1 Samuel 3

• 1. The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.
• 2. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place.
• 3. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.
• 4. Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, "Here I am."
• 5. And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down." So he went and lay down.
• 6. Again the LORD called, "Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me.My son," Eli said, "I did not call; go back and lie down."
• 7. Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
• 8. The LORD called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy.
• 9. So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
• 10. The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
• 11. And the LORD said to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.
• 12. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family-from beginning to end.
• 13. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them.
• 14. Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, 'The guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.'"
• 15. Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision,
• 16. but Eli called him and said, "Samuel, my son." Samuel answered, "Here I am."
• 17. "What was it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you."
• 18. So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, "He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes."
• 19. The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.
• 20. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD.
• 21. The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.

Romans 3

• 1. What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision?
• 2. Much in every way! First of all, they have been entrusted with the very words of God.
• 3. What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God's faithfulness?
• 4. Not at all! Let God be true, and every man a liar. As it is written: "So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge."
• 5. But if our unrighteousness brings out God's righteousness more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? (I am using a human argument.)
• 6. Certainly not! If that were so, how could God judge the world?
• 7. Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?"
• 8. Why not say--as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say--"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.
• 9. What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin.
• 10. As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;
• 11. there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
• 12. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
• 13. "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.The poison of vipers is on their lips."
• 14. "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
• 15. "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
• 16. ruin and misery mark their ways,
• 17. and the way of peace they do not know."
• 18. "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
• 19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
• 20. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
• 21. But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.
• 22. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference,
• 23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
• 24. and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
• 25. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished--
• 26. he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
• 27. Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith.
• 28. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.
• 29. Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too,
• 30. since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.
• 31. Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Jeremiah 41

• 1. In the seventh month Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood and had been one of the king's officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. While they were eating together there,
• 2. Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land.
• 3. Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, as well as the Babylonian soldiers who were there.
• 4. The day after Gedaliah's assassination, before anyone knew about it,
• 5. eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, bringing grain offerings and incense with them to the house of the LORD.
• 6. Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went. When he met them, he said, "Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam."
• 7. When they went into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw them into a cistern.
• 8. But ten of them said to Ishmael, "Don't kill us! We have wheat and barley, oil and honey, hidden in a field." So he let them alone and did not kill them with the others.
• 9. Now the cistern where he threw all the bodies of the men he had killed along with Gedaliah was the one King Asa had made as part of his defense against Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the dead.
• 10. Ishmael made captives of all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah-the king's daughters along with all the others who were left there, over whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.
• 11. When Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him heard about all the crimes Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed,
• 12. they took all their men and went to fight Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him near the great pool in Gibeon.
• 13. When all the people Ishmael had with him saw Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers who were with him, they were glad.
• 14. All the people Ishmael had taken captive at Mizpah turned and went over to Johanan son of Kareah.
• 15. But Ishmael son of Nethaniah and eight of his men escaped from Johanan and fled to the Ammonites.
• 16. Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him led away all the survivors from Mizpah whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after he had assassinated Gedaliah son of Ahikam: the soldiers, women, children and court officials he had brought from Gibeon.
• 17. And they went on, stopping at Geruth Kimham near Bethlehem on their way to Egypt
• 18. to escape the Babylonians. They were afraid of them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land.

New International Version

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