Judges 6

• 1. Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites.
• 2. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds.
• 3. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country.
• 4. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys.
• 5. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it.
• 6. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the LORD for help.
• 7. When the Israelites cried to the LORD because of Midian,
• 8. he sent them a prophet, who said, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
• 9. I snatched you from the power of Egypt and from the hand of all your oppressors. I drove them from before you and gave you their land.
• 10. I said to you, 'I am the LORD your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.' But you have not listened to me."
• 11. The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.
• 12. When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, "The LORD is with you, mighty warrior."
• 13. "But sir," Gideon replied, "if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our fathers told us about when they said, 'Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?' But now the LORD has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian."
• 14. The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian's hand. Am I not sending you?"
• 15. "But Lord, "Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family."
• 16. The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."
• 17. Gideon replied, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.
• 18. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you." And the LORD said, "I will wait until you return."
• 19. Gideon went in, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak.
• 20. The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth." And Gideon did so.
• 21. With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared.
• 22. When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, "Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!"
• 23. But the LORD said to him, "Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die."
• 24. So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.
• 25. That same night the LORD said to him, "Take the second bull from your father's herd, the one seven years old. Tear down your father's altar to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it.
• 26. Then build a proper kind of altar to the LORD your God on the top of this height. Using the wood of the Asherah pole that you cut down, offer the second bull as a burnt offering."
• 27. So Gideon took ten of his servants and did as the LORD told him. But because he was afraid of his family and the men of the town, he did it at night rather than in the daytime.
• 28. In the morning when the men of the town got up, there was Baal's altar, demolished, with the Asherah pole beside it cut down and the second bull sacrificed on the newly built altar!
• 29. They asked each other, "Who did this?" When they carefully investigated, they were told, "Gideon son of Joash did it."
• 30. The men of the town demanded of Joash, "Bring out your son. He must die, because he has broken down Baal's altar and cut down the Asherah pole beside it."
• 31. But Joash replied to the hostile crowd around him, "Are you going to plead Baal's cause? Are you trying to save him? Whoever fights for him shall be put to death by morning! If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar."
• 32. So that day they called Gideon "Jerub-Baal, "saying, "Let Baal contend with him," because he broke down Baal's altar.
• 33. Now all the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples joined forces and crossed over the Jordan and camped in the Valley of Jezreel.
• 34. Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Gideon, and he blew a trumpet, summoning the Abiezrites to follow him.
• 35. He sent messengers throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet them.
• 36. Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised-
• 37. look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said."
• 38. And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew-a bowlful of water.
• 39. Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew."
• 40. That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

Acts 10

• 1. At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.
• 2. He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
• 3. One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, "Cornelius!"
• 4. Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked.
• 5. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.
• 6. He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea."
• 7. When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants.
• 8. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.
• 9. About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
• 10. He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
• 11. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
• 12. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.
• 13. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."
• 14. "Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
• 15. The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."
• 16. This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
• 17. While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate.
• 18. They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
• 19. While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you.
• 20. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them."
• 21. Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?"
• 22. The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say."
• 23. Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.
• 24. The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
• 25. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.
• 26. But Peter made him get up. "Stand up," he said, "I am only a man myself."
• 27. Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.
• 28. He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
• 29. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?"
• 30. Cornelius answered: "Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me
• 31. and said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.
• 32. Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.'
• 33. So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us."
• 34. Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism
• 35. but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.
• 36. You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
• 37. You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached--
• 38. how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
• 39. "We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree,
• 40. but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
• 41. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen--by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
• 42. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
• 43. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
• 44. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
• 45. The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
• 46. For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.
• 47. Then Peter said, "Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."
• 48. So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.

Jeremiah 19

• 1. This is what the LORD says: "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests
• 2. and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you,
• 3. and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.
• 4. For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.
• 5. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal-something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.
• 6. So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
• 7. "'In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
• 8. I will devastate this city and make it an object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds.
• 9. I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another's flesh during the stress of the siege imposed on them by the enemies who seek their lives.'
• 10. "Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching,
• 11. and say to them, 'This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter's jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.
• 12. This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth.
• 13. The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth-all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'"
• 14. Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the LORD's temple and said to all the people,
• 15. "This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 'Listen! I am going to bring on this city and the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.'"

New International Version

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