1 Samuel 2

• 1. Then Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.
• 2. "There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God.
• 3. "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.
• 4. "The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
• 5. Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry hunger no more. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away.
• 6. "The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up.
• 7. The LORD sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts.
• 8. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. "For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's; upon them he has set the world.
• 9. He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness. "It is not by strength that one prevails;
• 10. those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. "He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed."
• 11. Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy ministered before the LORD under Eli the priest.
• 12. Eli's sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.
• 13. Now it was the practice of the priests with the people that whenever anyone offered a sacrifice and while the meat was being boiled, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand.
• 14. He would plunge it into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot, and the priest would take for himself whatever the fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh.
• 15. But even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, "Give the priest some meat to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, but only raw."
• 16. If the man said to him, "Let the fat be burned up first, and then take whatever you want," the servant would then answer, "No, hand it over now; if you don't, I'll take it by force."
• 17. This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD's sight, for they were treating the LORD's offering with contempt.
• 18. But Samuel was ministering before the LORD -a boy wearing a linen ephod.
• 19. Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.
• 20. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, "May the LORD give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the LORD." Then they would go home.
• 21. And the LORD was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.
• 22. Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
• 23. So he said to them, "Why do you do such things? I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours.
• 24. No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the LORD's people.
• 25. If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?" His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke, for it was the LORD's will to put them to death.
• 26. And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the LORD and with men.
• 27. Now a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "This is what the LORD says: 'Did I not clearly reveal myself to your father's house when they were in Egypt under Pharaoh?
• 28. I chose your father out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod in my presence. I also gave your father's house all the offerings made with fire by the Israelites.
• 29. Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?'
• 30. "Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: 'I promised that your house and your father's house would minister before me forever.' But now the LORD declares: 'Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.
• 31. The time is coming when I will cut short your strength and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your family line
• 32. and you will see distress in my dwelling. Although good will be done to Israel, in your family line there will never be an old man.
• 33. Every one of you that I do not cut off from my altar will be spared only to blind your eyes with tears and to grieve your heart, and all your descendants will die in the prime of life.
• 34. "'And what happens to your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to you-they will both die on the same day.
• 35. I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his house, and he will minister before my anointed one always.
• 36. Then everyone left in your family line will come and bow down before him for a piece of silver and a crust of bread and plead, "Appoint me to some priestly office so I can have food to eat."'"

Romans 2

• 1. You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
• 2. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
• 3. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment?
• 4. Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?
• 5. But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.
• 6. God "will give to each person according to what he has done."
• 7. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
• 8. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
• 9. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
• 10. but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.
• 11. For God does not show favoritism.
• 12. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.
• 13. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.
• 14. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law,
• 15. since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.)
• 16. This will take place on the day when God will judge men's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
• 17. Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and brag about your relationship to God;
• 18. if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;
• 19. if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark,
• 20. an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth--
• 21. you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
• 22. You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
• 23. You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?
• 24. As it is written: "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."
• 25. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.
• 26. If those who are not circumcised keep the law's requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?
• 27. The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.
• 28. A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.
• 29. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

Jeremiah 40

• 1. The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had released him at Ramah. He had found Jeremiah bound in chains among all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being carried into exile to Babylon.
• 2. When the commander of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, "The LORD your God decreed this disaster for this place.
• 3. And now the LORD has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the LORD and did not obey him.
• 4. But today I am freeing you from the chains on your wrists. Come with me to Babylon, if you like, and I will look after you; but if you do not want to, then don't come. Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please."
• 5. However, before Jeremiah turned to go, Nebuzaradan added, "Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the towns of Judah, and live with him among the people, or go anywhere else you please." Then the commander gave him provisions and a present and let him go.
• 6. So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left behind in the land.
• 7. When all the army officers and their men who were still in the open country heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam as governor over the land and had put him in charge of the men, women and children who were the poorest in the land and who had not been carried into exile to Babylon,
• 8. they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah-Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jaazaniah the son of the Maacathite, and their men.
• 9. Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, took an oath to reassure them and their men. "Do not be afraid to serve the Babylonians, "he said. "Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.
• 10. I myself will stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians who come to us, but you are to harvest the wine, summer fruit and oil, and put them in your storage jars, and live in the towns you have taken over."
• 11. When all the Jews in Moab, Ammon, Edom and all the other countries heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as governor over them,
• 12. they all came back to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, from all the countries where they had been scattered. And they harvested an abundance of wine and summer fruit.
• 13. Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers still in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah
• 14. and said to him, "Don't you know that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to take your life?" But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.
• 15. Then Johanan son of Kareah said privately to Gedaliah in Mizpah, "Let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah, and no one will know it. Why should he take your life and cause all the Jews who are gathered around you to be scattered and the remnant of Judah to perish?"
• 16. But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, "Don't do such a thing! What you are saying about Ishmael is not true."

New International Version

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