1 Samuel 7

• 1. So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD. They took it to Abinadab's house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the LORD.
• 2. It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD.
• 3. And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."
• 4. So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.
• 5. Then Samuel said, "Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the LORD for you."
• 6. When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah.
• 7. When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines.
• 8. They said to Samuel, "Do not stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines."
• 9. Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. He cried out to the LORD on Israel's behalf, and the LORD answered him.
• 10. While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the LORD thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.
• 11. The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car.
• 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us."
• 13. So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again. Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines.
• 14. The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
• 15. Samuel continued as judge over Israel all the days of his life.
• 16. From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places.
• 17. But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also judged Israel. And he built an altar there to the LORD.

1 Samuel 8

• 1. When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel.
• 2. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba.
• 3. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.
• 4. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah.
• 5. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have."
• 6. But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.
• 7. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
• 8. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.
• 9. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."
• 10. Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king.
• 11. He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.
• 12. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.
• 13. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.
• 14. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.
• 15. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.
• 16. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.
• 17. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.
• 18. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."
• 19. But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us.
• 20. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."
• 21. When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD.
• 22. The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king." Then Samuel said to the men of Israel, "Everyone go back to his town."

Romans 6

• 1. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
• 2. By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
• 3. Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
• 4. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
• 5. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
• 6. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--
• 7. because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
• 8. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
• 9. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.
• 10. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
• 11. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
• 12. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
• 13. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
• 14. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
• 15. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
• 16. Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
• 17. But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.
• 18. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
• 19. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
• 20. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
• 21. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!
• 22. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
• 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Jeremiah 44

• 1. This word came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in Lower Egypt-in Migdol, Tahpanhes and Memphis -and in Upper Egypt:
• 2. "This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the great disaster I brought on Jerusalem and on all the towns of Judah. Today they lie deserted and in ruins
• 3. because of the evil they have done. They provoked me to anger by burning incense and by worshiping other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew.
• 4. Again and again I sent my servants the prophets, who said, 'Do not do this detestable thing that I hate!'
• 5. But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.
• 6. Therefore, my fierce anger was poured out; it raged against the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem and made them the desolate ruins they are today.
• 7. "Now this is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Why bring such great disaster on yourselves by cutting off from Judah the men and women, the children and infants, and so leave yourselves without a remnant?
• 8. Why provoke me to anger with what your hands have made, burning incense to other gods in Egypt, where you have come to live? You will destroy yourselves and make yourselves an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations on earth.
• 9. Have you forgotten the wickedness committed by your fathers and by the kings and queens of Judah and the wickedness committed by you and your wives in the land of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem?
• 10. To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed my law and the decrees I set before you and your fathers.
• 11. "Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am determined to bring disaster on you and to destroy all Judah.
• 12. I will take away the remnant of Judah who were determined to go to Egypt to settle there. They will all perish in Egypt; they will fall by the sword or die from famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine. They will become an object of cursing and horror, of condemnation and reproach.
• 13. I will punish those who live in Egypt with the sword, famine and plague, as I punished Jerusalem.
• 14. None of the remnant of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, to which they long to return and live; none will return except a few fugitives."
• 15. Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present-a large assembly-and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah,
• 16. "We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD!
• 17. We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm.
• 18. But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine."
• 19. The women added, "When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes like her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?"
• 20. Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him,
• 21. "Did not the LORD remember and think about the incense burned in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem by you and your fathers, your kings and your officials and the people of the land?
• 22. When the LORD could no longer endure your wicked actions and the detestable things you did, your land became an object of cursing and a desolate waste without inhabitants, as it is today.
• 23. Because you have burned incense and have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed him or followed his law or his decrees or his stipulations, this disaster has come upon you, as you now see."
• 24. Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah in Egypt.
• 25. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have shown by your actions what you promised when you said, 'We will certainly carry out the vows we made to burn incense and pour out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven.'"Go ahead then, do what you promised! Keep your vows!
• 26. But hear the word of the LORD, all Jews living in Egypt: 'I swear by my great name,' says the LORD, 'that no one from Judah living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name or swear, "As surely as the Sovereign LORD lives."
• 27. For I am watching over them for harm, not for good; the Jews in Egypt will perish by sword and famine until they are all destroyed.
• 28. Those who escape the sword and return to the land of Judah from Egypt will be very few. Then the whole remnant of Judah who came to live in Egypt will know whose word will stand-mine or theirs.
• 29. "'This will be the sign to you that I will punish you in this place,' declares the LORD, 'so that you will know that my threats of harm against you will surely stand.'
• 30. This is what the LORD says: 'I am going to hand Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt over to his enemies who seek his life, just as I handed Zedekiah king of Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who was seeking his life.'"

New International Version

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