1 Samuel 1

• 1. There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
• 2. He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
• 3. Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD.
• 4. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.
• 5. But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb.
• 6. And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.
• 7. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.
• 8. Elkanah her husband would say to her, "Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?"
• 9. Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the LORD's temple.
• 10. In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.
• 11. And she made a vow, saying, "O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head."
• 12. As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth.
• 13. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk
• 14. and said to her, "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine."
• 15. "Not so, my lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD.
• 16. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief."
• 17. Eli answered, "Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him."
• 18. She said, "May your servant find favor in your eyes." Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
• 19. Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her.
• 20. So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD for him."
• 21. When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow,
• 22. Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, "After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always."
• 23. "Do what seems best to you," Elkanah her husband told her. "Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good his word." So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
• 24. After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh.
• 25. When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli,
• 26. and she said to him, "As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.
• 27. I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.
• 28. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there.

Romans 1

• 1. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God--
• 2. the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
• 3. regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David,
• 4. and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
• 5. Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.
• 6. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
• 7. To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
• 9. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you
• 10. in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God's will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
• 11. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong--
• 12. that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.
• 13. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
• 14. I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.
• 15. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.
• 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
• 17. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."
• 18. The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
• 19. since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
• 20. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
• 21. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
• 22. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
• 23. and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
• 24. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
• 25. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.
• 26. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
• 27. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
• 28. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.
• 29. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
• 30. slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
• 31. they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
• 32. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Jeremiah 39

• 1. This is how Jerusalem was taken: In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it.
• 2. And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, the city wall was broken through.
• 3. Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of Babylon.
• 4. When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls, and headed toward the Arabah.
• 5. But the Babylonian army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him.
• 6. There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah.
• 7. Then he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
• 8. The Babylonians set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
• 9. Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him, and the rest of the people.
• 10. But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.
• 11. Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard:
• 12. "Take him and look after him; don't harm him but do for him whatever he asks."
• 13. So Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard, Nebushazban a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officers of the king of Babylon
• 14. sent and had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard. They turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him back to his home. So he remained among his own people.
• 15. While Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him:
• 16. "Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Cushite, 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words against this city through disaster, not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes.
• 17. But I will rescue you on that day, declares the LORD; you will not be handed over to those you fear.
• 18. I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.'"

New International Version

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