7:20 Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your faithful love, as you swore to our ancestors from the days of long ago.
Nah 1:1 Prophecy about Nineveh. Book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
Nah 1:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is a jealous and vengeful God, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) takes vengeance, he is rich in wrath; Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) takes vengeance on his foes, he stores up fury for his enemies.
Nah 1:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is slow to anger but great in power, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) never lets evil go unpunished. In storm and whirlwind he takes his way, the clouds are the dust stirred up by his feet.
Nah 1:4 He rebukes the sea, dries it up, and makes all the rivers run dry. . . . Bashan and Carmel wither, the greenery of the Lebanon withers too.
Nah 1:5 The mountains tremble before him, the hills reel; the earth collapses before him, the world and all who live in it.
Nah 1:6 His fury -- who can withstand it? Who can endure his burning wrath? His anger pours out like fire and the rocks break apart before him.
Nah 1:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is better than a fortress in time of distress; he recognizes those who trust in him
Nah 1:8 even when the flood rushes on; he will make an end once and for all of those who defy him, and pursue his foes into darkness.
Nah 1:9 What are your thoughts about Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)? He it is who makes a final end: his adversaries will not rise up a second time;
Nah 1:10 like a thicket of tangled brambles, like dry straw, they will be burnt up completely. To Assyria
Nah 1:11 From you has emerged someone plotting evil against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), one of Belial's counsellors. To Judah
Nah 1:12 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: Unopposed and many though they be, they will be cut down and pass away. Though I have made you suffer, I shall make you suffer no more,
Nah 1:13 for now I shall break his yoke which presses hard on you and snap your chains. To the king of Nineveh
Nah 1:14 As for you, this is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s decree: You will have no heirs to your name, from the temple of your gods I shall remove carved image and cast image, and I shall devastate your tomb, for you are accursed!
Nah 2:1 To Judah See on the mountains the feet of the herald! 'Peace!' he proclaims. Judah, celebrate your feasts, carry out your vows, for Belial will never pass through you again; he has been utterly destroyed.
Nah 2:2 The destroyer has advanced on you, guarding the siege-works, watching the road, bracing himself, mustering great strength!
Nah 2:3 (For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has restored the vine of Jacob, yes, the vine of Israel, although the plunderers had plundered them, although they had snapped off their vine-shoots!)
Nah 2:4 The shields of his fighting men show red, his warriors are dressed in scarlet; the metal of the chariots sparkles as he prepares for battle; the horsemen are impatient for action;
Nah 2:5 the chariots storm through the streets, jostling one another in the squares; they look like blazing flames, like lightning they dash to and fro.
Nah 2:6 His captains are called out; stumbling as they go, they speed towards the wall, and the mantelet is put in position.
Nah 2:7 The sluices of the River are opened, and the palace melts in terror.
Nah 2:8 Beauty is taken captive, carried away, her slave-girls moaning like doves
Nah 2:9 and beating their breasts. Nineveh is like a lake, whose waters are draining away. 'Stop! Stop!' But no one turns back.
Nah 2:10 'Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold!' There is no end to the treasure, a mass of everything you could desire!
Nah 2:11 Ravaged, wrecked, ruined! Heart fails and knees give way, anguish is in the loins of all, and every face grows pale!
Nah 2:12 Where is the lions' den now, the cave of the lion's whelps, where the lion and lioness walked with their cubs and no one molested them,
Nah 2:13 where the lion would tear up food for his whelps and strangle the kill for his mates, where he filled his caverns with prey and his lairs with spoil?
Nah 2:14 Look, I am against you!- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth- I shall send your chariots up in smoke, and the sword will devour your whelps; I shall cut short your depredations on earth, and the voices of your envoys will be heard no more.
Nah 3:1 Disaster to the city of blood, packed throughout with lies, stuffed with booty, where plundering has no end!
Nah 3:2 The crack of the whip! The rumble of wheels! Galloping horse, jolting chariot,
Nah 3:3 charging cavalry, flashing swords, gleaming spears, a mass of wounded, hosts of dead, countless corpses; they stumble over corpses-
Nah 3:4 because of the countless whorings of the harlot, the graceful beauty, the cunning witch, who enslaved nations by her harlotries and tribes by her spells.
Nah 3:5 Look, I am against you!- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth- I shall lift your skirts as high as your face and show your nakedness to the nations, your shame to the kingdoms.
Nah 3:6 I shall pelt you with filth, I shall shame you and put you in the pillory.
Nah 3:7 Then all who look at you will shrink from you and say, 'Nineveh has been ruined!' Who will mourn for her? Where would I find people to comfort you?
Nah 3:8 Are you better off than No-Amon situated among rivers, her defences the seas, her rampart the waters?
Nah 3:9 In Ethiopia and Egypt lay her strength, and it was boundless; Put and the Libyans served in her army.
Nah 3:10 But she too went into exile, into captivity; her little ones too were dashed to pieces at every crossroad; lots were drawn for her nobles, all her great men were put in chains.
Nah 3:11 You too will become drunk, you will go into hiding; you too will have to search for a refuge from the enemy.
Nah 3:12 Your fortifications are all fig trees, with early ripening figs: as soon as they are shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater.
Nah 3:13 Look at your people: you are a nation of women! The gates of your country gape open to your enemies; fire has devoured their bars!
Nah 3:14 Draw yourselves water for the siege, strengthen your fortifications! Into the mud with you, puddle the clay, repair the brick-kiln!
Nah 3:15 There the fire will burn you up, the sword will cut you down. Make yourselves as numerous as locusts, make yourselves as numerous as the hoppers,
Nah 3:16 let your commercial agents outnumber the stars of heaven,
Nah 3:17 your garrisons, like locusts, and your marshals, like swarms of hoppers! They settle on the walls when the day is cold. The sun appears, the locusts spread their wings, they fly away,away they fly, no one knows where. Alas,
Nah 3:18 your shepherds are asleep, king of Assyria, your bravest men slumber; your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
Nah 3:19 There is no remedy for your wound, your injury is past healing. All who hear the news of you clap their hands at your downfall. For who has not felt your unrelenting cruelty?
Hab 1:1 The charge that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision.
Hab 1:2 How long, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), am I to cry for help while you will not listen; to cry, 'Violence!' in your ear while you will not save?
Hab 1:3 Why do you make me see wrong-doing, why do you countenance oppression? Plundering and violence confront me, contention and discord flourish.
Hab 1:4 And so the law loses its grip and justice never emerges, since the wicked outwits the upright and so justice comes out perverted.
Hab 1:5 Cast your eyes over the nations, look, and be amazed, astounded. For I am doing something in your own days which you will not believe if you are told of it.
Hab 1:6 For look, I am stirring up the Chaldaeans, that fierce and fiery nation who march miles across country to seize the homes of others.
Hab 1:7 They are dreadful and awesome, a law and authority to themselves.
Hab 1:8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, fiercer than wolves at night; their horsemen gallop on, their horsemen advance from afar, swooping like an eagle anxious to feed.
Hab 1:9 They are all bent on violence, their faces scorching like an east wind; they scoop up prisoners like sand.
Hab 1:10 They scoff at kings, they despise princes. They make light of all fortresses: they heap up earth and take them.
Hab 1:11 Then the wind changes and is gone . . . Guilty is he who makes his strength his god.
Hab 1:12 Surely you, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are from ancient times, my holy God, who never dies! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), you have appointed him to execute judgement; O Rock, you have set him firm to punish.
Hab 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to rest on evil, you cannot look on at oppression. Why do you look on at those who play the traitor, why say nothing while the wicked swallows someone more upright than himself?
Hab 1:14 Why treat people like fish of the sea, like gliding creatures who have no leader?
Hab 1:15 They haul them all up on their hook, they catch them in their net, they sweep them up in their dragnet and then make merry and rejoice.
Hab 1:16 And so they offer a sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to their dragnet, for by these they get a rich living and live off the fat of the land.
Hab 1:17 Are they to go on emptying their net unceasingly, slaughtering the nations without pity?
Hab 2:1 I shall stand at my post, I shall station myself on my watch-tower, watching to see what he will say to me, what answer he will make to my complaints.
Hab 2:2 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) answered me and said, 'Write the vision down, inscribe it on tablets to be easily read.
Hab 2:3 For the vision is for its appointed time, it hastens towards its end and it will not lie; although it may take some time, wait for it, for come it certainly will before too long.
Hab 2:4 'You see, anyone whose heart is not upright will succumb, but the upright will live through faithfulness.'
Hab 2:5 Now, surely, wealth is treacherous! He is arrogant, for ever on the move, with appetite as large as Sheol and as insatiable as Death, gathering in all the nations, and making a harvest of all peoples.
Hab 2:6 Are not the peoples all bound to satirise and make up cryptic riddles about him? As for instance: Disaster to anyone who amasses goods not his (for how long?) and to anyone who weighs himself down with goods taken in pledge!
Hab 2:7 Will not your creditors suddenly stand up, will not those who make you shiver wake up, and you will fall a prey to them?
Hab 2:8 Since you have plundered many nations, all the nations that remain will plunder you, because of the bloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to all who live in it.
Hab 2:9 Disaster to anyone who amasses ill-gotten gains for his house, so as to fix his nest on high and so evade the reach of misfortune!
Hab 2:10 You have conspired to bring shame on your house: by overthrowing many peoples you have worked your own ruin.
Hab 2:11 For the very stone will protest from the wall, and the beam will respond from the framework.
Hab 2:12 Disaster to anyone who builds a town with bloodshed and founds a city on wrong-doing!
Hab 2:13 Is it not thanks to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth that the peoples' toil is fuel for the fire, and the nations' labour came to nothing?
Hab 2:14 But the earth will be full of the knowledge of the glory of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as the waters cover the depths of the sea.
Hab 2:15 Disaster to anyone who makes his neighbors drink, pouring out his poison until they are drunk, so that he can see them naked!
Hab 2:16 You are full of shame, not glory! Your turn now to drink and show your foreskin. The cup in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s right hand comes round to you, and disgrace will overshadow your glory.
Hab 2:17 For the violence done to the Lebanon will overwhelm you and the massacre of animals will terrify you, because of the bloodshed and violence done to the country, to the city and to all who live in it. Disaster to anyone who says to the log, 'Wake up!', to the dumb stone, 'On your feet!' (This is the prophecy!) Look, he is encased in gold and silver, -but not a breath of life inside it!
Hab 2:18 What use is a sculpted image that a sculptor should make it? - a metal image, a lying instructor! And why does the image-maker put his trust in it, that he should make dumb idols?
Hab 2:19
Hab 2:20 But Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is in his holy Temple: let the whole earth be silent before him.
Hab 3:1 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk; tone as for dirges.
Hab 3:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I have heard of your renown; your work, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), inspires me with dread. Make it live again in our time, make it known in our time; in wrath remember mercy.
Hab 3:3 Eloah comes from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Pause His majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth.
Hab 3:4 His brightness is like the day, rays flash from his hands, that is where his power lies hidden.
Hab 3:5 Pestilence goes before him and Plague follows close behind.
Hab 3:6 When he stands up, he makes the earth tremble, with his glance he makes the nations quake. And the eternal mountains are dislodged, the everlasting hills sink down, his pathway from of old.
Hab 3:7 I saw the tents of Cushan in trouble, the tent-curtains of Midian shuddering.
Hab 3:8 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), are you enraged with the rivers, are you angry with the sea, that you should mount your chargers, your rescuing chariots?
Hab 3:9 You uncover your bow, and give the string its fill of arrows. PauseYou drench the soil with torrents;
Hab 3:10 the mountains see you and tremble, great floods sweep by, the abyss roars aloud, lifting high its waves.
Hab 3:11 Sun and moon stay inside their dwellings, they flee at the light of your arrows, at the flash of your lightning-spear.
Hab 3:12 In rage you stride across the land, in anger you trample the nations.
Hab 3:13 You marched to save your people, to save your anointed one; you wounded the head of the house of the wicked, laid bare the foundation to the rock. Pause
Hab 3:14 With your shafts you pierced the leader of his warriors who stormed out with shouts of joy to scatter us, as if they meant to devour some poor wretch in their lair.
Hab 3:15 With your horses you trampled through the sea, through the surging abyss!
Hab 3:16 When I heard, I trembled to the core, my lips quivered at the sound; my bones became disjointed and my legs gave way beneath me. Calmly I await the day of anguish which is dawning on the people now attacking us.
Hab 3:17 (For the fig tree is not to blossom, nor will the vines bear fruit, the olive crop will disappoint and the fields will yield no food; the sheep will vanish from the fold; no cattle in the stalls.)
Hab 3:18 But I shall rejoice in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), I shall exult in God my Savior.
Hab 3:19 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my Lord is my strength, he will make my feet as light as a doe's, and set my steps on the heights. For the choirmaster; on stringed instruments.
Zep 1:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) which was addressed to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah.
Zep 1:2 I shall sweep away everything off the face of the earth, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Zep 1:3 I shall sweep away humans and animals, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, I shall topple the wicked and wipe all people off the face of the earth -declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Zep 1:4 I shall raise my hand against Judah and against all who live in Jerusalem, and from this place I will wipe out Baal's remnant, the very name of his priests,
Zep 1:5 and those who prostrate themselves on the roofs before the array of heaven, and those who prostrate themselves before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) but swear by Milcom,
Zep 1:6 and those who have turned their back on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who do not seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and do not consult him.
Zep 1:7 Silence before Lord Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near! Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has prepared a sacrifice, he has consecrated his guests.
Zep 1:8 On the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sacrifice, I shall punish the courtiers, the royal princes and all who dress in outlandish clothes.
Zep 1:9 On that day I shall punish all who go up the Step and fill the Temple of their lords, with violence and deceit.
Zep 1:10 On that Day -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- uproar will be heard from the Fish Gate, wailing from the New Quarter and a great crash from the hills.
Zep 1:11 Wail, you who live in the Hollow, for it is all over with the merchants, all the money-bags have been wiped out!
Zep 1:12 When that time comes I shall search Jerusalem by lamplight and punish the men stagnating over the remains of their wine, who say in their hearts, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) can do nothing, either good or bad.'
Zep 1:13 For this, their wealth will be looted and their houses laid in ruins; they will build houses but not live in them, they will plant vineyards but not drink their wine.
Zep 1:14 The great Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is near, near, and coming with great speed. How bitter the sound of the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), the Day when the warrior shouts his cry of war.
Zep 1:15 That Day is a day of retribution, a day of distress and tribulation, a day of ruin and of devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and thick fog,
Zep 1:16 a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against fortified town and high corner-tower.
Zep 1:17 I shall bring such distress on humanity that they will grope their way like the blind for having sinned against Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Their blood will be poured out like mud, yes, their corpses like dung;
Zep 1:18 nor will their silver or gold be able to save them. On the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger, by the fire of his jealousy, the whole earth will be consumed. For he will destroy, yes, annihilate everyone living on earth.
Zep 2:1 Gather together, gather together, nations without shame,
Zep 2:2 before you are dispersed like chaff which disappears in a day; before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s burning anger overtakes you (before the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger overtakes you).
Zep 2:3 Seek Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), all you humble of the earth, who obey his commands. Seek uprightness, seek humility: you may perhaps find shelter on the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s anger.
Zep 2:4 For Gaza will be abandoned and Ashkelon reduced to ruins; Ashdod will be driven out in broad daylight and Ekron uprooted.
Zep 2:5 Disaster to the members of the coastal league, to the nation of the Cherethites! This is the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) against you: I shall subdue you, land of the Philistines, I shall destroy you till there are no inhabitants left;
Zep 2:6 and the coastal league will be reduced to pasture land, to grazing grounds for shepherds and folds for sheep;
Zep 2:7 and the league will belong to the remnant of the House of Judah; they will pasture their flocks there, at night they will rest in the houses of Ashkelon; for, when Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God has punished them, he will restore their fortunes.
Zep 2:8 I have heard the taunt of Moab and the insults of the Ammonites, as they taunted my people and boasted of their own domains.
Zep 2:9 For this, as I live -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, God of Israel -- Moab will become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Gomorrah: a realm of nettles, a heap of salt, a desolation for ever. What is left of my people will plunder them, the survivors of my nation will take their heritage.
Zep 2:10 This will be the price of their pride for having taunted and boasted over the people of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Zep 2:11 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be fearsome to them, for he will scatter all the gods of the earth, and they will bow down to him, each from his own place -- all the islands of the nations.
Zep 2:12 You Ethiopians too will be run through by my sword.
Zep 2:13 He will raise his hand against the north and bring Assyria down in ruins; he will make Nineveh a waste, as dry as a desert.
Zep 2:14 Flocks will rest inside there, so will wild animals; pelican and porcupine will nest round her cornices at night; the owl will hoot at the window and the raven croak on the doorstep -- for the cedar has been torn down.
Zep 2:15 This is what the city will be like, once living happy and carefree and thinking to itself, 'I have no rival -- not I!' And what will it be now? A ruin, a lair for wild beasts to rest in, and everyone who passes by will whistle and throw up his hands.
Zep 3:1 Disaster to the rebellious, the befouled, the tyrannical city!
Zep 3:2 She has not listened to the call, she has not bowed to correction, she has not trusted in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), she has not drawn near to her God.
Zep 3:3 The rulers she has are roaring lions, her judges are wolves of the wastelands which leave nothing over for the morning,
Zep 3:4 her prophets are braggarts, impostors, her priests have profaned what is holy and violated the Law.
Zep 3:5 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) the Upright is in her, he does no wrong; morning by morning he gives judgement, each dawn unfailingly (but the wrong-doer knows no shame).
Zep 3:6 I have exterminated the nations, their corner-towers lie in ruins; I have emptied their streets, no one walks through them; their cities have been destroyed and are now deserted and unpeopled.
Zep 3:7 I thought, 'At least you will fear me, at least you will bow to correction,' and none of the punishments I brought on them will disappear from their view. But no, it only made them more anxious to do whatever was corrupt.
Zep 3:8 So wait for me -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- for the day when I rise as accuser, for I am determined to gather the nations, to assemble the kingdoms, and on you to vent my fury, the whole heat of my anger (for the whole earth will be devoured by the fire of my jealousy).
Zep 3:9 Yes, then I shall purge the lips of the peoples, so that all may invoke the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) and serve him shoulder to shoulder.
Zep 3:10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia, my suppliants will bring me tribute.
Zep 3:11 When that Day comes you will never again be ashamed of all the deeds with which you once rebelled against me, for I shall rid you of those who exult in your pride; never again will you strut on my holy mountain.
Zep 3:12 But in you I shall leave surviving a humble and lowly people,
Zep 3:13 and those who are left in Israel will take refuge in the name of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). They will do no wrong, will tell no lies; nor will a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths. But they will be able to graze and rest with no one to alarm them.
Zep 3:14 Shout for joy, daughter of Zion, Israel, shout aloud! Rejoice, exult with all your heart, daughter of Jerusalem!
Zep 3:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has repealed your sentence; he has turned your enemy away. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is king among you, Israel, you have nothing more to fear.
Zep 3:16 When that Day comes, the message for Jerusalem will be: Zion, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp.
Zep 3:17 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God is there with you, the warrior-Savior. He will rejoice over you with happy song, he will renew you by his love, he will dance with shouts of joy for you,
Zep 3:18 as on a day of festival. I have taken away your misfortune, no longer need you bear the disgrace of it.
Zep 3:19 I am taking action here and now against your oppressors. When that time comes I will rescue the lame, and gather the strays, and I will win them praise and renown when I restore their fortunes.
Zep 3:20 At that time I shall be your guide, at the time when I gather you in, I shall give you praise and renown among all the peoples of the earth when I restore your fortunes under your own eyes, declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Hag 1:1 In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah and to Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest as follows,
Hag 1:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "This people says: The time has not yet come to rebuild the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)." '
Hag 1:3 (And the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows,)
Hag 1:4 'Is this a time for you to live in your panelled houses, when this House lies in ruins?
Hag 1:5 So now, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "Think carefully about your behaviour.
Hag 1:6 You have sown much and harvested little; you eat but never have enough, drink but never have your fill, put on clothes but feel no warmth. The wage-earner gets his wages only to put them in a bag with a hole in it."
Hag 1:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "Think carefully about your behaviour.
Hag 1:8 Go up into the hills, fetch timber and rebuild the House; and I shall take pleasure in it and manifest my glory there -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says.
Hag 1:9 The abundance you expected proved to be little. When you brought the harvest in, I blasted it. And why? - Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares. Because while my House lies in ruins, each of you is busy with his own house.
Hag 1:10 That is why the sky has withheld the rain and the earth withheld its yield.
Hag 1:11 I have called down drought on land and hills, on grain, on new wine, on olive oil and on all the produce of the ground, on humans and animals and all your labours." '
Hag 1:12 Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and the entire remnant of the people, paid attention to the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God and to the words of the prophet Haggai, which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God had sent him to deliver. And the people were filled with fear before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Hag 1:13 Haggai, the messenger of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), then passed on Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s message to the people, 'I am with you -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).'
Hag 1:14 And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) roused the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah, the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and the spirit of the entire remnant of the people; they came and set to work in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, their God.
Hag 1:15 This was on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month. In the second year of King Darius,
Hag 2:1 on the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed through the prophet Haggai, as follows,
Hag 2:2 'You are to speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak the high priest and to the remnant of the people. Say this,
Hag 2:3 "Is there anyone left among you who saw this Temple in its former glory? And how does it look to you now? Does it not seem as though there is nothing there?
Hag 2:4 But take courage now, Zerubbabel!-Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. Courage, Joshua son of Jehozadak high priest! Courage, all you people of the country!-Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares. To work! I am with you -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares-
Hag 2:5 and my spirit is present among you. Do not be afraid!
Hag 2:6 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: A little while now, and I shall shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.
Hag 2:7 I shall shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will flow in, and I shall fill this Temple with glory, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Hag 2:8 Mine is the silver, mine the gold!-Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares.
Hag 2:9 The glory of this new Temple will surpass that of the old, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, and in this place I shall give peace -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares." '
Hag 2:10 On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to the prophet Haggai as follows,
Hag 2:11 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "Ask the priests to give a ruling on this:
Hag 2:12 If someone is carrying consecrated meat in the fold of his gown and allows the fold to touch bread, broth, wine, oil or food of any kind, will that become holy?" ' The priests replied, 'No.'
Hag 2:13 Haggai then said, 'If anyone rendered unclean by contact with a corpse touches any of these things, will that become unclean?' The priests replied, 'It will become unclean.'
Hag 2:14 Haggai then spoke out. 'It is the same with this people,' he said, 'the same with this nation, in my view -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares -- the same with everything they turn their hands to; and whatever they offer here is unclean.
Hag 2:15 'So now think carefully, today and henceforth: before one stone had been laid on another in the sanctuary of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH),
Hag 2:16 what state were you in? You would come to a twenty-measure heap and find only ten; you would come to a vat to draw fifty measures and find only twenty.
Hag 2:17 Everything you turned your hands to, I struck with wind-blast, mildew and hail, and still you would not return to me -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Hag 2:18 So think carefully, today and henceforth (from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the sanctuary of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was laid, think carefully)
Hag 2:19 if seed-corn is still short in the barn, and if vine and fig tree, pomegranate and olive tree still bear no fruit. 'From today onwards I intend to bless you.'
Hag 2:20 On the twenty-fourth day of the month the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed a second time to Haggai, as follows,
Hag 2:21 'Speak to Zerubbabel governor of Judah. Say this, "I am going to shake the heavens and the earth.
Hag 2:22 I shall overturn the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kings of the nations. I shall overthrow the chariots and their crews; horses and their riders will fall, every one to the sword of his comrade.
Hag 2:23 When that day comes -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares -- I shall take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel my servant -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares -- and make you like a signet ring. For I have chosen you -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares." '
Zec 1:1 In the second year of Darius, in the eighth month, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to the prophet Zechariah (son of Berechiah), son of Iddo, as follows,
Zec 1:2 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was deeply angry with your ancestors.
Zec 1:3 So say this to them, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Return to me -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares -- and I will return to you, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Zec 1:4 Do not be like your ancestors when the prophets in the past cried to them: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Turn back from your evil ways and evil deeds -- they would not listen or pay attention to me -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Zec 1:5 Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live for ever?
Zec 1:6 But did not my words and statutes, with which I had charged my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors just the same?" ' So they repented and said, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has treated us as he resolved to do, and as our ways and deeds deserved.'
Zec 1:7 On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month (the month of Shebat), in the second year of Darius, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to the prophet Zechariah (son of Berechiah), son of Iddo, as follows,
Zec 1:8 'I had a vision during the night. There was a man riding a red horse standing among the deep-rooted myrtles; behind him were other horses-red, chestnut and white.
Zec 1:9 I said, "What are these, my lord?" And the angel who was talking to me said, "I will show you what they are."
Zec 1:10 The man standing among the myrtles then replied, "Those are they whom Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) has sent to patrol the world."
Zec 1:11 They reported to the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as he stood among the myrtles, "We have been patrolling the world, and indeed the whole world is still and at peace."
Zec 1:12 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then spoke and said, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, how long will you wait before taking pity on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, on which you have inflicted your anger for the past seventy years?"
Zec 1:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then replied with kind and comforting words to the angel who was talking to me.
Zec 1:14 The angel who was talking to me then said to me, "Make this proclamation: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: I am burning with jealousy for Jerusalem and Zion
Zec 1:15 but am deeply angry with the nations now at ease; before, I was only mildly angry, but they contributed to the disaster.
Zec 1:16 So now Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: In compassion I have returned to Jerusalem; my Temple will be rebuilt there -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares -- and the measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem.
Zec 1:17 Make this proclamation too: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: My cities are once more to be very prosperous. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will comfort Zion once again, and again make Jerusalem his choice." '
Zec 2:1 Then, raising my eyes, I had a vision. It was this: There were four horns.
Zec 2:2 I said to the angel who was talking to me, 'What are these?' He said to me, 'These are the horns which scattered Judah (Israel) and Jerusalem.'
Zec 2:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then showed me four smiths.
Zec 2:4 And I said, 'What are these coming to do?' He said to me, '(Those horns scattered Judah so completely that no one dared to raise his head; but) these have come to terrify them, to throw down the horns of the nations who raised their horns over the land of Judah to scatter it.'
Zec 2:5 Then, raising my eyes, I had a vision. There was a man with a measuring line in his hand.
Zec 2:6 I asked him, 'Where are you going?' He said, 'To measure Jerusalem, to calculate her width and length.'
Zec 2:7 And then, while the angel who was talking to me walked away, another angel came out to meet him.
Zec 2:8 He said to him, 'Run, and tell that young man this, "Jerusalem is to remain unwalled, because of the great number of men and cattle inside.
Zec 2:9 For I -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares -- shall be a wall of fire all round her and I shall be the Glory within her." '
Zec 2:10 Look out! Look out! Flee from the land of the north -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares- for I have scattered you to the four winds of heaven -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Zec 2:11 Look out! Make your escape, Zion, now living with the daughter of Babylon!
Zec 2:12 For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, since the Glory commissioned me, about the nations who plundered you, 'Whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye.
Zec 2:13 Now look, I shall wave my hand over them and they will be plundered by those whom they have enslaved.' Then you will know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has sent me!
Zec 2:14 Sing, rejoice, daughter of Zion, for now I am coming to live among you -Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares!
Zec 2:15 And on that day many nations will be converted to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). Yes, they will become his people, and they will live among you. Then you will know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has sent me to you!
Zec 2:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will take possession of Judah, his portion in the Holy Land, and again make Jerusalem his choice.
Zec 2:17 Let all people be silent before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), now that he is stirring from his holy Dwelling!
Zec 3:1 He then showed me the high priest Joshua, standing before the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), with Satan standing on his right to accuse him.
Zec 3:2 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to Satan, 'May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rebuke you, Satan! May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) rebuke you, since he has made Jerusalem his choice. Is not this man a brand snatched from the fire?'
Zec 3:3 Now Joshua was dressed in dirty clothes as he stood before the angel.
Zec 3:4 The latter then spoke as follows to those who were standing before him, 'Take off his dirty clothesand dress him in splendid robes
Zec 3:5 and put a clean turban on his head.' So they put a clean turban on his head and dressed him in clean clothes, while the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) stood byand said, 'You see, I have taken your guilt away.'
Zec 3:6 The angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) then made this declaration to Joshua,
Zec 3:7 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "If you walk in my ways and keep my ordinances, you shall govern my house, you shall watch over my courts, and I will give you free access among those in attendance here.
Zec 3:8 'So listen, High Priest Joshua, you and the colleagues over whom you preside -- for they are an omen of things to come -- for now I shall bring in my servant the Branch, and I shall remove this country's guilt in a single day.
Zec 3:9 For this is the stone which I have put before Joshua, a stone on which are seven eyes; and I myself shall cut the inscription on it -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares."
Zec 3:10 On that day -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares -- invite each other to come under your vine and your fig tree." '
Zec 4:1 The angel who was talking to me came back and roused me as though rousing someone who was asleep.
Zec 4:2 And he asked me, 'What do you see?' I replied, 'As I look, there is a lamp-stand entirely of gold with a bowl at the top of it; it holds seven lamps, with seven openings for the lamps on it.
Zec 4:3 By it are two olive trees, one to the right and the other to the left.'
Zec 4:4 I then said to the angel who was talking to me, 'What are those things, my lord?'
Zec 4:5 The angel who was talking to me replied, 'Do you not know what they are?' I said, 'No, my lord.'
Zec 4:6 He then gave me this answer,'These seven are the eyes of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), which range over the whole world.'
Zec 4:7 'What are you, great mountain? Beside Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! He will bring out the keystone while it is cheered with Hurrah! Hurrah!'
Zec 4:8 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Zec 4:9 'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this Temple; his hands will finish it. (Then you will know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has sent me to you.)
Zec 4:10 A day of little things, no doubt, but who would dare despise it? How they will rejoice when they see the chosen stone in the hands of Zerubbabel!'
Zec 4:11 Then I went on to ask him, 'What is the meaning of these two olive trees, to right and left of the lamp-stand?'
Zec 4:12 (And I went on to ask him further, 'What is the meaning of the two olive branches discharging oil through the two golden openings?')
Zec 4:13 He replied, 'Do you not know what they are?' I said, 'No, my lord.'
Zec 4:14 He said, 'These are the two anointed ones in attendance on the Lord of the whole world. This is the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with regard to Zerubbabel, 'Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit' -- says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Zec 5:1 Again raising my eyes, I had a vision. There was a flying scroll.
Zec 5:2 The angel who was talking to me said, 'What do you see?' I replied, 'I see a flying scroll; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.'
Zec 5:3 He then said to me, 'This is God's curse sweeping across the face of the whole country; for, according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished and, according to what it says on the other, everyone who commits perjury in my name will be banished from it.
Zec 5:4 I am going to release it -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth declares -- for it to enter the house of the thief and of anyone who commits perjury in my name, for it to settle deep within his house and consume it, timber, stone and all.'
Zec 5:5 The angel who was talking to me appeared and said to me, 'Raise your eyes, and see what this is, going along.'
Zec 5:6 I said, 'What is it?' He said, 'It is a bushel measure going along.' He went on, 'This is their guilt throughout the country.'
Zec 5:7 At this, a disc of lead was raised, and I saw a woman sitting inside the barrel.
Zec 5:8 He said, 'This is Wickedness.' And he rammed her back into the barrel and jammed its mouth shut with the mass of lead.
Zec 5:9 I raised my eyes, and there were two women appearing. The wind caught their wings -- they had wings like a stork's; they raised the barrel midway between earth and heaven.
Zec 5:10 I then said to the angel who was talking to me, 'Where are they taking the barrel?'
Zec 5:11 He replied, 'To build a temple for it in the land of Shinar and make a pedestal on which to put it.'
Zec 6:1 Again I raised my eyes, and this is what I saw: four chariots coming out between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze.
Zec 6:2 The first chariot had red horses, the second chariot had black horses,
Zec 6:3 the third chariot had white horses and the fourth chariot had vigorous, piebald horses.
Zec 6:4 I asked the angel who was talking to me, 'What are these, my lord?'
Zec 6:5 The angel replied, 'They are the four winds of heaven now leaving, after attending the Lord of the whole world.
Zec 6:6 The black horses are leaving for the land of the north; the white are following them, and the piebald are leaving for the land of the south.'
Zec 6:7 They came out vigorously, eager to patrol the world. He said to them, 'Go and patrol the world.' And they patrolled the world.
Zec 6:8 He called to me and said, 'Look, the ones going to the land of the north brought my spirit to rest on the land of the north.'
Zec 6:9 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to me as follows,
Zec 6:10 'Collect silver and gold from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah and Jedaiah, then (you yourself go the same day) go to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah, who has arrived from Babylon.
Zec 6:11 Then, taking the silver and gold, make a crown and place it on the head of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak.
Zec 6:12 And say this to him, "Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Here is a man whose name is Branch; where he is, there will be a branching out (and he will rebuild Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary).
Zec 6:13 Yes, he is the one who will rebuild Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary; he will wear the royal insignia and sit on his throne and govern, with a priest on his right. Perfect peace will reign between these two.
Zec 6:14 And the crown will serve Heldai, Tobijah, Jedaiah and the son of Zephaniah as a memorial of favor in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary.
Zec 6:15 And those now far away will come and work on the building of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s sanctuary." 'Then you will know that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth has sent me to you. It will happen if you diligently obey the voice of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) your God.'
Zec 7:1 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev.
Zec 7:2 Bethel sent Sharezer with a deputation to entreat Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s favor
Zec 7:3 and to ask the priests in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth and the prophets, 'Ought I to go on mourning and fasting in the fifth month as I have been doing for so many years past?'
Zec 7:4 Then the word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth was addressed to me as follows,
Zec 7:5 'Say to all the people of the country and to the priests, "While you have been fasting and mourning in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, have you really been fasting for my sake?
Zec 7:6 And when you were eating and drinking, were you not eating and drinking for your own sake?
Zec 7:7 Do you not know the words which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) proclaimed through the prophets in the past, when Jerusalem was inhabited and secure, as were her surrounding towns, and when the Negeb and the lowlands were inhabited?" ' (
Zec 7:8 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) was addressed to Zechariah as follows,
Zec 7:9 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this.) He said, "Apply the law fairly, and show faithful love and compassion towards one another.
Zec 7:10 Do not oppress the widow and the orphan, the foreigner and the poor, and do not secretly plan evil against one another."
Zec 7:11 But they would not listen; they turned a rebellious shoulder; they stopped their ears rather than hear;
Zec 7:12 they made their hearts adamant rather than listen to the teaching and the words that Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth had sent -- by his spirit -- through the prophets in the past; and consequently the fury of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth overtook them.
Zec 7:13 And so, since when he called they would not listen, "I would not listen when they called", says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth,
Zec 7:14 "but scattered them among all the nations unknown to them. Hence, after they had gone, the country was deserted, and no one came or went. They had turned a land of delights into a desert." '
Zec 8:1 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth came as follows:
Zec 8:2 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: I have been burning with jealousy for Zion, with furious jealousy for her sake.
Zec 8:3 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) says this: I am coming back to Zion and shall live in the heart of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called Faithful City and the mountain of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, the Holy Mountain.
Zec 8:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Aged men and women once again will sit in the squares of Jerusalem, each with a stick to lean on because of their great age.
Zec 8:5 And the squares of the city will be full of boys and girls playing there.
Zec 8:6 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: If this seems a miracle to the remnant of this people (in those days), will it seem one to me? declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Zec 8:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this: Look, I shall rescue my people from the countries of the east and from the countries of the west.
Zec 8:8 I shall bring them back to live in the heart of Jerusalem, and they will be my people and I shall be their God, faithful and just.
Zec 8:9 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "Take heart, you who today hear these promises uttered by the prophets since the day when the foundations of the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth were laid, that the sanctuary would indeed be rebuilt.
Zec 8:10 For up to now, men were not paid their wages and nothing was paid for the animals either; and it has not been safe for anyone to come and go, because of the enemy, since I had set each one against everyone else.
Zec 8:11 But from now on, I shall not treat the remnant of this people as I have treated them in time past -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Zec 8:12 Now they will sow in peace; the vine will give its fruit, the soil will give its produce and heaven will give its dew. I shall bestow all these on the remnant of this people.
Zec 8:13 Just as once you were a curse among the nations, House of Judah and House of Israel, so now I shall save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid. Take heart!"
Zec 8:14 'For Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "Just as I resolved to ill-treat you when your ancestors provoked me to anger and did not relent -- says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth-
Zec 8:15 so now I have changed my mind and intend to treat Jerusalem and the House of Judah well. Do not be afraid!
Zec 8:16 "These are the things that you must do. Speak the truth to one another; at your gates, administer fair judgement conducive to peace;
Zec 8:17 do not secretly plot evil against one another; do not love perjury; since I hate all this -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares." '
Zec 8:18 The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth was addressed to me as follows:
Zec 8:19 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "The fast of the fourth month, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth are to become glad, joyful, happy festivals for the House of Judah. So love truth and peace!" '
Zec 8:20 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "In the future, peoples and citizens of many cities will come;
Zec 8:21 and citizens of one city will go to the next and say: We must certainly go to entreat Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s favor and seek out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth; I am going myself.
Zec 8:22 Yes, many peoples and great nations will seek out Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth in Jerusalem and entreat Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s favor."
Zec 8:23 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "In those days, ten men from nations of every language will take a Jew by the sleeve and say: We want to go with you, since we have learnt that God is with you." '
Zec 9:1 A proclamation. The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is against Hadrach, it has come to rest on Damascus, for the source of Aram belongs to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) no less than all the tribes of Israel;
Zec 9:2 on Hamath too, which borders on it, and on (Tyre and) Sidon, despite her acumen.
Zec 9:3 Tyre has built herself a fortress, has heaped up silver like dust and gold like the dirt of the streets.
Zec 9:4 And now the Lord is going to dispossess her; at sea he will break her power, and she herself will go up in flames.
Zec 9:5 Seeing this, Ashkelon will be terrified, Gaza too, and writhe with grief, Ekron too, at the ruin of her prospects; the king will vanish from Gaza and Ashkelon be unpeopled,
Zec 9:6 while a half-breed will live in Ashdod! Yes, I shall destroy the pride of the Philistine;
Zec 9:7 I shall snatch his blood from his mouth, his abominations from between his teeth. But his remnant too will belong to our God, becoming like a clan in Judah, and Ekron will become like a Jebusite.
Zec 9:8 I shall stand guard before my home to defend it against all comers, and no oppressor will overrun them ever again, for now I am on the alert.
Zec 9:9 Rejoice heart and soul, daughter of Zion! Shout for joy, daughter of Jerusalem! Look, your king is approaching, he is vindicated and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zec 9:10 He will banish chariots from Ephraim and horses from Jerusalem; the bow of war will be banished. He will proclaim peace to the nations, his empire will stretch from sea to sea, from the River to the limits of the earth.
Zec 9:11 As for you, because of the blood of your covenant I have released your prisoners from the pit in which there is no water.
Zec 9:12 Come back to the fortress, you prisoners waiting in hope. This very day, I vow, I shall make it up to you twice over.
Zec 9:13 For I have strung Judah as a bow for myself, laid Ephraim on the string as an arrow, have roused your sons, Zion, against your sons, Javan, and have made you like a warrior's sword.
Zec 9:14 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will appear above them and his arrow will flash out like lightning. (The Lord) Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will sound the trumpet and advance in the storm-winds of the south.
Zec 9:15 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth will protect them! They will devour, will trample on the sling-stones, they will drink blood like wine, awash like bowls, like the corners of the altar.
Zec 9:16 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God will give them victory when that day comes, like the sheep who are his people; yes, the stones of a diadem will sparkle over his country.
Zec 9:17 How fine, how splendid that will be, with wheat to make the young men flourish, and new wine the maidens!
Zec 10:1 Ask Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) for rain in autumn and at the time of the spring rains. Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is the one to make the storm-clouds. He will give them showers of rain; to each, grass in his field.
Zec 10:2 Since the domestic idols have talked nonsense, and the diviners have seen false signs, and dreams have purveyed delusions, affording empty comfort, that is why they have strayed like sheep, in distress for want of a shepherd.
Zec 10:3 My anger has been roused by the shepherds, and I shall vent it on the he-goats. When Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth comes to visit his flock, the House of Judah, he will make it his royal war-horse.
Zec 10:4 From it will emerge Cornerstone and Tent-peg, from it, Bow-ready-for-Battle, from it, every type of leader. Together
Zec 10:5 they will be like warriors trampling the dirt of the streets in battle; when they fight, because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is with them, they will put mounted men to rout.
Zec 10:6 Then I shall make the House of Judah mighty and the House of Joseph victorious. I shall restore them, because I have taken pity on them, and they will be as though I had never cast them off, for I am Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) their God and shall answer their prayer.
Zec 10:7 Ephraim will be like a warrior. Their hearts will be cheered as though by wine. Their children will see this and rejoice, their hearts will exult in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Zec 10:8 I shall whistle to them and gather them in, for I have redeemed them; they will be as numerous as they used to be.
Zec 10:9 I shall scatter them among the peoples but in distant countries they will remember me, they will instruct their children and then return.
Zec 10:10 I shall bring them home from Egypt and gather them back from Assyria; I shall lead them into Gilead and the Lebanon, and even that will not be large enough for them.
Zec 10:11 They will cross the sea of Egypt (and the waves of the sea will be struck); all the depths of the River will be dried up. The arrogance of Assyria will be cast down and the scepter of Egypt taken away.
Zec 10:12 I shall make them mighty in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), and they will march in my name -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares.
Zec 11:1 Open your gateways, Lebanon, and the fire shall burn down your cedar trees!
Zec 11:2 Wail, juniper, for the cedar tree has fallen, the majestic ones have been ravaged! Wail, oaks of Bashan, for the impenetrable forest has been felled!
Zec 11:3 The sound of the wailing of shepherds! Their majesty has been ravaged. The sound of the roaring of young lions! The pride of the Jordan has been ravaged.
Zec 11:4 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God says this, 'Pasture the sheep for slaughter,
Zec 11:5 whose buyers kill them and go unpunished, whose sellers say of them, "Blessed be Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); now I am rich!" and whose own shepherds show them no pity.
Zec 11:6 For I shall show no further pity for the inhabitants of the country -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares! Instead, I shall put everyone into the clutches of a neighbor, into the clutches of the king. They will crush the country and I shall not rescue anyone from their clutches.'
Zec 11:7 Then I pastured for slaughter the sheep belonging to the sheep-dealers. I took two staves: the one I called 'Goodwill', the other 'Couplers'; and I pastured the sheep myself,
Zec 11:8 getting rid of three shepherds in one month. But I lost patience with them, and they equally detested me.
Zec 11:9 I then said, 'I am not going to pasture you any more; the one doomed to die can die; the one doomed to perish can perish; and the rest can devour one another.'
Zec 11:10 I then took my staff, 'Goodwill', and broke it in half, to break my covenant, which I had made with all the peoples.
Zec 11:11 When it was broken, that day the sheep-dealers, who were watching me, realized that this had been a word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH).
Zec 11:12 I then said to them, 'If you see fit, give me my wages; if not, never mind.' So they weighed out my wages: thirty shekels of silver.
Zec 11:13 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'Throw it to the smelter, this princely sum at which they have valued me!' Taking the thirty shekels of silver, I threw them into the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), for the smelter.
Zec 11:14 I then broke my second staff, 'Couplers,' in half, to rupture the brotherly relationship between Judah and Israel.
Zec 11:15 Next, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) said to me, 'This time, take the gear of a good-for-nothing shepherd.
Zec 11:16 For I am now going to raise a shepherd in this country, who will not bother about the lost, who will not go in search of the stray, who will not heal the injured, who will not support the swollen, but who will eat the meat of the fat ones, tearing off their very hoofs.
Zec 11:17 Disaster to the shepherd who deserts his flock! May the sword attack his arm and his right eye! May his arm shrivel completely and his right eye be totally blinded!'
Zec 12:1 A proclamation. The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) about Israel (and also about Judah). Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), who spread out the heaven and founded the earth and formed the human spirit within, declares:
Zec 12:2 'Look, I shall make Jerusalem a cup to set all the surrounding peoples reeling. (That will be at the time of the siege of Jerusalem.)
Zec 12:3 'When that day comes, I shall make Jerusalem a stone too heavy for all the peoples to lift; all those who try to lift it will hurt themselves severely, although all the nations of the world will be massed against her.
Zec 12:4 When that day comes -- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) -- I shall strike all the horses with panic and their riders with madness. And I shall strike all the peoples with blindness. (But I shall keep watch over Judah.)
Zec 12:5 Then the rulers of Judah will say to themselves, "The strength of the inhabitants of Jerusalem lies in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth their God."
Zec 12:6 When that day comes, I shall make the rulers of Judah like a brazier burning in a pile of wood, like a torch flaming in a sheaf; and they will devour all the peoples round them to right and left. And Jerusalem will be full of people as before, where she stands (in Jerusalem).
Zec 12:7 Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will first save the tents of Judah, so that the glory of the House of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not increase at Judah's expense.
Zec 12:8 When that day comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the frailest of them will be like David when that day comes, and the House of David will be like God, like the angel of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), at their head.
Zec 12:9 'When that day comes, I shall set about destroying all the nations who advance against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:10 But over the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem I shall pour out a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look to me. They will mourn for the one whom they have pierced as though for an only child, and weep for him as people weep for a first-born child.
Zec 12:11 When that day comes, the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad Rimmon in the Plain of Megiddo.
Zec 12:12 And the country will mourn clan by clan: The clan of the House of David by itself, and their women by themselves; the clan of the House of Nathan by itself, and their women by themselves;
Zec 12:13 the clan of the House of Levi by itself, and their women by themselves; the clan of the House of Shimei by itself, and their women by themselves;
Zec 12:14 all the rest of the clans, every clan by itself, and their women by themselves.'
Zec 13:1 'When that day comes, a fountain will be opened for the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to wash sin and impurity away.
Zec 13:2 'When that day comes -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) declares -- I shall cut off the names of the idols from the country, and they will never be remembered again; I shall also rid the country of the prophets, and of the spirit of impurity.
Zec 13:3 Then, if anyone still goes on prophesying, his parents, his own father and mother will say to him, "You shall not live, since you utter lies in Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s name." And even while he is prophesying, his parents, his own father and mother will pierce him through.
Zec 13:4 When that day comes, the prophets will all be ashamed to relate their visions when they prophesy and no longer put on their hair cloaks with intent to deceive.
Zec 13:5 Instead, they will say, "I am no prophet. I am a man who tills the soil, for the land has been my living since I was a boy."
Zec 13:6 And if anyone asks him, "What are those gashes on your chest?" he will reply, "I got them when I was with my friends." '
Zec 13:7 Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is close to me- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth! Strike the shepherd, scatter the sheep! And I shall turn my hand against the young!
Zec 13:8 So it will be, throughout the country- declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth- two-thirds in it will be cut off (be killed) and the other third will be left.
Zec 13:9 I shall pass this third through the fire, refine them as silver is refined, test them as gold is tested. He will call on my name and I shall answer him; I shall say, 'He is my people,' and he will say, 'Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is my God!'
Zec 14:1 Look, the Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is coming, when the spoils taken from you will be shared out among you.
Zec 14:2 For I shall gather all the nations to Jerusalem for battle. The city will be taken, the houses plundered, the women ravished. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be ejected from the city.
Zec 14:3 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will sally out and fight those nations as once he fought on the day of battle.
Zec 14:4 When that day comes, his feet will rest on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives will be split in half from east to west, forming a huge valley; half the Mount will recede northwards, the other half southwards.
Zec 14:5 The valley between the hills will be filled in, yes, it will be blocked as far as Jasol, it will be filled in as it was by the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. And Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.
Zec 14:6 That Day, there will be no light, but only cold and frost.
Zec 14:7 And it will be one continuous day -- Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) knows -- there will be no more day and night, and it will remain light right into the time of evening.
Zec 14:8 When that Day comes, living waters will issue from Jerusalem, half towards the eastern sea, half towards the western sea; they will flow summer and winter.
Zec 14:9 Then Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will become king of the whole world. When that Day comes, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be the one and only and his name the one name.
Zec 14:10 The entire country will be transformed into plain, from Geba to Rimmon in the Negeb, but Jerusalem will stand high in her place and be full of people from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the earlier gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king's wine-presses.
Zec 14:11 People will make their homes there. The curse of destruction will be lifted; Jerusalem will be safe to live in.
Zec 14:12 And this is the plague with which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will strike all the nations who have fought against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets; their tongues will rot in their mouths.
Zec 14:13 When that Day comes, a great terror will fall on them from Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); each man will grab his neighbor's hand and they will fall to fighting among themselves.
Zec 14:14 Even Judah will fight against Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be heaped together: gold, silver, clothing, in vast quantity.
Zec 14:15 And the plague afflicting the horses, mules, camels, donkeys and all the other animals in those armies will be the same.
Zec 14:16 After this, all the survivors of all the nations which have attacked Jerusalem will come up year after year to worship the King, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, and to keep the feast of Shelters.
Zec 14:17 Should one of the races of the world fail to come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, there will be no rain for that one.
Zec 14:18 Should the race of Egypt fail to come up and pay its visit, on it will fall the plague which Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will inflict on each of those nations which fail to come up to keep the feast of Shelters.
Zec 14:19 Such will be the punishment for Egypt and the punishment for all the nations which fail to come up to keep the feast of Shelters.
Zec 14:20 When that Day comes, the very bells on the horses will be inscribed with the words, 'Sacred to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)', and the cooking pots of the house of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) will be as holy as the sprinkling bowls before the altar.
Zec 14:21 Yes, every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be sacred to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, and all who come to offer sacrifice will help themselves and do their cooking in them, and there will be no more traders in the Temple of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, when that Day comes.
Mal 1:1 A message. The word of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) to Israel through Malachi.
Mal 1:2 'I have loved you, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). But you ask, "How have you shown your love?" Was not Esau Jacob's brother? declares Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH); even so, I loved Jacob
Mal 1:3 but I hated Esau. I turned his mountains into a desert and his heritage into dwellings in the wastelands.
Mal 1:4 If Edom says, "We have been struck down but we shall rebuild our ruins," Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth says this, "Let them build, but I shall pull down! They will be known as Land of Wickedness and Nation-with-which-Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)-is-angry-for-ever.
Mal 1:5 You will see this yourselves and you will say: Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is mighty beyond the borders of Israel."
Mal 1:6 'The son honors his father, the slave stands in awe of his master. But if I am indeed father, where is the honor due to me? And if I am indeed master, where is the awe due to me? says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth to you priests who despise my name. You ask, "How have we despised your name?"
Mal 1:7 By putting polluted food on my altar. You ask, "How have we polluted you?" By saying, "The table of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) deserves no respect."
Mal 1:8 When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is this not wrong? When you bring the lame and the diseased, is this not wrong? If you offer them to your governor, see if he is pleased with them or receives you graciously, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 1:9 In that case, try pleading with God to take pity on us (that is what you have done), and will he take any notice? says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 1:10 Why does one of you not close the doors and so stop the pointless lighting of fires on my altar? I am not pleased with you, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth; from your hands I find no offerings acceptable.
Mal 1:11 But from farthest east to farthest west my name is great among the nations, and everywhere incense and a pure gift are offered to my name, since my name is great among the nations, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 1:12 'But you have profaned it by saying, "The table of the Lord is polluted, hence the food offered on it deserves no respect."
Mal 1:13 You say, "How tiresome it all is!" and sniff disdainfully at me, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth. You bring a stolen, lame or diseased animal, you bring that as an offering! Am I to accept this from you? says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 1:14 Cursed be the rogue who has a male in his flock but pays his vow by sacrificing a blemished animal to me! For I am a great king, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, and among the nations my name inspires awe.'
Mal 2:1 'And now, priests, this commandment is for you.
Mal 2:2 If you will not listen, if you will not sincerely resolve to glorify my name, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, I shall certainly lay a curse on you and I shall curse your blessing. Indeed I will lay a curse, for none of you makes this resolve.
Mal 2:3 Now, I am going to break your arm and throw offal in your faces -- the offal of your solemn feasts -- and sweep you away with it.
Mal 2:4 Then you will know that I sent this commandment to you, to affirm my intention to maintain my covenant with Levi, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 2:5 My covenant was with him -- a covenant of life and peace, and these were what I gave him -- a covenant of respect, and he respected me and held my name in awe.
Mal 2:6 The law of truth was in his mouth and guilt was not found on his lips; he walked in peace and justice with me and he converted many from sinning.
Mal 2:7 The priest's lips ought to safeguard knowledge; his mouth is where the law should be sought, since he is Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth's messenger.
Mal 2:8 But you yourselves have turned aside from the way; you have caused many to lapse by your teaching. Since you have destroyed the covenant of Levi, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth,
Mal 2:9 so I in my turn have made you contemptible and vile to the whole people, for not having kept my ways and for being partial in applying the law.
Mal 2:10 'Is there not one Father of us all? Did not one God create us? Why, then, do we break faith with one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
Mal 2:11 Judah has broken faith; a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH)'s beloved sanctuary; he has married the daughter of an alien god.
Mal 2:12 May Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) deprive such an offender of witness and advocate in the tents of Jacob among those who present offerings to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth!
Mal 2:13 'And here is something else you do: you cover the altar of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with tears, with weeping and wailing, because he now refuses to consider the offering or to accept it from you.
Mal 2:14 And you ask, "Why?" Because Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) stands as witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have broken faith, even though she was your partner and your wife by covenant.
Mal 2:15 Did he not create a single being, having flesh and the breath of life? And what does this single being seek? God -- given offspring! Have respect for your own life then, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth.
Mal 2:16 For I hate divorce, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), God of Israel, and people concealing their cruelty under a cloak, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth. Have respect for your own life then, and do not break faith.
Mal 2:17 'You have wearied Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with your talk. You ask, "How have we wearied him?" When you say, "Any evil-doer is good as far as Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) is concerned; indeed he is delighted with them"; or when you say, "Where is the God of fair judgement now?"
Mal 3:1 'Look, I shall send my messenger to clear a way before me. And suddenly the Lord whom you seek will come to his Temple; yes, the angel of the covenant, for whom you long, is on his way, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 3:2 Who will be able to resist the day of his coming? Who will remain standing when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire, like fullers' alkali.
Mal 3:3 He will take his seat as refiner and purifier; he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they can make the offering to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) with uprightness.
Mal 3:4 The offering of Judah and Jerusalem will then be acceptable to Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) as in former days, as in the years of old.
Mal 3:5 I am coming to put you on trial and I shall be a ready witness against sorcerers, adulterers, perjurers, and against those who oppress the wage-earner, the widow and the orphan, and who rob the foreigner of his rights and do not respect me, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 3:6 'No; I, Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH), do not change; and you have not ceased to be children of Jacob!
Mal 3:7 Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have evaded my statutes and not observed them. Return to me and I will return to you, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth. You ask, "How are we to return?
Mal 3:8 Can a human being cheat God?" Yet you try to cheat me! You ask, "How do we try to cheat you?" Over tithes and contributions.
Mal 3:9 A curse lies on you because you, this whole nation, try to cheat me.
Mal 3:10 Bring the tithes in full to the treasury, so that there is food in my house; put me to the test now like this, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, and see if I do not open the floodgates of heaven for you and pour out an abundant blessing for you.
Mal 3:11 For your sakes, I shall forbid the locust to destroy the produce of your soil or prevent the vine from bearing fruit in your field, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth,
Mal 3:12 and all the nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delights, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 3:13 'You have said harsh things about me, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH). And yet you say, "What have we said against you?"
Mal 3:14 You have said, "It is useless to serve God; what is the good of keeping his commands or of walking mournfully before Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth?
Mal 3:15 In fact, we now call the proud the happy ones; the evil-doers are the ones who prosper; they put God to the test, yet come to no harm!" '
Mal 3:16 Then those who feared Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) talked to one another about this, and Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) took note and listened; and a book of remembrance was written in his presence recording those who feared him and kept his name in mind.
Mal 3:17 'On the day when I act, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, they will be my most prized possession, and I shall spare them in the way a man spares the son who serves him.
Mal 3:18 Then once again you will see the difference between the upright person and the wicked one, between the one who serves God and the one who does not serve him.
Mal 3:19 'For look, the Day is coming, glowing like a furnace. All the proud and all the evil-doers will be the stubble, and the Day, when it comes, will set them ablaze, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth, leaving them neither root nor branch.
Mal 3:20 But for you who fear my name, the Sun of justice will rise with healing in his rays, and you will come out leaping like calves from the stall,
Mal 3:21 and trample on the wicked, who will be like ashes under the soles of your feet on the day when I act, says Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) Sabaoth.
Mal 3:22 'Remember the Law of my servant Moses to whom at Horeb I prescribed decrees and rulings for all Israel.
Mal 3:23 'Look, I shall send you the prophet Elijah before the great and awesome Day of Yehowah יְהוָה (YHWH) comes.
Mal 3:24 He will reconcile parents to their children and children to their parents, to forestall my putting the country under the curse of destruction.'
Mat 1:1 Roll of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:
Mat 1:2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers,
Mat 1:3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Ram,
Mat 1:4 Ram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon,
Mat 1:5 Salmon fathered Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse;
Mat 1:6 and Jesse fathered King David. David fathered Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife,
Mat 1:7 Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asa,
Mat 1:8 Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, Joram fathered Uzziah,
Mat 1:9 Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, Ahaz fathered Hezekiah,
Mat 1:10 Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amon, Amon fathered Josiah;
Mat 1:11 and Josiah fathered Jechoniah and his brothers. Then the deportation to Babylon took place.
Mat 1:12 After the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah fathered Shealtiel, Shealtiel fathered Zerubbabel,
Mat 1:13 Zerubbabel fathered Abiud, Abiud fathered Eliakim, Eliakim fathered Azor,
Mat 1:14 Azor fathered Zadok, Zadok fathered Achim, Achim fathered Eliud,
Mat 1:15 Eliud fathered Eleazar, Eleazar fathered Matthan, Matthan fathered Jacob;
Mat 1:16 and Jacob fathered Joseph the husband of Mary; of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.
Mat 1:17 The sum of generations is therefore: fourteen from Abraham to David; fourteen from David to the Babylonian deportation; and fourteen from the Babylonian deportation to Christ.
Mat 1:18 This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.
Mat 1:19 Her husband Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare her disgrace, decided to divorce her informally.
Mat 1:20 He had made up his mind to do this when suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, 'Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit.
Mat 1:21 She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins.'
Mat 1:22 Now all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet:
Mat 1:23 Look! the virgin is with child and will give birth to a son whom they will call Immanuel, a name which means 'God-is-with-us'.
Mat 1:24 When Joseph woke up he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do: he took his wife to his home;
Mat 1:25 he had not had intercourse with her when she gave birth to a son; and he named him Jesus.
Mat 2:1 After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, suddenly some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east
Mat 2:2 asking, 'Where is the infant king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.'
Mat 2:3 When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the whole of Jerusalem.
Mat 2:4 He called together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, and enquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
Mat 2:5 They told him, 'At Bethlehem in Judaea, for this is what the prophet wrote:
Mat 2:6 And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are by no means the least among the leaders of Judah, for from you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.'
Mat 2:7 Then Herod summoned the wise men to see him privately. He asked them the exact date on which the star had appeared
Mat 2:8 and sent them on to Bethlehem with the words, 'Go and find out all about the child, and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too may go and do him homage.'
Mat 2:9 Having listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And suddenly the star they had seen rising went forward and halted over the place where the child was.
Mat 2:10 The sight of the star filled them with delight,
Mat 2:11 and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary, and falling to their knees they did him homage. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Mat 2:12 But they were given a warning in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to their own country by a different way.
Mat 2:13 After they had left, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.'
Mat 2:14 So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, left that night for Egypt,
Mat 2:15 where he stayed until Herod was dead. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I called my son out of Egypt.
Mat 2:16 Herod was furious on realising that he had been fooled by the wise men, and in Bethlehem and its surrounding district he had all the male children killed who were two years old or less, reckoning by the date he had been careful to ask the wise men.
Mat 2:17 Then were fulfilled the words spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:
Mat 2:18 A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.
Mat 2:19 After Herod's death, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt
Mat 2:20 and said, 'Get up, take the child and his mother with you and go back to the land of Israel, for those who wanted to kill the child are dead.'
Mat 2:21 So Joseph got up and, taking the child and his mother with him, went back to the land of Israel.
Mat 2:22 But when he learnt that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as ruler of Judaea he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the region of Galilee.
Mat 2:23 There he settled in a town called Nazareth. In this way the words spoken through the prophets were to be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.
Mat 3:1 In due course John the Baptist appeared; he proclaimed this message in the desert of Judaea,
Mat 3:2 'Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.'
Mat 3:3 This was the man spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said: A voice of one that cries in the desert, 'Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.'
Mat 3:4 This man John wore a garment made of camel-hair with a leather loin-cloth round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Mat 3:5 Then Jerusalem and all Judaea and the whole Jordan district made their way to him,
Mat 3:6 and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.
Mat 3:7 But when he saw a number of Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism he said to them, 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution?
Mat 3:8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance,
Mat 3:9 and do not presume to tell yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father," because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones.
Mat 3:10 Even now the axe is being laid to the root of the trees, so that any tree failing to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.
Mat 3:11 I baptise you in water for repentance, but the one who comes after me is more powerful than I, and I am not fit to carry his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Mat 3:12 His winnowing-fan is in his hand; he will clear his threshing-floor and gather his wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.'
Mat 3:13 Then Jesus appeared: he came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John.
Mat 3:14 John tried to dissuade him, with the words, 'It is I who need baptism from you, and yet you come to me!'
Mat 3:15 But Jesus replied, 'Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that uprightness demands.' Then John gave in to him.
Mat 3:16 And when Jesus had been baptised he at once came up from the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.
Mat 3:17 And suddenly there was a voice from heaven, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on him.'
Mat 4:1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit out into the desert to be put to the test by the devil.
Mat 4:2 He fasted for forty days and forty nights, after which he was hungry,
Mat 4:3 and the tester came and said to him, 'If you are Son of God, tell these stones to turn into loaves.'
Mat 4:4 But he replied, 'Scripture says: Human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'
Mat 4:5 The devil then took him to the holy city and set him on the parapet of the Temple.
Mat 4:6 'If you are Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down; for scripture says: He has given his angels orders about you, and they will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.'
Mat 4:7 Jesus said to him, 'Scripture also says: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'
Mat 4:8 Next, taking him to a very high mountain, the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
Mat 4:9 And he said to him, 'I will give you all these, if you fall at my feet and do me homage.'
Mat 4:10 Then Jesus replied, 'Away with you, Satan! For scripture says: The Lord your God is the one to whom you must do homage, him alone you must serve.'
Mat 4:11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels appeared and looked after him.
Mat 4:12 Hearing that John had been arrested he withdrew to Galilee,
Mat 4:13 and leaving Nazara he went and settled in Capernaum, beside the lake, on the borders of Zebulun and Naphtali.
Mat 4:14 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
Mat 4:15 Land of Zebulun! Land of Naphtali! Way of the sea beyond Jordan. Galilee of the nations!
Mat 4:16 The people that lived in darkness have seen a great light; on those who lived in a country of shadow dark as death a light has dawned.
Mat 4:17 From then onwards Jesus began his proclamation with the message, 'Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.'
Mat 4:18 As he was walking by the Lake of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon, who was called Peter, and his brother Andrew; they were making a cast into the lake with their net, for they were fishermen.
Mat 4:19 And he said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you fishers of people.'
Mat 4:20 And at once they left their nets and followed him.
Mat 4:21 Going on from there he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them.
Mat 4:22 And at once, leaving the boat and their father, they followed him.
Mat 4:23 He went round the whole of Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and illness among the people.
Mat 4:24 His fame spread throughout Syria, and those who were suffering from diseases and painful complaints of one kind or another, the possessed, epileptics, the paralysed, were all brought to him, and he cured them.
Mat 4:25 Large crowds followed him, coming from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judaea and Transjordan.
Mat 5:1 Seeing the crowds, he went onto the mountain. And when he was seated his disciples came to him.
Mat 5:2 Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:
Mat 5:3 How blessed are the poor in spirit: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Mat 5:4 Blessed are the gentle: they shall have the earth as inheritance.
Mat 5:5 Blessed are those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Mat 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for uprightness: they shall have their fill.
Mat 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Mat 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Mat 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be recognized as children of God.
Mat 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of uprightness: the kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
Mat 5:11 'Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you falsely on my account.
Mat 5:12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.
Mat 5:13 'You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled under people's feet.
Mat 5:14 'You are light for the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden.
Mat 5:15 No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house.
Mat 5:16 In the same way your light must shine in people's sight, so that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.
Mat 5:17 'Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.
Mat 5:18 In truth I tell you, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, is to disappear from the Law until all its purpose is achieved.
Mat 5:19 Therefore, anyone who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but the person who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of Heaven.
Mat 5:20 'For I tell you, if your uprightness does not surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of Heaven.
Mat 5:21 'You have heard how it was said to our ancestors, You shall not kill; and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court.
Mat 5:22 But I say this to you, anyone who is angry with a brother will answer for it before the court; anyone who calls a brother "Fool" will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and anyone who calls him "Traitor" will answer for it in hell fire.
Mat 5:23 So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you,
Mat 5:24 leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering.
Mat 5:25 Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison.
Mat 5:26 In truth I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.
Mat 5:27 'You have heard how it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
Mat 5:28 But I say this to you, if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Mat 5:29 If your right eye should be your downfall, tear it out and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of yourself than to have your whole body thrown into hell.
Mat 5:30 And if your right hand should be your downfall, cut it off and throw it away; for it will do you less harm to lose one part of yourself than to have your whole body go to hell.
Mat 5:31 'It has also been said, Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a writ of dismissal.
Mat 5:32 But I say this to you, everyone who divorces his wife, except for the case of an illicit marriage, makes her an adulteress; and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Mat 5:33 'Again, you have heard how it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but must fulfill your oaths to the Lord.
Mat 5:34 But I say this to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, since that is God's throne;
Mat 5:35 or by earth, since that is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the great King.
Mat 5:36 Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or black.
Mat 5:37 All you need say is "Yes" if you mean yes, "No" if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the Evil One.
Mat 5:38 'You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.
Mat 5:39 But I say this to you: offer no resistance to the wicked. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well;
Mat 5:40 if someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
Mat 5:41 And if anyone requires you to go one mile, go two miles with him.
Mat 5:42 Give to anyone who asks you, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.
Mat 5:43 'You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
Mat 5:44 But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you;
Mat 5:45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike.
Mat 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much?
Mat 5:47 And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional?
Mat 5:48 Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'
Mat 6:1 'Be careful not to parade your uprightness in public to attract attention; otherwise you will lose all reward from your Father in heaven.
Mat 6:2 So when you give alms, do not have it trumpeted before you; this is what the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win human admiration. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
Mat 6:3 But when you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing;
Mat 6:4 your almsgiving must be secret, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
Mat 6:5 'And when you pray, do not imitate the hypocrites: they love to say their prayers standing up in the synagogues and at the street corners for people to see them. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
Mat 6:6 But when you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
Mat 6:7 'In your prayers do not babble as the gentiles do, for they think that by using many words they will make themselves heard.
Mat 6:8 Do not be like them; your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Mat 6:9 So you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be held holy,
Mat 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Mat 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.
Mat 6:12 And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us.
Mat 6:13 And do not put us to the test, but save us from the Evil One.
Mat 6:14 'Yes, if you forgive others their failings, your heavenly Father will forgive you yours;
Mat 6:15 but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either.
Mat 6:16 'When you are fasting, do not put on a gloomy look as the hypocrites do: they go about looking unsightly to let people know they are fasting. In truth I tell you, they have had their reward.
Mat 6:17 But when you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face,
Mat 6:18 so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you.
Mat 6:19 'Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and woodworm destroy them and thieves can break in and steal.
Mat 6:20 But store up treasures for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworm destroys them and thieves cannot break in and steal.
Mat 6:21 For wherever your treasure is, there will your heart be too.
Mat 6:22 'The lamp of the body is the eye. It follows that if your eye is clear, your whole body will be filled with light.
Mat 6:23 But if your eye is diseased, your whole body will be darkness. If then, the light inside you is darkened, what darkness that will be!
Mat 6:24 'No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.
Mat 6:25 'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and what you are to wear. Surely life is more than food, and the body more than clothing!
Mat 6:26 Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they are?
Mat 6:27 Can any of you, however much you worry, add one single cubit to your span of life?
Mat 6:28 And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin;
Mat 6:29 yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of these.
Mat 6:30 Now if that is how God clothes the wild flowers growing in the field which are there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you who have so little faith?
Mat 6:31 So do not worry; do not say, "What are we to eat? What are we to drink? What are we to wear?"
Mat 6:32 It is the gentiles who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.
Mat 6:33 Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on God's saving justice, and all these other things will be given you as well.
Mat 6:34 So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.'
Mat 7:1 'Do not judge, and you will not be judged;
Mat 7:2 because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the standard you use will be the standard used for you.
Mat 7:3 Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own?
Mat 7:4 And how dare you say to your brother, "Let me take that splinter out of your eye," when, look, there is a great log in your own?
Mat 7:5 Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.
Mat 7:6 'Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls in front of pigs, or they may trample them and then turn on you and tear you to pieces.
Mat 7:7 'Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
Mat 7:8 Everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened.
Mat 7:9 Is there anyone among you who would hand his son a stone when he asked for bread?
Mat 7:10 Or would hand him a snake when he asked for a fish?
Mat 7:11 If you, then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Mat 7:12 'So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the Law and the Prophets.
Mat 7:13 'Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to destruction is wide and spacious, and many take it;
Mat 7:14 but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Mat 7:15 'Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves.
Mat 7:16 You will be able to tell them by their fruits. Can people pick grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
Mat 7:17 In the same way, a sound tree produces good fruit but a rotten tree bad fruit.
Mat 7:18 A sound tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a rotten tree bear good fruit.
Mat 7:19 Any tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown on the fire.
Mat 7:20 I repeat, you will be able to tell them by their fruits.
Mat 7:21 'It is not anyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Mat 7:22 When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?"
Mat 7:23 Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers!
Mat 7:24 'Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock.
Mat 7:25 Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and hurled themselves against that house, and it did not fall: it was founded on rock.
Mat 7:26 But everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a stupid man who built his house on sand.
Mat 7:27 Rain came down, floods rose, gales blew and struck that house, and it fell; and what a fall it had!'
Mat 7:28 Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, and his teaching made a deep impression on the people
Mat 7:29 because he taught them with authority, unlike their own scribes.
Mat 8:1 After he had come down from the mountain large crowds followed him.
Mat 8:2 Suddenly a man with a virulent skin-disease came up and bowed low in front of him, saying, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can cleanse me.'
Mat 8:3 Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.' And his skin-disease was cleansed at once.
Mat 8:4 Then Jesus said to him, 'Mind you tell no one, but go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering prescribed by Moses, as evidence to them.'
Mat 8:5 When he went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him.
Mat 8:6 'Sir,' he said, 'my servant is lying at home paralysed and in great pain.'
Mat 8:7 Jesus said to him, 'I will come myself and cure him.'
Mat 8:8 The centurion replied, 'Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured.
Mat 8:9 For I am under authority myself and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come here," and he comes; to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.'
Mat 8:10 When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, 'In truth I tell you, in no one in Israel have I found faith as great as this.
Mat 8:11 And I tell you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of Heaven;
Mat 8:12 but the children of the kingdom will be thrown out into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.'
Mat 8:13 And to the centurion Jesus said, 'Go back, then; let this be done for you, as your faith demands.' And the servant was cured at that moment.
Mat 8:14 And going into Peter's house Jesus found Peter's mother-in-law in bed and feverish.
Mat 8:15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him.
Mat 8:16 That evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He drove out the spirits with a command and cured all who were sick.
Mat 8:17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: He himself bore our sicknesses away and carried our diseases.
Mat 8:18 When Jesus saw the crowd all about him he gave orders to leave for the other side.
Mat 8:19 One of the scribes then came up and said to him, 'Master, I will follow you wherever you go.'
Mat 8:20 Jesus said, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'
Mat 8:21 Another man, one of the disciples, said to him, 'Lord, let me go and bury my father first.'
Mat 8:22 But Jesus said, 'Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead.'
Mat 8:23 Then he got into the boat followed by his disciples.
Mat 8:24 Suddenly a storm broke over the lake, so violent that the boat was being swamped by the waves. But he was asleep.
Mat 8:25 So they went to him and woke him saying, 'Save us, Lord, we are lost!'
Mat 8:26 And he said to them, 'Why are you so frightened, you who have so little faith?' And then he stood up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
Mat 8:27 They were astounded and said, 'Whatever kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?'
Mat 8:28 When he reached the territory of the Gadarenes on the other side, two demoniacs came towards him out of the tombs -- they were so dangerously violent that nobody could use that path.
Mat 8:29 Suddenly they shouted, 'What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torture us before the time?'
Mat 8:30 Now some distance away there was a large herd of pigs feeding,
Mat 8:31 and the devils pleaded with Jesus, 'If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.'
Mat 8:32 And he said to them, 'Go then,' and they came out and made for the pigs; and at that the whole herd charged down the cliff into the lake and perished in the water.
Mat 8:33 The herdsmen ran off and made for the city, where they told the whole story, including what had happened to the demoniacs.
Mat 8:34 Suddenly the whole city set out to meet Jesus; and as soon as they saw him they implored him to leave their neighborhood.
Mat 9:1 He got back in the boat, crossed the water and came to his home town.
Mat 9:2 And suddenly some people brought him a paralytic stretched out on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'Take comfort, my child, your sins are forgiven.'
Mat 9:3 And now some scribes said to themselves, 'This man is being blasphemous.'
Mat 9:4 Knowing what was in their minds Jesus said, 'Why do you have such wicked thoughts in your hearts?
Mat 9:5 Now, which of these is easier: to say, "Your sins are forgiven," or to say, "Get up and walk"?
Mat 9:6 But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,' -- then he said to the paralytic-'get up, pick up your bed and go off home.'
Mat 9:7 And the man got up and went home.
Mat 9:8 A feeling of awe came over the crowd when they saw this, and they praised God for having given such authority to human beings.
Mat 9:9 As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him.
Mat 9:10 Now while he was at table in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples.
Mat 9:11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
Mat 9:12 When he heard this he replied, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick.
Mat 9:13 Go and learn the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice. And indeed I came to call not the upright, but sinners.'
Mat 9:14 Then John's disciples came to him and said, 'Why is it that we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?'
Mat 9:15 Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.
Mat 9:16 No one puts a piece of unshrunken cloth onto an old cloak, because the patch pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
Mat 9:17 Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, the wine runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine in fresh skins and both are preserved.'
Mat 9:18 While he was speaking to them, suddenly one of the officials came up, who bowed low in front of him and said, 'My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and her life will be saved.'
Mat 9:19 Jesus rose and, with his disciples, followed him.
Mat 9:20 Then suddenly from behind him came a woman, who had been suffering from a haemorrhage for twelve years, and she touched the fringe of his cloak,
Mat 9:21 for she was thinking, 'If only I can touch his cloak I shall be saved.'
Mat 9:22 Jesus turned round and saw her; and he said to her, 'Courage, my daughter, your faith has saved you.' And from that moment the woman was saved.
Mat 9:23 When Jesus reached the official's house and saw the flute-players, with the crowd making a commotion, he said,
Mat 9:24 'Get out of here; the little girl is not dead; she is asleep.' And they ridiculed him.
Mat 9:25 But when the people had been turned out he went inside and took her by the hand; and she stood up.
Mat 9:26 And the news of this spread all round the countryside.
Mat 9:27 As Jesus went on his way two blind men followed him shouting, 'Take pity on us, son of David.'
Mat 9:28 And when Jesus reached the house the blind men came up to him and he said to them, 'Do you believe I can do this?' They said, 'Lord, we do.'
Mat 9:29 Then he touched their eyes saying, 'According to your faith, let it be done to you.'
Mat 9:30 And their sight returned. Then Jesus sternly warned them, 'Take care that no one learns about this.'
Mat 9:31 But when they had gone away, they talked about him all over the countryside.
Mat 9:32 They had only just left when suddenly a man was brought to him, a dumb demoniac.
Mat 9:33 And when the devil was driven out, the dumb man spoke and the people were amazed and said, 'Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.'
Mat 9:34 But the Pharisees said, 'It is through the prince of devils that he drives out devils.'
Mat 9:35 Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness.
Mat 9:36 And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.
Mat 9:37 Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers to his harvest.'
Mat 10:1 He summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness.
Mat 10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
Mat 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
Mat 10:4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who was also his betrayer.
Mat 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: 'Do not make your way to gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town;
Mat 10:6 go instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
Mat 10:7 And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand.
Mat 10:8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those suffering from virulent skin-diseases, drive out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.
Mat 10:9 Provide yourselves with no gold or silver, not even with coppers for your purses,
Mat 10:10 with no haversack for the journey or spare tunic or footwear or a staff, for the labourer deserves his keep.
Mat 10:11 'Whatever town or village you go into, seek out someone worthy and stay with him until you leave.
Mat 10:12 As you enter his house, salute it,
Mat 10:13 and if the house deserves it, may your peace come upon it; if it does not, may your peace come back to you.
Mat 10:14 And if anyone does not welcome you or listen to what you have to say, as you walk out of the house or town shake the dust from your feet.
Mat 10:15 In truth I tell you, on the Day of Judgement it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
Mat 10:16 Look, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves; so be cunning as snakes and yet innocent as doves.
Mat 10:17 'Be prepared for people to hand you over to sanhedrins and scourge you in their synagogues.
Mat 10:18 You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as evidence to them and to the gentiles.
Mat 10:19 But when you are handed over, do not worry about how to speak or what to say; what you are to say will be given to you when the time comes,
Mat 10:20 because it is not you who will be speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you.
Mat 10:21 'Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will come forward against their parents and have them put to death.
Mat 10:22 You will be universally hated on account of my name; but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Mat 10:23 If they persecute you in one town, take refuge in the next; and if they persecute you in that, take refuge in another. In truth I tell you, you will not have gone the round of the towns of Israel before the Son of man comes.
Mat 10:24 'Disciple is not superior to teacher, nor slave to master.
Mat 10:25 It is enough for disciple to grow to be like teacher, and slave like master. If they have called the master of the house "Beelzebul", how much more the members of his household?
Mat 10:26 'So do not be afraid of them. Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.
Mat 10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.
Mat 10:28 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
Mat 10:29 Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing.
Mat 10:30 Why, every hair on your head has been counted.
Mat 10:31 So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Mat 10:32 'So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.
Mat 10:33 But the one who disowns me in the presence of human beings, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.
Mat 10:34 'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword.
Mat 10:35 For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law;
Mat 10:36 a person's enemies will be the members of his own household.
Mat 10:37 'No one who prefers father or mother to me is worthy of me. No one who prefers son or daughter to me is worthy of me.
Mat 10:38 Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me.
Mat 10:39 Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
Mat 10:40 'Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
Mat 10:41 'Anyone who welcomes a prophet because he is a prophet will have a prophet's reward; and anyone who welcomes an upright person because he is upright will have the reward of an upright person.
Mat 10:42 'If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not go without his reward.'
Mat 11:1 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns.
Mat 11:2 Now John had heard in prison what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him,
Mat 11:3 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?'
Mat 11:4 Jesus answered, 'Go back and tell John what you hear and see;
Mat 11:5 the blind see again, and the lame walk, those suffering from virulent skin-diseases are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life and the good news is proclaimed to the poor;
Mat 11:6 and blessed is anyone who does not find me a cause of falling.'
Mat 11:7 As the men were leaving, Jesus began to talk to the people about John, 'What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No?
Mat 11:8 Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Look, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces.
Mat 11:9 Then what did you go out for? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet:
Mat 11:10 he is the one of whom scripture says: Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you.
Mat 11:11 'In truth I tell you, of all the children born to women, there has never been anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.
Mat 11:12 Since John the Baptist came, up to this present time, the kingdom of Heaven has been subjected to violence and the violent are taking it by storm.
Mat 11:13 Because it was towards John that all the prophecies of the prophets and of the Law were leading;
Mat 11:14 and he, if you will believe me, is the Elijah who was to return.
Mat 11:15 Anyone who has ears should listen!
Mat 11:16 'What comparison can I find for this generation? It is like children shouting to each other as they sit in the market place:
Mat 11:17 We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn't be mourners.
Mat 11:18 'For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say, "He is possessed."
Mat 11:19 The Son of man came, eating and drinking, and they say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.'
Mat 11:20 Then he began to reproach the towns in which most of his miracles had been worked, because they refused to repent.
Mat 11:21 'Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Mat 11:22 Still, I tell you that it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on Judgement Day than for you.
Mat 11:23 And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised as high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell. For if the miracles done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have been standing yet.
Mat 11:24 Still, I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on Judgement Day than for you.'
Mat 11:25 At that time Jesus exclaimed, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children.
Mat 11:26 Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.
Mat 11:27 Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Mat 11:28 'Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Mat 11:30 Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.'
Mat 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the cornfields one Sabbath day. His disciples were hungry and began to pick ears of corn and eat them.
Mat 12:2 The Pharisees noticed it and said to him, 'Look, your disciples are doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath.'
Mat 12:3 But he said to them, 'Have you not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry-
Mat 12:4 how he went into the house of God and they ate the loaves of the offering although neither he nor his followers were permitted to eat them, but only the priests?
Mat 12:5 Or again, have you not read in the Law that on the Sabbath day the Temple priests break the Sabbath without committing any fault?
Mat 12:6 Now here, I tell you, is something greater than the Temple.
Mat 12:7 And if you had understood the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the blameless.
Mat 12:8 For the Son of man is master of the Sabbath.'
Mat 12:9 He moved on from there and went to their synagogue;
Mat 12:10 now a man was there with a withered hand. They asked him, 'Is it permitted to cure somebody on the Sabbath day?' hoping for something to charge him with.
Mat 12:11 But he said to them, 'If any one of you here had only one sheep and it fell down a hole on the Sabbath day, would he not get hold of it and lift it out?
Mat 12:12 Now a man is far more important than a sheep, so it follows that it is permitted on the Sabbath day to do good.'
Mat 12:13 Then he said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out and his hand was restored, as sound as the other one.
Mat 12:14 At this the Pharisees went out and began to plot against him, discussing how to destroy him.
Mat 12:15 Jesus knew this and withdrew from the district. Many followed him and he cured them all
Mat 12:16 but warned them not to make him known.
Mat 12:17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:
Mat 12:18 Look! My servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul delights, I will send my Spirit upon him, and he will present judgement to the nations;
Mat 12:19 he will not brawl or cry out, his voice is not heard in the streets,
Mat 12:20 he will not break the crushed reed, or snuff the faltering wick,
Mat 12:21 until he has made judgement victorious; in him the nations will put their hope.
Mat 12:22 Then they brought to him a blind and dumb demoniac; and he cured him, so that the dumb man could speak and see.
Mat 12:23 All the people were astounded and said, 'Can this be the son of David?'
Mat 12:24 But when the Pharisees heard this they said, 'The man drives out devils only through Beelzebul, the chief of the devils.'
Mat 12:25 Knowing what was in their minds he said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself is heading for ruin; and no town, no household divided against itself can last.
Mat 12:26 Now if Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself; so how can his kingdom last?
Mat 12:27 And if it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out, through whom do your own experts drive them out? They shall be your judges, then.
Mat 12:28 But if it is through the Spirit of God that I drive out devils, then be sure that the kingdom of God has caught you unawares.
Mat 12:29 'Or again, how can anyone make his way into a strong man's house and plunder his property unless he has first tied up the strong man? Only then can he plunder his house.
Mat 12:30 'Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away.
Mat 12:31 And so I tell you, every human sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
Mat 12:32 And anyone who says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but no one who speaks against the Holy Spirit will be forgiven either in this world or in the next.
Mat 12:33 'Make a tree sound and its fruit will be sound; make a tree rotten and its fruit will be rotten. For the tree can be told by its fruit.
Mat 12:34 You brood of vipers, how can your speech be good when you are evil? For words flow out of what fills the heart.
Mat 12:35 Good people draw good things from their store of goodness; bad people draw bad things from their store of badness.
Mat 12:36 So I tell you this, that for every unfounded word people utter they will answer on Judgement Day,
Mat 12:37 since it is by your words you will be justified, and by your words condemned.'
Mat 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees spoke up. 'Master,' they said, 'we should like to see a sign from you.'
Mat 12:39 He replied, 'It is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign! The only sign it will be given is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Mat 12:40 For as Jonah remained in the belly of the sea-monster for three days and three nights, so will the Son of man be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.
Mat 12:41 On Judgement Day the men of Nineveh will appear against this generation and they will be its condemnation, because when Jonah preached they repented; and look, there is something greater than Jonah here.
Mat 12:42 On Judgement Day the Queen of the South will appear against this generation and be its condemnation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and look, there is something greater than Solomon here.
Mat 12:43 'When an unclean spirit goes out of someone it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and cannot find one.
Mat 12:44 Then it says, "I will return to the home I came from." But on arrival, finding it unoccupied, swept and tidied,
Mat 12:45 it then goes off and collects seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and set up house there, and so that person ends up worse off than before. That is what will happen to this wicked generation.'
Mat 12:46 He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him.
Mat 12:47 still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him.
Mat 12:48 But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?'
Mat 12:49 And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers.
Mat 12:50 Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'
Mat 13:1 That same day, Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside,
Mat 13:2 but such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the shore,
Mat 13:3 and he told them many things in parables. He said, 'Listen, a sower went out to sow.
Mat 13:4 As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up.
Mat 13:5 Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up at once, because there was no depth of earth;
Mat 13:6 but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away.
Mat 13:7 Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
Mat 13:8 Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Mat 13:9 Anyone who has ears should listen!'
Mat 13:10 Then the disciples went up to him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?'
Mat 13:11 In answer, he said, 'Because to you is granted to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it is not granted.
Mat 13:12 Anyone who has will be given more and will have more than enough; but anyone who has not will be deprived even of what he has.
Mat 13:13 The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.
Mat 13:14 So in their case what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah is being fulfilled: Listen and listen, but never understand! Look and look, but never perceive!
Mat 13:15 This people's heart has grown coarse, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear, their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me.
Mat 13:16 'But blessed are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!
Mat 13:17 In truth I tell you, many prophets and upright people longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.
Mat 13:18 'So pay attention to the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the Evil One comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the seed sown on the edge of the path.
Mat 13:20 The seed sown on patches of rock is someone who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy.
Mat 13:21 But such a person has no root deep down and does not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, at once he falls away.
Mat 13:22 The seed sown in thorns is someone who hears the word, but the worry of the world and the lure of riches choke the word and so it produces nothing.
Mat 13:23 And the seed sown in rich soil is someone who hears the word and understands it; this is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.'
Mat 13:24 He put another parable before them, 'The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
Mat 13:25 While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off.
Mat 13:26 When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, then the darnel appeared as well.
Mat 13:27 The owner's labourers went to him and said, "Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?"
Mat 13:28 He said to them, "Some enemy has done this." And the labourers said, "Do you want us to go and weed it out?"
Mat 13:29 But he said, "No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it.
Mat 13:30 Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn." '
Mat 13:31 He put another parable before them, 'The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field.
Mat 13:32 It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and shelter in its branches.'
Mat 13:33 He told them another parable, 'The kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.'
Mat 13:34 In all this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them except in parables.
Mat 13:35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: I will speak to you in parables, unfold what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.
Mat 13:36 Then, leaving the crowds, he went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, 'Explain to us the parable about the darnel in the field.'
Mat 13:37 He said in reply, 'The sower of the good seed is the Son of man.
Mat 13:38 The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the Evil One;
Mat 13:39 the enemy who sowed it, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels.
Mat 13:40 Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time.
Mat 13:41 The Son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of falling and all who do evil,
Mat 13:42 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
Mat 13:43 Then the upright will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen!
Mat 13:44 'The kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off in his joy, sells everything he owns and buys the field.
Mat 13:45 'Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls;
Mat 13:46 when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it.
Mat 13:47 'Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that is cast in the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish.
Mat 13:48 When it is full, the fishermen bring it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in baskets and throw away those that are no use.
Mat 13:49 This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked from the upright,
Mat 13:50 to throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
Mat 13:51 'Have you understood all these?' They said, 'Yes.'
Mat 13:52 And he said to them, 'Well then, every scribe who becomes a disciple of the kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who brings out from his storeroom new things as well as old.'
Mat 13:53 When Jesus had finished these parables he left the district;
Mat 13:54 and, coming to his home town, he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, 'Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?
Mat 13:55 This is the carpenter's son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude?
Mat 13:56 His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?'
Mat 13:57 And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country and in his own house,'
Mat 13:58 and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.
Mat 14:1 At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the reputation of Jesus
Mat 14:2 and said to his court, 'This is John the Baptist himself; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.'
Mat 14:3 Now it was Herod who had arrested John, chained him up and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.
Mat 14:4 For John had told him, 'It is against the Law for you to have her.'
Mat 14:5 He had wanted to kill him but was afraid of the people, who regarded John as a prophet.
Mat 14:6 Then, during the celebrations for Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and so delighted Herod
Mat 14:7 that he promised on oath to give her anything she asked.
Mat 14:8 Prompted by her mother she said, 'Give me John the Baptist's head, here, on a dish.'
Mat 14:9 The king was distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he ordered it to be given her,
Mat 14:10 and sent and had John beheaded in the prison.
Mat 14:11 The head was brought in on a dish and given to the girl, who took it to her mother.
Mat 14:12 John's disciples came and took the body and buried it; then they went off to tell Jesus.
Mat 14:13 When Jesus received this news he withdrew by boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves. But the crowds heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot.
Mat 14:14 So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them and healed their sick.
Mat 14:15 When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, 'This is a lonely place, and time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food.'
Mat 14:16 Jesus replied, 'There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.'
Mat 14:17 But they answered, 'All we have with us is five loaves and two fish.'
Mat 14:18 So he said, 'Bring them here to me.'
Mat 14:19 He gave orders that the people were to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing. And breaking the loaves he handed them to his disciples, who gave them to the crowds.
Mat 14:20 They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps left over, twelve baskets full.
Mat 14:21 Now about five thousand men had eaten, to say nothing of women and children.
Mat 14:22 And at once he made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he sent the crowds away.
Mat 14:23 After sending the crowds away he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone,
Mat 14:24 while the boat, by now some furlongs from land, was hard pressed by rough waves, for there was a head-wind.
Mat 14:25 In the fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on the sea,
Mat 14:26 and when the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. 'It is a ghost,' they said, and cried out in fear.
Mat 14:27 But at once Jesus called out to them, saying, 'Courage! It's me! Don't be afraid.'
Mat 14:28 It was Peter who answered. 'Lord,' he said, 'if it is you, tell me to come to you across the water.'
Mat 14:29 Jesus said, 'Come.' Then Peter got out of the boat and started walking towards Jesus across the water,
Mat 14:30 but then noticing the wind, he took fright and began to sink. 'Lord,' he cried, 'save me!'
Mat 14:31 Jesus put out his hand at once and held him. 'You have so little faith,' he said, 'why did you doubt?'
Mat 14:32 And as they got into the boat the wind dropped.
Mat 14:33 The men in the boat bowed down before him and said, 'Truly, you are the Son of God.'
Mat 14:34 Having made the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret.
Mat 14:35 When the local people recognized him they spread the news through the whole neighborhood and took all that were sick to him,
Mat 14:36 begging him just to let them touch the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched it were saved.
Mat 15:1 Then Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem came to Jesus and said,
Mat 15:2 'Why do your disciples break away from the tradition of the elders? They eat without washing their hands.'
Mat 15:3 He answered, 'And why do you break away from the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Mat 15:4 For God said, "honor your father and your mother" and "Anyone who curses his father or mother will be put to death."
Mat 15:5 But you say, "If anyone says to his father or mother: Anything I might have used to help you is dedicated to God,
Mat 15:6 he is rid of his duty to father or mother." In this way you have made God's word ineffective by means of your tradition.
Mat 15:7 Hypocrites! How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you when he said:
Mat 15:8 This people honors me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.
Mat 15:9 Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments.'
Mat 15:10 He called the people to him and said, 'Listen, and understand.
Mat 15:11 What goes into the mouth does not make anyone unclean; it is what comes out of the mouth that makes someone unclean.'
Mat 15:12 Then the disciples came to him and said, 'Do you know that the Pharisees were shocked when they heard what you said?'
Mat 15:13 He replied, 'Any plant my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.
Mat 15:14 Leave them alone. They are blind leaders of the blind; and if one blind person leads another, both will fall into a pit.'
Mat 15:15 At this, Peter said to him, 'Explain the parable for us.'
Mat 15:16 Jesus replied, 'Even you -- don't you yet understand?
Mat 15:17 Can't you see that whatever goes into the mouth passes through the stomach and is discharged into the sewer?
Mat 15:18 But whatever comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and it is this that makes someone unclean.
Mat 15:19 For from the heart come evil intentions: murder, adultery, fornication, theft, perjury, slander.
Mat 15:20 These are the things that make a person unclean. But eating with unwashed hands does not make anyone unclean.'
Mat 15:21 Jesus left that place and withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
Mat 15:22 And suddenly out came a Canaanite woman from that district and started shouting, 'Lord, Son of David, take pity on me. My daughter is tormented by a devil.'
Mat 15:23 But he said not a word in answer to her. And his disciples went and pleaded with him, saying, 'Give her what she wants, because she keeps shouting after us.'
Mat 15:24 He said in reply, 'I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.'
Mat 15:25 But the woman had come up and was bowing low before him. 'Lord,' she said, 'help me.'
Mat 15:26 He replied, 'It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to little dogs.'
Mat 15:27 She retorted, 'Ah yes, Lord; but even little dogs eat the scraps that fall from their masters' table.'
Mat 15:28 Then Jesus answered her, 'Woman, you have great faith. Let your desire be granted.' And from that moment her daughter was well again.
Mat 15:29 Jesus went on from there and reached the shores of the Lake of Galilee, and he went up onto the mountain. He took his seat,
Mat 15:30 and large crowds came to him bringing the lame, the crippled, the blind, the dumb and many others; these they put down at his feet, and he cured them.
Mat 15:31 The crowds were astonished to see the dumb speaking, the cripples whole again, the lame walking and the blind with their sight, and they praised the God of Israel.
Mat 15:32 But Jesus called his disciples to him and said, 'I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them off hungry, or they might collapse on the way.'
Mat 15:33 The disciples said to him, 'Where in a deserted place could we get sufficient bread for such a large crowd to have enough to eat?'
Mat 15:34 Jesus said to them, 'How many loaves have you?' They said, 'Seven, and a few small fish.'
Mat 15:35 Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground,
Mat 15:36 and he took the seven loaves and the fish, and after giving thanks he broke them and began handing them to the disciples, who gave them to the crowds.
Mat 15:37 They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected what was left of the scraps, seven baskets full.
Mat 15:38 Now four thousand men had eaten, to say nothing of women and children.
Mat 15:39 And when he had sent the crowds away he got into the boat and went to the territory of Magadan.
Mat 16:1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to put him to the test they asked if he would show them a sign from heaven.
Mat 16:2 He replied, 'In the evening you say, "It will be fine; there's a red sky,"
Mat 16:3 and in the morning, "Stormy weather today; the sky is red and overcast." You know how to read the face of the sky, but you cannot read the signs of the times.
Mat 16:4 It is an evil and unfaithful generation asking for a sign, and the only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.' And he left them and went off.
Mat 16:5 The disciples, having crossed to the other side, had forgotten to take any food.
Mat 16:6 Jesus said to them, 'Keep your eyes open, and be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'
Mat 16:7 And they said among themselves, 'It is because we have not brought any bread.'
Mat 16:8 Jesus knew it, and he said, 'You have so little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread?
Mat 16:9 Do you still not understand? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand and the number of baskets you collected?
Mat 16:10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and the number of baskets you collected?
Mat 16:11 How could you fail to understand that I was not talking about bread? What I said was: Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.'
Mat 16:12 Then they understood that he was telling them to be on their guard, not against yeast for making bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Mat 16:13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say the Son of man is?'
Mat 16:14 And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.'
Mat 16:15 'But you,' he said, 'who do you say I am?'
Mat 16:16 Then Simon Peter spoke up and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
Mat 16:17 Jesus replied, 'Simon son of Jonah, you are a blessed man! Because it was no human agency that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.
Mat 16:18 So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my community. And the gates of the underworld can never overpower it.
Mat 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.'
Mat 16:20 Then he gave the disciples strict orders not to say to anyone that he was the Christ.
Mat 16:21 From then onwards Jesus began to make it clear to his disciples that he was destined to go to Jerusalem and suffer grievously at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death and to be raised up on the third day.
Mat 16:22 Then, taking him aside, Peter started to rebuke him. 'Heaven preserve you, Lord,' he said, 'this must not happen to you.'
Mat 16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because you are thinking not as God thinks but as human beings do.'
Mat 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Mat 16:25 Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.
Mat 16:26 What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life? Or what can anyone offer in exchange for his life?
Mat 16:27 'For the Son of man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward each one according to his behaviour.
Mat 16:28 In truth I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of man coming with his kingdom.'
Mat 17:1 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
Mat 17:2 There in their presence he was transfigured: his face shone like the sun and his clothes became as dazzling as light.
Mat 17:3 And suddenly Moses and Elijah appeared to them; they were talking with him.
Mat 17:4 Then Peter spoke to Jesus. 'Lord,' he said, 'it is wonderful for us to be here; if you want me to, I will make three shelters here, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.'
Mat 17:5 He was still speaking when suddenly a bright cloud covered them with shadow, and suddenly from the cloud there came a voice which said, 'This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor. Listen to him.'
Mat 17:6 When they heard this, the disciples fell on their faces, overcome with fear.
Mat 17:7 But Jesus came up and touched them, saying, 'Stand up, do not be afraid.'
Mat 17:8 And when they raised their eyes they saw no one but Jesus.
Mat 17:9 As they came down from the mountain Jesus gave them this order, 'Tell no one about this vision until the Son of man has risen from the dead.'
Mat 17:10 And the disciples put this question to him, 'Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?'
Mat 17:11 He replied, 'Elijah is indeed coming, and he will set everything right again;
Mat 17:12 however, I tell you that Elijah has come already and they did not recognize him but treated him as they pleased; and the Son of man will suffer similarly at their hands.'
Mat 17:13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking of John the Baptist.
Mat 17:14 As they were rejoining the crowd a man came up to him and went down on his knees before him.
Mat 17:15 'Lord,' he said, 'take pity on my son: he is demented and in a wretched state; he is always falling into fire and into water.
Mat 17:16 I took him to your disciples and they were unable to cure him.'
Mat 17:17 In reply, Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him here to me.'
Mat 17:18 And when Jesus rebuked it the devil came out of the boy, who was cured from that moment.
Mat 17:19 Then the disciples came privately to Jesus. 'Why were we unable to drive it out?' they asked.
Mat 17:20 He answered, 'Because you have so little faith. In truth I tell you, if your faith is the size of a mustard seed you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move; nothing will be impossible for you.'
Mat 17:21
Mat 17:22 When they were together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, 'The Son of man is going to be delivered into the power of men;
Mat 17:23 they will put him to death, and on the third day he will be raised up again.' And a great sadness came over them.
Mat 17:24 When they reached Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel came to Peter and said, 'Does your master not pay the half-shekel?'
Mat 17:25 'Yes,' he replied, and went into the house. But before he could speak, Jesus said, 'Simon, what is your opinion? From whom do earthly kings take toll or tribute? From their sons or from foreigners?'
Mat 17:26 And when he replied, 'From foreigners,' Jesus said, 'Well then, the sons are exempt.
Mat 17:27 However, so that we shall not be the downfall of others, go to the lake and cast a hook; take the first fish that rises, open its mouth and there you will find a shekel; take it and give it to them for me and for yourself.'
Mat 18:1 At this time the disciples came to Jesus and said, 'Who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven?'
Mat 18:2 So he called a little child to him whom he set among them.
Mat 18:3 Then he said, 'In truth I tell you, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Mat 18:4 And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven.
Mat 18:5 'Anyone who welcomes one little child like this in my name welcomes me.
Mat 18:6 But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith in me would be better drowned in the depths of the sea with a great millstone round his neck.
Mat 18:7 Alas for the world that there should be such causes of falling! Causes of falling indeed there must be, but alas for anyone who provides them!
Mat 18:8 'If your hand or your foot should be your downfall, cut it off and throw it away: it is better for you to enter into life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.
Mat 18:9 And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out and throw it away: it is better for you to enter into life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into the hell of fire.
Mat 18:10 'See that you never despise any of these little ones, for I tell you that theirin heaven are continually in the presence of my Father in heaven.
Mat 18:11
Mat 18:12 'Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray?
Mat 18:13 In truth I tell you, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all.
Mat 18:14 Similarly, it is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost.
Mat 18:15 'If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.
Mat 18:16 If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: whatever the misdemeanour, the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain the charge.
Mat 18:17 But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a gentile or a tax collector.
Mat 18:18 'In truth I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Mat 18:19 'In truth I tell you once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven.
Mat 18:20 For where two or three meet in my name, I am there among them.'
Mat 18:21 Then Peter went up to him and said, 'Lord, how often must I forgive my brother if he wrongs me? As often as seven times?'
Mat 18:22 Jesus answered, 'Not seven, I tell you, but seventy-seven times.
Mat 18:23 'And so the kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who decided to settle his accounts with his servants.
Mat 18:24 When the reckoning began, they brought him a man who owed ten thousand talents;
Mat 18:25 he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, to meet the debt.
Mat 18:26 At this, the servant threw himself down at his master's feet, with the words, "Be patient with me and I will pay the whole sum."
Mat 18:27 And the servant's master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and cancelled the debt.
Mat 18:28 Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow-servant who owed him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle him, saying, "Pay what you owe me."
Mat 18:29 His fellow-servant fell at his feet and appealed to him, saying, "Be patient with me and I will pay you."
Mat 18:30 But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison till he should pay the debt.
Mat 18:31 His fellow-servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened, and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him.
Mat 18:32 Then the master sent for the man and said to him, "You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me.
Mat 18:33 Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow-servant just as I had pity on you?"
Mat 18:34 And in his anger the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.
Mat 18:35 And that is how my heavenly Father will deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.'
Mat 19:1 Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, and he left Galilee and came into the territory of Judaea on the far side of the Jordan.
Mat 19:2 Large crowds followed him and he healed them there.
Mat 19:3 Some Pharisees approached him, and to put him to the test they said, 'Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?'
Mat 19:4 He answered, 'Have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female
Mat 19:5 and that he said: This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh?
Mat 19:6 They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh. So then, what God has united, human beings must not divide.'
Mat 19:7 They said to him, 'Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?'
Mat 19:8 He said to them, 'It was because you were so hard-hearted, that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning.
Mat 19:9 Now I say this to you: anyone who divorces his wife -- I am not speaking of an illicit marriage -- and marries another, is guilty of adultery.'
Mat 19:10 The disciples said to him, 'If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is advisable not to marry.'
Mat 19:11 But he replied, 'It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted.
Mat 19:12 There are eunuchs born so from their mother's womb, there are eunuchs made so by human agency and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.'
Mat 19:13 Then people brought little children to him, for him to lay his hands on them and pray. The disciples scolded them,
Mat 19:14 but Jesus said, 'Let the little children alone, and do not stop them from coming to me; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of Heaven belongs.'
Mat 19:15 Then he laid his hands on them and went on his way.
Mat 19:16 And now a man came to him and asked, 'Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?'
Mat 19:17 Jesus said to him, 'Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one alone who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.'
Mat 19:18 He said, 'Which ones?' Jesus replied, 'These: You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false witness.
Mat 19:19 honor your father and your mother. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
Mat 19:20 The young man said to him, 'I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?'
Mat 19:21 Jesus said, 'If you wish to be perfect, go and sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'
Mat 19:22 But when the young man heard these words he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Mat 19:23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'In truth I tell you, it is hard for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Mat 19:24 Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of Heaven.'
Mat 19:25 When the disciples heard this they were astonished. 'Who can be saved, then?' they said.
Mat 19:26 Jesus gazed at them. 'By human resources', he told them, 'this is impossible; for God everything is possible.'
Mat 19:27 Then Peter answered and said, 'Look, we have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?'
Mat 19:28 Jesus said to them, 'In truth I tell you, when everything is made new again and the Son of man is seated on his throne of glory, you yourselves will sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29 And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times as much, and also inherit eternal life.
Mat 19:30 'Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.'
Mat 20:1 'Now the kingdom of Heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard.
Mat 20:2 He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day and sent them to his vineyard.
Mat 20:3 Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place
Mat 20:4 and said to them, "You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage."
Mat 20:5 So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same.
Mat 20:6 Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing around, and he said to them, "Why have you been standing here idle all day?"
Mat 20:7 "Because no one has hired us," they answered. He said to them, "You go into my vineyard too."
Mat 20:8 In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, "Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first."
Mat 20:9 So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each.
Mat 20:10 When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each.
Mat 20:11 They took it, but grumbled at the landowner saying,
Mat 20:12 "The men who came last have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day's work in all the heat."
Mat 20:13 He answered one of them and said, "My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius?
Mat 20:14 Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the lastcomer as much as I pay you.
Mat 20:15 Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why should you be envious because I am generous?"
Mat 20:16 Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.'
Mat 20:17 Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and on the road he took the Twelve aside by themselves and said to them,
Mat 20:18 'Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death
Mat 20:19 and will hand him over to the gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will be raised up again.'
Mat 20:20 Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low;
Mat 20:21 and he said to her, 'What is it you want?' She said to him, 'Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom.'
Mat 20:22 Jesus answered, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?' They replied, 'We can.'
Mat 20:23 He said to them, 'Very well; you shall drink my cup, but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.'
Mat 20:24 When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers.
Mat 20:25 But Jesus called them to him and said, 'You know that among the gentiles the rulers lord it over them, and great men make their authority felt.
Mat 20:26 Among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant,
Mat 20:27 and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave,
Mat 20:28 just as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
Mat 20:29 As they left Jericho a large crowd followed him.
Mat 20:30 And now there were two blind men sitting at the side of the road. When they heard that it was Jesus who was passing by, they shouted, 'Lord! Have pity on us, son of David.'
Mat 20:31 And the crowd scolded them and told them to keep quiet, but they only shouted the louder, 'Lord! Have pity on us, son of David.'
Mat 20:32 Jesus stopped, called them over and said, 'What do you want me to do for you?'
Mat 20:33 They said to him, 'Lord, let us have our sight back.'
Mat 20:34 Jesus felt pity for them and touched their eyes, and at once their sight returned and they followed him.
Mat 21:1 When they were near Jerusalem and had come to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,
Mat 21:2 saying to them, 'Go to the village facing you, and you will at once find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me.
Mat 21:3 If anyone says anything to you, you are to say, "The Master needs them and will send them back at once." '
Mat 21:4 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
Mat 21:5 Say to the daughter of Zion: Look, your king is approaching, humble and riding on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.
Mat 21:6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus had told them.
Mat 21:7 They brought the donkey and the colt, then they laid their cloaks on their backs and he took his seat on them.
Mat 21:8 Great crowds of people spread their cloaks on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in his path.
Mat 21:9 The crowds who went in front of him and those who followed were all shouting: Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heavens!
Mat 21:10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil as people asked, 'Who is this?'
Mat 21:11 and the crowds answered, 'This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.'
Mat 21:12 Jesus then went into the Temple and drove out all those who were selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money-changers and the seats of the dove-sellers.
Mat 21:13 He said to them, 'According to scripture, my house will be called a house of prayer; but you are turning it into a bandits' den.'
Mat 21:14 There were also blind and lame people who came to him in the Temple, and he cured them.
Mat 21:15 At the sight of the wonderful things he did and of the children shouting, 'Hosanna to the son of David' in the Temple, the chief priests and the scribes were indignant and said to him,
Mat 21:16 'Do you hear what they are saying?' Jesus answered, 'Yes. Have you never read this: By the mouths of children, babes in arms, you have made sure of praise?'
Mat 21:17 With that he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
Mat 21:18 As he was returning to the city in the early morning, he felt hungry.
Mat 21:19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it and found nothing on it but leaves. And he said to it, 'May you never bear fruit again,' and instantly the fig tree withered.
Mat 21:20 The disciples were amazed when they saw it and said, 'How is it that the fig tree withered instantly?'
Mat 21:21 Jesus answered, 'In truth I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt at all, not only will you do what I have done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, "Be pulled up and thrown into the sea," it will be done.
Mat 21:22 And if you have faith, everything you ask for in prayer, you will receive.'
Mat 21:23 He had gone into the Temple and was teaching, when the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him and said, 'What authority have you for acting like this? And who gave you this authority?'
Mat 21:24 In reply Jesus said to them, 'And I will ask you a question, just one; if you tell me the answer to it, then I will tell you my authority for acting like this.
Mat 21:25 John's baptism: what was its origin, heavenly or human?' And they argued this way among themselves, 'If we say heavenly, he will retort to us, "Then why did you refuse to believe him?";
Mat 21:26 but if we say human, we have the people to fear, for they all hold that John was a prophet.'
Mat 21:27 So their reply to Jesus was, 'We do not know.' And he retorted to them, 'Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.'
Mat 21:28 'What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He went and said to the first, "My boy, go and work in the vineyard today."
Mat 21:29 He answered, "I will not go," but afterwards thought better of it and went.
Mat 21:30 The man then went and said the same thing to the second who answered, "Certainly, sir," but did not go.
Mat 21:31 Which of the two did the father's will?' They said, 'The first.' Jesus said to them, 'In truth I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are making their way into the kingdom of God before you.
Mat 21:32 For John came to you, showing the way of uprightness, but you did not believe him, and yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did. Even after seeing that, you refused to think better of it and believe in him.
Mat 21:33 'Listen to another parable. There was a man, a landowner, who planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug a winepress in it and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad.
Mat 21:34 When vintage time drew near he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his produce.
Mat 21:35 But the tenants seized his servants, thrashed one, killed another and stoned a third.
Mat 21:36 Next he sent some more servants, this time a larger number, and they dealt with them in the same way.
Mat 21:37 Finally he sent his son to them thinking, "They will respect my son."
Mat 21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him and take over his inheritance."
Mat 21:39 So they seized him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
Mat 21:40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?'
Mat 21:41 They answered, 'He will bring those wretches to a wretched end and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will deliver the produce to him at the proper time.'
Mat 21:42 Jesus said to them, 'Have you never read in the scriptures: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this is the Lord's doing and we marvel at it?
Mat 21:43 'I tell you, then, that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.'
Mat 21:44
Mat 21:45 When they heard his parables, the chief priests and the scribes realized he was speaking about them,
Mat 21:46 but though they would have liked to arrest him they were afraid of the crowds, who looked on him as a prophet.
Mat 22:1 Jesus began to speak to them in parables once again,
Mat 22:2 'The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son's wedding.
Mat 22:3 He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.
Mat 22:4 Next he sent some more servants with the words, "Tell those who have been invited: Look, my banquet is all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding."
Mat 22:5 But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business,
Mat 22:6 and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them.
Mat 22:7 The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town.
Mat 22:8 Then he said to his servants, "The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy,
Mat 22:9 go to the main crossroads and invite everyone you can find to come to the wedding."
Mat 22:10 So these servants went out onto the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
Mat 22:11 When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment,
Mat 22:12 and said to him, "How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?" And the man was silent.
Mat 22:13 Then the king said to the attendants, "Bind him hand and foot and throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth."
Mat 22:14 For many are invited but not all are chosen.'
Mat 22:15 Then the Pharisees went away to work out between them how to trap him in what he said.
Mat 22:16 And they sent their disciples to him, together with some Herodians, to say, 'Master, we know that you are an honest man and teach the way of God in all honesty, and that you are not afraid of anyone, because human rank means nothing to you.
Mat 22:17 Give us your opinion, then. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not?'
Mat 22:18 But Jesus was aware of their malice and replied, 'You hypocrites! Why are you putting me to the test?
Mat 22:19 Show me the money you pay the tax with.' They handed him a denarius,
Mat 22:20 and he said, 'Whose portrait is this? Whose title?'
Mat 22:21 They replied, 'Caesar's.' Then he said to them, 'Very well, pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar -- and God what belongs to God.'
Mat 22:22 When they heard this they were amazed; they left him alone and went away.
Mat 22:23 That day some Sadducees -- who deny that there is a resurrection -- approached him and they put this question to him,
Mat 22:24 'Master, Moses said that if a man dies childless, his brother is to marry the widow, his sister-in-law, to raise children for his brother.
Mat 22:25 Now we had a case involving seven brothers; the first married and then died without children, leaving his wife to his brother;
Mat 22:26 the same thing happened with the second and third and so on to the seventh,
Mat 22:27 and then last of all the woman herself died.
Mat 22:28 Now at the resurrection, whose wife among the seven will she be, since she had been married to them all?'
Mat 22:29 Jesus answered them, 'You are wrong, because you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
Mat 22:30 For at the resurrection men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven.
Mat 22:31 And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you never read what God himself said to you:
Mat 22:32 I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob? He is God, not of the dead, but of the living.'
Mat 22:33 And his teaching made a deep impression on the people who heard it.
Mat 22:34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together
Mat 22:35 and, to put him to the test, one of them put a further question,
Mat 22:36 'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?'
Mat 22:37 Jesus said to him, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
Mat 22:38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.
Mat 22:39 The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself.
Mat 22:40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets too.'
Mat 22:41 While the Pharisees were gathered round, Jesus put to them this question,
Mat 22:42 'What is your opinion about the Christ? Whose son is he?' They told him, 'David's.'
Mat 22:43 He said to them, 'Then how is it that David, moved by the Spirit, calls him Lord, where he says:
Mat 22:44 The Lord declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand, till I have made your enemies your footstool?
Mat 22:45 'If David calls him Lord, how then can he be his son?'
Mat 22:46 No one could think of anything to say in reply, and from that day no one dared to ask him any further questions.
Mat 23:1 Then addressing the crowds and his disciples Jesus said,
Mat 23:2 'The scribes and the Pharisees occupy the chair of Moses.
Mat 23:3 You must therefore do and observe what they tell you; but do not be guided by what they do, since they do not practise what they preach.
Mat 23:4 They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people's shoulders, but will they lift a finger to move them? Not they!
Mat 23:5 Everything they do is done to attract attention, like wearing broader headbands and longer tassels,
Mat 23:6 like wanting to take the place of honor at banquets and the front seats in the synagogues,
Mat 23:7 being greeted respectfully in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi.
Mat 23:8 'You, however, must not allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, since you have only one Master, and you are all brothers.
Mat 23:9 You must call no one on earth your father, since you have only one Father, and he is in heaven.
Mat 23:10 Nor must you allow yourselves to be called teachers, for you have only one Teacher, the Christ.
Mat 23:11 The greatest among you must be your servant.
Mat 23:12 Anyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.
Mat 23:13 'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut up the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces, neither going in yourselves nor allowing others to go who want to.
Mat 23:14
Mat 23:15 'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and anyone who becomes one you make twice as fit for hell as you are.
Mat 23:16 'Alas for you, blind guides! You say, "If anyone swears by the Temple, it has no force; but anyone who swears by the gold of the Temple is bound."
Mat 23:17 Fools and blind! For which is of greater value, the gold or the Temple that makes the gold sacred?
Mat 23:18 Again, "If anyone swears by the altar it has no force; but anyone who swears by the offering on the altar, is bound."
Mat 23:19 You blind men! For which is of greater worth, the offering or the altar that makes the offering sacred?
Mat 23:20 Therefore, someone who swears by the altar is swearing by that and by everything on it.
Mat 23:21 And someone who swears by the Temple is swearing by that and by the One who dwells in it.
Mat 23:22 And someone who swears by heaven is swearing by the throne of God and by the One who is seated there.
Mat 23:23 'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You pay your tithe of mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law-justice, mercy, good faith! These you should have practised, those not neglected.
Mat 23:24 You blind guides, straining out gnats and swallowing camels!
Mat 23:25 'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of cup and dish and leave the inside full of extortion and intemperance.
Mat 23:26 Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of cup and dish first so that it and the outside are both clean.
Mat 23:27 'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs that look handsome on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of corruption.
Mat 23:28 In just the same way, from the outside you look upright, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Mat 23:29 'Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build the sepulchres of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the upright,
Mat 23:30 saying, "We would never have joined in shedding the blood of the prophets, had we lived in our ancestors' day."
Mat 23:31 So! Your own evidence tells against you! You are the children of those who murdered the prophets!
Mat 23:32 Very well then, finish off the work that your ancestors began.
Mat 23:33 'You serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape being condemned to hell?
Mat 23:34 This is why -- look -- I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some you will slaughter and crucify, some you will scourge in your synagogues and hunt from town to town;
Mat 23:35 and so you will draw down on yourselves the blood of every upright person that has been shed on earth, from the blood of Abel the holy to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
Mat 23:36 In truth I tell you, it will all recoil on this generation.
Mat 23:37 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you refused!
Mat 23:38 Look! Your house will be deserted,
Mat 23:39 for, I promise, you shall not see me any more until you are saying: Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord!'
Mat 24:1 Jesus left the Temple, and as he was going away his disciples came up to draw his attention to the Temple buildings.
Mat 24:2 He said to them in reply, 'You see all these? In truth I tell you, not a single stone here will be left on another: everything will be pulled down.'
Mat 24:3 And while he was sitting on the Mount of Olives the disciples came and asked him when they were by themselves, 'Tell us, when is this going to happen, and what sign will there be of your coming and of the end of the world?'
Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered them, 'Take care that no one deceives you,
Mat 24:5 because many will come using my name and saying, "I am the Christ," and they will deceive many.
Mat 24:6 You will hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for this is something that must happen, but the end will not be yet.
Mat 24:7 For nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Mat 24:8 All this is only the beginning of the birthpangs.
Mat 24:9 'Then you will be handed over to be tortured and put to death; and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name.
Mat 24:10 And then many will fall away; people will betray one another and hate one another.
Mat 24:11 Many false prophets will arise; they will deceive many,
Mat 24:12 and with the increase of lawlessness, love in most people will grow cold;
Mat 24:13 but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Mat 24:14 'This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world as evidence to the nations. And then the end will come.
Mat 24:15 'So when you see the appalling abomination, of which the prophet Daniel spoke, set up in the holy place (let the reader understand),
Mat 24:16 then those in Judaea must escape to the mountains;
Mat 24:17 if anyone is on the housetop, he must not come down to collect his belongings from the house;
Mat 24:18 if anyone is in the fields, he must not turn back to fetch his cloak.
Mat 24:19 Alas for those with child, or with babies at the breast, when those days come!
Mat 24:20 Pray that you will not have to make your escape in winter or on a Sabbath.
Mat 24:21 For then there will be great distress, unparalleled since the world began, and such as will never be again.
Mat 24:22 And if that time had not been shortened, no human being would have survived; but shortened that time shall be, for the sake of those who are chosen.
Mat 24:23 'If anyone says to you then, "Look, here is the Christ," or "Over here," do not believe it;
Mat 24:24 for false Christs and false prophets will arise and provide great signs and portents, enough to deceive even the elect, if that were possible.
Mat 24:25 Look! I have given you warning.
Mat 24:26 'If, then, they say to you, "Look, he is in the desert," do not go there; "Look, he is in some hiding place," do not believe it;
Mat 24:27 because the coming of the Son of man will be like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west.
Mat 24:28 Wherever the corpse is, that is where the vultures will gather.
Mat 24:29 'Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Mat 24:30 And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven; then, too, all the peoples of the earth will beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Mat 24:31 And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Mat 24:32 'Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.
Mat 24:33 So with you when you see all these things: know that he is near, right at the gates.
Mat 24:34 In truth I tell you, before this generation has passed away, all these things will have taken place.
Mat 24:35 Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Mat 24:36 But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father alone.
Mat 24:37 'As it was in Noah's day, so will it be when the Son of man comes.
Mat 24:38 For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark,
Mat 24:39 and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept them all away. This is what it will be like when the Son of man comes.
Mat 24:40 Then of two men in the fields, one is taken, one left;
Mat 24:41 of two women grinding at the mill, one is taken, one left.
Mat 24:42 'So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming.
Mat 24:43 You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house.
Mat 24:44 Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Mat 24:45 'Who, then, is the wise and trustworthy servant whom the master placed over his household to give them their food at the proper time?
Mat 24:46 Blessed that servant if his master's arrival finds him doing exactly that.
Mat 24:47 In truth I tell you, he will put him in charge of everything he owns.
Mat 24:48 But if the servant is dishonest and says to himself, "My master is taking his time,"
Mat 24:49 and sets about beating his fellow-servants and eating and drinking with drunkards,
Mat 24:50 his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know.
Mat 24:51 The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.'
Mat 25:1 'Then the kingdom of Heaven will be like this: Ten wedding attendants took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2 Five of them were foolish and five were sensible:
Mat 25:3 the foolish ones, though they took their lamps, took no oil with them,
Mat 25:4 whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps.
Mat 25:5 The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep.
Mat 25:6 But at midnight there was a cry, "Look! The bridegroom! Go out and meet him."
Mat 25:7 Then all those wedding attendants woke up and trimmed their lamps,
Mat 25:8 and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, "Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out."
Mat 25:9 But they replied, "There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves."
Mat 25:10 They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed.
Mat 25:11 The other attendants arrived later. "Lord, Lord," they said, "open the door for us."
Mat 25:12 But he replied, "In truth I tell you, I do not know you."
Mat 25:13 So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.
Mat 25:14 'It is like a man about to go abroad who summoned his servants and entrusted his property to them.
Mat 25:15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to a third one, each in proportion to his ability. Then he set out on his journey.
Mat 25:16 The man who had received the five talents promptly went and traded with them and made five more.
Mat 25:17 The man who had received two made two more in the same way.
Mat 25:18 But the man who had received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
Mat 25:19 Now a long time afterwards, the master of those servants came back and went through his accounts with them.
Mat 25:20 The man who had received the five talents came forward bringing five more. "Sir," he said, "you entrusted me with five talents; here are five more that I have made."
Mat 25:21 His master said to him, "Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master's happiness."
Mat 25:22 Next the man with the two talents came forward. "Sir," he said, "you entrusted me with two talents; here are two more that I have made."
Mat 25:23 His master said to him, "Well done, good and trustworthy servant; you have shown you are trustworthy in small things; I will trust you with greater; come and join in your master's happiness."
Mat 25:24 Last came forward the man who had the single talent. "Sir," said he, "I had heard you were a hard man, reaping where you had not sown and gathering where you had not scattered;
Mat 25:25 so I was afraid, and I went off and hid your talent in the ground. Here it is; it was yours, you have it back."
Mat 25:26 But his master answered him, "You wicked and lazy servant! So you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered?
Mat 25:27 Well then, you should have deposited my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have got my money back with interest.
Mat 25:28 So now, take the talent from him and give it to the man who has the ten talents.
Mat 25:29 For to everyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has.
Mat 25:30 As for this good-for-nothing servant, throw him into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth."
Mat 25:31 'When the Son of man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory.
Mat 25:32 All nations will be assembled before him and he will separate people one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats.
Mat 25:33 He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.
Mat 25:34 Then the King will say to those on his right hand, "Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.
Mat 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you made me welcome,
Mat 25:36 lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me."
Mat 25:37 Then the upright will say to him in reply, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
Mat 25:38 When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome, lacking clothes and clothe you?
Mat 25:39 When did we find you sick or in prison and go to see you?"
Mat 25:40 And the King will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me."
Mat 25:41 Then he will say to those on his left hand, "Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Mat 25:42 For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never gave me anything to drink,
Mat 25:43 I was a stranger and you never made me welcome, lacking clothes and you never clothed me, sick and in prison and you never visited me."
Mat 25:44 Then it will be their turn to ask, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, a stranger or lacking clothes, sick or in prison, and did not come to your help?"
Mat 25:45 Then he will answer, "In truth I tell you, in so far as you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me."
Mat 25:46 And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the upright to eternal life.'
Mat 26:1 Jesus had now finished all he wanted to say, and he told his disciples,
Mat 26:2 'It will be Passover, as you know, in two days' time, and the Son of man will be handed over to be crucified.'
Mat 26:3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas,
Mat 26:4 and made plans to arrest Jesus by some trick and have him put to death.
Mat 26:5 They said, however, 'It must not be during the festivities; there must be no disturbance among the people.'
Mat 26:6 Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a virulent skin-disease, when
Mat 26:7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive ointment, and poured it on his head as he was at table.
Mat 26:8 When they saw this, the disciples said indignantly, 'Why this waste?
Mat 26:9 This could have been sold for a high price and the money given the poor.'
Mat 26:10 But Jesus noticed this and said, 'Why are you upsetting the woman? What she has done for me is indeed a good work!
Mat 26:11 You have the poor with you always, but you will not always have me.
Mat 26:12 When she poured this ointment on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial.
Mat 26:13 In truth I tell you, wherever in all the world this gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told as well, in remembrance of her.'
Mat 26:14 Then one of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests
Mat 26:15 and said, 'What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?' They paid him thirty silver pieces,
Mat 26:16 and from then onwards he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
Mat 26:17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus to say, 'Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?'
Mat 26:18 He said, 'Go to a certain man in the city and say to him, "The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples." '
Mat 26:19 The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.
Mat 26:20 When evening came he was at table with the Twelve.
Mat 26:21 And while they were eating he said, 'In truth I tell you, one of you is about to betray me.'
Mat 26:22 They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, 'Not me, Lord, surely?'
Mat 26:23 He answered, 'Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me will betray me.
Mat 26:24 The Son of man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!'
Mat 26:25 Judas, who was to betray him, asked in his turn, 'Not me, Rabbi, surely?' Jesus answered, 'It is you who say it.'
Mat 26:26 Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to the disciples. 'Take it and eat,' he said, 'this is my body.'
Mat 26:27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them saying, 'Drink from this, all of you,
Mat 26:28 for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Mat 26:29 From now on, I tell you, I shall never again drink wine until the day I drink the new wine with you in the kingdom of my Father.'
Mat 26:30 After the psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.
Mat 26:31 Then Jesus said to them, 'You will all fall away from me tonight, for the scripture says: I shall strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered,
Mat 26:32 but after my resurrection I shall go ahead of you to Galilee.'
Mat 26:33 At this, Peter said to him, 'Even if all fall away from you, I will never fall away.'
Mat 26:34 Jesus answered him, 'In truth I tell you, this very night, before the cock crows, you will have disowned me three times.'
Mat 26:35 Peter said to him, 'Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.' And all the disciples said the same.
Mat 26:36 Then Jesus came with them to a plot of land called Gethsemane; and he said to his disciples, 'Stay here while I go over there to pray.'
Mat 26:37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee with him. And he began to feel sadness and anguish.
Mat 26:38 Then he said to them, 'My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here and stay awake with me.'
Mat 26:39 And going on a little further he fell on his face and prayed. 'My Father,' he said, 'if it is possible, let this cup pass me by. Nevertheless, let it be as you, not I, would have it.'
Mat 26:40 He came back to the disciples and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, 'So you had not the strength to stay awake with me for one hour?
Mat 26:41 Stay awake, and pray not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing enough, but human nature is weak.'
Mat 26:42 Again, a second time, he went away and prayed: 'My Father,' he said, 'if this cup cannot pass by, but I must drink it, your will be done!'
Mat 26:43 And he came back again and found them sleeping, their eyes were so heavy.
Mat 26:44 Leaving them there, he went away again and prayed for the third time, repeating the same words.
Mat 26:45 Then he came back to the disciples and said to them, 'You can sleep on now and have your rest. Look, the hour has come when the Son of man is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Mat 26:46 Get up! Let us go! Look, my betrayer is not far away.'
Mat 26:47 And suddenly while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, appeared, and with him a large number of men armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and elders of the people.
Mat 26:48 Now the traitor had arranged a sign with them saying, 'The one I kiss, he is the man. Arrest him.'
Mat 26:49 So he went up to Jesus at once and said, 'Greetings, Rabbi,' and kissed him.
Mat 26:50 Jesus said to him, 'My friend, do what you are here for.' Then they came forward, seized Jesus and arrested him.
Mat 26:51 And suddenly, one of the followers of Jesus grasped his sword and drew it; he struck the high priest's servant and cut off his ear.
Mat 26:52 Jesus then said, 'Put your sword back, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Mat 26:53 Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, who would promptly send more than twelve legions of angels to my defence?
Mat 26:54 But then, how would the scriptures be fulfilled that say this is the way it must be?'
Mat 26:55 It was at this time that Jesus said to the crowds, 'Am I a bandit, that you had to set out to capture me with swords and clubs? I sat teaching in the Temple day after day and you never laid a hand on me.'
Mat 26:56 Now all this happened to fulfill the prophecies in scripture. Then all the disciples deserted him and ran away.
Mat 26:57 The men who had arrested Jesus led him off to the house of Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
Mat 26:58 Peter followed him at a distance right to the high priest's palace, and he went in and sat down with the attendants to see what the end would be.
Mat 26:59 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus, however false, on which they might have him executed.
Mat 26:60 But they could not find any, though several lying witnesses came forward. Eventually two came forward
Mat 26:61 and made a statement, 'This man said, "I have power to destroy the Temple of God and in three days build it up." '
Mat 26:62 The high priest then rose and said to him, 'Have you no answer to that? What is this evidence these men are bringing against you?'
Mat 26:63 But Jesus was silent. And the high priest said to him, 'I put you on oath by the living God to tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.'
Mat 26:64 Jesus answered him, 'It is you who say it. But, I tell you that from this time onward you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.'
Mat 26:65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, 'He has blasphemed. What need of witnesses have we now? There! You have just heard the blasphemy.
Mat 26:66 What is your opinion?' They answered, 'He deserves to die.'
Mat 26:67 Then they spat in his face and hit him with their fists; others said as they struck him,
Mat 26:68 'Prophesy to us, Christ! Who hit you then?'
Mat 26:69 Meanwhile Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a servant-girl came up to him saying, 'You, too, were with Jesus the Galilean.'
Mat 26:70 But he denied it in front of them all. 'I do not know what you are talking about,' he said.
Mat 26:71 When he went out to the gateway another servant-girl saw him and said to the people there, 'This man was with Jesus the Nazarene.'
Mat 26:72 And again, with an oath, he denied it, 'I do not know the man.'
Mat 26:73 A little later the bystanders came up and said to Peter, 'You are certainly one of them too! Why, your accent gives you away.'
Mat 26:74 Then he started cursing and swearing, 'I do not know the man.' And at once the cock crowed,
Mat 26:75 and Peter remembered what Jesus had said, 'Before the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.' And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Mat 27:1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people met in council to bring about the death of Jesus.
Mat 27:2 They had him bound and led him away to hand him over to Pilate, the governor.
Mat 27:3 When he found that Jesus had been condemned, then Judas, his betrayer, was filled with remorse and took the thirty silver pieces back to the chief priests and elders
Mat 27:4 saying, 'I have sinned. I have betrayed innocent blood.' They replied, 'What is that to us? That is your concern.'
Mat 27:5 And flinging down the silver pieces in the sanctuary he made off, and went and hanged himself.
Mat 27:6 The chief priests picked up the silver pieces and said, 'It is against the Law to put this into the treasury; it is blood-money.'
Mat 27:7 So they discussed the matter and with it bought the potter's field as a graveyard for foreigners,
Mat 27:8 and this is why the field is still called the Field of Blood.
Mat 27:9 The word spoken through the prophet Jeremiah was then fulfilled: And they took the thirty silver pieces, the sum at which the precious One was priced by the children of Israel,
Mat 27:10 and they gave them for the potter's field, just as the Lord directed me.
Mat 27:11 Jesus, then, was brought before the governor, and the governor put to him this question, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' Jesus replied, 'It is you who say it.'
Mat 27:12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders he refused to answer at all.
Mat 27:13 Pilate then said to him, 'Do you not hear how many charges they have made against you?'
Mat 27:14 But to the governor's amazement, he offered not a word in answer to any of the charges.
Mat 27:15 At festival time it was the governor's practice to release a prisoner for the people, anyone they chose.
Mat 27:16 Now there was then a notorious prisoner whose name was Barabbas.
Mat 27:17 So when the crowd gathered, Pilate said to them, 'Which do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?'
Mat 27:18 For Pilate knew it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over.
Mat 27:19 Now as he was seated in the chair of judgement, his wife sent him a message, 'Have nothing to do with that upright man; I have been extremely upset today by a dream that I had about him.'
Mat 27:20 The chief priests and the elders, however, had persuaded the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas and the execution of Jesus.
Mat 27:21 So when the governor spoke and asked them, 'Which of the two do you want me to release for you?' they said, 'Barabbas.'
Mat 27:22 Pilate said to them, 'But in that case, what am I to do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all said, 'Let him be crucified!'
Mat 27:23 He asked, 'But what harm has he done?' But they shouted all the louder, 'Let him be crucified!'
Mat 27:24 Then Pilate saw that he was making no impression, that in fact a riot was imminent. So he took some water, washed his hands in front of the crowd and said, 'I am innocent of this man's blood. It is your concern.'
Mat 27:25 And the people, every one of them, shouted back, 'Let his blood be on us and on our children!'
Mat 27:26 Then he released Barabbas for them. After having Jesus scourged he handed him over to be crucified.
Mat 27:27 Then the governor's soldiers took Jesus with them into the Praetorium and collected the whole cohort round him.
Mat 27:28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet cloak round him,
Mat 27:29 and having twisted some thorns into a crown they put this on his head and placed a reed in his right hand. To make fun of him they knelt to him saying, 'Hail, king of the Jews!'
Mat 27:30 And they spat on him and took the reed and struck him on the head with it.
Mat 27:31 And when they had finished making fun of him, they took off the cloak and dressed him in his own clothes and led him away to crucifixion.
Mat 27:32 On their way out, they came across a man from Cyrene, called Simon, and enlisted him to carry his cross.
Mat 27:33 When they had reached a place called Golgotha, that is, the place of the skull,
Mat 27:34 they gave him wine to drink mixed with gall, which he tasted but refused to drink.
Mat 27:35 When they had finished crucifying him they shared out his clothing by casting lots,
Mat 27:36 and then sat down and stayed there keeping guard over him.
Mat 27:37 Above his head was placed the charge against him; it read: 'This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.'
Mat 27:38 Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left.
Mat 27:39 The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads
Mat 27:40 and said, 'So you would destroy the Temple and in three days rebuild it! Then save yourself if you are God's son and come down from the cross!'
Mat 27:41 The chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him in the same way,
Mat 27:42 with the words, 'He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the king of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.
Mat 27:43 He has put his trust in God; now let God rescue him if he wants him. For he did say, "I am God's son." '
Mat 27:44 Even the bandits who were crucified with him taunted him in the same way.
Mat 27:45 From the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eli, eli, lama sabachthani?' that is, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'
Mat 27:47 When some of those who stood there heard this, they said, 'The man is calling on Elijah,'
Mat 27:48 and one of them quickly ran to get a sponge which he filled with vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it him to drink.
Mat 27:49 But the rest of them said, 'Wait! And see if Elijah will come to save him.'
Mat 27:50 But Jesus, again crying out in a loud voice, yielded up his spirit.
Mat 27:51 And suddenly, the veil of the Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, the rocks were split,
Mat 27:52 the tombs opened and the bodies of many holy people rose from the dead,
Mat 27:53 and these, after his resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the holy city and appeared to a number of people.
Mat 27:54 The centurion, together with the others guarding Jesus, had seen the earthquake and all that was taking place, and they were terrified and said, 'In truth this man was son of God.'
Mat 27:55 And many women were there, watching from a distance, the same women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after him.
Mat 27:56 Among them were Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.
Mat 27:57 When it was evening, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, called Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.
Mat 27:58 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be handed over.
Mat 27:59 So Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean shroud
Mat 27:60 and put it in his own new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a large stone across the entrance of the tomb and went away.
Mat 27:61 Now Mary of Magdala and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the sepulchre.
Mat 27:62 Next day, that is, when Preparation Day was over, the chief priests and the Pharisees went in a body to Pilate
Mat 27:63 and said to him, 'Your Excellency, we recall that this impostor said, while he was still alive, "After three days I shall rise again."
Mat 27:64 Therefore give the order to have the sepulchre kept secure until the third day, for fear his disciples come and steal him away and tell the people, "He has risen from the dead." This last piece of fraud would be worse than what went before.'
Mat 27:65 Pilate said to them, 'You may have your guard; go and make all as secure as you know how.'
Mat 27:66 So they went and made the sepulchre secure, putting seals on the stone and mounting a guard.
Mat 28:1 After the Sabbath, and towards dawn on the first day of the week, Mary of Magdala and the other Mary went to visit the sepulchre.
Mat 28:2 And suddenly there was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled away the stone and sat on it.
Mat 28:3 His face was like lightning, his robe white as snow.
Mat 28:4 The guards were so shaken by fear of him that they were like dead men.
Mat 28:5 But the angel spoke; and he said to the women, 'There is no need for you to be afraid. I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
Mat 28:6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said he would. Come and see the place where he lay,
Mat 28:7 then go quickly and tell his disciples, "He has risen from the dead and now he is going ahead of you to Galilee; that is where you will see him." Look! I have told you.'
Mat 28:8 Filled with awe and great joy the women came quickly away from the tomb and ran to tell his disciples.
Mat 28:9 And suddenly, coming to meet them, was Jesus. 'Greetings,' he said. And the women came up to him and, clasping his feet, they did him homage.
Mat 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers that they must leave for Galilee; there they will see me.'
Mat 28:11 Now while they were on their way, some of the guards went off into the city to tell the chief priests all that had happened.
Mat 28:12 These held a meeting with the elders and, after some discussion, handed a considerable sum of money to the soldiers
Mat 28:13 with these instructions, 'This is what you must say, "His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep."
Mat 28:14 And should the governor come to hear of this, we undertake to put things right with him ourselves and to see that you do not get into trouble.'
Mat 28:15 So they took the money and carried out their instructions, and to this day that is the story among the Jews.
Mat 28:16 Meanwhile the eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them.
Mat 28:17 When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated.
Mat 28:18 Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Mat 28:19 Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Mat 28:20 and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.'
Mar 1:1 The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Mar 1:2 It is written in the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you.
Mar 1:3 A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.
Mar 1:4 John the Baptist was in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
Mar 1:5 All Judaea and all the people of Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.
Mar 1:6 John wore a garment of camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey.
Mar 1:7 In the course of his preaching he said, 'After me is coming someone who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.
Mar 1:8 I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.'
Mar 1:9 It was at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John.
Mar 1:10 And at once, as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, like a dove, descending on him.
Mar 1:11 And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; my favor rests on you.'
Mar 1:12 And at once the Spirit drove him into the desert
Mar 1:13 and he remained there for forty days, and was put to the test by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels looked after him.
Mar 1:14 After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the gospel from God saying,
Mar 1:15 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.'
Mar 1:16 As he was walking along by the Lake of Galilee he saw Simon and Simon's brother Andrew casting a net in the lake -- for they were fishermen.
Mar 1:17 And Jesus said to them, 'Come after me and I will make you into fishers of people.'
Mar 1:18 And at once they left their nets and followed him.
Mar 1:19 Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending the nets.
Mar 1:20 At once he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went after him.
Mar 1:21 They went as far as Capernaum, and at once on the Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach.
Mar 1:22 And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.
Mar 1:23 And at once in their synagogue there was a man with an unclean spirit, and he shouted,
Mar 1:24 'What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.'
Mar 1:25 But Jesus rebuked it saying, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!'
Mar 1:26 And the unclean spirit threw the man into convulsions and with a loud cry went out of him.
Mar 1:27 The people were so astonished that they started asking one another what it all meant, saying, 'Here is a teaching that is new, and with authority behind it: he gives orders even to unclean spirits and they obey him.'
Mar 1:28 And his reputation at once spread everywhere, through all the surrounding Galilean countryside.
Mar 1:29 And at once on leaving the synagogue, he went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew.
Mar 1:30 Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed and feverish, and at once they told him about her.
Mar 1:31 He went in to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to serve them.
Mar 1:32 That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils.
Mar 1:33 The whole town came crowding round the door,
Mar 1:34 and he cured many who were sick with diseases of one kind or another; he also drove out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.
Mar 1:35 In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house and went off to a lonely place and prayed there.
Mar 1:36 Simon and his companions set out in search of him,
Mar 1:37 and when they found him they said, 'Everybody is looking for you.'
Mar 1:38 He answered, 'Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring country towns, so that I can proclaim the message there too, because that is why I came.'
Mar 1:39 And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out devils.
Mar 1:40 A man suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to him and pleaded on his knees saying, 'If you are willing, you can cleanse me.'
Mar 1:41 Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.'
Mar 1:42 And at once the skin-disease left him and he was cleansed.
Mar 1:43 And at once Jesus sternly sent him away and said to him,
Mar 1:44 'Mind you tell no one anything, but go and show yourself to the priest, and make the offering for your cleansing prescribed by Moses as evidence to them.'
Mar 1:45 The man went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places. Even so, people from all around kept coming to him.
Mar 2:1 When he returned to Capernaum, some time later word went round that he was in the house;
Mar 2:2 and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the word to them
Mar 2:3 when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men,
Mar 2:4 but as they could not get the man to him through the crowd, they stripped the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay.
Mar 2:5 Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, 'My child, your sins are forgiven.'
Mar 2:6 Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves,
Mar 2:7 'How can this man talk like that? He is being blasphemous. Who but God can forgive sins?'
Mar 2:8 And at once, Jesus, inwardly aware that this is what they were thinking, said to them, 'Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts?
Mar 2:9 Which of these is easier: to say to the paralytic, "Your sins are forgiven" or to say, "Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk"?
Mar 2:10 But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority to forgive sins on earth' --
Mar 2:11 he said to the paralytic-'I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.'
Mar 2:12 And the man got up, and at once picked up his stretcher and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astonished and praised God saying, 'We have never seen anything like this.'
Mar 2:13 He went out again to the shore of the lake; and all the people came to him, and he taught them.
Mar 2:14 As he was walking along he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him.
Mar 2:15 When Jesus was at dinner in his house, a number of tax collectors and sinners were also sitting at table with Jesus and his disciples; for there were many of them among his followers.
Mar 2:16 When the scribes of the Pharisee party saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they said to his disciples, 'Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
Mar 2:17 When Jesus heard this he said to them, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick. I came to call not the upright, but sinners.'
Mar 2:18 John's disciples and the Pharisees were keeping a fast, when some people came to him and said to him, 'Why is it that John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not?'
Mar 2:19 Jesus replied, 'Surely the bridegroom's attendants cannot fast while the bridegroom is still with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
Mar 2:20 But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then, on that day, they will fast.
Mar 2:21 No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; otherwise, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Mar 2:22 And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins too. No! New wine into fresh skins!'
Mar 2:23 It happened that one Sabbath day he was taking a walk through the cornfields, and his disciples began to make a path by plucking ears of corn.
Mar 2:24 And the Pharisees said to him, 'Look, why are they doing something on the Sabbath day that is forbidden?'
Mar 2:25 And he replied, 'Have you never read what David did in his time of need when he and his followers were hungry-
Mar 2:26 how he went into the house of God when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the loaves of the offering which only the priests are allowed to eat, and how he also gave some to the men with him?'
Mar 2:27 And he said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath;
Mar 2:28 so the Son of man is master even of the Sabbath.'
Mar 3:1 Another time he went into the synagogue, and there was a man present whose hand was withered.
Mar 3:2 And they were watching him to see if he would cure him on the Sabbath day, hoping for something to charge him with.
Mar 3:3 He said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and stand in the middle!'
Mar 3:4 Then he said to them, 'Is it permitted on the Sabbath day to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to kill?' But they said nothing.
Mar 3:5 Then he looked angrily round at them, grieved to find them so obstinate, and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He stretched it out and his hand was restored.
Mar 3:6 The Pharisees went out and began at once to plot with the Herodians against him, discussing how to destroy him.
Mar 3:7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea,
Mar 3:8 and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea and Transjordan and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him.
Mar 3:9 And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed.
Mar 3:10 For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him.
Mar 3:11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, 'You are the Son of God!'
Mar 3:12 But he warned them strongly not to make him known.
Mar 3:13 He now went up onto the mountain and summoned those he wanted. So they came to him
Mar 3:14 and he appointed twelve; they were to be his companions and to be sent out to proclaim the message,
Mar 3:15 with power to drive out devils.
Mar 3:16 And so he appointed the Twelve, Simon to whom he gave the name Peter,
Mar 3:17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges or 'Sons of Thunder';
Mar 3:18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot
Mar 3:19 and Judas Iscariot, the man who was to betray him.
Mar 3:20 He went home again, and once more such a crowd collected that they could not even have a meal.
Mar 3:21 When his relations heard of this, they set out to take charge of him; they said, 'He is out of his mind.'
Mar 3:22 The scribes who had come down from Jerusalem were saying, 'Beelzebul is in him,' and, 'It is through the prince of devils that he drives devils out.'
Mar 3:23 So he called them to him and spoke to them in parables,
Mar 3:24 'How can Satan drive out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot last.
Mar 3:25 And if a household is divided against itself, that household can never last.
Mar 3:26 Now if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he cannot last either -- it is the end of him.
Mar 3:27 But no one can make his way into a strong man's house and plunder his property unless he has first tied up the strong man. Only then can he plunder his house.
Mar 3:28 'In truth I tell you, all human sins will be forgiven, and all the blasphemies ever uttered;
Mar 3:29 but anyone who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, but is guilty of an eternal sin.'
Mar 3:30 This was because they were saying, 'There is an unclean spirit in him.'
Mar 3:31 Now his mother and his brothers arrived and, standing outside, sent in a message asking for him.
Mar 3:32 A crowd was sitting round him at the time the message was passed to him, 'Look, your mother and brothers and sisters are outside asking for you.'
Mar 3:33 He replied, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?'
Mar 3:34 And looking at those sitting in a circle round him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers.
Mar 3:35 Anyone who does the will of God, that person is my brother and sister and mother.'
Mar 4:1 Again he began to teach them by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the water and sat there. The whole crowd were at the lakeside on land.
Mar 4:2 He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them,
Mar 4:3 'Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow.
Mar 4:4 Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
Mar 4:5 Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and at once sprang up, because there was no depth of earth;
Mar 4:6 and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away.
Mar 4:7 Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop.
Mar 4:8 And some seeds fell into rich soil, grew tall and strong, and produced a good crop; the yield was thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.'
Mar 4:9 And he said, 'Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!'
Mar 4:10 When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant.
Mar 4:11 He told them, 'To you is granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables,
Mar 4:12 so that they may look and look, but never perceive; listen and listen, but never understand; to avoid changing their ways and being healed.'
Mar 4:13 He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?
Mar 4:14 What the sower is sowing is the word.
Mar 4:15 Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan at once comes and carries away the word that was sown in them.
Mar 4:16 Similarly, those who are sown on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy.
Mar 4:17 But they have no root deep down and do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, at once they fall away.
Mar 4:18 Then there are others who are sown in thorns. These have heard the word,
Mar 4:19 but the worries of the world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing.
Mar 4:20 And there are those who have been sown in rich soil; they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.'
Mar 4:21 He also said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a tub or under the bed? Surely to be put on the lamp-stand?
Mar 4:22 For there is nothing hidden, but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light.
Mar 4:23 Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!'
Mar 4:24 He also said to them, 'Take notice of what you are hearing. The standard you use will be used for you -- and you will receive more besides;
Mar 4:25 anyone who has, will be given more; anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has.'
Mar 4:26 He also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land.
Mar 4:27 Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know.
Mar 4:28 Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
Mar 4:29 And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.'
Mar 4:30 He also said, 'What can we say that the kingdom is like? What parable can we find for it?
Mar 4:31 It is like a mustard seed which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.
Mar 4:32 Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.'
Mar 4:33 Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it.
Mar 4:34 He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves.
Mar 4:35 With the coming of evening that same day, he said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side.'
Mar 4:36 And leaving the crowd behind they took him, just as he was, in the boat; and there were other boats with him.
Mar 4:37 Then it began to blow a great gale and the waves were breaking into the boat so that it was almost swamped.
Mar 4:38 But he was in the stern, his head on the cushion, asleep.
Mar 4:39 They woke him and said to him, 'Master, do you not care? We are lost!' And he woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, 'Quiet now! Be calm!' And the wind dropped, and there followed a great calm.
Mar 4:40 Then he said to them, 'Why are you so frightened? Have you still no faith?'
Mar 4:41 They were overcome with awe and said to one another, 'Who can this be? Even the wind and the sea obey him.'
Mar 5:1 They reached the territory of the Gerasenes on the other side of the lake,
Mar 5:2 and when he disembarked, a man with an unclean spirit at once came out from the tombs towards him.
Mar 5:3 The man lived in the tombs and no one could secure him any more, even with a chain,
Mar 5:4 because he had often been secured with fetters and chains but had snapped the chains and broken the fetters, and no one had the strength to control him.
Mar 5:5 All night and all day, among the tombs and in the mountains, he would howl and gash himself with stones.
Mar 5:6 Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and fell at his feet
Mar 5:7 and shouted at the top of his voice, 'What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? In God's name do not torture me!'
Mar 5:8 For Jesus had been saying to him, 'Come out of the man, unclean spirit.'
Mar 5:9 Then he asked, 'What is your name?' He answered, 'My name is Legion, for there are many of us.'
Mar 5:10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the district.
Mar 5:11 Now on the mountainside there was a great herd of pigs feeding,
Mar 5:12 and the unclean spirits begged him, 'Send us to the pigs, let us go into them.'
Mar 5:13 So he gave them leave. With that, the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs, and the herd of about two thousand pigs charged down the cliff into the lake, and there they were drowned.
Mar 5:14 The men looking after them ran off and told their story in the city and in the country round about; and the people came to see what had really happened.
Mar 5:15 They came to Jesus and saw the demoniac sitting there -- the man who had had the legion in him -- properly dressed and in his full senses, and they were afraid.
Mar 5:16 And those who had witnessed it reported what had happened to the demoniac and what had become of the pigs.
Mar 5:17 Then they began to implore Jesus to leave their neighborhood.
Mar 5:18 As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed begged to be allowed to stay with him.
Mar 5:19 Jesus would not let him but said to him, 'Go home to your people and tell them all that the Lord in his mercy has done for you.'
Mar 5:20 So the man went off and proceeded to proclaim in the Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him. And everyone was amazed.
Mar 5:21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lake.
Mar 5:22 Then the president of the synagogue came up, named Jairus, and seeing him, fell at his feet
Mar 5:23 and begged him earnestly, saying, 'My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her that she may be saved and may live.'
Mar 5:24 Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.
Mar 5:25 Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years;
Mar 5:26 after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she had spent all she had without being any the better for it; in fact, she was getting worse.
Mar 5:27 She had heard about Jesus, and she came up through the crowd and touched his cloak from behind, thinking,
Mar 5:28 'If I can just touch his clothes, I shall be saved.'
Mar 5:29 And at once the source of the bleeding dried up, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint.
Mar 5:30 And at once aware of the power that had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, 'Who touched my clothes?'
Mar 5:31 His disciples said to him, 'You see how the crowd is pressing round you; how can you ask, "Who touched me?" '
Mar 5:32 But he continued to look all round to see who had done it.
Mar 5:33 Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth.
Mar 5:34 'My daughter,' he said, 'your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free of your complaint.'
Mar 5:35 While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the president of the synagogue to say, 'Your daughter is dead; why put the Master to any further trouble?'
Mar 5:36 But Jesus overheard what they said and he said to the president of the synagogue, 'Do not be afraid; only have faith.'
Mar 5:37 And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.
Mar 5:38 So they came to the house of the president of the synagogue, and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly.
Mar 5:39 He went in and said to them, 'Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.'
Mar 5:40 But they ridiculed him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child's father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay.
Mar 5:41 And taking the child by the hand he said to her, 'Talitha kum!' which means, 'Little girl, I tell you to get up.'
Mar 5:42 The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At once they were overcome with astonishment,
Mar 5:43 and he gave them strict orders not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.
Mar 6:1 Leaving that district, he went to his home town, and his disciples accompanied him.
Mar 6:2 With the coming of the Sabbath he began teaching in the synagogue, and most of them were astonished when they heard him. They said, 'Where did the man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been granted him, and these miracles that are worked through him?
Mar 6:3 This is the carpenter, surely, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joset and Jude and Simon? His sisters, too, are they not here with us?' And they would not accept him.
Mar 6:4 And Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is despised only in his own country, among his own relations and in his own house';
Mar 6:5 and he could work no miracle there, except that he cured a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
Mar 6:6 He was amazed at their lack of faith. He made a tour round the villages, teaching.
Mar 6:7 Then he summoned the Twelve and began to send them out in pairs, giving them authority over unclean spirits.
Mar 6:8 And he instructed them to take nothing for the journey except a staff -- no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their purses.
Mar 6:9 They were to wear sandals but, he added, 'Don't take a spare tunic.'
Mar 6:10 And he said to them, 'If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until you leave the district.
Mar 6:11 And if any place does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake off the dust under your feet as evidence to them.'
Mar 6:12 So they set off to proclaim repentance;
Mar 6:13 and they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured them.
Mar 6:14 King Herod had heard about him, since by now his name was well known. Some were saying, 'John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.'
Mar 6:15 Others said, 'He is Elijah,' others again, 'He is a prophet, like the prophets we used to have.'
Mar 6:16 But when Herod heard this he said, 'It is John whose head I cut off; he has risen from the dead.'
Mar 6:17 Now it was this same Herod who had sent to have John arrested, and had had him chained up in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife whom he had married.
Mar 6:18 For John had told Herod, 'It is against the law for you to have your brother's wife.'
Mar 6:19 As for Herodias, she was furious with him and wanted to kill him, but she was not able to do so,
Mar 6:20 because Herod was in awe of John, knowing him to be a good and upright man, and gave him his protection. When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.
Mar 6:21 An opportunity came on Herod's birthday when he gave a banquet for the nobles of his court, for his army officers and for the leading figures in Galilee.
Mar 6:22 When the daughter of this same Herodias came in and danced, she delighted Herod and his guests; so the king said to the girl, 'Ask me anything you like and I will give it you.'
Mar 6:23 And he swore her an oath, 'I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom.'
Mar 6:24 She went out and said to her mother, 'What shall I ask for?' She replied, 'The head of John the Baptist.'
Mar 6:25 The girl at once rushed back to the king and made her request, 'I want you to give me John the Baptist's head, immediately, on a dish.'
Mar 6:26 The king was deeply distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he was reluctant to break his word to her.
Mar 6:27 At once the king sent one of the bodyguard with orders to bring John's head.
Mar 6:28 The man went off and beheaded him in the prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
Mar 6:29 When John's disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Mar 6:30 The apostles rejoined Jesus and told him all they had done and taught.
Mar 6:31 And he said to them, 'Come away to some lonely place all by yourselves and rest for a while'; for there were so many coming and going that there was no time for them even to eat.
Mar 6:32 So they went off in the boat to a lonely place where they could be by themselves.
Mar 6:33 But people saw them going, and many recognized them; and from every town they all hurried to the place on foot and reached it before them.
Mar 6:34 So as he stepped ashore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them because they were like sheep without a shepherd, and he set himself to teach them at some length.
Mar 6:35 By now it was getting very late, and his disciples came up to him and said, 'This is a lonely place and it is getting very late,
Mar 6:36 so send them away, and they can go to the farms and villages round about, to buy themselves something to eat.'
Mar 6:37 He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves.' They answered, 'Are we to go and spend two hundred denarii on bread for them to eat?'
Mar 6:38 He asked, 'How many loaves have you? Go and see.' And when they had found out they said, 'Five, and two fish.'
Mar 6:39 Then he ordered them to get all the people to sit down in groups on the green grass,
Mar 6:40 and they sat down on the ground in squares of hundreds and fifties.
Mar 6:41 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessing; then he broke the loaves and began handing them to his disciples to distribute among the people. He also shared out the two fish among them all.
Mar 6:42 They all ate as much as they wanted.
Mar 6:43 They collected twelve basketfuls of scraps of bread and pieces of fish.
Mar 6:44 Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand men.
Mar 6:45 And at once he made his disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side near Bethsaida, while he himself sent the crowd away.
Mar 6:46 After saying goodbye to them he went off into the hills to pray.
Mar 6:47 When evening came, the boat was far out on the sea, and he was alone on the land.
Mar 6:48 He could see that they were hard pressed in their rowing, for the wind was against them; and about the fourth watch of the night he came towards them, walking on the sea. He was going to pass them by,
Mar 6:49 but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost and cried out;
Mar 6:50 for they had all seen him and were terrified. But at once he spoke to them and said, 'Courage! It's me! Don't be afraid.'
Mar 6:51 Then he got into the boat with them and the wind dropped. They were utterly and completely dumbfounded,
Mar 6:52 because they had not seen what the miracle of the loaves meant; their minds were closed.
Mar 6:53 Having made the crossing, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored there.
Mar 6:54 When they disembarked people at once recognized him,
Mar 6:55 and started hurrying all through the countryside and brought the sick on stretchers to wherever they heard he was.
Mar 6:56 And wherever he went, to village or town or farm, they laid down the sick in the open spaces, begging him to let them touch even the fringe of his cloak. And all those who touched him were saved.
Mar 7:1 The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered round him,
Mar 7:2 and they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unclean hands, that is, without washing them.
Mar 7:3 For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, keep the tradition of the elders and never eat without washing their arms as far as the elbow;
Mar 7:4 and on returning from the market place they never eat without first sprinkling themselves. There are also many other observances which have been handed down to them to keep, concerning the washing of cups and pots and bronze dishes.
Mar 7:5 So the Pharisees and scribes asked him, 'Why do your disciples not respect the tradition of the elders but eat their food with unclean hands?'
Mar 7:6 He answered, 'How rightly Isaiah prophesied about you hypocrites in the passage of scripture: This people honors me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.
Mar 7:7 Their reverence of me is worthless; the lessons they teach are nothing but human commandments.
Mar 7:8 You put aside the commandment of God to observe human traditions.'
Mar 7:9 And he said to them, 'How ingeniously you get round the commandment of God in order to preserve your own tradition!
Mar 7:10 For Moses said: honor your father and your mother, and, Anyone who curses father or mother must be put to death.
Mar 7:11 But you say, "If a man says to his father or mother: Anything I have that I might have used to help you is Korban (that is, dedicated to God),"
Mar 7:12 then he is forbidden from that moment to do anything for his father or mother.
Mar 7:13 In this way you make God's word ineffective for the sake of your tradition which you have handed down. And you do many other things like this.'
Mar 7:14 He called the people to him again and said, 'Listen to me, all of you, and understand.
Mar 7:15 Nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean; it is the things that come out of someone that make that person unclean.
Mar 7:16 Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!'
Mar 7:17 When he had gone into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable.
Mar 7:18 He said to them, 'Even you -- don't you understand? Can't you see that nothing that goes into someone from outside can make that person unclean,
Mar 7:19 because it goes not into the heart but into the stomach and passes into the sewer?' (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.)
Mar 7:20 And he went on, 'It is what comes out of someone that makes that person unclean.
Mar 7:21 For it is from within, from the heart, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder,
Mar 7:22 adultery, avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within and make a person unclean.'
Mar 7:24 He left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there; but he could not pass unrecognized.
Mar 7:25 At once a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him and came and fell at his feet.
Mar 7:26 Now this woman was a gentile, by birth a Syro-Phoenician, and she begged him to drive the devil out of her daughter.
Mar 7:27 And he said to her, 'The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to little dogs.'
Mar 7:28 But she spoke up, 'Ah yes, sir,' she replied, 'but little dogs under the table eat the scraps from the children.'
Mar 7:29 And he said to her, 'For saying this you may go home happy; the devil has gone out of your daughter.'
Mar 7:30 So she went off home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.
Mar 7:31 Returning from the territory of Tyre, he went by way of Sidon towards the Lake of Galilee, right through the Decapolis territory.
Mar 7:32 And they brought him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they asked him to lay his hand on him.
Mar 7:33 He took him aside to be by themselves, away from the crowd, put his fingers into the man's ears and touched his tongue with spittle.
Mar 7:34 Then looking up to heaven he sighed; and he said to him, 'Ephphatha,' that is, 'Be opened.'
Mar 7:35 And his ears were opened, and at once the impediment of his tongue was loosened and he spoke clearly.
Mar 7:36 And Jesus ordered them to tell no one about it, but the more he insisted, the more widely they proclaimed it.
Mar 7:37 Their admiration was unbounded, and they said, 'Everything he does is good, he makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.'
Mar 8:1 And now once again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to eat. So he called his disciples to him and said to them,
Mar 8:2 'I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me for three days now and have nothing to eat.
Mar 8:3 If I send them off home hungry they will collapse on the way; some have come a great distance.'
Mar 8:4 His disciples replied, 'Where could anyone get these people enough bread to eat in a deserted place?'
Mar 8:5 He asked them, 'How many loaves have you?' And they said to him, 'Seven.'
Mar 8:6 Then he instructed the crowd to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and began handing them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them among the crowd.
Mar 8:7 They had a few small fishes as well, and over these he said a blessing and ordered them to be distributed too.
Mar 8:8 They ate as much as they wanted, and they collected seven basketfuls of the scraps left over.
Mar 8:9 Now there had been about four thousand people. He sent them away
Mar 8:10 and at once, getting into the boat with his disciples, went to the region of Dalmanutha.
Mar 8:11 The Pharisees came up and started a discussion with him; they demanded of him a sign from heaven, to put him to the test.
Mar 8:12 And with a profound sigh he said, 'Why does this generation demand a sign? In truth I tell you, no sign shall be given to this generation.'
Mar 8:13 And, leaving them again, he re-embarked and went away to the other side.
Mar 8:14 The disciples had forgotten to take any bread and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
Mar 8:15 Then he gave them this warning, 'Keep your eyes open; look out for the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.'
Mar 8:16 And they said to one another, 'It is because we have no bread.'
Mar 8:17 And Jesus knew it, and he said to them, 'Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not understand, still not realize? Are your minds closed?
Mar 8:18 Have you eyes and do not see, ears and do not hear? Or do you not remember?
Mar 8:19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?' They answered, 'Twelve.'
Mar 8:20 'And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?' And they answered, 'Seven.'
Mar 8:21 Then he said to them, 'Do you still not realize?'
Mar 8:22 They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought to him a blind man whom they begged him to touch.
Mar 8:23 He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. Then, putting spittle on his eyes and laying his hands on him, he asked, 'Can you see anything?'
Mar 8:24 The man, who was beginning to see, replied, 'I can see people; they look like trees as they walk around.'
Mar 8:25 Then he laid his hands on the man's eyes again and he saw clearly; he was cured, and he could see everything plainly and distinctly.
Mar 8:26 And Jesus sent him home, saying, 'Do not even go into the village.'
Mar 8:27 Jesus and his disciples left for the villages round Caesarea Philippi. On the way he put this question to his disciples, 'Who do people say I am?'
Mar 8:28 And they told him, 'John the Baptist, others Elijah, others again, one of the prophets.'
Mar 8:29 'But you,' he asked them, 'who do you say I am?' Peter spoke up and said to him, 'You are the Christ.'
Mar 8:30 And he gave them strict orders not to tell anyone about him.
Mar 8:31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of man was destined to suffer grievously, and to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again;
Mar 8:32 and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter tried to rebuke him.
Mar 8:33 But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are thinking not as God thinks, but as human beings do.'
Mar 8:34 He called the people and his disciples to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Mar 8:35 Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.
Mar 8:36 What gain, then, is it for anyone to win the whole world and forfeit his life?
Mar 8:37 And indeed what can anyone offer in exchange for his life?
Mar 8:38 For if anyone in this sinful and adulterous generation is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.'
Mar 9:1 And he said to them, 'In truth I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.'
Mar 9:2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and led them up a high mountain on their own by themselves. There in their presence he was transfigured:
Mar 9:3 his clothes became brilliantly white, whiter than any earthly bleacher could make them.
Mar 9:4 Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they were talking to Jesus.
Mar 9:5 Then Peter spoke to Jesus, 'Rabbi,' he said, 'it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.'
Mar 9:6 He did not know what to say; they were so frightened.
Mar 9:7 And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and from the cloud there came a voice, 'This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.'
Mar 9:8 Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.
Mar 9:9 As they were coming down from the mountain he warned them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of man had risen from the dead.
Mar 9:10 They observed the warning faithfully, though among themselves they discussed what 'rising from the dead' could mean.
Mar 9:11 And they put this question to him, 'Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?'
Mar 9:12 He said to them, 'Elijah is indeed first coming to set everything right again; yet how is it that the scriptures say about the Son of man that he must suffer grievously and be treated with contempt?
Mar 9:13 But I tell you that Elijah has come and they have treated him as they pleased, just as the scriptures say about him.'
Mar 9:14 As they were rejoining the disciples they saw a large crowd round them and some scribes arguing with them.
Mar 9:15 At once, when they saw him, the whole crowd were struck with amazement and ran to greet him.
Mar 9:16 And he asked them, 'What are you arguing about with them?'
Mar 9:17 A man answered him from the crowd, 'Master, I have brought my son to you; there is a spirit of dumbness in him,
Mar 9:18 and when it takes hold of him it throws him to the ground, and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth and goes rigid. And I asked your disciples to drive it out and they were unable to.'
Mar 9:19 In reply he said to them, 'Faithless generation, how much longer must I be among you? How much longer must I put up with you? Bring him to me.'
Mar 9:20 They brought the boy to him, and at once the spirit of dumbness threw the boy into convulsions, and he fell to the ground and lay writhing there, foaming at the mouth.
Mar 9:21 Jesus asked the father, 'How long has this been happening to him?' 'From childhood,' he said,
Mar 9:22 'and it has often thrown him into fire and into water, in order to destroy him.
Mar 9:23 But if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us.'
Mar 9:24 'If you can?' retorted Jesus. 'Everything is possible for one who has faith.' At once the father of the boy cried out, 'I have faith. Help my lack of faith!'
Mar 9:25 And when Jesus saw that a crowd was gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit. 'Deaf and dumb spirit,' he said, 'I command you: come out of him and never enter him again.'
Mar 9:26 Then it threw the boy into violent convulsions and came out shouting, and the boy lay there so like a corpse that most of them said, 'He is dead.'
Mar 9:27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him up, and he was able to stand.
Mar 9:28 When he had gone indoors, his disciples asked him when they were by themselves, 'Why were we unable to drive it out?'
Mar 9:29 He answered, 'This is the kind that can be driven out only by prayer.'
Mar 9:30 After leaving that place they made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know,
Mar 9:31 because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, 'The Son of man will be delivered into the power of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.'
Mar 9:32 But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.
Mar 9:33 They came to Capernaum, and when he got into the house he asked them, 'What were you arguing about on the road?'
Mar 9:34 They said nothing, because on the road they had been arguing which of them was the greatest.
Mar 9:35 So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, 'If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.'
Mar 9:36 He then took a little child whom he set among them and embraced, and he said to them,
Mar 9:37 'Anyone who welcomes a little child such as this in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes not me but the one who sent me.'
Mar 9:38 John said to him, 'Master, we saw someone who is not one of us driving out devils in your name, and because he was not one of us we tried to stop him.'
Mar 9:39 But Jesus said, 'You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me.
Mar 9:40 Anyone who is not against us is for us.
Mar 9:41 'If anyone gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, then in truth I tell you, he will most certainly not lose his reward.
Mar 9:42 'But anyone who is the downfall of one of these little ones who have faith, would be better thrown into the sea with a great millstone hung round his neck.
Mar 9:43 And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire thatnever be put out.
Mar 9:44
Mar 9:45 And if your foot should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
Mar 9:46
Mar 9:47 And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell
Mar 9:48 where their worm will never die nor their fire be put out.
Mar 9:49 For everyone will be salted with fire.
Mar 9:50 Salt is a good thing, but if salt has become insipid, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves and be at peace with one another.'
Mar 10:1 After leaving there, he came into the territory of Judaea and Transjordan. And again crowds gathered round him, and again he taught them, as his custom was.
Mar 10:2 Some Pharisees approached him and asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?' They were putting him to the test.
Mar 10:3 He answered them, 'What did Moses command you?'
Mar 10:4 They replied, 'Moses allowed us to draw up a writ of dismissal in cases of divorce.'
Mar 10:5 Then Jesus said to them, 'It was because you were so hard hearted that he wrote this commandment for you.
Mar 10:6 But from the beginning of creation he made them male and female.
Mar 10:7 This is why a man leaves his father and mother,
Mar 10:8 and the two become one flesh. They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh.
Mar 10:9 So then, what God has united, human beings must not divide.'
Mar 10:10 Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this,
Mar 10:11 and he said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her.
Mar 10:12 And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.'
Mar 10:13 People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples scolded them,
Mar 10:14 but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, 'Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
Mar 10:15 In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'
Mar 10:16 Then he embraced them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.
Mar 10:17 He was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, 'Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'
Mar 10:18 Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Mar 10:19 You know the commandments: You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; You shall not defraud; honor your father and mother.'
Mar 10:20 And he said to him, 'Master, I have kept all these since my earliest days.'
Mar 10:21 Jesus looked steadily at him and he was filled with love for him, and he said, 'You need to do one thing more. Go and sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'
Mar 10:22 But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Mar 10:23 Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!'
Mar 10:24 The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, 'My children,' he said to them, 'how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
Mar 10:25 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.'
Mar 10:26 They were more astonished than ever, saying to one another, 'In that case, who can be saved?'
Mar 10:27 Jesus gazed at them and said, 'By human resources it is impossible, but not for God: because for God everything is possible.'
Mar 10:28 Peter took this up. 'Look,' he said to him, 'we have left everything and followed you.'
Mar 10:29 Jesus said, 'In truth I tell you, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
Mar 10:30 who will not receive a hundred times as much, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land -- and persecutions too -- now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.
Mar 10:31 Many who are first will be last, and the last, first.'
Mar 10:32 They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem; Jesus was walking on ahead of them; they were in a daze, and those who followed were apprehensive. Once more taking the Twelve aside he began to tell them what was going to happen to him,
Mar 10:33 'Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the gentiles,
Mar 10:34 who will mock him and spit at him and scourge him and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again.'
Mar 10:35 James and John, the sons of Zebedee, approached him. 'Master,' they said to him, 'We want you to do us a favor.'
Mar 10:36 He said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?'
Mar 10:37 They said to him, 'Allow us to sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory.'
Mar 10:38 But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I shall drink, or be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised?'
Mar 10:39 They replied, 'We can.' Jesus said to them, 'The cup that I shall drink you shall drink, and with the baptism with which I shall be baptised you shall be baptised,
Mar 10:40 but as for seats at my right hand or my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted.'
Mar 10:41 When the other ten heard this they began to feel indignant with James and John,
Mar 10:42 so Jesus called them to him and said to them, 'You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt.
Mar 10:43 Among you this is not to happen. No; anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant,
Mar 10:44 and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all.
Mar 10:45 For the Son of man himself came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.'
Mar 10:46 They reached Jericho; and as he left Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus -- that is, the son of Timaeus -- a blind beggar, was sitting at the side of the road.
Mar 10:47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout and cry out, 'Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me.'
Mar 10:48 And many of them scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, 'Son of David, have pity on me.'
Mar 10:49 Jesus stopped and said, 'Call him here.' So they called the blind man over. 'Courage,' they said, 'get up; he is calling you.'
Mar 10:50 So throwing off his cloak, he jumped up and went to Jesus.
Mar 10:51 Then Jesus spoke, 'What do you want me to do for you?' The blind man said to him, 'Rabbuni, let me see again.'
Mar 10:52 Jesus said to him, 'Go; your faith has saved you.' And at once his sight returned and he followed him along the road.
Mar 11:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
Mar 11:2 and said to them, 'Go to the village facing you, and as you enter it you will at once find a tethered colt that no one has yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
Mar 11:3 If anyone says to you, "What are you doing?" say, "The Master needs it and will send it back here at once." '
Mar 11:4 They went off and found a colt tethered near a door in the open street. As they untied it,
Mar 11:5 some men standing there said, 'What are you doing, untying that colt?'
Mar 11:6 They gave the answer Jesus had told them, and the men let them go.
Mar 11:7 Then they took the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on its back, and he mounted it.
Mar 11:8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others greenery which they had cut in the fields.
Mar 11:9 And those who went in front and those who followed were all shouting, 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord!
Mar 11:10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of David our father! Hosanna in the highest heavens!'
Mar 11:11 He entered Jerusalem and went into the Temple; and when he had surveyed it all, as it was late by now, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Mar 11:12 Next day as they were leaving Bethany, he felt hungry.
Mar 11:13 Seeing a fig tree in leaf some distance away, he went to see if he could find any fruit on it, but when he came up to it he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs.
Mar 11:14 And he addressed the fig tree, 'May no one ever eat fruit from you again.' And his disciples heard him say this.
Mar 11:15 So they reached Jerusalem and he went into the Temple and began driving out the men selling and buying there; he upset the tables of the money changers and the seats of the dove sellers.
Mar 11:16 Nor would he allow anyone to carry anything through the Temple.
Mar 11:17 And he taught them and said, 'Does not scripture say: My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples? But you have turned it into a bandits' den.'
Mar 11:18 This came to the ears of the chief priests and the scribes, and they tried to find some way of doing away with him; they were afraid of him because the people were carried away by his teaching.
Mar 11:19 And when evening came he went out of the city.
Mar 11:20 Next morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree withered to the roots.
Mar 11:21 Peter remembered. 'Look, Rabbi,' he said to Jesus, 'the fig tree that you cursed has withered away.'
Mar 11:22 Jesus answered, 'Have faith in God.
Mar 11:23 In truth I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, "Be pulled up and thrown into the sea," with no doubt in his heart, but believing that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
Mar 11:24 I tell you, therefore, everything you ask and pray for, believe that you have it already, and it will be yours.
Mar 11:25 And when you stand in prayer, forgive whatever you have against anybody, soyour Father in heaven may forgive your failings too.'
Mar 11:26
Mar 11:27 They came to Jerusalem again, and as Jesus was walking in the Temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him,
Mar 11:28 and they said to him, 'What authority have you for acting like this? Or who gave you authority to act like this?'
Mar 11:29 Jesus said to them, 'And I will ask you a question, just one; answer me and I will tell you my authority for acting like this.
Mar 11:30 John's baptism, what was its origin, heavenly or human? Answer me that.'
Mar 11:31 And they argued this way among themselves, 'If we say heavenly, he will say, "Then why did you refuse to believe him?"
Mar 11:32 But dare we say human?' -- they had the people to fear, for everyone held that John had been a real prophet.
Mar 11:33 So their reply to Jesus was, 'We do not know.' And Jesus said to them, 'Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.'
Mar 12:1 He went on to speak to them in parables, 'A man planted a vineyard; he fenced it round, dug out a trough for the winepress and built a tower; then he leased it to tenants and went abroad.
Mar 12:2 When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard.
Mar 12:3 But they seized the man, thrashed him and sent him away empty handed.
Mar 12:4 Next he sent another servant to them; him they beat about the head and treated shamefully.
Mar 12:5 And he sent another and him they killed; then a number of others, and they thrashed some and killed the rest.
Mar 12:6 He had still someone left: his beloved son. He sent him to them last of all, thinking, "They will respect my son."
Mar 12:7 But those tenants said to each other, "This is the heir. Come on, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours."
Mar 12:8 So they seized him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard.
Mar 12:9 Now what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and make an end of the tenants and give the vineyard to others.
Mar 12:10 Have you not read this text of scripture: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
Mar 12:11 this is the Lord's doing, and we marvel at it ?'
Mar 12:12 And they would have liked to arrest him, because they realized that the parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the crowds. So they left him alone and went away.
Mar 12:13 Next they sent to him some Pharisees and some Herodians to catch him out in what he said.
Mar 12:14 These came and said to him, 'Master, we know that you are an honest man, that you are not afraid of anyone, because human rank means nothing to you, and that you teach the way of God in all honesty. Is it permissible to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or not?'
Mar 12:15 Recognising their hypocrisy he said to them, 'Why are you putting me to the test? Hand me a denarius and let me see it.'
Mar 12:16 They handed him one and he said to them, 'Whose portrait is this? Whose title?' They said to him, 'Caesar's.'
Mar 12:17 Jesus said to them, 'Pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar -- and God what belongs to God.' And they were amazed at him.
Mar 12:18 Then some Sadducees -- who deny that there is a resurrection -- came to him and they put this question to him,
Mar 12:19 'Master, Moses prescribed for us that if a man's brother dies leaving a wife but no child, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother.
Mar 12:20 Now there were seven brothers; the first married a wife and then died leaving no children.
Mar 12:21 The second married the widow, and he too died leaving no children; with the third it was the same,
Mar 12:22 and none of the seven left any children. Last of all the woman herself died.
Mar 12:23 Now at the resurrection, when they rise again, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?'
Mar 12:24 Jesus said to them, 'Surely the reason why you are wrong is that you understand neither the scriptures nor the power of God.
Mar 12:25 For when they rise from the dead, men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven.
Mar 12:26 Now about the dead rising again, have you never read in the Book of Moses, in the passage about the bush, how God spoke to him and said: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob?
Mar 12:27 He is God, not of the dead, but of the living. You are very much mistaken.'
Mar 12:28 One of the scribes who had listened to them debating appreciated that Jesus had given a good answer and put a further question to him, 'Which is the first of all the commandments?'
Mar 12:29 Jesus replied, 'This is the first: Listen, Israel, the Lord our God is the one, only Lord,
Mar 12:30 and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.
Mar 12:31 The second is this: You must love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.'
Mar 12:32 The scribe said to him, 'Well spoken, Master; what you have said is true, that he is one and there is no other.
Mar 12:33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, this is far more important than any burnt offering or sacrifice.'
Mar 12:34 Jesus, seeing how wisely he had spoken, said, 'You are not far from the kingdom of God.' And after that no one dared to question him any more.
Mar 12:35 While teaching in the Temple, Jesus said, 'How can the scribes maintain that the Christ is the son of David?
Mar 12:36 David himself, moved by the Holy Spirit, said: The Lord declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand till I have made your enemies your footstool.
Mar 12:37 David himself calls him Lord; in what way then can he be his son?' And the great crowd listened to him with delight.
Mar 12:38 In his teaching he said, 'Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes, to be greeted respectfully in the market squares,
Mar 12:39 to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets;
Mar 12:40 these are the men who devour the property of widows and for show offer long prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.'
Mar 12:41 He sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the treasury, and many of the rich put in a great deal.
Mar 12:42 A poor widow came and put in two small coins, the equivalent of a penny.
Mar 12:43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, 'In truth I tell you, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury;
Mar 12:44 for they have all put in money they could spare, but she in her poverty has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.'
Mar 13:1 As he was leaving the Temple one of his disciples said to him, 'Master, look at the size of those stones! Look at the size of those buildings!'
Mar 13:2 And Jesus said to him, 'You see these great buildings? Not a single stone will be left on another; everything will be pulled down.'
Mar 13:3 And while he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, facing the Temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew questioned him when they were by themselves,
Mar 13:4 'Tell us, when is this going to happen, and what sign will there be that it is all about to take place?'
Mar 13:5 Then Jesus began to tell them, 'Take care that no one deceives you.
Mar 13:6 Many will come using my name and saying, "I am he," and they will deceive many.
Mar 13:7 When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed; this is something that must happen, but the end will not be yet.
Mar 13:8 For nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is the beginning of the birth-pangs.
Mar 13:9 'Be on your guard: you will be handed over to sanhedrins; you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as evidence to them,
Mar 13:10 since the gospel must first be proclaimed to all nations.
Mar 13:11 'And when you are taken to be handed over, do not worry beforehand about what to say; no, say whatever is given to you when the time comes, because it is not you who will be speaking; it is the Holy Spirit.
Mar 13:12 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will come forward against their parents and have them put to death.
Mar 13:13 You will be universally hated on account of my name; but anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Mar 13:14 'When you see the appalling abomination set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judaea must escape to the mountains;
Mar 13:15 if a man is on the housetop, he must not come down or go inside to collect anything from his house;
Mar 13:16 if a man is in the fields, he must not turn back to fetch his cloak.
Mar 13:17 Alas for those with child, or with babies at the breast, when those days come!
Mar 13:18 Pray that this may not be in winter.
Mar 13:19 For in those days there will be great distress, unparalleled since God created the world, and such as will never be again.
Mar 13:20 And if the Lord had not shortened that time, no human being would have survived; but he did shorten the time, for the sake of the elect whom he chose.
Mar 13:21 'And if anyone says to you then, "Look, here is the Christ" or, "Look, he is there," do not believe it;
Mar 13:22 for false Christs and false prophets will arise and produce signs and portents to deceive the elect, if that were possible.
Mar 13:23 You, therefore, must be on your guard. I have given you full warning.
Mar 13:24 'But in those days, after that time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light,
Mar 13:25 the stars will come falling out of the sky and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
Mar 13:26 And then they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.
Mar 13:27 And then he will send the angels to gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the world to the ends of the sky.
Mar 13:28 'Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near.
Mar 13:29 So with you when you see these things happening: know that he is near, right at the gates.
Mar 13:30 In truth I tell you, before this generation has passed away all these things will have taken place.
Mar 13:31 Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Mar 13:32 'But as for that day or hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son; no one but the Father.
Mar 13:33 'Be on your guard, stay awake, because you never know when the time will come.
Mar 13:34 It is like a man traveling abroad: he has gone from his home, and left his servants in charge, each with his own work to do; and he has told the doorkeeper to stay awake.
Mar 13:35 So stay awake, because you do not know when the master of the house is coming, evening, midnight, cockcrow or dawn;
Mar 13:36 if he comes unexpectedly, he must not find you asleep.
Mar 13:37 And what I am saying to you I say to all: Stay awake!'
Mar 14:1 It was two days before the Passover and the feast of Unleavened Bread, and the chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by some trick and have him put to death.
Mar 14:2 For they said, 'It must not be during the festivities, or there will be a disturbance among the people.'
Mar 14:3 He was at Bethany in the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a virulent skin-disease; he was at table when a woman came in with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the ointment on his head.
Mar 14:4 Some who were there said to one another indignantly, 'Why this waste of ointment?
Mar 14:5 Ointment like this could have been sold for over three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor'; and they were angry with her.
Mar 14:6 But Jesus said, 'Leave her alone. Why are you upsetting her? What she has done for me is a good work.
Mar 14:7 You have the poor with you always, and you can be kind to them whenever you wish, but you will not always have me.
Mar 14:8 She has done what she could: she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.
Mar 14:9 In truth I tell you, wherever throughout all the world the gospel is proclaimed, what she has done will be told as well, in remembrance of her.'
Mar 14:10 Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, approached the chief priests with an offer to hand Jesus over to them.
Mar 14:11 They were delighted to hear it, and promised to give him money; and he began to look for a way of betraying him when the opportunity should occur.
Mar 14:12 On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, his disciples said to him, 'Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?'
Mar 14:13 So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, 'Go into the city and you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him,
Mar 14:14 and say to the owner of the house which he enters, "The Master says: Where is the room for me to eat the Passover with my disciples?"
Mar 14:15 He will show you a large upper room furnished with couches, all prepared. Make the preparations for us there.'
Mar 14:16 The disciples set out and went to the city and found everything as he had told them, and prepared the Passover.
Mar 14:17 When evening came he arrived with the Twelve.
Mar 14:18 And while they were at table eating, Jesus said, 'In truth I tell you, one of you is about to betray me, one of you eating with me.'
Mar 14:19 They were distressed and said to him, one after another, 'Not me, surely?'
Mar 14:20 He said to them, 'It is one of the Twelve, one who is dipping into the same dish with me.
Mar 14:21 Yes, the Son of man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born.'
Mar 14:22 And as they were eating he took bread, and when he had said the blessing he broke it and gave it to them. 'Take it,' he said, 'this is my body.'
Mar 14:23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he handed it to them, and all drank from it,
Mar 14:24 and he said to them, 'This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, poured out for many.
Mar 14:25 In truth I tell you, I shall never drink wine any more until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of God.'
Mar 14:26 After the psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.
Mar 14:27 And Jesus said to them, 'You will all fall away, for the scripture says: I shall strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered;
Mar 14:28 however, after my resurrection I shall go before you into Galilee.'
Mar 14:29 Peter said, 'Even if all fall away, I will not.'
Mar 14:30 And Jesus said to him, 'In truth I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will have disowned me three times.'
Mar 14:31 But he repeated still more earnestly, 'If I have to die with you, I will never disown you.' And they all said the same.
Mar 14:32 They came to a plot of land called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, 'Stay here while I pray.'
Mar 14:33 Then he took Peter and James and John with him.
Mar 14:34 And he began to feel terror and anguish. And he said to them, 'My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here, and stay awake.'
Mar 14:35 And going on a little further he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, this hour might pass him by.
Mar 14:36 'Abba, Father!' he said, 'For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it.'
Mar 14:37 He came back and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, 'Simon, are you asleep? Had you not the strength to stay awake one hour?
Mar 14:38 Stay awake and pray not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing enough, but human nature is weak.'
Mar 14:39 Again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.
Mar 14:40 And once more he came back and found them sleeping, their eyes were so heavy; and they could find no answer for him.
Mar 14:41 He came back a third time and said to them, 'You can sleep on now and have your rest. It is all over. The hour has come. Now the Son of man is to be betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Mar 14:42 Get up! Let us go! My betrayer is not far away.'
Mar 14:43 And at once, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the Twelve, came up and with him a number of men armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and the scribes and the elders.
Mar 14:44 Now the traitor had arranged a signal with them saying, 'The one I kiss, he is the man. Arrest him, and see he is well guarded when you lead him away.'
Mar 14:45 So when the traitor came, he went up to Jesus at once and said, 'Rabbi!' and kissed him.
Mar 14:46 The others seized him and arrested him.
Mar 14:47 Then one of the bystanders drew his sword and struck out at the high priest's servant and cut off his ear.
Mar 14:48 Then Jesus spoke. 'Am I a bandit,' he said, 'that you had to set out to capture me with swords and clubs?
Mar 14:49 I was among you teaching in the Temple day after day and you never laid a hand on me. But this is to fulfill the scriptures.'
Mar 14:50 And they all deserted him and ran away.
Mar 14:51 A young man followed with nothing on but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him,
Mar 14:52 but he left the cloth in their hands and ran away naked.
Mar 14:53 They led Jesus off to the high priest; and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes assembled there.
Mar 14:54 Peter had followed him at a distance, right into the high priest's palace, and was sitting with the attendants warming himself at the fire.
Mar 14:55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus in order to have him executed. But they could not find any.
Mar 14:56 Several, indeed, brought false witness against him, but their evidence was conflicting.
Mar 14:57 Some stood up and submitted this false evidence against him,
Mar 14:58 'We heard him say, "I am going to destroy this Temple made by human hands, and in three days build another, not made by human hands." '
Mar 14:59 But even on this point their evidence was conflicting.
Mar 14:60 The high priest then rose before the whole assembly and put this question to Jesus, 'Have you no answer to that? What is this evidence these men are bringing against you?'
Mar 14:61 But he was silent and made no answer at all. The high priest put a second question to him saying, 'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?'
Mar 14:62 'I am,' said Jesus, 'and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.'
Mar 14:63 The high priest tore his robes and said, 'What need of witnesses have we now?
Mar 14:64 You heard the blasphemy. What is your finding?' Their verdict was unanimous: he deserved to die.
Mar 14:65 Some of them started spitting at his face, hitting him and saying, 'Play the prophet!' And the attendants struck him too.
Mar 14:66 While Peter was down below in the courtyard, one of the high priest's servant-girls came up.
Mar 14:67 She saw Peter warming himself there, looked closely at him and said, 'You too were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.'
Mar 14:68 But he denied it. 'I do not know, I do not understand what you are talking about,' he said. And he went out into the forecourt, and a cock crowed.
Mar 14:69 The servant-girl saw him and again started telling the bystanders, 'This man is one of them.'
Mar 14:70 But again he denied it. A little later the bystanders themselves said to Peter, 'You are certainly one of them! Why, you are a Galilean.'
Mar 14:71 But he started cursing and swearing, 'I do not know the man you speak of.'
Mar 14:72 And at once the cock crowed for the second time, and Peter recalled what Jesus had said to him, 'Before the cock crows twice, you will have disowned me three times.' And he burst into tears.
Mar 15:1 First thing in the morning, the chief priests, together with the elders and scribes and the rest of the Sanhedrin, had their plan ready. They had Jesus bound and took him away and handed him over to Pilate.
Mar 15:2 Pilate put to him this question, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' He replied, 'It is you who say it.'
Mar 15:3 And the chief priests brought many accusations against him.
Mar 15:4 Pilate questioned him again, 'Have you no reply at all? See how many accusations they are bringing against you!'
Mar 15:5 But, to Pilate's surprise, Jesus made no further reply.
Mar 15:6 At festival time Pilate used to release a prisoner for them, any one they asked for.
Mar 15:7 Now a man called Barabbas was then in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the uprising.
Mar 15:8 When the crowd went up and began to ask Pilate the customary favor,
Mar 15:9 Pilate answered them, 'Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews?'
Mar 15:10 For he realized it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over.
Mar 15:11 The chief priests, however, had incited the crowd to demand that he should release Barabbas for them instead.
Mar 15:12 Then Pilate spoke again, 'But in that case, what am I to do with the man you call king of the Jews?'
Mar 15:13 They shouted back, 'Crucify him!'
Mar 15:14 Pilate asked them, 'What harm has he done?' But they shouted all the louder, 'Crucify him!'
Mar 15:15 So Pilate, anxious to placate the crowd, released Barabbas for them and, after having Jesus scourged, he handed him over to be crucified.
Mar 15:16 The soldiers led him away to the inner part of the palace, that is, the Praetorium, and called the whole cohort together.
Mar 15:17 They dressed him up in purple, twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on him.
Mar 15:18 And they began saluting him, 'Hail, king of the Jews!'
Mar 15:19 They struck his head with a reed and spat on him; and they went down on their knees to do him homage.
Mar 15:20 And when they had finished making fun of him, they took off the purple and dressed him in his own clothes. They led him out to crucify him.
Mar 15:21 They enlisted a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross.
Mar 15:22 They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which means the place of the skull.
Mar 15:23 They offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he refused it.
Mar 15:24 Then they crucified him, and shared out his clothing, casting lots to decide what each should get.
Mar 15:25 It was the third hour when they crucified him.
Mar 15:26 The inscription giving the charge against him read, 'The King of the Jews'.
Mar 15:27 And they crucified two bandits with him, one on his right and one on his left.
Mar 15:28
Mar 15:29 The passers-by jeered at him; they shook their heads and said, 'Aha! So you would destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days!
Mar 15:30 Then save yourself; come down from the cross!'
Mar 15:31 The chief priests and the scribes mocked him among themselves in the same way with the words, 'He saved others, he cannot save himself.
Mar 15:32 Let the Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross now, for us to see it and believe.' Even those who were crucified with him taunted him.
Mar 15:33 When the sixth hour came there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.
Mar 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'
Mar 15:35 When some of those who stood by heard this, they said, 'Listen, he is calling on Elijah.'
Mar 15:36 Someone ran and soaked a sponge in vinegar and, putting it on a reed, gave it to him to drink saying, 'Wait! And see if Elijah will come to take him down.'
Mar 15:37 But Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Mar 15:38 And the veil of the Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
Mar 15:39 The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, 'In truth this man was Son of God.'
Mar 15:40 There were some women watching from a distance. Among them were Mary of Magdala, Mary who was the mother of James the younger and Joset, and Salome.
Mar 15:41 These used to follow him and look after him when he was in Galilee. And many other women were there who had come up to Jerusalem with him.
Mar 15:42 It was now evening, and since it was Preparation Day -- that is, the day before the Sabbath-
Mar 15:43 there came Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent member of the Council, who himself lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God, and he boldly went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Mar 15:44 Pilate, astonished that he should have died so soon, summoned the centurion and enquired if he had been dead for some time.
Mar 15:45 Having been assured of this by the centurion, he granted the corpse to Joseph
Mar 15:46 who bought a shroud, took Jesus down from the cross, wrapped him in the shroud and laid him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Mar 15:47 Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joset took note of where he was laid.
Mar 16:1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices with which to go and anoint him.
Mar 16:2 And very early in the morning on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen.
Mar 16:3 They had been saying to one another, 'Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?'
Mar 16:4 But when they looked they saw that the stone -- which was very big -- had already been rolled back.
Mar 16:5 On entering the tomb they saw a young man in a white robe seated on the right-hand side, and they were struck with amazement.
Mar 16:6 But he said to them, 'There is no need to be so amazed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he has risen, he is not here. See, here is the place where they laid him.
Mar 16:7 But you must go and tell his disciples and Peter, "He is going ahead of you to Galilee; that is where you will see him, just as he told you." '
Mar 16:8 And the women came out and ran away from the tomb because they were frightened out of their wits; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mar 16:9 Having risen in the morning on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary of Magdala from whom he had cast out seven devils.
Mar 16:10 She then went to those who had been his companions, and who were mourning and in tears, and told them.
Mar 16:11 But they did not believe her when they heard her say that he was alive and that she had seen him.
Mar 16:12 After this, he showed himself under another form to two of them as they were on their way into the country.
Mar 16:13 These went back and told the others, who did not believe them either.
Mar 16:14 Lastly, he showed himself to the Eleven themselves while they were at table. He reproached them for their incredulity and obstinacy, because they had refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
Mar 16:15 And he said to them, 'Go out to the whole world; proclaim the gospel to all creation.
Mar 16:16 Whoever believes and is baptised will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Mar 16:17 These are the signs that will be associated with believers: in my name they will cast out devils; they will have the gift of tongues;
Mar 16:18 they will pick up snakes in their hands and be unharmed should they drink deadly poison; they will lay their hands on the sick, who will recover.'
Mar 16:19 And so the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven; there at the right hand of God he took his place,
Mar 16:20 while they, going out, preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied it.
Luk 1:1 Seeing that many others have undertaken to draw up accounts of the events that have reached their fulfilment among us,
Luk 1:2 as these were handed down to us by those who from the outset were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word,
Luk 1:3 I in my turn, after carefully going over the whole story from the beginning, have decided to write an ordered account for you, Theophilus,
Luk 1:4 so that your Excellency may learn how well founded the teaching is that you have received.
Luk 1:5 In the days of King Herod of Judaea there lived a priest called Zechariah who belonged to the Abijah section of the priesthood, and he had a wife, Elizabeth by name, who was a descendant of Aaron.
Luk 1:6 Both were upright in the sight of God and impeccably carried out all the commandments and observances of the Lord.
Luk 1:7 But they were childless: Elizabeth was barren and they were both advanced in years.
Luk 1:8 Now it happened that it was the turn of his section to serve, and he was exercising his priestly office before God
Luk 1:9 when it fell to him by lot, as the priestly custom was, to enter the Lord's sanctuary and burn incense there.
Luk 1:10 And at the hour of incense all the people were outside, praying.
Luk 1:11 Then there appeared to him the angel of the Lord, standing on the right of the altar of incense.
Luk 1:12 The sight disturbed Zechariah and he was overcome with fear.
Luk 1:13 But the angel said to him, 'Zechariah, do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth is to bear you a son and you shall name him John.
Luk 1:14 He will be your joy and delight and many will rejoice at his birth,
Luk 1:15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord; he must drink no wine, no strong drink; even from his mother's womb he will be filled with the Holy Spirit,
Luk 1:16 and he will bring back many of the Israelites to the Lord their God.
Luk 1:17 With the spirit and power of Elijah, he will go before him to reconcile fathers to their children and the disobedient to the good sense of the upright, preparing for the Lord a people fit for him.'
Luk 1:18 Zechariah said to the angel, 'How can I know this? I am an old man and my wife is getting on in years.'
Luk 1:19 The angel replied, 'I am Gabriel, who stand in God's presence, and I have been sent to speak to you and bring you this good news.
Luk 1:20 Look! Since you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time, you will be silenced and have no power of speech until this has happened.'
Luk 1:21 Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were surprised that he stayed in the sanctuary so long.
Luk 1:22 When he came out he could not speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. But he could only make signs to them and remained dumb.
Luk 1:23 When his time of service came to an end he returned home.
Luk 1:24 Some time later his wife Elizabeth conceived and for five months she kept to herself, saying,
Luk 1:25 'The Lord has done this for me, now that it has pleased him to take away the humiliation I suffered in public.'
Luk 1:26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,
Luk 1:27 to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
Luk 1:28 He went in and said to her, 'Rejoice, you who enjoy God's favor! The Lord is with you.'
Luk 1:29 She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean,
Luk 1:30 but the angel said to her, 'Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favor.
Luk 1:31 Look! You are to conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus.
Luk 1:32 He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David;
Luk 1:33 he will rule over the House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.'
Luk 1:34 Mary said to the angel, 'But how can this come about, since I have no knowledge of man?'
Luk 1:35 The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God.
Luk 1:36 And I tell you this too: your cousin Elizabeth also, in her old age, has conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month,
Luk 1:37 for nothing is impossible to God.'
Luk 1:38 Mary said, 'You see before you the Lord's servant, let it happen to me as you have said.' And the angel left her.
Luk 1:39 Mary set out at that time and went as quickly as she could into the hill country to a town in Judah.
Luk 1:40 She went into Zechariah's house and greeted Elizabeth.
Luk 1:41 Now it happened that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Luk 1:42 She gave a loud cry and said, 'Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
Luk 1:43 Why should I be honored with a visit from the mother of my Lord?
Luk 1:44 Look, the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for joy.
Luk 1:45 Yes, blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled.'
Luk 1:46 And Mary said: My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
Luk 1:47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
Luk 1:48 because he has looked upon the humiliation of his servant. Yes, from now onwards all generations will call me blessed,
Luk 1:49 for the Almighty has done great things for me. Holy is his name,
Luk 1:50 and his faithful love extends age after age to those who fear him.
Luk 1:51 He has used the power of his arm, he has routed the arrogant of heart.
Luk 1:52 He has pulled down princes from their thrones and raised high the lowly.
Luk 1:53 He has filled the starving with good things, sent the rich away empty.
Luk 1:54 He has come to the help of Israel his servant, mindful of his faithful love
Luk 1:55 -according to the promise he made to our ancestors -- of his mercy to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.
Luk 1:56 Mary stayed with her some three months and then went home.
Luk 1:57 The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son;
Luk 1:58 and when her neighbors and relations heard that the Lord had lavished on her his faithful love, they shared her joy.
Luk 1:59 Now it happened that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
Luk 1:60 but his mother spoke up. 'No,' she said, 'he is to be called John.'
Luk 1:61 They said to her, 'But no one in your family has that name,'
Luk 1:62 and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called.
Luk 1:63 The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, 'His name is John.' And they were all astonished.
Luk 1:64 At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God.
Luk 1:65 All their neighbors were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea.
Luk 1:66 All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. 'What will this child turn out to be?' they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord was with him.
Luk 1:67 His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke this prophecy:
Luk 1:68 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited his people, he has set them free,
Luk 1:69 and he has established for us a saving power in the House of his servant David,
Luk 1:70 just as he proclaimed, by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times,
Luk 1:71 that he would save us from our enemies and from the hands of all those who hate us,
Luk 1:72 and show faithful love to our ancestors, and so keep in mind his holy covenant.
Luk 1:73 This was the oath he swore to our father Abraham,
Luk 1:74 that he would grant us, free from fear, to be delivered from the hands of our enemies,
Luk 1:75 to serve him in holiness and uprightness in his presence, all our days.
Luk 1:76 And you, little child, you shall be called Prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare a way for him,
Luk 1:77 to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,
Luk 1:78 because of the faithful love of our God in which the rising Sun has come from on high to visit us,
Luk 1:79 to give light to those who live in darkness and the shadow dark as death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luk 1:80 Meanwhile the child grew up and his spirit grew strong. And he lived in the desert until the day he appeared openly to Israel.
Luk 2:1 Now it happened that at this time Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be made of the whole inhabited world.
Luk 2:2 This census -- the first -- took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria,
Luk 2:3 and everyone went to be registered, each to his own town.
Luk 2:4 So Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee for Judaea, to David's town called Bethlehem, since he was of David's House and line,
Luk 2:5 in order to be registered together with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
Luk 2:6 Now it happened that, while they were there, the time came for her to have her child,
Luk 2:7 and she gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the living-space.
Luk 2:8 In the countryside close by there were shepherds out in the fields keeping guard over their sheep during the watches of the night.
Luk 2:9 An angel of the Lord stood over them and the glory of the Lord shone round them. They were terrified,
Luk 2:10 but the angel said, 'Do not be afraid. Look, I bring you news of great joy, a joy to be shared by the whole people.
Luk 2:11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Luk 2:12 And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.'
Luk 2:13 And all at once with the angel there was a great throng of the hosts of heaven, praising God with the words:
Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace for those he favors.
Luk 2:15 Now it happened that when the angels had gone from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let us go to Bethlehem and see this event which the Lord has made known to us.'
Luk 2:16 So they hurried away and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.
Luk 2:17 When they saw the child they repeated what they had been told about him,
Luk 2:18 and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds said to them.
Luk 2:19 As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luk 2:20 And the shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as they had been told.
Luk 2:21 When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.
Luk 2:22 And when the day came for them to be purified in keeping with the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord-
Luk 2:23 observing what is written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord-
Luk 2:24 and also to offer in sacrifice, in accordance with what is prescribed in the Law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.
Luk 2:25 Now in Jerusalem there was a man named Simeon. He was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to the restoration of Israel and the Holy Spirit rested on him.
Luk 2:26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death until he had set eyes on the Christ of the Lord.
Luk 2:27 Prompted by the Spirit he came to the Temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the Law required,
Luk 2:28 he took him into his arms and blessed God; and he said:
Luk 2:29 Now, Master, you are letting your servant go in peace as you promised;
Luk 2:30 for my eyes have seen the salvation
Luk 2:31 which you have made ready in the sight of the nations;
Luk 2:32 a light of revelation for the gentiles and glory for your people Israel.
Luk 2:33 As the child's father and mother were wondering at the things that were being said about him,
Luk 2:34 Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, 'Look, he is destined for the fall and for the rise of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is opposed-
Luk 2:35 and a sword will pierce your soul too -- so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare.'
Luk 2:36 There was a prophetess, too, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years
Luk 2:37 before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer.
Luk 2:38 She came up just at that moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.
Luk 2:39 When they had done everything the Law of the Lord required, they went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth.
Luk 2:40 And as the child grew to maturity, he was filled with wisdom; and God's favor was with him.
Luk 2:41 Every year his parents used to go to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover.
Luk 2:42 When he was twelve years old, they went up for the feast as usual.
Luk 2:43 When the days of the feast were over and they set off home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem without his parents knowing it.
Luk 2:44 They assumed he was somewhere in the party, and it was only after a day's journey that they went to look for him among their relations and acquaintances.
Luk 2:45 When they failed to find him they went back to Jerusalem looking for him everywhere.
Luk 2:46 It happened that, three days later, they found him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions;
Luk 2:47 and all those who heard him were astounded at his intelligence and his replies.
Luk 2:48 They were overcome when they saw him, and his mother said to him, 'My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you.'
Luk 2:49 He replied, 'Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?'
Luk 2:50 But they did not understand what he meant.
Luk 2:51 He went down with them then and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority. His mother stored up all these things in her heart.
Luk 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and with people.
Luk 3:1 In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar's reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the territories of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,
Luk 3:2 and while the high-priesthood was held by Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah, in the desert.
Luk 3:3 He went through the whole Jordan area proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
Luk 3:4 as it is written in the book of the sayings of Isaiah the prophet: A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight!
Luk 3:5 Let every valley be filled in, every mountain and hill be levelled, winding ways be straightened and rough roads made smooth,
Luk 3:6 and all humanity will see the salvation of God.
Luk 3:7 He said, therefore, to the crowds who came to be baptised by him, 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming retribution?
Luk 3:8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not start telling yourselves, "We have Abraham as our father," because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones.
Luk 3:9 Yes, even now the axe is being laid to the root of the trees, so that any tree failing to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown on the fire.'
Luk 3:10 When all the people asked him, 'What must we do, then?'
Luk 3:11 he answered, 'Anyone who has two tunics must share with the one who has none, and anyone with something to eat must do the same.'
Luk 3:12 There were tax collectors, too, who came for baptism, and these said to him, 'Master, what must we do?'
Luk 3:13 He said to them, 'Exact no more than the appointed rate.'
Luk 3:14 Some soldiers asked him in their turn, 'What about us? What must we do?' He said to them, 'No intimidation! No extortion! Be content with your pay!'
Luk 3:15 A feeling of expectancy had grown among the people, who were beginning to wonder whether John might be the Christ,
Luk 3:16 so John declared before them all, 'I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
Luk 3:17 His winnowing-fan is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his barn; but the chaff he will burn in a fire that will never go out.'
Luk 3:18 And he proclaimed the good news to the people with many other exhortations too.
Luk 3:19 But Herod the tetrarch, censured by John for his relations with his brother's wife Herodias and for all the other crimes he had committed,
Luk 3:20 added a further crime to all the rest by shutting John up in prison.
Luk 3:21 Now it happened that when all the people had been baptised and while Jesus after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened
Luk 3:22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical form, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son; today have I fathered you.'
Luk 3:23 When he began, Jesus was about thirty years old, being the son, as it was thought, of Joseph son of Heli,
Luk 3:24 son of Matthat, son of Levi, son of Melchi, son of Jannai, son of Joseph,
Luk 3:25 son of Mattathias, son of Amos, son of Nahum, son of Esli, son of Naggai,
Luk 3:26 son of Maath, son of Mattathias, son of Semein, son of Josech, son of Joda,
Luk 3:27 son of Joanan, son of Rhesa, son of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, son of Neri,
Luk 3:28 son of Melchi, son of Addi, son of Cosam, son of Elmadam, son of Er,
Luk 3:29 son of Jesus, son of Eliezer, son of Jorim, son of Matthat, son of Levi,
Luk 3:30 son of Symeon, son of Judah, son of Joseph, son of Jonam, son of Eliakim,
Luk 3:31 son of Melea, son of Menna, son of Mattatha, son of Nathan, son of David,
Luk 3:32 son of Jesse, son of Obed, son of Boaz, son of Sala, son of Nahshon,
Luk 3:33 son of Amminadab, son of Admin, son of Arni, son of Hezron, son of Perez, son of Judah,
Luk 3:34 son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, son of Terah, son of Nahor,
Luk 3:35 son of Serug, son of Reu, son of Peleg, son of Eber, son of Shelah,
Luk 3:36 son of Cainan, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem, son of Noah, son of Lamech,
Luk 3:37 son of Methuselah, son of Enoch, son of Jared, son of Mahalaleel, son of Cainan,
Luk 3:38 son of Enos, son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God.
Luk 4:1 Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert,
Luk 4:2 for forty days being put to the test by the devil. During that time he ate nothing and at the end he was hungry.
Luk 4:3 Then the devil said to him, 'If you are Son of God, tell this stone to turn into a loaf.'
Luk 4:4 But Jesus replied, 'Scripture says: Human beings live not on bread alone.'
Luk 4:5 Then leading him to a height, the devil showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world
Luk 4:6 and said to him, 'I will give you all this power and their splendor, for it has been handed over to me, for me to give it to anyone I choose.
Luk 4:7 Do homage, then, to me, and it shall all be yours.'
Luk 4:8 But Jesus answered him, 'Scripture says: You must do homage to the Lord your God, him alone you must serve.'
Luk 4:9 Then he led him to Jerusalem and set him on the parapet of the Temple. 'If you are Son of God,' he said to him, 'throw yourself down from here,
Luk 4:10 for scripture says: He has given his angels orders about you, to guard you, and again:
Luk 4:11 They will carry you in their arms in case you trip over a stone.'
Luk 4:12 But Jesus answered him, 'Scripture says: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'
Luk 4:13 Having exhausted every way of putting him to the test, the devil left him, until the opportune moment.
Luk 4:14 Jesus, with the power of the Spirit in him, returned to Galilee; and his reputation spread throughout the countryside.
Luk 4:15 He taught in their synagogues and everyone glorified him.
Luk 4:16 He came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read,
Luk 4:17 and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
Luk 4:18 The spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring the good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free,
Luk 4:19 to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord.
Luk 4:20 He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Luk 4:21 Then he began to speak to them, 'This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.'
Luk 4:22 And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, 'This is Joseph's son, surely?'
Luk 4:23 But he replied, 'No doubt you will quote me the saying, "Physician, heal yourself," and tell me, "We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own country." '
Luk 4:24 And he went on, 'In truth I tell you, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
Luk 4:25 'There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah's day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land,
Luk 4:26 but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a town in Sidonia.
Luk 4:27 And in the prophet Elisha's time there were many suffering from virulent skin-diseases in Israel, but none of these was cured -- only Naaman the Syrian.'
Luk 4:28 When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged.
Luk 4:29 They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him off the cliff,
Luk 4:30 but he passed straight through the crowd and walked away.
Luk 4:31 He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath.
Luk 4:32 And his teaching made a deep impression on them because his word carried authority.
Luk 4:33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and he shouted at the top of his voice,
Luk 4:34 'Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.'
Luk 4:35 But Jesus rebuked it, saying, 'Be quiet! Come out of him!' And the devil, throwing the man into the middle, went out of him without hurting him at all.
Luk 4:36 Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, 'What is it in his words? He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.'
Luk 4:37 And the news of him travelled all through the surrounding countryside.
Luk 4:38 Leaving the synagogue he went to Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in the grip of a high fever and they asked him to do something for her.
Luk 4:39 Standing over her he rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to serve them.
Luk 4:40 At sunset all those who had friends suffering from diseases of one kind or another brought them to him, and laying his hands on each he cured them.
Luk 4:41 Devils too came out of many people, shouting, 'You are the Son of God.' But he warned them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
Luk 4:42 When daylight came he left the house and made his way to a lonely place. The crowds went to look for him, and when they had caught up with him they wanted to prevent him leaving them,
Luk 4:43 but he answered, 'I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns too, because that is what I was sent to do.'
Luk 4:44 And he continued his proclamation in the synagogues of Judaea.
Luk 5:1 Now it happened that he was standing one day by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the crowd pressing round him listening to the word of God,
Luk 5:2 when he caught sight of two boats at the water's edge. The fishermen had got out of them and were washing their nets.
Luk 5:3 He got into one of the boats -- it was Simon's -- and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
Luk 5:4 When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.'
Luk 5:5 Simon replied, 'Master, we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.'
Luk 5:6 And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear,
Luk 5:7 so they signalled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled both boats to sinking point.
Luk 5:8 When Simon Peter saw this he fell at the knees of Jesus saying, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man.'
Luk 5:9 For he and all his companions were completely awestruck at the catch they had made;
Luk 5:10 so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus said to Simon, 'Do not be afraid; from now on it is people you will be catching.'
Luk 5:11 Then, bringing their boats back to land they left everything and followed him.
Luk 5:12 Now it happened that Jesus was in one of the towns when suddenly a man appeared, covered with a skin-disease. Seeing Jesus he fell on his face and implored him saying, 'Sir, if you are willing you can cleanse me.'
Luk 5:13 He stretched out his hand, and touched him saying, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.' At once the skin-disease left him.
Luk 5:14 He ordered him to tell no one, 'But go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your cleansing just as Moses prescribed, as evidence to them.'
Luk 5:15 But the news of him kept spreading, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their illnesses cured,
Luk 5:16 but he would go off to some deserted place and pray.
Luk 5:17 Now it happened that he was teaching one day, and Pharisees and teachers of the Law, who had come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and from Jerusalem, were sitting there. And the power of the Lord was there so that he should heal.
Luk 5:18 And now some men appeared, bringing on a bed a paralysed man whom they were trying to bring in and lay down in front of him.
Luk 5:19 But as they could find no way of getting the man through the crowd, they went up onto the top of the house and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in front of Jesus.
Luk 5:20 Seeing their faith he said, 'My friend, your sins are forgiven you.'
Luk 5:21 The scribes and the Pharisees began to think this over. 'Who is this man, talking blasphemy? Who but God alone can forgive sins?'
Luk 5:22 But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply, 'What are these thoughts you have in your hearts?
Luk 5:23 Which of these is easier: to say, "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Get up and walk"?
Luk 5:24 But to prove to you that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins,' -- he said to the paralysed man-'I order you: get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.'
Luk 5:25 And immediately before their very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home praising God.
Luk 5:26 They were all astounded and praised God and were filled with awe, saying, 'We have seen strange things today.'
Luk 5:27 When he went out after this, he noticed a tax collector, Levi by name, sitting at the tax office, and said to him, 'Follow me.'
Luk 5:28 And leaving everything Levi got up and followed him.
Luk 5:29 In his honor Levi held a great reception in his house, and with them at table was a large gathering of tax collectors and others.
Luk 5:30 The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples and said, 'Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?'
Luk 5:31 Jesus said to them in reply, 'It is not those that are well who need the doctor, but the sick.
Luk 5:32 I have come to call not the upright but sinners to repentance.'
Luk 5:33 They then said to him, 'John's disciples are always fasting and saying prayers, and the disciples of the Pharisees, too, but yours go on eating and drinking.'
Luk 5:34 Jesus replied, 'Surely you cannot make the bridegroom's attendants fast while the bridegroom is still with them?
Luk 5:35 But the time will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them; then, in those days, they will fast.'
Luk 5:36 He also told them a parable, 'No one tears a piece from a new cloak to put it on an old cloak; otherwise, not only will the new one be torn, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old.
Luk 5:37 'And nobody puts new wine in old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins and run to waste, and the skins will be ruined.
Luk 5:38 No; new wine must be put in fresh skins.
Luk 5:39 And nobody who has been drinking old wine wants new. "The old is good," he says.'
Luk 6:1 It happened that one Sabbath he was walking through the cornfields, and his disciples were picking ears of corn, rubbing them in their hands and eating them.
Luk 6:2 Some of the Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing something that is forbidden on the Sabbath day?'
Luk 6:3 Jesus answered them, 'So you have not read what David did when he and his followers were hungry-
Luk 6:4 how he went into the house of God and took the loaves of the offering and ate them and gave them to his followers, loaves which the priests alone are allowed to eat?'
Luk 6:5 And he said to them, 'The Son of man is master of the Sabbath.'
Luk 6:6 Now on another Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach, and a man was present, and his right hand was withered.
Luk 6:7 The scribes and the Pharisees were watching him to see if he would cure somebody on the Sabbath, hoping to find something to charge him with.
Luk 6:8 But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man with the withered hand, 'Get up and stand out in the middle!' And he came forward and stood there.
Luk 6:9 Then Jesus said to them, 'I put it to you: is it permitted on the Sabbath to do good, or to do evil; to save life, or to destroy it?'
Luk 6:10 Then he looked round at them all and said to the man, 'Stretch out your hand.' He did so, and his hand was restored.
Luk 6:11 But they were furious and began to discuss the best way of dealing with Jesus.
Luk 6:12 Now it happened in those days that he went onto the mountain to pray; and he spent the whole night in prayer to God.
Luk 6:13 When day came he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them 'apostles':
Luk 6:14 Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew,
Luk 6:15 Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot,
Luk 6:16 Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot who became a traitor.
Luk 6:17 He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon
Luk 6:18 who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured,
Luk 6:19 and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.
Luk 6:20 Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours.
Luk 6:21 Blessed are you who are hungry now: you shall have your fill. Blessed are you who are weeping now: you shall laugh.
Luk 6:22 'Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of man.
Luk 6:23 Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, look!-your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets.
Luk 6:24 But alas for you who are rich: you are having your consolation now.
Luk 6:25 Alas for you who have plenty to eat now: you shall go hungry. Alas for you who are laughing now: you shall mourn and weep.
Luk 6:26 'Alas for you when everyone speaks well of you! This was the way their ancestors treated the false prophets.
Luk 6:27 'But I say this to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
Luk 6:28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.
Luk 6:29 To anyone who slaps you on one cheek, present the other cheek as well; to anyone who takes your cloak from you, do not refuse your tunic.
Luk 6:30 Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from someone who takes it.
Luk 6:31 Treat others as you would like people to treat you.
Luk 6:32 If you love those who love you, what credit can you expect? Even sinners love those who love them.
Luk 6:33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit can you expect? For even sinners do that much.
Luk 6:34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to get money back, what credit can you expect? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount.
Luk 6:35 Instead, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Luk 6:36 'Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
Luk 6:37 Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven.
Luk 6:38 Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you.'
Luk 6:39 He also told them a parable, 'Can one blind person guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit?
Luk 6:40 Disciple is not superior to teacher; but fully trained disciple will be like teacher.
Luk 6:41 Why do you observe the splinter in your brother's eye and never notice the great log in your own?
Luk 6:42 How can you say to your brother, "Brother, let me take out that splinter in your eye," when you cannot see the great log in your own? Hypocrite! Take the log out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take out the splinter in your brother's eye.
Luk 6:43 'There is no sound tree that produces rotten fruit, nor again a rotten tree that produces sound fruit.
Luk 6:44 Every tree can be told by its own fruit: people do not pick figs from thorns, nor gather grapes from brambles.
Luk 6:45 Good people draw what is good from the store of goodness in their hearts; bad people draw what is bad from the store of badness. For the words of the mouth flow out of what fills the heart.
Luk 6:46 'Why do you call me, "Lord, Lord" and not do what I say?
Luk 6:47 'Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and acts on them -- I will show you what such a person is like.
Luk 6:48 Such a person is like the man who, when he built a house, dug, and dug deep, and laid the foundations on rock; when the river was in flood it bore down on that house but could not shake it, it was so well built.
Luk 6:49 But someone who listens and does nothing is like the man who built a house on soil, with no foundations; as soon as the river bore down on it, it collapsed; and what a ruin that house became!'
Luk 7:1 When he had come to the end of all he wanted the people to hear, he went into Capernaum.
Luk 7:2 A centurion there had a servant, a favorite of his, who was sick and near death.
Luk 7:3 Having heard about Jesus he sent some Jewish elders to him to ask him to come and heal his servant.
Luk 7:4 When they came to Jesus they pleaded earnestly with him saying, 'He deserves this of you,
Luk 7:5 because he is well disposed towards our people; he built us our synagogue himself.'
Luk 7:6 So Jesus went with them, and was not very far from the house when the centurion sent word to him by some friends to say to him, 'Sir, do not put yourself to any trouble because I am not worthy to have you under my roof;
Luk 7:7 and that is why I did not presume to come to you myself; let my boy be cured by your giving the word.
Luk 7:8 For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man, "Go," and he goes; to another, "Come here," and he comes; to my servant, "Do this," and he does it.'
Luk 7:9 When Jesus heard these words he was astonished at him and, turning round, said to the crowd following him, 'I tell you, not even in Israel have I found faith as great as this.'
Luk 7:10 And when the messengers got back to the house they found the servant in perfect health.
Luk 7:11 It happened that soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people.
Luk 7:12 Now when he was near the gate of the town there was a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable number of the townspeople was with her.
Luk 7:13 When the Lord saw her he felt sorry for her and said to her, 'Don't cry.'
Luk 7:14 Then he went up and touched the bier and the bearers stood still, and he said, 'Young man, I tell you: get up.'
Luk 7:15 And the dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
Luk 7:16 Everyone was filled with awe and glorified God saying, 'A great prophet has risen up among us; God has visited his people.'
Luk 7:17 And this view of him spread throughout Judaea and all over the countryside.
Luk 7:18 The disciples of John gave him all this news, and John, summoning two of his disciples,
Luk 7:19 sent them to the Lord to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or are we to expect someone else?'
Luk 7:20 When the men reached Jesus they said, 'John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, "Are you the one who is to come or are we to expect someone else?" '
Luk 7:21 At that very time he cured many people of diseases and afflictions and of evil spirits, and gave the gift of sight to many who were blind.
Luk 7:22 Then he gave the messengers their answer, 'Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind see again, the lame walk, those suffering from virulent skin-diseases are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the good news is proclaimed to the poor;
Luk 7:23 and blessed is anyone who does not find me a cause of falling.'
Luk 7:24 When John's messengers had gone he began to talk to the people about John,
Luk 7:25 'What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No! Then what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? Look, those who go in magnificent clothes and live luxuriously are to be found at royal courts!
Luk 7:26 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and much more than a prophet:
Luk 7:27 he is the one of whom scripture says: Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you.
Luk 7:28 'I tell you, of all the children born to women, there is no one greater than John; yet the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.'
Luk 7:29 All the people who heard him, and the tax collectors too, acknowledged God's saving justice by accepting baptism from John;
Luk 7:30 but by refusing baptism from him the Pharisees and the lawyers thwarted God's plan for them.
Luk 7:31 'What comparison, then, can I find for the people of this generation? What are they like?
Luk 7:32 They are like children shouting to one another while they sit in the market place: We played the pipes for you, and you wouldn't dance; we sang dirges, and you wouldn't cry.
Luk 7:33 'For John the Baptist has come, not eating bread, not drinking wine, and you say, "He is possessed."
Luk 7:34 The Son of man has come, eating and drinking, and you say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."
Luk 7:35 Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.'
Luk 7:36 One of the Pharisees invited him to a meal. When he arrived at the Pharisee's house and took his place at table,
Luk 7:37 suddenly a woman came in, who had a bad name in the town. She had heard he was dining with the Pharisee and had brought with her an alabaster jar of ointment.
Luk 7:38 She waited behind him at his feet, weeping, and her tears fell on his feet, and she wiped them away with her hair; then she covered his feet with kisses and anointed them with the ointment.
Luk 7:39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, 'If this man were a prophet, he would know who this woman is and what sort of person it is who is touching him and what a bad name she has.'
Luk 7:40 Then Jesus took him up and said, 'Simon, I have something to say to you.' He replied, 'Say on, Master.'
Luk 7:41 'There was once a creditor who had two men in his debt; one owed him five hundred denarii, the other fifty.
Luk 7:42 They were unable to pay, so he let them both off. Which of them will love him more?'
Luk 7:43 Simon answered, 'The one who was let off more, I suppose.' Jesus said, 'You are right.'
Luk 7:44 Then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, 'You see this woman? I came into your house, and you poured no water over my feet, but she has poured out her tears over my feet and wiped them away with her hair.
Luk 7:45 You gave me no kiss, but she has been covering my feet with kisses ever since I came in.
Luk 7:46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.
Luk 7:47 For this reason I tell you that her sins, many as they are, have been forgiven her, because she has shown such great love. It is someone who is forgiven little who shows little love.'
Luk 7:48 Then he said to her, 'Your sins are forgiven.'
Luk 7:49 Those who were with him at table began to say to themselves, 'Who is this man, that even forgives sins?'
Luk 7:50 But he said to the woman, 'Your faith has saved you; go in peace.'
Luk 8:1 Now it happened that after this he made his way through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. With him went the Twelve,
Luk 8:2 as well as certain women who had been cured of evil spirits and ailments: Mary surnamed the Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
Luk 8:3 Joanna the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their own resources.
Luk 8:4 With a large crowd gathering and people from every town finding their way to him, he told this parable:
Luk 8:5 'A sower went out to sow his seed. Now as he sowed, some fell on the edge of the path and was trampled on; and the birds of the air ate it up.
Luk 8:6 Some seed fell on rock, and when it came up it withered away, having no moisture.
Luk 8:7 Some seed fell in the middle of thorns and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
Luk 8:8 And some seed fell into good soil and grew and produced its crop a hundredfold.' Saying this he cried, 'Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!'
Luk 8:9 His disciples asked him what this parable might mean,
Luk 8:10 and he said, 'To you is granted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God; for the rest it remains in parables, so that they may look but not perceive, listen but not understand.
Luk 8:11 'This, then, is what the parable means: the seed is the word of God.
Luk 8:12 Those on the edge of the path are people who have heard it, and then the devil comes and carries away the word from their hearts in case they should believe and be saved.
Luk 8:13 Those on the rock are people who, when they first hear it, welcome the word with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of trial they give up.
Luk 8:14 As for the part that fell into thorns, this is people who have heard, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries and riches and pleasures of life and never produce any crops.
Luk 8:15 As for the part in the rich soil, this is people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Luk 8:16 'No one lights a lamp to cover it with a bowl or to put it under a bed. No, it is put on a lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.
Luk 8:17 For nothing is hidden but it will be made clear, nothing secret but it will be made known and brought to light.
Luk 8:18 So take care how you listen; anyone who has, will be given more; anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he thinks he has.'
Luk 8:19 His mother and his brothers came looking for him, but they could not get to him because of the crowd.
Luk 8:20 He was told, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside and want to see you.'
Luk 8:21 But he said in answer, 'My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.'
Luk 8:22 It happened that one day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, 'Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.' So they set out,
Luk 8:23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. When a squall of wind came down on the lake the boat started shipping water and they found themselves in danger.
Luk 8:24 So they went to rouse him saying, 'Master! Master! We are lost!' Then he woke up and rebuked the wind and the rough water; and they subsided and it was calm again.
Luk 8:25 He said to them, 'Where is your faith?' They were awestruck and astounded and said to one another, 'Who can this be, that gives orders even to winds and waves and they obey him?'
Luk 8:26 They came to land in the territory of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.
Luk 8:27 He was stepping ashore when a man from the city who was possessed by devils came towards him; for a long time the man had been living with no clothes on, not in a house, but in the tombs.
Luk 8:28 Catching sight of Jesus he gave a shout, fell at his feet and cried out at the top of his voice, 'What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I implore you, do not torture me.'
Luk 8:29 For Jesus had been telling the unclean spirit to come out of the man. It had seized on him a great many times, and then they used to secure him with chains and fetters to restrain him, but he would always break the fastenings, and the devil would drive him out into the wilds.
Luk 8:30 Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' He said, 'Legion' -- because many devils had gone into him.
Luk 8:31 And these begged him not to order them to depart into the Abyss.
Luk 8:32 Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding there on the mountain, and the devils begged him to let them go into these. So he gave them leave.
Luk 8:33 The devils came out of the man and went into the pigs, and the herd charged down the cliff into the lake and was drowned.
Luk 8:34 When the swineherds saw what had happened they ran off and told their story in the city and in the country round about;
Luk 8:35 and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus they found the man from whom the devils had gone out sitting at the feet of Jesus, wearing clothes and in his right mind; and they were afraid.
Luk 8:36 Those who had witnessed it told them how the man who had been possessed came to be saved.
Luk 8:37 The entire population of the Gerasene territory was in great fear and asked Jesus to leave them. So he got into the boat and went back.
Luk 8:38 The man from whom the devils had gone out asked to be allowed to stay with him, but he sent him away saying,
Luk 8:39 'Go back home and report all that God has done for you.' So the man went off and proclaimed throughout the city all that Jesus had done for him.
Luk 8:40 On his return Jesus was welcomed by the crowd, for they were all there waiting for him.
Luk 8:41 And suddenly there came a man named Jairus, who was president of the synagogue. He fell at Jesus' feet and pleaded with him to come to his house,
Luk 8:42 because he had an only daughter about twelve years old, who was dying. And the crowds were almost stifling Jesus as he went.
Luk 8:43 Now there was a woman suffering from a haemorrhage for the past twelve years, whom no one had been able to cure.
Luk 8:44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak; and the haemorrhage stopped at that very moment.
Luk 8:45 Jesus said, 'Who was it that touched me?' When they all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, it is the crowds round you, pushing.'
Luk 8:46 But Jesus said, 'Somebody touched me. I felt that power had gone out from me.'
Luk 8:47 Seeing herself discovered, the woman came forward trembling, and falling at his feet explained in front of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been cured at that very moment.
Luk 8:48 'My daughter,' he said, 'your faith has saved you; go in peace.'
Luk 8:49 While he was still speaking, someone arrived from the house of the president of the synagogue to say, 'Your daughter has died. Do not trouble the Master any further.'
Luk 8:50 But Jesus heard this, and he spoke to the man, 'Do not be afraid, only have faith and she will be saved.'
Luk 8:51 When he came to the house he allowed no one to go in with him except Peter and John and James, and the child's father and mother.
Luk 8:52 They were all crying and mourning for her, but Jesus said, 'Stop crying; she is not dead, but asleep.'
Luk 8:53 But they ridiculed him, knowing she was dead.
Luk 8:54 But taking her by the hand himself he spoke to her, 'Child, get up.'
Luk 8:55 And her spirit returned and she got up at that very moment. Then he told them to give her something to eat.
Luk 8:56 Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.
Luk 9:1 He called the Twelve together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases,
Luk 9:2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
Luk 9:3 He said to them, 'Take nothing for the journey: neither staff, nor haversack, nor bread, nor money; and do not have a spare tunic.
Luk 9:4 Whatever house you enter, stay there; and when you leave let your departure be from there.
Luk 9:5 As for those who do not welcome you, when you leave their town shake the dust from your feet as evidence against them.'
Luk 9:6 So they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and healing everywhere.
Luk 9:7 Meanwhile Herod the tetrarch had heard about all that was going on; and he was puzzled, because some people were saying that John had risen from the dead,
Luk 9:8 others that Elijah had reappeared, still others that one of the ancient prophets had come back to life.
Luk 9:9 But Herod said, 'John? I beheaded him. So who is this I hear such reports about?' And he was anxious to see him.
Luk 9:10 On their return the apostles gave him an account of all they had done. Then he took them with him and withdrew towards a town called Bethsaida where they could be by themselves.
Luk 9:11 But the crowds got to know and they went after him. He made them welcome and talked to them about the kingdom of God; and he cured those who were in need of healing.
Luk 9:12 It was late afternoon when the Twelve came up to him and said, 'Send the people away, and they can go to the villages and farms round about to find lodging and food; for we are in a lonely place here.'
Luk 9:13 He replied, 'Give them something to eat yourselves.' But they said, 'We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless we are to go ourselves and buy food for all these people.'
Luk 9:14 For there were about five thousand men. But he said to his disciples, 'Get them to sit down in parties of about fifty.'
Luk 9:15 They did so and made them all sit down.
Luk 9:16 Then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven, and said the blessing over them; then he broke them and handed them to his disciples to distribute among the crowd.
Luk 9:17 They all ate as much as they wanted, and when the scraps left over were collected they filled twelve baskets.
Luk 9:18 Now it happened that he was praying alone, and his disciples came to him and he put this question to them, 'Who do the crowds say I am?'
Luk 9:19 And they answered, 'Some say John the Baptist; others Elijah; others again one of the ancient prophets come back to life.'
Luk 9:20 'But you,' he said to them, 'who do you say I am?' It was Peter who spoke up. 'The Christ of God,' he said.
Luk 9:21 But he gave them strict orders and charged them not to say this to anyone.
Luk 9:22 He said, 'The Son of man is destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and to be put to death, and to be raised up on the third day.'
Luk 9:23 Then, speaking to all, he said, 'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.
Luk 9:24 Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, will save it.
Luk 9:25 What benefit is it to anyone to win the whole world and forfeit or lose his very self?
Luk 9:26 For if anyone is ashamed of me and of my words, of him the Son of man will be ashamed when he comes in his own glory and in the glory of the Father and the holy angels.
Luk 9:27 'I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.'
Luk 9:28 Now about eight days after this had been said, he took with him Peter, John and James and went up the mountain to pray.
Luk 9:29 And it happened that, as he was praying, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became sparkling white.
Luk 9:30 And suddenly there were two men talking to him; they were Moses and Elijah
Luk 9:31 appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem.
Luk 9:32 Peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they woke up and saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
Luk 9:33 As these were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, 'Master, it is wonderful for us to be here; so let us make three shelters, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.' He did not know what he was saying.
Luk 9:34 As he was saying this, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid.
Luk 9:35 And a voice came from the cloud saying, 'This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.'
Luk 9:36 And after the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. The disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.
Luk 9:37 Now it happened that on the following day when they were coming down from the mountain a large crowd came to meet him.
Luk 9:38 And suddenly a man in the crowd cried out. 'Master,' he said, 'I implore you to look at my son: he is my only child.
Luk 9:39 A spirit will suddenly take hold of him, and all at once it gives a sudden cry and throws the boy into convulsions with foaming at the mouth; it is slow to leave him, but when it does, it leaves the boy worn out.
Luk 9:40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, and they could not.'
Luk 9:41 In reply Jesus said, 'Faithless and perverse generation! How much longer must I be among you and put up with you? Bring your son here.'
Luk 9:42 Even while the boy was coming, the devil threw him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and cured the boy and gave him back to his father,
Luk 9:43 and everyone was awestruck by the greatness of God. But while everyone was full of admiration for all he did, he said to his disciples,
Luk 9:44 'For your part, you must have these words constantly in mind: The Son of man is going to be delivered into the power of men.'
Luk 9:45 But they did not understand what he said; it was hidden from them so that they should not see the meaning of it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
Luk 9:46 An argument started between them about which of them was the greatest.
Luk 9:47 Jesus knew what thoughts were going through their minds, and he took a little child whom he set by his side
Luk 9:48 and then he said to them, 'Anyone who welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me. The least among you all is the one who is the greatest.'
Luk 9:49 John spoke up. 'Master,' he said, 'we saw someone driving out devils in your name, and because he is not with us we tried to stop him.'
Luk 9:50 But Jesus said to him, 'You must not stop him: anyone who is not against you is for you.'
Luk 9:51 Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem
Luk 9:52 and sent messengers ahead of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make preparations for him,
Luk 9:53 but the people would not receive him because he was making for Jerusalem.
Luk 9:54 Seeing this, the disciples James and John said, 'Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?'
Luk 9:55 But he turned and rebuked them,
Luk 9:56 and they went on to another village.
Luk 9:57 As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to him, 'I will follow you wherever you go.'
Luk 9:58 Jesus answered, 'Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.'
Luk 9:59 Another to whom he said, 'Follow me,' replied, 'Let me go and bury my father first.'
Luk 9:60 But he answered, 'Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.'
Luk 9:61 Another said, 'I will follow you, sir, but first let me go and say good -- bye to my people at home.'
Luk 9:62 Jesus said to him, 'Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.'
Luk 10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them out ahead of him in pairs, to all the towns and places he himself would be visiting.
Luk 10:2 And he said to them, 'The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to do his harvesting.
Luk 10:3 Start off now, but look, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
Luk 10:4 Take no purse with you, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road.
Luk 10:5 Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, "Peace to this house!"
Luk 10:6 And if a man of peace lives there, your peace will go and rest on him; if not, it will come back to you.
Luk 10:7 Stay in the same house, taking what food and drink they have to offer, for the labourer deserves his wages; do not move from house to house.
Luk 10:8 Whenever you go into a town where they make you welcome, eat what is put before you.
Luk 10:9 Cure those in it who are sick, and say, "The kingdom of God is very near to you."
Luk 10:10 But whenever you enter a town and they do not make you welcome, go out into its streets and say,
Luk 10:11 "We wipe off the very dust of your town that clings to our feet, and leave it with you. Yet be sure of this: the kingdom of God is very near."
Luk 10:12 I tell you, on the great Day it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town.
Luk 10:13 'Alas for you, Chorazin! Alas for you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
Luk 10:14 And still, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the Judgement than for you.
Luk 10:15 And as for you, Capernaum, did you want to be raised high as heaven? You shall be flung down to hell.
Luk 10:16 'Anyone who listens to you listens to me; anyone who rejects you rejects me, and those who reject me reject the one who sent me.'
Luk 10:17 The seventy-two came back rejoicing. 'Lord,' they said, 'even the devils submit to us when we use your name.'
Luk 10:18 He said to them, 'I watched Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
Luk 10:19 Look, I have given you power to tread down serpents and scorpions and the whole strength of the enemy; nothing shall ever hurt you.
Luk 10:20 Yet do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you; rejoice instead that your names are written in heaven.'
Luk 10:21 Just at this time, filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to little children. Yes, Father, for that is what it has pleased you to do.
Luk 10:22 Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.'
Luk 10:23 Then turning to his disciples he spoke to them by themselves, 'Blessed are the eyes that see what you see,
Luk 10:24 for I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.'
Luk 10:25 And now a lawyer stood up and, to test him, asked, 'Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'
Luk 10:26 He said to him, 'What is written in the Law? What is your reading of it?'
Luk 10:27 He replied, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.'
Luk 10:28 Jesus said to him, 'You have answered right, do this and life is yours.'
Luk 10:29 But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor?'
Luk 10:30 In answer Jesus said, 'A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of bandits; they stripped him, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead.
Luk 10:31 Now a priest happened to be traveling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:32 In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side.
Luk 10:33 But a Samaritan traveller who came on him was moved with compassion when he saw him.
Luk 10:34 He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him onto his own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him.
Luk 10:35 Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper and said, "Look after him, and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have."
Luk 10:36 Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the bandits' hands?'
Luk 10:37 He replied, 'The one who showed pity towards him.' Jesus said to him, 'Go, and do the same yourself.'
Luk 10:38 In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.
Luk 10:39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord's feet and listened to him speaking.
Luk 10:40 Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, 'Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.'
Luk 10:41 But the Lord answered, 'Martha, Martha,' he said, 'you worry and fret about so many things,
Luk 10:42 and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.'
Luk 11:1 Now it happened that he was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.'
Luk 11:2 He said to them, 'When you pray, this is what to say: Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come;
Luk 11:3 give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,
Luk 11:4 for we ourselves forgive each one who is in debt to us. And do not put us to the test.'
Luk 11:5 He also said to them, 'Suppose one of you has a friend and goes to him in the middle of the night to say, "My friend, lend me three loaves,
Luk 11:6 because a friend of mine on his travels has just arrived at my house and I have nothing to offer him;"
Luk 11:7 and the man answers from inside the house, "Do not bother me. The door is bolted now, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up to give it to you."
Luk 11:8 I tell you, if the man does not get up and give it to him for friendship's sake, persistence will make him get up and give his friend all he wants.
Luk 11:9 'So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.
Luk 11:10 For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened.
Luk 11:11 What father among you, if his son asked for a fish, would hand him a snake?
Luk 11:12 Or if he asked for an egg, hand him a scorpion?
Luk 11:13 If you then, evil as you are, know how to give your children what is good, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!'
Luk 11:14 He was driving out a devil and it was dumb; and it happened that when the devil had gone out the dumb man spoke, and the people were amazed.
Luk 11:15 But some of them said, 'It is through Beelzebul, the prince of devils, that he drives devils out.'
Luk 11:16 Others asked him, as a test, for a sign from heaven;
Luk 11:17 but, knowing what they were thinking, he said to them, 'Any kingdom which is divided against itself is heading for ruin, and house collapses against house.
Luk 11:18 So, too, with Satan: if he is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? - since you claim that it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out.
Luk 11:19 Now if it is through Beelzebul that I drive devils out, through whom do your own sons drive them out? They shall be your judges, then.
Luk 11:20 But if it is through the finger of God that I drive devils out, then the kingdom of God has indeed caught you unawares.
Luk 11:21 So long as a strong man fully armed guards his own home, his goods are undisturbed;
Luk 11:22 but when someone stronger than himself attacks and defeats him, the stronger man takes away all the weapons he relied on and shares out his spoil.
Luk 11:23 'Anyone who is not with me is against me; and anyone who does not gather in with me throws away.
Luk 11:24 'When an unclean spirit goes out of someone it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and not finding one it says, "I will go back to the home I came from."
Luk 11:25 But on arrival, finding it swept and tidied,
Luk 11:26 it then goes off and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and set up house there, and so that person ends up worse off than before.'
Luk 11:27 It happened that as he was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, 'Blessed the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you!'
Luk 11:28 But he replied, 'More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'
Luk 11:29 The crowds got even bigger and he addressed them, 'This is an evil generation; it is asking for a sign. The only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah.
Luk 11:30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of man be a sign to this generation.
Luk 11:31 On Judgement Day the Queen of the South will stand up against the people of this generation and be their condemnation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, look, there is something greater than Solomon here.
Luk 11:32 On Judgement Day the men of Nineveh will appear against this generation and be its condemnation, because when Jonah preached they repented; and, look, there is something greater than Jonah here.
Luk 11:33 'No one lights a lamp and puts it in some hidden place or under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand so that people may see the light when they come in.
Luk 11:34 The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is clear, your whole body, too, is filled with light; but when it is diseased your body, too, will be darkened.
Luk 11:35 See to it then that the light inside you is not darkness.
Luk 11:36 If, therefore, your whole body is filled with light, and not darkened at all, it will be light entirely, as when the lamp shines on you with its rays.'
Luk 11:37 He had just finished speaking when a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and sat down at table.
Luk 11:38 The Pharisee saw this and was surprised that he had not first washed before the meal.
Luk 11:39 But the Lord said to him, 'You Pharisees! You clean the outside of cup and plate, while inside yourselves you are filled with extortion and wickedness.
Luk 11:40 Fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside too?
Luk 11:41 Instead, give alms from what you have and, look, everything will be clean for you.
Luk 11:42 But alas for you Pharisees, because you pay your tithe of mint and rue and all sorts of garden herbs and neglect justice and the love of God! These you should have practised, without neglecting the others.
Luk 11:43 Alas for you Pharisees, because you like to take the seats of honor in the synagogues and to be greeted respectfully in the market squares!
Luk 11:44 Alas for you, because you are like the unmarked tombs that people walk on without knowing it!'
Luk 11:45 A lawyer then spoke up. 'Master,' he said, 'when you speak like this you insult us too.'
Luk 11:46 But he said, 'Alas for you lawyers as well, because you load on people burdens that are unendurable, burdens that you yourselves do not touch with your fingertips.
Luk 11:47 'Alas for you because you build tombs for the prophets, the people your ancestors killed!
Luk 11:48 In this way you both witness to what your ancestors did and approve it; they did the killing, you do the building.
Luk 11:49 'And that is why the Wisdom of God said, "I will send them prophets and apostles; some they will slaughter and persecute,
Luk 11:50 so that this generation will have to answer for every prophet's blood that has been shed since the foundation of the world,
Luk 11:51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the Temple." Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.
Luk 11:52 'Alas for you lawyers who have taken away the key of knowledge! You have not gone in yourselves and have prevented others from going in who wanted to.'
Luk 11:53 When he left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began a furious attack on him and tried to force answers from him on innumerable questions,
Luk 11:54 lying in wait to catch him out in something he might say.
Luk 12:1 Meanwhile the people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And he began to speak, first of all to his disciples. 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees -- their hypocrisy.
Luk 12:2 Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.
Luk 12:3 For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed from the housetops.
Luk 12:4 'To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more.
Luk 12:5 I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, he is the one to fear.
Luk 12:6 Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God's sight.
Luk 12:7 Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows.
Luk 12:8 'I tell you, if anyone openly declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, the Son of man will declare himself for him in the presence of God's angels.
Luk 12:9 But anyone who disowns me in the presence of human beings will be disowned in the presence of God's angels.
Luk 12:10 'Everyone who says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven, but no one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will be forgiven.
Luk 12:11 'When they take you before synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say,
Luk 12:12 because when the time comes, the Holy Spirit will teach you what you should say.'
Luk 12:13 A man in the crowd said to him, 'Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.'
Luk 12:14 He said to him, 'My friend, who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?'
Luk 12:15 Then he said to them, 'Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for life does not consist in possessions, even when someone has more than he needs.'
Luk 12:16 Then he told them a parable, 'There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land,
Luk 12:17 thought to himself, "What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops."
Luk 12:18 Then he said, "This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them,
Luk 12:19 and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time."
Luk 12:20 But God said to him, "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?"
Luk 12:21 So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God.'
Luk 12:22 Then he said to his disciples, 'That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it.
Luk 12:23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
Luk 12:24 Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. And how much more you are worth than the birds!
Luk 12:25 Can any of you, however much you worry, add a single cubit to your span of life?
Luk 12:26 If a very small thing is beyond your powers, why worry about the rest?
Luk 12:27 Think how the flowers grow; they never have to spin or weave; yet, I assure you, not even Solomon in all his royal robes was clothed like one of them.
Luk 12:28 Now if that is how God clothes a flower which is growing wild today and is thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he look after you, who have so little faith!
Luk 12:29 But you must not set your hearts on things to eat and things to drink; nor must you worry.
Luk 12:30 It is the gentiles of this world who set their hearts on all these things. Your Father well knows you need them.
Luk 12:31 No; set your hearts on his kingdom, and these other things will be given you as well.
Luk 12:32 'There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom.
Luk 12:33 'Sell your possessions and give to those in need. Get yourselves purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it.
Luk 12:34 For wherever your treasure is, that is where your heart will be too.
Luk 12:35 'See that you have your belts done up and your lamps lit.
Luk 12:36 Be like people waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks.
Luk 12:37 Blessed those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. In truth I tell you, he will do up his belt, sit them down at table and wait on them.
Luk 12:38 It may be in the second watch that he comes, or in the third, but blessed are those servants if he finds them ready.
Luk 12:39 You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house.
Luk 12:40 You too must stand ready, because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.'
Luk 12:41 Peter said, 'Lord, do you mean this parable for us, or for everyone?'
Luk 12:42 The Lord replied, 'Who, then, is the wise and trustworthy steward whom the master will place over his household to give them at the proper time their allowance of food?
Luk 12:43 Blessed that servant if his master's arrival finds him doing exactly that.
Luk 12:44 I tell you truly, he will put him in charge of everything that he owns.
Luk 12:45 But if the servant says to himself, "My master is taking his time coming," and sets about beating the menservants and the servant-girls, and eating and drinking and getting drunk,
Luk 12:46 his master will come on a day he does not expect and at an hour he does not know. The master will cut him off and send him to the same fate as the unfaithful.
Luk 12:47 'The servant who knows what his master wants, but has got nothing ready and done nothing in accord with those wishes, will be given a great many strokes of the lash.
Luk 12:48 The one who did not know, but has acted in such a way that he deserves a beating, will be given fewer strokes. When someone is given a great deal, a great deal will be demanded of that person; when someone is entrusted with a great deal, of that person even more will be expected.
Luk 12:49 'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already!
Luk 12:50 There is a baptism I must still receive, and what constraint I am under until it is completed!
Luk 12:51 'Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
Luk 12:52 For from now on, a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three;
Luk 12:53 father opposed to son, son to father, mother to daughter, daughter to mother, mother-in-law to daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law to mother-in-law.'
Luk 12:54 He said again to the crowds, 'When you see a cloud looming up in the west you say at once that rain is coming, and so it does.
Luk 12:55 And when the wind is from the south you say it's going to be hot, and it is.
Luk 12:56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky. How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?
Luk 12:57 'Why not judge for yourselves what is upright?
Luk 12:58 For example: when you are going to court with your opponent, make an effort to settle with him on the way, or he may drag you before the judge and the judge hand you over to the officer and the officer have you thrown into prison.
Luk 12:59 I tell you, you will not get out till you have paid the very last penny.'
Luk 13:1 It was just about this time that some people arrived and told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with that of their sacrifices. At this he said to them,
Luk 13:2 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than any others, that this should have happened to them?
Luk 13:3 They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.
Luk 13:4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower at Siloam fell, killing them all? Do you suppose that they were more guilty than all the other people living in Jerusalem?
Luk 13:5 They were not, I tell you. No; but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.'
Luk 13:6 He told this parable, 'A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came looking for fruit on it but found none.
Luk 13:7 He said to his vinedresser, "For three years now I have been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and finding none. Cut it down: why should it be taking up the ground?"
Luk 13:8 "Sir," the man replied, "leave it one more year and give me time to dig round it and manure it:
Luk 13:9 it may bear fruit next year; if not, then you can cut it down." '
Luk 13:10 One Sabbath day he was teaching in one of the synagogues,
Luk 13:11 and there before him was a woman who for eighteen years had been possessed by a spirit that crippled her; she was bent double and quite unable to stand upright.
Luk 13:12 When Jesus saw her he called her over and said, 'Woman, you are freed from your disability,'
Luk 13:13 and he laid his hands on her. And at once she straightened up, and she glorified God.
Luk 13:14 But the president of the synagogue was indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, and he addressed all those present saying, 'There are six days when work is to be done. Come and be healed on one of those days and not on the Sabbath.'
Luk 13:15 But the Lord answered him and said, 'Hypocrites! Is there one of you who does not untie his ox or his donkey from the manger on the Sabbath and take it out for watering?
Luk 13:16 And this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has held bound these eighteen years -- was it not right to untie this bond on the Sabbath day?'
Luk 13:17 When he said this, all his adversaries were covered with confusion, and all the people were overjoyed at all the wonders he worked.
Luk 13:18 He went on to say, 'What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with?
Luk 13:19 It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.'
Luk 13:20 Again he said, 'What shall I compare the kingdom of God with?
Luk 13:21 It is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.'
Luk 13:22 Through towns and villages he went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem.
Luk 13:23 Someone said to him, 'Sir, will there be only a few saved?' He said to them,
Luk 13:24 'Try your hardest to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.
Luk 13:25 'Once the master of the house has got up and locked the door, you may find yourself standing outside knocking on the door, saying, "Lord, open to us," but he will answer, "I do not know where you come from."
Luk 13:26 Then you will start saying, "We once ate and drank in your company; you taught in our streets,"
Luk 13:27 but he will reply, "I do not know where you come from; away from me, all evil doers!"
Luk 13:28 'Then there will be weeping and grinding of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrown out.
Luk 13:29 And people from east and west, from north and south, will come and sit down at the feast in the kingdom of God.
Luk 13:30 'Look, there are those now last who will be first, and those now first who will be last.'
Luk 13:31 Just at this time some Pharisees came up. 'Go away,' they said. 'Leave this place, because Herod means to kill you.'
Luk 13:32 He replied, 'You may go and give that fox this message: Look! Today and tomorrow I drive out devils and heal, and on the third day I attain my end.
Luk 13:33 But for today and tomorrow and the next day I must go on, since it would not be right for a prophet to die outside Jerusalem.
Luk 13:34 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you! How often have I longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you refused!
Luk 13:35 Look! Your house will be left to you. Yes, I promise you, you shall not see me till the time comes when you are saying: Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord!'
Luk 14:1 Now it happened that on a Sabbath day he had gone to share a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely.
Luk 14:2 Now there in front of him was a man with dropsy,
Luk 14:3 and Jesus addressed the lawyers and Pharisees with the words, 'Is it against the law to cure someone on the Sabbath, or not?'
Luk 14:4 But they remained silent, so he took the man and cured him and sent him away.
Luk 14:5 Then he said to them, 'Which of you here, if his son falls into a well, or his ox, will not pull him out on a Sabbath day without any hesitation?'
Luk 14:6 And to this they could find no answer.
Luk 14:7 He then told the guests a parable, because he had noticed how they picked the places of honor. He said this,
Luk 14:8 'When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honor. A more distinguished person than you may have been invited,
Luk 14:9 and the person who invited you both may come and say, "Give up your place to this man." And then, to your embarrassment, you will have to go and take the lowest place.
Luk 14:10 No; when you are a guest, make your way to the lowest place and sit there, so that, when your host comes, he may say, "My friend, move up higher." Then, everyone with you at the table will see you honored.
Luk 14:11 For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be raised up.'
Luk 14:12 Then he said to his host, 'When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relations or rich neighbors, in case they invite you back and so repay you.
Luk 14:13 No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;
Luk 14:14 then you will be blessed, for they have no means to repay you and so you will be repaid when the upright rise again.'
Luk 14:15 On hearing this, one of those gathered round the table said to him, 'Blessed is anyone who will share the meal in the kingdom of God!'
Luk 14:16 But he said to him, 'There was a man who gave a great banquet, and he invited a large number of people.
Luk 14:17 When the time for the banquet came, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, "Come along: everything is ready now."
Luk 14:18 But all alike started to make excuses. The first said, "I have bought a piece of land and must go and see it. Please accept my apologies."
Luk 14:19 Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen and am on my way to try them out. Please accept my apologies."
Luk 14:20 Yet another said, "I have just got married and so am unable to come."
Luk 14:21 'The servant returned and reported this to his master. Then the householder, in a rage, said to his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame."
Luk 14:22 "Sir," said the servant, "your orders have been carried out and there is still room."
Luk 14:23 Then the master said to his servant, "Go to the open roads and the hedgerows and press people to come in, to make sure my house is full;
Luk 14:24 because, I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet." '
Luk 14:25 Great crowds accompanied him on his way and he turned and spoke to them.
Luk 14:26 'Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:27 No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple.
Luk 14:28 'And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it?
Luk 14:29 Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, anyone who saw it would start making fun of him and saying,
Luk 14:30 "Here is someone who started to build and was unable to finish."
Luk 14:31 Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who was advancing against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32 If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace.
Luk 14:33 So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he owns.
Luk 14:34 'Salt is a good thing. But if salt itself loses its taste, what can make it salty again?
Luk 14:35 It is good for neither soil nor manure heap. People throw it away. Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!'
Luk 15:1 The tax collectors and sinners, however, were all crowding round to listen to him,
Luk 15:2 and the Pharisees and scribes complained saying, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.'
Luk 15:3 So he told them this parable:
Luk 15:4 'Which one of you with a hundred sheep, if he lost one, would fail to leave the ninety-nine in the desert and go after the missing one till he found it?
Luk 15:5 And when he found it, would he not joyfully take it on his shoulders
Luk 15:6 and then, when he got home, call together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found my sheep that was lost."
Luk 15:7 In the same way, I tell you, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repenting than over ninety-nine upright people who have no need of repentance.
Luk 15:8 'Or again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it?
Luk 15:9 And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbors, saying to them, "Rejoice with me, I have found the drachma I lost."
Luk 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing among the angels of God over one repentant sinner.'
Luk 15:11 Then he said, 'There was a man who had two sons.
Luk 15:12 The younger one said to his father, "Father, let me have the share of the estate that will come to me." So the father divided the property between them.
Luk 15:13 A few days later, the younger son got together everything he had and left for a distant country where he squandered his money on a life of debauchery.
Luk 15:14 'When he had spent it all, that country experienced a severe famine, and now he began to feel the pinch;
Luk 15:15 so he hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who put him on his farm to feed the pigs.
Luk 15:16 And he would willingly have filled himself with the husks the pigs were eating but no one would let him have them.
Luk 15:17 Then he came to his senses and said, "How many of my father's hired men have all the food they want and more, and here am I dying of hunger!
Luk 15:18 I will leave this place and go to my father and say: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
Luk 15:19 I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired men."
Luk 15:20 So he left the place and went back to his father. 'While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with pity. He ran to the boy, clasped him in his arms and kissed him.
Luk 15:21 Then his son said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son."
Luk 15:22 But the father said to his servants, "Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Luk 15:23 Bring the calf we have been fattening, and kill it; we will celebrate by having a feast,
Luk 15:24 because this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found." And they began to celebrate.
Luk 15:25 'Now the elder son was out in the fields, and on his way back, as he drew near the house, he could hear music and dancing.
Luk 15:26 Calling one of the servants he asked what it was all about.
Luk 15:27 The servant told him, "Your brother has come, and your father has killed the calf we had been fattening because he has got him back safe and sound."
Luk 15:28 He was angry then and refused to go in, and his father came out and began to urge him to come in;
Luk 15:29 but he retorted to his father, "All these years I have slaved for you and never once disobeyed any orders of yours, yet you never offered me so much as a kid for me to celebrate with my friends.
Luk 15:30 But, for this son of yours, when he comes back after swallowing up your property -- he and his loose women -- you kill the calf we had been fattening."
Luk 15:31 'The father said, "My son, you are with me always and all I have is yours.
Luk 15:32 But it was only right we should celebrate and rejoice, because your brother here was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found." '
Luk 16:1 He also said to his disciples, 'There was a rich man and he had a steward who was denounced to him for being wasteful with his property.
Luk 16:2 He called for the man and said, "What is this I hear about you? Draw me up an account of your stewardship because you are not to be my steward any longer."
Luk 16:3 Then the steward said to himself, "Now that my master is taking the stewardship from me, what am I to do? Dig? I am not strong enough. Go begging? I should be too ashamed.
Luk 16:4 Ah, I know what I will do to make sure that when I am dismissed from office there will be some to welcome me into their homes."
Luk 16:5 'Then he called his master's debtors one by one. To the first he said, "How much do you owe my master?"
Luk 16:6 "One hundred measures of oil," he said. The steward said, "Here, take your bond; sit down and quickly write fifty."
Luk 16:7 To another he said, "And you, sir, how much do you owe?" "One hundred measures of wheat," he said. The steward said, "Here, take your bond and write eighty."
Luk 16:8 'The master praised the dishonest steward for his astuteness. For the children of this world are more astute in dealing with their own kind than are the children of light.'
Luk 16:9 'And so I tell you this: use money, tainted as it is, to win you friends, and thus make sure that when it fails you, they will welcome you into eternal dwellings.
Luk 16:10 Anyone who is trustworthy in little things is trustworthy in great; anyone who is dishonest in little things is dishonest in great.
Luk 16:11 If then you are not trustworthy with money, that tainted thing, who will trust you with genuine riches?
Luk 16:12 And if you are not trustworthy with what is not yours, who will give you what is your very own?
Luk 16:13 'No servant can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.'
Luk 16:14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and jeered at him.
Luk 16:15 He said to them, 'You are the very ones who pass yourselves off as upright in people's sight, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed in human eyes is loathsome in the sight of God.
Luk 16:16 'Up to the time of John it was the Law and the Prophets; from then onwards, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is forcing their way into it.
Luk 16:17 'It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for one little stroke to drop out of the Law.
Luk 16:18 'Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced by her husband commits adultery.
Luk 16:19 'There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day.
Luk 16:20 And at his gate there used to lie a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores,
Luk 16:21 who longed to fill himself with what fell from the rich man's table. Even dogs came and licked his sores.
Luk 16:22 Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels into Abraham's embrace. The rich man also died and was buried.
Luk 16:23 'In his torment in Hades he looked up and saw Abraham a long way off with Lazarus in his embrace.
Luk 16:24 So he cried out, "Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in these flames."
Luk 16:25 Abraham said, "My son, remember that during your life you had your fill of good things, just as Lazarus his fill of bad. Now he is being comforted here while you are in agony.
Luk 16:26 But that is not all: between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to prevent those who want to cross from our side to yours or from your side to ours."
Luk 16:27 'So he said, "Father, I beg you then to send Lazarus to my father's house,
Luk 16:28 since I have five brothers, to give them warning so that they do not come to this place of torment too."
Luk 16:29 Abraham said, "They have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them."
Luk 16:30 The rich man replied, "Ah no, father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent."
Luk 16:31 Then Abraham said to him, "If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead."
Luk 17:1 He said to his disciples, 'Causes of falling are sure to come, but alas for the one through whom they occur!
Luk 17:2 It would be better for such a person to be thrown into the sea with a millstone round the neck than to be the downfall of a single one of these little ones.
Luk 17:3 Keep watch on yourselves! 'If your brother does something wrong, rebuke him and, if he is sorry, forgive him.
Luk 17:4 And if he wrongs you seven times a day and seven times comes back to you and says, "I am sorry," you must forgive him.'
Luk 17:5 The apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our faith.'
Luk 17:6 The Lord replied, 'If you had faith like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, "Be uprooted and planted in the sea," and it would obey you.
Luk 17:7 'Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he returned from the fields, "Come and have your meal at once"?
Luk 17:8 Would he not be more likely to say, "Get my supper ready; fasten your belt and wait on me while I eat and drink. You yourself can eat and drink afterwards"?
Luk 17:9 Must he be grateful to the servant for doing what he was told?
Luk 17:10 So with you: when you have done all you have been told to do, say, "We are useless servants: we have done no more than our duty." '
Luk 17:11 Now it happened that on the way to Jerusalem he was traveling in the borderlands of Samaria and Galilee.
Luk 17:12 As he entered one of the villages, ten men suffering from a virulent skin-disease came to meet him. They stood some way off
Luk 17:13 and called to him, 'Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.'
Luk 17:14 When he saw them he said, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests.' Now as they were going away they were cleansed.
Luk 17:15 Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice
Luk 17:16 and threw himself prostrate at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan.
Luk 17:17 This led Jesus to say, 'Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they?
Luk 17:18 It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.'
Luk 17:19 And he said to the man, 'Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.'
Luk 17:20 Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was to come, he gave them this answer, 'The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit of observation
Luk 17:21 and there will be no one to say, "Look, it is here! Look, it is there!" For look, the kingdom of God is among you.'
Luk 17:22 He said to the disciples, 'A time will come when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of man and will not see it.
Luk 17:23 They will say to you, "Look, it is there!" or, "Look, it is here!" Make no move; do not set off in pursuit;
Luk 17:24 for as the lightning flashing from one part of heaven lights up the other, so will be the Son of man when his Day comes.
Luk 17:25 But first he is destined to suffer grievously and be rejected by this generation.
Luk 17:26 'As it was in Noah's day, so will it also be in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27 People were eating and drinking, marrying wives and husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28 It will be the same as it was in Lot's day: people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
Luk 17:29 but the day Lot left Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and it destroyed them all.
Luk 17:30 It will be the same when the day comes for the Son of man to be revealed.
Luk 17:31 'When that Day comes, no one on the housetop, with his possessions in the house, must come down to collect them, nor must anyone in the fields turn back.
Luk 17:32 Remember Lot's wife.
Luk 17:33 Anyone who tries to preserve his life will lose it; and anyone who loses it will keep it safe.
Luk 17:34 I tell you, on that night, when two are in one bed, one will be taken, the other left;
Luk 17:35 when two women are grinding corn together, one will be taken, the other left.'
Luk 17:36
Luk 17:37 The disciples spoke up and asked, 'Where, Lord?' He said, 'Where the body is, there too will the vultures gather.'
Luk 18:1 Then he told them a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart.
Luk 18:2 'There was a judge in a certain town,' he said, 'who had neither fear of God nor respect for anyone.
Luk 18:3 In the same town there was also a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, "I want justice from you against my enemy!"
Luk 18:4 For a long time he refused, but at last he said to himself, "Even though I have neither fear of God nor respect for any human person,
Luk 18:5 I must give this widow her just rights since she keeps pestering me, or she will come and slap me in the face." '
Luk 18:6 And the Lord said, 'You notice what the unjust judge has to say?
Luk 18:7 Now, will not God see justice done to his elect if they keep calling to him day and night even though he still delays to help them?
Luk 18:8 I promise you, he will see justice done to them, and done speedily. But when the Son of man comes, will he find any faith on earth?'
Luk 18:9 He spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being upright and despised everyone else,
Luk 18:10 'Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.
Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, "I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like everyone else, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here.
Luk 18:12 I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get."
Luk 18:13 The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner."
Luk 18:14 This man, I tell you, went home again justified; the other did not. For everyone who raises himself up will be humbled, but anyone who humbles himself will be raised up.'
Luk 18:15 People even brought babies to him, for him to touch them; but when the disciples saw this they scolded them.
Luk 18:16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
Luk 18:17 In truth I tell you, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'
Luk 18:18 One of the rulers put this question to him, 'Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'
Luk 18:19 Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Luk 18:20 You know the commandments: You shall not commit adultery; You shall not kill; You shall not steal; You shall not give false witness; honor your father and your mother.'
Luk 18:21 He replied, 'I have kept all these since my earliest days.'
Luk 18:22 And when Jesus heard this he said, 'There is still one thing you lack. Sell everything you own and distribute the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.'
Luk 18:23 But when he heard this he was overcome with sadness, for he was very rich.
Luk 18:24 Jesus looked at him and said, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to make their way into the kingdom of God!
Luk 18:25 Yes, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of God.'
Luk 18:26 Those who were listening said, 'In that case, who can be saved?'
Luk 18:27 He replied, 'Things that are impossible by human resources, are possible for God.'
Luk 18:28 But Peter said, 'Look, we left all we had to follow you.'
Luk 18:29 He said to them, 'In truth I tell you, there is no one who has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
Luk 18:30 who will not receive many times as much in this present age and, in the world to come, eternal life.'
Luk 18:31 Then taking the Twelve aside he said to them, 'Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of man is to come true.
Luk 18:32 For he will be handed over to the gentiles and will be mocked, maltreated and spat on,
Luk 18:33 and when they have scourged him they will put him to death; and on the third day he will rise again.'
Luk 18:34 But they could make nothing of this; what he said was quite obscure to them, they did not understand what he was telling them.
Luk 18:35 Now it happened that as he drew near to Jericho there was a blind man sitting at the side of the road begging.
Luk 18:36 When he heard the crowd going past he asked what it was all about,
Luk 18:37 and they told him that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by.
Luk 18:38 So he called out, 'Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me.'
Luk 18:39 The people in front scolded him and told him to keep quiet, but he only shouted all the louder, 'Son of David, have pity on me.'
Luk 18:40 Jesus stopped and ordered them to bring the man to him, and when he came up, asked him,
Luk 18:41 'What do you want me to do for you?' 'Sir,' he replied, 'let me see again.'
Luk 18:42 Jesus said to him, 'Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.'
Luk 18:43 And instantly his sight returned and he followed him praising God, and all the people who saw it gave praise to God.
Luk 19:1 He entered Jericho and was going through the town
Luk 19:2 and suddenly a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance; he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man.
Luk 19:3 He kept trying to see which Jesus was, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd;
Luk 19:4 so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.
Luk 19:5 When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him, 'Zacchaeus, come down. Hurry, because I am to stay at your house today.'
Luk 19:6 And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully.
Luk 19:7 They all complained when they saw what was happening. 'He has gone to stay at a sinner's house,' they said.
Luk 19:8 But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, 'Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.'
Luk 19:9 And Jesus said to him, 'Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham;
Luk 19:10 for the Son of man has come to seek out and save what was lost.'
Luk 19:11 While the people were listening to this he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and they thought that the kingdom of God was going to show itself then and there.
Luk 19:12 Accordingly he said, 'A man of noble birth went to a distant country to be appointed king and then return.
Luk 19:13 He summoned ten of his servants and gave them ten pounds, telling them, "Trade with these, until I get back."
Luk 19:14 But his compatriots detested him and sent a delegation to follow him with this message, "We do not want this man to be our king."
Luk 19:15 'Now it happened that on his return, having received his appointment as king, he sent for those servants to whom he had given the money, to find out what profit each had made by trading.
Luk 19:16 The first came in, "Sir," he said, "your one pound has brought in ten."
Luk 19:17 He replied, "Well done, my good servant! Since you have proved yourself trustworthy in a very small thing, you shall have the government of ten cities."
Luk 19:18 Then came the second, "Sir," he said, "your one pound has made five."
Luk 19:19 To this one also he said, "And you shall be in charge of five cities."
Luk 19:20 Next came the other, "Sir," he said, "here is your pound. I put it away safely wrapped up in a cloth
Luk 19:21 because I was afraid of you; for you are an exacting man: you gather in what you have not laid out and reap what you have not sown."
Luk 19:22 He said to him, "You wicked servant! Out of your own mouth I condemn you. So you knew that I was an exacting man, gathering in what I have not laid out and reaping what I have not sown?
Luk 19:23 Then why did you not put my money in the bank? On my return I could have drawn it out with interest."
Luk 19:24 And he said to those standing by, "Take the pound from him and give it to the man who has ten pounds."
Luk 19:25 And they said to him, "But, sir, he has ten pounds . . ."
Luk 19:26 "I tell you, to everyone who has will be given more; but anyone who has not will be deprived even of what he has.
Luk 19:27 "As for my enemies who did not want me for their king, bring them here and execute them in my presence." '
Luk 19:28 When he had said this he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.
Luk 19:29 Now it happened that when he was near Bethphage and Bethany, close by the Mount of Olives as it is called, he sent two of the disciples, saying,
Luk 19:30 'Go to the village opposite, and as you enter it you will find a tethered colt that no one has ever yet ridden. Untie it and bring it here.
Luk 19:31 If anyone asks you, "Why are you untying it?" you are to say this, "The Master needs it." '
Luk 19:32 The messengers went off and found everything just as he had told them.
Luk 19:33 As they were untying the colt, its owners said, 'Why are you untying it?'
Luk 19:34 and they answered, 'The Master needs it.'
Luk 19:35 So they took the colt to Jesus and, throwing their cloaks on its back, they lifted Jesus on to it.
Luk 19:36 As he moved off, they spread their cloaks in the road,
Luk 19:37 and now, as he was approaching the downward slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole group of disciples joyfully began to praise God at the top of their voices for all the miracles they had seen.
Luk 19:38 They cried out: Blessed is he who is coming as King in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!
Luk 19:39 Some Pharisees in the crowd said to him, 'Master, reprove your disciples,'
Luk 19:40 but he answered, 'I tell you, if these keep silence, the stones will cry out.'
Luk 19:41 As he drew near and came in sight of the city he shed tears over it
Luk 19:42 and said, 'If you too had only recognized on this day the way to peace! But in fact it is hidden from your eyes!
Luk 19:43 Yes, a time is coming when your enemies will raise fortifications all round you, when they will encircle you and hem you in on every side;
Luk 19:44 they will dash you and the children inside your walls to the ground; they will leave not one stone standing on another within you, because you did not recognize the moment of your visitation.'
Luk 19:45 Then he went into the Temple and began driving out those who were busy trading, saying to them,
Luk 19:46 'According to scripture, my house shall be a house of prayer but you have turned it into a bandits' den.'
Luk 19:47 He taught in the Temple every day. The chief priests and the scribes, in company with the leading citizens, tried to do away with him,
Luk 19:48 but they could not find a way to carry this out because the whole people hung on his words.
Luk 20:1 Now it happened that one day while he was teaching the people in the Temple and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came up, together with the elders,
Luk 20:2 and spoke to him. 'Tell us,' they said, 'what authority have you for acting like this? Or who gives you this authority?'
Luk 20:3 In reply he said to them, 'And I will ask you a question, just one. Tell me:
Luk 20:4 John's baptism: what was its origin, heavenly or human?'
Luk 20:5 And they debated this way among themselves, 'If we say heavenly, he will retort, "Why did you refuse to believe him?";
Luk 20:6 and if we say human, the whole people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.'
Luk 20:7 So their reply was that they did not know where it came from.
Luk 20:8 And Jesus said to them, 'Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.'
Luk 20:9 And he went on to tell the people this parable, 'A man planted a vineyard and leased it to tenants, and went abroad for a long while.
Luk 20:10 When the right time came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get his share of the produce of the vineyard. But the tenants thrashed him, and sent him away empty-handed.
Luk 20:11 But he went on to send a second servant; they thrashed him too and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed.
Luk 20:12 He still went on to send a third; they wounded this one too, and threw him out.
Luk 20:13 Then the owner of the vineyard thought, "What am I to do? I will send them my own beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him."
Luk 20:14 But when the tenants saw him they put their heads together saying, "This is the heir, let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours."
Luk 20:15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 'Now what will the owner of the vineyard do to them?
Luk 20:16 He will come and make an end of these tenants and give the vineyard to others.' Hearing this they said, 'God forbid!'
Luk 20:17 But he looked hard at them and said, 'Then what does this text in the scriptures mean: The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone?
Luk 20:18 Anyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces; anyone it falls on will be crushed.'
Luk 20:19 And the scribes and the chief priests would have liked to lay hands on him that very moment, because they realized that this parable was aimed at them, but they were afraid of the people.
Luk 20:20 So they awaited their opportunity and sent agents to pose as upright men, and to catch him out in something he might say and so enable them to hand him over to the jurisdiction and authority of the governor.
Luk 20:21 They put to him this question, 'Master, we know that you say and teach what is right; you favor no one, but teach the way of God in all honesty.
Luk 20:22 Is it permissible for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?'
Luk 20:23 But he was aware of their cunning and said,
Luk 20:24 'Show me a denarius. Whose portrait and title are on it?' They said, 'Caesar's.'
Luk 20:25 He said to them, 'Well then, pay Caesar what belongs to Caesar -- and God what belongs to God.'
Luk 20:26 They were unable to catch him out in anything he had to say in public; they were amazed at his answer and were silenced.
Luk 20:27 Some Sadducees -- those who argue that there is no resurrection -- approached him and they put this question to him,
Luk 20:28 'Master, Moses prescribed for us, if a man's married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for his brother.
Luk 20:29 Well then, there were seven brothers; the first, having married a wife, died childless.
Luk 20:30 The second
Luk 20:31 and then the third married the widow. And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children.
Luk 20:32 Finally the woman herself died.
Luk 20:33 Now, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be, since she had been married to all seven?'
Luk 20:34 Jesus replied, 'The children of this world take wives and husbands,
Luk 20:35 but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry
Luk 20:36 because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are children of God.
Luk 20:37 And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.
Luk 20:38 Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him everyone is alive.'
Luk 20:39 Some scribes then spoke up. They said, 'Well put, Master.'
Luk 20:40 They did not dare to ask him any more questions.
Luk 20:41 He then said to them, 'How can people maintain that the Christ is son of David?
Luk 20:42 Why, David himself says in the Book of Psalms: The Lord declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand,
Luk 20:43 till I have made your enemies your footstool.
Luk 20:44 David here calls him Lord; how then can he be his son?'
Luk 20:45 While all the people were listening he said to the disciples,
Luk 20:46 'Beware of the scribes who like to walk about in long robes and love to be greeted respectfully in the market squares, to take the front seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets,
Luk 20:47 who devour the property of widows, and for show offer long prayers. The more severe will be the sentence they receive.'
Luk 21:1 Looking up, he saw rich people putting their offerings into the treasury;
Luk 21:2 and he noticed a poverty-stricken widow putting in two small coins,
Luk 21:3 and he said, 'I tell you truly, this poor widow has put in more than any of them;
Luk 21:4 for these have all put in money they could spare, but she in her poverty has put in all she had to live on.'
Luk 21:5 When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, he said,
Luk 21:6 'All these things you are staring at now -- the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another; everything will be destroyed.'
Luk 21:7 And they put to him this question, 'Master,' they said, 'when will this happen, then, and what sign will there be that it is about to take place?'
Luk 21:8 But he said, 'Take care not to be deceived, because many will come using my name and saying, "I am the one" and "The time is near at hand." Refuse to join them.
Luk 21:9 And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be terrified, for this is something that must happen first, but the end will not come at once.'
Luk 21:10 Then he said to them, 'Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
Luk 21:11 There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines in various places; there will be terrifying events and great signs from heaven.
Luk 21:12 'But before all this happens, you will be seized and persecuted; you will be handed over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name
Luk 21:13 -and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.
Luk 21:14 Make up your minds not to prepare your defence,
Luk 21:15 because I myself shall give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to resist or contradict.
Luk 21:16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death.
Luk 21:17 You will be hated universally on account of my name,
Luk 21:18 but not a hair of your head will be lost.
Luk 21:19 Your perseverance will win you your lives.
Luk 21:20 'When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you must realize that it will soon be laid desolate.
Luk 21:21 Then those in Judaea must escape to the mountains, those inside the city must leave it, and those in country districts must not take refuge in it.
Luk 21:22 For this is the time of retribution when all that scripture says must be fulfilled.
Luk 21:23 Alas for those with child, or with babies at the breast, when those days come!
Luk 21:24 'For great misery will descend on the land and retribution on this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive to every gentile country; and Jerusalem will be trampled down by the gentiles until their time is complete.
Luk 21:25 'There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the turmoil of the ocean and its waves;
Luk 21:26 men fainting away with terror and fear at what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.
Luk 21:27 And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Luk 21:28 When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.'
Luk 21:29 And he told them a parable, 'Look at the fig tree and indeed every tree.
Luk 21:30 As soon as you see them bud, you can see for yourselves that summer is now near.
Luk 21:31 So with you when you see these things happening: know that the kingdom of God is near.
Luk 21:32 In truth I tell you, before this generation has passed away all will have taken place.
Luk 21:33 Sky and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.
Luk 21:34 'Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life, and that day will come upon you unexpectedly,
Luk 21:35 like a trap. For it will come down on all those living on the face of the earth.
Luk 21:36 Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to hold your ground before the Son of man.'
Luk 21:37 All day long he would be in the Temple teaching, but would spend the night in the open on the hill called the Mount of Olives.
Luk 21:38 And from early morning the people thronged to him in the Temple to listen to him.
Luk 22:1 The feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was now drawing near,
Luk 22:2 and the chief priests and the scribes were looking for some way of doing away with him, because they were afraid of the people.
Luk 22:3 Then Satan entered into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve.
Luk 22:4 He approached the chief priests and the officers of the guard to discuss some way of handing Jesus over to them.
Luk 22:5 They were delighted and agreed to give him money.
Luk 22:6 He accepted and began to look for an opportunity to betray him to them without people knowing about it.
Luk 22:7 The day of Unleavened Bread came round, on which the Passover had to be sacrificed,
Luk 22:8 and he sent Peter and John, saying, 'Go and make the preparations for us to eat the Passover.'
Luk 22:9 They asked him, 'Where do you want us to prepare it?'
Luk 22:10 He said to them, 'Look, as you go into the city you will meet a man carrying a pitcher of water. Follow him into the house he enters
Luk 22:11 and tell the owner of the house, "The Master says this to you: Where is the room for me to eat the Passover with my disciples?"
Luk 22:12 The man will show you a large upper room furnished with couches. Make the preparations there.'
Luk 22:13 They set off and found everything as he had told them and prepared the Passover.
Luk 22:14 When the time came he took his place at table, and the apostles with him.
Luk 22:15 And he said to them, 'I have ardently longed to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;
Luk 22:16 because, I tell you, I shall not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.'
Luk 22:17 Then, taking a cup, he gave thanks and said, 'Take this and share it among you,
Luk 22:18 because from now on, I tell you, I shall never again drink wine until the kingdom of God comes.'
Luk 22:19 Then he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'
Luk 22:20 He did the same with the cup after supper, and said, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood poured out for you.
Luk 22:21 'But look, here with me on the table is the hand of the man who is betraying me.
Luk 22:22 The Son of man is indeed on the path which was decreed, but alas for that man by whom he is betrayed!'
Luk 22:23 And they began to ask one another which of them it could be who was to do this.
Luk 22:24 An argument also began between them about who should be reckoned the greatest;
Luk 22:25 but he said to them, 'Among the gentiles it is the kings who lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are given the title Benefactor.
Luk 22:26 With you this must not happen. No; the greatest among you must behave as if he were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves.
Luk 22:27 For who is the greater: the one at table or the one who serves? The one at table, surely? Yet here am I among you as one who serves!
Luk 22:28 'You are the men who have stood by me faithfully in my trials;
Luk 22:29 and now I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father conferred one on me:
Luk 22:30 you will eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel.
Luk 22:31 'Simon, Simon! Look, Satan has got his wish to sift you all like wheat;
Luk 22:32 but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and once you have recovered, you in your turn must strengthen your brothers.'
Luk 22:33 'Lord,' he answered, 'I would be ready to go to prison with you, and to death.'
Luk 22:34 Jesus replied, 'I tell you, Peter, by the time the cock crows today you will have denied three times that you know me.'
Luk 22:35 He said to them, 'When I sent you out without purse or haversack or sandals, were you short of anything?'
Luk 22:36 'No, nothing,' they said. He said to them, 'But now if you have a purse, take it, and the same with a haversack; if you have no sword, sell your cloak and buy one,
Luk 22:37 because I tell you these words of scripture are destined to be fulfilled in me: He was counted as one of the rebellious. Yes, what it says about me is even now reaching its fulfilment.'
Luk 22:38 They said, 'Lord, here are two swords.' He said to them, 'That is enough!'
Luk 22:39 He then left to make his way as usual to the Mount of Olives, with the disciples following.
Luk 22:40 When he reached the place he said to them, 'Pray not to be put to the test.'
Luk 22:41 Then he withdrew from them, about a stone's throw away, and knelt down and prayed.
Luk 22:42 'Father,' he said, 'if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, let your will be done, not mine.'
Luk 22:43 Then an angel appeared to him, coming from heaven to give him strength.
Luk 22:44 In his anguish he prayed even more earnestly, and his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.
Luk 22:45 When he rose from prayer he went to the disciples and found them sleeping for sheer grief.
Luk 22:46 And he said to them, 'Why are you asleep? Get up and pray not to be put to the test.'
Luk 22:47 Suddenly, while he was still speaking, a number of men appeared, and at the head of them the man called Judas, one of the Twelve, who went up to Jesus to kiss him.
Luk 22:48 Jesus said, 'Judas, are you betraying the Son of man with a kiss?'
Luk 22:49 His followers, seeing what was about to happen, said, 'Lord, shall we use our swords?'
Luk 22:50 And one of them struck the high priest's servant and cut off his right ear.
Luk 22:51 But at this Jesus said, 'That is enough.' And touching the man's ear he healed him.
Luk 22:52 Then Jesus said to the chief priests and captains of the Temple guard and elders who had come for him, 'Am I a bandit, that you had to set out with swords and clubs?
Luk 22:53 When I was among you in the Temple day after day you never made a move to lay hands on me. But this is your hour; this is the reign of darkness.'
Luk 22:54 They seized him then and led him away, and they took him to the high priest's house. Peter followed at a distance.
Luk 22:55 They had lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and Peter sat down among them,
Luk 22:56 and as he was sitting there by the blaze a servant-girl saw him, peered at him, and said, 'This man was with him too.'
Luk 22:57 But he denied it. 'Woman, I do not know him,' he said.
Luk 22:58 Shortly afterwards someone else saw him and said, 'You are one of them too.' But Peter replied, 'I am not, my friend.'
Luk 22:59 About an hour later another man insisted, saying, 'This fellow was certainly with him. Why, he is a Galilean.'
Luk 22:60 Peter said, 'My friend, I do not know what you are talking about.' At that instant, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed,
Luk 22:61 and the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the Lord's words when he had said to him, 'Before the cock crows today, you will have disowned me three times.'
Luk 22:62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Luk 22:63 Meanwhile the men who guarded Jesus were mocking and beating him.
Luk 22:64 They blindfolded him and questioned him, saying, 'Prophesy! Who hit you then?'
Luk 22:65 And they heaped many other insults on him.
Luk 22:66 When day broke there was a meeting of the elders of the people, the chief priests and scribes. He was brought before their council,
Luk 22:67 and they said to him, 'If you are the Christ, tell us.' He replied, 'If I tell you, you will not believe,
Luk 22:68 and if I question you, you will not answer.
Luk 22:69 But from now on, the Son of man will be seated at the right hand of the Power of God.'
Luk 22:70 They all said, 'So you are the Son of God then?' He answered, 'It is you who say I am.'
Luk 22:71 Then they said, 'Why do we need any evidence? We have heard it for ourselves from his own lips.'
Luk 23:1 The whole assembly then rose, and they brought him before Pilate.
Luk 23:2 They began their accusation by saying, 'We found this man inciting our people to revolt, opposing payment of the tribute to Caesar, and claiming to be Christ, a king.'
Luk 23:3 Pilate put to him this question, 'Are you the king of the Jews?' He replied, 'It is you who say it.'
Luk 23:4 Pilate then said to the chief priests and the crowd, 'I find no case against this man.'
Luk 23:5 But they persisted, 'He is inflaming the people with his teaching all over Judaea and all the way from Galilee, where he started, down to here.'
Luk 23:6 When Pilate heard this, he asked if the man were a Galilean;
Luk 23:7 and finding that he came under Herod's jurisdiction, he passed him over to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.
Luk 23:8 Herod was delighted to see Jesus; he had heard about him and had been wanting for a long time to set eyes on him; moreover, he was hoping to see some miracle worked by him.
Luk 23:9 So he questioned him at some length, but without getting any reply.
Luk 23:10 Meanwhile the chief priests and the scribes were there, vigorously pressing their accusations.
Luk 23:11 Then Herod, together with his guards, treated him with contempt and made fun of him; he put a rich cloak on him and sent him back to Pilate.
Luk 23:12 And though Herod and Pilate had been enemies before, they were reconciled that same day.
Luk 23:13 Pilate then summoned the chief priests and the leading men and the people.
Luk 23:14 He said to them, 'You brought this man before me as a popular agitator. Now I have gone into the matter myself in your presence and found no grounds in the man for any of the charges you bring against him.
Luk 23:15 Nor has Herod either, since he has sent him back to us. As you can see, the man has done nothing that deserves death,
Luk 23:16 so I shall have him flogged and then let him go.'
Luk 23:17
Luk 23:18 But as one man they howled, 'Away with him! Give us Barabbas!'
Luk 23:19 (This man had been thrown into prison because of a riot in the city and murder.)
Luk 23:20 In his desire to set Jesus free, Pilate addressed them again,
Luk 23:21 but they shouted back, 'Crucify him! Crucify him!'
Luk 23:22 And for the third time he spoke to them, 'But what harm has this man done? I have found no case against him that deserves death, so I shall have him flogged and then let him go.'
Luk 23:23 But they kept on shouting at the top of their voices, demanding that he should be crucified. And their shouts kept growing louder.
Luk 23:24 Pilate then gave his verdict: their demand was to be granted.
Luk 23:25 He released the man they asked for, who had been imprisoned because of rioting and murder, and handed Jesus over to them to deal with as they pleased.
Luk 23:26 As they were leading him away they seized on a man, Simon from Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and made him shoulder the cross and carry it behind Jesus.
Luk 23:27 Large numbers of people followed him, and women too, who mourned and lamented for him.
Luk 23:28 But Jesus turned to them and said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep rather for yourselves and for your children.
Luk 23:29 For look, the days are surely coming when people will say, "Blessed are those who are barren, the wombs that have never borne children, the breasts that have never suckled!"
Luk 23:30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, "Fall on us!"; to the hills, "Cover us!"
Luk 23:31 For if this is what is done to green wood, what will be done when the wood is dry?'
Luk 23:32 Now they were also leading out two others, criminals, to be executed with him.
Luk 23:33 When they reached the place called The Skull, there they crucified him and the two criminals, one on his right, the other on his left.
Luk 23:34 Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.' Then they cast lots to share out his clothing.
Luk 23:35 The people stayed there watching. As for the leaders, they jeered at him with the words, 'He saved others, let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.'
Luk 23:36 The soldiers mocked him too, coming up to him, offering him vinegar,
Luk 23:37 and saying, 'If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.'
Luk 23:38 Above him there was an inscription: 'This is the King of the Jews'.
Luk 23:39 One of the criminals hanging there abused him: 'Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us as well.'
Luk 23:40 But the other spoke up and rebuked him. 'Have you no fear of God at all?' he said. 'You got the same sentence as he did,
Luk 23:41 but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.'
Luk 23:42 Then he said, 'Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.'
Luk 23:43 He answered him, 'In truth I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.'
Luk 23:44 It was now about the sixth hour and the sun's light failed, so that darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour.
Luk 23:45 The veil of the Sanctuary was torn right down the middle.
Luk 23:46 Jesus cried out in a loud voice saying, 'Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.' With these words he breathed his last.
Luk 23:47 When the centurion saw what had taken place, he gave praise to God and said, 'Truly, this was an upright man.'
Luk 23:48 And when all the crowds who had gathered for the spectacle saw what had happened, they went home beating their breasts.
Luk 23:49 All his friends stood at a distance; so also did the women who had accompanied him from Galilee and saw all this happen.
Luk 23:50 And now a member of the Council arrived, a good and upright man named Joseph.
Luk 23:51 He had not consented to what the others had planned and carried out. He came from Arimathaea, a Jewish town, and he lived in the hope of seeing the kingdom of God.
Luk 23:52 This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Luk 23:53 He then took it down, wrapped it in a shroud and put it in a tomb which was hewn in stone and which had never held a body.
Luk 23:54 It was Preparation day and the Sabbath was beginning to grow light.
Luk 23:55 Meanwhile the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus were following behind. They took note of the tomb and how the body had been laid.
Luk 23:56 Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. And on the Sabbath day they rested, as the Law required.
Luk 24:1 On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, they went to the tomb with the spices they had prepared.
Luk 24:2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb,
Luk 24:3 but on entering they could not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Luk 24:4 As they stood there puzzled about this, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly appeared at their side.
Luk 24:5 Terrified, the women bowed their heads to the ground. But the two said to them, 'Why look among the dead for someone who is alive?
Luk 24:6 He is not here; he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee:
Luk 24:7 that the Son of man was destined to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day.'
Luk 24:8 And they remembered his words.
Luk 24:9 And they returned from the tomb and told all this to the Eleven and to all the others.
Luk 24:10 The women were Mary of Magdala, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. And the other women with them also told the apostles,
Luk 24:11 but this story of theirs seemed pure nonsense, and they did not believe them.
Luk 24:12 Peter, however, went off to the tomb, running. He bent down and looked in and saw the linen cloths but nothing else; he then went back home, amazed at what had happened.
Luk 24:13 Now that very same day, two of them were on their way to a village called Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem,
Luk 24:14 and they were talking together about all that had happened.
Luk 24:15 And it happened that as they were talking together and discussing it, Jesus himself came up and walked by their side;
Luk 24:16 but their eyes were prevented from recognising him.
Luk 24:17 He said to them, 'What are all these things that you are discussing as you walk along?' They stopped, their faces downcast.
Luk 24:18 Then one of them, called Cleopas, answered him, 'You must be the only person staying in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have been happening there these last few days.'
Luk 24:19 He asked, 'What things?' They answered, 'All about Jesus of Nazareth, who showed himself a prophet powerful in action and speech before God and the whole people;
Luk 24:20 and how our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and had him crucified.
Luk 24:21 Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free. And this is not all: two whole days have now gone by since it all happened;
Luk 24:22 and some women from our group have astounded us: they went to the tomb in the early morning,
Luk 24:23 and when they could not find the body, they came back to tell us they had seen a vision of angels who declared he was alive.
Luk 24:24 Some of our friends went to the tomb and found everything exactly as the women had reported, but of him they saw nothing.'
Luk 24:25 Then he said to them, 'You foolish men! So slow to believe all that the prophets have said!
Luk 24:26 Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer before entering into his glory?'
Luk 24:27 Then, starting with Moses and going through all the prophets, he explained to them the passages throughout the scriptures that were about himself.
Luk 24:28 When they drew near to the village to which they were going, he made as if to go on;
Luk 24:29 but they pressed him to stay with them saying, 'It is nearly evening, and the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them.
Luk 24:30 Now while he was with them at table, he took the bread and said the blessing; then he broke it and handed it to them.
Luk 24:31 And their eyes were opened and they recognized him; but he had vanished from their sight.
Luk 24:32 Then they said to each other, 'Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?'
Luk 24:33 They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions,
Luk 24:34 who said to them, 'The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.'
Luk 24:35 Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized him at the breaking of bread.
Luk 24:36 They were still talking about all this when he himself stood among them and said to them, 'Peace be with you!'
Luk 24:37 In a state of alarm and fright, they thought they were seeing a ghost.
Luk 24:38 But he said, 'Why are you so agitated, and why are these doubts stirring in your hearts?
Luk 24:39 See by my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for yourselves; a ghost has no flesh and bones as you can see I have.'
Luk 24:40 And as he said this he showed them his hands and his feet.
Luk 24:41 Their joy was so great that they still could not believe it, as they were dumbfounded; so he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?'
Luk 24:42 And they offered him a piece of grilled fish,
Luk 24:43 which he took and ate before their eyes.
Luk 24:44 Then he told them, 'This is what I meant when I said, while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, in the Prophets and in the Psalms, was destined to be fulfilled.'
Luk 24:45 He then opened their minds to understand the scriptures,
Luk 24:46 and he said to them, 'So it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead,
Luk 24:47 and that, in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
Luk 24:48 You are witnesses to this.
Luk 24:49 'And now I am sending upon you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city, then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.'
Luk 24:50 Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and raising his hands he blessed them.
Luk 24:51 Now as he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven.
Luk 24:52 They worshipped him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy;
Luk 24:53 and they were continually in the Temple praising God.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He was with God in the beginning.
Joh 1:3 Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.
Joh 1:4 What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men;
Joh 1:5 and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it.
Joh 1:6 A man came, sent by God. His name was John.
Joh 1:7 He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him.
Joh 1:8 He was not the light, he was to bear witness to the light.
Joh 1:9 The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world.
Joh 1:10 He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognize him.
Joh 1:11 He came to his own and his own people did not accept him.
Joh 1:12 But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name
Joh 1:13 who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself.
Joh 1:14 The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Joh 1:15 John witnesses to him. He proclaims: 'This is the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.'
Joh 1:16 Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -- one gift replacing another,
Joh 1:17 for the Law was given through Moses, grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ.
Joh 1:18 No one has ever seen God; it is the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
Joh 1:19 This was the witness of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, 'Who are you?'
Joh 1:20 He declared, he did not deny but declared, 'I am not the Christ.'
Joh 1:21 So they asked, 'Then are you Elijah?' He replied, 'I am not.' 'Are you the Prophet?' He answered, 'No.'
Joh 1:22 So they said to him, 'Who are you? We must take back an answer to those who sent us. What have you to say about yourself?'
Joh 1:23 So he said, 'I am, as Isaiah prophesied: A voice of one that cries in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord. Make his paths straight!'
Joh 1:24 Now those who had been sent were Pharisees,
Joh 1:25 and they put this question to him, 'Why are you baptising if you are not the Christ, and not Elijah, and not the Prophet?'
Joh 1:26 John answered them, 'I baptise with water; but standing among you -- unknown to you-
Joh 1:27 is the one who is coming after me; and I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal.'
Joh 1:28 This happened at Bethany, on the far side of the Jordan, where John was baptising.
Joh 1:29 The next day, he saw Jesus coming towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
Joh 1:30 It was of him that I said, "Behind me comes one who has passed ahead of me because he existed before me."
Joh 1:31 I did not know him myself, and yet my purpose in coming to baptise with water was so that he might be revealed to Israel.'
Joh 1:32 And John declared, 'I saw the Spirit come down on him like a dove from heaven and rest on him.
Joh 1:33 I did not know him myself, but he who sent me to baptise with water had said to me, "The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and rest is the one who is to baptise with the Holy Spirit."
Joh 1:34 I have seen and I testify that he is the Chosen One of God.'
Joh 1:35 The next day as John stood there again with two of his disciples, Jesus went past,
Joh 1:36 and John looked towards him and said, 'Look, there is the lamb of God.'
Joh 1:37 And the two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Joh 1:38 Jesus turned round, saw them following and said, 'What do you want?' They answered, 'Rabbi' -- which means Teacher-'where do you live?'
Joh 1:39 He replied, 'Come and see'; so they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him that day. It was about the tenth hour.
Joh 1:40 One of these two who became followers of Jesus after hearing what John had said was Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter.
Joh 1:41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother and say to him, 'We have found the Messiah' -- which means the Christ-
Joh 1:42 and he took Simon to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, 'You are Simon son of John; you are to be called Cephas' -- which means Rock.
Joh 1:43 The next day, after Jesus had decided to leave for Galilee, he met Philip and said, 'Follow me.'
Joh 1:44 Philip came from the same town, Bethsaida, as Andrew and Peter.
Joh 1:45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.'
Joh 1:46 Nathanael said to him, 'From Nazareth? Can anything good come from that place?' Philip replied, 'Come and see.'
Joh 1:47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming he said of him, 'There, truly, is an Israelite in whom there is no deception.'
Joh 1:48 Nathanael asked, 'How do you know me?' Jesus replied, 'Before Philip came to call you, I saw you under the fig tree.'
Joh 1:49 Nathanael answered, 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel.'
Joh 1:50 Jesus replied, 'You believe that just because I said: I saw you under the fig tree. You are going to see greater things than that.'
Joh 1:51 And then he added, 'In all truth I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending over the Son of man.'
Joh 2:1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there,
Joh 2:2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited.
Joh 2:3 And they ran out of wine, since the wine provided for the feast had all been used, and the mother of Jesus said to him, 'They have no wine.'
Joh 2:4 Jesus said, 'Woman, what do you want from me? My hour has not come yet.'
Joh 2:5 His mother said to the servants, 'Do whatever he tells you.'
Joh 2:6 There were six stone water jars standing there, meant for the ablutions that are customary among the Jews: each could hold twenty or thirty gallons.
Joh 2:7 Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water,' and they filled them to the brim.
Joh 2:8 Then he said to them, 'Draw some out now and take it to the president of the feast.'
Joh 2:9 They did this; the president tasted the water, and it had turned into wine. Having no idea where it came from -- though the servants who had drawn the water knew -- the president of the feast called the bridegroom
Joh 2:10 and said, 'Everyone serves good wine first and the worse wine when the guests are well wined; but you have kept the best wine till now.'
Joh 2:11 This was the first of Jesus' signs: it was at Cana in Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Joh 2:12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, but they stayed there only a few days.
Joh 2:13 When the time of the Jewish Passover was near Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
Joh 2:14 and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and doves, and the money changers sitting there.
Joh 2:15 Making a whip out of cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, sheep and cattle as well, scattered the money changers' coins, knocked their tables over
Joh 2:16 and said to the dove sellers, 'Take all this out of here and stop using my Father's house as a market.'
Joh 2:17 Then his disciples remembered the words of scripture: I am eaten up with zeal for your house.
Joh 2:18 The Jews intervened and said, 'What sign can you show us that you should act like this?'
Joh 2:19 Jesus answered, 'Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.'
Joh 2:20 The Jews replied, 'It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?'
Joh 2:21 But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body,
Joh 2:22 and when Jesus rose from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and what he had said.
Joh 2:23 During his stay in Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he did,
Joh 2:24 but Jesus knew all people and did not trust himself to them;
Joh 2:25 he never needed evidence about anyone; he could tell what someone had within.
Joh 3:1 There was one of the Pharisees called Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews,
Joh 3:2 who came to Jesus by night and said, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one could perform the signs that you do unless God were with him.'
Joh 3:3 Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.
Joh 3:4 Nicodemus said, 'How can anyone who is already old be born? Is it possible to go back into the womb again and be born?'
Joh 3:5 Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born through water and the Spirit;
Joh 3:6 what is born of human nature is human; what is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7 Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above.
Joh 3:8 The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Joh 3:9 'How is that possible?' asked Nicodemus.
Joh 3:10 Jesus replied, 'You are the Teacher of Israel, and you do not know these things!
Joh 3:11 'In all truth I tell you, we speak only about what we know and witness only to what we have seen and yet you people reject our evidence.
Joh 3:12 If you do not believe me when I speak to you about earthly things, how will you believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things?
Joh 3:13 No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of man;
Joh 3:14 as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up
Joh 3:15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.
Joh 3:16 For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Joh 3:17 For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved.
Joh 3:18 No one who believes in him will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already, because that person does not believe in the Name of God's only Son.
Joh 3:19 And the judgement is this: though the light has come into the world people have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20 And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up;
Joh 3:21 but whoever does the truth comes out into the light, so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God.'
Joh 3:22 After this, Jesus went with his disciples into the Judaean countryside and stayed with them there and baptised.
Joh 3:23 John also was baptising at Aenon near Salim, where there was plenty of water, and people were going there and were being baptised.
Joh 3:24 For John had not yet been put in prison.
Joh 3:25 Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew about purification,
Joh 3:26 so they went to John and said, 'Rabbi, the man who was with you on the far side of the Jordan, the man to whom you bore witness, is baptising now, and everyone is going to him.'
Joh 3:27 John replied: 'No one can have anything except what is given him from heaven.
Joh 3:28 'You yourselves can bear me out. I said, "I am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent to go in front of him."
Joh 3:29 'It is the bridegroom who has the bride; and yet the bridegroom's friend, who stands there and listens to him, is filled with joy at the bridegroom's voice. This is the joy I feel, and it is complete.
Joh 3:30 He must grow greater, I must grow less.
Joh 3:31 He who comes from above is above all others; he who is of the earth is earthly himself and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven
Joh 3:32 bears witness to the things he has seen and heard, but his testimony is not accepted by anybody;
Joh 3:33 though anyone who does accept his testimony is attesting that God is true,
Joh 3:34 since he whom God has sent speaks God's own words, for God gives him the Spirit without reserve.
Joh 3:35 The Father loves the Son and has entrusted everything to his hands.
Joh 3:36 Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life, but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life: God's retribution hangs over him.'
Joh 4:1 When Jesus heard that the Pharisees had found out that he was making and baptising more disciples than John-
Joh 4:2 though in fact it was his disciples who baptised, not Jesus himself-
Joh 4:3 he left Judaea and went back to Galilee.
Joh 4:4 He had to pass through Samaria.
Joh 4:5 On the way he came to the Samaritan town called Sychar near the land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Joh 4:6 Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired by the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Joh 4:7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Give me something to drink.'
Joh 4:8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
Joh 4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew. How is it that you ask me, a Samaritan, for something to drink?' -- Jews, of course, do not associate with Samaritans.
Joh 4:10 Jesus replied to her: If you only knew what God is offering and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me something to drink,' you would have been the one to ask, and he would have given you living water.
Joh 4:11 'You have no bucket, sir,' she answered, 'and the well is deep: how do you get this living water?
Joh 4:12 Are you a greater man than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his sons and his cattle?'
Joh 4:13 Jesus replied: Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again;
Joh 4:14 but no one who drinks the water that I shall give will ever be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will become a spring of water within, welling up for eternal life.
Joh 4:15 'Sir,' said the woman, 'give me some of that water, so that I may never be thirsty or come here again to draw water.'
Joh 4:16 'Go and call your husband,' said Jesus to her, 'and come back here.'
Joh 4:17 The woman answered, 'I have no husband.' Jesus said to her, 'You are right to say, "I have no husband";
Joh 4:18 for although you have had five, the one you now have is not your husband. You spoke the truth there.'
Joh 4:19 'I see you are a prophet, sir,' said the woman.
Joh 4:20 'Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, though you say that Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.'
Joh 4:21 Jesus said: Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
Joh 4:22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know; for salvation comes from the Jews.
Joh 4:23 But the hour is coming -- indeed is already here -- when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father seeks.
Joh 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.
Joh 4:25 The woman said to him, 'I know that Messiah -- that is, Christ -- is coming; and when he comes he will explain everything.'
Joh 4:26 Jesus said, 'That is who I am, I who speak to you.'
Joh 4:27 At this point his disciples returned and were surprised to find him speaking to a woman, though none of them asked, 'What do you want from her?' or, 'What are you talking to her about?'
Joh 4:28 The woman put down her water jar and hurried back to the town to tell the people,
Joh 4:29 'Come and see a man who has told me everything I have done; could this be the Christ?'
Joh 4:30 This brought people out of the town and they made their way towards him.
Joh 4:31 Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, 'Rabbi, do have something to eat';
Joh 4:32 but he said, 'I have food to eat that you do not know about.'
Joh 4:33 So the disciples said to one another, 'Has someone brought him food?'
Joh 4:34 But Jesus said: My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to complete his work.
Joh 4:35 Do you not have a saying: Four months and then the harvest? Well, I tell you, look around you, look at the fields; already they are white, ready for harvest!
Joh 4:36 Already the reaper is being paid his wages, already he is bringing in the grain for eternal life, so that sower and reaper can rejoice together.
Joh 4:37 For here the proverb holds true: one sows, another reaps;
Joh 4:38 I sent you to reap a harvest you have not laboured for. Others have laboured for it; and you have come into the rewards of their labour.
Joh 4:39 Many Samaritans of that town believed in him on the strength of the woman's words of testimony, 'He told me everything I have done.'
Joh 4:40 So, when the Samaritans came up to him, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed for two days, and
Joh 4:41 many more came to believe on the strength of the words he spoke to them;
Joh 4:42 and they said to the woman, 'Now we believe no longer because of what you told us; we have heard him ourselves and we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.'
Joh 4:43 When the two days were over Jesus left for Galilee.
Joh 4:44 He himself had declared that a prophet is not honored in his own home town.
Joh 4:45 On his arrival the Galileans received him well, having seen all that he had done at Jerusalem during the festival which they too had attended.
Joh 4:46 He went again to Cana in Galilee, where he had changed the water into wine. And there was a royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum;
Joh 4:47 hearing that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judaea, he went and asked him to come and cure his son, as he was at the point of death.
Joh 4:48 Jesus said to him, 'Unless you see signs and portents you will not believe!'
Joh 4:49 'Sir,' answered the official, 'come down before my child dies.'
Joh 4:50 'Go home,' said Jesus, 'your son will live.' The man believed what Jesus had said and went on his way home;
Joh 4:51 and while he was still on the way his servants met him with the news that his boy was alive.
Joh 4:52 He asked them when the boy had begun to recover. They replied, 'The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.'
Joh 4:53 The father realized that this was exactly the time when Jesus had said, 'Your son will live'; and he and all his household believed.
Joh 4:54 This new sign, the second, Jesus performed on his return from Judaea to Galilee.
Joh 5:1 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Joh 5:2 Now in Jerusalem next to the Sheep Pool there is a pool called Bethesda in Hebrew, which has five porticos;
Joh 5:3 and under these were crowds of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed.
Joh 5:4
Joh 5:5 One man there had an illness which had lasted thirty-eight years,
Joh 5:6 and when Jesus saw him lying there and knew he had been in that condition for a long time, he said, 'Do you want to be well again?'
Joh 5:7 'Sir,' replied the sick man, 'I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is disturbed; and while I am still on the way, someone else gets down there before me.'
Joh 5:8 Jesus said, 'Get up, pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around.'
Joh 5:9 The man was cured at once, and he picked up his mat and started to walk around. Now that day happened to be the Sabbath,
Joh 5:10 so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, 'It is the Sabbath; you are not allowed to carry your sleeping-mat.'
Joh 5:11 He replied, 'But the man who cured me told me, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around." '
Joh 5:12 They asked, 'Who is the man who said to you, "Pick up your sleeping-mat and walk around"? '
Joh 5:13 The man had no idea who it was, since Jesus had disappeared, as the place was crowded.
Joh 5:14 After a while Jesus met him in the Temple and said, 'Now you are well again, do not sin any more, or something worse may happen to you.'
Joh 5:15 The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had cured him.
Joh 5:16 It was because he did things like this on the Sabbath that the Jews began to harass Jesus.
Joh 5:17 His answer to them was, 'My Father still goes on working, and I am at work, too.'
Joh 5:18 But that only made the Jews even more intent on killing him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he spoke of God as his own Father and so made himself God's equal.
Joh 5:19 To this Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, by himself the Son can do nothing; he can do only what he sees the Father doing: and whatever the Father does the Son does too.
Joh 5:20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he himself does, and he will show him even greater things than these, works that will astonish you.
Joh 5:21 Thus, as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to anyone he chooses;
Joh 5:22 for the Father judges no one; he has entrusted all judgement to the Son,
Joh 5:23 so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever refuses honor to the Son refuses honor to the Father who sent him.
Joh 5:24 In all truth I tell you, whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me, has eternal life; without being brought to judgement such a person has passed from death to life.
Joh 5:25 In all truth I tell you, the hour is coming -- indeed it is already here -- when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and all who hear it will live.
Joh 5:26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself;
Joh 5:27 and, because he is the Son of man, has granted him power to give judgement.
Joh 5:28 Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of his voice:
Joh 5:29 those who did good will come forth to life; and those who did evil will come forth to judgement.
Joh 5:30 By myself I can do nothing; I can judge only as I am told to judge, and my judging is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
Joh 5:31 Were I to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be true;
Joh 5:32 but there is another witness who speaks on my behalf, and I know that his testimony is true.
Joh 5:33 You sent messengers to John, and he gave his testimony to the truth-
Joh 5:34 not that I depend on human testimony; no, it is for your salvation that I mention it.
Joh 5:35 John was a lamp lit and shining and for a time you were content to enjoy the light that he gave.
Joh 5:36 But my testimony is greater than John's: the deeds my Father has given me to perform, these same deeds of mine testify that the Father has sent me.
Joh 5:37 Besides, the Father who sent me bears witness to me himself. You have never heard his voice, you have never seen his shape,
Joh 5:38 and his word finds no home in you because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
Joh 5:39 You pore over the scriptures, believing that in them you can find eternal life; it is these scriptures that testify to me,
Joh 5:40 and yet you refuse to come to me to receive life!
Joh 5:41 Human glory means nothing to me.
Joh 5:42 Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you.
Joh 5:43 I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me; if someone else should come in his own name you would accept him.
Joh 5:44 How can you believe, since you look to each other for glory and are not concerned with the glory that comes from the one God?
Joh 5:45 Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father: you have placed your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be the one who accuses you.
Joh 5:46 If you really believed him you would believe me too, since it was about me that he was writing;
Joh 5:47 but if you will not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?
Joh 6:1 After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee -- or of Tiberias-
Joh 6:2 and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he had done in curing the sick.
Joh 6:3 Jesus climbed the hillside and sat down there with his disciples.
Joh 6:4 The time of the Jewish Passover was near.
Joh 6:5 Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, 'Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?'
Joh 6:6 He said this only to put Philip to the test; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do.
Joh 6:7 Philip answered, 'Two hundred denarii would not buy enough to give them a little piece each.'
Joh 6:8 One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said,
Joh 6:9 'Here is a small boy with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that among so many?'
Joh 6:10 Jesus said to them, 'Make the people sit down.' There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down.
Joh 6:11 Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were sitting there; he then did the same with the fish, distributing as much as they wanted.
Joh 6:12 When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, 'Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing is wasted.'
Joh 6:13 So they picked them up and filled twelve large baskets with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves.
Joh 6:14 Seeing the sign that he had done, the people said, 'This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.'
Joh 6:15 Jesus, as he realized they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, fled back to the hills alone.
Joh 6:16 That evening the disciples went down to the shore of the sea
Joh 6:17 and got into a boat to make for Capernaum on the other side of the sea. It was getting dark by now and Jesus had still not rejoined them.
Joh 6:18 The wind was strong, and the sea was getting rough.
Joh 6:19 They had rowed three or four miles when they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming towards the boat. They were afraid,
Joh 6:20 but he said, 'It's me. Don't be afraid.'
Joh 6:21 They were ready to take him into the boat, and immediately it reached the shore at the place they were making for.
Joh 6:22 Next day, the crowd that had stayed on the other side saw that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not got into the boat with his disciples, but that the disciples had set off by themselves.
Joh 6:23 Other boats, however, had put in from Tiberias, near the place where the bread had been eaten.
Joh 6:24 When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.
Joh 6:25 When they found him on the other side, they said to him, 'Rabbi, when did you come here?'
Joh 6:26 Jesus answered: In all truth I tell you, you are looking for me not because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.
Joh 6:27 Do not work for food that goes bad, but work for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.
Joh 6:28 Then they said to him, 'What must we do if we are to carry out God's work?'
Joh 6:29 Jesus gave them this answer, 'This is carrying out God's work: you must believe in the one he has sent.'
Joh 6:30 So they said, 'What sign will you yourself do, the sight of which will make us believe in you? What work will you do?
Joh 6:31 Our fathers ate manna in the desert; as scripture says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'
Joh 6:32 Jesus answered them: In all truth I tell you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, the true bread;
Joh 6:33 for the bread of God is the bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Joh 6:34 'Sir,' they said, 'give us that bread always.'
Joh 6:35 Jesus answered them: I am the bread of life. No one who comes to me will ever hunger; no one who believes in me will ever thirst.
Joh 6:36 But, as I have told you, you can see me and still you do not believe.
Joh 6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me; I will certainly not reject anyone who comes to me,
Joh 6:38 because I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me.
Joh 6:39 Now the will of him who sent me is that I should lose nothing of all that he has given to me, but that I should raise it up on the last day.
Joh 6:40 It is my Father's will that whoever sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and that I should raise that person up on the last day.
Joh 6:41 Meanwhile the Jews were complaining to each other about him, because he had said, 'I am the bread that has come down from heaven.'
Joh 6:42 They were saying, 'Surely this is Jesus son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know. How can he now say, "I have come down from heaven?" '
Joh 6:43 Jesus said in reply to them, 'Stop complaining to each other.
Joh 6:44 'No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise that person up on the last day.
Joh 6:45 It is written in the prophets: They will all be taught by God; everyone who has listened to the Father, and learnt from him, comes to me.
Joh 6:46 Not that anybody has seen the Father, except him who has his being from God: he has seen the Father.
Joh 6:47 In all truth I tell you, everyone who believes has eternal life.
Joh 6:48 I am the bread of life.
Joh 6:49 Your fathers ate manna in the desert and they are dead;
Joh 6:50 but this is the bread which comes down from heaven, so that a person may eat it and not die.
Joh 6:51 I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world.'
Joh 6:52 Then the Jews started arguing among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?'
Joh 6:53 Jesus replied to them: In all truth I tell you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
Joh 6:54 Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise that person up on the last day.
Joh 6:55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
Joh 6:56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in that person.
Joh 6:57 As the living Father sent me and I draw life from the Father, so whoever eats me will also draw life from me.
Joh 6:58 This is the bread which has come down from heaven; it is not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead, but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.
Joh 6:59 This is what he taught at Capernaum in the synagogue.
Joh 6:60 After hearing it, many of his followers said, 'This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?'
Joh 6:61 Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, 'Does this disturb you?
Joh 6:62 What if you should see the Son of man ascend to where he was before?
Joh 6:63 'It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh has nothing to offer. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.
Joh 6:64 'But there are some of you who do not believe.' For Jesus knew from the outset who did not believe and who was to betray him.
Joh 6:65 He went on, 'This is why I told you that no one could come to me except by the gift of the Father.'
Joh 6:66 After this, many of his disciples went away and accompanied him no more.
Joh 6:67 Then Jesus said to the Twelve, 'What about you, do you want to go away too?'
Joh 6:68 Simon Peter answered, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life,
Joh 6:69 and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'
Joh 6:70 Jesus replied to them, 'Did I not choose the Twelve of you? Yet one of you is a devil.'
Joh 6:71 He meant Judas son of Simon Iscariot, since this was the man, one of the Twelve, who was to betray him.
Joh 7:1 After this Jesus travelled round Galilee; he could not travel round Judaea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.
Joh 7:2 As the Jewish feast of Shelters drew near,
Joh 7:3 his brothers said to him, 'Leave this place and go to Judaea, so that your disciples, too, can see the works you are doing;
Joh 7:4 no one who wants to be publicly known acts in secret; if this is what you are doing, you should reveal yourself to the world.'
Joh 7:5 Not even his brothers had faith in him.
Joh 7:6 Jesus answered, 'For me the right time has not come yet, but for you any time is the right time.
Joh 7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it does hate me, because I give evidence that its ways are evil.
Joh 7:8 Go up to the festival yourselves: I am not going to this festival, because for me the time is not ripe yet.'
Joh 7:9 Having said that, he stayed behind in Galilee.
Joh 7:10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went up as well, not publicly but secretly.
Joh 7:11 At the festival the Jews were on the look-out for him: 'Where is he?' they said.
Joh 7:12 There was a great deal of talk about him in the crowds. Some said, 'He is a good man'; others, 'No, he is leading the people astray.'
Joh 7:13 Yet no one spoke about him openly, for fear of the Jews.
Joh 7:14 When the festival was half over, Jesus went to the Temple and began to teach.
Joh 7:15 The Jews were astonished and said, 'How did he learn to read? He has not been educated.'
Joh 7:16 Jesus answered them: 'My teaching is not from myself: it comes from the one who sent me;
Joh 7:17 anyone who is prepared to do his will, will know whether my teaching is from God or whether I speak on my own account.
Joh 7:18 When someone speaks on his own account, he is seeking honor for himself; but when he is seeking the honor of the person who sent him, then he is true and altogether without dishonesty.
Joh 7:19 Did not Moses give you the Law? And yet not one of you keeps the Law!
Joh 7:20 The crowd replied, 'You are mad! Who wants to kill you?'
Joh 7:21 Jesus answered, 'One work I did, and you are all amazed at it.
Joh 7:22 Moses ordered you to practise circumcision -- not that it began with him, it goes back to the patriarchs -- and you circumcise on the Sabbath.
Joh 7:23 Now if someone can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses is not broken, why are you angry with me for making someone completely healthy on a Sabbath?
Joh 7:24 Do not keep judging according to appearances; let your judgement be according to what is right.'
Joh 7:25 Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, 'Isn't this the man they want to kill?
Joh 7:26 And here he is, speaking openly, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have recognized that he is the Christ?
Joh 7:27 Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.'
Joh 7:28 Then, as Jesus was teaching in the Temple, he cried out: You know me and you know where I came from. Yet I have not come of my own accord: but he who sent me is true; You do not know him,
Joh 7:29 but I know him because I have my being from him and it was he who sent me.
Joh 7:30 They wanted to arrest him then, but because his hour had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.
Joh 7:31 There were many people in the crowds, however, who believed in him; they were saying, 'When the Christ comes, will he give more signs than this man has?'
Joh 7:32 Hearing that talk like this about him was spreading among the people, the Pharisees sent the Temple guards to arrest him.
Joh 7:33 Then Jesus said: For a short time I am with you still; then I shall go back to the one who sent me.
Joh 7:34 You will look for me and will not find me; where I am you cannot come.
Joh 7:35 So the Jews said to one another, 'Where is he intending to go that we shall not be able to find him? Is he intending to go abroad to the people who are dispersed among the Greeks and to teach the Greeks?
Joh 7:36 'Why do you want to kill me?' What does he mean when he says: "You will look for me and will not find me; where I am, you cannot come?" '
Joh 7:37 On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out: 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me!
Joh 7:38 Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As scripture says, "From his heart shall flow streams of living water." '
Joh 7:39 He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
Joh 7:40 Some of the crowd who had been listening said, 'He is indeed the prophet,'
Joh 7:41 and some said, 'He is the Christ,' but others said, 'Would the Christ come from Galilee?
Joh 7:42 Does not scripture say that the Christ must be descended from David and come from Bethlehem, the village where David was?'
Joh 7:43 So the people could not agree about him.
Joh 7:44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one actually laid a hand on him.
Joh 7:45 The guards went back to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, 'Why haven't you brought him?'
Joh 7:46 The guards replied, 'No one has ever spoken like this man.'
Joh 7:47 'So,' the Pharisees answered, 'you, too, have been led astray?
Joh 7:48 Have any of the authorities come to believe in him? Any of the Pharisees?
Joh 7:49 This rabble knows nothing about the Law -- they are damned.'
Joh 7:50 One of them, Nicodemus -- the same man who had come to Jesus earlier -- said to them,
Joh 7:51 'But surely our Law does not allow us to pass judgement on anyone without first giving him a hearing and discovering what he is doing?'
Joh 7:52 To this they answered, 'Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not arise in Galilee.'
Joh 7:53 They all went home,
Joh 8:1 and Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
Joh 8:2 At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again; and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.
Joh 8:3 The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand there in the middle
Joh 8:4 they said to Jesus, 'Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery,
Joh 8:5 and in the Law Moses has ordered us to stone women of this kind. What have you got to say?'
Joh 8:6 They asked him this as a test, looking for an accusation to use against him. But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger.
Joh 8:7 As they persisted with their question, he straightened up and said, 'Let the one among you who is guiltless be the first to throw a stone at her.'
Joh 8:8 Then he bent down and continued writing on the ground.
Joh 8:9 When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest, until the last one had gone and Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained in the middle.
Joh 8:10 Jesus again straightened up and said, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?'
Joh 8:11 'No one, sir,' she replied. 'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus. 'Go away, and from this moment sin no more.'
Joh 8:12 When Jesus spoke to the people again, he said: I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark, but will have the light of life.
Joh 8:13 At this the Pharisees said to him, 'You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not true.'
Joh 8:14 Jesus replied: Even though I am testifying on my own behalf, my testimony is still true, because I know where I have come from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from or where I am going.
Joh 8:15 You judge by human standards; I judge no one,
Joh 8:16 but if I judge, my judgement will be true, because I am not alone: the one who sent me is with me;
Joh 8:17 and in your Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true.
Joh 8:18 I testify on my own behalf, but the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf, too.
Joh 8:19 They asked him, 'Where is your Father then?' Jesus answered: You do not know me, nor do you know my Father; if you did know me, you would know my Father as well.
Joh 8:20 He spoke these words in the Treasury, while teaching in the Temple. No one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
Joh 8:21 Again he said to them: I am going away; you will look for me and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.
Joh 8:22 So the Jews said to one another, 'Is he going to kill himself, that he says, "Where I am going, you cannot come?" '
Joh 8:23 Jesus went on: You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
Joh 8:24 I have told you already: You will die in your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.
Joh 8:25 So they said to him, 'Who are you?' Jesus answered: What I have told you from the outset.
Joh 8:26 About you I have much to say and much to judge; but the one who sent me is true, and what I declare to the world I have learnt from him.
Joh 8:27 They did not recognize that he was talking to them about the Father.
Joh 8:28 So Jesus said: When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am He and that I do nothing of my own accord. What I say is what the Father has taught me;
Joh 8:29 he who sent me is with me, and has not left me to myself, for I always do what pleases him.
Joh 8:30 As he was saying this, many came to believe in him.
Joh 8:31 To the Jews who believed in him Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples;
Joh 8:32 you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
Joh 8:33 They answered, 'We are descended from Abraham and we have never been the slaves of anyone; what do you mean, "You will be set free?" '
Joh 8:34 Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave.
Joh 8:35 Now a slave has no permanent standing in the household, but a son belongs to it for ever.
Joh 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free.
Joh 8:37 I know that you are descended from Abraham; but you want to kill me because my word finds no place in you.
Joh 8:38 What I speak of is what I have seen at my Father's side, and you too put into action the lessons you have learnt from your father.
Joh 8:39 They repeated, 'Our father is Abraham.' Jesus said to them: If you are Abraham's children, do as Abraham did.
Joh 8:40 As it is, you want to kill me, a man who has told you the truth as I have learnt it from God; that is not what Abraham did.
Joh 8:41 You are doing your father's work. They replied, 'We were not born illegitimate, the only father we have is God.'
Joh 8:42 Jesus answered: If God were your father, you would love me, since I have my origin in God and have come from him; I did not come of my own accord, but he sent me.
Joh 8:43 Why do you not understand what I say? Because you cannot bear to listen to my words.
Joh 8:44 You are from your father, the devil, and you prefer to do what your father wants. He was a murderer from the start; he was never grounded in the truth; there is no truth in him at all. When he lies he is speaking true to his nature, because he is a liar, and the father of lies.
Joh 8:45 But it is because I speak the truth that you do not believe me.
Joh 8:46 Can any of you convict me of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?
Joh 8:47 Whoever comes from God listens to the words of God; the reason why you do not listen is that you are not from God.
Joh 8:48 The Jews replied, 'Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and possessed by a devil?' Jesus answered:
Joh 8:49 I am not possessed; but I honor my Father, and you deny me honor.
Joh 8:50 I do not seek my own glory; there is someone who does seek it and is the judge of it.
Joh 8:51 In all truth I tell you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.
Joh 8:52 The Jews said, 'Now we know that you are possessed. Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead, and yet you say, "Whoever keeps my word will never know the taste of death."
Joh 8:53 Are you greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? The prophets are dead too. Who are you claiming to be?'
Joh 8:54 Jesus answered: If I were to seek my own glory my glory would be worth nothing; in fact, my glory is conferred by the Father, by the one of whom you say, 'He is our God,'
Joh 8:55 although you do not know him. But I know him, and if I were to say, 'I do not know him,' I should be a liar, as you yourselves are. But I do know him, and I keep his word.
Joh 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to think that he would see my Day; he saw it and was glad.
Joh 8:57 The Jews then said, 'You are not fifty yet, and you have seen Abraham!'
Joh 8:58 Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, before Abraham ever was, I am.
Joh 8:59 At this they picked up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself and left the Temple.
Joh 9:1 As he went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth.
Joh 9:2 His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should have been born blind?'
Joh 9:3 'Neither he nor his parents sinned,' Jesus answered, 'he was born blind so that the works of God might be revealed in him.
Joh 9:4 'As long as day lasts we must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.'
Joh 9:6 Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man,
Joh 9:7 and said to him, 'Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam' (the name means 'one who has been sent'). So he went off and washed and came back able to see.
Joh 9:8 His neighbors and the people who used to see him before (for he was a beggar) said, 'Isn't this the man who used to sit and beg?'
Joh 9:9 Some said, 'Yes, it is the same one.' Others said, 'No, but he looks just like him.' The man himself said, 'Yes, I am the one.'
Joh 9:10 So they said to him, 'Then how is it that your eyes were opened?'
Joh 9:11 He answered, 'The man called Jesus made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, "Go off and wash at Siloam"; so I went, and when I washed I gained my sight.'
Joh 9:12 They asked, 'Where is he?' He answered, 'I don't know.'
Joh 9:13 They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind.
Joh 9:14 It had been a Sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man's eyes,
Joh 9:15 so when the Pharisees asked him how he had gained his sight, he said, 'He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see.'
Joh 9:16 Then some of the Pharisees said, 'That man cannot be from God: he does not keep the Sabbath.' Others said, 'How can a sinner produce signs like this?' And there was division among them.
Joh 9:17 So they spoke to the blind man again, 'What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?' The man answered, 'He is a prophet.'
Joh 9:18 However, the Jews would not believe that the man had been blind without first sending for the parents of the man who had gained his sight and
Joh 9:19 asking them, 'Is this man really the son of yours who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?'
Joh 9:20 His parents answered, 'We know he is our son and we know he was born blind,
Joh 9:21 but how he can see, we don't know, nor who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.'
Joh 9:22 His parents spoke like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to ban from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ.
Joh 9:23 This was why his parents said, 'He is old enough; ask him.'
Joh 9:24 So the Jews sent for the man again and said to him, 'Give glory to God! We are satisfied that this man is a sinner.'
Joh 9:25 The man answered, 'Whether he is a sinner I don't know; all I know is that I was blind and now I can see.'
Joh 9:26 They said to him, 'What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?'
Joh 9:27 He replied, 'I have told you once and you wouldn't listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples yourselves?'
Joh 9:28 At this they hurled abuse at him, 'It is you who are his disciple, we are disciples of Moses:
Joh 9:29 we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we don't know where he comes from.'
Joh 9:30 The man replied, 'That is just what is so amazing! You don't know where he comes from and he has opened my eyes!
Joh 9:31 We know that God doesn't listen to sinners, but God does listen to people who are devout and do his will.
Joh 9:32 Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of someone born blind;
Joh 9:33 if this man were not from God, he wouldn't have been able to do anything.'
Joh 9:34 They retorted, 'Are you trying to teach us, and you a sinner through and through ever since you were born!' And they ejected him.
Joh 9:35 Jesus heard they had ejected him, and when he found him he said to him, 'Do you believe in the Son of man?'
Joh 9:36 'Sir,' the man replied, 'tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.'
Joh 9:37 Jesus said, 'You have seen him; he is speaking to you.'
Joh 9:38 The man said, 'Lord, I believe,' and worshipped him.
Joh 9:39 Jesus said: It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that those without sight may see and those with sight may become blind.
Joh 9:40 Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, 'So we are blind, are we?'
Joh 9:41 Jesus replied: If you were blind, you would not be guilty, but since you say, 'We can see,' your guilt remains.
Joh 10:1 'In all truth I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate, but climbs in some other way, is a thief and a bandit.
Joh 10:2 He who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the flock;
Joh 10:3 the gatekeeper lets him in, the sheep hear his voice, one by one he calls his own sheep and leads them out.
Joh 10:4 When he has brought out all those that are his, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow because they know his voice.
Joh 10:5 They will never follow a stranger, but will run away from him because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.'
Joh 10:6 Jesus told them this parable but they failed to understand what he was saying to them.
Joh 10:7 So Jesus spoke to them again: In all truth I tell you, I am the gate of the sheepfold.
Joh 10:8 All who have come before me are thieves and bandits, but the sheep took no notice of them.
Joh 10:9 I am the gate. Anyone who enters through me will be safe: such a one will go in and out and will find pasture.
Joh 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.
Joh 10:11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.
Joh 10:12 The hired man, since he is not the shepherd and the sheep do not belong to him, abandons the sheep as soon as he sees a wolf coming, and runs away, and then the wolf attacks and scatters the sheep;
Joh 10:13 he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep.
Joh 10:14 I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me,
Joh 10:15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep.
Joh 10:16 And there are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and I must lead these too. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, one shepherd.
Joh 10:17 The Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
Joh 10:18 No one takes it from me; I lay it down of my own free will, and as I have power to lay it down, so I have power to take it up again; and this is the command I have received from my Father.
Joh 10:19 These words caused a fresh division among the Jews.
Joh 10:20 Many said, 'He is possessed, he is raving; why do you listen to him?'
Joh 10:21 Others said, 'These are not the words of a man possessed by a devil: could a devil open the eyes of the blind?'
Joh 10:22 It was the time of the feast of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter,
Joh 10:23 and Jesus was in the Temple walking up and down in the Portico of Solomon.
Joh 10:24 The Jews gathered round him and said, 'How much longer are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us openly.'
Joh 10:25 Jesus replied: I have told you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father's name are my witness;
Joh 10:26 but you do not believe, because you are no sheep of mine.
Joh 10:27 The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.
Joh 10:28 I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from my hand.
Joh 10:29 The Father, for what he has given me, is greater than anyone, and no one can steal anything from the Father's hand.
Joh 10:30 The Father and I are one.
Joh 10:31 The Jews fetched stones to stone him,
Joh 10:32 so Jesus said to them, 'I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which of these are you stoning me?'
Joh 10:33 The Jews answered him, 'We are stoning you, not for doing a good work, but for blasphemy; though you are only a man, you claim to be God.'
Joh 10:34 Jesus answered: Is it not written in your Law: I said, you are gods?
Joh 10:35 So it uses the word 'gods' of those people to whom the word of God was addressed -- and scripture cannot be set aside.
Joh 10:36 Yet to someone whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world you say, 'You are blaspheming' because I said, 'I am Son of God.'
Joh 10:37 If I am not doing my Father's work, there is no need to believe me;
Joh 10:38 but if I am doing it, then even if you refuse to believe in me, at least believe in the work I do; then you will know for certain that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.
Joh 10:39 They again wanted to arrest him then, but he eluded their clutches.
Joh 10:40 He went back again to the far side of the Jordan to the district where John had been baptising at first and he stayed there.
Joh 10:41 Many people who came to him said, 'John gave no signs, but all he said about this man was true';
Joh 10:42 and many of them believed in him.
Joh 11:1 There was a man named Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister, Martha, and he was ill.
Joh 11:2 It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.
Joh 11:3 The sisters sent this message to Jesus, 'Lord, the man you love is ill.'
Joh 11:4 On receiving the message, Jesus said, 'This sickness will not end in death, but it is for God's glory so that through it the Son of God may be glorified.'
Joh 11:5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,
Joh 11:6 yet when he heard that he was ill he stayed where he was for two more days
Joh 11:7 before saying to the disciples, 'Let us go back to Judaea.'
Joh 11:8 The disciples said, 'Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews were trying to stone you; are you going back there again?'
Joh 11:9 Jesus replied: Are there not twelve hours in the day? No one who walks in the daytime stumbles, having the light of this world to see by;
Joh 11:10 anyone who walks around at night stumbles, having no light as a guide.
Joh 11:11 He said that and then added, 'Our friend Lazarus is at rest; I am going to wake him.'
Joh 11:12 The disciples said to him, 'Lord, if he is at rest he will be saved.'
Joh 11:13 Jesus was speaking of the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by 'rest' he meant 'sleep';
Joh 11:14 so Jesus put it plainly, 'Lazarus is dead;
Joh 11:15 and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.'
Joh 11:16 Then Thomas -- known as the Twin -- said to the other disciples, 'Let us also go to die with him.'
Joh 11:17 On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already.
Joh 11:18 Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem,
Joh 11:19 and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother.
Joh 11:20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house.
Joh 11:21 Martha said to Jesus, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died,
Joh 11:22 but even now I know that God will grant whatever you ask of him.'
Joh 11:23 Jesus said to her, 'Your brother will rise again.'
Joh 11:24 Martha said, 'I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.'
Joh 11:25 Jesus said: I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live,
Joh 11:26 and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
Joh 11:27 'Yes, Lord,' she said, 'I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.'
Joh 11:28 When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, 'The Master is here and wants to see you.'
Joh 11:29 Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him.
Joh 11:30 Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him.
Joh 11:31 When the Jews who were in the house comforting Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.
Joh 11:32 Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.'
Joh 11:33 At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who had come with her, Jesus was greatly distressed, and with a profound sigh he said,
Joh 11:34 'Where have you put him?' They said, 'Lord, come and see.'
Joh 11:35 Jesus wept;
Joh 11:36 and the Jews said, 'See how much he loved him!'
Joh 11:37 But there were some who remarked, 'He opened the eyes of the blind man. Could he not have prevented this man's death?'
Joh 11:38 Sighing again, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening.
Joh 11:39 Jesus said, 'Take the stone away.' Martha, the dead man's sister, said to him, 'Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day since he died.'
Joh 11:40 Jesus replied, 'Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?'
Joh 11:41 So they took the stone away. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said: Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.
Joh 11:42 I myself knew that you hear me always, but I speak for the sake of all these who are standing around me, so that they may believe it was you who sent me.
Joh 11:43 When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!'
Joh 11:44 The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with strips of material, and a cloth over his face. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, let him go free.'
Joh 11:45 Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what he did, believed in him,
Joh 11:46 but some of them went to the Pharisees to tell them what Jesus had done.
Joh 11:47 Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting. 'Here is this man working all these signs,' they said, 'and what action are we taking?
Joh 11:48 If we let him go on in this way everybody will believe in him, and the Romans will come and suppress the Holy Place and our nation.'
Joh 11:49 One of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said, 'You do not seem to have grasped the situation at all;
Joh 11:50 you fail to see that it is to your advantage that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should perish.'
Joh 11:51 He did not speak in his own person, but as high priest of that year he was prophesying that Jesus was to die for the nation-
Joh 11:52 and not for the nation only, but also to gather together into one the scattered children of God.
Joh 11:53 From that day onwards they were determined to kill him.
Joh 11:54 So Jesus no longer went about openly among the Jews, but left the district for a town called Ephraim, in the country bordering on the desert, and stayed there with his disciples.
Joh 11:55 The Jewish Passover was drawing near, and many of the country people who had gone up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves
Joh 11:56 were looking out for Jesus, saying to one another as they stood about in the Temple, 'What do you think? Will he come to the festival or not?'
Joh 11:57 The chief priests and Pharisees had by now given their orders: anyone who knew where he was must inform them so that they could arrest him.
Joh 12:1 Six days before the Passover, Jesus went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom he had raised from the dead.
Joh 12:2 They gave a dinner for him there; Martha waited on them and Lazarus was among those at table.
Joh 12:3 Mary brought in a pound of very costly ointment, pure nard, and with it anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping them with her hair; the house was filled with the scent of the ointment.
Joh 12:4 Then Judas Iscariot -- one of his disciples, the man who was to betray him-said,
Joh 12:5 'Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?'
Joh 12:6 He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he was in charge of the common fund and used to help himself to the contents.
Joh 12:7 So Jesus said, 'Leave her alone; let her keep it for the day of my burial.
Joh 12:8 You have the poor with you always, you will not always have me.'
Joh 12:9 Meanwhile a large number of Jews heard that he was there and came not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus whom he had raised from the dead.
Joh 12:10 Then the chief priests decided to kill Lazarus as well,
Joh 12:11 since it was on his account that many of the Jews were leaving them and believing in Jesus.
Joh 12:12 The next day the great crowd of people who had come up for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.
Joh 12:13 They took branches of palm and went out to receive him, shouting: 'Hosanna! Blessed is he who is coming in the name of the Lord, the king of Israel.'
Joh 12:14 Jesus found a young donkey and mounted it -- as scripture says:
Joh 12:15 Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion; look, your king is approaching, riding on the foal of a donkey.
Joh 12:16 At first his disciples did not understand this, but later, after Jesus had been glorified, they remembered that this had been written about him and that this was what had happened to him.
Joh 12:17 The crowd who had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead kept bearing witness to it;
Joh 12:18 this was another reason why the crowd came out to receive him: they had heard that he had given this sign.
Joh 12:19 Then the Pharisees said to one another, 'You see, you are making no progress; look, the whole world has gone after him!'
Joh 12:20 Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks.
Joh 12:21 These approached Philip, who came from Bethsaida in Galilee, and put this request to him, 'Sir, we should like to see Jesus.'
Joh 12:22 Philip went to tell Andrew, and Andrew and Philip together went to tell Jesus.
Joh 12:23 Jesus replied to them: Now the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified.
Joh 12:24 In all truth I tell you, unless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest.
Joh 12:25 Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Joh 12:26 Whoever serves me, must follow me, and my servant will be with me wherever I am. If anyone serves me, my Father will honor him.
Joh 12:27 Now my soul is troubled. What shall I say: Father, save me from this hour? But it is for this very reason that I have come to this hour.
Joh 12:28 Father, glorify your name! A voice came from heaven, 'I have glorified it, and I will again glorify it.'
Joh 12:29 The crowd standing by, who heard this, said it was a clap of thunder; others said, 'It was an angel speaking to him.'
Joh 12:30 Jesus answered, 'It was not for my sake that this voice came, but for yours.
Joh 12:31 'Now sentence is being passed on this world; now the prince of this world is to be driven out.
Joh 12:32 And when I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all people to myself.'
Joh 12:33 By these words he indicated the kind of death he would die.
Joh 12:34 The crowd answered, 'The Law has taught us that the Christ will remain for ever. So how can you say, "The Son of man must be lifted up"? Who is this Son of man?'
Joh 12:35 Jesus then said: The light will be with you only a little longer now. Go on your way while you have the light, or darkness will overtake you, and nobody who walks in the dark knows where he is going.
Joh 12:36 While you still have the light, believe in the light so that you may become children of light. Having said this, Jesus left them and was hidden from their sight.
Joh 12:37 Though they had been present when he gave so many signs, they did not believe in him;
Joh 12:38 this was to fulfill the words of the prophet Isaiah: Lord, who has given credence to what they have heard from us, and who has seen in it a revelation of the Lord's arm?
Joh 12:39 Indeed, they were unable to believe because, as Isaiah says again:
Joh 12:40 He has blinded their eyes, he has hardened their heart, to prevent them from using their eyes to see, using their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me.
Joh 12:41 Isaiah said this because he saw his glory, and his words referred to Jesus.
Joh 12:42 And yet there were many who did believe in him, even among the leading men, but they did not admit it, because of the Pharisees and for fear of being banned from the synagogue:
Joh 12:43 they put human glory before God's glory.
Joh 12:44 Jesus declared publicly: Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in the one who sent me,
Joh 12:45 and whoever sees me, sees the one who sent me.
Joh 12:46 I have come into the world as light, to prevent anyone who believes in me from staying in the dark any more.
Joh 12:47 If anyone hears my words and does not keep them faithfully, it is not I who shall judge such a person, since I have come not to judge the world, but to save the world:
Joh 12:48 anyone who rejects me and refuses my words has his judge already: the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.
Joh 12:49 For I have not spoken of my own accord; but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and what to speak,
Joh 12:50 and I know that his commands mean eternal life. And therefore what the Father has told me is what I speak.
Joh 13:1 Before the festival of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father, having loved those who were his in the world, loved them to the end.
Joh 13:2 They were at supper, and the devil had already put it into the mind of Judas Iscariot son of Simon, to betray him.
Joh 13:3 Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
Joh 13:4 and he got up from table, removed his outer garments and, taking a towel, wrapped it round his waist;
Joh 13:5 he then poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel he was wearing.
Joh 13:6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, 'Lord, are you going to wash my feet?'
Joh 13:7 Jesus answered, 'At the moment you do not know what I am doing, but later you will understand.'
Joh 13:8 'Never!' said Peter. 'You shall never wash my feet.' Jesus replied, 'If I do not wash you, you can have no share with me.' Simon Peter said,
Joh 13:9 'Well then, Lord, not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well!'
Joh 13:10 Jesus said, 'No one who has had a bath needs washing, such a person is clean all over. You too are clean, though not all of you are.'
Joh 13:11 He knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said, 'though not all of you are'.
Joh 13:12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments again he went back to the table. 'Do you understand', he said, 'what I have done to you?
Joh 13:13 You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am.
Joh 13:14 If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you must wash each other's feet.
Joh 13:15 I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you.
Joh 13:16 'In all truth I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, no messenger is greater than the one who sent him.
Joh 13:17 'Now that you know this, blessed are you if you behave accordingly.
Joh 13:18 I am not speaking about all of you: I know the ones I have chosen; but what scripture says must be fulfilled: 'He who shares my table takes advantage of me.
Joh 13:19 I tell you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe that I am He.
Joh 13:20 In all truth I tell you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me, welcomes the one who sent me.'
Joh 13:21 Having said this, Jesus was deeply disturbed and declared, 'In all truth I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.'
Joh 13:22 The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he meant.
Joh 13:23 The disciple Jesus loved was reclining next to Jesus;
Joh 13:24 Simon Peter signed to him and said, 'Ask who it is he means,'
Joh 13:25 so leaning back close to Jesus' chest he said, 'Who is it, Lord?'
Joh 13:26 Jesus answered, 'It is the one to whom I give the piece of bread that I dip in the dish.' And when he had dipped the piece of bread he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.
Joh 13:27 At that instant, after Judas had taken the bread, Satan entered him. Jesus then said, 'What you are going to do, do quickly.'
Joh 13:28 None of the others at table understood why he said this.
Joh 13:29 Since Judas had charge of the common fund, some of them thought Jesus was telling him, 'Buy what we need for the festival,' or telling him to give something to the poor.
Joh 13:30 As soon as Judas had taken the piece of bread he went out. It was night.
Joh 13:31 When he had gone, Jesus said: Now has the Son of man been glorified, and in him God has been glorified.
Joh 13:32 If God has been glorified in him, God will in turn glorify him in himself, and will glorify him very soon.
Joh 13:33 Little children, I shall be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and, as I told the Jews, where I am going, you cannot come.
Joh 13:34 I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you.
Joh 13:35 It is by your love for one another, that everyone will recognize you as my disciples.
Joh 13:36 Simon Peter said, 'Lord, where are you going?' Jesus replied, 'Now you cannot follow me where I am going, but later you shall follow me.'
Joh 13:37 Peter said to him, 'Why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.'
Joh 13:38 'Lay down your life for me?' answered Jesus. 'In all truth I tell you, before the cock crows you will have disowned me three times.'
Joh 14:1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me.
Joh 14:2 In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you,
Joh 14:3 and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am.
Joh 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going.
Joh 14:5 Thomas said, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?'
Joh 14:6 Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
Joh 14:7 If you know me, you will know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.
Joh 14:8 Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.' Jesus said to him,
Joh 14:9 'Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, "Show us the Father"?
Joh 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works.
Joh 14:11 You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works.
Joh 14:12 In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father.
Joh 14:13 Whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Joh 14:14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Joh 14:15 If you love me you will keep my commandments.
Joh 14:16 I shall ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you for ever,
Joh 14:17 the Spirit of truth whom the world can never accept since it neither sees nor knows him; but you know him, because he is with you, he is in you.
Joh 14:18 I shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you.
Joh 14:19 In a short time the world will no longer see me; but you will see that I live and you also will live.
Joh 14:20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you.
Joh 14:21 Whoever holds to my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me; and whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him and reveal myself to him.'
Joh 14:22 Judas -- not Judas Iscariot -- said to him, 'Lord, what has happened, that you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?'
Joh 14:23 Jesus replied: Anyone who loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make a home in him.
Joh 14:24 Anyone who does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not my own: it is the word of the Father who sent me.
Joh 14:25 I have said these things to you while still with you;
Joh 14:26 but the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you.
Joh 14:27 Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
Joh 14:28 You heard me say: I am going away and shall return. If you loved me you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.
Joh 14:29 I have told you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe.
Joh 14:30 I shall not talk to you much longer, because the prince of this world is on his way. He has no power over me,
Joh 14:31 but the world must recognize that I love the Father and that I act just as the Father commanded. Come now, let us go.
Joh 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.
Joh 15:2 Every branch in me that bears no fruit he cuts away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes to make it bear even more.
Joh 15:3 You are clean already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you.
Joh 15:4 Remain in me, as I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, unless it remains part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch -- and withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire and are burnt.
Joh 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for whatever you please and you will get it.
Joh 15:8 It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit and be my disciples.
Joh 15:9 I have loved you just as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love.
Joh 15:10 If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.
Joh 15:11 I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.
Joh 15:12 This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
Joh 15:13 No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.
Joh 15:14 You are my friends, if you do what I command you.
Joh 15:15 I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
Joh 15:16 You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.
Joh 15:17 My command to you is to love one another.
Joh 15:18 If the world hates you, you must realize that it hated me before it hated you.
Joh 15:19 If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you do not belong to the world, because my choice of you has drawn you out of the world, that is why the world hates you.
Joh 15:20 Remember the words I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you too; if they kept my word, they will keep yours as well.
Joh 15:21 But it will be on my account that they will do all this to you, because they do not know the one who sent me.
Joh 15:22 If I had not come, if I had not spoken to them, they would have been blameless; but as it is they have no excuse for their sin.
Joh 15:23 Anyone who hates me hates my Father.
Joh 15:24 If I had not performed such works among them as no one else has ever done, they would be blameless; but as it is, in spite of what they have seen, they hate both me and my Father.
Joh 15:25 But all this was only to fulfill the words written in their Law: They hated me without reason.
Joh 15:26 When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, he will be my witness.
Joh 15:27 And you too will be witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Joh 16:1 I have told you all this so that you may not fall away.
Joh 16:2 They will expel you from the synagogues, and indeed the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is doing a holy service to God.
Joh 16:3 They will do these things because they have never known either the Father or me.
Joh 16:4 But I have told you all this, so that when the time for it comes you may remember that I told you. I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you;
Joh 16:5 but now I am going to the one who sent me. Not one of you asks, 'Where are you going?'
Joh 16:6 Yet you are sad at heart because I have told you this.
Joh 16:7 Still, I am telling you the truth: it is for your own good that I am going, because unless I go, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Joh 16:8 And when he comes, he will show the world how wrong it was, about sin, and about who was in the right, and about judgement:
Joh 16:9 about sin: in that they refuse to believe in me;
Joh 16:10 about who was in the right: in that I am going to the Father and you will see me no more;
Joh 16:11 about judgement: in that the prince of this world is already condemned.
Joh 16:12 I still have many things to say to you but they would be too much for you to bear now.
Joh 16:13 However, when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth, since he will not be speaking of his own accord, but will say only what he has been told; and he will reveal to you the things to come.
Joh 16:14 He will glorify me, since all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine.
Joh 16:15 Everything the Father has is mine; that is why I said: all he reveals to you will be taken from what is mine.
Joh 16:16 In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again.
Joh 16:17 Then some of his disciples said to one another, 'What does he mean, "In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again," and, "I am going to the Father"?
Joh 16:18 What is this "short time"? We don't know what he means.'
Joh 16:19 Jesus knew that they wanted to question him, so he said, 'You are asking one another what I meant by saying, "In a short time you will no longer see me, and then a short time later you will see me again."
Joh 16:20 'In all truth I tell you, you will be weeping and wailing while the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy.
Joh 16:21 A woman in childbirth suffers, because her time has come; but when she has given birth to the child she forgets the suffering in her joy that a human being has been born into the world.
Joh 16:22 So it is with you: you are sad now, but I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one shall take from you.
Joh 16:23 When that day comes, you will not ask me any questions. In all truth I tell you, anything you ask from the Father he will grant in my name.
Joh 16:24 Until now you have not asked anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete.
Joh 16:25 I have been telling you these things in veiled language. The hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in veiled language but tell you about the Father in plain words.
Joh 16:26 When that day comes you will ask in my name; and I do not say that I shall pray to the Father for you,
Joh 16:27 because the Father himself loves you for loving me, and believing that I came from God.
Joh 16:28 I came from the Father and have come into the world and now I am leaving the world to go to the Father.'
Joh 16:29 His disciples said, 'Now you are speaking plainly and not using veiled language.
Joh 16:30 Now we see that you know everything and need not wait for questions to be put into words; because of this we believe that you came from God.'
Joh 16:31 Jesus answered them: Do you believe at last?
Joh 16:32 Listen; the time will come -- indeed it has come already -- when you are going to be scattered, each going his own way and leaving me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
Joh 16:33 I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have hardship, but be courageous: I have conquered the world.
Joh 17:1 After saying this, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said: Father, the hour has come: glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you;
Joh 17:2 so that, just as you have given him power over all humanity, he may give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.
Joh 17:3 And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Joh 17:4 I have glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.
Joh 17:5 Now, Father, glorify me with that glory I had with you before ever the world existed.
Joh 17:6 I have revealed your name to those whom you took from the world to give me. They were yours and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.
Joh 17:7 Now at last they have recognized that all you have given me comes from you
Joh 17:8 for I have given them the teaching you gave to me, and they have indeed accepted it and know for certain that I came from you, and have believed that it was you who sent me.
Joh 17:9 It is for them that I pray. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they belong to you.
Joh 17:10 All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified.
Joh 17:11 I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.
Joh 17:12 While I was with them, I kept those you had given me true to your name. I have watched over them and not one is lost except one who was destined to be lost, and this was to fulfill the scriptures.
Joh 17:13 But now I am coming to you and I say these things in the world to share my joy with them to the full.
Joh 17:14 I passed your word on to them, and the world hated them, because they belong to the world no more than I belong to the world.
Joh 17:15 I am not asking you to remove them from the world, but to protect them from the Evil One.
Joh 17:16 They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.
Joh 17:17 Consecrate them in the truth; your word is truth.
Joh 17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world,
Joh 17:19 and for their sake I consecrate myself so that they too may be consecrated in truth.
Joh 17:20 I pray not only for these but also for those who through their teaching will come to believe in me.
Joh 17:21 May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.
Joh 17:22 I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one.
Joh 17:23 With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognize that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you have loved me.
Joh 17:24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may always see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
Joh 17:25 Father, Upright One, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me.
Joh 17:26 I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.
Joh 18:1 After he had said all this, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron valley where there was a garden into which he went with his disciples.
Joh 18:2 Judas the traitor knew the place also, since Jesus had often met his disciples there,
Joh 18:3 so Judas brought the cohort to this place together with guards sent by the chief priests and the Pharisees, all with lanterns and torches and weapons.
Joh 18:4 Knowing everything that was to happen to him, Jesus came forward and said, 'Who are you looking for?'
Joh 18:5 They answered, 'Jesus the Nazarene.' He said, 'I am he.' Now Judas the traitor was standing among them.
Joh 18:6 When Jesus said to them, 'I am he,' they moved back and fell on the ground.
Joh 18:7 He asked them a second time, 'Who are you looking for?' They said, 'Jesus the Nazarene.'
Joh 18:8 Jesus replied, 'I have told you that I am he. If I am the one you are looking for, let these others go.'
Joh 18:9 This was to fulfill the words he had spoken, 'Not one of those you gave me have I lost.'
Joh 18:10 Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. The servant's name was Malchus.
Joh 18:11 Jesus said to Peter, 'Put your sword back in its scabbard; am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?'
Joh 18:12 The cohort and its tribune and the Jewish guards seized Jesus and bound him.
Joh 18:13 They took him first to Annas, because Annas was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, who was high priest that year.
Joh 18:14 It was Caiaphas who had counselled the Jews, 'It is better for one man to die for the people.'
Joh 18:15 Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Jesus. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Jesus into the high priest's palace,
Joh 18:16 but Peter stayed outside the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the door-keeper and brought Peter in.
Joh 18:17 The girl on duty at the door said to Peter, 'Aren't you another of that man's disciples?' He answered, 'I am not.'
Joh 18:18 Now it was cold, and the servants and guards had lit a charcoal fire and were standing there warming themselves; so Peter stood there too, warming himself with the others.
Joh 18:19 The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching.
Joh 18:20 Jesus answered, 'I have spoken openly for all the world to hear; I have always taught in the synagogue and in the Temple where all the Jews meet together; I have said nothing in secret.
Joh 18:21 Why ask me? Ask my hearers what I taught; they know what I said.'
Joh 18:22 At these words, one of the guards standing by gave Jesus a slap in the face, saying, 'Is that the way you answer the high priest?'
Joh 18:23 Jesus replied, 'If there is some offense in what I said, point it out; but if not, why do you strike me?'
Joh 18:24 Then Annas sent him, bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.
Joh 18:25 As Simon Peter stood there warming himself, someone said to him, 'Aren't you another of his disciples?' He denied it saying, 'I am not.'
Joh 18:26 One of the high priest's servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, 'Didn't I see you in the garden with him?'
Joh 18:27 Again Peter denied it; and at once a cock crowed.
Joh 18:28 They then led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the Praetorium. It was now morning. They did not go into the Praetorium themselves to avoid becoming defiled and unable to eat the Passover.
Joh 18:29 So Pilate came outside to them and said, 'What charge do you bring against this man?' They replied,
Joh 18:30 'If he were not a criminal, we should not have handed him over to you.'
Joh 18:31 Pilate said, 'Take him yourselves, and try him by your own Law.' The Jews answered, 'We are not allowed to put anyone to death.'
Joh 18:32 This was to fulfill the words Jesus had spoken indicating the way he was going to die.
Joh 18:33 So Pilate went back into the Praetorium and called Jesus to him and asked him, 'Are you the king of the Jews?'
Joh 18:34 Jesus replied, 'Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others said it to you about me?'
Joh 18:35 Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?'
Joh 18:36 Jesus replied, 'Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.'
Joh 18:37 Pilate said, 'So, then you are a king?' Jesus answered, 'It is you who say that I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.'
Joh 18:38 'Truth?' said Pilate. 'What is that?' And so saying he went out again to the Jews and said, 'I find no case against him.
Joh 18:39 But according to a custom of yours I should release one prisoner at the Passover; would you like me, then, to release for you the king of the Jews?'
Joh 18:40 At this they shouted, 'Not this man,' they said, 'but Barabbas.' Barabbas was a bandit.
Joh 19:1 Pilate then had Jesus taken away and scourged;
Joh 19:2 and after this, the soldiers twisted some thorns into a crown and put it on his head and dressed him in a purple robe.
Joh 19:3 They kept coming up to him and saying, 'Hail, king of the Jews!' and slapping him in the face.
Joh 19:4 Pilate came outside again and said to them, 'Look, I am going to bring him out to you to let you see that I find no case against him.'
Joh 19:5 Jesus then came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said, 'Here is the man.'
Joh 19:6 When they saw him, the chief priests and the guards shouted, 'Crucify him! Crucify him!' Pilate said, 'Take him yourselves and crucify him: I find no case against him.'
Joh 19:7 The Jews replied, 'We have a Law, and according to that Law he ought to be put to death, because he has claimed to be Son of God.'
Joh 19:8 When Pilate heard them say this his fears increased.
Joh 19:9 Re-entering the Praetorium, he said to Jesus, 'Where do you come from?' But Jesus made no answer.
Joh 19:10 Pilate then said to him, 'Are you refusing to speak to me? Surely you know I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?'
Joh 19:11 Jesus replied, 'You would have no power over me at all if it had not been given you from above; that is why the man who handed me over to you has the greater guilt.'
Joh 19:12 From that moment Pilate was anxious to set him free, but the Jews shouted, 'If you set him free you are no friend of Caesar's; anyone who makes himself king is defying Caesar.'
Joh 19:13 Hearing these words, Pilate had Jesus brought out, and seated him on the chair of judgement at a place called the Pavement, in Hebrew Gabbatha.
Joh 19:14 It was the Day of Preparation, about the sixth hour. 'Here is your king,' said Pilate to the Jews.
Joh 19:15 But they shouted, 'Away with him, away with him, crucify him.' Pilate said, 'Shall I crucify your king?' The chief priests answered, 'We have no king except Caesar.'
Joh 19:16 So at that Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. They then took charge of Jesus,
Joh 19:17 and carrying his own cross he went out to the Place of the Skull or, as it is called in Hebrew, Golgotha,
Joh 19:18 where they crucified him with two others, one on either side, Jesus being in the middle.
Joh 19:19 Pilate wrote out a notice and had it fixed to the cross; it ran: 'Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews'.
Joh 19:20 This notice was read by many of the Jews, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the writing was in Hebrew, Latin and Greek.
Joh 19:21 So the Jewish chief priests said to Pilate, 'You should not write "King of the Jews", but that the man said, "I am King of the Jews". '
Joh 19:22 Pilate answered, 'What I have written, I have written.'
Joh 19:23 When the soldiers had finished crucifying Jesus they took his clothing and divided it into four shares, one for each soldier. His undergarment was seamless, woven in one piece from neck to hem;
Joh 19:24 so they said to one another, 'Instead of tearing it, let's throw dice to decide who is to have it.' In this way the words of scripture were fulfilled: They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes. That is what the soldiers did.
Joh 19:25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala.
Joh 19:26 Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son.'
Joh 19:27 Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother.' And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
Joh 19:28 After this, Jesus knew that everything had now been completed and, so that the scripture should be completely fulfilled, he said: I am thirsty.
Joh 19:29 A jar full of sour wine stood there; so, putting a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth.
Joh 19:30 After Jesus had taken the wine he said, 'It is fulfilled'; and bowing his head he gave up his spirit.
Joh 19:31 It was the Day of Preparation, and to avoid the bodies' remaining on the cross during the Sabbath -- since that Sabbath was a day of special solemnity -- the Jews asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away.
Joh 19:32 Consequently the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with him and then of the other.
Joh 19:33 When they came to Jesus, they saw he was already dead, and so instead of breaking his legs
Joh 19:34 one of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance; and immediately there came out blood and water.
Joh 19:35 This is the evidence of one who saw it -- true evidence, and he knows that what he says is true -- and he gives it so that you may believe as well.
Joh 19:36 Because all this happened to fulfill the words of scripture: Not one bone of his will be broken;
Joh 19:37 and again, in another place scripture says: They will look to the one whom they have pierced.
Joh 19:38 After this, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus -- though a secret one because he was afraid of the Jews -- asked Pilate to let him remove the body of Jesus. Pilate gave permission, so they came and took it away.
Joh 19:39 Nicodemus came as well -- the same one who had first come to Jesus at night-time -- and he brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds.
Joh 19:40 They took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, following the Jewish burial custom.
Joh 19:41 At the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in this garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been buried.
Joh 19:42 Since it was the Jewish Day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Joh 20:1 It was very early on the first day of the week and still dark, when Mary of Magdala came to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been moved away from the tomb
Joh 20:2 and came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. 'They have taken the Lord out of the tomb,' she said, 'and we don't know where they have put him.'
Joh 20:3 So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb.
Joh 20:4 They ran together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first;
Joh 20:5 he bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in.
Joh 20:6 Simon Peter, following him, also came up, went into the tomb, saw the linen cloths lying on the ground
Joh 20:7 and also the cloth that had been over his head; this was not with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.
Joh 20:8 Then the other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he believed.
Joh 20:9 Till this moment they had still not understood the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
Joh 20:10 The disciples then went back home.
Joh 20:11 But Mary was standing outside near the tomb, weeping. Then, as she wept, she stooped to look inside,
Joh 20:12 and saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had been, one at the head, the other at the feet.
Joh 20:13 They said, 'Woman, why are you weeping?' 'They have taken my Lord away,' she replied, 'and I don't know where they have put him.'
Joh 20:14 As she said this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, though she did not realize that it was Jesus.
Joh 20:15 Jesus said to her, 'Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?' Supposing him to be the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and remove him.'
Joh 20:16 Jesus said, 'Mary!' She turned round then and said to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbuni!' -- which means Master.
Joh 20:17 Jesus said to her, 'Do not cling to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to the brothers, and tell them: I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'
Joh 20:18 So Mary of Magdala told the disciples, 'I have seen the Lord,' and that he had said these things to her.
Joh 20:19 In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, 'Peace be with you,'
Joh 20:20 and, after saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy at seeing the Lord,
Joh 20:21 and he said to them again, 'Peace be with you. 'As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.'
Joh 20:22 After saying this he breathed on them and said: Receive the Holy Spirit.
Joh 20:23 If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained.
Joh 20:24 Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.
Joh 20:25 So the other disciples said to him, 'We have seen the Lord,' but he answered, 'Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.'
Joh 20:26 Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. 'Peace be with you,' he said.
Joh 20:27 Then he spoke to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.'
Joh 20:28 Thomas replied, 'My Lord and my God!'
Joh 20:29 Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
Joh 20:30 There were many other signs that Jesus worked in the sight of the disciples, but they are not recorded in this book.
Joh 20:31 These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.
Joh 21:1 Later on, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples. It was by the Sea of Tiberias, and it happened like this:
Joh 21:2 Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two more of his disciples were together.
Joh 21:3 Simon Peter said, 'I'm going fishing.' They replied, 'We'll come with you.' They went out and got into the boat but caught nothing that night.
Joh 21:4 When it was already light, there stood Jesus on the shore, though the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
Joh 21:5 Jesus called out, 'Haven't you caught anything, friends?' And when they answered, 'No,'
Joh 21:6 he said, 'Throw the net out to starboard and you'll find something.' So they threw the net out and could not haul it in because of the quantity of fish.
Joh 21:7 The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord.' At these words, 'It is the Lord,' Simon Peter tied his outer garment round him (for he had nothing on) and jumped into the water.
Joh 21:8 The other disciples came on in the boat, towing the net with the fish; they were only about a hundred yards from land.
Joh 21:9 As soon as they came ashore they saw that there was some bread there and a charcoal fire with fish cooking on it.
Joh 21:10 Jesus said, 'Bring some of the fish you have just caught.'
Joh 21:11 Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore, full of big fish, one hundred and fifty-three of them; and in spite of there being so many the net was not broken.
Joh 21:12 Jesus said to them, 'Come and have breakfast.' None of the disciples was bold enough to ask, 'Who are you?'. They knew quite well it was the Lord.
Joh 21:13 Jesus then stepped forward, took the bread and gave it to them, and the same with the fish.
Joh 21:14 This was the third time that Jesus revealed himself to the disciples after rising from the dead.
Joh 21:15 When they had eaten, Jesus said to Simon Peter, 'Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?' He answered, 'Yes, Lord, you know I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my lambs.'
Joh 21:16 A second time he said to him, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' He replied, 'Yes, Lord, you know I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Look after my sheep.'
Joh 21:17 Then he said to him a third time, 'Simon son of John, do you love me?' Peter was hurt that he asked him a third time, 'Do you love me?' and said, 'Lord, you know everything; you know I love you.' Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep.
Joh 21:18 In all truth I tell you, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go.'
Joh 21:19 In these words he indicated the kind of death by which Peter would give glory to God. After this he said, 'Follow me.'
Joh 21:20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them -- the one who had leant back close to his chest at the supper and had said to him, 'Lord, who is it that will betray you?'
Joh 21:21 Seeing him, Peter said to Jesus, 'What about him, Lord?'
Joh 21:22 Jesus answered, 'If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow me.'
Joh 21:23 The rumour then went out among the brothers that this disciple would not die. Yet Jesus had not said to Peter, 'He will not die,' but, 'If I want him to stay behind till I come.'
Joh 21:24 This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down, and we know that his testimony is true.
Joh 21:25 There was much else that Jesus did; if it were written down in detail, I do not suppose the world itself would hold all the books that would be written.
Act 1:1 In my earlier work, Theophilus, I dealt with everything Jesus had done and taught from the beginning
Act 1:2 until the day he gave his instructions to the apostles he had chosen through the Holy Spirit, and was taken up to heaven.
Act 1:3 He had shown himself alive to them after his Passion by many demonstrations: for forty days he had continued to appear to them and tell them about the kingdom of God.
Act 1:4 While at table with them, he had told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised. 'It is', he had said, 'what you have heard me speak about:
Act 1:5 John baptised with water but, not many days from now, you are going to be baptised with the Holy Spirit.'
Act 1:6 Now having met together, they asked him, 'Lord, has the time come for you to restore the kingdom to Israel?'
Act 1:7 He replied, 'It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority,
Act 1:8 but you will receive the power of the Holy Spirit which will come on you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth's remotest end.'
Act 1:9 As he said this he was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud took him from their sight.
Act 1:10 They were still staring into the sky as he went, when suddenly two men in white were standing beside them,
Act 1:11 and they said, 'Why are you Galileans standing here looking into the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way as you have seen him go to heaven.'
Act 1:12 So from the Mount of Olives, as it is called, they went back to Jerusalem, a short distance away, no more than a Sabbath walk;
Act 1:13 and when they reached the city they went to the upper room where they were staying; there were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Jude son of James.
Act 1:14 With one heart all these joined constantly in prayer, together with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
Act 1:15 One day Peter stood up to speak to the brothers -- there were about a hundred and twenty people in the congregation,
Act 1:16 'Brothers,' he said, 'the passage of scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, foretells the fate of Judas, who acted as guide to the men who arrested Jesus-
Act 1:17 after being one of our number and sharing our ministry.
Act 1:18 As you know, he bought a plot of land with the money he was paid for his crime. He fell headlong and burst open, and all his entrails poured out.
Act 1:19 Everybody in Jerusalem heard about it and the plot came to be called "Bloody Acre", in their language Hakeldama.
Act 1:20 Now in the Book of Psalms it says: Reduce his encampment to ruin and leave his tent unoccupied. And again: Let someone else take over his office.
Act 1:21 'Out of the men who have been with us the whole time that the Lord Jesus was living with us,
Act 1:22 from the time when John was baptising until the day when he was taken up from us, one must be appointed to serve with us as a witness to his resurrection.'
Act 1:23 Having nominated two candidates, Joseph known as Barsabbas, whose surname was Justus, and Matthias,
Act 1:24 they prayed, 'Lord, you can read everyone's heart; show us therefore which of these two you have chosen
Act 1:25 to take over this ministry and apostolate, which Judas abandoned to go to his proper place.'
Act 1:26 They then drew lots for them, and as the lot fell to Matthias, he was listed as one of the twelve apostles.
Act 2:1 When Pentecost day came round, they had all met together,
Act 2:2 when suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting;
Act 2:3 and there appeared to them tongues as of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them.
Act 2:4 They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves.
Act 2:5 Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven,
Act 2:6 and at this sound they all assembled, and each one was bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language.
Act 2:7 They were amazed and astonished. 'Surely,' they said, 'all these men speaking are Galileans?
Act 2:8 How does it happen that each of us hears them in his own native language?
Act 2:9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; people from Mesopotamia, Judaea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
Act 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya round Cyrene; residents of Rome-
Act 2:11 Jews and proselytes alike -- Cretans and Arabs, we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.'
Act 2:12 Everyone was amazed and perplexed; they asked one another what it all meant.
Act 2:13 Some, however, laughed it off. 'They have been drinking too much new wine,' they said.
Act 2:14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven and addressed them in a loud voice: 'Men of Judaea, and all you who live in Jerusalem, make no mistake about this, but listen carefully to what I say.
Act 2:15 These men are not drunk, as you imagine; why, it is only the third hour of the day.
Act 2:16 On the contrary, this is what the prophet was saying:
Act 2:17 In the last days -- the Lord declares -- I shall pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young people shall see visions, your old people dream dreams.
Act 2:18 Even on the slaves, men and women, shall I pour out my Spirit.
Act 2:19 I will show portents in the sky above and signs on the earth below.
Act 2:20 The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord comes, that great and terrible Day.
Act 2:21 And all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Act 2:22 'Men of Israel, listen to what I am going to say: Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God by the miracles and portents and signs that God worked through him when he was among you, as you know.
Act 2:23 This man, who was put into your power by the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God, you took and had crucified and killed by men outside the Law.
Act 2:24 But God raised him to life, freeing him from the pangs of Hades; for it was impossible for him to be held in its power since,
Act 2:25 as David says of him: I kept the Lord before my sight always, for with him at my right hand nothing can shake me.
Act 2:26 So my heart rejoiced my tongue delighted; my body, too, will rest secure,
Act 2:27 for you will not abandon me to Hades or allow your holy one to see corruption.
Act 2:28 You have taught me the way of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence.
Act 2:29 'Brothers, no one can deny that the patriarch David himself is dead and buried: his tomb is still with us.
Act 2:30 But since he was a prophet, and knew that God had sworn him an oath to make one of his descendants succeed him on the throne,
Act 2:31 he spoke with foreknowledge about the resurrection of the Christ: he is the one who was not abandoned to Hades, and whose body did not see corruption.
Act 2:32 God raised this man Jesus to life, and of that we are all witnesses.
Act 2:33 Now raised to the heights by God's right hand, he has received from the Father the Holy Spirit, who was promised, and what you see and hear is the outpouring of that Spirit.
Act 2:34 For David himself never went up to heaven, but yet he said: The Lord declared to my Lord, take your seat at my right hand,
Act 2:35 till I have made your enemies your footstool.
Act 2:36 'For this reason the whole House of Israel can be certain that the Lord and Christ whom God has made is this Jesus whom you crucified.'
Act 2:37 Hearing this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'What are we to do, brothers?'
Act 2:38 'You must repent,' Peter answered, 'and every one of you must be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Act 2:39 The promise that was made is for you and your children, and for all those who are far away, for all those whom the Lord our God is calling to himself.'
Act 2:40 He spoke to them for a long time using many other arguments, and he urged them, 'Save yourselves from this perverse generation.'
Act 2:41 They accepted what he said and were baptised. That very day about three thousand were added to their number.
Act 2:42 These remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Act 2:43 And everyone was filled with awe; the apostles worked many signs and miracles.
Act 2:44 And all who shared the faith owned everything in common;
Act 2:45 they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed.
Act 2:46 Each day, with one heart, they regularly went to the Temple but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously;
Act 2:47 they praised God and were looked up to by everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be saved.
Act 3:1 Once, when Peter and John were going up to the Temple for the prayers at the ninth hour,
Act 3:2 it happened that there was a man being carried along. He was a cripple from birth; and they used to put him down every day near the Temple entrance called the Beautiful Gate so that he could beg from the people going in.
Act 3:3 When this man saw Peter and John on their way into the Temple he begged from them.
Act 3:4 Peter, and John too, looked straight at him and said, 'Look at us.'
Act 3:5 He turned to them expectantly, hoping to get something from them,
Act 3:6 but Peter said, 'I have neither silver nor gold, but I will give you what I have: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!'
Act 3:7 Then he took him by the right hand and helped him to stand up. Instantly his feet and ankles became firm,
Act 3:8 he jumped up, stood, and began to walk, and he went with them into the Temple, walking and jumping and praising God.
Act 3:9 Everyone could see him walking and praising God,
Act 3:10 and they recognized him as the man who used to sit begging at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. They were all astonished and perplexed at what had happened to him.
Act 3:11 Everyone came running towards them in great excitement, to the Portico of Solomon, as it is called, where the man was still clinging to Peter and John.
Act 3:12 When Peter saw the people he addressed them, 'Men of Israel, why are you so surprised at this? Why are you staring at us as though we had made this man walk by our own power or holiness?
Act 3:13 It is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our ancestors, who has glorified his servant Jesus whom you handed over and then disowned in the presence of Pilate after he had given his verdict to release him.
Act 3:14 It was you who accused the Holy and Upright One, you who demanded that a murderer should be released to you
Act 3:15 while you killed the prince of life. God, however, raised him from the dead, and to that fact we are witnesses;
Act 3:16 and it is the name of Jesus which, through faith in him, has brought back the strength of this man whom you see here and who is well known to you. It is faith in him that has restored this man to health, as you can all see.
Act 3:17 'Now I know, brothers, that neither you nor your leaders had any idea what you were really doing;
Act 3:18 but this was the way God carried out what he had foretold, when he said through all his prophets that his Christ would suffer.
Act 3:19 Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,
Act 3:20 and so that the Lord may send the time of comfort. Then he will send you the Christ he has predestined, that is Jesus,
Act 3:21 whom heaven must keep till the universal restoration comes which God proclaimed, speaking through his holy prophets.
Act 3:22 Moses, for example, said, "From among your brothers the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me; you will listen to whatever he tells you.
Act 3:23 Anyone who refuses to listen to that prophet shall be cut off from the people."
Act 3:24 In fact, all the prophets that have ever spoken, from Samuel onwards, have predicted these days.
Act 3:25 'You are the heirs of the prophets, the heirs of the covenant God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, "All the nations of the earth will be blessed in your descendants".
Act 3:26 It was for you in the first place that God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you as every one of you turns from his wicked ways.'
Act 4:1 While they were still talking to the people the priests came up to them, accompanied by the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees.
Act 4:2 They were extremely annoyed at their teaching the people the resurrection from the dead by proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus.
Act 4:3 They arrested them, and, as it was already late, they kept them in prison till the next day.
Act 4:4 But many of those who had listened to their message became believers; the total number of men had now risen to something like five thousand.
Act 4:5 It happened that the next day the rulers, elders and scribes held a meeting in Jerusalem
Act 4:6 with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, Jonathan, Alexander and all the members of the high-priestly families.
Act 4:7 They made the prisoners stand in the middle and began to interrogate them, 'By what power, and by whose name have you men done this?'
Act 4:8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed them, 'Rulers of the people, and elders!
Act 4:9 If you are questioning us today about an act of kindness to a cripple and asking us how he was healed,
Act 4:10 you must know, all of you, and the whole people of Israel, that it is by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, and God raised from the dead, by this name and by no other that this man stands before you cured.
Act 4:11 This is the stone which you, the builders, rejected but which has become the cornerstone. Only in him is there salvation;
Act 4:12 for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved.'
Act 4:13 They were astonished at the fearlessness shown by Peter and John, considering that they were uneducated laymen; and they recognized them as associates of Jesus;
Act 4:14 but when they saw the man who had been cured standing by their side, they could find no answer.
Act 4:15 So they ordered them to stand outside while the Sanhedrin had a private discussion.
Act 4:16 'What are we going to do with these men?' they asked. 'It is obvious to everybody in Jerusalem that a notable miracle has been worked through them, and we cannot deny it.
Act 4:17 But to stop the whole thing spreading any further among the people, let us threaten them against ever speaking to anyone in this name again.'
Act 4:18 So they called them in and gave them a warning on no account to make statements or to teach in the name of Jesus.
Act 4:19 But Peter and John retorted, 'You must judge whether in God's eyes it is right to listen to you and not to God.
Act 4:20 We cannot stop proclaiming what we have seen and heard.'
Act 4:21 The court repeated the threats and then released them; they could not think of any way to punish them, since all the people were giving glory to God for what had happened.
Act 4:22 The man who had been miraculously cured was over forty years old.
Act 4:23 As soon as they were released they went to the community and told them everything the chief priests and elders had said to them.
Act 4:24 When they heard it they lifted up their voice to God with one heart. 'Master,' they prayed, 'it is you who made sky and earth and sea, and everything in them;
Act 4:25 it is you who said through the Holy Spirit and speaking through our ancestor David, your servant: Why this uproar among the nations, this impotent muttering of the peoples?
Act 4:26 Kings on earth take up position, princes plot together against the Lord and his Anointed.
Act 4:27 'This is what has come true: in this very city Herod and Pontius Pilate plotted together with the gentile nations and the peoples of Israel, against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed,
Act 4:28 to bring about the very thing that you in your strength and your wisdom had predetermined should happen.
Act 4:29 And now, Lord, take note of their threats and help your servants to proclaim your message with all fearlessness,
Act 4:30 by stretching out your hand to heal and to work miracles and marvels through the name of your holy servant Jesus.'
Act 4:31 As they prayed, the house where they were assembled rocked. From this time they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the word of God fearlessly.
Act 4:32 The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they owned was held in common.
Act 4:33 The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power, and they were all accorded great respect.
Act 4:34 None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land or houses would sell them, and bring the money from the sale of them,
Act 4:35 to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any who might be in need.
Act 4:36 There was a Levite of Cypriot origin called Joseph whom the apostles surnamed Barnabas (which means 'son of encouragement').
Act 4:37 He owned a piece of land and he sold it and brought the money and presented it to the apostles.
Act 5:1 There was also a man called Ananias. He and his wife, Sapphira, agreed to sell a property;
Act 5:2 but with his wife's connivance he kept back part of the price and brought the rest and presented it to the apostles.
Act 5:3 Peter said, 'Ananias, how can Satan have so possessed you that you should lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land?
Act 5:4 While you still owned the land, wasn't it yours to keep, and after you had sold it wasn't the money yours to do with as you liked? What put this scheme into your mind? You have been lying not to men, but to God.'
Act 5:5 When he heard this Ananias fell down dead. And a great fear came upon everyone present.
Act 5:6 The younger men got up, wrapped up the body, carried it out and buried it.
Act 5:7 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had taken place.
Act 5:8 Peter challenged her, 'Tell me, was this the price you sold the land for?' 'Yes,' she said, 'that was the price.'
Act 5:9 Peter then said, 'Why did you and your husband agree to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Listen! At the door are the footsteps of those who have buried your husband; they will carry you out, too.'
Act 5:10 Instantly she dropped dead at his feet. When the young men came in they found she was dead, and they carried her out and buried her by the side of her husband.
Act 5:11 And a great fear came upon the whole congregation (ekklesia)and on all who heard it.
Act 5:12 The apostles worked many signs and miracles among the people. One in heart, they all used to meet in the Portico of Solomon.
Act 5:13 No one else dared to join them, but the people were loud in their praise
Act 5:14 and the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. Many signs and wonders were worked among the people at the hands of the apostles
Act 5:15 so that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping-mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past.
Act 5:16 People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were cured.
Act 5:17 Then the high priest intervened with all his supporters from the party of the Sadducees. Filled with jealousy,
Act 5:18 they arrested the apostles and had them put in the public gaol.
Act 5:19 But at night the angel of the Lord opened the prison gates and said as he led them out,
Act 5:20 'Go and take up position in the Temple, and tell the people all about this new Life.'
Act 5:21 They did as they were told; they went into the Temple at dawn and began to preach. When the high priest arrived, he and his supporters convened the Sanhedrin -- this was the full Senate of Israel -- and sent to the gaol for them to be brought.
Act 5:22 But when the officials arrived at the prison they found they were not inside, so they went back and reported,
Act 5:23 'We found the gaol securely locked and the warders on duty at the gates, but when we unlocked the door we found no one inside.'
Act 5:24 When the captain of the Temple and the chief priests heard this news they wondered what could be happening.
Act 5:25 Then a man arrived with fresh news. 'Look!' he said, 'the men you imprisoned are in the Temple. They are standing there preaching to the people.'
Act 5:26 The captain went with his men and fetched them -- though not by force, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.
Act 5:27 When they had brought them in to face the Sanhedrin, the high priest demanded an explanation.
Act 5:28 'We gave you a strong warning', he said, 'not to preach in this name, and what have you done? You have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and seem determined to fix the guilt for this man's death on us.'
Act 5:29 In reply Peter and the apostles said, 'Obedience to God comes before obedience to men;
Act 5:30 it was the God of our ancestors who raised up Jesus, whom you executed by hanging on a tree.
Act 5:31 By his own right hand God has now raised him up to be leader and Savior, to give repentance and forgiveness of sins through him to Israel.
Act 5:32 We are witnesses to this, we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.'
Act 5:33 This so infuriated them that they wanted to put them to death.
Act 5:34 One member of the Sanhedrin, however, a Pharisee called Gamaliel, who was a teacher of the Law respected by the whole people, stood up and asked to have the men taken outside for a time.
Act 5:35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin, 'Men of Israel, be careful how you deal with these people.
Act 5:36 Some time ago there arose Theudas. He claimed to be someone important, and collected about four hundred followers; but when he was killed, all his followers scattered and that was the end of them.
Act 5:37 And then there was Judas the Galilean, at the time of the census, who attracted crowds of supporters; but he was killed too, and all his followers dispersed.
Act 5:38 What I suggest, therefore, is that you leave these men alone and let them go. If this enterprise, this movement of theirs, is of human origin it will break up of its own accord;
Act 5:39 but if it does in fact come from God you will be unable to destroy them. Take care not to find yourselves fighting against God.' His advice was accepted;
Act 5:40 and they had the apostles called in, gave orders for them to be flogged, warned them not to speak in the name of Jesus and released them.
Act 5:41 And so they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, glad to have had the honor of suffering humiliation for the sake of the name.
Act 5:42 Every day they went on ceaselessly teaching and proclaiming the good news of Christ Jesus, both in the temple and in private houses.
Act 6:1 About this time, when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenists made a complaint against the Hebrews: in the daily distribution their own widows were being overlooked.
Act 6:2 So the Twelve called a full meeting of the disciples and addressed them, 'It would not be right for us to neglect the word of God so as to give out food;
Act 6:3 you, brothers, must select from among yourselves seven men of good reputation, filled with the Spirit and with wisdom, to whom we can hand over this duty.
Act 6:4 We ourselves will continue to devote ourselves to prayer and to the service of the word.'
Act 6:5 The whole assembly approved of this proposal and elected Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
Act 6:6 They presented these to the apostles, and after prayer they laid their hands on them.
Act 6:7 The word of the Lord continued to spread: the number of disciples in Jerusalem was greatly increased, and a large group of priests made their submission to the faith.
Act 6:8 Stephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people.
Act 6:9 Then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen, and others from Cilicia and Asia.
Act 6:10 They found they could not stand up against him because of his wisdom, and the Spirit that prompted what he said.
Act 6:11 So they procured some men to say, 'We heard him using blasphemous language against Moses and against God.'
Act 6:12 Having turned the people against him as well as the elders and scribes, they took Stephen by surprise, and arrested him and brought him before the Sanhedrin.
Act 6:13 There they put up false witnesses to say, 'This man is always making speeches against this Holy Place and the Law.
Act 6:14 We have heard him say that Jesus, this Nazarene, is going to destroy this Place and alter the traditions that Moses handed down to us.'
Act 6:15 The members of the Sanhedrin all looked intently at Stephen, and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel.
Act 7:1 The high priest asked, 'Is this true?'
Act 7:2 He replied, 'My brothers, my fathers, listen to what I have to say. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham, while he was in Mesopotamia before settling in Haran,
Act 7:3 and said to him, "Leave your country, your kindred and your father's house for this country which I shall show you."
Act 7:4 So he left Chaldaea and settled in Haran; and after his father died God made him leave that place and come to this land where you are living today.
Act 7:5 God did not give him any property in this land or even a foothold, yet he promised to give it to him and after him to his descendants, childless though he was.
Act 7:6 The actual words God used when he spoke to him are that his descendants would be exiles in a land not their own, where they would be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.
Act 7:7 "But I will bring judgement on the nation that enslaves them," God said, "and after this they will leave, and worship me in this place."
Act 7:8 Then he made the covenant of circumcision with him: and so when his son Isaac was born Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day; similarly Isaac circumcised Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.
Act 7:9 'The patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him,
Act 7:10 and rescued him from all his miseries by making him so wise that he won the favor of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who made him governor of Egypt and put him in charge of his household.
Act 7:11 Then a famine set in that caused much suffering throughout Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find nothing to eat.
Act 7:12 When Jacob heard that there were supplies in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there on a first visit;
Act 7:13 and on the second Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Pharaoh came to know his origin.
Act 7:14 Joseph then sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, a total of seventy-five people.
Act 7:15 Jacob went down into Egypt and after he and our ancestors had died there,
Act 7:16 their bodies were brought back to Shechem and buried in the tomb that Abraham had bought for money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
Act 7:17 'As the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had solemnly made to Abraham, our nation in Egypt became very powerful and numerous,
Act 7:18 there came to power in Egypt a new king who had never heard of Joseph.
Act 7:19 He took precautions and wore down our race, forcing our ancestors to expose their babies rather than letting them live.
Act 7:20 It was at this time that Moses was born, a fine child before God. He was looked after for three months in his father's house,
Act 7:21 and after he had been exposed, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up like a son.
Act 7:22 So Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a man with power both in his speech and in his actions.
Act 7:23 'At the age of forty he decided to visit his kinsmen, the Israelites.
Act 7:24 When he saw one of them being ill-treated he went to his defence and rescued the man by killing the Egyptian.
Act 7:25 He thought his brothers would realize that through him God would liberate them, but they did not.
Act 7:26 The next day, when he came across some of them fighting, he tried to reconcile them, and said, "Friends, you are brothers; why are you hurting each other?"
Act 7:27 But the man who was attacking his kinsman pushed him aside, saying, "And who appointed you to be prince over us and judge?
Act 7:28 Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?"
Act 7:29 Moses fled when he heard this and he went to dwell in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.
Act 7:30 'When forty years were fulfilled, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in a flame blazing from a bush that was on fire.
Act 7:31 Moses was amazed by what he saw. As he went nearer to look at it, the voice of the Lord was heard,
Act 7:32 "I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Moses trembled and was afraid to look.
Act 7:33 The Lord said to him, "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
Act 7:34 I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, I have heard them crying for help, and I have come down to rescue them. So come here; I am sending you into Egypt."
Act 7:35 'It was the same Moses that they had disowned when they said, "Who appointed you to be our leader and judge?" whom God sent to be both leader and redeemer through the angel who had appeared to him in the bush.
Act 7:36 It was this man who led them out, after performing miracles and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the desert for forty years.
Act 7:37 It was this Moses who told the sons of Israel, "From among your own brothers God will raise up a prophet like me."
Act 7:38 When they held the assembly in the desert it was he who was with our ancestors and the angel who had spoken to him on Mount Sinai; it was he who was entrusted with words of life to hand on to us.
Act 7:39 This is the man that our ancestors refused to listen to; they pushed him aside, went back to Egypt in their thoughts,
Act 7:40 and said to Aaron, "Make us a god to go at our head; for that Moses, the man who brought us here from Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
Act 7:41 It was then that they made the statue of a calf and offered sacrifice to the idol. They were perfectly happy with something they had made for themselves.
Act 7:42 God turned away from them and abandoned them to the worship of the army of heaven, as scripture says in the book of the prophets: Did you bring me sacrifices and oblations those forty years in the desert, House of Israel?
Act 7:43 No, you carried the tent of Moloch on your shoulders and the star of the god Rephan, the idols you made for yourselves to adore, and so now I am about to drive you into captivity beyond Babylon.
Act 7:44 'While they were in the desert our ancestors possessed the Tent of Testimony that had been constructed according to the instructions God gave Moses, telling him to work to the design he had been shown.
Act 7:45 It was handed down from one ancestor of ours to another until Joshua brought it into the country that had belonged to the nations which were driven out by God before us. Here it stayed until the time of David.
Act 7:46 He won God's favor and asked permission to find a dwelling for the House of Jacob,
Act 7:47 though it was Solomon who actually built a house for God.
Act 7:48 Even so the Most High does not live in a house that human hands have built: for as the prophet says:
Act 7:49 With heaven my throne and earth my footstool, what house could you build me, says the Lord, what place for me to rest,
Act 7:50 when all these things were made by me?
Act 7:51 'You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears. You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.
Act 7:52 Can you name a single prophet your ancestors never persecuted? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Upright One, and now you have become his betrayers, his murderers.
Act 7:53 In spite of being given the Law through angels, you have not kept it.'
Act 7:54 They were infuriated when they heard this, and ground their teeth at him.
Act 7:55 But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God's right hand.
Act 7:56 'Look! I can see heaven thrown open,' he said, 'and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.'
Act 7:57 All the members of the council shouted out and stopped their ears with their hands; then they made a concerted rush at him,
Act 7:58 thrust him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses put down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.
Act 7:59 As they were stoning him, Stephen said in invocation, 'Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.'
Act 7:60 Then he knelt down and said aloud, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them.' And with these words he fell asleep.
Act 8:1 Saul approved of the killing. That day a bitter persecution started against the congregation (ekklesia)in Jerusalem, and everyone except the apostles scattered to the country districts of Judaea and Samaria.
Act 8:2 There were some devout people, however, who buried Stephen and made great mourning for him.
Act 8:3 Saul then began doing great harm to the church; he went from house to house arresting both men and women and sending them to prison.
Act 8:4 Once they had scattered, they went from place to place preaching the good news.
Act 8:5 And Philip went to a Samaritan town and proclaimed the Christ to them.
Act 8:6 The people unanimously welcomed the message Philip preached, because they had heard of the miracles he worked and because they saw them for themselves.
Act 8:7 For unclean spirits came shrieking out of many who were possessed, and several paralytics and cripples were cured.
Act 8:8 As a result there was great rejoicing in that town.
Act 8:9 Now a man called Simon had for some time been practising magic arts in the town and astounded the Samaritan people. He had given it out that he was someone momentous,
Act 8:10 and everyone believed in him; eminent citizens and ordinary people alike had declared, 'He is the divine power that is called Great.'
Act 8:11 He had this following because for a considerable period they had been astounded by his wizardry.
Act 8:12 But when they came to accept Philip's preaching of the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptised, both men and women,
Act 8:13 and even Simon himself became a believer. After his baptism Simon went round constantly with Philip and was astonished when he saw the wonders and great miracles that took place.
Act 8:14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them,
Act 8:15 and they went down there and prayed for them to receive the Holy Spirit,
Act 8:16 for as yet he had not come down on any of them: they had only been baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 8:17 Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Act 8:18 When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money,
Act 8:19 with the words, 'Give me the same power so that anyone I lay my hands on will receive the Holy Spirit.'
Act 8:20 Peter answered, 'May your silver be lost for ever, and you with it, for thinking that money could buy what God has given for nothing!
Act 8:21 You have no share, no part, in this: God can see how your heart is warped.
Act 8:22 Repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that this scheme of yours may be forgiven;
Act 8:23 it is plain to me that you are held in the bitterness of gall and the chains of sin.'
Act 8:24 Simon replied, 'Pray to the Lord for me yourselves so that none of the things you have spoken about may happen to me.'
Act 8:25 Having given their testimony and proclaimed the word of the Lord, they went back to Jerusalem, preaching the good news to a number of Samaritan villages.
Act 8:26 The angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, 'Set out at noon and go along the road that leads from Jerusalem down to Gaza, the desert road.'
Act 8:27 So he set off on his journey. Now an Ethiopian had been on pilgrimage to Jerusalem; he was a eunuch and an officer at the court of the kandake, or queen, of Ethiopia; he was her chief treasurer.
Act 8:28 He was now on his way home; and as he sat in his chariot he was reading the prophet Isaiah.
Act 8:29 The Spirit said to Philip, 'Go up and join that chariot.'
Act 8:30 When Philip ran up, he heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, 'Do you understand what you are reading?'
Act 8:31 He replied, 'How could I, unless I have someone to guide me?' So he urged Philip to get in and sit by his side.
Act 8:32 Now the passage of scripture he was reading was this: Like a lamb led to the slaughter-house, like a sheep dumb in front of its shearers, he never opens his mouth.
Act 8:33 In his humiliation fair judgement was denied him. Who will ever talk about his descendants, since his life on earth has been cut short?
Act 8:34 The eunuch addressed Philip and said, 'Tell me, is the prophet referring to himself or someone else?'
Act 8:35 Starting, therefore, with this text of scripture Philip proceeded to explain the good news of Jesus to him.
Act 8:36 Further along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, 'Look,is some water; is there anything to prevent my being baptised?'
Act 8:37
Act 8:38 He ordered the chariot to stop, then Philip and the eunuch both went down into the water and he baptised him.
Act 8:39 But after they had come up out of the water again Philip was taken away by the Spirit of the Lord, and the eunuch never saw him again but went on his way rejoicing.
Act 8:40 Philip appeared in Azotus and continued his journey, proclaiming the good news in every town as far as Caesarea.
Act 9:1 Meanwhile Saul was still breathing threats to slaughter the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest
Act 9:2 and asked for letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, that would authorise him to arrest and take to Jerusalem any followers of the Way, men or women, that he might find.
Act 9:3 It happened that while he was traveling to Damascus and approaching the city, suddenly a light from heaven shone all round him.
Act 9:4 He fell to the ground, and then he heard a voice saying, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?'
Act 9:5 'Who are you, Lord?' he asked, and the answer came, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Act 9:6 Get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do.'
Act 9:7 The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless, for though they heard the voice they could see no one.
Act 9:8 Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing at all, and they had to lead him into Damascus by the hand.
Act 9:9 For three days he was without his sight and took neither food nor drink.
Act 9:10 There was a disciple in Damascus called Ananias, and he had a vision in which the Lord said to him, 'Ananias!' When he replied, 'Here I am, Lord,'
Act 9:11 the Lord said, 'Get up and go to Straight Street and ask at the house of Judas for someone called Saul, who comes from Tarsus. At this moment he is praying,
Act 9:12 and has seen a man called Ananias coming in and laying hands on him to give him back his sight.'
Act 9:13 But in response, Ananias said, 'Lord, I have heard from many people about this man and all the harm he has been doing to your holy people in Jerusalem.
Act 9:14 He has come here with a warrant from the chief priests to arrest everybody who invokes your name.'
Act 9:15 The Lord replied, 'Go, for this man is my chosen instrument to bring my name before gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel;
Act 9:16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'
Act 9:17 Then Ananias went. He entered the house, and laid his hands on Saul and said, 'Brother Saul, I have been sent by the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, so that you may recover your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.'
Act 9:18 It was as though scales fell away from his eyes and immediately he was able to see again. So he got up and was baptised,
Act 9:19 and after taking some food he regained his strength. After he had spent only a few days with the disciples in Damascus,
Act 9:20 he began preaching in the synagogues, 'Jesus is the Son of God.'
Act 9:21 All his hearers were amazed, and said, 'Surely, this is the man who did such damage in Jerusalem to the people who invoke this name, and who came here for the sole purpose of arresting them to have them tried by the chief priests?'
Act 9:22 Saul's power increased steadily, and he was able to throw the Jewish colony at Damascus into complete confusion by the way he demonstrated that Jesus was the Christ.
Act 9:23 Some time passed, and the Jews worked out a plot to kill him,
Act 9:24 but news of it reached Saul. They were keeping watch at the gates day and night in order to kill him,
Act 9:25 but the disciples took him by night and let him down from the wall, lowering him in a basket.
Act 9:26 When he got to Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him: they could not believe he was really a disciple.
Act 9:27 Barnabas, however, took charge of him, introduced him to the apostles, and explained how the Lord had appeared to him and spoken to him on his journey, and how he had preached fearlessly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
Act 9:28 Saul now started to go round with them in Jerusalem, preaching fearlessly in the name of the Lord.
Act 9:29 But after he had spoken to the Hellenists and argued with them, they became determined to kill him.
Act 9:30 When the brothers got to know of this, they took him to Caesarea and sent him off from there to Tarsus.
Act 9:31 The congregations (ekklesia) throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up and living in the fear of the Lord; encouraged by the Holy Spirit, they continued to grow.
Act 9:32 It happened that Peter visited one place after another and eventually came to God's holy people living down in Lydda.
Act 9:33 There he found a man called Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years.
Act 9:34 Peter said to him, 'Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you: get up and make your bed.' Aeneas got up immediately;
Act 9:35 everybody who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they were converted to the Lord.
Act 9:36 At Jaffa there was a disciple called Tabitha, or in Greek, Dorcas, who never tired of doing good or giving to those in need.
Act 9:37 But it happened that at this time she became ill and died, and they washed her and laid her out in an upper room.
Act 9:38 Lydda is not far from Jaffa, so when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men to urge him, 'Come to us without delay.'
Act 9:39 Peter went back with them immediately, and on his arrival they took him to the upper room, where all the widows stood round him in tears, showing him tunics and other clothes Dorcas had made when she was with them.
Act 9:40 Peter sent everyone out of the room and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to the dead woman and said, 'Tabitha, stand up.' She opened her eyes, looked at Peter and sat up.
Act 9:41 Peter helped her to her feet, then he called in the members of the congregation and widows and showed them she was alive.
Act 9:42 The whole of Jaffa heard about it and many believed in the Lord.
Act 9:43 Peter stayed on some time in Jaffa, lodging with a leather-tanner called Simon.
Act 10:1 One of the centurions of the Italica cohort stationed in Caesarea was called Cornelius.
Act 10:2 He and the whole of his household were devout and God-fearing, and he gave generously to Jewish causes and prayed constantly to God.
Act 10:3 One day at about the ninth hour he had a vision in which he distinctly saw the angel of God come into his house and call out to him, 'Cornelius!'
Act 10:4 He stared at the vision in terror and exclaimed, 'What is it, Lord?' The angel answered, 'Your prayers and charitable gifts have been accepted by God.
Act 10:5 Now you must send some men to Jaffa and fetch a man called Simon, known as Peter,
Act 10:6 who is lodging with Simon the tanner whose house is by the sea.'
Act 10:7 When the angel who said this had gone, Cornelius called two of the slaves and a devout soldier of his staff,
Act 10:8 told them all that had happened, and sent them off to Jaffa.
Act 10:9 Next day, while they were still on their journey and had only a short distance to go before reaching the town, Peter went to the housetop at about the sixth hour to say his prayers.
Act 10:10 He felt hungry and was looking forward to his meal, but before it was ready he fell into a trance
Act 10:11 and saw heaven thrown open and something like a big sheet being let down to earth by its four corners;
Act 10:12 it contained every kind of animal, reptile and bird.
Act 10:13 A voice then said to him, 'Now, Peter, kill and eat!'
Act 10:14 But Peter answered, 'Certainly not, Lord; I have never yet eaten anything profane or unclean.'
Act 10:15 Again, a second time, the voice spoke to him, 'What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane.'
Act 10:16 This was repeated three times, and then suddenly the container was drawn up to heaven again.
Act 10:17 Peter was still at a loss over the meaning of the vision he had seen, when the men sent by Cornelius arrived. They had asked where Simon's house was and they were now standing at the door,
Act 10:18 calling out to know if the Simon known as Peter was lodging there.
Act 10:19 While Peter's mind was still on the vision, the Spirit told him, 'Look! Some men have come to see you.
Act 10:20 Hurry down, and do not hesitate to return with them; it was I who told them to come.'
Act 10:21 Peter went down and said to them, 'I am the man you are looking for; why have you come?'
Act 10:22 They said, 'The centurion Cornelius, who is an upright and God-fearing man, highly regarded by the entire Jewish people, was told by God through a holy angel to send for you and bring you to his house and to listen to what you have to say.'
Act 10:23 So Peter asked them in and gave them lodging. Next day, he was ready to go off with them, accompanied by some of the brothers from Jaffa.
Act 10:24 They reached Caesarea the following day, and Cornelius was waiting for them. He had asked his relations and close friends to be there,
Act 10:25 and as Peter reached the house Cornelius went out to meet him, fell at his feet and did him reverence.
Act 10:26 But Peter helped him up. 'Stand up,' he said, ' after all, I am only a man!'
Act 10:27 Talking together they went in to meet all the people assembled there,
Act 10:28 and Peter said to them, 'You know it is forbidden for Jews to mix with people of another race and visit them; but God has made it clear to me that I must not call anyone profane or unclean.
Act 10:29 That is why I made no objection to coming when I was sent for; but I should like to know exactly why you sent for me.'
Act 10:30 Cornelius replied, 'At this time three days ago I was in my house saying the prayers for the ninth hour, when I suddenly saw a man in front of me in shining robes.
Act 10:31 He said, "Cornelius, your prayer has been heard and your charitable gifts have not been forgotten by God;
Act 10:32 so now you must send to Jaffa and fetch Simon known as Peter who is lodging in the house of Simon the tanner, by the sea."
Act 10:33 So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come. Here we all are, assembled in front of you to hear all the instructions God has given you.'
Act 10:34 Then Peter addressed them, 'I now really understand', he said, 'that God has no favorites,
Act 10:35 but that anybody of any nationality who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
Act 10:36 'God sent his word to the people of Israel, and it was to them that the good news of peace was brought by Jesus Christ -- he is the Lord of all.
Act 10:37 You know what happened all over Judaea, how Jesus of Nazareth began in Galilee, after John had been preaching baptism.
Act 10:38 God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil.
Act 10:39 Now we are witnesses to everything he did throughout the countryside of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and they killed him by hanging him on a tree,
Act 10:40 yet on the third day God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen,
Act 10:41 not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses that God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses -- we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead-
Act 10:42 and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to bear witness that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead.
Act 10:43 It is to him that all the prophets bear this witness: that all who believe in Jesus will have their sins forgiven through his name.'
Act 10:44 While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners.
Act 10:45 Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were all astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit should be poured out on gentiles too,
Act 10:46 since they could hear them speaking strange languages and proclaiming the greatness of God. Peter himself then said,
Act 10:47 'Could anyone refuse the water of baptism to these people, now they have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?'
Act 10:48 He then gave orders for them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterwards they begged him to stay on for some days.
Act 11:1 The apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that gentiles too had accepted the word of God,
Act 11:2 and when Peter came up to Jerusalem the circumcised believers protested to him
Act 11:3 and said, 'So you have been visiting the uncircumcised and eating with them!'
Act 11:4 Peter in reply gave them the details point by point,
Act 11:5 'One day, when I was in the town of Jaffa,' he began, 'I fell into a trance as I was praying and had a vision of something like a big sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners. This sheet came right down beside me.
Act 11:6 I looked carefully into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of heaven.
Act 11:7 Then I heard a voice that said to me, "Now, Peter, kill and eat!"
Act 11:8 But I answered, "Certainly not, Lord; nothing profane or unclean has ever crossed my lips."
Act 11:9 And a second time the voice spoke from heaven, "What God has made clean, you have no right to call profane."
Act 11:10 This was repeated three times, before the whole of it was drawn up to heaven again.
Act 11:11 'Just at that moment, three men stopped outside the house where we were staying; they had been sent from Caesarea to fetch me,
Act 11:12 and the Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going back with them. The six brothers here came with me as well, and we entered the man's house.
Act 11:13 He told us he had seen an angel standing in his house who said, "Send to Jaffa and fetch Simon known as Peter;
Act 11:14 he has a message for you that will save you and your entire household."
Act 11:15 'I had scarcely begun to speak when the Holy Spirit came down on them in the same way as it came on us at the beginning,
Act 11:16 and I remembered that the Lord had said, "John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit."
Act 11:17 I realized then that God was giving them the identical gift he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ; and who was I to stand in God's way?'
Act 11:18 This account satisfied them, and they gave glory to God, saying, 'God has clearly granted to the gentiles too the repentance that leads to life.'
Act 11:19 Those who had scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, but they proclaimed the message only to Jews.
Act 11:20 Some of them, however, who came from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch where they started preaching also to the Greeks, proclaiming the good news of the Lord Jesus to them.
Act 11:21 The Lord helped them, and a great number believed and were converted to the Lord.
Act 11:22 The news of them came to the ears of the congregation (ekklesia)in Jerusalem and they sent Barnabas out to Antioch.
Act 11:23 There he was glad to see for himself that God had given grace, and he urged them all to remain faithful to the Lord with heartfelt devotion;
Act 11:24 for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and with faith. And a large number of people were won over to the Lord.
Act 11:25 Barnabas then left for Tarsus to look for Saul,
Act 11:26 and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. And it happened that they stayed together in that congregation (ekklesia)a whole year, instructing a large number of people. It was at Antioch that the disciples were first called 'Christians'.
Act 11:27 While they were there some prophets came down to Antioch from Jerusalem,
Act 11:28 and one of them whose name was Agabus, seized by the Spirit, stood up and predicted that a severe and universal famine was going to happen. This in fact happened while Claudius was emperor.
Act 11:29 The disciples decided to send relief, each to contribute what he could afford, to the brothers living in Judaea.
Act 11:30 They did this and delivered their contributions to the elders through the agency of Barnabas and Saul.
Act 12:1 It was about this time that King Herod started persecuting certain members of the church.
Act 12:2 He had James the brother of John beheaded,
Act 12:3 and when he saw that this pleased the Jews he went on to arrest Peter as well.
Act 12:4 As it was during the days of Unleavened Bread that he had arrested him, he put him in prison, assigning four sections of four soldiers each to guard him, meaning to try him in public after the Passover.
Act 12:5 All the time Peter was under guard the congregation (ekklesia)prayed to God for him unremittingly.
Act 12:6 On the night before Herod was to try him, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, fastened with two chains, while guards kept watch at the main entrance to the prison.
Act 12:7 Then suddenly an angel of the Lord stood there, and the cell was filled with light. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him. 'Get up!' he said, 'Hurry!' -- and the chains fell from his hands.
Act 12:8 The angel then said, 'Put on your belt and sandals.' After he had done this, the angel next said, 'Wrap your cloak round you and follow me.'
Act 12:9 He followed him out, but had no idea that what the angel did was all happening in reality; he thought he was seeing a vision.
Act 12:10 They passed through the first guard post and then the second and reached the iron gate leading to the city. This opened of its own accord; they went through it and had walked the whole length of one street when suddenly the angel left him.
Act 12:11 It was only then that Peter came to himself. And he said, 'Now I know it is all true. The Lord really did send his angel and save me from Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.'
Act 12:12 As soon as he realized this he went straight to the house of Mary the mother of John Mark, where a number of people had assembled and were praying.
Act 12:13 He knocked at the outside door and a servant called Rhoda came to answer it.
Act 12:14 She recognized Peter's voice and was so overcome with joy that, instead of opening the door, she ran inside with the news that Peter was standing at the main entrance.
Act 12:15 They said to her, 'You are out of your mind,' but she insisted that it was true. Then they said, 'It must be his angel!'
Act 12:16 Peter, meanwhile, was still knocking. When they opened the door, they were amazed to see that it really was Peter himself.
Act 12:17 He raised his hand for silence and described to them how the Lord had led him out of prison. He added, 'Tell James and the brothers.' Then he left and went elsewhere.
Act 12:18 When daylight came there was a great commotion among the soldiers, who could not imagine what had become of Peter.
Act 12:19 Herod put out an unsuccessful search for him; he had the guards questioned, and before leaving Judaea to take up residence in Caesarea he gave orders for their execution.
Act 12:20 Now Herod was on bad terms with the Tyrians and Sidonians. Yet they sent a joint deputation which managed to enlist the support of Blastus, the king's chamberlain, and through him negotiated a treaty, since their country depended for its food supply on the king's territory.
Act 12:21 A day was fixed, and Herod, wearing his robes of state and seated on a throne, began to make a speech to them.
Act 12:22 The people acclaimed him with, 'It is a god speaking, not a man!'
Act 12:23 and at that moment the angel of the Lord struck him down, because he had not given the glory to God. He was eaten away by worms and died.
Act 12:24 The word of God continued to spread and to gain followers.
Act 12:25 Barnabas and Saul completed their task at Jerusalem and came back, bringing John Mark with them.
Act 13:1 In the congregation (ekklesia)at Antioch the following were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
Act 13:2 One day while they were offering worship to the Lord and keeping a fast, the Holy Spirit said, 'I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work to which I have called them.'
Act 13:3 So it was that after fasting and prayer they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
Act 13:4 So these two, sent on their mission by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there set sail for Cyprus.
Act 13:5 They landed at Salamis and proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; John acted as their assistant.
Act 13:6 They travelled the whole length of the island, and at Paphos they came in contact with a Jewish magician and false prophet called Bar-Jesus.
Act 13:7 He was one of the attendants of the proconsul Sergius Paulus, who was an extremely intelligent man. The proconsul summoned Barnabas and Saul and asked to hear the word of God,
Act 13:8 but Elymas the magician (this is what his name means in Greek) tried to stop them so as to prevent the proconsul's conversion to the faith.
Act 13:9 Then Saul, whose other name is Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked at him intently
Act 13:10 and said, 'You utter fraud, you impostor, you son of the devil, you enemy of all uprightness, will you not stop twisting the straightforward ways of the Lord?
Act 13:11 Now watch how the hand of the Lord will strike you: you will be blind, and for a time you will not see the sun.' That instant, everything went misty and dark for him, and he groped about to find someone to lead him by the hand.
Act 13:12 The proconsul, who had watched everything, became a believer, being much struck by what he had learnt about the Lord.
Act 13:13 Paul and his companions went by sea from Paphos to Perga in Pamphylia where John left them to go back to Jerusalem.
Act 13:14 The others carried on from Perga till they reached Antioch in Pisidia. Here they went to synagogue on the Sabbath and took their seats.
Act 13:15 After the passages from the Law and the Prophets had been read, the presidents of the synagogue sent them a message, 'Brothers, if you would like to address some words of encouragement to the congregation, please do so.'
Act 13:16 Paul stood up, raised his hand for silence and began to speak: 'Men of Israel, and fearers of God, listen!
Act 13:17 The God of our nation Israel chose our ancestors and made our people great when they were living in Egypt, a land not their own; then by divine power he led them out
Act 13:18 and for about forty years took care of them in the desert.
Act 13:19 When he had destroyed seven nations in Canaan, he put them in possession of their land
Act 13:20 for about four hundred and fifty years. After this he gave them judges, down to the prophet Samuel.
Act 13:21 Then they demanded a king, and God gave them Saul son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin. After forty years,
Act 13:22 he deposed him and raised up David to be king, whom he attested in these words, "I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who will perform my entire will."
Act 13:23 To keep his promise, God has raised up for Israel one of David's descendants, Jesus, as Savior,
Act 13:24 whose coming was heralded by John when he proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the whole people of Israel.
Act 13:25 Before John ended his course he said, "I am not the one you imagine me to be; there is someone coming after me whose sandal I am not fit to undo."
Act 13:26 'My brothers, sons of Abraham's race, and all you godfearers, this message of salvation is meant for you.
Act 13:27 What the people of Jerusalem and their rulers did, though they did not realize it, was in fact to fulfill the prophecies read on every Sabbath.
Act 13:28 Though they found nothing to justify his execution, they condemned him and asked Pilate to have him put to death.
Act 13:29 When they had carried out everything that scripture foretells about him they took him down from the tree and buried him in a tomb.
Act 13:30 But God raised him from the dead,
Act 13:31 and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem: and it is these same companions of his who are now his witnesses before our people.
Act 13:32 'We have come here to tell you the good news that the promise made to our ancestors has come about.
Act 13:33 God has fulfilled it to their children by raising Jesus from the dead. As scripture says in the psalms: You are my son: today I have fathered you.
Act 13:34 The fact that God raised him from the dead, never to return to corruption, is no more than what he had declared: To you I shall give the holy things promised to David which can be relied upon.
Act 13:35 This is also why it says in another text: You will not allow your Holy One to see corruption.
Act 13:36 Now when David in his own time had served God's purposes he died; he was buried with his ancestors and has certainly seen corruption.
Act 13:37 The one whom God has raised up, however, has not seen corruption.
Act 13:38 'My brothers, I want you to realize that it is through him that forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you. Through him justification from all sins from which the Law of Moses was unable to justify
Act 13:39 is being offered to every believer.
Act 13:40 'So be careful -- or what the prophets say will happen to you.
Act 13:41 Cast your eyes around you, mockers; be amazed, and perish! For I am doing something in your own days that you would never believe if you were told of it.'
Act 13:42 As they left they were urged to continue this preaching the following Sabbath.
Act 13:43 When the meeting broke up many Jews and devout converts followed Paul and Barnabas, and in their talks with them Paul and Barnabas urged them to remain faithful to the grace God had given them.
Act 13:44 The next Sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of God.
Act 13:45 When they saw the crowds, the Jews, filled with jealousy, used blasphemies to contradict everything Paul said.
Act 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. 'We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, here and now we turn to the gentiles.
Act 13:47 For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said: I have made you a light to the nations, so that my salvation may reach the remotest parts of the earth.'
Act 13:48 It made the gentiles very happy to hear this and they gave thanks to the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers.
Act 13:49 Thus the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside.
Act 13:50 But the Jews worked on some of the devout women of the upper classes and the leading men of the city; they stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their territory.
Act 13:51 So they shook the dust from their feet in protest against them and went off to Iconium; but the converts were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
Act 14:1 It happened that at Iconium they went to the Jewish synagogue, in the same way, and they spoke so effectively that a great many Jews and Greeks became believers.
Act 14:2 (However, the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the gentiles against the brothers and set them in opposition.)
Act 14:3 Accordingly Paul and Barnabas stayed on for some time, preaching fearlessly in the Lord; and he attested all they said about his gift of grace, allowing signs and wonders to be performed by them.
Act 14:4 The people in the city were divided; some supported the Jews, others the apostles,
Act 14:5 but eventually with the connivance of the authorities a move was made by gentiles as well as Jews to make attacks on them and to stone them.
Act 14:6 When they came to hear of this, they went off for safety to Lycaonia where, in the towns of Lystra and Derbe and in the surrounding country,
Act 14:7 they preached the good news.
Act 14:8 There was a man sitting there who had never walked in his life, because his feet were crippled from birth;
Act 14:9 he was listening to Paul preaching, and Paul looked at him intently and saw that he had the faith to be cured.
Act 14:10 Paul said in a loud voice, 'Get to your feet-stand up,' and the cripple jumped up and began to walk.
Act 14:11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done they shouted in the language of Lycaonia, 'The gods have come down to us in human form.'
Act 14:12 They addressed Barnabas as Zeus, and since Paul was the principal speaker they called him Hermes.
Act 14:13 The priests of Zeus-outside-the-Gate, proposing that all the people should offer sacrifice with them, brought garlanded oxen to the gates.
Act 14:14 When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard what was happening they tore their clothes, and rushed into the crowd, shouting,
Act 14:15 'Friends, what do you think you are doing? We are only human beings, mortal like yourselves. We have come with good news to make you turn from these empty idols to the living God who made sky and earth and the sea and all that these hold.
Act 14:16 In the past he allowed all the nations to go their own way;
Act 14:17 but even then he did not leave you without evidence of himself in the good things he does for you: he sends you rain from heaven and seasons of fruitfulness; he fills you with food and your hearts with merriment.'
Act 14:18 With this speech they just managed to prevent the crowd from offering them sacrifice.
Act 14:19 Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and turned the people against them. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the town, thinking he was dead.
Act 14:20 The disciples came crowding round him but, as they did so, he stood up and went back to the town. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.
Act 14:21 Having preached the good news in that town and made a considerable number of disciples, they went back through Lystra, Iconium and Antioch.
Act 14:22 They put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith, saying, 'We must all experience many hardships before we enter the kingdom of God.'
Act 14:23 In each of these congregations (ekklesia) they appointed elders, and with prayer and fasting they commended them to the Lord in whom they had come to believe.
Act 14:24 They passed through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia.
Act 14:25 Then after proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia
Act 14:26 and from there sailed for Antioch, where they had originally been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.
Act 14:27 On their arrival they assembled the congregation (ekklesia)and gave an account of all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the gentiles.
Act 14:28 They stayed there with the disciples for some time.
Act 15:1 Then some men came down from Judaea and taught the brothers, 'Unless you have yourselves circumcised in the tradition of Moses you cannot be saved.'
Act 15:2 This led to disagreement, and after Paul and Barnabas had had a long argument with these men it was decided that Paul and Barnabas and others of the congregation (ekklesia)should go up to Jerusalem and discuss the question with the apostles and elders.
Act 15:3 The members of the congregation (ekklesia)saw them off, and as they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria they told how the gentiles had been converted, and this news was received with the greatest satisfaction by all the brothers.
Act 15:4 When they arrived in Jerusalem they were welcomed by the congregation (ekklesia)and by the apostles and elders, and gave an account of all that God had done through them.
Act 15:5 But certain members of the Pharisees' party who had become believers objected, insisting that gentiles should be circumcised and instructed to keep the Law of Moses.
Act 15:6 The apostles and elders met to look into the matter,
Act 15:7 and after a long discussion, Peter stood up and addressed them. 'My brothers,' he said, 'you know perfectly well that in the early days God made his choice among you: the gentiles were to learn the good news from me and so become believers.
Act 15:8 And God, who can read everyone's heart, showed his approval of them by giving the Holy Spirit to them just as he had to us.
Act 15:9 God made no distinction between them and us, since he purified their hearts by faith.
Act 15:10 Why do you put God to the test now by imposing on the disciples the very burden that neither our ancestors nor we ourselves were strong enough to support?
Act 15:11 But we believe that we are saved in the same way as they are: through the grace of the Lord Jesus.'
Act 15:12 The entire assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul describing all the signs and wonders God had worked through them among the gentiles.
Act 15:13 When they had finished it was James who spoke. 'My brothers,' he said, 'listen to me.
Act 15:14 Simeon has described how God first arranged to enlist a people for his name out of the gentiles.
Act 15:15 This is entirely in harmony with the words of the prophets, since the scriptures say:
Act 15:16 After that I shall return and rebuild the fallen hut of David; I shall make good the gaps in it and restore it.
Act 15:17 Then the rest of humanity, and of all the nations once called mine, will look for the Lord, says the Lord who made this
Act 15:18 known so long ago.
Act 15:19 'My verdict is, then, that instead of making things more difficult for gentiles who turn to God,
Act 15:20 we should send them a letter telling them merely to abstain from anything polluted by idols, from illicit marriages, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.
Act 15:21 For Moses has always had his preachers in every town and is read aloud in the synagogues every Sabbath.'
Act 15:22 Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose delegates from among themselves to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas, known as Barsabbas, and Silas, both leading men in the brotherhood,
Act 15:23 and gave them this letter to take with them: 'The apostles and elders, your brothers, send greetings to the brothers of gentile birth in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia.
Act 15:24 We hear that some people coming from here, but acting without any authority from ourselves, have disturbed you with their demands and have unsettled your minds;
Act 15:25 and so we have decided unanimously to elect delegates and to send them to you with our well-beloved Barnabas and Paul,
Act 15:26 who have committed their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Act 15:27 Accordingly we are sending you Judas and Silas, who will confirm by word of mouth what we have written.
Act 15:28 It has been decided by the Holy Spirit and by ourselves not to impose on you any burden beyond these essentials:
Act 15:29 you are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from illicit marriages. Avoid these, and you will do what is right. Farewell.'
Act 15:30 The party left and went down to Antioch, where they summoned the whole community and delivered the letter.
Act 15:31 The community read it and were delighted with the encouragement it gave them.
Act 15:32 Judas and Silas, being themselves prophets, spoke for a long time, encouraging and strengthening the brothers.
Act 15:33 These two spent some time there, and then the brothers wished them peace andwent back to those who had sent them.
Act 15:34
Act 15:35 Paul and Barnabas, however, stayed on in Antioch, and there with many others they taught and proclaimed the good news, the word of the Lord.
Act 15:36 On a later occasion Paul said to Barnabas, 'Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord, so that we can see how they are doing.'
Act 15:37 Barnabas suggested taking John Mark,
Act 15:38 but Paul was not in favor of taking along the man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had refused to share in their work.
Act 15:39 There was sharp disagreement so that they parted company, and Barnabas sailed off with Mark to Cyprus.
Act 15:40 Before Paul left, he chose Silas to accompany him and was commended by the brothers to the grace of God.
Act 15:41 He travelled through Syria and Cilicia, consolidating the congregations (ekklesia).
Act 16:1 From there he went to Derbe, and then on to Lystra, where there was a disciple called Timothy, whose mother was Jewish and had become a believer; but his father was a Greek.
Act 16:2 The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him,
Act 16:3 and Paul, who wanted to have him as a traveling companion, had him circumcised. This was on account of the Jews in the locality where everyone knew his father was a Greek.
Act 16:4 As they visited one town after another, they passed on the decisions reached by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, with instructions to observe them.
Act 16:5 So the congregations (ekklesia) grew strong in the faith, as well as growing daily in numbers.
Act 16:6 They travelled through Phrygia and the Galatian country, because they had been told by the Holy Spirit not to preach the word in Asia.
Act 16:7 When they reached the frontier of Mysia they tried to go into Bithynia, but as the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them,
Act 16:8 they went through Mysia and came down to Troas.
Act 16:9 One night Paul had a vision: a Macedonian appeared and kept urging him in these words, 'Come across to Macedonia and help us.'
Act 16:10 Once he had seen this vision we lost no time in arranging a passage to Macedonia, convinced that God had called us to bring them the good news.
Act 16:11 Sailing from Troas we made a straight run for Samothrace; the next day for Neapolis,
Act 16:12 and from there for Philippi, a Roman colony and the principal city of that district of Macedonia.
Act 16:13 After a few days in this city we went outside the gates beside a river as it was the Sabbath and this was a customary place for prayer. We sat down and preached to the women who had come to the meeting.
Act 16:14 One of these women was called Lydia, a woman from the town of Thyatira who was in the purple-dye trade, and who revered God. She listened to us, and the Lord opened her heart to accept what Paul was saying.
Act 16:15 After she and her household had been baptised she kept urging us, 'If you judge me a true believer in the Lord,' she said, 'come and stay with us.' And she would take no refusal.
Act 16:16 It happened one day that as we were going to prayer, we were met by a slave-girl who was a soothsayer and made a lot of money for her masters by foretelling the future.
Act 16:17 This girl started following Paul and the rest of us and shouting, 'Here are the servants of the Most High God; they have come to tell you how to be saved!'
Act 16:18 She did this day after day until Paul was exasperated and turned round and said to the spirit, 'I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to leave that woman.' The spirit went out of her then and there.
Act 16:19 When her masters saw that there was no hope of making any more money out of her, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities.
Act 16:20 Taking them before the magistrates they said, 'These people are causing a disturbance in our city. They are Jews
Act 16:21 and are advocating practices which it is unlawful for us as Romans to accept or follow.'
Act 16:22 The crowd joined in and showed its hostility to them, so the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be flogged.
Act 16:23 They were given many lashes and then thrown into prison, and the gaoler was told to keep a close watch on them.
Act 16:24 So, following such instructions, he threw them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
Act 16:25 In the middle of the night Paul and Silas were praying and singing God's praises, while the other prisoners listened.
Act 16:26 Suddenly there was an earthquake that shook the prison to its foundations. All the doors flew open and the chains fell from all the prisoners.
Act 16:27 When the gaoler woke and saw the doors wide open he drew his sword and was about to commit suicide, presuming that the prisoners had escaped.
Act 16:28 But Paul shouted at the top of his voice, 'Do yourself no harm; we are all here.'
Act 16:29 He called for lights, then rushed in, threw himself trembling at the feet of Paul and Silas,
Act 16:30 and escorted them out, saying, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?'
Act 16:31 They told him, 'Become a believer in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, and your household too.'
Act 16:32 Then they preached the word of the Lord to him and to all his household.
Act 16:33 Late as it was, he took them to wash their wounds, and was baptised then and there with all his household.
Act 16:34 Afterwards he took them into his house and gave them a meal, and the whole household celebrated their conversion to belief in God.
Act 16:35 When it was daylight the magistrates sent the lictors with the order: 'Release those men.'
Act 16:36 The gaoler reported the message to Paul, 'The magistrates have sent an order for your release; you can go now and be on your way.'
Act 16:37 'What!' Paul replied. 'Without trial they gave us a public flogging, though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison, and now they want to send us away on the quiet! Oh no! They must come and escort us out themselves.'
Act 16:38 The lictors reported this to the magistrates, who were terrified when they heard they were Roman citizens.
Act 16:39 They came and urged them to leave the town.
Act 16:40 From the prison they went to Lydia's house where they saw all the brothers and gave them some encouragement; then they left.
Act 17:1 Passing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they eventually reached Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
Act 17:2 Paul as usual went in and for three consecutive Sabbaths developed the arguments from scripture for them,
Act 17:3 explaining and proving how it was ordained that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead. 'And the Christ', he said, 'is this Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.'
Act 17:4 Some of them were convinced and joined Paul and Silas, and so did a great many godfearing people and Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.
Act 17:5 The Jews, full of resentment, enlisted the help of a gang from the market place, stirred up a crowd, and soon had the whole city in an uproar. They made for Jason's house, hoping to bring them before the People's Assembly;
Act 17:6 however, they found only Jason and some of the brothers, and these they dragged before the city council, shouting, 'The people who have been turning the whole world upside down have come here now;
Act 17:7 they have been staying at Jason's. They have broken Caesar's edicts by claiming that there is another king, Jesus.'
Act 17:8 Hearing this, the citizens and the city councillors were alarmed,
Act 17:9 and they made Jason and the rest give security before setting them free.
Act 17:10 When it was dark the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away to Beroea, where they went to the Jewish synagogue as soon as they arrived.
Act 17:11 Here the Jews were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they welcomed the word very readily; every day they studied the scriptures to check whether it was true.
Act 17:12 Many of them became believers, and so did many Greek women of high standing and a number of the men.
Act 17:13 When the Jews of Thessalonica came to learn that the word of God was being preached by Paul in Beroea as well, they went there to make trouble and stir up the people.
Act 17:14 So the brothers arranged for Paul to go immediately as far as the coast, leaving Silas and Timothy behind.
Act 17:15 Paul's escort took him as far as Athens, and went back with instructions for Silas and Timothy to rejoin Paul as soon as they could.
Act 17:16 Paul waited for them in Athens and there his whole soul was revolted at the sight of a city given over to idolatry.
Act 17:17 In the synagogue he debated with the Jews and the godfearing, and in the market place he debated every day with anyone whom he met.
Act 17:18 Even a few Epicurean and Stoic philosophers argued with him. Some said, 'What can this parrot mean?' And, because he was preaching about Jesus and Resurrection, others said, 'He seems to be a propagandist for some outlandish gods.'
Act 17:19 They got him to accompany them to the Areopagus, where they said to him, 'Can we know what this new doctrine is that you are teaching?
Act 17:20 Some of the things you say seemed startling to us and we would like to find out what they mean.'
Act 17:21 The one amusement the Athenians and the foreigners living there seem to have is to discuss and listen to the latest ideas.
Act 17:22 So Paul stood before the whole council of the Areopagus and made this speech: 'Men of Athens, I have seen for myself how extremely scrupulous you are in all religious matters,
Act 17:23 because, as I strolled round looking at your sacred monuments, I noticed among other things an altar inscribed: To An Unknown God. In fact, the unknown God you revere is the one I proclaim to you.
Act 17:24 'Since the God who made the world and everything in it is himself Lord of heaven and earth, he does not make his home in shrines made by human hands.
Act 17:25 Nor is he in need of anything, that he should be served by human hands; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything -- including life and breath -- to everyone.
Act 17:26 From one single principle he not only created the whole human race so that they could occupy the entire earth, but he decreed the times and limits of their habitation.
Act 17:27 And he did this so that they might seek the deity and, by feeling their way towards him, succeed in finding him; and indeed he is not far from any of us,
Act 17:28 since it is in him that we live, and move, and exist, as indeed some of your own writers have said: We are all his children.
Act 17:29 'Since we are the children of God, we have no excuse for thinking that the deity looks like anything in gold, silver or stone that has been carved and designed by a man.
Act 17:30 'But now, overlooking the times of ignorance, God is telling everyone everywhere that they must repent,
Act 17:31 because he has fixed a day when the whole world will be judged in uprightness by a man he has appointed. And God has publicly proved this by raising him from the dead.'
Act 17:32 At this mention of rising from the dead, some of them burst out laughing; others said, 'We would like to hear you talk about this another time.'
Act 17:33 After that Paul left them,
Act 17:34 but there were some who attached themselves to him and became believers, among them Dionysius the Aeropagite and a woman called Damaris, and others besides.
Act 18:1 After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth,
Act 18:2 where he met a Jew called Aquila whose family came from Pontus. He and his wife Priscilla had recently left Italy because an edict of Claudius had expelled all the Jews from Rome. Paul went to visit them,
Act 18:3 and when he found they were tentmakers, of the same trade as himself, he lodged with them, and they worked together.
Act 18:4 Every Sabbath he used to hold debates in the synagogues, trying to convert Jews as well as Greeks.
Act 18:5 After Silas and Timothy had arrived from Macedonia, Paul devoted all his time to preaching, declaring to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
Act 18:6 When they turned against him and started to insult him, he took his cloak and shook it out in front of them, saying, 'Your blood be on your own heads; from now on I will go to the gentiles with a clear conscience.'
Act 18:7 Then he left the synagogue and moved to the house next door that belonged to a worshipper of God called Justus.
Act 18:8 Crispus, president of the synagogue, and his whole household, all became believers in the Lord. Many Corinthians when they heard this became believers and were baptised.
Act 18:9 One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision, 'Be fearless; speak out and do not keep silence:
Act 18:10 I am with you. I have so many people that belong to me in this city that no one will attempt to hurt you.'
Act 18:11 So Paul stayed there preaching the word of God among them for eighteen months.
Act 18:12 But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a concerted attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying,
Act 18:13 'We accuse this man of persuading people to worship God in a way that breaks the Law.'
Act 18:14 Before Paul could open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, 'Listen, you Jews. If this were a misdemeanour or a crime, it would be in order for me to listen to your plea;
Act 18:15 but if it is only quibbles about words and names, and about your own Law, then you must deal with it yourselves -- I have no intention of making legal decisions about these things.'
Act 18:16 Then he began to hustle them out of the court,
Act 18:17 and at once they all turned on Sosthenes, the synagogue president, and beat him in front of the tribunal. Gallio refused to take any notice at all.
Act 18:18 After staying on for some time, Paul took leave of the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila. At Cenchreae he had his hair cut off, because of a vow he had made.
Act 18:19 When they reached Ephesus, he left them, but first he went alone to the synagogue to debate with the Jews.
Act 18:20 They asked him to stay longer, but he declined,
Act 18:21 though when he took his leave he said, 'I will come back another time, God willing.' Then he sailed from Ephesus.
Act 18:22 He landed at Caesarea and went up to greet the church. Then he came down to Antioch
Act 18:23 where he spent a short time before continuing his journey through the Galatian country and then through Phrygia, encouraging all the followers.
Act 18:24 An Alexandrian Jew named Apollos now arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, with a sound knowledge of the scriptures, and yet,
Act 18:25 though he had been given instruction in the Way of the Lord and preached with great spiritual fervour and was accurate in all the details he taught about Jesus, he had experienced only the baptism of John.
Act 18:26 He began to teach fearlessly in the synagogue and, when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they attached themselves to him and gave him more detailed instruction about the Way.
Act 18:27 When Apollos thought of crossing over to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote asking the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived there he was able by God's grace to help the believers considerably
Act 18:28 by the energetic way he refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
Act 19:1 It happened that while Apollos was in Corinth, Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples.
Act 19:2 When he asked, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?' they answered, 'No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.'
Act 19:3 He asked, 'Then how were you baptised?' They replied, 'With John's baptism.'
Act 19:4 Paul said, 'John's baptism was a baptism of repentance; but he insisted that the people should believe in the one who was to come after him -- namely Jesus.'
Act 19:5 When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus,
Act 19:6 and the moment Paul had laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on them, and they began to speak with tongues and to prophesy.
Act 19:7 There were about twelve of these men in all.
Act 19:8 He began by going to the synagogue, where he spoke out fearlessly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. He did this for three months,
Act 19:9 till the attitude of some of the congregation hardened into unbelief. As soon as they began attacking the Way in public, he broke with them and took his disciples apart to hold daily discussions in the lecture room of Tyrannus.
Act 19:10 This went on for two years, with the result that all the inhabitants of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, were able to hear the word of the Lord.
Act 19:11 So remarkable were the miracles worked by God at Paul's hands
Act 19:12 that handkerchiefs or aprons which had touched him were taken to the sick, and they were cured of their illnesses, and the evil spirits came out of them.
Act 19:13 But some itinerant Jewish exorcists too tried pronouncing the name of the Lord Jesus over people who were possessed by evil spirits; they used to say, 'I adjure you by the Jesus whose spokesman is Paul.'
Act 19:14 Among those who did this were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest.
Act 19:15 The evil spirit replied, 'Jesus I recognize, and Paul I know, but who are you?'
Act 19:16 and the man with the evil spirit hurled himself at them and overpowered first one and then another, and handled them so violently that they fled from that house stripped of clothing and badly mauled.
Act 19:17 Everybody in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, heard about this episode; everyone was filled with awe, and the name of the Lord Jesus came to be held in great honor.
Act 19:18 Some believers, too, came forward to admit in detail how they had used spells
Act 19:19 and a number of them who had practised magic collected their books and made a bonfire of them in public. The value of these was calculated to be fifty thousand silver pieces.
Act 19:20 In this powerful way the word of the Lord spread more and more widely and successfully.
Act 19:21 When all this was over Paul made up his mind to go back to Jerusalem through Macedonia and Achaia. 'After I have been there,' he said, 'I must go on to see Rome as well.'
Act 19:22 So he sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, ahead of him to Macedonia, while he remained for a time in Asia.
Act 19:23 It was during this time that a serious disturbance broke out in connection with the Way.
Act 19:24 A silversmith called Demetrius, who provided work for a large number of craftsmen making silver shrines of Diana,
Act 19:25 called a general meeting of them with others in the same trade. 'As you know,' he said, 'it is on this industry that we depend for our prosperity.
Act 19:26 Now you must have seen and heard how, not just in Ephesus but nearly everywhere in Asia, this man Paul has persuaded and converted a great number of people with his argument that gods made by hand are not gods at all.
Act 19:27 This threatens not only to discredit our trade, but also to reduce the sanctuary of the great goddess Diana to unimportance. It could end up by taking away the prestige of a goddess venerated all over Asia, and indeed all over the world.'
Act 19:28 This speech roused them to fury, and they started to shout, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!'
Act 19:29 The whole town was filled with the uproar and the mob made a concerted rush to the theatre, dragging along two of Paul's Macedonian traveling companions, Gaius and Aristarchus.
Act 19:30 Paul wanted to make an appeal to the people, but the disciples refused to let him;
Act 19:31 in fact, some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, sent messages urging him not to take the risk of going into the theatre.
Act 19:32 By now everybody was shouting different things, till the assembly itself had no idea what was going on; most of them did not even know why they had gathered together.
Act 19:33 Some of the crowd prevailed upon Alexander, whom the Jews pushed forward; he raised his hand for silence with the intention of explaining things to the people.
Act 19:34 As soon as they realized he was a Jew, they all started shouting in unison, 'Great is Diana of the Ephesians!' and they kept this up for two hours.
Act 19:35 When the town clerk eventually succeeded in calming the crowd, he said, 'Citizens of Ephesus! Is there anybody who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is the guardian of the temple of great Diana and of her statue that fell from heaven?
Act 19:36 Nobody can contradict this and there is no need for you to get excited or do anything rash.
Act 19:37 These men you have brought here are not guilty of any sacrilege or blasphemy against our goddess.
Act 19:38 If Demetrius and the craftsmen he has with him want to complain about anyone, there are the assizes and the proconsuls; let them take the case to court.
Act 19:39 And if you want to ask any more questions you must raise them in the regular assembly.
Act 19:40 We could easily be charged with rioting for today's happenings: there is no ground for it all, and we can give no justification for this gathering.' When he had finished this speech he dismissed the assembly.
Act 20:1 When the disturbance was over, Paul sent for the disciples and, after speaking words of encouragement to them, said good -- bye and set out for Macedonia.
Act 20:2 On his way through those areas he said many words of encouragement to them and then made his way into Greece,
Act 20:3 where he spent three months. He was leaving by ship for Syria when a plot organised against him by the Jews made him decide to go back by way of Macedonia.
Act 20:4 He was accompanied by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, who came from Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus who came from Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe, and Timothy, as well as Tychicus and Trophimus who were from Asia.
Act 20:5 They all went on to Troas where they waited for us.
Act 20:6 We ourselves left Philippi by ship after the days of Unleavened Bread and joined them five days later at Troas, where we stayed for a week.
Act 20:7 On the first day of the week we met for the breaking of bread. Paul was due to leave the next day, and he preached a sermon that went on till the middle of the night.
Act 20:8 A number of lamps were lit in the upstairs room where we were assembled,
Act 20:9 and as Paul went on and on, a young man called Eutychus who was sitting on the window-sill grew drowsy and was overcome by sleep and fell to the ground three floors below. He was picked up dead.
Act 20:10 Paul went down and stooped to clasp the boy to him, saying, 'There is no need to worry, there is still life in him.'
Act 20:11 Then he went back upstairs where he broke the bread and ate and carried on talking till he left at daybreak.
Act 20:12 They took the boy away alive, and were greatly encouraged.
Act 20:13 We were now to go on ahead by sea, so we set sail for Assos, where we were to take Paul on board; this was what he had arranged, for he wanted to go overland.
Act 20:14 When he rejoined us at Assos we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.
Act 20:15 The next day we sailed from there and arrived opposite Chios. The second day we touched at Samos and, after stopping at Trogyllium, made Miletus the next day.
Act 20:16 Paul had decided to pass wide of Ephesus so as to avoid spending time in Asia, since he was anxious to be in Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost.
Act 20:17 From Miletus he sent for the elders of the congregation (ekklesia)of Ephesus.
Act 20:18 When they arrived he addressed these words to them: 'You know what my way of life has been ever since the first day I set foot among you in Asia,
Act 20:19 how I have served the Lord in all humility, with all the sorrows and trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews.
Act 20:20 I have not hesitated to do anything that would be helpful to you; I have preached to you and instructed you both in public and in your homes,
Act 20:21 urging both Jews and Greeks to turn to God and to believe in our Lord Jesus.
Act 20:22 'And now you see me on my way to Jerusalem in captivity to the Spirit; I have no idea what will happen to me there,
Act 20:23 except that the Holy Spirit, in town after town, has made it clear to me that imprisonment and persecution await me.
Act 20:24 But I do not place any value on my own life, provided that I complete the mission the Lord Jesus gave me -- to bear witness to the good news of God's grace.
Act 20:25 'I now feel sure that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will ever see my face again.
Act 20:26 And so on this very day I swear that my conscience is clear as far as all of you are concerned,
Act 20:27 for I have without faltering put before you the whole of God's purpose.
Act 20:28 'Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the guardians, to feed the congregation (ekklesia)of God which he bought with the blood of his own Son.
Act 20:29 'I know quite well that when I have gone fierce wolves will invade you and will have no mercy on the flock.
Act 20:30 Even from your own ranks there will be men coming forward with a travesty of the truth on their lips to induce the disciples to follow them.
Act 20:31 So be on your guard, remembering how night and day for three years I never slackened in counselling each one of you with tears.
Act 20:32 And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace that has power to build you up and to give you your inheritance among all the sanctified.
Act 20:33 'I have never asked anyone for money or clothes;
Act 20:34 you know for yourselves that these hands of mine earned enough to meet my needs and those of my companions.
Act 20:35 By every means I have shown you that we must exert ourselves in this way to support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who himself said, "There is more happiness in giving than in receiving." '
Act 20:36 When he had finished speaking he knelt down with them all and prayed.
Act 20:37 By now they were all in tears; they put their arms round Paul's neck and kissed him;
Act 20:38 what saddened them most was his saying they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship.
Act 21:1 When we had at last torn ourselves away from them and put to sea, we set a straight course and arrived at Cos; the next day we reached Rhodes, and from there went on to Patara.
Act 21:2 Here we found a ship bound for Phoenicia, so we went on board and sailed in her.
Act 21:3 After sighting Cyprus and leaving it to port, we sailed to Syria and put in at Tyre, since the ship was to unload her cargo there.
Act 21:4 We sought out the disciples and stayed there a week. Speaking in the Spirit, they kept telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem,
Act 21:5 but when our time was up we set off. Together with the women and children they all escorted us on our way till we were out of the town. When we reached the beach, we knelt down and prayed;
Act 21:6 then, after saying good -- bye to each other, we went aboard and they returned home.
Act 21:7 The end of our voyage from Tyre came when we landed at Ptolemais, where we greeted the brothers and stayed one day with them.
Act 21:8 The next day we left and came to Caesarea. Here we called on Philip the evangelist, one of the Seven, and stayed with him.
Act 21:9 He had four unmarried daughters who were prophets.
Act 21:10 When we had been there several days a prophet called Agabus arrived from Judaea.
Act 21:11 He came up to us, took Paul's belt and tied up his own feet and hands, and said, 'This is what the Holy Spirit says, "The man to whom this girdle belongs will be tied up like this by the Jews in Jerusalem and handed over to the gentiles." '
Act 21:12 When we heard this, we and all the local people urged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
Act 21:13 To this he replied, 'What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For my part, I am ready not only to be bound but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.'
Act 21:14 And so, as he would not be persuaded, we gave up the attempt, saying, 'The Lord's will be done.'
Act 21:15 After this we made our preparations and went on up to Jerusalem.
Act 21:16 Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and took us to the house of a Cypriot with whom we were to lodge; he was called Mnason and had been one of the earliest disciples.
Act 21:17 On our arrival in Jerusalem the brothers gave us a very warm welcome.
Act 21:18 The next day Paul went with us to visit James, and all the elders were present.
Act 21:19 After greeting them he gave a detailed account of all that God had done among the gentiles through his ministry.
Act 21:20 They gave glory to God when they heard this. Then they said, 'You see, brother, how thousands of Jews have now become believers, all of them staunch upholders of the Law;
Act 21:21 and what they have heard about you is that you instruct all Jews living among the gentiles to break away from Moses, authorising them not to circumcise their children or to follow the customary practices.
Act 21:22 What is to be done? A crowd is sure to gather, for they will hear that you have come.
Act 21:23 So this is what we suggest that you should do; we have four men here who are under a vow;
Act 21:24 take these men along and be purified with them and pay all the expenses connected with the shaving of their heads. This will let everyone know there is no truth in the reports they have heard about you, and that you too observe the Law by your way of life.
Act 21:25 About the gentiles who have become believers, we have written giving them our decision that they must abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from illicit marriages.'
Act 21:26 So the next day Paul took the men along and was purified with them, and he visited the Temple to give notice of the time when the period of purification would be over and the offering would have to be presented on behalf of each of them.
Act 21:27 The seven days were nearly over when some Jews from Asia caught sight of him in the Temple and stirred up the crowd and seized him,
Act 21:28 shouting, 'Men of Israel, help! This is the man who preaches to everyone everywhere against our people, against the Law and against this place. He has even profaned this Holy Place by bringing Greeks into the Temple.'
Act 21:29 They had, in fact, previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him and thought that Paul had brought him into the Temple.
Act 21:30 This roused the whole city; people came running from all sides; they seized Paul and dragged him out of the Temple, and the gates were closed behind them.
Act 21:31 While they were setting about killing him, word reached the tribune of the cohort that there was tumult all over Jerusalem.
Act 21:32 He immediately called out soldiers and centurions and charged down on the crowd, who stopped beating Paul when they saw the tribune and the soldiers.
Act 21:33 When the tribune came up he took Paul into custody, had him bound with two chains and enquired who he was and what he had done.
Act 21:34 People in the crowd called out different things, and since the noise made it impossible for him to get any positive information, the tribune ordered Paul to be taken into the fortress.
Act 21:35 When Paul reached the steps, the crowd became so violent that he had to be carried by the soldiers;
Act 21:36 and indeed the whole mob was after them, shouting, 'Do away with him!'
Act 21:37 Just as Paul was being taken into the fortress, he asked the tribune if he could have a word with him. The tribune said, 'You speak Greek, then?
Act 21:38 Aren't you the Egyptian who started the recent revolt and led those four thousand cut-throats out into the desert?'
Act 21:39 'I?' said Paul, 'I am a Jew and a citizen of the well-known city of Tarsus in Cilicia. Please give me permission to speak to the people.'
Act 21:40 The man gave his consent and Paul, standing at the top of the steps, raised his hand to the people for silence. A profound silence followed, and he started speaking to them in Hebrew.
Act 22:1 'My brothers, my fathers, listen to what I have to say to you in my defence.'
Act 22:2 When they realized he was speaking in Hebrew, the silence was even greater than before.
Act 22:3 'I am a Jew', Paul said, 'and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia. I was brought up here in this city. It was under Gamaliel that I studied and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you all are today.
Act 22:4 I even persecuted this Way to the death and sent women as well as men to prison in chains
Act 22:5 as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify. I even received letters from them to the brothers in Damascus, which I took with me when I set off to bring prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.
Act 22:6 'It happened that I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when in the middle of the day a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me.
Act 22:7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
Act 22:8 I answered, "Who are you, Lord?" and he said to me, "I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting."
Act 22:9 The people with me saw the light but did not hear the voice which spoke to me.
Act 22:10 I said, "What am I to do, Lord?" The Lord answered, "Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do."
Act 22:11 Since the light had been so dazzling that I was blind, I got to Damascus only because my companions led me by the hand.
Act 22:12 'Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there,
Act 22:13 came to see me; he stood beside me and said, "Brother Saul, receive your sight." Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him.
Act 22:14 Then he said, "The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Upright One and hear his own voice speaking,
Act 22:15 because you are to be his witness before all humanity, testifying to what you have seen and heard.
Act 22:16 And now why delay? Hurry and be baptised and wash away your sins, calling on his name."
Act 22:17 'It happened that, when I got back to Jerusalem, and was praying in the Temple, I fell into a trance
Act 22:18 and then I saw him. "Hurry," he said, "leave Jerusalem at once; they will not accept the testimony you are giving about me."
Act 22:19 "Lord," I answered, "they know that I used to go from synagogue to synagogue, imprisoning and flogging those who believed in you;
Act 22:20 and that when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I, too, was standing by, in full agreement with his murderers, and in charge of their clothes."
Act 22:21 Then he said to me, "Go! I am sending you out to the gentiles far away." '
Act 22:22 So far they had listened to him, but at these words they began to shout, 'Rid the earth of the man! He is not fit to live!'
Act 22:23 They were yelling, waving their cloaks and throwing dust into the air,
Act 22:24 and so the tribune had him brought into the fortress and ordered him to be examined under the lash, to find out the reason for the outcry against him.
Act 22:25 But when they had strapped him down Paul said to the centurion on duty, 'Is it legal for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and has not been brought to trial?'
Act 22:26 When he heard this the centurion went and told the tribune; 'Do you realize what you are doing?' he said. 'This man is a Roman citizen.'
Act 22:27 So the tribune came and asked him, 'Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?' Paul answered 'Yes'.
Act 22:28 To this the tribune replied, 'It cost me a large sum to acquire this citizenship.' 'But I was born to it,' said Paul.
Act 22:29 Then those who were about to examine him hurriedly withdrew, and the tribune himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put a Roman citizen in chains.
Act 22:30 The next day, since he wanted to know for sure what charge the Jews were bringing, he freed Paul and gave orders for a meeting of the chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin; then he brought Paul down and set him in front of them.
Act 23:1 Paul looked steadily at the Sanhedrin and began to speak, 'My brothers, to this day I have conducted myself before God with a perfectly clear conscience.'
Act 23:2 At this the high priest Ananias ordered his attendants to strike him on the mouth.
Act 23:3 Then Paul said to him, 'God will surely strike you, you whitewashed wall! How can you sit there to judge me according to the Law, and then break the Law by ordering a man to strike me?'
Act 23:4 The attendants said, 'Are you insulting the high priest of God?
Act 23:5 Paul answered, 'Brothers, I did not realize it was the high priest; certainly scripture says, "You will not curse your people's leader." '
Act 23:6 Now Paul was well aware that one party was made up of Sadducees and the other of Pharisees, so he called out in the Sanhedrin, 'Brothers, I am a Pharisee and the son of Pharisees. It is for our hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.'
Act 23:7 As soon as he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was split between the two parties.
Act 23:8 For the Sadducees say there is neither resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, while the Pharisees accept all three.
Act 23:9 The shouting grew louder, and some of the scribes from the Pharisees' party stood up and protested strongly, 'We find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit has spoken to him, or an angel?'
Act 23:10 Feeling was running high, and the tribune, afraid that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered his troops to go down and haul him out and bring him into the fortress.
Act 23:11 Next night, the Lord appeared to him and said, 'Courage! You have borne witness for me in Jerusalem, now you must do the same in Rome.'
Act 23:12 When it was day, the Jews held a secret meeting at which they made a vow not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.
Act 23:13 More than forty of them entered this pact,
Act 23:14 and they went to the chief priests and elders and told them, 'We have made a solemn vow to let nothing pass our lips until we have killed Paul.
Act 23:15 Now it is up to you and the Sanhedrin together to apply to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you meant to examine his case more closely; we, on our side, are prepared to dispose of him before he reaches you.'
Act 23:16 But the son of Paul's sister heard of the ambush they were laying and made his way into the fortress and told Paul,
Act 23:17 who called one of the centurions and said, 'Take this young man to the tribune; he has something to tell him.'
Act 23:18 So the man took him to the tribune, and reported, 'The prisoner Paul summoned me and requested me to bring this young man to you; he has something to tell you.'
Act 23:19 Then the tribune took him by the hand and drew him aside and questioned him in private, 'What is it you have to tell me?'
Act 23:20 He replied, 'The Jews have made a plan to ask you to take Paul down to the Sanhedrin tomorrow, as though they meant to enquire more closely into his case.
Act 23:21 Do not believe them. There are more than forty of them lying in wait for him, and they have vowed not to eat or drink until they have got rid of him. They are ready now and only waiting for your order to be given.'
Act 23:22 The tribune let the young man go with this order, 'Tell no one that you have given me this information.'
Act 23:23 Then he summoned two of the centurions and said, 'Get two hundred soldiers ready to leave for Caesarea by the third hour of the night with seventy cavalry and two hundred auxiliaries;
Act 23:24 provide horses for Paul, and deliver him unharmed to Felix the governor.'
Act 23:25 He also wrote a letter in these terms:
Act 23:26 'Claudius Lysias to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings.
Act 23:27 This man had been seized by the Jews and would have been murdered by them; but I came on the scene with my troops and got him away, having discovered that he was a Roman citizen.
Act 23:28 Wanting to find out what charge they were making against him, I brought him before their Sanhedrin.
Act 23:29 I found that the accusation concerned disputed points of their Law, but that there was no charge deserving death or imprisonment.
Act 23:30 Acting on information that there was a conspiracy against the man, I hasten to send him to you, and have notified his accusers that they must state their case against him in your presence.'
Act 23:31 The soldiers carried out their orders; they took Paul and escorted him by night to Antipatris.
Act 23:32 Next day they left the mounted escort to go on with him and returned to the fortress.
Act 23:33 On arriving at Caesarea the escort delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him.
Act 23:34 When he had read it, he asked Paul what province he came from. Learning that he was from Cilicia he said,
Act 23:35 'I will hear your case as soon as your accusers are here too.' Then he ordered him to be held in Herod's praetorium.
Act 24:1 Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some of the elders and an advocate named Tertullus, and they laid information against Paul before the governor.
Act 24:2 Paul was called, and Tertullus opened for the prosecution, 'Your Excellency, Felix, the unbroken peace we enjoy and the reforms this nation owes to your foresight
Act 24:3 are matters we accept, always and everywhere, with all gratitude.
Act 24:4 I do not want to take up too much of your time, but I urge you in your graciousness to give us a brief hearing.
Act 24:5 We have found this man a perfect pest; he stirs up trouble among Jews the world over and is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect.
Act 24:6 He has even attempted to profane the Temple. We placed him under arrest.
Act 24:7 'I know that you have administered justice over this nation for many years, and I can therefore speak with confidence in my defence.
Act 24:8 If you ask him you can find out for yourself the truth of all our accusations against this man.'
Act 24:9 The Jews supported him, asserting that these were the facts.
Act 24:10 When the governor motioned him to speak, Paul answered:
Act 24:11 As you can verify for yourself, it is no more than twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem on pilgrimage,
Act 24:12 and it is not true that they ever found me arguing with anyone or stirring up the mob, either in the Temple, in the synagogues, or about the town;
Act 24:13 neither can they give you any proof of the accusations they are making against me now.
Act 24:14 'What I do admit to you is this: it is according to the Way, which they describe as a sect, that I worship the God of my ancestors, retaining my belief in all points of the Law and in what is written in the prophets;
Act 24:15 and I hold the same hope in God as they do that there will be a resurrection of the upright and the wicked alike.
Act 24:16 In these things, I, as much as they, do my best to keep a clear conscience at all times before God and everyone.
Act 24:17 'After several years I came to bring relief-money to my nation and to make offerings;
Act 24:18 it was in connection with these that they found me in the Temple; I had been purified, and there was no crowd involved, and no disturbance.
Act 24:19 But some Jews from Asia -- these are the ones who should have appeared before you and accused me of whatever they had against me.
Act 24:20 At least let those who are present say what crime they held against me when I stood before the Sanhedrin,
Act 24:21 unless it were to do with this single claim, when I stood up among them and called out, "It is about the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today." '
Act 24:22 At this, Felix, who was fairly well informed about the Way, adjourned the case, saying, 'When Lysias the tribune comes down I will give judgement about your case.'
Act 24:23 He then gave orders to the centurion that Paul should be kept under arrest but free from restriction, and that none of his own people should be prevented from seeing to his needs.
Act 24:24 Some days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and gave him a hearing on the subject of faith in Christ Jesus.
Act 24:25 But when Paul began to treat of uprightness, self-control and the coming Judgement, Felix took fright and said, 'You may go for the present; I will send for you when I find it convenient.'
Act 24:26 At the same time he had hopes of receiving money from Paul, and for this reason he sent for him frequently and had talks with him.
Act 24:27 When two years came to an end, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus and, being anxious to gain favor with the Jews, Felix left Paul in custody.
Act 25:1 Three days after his arrival in the province, Festus went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
Act 25:2 The chief priests and leaders of the Jews informed him of the case against Paul,
Act 25:3 urgently asking him to support them against him, and to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were preparing an ambush to murder him on the way.
Act 25:4 But Festus replied that Paul was in custody in Caesarea, and that he would be going back there shortly himself.
Act 25:5 He said, 'Let your authorities come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, they can bring a charge against him.'
Act 25:6 After staying with them for eight or ten days at the most, he went down to Caesarea and the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and had Paul brought in.
Act 25:7 As soon as Paul appeared, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem surrounded him, making many serious accusations which they were unable to substantiate.
Act 25:8 Paul's defence was this, 'I have committed no offense whatever against either Jewish law, or the Temple, or Caesar.'
Act 25:9 Festus was anxious to gain favor with the Jews, so he said to Paul, 'Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges before me there?'
Act 25:10 But Paul replied, 'I am standing before the tribunal of Caesar and this is where I should be tried. I have done the Jews no wrong, as you very well know.
Act 25:11 If I am guilty of committing any capital crime, I do not ask to be spared the death penalty. But if there is no substance in the accusations these persons bring against me, no one has a right to surrender me to them. I appeal to Caesar.'
Act 25:12 Then Festus conferred with his advisers and replied, 'You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.'
Act 25:13 Some days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid their respects to Festus.
Act 25:14 Their visit lasted several days, and Festus put Paul's case before the king, saying, 'There is a man here whom Felix left behind in custody,
Act 25:15 and while I was in Jerusalem the chief priests and elders of the Jews laid information against him, demanding his condemnation.
Act 25:16 But I told them that Romans are not in the habit of surrendering any man, until the accused confronts his accusers and is given an opportunity to defend himself against the charge.
Act 25:17 So they came here with me, and I wasted no time but took my seat on the tribunal the very next day and had the man brought in.
Act 25:18 When confronted with him, his accusers did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected;
Act 25:19 but they had some argument or other with him about their own religion and about a dead man called Jesus whom Paul alleged to be alive.
Act 25:20 Not feeling qualified to deal with questions of this sort, I asked him if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem to be tried there on this issue.
Act 25:21 But Paul put in an appeal for his case to be reserved for the judgement of the emperor, so I ordered him to be remanded until I could send him to Caesar.'
Act 25:22 Agrippa said to Festus, 'I should like to hear the man myself.' He answered, 'Tomorrow you shall hear him.'
Act 25:23 So the next day Agrippa and Bernice arrived in great state and entered the audience chamber attended by the tribunes and the city notables; and Festus ordered Paul to be brought in.
Act 25:24 Then Festus said, 'King Agrippa, and all here present with us, you see before you the man about whom the whole Jewish community has petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, loudly protesting that he ought not to be allowed to remain alive.
Act 25:25 For my own part I am satisfied that he has committed no capital crime, but when he himself appealed to the emperor I decided to send him.
Act 25:26 But I have nothing definite that I can write to his Imperial Majesty about him; that is why I have produced him before you all, and before you in particular, King Agrippa, so that after the examination I may have something to write.
Act 25:27 It seems to me pointless to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.'
Act 26:1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, 'You have leave to speak on your own behalf.' And Paul held up his hand and began his defence:
Act 26:2 'I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, in that it is before you I am to answer today all the charges made against me by the Jews,
Act 26:3 the more so because you are an expert in matters of custom and controversy among the Jews. So I beg you to listen to me patiently.
Act 26:4 'My manner of life from my youth, a life spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem, is common knowledge among the Jews.
Act 26:5 They have known me for a long time and could testify, if they would, that I followed the strictest party in our religion and lived as a Pharisee.
Act 26:6 And now it is for my hope in the promise made by God to our ancestors that I am on trial,
Act 26:7 the promise that our twelve tribes, constant in worship night and day, hope to attain. For that hope, Your Majesty, I am actually put on trial by Jews!
Act 26:8 Why does it seem incredible to you that God should raise the dead?
Act 26:9 'As for me, I once thought it was my duty to use every means to oppose the name of Jesus the Nazarene.
Act 26:10 This I did in Jerusalem; I myself threw many of God's holy people into prison, acting on authority from the chief priests, and when they were being sentenced to death I cast my vote against them.
Act 26:11 I often went round the synagogues inflicting penalties, trying in this way to force them to renounce their faith; my fury against them was so extreme that I even pursued them into foreign cities.
Act 26:12 'On such an expedition I was going to Damascus, armed with full powers and a commission from the chief priests,
Act 26:13 and in the middle of the day as I was on my way, Your Majesty, I saw a light from heaven shining more brilliantly than the sun round me and my fellow-travellers.
Act 26:14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you, kicking against the goad.
Act 26:15 Then I said, "Who are you, Lord?" And the Lord answered, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
Act 26:16 But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason: to appoint you as my servant and as witness of this vision in which you have seen me, and of others in which I shall appear to you.
Act 26:17 I shall rescue you from the people and from the nations to whom I send you
Act 26:18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, from the dominion of Satan to God, and receive, through faith in me, forgiveness of their sins and a share in the inheritance of the sanctified."
Act 26:19 'After that, King Agrippa, I could not disobey the heavenly vision.
Act 26:20 On the contrary I started preaching, first to the people of Damascus, then to those of Jerusalem and all Judaean territory, and also to the gentiles, urging them to repent and turn to God, proving their change of heart by their deeds.
Act 26:21 This was why the Jews laid hands on me in the Temple and tried to do away with me.
Act 26:22 But I was blessed with God's help, and so I have stood firm to this day, testifying to great and small alike, saying nothing more than what the prophets and Moses himself said would happen:
Act 26:23 that the Christ was to suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he was to proclaim a light for our people and for the gentiles.'
Act 26:24 He had reached this point in his defence when Festus shouted out, 'Paul, you are out of your mind; all that learning of yours is driving you mad.'
Act 26:25 But Paul answered, 'Festus, your Excellency, I am not mad: I am speaking words of sober truth and good sense.
Act 26:26 The king understands these matters, and to him I now speak fearlessly. I am confident that nothing of all this comes as a surprise to him; after all, these things were not done in a corner.
Act 26:27 King Agrippa, do you believe in the prophets? I know you do.'
Act 26:28 At this Agrippa said to Paul, 'A little more, and your arguments would make a Christian of me.'
Act 26:29 Paul replied, 'Little or much, I wish before God that not only you but all who are listening to me today would come to be as I am -- except for these chains.'
Act 26:30 At this the king rose to his feet, with the governor and Bernice and those who sat there with them.
Act 26:31 When they had retired they talked together and agreed, 'This man is doing nothing that deserves death or imprisonment.'
Act 26:32 And Agrippa remarked to Festus, 'The man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.'
Act 27:1 When it had been decided that we should sail to Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion called Julius, of the Augustan cohort.
Act 27:2 We boarded a vessel from Adramyttium bound for ports on the Asiatic coast and put to sea; we had Aristarchus with us, a Macedonian of Thessalonica.
Act 27:3 Next day we put in at Sidon, and Julius was considerate enough to allow Paul to go to his friends to be looked after.
Act 27:4 From there we put to sea again, but as the winds were against us we sailed under the lee of Cyprus,
Act 27:5 then across the open sea off Cilicia and Pamphylia, taking a fortnight to reach Myra in Lycia.
Act 27:6 There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship leaving for Italy and put us aboard.
Act 27:7 For some days we made little headway, and we had difficulty in making Cnidus. The wind would not allow us to touch there, so we sailed under the lee of Crete off Cape Salmone
Act 27:8 and struggled along the coast until we came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.
Act 27:9 A great deal of time had been lost, and navigation was already hazardous, since it was now well after the time of the Fast, so Paul gave them this warning,
Act 27:10 'Friends, I can see this voyage will be dangerous and that we will run considerable risk of losing not only the cargo and the ship but also our lives as well.'
Act 27:11 But the centurion took more notice of the captain and the ship's owner than of what Paul was saying;
Act 27:12 and since the harbour was unsuitable for wintering, the majority were for putting out from there in the hope of wintering at Phoenix -- a harbour in Crete, facing south-west and north-west.
Act 27:13 A southerly breeze sprang up and, thinking their objective as good as reached, they weighed anchor and began to sail past Crete, close inshore.
Act 27:14 But it was not long before a hurricane, the 'north-easter' as they call it, burst on them from across the island.
Act 27:15 The ship was caught and could not keep head to wind, so we had to give way to the wind and let ourselves be driven.
Act 27:16 We ran under the lee of a small island called Cauda and managed with some difficulty to bring the ship's boat under control.
Act 27:17 Having hauled it up they used it to undergird the ship; then, afraid of running aground on the Syrtis banks, they floated out the sea-anchor and so let themselves drift.
Act 27:18 As we were thoroughly storm-bound, the next day they began to jettison the cargo,
Act 27:19 and the third day they threw the ship's gear overboard with their own hands.
Act 27:20 For a number of days both the sun and the stars were invisible and the storm raged unabated until at last we gave up all hope of surviving.
Act 27:21 Then, when they had been without food for a long time, Paul stood up among the men. 'Friends,' he said, 'you should have listened to me and not put out from Crete. You would have spared yourselves all this damage and loss.
Act 27:22 But now I ask you not to give way to despair. There will be no loss of life at all, only of the ship.
Act 27:23 Last night there appeared beside me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve,
Act 27:24 and he said, "Do not be afraid, Paul. You are destined to appear before Caesar, and God grants you the safety of all who are sailing with you."
Act 27:25 So take courage, friends; I trust in God that things will turn out just as I was told;
Act 27:26 but we are to be stranded on some island.'
Act 27:27 On the fourteenth night we were being driven one way and another in the Adriatic, when about midnight the crew sensed that land of some sort was near.
Act 27:28 They took soundings and found twenty fathoms; after a short interval they sounded again and found fifteen fathoms.
Act 27:29 Then, afraid that we might run aground somewhere on a reef, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.
Act 27:30 When the crew tried to escape from the ship and lowered the ship's boat into the sea as though they meant to lay out anchors from the bows, Paul said to the centurion and his men,
Act 27:31 'Unless those men stay on board you cannot hope to be saved.'
Act 27:32 So the soldiers cut the boat's ropes and let it drop away.
Act 27:33 Just before daybreak Paul urged them all to have something to eat. 'For fourteen days', he said, 'you have been in suspense, going hungry and eating nothing.
Act 27:34 I urge you to have something to eat; your safety depends on it. Not a hair of any of your heads will be lost.'
Act 27:35 With these words he took some bread, gave thanks to God in view of them all, broke it and began to eat.
Act 27:36 They all plucked up courage and took something to eat themselves.
Act 27:37 In all we were two hundred and seventy-six souls on board that ship.
Act 27:38 When they had eaten what they wanted they lightened the ship by throwing the corn overboard into the sea.
Act 27:39 When day came they did not recognize the land, but they could make out a bay with a beach; they planned to run the ship aground on this if they could.
Act 27:40 They slipped the anchors and let them fall into the sea, and at the same time loosened the lashings of the rudders; then, hoisting the foresail to the wind, they headed for the beach.
Act 27:41 But the cross-currents carried them into a shoal and the vessel ran aground. The bows were wedged in and stuck fast, while the stern began to break up with the pounding of the waves.
Act 27:42 The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners for fear that any should swim off and escape.
Act 27:43 But the centurion was determined to bring Paul safely through and would not let them carry out their plan. He gave orders that those who could swim should jump overboard first and so get ashore,
Act 27:44 and the rest follow either on planks or on pieces of wreckage. In this way it happened that all came safe and sound to land.
Act 28:1 Once we had come safely through, we discovered that the island was called Malta.
Act 28:2 The inhabitants treated us with unusual kindness. They made us all welcome by lighting a huge fire because it had started to rain and the weather was cold.
Act 28:3 Paul had collected a bundle of sticks and was putting them on the fire when a viper brought out by the heat attached itself to his hand.
Act 28:4 When the inhabitants saw the creature hanging from his hand they said to one another, 'That man must be a murderer; he may have escaped the sea, but divine justice would not let him live.'
Act 28:5 However, he shook the creature off into the fire and came to no harm,
Act 28:6 although they were expecting him at any moment to swell up or drop dead on the spot. After they had waited a long time without seeing anything out of the ordinary happen to him, they changed their minds and began to say he was a god.
Act 28:7 In that neighborhood there were estates belonging to the chief man of the island, whose name was Publius. He received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.
Act 28:8 It happened that Publius' father was in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him, and after a prayer he laid his hands on the man and healed him.
Act 28:9 When this happened, the other sick people on the island also came and were cured;
Act 28:10 they honored us with many marks of respect, and when we sailed they put on board the provisions we needed.
Act 28:11 At the end of three months we set sail in a ship that had wintered in the island; she came from Alexandria and her figurehead was the Twins.
Act 28:12 We put in at Syracuse and spent three days there;
Act 28:13 from there we followed the coast up to Rhegium. After one day there a south wind sprang up and on the second day we made Puteoli,
Act 28:14 where we found some brothers and had the great encouragement of staying a week with them. And so we came to Rome.
Act 28:15 When the brothers there heard about us they came to meet us, as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns. When Paul saw them he thanked God and took courage.
Act 28:16 On our arrival in Rome Paul was allowed to stay in lodgings of his own with the soldier who guarded him.
Act 28:17 After three days he called together the leading Jews. When they had assembled, he said to them, 'Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
Act 28:18 They examined me and would have set me free, since they found me guilty of nothing involving the death penalty;
Act 28:19 but the Jews lodged an objection, and I was forced to appeal to Caesar, though not because I had any accusation to make against my own nation.
Act 28:20 That is why I have urged you to see me and have a discussion with me, for it is on account of the hope of Israel that I wear this chain.'
Act 28:21 They answered, 'We have received no letters from Judaea about you, nor has any of the brothers arrived here with any report or story of anything to your discredit.
Act 28:22 We think it would be as well to hear your own account of your position; all we know about this sect is that it encounters opposition everywhere.'
Act 28:23 So they arranged a day with him and a large number of them visited him at his lodgings. He put his case to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them about Jesus, arguing from the Law of Moses and the prophets from early morning until evening;
Act 28:24 and some were convinced by what he said, while the rest were skeptical.
Act 28:25 So they disagreed among themselves and, as they went away, Paul had one last thing to say to them, 'How aptly the Holy Spirit spoke when he told your ancestors through the prophet Isaiah:
Act 28:26 Go and say to this people: Listen and listen but never understand! Look and look but never perceive!
Act 28:27 This people's heart is torpid, their ears dulled, they have shut their eyes tight, to avoid using their eyes to see, their ears to hear, using their heart to understand, changing their ways and being healed by me.
Act 28:28 'You must realize, then, that this salvation of God has been sent to the gentiles;they will listen to it.'
Act 28:29
Act 28:30 He spent the whole of the two years in his own rented lodging. He welcomed all who came to visit him,
Act 28:31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ with complete fearlessness and without any hindrance from anyone.
Rom 1:1 From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle,
Rom 1:2 set apart for the service of the gospel that God promised long ago through his prophets in the holy scriptures.
Rom 1:3 This is the gospel concerning his Son who, in terms of human nature
Rom 1:4 was born a descendant of David and who, in terms of the Spirit and of holiness, was designated Son of God in power by resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Rom 1:5 through whom we have received grace and our apostolic mission of winning the obedience of faith among all the nations for the honor of his name.
Rom 1:6 You are among these, and by his call you belong to Jesus Christ.
Rom 1:7 To you all, God's beloved in Rome, called to be his holy people. Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 1:8 First I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you because your faith is talked of all over the world.
Rom 1:9 God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness that I continually mention you in my prayers,
Rom 1:10 asking always that by some means I may at long last be enabled to visit you, if it is God's will.
Rom 1:11 For I am longing to see you so that I can convey to you some spiritual gift that will be a lasting strength,
Rom 1:12 or rather that we may be strengthened together through our mutual faith, yours and mine.
Rom 1:13 I want you to be quite certain too, brothers, that I have often planned to visit you -- though up to the present I have always been prevented -- in the hope that I might work as fruitfully among you as I have among the gentiles elsewhere.
Rom 1:14 I have an obligation to Greeks as well as barbarians, to the educated as well as the ignorant,
Rom 1:15 and hence the eagerness on my part to preach the gospel to you in Rome too.
Rom 1:16 For I see no reason to be ashamed of the gospel; it is God's power for the salvation of everyone who has faith -- Jews first, but Greeks as well-
Rom 1:17 for in it is revealed the saving justice of God: a justice based on faith and addressed to faith. As it says in scripture: Anyone who is upright through faith will live.
Rom 1:18 The retribution of God from heaven is being revealed against the ungodliness and injustice of human beings who in their injustice hold back the truth.
Rom 1:19 For what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them, since God has made it plain to them:
Rom 1:20 ever since the creation of the world, the invisible existence of God and his everlasting power have been clearly seen by the mind's understanding of created things. And so these people have no excuse:
Rom 1:21 they knew God and yet they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but their arguments became futile and their uncomprehending minds were darkened.
Rom 1:22 While they claimed to be wise, in fact they were growing so stupid
Rom 1:23 that they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an imitation, for the image of a mortal human being, or of birds, or animals, or crawling things.
Rom 1:24 That is why God abandoned them in their inmost cravings to filthy practices of dishonoring their own bodies-
Rom 1:25 because they exchanged God's truth for a lie and have worshipped and served the creature instead of the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 1:26 That is why God abandoned them to degrading passions:
Rom 1:27 why their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural practices; and the men, in a similar fashion, too, giving up normal relations with women, are consumed with passion for each other, men doing shameful things with men and receiving in themselves due reward for their perversion.
Rom 1:28 In other words, since they would not consent to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to their unacceptable thoughts and indecent behaviour.
Rom 1:29 And so now they are steeped in all sorts of injustice, rottenness, greed and malice; full of envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite,
Rom 1:30 libellers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in evil, rebellious to parents,
Rom 1:31 without brains, honor, love or pity.
Rom 1:32 They are well aware of God's ordinance: that those who behave like this deserve to die -- yet they not only do it, but even applaud others who do the same.
Rom 2:1 So no matter who you are, if you pass judgement you have no excuse. It is yourself that you condemn when you judge others, since you behave in the same way as those you are condemning.
Rom 2:2 We are well aware that people who behave like that are justly condemned by God.
Rom 2:3 But you -- when you judge those who behave like this while you are doing the same yourself -- do you think you will escape God's condemnation?
Rom 2:4 Or are you not disregarding his abundant goodness, tolerance and patience, failing to realize that this generosity of God is meant to bring you to repentance?
Rom 2:5 Your stubborn refusal to repent is only storing up retribution for yourself on that Day of retribution when God's just verdicts will be made known.
Rom 2:6 He will repay everyone as their deeds deserve.
Rom 2:7 For those who aimed for glory and honor and immortality by persevering in doing good, there will be eternal life;
Rom 2:8 but for those who out of jealousy have taken for their guide not truth but injustice, there will be the fury of retribution.
Rom 2:9 Trouble and distress will come to every human being who does evil -- Jews first, but Greeks as well;
Rom 2:10 glory and honor and peace will come to everyone who does good -- Jews first, but Greeks as well.
Rom 2:11 There is no favoritism with God.
Rom 2:12 All those who have sinned without the Law will perish without the Law; and those under the Law who have sinned will be judged by the Law.
Rom 2:13 For the ones that God will justify are not those who have heard the Law but those who have kept the Law.
Rom 2:14 So, when gentiles, not having the Law, still through their own innate sense behave as the Law commands, then, even though they have no Law, they are a law for themselves.
Rom 2:15 They can demonstrate the effect of the Law engraved on their hearts, to which their own conscience bears witness; since they are aware of various considerations, some of which accuse them, while others provide them with a defence . . . on the day when,
Rom 2:16 according to the gospel that I preach, God, through Jesus Christ, judges all human secrets.
Rom 2:17 If you can call yourself a Jew, and you really trust in the Law, and are proud of your God,
Rom 2:18 and know his will, and tell right from wrong because you have been taught by the Law;
Rom 2:19 if you are confident that you are a guide to the blind and a beacon to those in the dark,
Rom 2:20 that you can teach the ignorant and instruct the unlearned because the Law embodies all knowledge and all truth-
Rom 2:21 so then, in teaching others, do you teach yourself as well? You preach that there is to be no stealing, but do you steal?
Rom 2:22 You say that adultery is forbidden, but do you commit adultery? You detest the worship of objects, but do you desecrate holy things yourself?
Rom 2:23 If, while you are boasting of the Law, you disobey it, then you are bringing God into contempt.
Rom 2:24 As scripture says: It is your fault that the name of God is held in contempt among the nations.
Rom 2:25 Circumcision has its value if you keep the Law; but if you go on breaking the Law, you are no more circumcised than the uncircumcised.
Rom 2:26 And if an uncircumcised man keeps the commands of the Law, will not his uncircumcised state count as circumcision?
Rom 2:27 More, the man who, in his native uncircumcised state, keeps the Law, is a condemnation of you, who, by your concentration on the letter and on circumcision, actually break the Law.
Rom 2:28 Being a Jew is not only having the outward appearance of a Jew, and circumcision is not only a visible physical operation.
Rom 2:29 The real Jew is the one who is inwardly a Jew, and real circumcision is in the heart, a thing not of the letter but of the spirit. He may not be praised by any human being, but he will be praised by God.
Rom 3:1 Is there any benefit, then, in being a Jew? Is there any advantage in being circumcised?
Rom 3:2 A great deal, in every way. First of all, it was to the Jews that the message of God was entrusted.
Rom 3:3 What if some of them were unfaithful? Do you think their lack of faith could cancel God's faithfulness?
Rom 3:4 Out of the question! God will always be true even if no human being can be relied on. As scripture says: That you may show your saving justice when you pass sentence and your victory may appear when you give judgement.
Rom 3:5 But if our injustice serves to bring God's saving justice into view, can we say that God is unjust when -- to use human terms -- he brings his retribution down on us?
Rom 3:6 Out of the question! It would mean that God could not be the judge of the world.
Rom 3:7 You might as well say that if my untruthfulness makes God demonstrate his truthfulness, to his greater glory, then I should not be judged to be a sinner at all.
Rom 3:8 In this case, the slanderous report some people are spreading would be true, that we teach that one should do evil that good may come of it. In fact such people are justly condemned.
Rom 3:9 Well: are we any better off? Not at all: we have already indicted Jews and Greeks as being all alike under the dominion of sin.
Rom 3:10 As scripture says: Not one of them is upright, not a single one,
Rom 3:11 not a single one is wise, not a single one seeks God.
Rom 3:12 All have turned away, all alike turned sour, not one of them does right, not a single one.
Rom 3:13 Their throats are wide -- open graves, their tongues seductive. Viper's venom behind their lips;
Rom 3:14 their speech is full of cursing and bitterness.
Rom 3:15 Their feet quick to shed innocent blood,
Rom 3:16 wherever they go there is havoc and ruin.
Rom 3:17 They do not know the way of peace,
Rom 3:18 there is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom 3:19 Now we are well aware that whatever the Law says is said for those who are subject to the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced, and the whole world brought under the judgement of God.
Rom 3:20 So then, no human being can be found upright at the tribunal of God by keeping the Law; all that the Law does is to tell us what is sinful.
Rom 3:21 God's saving justice was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, but now it has been revealed altogether apart from law:
Rom 3:22 God's saving justice given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.
Rom 3:23 No distinction is made: all have sinned and lack God's glory,
Rom 3:24 and all are justified by the free gift of his grace through being set free in Christ Jesus.
Rom 3:25 God appointed him as a sacrifice for reconciliation, through faith, by the shedding of his blood, and so showed his justness; first for the past, when sins went unpunished because he held his hand;
Rom 3:26 and now again for the present age, to show how he is just and justifies everyone who has faith in Jesus.
Rom 3:27 So what becomes of our boasts? There is no room for them. On what principle- that only actions count? No; that faith is what counts,
Rom 3:28 since, as we see it, a person is justified by faith and not by doing what the Law tells him to do.
Rom 3:29 Do you think God is the God only of the Jews, and not of gentiles too? Most certainly of gentiles too,
Rom 3:30 since there is only one God; he will justify the circumcised by their faith, and he will justify the uncircumcised through their faith.
Rom 3:31 Are we saying that the Law has been made pointless by faith? Out of the question; we are placing the Law on its true footing.
Rom 4:1 Then what do we say about Abraham, the ancestor from whom we are descended physically?
Rom 4:2 If Abraham had been justified because of what he had done, then he would have had something to boast about. But not before God:
Rom 4:3 does not scripture say: Abraham put his faith in God and this was reckoned to him as uprightness?
Rom 4:4 Now, when someone works, the wages for this are not considered as a favor but as due;
Rom 4:5 however, when someone, without working, puts faith in the one who justifies the godless, it is this faith that is reckoned as uprightness.
Rom 4:6 David, too, says the same: he calls someone blessed if God attributes uprightness to that person, apart from any action undertaken:
Rom 4:7 How blessed are those whose offense is forgiven, whose sin is blotted out.
Rom 4:8 How blessed are those to whom the Lord imputes no guilt.
Rom 4:9 Is this blessing only for the circumcised, or is it said of the uncircumcised as well? Well, we said of Abraham that his faith was reckoned to him as uprightness.
Rom 4:10 Now how did this come about? When he was already circumcised, or before he had been circumcised? Not when he had been circumcised, but while he was still uncircumcised;
Rom 4:11 and circumcision was given to him later, as a sign and a guarantee that the faith which he had while still uncircumcised was reckoned to him as uprightness. In this way, Abraham was to be the ancestor of all believers who are uncircumcised, so that they might be reckoned as upright;
Rom 4:12 as well as the ancestor of those of the circumcision who not only have their circumcision but who also follow our ancestor Abraham along the path of faith that he trod before he was circumcised.
Rom 4:13 For the promise to Abraham and his descendants that he should inherit the world was not through the Law, but through the uprightness of faith.
Rom 4:14 For if it is those who live by the Law who will gain the inheritance, faith is worthless and the promise is without force;
Rom 4:15 for the Law produces nothing but God's retribution, and it is only where there is no Law that it is possible to live without breaking the Law.
Rom 4:16 That is why the promise is to faith, so that it comes as a free gift and is secure for all the descendants, not only those who rely on the Law but all those others who rely on the faith of Abraham, the ancestor of us all
Rom 4:17 (as scripture says: I have made you the father of many nations). Abraham is our father in the eyes of God, in whom he put his faith, and who brings the dead to life and calls into existence what does not yet exist.
Rom 4:18 Though there seemed no hope, he hoped and believed that he was to become father of many nations in fulfilment of the promise: Just so will your descendants be.
Rom 4:19 Even the thought that his body was as good as dead -- he was about a hundred years old -- and that Sarah's womb was dead too did not shake his faith.
Rom 4:20 Counting on the promise of God, he did not doubt or disbelieve, but drew strength from faith and gave glory to God,
Rom 4:21 fully convinced that whatever God promised he has the power to perform.
Rom 4:22 This is the faith that was reckoned to him as uprightness.
Rom 4:23 And the word 'reckoned' in scripture applies not only to him;
Rom 4:24 it is there for our sake too -- our faith, too, will be 'reckoned'
Rom 4:25 because we believe in him who raised from the dead our Lord Jesus who was handed over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification.
Rom 5:1 So then, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;
Rom 5:2 it is through him, by faith, that we have been admitted into God's favor in which we are living, and look forward exultantly to God's glory.
Rom 5:3 Not only that; let us exult, too, in our hardships, understanding that hardship develops perseverance,
Rom 5:4 and perseverance develops a tested character, something that gives us hope,
Rom 5:5 and a hope which will not let us down, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.
Rom 5:6 When we were still helpless, at the appointed time, Christ died for the godless.
Rom 5:7 You could hardly find anyone ready to die even for someone upright; though it is just possible that, for a really good person, someone might undertake to die.
Rom 5:8 So it is proof of God's own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
Rom 5:9 How much more can we be sure, therefore, that, now that we have been justified by his death, we shall be saved through him from the retribution of God.
Rom 5:10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more can we be sure that, being now reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Rom 5:11 What is more, we are filled with exultant trust in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have already gained our reconciliation.
Rom 5:12 Well then; it was through one man that sin came into the world, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.
Rom 5:13 Sin already existed in the world before there was any law, even though sin is not reckoned when there is no law.
Rom 5:14 Nonetheless death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sin was not the breaking of a commandment, as Adam's was. He prefigured the One who was to come . . .
Rom 5:15 There is no comparison between the free gift and the offense. If death came to many through the offense of one man, how much greater an effect the grace of God has had, coming to so many and so plentifully as a free gift through the one man Jesus Christ!
Rom 5:16 Again, there is no comparison between the gift and the offense of one man. One single offense brought condemnation, but now, after many offenses, have come the free gift and so acquittal!
Rom 5:17 It was by one man's offense that death came to reign over all, but how much greater the reign in life of those who receive the fullness of grace and the gift of saving justice, through the one man, Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:18 One man's offense brought condemnation on all humanity; and one man's good act has brought justification and life to all humanity.
Rom 5:19 Just as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience are many to be made upright.
Rom 5:20 When law came on the scene, it was to multiply the offenses. But however much sin increased, grace was always greater;
Rom 5:21 so that as sin's reign brought death, so grace was to rule through saving justice that leads to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:1 What should we say then? Should we remain in sin so that grace may be given the more fully?
Rom 6:2 Out of the question! We have died to sin; how could we go on living in it?
Rom 6:3 You cannot have forgotten that all of us, when we were baptised into Christ Jesus, were baptised into his death.
Rom 6:4 So by our baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, we too should begin living a new life.
Rom 6:5 If we have been joined to him by dying a death like his, so we shall be by a resurrection like his;
Rom 6:6 realising that our former self was crucified with him, so that the self which belonged to sin should be destroyed and we should be freed from the slavery of sin.
Rom 6:7 Someone who has died, of course, no longer has to answer for sin.
Rom 6:8 But we believe that, if we died with Christ, then we shall live with him too.
Rom 6:9 We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more.
Rom 6:10 For by dying, he is dead to sin once and for all, and now the life that he lives is life with God.
Rom 6:11 In the same way, you must see yourselves as being dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.
Rom 6:12 That is why you must not allow sin to reign over your mortal bodies and make you obey their desires;
Rom 6:13 or give any parts of your bodies over to sin to be used as instruments of evil. Instead, give yourselves to God, as people brought to life from the dead, and give every part of your bodies to God to be instruments of uprightness;
Rom 6:14 and then sin will no longer have any power over you -- you are living not under law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15 What is the implication? That we are free to sin, now that we are not under law but under grace? Out of the question!
Rom 6:16 You know well that if you undertake to be somebody's slave and obey him, you are the slave of him you obey: you can be the slave either of sin which leads to death, or of obedience which leads to saving justice.
Rom 6:17 Once you were slaves of sin, but thank God you have given whole-hearted obedience to the pattern of teaching to which you were introduced;
Rom 6:18 and so, being freed from serving sin, you took uprightness as your master.
Rom 6:19 I am putting it in human terms because you are still weak human beings: as once you surrendered yourselves as servants to immorality and to a lawlessness which results in more lawlessness, now you have to surrender yourselves to uprightness which is to result in sanctification.
Rom 6:20 When you were the servants of sin, you felt no obligation to uprightness,
Rom 6:21 and what did you gain from living like that? Experiences of which you are now ashamed, for that sort of behavior ends in death.
Rom 6:22 But, now you are set free from sin and bound to the service of God, your gain will be sanctification and the end will be eternal life.
Rom 6:23 For the wage paid by sin is death; the gift freely given by God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 7:1 As people who are familiar with the Law, brothers, you cannot have forgotten that the law can control a person only during that person's lifetime.
Rom 7:2 A married woman, for instance, is bound to her husband by law, as long as he lives, but when her husband dies all her legal obligation to him as husband is ended.
Rom 7:3 So if she were to have relations with another man while her husband was still alive, she would be termed an adulteress; but if her husband dies, her legal obligation comes to an end and if she then has relations with another man, that does not make her an adulteress.
Rom 7:4 In the same way you, my brothers, through the body of Christ have become dead to the Law and so you are able to belong to someone else, that is, to him who was raised from the dead to make us live fruitfully for God.
Rom 7:5 While we were still living by our natural inclinations, the sinful passions aroused by the Law were working in all parts of our bodies to make us live lives which were fruitful only for death.
Rom 7:6 But now we are released from the Law, having died to what was binding us, and so we are in a new service, that of the spirit, and not in the old service of a written code.
Rom 7:7 What should we say, then? That the Law itself is sin? Out of the question! All the same, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have known what sin was; for instance, I should not have known what it meant to covet if the Law had not said: You are not to covet.
Rom 7:8 But, once it found the opportunity through that commandment, sin produced in me all kinds of covetousness; as long as there is no Law, sin is dead.
Rom 7:9 Once, when there was no Law, I used to be alive; but when the commandment came, sin came to life
Rom 7:10 and I died. The commandment was meant to bring life but I found it brought death,
Rom 7:11 because sin, finding its opportunity by means of the commandment, beguiled me and, by means of it, killed me.
Rom 7:12 So then, the Law is holy, and what it commands is holy and upright and good.
Rom 7:13 Does that mean that something good resulted in my dying? Out of the question! But sin, in order to be identified as sin, caused my death through that good thing, and so it is by means of the commandment that sin shows its unbounded sinful power.
Rom 7:14 We are well aware that the Law is spiritual: but I am a creature of flesh and blood sold as a slave to sin.
Rom 7:15 I do not understand my own behaviour; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things that I hate.
Rom 7:16 While I am acting as I do not want to, I still acknowledge the Law as good,
Rom 7:17 so it is not myself acting, but the sin which lives in me.
Rom 7:18 And really, I know of nothing good living in me -- in my natural self, that is -- for though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not:
Rom 7:19 the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want -- that is what I do.
Rom 7:20 But every time I do what I do not want to, then it is not myself acting, but the sin that lives in me.
Rom 7:21 So I find this rule: that for me, where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side.
Rom 7:22 In my inmost self I dearly love God's law,
Rom 7:23 but I see that acting on my body there is a different law which battles against the law in my mind. So I am brought to be a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body.
Rom 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body doomed to death?
Rom 7:25 God -- thanks be to him -- through Jesus Christ our Lord. So it is that I myself with my mind obey the law of God, but in my disordered nature I obey the law of sin.
Rom 8:1 Thus, condemnation will never come to those who are in Christ Jesus,
Rom 8:2 because the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3 What the Law could not do because of the weakness of human nature, God did, sending his own Son in the same human nature as any sinner to be a sacrifice for sin, and condemning sin in that human nature.
Rom 8:4 This was so that the Law's requirements might be fully satisfied in us as we direct our lives not by our natural inclinations but by the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 Those who are living by their natural inclinations have their minds on the things human nature desires; those who live in the Spirit have their minds on spiritual things.
Rom 8:6 And human nature has nothing to look forward to but death, while the Spirit looks forward to life and peace,
Rom 8:7 because the outlook of disordered human nature is opposed to God, since it does not submit to God's Law, and indeed it cannot,
Rom 8:8 and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be pleasing to God.
Rom 8:9 You, however, live not by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Rom 8:10 But when Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is alive because you have been justified;
Rom 8:11 and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead has made his home in you, then he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.
Rom 8:12 So then, my brothers, we have no obligation to human nature to be dominated by it.
Rom 8:13 If you do live in that way, you are doomed to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the habits originating in the body, you will have life.
Rom 8:14 All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God;
Rom 8:15 for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba, Father!'
Rom 8:16 The Spirit himself joins with our spirit to bear witness that we are children of God.
Rom 8:17 And if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, provided that we share his suffering, so as to share his glory.
Rom 8:18 In my estimation, all that we suffer in the present time is nothing in comparison with the glory which is destined to be disclosed for us,
Rom 8:19 for the whole creation is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be revealed.
Rom 8:20 It was not for its own purposes that creation had frustration imposed on it, but for the purposes of him who imposed it-
Rom 8:21 with the intention that the whole creation itself might be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God.
Rom 8:22 We are well aware that the whole creation, until this time, has been groaning in labour pains.
Rom 8:23 And not only that: we too, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we are groaning inside ourselves, waiting with eagerness for our bodies to be set free.
Rom 8:24 In hope, we already have salvation; in hope, not visibly present, or we should not be hoping -- nobody goes on hoping for something which is already visible.
Rom 8:25 But having this hope for what we cannot yet see, we are able to wait for it with persevering confidence.
Rom 8:26 And as well as this, the Spirit too comes to help us in our weakness, for, when we do not know how to pray properly, then the Spirit personally makes our petitions for us in groans that cannot be put into words;
Rom 8:27 and he who can see into all hearts knows what the Spirit means because the prayers that the Spirit makes for God's holy people are always in accordance with the mind of God.
Rom 8:28 We are well aware that God works with those who love him, those who have been called in accordance with his purpose, and turns everything to their good.
Rom 8:29 He decided beforehand who were the ones destined to be moulded to the pattern of his Son, so that he should be the eldest of many brothers;
Rom 8:30 it was those so destined that he called; those that he called, he justified, and those that he has justified he has brought into glory.
Rom 8:31 After saying this, what can we add? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 Since he did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for the sake of all of us, then can we not expect that with him he will freely give us all his gifts?
Rom 8:33 Who can bring any accusation against those that God has chosen? When God grants saving justice
Rom 8:34 who can condemn? Are we not sure that it is Christ Jesus, who died -- yes and more, who was raised from the dead and is at God's right hand -- and who is adding his plea for us?
Rom 8:35 Can anything cut us off from the love of Christ -- can hardships or distress, or persecution, or lack of food and clothing, or threats or violence;
Rom 8:36 as scripture says: For your sake we are being massacred all day long, treated as sheep to be slaughtered?
Rom 8:37 No; we come through all these things triumphantly victorious, by the power of him who loved us.
Rom 8:38 For I am certain of this: neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nothing already in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power,
Rom 8:39 nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Rom 9:1 This is the truth and I am speaking in Christ, without pretence, as my conscience testifies for me in the Holy Spirit;
Rom 9:2 there is great sorrow and unremitting agony in my heart:
Rom 9:3 I could pray that I myself might be accursed and cut off from Christ, if this could benefit the brothers who are my own flesh and blood.
Rom 9:4 They are Israelites; it was they who were adopted as children, the glory was theirs and the covenants; to them were given the Law and the worship of God and the promises.
Rom 9:5 To them belong the fathers and out of them, so far as physical descent is concerned, came Christ who is above all, God, blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 9:6 It is not that God's promise has failed. Not all born Israelites belong to Israel,
Rom 9:7 and not all the descendants of Abraham count as his children, for Isaac is the one through whom your Name will be carried on.
Rom 9:8 That is, it is not by being children through physical descent that people become children of God; it is the children of the promise that are counted as the heirs.
Rom 9:9 The actual words of the promise were: I shall come back to you at this season, and Sarah will have a son.
Rom 9:10 Even more to the point is what was said to Rebecca when she was pregnant by our ancestor, Isaac,
Rom 9:11 before her children were born, so that neither had yet done anything either good or bad, but in order that it should be God's choice which prevailed
Rom 9:12 -not human merit, but his call -- she was told: the elder one will serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 Or as scripture says elsewhere: I loved Jacob but hated Esau.
Rom 9:14 What should we say, then? That God is unjust? Out of the question!
Rom 9:15 For speaking to Moses, he said: I am gracious to those to whom I am gracious and I take pity on those on whom I take pity.
Rom 9:16 So it is not a matter of what any person wants or what any person does, but only of God having mercy.
Rom 9:17 Scripture says to Pharaoh: I raised you up for this reason, to display my power in you and to have my name talked of throughout the world.
Rom 9:18 In other words, if God wants to show mercy on someone, he does so, and if he wants to harden someone's heart, he does so.
Rom 9:19 Then you will ask me, 'How then can he ever blame anyone, since no one can oppose his will?'
Rom 9:20 But you -- who do you think you, a human being, are, to answer back to God? Something that was made, can it say to its maker: why did you make me this shape?
Rom 9:21 A potter surely has the right over his clay to make out of the same lump either a pot for special use or one for ordinary use.
Rom 9:22 But suppose that God, although all the time he wanted to reveal his retribution and demonstrate his power, has with great patience gone on putting up with those who are the instruments of his retribution and designed to be destroyed;
Rom 9:23 so that he may make known the glorious riches ready for the people who are the instruments of his faithful love and were long ago prepared for that glory.
Rom 9:24 We are that people, called by him not only out of the Jews but out of the gentiles too.
Rom 9:25 Just as he says in the book of Hosea: I shall tell those who were not my people, 'You are my people,' and I shall take pity on those on whom I had no pity.
Rom 9:26 And in the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' they will be told that they are 'children of the living God'.
Rom 9:27 And about Israel, this is what Isaiah cried out: Though the people of Israel are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved;
Rom 9:28 for without hesitation or delay the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth.
Rom 9:29 As Isaiah foretold: Had the Lord Sabaoth not left us a few survivors, we should be like Sodom, we should be the same as Gomorrah.
Rom 9:30 What should we say, then? That the gentiles, although they were not looking for saving justice, found it, and this was the saving justice that comes of faith;
Rom 9:31 while Israel, looking for saving justice by law-keeping, did not succeed in fulfilling the Law.
Rom 9:32 And why? Because they were trying to find it in actions and not in faith, and so they stumbled over the stumbling-stone-
Rom 9:33 as it says in scripture: Now I am laying in Zion a stumbling-stone, a rock to trip people up; but he who relies on this will not be brought to disgrace.
Rom 10:1 Brothers, my dearest wish and my prayer to God is for them, that they may be saved.
Rom 10:2 I readily testify to their fervour for God, but it is misguided.
Rom 10:3 Not recognising God's saving justice they have tried to establish their own, instead of submitting to the saving justice of God.
Rom 10:4 But the Law has found its fulfilment in Christ so that all who have faith will be justified.
Rom 10:5 Moses writes of the saving justice that comes by the Law and says that whoever complies with it will find life in it.
Rom 10:6 But the saving justice of faith says this: Do not think in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?' --
Rom 10:7 that is to bring Christ down; or 'Who will go down to the depths?' -- that is to bring Christ back from the dead.
Rom 10:8 What does it say, then? The word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith, the faith which we preach,
Rom 10:9 that if you declare with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and if you believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.
Rom 10:10 It is by believing with the heart that you are justified, and by making the declaration with your lips that you are saved.
Rom 10:11 When scripture says: No one who relies on this will be brought to disgrace,
Rom 10:12 it makes no distinction between Jew and Greek: the same Lord is the Lord of all, and his generosity is offered to all who appeal to him,
Rom 10:13 for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Rom 10:14 How then are they to call on him if they have not come to believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard of him? And how will they hear of him unless there is a preacher for them?
Rom 10:15 And how will there be preachers if they are not sent? As scripture says: How beautiful are the feet of the messenger of good news.
Rom 10:16 But in fact they have not all responded to the good news. As Isaiah says: Lord, who has given credence to what they have heard from us?
Rom 10:17 But it is in that way faith comes, from hearing, and that means hearing the word of Christ.
Rom 10:18 Well then, I say, is it possible that they have not heard? Indeed they have: in the entire earth their voice stands out, their message reaches the whole world.
Rom 10:19 Well, another question, then: is it possible that Israel did not understand? In the first place Moses said: I shall rouse you to jealousy with a non-people, I shall exasperate you with a stupid nation.
Rom 10:20 And Isaiah is even bold enough to say: I have let myself be found by those who did not seek me; I have let myself be seen by those who did not consult me;
Rom 10:21 and referring to Israel, he says: All day long I have been stretching out my hands to a disobedient and rebellious people.
Rom 11:1 What I am saying is this: is it possible that God abandoned his people? Out of the question! I too am an Israelite, descended from Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
Rom 11:2 God never abandoned his own people to whom, ages ago, he had given recognition. Do you not remember what scripture says about Elijah and how he made a complaint to God against Israel:
Rom 11:3 Lord, they have put your prophets to the sword, torn down your altars. I am the only one left, and now they want to kill me?
Rom 11:4 And what was the prophetic answer given? I have spared for myself seven thousand men that have not bent the knee to Baal.
Rom 11:5 In the same way, then, in our own time, there is a remnant, set aside by grace.
Rom 11:6 And since it is by grace, it cannot now be by good actions, or grace would not be grace at all!
Rom 11:7 What follows? Israel failed to find what it was seeking; only those who were chosen found it and the rest had their minds hardened;
Rom 11:8 just as it says in scripture: God has infused them with a spirit of lethargy; until today they have not eyes to see or ears to hear.
Rom 11:9 David too says: May their own table prove a trap for them, a pitfall and a snare; let that be their retribution.
Rom 11:10 May their eyes grow so dim they cannot see, and their backs be bent for ever.
Rom 11:11 What I am saying is this: Was this stumbling to lead to their final downfall? Out of the question! On the contrary, their failure has brought salvation for the gentiles, in order to stir them to envy.
Rom 11:12 And if their fall has proved a great gain to the world, and their loss has proved a great gain to the gentiles -- how much greater a gain will come when all is restored to them!
Rom 11:13 Let me say then to you gentiles that, as far as I am an apostle to the gentiles, I take pride in this work of service;
Rom 11:14 and I want it to be the means of rousing to envy the people who are my own blood-relations and so of saving some of them.
Rom 11:15 Since their rejection meant the reconciliation of the world, do you know what their re-acceptance will mean? Nothing less than life from the dead!
Rom 11:16 When the first-fruits are made holy, so is the whole batch; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Rom 11:17 Now suppose that some branches were broken off, and you are wild olive, grafted among the rest to share with the others the rich sap of the olive tree;
Rom 11:18 then it is not for you to consider yourself superior to the other branches; and if you start feeling proud, think: it is not you that sustain the root, but the root that sustains you.
Rom 11:19 You will say, 'Branches were broken off on purpose for me to be grafted in.' True;
Rom 11:20 they through their unbelief were broken off, and you are established through your faith. So it is not pride that you should have, but fear:
Rom 11:21 if God did not spare the natural branches, he might not spare you either.
Rom 11:22 Remember God's severity as well as his goodness: his severity to those who fell, and his goodness to you as long as you persevere in it; if not, you too will be cut off.
Rom 11:23 And they, if they do not persevere in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for it is within the power of God to graft them back again.
Rom 11:24 After all, if you, cut off from what was by nature a wild olive, could then be grafted unnaturally on to a cultivated olive, how much easier will it be for them, the branches that naturally belong there, to be grafted on to the olive tree which is their own.
Rom 11:25 I want you to be quite certain, brothers, of this mystery, to save you from congratulating yourselves on your own good sense: part of Israel had its mind hardened, but only until the gentiles have wholly come in;
Rom 11:26 and this is how all Israel will be saved. As scripture says: From Zion will come the Redeemer, he will remove godlessness from Jacob.
Rom 11:27 And this will be my covenant with them, when I take their sins away.
Rom 11:28 As regards the gospel, they are enemies, but for your sake; but as regards those who are God's choice, they are still well loved for the sake of their ancestors.
Rom 11:29 There is no change of mind on God's part about the gifts he has made or of his choice.
Rom 11:30 Just as you were in the past disobedient to God but now you have been shown mercy, through their disobedience;
Rom 11:31 so in the same way they are disobedient now, so that through the mercy shown to you they too will receive mercy.
Rom 11:32 God has imprisoned all human beings in their own disobedience only to show mercy to them all.
Rom 11:33 How rich and deep are the wisdom and the knowledge of God! We cannot reach to the root of his decisions or his ways.
Rom 11:34 Who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser?
Rom 11:35 Who has given anything to him, so that his presents come only as a debt returned?
Rom 11:36 Everything there is comes from him and is caused by him and exists for him. To him be glory for ever! Amen.
Rom 12:1 I urge you, then, brothers, remembering the mercies of God, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, dedicated and acceptable to God; that is the kind of worship for you, as sensible people.
Rom 12:2 Do not model your behavior on the contemporary world, but let the renewing of your minds transform you, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God -- what is good and acceptable and mature.
Rom 12:3 And through the grace that I have been given, I say this to every one of you: never pride yourself on being better than you really are, but think of yourself dispassionately, recognising that God has given to each one his measure of faith.
Rom 12:4 Just as each of us has various parts in one body, and the parts do not all have the same function:
Rom 12:5 in the same way, all of us, though there are so many of us, make up one body in Christ, and as different parts we are all joined to one another.
Rom 12:6 Then since the gifts that we have differ according to the grace that was given to each of us: if it is a gift of prophecy, we should prophesy as much as our faith tells us;
Rom 12:7 if it is a gift of practical service, let us devote ourselves to serving; if it is teaching, to teaching;
Rom 12:8 if it is encouraging, to encouraging. When you give, you should give generously from the heart; if you are put in charge, you must be conscientious; if you do works of mercy, let it be because you enjoy doing them.
Rom 12:9 Let love be without any pretence. Avoid what is evil; stick to what is good.
Rom 12:10 In brotherly love let your feelings of deep affection for one another come to expression and regard others as more important than yourself.
Rom 12:11 In the service of the Lord, work not halfheartedly but with conscientiousness and an eager spirit.
Rom 12:12 Be joyful in hope, persevere in hardship; keep praying regularly;
Rom 12:13 share with any of God's holy people who are in need; look for opportunities to be hospitable.
Rom 12:14 Bless your persecutors; never curse them, bless them.
Rom 12:15 Rejoice with others when they rejoice, and be sad with those in sorrow.
Rom 12:16 Give the same consideration to all others alike. Pay no regard to social standing, but meet humble people on their own terms. Do not congratulate yourself on your own wisdom.
Rom 12:17 Never pay back evil with evil, but bear in mind the ideals that all regard with respect.
Rom 12:18 As much as possible, and to the utmost of your ability, be at peace with everyone.
Rom 12:19 Never try to get revenge: leave that, my dear friends, to the Retribution. As scripture says: Vengeance is mine -- I will pay them back, the Lord promises.
Rom 12:20 And more: If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat; if thirsty, something to drink. By this, you will be heaping red-hot coals on his head.
Rom 12:21 Do not be mastered by evil, but master evil with good.
Rom 13:1 Everyone is to obey the governing authorities, because there is no authority except from God and so whatever authorities exist have been appointed by God.
Rom 13:2 So anyone who disobeys an authority is rebelling against God's ordinance; and rebels must expect to receive the condemnation they deserve.
Rom 13:3 Magistrates bring fear not to those who do good, but to those who do evil. So if you want to live with no fear of authority, live honestly and you will have its approval;
Rom 13:4 it is there to serve God for you and for your good. But if you do wrong, then you may well be afraid; because it is not for nothing that the symbol of authority is the sword: it is there to serve God, too, as his avenger, to bring retribution to wrongdoers.
Rom 13:5 You must be obedient, therefore, not only because of this retribution, but also for conscience's sake.
Rom 13:6 And this is why you should pay taxes, too, because the authorities are all serving God as his agents, even while they are busily occupied with that particular task.
Rom 13:7 Pay to each one what is due to each: taxes to the one to whom tax is due, tolls to the one to whom tolls are due, respect to the one to whom respect is due, honor to the one to whom honor is due.
Rom 13:8 The only thing you should owe to anyone is love for one another, for to love the other person is to fulfill the law.
Rom 13:9 All these: You shall not commit adultery, You shall not kill, You shall not steal, You shall not covet, and all the other commandments that there are, are summed up in this single phrase: You must love your neighbor as yourself.
Rom 13:10 Love can cause no harm to your neighbor, and so love is the fulfilment of the Law.
Rom 13:11 Besides, you know the time has come; the moment is here for you to stop sleeping and wake up, because by now our salvation is nearer than when we first began to believe.
Rom 13:12 The night is nearly over, daylight is on the way; so let us throw off everything that belongs to the darkness and equip ourselves for the light.
Rom 13:13 Let us live decently, as in the light of day; with no orgies or drunkenness, no promiscuity or licentiousness, and no wrangling or jealousy.
Rom 13:14 Let your armour be the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop worrying about how your disordered natural inclinations may be fulfilled.
Rom 14:1 Give a welcome to anyone whose faith is not strong, but do not get into arguments about doubtful points.
Rom 14:2 One person may have faith enough to eat any kind of food; another, less strong, will eat only vegetables.
Rom 14:3 Those who feel free to eat freely are not to condemn those who are unwilling to eat freely; nor must the person who does not eat freely pass judgement on the one who does -- because God has welcomed him.
Rom 14:4 And who are you, to sit in judgement over somebody else's servant? Whether he deserves to be upheld or to fall is for his own master to decide; and he shall be upheld, for the Lord has power to uphold him.
Rom 14:5 One person thinks that some days are holier than others, and another thinks them all equal. Let each of them be fully convinced in his own mind.
Rom 14:6 The one who makes special observance of a particular day observes it in honor of the Lord. So the one who eats freely, eats in honor of the Lord, making his thanksgiving to God; and the one who does not, abstains from eating in honor of the Lord and makes his thanksgiving to God.
Rom 14:7 For none of us lives for himself and none of us dies for himself;
Rom 14:8 while we are alive, we are living for the Lord, and when we die, we die for the Lord: and so, alive or dead, we belong to the Lord.
Rom 14:9 It was for this purpose that Christ both died and came to life again: so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Rom 14:10 Why, then, does one of you make himself judge over his brother, and why does another among you despise his brother? All of us will have to stand in front of the judgement-seat of God:
Rom 14:11 as scripture says: By my own life says the Lord, every knee shall bow before me, every tongue shall give glory to God.
Rom 14:12 It is to God, then, that each of us will have to give an account of himself.
Rom 14:13 Let us each stop passing judgement, therefore, on one another and decide instead that none of us will place obstacles in any brother's way, or anything that can bring him down.
Rom 14:14 I am sure, and quite convinced in the Lord Jesus, that no food is unclean in itself; it is only if someone classifies any kind of food as unclean, then for him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15 And indeed, if through any kind of food you are causing offense to a brother, then you are no longer being guided by love. You are not to let the food that you eat cause the ruin of anyone for whom Christ died.
Rom 14:16 A privilege of yours must not be allowed to give rise to harmful talk;
Rom 14:17 for it is not eating and drinking that make the kingdom of God, but the saving justice, the peace and the joy brought by the Holy Spirit.
Rom 14:18 It is the person who serves Christ in these things that will be approved by God and respected by everyone.
Rom 14:19 So then, let us be always seeking the ways which lead to peace and the ways in which we can support one another.
Rom 14:20 Do not wreck God's work for the sake of food. Certainly all foods are clean; but all the same, any kind can be evil for someone to whom it is an offense to eat it.
Rom 14:21 It is best to abstain from eating any meat, or drinking any wine, or from any other activity which might cause a brother to fall away, or to be scandalised, or to weaken.
Rom 14:22 Within yourself, before God, hold on to what you already believe. Blessed is the person whose principles do not condemn his practice.
Rom 14:23 But anyone who eats with qualms of conscience is condemned, because this eating does not spring from faith -- and every action which does not spring from faith is sin.
Rom 15:1 It is for us who are strong to bear with the susceptibilities of the weaker ones, and not please ourselves.
Rom 15:2 Each of us must consider his neighbor's good, so that we support one another.
Rom 15:3 Christ did not indulge his own feelings, either; indeed, as scripture says: The insults of those who insult you fall on me.
Rom 15:4 And all these things which were written so long ago were written so that we, learning perseverance and the encouragement which the scriptures give, should have hope.
Rom 15:5 Now the God of perseverance and encouragement give you all the same purpose, following the example of Christ Jesus,
Rom 15:6 so that you may together give glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one heart.
Rom 15:7 Accept one another, then, for the sake of God's glory, as Christ accepted you.
Rom 15:8 I tell you that Christ's work was to serve the circumcised, fulfilling the truthfulness of God by carrying out the promises made to the fathers,
Rom 15:9 and his work was also for the gentiles, so that they should give glory to God for his faithful love; as scripture says: For this I shall praise you among the nations and sing praise to your name.
Rom 15:10 And in another place it says: Nations, rejoice, with his people,
Rom 15:11 and in another place again: Praise the Lord, all nations, extol him, all peoples.
Rom 15:12 And in Isaiah, it says: The root of Jesse will appear, he who rises up to rule the nations, and in him the nations will put their hope.
Rom 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in your faith, so that in the power of the Holy Spirit you may be rich in hope.
Rom 15:14 My brothers, I am quite sure that you, in particular, are full of goodness, fully instructed and capable of correcting each other.
Rom 15:15 But I have special confidence in writing on some points to you, to refresh your memories, because of the grace that was given to me by God.
Rom 15:16 I was given grace to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the gentiles, dedicated to offer them the gospel of God, so that gentiles might become an acceptable offering, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Rom 15:17 So I can be proud, in Christ Jesus, of what I have done for God.
Rom 15:18 Of course I can dare to speak only of the things which Christ has done through me to win the allegiance of the gentiles, using what I have said and done,
Rom 15:19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God. In this way, from Jerusalem and all round, even as far as Illyricum, I have fully carried out the preaching of the gospel of Christ;
Rom 15:20 and what is more, it has been my rule to preach the gospel only where the name of Christ has not already been heard, for I do not build on another's foundations;
Rom 15:21 in accordance with scripture: Those who have never been told about him will see him, and those who have never heard about him will understand.
Rom 15:22 That is why I have been so often prevented from coming to see you;
Rom 15:23 now, however, as there is nothing more to keep me in these parts, I hope, after longing for many years past to visit you, to see you when I am on the way to Spain-
Rom 15:24 and after enjoying at least something of your company, to be sent on my way with your support.
Rom 15:25 But now I have undertaken to go to Jerusalem in the service of the holy people of God there,
Rom 15:26 since Macedonia and Achaia have chosen to make a generous contribution to the poor among God's holy people at Jerusalem.
Rom 15:27 Yes, they chose to; not that they did not owe it to them. For if the gentiles have been given a share in their spiritual possessions, then in return to give them help with material possessions is repaying a debt to them.
Rom 15:28 So when I have done this, and given this harvest into their possession, I shall visit you on the way to Spain.
Rom 15:29 I am sure that, when I do come to you, I shall come with the fullest blessing of Christ.
Rom 15:30 Meanwhile I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, that in your prayers to God for me you exert yourselves to help me;
Rom 15:31 praying that I may escape the unbelievers in Judaea, and that the aid I am carrying to Jerusalem will be acceptable to God's holy people.
Rom 15:32 Then I shall come to you, if God wills, for a happy time of relaxation in your company.
Rom 15:33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.
Rom 16:1 I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deaconess of the congregation (ekklesia)at Cenchreae;
Rom 16:2 give her, in the Lord, a welcome worthy of God's holy people, and help her with whatever she needs from you -- she herself has come to the help of many people, including myself.
Rom 16:3 My greetings to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in Christ Jesus,
Rom 16:4 who risked their own necks to save my life; to them, thanks not only from me, but from all the congregations (ekklesia) among the gentiles;
Rom 16:5 and my greetings to the congregation (ekklesia)at their house. Greetings to my dear friend Epaenetus, the first of Asia's offerings to Christ.
Rom 16:6 Greetings to Mary, who worked so hard for you.
Rom 16:7 Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.
Rom 16:8 Greetings to Ampliatus, my dear friend in the Lord.
Rom 16:9 Greetings to Urban, my fellow-worker in Christ, and to my dear friend Stachys.
Rom 16:10 Greetings to Apelles, proved servant of Christ. Greetings to all the household of Aristobulus.
Rom 16:11 Greetings to my kinsman, Herodion, and greetings to those who belong to the Lord in the household of Narcissus.
Rom 16:12 Greetings to Tryphaena and Tryphosa who work hard in the Lord; greetings to my dear friend Persis, also a very hard worker in the Lord.
Rom 16:13 Greetings to Rufus, chosen servant of the Lord, and to his mother -- a mother to me too.
Rom 16:14 Greetings to Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas, and the brothers who are with them.
Rom 16:15 Greetings to Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas and all God's holy people who are with them.
Rom 16:16 Greet each other with the holy kiss. All the congregations (ekklesia) of Christ send their greetings.
Rom 16:17 I urge you, brothers, be on your guard against the people who are out to stir up disagreements and bring up difficulties against the teaching which you learnt. Avoid them.
Rom 16:18 People of that sort are servants not of our Lord Christ, but of their own greed; and with talk that sounds smooth and reasonable they deceive the minds of the unwary.
Rom 16:19 Your obedience has become known to everyone, and I am very pleased with you for it; but I should want you to be learned only in what is good, and unsophisticated about all that is evil.
Rom 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Rom 16:21 Timothy, who is working with me, sends greetings to you, and so do my kinsmen Lucius, Jason and Sosipater.
Rom 16:22 I, Tertius, who am writing this letter, greet you in the Lord.
Rom 16:23 Greetings to you from Gaius, my host here, and host of the whole church. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends greetings to you, and our brother Quartus.
Rom 16:24
Rom 16:25 And now to him who can make you strong in accordance with the gospel that I preach and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in accordance with that mystery which for endless ages was kept secret
Rom 16:26 but now (as the prophets wrote) is revealed, as the eternal God commanded, to be made known to all the nations, so that they obey in faith:
Rom 16:27 to him, the only wise God, give glory through Jesus Christ for ever and ever. Amen.
1Co 1:1 Paul, called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Sosthenes, our brother,
1Co 1:2 to the congregation (ekklesia)of God in Corinth, to those who have been consecrated in Christ Jesus and called to be God's holy people, with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord as well as ours.
1Co 1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 1:4 I am continually thanking God about you, for the grace of God which you have been given in Christ Jesus;
1Co 1:5 in him you have been richly endowed in every kind of utterance and knowledge;
1Co 1:6 so firmly has witness to Christ taken root in you.
1Co 1:7 And so you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed;
1Co 1:8 he will continue to give you strength till the very end, so that you will be irreproachable on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Co 1:9 You can rely on God, who has called you to be partners with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
1Co 1:10 Brothers, I urge you, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, not to have factions among yourselves but all to be in agreement in what you profess; so that you are perfectly united in your beliefs and judgements.
1Co 1:11 From what Chloe's people have been telling me about you, brothers, it is clear that there are serious differences among you.
1Co 1:12 What I mean is this: every one of you is declaring, 'I belong to Paul,' or 'I belong to Apollos,' or 'I belong to Cephas,' or 'I belong to Christ.'
1Co 1:13 Has Christ been split up? Was it Paul that was crucified for you, or was it in Paul's name that you were baptised?
1Co 1:14 I am thankful I did not baptise any of you, except Crispus and Gaius,
1Co 1:15 so that no one can say that you were baptised in my name.
1Co 1:16 Yes, I did baptise the family of Stephanas, too; but besides these I do not think I baptised anyone.
1Co 1:17 After all, Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the gospel; and not by means of wisdom of language, wise words which would make the cross of Christ pointless.
1Co 1:18 The message of the cross is folly for those who are on the way to ruin, but for those of us who are on the road to salvation it is the power of God.
1Co 1:19 As scripture says: I am going to destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of any who understand.
1Co 1:20 Where are the philosophers? Where are the experts? And where are the debaters of this age? Do you not see how God has shown up human wisdom as folly?
1Co 1:21 Since in the wisdom of God the world was unable to recognize God through wisdom, it was God's own pleasure to save believers through the folly of the gospel.
1Co 1:22 While the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom,
1Co 1:23 we are preaching a crucified Christ: to the Jews an obstacle they cannot get over, to the gentiles foolishness,
1Co 1:24 but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is both the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1Co 1:25 God's folly is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
1Co 1:26 Consider, brothers, how you were called; not many of you are wise by human standards, not many influential, not many from noble families.
1Co 1:27 No, God chose those who by human standards are fools to shame the wise; he chose those who by human standards are weak to shame the strong,
1Co 1:28 those who by human standards are common and contemptible -- indeed those who count for nothing -- to reduce to nothing all those that do count for something,
1Co 1:29 so that no human being might feel boastful before God.
1Co 1:30 It is by him that you exist in Christ Jesus, who for us was made wisdom from God, and saving justice and holiness and redemption.
1Co 1:31 As scripture says: If anyone wants to boast, let him boast of the Lord.
1Co 2:1 Now when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with any brilliance of oratory or wise argument to announce to you the mystery of God.
1Co 2:2 I was resolved that the only knowledge I would have while I was with you was knowledge of Jesus, and of him as the crucified Christ.
1Co 2:3 I came among you in weakness, in fear and great trembling
1Co 2:4 and what I spoke and proclaimed was not meant to convince by philosophical argument, but to demonstrate the convincing power of the Spirit,
1Co 2:5 so that your faith should depend not on human wisdom but on the power of God.
1Co 2:6 But still, to those who have reached maturity, we do talk of a wisdom, not, it is true, a philosophy of this age or of the rulers of this age, who will not last long now.
1Co 2:7 It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, which God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began.
1Co 2:8 None of the rulers of the age recognized it; for if they had recognized it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;
1Co 2:9 but it is as scripture says: What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, what the mind of man cannot visualise; all that God has prepared for those who love him;
1Co 2:10 to us, though, God has given revelation through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God.
1Co 2:11 After all, is there anyone who knows the qualities of anyone except his own spirit, within him; and in the same way, nobody knows the qualities of God except the Spirit of God.
1Co 2:12 Now, the Spirit we have received is not the spirit of the world but God's own Spirit, so that we may understand the lavish gifts God has given us.
1Co 2:13 And these are what we speak of, not in the terms learnt from human philosophy, but in terms learnt from the Spirit, fitting spiritual language to spiritual things.
1Co 2:14 The natural person has no room for the gifts of God's Spirit; to him they are folly; he cannot recognize them, because their value can be assessed only in the Spirit.
1Co 2:15 The spiritual person, on the other hand, can assess the value of everything, and that person's value cannot be assessed by anybody else.
1Co 2:16 For: who has ever known the mind of the Lord? Who has ever been his adviser? But we are those who have the mind of Christ.
1Co 3:1 And so, brothers, I was not able to talk to you as spiritual people; I had to talk to you as people still living by your natural inclinations, still infants in Christ;
1Co 3:2 I fed you with milk and not solid food, for you were not yet able to take it -- and even now, you are still not able to,
1Co 3:3 for you are still living by your natural inclinations. As long as there are jealousy and rivalry among you, that surely means that you are still living by your natural inclinations and by merely human principles.
1Co 3:4 While there is one that says, 'I belong to Paul' and another that says, 'I belong to Apollos' are you not being only too human?
1Co 3:5 For what is Apollos and what is Paul? The servants through whom you came to believe, and each has only what the Lord has given him.
1Co 3:6 I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but God gave growth.
1Co 3:7 In this, neither the planter nor the waterer counts for anything; only God, who gives growth.
1Co 3:8 It is all one who does the planting and who does the watering, and each will have the proper pay for the work that he has done.
1Co 3:9 After all, we do share in God's work; you are God's farm, God's building.
1Co 3:10 By the grace of God which was given to me, I laid the foundations like a trained master-builder, and someone else is building on them. Now each one must be careful how he does the building.
1Co 3:11 For nobody can lay down any other foundation than the one which is there already, namely Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 On this foundation, different people may build in gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay or straw
1Co 3:13 but each person's handiwork will be shown for what it is. The Day which dawns in fire will make it clear and the fire itself will test the quality of each person's work.
1Co 3:14 The one whose work stands up to it will be given his wages;
1Co 3:15 the one whose work is burnt down will suffer the loss of it, though he himself will be saved; he will be saved as someone might expect to be saved from a fire.
1Co 3:16 Do you not realize that you are a temple of God with the Spirit of God living in you?
1Co 3:17 If anybody should destroy the temple of God, God will destroy that person, because God's temple is holy; and you are that temple.
1Co 3:18 There is no room for self-delusion. Any one of you who thinks he is wise by worldly standards must learn to be a fool in order to be really wise.
1Co 3:19 For the wisdom of the world is folly to God. As scripture says: He traps the crafty in the snare of their own cunning
1Co 3:20 and again: The Lord knows the plans of the wise and how insipid they are.
1Co 3:21 So there is to be no boasting about human beings: everything belongs to you,
1Co 3:22 whether it is Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, the world, life or death, the present or the future -- all belong to you;
1Co 3:23 but you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.
1Co 4:1 People should think of us as Christ's servants, stewards entrusted with the mysteries of God.
1Co 4:2 In such a matter, what is expected of stewards is that each one should be found trustworthy.
1Co 4:3 It is of no importance to me how you or any other human court may judge me: I will not even be the judge of my own self.
1Co 4:4 It is true that my conscience does not reproach me, but that is not enough to justify me: it is the Lord who is my judge.
1Co 4:5 For that reason, do not judge anything before the due time, until the Lord comes; he will bring to light everything that is hidden in darkness and reveal the designs of all hearts. Then everyone will receive from God the appropriate commendation.
1Co 4:6 I have applied all this to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that you can learn how the saying, 'Nothing beyond what is written' is true of us: no individual among you must become filled with his own importance and make comparisons, to another's detriment.
1Co 4:7 Who made you so important? What have you got that was not given to you? And if it was given to you, why are you boasting as though it were your own?
1Co 4:8 You already have everything -- you are rich already -- you have come into your kingdom, without any help from us! Well, I wish you were kings and we could be kings with you!
1Co 4:9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on show right at the end, like men condemned to death: we have been exhibited as a spectacle to the whole universe, both angelic and human.
1Co 4:10 Here we are, fools for Christ's sake, while you are the clever ones in Christ; we are weak, while you are strong; you are honored, while we are disgraced.
1Co 4:11 To this day, we go short of food and drink and clothes, we are beaten up and we have no homes;
1Co 4:12 we earn our living by labouring with our own hands; when we are cursed, we answer with a blessing; when we are hounded, we endure it passively;
1Co 4:13 when we are insulted, we give a courteous answer. We are treated even now as the dregs of the world, the very lowest scum.
1Co 4:14 I am writing all this not to make you ashamed but simply to remind you, as my dear children;
1Co 4:15 for even though you might have ten thousand slaves to look after you in Christ, you still have no more than one father, and it was I who fathered you in Christ Jesus, by the gospel.
1Co 4:16 That is why I urge you to take me as your pattern
1Co 4:17 and why I have sent you Timothy, a dear and faithful son to me in the Lord, who will remind you of my principles of conduct in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.
1Co 4:18 On the assumption that I was not coming to you, some of you have become filled with your own self-importance;
1Co 4:19 but I shall be coming to you soon, the Lord willing, and then I shall find out not what these self-important people say, but what power they have.
1Co 4:20 For the kingdom of God consists not in spoken words but in power.
1Co 4:21 What do you want then? Am I to come to you with a stick in my hand or in love, and with a spirit of gentleness?
1Co 5:1 It is widely reported that there is sexual immorality among you, immorality of a kind that is not found even among gentiles: that one of you is living with his stepmother.
1Co 5:2 And you so filled with your own self-importance! It would have been better if you had been grieving bitterly, so that the man who has done this thing were turned out of the community.
1Co 5:3 For my part, however distant I am physically, I am present in spirit and have already condemned the man who behaved in this way, just as though I were present in person.
1Co 5:4 When you have gathered together in the name of our Lord Jesus, with the presence of my spirit, and in the power of our Lord Jesus,
1Co 5:5 hand such a man over to Satan, to be destroyed as far as natural life is concerned, so that on the Day of the Lord his spirit may be saved.
1Co 5:6 Your self-satisfaction is ill founded. Do you not realize that only a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough?
1Co 5:7 Throw out the old yeast so that you can be the fresh dough, unleavened as you are. For our Passover has been sacrificed, that is, Christ;
1Co 5:8 let us keep the feast, then, with none of the old yeast and no leavening of evil and wickedness, but only the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
1Co 5:9 In my letter, I wrote to you that you should have nothing to do with people living immoral lives.
1Co 5:10 I was not including everybody in this present world who is sexually immoral, or everybody who is greedy, or dishonest or worships false gods -- that would mean you would have to cut yourselves off completely from the world.
1Co 5:11 In fact what I meant was that you were not to have anything to do with anyone going by the name of brother who is sexually immoral, or is greedy, or worships false gods, or is a slanderer or a drunkard or dishonest; never even have a meal with anybody of that kind.
1Co 5:12 It is no concern of mine to judge outsiders. It is for you to judge those who are inside, is it not?
1Co 5:13 But outsiders are for God to judge. You must banish this evil-doer from among you.
1Co 6:1 Is one of you with a complaint against another so brazen as to seek judgement from sinners and not from God's holy people?
1Co 6:2 Do you not realize that the holy people of God are to be the judges of the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent for petty cases?
1Co 6:3 Do you not realize that we shall be the judges of angels? - then quite certainly over matters of this life.
1Co 6:4 But when you have matters of this life to be judged, you bring them before those who are of no account in the Church!
1Co 6:5 I say this to make you ashamed of yourselves. Can it really be that it is impossible to find in the community one sensible person capable of deciding questions between brothers,
1Co 6:6 and that this is why brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers?
1Co 6:7 No; it is a fault in you, by itself, that one of you should go to law against another at all: why do you not prefer to suffer injustice, why not prefer to be defrauded?
1Co 6:8 And here you are, doing the injustice and the defrauding, and to your own brothers.
1Co 6:9 Do you not realize that people who do evil will never inherit the kingdom of God? Make no mistake -- the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, the self-indulgent, sodomites,
1Co 6:10 thieves, misers, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers, none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.
1Co 6:11 Some of you used to be of that kind: but you have been washed clean, you have been sanctified, and you have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and through the Spirit of our God.
1Co 6:12 'For me everything is permissible'; maybe, but not everything does good. True, for me everything is permissible, but I am determined not to be dominated by anything.
1Co 6:13 Foods are for the stomach, and the stomach is for foods; and God will destroy them both. But the body is not for sexual immorality;
1Co 6:14 it is for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. God raised up the Lord and he will raise us up too by his power.
1Co 6:15 Do you not realize that your bodies are members of Christ's body; do you think one can take parts of Christ's body and join them to the body of a prostitute? Out of the question!
1Co 6:16 Or do you not realize that anyone who attaches himself to a prostitute is one body with her, since the two, as it is said, become one flesh.
1Co 6:17 But anyone who attaches himself to the Lord is one spirit with him.
1Co 6:18 Keep away from sexual immorality. All other sins that people may commit are done outside the body; but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.
1Co 6:19 Do you not realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you and whom you received from God?
1Co 6:20 You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God.
1Co 7:1 Now for the questions about which you wrote. Yes, it is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman;
1Co 7:2 yet to avoid immorality every man should have his own wife and every woman her own husband.
1Co 7:3 The husband must give to his wife what she has a right to expect, and so too the wife to her husband.
1Co 7:4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and in the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.
1Co 7:5 You must not deprive each other, except by mutual consent for a limited time, to leave yourselves free for prayer, and to come together again afterwards; otherwise Satan may take advantage of any lack of self-control to put you to the test.
1Co 7:6 I am telling you this as a concession, not an order.
1Co 7:7 I should still like everyone to be as I am myself; but everyone has his own gift from God, one this kind and the next something different.
1Co 7:8 To the unmarried and to widows I say: it is good for them to stay as they are, like me.
1Co 7:9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry, since it is better to be married than to be burnt up.
1Co 7:10 To the married I give this ruling, and this is not mine but the Lord's: a wife must not be separated from her husband-
1Co 7:11 or if she has already left him, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband -- and a husband must not divorce his wife.
1Co 7:12 For other cases these instructions are my own, not the Lord's. If one of the brothers has a wife who is not a believer, and she is willing to stay with him, he should not divorce her;
1Co 7:13 and if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to stay with her, she should not divorce her husband.
1Co 7:14 You see, the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through the brother. If this were not so, your children would be unclean, whereas in fact they are holy.
1Co 7:15 But if the unbeliever chooses to leave, then let the separation take place: in these circumstances, the brother or sister is no longer tied. But God has called you to live in peace:
1Co 7:16 as a wife, how can you tell whether you are to be the salvation of your husband; as a husband, how can you tell whether you are to be the salvation of your wife?
1Co 7:17 Anyway let everyone continue in the part which the Lord has allotted to him, as he was when God called him. This is the rule that I give to all the congregations (ekklesia).
1Co 7:18 If a man who is called has already been circumcised, then he must stay circumcised; when an uncircumcised man is called, he may not be circumcised.
1Co 7:19 To be circumcised is of no importance, and to be uncircumcised is of no importance; what is important is the keeping of God's commandments.
1Co 7:20 Everyone should stay in whatever state he was in when he was called.
1Co 7:21 So, if when you were called, you were a slave, do not think it matters -- even if you have a chance of freedom, you should prefer to make full use of your condition as a slave.
1Co 7:22 You see, anyone who was called in the Lord while a slave, is a freeman of the Lord; and in the same way, anyone who was free when called, is a slave of Christ.
1Co 7:23 You have been bought at a price; do not be slaves now to any human being.
1Co 7:24 Each one of you, brothers, is to stay before God in the state in which you were called.
1Co 7:25 About people remaining virgin, I have no directions from the Lord, but I give my own opinion as a person who has been granted the Lord's mercy to be faithful.
1Co 7:26 Well then, because of the stress which is weighing upon us, the right thing seems to be this: it is good for people to stay as they are.
1Co 7:27 If you are joined to a wife, do not seek to be released; if you are freed of a wife, do not look for a wife.
1Co 7:28 However, if you do get married, that is not a sin, and it is not sinful for a virgin to enter upon marriage. But such people will have the hardships consequent on human nature, and I would like you to be without that.
1Co 7:29 What I mean, brothers, is that the time has become limited, and from now on, those who have spouses should live as though they had none;
1Co 7:30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning; those who enjoy life as though they did not enjoy it; those who have been buying property as though they had no possessions;
1Co 7:31 and those who are involved with the world as though they were people not engrossed in it. Because this world as we know it is passing away.
1Co 7:32 I should like you to have your minds free from all worry. The unmarried man gives his mind to the Lord's affairs and to how he can please the Lord;
1Co 7:33 but the man who is married gives his mind to the affairs of this world and to how he can please his wife, and he is divided in mind.
1Co 7:34 So, too, the unmarried woman, and the virgin, gives her mind to the Lord's affairs and to being holy in body and spirit; but the married woman gives her mind to the affairs of this world and to how she can please her husband.
1Co 7:35 I am saying this only to help you, not to put a bridle on you, but so that everything is as it should be, and you are able to give your undivided attention to the Lord.
1Co 7:36 If someone with strong passions thinks that he is behaving badly towards his fiance'e and that things should take their due course, he should follow his desires. There is no sin in it; they should marry.
1Co 7:37 But if he stands firm in his resolution, without any compulsion but with full control of his own will, and decides to let her remain as his fiance'e, then he is acting well.
1Co 7:38 In other words, he who marries his fiance'e is doing well, and he who does not, better still.
1Co 7:39 A wife is tied as long as her husband is alive. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry anybody she likes, only it must be in the Lord.
1Co 7:40 She would be happier if she stayed as she is, to my way of thinking -- and I believe that I too have the Spirit of God.
1Co 8:1 Now about food which has been dedicated to false gods. We are well aware that all of us have knowledge; but while knowledge puffs up, love is what builds up.
1Co 8:2 Someone may think that he has full knowledge of something and yet not know it as well as he should;
1Co 8:3 but someone who loves God is known by God.
1Co 8:4 On the subject of eating foods dedicated to false gods, we are well aware that none of the false gods exists in reality and that there is no God other than the One.
1Co 8:5 Though there are so-called gods, in the heavens or on earth -- and there are plenty of gods and plenty of lords-
1Co 8:6 yet for us there is only one God, the Father from whom all things come and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come and through whom we exist.
1Co 8:7 However, not everybody has this knowledge. There are some in whose consciences false gods still play such a part that they take the food as though it had been dedicated to a god; then their conscience, being vulnerable, is defiled,
1Co 8:8 But of course food cannot make us acceptable to God; we lose nothing by not eating it, we gain nothing by eating it.
1Co 8:9 Only be careful that this freedom of yours does not in any way turn into an obstacle to trip those who are vulnerable.
1Co 8:10 Suppose someone sees you, who have the knowledge, sitting eating in the temple of some false god, do you not think that his conscience, vulnerable as it is, may be encouraged to eat foods dedicated to false gods?
1Co 8:11 And then it would be through your knowledge that this brother for whom Christ died, vulnerable as he is, has been lost.
1Co 8:12 So, sinning against your brothers and wounding their vulnerable consciences, you would be sinning against Christ.
1Co 8:13 That is why, if food can be the cause of a brother's downfall, I will never eat meat any more, rather than cause my brother's downfall.
1Co 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
1Co 9:2 Even if to others I am not an apostle, to you at any rate I am, for you are the seal of my apostolate in the Lord.
1Co 9:3 To those who want to interrogate me, this is my answer.
1Co 9:4 Have we not every right to eat and drink?
1Co 9:5 And every right to be accompanied by a Christian wife, like the other apostles, like the brothers of the Lord, and like Cephas?
1Co 9:6 Are Barnabas and I the only ones who have no right to stop working?
1Co 9:7 What soldier would ever serve in the army at his own expense? And who is there who would plant a vineyard and never eat the fruit from it; or would keep a flock and not feed on the milk from his flock?
1Co 9:8 Do not think that this is merely worldly wisdom. Does not the Law say exactly the same? It is written in the Law of Moses:
1Co 9:9 You must not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn. Is it about oxen that God is concerned here,
1Co 9:10 or is it not said entirely for our sake? Clearly it was written for our sake, because it is right that whoever ploughs should plough with the expectation of having his share, and whoever threshes should thresh with the expectation of having his share.
1Co 9:11 If we have sown the seed of spiritual things in you, is it too much to ask that we should receive from you a crop of material things?
1Co 9:12 Others have been given such rights over you and do we not deserve more? In fact, we have never exercised this right; on the contrary, we have put up with anything rather than obstruct the gospel of Christ in any way.
1Co 9:13 Do you not realize that the ministers in the Temple get their food from the Temple, and those who serve at the altar can claim their share from the altar?
1Co 9:14 In the same way, the Lord gave the instruction that those who preach the gospel should get their living from the gospel.
1Co 9:15 However, I have never availed myself of any rights of this kind; and I have not written this to secure such treatment for myself; I would rather die than that . . . No one shall take from me this ground of boasting.
1Co 9:16 In fact, preaching the gospel gives me nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion and I should be in trouble if I failed to do it.
1Co 9:17 If I did it on my own initiative I would deserve a reward; but if I do it under compulsion I am simply accepting a task entrusted to me.
1Co 9:18 What reward do I have, then? That in my preaching I offer the gospel free of charge to avoid using the rights which the gospel allows me.
1Co 9:19 So though I was not a slave to any human being, I put myself in slavery to all people, to win as many as I could.
1Co 9:20 To the Jews I made myself as a Jew, to win the Jews; to those under the Law as one under the Law (though I am not), in order to win those under the Law;
1Co 9:21 to those outside the Law as one outside the Law, though I am not outside the Law but under Christ's law, to win those outside the Law.
1Co 9:22 To the weak, I made myself weak, to win the weak. I accommodated myself to people in all kinds of different situations, so that by all possible means I might bring some to salvation.
1Co 9:23 All this I do for the sake of the gospel, that I may share its benefits with others.
1Co 9:24 Do you not realize that, though all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, only one of them gets the prize? Run like that -- to win.
1Co 9:25 Every athlete concentrates completely on training, and this is to win a wreath that will wither, whereas ours will never wither.
1Co 9:26 So that is how I run, not without a clear goal; and how I box, not wasting blows on air.
1Co 9:27 I punish my body and bring it under control, to avoid any risk that, having acted as herald for others, I myself may be disqualified.
1Co 10:1 I want you to be quite certain, brothers, that our ancestors all had the cloud over them and all passed through the sea.
1Co 10:2 In the cloud and in the sea they were all baptised into Moses;
1Co 10:3 all ate the same spiritual food
1Co 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink, since they drank from the spiritual rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ.
1Co 10:5 In spite of this, God was not pleased with most of them, and their corpses were scattered over the desert.
1Co 10:6 Now these happenings were examples, for our benefit, so that we should never set our hearts, as they did, on evil things;
1Co 10:7 nor are you to worship false gods, as some of them did, as it says in scripture: The people sat down to eat and drink, and afterwards got up to amuse themselves.
1Co 10:8 Nor, again, are we to fall into sexual immorality; some of them did this, and twenty-three thousand met their downfall in one day.
1Co 10:9 And we are not to put the Lord to the test; some of them put him to the test, and they were killed by snakes.
1Co 10:10 Never complain; some of them complained, and they were killed by the Destroyer.
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were described in writing to be a lesson for us, to whom it has fallen to live in the last days of the ages.
1Co 10:12 Everyone, no matter how firmly he thinks he is standing, must be careful he does not fall.
1Co 10:13 None of the trials which have come upon you is more than a human being can stand. You can trust that God will not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you to put up with it.
1Co 10:14 For that reason, my dear friends, have nothing to do with the worship of false gods.
1Co 10:15 I am talking to you as sensible people; weigh up for yourselves what I have to say.
1Co 10:16 The blessing-cup, which we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ; and the loaf of bread which we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?
1Co 10:17 And as there is one loaf, so we, although there are many of us, are one single body, for we all share in the one loaf.
1Co 10:18 Now compare the natural people of Israel: is it not true that those who eat the sacrifices share the altar?
1Co 10:19 What does this mean? That the dedication of food to false gods amounts to anything? Or that false gods themselves amount to anything?
1Co 10:20 No, it does not; simply that when pagans sacrifice, what is sacrificed by them is sacrificed to demons who are not God. I do not want you to share with demons.
1Co 10:21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons as well; you cannot have a share at the Lord's table and the demons' table as well.
1Co 10:22 Do we really want to arouse the Lord's jealousy; are we stronger than he is?
1Co 10:23 'Everything is permissible'; maybe so, but not everything does good. True, everything is permissible, but not everything builds people up.
1Co 10:24 Nobody should be looking for selfish advantage, but everybody for someone else's.
1Co 10:25 Eat anything that is sold in butchers' shops; there is no need to ask questions for conscience's sake,
1Co 10:26 since To the Lord belong the earth and all it contains.
1Co 10:27 If an unbeliever invites you to a meal, go if you want to, and eat whatever is put before you; you need not ask questions of conscience first.
1Co 10:28 But if someone says to you, 'This food has been offered in sacrifice,' do not eat it, out of consideration for the person that told you, for conscience's sake-
1Co 10:29 not your own conscience, I mean, but the other person's. Why should my freedom be governed by somebody else's conscience?
1Co 10:30 Provided that I accept it with gratitude, why should I be blamed for eating food for which I give thanks?
1Co 10:31 Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God.
1Co 10:32 Never be a cause of offense, either to Jews or to Greeks or to the congregation (ekklesia)of God,
1Co 10:33 just as I try to accommodate everybody in everything, not looking for my own advantage, but for the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved.
1Co 11:1 Take me as your pattern, just as I take Christ for mine.
1Co 11:2 I congratulate you for remembering me so consistently and for maintaining the traditions exactly as I passed them on to you.
1Co 11:3 But I should like you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
1Co 11:4 For any man to pray or to prophesy with his head covered shows disrespect for his head.
1Co 11:5 And for a woman to pray or prophesy with her head uncovered shows disrespect for her head; it is exactly the same as if she had her hair shaved off.
1Co 11:6 Indeed, if a woman does go without a veil, she should have her hair cut off too; but if it is a shameful thing for a woman to have her hair cut off or shaved off, then she should wear a veil.
1Co 11:7 But for a man it is not right to have his head covered, since he is the image of God and reflects God's glory; but woman is the reflection of man's glory.
1Co 11:8 For man did not come from woman; no, woman came from man;
1Co 11:9 nor was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man:
1Co 11:10 and this is why it is right for a woman to wear on her head a sign of the authority over her, because of the angels.
1Co 11:11 However, in the Lord, though woman is nothing without man, man is nothing without woman;
1Co 11:12 and though woman came from man, so does every man come from a woman, and everything comes from God.
1Co 11:13 Decide for yourselves: does it seem fitting that a woman should pray to God without a veil?
1Co 11:14 Does not nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,
1Co 11:15 but when a woman has long hair, it is her glory? After all, her hair was given to her to be a covering.
1Co 11:16 If anyone wants to be contentious, I say that we have no such custom, nor do any of the congregations (ekklesia) of God.
1Co 11:17 Now that I am on the subject of instructions, I cannot congratulate you on the meetings you hold; they do more harm than good.
1Co 11:18 In the first place, I hear that when you all come together in your assembly, there are separate factions among you, and to some extent I believe it.
1Co 11:19 It is no bad thing, either, that there should be differing groups among you so that those who are to be trusted among you can be clearly recognized.
1Co 11:20 So, when you meet together, it is not the Lord's Supper that you eat;
1Co 11:21 for when the eating begins, each one of you has his own supper first, and there is one going hungry while another is getting drunk.
1Co 11:22 Surely you have homes for doing your eating and drinking in? Or have you such disregard for God's assembly that you can put to shame those who have nothing? What am I to say to you? Congratulate you? On this I cannot congratulate you.
1Co 11:23 For the tradition I received from the Lord and also handed on to you is that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,
1Co 11:24 and after he had given thanks, he broke it, and he said, 'This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.'
1Co 11:25 And in the same way, with the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Whenever you drink it, do this as a memorial of me.'
1Co 11:26 Whenever you eat this bread, then, and drink this cup, you are proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes.
1Co 11:27 Therefore anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily is answerable for the body and blood of the Lord.
1Co 11:28 Everyone is to examine himself and only then eat of the bread or drink from the cup;
1Co 11:29 because a person who eats and drinks without recognising the body is eating and drinking his own condemnation.
1Co 11:30 That is why many of you are weak and ill and a good number have died.
1Co 11:31 If we were critical of ourselves we would not be condemned,
1Co 11:32 but when we are judged by the Lord, we are corrected by the Lord to save us from being condemned along with the world.
1Co 11:33 So then, my brothers, when you meet for the Meal, wait for each other;
1Co 11:34 anyone who is hungry should eat at home. Then your meeting will not bring your condemnation. The other matters I shall arrange when I come.
1Co 12:1 About the gifts of the Spirit, brothers, I want you to be quite certain.
1Co 12:2 You remember that, when you were pagans, you were irresistibly drawn to inarticulate heathen gods.
1Co 12:3 Because of that, I want to make it quite clear to you that no one who says 'A curse on Jesus' can be speaking in the Spirit of God, and nobody is able to say, 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit.
1Co 12:4 There are many different gifts, but it is always the same Spirit;
1Co 12:5 there are many different ways of serving, but it is always the same Lord.
1Co 12:6 There are many different forms of activity, but in everybody it is the same God who is at work in them all.
1Co 12:7 The particular manifestation of the Spirit granted to each one is to be used for the general good.
1Co 12:8 To one is given from the Spirit the gift of utterance expressing wisdom; to another the gift of utterance expressing knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit;
1Co 12:9 to another, faith, from the same Spirit; and to another, the gifts of healing, through this one Spirit;
1Co 12:10 to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the power of distinguishing spirits; to one, the gift of different tongues and to another, the interpretation of tongues.
1Co 12:11 But at work in all these is one and the same Spirit, distributing them at will to each individual.
1Co 12:12 For as with the human body which is a unity although it has many parts -- all the parts of the body, though many, still making up one single body -- so it is with Christ.
1Co 12:13 We were baptised into one body in a single Spirit, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as free men, and we were all given the same Spirit to drink.
1Co 12:14 And indeed the body consists not of one member but of many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot were to say, 'I am not a hand and so I do not belong to the body,' it does not belong to the body any the less for that.
1Co 12:16 Or if the ear were to say, 'I am not an eye, and so I do not belong to the body,' that would not stop its belonging to the body.
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were just an eye, how would there be any hearing? If the whole body were hearing, how would there be any smelling?
1Co 12:18 As it is, God has put all the separate parts into the body as he chose.
1Co 12:19 If they were all the same part, how could it be a body?
1Co 12:20 As it is, the parts are many but the body is one.
1Co 12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' and nor can the head say to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'
1Co 12:22 What is more, it is precisely the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest which are the indispensable ones.
1Co 12:23 It is the parts of the body which we consider least dignified that we surround with the greatest dignity; and our less presentable parts are given greater presentability
1Co 12:24 which our presentable parts do not need. God has composed the body so that greater dignity is given to the parts which were without it,
1Co 12:25 and so that there may not be disagreements inside the body but each part may be equally concerned for all the others.
1Co 12:26 If one part is hurt, all the parts share its pain. And if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
1Co 12:27 Now Christ's body is yourselves, each of you with a part to play in the whole.
1Co 12:28 And those whom God has appointed in the congregation (ekklesia)are, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers; after them, miraculous powers, then gifts of healing, helpful acts, guidance, various kinds of tongues.
1Co 12:29 Are all of them apostles? Or all prophets? Or all teachers? Or all miracle-workers?
1Co 12:30 Do all have the gifts of healing? Do all of them speak in tongues and all interpret them?
1Co 12:31 Set your mind on the higher gifts. And now I am going to put before you the best way of all.
1Co 13:1 Though I command languages both human and angelic -- if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing.
1Co 13:2 And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains -- if I am without love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned -- if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
1Co 13:4 Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited,
1Co 13:5 it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offense or store up grievances.
1Co 13:6 Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth.
1Co 13:7 It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.
1Co 13:8 Love never comes to an end. But if there are prophecies, they will be done away with; if tongues, they will fall silent; and if knowledge, it will be done away with.
1Co 13:9 For we know only imperfectly, and we prophesy imperfectly;
1Co 13:10 but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will be done away with.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways.
1Co 13:12 Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known.
1Co 13:13 As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is love.
1Co 14:1 Make love your aim; but be eager, too, for spiritual gifts, and especially for prophesying.
1Co 14:2 Those who speak in a tongue speak to God, but not to other people, because nobody understands them; they are speaking in the Spirit and the meaning is hidden.
1Co 14:3 On the other hand, someone who prophesies speaks to other people, building them up and giving them encouragement and reassurance.
1Co 14:4 Those who speak in a tongue may build themselves up, but those who prophesy build up the community.
1Co 14:5 While I should like you all to speak in tongues, I would much rather you could prophesy; since those who prophesy are of greater importance than those who speak in tongues, unless they can interpret what they say so that the congregation (ekklesia)is built up by it.
1Co 14:6 Now suppose, brothers, I come to you and speak in tongues, what good shall I do you if my speaking provides no revelation or knowledge or prophecy or instruction?
1Co 14:7 It is the same with an inanimate musical instrument. If it does not make any distinction between notes, how can one recognize what is being played on flute or lyre?
1Co 14:8 If the trumpet sounds a call which is unrecognisable, who is going to get ready for the attack?
1Co 14:9 It is the same with you: if you do not use your tongue to produce speech that can be readily understood, how can anyone know what you are saying? You will be talking to the air.
1Co 14:10 However many the languages used in the world, all of them use sound;
1Co 14:11 but if I do not understand the meaning of the sound, I am a barbarian to the person who is speaking, and the speaker is a barbarian to me.
1Co 14:12 So with you, as you are eager to have spiritual powers, aim to be rich in those which build up the community.
1Co 14:13 That is why anybody who speaks in a tongue must pray that he may be given the interpretation.
1Co 14:14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit may be praying but my mind derives no fruit from it.
1Co 14:15 What then? I shall pray with the spirit, but I shall pray with the mind as well: I shall sing praises with the spirit and I shall sing praises with the mind as well.
1Co 14:16 Otherwise, if you say your blessing only with the spirit, how is the uninitiated person going to answer 'Amen' to your thanksgiving, without understanding what you are saying?
1Co 14:17 You may be making your thanksgiving well, but the other person is not built up at all.
1Co 14:18 I thank God that I speak with tongues more than any of you;
1Co 14:19 all the same, when I am in the assembly I would rather say five words with my mind, to instruct others as well, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
1Co 14:20 Brothers, do not remain children in your thinking; infants in wickedness-agreed, but in your thinking grown-ups.
1Co 14:21 It says in the written Law: In strange tongues and in a foreign language I will talk to this nation, and even so they will refuse to listen, says the Lord.
1Co 14:22 So then, strange languages are significant not for believers, but for unbelievers; whereas on the other hand, prophesying is not for unbelievers, but for believers.
1Co 14:23 Suppose that, if the whole congregation were meeting and all of them speaking in tongues, and some uninitiated people or unbelievers were to come in, don't you think they would say that you were all raving?
1Co 14:24 But if you were all prophesying when an unbeliever or someone uninitiated came in, he would find himself put to the test by all and judged by all
1Co 14:25 and the secrets of his heart revealed; and so he would fall down on his face and worship God, declaring that God is indeed among you.
1Co 14:26 Then what should it be like, brothers? When you come together each of you brings a psalm or some instruction or a revelation, or speaks in a tongue or gives an interpretation. Let all these things be done in a way that will build up the community.
1Co 14:27 If there are to be any people speaking in a tongue, then let there be only two, or at the most three, and those one at a time, and let one of these interpret.
1Co 14:28 If there is no interpreter, then let each of them be quiet in the assembly, and speak only to himself and God.
1Co 14:29 Let two prophets, or three, speak while the rest weigh their words;
1Co 14:30 and if a revelation comes to someone else who is sitting by, the speaker should stop speaking.
1Co 14:31 You can all prophesy, but one at a time, then all will learn something and all receive encouragement.
1Co 14:32 The prophetic spirit is to be under the prophets' control,
1Co 14:33 for God is a God not of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations (ekklesia) of God's holy people,
1Co 14:34 women are to remain quiet in the assemblies, since they have no permission to speak: theirs is a subordinate part, as the Law itself says.
1Co 14:35 If there is anything they want to know, they should ask their husbands at home: it is shameful for a woman to speak in the assembly.
1Co 14:36 Do you really think that you are the source of the word of God? Or that you are the only people to whom it has come?
1Co 14:37 Anyone who claims to be a prophet, or to have any spiritual powers must recognize that what I am writing to you is a commandment from the Lord.
1Co 14:38 If anyone does not recognize this, it is because that person is not recognized himself.
1Co 14:39 So, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not suppress the gift of speaking in tongues.
1Co 14:40 But make sure that everything is done in a proper and orderly fashion.
1Co 15:1 I want to make quite clear to you, brothers, what the message of the gospel that I preached to you is; you accepted it and took your stand on it,
1Co 15:2 and you are saved by it, if you keep to the message I preached to you; otherwise your coming to believe was in vain.
1Co 15:3 The tradition I handed on to you in the first place, a tradition which I had myself received, was that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the scriptures,
1Co 15:4 and that he was buried; and that on the third day, he was raised to life, in accordance with the scriptures;
1Co 15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas; and later to the Twelve;
1Co 15:6 and next he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still with us, though some have fallen asleep;
1Co 15:7 then he appeared to James, and then to all the apostles.
1Co 15:8 Last of all he appeared to me too, as though I was a child born abnormally.
1Co 15:9 For I am the least of the apostles and am not really fit to be called an apostle, because I had been persecuting the congregation (ekklesia)of God;
1Co 15:10 but what I am now, I am through the grace of God, and the grace which was given to me has not been wasted. Indeed, I have worked harder than all the others -- not I, but the grace of God which is with me.
1Co 15:11 Anyway, whether it was they or I, this is what we preach and what you believed.
1Co 15:12 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead?
1Co 15:13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ cannot have been raised either,
1Co 15:14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without substance, and so is your faith.
1Co 15:15 What is more, we have proved to be false witnesses to God, for testifying against God that he raised Christ to life when he did not raise him -- if it is true that the dead are not raised.
1Co 15:16 For, if the dead are not raised, neither is Christ;
1Co 15:17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins.
1Co 15:18 In addition, those who have fallen asleep in Christ are utterly lost.
1Co 15:19 If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are of all people the most pitiable.
1Co 15:20 In fact, however, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the first-fruits of all who have fallen asleep.
1Co 15:21 As it was by one man that death came, so through one man has come the resurrection of the dead.
1Co 15:22 Just as all die in Adam, so in Christ all will be brought to life;
1Co 15:23 but all of them in their proper order: Christ the first-fruits, and next, at his coming, those who belong to him.
1Co 15:24 After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having abolished every principality, every ruling force and power.
1Co 15:25 For he is to be king until he has made his enemies his footstool,
1Co 15:26 and the last of the enemies to be done away with is death, for he has put all things under his feet.
1Co 15:27 But when it is said everything is subjected, this obviously cannot include the One who subjected everything to him.
1Co 15:28 When everything has been subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the One who has subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.
1Co 15:29 Otherwise, what are people up to who have themselves baptised on behalf of the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, what is the point of being baptised on their behalf?
1Co 15:30 And what about us? Why should we endanger ourselves every hour of our lives?
1Co 15:31 I swear by the pride that I take in you, in Christ Jesus our Lord, that I face death every day.
1Co 15:32 If I fought wild animals at Ephesus in a purely human perspective, what had I to gain by it?
1Co 15:33 If the dead are not going to be raised, then Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall be dead.
1Co 15:34 So do not let anyone lead you astray, 'Bad company corrupts good ways.' Wake up from your stupor as you should and leave sin alone; some of you have no understanding of God; I tell you this to instil some shame in you.
1Co 15:35 Someone may ask: How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come?
1Co 15:36 How foolish! What you sow must die before it is given new life;
1Co 15:37 and what you sow is not the body that is to be, but only a bare grain, of wheat I dare say, or some other kind;
1Co 15:38 it is God who gives it the sort of body that he has chosen for it, and for each kind of seed its own kind of body.
1Co 15:39 Not all flesh is the same flesh: there is human flesh; animals have another kind of flesh, birds another and fish yet another.
1Co 15:40 Then there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; the heavenly have a splendor of their own, and the earthly a different splendor.
1Co 15:41 The sun has its own splendor, the moon another splendor, and the stars yet another splendor; and the stars differ among themselves in splendor.
1Co 15:42 It is the same too with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable;
1Co 15:43 what is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; what is sown is weak, but what is raised is powerful;
1Co 15:44 what is sown is a natural body, and what is raised is a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body too.
1Co 15:45 So the first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul; and the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit.
1Co 15:46 But first came the natural body, not the spiritual one; that came only afterwards.
1Co 15:47 The first man, being made of earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven.
1Co 15:48 The earthly man is the pattern for earthly people, the heavenly man for heavenly ones.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the heavenly one.
1Co 15:50 What I am saying, brothers, is that mere human nature cannot inherit the kingdom of God: what is perishable cannot inherit what is imperishable.
1Co 15:51 Now I am going to tell you a mystery: we are not all going to fall asleep,
1Co 15:52 but we are all going to be changed, instantly, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet is going to sound, and then the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed,
1Co 15:53 because this perishable nature of ours must put on imperishability, this mortal nature must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54 And after this perishable nature has put on imperishability and this mortal nature has put on immortality, then will the words of scripture come true: Death is swallowed up in victory.
1Co 15:55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?
1Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin comes from the Law.
1Co 15:57 Thank God, then, for giving us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1Co 15:58 So, my dear brothers, keep firm and immovable, always abounding in energy for the Lord's work, being sure that in the Lord none of your labours is wasted.
1Co 16:1 Now about the collection for God's holy people; you are to do the same as I prescribed for the congregations (ekklesia) in Galatia.
1Co 16:2 On the first day of the week, each of you should put aside and reserve as much as each can spare; do not delay the collection till I arrive.
1Co 16:3 When I come, I will send to Jerusalem with letters of introduction those people you approve to deliver your gift;
1Co 16:4 if it is worth my going too, they can travel with me.
1Co 16:5 In any case, I shall be coming to you after I have passed through Macedonia, as I have to go through Macedonia;
1Co 16:6 and I may be staying some time with you, perhaps wintering, so that you can start me on my next journey, wherever I may be going.
1Co 16:7 I do not want to make only a passing visit to you, and I am hoping to spend quite a time with you, the Lord permitting.
1Co 16:8 But I shall remain at Ephesus until Pentecost,
1Co 16:9 for a very promising door is standing wide open to me and there are many against us.
1Co 16:10 If Timothy comes, make sure that he has nothing to fear from you; he is doing the Lord's work, just as I am,
1Co 16:11 and nobody is to underrate him. Start him off in peace on his journey to come on to me: the brothers and I are waiting for him.
1Co 16:12 As for our brother Apollos, I urged him earnestly to come to you with the brothers, but he was quite firm that he did not want to go yet, and he will come when he finds an opportunity.
1Co 16:13 Be vigilant, stay firm in the faith, be brave and strong.
1Co 16:14 Let everything you do be done in love.
1Co 16:15 There is something else I must urge you to do, brothers. You know how Stephanas' family have been the first-fruits of Achaia and have devoted themselves to the service of God's holy people;
1Co 16:16 I ask you in turn to put yourselves at the service of people like this and all that work with them in this arduous task.
1Co 16:17 I am delighted that Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus have arrived; they have made up for your not being here.
1Co 16:18 They have set my mind at rest, just as they did yours; you should appreciate people like them.
1Co 16:19 The congregations (ekklesia) of Asia send their greetings. Aquila and Prisca send their best wishes in the Lord, together with the congregation (ekklesia)that meets in their house.
1Co 16:20 All the brothers send their greetings. Greet one another with the holy kiss.
1Co 16:21 This greeting is in my own hand-PAUL.
1Co 16:22 If there is anyone who does not love the Lord, a curse on such a one. Maran atha.
1Co 16:23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
1Co 16:24 My love is with you all in Christ Jesus.
2Co 1:1 Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother, to the congregation (ekklesia)of God in Corinth and to all God's holy people in the whole of Achaia.
2Co 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Co 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the merciful Father and the God who gives every possible encouragement;
2Co 1:4 he supports us in every hardship, so that we are able to come to the support of others, in every hardship of theirs because of the encouragement that we ourselves receive from God.
2Co 1:5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow into our lives; so too does the encouragement we receive through Christ.
2Co 1:6 So if we have hardships to undergo, this will contribute to your encouragement and your salvation; if we receive encouragement, this is to gain for you the encouragement which enables you to bear with perseverance the same sufferings as we do.
2Co 1:7 So our hope for you is secure in the knowledge that you share the encouragement we receive, no less than the sufferings we bear.
2Co 1:8 So in the hardships we underwent in Asia, we want you to be quite certain, brothers, that we were under extraordinary pressure, beyond our powers of endurance, so that we gave up all hope even of surviving.
2Co 1:9 In fact we were carrying the sentence of death within our own selves, so that we should be forced to trust not in ourselves but in God, who raises the dead.
2Co 1:10 He did save us from such a death and will save us -- we are relying on him to do so.
2Co 1:11 Your prayer for us will contribute to this, so that, for God's favor shown to us as the result of the prayers of so many, thanks too may be given by many on our behalf.
2Co 1:12 There is one thing that we are proud of, namely our conscientious conviction that we have always behaved towards everyone, and especially towards you, with that unalloyed holiness that comes from God, relying not on human reasoning but on the grace of God.
2Co 1:13 In our writing, there is nothing that you cannot read clearly and understand;
2Co 1:14 and it is my hope that, just as you have already understood us partially, so you will understand fully that you can be as proud of us as we shall be of you when the Day of our Lord Jesus comes.
2Co 1:15 It was with this assurance that I had been meaning to come to you first, so that you would benefit doubly;
2Co 1:16 both to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then to return to you again from Macedonia, so that you could set me on my way to Judaea.
2Co 1:17 Since that was my purpose, do you think I lightly changed my mind? Or that my plans are based on ordinary human promptings and I have in my mind Yes, yes at the same time as No, no?
2Co 1:18 As surely as God is trustworthy, what we say to you is not both Yes and No.
2Co 1:19 The Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us, that is, by me and by Silvanus and Timothy, was never Yes-and-No; his nature is all Yes.
2Co 1:20 For in him is found the Yes to all God's promises and therefore it is 'through him' that we answer 'Amen' to give praise to God.
2Co 1:21 It is God who gives us, with you, a sure place in Christ
2Co 1:22 and has both anointed us and marked us with his seal, giving us as pledge the Spirit in our hearts.
2Co 1:23 By my life I call on God to be my witness that it was only to spare you that I did not come to Corinth again.
2Co 1:24 We have no wish to lord it over your faith, but to work with you for your joy; for your stand in the faith is firm.
2Co 2:1 I made up my mind, then, that my next visit to you would not be a painful one,
2Co 2:2 for if I cause you distress I am causing distress to my only possible source of joy.
2Co 2:3 Indeed, I wrote as I did precisely to spare myself distress when I visited you, from the very people who should have given me joy, in the conviction that for all of you my joy was yours too.
2Co 2:4 I wrote to you in agony of mind, not meaning to cause you distress but to show you how very much love I have for you.
2Co 2:5 If anyone did cause distress, he caused it not to me, but -- not to exaggerate -- in some degree to all of you.
2Co 2:6 The punishment already imposed by the majority was quite enough for such a person;
2Co 2:7 and now by contrast you should forgive and encourage him all the more, or he may be overwhelmed by the extent of his distress.
2Co 2:8 That is why I urge you to give your love towards him definite expression.
2Co 2:9 This was in fact my reason for writing, to test your quality and whether you are completely obedient.
2Co 2:10 But if you forgive anybody, then I too forgive that person; and whatever I have forgiven, if there is anything I have forgiven, I have done it for your sake in Christ's presence,
2Co 2:11 to avoid being outwitted by Satan, whose scheming we know only too well.
2Co 2:12 When I came to Troas for the sake of the gospel of Christ and a door was opened for me there in the Lord,
2Co 2:13 I had no relief from anxiety, not finding my brother Titus there, and I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia.
2Co 2:14 But, thanks be to God who always gives us in Christ a part in his triumphal procession, and through us is spreading everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of himself.
2Co 2:15 To God we are the fragrance of Christ, both among those who are being saved and among those who are on the way to destruction;
2Co 2:16 for these last, the smell of death leading to death, but for the first, the smell of life leading to life. Who is equal to such a task?
2Co 2:17 At least we do not adulterate the word of God, as so many do, but it is in all purity, as envoys of God and in God's presence, that we speak in Christ.
2Co 3:1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves to you afresh -- as though we needed, like some others, to have letters of commendation either to you or from you?
2Co 3:2 You yourselves are our letter, written in our hearts, that everyone can read and understand;
2Co 3:3 and it is plain that you are a letter from Christ, entrusted to our care, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not on stone tablets but on the tablets of human hearts.
2Co 3:4 Such is the confidence we have through Christ in facing God;
2Co 3:5 it is not that we are so competent that we can claim any credit for ourselves; all our competence comes from God.
2Co 3:6 He has given us the competence to be ministers of a new covenant, a covenant which is not of written letters, but of the Spirit; for the written letters kill, but the Spirit gives life.
2Co 3:7 Now if the administering of death, engraved in letters on stone, occurred in such glory that the Israelites could not look Moses steadily in the face, because of its glory, transitory though this glory was,
2Co 3:8 how much more will the ministry of the Spirit occur in glory!
2Co 3:9 For if it is glorious to administer condemnation, to administer saving justice is far richer in glory.
2Co 3:10 Indeed, what was once considered glorious has lost all claim to glory, by contrast with the glory which transcends it.
2Co 3:11 For if what was transitory had any glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts for ever.
2Co 3:12 With a hope like this, we can speak with complete fearlessness;
2Co 3:13 not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites should not watch the end of what was transitory.
2Co 3:14 But their minds were closed; indeed, until this very day, the same veil remains over the reading of the Old Testament: it is not lifted, for only in Christ is it done away with.
2Co 3:15 As it is, to this day, whenever Moses is read, their hearts are covered with a veil,
2Co 3:16 and this veil will not be taken away till they turn to the Lord.
2Co 3:17 Now this Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2Co 3:18 And all of us, with our unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the Lord who is the Spirit.
2Co 4:1 Such by God's mercy is our ministry, and therefore we do not waver
2Co 4:2 but have renounced all shameful secrecy. It is not our way to be devious, or to falsify the word of God; instead, in God's sight we commend ourselves to every human being with a conscience by showing the truth openly.
2Co 4:3 If our gospel seems to be veiled at all, it is so to those who are on the way to destruction,
2Co 4:4 the unbelievers whose minds have been blinded by the god of this world, so that they cannot see shining the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2Co 4:5 It is not ourselves that we are proclaiming, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.
2Co 4:6 It is God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' that has shone into our hearts to enlighten them with the knowledge of God's glory, the glory on the face of Christ.
2Co 4:7 But we hold this treasure in pots of earthenware, so that the immensity of the power is God's and not our own.
2Co 4:8 We are subjected to every kind of hardship, but never distressed; we see no way out but we never despair;
2Co 4:9 we are pursued but never cut off; knocked down, but still have some life in us;
2Co 4:10 always we carry with us in our body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our body.
2Co 4:11 Indeed, while we are still alive, we are continually being handed over to death, for the sake of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus, too, may be visible in our mortal flesh.
2Co 4:12 In us, then, death is at work; in you, life.
2Co 4:13 But as we have the same spirit of faith as is described in scripture -- I believed and therefore I spoke -we, too, believe and therefore we, too, speak,
2Co 4:14 realising that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us up with Jesus in our turn, and bring us to himself -- and you as well.
2Co 4:15 You see, everything is for your benefit, so that as grace spreads, so, to the glory of God, thanksgiving may also overflow among more and more people.
2Co 4:16 That is why we do not waver; indeed, though this outer human nature of ours may be falling into decay, at the same time our inner human nature is renewed day by day.
2Co 4:17 The temporary, light burden of our hardships is earning us for ever an utterly incomparable, eternal weight of glory,
2Co 4:18 since what we aim for is not visible but invisible. Visible things are transitory, but invisible things eternal.
2Co 5:1 For we are well aware that when the tent that houses us on earth is folded up, there is a house for us from God, not made by human hands but everlasting, in the heavens.
2Co 5:2 And in this earthly state we do indeed groan,
2Co 5:3 longing to put on our heavenly home over the present one; if indeed we are to be found clothed rather than stripped bare.
2Co 5:4 Yes, indeed, in this present tent, we groan under the burden, not that we want to be stripped of our covering, but because we want to be covered with a second garment on top, so that what is mortal in us may be swallowed up by life.
2Co 5:5 It is God who designed us for this very purpose, and he has given us the Spirit as a pledge.
2Co 5:6 We are always full of confidence, then, realising that as long as we are at home in the body we are exiled from the Lord,
2Co 5:7 guided by faith and not yet by sight;
2Co 5:8 we are full of confidence, then, and long instead to be exiled from the body and to be at home with the Lord.
2Co 5:9 And so whether at home or exiled, we make it our ambition to please him.
2Co 5:10 For at the judgement seat of Christ we are all to be seen for what we are, so that each of us may receive what he has deserved in the body, matched to whatever he has done, good or bad.
2Co 5:11 And so it is with the fear of the Lord always in mind that we try to win people over. But God sees us for what we are, and I hope your consciences do too.
2Co 5:12 Again we are saying this not to commend ourselves to you, but simply to give you the opportunity to take pride in us, so that you may have an answer for those who take pride in appearances and not inner reality.
2Co 5:13 If we have been unreasonable, it was for God; if reasonable, for you.
2Co 5:14 For the love of Christ overwhelms us when we consider that if one man died for all, then all have died;
2Co 5:15 his purpose in dying for all humanity was that those who live should live not any more for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life.
2Co 5:16 From now onwards, then, we will not consider anyone by human standards: even if we were once familiar with Christ according to human standards, we do not know him in that way any longer.
2Co 5:17 So for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old order is gone and a new being is there to see.
2Co 5:18 It is all God's work; he reconciled us to himself through Christ and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
2Co 5:19 I mean, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not holding anyone's faults against them, but entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
2Co 5:20 So we are ambassadors for Christ; it is as though God were urging you through us, and in the name of Christ we appeal to you to be reconciled to God.
2Co 5:21 For our sake he made the sinless one a victim for sin, so that in him we might become the uprightness of God.
2Co 6:1 As his fellow-workers, we urge you not to let your acceptance of his grace come to nothing.
2Co 6:2 As he said, 'At the time of my favor I have answered you; on the day of salvation I have helped you'; well, now is the real time of favor, now the day of salvation is here.
2Co 6:3 We avoid putting obstacles in anyone's way, so that no blame may attach to our work of service;
2Co 6:4 but in everything we prove ourselves authentic servants of God; by resolute perseverance in times of hardships, difficulties and distress;
2Co 6:5 when we are flogged or sent to prison or mobbed; labouring, sleepless, starving;
2Co 6:6 in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness; in the Holy Spirit, in a love free of affectation;
2Co 6:7 in the word of truth and in the power of God; by using the weapons of uprightness for attack and for defence:
2Co 6:8 in times of honor or disgrace, blame or praise; taken for impostors and yet we are genuine;
2Co 6:9 unknown and yet we are acknowledged; dying, and yet here we are, alive; scourged but not executed;
2Co 6:10 in pain yet always full of joy; poor and yet making many people rich; having nothing, and yet owning everything.
2Co 6:11 People of Corinth, we have spoken frankly and opened our heart to you.
2Co 6:12 Any distress you feel is not on our side; the distress is in your own selves.
2Co 6:13 In fair exchange -- I speak as though to children of mine -- you must open your hearts too.
2Co 6:14 Do not harness yourselves in an uneven team with unbelievers; how can uprightness and law-breaking be partners, or what can light and darkness have in common?
2Co 6:15 How can Christ come to an agreement with Beliar and what sharing can there be between a believer and an unbeliever?
2Co 6:16 The temple of God cannot compromise with false gods, and that is what we are -- the temple of the living God. We have God's word for it: I shall fix my home among them and live among them; I will be their God and they will be my people.
2Co 6:17 Get away from them, purify yourselves, says the Lord. Do not touch anything unclean, and then I shall welcome you.
2Co 6:18 I shall be father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the almighty Lord.
2Co 7:1 Since these promises have been made to us, my dear friends, we should wash ourselves clean of everything that pollutes either body or spirit, bringing our sanctification to completion in the fear of God.
2Co 7:2 Keep a place for us in your hearts. We have not injured anyone, or ruined anyone, or taken advantage of anyone.
2Co 7:3 I am not saying this to condemn anybody; as I have already told you, you are in our hearts -- so that together we live and together we die.
2Co 7:4 I can speak with the greatest frankness to you; and I can speak with the greatest pride about you: in all our hardship, I am filled with encouragement and overflowing with joy.
2Co 7:5 Even after we had come to Macedonia, there was no rest for this body of ours. Far from it; we were beset by hardship on all sides, there were quarrels all around us and misgivings within us.
2Co 7:6 But God, who encourages all those who are distressed, encouraged us through the arrival of Titus;
2Co 7:7 and not simply by his arrival only, but also by means of the encouragement that you had given him, as he told us of your desire to see us, how sorry you were and how concerned for us; so that I was all the more joyful.
2Co 7:8 So now, though I did distress you with my letter, I do not regret it. Even if I did regret it -- and I realize that the letter distressed you, even though not for long-
2Co 7:9 I am glad now, not because you were made to feel distress, but because the distress that you were caused led to repentance; your distress was the kind that God approves and so you have come to no kind of harm through us.
2Co 7:10 For to be distressed in a way that God approves leads to repentance and then to salvation with no regrets; it is the world's kind of distress that ends in death.
2Co 7:11 Just look at this present case: at what the result has been of your being made to feel distress in the way that God approves -- what concern, what defence, what indignation and what alarm; what yearning, and what enthusiasm, and what justice done. In every way you have cleared yourselves of blame in this matter.
2Co 7:12 So although I wrote a letter to you, it was not for the sake of the offender, nor for the one offended, but only so that you yourselves should fully realize in the sight of God what concern you have for us.
2Co 7:13 That is what I have found encouraging. In addition to all this to encourage us, we were made all the more joyful by Titus' joy, now that his spirit has been refreshed by you all.
2Co 7:14 And if I boasted about you to him in any way, then I have not been made to look foolish; indeed, our boast to Titus has been proved to be as true as anything we said to you.
2Co 7:15 His personal affection for you is all the stronger when he remembers how obedient you have all been, and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling.
2Co 7:16 I am glad that I have every confidence in you.
2Co 8:1 Next, brothers, we will tell you of the grace of God which has been granted to the congregations (ekklesia) of Macedonia,
2Co 8:2 and how, throughout continual ordeals of hardship, their unfailing joy and their intense poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
2Co 8:3 I can testify that it was of their own accord that they made their gift, which was not merely as far as their resources would allow, but well beyond their resources;
2Co 8:4 and they had kept imploring us most insistently for the privilege of a share in the fellowship of service to God's holy people-
2Co 8:5 it was not something that we expected of them, but it began by their offering themselves to the Lord and to us at the prompting of the will of God.
2Co 8:6 In the end we urged Titus, since he had already made a beginning, also to bring this work of generosity to completion among you.
2Co 8:7 More, as you are rich in everything-faith, eloquence, understanding, concern for everything, and love for us too -- then make sure that you excel in this work of generosity too.
2Co 8:8 I am not saying this as an order, but testing the genuineness of your love against the concern of others.
2Co 8:9 You are well aware of the generosity which our Lord Jesus Christ had, that, although he was rich, he became poor for your sake, so that you should become rich through his poverty.
2Co 8:10 I will give you my considered opinion in the matter; this will be the right course for you as you were the first, a year ago, not only to take any action but also even to conceive the project.
2Co 8:11 Now, then, complete the action as well, so that the fulfilment may -- so far as your resources permit -- be proportionate to your enthusiasm for the project.
2Co 8:12 As long as the enthusiasm is there, the basis on which it is acceptable is what someone has, not what someone does not have.
2Co 8:13 It is not that you ought to relieve other people's needs and leave yourselves in hardship; but there should be a fair balance-
2Co 8:14 your surplus at present may fill their deficit, and another time their surplus may fill your deficit. So there may be a fair balance;
2Co 8:15 as scripture says: No one who had collected more had too much, no one who collected less had too little.
2Co 8:16 Thank God for putting into Titus' heart the same sincere concern for you.
2Co 8:17 He certainly took our urging to heart; but greater still was his own enthusiasm, and he went off to you of his own accord.
2Co 8:18 We have sent with him the brother who is praised as an evangelist in all the congregations (ekklesia)
2Co 8:19 and who, what is more, was elected by the congregations (ekklesia) to be our traveling companion in this work of generosity, a work to be administered by us for the glory of the Lord and our complete satisfaction.
2Co 8:20 We arranged it this way so that no one should be able to make any accusation against us about this large sum we are administering.
2Co 8:21 And so we have been careful to do right not only in the sight of the Lord but also in the sight of people.
2Co 8:22 Along with these, we have sent a brother of ours whose eagerness we have tested over and over again in many ways and who is now all the more eager because he has so much faith in you.
2Co 8:23 If Titus is in question -- he is my own partner and fellow-worker in your interests; and if our brothers -- they are the emissaries of the congregations (ekklesia) and the glory of Christ.
2Co 8:24 So then, in full view of all the congregations (ekklesia), give proof that you love them, and that we were right to boast of you to them.
2Co 9:1 About the help to God's holy people, there is really no need for me to write to you;
2Co 9:2 for I am well aware of your enthusiasm, and I have been boasting of it to the Macedonians that 'Achaia has been ready for a year'; your enthusiasm has been a spur to many others.
2Co 9:3 All the same, I have sent the brothers, to make sure that our boast about you may not prove hollow in this respect and that you may be ready, as I said you would be;
2Co 9:4 so that if by chance some of the Macedonians came with me and found you unprepared we -- to say nothing of yourselves -- would not be put to shame by our confidence in you.
2Co 9:5 So I have thought it necessary to encourage the brothers to go to you ahead of us and make sure in advance of the gift that you have already promised, so that it is all at hand as a real gift and not an imposition.
2Co 9:6 But remember: anyone who sows sparsely will reap sparsely as well -- and anyone who sows generously will reap generously as well.
2Co 9:7 Each one should give as much as he has decided on his own initiative, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2Co 9:8 God is perfectly able to enrich you with every grace, so that you always have enough for every conceivable need, and your resources overflow in all kinds of good work.
2Co 9:9 As scripture says: To the needy he gave without stint, his uprightness stands firm for ever.
2Co 9:10 The one who so freely provides seed for the sower and food to eat will provide you with ample store of seed for sowing and make the harvest of your uprightness a bigger one:
2Co 9:11 you will be rich enough in every way for every kind of generosity that makes people thank God for what we have done.
2Co 9:12 For the help provided by this contribution not only satisfies the needs of God's holy people, but also overflows into widespread thanksgiving to God;
2Co 9:13 because when you have proved your quality by this help, they will give glory to God for the obedience which you show in professing the gospel of Christ, as well as for the generosity of your fellowship towards them and towards all.
2Co 9:14 At the same time, their prayer for you will express the affection they feel for you because of the unbounded grace God has given you.
2Co 9:15 Thanks be to God for his gift that is beyond all telling!
2Co 10:1 I urge you by the gentleness and forbearance of Christ -- this is Paul now speaking personally-I, the one who is so humble when he is facing you but full of boldness at a distance.
2Co 10:2 Yes, my appeal to you is that I should not have to be bold when I am actually with you, or show the same self-assurance as I reckon to use when I am challenging those who reckon that we are guided by human motives.
2Co 10:3 For although we are human, it is not by human methods that we do battle.
2Co 10:4 The weapons with which we do battle are not those of human nature, but they have the power, in God's cause, to demolish fortresses. It is ideas that we demolish,
2Co 10:5 every presumptuous notion that is set up against the knowledge of God, and we bring every thought into captivity and obedience to Christ;
2Co 10:6 once you have given your complete obedience, we are prepared to punish any disobedience.
2Co 10:7 Look at the evidence of your eyes. Anybody who is convinced that he belongs to Christ should go on to reflect that we belong to Christ no less than he does.
2Co 10:8 Maybe I have taken rather too much pride in our authority, but the Lord gave us that for building you up, not for knocking you down, and I am not going to be shamed
2Co 10:9 into letting you think that I can put fear into you only by letter.
2Co 10:10 Someone said, 'His letters are weighty enough, and full of strength, but when you see him in person, he makes no impression and his powers of speaking are negligible.'
2Co 10:11 I should like that sort of person to take note that our deeds when we are present will show the same qualities as our letters when we were at a distance.
2Co 10:12 We are not venturing to rank ourselves, or even to compare ourselves with certain people who provide their own commendations. By measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves to themselves, they only show their folly.
2Co 10:13 By contrast we do not intend to boast beyond measure, but will measure ourselves by the standard which God laid down for us, namely that of having come all the way to you.
2Co 10:14 We are not overreaching ourselves as we would be if we had not come all the way to you; in fact we were the first to come as far as you with the good news of Christ.
2Co 10:15 So we are not boasting beyond measure, about other men's work; in fact, we hope, as your faith increases, to grow greater and greater by this standard of ours,
2Co 10:16 by preaching the gospel to regions beyond you, rather than boasting about work already done in someone else's province.
2Co 10:17 Let anyone who wants to boast, boast of the Lord.
2Co 10:18 For it is not through self-commendation that recognition is won, but through commendation.
2Co 11:1 I wish you would put up with a little foolishness from me -- not that you don't do this already.
2Co 11:2 The jealousy that I feel for you is, you see, God's own jealousy: I gave you all in marriage to a single husband, a virgin pure for presentation to Christ.
2Co 11:3 But I am afraid that, just as the snake with his cunning seduced Eve, your minds may be led astray from single-minded devotion to Christ.
2Co 11:4 Because any chance comer has only to preach a Jesus other than the one we preached, or you have only to receive a spirit different from the one you received, or a gospel different from the one you accepted -- and you put up with that only too willingly.
2Co 11:5 Now, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to the super-apostles.
2Co 11:6 Even if there is something lacking in my public speaking, this is not the case with my knowledge, as we have openly shown to you at all times and before everyone.
2Co 11:7 Have I done wrong, then, humbling myself so that you might be raised up, by preaching the gospel of God to you for nothing?
2Co 11:8 I was robbing other congregations (ekklesia), taking wages from them in order to work for you.
2Co 11:9 When I was with you and needed money, I was no burden to anybody, for the brothers from Macedonia brought me as much as I needed when they came; I have always been careful not to let myself be a burden to you in any way, and I shall continue to be so.
2Co 11:10 And as Christ's truth is in me, this boast of mine is not going to be silenced in the regions of Achaia.
2Co 11:11 Why should it be? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.
2Co 11:12 I will go on acting as I do at present, to cut the ground from under the feet of those who are looking for a chance to be proved my equals in grounds for boasting.
2Co 11:13 These people are counterfeit apostles, dishonest workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 There is nothing astonishing in this; even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 It is nothing extraordinary, then, when his servants disguise themselves as the servants of uprightness. They will come to the end appropriate to what they have done.
2Co 11:16 To repeat: let no one take me for a fool, but if you do, then treat me as a fool, so that I, too, can do a little boasting.
2Co 11:17 I shall not be following the Lord's way in what I say now, but will be speaking out of foolishness in the conviction that I have something to boast about.
2Co 11:18 So many people boast on merely human grounds that I shall too.
2Co 11:19 I know how happy you are to put up with fools, being so wise yourselves;
2Co 11:20 and how you will still go on putting up with a man who enslaves you, eats up all you possess, keeps you under his orders and sets himself above you, or even slaps you in the face.
2Co 11:21 I say it to your shame; perhaps we have been too weak. Whatever bold claims anyone makes -- now I am talking as a fool -- I can make them too.
2Co 11:22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.
2Co 11:23 Are they servants of Christ? I speak in utter folly -- I am too, and more than they are: I have done more work, I have been in prison more, I have been flogged more severely, many times exposed to death.
2Co 11:24 Five times I have been given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews;
2Co 11:25 three times I have been beaten with sticks; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked, and once I have been in the open sea for a night and a day;
2Co 11:26 continually traveling, I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from brigands, in danger from my own people and in danger from the gentiles, in danger in the towns and in danger in the open country, in danger at sea and in danger from people masquerading as brothers;
2Co 11:27 I have worked with unsparing energy, for many nights without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty, and often altogether without food or drink; I have been cold and lacked clothing.
2Co 11:28 And, besides all the external things, there is, day in day out, the pressure on me of my anxiety for all the congregations (ekklesia).
2Co 11:29 If anyone weakens, I am weakened as well; and when anyone is made to fall, I burn in agony myself.
2Co 11:30 If I have to boast, I will boast of all the ways in which I am weak.
2Co 11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus -- who is for ever to be blessed -- knows that I am not lying.
2Co 11:32 When I was in Damascus, the governor who was under King Aretas put guards round Damascus city to catch me,
2Co 11:33 and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and that was how I escaped from his hands.
2Co 12:1 I am boasting because I have to. Not that it does any good, but I will move on to visions and revelations from the Lord.
2Co 12:2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago -- still in the body? I do not know; or out of the body? I do not know: God knows -- was caught up right into the third heaven.
2Co 12:3 And I know that this man -- still in the body? or outside the body? I do not know, God knows-
2Co 12:4 was caught up into Paradise and heard words said that cannot and may not be spoken by any human being.
2Co 12:5 On behalf of someone like that I am willing to boast, but I am not going to boast on my own behalf except of my weaknesses;
2Co 12:6 and then, if I do choose to boast I shall not be talking like a fool because I shall be speaking the truth. But I will not go on in case anybody should rate me higher than he sees and hears me to be, because of the exceptional greatness of the revelations.
2Co 12:7 Wherefore, so that I should not get above myself, I was given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger from Satan to batter me and prevent me from getting above myself.
2Co 12:8 About this, I have three times pleaded with the Lord that it might leave me;
2Co 12:9 but he has answered me, 'My grace is enough for you: for power is at full stretch in weakness.' It is, then, about my weaknesses that I am happiest of all to boast, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me;
2Co 12:10 and that is why I am glad of weaknesses, insults, constraints, persecutions and distress for Christ's sake. For it is when I am weak that I am strong.
2Co 12:11 I have turned into a fool, but you forced me to it. It is you that should have been commending me; those super-apostles had no advantage over me, even if I am nothing at all.
2Co 12:12 All the marks characteristic of a true apostle have been at work among you: complete perseverance, signs, marvels, demonstrations of power.
2Co 12:13 Is there any way in which you have been given less than the rest of the congregations (ekklesia), except that I did not make myself a burden to you? Forgive me for this unfairness!
2Co 12:14 Here I am, ready to come to you for the third time and I am not going to be a burden on you: it is not your possessions that I want, but yourselves. Children are not expected to save up for their parents, but parents for their children,
2Co 12:15 and I am more than glad to spend what I have and to be spent for the sake of your souls. Is it because I love you so much more, that I am loved the less?
2Co 12:16 All right, then; I did not make myself a burden to you, but, trickster that I am, I caught you by trickery.
2Co 12:17 Have I taken advantage of you through any of the people I have sent to you?
2Co 12:18 Titus came at my urging, and I sent his companion with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Can you deny that he and I were following the guidance of the same Spirit and were on the same tracks?
2Co 12:19 All this time you have been thinking that we have been pleading our own cause before you; no, we have been speaking in Christ and in the presence of God -- and all, dear friends, to build you up.
2Co 12:20 I am afraid that in one way or another, when I come, I may find you different from what I should like you to be, and you may find me what you would not like me to be; so that in one way or the other there will be rivalry, jealousy, bad temper, quarrels, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorders;
2Co 12:21 and when I come again, my God may humiliate me in front of you and I shall be grieved by all those who sinned in the past and have still not repented of the impurities and sexual immorality and debauchery that they have committed.
2Co 13:1 This will be the third time I have confronted you. Whatever the misdemeanour, the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain a charge.
2Co 13:2 I gave you notice once, and now, though I am not with you, I give notice again, just as when I was with you for a second time, to those who sinned before, and to all others; and it is to this effect, that when I do come next time, I shall have no mercy.
2Co 13:3 Since you are asking for a proof that it is Christ who speaks in me; he is not weak with you but his power is at work among you;
2Co 13:4 for, though it was out of weakness that he was crucified, he is alive now with the power of God. We, too, are weak in him, but with regard to you we shall live with him by the power of God.
2Co 13:5 Put yourselves to the test to make sure you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Do you not recognize yourselves as people in whom Jesus Christ is present? - unless, that is, you fail the test.
2Co 13:6 But we, as I hope you will come to recognize, do not fail the test.
2Co 13:7 It is our prayer to God that you may do nothing wrong -- not so that we have the credit of passing a test, but because you will be doing what is right, even if we do not pass the test.
2Co 13:8 We have no power to resist the truth; only to further the truth;
2Co 13:9 and we are delighted to be weak if only you are strong. What we ask in our prayers is that you should be made perfect.
2Co 13:10 That is why I am writing this while still far away, so that when I am with you I shall not have to be harsh, with the authority that the Lord has given me, an authority that is for building up and not for breaking down.
2Co 13:11 To end then, brothers, we wish you joy; try to grow perfect; encourage one another; have a common mind and live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
2Co 13:12 Greet one another with the holy kiss. All God's holy people send you their greetings.
2Co 13:13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Gal 1:1 From Paul, an apostle appointed not by human beings nor through any human being but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead,
Gal 1:2 and all the brothers who are with me, to the congregations (ekklesia) of Galatia.
Gal 1:3 Grace and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ
Gal 1:4 who gave himself for our sins to liberate us from this present wicked world, in accordance with the will of our God and Father,
Gal 1:5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Gal 1:6 I am astonished that you are so promptly turning away from the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are going over to a different gospel-
Gal 1:7 not that it is another gospel; except that there are trouble-makers among you who are seeking to pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8 But even if we ourselves or an angel from heaven preaches to you a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let God's curse be on him.
Gal 1:9 I repeat again what we declared before: anyone who preaches to you a gospel other than the one you were first given is to be under God's curse.
Gal 1:10 Whom am I trying to convince now, human beings or God? Am I trying to please human beings? If I were still doing that I should not be a servant of Christ.
Gal 1:11 Now I want to make it quite clear to you, brothers, about the gospel that was preached by me, that it was no human message.
Gal 1:12 It was not from any human being that I received it, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Gal 1:13 You have surely heard how I lived in the past, within Judaism, and how there was simply no limit to the way I persecuted the congregation (ekklesia)of God in my attempts to destroy it;
Gal 1:14 and how, in Judaism, I outstripped most of my Jewish contemporaries in my limitless enthusiasm for the traditions of my ancestors.
Gal 1:15 But when God, who had set me apart from the time when I was in my mother's womb, called me through his grace and chose
Gal 1:16 to reveal his Son in me, so that I should preach him to the gentiles, I was in no hurry to confer with any human being,
Gal 1:17 or to go up to Jerusalem to see those who were already apostles before me. Instead, I went off to Arabia, and later I came back to Damascus.
Gal 1:18 Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas. I stayed fifteen days with him
Gal 1:19 but did not set eyes on any of the rest of the apostles, only James, the Lord's brother.
Gal 1:20 I swear before God that what I have written is the truth.
Gal 1:21 After that I went to places in Syria and Cilicia;
Gal 1:22 and was still unknown by sight to the congregations (ekklesia) of Judaea which are in Christ,
Gal 1:23 they simply kept hearing it said, 'The man once so eager to persecute us is now preaching the faith that he used to try to destroy,'
Gal 1:24 and they gave glory to God for me.
Gal 2:1 It was not until fourteen years had gone by that I travelled up to Jerusalem again, with Barnabas, and I took Titus with me too.
Gal 2:2 My journey was inspired by a revelation and there, in a private session with the recognized leaders, I expounded the whole gospel that I preach to the gentiles, to make quite sure that the efforts I was making and had already made should not be fruitless.
Gal 2:3 Even then, and although Titus, a Greek, was with me, there was no demand that he should be circumcised;
Gal 2:4 but because of some false brothers who had secretly insinuated themselves to spy on the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, intending to reduce us to slavery-
Gal 2:5 people we did not defer to for one moment, or the truth of the gospel preached to you might have been compromised. . .
Gal 2:6 but those who were recognized as important people -- whether they actually were important or not: There is no favoritism with God -those recognized leaders, I am saying, had nothing to add to my message.
Gal 2:7 On the contrary, once they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been entrusted to me, just as to Peter the gospel for the circumcised
Gal 2:8 (for he who empowered Peter's apostolate to the circumcision also empowered mine to the gentiles),
Gal 2:9 and when they acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, then James and Cephas and John, who were the ones recognized as pillars, offered their right hands to Barnabas and to me as a sign of partnership: we were to go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised.
Gal 2:10 They asked nothing more than that we should remember to help the poor, as indeed I was anxious to do in any case.
Gal 2:11 However, when Cephas came to Antioch, then I did oppose him to his face since he was manifestly in the wrong.
Gal 2:12 Before certain people from James came, he used to eat with gentiles; but as soon as these came, he backed out and kept apart from them, out of fear of the circumcised.
Gal 2:13 And the rest of the Jews put on the same act as he did, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity.
Gal 2:14 When I saw, though, that their behavior was not true to the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of all of them, 'Since you, though you are a Jew, live like the gentiles and not like the Jews, how can you compel the gentiles to live like the Jews?'
Gal 2:15 We who were born Jews and not gentile sinners
Gal 2:16 have nevertheless learnt that someone is reckoned as upright not by practising the Law but by faith in Jesus Christ; and we too came to believe in Christ Jesus so as to be reckoned as upright by faith in Christ and not by practising the Law: since no human being can be found upright by keeping the Law.
Gal 2:17 Now if we too are found to be sinners on the grounds that we seek our justification in Christ, it would surely follow that Christ was at the service of sin. Out of the question!
Gal 2:18 If I now rebuild everything I once demolished, I prove that I was wrong before.
Gal 2:19 In fact, through the Law I am dead to the Law so that I can be alive to God. I have been crucified with Christ
Gal 2:20 and yet I am alive; yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me. The life that I am now living, subject to the limitation of human nature, I am living in faith, faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:21 I am not setting aside God's grace as of no value; it is merely that if saving justice comes through the Law, Christ died needlessly.
Gal 3:1 You stupid people in Galatia! After you have had a clear picture of Jesus Christ crucified, right in front of your eyes, who has put a spell on you?
Gal 3:2 There is only one thing I should like you to tell me: How was it that you received the Spirit -- was it by the practice of the Law, or by believing in the message you heard?
Gal 3:3 Having begun in the Spirit, can you be so stupid as to end in the flesh?
Gal 3:4 Can all the favors you have received have had no effect at all -- if there really has been no effect?
Gal 3:5 Would you say, then, that he who so lavishly sends the Spirit to you, and causes the miracles among you, is doing this through your practice of the Law or because you believed the message you heard?
Gal 3:6 Abraham, you remember, put his faith in God, and this was reckoned to him as uprightness.
Gal 3:7 Be sure, then, that it is people of faith who are the children of Abraham.
Gal 3:8 And it was because scripture foresaw that God would give saving justice to the gentiles through faith, that it announced the future gospel to Abraham in the words: All nations will be blessed in you.
Gal 3:9 So it is people of faith who receive the same blessing as Abraham, the man of faith.
Gal 3:10 On the other hand, all those who depend on the works of the Law are under a curse, since scripture says: Accursed be he who does not make what is written in the book of the Law effective, by putting it into practice.
Gal 3:11 Now it is obvious that nobody is reckoned as upright in God's sight by the Law, since the upright will live through faith;
Gal 3:12 and the Law is based not on faith but on the principle, whoever complies with it will find life in it.
Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by being cursed for our sake since scripture says: Anyone hanged is accursed,
Gal 3:14 so that the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles in Christ Jesus, and so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Gal 3:15 To put it in human terms, my brothers: even when a will is only a human one, once it has been ratified nobody can cancel it or add more provisions to it.
Gal 3:16 Now the promises were addressed to Abraham and to his progeny. The words were not and to his progenies in the plural, but in the singular; and to your progeny, which means Christ.
Gal 3:17 What I am saying is this: once a will had been long ago ratified by God, the Law, coming four hundred and thirty years later, could not abolish it and so nullify its promise.
Gal 3:18 You see, if the inheritance comes by the Law, it no longer comes through a promise; but it was by a promise that God made his gift to Abraham.
Gal 3:19 Then what is the purpose of the Law? It was added to deal with crimes until the 'progeny' to whom the promise had been made should come; and it was promulgated through angels, by the agency of an intermediary.
Gal 3:20 Now there can be an intermediary only between two parties, yet God is one.
Gal 3:21 Is the Law contrary, then, to God's promises? Out of the question! If the Law that was given had been capable of giving life, then certainly saving justice would have come from the Law.
Gal 3:22 As it is, scripture makes no exception when it says that sin is master everywhere; so the promise can be given only by faith in Jesus Christ to those who have this faith.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the Law, locked up to wait for the faith which would eventually be revealed to us.
Gal 3:24 So the Law was serving as a slave to look after us, to lead us to Christ, so that we could be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But now that faith has come we are no longer under a slave looking after us;
Gal 3:26 for all of you are the children of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus,
Gal 3:27 since every one of you that has been baptised has been clothed in Christ.
Gal 3:28 There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither slave nor freeman, there can be neither male nor female -- for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And simply by being Christ's, you are that progeny of Abraham, the heirs named in the promise.
Gal 4:1 What I am saying is this: an heir, during the time while he is still under age, is no different from a slave, even though he is the owner of all the property;
Gal 4:2 he is under the control of guardians and administrators until the time fixed by his father.
Gal 4:3 So too with us, as long as we were still under age, we were enslaved to the elemental principles of this world;
Gal 4:4 but when the completion of the time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law,
Gal 4:5 to redeem the subjects of the Law, so that we could receive adoption as sons.
Gal 4:6 As you are sons, God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son crying, 'Abba, Father';
Gal 4:7 and so you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir, by God's own act.
Gal 4:8 But formerly when you did not know God, you were kept in slavery to things which are not really gods at all,
Gal 4:9 whereas now that you have come to recognize God -- or rather, be recognized by God -- how can you now turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt elements whose slaves you now want to be all over again?
Gal 4:10 You are keeping special days, and months, and seasons and years-
Gal 4:11 I am beginning to be afraid that I may, after all, have wasted my efforts on you.
Gal 4:12 I urge you, brothers,-be like me, as I have become like you. You have never been unfair to me;
Gal 4:13 indeed you remember that it was an illness that first gave me the opportunity to preach the gospel to you,
Gal 4:14 but though my illness was a trial to you, you did not show any distaste or revulsion; instead, you welcomed me as a messenger of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.
Gal 4:15 What has happened to the utter contentment you had then? For I can testify to you that you would have plucked your eyes out, were that possible, and given them to me.
Gal 4:16 Then have I turned into your enemy simply by being truthful with you?
Gal 4:17 Their devotion to you has no praiseworthy motive; they simply want to cut you off from me, so that you may centre your devotion on them.
Gal 4:18 Devotion to a praiseworthy cause is praiseworthy at any time, not only when I am there with you.
Gal 4:19 My children, I am going through the pain of giving birth to you all over again, until Christ is formed in you;
Gal 4:20 and how I wish I could be there with you at this moment and find the right way of talking to you: I am quite at a loss with you.
Gal 4:21 Tell me then, you are so eager to be subject to the Law, have you listened to what the Law says?
Gal 4:22 Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave girl and one by the freewoman.
Gal 4:23 The son of the slave girl came to be born in the way of human nature; but the son of the freewoman came to be born through a promise.
Gal 4:24 There is an allegory here: these women stand for the two covenants. The one given on Mount Sinai -- that is Hagar, whose children are born into slavery;
Gal 4:25 now Sinai is a mountain in Arabia and represents Jerusalem in its present state, for she is in slavery together with her children.
Gal 4:26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and that is the one that is our mother;
Gal 4:27 as scripture says: Shout for joy, you barren woman who has borne no children! Break into shouts of joy, you who were never in labour. For the sons of the forsaken one are more in number than the sons of the wedded wife.
Gal 4:28 Now you, brothers, are like Isaac, children of the promise;
Gal 4:29 just as at that time, the child born in the way of human nature persecuted the child born through the Spirit, so now.
Gal 4:30 But what is it that scripture says? Drive away that slave girl and her son; the slave girl's son is not to share the inheritance with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So, brothers, we are the children not of the slave girl but of the freewoman.
Gal 5:1 Christ set us free, so that we should remain free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be fastened again to the yoke of slavery.
Gal 5:2 I, Paul, give you my word that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all.
Gal 5:3 I give my assurance once again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law;
Gal 5:4 once you seek to be reckoned as upright through the Law, then you have separated yourself from Christ, you have fallen away from grace.
Gal 5:5 We are led by the Spirit to wait in the confident hope of saving justice through faith,
Gal 5:6 since in Christ Jesus it is not being circumcised or being uncircumcised that can effect anything -- only faith working through love.
Gal 5:7 You began your race well; who came to obstruct you and stop you obeying the truth?
Gal 5:8 It was certainly not any prompting from him who called you!
Gal 5:9 A pinch of yeast ferments the whole batch.
Gal 5:10 But I feel sure that, united in the Lord, you will not be led astray, and that anyone who makes trouble with you will be condemned, no matter who he is.
Gal 5:11 And I, brothers -- if I were still preaching circumcision, why should I still be persecuted? For then the obstacle which is the cross would have no point any more.
Gal 5:12 I could wish that those who are unsettling you would go further and mutilate themselves.
Gal 5:13 After all, brothers, you were called to be free; do not use your freedom as an opening for self-indulgence, but be servants to one another in love,
Gal 5:14 since the whole of the Law is summarised in the one commandment: You must love your neighbor as yourself.
Gal 5:15 If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to pieces, take care: you will be eaten up by one another.
Gal 5:16 Instead, I tell you, be guided by the Spirit, and you will no longer yield to self-indulgence.
Gal 5:17 The desires of self-indulgence are always in opposition to the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are in opposition to self-indulgence: they are opposites, one against the other; that is how you are prevented from doing the things that you want to.
Gal 5:18 But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.
Gal 5:19 When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice, impurity, and sensuality,
Gal 5:20 the worship of false gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements,
Gal 5:21 factions and malice, drunkenness, orgies and all such things. And about these, I tell you now as I have told you in the past, that people who behave in these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:22 On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these.
Gal 5:24 All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires.
Gal 5:25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let our behavior be guided by the Spirit
Gal 5:26 and let us not be conceited or provocative and envious of one another.
Gal 6:1 Brothers, even if one of you is caught doing something wrong, those of you who are spiritual should set that person right in a spirit of gentleness; and watch yourselves that you are not put to the test in the same way.
Gal 6:2 Carry each other's burdens; that is how to keep the law of Christ.
Gal 6:3 Someone who thinks himself important, when he is not, only deceives himself;
Gal 6:4 but everyone is to examine his own achievements, and then he will confine his boasting to his own achievements, not comparing them with anybody else's.
Gal 6:5 Each one has his own load to carry.
Gal 6:6 When someone is under instruction in doctrine, he should give his teacher a share in all his possessions.
Gal 6:7 Don't delude yourself: God is not to be fooled; whatever someone sows, that is what he will reap.
Gal 6:8 If his sowing is in the field of self-indulgence, then his harvest from it will be corruption; if his sowing is in the Spirit, then his harvest from the Spirit will be eternal life.
Gal 6:9 And let us never slacken in doing good; for if we do not give up, we shall have our harvest in due time.
Gal 6:10 So then, as long as we have the opportunity let all our actions be for the good of everybody, and especially of those who belong to the household of the faith.
Gal 6:11 Notice what large letters I have used in writing to you with my own hand.
Gal 6:12 It is those who want to cut a figure by human standards who force circumcision on you, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.
Gal 6:13 Even though they are circumcised they still do not keep the Law themselves; they want you to be circumcised only so that they can boast of your outward appearance.
Gal 6:14 But as for me, it is out of the question that I should boast at all, except of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Gal 6:15 It is not being circumcised or uncircumcised that matters; but what matters is a new creation.
Gal 6:16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this as their rule and to the Israel of God.
Gal 6:17 After this, let no one trouble me; I carry branded on my body the marks of Jesus.
Gal 6:18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, my brothers. Amen.
Eph 1:1 Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's holy people, faithful in Christ Jesus.
Eph 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph 1:3 Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.
Eph 1:4 Thus he chose us in Christ before the world was made to be holy and faultless before him in love,
Eph 1:5 marking us out for himself beforehand, to be adopted sons, through Jesus Christ. Such was his purpose and good pleasure,
Eph 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, his free gift to us in the Beloved,
Eph 1:7 in whom, through his blood, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. Such is the richness of the grace
Eph 1:8 which he has showered on us in all wisdom and insight.
Eph 1:9 He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, according to his good pleasure which he determined beforehand in Christ,
Eph 1:10 for him to act upon when the times had run their course: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.
Eph 1:11 And it is in him that we have received our heritage, marked out beforehand as we were, under the plan of the One who guides all things as he decides by his own will,
Eph 1:12 chosen to be, for the praise of his glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.
Eph 1:13 Now you too, in him, have heard the message of the truth and the gospel of your salvation, and having put your trust in it you have been stamped with the seal of the Holy Spirit of the Promise,
Eph 1:14 who is the pledge of our inheritance, for the freedom of the people whom God has taken for his own, for the praise of his glory.
Eph 1:15 That is why I, having once heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus, and your love for all God's holy people,
Eph 1:16 have never failed to thank God for you and to remember you in my prayers.
Eph 1:17 May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him.
Eph 1:18 May he enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you, how rich is the glory of the heritage he offers among his holy people,
Eph 1:19 and how extraordinarily great is the power that he has exercised for us believers; this accords with the strength of his power
Eph 1:20 at work in Christ, the power which he exercised in raising him from the dead and enthroning him at his right hand, in heaven,
Eph 1:21 far above every principality, ruling force, power or sovereignty, or any other name that can be named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
Eph 1:22 He has put all things under his feet, and made him, as he is above all things, the head of the Church;
Eph 1:23 which is his Body, the fullness of him who is filled, all in all.
Eph 2:1 And you were dead, through the crimes and the sins
Eph 2:2 which used to make up your way of life when you were living by the principles of this world, obeying the ruler who dominates the air, the spirit who is at work in those who rebel.
Eph 2:3 We too were all among them once, living only by our natural inclinations, obeying the demands of human self-indulgence and our own whim; our nature made us no less liable to God's retribution than the rest of the world.
Eph 2:4 But God, being rich in faithful love, through the great love with which he loved us,
Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our sins, brought us to life with Christ -- it is through grace that you have been saved-
Eph 2:6 and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:7 This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how extraordinarily rich he is in grace.
Eph 2:8 Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God;
Eph 2:9 not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit.
Eph 2:10 We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.
Eph 2:11 Do not forget, then, that there was a time when you who were gentiles by physical descent, termed the uncircumcised by those who speak of themselves as the circumcised by reason of a physical operation,
Eph 2:12 do not forget, I say, that you were at that time separate from Christ and excluded from membership of Israel, aliens with no part in the covenants of the Promise, limited to this world, without hope and without God.
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus, you that used to be so far off have been brought close, by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14 For he is the peace between us, and has made the two into one entity and broken down the barrier which used to keep them apart, by destroying in his own person the hostility,
Eph 2:15 that is, the Law of commandments with its decrees. His purpose in this was, by restoring peace, to create a single New Man out of the two of them,
Eph 2:16 and through the cross, to reconcile them both to God in one Body; in his own person he killed the hostility.
Eph 2:17 He came to bring the good news of peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Eph 2:18 Through him, then, we both in the one Spirit have free access to the Father.
Eph 2:19 So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of God's household.
Eph 2:20 You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone.
Eph 2:21 Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
Eph 2:22 and you too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit.
Eph 3:1 It is because of this that I, Paul, a prisoner of the Lord Jesus on behalf of you gentiles. . .
Eph 3:2 You have surely heard the way in which God entrusted me with the grace he gave me for your sake;
Eph 3:3 he made known to me by a revelation the mystery I have just described briefly-
Eph 3:4 a reading of it will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.
Eph 3:5 This mystery, as it is now revealed in the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, was unknown to humanity in previous generations:
Eph 3:6 that the gentiles now have the same inheritance and form the same Body and enjoy the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Eph 3:7 I have been made the servant of that gospel by a gift of grace from God who gave it to me by the workings of his power.
Eph 3:8 I, who am less than the least of all God's holy people, have been entrusted with this special grace, of proclaiming to the gentiles the unfathomable treasure of Christ
Eph 3:9 and of throwing light on the inner workings of the mystery kept hidden through all the ages in God, the Creator of everything.
Eph 3:10 The purpose of this was, that now, through the Church, the principalities and ruling forces should learn how many-sided God's wisdom is,
Eph 3:11 according to the plan which he had formed from all eternity in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Eph 3:12 In him we are bold enough to approach God in complete confidence, through our faith in him;
Eph 3:13 so, I beg you, do not let the hardships I go through on your account make you waver; they are your glory.
Eph 3:14 This, then, is what I pray, kneeling before the Father,
Eph 3:15 from whom every fatherhood, in heaven or on earth, takes its name.
Eph 3:16 In the abundance of his glory may he, through his Spirit, enable you to grow firm in power with regard to your inner self,
Eph 3:17 so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in love and built on love,
Eph 3:18 with all God's holy people you will have the strength to grasp the breadth and the length, the height and the depth;
Eph 3:19 so that, knowing the love of Christ, which is beyond knowledge, you may be filled with the utter fullness of God.
Eph 3:20 Glory be to him whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine;
Eph 3:21 glory be to him from generation to generation in the congregation (ekklesia)and in Christ Jesus for ever and ever. Amen.
Eph 4:1 I, the prisoner in the Lord, urge you therefore to lead a life worthy of the vocation to which you were called.
Eph 4:2 With all humility and gentleness, and with patience, support each other in love.
Eph 4:3 Take every care to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together.
Eph 4:4 There is one Body, one Spirit, just as one hope is the goal of your calling by God.
Eph 4:5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Eph 4:6 and one God and Father of all, over all, through all and within all.
Eph 4:7 On each one of us God's favor has been bestowed in whatever way Christ allotted it.
Eph 4:8 That is why it says: He went up to the heights, took captives, he gave gifts to humanity.
Eph 4:9 When it says, 'he went up', it must mean that he had gone down to the deepest levels of the earth.
Eph 4:10 The one who went down is none other than the one who went up above all the heavens to fill all things.
Eph 4:11 And to some, his 'gift' was that they should be apostles; to some prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12 to knit God's holy people together for the work of service to build up the Body of Christ,
Eph 4:13 until we all reach unity in faith and knowledge of the Son of God and form the perfect Man, fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself.
Eph 4:14 Then we shall no longer be children, or tossed one way and another, and carried hither and thither by every new gust of teaching, at the mercy of all the tricks people play and their unscrupulousness in deliberate deception.
Eph 4:15 If we live by the truth and in love, we shall grow completely into Christ, who is the head
Eph 4:16 by whom the whole Body is fitted and joined together, every joint adding its own strength, for each individual part to work according to its function. So the body grows until it has built itself up in love.
Eph 4:17 So this I say to you and attest to you in the Lord, do not go on living the empty-headed life that the gentiles live.
Eph 4:18 Intellectually they are in the dark, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance which is the consequence of closed minds.
Eph 4:19 Their sense of right and wrong once dulled, they have abandoned all self-control and pursue to excess every kind of uncleanness.
Eph 4:20 Now that is hardly the way you have learnt Christ,
Eph 4:21 unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus.
Eph 4:22 You were to put aside your old self, which belongs to your old way of life and is corrupted by following illusory desires.
Eph 4:23 Your mind was to be renewed in spirit
Eph 4:24 so that you could put on the New Man that has been created on God's principles, in the uprightness and holiness of the truth.
Eph 4:25 So from now on, there must be no more lies. Speak the truth to one another, since we are all parts of one another.
Eph 4:26 Even if you are angry, do not sin: never let the sun set on your anger
Eph 4:27 or else you will give the devil a foothold.
Eph 4:28 Anyone who was a thief must stop stealing; instead he should exert himself at some honest job with his own hands so that he may have something to share with those in need.
Eph 4:29 No foul word should ever cross your lips; let your words be for the improvement of others, as occasion offers, and do good to your listeners;
Eph 4:30 do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God who has marked you with his seal, ready for the day when we shall be set free.
Eph 4:31 Any bitterness or bad temper or anger or shouting or abuse must be far removed from you -- as must every kind of malice.
Eph 4:32 Be generous to one another, sympathetic, forgiving each other as readily as God forgave you in Christ.
Eph 5:1 As God's dear children, then, take him as your pattern,
Eph 5:2 and follow Christ by loving as he loved you, giving himself up for us as an offering and a sweet-smelling sacrifice to God.
Eph 5:3 Among you there must be not even a mention of sexual vice or impurity in any of its forms, or greed: this would scarcely become the holy people of God!
Eph 5:4 There must be no foul or salacious talk or coarse jokes -- all this is wrong for you; there should rather be thanksgiving.
Eph 5:5 For you can be quite certain that nobody who indulges in sexual immorality or impurity or greed -- which is worshipping a false god -- can inherit the kingdom of God.
Eph 5:6 Do not let anyone deceive you with empty arguments: it is such behavior that draws down God's retribution on those who rebel against him.
Eph 5:7 Make sure that you do not throw in your lot with them.
Eph 5:8 You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; behave as children of light,
Eph 5:9 for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and uprightness and truth.
Eph 5:10 Try to discover what the Lord wants of you,
Eph 5:11 take no part in the futile works of darkness but, on the contrary, show them up for what they are.
Eph 5:12 The things which are done in secret are shameful even to speak of;
Eph 5:13 but anything shown up by the light will be illuminated
Eph 5:14 and anything illuminated is itself a light. That is why it is said: Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Eph 5:15 So be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people.
Eph 5:16 Make the best of the present time, for it is a wicked age.
Eph 5:17 This is why you must not be thoughtless but must recognize what is the will of the Lord.
Eph 5:18 Do not get drunk with wine; this is simply dissipation; be filled with the Spirit.
Eph 5:19 Sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs among yourselves, singing and chanting to the Lord in your hearts,
Eph 5:20 always and everywhere giving thanks to God who is our Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eph 5:21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Eph 5:22 Wives should be subject to their husbands as to the Lord,
Eph 5:23 since, as Christ is head of the congregation (ekklesia)and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife;
Eph 5:24 and as the congregation (ekklesia)is subject to Christ, so should wives be to their husbands, in everything.
Eph 5:25 Husbands should love their wives, just as Christ loved the congregation (ekklesia)and sacrificed himself for her
Eph 5:26 to make her holy by washing her in cleansing water with a form of words,
Eph 5:27 so that when he took the congregation (ekklesia)to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless.
Eph 5:28 In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself.
Eph 5:29 A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church,
Eph 5:30 because we are parts of his Body.
Eph 5:31 This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and the two become one flesh.
Eph 5:32 This mystery has great significance, but I am applying it to Christ and the Church.
Eph 5:33 To sum up: you also, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.
Eph 6:1 Children, be obedient to your parents in the Lord -- that is what uprightness demands.
Eph 6:2 The first commandment that has a promise attached to it is: honor your father and your mother,
Eph 6:3 and the promise is: so that you may have long life and prosper in the land.
Eph 6:4 And parents, never drive your children to resentment but bring them up with correction and advice inspired by the Lord.
Eph 6:5 Slaves, be obedient to those who are, according to human reckoning, your masters, with deep respect and sincere loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ:
Eph 6:6 not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please human beings, but as slaves of Christ who wholeheartedly do the will of God.
Eph 6:7 Work willingly for the sake of the Lord and not for the sake of human beings.
Eph 6:8 Never forget that everyone, whether a slave or a free man, will be rewarded by the Lord for whatever work he has done well.
Eph 6:9 And those of you who are employers, treat your slaves in the same spirit; do without threats, and never forget that they and you have the same Master in heaven and there is no favoritism with him.
Eph 6:10 Finally, grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of his power.
Eph 6:11 Put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics.
Eph 6:12 For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens.
Eph 6:13 That is why you must take up all God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full.
Eph 6:14 So stand your ground, with truth a belt round your waist, and uprightness a breastplate,
Eph 6:15 wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace
Eph 6:16 and always carrying the shield of faith so that you can use it to quench the burning arrows of the Evil One.
Eph 6:17 And then you must take salvation as your helmet and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God.
Eph 6:18 In all your prayer and entreaty keep praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people,
Eph 6:19 and pray for me to be given an opportunity to open my mouth and fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel
Eph 6:20 of which I am an ambassador in chains; pray that in proclaiming it I may speak as fearlessly as I ought to.
Eph 6:21 So that you know, as well, what is happening to me and what I am doing, my dear friend Tychicus, my trustworthy helper in the Lord, will tell you everything.
Eph 6:22 I am sending him to you precisely for this purpose, to give you news about us and encourage you thoroughly.
Eph 6:23 May God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ grant peace, love and faith to all the brothers.
Eph 6:24 May grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, in life imperishable.
Phi 1:1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all God's holy people in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with their presiding elders and the deacons.
Phi 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Phi 1:3 I thank my God whenever I think of you,
Phi 1:4 and every time I pray for you all, I always pray with joy
Phi 1:5 for your partnership in the gospel from the very first day up to the present.
Phi 1:6 I am quite confident that the One who began a good work in you will go on completing it until the Day of Jesus Christ comes.
Phi 1:7 It is only right that I should feel like this towards you all, because you have a place in my heart, since you have all shared together in the grace that has been mine, both my chains and my work defending and establishing the gospel.
Phi 1:8 For God will testify for me how much I long for you all with the warm longing of Christ Jesus;
Phi 1:9 it is my prayer that your love for one another may grow more and more with the knowledge and complete understanding
Phi 1:10 that will help you to come to true discernment, so that you will be innocent and free of any trace of guilt when the Day of Christ comes,
Phi 1:11 entirely filled with the fruits of uprightness through Jesus Christ, for the glory and praise of God.
Phi 1:12 Now I want you to realize, brothers, that the circumstances of my present life are helping rather than hindering the advance of the gospel.
Phi 1:13 My chains in Christ have become well known not only to all the Praetorium, but to everybody else,
Phi 1:14 and so most of the brothers in the Lord have gained confidence from my chains and are getting more and more daring in announcing the Message without any fear.
Phi 1:15 It is true that some of them are preaching Christ out of malice and rivalry; but there are many as well whose intentions are good;
Phi 1:16 some are doing it out of love, knowing that I remain firm in my defence of the gospel.
Phi 1:17 There are others who are proclaiming Christ out of jealousy, not in sincerity but meaning to add to the weight of my chains.
Phi 1:18 But what does it matter? Only that in both ways, whether with false motives or true, Christ is proclaimed, and for that I am happy;
Phi 1:19 and I shall go on being happy, too, because I know that this is what will save me, with your prayers and with the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ;
Phi 1:20 all in accordance with my most confident hope and trust that I shall never have to admit defeat, but with complete fearlessness I shall go on, so that now, as always, Christ will be glorified in my body, whether by my life or my death.
Phi 1:21 Life to me, of course, is Christ, but then death would be a positive gain.
Phi 1:22 On the other hand again, if to be alive in the body gives me an opportunity for fruitful work, I do not know which I should choose.
Phi 1:23 I am caught in this dilemma: I want to be gone and to be with Christ, and this is by far the stronger desire-
Phi 1:24 and yet for your sake to stay alive in this body is a more urgent need.
Phi 1:25 This much I know for certain, that I shall stay and stand by you all, to encourage your advance and your joy in the faith,
Phi 1:26 so that my return to be among you may increase to overflowing your pride in Jesus Christ on my account.
Phi 1:27 But you must always behave in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come to you and see for myself or whether I only hear all about you from a distance, I shall find that you are standing firm and united in spirit, battling, as a team with a single aim, for the faith of the gospel,
Phi 1:28 undismayed by any of your opponents. This will be a clear sign, for them that they are to be lost, and for you that you are to be saved.
Phi 1:29 This comes from God, for you have been granted the privilege for Christ's sake not only of believing in him but of suffering for him as well;
Phi 1:30 you are fighting the same battle which you saw me fighting for him and which you hear I am fighting still.
Phi 2:1 So if in Christ there is anything that will move you, any incentive in love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any warmth or sympathy -- I appeal to you,
Phi 2:2 make my joy complete by being of a single mind, one in love, one in heart and one in mind.
Phi 2:3 Nothing is to be done out of jealousy or vanity; instead, out of humility of mind everyone should give preference to others,
Phi 2:4 everyone pursuing not selfish interests but those of others.
Phi 2:5 Make your own the mind of Christ Jesus:
Phi 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped.
Phi 2:7 But he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, becoming as human beings are; and being in every way like a human being,
Phi 2:8 he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.
Phi 2:9 And for this God raised him high, and gave him the name which is above all other names;
Phi 2:10 so that all beings in the heavens, on earth and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus
Phi 2:11 and that every tongue should acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Phi 2:12 So, my dear friends, you have always been obedient; your obedience must not be limited to times when I am present. Now that I am absent it must be more in evidence, so work out your salvation in fear and trembling.
Phi 2:13 It is God who, for his own generous purpose, gives you the intention and the powers to act.
Phi 2:14 Let your behavior be free of murmuring and complaining
Phi 2:15 so that you remain faultless and pure, unspoilt children of God surrounded by a deceitful and underhand brood, shining out among them like bright stars in the world,
Phi 2:16 proffering to it the Word of life. Then I shall have reason to be proud on the Day of Christ, for it will not be for nothing that I have run the race and toiled so hard.
Phi 2:17 Indeed, even if my blood has to be poured as a libation over your sacrifice and the offering of your faith, then I shall be glad and join in your rejoicing-
Phi 2:18 and in the same way, you must be glad and join in my rejoicing.
Phi 2:19 I hope, in the Lord Jesus, to send Timothy to you soon, so that my mind may be set at rest when I hear how you are.
Phi 2:20 There is nobody else that I can send who is like him and cares as sincerely for your well-being;
Phi 2:21 they all want to work for themselves, not for Jesus Christ.
Phi 2:22 But you know what sort of person he has proved himself, working with me for the sake of the gospel like a son with his father.
Phi 2:23 That is the man, then, that I am hoping to send to you immediately I can make out what is going to happen to me;
Phi 2:24 but I am confident in the Lord that I shall come myself, too, before long.
Phi 2:25 Nevertheless I thought it essential to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow-worker and companion-in-arms since he came as your representative to look after my needs;
Phi 2:26 because he was missing you all and was worrying because you had heard that he was ill.
Phi 2:27 Indeed he was seriously ill and nearly died; but God took pity on him -- and not only on him but also on me, to spare me one grief on top of another.
Phi 2:28 So I am sending him back as promptly as I can so that you will have the joy of seeing him again, and that will be some comfort to me in my distress.
Phi 2:29 Welcome him in the Lord, then, with all joy; hold people like him in honor,
Phi 2:30 because it was for Christ's work that he came so near to dying, risking his life to do the duty to me which you could not do yourselves.
Phi 3:1 Finally, brothers, I wish you joy in the Lord. To write to you what I have already written before is no trouble to me and to you will be a protection.
Phi 3:2 Beware of dogs! Beware of evil workmen! Beware of self-mutilators!
Phi 3:3 We are the true people of the circumcision since we worship by the Spirit of God and make Christ Jesus our only boast, not relying on physical qualifications,
Phi 3:4 although, I myself could rely on these too. If anyone does claim to rely on them, my claim is better.
Phi 3:5 Circumcised on the eighth day of my life, I was born of the race of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrew parents. In the matter of the Law, I was a Pharisee;
Phi 3:6 as for religious fervour, I was a persecutor of the Church; as for the uprightness embodied in the Law, I was faultless.
Phi 3:7 But what were once my assets I now through Christ Jesus count as losses.
Phi 3:8 Yes, I will go further: because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else as loss. For him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and look on them all as filth if only I can gain Christ
Phi 3:9 and be given a place in him, with the uprightness I have gained not from the Law, but through faith in Christ, an uprightness from God, based on faith,
Phi 3:10 that I may come to know him and the power of his resurrection, and partake of his sufferings by being moulded to the pattern of his death,
Phi 3:11 striving towards the goal of resurrection from the dead.
Phi 3:12 Not that I have secured it already, nor yet reached my goal, but I am still pursuing it in the attempt to take hold of the prize for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
Phi 3:13 Brothers, I do not reckon myself as having taken hold of it; I can only say that forgetting all that lies behind me, and straining forward to what lies in front,
Phi 3:14 I am racing towards the finishing-point to win the prize of God's heavenly call in Christ Jesus.
Phi 3:15 So this is the way in which all of us who are mature should be thinking, and if you are still thinking differently in any way, then God has yet to make this matter clear to you.
Phi 3:16 Meanwhile, let us go forward from the point we have each attained.
Phi 3:17 Brothers, be united in imitating me. Keep your eyes fixed on those who act according to the example you have from me.
Phi 3:18 For there are so many people of whom I have often warned you, and now I warn you again with tears in my eyes, who behave like the enemies of Christ's cross.
Phi 3:19 They are destined to be lost; their god is the stomach; they glory in what they should think shameful, since their minds are set on earthly things.
Phi 3:20 But our homeland is in heaven and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Phi 3:21 who will transfigure the wretched body of ours into the mould of his glorious body, through the working of the power which he has, even to bring all things under his mastery.
Phi 4:1 So then, my brothers and dear friends whom I miss so much, my joy and my crown, hold firm in the Lord, dear friends.
Phi 4:2 I urge Euodia, and I urge Syntyche to come to agreement with each other in the Lord;
Phi 4:3 and I ask you, Syzygus, really to be a 'partner' and help them. These women have struggled hard for the gospel with me, along with Clement and all my other fellow-workers, whose names are written in the book of life.
Phi 4:4 Always be joyful, then, in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful.
Phi 4:5 Let your good sense be obvious to everybody. The Lord is near.
Phi 4:6 Never worry about anything; but tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude,
Phi 4:7 and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.
Phi 4:8 Finally, brothers, let your minds be filled with everything that is true, everything that is honorable, everything that is upright and pure, everything that we love and admire -- with whatever is good and praiseworthy.
Phi 4:9 Keep doing everything you learnt from me and were told by me and have heard or seen me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.
Phi 4:10 As for me, I am full of joy in the Lord, now that at last your consideration for me has blossomed again; though I recognize that you really did have consideration before, but had no opportunity to show it.
Phi 4:11 I do not say this because I have lacked anything; I have learnt to manage with whatever I have.
Phi 4:12 I know how to live modestly, and I know how to live luxuriously too: in every way now I have mastered the secret of all conditions: full stomach and empty stomach, plenty and poverty.
Phi 4:13 There is nothing I cannot do in the One who strengthens me.
Phi 4:14 All the same, it was good of you to share with me in my hardships.
Phi 4:15 In the early days of the gospel, as you of Philippi well know, when I left Macedonia, no congregation (ekklesia)other than yourselves made common account with me in the matter of expenditure and receipts. You were the only ones;
Phi 4:16 and what is more, you have twice sent me what I needed in Thessalonica.
Phi 4:17 It is not the gift that I value most; what I value is the interest that is mounting up in your account.
Phi 4:18 I have all that I need and more: I am fully provided, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the offering that you sent, a pleasing smell, the sacrifice which is acceptable and pleasing to God.
Phi 4:19 And my God will fulfill all your needs out of the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Phi 4:20 And so glory be to God our Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Phi 4:21 My greetings to every one of God's holy people in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me send you their greetings.
Phi 4:22 All God's holy people send you their greetings, especially those of Caesar's household.
Phi 4:23 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Col 1:1 From Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy
Col 1:2 to God's holy people in Colossae, our faithful brothers in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
Col 1:3 We give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, continually in our prayers,
Col 1:4 ever since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all God's holy people
Col 1:5 because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven. News of this hope reached you not long ago through the word of truth, the gospel
Col 1:6 that came to you in the same way as it is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world. It has had the same effect among you, ever since you heard about the grace of God and recognized it for what it truly is.
Col 1:7 This you learnt from Epaphras, our very dear fellow-worker and a trustworthy deputy for us as Christ's servant,
Col 1:8 and it was he who also told us all about your love in the Spirit.
Col 1:9 That is why, ever since the day he told us, we have never failed to remember you in our prayers and ask that through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding you should reach the fullest knowledge of his will
Col 1:10 and so be able to lead a life worthy of the Lord, a life acceptable to him in all its aspects, bearing fruit in every kind of good work and growing in knowledge of God,
Col 1:11 fortified, in accordance with his glorious strength, with all power always to persevere and endure,
Col 1:12 giving thanks with joy to the Father who has made you able to share the lot of God's holy people and with them to inherit the light.
Col 1:13 Because that is what he has done. It is he who has rescued us from the ruling force of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son that he loves,
Col 1:14 and in him we enjoy our freedom, the forgiveness of sin.
Col 1:15 He is the image of the unseen God, the first-born of all creation,
Col 1:16 for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, thrones, ruling forces, sovereignties, powers -- all things were created through him and for him.
Col 1:17 He exists before all things and in him all things hold together,
Col 1:18 and he is the Head of the Body, that is, the Church. He is the Beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that he should be supreme in every way;
Col 1:19 because God wanted all fullness to be found in him
Col 1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, by making peace through his death on the cross.
Col 1:21 You were once estranged and of hostile intent through your evil behaviour;
Col 1:22 now he has reconciled you, by his death and in that mortal body, to bring you before himself holy, faultless and irreproachable-
Col 1:23 as long as you persevere and stand firm on the solid base of the faith, never letting yourselves drift away from the hope promised by the gospel, which you have heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become the servant.
Col 1:24 It makes me happy to be suffering for you now, and in my own body to make up all the hardships that still have to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church,
Col 1:25 of which I was made a servant with the responsibility towards you that God gave to me, that of completing God's message,
Col 1:26 the message which was a mystery hidden for generations and centuries and has now been revealed to his holy people.
Col 1:27 It was God's purpose to reveal to them how rich is the glory of this mystery among the gentiles; it is Christ among you, your hope of glory:
Col 1:28 this is the Christ we are proclaiming, admonishing and instructing everyone in all wisdom, to make everyone perfect in Christ.
Col 1:29 And it is for this reason that I labour, striving with his energy which works in me mightily.
Col 2:1 I want you to know, then, what a struggle I am having on your behalf and on behalf of those in Laodicea, and on behalf of so many others who have never seen me face to face.
Col 2:2 It is all to bind them together in love and to encourage their resolution until they are rich in the assurance of their complete understanding and have knowledge of the mystery of God
Col 2:3 in which all the jewels of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
Col 2:4 I say this to make sure that no one deceives you with specious arguments.
Col 2:5 I may be absent in body, but in spirit I am there among you, delighted to find how well-ordered you are and to see how firm your faith in Christ is.
Col 2:6 So then, as you received Jesus as Lord and Christ, now live your lives in him,
Col 2:7 be rooted in him and built up on him, held firm by the faith you have been taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving.
Col 2:8 Make sure that no one captivates you with the empty lure of a 'philosophy' of the kind that human beings hand on, based on the principles of this world and not on Christ.
Col 2:9 In him, in bodily form, lives divinity in all its fullness,
Col 2:10 and in him you too find your own fulfilment, in the one who is the head of every sovereignty and ruling force.
Col 2:11 In him you have been circumcised, with a circumcision performed, not by human hand, but by the complete stripping of your natural self. This is circumcision according to Christ.
Col 2:12 You have been buried with him by your baptism; by which, too, you have been raised up with him through your belief in the power of God who raised him from the dead.
Col 2:13 You were dead, because you were sinners and uncircumcised in body: he has brought you to life with him, he has forgiven us every one of our sins.
Col 2:14 He has wiped out the record of our debt to the Law, which stood against us; he has destroyed it by nailing it to the cross;
Col 2:15 and he has stripped the sovereignties and the ruling forces, and paraded them in public, behind him in his triumphal procession.
Col 2:16 Then never let anyone criticise you for what you eat or drink, or about observance of annual festivals, New Moons or Sabbaths.
Col 2:17 These are only a shadow of what was coming: the reality is the body of Christ.
Col 2:18 Do not be cheated of your prize by anyone who chooses to grovel to angels and worship them, pinning every hope on visions received, vainly puffed up by a human way of thinking;
Col 2:19 such a person has no connection to the Head, by which the whole body, given all that it needs and held together by its joints and sinews, grows with the growth given by God.
Col 2:20 If you have really died with Christ to the principles of this world, why do you still let rules dictate to you, as though you were still living in the world?
Col 2:21 -'Do not pick up this, do not eat that, do not touch the other,'
Col 2:22 and all about things which perish even while they are being used -- according to merely human commandments and doctrines!
Col 2:23 In these rules you can indeed find what seems to be good sense -- the cultivation of the will, and a humility which takes no account of the body; but in fact they have no value against self-indulgence.
Col 3:1 Since you have been raised up to be with Christ, you must look for the things that are above, where Christ is, sitting at God's right hand.
Col 3:2 Let your thoughts be on things above, not on the things that are on the earth,
Col 3:3 because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 But when Christ is revealed -- and he is your life-you, too, will be revealed with him in glory.
Col 3:5 That is why you must kill everything in you that is earthly: sexual vice, impurity, uncontrolled passion, evil desires and especially greed, which is the same thing as worshipping a false god;
Col 3:6 it is precisely these things which draw God's retribution upon those who resist.
Col 3:7 And these things made up your way of life when you were living among such people,
Col 3:8 but now you also must give up all these things: human anger, hot temper, malice, abusive language and dirty talk;
Col 3:9 and do not lie to each other. You have stripped off your old behavior with your old self,
Col 3:10 and you have put on a new self which will progress towards true knowledge the more it is renewed in the image of its Creator;
Col 3:11 and in that image there is no room for distinction between Greek and Jew, between the circumcised and uncircumcised, or between barbarian and Scythian, slave and free. There is only Christ: he is everything and he is in everything.
Col 3:12 As the chosen of God, then, the holy people whom he loves, you are to be clothed in heartfelt compassion, in generosity and humility, gentleness and patience.
Col 3:13 Bear with one another; forgive each other if one of you has a complaint against another. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same.
Col 3:14 Over all these clothes, put on love, the perfect bond.
Col 3:15 And may the peace of Christ reign in your hearts, because it is for this that you were called together in one body. Always be thankful.
Col 3:16 Let the Word of Christ, in all its richness, find a home with you. Teach each other, and advise each other, in all wisdom. With gratitude in your hearts sing psalms and hymns and inspired songs to God;
Col 3:17 and whatever you say or do, let it be in the name of the Lord Jesus, in thanksgiving to God the Father through him.
Col 3:18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as you should in the Lord.
Col 3:19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be sharp with them.
Col 3:20 Children, be obedient to your parents always, because that is what will please the Lord.
Col 3:21 Parents, do not irritate your children or they will lose heart.
Col 3:22 Slaves, be obedient in every way to the people who, according to human reckoning, are your masters; not only when you are under their eye, as if you had only to please human beings, but wholeheartedly, out of respect for the Master.
Col 3:23 Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as done for the Lord and not for human beings,
Col 3:24 knowing that the Lord will repay you by making you his heirs. It is Christ the Lord that you are serving.
Col 3:25 Anyone who does wrong will be repaid in kind. For there is no favoritism.
Col 4:1 Masters, make sure that your slaves are given what is upright and fair, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven.
Col 4:2 Be persevering in your prayers and be thankful as you stay awake to pray.
Col 4:3 Pray for us especially, asking God to throw open a door for us to announce the message and proclaim the mystery of Christ, for the sake of which I am in chains;
Col 4:4 pray that I may proclaim it as clearly as I ought.
Col 4:5 Act wisely with outsiders, making the best of the present time.
Col 4:6 Always talk pleasantly and with a flavour of wit but be sensitive to the kind of answer each one requires.
Col 4:7 Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a very dear brother, and a trustworthy helper and companion in the service of the Lord.
Col 4:8 I am sending him to you precisely for this purpose: to give you news about us and to encourage you thoroughly.
Col 4:9 With him I am sending Onesimus, that dear and trustworthy brother who is a fellow-citizen of yours. They will tell you everything that is happening here.
Col 4:10 Aristarchus, who is here in prison with me, sends his greetings, and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas -- you were sent some instructions about him; if he comes to you, give him a warm welcome-
Col 4:11 and Jesus Justus adds his greetings. Of all those who have come over from the circumcision, these are the only ones actually working with me for the kingdom of God. They have been a great comfort to me.
Col 4:12 Epaphras, your fellow-citizen, sends his greetings; this servant of Christ Jesus never stops battling for you, praying that you will never lapse but always hold perfectly and securely to the will of God.
Col 4:13 I can testify for him that he works hard for you, as well as for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.
Col 4:14 Greetings from my dear friend Luke, the doctor, and also from Demas.
Col 4:15 Please give my greetings to the brothers at Laodicea and to Nympha and the congregation (ekklesia)which meets in her house.
Col 4:16 After this letter has been read among you, send it on to be read in the congregation (ekklesia)of the Laodiceans; and get the letter from Laodicea for you to read yourselves.
Col 4:17 Give Archippus this message, 'Remember the service that the Lord assigned to you, and try to carry it out.'
Col 4:18 This greeting is in my own hand-PAUL. Remember the chains I wear. Grace be with you.
1Th 1:1 Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the congregation (ekklesia)in Thessalonica which is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace.
1Th 1:2 We always thank God for you all, mentioning you in our prayers continually.
1Th 1:3 We remember before our God and Father how active is the faith, how unsparing the love, how persevering the hope which you have from our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 1:4 We know, brothers loved by God, that you have been chosen,
1Th 1:5 because our gospel came to you not only in words, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with great effect. And you observed the sort of life we lived when we were with you, which was for your sake.
1Th 1:6 You took us and the Lord as your model, welcoming the word with the joy of the Holy Spirit in spite of great hardship.
1Th 1:7 And so you became an example to all believers in Macedonia and Achaia
1Th 1:8 since it was from you that the word of the Lord rang out -- and not only throughout Macedonia and Achaia, for your faith in God has spread everywhere. We do not need to tell other people about it:
1Th 1:9 other people tell us how we started the work among you, how you broke with the worship of false gods when you were converted to God and became servants of the living and true God;
1Th 1:10 and how you are now waiting for Jesus, his Son, whom he raised from the dead, to come from heaven. It is he who saves us from the Retribution which is coming.
1Th 2:1 You know yourselves, my brothers, that our visit to you has not been pointless.
1Th 2:2 Although, as you know, we had received rough treatment and insults at Philippi, God gave us the courage to speak his gospel to you fearlessly, in spite of great opposition.
1Th 2:3 Our encouragement to you does not come from any delusion or impure motives or trickery.
1Th 2:4 No, God has approved us to be entrusted with the gospel, and this is how we preach, seeking to please not human beings but God who tests our hearts.
1Th 2:5 Indeed, we have never acted with the thought of flattering anyone, as you know, nor as an excuse for greed, God is our witness;
1Th 2:6 nor have we ever looked for honor from human beings, either from you or anybody else,
1Th 2:7 when we could have imposed ourselves on you with full weight, as apostles of Christ. Instead, we lived unassumingly among you. Like a mother feeding and looking after her children,
1Th 2:8 we felt so devoted to you, that we would have been happy to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, so dear had you become.
1Th 2:9 You remember, brothers, with what unsparing energy we used to work, slaving night and day so as not to be a burden on any one of you while we were proclaiming the gospel of God to you.
1Th 2:10 You are witnesses, and so is God, that our treatment of you, since you believed, has been impeccably fair and upright.
1Th 2:11 As you know, we treated every one of you as a father treats his children,
1Th 2:12 urging you, encouraging you and appealing to you to live a life worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and his glory.
1Th 2:13 Another reason why we continually thank God for you is that as soon as you heard the word that we brought you as God's message, you welcomed it for what it really is, not the word of any human being, but God's word, a power that is working among you believers.
1Th 2:14 For you, my brothers, have modelled yourselves on the congregations (ekklesia) of God in Christ Jesus which are in Judaea, in that you have suffered the same treatment from your own countrymen as they have had from the Jews,
1Th 2:15 who put the Lord Jesus to death, and the prophets too, and persecuted us also. Their conduct does not please God, and makes them the enemies of the whole human race,
1Th 2:16 because they are hindering us from preaching to gentiles to save them. Thus all the time they are reaching the full extent of their iniquity, but retribution has finally overtaken them.
1Th 2:17 Although we had been deprived of you for only a short time in body but never in affection, brothers, we had an especially strong desire and longing to see you face to face again,
1Th 2:18 and we tried hard to come and visit you; I, Paul, tried more than once, but Satan prevented us.
1Th 2:19 What do you think is our hope and our joy, and what our crown of honor in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes?
1Th 2:20 You are, for you are our pride and joy.
1Th 3:1 When we could not bear it any longer, we decided it would be best to be left without a companion at Athens,
1Th 3:2 and sent our brother Timothy, who is God's helper in spreading the gospel of Christ, to keep you firm and encourage you about your faith
1Th 3:3 and prevent any of you from being unsettled by the present hardships. As you know, these are bound to come our way:
1Th 3:4 indeed, when we were with you, we warned you that we are certain to have hardships to bear, and that is what has happened now, as you have found out.
1Th 3:5 That is why, when I could not bear it any longer, I sent to assure myself of your faith: I was afraid the Tester might have put you to the test, and all our work might have been pointless.
1Th 3:6 However, Timothy has returned from you and has given us good news of your faith and your love, telling us that you always remember us with pleasure and want to see us quite as much as we want to see you.
1Th 3:7 And so, brothers, your faith has been a great encouragement to us in the middle of our own distress and hardship;
1Th 3:8 now we can breathe again, as you are holding firm in the Lord.
1Th 3:9 How can we thank God enough for you, for all the joy we feel before our God on your account?
1Th 3:10 We are earnestly praying night and day to be able to see you face to face again and make up any shortcomings in your faith.
1Th 3:11 May God our Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, ease our path to you.
1Th 3:12 May the Lord increase and enrich your love for each other and for all, so that it matches ours for you.
1Th 3:13 And may he so confirm your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless in the sight of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones.
1Th 4:1 Finally, brothers, we urge you and appeal to you in the Lord Jesus; we instructed you how to live in the way that pleases God, and you are so living; but make more progress still.
1Th 4:2 You are well aware of the instructions we gave you on the authority of the Lord Jesus.
1Th 4:3 God wills you all to be holy. He wants you to keep away from sexual immorality,
1Th 4:4 and each one of you to know how to control his body in a way that is holy and honorable,
1Th 4:5 not giving way to selfish lust like the nations who do not acknowledge God.
1Th 4:6 He wants nobody at all ever to sin by taking advantage of a brother in these matters; the Lord always pays back sins of that sort, as we told you before emphatically.
1Th 4:7 God called us to be holy, not to be immoral;
1Th 4:8 in other words, anyone who rejects this is rejecting not human authority, but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.
1Th 4:9 As for brotherly love, there is no need to write to you about that, since you have yourselves learnt from God to love one another,
1Th 4:10 and in fact this is how you treat all the brothers throughout the whole of Macedonia. However, we do urge you, brothers, to go on making even greater progress
1Th 4:11 and to make a point of living quietly, attending to your own business and earning your living, just as we told you to,
1Th 4:12 so that you may earn the respect of outsiders and not be dependent on anyone.
1Th 4:13 We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, to make sure that you do not grieve for them, as others do who have no hope.
1Th 4:14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that in the same way God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
1Th 4:15 We can tell you this from the Lord's own teaching, that we who are still alive for the Lord's coming will not have any advantage over those who have fallen asleep.
1Th 4:16 At the signal given by the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God, the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise,
1Th 4:17 and only after that shall we who remain alive be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air. This is the way we shall be with the Lord for ever.
1Th 4:18 With such thoughts as these, then, you should encourage one another.
1Th 5:1 About times and dates, brothers, there is no need to write to you
1Th 5:2 for you are well aware in any case that the Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night.
1Th 5:3 It is when people are saying, 'How quiet and peaceful it is' that sudden destruction falls on them, as suddenly as labour pains come on a pregnant woman; and there is no escape.
1Th 5:4 But you, brothers, do not live in the dark, that the Day should take you unawares like a thief.
1Th 5:5 No, you are all children of light and children of the day: we do not belong to the night or to darkness,
1Th 5:6 so we should not go on sleeping, as everyone else does, but stay wide awake and sober.
1Th 5:7 Night is the time for sleepers to sleep and night the time for drunkards to be drunk,
1Th 5:8 but we belong to the day and we should be sober; let us put on faith and love for a breastplate, and the hope of salvation for a helmet.
1Th 5:9 God destined us not for his retribution, but to win salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Th 5:10 who died for us so that, awake or asleep, we should still live united to him.
1Th 5:11 So give encouragement to each other, and keep strengthening one another, as you do already.
1Th 5:12 We appeal to you, my brothers, to be considerate to those who work so hard among you as your leaders in the Lord and those who admonish you.
1Th 5:13 Have the greatest respect and affection for them because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
1Th 5:14 We urge you, brothers, to admonish those who are undisciplined, encourage the apprehensive, support the weak and be patient with everyone.
1Th 5:15 Make sure that people do not try to repay evil for evil; always aim at what is best for each other and for everyone.
1Th 5:16 Always be joyful;
1Th 5:17 pray constantly;
1Th 5:18 and for all things give thanks; this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
1Th 5:19 Do not stifle the Spirit
1Th 5:20 or despise the gift of prophecy with contempt;
1Th 5:21 test everything and hold on to what is good
1Th 5:22 and shun every form of evil.
1Th 5:23 May the God of peace make you perfect and holy; and may your spirit, life and body be kept blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 5:24 He who has called you is trustworthy and will carry it out.
1Th 5:25 Pray for us, my brothers.
1Th 5:26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.
1Th 5:27 My orders, in the Lord's name, are that this letter is to be read to all the brothers.
1Th 5:28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
2Th 1:1 Paul, Silvanus and Timothy, to the congregation (ekklesia)in Thessalonica which is in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
2Th 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th 1:3 We must always thank God for you, brothers; quite rightly, because your faith is growing so wonderfully and the mutual love that each one of you has for all never stops increasing.
2Th 1:4 Among the congregations (ekklesia) of God we take special pride in you for your perseverance and faith under all the persecutions and hardships you have to bear.
2Th 1:5 It all shows that God's judgement is just, so that you may be found worthy of the kingdom of God; it is for the sake of this that you are suffering now.
2Th 1:6 For God's justice will surely mean hardship being inflicted on those who are now inflicting hardship on you,
2Th 1:7 and for you who are now suffering hardship, relief with us, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with the angels of his power.
2Th 1:8 He will come amid flaming fire; he will impose a penalty on those who do not acknowledge God and refuse to accept the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
2Th 1:9 Their punishment is to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength
2Th 1:10 on that day when he comes to be glorified among his holy ones and marvelled at by all who believe in him; and you are among those who believed our witness.
2Th 1:11 In view of this we also pray continually that our God will make you worthy of his call, and by his power fulfill all your desires for goodness, and complete all that you have been doing through faith;
2Th 1:12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him, by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th 2:1 About the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, brothers, and our being gathered to him:
2Th 2:2 please do not be too easily thrown into confusion or alarmed by any manifestation of the Spirit or any statement or any letter claiming to come from us, suggesting that the Day of the Lord has already arrived.
2Th 2:3 Never let anyone deceive you in any way. It cannot happen until the Great Revolt has taken place and there has appeared the wicked One, the lost One,
2Th 2:4 the Enemy, who raises himself above every so-called God or object of worship to enthrone himself in God's sanctuary and flaunts the claim that he is God.
2Th 2:5 Surely you remember my telling you about this when I was with you?
2Th 2:6 And you know, too, what is still holding him back from appearing before his appointed time.
2Th 2:7 The mystery of wickedness is already at work, but let him who is restraining it once be removed,
2Th 2:8 and the wicked One will appear openly. The Lord will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will annihilate him with his glorious appearance at his coming.
2Th 2:9 But the coming of the wicked One will be marked by Satan being at work in all kinds of counterfeit miracles and signs and wonders,
2Th 2:10 and every wicked deception aimed at those who are on the way to destruction because they would not accept the love of the truth and so be saved.
2Th 2:11 And therefore God sends on them a power that deludes people so that they believe what is false,
2Th 2:12 and so that those who do not believe the truth and take their pleasure in wickedness may all be condemned.
2Th 2:13 But we must always thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved by the Spirit who makes us holy and by faith in the truth.
2Th 2:14 Through our gospel he called you to this so that you should claim as your own the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Th 2:15 Stand firm, then, brothers, and keep the traditions that we taught you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
2Th 2:16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who has given us his love and, through his grace, such ceaseless encouragement and such sure hope,
2Th 2:17 encourage you and strengthen you in every good word and deed.
2Th 3:1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord's message may spread quickly, and be received with honor as it was among you;
2Th 3:2 and pray that we may be preserved from bigoted and evil people, for not everyone has faith.
2Th 3:3 You can rely on the Lord, who will give you strength and guard you from the evil One,
2Th 3:4 and we, in the Lord, have every confidence in you, that you are doing and will go on doing all that we tell you.
2Th 3:5 May the Lord turn your hearts towards the love of God and the perseverance of Christ.
2Th 3:6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we urge you, brothers, to keep away from any of the brothers who lives an undisciplined life, not in accordance with the tradition you received from us.
2Th 3:7 You know how you should take us as your model: we were not undisciplined when we were with you,
2Th 3:8 nor did we ever accept food from anyone without paying for it; no, we worked with unsparing energy, night and day, so as not to be a burden on any of you.
2Th 3:9 This was not because we had no right to be, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to imitate.
2Th 3:10 We urged you when we were with you not to let anyone eat who refused to work.
2Th 3:11 Now we hear that there are some of you who are living lives without any discipline, doing no work themselves but interfering with other people's.
2Th 3:12 In the Lord Jesus Christ, we urge and call on people of this kind to go on quietly working and earning the food that they eat.
2Th 3:13 My brothers, never slacken in doing what is right.
2Th 3:14 If anyone refuses to obey what I have written in this letter, take note of him and have nothing to do with him, so that he will be ashamed of himself,
2Th 3:15 though you are not to treat him as an enemy, but to correct him as a brother.
2Th 3:16 May the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with you all.
2Th 3:17 This greeting is in my own hand-PAUL. It is the mark of genuineness in every letter; this is my own writing.
2Th 3:18 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
1Ti 1:1 Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus appointed by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
1Ti 1:2 to Timothy, true child of mine in the faith. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
1Ti 1:3 When I was setting out for Macedonia I urged you to stay on in Ephesus to instruct certain people not to spread wrong teaching
1Ti 1:4 or to give attention to myths and unending genealogies; these things only foster doubts instead of furthering God's plan which is founded on faith.
1Ti 1:5 The final goal at which this instruction aims is love, issuing from a pure heart, a clear conscience and a sincere faith.
1Ti 1:6 Some people have missed the way to these things and turned to empty speculation,
1Ti 1:7 trying to be teachers of the Law; but they understand neither the words they use nor the matters about which they make such strong assertions.
1Ti 1:8 We are well aware that the Law is good, but only provided it is used legitimately,
1Ti 1:9 on the understanding that laws are not framed for people who are upright. On the contrary, they are for criminals and the insubordinate, for the irreligious and the wicked, for the sacrilegious and the godless; they are for people who kill their fathers or mothers and for murderers,
1Ti 1:10 for the promiscuous, homosexuals, kidnappers, for liars and for perjurers -- and for everything else that is contrary to the sound teaching
1Ti 1:11 that accords with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, the gospel that was entrusted to me.
1Ti 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. By calling me into his service he has judged me trustworthy,
1Ti 1:13 even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. Mercy, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith I acted in ignorance;
1Ti 1:14 but the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus.
1Ti 1:15 Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them;
1Ti 1:16 and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the leading example of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who were later to trust in him for eternal life.
1Ti 1:17 To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
1Ti 1:18 Timothy, my son, these are the instructions that I am giving you, in accordance with the words once spoken over you by the prophets, so that in their light you may fight like a good soldier
1Ti 1:19 with faith and a good conscience for your weapons. Some people have put conscience aside and wrecked their faith in consequence.
1Ti 1:20 I mean men like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan so that they may learn not to be blasphemous.
1Ti 2:1 I urge then, first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving should be offered for everyone,
1Ti 2:2 for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live peaceful and quiet lives with all devotion and propriety.
1Ti 2:3 To do this is right, and acceptable to God our Savior:
1Ti 2:4 he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.
1Ti 2:5 For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and humanity, himself a human being, Christ Jesus,
1Ti 2:6 who offered himself as a ransom for all. This was the witness given at the appointed time,
1Ti 2:7 of which I was appointed herald and apostle and -- I am telling the truth and no lie -- a teacher of the gentiles in faith and truth.
1Ti 2:8 In every place, then, I want the men to lift their hands up reverently in prayer, with no anger or argument.
1Ti 2:9 Similarly, women are to wear suitable clothes and to be dressed quietly and modestly, without braided hair or gold and jewellery or expensive clothes;
1Ti 2:10 their adornment is to do the good works that are proper for women who claim to be religious.
1Ti 2:11 During instruction, a woman should be quiet and respectful.
1Ti 2:12 I give no permission for a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. A woman ought to be quiet,
1Ti 2:13 because Adam was formed first and Eve afterwards,
1Ti 2:14 and it was not Adam who was led astray but the woman who was led astray and fell into sin.
1Ti 2:15 Nevertheless, she will be saved by child-bearing, provided she lives a sensible life and is constant in faith and love and holiness.
1Ti 3:1 Here is a saying that you can rely on: to want to be a presiding elder is to desire a noble task.
1Ti 3:2 That is why the presiding elder must have an impeccable character. Husband of one wife, he must be temperate, discreet and courteous, hospitable and a good teacher;
1Ti 3:3 not a heavy drinker, nor hot-tempered, but gentle and peaceable, not avaricious,
1Ti 3:4 a man who manages his own household well and brings his children up to obey him and be well-behaved:
1Ti 3:5 how can any man who does not understand how to manage his own household take care of the congregation (ekklesia)of God?
1Ti 3:6 He should not be a new convert, in case pride should turn his head and he incur the same condemnation as the devil.
1Ti 3:7 It is also necessary that he be held in good repute by outsiders, so that he never falls into disrepute and into the devil's trap.
1Ti 3:8 Similarly, deacons must be respectable, not double-tongued, moderate in the amount of wine they drink and with no squalid greed for money.
1Ti 3:9 They must hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.
1Ti 3:10 They are first to be examined, and admitted to serve as deacons only if there is nothing against them.
1Ti 3:11 Similarly, women must be respectable, not gossips, but sober and wholly reliable.
1Ti 3:12 Deacons must be husbands of one wife and must be people who manage their children and households well.
1Ti 3:13 Those of them who carry out their duties well as deacons will earn a high standing for themselves and an authoritative voice in matters concerning faith in Christ Jesus.
1Ti 3:14 I write this to you in the hope that I may be able to come to you soon;
1Ti 3:15 but in case I should be delayed, I want you to know how people ought to behave in God's household -- that is, in the congregation (ekklesia)of the living God, pillar and support of the truth.
1Ti 3:16 Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is very deep indeed: He was made visible in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.
1Ti 4:1 The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times some will desert the faith and pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from devils,
1Ti 4:2 seduced by the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are branded as though with a red-hot iron:
1Ti 4:3 they forbid marriage and prohibit foods which God created to be accepted with thanksgiving by all who believe and who know the truth.
1Ti 4:4 Everything God has created is good, and no food is to be rejected, provided it is received with thanksgiving:
1Ti 4:5 the word of God and prayer make it holy.
1Ti 4:6 If you put all this to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus and show that you have really digested the teaching of the faith and the good doctrine which you have always followed.
1Ti 4:7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales. Train yourself for religion.
1Ti 4:8 Physical exercise is useful enough, but the usefulness of religion is unlimited, since it holds out promise both for life here and now and for the life to come;
1Ti 4:9 that is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt it.
1Ti 4:10 I mean that the point of all our toiling and battling is that we have put our trust in the living God and he is the Savior of the whole human race but particularly of all believers.
1Ti 4:11 This is what you are to instruct and teach.
1Ti 4:12 Let no one disregard you because you are young, but be an example to all the believers in the way you speak and behave, and in your love, your faith and your purity.
1Ti 4:13 Until I arrive, devote yourself to reading to the people, encouraging and teaching.
1Ti 4:14 You have in you a spiritual gift which was given to you when the prophets spoke and the body of elders laid their hands on you; do not neglect it.
1Ti 4:15 Let this be your care and your occupation, and everyone will be able to see your progress.
1Ti 4:16 Be conscientious about what you do and what you teach; persevere in this, and in this way you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.
1Ti 5:1 Never speak sharply to a man older than yourself, but appeal to him as you would to your own father; treat younger men as brothers,
1Ti 5:2 older women as mothers and young women as sisters with all propriety.
1Ti 5:3 Be considerate to widows -- if they really are widowed.
1Ti 5:4 If a widow has children or grandchildren, they are to learn first of all to do their duty to their own families and repay their debt to their parents, because this is what pleases God.
1Ti 5:5 But a woman who is really widowed and left on her own has set her hope on God and perseveres night and day in petitions and prayer.
1Ti 5:6 The one who thinks only of pleasure is already dead while she is still alive:
1Ti 5:7 instruct them in this, too, so that their lives may be blameless.
1Ti 5:8 Anyone who does not look after his own relations, especially if they are living with him, has rejected the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
1Ti 5:9 Enrolment as a widow is permissible only for a woman at least sixty years old who has had only one husband.
1Ti 5:10 She must be a woman known for her good works -- whether she has brought up her children, been hospitable to strangers and washed the feet of God's holy people, helped people in hardship or been active in all kinds of good work.
1Ti 5:11 Do not accept young widows because if their natural desires distract them from Christ, they want to marry again,
1Ti 5:12 and then people condemn them for being unfaithful to their original promise.
1Ti 5:13 Besides, they learn how to be idle and go round from house to house; and then, not merely idle, they learn to be gossips and meddlers in other people's affairs and to say what should remain unsaid.
1Ti 5:14 I think it is best for young widows to marry again and have children and a household to look after, and not give the enemy any chance to raise a scandal about them;
1Ti 5:15 there are already some who have turned aside to follow Satan.
1Ti 5:16 If a woman believer has widowed relatives, she should support them and not make the congregation (ekklesia)bear the expense but enable it to support those who are really widowed.
1Ti 5:17 Elders who do their work well while they are in charge earn double reward, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
1Ti 5:18 As scripture says: You must not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the corn; and again: The worker deserves his wages.
1Ti 5:19 Never accept any accusation brought against an elder unless it is supported by two or three witnesses.
1Ti 5:20 If anyone is at fault, reprimand him publicly, as a warning to the rest.
1Ti 5:21 Before God, and before Jesus Christ and the angels he has chosen, I charge you to keep these rules impartially and never to be influenced by favoritism.
1Ti 5:22 Do not be too quick to lay hands on anyone, and never make yourself an accomplice in anybody else's sin; keep yourself pure.
1Ti 5:23 You should give up drinking only water and have a little wine for the sake of your digestion and the frequent bouts of illness that you have.
1Ti 5:24 The faults of some people are obvious long before they come to the reckoning, while others have faults that are not discovered until later.
1Ti 5:25 Similarly, the good that people do can be obvious; but even when it is not, it cannot remain hidden.
1Ti 6:1 All those under the yoke of slavery must have unqualified respect for their masters, so that the name of God and our teaching are not brought into disrepute.
1Ti 6:2 Those whose masters are believers are not to respect them less because they are brothers; on the contrary, they should serve them all the better, since those who have the benefit of their services are believers and dear to God. This is what you are to teach and urge.
1Ti 6:3 Anyone who teaches anything different and does not keep to the sound teaching which is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine which is in accordance with true religion,
1Ti 6:4 is proud and has no understanding, but rather a weakness for questioning everything and arguing about words. All that can come of this is jealousy, contention, abuse and evil mistrust;
1Ti 6:5 and unending disputes by people who are depraved in mind and deprived of truth, and imagine that religion is a way of making a profit.
1Ti 6:6 Religion, of course, does bring large profits, but only to those who are content with what they have.
1Ti 6:7 We brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it;
1Ti 6:8 but as long as we have food and clothing, we shall be content with that.
1Ti 6:9 People who long to be rich are a prey to trial; they get trapped into all sorts of foolish and harmful ambitions which plunge people into ruin and destruction.
1Ti 6:10 'The love of money is the root of all evils' and there are some who, pursuing it, have wandered away from the faith and so given their souls any number of fatal wounds.
1Ti 6:11 But, as someone dedicated to God, avoid all that. You must aim to be upright and religious, filled with faith and love, perseverance and gentleness.
1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith and win the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made your noble profession of faith before many witnesses.
1Ti 6:13 Now, before God, the source of all life, and before Jesus Christ, who witnessed to his noble profession of faith before Pontius Pilate, I charge you
1Ti 6:14 to do all that you have been told, with no faults or failures, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Ti 6:15 who at the due time will be revealed by God, the blessed and only Ruler of all, the King of kings and the Lord of lords,
1Ti 6:16 who alone is immortal, whose home is in inaccessible light, whom no human being has seen or is able to see: to him be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
1Ti 6:17 Instruct those who are rich in this world's goods that they should not be proud and should set their hopes not on money, which is untrustworthy, but on God who gives us richly all that we need for our happiness.
1Ti 6:18 They are to do good and be rich in good works, generous in giving and always ready to share-
1Ti 6:19 this is the way they can amass a good capital sum for the future if they want to possess the only life that is real.
1Ti 6:20 My dear Timothy, take great care of all that has been entrusted to you. Turn away from godless philosophical discussions and the contradictions of the 'knowledge' which is not knowledge at all;
1Ti 6:21 by adopting this, some have missed the goal of faith. Grace be with you.
2Ti 1:1 From Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God in accordance with his promise of life in Christ Jesus,
2Ti 1:2 to Timothy, dear son of mine. Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.
2Ti 1:3 Night and day I thank God whom I serve with a pure conscience as my ancestors did. I remember you in my prayers constantly night and day;
2Ti 1:4 I remember your tears and long to see you again to complete my joy.
2Ti 1:5 I also remember your sincere faith, a faith which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois, and your mother Eunice, and I am sure dwells also in you.
2Ti 1:6 That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift of God that you possess through the laying on of my hands.
2Ti 1:7 God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power and love and self-control.
2Ti 1:8 So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to our Lord, or ashamed of me for being his prisoner; but share in my hardships for the sake of the gospel, relying on the power of God
2Ti 1:9 who has saved us and called us to be holy -- not because of anything we ourselves had done but for his own purpose and by his own grace. This grace had already been granted to us, in Christ Jesus, before the beginning of time,
2Ti 1:10 but it has been revealed only by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has abolished death, and he has brought to light immortality and life through the gospel,
2Ti 1:11 in whose service I have been made herald, apostle and teacher.
2Ti 1:12 That is why I am experiencing my present sufferings; but I am not ashamed, because I know in whom I have put my trust, and I have no doubt at all that he is able to safeguard until that Day what I have entrusted to him.
2Ti 1:13 Keep as your pattern the sound teaching you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 1:14 With the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, look after that precious thing given in trust.
2Ti 1:15 As you know, Phygelus and Hermogenes and all the others in Asia have deserted me.
2Ti 1:16 I hope the Lord will be kind to all the family of Onesiphorus, because he has often been a comfort to me and has never been ashamed of my chains.
2Ti 1:17 On the contrary, as soon as he reached Rome, he searched hard for me and found me.
2Ti 1:18 May the Lord grant him to find the Lord's mercy on that Day. You know better than anyone else how much he helped me at Ephesus.
2Ti 2:1 As for you, my dear son, take strength from the grace which is in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 2:2 Pass on to reliable people what you have heard from me through many witnesses so that they in turn will be able to teach others.
2Ti 2:3 Bear with your share of difficulties, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
2Ti 2:4 No one on active service involves himself in the affairs of civilian life, because he must win the approval of the man who enlisted him;
2Ti 2:5 or again someone who enters an athletic contest wins only by competing in the sports -- a prize can be won only by competing according to the rules;
2Ti 2:6 and again, it is the farmer who works hard that has the first claim on any crop that is harvested.
2Ti 2:7 Think over what I have said, and the Lord will give you full understanding.
2Ti 2:8 Remember the gospel that I carry, 'Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David';
2Ti 2:9 it is on account of this that I have to put up with suffering, even to being chained like a criminal. But God's message cannot be chained up.
2Ti 2:10 So I persevere for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they, too, may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
2Ti 2:11 Here is a saying that you can rely on: If we have died with him, then we shall live with him.
2Ti 2:12 If we persevere, then we shall reign with him. If we disown him, then he will disown us.
2Ti 2:13 If we are faithless, he is faithful still, for he cannot disown his own self.
2Ti 2:14 Remind them of this; and tell them in the name of God that there must be no wrangling about words: all that this ever achieves is the destruction of those who are listening.
2Ti 2:15 Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who has no need to be ashamed, but who keeps the message of truth on a straight path.
2Ti 2:16 Have nothing to do with godless philosophical discussions -- they only lead further and further away from true religion.
2Ti 2:17 Talk of this kind spreads corruption like gangrene, as in the case of Hymenaeus and Philetus,
2Ti 2:18 the men who have gone astray from the truth, claiming that the resurrection has already taken place. They are upsetting some people's faith.
2Ti 2:19 However, God's solid foundation-stone stands firm, and this is the seal on it: 'The Lord knows those who are his own' and 'All who call on the name of the Lord must avoid evil.'
2Ti 2:20 Not all the dishes in a large house are made of gold and silver; some are made of wood or earthenware: the former are held in honor, the latter held cheap.
2Ti 2:21 If someone holds himself aloof from these faults I speak of, he will be a vessel held in honor, dedicated and fit for the Master, ready for any good work.
2Ti 2:22 Turn away from the passions of youth, concentrate on uprightness, faith, love and peace, in union with all those who call on the Lord with a pure heart.
2Ti 2:23 Avoid these foolish and undisciplined speculations, understanding that they only give rise to quarrels;
2Ti 2:24 and a servant of the Lord must not engage in quarrels, but must be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and patient.
2Ti 2:25 He must be gentle when he corrects people who oppose him, in the hope that God may give them a change of mind so that they recognize the truth
2Ti 2:26 and come to their senses, escaping the trap of the devil who made them his captives and subjected them to his will.
2Ti 3:1 You may be quite sure that in the last days there will be some difficult times.
2Ti 3:2 People will be self-centred and avaricious, boastful, arrogant and rude; disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious;
2Ti 3:3 heartless and intractable; they will be slanderers, profligates, savages and enemies of everything that is good;
2Ti 3:4 they will be treacherous and reckless and demented by pride, preferring their own pleasure to God.
2Ti 3:5 They will keep up the outward appearance of religion but will have rejected the inner power of it. Keep away from people like that.
2Ti 3:6 Of the same kind, too, are those men who insinuate themselves into families in order to get influence over silly women who are obsessed with their sins and follow one craze after another,
2Ti 3:7 always seeking learning, but unable ever to come to knowledge of the truth.
2Ti 3:8 Just as Jannes and Jambres defied Moses, so these men defy the truth, their minds corrupt and their faith spurious.
2Ti 3:9 But they will not be able to go on much longer: their folly, like that of the other two, must become obvious to everybody.
2Ti 3:10 You, though, have followed my teaching, my way of life, my aims, my faith, my patience and my love, my perseverance
2Ti 3:11 and the persecutions and sufferings that came to me in places like Antioch, Iconium and Lystra -- all the persecutions I have endured; and the Lord has rescued me from every one of them.
2Ti 3:12 But anybody who tries to live in devotion to Christ is certain to be persecuted;
2Ti 3:13 while these wicked impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others, and themselves deceived.
2Ti 3:14 You must keep to what you have been taught and know to be true; remember who your teachers were,
2Ti 3:15 and how, ever since you were a child, you have known the holy scriptures -from these you can learn the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
2Ti 3:16 All scripture is inspired by God and useful for refuting error, for guiding people's lives and teaching them to be upright.
2Ti 3:17 This is how someone who is dedicated to God becomes fully equipped and ready for any good work.
2Ti 4:1 Before God and before Christ Jesus who is to be judge of the living and the dead, I charge you, in the name of his appearing and of his kingdom:
2Ti 4:2 proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it. Refute falsehood, correct error, give encouragement -- but do all with patience and with care to instruct.
2Ti 4:3 The time is sure to come when people will not accept sound teaching, but their ears will be itching for anything new and they will collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes;
2Ti 4:4 and then they will shut their ears to the truth and will turn to myths.
2Ti 4:5 But you must keep steady all the time; put up with suffering; do the work of preaching the gospel; fulfill the service asked of you.
2Ti 4:6 As for me, my life is already being poured away as a libation, and the time has come for me to depart.
2Ti 4:7 I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith;
2Ti 4:8 all there is to come for me now is the crown of uprightness which the Lord, the upright judge, will give to me on that Day; and not only to me but to all those who have longed for his appearing.
2Ti 4:9 Make every effort to come and see me as soon as you can.
2Ti 4:10 As it is, Demas has deserted me for love of this life and gone to Thessalonica, Crescens has gone to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia;
2Ti 4:11 only Luke is with me. Bring Mark with you; I find him a useful helper in my work.
2Ti 4:12 I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus.
2Ti 4:13 When you come, bring the cloak I left with Carpus in Troas, and the scrolls, especially the parchment ones.
2Ti 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith has done me a lot of harm; the Lord will repay him as his deeds deserve.
2Ti 4:15 Be on your guard against him yourself, because he has been bitterly contesting everything that we say.
2Ti 4:16 The first time I had to present my defence, no one came into court to support me. Every one of them deserted me -- may they not be held accountable for it.
2Ti 4:17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed for all the gentiles to hear; and so I was saved from the lion's mouth.
2Ti 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from all evil attempts on me, and bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
2Ti 4:19 Greetings to Prisca and Aquila, and the family of Onesiphorus.
2Ti 4:20 Erastus stayed behind at Corinth, and I left Trophimus ill at Miletus.
2Ti 4:21 Make every effort to come before the winter. Greetings to you from Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.
2Ti 4:22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.
Tit 1:1 From Paul, servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ to bring those whom God has chosen to faith and to the knowledge of the truth that leads to true religion,
Tit 1:2 and to give them the hope of the eternal life that was promised so long ago by God. He does not lie
Tit 1:3 and so, in due time, he made known his message by a proclamation which was entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior.
Tit 1:4 To Titus, true child of mine in the faith that we share. Grace and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Savior.
Tit 1:5 The reason I left you behind in Crete was for you to organise everything that still had to be done and appoint elders in every town, in the way that I told you,
Tit 1:6 that is, each of them must be a man of irreproachable character, husband of one wife, and his children must be believers and not liable to be charged with disorderly conduct or insubordination.
Tit 1:7 The presiding elder has to be irreproachable since he is God's representative: never arrogant or hot-tempered, nor a heavy drinker or violent, nor avaricious;
Tit 1:8 but hospitable and a lover of goodness; sensible, upright, devout and self-controlled;
Tit 1:9 and he must have a firm grasp of the unchanging message of the tradition, so that he can be counted on both for giving encouragement in sound doctrine and for refuting those who argue against it.
Tit 1:10 And in fact there are many people who are insubordinate, who talk nonsense and try to make others believe it, particularly among those of the circumcision.
Tit 1:11 They must be silenced: people of this kind upset whole families, by teaching things that they ought not to, and doing it for the sake of sordid gain.
Tit 1:12 It was one of themselves, one of their own prophets, who said, 'Cretans were never anything but liars, dangerous animals, all greed and laziness';
Tit 1:13 and that is a true statement. So be severe in correcting them, and make them sound in the faith
Tit 1:14 so that they stop taking notice of Jewish myths and the orders of people who turn away from the truth.
Tit 1:15 To those who are pure themselves, everything is pure; but to those who have been corrupted and lack faith, nothing can be pure -- the corruption is both in their minds and in their consciences.
Tit 1:16 They claim to know God but by their works they deny him; they are outrageously rebellious and quite untrustworthy for any good work.
Tit 2:1 It is for you, then, to preach the behavior which goes with healthy doctrine.
Tit 2:2 Older men should be reserved, dignified, moderate, sound in faith and love and perseverance.
Tit 2:3 Similarly, older women should behave as befits religious people, with no scandal-mongering and no addiction to wine -- they must be the teachers of right behaviour
Tit 2:4 and show younger women how they should love their husbands and love their children,
Tit 2:5 how they must be sensible and chaste, and how to work in their homes, and be gentle, and obey their husbands, so that the message of God is not disgraced.
Tit 2:6 Similarly, urge younger men to be moderate in everything that they do,
Tit 2:7 and you yourself set an example of good works, by sincerity and earnestness, when you are teaching, and by a message sound and irreproachable
Tit 2:8 so that any opponent will be at a loss, with no accusation to make against us.
Tit 2:9 Slaves must be obedient to their masters in everything, and do what is wanted without argument;
Tit 2:10 and there must be no pilfering -- they must show complete honesty at all times, so that they are in every way a credit to the teaching of God our Savior.
Tit 2:11 You see, God's grace has been revealed to save the whole human race;
Tit 2:12 it has taught us that we should give up everything contrary to true religion and all our worldly passions; we must be self-restrained and live upright and religious lives in this present world,
Tit 2:13 waiting in hope for the blessing which will come with the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.
Tit 2:14 He offered himself for us in order to ransom us from all our faults and to purify a people to be his very own and eager to do good.
Tit 2:15 This is what you must say, encouraging or arguing with full authority; no one should despise you.
Tit 3:1 Remind them to be obedient to the officials in authority; to be ready to do good at every opportunity;
Tit 3:2 not to go slandering other people but to be peaceable and gentle, and always polite to people of all kinds.
Tit 3:3 There was a time when we too were ignorant, disobedient and misled and enslaved by different passions and dissipations; we lived then in wickedness and malice, hating each other and hateful ourselves.
Tit 3:4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior for humanity were revealed,
Tit 3:5 it was not because of any upright actions we had done ourselves; it was for no reason except his own faithful love that he saved us, by means of the cleansing water of rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit
Tit 3:6 which he has so generously poured over us through Jesus Christ our Savior;
Tit 3:7 so that, justified by his grace, we should become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Tit 3:8 This is doctrine that you can rely on. I want you to be quite uncompromising in teaching all this, so that those who now believe in God may keep their minds constantly occupied in doing good works. All this is good, and useful for everybody.
Tit 3:9 But avoid foolish speculations, and those genealogies, and the quibbles and disputes about the Law -- they are useless and futile.
Tit 3:10 If someone disputes what you teach, then after a first and a second warning, have no more to do with him:
Tit 3:11 you will know that anyone of that sort is warped and is self-condemned as a sinner.
Tit 3:12 As soon as I have sent Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to join me at Nicopolis, where I have decided to spend the winter.
Tit 3:13 Help eagerly on their way Zenas the lawyer and Apollos, and make sure they have everything they need.
Tit 3:14 All our people must also learn to occupy themselves in doing good works for their practical needs, and not to be unproductive.
Tit 3:15 All those who are with me send their greetings. Greetings to those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.
Phm 1:1 From Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and from our brother Timothy; to our dear fellow worker Philemon,
Phm 1:2 our sister Apphia, our fellow soldier Archippus and the congregation (ekklesia)that meets in your house.
Phm 1:3 Grace and the peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Phm 1:4 I always thank my God, mentioning you in my prayers,
Phm 1:5 because I hear of the love and the faith which you have for the Lord Jesus and for all God's holy people.
Phm 1:6 I pray that your fellowship in faith may come to expression in full knowledge of all the good we can do for Christ.
Phm 1:7 I have received much joy and encouragement by your love; you have set the hearts of God's holy people at rest.
Phm 1:8 Therefore, although in Christ I have no hesitations about telling you what your duty is,
Phm 1:9 I am rather appealing to your love, being what I am, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
Phm 1:10 I am appealing to you for a child of mine, whose father I became while wearing these chains: I mean Onesimus.
Phm 1:11 He was of no use to you before, but now he is useful both to you and to me.
Phm 1:12 I am sending him back to you -- that is to say, sending you my own heart.
Phm 1:13 I should have liked to keep him with me; he could have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in the chains that the gospel has brought me.
Phm 1:14 However, I did not want to do anything without your consent; it would have been forcing your act of kindness, which should be spontaneous.
Phm 1:15 I suppose you have been deprived of Onesimus for a time, merely so that you could have him back for ever,
Phm 1:16 no longer as a slave, but something much better than a slave, a dear brother; especially dear to me, but how much more to you, both on the natural plane and in the Lord.
Phm 1:17 So if you grant me any fellowship with yourself, welcome him as you would me;
Phm 1:18 if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, put it down to my account.
Phm 1:19 I am writing this in my own hand: I, Paul, shall pay it back -- I make no mention of a further debt, that you owe your very self to me!
Phm 1:20 Well then, brother, I am counting on you, in the Lord; set my heart at rest, in Christ.
Phm 1:21 I am writing with complete confidence in your compliance, sure that you will do even more than I ask.
Phm 1:22 There is another thing: will you get a place ready for me to stay in? I am hoping through your prayers to be restored to you.
Phm 1:23 Epaphras, a prisoner with me in Christ Jesus, sends his greetings;
Phm 1:24 so do my fellow-workers Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke.
Phm 1:25 May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Heb 1:1 At many moments in the past and by many means, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; but
Heb 1:2 in our time, the final days, he has spoken to us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things and through whom he made the ages.
Heb 1:3 He is the reflection of God's glory and bears the impress of God's own being, sustaining all things by his powerful command; and now that he has purged sins away, he has taken his seat at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high.
Heb 1:4 So he is now as far above the angels as the title which he has inherited is higher than their own name.
Heb 1:5 To which of the angels, then, has God ever said: You are my Son, today I have fathered you, or: I shall be a father to him and he a son to me?
Heb 1:6 Again, when he brings the First-born into the world, he says: Let all the angels of God pay him homage.
Heb 1:7 To the angels, he says: appointing the winds his messengers and flames of fire his servants,
Heb 1:8 but to the Son he says: Your throne, God, is for ever and ever; and: the scepter of his kingdom is a scepter of justice;
Heb 1:9 you love uprightness and detest evil. This is why God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness, as none of your rivals.
Heb 1:10 And again: Long ago, Lord, you laid earth's foundations, the heavens are the work of your hands.
Heb 1:11 They pass away but you remain, they all wear out like a garment.
Heb 1:12 Like a cloak you will roll them up, like a garment, and they will be changed. But you never alter and your years are unending.
Heb 1:13 To which of the angels has God ever said: Take your seat at my right hand till I have made your enemies your footstool?
Heb 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
Heb 2:1 We ought, then, to turn our minds more attentively than before to what we have been taught, so that we do not drift away.
Heb 2:2 If a message that was spoken through angels proved to be so reliable that every infringement and disobedience brought its own proper punishment,
Heb 2:3 then we shall certainly not go unpunished if we neglect such a great salvation. It was first announced by the Lord himself, and is guaranteed to us by those who heard him;
Heb 2:4 God himself confirmed their witness with signs and marvels and miracles of all kinds, and by distributing the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the various ways he wills.
Heb 2:5 It was not under angels that he put the world to come, about which we are speaking.
Heb 2:6 Someone witnesses to this somewhere with the words: What are human beings that you spare a thought for them, a child of Adam that you care for him?
Heb 2:7 For a short while you have made him less than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor,
Heb 2:8 put all things under his feet. For in putting all things under him he made no exceptions. At present, it is true, we are not able to see that all things are under him,
Heb 2:9 but we do see Jesus, who was for a short while made less than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he submitted to death; so that by God's grace his experience of death should benefit all humanity.
Heb 2:10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should, in bringing many sons to glory, make perfect through suffering the leader of their salvation.
Heb 2:11 For consecrator and consecrated are all of the same stock; that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers
Heb 2:12 in the text: I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly; or in the text:
Heb 2:13 I shall put my hope in him; followed by Look, I and the children whom God has given me.
Heb 2:14 Since all the children share the same human nature, he too shared equally in it, so that by his death he could set aside him who held the power of death, namely the devil,
Heb 2:15 and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.
Heb 2:16 For it was not the angels that he took to himself; he took to himself the line of Abraham.
Heb 2:17 It was essential that he should in this way be made completely like his brothers so that he could become a compassionate and trustworthy high priest for their relationship to God, able to expiate the sins of the people.
Heb 2:18 For the suffering he himself passed through while being put to the test enables him to help others when they are being put to the test.
Heb 3:1 That is why all you who are holy brothers and share the same heavenly call should turn your minds to Jesus, the apostle and the high priest of our profession of faith.
Heb 3:2 He was trustworthy to the one who appointed him, just like Moses, who remained trustworthy in all his household;
Heb 3:3 but he deserves a greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house is more honored than the house itself.
Heb 3:4 Every house is built by someone, of course; but God built everything that exists.
Heb 3:5 It is true that Moses was trustworthy in the household of God, as a servant is, acting as witness to the things which were yet to be revealed,
Heb 3:6 but Christ is trustworthy as a son is, over his household. And we are his household, as long as we fearlessly maintain the hope in which we glory.
Heb 3:7 That is why, as the Holy Spirit says: If only you would listen to him today!
Heb 3:8 Do not harden your hearts, as at the rebellion, as at the time of testing in the desert,
Heb 3:9 when your ancestors challenged me, and put me to the test, and saw what I could do
Heb 3:10 for forty years. That was why that generation sickened me and I said, 'Always fickle hearts, that cannot grasp my ways!'
Heb 3:11 And then in my anger I swore that they would never enter my place of rest.
Heb 3:12 Take care, brothers, that none of you ever has a wicked heart, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God.
Heb 3:13 Every day, as long as this today lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin,
Heb 3:14 because we have been granted a share with Christ only if we keep the grasp of our first confidence firm to the end.
Heb 3:15 In this saying: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts, as at the Rebellion,
Heb 3:16 who was it who listened and then rebelled? Surely all those whom Moses led out of Egypt.
Heb 3:17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Surely with those who sinned and whose dead bodies fell in the desert.
Heb 3:18 To whom did he swear they would never enter his place of rest? Surely those who would not believe.
Heb 3:19 So we see that it was their refusal to believe which prevented them from entering.
Heb 4:1 Let us beware, then: since the promise never lapses, none of you must think that he has come too late for the promise of entering his place of rest.
Heb 4:2 We received the gospel exactly as they did; but hearing the message did them no good because they did not share the faith of those who did listen.
Heb 4:3 We, however, who have faith, are entering a place of rest, as in the text: And then in my anger I swore that they would never enter my place of rest. Now God's work was all finished at the beginning of the world;
Heb 4:4 as one text says, referring to the seventh day: And God rested on the seventh day after all the work he had been doing.
Heb 4:5 And, again, the passage above says: They will never reach my place of rest.
Heb 4:6 It remains the case, then, that there would be some people who would reach it, and since those who first heard the good news were prevented from entering by their refusal to believe,
Heb 4:7 God fixed another day, a Today, when he said through David in the text already quoted: If only you would listen to him today; do not harden your hearts.
Heb 4:8 If Joshua had led them into this place of rest, God would not later have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9 There must still be, therefore, a seventh-day rest reserved for God's people,
Heb 4:10 since to enter the place of rest is to rest after your work, as God did after his.
Heb 4:11 Let us, then, press forward to enter this place of rest, or some of you might copy this example of refusal to believe and be lost.
Heb 4:12 The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts more incisively than any two-edged sword: it can seek out the place where soul is divided from spirit, or joints from marrow; it can pass judgement on secret emotions and thoughts.
Heb 4:13 No created thing is hidden from him; everything is uncovered and stretched fully open to the eyes of the one to whom we must give account of ourselves.
Heb 4:14 Since in Jesus, the Son of God, we have the supreme high priest who has gone through to the highest heaven, we must hold firm to our profession of faith.
Heb 4:15 For the high priest we have is not incapable of feeling our weaknesses with us, but has been put to the test in exactly the same way as ourselves, apart from sin.
Heb 4:16 Let us, then, have no fear in approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace when we are in need of help.
Heb 5:1 Every high priest is taken from among human beings and is appointed to act on their behalf in relationships with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins;
Heb 5:2 he can sympathise with those who are ignorant or who have gone astray, because he too is subject to the limitations of weakness.
Heb 5:3 That is why he has to make sin offerings for himself as well as for the people.
Heb 5:4 No one takes this honor on himself; it needs a call from God, as in Aaron's case.
Heb 5:5 And so it was not Christ who gave himself the glory of becoming high priest, but the one who said to him: You are my Son, today I have fathered you,
Heb 5:6 and in another text: You are a priest for ever, of the order of Melchizedek.
Heb 5:7 During his life on earth, he offered up prayer and entreaty, with loud cries and with tears, to the one who had the power to save him from death, and, winning a hearing by his reverence,
Heb 5:8 he learnt obedience, Son though he was, through his sufferings;
Heb 5:9 when he had been perfected, he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation
Heb 5:10 and was acclaimed by God with the title of high priest of the order of Melchizedek.
Heb 5:11 On this subject we have many things to say, and they are difficult to explain because you have grown so slow at understanding.
Heb 5:12 Indeed, when you should by this time have become masters, you need someone to teach you all over again the elements of the principles of God's sayings; you have gone back to needing milk, and not solid food.
Heb 5:13 Truly, no one who is still living on milk can digest the doctrine of saving justice, being still a baby.
Heb 5:14 Solid food is for adults with minds trained by practice to distinguish between good and bad.
Heb 6:1 Let us leave behind us then all the elementary teaching about Christ and go on to its completion, without going over the fundamental doctrines again: the turning away from dead actions, faith in God,
Heb 6:2 the teaching about baptisms and the laying -- on of hands, about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgement.
Heb 6:3 This, God willing, is what we propose to do.
Heb 6:4 As for those people who were once brought into the light, and tasted the gift from heaven, and received a share of the Holy Spirit,
Heb 6:5 and tasted the goodness of God's message and the powers of the world to come
Heb 6:6 and yet in spite of this have fallen away -- it is impossible for them to be brought to the freshness of repentance a second time, since they are crucifying the Son of God again for themselves, and making a public exhibition of him.
Heb 6:7 A field that drinks up the rain that has fallen frequently on it, and yields the crops that are wanted by the owners who grew them, receives God's blessing;
Heb 6:8 but one that grows brambles and thistles is worthless, and near to being cursed. It will end by being burnt.
Heb 6:9 But you, my dear friends -- in spite of what we have just said, we are sure you are in a better state and on the way to salvation.
Heb 6:10 God would not be so unjust as to forget all you have done, the love that you have for his name or the services you have done, and are still doing, for the holy people of God.
Heb 6:11 Our desire is that every one of you should go on showing the same enthusiasm till the ultimate fulfilment of your hope,
Heb 6:12 never growing careless, but taking as your model those who by their faith and perseverance are heirs of the promises.
Heb 6:13 When God made the promise to Abraham, he swore by his own self, since there was no one greater he could swear by:
Heb 6:14 I will shower blessings on you and give you many descendants.
Heb 6:15 Because of that, Abraham persevered and received fulfilment of the promise.
Heb 6:16 Human beings, of course, swear an oath by something greater than themselves, and between them, confirmation by an oath puts an end to all dispute.
Heb 6:17 In the same way, when God wanted to show the heirs of the promise even more clearly how unalterable his plan was, he conveyed it by an oath
Heb 6:18 so that through two unalterable factors in which God could not be lying, we who have fled to him might have a vigorous encouragement to grasp the hope held out to us.
Heb 6:19 This is the anchor our souls have, reaching right through inside the curtain
Heb 6:20 where Jesus has entered as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever, of the order of Melchizedek.
Heb 7:1 Melchizedek, king of Salem, a priest of God Most High, came to meet Abraham when he returned from defeating the kings, and blessed him;
Heb 7:2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. By the interpretation of his name, he is, first, 'king of saving justice' and also king of Salem, that is, 'king of peace';
Heb 7:3 he has no father, mother or ancestry, and his life has no beginning or ending; he is like the Son of God. He remains a priest for ever.
Heb 7:4 Now think how great this man must have been, if the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the finest plunder.
Heb 7:5 We know that any of the descendants of Levi who are admitted to the priesthood are obliged by the Law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their own brothers although they too are descended from Abraham.
Heb 7:6 But this man, who was not of the same descent, took his tithe from Abraham, and he gave his blessing to the holder of the promises.
Heb 7:7 Now it is indisputable that a blessing is given by a superior to an inferior.
Heb 7:8 Further, in the normal case it is ordinary mortal men who receive the tithes, whereas in that case it was one who is attested as being alive.
Heb 7:9 It could be said that Levi himself, who receives tithes, actually paid tithes, in the person of Abraham,
Heb 7:10 because he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek came to meet him.
Heb 7:11 Now if perfection had been reached through the levitical priesthood -- and this was the basis of the Law given to the people -- why was it necessary for a different kind of priest to arise, spoken of as being of the order of Melchizedek rather than of the order of Aaron?
Heb 7:12 Any change in the priesthood must mean a change in the Law as well.
Heb 7:13 So our Lord, of whom these things were said, belonged to a different tribe, the members of which have never done service at the altar;
Heb 7:14 everyone knows he came from Judah, a tribe which Moses did not mention at all when dealing with priests.
Heb 7:15 This becomes even more clearly evident if another priest, of the type of Melchizedek, arises who is a priest
Heb 7:16 not in virtue of a law of physical descent, but in virtue of the power of an indestructible life.
Heb 7:17 For he is attested by the prophecy: You are a priest for ever of the order of Melchizedek.
Heb 7:18 The earlier commandment is thus abolished, because of its weakness and ineffectiveness
Heb 7:19 since the Law could not make anything perfect; but now this commandment is replaced by something better-the hope that brings us close to God.
Heb 7:20 Now the former priests became priests without any oath being sworn,
Heb 7:21 but this one with the swearing of an oath by him who said to him, The Lord has sworn an oath he will never retract: you are a priest for ever;
Heb 7:22 the very fact that it occurred with the swearing of an oath makes the covenant of which Jesus is the guarantee all the greater.
Heb 7:23 Further, the former priests were many in number, because death put an end to each one of them;
Heb 7:24 but this one, because he remains for ever, has a perpetual priesthood.
Heb 7:25 It follows, then, that his power to save those who come to God through him is absolute, since he lives for ever to intercede for them.
Heb 7:26 Such is the high priest that met our need, holy, innocent and uncontaminated, set apart from sinners, and raised up above the heavens;
Heb 7:27 he has no need to offer sacrifices every day, as the high priests do, first for their own sins and only then for those of the people; this he did once and for all by offering himself.
Heb 7:28 The Law appoints high priests who are men subject to weakness; but the promise on oath, which came after the Law, appointed the Son who is made perfect for ever.
Heb 8:1 The principal point of all that we have said is that we have a high priest of exactly this kind. He has taken his seat at the right of the throne of divine Majesty in the heavens,
Heb 8:2 and he is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true Tent which the Lord, and not any man, set up.
Heb 8:3 Every high priest is constituted to offer gifts and sacrifices, and so this one too must have something to offer.
Heb 8:4 In fact, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are others who make the offerings laid down by the Law,
Heb 8:5 though these maintain the service only of a model or a reflection of the heavenly realities; just as Moses, when he had the Tent to build, was warned by God who said: See that you work to the design that was shown you on the mountain.
Heb 8:6 As it is, he has been given a ministry as far superior as is the covenant of which he is the mediator, which is founded on better promises.
Heb 8:7 If that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no room for a second one to replace it.
Heb 8:8 And in fact God does find fault with them; he says: Look, the days are coming, the Lord declares, when I will make a new covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah,
Heb 8:9 but not a covenant like the one I made with their ancestors, the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, which covenant of mine they broke, and I too abandoned them, the Lord declares.
Heb 8:10 No, this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel, when those days have come, the Lord declares: In their minds I shall plant my laws writing them on their hearts. Then I shall be their God, and they shall be my people.
Heb 8:11 There will be no further need for each to teach his neighbor, and each his brother, saying 'Learn to know the Lord!' No, they will all know me, from the least to the greatest,
Heb 8:12 since I shall forgive their guilt and never more call their sins to mind.
Heb 8:13 By speaking of a new covenant, he implies that the first one is old. And anything old and ageing is ready to disappear.
Heb 9:1 The first covenant also had its laws governing worship and its sanctuary, a sanctuary on this earth.
Heb 9:2 There was a tent which comprised two compartments: the first, in which the lamp-stand, the table and the loaves of permanent offering were kept, was called the Holy Place;
Heb 9:3 then beyond the second veil, a second compartment which was called the Holy of Holies
Heb 9:4 to which belonged the gold altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant, plated all over with gold. In this were kept the gold jar containing the manna, Aaron's branch that grew the buds, and the tables of the covenant.
Heb 9:5 On top of it were the glorious winged creatures, overshadowing the throne of mercy. This is not the time to go into detail about this.
Heb 9:6 Under these provisions, priests go regularly into the outer tent to carry out their acts of worship,
Heb 9:7 but the second tent is entered only once a year, and then only by the high priest who takes in the blood to make an offering for his own and the people's faults of inadvertence.
Heb 9:8 By this, the Holy Spirit means us to see that as long as the old tent stands, the way into the holy place is not opened up;
Heb 9:9 it is a symbol for this present time. None of the gifts and sacrifices offered under these regulations can possibly bring any worshipper to perfection in his conscience;
Heb 9:10 they are rules about outward life, connected with food and drink and washing at various times, which are in force only until the time comes to set things right.
Heb 9:11 But now Christ has come, as the high priest of all the blessings which were to come. He has passed through the greater, the more perfect tent, not made by human hands, that is, not of this created order;
Heb 9:12 and he has entered the sanctuary once and for all, taking with him not the blood of goats and bull calves, but his own blood, having won an eternal redemption.
Heb 9:13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on those who have incurred defilement, may restore their bodily purity.
Heb 9:14 How much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself, blameless as he was, to God through the eternal Spirit, purify our conscience from dead actions so that we can worship the living God.
Heb 9:15 This makes him the mediator of a new covenant, so that, now that a death has occurred to redeem the sins committed under an earlier covenant, those who have been called to an eternal inheritance may receive the promise.
Heb 9:16 Now wherever a will is in question, the death of the testator must be established;
Heb 9:17 a testament comes into effect only after a death, since it has no force while the testator is still alive.
Heb 9:18 That is why even the earlier covenant was inaugurated with blood,
Heb 9:19 and why, after Moses had promulgated all the commandments of the Law to the people, he took the calves' blood, the goats' blood and some water, and with these he sprinkled the book itself and all the people, using scarlet wool and hyssop;
Heb 9:20 saying as he did so: This is the blood of the covenant that God has made with you.
Heb 9:21 And he sprinkled both the tent and all the liturgical vessels with blood in the same way.
Heb 9:22 In fact, according to the Law, practically every purification takes place by means of blood; and if there is no shedding of blood, there is no remission.
Heb 9:23 Only the copies of heavenly things are purified in this way; the heavenly things themselves have to be purified by a higher sort of sacrifice than this.
Heb 9:24 It is not as though Christ had entered a man-made sanctuary which was merely a model of the real one; he entered heaven itself, so that he now appears in the presence of God on our behalf.
Heb 9:25 And he does not have to offer himself again and again, as the high priest goes into the sanctuary year after year with the blood that is not his own,
Heb 9:26 or else he would have had to suffer over and over again since the world began. As it is, he has made his appearance once and for all, at the end of the last age, to do away with sin by sacrificing himself.
Heb 9:27 Since human beings die only once, after which comes judgement,
Heb 9:28 so Christ too, having offered himself only once to bear the sin of many, will manifest himself a second time, sin being no more, to those who are waiting for him, to bring them salvation.
Heb 10:1 So, since the Law contains no more than a reflection of the good things which were still to come, and no true image of them, it is quite incapable of bringing the worshippers to perfection, by means of the same sacrifices repeatedly offered year after year.
Heb 10:2 Otherwise, surely the offering of them would have stopped, because the worshippers, when they had been purified once, would have no awareness of sins.
Heb 10:3 But in fact the sins are recalled year after year in the sacrifices.
Heb 10:4 Bulls' blood and goats' blood are incapable of taking away sins,
Heb 10:5 and that is why he said, on coming into the world: You wanted no sacrifice or cereal offering, but you gave me a body.
Heb 10:6 You took no pleasure in burnt offering or sacrifice for sin;
Heb 10:7 then I said, 'Here I am, I am coming,' in the scroll of the book it is written of me, to do your will, God.
Heb 10:8 He says first You did not want what the Law lays down as the things to be offered, that is: the sacrifices, the cereal offerings, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices for sin, and you took no pleasure in them;
Heb 10:9 and then he says: Here I am! I am coming to do your will. He is abolishing the first sort to establish the second.
Heb 10:10 And this will was for us to be made holy by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ made once and for all.
Heb 10:11 Every priest stands at his duties every day, offering over and over again the same sacrifices which are quite incapable of taking away sins.
Heb 10:12 He, on the other hand, has offered one single sacrifice for sins, and then taken his seat for ever, at the right hand of God,
Heb 10:13 where he is now waiting till his enemies are made his footstool.
Heb 10:14 By virtue of that one single offering, he has achieved the eternal perfection of all who are sanctified.
Heb 10:15 The Holy Spirit attests this to us, for after saying:
Heb 10:16 No, this is the covenant I will make with them, when those days have come. the Lord says: In their minds I will plant my Laws writing them on their hearts,
Heb 10:17 and I shall never more call their sins to mind, or their offenses.
Heb 10:18 When these have been forgiven, there can be no more sin offerings.
Heb 10:19 We have then, brothers, complete confidence through the blood of Jesus in entering the sanctuary,
Heb 10:20 by a new way which he has opened for us, a living opening through the curtain, that is to say, his flesh.
Heb 10:21 And we have the high priest over all the sanctuary of God.
Heb 10:22 So as we go in, let us be sincere in heart and filled with faith, our hearts sprinkled and free from any trace of bad conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Heb 10:23 Let us keep firm in the hope we profess, because the one who made the promise is trustworthy.
Heb 10:24 Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works.
Heb 10:25 Do not absent yourself from your own assemblies, as some do, but encourage each other; the more so as you see the Day drawing near.
Heb 10:26 If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them.
Heb 10:27 There is left only the dreadful prospect of judgement and of the fiery wrath that is to devour your enemies.
Heb 10:28 Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three;
Heb 10:29 and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified him as if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment.
Heb 10:30 We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will pay them back. And again: The Lord will vindicate his people.
Heb 10:31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Heb 10:32 Remember the great challenge of the sufferings that you had to meet after you received the light, in earlier days;
Heb 10:33 sometimes by being yourselves publicly exposed to humiliations and violence, and sometimes as associates of others who were treated in the same way.
Heb 10:34 For you not only shared in the sufferings of those who were in prison, but you accepted with joy being stripped of your belongings, knowing that you owned something that was better and lasting.
Heb 10:35 Do not lose your fearlessness now, then, since the reward is so great.
Heb 10:36 You will need perseverance if you are to do God's will and gain what he has promised.
Heb 10:37 Only a little while now, a very little while, for come he certainly will before too long.
Heb 10:38 My upright person will live through faith but if he draws back, my soul will take no pleasure in him.
Heb 10:39 We are not the sort of people who draw back, and are lost by it; we are the sort who keep faith until our souls are saved.
Heb 11:1 Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen.
Heb 11:2 It is for their faith that our ancestors are acknowledged.
Heb 11:3 It is by faith that we understand that the ages were created by a word from God, so that from the invisible the visible world came to be.
Heb 11:4 It was because of his faith that Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain, and for that he was acknowledged as upright when God himself made acknowledgement of his offerings. Though he is dead, he still speaks by faith.
Heb 11:5 It was because of his faith that Enoch was taken up and did not experience death: he was no more, because God took him; because before his assumption he was acknowledged to have pleased God.
Heb 11:6 Now it is impossible to please God without faith, since anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and rewards those who seek him.
Heb 11:7 It was through his faith that Noah, when he had been warned by God of something that had never been seen before, took care to build an ark to save his family. His faith was a judgement on the world, and he was able to claim the uprightness which comes from faith.
Heb 11:8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and that he set out without knowing where he was going.
Heb 11:9 By faith he sojourned in the Promised Land as though it were not his, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
Heb 11:10 He looked forward to the well-founded city, designed and built by God.
Heb 11:11 It was equally by faith that Sarah, in spite of being past the age, was made able to conceive, because she believed that he who had made the promise was faithful to it.
Heb 11:12 Because of this, there came from one man, and one who already had the mark of death on him, descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the grains of sand on the seashore which cannot be counted.
Heb 11:13 All these died in faith, before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in the far distance and welcomed them, recognising that they were only strangers and nomads on earth.
Heb 11:14 People who use such terms about themselves make it quite plain that they are in search of a homeland.
Heb 11:15 If they had meant the country they came from, they would have had the opportunity to return to it;
Heb 11:16 but in fact they were longing for a better homeland, their heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, since he has founded the city for them.
Heb 11:17 It was by faith that Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac. He offered to sacrifice his only son even though he had yet to receive what had been promised,
Heb 11:18 and he had been told: Isaac is the one through whom your name will be carried on.
Heb 11:19 He was confident that God had the power even to raise the dead; and so, figuratively speaking, he was given back Isaac from the dead.
Heb 11:20 It was by faith that this same Isaac gave his blessing to Jacob and Esau for the still distant future.
Heb 11:21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph's sons, bowed in reverence, as he leant on his staff.
Heb 11:22 It was by faith that, when he was about to die, Joseph mentioned the Exodus of the Israelites and gave instructions about his own remains.
Heb 11:23 It was by faith that Moses, when he was born, was kept hidden by his parents for three months; because they saw that he was a fine child; they were not afraid of the royal edict.
Heb 11:24 It was by faith that, when he was grown up, Moses refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter
Heb 11:25 and chose to be ill-treated in company with God's people rather than to enjoy the transitory pleasures of sin.
Heb 11:26 He considered that the humiliations offered to the Anointed were something more precious than all the treasures of Egypt, because he had his eyes fixed on the reward.
Heb 11:27 It was by faith that he left Egypt without fear of the king's anger; he held to his purpose like someone who could see the Invisible.
Heb 11:28 It was by faith that he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood to prevent the Destroyer from touching any of their first-born sons.
Heb 11:29 It was by faith they crossed the Red Sea as easily as dry land, while the Egyptians, trying to do the same, were drowned.
Heb 11:30 It was through faith that the walls of Jericho fell down when the people had marched round them for seven days.
Heb 11:31 It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute welcomed the spies and so was not killed with the unbelievers.
Heb 11:32 What more shall I say? There is not time for me to give an account of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, or of David, Samuel and the prophets.
Heb 11:33 These were men who through faith conquered kingdoms, did what was upright and earned the promises. They could keep a lion's mouth shut,
Heb 11:34 put out blazing fires and emerge unscathed from battle. They were weak people who were given strength to be brave in war and drive back foreign invaders.
Heb 11:35 Some returned to their wives from the dead by resurrection; and others submitted to torture, refusing release so that they would rise again to a better life.
Heb 11:36 Some had to bear being pilloried and flogged, or even chained up in prison.
Heb 11:37 They were stoned, or sawn in half, or killed by the sword; they were homeless, and wore only the skins of sheep and goats; they were in want and hardship, and maltreated.
Heb 11:38 They were too good for the world and they wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and ravines.
Heb 11:39 These all won acknowledgement through their faith, but they did not receive what was promised,
Heb 11:40 since God had made provision for us to have something better, and they were not to reach perfection except with us.
Heb 12:1 With so many witnesses in a great cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us down and the sin that clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in the race which lies ahead of us.
Heb 12:2 Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who leads us in our faith and brings it to perfection: for the sake of the joy which lay ahead of him, he endured the cross, disregarding the shame of it, and has taken his seat at the right of God's throne.
Heb 12:3 Think of the way he persevered against such opposition from sinners and then you will not lose heart and come to grief.
Heb 12:4 In the fight against sin, you have not yet had to keep fighting to the point of bloodshed.
Heb 12:5 Have you forgotten that encouraging text in which you are addressed as sons? My son, do not scorn correction from the Lord, do not resent his training,
Heb 12:6 for the Lord trains those he loves, and chastises every son he accepts.
Heb 12:7 Perseverance is part of your training; God is treating you as his sons. Has there ever been any son whose father did not train him?
Heb 12:8 If you were not getting this training, as all of you are, then you would be not sons but bastards.
Heb 12:9 Besides, we have all had our human fathers who punished us, and we respected them for it; all the more readily ought we to submit to the Father of spirits, and so earn life.
Heb 12:10 Our human fathers were training us for a short life and according to their own lights; but he does it all for our own good, so that we may share his own holiness.
Heb 12:11 Of course, any discipline is at the time a matter for grief, not joy; but later, in those who have undergone it, it bears fruit in peace and uprightness.
Heb 12:12 So steady all weary hands and trembling knees
Heb 12:13 and make your crooked paths straight; then the injured limb will not be maimed, it will get better instead.
Heb 12:14 Seek peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one can ever see the Lord.
Heb 12:15 Be careful that no one is deprived of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness should begin to grow and make trouble; this can poison a large number.
Heb 12:16 And be careful that there is no immoral person, or anyone worldly minded like Esau, who sold his birthright for one single meal.
Heb 12:17 As you know, when he wanted to obtain the blessing afterwards, he was rejected and, though he pleaded for it with tears, he could find no way of reversing the decision.
Heb 12:18 What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or gloom or total darkness, or a storm;
Heb 12:19 or trumpet-blast or the sound of a voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them.
Heb 12:20 They could not bear the order that was given: If even a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned.
Heb 12:21 The whole scene was so terrible that Moses said, 'I am afraid and trembling.'
Heb 12:22 But what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem where the millions of angels have gathered for the festival,
Heb 12:23 with the whole congregation (ekklesia)of first-born sons, enrolled as citizens of heaven. You have come to God himself, the supreme Judge, and to the spirits of the upright who have been made perfect;
Heb 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to purifying blood which pleads more insistently than Abel's.
Heb 12:25 Make sure that you never refuse to listen when he speaks. If the people who on earth refused to listen to a warning could not escape their punishment, how shall we possibly escape if we turn away from a voice that warns us from heaven?
Heb 12:26 That time his voice made the earth shake, but now he has given us this promise: I am going to shake the earth once more and not only the earth but heaven as well.
Heb 12:27 The words once more indicate the removal of what is shaken, since these are created things, so that what is not shaken remains.
Heb 12:28 We have been given possession of an unshakeable kingdom. Let us therefore be grateful and use our gratitude to worship God in the way that pleases him, in reverence and fear.
Heb 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Heb 13:1 Continue to love each other like brothers,
Heb 13:2 and remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
Heb 13:3 Keep in mind those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; and those who are being badly treated, since you too are in the body.
Heb 13:4 Marriage must be honored by all, and marriages must be kept undefiled, because the sexually immoral and adulterers will come under God's judgement.
Heb 13:5 Put avarice out of your lives and be content with whatever you have; God himself has said: I shall not fail you or desert you,
Heb 13:6 and so we can say with confidence: With the Lord on my side, I fear nothing: what can human beings do to me?
Heb 13:7 Remember your leaders, who preached the word of God to you, and as you reflect on the outcome of their lives, take their faith as your model.
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever.
Heb 13:9 Do not be led astray by all sorts of strange doctrines: it is better to rely on grace for inner strength than on food, which has done no good to those who concentrate on it.
Heb 13:10 We have our own altar from which those who serve the Tent have no right to eat.
Heb 13:11 The bodies of the animals whose blood is taken into the sanctuary by the high priest for the rite of expiation are burnt outside the camp,
Heb 13:12 and so Jesus too suffered outside the gate to sanctify the people with his own blood.
Heb 13:13 Let us go to him, then, outside the camp, and bear his humiliation.
Heb 13:14 There is no permanent city for us here; we are looking for the one which is yet to be.
Heb 13:15 Through him, let us offer God an unending sacrifice of praise, the fruit of the lips of those who acknowledge his name.
Heb 13:16 Keep doing good works and sharing your resources, for these are the kinds of sacrifice that please God.
Heb 13:17 Obey your leaders and give way to them; they watch over your souls because they must give an account of them; make this a joy for them to do, and not a grief -- you yourselves would be the losers.
Heb 13:18 Pray for us; we are sure that our own conscience is clear and we are certainly determined to behave honorably in everything we do.
Heb 13:19 I ask you very particularly to pray that I may come back to you all the sooner.
Heb 13:20 I pray that the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood that sealed an eternal covenant,
Heb 13:21 may prepare you to do his will in every kind of good action; effecting in us all whatever is acceptable to himself through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Heb 13:22 I urge you, brothers, to take these words of encouragement kindly; that is why I have written to you briefly.
Heb 13:23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been set free. If he arrives in time, he will be with me when I see you.
Heb 13:24 Greetings to all your leaders and to all God's holy people. God's holy people in Italy send you greetings.
Heb 13:25 Grace be with you all.
Jam 1:1 From James, servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion.
Jam 1:2 My brothers, consider it a great joy when trials of many kinds come upon you,
Jam 1:3 for you well know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, and
Jam 1:4 perseverance must complete its work so that you will become fully developed, complete, not deficient in any way.
Jam 1:5 Any of you who lacks wisdom must ask God, who gives to all generously and without scolding; it will be given.
Jam 1:6 But the prayer must be made with faith, and no trace of doubt, because a person who has doubts is like the waves thrown up in the sea by the buffeting of the wind.
Jam 1:7 That sort of person, in two minds,
Jam 1:8 inconsistent in every activity, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Jam 1:9 It is right that the brother in humble circumstances should glory in being lifted up,
Jam 1:10 and the rich in being brought low. For the rich will last no longer than the wild flower;
Jam 1:11 the scorching sun comes up, and the grass withers, its flower falls, its beauty is lost. It is the same with the rich: in the middle of a busy life, the rich will wither.
Jam 1:12 Blessed is anyone who perseveres when trials come. Such a person is of proven worth and will win the prize of life, the crown that the Lord has promised to those who love him.
Jam 1:13 Never, when you are being put to the test, say, 'God is tempting me'; God cannot be tempted by evil, and he does not put anybody to the test .
Jam 1:14 Everyone is put to the test by being attracted and seduced by that person's own wrong desire.
Jam 1:15 Then the desire conceives and gives birth to sin, and when sin reaches full growth, it gives birth to death.
Jam 1:16 Make no mistake about this, my dear brothers:
Jam 1:17 all that is good, all that is perfect, is given us from above; it comes down from the Father of all light; with him there is no such thing as alteration, no shadow caused by change.
Jam 1:18 By his own choice he gave birth to us by the message of the truth so that we should be a sort of first-fruits of all his creation.
Jam 1:19 Remember this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to human anger;
Jam 1:20 God's saving justice is never served by human anger;
Jam 1:21 so do away with all impurities and remnants of evil. Humbly welcome the Word which has been planted in you and can save your souls.
Jam 1:22 But you must do what the Word tells you and not just listen to it and deceive yourselves.
Jam 1:23 Anyone who listens to the Word and takes no action is like someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and,
Jam 1:24 once he has seen what he looks like, goes off and immediately forgets it.
Jam 1:25 But anyone who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and keeps to it -- not listening and forgetting, but putting it into practice -- will be blessed in every undertaking.
Jam 1:26 Nobody who fails to keep a tight rein on the tongue can claim to be religious; this is mere self-deception; that person's religion is worthless.
Jam 1:27 Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this: coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.
Jam 2:1 My brothers, do not let class distinction enter into your faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord.
Jam 2:2 Now suppose a man comes into your synagogue, well-dressed and with a gold ring on, and at the same time a poor man comes in, in shabby clothes,
Jam 2:3 and you take notice of the well-dressed man, and say, 'Come this way to the best seats'; then you tell the poor man, 'Stand over there' or 'You can sit on the floor by my foot-rest.'
Jam 2:4 In making this distinction among yourselves have you not used a corrupt standard?
Jam 2:5 Listen, my dear brothers: it was those who were poor according to the world that God chose, to be rich in faith and to be the heirs to the kingdom which he promised to those who love him.
Jam 2:6 You, on the other hand, have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who lord it over you?
Jam 2:7 Are not they the ones who drag you into court, who insult the honorable name which has been pronounced over you?
Jam 2:8 Well, the right thing to do is to keep the supreme Law of scripture: you will love your neighbor as yourself;
Jam 2:9 but as soon as you make class distinctions, you are committing sin and under condemnation for breaking the Law.
Jam 2:10 You see, anyone who keeps the whole of the Law but trips up on a single point, is still guilty of breaking it all.
Jam 2:11 He who said, 'You must not commit adultery' said also, 'You must not kill.' Now if you commit murder, you need not commit adultery as well to become a breaker of the Law.
Jam 2:12 Talk and behave like people who are going to be judged by the law of freedom.
Jam 2:13 Whoever acts without mercy will be judged without mercy but mercy can afford to laugh at judgement.
Jam 2:14 How does it help, my brothers, when someone who has never done a single good act claims to have faith? Will that faith bring salvation?
Jam 2:15 If one of the brothers or one of the sisters is in need of clothes and has not enough food to live on,
Jam 2:16 and one of you says to them, 'I wish you well; keep yourself warm and eat plenty,' without giving them these bare necessities of life, then what good is that?
Jam 2:17 In the same way faith, if good deeds do not go with it, is quite dead.
Jam 2:18 But someone may say: So you have faith and I have good deeds? Show me this faith of yours without deeds, then! It is by my deeds that I will show you my faith.
Jam 2:19 You believe in the one God -- that is creditable enough, but even the demons have the same belief, and they tremble with fear.
Jam 2:20 Fool! Would you not like to know that faith without deeds is useless?
Jam 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by his deed, because he offered his son Isaac on the altar?
Jam 2:22 So you can see that his faith was working together with his deeds; his faith became perfect by what he did.
Jam 2:23 In this way the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham put his faith in God, and this was considered as making him upright; and he received the name 'friend of God'.
Jam 2:24 You see now that it is by deeds, and not only by believing, that someone is justified.
Jam 2:25 There is another example of the same kind: Rahab the prostitute, was she not justified by her deeds because she welcomed the messengers and showed them a different way to leave?
Jam 2:26 As a body without a spirit is dead, so is faith without deeds.
Jam 3:1 Only a few of you, my brothers, should be teachers, bearing in mind that we shall receive a stricter judgement.
Jam 3:2 For we all trip up in many ways. Someone who does not trip up in speech has reached perfection and is able to keep the whole body on a tight rein.
Jam 3:3 Once we put a bit in the horse's mouth, to make it do what we want, we have the whole animal under our control.
Jam 3:4 Or think of ships: no matter how big they are, even if a gale is driving them, they are directed by a tiny rudder wherever the whim of the helmsman decides.
Jam 3:5 So the tongue is only a tiny part of the body, but its boasts are great. Think how small a flame can set fire to a huge forest;
Jam 3:6 The tongue is a flame too. Among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a whole wicked world: it infects the whole body; catching fire itself from hell, it sets fire to the whole wheel of creation.
Jam 3:7 Wild animals and birds, reptiles and fish of every kind can all be tamed, and have been tamed, by humans;
Jam 3:8 but nobody can tame the tongue -- it is a pest that will not keep still, full of deadly poison.
Jam 3:9 We use it to bless the Lord and Father, but we also use it to curse people who are made in God's image:
Jam 3:10 the blessing and curse come out of the same mouth. My brothers, this must be wrong-
Jam 3:11 does any water supply give a flow of fresh water and salt water out of the same pipe?
Jam 3:12 Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers, or a vine yield figs? No more can sea water yield fresh water.
Jam 3:13 Anyone who is wise or understanding among you should from a good life give evidence of deeds done in the gentleness of wisdom.
Jam 3:14 But if at heart you have the bitterness of jealousy, or selfish ambition, do not be boastful or hide the truth with lies;
Jam 3:15 this is not the wisdom that comes from above, but earthly, human and devilish.
Jam 3:16 Wherever there are jealousy and ambition, there are also disharmony and wickedness of every kind;
Jam 3:17 whereas the wisdom that comes down from above is essentially something pure; it is also peaceable, kindly and considerate; it is full of mercy and shows itself by doing good; nor is there any trace of partiality or hypocrisy in it.
Jam 3:18 The peace sown by peacemakers brings a harvest of justice.
Jam 4:1 Where do these wars and battles between yourselves first start? Is it not precisely in the desires fighting inside your own selves?
Jam 4:2 You want something and you lack it; so you kill. You have an ambition that you cannot satisfy; so you fight to get your way by force. It is because you do not pray that you do not receive;
Jam 4:3 when you do pray and do not receive, it is because you prayed wrongly, wanting to indulge your passions.
Jam 4:4 Adulterers! Do you not realize that love for the world is hatred for God? Anyone who chooses the world for a friend is constituted an enemy of God.
Jam 4:5 Can you not see the point of the saying in scripture, 'The longing of the spirit he sent to dwell in us is a jealous longing.'?
Jam 4:6 But he has given us an even greater grace, as scripture says: God opposes the proud but he accords his favor to the humble.
Jam 4:7 Give in to God, then; resist the devil, and he will run away from you.
Jam 4:8 The nearer you go to God, the nearer God will come to you. Clean your hands, you sinners, and clear your minds, you waverers.
Jam 4:9 Appreciate your wretchedness, and weep for it in misery. Your laughter must be turned to grief, your happiness to gloom.
Jam 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will lift you up.
Jam 4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who slanders a brother, or condemns one, is speaking against the Law and condemning the Law. But if you condemn the Law, you have ceased to be subject to it and become a judge over it.
Jam 4:12 There is only one lawgiver and he is the only judge and has the power to save or to destroy. Who are you to give a verdict on your neighbor?
Jam 4:13 Well now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow, we are off to this or that town; we are going to spend a year there, trading, and make some money.'
Jam 4:14 You never know what will happen tomorrow: you are no more than a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.
Jam 4:15 Instead of this, you should say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we shall still be alive to do this or that.'
Jam 4:16 But as it is, how boastful and loud -- mouthed you are! Boasting of this kind is always wrong.
Jam 4:17 Everyone who knows what is the right thing to do and does not do it commits a sin.
Jam 5:1 Well now, you rich! Lament, weep for the miseries that are coming to you.
Jam 5:2 Your wealth is rotting, your clothes are all moth-eaten.
Jam 5:3 All your gold and your silver are corroding away, and the same corrosion will be a witness against you and eat into your body. It is like a fire which you have stored up for the final days.
Jam 5:4 Can you hear crying out against you the wages which you kept back from the labourers mowing your fields? The cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord Sabaoth.
Jam 5:5 On earth you have had a life of comfort and luxury; in the time of slaughter you went on eating to your heart's content.
Jam 5:6 It was you who condemned the upright and killed them; they offered you no resistance.
Jam 5:7 Now be patient, brothers, until the Lord's coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains!
Jam 5:8 You too must be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord's coming will be soon.
Jam 5:9 Do not make complaints against one another, brothers, so as not to be brought to judgement yourselves; the Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates.
Jam 5:10 For your example, brothers, in patiently putting up with persecution, take the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name;
Jam 5:11 remember it is those who had perseverance that we say are the blessed ones. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and understood the Lord's purpose, realising that the Lord is kind and compassionate.
Jam 5:12 Above all, my brothers, do not swear by heaven or by the earth or use any oaths at all. If you mean 'yes', you must say 'yes'; if you mean 'no', say 'no'. Otherwise you make yourselves liable to judgement.
Jam 5:13 Any one of you who is in trouble should pray; anyone in good spirits should sing a psalm.
Jam 5:14 Any one of you who is ill should send for the elders of the church, and they must anoint the sick person with oil in the name of the Lord and pray over him.
Jam 5:15 The prayer of faith will save the sick person and the Lord will raise him up again; and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
Jam 5:16 So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another to be cured; the heartfelt prayer of someone upright works very powerfully.
Jam 5:17 Elijah was a human being as frail as ourselves -- he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and no rain fell for three and a half years;
Jam 5:18 then he prayed again and the sky gave rain and the earth gave crops.
Jam 5:19 My brothers, if one of you strays away from the truth, and another brings him back to it,
Jam 5:20 he may be sure that anyone who can bring back a sinner from his erring ways will be saving his soul from death and covering over many a sin.
1Pe 1:1 Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ, to all those living as aliens in the Dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen,
1Pe 1:2 in the foresight of God the Father, to be made holy by the Spirit, obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.
1Pe 1:3 Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
1Pe 1:4 and into a heritage that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away. It is reserved in heaven for you
1Pe 1:5 who are being kept safe by God's power through faith until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the final point of time.
1Pe 1:6 This is a great joy to you, even though for a short time yet you must bear all sorts of trials;
1Pe 1:7 so that the worth of your faith, more valuable than gold, which is perishable even if it has been tested by fire, may be proved -- to your praise and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
1Pe 1:8 You have not seen him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him you believe in him and so are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described;
1Pe 1:9 and you are sure of the goal of your faith, that is, the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 This salvation was the subject of the search and investigation of the prophets who spoke of the grace you were to receive,
1Pe 1:11 searching out the time and circumstances for which the Spirit of Christ, bearing witness in them, was revealing the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow them.
1Pe 1:12 It was revealed to them that it was for your sake and not their own that they were acting as servants delivering the message which has now been announced to you by those who preached to you the gospel through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even the angels long to catch a glimpse of these things.
1Pe 1:13 Your minds, then, must be sober and ready for action; put all your hope in the grace brought to you by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1Pe 1:14 Do not allow yourselves to be shaped by the passions of your old ignorance,
1Pe 1:15 but as obedient children, be yourselves holy in all your activity, after the model of the Holy One who calls us,
1Pe 1:16 since scripture says, 'Be holy, for I am holy.'
1Pe 1:17 And if you address as Father him who judges without favoritism according to each individual's deeds, live out the time of your exile here in reverent awe.
1Pe 1:18 For you know that the price of your ransom from the futile way of life handed down from your ancestors was paid, not in anything perishable like silver or gold,
1Pe 1:19 but in precious blood as of a blameless and spotless lamb, Christ.
1Pe 1:20 He was marked out before the world was made, and was revealed at the final point of time for your sake.
1Pe 1:21 Through him you now have faith in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory for this very purpose -- that your faith and hope should be in God.
1Pe 1:22 Since by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves so that you can experience the genuine love of brothers, love each other intensely from the heart;
1Pe 1:23 for your new birth was not from any perishable seed but from imperishable seed, the living and enduring Word of God.
1Pe 1:24 For all humanity is grass, and all its beauty like the wild flower's. As grass withers, the flower fades,
1Pe 1:25 but the Word of the Lord remains for ever. And this Word is the Good News that has been brought to you.
1Pe 2:1 Rid yourselves, then, of all spite, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and carping criticism.
1Pe 2:2 Like new-born babies all your longing should be for milk -- the unadulterated spiritual milk -- which will help you to grow up to salvation,
1Pe 2:3 at any rate if you have tasted that the Lord is good .
1Pe 2:4 He is the living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him
1Pe 2:5 so that you, too, may be living stones making a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer the spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1Pe 2:6 As scripture says: Now I am laying a stone in Zion, a chosen, precious cornerstone and no one who relies on this will be brought to disgrace.
1Pe 2:7 To you believers it brings honor. But for unbelievers, it is rather a stone which the builders rejected that became a cornerstone,
1Pe 2:8 a stumbling stone, a rock to trip people up. They stumble over it because they do not believe in the Word; it was the fate in store for them.
1Pe 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, a people to be a personal possession to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
1Pe 2:10 Once you were a non-people and now you are the People of God; once you were outside his pity; now you have received pity.
1Pe 2:11 I urge you, my dear friends, as strangers and nomads, to keep yourselves free from the disordered natural inclinations that attack the soul.
1Pe 2:12 Always behave honorably among gentiles so that they can see for themselves what moral lives you lead, and when the day of reckoning comes, give thanks to God for the things which now make them denounce you as criminals.
1Pe 2:13 For the sake of the Lord, accept the authority of every human institution: the emperor, as the supreme authority,
1Pe 2:14 and the governors as commissioned by him to punish criminals and praise those who do good.
1Pe 2:15 It is God's will that by your good deeds you should silence the ignorant talk of fools.
1Pe 2:16 You are slaves of no one except God, so behave like free people, and never use your freedom as a cover for wickedness.
1Pe 2:17 Have respect for everyone and love for your fellow-believers; fear God and honor the emperor.
1Pe 2:18 Slaves, you should obey your masters respectfully, not only those who are kind and reasonable but also those who are difficult to please.
1Pe 2:19 You see, there is merit if, in awareness of God, you put up with the pains of undeserved punishment;
1Pe 2:20 but what glory is there in putting up with a beating after you have done something wrong? The merit in the sight of God is in putting up with it patiently when you are punished for doing your duty.
1Pe 2:21 This, in fact, is what you were called to do, because Christ suffered for you and left an example for you to follow in his steps.
1Pe 2:22 He had done nothing wrong, and had spoken no deceit.
1Pe 2:23 He was insulted and did not retaliate with insults; when he was suffering he made no threats but put his trust in the upright judge.
1Pe 2:24 He was bearing our sins in his own body on the cross, so that we might die to our sins and live for uprightness; through his bruises you have been healed.
1Pe 2:25 You had gone astray like sheep but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
1Pe 3:1 In the same way, you wives should be obedient to your husbands. Then if there are some husbands who do not believe the Word, they may find themselves won over, without a word spoken, by the way their wives behave,
1Pe 3:2 when they see the reverence and purity of your way of life.
1Pe 3:3 Your adornment should be not an exterior one, consisting of braided hair or gold jewellery or fine clothing,
1Pe 3:4 but the interior disposition of the heart, consisting in the imperishable quality of a gentle and peaceful spirit, so precious in the sight of God.
1Pe 3:5 That was how the holy women of the past dressed themselves attractively -- they hoped in God and were submissive to their husbands;
1Pe 3:6 like Sarah, who was obedient to Abraham, and called him her lord. You are now her children, as long as you live good lives free from fear and worry.
1Pe 3:7 In the same way, husbands must always treat their wives with consideration in their life together, respecting a woman as one who, though she may be the weaker partner, is equally an heir to the generous gift of life. This will prevent anything from coming in the way of your prayers.
1Pe 3:8 Finally: you should all agree among yourselves and be sympathetic; love the brothers, have compassion and be self-effacing.
1Pe 3:9 Never repay one wrong with another, or one abusive word with another; instead, repay with a blessing. That is what you are called to do, so that you inherit a blessing.
1Pe 3:10 For Who among you delights in life, longs for time to enjoy prosperity? Guard your tongue from evil, your lips from any breath of deceit.
1Pe 3:11 Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.
1Pe 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the upright, his ear turned to their cry. But the Lord's face is set against those who do evil.
1Pe 3:13 No one can hurt you if you are determined to do only what is right;
1Pe 3:14 and blessed are you if you have to suffer for being upright. Have no dread of them; have no fear.
1Pe 3:15 Simply proclaim the Lord Christ holy in your hearts, and always have your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you have.
1Pe 3:16 But give it with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience, so that those who slander your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their accusations.
1Pe 3:17 And if it is the will of God that you should suffer, it is better to suffer for doing right than for doing wrong.
1Pe 3:18 Christ himself died once and for all for sins, the upright for the sake of the guilty, to lead us to God. In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life,
1Pe 3:19 and, in the spirit, he went to preach to the spirits in prison.
1Pe 3:20 They refused to believe long ago, while God patiently waited to receive them, in Noah's time when the ark was being built. In it only a few, that is eight souls, were saved through water.
1Pe 3:21 It is the baptism corresponding to this water which saves you now -- not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience given to God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1Pe 3:22 who has entered heaven and is at God's right hand, with angels, ruling forces and powers subject to him.
1Pe 4:1 As Christ has undergone bodily suffering, you too should arm yourselves with the same conviction, that anyone who has undergone bodily suffering has broken with sin,
1Pe 4:2 because for the rest of life on earth that person is ruled not by human passions but only by the will of God.
1Pe 4:3 You spent quite long enough in the past living the sort of life that gentiles choose to live, behaving in a debauched way, giving way to your passions, drinking to excess, having wild parties and drunken orgies and sacrilegiously worshipping false gods.
1Pe 4:4 So people are taken aback that you no longer hurry off with them to join this flood which is rushing down to ruin, and then abuse you for it.
1Pe 4:5 They will have to answer for it before the judge who is to judge the living and the dead.
1Pe 4:6 And this was why the gospel was brought to the dead as well, so that, though in their bodies they had undergone the judgement that faces all humanity, in their spirit they might enjoy the life of God.
1Pe 4:7 The end of all things is near, so keep your minds calm and sober for prayer.
1Pe 4:8 Above all preserve an intense love for each other, since love covers over many a sin.
1Pe 4:9 Welcome each other into your houses without grumbling.
1Pe 4:10 Each one of you has received a special grace, so, like good stewards responsible for all these varied graces of God, put it at the service of others.
1Pe 4:11 If anyone is a speaker, let it be as the words of God, if anyone serves, let it be as in strength granted by God; so that in everything God may receive the glory, through Jesus Christ, since to him alone belong all glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
1Pe 4:12 My dear friends, do not be taken aback at the testing by fire which is taking place among you, as though something strange were happening to you;
1Pe 4:13 but in so far as you share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, so that you may enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed.
1Pe 4:14 If you are insulted for bearing Christ's name, blessed are you, for on you rests the Spirit of God, the Spirit of glory.
1Pe 4:15 None of you should ever deserve to suffer for being a murderer, a thief, a criminal or an informer;
1Pe 4:16 but if any one of you should suffer for being a Christian, then there must be no shame but thanksgiving to God for bearing this name.
1Pe 4:17 The time has come for the judgement to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who refuse to believe God's gospel?
1Pe 4:18 If it is hard for the upright to be saved, what will happen to the wicked and to sinners?
1Pe 4:19 So even those whom God allows to suffer should commit themselves to a Creator who is trustworthy, and go on doing good.
1Pe 5:1 I urge the elders among you, as a fellow-elder myself and a witness to the sufferings of Christ, and as one who is to have a share in the glory that is to be revealed:
1Pe 5:2 give a shepherd's care to the flock of God that is entrusted to you: watch over it, not simply as a duty but gladly, as God wants; not for sordid money, but because you are eager to do it.
1Pe 5:3 Do not lord it over the group which is in your charge, but be an example for the flock.
1Pe 5:4 When the chief shepherd appears, you will be given the unfading crown of glory.
1Pe 5:5 In the same way, younger people, be subject to the elders. Humility towards one another must be the garment you all wear constantly, because God opposes the proud but accords his favor to the humble.
1Pe 5:6 Bow down, then, before the power of God now, so that he may raise you up in due time;
1Pe 5:7 unload all your burden on to him, since he is concerned about you.
1Pe 5:8 Keep sober and alert, because your enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
1Pe 5:9 Stand up to him, strong in faith and in the knowledge that it is the same kind of suffering that the community of your brothers throughout the world is undergoing.
1Pe 5:10 You will have to suffer only for a little while: the God of all grace who called you to eternal glory in Christ will restore you, he will confirm, strengthen and support you.
1Pe 5:11 His power lasts for ever and ever. Amen.
1Pe 5:12 I write these few words to you through Silvanus, who is a trustworthy brother, to encourage you and attest that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!
1Pe 5:13 Your sister in Babylon, who is with you among the chosen, sends you greetings; so does my son, Mark.
1Pe 5:14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ.
2Pe 1:1 Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith as precious as our own, given through the saving justice of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of our Lord.
2Pe 1:3 By his divine power, he has lavished on us all the things we need for life and for true devotion, through the knowledge of him who has called us by his own glory and goodness.
2Pe 1:4 Through these, the greatest and priceless promises have been lavished on us, that through them you should share the divine nature and escape the corruption rife in the world through disordered passion.
2Pe 1:5 With this in view, do your utmost to support your faith with goodness, goodness with understanding,
2Pe 1:6 understanding with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with devotion,
2Pe 1:7 devotion with kindness to the brothers, and kindness to the brothers with love.
2Pe 1:8 The possession and growth of these qualities will prevent your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ from being ineffectual or unproductive.
2Pe 1:9 But without them, a person is blind or short-sighted, forgetting how the sins of the past were washed away.
2Pe 1:10 Instead of this, brothers, never allow your choice or calling to waver; then there will be no danger of your stumbling,
2Pe 1:11 for in this way you will be given the generous gift of entry to the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2Pe 1:12 That is why I will always go on recalling the same truths to you, even though you already know them and are firmly fixed in these truths.
2Pe 1:13 I am sure it is my duty, as long as I am in this tent, to keep stirring you up with reminders,
2Pe 1:14 since I know the time for me to lay aside this tent is coming soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.
2Pe 1:15 And I shall take great care that after my own departure you will still have a means to recall these things to mind.
2Pe 1:16 When we told you about the power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, we were not slavishly repeating cleverly invented myths; no, we had seen his majesty with our own eyes.
2Pe 1:17 He was honored and glorified by God the Father, when a voice came to him from the transcendent Glory, This is my Son, the Beloved; he enjoys my favor.
2Pe 1:18 We ourselves heard this voice from heaven, when we were with him on the holy mountain.
2Pe 1:19 So we have confirmation of the words of the prophets; and you will be right to pay attention to it as to a lamp for lighting a way through the dark, until the dawn comes and the morning star rises in your minds.
2Pe 1:20 At the same time, we must recognize that the interpretation of scriptural prophecy is never a matter for the individual.
2Pe 1:21 For no prophecy ever came from human initiative. When people spoke for God it was the Holy Spirit that moved them.
2Pe 2:1 As there were false prophets in the past history of our people, so you too will have your false teachers, who will insinuate their own disruptive views and, by disowning the Lord who bought them freedom, will bring upon themselves speedy destruction.
2Pe 2:2 Many will copy their debauched behaviour, and the Way of Truth will be brought into disrepute on their account.
2Pe 2:3 In their greed they will try to make a profit out of you with untrue tales. But the judgement made upon them long ago is not idle, and the destruction awaiting them is for ever on the watch.
2Pe 2:4 When angels sinned, God did not spare them: he sent them down into the underworld and consigned them to the dark abyss to be held there until the Judgement.
2Pe 2:5 He did not spare the world in ancient times: he saved only Noah, the preacher of uprightness, along with seven others, when he sent the Flood over a world of sinners.
2Pe 2:6 He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by reducing them to ashes as a warning to future sinners;
2Pe 2:7 but rescued Lot, an upright man who had been sickened by the debauched way in which these vile people behaved-
2Pe 2:8 for that upright man, living among them, was outraged in his upright soul by the crimes that he saw and heard every day.
2Pe 2:9 All this shows that the Lord is well able to rescue the good from their trials, and hold the wicked for their punishment until the Day of Judgement,
2Pe 2:10 especially those who follow the desires of their corrupt human nature and have no respect for the Lord's authority. Such self-willed people with no reverence are not afraid of offending against the glorious ones,
2Pe 2:11 but the angels in their greater strength and power make no complaint or accusation against them in the Lord's presence.
2Pe 2:12 But these people speak evil of what they do not understand; they are like brute beasts, born only to be caught and killed, and like beasts they will be destroyed, being injured in return for the injuries they have inflicted.
2Pe 2:13 Debauchery even by day they make their pleasure; they are unsightly blots, and amuse themselves by their trickery even when they are sharing your table;
2Pe 2:14 with their eyes always looking for adultery, people with an insatiable capacity for sinning, they will seduce any but the most stable soul. Where greed is concerned they are at their peak of fitness. They are under a curse.
2Pe 2:15 They have left the right path and wandered off to follow the path of Balaam son of Bosor, who set his heart on a dishonest reward, but soon had his fault pointed out to him:
2Pe 2:16 a dumb beast of burden, speaking with a human voice, put a stop to the madness of the prophet.
2Pe 2:17 People like this are dried-up springs, fogs swirling in the wind, and the gloom of darkness is stored up for them.
2Pe 2:18 With their high-sounding but empty talk they tempt back people who have scarcely escaped from those who live in error, by playing on the disordered desires of their human nature and by debaucheries.
2Pe 2:19 They may promise freedom but are themselves slaves to corruption; because if anyone lets himself be dominated by anything, then he is a slave to it;
2Pe 2:20 and anyone who has escaped the pollution of the world by coming to know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and who then allows himself to be entangled and mastered by it a second time, ends up by being worse than he was before.
2Pe 2:21 It would have been better for them never to have learnt the way of uprightness, than to learn it and then desert the holy commandment that was entrusted to them.
2Pe 2:22 What they have done is exactly as the proverb rightly says: The dog goes back to its vomit and: As soon as the sow has been washed, it wallows in the mud.
2Pe 3:1 My dear friends, this is the second letter I have written to you, trying to awaken in you by my reminders an unclouded understanding.
2Pe 3:2 Remember what was said in the past by the holy prophets and the command of the Lord and Savior given by your apostles.
2Pe 3:3 First of all, do not forget that in the final days there will come sarcastic scoffers whose life is ruled by their passions.
2Pe 3:4 'What has happened to the promise of his coming?' they will say, 'Since our Fathers died everything has gone on just as it has since the beginning of creation!'
2Pe 3:5 They deliberately ignore the fact that long ago there were the heavens and the earth, formed out of water and through water by the Word of God,
2Pe 3:6 and that it was through these same factors that the world of those days was destroyed by the floodwaters.
2Pe 3:7 It is the same Word which is reserving the present heavens and earth for fire, keeping them till the Day of Judgement and of the destruction of sinners.
2Pe 3:8 But there is one thing, my dear friends, that you must never forget: that with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not being slow in carrying out his promises, as some people think he is; rather is he being patient with you, wanting nobody to be lost and everybody to be brought to repentance.
2Pe 3:10 The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and melt away, the earth and all that it contains will be burned up.
2Pe 3:11 Since everything is coming to an end like this, what holy and saintly lives you should be living
2Pe 3:12 while you wait for the Day of God to come, and try to hasten its coming: on that Day the sky will dissolve in flames and the elements melt in the heat.
2Pe 3:13 What we are waiting for, relying on his promises, is the new heavens and new earth, where uprightness will be at home.
2Pe 3:14 So then, my dear friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live blameless and unsullied lives so that he will find you at peace.
2Pe 3:15 Think of our Lord's patience as your opportunity to be saved; our brother Paul, who is so dear to us, told you this when he wrote to you with the wisdom that he was given.
2Pe 3:16 He makes this point too in his letters as a whole wherever he touches on these things. In all his letters there are of course some passages which are hard to understand, and these are the ones that uneducated and unbalanced people distort, in the same way as they distort the rest of scripture -to their own destruction.
2Pe 3:17 Since you have been forewarned about this, my dear friends, be careful that you do not come to the point of losing the firm ground that you are standing on, carried away by the errors of unprincipled people.
2Pe 3:18 Instead, continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory, in time and eternity. Amen.
1Jo 1:1 Something which has existed since the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have watched and touched with our own hands, the Word of life -- this is our theme.
1Jo 1:2 That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony, declaring to you the eternal life, which was present to the Father and has been revealed to us.
1Jo 1:3 We are declaring to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life. Our life is shared with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
1Jo 1:4 We are writing this to you so that our joy may be complete.
1Jo 1:5 This is what we have heard from him and are declaring to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
1Jo 1:6 If we say that we share in God's life while we are living in darkness, we are lying, because we are not living the truth.
1Jo 1:7 But if we live in light, as he is in light, we have a share in another's life, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
1Jo 1:8 If we say, 'We have no sin,' we are deceiving ourselves, and truth has no place in us;
1Jo 1:9 if we acknowledge our sins, he is trustworthy and upright, so that he will forgive our sins and will cleanse us from all evil.
1Jo 1:10 If we say, 'We have never sinned,' we make him a liar, and his word has no place in us.
1Jo 2:1 My children, I am writing this to prevent you from sinning; but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the upright.
1Jo 2:2 He is the sacrifice to expiate our sins, and not only ours, but also those of the whole world.
1Jo 2:3 In this way we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jo 2:4 Whoever says, 'I know him' without keeping his commandments, is a liar, and truth has no place in him.
1Jo 2:5 But anyone who does keep his word, in such a one God's love truly reaches its perfection. This is the proof that we are in God.
1Jo 2:6 Whoever claims to remain in him must act as he acted.
1Jo 2:7 My dear friends, this is not a new commandment I am writing for you, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the message you have heard.
1Jo 2:8 Yet in another way, I am writing a new commandment for you -- and this is true for you, just as much as for him -- for darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
1Jo 2:9 Whoever claims to be in light but hates his brother is still in darkness.
1Jo 2:10 Anyone who loves his brother remains in light and there is in him nothing to make him fall away.
1Jo 2:11 But whoever hates his brother is in darkness and is walking about in darkness not knowing where he is going, because darkness has blinded him.
1Jo 2:12 I am writing to you, children, because your sins have been forgiven through his name.
1Jo 2:13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I am writing to you, young people, because you have overcome the Evil One.
1Jo 2:14 I have written to you, children, because you have come to know the Father. I have written to you, parents, because you have come to know the One who has existed since the beginning. I have written to you, young people, because you are strong, and God's word remains in you, and you have overcome the Evil One.
1Jo 2:15 Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him,
1Jo 2:16 because everything there is in the world -- disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession -- is not from the Father but is from the world.
1Jo 2:17 And the world, with all its disordered desires, is passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains for ever.
1Jo 2:18 Children, this is the final hour; you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and now many Antichrists have already come; from this we know that it is the final hour.
1Jo 2:19 They have gone from among us, but they never really belonged to us; if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. But this was to prove that not one of them belonged to us.
1Jo 2:20 But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received knowledge.
1Jo 2:21 I have written to you not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you are well aware of it, and because no lie can come from the truth.
1Jo 2:22 Who is the liar, if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son.
1Jo 2:23 Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too.
1Jo 2:24 Let what you heard in the beginning remain in you; as long as what you heard in the beginning remains in you, you will remain in the Son and in the Father.
1Jo 2:25 And the promise he made you himself is eternal life.
1Jo 2:26 So much have I written to you about those who are trying to lead you astray.
1Jo 2:27 But as for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; since the anointing he gave you teaches you everything, and since it is true, not false, remain in him just as he has taught you.
1Jo 2:28 Therefore remain in him now, children, so that when he appears we may be fearless, and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
1Jo 2:29 If you know that he is upright you must recognize that everyone whose life is upright is a child of his.
1Jo 3:1 You must see what great love the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called God's children -- which is what we are! The reason why the world does not acknowledge us is that it did not acknowledge him.
1Jo 3:2 My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he really is.
1Jo 3:3 Whoever treasures this hope of him purifies himself, to be as pure as he is.
1Jo 3:4 Whoever sins, acts wickedly, because all sin is wickedness.
1Jo 3:5 Now you are well aware that he has appeared in order to take sins away, and that in him there is no sin.
1Jo 3:6 No one who remains in him sins, and whoever sins has neither seen him nor recognized him.
1Jo 3:7 Children, do not let anyone lead you astray. Whoever acts uprightly is upright, just as he is upright.
1Jo 3:8 Whoever lives sinfully belongs to the devil, since the devil has been a sinner from the beginning. This was the purpose of the appearing of the Son of God, to undo the work of the devil.
1Jo 3:9 No one who is a child of God sins because God's seed remains in him. Nor can he sin, because he is a child of God.
1Jo 3:10 This is what distinguishes the children of God from the children of the devil: whoever does not live uprightly and does not love his brother is not from God.
1Jo 3:11 This is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we must love one another,
1Jo 3:12 not to be like Cain, who was from the Evil One and murdered his brother. And why did he murder his brother? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's upright.
1Jo 3:13 Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.
1Jo 3:14 We are well aware that we have passed over from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love, remains in death.
1Jo 3:15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you are well aware that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him.
1Jo 3:16 This is the proof of love, that he laid down his life for us, and we too ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.
1Jo 3:17 If anyone is well-off in worldly possessions and sees his brother in need but closes his heart to him, how can the love of God be remaining in him?
1Jo 3:18 Children, our love must be not just words or mere talk, but something active and genuine.
1Jo 3:19 This will be the proof that we belong to the truth, and it will convince us in his presence,
1Jo 3:20 even if our own feelings condemn us, that God is greater than our feelings and knows all things.
1Jo 3:21 My dear friends, if our own feelings do not condemn us, we can be fearless before God,
1Jo 3:22 and whatever we ask we shall receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what is acceptable to him.
1Jo 3:23 His commandment is this, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we should love one another as he commanded us.
1Jo 3:24 Whoever keeps his commandments remains in God, and God in him. And this is the proof that he remains in us: the Spirit that he has given us.
1Jo 4:1 My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world.
1Jo 4:2 This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God,
1Jo 4:3 and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of Antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world.
1Jo 4:4 Children, you are from God and have overcome them, because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
1Jo 4:5 They are from the world, and therefore the world inspires what they say, and listens to them.
1Jo 4:6 We are from God; whoever recognizes God listens to us; anyone who is not from God refuses to listen to us. This is how we can distinguish the spirit of truth from the spirit of falsehood.
1Jo 4:7 My dear friends, let us love one another, since love is from God and everyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
1Jo 4:8 Whoever fails to love does not know God, because God is love.
1Jo 4:9 This is the revelation of God's love for us, that God sent his only Son into the world that we might have life through him.
1Jo 4:10 Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent his Son to expiate our sins.
1Jo 4:11 My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another.
1Jo 4:12 No one has ever seen God, but as long as we love one another God remains in us and his love comes to its perfection in us.
1Jo 4:13 This is the proof that we remain in him and he in us, that he has given us a share in his Spirit.
1Jo 4:14 We ourselves have seen and testify that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world.
1Jo 4:15 Anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God.
1Jo 4:16 We have recognized for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.
1Jo 4:17 Love comes to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement fearlessly, because even in this world we have become as he is.
1Jo 4:18 In love there is no room for fear, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear implies punishment and no one who is afraid has come to perfection in love.
1Jo 4:19 Let us love, then, because he first loved us.
1Jo 4:20 Anyone who says 'I love God' and hates his brother, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother whom he can see cannot love God whom he has not seen.
1Jo 4:21 Indeed this is the commandment we have received from him, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother.
1Jo 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is a child of God, and whoever loves the father loves the son.
1Jo 5:2 In this way we know that we love God's children, when we love God and keep his commandments.
1Jo 5:3 This is what the love of God is: keeping his commandments. Nor are his commandments burdensome,
1Jo 5:4 because every child of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith.
1Jo 5:5 Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
1Jo 5:6 He it is who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water alone but with water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is Truth.
1Jo 5:7 So there are three witnesses,
1Jo 5:8 the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide.
1Jo 5:9 If we accept the testimony of human witnesses, God's testimony is greater, for this is God's testimony which he gave about his Son.
1Jo 5:10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him, and whoever does not believe is making God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
1Jo 5:11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
1Jo 5:12 Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life.
1Jo 5:13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
1Jo 5:14 Our fearlessness towards him consists in this, that if we ask anything in accordance with his will he hears us.
1Jo 5:15 And if we know that he listens to whatever we ask him, we know that we already possess whatever we have asked of him.
1Jo 5:16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to this brother -- provided that it is not a deadly sin. There is sin that leads to death and I am not saying you must pray about that.
1Jo 5:17 Every kind of wickedness is sin, but not all sin leads to death.
1Jo 5:18 We are well aware that no one who is a child of God sins, because he who was born from God protects him, and the Evil One has no hold over him.
1Jo 5:19 We are well aware that we are from God, and the whole world is in the power of the Evil One.
1Jo 5:20 We are well aware also that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know the One who is true. We are in the One who is true as we are in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and this is eternal life. Children, be on your guard against false gods.
2Jo 1:1 From the Elder: my greetings to the Lady, the chosen one, and to her children, whom I love in truth -- and I am not the only one, for so do all who have come to know the Truth -- and I am not the only one, for so so do all who have come to know the Truth-
2Jo 1:2 because of the truth that remains in us and will be with us for ever.
2Jo 1:3 In our life of truth and love, we shall have grace, faithful love and peace from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father.
2Jo 1:4 It has given me great joy to find that children of yours have been living the life of truth as we were commanded by the Father.
2Jo 1:5 And now I am asking you -- dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but only the one which we have had from the beginning -- that we should love one another.
2Jo 1:6 To love is to live according to his commandments: this is the commandment which you have heard since the beginning, to live a life of love.
2Jo 1:7 There are many deceivers at large in the world, refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in human nature. They are the Deceiver; they are the Antichrist.
2Jo 1:8 Watch yourselves, or all our work will be lost and you will forfeit your full reward.
2Jo 1:9 If anybody does not remain in the teaching of Christ but goes beyond it, he does not have God with him: only those who remain in what he taught can have the Father and the Son with them.
2Jo 1:10 If anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him into your house or even give him a greeting.
2Jo 1:11 Whoever greets him has a share in his wicked activities.
2Jo 1:12 There are several things I have to tell you, but I have thought it best not to trust them to paper and ink. I hope instead to visit you and talk to you in person, so that our joy may be complete.
2Jo 1:13 Greetings to you from the children of your sister, the chosen one.
3Jo 1:1 From the Elder: greetings to my dear friend Gaius, whom I love in truth.
3Jo 1:2 My dear friend, I hope everything is going happily with you and that you are as well physically as you are spiritually.
3Jo 1:3 It was a great joy to me when some brothers came and told of your faithfulness to the truth, and of your life in the truth.
3Jo 1:4 It is always my greatest joy to hear that my children are living according to the truth.
3Jo 1:5 My dear friend, you have done loyal work in helping these brothers, even though they were strangers to you.
3Jo 1:6 They are a proof to the whole congregation (ekklesia)of your love and it would be a kindness if you could help them on their journey as God would approve.
3Jo 1:7 It was entirely for the sake of the name that they set out, without depending on the non-believers for anything:
3Jo 1:8 it is our duty to welcome people of this sort and contribute our share to their work for the truth.
3Jo 1:9 I have written a note for the members of the church, but Diotrephes, who enjoys being in charge of it, refuses to accept us.
3Jo 1:10 So if I come, I shall tell everyone how he has behaved, and about the wicked accusations he has been circulating against us. As if that were not enough, he not only refuses to welcome our brothers, but prevents from doing so other people who would have liked to, and expels them from the church.
3Jo 1:11 My dear friend, never follow a bad example, but keep following the good one; whoever does what is right is from God, but no one who does what is wrong has ever seen God.
3Jo 1:12 Demetrius has been approved by everyone, and indeed by Truth itself. We too will vouch for him and you know that our testimony is true.
3Jo 1:13 There were several things I had to tell you but I would rather not trust them to pen and ink.
3Jo 1:14 However, I hope to see you soon and talk to you in person.
3Jo 1:15 Peace be with you; greetings from your friends; greet each of our friends by name.
Jud 1:1 From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James; to those who are called, to those who are dear to God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ,
Jud 1:2 mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.
Jud 1:3 My dear friends, at a time when I was eagerly looking forward to writing to you about the salvation that we all share, I felt that I must write to you encouraging you to fight hard for the faith which has been once and for all entrusted to God's holy people.
Jud 1:4 Certain people have infiltrated among you, who were long ago marked down for condemnation on this account; without any reverence they pervert the grace of our God to debauchery and deny all religion, rejecting our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jud 1:5 I should like to remind you -- though you have already learnt it once and for all -- that the Lord rescued the nation from Egypt, but afterwards he still destroyed the people who refused to believe him;
Jud 1:6 and the angels who did not keep to the authority they had, but left their appointed sphere, he has kept in darkness in eternal bonds until the judgement of the great Day.
Jud 1:7 Sodom and Gomorrah, too, and the neighboring towns, who with the same sexual immorality pursued unnatural lusts, are put before us as an example since they are paying the penalty of eternal fire.
Jud 1:8 Nevertheless, these people are doing the same: in their delusions they not only defile their bodies and disregard Authority, but abuse the Glories as well.
Jud 1:9 Not even the archangel Michael, when he was engaged in argument with the devil about the corpse of Moses, dared to denounce him in the language of abuse; all he said was, 'May the Lord rebuke you.'
Jud 1:10 But these people abuse anything they do not understand; and the only things they do understand -- merely by nature like unreasoning animals -- will turn out to be fatal to them.
Jud 1:11 Alas for them, because they have followed Cain; they have thrown themselves into the same delusion as Balaam for a reward; they have been ruined by the same rebellion as Korah -and share the same fate.
Jud 1:12 They are a dangerous hazard at your community meals, coming for the food and quite shamelessly only looking after themselves. They are like the clouds blown about by the winds and bringing no rain, or like autumn trees, barren and uprooted and so twice dead;
Jud 1:13 like wild sea waves with their own shame for foam; or like wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness is stored up for ever.
Jud 1:14 It was with them in mind that Enoch, the seventh patriarch from Adam, made his prophecy when he said, 'I tell you, the Lord will come with his holy ones in their tens of thousands,
Jud 1:15 to pronounce judgement on all humanity and to sentence the godless for all the godless things they have done, and for all the defiant things said against him by godless sinners.'
Jud 1:16 They are mischief-makers, grumblers governed only by their own desires, with mouths full of boastful talk, ready to flatter others for gain.
Jud 1:17 But remember, my dear friends, what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.
Jud 1:18 'At the final point of time', they told you, 'there will be mockers who follow nothing but their own godless desires.'
Jud 1:19 It is they who cause division, who live according to nature and do not possess the Spirit.
Jud 1:20 But you, my dear friends, must build yourselves up on the foundation of your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit;
Jud 1:21 keep yourselves within the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to give you eternal life.
Jud 1:22 To some you must be compassionate because they are wavering;
Jud 1:23 others you must save by snatching them from the fire; to others again you must be compassionate but wary, hating even the tunic stained by their bodies.
Jud 1:24 To him who can keep you from falling and bring you safe to his glorious presence, innocent and joyful,
Jud 1:25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, authority and power, before all ages, now and for ever. Amen.
Rev 1:1 A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him so that he could tell his servants what is now to take place very soon; he sent his angel to make it known to his servant John,
Rev 1:2 and John has borne witness to the Word of God and to the witness of Jesus Christ, everything that he saw.
Rev 1:3 Blessed is anyone who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed those who hear them, if they treasure the content, because the Time is near.
Rev 1:4 John, to the seven congregations (ekklesia) of Asia: grace and peace to you from him who is, who was, and who is to come, from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
Rev 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the highest of earthly kings. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood,
Rev 1:6 and made us a Kingdom of Priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen.
Rev 1:7 Look, he is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. Indeed this shall be so. Amen.
Rev 1:8 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
Rev 1:9 I, John, your brother and partner in hardships, in the kingdom and in perseverance in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos on account of the Word of God and of witness to Jesus;
Rev 1:10 it was the Lord's Day and I was in ecstasy, and I heard a loud voice behind me, like the sound of a trumpet, saying,
Rev 1:11 'Write down in a book all that you see, and send it to the seven congregations (ekklesia) of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.'
Rev 1:12 I turned round to see who was speaking to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands
Rev 1:13 and, in the middle of them, one like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a belt of gold.
Rev 1:14 His head and his hair were white with the whiteness of wool, like snow, his eyes like a burning flame,
Rev 1:15 his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean.
Rev 1:16 In his right hand he was holding seven stars, out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, and his face was like the sun shining with all its force.
Rev 1:17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me and said, 'Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One,
Rev 1:18 I was dead and look -- I am alive for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of Hades.
Rev 1:19 Now write down all that you see of present happenings and what is still to come.
Rev 1:20 The secret of the seven stars you have seen in my right hand, and of the seven golden lamp-stands, is this: the seven stars are the angels of the seven congregations (ekklesia), and the seven lamp-stands are the seven congregations (ekklesia) themselves.'
Rev 2:1 'Write to the angel of the congregation (ekklesia)in Ephesus and say, "Here is the message of the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who lives among the seven golden lamp-stands:
Rev 2:2 I know your activities, your hard work and your perseverance. I know you cannot stand wicked people, and how you put to the test those who were self-styled apostles, and found them false.
Rev 2:3 I know too that you have perseverance, and have suffered for my name without growing tired.
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless, I have this complaint to make: you have less love now than formerly.
Rev 2:5 Think where you were before you fell; repent, and behave as you did at first, or else, if you will not repent, I shall come to you and take your lamp-stand from its place.
Rev 2:6 It is in your favor, nevertheless, that you loathe as I do the way the Nicolaitans are behaving.
Rev 2:7 Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations (ekklesia): those who prove victorious I will feed from the tree of life set in God's paradise."
Rev 2:8 'Write to the angel of the congregation (ekklesia)in Smyrna and say, "Here is the message of the First and the Last, who was dead and has come to life again:
Rev 2:9 I know your hardships and your poverty, and -- though you are rich -- the slander of the people who falsely claim to be Jews but are really members of the synagogue of Satan.
Rev 2:10 Do not be afraid of the sufferings that are coming to you. Look, the devil will send some of you to prison to put you to the test, and you must face hardship for ten days. Even if you have to die, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life for your prize.
Rev 2:11 Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations (ekklesia): for those who prove victorious will come to no harm from the second death."
Rev 2:12 'Write to the angel of the congregation (ekklesia)in Pergamum and say, "Here is the message of the one who has the sharp sword, double-edged:
Rev 2:13 I know where you live, in the place where Satan is enthroned, and that you still hold firmly to my name, and did not disown your faith in me even when my faithful witness, Antipas, was killed among you, where Satan lives.
Rev 2:14 "Nevertheless, I have one or two charges against you: some of you are followers of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the Israelites so that they committed adultery by eating food that had been sacrificed to idols;
Rev 2:15 and among you too there are some also who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Rev 2:16 So repent, or I shall soon come to you and attack these people with the sword out of my mouth.
Rev 2:17 Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations (ekklesia): to those who prove victorious I will give some hidden manna and a white stone, with a new name written on it, known only to the person who receives it."
Rev 2:18 'Write to the angel of the congregation (ekklesia)in Thyatira and say, "Here is the message of the Son of God who has eyes like a burning flame and feet like burnished bronze:
Rev 2:19 I know your activities, your love, your faith, your service and your perseverance, and I know how you are still making progress.
Rev 2:20 Nevertheless, I have a complaint to make: you tolerate the woman Jezebel who claims to be a prophetess, and by her teaching she is luring my servants away to commit the adultery of eating food which has been sacrificed to idols.
Rev 2:21 I have given her time to repent but she is not willing to repent of her adulterous life.
Rev 2:22 Look, I am consigning her to a bed of pain, and all her partners in adultery to great hardship, unless they repent of their practices;
Rev 2:23 and I will see that her children die, so that all the congregations (ekklesia) realize that it is I who test motives and thoughts and repay you as your deeds deserve.
Rev 2:24 But on the rest of you in Thyatira, all of you who have not accepted this teaching or learnt the deep secrets of Satan, as they are called, I am not laying any other burden;
Rev 2:25 but hold on firmly to what you already have until I come.
Rev 2:26 To anyone who proves victorious, and keeps working for me until the end, I will give the authority over the nations
Rev 2:27 which I myself have been given by my Father, to rule them with an iron scepter and shatter them like so many pots.
Rev 2:28 And I will give such a person the Morning Star.
Rev 2:29 Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations (ekklesia)."
Rev 3:1 'Write to the angel of the congregation (ekklesia)in Sardis and say, "Here is the message of the one who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars: I know about your behaviour: how you are reputed to be alive and yet are dead.
Rev 3:2 Wake up; put some resolve into what little vigour you have left: it is dying fast. So far I have failed to notice anything in your behavior that my God could possibly call perfect;
Rev 3:3 remember how you first heard the message. Hold on to that. Repent! If you do not wake up, I shall come to you like a thief, and you will have no idea at what hour I shall come upon you.
Rev 3:4 There are a few in Sardis, it is true, who have kept their robes unstained, and they are fit to come with me, dressed in white.
Rev 3:5 Anyone who proves victorious will be dressed, like these, in white robes; I shall not blot that name out of the book of life, but acknowledge it in the presence of my Father and his angels.
Rev 3:6 Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations (ekklesia)."
Rev 3:7 'Write to the angel of the congregation (ekklesia)in Philadelphia and say, "Here is the message of the holy and true one who has the key of David, so that when he opens, no one will close, and when he closes, no one will open:
Rev 3:8 I know about your activities. Look, I have opened in front of you a door that no one will be able to close -- and I know that though you are not very strong, you have kept my commandments and not disowned my name.
Rev 3:9 Look, I am going to make the synagogue of Satan -- those who falsely claim to be Jews, but are liars, because they are no such thing -- I will make them come and fall at your feet and recognize that I have loved you.
Rev 3:10 Because you have kept my commandment to persevere, I will keep you safe in the time of trial which is coming for the whole world, to put the people of the world to the test.
Rev 3:11 I am coming soon: hold firmly to what you already have, and let no one take your victor's crown away from you.
Rev 3:12 Anyone who proves victorious I will make into a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, and it will stay there for ever; I will inscribe on it the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem which is coming down from my God in heaven, and my own new name as well.
Rev 3:13 Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations (ekklesia)."
Rev 3:14 'Write to the angel of the congregation (ekklesia)in Laodicea and say, "Here is the message of the Amen, the trustworthy, the true witness, the Principle of God's creation:
Rev 3:15 I know about your activities: how you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other,
Rev 3:16 but since you are neither hot nor cold, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 You say to yourself: I am rich, I have made a fortune and have everything I want, never realising that you are wretchedly and pitiably poor, and blind and naked too.
Rev 3:18 I warn you, buy from me the gold that has been tested in the fire to make you truly rich, and white robes to clothe you and hide your shameful nakedness, and ointment to put on your eyes to enable you to see.
Rev 3:19 I reprove and train those whom I love: so repent in real earnest.
Rev 3:20 Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share a meal at that person's side.
Rev 3:21 Anyone who proves victorious I will allow to share my throne, just as I have myself overcome and have taken my seat with my Father on his throne.
Rev 3:22 Let anyone who can hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the congregations (ekklesia)." '
Rev 4:1 Then, in my vision, I saw a door open in heaven and heard the same voice speaking to me, the voice like a trumpet, saying, 'Come up here: I will show you what is to take place in the future.'
Rev 4:2 With that, I fell into ecstasy and I saw a throne standing in heaven, and the One who was sitting on the throne,
Rev 4:3 and the One sitting there looked like a diamond and a ruby. There was a rainbow encircling the throne, and this looked like an emerald.
Rev 4:4 Round the throne in a circle were twenty-four thrones, and on them twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white robes with golden crowns on their heads.
Rev 4:5 Flashes of lightning were coming from the throne, and the sound of peals of thunder, and in front of the throne there were seven flaming lamps burning, the seven Spirits of God.
Rev 4:6 In front of the throne was a sea as transparent as crystal. In the middle of the throne and around it, were four living creatures all studded with eyes, in front and behind.
Rev 4:7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a bull, the third living creature had a human face, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
Rev 4:8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was studded with eyes all the way round as well as inside; and day and night they never stopped singing: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; who was, and is and is to come.'
Rev 4:9 Every time the living creatures glorified and honored and gave thanks to the One sitting on the throne, who lives for ever and ever,
Rev 4:10 the twenty-four elders prostrated themselves before him to worship the One who lives for ever and ever, and threw down their crowns in front of the throne, saying:
Rev 4:11 You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you made the whole universe; by your will, when it did not exist, it was created.
Rev 5:1 I saw that in the right hand of the One sitting on the throne there was a scroll that was written on back and front and was sealed with seven seals.
Rev 5:2 Then I saw a powerful angel who called with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?'
Rev 5:3 But there was no one, in heaven or on the earth or under the earth, who was able to open the scroll and read it.
Rev 5:4 I wept bitterly because nobody could be found to open the scroll and read it,
Rev 5:5 but one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed, and so he will open the scroll and its seven seals.'
Rev 5:6 Then I saw, in the middle of the throne with its four living creatures and the circle of the elders, a Lamb standing that seemed to have been sacrificed; it had seven horns, and it had seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits that God has sent out over the whole world.
Rev 5:7 The Lamb came forward to take the scroll from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne,
Rev 5:8 and when he took it, the four living creatures prostrated themselves before him and with them the twenty-four elders; each one of them was holding a harp and had a golden bowl full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.
Rev 5:9 They sang a new hymn: You are worthy to take the scroll and to break its seals, because you were sacrificed, and with your blood you bought people for God of every race, language, people and nation
Rev 5:10 and made them a line of kings and priests for God, to rule the world.
Rev 5:11 In my vision, I heard the sound of an immense number of angels gathered round the throne and the living creatures and the elders; there were ten thousand times ten thousand of them and thousands upon thousands,
Rev 5:12 loudly chanting: Worthy is the Lamb that was sacrificed to receive power, riches, wisdom, strength, honor, glory and blessing.
Rev 5:13 Then I heard all the living things in creation -- everything that lives in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, crying: To the One seated on the throne and to the Lamb, be all praise, honor, glory and power, for ever and ever.
Rev 5:14 And the four living creatures said, 'Amen'; and the elders prostrated themselves to worship.
Rev 6:1 Then, in my vision, I saw the Lamb break one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures shout in a voice like thunder, 'Come!'
Rev 6:2 Immediately I saw a white horse appear, and its rider was holding a bow; he was given a victor's crown and he went away, to go from victory to victory.
Rev 6:3 When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature shout, 'Come!'
Rev 6:4 And out came another horse, bright red, and its rider was given this duty: to take away peace from the earth and set people killing each other. He was given a huge sword.
Rev 6:5 When he broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature shout, 'Come!' Immediately I saw a black horse appear, and its rider was holding a pair of scales;
Rev 6:6 and I seemed to hear a voice shout from among the four living creatures and say, 'A day's wages for a quart of corn, and a day's wages for three quarts of barley, but do not tamper with the oil or the wine.'
Rev 6:7 When he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature shout, 'Come!'
Rev 6:8 Immediately I saw another horse appear, deathly pale, and its rider was called Death, and Hades followed at its heels. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill by the sword, by famine, by plague and through wild beasts.
Rev 6:9 When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the Word of God, for witnessing to it.
Rev 6:10 They shouted in a loud voice, 'Holy, true Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?'
Rev 6:11 Each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to be patient a little longer, until the roll was completed of their fellow-servants and brothers who were still to be killed as they had been.
Rev 6:12 In my vision, when he broke the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth; the moon turned red as blood all over,
Rev 6:13 and the stars of the sky fell onto the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when a high wind shakes it;
Rev 6:14 the sky disappeared like a scroll rolling up and all the mountains and islands were shaken from their places.
Rev 6:15 Then all the kings of the earth, the governors and the commanders, the rich people and the men of influence, the whole population, slaves and citizens, hid in caverns and among the rocks of the mountains.
Rev 6:16 They said to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us away from the One who sits on the throne and from the retribution of the Lamb.
Rev 6:17 For the Great Day of his retribution has come, and who can face it?'
Rev 7:1 Next I saw four angels, standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the world to keep them from blowing over the land or the sea or any tree.
Rev 7:2 Then I saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God; he called in a powerful voice to the four angels whose duty was to devastate land and sea,
Rev 7:3 'Wait before you do any damage on land or at sea or to the trees, until we have put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.'
Rev 7:4 And I heard how many had been sealed: a hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel.
Rev 7:5 From the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand had been sealed; from the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand;
Rev 7:6 from the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand;
Rev 7:7 from the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; from the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand;
Rev 7:8 from the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand; and from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand had been sealed.
Rev 7:9 After that I saw that there was a huge number, impossible for anyone to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted in a loud voice,
Rev 7:10 'Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'
Rev 7:11 And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four living creatures, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God
Rev 7:12 with these words: Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.
Rev 7:13 One of the elders then spoke and asked me, 'Who are these people, dressed in white robes, and where have they come from?'
Rev 7:14 I answered him, 'You can tell me, sir.' Then he said, 'These are the people who have been through the great trial; they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7:15 That is why they are standing in front of God's throne and serving him day and night in his sanctuary; and the One who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them.
Rev 7:16 They will never hunger or thirst again; sun and scorching wind will never plague them,
Rev 7:17 because the Lamb who is at the heart of the throne will be their shepherd and will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes.'
Rev 8:1 The Lamb then broke the seventh seal, and there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
Rev 8:2 Next I saw seven trumpets being given to the seven angels who stand in the presence of God.
Rev 8:3 Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. A large quantity of incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar that stood in front of the throne;
Rev 8:4 and so from the angel's hand the smoke of the incense went up in the presence of God and with it the prayers of the saints.
Rev 8:5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it from the fire of the altar, which he then hurled down onto the earth; immediately there came peals of thunder and flashes of lightning, and the earth shook.
Rev 8:6 The seven angels that had the seven trumpets now made ready to sound them.
Rev 8:7 The first blew his trumpet and, with that, hail and fire, mixed with blood, were hurled on the earth: a third of the earth was burnt up, and a third of all trees, and every blade of grass was burnt.
Rev 8:8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and it was as though a great mountain blazing with fire was hurled into the sea: a third of the sea turned into blood,
Rev 8:9 a third of all the living things in the sea were killed, and a third of all ships were destroyed.
Rev 8:10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a huge star fell from the sky, burning like a ball of fire, and it fell on a third of all rivers and on the springs of water;
Rev 8:11 this was the star called Wormwood, and a third of all water turned to wormwood, so that many people died; the water had become so bitter.
Rev 8:12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were blasted, so that the light went out of a third of them and the day lost a third of its illumination, and likewise the night.
Rev 8:13 In my vision, I heard an eagle, calling aloud as it flew high overhead, 'Disaster, disaster, disaster, on all the people on earth at the sound of the other three trumpets which the three angels have yet to blow!'
Rev 9:1 Then the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven onto the earth, and the angel was given the key to the shaft leading down to the Abyss.
Rev 9:2 When he unlocked the shaft of the Abyss, smoke rose out of the Abyss like the smoke from a huge furnace so that the sun and the sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss,
Rev 9:3 and out of the smoke dropped locusts onto the earth: they were given the powers that scorpions have on the earth:
Rev 9:4 they were forbidden to harm any fields or crops or trees and told to attack only those people who were without God's seal on their foreheads.
Rev 9:5 They were not to kill them, but to give them anguish for five months, and the anguish was to be the anguish of a scorpion's sting.
Rev 9:6 When this happens, people will long for death and not find it anywhere; they will want to die and death will evade them.
Rev 9:7 These locusts looked like horses armoured for battle; they had what looked like gold crowns on their heads, and their faces looked human,
Rev 9:8 and their hair was like women's hair, and teeth like lion's teeth.
Rev 9:9 They had body-armour like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings sounded like the racket of chariots with many horses charging.
Rev 9:10 Their tails were like scorpions' tails, with stings, and with their tails they were able to torture people for five months.
Rev 9:11 As their leader they had their emperor, the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek Apollyon.
Rev 9:12 That was the first of the disasters; there are still two more to come.
Rev 9:13 The sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a single voice issuing from the four horns of the golden altar in God's presence.
Rev 9:14 It spoke to the sixth angel with the trumpet, and said, 'Release the four angels that are chained up at the great river Euphrates.'
Rev 9:15 These four angels had been ready for this hour of this day of this month of this year, and ready to destroy a third of the human race.
Rev 9:16 I learnt how many there were in their army: twice ten thousand times ten thousand mounted men.
Rev 9:17 In my vision I saw the horses, and the riders with their breastplates of flame colour, hyacinth-blue and sulphur-yellow; the horses had lions' heads, and fire, smoke and sulphur were coming from their mouths.
Rev 9:18 It was by these three plagues, the fire, the smoke and the sulphur coming from their mouths, that the one third of the human race was killed.
Rev 9:19 All the horses' power was in their mouths and their tails: their tails were like snakes, and had heads which inflicted wounds.
Rev 9:20 But the rest of the human race, who escaped death by these plagues, refused either to abandon their own handiwork or to stop worshipping devils, the idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood that can neither see nor hear nor move.
Rev 9:21 Nor did they give up their murdering, or witchcraft, or fornication or stealing.
Rev 10:1 Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were pillars of fire.
Rev 10:2 In his hand he had a small scroll, unrolled; he put his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land
Rev 10:3 and he shouted so loud, it was like a lion roaring. At this, the seven claps of thunder made themselves heard
Rev 10:4 and when the seven thunderclaps had sounded, I was preparing to write, when I heard a voice from heaven say to me, 'Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret and do not write them down.'
Rev 10:5 Then the angel that I had seen, standing on the sea and the land, raised his right hand to heaven,
Rev 10:6 and swore by him who lives for ever and ever, and made heaven and all that it contains, and earth and all it contains, and the sea and all it contains, 'The time of waiting is over;
Rev 10:7 at the time when the seventh angel is heard sounding his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled, just as he announced in the gospel to his servants the prophets.'
Rev 10:8 Then I heard the voice I had heard from heaven speaking to me again. 'Go', it said, 'and take that open scroll from the hand of the angel standing on sea and land.'
Rev 10:9 I went to the angel and asked him to give me the small scroll, and he said, 'Take it and eat it; it will turn your stomach sour, but it will taste as sweet as honey.'
Rev 10:10 So I took it out of the angel's hand, and I ate it and it tasted sweet as honey, but when I had eaten it my stomach turned sour.
Rev 10:11 Then I was told, 'You are to prophesy again, this time against many different nations and countries and languages and kings.'
Rev 11:1 Then I was given a long cane like a measuring rod, and I was told, 'Get up and measure God's sanctuary, and the altar, and the people who worship there;
Rev 11:2 but exclude the outer court and do not measure it, because it has been handed over to gentiles -- they will trample on the holy city for forty-two months.
Rev 11:3 But I shall send my two witnesses to prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, wearing sackcloth.
Rev 11:4 These are the two olive trees and the two lamps in attendance on the Lord of the world.
Rev 11:5 Fire comes from their mouths and consumes their enemies if anyone tries to harm them; and anyone who tries to harm them will certainly be killed in this way.
Rev 11:6 They have the power to lock up the sky so that it does not rain as long as they are prophesying; they have the power to turn water into blood and strike the whole world with any plague as often as they like.
Rev 11:7 When they have completed their witnessing, the beast that comes out of the Abyss is going to make war on them and overcome them and kill them.
Rev 11:8 Their corpses lie in the main street of the great city known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9 People of every race, tribe, language and nation stare at their corpses, for three-and-a-half days, not letting them be buried,
Rev 11:10 and the people of the world are glad about it and celebrate the event by giving presents to each other, because these two prophets have been a plague to the people of the world.'
Rev 11:11 After the three-and-a-half days, God breathed life into them and they stood up on their feet, and everybody who saw it happen was terrified;
Rev 11:12 then I heard a loud voice from heaven say to them, 'Come up here,' and while their enemies were watching, they went up to heaven in a cloud.
Rev 11:13 Immediately, there was a violent earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed; seven thousand persons were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors, overcome with fear, could only praise the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14 That was the second of the disasters; the third is to come quickly after it.
Rev 11:15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and voices could be heard shouting in heaven, calling, 'The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.'
Rev 11:16 The twenty-four elders, enthroned in the presence of God, prostrated themselves and touched the ground with their foreheads worshipping God
Rev 11:17 with these words, 'We give thanks to you, Almighty Lord God, He who is, He who was, for assuming your great power and beginning your reign.
Rev 11:18 The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.'
Rev 11:19 Then the sanctuary of God in heaven opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen inside it. Then came flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and an earthquake and violent hail.
Rev 12:1 Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman, robed with the sun, standing on the moon, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Rev 12:2 She was pregnant, and in labour, crying aloud in the pangs of childbirth.
Rev 12:3 Then a second sign appeared in the sky: there was a huge red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and each of the seven heads crowned with a coronet.
Rev 12:4 Its tail swept a third of the stars from the sky and hurled them to the ground, and the dragon stopped in front of the woman as she was at the point of giving birth, so that it could eat the child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5 The woman was delivered of a boy, the son who was to rule all the nations with an iron scepter, and the child was taken straight up to God and to his throne,
Rev 12:6 while the woman escaped into the desert, where God had prepared a place for her to be looked after for twelve hundred and sixty days.
Rev 12:7 And now war broke out in heaven, when Michael with his angels attacked the dragon. The dragon fought back with his angels,
Rev 12:8 but they were defeated and driven out of heaven.
Rev 12:9 The great dragon, the primeval serpent, known as the devil or Satan, who had led all the world astray, was hurled down to the earth and his angels were hurled down with him.
Rev 12:10 Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, 'Salvation and power and empire for ever have been won by our God, and all authority for his Christ, now that the accuser, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down.
Rev 12:11 They have triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word to which they bore witness, because even in the face of death they did not cling to life.
Rev 12:12 So let the heavens rejoice and all who live there; but for you, earth and sea, disaster is coming -- because the devil has gone down to you in a rage, knowing that he has little time left.'
Rev 12:13 As soon as the dragon found himself hurled down to the earth, he sprang in pursuit of the woman, the mother of the male child,
Rev 12:14 but she was given a pair of the great eagle's wings to fly away from the serpent into the desert, to the place where she was to be looked after for a time, two times and half a time.
Rev 12:15 So the serpent vomited water from his mouth, like a river, after the woman, to sweep her away in the current,
Rev 12:16 but the earth came to her rescue; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river spewed from the dragon's mouth.
Rev 12:17 Then the dragon was enraged with the woman and went away to make war on the rest of her children, who obey God's commandments and have in themselves the witness of Jesus.
Rev 12:18 And I took my stand on the seashore.
Rev 13:1 Then I saw a beast emerge from the sea: it had seven heads and ten horns, with a coronet on each of its ten horns, and its heads were marked with blasphemous titles.
Rev 13:2 I saw that the beast was like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a mouth like a lion; the dragon had handed over to it his own power and his throne and his immense authority.
Rev 13:3 I saw that one of its heads seemed to have had a fatal wound but that this deadly injury had healed and the whole world had marvelled and followed the beast.
Rev 13:4 They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the beast his authority; and they prostrated themselves in front of the beast, saying, 'Who can compare with the beast? Who can fight against it?'
Rev 13:5 The beast was allowed to mouth its boasts and blasphemies and to be active for forty-two months;
Rev 13:6 and it mouthed its blasphemies against God, against his name, his heavenly Tent and all those who are sheltered there.
Rev 13:7 It was allowed to make war against the saints and conquer them, and given power over every race, people, language and nation;
Rev 13:8 and all people of the world will worship it, that is, everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the sacrificial Lamb's book of life.
Rev 13:9 Let anyone who can hear, listen:
Rev 13:10 Those for captivity to captivity; those for death by the sword to death by the sword. This is why the saints must have perseverance and faith.
Rev 13:11 Then I saw a second beast, emerging from the ground; it had two horns like a lamb, but made a noise like a dragon.
Rev 13:12 This second beast exercised all the power of the first beast, on its behalf making the world and all its people worship the first beast, whose deadly injury had healed.
Rev 13:13 And it worked great miracles, even to calling down fire from heaven onto the earth while people watched.
Rev 13:14 Through the miracles which it was allowed to do on behalf of the first beast, it was able to lead astray the people of the world and persuade them to put up a statue in honor of the beast that had been wounded by the sword and still lived.
Rev 13:15 It was allowed to breathe life into this statue, so that the statue of the beast was able to speak, and to have anyone who refused to worship the statue of the beast put to death.
Rev 13:16 It compelled everyone -- small and great alike, rich and poor, slave and citizen -- to be branded on the right hand or on the forehead,
Rev 13:17 and made it illegal for anyone to buy or sell anything unless he had been branded with the name of the beast or with the number of its name.
Rev 13:18 There is need for shrewdness here: anyone clever may interpret the number of the beast: it is the number of a human being, the number 666.
Rev 14:1 Next in my vision I saw Mount Zion, and standing on it the Lamb who had with him a hundred and forty-four thousand people, all with his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.
Rev 14:2 I heard a sound coming out of heaven like the sound of the ocean or the roar of thunder; it was like the sound of harpists playing their harps.
Rev 14:3 There before the throne they were singing a new hymn in the presence of the four living creatures and the elders, a hymn that could be learnt only by the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the world.
Rev 14:4 These are the sons who have kept their virginity and not been defiled with women; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; they, out of all people, have been redeemed to be the first-fruits for God and for the Lamb.
Rev 14:5 No lie was found in their mouths and no fault can be found in them.
Rev 14:6 Then I saw another angel, flying high overhead, sent to announce the gospel of eternity to all who live on the earth, every nation, race, language and tribe.
Rev 14:7 He was calling, 'Fear God and glorify him, because the time has come for him to sit in judgement; worship the maker of heaven and earth and sea and the springs of water.'
Rev 14:8 A second angel followed him, calling, 'Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, Babylon which gave the whole world the wine of retribution to drink.'
Rev 14:9 A third angel followed, shouting aloud, 'All those who worship the beast and his statue, or have had themselves branded on the hand or forehead,
Rev 14:10 will be made to drink the wine of God's fury which is ready, undiluted, in his cup of retribution; in fire and brimstone they will be tortured in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb
Rev 14:11 and the smoke of their torture will rise for ever and ever. There will be no respite, night or day, for those who worship the beast or its statue or accept branding with its name.'
Rev 14:12 This is why there must be perseverance in the saints who keep the commandments of God and faith in Jesus.
Rev 14:13 Then I heard a voice from heaven say to me, 'Write down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord! Blessed indeed, the Spirit says; now they can rest for ever after their work, since their good deeds go with them.'
Rev 14:14 Now in my vision I saw a white cloud and, sitting on it, one like a son of man with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Rev 14:15 Then another angel came out of the sanctuary and shouted at the top of his voice to the one sitting on the cloud, 'Ply your sickle and reap: harvest time has come and the harvest of the earth is ripe.'
Rev 14:16 Then the one sitting on the cloud set his sickle to work on the earth, and the harvest of earth was reaped.
Rev 14:17 Another angel, who also carried a sharp sickle, came out of the temple in heaven,
Rev 14:18 and the angel in charge of the fire left the altar and shouted at the top of his voice to the one with the sharp sickle, 'Put your sickle in, and harvest the bunches from the vine of the earth; all its grapes are ripe.'
Rev 14:19 So the angel set his sickle to work on the earth and harvested the whole vintage of the earth and put it into a huge winepress, the winepress of God's anger,
Rev 14:20 outside the city, where it was trodden until the blood that came out of the winepress was up to the horses' bridles as far away as sixteen hundred furlongs.
Rev 15:1 And I saw in heaven another sign, great and wonderful: seven angels were bringing the seven plagues that are the last of all, because they exhaust the anger of God.
Rev 15:2 I seemed to be looking at a sea of crystal suffused with fire, and standing by the lake of glass, those who had fought against the beast and won, and against his statue and the number which is his name. They all had harps from God,
Rev 15:3 and they were singing the hymn of Moses, the servant of God, and the hymn of the Lamb: How great and wonderful are all your works, Lord God Almighty; upright and true are all your ways, King of nations.
Rev 15:4 Who does not revere and glorify your name, O Lord? For you alone are holy, and all nations will come and adore you for the many acts of saving justice you have shown.
Rev 15:5 After this, in my vision, the sanctuary, the tent of the Testimony, opened in heaven,
Rev 15:6 and out came the seven angels with the seven plagues, wearing pure white linen, fastened round their waists with belts of gold.
Rev 15:7 One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the anger of God who lives for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 The smoke from the glory and the power of God filled the temple so that no one could go into it until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
Rev 16:1 Then I heard a loud voice from the sanctuary calling to the seven angels, 'Go, and empty the seven bowls of God's anger over the earth.'
Rev 16:2 The first angel went and emptied his bowl over the earth; at once, on all the people who had been branded with the mark of the beast and had worshipped its statue, there came disgusting and virulent sores.
Rev 16:3 The second angel emptied his bowl over the sea, and it turned to blood, like the blood of a corpse, and every living creature in the sea died.
Rev 16:4 The third angel emptied his bowl into the rivers and springs of water and they turned into blood.
Rev 16:5 Then I heard the angel of water say, 'You are the Upright One, He who is, He who was, the Holy One, for giving this verdict:
Rev 16:6 they spilt the blood of the saints and the prophets, and blood is what you have given them to drink; it is what they deserve.'
Rev 16:7 And I heard the altar itself say, 'Truly, Lord God Almighty, the punishments you give are true and just.'
Rev 16:8 The fourth angel emptied his bowl over the sun and it was made to scorch people with its flames;
Rev 16:9 but though people were scorched by the fierce heat of it, they cursed the name of God who had the power to cause such plagues, and they would not repent and glorify him.
Rev 16:10 The fifth angel emptied his bowl over the throne of the beast and its whole empire was plunged into darkness. People were biting their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11 but instead of repenting for what they had done, they cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores.
Rev 16:12 The sixth angel emptied his bowl over the great river Euphrates; all the water dried up so that a way was made for the kings of the East to come in.
Rev 16:13 Then from the jaws of dragon and beast and false prophet I saw three foul spirits come; they looked like frogs
Rev 16:14 and in fact were demon spirits, able to work miracles, going out to all the kings of the world to call them together for the war of the Great Day of God the Almighty.-
Rev 16:15 Look, I shall come like a thief. Blessed is anyone who has kept watch, and has kept his clothes on, so that he does not go out naked and expose his shame.-
Rev 16:16 They called the kings together at the place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon.
Rev 16:17 The seventh angel emptied his bowl into the air, and a great voice boomed out from the sanctuary, 'The end has come.'
Rev 16:18 Then there were flashes of lightning and peals of thunder and a violent earthquake, unparalleled since humanity first came into existence.
Rev 16:19 The Great City was split into three parts and the cities of the world collapsed; Babylon the Great was not forgotten: God made her drink the full winecup of his retribution.
Rev 16:20 Every island vanished and the mountains disappeared;
Rev 16:21 and hail, with great hailstones weighing a talent each, fell from the sky on the people. They cursed God for sending a plague of hail; it was the most terrible plague.
Rev 17:1 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to speak to me, and said, 'Come here and I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute who is enthroned beside abundant waters,
Rev 17:2 with whom all the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves, and who has made all the population of the world drunk with the wine of her adultery.'
Rev 17:3 He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding a scarlet beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it.
Rev 17:4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding a gold winecup filled with the disgusting filth of her prostitution;
Rev 17:5 on her forehead was written a name, a cryptic name: 'Babylon the Great, the mother of all the prostitutes and all the filthy practices on the earth.'
Rev 17:6 I saw that she was drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I was completely mystified.
Rev 17:7 The angel said to me, 'Do you not understand? I will tell you the meaning of this woman, and of the beast she is riding, with the seven heads and the ten horns.
Rev 17:8 'The beast you have seen was once alive and is alive no longer; it is yet to come up from the Abyss, but only to go to its destruction. And the people of the world, whose names have not been written since the beginning of the world in the book of life, will be astonished when they see how the beast was once alive and is alive no longer, and is still to come.
Rev 17:9 'This calls for shrewdness. The seven heads are the seven hills, on which the woman is sitting.
Rev 17:10 The seven heads are also seven emperors. Five of them have already gone, one is here now, and one is yet to come; once here, he must stay for a short while.
Rev 17:11 The beast, who was alive and is alive no longer, is at the same time the eighth and one of the seven, and he is going to his destruction.
Rev 17:12 'The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet been given their royal power but will have royal authority only for a single hour and in association with the beast.
Rev 17:13 They are all of one mind in putting their strength and their powers at the beast's disposal,
Rev 17:14 and they will go to war against the Lamb; but because the Lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings, he will defeat them, he and his followers, the called, the chosen, the trustworthy.'
Rev 17:15 The angel continued, 'The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting, are all the peoples, the populations, the nations and the languages.
Rev 17:16 But the ten horns and the beast will turn against the prostitute, and tear off her clothes and leave her stark naked; then they will eat her flesh and burn the remains in the fire.
Rev 17:17 In fact, God has influenced their minds to do what he intends, to agree together to put their royal powers at the beast's disposal until the time when God's words shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18 The woman you saw is the great city which has authority over all the rulers on earth.'
Rev 18:1 After this, I saw another angel come down from heaven, with great authority given to him; the earth shone with his glory.
Rev 18:2 At the top of his voice he shouted, 'Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, and has become the haunt of devils and a lodging for every foul spirit and dirty, loathsome bird.
Rev 18:3 All the nations have drunk deep of the wine of her prostitution; every king on the earth has prostituted himself with her, and every merchant grown rich through her debauchery.'
Rev 18:4 Another voice spoke from heaven; I heard it say, 'Come out, my people, away from her, so that you do not share in her crimes and have the same plagues to bear.
Rev 18:5 Her sins have reached up to the sky, and God has her crimes in mind: treat her as she has treated others.
Rev 18:6 She must be paid double the amount she exacted. She is to have a doubly strong cup of her own mixture.
Rev 18:7 Every one of her pomps and orgies is to be matched by a torture or an agony. I am enthroned as queen, she thinks; I am no widow and will never know bereavement.
Rev 18:8 For that, in one day, the plagues will fall on her: disease and mourning and famine. She will be burned to the ground. The Lord God who has condemned her is mighty.'
Rev 18:9 'There will be mourning and weeping for her by the kings of the earth who have prostituted themselves with her and held orgies with her. They see the smoke as she burns,
Rev 18:10 while they keep at a safe distance through fear of her anguish. They will say: Mourn, mourn for this great city, Babylon, so powerful a city, in one short hour your doom has come upon you.
Rev 18:11 'There will be weeping and distress over her among all the traders of the earth when no one is left to buy their cargoes of goods;
Rev 18:12 their stocks of gold and silver, jewels and pearls, linen and purple and silks and scarlet; all the sandalwood, every piece in ivory or fine wood, in bronze or iron or marble;
Rev 18:13 the cinnamon and spices, the myrrh and ointment and incense; wine, oil, flour and corn; their stocks of cattle, sheep, horses and chariots, their slaves and their human cargo.
Rev 18:14 'All the fruits you had set your hearts on have failed you; gone for ever, never to return again, is your life of magnificence and ease.
Rev 18:15 'The traders who had made a fortune out of her will be standing at a safe distance through fear of her anguish, mourning and weeping.
Rev 18:16 They will be saying: Mourn, mourn for this great city; for all the linen and purple and scarlet that you wore, for all your finery of gold and jewels and pearls;
Rev 18:17 your huge riches are all destroyed within a single hour.' All the captains and seafaring men, sailors and all those who make a living from the sea kept a safe distance,
Rev 18:18 watching the smoke as she burned, and crying out, 'Has there ever been a city as great as this!'
Rev 18:19 They threw dust on their heads and said, with tears and groans: 'Mourn, mourn for this great city whose lavish living has made a fortune for every owner of a sea-going ship, ruined within a single hour.
Rev 18:20 'Now heaven, celebrate her downfall, and all you saints, apostles and prophets: God has given judgement for you against her.'
Rev 18:21 Then a powerful angel picked up a boulder like a great millstone, and as he hurled it into the sea, he said, 'That is how the great city of Babylon is going to be hurled down, never to be seen again.
Rev 18:22 Never again in you will be heard the song of harpists and minstrels, the music of flute and trumpet; never again will craftsmen of every skill be found in you or the sound of the handmill be heard;
Rev 18:23 never again will shine the light of the lamp in you, never again will be heard in you the voices of bridegroom and bride. Your traders were the princes of the earth, all the nations were led astray by your sorcery.
Rev 18:24 In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and all the blood that was ever shed on earth.'
Rev 19:1 After this I heard what seemed to be the great sound of a huge crowd in heaven, singing, 'Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power to our God!
Rev 19:2 He judges fairly, he punishes justly, and he has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her prostitution; he has avenged the blood of his servants which she shed.'
Rev 19:3 And again they sang, 'Alleluia! The smoke of her will rise for ever and ever.'
Rev 19:4 Then the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures threw themselves down and worshipped God seated on his throne, and they cried, 'Amen, Alleluia.'
Rev 19:5 Then a voice came from the throne; it said, 'Praise our God, you servants of his and those who fear him, small and great alike.'
Rev 19:6 And I heard what seemed to be the voices of a huge crowd, like the sound of the ocean or the great roar of thunder, answering, 'Alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has begun;
Rev 19:7 let us be glad and joyful and give glory to God, because this is the time for the marriage of the Lamb.
Rev 19:8 His bride is ready, and she has been able to dress herself in dazzling white linen, because her linen is made of the good deeds of the saints.'
Rev 19:9 The angel said, 'Write this, "Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb," ' and he added, 'These words of God are true.'
Rev 19:10 Then I knelt at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, 'Never do that: I am your fellow-servant and the fellow-servant of all your brothers who have in themselves the witness of Jesus. God alone you must worship.' The witness of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
Rev 19:11 And now I saw heaven open, and a white horse appear; its rider was called Trustworthy and True; in uprightness he judges and makes war.
Rev 19:12 His eyes were flames of fire, and he was crowned with many coronets; the name written on him was known only to himself,
Rev 19:13 his cloak was soaked in blood. He is known by the name, The Word of God.
Rev 19:14 Behind him, dressed in linen of dazzling white, rode the armies of heaven on white horses.
Rev 19:15 From his mouth came a sharp sword with which to strike the unbelievers; he is the one who will rule them with an iron scepter, and tread out the wine of Almighty God's fierce retribution.
Rev 19:16 On his cloak and on his thigh a name was written: King of kings and Lord of lords.
Rev 19:17 I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he shouted aloud to all the birds that were flying high overhead in the sky, 'Come here. Gather together at God's great feast.
Rev 19:18 You will eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of great generals and heroes, the flesh of horses and their riders and of all kinds of people, citizens and slaves, small and great alike.'
Rev 19:19 Then I saw the beast, with all the kings of the earth and their armies, gathered together to fight the Rider and his army.
Rev 19:20 But the beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet who had worked miracles on the beast's behalf and by them had deceived those who had accepted branding with the mark of the beast and those who had worshipped his statue. These two were hurled alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur.
Rev 19:21 All the rest were killed by the sword of the Rider, which came out of his mouth, and all the birds glutted themselves with their flesh.
Rev 20:1 Then I saw an angel come down from heaven with the key of the Abyss in his hand and an enormous chain.
Rev 20:2 He overpowered the dragon, that primeval serpent which is the devil and Satan, and chained him up for a thousand years.
Rev 20:3 He hurled him into the Abyss and shut the entrance and sealed it over him, to make sure he would not lead the nations astray again until the thousand years had passed. At the end of that time he must be released, but only for a short while.
Rev 20:4 Then I saw thrones, where they took their seats, and on them was conferred the power to give judgement. I saw the souls of all who had been beheaded for having witnessed for Jesus and for having preached God's word, and those who refused to worship the beast or his statue and would not accept the brand-mark on their foreheads or hands; they came to life, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.
Rev 20:5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over; this is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection; the second death has no power over them but they will be priests of God and of Christ and reign with him for a thousand years.
Rev 20:7 When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison
Rev 20:8 and will come out to lead astray all the nations in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and mobilise them for war, his armies being as many as the sands of the sea.
Rev 20:9 They came swarming over the entire country and besieged the camp of the saints, which is the beloved City. But fire rained down on them from heaven and consumed them.
Rev 20:10 Then the devil, who led them astray, was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet are, and their torture will not come to an end, day or night, for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11 Then I saw a great white throne and the One who was sitting on it. In his presence, earth and sky vanished, leaving no trace.
Rev 20:12 I saw the dead, great and small alike, standing in front of his throne while the books lay open. And another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from what was written in the books, as their deeds deserved.
Rev 20:13 The sea gave up all the dead who were in it;
Rev 20:14 Death and Hades were emptied of the dead that were in them; and every one was judged as his deeds deserved. Then Death and Hades were hurled into the burning lake. This burning lake is the second death;
Rev 20:15 and anybody whose name could not be found written in the book of life was hurled into the burning lake.
Rev 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and there was no longer any sea.
Rev 21:2 I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride dressed for her husband.
Rev 21:3 Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, 'Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them.
Rev 21:4 He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone.'
Rev 21:5 Then the One sitting on the throne spoke. 'Look, I am making the whole of creation new. Write this, "What I am saying is trustworthy and will come true."
Rev 21:6 Then he said to me, 'It has already happened. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty;
Rev 21:7 anyone who proves victorious will inherit these things; and I will be his God and he will be my son.
Rev 21:8 But the legacy for cowards, for those who break their word, or worship obscenities, for murderers and the sexually immoral, and for sorcerers, worshippers of false gods or any other sort of liars, is the second death in the burning lake of sulphur.'
Rev 21:9 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came to speak to me and said, 'Come here and I will show you the bride that the Lamb has married.'
Rev 21:10 In the spirit, he carried me to the top of a very high mountain, and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God.
Rev 21:11 It had all the glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond.
Rev 21:12 Its wall was of a great height and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel;
Rev 21:13 on the east there were three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.
Rev 21:14 The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.
Rev 21:15 The angel that was speaking to me was carrying a gold measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and wall.
Rev 21:16 The plan of the city is perfectly square, its length the same as its breadth. He measured the city with his rod and it was twelve thousand furlongs, equal in length and in breadth, and equal in height.
Rev 21:17 He measured its wall, and this was a hundred and forty-four cubits high -- by human measurements.
Rev 21:18 The wall was built of diamond, and the city of pure gold, like clear glass.
Rev 21:19 The foundations of the city wall were faced with all kinds of precious stone: the first with diamond, the second lapis lazuli, the third turquoise, the fourth crystal,
Rev 21:20 the fifth agate, the sixth ruby, the seventh gold quartz, the eighth malachite, the ninth topaz, the tenth emerald, the eleventh sapphire and the twelfth amethyst.
Rev 21:21 The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate being made of a single pearl, and the main street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass.
Rev 21:22 I could not see any temple in the city since the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb were themselves the temple,
Rev 21:23 and the city did not need the sun or the moon for light, since it was lit by the radiant glory of God, and the Lamb was a lighted torch for it.
Rev 21:24 The nations will come to its light and the kings of the earth will bring it their treasures.
Rev 21:25 Its gates will never be closed by day -- and there will be no night there-
Rev 21:26 and the nations will come, bringing their treasure and their wealth.
Rev 21:27 Nothing unclean may come into it: no one who does what is loathsome or false, but only those who are listed in the Lamb's book of life.
Rev 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing crystal-clear.
Rev 22:2 Down the middle of the city street, on either bank of the river were the trees of life, which bear twelve crops of fruit in a year, one in each month, and the leaves of which are the cure for the nations.
Rev 22:3 The curse of destruction will be abolished. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city; his servants will worship him,
Rev 22:4 they will see him face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.
Rev 22:5 And night will be abolished; they will not need lamplight or sunlight, because the Lord God will be shining on them. They will reign for ever and ever.
Rev 22:6 The angel said to me, 'All that you have written is sure and will come true: the Lord God who inspires the prophets has sent his angel to reveal to his servants what is soon to take place.
Rev 22:7 I am coming soon!' Blessed are those who keep the prophetic message of this book.
Rev 22:8 I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I had heard and seen them all, I knelt at the feet of the angel who had shown them to me, to worship him;
Rev 22:9 but he said, 'Do no such thing: I am your fellow-servant and the fellow-servant of your brothers the prophets and those who keep the message of this book. God alone you must worship.'
Rev 22:10 This, too, he said to me, 'Do not keep the prophecies in this book a secret, because the Time is close.
Rev 22:11 Meanwhile let the sinner continue sinning, and the unclean continue to be unclean; let the upright continue in his uprightness, and those who are holy continue to be holy.
Rev 22:12 Look, I am coming soon, and my reward is with me, to repay everyone as their deeds deserve.
Rev 22:13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Rev 22:14 Blessed are those who will have washed their robes clean, so that they will have the right to feed on the tree of life and can come through the gates into the city.
Rev 22:15 Others must stay outside: dogs, fortune-tellers, and the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, and everyone of false speech and false life.'
Rev 22:16 I, Jesus, have sent my angel to attest these things to you for the sake of the congregations (ekklesia). I am the sprig from the root of David and the bright star of the morning.
Rev 22:17 The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come!' Let everyone who listens answer, 'Come!' Then let all who are thirsty come: all who want it may have the water of life, and have it free.
Rev 22:18 This is my solemn attestation to all who hear the prophecies in this book: if anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him every plague mentioned in the book;
Rev 22:19 if anyone cuts anything out of the prophecies in this book, God will cut off his share of the tree of life and of the holy city, which are described in the book.
Rev 22:20 The one who attests these things says: I am indeed coming soon. Amen; come, Lord Jesus.
Rev 22:21 May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.
The Bride's New Jerusalem (TBNJ) ©️2016 is a translation of the holy scriptures produced by Angela Marié Niblick Baxley Glass.