Judges 6

²⁶But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

²⁷So You delivered them into the hands of enemies who oppressed them, and in their time of distress they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

¹⁹But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

²⁰So the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He said, “Because this nation has transgressed the covenant I laid down for their fathers and has not heeded My voice,

¹¹And the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals.

¹And the Lord said to Moses,

²“Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”

¹⁵If, however, you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

¹⁵And the name of the slain Midianite woman was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.

¹⁶And the Lord said to Moses,

³⁸The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.

⁶Seeing that they were in danger because their troops were hard-pressed, the men of Israel hid in caves and thickets, among the rocks, and in cellars and cisterns.

¹¹So the two of them showed themselves to the outpost of the Philistines, who exclaimed, “Look, the Hebrews are coming out of the holes in which they were hiding!”

¹⁷And I will set My face against you, so that you will be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee when no one pursues you.

⁴⁷Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,

⁴⁸you will serve your enemies the Lord will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

¹⁵Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

¹²Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.

³³Then all the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east gathered together, crossed over the Jordan, and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.

¹³After enlisting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join forces with him, Eglon attacked and defeated Israel, taking possession of the City of Palms.

¹Jacob resumed his journey and came to the land of the people of the east.

³and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man of all the people of the East.

²¹They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

²²No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands.

¹⁶then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

⁵¹They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish.

¹⁵You will sow but not reap; you will press olives but not anoint yourselves with oil; you will tread grapes but not drink the wine.

³³A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.

⁹If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings? Were thieves to come in the night, would they not steal only what they wanted?

¹⁰But I will strip Esau bare; I will uncover his hiding places, and he will be unable to conceal himself. His descendants will be destroyed along with his relatives and neighbors, and he will be no more.

³⁰You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.

³¹Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you.

¹²Now the Midianites, Amalekites, and all the other people of the east had settled in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and their camels were as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹⁰Now Zebah and Zalmunna were in Karkor with their army of about fifteen thousand men—all that were left of the armies of the people of the east. A hundred and twenty thousand swordsmen had already fallen.

⁶Caravans of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah, and all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and frankincense and proclaiming the praises of the Lord.

³²Their camels will become plunder, and their large herds will be spoil. I will scatter to the wind in every direction those who shave their temples; I will bring calamity on them from all sides,” declares the Lord.

²⁹They will take their tents and flocks, their tent curtains and all their goods. They will take their camels for themselves. They will shout to them: ‘Terror is on every side!’

²³They will chop down her forest, declares the Lord, dense though it may be, for they are more numerous than locusts; they cannot be counted.

⁹But when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, He raised up Othniel son of Caleb’s younger brother Kenaz as a deliverer to save them.

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁷They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.”

⁴³Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note of their distress.

¹⁵And again they cried out to the Lord, and He raised up Ehud son of Gera, a left-handed Benjamite, as their deliverer. So they sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.

¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

⁵and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: On the day I chose Israel, I swore an oath to the descendants of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. With an uplifted hand I said to them, ‘I am the Lord your God.’

⁶On that day I swore to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands.

¹⁰He struck down the firstborn of Egypt His loving devotion endures forever.

¹¹and brought Israel out from among them His loving devotion endures forever.

⁹In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.

¹Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I had promised to your fathers, and I said, ‘I will never break My covenant with you,

²and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?

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.

²With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out.

³For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You favored them.

²This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by the signs in the heavens, though the nations themselves are terrified by them.

¹³And the Lord answered, “It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice.

²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

³You shall have no other gods before Me.

³⁵For the Lord had made a covenant with the Israelites and commanded them, “Do not worship other gods or bow down to them; do not serve them or sacrifice to them.

³⁶Instead, worship the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him and offer sacrifices to Him.

²and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the Lord.

²So this allotment was for the rest of the descendants of Manasseh—the clans of Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida. These are the other male descendants of the clans of Manasseh son of Joseph.

³²And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,

³The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

²But Gideon answered them, “Now what have I accomplished compared to you? Are not the gleanings of Ephraim better than the grape harvest of Abiezer?

⁹In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

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

⁵No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

²⁸The angel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

¹⁸Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for the Israelites, He was with that judge and saved them from the hands of their enemies while the judge was still alive; for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning under those who oppressed them and afflicted them.

⁹Have I not commanded you to be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

³The angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said to her, “It is true that you are barren and have no children; but you will conceive and give birth to a son.

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.”

⁷“Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again?

⁸Is His loving devotion gone forever? Has His promise failed for all time?

²So he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.

¹Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.

²But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear.

¹For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old.

⁴⁹Where, O Lord, is Your loving devotion of old, which You faithfully swore to David?

²²But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So Rebekah went to inquire of the Lord,

⁵No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

⁶Be strong and courageous, for you shall give these people the inheritance of the land that I swore to their fathers I would give them.

³⁴quenched the raging fire, and escaped the edge of the sword; who gained strength from weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.

¹¹So the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.

⁶She summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Surely the Lord, the God of Israel, is commanding you: ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, taking with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun.

³²And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets,

⁹Now the Philistines had come and raided the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁰So David inquired of God, “Should I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” “Go,” replied the Lord, “for I will deliver them into your hand.”

¹¹But Moses asked God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

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

¹⁰“Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

⁶“Ah, Lord God,” I said, “I surely do not know how to speak, for I am only a child!”

⁸Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

³⁴“How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

⁵No one shall stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so will I be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you.

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.”

²¹The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

²⁰And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it.

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

¹⁴Do not fear, O Jacob, you worm, O few men of Israel. I will help you,” declares the Lord. “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵Behold, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff.

¹⁷Show me a sign of Your goodness, that my enemies may see and be ashamed; for You, O Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

¹³Now if indeed I have found favor in Your sight, please let me know Your ways, that I may know You and find favor in Your sight. Remember that this nation is Your people.”

¹¹“Ask for a sign from the Lord your God, whether from the depths of Sheol or the heights of heaven.”

⁸But Abram replied, “Lord God, how can I know that I will possess it?”

⁹And the Lord said to him, “Bring Me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a turtledove and a young pigeon.”

¹⁶For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

⁷This will be a sign to you from the Lord that He will do what He has promised:

⁸I will make the sun’s shadow that falls on the stairway of Ahaz go back ten steps.’” So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had descended.

⁵And I will bring a bit of bread so that you may refresh yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. After that, you may continue on your way.” “Yes,” they replied, “you may do as you have said.”

¹⁵“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

³“My lord,” said Abraham, “if I have found favor in your sight, please do not pass your servant by.

³But Lot insisted so strongly that they followed him into his house. He prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

⁶So Abraham hurried into the tent and said to Sarah, “Quick! Prepare three seahs of fine flour, knead it, and bake some bread.”

⁷Meanwhile, Abraham ran to the herd, selected a tender and choice calf, and gave it to a servant, who hurried to prepare it.

⁴Now if you bring an offering of grain baked in an oven, it must consist of fine flour, either unleavened cakes mixed with oil or unleavened wafers coated with oil.

¹⁵“Please stay here,” Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”

¹⁶And the angel of the Lord replied, “Even if I stay, I will not eat your food. But if you prepare a burnt offering, offer it to the Lord.” For Manoah did not know that it was the angel of the Lord.

¹⁹Then Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to the Lord. And as Manoah and his wife looked on, the Lord did a marvelous thing.

³³Next, he arranged the wood, cut up the bull, placed it on the wood,

³⁴and said, “Fill four waterpots and pour the water on the offering and on the wood.” “Do it a second time,” he said, and they did it a second time. “Do it a third time,” he said, and they did it a third time.

²⁴Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.

³⁸Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dust, and it licked up the water in the trench.

¹When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

²⁶And there he built an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called upon the Lord, who answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁰When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell facedown to the ground.

³⁰So Jacob named the place Peniel, saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

²⁰But He added, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.”

²⁶For who of all flesh has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the fire, as we have, and survived?

¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.

⁴¹Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about Him.

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:

¹⁹“Do not be afraid, you who are highly precious,” he said. “Peace be with you! Be strong now; be very strong!” As he spoke with me, I was strengthened and said, “Speak, my lord, for you have strengthened me.”

²³“It is fine,” said the steward. “Do not be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, gave you the treasure that was in your sacks. I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

²⁷Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled; do not be afraid.

²⁶Eight days later, His disciples were once again inside with the doors locked, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

¹⁹It was the first day of the week, and that very evening, while the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you!” He said to them.

⁸I will listen to what God the Lord will say; for He will surely speak peace to His people and His saints; He will not let them return to folly.

¹⁴And Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. So to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵And Moses built an altar and named it The Lord Is My Banner.

³⁵The perimeter of the city will be 18,000 cubits, and from that day on the name of the city will be: THE Lord IS THERE.”

³²Later, Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

¹⁶In those days Judah will be saved, and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and this is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.

²⁶That is why we said, ‘Let us take action and build an altar for ourselves, but not for burnt offerings or sacrifices.

²⁷Rather, let it be a witness between us and you and the generations to come, that we will worship the Lord in His presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and peace offerings.’ Then in the future, your descendants cannot say to ours, ‘You have no share in the Lord!’

¹³Rather, you must tear down their altars, smash their sacred stones, and chop down their Asherah poles.

⁷So the Israelites did evil in the sight of the Lord; they forgot the Lord their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs.

¹⁵What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

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

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

²⁹But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.

²¹Then Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people did not answer a word.

⁴⁰But everything must be done in a proper and orderly manner.

³³For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace—as in all the churches of the saints.

¹⁸And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

⁴Instead, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, not in order to please men but God, who examines our hearts.

⁵His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”

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.

²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.”

¹⁴You are My friends if you do what I command you.

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

⁹So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

⁶as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to righteousness in the law, faultless.

²They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.

¹¹Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man is worthy of death, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears!”

³⁸A drought is upon her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is a land of graven images, and the people go mad over idols.

¹¹Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

⁵Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, and neither can they do any good.”

¹¹Thus you are to tell them: “These gods, who have made neither the heavens nor the earth, will perish from this earth and from under these heavens.”

⁴So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.

⁵They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see;

⁷They lift it to their shoulder and carry it along; they set it in its place, and there it stands, not budging from that spot. They cry out to it, but it does not answer; it saves no one from his troubles.

¹¹So the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and He delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt securely.

¹Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the men with him camped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

²¹Who struck Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.

¹³Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, O Judah; the altars of shame you have set up—the altars to burn incense to Baal—are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’

¹⁶“The hill country is not enough for us,” they replied, “and all the Canaanites who live in the valley have iron chariots, both in Beth-shean with its towns and in the Valley of Jezreel.”

³Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

³⁶As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

²When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.

³Though an army encamps around me, my heart will not fear; though a war breaks out against me, I will keep my trust.

⁹Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!

¹⁰Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.”

⁴⁵Meanwhile, the sky grew dark with clouds and wind, and a heavy rain began to fall. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.

²⁰Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest, who stood up before the people and said to them, “This is what God says: ‘Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, He has forsaken you.’”

¹⁸Then the Spirit came upon Amasai, the chief of the Thirty, and he said: “We are yours, O David! We are with you, O son of Jesse! Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers, for your God helps you.” So David received them and made them leaders of his troops.

¹⁰The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he became Israel’s judge and went out to war. And the Lord delivered Cushan-rishathaim king of Aram into the hand of Othniel, who prevailed against him.

²⁷On arriving in Seirah, he blew the ram’s horn throughout the hill country of Ephraim. The Israelites came down with him from the hills, and he became their leader.

¹⁴Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.

¹¹Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.

⁶She summoned Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “Surely the Lord, the God of Israel, is commanding you: ‘Go and march to Mount Tabor, taking with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun.

⁶At the command of the king, the couriers went throughout Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his officials, which read: “Children of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that He may return to those of you who remain, who have escaped the grasp of the kings of Assyria.

⁷Do not be like your fathers and brothers who were unfaithful to the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that He made them an object of horror, as you can see.

¹⁴The Lord turned to him and said, “Go in the strength you have and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Am I not sending you?”

¹Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came and tested Jesus by asking Him to show them a sign from heaven.

⁹And Isaiah had replied, “This will be a sign to you from the Lord that He will do what He has promised: Would you like the shadow to go forward ten steps, or back ten steps?”

¹³As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

¹⁴For He knows our frame; He is mindful that we are dust.

¹⁷Gideon answered, “If I have found favor in Your sight, give me a sign that it is You speaking with me.

¹⁸Please do not depart from this place until I return to You. Let me bring my offering and set it before You.” And the Lord said, “I will stay until you return.”

¹Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’”

²And the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?” “A staff,” he replied.

²⁴He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

⁵These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go onto the road of the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.

⁶Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

⁶May he be like rain that falls on freshly cut grass, like spring showers that water the earth.

³So let us know—let us press on to know the Lord. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.

⁴What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.

¹⁹He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and judgments to Israel.

²⁰He has done this for no other nation; they do not know His judgments. Hallelujah!

⁷The parched ground will become a pool, the thirsty land springs of water. In the haunt where jackals once lay, there will be grass and reeds and papyrus.

³²Finally, Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?” And He answered, “On account of the ten, I will not destroy it.”

³³He turns rivers into deserts, springs of water into thirsty ground,

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

²Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

⁴³Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.

¹⁹Behold, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

²⁰The beasts of the field will honor Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I provide water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people.

⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “It was necessary to speak the word of God to you first. But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.