17 verses
24On the journey at a lodging place, Yahweh met him and wanted to kill him. 25Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and threw it at his feet; and she said, "Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me."
26So he let him alone. Then she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood," because of the circumcision.
27Yahweh said to Aaron, "Go into the wilderness to meet Moses." He went, and met him on God's mountain, and kissed him. 28Moses told Aaron all the words that Yahweh had sent him with, and all the signs he had instructed him with. 29Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. 30Aaron spoke all the words which Yahweh had told Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. 31The people believed, and when they heard that Yahweh had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.
1Afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said to Pharaoh, "This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, 'Let my people go, so they can hold a feast to me in the wilderness.'"
2Pharaoh said, "Who is Yahweh, that I should listen to his voice to let Israel go? I don't know Yahweh, and furthermore I will not let Israel go."
3They said, "The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to Yahweh, our God, lest he fall on us with pestilence, or with the sword."
4The king of Egypt said to them, "Why do you, Moses and Aaron, take the people from their work? Get back to your burdens!" 5Pharaoh said, "Behold, the people of the land are now many, and you make them rest from their burdens." 6The same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, 7"No longer give the people straw to make brick, as before. Let them go and gather their own straw. 8Require the [same] number of bricks from them that they made before. Don't reduce any of it, for they are idle. That's why they cry out, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' 9Let heavier work be laid on the men, so they can labor in it. Don't let them pay any attention to lying words."
21 verses
4When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, and showed respect, and said, "Help, O king!"
5The king said to her, "What troubles you?" She answered, "Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead. 6Your handmaid had two sons, and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other, and killed him. 7Behold, the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, 'Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.' In this way they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth."
8The king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you."
9The woman of Tekoa said to the king, "My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father's house; and the king and his throne be guiltless."
10The king said, "Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more."
11Then she said, "Please let the king remember Yahweh your God, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son." He said, "As Yahweh lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth."
12Then the woman said, "Please let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king." He said, "Say on."
13The woman said, "Then why have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back home his banished one. 14For we must die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which can't be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him. 15Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, 'I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.' 16For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. 17Then your handmaid said, 'Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May Yahweh, your God, be with you.'"
18Then the king answered the woman, "Please don't hide anything from me that I ask you." The woman said, "Let my lord the king now speak."
19The king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?" The woman answered, "As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab, he urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid; 20to change the face of the matter has your servant Joab done this thing. My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth."
21The king said to Joab, "Behold now, I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the young man Absalom back."
22Joab fell to the ground on his face, and showed respect, and blessed the king. Joab said, "Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant."
23So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 24The king said, "Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face." So Absalom returned to his own house, and didn't see the king's face.
14 verses
4He built altars in the house of Yahweh, of which Yahweh said, "My name shall be in Jerusalem forever." 5He built altars for all the army of the sky in the two courts of the house of Yahweh. 6He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and dealt with those who had familiar spirits and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of Yahweh, to provoke him to anger. 7He set the engraved image of the idol, which he had made, in God's house, of which God said to David and to Solomon his son, "In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever: 8nor will I remove the foot of Israel from off the land which I have appointed for your fathers any more, if only they will observe to do all that I have commanded them, even all the law and the statutes and the ordinances given by Moses." 9Manasseh seduced Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that they did more evil than the nations whom Yahweh destroyed before the children of Israel did. 10Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they gave no heed. 11Therefore Yahweh brought on them the captains of the army of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh in chains, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.
12When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. 13He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.
14Now after this he built an outer wall to the city of David, on the west side of Gihon, in the valley, even to the entrance at the fish gate; and he encircled Ophel [with it], and raised it up to a very great height. He put valiant captains in all the fortified cities of Judah. 15He took away the foreign gods, and the idol out of the house of Yahweh, and all the altars that he had built in the mountain of the house of Yahweh, and in Jerusalem, and threw them out of the city. 16He built up the altar of Yahweh, and offered sacrifices of peace offerings and of thanksgiving on it, and commanded Judah to serve Yahweh, the God of Israel. 17Nevertheless the people sacrificed still in the high places, but only to Yahweh their God.
15 verses
1Soon afterwards, he went about through cities and villages, preaching and bringing the good news of God's Kingdom. With him were the twelve, 2and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; 3and Joanna, the wife of Chuzas, Herod's steward; Susanna; and many others; who served them from their possessions. 4When a great multitude came together, and people from every city were coming to him, he spoke by a parable. 5"The farmer went out to sow his seed. As he sowed, some fell along the road, and it was trampled under foot, and the birds of the sky devoured it. 6Some seed fell on the rock, and as soon as it grew, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7Some fell amid the thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8Some fell into the good ground and grew and produced one hundred times as much fruit." As he said these things, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
9Then his disciples asked him, "What does this parable mean?"
10He said, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of God's Kingdom, but to the rest in parables; that 'Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'
11Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12Those along the road are those who hear, then the devil comes, and takes away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved. 13Those on the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; but these have no root, who believe for a while, then fall away in time of testing. 14What fell among the thorns are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15Those in the good ground, are the ones who with an honest and good heart, having heard the word, hold it tightly, and produce fruit with perseverance.
