Exodus 18

¹⁴You are the God who works wonders; You display Your strength among the peoples.

¹⁵With power You redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah

¹⁶Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came to draw water and fill the troughs to water their father’s flock.

¹Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

⁸Yet He saved them for the sake of His name, to make His power known.

⁹He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; He led them through the depths as through a desert.

⁵⁰He cleared a path for His anger; He did not spare them from death but delivered their lives to the plague.

⁵¹He struck all the firstborn of Egypt, the virility in the tents of Ham.

⁹“Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the Lord your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt,

²¹Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage.

²⁵But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched it to Moses’ feet. “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me,” she said.

²⁶So the Lord let him alone. (When she said, “bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.)

²²And she gave birth to a son, and Moses named him Gershom, saying, “I have become a foreigner in a foreign land.”

²⁹At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons.

²⁰So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand.

¹²Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry for help; do not be deaf to my weeping. For I am a foreigner dwelling with You, a stranger like all my fathers.

¹³All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

¹¹Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.

¹¹Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”

⁶So we say with confidence: “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

⁸We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

⁹Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead.

¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

⁷Because the Lord God helps Me, I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be put to shame.

⁸The One who vindicates Me is near. Who will dare to contend with Me? Let us confront each other! Who has a case against Me? Let him approach Me!

¹⁵When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.

¹Meanwhile, Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

¹²“I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”

¹⁶and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered it, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud.

¹⁷And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the mountaintop in the eyes of the Israelites.

⁸So he got up and ate and drank. And strengthened by that food, he walked forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

¹¹and be prepared by the third day, for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.

²⁰The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the summit. So Moses went up,

¹³When Laban heard the news about his sister’s son Jacob, he ran out to meet him. He embraced him and kissed him and brought him to his home, where Jacob told him all that had happened.

⁷When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going.

¹Now the two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them, bowed facedown,

¹⁷After Abram returned from defeating Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him in the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King’s Valley).

¹⁹So Bathsheba went to King Solomon to speak to him for Adonijah. The king stood up to greet her, bowed to her, and sat down on his throne. Then the king had a throne brought for his mother, who sat down at his right hand.

²And Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

²Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

⁴²They did not remember His power—the day He redeemed them from the adversary,

⁴³when He performed His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the fields of Zoan.

⁹You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt; You heard their cry at the Red Sea.

¹⁰You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh, all his officials, and all the people of his land, for You knew they had acted with arrogance against our fathers. You made a name for Yourself that endures to this day.

⁷You called out in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you from the cloud of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah

¹⁴From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to tell the king of Edom, “This is what your brother Israel says: You know all the hardship that has befallen us,

¹⁰He saved them from the hand that hated them; He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.

¹⁰Be glad for Jerusalem and rejoice over her, all who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all who mourn over her,

²³Sing for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done this; shout aloud, O depths of the earth. Break forth in song, O mountains, you forests and all your trees. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, and revealed His glory in Israel.

²⁸Then Ahimaaz called out to the king, “All is well!” And he bowed facedown before the king. He continued, “Blessed be the Lord your God! He has delivered up the men who raised their hands against my lord the king.”

²⁰and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of everything.

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

¹After this I heard a sound like the roar of a great multitude in heaven, shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!

²For His judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality. He has avenged the blood of His servants that was poured out by her hand.”

³Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

¹⁹Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, the God of our salvation. Selah

²⁰Our God is a God of deliverance; the Lord God is our rescuer from death.

³For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.

¹¹Who among the gods is like You, O Lord? Who is like You—majestic in holiness, revered with praises, performing wonders?

⁵The house that I am building will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.

⁵For I know that the Lord is great; our Lord is above all gods.

⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

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

⁷There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

⁵⁴Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat a meal. And after they had eaten, they spent the night on the mountain.

¹¹But God did not lay His hand on the nobles of Israel; they saw Him, and they ate and drank.

⁵Then he sent out some young men of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the Lord.

⁵And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

¹⁵When one of those reclining with Him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is everyone who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is giving, let him give generously; if it is leading, let him lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

¹²Let the nations be roused and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the nations on every side.

⁷When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,

⁵in loving devotion a throne will be established in the tent of David. A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness will sit on it in faithfulness.

⁶This is also why you pay taxes. For the authorities are God’s servants, who devote themselves to their work.

¹⁰You who ride white donkeys, who sit on saddle blankets, and you who travel the road, ponder

³⁴and because it had not been declared what should be done to him, they placed him in custody.

⁵So Moses brought their case before the Lord,

¹²They placed him in custody until the will of the Lord should be made clear to them.

¹³Then the Lord said to Moses,

⁶But there were some men who were unclean due to a dead body, so they could not observe the Passover on that day. And they came before Moses and Aaron that same day

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

²⁰Teach them the statutes and laws, and show them the way to live and the work they must do.

⁸If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the Lord your God will choose.

⁹You are to go to the Levitical priests and to the judge who presides at that time. Inquire of them, and they will give you a verdict in the case.

¹⁴And he said to the elders, “Wait here for us until we return to you. Aaron and Hur are here with you. Whoever has a dispute can go to them.”

¹Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.

⁵See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

³Absalom would say, “Look, your claims are good and right, but the king has no deputy to hear you.”

¹If any of you has a grievance against another, how dare he go to law before the unrighteous instead of before the saints!

³⁵And the Lord said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”

¹⁴I cannot carry all these people by myself; it is too burdensome for me.

¹⁵If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

¹In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

²So the Twelve summoned all the disciples and said, “It is unacceptable for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables.

¹⁵And for the sake of your souls, I will most gladly spend my money and myself. If I love you more, will you love me less?

³⁰because he nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for your deficit of service to me.

⁸We cared so deeply that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our own lives as well. That is how beloved you have become to us.

⁹Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

⁹At that time I said to you, “I cannot carry the burden for you alone.

¹⁰The Lord your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars in the sky.

⁵So Moses brought their case before the Lord,

¹²“I will surely be with you,” God said, “and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, all of you will worship God on this mountain.”

¹⁹“Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.”

²And the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, serving in the household of his Egyptian master.

⁵At that time I was standing between the Lord and you to declare to you the word of the Lord, because you were afraid of the fire and would not go up the mountain. And He said:

¹⁵“Because the people come to me to inquire of God,” Moses replied.

¹Then Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I declare in your hearing this day. Learn them and observe them carefully.

⁸Let me hear Your loving devotion in the morning, for I have put my trust in You. Teach me the way I should walk, for to You I lift up my soul.

¹⁸And at that time I commanded you all the things you were to do.

¹Hear now, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to follow, so that you may live and may enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.

⁵See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the Lord my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

⁸I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go; I will give you counsel and watch over you.

³Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will assign this responsibility to them

⁵He appointed judges in the land, in each of the fortified cities of Judah.

⁶Then he said to the judges, “Consider carefully what you do, for you are not judging for man, but for the Lord, who is with you when you render judgment.

¹³Choose for yourselves wise, understanding, and respected men from each of your tribes, and I will appoint them as your leaders.”

¹⁴And you answered me and said, “What you propose to do is good.”

¹⁸You are to appoint judges and officials for your tribes in every town that the Lord your God is giving you. They are to judge the people with righteous judgment.

¹⁹Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

³The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, ‘He who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God,

¹²In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord God.

¹⁷And I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put that Spirit on them. They will help you bear the burden of the people, so that you do not have to bear it by yourself.

¹¹The son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. So they brought him to Moses. (His mother’s name was Shelomith daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan.)

²the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the leaders, and the whole congregation, and said,

²⁶And they judged the people at all times; they would bring the difficult cases to Moses, but any minor issue they would judge themselves.

¹⁷Show no partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike. Do not be intimidated by anyone, for judgment belongs to God. And bring to me any case too difficult for you, and I will hear it.”

¹⁸And at that time I commanded you all the things you were to do.

¹Now the family heads of the clan of Gilead son of Machir son of Manasseh, one of the clans of Joseph, approached Moses and the leaders who were the heads of the Israelite families and addressed them,

¹⁸Surely you and these people with you will wear yourselves out, because the task is too heavy for you. You cannot handle it alone.

⁶But when they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” their demand was displeasing in the sight of Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord.

⁷And the Lord said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you. For it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king.

²²“Listen to their voice,” the Lord said to Samuel. “Appoint a king for them.” Then Samuel told the men of Israel, “Everyone must go back to his city.”

¹⁰and she said to Abraham, “Expel the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac!”

¹¹Now this matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son Ishmael.

³But the people pleaded, “You must not go out! For if we have to flee, they will not care about us. Even if half of us die, they will not care. But you are worth ten thousand of us. It is better now if you support us from the city.”

³³When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned home.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you.” Nor can the head say to the feet, “I do not need you.”

⁵let the wise listen and gain instruction, and the discerning acquire wise counsel

²Then Shecaniah son of Jehiel, an Elamite, said to Ezra: “We have been unfaithful to our God by marrying foreign women from the people of the land, yet in spite of this, there is hope for Israel.

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

²After Moses had sent back his wife Zipporah, his father-in-law Jethro had received her,

³along with her two sons. One son was named Gershom, for Moses had said, “I have been a foreigner in a foreign land.”

⁵So Ezra got up and made the leading priests, Levites, and all Israel take an oath to do what had been said. And they took the oath.

¹⁵So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and respected men, and appointed them as leaders over you—as commanders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and as officers for your tribes.

²¹Furthermore, select capable men from among the people—God-fearing, trustworthy men who are averse to dishonest gain. Appoint them over the people as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.

⁵This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

²²Have these men judge the people at all times. Then they can bring you any major issue, but all minor cases they can judge on their own, so that your load may be lightened as they share it with you.

¹⁶I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹⁶At that time two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him.

¹⁷One woman said, “Please, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house, and I gave birth while she was in the house.

⁸If a case is too difficult for you to judge, whether the controversy within your gates is regarding bloodshed, lawsuits, or assaults, you must go up to the place the Lord your God will choose.

¹⁴When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why do you sit alone as judge, with all the people standing around you from morning till evening?”

¹⁵“Because the people come to me to inquire of God,” Moses replied.

¹Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with difficult questions.

²⁹Then Moses said to Hobab, the son of Moses’ father-in-law Reuel the Midianite, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said: ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel.”

³⁰“I will not go,” Hobab replied. “Instead, I am going back to my own land and my own people.”

⁹When the man got up to depart with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, the day is drawing to a close. Please spend the night. See, the day is almost over. Spend the night here, that your heart may be merry. Then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey home.”

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

⁵⁹So they sent their sister Rebekah on her way, along with her nurse and Abraham’s servant and his men.