Genesis 18 Cross References - ISV

¹ Abraham’s Three VisitorsLater, the LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks belonging to Mamre. As Abraham was sitting near the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day, ² he glanced up and saw three men standing there, not far from him. As soon as he noticed them, Abraham ran from the tent entrance to greet them and bowed low to the ground. ³ “My lords,” he told them, “if I have found favor with you, please don’t leave your servant. ⁴ I’ll have some water brought to wash your feet while you rest under the tree. ⁵ I’ll bring some food for you, and after that you may continue your journey, since you have come to visit your servant.”
So they replied, “Okay! Do what you’ve proposed.”
⁶ Abraham hurried into the tent and told Sarah, “Quick! Take three measures of the best flour, knead it, and make some flat bread.”
⁷ Next, Abraham ran to the herd, found a choice and tender calf, and gave it to the young men, who went off in a hurry to prepare it. ⁸ Then he took curds, milk, and the calf that had been prepared, placed the food in front of them, and stood near them under the tree while they ate.
⁹ Sarah Laughs at the PromiseThe men asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?”
“There, in the tent,” he replied.
¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will certainly return to you in about a year’s time. By then, your wife Sarah will have borne a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. ¹¹ Abraham and Sarah were old—really old—and Sarah was beyond the age of childbearing. ¹² That’s why Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, “After I’m so old and my husband is old, too, am I going to have sex?”
¹³ The LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and think, ‘Am I really going to bear a child, since I’m so old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the time set for it, I will return to you—about a year from now—and Sarah will have a son.”
¹⁵ But Sarah denied it. “I didn’t laugh,” she claimed, because she was afraid.
The LORD replied, “No! You did laugh!”
¹⁶ God Reveals His Plans to AbrahamAfter this, the men set out from there and looked out over Sodom. Abraham went with them to send them off.
¹⁷ “Should I hide from Abraham what I’m about to do,” the LORD asked, ¹⁸ “since Abraham’s descendants will become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him? ¹⁹ Indeed, I’ve made myself known to him in order that he may encourage his sons and his household that is born after him to keep the way of the LORD, and to do what is right and just, so that the LORD may bring about for Abraham what he has promised.” ²⁰ The LORD also said, “How great is the disapproval of Sodom and Gomorrah! Their sin is so very serious! ²¹ I’m going down to see whether they’ve acted according to the protests that have reached me. If not, I wish to know.”
²² Then two of the men turned away from there and walked toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing in the presence of the LORD.
²³ Abraham Negotiates with GodAbraham approached and asked, “Will you actually destroy the righteous along with the wicked? ²⁴ Perhaps there are 50 righteous ones within the city. Will you actually destroy it and not forgive the place for the sake of the 50 righteous that are found there? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! The Judge of all the earth will do what is right, won’t he?”
²⁶ The LORD said, “If I find 50 righteous people within Sodom, I’ll forgive the whole place for their sake.”
²⁷ Abraham answered, “Look, even though I am only dust and ashes, I’ve ventured to speak to my LORD. ²⁸ What if there are five less than 50 righteous ones? Will you bring destruction upon the city because of those five?”
The LORD said, “I won’t destroy it if I find 45 there.”
²⁹ Abraham continued to speak to him, asking, “What if 40 are found there?”
The LORD replied, “I won’t do it for the sake of those 40.”
³⁰ Abraham then asked, “I hope my LORD will not be angry if I speak. What if 30 are found there?”
The LORD answered, “I won’t do it for the sake of those 30.”
³¹ “Look,” Abraham said, “I’ve presumed to speak to my LORD… so what if 20 are found there?”
“For the sake of those 20,” the LORD responded, “I won’t destroy it.”
³² Finally, Abraham inquired, “I hope my LORD will not be angry if I speak only once more. What if ten are found there?”
He replied, “For the sake of those ten I won’t destroy it.”
³³ As soon as he finished talking to Abraham, the LORD left and Abraham returned to where he had been sitting.

⁷ Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, “I’ll give this land to your descendants.” So Abram built an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

¹⁸ So Abram moved his tent and settled beside the oaks of Mamre that are by Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

¹³ Someone escaped, arrived, and reported what had happened to Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite, whose brothers Eshcol and Aner were allied with Abram.

¹ The Abrahamic CovenantSome time later, a message came from the LORD to Abram in a vision: “Don’t be afraid, Abram. I am your shield. Your reward will be very great.”

¹ God Appears to AbramWhen Abram was 99 years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and announced, “I am God Almighty. Live in constant awareness that I’m always with you, and be blameless. ² I’ll establish my covenant between me and you, and I’ll greatly increase your numbers.” ³ Then Abram fell to the ground as God continued speaking to him.

²² With that, God finished talking to Abraham, and ascended, leaving him.

² That’s when the LORD appeared to Isaac. “You are not to go down to Egypt,” he said. “Instead, you are to settle down in an area within this land where I’ll tell you.

³ Jacob reminded Joseph, “God Almighty revealed himself to me at Luz in Canaan and blessed me.

¹ Moses Argues with GodThen Moses answered, “Look, they won’t believe me and they won’t listen to me. Instead, they’ll say, ‘The LORD didn’t appear to you.’”

⁷ Solomon Asks God for WisdomThat very night God appeared to Solomon and told him, “Ask what I am to give you.”

² Stephen replied: “Listen, brothers and fathers! “The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran.

¹⁶ God Reveals His Plans to AbrahamAfter this, the men set out from there and looked out over Sodom. Abraham went with them to send them off.

²² Then two of the men turned away from there and walked toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing in the presence of the LORD.

¹ Sodom’s DepravityThe two angels entered Sodom at sunset while Lot was sitting in the gate area of the city. When Lot saw them, he got up, greeted them, bowed low with his face to the ground,

⁷ Abraham rose and bowed before the Hittites, the people of the land,

²⁴ Jacob Struggles with GodAnd so Jacob was left alone, and he struggled with a man until daybreak.

³ Then he went out to meet Esau, passing in front of all of them, and bowed low to the ground seven times as he approached his brother.
⁴ Esau ran to meet Jacob and embraced him. Then he fell on his neck and kissed him. And they wept.
⁵ When Esau eventually looked around, he saw the women and the children. “Who are these people with you?” he asked.
“The children, whom God has graciously given your servant,” he answered. ⁶ Then the women servants approached, accompanied by their children, and bowed low. ⁷ Leah also approached, and she and her children bowed low. After this, Joseph and Rachel approached and bowed low.

²⁶ Joseph Inquires about His FamilyWhen Joseph arrived at his palace, his brothers brought to him their gifts that they had carried with them and bowed to the ground in front of him.

²⁸ “Your servant, our father, is doing well,” they replied. “He is still alive.” Then they bowed down in humility.

¹⁴ Joseph Confronts His BrothersJoseph was waiting for them back at his palace when his brothers returned. They fell to the ground in front of him,

¹³ Joshua is Visited by the LORDNow it happened that while Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and much to his amazement, he saw a man standing in front of him, holding a drawn sword in his hand! Joshua approached him and asked him, “Are you one of us, or are you with our enemies?”

³ One day the angel of the LORD presented himself to the woman. “Hello!” he greeted her. “Though you are infertile at this time and haven’t borne a child, you’re about to conceive and give birth to a son.

⁶ Then the woman went to tell her husband. She said, “A man of God appeared to me. He looked like what an angel of God would look like—very frightening. I didn’t ask him where he had come from and he didn’t tell me his name. ⁷ He told me, ‘Surprise!—you’re going to conceive and give birth to a son!’ and as for you, ‘Be sure that you don’t drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don’t eat anything unclean,’ ‘because the young man will be a Nazirite dedicated to God from inside the womb’ until the day he dies.”
⁸ So Manoah prayed to the LORD, “Please, Lord, have the man of God whom you sent before come again so he can instruct us what to do on behalf of the child who is to be born.”
⁹ God listened to Manoah’s request, and the angel of God came again to the woman as she was sitting out in the pasture. But her husband Manoah wasn’t with her, ¹⁰ so the woman ran quickly to tell her husband, “Look! The man who came the other day appeared to me!”
¹¹ So Manoah got up quickly and followed his wife, and when he came to the man he told him, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?”
He replied, “I am.”

¹⁰ At this she fell prostrate, bowing low to the ground, and asked him, “Why is it that you’re showing me kindness by noticing me, since I’m a foreigner?”

¹⁵ Elisha is Recognized as Elijah’s SuccessorAs soon as the Guild of Prophets who lived adjacent to Jericho saw Elisha, they began to announce, “The spirit of Elijah is at rest on Elisha!” So they came out to meet him and they greeted him by bowing low to the ground in front of him.

¹³ Supply the needs of the saints. Extend hospitality to strangers.

² Stop neglecting to show hospitality to strangers, for by showing hospitality some have had angels as their guests without being aware of it.

⁹ Show hospitality to one another without complaining.

⁵ I now have cattle, donkeys, flocks, and male and female servants. I’m sending this message to you, sir, so that you’ll show favor to me.”’”

² and said, “Look, my lords! Please come inside your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and be on your way.”
But they responded, “No, we would rather spend the night in the town square.”

³² So the servant went to the house and unbridled the camels. They provided straw and feed for the camels and water for washing his feet and those of the men with him.

²⁴ ushered the men into Joseph’s palace, gave them water to wash their feet, and provided fodder for their donkeys.

⁴¹ She got up, prostrated herself face down on the ground, and replied, “Your servant would be a slave to wash the feet of your majesty’s servants.”

⁴⁴ Then, turning to the woman, he told Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You didn’t give me any water for my feet, but this woman has washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.

⁵ Then he poured some water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to dry them with the towel that was tied around his waist.
⁶ Then he came to Simon Peter, who asked him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”
⁷ Jesus answered him, “You don’t realize now what I’m doing, but later on you’ll understand.”
⁸ Peter told him, “You must never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you cannot be involved with me.”
⁹ Simon Peter told him, “Lord, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well!”
¹⁰ Jesus told him, “Whoever has bathed is entirely clean. He doesn’t need to wash himself further, except for his feet. And you men are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹ For he knew who was going to betray him. That’s why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
¹² When Jesus had washed their feet and put on his outer robe, he sat down again and told them, “Do you realize what I’ve done to you? ¹³ You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right because that is what I am. ¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you must also wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ I’ve set an example for you, so that you may do as I have done to you.

¹⁰ She must be well known for her good actions as a woman who has raised children, welcomed strangers, washed the saints’ feet, helped the suffering, and devoted herself to doing good in every way.

⁸ Look here, I have two daughters who are virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them whatever you wish, only don’t do anything to these men, because they’re here under my protection.”

¹⁰ “Please,” Jacob implored him, “don’t refuse. If I’m to receive favor from you, then receive this gift from me, because seeing your face is like seeing the face of God, since you have favorably accepted me.

¹⁸ And please don’t leave here until I’ve come back to you, brought my offering, and set it down in front of you.”
The LORD replied, “I’ll stay until you return.”

¹⁵ Manoah responded to the angel of the LORD, “Please, let us detain you while we prepare a young goat for you.”

⁵ On the fourth day, they got up early that morning, and the descendant of Levi got ready to leave. Then the young woman’s father-in-law told him, “Fortify yourself by eating some food before you go.”

¹⁵ like wine that makes the heart of people happy, oil that makes the face glow, and food that sustains people.

¹ Judgment Comes to Judah’s Leaders “Note this! The Lord GOD of the Heavenly Armies is taking away from Jerusalem and Judah everything that your society needs— all food supplies and all water supplies,

¹¹ Give us today our daily bread,

⁸ But those who are decent plan noble things, and by noble deeds they stand.”

³³ He told them another parable: “The kingdom from heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

³⁸ Jesus Visits Mary and MarthaNow as they were traveling along, Jesus went into a village. A woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and kept listening to what he was saying. ⁴⁰ But Martha was worrying about all the things she had to do, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, you do care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself, don’t you? Then tell her to help me.”

¹⁵ When she and her family were baptized, she urged us, “If you are convinced that I am a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home.” And she continued to insist that we do so.

¹³ For you, brothers, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity to gratify your flesh, but through love make it your habit to serve one another.

³ But Lot kept urging them strongly, so they turned aside and entered his house. He prepared a festival and baked unleavened flat bread for them, and they ate.

¹⁵ Manoah responded to the angel of the LORD, “Please, let us detain you while we prepare a young goat for you.”
¹⁶ The angel of the LORD answered Manoah, “If you detain me, I won’t be eating your food, but if you prepare a burnt offering, you’ll be making a sacrifice to the LORD.” The angel of the LORD said this because Manoah didn’t know that he was the angel of the LORD.

⁴ lying on ivory beds, stretching out on your couches, eating lambs from the flock, and fattened calves from the stall,

¹⁴ “Cursed is the deceiver who has an acceptable male in his flock, and vows to give it, but sacrifices a mutilated one to the LORD. Indeed, I am a great king,” says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “and my name is feared among the Gentiles.”

⁴ So he sent other servants after saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Look! I’ve prepared my dinner. My oxen and fattened calves have been slaughtered. Everything is ready. Come to the wedding!”’

²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate!

²⁷ The servant told him, ‘Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fattened calf because he got him back safely.’

³⁰ But this son of yours spent your money on prostitutes, and when he came back, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

¹⁴ with curds from cattle and with milk from sheep, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, with the fat of goats, with the finest of wheat— and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.

²⁵ Sisera asked for water— she gave him milk. In a magnificent bowl she brought him yogurt!

⁴⁴ Also at that time men were appointed over the storerooms for the contributions, for the first fruits, and for the tithes, so those portions required by the Law could be gathered from the fields adjacent to the towns to benefit the priests and descendants of Levi, for the people of Judah rejoiced over the priests and the descendants of Levi who were serving.

³⁷ How blessed are those servants whom the master finds watching for him when he comes! I tell all of you with certainty, he himself will put on an apron, make them sit down at the table, and go around and serve them.

⁸ Of course not. Instead, he would say to him, ‘Get dinner ready for me, and put on your apron and wait on me until I eat and drink. Then you can eat and drink.’

³⁰ While he was at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed it, broke it in pieces, and gave it to them.

⁴³ and he took it and ate it in their presence.

² There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.

⁴¹ not to all the people, but to us who were chosen by God to be witnesses and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

²⁰ Look! I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone listens to my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he will eat with me.

⁹ Later, the LORD asked Cain, “Where’s your brother Abel?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Am I my brother’s guardian?”

⁶⁷ Later, Isaac brought Rebekah into the tent that had belonged to his mother Sarah and married her. Isaac loved her, and that’s how he was comforted following the loss of his mother.

³³ So Laban entered Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two maid servants, but he didn’t find them. Then he left Leah’s tent and entered Rachel’s tent.

⁵ to be sensible and pure, to manage their households, to be kind, and to submit themselves to their husbands. Otherwise, the word of God may be discredited.

¹⁰ The angel of the LORD also told her, “I will greatly multiply your offspring, who will be too many to count.

¹⁶ I will bless her. Furthermore, I will give you a son from her. I will bless her, so that nations, kings, and people will come from her.”

¹⁹ But God replied, “No, but your wife Sarah will give birth to your son, and you are to name him Isaac. I’ll confirm my covenant with him as an eternal covenant for his descendants.

²¹ Now as to Isaac, I’ll confirm my covenant with him, to whom Sarah will give birth as your son at this time next year.”

¹³ The LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and think, ‘Am I really going to bear a child, since I’m so old?’ ¹⁴ Is anything impossible for the LORD? At the time set for it, I will return to you—about a year from now—and Sarah will have a son.”

² Sarah conceived and gave birth to a son for Abraham in his old age, at the very time that God had told him.

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven ¹⁶ and said, “I have taken an oath to swear by myself,” declares the LORD, “that since you have carried this out and have not withheld your only unique son,

³ One day the angel of the LORD presented himself to the woman. “Hello!” he greeted her. “Though you are infertile at this time and haven’t borne a child, you’re about to conceive and give birth to a son. ⁴ So be sure that you don’t drink wine or anything intoxicating, and don’t eat anything unclean ⁵ because—surprise!—you’re going to conceive and give birth to a son! Don’t put a razor to his head, because the young man will be a Nazirite, dedicated to God from inside the womb. He will begin to deliver Israel from domination by the Philistines.”

¹⁶ and he told her, “About this time next year you will be embracing a son.”
“No, sir! Please, as a godly man, don’t mislead your servant!” ¹⁷ But the woman did conceive and did bear a son at that very same time the next year, just as Elisha had told her.

¹³ But the angel told him, “Stop being afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to name him John.

⁸ That is, it is not merely the children born through natural descent who were regarded as God’s children, but it is the children born through the promise who were regarded as descendants. ⁹ For this is the language of the promise: “At this time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

²³ Now the slave woman’s son was conceived through human means, while the free woman’s son was conceived through divine promise.

²⁸ So you, brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac.

¹⁷ Abraham fell to the ground, laughed, and told himself, “Can a child be born to a 100-year-old man? Can a 90-year-old Sarah give birth?”

²⁴ Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised,

³⁵ Then Rachel told her father, “Sir, please don’t be angry that I cannot stand up in your presence. It’s that time of the month.” So Laban searched for the idols, but never did find them.

¹⁹ On Menstrual Discharges“When a woman has a discharge, and the blood is her monthly menstrual discharge from her body, then for seven days she is to remain in her menstrual uncleanness. Whoever touches her will remain unclean until evening.

⁷ They had no children because Elizabeth was barren and because both of them were getting old.

¹⁸ Then Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this, since I am an old man, and my wife is getting older?”

³⁶ And listen! Elizabeth, your relative, has herself conceived a son in her old age, this woman who was rumored to be barren is in her sixth month.

¹⁸ Hoping in spite of hopeless circumstances, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” just as he had been told: “This is how many descendants you will have.” ¹⁹ His faith did not weaken when he thought about his own body (which was already as good as dead now that he was about a hundred years old) or about Sarah’s inability to have children, ²⁰ nor did he doubt God’s promise out of a lack of faith. Instead, his faith became stronger and he gave glory to God, ²¹ being absolutely convinced that God would do what he had promised.

¹¹ By faith Sarah, even though she was old and barren, received the strength to conceive, because she was convinced that the one who had made the promise was faithful. ¹² Abraham was as good as dead, yet from this one man came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹⁹ Abraham was certain that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did get Isaac back in this way.

¹³ The LORD asked Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and think, ‘Am I really going to bear a child, since I’m so old?’

⁶ Now Sarah had said, “God has caused me to laugh, and all who hear about it will laugh with me.” ⁷ She also said, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse sons? Yet I have given birth to a son in my husband’s old age!”

² Then our mouths were filled with laughter, and our tongues formed joyful shouts. Then it was said among the nations, “The LORD has done great things for them.”

¹⁸ Then Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this, since I am an old man, and my wife is getting older?”
¹⁹ The angel answered him, “I am Gabriel! I stand in the very presence of God. I have been sent to speak to you and to announce this good news to you. ²⁰ But because you did not believe my announcement, which will be fulfilled at its proper time, you will become silent and unable to speak until the day this happens.”

³⁴ Mary asked the angel, “How can this happen, since I have not had relations with a man?”
³⁵ The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will surround you. Therefore, the child will be holy and will be called the Son of God.

³³ But each individual man among you must love his wife as he loves himself; and may the wife fear her husband.

⁶ just as Sarah obeyed Abraham and called him lord. You have become her daughters by doing good and by not letting anything terrify you.

²⁵ and didn’t need anyone to tell him what people were like, because he himself knew what was in every person.

¹⁰ Then one of them said, “I will certainly return to you in about a year’s time. By then, your wife Sarah will have borne a son.”
Now Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him.

²³ God Rebukes MosesBut the LORD responded to Moses, “Is the LORD short on power? You’re now going to witness whether what I say will come to pass or not.”

²¹ Don’t tremble before them, because the LORD your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God.

³ then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and will show compassion to you. He will gather you from among the peoples where he had scattered you.

⁶ Jonathan told his armor bearer, “Come, let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised ones. Perhaps the LORD will work for us, since nothing prevents the LORD from delivering, whether by many or by a few.”

¹⁶ and he told her, “About this time next year you will be embracing a son.”
“No, sir! Please, as a godly man, don’t mislead your servant!”

¹ Elisha Predicts Deliverance the Next DaySo Elisha responded, “Listen to this message from the LORD! ‘This is what the LORD says: “At about this time tomorrow, in Samaria’s city gate, a seah of finely ground flour will sell for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel.”’”
² But the royal attendant on whom the king depended responded to the man of God: “Look here! Even if the LORD were to open a window in the sky, how could this happen?”
He replied, “No, you look! You’ll see it with your eyes, but you won’t eat any of it!”

⁵ God Disciplines“Indeed God is mighty and he doesn’t show disrespect; he is mighty and strong of heart.

² “I know that you can do anything and nothing that you plan is impossible.

¹³ Please return, LORD! When will it be? Comfort your servants.

¹ God Reigns The LORD reigns! He is clothed in majesty; the LORD is clothed, and he is girded with strength. Indeed, the world is well established, and cannot be shaken.

³ For the LORD is an awesome God; a great king above all divine beings.

¹⁷ ‘LORD! Look, you made the heavens and the earth with your great power and your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you!

²⁷ “Look, I am the LORD, the God who rules over all flesh. Is anything too difficult for me?”

¹⁸ Who is like God?Is there any God like you, forgiving iniquity, passing over transgressions by the survivors who are your heritage? He is not angry forever, because he delights in gracious love.

⁶ “This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘It may seem impossible to the survivors of this people, but is it impossible for me?’ declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

⁹ Don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones!

³¹ At once Jesus reached out his hand, caught him, and asked him, “You who have so little faith, why did you doubt?”

²⁶ Jesus looked at them intently and said, “For humans this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

²⁷ Jesus looked at them intently and said, “For humans it’s impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

³⁷ Nothing is impossible with respect to any of God’s promises.”

⁵⁰ But when Jesus heard this, he told the synagogue leader, “Stop being afraid! Just believe, and she will get well.”

²¹ being absolutely convinced that God would do what he had promised.

²⁰ Now to the one who can do infinitely more than all we can ask or imagine according to the power that is working among us— ²¹ He will change our unassuming bodies and make them like his glorious body through the power that enables him to bring everything under his authority.

¹³ I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

¹³ Please say that you are my sister, so things will go well for me for your sake. That way, you’ll be saving my life.”

¹⁰ But he replied to her, “You’re talking like foolish women do. Are we to accept what is good from God but not tragedy?”
Throughout all of this, Job did not sin by what he said.

²¹ wouldn’t God find out since he knows the secrets of the heart?

¹⁹ A truthful saying is trusted forever, but the liar only for a moment.

¹³ Whoever hides his transgressions will not succeed, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will find mercy.

⁸ At once, Jesus knew in his spirit what they were saying to themselves. “Why are you arguing about such things among yourselves?” he asked them.

¹⁷ The young woman at the gate asked Peter, “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples, too, are you?”
“I am not,” he replied.

²⁵ Peter Denies Jesus Again
Meanwhile, Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. Some people asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples, too, are you?”
He denied it by saying, “I am not!”
²⁶ Then one of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “I saw you in the garden with Jesus, didn’t I?” ²⁷ Peter again denied it, and immediately a rooster crowed.

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the Law says applies to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

²³ to be renewed in your mental attitude,

⁹ Do not lie to one another, for you have stripped off the old nature with its practices

⁸ If we say that we do not have any sin, we are deceiving ourselves and we’re not being truthful to ourselves.

³ They were sent on their way by the church, and as they were going through Phoenicia and Samaria they told of the conversion of the gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers.

³⁸ They were especially sorrowful because of what he had said—that they would never see his face again. Then they took him to the ship.

⁵ but when our time there came to an end, we left and proceeded on our journey. All of them accompanied us with their wives and children out of the city. We knelt on the beach, prayed,

²⁴ Now that I am on my way to Spain, I hope to see you when I come your way and, after I have enjoyed your company for a while, to be sent on by you.

⁶ They have testified before the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.

²⁴ Then the LORD rained sulfur and fire out of the sky from the LORD on Sodom and Gomorrah,

²⁷ As she came near the man of God on the mountain, she grabbed his feet. When Gehazi intervened to push her away, the man of God said, “Leave her alone! She is deeply troubled! The LORD has concealed the thing from me, and hasn’t informed me.”

⁷ You are our God, who expelled the former inhabitants of this land right in front of our people Israel, aren’t you? Then you gave it to your friend Abraham’s descendant forever, didn’t you?

¹⁴ The intimate counsel of the LORD is for those who fear him so they may know his covenant.

⁷ The LORD’s Purposes“Truly the Lord GOD will do nothing he has mentioned without revealing his purposes to his servants the prophets.

¹⁵ I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends, because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father.

²³ And so the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” And so he was called God’s friend.

² I’ll make a great nation of your descendants, I’ll bless you, and I’ll make your reputation great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I’ll bless those who bless you, but I’ll curse the one who curses you, and through you all the people of the earth will be blessed.”

¹⁷ I will certainly bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in heaven and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the gates of their enemies. ¹⁸ Furthermore, through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my command.”

⁴ I’ll cause you to have as many descendants as the stars of the heavens, and I’ll certainly give all these lands to your descendants. Later on, through your descendants all the nations of the earth will bless one another.

¹⁷ Praising the God of IsraelMay his fame be eternal— as long as the sun— may his name endure, and may they be blessed through him, and may all nations call him blessed.

²⁵ You are the descendants of the prophets and the heirs of the covenant that God made with your ancestors when he told Abraham, ‘Through your descendant all the families of the earth will be blessed.’ ²⁶ When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning every one of you from your evil ways.”

⁸ Because the Scripture saw ahead of time that God would justify the gentiles by faith, it announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand when it said, “Through you all nations will be blessed.”

¹⁴ This happened in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the gentiles through the Messiah Jesus, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

³ The Many Blessings of SalvationBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah! He has blessed us in the Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm,

²³ Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the servants born in his house or purchased with his money—every male among the men of his household—and circumcised them that very day, just as God had spoken to him. ²⁴ Abraham was 99 years old when he was circumcised, ²⁵ and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised. ²⁶ Both Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that very day. ²⁷ Every man born in his household—as well as those who had been purchased with money from a foreigner—was circumcised with him.

⁹ Only guard yourselves carefully so you won’t forget the things that you saw and let them slip from your mind for the rest of your life. Tell them to your children and to your grandchildren. ¹⁰ The day you stood in the presence of the LORD your God in Horeb, the LORD told me, ‘Gather the people before me so they may hear my words, learn to revere me the whole time that they live in the land, and teach them to their children.’”

⁶ Let these words that I’m commanding you today be always on your heart. ⁷ Teach them repeatedly to your children. Talk about them while sitting in your house or walking on the road, and as you lie down or get up.

¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them while sitting in your house, walking on the road, or when you are about to lie down or get up. ²⁰ Also write them upon the doorposts of your house and gates ²¹ so that you and your children may live long on the land that the LORD promised to give your ancestors—as long as the sky remains above the earth.”

⁴⁶ he told them, “Take to heart my entire testimony against you today. Command your children to observe carefully every word of this Law,

¹⁵ If you think it’s the wrong thing for you to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves today whom you will serve—the gods whom your ancestors served on the other side of the Euphrates River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose territories you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

³⁰ “Therefore, the LORD God of Israel has declared, ‘I did, in fact, say that your family and your ancestor’s family would walk before me forever,’ but now the LORD declares, ‘Far be it from me! The one who honors me I’ll honor, and the one who despises me is to be treated with contempt. ³¹ The time is coming when I’ll cut away at your family and your ancestor’s family until there are no old men left in your family.

²⁰ “What more can David say to you, and you surely know your servant, Lord GOD.

⁹ David Addresses Solomon Directly“Now as for you, my son Solomon, get to know the God of your father. Serve him with a sound heart and a devoted soul, because the LORD is searching every heart, every plan and thought. He will be found by you, assuming you are seeking him, but if you abandon him, he will abandon you forever.

⁵ When their time of feasting had concluded, Job would rise early in the morning to send for them and consecrate them to God. He would offer a burnt offering for each one, because Job thought, “Perhaps my children sinned by cursing God in their hearts.” Job did this time and again.
⁶ For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be destroyed.

⁴ The LORD is in his holy Temple; the LORD’s throne is in the heavens. His eyes see, his glance examines humanity.

¹⁵ The LORD looks on the righteous, and he listens to their cries.

² I will tell a parable, speaking riddles from long ago— ³ things that we have heard and known and that our ancestors related to us. ⁴ We will not withhold them from their descendants; we’ll declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD— his might and awesome deeds that he has performed. ⁵ He established a decree in Jacob, and established the Law in Israel, that he commanded our ancestors to reveal to their children ⁶ in order that the next generation— children yet to be born— will know them and in turn teach them to their children. ⁷ Then they will put their trust in God and they will not forget his awesome deeds. Instead, they will keep his commandments. ⁸ They will not be like the rebellious generation of their ancestors, a rebellious generation, whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirits were unfaithful to God. ⁹ The descendants of Ephraim were sharp shooters with the bow, but they retreated in the day of battle.

²⁰ Parental Counsel about ImmoralityKeep your father’s commands, my son, and never forsake your mother’s rules, ²¹ by binding them to your heart continuously, fastening them around your neck. ²² During your travels wisdom will lead you; she will watch over you while you rest; and when you are startled from your sleep, she will commune with you.

⁶ Train a child in the way appropriate for him, and when he becomes older, he will not turn from it.

¹⁹ The living—yes the living—they thank you, just as I am doing today; fathers will tell their children about your faithfulness.

² ‘You alone have I known from among all of the families of mankind; therefore I will hold you accountable for all your iniquities.’”

¹⁴ I’m the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,

¹⁷ He asked him a third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was deeply hurt that he had asked him a third time, “Do you love me?” So he told him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you!”
Jesus told him, “Feed my sheep.

²³ For just last night an angel of God, to whom I belong and whom I serve, stood by me ²⁴ and said, ‘Stop being afraid, Paul! You must stand before the emperor. Indeed, God has given to you the lives of everyone who is sailing with you.’

³¹ Paul told the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain onboard, you cannot be saved.”

⁴ Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up by training and instructing them about the Lord.

⁴ He must manage his own family well and have children who are submissive and respectful in every way. ⁵ For if a man does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?

¹² Ministers must be husbands of one wife and must manage their children and their families well.

⁵ I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first existed in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced that this faith also exists in you.

¹⁹ However, God’s solid foundation still stands. It has this inscription on it: “The Lord knows those who belong to him,” and “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from evil.”

¹⁵ From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures that are able to give you the wisdom you need for salvation through faith in the Messiah Jesus.

¹⁰ “What did you do?” God asked. “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.

¹³ Now the men of Sodom were particularly evil and sinful in their defiance of the LORD.

¹³ because we’re going to destroy it. The LORD knows how their behavior stinks, so he sent us here to destroy it!”

⁹ “The expressions on their faces give them away. They parade their sin around like Sodom; they don’t even try to hide it. How horrible it will be for them, because they have brought disaster on themselves!”

⁷ For the vineyard of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden in which he delights. He looked for justice, but saw only bloodshed; he searched for righteousness, but heard only an outcry!

⁷ The People Cry for HelpLORD, even though our iniquities testify against us, do something for the sake of your name. Indeed, our apostasies are many, and we have sinned against you.

⁴⁹ Look! This was the sin of your sister Sodom and her daughters: Pride, too much food, undisturbed peace, and failure to help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ In their arrogance, they committed detestable practices in my presence, so when I saw it, I removed them.

⁴ Look! The wages that you kept back from the workers who harvested your fields are shouting out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies.

⁵ However, the LORD descended to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building.

⁷ Come on! Let’s go down there and confuse their language, so that they won’t understand each other’s speech.”

⁸ so I have come down to deliver them from their domination by the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the territory of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

⁵ The LORD had told Moses, “Say to the Israelis, ‘You are an obstinate people, and if for one moment I went up among you, I would put an end to you. Now take off your ornaments so I may decide what to do with you.’”

² Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert, to humble and test you in order to make known what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.

³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or that diviner of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to make known whether or not you’ll continue to love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul.

²² “The God of gods, the LORD, the God of gods, the LORD is the one who knows! And may Israel itself be aware that if this was an act of rebellion or an act of treachery against the LORD, may he not deliver us today!

²² There’s no such thing as darkness to him— not even deep darkness— that can conceal those who practice evil.

⁸ You have set our iniquities before you, what we have concealed in the light of your presence.

¹ To the Music Director: A Davidic Song
God’s Knowledge and Presence LORD, you have examined me; you have known me. ² You know when I rest and when I am active. You understand what I am thinking when I am distant from you. ³ You scrutinize my life and my rest; you are familiar with all of my ways. ⁴ Even before I have formed a word with my tongue, you, LORD, know it completely! ⁵ You encircle me from back to front, placing your hand upon me. ⁶ Knowledge like this is too amazing for me. It is beyond my reach, and I cannot fathom it.
⁷ The Magnitude of GodWhere can I flee from your spirit? Or where will I run from your presence? ⁸ If I rise to heaven, there you are! If I lay down with the dead, there you are! ⁹ If I take wings with the dawn and settle down on the western horizon ¹⁰ your hand will guide me there, too, while your right hand keeps a firm grip on me. ¹¹ If I say, “Darkness will surely conceal me, and the light around me will become night,” ¹² even darkness isn’t dark to you, darkness and light are the same to you. ¹³ It was you who formed my internal organs, fashioning me within my mother’s womb. ¹⁴ I praise you, because you are fearful and wondrous! Your work is wonderful, and I am fully aware of it. ¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you while I was being crafted in a hidden place, knit together in the depths of the earth. ¹⁶ Your eyes looked upon my embryo, and everything was recorded in your book. The days scheduled for my formation were inscribed, even though not one of them had come yet. ¹⁷ How deep are your thoughts, God! How great is their number! ¹⁸ Were I to count them, they would number more than the sand. When I awake, I will be with you. ¹⁹ God, if only you would execute the wicked, so that the men guilty of bloodshed would get away from me, ²⁰ who speak against you with evil motives, your enemies who are acting in vain. ²¹ I hate those who hate you, LORD, do I not? I loathe those who rebel against you, do I not ? ²² With consummate hatred I hate them; I consider them my enemies. ²³ Examine me, God, and know my mind, test me, and know my thoughts. ²⁴ See if there is any offensive tendency in me, and lead me in the eternal way.

¹ Judah’s Sin and Its Consequence The sin of Judah is engraved with an iron stylus. It is inscribed with a diamond point on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of their altars.

¹⁰ I am the LORD who searches the heart, who tests the inner depths to give to each person according to what he deserves, according to the fruit of his deeds.

³ Look here! The LORD is coming from his place! He will come down and will trample down the high places throughout the land.

¹² And it will come about that I will search Jerusalem with candles, punishing the self-satisfied and complacent, who say to themselves, ‘The LORD will do neither good nor evil.’

¹⁵ So he told them, “You try to justify yourselves in front of people, but God knows your hearts, because what is highly valued by people is detestable to God.

³⁸ I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the one who sent me.

¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do!

¹⁶ With a shout of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of God’s trumpet, the Lord himself will come down from heaven, and the dead who belong to the Messiah will rise first.

¹³ No creature can hide from him, but everyone is exposed and helpless before the eyes of the one to whom we must give a word of explanation.

¹ Abraham’s Three VisitorsLater, the LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks belonging to Mamre. As Abraham was sitting near the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day, ² he glanced up and saw three men standing there, not far from him. As soon as he noticed them, Abraham ran from the tent entrance to greet them and bowed low to the ground.

²³ He would have destroyed them but for Moses, his chosen one, who stood in the breach before him to avert his destructive wrath.

¹ The Destiny of the JudgedThen the LORD told me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn’t be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!

²⁰ Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit to take my life. Remember! I stood before you and spoke good on their behalf in order to turn your wrath away from them.

³⁰ I sought for a man among them to build the wall and stand in the breach in my presence on behalf of the land so that it won’t be destroyed, but I found no one,

⁵⁵ But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

¹ Prayer and Submission to AuthorityFirst of all, then, I urge you to offer to God petitions, prayers, intercessions, and expressions of thanks for all people,

²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous along with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike! The Judge of all the earth will do what is right, won’t he?”

⁴ Now Abimelech had not yet come near her, so he asked, “LORD, will you destroy an innocent nation?

²² Then they fell on their faces and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, will you be angry at the entire congregation on account of one man’s sin?”

¹⁷ When David saw the angel who had been attacking the people, he told the LORD, “Look, I’m the one who has sinned! I did the evil. These are only sheep! What did they do? Please, let your hand fall on me and on my household!”

³ Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what’s right?

¹⁷ Can one who hates justice really govern? And if God is righteous and mighty, can you condemn him?

⁴ The LORD is in his holy Temple; the LORD’s throne is in the heavens. His eyes see, his glance examines humanity. ⁵ The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence, he hates. ⁶ He rains on the wicked burning coals and sulfur; a scorching wind is their destiny. ⁷ Indeed, the LORD is righteous; he loves righteousness; the upright will see him face-to-face.

²⁸ As for me, how good for me it is that God is near! I have made the Lord GOD my refuge so I can tell about all your deeds.

²¹ Their leader will be one of their own, and their ruler will come from among them. I’ll bring him near, and he will approach me, for who would otherwise dare to approach me?’ declares the LORD.

⁵ But if our unrighteousness serves to confirm God’s righteousness, what can we say? God is not unrighteous when he vents his wrath on us, is he? (I am talking in human terms.) ⁶ Of course not! Otherwise, how could God judge the world?

²² let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

¹⁷ Elijah was a person just like us, and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and rain never came to the land for three years and six months.

³² Finally, Abraham inquired, “I hope my LORD will not be angry if I speak only once more. What if ten are found there?”
He replied, “For the sake of those ten I won’t destroy it.”

⁹ If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies hadn’t left us a few survivors, we would be like Sodom; we would be like Gomorrah.

¹ A Dialogue about Righteousness: The LORD Speaks “Wander through the streets of Jerusalem. Look and investigate; search through her squares and see whether you find anyone— even one person there—doing justice and seeking truth. Then I’ll forgive them.

¹³ The Narrow Gate
“Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate is wide and the road is spacious that leads to destruction, and many people are entering by it. ¹⁴ How narrow is the gate and how constricted is the road that leads to life, and there aren’t many people who find it!”

²⁴ and said, ‘Stop being afraid, Paul! You must stand before the emperor. Indeed, God has given to you the lives of everyone who is sailing with you.’

⁴ Flawless is the work of the Rock, because all his ways are just. A faithful God—never unjust— righteous and upright is he.

²⁰ Surely God won’t reject those who are blameless or hold hands with those who practice evil.

²² I say it’s all the same— he destroys both the blameless and the guilty. ²³ If a calamity causes sudden death, he’ll mock at the despair of the innocent.

¹⁷ Can one who hates justice really govern? And if God is righteous and mighty, can you condemn him? ¹⁸ Can one say to a king, ‘You’re vile!’ or to nobles, ‘You’re wicked!’? ¹⁹ Who isn’t partial to princes? Who doesn’t give preference to the nobles over the poor? Nevertheless, all of them are his handiwork.

¹¹ A person will say, “Certainly, the righteous are rewarded; certainly there is a God who judges the earth.”

² Stand up, judge of the earth, and repay the proud.

⁹ in the LORD’s presence, who comes to judge the earth; He’ll judge the world righteously; and its people fairly.

¹⁵ I have seen it all during my pointless life: both a righteous person who dies while he is righteous, and a wicked person who lives to an old age, while remaining wicked.

¹² Even though a sinner does what is wrong a hundred times and still survives, nevertheless I also know that things will go well for those who fear God, who fear in his presence. ¹³ But things will not go well for the wicked person: he will not lengthen his life like a shadow, since he has no fear before God.

¹⁰ Encouragement to the Righteous“Tell the righteous that things will go well, because they will enjoy the fruit of their actions.”
¹¹ Warning to the Wicked“How terrible it will be for the wicked! Disaster is headed their way, because what they did with their hand will be repaid to them.

¹ Israel’s Idolatry “Also the righteous are perishing, but no one takes it to heart; devout people are taken away, while no one understands that the righteous person is taken away from calamity. ² Then he enters into peace, and they’ll rest on his couches, each one living righteously.

¹ Jeremiah’s Complaint about Justice You are righteous, LORD, even when I bring a complaint to you. But I want to discuss justice with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper, while all who are treacherous are at ease?

¹⁸ When you return, you will see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, and between the one who serves God and the one who does not.”

²² The Father judges no one, but has given all authority to judge to the Son, ²³ so that everyone may honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
²⁴ “Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, whoever hears what I say and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has passed from death to life. ²⁵ Truly, I tell all of you emphatically, the time approaches, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear it will live. ²⁶ Just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself, ²⁷ and he has given him authority to judge, because he is the Son of Man.

¹⁰ For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah, so that each of us may receive what he deserves for what he has done in his body, whether good or worthless.

¹³ Even though a tenth of its people remain in it, it will once again be burned, like a terebinth or an oak tree, the stump of which, though the tree has been felled, still contains holy seed.”

²² For even if your people of Israel number as many as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. Overwhelming, righteous destruction is decreed,

²⁴ At that time, Israel will be in a triple alliance with Egypt and Assyria; they will be a blessing in the midst of the earth.

⁸ A Remnant will be PreservedThis is what the LORD says: “Just as new wine is found in the cluster, and people have said, ‘Don’t destroy it, for there is a gift in it,’ so I’ll act for my servants’ sake, by not destroying them all.

²² If those days hadn’t been limited, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be limited.

⁷ So the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed life into his lungs, and the man became a living being.

¹⁹ You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you’re buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You’re made from dust and you’ll return to dust.”

³⁰ Abraham then asked, “I hope my LORD will not be angry if I speak. What if 30 are found there?”
The LORD answered, “I won’t do it for the sake of those 30.”
³¹ “Look,” Abraham said, “I’ve presumed to speak to my LORD… so what if 20 are found there?”
“For the sake of those 20,” the LORD responded, “I won’t destroy it.”
³² Finally, Abraham inquired, “I hope my LORD will not be angry if I speak only once more. What if ten are found there?”
He replied, “For the sake of those ten I won’t destroy it.”

⁶ and said, “My God, I am too ashamed and hurt to turn to you, because we’re in our iniquities over our heads. Furthermore, my God, our sins have grown as high as the heavens.

¹⁹ how much less confidence does he have in those who dwell in houses of clay; who were formed from a foundation in dust and can perish like a moth?

¹⁹ “He tossed me into the mire; I’ve become like dust and ashes.

⁶ As a result, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
⁷ Job’s Friends are RestoredAfter these words had been spoken by the LORD to Job, the LORD spoke to Eliphaz from Teman: “My anger is burning against you along with your two friends, since you haven’t spoken correctly about me, as did my servant Job. ⁸ So take seven bulls and seven rams and bring them to my servant Job. And bring a whole burnt offering for yourselves and my servant Job will pray for you. I’ll encourage him by not responding as your disgraceful folly deserves, since you didn’t speak about me correctly as did my servant Job.

⁴ what is man that you take notice of him, or the son of man that you pay attention to him?

³ LORD, what are human beings, that you should care about them, or mortal man, that you should think about him?

⁷ then man’s dust will go back to the earth, returning to what it was, and the spirit will return to the God who gave it.

⁵ “How terrible it will be for me!” I cried, “because I am ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips! And my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of the Heavenly Armies!”

⁸ God, our Father, will ActBut as for you, O LORD, you are our Father; and we are clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hands.

⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees and said, “Leave me, Lord! I am a sinful man!”—

¹ The Parable about the Judge and the WidowJesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray all the time and never give up.

⁴⁷ The first man came from the dust of the earth; the second man came from heaven. ⁴⁸ Those who are made of the dust are like the man from the dust; those who are heavenly are like the man who is from heaven.

¹ We know that if the earthly tent we live in is torn down, we have a building in heaven that comes from God, an eternal house not built by human hands. ² For in this one we sigh, since we long to put on our heavenly dwelling.

²⁶ The LORD said, “If I find 50 righteous people within Sodom, I’ll forgive the whole place for their sake.”

²⁹ Abraham continued to speak to him, asking, “What if 40 are found there?”
The LORD replied, “I won’t do it for the sake of those 40.”

¹⁷ “Now, let the power of the LORD be magnified, just as you promised when you said, ¹⁸ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he won’t acquit the guilty. He recalls the iniquity of fathers to the third and fourth generation.’
¹⁹ “Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people, according to your great, faithful love, in the same way that you’ve carried this people from Egypt to this place.”

³² So they put on some sackcloth, tied their hair back with ropes, and approached the king of Israel. “Your servant Ben-hadad says this,” they said. “Please let me live.”
“Is he still alive?” Ahab asked. “He’s my brother.”
³³ Ben-hadad’s advisors, quickly analyzing the signs in what Ahab was saying, responded, “Yes, your brother Ben-hadad.”
“Go get him,” Ahab responded. So Ben-hadad came out to him, and Ahab took him up into his personal chariot.

³ If only I knew where to find him, I would visit him where he has taken his seat. ⁴ I would lay out my case before him; and fill my mouth with arguments.

¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times with every kind of prayer and request. Likewise, be alert with your most diligent efforts and pray for all the saints.

¹⁶ So let us keep on coming boldly to the throne of grace, so that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

¹⁸ But Judah approached him and begged him, “Your Excellency, please allow your servant to speak to you privately. Please don’t be angry with your servant, since you are equal to Pharaoh.

³⁹ Then Gideon told God, “Don’t let yourself be angry with me! I want to ask you once again: please let me make a test with the fleece just once more. Cause it to be dry only on the fleece, but let there be dew all around on the ground.”

¹¹ “Every servant of the king and every person in the king’s provinces knows that for any man or woman who goes to the king in the inner court without being summoned there is only one law—that he be put to death—unless the king holds out the golden scepter to him. Only then he will live. For these last 30 days I’ve not been summoned to come to the king.”
¹² They reported Esther’s message to Mordecai.
¹³ Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Don’t suppose that because you are in the palace, you will escape any more than the other Jewish people. ¹⁴ Indeed, if you are silent at this time, relief and deliverance will come to the Jewish people from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows but that you were brought to the kingdom for a time like this?”
¹⁵ Then Esther replied to Mordecai, ¹⁶ “Go and gather all the Jewish people who are in Susa and fast for me. Don’t eat or drink for three days, night or day. Both I and my young women will also fast in the same way, and then I’ll go in to the king, even though it’s against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”

⁴ “I must look insignificant to you! How can I answer you? I’m speechless.

¹² As an avenger of blood, he remembers them; he has not forgotten the cry of the afflicted.

¹⁷ LORD, you heard the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen them, you will listen carefully,

⁷ God is feared in the council of the holy ones, revered by all those around him.

⁸ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. ⁹ “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

²⁸ Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful and worship God in reverence and fear in a way that pleases him. ²⁹ For “our God is an all-consuming fire.”

²⁷ Abraham answered, “Look, even though I am only dust and ashes, I’ve ventured to speak to my LORD.

⁷ Ask, Search, Knock
“Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you.

¹¹ So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who keep on asking him!

⁸ I tell you, even though that man doesn’t want to get up and give him anything because he is his friend, he will get up and give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

²⁰ the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), ²¹ and since we have a great high priest over the household of God, ²² let us continue to come near with sincere hearts in the full assurance that faith provides, because our hearts have been sprinkled clean from a guilty conscience, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

³⁰ Abraham then asked, “I hope my LORD will not be angry if I speak. What if 30 are found there?”
The LORD answered, “I won’t do it for the sake of those 30.”

⁹ Then the LORD told Moses, “I’ve seen these people and indeed they’re obstinate. ¹⁰ Now let me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may consume them, but I’ll make a great nation of you.”

¹⁴ So the LORD changed his mind about the calamity he had said he would bring on his people.

¹³ Now, if I’ve found favor in your sight, please show me your ways so I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. And remember, this nation is your people.”
¹⁴ He said, “My presence will go with you, and I’ll give you rest.”

⁶ The LORD passed in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and filled with gracious love and truth. ⁷ He graciously loves thousands, and forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. But he does not leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of the ancestors on their children, and on their children’s children to the third and fourth generation.”

⁹ He said, “If I’ve found favor in your sight, LORD, please, LORD, walk among us. Certainly this is an obstinate people, but pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your own inheritance.”
¹⁰ The Covenant Promises RepeatedThen the LORD said, “I’m now going to make a covenant. I’ll do miraculous deeds in full view of your people that haven’t been done in all the earth or in any nation. All the people among whom you live will see the work of the LORD, because it’s an awesome thing that I’ll do with you.

¹¹ “How long will this people keep on spurning me and refusing to trust me, despite all the miracles that I’ve done among them?” the LORD asked Moses. ¹² “That’s why I’m going to attack them with pestilence and disinherit them. Instead, I’ll make you a great nation—even mightier than they are!”
¹³ Moses Intercedes for IsraelBut Moses responded to the LORD, “When Egypt hears that you’ve brought this people out from among them with a mighty demonstration of power, ¹⁴ they’ll also proclaim to the inhabitants of this land that they’ve heard you’re among this people, LORD, whom they’ve seen face to face, since your cloud stands guard over them. You’ve guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ But if you slaughter this people all at the same time, then the nations who heard about your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘The LORD slaughtered this people in the wilderness because he wasn’t able to bring them to the land that he promised them.’
¹⁷ “Now, let the power of the LORD be magnified, just as you promised when you said, ¹⁸ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he won’t acquit the guilty. He recalls the iniquity of fathers to the third and fourth generation.’
¹⁹ “Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people, according to your great, faithful love, in the same way that you’ve carried this people from Egypt to this place.”
²⁰ God Responds to MosesThe LORD responded, “I’ve forgiven them based on what you’ve said.

²³ God Delivers through His Ransom“If there’s a messenger appointed to mediate for Job —one out of a thousand— to represent the man’s integrity on his behalf,

⁵ Indeed you, Lord, are kind and forgiving, overflowing with gracious love to everyone who calls on you.

⁸ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

⁶ “I’ve called you in righteousness. I’ll take hold of your hand. I’ll preserve you and appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light for the nations, ⁷ to open blind eyes and to bring out those who are bound from their cells, and those sitting in darkness from prison.

¹⁵ And the prayer offered in faith will save the person who is sick. The Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven.
¹⁶ Therefore, make it your habit to confess your sins to one another and to pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ¹⁷ Elijah was a person just like us, and he prayed earnestly for it not to rain, and rain never came to the land for three years and six months.

¹⁵ And if we know that he listens to our requests, we can be sure that we have what we ask him for.
¹⁶ If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray that God would give him life. This applies to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not telling you to pray about that.

⁵⁵ Early the next morning, Laban woke up, kissed his grandchildren and daughters, blessed them, and then left for home.

²⁶ and said, “Let me go, because the dawn has come.”
“I won’t let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.”